Qadi’s ordeal is a reminder of that fact. The hostages are moved around underground and often held there as well. Yahya Sinwar can, of course, simply release the hostages and surrender. He has instead insisted on the war’s continuation, and this is what that looks like.

But the tunnels aren’t only for hostages. The tunnels, in fact, are at the center of the ceasefire negotiations. Israeli troops have secured the Gaza side of the Philadelphi corridor and the tunnels leading from Rafah to Egypt. It is not hyperbole to say that those specific tunnels are the reason for the perpetual state of hostilities and the regularity of war between Israel and Hamas. Without them, Hamas would be unable to rearm and resupply in perpetuity, to say nothing of the opportunity the corridor presents to move terrorists into and out of the war zone.

Militarily speaking, logically speaking, it is nothing less than insane to ask the Israelis to relinquish the corridor without some demonstrable way to maintain its deactivation process. Leaving the corridor in the hands of Hamas and Egypt means war; sealing the corridor is the only possible path to peace.

Yet the pressure on Israel to abandon the corridor continues. The Biden administration has convinced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to redeploy some troops from part of the corridor, in the hopes that Hamas will accept those terms and agree to the ceasefire. So far, Hamas won’t agree to anything that leaves the IDF in “operational control” of the corridor.

So let’s put in plain English what the fight over the tunnels is really about. Israel is asking for a commitment to long-term peace, and Hamas and its patrons are proposing permanent war. We can attempt to elide those differences all we want, but it won’t change the fundamental issue of these negotiations—and of the wider war.

You are either for Hamas rearmament or you are against it. You are either for the continued taking and holding of hostages or you are against it. The tunnels are the instruments of rearmament and hostage taking. The Israeli-Palestinian future depends on their dismantlement.

UNRWA was actually created to settle the Arab refugees in Arab countries, the same way that international organizations settled refugees of the Korean War in Korea, and tens of millions of other refugees were resettled after World War II. The Arab states simply said no. [Read Adi Schwartz and Einat Wilf’s excellent The War of Return for details.]

Israel’s withdrawal from Sinai in 1982 reestablished a border between Gaza and Egypt — the Philadelphi Route — which divided the city of Rafah. (If you think the tunnels of Rafah were built by Hamas, you’re way late.) The 2005 Gaza disengagement was accompanied by the Philadelphi Agreement, under which Israel and Egypt pledged to work together to “stem terrorism, arms smuggling, and other illegal cross-border activities.” Israel was supposed to have access to the goods brought in by the Palestinian Authority (PA), which was, for a while, the government of Gaza.

Jordan was a bit different, but not much. It illegally annexed the West Bank and the eastern side of Jerusalem in 1950, giving citizenship to some resident Arabs, including some refugees. In 1972, the PLO tried to overthrow the King of Jordan; Israel stepped in to prevent Syria from taking advantage, but King Hussein knew the Hashemite Kingdom had no long-term future in the territory. In 1988, he renounced Jordan’s claim and stripped most of the people of Jordanian citizenship. No one seemed to have noticed.

Over the years, King Hussein not-quite-jokingly referred to Yitzhak Rabin as “Jordan’s Defense Minister for the West Bank.” [His heir, King Abdullah II, relies on Israel for economic assistance as well as security control.] Then, in 1994, he had the same discussion with Yitzhak Rabin in advance of the Jordan-Israel peace treaty that Sadat had with Menachem Begin: keep the West Bank and have a treaty, or push it on us and there won’t be one.

It was still going to be Israel’s problem to solve.

Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has exposed some serious shortcomings by Israel in the security of the Gaza Strip. Those will, no doubt, be the subject of a serious post-war assessment. But consider Egypt, Israel’s alleged peace partner and recipient of billions in US aid.

The Egyptian government refused to permit Palestinians displaced by the war to enter northern Sinai, even temporarily. Cairo claimed it would not be secure — although the mostly-empty area would easily hold Egyptian military camps for temporary refuge. Even NPR was critical of the decision.

The world later discovered that Gazans could buy their way out, though, for several thousand dollars, which tells you something about Egypt’s motives.

Egypt also delayed passage of aid trucks into Gaza after Israel took over the crossing, demanding a Palestinian presence restored on the Gaza side of the border.

After a (rare) rebuke by the US, Egypt agreed to reopen the crossing, but after another slowdown, Middle East Monitor reports that talks with the US and Israel in July failed to resolve the new impasse.

A week ago, an Israel-Egypt border agreement for Gaza was announced.

On Monday, Egypt reneged.

Israel will have to make the determination that serves its security interests. It would be in the interest of the United States and the Palestinian people to support a strong Israeli presence and control of the border to help break the control of the territory and the people of Gaza by Hamas.

Arabs refused to live in peace
Indeed, this is exactly what happened: the Arabs refused to live in peace alongside the Jews.

Years later, there was the involvement of the Arab spearhead, Amin al-Husseini (the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and head of the Supreme Muslim Council), in the "Final Solution," the Nazi plan to exterminate all Jews in Europe.

Al-Husseini arrived in the German capital, Berlin, in the second week of November 1941. He had come from Italy, where he had met with Mussolini, Germany's strong ally.

On November 28 of the same year, Hitler received al-Husseini at the Reich Chancellery, describing him as "the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and one of the most influential men in the Arab liberation movement."

Before he met with Hitler, al-Husseini met with Joachim von Ribbentrop, one of the Nazi regime's leaders in Germany. Days later, al-Husseini was personally escorted on a tour to observe the genocide in the gas chambers at Auschwitz alongside Adolf Eichmann.

Al-Husseini commented on the visit, saying that there was consensus between them and that Hitler told him, "The Jewish problem should be solved step by step."

Al-Husseini received a promise that once the Middle East was occupied, "Germany's sole goal would be the extermination of the Jewish element residing in the Arab region under British protection." Al-Husseini's visit to Germany was engineered by his Lebanese secretary, Othman Kamal al-Haddad.

It is important to highlight a crucial point: all proposed solutions were always rejected by the Arab side, and the idea of two states, one Arab and one Jewish, was consistently discussed.

This confirms that there was never a state called Palestine in any historical period. The Partition Plan itself, issued by the UN General Assembly under Resolution 181 on November 29, 1947, stipulated two states, one Arab and one Jewish. If the Palestinian state existed, why was it not explicitly included in the resolution?

The Arabs' rejection of the Partition Plan "at that time" and the actions of Amin al-Husseini, "the head of the Supreme Muslim Council," in his quest "to eliminate the Jews from the face of the earth" all align with the mentality that still persists today.

This mindset continues to reside in the minds of Yahya Sinwar, Hassan Nasrallah, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, and all the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as the destructive arms of Iran in the Middle East, such as Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, and the Houthis.

These Islamic terrorist organizations and movements share the same approach, driven by ideologies of hatred and hostility towards others. They embrace the delusions and hallucinations of global supremacy and the establishment of a supposed caliphate state.

Fast forward to Chicago during the Democratic National Convention (DNC). I watched the anti-Jewish/anti-Israel protests and marches outside the convention center. I watched the vitriol, the hatred of Israel and of America. I watched them burn flags. Burning a US flag is a protected right. The courts have ruled that although there are federal laws protecting and caring for the US flag, these are merely suggestions, and burning the flag is a form of protected expression.

I was shocked to discover that lovers of Israel were denied permission to rally and march during the DNC. No explanation was given. The group, The Chicago Jewish Alliance, applied twice, or more, and got no answer to their request for permits.

Witnessing the injustice, a private person stepped in and donated space for the lovers of Israel to gather. This was no problem because municipal permission is not required to rally on private property.

The irony cannot be lost. The double standard is infuriating. The Nazis were able to march – haters of Israel were able to march – but lovers of Israel were denied that right.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has said that he supports the anti-Israel protesters. Not their right to speak – that goes without saying – but that he supports their hateful cause.

The First Amendment guarantees the rights of people with repulsive points of view and opinions that are abhorrent.

Chicago needs to answer as to why the pro-Israel rally was denied.

One inadequate answer so far has been that the permit request was not submitted on time. But, according to the Chicago Jewish Alliance, the permit request was submitted at the beginning of June and Chicago law only requires two weeks for a permit.

Another reason offered was that the police could not keep both groups safe. Yet, there was enough space in downtown Chicago for both – and there were certainly enough police on hand.

The only explanation is that officials in the city who made the decisions are blatantly anti-Israel and support the pro-Hamas rallies.

UNFORTUNATELY, IN the 46 years since Skokie, my grandmother’s understanding of Jew hatred is still valid. Although there was a period when I was hoping that it had changed, it has not. There are some people in power in both political parties who simply do not like Jews and do not like Israel. These haters of Israel have been given platforms and megaphones. They are heard and they are very loud. While it was once impolite and inappropriate to articulate such hateful views, today they are acceptable

Yet, there is another side. Do not be discouraged. Do not be disheartened. Jews and Israel have many friends. Those friends have begun to organize. They are forcing university administrations and politicians to protect Jewish students and Jewish citizens.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel, and it’s getting closer by the day.

Yet something has changed since Oct. 7, 2023, so that being Jewish has become our default being. The events on and since that day have been seismic and tragic for the peoples of Israel and Gaza. But the aftershocks have reverberated far and wide. For Jews here and elsewhere, one of the most disturbing aftershocks has been the great spasm of antisemitism, one which, it bears repeating, began before the catastrophic consequences of Israel’s military invasion of Gaza became nightly news.

The latest in a long line of surveys has just been issued by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights. Though released last month, it was conducted before the October massacre by Hamas (it contains more recent responses, as well). Among the survey’s many depressing trends, we learn that 80% of respondents feel that antisemitism has increased in their country over the past five years, 56% experienced offline antisemitism from people they know, 37% have been harassed by antisemites once over the past year, and many of these same individuals have been victims of multiple expressions of antisemitism. In textbook bureaucratese, the agency’s director notes that this explosion of hatred “severely limits Jewish people’s ability to live in safety and with dignity” and concludes with the inevitable plea for tolerance.

Legions of scholars and journalists have tried to make sense of this resurgence of an ancient hatred. One of the best places to start, though, is by turning to a new book with that very subtitle — The New Antisemitism: The Resurgence of an Ancient Hatred. It is a remarkable book for many reasons, one of which is that the author, Shalom Lappin, is a world-renowned specialist not of antisemitism, but instead of computational linguistics. This background, it turns out, proves to be a great advantage in creating a marvelously clear and cogent analysis of contemporary antisemitism.

Canadian by birth, Lappin has spent most of his academic career in Israel and England, where he has lived for more than three decades. During a recent email exchange, I asked if he had been caught off-guard by the recent spasm of racist riots in his adopted country, Lappin replied he was not at all surprised. Great Britain, he remarked, is like most western countries, caught in a vise between radical right and radical left movements. While “the riots were a disturbing indication of the strength of far-right neo-fascist sentiment in a portion of the population,” Lappin warned, the counter demonstrations, though welcome, “also featured the usual ‘anti-Zionist’ slogans of the far left in some cases.” While British Jewry took a strong anti-racist stand, Lappin added, it was also “very much caught in the crossfire between three extremist forces, all of them acutely hostile to Jewish concerns.”

Lappin’s mention of “three extremist forces” points to one of his book’s key points. What we might call the “old-new antisemitism” of late 19th century Europe — the result of great technological and industrial advances — spawned an antisemitic ideology largely, but not exclusively limited to the far-right. This worldview placed the “Jew” at its center — the dark force responsible for the era’s vast social and economic upheavals. According to the movement’s leaders like Édouard Drumont in France and Wilhelm Marr in Germany, the Jew was the driving force behind not just the menace of communism, but also the machinery of capitalism. For those desperate for simple answers to supremely complicated issues, it hardly mattered that such claims were as contradictory as they were imaginary.

As for our own era’s “new-old antisemitism,” the anti-globalist radical right no longer has the patent on it; the anti-colonialist radical left and radical Islamism have also glommed onto it. In our conversation, Lappin returned to a crucial point he makes at length in his book: The common bond between these otherwise uncommonly opposing groups is the idea that Jews, whether they are labeled by the radical leftists and Islamists as Zionists or colonialists, or by the radical right as capitalists or communists, are a mortal threat. As Lappin told me, “They differ in their prescriptions on how to eliminate it (or domesticate it), but they converge on the consensus that the Jews as a people play a demonic eschatological role in obstructing the Messianic process of historical redemption. Eliminating this obstacle is a necessary condition for saving humanity.”

As in the late 19th century, so too in the early 21st century: Like the ancient furies, these movements have burst from the cracks and seams of social fabrics rent by great technological and global changes. The crucial difference with the earlier period of globalization, though, is that the current phase of globalization has fueled far greater income inequality within rather than between countries. The consequences are devastating, socially and materially, not just for those left behind, but for those who have traditionally served as scapegoats in times of crisis.

Yet the picture is not all grim. Before devoting his full attention to computational linguistics, Lappin had been active in England’s progressive movement. He helped draft the Euston Manifesto, an influential statement published in the early 2000s by activists critical of the country’s radical left fringe. Recently retired, Lappin has in a way returned to those earlier engagements. Though he insists his book is less an expression of renewed engagement than his effort to “understand why we are seeing the sharp increase in anti-Jewish racism on all sides of the political spectrum, across so many different countries and social environments,” it nevertheless offers a superb primer of antisemitism’s past and a sharp analysis of its present state.

But there is a second and quite literally activist aim to the book — to activate an awareness of what he sees as a real and present danger.

“Many, particularly in North America, continue to harbor notions of living in a safe society that has provided a golden sanctuary from the vicissitudes of Jewish history,” he explained. Though recent events, especially on our campuses, strike Lappin as clear warning signs, he worries that “large numbers of people, both Jews and non-Jews, have not really processed what is happening.” As we signed off, Lappin added a vital postscript. “This is not merely a crisis for Jews. It is a breakdown of the postwar order and a severe crisis in liberal democracy.”

Since Hamas’s horrific assault on Israeli civilians on 7 October, we’ve been told again and again about a precipitous rise in anti-Semitism in the United States. Pundits, politicians, community leaders and influencers say that anti-Semitism has reached levels not seen in generations. The problem is, outside of elite circles, it’s just not true.

I don’t mean to disregard the footage you’ve seen with your own eyes. Viral social-media clips have shown protesters bullying Zionist students and chanting slogans from Hamas’s charter on college campuses, as well as the craven college administrators who have protected them. That all happened. But campus anti-Semitism is nothing new, and the fact that it has got louder and prouder is not proof that it’s spreading throughout the US – only that the elites are less cagey about it these days.

The truth is that outside of elite spaces like American universities, anti-Semitism is not spreading – not at all. Most Americans stand with Israel and are extremely protective of American Jews. Off-campus, you would struggle to find an American who would allow unchecked anti-Semitism. Campus anti-Semitism isn’t the tip of a deep anti-Semitic iceberg – it’s pretty much the whole damn iceberg.

Two recent examples – one on the left, the other on the right – brought this truth into sharp relief: the treatment of American Jews at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago and the treatment of America’s most prominent proponent of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, Candace Owens, in the right-wing mediasphere.

Let’s start with the DNC. Most people, myself included, were expecting anti-Israel messaging to feature prominently in Chicago last week. In the lead-up to the DNC, the presumptive presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, passed over Josh Shapiro, the extremely popular governor of Pennsylvania, a must-win state for her, as her pick for vice-presidential running mate. It was a nod to the anti-Israel wing of the party, especially the ‘Uncommitted’ movement, which had withheld votes from Joe Biden in Democratic primaries earlier this year over Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza. These activists made it clear they would not tolerate Harris picking a Jewish running mate with a record of calling out campus anti-Semitism. The exclusion of Shapiro from the ticket – a man who, in the 2022 midterms, only lost the white working class in Pennsylvania by two points, compared with Joe Biden’s 23-point polling deficit among the same group – drove home the fact that the Democratic Party elites were more afraid of alienating the anti-Semitic wing of their party than supporters of Israel. It all portended ill for the DNC.

And yet, as the DNC wore on, it became clear that this was not an anti-Israel convention. Nor was there much overtly pro-Palestinian messaging, except in a carefully formulated phrase that conjoined the word ‘ceasefire’ with ‘bring the hostages home’ every single time. Even New York congresswoman and progressive standard-bearer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez praised Harris for ‘working tirelessly to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and bring the hostages home’. Keith Ellison, whose son is an Uncommitted delegate, said of Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, ‘When they say we need a ceasefire and an end to the innocent lives in Gaza and to bring hostages home, they’re listening, friends. They agree with us.’

Affixing the demand to return the hostages to the demand for a ceasefire is significant. It transforms it from a call for Israel to relinquish its right to eradicate Hamas and secure the return of its hostages – which include five American citizens – and brings it closer to the position of the Israeli negotiators and the Biden administration (namely, that a ceasefire would be possible if and when the hostages are returned).

The groups organizing this mayhem in Chicago were the radical, left-wing anti-Israel, anti-American hate groups Behind Enemy Lines; Chicago Coalition for Justice in Palestine (which appears to be a conglomeration of some of the worst anti-Israel, antisemitic hate groups including Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace); and Samidoun, a subsidiary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization that is responsible for numerous deadly terror attacks in Israel, including the assassination of an Israeli Minister. Samidoun demands the release of Palestinian Arab terrorists from prison and is itself also designated as a terrorist organization by Israel and Germany.

The mission statement of Behind Enemy Lines states that “the empire [the U.S.] is the enemy”; calls for “refus[ing] to accept the legitimacy, normalcy, and permanence of the empire”; calls for ending U.S. support to Israel; and disparages “routinized protests that threaten no one” and instead calls for “a militant anti-imperialist movement” and “mass resistance” (the common euphemism for terrorism and violence).

Shame on Biden and Harris for giving succor, credibility and legitimacy to these dangerous groups plaguing Chicago and elsewhere—all over the world.

Biden’s praising the hateful anti-American, anti-Israel rioters is in stark contrast to the portion of his DNC speech in which he again reiterated his divisive “fine people on both sides” Charlottesville hoax libeling former President Donald Trump.

Trump never supported neo-Nazis or white nationalists, as Biden falsely claimed. Instead, he made it clear that the “fine people on both sides” were those who had different views about the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue. Trump condemned the neo-Nazis in the same paragraph, saying: “I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists because they should be condemned totally.”

Biden and Kamala should have borrowed that line from Trump and made it publicly clear that these anti-American, anti-Israel rioters “must be condemned totally.”

The Democratic Party is a big tent. As we saw in the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, the tent in question is a circus of identitarian self-love. But the “joy” which overflows from the Democrats these days does not extend to Israel and its supporters.

Doug Emhoff is a Hebraic fig leaf, covering not just the obscene aspects of the Democratic left’s street thuggery, but also the Biden-Harris administration’s cynical failure to walk its pro-Israel talk in Israel’s war for survival against the Iranian Axis.

This is a lot to bear, even for a man of Emhoff’s solid stature. Nothing suggests he has the substance. Emhoff isn’t a heavyweight historian like Deborah Lipstadt, the administration’s Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism. He’s an LA lawyer for a firm whose clients have included Al Jazeera and the banking arm of the Palestinian Authority.

Emhoff went through the twin ordeals of Jewish American adolescence, a Reform bar mitzvah and a summer camp. His first wife wasn’t Jewish. It seems that the marriage broke down when he had an affair with their nanny. She wasn’t Jewish, either. Neither are his two children, Ella and Cole.

Ella Emhoff let it be known in 2020 that she is not Jewish. A fashionista and socialist influencer, Emhoff responded to the October 7 massacres by calling on her followers to donate to Unrwa. It’s a free country and all that, but it’s hardly to Doug’s credit in his new gig as First Jew.

He has no expertise in antisemitism, but somehow he’s the politically-correct face of the program in media damage control that is the administration’s “Antisemitism Task Force”.

Readers with long memories and a sick bag will recall that in 2008, Obama’s Jewish supporters assured their fellow Jews that he’d never do a number on Israel because he got it “in his kishkes”. Look how that went.

Doug Emhoff is being deployed for the same reason. We’re told he’s breaking a glass ceiling, but it’s really a glass floor. It’s identity politics all the way down.

In 2016, Shareef—now well respected for his interfaith activism—joined the Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council, an initiative of the American Jewish Committee and the Islamic Society of North America.

Unfortunately for American Jews, ISNA too is a Brotherhood front group, named first on the “Explanatory Memorandum”’s list of organizations. It works closely with CAIR.

ISNA has enjoyed warm relations with both the Obama and Biden administrations and, in 2024, a long-time ISNA operative, Mohamed Elsanousi, was appointed to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

In light of these connections alone, Imam Shareef giving an invocation beside a rabbi—even one affiliated with the anti-Israel organization J Street—would seem strange. It is stranger still given his remarks denying pro-Hamas student protests’ obvious antisemitism.

“I don’t see the protest to be or to be driven by antisemitism, although it does exist and has to be addressed accordingly,” he told The Washington Informer. “The students are responding to a natural, troubling and deep calling from their souls for an end to the mounting death toll of innocent human lives, the devastation to the Palestinian property and land, and the catastrophe humanitarian crisis [sic].”

Shareef’s mosque also has a troubling background. Its English title, “the Nation’s Mosque,” correctly brings to mind the infamous Nation of Islam, given that the mosque was founded in 1937 by Elijah Muhammad—the NOI’s racist, antisemitic leader of 41 years.

Shareef was a student of Elijah Muhammad’s son, Warith Deen Muhammad, who also had connections to ISNA and the MAS. CAIR honored him in 2005 for his “outstanding leadership.” Though Muhammad repudiated current NOI head Louis Farrakhan—an infamously hateful and racist antisemite—in the 1970s and formed a breakaway sect of the NOI, he later reconciled with Farrakhan.

Though Shareef told The Times of Israel “that he was not affiliated with the organization headed by Farrakhan,” the NOI’s own newspaper, The Final Call, records that Shareef praised Farrakhan’s “love” for Islam and his late teacher.

The Call also documents that, upon the death in 2022 of NOI spokeswoman Ava Muhammad, Shareef celebrated the woman who screamed that Jews were “blood-sucking parasite[s] … keeping us from the hereafter!” Shareef called her an “inspiration.”

Masjid Muhammad also collaborates with Islamic Relief, which Sam Westrop’s exhaustive research designates as the Brotherhood’s “leading charitable institution.” Much of its revenue comes from unsuspecting taxpayers and often ends up in Hamas bank accounts. Masjid Muhammad was among Islamic Relief’s grant recipients in 2023 and even posted on Facebook about its “partnership” with Islamic Relief on Sept. 11, 2021—the 20th anniversary of Brotherhood off-shoot Al-Qaeda’s signature massacre.

Much of America is wondering just how “progressive” Kamala Harris’s Democratic Party actually is. These revelations come on the heels of scandals concerning both Harris and vice presidential candidate Tim Walz’s personal connections to other Islamic hatemongers and possible Iranian operatives.

The Biden administration and the Democratic National Committee must clarify why they chose to give this imam—linked to organizations steeped in hatred and violence—such a platform. They must explain and they must apologize.

A Cabinet secretary in the Biden-Harris administration appeared in a photo at the Democratic National Convention with a man once referred to as a “top soldier” of Louis Farrakhan, the notorious antisemite who leads the Nation of Islam.

A since-deleted Facebook post last week shows Environmental Protection Agency head Michael Regan posed for a photo at the DNC alongside Terence Muhammad, an activist for a nonprofit group in Washington, D.C., called the Hip Hop Caucus. Muhammad, a frequent visitor to the Biden White House, often posts in support of Farrakhan on social media and, in a since-deleted 2013 social media post by Hip Hop Caucus President Lennox Yearwood, who also posed for the Regan photo, was dubbed a “top soldier” of Farrakhan, Fox News reported.

Farrakhan, 91, has likened Jews to termites and accused Jews of having “infected the whole world with poison and deceit.” In February, Farrakhan claimed at an event that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “had advance knowledge of and even a hand in Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel” last year, the Anti-Defamation League found.

“Maaaaaaaaan, I had a great time seeing My Environmental Justice Squad along with My Political/Social Justice Squad mixed in with some HBCU LOVE, while here in Chicago,” Muhammad wrote in the since-deleted Facebook post that included a photo of him with Regan and Yearwood. “Yea, the EPA Administrator of the President’s Cabinet is an AGGIE.”

Yearwood, in a 2013 social media post, called Muhammad a “top soldier” of Farrakhan.

“Bless Minister @LouisFarrakhan allowing one of his top soldiers [Muhammad] 2 be w/ me for #MOW50,” the 2013 post read, according to Fox News. “Much LOVE to the NOI.”

Muhammad, in a 2014 post on social media, also posted an image of Farrakhan and Yearwood. The caption read, “I am that I am (The Good) because I was introduced to a man named the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and a Life giving teaching from the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad. I can move/help my people like I do cause of Rev Lennox Yearwood, CEO/President of the Hip Hop Caucus. I work for these great men.”

Pro-Palestine activists have taken on a new target.

Influencers within the movement are arguing online that progressive voters should show solidarity and refuse to vote for Kamala Harris because of supposedly Zionist views. Some have specifically targeted black Americans for being complicit.

But some black voters are pushing back, and it’s all spilled over to TikTok.

“It’s f–ing insane, a black woman f–king presidency is not gonna save us,” TikTokker Rosol.s — who is “half Iraqi and half Palestinian,” and has “never been to the US and I never f–king will be” — said through tears in a video posted earlier this month.

While she was clearly addressing Americans in general, Rosol.s made a point of singling out black people.

“Every f–king race in f–king America has oppressed us,” she continued. “Black people also wear a uniform and get on a plane and come to our countries and kill us. You vote the same melanated fucking people to government that signed papers to kill us. I don’t want to hear it anymore.”

Videos like this have elicited blowback from some black content creators.

“These are people who feel that they are entitled to the support of black people no matter what, that they get to push us around and tell us who the hell we get to vote for if we support them, as if that means we’re just not supposed to give a damn about ourselves,” TikTokker Tori Grier said.

Jortyunofficial also shot back at Rosol.s on Tiktok: “Are you blaming black people for what’s going on?… How dare you blame me for something like that? F–k that rhetoric.”

Other black content creators felt especially betrayed by pro-Palestine activists who were supposedly “allies.”

A Republican running for an open House seat in a Maryland swing district is drawing criticism from his Democratic rival for some past votes on issues relating to Israel and antisemitism.

Neil Parrott, a former GOP state representative in Maryland, was among a small minority of four lawmakers who in 2020 opposed a bill prohibiting individuals from placing swastikas and other hate symbols on properties without the owner’s consent. The bill was approved by an overwhelming margin.

In 2014, Parrott also voted against a state budget bill that had included an amendment condemning antisemitism as “an intolerable and ugly form of bigotry,” while denouncing academic boycotts of Israel. The amendment had been among the final additions to the budget bill before it was passed.

April Delaney, a former Biden administration official who is facing Parrott in Maryland’s 6th Congressional District this November, took aim at the votes in a recent statement to Jewish Insider, saying that she “will never tolerate antisemitism in any form.”

“In a time of rising antisemitism and hate, including instances of vandalism in our public schools and harassment online,” the Democratic nominee told JI, “my opponent’s past failures to stand up against antisemitism are unacceptable, disturbing and emblematic of his radical and extreme record that made him ineffective in the state legislature.”

The scrutiny of Parrott’s past votes comes amid a recent uptick in antisemitic activity in Montgomery County, where several schools were vandalized last week with graffiti that included swastikas and other antisemitic messages.

In a recent speech before the Turkish parliament, Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas honored the assassinated Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, praying for his soul and calling him a “martyr.”

The organization Haniyeh led is an American-designated terror organization that perpetrated the worst massacre against Jews since the Holocaust and is still holding eight Americans captive, among an unknown number of other surviving hostages. Those kidnapped have been raped, male and female, tortured and executed while in custody.

Two parts of Abbas’s speech were troubling and illuminating regarding the next American administration’s Middle East policy. If the next president’s objective is to advance our security interests by stabilizing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we must examine how U.S. taxpayer dollars are used or misused by those who divert monies to support or incentivize terrorism—including the Palestinian Authority.

According to a recent article published by the Council of Foreign Relations, the United States is “the largest single country humanitarian donor to the Palestinian people.” The U.S. has handed over $5 billion to the Palestinians since the P.A. came into existence 30 years ago.

How have the Palestinians thanked America?

This spring, Abbas disparaged his major benefactor, saying Washington “has violated all international laws and abandoned all promises.” According to Axios, he wants to “reevaluate” relations with America. Please, Mr. Abbas, return the money to the American people so we can give it to a more grateful recipient.

America is at war with radical Islamism, whether we acknowledge it or not. Our Middle East experts have claimed for years that the P.A., as opposed to the more religiously oriented Hamas, is a secular alternative for the Palestinian people. This has not been true for a very long time.

Here are Abbas’s words at a Palestinian university: “In the name of Allah, the Merciful and Compassionate … Allah the Supreme spoke the truth. We will continue to stand firm and carry out Ribat [religious war for Muslim control] in Jerusalem and its surroundings until Judgment Day. Then the believers will rejoice in the victory of Allah.”

When left-wing pro-Palestine protestors recently went viral with signs reading “Queers for Palestine”, their feeble attempt at creating an “intersectional” political coalition was broadly mocked for ignoring (or demonstrating a lack of awareness) of how dismal it is to be LGBT in Palestine. In an effort to downplay the virulent homophobia and anti-LGBT laws in Gaza, British leftist Owen Jones tweeted the following:

Echoing talking points from academics like Sa’ed Atshan, pro-Hamas organizations such as the Institute for Palestinian Studies, and publications including the British outlet Gay Times, Jones’s tweet was part of a thread attempting to shift the moral responsibility for systemic homophobia in Gaza. Stating that “There isn’t the death penalty for homosexuality in Gaza” because it’s “a prison sentence of up to 10 years”, Jones then claims that this is “bad enough without exaggeration.” In the interest of fighting back against hyperbole, that’s fair enough. But for Owen Jones — himself a gay man — to downplay such a retrograde system in defense of Hamas’s record on LGBT issues reveals the game many self-described “anti-imperialist” leftists are playing. The tweet blaming the British Empire for creating anti-same-sex legislation in the Palestinian Mandate back in 1936 was quickly annotated by Twitter’s crowdsourced fact-checking feature, “Community Notes”:
“While it is true that the British Empire introduced anti-LGBT laws in its colonies, those laws are not valid anymore as the Mandate ended in 1948. Israel was also part of it, and no such laws exist [there] anymore. Today, most countries with those laws are under Sharia, like Gaza.”

Indeed, Palestine’s rankings on LGBT acceptance from institutions like UCLA and Georgetown are dismal, and Hamas’s Islamic fundamentalist ideology predates the British Empire’s 40-year presence in the region by over one thousand years. As Armin Navabi recently wrote, this ideology “harbors a brutal dogma that is antithetical to the liberties and rights championed by LGBT activists.” Hamas’s attitude toward homosexuality comes not from the British, but from their fundamentalist Islamism (just as Britain’s formerly homophobic laws were inspired by conservative Christianity). As Hamas strategist Mahmoud Al-Zahar told Reuters in 2010, “You [in the West] do not live like human beings. You do not even live like animals. You accept homosexuality. And now you criticize us?”

The eruption of war between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas following the most deadly attack on Jews in generations has disrupted the lives of millions in needlessly tragic ways. The war has also disrupted several of our assumptions about just how much brutality and bigotry the Western left is willing to excuse in service of Critical Social Justice and “decolonization.” The massive suffering caused by imperialism is beyond dispute; however, it is also possible to overstate its role in shaping the social attitudes of people who were once the subjects of imperial whim. It is true that the effects of colonialism can long outlive any empire, but there comes a point at which invoking the legacy of past imperialism to excuse modern problems denies the agency of colonized people.

Islamic homophobia is an issue that goes beyond terrorist groups like Hamas. While the Quran’s language regarding homosexual and bisexual behavior is somewhat ambiguous, the hadith, the canonical sayings and teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, contain many straightforward prohibitions. In practice, this results in the persecution of LGBT people in both official and extrajudicial ways throughout the Muslim world. LGBT Palestinians face extreme ostracism, sometimes fleeing as refugees or even being kidnapped and beheaded. The authorities also ban the activities of LGBT rights groups. And it isn’t just LGBT Palestinians being oppressed by Hamas in Gaza. Institutional sexism is also part and parcel of Sharia Law. Human rights researchers rank the Palestinian territories among the worst places in the world to be a woman. For Western activists ostensibly concerned about the oppression of marginalized groups to effectively support the continued rule of Hamas over Gaza (to the point that they would even deny Israel the right to self-defense against the terrorist organization) is hypocritical in the extreme.

Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) officials and hired consultants conspired to keep Jewish community members in the dark about ethnic-studies courses on the grounds that, as Jews, they are inherently racist and would disrupt plans to enlighten the student body, according to a new filing in an ongoing lawsuit.

The American Jewish Committee (AJC), the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the Brandeis Center, and the law firm Covington & Burling sued SAUSD in September 2023 over alleged violations of the state’s open-meeting laws. The organizations charged the district with intentionally skirting California policy to push a curriculum that casts Jews as oppressors. Information brought to light during legal proceedings suggests those behind the ethnic-studies curriculum promoted anti-Jewish rhetoric and conspiracy theories.

Understanding the Jewish community’s concern about the curriculum, members of the steering committee noted in an official agenda that they would need to “address the Jewish question.” They would do this by using “Passover to get all new courses approved” — meaning scheduling meetings on Jewish holidays so Jews could not attend — according to a text message between officials obtained as part of the lawsuit.

The message recipient responded that conspiring to exclude Jewish community members from the meeting was “actually a good strategy.”

The desire to freeze Jews out of the decision-making process stems from a belief that Jews are white supremacists, as the words of committee members show. One leader referred to the only Jewish committee member as a “colonized Jewish mind” and a “f–king baby” for expressing concerns over the depiction of Jews in the curriculum. Another individual on the committee reportedly said that “Jews are not a disadvantaged ethnic group in the U.S. because they were never slaves,” that “Jews greatly benefit from white privilege, so they have it better,” and that the school district should “only support the oppressed, and Jews are the oppressors.” Another argued that Jews are “racialized under the white category.” One committee leader described Jewish organizations that took issue with the curriculum as “racist Zionists.”

One employee, the court filing states, refused to describe Hamas as a terrorist organization because doing so would “dehumanize” its members.

Sean Arce, the head of the consulting firm the school district hired to train teachers on the ethnic-studies curriculum, has made several inflammatory public statements about Israel and Jews. He posted on social media that “Israel is nothing more than European settler colonialism draped in religion defended by white guilt and capitalism,” and immediately after October 7 wrote that the “decision by the racist democrats to send military forces to support a racist colonial occupation says everything about the nature of the settler U.S. nation.”

A Virginia independent-school parent recounted her teenager’s experience last fall at NAIS’s Student Diversity Leadership Conference (SDLC), which ran concurrently with the People of Color Conference. The Student Diversity Leadership Conference began as “a great learning experience.” But that changed when students began delivering minute-long extemporaneous speeches.

Videos taken by other attendees show a teenager spending nearly five minutes on “the genocide” that is “going on in Palestine.” He said, “Many people are like blaming Hamas,” but Israel “put these people . . . under like terrible, horrible conditions over like so many years. . . . What did you expect from these people?” The crowd roared approvingly. He continued: “Hamas has only like done like the event for only one day, and the whole world, the whole media is blaming for that one day.” He criticized social-media companies for favoring Israel and said that there is no “real freedom of expression” in the U.S. or Europe. His example of people being punished for opposing Israel was a student sent to the principal for scrawling “Free Palestine” in a school bathroom. He said that the school’s reaction was “confusing between like antisemitism and like anti-Israel, which is like different things.” The audience applauded enthusiastically.

In that room of 2,000 students, approximately 20 to 40 were Jewish. The daughter of the Virginia parent “was sitting with one other Jewish girl” from the event’s Jewish affinity group. “Behind her, she heard, ‘F*** the Jews! F*** Israel!’ ” Both Jewish girls “were very shaken” and gathered with other Jewish attendees. One of the “three adult facilitators for the Jewish affinity group” cried. “One child cried so much she was vomiting.” While Jewish students “sequestered themselves in this room, they heard somebody in the hallway saying, ‘Heil Hitler!’ ” One sobbing student was approached by “an NAIS employee . . . to find out why she was upset, and basically [the employee] told her that [the employee] didn’t think anything was wrong with what had been said, and that it didn’t resonate that way with her.” Many Jewish students wanted to leave at that point and called to ask whether their chaperones could arrive earlier than planned — but to no avail, as it turned out, for most of those students.

“My daughter came back to the hotel room and was crying hysterically all night,” the Virginia parent says. “I was on the phone with her. . . . We had two weeks where I had to sleep in her room with her. She was really traumatized. She’d never been exposed to anything like that before. She felt hated and in fear for her safety.”

The speaker who denounced Israel is “just a kid,” the parent acknowledges. “Who I really blame are the moderators and organization, who failed to set appropriate guidelines, which resulted in many children feeling afraid and unsafe at a conference designed to celebrate diversity and inclusion, and who then failed to offer any resolution or apology.”

An NAIS spokesperson says that the SDLC conference “aims to help students navigate complex and often challenging conversations respectfully. Students are invited to share their perspectives in various settings. . . . The remarks in question came from a student commenter. Some students were deeply offended by the comments. These students reached out to SDLC faculty members, who worked to support them and to facilitate discussions. As an organization, NAIS condemns antisemitism in all forms, and our work — at SDLC and more broadly — strives to embrace diversity and champion inclusivity.”

Some parents, however, would counter that last year’s SDLC is one more example of the frequent failing by independent schools to truly include or protect Jewish students. Jewish parents and their allies in combating antisemitism are, indeed, in a morass, but there are two possible ways out. The first is to seed new classical schools. The second is to reform existing institutions.

Reflecting on DEI and its antisemitism, chilling of speech, and unpopularity in opinion polls, Ashley Jacobs, the Parents Unite director, observes, “This goes away if people have the courage to speak up.” The California parent estimates that this would require “20 percent of people.” So will parents speak up? And if not now, when?

Massachusetts’ largest teachers union is threatening to sue a group of Republican state lawmakers who condemned the group for tapping an anti-Israel activist to create learning materials about the Gaza war.

The Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) said this month that it “will not hesitate to take legal action if warranted” against the Massachusetts House and Senate Republican Caucuses for a July letter objecting to the union tasking Ricardo Rosa with developing model curricula about Israel and “Occupied Palestine.”

The Republicans objected to Rosa — who has a record of anti-Israel and anti-American rhetoric — developing the materials. The lawmakers observed that Rosa advocated for a “Free Palestine” in the days following October 7, called the United States a “settler colony,” glorified terrorist and plane hijacker Leila Khaled, and voiced his support for a professor who called Zionists “swine” and encouraged protests in Jewish neighborhoods.

In response, the MTA board of directors called the Republicans’ letter “reprehensible,” defended Rosa from the lawmakers’ criticism, and threatened legal action.

Ricardo Rosa’s posts of pro-Palestine protests.

“Ricardo Rosa, MTA’s Director of Training and Professional Learning, has been reprehensibly attacked for simply performing his job at the MTA,” the MTA wrote, in response to Republican lawmakers’ claim that Rosa’s inflammatory statements “demonstrate a clear commitment to a political agenda rather than educational integrity.”

The union, which represents 117,000 educators, came under fire for condemning the United States for being complicit in a “genocidal assault” in the wake of Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel.

The lawmakers called for Rosa’s appointment to be revoked, lest his influence undermine the safety of Jewish and Israeli students and risk “turning classrooms into arenas of radicalism.” They pushed the MTA to instead focus on creating a healthy work environment for teachers and providing a quality education to students.

The union in response called Rosa a “respected scholar” and said they are “privileged to have him on staff.”

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul held a conference call with the academic leaders of more than 200 colleges throughout the state on Monday about new measures to contain intimidation and crime at anti-Israel protests on university campuses. Public safety experts also participated.

Hochul named public safety her “top priority” and said with classes resuming this fall, “it is essential that all students feel safe and are free from harm.”

The governor stated that in the spring, she ”directed college campuses to review and update their emergency response plans, and as tensions may be high as we start the academic year, I will continue to ensure all campus leaders and public safety officials have the resources they need to keep students safe.”

The Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services has reviewed campus emergency plans and provided training sessions for staff based on the guidance from the Campus Planning Toolkit issued by the U.S. Department of Education.

A whopping 44% of college students and recent graduates said they “rarely” or “never” feel safe identifying as Jewish on campus as antisemitism soars, according to an eye-opening new survey.

Some 81% of college students and 69% of alums surveyed by the advocacy group Alums for Campus Fairness said they avoid certain places, events and stituations — and 60% even claimed to have witnessed faculty members making an offensive antisemitic remark to them or someone they know.

A vast majority of the 1,171 students participating in the survey — 76% — believe antisemitism has gotten worse while 83% of students and alums called rampant antisemitism a “very serious problem,” up from 74% who said it was a problem in a 2021 survey.

“The results, compared with our 2021 survey, expose dangerous trend lines for Jewish and pro-Israel students on college campuses,” said Avi Gordon, executive director of the group.

“Antisemitism is getting worse. Students are hiding their Jewish identity,” Gordon said. “We are increasingly seeing a lack of safety in both digital and physical spaces.”

The group, which fights Jew-hatred and anti-Israel fervor on campuses, used an online survey to get the pulse of Jewish students and recent graduates from May 17 to 28 as anti-Israel protests shook universities and colleges while war raged in Gaza.

Anonymous survey participants shared horror stories, including a UCLA student who said Jewish students on campus were assaulted and harassed for weeks.

“I’ve heard of people running around with knives for Jewish students or posting pig-related artwork to represent Jews. It is insane and rampant,” the student said.

All of these leaders failed to grasp what the courageous young men of UNC knew intuitively: That an attack on Jewish people, merely because they are Jews, is an attack on the America they were raised to cherish.

Their defense of American values inherent in their defense of the flag has become a symbol of courage and determination in opposition to antisemitic hate.

These frat boys have become unlikely heroes of Western civilization, honored at the Republican National Convention and by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his speech last month before a joint session of Congress, and featured in a Trump campaign ad.

These young men recognized that genocide against the Jews does not depend on context. Calling for that genocide on their campus is anti-American, and they would not stand for it.

Their brave act made a clear statement: Those attacking the Jews are not simply attacking Jews, but attacking the United States itself. The riots and violence that have threatened Jews on college campuses, synagogues and subways are not only anti-Jewish acts, but anti-American ones, too.

So as students return to campus this fall, let’s encourage them of course to focus on their studies and to enjoy all that makes the college experience so unique.

But they should also be prepared to emulate the frat boys of UNC and stand up for America by standing up to antisemitism, hooliganism and pro-terror hate.

What do you think? Post a comment.

For too long, colleges have been places where students are coddled and pushed to see themselves as victims — or as oppressors.

Dear students, that isn’t America, and you can make sure that it isn’t your university, either.

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), called on the leaders of several New York-area universities on Monday to ensure that their policies acknowledge that “Zionist” and other “code words” are used in the perpetuation of antisemitism on college campuses.

The letter sent by Torres, addressed to the leaders of Columbia University, the State University of New York system, Cornell University, the City University of New York and Fordham University, praises New York University for updating its policies to reflect that speech and activity targeting “Zionists” can be a violation of campus rules.

“The substitution of the word ‘Zionist’ for ‘Jew’ is the modus operandi of the new antisemitism. Colleges and universities must make it clear that word games will fool no one,” Torres said in his letter to the university leaders. “Engaging in harassment, intimidation, and discrimination against ‘Zionists’ is antisemitism both in intent and in effect, and academia should never hesitate to say so clearly and punish it swiftly.”

He urged the schools to follow NYU’s example and include similar language in their own policies against discrimination and harassment.

“Antisemitism is best understood as an ancient virus that mutates over time. Colleges and universities must be nimble enough to respond to the modern mutations of an ancient virus that, for too long, has been a plague on the soul of humanity,” Torres continued.

He added that antisemitism and anti-Zionism are not are not as easily separated “in the real world as they can be in academic papers,” a fact reflected by Jewish students’ own experiences on campus.

In May, after months of debate, the American Sociological Association passed a resolution calling for “an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza,” joining the chorus of academic associations taking a stand on the Israel-Hamas war.

According to a new study from the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, that was hardly a surprising position; 81 percent of scholarly societies have issued at least one official statement on one of five subjects—race, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas war, immigration or climate change—which “almost uniformly reflect progressive orthodoxy,” the report noted.

As a result, the report’s authors argue, colleges and universities should stop giving faculty stipends to pay their fees for association memberships and conferences.

“The whole point of higher ed in a free society is to create room for [scholars] to engage in discourse. They can write op-eds, they can go on radio shows … That’s fine. There’s a First Amendment right to free association in this country,” said Frederick Hess, AEI’s director of education policy studies, who co-authored the report with Jay Greene, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, another conservative think tank. “But nobody should expect taxpayers to be spending money on that, rather than on the educational function of the university.”

Higher education and policy experts generally agree that the movement for institutional or associational neutrality is gaining momentum, pointing to a recent policy change at Johns Hopkins University as one example.

But what they don’t necessarily agree on is whether neutrality is the best response.

