12/01 Links Pt2: When journalism becomes the engine of antisemitism; Tuvia Tenenbom: Oscar-Winning ‘No Other Land’ EXPOSED; Joseph Cohen: Islamism Forced Me to Flee Britain

From Ian:

When journalism becomes the engine of antisemitism

Italy is uniquely afflicted. It is the only Western country where a national labor union called a general strike for Palestine. It is the only one where leaders of the far-left Rifondazione Comunista accuse the media of supporting “genocide.” Public spaces are now saturated with Hamas flags and chants that recast Zionism as colonialism, erasing its true meaning as the national rebirth of the only indigenous people who never abandoned Jerusalem.

The attack on La Stampa rightly provokes outrage. But outrage alone is not enough.

According to research by demographer Sergio Della Pergola presented at a major antisemitism conference hosted by CNEL and the Unione delle Comunità Ebraiche Italiane, La Stampa emerged as the Italian newspaper most consistently engaged in anti-Israel propaganda between Oct. 7 and Sept. 19, 2025.

Prominent voices such as Vito Mancuso, Anna Foa, Ilan Pappé and Rula Jebreal shaped a steady narrative of demonization. Despite its historic reputation for moderation, La Stampa has portrayed Israel as violent, punitive and malevolent, while Hamas’s savagery faded into the background of a simplified story of victimhood framed as genocide, apartheid and war crimes.

Della Pergola documented how the historical and political context vanished almost entirely. The Oct. 7, 2023, massacre was swiftly detached from Hamas’s declared goal of destroying Israel and from its systematic use of human shields. Headlines such as “Israel blocks even births,” “Israel tightens the noose,” and repeated claims that massacring civilians is a “standard practice” of the Israeli army became routine.

Editor Andrea Malaguti defended his newsroom with fierce conviction, asserting professional integrity. But professionalism cannot survive when truth is sacrificed to ideology. What happened at La Stampa should serve as a warning to every journalist who believes that a single, morally flattened version of reality can sustain itself without consequences.

Even Mahatma Gandhi, whom the editor cited in self-defense, means nothing to vandals driven by hatred. What must concern us is the collapse of knowledge that has turned young people into instruments of violence, hollowed out their understanding of reality, and produced a moral degeneration fed by ignorance.

Journalism must return to its duty of truth. Not to plant Palestinian flags across Europe. Not to indulge fashionable guilt toward the “Third World,” revolutionary romanticism, jihadist apologetics or antisemitic reflexes. These forces now shape not only the attackers in the streets, but—tragically—the readers formed by years of informational distortion.

The lesson of La Stampa is not only about an attack on a newspaper. It is about the corrosion of conscience that made such an attack imaginable.

Harvard Hires Divinity School Graduate Who Assaulted Israeli Classmate

The Harvard University student who faced criminal charges for assaulting an Israeli classmate during an anti-Israel "die-in" protest, Elom Tettey-Tamaklo, has a new job: He is a teaching fellow at… Harvard.

Tettey-Tamaklo, who was removed from his position as a proctor overseeing freshmen in the wake of the incident, began work as a "Graduate Teaching Fellow" at Harvard in August, according to his LinkedIn profile. He says he works to "advise faculty on curriculum design."

Tettey-Tamaklo was the subject of intense scrutiny after he was caught on camera accosting a first-year Israeli business school student at an October 2023 "die-in" protest held outside of Harvard Business School. He was slapped with a misdemeanor assault and battery charge last May and ordered by a Suffolk County judge to take an anger management class and perform 80 hours of community service roughly a year later.

As that legal process played out, the Trump administration demanded Harvard expel Tettey-Tamaklo over the assault. Instead, Harvard hired him. Throughout the ordeal, the school never disciplined Tettey-Tamaklo or his compadre, Ibrahim Bharmal, and refused to cooperate with prosecutors in the case.

Teaching fellows at Harvard are typically paid a minimum salary that ranges from $3,400 to $11,040, according to Harvard's graduate student union. They assist with courses, leading "sections," grading exams, and offering office hours. The positions are generally awarded to Harvard-enrolled graduate students, meaning Tettey-Tamaklo may be pursuing a Ph.D. Tettey-Tamaklo graduated with a master's degree from the divinity school in May, just weeks after he agreed to the pretrial diversion program in his assault case.

It's unclear in which school Tettey-Tamaklo is serving as a teaching fellow; his LinkedIn profile only says the job is a "full-time" and "on-site" position at Harvard. It's also unclear if he's pursuing a Ph.D. at the divinity school.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Why Qatar Should Have No Role in Gaza

The meeting underscores Qatar's apparent eagerness to play a central role in post-war Gaza. As a long-time supporter and funder of the Muslim Brotherhood organization, the Qatari regime's main goal seems to be ensuring that Hamas remains in power in the Gaza Strip. Hamas describes itself as "one of the wings of the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine."

One does not need to be an "expert" to understand that Qatar, despite its attempt to present itself as a neutral mediator between Israel and Hamas over the past two years, continues to be affiliated with the extremist ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. Unfortunately, this ideology considers non-Muslims (and Israel) as Enemy No. 1.

In his October 19 column in the Qatari government daily Al-Sharq, Ahmad al-Muhammadi, an imam and preacher in Qatar's Waqf Ministry, explained that the enmity between the Muslims and the Jews and Christians is existential and deeply rooted, and presented Islam as the truth and Christianity and Judaism as falsehood and heresy.

He went on to call on Muslims to beware of slogans of tolerance that are aimed at uprooting belief in Islam, and asserted that Islam is "a religion that neither compromises nor reconciles."

"Qatari Shura Council member Essa Al-Nassr said that October 7 was the beginning of the end of the Zionist state, presenting this as a divine promise mentioned in the Quran. He added that there can be no peace with the Jews, because their faith condones 'deception, the violation of agreements and lies' and they are 'slayers of the prophets.'" — MEMRI, September 15, 2025.

Researcher and political analyst Eitan Fischberger recently uncovered a series of posts in which Majed al-Ansari, advisor to the Qatari prime minister and spokesman for Qatar's Foreign Ministry, openly praised suicide bombings and called for Tel Aviv to burn.

In a recent speech, the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, said that the five Hamas members Israel killed in an airstrike in Doha last September were "our brothers."

Qatari Education Minister Lowlah al-Khater has called Israel and the West an "ugly, racist, and vile civilization" She described Israel and its Western backers as a "mixture of ugliness, entrenched racism, and vile materialistic civilization."

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12/01 Links Pt1: Israel Is Where Theory Stops and Reality Begins; The NYT's Claims Fighting Hezbollah Is Israeli ‘Imperialism’; Pardoning Netanyahu is wrong – and exactly what Israel needs right now

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Israel Is Where Theory Stops and Reality Begins

One can grant the claim that there is no theological imperative for Christians to support Israel at all, but that is not the same as saying that there is a theological imperative to be hostile to Jewish Israelis.

As the theologian Brian G. Mattson asks, “what has Israel to do with a modern Christian heresy? Has the state of Israel ever embraced or promoted or associated itself with Christian Zionism, other than to accept enthusiastic support wherever it can be found, particularly when in short supply? The modern Jewish state no doubt has its own notions of its origins, essence, and purpose … and they are unlikely to have been cribbed from modern evangelical Christian sensibilities, making it strange to hold Israel responsible for ideas held by some of its American supporters.”

Again, the theological discussion looks interesting from the outside. But the discussion the rest of us can more easily weigh in on is the political one, and here is the political reality. The Christian population of Israel is still growing, some years even as a percentage of the total population, and that is not the norm in the rest of the region. But this time of year, the issue tends to focus on one place more than others: Bethlehem.

The answer to why the Christian population is struggling in this historical Christian city is the same, however, regarding the question of Christian struggles in the Palestinian territories. The Christian population of Gaza has plummeted since Hamas’s 2007 takeover. The community’s population in Bethlehem has deteriorated since the Palestinian Authority took control of the city in 1994.

Hamas’s activities both in Gaza and in places like Bethlehem (Hamas exists in the West Bank, as well) have made the Christian population unsafe and also forced into a second-class citizenship status. As Eness Elias notes, it has become increasingly difficult for Christians to buy land in places under Palestinian control. Elias also recounts a story in which “Sanaa Razi Nashash from Beit Jala described how she went to the police to file a complaint against a Muslim man who assaulted her—only to find the assailant wearing a police uniform.”

Chasing Christians out while preventing them from buying property is a pretty airtight strategy to ensure the population only goes one way: down. And it’s the prevailing policy in places under Palestinian governance. Others report that the Palestinian Authority “is erasing” Christians from education curricula as Muslim students become the majority in previously Christian schools.

