Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, May 16, 2025

05/16 Links Pt2: The Sanity of John Fetterman; California’s Ethnic-Studies Disaster; CPJ: Gaza journalists speak out about Hamas intimidation, threats, assaults

From Ian:

Meir Y. Soloveichik: The Sanity of John Fetterman

Having suffered a stroke, and then subsequent psychiatric ailments that led to his brief hospitalization, John Fetterman’s time in the Senate has not been especially smooth. Yet now that he seems generally recovered, there has been a spate of dubious pieces in left-of-center publications suggesting that the Pennsylvania Democrat is mentally unstable and possibly unfit for office. Fetterman, incidentally, has been one of the most persistent defenders of Israel on Capitol Hill.

The story put Meir Soloveichik in mind of another Pennsylvanian, Warder Cresson, whose wife had him declared non compos mentis after he returned from serving as the first American consul to Jerusalem in 1846:
The application of lunacy to Cresson seemed solely based on his conversion to Judaism; in contrast to his many other previous conversions, it was only a love for the Jewish people that was considered crazy.

Meanwhile, as I type, a new hit piece on Fetterman has just dropped—a report issued by Axios noting that Fetterman has missed votes on the floor. The article runs under the hysterical headline “Fetterman Doubts Explode into Capitol Hill Firestorm.” To paraphrase Cresson’s attorney, the only charge left with which to accuse the senator is that he cares about murdered Jews.

Yet there are millions of people who are utterly unperturbed by Fetterman’s embrace of Israel and his present political persona. This multitude happens to be . . . the Pennsylvanians who elected him in the first place. The senator continues to enjoy high poll numbers among his own constituents; apparently, if Fetterman is crazy, then they don’t want their senators to be sane.

Warder Cresson and John Fetterman represent uniquely American stories, both highlighting the special history of the relationship between this country and the Jews. . . . It is just this that Fetterman’s critics cannot stand about America. That is why, ironically, Fetterman’s choice to stand with the Jewish people is driving them crazy.

Seth Mandel: California’s Ethnic-Studies Disaster

When Jews objected to making it a graduation requirement to show proficiency in Being An Anti-Semite, the state tried to remove the worst of it from its model curriculum. Which led, naturally, to the rise of a competing model curriculum that called itself “liberated ethnic studies.” To many in the industry, you see, the anti-Semitism was the point.

When asked if the Zionist narrative (also known as “history”) should be taught alongside the critical-studies and postcolonial versions, one teacher responded that that was like asking if creationism should be taught alongside biology.

As ethnic studies is actually taught in the classroom, meanwhile, there is almost no relation to the plain facts of history. An example from the Times article:

“In November, several weeks after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, an ethnic studies teacher at Menlo-Atherton High School, in Silicon Valley, presented a lesson that inaccurately claimed the United Nations considered the creation of Israel illegal. (A U.N. resolution partitioned the territory into Jewish and Arab states, and the U.N. admitted Israel as a member in 1949.)

“In addition, a slide depicted a hand manipulating a puppet, recalling antisemitic tropes about secret Jewish control of government, the media and finance.”

It’s just a mix of blood libels and provably false historical assertions.

Because none of what the kids were going to be taught was true, there was growing pushback against California’s ethnic-studies requirement. There is something very mid-20th-century Europe about obligating students in government schools to internalize and then express the idea that Jews are intrinsically evil.

The requirement was set to go into effect next fall. But by law, it cannot be a degree requirement unless the California legislature funds it. This week, Newsom’s revisions to the state budget pointedly excluded the funds for ethnic studies.

Democrats have enough problems with anti-Semitism without the party’s most important blue state making Soviet Jew-baiting a degree requirement. For four years, the fight over ethnic studies has divided the state, and it might end up being all for nothing. That, of course, is better than the alternative. Perhaps all we need to get anti-Semitism under control nationally is to have every Democratic governor run for national office.

Yuval Raphael pays homage to Theodor Herzl’s iconic Basel photo

Israel's Eurovision representative, Yuval Raphael, posed for a photo paying tribute to the iconic picture of Theodor Herzl, the father of modern Zionism, looking out over the Rhine in Basel.

The photo was posted after her triumphant performance of “New Day Will Rise” in the second semifinal of Eurovision 2025 on Thursday night, which landed Israel a spot in the final.

The photo of Raphael on Friday was snapped in the same location where Herzl posed in 1901 when he was attending the fifth Zionist Congress.

Israel’s public broadcaster KAN, which sponsors Israel’s participation in Eurovision, released it with Herzl’s most famous quote, "If you will it, it is no dream.” Raphael's journey to Eurovision

It’s easy to see why this quote has special resonance for Raphael, who overcame her trauma after surviving the Hamas terror attack on the Supernova Music Festival on October 7, 2023, to win The Next Star for Eurovision, Israel’s contest that chooses the Eurovision representative. And now she has not only made it to the competition, but won a place in the finals.

On Wednesday, the day before the semifinal, a huge poster/video of Raphael went up in Times Square in New York, urging people to vote for her in Eurovision.

The final will be held on Saturday night, and people all around the world can vote for her. The final, with all its glitz and glamour, will air in Israel on KAN 11 and will be shown on networks around the world to hundreds of millions.

05/16 Links Pt1: Trump's Middle East doctrine on display; The DoJ’s long-awaited reckoning for UNRWA has arrived; The ‘nakba’ is not our problem; ICC Prosecutor on Leave Amid SA Charges

From Ian:

Seth Frantzman: Politics of the personal: Trump's Middle East doctrine on display

Trump compassion
Part of the Trump doctrine is compassion for hostages and a desire to bring them home. Individuals are a priority for the American president, just as freeing Pastor Andrew Brunson was a priority in his first term. Trump blends the personal with the strength of a leader with a regional purpose.

There is a lot on Trump’s plate. He wants to open up opportunities, such as economic and defense cooperation in Saudi Arabia. “Our doors and hearts are open to you,” affirmed Prince Turki al-Faisal in Saudi Arabia.

Salman al-Ansari, a geopolitical analyst, also wrote in Arab News: “Trump now has a chance to deliver one of the most historic achievements of the 21st century: finally ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – not by endless negotiations that lead nowhere but by pushing both sides toward a lasting peace. Such a breakthrough would not only strengthen US interests and regional stability, but it would also deal a devastating blow to the extremists and radicals who have always thrived on chaos and hatred.”

In Saudi Arabia, Princess Reema bint Bandar “highlighted the enduring relationship between Saudi Arabia and the US as the president arrives in the Kingdom on Tuesday, his first state visit during his second stint in the White House,” Arab News noted.