Steve McGuire, a campus freedom fellow at the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, said associations that continue to issue “political statements” will increasingly “stand out, likely drawing negative attention to themselves and hurting their own scholarly purposes.”

Others, including leaders of the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) and the American Association of University Professors, believe the AEI report is just part of a conservative push to censor higher education by undermining the groups that uplift faculty voices.

“Contrary to what fellows employed by dark money think tanks might think, statements issued by professional associations aren’t issued willy-nilly by ideologically partisan professors,” Isaac Kamola, director of AAUP’s Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom, told Inside Higher Ed via email. “Academic statements are not simply whipped up within some partisan blender. Rather, they come from organizations led by elected representatives.”

“Societies have a responsibility to address concerns raised by their members, and we believe strongly in protecting their freedom to do so,” ACLS president Joy Connolly wrote in an email to Inside Higher Ed. “The report is disingenuous in suggesting that academic societies deserve defunding based on public statements, which is just one part of what they do.”

‘Problematic’ or ‘Beneficial’?
AEI’s report examined a sample of 99 academic associations, each representing a department commonly found at public flagship institutions. Of those, 80 were found to have issued a statement on at least one of the five subject areas documented. Race or affirmative action was the most commonly cited, with 88 percent taking an official position. More than a quarter of the associations that spoke out had made a statement regarding the Israel-Hamas war. The report does not go into specific detail about each issue investigated, nor does it disaggregate the results by topic or clarify on which side of an issue each group lands. But, Hess said anecdotally, there was little to no variation in perspective, with most taking stances associated with liberal politics.

The report also finds no difference by discipline: groups representing the natural sciences comment just as often—and in some cases more so—than those rooted in the humanities.

“I’m not sure which is worse: Whether it’s an organization that, in theory, is supposed to be studying these questions, and should perhaps leave room for good-faith academic disagreement … or whether it is a statement issued by organizations who have no particular claim to expertise in this area,” Hess said. “Either way, it strikes me as deeply problematic.”

The discovery process has yielded new evidence about a lawsuit filed in September against the Santa Ana Unified School District by the Anti-Defamation League, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, the American Jewish Committee and Covington & Burling.

The organizations announced that they had filed a motion on Monday to add evidence to its case, which charges that the district violated California’s open meetings law to hide the antisemitic nature of its ethnic-studies curriculum.

A release highlighted examples uncovered through discovery, including Ethnic Studies Steering Committee officials suggesting using Jewish holidays to approve courses at the board level to make it difficult or impossible for Jews to attend.

The committee also hired a consultant who had posted on social media about Israel as a “settler-colonial” entity and wrote that “the Zionist CA Jewish Caucus hijacked ethnic studies.”

James Pasch, the ADL’s senior director of national litigation, stated that “open meetings are required by law specifically to prevent this type of situation.”

He said evidence shows that “the district intentionally hid information from the public to try to get away with teaching antisemitic lies to the next generation in Santa Ana. The antisemitism that infected this process sent a clear message to Jewish students and families that their voices are not welcomed, and that they were intentionally excluded.”

By the time this is published, two full weeks will have passed since Oxford University issued an urgent communication to its members. The email expressed a deep and justified worry for students and staff “particularly affected” by racism and Islamophobia. The university’s stance against “racism, discrimination, or abuse,” was clear, “regardless of race, religion, or ethnicity”, and none other than the vice-chancellor signed off on it.

Yet, after the events of last year, this communication rang hollow. It felt like a cruel joke at the expense of Jewish students.

This last academic year, which started just two days after October 7, was marred by a climate of racial abuse and discriminatory behaviour directed at Jews. You could witness it in classrooms, where Israeli students were subjected to invasive interrogations by professors in front of their peers simply because of their nationality.

It was evident in student groups, where a student declared they “refuse to sit with Zionists”, a thinly veiled euphemism for Jews. It surfaced in colleges, where a mob mentality took hold, targeting Jewish students who dared to voice their concerns over motions laced with antisemitic undertones – which passed with little resistance.

And let’s not forget the faculty members who could barely contain their pride over Hamas’ violent actions, or the welfare officers who blamed Jewish students for feeling abused when they were called Nazis.

Some of these incidents were documented in an open letter to the university’s administration, which contains more than 100 instances of antisemitic behaviour.

But what the public may not realise is just how deeply ingrained racial bias is within that administration – a bias made glaringly obvious by the so-called “urgent” communication.

First, while the university has issued sporadic and vague statements condemning antisemitism, neither in official communications nor in its interactions has ever acknowledged the sharp and sudden rise in antisemitic rhetoric and behaviour at Oxford.

Imagine enduring an entire academic year in which Jewish students are openly targeted at other prestigious institutions – including your own – without a single word from your university acknowledging the prevalence or severity of the issue.

Second, even in those vague statements condemning antisemitism, whether in official letters about protests or about the war, it was never given the space to stand alone. Unlike the communication regarding the riots, antisemitism was always bundled together with Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian discrimination.

Anti-Israeli discrimination, which reached extreme levels throughout the year, wasn’t even acknowledged.

Student government is a farce manufactured by leftist groups. It works like this. The small groups of ambitious students who actually run for student government positions have been mainly sidelined by leftist identity politics coalitions. The one actual job these groups have, to dispense student activity fees forcibly collected from students, were then redirected to funding various leftist, including pro-terrorist, causes.

Now as the new semester arrives, some of these student governments are ‘defunding’ student activities to pressure administrations into meeting their pro-terrorist demands.

They’ve gotten away with everything else so far, including the encampments, because most college students don’t care about student government, don’t vote or, if they do vote, follow along with whatever the student papers, who are run by the same leftists, tell them. (Yes, college really is a microcosm of our system.)

But what happens if the student governments do something that impacts students. And not just Jewish ones.

This happened at the New School in New York and now it’s happening at the University of Michigan.

The UM administration is looking for ways to fund student activities while working around the terrorists who have taken control of student government.

As thousands of Jewish students prepare to begin the new semester next week, a reminder that because of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the bipartisan Antisemitism Awareness Act has yet to receive a vote in the senate. Stop pointing to a blue pin and DO SOMETHING pic.twitter.com/HTPUZmUufm

— Shabbos Kestenbaum (@ShabbosK) August 26, 2024

27% say they have the right to disrupt classes for the same reason: pic.twitter.com/jqnCZt2Mn6

— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) August 27, 2024

You can find the survey by Dr. John Bitzan at North Dakota State University here: https://t.co/ReAECkliZG

— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) August 27, 2024

A statement by Brown University’s president, Christina H. Paxson, considering a proposal for the school to divest from Israel drew pushback from top legal officials around the country.

On Monday, 24 state attorney generals sent a letter to the university’s trustees and fellows, calling the plan “only the latest part of an antisemitic pressure campaign spearheaded by a group calling itself ‘Students for Justice in Palestine.’”

The officials pointed out that in most U.S. states, governments cannot work with entities that boycott Israel and that “if adopted, the Brown Divest Now proposal will have immediate and profound legal consequences for Brown.”

The proposal advocates divesting from companies such as Textron, Safariland, Volvo Group, Airbus, Boeing, General Dynamics, General Electric, Motorola and RTX Corporation that conduct business with the Jewish state.

The attorneys general warned that the consequences of adopting the measure could “require our states—and others—to terminate any existing relationships with Brown and those associated with it, divest from any university debt held by state pension plans and other investment vehicles, and otherwise refrain from engaging with Brown and those associated with it.”

NEW: Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin and 23 other state attorneys general have written to the trustees of Brown University urging them to reject a divestment proposal advanced by Students for Justice in Palestine.

“Adopting that proposal may require our States—and… pic.twitter.com/LLo6eYq8XP

— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) August 27, 2024

Signatories: pic.twitter.com/IzZA1EzqEX

— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) August 27, 2024

I'll pass. Faculty should not assign grades based on whether a student conforms with an ideology, particularly one that advocates for violence and vandalism. pic.twitter.com/gdUDCyQnR0

— Jon Williams (@J2dubyas) August 27, 2024

The Baruch College Students for Justice in Palestine student group included images of AR-15-style rifles in the background of a social media post asking students to join their board.

In a post from the Baruch Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) advertising open positions for students to join the leadership of the pro-Palestine student group, the AR-15’s are seen in the background of the promotion.

In the description of the post, the SJP stated that they are “[v]ery excited for the fall semester!”

In addition to the inclusion of assault rifles in the post, the group included an image of a downward triangle, a symbol that is associated with the terrorist group, Hamas.

In the form that students are asked to fill out to apply for the open positions, students are asked to provide their name, phone number, student identification number, their Baruch College-associated email, and answer questions about their commitment and enthusiasm to join the leadership of the SJP.

One specific question listed asks students why they want to join the SJP, what they can “offer” the SJP, and are asked to share “thoughts on a Two-State Solution.”

Once interested students fill out personal details on the form, they are also required to have an in-person interview with the current leadership of the Baruch branch of the Students for Justice in Palestine.

Campus Reform has reported on similar instances where pro-Hamas student groups have displayed on social media violent sentiments or rhetoric.

AMP National Chairman Dr. Hatem Bazian at UC Santa Cruz Encampment: AIPAC, The Zionist Lobby Is Attempting to Use Anti-Terrorism Legislation to Shut Down SJP pic.twitter.com/iJ1INNHWft

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) August 27, 2024

Columbia SJP’s account was permanently removed from Instagram today. A Meta spox confirmed to me that this was due to repeated violations of Meta’s dangerous organizations policies, which does “not allow organizations that proclaim a violent mission or are engaged in violence.”

— Haley Cohen (@HaleyCohen19) August 27, 2024

Palestinian Action US added these comments: pic.twitter.com/27ORgs2dxZ

— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) August 26, 2024

Radical antisemite assaulted me today. Let’s make her famous. Beverly Massachusetts. @TheFlagGuy_@GodBlessAI@StopAntisemites@jewhatedbpic.twitter.com/tFKMhUH3Gy

— Scott Hayes (@ScottHayes11b) August 26, 2024

PSYCHOTIC: Here's an article in @Mondoweiss arguing that American journalists and media outlets should be sued for "incitement and complicity in genocide" for just reporting on Hamas's sexual abuses pic.twitter.com/sSpIwsQwtx

— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) August 27, 2024

Andrew Douville's violent, anti-American, and anti-Western views are alarming:

- calls for the assassination of Donald Trump
- supports those who shout "death to America"
- celebrated the stabbing and murder of a German policeman by an Afghan refugee

How is it that Andrew… pic.twitter.com/Wv0T9ZWKy3

— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) August 27, 2024

Rania Rashid's tweet can be located here:
- https://t.co/0tnDjvFHEk
- https://t.co/kOCrW5TUjT
- https://t.co/WzratrTGqN
- https://t.co/Ff8sGHWqVx
- https://t.co/rLELiWhP70
- https://t.co/4p9M9ivcK1pic.twitter.com/MZGo6HZ9zL

— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) August 26, 2024

https://t.co/HdCdZJjI09

— Canary Mission (@canarymission) August 26, 2024

Mohammed Alhaj, owner of Empire Insurance Group in Philly, led marchers & spoke at an anti-Israel rally just days after the Oct 7 massacre by Hamas, saying, "They [Hamas] are glorious ones...the heroes of Gaza." https://t.co/g4itYbFZ1epic.twitter.com/lbLQXB84Fu

— Canary Mission (@canarymission) August 26, 2024

Further information on Maher Abu Ghali here 👇https://t.co/K8ECfuUld1

— GnasherJew®גנאשר (@GnasherJew) August 27, 2024

The "Zionist k*ller" has a @gofundme to help him evacuated Gaza pic.twitter.com/puzyEGAxhM

— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) August 27, 2024

The immediate reaction by journalists covering the region to Hamas’s mass murder, torture, rape and mutilation of Jews on Oct. 7th is a moral test like few others. The antisemitic savagery carried out by the terror group’s death squads throughout Israeli communities like Be’eri, Kfar Aza, Nahal Oz, Nir Oz, Ofakim and Re’im resulted in the murder of over 1200, with hundreds more taken hostage, and as many have noted, represented the most deadly attack on Jews since the Holocaust.

Though, as we’ve demonstrated, some media outlets, journalists and columnists, after a period of weeks, decided to shift from the uncomfortable and ideologically disorienting reality of Palestinian antisemitism and Hamas barbarism to one where the Jewish state, in its military response to the attack, became the perpetrators of ‘crimes against humanity’, ethnic cleansers and genocidaires.

Some didn’t wait weeks, or even days.

For instance, on the evening of Oct. 7th, while Hamas butchers were still in Israeli territory, the Guardian’s Jerusalem correspondent Bethan McKernan tweeted that “Until this morning, tearing down the walls that have hemmed in Gaza’s 2.3m people for 16 years was unthinkable. Whatever else happens now, this is a clear sign that the siege, and 56-year-old occupation, are not sustainable projects“.

That same night, she penned her first Guardian analysis on the massacre, focusing on the current threat to Palestinian civilians in the aftermath of Hamas’s offensive.

But, nothing much at the Guardian shocks us, as its long been a purveyor of the most unhinged anti-Zionist propaganda and, more than occasionally, antisemitic tropes.

The London-based Financial Times, on the other hand, is a far more respected global outlet, one which focuses on business and economic current affairs and fancies itself as being recognised internationally for its “authority, integrity and accuracy”. So, its Oct. 7th coverage is far more revealing, offering a glimpse into a broader media failure we’ve documented since that dark Shabbat day.

On Oct. 8th, the outlet published an official editorial on the previous day’s massacre. Though the Palestinian violence was still unfolding, and Israel hadn’t yet began a serious military response, editors opted for cliches and platitudes, such their warning Jerusalem that “violence begets violence”, over moral clarity and serious analysis.

It also repeated the mantra that “the region can only secure peace if the decades-old Palestinian demand for a viable state is addressed with serious intent“. In addition to ignoring the actual consequences of Israel’s 2005 Gaza withdrawal, their suggestion that the group’s bloodthirsty pogromists would somehow be appeased by the quotidian demands of attending to the social and economic requirements of statehood beggars belief.

Maria Mourani, one of the most radical columnists at Le Journal de Montréal, published a column on August 22 that attempted to blame Israel for anti-Jewish hatred around the world.

Mourani, in at least her third anti-Israel column in less than three months entitled: “Intellectual Terrorism,” claimed that the charge of antisemitism is thrown around to silence dissent at anyone who dare question the fanatical orthodoxy espoused by anti-Israel activists in the West, including baseless accusations of genocide and the like.

But if the shoe fits…

Amidst her attempt to claim that anti-Jewish hate is an allegation too often leveled, she found herself apparently unable in not blaming Jews for antisemitism. Blaming Jews For Jew Hatred

“The increase in anti-Semitism in Canada and the rest of the world observed since the Palestinian genocide is symptomatic of this seed of hatred that humans carry. The images and videos of murdered children and grieving families that we see surging across social media are enough to ignite, make this seed germinate and grow,” Mourani wrote in her column.

This victim-blaming technique by Mourani, if applied to literally any other group, would simply be intolerable.

Stating that rape victims who dress a certain way had it coming, or that Islamic extremism in the Middle East explains why Muslims were murdered at a Quebec City mosque would be rightly condemned as not just ignorant, but morally repulsive.

And yet, in her tirade against Israel, blaming Jerusalem for anti-Jewish hatred, Mourani evidently felt completely unafraid of pushback.

It is clear why Mourani blames Israel for Jew-hatred; after all, looking inward to the pro-Palestinian movement would unmask a grotesque reality.

Had she looked at the pro-Palestinian activists, she would see what the rest of Canadians see: a tiny fringe of hateful extremists, many of whom openly support Islamic terrorism, who ignore murderous homophobia from the Islamic Republic of Iran, the key backer of terrorist groups like Hamas, who embrace Jew-hatred, and who employ violence, harassment and intimidation in an attempt to get their way.

Two of these 'Journalists' are members of Terrorists organizations.
One snitched on Palestinian Peace activists to be tortured by Hamas. While the other glorifies the violence committed by the organization.

This is the equivalent of nominating Joseph goebbels for the Nobel Peace… https://t.co/dqJl9dgRZZ

— Tamer Masudin (@TMasudin) August 27, 2024

"Palestinian political prisoners," @JoumannaTV? Really?

Palestinian prisoners are in Israeli jails for committing crimes, like stabbings, car-rammings, shootings, etc. Could you consider checking your bias at @BloombergTV's door? pic.twitter.com/aT2Cdrkiop

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 27, 2024

The alternate reality created by @edwardsalem paints Palestinians as eternal victims & Israelis as monsters that treat them like dogs.

Yet the "genocide" he describes was actually perpetuated by Hamas terrorists who murdered entire families alongside their family pets. He finds… pic.twitter.com/dmDLfUE10z

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 27, 2024

Gotta love it when journalists like @krystalball repost fake news with zero fact checking.
It's a testament to their seriousness!

She has 587K followers!!!

The mosque in question is NOT the great mosque of Gaza. It's the one in Khan Younis and is not ancient! pic.twitter.com/SATX8wwTFn

— Hamas Atrocities (@HamasAtrocities) August 27, 2024

Another candidate in Leicester South has accused independent MP Shockat Adam of intimidation during his general election campaign.

The new MP won a surprise victory in July, unseating Labour’s shadow paymaster general Jonathan Ashworth in Leicester South by 979 votes.

Now Osman Admani, an independent candidate who received just 339 votes, has claimed that Adam’s team targeted his home days after he announced his candidacy.

Admani, a lawyer from Leicester, accused Adam’s team of “intimidation tactics and bullying” during the campaign.

Like Adam, Admani campaigned on a Gaza ceasefire platform.

In an interview with social media publisher PoliticsJoe , Admani alleged that the day after he announced his candidacy Adam’s team organised a canvassing session in his neighbourhood. Admani said this was “unprecedented” intimidation.

In a blurred video, Adam’s supporters can allegedly be seen outside Admani’s house with a loudspeaker campaigning for Adam.

“Shockat’s team were not very happy, they were quite angry. Why? Because I am a Muslim.

“On the Saturday, Shockat Adam's people decided they were going to come into this area and make a statement... It was unprecedented, no one has ever seen something like that.

“They came down here shouting Shockat’s name on a speakerphone, knocking on all my neighbour's doors to the extent that my neighbours were intimidated and were telling their children ‘Just don’t react, stay calm.’”

The head of the Catholic Church and the leader of the Church of England are effectively rejecting the Bible by supporting policies that negate the connection of the Jewish people to the Holy Land, the chief rabbi of South Africa said on Sunday.

The blunt theological critique comes after the archbishop of Canterbury endorsed a ruling by the International Court of Justice last month that Israel’s presence in the “occupied Palestinian territories” is unlawful, and as the pontiff has sought to thread the needle and maintain strict neutrality during Israel’s war against Islamist terrorists in Gaza.

“At a time when Europe’s future hangs in the balance, its two most senior Christian leaders—the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, and the head of the Church of England, Archbishop Justin Welby—have abandoned their most sacred duty to protect and defend the values of the Bible,” South African Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein wrote in a post on X.

The world is locked in a civilizational battle of values, threatened by terrorism and jihad, the rabbi said.

“Now is the time for religious leaders to come to the defense of society, to speak up for Western values and freedom,” Goldstein said. “Instead, Pope Francis and the Anglican archbishop are silent: indifferent to the murder of Christians in Africa, and to the threat of terrorism throughout Europe, and outright hostile to Israel’s attempts to battle these jihadi forces led by Iran.”

Does the archbishop read the Bible?

The Jewish leader said that the head of the Church of England’s remarks put him in “direct opposition” to the Bible.

“Does the archbishop believe the accounts of the Bible are mere myths?” Goldstein ponders in a 15-minute video address attached to the X post. “How can anyone who believes in the Bible say that Israel is an illegal occupier of the Temple Mount?”

Israel’s Attorney General’s Office has ruled that the murder of Israel Prison Service dog handler Yochai Avni last month was an act of terrorism.

Hamas member Ibrahim Mansur, who broke into Avni’s Givon Hahadasha home northwest of Jerusalem, stabbed him 66 times and set the scene on fire, will be accused of murder with a nationalist motive.

“The accused did all this due to the fact that the deceased was Jewish, with the intention of causing his death and fleeing the scene,” the A.G.’s office stated in additions to the indictment filed on Tuesday morning at the Ofer Military Court.

Avni’s sister Nitzan said at the beginning of the hearing that, “We were informed that the killer stabbed the suspect 66 times in all parts of his body,” according to Channel 12. “Meaning he not only murdered him but also abused him. He then burned everything. We are just before an indictment and we are sure that justice is with us, it is a struggle not only for us but for the entire people of Israel,” she added.

The military court judge said at the opening of the hearing that, “The indictment charges the defendant with the crime of causing death intentionally … The accused decided to enter Givon Hahadasha knowing that it was a settlement where only Jews live. He then stabbed the deceased no fewer than 66 times. The military prosecution granted the request for detention until the end of the legal proceedings.”

Mansur—a resident of Biddu, located just southwest of Givon Hahadasha in the Binyamin region of Samaria—was arrested two days after the July 8 murder.

The Palestinian Authority prioritizes its payments to terrorists and has lost over 6.96 billion shekels (over $1.88 billion) in the last 5 years alone, according to its own data.

The official PA news agency, WAFA, criticized Israel for causing the PA’s financial crises and itemized all the deductions from tax revenues that Israel collects for the PA. However, a look at the PA’s numbers shows that the PA itself is responsible for its crises.

Israel’s deductions are in 3 main categories.

Deduction 1: Pay-for Slay
Every year, in accordance with its Anti “Pay-for-Slay” law, Israel makes 12 monthly deductions from the tax transfers that it would otherwise have sent the PA. This deduction is identical to the amount that the PA rewarded imprisoned terrorists and families of so-called Martyrs in the previous year.

Deduction 2: Money to Gaza since October 7
After the massacre and atrocities committed by Gazans on October 7, 2023, Israel has been making deductions from the PA in accordance with the amount that the PA sends to Gaza each month. The sum of these deductions is sent to Norway for future distribution when Israel will be able to be sure that the proceeds will not go directly into Hamas’ hands.

Deduction 3: Repaying PA debts
For many years, Israel generously allowed the Palestinian Authority to use Israeli hospitals, electricity, and water, even though the PA did not pay its fair share. Israel finally decided to make a deduction from the tax transfers in accordance with a portion of the debt that the PA has incurred.

The PA’s official daily said that these “illegal deductions” are the cause of its financial crises. However, it is clear from looking at the PA’s own figures that the PA has only itself to blame for its woes.

2/2

“8. Hamas strongest weapon is lies and propaganda. That’s its fuel. That’s how the “siege” lie was maintained for years, that’s what they’re doing now with the photos of innocent victims and the killed “journalists” who are actually terror activists. Gaza is the only place… pic.twitter.com/VKOTIOqJvF

— Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱 (@GalG_IL) August 27, 2024

Every day Na'eem sells something else in the market in North Gaza.
Yesterday it was fresh fish (timestamp 12 hours ago); the day before - live turkeys (timestamp 1 day ago); and the day before that - wristwatches for 10 shekels ($2.70) + halva and cookies from the free aid… pic.twitter.com/wgK24pdIxa

— Imshin (@imshin) August 27, 2024

Hilarious!!

The Daily Mail reported that Yahya Sinwar is walking around in Gaza freely by disguising himself as a female and so people have been having some fun with that 😂 pic.twitter.com/TJ2AV1L1nB

— Documenting Israel (@DocumentIsrael) August 27, 2024

Leadership at Auburn Senior High School in Auburn, Wash., canceled an Aug. 29 all-day presentation to the school’s staff by an education consultant following employees’ discovery of an anti-Israel conspiracy theory video and social-media postings.

Michael Abraham of Abraham Education runs a program titled “Engaging Muslim Students: What all educators should know.” Its course description offered the opportunity to develop a lesson plan “with the goal of practicing culturally relevant pedagogy with Muslim students.”

Staffers reportedly discovered an April video featuring Abraham in which he advocated antisemitic conspiracy theories, according to reporting from “The Jason Rantz Show.” Titled “When Israel FAKES Muslim Terrorism (A HISTORY),” the hour-long video has since been removed.

On X, Abraham also doubted that the Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7 occurred and accused Israel of genocide.

“Clearly, we had not done enough vetting,” a spokesperson for the district told “The Jason Rantz Show.”

A Brooklyn Muslim cleric who once partnered with New York Mayor Eric Adams on a campaign to end hate is now spreading it by calling for the annihilation of Israel, The Post has learned.

Meanwhile, one of his counterparts at a mosque in the Bronx has taken to blasting “Zionist Hollywood” and Christians for packing their churches with LGBTQ worshippers, whom he claims they are recruiting to bolster dwindling congregations.

As the Israeli war against Hamas in Gaza continues, imam Sheikh Muhammad Al-Barr, called on Allah at his Bay Ridge mosque to “liberate Palestine from the occupiers and the plunderers” during a Friday service earlier this month.

“Oh Allah, annihilate those who occupied their lands, and those who betrayed and deserted them, and those who spilled their blood,” Al-Barr said in Arabic August 12 at the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge’s Masjid ibn Umair.

The video of Al-Barr’s sermon was posted last week by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), a think tank that features human rights activist Natan Sharansky and lawyer and former diplomat Stuart Eizenstat, among other religious leaders on their board of advisors.

Al-Barr, whose last name is also spelled “Elbar,” also said that “the mujahideen [Hamas fighters] in Gaza are achieving more than our Arab armies could in 1967 and 1973,” a reference to the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War, respectively.

“Muhammad Al-Barr explains how…Hamas managed to do what the Arab armies of Egypt and Syria …did not do in 1967 and 1973,” said Yigal Carmon, president and founder of MEMRI in an interview with The Post Monday.

“He ignores one thing: How Hamas used the population as human shields…The imam shows total support for a terrorist organization in the heart of New York and totally ignores how October 7 began.”

More than 1,200 died and 240 hostages were kidnapped during the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel on that date last year.

Some Irish guy in Sydney photographs a Jew and makes this comment.

Upon being called out he says, "History is history. Israel are wiping out a whole race at the minute"

What do you think about this racism and his lies about Israel? pic.twitter.com/cozFIuGBOT

— Australian Jewish Association (@AustralianJA) August 27, 2024

On a quiet corner of Furmańska Street, dawn breaks to the warm smell of bread wafting from the oldest bakery in Lublin, announced by a sign: “Kuźmiuk Bakery since 1944.”

But another bakery was there before 1944, when Furmańska Street belonged to the historic Jewish quarter of this Polish city. Before the Kuźmiuk Bakery opened that year, and before the Nazis killed 99% of Lublin’s Jews, the best bakery in town served rye bread and onion rolls from within the same walls. It was run by Mordka and Doba Bajtel and their children, a Jewish family that was entirely erased from the city. The third-generation owners of Kuźmiuk Bakery say they only learned of the site’s pre-war history in the past decade.

The bakery’s postwar history is threaded throughout its operations. Katarzyna Goławski, the third-generation owner, inherited recipes and techniques from her father Sergiusz Kuźmiuk and his father Włodzimierz Kuźmiuk. (The traditional rye sourdough starter, though, dates only to the 1980s.) Brochures inside the store tell how Włodzimierz Kuźmiuk and his young family escaped the destruction of World War II across Poland, finally settling in an empty bakery in Lublin. In 1944, his first batch of bread fed Lubliners for their first Christmas after the city’s liberation from Nazi Germany.

But her father and grandfather never told Goławski about what had come before.

She knew nothing of the store’s Jewish history until July 2017, when a woman walked into Kuźmiuk Bakery and introduced herself. Her name was Esther Minars, and she had traveled from her home in Florida to see the bakery once owned by her great-uncle Mordka and great-aunt Doba.

The visit shook Goławski, who still maintains the family business with help from her husband Artur Goławski and daughter Natalia. Minars pointed out where the Bajtels lived in an apartment behind the bakery — today, it is the home of the Goławski family. Records from the Grodzka Gate-NN Theater Center, a Lublin institution focused on the city’s Jewish history, confirm that Mordka Bajtel owned a bakery in the building that is now the Kuźmiuk Bakery.

“It made an impact on us,” Goławski told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “Because they lived here in this place, and she visited us.”

Twenty-five Jewish teens from around the world traveled through Poland and Israel this summer as part of a CTeen Heritage Quest designed to connect young Jews with their history and traditions.

The group visited significant Jewish sites, including the Warsaw Ghetto, Auschwitz concentration camp and the historic synagogues of Krakow.

For 16-year-old Jesse Goldberg of Chicago, the experience was eye-opening. “I grew up hearing stories from Holocaust survivors in Chicago, but they were just stories. This trip showed us the harsh reality unfiltered,” he said.

He explained that his motivation to join the trip stemmed from a drive to understand his roots. His great-grandfather, “Zaide Goodman,” was born in Germany before fleeing to Belgium for safety. Eventually, as the Nazis invaded Belgium in 1940, family members scattered—one joined the French resistance, while others went into hiding. Many survived, some finding work in a Porsche factory.

Rabbi Mendy Lepkivker, coordinator of CTeen summer experience, which took place from July 9-23, said that “one of the most pivotal moments of the trip is flying from Poland, with the horrors of the Holocaust fresh in participants’ minds, straight to Israel, where the first stop is not the hotel, but the Kotel”—the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

“Going straight to the holiest place in the world brings home this message viscerally,” he added.

In addition to requisite sight-seeing, this year’s Heritage Quest culminated in a mission to Israel with a schedule that included volunteering; packing meals for Israelis in need at Colel Chabad, Israel’s oldest charity, established in 1788; connecting with Israeli soldiers on the front lines; and working at a greenhouse in southern Israel, the region most affected by the current war.

How many acts of heroism never come to public attention because of the modesty of the heroes themselves?

This is a first-ever audio interview in English with one such man.

His name is "Dani', the Mossad commander in charge of “Operation Brothers” for five drama-filled years from 1978.

Without doubt, this is one of Israel's finest hours; a Mossad mission to emancipate thousands of Ethiopian Jews from the dangers of revolution and persecution. But this is also about partnership and brotherhood.

Mossad would never have achieved this lethally dangerous, giant humanitarian mission without the equal determination of the Ethiopian Jews themselves, to realise a generational longing to return to Israel, the land of their forefathers.

"Dani" only agreed to this interview on condition that his full identity wouldn't be revealed. And while he's partially emerged out of the shadows, I'm told many of his Mossad colleagues remain completely anonymous. “Operation Brothers” was a mission to spirit thousands of Ethiopian Jews out of their remote highland villages to walk hundreds of miles to the hell of a Sudanese refugee camp, whereupon they would begin a perilous exodus to Israel.

Some Jews were given passports and papers and flown out of Khartoum Airport, a difficult and dangerous process in itself. But thousands of others were transported hundreds more miles to the Sudanese coast under cover of a plain-sight Red Sea diving resort which Dani and his Mossad agents ran as a fully functioning hotel while conducting their covert operations each night.

10% of the Jews didn’t make it, dying on the exhausting journey. Mossad is famous for spying missions and counterespionage - but this was nothing to do with that. This was a world first for such an organisation: purely humanitarian, 700 kilometres behind enemy lines in Sudan, which was extremely hostile to Israel back then.

Dani's Mossad command of this covert mission is faithfully chronicled in Raffi Berg’s brilliant book, "Red Sea Spies". I am so grateful to Raffi for organising the interview and truly honoured to talk to Dani.

IZZY, the leading steaming platform for Israeli content, will premiere on Thursday Israeli actress Gal Gadot’s only Hebrew-language television role, a drama series called “Kathmandu.”

The 13-episode series is about a young Chabad Hasidic couple, Mushky and Shmulik, who are on a mission to establish and run the first Chabad house in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, for Israeli travelers. The couple face challenges the minute they arrive in Nepal and the series “explores their journey of faith, resilience, and community building in a foreign land.”

During their time in the South Asian country, they meet a diverse group of people including Guyani, a former Israeli soldier turned hostel owner who has a complicated past, and Gadot’s character Yamit, who is on a journey to find her missing sister Opira in the streets of Nepal.

“Yamit’s storyline adds a layer of intrigue and emotional depth, as she navigates her relationship with Guyani and her own identity,” according to a synopsis of the show provided by IZZY. “Kathmandu” originally aired in 2012 and Gadot filmed the Israeli television show, her first and last, before she became internationally famous for her roles in “Fast & Furious, “Wonder Woman,” “Justice League,” and many other films. IZZY released a teaser for the first episode of “Kathmandu” that shows Gadot’s character arrive in Nepal and ask around about her sister.

“‘Katmandu’ captures the essence of Israeli culture and the unique experience of Israeli travelers in distant lands. It also highlights the universal themes of belonging, faith, and the search for meaning,” according to a description by IZZY. “The series is beautifully shot, with the stunning landscapes of Nepal providing a breathtaking backdrop to the story. The cast delivers powerful performances, particularly Gal Gadot, who brings warmth and complexity to her role as Yamit.”

“Kathmandu” will stream exclusively on IZZY. The show also stars Liron Levo, Michael Moshonov, Nitzan Levartovsky, Karen Berger, and Roy Gurai.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

The Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, announced to our struggling Palestinian people and to the Arab and Islamic nations its heroic knights in the Tulkarm Battalion and its formations.

The Al-Quds Brigades stated in a press statement, on Tuesday evening, that the martyrs are the martyr leader Mujahid: Muhammad Al-Sheikh Yusuf (Abu Al-Muhandis), one of the field commanders in the Tulkarm Battalion, the martyr cub Mujahid: Adnan Ayser Jaber, one of the Mujahideen of the confusion unit affiliated with the Tulkarm Battalion, and the martyr cub Mujahid: Muhammad Alian, one of the Mujahideen of the confusion unit affiliated with the Tulkarm Battalion.

"Cub" means "young boy." And indeed, those two children were 15 and 16 years old, respectively.

The "confusion unit" is meant to distract Israeli troops with fireworks, flash bangs and burning tires to protect the more heavily armed adult terrorists. 

This isn't spontaneous demonstrations by local youth: they are recruited as part of the battle. And since they are on what Islamic Jihad considers the front lines, they are treated as cannon fodder - their lives are not only expendable, but their deaths are strategic.

Amnesty, HRW and the UN will never condemn Islamic Jihad for purposefully sacrificing children. Because they want to make sure that they can count these "mujahadeen" as "children" in their databases, and by mentioning that they were engaged in military activities at the time, that would ruin their entire goal of demonizing Israel. 

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Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

 

Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.

Donald Trump has many times reiterated the claim that what happened on October 7 in Israel would not have happened had he won the 2020 election. I completely agree. Which is why, to a degree, I blame Donald Trump for what happened on and in the wake of October 7.

If Trump hadn’t been such a rude bully, perhaps Joe Biden would not now be pretending to be executive in chief with Kamala Harris waiting in the wings while contemplating the great significance of the passage of time (why Joe wasn’t pushed down a flight of stairs and said to be dead from COVID long ago, I have no idea).

You don’t need me to tell you that Trump is (in)famous for his ad hominem attacks on his opponents. Trump delights in inventing creative attack nicknames for his competitors, among them:

·        Little Marco

·        Lyin’ Ted

·        Crooked Hillary

·        Ron DeSanctimonious

·        Low Energy Jeb

·        Pocahontas

·        Crazy Joe Biden

·        Sleepy Joe

·        Comrade Kamala

·        Tampon Tim

The mean nicknames no doubt delight many Trump voters. For them, it’s all a part of Donald Trump’s charm. But what about those who take offense at the name-calling? They also vote. If Donald Trump really cares about America, shouldn’t he want their votes, too?

Aside from the rude and childish name-calling, there was his mockery of the way the now-deceased John McCain used his hands. Love or hate Donald Trump, you have to admit that making fun of the disabled is repugnant, pure and simple. But it’s even worse when that disabled person is a former prisoner of war and war hero, whose disability is the result of maltreatment and torture. Is someone who mocks the disabled, someone who behaves in this fashion, worthy of being elected to the highest office in the land—a land that John McCain defended with his body?

My dad was an American hero. An icon. A patriot that will be remembered throughout history. I cannot buy a bagel without someone approaching me about how much they loved and miss him.

Trump is a piece of shit, election denying, huckster whose own wife won't campaign with him. https://t.co/f3RlWLqT9B

— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) January 7, 2024

The name-calling, crude references to manhood/menstruation, and public mimicry of the disabled are all problematic and, it must be acknowledged, at least in part to blame for Trump’s loss to Biden in 2020. Many are now warning Trump that here too in 2024, he stands to lose voters because of his coarse behavior. And then we’re really in trouble, because God forbid, we’d end up with two YUGE antisemites running the show, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.

As Victor Davis Hanson explains it, there is only a short window for Donald Trump to define himself for the voters. When Trump calls Harris “stupid” without saying why, he only looks churlish. It’s a missed opportunity to present his case at a time when time is running out, or as Hanson put it, “No time for invective.”

Despite his at times unpresidential behavior, Trump was a damned good president according to just about every measure this author can think of. Think back to what your grocery cart looked like then compared to now, under the Bidenomics of which Kamala is so proud. Picture the signing of the Abraham Accords, and then see in your mind’s eye how Biden, instead of fostering peace, gave Iran the wherewithal to finance Hamas brutality while staying Israel’s hand from its own defense:

“I will end every single international crisis that the current administration has created, including the horrible war with Russia and Ukraine — which would have never happened if I was president — and the war caused by the attack on Israel, which would have never happened if I was president,” said Trump at the RNC.

“Iran was broke. Iran had no money. Now Iran has $250 billion. They made it all over the last two and a half years,” he adds, saying the Biden administration has provided Tehran sanctions relief.

“I told China and other countries if you buy from Iran, we will not let you do any business in this country.”

These are not empty boasts. I believe Trump when he says these things. And he’s right; Hamas would not have attacked Israel on October 7 had he been in office. They wouldn’t have dared; and now they remember all too well how things were when Trump was in office—and tremble. As they should.

Trump starved Iran of money, making it impossible for the Ayatollah to support his proxies, including the one in Gaza, Hamas. Joe Biden, on the other hand, has fed Iran a constant diet of cash, even as he stays Israel’s hand from obliterating this cruel enemy. There’s no reason to think this policy of emboldening those who murder, rape, and brutalize Jews won’t continue under a Kamala Harris presidency. And by now we must acknowledge that Joe cannot possibly be running the show. The unseen handler of Joe is likely to become the handler of Kamala Harris as well, if Trump fails to make his case.

Here in Israel, we feel the terrible strain of the hostage situation. We pray for the best, but anticipate the worst, and it is unbearable. That makes me—and I’d venture a lot of other Israeli Jews—feel kind of desperate about the American presidential election. We are desperate for Donald Trump to win. And angry that this might all have been avoided, had Trump behaved a little better in the run up to the last election. Who knows how many lives would have been saved had Trump kept a civil tongue in his mouth? It makes me ache to think of it. A good president who won’t behave, and people died.

And still, it is a pragmatic fact that Trump must win, because he is the president who will act decisively, and extract a price from Hamas for what it did and continues to do to Americans and American allies both dead and alive in Gaza. In spite of his rough behavior, it’s obvious that Trump has a strong sense of right and wrong. He feels the disgrace of what it means for Biden to have allowed this state of affairs to continue even as Joe helps it along—helps the terrorists along. Trump also feels the disgrace of America throwing an ally, Israel, under the bus.

Kamala, on the other hand, will be worse than Joe. She has expressed sympathy for supporters of Hamas and Hezbollah, again and again.

So we watch and worry. We worry that Trump will say more nasty, childish thing and that this will affect his chances at the polls. What will be of our hostages if Trump can’t shut his mouth and restrain himself. “Save it for Putin!” we want to shout.

Yet we know that in spite of any mean-spirited behavior to the contrary, in the bigger scheme of things, Trump has more morality in his little finger than there is in the entire Biden White House.

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Exile of Hamas from Gaza will appeal to a wide range of actors involved in this conflict. For Israel, it would not only enable a deal that would return the hostages. It would allow for an end to the war in Gaza, which has taken a financial and societal toll on Israel after nearly eleven months of fighting. Ending the war would also allow the Israelis to begin to rebuild the country’s public image after a withering public relations war mounted by Iran, the Muslim Brotherhood, and other malign actors.

For the United States, this would also have great benefits. Ahead of the 2024 election, there is significant pressure on Vice President Kamala Harris and the Biden Administration to end the hostilities in Gaza. A Reagan-style deal could minimize (though certainly not eliminate) the risk of a wider war with the Islamic Republic of Iran and its many foreign fighting forces. Indeed, the regime and its proxies have indicated a tentative willingness to stop their war if there is a ceasefire in Gaza. Economically, there is also a clear virtue to this approach. The Pentagon has dispatched significant military assets to the region on several occasions. And the cost of doing so is not small. Importantly, there are also eight American hostages that our government has an obligation to return home.

Finally, a deal would also be in the interest of Palestinians in Gaza, who are desperate for a ceasefire. After eleven months, the Gazans would finally have the opportunity to rebuild—and under a deradicalized government. The Sunni Arab world would also welcome this, and some of the Gulf states may be inclined to support Gaza’s reconstruction once Hamas is officially in exile.

Admittedly, a deal does not come without drawbacks. Hamas would continue to exist. The group would likely work overtime from abroad to stoke unrest in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and beyond. In other words, Israel’s fight against Hamas would continue. But this will likely be the case regardless.

There is also the risk of normalizing Hamas. That turned out to be the fatal flaw in the Reagan plan. In 1982, the PLO was widely viewed as a villainous organization. But after only nine years of exile in Tunisia, Arafat returned to Gaza in 1993 in triumph as part of the Oslo Accords. His PLO was made the backbone of the newly created Palestinian Authority. Despite his efforts to convince the world that he and his organization had turned a new leaf, the old terrorist returned to violence with the Second Intifada of 2000.

Israel and the United States should make it clear that Hamas will never have a future in Palestinian politics. Other countries should be called upon to support this, as well.

Finally, there is the question of Yahya Sinwar himself. Israel will almost certainly refuse to offer the architect of the October 7 attacks a lifeline. Sinwar may be able to negotiate a life sentence in an Israeli jail. While the Hamas leader may not love this idea, it’s a better alternative to the certain death that currently awaits him should he continue to try and fight Israel from within the tunnels of Gaza.

The Biden Administration’s repeated ceasefire initiatives have tanked, primarily because they lack creativity. Each failed proposal has closely resembled the previous ones. Taking a page out of the Gipper’s foreign policy playbook could be a chance to break that cycle.

Only around 20 of the Israeli hostages are being held by Hamas and these are being kept in handcuffs as human shields around its leader, Yahya Sinwar, intelligence sources have told the JC.

The terror chief has surrounded himself with the captives, who are being held with him underground. Israel has already had several opportunities to eliminate him after locating the tunnels in which he was hiding but the attack was not authorised because of the danger to hostages, intelligence sources have said.

The rest of the captives, both living and dead, are believed to be in the hands of smaller terror groups.

It comes after 52-year-old Qaid Farhan Alkadi, from the largely Arab city of Rahat in Southern Israel, was rescued by Shayetet 13, the 401st Brigade, Yahalom, and ISA forces under the command of the 162nd Division in a complex operation in the south of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday.

The grim revelation about the other Israeli captives, based on information gathered by Israeli intelligence in cooperation with Gazan informants and captured terrorists, throws new light on the complexity of securing a hostage deal, currently the subject of intense negotiations in Qatar.

Many Israeli abductees are being held by a menagerie of smaller terror groups like Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Mujahideen Brigades, the al-Nasser Salah al-Deen Brigades and the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, intelligence sources have confirmed.

These groups are locked in a dispute with Yahya Sinwar’s Hamas. While Sinwar is demanding the release of Hamas prisoners as a priority, they want prisoners from their own ranks to also be represented on the list. This has led them to contemplate a coup against Hamas in recent months.

They are also arguing that no compromise must be made with Israel, insisting that any deal includes the release of all terrorists from Israeli jails, including 1,236 murderers who have been sentenced to life imprisonment.

When I say Hamas, I really mean Yahya Sinwar, the architect of the Oct. 7 attacks. Following the funeral of Mr. Haniyeh, he was named the organization’s supreme leader—commander of both its “political” and “military” wings.

Why did Mr. Sinwar say no deal? Likely because his interests would be best served were Mr. Khamenei to widen the multifront and avowedly genocidal war against Israel.

Which brings us to what happened beginning around 5 am local time Sunday. In response to intelligence indicating that Hezbollah was imminently preparing to fire from Lebanon as many as 6,000 long-range missiles at Tel Aviv and other targets, 100 Israeli fighter jets struck 40 Hezbollah missile launch sites.

Since the day following the Hamas invasion, Hezbollah has fired close to 8,000 rockets, missiles and drones at Israeli communities, killing soldiers and civilians, burning towns, farms and forests, and causing more than 80,000 Israelis to abandon their homes.

In retaliation, Israel has carried out precision strikes inside Lebanon, including, on July 30, killing the group’s senior military commander, Fuad Shukr.

Mr. Shukr, you should know, has long been wanted by the U.S. for his role in the killing of 241 American servicemen in the 1983 bombing of a U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut. Our State Department posted a $5 million bounty for information on his location.

Hezbollah still has thousands of missiles left, all emplaced in southern Lebanon in flagrant violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which was intended to bring the Iranian proxy’s 2006 war with Israel to a halt.