Walk around Israel and instantly understand that is the opposite of the case for Christians governed by the Jewish state. Ideological and theological debates over Zionism (of any flavor) are beside the point here, because it is where theory ends and reality reigns.

Seth Mandel: There’s No Such Thing As a Time-Bound Path to a Palestinian State

Pope Leo made his much-anticipated trip to Lebanon, and of course coming that close to Israel makes questions about the peace process unavoidable. Leo got the question from the press before his plane was halfway to Beirut. His response was unremarkable.

“We all know that at this time Israel still does not accept that solution, but we see it as the only solution,” the pope said, adding that “we are also friends with Israel and we are seeking to be a mediating voice between the two parties that might help them close in on a solution with justice for everyone.”

That formulation has become routine: As soon as Israel pushes the “Palestinian State Poof” button Bibi Netanyahu apparently keeps on his desk, there will be a fully functioning state living in peace and security alongside the State of Israel. There are no prerequisites for the Palestinians as far as the world is concerned.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s version of this demand reportedly includes a shot clock: Israel must initiate a “time-bound path” to such a denouement.

This is the sort of demand that sounds reasonable—“time-bound” evokes calendars and deadlines and commitments. But in fact there is no such thing as a time-bound path to a Palestinian state. The reason there is a peace process is because there are actions that must be taken, building blocks put in position and in the right order. If a construction crew agrees to a time-bound path to a new apartment building but doesn’t get all the walls finished by the deadline, does the building receive its certificate of occupancy anyway? This new State of Palestine sounds uninsurable.

At the same time, the fact that we’re even having this conversation is the fruit of a genuine diplomatic success: the Trump administration’s triumph in getting the United Nations Security Council to vote to endorse his plan for the end of the war and the reconstruction of Gaza. Some of Netanyahu’s coalition partners didn’t like that the resolution on the plan mentioned a path toward a Palestinian state. But they should take the win: France and the United Kingdom voted to essentially annul their own previous recognition of a Palestinian state by signing on to a document that made clear no such state exists.

No, Gaza Is Not the Worst or Deadliest War by Any Measure

True Statistic: Gaza has a Comparatively Low Civilian-Combatant Ratio
Based on available data, the civilian to combatant ratio in Gaza is roughly 1.8 to 1 (and probably even lower), using Hamas’ claim of 70,000 total fatalities and an estimated 25,000 combatants killed. This ratio is far lower than in recent Western-led urban battles. In Mosul, an estimated 10,000 civilians were killed compared to about 2,000 to 3,000 ISIS fighters, a ratio of 3 to 1 at the low end. Broader operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have produced ratios in the range of 3 to 1 up to 5 to 1. The Gaza ratio therefore contradicts accusations of genocide or indiscriminate targeting.

Critics who cannot accept this reality have attempted to manipulate both sides of the ratio to fabricate a higher figure. On the denominator, they undercount combatants by relying only on the number of fighters the IDF can literally identify by first and last name and match to a pre-war roster. By this absurd standard, any combatant the IDF could not fully identify in the midst of battle, combatants remaining in tunnels or beneath rubble, or any individual recruited by Hamas after the war began, is automatically labeled a civilian. This is how the false claim of “83% civilians killed” is manufactured.

On the numerator, these same critics assert, without evidence, that total fatalities are undercounted by some 40%. They never explain how this is possible when Gazans could and did report thousands of deaths without needing to present bodies, and given the compensation incentives to do so. Two years into the conflict, the notion that thirty thousand or more deaths remain unreported by their families has no evidentiary basis.

Taken together, the credible data leaves Gaza’s civilian combatant ratio well under 2 to 1, low for high-intensity urban warfare. And tellingly, when this metric contradicts their genocide narrative, the same critics who inflated every other statistic suddenly work to discredit it, proving that accurate numbers were never the point; the manipulation exists solely to promote an anti-Israel agenda.

Conclusion
When the facts invalidate the claims, the predictable response is to move the goalposts. After portraying Gaza as an unprecedented, genocidal conflict, critics suddenly dismiss all comparative evidence, insisting that previous catastrophic wars are too terrible to cite as data points. The impulse to portray Israel as uniquely criminal, rather than any commitment to truth, drives this constant reframing. It exposes the ideological goal driving the narrative: to cast Israel as uniquely criminal, even when the evidence shows otherwise. In the end, tragedy does not prove genocide, and facts still matter, even to those determined to ignore them.

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11/30 Links: UNSC Resolution 2803 and the ‘Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict’; Yom HaPlitim: How one day honors a million displaced Jews; The BBC’s staggering hypocrisy on anti-Semitism

From Ian:

Alan Baker: UNSC Resolution 2803 and the ‘Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict’

United Nations Security Council Resolution 2803 (2025), adopted on Nov. 17, 2025, represents a serious attempt to restructure governance, security and reconstruction mechanisms in the Gaza Strip.

Presented alongside, and built upon, President Donald J. Trump’s “Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict” of Sept. 29, 2025, the resolution endorses a multilayered framework involving an unprecedented Board of Peace (BoP), an International Stabilization Force (ISF) and a transitional technocratic Palestinian administrative structure.

1. The resolution’s legal character and Chapter VII elements
Although Resolution 2803 does not invoke Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter, its wording adopts components associated with Chapter VII determinations. The operative clause stating that the situation in Gaza “threatens regional peace and security” reflects the terminology of Article 39, signaling that the Security Council perceives a threat to international peace.

However, by refraining from expressly stating that the resolution was adopted under Chapter VII, the council avoids establishing binding enforcement measures. Key operative verbs—such as endorses and calls on—further demonstrate that the resolution’s obligations are largely recommendatory rather than mandatory.

Legally, this carefully calibrated language creates a gray zone:
It strengthens the political authority of the plan.
It provides Security Council endorsement of it.
Yet it withholds the coercive weight of Chapter VII.

This ambiguity allows states to claim U.N. legitimacy for participation, while simultaneously preventing the council and the U.N. from assuming direct responsibility for implementation or oversight.

2. Endorsement of the Comprehensive Plan: Scope and limitations
The council “endorses” the Comprehensive Plan rather than “adopting” it. This distinction is essential. Endorsement acknowledges the plan’s existence and supports its aims, but:
It does not transform the plan into a U.N. instrument.
It does not give the U.N. operational control over implementation.

The Comprehensive Plan is thus validated politically but not incorporated legally into the UN’s institutional architecture. The United States, in some form of loose coordination with Qatar, Egypt and Turkey remains the principal diplomatic driver.

This distinction directly affects:
the legal authority of the Board of Peace
the status and obligations of U.N. agencies operating in Gaza
the status of future political negotiations

The Board of Peace: A novel international governance mechanism
The resolution welcomes the establishment of the Board of Peace, assigning it “international legal personality”—a term commonly associated with international organizations but undefined within the resolution itself.

Questions arise:
Is the BoP envisioned as an independent international organization?
What treaties or instruments grant it legal personality?
What “relevant international legal principles” govern its operations?

The BoP is empowered to oversee:
a transitional civil administration in Gaza
reconstruction and economic initiatives
coordination of humanitarian aid
establishment of operational entities (including bodies with their own international legal personality)

Importantly, the BoP is not a U.N. body, nor does it operate under U.N. authority or financing. Its legitimacy stems solely from the political endorsement of the Security Council and the states participating in its creation.

Gazans' Stark Choice: Either Hamas or Reconstruction

It will be many years before the great majority of Gaza residents are living in anything more than makeshift or temporary housing. The future of Gaza hinges entirely on the willingness of the world to take an active role in reconstruction. But for that to happen, Hamas has to step out of the way by disarming and ceding any role in governing Gaza.

Allowing Hamas to continue as a fighting force means that its war with Israel will resume, and with it will come another round of death and destruction. Understandably, the Gulf governments that are expected to foot the bill for reconstruction costs don't want to see their investment go up in flames.

Allowing Hamas a significant role in governance also risks undermining the reconstruction effort. In its years in power, Hamas never showed any particular interest in the welfare of the Gazans under its rule, leaving basic services like education and health to the care of others; it had even less of an interest in economic development. Hamas would almost certainly use the civilian institutions of reconstruction as a cover to rearm.

Gaza thus faces a stark choice of an armed Hamas preparing for the next round of war with Israel, or reconstruction and a functioning economy. Given how desperate the situation is, you would think the gun option would be a non-starter for Gazans. But it seems that Gazans want to have both, according to a recent poll.