“It is a moment pivotal for global peace, security, and prosperity,” Princess Reema wrote in the Washington Times on May 12. “Today, as the world navigates new challenges and conflicts, that partnership is more critical than ever.”

Trump’s visit is expected to hit all the high points of US policy in the Gulf.

Bulwark against extremism
Saudi Arabia has been an anchor of US policy since the 1920s. There were challenges and hurdles, such as during the 1990s and early 2000s when Riyadh was critiqued for ties to extremists. Things changed in the kingdom. The country has become a bulwark against extremism and has also done outreach to China and other countries. It is seen as a broker that can speak to Washington and Moscow.

The Saudis have also reconciled with Iran in a deal backed by China. And it reconciled with Qatar after years of crisis from 2017 to 2020.

Over the years, there has been a lot of talk of normalization with Israel. However, Riyadh wants to see Israel make changes and also move in a direction that leads to regional stability.

Wars in Gaza, West Bank fighting, and the bombing of Syria are not stabilizing elements. It wants Jerusalem to integrate into the region rather than be seen as a problematic player, surrounded by chaos.

The era of chaos in the Middle East is ending, and Israel should move toward security and stability. That is the view from Riyadh.

There are opportunities. The new president of Syria is offering to transform his country and become an ally of the West; a friend of the US. He is a young man and has shown his resolve. He may shed his past and could become a major player in the region. This requires some risk-taking in Washington.

Trump’s doctrine enables risk-taking, just as it pioneered the Abraham Accords.

Politics of the personal
Trump believes in the politics of the personal. He makes exaggerated statements sometimes, such as plans for Gaza. He also wants to empower local leaders.

If Israel won’t get things done in Gaza, then team Trump is always ready to make the next moves. He has shown this in Gaza and regarding a humanitarian initiative.

He also illustrated how he can quickly change course when needed regarding the Houthis.

Trump is flexible and not tethered to sacred cows or mantras.

The Middle East is where things are possible because, unlike dealing with some parts of the world, this area has personal leaders ready to take chances. All that is required is the will to take them.

Douglas Murray: Qatar’s ‘gestures’ to Trump raise suspicions on both ends of the political spectrum

The government of Qatar had a surprise for President Trump on his recent visit to the Middle East.

That was the release of the last American-born hostage being held in Gaza.

Edan Alexander, 21, was freed by the Qatari-funded group Hamas as a gesture to Trump.

Two questions obviously arise from that “gesture.”

The first: If Hamas can just release hostages like this why won’t they release all of them, whether they were born in America or not?

The answer to that is clear: It is because the Qataris and Hamas don’t want to release all the hostages.

They want to keep hold of them for as long as possible to exert as much leverage as possible.

The second question is less easy to answer.

If Qatar is so close with Hamas, how on earth can they be regarded as an ally of the United States?

It is that second question that has hovered over the president’s trip this week.

FDD: The Department of Justice’s long-awaited reckoning for UNRWA has arrived

In an April 24 filing connected to a lawsuit brought against UNRWA by terror victims, the Justice Department asserted that UNRWA does not qualify for the immunities afforded to the United Nations under international agreements and federal statutes. The lawsuit is currently before a federal judge in the Southern District of New York.

According to the DOJ filing in the case, UNRWA is “a mere ‘affiliate or instrumentality’ of the UN,” not an organ of the UN itself, and has never been granted immunity by any American president under the International Organizations Immunities Act.

This is a reversal from the Biden administration’s 2024 position that UNRWA was immune to prosecutions and lawsuits in the United States. The Biden administration took this position even as incontrovertible evidence mounted that UNRWA employees were directly involved in the kidnapping of Israelis, that UNRWA employees themselves held Israelis captive in Gaza, and that UNRWA facilities were used for storing weapons, harboring hostages, and other military purposes.

DOJ’s April 24 filing challenges UNRWA’s assertion that it is immune from the lawsuit. That complaint was filed by over 100 victims of the October 7 attacks, alleging that UNRWA bears legal responsibility for those attacks. And while that complaint was a civil suit, the DOJ filing indicates that UNRWA could be held to account in other ways — including U.S. sanctions.

Ample evidence exists to substantiate UNRWA’s longstanding partnership with Hamas. A strong case could be built rather quickly by the Treasury Department to impose terrorism sanctions on UNRWA.

Treasury sanctions could be a death knell for UNRWA. No country that wishes to do business with the United States would be willing to financially support the agency. No bank would be willing to processes a transaction on UNRWA’s behalf for fear of being subject to U.S. sanctions.

An end to UNRWA would by no means cutting aid to over a million Gazans. For many months now, amidst Israel’s war against Hamas, UNRWA has only supplied a fraction of the aid that goes into Gaza. Jerusalem has worked with a multitude of foreign governments and other aid agencies to prevent a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Whereas UNRWA once ran a monopoly on a host of services provided in Gaza, dozens of UN organizations and NGOs now provide those services.

When the war is over and the massive task of rebuilding Gaza gets underway, some of these organizations — those that do not partner with Hamas in any way — should remain in Gaza to continue providing support for needy Gazans.

The United Nations should have shut down UNRWA’s mandate long ago. However, that would only happen through a General Assembly vote, which is highly unlikely due to the UN’s anti-Israeli, anti-Western, and anti-democratic bias. But the DOJ may have just forged an alternative path.

Gaza Is An Open-Air Prison. How Dare You Suggest Anyone Leave! by Mehdi Hasan (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

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Gaza Is An Open-Air Prison. How Dare You Suggest Anyone Leave!

by Mehdi Hasan

Doha, May 16 - The images out of Jabaliya, Khan Yunis, Rafah, and Shuja'iyyah are horrific. Israel has brutally destroyed all the grandeur and rich life in the place everyone was calling the world's largest concentration camp - and now they and Trump think the Palestinians there should go somewhere else? Ridiculous and evil.

There is nowhere as beautiful as their homeland! How dare you encourage them to leave a place they claim to want to be in only temporarily because they're refugees from what's now Israel! Look at the paradise Israel destroyed, the one my fellow Qatar-backed voices deemed an open-air prison out of which Gazans broke out on October 7? Please, be consistent.

All open-air prisons get free electricity, international humanitarian aid, and infusions of Qatari cash. Well, I also get infusions of Qatari cash, but that just goes to show it's not a particularly remarkable phenomenon.

Encouraging Gaza residents to leave smacks of ethnic cleansing. Not like when Israel took all of its Jews out of Gaza in 2005 by force. That we call something else, because they didn't belong there. As opposed to the Palestinians who are there because they left other parts of Palestine, which means they don't belong in Gaza, either, for whom it would qualify as ethnic cleansing.