Another all-out war between Hezbollah and Israel would undoubtedly cause significant death and damage in Israel. But it would almost certainly decimate Hezbollah and destroy what is left of Lebanon, a formerly vibrant nation that has become a failing state since Hezbollah seized power.

Mr. Khamenei understands the importance of strategic patience. He demonstrated that in 2015, when he agreed to President Barack Obama’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) because it gave him a patient pathway into the nuclear weapons club, along with tens of billions of dollars.

That same year, Mr. Khamenei spoke of 2040 as the date by which Israel is to be exterminated.

To that end, he has been waging a war of attrition, death by a thousand cuts, most of those cuts made by Arabs whom he is only too happy to martyr in pursuit of his imperial ambitions.

Mr. Sinwar is fine with that. He has said that Gazan civilians are “necessary sacrifices.” But would it surprise you if he’d rather not be among them?

Late last week, a senior Egyptian official told an Israeli reporter that Mr. Sinwar wants a guarantee that he won’t be assassinated.

I don’t think Israeli leaders will make that promise. But I can imagine them giving Mr. Sinwar safe passage to another country, say Turkey (incongruously both a NATO member and Hamas/Muslim Brotherhood supporter), in exchange for the release of however many hostages have not yet been brutally murdered.

This may be a long shot, but nothing would be lost if Mr. Biden’s envoys were to suggest such a deal, conveying to Mr. Sinwar that it is the only way he will ever see light at the end of his tunnel.

The overall, long-term strategy of Hezbollah and its Islamist sister organisations is to try to grind Israel down. They know they cannot destroy Israel in one go, but they calculate that they have time and demography on their side. In addition, they have substantial backing from the likes of Iran and Qatar.

What’s more, these Islamist forces now have allies in the West who are determined to delegitimise and isolate Israel. Not for nothing did Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, recently write a letter to American university students. He congratulated the young activists for forming ‘a branch of the resistance front’ against ‘a [US] government which openly supports the usurper and brutal Zionist regime’. No doubt few American students side with Iran. But there are many in universities and beyond – some naïve, others more ideologically committed – who do support the idea of eradicating Israel.

Israel is strong enough to face down its opponents individually, but it is still facing an uphill battle. The economic and human costs of maintaining the large military it needs to defend itself are high. At present, Jewish Israeli men are conscripted for a minimum of 32 months in the army while women serve a minimum of 24 months. Those who serve in specialist or elite units have to serve longer. Individuals may also be committed to serving in the reserve forces for many years. Admittedly, there are widespread exemptions from military service for certain groups, most notably the strictly orthodox haredi community. Nevertheless, military service puts a huge burden on Israeli society and families.

Unlike its enemies, Israel cannot afford to make mistakes. The pogrom of 7 October was bad enough. But the devastation could have been far worse if Hezbollah had broken through in Israel’s north.

Israel faces an existential threat from Hezbollah, Hamas and their Islamist allies. Their countless declarations of their desire to destroy Israel should be taken at face value. Israel has every right to defend itself against such threats.

Armed and funded by Iran, the "battalions," whose members are affiliated with PIJ, Hamas and the ruling Fatah faction headed by Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, began operating in the northern West Bank more than three years ago.

"Iran seeks as a strategic objective to surround Israel with a crescent of active fronts maintained by Iran and supported by Islamist client militias. As part of this, the [Iranian] regime is seeking to find a way to add an eastern component to this crescent – through Jordan to the West Bank... Tehran has succeeded in establishing and maintaining an arms route in which military materiel, brought from Iran into Lebanon, is then transported across the Syrian-Lebanese border, via Jordan, into the West Bank. "The maintenance of this route is of strategic importance to Iran. It is intended, over time, to flood the West Bank with weaponry, and by so doing, to eventually make this area a third front in the ongoing long war against Israel."— Jonathan Spyer, journalist, expert on radical Islamic groups, Jerusalem Post, July 5, 2024.

The PA's failure to crack down on the "battalions" means that Iran now has a small army in the West Bank. It will not be long before members of this army attack Israel in the same way as the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led invasion of Israel, in which 1,200 Israelis were murdered, with many raped, tortured and burned alive. In addition, more than 240 Israelis, including babies, women and the elderly, were abducted to the Gaza Strip, where 109 of them are still being held as hostages.

Those who persist in advocating for the establishment of a Palestinian state next to Israel must take into consideration that doing so would lead to the rise of more Iran-backed "battalions" in the West Bank and other areas over which the PA is given control. Since the gunmen are frequently praised as "heroes" by many Palestinians, neither Abbas nor anyone who replaces him would have the courage to take them on.

Even if Abbas does go back to the Gaza Strip, it is not probable that he would be able to confront Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups there. As in the West Bank, new "battalions" and militias will no doubt spring up in the Gaza Strip under Abbas's PA to pursue the Jihad (holy war) to eliminate Israel and replace it with an Islamist state.

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), making her fourth visit to Israel since Oct. 7, visited Majdal Shams on Tuesday, the site of a Hezbollah rocket attack that killed 12 Druze children last month.

“It was very tough,” Ernst told Jewish Insider, explaining that she’d met with the fathers of some of the children killed in the attack and visited the site of the attack on a soccer field and a memorial to those killed.

“Just a devastating loss,” Ernst said. “As their fathers described them, they were all extremely talented, bright young children, and to see such innocence gone, it just reminds us of the horrible cost of war.”

Ernst is traveling in the region with Reps. Jim Banks (R-IN), John Curtis (R-UT) and Marianette Miller-Meeks (R-IA). She said they’re the first group of U.S. lawmakers to visit the site of the Hezbollah attack.

She said that they also met with residents of a kibbutz near Israel’s northern border who “are living every day with the stress of not knowing when they’re going to be attacked next, the fear that they’ve had since Oct. 7 that they could be overrun, that their children and women could be raped and murdered by other invaders.”

Ernst said that her main goal for the trip remains making progress toward freeing the hostages, which has been her focus on previous visits to the region as well, and bringing the war to a close.

“It’s very important for me to do everything I can to make sure we secure the release of these Americans,” Ernst said. “And of course, we would love to see an end to the war — favorably for Israel… It’s incredibly important that we see the end to the war, but in a way where Israel comes out victorious and Hamas is decimated.”

Ernst and her colleagues also met on Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. She came away from the meeting believing that “there’s a greater confidence coming now from leadership here in Israel that Hamas is nearing an end,” especially with Israel controlling the Philadelphi corridor between Gaza and Egypt, which Ernst said is leaving Hamas with a dwindling supply of munitions.

“Once they see that beginning to diminish, they will have to find a way forward and they will have to negotiate with Israel on a temporary cease-fire, to get to a more permanent solution,” Ernst said.

Qaid Farhan Alkadi, who was rescued from Gaza by Israeli forces on Tuesday after 326 days in Hamas captivity, was released from Beersheva’s Soroka Medical Center on Wednesday afternoon.

Meanwhile, relatives of the 52-year-old Muslim Israeli and father of 11 from the Bedouin city of Rahat in the Negev Desert have begun to share details regarding the brutal conditions he experienced since his abduction on Oct. 7.

“He spoke about the darkness, not being able to see. But, thank God, he’s back with us, alive—it made us all rejoice,” Alkadi’s cousin Fayez al-Sana told the New York Times after visiting him in the hospital.

Ata Abu Medigm, the former mayor of Rahat, told Ynet that Alkadi was held in near total darkness for months: “He told about a very brutal captivity, he hardly saw the sun for eight months. He would check if his eyes were functioning. He said that one of the abductees was with him for two months and died next to him.”

Dr. Mazen Abu Siam, a longtime friend and veterinarian, in a conversation with the Times called Hamas “devils” and said that Alkadi’s family had been in terrible anxiety for 10 months.

He had more harsh words for Hamas, listing the cases in which civilians were murdered on Oct. 7, including over 300 people at the Nova music festival: “They attacked everyone, even people dancing under the trees,” he said.

“I got permission to visit [Alkadi] inside [the hospital], I went in for two or three minutes. He’s fine, he’s healthy, he looks fine. A little pale. Thin compared to Oct. 7,” he said, according to Ynet. “Hope he will be released to the family tomorrow. He mentioned that he was in the tunnel for a long time, cut off from the outside world, was not connected to the Israeli media and did not know what was happening around him. I hope that all the families who have abductees in Gaza will feel what we felt on this day.”

Alkadi’s brother Juma’a told CNN that “he was dead and is now brought back to life,” and that “it was all tears. Tears of joy. What matters is that we saw him.”

Juma’a said that Alkadi was shot in the leg during the Hamas-led attack of Oct. 7, and the wound was poorly treated during captivity. Alkadi had been operated on without anesthesia, “As one does with animals.”

Israel’s army rescued a Muslim Israeli from Hamas’ terror dungeons.

In today’s Daily Briefing, @rutilande discusses the Muslims kidnapped – and murdered by Hamas. pic.twitter.com/uVXtIHtFEn

— Israeli Citizen Spox (@IsrCitizenSpox) August 28, 2024

Rescued captive Farhan al-Qadi on Wednesday urged an end to the hostages’ ordeal Wednesday, amid celebrations as he returned to his home in the southern Bedouin village of Khirbet Karkur.

Earlier in the day, staffers cheered as al-Qadi was discharged from Beersheba’s Soroka Hospital, from which he had asked to be released so he could visit his ailing 90-year-old mother. Later, after he rode into Khirbet Karkur in a convoy of happily honking cars, al-Qadi met with elated crowds in a tent set up for the occasion.

Looking pale and taking in the spotlight, the 52-year-old told the gathered press that he feels “100 percent,” while urging the government to reach a deal to bring home all the hostages.

“The place I was in — I wouldn’t wish on anybody. So do everything — demonstrations, everything — to get the people home,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if they are Arab or Jewish, all have a family waiting for them. They also want to feel the joy.”

“I hope, I pray for an end to this,” he added, saying he had delivered the same message in a phone call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shortly after returning to Israel.

Al-Qadi was rescued Tuesday as troops combed a tunnel network in southern Gaza in search of hostages, the IDF said. The father of 11 was abducted on October 7 from Kibbutz Magen, near the Gaza border, where he worked as a security guard at a packaging plant.

His brother Jamal was quoted Wednesday by Channel 12 news as saying that the terrorists who kidnapped al-Qadi shot him in the leg when he refused to tell them where there were Jews.

Rescued hostage Farhan al-Qadi: “I don’t feel it’s right for me to be happy. I don’t feel it’s right for my family and for me to be happy. There are people held, here and there. Every one of them — no matter if they are Arabs or Jews — has a family that is waiting for him.”

— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) August 28, 2024

WATCH: Farhan Al-Qadi, who was held hostage by Hamas terrorists in Gaza for 326 days and was rescued yesterday in a heroic IDF operation, was discharged from the hospital while receiving a standing ovation. pic.twitter.com/2GsiAvCe8q

— StandWithUs (@StandWithUs) August 28, 2024

Celebrations have started for the welcoming home of Israeil Bedouin Arab, Qaid Farhan Alkadi, in his home town after he was rescued from Gaza pic.twitter.com/fOm5YkOkA6

— Documenting Israel (@DocumentIsrael) August 27, 2024

Qaid Farhan al-Qadi is celebrating his Rescue yesterday from Captivity in the Southern Gaza, with Friends and Family. pic.twitter.com/FPuGDfXuf5

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) August 28, 2024

Hamas is claiming that they themselves freed Qaid from captivity and that the IDF didnt rescue him... Don't be stupid, don't believe them! pic.twitter.com/9FiptfsAuS

— יוסף חדאד - Yoseph Haddad (@YosephHaddad) August 27, 2024

This is a message to the people who believe that ”Israel hates Arabs and Muslims”.

Yesterday, Israel rescued an Arab Muslim who was held hostage by Arab Islamist extremists. 52-year-old Qaid Farhan AlKadi was kidnapped on October 7 by Hamas who kept him in captivity for 326… pic.twitter.com/VBNhNkdIcS

— Luai Ahmed (@JustLuai) August 28, 2024

Watch CNN spin the heroic rescue of Israeli-Bedouin hostage Qaid Farhan al-Qadi into an anti-Israel attack in less than FIVE MINUTES.

🎥 jdr.podcast on IG pic.twitter.com/qTXFWgXUF9

— The Persian Jewess (@persianjewess) August 27, 2024

Media Report 2024/08/27 pic.twitter.com/fk2usU4Kcf

— The Daily Brine (@DailyBrine_) August 27, 2024

The United Nations Security Council omitted any mention of Hezbollah as it extended the annual mandate of its peacekeeping force along Israel’s northern border, who are tasked with monitoring compliance with Resolution 1701.

That text bans armed non-state actors such as Hezbollah from operating along Israel's border south of the Litani River.

“It is wrong that this council has ye tot condemn Hezbollah” and “we regret that due to a small minority of council members blocked the council from doing so in this mandate renewal,” US Deputy Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood told the UNSC as it met in New York.

Member states approved the resolution, which was a significantly watered-down version of the document approved last year.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which was established in 1979, has been tasked with monitoring violations of the ceasefire that ended the Second Lebanon War in 2006, which was codified under UN Resolution 1701.

Israel has taken the UN to task in past years for not empowering UNIFIL to fully monitor the situation in southern Lebanon to help ensure that the Iranian proxy group could not be able to operate there.

Lebanon, in turn, has been frustrated by Israeli military actions against terror groups in its territory, claiming that this is a violation of its sovereignty.

This year’s vote, however, took place against the back-drop of a ten-month contained cross-border war between the IDF-Hezbollah, that has prevented over 60,000 Israelis from living in their border communities and has also caused thousands of Lebanese civilians to flee their border area with Israel. That war has run concurrently with the Gaza war. Calling out Hezbollah

“Hezbollah's violent attacks put Israeli and Lebanese civilians at risk. They jeopardize Lebanon's stability and sovereignty. Lebanon should not be a haven for terrorist organizations or a launch pad for attacks against Israel.

“There is no dispute that Iran in clear violation of the arms embargo in Resolution 1701 provides Hezbollah with the majority of the rockets, missiles, and drones that are fired at Israel.

“Let's be clear, Israel has a right to defend itself against Hezbollah's attacks. No member of this council facing a brutal terrorist organization on its border would tolerate daily attacks and displacement of tens of thousands of its own people,” Wood said.

He stressed that to be effective UNFIL’s mandate had to be strengthened and the area south of the Litani River had to be freed of armed non-state actors.

🚨 WATCH: Danny Danon shows PROOF in a conference before UN Council, Hezbollah are firing rockets next to UNIFIL sites.

He said earlier in a statement today that if Lebanese Government do not remove Hezbollah from the border then 𝗜𝘀𝗿𝗮𝗲𝗹 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹

Hezbollah’s continued use… pic.twitter.com/iDpUNxMQiN

— Kosher🎗🧡 (@K0sher_C0ckney) August 28, 2024

The Lebanese terrorist movement Hezbollah fired a drone at Israel on Sunday that contained technology from the German company 3W-International, according to video footage obtained of the fired aerial device that landed near Kibbutz Dan.

"Before Hezbollah’s reprisal against Israel this weekend, 3W was already on notice that its parts have wound up in drones from Iran’s proxy and partner network," Jason Brodsky, the policy director for the US-based think tank United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), told i24NEWS. "Downed Houthi drones have also featured 3W parts. There needs to be better due diligence and export restrictions on these parts coming from Europe. Knowing your customer’s customer is absolutely vital."

When approached for comment by i24NEWS, Kai Weinhold, the managing director for the firm 3W Professional GmbH, said that the company "did not sell any motors or technology to Iran or Hezbollah," but that "the engine shown in the pictures looks like an engine manufactured by 3W Professional GmbH. Without knowing the serial number of the engine, I can't say this with absolute certainty."

"It is terrible that our engines appear to be being used by terrorist organizations for such acts," he added. "Unfortunately, we cannot control the resale of our products and cannot protect ourselves against them being resold for terrorist and criminal purposes. Our engines pose no danger unless they are abused to do such terrible things."

No comment
However, UANI put 3W on notice in 2020 about the engineering firm's alleged unsavory business practices. In a letter sent to Ute Weinhold, the Managing Director of 3W-Modellmotoren Weinhold GmbH, in February 2020, UANI asked for detailed information about 3W’s "sale of products which are reportedly being used by terrorist proxies of the Islamic Republic of Iran." Weinhold refused to respond at the time.

When confronted by i24NEWS about the UANI letter, Kai Weinhold said, "I have only been working for the company since October 2020. So I don't know if the UANI email you sent me today was received in February 2020. For the same reason, I don't know if this email was replied to. We comply with all export laws and regulations."

"We cannot control resale," he added. "This means we cannot prevent resale for the purposes of misuse by terrorist organizations. That's why we've already called in the police. In the past, we have always provided the CAR with all the necessary information for clarification."

Lebanese and Arab media outlets report an alleged Israeli drone strike on a vehicle on the Beirut-Damascus highway, on the Syrian side of the border. pic.twitter.com/SCz7WPBexA

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) August 28, 2024

🔴DISMANTLED: 3km-long terrorist attack tunnel in Gaza.

During Operation “Protective Edge” in 2014, part of the tunnel route was destroyed. Over the years, Hamas has attempted to restore and to make the tunnel route operational. Today, our troops investigated and dismantled it. pic.twitter.com/kjEqedx0fn

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) August 28, 2024

Two Israel Defense Forces soldiers were killed in action in the Gaza Strip, the military announced on Wednesday.

One of the slain soldiers was named as Master Sgt. (res.) Yohay Hay Glam, 32, of the Jerusalem Brigade’s 6310th Battalion, from Netanya. He was killed on Wednesday morning while battling Hamas terrorists in central Gaza.

Earlier, the IDF announced that Staff Sgt. Amit Friedman, 19, was killed during fighting in southern Gaza. Friedman, who served with the Nahal Brigade’s 932nd Battalion, was from Or Yehuda in central Israel.

The death toll among Israeli troops since the start of the IDF ground incursion in Gaza on Oct. 27 now stands at 340, and at 704 on all fronts since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 massacre, according to official military data.

Additionally, Chief Inspector Arnon Zamora, a member of the Border Police’s Yamam National Counter-Terrorism Unit, was fatally wounded during a hostage-rescue mission in Gaza in June, and civilian defense contractor Liron Yitzhak was mortally wounded in May.

We are heartbroken to report on the death of an additional IDF soldier:
🕯️Master Sergeant (res.) Yohay Hay Glam (32)
Yohay was killed in Gaza during this current operation against Hamas terrorists. May his memory forever be a blessing. 🕯️ pic.twitter.com/78POCd5W8O

— StandWithUs (@StandWithUs) August 28, 2024

We are heartbroken to report on the death of an additional IDF soldier: 🕯️First Sergeant Amit Friedman (19). Amit was killed in Gaza during this current operation against Hamas terrorists. May his memory forever be a blessing. 🕯️ pic.twitter.com/0V701NUlvX

— StandWithUs (@StandWithUs) August 28, 2024

The Israel Defense Forces recovered the body of a soldier in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday who was killed fighting Hamas operatives during the terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, the military announced.

The soldier’s family has been notified and, at their request, his name is not yet being made public.

“The entire nation mourns the terrible loss … and I send our condolences from the bottom of our hearts to his family,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday night.

“I would like to thank the brave fighters and commanders of the IDF and Shin Bet [Israel Security Agency] for their important action. The State of Israel will continue to make every effort to return all our abductees, both alive and dead,” he added.

A total of 107 hostages remain in Hamas captivity in Gaza.

“I commend the IDF and ISA forces who conducted a bold operation to retrieve the body of a fallen soldier from Gaza, and brought him home for burial in Israel,” said Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday night. “This operation reflects our commitment to bringing all the hostages home.”

A fallen IDF soldier who was abducted on October 7 and held hostage in Gaza was rescued and brought back to Israel.

The soldier fell during the October 7 Massacre and his body was taken hostage into Gaza. His family has been notified. At the request of his family, his name will… pic.twitter.com/PJkhrV5Vi9

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) August 28, 2024

However, even as the IDF pushes forward in Gaza and grinds down Hamas, the IDF in the West Bank is resorting to drone strikes and sometimes raids into places like Nur al-Shams.

This is increasingly leading to a phenomenon of convergence between the West Bank and Gaza. The more the IDF succeeds in Gaza, the more it can be compared to the West Bank in terms of the success of defeating the terrorists’ abilities.

Still, the capabilities of terrorist groups in the West Bank are mounting. It is possible that at some point this convergence may occur and the trends may shift, such that the West Bank becomes the larger threat and Hamas in Gaza is mostly defeated.

What will happen if the West Bank becomes more like Gaza once was, and Gaza becomes more like the West Bank in terms of the security threat that it poses?

In other words, there may be a point where terror infrastructure increases in places like Jenin, Tulkarm, Kalkilya, Tubas, and other areas, and the groundwork is put in place for the terrorist groups to increase their strength and build up more capabilities. This is what Hamas did in Gaza prior to its takeover of it in 2007. It was able to do this slowly and achieve this through infiltrating areas such as the Philadelphi Corridor during the Second Intifada. The IDF’s current operations in Rafah, for example, are not the first time that Hamas has had to be cleared from this area. It has established arms factories and tunnels in the past as well.

Currently, the concern of convergence may just be a warning. The terrorist groups in the West Bank do have rifles, mostly smuggled M-4 and AR types, but they do not have a lot of other weapons.

Nevertheless, it is worth noting that Hamas has had a goal of using the October 7 massacre to increase its power in the region. It has done this in Lebanon and also in the West Bank. Behind the Hamas threat stands Iran and Iran’s other proxies, such as the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Countries such as Turkey also back Hamas, and Qatar hosts Hamas. This makes for a concerning mix of agendas and interests. As the IDF succeeds in Gaza, it is worth concentrating on the challenge in the West Bank that is embodied by the terrorist threats in places like Nur al-Shams.

For more than three years, we at @FDD have been warning about the growing danger of Iran-backed terrorist groups in the West Bank. I recently detailed the dangers of Iranian meddling in the West Bank and the branches of terrorist groups in the territory. https://t.co/tKtJZ7DHiVpic.twitter.com/DEWYEek8SW

— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) August 28, 2024

Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz on Wednesday called for “the temporary evacuation of Palestinian residents and whatever steps are required,” after the IDF overnight Tuesday launched a large-scale anti-terror operation in Judea and Samaria.

“This is a war in every respect and we must win it,” Katz tweeted.

“The IDF is working intensively starting tonight in the Jenin and Tulkarem refugee camps to thwart Islamic-Iranian terrorist infrastructures that have been established there,” he said.

Iran is working “to establish an eastern terrorist front” in Judea and Samaria, said Katz, following its proxy model in Lebanon with Hezbollah and the Gaza Strip with Hamas, by “financing and arming terrorists and smuggling advanced weapons from Jordan.”

He continued: “We must deal with the threat just as we deal with the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza.”

The Palestinian Health Ministry has reported at least 11 deaths so far in the IDF operation—six in Jenin and five in Tubas, a city northeast of Nablus (Shechem).

The Israel Defense Forces launched a large-scale counterterrorism operation in the Jenin and Tulkarem areas of northern Samaria overnight Tuesday, involving hundreds of troops and air support.

Nine Palestinians were killed, according to the IDF—three armed terrorists who posed a threat to security forces in Jenin in an aerial strike, two armed terrorists in clashes with Judea and Samaria Border Guard forces and another four in a drone strike in the Far’a camp in Tubas.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said that at least 11 Palestinians had been killed.

Israeli forces have also arrested several Palestinians during the operation, which is expected to last for several days. Weapons, ammunition and military equipment were also confiscated.

Israeli forces also “exposed and dismantled explosives that were planted under the roads” and which were intended to be used in attacks against IDF troops.

According to Palestinian reports, Israeli forces were surrounding the Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin, and forces were deployed at the entrances of other hospitals as well. The IDF denied Palestinian claims that troops had entered the facilities, stressing that the hospitals’ function had not been disrupted and it was still possible to enter and leave them.

Two brigade combat teams are taking part in the operation, with most of the forces being concentrated near Tulkarem, according to Ynet. In addition to the IDF, the Israel Security Agency and Israel Border Police are participating in the operation.

Five terrorists struck in Nur Shams ‘operations room’
The Israeli military revealed on Wednesday morning that five terrorists were killed on Monday in a joint IDF and Israel Security Agency operation near Nur Shams in northern Samaria.

One of the fatalities, Jibril Ghassan Ismail Jibril, was released from prison as part of the Israel-Hamas hostage deal reached in November. He was involved in terror activity in the areas of Tulkarem and Qalqilya, according to the military.

Mohanad Qarawi and Muhammad Yussef were involved in terrorist activity in Nur Shams, while Adnan Jaber was in involved in terrorist activity and manufactured explosives intended to harm security forces.

The structure targeted in the operation “was used by the terrorists to conduct terrorist activity and harm IDF soldiers operating in the area,” said the IDF, which published a video of the strike.

Terrorists in northern Samaria are planting landmines in civilian areas. We are currently operating to eliminate the threats that these explosives cause to Israelis and Palestinians alike. pic.twitter.com/SLUoWc6KwK

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) August 28, 2024

Endless IEDs on Palestinian roads. https://t.co/KIAP9f09xnpic.twitter.com/jygI90hXO8

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) August 28, 2024

The IDF releases footage of a drone strike in the West Bank's Far'a camp near Tubas this morning, which the military says killed four Palestinian gunmen who "endangered forces" carrying out a raid.

Meanwhile in Jenin, another drone strike killed three gunmen, and two other armed… pic.twitter.com/ibPuew6PBR

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) August 28, 2024

Update: https://t.co/kxpKLjO0LY

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) August 28, 2024

The IDF says it discovered an operations center and explosives laboratory in a Mosque in the Fara'a camp, located in the northern West Bank. pic.twitter.com/BJ1RDm2lwa

— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) August 28, 2024

Eliminated. https://t.co/tkALiUt7DDpic.twitter.com/PxTfArtRMA

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) August 28, 2024

The terrorist groups attacking Israel, particularly Hamas, are turning to the use of explosive devices and booby traps increasingly. This is true in Gaza and also in the West Bank.

On Sunday, the IDF said St.-Sgt.-Maj. (res.) Shlomo Yehonatan Hazut was killed in Gaza by an explosive device hidden on a road. The IDF had cleared the area, but the terrorists were still able to carry out the attack. This illustrates the growing threat of explosive devices and booby traps. These types of devices are called improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.

Hazut was “the seventh soldier to fall in Gaza in four days,” Ynet reported. “Four of the fatalities were killed when IEDs detonated.”

Hazut was in Battalion 9207 of the 16th Brigade.

The IDF said it had conducted the correct procedures in the area where the explosion occurred.

“An initial probe revealed that an infantry force was on the hunt for Hamas underground tunnels and infrastructure on a path that was cleared by heavy machines of the Engineering Corps,” it said. “An IED was likely missed and was detonated remotely by terrorists hiding in a tunnel.”

In another incident, St.-Sgt. Amit Tsadikov of Battalion 202 in the Paratroopers Brigade was also killed by an explosive device on Saturday.

On Friday, an explosive device was detonated near soldiers in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood near the Netzarim corridor. Two soldiers from the Jerusalem Brigade’s 6301st Battalion were killed and seven were wounded by an explosive device planted on the outside of a building they were searching. This area has been cleared numerous times in the past.

The use of IEDs in Gaza has been growing over the last few months. Hamas has reverted to this method, along with other terrorist groups in Gaza, as a way to fight the IDF without using armed fighters. This is because Hamas lacks the manpower it had last October. It is now using the terrain to its benefit. It knows the area, so it can quietly sneak into homes and areas and leave explosives behind. It has been using this method increasingly.

Terrorist groups are also increasing their use of explosives in the West Bank in areas such as Nur Shams, near Tulkarm, and Jenin and other areas. In addition, they may be seeking to expand the war into other areas of Israel.

Interesting photos purportedly out of the West Bank showing an Israeli military vehicle outfitted with a cellular jamming device. While I am not completely certain, it might be to thwart attempts to remotely detonate IEDs against troops. pic.twitter.com/FwQaiYep3N

— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) August 28, 2024

The real message of the below viral thread—for those who read between the lines—is Iran is being stripped of its stand-off proxy armies that it built to scare Israel and the West away from its nuclear program, a program that is at a very advanced stage.

This fact, along with… https://t.co/ycZso99V3Epic.twitter.com/a2SUFhFfnd

— Saul Sadka (@Saul_Sadka) August 27, 2024

A military leader who served on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group in conflicts against the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen stated that high command rejected requests for heavier attacks against the terrorists.

“There are definite strategies that were put forward,” Rear Adm. Marc Miguez told military veteran Ward Carroll in a YouTube interview released on Monday. “But our National Command Authority decided that those—I would call more aggressive postures and more aggressive strikes—was not something we wanted to challenge.”

Miguez noted the widespread knowledge of Iran’s support for the Houthis, saying “that is the calculus that’s handled at echelon zero, at the National Command Authority, with NSA and everybody else.”

According to Miguez, the carrier strike group attacked the Houthis seven times between October and June. “It’ll be up to our National Command Authority to probably be more aggressive with our strike groups and all of our assets, not just Navy,” he said.

middle east story not enough people are talking about: houthis blowing up greek tanker
leading to oil spill 3x (!) greater in volume than the exxon valdezpic.twitter.com/sgnozZUbI8

— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) August 28, 2024

Despite claims yesterday by the U.S. Department of Defense that the Greek-Flagged Oil Tanker, M/T Sounion and her 150,000 Tons of Crude Oil, had begun to Leak into the Southern Red Sea; the European Union’s Naval Mission in the Red Sea, also known as Operation Aspides, conducted… pic.twitter.com/2G5NJfxMT8

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) August 28, 2024

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, with the approval of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, has established a new role in the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) unit, which will be responsible for humanitarian activities in the Gaza Strip.

COGAT… pic.twitter.com/TDbe1gFDn9

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) August 28, 2024

Government officials warned President Joe Biden that his plan to build a humanitarian pier off the coast of Gaza would face major challenges, but Biden pushed the $230 million plan anyway, an internal report reveals.

Biden promised, during his March State of the Union address, to open a pier to deliver humanitarian aid to the two million-plus people in the war-torn Gaza Strip. At the time, "multiple USAID staff expressed concerns" that rough waves posed major challenges for the project, according to an inspector general report published Tuesday. Biden’s focus on the pier also undermined the agency’s advocacy for opening more on-land pathways for aid—which the report deemed "more efficient and proven."

Despite the agency’s objections, the White House pressured USAID to build the pier, which survived a mere 20 days. From the start, the operation was plagued by rough weather and security problems that significantly limited the amount of aid flowing into Gaza. Humanitarian aid groups criticized the project, calling it ineffective and wasteful.

When Biden first presented his "maritime corridor" idea, USAID officials said that the pier system "was not an option USAID would typically recommend in humanitarian response operations," the report noted. Under pressure from the White House, however, the organization began looking for ways to use it "in a way that would maintain a separation between the military and humanitarian actors" in Gaza, the report said.

The inspector general's report cited numerous "external factors"—including rough seas, inclement weather, and the Pentagon’s security requirements—that it said hindered the agency’s effort to distribute supplies delivered via the pier, the Washington Post reported.

Although USAID typically leads the U.S. government's humanitarian assistance overseas, the report found that the agency had "limited control" over various aspects of the Gaza pier, such as where it would be located and who would provide security.

The pier was permanently shut down last month after only three weeks of operation. The corridor helped the U.S. military deliver just 137 trucks of aid into the region, but several of the trucks never reached the civilian population.

Right above the big "Weather, Security, and Acces" header pic.twitter.com/cy5FCcwgHi

— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) August 28, 2024

Biden-Harris activists airdropped this idiocy into the SOTU as a partisan effort to appeal to Michigan voters. They had Biden say it was meant to address a famine in Gaza that was a manufactured anti-Israel comms narrative. It cost hundreds of millions of dollars. It got US… pic.twitter.com/D5G7uPZNTP

— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) August 28, 2024

Neighborhood Bully, 2024
🔈sound on

Info by @UNWatch@HonestReporting& AI shots by Luma, song by @bobdylan HT @nickgillespiepic.twitter.com/r0I54C4BJr

— Sarah Rose Siskind (@srsiskind) August 28, 2024

A walk along Tel Aviv’s bustling Kaplan Street means passing a lengthy display of posters of hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7.

Between all of the tragically familiar photos on the side of the Sarona shopping and cafe area is a small navy blue sign with a red flower and white lettering stating: Cafe Otef – Netiv Ha’asara.

The red flower is an anemone, a symbol of the Gaza border area that even hosted an annual festival in its honor. Otef — the envelope — is a term for the western Negev, the part of Israel that envelops Gaza. Netiv Ha’asara is the name of the only moshav, as opposed to kibbutzim, out of the seven communities along the Gaza border where Hamas massacred the most Israelis on Oct. 7. The Gazan terrorists murdered 20 residents of Netiv Ha’asara, the last of whose remains were found this month.

Cafe Otef – Netiv Ha’asara is a small, unassuming coffee and gift shop in one of Sarona’s historic Templar buildings, where young residents of the moshav, who have been evacuated from their homes since Oct. 7, have found jobs, and residents of all ages have found a place to gather once again as a community.

Netiv Ha’asara has been evacuated before. The moshav was originally established in the Yamit region in the Sinai Desert in 1973, and demolished when Israel and Egypt made peace. Seventy families in the original community moved to its current location, which, after Israel’s disengagement from Gaza in 2005, became the closest Israeli town to Gaza, only a quarter-mile from the city of Bet Lahia.

“Gaza was my backyard,” Yoni Shaked, a strategic adviser who grew up in Netiv Ha’asara and is working as the partner relationship manager for the moshav’s foundation, told Jewish Insider.

But last year, when Netiv Ha’asara’s 1,080 residents were evacuated after Oct. 7, it was to hotels. Unlike the kibbutzim in the western Negev, whose residents voted and made decisions for the whole community, moshavniks, like residents of Israeli cities near Gaza, don’t have that level of central decision-making and were not kept in one place. Most were sent to one of two hotels — one in Tel Aviv and the other outside Jerusalem, Shaked said, but about 40% chose not to go where the government put them.

Meanwhile, Tamir Barelko, the founder of the Arcaffe coffee shop chain, found a way to use his skills to help evacuees from the western Negev.

“The idea for ‘Cafe Otef’ was born out of a basic need we identified among the displaced communities, which is the need to remain a united community while starting to build a new routine in their new, temporary, or permanent homes,” Barelko said when the cafe opened in May. “Unlike any other employment place, the advantages and capabilities of a coffee house are the connection between employing the displaced individuals and creating a meeting place for them among themselves.”

Hostage families led a convoy of cars on Wednesday, driving from Tel Aviv’s hostage square towards the Gaza border. The convoy stopped at various locations in the South and will gather near Israel’s border with Gaza Thursday to call out to their loved ones, using huge speakers, the Hostage Families Forum said.

A line of cars snaked down the road in Tel Aviv just before the convoy got under way. Some of the cars used trailers to tow the burned husks of vehicles destroyed in the October 7 attack. Most were covered in yellow flags and decals calling to “seal the deal.”

Over 300 cars and thousands of peoplewere included in the convoy, and Israelis waited to show their support at various locations around the country, according to the forum.

“The only thing preventing a [hostage] deal is turning the Philadelphi Corridor into the be-all and end-all,” said Hagit Chen, mother of Itay Chen, speaking at the launch of the convoy. Itay was killed on October 7, and his body is still held in Hamas captivity.

“My Itay, I’m sorry. Sorry that in the eyes of the abandoning Israeli government, you are not enough, because the Philadelphi Corridor is more important to them than you and 107 other hostages.”

“The prime minister has a majority for a deal in the government; he has a majority in the Knesset, and he has a political safety net for a deal,” she said, adding that the only thing stopping him from making a deal is the Philadelphi Corridor, which he has made to be all-important.

“For 18 years, [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu chose, in all previous missions, not to go into the Philadelphi Corridor, and for seven months of fighting, the IDF was not there,” she concluded.

“What will be written in the pages of history about this damn war is not whether we conquered the Philadelphi Corridor or how many terrorists we killed, but if we took care of our hostages and brought them home,” said Shira Albag, mother of Liri Albag, who was taken from the Nahal Oz base on October 7.

We’re looking forward to the day when we can start counting the number of days since Hersh and all the hostages have been safely returned to their loved ones. #Bring_Hersh_Home#BringThemAllHomeNOWpic.twitter.com/mcKgzhxlOa

— Bring Hersh Home (@BringHershHome) August 27, 2024

Commander Itzik Buzukashvili fell in battle on October 7th while bravely fighting Hamas. In his final hours, he fought alongside his daughter.

Today, his daughter Liel receives her father’s personal weapon.

“You continue your father’s legacy. He is watching over you from above" pic.twitter.com/412q2jXXeF

— Vivid.🇮🇱 (@VividProwess) August 28, 2024

I shared a video that hit 21.6 million views with Noa Argamani dancing.

Now it's censored. Sensitive content.

Her happiness triggered them. They mass reported it. A Jew celebrating her freedom. Censored.@elonmusk, you said to yell on 𝕏 with any free speech issues. Well...👇 pic.twitter.com/vmA1AlmbWs

— dahlia kurtz ✡︎ דליה קורץ (@DahliaKurtz) August 27, 2024

Author Douglas Murray says there are people who continue to “lie about Israel” being an apartheid state.

Mr Murray told Sky News host Rita Panahi that there are people pretending Israel’s society is something that it “just isn’t”.

“Israel is a society where Muslims, Jews, Christians and others all have equal rights.

“And Hamas of course wants to take away every one of those rights and has done everything it can to do so.”

The news cycle in Israel changes every few hours and this week was no different! On today’s show, we’ll discuss yesterday’s hostage rescue and also try to understand how Israel will bring safety to its northern residents. Was Israel’s “preemptive” action on Sunday enough or will Hezbollah need to be pushed back with ground forces?

Chapters
0:00 Hostage freed
5:00 Hezbollah’s plans foiled
11:00 Was it enough?
17:00 Moving Hezbollah back
26:00 Judea & Samaria (“West Bank”)

First off, thank you for being Substack subscribers. YouTube demonetized this video. And I appreciate all of you who give me $5 every month.

Note that the videos showing air strikes were on HAMAS not Hezbollah. I needed something illustrative for the video and grabbed the wrong footage. My bad.

Israel has spent the past 10 months mapping out every inch of southern Lebanon finding every base, every tunnel, every supply depot.

Striking Hezbollah is a very low-risk proposition compared to striking targets in Gaza or Iran.

Every single Gaza strike brought the possibility of mass casualties, but in Gaza, this was a feature, not a bug for HAMAS. HAMAS needs civilian casualties because they cannot win a fight against Israel. The world must be so horrified that they end the conflict with a cease-fire and a cease-fire means a HAMAS win.

However, civilians in southern Lebanon can flee north, which is something that cannot be done by residents of Gaza. This makes Hezbollah a much more attractive target and reduces the amount of propaganda that can be released by Hezbollah.

Hezbollah is in a bad situation and they are starting to realize that Iran is not coming to help them.

Iran views its proxies the same way Bane viewed his henchmen in The Dark Knight Rises - useful, but ultimately expendable. They are speed bumps on the road to attacking Iran.

Iran’s goal here is to hold off any attack until the next presidential election when they will have some idea of what the next administration might be like.

The losers, as always are the civilians caught in the middle.

Why Striking Lebanon is Different than Gaza by Ryan McBeth

Iran is basically Bane from The Dark Knight Rises and they don't care about their henchmen.

Read on Substack

“This demonstrates blatant disregard for the historic status quo with respect to the holy sites in Jerusalem,”

“The ongoing reckless statements and actions of this minister only sow chaos and exacerbate tensions”

These were statements from State Department Spokesperson, Matthew Miller? What could have possibly happened in Israel to make the US state department say something like this?

ASPI Executive Director Justin Bassi says refugees showing any support for Hamas "rhetorical or otherwise" should not be provided visas to Australia.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton recently faced backlash after he called for an outright ban of granting visas to Palestinians coming to Australia from the war-torn enclave amid national security concerns.

Speaking to Sky News Australia, Mr Bassi discussed the issue.

"Importantly though, and the point that I've made previously, is that any support for Hamas, rhetorical or otherwise, has to be completely unacceptable," Mr Bassi said.

"But it's not just an ASIO responsibility, anyone who expresses any type of support for a terrorist organisation should not be provided a visa – but that's the responsibility of a whole range of other agencies as well.

"The absolute principle should be the government should be making crystal clear that any support for Hamas – it doesn't take violent support, it doesn't take incitement of violence – any support for Hamas rules you out of coming to Australia."

France's Chief Rabbi has been reported to state prosecutors for 'apologising for war crimes' after he said the Israeli military needed to 'finish the job' in Gaza.

Haim Korsia, 60, caused outrage on Monday by openly supporting Israel's actions against Hamas in Gaza - a war which has seen tens of thousands of Palestinians die, many of them children.

He said live on a news channel: 'I have absolutely no reason to be ashamed of what Israel is doing in the way it conducts the fighting' and that 'I am not uncomfortable with a policy that consists of defending its nationals.'

Rabbi Korsia added: 'Everybody would be very happy if Israel finished the job, and we could finally build peace in the Middle East without people who only want one thing all the time – the destruction of Israel.'

Now today, French MP Aymeric Caron confirmed he had filed a complaint to Paris prosecutors for comments he claimed were 'an apology for war crimes'.

In France this offence can be punished with up to five years in prison and a fine equivalent to £40,000.

Mr Caron said: 'On the basis of Article 40 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, I have contacted the Paris Public Prosecutor to report these comments by the Chief Rabbi of France publicly apologising for war crimes in Gaza.'

In turn, prosecutors said they were examining the evidence, including video images, before proceeding.

There was no initial comment about the complaint from Rabbi Korsia, who is a former chaplain to the French Army.

Rabbi Korsia made his comments on the BFM news channel on Monday, saying that all Palestinians were victims 'of an act of war that is the responsibility of Hamas' who 'refuse all proposals to stop the fighting.'

When asked if he was worried about the ferocity of the Israeli attacks on Gaza, he replied: 'I am never uncomfortable with a policy that consists of defending [Israeli] citizens.'

Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi, who faced heavy criticism over her refusal to condemn Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, will join a probe into anti-Semitism.

The NSW Senator, who also holds the Greens' tertiary education and anti-racism portfolios, has been placed on a senate committee into anti-Semitism at Australian universities.

The inquiry follows complaints by a number of students and staff members from different institutions who believe anti-Jewish discourse has been normalised on campus, along with ongoing pro-Palestine protests.

More than 170 submissions by students and staff have been uploaded to the committee's website, detailing experiences with discrimination or blatant racial hate.

During a debate to refer the bill to the committee, Ms Faruqi said the Coalition was 'trying to weaponise anti-Semitism, to attack those who are standing up to Israel's genocide in Gaza'.

In July, she has repeatedly refused to call for Hamas to be axed and told the ABC's Insiders program the people of Palestine should decide whether to dismantle it.

She also minimised pro-Palestine graffiti on the Australian War Memorial as 'paint on a building'.

Last year, she posted a photo on Instagram of herself standing with student protesters holding up pro-Palestine signs outside Town Hall in Sydney, including one that said 'keep the world clean' - with an image of an Israeli flag going in the bin.

Liberal MP Julian Leeser, who originally called for the probe in May, has now asked why Ms Faruqi felt the need to insert herself into the inquiry.

AJA ON TV: Rita Panahi Sky News with Dr David Adler on Greens Mehreen Faruqi

‘Absurd, bizarre appointment’: Greens Deputy Leader joins antisemitism probe

Australian Jewish Association President Dr David Adler discusses the appointment of Greens Deputy Leader Mehreen Faruqi to… pic.twitter.com/1YKivzM4Sz

— Australian Jewish Association (@AustralianJA) August 28, 2024

The NSW Greens have called for students to be allowed to wear Palestinian keffiyehs and flags to school in an extraordinary request the state’s education department agreed to consider.

The demand came as Sky News obtained exclusive footage of anti-Semitic incidents in Sydney public schools the NSW deputy premier described as “appalling.”

NSW Greens MLC Abigail Boyd told a Budget Estimates hearing on Tuesday she had heard from “many students” who wanted to express their support for Palestine publicly.

"Palestinian students have not been allowed to wear their keffiyeh at schools, they have not been able to wear the Palestinian flag on their bags,” Ms Boyd said.

“When they have been sat up all night watching the conflict and grieving for their family and friends... when they go to school, they're not allowed to talk about the fact that they’re Palestinian.

“We’re not neutral on murder, we’re not neutral on most crimes, why would we be neutral on war?”

NSW Education Department secretary Murat Dizdar said it could be time to review a resource issued to schools in November, instructing them to be “neutral” on the Middle East conflict.

Deputy premier and education minister Prue Car told the hearing her priority was “trying to protect the wellbeing of our staff and students.”

The NSW Opposition also questioned the deputy premier about a fresh anti-Semitic scandal unfolding at two schools on Sydney’s upper north shore.

In footage obtained by Sky News, a swastika and the words “kill the Jews” in German are seen scrawled on boys’ toilets at Lindfield Learning Village, while another swastika is carved into a tree.

Screenshots supplied to the network also show a group chat where a student says he’s dressing as “Hitler” for Halloween and a photograph of a swastika made out of coloured pins adorning what appears to be a classroom wall.

