Thursday, June 13, 2024

06/13 Links: The inside story of Israel’s dramatic Gaza hostage rescue; How Palestinian terrorists train ‘journalists’ in Gaza; 2/3 of Palestinians Support Oct. 7 Massacre: Poll

From Ian:

Bret Stephens: The U.S.-Backed Ceasefire Plan Ensures Hamas's Survival
In 1977, Ronald Reagan shared his thoughts on the Cold War: "My idea of American policy toward the Soviet Union is simple, and some would say simplistic. It is this: We win, and they lose." What is Joe Biden's theory of victory?

His style of governance is to manage threats, not defeat them. He believes Israel has a right to protect itself. But his previous insistence that Hamas has to be defeated has given way to a U.S.-backed ceasefire resolution that effectively ensures Hamas's survival.

He has vowed that Iran will never get nuclear weapons. But in the face of Iran's refusal to give international inspectors access to its nuclear facilities, the U.S. worked to soften a diplomatic censure.

Biden needs some wins - real, not cosmetic, ones. The Gaza ceasefire isn't it. It merely punts a problem that needs to be solved: Hamas's continued grip over the territory. It begins with a six-week pause in the fighting that might lead to the release of some Israeli hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

But it risks falling apart because no Israeli government will retreat from all of Gaza while Hamas retains power, and Hamas won't release all the hostages or meet the deal's other terms while Israeli forces remain in the territory.
Jake Wallis Simons: The West would rather stand with terrorists than Israel
Israel is hardly the only country that has enacted spectacular release missions in the past. In 1980, the CIA, with Canadian support, smuggled six diplomats out of Tehran while posing as a film crew researching a science fiction production. That same year, when gunmen took 26 hostages at the Iranian embassy in South Kensington, the SAS abseiled from the roof and enacted a daring rescue.

By contrast, recent decades have instead seen an increasing reliance on diplomatic jaw-jaw, often accompanied by hefty ransoms. Last year, the White House released £4.8 billion into Iranian coffers to secure the freedom of five Americans, raising the future incentive to £940 million per hostage. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was set free in 2022 after Downing Street had paid the Iranians £400 million, supposedly a debt that had been owed since the Seventies. You could hear the chuckles in Tehran.

It is true that the Israelis have often paid a heavy price in return for the release of captives: there was the deal in November to free 150 Palestinian convicts in return for 50 hostages. In 2011, 1,027 prisoners – among them a certain Yahya Sinwar, the future architect of October 7 – were controversially released in exchange for one kidnapped soldier, Gilad Shalit.

Israeli citizens are constantly asked what they can do for their country; this is what the state pledges in return. But Israelis also know that if the opportunity for direct rescue arises, the best commandos in the world will be standing by, no matter the risks.

Why have British and American forces not directly joined the IDF, either in supporting roles, as we did against Islamic State, or in the air or sea, or to participate in special forces operations? That would have sent a powerful message to our jihadi enemy that the West stands resolute, shoulder-to-shoulder in defence of our hostages and our people.

The RAF and American airforce magnificently helped thwart the Iranian missile assault in April. But what about British and American captives? What about destroying Hamas? When he announced the building of an American humanitarian pier, President Biden was at pains to point out that “no US boots will be on the ground”. Why? Victory over Hamas is squarely in our national interest. True collaboration could facilitate a swifter end to the conflict.

From the point of view of Hamas, a deal with the Biden administration would further strain US-Israeli relations. It would pile pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been accused of neglecting a hostage agreement. Terrorists know that the sowing of discord between allies is a powerful weapon. That Hamas places such a premium on doing so holds a lesson that we should urgently learn.

The hostages are international. Our enemy is the same. If jihadism is to be defeated, Western unity – and strength – is vital.
The International Community Must Back Israel's Objectives in Gaza
Last week, the Biden administration, along with 16 other countries, called for Israel to end the war in Gaza without completing its objectives and effectively to enter into a ceasefire agreement with Hamas that would pave the way to a Palestinian state, which would be the ultimate award for the horrific war crimes committed by Hamas in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

The joint statement not only insults Israel and undermines its efforts to achieve victory against Hamas in Gaza, but also emboldens the other enemies of Israel and the Western world who are watching what Israel does to eliminate the threat posed by Hamas. Ending the war with Hamas still governing Gaza would send the message that the crimes of Oct. 7 are allowed to go unpunished.

The U.S.-led Marshall Plan to rehabilitate Western Europe after WWII was conditioned on the total de-radicalization of German and Italian society. The international community should expect no less of Gaza.

The statement makes a moral equivalence between Israel and Hamas. It calls "on the leaders of Israel as well as Hamas to make whatever final compromises are necessary to close this deal." In other words, Israel and Hamas are fighting senselessly like two schoolboys in the playground. This is not a democratic ally of the West fighting a just war against a barbaric terrorist organization. It's just hotheads who are going at it and need to be held back by the cooler heads in the neighborhood.

This attitude by countries who are supposed to be Israel's friends and allies can only encourage Iran and its proxies to continue to pursue their policy of aggression against Israel and Israeli targets in the West.


Bari Weiss: Sheryl Sandberg: ‘I Was Wrong About Antisemitism’
How did this come to be? How is it that progressives are openly siding with Iranian-backed terrorist groups and against the country trying to stop them? And why did so many react to this evil, not with horror or outrage, but a collective shrug?

Those are some of the questions Sheryl Sandberg has spent the past eight months asking.

As Sheryl watched the horrors of October 7 unfold, she was sure that everyone would rally against these unspeakable atrocities—particularly after the reports of sexual violence and rape committed by Hamas started coming in. When she saw that people did not, in fact, rise against it—and worse, when people began to deny that it even happened—she was stunned. Sheryl was particularly shocked that many of her would-be allies—prominent feminists and progressives in this country and around the world—stayed silent.

This led her to make a documentary about the sexual violence of October 7 called Screams Before Silence. Sheryl described the film as the most important work of her life, which is saying something considering her substantial résumé.

When people think of Sheryl Sandberg, they think of a girlboss, corporate feminism, and coastal politics—wearing a power suit and campaigning for Hillary Clinton. She is, in other words, a normal Democrat. A normal liberal.

But as major parts of the left side against Israel, and downplay or ignore or actually foment antisemitism, a lot of people who consider themselves normal liberals are asking themselves: What happened to liberalism?

The position that Sheryl finds herself in is relatable to many Americans, people who feel betwixt and between in a post–October 7 world where the very people they thought were their friends are proving themselves to be just the opposite.

On today’s episode of Honestly, Sheryl talks about this very fraught moment we are living in. She talks about her film, the silence from so many women’s organizations and feminists, the denialism, how antisemitism is thriving in America, her changing Jewish identity, whether she feels politically homeless, and much, much more.


The inside story of Israel’s dramatic Gaza hostage rescue
On 12 May, Israel received intelligence about the location of four hostages in the Nuseirat refugee camp area in the Gaza Strip. From that day on, every branch of Israeli intelligence was focused on the area 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to locate the exact location. A team of undercover ‘Mista’arvim’ (units that assimilate into local populations to gather intelligence) were sent there, mainly in the local market of Nuseirat.

Their role was not only to gather intelligence from locals but also to check information from the interrogations of captured terrorists. In addition, information was gathered by aerial observation and other sophisticated technological means.

After 19 days of intensive cooperative intelligence gathering work, the combined units managed to compile solid and accurate information about the location of the Israeli hostages. It was discovered that the hostages were being held in two separate buildings in the same area. Noa Argamani was held in the first floor of one and three other hostages were in another building, 800 metres away, on the third floor.

At the beginning of June, this information was brought to the War Cabinet, and the Chief of Staff of the IDF and head of the Shin Bet were asked to present a rescue plan. The intelligence was kept top secret. Even the other forces in Gaza, including senior commanders, were not informed about it. As the War Cabinet discussed options, the preparations and training for the operation began.

In order to finally verify the information and to prepare the ground for the operation, another team of undercover soldiers (including several women dressed in hijabs and long black dresses) was sent into the Nuseirat refugee camp. Pretending to be two Gazan families looking for a large house in Nuseirat, they arrived in two cheap-looking old cars loaded with domestic items characteristic of those families displaced in the Strip, such as mattresses and clothing identical to those of the locals.

When the residents of the Nuseirat camp asked the undercovers where they came from and what they were looking to do in Nuseirat, they replied that they had fled from Rafah due to "deadly shelling from the Israeli army", and decided to rent a house in the area. Then they pointed to the building where Noa Argamani was being held. They showed one of the locals a large amount of cash and offered to pay three times the going rate for rent. The local agreed to help and within three hours found a large house on the very street where Argamani was held. This was only 800 metres away from where the other three hostages were held.

A few days later, after settling into the house and getting to know the area, including shopping at the local market, and realising that they did not arouse suspicion, the undercovers began their mission: verifying the location where the hostages were held. They split into two teams. One team consisted of two commandos, a man dressed as a typical Gazan local and a woman dressed in a long black dress and hijab. They began marching down the street towards the ‘Al-Auda’ medical centre where, in a nearby residential building 200 metres from the hospital, Noa Argamani was held. The undercovers walked with complete confidence as if they were walking down a street in Tel Aviv. To add to their authenticity, they stopped from time to time at stalls along the sides of the street, showing interest in the products while complaining about the difficult situation in Gaza. This was done in fluent Arabic with a perfect Gazan accent. Behind them, walked four more undercover men, armed to give backup in case a ‘Fauda-like’ situation occurred (Fauda in Arabic means unexpected chaos).

The second team consisted of four female soldiers dressed as typical Arab women (one feigning being pregnant) carrying plastic bags full of food products and vegetables. They walked in two pairs (a young Muslim woman is not allowed to walk around alone) towards a nearby residential building, where, on the third floor, the three male hostages were held. Behind them walked four more undercover men armed to give them backup.