Also not like what Palestinians have declared they aim to do to the Jews everywhere in historic Palestine. Ethnic cleansing is something only happens to non-Jews. The Jews displaced from the Etzion Bloc of kibbutzim, or from Jerusalem's old city, in 1948, don't count. Or the ones expelled from Arab countries over the ensuing decades. But I digress.

They're starving in Gaza! Genocide! Humanitarian disaster! And we must KEEP them there.

Did I mention the genocide? By agreement with the Emir, I have to use the term in reference to Israel and Gaza at least four times a day. Hasn't been much of a problem keeping that provision of the contract. Definitely running a surplus. But I have to show His Excellency that I care, beyond mere adherence to the terms of the agreement.

Genocide genocide genocide genocide!

STOP TALKING ABOUT GETTING PALESTINIANS AWAY FROM A GENOCIDE, YOU MONSTERS.

Besides, you can't just move more than two million people. Unless they're Jews being banished from Palestine, because all seven and a half million must leave. If they don't want to leave, they can live as an underclass under Islamic supremacy, or die.

This is the humane attitude to the situation.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

From the Sweden Herald:

The [Swedish] Government is launching a national strategy for the first time to combat anti-Semitism and strengthen Jewish life.

"To be able to live an open and free Jewish life in Sweden should be a matter of course, but many Jews describe anti-Semitism today as the single largest obstacle," says Minister of Culture Parisa Liljestrand (M) at a press conference.

Since Hamas' large-scale terrorist attack on Israel and Israel's subsequent war, anti-Semitism has flared up in Sweden.

Jakob Forssmed calls the development unacceptable.

"We have not succeeded well enough," he says.

"More efforts are needed for Jews to feel safe and be open about their identity without being exposed to hate, threats, and violence."

The ten-year strategy includes three central parts: more knowledge and education about Jewish life, an investment in cultural heritage, and efforts to increase security.

I have no problem with increasing security and investing in cultural heritage, but the plan itself does not seem to address the roots of the problem.

It wants to add lessons about antisemitism and the Holocaust in schools. And it mentions that there is left-wing, right-wing and Islamist antisemitism. But it seems to treat the education of all of them the same.

Right-wing antisemites learn about the Holocaust and think , great job, Hitler! Islamists learn about the Holocaust and say, this is nothing compared to what Palestinians go through. Left wing antisemites learn about the Holocaust and say, see? Israel has become the new Nazis and it is even more important to destroy Israel!

Fighting antisemitism with education is a multi-faceted issue where the target is at least as important as the information. Some of what they plan to do in laying the groundwork is important - research and surveys to define the problem better, which hopefully will inform the specific methods.

This is not only a Swedish issue. I have yet to see ideas to combat antisemitism that have been shown to be effective over the long term, although some initiatives seem to have made short term positive effects (and a UNESCO anti-bias program found that the programs actually increased, in some countries, the students' stereotyping of Jews!.)

Everyone agrees that antisemitism is a problem, but there is surprisingly little research on what methods can combat it. Just throwing the word "education" and "Holocaust education" at the issue seems to be a default knee-jerk response but not too many people seem to be willing to go through the effort to find out what works.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

Human Rights Watch issued a press release saying Israel is doing the war crime of "extermination" and "acts of genocide."

As we've seen countless times, HRW and Amnesty base their accusations on their belief that they can read Israeli Jews' minds and invariably they decide that the Jews intend to attack civilians for no military reason - they just like to use up their military resources against the innocent. All the crimes they accuse Israel of require intent, and they base their assumption of intent on cherry-picked facts, not allowing counter-evidence (like Israel building a massive infrastructure to feed Gazans) to enter their minds.

But I want to concentrate on a throwaway paragraph that HRW inserts to pretend to be even-handed.

According to the Israeli government, 58 Israeli hostages are still believed to be held in Gaza, of whom 23 are believed alive. Palestinian armed groups should immediately and safely release all civilians they detain, just as Israeli authorities should immediately and safely release all unlawfully held Palestinians.

International law prohibits taking people as hostages. The International Convention Against the Taking of Hostages says, "Any person who seizes or detains and threatens to kill, to injure or to continue to detain another person (hereinafter referred to as the "hostage") in order to compel a third party, namely, a State, an international intergovernmental organization, a natural or juridical person, or a group of persons, to do or abstain from doing any act as an explicit or implicit condition for the release of the hostage commits the offence of taking of hostages ("hostagetaking) within the meaning of this Convention."

It makes no distinction between civilians or military hostages. They are both illegal and war crimes.

But HRW only calls for Hamas to release civilian hostages, not all hostages.

HRW is quite deliberately excluding soldiers who were taken hostage from their demand that Hamas release them. Does it want Hamas to use them as bargaining chips, in violation of international law? Does it consider them POWs, which they aren't under any definition?

That is not just immoral, it is monstrous. This "human rights" group does not consider soldiers to be human.

To add insult to injury, HRW then compares the hostages taken purely for the purpose of bargaining with the terrorists in Israeli prisons. And, no, none of them are held unlawfully - even if you disagree with administrative detention, it is legal and used in other countries like Australia, Ireland and the UK.

When Human Rights Watch gets its facts and international law wrong, it is a remarkable coincidence that it is always in Hamas' favor.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

05/15 Links Pt2: Israel’s Yuval Raphael qualifies for Eurovision final; The Future of American Jewry After October 7; Leo XIV: A papacy anchored in Israel’s embrace?

From Ian:

Dan Senor: The Future of American Jewry After October 7

‘The time is now.’ In January 1948, Golda Meir delivered a famous speech to a group of Jewish leaders in Chicago a mere four months before the establishment of Israel. Her message was clear: The future of the Jewish state hung in the balance. The Jews in Palestine needed every cent American Jews could spare.

“I beg of you—don’t be too late,” she said. “Don’t be bitterly sorry three months from now for what you failed to do today. The time is now.” She intended to raise $25 million; by the end she had raised $50 million. (In today’s dollars, that would be nearly $700 million.)

The tables have turned. Israel is going to be fine, in part because of Israeli strength and resilience, backed up by the Diaspora’s continued commitment. But I do think the future of American Jewish life hangs in the balance. And I don’t want any of us—whatever our resources—to regret not doing more.

We really do have the tools to rebuild American Jewish life. The question is: Do we have the sense of purpose—the why—to match?

Hersh Goldberg-Polin spent just three days with a fellow hostage named Eli Sharabi in the tunnels of Gaza. In that time, Hersh taught Eli a lesson that would change his life. He quoted the psychologist and Holocaust survivor Victor Frankl: He who has a “why” will find the “how.”

