Saturday, June 22, 2024

06/22 Links: It's Springtime for Mahmoud Abbas; Netanyahu is right to reject vassal-state etiquette; The new anti-Israel right’s failure to launch

From Ian:

The world goes mad: Behind society's obsession with Israel
The past eight months have felt absurdly Kafkaesque. Our bizarre and disorienting reality defies any logical explanation. We feel utterly powerless in facing an angry mob which shrieks “Death to the Jews.” The world has gone mad.

That these malicious threats come from our Arab enemies is tragic but understandable. Our enemies in the Arab world have consistently opposed any Jewish presence in Israel. The issue for them isn’t borders, refugees, or the suffering of innocent Palestinians but rather their outright denial of the right of any Jew to breathe air in a sovereign Jewish Israel.

However, what is illogical and even dystopian is the odd coalition forged to support rapists and serial murderers. It is surreal to watch crowds of Asian college students blindly back mass murderers while vilifying the victims of savage brutality. It is appalling to witness African Americans, whose legitimate rights Jews have heroically defended, turn their backs on us while spewing venomous antisemitism. And amid this theater of the absurd, the most farcical scene is that of the LGBT community, known for its policy of unconditional embrace and tolerance, suddenly turn into a hate-filled assembly of bigots.

Why have members of Generation Z lost their minds and their senses? What is causing this wholesale insanity, and what does this say about our own culture?

The age of bewilderment
Often, when humanity experiences sudden and dramatic change, confusion sets in. When the old system is unceremoniously and swiftly swept aside, humanity is plunged into an identity crisis.

Sometimes this leads to healthy progress. The Renaissance period emerged in the aftermath of the black plague of the 14th century which wiped out up to half of the European population. Further cultural disruptions such as the invention of the printing press and the discovery of the New World prompted humanity to rethink its basic assumptions. The ensuing cultural reboot led to the empowerment of man, the unleashing of his human potential, and the dramatic modernization of the human condition.

However, rapid and unpredictable change can also cause cultural anxiety and societal vertigo. Prolonged cultural dizziness doesn’t often end well.

World War I completely washed away the existing world order, obliterating empires and redrawing the maps of Europe. Additionally, the transportation revolution shrank the world, while industrialization relocated populations into crowded cities. Newly discovered scientific theories altered the way we viewed ourselves. Instead of inhabiting a space cut to human size, we were now just an infinitesimally small part of “a billion years and a billion spheres.” Humanity felt incomprehensibly displaced from itself.

As Kafka wrote in his short story “The Hunter Gracchus”: “My ship has no rudder and no compass and no steering wheel; I am driven forward by the wind, which gives me no time to look around, not even a chance to consider where I am going.”

Inter-war Europe didn’t know what to do with itself. Its inner angst metastasized into incoherent rage directed at the perceived cause of this cultural displacement. Jews are always easy targets.

Generation Z is experiencing a similar maelstrom of confusion and anxiety. Like the printing press 700 years ago, the Internet revolution has radically transformed our lives, our communication, and both our communal and personal identity. The development of AI is just as revolutionary as the discovery of the New World and will be just as transformative. The world feels both larger than ever and smaller than ever. Once again, like a century ago, confusion and bewilderment are fueling rage and discontent.
Jonathan Tobin: Netanyahu is right to reject vassal-state etiquette
Pushing back pays dividends
The claim that Netanyahu’s outspokenness is damaging the alliance misses the point. Israel may be an American client state, but given the existential nature of the conflict that was reignited by the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, it simply cannot afford to behave like a docile vassal.

Indeed, if there is anything that Netanyahu has learned in his long tenure as prime minister it is that those who always counsel caution and silence in the face of American betrayal don’t succeed. It is only by speaking up and making Israel’s case to the world, and most specifically, the American people, that it can maintain the alliance.

Obama seethed when in 2011—with him sitting right there—Netanyahu lectured him about the unacceptability of a forced Israeli retreat to the 1967 borders at a public White House media availability a day after that was the substance of a presidential speech. Later, the Obama White House depicted Netanyahu’s 2015 address to a joint meeting of Congress in which he urged Americans to reject the Iran nuclear deal as an unprecedented insult to the United States, the presidency and Obama personally. In both cases, Netanyahu’s behavior was denounced as destructive to the relationship and beyond the pale.

But he was right to understand that talking back to Obama strengthened dissent against policies aimed at undermining Israel and strengthening Iran, both in the United States and abroad.

