Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, November 24, 2025

11/24 Links Pt1: Should Jews Be Alarmed Yet? - with Ben Shapiro, Bari Weiss, and Dan Senor; Douglas Murray: Saving the West from Its Death Wish

From Ian:

David Harsanyi: Israel should phase out US aid for its own good

These days, Israel has no territorial ambitions. It’s been trying to get rid of Gaza for 30 years, at least. Moreover, American presidents have often pressured Israel to act in ways that undermine its security. Before Donald Trump became president, every successive administration constrained Israel in its battle with the Islamists in Iran, hoping to strike a deal with the mullahs. This isn’t new. Henry Kissinger bailed out the defeated Egyptians in 1973. Back in 1981, Ronald Reagan rebuked and penalized Israel for bombing Saddam Hussein’s Osirak nuclear facility, which was being built with the help of the French government. The Biden administration helped to prolong the Gaza war by continually undermining Israel due to domestic political pressures.

Worse, before Trump, every president in memory has exerted pressure on Israel to accept deals that would have created a terrorist state on two of its borders, even though a Palestinian state doesn’t further American interests in any conceivable way. Each effort only sparked more terrorism, suffering, and radicalization.

Ironically, pro-Palestinian activists advocating that the U.S. drop aid to Israel don’t seem to comprehend that their efforts only make a Palestinian state far less likely. No sane Western nation would create an Islamic state brimming with a radicalized population next door. The end of American aid would likely mean the end of any two-state solution. Which is good news. There is already a 23-state solution in place.

Anyway, with the rise of the pro-intifada progressive faction in the U.S., Israel shouldn’t expect Democrats to be allies for very long. And with the prospects of paleo-isolationists such as Vice President JD Vance being nominated by the GOP, American aid might be on its last legs anyway. Even if I’m wrong about the parties, Israel would do best to be autonomous, relying on the mutual military benefits and merits of its cause to continue its relationship with the U.S.

Finally, I know it might be difficult to believe that with all its space lasers and Rothschild cash, Israel could only extract a lousy $3.8 billion for its troubles. So, rest assured, cutting aid won’t stop paranoiacs from obsessing about Jews. But one of the most popular accusations of the Israel-hater is that tax-funded aid makes the U.S. complicit in the imagined genocides perpetrated by the Israeli military. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a modest and milquetoast bipartisan American lobbying concern, has become the rallying cry for most conspiracists who claim Israel has a grip on American politicians. They have it backward, of course. AIPAC only exists because millions of Americans support Israel and want American foreign policy to reflect their views. Paranoiacs focus on the strawman of AIPAC rather than American Jews or Christian Zionists for the same reasons leftists focus on the National Rifle Association rather than gun owners: They’re too cowardly to say what they mean.

In the end, Israel is a small nation of 10 million people, the size of New Jersey, so it will always need allies. For instance, it lacked the heavy bombers to hit Iranian nuclear sites buried deep in the earth. Only China, Russia, and the U.S. have them. But Israel is also a nuclear power with a high-tech economy and world-class armed forces. “Anti-Zionists” are just spinning their wheels. Israel would be fine standing completely on its own ingenuity and toughness.

Douglas Murray: Saving the West from Its Death Wish

The facts are raw, documented – and unbearable. On the morning of October 7, 2023, while some were just waking up, others were recording – and live-streaming – the glee they took in the massacre. One world watched. Another rejoiced. In New York, Douglas Murray absorbed the words and images, then immediately set off for Israel. From that journey – and the abyss it laid bare – the British journalist and intellectual drew a furious yet lucid essay, On Democracies and Death Cults: Israel, Hamas and the Future of the West. But the book is not merely a cry of anger; it is also a meditation on what it means to defend the West when it no longer knows what it stands for – or whether it still deserves to be defended, let alone saved.

Le Point - From your neoconservative beginnings to your current reflections on civilisation's decline, your thinking has shifted gradually from a strategic defence of the West to a cultural and symbolic one. Does 7 October 2023 represent a new phase in this intellectual evolution ?
Douglas Murray – Yes, I think so. I felt on October 7th the same way as Evelyn Waugh, in Unconditional Surrender, depicts one of his characters feeling at the moment of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact: "The enemy at last was plain in view; huge and hateful, all disguise cast off.” The moment I saw what Hamas was doing on the morning of the 7th, thousands of terrorists raping and slaughtering and kidnapping their way through the south of Israel, live-streaming it all for the world, glorying in death, expressing such ecstasy for death that is something of how I felt.

In your new book, the role of the image is central, and the iconography of horror is considered not as a consequence of violence, but as a driver of it. In your opinion, is this the hallmark of our era: aesthetic terrorism ?
No - that is (in the worst way) such a French way to look at something. The horror of Hamas is not principally about aesthetics or interpretation. It is about evil. Evil in its purest form – from a cult that literally worships death. The challenge for us is not just whether we can recognize and call out evil where we see it, but to dwell on what its opposite might be. What the good is. I met a couple in Canada the other week whose son was at the Nova party on the morning of October 7th. He protected a group of party-goers who were hiding from the terrorists in a shelter. He threw back grenade after grenade before being murdered himself. But as I told his parents, their son exemplified perhaps one of the greatest goods any human being can perform – he gave his life protecting life.

But you refer to images disseminated by terrorists themselves in a paradoxical gesture of exhibitionism. How does this 'perverse modernity' — 'barbarism 2.0' — make democracies even more vulnerable ?
As after Charlie Hebdo, the Bataclan, Samuel Paty and many other attacks, we have to decide whether we will indeed be terrorized by the terrorists: people who use the power of modern technology to broadcast their pre-medieval barbarism. I understand why many people feel fear, but I believe we should raise ourselves to the moment and not show fear but heroism.

Trump signs order to advance labeling Muslim Brotherhood as terrorists

US President Donald Trump on Monday began the process of designating certain Muslim Brotherhood chapters as foreign terrorist organizations and specially designated global terrorists, a move that would bring sanctions against one of the Arab world's oldest and most influential Islamist movements.

Trump signed an executive order directing Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to submit a report on whether to designate any Muslim Brotherhood chapters, such as those in Lebanon, Egypt, and Jordan, according to a White House fact sheet.

It orders the secretaries to move forward with any designations within 45 days of the report.

The Trump administration has accused Muslim Brotherhood factions in those countries of supporting or encouraging violent attacks against Israel and US partners, or of providing material support to Palestinian militant group Hamas.

"President Trump is confronting the Muslim Brotherhood’s transnational network, which fuels terrorism and destabilization campaigns against US interests and allies in the Middle East," according to the fact sheet.

The National Review reports:

Last month, over a thousand educators gathered together for the Northwest Teaching for Social Justice conference, which was sponsored by the Portland Association of Teachers, the Seattle Education Association, and Rethinking Schools (an educational magazine and a frequent partner with the NEA to promote activist classroom materials).

What do teachers learn at such a conference?