A demilitarized Gaza means, in effect, raising the white flag and acknowledging that the most audacious and sustained act of "armed resistance" in Palestinian history was a failure. Yet however steadfast Palestinians may want to be in the fight with Israel, living in a tent amid rubble, with minimal access to basic services and no means to support a family, is not a long-term option.

Yom HaPlitim: How one day honors a million displaced Jews

Yom HaPlitim, meaning “Day of the Refugees,” is the Israeli national day honoring the 850,000+ Jewish refugees who were expelled from or forced to flee Arab and Muslim majority countries and Iran from the 1940s to the 1970s. In Israeli law, the day is officially called “The Day to Mark the Departure and Expulsion of Jews from the Arab Countries and Iran,” and is sometimes referred to as Yom HaPlitim (“Day of the Refugee”) or Yom HaGirush (“Day of the Expulsion”). The first official Yom HaPlitim was commemorated on Nov. 30, 2014, after the Knesset resolution adopting the day was adopted in June of that year.

Nov. 30 was chosen particularly because the day before marks the anniversary of the UN Partition Plan vote on Nov. 29, 1947, a day that also sparked violence and persecution against Jewish communities in many Arab countries.

Why did Jewish refugees flee Arab countries and Iran?
Before 1948, around 850,000–900,000 Jews lived across the Arab world and Iran, in places like Iraq, Egypt, Yemen and Aden, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and Iran. After the partition vote and especially after Israel’s establishment, many of these communities faced anti-Jewish riots and pogroms, mass arrests, and laws stripping Jews of citizenship, jobs, and property. Within a generation, most of these ancient communities had been emptied; today, only a small fraction of the Jews who once lived across the region remain.

Yom HaPlitim was created to acknowledge the trauma, loss, and displacement of Jews in Arab and Muslim countries; preserve the history of ancient Jewish communities, many thousands of years old, which were declining and then destroyed in the mid-20th century; to promote awareness of confiscated and revoked property; and to correct the historical gap in which Jewish refugees from Arab lands received very little recognition and delegitimization of their Middle Eastern identities. By the 1970s, over 95% of Jews from Arab countries had left, many never allowed to return. In some cases, entire communities were moved in dramatic rescue operations, like Operation Magic Carpet (airlifting Yemenite Jews to Israel) and Operation Ezra and Nehemiah (airlifting Iraqi Jews).

Some advocates frame Yom HaPlitim as a way to highlight a “second” refugee population alongside Palestinian refugees. Others caution against using one community’s trauma to negate another’s. At its best, Yom HaPlitim is about adding a missing chapter to the story of the 20th century, not erasing or minimizing anyone else’s suffering.

Today is Jewish Refugees Day. We remember 850,000 Jews forced out of Arab states and Iran in the 20th century. Communities 2,500 years old were destroyed.

At the United Nations, I asked Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, and the others: “Where are your Jews?”

Still waiting for an answer. pic.twitter.com/s6gsyuZvGP

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) November 30, 2025

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11/29 Links: Israeli president: Move to rename Dublin’s Herzog Park ‘disgraceful’; Tom Stoppard, acclaimed playwright of ‘Rosencrantz and Guildenstern,’ dies at 87

From Ian:

John Podhoretz: Tom Stoppard, 1937-2025

That essay, “On Turning Out to Be Jewish,” was about all Stoppard had to say about his relation to Jewishness and Judaism over the course of the following two decades. But then, according to his official biographer Hermione Lee, he read a novel by a Croatian writer named Dasa Drndic called Trieste. A character in the novel, writes Lee, “lacerates real historical figures whom she describes as ‘bystanders’ or ‘blind observers.’ They include Herbert von Karajan, Madeleine Albright, and Tom Stoppard: people who discover their family history, but turn a blind eye to it. Her ‘blind observers’ are ‘ordinary people’ who “play it safe. They live their lives unimpeded.'”

This hit Stoppard hard. Writes Lee: “He thought: yes, actually, she’s right. He felt that Drndic was justifiably blaming him for excluding from this ‘charmed life’ all those others who had ‘disappeared.’ He took it as an intelligible rebuke. He felt regret and guilt….He went back over his family history, and his Jewishness. It began to seem to him that he had been in denial about his own past. He increasingly felt that he should have been rueing his good fortune in escaping from those events, rather than congratulating himself. As a playwright, he needed to inhabit those lives he never lived, in his imagination. He started to think about a play which would answer the rebuke.”

That play is Leopoldstadt, and in every way, it is a miracle. It is the greatest play of our time, and the greatest play Stoppard ever wrote, and perhaps the greatest literary work written by an octogenarian. It is set not in Czechoslovakia but in an apartment in Vienna we see at four moments in time—1899, 1924, 1938, and 1955. Over the course of the first three scenes we meet 20 members of the extended Marz-Jacobowicz family. In the final scene, only three remain; all the others are dead, either directly or indirectly, due to the Holocaust. One of them is Stoppard’s stand-in, a young British writer who has no memory of his youth in Vienna from which he was removed by his widowed mother’s fiancee until he is reminded of a scar on his hand. He cut it as a little boy and had it stitched up by a now-dead uncle in that very apartment. He dissolves into tears. His cousin, a survivor of the camps, says to him, “You live as if without history, as if you throw no shadow behind you.”

The richness of the assimilated existences of the Jews of turn-of-the-century Vienna whose Christmas celebration (!) we witness at the play’s beginning is revealed in all its fragility almost immediately; success for the family’s richest member comes in part from his converting to Christianity, but the converted man is soon humiliated for his Jewishness by his wife’s Austrian military-officer lover. The first act features a passionate argument about Zionism and Herzl’s The Jewish State, and the great shadow cast over the rest of the proceedings is if the people in that apartment had heeded Herzl’s call and understood his ideas, they would have moved to Palestine and lived.

Leopoldstadt is a great work of art, and not a tract, but it is the most explicitly Zionist work of art of our time—though the point seems to have sailed over the heads of most of the people who wrote about it in words of extravagant praise. Its celebration and success capped Stoppard’s career not a moment too soon. Because, of course, had he written it three years later and had it been staged in London and New York after October 7th, its Zionism would have been unavoidable to all who saw it, and there would have been protests against it outside the theaters that showed it.

Tom Stoppard chose to stop “living as without history” by writing Leopoldstadt, and in so doing, he brought his career to its apogee with an earnest and passionate piece of work in which he played none of the linguistic games that had made him famous. He wanted to make it known that we must all live with history, with the knowledge of history, with the lessons of history, and not have them erased—either by parents whose journeys were too painful to share with their children and grandchildren or by those who seem determined to forget so that they can commit the same crimes anew, the crimes their grandparents and great-grandparents committed. Tom Stoppard did not live the life of a Jew, but in writing Leopoldstadt, he contributed to the treasure-house of civilization, and for that, he deserves eternal honor. He did good for his people and for the West. May Tom Stoppard’s memory be for a blessing.

Tom Stoppard, acclaimed playwright of ‘Rosencrantz and Guildenstern,’ dies at 87

Stoppard was born Tomas Straussler on July 3, 1937 in what was then Czechoslovakia, the son of Eugen Straussler, a doctor, and Marta (or Martha), née Beckova, who had trained as a nurse.

The Jewish family fled the Nazis and moved to Singapore when he was an infant.

Singapore in turn became unsafe. With his mother and elder brother Peter, he escaped to India. His father stayed behind and died while fleeing after Singapore fell to the Japanese.

In India, Marta Straussler married a British army major, Kenneth Stoppard, and the family moved to England.

Boarding school followed at Pocklington in Yorkshire, northern England, where Tom Stoppard loved cricket more than drama and learned how to be British, which Major Stoppard considered the ultimate nationality.

The adult Stoppard, who rediscovered decades later the Jewish roots that he explored in his final play, would accuse his stepfather of "an innate antisemitism."

He eventually learnt from Czech relatives that all four of his grandparents had been Jewish, and that they had died in Nazi concentration camps.

"I feel incredibly lucky not to have had to survive or die. It's a conspicuous part of what might be termed a charmed life," he wrote in Talk, a US magazine, in 1999, reflecting on returning with his brother to their birthplace Zlin in what is now the Czech Republic.

Scarlett Johansson: I was asked not to make a film about the Holocaust

In Scarlett Johansson’s first film as director, an elderly Jewish woman falsely claims to be a Holocaust survivor after an innocent misunderstanding spins out of control. A month before filming was due to begin, one of Johansson’s financial backers got in touch with a stipulation regarding the script. The gist of it? Love the film, Scarlett, but we’re not so keen on the whole Holocaust thing. Can we have the character lie about something else?