At St Ives High School, a screenshot provided to Sky News shows a photo understood to be of a Jewish student, with the words “gas inhaler” written on it, shared to a group chat.

CALENDAR TO INSPIRE TERRORISTS

Found in Gaza. This culture and ideology is dominant through Gaza.

No higher risk place on the planet from which to import people to Australia. pic.twitter.com/kj2GzElEhc

— Australian Jewish Association (@AustralianJA) August 27, 2024

🚨JUST IN: Vile antisemite Bassem Youssef reactivated his X account, offers clarification. The Jew-hater says that antisemitism has been taking a toll on his health as well as on the safety of his family. He already cancelled many of his upcoming shows. https://t.co/jtTjQVbrjF

— Awesome Jew (@Jewsarethegoat) August 27, 2024

Here's @RashidaTlaib - a member of Congress - engaging in some first-rate gaslighting.

Fact: A simple look at modern history will show you how many times Israel offered the Palestinians a state and were refused. Israel has no interest in directing the lives of the Palestinian… https://t.co/oT0ucAHG8v

— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) August 28, 2024

If by “Liberation” you mean
“From the River to the Sea…blah blah blah” it ain’t happening,it’s never happening & it never was happening https://t.co/RJOmRuBTSmpic.twitter.com/KewHppT6M6

— MichaelRapaport (@MichaelRapaport) August 28, 2024

Israel Police issued an order banning the screening of a controversial Palestinian film in Jaffa’s Al Saraya Theater on Wednesday, saying it amounted to incitement according to Channel 12 News.

The theater condemned the move to ban “Jenin, Jenin 2,” a sequel to the controversial and also-banned 2002 film, saying it was a violation of their freedom of expression.

The new film is about a 48-hour IDF incursion into Jenin last July in which hundreds of terror suspects were arrested and 13 were killed.

The widely discredited first film falsely alleged that the Israel Defense Forces massacred civilians in the West Bank city of Jenin during the Operation Defensive Shield military campaign at the height of the Second Intifada.

Mohammad Bakri, who directed the sequel as well, told Channel 12 News on Sunday that the new film features testimonies from people who were in Jenin during last year’s operation and includes some interviewees from the first film.

“It also talks about what I went through, the persecution and the ban on screening ‘Jenin Jenin,'” he said.

Police interrogated the manager of the Al Saraya theater, Mahmoud Abu Arisha, on Tuesday, according to Channel 12, and he was released with a warning and an order not to screen the movie on Wednesday.

The theater said in a statement on Wednesday that the police were banning the screening based on the High Court’s ruling on the previous film.

It's nice that anti-Zionists still present Jenin 2002 as a "brutal criminal massacre" when these are the supposed victims: https://t.co/RIMgdZtfzbpic.twitter.com/CMi28bwcz5

— Adin - עדין (@AdinHaykin1) August 28, 2024

There is also an epidemic of Palestinian diaspora elites insisting to the world that Palestinians have done no wrong, have a perfect strategy that only ever fails because of the unique nefariousness of Jews (sorry, Zionists), and that Israel can still be dismantled if only… https://t.co/YfRLm3A8PC

— Haviv Rettig Gur (@havivrettiggur) August 28, 2024

Right, because it isn’t Judaism’s holiest place, because Judaism isn’t a thing. All hail the one true faith.

New rule: Religions with over a billion adherents gained by centuries of violent conquest and missionizing don’t get to call Jews imperialist for clinging to their most… https://t.co/pbXylOQgb5

— Haviv Rettig Gur (@havivrettiggur) August 28, 2024

Jewish historical presence in Israel: Who cares, “dinosaur cemetery,” “Jurassic era loss.”

But also Canada is stolen land and must be given back to the Indigenous.

There’s always a tweet for these hypocrites pic.twitter.com/2kxhXPfIWp

— Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@DrewPavlou) August 28, 2024

A United Airlines flight attendant was spotted wearing a Palestinian flag pin on a domestic flight — riling pro-Israel advocates even as the airline stood by its uniform policy.

Jewish civil rights group StopAntisemitism blasted United for allowing staffers for what they viewed as a divisive political statement after an outraged passenger notified the group of the staffer, who wore the pin and a keffiyeah around her neck during a Tuesday flight from Chicago’s O’Hare Airport to Newark Airport.

“StopAntisemitism is alarmed by the rising trend of US airline employees displaying Palestinian flags and keffiyehs while on duty,” StopAntisemitism founder Liora Rez said. “There are no flights to Palestine.

“Political stances belong off the clock,” Rez said. “Airlines must ensure that passengers aren’t confronted with divisive symbols in what should be a neutral space.”

The group is calling on airlines to prohibit such symbols — but United isn’t budging on its policy to allow flight staff to wear Palestinian or other flag pins “that represent their pride.”

“Our uniform policy has long included an option for flight attendants to wear flag pins to designate specific language skills so that our customers who are more comfortable in a language other than English can know who on our crew speaks their preferred language,” the airline said in a statement.

“We also allow flight attendants to wear flag pins that represent their pride in a place to which they may have a special connection,” the statement added.

The headquarters of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in Washington, DC, were vandalized on Sunday, according to AIPAC and Palestine Action US.

An AIPAC spokesperson confirmed on Tuesday that the building was vandalized, but stressed that the committee would “not be deterred by the illegal actions of these extremists in our efforts to strengthen the US-Israel relationship.”

The Metropolitan Police Department (MPDC) said in a Monday statement that it was seeking two suspects in the damaging and spray painting of “offensive language” in the block of AIPAC’s building. The MPDC said that it was investigating the incident as political and hate- or bias-motivated.

The American branch of the vandalism activism organization Palestine Action claimed that they had received a video and statement from activists who claimed to have mixed dog feces and red paint to smear on the building. Messages displayed on the building included “f**k Israel” and the red inverted triangle terrorist symbol.

This is Union Station in Toronto, Canada.

There is an overclass emerging across the West which is allowed to disrupt normal life and harass citizens over a conflict thousands of miles away.

Nobody even attempts to stop them.

📽️@neveragainlive1pic.twitter.com/BWMqBL2bOQ

— 𝗡𝗶𝗼𝗵 𝗕𝗲𝗿𝗴 ♛ ✡︎ (@NiohBerg) August 28, 2024

Are far-left protesters proud to be American?@juliatheintern tries to find out. pic.twitter.com/NVWgXFmtFm

— The Free Press (@TheFP) August 27, 2024

Zionist counter protestors at the DNC confronted Hamas-supporters with posters of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor who resisted Nazi rule and tried to assassinate Hitler 3 times. This is so fitting. pic.twitter.com/WxBCsGIass

— Cam Higby 🇺🇸 (@camhigby) August 26, 2024

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

The plot of the movie was rather straightforward. A clown is arrested by the Nazis for making fun of Adolf Hitler. He’s sent to a concentration camp where he is required to lead children to the gas chambers.

We may still see the script filmed in some format: Producer Kia Jam says he has acquired rights to the original, pre-Lewis screenplay. But Lewis is the real draw: the legendary Jewish funnyman directing a Holocaust drama about a clown, combined with the fact that it was filmed and then buried, is the reason for the almost mythical stature of The Day the Clown Cried.

“The original story was a tale of horror, conceit, and finally, enlightenment and self-sacrifice,” script co-writer Charles Denton told JTA. Lewis apparently renamed the clown Helmut Doork. “Jerry had turned it into a sentimental, Chaplinesque representation of his own confused sense of himself, his art, his charity work, and his persecution at the hands of critics.”

According to Denton and his co-writer Joan O’Brien, the decision to keep it buried isn’t actually Lewis’s. By the time he shot the film, it’s not clear his producer still had rights to the script. Plus, O’Brien and Denton “were so horrified by the footage Lewis showed them that they refused to ever grant him, or any entities associated with him, the right to release it — a provision that still holds true today, despite all three parties having died.”

Which means the Library of Congress has limits on what it can release to the public. It does not have the full movie and it will not hold screenings or public exhibitions of what it does have. The materials Lewis gave the library can be viewed with permission by researchers.

The movie’s apparent terribleness is also part of the draw. Holocaust movies are about as rare as Abe Lincoln biographies: Though they can be very different from each other, the genre itself is always producing something. Even oddball takes on it break through. Just consider Quentin Tarantino’s vengeful revisionist bloodbath Inglourious Basterds (2009) and Taika Waititi’s satirical farce JoJo Rabbit (2019).

But a secret flop from a Jewish comedy megastar? There’s a reason it’s among the most famous movies never made. (Or, in this case, never released.) There’s been a ton of theorizing about what actually went wrong, but the writer Devorah Baum probably got it right when she told the BBC that Lewis may have just looked at the raw film he shot and thought, “actually, this wasn’t such a great idea.”

Sunday marked the 200th anniversary of the unveiling of Eugène Delacroix’s Scenes from the Massacres at Chios, a fourteen-by-twelve-foot oil painting now housed in the Louvre. To Martin Kramer, this painting, with its images of huddled survivors and scattered corpses, “cannot but evoke the primal brutality of October 7.” He explains its historical background:
In 1822, the prosperous Ottoman-ruled island of Chios, in the Aegean Sea, was seized by Greek insurgents. The Ottomans recaptured the Greek-populated island with a ferocity that shocked Europe. Estimates vary, but the Ottomans massacred, enslaved, and starved as many as 100,000 Greek Christians, leaving the island depopulated. Graphic accounts of savage torture spread across the continent, fueling the philhellene movement with rage and resolve. In composing his painting, Delacroix relied on such reports, as well as conversations with a French eyewitness.

In Kramer’s view, the connection to the depredations of Hamas is more than just visual:
The foremost French specialist on Islam and politics, Gilles Kepel, in his new book Holocaustes: Israël, Gaza et la guerre contre l’Occident, has presented October 7 through the lens of its perpetrators, as a ghazwa (razzia in European parlance): a raid deliberately intended to subjugate and dehumanize a non-Muslim adversary. The prophet Mohammad conducted such a raid against the Jewish tribes of the Khaybar oasis in Arabia in the year 628.

The line that connects the years 628 and 2023 (with 1824 along the way) is one of traditionally Muslim and now Islamist supremacism. It not only promises victory but seeks to inscribe it upon the bodies of the vanquished.

In 2018 I claimed that France is the most “dangerous European country for Jews,” noting that antisemitic attacks had increased that year by 74 percent on 2017. I returned to the theme in January 2020 in an article entitled “How long until there are no Jews left in France.”

Since Hamas unleashed it barbarous attack on Israel ten months ago, antisemitic acts have rocketed by 200 percent, according to figures announced this week by Gérald Darmanin, the interior minister. Included in the figures are two attempts to burn down synagogues.

The first was in May when police shot dead an Algerian man as he attempted to set fire to a synagogue in Rouen. The second happened on Saturday when a man wearing a keffiyeh and a Palestinian flag carried out a similar act in a suburb of Montpellier, igniting the building and blowing up two cars on the street outside.

There was the customary condemnation from all political parties, including President Emmanuel Macron and the man who is still filling in as prime minister, Gabriel Attal.

Their words did not go down well with many of the country’s Jewish community. Chief Rabbi Haïm Korsia bemoaned “tears that look more like crocodile tears than tears of compassion.”

He accused Jean-Luc Melenchon’s far-left La France Insoumise of fanning the flames of antisemitism, as did Simone Rodan Benzaquen, director of the American Jewish Committee in France and Europe. “I consider today that La France Insoumise [LFI] has structurally become an antisemitic party,” she said.

Similar accusations were leveled at the party in June by Serge Klarsfeld, France’s most venerable Nazi hunter, who has dedicated his life to bringing to justice those responsible for the Holocaust.

A rising star in La France Insoumise is Rima Hassan. “Outside Western hegemonic thinking, no one considers October 7 an act of terrorism,” she said recently, not long after allegedly attending a rally in Jordan which paid tribute to Ismail Haniyeh, the political chief of Hamas assassinated last month in Tehran.

Asked who he would vote for if he had to choose between Melenchon and Marine Le Pen, Klarsfeld said the latter because in his opinion she has purged her party of her father’s antisemitism.

Days after that interview, Macron and his government were given a similar choice before the second lround of the parliamentary election. In their case, however, they had a third option: to remain neutral. Instead, the government sided with LFI and the left, telling voters it was their “moral duty” to prevent Le Pen’s party coming to power. Their alliance stretched to grubby agreements in which candidates dropped out in close contests to boost their chances of defeating the Rassemblement National. Gérald Darmanin, for instance, might have lost his seat to the Rassemblement National had not the LFI candidate stood down.

No wonder French Jews are frightened about the future. Do they even have a future in France given that a large swath of the political class is aiding and abetting the terrifying resurgence of antisemitism? I’ll repeat the question I asked four years ago: how long until there are no Jews left in France?

Kamala Harris - in her acceptance speech on 22 August as Democratic Party nominee for President– signalled she had now abandoned pursuing the creation of a Palestinian Arab state between Israel and Jordan proposed by President Biden on 10 June.

Biden’s proposal was contained in draft Security Council Resolution S/2024/448 prepared by the United States of America: Unifying Gaza and the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority (Biden’s Solution) – adopted 14-0 by the Security Council in Resolution 2735.

Harris made no mention of Biden’s Solution in her acceptance speech – only this declaration:

“President Biden and I are working to end this war such that - Israel is secure - the hostages are released - the suffering in Gaza ends - and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity. Security. Freedom. And self-determination“

Missing was Biden’s identification of the defined area in which such self-determination should be exercised and under whose authority it should function.

Biden’s Solution was on the slippery slide to self-destruction well before Harris ditched it - after Israel’s Knesset and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had made it clear on 17 July and 4 August respectively that Israel would not agree to any new state between Israel and Jordan (two-state solution).

Biden’s Solution bordered on the farcical when China announced on 23 July that Hamas and Fatah as well as 12 other Palestinian Arab groups had laid the groundwork for an interim national reconciliation government – which was promptly rejected by America and Israel.

Harris’s non-reaffirmation of Biden’s Solution in her acceptance speech has opened up the prospect that Harris may be contemplating endorsing other ideas. Perhaps it is time to familiarize her with the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine Solution (HKOPS) - first published on 8 June 2022: Unifying Jordan, Gaza and part of the West Bank under the Hashemites – the ruling authority in Jordan for more than 100 years comprising 77% of former Palestine - enjoying a signed peace treaty with Israel since 1994.

HKOPS has never been raised or discussed by Biden or the Security Council as a possible solution - as both continue to unsuccessfully pursue a two-state solution sought in Security Council Resolution 2334 which was adopted on 23 December 2016 - after Obama and Biden failed to veto its passage as they were vacating the White House to make way for a victorious Donald Trump.

I have never been more disappointed by a celebrity than I am with Candace Owens. I don’t relish that. She used to be the reason that I, a College Republican at the University of Virginia, spoke up about my unpopular political views. She once stood up for her beliefs and didn’t care what anyone thought about her. I am a people-pleaser by nature and I learned many lessons from her.

But Owens has taken the political rebel “thing” too far, into the utterly repugnant and indefensible.

The right needs to take a good look in the mirror and make sure we are proud of who represents us. Many young conservatives think of themselves as the counterculture of our generation. But we need to remember that just because a person speaks at conservative conferences and shares controversial ideas, it does not mean the individual or idea has merit.

Conservatives should continue to seek truth and speak up for freedom of speech. But we need to remember that a controversial opinion does not equate to a noble one. We can defend free speech without agreeing with that speech. We can be on the side of open-mindedness and kindness, civility and respect.

So, young conservatives: Candace Owens is no longer “it.” There are plenty of conservative superstars out there to follow, learn from and support. Be selective.

There is a split in the conservative movement, with a sector of isolationists straying from the Republican Party’s traditional ironclad support for Israel. We must correct this course and support Israel unequivocally. There is a difference between “America first” and “America only.” Israel is one of our greatest allies and a strong Israel means a strong United States both economically and defensively.

The world is an increasingly dangerous and hostile place. As America’s enemies like China, Russia and Iran grow stronger, our long-standing relationships with our allies are more vital to the survival of our nation than ever. Conservatives must continue to support Israel and be a friend to the Jewish people.

“Who’s got the power?” Brandon Mancilla, a union leader with United Auto Workers, shouted at a political rally in Washington in July. “We got the power!” the audience roared back.

Mancilla is not an auto worker, and the rally was not about workers’ rights. He was delivering a fiery address at a rally organized by anti-Israel groups to protest the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington. A Harvard doctoral student and the director of a United Auto Workers region that includes New York City, New England and Puerto Rico, Mancilla has been at the forefront of the historic union’s increasingly strident criticism of Israel. A promotional document posted online by the UAW-led “labor contingent” at the anti-Netanyahu rally called the Israeli premier a “wanted war criminal” and accused the U.S. of aiding “his ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people.”

In December, the UAW — which, of course, includes auto workers and other industrial laborers, but has in recent decades expanded to include more college-educated workers such as graduate students and public defenders — became the first major union to call for a cease-fire in Gaza. It also created a group to consider divestment from Israel. Among the locals that had previously signed onto the cease-fire statement adopted by the UAW were a diverse contingent of workers, including teachers, legal aid workers and nonprofit employees.

By July, the UAW led a contingent of seven unions, including the National Education Association, Service Employees International Union, flight attendants and postal workers, to throw their support behind a U.S. arms embargo on Israel. The group represents more than 6 million workers.

All told, UAW president Shawn Fain has emerged as one of the most outspoken critics of Israel on the left since Oct. 7. The pugilistic activist was elected in 2023 to the union’s top post in its first-ever direct vote by union members, a concession the union agreed to after facing corruption scandals. In a runoff vote, Fain won by fewer than 500 votes — and since leading a major strike last fall, he has become a well-known national figure popular on the progressive left.

The UAW’s public statements, including its call for an arms embargo, have always included a call for the release of the hostages held by Hamas. But Fain didn’t mention the hostages on a Labor for Cease-fire video call in February. Neither did Mancilla at his recent speech in Washington. Nor did they mention Hamas.

The decision by the UAW and other leading labor organizations to call for an end to American military aid to Israel represents a stunning reversal of many unions’ long-standing support for Israel, dating back nearly a century, when American unions donated money to the Histadrut, Israel’s national labor union.

“The fact that those seven unions last month, like UAW and SEIU, issued that statement is pretty remarkable, given how much reluctance there’s been, traditionally, to to have any criticism of Israel,” said Jeff Schuhrke, a labor historian at Empire State University.

Labor unions’ calls for an arms embargo puts Democrats in an awkward position. Unions have long been a core constituency for Democrats, and the UAW endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris days after President Joe Biden dropped out of this year’s presidential race in July. Then Fain received a prominent speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention last week. But neither he nor any of the other union leaders who spoke on stage in Chicago addressed the war in Gaza. (Later in the week, the UAW called on the DNC to have a Palestinian-American speak at the convention after the parents of Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin gave a primetime address.)

When two of Rep. Susan Wild’s constituents, a mother-daughter pair, wrote the Pennsylvania Democrat urging her to support Israel in its fight against Hamas, they received not one but two letters in response. One declared support for Israel and its "right to defend itself." The other called for international pressure on the Jewish state and an "immediate ceasefire."

The dueling letters, obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, were both sent on May 21 and signed by Rep. Wild herself. They appear to be stock letters drafted by Wild's office. While pushing out such letters to constituents is standard for a member of Congress, Wild's letters provide drastically different assessments of the war that are now public after Wild inadvertently sent one version to the mother and the other to the daughter.

In the pro-Israel missive, the congresswoman said she was "outraged, devastated, and heartbroken" over the "vicious" Hamas attack. She expressed support for "the Israeli people and all fellow Jews" and reiterated Israel’s "right to defend itself." She also pledged to "do everything I can as your representative to ensure Israel has the ability and capacity to restore and maintain its security and safety of all its citizens."

In a contradictory letter sent to the daughter, the congresswoman also said she was "outraged, devastated, and heartbroken." But this time, she was devastated about the "unspeakable tragedy continuing to unfold in Gaza," adding that the Israeli military "has inflicted devastation on staggering numbers of innocent Palestinian children, families, and civilians in Gaza." She called for an "immediate ceasefire" and pledged to "always listen and fully consider" the perspective of Israel's enemies.

The two letters are an embarrassing mixup for Wild, who is running for reelection in one of the country's tightest House races. It comes as she works to moderate her policy positions on immigration, energy, crime, and other hot-button issues in the wake of a redistricting cycle that added Trump-loving Carbon County to her swing district. (Earlier this year, Wild was caught on a Zoom call deriding the county's residents as bigots who "drank the Trump Kool-Aid." In 2022, she was also caught on tape saying she needed to "school" Carbon County residents for their support of Trump.)

Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, which Wild represents, has a substantial Arab population in addition to an engaged Jewish community. For the constituents who wrote to Wild, the conflicting letters raise questions about the congresswoman’s authenticity.

"She tells one group one thing and tells another group another thing," said one of Wild’s constituents, who spoke to the Free Beacon on condition of anonymity over concerns about retribution from anti-Israel activists.

"I’ve never believed when she spoke about Israel that she was being authentic," this person said. "She has definitely favored the pro-Palestinian voters."

A Republican state party official in Georgia appeared to agree with the host of a white nationalist TV show who said Jews run the government, responding, “They’re controlling everything.”

Kandiss Taylor, who chairs the Republican Party in her southeast Georgia congressional district, appeared on a mid-February episode of “The Stew Peters Show,” whose namesake host lives in Florida and has a history of promoting antisemitic rhetoric and Holocaust denial. Peters and Taylor discussed the arrest of a man accused of vandalizing a rainbow crosswalk mural in south Florida honoring the LGBTQ+ community.

In the episode, which the liberal media watchdog Media Matters for America reported Monday, Peters said, “No more funding our own demise — bioweapons and forever wars from the Jewish lobby that basically runs our entire government. And they run this as well, don’t they?”

Taylor responded, “Yeah they run this. 100%. They’re controlling everything.”

The comments were condemned by Georgia’s only Jewish state representative, Democrat Esther Panitch, who called on the state Republican Party to condemn the exchange.

“Ok, @GaRepublicans, it’s time to show the Jewish community of Georgia that you reject antisemites. Let me know if I can be of assistance,” she wrote on X.

“We always knew she was extreme,” Panitch told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “I just didn’t realize her extremism went after Jews. I mean, I’m not surprised, but I was not aware of these specific comments.”

Panitch also told JTA that nobody from the Georgia Republican Party had reached out to her about Taylor’s comments.

“You can’t pretend to be a friend to the Jews, or to support us, and allow your officials to make these statements without any remarks,” she added.

This is not the first time this month that Taylor has been in the public eye for comments about religious discrimination. In an Aug. 17 episode of her podcast, “Jesus, Guns and Babies,” Taylor said that only Christians should be permitted to run for elected office.

On Wednesday, IDF Central Commander Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth called the attack by around 100 Jewish extremists on the Palestinian West Bank village of Jit on August 15 the worst Jewish terror event ever.

In issuing his probe of the event, which resulted in the burning of numerous homes and cars, the death of one Palestinian, and attacks on others, Bluth said that he and all those involved from Israel, including the IDF, failed to properly defend the Palestinian village properly.

The military said that the investigation revealed there had been a regional warning before the attack when the Shin Bet noticed that extremists were gathering in cars and that this warning led the security forces to deploy around main junctions and routes.

However, at this stage, the IDF did not block the entrance to Jit. The probe does not provide an explanation, but it conveys the importance of learning lessons for the future.

Sources told The Jerusalem Post that the Shin Bet warning was general and that the agency had not followed the physical movements of the attackers – as it sometimes does – using drones.

Sources also told the Post that the IDF and Shin Bet were surprised because there had been no Palestinian terror event that day. Similar incidents in the past occurred in much closer proximity to a Palestinian terror event as a direct retaliation, they explained.

Finally, sources suggested that the Jewish attackers might have deliberately chosen Jit, a village not previously attacked, to surprise the IDF.

The U.S. State Department announced new sanctions on Wednesday on an Israeli nonprofit and civilian security coordinator that it alleges are engaged in “extremist settler violence” in Judea and Samaria.

“Extremist settler violence in the West Bank causes intense human suffering, harms Israel’s security, and undermines the prospect for peace and stability in the region,” Matthew Miller, the State Department spokesman, stated.

“As part of the United States’ efforts to address the extreme levels of instability and violence against civilians in the West Bank, we are taking additional actions today against those who engage in or provide material support for violent activities there,” he said.

The new measures include sanctions against the Hashomer Yosh organization, which allegedly supports the already sanctioned Meitarim Farm as well as other individuals, and prevented 250 Palestinians from returning to their village in January.

The department also placed sanctions on Yitzhak Levi Filant, the civilian ‘security coordinator of the Yitzhar settlement in Samaria.

“Israel views with utmost severity the imposition of sanctions on citizens of Israel,” the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office stated on Wednesday. “The issue is in a pointed discussion with the United States.”

The U.S. announcement describes Filant as “akin to a security or law enforcement officer,” but says he has also “engaged in malign activities outside the scope of his authority.”

The U.S. has just sanctioned an Israeli organization for guarding Jewish farms, which are subject to countless Palestinian terror attempts every year. Their crime: guarding the farms of other Jews who had been sanctioned. The sanctions work as a mark of Cain, removing basic life… https://t.co/vCzPw3fGkJ

— Eugene Kontorovich (@EVKontorovich) August 28, 2024

The vessel MV Kathrin, en route from Vietnam, was blocked from docking in Namibia on suspicion of carrying military cargo for Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the BBC reported on Tuesday night.

The ship was stopped due to “explosive material destined for Israel,” Namibian Justice Minister Yvonne Dausab claimed. The ship, which left from Vietnam, had requested to dock at Walvis Bay before continuing north towards the Mediterranean.

Walvis Bay, Namibia's largest commercial port, is located on the western side of the African continent. It handles nearly 900 vessels and about eight million tonnes of cargo each year, the BBC cited the Namibian Ports Authority (Namport). The MV Kathrin was set to dock there on Monday but was stopped.

Justice Minister Yvonne Dausab said this was in line with Namibia's support for the Palestinian people and its call to end the violence in Gaza, as reported by the state-run New Era news website.

The report noted that the reason for the MV Kathrin's request to dock was initially uncertain, as ships on long voyages often stop for supplies, rest, or cargo exchanges. Commitment to avoid alleged war crimes

Citing a police investigation, Dausab later confirmed that the MV Kathrin was "indeed carrying explosive material destined for Israel" and was thus barred from entering Namibian waters. She stressed that Namibia is committed to avoiding involvement in "Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, as well as its unlawful occupation of Palestine."

The BBC noted that the Economic and Social Justice Trust (ESJT) welcomed the decision, with Herbert Jauch saying they are "pleased that our government has decided to respect international law and not be complicit in genocide."

The Barbican is staging a Palestinian event describing “signs of genocide” in Gaza, which may breach charity and equality law.

UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) has written to the CEO and Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Barbican Centre, regarding a forthcoming show at the Barbican called “Voices of Resistance”. It is described as “a performance of testimonies from people experiencing what Amnesty International has called ‘alarming signs of genocide’.”

UKLFI has been approached by members of the public who are concerned that this performance will be promoting a political viewpoint, and talking about a so-called “genocide” in Gaza, when no genocide has actually occurred.

UKLFI pointed out to the Barbican that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) earlier this year did not make any finding that there was a genocide or a plausible case of genocide, despite misreporting of this matter, as clarified by the ICJ former president Joan Donaghue.

UKLFI also suggested that the Barbican would be breaching the Charity Commission Guidance on Political Activities as “Voices of Resistance” appears to be political propaganda, aimed at influencing public opinion as well as policies or decisions taken by government.

According to Charity Commission guidance, charities can take part in political activity that supports their purpose and is in their best interests. However, promoting the false claim that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza appears to be political activity outside the Barbican’s charitable objects, which are to support arts and cultural activities.

A show promoting the idea that Israel has committed a genocide is also likely to stir up religious hatred against Jews and Israelis, contrary to Section 18 of the Public Order Act 1986.

Furthermore, by presenting this show, the Barbican could breach Section 29 of the Equality Act 2010 (“the Act”). It is likely to discriminate against Jews and Israelis, who have protected characteristics of race, religion and belief under section 4 of Act. Any Jewish or Israeli person attending the event is likely to feel that there is an intimidating, hostile and offensive environment, given the content of the show. This would amount to harassment under the Act.

Academic boycotts targeting ideas, individuals, and institutions deemed problematic are no longer just in vogue for faculty. This illiberal and anti-intellectual tactic has now been adopted by students—presumably taking a cue from faculty and administrators—to cancel faculty who hold views they disagree with.

I encountered this personally during the most recent course interview week at Sarah Lawrence College, during which I learned that several groups—like the Sarah Lawrence Socialist Coalition and the Sarah Lawrence Review—decided that because I support Israel’s right to exist and to defend itself, my lectures will be corrupted and therefore should be boycotted.

During interview week, professors hold Zoom sessions to discuss their course plans and engage with prospective students—a course-shopping practice that started during the pandemic. This year, several leftist students, intent on canceling me and boycotting my courses—I’m teaching classes on Polarization and Presidential Leadership—resorted to privately messaging many of the prospective students in my Zoom room. These factually inaccurate and deliberately provocative messages went unnoticed by me during the session, as I was focused on sharing syllabi and other course-related information. It wasn’t until after the session that one of the students who received a message showed it to me, and I became aware of the situation. The next day, my classes, which are typically oversubscribed with waitlists, were not full—a stark contrast, especially during an election year. The message—posted below—which falsely stated that I tweeted a comment conflating “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) advocates with Nazis, read:

Cancel culture, as we know it, mostly occurs through social media, which anyone with an internet connection can view. While that’s bad enough, this tactic of directly messaging students is a chilling evolution of cancel culture that threatens speech, expression, learning, and open inquiry.

The culture of vocal, organized, and illiberal forces is now driving students away from courses these groups find objectionable. Unlike larger, more diffuse schools like Pace University or New York University, smaller residential schools like Sarah Lawrence College—where everyone knows everyone and reputations are critical—face amplified risks. When students are directly messaged about a boycott, it clearly signals that enrolling in my class could be risky. Such a culture is the antithesis of a true collegiate education. It is nearly impossible to stand against a mob that has declared someone persona non grata. While protesting a professor in the public sphere is one thing, directly targeting and approaching students through multiple channels raises the stakes, significantly increasing the intimidation for those who refuse to fall in line.

The author of a book on Jewish American identity enjoyed a sellout crowd at a rescheduled event after the original discussion was canceled over the presence of a Zionist panelist.

Joshua Leifer, author of Tablets Shattered: The End of an American Jewish Century and the Future of Jewish Life, spoke alongside Rabbi Andy Bachman at the Center for New Jewish Culture in Brooklyn on Monday. The original discussion, which was scheduled at Powerhouse Books in Brooklyn last Tuesday, was canceled at the last minute by an employee who did not want the bookstore to platform a “Zionist” rabbi.

During Monday’s discussion, Leifer lambasted the cancellation as both “wrong and antisemitic” as well as “the dumbest strategic thing you can do.”

The bookstore’s owner, Daniel Power, later clarified in an interview that Powerhouse Books does not maintain an official ban on Zionist authors and that the employee acted on her own. He revealed that the employee responsible for canceling the event quit on her own accord before he could fire her.

The bookstore issued an apology soon after the incident, writing, “litmus tests as a precondition for participation in public life are wrong. Rejections of dialogue, debate, and nuance are wrong.”

Despite the inconvenience, the backlash over the viral incident seems to have benefited Leifer. Roughly 300 people attended the rescheduled discussion, as opposed to the estimated two dozen that showed up for the original event. Leifer’s book currently holds the number one spot in the “History of Judaism” section on Amazon.

“In large part, this sanctuary is filled because of what happened,” Bachman stated at the event.

Leifer, a political progressive and writer, has issued blistering criticisms of Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza. He has called for a change in the “status quo” of Israeli policy and has encouraged the American Jewish community to reexamine its relationship with Israel.

In an essay published in The Atlantic, Leifer reflected on the decision to snub Bachman for being a Zionist, saying that it “exemplified the bind that many progressive American Jews face.”

The Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) concealed the development of ethnic studies courses because its members did not want Jewish community members to know or interfere in the process, the Anti-Defamation League, American Jewish Committee, Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, and Covington & Burling charged on Monday in a motion to add supporting evidence of a key committee’s disdain for California’s Jewish residents.

Evidence uncovered during discovery in the ongoing September lawsuit over SAUSD allegedly violating public access law detailed how members of the SAUSD Board of Education’s Ethnic Studies Steering Committee reportedly operated since it was created in 2020.

“Discovery in this case has revealed a persistent pattern of antisemitism in the steering committee,” American Jewish Committee Chief Legal Officer Marc Stern said in a statement.

Jewish groups had repeatedly contacted the steering committee over the years to provide input on the course development due to community concerns about the portrayal of Jews and Israel in the controversial 2019 Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum, which California Governor Gavin Newsom had rejected.

The Jewish groups were reportedly ignored because “the Jewish community was seen simply as a roadblock to their vision.” The filing further alleged that in October 2022, a meeting was held to discuss how to “address the Jewish question – do we have to create a response?”

“We may need to use Passover to get all new courses approved,” a committee official allegedly texted to another, suggesting to use the distraction and unavailability of the Jewish holiday to avoid public comment.

Other texts by SAUSD employees referred to the Jewish Federation of Orange County, one of the Jewish organizations that attempted to provide input, as “racist Zionists.” One employee reportedly repeated this statement and stood by it in her deposition.

About 120 protesters gathered near Columbia University in New York City on Tuesday evening to call on American college campuses to ban people from protesting with face coverings hiding their identities.

Columbia was one of many sites of anti-Israel student encampments that spread across North American campuses this spring. In April, school’s president Minouche Shafik, who has since resigned, called police to campus to remove anti-Israel vandals who occupied the school’s Hamilton Hall. Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, largely dropped charges against the alleged offenders.

The grassroots civil-rights group End Jew Hatred organized the rally. The group recently launched an “unmask the hate” initiative pushing for legislation to bar face coverings at protests on and off campus.

“We all witnessed the disaster that happened at Columbia University last spring,” Michelle Ahdoot, director of strategy and programming at End Jew Hatred, told JNS. “Masked pro-Hamas agitators were disruptive and scared students as they were walking to their classes on campus.”

Supporting a mask ban is a “true” civil-rights issue, because it upholds democratic values, according to Ahdoot. “There is no value for civil rights when we see lawless pro-Hamas students create havoc with impunity,” she said at the Tuesday rally.

Columbia students who attended the hour-long rally told JNS that they expect campus protests to “escalate” with the start of the new semester.

Maya Zuckerman, a Columbia freshman from New York, told JNS that groups like Students for Justice in Palestine had already disturbed the university’s convocation.

“After everything that happened last year, it is definitely a concern that protests could grow again,” she said. “Even though there are all these people who are trying to drive us off campus, Jewish students here just don’t want to leave and give up on a great education.”

American campuses were once the envy of the world.

Last year we saw them light up with hate and extremism.

With the new semester upon us, will America's college campuses return to their promise?

What can we expect for the class of 2025? pic.twitter.com/npgdLHg1CY

— us_the_story (@us_the_story) August 27, 2024

Antisemitic flyers were placed on the doorsteps of Berkeley residents over the weekend, the Berkeley Unified School District said in a statement on Monday.

Local media outlet KRON 4 reported that the Berkeley Police Department was investigating the flyers after around 13 residents contacted them.

BUSD Superintendent Enikia Ford Morthel said that the organization stood against "antisemitism, bigotry and all forms of hate, intimidation, discrimination, bullying and harassment" and that she was disturbed that the "incident has resurfaced in our community."

In February a civil rights complaint filed by the Brandeis Center and the Anti-Defamation League alleged that there was a failure to address antisemitic bullying of students and teachers. In early August, other San Francisco Bay Area towns, Napa and Petaluma, also saw the distribution of antisemitic flyers.

New York University Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine (NYUFJ4P) will begin refusing various forms of labor starting Monday, Labor Day in the US, unless the university meets the group’s demands relating to campus protests and free speech and assembly.

The “We Refuse” campaign is not described as a strike but as a “withdrawal” of some work activities that serve the administration and not students, according to an FAQ page from the group.

NYUFJ4P said it’s not asking faculty to withhold from teaching, grading, or holding office hours or research consultations with students. The group said faculty can refuse to participate in departmental committee assignments, service on school- or university-wide committees, appointments to task forces, listening sessions, or other representational work for the university.

Also included can be the refusal of “explicit or implicit participation in surveillance or policing of students or colleagues” and participation in DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) initiatives that attempt to “advertise or bolster NYU’s supposed commitment to inclusion or social justice, while failing to acknowledge the university’s complicity in genocide and collaboration with the NYPD.”

NYUFJ4P listed three conditions for the administration to adhere to: permanently remove NYPD from campus and reopen campus spaces, including for protest; grant full amnesty for students, staff, and faculty who faced disciplinary action for engaging in protests over Palestine; and publicly and consistently commit to protecting campus speech and protest, including speech and actions critical of any state, including Israel.

BREAKING: Liz Magill, the former disgraced UPenn President, who couldn’t condemn the calls of genocide against Jews, has just been hired by Harvard. This is a slap in the face to Jewish students. She will join her friend Claudine Gay as two equally incompetent “scholars.” pic.twitter.com/lbGWkdBvyi

— Shabbos Kestenbaum (@ShabbosK) August 28, 2024

The Students for Justice in Palestine at Rutgers University in New Brunswick are currently suspended until July 2025. However, they released a statement this morning declaring the suspension from the university was "Strike 2."

"This is the university's second strike, and we are… pic.twitter.com/0VrCxcTi16

— Stu (@thestustustudio) August 27, 2024

Here is the rest of the statement.

"This is not a call for, nor a request to, the Rutgers Administration to see SJP as a valid student organization. This is a promise that we will not stop until Rutgers divests from all corporations complicit in genocide. This is the… pic.twitter.com/zbpY2X1STr

— Stu (@thestustustudio) August 27, 2024

Yesterday, Professor Mohamed Abdou filed a wrongful termination suit against Columbia University. pic.twitter.com/KBg53ud2Cy

— Stu (@thestustustudio) August 27, 2024

Here is some previous reporting on Professor Abdou. https://t.co/UI190022oi

— Stu (@thestustustudio) August 27, 2024

The upside down triangle is how Jihad sycophants identify targets to kill. And here it is, at Columbia, used against Hillel. It looks like Charlottesvilles will be happening every week in the new school year, and I’m very cynical that anything can be done to obstruct it. pic.twitter.com/rPQ1nTXTsE

— Blake Flayton (@blakeflayton) August 28, 2024

Sydney Uni professor who told her students Hamas’s atrocities, rape and sexual ­violence on October 7 were “fake news” and a “hoax” will avoid serious punishment. If you fund this joke of a university stop doing so now. Mark Scott must go.

— Rowan Dean (@rowandean) August 28, 2024

USEFUL IDIOT

Antisemitic rapper @macklemore has agreed to be part of the lineup of the pro-Hamas rally planned in the heart of Seattle's Jewish community on the Sabbath

If there were any remaining doubts if he is antisemitic or ignorant, they should now be wiped away https://t.co/KpeCpO2rdppic.twitter.com/57AtVxJvKt

— Ari Hoffman (@thehoffather) August 28, 2024

All of Sheetal Chhabria's antisemitic posts are archived here:
- https://t.co/YOzC88Tjrt
- https://t.co/u2PZbAIHF6
- https://t.co/GFR0mHSgmV
- https://t.co/Y1fJbe1WAi
- https://t.co/yNQBMnyWU6
- https://t.co/CtV0lyRZ3U
- https://t.co/b5NM8p5fsQpic.twitter.com/3Sy31fYKuM

— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) August 28, 2024

More on Shaun King’s antisemitic antics here: https://t.co/9mEJhB5pwU

— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) August 28, 2024

Dr. Wisam Martini's tweets are listed here:
- https://t.co/f3K1MyXL8q
- https://t.co/Hk06F5YQ6T
- https://t.co/GgZGcwtFuo
- https://t.co/UzmzHbAJwX
- https://t.co/I1PZgrGiXu
- https://t.co/KHVpE3Oulb
- https://t.co/cZ81w8nJFo
- https://t.co/c5JumdPaljpic.twitter.com/QqQtSkO9ad

— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) August 27, 2024

The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions effort — known as BDS — singles out Israel for opprobrium. BDS portrays the Jewish State as both uniquely evil and solely responsible for the lack of peace between Israelis and Palestinians. BDS has been endorsed by Hamas and other US-designated terrorist groups, and prominent BDS supporters have called for Israel’s destruction.

These are well-established facts. And they’re entirely missing in a recent Washington Post report.

Post correspondent John Hudson’s Aug. 12, 2024, dispatch is about Coca-Cola’s efforts to fend off a boycott based on the company’s links to Israel (“How Coca-Cola Tried and Failed to Suppress a Boycott Over Gaza”). Yet the article is littered with misleading omissions and, in some cases, outright falsehoods.

Hudson writes that “sales of Coca-Coa began to plummet in parts of the Middle East and Asia this summer in response to boycotts of corporations with alleged ties to Israel.” This led to the soda company’s franchise in Bangladesh launching an advertising campaign to blunt boycott efforts. The campaign starred actor Sharaf Ahmed Jibon, known for roles in South Asian soap operas, as a shopkeeper who assured viewers that Coca-Cola was not an Israeli product, and said that “even Palestine has a coke factor.”

But “there was a problem,” Hudson tells readers. “The so-called Palestinian factory is an Israeli-owned bottling company that operates on an Israeli settlement in East Jerusalem considered illegal under international law.”

Hudson adds that there’s “widespread anger over Washington’s military and political support for Israel’s offensive in Gaza,” resulting in backlash against American companies like Coca-Cola. Hudson argues that that anger has fueled the BDS movement, which he calls merely a “nonviolent activist movement opposed to Israel’s occupation.”

For good measure, the Post reporter even uncritically quotes Omar Barghouti, a self-described “co-founder” of BDS.

But the Post’s description of BDS is completely — and verifiably — false. BDS isn’t nonviolent. And it is not simply opposed to an “occupation.” Indeed, what exactly is being “occupied” is left unsaid by Hudson. Rather, BDS is opposed to Israel’s very existence — and its founders, including Barghouti, have admitted as much.

As CAMERA has noted, terrorist organizations like Hamas, whose charter calls for the genocide of Jews and the destruction of Israel, have stated, “We salute and support the influential BDS movement.” And according to sworn US Congressional testimony, some BDS groups have links to terror groups like the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

Gaza-based Palestinian journalist, activist and filmmaker Bisan Owda, who has been nominated for a News and Documentary Emmy award for her show "It's Bisan from Gaza and I'm Still Alive" on Qatar's Al-Jazeera Network, has long been known to be an activist for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization. For several consecutive years, Owda hosted PFLP public events in the Gaza Strip which were also attended by armed members of the group's military wing. Owda herself appeared at these events wearing PFLP insignia and a military uniform.

At events hosted by Owda, senior PFLP officials delivered speeches praising terrorists, the "resistance" and the "intifada," and made statements underlining the PFLP's dedication to terrorism and to armed conflict with the goal of destroying Israel and establishing a Palestinian state "from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea" while implementing the Palestinians'"right of return."

The PFLP is a designated terrorist organization in Israel, the U.S., Canada, the European Union and Japan.[1] Since its inception it has carried out many terrorist operations, including several attacks and hijackings involving airliners, such as the 1968 hijacking of El Al Flight 426, the 1969 attack on El Al Flight 432 in Zurich, the 1975 Orly Airport attacks in Paris, during which RPGs were fired at El Al airliners, and more. The PFLP also carried out the October 2001 assassination of Israeli Knesset member Rehavam Ze'evi in a hotel in Jerusalem, and has perpetrated several other attacks in Israeli territory, such as the December 2003 Geha Interchange bus stop suicide bombing, the November 2004 Carmel Market suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, and a shooting attack in Jerusalem in October 2023.

Below are several examples of Bisan Owda's activity with the PFLP terrorist organization:
"Comrade Bisan Owda" Has Been Hosting PFLP Mass Events For Years

Posts on the PFLP website indicate that Bisan Owda has been involved in organizing and hosting the organization's events since 2014, and include pictures of her at these events. The following is a review of these reports:

Owda Hosted PFLP's 2014 Anniversary Event, At Which Key Speaker Said: Armed Struggle Is Our Strategic Option; Palestine Is Ours From The River To The Sea

According to a December 10, 2014 post on the PFLP website, "comrade Bisan Atef Owda" opened that year's event in Gaza marking the anniversary of the organization's founding and invited the participants to observe a moment of silence in memory of the fallen martyrs.

In his speech at the event, PFLP official Jamil Mezher congratulated "every resistance fighter whose finger is on the trigger," and stressed that the organization "will not abandon the path of struggle" and that "the option of resistance, especially armed struggle, is a strategic choice" of the PFLP. He concluded by promising that the organization would continue on this path "until all our strategic goals are achieved: [the right of] return, an [independent Palestinian] state, and [the right to] self-determination on every inch of Palestine, from the river to the sea."[2]

Emmy-nominated PFLP member Bisan Owda:

🔸️"Don't ask Palestinians to pay for this sh*t called the 'democracy' of the US."