The available sessions betray the most extreme obsessions of activists:

A movement to oust the Anti-Defamation League from schools for being too Jewish
Four other presentations in support of Palestine
Sessions on how to queer history and math
An exploration of the “Power Rainbow”
Discussions of how to deal with parents who contest objectionable materials
A workshop to advance climate justice and decolonize science education
Example lessons for how to teach second graders about the evils of capitalism
Variations of “Palestine” and “Palestinian” appear 22 times across the agenda. Phonics appears not once.

This is, of course, distressing. But there is a danger that any criticism of ideological indoctrination will be viewed as just a demand to indoctrinate children in a different political agenda.

There is merit to that.

We need to take politics out of the classroom while still teaching children how to be good citizens of their country and of the planet.

There is one simple rule that can be applied to any subject at school that cuts through all ideologies:

Students must be taught how to think, not what to think.

Any topic that might be considered controversial or that parents might object to is fine as long as it is based on facts, everyone discussed is respected and students can disagree without penalty.

Already, this simple rule has been trampled at the university level, and the same people who succeeded at that are trying to do the same at K-12 schools. Instead of teaching, schools are being turned into propaganda factories for the next generation.

Students can and should be taught to appreciate their nation - they have obligations as citizens and the nation in turn has obligations towards them. Beyond that everything can be discussed and debated. But instead of concentrating on what is wrong with the nation, the emphasis should be on how it can be improved.

Because on both the Left and the Right, a subtext is being taught to tear it all down. And that is not acceptable.

Private schools can teach ideology as long as the parents all agree. But public schools have a special obligation to keep partisan politics out of the classroom and to respectfully discuss the issues.

The top priority must be teaching respect for all people, that humans have inherent dignity, that we are responsible to make the world a better place. All opinions, even immoral ones, are based on a value system and those values and their priorities must be debated. ("Why did the South believe that slavery was not immoral?")

Every topic can fit within those rules, and anyone who disagrees has no business creating curricula.

Don't make education into a partisan issue, because then everyone loses.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

New Zealand antisemitic incidents went up nearly sevenfold after October 7 2023

New Zealand's Stuff reports that the number of antisemitic incidents in that country went up nearly sevenfold in the 12 months after October 7 2023.

In the two years before then, there were 20 incidents each year. From September 2023-2024, that went up to 133, and for the 12 months following it was 97.

There are only 10,000 Jews in New Zealand.

Stuff adds:

Anti-Semitic offences that “harm or endanger persons” rose from four in the two years before the Hamas attacks to 43 and 45 in the two years since.

And property damage has spiked too. The numbers rose from four in the year to September 2022, to 11 in the year to September 2023, to 57 to September 2024 and 30 to September 2025.

Of course, Stuff must interview an anti-Zionist Jew - born in Haifa - to blame Israel for the rise in antisemitism, saying “No-one should be attacked for their views, but if you stand with Israel and you’re OK with Israel using you as an excuse for what it’s doing, that will put you in danger.” She has a Middle Eastern restaurant. If she thinks that her anti-Zionism will shield her from antisemitic attacks, she is delusional.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

11/23 Links: 700 Million Zionists and the Battle for the Free World; How Israel's Victory Strengthens America's Hand; Trump to designate the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization

From Ian:

700 Million Zionists and the Battle for the Free World

The phenomenon of non-Jewish leaders and influencers, predominantly Christian evangelicals, openly declaring themselves Zionists is expanding. Against the backdrop of eroding values, intergenerational division, and a culture war on the West, there is a need to establish a global Zionist alliance to protect the foundations of Western civilization's bedrock principles of collective freedom and security and personal liberty.

For Christians who define themselves as Zionists, this is a declaration of resistance to Islamist, anti-Western domination and an identification of Zionism as a force leading the global struggle against the collapse of the Free World. Islamists have understood that the path to conquering the Free World would not be achieved through force, but through a systematic, long-term, and heavily-funded perception war for strategic influence. In this war of perception and influence, Zionism is marked as the West's original sin.

In this war, the West has one clear pathway to victory: to use precisely the same tools being deployed against it - building public consciousness, asserting constant aggressive presence on social media and campuses, building new grassroots organizations, and investing in education.

Some 600 to 700 million Evangelical Christians across the globe support the state and people of Israel. They are joined by other groups who identify with Zionist values. They are not merely "pro-Israel" in opinion; they are active partners in the understanding that strengthening Israel means empowering the West.

How Israel's Victory Strengthens America's Hand

The calculations of Middle Eastern regimes are based on concrete questions: who commands intelligence superiority, who can blunt Iranian power, and who remains anchored in the American security system. By those measures, Israel has become indispensable. Its performance on the battlefield and its record in covert operations have only reinforced its value to governments that prioritize their own survival and long-term modernization.

Israel's military successes against Hamas, Hizbullah, and Iran have made it a more valuable strategic partner. States that face Iranian pressure or seek technological and security upgrades are not distancing themselves from Israel, but moving closer.

CENTCOM, which coordinates U.S. military activity in the Middle East, is deepening operational coordination between the IDF and Arab armies - including those of countries that don't have formal relations with Israel. Regional leaders saw the disruption of Iranian assets in five countries, and concluded that Israeli hard power mattered much more than the opinions of Islamist preachers or Western university students.

Israel has shown itself to be the one power both capable of rolling back Iran and willing to do so. Even the American strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities were made possible by Israeli intelligence and by attacks that neutralized Iran's air defenses and decapitated its military. Israel's actions matter for America, too, which needs Israel more than ever to help it keep Iran in check and to anchor its efforts to counter China in the region.

Seth Frantzman: How Israel’s 12-day war on Iran achieved remarkable military success

Another important point was how Israel’s friends helped the state during the war. Fox noted that “a consortium of like-minded nations came together and defended Israel a couple of times; once, the earlier piece: France, UK, Jordan.”

“There’s an indication that there was cooperation with some other nations in the region, and, of course, the United States. That would have been, I think, impossible without the touches within the region of Israel’s Defense Force staffers working with the US Central Command, but also becoming more integrated in the region,” he said.

“It’s just impossible, I think, to describe how remarkable that is. For those of us who spent time in the region, that might not have come out the way that it did,” Fox continued.

This means Israel’s integration into the US Central Command and joint training has been vital. Israeli F-35s, F-15s, and F-16s fighter jets, along with other platforms, were also key to the war.

One issue for Israel is that its refueler fleet is aging. “It’s been a long-standing recommendation of JINSA that the KC-46, the new tanker, be expedited to Israel. They’re on the books to get those tankers. They need them now. The ones they were using, the 707 (the RAM), are old and in need of repair and just not up to the mission,” Wald said.

Ashley agreed, “One of the challenges they did have is really an older fleet of air refuel capability. So that is a challenge that we hit in recommendations. In the way ahead, that’s something that they’re going to need to bolster as they’re going forward.”

He noted, however, that a large portion of Iran’s ballistic missiles were destroyed. “Probably more than half of the launchers were eliminated.”

The report illustrated key aspects and successes of Operation Rising Lion. Iran is weakened, but it could continue to pursue a nuclear program or try to revive its ballistic missiles.

Moving forward, many questions remain. The success of the war demonstrates what Israel can accomplish when it plans for a decisive campaign.