Meanwhile five other members of the undercover team stayed at the house to guard it and make sure the teams had not been exposed and that no nasty surprises would await them.


'Is my mother alive?': Noa Argamani's first moments out of Hamas captivity revealed
"We came to rescue you home; we are from the IDF." The Yamam soldiers involved in the Gaza hostage rescue tell of their daring operation, how they revealed their identity to Noa Argamani, and the combat that ensued against the terrorists guarding the hostages.

The heroes from 'Operation Arnon' maintained modesty, daring, and courage and did not hide in the shadows of the operations.

"We channel the fear into sharpness, courage, and excellence in completing the mission. The fact that Arnon Zamora was injured, in retrospect, turned the great joy that appeared with the rescue of the hostages into a deep sorrow for the loss of a dear friend and a professional commander."

"His injury in the field did not affect morale. On that front, we neutralize emotions and act technically; it only affects the withdrawal and finishing the operation because it is more difficult to withdraw from an operation with a wounded person," Superintendent A., E., a team commander in the unit, and Y., a combat soldier, all told Maariv. Receiving precise information from the Shin Bet, along other support

The three, who worked in Gaza to free the four hostages on two different fronts, do not forget for a moment the cooperation with the Shin Bet, including the precise intelligence information they received that allowed the planners of the operation and those who sat in the command and control center, to schedule simultaneous entry into two different buildings.

They also remember the moments of the break-in to the apartments where the hostages were held, the first seconds alongside the confusion and anxiety of the hostages, the first words they heard from Noa Argamani: "Is my mother alive, are you sure my mother is alive?"

Other harrowing moments include the rescue under massive fire, the fatal injury of Superintendent Arnon Zamora, and the fact they don't have the time to relax and are ready for the next mission. They don't forget that there are 120 more hostages who are eagerly waiting for them to carry out another rescue mission, knowing clearly that they could very well be the next fallen of the unit.


Netanyahu to hostage rescue unit: Your bravery will allow us to overcome our enemies
Israel will overcome its enemies on the Jewish state’s southern and northern borders and return residents to their homes in evacuated communities, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday.

During a joint visit with National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to the Israel Border Police’s Yamam National Counter-Terrorism Unit, Netanyahu hailed the operation that freed four hostages from captivity on June 8.

“You caused an entire nation to stand tall, and you showed that we are willing to do everything to rescue our hostages,” he said. “The same bravery, the same determination, the same devotion to the mission will allow us to overcome our enemies in the south and the north.

“I come here to say on behalf of the entire people, and also on behalf of all of Israel’s friends worldwide, I come to tell you: Well done,” he said. “Congratulations on your bravery; congratulations on what you did.”

In addition to Ben-Gvir, Netanyahu’s military secretary, Maj.-Gen. Roman Gofman, Israel Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai and Israel Border Police commander Asst.-Ch. Barik Yitzhak also participated in the visit.


Smotrich to transfer $35m in PA funds to families of terror victims
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has ordered his office to deduct 130 million shekels ($35 million) from tax and tariff revenue collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority and redirect it to families of terror victims.

The monies will be transferred to 28 families who have won lawsuits against the P.A. over its financial backing of attacks against Israelis, Smotrich, who is also the leader of the Religious Zionism Party, told Arutz 7 on Thursday.

“This week, I signed an order to transfer millions of shekels to the families of terror victims,” he said. “The Palestinian Authority continues to tell the world that it is on the verge of collapse and continues paying the families of terrorists and transferring money for terror.

“The minimum of the minimum [we can do] is to transfer compensation to the families of terror victims from these funds,” added the minister.

Smotrich’s decision puts an end to years of delay on the part of the government. In some cases, families had been waiting to receive the funds for 20 years, despite Israeli courts ruling that the Palestinian Authority was responsible for their loved ones’ deaths.

The newspaper noted that in addition to the 28 families expected to be compensated this week, hundreds of other lawsuits are still pending.

Jerusalem collects 600 million-700 million shekels ($161 million-$188 million) in tax funds on behalf of the P.A. every month under the terms of the Oslo Accords, signed with the PLO in the 1990s.
‘For the first time since Oct. 7, I can breathe’
“I am very cheerful and full of joy. For the first time since October 7, I feel that I can breathe again,” Aviram Meir, the uncle of Almog Meir Jan, told JNS on Thursday.

Meir Jan was rescued during “Operation Arnon” last Saturday along with Noa Argamani, Andrey Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv from two separate locations in Nuseirat Camp in the central Gaza Strip.

Hamas terrorists abducted al four from the Supernova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im during the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre.

“We thank all the decision-makers, the planners and the soldiers who conducted this operation. We will meet with some of them in the coming weeks,” Aviram Meir said.

“We face a lot of challenges, good challenges. We are trying to do our best to help Almog return to his life,” Aviram said. “We hope we won’t make too many mistakes.”

Yossi Jan, Almog’s father, died hours before his son was rescued.

Officials arrived at Yossi’s home in Kfar Saba, northeast of Tel Aviv, around noon to inform him of his son’s rescue, only to find him unconscious. Magen David Adom paramedics called to the scene determined his death. Its cause remains under investigation.

“Before he was kidnapped, Almog had a relationship with his father. He visited him often and was in touch with him,” Aviram said.
Rescued hostages suffered ‘severe psychological abuse’
While Israeli security officials have requested that the four hostages rescued by the Israel Defense Forces on Saturday keep their experiences secret, some details have nevertheless emerged.

The four—Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 40—appeared to be in good health when first seen on camera on June 8, the day of the raid.

But two days later, Dr. Itay Pessach of the Sheba Medical Center revealed they were in a “state of severe malnutrition.”

“They all suffered from all types of abuse—physical abuse and mental abuse, and for a long time,” he said. “We’ve heard stories that are beyond anything you can imagine.”

Details will take time to come out. More than a month passed before the full picture emerged of what hostages had endured following an earlier prisoner swap. It turned out they suffered torture, sexual abuse, lack of food and medical care.

In a Wednesday interview with Channel 12, Kozlov’s girlfriend, Jennifer Master, revealed that Kozlov couldn’t join the interview due to his weakened condition.

“He blames himself for being kidnapped…He just came back a fragile and different person,” she said.

“They were subjected to very, very severe psychological abuse, more than the physical,” she added.

As an example, terrorists would tell him that his government wanted him dead, she said.
Andrey Kozlov's Parents Discuss His Ordeal in Hamas Captivity
Following the heroic rescue of their son, Andrey Kozlov, his parents, Evgeniia and Mikhail, shared some details about his ordeal in captivity. Andrey was abducted on Oct. 7 from the Nova music festival in Kibbutz Re'im, where he worked as a security guard. He was rescued Saturday, after 246 days in Hamas captivity.

Evgeniia said, "I felt real pain from one of the sentences Andrey said: 'We experienced things that I will never tell you.' He told us that for two months, they were tied up by their hands and feet. In the first weeks, their hands were tied behind their backs, and after they started tying their hands in front, they joked it was a gift from the terrorists."

"June 8 has become a day of celebration. All Israelis want to share in our happiness, as if we've become part of them, part of their family. They are all so happy for us. When we're on the street and Andrey is with us, people shout from their cars, 'We're so glad you're back! We're so happy for you!' They shout this to him, to us. It's amazing."

"We want to show how grateful we are to the IDF and all the security forces who conducted this heroic operation....[Andrey] said that when he held onto the soldiers' uniforms or hands, he felt he was beside true heroes. For him, they are superheroes who fear nothing."

"I also want to extend my condolences to the family of Chief Inspector Arnon Zamora, who fell in the line of duty. To his mother and father, his wife and his young children - I am not one to cry often, but when I learned that Andrey was saved and the next day found out that Arnon had fallen in battle, I cried deeply....Their son is a superhero; his profession was to be a hero, and I have never known people like them, but they are the reason Israel stands. They are the national pride of Israel."


Daughter of 'Palestine Chronicle' Editor Works for American Muslims for Palestine
The daughter of Palestine Chronicle editor in chief Ramzy Baroud works for American Muslims for Palestine, a leading anti-Israel group that has defended Hamas terrorism and spearheaded anti-Semitic campus protests—activism that prompted Israeli terror victims to sue the group for providing "substantial assistance to Hamas."

The Palestine Chronicle, a little-known nonprofit based in Washington state, was thrust into the spotlight this week after Israel revealed that one of its writers, Abdallah Aljamal, held hostages on Hamas’s behalf. Its editor in chief, Baroud, is a U.S.-based writer who defended Hamas in the wake of Oct. 7 and worked for the Qatari-funded Al Jazeera outlet. He also has bylines on two Iranian regime-controlled websites that the U.S. government says were run by Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, the Washington Free Beacon first reported Monday.

Baroud's daughter has followed in those pro-Hamas footsteps, a Free Beacon analysis found.

Zarefah Baroud works as a digital media associate for American Muslims for Palestine, a leading anti-Israel group. Its executive director, Osama Abuirshaid, visited anti-Israel encampments at Columbia University and George Washington University to encourage participants, while its founder and chairman, University of California, Berkeley professor Hatem Bazian, has argued that it's "about time we had an intifada in this country" and called for Israel's dismantling.

The group—alongside Students for Justice in Palestine, another anti-Israel organization Bazian founded—is also being sued by Israeli terror victims who allege the organizations provide "substantial assistance to Hamas and its affiliates" and work "as collaborators and propagandists for Hamas."

The Baroud family’s vast connections to leading anti-Israel groups and publications known to traffic in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories is likely to increase pressure on the Palestine Chronicle as lawmakers and outside legal groups begin to examine its tax-exempt status in the state of Washington, as well as its nonprofit parent group, the People Media Project.