The demand came “after months of preparatory work”, Johansson recalls, despairingly. “I mean, if they’d said ‘I’ll only back this if you shoot in New Jersey,’ or ‘We need to get this done by the spring’, then that would have been one thing. But they were objecting to what the film actually was. It had to be about what happens when someone gets caught in the worst lie imaginable; if not the Holocaust, then what could it be? They offered no alternative. It was just, ‘This is an issue.’”

The Avengers and Marriage Story star stuck to her guns. So the backer pulled out and, with just weeks to go, a significant portion of the $9m (£6.8m) budget disappeared overnight. “We’d been talking about the film for so many months, and then this was the outcome?” she says. “It was really shocking, and I was so disappointed.” Fortunately, an emergency ring-round soon brought Sony Pictures Classics on board as distributors – the studio made up the shortfall, and filming went ahead as planned. tmg.video.placeholder.alt wZ6l2ue--KA

Time was of the essence – not least because Johansson’s leading lady, June Squibb, who had recently celebrated her 94th birthday, was only available for a few weeks. (The redoubtable star of Nebraska and Thelma turned 96 earlier this month.)

Today the two women are sitting side by side in a mirrored salon overlooking the Boulevard de la Croisette in Cannes. Squibb is wearing a colourful silk kimono; Johansson, a white cotton tea dress. Their film, Eleanor the Great, had its world premiere at the town’s festival the previous day, which Johansson attended with her husband, the Saturday Night Live comedian Colin Jost. She and Squibb have just had lunch together, and I’m joining them for coffee and chocolates.

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11/28 Links Pt2: The Islamists’ Trojan horse; This Cambridge Union debate was a foregone conclusion. But my words needed saying; Sally Rooney is not a victim of censorship

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: The Islamists’ Trojan horse

The Palestinian cause has had an even deeper effect. It has simply corrupted discourse and morality in the West. By adopting Palestinianism as their badge of moral worth, people have signed up to an agenda of lies that they assume is incontrovertible truth.

Convinced that the Palestinians are the wretched of the earth, Western liberals refuse to see that they are actually supporting a genocidal agenda. By internalizing Palestinian Jew-hatred, they now see nothing wrong in themselves spewing out vicious antisemitic tropes.

Demonizing Israel in the name of anti-racism, they have turned morality inside out, reversing victim and aggressor. That’s why, after the terror attacks on Oct. 7, so many of them denied Israeli victimization and instead grotesquely blamed Israel for abuses such as war crimes or genocide, of which Israel was innocent but of which the Palestinians were guilty.

This pathological projection by aggressors of their own evil deeds onto their victims is hardwired into the Palestinian cause and indeed the Islamist world.

The Islamists do this because they believe that Islam is perfection, and everything beyond it is the province of the devil. Islamist aggression against the West is therefore falsely framed as a defense against Western attacks on Islam.

This was why British Muslims in Birmingham justified their exclusion of the Maccabi Tel Aviv away-fans from the club’s match against Aston Villa in October by claiming that the Israeli fans had a record of violence.

They based this on the utterly false assertion that a violent, pre-planned Arab “Jew-hunt” against Maccabi fans at a match in Amsterdam last year, in which the Israelis were chased through the city, beaten and one of them forced into a canal, was in fact a major attack by Israeli “hooligans” against local Muslims.

By allowing the Palestinian cause to subvert their ability to distinguish truth from lies and right from wrong, Western progressives have damaged something rather closer to home than the truth about the Israel-Arab impasse. It meant that they can’t see how their own society is being Islamized.

That’s why the knee-jerk response after any Islamist atrocities in the West is to worry about attacks on Muslims. It’s why in Britain, any criticism of the police delivering “two-tier justice” by treating Muslims less harshly than others, or concern about attempts to Islamize the curriculum of some state-run schools, or speaking about the overwhelmingly Muslim identity of the rape and grooming gangs is all denounced as “Islamophobia” and silenced.

Palestinianism is the Trojan horse for the Islamization of the West.

Mamdani is motivated, above all, by his passion for the Palestinian cause and his hatred of Israel.

It’s clear from his transition team—a nightmarish collection of Israel-haters, nihilists and ultra-leftists—that he intends to drive a wedge down the middle of the Jewish community by using anti-Zionist Jews as human shields to protect him from charges of antisemitism as he pursues his vendetta against Israel.

New York Jews who denounce Israel will receive protection and favors; Jews who are assumed to support Israel will be thrown to the wolves.

And it will all be done in the language of human rights, justice and international law.

UN Solidarity Day ignores Jewish refugees expelled from Arab countries

This isn’t just a perversion of history. It’s perverted, period.

Tomorrow, the United Nations marks “International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.” The date, November 29, was not chosen by chance. On November 29, 1947, the UN accepted the Partition Plan that would lead to the establishment of the State of Israel. The Arab world rejected the partition and declared war on the nascent Jewish state, hoping to swiftly eradicate it. This is the origin of the “Nakba,” the Palestinian “catastrophe.”

Choosing to commemorate one side of the conflict – the side that launched the war – and on that particular date, is more than cynical. It’s manipulative; a reframing of the narrative. It also deliberately ignores the other half of the story. Hence on November 30, Israel commemorates the expulsion of more than 800,000 Jews from Arab and Muslim lands who came to Israel. These are the Middle East’s most overlooked refugees.

Two years after the Hamas-led invasion and mega-atrocity on October 7, 2023, to mark International Solidarity with the Palestinians, while ignoring what has been inflicted on Israel and the Jewish world, is particularly jarring.

Thanks to the UN granting the Palestinians “perpetual refugee status,” the number of Palestinian refugees has risen in the past 70-plus years from some 750,000 to more than five million. So much for the charges of “genocide” by Israel.

But what happened to the Jews?
The Jews who once lived in the Muslim world have all but disappeared. In places like Algeria and Libya, once the homes of vibrant Jewish communities, not one Jew is left. In Yemen, the Jewish population dropped from more than 55,000 in 1948 to less than a handful today – and that includes poor Levi Salem Musa Marhabi, who has been languishing in a Houthi prison since 2016 for helping to smuggle a Torah scroll out to Israel.

Apart from launching a war on the newborn Jewish state in 1948, the Arab world also took revenge on the Jews living among them with devastating riots and anti-Jewish measures. According to Israeli Foreign Ministry statistics, “[Since 1948]: In the North African region, 259,000 Jews fled from Morocco, 140,000 from Algeria, 100,000 from Tunisia, 75,000 from Egypt, and another 38,000 from Libya. In the Middle East, 135,000 Jews were exiled from Iraq, 55,000 from Yemen, 34,000 from Turkey, 20,000 from Lebanon, and 18,000 from Syria. Iran forced out 25,000 Jews.”

In other words, the Jews have been the victims of ethnic cleansing. And when the Jews disappeared, thousands of years of Jewish heritage, history, and culture were wiped out with them.

Father of Ran Gvili, one of two remaining hostages, to speak at possible final Tel Aviv rally

Itzik Gvili, the father of Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, one of the two remaining slain hostages in Gaza, will speak Saturday night at what may be the final rally in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square.

Gvili and Thai worker Sudthisak Rinthalak are the two slain captives still held in Gaza, after the body of Kibbutz Be’eri’s Dror Or was released earlier this week.

Gvili was killed battling Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Alumim on October 7, 2023, and his body was abducted to Gaza. Rinthalak was killed by Hamas terrorists the same day in Kibbutz Be’eri, where he was employed as an agricultural worker.

The other speakers at Saturday night’s Tel Aviv rally are Jon Polin, the father of murdered hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin; Ayelet Goldin, sister of slain soldier Lt. Hadar Goldin; Nira Sharabi, wife of Yossi Sharabi, a hostage slain in Hamas captivity; and Eyal Eshel, father of surveillance soldier Roni Eshel, who was killed on October 7 at the Nahal Oz base.

Alongside the Tel Aviv rally, additional protests will be held at Shaar HaNegev Junction and Carmei Gat, the Kiryat Gat neighborhood home to the evacuated Kibbutz Nir Oz community.

Jerusalem’s Safeguarding Our Shared Home protest group said that it will hold a farewell event on Saturday evening for the Hostages’ Tent at the corner of Aza Road and Balfour, erected since the start of the struggle for the release of the hostages.

A spokesperson for the Hostages Families Forum said Friday that it hasn’t yet been announced whether there will be future rallies.