🔸️"The Zionists are Securing House members' seats.... You are hosting Hitler in Congress."

Good catch, @MEMRIReportspic.twitter.com/mEDPB0N6WF

— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) August 28, 2024

Emmy-Nominated Palestinian Filmmaker Bisan Owda at PFLP Anniversary Rally in Gaza in 2015: The Policy of the PFLP Is that All the ‘People of the Intifada’, in Gaza, West Bank, and Jerusalem Are United as One pic.twitter.com/d8mIKLn0X5

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) August 28, 2024

Bedouins are "forced to live in reservations" according to @CNN.

Bedouins are not Native Americans and the Negev is not a reservation.

Try reporting objectively instead of imposing your own cultural framing of the story. https://t.co/3RFNvkVIO8

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 28, 2024

We'd ask @latimes Mideast bureau chief @nabihbulos to write an article about the rich history of "what Palestinians have already done in the name of peace" but it would barely amount to a column inch in the paper. https://t.co/BQ8NOYNXWO

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 28, 2024

Hey @TheSun& Nick Parker, your twisted take blaming Israel for hostage deaths during a rescue mission is vile.

Let’s be clear: If Hamas hadn’t unleashed terror on 10/7, there wouldn’t be a single singe of hair. Every drop of blood is on Hamas’ hands. Israel isn’t rolling over… pic.twitter.com/C1y0Zxmu4t

— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) August 28, 2024

Why bother with actual journalism when you can simply quote disputed casualty figures without any attribution?

Because @guardian. https://t.co/vybruvgskdpic.twitter.com/HrfA3vB3oJ

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 28, 2024

"1000's of Palestinians held by Israel."

Just @AlexCrawfordSky of @SkyNews making a moral equivalence with Israeli hostages held by Hamas.

Palestinians in Israeli jails are not hostages, they are prisoners who are being held for crimes, including terrorism. https://t.co/Lk5Tc02YiZ

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 28, 2024

Why did the IDF launch a major offensive into several cities in Judea and Samaria last night?
Perhaps it is because senior members of the PA have been calling for an all-out intifada there, and terrorists from all Palestinian factions have been actively seeking to carry out attacks in Israeli cities. The attempted suicide bombing in Tel Aviv last week was just the latest in a series of major attacks that failed at a late stage before their execution.

PA officials have been at the forefront of the calls for systematic violence.

Director of PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs Qadura Fares: “The time has come to express our anger… I ask Almighty Allah to give us inspiration on the correct path and the correct choice, and that we will set out on an intifada against criminal [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu and all his gangs.”

[PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs, Facebook page, July 18, 2024]

The PA-led terror campaign from 2000-2005 that the PA calls an “intifada” left more than 1,100 Israelis murdered and tens of thousands injured. Calling for “intifada” is calling for a terror war.

In addition, at a conference attended by senior PA officials, including Fares and Fatah Central Committee Deputy Secretary Sabri Saidam, the host made similar inflammatory remarks ahead of August 3, 2024, “the international day to support Gaza and the Palestinian prisoners”:
Conference host: “Allah willing, Aug. 3, [2024] will be a spark for the Palestinian people and this spark will continue consecutively until we will be liberated from the yoke of the occupation (i.e., Israel). It is not foreign to this people to lead an intifada like this... The [first] Intifada spread out throughout the homeland. This is a great honor that is to be credited to our entire Palestinian people. In 2002 (sic., 2000) [then PM] Sharon entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque and then the [second] Intifada broke out and continued. It is not foreign to our people that an intifada like this will set out from Aug. 3.”

[Official PA TV, July 30, 2024]

These calls for an “intifada” have been coupled with statements by other senior PA officials, such as Abbas’ advisor Mahmoud Al-Habbash, inciting to terrorism throughout Israel – a “jihad”:

Hamas threatens the Palestinian Authority because they compete as to who are the "best" terrorists. PA and Fatah leaders openly brag about leading terror in Judea and Samaria.
In this video PA brags about its cops, "By day Security Forces and by night self- sacrificing… https://t.co/wNDxn5ZwCOpic.twitter.com/TDLevYNfNA

— Pal Media Watch (@palwatch) August 28, 2024

"He knew he would be a Shahid since he was 10"

Full text:
"He went in the way of the prophet. He fought in Al-Aqsa against the Jews and died as a martyr.
Thanks to Allah, praise him, since he was 10 he knew he would be a shahid. May Allah have mercy on him"

The father of… pic.twitter.com/UEODkCwi4x

— Hamas Atrocities (@HamasAtrocities) August 28, 2024

Yahya Sinwar is trying to connect with his fans in American campuses.

👨🏻‍🎨 @zbengolempic.twitter.com/dX0lALk0yb

— The Mossad: Satirical, Yet Awesome (@TheMossadIL) August 28, 2024

The Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has summoned Iran's ambassador after he posted a message in support of Lebanon's Hezbollah online.

Abbas Bagherpour posted content supporting Hezbollah's airstrikes on Israel last weekend.

The post included the flag of Hezbollah, a group banned in Austria, along with the statement "Hezbollah will win."

“We strongly condemn the use of the image of the Hezbollah flag in the Iranian ambassador's message,” the foreign ministry said.

In 2021, Austria, in line with many EU countries, designated the entirety of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, making no distinction between its military and political branches.

Following widespread criticism from Austrian political parties, Bagherpour removed the post.

Spiritual Leader of the Druze in Lebanon Sami Abilmona Rejects Druze Independent State or the Federalization of Lebanon: We Lebanese People Complement One Another, Our Homeland Is One and the Same pic.twitter.com/FunRFTCaSm

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) August 28, 2024

I gotta admit, it’s kinda impressive they can keep this 60-year-old F4 flying. Is that the flex here? Showing off their upkeep skills? https://t.co/UXM4XYpazi

— Haviv Rettig Gur (@havivrettiggur) August 28, 2024

Leeds United has signed Israeli winger Manor Solomon on a season-long loan from Tottenham Hotspur and the decision has been met with mixed reactions from LUFC fans.

The signing was announced Tuesday, eliciting many congratulatory messages on social media as well as a flurry of anti-Israel and antisemitic abuse directed at the 25-year-old international player from Kfar Saba in central Israel.

A since-disabled account replied to the announcement on X by saying, “No k**e is welcome at my club.” At the same time, another wrote, “Anyone who is supporting a genocide perpetrator in Manor Solomon transfer to Leeds United, has no morals and we don't want you or him at Elland Rd, you are not worthy of supporting LUFC.”

Solomon, who recently recovered from a knee injury that prevented him from playing competitively with the Spurs since September 2023, made his football debut at 17 for the Israeli Premier League club Maccabi Petah Tikva. He had a loan spell with Fulham from Ukrainian FC Shakhtar Donetsk in 2022-23 and scored four goals in 19 Premier League games.

But Solomon has been attacked online for his Israeli background and service in the IDF, even while signed for Tottenham. The news of his signing for LUFC has reignited anti-Israel abuse towards Solomon, with one X user writing that they’d rather the team be “relegated” than sign “that Zionist Manor Solomon.”

An antisemitic stranger snarled “Hitler was right” before spitting in a man’s face on the Upper East Side in broad daylight, cops said.

The hateful attacker approached the 65-year-old victim as he walked at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and East 68th Street around 4:10 p.m. July 27, authorities said.

“Should I slap you or punch you?” the bigot threatened the victim, callously adding, “Hitler was right,” police said.

He then pulled down the victim’s face mask and spat in his face, cops said.

The assailant fled toward Madison Avenue, authorities said.

Video released by the NYPD late Tuesday shows the still-at-large menace — described as having a medium complexion, last seen wearing black pants, a black hat and a multicolored shirt — strolling down the street.

The victim did not report any physical injuries.

The NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force is investigating the incident, cops said.

In July alone, the task force investigated 30 anti-Jewish offenses, compared to only 10 during the same period last year, according to data released in early August.

British police have still not identified a man who was pictured in May wearing a Manchester United soccer jersey with ‘Hamas 7’ printed on the back.

The Telegraph reported in May that authorities were searching for the man, who was photographed by a Jewish passerby near the Oxford Circus tube station in central London.

“Police received a call from a member of the public reporting that a man was walking in Oxford Street, W1 wearing a football shirt with an offensive message on it,” said a Metropolitan Police spokesperson at the time. “Enquiries are underway to try and identify the man.”

The “Hamas 7” tag is a reference to the Palestinian terror group’s Oct. 7 massacre of 1,200 Israelis and the abduction to Gaza of more than 250 people, 108 of whom remain in captivity.

A New Hampshire man is facing two civil rights violations for smashing the lanterns at a Portsmouth synagogue, New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella announced.

Kevin O’Leary, 31, is accused of smashing two Star of David glass decorative lanterns at the entrance of the Temple Israel synagogue on April 8.

Formella’s office alleged that O’Leary came ready with a hammer to destroy the objects, which contained the symbols of the Jewish community, and that he was motivated by a combination of religious, national origin, and ancestry discrimination.

Interfering with the right to worship
“These acts interfered with the rights and lawful activities of the victims, Temple Israel, and its congregants because the acts interfered with their right to worship freely and display symbols of their faith,” said the New Hampshire Justice Department.

If convicted, O’Leary could face a maximum penalty of $5,000 for each violation and a court restraint from committing civil rights violating or hate-motivated conduct for three years. Formella’s office also asked the court to implement a preliminary restraining order to protect the Temple Israel congregants.

O’Leary turned himself in to law enforcement on April 19 after an arrest warrant for criminal mischief and hate-motivated criminal mischief was issued on April 9, according to the Portsmouth Police Department.

In March, the Formella announced a consent decree with Loren Faulkner for the vandalization of Temple Israel and other businesses, residences, and houses of worship in the city in recent years.

Faulkner had allegedly spray-painted swastikas on other symbols on Temple Israel, a church, a cafe, a tattoo parlor, and 14 other sites in February 2023. He was said to have vandalized signs and murals expressing support for minority groups and destroyed a church’s LGBTQ flag.

A Torah scroll, locked in a safe, stolen months ago from a yeshivah in Queens, N.Y., has been returned to the family that donated it.

Documents provided by the New York City Police Department stated that officers arrested Saul Colon, 37, on Aug. 2. He was charged with burglary in the third degree. An unnamed accomplice remains at large.

Colon confessed to the crime and led investigators to the location of the safe, with the Torah inside, in a wooded area in the New York City borough. The religious item suffered some water damage.

Additional charges Colon received include grand larceny in the second degree and grand larceny in the fourth degree. He faces between seven-and-a-half to 15 years in prison.

The New York Post reported the value of the scroll at more than $50,000.

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said that her office and the NYPD “never gave up on this case and, several months later, we arrested one of the suspects and were able to recover the Torah.”

Slovakia’s government approved plans on Wednesday to buy six mobile air defense systems from Israel for 554.3 million euros ($616.88 million), it said on its website, as the NATO member state strengthens protection of its airspace.

The government also approved the purchase of more than 1,300 6×6 and 8×8 heavy terrain vehicles in a joint acquisition with the Czech Republic, at an expected cost of 708.3 million euros ($788 million), which will replace aging trucks.

Slovakia, whose neighbor Ukraine has fought against a Russian invasion since 2022, has sought to boost air defense capabilities.

It has been part of NATO efforts to bolster the military alliance’s eastern flank. Defense Minister Robert Kalinak has said priorities should be on defense capabilities, especially air defense.

Last month, it received delivery of the first two of 14 new F-16 fighter jets.

The government did not name the defense system to be bought from Israel in a government-to-government deal.

Slovakia operates the medium-range 2K12 KUB system, which was at the end of its life cycle, the defense ministry said in a document released on Wednesday.

Under a previous government, Slovakia donated its aging S-300 air defense system to Ukraine, a decision criticized by the current administration for lowering the country’s air defense capabilities.

As the war in Ukraine continues into its third summer, Chabad of Poland hosted more than 200 Jewish Ukrainians, hailing from five communities, for a two-week summer experience focused on allowing children and their parents a break from life in a warzone.

The retreat began on Aug. 15 and runs through Aug. 27.

The camp includes specialized activities and psycho-trauma counseling designed to support attendees as they navigate their challenging circumstances. Daily activities range from field trips and arts-and-crafts projects to music and baking classes, all within a spiritually enriching environment. The program is staffed by educational and recreational staff all fluent in Ukrainian.

Participants came from Kamianske, Sumy, Kremenchuk, Dniproand and Kyiv.

“Growing up, summer was our chance to escape the routine of the rest of the year, and dive into sports, fun and lasting friendships. For our children, summer offers a special opportunity to engage in informal education that emphasizes Jewish identity, heritage, values and customs in a more engaging and comprehensive way,” said Rabbi Sholom Ber Stambler, director of Chabad of Poland.

One-third of this year’s program is funded by Mosaic United, a global nonprofit that supports initiatives to strengthen the connections of young Jews to their identities and Israel, in partnership with Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs. Chabad of Poland is covering the remaining two-thirds of the costs through its network of partners.

Two unique, 1,700-year-old Roman-era tombs with intricate, unique wall paintings, discovered decades ago in the coastal city of Ashkelon, have been restored and will be soon open for viewing by the general public for the first time, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Tuesday.

The large vaulted tombs, dating from the 2nd to 4th centuries CE, were used by generations of wealthy families and contain rare depictions of “Greek mythological characters, people, plants and animals,” the IAA said in a statement.

“There aren’t a lot of Roman graves like this” in Israel built for the “aristocratic population… Both graves are family graves, and were in use for a long time, over hundreds of years,” said Dr. Elena Kogan-Zehavi, an IAA senior archaeologist, speaking to The Times of Israel by phone.

“Ashkelon at the time was a full Roman city, very advanced. What is special about these [finds] is the art. There is a lot of personal imagination from the artists. Each artist worked differently and therefore, each tomb is totally different from the other,” she said.

The tombs, to be opened around the upcoming Jewish holidays in October, are part of a new “inviting public garden,” located near the Ashkelon marina in a “previously neglected area” between two residential buildings, the IAA statement said.

One tomb was discovered, filled with sand, in the 1930s by a British expedition during the British Mandate period and dated to the 4th century CE. The structure contains a hall or passageway with “four adjacent burial troughs… decorated by a range of paintings, impressive in quality and skill,” the IAA said.

Once a loyal Soviet citizen and economist, Ida Nudel was inspired by a plane hijacking and transformed into a fierce advocate for Jewish freedom.

Turned into an international symbol of Jewish resilience, Nudel’s fight against the KGB wasn't just for herself but for all Jews trapped behind the Iron Curtain.

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:59 Stalin's relationship with Zionism and Russian Jewry
02:36 Ida Nudel and antisemitism
03:30 Soviet Jewish response to the 6 Day War
04:12 Soviet response to the 6 Day War
04:44 The Refuseniks
06:42 The Jewish plane hijacking
08:10 Ida Nudel's becomes a Refusenik
10:39 Ida Nudel becomes a Refusenik leader
11:56 Global Jewish and Western support
13:53 Exile in Siberia
15:26 Life in Moldova and world fame
16:19 Immigration to Israel
17:37 Inspiration and heroism

A documentary that features first-hand videos and eyewitness accounts from the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack at the Nova Music Festival will be screened in select theaters across the country from Thursday through Sunday.

A week-long, Oscar-qualifying run of “We Will Dance Again” that began on Aug. 23 is also currently taking place at the Laemmle Theaters in Los Angeles and the documentary will stream exclusively on Paramount+ in September. Tickets for all screenings are available online and the showings were organized by Paramount+ in partnership with the platform Iconic Events Releasing.

In order for the documentary to qualify for the Academy Awards, it must meet the eligibility requirements set by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which include completing a week-long theatrical run in a commercial theater in a qualifying area.

The award-winning film “We Will Dance Again” includes interviews with more than a dozen young festival-goers who tell the harrowing stories of how they survived the deadly massacre at the music festival in Re’im, Israel, where Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists killed nearly 400 people and kidnapped approximately 40 others. Their testimonies are combined with footage they filmed themselves on their cellphones as well as videos recovered from body cameras worn by the terrorists. The documentary was directed by Yariv Moser, whose award-winning credits include “The Devil’s Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes,” “Ben Gurion: Epilogue” and “My First War.”

“We Will Dance Again” is a See It Now Studios original documentary. It is a co-production with the global entertainment studio Sipur and producer Bitachon 365 in collaboration with MGM Television, a division of Amazon MGM Studios, and the Israeli television content company HSCC. BBC Storyville will broadcast the documentary in the United Kingdom and Israel’s Hot Channel 8 will air it in Israel.

“The human cost of the Hamas attack in Israel and the war that followed in Gaza has been catastrophic for both Israelis and Palestinians.” said Susan Zirinsky, president of See It Now Studios. “It is a painful story of unfathomable tragedy, but also of bravery, sacrifice, and heroism. This film is a document of history, of one of the attacks that began on October 7th at 6:29 in the morning.”

accompanied by 8 bereaved IDF soldiers and 4 commanders, to Los Angeles earlier this week. The stars came to offer them the comfort and care they so deserve.

One of the kids who recently lost their father in the war told staff member that this was the happiest day they have had

— (((IsraelMatzav))) (@IsraelMatzav) August 28, 2024

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

The delay in the vaccination campaign due to Israel’s displacement orders highlights a trend of weaponizing previously eradicated, highly infectious diseases as a tool of genocide. This strategy deliberately uses such diseases to inflict permanent disability or death on Palestinian residents of Gaza.

Jews being burnt during the Black Plague

This is simply a 21st  century update of the Black Death blood libel against Jews. 

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

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Susa, August 29 - Continued chaos enveloped royal correspondence with all parts of the Achaemenid Empire this week when the governor of one far-flung territory, in a moment of carelessness, selected the option to include every other recipient of the original letter in his inquiry for clarification of details in the royal decree, palace sources disclosed today.

King Ahashverosh's seal adorned official missives to the one hundred twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom, apprising the administrators of each province, and the cities and towns therein, to prepare for a special day of reckoning regarding the Jews among them, to take place as this coming winter transitions into spring, the thirteenth day of the month of Adar. The 127 couriers carrying 127 copies, plus several spare scrolls, made their way to each provincial capital. Then the governor of the territory of Sarmatia decided to request more information, but accidentally selected Reply All and soon he, too, had sent 127 couriers with 127 copies of his letter not just to the king, as intended, but to all of the governors, satraps, and other high officials of the empire.

The resulting confusion snarled communications throughout the realm for weeks. Witnesses reported that the use of so many couriers strained the supply for other important communications, on top of which at least two dozen irate governors of other provinces saw fit to reply-all in kind to berate the Sarmatian prince, compounding the problem further.

Exhausted couriers recalled hauling satchels full of scrolls containing invective and ridicule that could make a Greek blush. They did not desire to deliver any such epistles, but performed that duty nevertheless.

"I'm pretty sure the admonition not to kill the messenger hasn't been widely adopted yet," observed a nervous rider of the swift camels. "I hope this hubbub dies down before I do."

The impetus for the decree remains unclear. Rumors point to Royal Vizier Haman's resentment that a prominent Jew named Mordechai refused to bow to him, and that personal insult drove Haman to find some pretext to get rid of Mordechai and the metaphorical horse he rode in on, i.e. Jews and Jewish culture. Haman then presented his case to the king as a pressing concern for the unity and stability of the empire, rather than as a petty, self-absorbed scheme to seek disproportionate vengeance against the only person in the kingdom not to bow to him, which he could have shrugged off and dismissed as unimportant in light of all the other honor and power he enjoys, but no, he let it consume him, like the fruit of the one forbidden tree in a vast, sumptuous garden of delights.

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The IDF’s actions on Wednesday in Jenin, Tulkarm, Tubas, and the Far’a refugee camp in the Jordan Valley indicate that it has learned that lesson. The failed suicide bombing attack last week in Tel Aviv was the catalyst for implementing this lesson.

A terrorist believed to be from Nablus, identified as Jafar Muna, carried an 8 kg. bomb outside of a crowded synagogue when the device exploded – apparently a “work accident” – killing him and injuring a passerby. The country heaved a sigh of relief at its good fortune for this miracle, at having averted a mass-casualty incident.

But it was a wake-up call. That an explosive device of this magnitude was smuggled into Israel showed that the country needed to take the growing terrorist infrastructure developing in Judea and Samaria quite seriously. It also needs to take threats from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which took responsibility for the bomber, seriously as well.

Iran, which successfully identifies areas of weak governance around Israel to set up proxies to lash out at the Jewish state, has been making serious inroads into the West Bank for the last decade, smuggling weapons to a myriad of different terrorist groups there through Lebanon and Jordan.

Last August, after a 42-year-old mother of three, Batsheva Nigri, was murdered near Hebron in a shooting attack on her car, both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant pointed fingers at Iran.

“We are in the middle of a terrorist onslaught that is encouraged, guided, and funded by Iran and its proxies,” Netanyahu said. Gallant added that the wave of terror at the time, two months before October 7, was “guided by Iran, which is looking for any way to harm Israeli citizens.”

Both Palestinian terrorists and Iranian officials have also acknowledged Iran’s involvement. Since October 7, Iran has stepped up these efforts, hoping to ignite another front against Israel.

In July of 2023, senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk was quoted in the Iranian press saying Iran is actually fighting alongside “the resistance in Palestine” through its generous support. An editorial published by the Iranian Tasnim News Agency that same month said Iran’s successful arming of the West Bank would sink the “leaking ship of Israel.”

Automatic weapons and crude pipe bombs have been replaced in the hands of terrorists by powerful improvised explosive devices (IEDs) used against troops conducting counter-terror actions in the West Bank. These IEDs, including the one that Muna wanted to explode in Tel Aviv, reveal a terrorist infrastructure developing – including IED manufacturing labs – directly under Israel’s nose that Iran could use as yet another pressure point against the country.

This is something that Israel cannot allow, and last week’s attempted suicide bombing set alarm bells ringing regarding how far Iran’s program had advanced and convincing policymakers of the need now to quash it.

The IDF’s action on Wednesday was reportedly the most significant military maneuver in the West Bank since Operation Defensive Shield which began in March of 2002, following the Netanya Park Hotel Passover Eve massacre where a suicide bombing attack killed 30 people at a Passover seder.

Up until then, the IDF – under the Oslo Agreements – stayed out of the large Palestinian cities, thereby enabling a terrorist infrastructure to thrive, one that included labs for manufacturing bombs for suicide attacks.

The Park Hotel bombing was the trigger for bringing the IDF back into the Palestinian cities. It took several years of intense military action throughout Judea and Samaria, but these actions did lead to an end to the Second Intifada and significantly degrade terrorist capabilities, leading to a precipitous drop in the number of Israelis killed in terrorist attacks: from 457 fatalities in 2002 to 9 in 2019.

Just as some of the lessons learned from Gaza on October 7 can be applied to the West Bank, the reverse is also true: lessons learned over the years fighting terror in Judea and Samaria can be applied in Gaza. For instance, the operation currently underway in northern Samaria is an indication of what the future holds in Gaza.

The 42-day Operation Defensive Shield that began in March of 2002 was a turning point, and Israel did degrade terrorist capabilities. But this was not a one-off deal, with Israel just leaving the territory after the operation.

Rather, it takes continuous work to ensure that the terrorist infrastructure does not reappear, what security officials continuously refer to as “mowing the lawn.” What this predicts is that when the intense fighting stops in Gaza, the continuous war against terrorists – preventing the resurrection of a terrorist infrastructure there – will continue for years, if not decades.

Just look at Judea and Samaria. Twenty-two years after the IDF launched Operation Defensive Shield, it is still “mowing the lawn” there and trying to prevent the re-emergence of a vast terrorist infrastructure. It is endless labor, with no clear finish line. What holds true in Judea and Samaria will certainly be the case in Gaza as well.

Scores of Palestinian diplomats at the United Nations, across Europe and around the world celebrated the attack on Israel on October 7, compared Israel to the Nazis or made other disturbing statements, the JC can reveal.

The findings raise serious questions about the legitimacy of Palestinian Authority (PA) officials on the world stage. The PA is increasingly expected to participate in governing Gaza after the war and help build a two-state solution.

A dossier of evidence compiled by investigators from the GnasherJew group uncovered troubling details from the social media activity of ambassadors, other officials and even embassy accounts.

The analysis of hundreds of posts from more than 30 profiles found senior diplomats smearing Israeli troops as Nazis, supporting the actions of Hamas and advocating the erasure of Israel.

The most disturbing statements began on October 7 itself. Hassan Albalawi, the deputy head of the Palestine mission to the EU, reacted by celebrating Hamas as “heroic”, while Adel Atieh, the Palestinian ambassador to the EU, described the terrorists as “the people of the mighty”. Meanwhile, Khuloussi Bsaiso, a Palestinian diplomat at the UN, shared a map of the Middle East without Israel. “Palestine as it should be,” he commented.

When questioned by the JC, Bsaiso claimed that his social media posts were not shared in a professional capacity, adding: “For your information we the Palestinians are Jews, Christians and Muslims.”

In Britain, meanwhile, Rana Abuayyash, consul at the Palestinian mission to London, shared a post on November 3 showing the Israeli flag morphing into Hitler and reposted a TikTok video of Netanyahu underneath the Nazi dictator. There are dozens of similar examples.

As the war in Gaza continues to rage, many of those named in the dossier are regarded as moral authorities in their host countries, invited to discuss the conflict on television and posting to thousands of followers on social media.

U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Thursday that Gaza ceasefire-and-hostages-for-terrorist-prisoner talks were making progress.

“The negotiators are bearing down on the details, meaning that we have advanced the discussions to a point where it’s in the nitty-gritty, and that is a positive sign of progress,” Sullivan told reporters in Beijing, where he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

On the Gaza issue, officials from the United States, Egypt, Qatar and Israel met in Doha on Wednesday to follow up on talks that took place in Cairo over the weekend and extended to Monday.

Jerusalem’s delegation—composed of officials from the Israel Defense Forces, the Mossad and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet)—had returned on Tuesday from the round of negotiations in Cairo.

The high-level Cairo talks ended on Sunday without a deal, but discussions continued on Monday with lower-level officials to attempt to bridge the remaining gaps.

“In Doha, the delegation is expected to meet with representatives of Egypt, Qatar and the United States who are continuing the negotiations and work with Israel and Hamas,” according to Israel’s Channel 12.

U.S. Special Coordinator for the Middle East Brett McGurk held talks on Tuesday in Doha with senior Qatari leaders ahead of Wednesday’s negotiations, the Associated Press reported, citing a U.S. official.

While American officials have expressed optimism about closing a deal, Hamas has publicly rejected the terms on the table and is accusing the United States of supporting Israeli demands. Egyptian officials have also expressed skepticism.

The United Nations is “terrified” at the prospect of a second Trump presidency, according to a leaked conversation with a senior official at the global agency.

“I’m not sure the United Nations is going to survive a second term from Donald Trump,” Jorge Paoletti, an associate legal officer at the UN Office of Legal Affairs in New York, told an undercover reporter from podcaster Steven Crowder’s Mug Club.

“I mean, we are terrified. They’re terrified,” Paoletti is heard saying of his colleagues on a hidden camera recording released Thursday.

“Absolutely nobody wants Trump … because the purpose of Donald Trump is to end the international institutions that somehow level the playing field. He wants America first.”

Paoletti went on to explain that he dreads Trump’s “America First” policies interfering with the UN’s globalist agenda.

“One of the objectives of the UN is to create an identity of a global citizen, someone who shares an identity, a political identity, with everybody on this planet. [This idea] is a threat to the absolute power of the United States because [Americans] don’t want an institution over the US telling the US what to do.”

As the largest financial contributor to the UN, funding 22% of its budget, the US has undue influence, Paoletti complains, and under Trump, he fears it will refuse to go along with UN edicts.

“For example, say that the United Nations creates an environmental agency. And that environmental agency says that countries can only reach a certain level of pollution. How do you think all these crazy MAGA people are going to react to that? [Trump will say,] ‘Who are you globalists to tell me, the United States, what I can do?’”

BREAKING: Self Described “Globalist” United Nations Legal Affairs Official Says He's "Not Sure Institution is Going to Survive" Second Trump Term; Reveals Colleagues “Terrified” of His Reelection; Admits U.N. is ‘95% useless’ at Primary Function of International Peace & Security… pic.twitter.com/fTgizVySvm

— Steven Crowder (@scrowder) August 29, 2024

A group of Jewish House Democrats blasted the United Nations for excluding Israeli and Jewish victims of terrorism, including the victims of the Oct. 7 attack, from a recent U.N. headquarters exhibit honoring victims of terrorism.

“This clear and conspicuous omission of Israeli victims of terrorist attacks, including the horrific Oct. 7 Hamas massacre, is an insult to these innocent victims and seriously undermines the UN’s credibility on terrorism and human rights,” the lawmakers said in a letter to Secretary-General António Guterres on Thursday.

The letter, led by Rep. Kathy Manning (D-NC), is the latest instance of lawmakers raising concerns about the response to the Oct. 7 attack by the U.N., which they’ve said has repeatedly ignored or downplayed the attack.

The letter refers to an Aug. 21 exhibit in the U.N. headquarters lobby that honored victims of terrorism worldwide. It did not include any Israeli victims of terrorist attacks, past or present.

The lawmakers said the “blatant omission” was “unacceptable” and “undermines the credibility and neutrality of the UN and its work to support victims of terrorism.”

They asked Guterres for an “immediate explanation” of why Israeli and Jewish terror victims were not included “and absent a legitimate justification, a clear and unequivocal apology.”

They also asked Guterres to explain how the U.N. would ensure that Oct. 7 victims are properly honored going forward, including during the U.N. General Assembly next month and a U.N. conference on victims of terror in October.

According to Hashomer Yosh, an Israeli nonprofit organization that assists farmers and protects agricultural state land in Judea and Samaria, the sanctions the United States imposed against it on Wednesday are based on false information provided by left-wing groups.

“We ask, why? And we have an answer,” Meir Bertler, the group’s foreign relations chief, told Israel’s Kan public broadcaster.

“The answer isn’t about the activities of Hashomer, which are legal and legitimate and coordinated with the government. It is about false and distorted information conveyed by left-wing groups,” he said.

Kan also published a statement from Hashomer Yosh, which read:

Hashomer Yosh “strongly condemns the government’s decision. This is a fundamentally wrong political decision. The organization operates according to the law and supports agriculture in the entire country. Sanctions on the guard are the same as sanctions on the State of Israel. Together we will stand firm, together we will support Hebrew agriculture in the Land of Israel.”

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in Brussels on Thursday that he asked the bloc’s member states if they would consider imposing sanctions on Israeli ministers, Reuters reported.

“I initiated the procedure to ask the member states if they consider [it] appropriate to include in our list of sanctions some Israeli ministers [who] have been launching unacceptable hate messages against the Palestinians, and proposing things that clearly go against international law,” he told reporters before a meeting of E.U. foreign ministers in the de facto capital of the international organization.

Borrell did not name any of the specific ministers or messages he was referring to, according to Reuters.

However, in recent weeks he has publicly criticized Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for statements he described as “sinister” and “incitement to war crimes.”

Diplomats told Reuters that it was unlikely that all the bloc’s 27 member states would agree to levy such sanctions, as would be required.

“We will be supporting Josep Borrell’s recommendation for sanctions in respect of settler organizations in the West Bank who are facilitating (the) expansion of settlements, and also to Israeli ministers,” Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said as he arrived at the meeting.

During the meeting, Martin reportedly accused Israel of targeting not just the Hamas terror group but the Palestinian population entirely in its Gaza campaign, a charge that Jerusalem vehemently denies. He added that the European Union should review its ties to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

No mention of Hamas and not a word about the hostages still held captive by them in Gaza. Just a visceral and unrelenting hostility against Israel by @JosepBorrellF. https://t.co/QjWZHHSxuQ

— Arsen Ostrovsky 🎗️ (@Ostrov_A) August 29, 2024

I made it clear to the Lebanese representative that Lebanon must choose: confront Hezbollah or degrade into chaos and destruction. The time to act is now! If you fail to act, the devastation that follows will be on your hands. You must withdraw immediately from the Israeli… pic.twitter.com/fPPtZ49vJT

— Danny Danon 🇮🇱 דני דנון (@dannydanon) August 28, 2024

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) is urging U.S. airlines to reconsider their prolonged suspensions of flights to Israel “in order to prevent the appearance and the substance of discrimination against the Jewish State.”

Torres, who serves on the House Financial Services Committee, sent a letter on Wednesday to the CEOs of American Airlines, Delta Airlines and United Airlines expressing his concerns over their decisions to suspend flights to Israel without FAA guidance that such flights are unsafe. Torres’ letter comes just over a week after American Airlines announced that it would extend its suspension of flights to Israel through April 2025.

“The suspension has been so prolonged and so pervasive that El Al, an Israeli airline, has become the sole carrier offering direct flights from America to Israel. The lack of competition has made air travel to Israel less available and less affordable, putting customers at the mercy of a de facto monopoly that can easily gouge prices with impunity,” Torres wrote to American Airlines CEO Robert Isom, Delta CEO Ed Bastian and United CEO Scott Kirby.

Torres pointed to the Federal Aviation Administration’s controversial 36-hour ban on flights in 2014 from U.S. carriers to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport during Israel’s war against Hamas that summer, noting that the Federal Aviation Administration had not issued a similar order at any point since Oct. 7, 2023. Instead, Torres accused the airlines of “arbitrarily and unilaterally” imposing “its own ban on travel to Israel, independently of an order from the FAA.”

“Airlines should be prohibited from effectively boycotting or otherwise discriminating against the world’s only Jewish State. It is one thing to temporarily suspend air travel to Israel on security grounds as defined by the FAA. But to unilaterally suspend air travel indefinitely until mid-2025, as American Airlines has done, has the practical effect of a boycott,” he wrote. “Given the arbitrary length of the suspension, one could be forgiven for thinking that the BDS movement had taken over the American aviation industry without anyone noticing, much less crying foul.”

“By what logic and in what universe is it safe for El Al to travel to Israel but too dangerous for American Airlines, Delta, and United to do so? It is worth noting that UAE airlines like Etihad, FlyDubai, and Wizz Air Abu Dhabi continue to fly to Israel without incident,” Torres asked, questioning the logic of their refusal to fly to the Jewish state.

A recent article at The Jewish Insider noted that US Representative Ritchie Torres (D-NY) has sent a letter to “American Airlines, Delta Airlines, and United Airlines expressing his concerns over their decisions to suspend flights to Israel without FAA guidance that such flights are unsafe.”

This is an important development because the airline cancellation chaos in Israel has become unsustainable and is needlessly punishing people who fly to and from Israel without proper guidelines or transparency.

I am one of the many people affected recently by these cancellations. I bought tickets on a major US airline in the spring to fly to the US on August 2. The airline canceled the flight around 36 hours before because of “unrest” in the Middle East.

This was the second major round of flight cancellations to Israel. The first occurred after the October 7 attack. In both cases, the cancellations have rewarded terrorist groups. In October, it was because Hamas attacked Israel, and in August, it was due to Iranian and Hezbollah threats.

It’s important to point out that these cancellations were not just for a day or a week, but they are occurring for months. Now it appears these cancellations mean Israel has been cut off from international travel by many airlines for most of 2024.

This is not because Israel’s air defenses are worse than they were in previous wars. In fact, Israel’s air defenses are better. Israel’s Arrow air defense system and David’s Sling have proved themselves in this war. The US has also helped bolster Israel’s defenses.

Yet, despite more support and better systems, international airlines are canceling flights anyway. This didn’t happen in previous wars. Israel fought Hezbollah in 2006 and Hamas in 2009, 2012, and 2014, and also short rounds in 2018 and 2021, and there were no long-term massive cancellations.

The complexity of having the US military build a pier, along with the weather and with USAID and other organizations involved and the Israeli military on the land side, created so many variables that it was clear that this would be a challenge. Every plan does not survive contact with the enemy, so the saying goes. In this case, the “enemy” was the weather and other logistical problems.

The pier ran into problems quickly. The WFP paused delivery of aid on May 19 and resumed it on May 21, adding to the chaos. On May 25, a small storm caused the pier to be dismantled, and several small portions ran aground on the Israeli coast. This caused several days of pulling the pieces of the pier – in fact, a tugboat section of the pier – off the coast by the USAV Matamoros, one of the US ships involved in the operation.

The pier operated again from June 7-9 and from June 19 to July 17, when it was finally dismantled. During this time, the IDF had already launched an operation in Rafah, and it had also opened new crossings for aid to northern Gaza. In addition, the IDF launched a raid into Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, an area several kilometers from the pier, which led to controversy regarding the pier.

In fact, the pier was never popular with any of the sides. The pro-Palestinian side didn’t like it, claiming it was papering over a dire situation in Gaza. Many voices who support Israel also felt it was a failure and potentially endangering the lives of Americans and IDF soldiers because it was a target for Hamas.

In some cases, trucks were looted. Overall, the chaos and the need to dismantle and reattach the pier made it less relevant for aid delivery. The report concluded: “In the 20 days JLOTS operated, 8,100 metric tons of assistance were delivered through JLOTS to Gaza. This was enough to feed 450,000 people for 1 month, according to USAID, at a time when access and security constraints hindered aid deliveries and distribution through traditional land routes.”

USAID had limited control over the decisions regarding the pier, the report said, including “where it would be located, and who would provide security on the beach and during transportation of JLOTS-delivered aid. These issues, coupled with high winds and rough seas in the Mediterranean Sea near the Gaza coast, impaired the Agency’s ability to deliver the intended amounts of aid through the maritime corridor.”

The report is not the final chapter. This is merely a report showing that USAID tried to utilize this pier, and that it was largely unable to do enough with it. The real story will relate to the US military and some of the decisions about why this concept was used in the first place.

There are lessons to be learned here. It appears this capability that the US possesses has many limitations. The concept of a temporary pier is a good one, but if it only works when the seas are calm, then it is limited.

The decision to send the pier came at a time when there was increasing chaos in Gaza. This was after the first phases of the IDF’s ground operation and before the Rafah operation in May. The US wanted to send a pier as a quick fix so that when the Rafah operation began, people would have enough food arriving. This was because of expected disruptions to the Rafah crossing.

This all makes sense, and it’s unfair to judge the operation too harshly. There were many other factors involved. However, it is clear that the land crossings that Israel eventually opened in northern Gaza actually were the best solution.

There was no compelling reason to bring food to a temporary pier when there are many working piers in Ashdod. Ultimately, this is where the aid arrived, and the temporary pier proved it was not capable of doing most of the mission envisioned.

The Israel Defense Forces is engaged in significant counterterrorism operations in northern Samaria, targeting terrorist activities in areas like Jenin and Tulkarm. According to IDF International Spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, these operations are part of a broader effort to address the ongoing and escalating terror threats in Judea and Samaria.

Speaking to journalists via video call on Wednesday, Shoshani emphasized the persistent nature of the threat, noting that “terror in Judea and Samaria is not something new, it is not a new threat.” He explained that even before Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, terror attacks had claimed the lives of over 30 Israelis in 2023 alone. The terror threat has only intensified since Oct. 7, with numerous deadly attacks being carried out against Israeli civilians and security forces.

Shoshani highlighted two recent attacks as examples of the violence emanating from Judea and Samaria. One involved the murder of Gideon Peri, a 35-year-old Israeli civilian who was killed on Aug. 18 by a Palestinian worker in an industrial park that was supposed to foster Israeli-Palestinian cooperation, said Shoshani. The second attack saw the murder of 23-year-old Israeli civilian Yonatan Deutsch on Aug. 11 in a drive-by shooting in the Jordan Valley. These incidents are part of a broader pattern of Palestinian violence in recent months, he said.

The IDF has identified a systematic strategy by Iran to arm and support terrorist groups in seven fronts across the Middle East, including in Judea and Samaria, Shoshani stated. He pointed out that Iran has been actively smuggling weapons and explosives into the region to be used in terror attacks against Israeli civilians. This strategy, he said, is part of Iran’s broader goal to destabilize the region and support terrorist activities against Israel.

In response to these threats, the IDF has been conducting targeted operations to remove immediate terror threats in real time. Shoshani noted that these operations are not new and have been ongoing for the past 11 months as part of Israel’s effort to ensure the stability of the area.

“We need to operate to remove terror threats, immediate terror threats in real time all across our arenas, to make sure that attacks against civilians that can kill our civilians do not happen,” he said.

Israel confirmed on Wednesday afternoon that it had killed a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist in an airstrike near the Syria-Lebanon border several hours earlier.

The Israel Defense Forces described Faris Qasim as a “significant terrorist in the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization’s Operations Division,” who was responsible for developing the terror group’s operational plans in Syria and Lebanon.

“He had a central role in the recruitment of Palestinian terrorists into the Hezbollah terrorist organization responsible for carrying out terrorist attacks from Lebanon against the State of Israel,” the IDF said.

“In recent years, the Hezbollah terrorist organization, with Iranian direction and funding, has been systematically recruiting Palestinian operatives to advance and direct terrorist activity against the State of Israel from Lebanese territory,” the statement continued.

Additional Islamic Jihad terrorists traveling from Syria to Lebanon to carry out terrorist activities for Hezbollah were killed in the strike, according to the IDF.

Earlier reports said that four terror operatives were killed in a drone strike on a vehicle at the Syria-Lebanon border.

Earlier today, Israeli airstrike on a vehicle on the highway between #Damascus and #Beirut. 3 Islamic Jihad operatives were killed in the strike, The #IDF says Faris Qasim, a significant figure in the terrorist groupwas killed. 1 #Hezbollah operative was killed along with them. pic.twitter.com/olaU91Mxnx

— Ori Miller🇮🇱 (@orielishamiller) August 28, 2024

The military has destroyed 80% of the tunnels in the Rafah area, IDF sources on Thursday claimed, while also confirming Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s announcement on August 21 that Hamas’s last battalion there had been taken apart.

Despite that claim, other senior IDF sources told The Jerusalem Post in late June it could take six months to fully chart all of the tunnels in Rafah and years to destroy them.

Confronted by this contradiction, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit stood by the 80% claim.

In addition, even in northern Gaza, which the IDF entered six months before it deployed in Rafah, there has been no indication that the army has reached anywhere near destroying 80% of the tunnels, with estimates ranging from almost 50% to just over 50%.

On August 21, Gallant said the IDF had destroyed 150 tunnels along the Philadelphi Corridor alone, which makes up only a small part of the full Rafah area.

Other possibilities
One possible resolution of the seeming contradiction is that the IDF has destroyed 80% of strategic tunnels – which includes those that are more critical to communications, intelligence, and weapons storage – but not all tunnels, including more minor ones.

Another possibility is that 80% of all known tunnels to date in the area have been destroyed, but many more have not yet been explored or found.

Yet a third possibility is that the IDF really has destroyed 80% of all tunnels in Rafah – far more than in northern Gaza or than estimated in June – due to having invested more resources in destroying tunnels in Rafah than anywhere else, and this move was unknown by commanders in June.

The Rafah tunnels, and the Philadelphi Corridor tunnels in particular, are viewed as having the greatest strategic importance to Hamas because they allow it to smuggle in weapons from Egypt.

Israel Defense Forces took out a key Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander who was long wanted by Israel for his role in terrorist attacks against the Jewish state, Israeli officials said Thursday.

Mohammed Jaber, the commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad-led Tulkarm battalion, was one of five militants Israeli forces fatally targeted inside a mosque in Tulkarm on Thursday as Israel’s major operation in the West Bank rolled into its second day. Israeli forces stormed Jenin and Tulkarm, two key militant strongholds, killing at least 10 Hamas militants and arresting thousands of suspected terrorists.

Jaber—also known as Abu Shuja’a—was on Israel’s most wanted list for his part in the planning and execution of various terror attacks, including a shooting that killed an Israeli civilian, Amnon Muchtar, in the West Bank in June, the Washington Post reported.

The Tulkarm branch of Palestinian Islamic Jihad posted to Telegram on Thursday confirming the "assassination of our leader," referring to Jaber, according to the Post.

Jaber has been an evasive target for Israel. Earlier this year, Israeli media reported that the IDF had killed the terrorist leader during a raid. He then arrived alive at a funeral days later.

While Israel has primarily focused its war efforts in the Gaza Strip and along the northern border with Hezbollah, the IDF has also led several campaigns to eliminate senior West Bank terrorist leaders. Iran, for the last decade, has been smuggling weapons to these terrorist groups in the West Bank, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

Here's one of the peaceful young men @RepRashida is standing up for. This one is Muhammad Jaber, a commander of Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Tulkarem.

He seems like a lovely fellow who supports peace between Israelis and Palestinians. https://t.co/tUeidlOBSPpic.twitter.com/K9Xbvg6Mue

— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) August 29, 2024

This drone footage shows a place of worship that has become a hub for terrorism.

During our precise, counterterrorism operations in Judea and Samaria this week, our troops uncovered a mosque that was used as an operations center and an explosives lab.

Our troops will continue… pic.twitter.com/1DagAuqKV9

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) August 29, 2024

Hamas is seeking to kill as many Israelis as possible. Hamas attacks Israelis from the Gaza Strip and also in the West Bank.