Already, House Ways and Means Committee chairman Jason Smith (R., Mo.) has called for the People Media Project to be stripped of its privileged tax status. Rep. Kevin Hern (R., Okla.), chair of the Republican Study Committee, Congress’s largest GOP caucus, said on Tuesday, "The Palestine Chronicle should not receive tax benefits if one of its so-called journalists, likely a member of Hamas, held Israelis hostage."
How Palestinian terrorists train ‘journalists’ in Gaza
In November 2012, in Gaza City, officials from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine welcomed an “elite group of young women and men” to celebrate them passing a course on “journalistic investigation, photojournalism, the art of public speaking, and new media.” At the ceremony, according to the PFLP, attendees stood for a moment of silence “to mourn the souls of the martyrs.”

They were handed certificates and “shields of appreciation” from Gaza Bureau Chief Wael al Dahdouh of the Qatari-backed Al Jazeera website, the PFLP said of the Nov. 8 event. One person in attendance, the U.S.-designated terrorist faction said, was Samar Abu Elouf — a freelance photographer for the New York Times.

As the war continues in the Middle East between Israel and Iranian-backed terrorist organizations, including Hamas, the role of media covering the conflict, and in some cases being linked to it, has come front and center. Over the weekend, Israeli authorities said three hostages were held captive in the home of Abdallah Aljamal, who wrote articles for Al Jazeera and Palestine Chronicle, a website based in the United States that is linked to the murderous regime in Iran. Aljamal was killed on June 8 by the Israeli military as it rescued the hostages. Some Gaza-based freelancers, according to reports, appear to have been embedded with Hamas as it attacked Israel on Oct. 7 of last year. And outlets in the U.S., including CNN, the New York Times, and the Washington Post, continue to come under sharp scrutiny for coverage that critics say shows anti-Israel bias and carries water for terrorists — including by taking the word of Hamas on fatality statistics.

But Palestinian terrorist factions have also long worked to develop their own infrastructure to train media in Gaza. For many years, they’ve touted how they helped lead and organize “reporting” courses in Gaza, a fact that comes as no surprise to media analyst Eitan Fischberger.

“Media manipulation is a crucial part of the terror groups’ propaganda war against Israel,” said Fischberger, who is based in Jerusalem and recently helped unearth viral information about Aljamal, who was a Hamas spokesman. “And what better way to manipulate public opinion than to become the media itself?”

For instance, at a 2017 “TV editing course,” Hamas hosted “10 regional media professionals and specialists in television arts and media works” alongside A. Ibrahim Saima in Gaza from the Hamas-run Al Aqsa TV.

In 2015, Hamas ran a course called “Skills for Drafting Press Reports” for 25 Palestinian reporters and students. The lecturers were a “distinguished media team that included three of the most prominent media professionals working in a number of print, electronic, and audio media outlets in Gaza.” In 2015, the Hamas media office similarly touted in Palestinian media how it held a training course for “female media professionals” to learn “how to deal with the media and the rules of news coverage.”
David Collier: Durham University should hang its head in shame
What should have been a celebration of free speech during an evening of rigorous debate at Durham University, turned into a tale of cowardice, intimidation, abandonment, tears, and fear. Rather than stand up to masked anti-Israel thuggery, Durham University *chose* to abandon its own students – leaving them caged and fearful inside the debate hall – as a mob banged on doors, hurled vicious abuse, and called for the violent destruction of Israel.

(Note: two of the speeches that were intended to be given on the night – along with legal discussion of the incident – have (thanks to UKLFI) been made available for online viewing).

Intro – the debate and the proposition
A few months ago, I was asked if I would be prepared to travel to Durham to take part in a student union debate. I admit to being sceptical. My experience with the university space is not great. Previous debates I had scheduled were cancelled when opposing speakers pulled out. I was literally on a train to Glasgow for a debate at the University of Strathclyde when I was told the opposing speaker had decided to withdraw.

Cowards all – and so for a while I gave up trying.

But my conversations with the students at Durham could not have been more convincing. These are good people, and this was Durham Union Society, with a long history of promoting free speech behind them. I was assured the event would go ahead. In addition, I also knew of Chris Doyle – the head of the opposing team. We may disagree about almost everything, but he is not a cowardly, blind activist sort.

And the clinching argument? I would not be going alone. I would be standing alongside the UKLFI’s force of nature Natasha Hausdorff, and former MEP, Lance Forman. How could I possibly resist?

The Durham University encampment
I had given a talk at Leeds Leads Against Antisemitism on the Thursday, and so travelled to Durham alone as my teammates made their way up from London. Upon arrival – as I do – I went to have a look at the local anti-Israel crowd. In this case the Durham University encampment – a sad little gathering of mostly unoccupied tents sitting on Palace Green – directly outside the debating chamber .

The encampment began on May 10, The university posted an official response in which (unbelievably) they claimed they would leave it standing because they ‘robustly uphold’ the right to free speech. From what we know following the cowardly cancellation of our debate – that is simply a risible claim. As a sign of the total decay of modern academia, 260 members of the Durham faculty signed an online statement of support with the encampment.

It is notable that not one of these 260 staff appears to have since spoken publicly against the actions of the encampment that led to the denial of free speech on campus, and the intimidation and abuse of Durham students. The cancer has clearly spread far at Durham University.

As a sign of how bad the faculty has fallen down the rabbit hole. After the event was cancelled – Alice Nah – Associate Professor, Sociology and Co-Director of the Human Rights and Public Law Centre at Durham did not condemn the denial of free speech – nor the abuse some Durham students received. Instead she stood in solidarity with the masked thugs, reposting their post-action statement.

Encampments are not ‘random’ acts of protest by students. The influence almost always comes from outside – especially on a campus like Durham with little historic activity. This particular group ‘Durham Students for Palestine’ did not even exist until it was created to set up the camp. The accounts on Twitter, Insta and TikTok – all opened in May 2024. These are highly organised national networks chiefly put together by members of extremist Islamist and Marxist groups – who then recruit local naive virtue signallers to stand alongside them. They have operational manuals, local logistical assistance – and are immediately supported by local hard left groups:
The Terrible Rise of Antisemitism in the West: A Wake-Up Call
In a grotesque exercise of projection, the far left accuses Jews of the very sins it harbors. It speaks of intolerance while silencing Jewish voices, claims to fight racism while perpetuating age-old antisemitic tropes, and preaches inclusion while excluding Jews from the social justice narrative. This projection serves to deflect from the deeper rot within society. By casting out the Jew, society attempts to exorcise its own demons, hoping that by purging the ‘other’, it can cleanse itself of its inherent flaws.

This dynamic is evident in the way antisemitism often leads to broader societal exclusion and division. Other minorities and marginalized groups frequently find themselves lumped into the same narrative of exclusion and dehumanization. The rot that begins with antisemitism rarely stops there; it spreads, corroding the very fabric of societal cohesion and mutual respect.

As Sam Harris has often pointed out, antisemitism is a unique form of bigotry because it combines the basest forms of envy and xenophobia with a perverse ideological fervor. The Left’s current stance, cloaked in the language of justice and human rights, is a grotesque inversion of these values. It is an intellectual dishonesty that ignores the broader threat posed by radical Islam, which views the West and the Christian world as its ultimate enemies.

The narrative that excuses radical Islam’s ferocity against Jews is dangerously shortsighted. It fails to recognize that the same ideology vehemently opposes the West. Radical Islamists view the world through a binary lens: one either submits to their interpretation of Islam or faces annihilation. The Left’s rejection of Judeo-Christian values is irrelevant to radicals who are committed to their vision of global Jihad. This ideological framework leaves no room for the nuanced understandings of justice and human rights that the Left claims to champion.

In the face of such ‘othering,’ we must show moral fortitude and strength. To appease or bow before pressure will only precipitate further violence. History teaches us that turning the proverbial cheek in the face of such profound hatred serves only to empower the mad, the ugly, and the furious among those hateful crowds. Moral clarity demands that we stand resolute, recognizing that appeasement is a form of complicity.

This resurgence of antisemitism is not just a Jewish problem; it is a societal problem. When hatred against one group is normalized, it inevitably spreads to others. The current wave of antisemitism signals a broader cultural and moral crisis. It is an attempt by society to exorcise its demons by casting out the Jews, hoping to deflect from the rot that has set in.

The Left’s dalliance with antisemitism is particularly dangerous because it cloaks itself in the language of justice while perpetuating the very evils it claims to oppose. By embracing antisemitic tropes and excusing the violence of groups like Hamas, the Left is betraying its own principles and undermining the cause of genuine human rights.

We must confront this resurgent antisemitism with resolve and moral clarity. To fight this scourge, we must first acknowledge it and name it for what it is. History has shown us that societies indulging in antisemitism ultimately crumble. The ancient and insidious poison of antisemitism must be countered with an unyielding commitment to justice and truth. Only by doing so can we hope to preserve the values that make us truly human and ensure that the dark forces of hatred do not prevail.
I Went to Cover a Protest. I Was Surrounded by a Mob.
Last night, I went to New York City’s Union Square to cover a rally against the “massacre in the Nuseirat Camp regions of Gaza.” That’s what pro-Palestinian protesters are calling the operation that freed four Israeli hostages and killed at least a hundred Palestinians—a mix of Hamas combatants and civilians caught in the chaos as Hamas fired RPGs at the hostages. All around the country, similar anti-Israel protests sprung up to rouse those furious at the hostage rescue operation.

I had been at this particular protest in Union Square for about 45 minutes, watching and taking notes, when a man wearing a neck gaiter, sunglasses, and a Hezbollah flag fashioned as a headscarf suddenly pointed at me. “She’s a Zionist!” he shouted. “Get her out of here.”