This is in contrast to the challenges in Gaza, where Israel has not had a clear plan and Hamas continues to run half of Gaza. And, as for Lebanon, Hezbollah has not been disarmed yet. The Houthis also remain a threat. Israel has had some tactical success, but overall strategic wins still elude Jerusalem.

Today's blood libel: Egyptian paper claims female IDF soldier had sexual pleasure shooting elderly Palestinian civilian

A story in Egyptian newspaper Sout al Umma details a supposed story of Israeli cruelty:

The Cairo-based Egyptian newspaper, Akhbar Al-Adab, will publish a story about the battle [Jenin], which is a translation of the testimonies of female and male soldiers of the occupying army .

In her testimony, the fighter said, in summary:

I fought for two weeks, and I was burning with longing for my apartment and my boyfriend. Finally, I returned to my apartment, took a good shower, and prepared a delicious dinner. My boyfriend came to spend the night with me. We made love deeply and passionately. My boyfriend left in the morning, leaving me to enjoy a good night's sleep. I woke up, showered, and had breakfast. I sat under the bright eastern sun. The weather was clear, and I was refreshed by my return and the night of love my boyfriend had given me. I looked at the street and saw an old Palestinian man walking slowly, carrying bags of fruit, vegetables, and meat. I felt a strange pleasure. I left my balcony and then returned to it carrying my rifle. I adjusted the scope and aimed at the Palestinian man's right heel. He jumped in the air from the pain. Then I aimed at his left heel, then at his bags, which exploded, their contents spilling out mixed with blood and dirt. Then I aimed at the bony spine directly above his buttocks, and he howled in pain. I didn't intend to kill him; I wanted to see him dancing in pain, and he danced until a strange ecstasy invaded me, yes, a sensual ecstasy like the one I felt last night in my boyfriend's arms!

Needless to say, even Breaking the Silence doesn't have any such testimonies. Yet these kinds of stories are repeated over and over in Arab media as if they are true, and for some reason the international journalists federations have nothing negative to say about their own members literally making up and then embellishing further antisemitic blood libels.

The author, Hamdi Abdel Rahim, compares this to a scene in Schindler's List of a Nazi murdering a Jews for fun.

He laments that Palestinians "have no Schindler." Which adds to the irony because the Palestinians are actively stopping their own people from escaping Gaza while the Jews sought any means they could to leave Nazi occupied lands.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

Poll Discovers That If You Redefine 'Zionism' As 'Strangling Puppies,' 98% Of Jews Oppose It (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook and Substack pages.

Berkeley, November 22 - A groundbreaking new study of public opinion among American Jews found this week that if one takes a term that denotes the movement to develop, maintain, and defend Jewish sovereignty in the ancestral Jewish homeland, then one replaces that meaning with something negative, such as "racism," "genocide," or "jock itch," the overwhelming majority of American Jews will pit themselves against it.

The Sociology Department at the University of California at Berkeley conducted nine separate surveys among a nationwide cohort of Jews, in which the pollsters asked some version of the question, "If 'Zionism' is defined as [something appalling or unpleasant], do you support or oppose Zionism?" Only one in fifty of the 988 respondents gave a "support" answer, with all others opposing.

"This could transform everything the American public knows or assumes about Zionism," asserted lead researcher Hugh Jass. "Supporters of Israel like to tout statistics purporting that somewhere around ninety or ninety-five percent of Jews are Zionist. Well, we can prove that's not true - in fact that Zionism is toxic among Jews - by simply redefining 'Zionism' as something everyone opposes, such as strangling puppies, or microwaving fish in the shared office."

Left-wing and pro-Palestinian activists have been trying to accomplish just such a redefinition for many years. "The Soviet Union got the UN to equate Zionism with racism," recalled Yuri Nalisis, a former diplomat. "Within its own borders, the Soviet Union went to great lengths to equate Zionism with fascism, the bogeyman from the Great Patriotic War. There still remains the key hurdle of getting Jews to accept the redefinition, but one day, maybe we will get there. But these surveys do demonstrate that if such a redefinition takes hold, Jews abandon Zionism."

Analysts believe this approach shows promise far beyond the confines of attitudes toward Israel in the US. "If it holds, this had broad implications for politics in general," explained political podcaster Sacha Wannabe. "Not that controlling the vocabulary and narrative aren't already important - they are the first thing everyone tries to do, because it locks the opponent into terms friendly to your side and assumptions. This just takes things a step or two beyond that. Imagine defining 'abortion' as 'motherhood' - if you could do that, you could get even the reddest Republican to support it."

Numerous activists have declined to wait however long it would take for Jews to come around on the redefinition of Zionism, and have marshalled physical and rhetorical resources to act against Zionists on behalf of the 98% of Jews who oppose Zionism, if redefined.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

Palestinian textbooks are getting even more antisemitic and more pro-terror

The latest IMPACT-SE report on official Palestinian Authority textbooks shows that \ they continue to be antisemitic and pro-terror. Anti-Israel lessons are included in virtually every subject, including math and physics.

This is despite the fact that the EU has poured hundreds of millions of euros into the Palestinian educational sector and demanded an end to incitement and antisemitism in PA textbooks. The PA has at times claimed that they adhere to the required standards but at the same time rejected any conditions on aid, claiming that these were lessons to increase nationalist feeling.

The 396-page report includes examples calling Jews cowards, praising the 1972 Munich Olympics terror attack, and many pages praising the Coastal Road Massacre and terrorist Dalal Mughrabi.

A math lesson asks to calculate the chances that Palestinians would be shot by Jewish settlers shooting at them on the roads - something that Palestinians routinely do towards Jews.

Rather than describe any desire for peace with Israel, the textbooks emphasize that the Zionists are fated to disappear.

Lessons say matter of factly that "Zionists" control the US, money and the media.

Second graders are taught to "give their lives to the Revolution."

An 11th grade textbook says the nature of the Children of Israel is to spread corruption on Earth.

Another says that the idea that Jews are a people is a "false claim," as is the claim that Jews have suffered antisemitism in their relations with non-Jews.

Textbooks list out Islamic and Christian religious sites in "Palestine" but do not admit a single Jewish example.

Jews are blamed to trying to falsify the Quran and, failing that, for creating false hadiths (Islamic oral traditions.).

Antisemitic conspiracy theories are sprinkled throughout. Israelis are said to deliberately release wild pigs to destroy Palestinian crops, to be digging tunnels under Al Aqsa Mosque to make it collapse, to steal Palestinian archaeological relics to erase their history. The Western Wall is presented as a fabrication meant to erase Jerusalem's Islamic heritage. One very ironic example is a conspiracy by Israel to sabotage Palestinian education to keep them ignorant.

Teachers' guides are often even more antisemitic than the textbooks themselves, perhaps because of minimal EU pressure on the textbooks alone. Teachers are instructed to tie "Zionist massacres" to "Jewish religious thought." They are told to teach about "Jews' greedy ambitions" and that the "Jews" have "incessantly perpetrated war crimes."