In this Daily Briefing, Citizen Spokeswoman @AshleyBakshi explains how Israel is dealing with the threat of Hamas. pic.twitter.com/XUdzMZVXDQ

— Israeli Citizen Spox (@IsrCitizenSpox) August 29, 2024

Top Hamas official Khaled Mashal called on Wednesday for a resumption of suicide bombings in the West Bank, Arabic media reported, and encouraged Palestinians and supporters of the Palestinian cause to engage in “actual resistance against the Zionist entity.”

According to Sky News Arabia, during an address at a conference in Istanbul, Turkey, Mashaal said that the Hamas terror group wanted to “return to [suicide] operations.”

The war with Israel in Gaza, as well as the frequent IDF raids against Palestinian terror entities in the West Bank, could “only be addressed by open conflict,” Mashaal was quoted as having said. “They are fighting us with open conflict, and we are confronting them with open conflict.”

“The enemy has opened the conflict on all fronts, seeking us all, whether we fight or not,” he said, appearing to refer to the assassination of former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement in the killing of Haniyeh, who was based in Qatar and had been the head of the terror group’s politburo wing.

“I repeat my call to everyone to participate on multiple fronts in the actual resistance against the Zionist entity,” added Mashaal, who had briefly been seen as a frontrunner to replace Haniyeh before the reins were handed over to Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar.

Hamas Leader Abroad Khaled Mashal Calls to Renew “Martyrdom” Operations, Adds: We Call on Student Leaders in the West and Arab and Islamic Countries to Renew Protests at University Campuses pic.twitter.com/V7GlmkjrEX

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) August 29, 2024

The IDF uncovered documents revealing a systematic effort by the Hamas terror organization to falsify public opinion polls conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR), Israel's military said on Thursday evening.

The documents were uncovered from Hamas's General Security Apparatus and obtained during operations in the Gaza Strip. Images released included a comparison of the original and falsified PSR poll results from March 2024, illustrating the extent of the tampering.

"These falsified results are designed to portray a misleading image of broad public support for Hamas and its leadership, particularly in the aftermath of the October 7 massacre," the IDF explained.

According to the findings, the altered survey results were particularly aimed at bolstering the image of senior Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and creating an illusion of widespread approval for the October 7 attacks and other acts of terror.

Furthermore, the IDF added that the documents had exposed a deliberate strategy by Hamas to mask the organization's declining public support and to manipulate perceptions both within the Palestinian territories and in the international arena.

Hamas's manipulation of PSR
However, the IDF also emphasized that there was no evidence of direct collaboration between Hamas and the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research. Instead, the terror organization manipulated the results through on-the-ground influence.

"These findings underscore the importance Hamas places on public opinion, as it attempts to falsely project widespread support among Gazans," the IDF added.

#busted🔎: The IDF just exposed Hamas for manipulating public opinion surveys by the Palestinian polling institute (PSR) to fake support for its leaders, especially after the October 7 massacre.

The documents, found during operations in Gaza, show how Hamas altered PSR's March… pic.twitter.com/Y2AoAy1bBv

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) August 29, 2024

Prominent Palestinian pollster Khalil Shikaki says it is “highly unlikely” that Hamas falsified the results of polls conducted in Gaza by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR), which he heads, rejecting claims by the IDF based on documents it said it found in Gaza.

“Our Gaza team worked with us for more than 20 years. But we will investigate all claims as part of a commitment to ensure full quality control,” Shikaki tells The Times of Israel.

Earlier today, the IDF claimed that it found evidence that the terror group was conducting clandestine actions to fraudulently influence the results of the polls, but said that the documents do not prove that PCPSR was cooperating with Hamas.

Shikaki maintains that the IDF claim is part of a “battle over narratives” between the military and the terror group.

“The center does not involve itself in politics, which is how I view this, the army against Hamas in the battle over narratives,” Shikaki says.

An alleged Hamas document released by the IDF shows the results of a PCPSR poll from March 2024, with both the original data and the falsified numbers. The published poll showed 71% of Palestinians supporting the October 7 Hamas attack, while the IDF says the actual data showed support from just 30.7% of respondents.

To understand how entire convo re Israel is built on double standards:

Israeli minister calls for building Synagogue at holiest site in Judaism = outrageous violation that is widely condemned.

Hxmas leader calls for suicide bombings while sheltered by alleged US ally = silence. pic.twitter.com/pJ1WrWxg3r

— AG (@AGHamilton29) August 29, 2024

The elimination of Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror leader Muhammad Jabber, head of operations in Nur Shams and Tulkarm, is being hailed as a major achievement in Israel.

Jabber, also called Abu Shuja'a, reportedly oversaw dozens of terrorists and directed numerous attacks,… https://t.co/Y0odDGeyqOpic.twitter.com/xUPdrku7dR

— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) August 29, 2024

Iran has spent the last decade quietly smuggling advanced weapons into the West Bank to arm more than two dozen militant factions responsible for a spate of recent terror attacks, experts say, culminating on Wednesday in a massive Israeli military operation to root out Tehran’s proxies.

Regional analysts have been warning for some time that a weakened Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank has set the stage for Iran-backed groups like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) to usurp control over the area and use it as a launching pad for Oct. 7-style attacks in densely populated areas near Jerusalem. Now, Tehran is funding, arming, and directing a constellation of more than 20 militant groups that see the West Bank as a pathway to terror in central Israel, according to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) think tank.

"Arms have flooded the West Bank, and terrorist organizations that used to be confined to some areas in the northern Gaza Strip have now flourished," Joe Truzman, an FDD research analyst who focuses on Palestinian militant groups, told the Washington Free Beacon. "Now, there are more than two dozen branches established by Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades in the West Bank," a sharp uptick from previous years.

While Israel has been conducting near-daily raids across the West Bank, operations that receive little media attention, Iran’s terror proxies continue to grow more emboldened. Terror groups in the West Bank, including Hamas and PIJ, have carried out more than 600 attacks since Oct. 7, setting the stage for Israel’s early Wednesday military campaign.

In the largest West Bank operation in a decade, Israeli forces stormed Jenin and Tulkarm, two key militant strongholds, killing at least 10 Hamas militants and arresting thousands of suspected terrorists.

The operation remains ongoing, a reflection of Tehran’s inroads across the West Bank, according to Truzman.

Iran-backed militant groups have already "established a joint operations room in Jenin, in the northern West Bank, to respond to IDF incursions," according to FDD’s terrorism tracker. "This fusion center enables terrorists from different (and sometimes competing) factions to fight the IDF together."

While the top US general for West Bank security says the number one threat to the area is “Jewish extremists.” Long past time to fire General Fenzel. https://t.co/BiBjfGg5tf

— Richard Goldberg (@rich_goldberg) August 28, 2024

Israeli Police have released BodyCam Footage showing the ongoing Anti-Terror Operation in the West Bank, with Officers seen engaging with several Terrorists. pic.twitter.com/nFhuTCXx0X

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) August 29, 2024

"Humanitarian aid" = Resupplying Hamas = prolonging war.
One of the many foreign policy achievements of Biden-Harris along with $90 billion weapons ti the Taliban, Abbey Gate, $100 billion in payoffs and sanctions relief to Iran. https://t.co/HKMBempPPk

— Caroline Glick (@CarolineGlick) August 29, 2024

The World Food Programme (WFP) announced on Wednesday that it is pausing the movement of its employees in Gaza until further notice after a WFP team came under fire Tuesday evening, a few meters from an Israeli checkpoint at the Wadi Gaza bridge.

According to WFP, the team was returning from a mission to Kerem Shalom with two WFP armored vehicles after escorting a convoy of trucks carrying humanitarian cargo routed to Gaza’s central area.

Despite being clearly marked and receiving multiple clearances by Israeli authorities to approach, said WFP, the vehicle was directly struck by gunfire as it was moving towards an IDF checkpoint.

None of the employees physically injured
It sustained at least ten bullets: five on the driver’s side, two on the passenger side, and three on other parts of the vehicle.

None of the employees onboard were physically harmed.

The IDF said it is probing the incident.

They don't say the IDF shot them. They say they were approaching an IDF checkpoint.
You can guess who shot them since the impacts are on the side of the vehicle not at the front which is where they would be if the shots were coming from the checkpoint.

— Òscar (@ara_meu) August 28, 2024

Israel has agreed to temporarily halt some military operations in the Gaza Strip to allow for a polio vaccination campaign, The Washington Post reported Wednesday night, quoting a senior State Department official.

The decision reportedly comes after Secretary of State Antony Blinken pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the issue during their meeting last week.

Last week, several Israeli infectious disease organizations jointly called on the country’s health and defense ministers to order an immediate pause in Gaza. Their aim was to enable a widespread vaccination drive to combat the rapidly spreading poliovirus in the territory.

The medical associations warned that the polio outbreak in Gaza poses a risk to Israeli soldiers in the strip, those dealing with imprisoned Palestinian terrorists and the hostages, including unvaccinated infant Kfir Bibas.

In response, the Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement clarifying that Israel had not agreed to “pauses in fighting for polio vaccinations” but rather to “designating specific areas in the Gaza Strip” for unspecified purposes. This careful wording likely aimed to avoid suggesting a humanitarian pause in the absence of a ceasefire agreement, which some members of Netanyahu’s coalition oppose.

Please help me make sense of this!

Pro Hamas people demand to boycott Israeli and Jewish inventions

They also ask Israel to supply Polio vaccines and a ceasefire for their distribution

But the Polio vaccine was a Jewish invention!!!

What should we do? pic.twitter.com/pdtAEytOpk

— Hamas Atrocities (@HamasAtrocities) August 29, 2024

Among those 640,000 children, what preparations are you making to vaccinate Kfir and Ariel Bibas?

They are without a doubt the two most vulnerable, at-risk children in Gaza. https://t.co/aBbZQocRQ8

— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) August 28, 2024

The ruins of Pesi Cohen's home, which was destroyed on October 7, were cleared on Wednesday as part of the Tekuma Authority's program to rehabilitate, renew, and develop the kibbutz.

The house was located in the Ashlim neighborhood in Kibbutz Be'eri, where all other destroyed homes were cleared six months ago in February. Cohen's house was the last remaining testimony to the devastation of the neighborhood, left standing until now due to military investigations into the battle that took place there and its outcomes, including attempts to understand how 13 hostages were killed in that house.

It was alleged that given an impossible choice over whether to continue to allow the Hamas forces to present a danger and given few clear-cut options for rescuing the hostages, Brigadier General and commander of the 99th Division Barak Hiram ordered a tank to fire on the house, destroying it and killing everyone inside, terrorists and hostages alike.

Among the losses included two children, long-time residents, and guests of the Kibbutz.

Pesi Cohen's daughter-in-law, Sharon Cohen, said, "Dear Pesi, your home was filled with warmth, love, acceptance, and inclusion, but on October 7, it became a place of unbearable grief and endless pain. Today, the ruins of your house sting and ache in every part of our bodies. We will rebuild Be'eri, and this will be our victory and our revival, together with the return of all the hostages."

Omri Shifroni, who lost four family members on October 7, including his aunt Ayala Hetzroni and his cousins Liel and Yanai Hetzroni, who were taken hostage in Pesi's house, commented, "The demolition of the house is neither closure nor a fresh start; it is a painful wound that emphasizes the loss and absence. But we cannot remain with the ruins. While the scars in our hearts cannot be healed, here, a new home built for a different life. We hope it will be as good as the one we once had."

Kibbutz Be'eri's secretary, Gili Molcho, stated, "These days, as the community transitions to temporary housing in Hatzerim, we are working on the physical rehabilitation of the kibbutz. So far, 30 homes and public buildings have been cleared, with hundreds more still to be demolished and renovated. After clearing Pesi's house, the reconstruction of the Ashlim neighborhood will begin. The clearing of the ruins is a painful reminder of the great devastation experienced by Kibbutz Be'eri, but it also symbolizes hope for future recovery."

During the events of October 7 at Cohen's home, the following individuals were murdered: Hana Siton, Yitzhak Siton, Tal Siton, Pesi Cohen, Liel Hetzroni, Yanai Hetzroni, Ayala Hetzroni, Ze'ev Haker, Zehava Haker, Adi Dagan, Chava Ben Ami, Tal Katz, and Suheib Abu Amr.

The survivors of the hostage-taking crisis at Cohen's home are Hadas Dagan, a Be'eri member who lost her husband, Adi Dagan, and Yasmin Porat, who escaped from the Nova music festival to Be'eri. The incident resulted in an IDF probe, as Israel's special forces and IDF soldiers fired extensively on the house, leading to calls for a thorough investigation into the decision-making process and actions taken on the ground.

IDF Women’s Chevra Kadish Leader Noa Lewis details her reaction to the “pure evil” October 7 attacks.

“I’ve never seen even anything close to that in my life,” Ms Lewis told Sky News host Sharri Markson.

“There were trucks and trucks of bodies coming.

“Very painful to watch.”

Hersh Goldberg-Polin's parents call to him from the border of Gaza.

“It’s Mama. Hersh, it’s day 328. We are all here. All the families of the remaining 107 hostages. Hersh - we are working day and night and we will never stop. I need you to know that I am giving you now the… pic.twitter.com/AuSef6BlSY

— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) August 29, 2024

“Edan Alexander. It’s Grandma and Grandpa. Do you hear us? Edanaleh! Mom and Dad are waiting for you. We’re worried about you and love you and waiting for your return home soon. Be strong, you’re strong, survive. We love you. We’re doing everything we can for you and for all the… pic.twitter.com/F6WvAKCrP2

— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) August 29, 2024

Qaid Farhan Alkadi, the Bedouin-Israeli hostage who was rescued from the Gaza strip on Tuesday, revealed he was held in captivity for two months with Aryeh Zalmanovich, a former hostage from Kibbutz Nir Oz who died in Hamas captivity, according to a KAN report on Thursday.

Alkadi testified that he witnessed Zalmanovich's death in captivity in December 2023, KAN added.

The information was brought to light by Ata Abu-Madighem, the ex-mayor of Rahat, on KAN. He claimed Farhan told him that "a Jewish friend died next to him, after two months, in December 2023."

Alkadi said the two were held in a hospital in the southern Gaza Strip for the first few weeks after being taken hostage on October 7. Zalmanovich told Alkadi about his sons, the kibbutz he was from, and his love for his family,

He then stated that Zalmanovich died five weeks later.

Boaz, the son of Aryeh Zalmanovich, told KAN after that his "Father was in the hospital in the southern Gaza Strip with Farhan throughout the entire time of captivity, about 40 days. A special bond was formed between them. Farhan was also wounded, but he took care of Dad and supported him. Dad was old and sick, did not receive proper medication and treatment - and was murdered in this way - after a period of physical and mental agony. They are not always shot."

"Father told Farhan that he loves us and cares for the members of the kibbutz - he knew what happened to them."

Alkadi was wounded on October 7. He told N12 that he was shot in the leg by terrorists on October 7 and, while in captivity, underwent surgery to remove the bullet in his leg.

According to the testimony of Qadi Farhan, while in Hamas captivity, he was imprisoned with 86-year-old Aryeh Zalmanovich who arrived after the kidnapping injured. Qaid saw Aryeh slowly dying during the first weeks of captivity, without food or medicine until he eventually… pic.twitter.com/fZJzUmtu3C

— יוסף חדאד - Yoseph Haddad (@YosephHaddad) August 29, 2024

Hamas say they kidnapped Israeli Bedouin Farhan Al-Qadi by “mistake”. So why do they still hold hostage the body of Muhammad El Atrash. Or Hisham a-Sayed who they have held for 10 years. Why did they take the Al Ziadne family and still have Hamza and his father Youssef? Liars. pic.twitter.com/c03RJH158S

— Heidi Bachram 🎗️ (@HeidiBachram) August 27, 2024

A suicide note that was reported to have been written by an October 7 Nova music festival survivor and was widely distributed on social media has been found to be fake, according to the inquiries of Israeli and international journalists.

After a number of high-profile figures expressed sympathy on social media for the writer of the anonymous letter, allegedly shared by a family member on a Facebook page titled “Stories of Nova,” further probes into the identity of the writer and his or her family to confirm the story’s veracity yielded a substantial lack of evidence.

Israeli media outlet Channel 13 reported that the letter was fabricated during a programme on Wednesday night, about which Channel 13 reporter Adam Shafir wrote on X: “A story that ran in recent days about a Nova survivor who saw horrors and committed suicide, did not leave a single dry eye. After trying to reach the family, to tell their story - the search turned into an investigation.”

Shafir said the investigation revealed the letter to be “a complete fake,” adding that “it is not clear what brings people to invent like this - but to cheapen the real plight of survivors, and to play with the souls of others - is simply disgusting.”

Delilah Schwartz, who volunteers with the Israeli mental health organisation Safe Heart, dedicated to providing professional support for survivors of the Nova music festival, confirmed that the letter was fake after corresponding directly with the administrator of the Facebook group where it was initially posted.

Schwartz said she reached out to the administrator of the Facebook group to get in touch with the poster, guaranteeing to keep the family anonymous as the poster claimed to be sitting shiva and requested privacy. The administrator said that the poster, claiming to be the sister of the Nova survivor who wrote the suicide letter, refused to give her brother’s name. She then told the administrator that it wasn’t her who posted the letter but her friend, at which point “something was starting to smell fishy.”

The segment broadcasted on Channel 13 relayed the same information, also checking with police and social services to verify whether a suicide had been reported, but came up empty-handed.

Would like to see them all delete their posts and admit they were duped by a fake, but I won't hold my breath https://t.co/sHCB5IhDOC

— Lahav Harkov 🎗️ (@LahavHarkov) August 29, 2024

Michael Doran, a senior fellow and director of the Hudson Institute, joins us to discuss why America must be a staunch supporter of Israel's right to exist.

As if Israel & the West didn’t have enough to worry about, there’s a rising China-Russia-Iran axis adding another element to world affairs. Join us today on the Caroline Glick Show for a deep dive into what this all means for Israel and the USA with renowned expert and editor of Asia Times, David Goldman. We’ll evaluate China and Russia’s involvement in Iran’s proxy war with Israel and try to understand their interests in the region. Learn about China’s long-term strategy, its delicate tangle with Islam, and how Israel and the USA can best navigate the challenge.

Chapters
0:00 China-Russia-Iran alliance
15:00 Chinese antisemitism on the rise
21:00 Mending the relationship w/Russia & China
29:00 Qatar in the mix
31:00 Ending the Ukraine war
39:00 Chinese Interests in MidEast
45:00 China-US relations

Lt.-Gen. (ret.) H.R. McMaster interviewed by Christiane Amanpour
Q: Some have been saying they believe Israel has done as much damage as they can right now to Hamas in Gaza and that this is a time to really try to nail down a ceasefire.

McMaster: "I would disagree with that, Christiane. I think they've got to hunt down the leaders. I think they've got to kill Sinwar or capture Sinwar....You've got to think back to what happened October 7th. We have a reminder, right, that there are still hostages."

"And even despite the gains that the Israel Defense Forces have made against Hamas, it's Hamas still who has the guns in Gaza. So, if you hope to get to any kind of progress toward an enduring peace or a two-state solution, you've got to destroy Hamas, right? Because Hamas is the organization that is committed to destroying Israel and killing all the Jews."

H.R. McMaster is a former U.S. national security advisor who served as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army for 34 years, including service in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Israeli security forces have arrived in full force to dismantle Iranian terror infrastructure in Judea and Samaria! This is the largest anti-terror operation that has been conducted here in the last 20 years!

After October 7, Americans split significantly.

Republicans became increasingly defensive of Israel.

Democrats, on the other hand, had the exact opposite reaction. Democrats became increasingly hostile toward Israel and Jews, and increasingly desire to stop arms sales to… pic.twitter.com/3zxC1Ynyt1

— Marina Medvin 🇺🇸 (@MarinaMedvin) August 28, 2024

Iran’s useful cowards; targeting and killing innocent civilians.

Hamas is the true enemy of peace and the Palestinian people.

Hamas’ elimination is essential for any future prosperity and self-determination. pic.twitter.com/sQkUwd5tir

— Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) August 29, 2024

Statement from the interviewee: Paul Martin is an independent and unbiased international journalist. He has no connections whatever with the people who interview him or with the platforms on which those interviews are transmitted. He stresses that on Mideast affairs he talks to and presents reportage to outlets of a very wide variety and by speaking he is not endorsing any of the views or biases of any of these platforms.

Who was Ismail Haniyeh, Leader of Hamas?
He was assassinated in Tehran on the last day of July 2024 and buried in Doha two days later.
He's been branded a "moderate”, but was in charge of Hamas’ so-called political wing, who’s murderers, rapists and kidnappers pillaged - and filmed - their way through southern Israel on the Shabbat morning of Simchat Torah on October 7th.
It was the biggest mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust.
Slain on Iranian soil in their capital city, Haniyeh’s financiers were deservedly humiliated.
A resident of billionaire's playground Doha, the capital of terror-supporting state Qatar - he was in Tehran for the inauguration of their new president.
The last one, of course, was killed in a helicopter crash.
Haniyeh met the Ayatollah, they tweeted a resistance photo, he then went back to his guest house and was taken out in his bedroom with his security guard.
So what was Ismail Haniyeh like?
Well, he loved sport for kickoff, fitting that he should be eliminated before end of the Paris Olympics.
Here’s someone who knew him. I’m delighted our latest guest joins a list of distinguished guests to have graced Jonny Gould’s Jewish State.
Paul Martin is an exceptional international journalist and correspondent, making it his business to report from the most hostile territories - in the name of journalistic freedom.
He spent 26 days in Hamas jail in Gaza and Haniyeh knew he was there. Did it help Paul that he knew he was in his prison? Who helped him get released? Even arch anti-Zionist Archbiship Desmond Tutu called for his release!
Paul was subjected to mental torture and tried the “Hamas diet”, where he lost two stone in weight during his incarceration.
Yet he also experienced exceptional levels of human kindness from a fellow inmate.
You'll hear how he thought quickly on his feet to avoid deathly danger.
And even when the British consulate promised freedom, he wasn’t sure whether it was a Hamas trap leading to his execution.
I interviewed Paul on the day Evan Gershkovich was freed in a Russian prisoner swap. Listen out for his statement to the waiting media as he walked to freedom into Israel.
But would he ever return? Would his wife let him?
This is Paul Martin's 26-day story as a Hamas prisoner in Gaza
Intrepid doesn’t cover it!

But they won't ever — because Palestinian identity has only ever been contingent on the negation of Israel.

They have NEVER wanted a two state solution https://t.co/ffVIukyucI

— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) August 29, 2024

Name a bigger clown here on @X than Alonso Gurmendi who does not know the basic facts of the area and thinks he has some sort of a gotcha moment. The land was called Judea and Samaria and was renamed by Jordan which is on the east bank of the Jordan River into the West Bank,… https://t.co/G9FUjfgZcYpic.twitter.com/aqCnEotKoT

— Michael Elgort (@just_whatever) August 29, 2024

Just one month after Israel’s national soccer team returned to the Olympics for the first time in nearly 50 years, the country is facing a potential ban from international competition in the world’s most popular sport.

FIFA, the global soccer governing body, is considering a request by the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) to temporarily bar the Israel Football Association (IFA) from future tournaments. The reason, as in Palestinian appeals to other international bodies, is the war in Gaza: Palestinian officials allege that Israel is committing violations of both international law and running afoul of FIFA’s human rights policies.

The PFA submitted its official proposal in March, and a decision is expected by Saturday. FIFA has postponed the ruling multiple times, including days before the Olympics — a tournament in which the Palestinians also challenged Israel’s participation. FIFA sought independent legal review and solicited input from both the Israeli and Palestinian soccer federations.

Israel has denied the accusations in the PFA’s claim, which IFA chief Moshe Zuares called a “cynical, political and hostile attempt by the Palestinian Association to harm Israeli football.”

Zuares said during remarks at FIFA’s annual congress in Bangkok in May, “Make no mistake, the IFA never violated rules set by FIFA and UEFA and will never do so in the future.”

Neither FIFA nor the IFA responded to Jewish Telegraphic Agency inquiries.

A ban would have an immediate effect on Israel’s national team, which is set to compete in the upcoming Nations League tournament organized by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), the European division of FIFA, of which Israel is a member. Israel is currently scheduled to face Belgium Sept. 6 in a game that has already been mired in controversy, as Belgium refused to host the match, citing security concerns. The game will instead be played in Debrecen, Hungary.

This is the CV of Jibril Rajoub, the Chairman of the Palestinian Football Association and convicted terrorist, who is waging a <SPORTING JIHAD> to expel Israel from football.

Tell @FIFAcom to give this racist campaign a 🟥 https://t.co/N12sNlHyjIpic.twitter.com/2LXxee6ixO

— Arsen Ostrovsky 🎗️ (@Ostrov_A) August 29, 2024

Hey @FIFAcom

This is a post from a coach of the Palestinian team - Ehab Abu Jaazar openly celebrating October 7 and attacking those that don't

Instead of giving the demonisation campaign against Israel legitimacy - maybe you should look at the terrorist supporters behind it pic.twitter.com/wVJSz0hB72

— David Collier (@mishtal) August 29, 2024

Counter-terrorism police have arrested the pro-Palestine activist Sarah Wilkinson over allegations relating to her online postings which are alleged to have shown support for proscribed groups.

Wilkinson had previously praised the 7 October Hamas attacks in Israel as an “incredible infiltration”, and had attempted to claim a series of posts casting doubts over the extent of Nazi Holocaust in her name were not written by her.

Jack Wilkinson, a family member, confirmed the arrest at Wilkinson’s UK home this morning posting on X: “The police came to her house just before 7.30am. There were 12 of them in total, some of them in plain clothes from the counter-terrorism police.

“They said she was under arrest for ‘content that she has posted online’. Her house is being raided, and they have seized all her electronic devices.”

Her arrest and action against other pro-Palestine activists had led to claims that under Keir Starmer counter-terrorism police are taking tougher action against alleged breaches of terror laws.

Home secretary Yvette Cooper is also planning to strenghen existing terror laws to ensure better monitoring of extremism.

On the day of the same day of the October 7 attacks, Wilkinson posted:”Hamas airforce publish their incredible infiltration by air into the illegal Israeli settlements in the Gaza envelope.”

Wilkinson, who writes for the anti-Israel MENA Uncensored network, has since posted numerous pro-Hamas messages on X including a tribute to “Hamas leader and hero Ismail Haniyeh” after he was assassinated.

In a statement earlier this month MENA praised Wilkinson for her support for the “Palestinian resistance and relaying what is really happening in Gaza and the West Bank to the world.”

But after posts from 2016 and 2017 emerged in which Wilkenson appeared to claim facts around the Holocaust had been “debunked” she claimed she was the victim of a smear campaign by someone who had set up a fake account.

Wilkinson has also been involved with the Palestine Action group, and appears in one of the groups videos.

.@TerrorismPolice need to look closely at her electronic devices. She’s been a frequent visitor in Gaza and has been known to be violent.

— GnasherJew®גנאשר (@GnasherJew) August 29, 2024

Everything wrong with the left and 'progressive' culture is captured here.

Sarah Wilkinson is an antisemitic conspiracy theorist, Holocaust denier and terrorist supporter.

If you exist in a culture where she is a 'human rights activist' that needs defending you are truly lost. pic.twitter.com/I2GDE4lELE

— David Collier (@mishtal) August 29, 2024

The American branch of the pro-vandalism, anti-Israel group Palestine Action was removed from social media platforms on Thursday after announcing that it was transitioning into a “militant propaganda” organization devoted to opening a new front of insurgency in the United States.

Palestine Action changed its name to Unity of Fields on Wednesday and explained that “passive solidarity” with Palestinians wasn’t enough, and taking inspiration from the October 7 massacre, it was necessary “to open a new front against the US empire” and “to build the international popular cradle of resistance.”

“Empires do not just collapse on their own,” said the newly rechristened Unity of Fields. “If victory over imperialism is possible, it will be because struggles against it have erupted all across the world, including here in the core.”

The Palestine Action splinter group said that its new name and approach were derived from the coordination of Palestinian terrorist organizations and allies despite geographical separation and ideological differences.

The group cited the Houthi Ansar Allah as saying, “The meaning of the unity of the fields is that we are all one hand, one leadership, one direction, one goal, and one approach, and any attack on any of the components of the Axis is considered a direct attack on us.” Palestine Action activist in Buckinghamshire (credit: SCREENSHOT VIA X)

Breaking: Palestine Action US has announced the creation of Unity of Fields, in coordination with the Yemeni Houthis.

They are opening a front of resistance and will move to becoming a “militant front against the US-NATO-Zionist axis.”

This is a call for domestic terrorism… pic.twitter.com/P1ZGxt9YW3

— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) August 29, 2024

There are always new depths for the most virulent haters. These creeps were the special guests of Massive Attack at their Bristol show last Sunday, by the way. pic.twitter.com/u0OI4Iwz5i

— habibi (@habibi_uk) August 29, 2024

Hey antisemites, leave those trees alone.

Orrong RD & Princess Highway, Melbourne pic.twitter.com/PbOxs41j6Y

— Australian Jewish Association (@AustralianJA) August 29, 2024

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

The outspoken chief rabbi of South Africa, Dr. Warren Goldstein, has once again given voice to crucial truths that others have shamefully ignored.

He accused both Pope Francis and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, of being indifferent to the murder of black Christians in Africa and the terrorism threat in Europe while being “outright hostile” to Israel’s attempts to battle jihadi forces led by Iran.

“The world is locked in a civilizational battle of values, threatened by terrorism and violent jihad,” said Goldstein. “At a time when Europe’s very future hangs in the balance, its two most senior Christian leaders have abandoned their most sacred duty to protect and defend the values of the Bible. Their cowardice and lack of moral clarity threaten the free world.”

Goldstein’s blistering accusations were on the mark.

Christians in Africa have been subjected to barbaric slaughter and persecution by Islamists for decades. Two years ago, Open Doors, an organization that supports persecuted Christians, observed: “In truth, there are very few Muslim countries—or countries with large Muslim populations—where Christians can avoid intimidation, harassment or violence.”

In January 2024, a report for Genocide Watch confirmed that, since 2000, 62,000 Christians in Nigeria have been murdered by Islamist groups in an ongoing attempt to exterminate Christianity. In addition, more than 32,000 moderate black Nigerian Muslims and non-faith individuals have been massacred.

According to a report in 2020 by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, Christians in Myanmar, China, Eritrea, India, Iran, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Vietnam are being persecuted.

These facts were reported in June by Peter Baum for The Daily Blitz. Yet the mainstream media all but ignore these atrocities. There are no marches in Western cities to accuse these countries of facilitating crimes against humanity. There are no NGO-inspired petitions to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to declare these countries and groups guilty of genocide.

Instead, the media and Western elites demonize Israel as the pariah of the world for defending itself against these genocidal Islamists. This unique and egregious double standard is the hallmark of classic antisemitism.

The attitude of the church leaders is even more astonishing. The hundreds of thousands of victims of this persecution are their flock. The goal of this onslaught is the wholesale destruction of the faith they lead.

Yet from Welby and the pope have emerged little more than occasional expressions of measured concern. And even then, they usually refuse to call out what’s happening by its proper name—the Islamist war to eradicate Christianity and destroy the West.

French President Emmanuel Macron is resisting pressure to appoint a left-wing prime minister, as the political deadlock plaguing the country since its parliamentary election in July continues.

By keeping a left-wing alliance out of government, Macron has blocked from power the far-left France Unbowed (LFI), a party that 92% of French Jews think is antisemitic, according to a recent survey by the American Jewish Committee Europe.

The French president is tasked with choosing a prime minister and a cabinet following a parliamentary election, and that government is then put to a vote in the National Assembly. In last month’s legislative election, the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) coalition won a 190-seat plurality of the National Assembly’s 577 seats — far short of a working majority. Centrist and right-wing parties said they would vote against an NFP government.

NFP is made up of LFI, socialists, communists and Greens who came together ahead of this year’s election to form an alliance meant to block the far-right National Rally from taking power.

Macron said on Monday that choosing a cabinet led by NFP would threaten “institutional stability,” and would be blocked by the other factions making up a majority of parliament. LFI leaders called Macron’s remarks an “anti-democratic coup” and vowed to impeach him.

American Jewish Committee Europe Managing Director Simone Rodan-Benzaquen said that Macron’s leverage is a result of NFP lacking a legislative majority.

“Any government involving LFI or even just relying on their support would be quickly brought down,” she said.

It was, to put it mildly, foolish of the veteran Democratic party strategist James Carville to say the other day, when asked about the pro-Israel position of the great majority of Republican voters, “It’s really about the racism that drives the thing. . . . The reason I suspect that most of these people describe themselves as pro-Israel is because the Jews [in Israel] are whiter than the Palestinians.”

As was pointed out in the wake of Carville’s remarks, Israelis are not demonstrably “whiter than Palestinians”; nor, since both groups vary greatly in skin color, would it be feasible to come up with a metric that might enable a comparison to be made. There are light-skinned, darker-skinned, and dark-skinned Palestinian Arabs, and light-skinned, darker-skinned, and dark-skinned Israeli Jews—and while Israelis and Palestinians can usually tell at a glance which of the two groups one of them belongs to, they do not do so on the basis of skin color. What they instinctively look for are other indicators, such as body language, facial expression, hair style, clothing, and head garb, and sometimes they guess wrong.

It is commonplace to observe that, when applied to skin color, white and black are as much sociological as physical categories. Many so-called whites are far from white; many blacks are not at all black. Nor does it necessarily have to do with ancestry. As we all know, Barack Obama’s mother was white and Kamala Harris’s was a native of India. If both Obama and Harris are considered, and consider themselves, black, this is because they identify with the African American community and because this seems natural to most Americans. As the Columbia University linguist and New York Times language columnist John McWhorter noted in a recent column:
Imagine how strange it would be if someone called [Obama] white. Imagine how strange it would be if he called himself white. . . . My maternal grandfather was light enough that he could easily have passed for white. My mother was quite light-skinned, too. Yet I have never considered myself anything but Black, nor did my grandfather or my mother. To look at photos of the three of us and see three “Black” people makes perfect sense to me because I have never known anything else.

True, many younger Americans with histories like Obama’s or Harris’s prefer to call themselves biracial, a relatively recent usage that was not an option in the past. (My 1955 Oxford Universal Dictionary, for example, reprinted with “corrections and revised addenda” from an original 1933 edition, does not even list “biracial” as a word.) The growing popularity of the word biracial reflects profound changes in attitude toward race and racial background in the United States, since traditionally, Americans of mixed ancestry have been expected to identify with the racial affiliation of either one set of their ancestors or the other; moreover, racist attitudes dictated that even in cases of white appearance, such as that of John McWhorter’s grandfather, a single known black forebear was enough to classify the person in question as black (or “Negro” or “colored” at a time when these words were still admissible).

In a sermon last month, the Rev. Frederick D. Haynes III told worshippers at his Dallas church about two encounters he had with his longtime criminal justice reform comrade-in-arms, Kamala Harris, after her ascension to the Democratic presidential ticket.

"Yo, you could have given your boy a ride on Air Force Two," Haynes claims he jokingly told the vice president when they met backstage at an American Federation of Teachers conference in Houston on July 25. They had crossed paths just the day before at a black sorority conference in Indianapolis, Haynes said.

Harris and Haynes, the pastor of Dallas's Friendship-West Baptist Church, have known each other for more than two decades. They worked together "in the early days of the criminal justice reform movement," Harris said at a conference for the Rainbow PUSH Coalition on July 16, 2023.

"I am so confident in his leadership and his ability to carry on the greatest traditions of this organization and to meet the challenges of this moment," said Harris. "Congratulations, Reverend Haynes."

And they have remained in close contact all the way through Harris's rise to the Democratic nomination. Haynes has visited the vice presidential residence and attended a roundtable discussion that Harris convened at the White House on February 29. Haynes told the Washington Post this month that he maintains contact with Harris and speaks to her about how to apply her religious faith to her government role.

That level of access to the potential commander in chief could raise concerns given Haynes's history of anti-American and anti-Israeli views.

On Oct. 8, the day after Hamas fighters slaughtered 1,200 Israelis, Haynes gave an explicitly anti-Israel sermon in which he dismissed a "manufactured war" between Israel and Hamas and called both Israel and the United States "apartheid" regimes.

"I recognize that we gotta be pro-Israel, yeah we got to do that, or we get in trouble," Haynes said mockingly. "Well, I'm coming to get in trouble."

"Palestinians don't have the financial backing from the United States that Israel has, and so they throw their rocks and shoot their arrows, and Israel is able to bomb them and kill them," said Haynes. "It is totally unfair, but this country's going to stand on the side of apartheid because that's its track record. It stood by apartheid in South Africa because it created apartheid in this country."

Haynes, who in 2017 touted anti-Semitic preacher Louis Farrakhan as a "wonderful and great man," in January urged the Biden-Harris administration in January to call for an Israeli ceasefire in Gaza. At a DNC event in 2020, Haynes said supporters of a border wall "may go to hell." In his Oct. 8 sermon, Haynes repeatedly criticized "Governor DeNazi," a nickname he coined for Florida governor Ron DeSantis (R.).

Kamala Harris's newly appointed head of Arab-American outreach once accused Zionists of "controlling" American politics, echoing an anti-Semitic trope that suggests Jews nefariously manipulate global affairs.

"The Zionists have a strong voice in American politics," Brenda Abdelall, an Egyptian-American lawyer and former Department of Homeland Security official, said in a 2002 interview with the New York Sun while attending the American Muslim Council's annual convention. "I would say they're controlling a lot of it."

Abdelall, whom Harris tapped earlier this week to help galvanize Arab voters, made the remarks after a speaker at the event, anti-Israel professor Jamil Fayez, said that "Zionists are destroying America." Responding to his remarks, Abdelall said that while "'destroying' is a harsh word," supporters of the Jewish state do control American politics.

The American Muslim Council's 2002 confab also provided attendees with a chance to meet anti-Semitic former congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D., Ga.), who famously blamed Jews for the 9/11 terror attack and attended a 2009 Holocaust-denial gathering in London. Her father similarly blamed Jews when she lost her congressional seat shortly after the 2002 conference. "Jews have bought everybody. Jews. J-E-W-S," he said.

Abdelall's appointment comes as Harris works to appease members of her party's liberal flank who want her to more aggressively confront the Jewish state and undermine its war on Hamas, including by cutting off arms sales. Harris has praised pro-Hamas campus protesters as "showing exactly what the human emotion should be, as a response to Gaza." In March, she accused Israel of stoking "humanitarian catastrophe."

Abdelall joins several other Harris campaign advisers who have a history of pressuring Israel and advocating increased relations with Iran. They include Harris's national security adviser, Phil Gordon, who is the subject of a congressional probe into his ties to a member of an Iranian government influence network. Ilan Goldenberg, Harris's liaison to the Jewish community, has faced scrutiny for his ties to the anti-Israel group J Street, as well as championing closer ties to Tehran.

Harris also appointed a veteran Israel critic, the Rev. Jen Butler, to conduct outreach to the faith community. Butler has come under fire for working alongside anti-Semitic activist Linda Sarsour.

StopAntisemitism is highly concerned to see VP Kamala Harris tap the deeply controversial and antisemitic Reverend Jen Butler to spearhead faith outreach for the Harris-Walz campaign.

Butler, a longtime supporter of Jew-hater Linda Sarsour and promoter of the false "Jesus was… pic.twitter.com/PXZxn1L4pN

— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) August 29, 2024

Montana, Iowa, and Tennessee have launched investigations into whether the investment behemoth MSCI has engaged in Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) practices by issuing harmful ratings to companies over their Israeli ties, potentially encouraging clients away from investing in them.

As part of its environmental, social, and governance (ESG) scoring, MSCI flagged at least nine companies as controversial for doing business in Israel, a Jewish News Syndicate investigation found. In response, the three U.S. states are demanding MSCI turn over documents showing how Israeli ties affected ESG ratings or inclusion in any exchange-traded funds. They also demanded information about what the investment firm advised clients about doing business in the Jewish state or with Israeli parties.

MSCI manages some $5.4 billion in assets and offers investing guidance for clients. Investors who are socially conscious or fear getting flagged themselves may avoid putting money into companies marked with human rights concerns.

"My support for Israel will not waiver and neither will Montana’s. I’m deeply concerned by the reports of discrimination against Israeli companies," Montana attorney general Austin Knudsen told the Washington Free Beacon. "Should we find MSCI has been involved in any illegal business practices, I will do everything in my power as attorney general to hold them accountable and continue to protect Montanans from unlawful and discriminatory business practices."

Iowa attorney general Brenna Bird issued a similar statement to the Free Beacon.

"After the barbaric terror attacks on October 7, it is more critical than ever that we support our allies in Israel and root out anti-Semitic hate," she said. "MSCI's silence when asked whether it is targeting companies for doing business in or with Israel is deafening. I am leading an investigation to get to the bottom of MSCI's concerning practices and to prevent companies from polluting the corporate world with anti-Semitism."

MSCI flagged Bank Hapoalim, Bank Leumi, Bank Mizrahi, Caterpillar, CEMEX, Elbit Systems, Heidelberg Materials, Motorola, and PayPal as controversial in its ESG ratings because the companies conduct business in the Judea and Samaria regions of Israel, the Jewish News Syndicate’s investigation found. Elbit, an Israeli security firm and frequent target of BDS activists, was marked for building security and surveillance barriers meant to protect the Jewish state from terrorists.

Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, which operates 15 centers in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, announced that it adopted a “weapons exclusion” in its investments, in part to boycott the Jewish state.

“We are proud to announce a new ‘weapons exclusion’ in our investment portfolio, so there is no longer the potential to earn interest from companies that profit from violence and war, such as the devastating loss of life and sexual and gender-based violence happening in Gaza,” it stated. “We encourage our supporters to join us.”

It added that “this weapons exclusion allows us to reject companies who profit from the manufacturing of weapons and is a meaningful step in addressing both the violence we are seeing and the feeling of powerlessness that so many of us have been experiencing.”

Journalist and scholar Ira Stoll wrote that “the activist demands to divest from Israel or to boycott or sanction it have frequently transformed nowadays to demands to divest from arms manufacturers that are making the weapons Israel is using to fight Hamas in Gaza.

“I find such demands naive and morally mistaken,” he continued.

“For one thing, the weapons manufacturers aren’t going to go out of business because Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, or other ideologically aligned nonprofits and individual investors, decide to divest. The profits will still exist, they’ll just go to other causes,” he added.

The suspects in the foiled plot to attack Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna earlier this month sought to kill “tens of thousands” of fans before the CIA discovered intelligence that disrupted the planning and led to arrests, the agency’s deputy director said.

The CIA notified Austrian authorities of the scheme, which allegedly included links to the Islamic State group. The intelligence and subsequent arrests ultimately led to the cancellation of three sold-out Eras Tour shows, devastating fans — known as Swifties — who had traveled across the globe to see Swift in concert.

CIA Deputy Director David Cohen addressed the failed plot during the annual Intelligence and National Security Summit, held this week in Maryland.

“They were plotting to kill a huge number — tens of thousands of people at this concert, including I am sure many Americans — and were quite advanced in this,” Cohen said Wednesday. “The Austrians were able to make those arrests because the agency and our partners in the intelligence community provided them information about what this ISIS-connected group was planning to do.”

Austrian officials said the main suspect, a 19-year-old Austrian man, was inspired by the Islamic State group. He allegedly planned to attack outside the stadium, where upwards of 30,000 fans were expected to gather, with knives or homemade explosives. Another 65,000 fans were likely to be inside the venue. Investigators discovered chemical substances and technical devices during a raid of the suspect’s home.

Austria’s interior minister, Gerhard Karner, previously said help from other intelligence agencies was needed because Austrian investigators, unlike some foreign services, can’t legally monitor text messages.

Today's guest is Nick Cave, the music legend who emerged from Australia in the 1980s. Over the years, Cave has written screenplays, soundtracks, and novels, and has collaborated with a diverse range of artists, from Johnny Cash and Kylie Minogue to P.J. Harvey and Neko Case.

Known for his brooding and meditative mystique, he coauthored the bestselling Faith, Hope, and Carnage in 2022, receiving plaudits for openly discussing his struggles with heroin addiction, his lifelong fascination with Jesus Christ, and his artistic development. Since 2018, he's published The Red Hand Files, where he answers readers' questions in a manner that is deeply vulnerable, touching, and insightful. Wild God, his rave-reviewed new album with his longtime band The Bad Seeds, is out on August 30.

Reason's Nick Gillespie talks with Cave about his unshakeable commitment to free speech, how the death of his 15-year-old son affected his art, his abiding interest in ritual and religion, and why he refuses to join artist boycotts of countries such as Israel.

This interview was recorded on location at the storied Electric Lady Studios in New York City.

0:00—Introduction
1:09—Ad: The Dispatch
2:15—The Red Hand Files
8:13—Connecting with audiences after loss
16:20—The Birthday Party's early days in London
20:10—Is Nick Cave a "goth"?
25:19—Ad: Bank On Yourself
27:09—New album, Wild God
29:53—Transcending cynicism and contempt
33:23—AI, pessimism, and losing avenues of meaning
39:35—Religious yearning and doubt
45:32—Defending free thought and expression
48:25—Kanye West's antisemitism and extraordinary creations of gospel music
50:26—Antisemitism, Jews, and Israel
52:47—Roger Waters, Brian Eno, and Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS)
58:33—Brief stint in Los Angeles
59:50—Loss and creation during COVID-19
1:03:10—Social media and censorship
1:05:10—The freeing effects of aging

Nearly 350 filmmakers, actors, and other members of the film industry signed an open letter on Wednesday, the same day as the opening of the Venice Film Festival, criticizing the prestigious festival for featuring two Israeli films.