The forum said earlier this week that Saturday’s rally may be the last as the organization will greatly narrow its activities now that there are only two families left to support.

The Forum recommended stopping the rallies by the end of November, given the cost of around NIS 200,000 ($61,000) each week to erect a stage with video and sound systems, adding that the events don’t serve the current situation of terror groups apparently searching for and locating the remaining bodies in Gaza.

The Gvili family has said it understands the Forum’s decision.

Rinthalak’s family is located in Thailand, and while the Forum is in touch with the Thai Embassy, it has not been involved in rallies. Security forces pay their respects as a convoy carrying the body of a hostage arrives at the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute in Tel Aviv, November 25, 2025. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Itzik Gvili said Thursday that he feared his son would never be returned.

“We pray, of course, that he will not be another Ron Arad or [Hadar] Goldin,” Itzik Gvili told Kan news. “That we don’t drag it out for many more years.”

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11/28 Links Pt1: Inside the IDF's battle to win world's toughest information war; The PA plan to steal hundreds of millions in foreign aid; Israel's F-35 Combat Secrets That Shocked the Pentagon

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11/27 Links Pt2: The Founding Fathers and the Promised Land; Arnold Roth: Why is US justice for its victims of terror still thwarted?

From Ian:

Katie Pavlich: The Founding Fathers and the Promised Land

In the aftermath of World War II, the United States has supported the modern establishment of Israel as a democratic alliance and, more recently, as an economic partner. National security, intelligence sharing, technology development, scientific research, combating global Islamic terrorism and much more are also ongoing and shared interests.

The history of America and Israel didn’t start in 1948. It goes back to 1776, when American rebels looked to the Promised Land, its foundational story, and were inspired to reject the British Empire in pursuit of their own nation.

“We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved,” states the Declaration of Independence, signed by 56 men.

“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

The Founding Fathers were men of God and believers in the Bible. This is evident in their speeches, writings, proposals and public prayers. Faith was their guiding force, principle and tool to win the American Revolution — against all odds.

“In 1776, a month after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams met to discuss the design of the Great Seal of the United States. Benjamin Franklin’s idea for the Great Seal wasn’t an eagle or the stars and stripes. We wanted the Seal to depict Moses leading the Children of Israel through the Red Sea, out of slavery and into freedom,” author and filmmaker David Kiern writes. “Jefferson countered, proposing imagery of the Hebrews in the desert, led by a pillar of fire, marching toward the Promised Land.”

After the Americans won their freedom, the credit for Israel’s divine inspiration continued.

“May the same wonder-working Deity, who long since delivered the Hebrews from their Egyptian oppressors, planted them in a promised land, whose providential agency has lately been conspicuous in establishing these United States as an independent nation, still continue to water them with the dews of heaven and make the inhabitants of every denomination participate in the temporal and spiritual blessings of that people whose God is Jehovah,” President Washington wrote to the Hebrew Congregation of Savannah in 1790.

Alan Baker: The 50th anniversary of the infamous UN ‘Zionism is Racism’ resolution

As stated by the then-U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Daniel Moynihan, “The United Nations is about to make antisemitism international law. The U.S. does not acknowledge, it will not abide by, it will never acquiesce in this infamous act. … A great evil has been loosed upon the world.”

The offensive determination equating Zionism with racism was subsequently formally revoked by General Assembly Resolution 46/86, adopted on Dec. 16, 1991, and supported by a majority of 111 states, with 25 Arab League, Muslim and African states opposing.

In introducing the revocation motion during his address to the 45th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Oct. 1, 1990, then-U.S. President George H.W. Bush stated, “NGA Resolution 3379, the so-called ‘Zionism is racism’ resolution, mocks this pledge and the principles upon which the United Nations was founded. And I call now for its repeal. Zionism is not a policy; it is the idea that led to the creation of a home for the Jewish people, to the State of Israel. And to equate Zionism with the intolerable sin of racism is to twist history and forget the terrible plight of Jews in World War II and, indeed, throughout history. To equate Zionism with racism is to reject Israel itself, a member of good standing of the United Nations. This body cannot claim to seek peace and at the same time challenge Israel’s right to exist. By repealing this resolution unconditionally, the United Nations will enhance its credibility and serve the cause of peace.”

On June 21, 2004, at a U.N. Conference on Antisemitism, then-Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan stated, “The actions of the United Nations on the issue of antisemitism have not always been worthy of its ideals. It is deplorable that the General Assembly adopted in 1975 a resolution which assimilated Zionism with racism and I welcome that it later came back on its position.”

But despite its revocation in 1991 and the 2004 condemnation by Annan, the Zionism-racism equation has remained engraved in the annals of the U.N. as an integral component of its operating mode. The damage had been done. The equation enabled the creation and continued permanent financing of an extensive bureaucratic apparatus within the U.N. system of bodies, committees, international organs and specialized agencies designed to amplify and encourage an ongoing Muslim, Arab and Palestinian campaign aimed at undermining Israel as a sovereign state member of the international community.

The resolution paved the way for the formalization of an artificially devised “status,” uniquely tailored for the Palestinian observer representation in the U.N., denominated as a “non-member-observer-state status.”

This anomaly has regrettably become a permanent fixture in the realities of the organization as well as in the present-day realities of the Middle East.

Under the false guise of “statehood,” this anomalous “status” granted to the Palestinians has subsequently been used as a pretext for manipulating a willing U.N. Secretariat and various U.N. bodies, including the International Court of Justice, individual states, and international and intergovernmental bodies, including the International Criminal Court, into acknowledging, recognizing and accepting into their membership a nonexistent Palestinian state. This, despite the nonexistence of any sovereign Palestinian entity and despite the fact that no binding or authoritative international instrument has ever acknowledged the existence of any sovereign Palestinian territory.

Such recognition clearly undermines, runs counter to and prejudges the intended outcome of the negotiations agreed to in the internationally recognized and internationally witnessed Oslo Accords, an integral component of the Middle East peace process, in which the Palestinian leadership committed to negotiating with Israel the issue of the permanent status of the territories.

Conclusion
The effects of the1975 Zionism-Racism resolution remain an indelible component of the realities in today’s Middle East. The subsequent apparent revocation of the offensive determination in that resolution did not diminish the long-term damage that it caused.

This damage still plagues the international community and, more significantly, the Jewish people and the State of Israel.

The genie cannot be returned to its bottle.

Gil Troy: Thanks to Zionism, We Won - and Will Continue Winning, while Teaching the West about Self-Defense, Self-Reliance, and Self-Respect

Americans are traditionally focused on their lives and, at best, domestic politics. That's why it's stunning to see how much coverage, fury, and focus there has been for two years on Israel in Gaza. Manipulative, well-funded networks have cultivated this Israel-obsession and Palestinian-romanticization. It is magnified mindlessly online.

America seems filled with laptop warriors who never fired a gun and cannot tell friend from foe, arrogantly making long-distance military calls about IDF strategy. Meanwhile, armchair moralists throw lightning bolts of condemnation at Israel, having ignored their own country's behavior in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Never forget: Hamas's Iranian-funded Oct. 7 massacre imposed this existential war for survival on Israel. Oct. 7 marks the latest, bloodiest, chapter in Palestinian exterminationists' decades-long war against Zionism. Read their charters, speeches, and sermons. They've framed their "struggle" as an all-or-nothing fight to eliminate the "Zionist entity." They're the ones who repeatedly rejected compromise since the 1940s, and keep improvising various ways to kill Jews.

Zionism resets the conversation that puts Israel's supporters in a defensive crouch. It transcends the defensiveness, refuting the accusations in deeds not words, with joy not anguish, victories not defeatism. It accentuates the eternals: identity, history, community, continuity, survival. Zionism takes Israel off probation, celebrating Jews' historic commitment to one another, our people, state and land - our intertwined fate.

Identity Zionism roots Jews in a centrifugal reality spinning around our tradition, our land, our people, our state. That superpower resists modern Western culture's forces, spinning toward fragmented affinities, and thereby undermining loyalties to others, to the collective.

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11/27 Links Pt1: Did Israel Win the War in Gaza?; The revelations about what the Gaza hostages suffered are the most painful yet; How Israel captured the Gaza doctor who handled Hadar Goldin’s body

From Ian:

Did Israel Win the War in Gaza?

One of Israel's objectives in Gaza is toppling Hamas's rule and dismantling its military capabilities. Militarily, Hamas is no longer the "terrorist army" it was before Oct. 7, 2023. Its commanders have been killed, its battalions dismantled, and organizational structure shattered. It has no functioning headquarters, special forces, or weapons-production infrastructure, and no coherent chain of command. Its fighters operate as small, uncoordinated guerrilla cells focused primarily on survival.