These are the official textbooks used by UNRWA.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

11/22 Links: The return of the blood libel; Inside the fracturing pro-Palestine movement: Purges, paranoia and a far-left revolt; A Death-Defying Orchestra;

From Ian:

The return of the blood libel

The problem is not only the anti-Semitism that Jewish staff and students face. It is also the failure of many universities to acknowledge, let alone take action, against the perpetrators. It is left to Jewish staff and students to raise concerns time and again, while often being ignored altogether. Jews are the only minority group that is expected to fend for themselves against discrimination, harassment and violence.

The UCL blood-libel lecture was only exposed because a Jewish student attended and recorded the lecture, passed the recording to Stand With Us, an organisation that supports Jewish students on campus. It took concerted efforts from Jewish academics, the Union of Jewish Students and the Union of Jewish Chaplains to bring this matter to the attention of UCL.

We mustn’t allow Maqusi’s alleged remarks to be dismissed as a one-off, an aberration. Over the past two years, in universities across the UK, there have been many similar instances of Jew hatred. Just this week, it emerged that the rector at the University of Glasgow, Ghassan Abu-Sittah, accused Israel of harvesting the organs of dead Palestinians. Last month, Michael Ben-Gad, an Israeli professor of economics, was subjected to a campaign of grotesque anti-Semitic abuse by students at City St George’s, University of London.

British universities usually take proactive steps to protect minorities on campuses. This is not altruistic – indeed, it is their legal duty to do so. But when it comes to Jews they are failing. Failing to provide information, understanding and training on anti-Semitism. Failing to identify and address anti-Semitic speakers or events. Failing to take disciplinary action against anti-Semitic staff and students. And failing to take seriously, or even listen to, concerns and complaints raised about anti-Semitism.

It should not be left to Jewish staff and students alone to combat anti-Semitism in their places of work and study, but in many instances that is what is happening. Without concerted action across the sector, these protesters and agitators may well get their wish for Zionist-free campuses.

Ted Cruz’s Finest Hour

The antisemitic right has been successful at taking people’s words and twisting them on social media to advance the view that anybody who supports Israel is somehow corrupt or disloyal to the United States. Carlson’s confrontational interview with Cruz is a case in point. Carlson has been pushing the lie that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which is made up of American citizens who advocate a strong relationship between the U.S. and Israel, is actually a foreign lobby. When Carlson challenged Cruz on support he has received from AIPAC, Cruz lamented that from a pro-Israel perspective, AIPAC hasn’t been particularly effective, and further noted, “I came into Congress 13 years ago with the stated intention of being the leading defender of Israel in the United States Senate.” His obvious point was that he was committed to Israel from the get-go, not as a result of pressure by a lobbying group. Yet this quote still surfaces on social media to smear Cruz as being more interested in serving a foreign country than his own constituents.

“I believe I have been the leading defender of Israel in the Senate,” Cruz says when I ask him about the exchange. “What I did not say, which Tucker and his minions claim I said, is that my No. 1 priority in the Senate is defending Israel. Those are very different statements.” He points out that he’s taken the lead on many issues: “I’ve spent 13 years as the leading defender of securing the border and stopping the invasion of illegal immigrants into this country.” Cruz says that his support for Israel flows from his faith as well as his belief that the U.S.-Israel alliance is in the national security interest of the U.S., which is consistent with his commitments to keep Texans safe. “Israel is by far our strongest ally in a very troubled region of the world,” he says. “Israel is a democracy that respects human rights and that shares our values — and those who hate Israel hate America.”

Cruz believes that as hatred of Jews spreads, it induces people to embrace anti-Americanism and other left-wing ideologies: “The slippery slope that starts with antisemitism and attacking Israel frequently leads straight down that line.” As examples, he notes Carlson’s recent defense of Venezuelan communist dictator Nicolás Maduro, his praise for a guest on his show who said that Winston Churchill was the “chief villain” of World War II and that maybe the U.S. should have sided with Hitler, and Carlson’s own statement that he believes that America should have offered condolences to Osama bin Laden’s family.

Carlson also recently claimed that it was “weird” that Ted Cruz “all of a sudden, out of nowhere” started talking about the persecution of Christians in Nigeria, where as many as 100,000 Christians have been killed since 2009. In a wildly false claim, Carlson said that Cruz had “no track record of being interested in Christians at all.” Cruz took to the Senate floor in 2014 to speak up for Meriam Ibrahim, who was imprisoned in Sudan for being a Christian. That same year, he raised concerns about hundreds of mostly Christian girls who had been kidnapped by the Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram. In 2018, in another speech focusing on the persecution of Christians in Nigeria, he argued that the U.S. military “must be well equipped to target Boko Haram terrorists.” But these facts are inconvenient for Carlson, who wants to portray the senator as a Christian obsessed with Israel and only “suddenly” feigning concern for Nigerian Christians as some sort of cynical cover play.

Cruz agrees with the sentiment that “the best cure for bad speech is more speech.” Given how lies can spread on social media, he says it is imperative that more voices speak out to counter with the truth.

“We need to see conservatives show the leadership to take this on and refute these lies in a way that the Democrats for the past decade have never been willing to do,” he says. “We need to show more willingness to confront this evil in our own party.”

Two Israels that don’t exist: James Lindsay on how the American Right, and Left, get it wrong

Guiding the far Left and Right beyond the narratives they had established about Israel would be difficult, according to Lindsay. For the Left, there is a deeper belief structure that casts Israel as existing to “oppress the poor Palestinians or Muslims in the region.” The radical Right has also made the issue a shibboleth.

Demonstrating in a concrete manner that foreign actors are proliferating the perceptions of the fake Israels, such as sponsoring influencers, would undermine those voices and the narratives they have been building. Americans generally perceive foreign attempts to covertly influence them as hostile, Lindsay explained. At the same time, creating videos with succinct refutations of the talking points that define the false narratives would also be helpful.

“A lot of Americans literally believe that what the United States is doing is writing Israel a check for $4 billion a year, and Israel just can do whatever it wants with it, most of which is start wars with people that it doesn’t need to. So it’d be very, very easy to just kind of put together a short refutation of claims, explaining [that] the vast majority of the foreign aid is actually through military contracts. And so what’s happening is the United States is giving Israel money to buy weapons from America. That’s over 80% of the aid, which turns out to be $4b. a year. That turns into almost $20b. in profit for American companies employing 15,000 Americans to operate in that business environment,” said Lindsay. “And that’s happening specifically to fight terrorists who chant things like ‘Death to America.’ So it’s in our interest in a multitude of ways, but this is not what the average American right-winger believes. They believe we’re cutting a check to Israel for Israel to just go do whatever they want with, and that if American kids were getting that money instead, they’d be able to buy a house.”

Lindsay also advised that others have to see the real Israel that he had seen – conversations with Israelis, their everyday life. Seeing the daily life of young, Gen Z, English-speaking Israel would show the true Israel. Such materials couldn’t be created or sponsored by the government, Lindsay warned, as otherwise it would be propaganda. Such outreach has to be organic.

Israel has the opportunity to position itself as an example of how to create a culture of strong fathers and loving families with religious children, according to Lindsay. Offering to help Americans figure out how to integrate such cultural features into American life would have appeal to young conservatives. There are many American leaders attempting to figure out how to save their younger generations, and anything Israelis could offer in terms of advice, mentorship, or opportunities would be beneficial to that mission.