At the center of the controversy is Dani Rosenberg’s Hebrew-language film “Al Klavim Veanashim” (“Of Dogs and Men”), which is about the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel, and “Why War” by director and screenwriter Amos Gitai, which will be making its world premiere on Aug. 31 out of competition. The latter film was inspired by a correspondence between Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud about avoiding war and “embarks on a search for an explanation of the savagery of wars that inhabit our world,” according to a synopsis provided by the Venice Film Festival.

In the open letter, published by Artists for Palestine Italia, members of the film industry claim “Of Dogs and Men” and “Why War” were “created by Israeli production companies that are complicit in whitewashing Israel’s oppression against Palestinians.” They claimed it was “unacceptable” for the Venice Film Festival to showcase both films and said they “reject complicity with the Israeli regime of apartheid and oppose the artwashing of its Gaza genocide against Palestinians at the 81st Film Festival in Venice.”

“‘Of Dogs and Men,’ shot in the midst of Israel’s ongoing attacks on Gaza, whitewashes the genocide,” the letter continued. “Like ‘Of Dogs and Men,’ ‘Why War’ was created by complicit Israeli production companies that contribute to apartheid, occupation, and now genocide through their silence or active participation in artwashing. Palestinian society, including the absolute majority of filmmakers, has called for refusing to screen such productions.”

Among the signatories were a number of Palestinian filmmakers and actors — including two-time Oscar-nominated filmmaker Hany Abu-Assad, Rosalind Nashashibi, Raed Andoni, and Saleh Bakri — as well as more than 80 Italian film industry figures such as screenwriter and David di Donatello nominee Davide Serino; filmmakers Enrico Parenti and Alessandra Ferrini; and actors Niccolò Senni, Simona Cavallari, Chiara Baschetti, and Paola Michelini. Others who signed the open letter included Tony Award nominee Kathleen Chalfant, César-winning actor Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, composer Nitin Sawhney, and Israeli filmmakers Oreet Ashery and Eyal Sivan.

Laura Sparks, president of Cooper Union in New York City, announced on July 17 that she would step down In August, but the news only began to spread widely on Thursday.

“Cooper Union president Laura Sparks has resigned in disgrace after capitulating to the pro-Hamas mob on campus and abandoning Jewish students who were under attack and hiding in the library,” wrote Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) on Thursday.

Stefanik, who has been deeply critical of responses by academia to anti-Israel campus protests in the wake of the Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, added that “there is more work to be done, and we will not stop until antisemitic university administrators face accountability for putting Jewish students in harm’s way.”

In a July 17 message to the Cooper Union community, Sparks wrote that “nearly eight years into my tenure here, I am writing to share that I will be moving on from Cooper next month to lead a new set of initiatives beginning in September designed to advance equitable opportunity in historically marginalized communities through civic engagement, philanthropy and business in Philadelphia, another city I love.”

“I am excited about this new opportunity, but this was, by no means, an easy decision,” she said. “This past academic year revealed new challenges, and I know this community is equipped with the intellect, creativity, and compassion to continue to collaboratively advance a sustainable, long-term path, even in the turbulent times that confront us.”

At press time, the Cooper Union website stated that Malcolm King, an alumnus of the school and former board chair, is the interim president.

Sparks’s message didn’t mention “antisemitism” or “Jewish students.” During her tenure, anti-Israel protesters trapped a group of Jewish students in the library shortly after Oct. 7, shouting “Free Palestine.”

That incident—and Sparks instructing police to stand down—prompted a lawsuit by 10 Jewish students, who alleged that the university illegally permitted and encouraged discrimination and harassment of Jews.

BREAKING: Laura Sparks, president of The Cooper Union, where Jewish students were trapped in the library by a mob of protestors, has resigned.

“This past academic year revealed new challenges…”

She is moving to Philly to “advance equitable opportunity in historically… pic.twitter.com/T0UP0L5G8X

— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) August 29, 2024

Anti-Israel flyers featuring a link to an interactive map of Jews and Zionists in Massachusetts were distributed at Monday's orientation for new Massachusetts Institute of Technology students, MIT President Sally Kornbluth said in a Wednesday statement condemning the flyers and project.

Several students had handed out flyers that said "welcome to MIT!" next to a drawing of the university's mascot, said Kornbluth. The flyers commented on conflict in Middle East and Israel with links to materials including the controversial Mapping Project.

Kornbluth wished to clarify that the flyers were not official MIT content and denounced the Mapping Project, which catalogs and maps the supposed connections of Jewish and Zionist organizations, synagogues, universities, businesses, schools, media outlets, and law enforcement agencies and their ostensible relationships to Israel and the US government.

"While I have repeatedly defended freedom of expression, I must tell you that I found some of the websites cited on the flyers deeply concerning," said Kornbluth. "I believe the Mapping Project promotes antisemitism. Like every other form of racial and religious prejudice and hate, antisemitism is totally unacceptable in our community. It cannot be justified, and it is antithetical to MIT’s values."

Feeling unwelcome on campus
Some students also reported to Kornbluth that they had been made unwelcome to MIT because of the flyers.

Kornbluth said that it was unfortunate that she had to start the academic year with such a statement, and assured that "every student, and every member of our faculty and staff, belongs here" and was welcome.

The Mapping Project was published in 2022 and was endorsed by BDS Boston.

"Our goal in pursuing this collective mapping was to reveal the local entities and networks that enact devastation, so we can dismantle them," reads the Mapping Project website. "Every entity has an address, every network can be disrupted."

A group of Jewish organizations that are suing the Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) filed a motion to add more alleged evidence to bolster their claims that the district violated California’s opening meetings laws to exclude the Jewish community’s input in approving the ethnic studies courses.

The Anti-Defamation League, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, the American Jewish Committee and the law firm Covington & Burling announced the submission of additional evidence Tuesday.

The initial lawsuit was filed in September 2023, claiming Santa Ana Unified violated Brown Act and AB 101, a state statute mandating ethnic studies for California high schools, to impetuously approve the ethnic studies curriculum with “antisemitic and unlawfully biased content” while preventing feedback from the Jewish community.

In the latest motion, one piece of alleged evidence revealed some senior officials of the district allegedly considered holding meetings to approve courses on Jewish holidays so that Jewish members of the public would not attend to voice their opinions or concerns.

“The shocking evidence our team has uncovered shows that SAUSD deliberately tried to keep the public in the dark about the extreme biases and antisemitism that infected the District's ethnic studies curriculum,” said Dan Shallman, lead counsel from Covington & Burling LLP. “In doing so, SAUSD violated State law."

The Jewish groups also said some members of the board showed bias toward Jewish Americans with one board member suggesting the stories of Jewish Americans not be part of Santa Ana’s ethnic studies because the Jewish race falls under the white category.

In another incident, steering committee members allegedly said Jewish people are not part of a marginalized ethnic group because “they were never slaves,” adding Jewish Americans “greatly (benefited) from white privilege.”

The distinct Tuesday denied the claims by the Jewish organizations, vowing to clear its name in court.

"The district will appear in Superior Court next month to defend its action of approving certain Ethnic Studies courses mandated by California’s legislature as new graduation requirements,” the Santa Ana Unified School District said in a statement. “The district denies (the) claims and will present counter arguments and facts to the court for consideration and is optimistic that the court will ultimately find in favor of the district.”

One more:pic.twitter.com/NmI1HeVBDx

— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) August 29, 2024

BREAKING: The new Chair of the @Penn Board of Trustees suggests Penn is considering institutional neutrality and reiterates that it will not divest from or boycott Israel.

He adds that the “BDS movement demonizes Jewish and Israeli members of our community.” pic.twitter.com/xCrlR0Ua4b

— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) August 29, 2024

An investigation into Dr. Wasim Khan is urgently needed @UICDom / @UICancerCenter.

Concerned? cancercenter@illinois.edu & uicancercenter@uic.edu.

All of Dr. Khan's tweets have been archived here:
- https://t.co/M7Q295a0Y0
- https://t.co/lVG5ZhOQaO
- https://t.co/C9UfPr0pAz
-… pic.twitter.com/TULzq8CFVa

— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) August 29, 2024

Concerned?

Email: info@enhance-rehab.com

— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) August 29, 2024

Last week, renowned Al Jazeera commentator Jamal Rayyan posted a picture on his X account showing a summit of Arab leaders, alongside the rhetorical question “Why this silence? Are there Jews ruling among you?”

The blatant antisemitism expressed by an important anchor at the Qatari-run channel is subject for another discussion as published by The Jerusalem Post. However, astute users online noted and pointed out amusedly and ironically that the picture posted by Rayyan featured all Arab leaders except for one – the Qatari Emir. Rayyan’s supreme boss is apparently too perfect to be subject to any form of criticism.

What is media?
Media in democracies is one of many features in an array of checks and balances whose main role is to hold the authorities accountable. It’s a mechanism that, if applied correctly, can help expose corruption, deter elected officials from misusing their power, amplify otherwise silenced voices, and offer a free market of ideas.

Partisan and loyalist media exists in the Western world, of course. All commentators are entitled to their opinions and many bring them out openly. There are certainly entire channels and media conglomerates who view their role as promoting a certain agenda or opinion (and in some familiar cases, a certain candidate, regardless of their agenda or opinion).

However, there is a great difference between partisanship and the act of serving as a mouthpiece for a dictatorship. A simple test exists: Is this media outlet able to criticize the political and social leaders of its movement freely? And on the national level – are the views propagated by this media outlet monolithic, or is there room for criticism?

This newspaper, for instance, proudly supports the Zionist vision of a Jewish state ever since its very inception in 1932. It will probably not espouse exclusive interviews with leaders of terrorist organizations or platform antisemitic discourse. However, unlike media outlets in non-democracies, this newspaper is not committed to parroting talking points of a government or party and can offer its criticism and thoughts freely.

This is not true for non-democracies. On the national level, dictatorships own entire media arrays whose job is to push their leaders’ agendas. Such is the case with Qatar, which owns the aforementioned media giant, Al Jazeera. According to former employees in the channel, a direct line connects between the royal court and the chief producer’s office. This facilitates the royal family, who owns both Al Jazeera and the country of Qatar, the act of steering their desired messages and creating their wanted narratives. In simpler terms, this media channel is a governmental agent acting on behalf of another nation.

On October 7, Bedouins and other people of minority groups in Israel’s south on that day suffered at the hands of Hamas terrorists and its followers. This is evidence that even when Hamas send rockets from Gaza, they have no “specific” intent to avoid Muslims, Christians, Buddhists or any other people inside Israel.

The point is, despite the fact that al-Qadi is a devout Muslim himself, he was still brutally taken hostage by Hamas on October 7 and kept as a hostage in horrific conditions for 11 months in Gaza. He was one of five other Muslims taken hostage on that day, and two are still in captivity. There is also one additional Israeli Bedouin civilian, Hisham al-Sayed, who has been infamously held hostage by Hamas for a decade.

Despite the families’ pleas for Hamas to send them home in good faith as fellow Muslims, the response was silence.

The New York Times trying to convince readers or make assumptions about “specific” targets of Hamas otherwise is an unethical conviction.

Qaid Farhan al-Qadi is a Bedouin with Israeli citizenship
To deny this fact is to create a false narrative that suggests Bedouins do not have rights in Israel. Indeed, many of them are citizens and have full rights. While the issues between the Bedouin community of the Negev and the Israeli government are complicated, that does not take away from their rights as citizens. Therefore, they should be referred to as such.

Unfortunately, biased media like the BBC seem to want readers to believe that Israel is an apartheid state. Bedouins are not “forced” to live on “reservations”

The issue here is that a different country’s cultural framing, namely the United States, with its own separate history, is being applied to the Bedouins in Israel. Whenever this happens, it not only takes away from the Native Americans, a different group’s struggle or story, but it gives readers misleading context to the Bedouins’ story.

As is stated in the tweet above, Bedouins in Israel are not Native Americans and their villages in the Negev are not reservations. They are semi-nomadic, meaning they can move around, and don’t all live in cities and towns as Westerners are accustomed to. Rather, they pitch up structures wherever desired. So they are not “forced” to live anywhere. They can also, as all Israeli citizens are entitled to do, buy or rent an apartment in Tel Aviv if they so wish.

What is worse here, is that CNN also misquoted the one-sided Minority Rights Group article that it relied on its information from. Changing past tense to present tense is a distortion of the truth and reality to appease an agenda. It also delegitimizes a news publication’s journalistic integrity to do such a thing.

The Wall Street Journal’s Poisoned Pen
Aside from its implicit bias, another issue with The Wall Street Journal’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict is its reliance on contributors with a history of hostility to Israel, who help contribute to the distorted framing of the newspaper’s narrative.

In the first month of the war, HonestReporting shined a light on Palestinian journalist Fatima AbdulKarim, who had been affiliated with the Journal since before the war.

Based in Ramallah, AbdulKarim has a history of incendiary social media posts that accuse Israel of “Apartheid” and “ethnic cleansing,” rely on anti-Israel sources like Breaking the Silence and Defense for Children International-Palestine (a front for the PFLP terror organization), and distort the news in order to whitewash Palestinian terrorism and smear Israeli actions.

In August 2024, HonestReporting uncovered the hate-filled social media history of Journal contributor Abeer Ayyoub, who celebrated October 7 on X (formerly Twitter), spread fake news about a kidnapped Israeli general, mocked Israel in its darkest hour, and whitewashed Hamas’s terrorism.

To solidify her anti-Israel presence online, Ayyoub commented in Arabic “Eat shit” on a message of sympathy with Israel by X owner Elon Musk on October 7.

With contributors like Fatima AbdulKarim and Abeer Ayyoub, is it any wonder that there is a noticeable trend of bias that permeates the Wall Street Journal’s ongoing coverage of Israel’s war against Hamas?

American poker player, businessman, and social media influencer Dan Bilzerian’s recent contributions to the social media platform X have followed a disturbing pattern: a video of himself on a podcast denying the Hamas atrocities of October 7, a graphic filled with fake Talmud quotes, and a two-word reply to a post urging America to stand firmly against Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed terrorist group: “Fuck You.”

Ah, the sparkling wit we’ve come to expect from the illustrious ranks of social media influencers who are using the Israel-Hamas war as an excuse to spew antisemitism. Among these beacons of intellectual discourse, we find Nick Fuentes, Candace Owens, Jake Shields, and Jackson Hinkle—an impressive lineup of personalities united in their shared fondness for anti-Jewish bigotry.

But let’s refocus on Bilzerian.

Dan Bilzerian first stumbled into the spotlight during the rise of social media in the mid-2000s, where he generously shared an insight into his luxury lifestyle with impressionable young followers worldwide. His Instagram, boasting 32 million followers, sticks to a simple formula: a slew of staged photos featuring Bilzerian surrounded by scantily clad women.

Though Bilzerian claims to have amassed his fortune as a professional poker player, this claim—like much of what he says—is doubtful. Other professionals in the poker world dispute his supposed mastery of the game, and it’s far more plausible that his wealth stems from a hefty inheritance from his father, convicted fraudster Paul Bilzerian.

Yet, despite Bilzerian’s shaky relationship with the truth, his repugnant views on women, and his dubious financial history, the media inexplicably did, and continue, to try and elevate him into the echelons of stardom.

Here’s something you don’t see very often: The New York Times reports that Palestinian “refugee camps” do not have refugees and are not camps. pic.twitter.com/H2sUCwDgg7

— Daniel Rubenstein (@paulrubens) August 28, 2024

Al Jazeera's documentary, “Gaza: The War on Hospitals,” overlooks a crucial detail: Hamas is fighting the war from *within* Gaza’s hospitals.🏥🚨 pic.twitter.com/mpJ8bzzTlr

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 29, 2024

Fanning the flames and pouring gasoline on a multi-front military offensive against the State of Israel, supporting your proxies and becoming directly involved in firing rockets & drones.

That's a "pragmatic" approach by the Islamic Republic to get sanctions lifted? 🤨 pic.twitter.com/YqYKDe6CFp

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 29, 2024

Source: https://t.co/ZVzE1fNsCA

— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) August 29, 2024

So @BBCNews interview a Palestinian propagandist, who posts starving Syrian kids and says they're Gazan starved by Israel, a man in bed with Hamas, and here marches to chants of "You who own a rifle and hide it only to shoot at weddings, either shoot a Jew or give it to Hamas." https://t.co/qKN8IiAuyFpic.twitter.com/zGthgtczeR

— Joo🎗️ (@JoosyJew) August 28, 2024

⚠️ BREAKING: Candace Owens' antismitic interview on YouTube with Tristan Tate has been REMOVED after I reported her video where she spews vile Jew-hatred.

Thank you @TeamYouTube for removing this filth. 🫡 pic.twitter.com/8YEIviv5kS

— Awesome Jew (@Jewsarethegoat) August 28, 2024

Debating a conspiracy theorist is a succinct definition of futility. They are impervious to disconfirmation, operating in a monological context with an impoverishment of inductive reason. And those are the ones who aren’t grifters!

This is harmful, @piersmorgan& @RabbiShmuley. https://t.co/KwL5QgLFPg

— John-Paul Pagano (@johnpaulpagano) August 28, 2024

A Scottish newspaper has been accused of attempting to “demonise” a newly elected Labour MP who accepted a paid trip to Israel and the West Bank from the Labour Friends of Israel group.

Under the lurid headline “Zionist Group Picks Up Bill For Labour MP’s Israel Trip” The National newspaper questioned how Graeme Downie, the member for Dunfermline and Dollar, could “claim to serve the interests of his constituents while being actively courted by pro-Israel lobbies”.

The newspaper, renowned for its pro-SNP stance, focused on Downie after he properly declared the LFI trip, which cost a total of £2,200, and saw him meet with Israeli and Palestinian politicians, academics, activists and diplomats in September 2023.

A spokesperson for Downie confirmed: “The trip was undertaken in September 2023 and involved a visit to Israel and an UNWRA refugee camp in the West Bank for meetings with politicians from the Palestinian Authority, third-sector groups and charities along with Israeli government officials.

“All declarations have been made in line with parliamentary rules to ensure transparency.”

The article also including a quote from Gerry Coutts, of campaign group Scottish Friends of Palestine.

Coutts claimed: “How can Graeme Downie claim to serve the interests of his electorates while being actively courted by pro-Israel lobbies?

“He accepted a fully funded trip to meet with Israeli officials which further puts in question his integrity and impartiality when it comes to Israel, the world’s longest illegal occupation, a well-documented apartheid regime.

“The Labour Party has a long history of supporting the Israeli colonisation of Palestine. LFI has existed since the 1950s and does not disclose where it gets its funding but has close ties with the Israeli state.

“What we see here is a foreign state cultivating politicians early on in their careers to serve its interests.”

“The online version of Thursday’s report in The National was awash with openly antisemitic comments over Labour funding by “a Jewish entrepreneur” and LFI being “bankrolled by the generosity of members of the Jewish community.”

A former Labour investigations officer, who featured in an Al Jazeera documentary claiming antisemitism was used as a “tool” to stifle criticism of Israel, has had her claim for unfair dismissal against the party dismissed by a tribunal.

Halima Khan, who worked for nearly three years in Labour’s Governance and Legal Unit (GLU), took the party to a tribunal over a case that centred on the leaking to the media of confirmation that the suspension of television presenter Sir Trevor Phillips from the party over Islamophobia claims had been lifted.

While Khan was cleared of suspicion of leaking the confidential news herself to media outlets including the Guardian, Labour List, and to the Labour Muslim Network, she had been dismissed from her job in March 2022 after Labour bosses found that she had accessed data on the high-profile case other than for her work, and had misled managers about how she found out about the decision to lift the Sky News presenters ban.

At the tribunal in London she represented herself as she attempted to prove she had been unfairly dismissed by Labour in March 2022 and had also been the victim of racial discrimination.

But in a reserved judgment, Judge Goodman dismissed both claims, highlighting how Labour’s investigating team had concluded Khan’s evidence to them had been “knowingly deceptive”.

“The claimant’s evidence to the tribunal shows that they were not mistaken,” concluded Judge Goodman.

In 2022 Khan had been given a publicity as a “whistleblower” in the Al Jazeera series The Labour Files , where she claimed there a “hierarchy of racism” in the party dictated to her by management and that allegations of antisemitism were “used as a tool” for factional advantage against the left, and to silence critics of Israel.

The pro-Palestine campaigner is also understood to have withdrawn further claims of dismissal for making public interest disclosures and discrimination because of religion and belief, on the advice of the lawyers who had previously represented her.

NJ Friday Sermon by Khalil Adem: YouTube Influencers Are Starting to Ask Why Israel Is Controlling America, but Allah Told Us about the Characteristics of the Jews in the Quran; We Know Their End Will Come and Muslims Will Be the Ones to Do It pic.twitter.com/bSQeWZWhNA

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) August 29, 2024

A delegation featuring Knesset members from The Joint List paid a visit this week to Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, preacher of al-Aqsa, who was issued a ban from entering Temple Mount earlier this month, following a eulogy he delivered honoring Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

The delegation included MKs Ayman Odeh, Ahmad Tibi, and Youssef Atauna from The Joint List, in addition to former MK Sami Abu Shehadeh, and chair of the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel, former MK Mohammad Barakeh.

The controversial Sheikh
In his speech, Barakeh claimed that “our people are the only ones allowed to access al-Aqsa,” and stressed the role of Jerusalemite Arabs “defending al-Aqsa,” thus indirectly convoking the propagated “al-Aqsa in danger” libel. He also denounced the “Israeli massacres” in Gaza and the West Bank and what he deemed governmental support for “criminal gangs to fragment our society from within.”

Another speaker was Sheikh Raed Salah, leader of the Northern Wing of the Islamic Movement, who recently spent time in prison himself for incitement to violence.

In February 2024, the prosecutor’s office announced that two indictments would be filed against Sabri for incitement. In the past, he has shown support for suicide bombings and even met with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. He served as a board member of the Union of Good, an international umbrella organization of alleged ‘charity’ associations responsible for funneling funds to Hamas.

Sabri’s website is filled with historic inaccuracies and antisemitic discourse. In one instance, he quotes the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, claims that the Talmud is racist and states that Jews are a superior people, and devotes a long article to refute any Jewish claims in Israel.

At a meeting with Israeli military intelligence, Palestinian Media Watch was shown the following seized pages of Hamas’ plans for the attack on Kibbutz Mefalsim in southern Israel. PMW is publishing this with the military’s permission.

Dated “October 2022,” these few pages of Hamas’ attack plans clearly show that not only did the terror organization meticulously plan the attack years in advance, Hamas also determined from the beginning that one of their main goals would be to murder Israeli civilians and take CIVILIAN hostages:

“The mission: At X hour on X day, the platoon will attack Kibbutz Mefalsim in order to kill and take captives…”

“The platoon will attack Kibbutz Mefalsim from the main gate, confront the regional defense forces and any other force in the kibbutz, and take control of it.”

“Soldiers and civilians should be captured, hostages should be held, and negotiations should be carried out about them.”

[Israeli Military Intelligence, published with permission]

While these pages are only a fragment of Hamas’ attack plans, they clearly illustrate the pure evil of the attack on October 7, 2023. Unfortunately, the plans were carried out successfully and at the time of writing, 108 hostages are still being held in Hamas captivity, around 1/3 of them are believed to be dead. These are in addition to over 1,100 murdered Israelis and foreigners on October 7.

Why do people choose to stay in North Gaza, despite the fact that it is an active warzone and there is no fresh food at affordable prices, only canned food and flour, and despite the fact that the South is relatively safer, fresh produce is abundant and cheap, and there is so…

— Imshin (@imshin) August 29, 2024

Gazans in South Gaza looting supply trucks on their way to North Gaza, despite knowing that the situation in the North is more difficult than in the South.#TheGazaYouDontSeehttps://t.co/BnqnHFjkVz

— Imshin (@imshin) August 29, 2024

Ice cream for sale in South Gaza. It costs 5 shekels ($1.37), although before the war it cost just 1 shekel ($0.27).
Despite the price, people are queuing up and the seating area is full.
TikTok timestamp: 1 day ago#TheGazaYouDontSee
Link in 1st comment pic.twitter.com/JCWvQObPhA

— Imshin (@imshin) August 29, 2024

More shampoo drama...
This man in South Gaza complains about the indignity of having to buy shampoo in a plastic bag!
Meanwhile, fruit and vegetables are plentiful.
TikTok timestamp: 22 hours ago#TheGazaYouDontSee
Link in 1st comment https://t.co/jNxQaL7ETnpic.twitter.com/C0iDtqVKjb

— Imshin (@imshin) August 29, 2024

Germany is planning to deport the leader of an Islamic center it banned in July over alleged links to extremist groups, an interior ministry spokeswoman said Thursday.

Investigators swooped in on the Hamburg Islamic Center five weeks ago after concluding it was an “Islamist extremist organization” with links to Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group.

Mohammad Mofatteh, 57, the former director of the center, has been ordered to leave Germany within 14 days and faces deportation if he does not comply, the spokeswoman said.

He will not be allowed to re-enter Germany and could face up to three years in prison if he does.

Andy Grote, interior minister for the state of Hamburg, said Mofatteh’s deportation was “the next logical step” against the Hamburg Islamic Center.

“As a top religious representative of the inhumane regime in Tehran, his time in Germany has come to an end,” he said.

Ali Al-Hajj Hassan, Head of the Youth Section at Hizbullah’s Cultural Mobilization Department, on Efforts to Mobilize Students in the West for Palestine Action in the Upcoming Academic Year: We Told the Student Activists that They Have a Great Impact, They Should Fill the… pic.twitter.com/O8hnJnjgWG

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) August 29, 2024

Iran TV Promotes Starbucks Boycott: Barista Writes Customer’s Name on Coffee Cup with a Severed Hand; TV Host Adds: Starbucks Practically Belongs to Jews, It’s Common Knowledge @Starbucks#Iran#Antisemitismpic.twitter.com/xsFTumILz8

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) August 29, 2024

A 33-year-old Algerian man who for a “long time nursed a hatred towards Jews” and wanted to “support the Palestinian cause” has been charged with attempted murder for an arson attack on a French synagogue last weekend, prosecutors said on Wednesday.

A police officer was injured when a gas canister near a burning vehicle exploded after the suspect allegedly set fires around the Beth Yaacov synagogue Saturday in the Mediterranean resort town of La Grande-Motte.

The suspect, identified by prosecutors only by his initials EHK, fled the scene but was later arrested. He was injured in the thorax, arm and face during the arrest, France’s national counterterrorism prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

French authorities have described the attack as an act of antisemitic terrorism.

The rabbi and several people were inside the building and escaped unharmed; most of the worshippers had not yet arrived for the Shabbat morning services when the explosion occurred.

In addition to attempted murder, the suspect was also charged with taking part in a terrorist conspiracy, arson and assaulting police officers. He has been placed in pretrial detention, the prosecutor’s office said.

The attack deepened anxiety among France’s Jewish community, which has long been targeted by deadly attacks and where antisemitism has skyrocketed since the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre that triggered the current war in Gaza.

“Once again, French Jews have been targeted and attacked because of their beliefs,” Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said after visiting La Grande-Motte. “We are outraged and repulsed.”

Data from the state of New York shows that reported hate crimes for 2023 jumped 69% from 2019.

The office of State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli released a new analysis on Wednesday titled “The Concerning Growth of Hate Crime in New York State,” which broke down hate-crime reports by intended target and compared the results with previous years.

“In 2023, nearly 44% of all recorded hate crime incidents and 88% of religious-based hate crimes targeted Jewish victims, the largest share of all such crimes,” the report said.

DiNapoli stated that “fighting hatred and bigotry demands that we communicate with, respect and accept our neighbors. It requires our spiritual, political, community and business leaders to take active roles in denouncing hate, investing in prevention and protection efforts, and increasing education that celebrates the value of New York’s diversity.”

In 2023, hate crimes were divided along the lines of nearly half based on religion and about one-third for race or ethnicity, with the LGBTQ community targeted by 17%.

Between 2018 and 2023, hate crimes against Jews rose from 253 to 477, an increase of 89%. During the same period, hate crimes against Muslims in the state rose from 18 to 37, a rise of 106%.

“We are deeply grateful to State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli for producing this critical report,” said Mark Treyger, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York. “It’s a crucial reminder that each hate-crime statistic represents a New Yorker who is suffering.”

Antisemitism has swept over parts of Canada in the wake of the Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oc. 7, prompting Jews to consider immigrating to the Jewish state, Israeli consul-general Paul Hirschson told JNS during an interview in his Montreal office on Monday.

“Since Oct. 7, we have seen where our friends, colleagues and neighborhoods stand in terms of their opinions, beliefs and behavior. Some of them stood where we thought they would. Many didn’t, and we can’t unsee it,” said Hirschson.

In the immediate aftermath of the murder spree that left 1,200 dead and as many as 250 people kidnapped and taken into Gaza, the number of hate crimes and incidents has skyrocketed throughout Canada.

Montreal police recorded 63 hate crimes against the Jewish community and 41 hate incidents from Oct. 7 to Nov. 14, including the firebombing of a Jewish community center and synagogue in Dollard-des-Ormeaux and a shooting attack on the Yeshiva Gedola elementary school.

More recently, police in May responded to a shooting at a Jewish school in the city’s Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough. In June, a Jewish-owned restaurant in Montreal’s Mile End neighborhood was struck by projectiles, believed to have been fired from an airsoft gun. Just last month, Hampstead Mayor Jeremy Levi shared a photo on social media showing a Jewish tombstone at the Kehal Israel cemetery in Montreal that had been desecrated with a swastika formed out of the small stones placed on graves.

With most attacks taking place overnight and very few cases of people being physically attacked, Hirschson said he believes the motive is a desire to terrorize, more than hurt people.

A Berlin Holocaust memorial honoring non-Jews who protested against the persecution of their Jewish family members was vandalized with anti-Israel graffiti on Wednesday, according to the Berlin Police and European Jewish Congress.

"Jews are committing genocide," was scrawled across the Rosenstrasse protest memorial according to EJC.

A Palestinian flag and the slogan "free Palestine" was spraypainted on the ground in front of the sculptures.

The Berlin police said that it covered the graffiti and the investigation was transferred to state law enforcement that investigates politically-motivated crime.Gem

"This outrageous disrespect of Shoah victims doesn't advance the Palestinian cause," said the EJC. "It is simply unacceptable."

In February 1943, hundreds of non-Jewish Germans, mostly women, protested outside the Rosenstrasse building were Jewish spouses and children had been held by Nazi police. According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Gestapo deported 25 of the incarcerated people to Auschwitz, and many others were sent to labor camps.

I feel sick.

Please read.

The Rosenstrasse Memorial in Berlin has been vandalised.

This memorial was dedicated to the non-Jews in Nazi Germany that protested the arrest and deportation of Jews to concentration camps by the Gestapo.

In 1943, the Gestapo arrested approximately… pic.twitter.com/AORIKDZ5Ri

— Kosher🎗🧡 (@K0sher_C0ckney) August 28, 2024

A balding man with a long white beard and large mustache sits with his hands clasped and the bejeweled Order of the Golden Fleece insignia—a sheep associated with Jason and Argonauts—around his neck.

The c. 1534 portrait of George the Bearded, the duke of Saxony, which is attributed to the major German Renaissance artist Lucas Cranach the Elder and his workshop, has been part of the collection of the Allentown Art Museum in Pennsylvania for nearly 65 years. It will soon go on a new journey, as the museum agreed to auction oil panel painting and settle a restitution claim with the descendants of a Jewish collector who was forced to sell it to flee from the Nazis.

“It was extremely important to the museum to engage in the ethical dimensions of the painting’s history in the Bromberg family,” stated Max Weintraub, the museum’s president and CEO. “This work of art entered the market and eventually found its way to the museum only because Henry Bromberg had to flee persecution from Nazi Germany. That moral imperative compelled us to act. We hope that this voluntary act by the museum will inform and encourage similar institutions to reach fair and just solutions.”

The Bromberg family stated that it is “pleased that another painting from our grandparents’ art collection was identified and are satisfied that the Allentown Art Museum carefully and responsibly checked the provenance of the portrait of George the Bearded, duke of Saxony and the circumstances under which Henry and Hertha Bromberg had to part with it during the Nazi-period.”

“After emigration to the United States, our grandparents first settled in New Jersey. After several years, they moved to Yardley, Pa., to be near their son Edgar and his family,” the family added. “This makes the fair and just solution for the painting in the Allentown Art Museum particularly special.”

Despite the immense expense of Israel’s war with Gaza — predicted to total US$67 billion by 2025 in military and civilian costs — most segments of the Israeli economy are faring well. The overall economy grew by 2.5 per cent in the first half of this year and is expected to end the year two per cent higher than last. Israel’s Jews are optimistic: 67 per cent expect the economy to flourish once the war is over. (Only a quarter of Arab Israelis feel the same way, however.)

Tourism may be down by 80 per cent but restaurants and shopping malls remain busy and — a manpower-related slowdown in the construction sector notwithstanding — so many high-rises are being built to meet the ever-growing demand for commercial and residential space that people joke that Israel’s national bird has become the crane.

Israel’s arms industry obviously benefits economically from Israel’s many wars, which provide a battle-tested showcase for the technological superiority of the country’s military. Despite needing to supply Israel’s own military during the Gaza War, the arms industry set a record in 2023 (for the third year in a row) with US$13 billion in export sales. In the global arena, Israel ranks among the top 10 arms exporters.

Such exports not only strengthen Israel’s economy, they also make Israel indispensable to countries that depend on its advanced technologies to counter regional threats. Almost 50 per cent of Israel’s arms exports go to Asian countries threatened by China, while another 35 per cent go to Europe, much of it to countries fearing the Russia-Ukraine war could spread to their own borders. As an example of the good will that accompanies Israel’s military sales, almost two-thirds of German citizens welcomed Germany’s purchase of Israel’s Arrow-3 missile defence system, according to a 2,500-person poll by ELNET, an organization that promotes ties between Europe and Israel.

Israel’s indispensability to foreign militaries could soon increase. After pressure from the anti-Israel lobby led the Biden administration to curtail its arms sales, Israel’s Defense Ministry implemented what it calls its “Independence Project” — a shift toward domestic arms production to meet what it considers an existential threat from Iran and its proxies. As a byproduct of bringing arms manufacturing home, Israel’s arms exports will likely rise, including to markets previously prohibited by the U.S.

Israel’s sale of its Arrow missile defence system to Finland is a recent example of how U.S. participation in developing Israeli technology can hamstring Israel’s exports. The U.S., which acts primarily as a venture capitalist by financing Israel’s military inventions, only permitted the $339 million sale to go through after Finland joined NATO. Many other countries continue to be blocked from acquiring the Israeli weapons they prefer, leading them to instead purchase second-best alternatives produced by U.S. weapons manufacturers. In future, Israel can minimize such entanglements by unwinding the dependence on U.S. venture capital that entitles the Americans to veto sales of Israeli inventions.

Israeli company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems has reported a record backlog of orders of NIS 59 billion at the end of the second quarter. The orders include a significant and surprising rise in the Americas, and a slight fall in sales in Israel.

Rafael’s revenue in the second quarter was NIS 3.9 billion, up 25% from the corresponding quarter of 2023. New orders in the second quarter amounted to NIS 6.4 billion, up from NIS 3.9 billion in the second quarter of 2023.

Sales in Israel represented 54% of overall sales in the second quarter, down from 59% in the first quarter. Sales to Europe fell over this period from 20% to 19% and sales to Asia rose from 17% to 18%, while sales to the Americas jumped from 3% to 8%. The ZM website recently reported that Argentina is considering procuring Spike LR2 anti-tank missiles from Rafael and the rise could stem from such a sale.

“Since the start of the year we have hired more than 1,100 employees.”

Rafael CEO Yoav Tourgeman tells “Globes,” “Since the start of the year we have hired more than 1,100 employees. A third of our activity deals with development, we invest huge amounts of energy in determining the future.” Turgeman says that Rafael’s laser-based air defense system, Iron Beam is expected to enter operational service next year, as previously announced. “Iron Beam is just one of the developments that is progressing at a nice pace, and it has global technological breakthroughs.”

Twenty-seven Israeli athletes will compete in 10 different sports at this year’s Paralympic Games in Paris, which begin with the opening ceremony on Wednesday evening.

Competing on the same equipment and in the same arenas as the recently departed Olympians, 4,400 athletes from 168 nations will strive to take home gold, silver and bronze in 22 different sporting branches.

The Israeli delegation will take part in swimming, rowing, boccia, tennis, badminton, taekwondo, shooting, goalball, handcycling and canoeing, hoping to match or top its performance at the Tokyo Games in 2021.

“We have put together an incredible delegation with wonderful athletes, the most Israeli delegation that could be — we have native Israelis, new immigrants, Muslims, Druze, 50% women and 50% men, an incredible delegation,” said Moshe “Mutz” Matalon, the chairman of the Israel Paralympic Committee.

And while the Paralympics has perhaps even more of an ethos of inclusion and unity, the Israeli delegation has faced similar threats and calls for boycotts as their Olympic counterparts who competed earlier this month. A German company even refused to supply Israel’s goalball team, citing the war.

French security officials said last week that the Israeli Paralympians will receive 24/7 protection, just like the Israeli Olympic delegation, and the Shin Bet is also playing a role in securing the athletes. Paralympic officials have rejected any effort to bar Israeli athletes from the Games.

Matalon noted that he competed in the 1976 Montreal Paralympics — the first Games following the massacre of 11 Israelis in Munich — “and [the security] was crazy, and I think this is even greater, for obvious reasons.”

The athletes and the rest of the delegation, he said, are prepared for every response and have been working to steel themselves for potential protests and provocations.

Paralympic gold medalist Asaf Yasur says he is overjoyed with his win at the Paris Games, and dedicates the medal to his “beloved country.”

“There is no one happier than me, I have no words,” he says in an interview with Israel’s Sport5 broadcaster just minutes after his victory. “Thank you to my team, to my family who came, to the people of Israel who supported me, to all the people who took part in my journey to this point today.”

Yasur, 22, says he came into the day’s competitions saying “I want the gold, I’m going to fight for the gold, nobody will take it from me, and I fought for it.” The athlete says he faced a tough competitor in the final round in Turkey’s Ali Can Ozcan, “we both fought and the better man won.”

The athlete notes that it’s been almost a decade since he lost both his arms in an electrocution accident, “but let’s put that aside. I went through rehab, I went through a lot and today I’m an athlete in every sense.”

Yasur notes that three of his brothers are combat soldiers who spent significant time fighting over the past year during Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza as well as on the northern front, and they “give me so much strength.”

“With everything my country is going through… this is the minimum I can do for my country,” he says. “I pray that the hostages will come home, all of them, every one, that the soldiers will return home to their families healthy and whole, so that this war will end.”

The medal around his neck, he says, “is dedicated to my beloved country.”

The U.S. Postal Service has announced a “Hanukkah Forever” stamp to commemorate the eight-day Jewish “Festival of Lights.”

Designed by Antonio Alcalá, it features a ocean-blue background, white hanukkiah and nine floating yellow lights. USPS says the design uses “irregular lines to suggest a more human presence.”

A first day of issue dedication ceremony will take place on Sept. 19, to be led by Michael Gordon, USPS government liaison director, at the Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.

Music and activities are on the docket, and the event is free and open to the public; attendees are encouraged to register online.

The last celebrated release of a Hanukkah stamp was in 2022, featuring the work of American Judaica artist Jeanette Kuvin Oren.

A rare and unique First Temple-era stone seal inscribed with a name in paleo-Hebrew script has been uncovered near Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Thursday.

The ancient black stone seal, which was unearthed in an excavation by the Temple Mount’s southern wall, is believed to date back 2,700 years, and was used by a senior official in the Kingdom of Judah’s administration, the state-run archaeological body said.

“The seal, made of black stone, is one of the most beautiful ever discovered in excavations in ancient Jerusalem, and is executed at the highest artistic level,” said Yuval Baruch and Navot Rom, who directed the excavations with funding by the City of David Foundation.

The object—which is engraved with reverse script, served its owner both as an amulet and as a signature for legal documents and certificates, according to the IAA.

It has a hole drilled through its length so that it could be strung onto a chain and be worn around the neck.

The artifact is engraved with the words “LeYehoʼezer ben Hoshʼayahu”—“For Yeho’ezer son of Hosh’ayahu”—in paleo-Hebrew script.

Experts said that the seal is an extremely rare and unusual discovery.

“This is the first time that a winged ‘genie’—a protective magical figure—has been found in Israeli and regional archaeology,” said Filip Vukosavović, IAA archaeologist and assyriologist. “Figures of winged demons are known in the Neo-Assyrian art of the 9th-7th centuries BCE, and they were considered a kind of protective demon.”

The seal was apparently made by a local craftsman, “a Judahite, who produced the amulet at the owner’s request. It was prepared at a very high artistic level,” Vukosavović said.

A rare 2,700-year-old stone seal from the First Temple period was discovered in Jerusalem.

The ancient Hebrew script on the seal reads, 'LeYeho'ezer ben Hosh'ayahu,' which translates to 'Belonging to Yeho'ezer, son of Hosh'ayahu.'

𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬,… pic.twitter.com/XETXHXEXJk

— Israel ישראל (@Israel) August 29, 2024

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

Let’s take as an example the New York Times article on Israel’s antiterror raids in the West Bank this week. “It was a significant escalation after months of raids that have unfolded alongside the war in Gaza,” we’re told. We then learn this: “The operation followed months of escalating Israeli raids in the occupied territory.”

Sounds like a lot of escalations! But what does that mean, exactly? Is it an escalation when Israel sends a numerically greater amount of troops than it did in last week’s or last month’s counterterror operation? Is it an escalation if Israel used a piece of equipment, like an unmanned drone, that it didn’t use last time? What about the number of military vehicles—how many jeeps make an escalation?

Much like its equally annoying cousin “disproportionate,” the term “escalation” appears to be a synonym for “Israeli self-defense.”

“Escalation of war has come to mean an increase in scope or violence of a conflict,” the U.S. Naval Institute offers. Thus what happened in the West Bank this week might truly count as an escalation—but if so, it is not Israel that escalated.

More from the Times: “The raid comes as U.S., Israeli and Iranian officials have said that Tehran is operating a clandestine smuggling route across the Middle East to deliver weapons to Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territory. The goal, as described by three Iranian officials, has been to foment unrest against Israel by flooding the enclave with as many weapons as it can, The New York Times reported in April.”

Ah, a clue. Let’s head on over to what the Times reported in April:
Iran is operating a clandestine smuggling route across the Middle East, employing intelligence operatives, militants and criminal gangs, to deliver weapons to Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to officials from the United States, Israel and Iran.

The goal, as described by three Iranian officials, is to foment unrest against Israel by flooding the enclave with as many weapons as it can.

The covert operation is now heightening concerns that Tehran is seeking to turn the West Bank into the next flashpoint in the long-simmering shadow war between Israel and Iran.

So what we’ve learned, definitively, is the following: Iran has been escalating the conflict for months, and Israel’s response to this escalation was an attempt to de-escalate—that is, to prevent Iran’s escalation from coming to full fruition. As the Times itself reports, Iran has increased the scope of the conflict, in an attempt to increase the violence of the conflict. If what just happened this week does count as an escalation, it is definitionally Iran’s escalation.

That is also true of Israel’s preemptive strikes on Hezbollah rocket launchers in Lebanon. Using Lebanon as a base of attack on Israel in response to Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza is quite literally increasing the scope of conflict. Israel’s response has been to take actions that, if further escalation takes place, will limit the damage and destructiveness of that escalation. The other goal of Israel’s actions is to prevent that escalation from happening at all.

Words have meanings. Israel is working to de-escalate conflict while being accused of doing the opposite. That’s the reality, and it isn’t likely to change anytime soon.

Not long ago, I wrote an article titled, “Hostage Talks Won’t Work; Winning the War Will.” A retired American military officer wrote to ask, “What is the definition of winning? What does winning look like?” He wasn’t questioning Israel’s capability; he added, “I am quite sure the IDF can deliver whatever is directed or defined.”

To be clear, an American military officer knows what winning looks like; he was checking on me. That made me nervous, but I also realized that people are projecting different end games on Israel. The Biden-Harris administration, for example, is pushing for a ceasefire and “de-escalation.” (U.S. President Joe Biden told Israel in mid-April to “pocket the win” after Iran fired 170 drones, 30 cruise missiles and more than 120 ballistic missiles at Israel and succeeded in killing only one person. Odd definition of a win.)

So, I took a shot.

“Winning” is achieving your war objectives. Israel had three clear objectives announced in October.

Secure the border and the people of Israel. Previous ground and rocket attacks by Hamas and Hezbollah resulted in “ceasefires” that left the timing and scope of the next attack up to Israel’s enemies. There was a ceasefire in place on Oct. 6, and Hamas broke it in the most horrific manner. This time, the Israeli government said, “We don’t want another ceasefire, or a better ceasefire, or a longer ceasefire.”

The goal is to secure the border.