Immediately, dozens of protesters swarmed me, hoisting their keffiyehs high in the sky and boxing me in to block my view. Many of them were completely shrouded in keffiyehs and masks. A chorus of voices surrounded me, shoving me. “Get the fuck out,” a woman yelled into my ear. “The people are saying we don’t want you here.” “Get the fuck out,” a woman yelled into my ear. “The people are saying we don’t want you here.” (The Free Press)

A man holding a sign that declared “Long Live October 7th” shouted over the crowd, “Get in her face, make her leave.”

One man fired an air horn into my ears. A girl lurched at my notebook, grabbing it and ripping apart the metal spine. “You’re not writing anything down,” she said, tearing the pages and throwing them into the air. “Get the fuck out—get the fuck out!”

In the context of these protests across the country this week, this was very mild. For anyone visibly Jewish who happens to be near one of these mobs, or anyone like a security guard trying to keep peace, the interactions are often much more harrowing. Here are a few data points of the escalation over the last 24 hours.

Yesterday at UCLA, a crowd of pro-Palestine protesters, most with makeshift shields, swarmed a security guard. As he tried to flee, one smacked him over the head with a smartphone, causing him to bleed.
Later that night on campus, a masked protester berated UCLA Chabad Rabbi Dovid Gurevich, calling him a “pedophile rabbi,” adding that “Israel is full of pedophiles.” When Gurevich asked why he wouldn’t reveal his face, the man replied, “If I show my face, I’ll have to fucking kill you.” Other protesters shouted at the rabbi and others: “Go back to Poland or Ukraine,” “Go back to Europe,” and “Death to fucking Zionism.” Twenty-five protesters were arrested.
More scenes were captured on video in Union Square in New York. One man yelled at a small crowd that had come out to support Israel, “I wish Hitler was still here, he would’ve wiped all you out.”
On Wall Street, the protest mob chanted “Israel go to hell” outside an exhibition memorializing the Nova Music Festival, where Hamas murdered 364 innocents. As the crowd took its “citywide day of rage for Gaza” downtown via the subway, one protester proclaimed on the train, “Raise your hands if you’re a Zionist. This is your chance to get out.”

Anti-Israel protesters, who have been marching regularly in major cities across the world ever since Hamas invaded Israel on October 7, killing more than 1,200 civilians, claim they are for peace. And yet, they find creative ways to justify the violence of Hamas. I’ve been to 18 of these protests so far, and it’s not unusual to spot the symbols of terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah, and even Nazi swastikas.


Blinken: Hamas response to hostage proposal is unworkable
Hamas’s official response to Israel’s hostages-for-ceasefire proposal included modifications that are not workable, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday.

“Hamas has proposed numerous changes to the proposal that was on the table. … Some of the changes are workable, some are not,” Blinken said in a press conference alongside Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Doha.

“A deal was on the table that was virtually identical to the proposal that Hamas made on May 6—a deal that the entire world is behind, a deal Israel has accepted. Hamas could have answered with a single word: ‘Yes,’” the secretary said.

“Instead, Hamas waited nearly two weeks and then proposed more changes, a number of which go beyond positions that had previously taken and accepted,” added the top American diplomat, who was in Israel for a two-day visit earlier this week.

“As a result, the war Hamas started on October 7 with its barbaric attack on Israel and on Israeli civilians will go on. More people will suffer, more Palestinians will suffer, more Israelis will suffer.”

Blinken nevertheless said that “in the days ahead, we are going to continue to push on an urgent basis with our partners, with Qatar with Egypt, to try to close this deal. Because we know it’s in the interests of Israelis, Palestinians, the region, indeed the entire world.”
What are Hamas’s Changes to the U.S. Ceasefire Proposal?
Hamas says its requested changes to the U.S. ceasefire proposal are minimal, as the U.S. ups the pressure on the terrorist organization to accept the deal on the table or else be blamed for a situation of a stalemate.

In an interview with Reuters, a Hamas leader called the amendments to the ceasefire plan “not significant,” which appear to be similar to issues raised in previous rounds of negotiations.

The demands include having three “interconnected and continuous phases” of the ceasefire, including a complete IDF withdrawal from the Gaza Strip within the first phase.

The Hamas leader also told Reuters that they demand to be the ones to choose the list of one hundred Palestinian prisoners serving long sentences for terrorism crimes who would be released from Israeli jail. In addition, the Hamas leader says the Israeli blockade on Gaza would have to be lifted and allow the free movement of people and goods into the enclave.

The demands were echoed by Taher Al-Nono, the media advisor to Hamas’s political chief Ismail Haniyeh. Speaking to Al Jazeera by phone, Al-Nono emphasized the importance of having three continuous phases to the ceasefire deal in order to prevent Israel from resuming its strikes on Gaza. Al-Nono said the IDF would have to withdraw from the Philadelphi axis and the Rafah crossing as part of the agreement.

Haniyeh’s advisor also revealed that Hamas had requested additional guarantors be added to the deal, such as Turkey, Russia, China and the UN. Al-Nono addressed the reports that the U.S. was attempting to strike a unilateral hostage release deal to free five captives who hold American citizenship, which Al-Nono denied. He told Al Jazeera, “We have not received anything official from the American government.”


SHOCKING: Biden May Negotiate For Hostages Behind Israel's Back | Caroline Glick In-Focus
The Biden administration floats the idea that they may negotiate with Hamas for the US hostages behind Israel's back and pushes a Security Council Resolution that will result in Israel's defeat; the North gets bombarded with Hezbollah missiles over Shavuot and Caroline outlines what victory looks like.




Two-Thirds of Palestinians Support Oct. 7 Massacre: Poll
Two-thirds of Palestinians support Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel, according to a poll released Wednesday by a survey organization based in the West Bank.

The poll, conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, found that 67 percent of Palestinian respondents supported Hamas’s decision to attack Israel on Oct. 7. Support is down 4 points from the last poll the center conducted in March. Among residents of the West Bank, 73 percent said the attacks were the correct decision, up 2 percentage points from March. Fifty-seven percent of Gaza residents supported the attacks, down 14 percentage points from March.

The center said support for the Oct. 7 attacks in the poll does not necessarily mean an endorsement of specific atrocities. More than 90 percent of respondents did not believe Hamas committed any atrocities in the terrorist group's attacks, which killed some 1,200 Israelis, including women and children. Only 10 percent of Palestinians said they've seen footage of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, according to the researchers. Eighty percent of Palestinians believe the attacks brought international attention to the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Sixty-seven percent of respondents expect Hamas to win, up 3 points from March but down 3 points since December. Ten percent more West Bank residents believe Hamas will win than in March. Only 48 percent of Gazans, however, expect Hamas to win, down 8 percentage points compared with March. Fifty-eight percent of respondents expected Israel and Hamas to reach a ceasefire deal within the next few days.


Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib: Israel Killed 31 of My Family Members in Gaza. The Pro-Palestine Movement Isn’t Helping.
In 2008, during a San Francisco rally in support of Gaza, I was approached by a news reporter who asked for an interview. She wanted my thoughts on rockets being fired at Israeli targets. I made it very clear that I didn’t support Hamas, and that I believed the random violence against Israeli citizens was abhorrent and wrong. After the interview, I was taken aside by one of the rally’s organizers, who chastised me.

“Never talk about the rockets,” she told me. “You always pivot. If they ask you about Hamas, bring it back to the Israeli occupation.”

“But my family is there,” I insisted. “I don’t think either side should be killing civilians with rockets.”

“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “Stay on message.”

The biggest blow to my faith in the hard-line pro-Palestine movement came in 2015, when I tried (and ultimately failed) to lobby for a Gaza airport. An internationally run, Israeli-approved airfield in Gaza wasn’t going to end the fighting, but it might give people the option to go in and out of Gaza and provide some freedom of movement for Palestinians trapped by the blockade in the Strip.

I had detailed plans: the location, flight plans, the radar coverage, destinations, aircraft type, security, and robust outreach to all relevant parties. I was having productive talks with senior Israeli government officials and the Israel Defense Forces, and used intermediaries to obtain approval and support from the Palestinian leadership. The project received immense interest from the people of Gaza. What I didn’t have was the support of pro-Palestine activists.

They opposed my efforts, because cooperation would just make Israel “look good, if only parts of the blockade are addressed and not all of it.” That wasn’t acceptable to them, even if the Palestinian people stood to benefit. Some believed that with freedom of movement, many Gazans would choose to leave, thereby fulfilling the “Zionist plot” to empty the Strip of its inhabitants, essentially arguing that imprisoned Gazans were better for the greater cause.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Trapping people in Gaza was okay because that made it easier to “expose” and attack Israel? What kind of a cause relies on forcing its people to stay in perpetual misery so that Western activists can have an easier time condemning their adversaries?

Their totalitarian approach to solving the crisis left no room for nuance. “We don’t want partial solutions,” they’d tell me. “We want it all. No blockade, no occupation, no nothing.” It frustrated me, but I didn’t walk away. I still thought I could have a positive influence on the movement. I just had to make the dogmatic activists understand.

Things got much worse after October 7. Those who claimed to be in solidarity with Gaza didn’t just avoid condemning Hamas’s horrendous attack—they dismissed it, claiming the extent of the atrocities committed against Israeli civilians was being exaggerated, or outright invented. When I tried to argue that we shouldn’t look the other way, they scolded me. Focus on what matters, they told me.

That was a turning point for me. I needed to walk away from the pro-Palestine groups that were my community, my second family. Right now, I am not engaged with any of these groups.

It often feels like Palestinians have become pawns for activists, our plight making it easier to criticize Israel. But it’s my family in the crosshairs. My brother and surviving family members are still over there, along with many people I grew up with. This is personal to me.