“I think there’s a huge opportunity, in fact, to showcase how family oriented and yet like masculine and courageous you have in the men of the IDF,” said Lindsay. “I think the connection between family and religion, especially in the more observant and Orthodox sectors of the society, would also be very charming for people to see how it looks in reality. The focus on children and being a good parent, though, I think would really shine through and resonate.”

The author was struck with how Israeli culture is focused on family and life, even in little ways that are often invisible to the fish swimming in the Israeli current. One example shared by Lindsay was how, when introductions were made at every meeting, Israelis would introduce themselves not by their title and achievement, but primarily with details about their family, such as how many children they had. It is a culture of life which Israelis are ready to defend on the borders of Gaza and Lebanon, and come home to have a Shabbat family meal. This “culture of life” was a chief focus during Lindsay’s November 3 New Discourses podcast, titled “Am Yisrael Chai.”

There are still a lot of Americans who support Israel and Jews, said Lindsay. When the goal is to drive a wedge between two countries or peoples, it takes both sides to give up on the relationship. It would require Americans to become skeptical and angry at Jews, explained Lindsay, but would also require Israelis to turn around and surrender America as an ally because of those sentiments. It would be a “terrible mistake if both sides decide to step into that enmity, when the fact is that the majority of conservative Christians in this country [the US] are still strong allies to Israel, still love Israel, still recognize the difference between civilization and terrorism, and to know which side to stand on.”

11/21 Links Pt2: The Democrats’ ominous anti-Zionist turn; The ‘noble lies’ of the BBC; Anonymous site offers $100,000 for execution of Israeli academics

From Ian:

The Democrats’ ominous anti-Zionist turn

AIPAC is clearly a lightning rod in left-wing New England. Jewish Insider reported that Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton, previously deemed moderate, “would reject any further donations from AIPAC and would return more than $30,000 from the group” the day after launching his Senate campaign. Jordan Wood, a House candidate in nearby Maine, recently said “he would reject contributions from AIPAC” pointing to Democrats’ distrust over how that money affects “foreign aid to Israel”, Jewish Insider reported. Progressive Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner has made anti-AIPAC messaging central to his campaign.

Even “Midwestern nice” has made room for anti-Zionism. Anti-Israel Zeteo asked Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed about “Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state”. He “sidestepped” the question, Jewish Insider reported. El-Sayed also claimed AIPAC’s bipartisan donors are “MAGA billionaires... try[ing] to dictate the outcome for a Democratic primary”.

Down south, Georgia’s gubernatorial primary includes State Rep. Ruwa Romman, whom the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported backed the anti-Israel “‘Leave it Blank’ protest vote [campaign] against then-President Joe Biden” last year. Jewish Insider further reported that Romman “called on Democrats to ‘ban AIPAC funding’ in Democratic primaries”, supported a one-state solution, dubbed the Abraham Accords “disastrous” and opposed “a resolution denouncing Hamas and its [American] supporters”, offering solidarity to American Jews, and affirming Israel’s right to self-defence.

New examples keep appearing. Locations vary, but the details follow familiar patterns. Candidates define themselves in opposition to AIPAC and its American membership or elected Democrats they portray as overly pro-Israel. That is, Democratic candidates are increasingly defining themselves in opposition to Jews, the Jewish state, and Israel’s non-Jewish friends.

Jewish Democratic Georgia State Rep. Esther Panitch told me: “This represents a troubling shift where a vocal minority within the Democratic coalition has made anti-Zionism a litmus test for progressive credentials.” Not coincidentally, that litmus test puts many lifelong Jewish Democratic Zionists in a tight spot. Goldstein, for example, spent decades as an active Democrat, including serving as a delegate to three Democratic presidential conventions. He “couldn’t stand” being “attacked and otherized” by anti-Zionist activists and felt pushed to choose “between my party and my Judaism,” which is “inextricably intertwined with Zionism”. Goldstein left the Party in July.

For Panitch, “The question is whether the Democratic Party will allow this extremist fringe to define its position on Israel, or whether the silent majority will finally speak out. People of good conscience need to make clear there’s a bright line between legitimate policy criticism and the antisemitism of denying Jewish self-determination.”

That’s a distinction with a difference. It’s also a distinction voters should understand but won’t be learning from anti-Zionist elected officials. Zionists will have to urgently fill the gap.

The ‘noble lies’ of the BBC

Our overlords have been similarly deceitful over Gaza because they deem Palestinians to be deserving victims who automatically warrant sympathy against Israel, the oppressor. They have propagated falsehoods on the trans issue because this group is also presumed a persecuted minority, and because they feel they have a right to educate the masses in accordance with their ‘compassionate’ vision. In this new counter-factual reality, a man can get pregnant and a woman can rape someone with ‘her penis’. It matters little if this, or any other esoteric truth they take a fancy to, sounds absurd to normal people. Indeed, the more exclusive the ‘luxury belief’, the better.

The elites revel in determining what constitutes knowledge, and making sure everyone knows the righteousness of the truths they dispense. This is why they get so exercised by ‘misinformation’, or have been eager to dictate what ordinary folk say in private through ‘hate speech’ laws, ‘non-crime hate incidents’ or the Online Safety Act. This is why they double down on ‘offensive’ and ‘inappropriate’ language. They don’t like it when words are used without inhibitions and restrictions and when knowledge is diffused without supervision.

This is why they dissemble, mislead and prevaricate over truths that are inconvenient or unpleasant. Hence the cowardice and dishonesty about the rape gangs in the north of England, or their indignation when a newsreader – someone whose job it is to impart facts – rolled her eyes when prompted to read aloud that fraudulent construction: ‘pregnant people’.

The elites say what they like because they like what they say.

Gaza polemic denouncing indifference to Palestinian suffering wins US National Book Award

A provocative essay collection about the West’s response to the Gaza war and a children’s book about young Iranians helping a Jewish refugee in World War II were two of the big winners at the National Book Awards Wednesday evening.

“One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This,” by Egyptian-Canadian journalist and author Omar El Akkad, won the evening’s nonfiction prize. Based on a viral tweet El Akkad sent soon after the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza, the book maligns Western liberalism for, in El Akkad’s telling, turning its back on Palestinian suffering.

“It’s very difficult to think in celebratory terms about a book that was written in response to a genocide,” El Akkad said in his acceptance speech. “It’s difficult to think in celebratory terms when I know my tax money is doing this, and many of my elected representatives happily support it.”

He later continued, “And it is difficult to think in celebratory terms when I have been watching people snatched off the streets by masked agents of the state for daring to suggest that Palestinians might be human beings” — a likely reference to cases like student activist Rumeysa Ozturk. El Akkad thanked what he said were “writers who have spoken out,” as thousands of authors have pressured literary organizations like PEN America to take a harder line against Israel.

El Akkad’s book is one of several conversation-starters that have been published as Israel-critical reflections on the war, a crop that also includes Peter Beinart’s “Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza.” The nonfiction judging panel included Jewish journalist Eli Saslow, who has written extensively about the rise of antisemitism and white nationalism. Jewish public radio host Ira Glass, who introduced the category in a prerecorded voiceover, noted that it is among titles that “indict the Western world in the ongoing destruction of Gaza.”