By demonstrating a willingness to defend Israel’s vital strategic interests, even at the cost of being depicted as an extremist or the dispute being a function of his own partisan interests and personal animus for Obama, Netanyahu achieved real results. Given Obama’s determination to make it his signature foreign-policy accomplishment, he couldn’t stop the Iran deal from being adopted. But his speech emboldened the GOP to move further towards Israel. It also showed the Arab world that while Obama was leaving them to the tender mercies of the terror-funding Shi’ite tyrants of Tehran, they could count on a strong Israel as an ally against it. In retrospect, Netanyahu’s speech must be seen as the first step in developing the 2020 Abraham Accords.

Who is playing politics?
Biden came into office claiming that he would be different from Obama and keep disputes with Israel private. That changed once Netanyahu won the November 2022 Israeli elections and returned to the prime minister’s office. Since then, the hostility that Biden and the rest of the Obama alumni running American foreign policy have for Netanyahu has not been kept under wraps. The administration has not merely undermined the Jewish state but has openly conspired with the Israeli opposition, and even members of the military and intelligence establishment, in an effort to topple Netanyahu’s government both before and after Oct. 7.

At this point, Netanyahu has nothing to lose by not allowing Biden to get away with slowing down the flow of arms to pressure Israel to stand down at its borders on the north and south.

There are plenty of cogent criticisms to be made about Netanyahu, including those involving Oct. 7 happening on his watch and the dysfunctional nature of his governmental coalition. Regardless of how long Netanyahu lasts in office—and right now, it is not the prime minister but Biden who, in appeasing the anti-Israel intersectional left wing of the Democratic Party, is playing politics over the war—or what you think of his character, policies or tactics, he needs to use every form of leverage to counter U.S. pressure that could ensure victories for Hamas and Iran. With so many lives at stake, client-state etiquette should be the last of his concerns.
It's Springtime for Mahmoud Abbas
For his part, Abbas is working hard to capitalize on the present moment. His government has announced that it is prepared to provide a “political solution” to the current situation in Gaza, post-ceasefire. And at the recent Gaza Emergency Humanitarian Response Conference in Jordan earlier this month, the PA proposed an ambitious three-stage recovery plan encapsulating its vision for the enclave.

That plan is extensive—and expensive. The first phase alone, focused on a six-month “emergency response” period, would cost a whopping $1.3 billion. The money, naturally, would come from international donors, and the PA would administer it to create “social protection and housing provision, as well as health, education and infrastructure programs”—things that the West Bank itself needs significant help with, and international oversight over.

In other words, the Palestinian Authority is asking the international community to empower one failed state to rebuild another.

Nevertheless, Abbas’ pitch might just end up working. The international community is increasingly desperate to secure a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians by any means necessary. As international desperation has grown, what would ordinarily be something of a non-starter, given the PA’s abysmal governance record, has become more palatable to policymakers in Washington and beyond.

That is a shame, because the Palestinian Authority has proven itself thoroughly unfit to govern. “Under different circumstances—if the PA were a more effective, clean government, better trusted by its people—one might imagine it returning to Gaza when this war ends and leading the process of reconstruction and recovery,” Washington Institute scholar Ghaith al-Omari has observed. “But Palestinians have no confidence that the PA has their interests at heart; the international community does not trust it to administer funds on the scale of those that will be needed for reconstruction; and the PA anyway lacks the institutional infrastructure to do the job.”

Under these conditions, entrusting the PA with administering the “day after” in Gaza isn’t a workable solution, no matter how appealing Abbas’ current pitch might be at the moment. It is, rather, simply a surefire way to throw good money after bad.

Sadly, Washington and its allies seem more and more inclined to do just that.


Israeli strike said to target Hamas operations chief Raad Saad in Gaza; unclear if he died
The Israel Defense Forces struck a Hamas military site in Gaza City’s Shati camp Saturday, an attack that reports in Hebrew and Arabic media said targeted senior Hamas commander Raad Saad, head of Hamas operations.

Some reports claimed Saad was killed in the attack. There was no confirmation from Israel or Hamas.

The IDF said fighter jets struck two Hamas military sites in Gaza City — in Shati and in the Tuffah neighborhood. The statement was unusual in that the army does not regularly announce specific strikes unless they are on a high-value target. The military said it would provide further details later.

Palestinian media report a large number of casualties in the strikes. Ismail Al-Thawabta, the director of the Hamas-run government media office, told Reuters that at least 42 Palestinians were killed. The figures cannot be verified and do not distinguish between combatants and civilians.

Saad is considered to be among Hamas’s top military brass in the Gaza Strip, serving as chief of the terror group’s operations division. His death would mark the most significant killing of a Hamas commander in months, since the assassination of Marwan Issa, the deputy commander of the terror group’s military wing, in March.

Saad was believed by Israel to be at Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital when the military raided the medical center in March, although he apparently managed to flee at the time.


IDF announces death of soldier fighting in southern Gaza, bringing ground op toll to 315
An Israeli soldier was killed earlier today during fighting in the southern Gaza Strip, the military announces.