Hamas now holds roughly 10% of its prewar rocket arsenal. Its estimated 17,000 fighters, mostly new and inexperienced, share approximately 10,000 rifles. The threat today differs dramatically from that of Oct. 6.

Moreover, Hamas's condition is described as one of defeat by many Gaza residents and by prominent Palestinian opinion leaders. However, a decisive defeat requires sustained mechanisms to prevent Hamas's recovery. This means eliminating the organization's ability to recruit, rebuild, and reenter the fighting.

Eliminating Hamas's governing capacity requires a competing authority capable of assuming control. Currently, Hamas still controls about half of Gaza's territory and exerts influence over an even larger portion of the population.

By many measures, Israel has defeated Hamas in Gaza. However, it is too early to assess the durability of the change. Israel's national defense posture is nonetheless significantly improved compared to the prewar period.

Blocking anti-Israel forces in Gaza: Why Indonesia’s ‘peacekeepers’ must stay home - opinion

Recent news stories have revealed that Indonesia may send some 20,000 soldiers – troops it claims have been trained to be peacekeepers – to Gaza. On paper, this might look like a contribution to regional stability. However, for the United States and for Israel, allowing Indonesian soldiers to deploy in Gaza would be a strategic mistake.

Indonesia does not recognize Israel, has never had diplomatic relations with Israel, and has consistently voted against Israel at the United Nations. The proposed deployment is not in the best interest of either the United States or Israel. The 20,000 Indonesian soldiers who have been supposedly trained to be peacekeepers in Gaza should stay home in Indonesia.

Indonesia’s government has publicly reaffirmed that there is no official relationship with Israel, and this position has remained unchanged for decades. Despite rare and unofficial contacts, Jakarta maintains a foreign-policy posture rooted in rejecting Israel’s legitimacy. It also has no embassy in Israel. This lack of diplomatic relations is not a technicality; it is a deliberate Indonesian policy that signals national opposition to Israel’s existence.

Indonesia diplomatically against Israel
In consistently voting against Jerusalem at the UN, often enthusiastically, Jakarta has supported resolutions condemning Israel for what it describes as an “unlawful occupation” of Palestinian territory. Indonesian officials publicly welcome UN resolutions calling for a full Israeli withdrawal and regularly state that Israel has no legitimate sovereignty in Palestinian-populated areas.

Indonesia has also condemned Knesset votes, reinforcing its long-standing pattern of hostility. These are not the votes or statements of a neutral nation capable of acting as an even-handed peacekeeping presence; they are the actions of a state that aligns diplomatically against Israel over and over again.

This all really matters when discussing the possible deployment of Indonesian troops into Gaza. Embedding soldiers from a country that refuses to recognize Israel, has no diplomatic ties with Israel, and consistently backs resolutions targeting Israel’s legitimacy introduces serious risks.

Peacekeepers must be trusted by all sides if they are to function effectively. Given Indonesia’s history, Israel cannot reasonably be expected to view these troops as neutral actors. Nor should the United States do so.

Jonathan Sacerdoti: The revelations about what the Gaza hostages suffered are the most painful yet

The Israeli hostages recently freed from Gaza have begun to speak, and among the new revelations is that some were subjected to sexual assault and degradation, including male hostages. They describe being stripped, groped, violated, and threatened at gunpoint. The scale and cruelty of what they endured should have triggered sustained, front-page attention in the UK, not least on the BBC. But it has not.

The testimonies began surfacing in recent weeks. Rom Braslavsky, seized by Palestinian Islamic Jihad while recovering the bodies of murdered women at the Nova music festival, described being stripped naked and left that way for days. ‘They took all my clothes. Underwear too. Everything. They tied me up from my… while I was completely naked. I was torn apart, starving, naked. I said to God: take me out of this already.’ His captivity lasted 738 days. ‘It was sexual violence, and its main purpose was to humiliate me,’ he said. ‘The goal was to crush my dignity. And that’s exactly what he did.’

Guy Gilboa Dalal, 22, was abducted by Hamas with a friend after escaping gunfire at Nova. He was tied, blindfolded, beaten, and later taken into a guard’s room. ‘I was on a chair with my eyes covered,’ he said, as his sadistic torturer asked him: ‘You haven’t seen girls in a long time, right? Want to watch porn? Want me and you to make a porn film?… He touched me all over my body… kissed my neck, kissed my back.’ A gun was pressed to his head, a knife to his throat. ‘He said that if I told anyone, he would kill me.’ Days later, the same guard assaulted him again. ‘He pulled down my trousers… stood behind me and rubbed his genitals on my anus for some minutes.’ Guy stood frozen. ‘I was terrified this would become something regular, worse each time – more violent, more invasive.’

Israel has now confirmed that roughly half of the returned hostages reported some form of sexual abuse. The methods include forced nudity, sexualised torture, coercive touching, and threats of rape. Both women and men were targeted. The full extent of this abuse has only recently started coming to light.

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11/26 Links Pt2: Palestine 36 is an insult to history; John Cleese apologises for sharing antisemitic posts; Notorious ‘Jewish supremacy’ rant doctor FINALLY has medical licence suspended

From Ian:

Palestine 36 is an insult to history

Palestine 36 is a new movie about Arab resistance to colonialism in British-governed Palestine in the late 1930s. It is a moving and eye-catching story, but it suffers from a big problem: it is not true.

Annemarie Jacir’s film looks the part, with its mix of beautifully realised life in the hill villages, Haifa townscapes and jazz-age cocktail parties. It is replete with neat production values, paid for with cash from BBC Films and the British Film Institute.

The performances from Karim Daoud Anaya, as young, radicalised journalist Yusuf, and Yafa Bakri, playing a widow called Rabab, are moving. Jeremy Irons, who plays British high commissioner Arthur Wauchope, and Robert Aramayo, as British intelligence officer Orde Wingate, are hiss-worthy music-hall villains.

The account of the conflict on which the movie is based – the events of 1936 to 1939 – is far less convincing. Jacir takes it as read that the British are working on behalf of the Jewish settlers, who are depicted as vicious and rapacious ‘colonisers’. Yet the truth about what is known as the Great Revolt is that the leaders of the Palestinian Arabs were more opposed to Jews than they were to British imperialism – indeed, they said straight-forwardly that they would have supported Britain if only it would stop Jewish immigration to Mandate Palestine.

Throughout the film, it is the Jews who are portrayed as the problem, while Britain is blamed for taking their side. In one scene, Rabab’s daughter, Afra, looks on at the Jewish women building their settlement and asks why they have come. Her mother replies ‘their countries don’t want them… I don’t know why.’

In the film, Jews are shown being allocated land by the British that was confiscated from Arabs. But that was not British policy. Whatever land Jews had in 1936, they had bought from Arab owners. ‘Palestine is not for sale’, say protesters in the movie. But the truth is that it was, and for a decent profit, too, for Arab landowners.

John Cleese apologises to Jewish News for sharing antisemitic posts – vows free Israel show

John Cleese has issued a fulsome apology to Jewish News for inadvertently sharing false and antisemitic content online – as he reiterated his pledge to make good on his pledge to perform again in Israel.

In an exclusive hour-long interview, the 86-year-old comedy icon said he was “extremely sorry” for reposting material he later discovered had been fabricated, including a false quote attributed to former Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely and another suggesting Israel “controls global finance.

“I didn’t check them properly,” he said. “I couldn’t believe some of them had been completely invented. It was a mistake.”

The posts provoked widespread anger among Israelis and British Jews and came ahead of Cleese’s cancellation of three sold-out shows scheduled in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem between 26 November and 1 December.

Initial statements cited “security concerns,” while online speculation claimed he feared BDS pressure.

Cleese said the decision stemmed from anxiety rather than politics. “I was dreading it weeks before the posts,” he said. “I thought someone would ask me something political, and if I didn’t say the right thing it would be unpleasant for the rest of the tour.”

Asked whether he feared for his safety, he replied: “I think there was always a security element… but I didn’t know.”

The Fawlty Towers and Monty Python star admitted to being “naïve” about how easily posts can be manipulated and said he now intends to stop commenting on Israel online. “I don’t understand the internet,” he said. “People create things and don’t care that they can be disproved.”

Cleese condemned Hamas as “the nastiest of all terrorist organisations” and stood firmly by Israel’s right to defend itself, while expressing concern about some actions of the Israeli government. He also voiced concern about record levels of antisemitism in the UK, saying he was deeply saddened by reports from Jewish friends who told him how unsafe they now feel.