11/21 Links Pt1: ‘Weaponized empathy’: Hamas exploits Western ignorance of war, military expert says; Trump Admin Revokes Visa From SA Official Involved in anti-Israel ICJ Case; Arab Group’s ‘Advocate of the Year’ Organizes Blood Libel Display at DC’s Union Station

From Ian:

Andrew Fox: ‘Weaponized empathy’: Hamas exploits Western ignorance of war, military expert says

Social media has amplified this lack of understanding. Images can reach people’s pockets even as the dust on the ground still settles from an airstrike; and people reach emotional conclusions based on mere seconds of uncorroborated, curated propaganda.

The past two years on social media have been a peculiar mixture of gaslighting and relentless abuse. People deny what I have seen in person, with my own eyes, based on things they themselves have only seen on social media. And because I represent the rational narrative, I am told that I, as with Israel, am uniquely evil – with all the death threats and insults that come as part of that designation.

The bot swarms are also a factor: Mention the rapes of October 7, of which I have seen firsthand evidence, and notifications will swarm with bots denying them. This cumulative effect has one goal: to make it an unpleasant place to defend Israel’s conduct and to deter allies from speaking up.

So why bother? After all, I am neither Jewish nor Israeli. I have no dog in this fight.

However, I do believe, as an academic, that truth has meaning. Simply because social media exemplifies epistemic collapse, this does not mean that the truth loses importance.

I will continue to share what I believe to be true because when the dust settles from Gaza, a just outcome needs the truth in its corner. When this war is over, without the truth there will be no justice and no peace for either Palestinians or Israelis.

Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib: The Palestinian dilemma: Why Hamas continues to fail the Palestinian people

Ideological dissonance
Many in Gaza still promote ideas that reject Israel, denounce peace, and prioritize “resistance” over nation-building. Yet most who hold these views are not seeking war; they want stability and prosperity. What they fail to recognize is that Gaza’s well-being and prosperity depend on peace and coexistence with its neighbors.

This creates a striking dissonance: Many want the pride of “resistance” while expecting prosperity and a high standard of living.

This was evident after the massacre on October 7, 2023, when some who had initially celebrated Hamas’s attack quickly changed their tone as Gaza plunged into its deadliest chapter in modern Palestinian history.

For some, opposition to Hamas is partly motivated by the failure of the terror group to advance its nihilistic project over the past 30 years.

Whether it was the sabotaging of the Oslo process, the militarization of the Second Intifada, the blockade of Gaza, or a host of useless wars – especially after October 7 – Hamas has delivered continued and sustained misery, failure, death, devastation, and regression to the Palestinian cause and people.

Instead of fundamentally shifting course and realizing the futility of the ideological, nationalistic, and religious narratives and manipulations that underpin Hamas and elements of the Palestinian national project, many are only willing to see Hamas as a failure and shun the group for its lack of effectiveness rather than what it stands for.

Trump Admin Revokes Visa From South African Official Who Spearheaded 'Genocide' Case Against Israel

The Trump administration on Thursday revoked the visa of Naledi Pandor, the South African official who spearheaded a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), spoke by phone with former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh shortly after Oct. 7, 2023, and repeatedly offered support for terrorism, a senior State Department official exclusively confirmed to the Washington Free Beacon.

"Pandor's visa has been revoked," the official said. "Pandor has openly supported terrorism and endorsed violent jihads. Under the Trump administration, the U.S. government will no longer tolerate dangerous foreigners traveling into our country to spread their violent policies."

Pandor, who served as South African foreign minister from 2019 to 2024, just concluded a trip to the United States for the Milwaukee premiere of Muslim Network Television. A senior State Department official told the Free Beacon ahead of Pandor's visit that the department was "aware of this individual's pro-terrorism background" and that the matter was "under review."

The former diplomat, a convert to Islam, has professed her support for terrorism on numerous occasions. She said in September that Muslims "are permitted to engage in jihad when necessary" and told an audience in October that "armed struggle may become a necessity if there is no movement toward fundamental change."

During her time in South African government, Pandor led the country's lawfare campaign against Israel, ultimately filing a formal accusation of genocide against the Jewish state in December 2023. Just 10 days after Hamas attacked Israel, Pandor spoke on the phone with Haniyeh and, according to Hamas, offered her congratulations for the "Al-Aqsa Flood," the terror group's name for its October 7 operation. While Pandor initially claimed the conversation had to do with humanitarian aid, her office eventually admitted that she called to reiterate "South Africa's solidarity and support" for Palestinians.

Jews in Australia want to teach their kids how to proudly defend themselves. The antisemites are furious.

Antisemitism in Australia has been skyrocketing, with incidents quadrupling in the year after October 7, 2023. Attacks have included death threats, physical assaults, firebombings of synagogues and Jewish-owned businesses, and the mass doxxing of hundreds of Jewish artists, academics and professionals.

The Jewish community feels under siege—and the children feel it most of all.

That is why a grassroots Zionist group, Lions of Zion, has stepped into the gap with a simple, powerful slogan: “Unity. Courage. Pride.”

On December 7 they are running a free, family-friendly event in Melbourne called “Lions NERF Heroes – Beepers Operation.”

It features age-appropriate Krav Maga and situational-awareness training, a giant NERF battle, and a short, factual presentation about the Mossad supply-chain operation that simultaneously detonated thousands of Hezbollah pagers in September 2024 — an operation that crippled the terror group’s mid-level command structure with fewer than three dozen fatalities, almost all of them Hezbollah operatives.

Within hours of the event being posted online, anti-Zionist activists began flooding Victoria Police, ASIO, the Premier’s office and the ticketing platform with demands to shut it down. Their claim? That Jewish families are “celebrating blowing up little kids with pagers.”

That is a deliberate lie.

No children were targeted. No civilians were intended to be harmed. Hezbollah itself distributed the rigged pagers to its own fighters. The explosives were calibrated for maximum disruption with minimum lethality — a feat of restraint virtually unheard of in modern warfare. The operation saved countless Israeli and Lebanese lives by shortening a war that Hezbollah started.

Yet the same voices who stayed silent when Hezbollah fired 10,000+ rockets at Israeli civilians are now pretending to be “horrified” that Jewish children might learn about precision, ethics and survival.

Lions of Zion released a statement that every Jewish organization should pin to their wall:

So let us be unmistakably clear:
We will not apologise for defending Jewish life.
We will not apologise for Jewish strength.
We will not apologise for celebrating moral courage in the defence of our people.
…
This gathering does not glorify violence. It honours the extraordinary ethical discipline of the IDF and Mossad …

Some people cannot stand to see Jews strong …

Our children will not bow their heads. They will not inherit confusion. They will not be broken by propaganda.

That statement is perfect. Damn perfect.

For once, a Jewish group refused to play the old game of apologizing, qualifying, and groveling the moment someone yells “but the children!” For once, someone said the quiet part out loud: We have nothing to be ashamed of, and everything to be proud of.