UN reports accuse Israel of ‘extermination,’ crimes against humanity; Hamas of war crimes
Both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes in the early stages of the Gaza war, a UN inquiry alleged on Wednesday, saying Israel’s actions also constituted crimes against humanity because of the immense civilian losses, and that they included acts of “extermination.”

The findings were from two parallel reports by “independent experts,” one focusing on the October 7 Hamas assault on Israel and another on Israel’s military response, published by the UN Commission of Inquiry (COI). The commission has an unusually broad and open-ended mandate to collect evidence and identify perpetrators of alleged international crimes committed in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Regarding Israel’s actions, the commission alleged “a widespread or systematic attack directed against the civilian population in Gaza.”

“The commission found that the crimes against humanity of extermination; murder; gender persecution targeting Palestinian men and boys; forcible transfer; and torture and inhuman and cruel treatment were committed,” it added.

Israel bitterly rejected the allegations and accused the commission of systematic bias.


Francesca Albanese runs int'l network targeting Israel, UN Watch charges
UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese has been operating an international network entitled the “Global Network on Question of Palestine” (GNQP) aimed at targeting Israel, according to a UN Watch report earlier this week.

Via GNQP, Albanese has been coordinating legal campaigns against Israel, justifying Hamas's actions, and advocating for the funding of UNRWA, the report stated.

The report found that the network's members include some 100 people and NGOs, such as UN, UNRWA, Palestinian, and PLO officials, along with pro-Palestinian academics and activists.

Among the institutions listed as members by the reports are the Palestinian Return Center, which Israel has deemed an “unlawful association” due to its Hamas affiliation, according to NGO Monitor, and the Ramallah-based Palestinian non-governmental human rights organization Al-Haq.

The UN Watch report maintained that to encourage UNRWA funding, network members were told to utilize “overtly racist messaging” to raise the subjects of “illegal immigration” in Europe, specifically when speaking with right-wing and anti-immigration governmental officials. According to the report, this would fuel the fear that failing to fund UNWRA would signify that “millions of Palestinians are forced to flee the Middle East."

The report also found that one of the network members is Kjersti G. Berg, who is also a member of the CMI group, which took part in the independent review of UNRWA. According to UN Watch, Berg partakes in the majority of CMI’s UNRWA publications. She claims that the accusations that the organization’s educational program incites to violence are false and advocates for UNRWA funding.


IDF destroys 800-meter-long Gaza tunnel one kilometer from border
IDF troops of the 99th Division, along with combat engineering forces, destroyed an 800-meter-long, 30-meter-deep tunnel area of the central Gaza corridor, one kilometer from the border with Israel, the Israeli military announced on Thursday afternoon.

The IDF noted that the tunnel included some underground operational facilities and was utilized by Hamas terrorists. IDF troops kill terrorists, destroy terror infrastructure

In addition, in the past week, forces of the Carmeli and 679th Brigades completed Zeitoun and Sabra neighborhoods in the Strip. During the operation, dozens of terrorists were killed, and some 50 terror infrastructures were demolished.

Forces of the 3rd and 8th Brigades carried out activities in the central Gaza corridor.

The troops of the Carmeli Brigade discovered and destroyed launch sites in the Zeitun area, which were rockets ready for fire toward Israel. Troops in conjunction with the Israel Air Force (IAF) demolished a rocket and weapons warehouse belonging to Hamas.
IDF Says It Did Not Strike Humanitarian Area in Southern Gaza
In the midst of escalating tensions in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have refuted claims of conducting airstrikes in the designated “humanitarian zone” of al-Mawasi, situated along the southern coast of Gaza.

This denial comes in response to reports indicating that the IDF had launched strikes in the area, which had been previously labeled as a safe haven, accessible by land, sea, and air.

In a brief statement issued by the IDF, they stated, “Contrary to reports from the last few hours, no attack by the IDF took place in the humanitarian area in al-Mawasi.” The statement aims to quell speculation surrounding the alleged airstrikes and reaffirm the IDF’s commitment to adherence to designated humanitarian zones.

The controversy emerged following reports from the official Palestinian news agency WAFA, which detailed the false claims of a air, land, and sea bombardment of al-Mawasi by the IDF.

The designation of al-Mawasi as a humanitarian zone was intended to provide a semblance of safety and security for residents amidst the conflict in Gaza.


Two wounded as Hezbollah fires 150 rockets at northern Israel
Two Israelis sustained light wounds on Thursday when rocket shrapnel fell in Katzrin, the largest Israeli community in the Golan Heights.

The victims, who were both said to be in their 20s, were treated by Magen David Adom medics and paramedics before being evacuated to Ziv Medical Center in the nearby city of Safed, the medical emergency response group tweeted.

Hezbollah terrorists in Southern Lebanon fired more than 100 rockets in the latest barrage, with direct hits and major damage reported across the Golan and Galilee.

Air-raid sirens blared incessantly in northern Israel on Thursday, warning of incoming rocket and missile fire, as well as suicide drones.

As of 3 p.m., seven “suspicious aerial targets” had attempted to penetrate the country’s skies, four of which were intercepted by air-defense systems, the IDF said.

Amid the escalation, schools in the Golan Heights and Safed were closed, with institutions in the latter city forced to stop matriculation exams as students rushed to shelter.

The rocket barrages sparked new fires throughout the northern region, including in Safed, with the Israel Fire and Rescue Services reporting blazes in at least 10 locations.
Senior Hezbollah official eliminated in strike in south Lebanon, at least 14 injured
A senior Hezbollah official was eliminated in a strike in the village of Jennata in southern Lebanon's Tyre District Thursday night, Saudi news sources Al-Arabiya and Al-Hadath reported.

Other than the Hezbollah official, another person was killed and at least 14 were wounded in the strike, which was attributed to Israel, according to multiple reports.

Al-Hadath reported that those wounded were evacuated to nearby hospitals, and that the injured were in buildings adjacent to the building that was targeted.

The official was killed in a southern command base of the terrorist organization, Maariv reported. The two-story building collapsed and was completely destroyed. Missile was reportedly launched from the sea

It was also reported in Lebanon that the attack was carried out using a missile that was launched from the sea and targeted the building, which caused its complete collapse.

Residents of the village said that there was "enormous destruction" at the scene, according to Maariv. The town is about 20 kilometers from the Israeli border.


IDF uses 15th-century weapon against Hezbollah
IDF reserve solders have been recorded using a trebuchet, a type of catapult once used as a medieval siege weapon, to ignite bushes and dry vegetation near IDF posts on the northern border.

This tactic, which went viral on Thursday after the soldiers apparently shared it on social media, is aimed at preventing Hezbollah fighters from using the dense foliage as cover in the area.

The thickets close to the border fence make it difficult for soldiers to locate Hezbollah cells hiding in the region. At the start of the conflict, reserve soldiers attempted to use Molotov cocktails to set the bushes on fire, thereby exposing the area so that the cells would have no place to hide. Lebanese sources have also reported the use of phosphorus bombs, which cause fires, and incendiary drones.

To address the issue without relying on valuable artillery, the reserve soldiers decided to assemble a trebuchet, a device that hurls stones and burning objects over distances of several hundred meters. This ancient weapon was used in Europe until the 15th century.


Call Me Back PodCast: Haviv Unplugged!
Hosted by Dan Senor
In recent days, there have been a lot of war-related developments that have taken place in Israel and outside of Israel. So it was good that wr had the opportunity to catch up with Haviv Rettig Gur as Shavuot came to a close in Israel. In this episode, we wound up having a spirited conversation about:

I.The mood in Israel days after after Operation Arnon, and also why the day after the successful resuce operation we saw Benny Gantz’s long anticipated exit from the unity government;
II. The ultra orthodox or ‘Haredi’ IDF exemption bill that passed in the Knesset; and
III. Hamas’s rejection (yet again) of Israel’s ceasefire proposal.
Ruthie Blum and Mark Regev: Has the Hostage Rescue Changed Anything? | Israel Undiplomatic
Did the stunning Israeli operation that rescued 4 hostages from Hamas captivity change the trajectory of the war? Has it unified Israelis around Netanyahu? Should this affect if the Israeli government should consider hostage & ceasefire deals being offered by Antony Blinken, Biden or Hamas?

Ruthie and Mark cover the heroic rescue operation, the uncertain hostage deal and unending Hezbollah attacks in the North.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Reactions to the Hostage Rescue Operation
07:49 The Divide Between Israeli Celebration and International Criticism
15:21 The Escalating Tensions in the North and the Importance of Israeli Strength


National Review: A Daring Rescue
Today on The Editors, Rich, Charlie, Noah, and Michael discuss the absurd media reactions to the recent rescue of Israeli hostages, the election results in Europe, and more news around Justice Alito and his wife.
Jonny Gould's Jewish State: Iran's War on Israel: Hostage stories and reaction plus the latest with Jonny Gould
Jonny is back with the latest on Iran's war on Israel including the moment the IDF came to rescue the "diamonds", the code word for the hostages incarcerated in Gazan hell since October 7th.

All of the soundbites you’ll hear in this bulletin are compiled from interviews right here - in episodes Jonny Gould’s Jewish State podcast.

The IDF continue its operations against Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah launches drone attacks against Hurfeish and Nazareth in northern Israel and four soldiers from the elite Givati brigade are killed in a booby trapped building in Rafah.

Stay tuned for comment on the plight of the remaining hostages and what the Arab world should do about Hamas - from former Entebbe hostage, Benny Davidson plus Emily Schrader on why the Iranian public love Israel.

We also hear from Izhar Lifshitz, the son of two of the oldest hostages Yocheved who’s 85, released on October 23rd and Oded, 83 who's still in Gazan hell.