The slain soldier is named as Sgt. First Class (res.) Malkia Gross, 25, of the 205th “Iron Fist” Reserve Armored Brigade’s 9212th Battalion from Susya.

His death brings the toll of slain troops in the ground offensive against Hamas and in operations on the Gaza border to 315. The toll includes a police officer killed in a hostage rescue mission.


IDF says ‘no indication’ it launched deadly strike on Gaza tent camp; Red Cross office damaged
An a military spokesman says “there is no indication” that Israeli forces carried out a deadly strike in an area of Gaza where hundreds of displaced Palestinians are living in tents.

“An initial inquiry conducted suggests that there is no indication that a strike was carried out by the IDF in the humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi. The incident is under review,” the IDF spokesman tells AFP.

The International Committee of the Red Cross says 22 people were killed in the shelling. The ICRC doesn’t specify who fired the “heavy calibrer projectiles” but in a statement on social media platform X says the shells “damaged the structure of the ICRC office” in Gaza.

It says 22 bodies and 45 wounded were taken to a nearby Red Cross field hospital after the shelling, and there are “reports of additional casualties.”

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says there are 25 dead and 50 injured in the shelling, which it blamed on Israel.


IDF: Reported gunfire near UN team related to battle with gunmen, aid workers weren’t located close to incident
The military responds to reports of gunfire near teams of the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) along the Israeli-designated “humanitarian route” from the Kerem Shalom crossing into the Gaza Strip yesterday, saying that troops had engaged two gunmen in the area.

“Following an examination on the matter, the IDF operated to neutralize two gunmen who posed a threat to nearby IDF troops in the area,” the military says.

The IDF says the gunmen were not in close proximity to the UN workers during the incident.

“We emphasize that the UN workers were not the target of the operation and they were not harmed during the strike,” the military says in a statement.

Separately, the IDF says it is examining claims of an attack in the al-Mawasi area yesterday, which according to the Red Cross killed 22 people and damaged its office there.

“Following an initial inquiry, there was no direct attack carried out by the IDF against a Red Cross facility,” the military says in the statement.

It says that “the incident will be quickly examined and its findings will be presented to our international partners.”

“The IDF makes significant efforts to avoid harming workers, UN facilities and international organizations working in the Gaza Strip. The IDF is committed to enabling the activity and safe movement of international organizations, including the UN, in the Gaza Strip,” the statement adds.


Amnon Muchtar named as victim of Qalqilya shooting, was in city to buy produce for his vegetable stall
The Israeli who was shot dead in his car in the West Bank city of Qalqilya earlier today has been identified as Amnon Muchtar, 67, from Petah Tikva, Hebrew media reports.

Muchtar, who leaves behind a wife and five children, owned and operated a vegetable stall in his hometown, and according to his family, would often purchase his produce from Palestinian traders in Qalqilya.

“He was a righteous man murdered by terrorists,” his son Nir says to the press, adding that his father loved visiting Qalqilya and knew the people there.

“Everyone loved him and he would help everyone. It’s tragic that it ended like this, he didn’t think they would do that to him there.”
Hezbollah fires two anti-tank missiles at Metula, sparking fires
Two anti-tank guided missiles were launched from Lebanon at the northern border community of Metula a short while ago, the military says.

The missiles sparked fires in the area. Images from Lebanon show the aftermath of the attack.

There are no reports of injuries.

The IDF says it shelled the source of the fire in southern Lebanon with artillery.

Hezbollah takes responsibility for the missile fire, claiming to have targeted homes used by the Israeli military.


IDF kills top Hamas man in Lebanon; US said to promise Israel full support if war erupts
Israel said Saturday it had killed a top Hamas operative in Lebanon, as global fears of a war in Lebanon mounted.

Meanwhile, CNN reported that in meetings with Israeli officials in recent days, senior US officials said Washington would fully support Israel in case of a full-blown war.

The military said it struck a vehicle near the town of Khiara in Lebanon’s West Beqaa District, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of the two countries’ border, Lebanese media reported.

The Israel Defense Forces later published footage from the attack, saying it had targeted Ayman Ghatma. Ghatma was killed in the attack, the army said. It said he was responsible for supplying weapons to Hamas in Lebanon as well as to the al-Jama’a al-Islamiyya terror group.

The army said the drone strike was carried out over Ghatma’s involvement in advancing attacks against Israel.


Portion of US-built pier in Gaza washes up on Tel Aviv’s Frishman Beach
A portion of the US military’s pier in Gaza washed up on the shores of Tel Aviv’s Frishman Beach earlier today, Channel 12 reports.