I wish every major Jewish organizations showed half this clarity. Too often they rush to water down language, distance themselves from “controversial” operations, or beg for approval from people who will never grant it.

Lions of Zion just handed the community a spine transplant.

If you’re a Jewish parent in Australia near Caulfield, register your kids today.

If you’re anywhere else, share this article. Leave a supportive review on the booking page. Push the truth to the top of Google and X before the professional outrage machine buries it.

The haters are organized, loud, and already writing to the police to stop the event.

We need to expose their hate.

(h/t Jill)

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

11/20 Links Pt2: Trump welcomes freed Israeli hostages to White House; Terrorists & tiaras Miss Palestine’s connection to convicted terrorist leader; The trouble with the Nuremberg Trials, 80 years on

From Ian:

Antizionism: The Reinvention of a Racist Hate Movement

“Tell me what you accuse the Jews of — I’ll tell you what you’re guilty of.”

This 1959 observation by novelist Vasily Grossman, often quoted by writer Douglas Murray, was vividly illustrated at UCLA last week. An ignominious band of university departments including its School of Law sponsored a talk by Rutgers professor Noura Erakat — an activist posing as a scholar — who teaches the gullible that Israel is a settler colonial project. Erakat’s faux lecture, “Revisiting Zionism as a Form of Racism and Racial Discrimination,” was timed to honor the fiftieth anniversary of U.N. General Assembly Resolution 3379 — the since-rescinded-but-never-dead screed that declared Zionism a form of racism.

Judea Pearl, UCLA professor, Turing Prize winner and proud Israel-born Zionist, had had enough. When he learned of the “Zionism is racism” lecture, he issued a call for a countervailing event on campus the same night, Nov. 13. UCLA’s Jewish Faculty Resilience Group swung into gear, and in little over a week about a hundred people gathered at UCLA’s School of Law for a panel discussion called “Is Antizionism Racism?” Peter Savodnik of The Free Press was a thoughtful moderator, and Michael Berenbaum, Yael Lerman and Hindi Stohl Posy gave sobering, alarming, or stirring presentations. Presumably due to the imposing police presence (thank you, UCPD), antizionist protesters mostly stayed away. At least one professor in the audience felt secure enough from the keffiyeh brigade to pull out her knitting.

As Professor Pearl reported the next day on X, the event was a major success. “Two concrete outcomes became immediately evident,” he wrote. “(1) Zionist faculty and students at UCLA will now be asserting their right to a name, a voice and institutional representation on campus. (2) Antizionist faculty and students will now be facing a new, no-nonsense environment in which their rhetoric and ideology are exposed — and named — for what they are: racist.”

Because what else can you call a movement that exists solely to deny the right of self-determination to one nation — the Jewish one? That screams to isolate, boycott or attack Jews, camouflaged as “Zionists”? That champions an organization, Hamas, whose founding charter calls to kill Jews? That celebrates as “resistance” the largest one-day slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust?

Jew-haters invariably ascribe to Jews whatever they find most abhorrent. For the Nazis who obsessed about race purity, Jews were polluters of the Aryan race. Medieval Christians hated Jews as the supposed killers of Christ. For communists, Jews were capitalists; and for reactionaries, Jews were communists. Today, when society overwhelmingly rejects racism, progressives who consider it the worst of all crimes scream “Racist!” at Jews who support the existence of a Jewish state. Meanwhile they support the elimination of that same state, making their claim the epitome of projection.

Nicole Lampert: When Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word

Over the last few years, we have increasingly seen the non-apology apology - same concept - especially when it comes to antisemitism. The latest example came yesterday courtesy of Bristol club Strange Brew, which exactly six months earlier cancelled a performance by Oi Va Voi and its Israeli guest singer, Zahara.

The club had come under pressure from the Bristol Palestine Alliance to ban the performance. It knew that it couldn’t simply ban Jews. And that it wasn’t meant to ban Israelis either. Religion, race, ethnicity, and nationality are all protected characteristics under the 2010 Equality Act. (This doesn’t cover Russians who are subject to sanctions from the British state which takes priority).

Instead, the ban was ostensibly because Zohara, a left-wing Israeli with a Palestinian boyfriend, had an album cover featuring her naked at a watermelon farm. ‘We were of the view it could be interpreted as politically offensive, given the ongoing and worsening situation in Gaza and it had already been interpreted as such by the groups who contacted us,’ the club wrote following the cancellation in May. Their statement added that while the band had explained that the album cover was a comment on femininity and nature, ‘We concluded that, regardless of the intended meaning, the use of politically loaded symbolism in this way – by anyone of any background – is ambigious and could therefore come across as politically insensitive and/or offensive to the people of Palestine and by our audiences.’

An ‘ambiguous’ album cover used politically by malign forces does not, it appears, protect anyone from what the Equality Act says. Despite this, a second venue in Brighton also cancelled the band, and for a brief while, it seemed they were musical kryptonite. Dropped. Ironically, one place where they remained hugely popular was Turkey, where they continued to play to some of their biggest audiences.

All of this was at the same time when musical acts were signing mass petitions for Northern Irish band Kneecap – named after an IRA punishment beating – for alleged support of Hamas and Hezbollah. These acts claimed they were for free speech in music. Not one of them came out to support Oi Va Voi. Not one.

As Oi Va Voi said yesterday: ‘The intimidation of the activist groups who wanted Strange Brew to cancel our gig would never be tolerated against any other minority, either in the music industry or elsewhere. Anti-Jewish racism is racism, and racism is injustice, wherever it comes from.

Poll: Majority of British adults are Zionists – but don’t seem to know it

A staggering lack of awareness about the meaning of the word ‘Zionism’ is laid bare by a new poll published today, with five times as many British adults claiming to support the right of Jews to self-determination as identified with the ‘Z’ word.

According to new polling from More in Common, while just 9 per cent of the wider UK population said they were Zionists, 53 per cent said they “support the right of Jewish people to have a nation in Israel”.

Similarly, while 22 per cent identified themselves as having a negative view of Zionists, only 9 per cent specifically had a negative view of “people who support the right of Jewish people to have a nation in Israel”.

In a summary provided by the organisation, which has consistently polled the British public’s attitude towards the conflict over the last two years, “all of this suggests that the public’s perceptions of Zionism have become detached from its literal meaning”.

“People who brand themselves as ‘Zionists’ might mean to be communicating that they simply support the principle of Jewish self-determination, but this is far from what other people may hear when they say this.”

“This disconnect makes it easy for conversations to become heated or accusatory very quickly, because people are often responding to what they think the label implies rather than to the person’s actual position. As a result, the term itself can introduce misunderstanding and tension into discussions that might otherwise reveal more shared ground than disagreement.”

Among those described as “progressive activists”, the numbers are more extreme. More than half – 54 per cent – have a negative view of “Zionists”, with close to a quarter – 23 per cent – having a negative view of “people who support the right of Jewish people to have a nation in Israel”.

General concerns in British society about antisemitism also rose over the last 18 months. In April 2024, about one third of respondents (34 per cent) felt the UK was a mostly or very unsafe place for Jews. That number rose sharply from the summer of 2025, culminating in almost half of respondents (48 per cent) feeling that way in the aftermath of the Heaton Park synagogue terror attack.