And what it felt like for Orit Meir, mother of Almog Meir Jan during the agonising moths of his captivity.
The War Against Israel You Didn't Know About | TALX with Alex Traiman
Israel is facing war on multiple fronts, but an often overlooked battle is the war online being waged against the Jewish State by multiple actors and influencers.

To discuss this, JNS CEO Alex Traiman sits down with tech entrepreneur and philanthropist Yossie Hollander. Hollander identifies five main actors in this soft war: Iran, Qatar, Progressives, China and Russia each with its own motivations and capabilities to attack Israel including cyber attacks, social media manipulation, and influencing education.


In These Times with Rabbi Ammi Hirsch: Columbia University
Embattled Columbia Business School Prof. Shai Davidai and newly minted Barnard graduate Noa Fay discuss the crisis that has been unfolding on their campus.


Douglas Murray blasts Hamas over ‘refusal’ to end war with Israel
Author Douglas Murray has blasted Hamas for refusing to bring an end to its war with Israel as it rejects ceasefire proposals.

It follows a rescue operation conducted by the IDF where four hostages abducted from the Tribe of Nova music festival in the Negev desert on October 7 were saved.

“If the war is going to go on, everybody can say now with 100 per cent certainty as you could for the last eight months, the reason there is no ceasefire is because of Hamas,” Mr Murray told Sky News host Rita Panahi.


UN accuses Israel and Hamas of ‘crimes against humanity’
Sky News host Steve Price says the United Nations released a report accusing Israel and Hamas of “crimes against humanity”.

“You really have to wonder about the United Nations, now they have released this report that has accused both Israel and Hamas of crimes against humanity,” he said.

“Concluded, Israel had committed crimes including ‘extermination and gender persecution targeting Palestinian men and boys’.”


Much of the Arab world knows Hamas ‘is the problem’
AIJAC Executive Director Colin Rubenstein says much of the Arab and Muslim world understands that Hamas “is the problem”.

The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned Hamas that suffering will continue because they chose not to accept the latest ceasefire peace deal.

“It’s a genocidal entity, it’s backed by Iran, it’s a threat to all of them,” Mr Rubenstein told Sky News host Sharri Markson.

“They do understand that Israel has an absolute right to self-defense and that Hamas has to be dismantled.”


Israel going ‘above and beyond’ to abide by international law
Sky News host Sharri Markson says political leaders are criticising Israel “more than the terrorists” Israel is fighting.

“Despite evidence clearly showing that Israel goes above and beyond to abide by international law,” she said.


‘Holocaust denial’ grows amid rise of ‘modern manifestations’ of antisemitism
Liberal MP Julian Leeser says the “modern manifestations” of antisemitism is continuing to grow and not be called out by universities and government.

“We are seeing Holocaust denial grow and we are seeing the modern manifestations of antisemitism grow,” he said.

“Things like calling Israel a racist country, using Nazi iconography and imagery to describe Israel.”


The ‘intersectional coalition’ has antisemitism ‘built into it’: Ami Horowitz
Filmmaker Ami Horowitz says antisemitism is on “full display” with pro-Palestine demonstrations in the United States.

Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered outside the White House to protest the Israel-Gaza war.

“This is about the intersectional coalition which has had institutional antisemitism built into it,” Mr Horowitz told Sky News host Rita Panahi.

“Intersectionality is the idea that all victims are connected through their victimhood.

“Jews are perceived by the left ... to be on higher on the higher end, if not the tippy top, of that pyramid – by definition, they are the biggest oppressors.”


People must understand antisemitism ‘shapeshifts’ to fit the ‘zeitgeist’
Author Ben Freeman says people need to understand how antisemitism “shapeshifts” to fit the “zeitgeist” when comparing its current form to World War Two.

“So what we’re seeing today is just a modern manifestation of those ancient ideas that you referred to,” he told Sky News host Chris Kenny.

“If we break down the kind of libels and tropes that's attributed to Israel, they’re remarkably similar to the libels and tropes that were attributed to Jewish communities 100 years and indeed even 10,000 years ago.”




Activist involved in kidnapping Australian man seen wearing Hamas logo
An anti-Israel activist facing charges for involvement in a kidnapping and torturing an Australian man was seen wearing the Hamas emblem at a Melbourne rally on Sunday.

Mohammad Sharab, 37, is one of the alleged perpetrators of a Feb.16 Braybrook attack along with co-conspirator and anti-Israel activist Laura Allam. Sharab, charged with kidnapping, false imprisonment, armed robbery, threats to kill, intentionally causing injury, recklessly causing injury, unlawful assault, and assault with a weapon, was present at the Sunday Melbourne rally, giving a speech to fellow protesters.

In a video published on his Instagram account, Sharab can be seen wearing on his chest the emblem of Hamas, which is proscribed as a terrorist organization by Australia. A drummer was also seen wearing a scarf with the Hamas logo. Hezbollah logos, black Jihadist flags seen

Anti-Israel activists also shared images on social media of a placard with the logo of Hezbollah, also proscribed as a terrorist organization.

Videos showed multiple black Jihadist flags and the red inverted triangle used in terrorist propaganda widely displayed throughout the march.

Green Party leader Adam Bandt addressed the protesters when they marched to the Victoria Parliament to protest the alleged deaths of Palestinians killed in an IDF rescue mission of four hostages, according to Free Palestine Coalition Naarm.

The anti-Israel group issued a statement condemning Victoria police for clashing with the group, allegedly using pepper spray.


Jewish leaders call for new NYC mask ban after explosion of antisemitic protests by mobs with hidden faces
An explosion of blatant antisemitism by anti-Israel protesters in New York — nearly all of whom cover their faces to avoid being publicly identified — is leading some Jewish leaders to call for the return of an anti-mask law that was previously used to fight the hoods of the Ku Klux Klan.

In one shocking incident Monday, protesters took over a New York City subway train, all wearing Covid masks, keffiyehs, balaclavas or sunglasses to obscure their faces, and demanded that “Zionists” raise their hands — then warned, “this is your chance to get out.”

Earlier in the day at Union Square, two protesters — faces also covered — unfurled a banner that read “Long Live October 7.”

“A mask law will make a difference,” Scott Richman, regional director for the Anti-Defamation League, told The Post on Wednesday.

The group first championed similar laws around the country in the 1950s, and should back them again, Richman said.

“It effectively tanked the Ku Klux Klan. Nobody wanted their face to be seen,” he said.

New York’s law was on the books for nearly 200 years until it was repealed in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
WSJ Editorial: Celebrating the Nova Massacre in New York City
On Monday, anti-Israel protesters wouldn't let a tribute to Israelis murdered at the Nova Music Festival on Oct. 7 be held in peace.

Hamas massacred 260 people, mostly young, at that festival. Women were raped and their bodies mutilated before they were killed.

The butchery and sadism were the point, inflicted out of hatred because the victims were Jews.

"Long live Intifada," the crowd cheered, waving flares outside the exhibit. Young American adults waved Hamas and Hizbullah flags.

New York Mayor Eric Adams called the spectacle "pure antisemitism," and he's right.

On Tuesday night, protesters vandalized the homes of Brooklyn Museum Jewish board members and the building of the museum director.

The vandals marked their doors with upside down red triangles, a symbol used by Hamas's al-Qassam brigades to identify targets. These families now need protection from the New York Police Department.

America has an antisemitism problem that is growing in its extremism.
Oct. 7 survivors describe horror of anti-Israel protesters taunting them at NYC Nova memorial: ‘Why do they hate us?’
Horror gripped Menashe Manzuri as he watched on Monday as an anti-Israel mob swarm the Manhattan exhibit memorial for the Oct. 7 terror attacks and viciously echo the chants of terrorists who murdered his two daughters.

“I cannot find the right words how I felt when someone is shouting and supporting the people who murder your daughters,” Manzuri said Tuesday.

“It was like they killed me again and again and again.”

The protest Monday outside Nova Music Festival Exhibition on Wall Street rattled exhibit goers, including survivors of the attack on the festival and family members of victims.

They described being trapped inside while protesters supporting Hamas raged outside.

At least four Oct. 7 survivors huddled at the exhibit “in a panic” as protesters mobbed outside, lit flares and chanted “Long live in the Intifada.”


Brooklyn Museum director, Jewish board members' homes vandalized with antisemitic graffiti: 'Blood on your hands'
The Brooklyn Museum’s director and a number of its Jewish board members were targeted overnight by antisemitic vandals who tossed red paint and scrawled “blood on your hands” across their homes, shocking images show.

Director Anne Pasternak’s coop apartment building in Brooklyn Heights was among those targeted by the vile mob when they strung up a sign that screamed, “Anne Pasternak Brooklyn Museum White Supremacist Zionist.”

An inverted red triangle was also sprayed on her door — a symbol used in the past by Hamas to identify Israeli military targets and, more recently, has been spotted at anti-Israel tent encampment protests that plagued university campuses across the country.

“This is not peaceful protest or free speech. This is a crime, and it’s overt, unacceptable anti-Semitism,” Mayor Eric Adams posted on X Wednesday as he decried the vandalism.

“These actions will never be tolerated in New York City for any reason. I’m sorry to Anne Pasternak and members of @brooklynmuseum’s board who woke up to hatred like this.

“I spoke to Anne this morning and committed that this hate will not stand in our city. The NYPD is investigating and will bring the criminals responsible here to justice.”

The Post reached out to the NYPD about the vandalism, which unfolded near the start of the Jewish Shavuot holiday, but didn’t hear back immediately.

When reached by The Post, a spokesperson for the museum only said, “We are deeply troubled by these horrible acts.”


Mob on NYC subway: ‘Zionists: This is your chance to get out’
Anti-Israel protesters continued to run wild across New York as masked agitators on a city subway car Monday demanded to know if there were any Zionists on board, while elsewhere in the city vandals attacked the home of the Jewish director of the Brooklyn Museum.