Revealed: Police quizzed wrongfully arrested Jewish mother over her faith

A wrongfully arrested mother was interrogated by police about her Jewish faith and involvement in a Holocaust Memorial Day event at her daughter’s school, the JC can reveal.

Citing a claim of “harassment” against her, an officer asked Rosalind Levine, 47, about emails she had sent her daughter’s school in which she offered to help arrange for Holocaust survivors to address pupils and requested the removal of her child from Christian prayer.

Levine and her partner, Maxie Allen, 50, received a payout from Hertfordshire Police earlier this month after the force admitted they had been wrong to send six officers to arrest the couple at their Borehamwood family home in January over complaints the pair had made about their daughter’s school.

CCTV footage captured the uniformed officers hauling the parents away as their three-year-old, Francesca, cried.

Documents seen by the JC now suggest Cowley Hill Primary School cited Levine’s emails relating to her Jewish faith, her Israeli family and her desire to promote Shoah education as part of a harassment report.

Levine said it felt like she had “slipped into an alternative reality” when she was forced to explain her religious rights from inside a police cell. “I felt I was in a weird nightmare,” she told the JC.

Shadow education secretary Laura Trott, said: “The family’s Jewish faith was entirely irrelevant, and questioning them about it was unacceptable. Freedom of religion is a cornerstone of our democracy, and any attempt to threaten it must be fought absolutely.”

Shadow DfE equalities minister Claire Coutinho called on Hertfordshire Constabulary “to come clean” on why Levine was questioned about her religion.

“This appears to be part of a worrying trend of Jewish people being asked about their religion in police interviews in a way that other groups wouldn’t be,” Coutinho said.

Former Attorney General Sir Michael Ellis added: “The appalling way these parents have been treated exemplifies the dire state of British policing at the moment.”

The couple were arrested on suspicion of harassment, malicious communications and causing a nuisance on school property – allegations later dismissed as baseless.

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11/26 Links Pt1: Body of hostage Dror Or returned to Israel; Does it matter that they’re lying about Israel?; Minister Strock: ‘Time to end the Oslo illusion’

From Ian:

Jonathan Tobin: Does it matter that they’re lying about Israel?

A curious thing happened last week in Israel. More than 100 military officers from 20 countries attended an international conference hosted by the Israel Defense Forces. Among them were representatives from countries that had falsely accused the Jewish state of committing war crimes, deliberate starvation or even genocide in Gaza during the war with Hamas that followed the Palestinian terrorist attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

While there, they visited the sites of the Oct. 7 massacres and attended briefings about the challenges presented by urban warfare as well as discussions of how the IDF used AI, drones, artillery and medical services for the wounded.

Some nations, like the United Kingdom, whose left-wing government continues in its vitriolic demonization of the Jewish state and has passively accepted the growing mainstreaming of antisemitism in British society, boycotted the event. But others who were just as vociferous in backing up the claims that what Israel had done in Gaza was uniquely awful, such as France and Canada, showed up alongside representatives from friendlier countries like the United States, the Czech Republic and Hungary.

They were accompanied by officers from Germany, Finland, India, Greece, Cyprus, Poland, Austria, Estonia, Japan, Morocco, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia. Many have either joined in the international community’s Israel-bashing, recognized “Palestine” as an independent, albeit still non-existent, country or chose not to stand with Israel during the past two years as it fought for its life against genocidal Islamist terrorists.

They don’t really believe the lies
That Israel has much to teach the world about the use of high-tech and intelligence in warfare, added to its expertise in avoiding civilian casualties and how to deal with emergencies, is nothing new. The Israelis have been sharing their knowledge in these and other topics with other nations for decades. So, in that sense, the military conference wasn’t all that newsworthy.

But it matters because it shows that many of those countries that tacitly or openly endorsed the blood libels against Israel during the course of the war that, at least temporarily, concluded with the ceasefire-hostage release deal brokered by the United States in October, don’t really believe the accusations. If they did, they wouldn’t have been there or subsequently, members of their delegations would have spoken about alleged links between Israeli military tactics and the claims of mass murder.

‘Wrong from the very beginning,’ Hungarian minister says of EU Israel policy

Europe has shifted on Israel. Since Oct. 7, 12 European countries, including the United Kingdom, France and Spain, have recognized a Palestinian state and now routinely vote against the Jewish state at the United Nations.

One country bucking that European trend is Hungary, which joins the United States and Argentina as among the only countries to vote with Israel consistently at the United Nations. Hungary is also deemed sufficiently safe for Jewish and Israeli institutions that it now hosts many of the Israeli national soccer team’s home games, even as one Israeli club has been banned from playing in the United Kingdom.

JNS sat down on Nov. 21 with János Bóka, the Hungarian minister for European affairs and its prime ministerial envoy to combat antisemitism, to discuss what sets his country apart.

“I believe that the European position has been wrong from the very beginning,” Bóka told JNS, of the bloc’s position on Israel. “This short sighted approach has tremendously contributed to the European Union being sidelined in the Middle East peace process in general.”

“It’s not a coincidence that the European Union is not at the table where things are decided. It’s not a coincidence that the European Union is not able to influence the political agenda anymore in the Middle East,” he said.

“This is a natural consequence of the wrong policy choices that were made,” he added. “We don’t want to contribute to further wrong choices being made on behalf of the European Union.”

Patel praises Netanyahu after ‘great meeting’ on Israel visit

Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel has met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for discussions designed to portray the Conservative Party as a friend and ally of the Jewish state.

Photographed alongside the Israeli PM, Patel wrote on X:”A great meeting with my friend Benjamin Netanyahu and a discussion about how we must stand together to fight for the freedoms and values our countries are founded on.

“Israel is a beacon of democracy and freedom in the Middle East and our friend and ally. ”

In a follow-up video posted on social media, Patel, a strong supporter of the Conservative Friends of Israel organisation, stressed the long-standing history of information sharing between the UK and Israel, especially in security, defense, and trade, adding, “It’s in Britain’s interests to strengthen this relationship.”

Meeting with survivors, hostages, and their families from the October 7 attack during her visit, Patel also said:”Since these horrific terrorist attacks, Israel has seen prolonged attacks from Iranian-backed Hamas-Hezbollah and the Houthis.

“These are groups that oppose the values that we hold, democracy, freedom, and the right to expression.

“Their actions have brought immense suffering to countless people.

“We hope the 20-point police plan will lay the foundations for sustained peace in the region.

“But of course, this can only work if allies, including the United Kingdom, come together to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza, to eliminate Hamas, and to tackle the ongoing threats from Iran to deliver much-needed peace and stability.”

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11/25 Links Pt2: Why the Palestinians Are Famous According to Mahmoud Darwish; Nas Daily: I’m determined to show the real Israel; Understanding anti-Jewish immigrant roots behind Mamdani's progressive antisemitism

From Ian:

Gadi Taub: The Viral ‘Prison Rape’ That Never Happened

Many unanswered questions remain: While the court probably did not know it was being lied to, why did it accept arguments that were clearly implausible? Why did AG Baharav-Miara not order the arrest of Tomer-Yerushalmi or the confiscation of her phone and her computer immediately after she tendered her resignation? Did she not realize that Tomer-Yerushalmi, who had already done so much to cover her tracks, could use that time to destroy evidence and potentially coordinate testimonies? Baharav-Miara herself will be at least a witness, if not a suspect, in the case. Yet she still refused to recuse herself from overseeing the investigation into Tomer-Yerushalmi, and snubbed the Knesset’s joint session of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, before which she was summoned to appear.

All this prompted Justice Minister Yariv Levin, author of the now-defunct judicial reform, to announce that Baharav-Miara would be barred from the investigation. Her office retorted that the minister had no authority to bar her. To which Levin responded by appointing a special prosecutor—an institution hitherto unknown in Israel. This was a major vindication for Levin: The entire episode—the cover-up, the lack of transparency, the illicit intimacy between law enforcement and the judiciary (over which Israel has no oversight agencies), and the collective contempt for the normal legal process when these agencies investigate themselves—convincingly showed why his controversial legal reforms were necessary.

But Baharav-Miara was not about to relinquish control of the investigation in which she and her subordinates have been implicated, ever since she defended Tomer-Yerushalmi in court. The matter reached the Supreme Court, which decided to bar Baharav-Miara from overseeing the investigation. The judges were clearly not happy to discover they had been lied to by the people whose good name they were helping to protect. Although it ruled against Levin’s special prosecutor based on a technicality, the court authorized him to appoint another (however, it suspended the new appointment last Thursday, to Levin’s understandable chagrin).