Israelis have a why. Many who may have forgotten it were reminded of it on October 7, when everything changed. Since then, Israelis have seen the why come roaring back.

Agam Berger, held in captivity for 450 days, had a why. “I learned,” she said after her release, “as my forebears did, that imprisonment can’t overwhelm the inner spiritual life. Our faith and covenant with God—the story we remember on Passover—is more powerful than any cruel captor. Even as Hamas tried to coerce me into converting to Islam—at times, forcing a hijab on my head—they couldn’t take my soul.” Her friend, Liri Albag, fashioned a Haggadah out of whatever materials she could find in captivity, and they marked the Passover Seder together, yearning for redemption.

Aner Shapira had a why. In a bomb shelter beside Hersh on October 7, he faced a death squad and chose to act. He hurled seven live grenades back at the terrorists before the eighth took his life. He died saving his friends—and strangers—because he knew he served a people greater than himself.

Ben Zussman had a why. A reserve officer in the IDF, he wrote a letter before heading to the front lines in case the worst came to pass. And when his parents opened the letter after his death, they found these words: “If you’re reading this, something must have happened to me. As you know about me, there’s probably no one happier than me right now. I’m happy and grateful for the privilege to protect our beautiful land and the people of Israel.”

We—the Jewish people—should look to Israel not simply for its defense innovation or health care advances. We should look to Israelis for their clarity, their purpose, their deep sense of identity. Hersh, Eli, Agam, Aner, Ben—very different people, very different lives. But each of them met this moment with courage. With faith. With an unshakable sense of why.

The deepest question. What is our why? Why are we here? Are we truly owning the story we’re living in? These are not theoretical questions. They are practical and will determine the future of our families and our communities.

The state of World Jewry depends on how we answer.

If we answer in the way I’m suggesting, by resolving to live Jewish lives, and making sure our children do as well, we will begin to find that answer. The road in the near term will not be smooth. We know enough to know that we are witnessing another story, another chapter in Jewish history. There will be libraries invaded by campus mobs, there will be Nazi graffiti scrawled on the walls of subway cars, there will be another podcaster spreading libels about the Jewish people. Of this, we can be sure. I am confident, however, that in the long term, if we strengthen our Jewish identity, our people will not be prominent but weak. They will be Jewish and strong.

Many young American parents over the past 18 months have chosen to pay tribute to some of the Israeli heroes we lost in this war. Everywhere you look, it seems, you might meet a young baby Hersh—named for Hersh Goldberg-Polin—or baby Carmel, for Carmel Gat, or Ori, for Ori Danino, or Maya, for Maya Goren.

These young American Jews will carry their names into the future. I imagine, 18 years from now, young Hershs and Carmels and Oris and Mayas walking onto the quad together, on one of a thousand American campuses. And my prayer is that as much as they carry their names, they will also carry their courage, their essence. That they will know who they are, where they come from—and where they’re going.

Leo XIV: A papacy anchored in Israel’s embrace?

Political Without Partisan Delusion
The political instincts of Leo XIV defy the taxonomy beloved by pundits. He is not a banner-waving conservative, but neither is he a proxy for the Soros-funded clerical avant-garde. His experience in Latin America made him wary of both economic oligarchy and class warfare slogans. He has spoken of inequality as a moral concern, not a campaign slogan. He supported Francis’s environmentalism only insofar as it remained moral, not technocratic.

Prevost sees the modern state as both necessary and dangerous—a position closer to Hobbes than Rousseau. He believes in order. He respects subsidiarity. He doubts that bureaucracies can save us. In today’s Rome, this qualifies as heresy.

Trump: Enemy, Ally, or Interlocutor?
He has never commented on President Donald Trump directly, and he likely never will. But his Vatican record is revealing. When some U.S. bishops tried to aggressively discipline pro-Trump clergy or push blanket condemnations of “Christian nationalism,” Prevost counseled caution. Not because he supports the former president, but because he understands what Trumpism represents: a political insurgency born of cultural dislocation.

In a Church hemorrhaging the working class, Prevost knows better than to treat populists as lepers. He doesn’t moralize about MAGA hats. He listens. In an ecclesial environment increasingly dominated by NGO-speak and bourgeois sensitivities, that makes him both countercultural and, paradoxically, pastoral.

Zionism and the Jews: A Return to Dialogue
If Francis’s Vatican flirted with fashionable anti-Zionism—hosting Mahmoud Abbas, parroting UN talking points—Leo XIV is a corrective. Prevost has visited Israel repeatedly. He has expressed admiration for the resilience of Jewish life and has cultivated ties with Jewish leaders in Peru, the United States, and Europe. He does not sentimentalize the Palestinian cause, nor reduce the Middle East to a victim-oppressor binary.

According to sources in Rome, Prevost views Israel as “a moral project within history”—a phrase that startled the Latin desk at the Secretariat of State. He has called Netanyahu “a necessary man in dangerous times,” which, in Vaticanese, borders on radical candor. There will be no warm embraces for Hamas delegates under this papacy.

On May 12, three days after his election, Pope Leo XIV has chosen to reaffirm his commitment to Catholic-Jewish relations as his first official act. In a letter to major Jewish organizations, he pledged to continue and deepen the Church’s dialogue with the Jewish people, invoking the spirit and principles of Nostra Aetate, the landmark declaration of the Second Vatican Council, which repudiated antisemitism, rejected the charge of collective Jewish guilt for the death of Jesus, and called for mutual respect and understanding between Catholics and Jews.

Seth Mandel: Universities Are Proving How Avoidable This Anti-Semitism Fight Was All Along

I didn’t realize that school officials could respond immediately to stunts like this. I was under the impression that administrators who criticize students are violating the constitutional protections that the Founders enacted to let kids do whatever they want with no consequences.

Further, the statement is one of shocking clarity for a university. It actually says something.

Which leads me to believe that schools can, in fact, crack down on idiotic rulebreaking. And that they could have done so all along. Now it can be told!

And third: Much of the argument around academic freedom these days is a dodge. Long before anyone was threatening to cut funds going to schools that violated the civil rights of Jewish students, the affected students had come to administrators with a simple ask: that schools enforce their rules consistently with no double standards.

That’s it. Really. It’s hard to remember, but that’s how all this started—with Jewish students asking universities to stop enforcing rules only on behalf of favored identity groups.

And that simple request is what sent schools into a tailspin. No, they said—you can’t make us! Then eventually a president came along who said: Well yes in fact I can, because it’s federal law.

We’re here because universities refused to enforce their rules equally or consistently. Are they happy now with how far this fight has escalated? I don’t know, but that escalation was their choice. And there’s really no denying it anymore.