The United States settled for a ceasefire in Korea. And when the minuses outweighed the plusses in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, we went home. We put 6,000 or 10,000 miles between us and them. We ignored the mess, the refugees, the killings we left in our wake. For Israel, there is no going home; Israelis are home. If a secure border means a buffer along the Negev and Israeli forces in the Philadelphi Corridor, so be it.

Take away Hamas’s military and governing capabilities. It doesn’t mean “kill them all” or “get a formal surrender.” It means removing the weapons and tunnels already inside Gaza, along with securing the borders so Hamas can’t import more. The tunnels at Rafah tell you that Egypt was a smuggling partner of Hamas. Israel, perhaps naively, assumed Egypt would live up to the agreements it signed in 1982 when Israel withdrew from Sinai and 2005 when Israel withdrew from Gaza. But no, so now Israel has to be in control.

Without military power, Hamas’s governing power wanes. If you believe, as some people do, that the Palestinians aren’t all Hamas themselves or that they don’t support Hamas, but they know Hamas will kill them if they rebel (Hamas has killed many Palestinian civilians since Israel’s invasion, including people trying to get to the “safe zones”), then you have to want the Hamas boot off their necks. The only way to do that for them is by removing the weapons Hamas uses to enforce its will, i.e., to kill them. Or, if you believe, as some people do, that Palestinian civilians do, in fact, support the genocidal program of Hamas, then Israel has to remove as much of the weaponry as possible from the space.

Eleven government ministers joined Minister Orit Strock's call on Thursday not to allow visits by representatives of the Red Cross to the Nukhba terrorists imprisoned in Israel.

The Red Cross would visit the terrorists without having visited the hostages held in Gaza and providing them with medication first.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the political and security cabinet were presented with the call, which they were expected to discuss on Thursday night.

Earlier this week, the High Court of Justice issued a conditional order according to which the state must explain why visits by the Red Cross's representatives to Israeli prisons should be prevented. The ministers demand that this position be the state's answer to the High Court.

Minister Orit Strock led the call and was joined by Amichai Eliyahu, Uriel Busso, Yitzhak Goldknopf, Miki Zohar, Amichai Chikli, Idit Silman, Ya’acov Margi, Ofir Sofer, and May Golan.

Authorized Nukhba visits
Last April, politicians and various organizations strongly criticized the decision of the War Cabinet to authorize visits to Nukhba prisoners.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposed approving the visits, which was supported by most cabinet ministers, as opposed to ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, who opposed it.

During former President Trump’s freewheeling rallies, he regularly brings up his aim to build an "Iron Dome" missile shield for America. It is one of the few itemized priorities in the Republican National Committee platform, which calls for "a great Iron Dome missile defense shield over our entire country."

Some national defense commentators pounced, deriding the idea as infeasible and calling it "snake oil" and a boondoggle that won’t work. They described the technical characteristics of Israel’s Iron Dome system and waxed tediously about how impractical the literal system would be for a big country like America that is separated from its enemies by vast oceans.

But Trump is right on the policy, and all one must do is note that he has been arguing for a missile shield for 25 years. He is likely using the "Iron Dome" name as shorthand because average Americans are aware of Israel’s system since it’s regularly protecting Israelis from the rockets of Iran and its proxies.

Trump has been persistent about the unacceptability of enemies threatening the United States with nuclear missiles. In a 1999 interview with Charlie Rose, he repeatedly emphasized his view that the proliferation of nuclear weapons was the biggest problem facing the United States. He said it would be wise to preemptively strike the North Korean nuclear weapons and delivery program if diplomacy failed.

The same year, he told Wolf Blitzer that the United States must focus on the threat of nuclear weapons, urging a focus on the North Korean nuclear program. Again, he emphasized the need to try to negotiate, and said negotiation would only be possible if Pyongyang knew the United States was serious about preemptively destroying the illicit program with conventional weapons if it would not negotiate.

When pressed for a historical parallel, Trump praised the Israeli decision to take out the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq in 1981.

And, given the growing complexity of the nuclear threats, the younger Trump said, with certainty – that the United States must have a missile defense shield to defend the American homeland. He credited President Ronald Reagan for being right about that, alluding to Reagan’s famous Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), and rightly noted that modern technology had made it more feasible.

It was a feature of Trump’s bid for the presidency. And on Jan. 17, 2019, President Trump laid out his vision for missile defense in a speech at the Pentagon.

He said, "[W]e will recognize that space is a new warfighting domain, with the Space Force leading the way. My upcoming budget will invest in a space-based missile defense layer. It’s new technology. It’s ultimately going to be a very, very big part of our defense and, obviously, of our offense.

"The system will be monitored, and we will terminate any missile launches from hostile powers, or even from powers that make a mistake. It won’t happen. Regardless of the missile type or the geographic origins of the attack, we will ensure that enemy missiles find no sanctuary on Earth or in the skies above."

Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.), chair of the House Energy Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, suggested in his newsletter on Thursday that the Biden administration may have been “partly responsible” for Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack.

“Were the Biden-Harris actions in Afghanistan and their dealings with Iran partly responsible for the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7 of last year?” he wrote. “Maybe? But I believe it certainly didn’t help.”

Griffith added that more than two dozen of the 1,200 people killed by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7 were U.S. citizens.

“Hundreds were taken hostage, including 12 Americans,” and “11 months later, Israeli forces are still trying to rescue them,” he stated. “As I’m writing, they rescued a Bedouin hostage in Gaza. Some Americans are still held captive by Hamas. As we watch the news, Israel faces missile and drone attacks from Hezbollah.”

“To the delight of our terrorist foes overseas, the freedom-seeking world is paying the price for Biden-Harris naïveté and negligence,” he added.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris said in her first interview since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee that she would not change U.S. policy towards Israel.

“I am unequivocal and unwavering in my commitment to Israel’s defense and its ability to defend itself,” Harris said in an interview on Thursday with CNN’s Dana Bash. “That’s not gonna change.”

Harris has reportedly been one of the senior members of the Biden administration who has been most critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza, and has called for insisting more forcefully on a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

That reporting prompted some hope from the Democratic Party’s anti-Israel, left flank that Harris might consider cutting off or conditioning U.S. aid to Israel.

Bash asked if she would make changes to “policy in terms of arms and so forth.” Harris said “no,” but insisted on the need for a ceasefire-for-hostages deal that could lead to the creation of a Palestinian state.

“We have to get a deal done,” Harris said. “When you look at the significance of this to the families to the people who are living in that region, a deal is not only the right thing to do to end this war but will unlock so much of what must happen next.”

“I remain committed since I’ve been on Oct. 8 to what we must do to work toward a two-state solution, where Israel is secure and in equal measure, the Palestinians have security and self-determination and dignity,” she said.

Harris added that “this war must end” and that “far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed,” while reiterating that Israel has a right to defend itself after the Oct. 7 attacks.

Israel has a right to “defend itself,” but not to defeat Hamas. The war ending now means Hamas remains in control of Gaza. This is typical Obama/Biden double talk. https://t.co/4HuFpjJlLf

— Mike (@Doranimated) August 30, 2024

How would a world without Israel look like? Let's explore the hypothetical scenarios. pic.twitter.com/cxyOWe4Zef

— Maral Salmassi (@MaralSalmassi) August 29, 2024

United is willing to fly through Israel but not fly to Israel? Why is it safe to do the former but too dangerous to do the latter? Could it be that United’s selective security concerns are little more than a pretext for a thinly veiled boycott? pic.twitter.com/HGolXBKY0W

— Ritchie Torres (@RitchieTorres) August 30, 2024

A new survey conducted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) revealed a significant rise in support for Vice President Kamala Harris among American Muslim voters following her replacement of President Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket. According to the poll, 29.4% of American Muslims intended to vote for Harris in the upcoming presidential election, placing her in a near tie with Green Party candidate Jill Stein, who garnered 29.1% support.

This surge in backing for Harris contrasted sharply with the low levels of support previously recorded for Biden before his withdrawal from the race. An earlier, unreleased CAIR poll, conducted with over 2,500 Muslim American voters, showed that only 7.3% of respondents planned to vote for Biden, compared to 36% for Stein and 25.2% for People’s Party candidate Cornel West. In contrast, Trump received less than 5% support among Muslim voters before Biden's exit.

The latest poll, conducted between August 25 and 27, reflected a shifting political landscape within the Muslim American electorate, which showed increased alignment with Harris’s campaign. Notably, the poll also indicated that 16.5% of Muslim voters remained undecided, highlighting the fluidity and potential volatility of this key voting bloc. Significant support for Harris

CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad commented on the findings, emphasizing the high level of engagement among American Muslim voters and their openness to a diverse range of candidates. "Our latest survey revealed that American Muslim voters were highly engaged in the upcoming presidential election and expressed significant support for Vice President Harris, reflecting a broader desire for new leadership," Awad said.

The poll also underscored growing dissatisfaction among Muslim voters with both major parties. While 69.1% of respondents typically voted for the Democratic Party, nearly 60% indicated plans to support third-party candidates in 2024. The survey further revealed that 94% of Muslim voters disapproved of President Biden’s recent performance, particularly regarding his handling of the war in Gaza, a key issue for many in the community.

More of Rev. Butler's events featuring Linda Sarsour pic.twitter.com/4TIrgtJZc7

— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) August 30, 2024

And even one in which she promoted the lie that Jesus was a "Palestinian Jew" pic.twitter.com/zfwhi8JL2z

— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) August 30, 2024

UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) has written to the Prosecutor, Karim Khan KC, warning him that he is breaching these rules by misleading the Court, failing to update and correct information previously provided, and not providing information and evidence exonerating the accused.

If not satisfied with Mr Khan’s response, UKLFI will report its concerns to the ICC and the Bar Standards Board (BSB).

The Prosecutor filed applications at the Court on 20 May 2024 seeking warrants for the arrest of Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant. Those applications have not been published but the Prosecutor made a public statement on the day he filed them, in which he purported to summarise the grounds on which they were based.

Those grounds centred around a charge that under the leadership of Netanyahu and Gallant, Israel has used and is using starvation of the civilian population as a method of warfare, by allegedly imposing a complete siege on Gaza.

UKLFI analysed Khan’s public statement and found that every phrase of every sentence of his summary of the charges was contradicted by information in the public domain, including important information that came to light after 20 May 2024.

Several dozen NGOs, individuals and States sent observations to the Court as amici curiae after the Court stated that any such observations had to be filed by 6 August 2024.

UKLFI, together with the NGOs International Legal Forum (ILF), Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), Bnai Brith UK (BBUK) and Jerusalemites’ Initiative (JI), sent joint observations to the Court which contended that if the Prosecutor’s public statement was an accurate summary of the allegations in the applications, these allegations were entirely false. The observations cited documents that fully substantiated this contention.

Several other amici curiae also argued that the applications appeared to be based on false information.

The Prosecutor filed his response to these observations on 23 August 2024. In it he submits that the Court should ignore observations of amici curiae other than those on the effect (if any) of the Oslo Accords on jurisdiction. He asks the Court to proceed urgently to issue the arrest warrants on the basis of the applications he filed on 20 May 2024. He contends that an application for an arrest warrant is an ex parte application in which he is the only party entitled to make submissions to the Court.

UKLFI’s letter reminds the Prosecutor that he is required by professional rules of both the ICC and the BSB to act impartially, to seek truth objectively, not to mislead the Court, to investigate exonerating matters, and to disclose to the Court all evidence that shows or tends to show innocence.

These obligations are particularly important in an ex parte application. As English judges have put it: “a prosecutor seeking an ex parte order must put on his defence hat and ask himself what, if he were representing the defendant or third party with a relevant interest, he would be saying to the judge, and, having answered that question, that is what he must tell the judge”.

Moreover, these are continuing obligations: if material information has come to his attention after making a submission to the Court, he is obliged to bring it to the attention of the Court as soon as practicable.

I would be more than happy to present a counter conversation/lecture at my alma mater @Georgetown University. https://t.co/MwBAHSK7tF

— John Spencer (@SpencerGuard) August 30, 2024

The Israel Defense Forces on Friday wrapped up a three-week-long operation in the southern Gaza Strip, during which the military said it demolished tunnels, killed over 250 gunmen and recovered the bodies of six hostages.

The raid, in Khan Younis and on the outskirts of Deir al-Balah, was launched by the 98th Division in early August. The division was withdrawn from Gaza early Friday as it prepared for future operations, the IDF said.

It was the third time that the IDF had reentered Khan Younis since its initial ground offensive there earlier this year. The latest operations have focused on recovering the bodies of hostages and demolishing Hamas infrastructure with new intelligence.

According to the military, amid the operation this past month, combat engineers demolished six separate tunnels belonging to terror groups, totaling some six kilometers (3.7 miles) of underground passages.

Inside some of the tunnels, troops killed gunmen, located areas where terror operatives had resided and found weapons, the military said.

Hamas infrastructure above ground was also demolished amid the operation, the IDF said.

The military said troops also located weapons, rocket launchers and intelligence materials at a “central” Hamas outpost in the Deir al-Balah area.

In the Hamad Town residential complex of Khan Younis, the IDF recovered the bodies of six hostages from a Hamas tunnel last week.

The hostages were Alex Dancyg, 75, Yagev Buchshtav, 35, Chaim Peri, 79, Yoram Metzger, 80, Nadav Popplewell, 51, and Avraham Munder, 78.

Over 700 fallen IDF heroes. We will never forget their sacrifice; because of them, we live. May their memories forever be a blessing. 🕯️ pic.twitter.com/FnmcxTRa9W

— StandWithUs (@StandWithUs) August 29, 2024

The Israeli Air Force is systematically degrading Hezbollah’s capabilities while preparing for a full-scale war, according to a former IAF commander.

On Aug. 25, the IAF launched a significant preemptive strike against Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon, following intelligence that indicated an imminent large-scale missile and rocket attack on Israel. The operation, executed shortly before dawn, struck thousands of rocket launchers and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) storage sites, with the aim of disrupting the terror organization’s ability to carry out its planned assault.

Former IAF commander Maj. Gen. (res.) Amikam Norkin said during a webinar organized by the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) on Aug. 26 that the preemptive strike was meticulously planned in response to concrete intelligence gathered by Israeli security agencies.

“Israeli intelligence recognized that Hezbollah [planned] to act against strategic targets inside Israel,” he stated.

The strike involved around 100 fighter jets striking multiple Hezbollah positions, focusing on rocket launchers and UAV units concealed in open fields and wooded areas. According to Norkin, the IAF specifically avoided targeting launchers in densely populated areas to minimize the risk of civilian casualties.

Norkin emphasized that the IAF’s actions are carefully calibrated to achieve tactical objectives while avoiding war.

“At the tactical level, I think that we achieved what we planned to achieve,” he said. While he was unsure that Israel is “at the right level” now in terms of its position against Hezbollah, “We’re in a better situation than compared to a month ago.”

Despite the preemptive strike, Hezbollah still managed to launch some 300 rockets and drones toward northern Israel. Most were successfully intercepted, said Norkin, including all of the drones launched toward central Israel.

More than 30 sites in the Gaza Strip were struck by the Israeli Air Force in the past day, the military says in a morning update.

The targets included rocket launchers, buildings used by terror groups, weapon depots, and other infrastructure, according to the IDF.

Meanwhile,… pic.twitter.com/QGSleqnDFg

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) August 30, 2024

The Hamas terror group’s Rafah Brigade had “collapsed” as a result of the Israel Defense Forces’s ongoing offensive in the city in the southern Gaza Strip, military sources said on Thursday.

The remarks come a week after Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the Rafah Brigade had been defeated.

Hamas’s Rafah Brigade was made up of four battalions: Yabna (South), Shaboura (North), Tel Sultan (West), and East Rafah. It had been considered one of the terror group’s final strongholds in the Strip until the IDF’s 162nd Division launched its offensive there in May.

Amid the fighting in Rafah, the military has seen Hamas operatives increasingly trying to escape from tunnels and flee north to the Israeli-designated humanitarian zone, instead of fighting troops. IDF troops have successfully been ambushing Hamas gunmen in the area who have tried to flee, the military sources added.

The IDF has said it has killed more than 1,000 terror operatives in Rafah amid the ongoing offensive, and that many gunmen fled with the Palestinian population as the operation began.

In addition to fighting in the city itself, the operation in Rafah has also focused on the Philadelphi Corridor — the Egypt-Gaza border area, where IDF combat engineers have discovered dozens of tunnels, some of them cross-border.

Combat engineers have been meticulously sweeping the entire Gaza-Egypt border for tunnels while expanding the corridor by demolishing structures within about 800 meters (875 yards) of the border.

Such tunnels have been used by Hamas for smuggling, although military sources have said that the terror group in recent years has been smuggling weapons via the overground Rafah Crossing, rather than using tunnels. The crossing was captured by the IDF on the first day of the offensive in Rafah.

As of Thursday, the IDF said that around 80 percent of Hamas’s tunnels along the Philadelphi Corridor had been neutralized. More than 150 tunnels have been discovered along the corridor, Gallant said last week.

The IDF has wrapped up a three-week-long operation in the southern Gaza Strip, during which the military says it demolished six kilometers worth of tunnels, killed over 250 gunmen, and recovered the bodies of six hostages.

The raid, in Khan Younis and on the outskirts of Deir… pic.twitter.com/Gw4df2RAMw

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) August 30, 2024

IDF: The IAF struck a number of ready-to-use Hezbollah launchers in the areas of Maryamine and Yaroun in southern Lebanon.

Over the past day, IDF artillery struck a number of areas in southern Lebanon. pic.twitter.com/kwJqJ4PhWl

— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) August 30, 2024

The IDF says troops have killed 20 gunmen and detained 17 wanted Palestinians during an ongoing major operation in the northern West Bank.

The operation has been taking place in Tulkarem, Jenin, and the Far'a camp near Tubas.

Troops have also destroyed dozens of explosive… pic.twitter.com/fTNjEQKtTp

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) August 30, 2024

Wassem Hazem, head of the Hamas terror organization in the West Bank area of Jenin, was killed on Friday in a joint IDF, ISA, and Israel Border Police counterterrorism operation in the northern Samaria area, Israel's military announced shortly afterward.

Hazem was killed in his vehicle after an exchange of fire during the joint operation. His role in the terror group involved carrying out and directing shooting and bombing attacks.

Hazem continuously advanced terrorist activities in the Judea and Samaria area, the IDF added.

Following the elimination of Hazem, two additional terrorists, Maysara Masharqa and Arafat Amer, who were in the vehicle with him, attempted to flee the scene. However, shortly afterward, they were also killed by an IDF aircraft.

Masharqa and Amer operated under the command of Hazem and took part in shooting attacks against Israeli communities, the IDF said.

Border Police release footage of this morning's exchange of fire in the West Bank town of Zababdeh near Jenin, during which senior Hamas commander Wissam Hazem was killed.

Another two Hamas members in the car fled and were killed moments later in drone strikes. https://t.co/kLLMsmpnTGpic.twitter.com/mPGTwzj448

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) August 30, 2024

IDF footage from a field tour in Jenin by the Commanding Officer of the Central Command, MG Avi Bluth and the Commanding Officer of the Judea and Samaria Division, BG Yaki Dolf pic.twitter.com/90AxjbxOeh

— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) August 30, 2024

And now they declare it!

Commander of the Al-Quds Brigades in the West Bank just wrote:

"Our brigades are working in unity with all resistance forces in the battle of “The Terror of the Camps,” just as the field work in the Gaza Strip is in the Battle of Al-Aqsa Flood,… pic.twitter.com/NjXkMoKYoF

— Hamas Atrocities (@HamasAtrocities) August 30, 2024

I was blocked, here's the video showing Lyons' ignorance. pic.twitter.com/VdCw0sARXt

— Elder of Ziyon 🇮🇱 (@elderofziyon) August 30, 2024

🧵Israel has killed 150 Palestinian minors in WB in last 12 months — but per UN 99% are male meaning combatants. Of 600 Pals killed in WB in last year under 2% are female. The only emergency @FranceskAlbs is that Hamas & PIJ aim to replicate a 10/7 attack from WB. See detail: 1/ pic.twitter.com/ONNspkArwC

— Aizenberg (@Aizenberg55) August 30, 2024

Teenage boys are regularly used by Hamas & PIJ. By age of 14 males are recruited, armed and sent to combat; never condemned by fake NGOs @hrw@amnesty. Terror groups even admit their combatants are children, e.g. here honoring “cub” martyrs or minors. 3/https://t.co/K5QH7vaS10

— Aizenberg (@Aizenberg55) August 30, 2024

Why is Israel going into the WB in near daily combat against gunmen? To stop many 100s of recorded terrorist attacks in past year, including recent suicide bombing attempt in Tel Aviv – which Hamas official Khaled Mashal last week called for more of from WB. END pic.twitter.com/QrzCaKnb7T

— Aizenberg (@Aizenberg55) August 30, 2024

The United States said Thursday that Israel must “immediately rectify” its conduct, claiming Israel had admitted it was behind Tuesday evening’s shooting toward a United Nations World Food Programme humanitarian aid convoy inside Gaza, which Jerusalem was said to have pinned on a communication error between army units.

“Humanitarian workers are there to help innocent civilians, and Israel must ensure they are protected,” US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller wrote on X.

US Deputy Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood said Jerusalem had informed Washington that an initial review found the shots had been fired due to a miscommunication in the IDF.

“We have urged them to immediately rectify the issues within their system,” Wood told a Thursday UN Security Council meeting on Gaza.

The army, or any Israeli official, were yet to comment on the incident Friday afternoon.

On Wednesday, the WFP suspended the movement of its employees across the Gaza Strip, saying at least 10 bullets struck one of its clearly marked vehicles as it approached an Israeli military checkpoint at the Wadi Gaza bridge, in northern Gaza, after completing a mission in the Strip’s south. No one was hurt.

A US-based aid group admits that a group of individuals, that the Israeli military claims were armed, took control of an aid convoy in the southern Gaza Strip yesterday, without vetting them or coordinating with the IDF.

Yesterday, the IDF said a convoy of aid trucks from the American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera) organization entered the southern Rafah area with Israeli coordination. During the drive, the military said a group of gunmen took over the vehicle at the front of the convoy, which the IDF described as a hijacking attempt.

The IDF said it was able to determine that it could strike only the car with the gunmen, without harming the rest of the convoy. It then carried out the strike, killing at least four.

Anera in a statement says that after the convoy departed the Kerem Shalom crossing, “four community members with experience in previous missions and engagement in community security” with their transport company, Move One, “stepped forward and took command of the leading vehicle, citing concern that the route was unsafe and at risk of being looted.”

“The four community members were neither vetted nor coordinated in advance,” Anera admits.

Although the organization claims that “the four individuals were not perceived by the convoy as a hostile threat” and that the Israeli strike “was carried out without any prior warning or communication.”

No Anera employees were hurt in the incident, and the convoy made it to its destination.

The IDF said yesterday that “the presence of armed men in a humanitarian convoy without coordination is against the procedures and makes it difficult to secure the convoys and their workers and thus also harms the humanitarian effort in Gaza.”

The United States said Thursday that Israel must “immediately rectify” its conduct, claiming Israel had admitted it was behind Tuesday evening’s shooting toward a United Nations World Food Programme humanitarian aid convoy inside Gaza, which Jerusalem was said to have pinned on a communication error between army units.

“Humanitarian workers are there to help innocent civilians, and Israel must ensure they are protected,” US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller wrote on X.

US Deputy Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood said Jerusalem had informed Washington that an initial review found the shots had been fired due to a miscommunication in the IDF.

“We have urged them to immediately rectify the issues within their system,” Wood told a Thursday UN Security Council meeting on Gaza.

The army, or any Israeli official, were yet to comment on the incident Friday afternoon.

On Wednesday, the WFP suspended the movement of its employees across the Gaza Strip, saying at least 10 bullets struck one of its clearly marked vehicles as it approached an Israeli military checkpoint at the Wadi Gaza bridge, in northern Gaza, after completing a mission in the Strip’s south. No one was hurt.

A store in northern Gaza is selling fake UNICEF stickers to put on vehicles, according to the store's TikTok on Thursday night.

The shop, "World of Stickers," stated on its social media that it has reopened in a new location on Al-Sahaba St., near Al-Sahaba Medical Complex in Gaza City.

"We welcome your orders," TikTok said, alongside a video appearing to show the store designing the logo. The video depicts an individual downloading the UNICEF logo, enlarging it, making a template, and then printing it out on a large sticker sheet.

The sticker is then shown being stuck to the bonnet, sides, roof, and trunk of a white KIA, with Palestinian plates 3-1801-06.

The store, which calls itself "specialist in all kinds of stickers" also has different video showing them turning a plain white van into a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance, including the logos and red body work stickers.

In another video, they can be seen using stickers to make it appear as if a car is splashed with blood.

Want to revamp your car to look like a UN vehicle?
World of Stickers has reopened in a new location on Shehaba St. Near Sehaba Medical Center, Gaza City, North Gaza.
"We welcome your orders."
TikTok timestamp: 13 hours ago#TheGazaYouDontSee
Link in 2nd comment pic.twitter.com/LuCtQnzlOm

— Imshin (@imshin) August 30, 2024

Protect your car with this clever hack!🚗@imshin shared a video from World of Stickers in Gaza City, showing car decals that make cars look like UN vehicles.

But is their intended use civilian protection or terrorist deception? pic.twitter.com/us73TXLP5S

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 30, 2024

Workers began unloading some 3,577 pallets of humanitarian aid bound for civilians in the Gaza Strip at the Port of Ashdod on Friday, Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) announced.

The aid, which had arrived from Cyprus aboard the American Cape Trinity on Thursday, contains food, water, and medical supplies provided by the World Central Kitchen, the American Near East Refugee Aid, and the United States Agency for International Development.

The aid will be allowed to enter Gaza after it has cleared inspection, COGAT added.

The Israeli agency added that the aid delivery operation was “facilitated by the ongoing maritime aid transfers,” which have seen more than 750 trucks carry over 10,700 such pallets enter Gaza.

Nearly a million tons of aid delivered
According to COGAT, from the start of the war until this past Monday, 964.969.22 tons of humanitarian aid entered the Strip, the vast majority of it crossing over via land crossings.

As of Monday, 5,845 tons of aid, carried by 480 trucks, had entered Gaza through the maritime route, according to the agency's website.

Another 6,959 tons of aid on 9,931 pallets have reportedly entered through the aerial route.

“The IDF, via COGAT, will continue to collaborate closely with international aid organizations to enable and facilitate the transfer of aid by sea, land, and air,” COGAT said.

A report by the Office of Inspector General into the failed efforts to use a mobile pier to provide humanitarian aid to Palestinians fleeing Gaza’s war zones has inspired condemnation from a House leader.

“USAID OIG’s evaluation of the Biden-Harris administration’s $230 million pier boondoggle for Gaza aid is both shocking and damning,” said Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

He said that “in pursuing this resource-intensive failure, the administration repeatedly disregarded the advice of its own subject matter experts” and that “it is no surprise to see that the project fell far, far short of its goals in delivering aid.”

Announcing his plans to discuss the findings with OIG in the coming days, McCaul said that he sought “to get a better understanding of how American taxpayer money was wasted in such a ridiculous and irresponsible way.”

Data comes directly from the WHO https://t.co/RbngMjsuJk

— Hamas Atrocities (@HamasAtrocities) August 30, 2024

Hi @unicefchief - and when might you start the first round of polio vaccinations for an Israeli children being held captive in Gaza? Like Kfir and Ariel Bibas? cc. @UNICEFhttps://t.co/5O1pFyTIYGpic.twitter.com/8kfmK0upI8

— Arsen Ostrovsky 🎗️ (@Ostrov_A) August 30, 2024

According to Jewish tradition, those mourning a close relative recite the Aramaic prayer known as Kaddish (literally, “sanctification”) daily from the funeral until eleven months after the death. Following the Jewish calendar, those whose spouses, siblings, parents, and children were murdered on October 7 concluded saying Kaddish this week. Sivan Rahav Meir reflects:
Kaddish opens with the mourners expressing their desire to glorify and sanctify the magnificent Name of God: “Yitgadal v’yitkadash shmei rabbah!” [May his great name be magnified and hallowed!] The words that follow describe a perfect world that has achieved its tikkun (rectification) and beseeching that God’s presence in the world be further magnified.

Since every human being is created in God’s image, when a person passes away, God’s revelation in the world is diminished somewhat. Something holy is now missing from our world. Therefore, we request that the divine light be increased to fill that void. And this year, that void is almost unfathomable.

But at the same time, Israel marked a very different milestone, with the first wedding in Kibbutz Be’eri since the attacks that destroyed it almost completely and claimed the lives of many of its residents:
The groom, Elad Dubnov, and his bride, Mika, had married in a civil ceremony on October 7, 2022. On their first wedding anniversary, they woke up to a nightmare. Mika was absent, but her family was in their safe room, cut off from communication for hours. Only two days later did she learn that her aunt, Galit Meisner, had been murdered by the Hamas terrorists. On October 8, Elad was called up for reserve duty. Before he left, the couple decided to have a traditional wedding in the Kibbutz Be’eri synagogue. “I always wanted a traditional Jewish wedding, and now Mika had come around,” Elad said.

In a testament to human resilience, Shlomi Ziv and Almog Meir Jan, two of the hostages rescued from Gaza during the daring Operation Arnon in June, have spoken out for the first time about their 246-day ordeal in captivity.

Ziv agreed to recount the terrifying details of his captivity at the hands of Hamas terrorists as part of a national documentation project for returned hostages and their families, led by the Government Press Office.

“If it means the world will learn the truth about what they did to us, what we endured in captivity—I’m on board,” Meir Jan affirmed. Operation Arnon also freed fellow survivors Andrey Kozlov and Noa Argamani, who was held separately.

The primary captor overseeing Ziv, Meir Jan and Kozlov employed what they describe as “creative” punishments. “Let’s just say he had an issue with us moving around,” Meir Jan recalled.

“If he caught one of us standing, he’d suddenly declare: ‘Oh, you stood up? Fine. Now I want you sitting for a week. If you need the bathroom—crawl. I don’t want to see you on your feet.'”

Ziv added: “But we’d wear him down after about four days. We did our best to comply. We’d win him over by playing the role of obedient children.”

“We were itching to retaliate, but we suppressed it, detaching ourselves emotionally,” Meir Jan said.

“This is the Yad Vashem of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel,” said Nitzan Chen, director of the Government Press Office. These testimonies will be preserved for posterity, including in the State Archives.

As part of this project, 25 former hostages of various ages have shared their stories since returning, along with 21 family members of those still in captivity.

Watch this video:
An Iranian Jew in Los Angeles has dedicated a stunningly beautiful silver Sefer Torah inscribed with the names of all 1400 massacre victims.
An exquisite remembrance of all lives lost. pic.twitter.com/KfpEVVlv7L

— Leslie Young ✡︎ (@AkaLazarus) August 30, 2024

The British Jewish community is mobilising to commission and construct a permanent commemorative statue to be built in memory of all of the victims of October 7. The challenge now lies in finding a suitable location – which needs to be open to the public, free, and in a safe area – to house the memorial structure.

The initiative is being spearheaded by the parents of Jake Marlowe, the 26-year-old British-Israeli who was murdered by Hamas terrorists while working as a security guard at the Nova music festival, but they are keen to emphasise that the memorial would be in memory of all of the victims of October 7.

Writing in the JC this week, Jake’s parents, Lisa and Michael put the case to Britain’s Jewish community for the establishment of a commemorative structure and asked that suggestions be made for a location, writing: “It is our deep conviction that the establishment of a permanent memorial for ALL those murdered on that heinous day is not only a necessity, but an imperative for our community.

They are still seeking a location for the memorial, but have a strong vision for how it should be created: “The proposed memorial would be a metal structure, forged from materials with deep connections to the events of that tragic day – metal from The Nova Site, the kibbutzim, the IDF, Magen David Adom, the police, and the Car Graveyard.

“This material would be shaped and designed by an Israeli sculptor, ensuring that the monument is not just a physical structure but a symbol of resilience, unity, and remembrance.

“The significance of using these materials cannot be overstated.

“They embody the very essence of that day from hell and the efforts to respond, rescue, and rebuild.

They say the location should be “a place where people can come to reflect, to remember, and to find solace.

Activists with the Yellow Ribbon Campaign projected images of the hostages and a giant yellow ribbon onto the cliffs of Brighton this week, lighting up the Brighton seafront with the faces of those still missing in Gaza.

The Yellow Ribbon Campaign, an initiative that highlights the plight of the hostages held by Hamas, used its latest demonstration to draw attention to the 107 hostages remaining in Gaza after Israeli Bedouin Farhan Al-Qadi was dramatically rescued and the body of a soldier was recovered this week.

Organiser Heidi Bachram, whose husband Adam Ma’anit has a relative held captive in Gaza, said: “The British government needs to do more to advocate for the hostages and support their families. We need pressure on Qatar particularly as the UK has so much influence there. I don’t see enough of that happening.”

Ma’anit’s cousin Tsachi Idan, 50, was kidnapped after terrorists murdered his daughter Ma’ayan, 18, in their home in Nahal Oz on October 7. Bachram pointed out that Tsachi and other hotstages have now been captive in Gaza for over 10 months.

She added: “With negotiations moving so slowly and conditions worsening, it is urgent that the hostages are brought home immediately. Tsachi cannot wait another second. None of them can.”

Bachram said that she and the other activists with the Yellow Ribbon Campaign had planned the Brighton cliff projections for weeks, and she said that the idea and execution was a team effort, with support from JW3.

“It was nighttime and in an isolated spot, so we were a little nervous, but passers-by were curious and friendly,” Bachram said. “We find that each time we do these hostage actions, the silent majority see the humanity of what we’re doing and respond to it. When the faces of the hostages flashed up, everyone went quiet. It was overwhelming. No one decent can look into all those people’s eyes and not want them home."

There’s a British hostage in Gaza and many have family here including my husband whose cousin is in the darkness with Hamas. We projected their faces and a giant yellow ribbon onto Brighton’s iconic cliffs. To shine a light. Don’t leave them in the dark. Bring them home NOW. pic.twitter.com/MwhNtBpTIE

— Heidi Bachram 🎗️ (@HeidiBachram) August 29, 2024

This year’s week-long Burning Man event in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert includes a large-scale installation and events that pay tribute to victims of the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack at the Nova Music Festival in southern Israel, as the one year anniversary of the deadly massacre approaches.

The installation is called “Nova Heaven” and was co-created by the producers, designers, artists, and participants behind the Supernova Festival as well as longtime Burners, which is the term used to describe members of the Burning Man community, and founders of Tribe of Nova, a community-based organization that supports long-term trauma recovery for Oct. 7 survivors and bereaved families.

The installation features a large arch inscribed with the motto “We Will Dance Again,” replicates the Nova festival’s iconic shade structure, and showcases six wooden spiral staircases that have on each step laser-cut wooden angels engraved with names of the Oct. 7 victims. Also engraved on each step is one of 100 English or Hebrew messages, including “kindness creates miracles” and “music heals hearts.” The short phrases were designed by an Israeli native who was at a party 30 minutes away from the Nova Festival when the Hamas attack took place.

Almost a year ago, Hamas terrorists murdered 405 attendees of the Nova Music Festival and adjacent music events and took 40 others as hostages during their rampage across southern Israel.

Omri Sasi and Sarel Botavia, producers of the Nova Festival, said their vision for “Nova Heaven” is “to create a sanctuary of remembrance and healing” at Burning Man, which runs from Aug. 25-Sept. 2 and is expected to have 70,000 attendees this year.

“This installation is not just a memorial; it is a testament to the enduring spirit of our community and a beacon of hope for the future,” they added in a released statement. “We invite you to join us in the deep playa at Burning Man 2024 to experience ‘Nova Heaven,’ a space where we honor the past, celebrate the present, and look forward to a future filled with love, unity, and dancing once again.” A fundraising campaign for the “Nova Heaven” installation at Burning Man has so far raised more than $31,000.

How wonderful.

The Nova Festival display at Burning Man festival.

We will dance again 💔🎗️

pic.twitter.com/2h2wAlOEWq

— Kosher🎗🧡 (@K0sher_C0ckney) August 30, 2024

Welcome to the seventh episode of "Here I Am with Shai Davidai," a podcast that delves into the rising tide of antisemitism through insightful discussions with top Jewish advocates.

In this episode of Here I Am With Shai Davidai, Shai Davidai engages in a deep and insightful conversation with Abraham Hamra, a proud Syrian Jew, about Jewish identity and unity. The discussion covers a range of topics, including the significance of Israel as the indigenous homeland of the Jewish people and the challenges of maintaining Jewish identity in the face of external labels and identities imposed by others.

Abraham emphasizes the importance of unity within the Jewish community, arguing against divisive labels like Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform. He shares his personal experiences of displacement and discrimination as a Jew from an Arab country, highlighting the historical and ongoing struggles faced by Jews in similar situations.

The conversation also delves into the impact of extremist ideologies on Jewish safety and identity, with Abraham discussing the threats posed by both extremist Islamic ideologies and progressive woke ideologies. He underscores the need for the Jewish community to unite and fight against these threats collectively.

Throughout the episode, Abraham and Shai explore the idea that despite differences in religious observance and cultural background, Jews are united by their shared history and identity. They discuss the importance of honest dialogue and mutual understanding in fostering unity and resilience within the Jewish community.

In this episode of The Western Spirit, we sit down with Eli Lake, columnist for The Free Press and contributor to Commentary Magazine. We dive into the Biden administration's stance on Israel, exploring the challenges and complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Eli explains why the two-state solution is now irrelevant, the importance of containing the conflict, how Iran fuels global terror and why the Biden/Harris Administration is not handling the threat in a smart way.

We also discuss the impact of Tim Walz's selection as Kamala Harris' running mate, why all the wrong people are happy he was picked for the job, and the troubling trend of Jews who use their heritage to criticize Israel.

In this episode of The Western Spirit, we sat down with Israeli author and activist Hen Mazzig to discuss the alarming rise of antisemitism on social media and college campuses.

We explored the need for innovative strategies to tackle this evolving hatred and stressed the importance of understanding the Mizrahi Jewish experience and the complexities of Jewish identity.

Our conversation delved into the political landscape, including the role of the Democratic Party, and emphasized the necessity of depoliticizing antisemitism.

We also examined the disturbing similarities between radical Islamists and radical progressives in their shared animosity toward Jews and Israel, as well as the puzzling alliances between groups with conflicting ideologies, like LGBTQ activists and Hamas supporters.

Mazzig shared invaluable insights on the power of messaging in the fight against antisemitism, offering practical advice on how to engage in meaningful conversations and dispel misconceptions about Israel and Jews.

One of the reasons many take issue with the word “genocide” is because it negates Hamas’s responsibility for civilian deaths.

Genocide means that civilians are being intentionally targeted to destroy the population, not that combatants are targeted who are intentionally burying…

— Elica Le Bon الیکا‌ ل بن (@elicalebon) August 30, 2024

Remember that big story we were working on?

Here it is.

For the whole month of July we investigated Palestinian Diplomats globally.

Our research found shocking evidence of Palestinian ambassadors & official diplomats supporting terrorism & antisemitism.

Here’s a few: pic.twitter.com/uNBdcztS3G

— GnasherJew®גנאשר (@GnasherJew) August 29, 2024

Everyone knows that Iran is in a race to acquire nuclear weapons, with a publicly stated goal of eradicating first Israel, then America. Many people also know that Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yemen are simply a proxy of the world’s number one sponsor of terrorism.

Although speculated by various sources, the truth about Iran’s fourth proxy, a place where they have been building a new army for years, has never been exposed….until now.

Today we’re going to look at an article written by an Arab journalist based out of Jerusalem that will expose the fourth and very dangerous army that Iran is building ... .right in the heartland of Israel.

Very important discovery for the question of - is the IDF creating more terrorists or driving up support for Hamas. Counter to previous claims pointing to "polls." https://t.co/Wh1ih1Vtic

— John Spencer (@SpencerGuard) August 29, 2024

In our podcast interview, I speculated to @ProfessorPape that Hamas would influence poll data.

His @ForeignAffairs article "Hamas is Winning" relies heavily on the PSR data.

Will he/they comment, correct, or retract?https://t.co/tT0RqoiAstpic.twitter.com/ebPzlpO7Lr

— Noam Dworman (@noam_dworman) August 30, 2024

Alonso, buddy, it isn’t about you.

We are not children waiting for your approval. Ditto for our Palestinian neighbors. You don’t know our mythologies well enough to question them in any way that matters. You think about us in moral cartoons and don’t understand why we don’t… https://t.co/7W6ikmGRzv

— Haviv Rettig Gur (@havivrettiggur) August 30, 2024

On the one hand you have an Academic @_ZachFoster writing about a topic he only read about and never actually worked on or met with an actual person involved in it.
On the other hand an actual person that is living through it @TMasudin
I think it’s clear who you should believe pic.twitter.com/hZA1BXHXW5

— Nadav Pollak (@NadavPollak) August 30, 2024

Why are people censoring words in their posts? Typing HMS instead of Hamas like we are in nursery school? This is why..

This young man Alex examines the X algorithm and it turns out @X is not the noble soapbox of the world as it claims - it's actually just heavily tailored and… https://t.co/v7vQXt5X21pic.twitter.com/yoLGkyVJv6

— Ron M. (@Jewtastic) August 29, 2024

Jess Phillips, a member of the Labour Party who represents Birmingham Yardley, claimed that she was seen faster by a doctor at a National Health Service hospital because the medical professional was Palestinian and because Phillips had voted in favor of a Gaza ceasefire, British media reported on Thursday.

Phillips had reportedly made the comments while speaking at an event at the Kiln Theatre in North London.

The 42-year-old told the crowd that she attended an A&E (Emergency Room) in a Birmingham hospital after she found herself struggling to breathe while her lips turned blue.

Phillips described the room as overcrowded and said she had “genuinely seen better facilities, health facilities, in war zones, in developing countries around the world.”

Despite the large number of patients waiting to be seen, Phillips said she made the front of the queue “undoubtedly” for two reasons - firstly, her position in politics and second, her position on the Israel-Hamas war.

“[The doctor] was sort of like, 'I like you. You voted for a ceasefire.' [Because of that] I got through quicker,” Phillips told the attendees.

This is not the first time that such an incident has been reported. In March, a Jewish boy was reportedly ejected from his bed at a Manchester NHS hospital by pro-Palestinian nurses.

So what Jess said is that the NHS in Birmingham will see you quicker if you're pro-Palestian... which begs the question: what type of care will you receive if you are perceived to be Jewish?

This is genuinely appalling. The doctor should be struck off, for a start. https://t.co/TTrn9VIyrj

— Dr David Jeffery (@DrDavidJeffery) August 30, 2024

It’s heartening that the authorities are acting on those who gush about Hamas. Bravo. pic.twitter.com/cAmANdOTn5

— Heidi Bachram 🎗️ (@HeidiBachram) August 29, 2024

As terrorists were raping and murdering innocents inside their own country Sarah Wilkinson described it as “incredible”. She also called the kibbutzim “illegal Israeli settlements”. She is disgusting. pic.twitter.com/fcnqnK6UD7

— Heidi Bachram 🎗️ (@HeidiBachram) August 29, 2024

Roger Waters steps in to complain that Holocaust denier Sarah Wilkinson was arrested. No, it wasn’t because she was campaigning for “human rights”. Likely it was the gushing about Hamas. He threatens England will be a “fascist State” over his “dead body”. Roger lives in the US. pic.twitter.com/kqgTbliwOb

— Heidi Bachram 🎗️ (@HeidiBachram) August 30, 2024

One day, I was accused of being a Zionist and kicked out of the group. She then private messaged me about some pretty wild “just anti-Zionism” going on in the group. I reminded her that as Jews it was our duty to be understanding of why people hate us. pic.twitter.com/lUjmPCtGp2

— Rabbi Linda Goldstein (🇵🇸🍉I/P Commentary) (@realrabbilinda) August 29, 2024

The Iranian regime is funneling money and its influence into anti-Israel college campus protests across the US, often through buzzily named organizations — and many who join the protests don’t realize who is really behind them.

For example, Texas-based Rise Against Oppression (RAO) says it is a “collective of Muslim grassroots activists” but downplays its links to the government of Iran.

In April, members of with the group “reclaimed” a student center at Houston University, a school of more than 45,000 students.

“As part of the nation wide call to establish the Popular University [of Palestine], we are reclaiming our spaces to push divestment,” said Houston for Palestine Liberation, part of the RAO collective, in a social media post.

In Houston, the Iranian regime is directly involved in funding religious activities at the university and throughout the city, according to Sam Westrop, director of Middle East Forum’s Islamist Watch project.

“For decades, the Iranian regime has worked closely with far-Left, far-Right and Islamist groups across Europe and North America,” Westrop said.

“Following the October 7th attacks…Tehran has poured money and logistical support into anti-Israel and pro-terror rallies, encampments and civil disorder.”

“We’ve uncovered evidence of this in Houston, where the Iranian regime appears to operate mosques, activist and student groups that are deeply involved in pro-terror demonstrations, alongside Beijing-backed and Hamas-aligned groups,” he said.

The pro-Palestinian protests around the USA are not an organic and grassroots movement.

China, Russia, Iran, Qatar and other nefarious states are pouring money and fuelling the protests movements around the West to destabilise our societies.pic.twitter.com/Rwx4OPwF6q

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) August 30, 2024

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!