The back-to-back events coming on the heels of a raucous pro-Hamas rally outside an exhibition on the victims of the Oct. 7 massacre raised concern that rabid antisemitism of a radical minority of agitators was spiraling out of control in New York City.

The group of masked passengers on the subway demanded to know if there were any “Zionists” on the train—then warned them, “This is your chance to get out,” according to a video circulating on social media.


Why was this anti-Semitic maniac given a slap on the wrist?
It seems that criminals are no longer treated as responsible individuals and given their due punishments. The few who are sent to jail find themselves inside semi-lawless enclaves awash with drugs, disorder and radicalisation.

Sentencing guidelines are no longer about justice, but about keeping the population of our already brimming prisons down. Victims and the safety of the general public rarely appear to enter the equation. Last October, Lord Edis, England and Wales’ top judge, said that criminals currently on bail should have their sentences delayed due to prison overcrowding. Rapists and thieves are thought to have dodged jail as a consequence. Similarly, last month, there were reports that dangerous criminals could be freed more than two months early to alleviate pressure on prisons, which are now 110 per cent beyond capacity.

With police resources stretched and prisons overflowing, many people are correctly concerned that shoplifting, muggings and even sexual offences have been de facto decriminalised. Crime is out of control. Our shambolic statistics are probably failing to capture the scale of the problem, with many people hesitant to even bother reporting criminal incidents. The assumption is that they won’t be investigated, never mind punished.

Labour has pledged to build more prison spaces in an attempt to tackle overcrowding and has made noises about cracking down on shoplifting. But the party’s overtures to NIMBYs and Keir Starmer’s hyper-progressive tenure at the Criminal Prosecution Service should make voters sceptical of these promises.

So, in answer to my friend’s question all those months ago, I am okay. But Britain is not.


Professor’s lawsuit says antisemitism is ‘entrenched’ at California College of the Arts
Jewish students and faculty at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco have faced pervasive antisemitism on campus since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, according to a lawsuit filed against the school in U.S. District Court on June 6.

In the complaint, art history professor Karen Fiss alleges that CCA has become a “political battleground” where the only acceptable narrative is that Israel is “genocidal and illegitimate.” Jewish students and faculty who challenge that narrative are subjected to harassment, social ostracism and disciplinary action in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, according to the lawsuit.

“This entrenched bias not only violates fundamental principles of equality and academic freedom but also perpetuates a climate of fear and exclusion for Jewish members of the community,” the suit states. “By promoting a singular political narrative and vehemently delegitimizing all pro-Israel perspectives, CCA actively contributes to the propagation of antisemitic attitudes and stereotypes.”

Fiss, who began teaching at CCA in 2001 and became a full professor in 2013, also alleges in the suit that the school violated her Title VII rights as an employee by discriminating against her on the basis of her Jewish ancestry.

The suit states that CCA formally disciplined her after an encounter she had on campus with a member of Students for Justice in Palestine. On Oct. 26, Fiss came across an SJP table with a display that she found troubling because it included the phrase “from the river to the sea” and a map of Israel with the colors of the Palestinian flag covering the entire country. She asked one of the students at the table about her background and, upon learning she was from Kuwait, informed the student that Kuwait expelled thousands of Palestinians in 1991. Fiss also took a photo of the student and two other SJP members in front of the display after receiving their consent.

The student filed a complaint against Fiss, claiming harassment, and CCA mandated that Fiss delete the photo and participate in a series of trainings, including about diversity, equity and inclusion.

“Dr. Fiss was punished for doing her job simply and only because Dr. Fiss is a Jew committed to the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish State,” the suit states.


Columbia Administrators Fire Off Hostile and Dismissive Text Messages, Vomit Emojis During Alumni Reunion Panel on Jewish Life
On Friday, May 31, alumni descended on Columbia University's Manhattan campus to celebrate their class reunions. In addition to eating and drinking, the festivities included several panel discussions featuring professors and administrators.

One, focused on Jewish life on campus, was particularly newsworthy. Student protesters who had broken into and occupied a university building during the academic year had reconstituted themselves to disrupt reunion festivities, and, as the protesters were preparing to erect a new encampment, the university held a panel discussion about the past, present, and future of Jewish life at Columbia.

The event featured the former dean of Columbia Law School, David Schizer, who co-chaired the university's task force on anti-Semitism; the executive director of Columbia's Kraft Center for Jewish Life, Brian Cohen; the school's dean of religious life, Ian Rottenberg; and a rising Columbia junior, Rebecca Massel, who covered the campus protests for the student newspaper.

In the audience, according to two attendees, were several top members of the Columbia administration. Given the sensitivity of the subject—the eruption of anti-Semitism on campus in the wake of Hamas's Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel put a national spotlight on the school, and Columbia recently settled a lawsuit with a Jewish student who accused the school of fostering an unsafe learning environment—the administrators' presence made sense.

The administrators included Josef Sorett, the dean of Columbia College; Susan Chang-Kim, the vice dean and chief administrative officer of Columbia College; Cristen Kromm, the dean of undergraduate student life; and Matthew Patashnick, the associate dean for student and family support.

Throughout the panel, which unfolded over nearly two hours, Chang-Kim was on her phone texting her colleagues about the proceedings—and they were replying to her in turn. As the panelists offered frank appraisals of the climate Jewish students have faced, Columbia's top officials responded with mockery and vitriol, dismissing claims of anti-Semitism and suggesting, in Patashnick's words, that Jewish figures on campus were exploiting the moment for "fundraising potential."

"This is difficult to listen to but I'm trying to keep an open mind to learn about this point of view," Chang-Kim texted Sorett, the dean of the college. "Yup," he replied. Texts between Susan Chang-Kim, the vice dean of Columbia College, and Joseph Sorett, the dean of Columbia College. Chang-Kim says panelists' concerns about anti-Semitism are "difficult to listen to."

The text messages, which were captured by an audience member sitting behind Chang-Kim who photographed the vice dean tapping away on her phone, also used vomit emojis to describe an op-ed about anti-Semitism by Columbia's campus rabbi.


Second suspect busted in attack on Jewish Columbia University student pelted with rocks: cops
A Westchester County man was busted Thursday for throwing a rock in the face of a Jewish Columbia University student whose Israel flag was torched during April’s campus unrest, authorities said.

Zuhdi Ahmed, 20, of Ossining, was arrested just after 6 a.m. and slapped with multiple charges – assault and menacing as hate crimes, as well as aggravated harassment, criminal possession of a weapon and harassment – in connection to the April 20 attack on student Jonathan Lederer, 22, police said.

He was allegedly part of a trio who confronted Lederer just before 10 p.m. at Amsterdam Avenue and West 116th Street, with one of them ripping away his Israeli flag and Ahmed throwing a rock at his face, cops and prosecutors said.

Ahmed then flipped yarmulke-wearing Lederer the bird and screamed at him, prosecutors revealed at his Manhattan Criminal Court arraignment Thursday.

A third person then grabbed the flag and set it on fire, cops said.

“Finally, I succeeded in grabbing my flags and ran to rejoin my friends,” Lederer wrote in an article he penned for The Free Press. “We ended up being chased out of campus and told to ‘go back to Poland,’ a poignant reminder that even in America, antisemites wish to condemn Jews like me to our ancestors’ tragic fate.”

The victim refused medical attention for minor injuries.

Before the violence erupted, Lederer said he and his friends were singing songs calling for peace, he wrote. The clash came during massive campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza that saw anti-Israel demonstrators sit in and sometimes clash with supporters of the Jewish State.

“Amid multiple protests both inside and outside of Columbia’s gates, my friends and I decided to show our pride yet again, as we have on so many occasions since Hamas began its war,” he said.


Anti-Israel protesters take over Cal State LA building, leaving damage and graffiti
A takeover of a building at California State University, Los Angeles by demonstrators protesting Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza ended early Thursday, leaving the facility trashed and covered with graffiti, TV news reports showed.

Anti-Israel demonstrators barricaded the multistory Student Services Building on Wednesday and workers inside were told to shelter in place, but it was empty by Thursday morning, said university spokesperson Erik Frost Hollins.

“What I can tell you, at the moment, is that the building is clear of employees and protesters and the building is secure,” said Frost Hollins, who did not immediately offer details on what occurred overnight.

The university posted a “protest action alert” on its website announcing that all main campus classes and operations would be remote until further notice and asking people to stay away.

Images from the scene showed graffiti on the building, furniture blocking doorways and overturned golf carts, picnic tables and umbrellas barricading the plaza out front.

The CSULA Gaza Solidarity Encampment, a group that has camped near the campus gym for about 40 days, sent an email indicating that members were staging a sit-in in the building, Hollins said.

Anti-Israel protest camps have sprung up on university campuses across the United States and in Europe as students demand their universities stop doing business with Israel or companies that support its war efforts. Organizers have sought to amplify calls to end Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, which they claim is a “genocide” against the Palestinians.

On Monday, 25 protesters were arrested just days before University of California regents are scheduled to meet at UCLA for this coming weekend’s commencement ceremonies.


'I am racist, I am pro-Palestinian': Jewish man verbally accosted at pharmacy
"Are you one of those Jews that steals land?" a man asks a visibly Jewish man in a video uploaded on Wednesday to Instagram by Israel activist and influencer Danielle Yablonka.

The video was supposedly taken in a pharmacy in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The Jewish man, who was wearing a kippah, recorded the incident.

In the video, the stranger can be heard saying, "What kinda (sic) Jew are you? Are you one of those Jews that steals land?"

The Jewish man responds by asking if he looks like someone who steals land. The man says, "Yes, you do. You got that thing on your head (sic)," gesturing to the Jewish man's kippah.

The Jewish man can be heard telling the man that what he said was "racist."