05/15 Links Pt1: Terrorist kills pregnant woman in Samaria; Is the Trump-Bibi Rift Overblown?; Trump claims Iran nuclear deal is near; Breakthrough in Adass Israel Synagogue firebombing

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: The gold-plated peacenik in the White House

In his consequential speech in Riyadh, Trump announced a total rupture with the “neo-conservative” aim of remaking the Middle East in the image of American democracy.

“In recent years, far too many American presidents have been afflicted with the notion that it’s our job to look into the souls of foreign leaders and use U.S. policy to dispense justice for their sins,” he said. “I believe it is God’s job to sit in judgment, my job to defend America and to promote the fundamental interest of stability, prosperity and peace.”

Well, amen to that. However, the alternative to imposing Western values on the Arab world is not choosing to ignore the attempt by elements of that Arab world to impose Islam on the West. The correct course of action is, as it always has been, to fight and defeat these threats to Western interests.

Trump’s mantra “peace through strength” is fine, but strength inescapably involves the credible threat of war. His Riyadh speech suggested instead that he’s using showers of money to tell those who threaten the West, as well as their putative victims, that all of them are now on their own. America won’t do war. There’s a peacenik of the right in the White House raining down gold instead of missiles.

Trump says he doesn’t have enemies. Where others see threats, he sees only financial opportunities.

The inconvenient truth, however, is that some people are out to destroy America and the West. If Trump doesn’t regard these as enemies, he will leave America and the West defenseless against attack.

It also puts him radically at odds with Israel, which views fighting and winning the war to defeat genocidal Iran as essential for its survival.

When Edan Alexander was released, the head of Qatar’s state-run Al Sharq News gloated that America had now been peeled away from Israel by “a move that constitutes implicit recognition of Hamas” and that would “deal a blow to Netanyahu and his Zionist team.”

It’s possible that Trump has a genius strategy that will cause lions to lie down with lambs. It’s possible that he will soon realize that his quest to bring peace on earth is hitting a dead end and that he will accordingly turn on a dime. But it’s also possible that he won’t realize that he’s been played for a sucker until it’s all far too late.

Eli Lake: Trump’s Serenity Prayer in Saudi Arabia

After months of mixed signals from Washington over what Donald Trump’s foreign policy will mean for the Middle East, the president has revealed his hand. In his speech Tuesday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Trump explained that America is no longer trying to remake the world in its image.

“In recent years, far too many American presidents have been afflicted with the notion that it’s our job to look into the souls of foreign leaders and use U.S. policy to dispense justice for their sins,” Trump said.

This echoes the first half of the Serenity Prayer, made famous by Alcoholics Anonymous: “God grant me the power to accept the things I cannot change.” And this marks a real change for U.S. foreign policy. America is no longer going to hector its allies about whether women have the right to drive or whether dissidents disappear into dark prisons. Trump’s message to America’s allies in the Middle East is: You do you.

The venue is important in this respect. U.S.-Saudi relations were strained to their limits in the aftermath of the 2018 murder of Washington Post analyst Jamal Khashoggi, allegedly by Saudi henchmen. For the Democratic Party the brutal killing of Khashoggi, lured to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, where he was hacked into pieces, made Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman radioactive. How could the U.S. continue a partnership with a man who has his journalist critics assassinated? Trump was the president during this crisis and his administration fought Congress to shield the kingdom from the blowback. But when Joe Biden won the White House after the 2020 election, he spent the beginning of his term isolating the Saudis.

Trump is now taking the opposite approach. He made no mention of Khashoggi or human rights in his speech in Riyadh. At times it sounded like a tribute dinner. “Mohammed, do you sleep at night?” Trump asked as he marveled at Saudi Arabia’s construction boom. “How do you sleep? Huh? Just thinking. What a job. He tosses and turns like some of us, tosses and turns all night—“How do I make it even better?”—all night. It’s the ones that don’t toss and turn, they’re the ones that will never take you to the promised land.”

Trump made news as well. He announced that America was lifting sanctions on Syria, and on Wednesday he even met with Syria’s president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former al-Qaeda member who fought American forces in Iraq. He also expressed his “fervent hope” that the Saudis will soon sign on to the Abraham Accords and establish diplomatic relations with Israel, as other Arab states did during his first term. If the country that hosts the two most important sites for Muslims does indeed normalize ties with Israel, it would represent the most significant change in the Arab world’s attitude toward Israel, whose right to exist it has widely rejected since the Jewish state was born in 1948. Trump also warned Iran that the negotiation process over its nuclear program will not last forever.

Is the Trump-Bibi Rift Overblown?

Even as Trump has pursued a nuclear deal with Tehran, he has ramped up economic sanctions on the regime and kept a military option firmly on the table. Trump told radio host Hugh Hewitt last week that Iran has two options for its nuclear centrifuges: "Blow them up nicely or blow them up viciously."

While Trump has not made regional normalization of relations with Israel a condition of his Gulf diplomacy, he has repeatedly expressed confidence this week in the future expansion of the Abraham Accords, matching Israel’s no-hurry attitude on the issue. The president told reporters after his meeting with al-Sharaa on Wednesday that the Syrian leader had agreed in principle to join the pact, though Trump acknowledged "they have a lot of work to do."

Amid the uncertainty and anxiety in Israel about Trump’s intentions, some on the Israeli right have called for the Jewish state to emulate the president’s "America first" foreign policy.

Abu Ali Express, a prominent anonymous commentator in Israel, argued in a blog post on Monday, "Israeli interests are important to Trump, and when they do not conflict with American interests, then Trump acts in favor of Israeli interests."

"Trump takes care of the U.S. Israel takes care of Israel," Abu Ali Express added. "That’s how it works."

Netanyahu conveyed a similar message to Israeli lawmakers on Sunday. During a meeting of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Netanyahu said that Israel needs to move toward ending its reliance on U.S. military aid.

"We receive close to $4 billion for arms," he said. "I think we will have to wean ourselves off of American security aid, just as we weaned ourselves off of American economic aid."

Amit Halevi, a Likud lawmaker who has advocated for greater Israeli independence from the United States, called Netanyahu’s remarks "important."

Trump in Riyadh: "All Civilized People Must Condemn the October 7 Atrocities Against Israel"

President Donald Trump said in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday: "I've come this afternoon to talk about the bright future of the Middle East...forging a future where the Middle East is defined by commerce, not chaos; where it exports technology, not terrorism; and where people of different nations, religions and creeds are building cities together, not bombing each other out of existence."