When a prosecutor is finally agreed on, it is not clear whether the investigation will manage to get to the bottom of the affair—especially the involvement of Baharav-Miara and her allies in Israel’s various bureaucracies. Nevertheless, the foundations of Israel’s juristocracy have been shaken. Rifts have opened among the various branches of what the Israeli right calls the “deep state.”

Three other dramatic events also recently transpired: Tomer-Yerushalmi was hospitalized after overdosing on medication while under house arrest, in what appeared to be an attempted suicide. One of the Force 100 soldiers, with a distinguished career in combat service, suffered a heart attack. And the president of the military court has recommended that the IDF prosecution accept the request of the defense to halt all proceedings against the Force 100 accused soldiers—now that the alleged victim is no longer in Israeli custody.

There’s also a cultural aspect without which it is difficult to make sense of all this. Israel’s contemporary elites look at the masses with contempt, viewing them as deplorables. In the eyes of these elites and the mainstream press, the riot in Sde Teiman was an attack on the rule of law, which Tomer-Yerushalmi upheld. Here were the right-wing proto-fascists wielding their pitchforks against the gatekeepers of impartial justice. In this view, the Force 100 soldiers and the rioters belonged to the same crowd of tribal ethno-nationalists who share a common contempt for liberal values and human rights. The right saw it very differently: Unpatriotic globalist progressive elites were weaponizing the law in the middle of a war to show the world they are better than the rest of us. Indeed, Israel’s progressive elites have come to define themselves in opposition to those mostly non-Ashkenazi masses, whom they view as too Jewish, too provincial, and too nationalistic.

Tomer-Yerushalmi may argue that her leak was in the wider public interest: to show international jurists that Israel is willing to use force to apprehend its own soldiers and thereby deny international tribunals a legal reason to intervene. Implausible as it seems to most of us, she may well have believed that throwing Force 100 under the bus was a convincing demonstration of Israel’s high-minded moral standards.

Yet it seems that in this case, as in others, identity trumps ideology. To imagine themselves as members of the enlightened global elite, Israeli progressives must define themselves against the Israel that “right-thinking” people abhor. The beautiful people of Spain or the Netherlands or Berkeley, California, don’t particularly care what the facts of Israel’s conflicts with its neighbors are or whether the Israel they have constructed through sloganeering about “colonialism,” “apartheid,” and “genocide” is real or a malevolent fiction. Expressing their abhorrence of a brutal rape that never happened in Sde Teiman was an opportunity for Israel’s elites to show whose side they were on: their fellow elites or the deplorables. Nothing about their choice should be surprising.

300 pack London launch as UK Israel Alliance debuts with Douglas Murray conversation

Around 300 people attended the launch of the UK Israel Alliance (UKIA) in Central London last week, as the organisation – formerly UK Israel Future Projects – unveiled its new name and mission with a headline conversation featuring author and commentator Douglas Murray.

Interviewed on stage by Daily Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson, Murray reflected on reporting from Israel and Gaza after Hamas’s 7 October atrocities, the regional shifts shaped by the Abraham Accords, and the challenges and opportunities facing pro-Israel advocacy in Britain.

The evening opened with tributes from committee members Bernard Shapero and Sir William Shawcross to the late Martin Green, the 92-year-old founder of UK Israel Future Projects, remembered as a committed Zionist and a pillar of the UK pro-Israel community.

Guests included cross-party parliamentarians from both Houses, diplomats, journalists and long-standing supporters of the group. UKIA says its rebrand signals a renewed commitment to strengthening UK-Israel ties by bringing together activists and thought-leaders “from all political, religious and ethnic backgrounds”.

Chaired by Lord Bew, UKIA’s multi-faith committee includes Sir William Shawcross, Tim Vince, Simon Marks, Bernard Shapero and Dr Efrat Sopher. The organisation plans a rolling series of public events with international speakers addressing key issues affecting both countries.

Lord Bew said the launch demonstrated “the depth of support for Israel outside the Jewish community”, adding: “UKIA’s duty is to proactively reach Brits from all walks of life and proudly celebrate the fact that our two countries are stronger together. Israel has been subjected to an appalling smear campaign, but it is abundantly clear that many Brits cherish the shared values our great countries stand for.”

Nas Daily: I’m determined to show the real Israel

Israeli-Arab influencer Nuseir Yassin has described his mission to “show the Israel I want and like” and insisted he was now more hopeful about the future Middle East than at any time.

Known to 68 million social media followers as Nas Daily for his videos chronicling the lives of people in far-flung corners of the globe, he addressed more than 400 guests at Magen David Adom’s annual dinner last night.

In conversation with broadcaster Rob Rinder, he described how he left a safe job in tech almost a decade ago to create videos showing the “exact opposite” of the stories that tend to dominate discourse around the Middle East. Or, as Rinder put it, to “turn the toxicity of social media into something positive”.

“Twenty percent of Israel is Arab,” he said. “One force says you’re Palestinian and you shouldn’t have anything to do with Israel. Another force says we need to share the land and build up the land together. To escape the first force is hard. To call myself Israeli means I love Israel. It means freedom of speech. It’s the work that organisations like MDA are trying to do. This is what we should all be trying to promote, whatever the cost.”

“The most controversial topic in the world today is Israel and Palestine. Each time you talk about it, you pay a price. But you’ve got to humanise Israelis and Jewish people around the world and humanise Arabs as well. If you get to know someone, it’s very hard to hate them.”

He describes this as the safest time to land in Tel Aviv and paints a picture of a time when you could have lunch in Beirut, dinner in Damascus and then head back to Jerusalem in one taxi ride.

As for the two million Israeli Arabs within Israel, he said, they had a decision to make after the horrors of 7 October. “I think a large proportion have decided – including me – that we belong in Israel,” the former Harvard student told the audience. “That is the shock it takes to be able to see clearly. We don’t want to live under a Palestinian or Jordanian government. Despite the hardships, we are all Israelis.”

Oscar-winning filmmaker moves to Israel and trains his lens on October 7 survivors

Oscar-winning filmmaker Richard Trank has been making documentaries about Israel for decades. Today, he finally lives here.

“I wish I had made this decision earlier,” Trank told The Times of Israel about his aliyah to Israel last month, after a lifetime living and working in Los Angeles. “But I can’t change that.”

One of the first films Trank is working on under his brand-new production company, Sea Point Films and Media, aims to tell the story of Israelis recovering from the October 7 attacks and their rehabilitation journeys.

“I started thinking about really a post-October 7 project, because we all know what happened on October 7. We’ve all heard the stories, and it’s important to tell those stories,” Trank said during a recent video interview from his new home in Herzliya. “But I started thinking about, how do you come out of that? How do you rebuild your life?”

That film, titled “The Road Home,” is part of a fresh start for Trank, who spent more than 40 years at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, spearheading its Moriah Films production branch, helping to create an impressive slate of award-winning documentary films on Jewish and Israeli themes.

Trank left the Wiesenthal Center at the beginning of this year, around a year after its founder, Rabbi Marvin Hier, retired from the helm.

“At the end of 2023, new leadership came in, and they made a decision to move Moriah into a different direction, away from documentaries,” Trank said. “And there really wasn’t a place for me.”

The departure marks a major shift for Trank, who wrote and directed 16 documentary films for Moriah, telling stories of Jewish and Israeli life and working with some of the biggest names in Hollywood. His most recent film, “Never Stop Dreaming: The Life and Legacy of Shimon Peres” – narrated by George Clooney – is currently streaming on Netflix.

Prior to that, he adapted Yehuda Avner’s book “The Prime Ministers” into a series of two films that included Sandra Bullock, Michael Douglas, and Christoph Waltz, in voice acting roles. Trank’s film on Theodor Herzl was narrated by Ben Kingsley, and past documentaries also featured Nicole Kidman, Michael Douglas, Dustin Hoffman, and Morgan Freeman.

The last project he completed before leaving the Wiesenthal Center was a long-in-the-making documentary about David Ben Gurion, narrated by Julianna Margulies, which has yet to be released by Moriah.

“It’s really up to Wiesenthal about what they ultimately do with that film,” said Trank. “But I’m proud of it.”

Trank won the Academy Award for best documentary for co-producing 1997’s “The Long Way Home,” about the journeys of Holocaust survivors in the aftermath of World War II.

In many ways, he said, “The Road Home” — exploring the journey of October 7 survivors — mirrors that film’s exploration of how Holocaust survivors started over and rebuilt their lives in the wake of World War II.

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