'I am racist. I am pro-Palestinian'
"I am racist. I am pro-Palestinian. I don't think that you should be stealing their land," the other responded.


‘Squad’ Rep. Jamaal Bowman trending toward landslide loss to NY Dem rival George Latimer: new poll
Far-left “Squad” Rep. Jamaal Bowman is likely headed toward a landslide defeat — badly trailing Dem foe George Latimer by 17 points ahead of the June 25 primary election, a new poll shows.

Latimer, the Westchester County executive, garnered support from 48% of Democratic primary voters compared to just 31% for Bowman, a two-term incumbent, in the 16th Congressional District, according to the Emerson College Polling/PIX11/The Hill survey.

The remaining 21% of respondents were undecided in the district, which encompasses much of Westchester County and parts of the north Bronx, the poll said.

The Israel-Hamas war may be playing an outsized role in the race, the survey showed.

Latimer, 70, has squarely sided with Israel in the raging conflict, while Bowman, 48, was captured on video in November calling Israel an “apartheid” state as he angrily claimed reported rapes and child murders by Hamas during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel were a “lie.” He later walked back the comment ripped as Hamas propaganda.


AOC Decried Growing Anti-Semitism on the Left. Days Earlier, She Requested $1.5 Million Earmark for Legal Group Accused of Hostility to Jews
Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) denounced the rise of anti-Semitism in the progressive movement at an event with liberal Jewish leaders on Monday. Weeks earlier, the "Squad" member requested $1.5 million in taxpayer funds for a New York City law group accused of hostility towards Jews and Israel.

Ocasio-Cortez requested an earmark on May 17 for Bronx Defenders to "improve justice in the criminal system" for low-income residents of the borough. Ocasio-Cortez, who has called to defund police, said the grant will help low-income defendants "mount a robust defense," against what she laments as the "vast" resources of police departments.

Bronx Defenders has been embroiled in several high-profile incidents of anti-Semitism. The organization was ordered to pay a former Jewish employee $170,000 last year after colleagues harassed her with anti-Semitic taunts over her support for Israel. In September, Bronx Defenders employees at a court-ordered training session on anti-Semitism broke out in a chant of "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," a call for the eradication of the Jewish state.

Ocasio-Cortez’s request highlights the tightrope she has tried to walk as a leader of a progressive movement that has become increasingly hostile to Israel—and as an emerging ally of President Joe Biden, whom anti-Israel activists often refer to as "Genocide Joe."

The Bronx Defenders’ anti-Israel hostility has only grown in the wake of Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attack. According to the New York Times, roughly 150 Bronx Defenders union members approved a statement that condemned Israel’s "genocide" in Gaza, but failed to condemn Hamas’s attack, in which 1,200 Israelis were murdered. The union said it "supports Palestinian liberation and resistance under occupation," and pushed the debunked claim that Israel bombed the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza. Bronx Defenders executives have tried to distance the group from the union’s statement, but that hasn’t thwarted calls to defund the organization.

Ocasio-Cortez decried anti-Semitism on the left during a virtual event with the head of Jewish Council for Public Affairs, a liberal Jewish group. While Ocasio-Cortez said anti-Semitism "undermine[s]" the progressive cause, she asserted that "bad faith political actors" are "weaponizing anti-Semitism" to divide the progressive movement.

Ocasio-Cortez’s condemnation could ring hollow given her history of voting against measures to support Israel or condemn anti-Semitic acts.


Revealed: Labour voters targeted by radical Islamist group
An influential campaign group trying to drive Muslims away from Labour and towards more radical, anti-Israel candidates was founded by Islamists who backed violent Palestinian “resistance” two days after the October 7 massacres, the JC can reveal.

Key figures behind The Muslim Vote (TMV), an alliance of 24 activist groups which promotes and endorses selected parliamentary candidates across the UK, signed a pledge on October 9 saying they “reaffirm the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to resist Israeli military occupation, including the right to armed struggle”.

Among the signatories was TMV co-founder and head of the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) Anas Altikriti, who posted photographs of himself meeting Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on a visit to Gaza in 2012.

Another was Azhar Qauyum, the chief executive of TMV partner organisation Mend (Muslim Engagement and Development), who wrote on Facebook in 2014 that “Israel’s generosity” in withdrawing from Gaza in 2005 was “like the ‘generosity’ of Hitler”.

The pledge, which was published on the Islamist website 5 Pillars, went on to say that its signatories “reject the use of the word ‘terrorism’ to describe Palestinian acts of resistance”, and that in order to achieve Middle East peace, “the apartheid state [of Israel] must be completely dismantled”.

Senior Labour Party sources told the JC there was deep concern over the impact of TMV campaigning on the election.

One said that the campaign could trigger the loss of thousands of votes, especially in Lancashire, West Yorkshire, the Midlands and east London. In some areas, the source said, it had the potential to deprive the party’s candidates of victory.


Anti-Israel, pro-Iranian Irish activist Clare Daly loses seat in European Parliament
Irish left wing pro-Palestinian activist Clare Daly lost her seat in the European Parliament after falling behind her rivals in Dublin’s constituency, The Guardian reported on Tuesday.

According to the report, during her time at the European Parliament, Daly criticized the West for “militarism,” denied supporting dictators, gained a large social media following, and appeared in state-oriented press in China and Russia.

Furthermore, The Guardian noted that Daly lost her seat despite endorsements from celebrities such as Eurythmics singer Annie Lennox and actress Susan Sarandon.

Sarandon herself is a prominent anti-Israel activist who has been embroiled in several controversies in which the Rocky Horror Picture Show actress has been accused of antisemitism.

Daly was one of the harshest critics of Israel in the European Parliament, Israeli state broadcaster KAN noted on Wednesday. The Israeli news outlet added that Daly had experienced backlash following her stint in Iraq, where she wore a hijab.

Pro-Palestinian and Iran supporter
The former MEP was known for her strong pro-Palestinian stance and was among those officials who failed to condemn Iran’s missile and UAV attack on Israel in April, KAN added.


Iranian Dissident Receives 18 Years in Prison After Supporting Israel
Fatemeh Sepehri, a prominent Iranian political prisoner and vocal critic of the Islamic Republic who suffers from a heart ailment, has been sentenced to an additional 18 and a half years in prison.

The harsh ruling underscores the Islamic Republic’s ongoing crackdown on dissent. Sepehri’s brothers, Mohammad-Hossein Sepehri and Hossein Sepehri, have also received severe sentences, facing 8 and 5.5 years in prison, respectively.

Sepehri, who is a widely revered figure among Iranian dissidents, apparently received the long sentence for condemning Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel. Despite facing prison and ill health, she issued a statement supporting the Israeli people, who were massacred, tortured, sexually assaulted, and taken hostage by Hamas. This was a clear act of defiance against the Islamic regime in Iran that staunchly supports Hamas.

The sentences were handed down by Judge Hossein Yazdankhah of Branch 5 of the Mashhad Revolutionary Court following the court's second session on June 6. This information was announced by the siblings' brother, Asghar Sepehri on the social media platform X.

According to Asghar Sepehri, the charges against Fatemeh are extensive and severe. She has been sentenced to a total of 18.5 years in prison on multiple charges: 7 years for supporting Israel, another 7 years for gathering and collusion to conspire against national security, 3 years for insulting Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and 1 year and six months for propaganda against the Islamic Republic.


Cops bust heavily armed NYC man with dark messages written on weapon who expressed Jihadist views: sources
A heavily armed Queens man who has shared extreme Jihadist views online was busted in his “ghost car” early Wednesday – with sources saying they feared the nut was planning something “very bad.”

Judd Sanson, 29, was taken into custody around 1:30 a.m., with cops finding a loaded 9mm gun, nine loaded magazines, an NYPD vest, handcuffs, two axes, a stun gun, multiple knives, a weighted whip and an expandable baton – along with NYPD uniform “items,” NYPD Chief Jeffrey Maddrey said at a press briefing.

Cops also recovered a Guy Fawkes “V for Vendetta” mask and an orange MTA vest.

“Members of this department make gun arrests, weapons arrests, arrests for knives every day, but an arrest of this magnitude, the amount of ammunition, NYPD paraphernalia in the car was significant,” Maddrey said.

Etched into the baton were several troubling messages, including, “You left me no choice, I am sorry, You gon [sic] learn today” and the Arabic word for, “God forgive me,” the sources said.

They also found an orange MTA vest, the sources said.

“Given what was in there, something very bad was potentially averted,” one cop told The Post. “The intent is still under investigation. The sum of the parts had the potential for something awful.”

Sanson allegedly also expressed extremist views in online posts, the sources said.
The land of milk and honey innovates the dairy technology sector
The Israeli agrifood tech industry has firmly established itself as a global leader in innovation and entrepreneurship, ranking second only to the United States. Alternative dairy technology is a growing subsector of agrifood tech that addresses issues associated with traditional dairy production, including environmental impact, animal welfare and health concerns.

Technologies in the alternative dairy space offer substantial benefits. These innovations replicate traditional dairy protein without the need to produce actual milk. They have the same taste and nutritional profile while reducing resource use and greenhouse-gas emissions.

By providing sustainable, ethical and potentially healthier alternatives, this technology is poised to transform the dairy industry, offering consumers choices that align more closely with modern values and ecological necessities.

Israel is leading this sector due to the synergistic relationship between academia and industry. Universities and research institutes across the country contribute cutting-edge research in food engineering to biotechnology, seamlessly integrating with robust Israeli agricultural practices and entrepreneurial ventures. This has led to a thriving community of more than 700 companies, each dedicated to revolutionizing the agrifood landscape.

As Shavuot—a holiday that carries with it a tradition of eating dairy foods—approaches, here are some Israeli tech companies “moooo-ving” the dairy industry into the future:




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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 19 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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