"The Gulf nations have shown this entire region a path toward safe and orderly societies with improving quality of life, flourishing economic growth, expanding personal freedoms, and increasing responsibilities on the world stage."

"It's my fervent hope, wish and even my dream that Saudi Arabia...will soon be joining the Abraham Accords....They've been an absolute bonanza for the countries that have joined....It will be a special day in the Middle East, with the whole world watching, when Saudi Arabia joins us...but you'll do it in your own time."

"Now working with the vast majority of people in this region who seek stability and calm, our task is to unify against a few agents of chaos and terror that are left and that are holding hostage the dreams of millions and millions of great people. The biggest and most destructive of these forces is the regime in Iran, which has caused unthinkable suffering in Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq, Yemen and beyond....Iran's leaders have focused on stealing their people's wealth to fund terror and bloodshed abroad."

"I want to make a deal with Iran....But if Iran's leadership rejects this olive branch and continues to attack their neighbors, then we will have no choice but to inflict massive maximum pressure, drive Iranian oil exports to zero, like I did before...and take all action required to stop the regime from ever having a nuclear weapon....We'll never allow America and its allies to be threatened with terrorism or nuclear attack."

"All civilized people must condemn the October 7th atrocities against Israel....The people of Gaza deserve a much better future, but that cannot occur as long as their leaders choose to kidnap, torture and target innocent men, women and children for political ends."

Important Jewish archaeological site is called an "Arab neighborhood" by Haaretz

From Haaretz:

A major archaeological site that proves Jewish history is true and that the Jews are indigenous to the Land of Israel is regarded primarily as an Arab neighborhood.

That is self-hating Jewishness in a nutshell.

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

Amnesty International (UK) announces:

Amnesty’s Media Awards is entering its 33rd year. Each year, our awards showcase the incredible work of journalists and other media workers who combine outstanding talent with hard work and a great deal of courage to expose injustices worldwide. This year’s finalists are no exception.

This year, we have introduced a new award called the People’s Choice Award. Earlier this year Amnesty International UK supporters were asked to nominate journalists who they believe to have worked tirelessly to achieve human rights change over the past year.

Now, it’s down to a public vote to decide who wins!

Virtually all the nominees are inveterate haters of the Jewish state. All of them center their reporting around Israel and Gaza. Nearly all of them accuse Israel of "genocide."

Owen Jones: "From day one, Israel's leaders and officials loudly broadcast their genocidal intent."

Jeremy Bowen

Nesrine Malik: "What is hard to deny now is that Israel has gone rogue. ...What has emerged is a state that is breaking all protocols in a way that situates it not within the democratic fold, but in some outlaw category."

Lyse Doucet is accused of "downplaying" the Hamas attack on October 7.

Fergal Keane reports on human stories from Gaza. I could not find any specifically anti-Israel quotes, though.

Patrick Cockburn compares Israel's war against Hamas to Saddam Hussein's deliberate attack on Kurdish civilians.

Jonathan Cook describes Israel's actions as genocidal every day.

George Monbiot also uses the libel "genocide" as established fact.

Ash Sarkar and Michael Walker (Novara Live) - Walker accuses the BBC of being too pro-Israel.

Some of them might add some articles about Ukraine or Syria or Sudan. But their nominations appear to be all centered on their work in making Israel look evil.

This list of nominees proves, yet again, that Amnesty is obsessed with Israel to the exclusion of the entire rest of the world.

(h/t Jill, Irene)

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"Humanitarian" NGOs agree: Better to let Gazans starve then allowing Israel to exclude Hamas from benefitting from aid

The double standards applied to Israel are astounding.

Start with the headlines:

Right now, there is zero aid. The plan will bring in aid with conditions. The critics - who supposedly care about Gazans starving - are upset at a plan that will bring food into Gaza when there has been none.

Wouldn't normal human rights groups welcome any aid no matter what the circumstances?

BBC describes their objections:

UN agencies have insisted they will not co-operate with the plan - which is in line with one previously approved by Israel's government - saying it contradicted fundamental humanitarian principles.

A spokesperson for the UN's Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) accused Israel of seeking to use "food and fuel as leverage, as part of a military strategy".

"All aid would be channelled through a handful of militarised hubs," Olga Cherevko told BBC Verify.

"That kind of arrangement would cut off vast areas of Gaza – particularly the most vulnerable, who can't move easily, or are otherwise marginalised – from any help at all."

Meanwhile, Bushra Khalidi of Oxfam described the new plan as a "farce".

"No logistical solution is going to address Israel's strategy of forcible displacement and using starvation as a weapon of war. Lift the siege, open the crossings and let us do our job."

Khalidi has accused Israel is using starvation as a weapon in Gaza - in October 2023.

OCHA has parroted false Hamas casualty statistics as factual for 19 months.

For these NGOs, Israel is declared guilty first, and the facts are twisted later to justify it.

What is clear is that they prioritize demonizing Israel over supporting feeding Gazans. While Israel is spending millions setting up secure food distribution centers, and creating a huge logistics infrastructure from scratch in a scale that has little precedent in history, organizations like Oxfam and the UN are more interested in criticizing Israel than in helping it feed Gazans in a way that would marginalize Hamas.

Their criticisms are even more hollow when you read the description of how the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation plans to feed Gazans.

It is not a half-baked plan - it includes multiple layers of logistics, specific distribution and cost goals, extensive audit systems, direct responses to early criticisms, flexibility in responding to new circumstances, and plans to scale and expand services as quickly as possible. The leaders of GHF have extensive experience in large humanitarian missions.

The NGOs airily dismiss the plan without even reading it. And they definitely don't want you to read it yourself, because that would expose their hate - and their indifference to suffering in Gaza. If Israel supports it, they must oppose it, Gazans be damned.

This is part of a pattern in how Israel is judged and reported on. Israel's actions are compared to an impossible standard and it is always criticized for falling short of arbitrary and artificial metrics. At the very same time, terror groups like Hamas who literally celebrate raping Jewish women and murdering children are given the benefit of the doubt, with their denials of stealing aid and their false accusations of Israel targeting women and children given deference even after hard proof shows that they are lying.

None of these NGOs can adequately explain why Israel, accused of genocide and weaponizing starvation, would want to work so hard on a plan to provide food to Gaza civilians. Israel's assertion that it does not want to hurt Gazans but wants to stop Hamas from profiting off the aid is consistent with the facts, yet it is dismissed in favor of a conspiracy theory where Israel is only pretending to want to build multiple distribution hubs to provide millions of meals.

Similarly, Israel said in March when it cut off food that there was enough food in Gaza until the end of May. (The WFP indicated it would last to July.) Israel is acting to ensure that there is no crisis. It never wanted to starve Gaza.