Terrorists & tiaras Miss Palestine’s connection to convicted terrorist leader revealed ahead of Miss Universe pageant

The first-ever Miss Palestine contestant in the Miss Universe pageant married the son of Hamas’ most-wanted prisoner, Marwan Barghouti, and even named a child after him, The Post has learned.

Nadeen Ayoub — who claims to be a 27-year-old US and Canadian citizen living in Dubai — is competing this week to represent Palestine, a territory the US and Israel don’t even recognize as a sovereign state.

Strutting through preliminary rounds ahead of the pending pageant, Ayoub has kept most of her personal life under wraps — until now.

Years-old screenshots and social media posts obtained by The Post show she took pains to hide that she was once married to Sharaf Barghouti — son of the infamous Fatah leader serving five life sentences in Israel for orchestrating terror attacks that killed five people in 2001 and 2002.

The convicted murderer’s name resurfaced last month when Hamas demanded his release in hostage-exchange negotiations with Israel — a request the Jewish state flatly refused, citing his participation in the first intifada, leadership in the second, convictions in five terror-related murders and founding of the West Bank’s al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

A secret life
Social media posts show Ayoub tied the knot with Sharaf Barghouti in 2016, later welcoming a son named Marwan three years later — seemingly in tribute to the convicted killer.

However, it is unclear if the pair remains married. A family member reached for comment confirmed to The Post that the two had been married, but denied knowledge of their current status.

11/20 Links Pt1: Resolution 2803: A restatement of international law; ‘We need to make them scared’: NYC synagogue protest crosses new red lines; Confessions of a Former Pro-Palestine Activist

From Ian:

Resolution 2803: A restatement of international law

The resolution effectively negates any recognition of a Palestinian state at present or otherwise outside of the terms of the resolution. This includes the misguided efforts to recognize the P.A. as a state by the United Kingdom and France, as well as other U.N. members, such as Canada and Australia, all of whom are bound by the resolution. Interestingly, there is no explicit legal obligation to create a Palestinian state under this resolution; it merely recites the threshold conditions that must be satisfied to have a pathway for self-determination and statehood.

The resolution also does not recognize that there is or ever was any so-called “occupation,” “right of return,” “genocide,” “starvation,” “apartheid” or “justifiable resistance.” Hamas and its cohorts are the wrongdoers and the resolution is directed against them and in support of Israel’s just defensive war. Indeed, the resolution explicitly notes that Gaza threatens the security of neighboring states. It can well be asserted that all the libels against Israel relating to Gaza and the Palestinians have effectively been debunked as a matter of international law by the resolution. The Resolution is effectively a restatement of international law that exonerates Israel and casts Hamas and its cohorts as the wrongdoers.

Hamas has been defeated militarily and politically. The board and ISF have the clean-up job, with Israel there on-site until the job is fully completed. Thereafter, Israel is entitled to remain with a security perimeter presence until Gaza is properly secure from any resurgent terror threat.

Israel fought a just, defensive war against belligerent, vicious, murderous and terrorist Hamas and its cohorts. The UNSC and those supporting the plan recognize this and, by virtue thereof, the resolution is designed to eliminate Hamas and its cohorts—as the wrongdoers—from having any role in the governance of Gaza, as well as to destroy their capacity to do any more harm to Israel and the neighboring countries.

May the blessings of peace prevail.

Jake Wallis Simons: President Trump has made a mockery of Europe's Gaza posturing

That is not all. Resolution 2803 also included language that exposed the UN’s claim of “genocide” in Gaza as unfounded and absurd. The International Stabilisation Force, it said, shall enforce security by “ensuring the process of demilitarising the Gaza Strip, including the destruction and prevention of rebuilding of the military, terror, and offensive infrastructure… until Gaza is properly secure from any resurgent terror threat.”

Shamefully, here was the first official recognition from the Security Council that Israel’s campaign in the Strip did not aim to destroy the Palestinian people but to vanquish those jihadi armies who had spent decades turning their territory into a network of subterranean garrisons protected by more than two million human shields.

This statement – passed with 13 votes in favour, including those of Britain and France, and abstentions from China and Russia – directly contradicted the official ruling by the United Nations commission of inquiry that Israel had conducted a “genocide” in Gaza, released in September as part of the lamentable international drive to force an Israeli defeat. What a difference three months make, eh?

Of course, anybody of sound mind who had bothered to read September’s “genocide” report was bound to conclude that it was a deplorable piece of Israelophobic propaganda in the first place. It brazenly airbrushed Hamas from the conflict almost entirely, showcasing the tragic destruction as evidence of a campaign targeting civilians rather than the jihadis hiding behind them. It was like a biased account of the Second World War in which the Nazis had been conveniently forgotten.

All of which is to say: thank God for President Trump! In many ways, not least his attitude towards Vladimir Putin, I’m no fan of the man. But without his intervention at the UN, which has so rudely jolted the West – and the world – out of its inexplicable infatuation with the jihadi agenda, the collapse of liberal democracy would have been all but assured.

But Trump cannot forever be relied upon to save Britain from itself. Israel may be the first domino, but Ukraine is the second. Sooner or later, we must learn to defend ourselves.

Hamas’ Rejection of Peace and the Media’s Convenient Silence

On Monday, November 17, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 2803, approving the implementation of the 20-point Peace Plan proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump. The resolution outlines how the two parties can advance to the next phase of the ceasefire and begin shifting the focus toward rebuilding the Gaza Strip.

A “Board of Peace,” led by President Trump and authorized by an International Stabilization Force (ISF), would be implemented to disarm terrorist organizations in Gaza and assist in delivering humanitarian aid, among other responsibilities.

Thirteen votes were cast in favor, zero against, and China and Russia both abstained. The Palestinian Authority and Hamas’ patrons Qatar and Turkey also welcomed the resolution.

Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad reacted to the vote with a statement vowing to treat any international force as a “party to the conflict,” meaning more violence. But Hamas’ opposition is hardly surprising given their insistence on portraying themselves as the victors of the war. The dissonance that the media cannot seem to reconcile is that Hamas claims to be the group that represents and governs over the people the plan is meant to help.

Less surprisingly, but certainly more disappointingly, is the international media’s failure to delve into the details of Hamas’ rejection and what it means more broadly for the future of the peace plan.

The New York Times, for instance, spent an entire article discussing the countries – including several Muslim and Arab nations – that welcomed the adoption of the resolution and its implications in the broader context of peace.

But similar to how Hamas stood alone in rejecting the agreement, The New York Times also chose to gloss over that critical fact. While it’s encouraging that the international community wants to see an end to the war, shouldn’t it be headline news that the party actually waging the war has no real interest in ending it? Shouldn’t Hamas’ absolute rejection of any form of peace deserve, at the bare minimum, one paragraph?

After years of Hamas openly declaring its goals, the media continues to conceal this reality, seeking to portray the terrorist organization instead as peacemakers while shifting the blame for the continued conflict onto Israel. But as the saying goes, when someone – or in this case, a terrorist organization – shows you who they are, believe them.