In many ways, the NGOs criticism of Israel's attempts to control aid distribution show that they are really on Hamas' side.

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Stupidity is mainstream in some Arabic language media.

Mohammed Al-Subaihi, a columnist for Ammon News in Jordan and a lawyer, says that Hamas is the only thing stopping Israel from demolishing the Al Aqsa Mosque.

Palestinian resistance has become the only, and perhaps the last, barrier standing in the way of the Israeli biblical projects. Whoever believes otherwise is still living in the illusions of the international community, international law, and the Security Council, and has missed the changes in Israeli society, which is now controlled by the biblical Zionists who do not value anything related to international law or the United Nations.

...The end of the resistance will be immediately followed by the accelerated Judaization of East Jerusalem by pushing the largest number of Arab Jerusalemites out of the city in preparation for closing it completely to non-Jews. The final surprising step will be the news at dawn of the collapse of Al-Aqsa Mosque due to natural factors, if they still have an ounce of fear, or as a result of a number of Jewish extremists causing an explosion inside the tunnels that the occupation dug under Al-Aqsa in search of a Jewish trace that they did not like, or perhaps accusing Palestinian resistance fighters of storing weapons under Al-Aqsa and provoking an armed clash that will end with the collapse of Al-Aqsa, leaving the Muslim masses with the polygonal building above the Dome of the Rock.

Hate to break it to you, Mohammed, but if Jews were going to destroy anything it would be the Dome of the Rock, not Al Aqsa.

He then goes on to say that Hamas has nothing to do with Israel's destroying Gaza:

Those who criticize the resistance for the October 7 operation have no political horizon and cling to illusions of peace with the biblical occupation of the Palestinian land. If their argument is that October 7 prompted the enemy to destroy Gaza and kill and wound tens of thousands of Palestinians, then we ask them: Was the October 7 operation the cause of the Zionist brutality that surpassed the brutality of the Nazis, or did it expose that brutality that was covered by a false veil of claims of peace, democracy, cooperation and development, waiting for the moment when they would declare historic Palestine from the river and beyond the river a Jewish state?!

The only possible argument he thinks anyone can come up with against raping, burning, murdering and kidnapping hundreds of Israelis is that it caused Israel to go into Gaza. And he then dismisses even that argument!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

05/14 Links Pt2: Seeing Through the Hamasnik Facade; A Survivor Faces the Cowards; Why do so many liberals have a blindspot on Jew hatred?

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Seeing Through the Hamasnik Facade

A leading U.S. pro-Palestinian organization may finally be forced to reveal how thin the line is that separates Hamas from some of its boisterous advocates in the West.

The group is American Muslims for Palestine, and a federal judge in Virginia has ruled that it must turn over key financial documents requested by Virginia’s attorney general, Jason Miyares. AMP has come under investigation and been the target of several lawsuits since Oct. 7, though as Jewish Insider has pointed out, one in particular stands out.

In 1996, David Boim was murdered by Hamas terrorists in Jerusalem. A group called the Islamic Association of Palestine was found liable for his death. That group shut down and essentially reappeared as AMP, the Boim lawsuit argues. If the Boim’s lawsuit can demonstrate that AMP is functionally a reanimation of IAP, it should inherit IAP’s liability to the Boims.

The evidence presented in the Boim case highlights the extent of the threat from groups like AMP, which has been active in supporting the tentifada protests on campus post-Oct. 7. Together, the Boim case and the Miyares investigation might answer two key questions: How close are Palestinian advocacy groups to Palestinian terror groups? And how interchangeable are the many iterations of these groups? As long as the courts are able to force these groups to fully comply with transparency rules, it will be like putting the massive, radical pro-Palestinian network in the U.S. under an X-ray machine.

As JI explained: “Among other close parallels cited by Schlessinger, top officials at AMP — many of whom have ties to Hamas — were once affiliated with IAP, in what he characterized as a ‘dramatic’ overlap of leadership. When AMP formed soon after IAP had shut down in 2004, for instance, ‘the key player in the day-to-day functioning of AMP was the same guy who was the key player in the day-to-day functioning of IAP,’ he said, referring to Abdelbaset Hamayel, a former top IAP official who also served as AMP’s first executive director and still manages its books and records.”

How an Anti-Semitic Fabulist Became a Poster Child for Freedom of Speech

On April 30, a federal court ordered the release of Mohsen Mahdawi, a graduate student at Columbia University with permanent-resident status who had been detained by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security two weeks earlier. Google Mahdawi and you will find a fawning 60 Minutes interview from December 2023, where he speaks about his involvement in anti-Israel protests and makes a point of distancing himself from anti-Semitism. But, Asaf Romirowsky writes, whatever you think about the still-pending legal case against Mahdawi, he is anything but a sympathetic figure:
Mahdawi’s social-media accounts are . . . thick with blatant and vile anti-Semitic incitement, including the chant “Khaybar Khaybar ya Yahud,” referring to a battle in 628 at the Arabian city of Khaybar during which the prophet Mohammad slaughtered many of the town’s Jewish residents. The call, popular with Hamas and Hizballah supporters, is widely understood to be a threat.

And then there is the story Mahdawi has often retailed about how, as a child growing up in the Samarian hamlet of al-Fara, he saw his best friend shot dead by an Israeli soldier:
It’s a heartbreaking story; it’s also one that is very easy to corroborate, as a plethora of Palestinian and international human-rights organizations provide detailed accounts of Palestinian civilian casualties. . . . One child did die at al-Fara during the relevant time frame, but he was hurt by an explosive gas canister, not a bullet, and his fatal injury occurred in a remote field, not in the heart of the crowded [refugee] camp, as Mahdawi had repeatedly said.

Seth Mandel: A Survivor Faces the Cowards

Ever since Oct. 7, I have strangely looked forward to the annual Eurovision contest. Not for the music, really. Mostly I look forward to the arrival of the Israeli contestant, a rare moment to glimpse an actually brave artist in the sea of “pick-me” conformism that passes for a music scene today.

As a music fan, I don’t insist on courage from artists—I understand the business calculation behind, say, Green Day’s copycat bandwagoning or some no-name Irish frat-rap trio’s fame-thirsty attempt at recognition through incitement. Indeed, if I listened only to bands that didn’t float like wisps in the political winds, I wouldn’t have much on the playlist.

The part that does annoy me, however, is the way these bands and their fans cast themselves as heroes for doing what everyone else in their industry is doing—in this case, Hamasifying their otherwise staid stage presence.

Which is not to say I don’t find some enjoyment in the masquerade. After all, bandwagoning anti-Zionism is the most money-grubbing capitalist thing one can do in the entertainment business, and I’d have to have a heart of stone not to laugh at, say, Rage Against the Machine’s embrace of it. (Tom Morello, neoliberal!)

But this week, Yuval Raphael walked the welcoming carpet at the opening of the Eurovision contest in Basel, Switzerland. Raphael is Israel’s contestant in the competition. Because she is from the Jewish state, the normal fans cheering her were joined by keffiyeh-clad protesters waving Palestinian flags, one of whom made a throat-slitting gesture as Raphael’s delegation went by. He stepped toward the Israelis and spat at them.

Now, Israelis are quite used to getting random death threats from cosplaying revolutionaries comfortably ensconced in their flats thousands of miles from the conflict zone. Yuval Raphael just smiled and waved, and at one point made a heart gesture with her hands. That’s pretty much how it goes—Israeli hearts and Palestinian neck-slicing; they’re partners in a familiar dance.

But there is more to the story when it comes to Raphael. She is a survivor of the Nova massacre, the largest mass killing at a music festival in history. Her story is harrowing, and her appearance at Eurovision is, frankly, an inspiring if not historic moment for music fans everywhere.

05/14 Links Pt1: Trump's photo with Syrian President al-Sharaa symbolizes new world order; Spencer: A Clausewitzian Lens on Modern Urban Warfare

From Ian:

Seth Frantzman: Trump's photo with Syrian President al-Sharaa symbolizes new world order

Today, the US is focused on the Middle East and Asia. The whole world is more focused on Asia. For instance, Chinese military technology helped Pakistan against India recently.

Pakistan was a former British colony and had been closely linked to the West. Now it works with China.

Iran also collaborates with China. Countries in the Middle East are running to join economic groups such as BRICS and the SCO, which are non-Western economic blocs.

Therefore, Trump’s time in Saudi Arabia is part of the shifting global world order. The US is no longer a hegemonic power. This is a multipolar world.

Trump agrees with these changes. Although he wants to make America great at home, his “America first” approach also means the US rejects the notion of “national building.”

The American president skewered past Western efforts in the region. “The gleaming marvels of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi were not created by the so-called ‘nation builders,’ ‘neocons,’ or ‘liberal nonprofits,’ like those who spent trillions failing to develop Kabul and Baghdad,” Trump said.

“Instead, the birth of a modern Middle East has been brought about by the people of the region themselves... developing your own sovereign countries, pursuing your own unique visions, and charting your own destinies,” he continued.

”In the end, the so-called ‘nation builders’ wrecked far more nations than they built – and the interventionists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand themselves,” Trump said.

The meeting with Sharaa, therefore, symbolizes how the US is getting out of the business of “lecturing” others.

Trump is embracing a policy where Syria will determine its own future. He will not hold the past against Sharaa and Syria. He is ready for a new world order.

Stephen Pollard: If you want to understand how Qatar gets away with it: follow the money

There has, quite rightly, been renewed focus this week on Qatar. First, the ‘gift’ to Donald Trump of a new $400 million Air Force One, then the release of Hamas hostage Edan Alexander on Qatar’s instructions.

But here’s the ironic thing about the state which lends support to pretty much every organisation in the Middle East dedicated to suppressing or killing Jews, from the Muslim Brotherhood to Hamas: almost all the things that antisemites believe Jews do but which we don’t, the Qataris really do.

Qatari money is pretty much everywhere – from politics to culture to education to finance to construction to plain old lobbying. Qatar, one might well observe, has come up with a brilliantly simply strategy for ensuring that not too many questions are asked, let alone acted on, about its terror-related activities: buy up the West. And that includes the UK.

It’s not even hidden. If you want to understand why Qatar is able to act so duplicitously without any consequences, let me give you chapter and verse – all of it publicly available.

I’ll focus solely on the UK. Globally, this is of course far more extensive.

Let’s start with Canary Wharf, bought in 2015 by the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) in partnership with Brookfield Property Partners for £2.6 billion. The QIA is reported to manage £334 billion of investments. Qatar also owns 95 per cent of the Shard and much of the surrounding Shard Quarter, including the News Building, which houses News UK (publishers of The Times and The Sun).

After the 2012 Olympics the Olympic Village was sold to the $35 billion real estate fund Qatari Diar. In 2007 Qatar bought Chelsea Barracks from the Ministry of Defence for over £900 million; it is being redeveloped into luxury homes by Qatari Diar, which also part-owns the £3 billion redevelopment of Elephant and Castle. Qatari Diar is central to the multi-million-pound regeneration of Lewisham town centre. That sits in a Qatari property portfolio alongside the former US Embassy on Grosvenor Square, bought in 2009.

Israel Must Act Swiftly to Defeat Hamas

On Monday night, the IDF struck a group of Hamas operatives near the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis, the main city in southern Gaza. The very fact of this attack was reassuring, as it suggested that the release of Edan Alexander didn’t come with restraints on Israeli military activity. Then, yesterday afternoon, Israeli jets carried out another, larger attack on Khan Yunis, hitting a site where it believed Mohammad Sinwar, the head of Hamas in Gaza, to be hiding. The IDF has not yet confirmed that he was present. There is some hope that the death of Sinwar—who replaced his older brother Yahya after he was killed last year—could have a debilitating effect on Hamas.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump is visiting the Persian Gulf, and it’s unclear how his diplomatic efforts there will affect Israel, its war with Hamas, and Iran. For its part, Jerusalem has committed to resume full-scale operations in Gaza after President Trump returns to the U.S. But, Gabi Simoni and Erez Winner explain, Israel does not have unlimited time to defeat Hamas:
Israel faces persistent security challenges across multiple fronts—Iran, the West Bank, Yemen, Syria, and Lebanon—all demanding significant military resources, especially during periods of escalation. . . . Failing to achieve a decisive victory not only prolongs the conflict but also drains national resources and threatens Israel’s ability to obtain its strategic goals.

Only a swift, forceful military campaign can achieve the war’s objectives: securing the hostages’ release, ensuring Israeli citizens’ safety, and preventing future kidnappings. Avoiding such action won’t just prolong the suffering of the hostages and deepen public uncertainty—it will also drain national resources and weaken Israel’s standing in the region and beyond.

We recommend launching an intense military operation in Gaza without delay, with clear, measurable objectives—crippling Hamas’s military and governance capabilities and securing the release of hostages. Such a campaign should combine military pressure with indirect negotiations, maximizing the chances of a successful outcome while minimizing risks.

Crucially, the operation must be closely coordinated with the United States and moderate Arab states to reduce international pressure and preserve the gains of regional alliances.