The pier was damaged by rough seas last Friday and had to be removed for repairs for the second time since it started operations in May. It was reattached and operations resumed on Wednesday.

Earlier this week, The New York Times reported that the pier could be dismantled earlier than planned as it has done little to alleviate shortages in the Palestinian enclave.


Heartbreaking letter to Israeli hostage Naama Levy from her mother on her 20th birthday
Today is the 20th birthday of Naama Levy, an Israeli woman taken hostage on Oct. 7 by Hamas terrorists. The photo of her being abducted, barefoot and bloodied, is one of the most disturbing images of the attacks. Here her mother, Dr. Ayelet Levy Shachar, writes to her on her birthday — a letter she hopes the world will read.

Dear Naama,
This is a letter no mother should ever have to write to her daughter. Today is your 20th birthday. You should be celebrating this occasion surrounded by friends and family. Instead, you are enduring your 260th day as a hostage in Gaza surrounded by terrorists.

Ever since your abduction, we have been working relentlessly and in every way possible to bring you home. Every day without you is a day without air. The uncertainty and dread I experience is suffocating, and each passing day that you are not with us feels like an eternity. We will not stop fighting for you until you are home.

Naama, your captors have denied medical visits from the Red Cross and other humanitarian organizations, and this has left us in complete darkness about your well-being. We know nothing. As a physician, I am tormented by the realization that the person I most want to save in this world, I cannot.

My Naamonet, I speak to you in my heart every day. Do you hear me? When I close my eyes, I see you in front of me smiling. Do you see me? Every day I sit with my thoughts and am overcome by unspeakable anguish and pain. I ask myself, how did we reach this point? And today that pain is even sharper. You should be celebrating your birthday laughing with friends, blowing out candles with your two brothers and sister, hugging your father and me. You should be celebrating at home.

Naama, the images of your abduction broadcast to the world are images that I cannot unsee. Your bloodied sweatpants. Your handcuffed hands. The monster dragging you by the hair and forcing you into a car. Where that car took you and what’s happened to you since, the mind wanders down a cruel, dark path. It’s too much for a mother to bear.

Marking your birthday under these circumstances is surreal. I find myself looking at the same photo of you from a previous birthday, with your sweet face resting on your hands, your light brown hair flowing through a crown of yellow and white flowers. It seems like only yesterday. It seems like a lifetime ago.

Naama, you wouldn’t believe it, but this weekend, hundreds of people will gather in Central Park to mark your birthday. They will be wearing yellow and white headbands as an homage to your crown of flowers. You wouldn’t believe that you have become a symbol of determination. As people all over the world learned about you and your love for humanity, you have become an image of all that is good, even when everything seems so bad. Your dream of working toward peace and understanding is already being fulfilled. When you come back, your impact will take on added meaning.

Naama, on your birthday, my deepest wish is that the pain of these past months becomes just one chapter in a much bigger story – a story filled with so many bright moments that they outshine this period of darkness. My wish is for your freedom to arrive as soon as possible so that your healing can begin. My wish is to hold you just as I did for the first time on this day, 20 years ago, and to promise you that everything will be alright.

Love,

Mom


Parents of Israeli commander, 36, killed freeing Noa Argamani in Gaza op tell her family to 'live every day like it's the last on Earth'
Their son made the ultimate sacrifice saving Noa Argamani and three other hostages from Hamas in a daring rescue mission that has been named in his honour.

Now the parents of fallen special forces hero Arnon Zmora, 36, have told Noa's father that she must 'live every day like it's the last day on Earth'.

Reuven and Ruthi Zmora said goodbye to their son in hospital as families were reunited with the four rescued hostages just a few wards away.

But they say the father-of-two would have gone into Gaza even if he had known he was going to die in Operation Arnon on June 8.

The 36-year-old commander in the Yamam counter-terror police was shot in the head as he stormed the apartment holding Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 40.

Comrades battled to save Arnon for three hours as they evacuated the men alongside 26-year-old Noa, who was rescued from a flat 200 metres away.

A fierce firefight erupted as the vehicles got stuck and Israeli air support was called in which created a 'ring of fire' around the special forces.

While the Gaza health ministry claims hundreds died as the air force fought off Hamas terrorists firing RPGs, Yamam managed to get all the hostages and Arnon out.

But despite undergoing a blood transfusion on the way back to Israeli soil the commander died at Sheba Hospital, near Tel Aviv, later that day.

'There are no words,' his 62-year-old mother, Ruthi, a primary school teacher, told the Mail from their home in Central Israel.

'I don't think that we really understand that he won't come back. It's something that you can't imagine or understand in your heart.

'We knew the dangers - this was his life choice - but it's really painful to think that I won't see Arnon again.'

The family held an open funeral the following day in Jerusalem which was attended by relatives of those he saved and thousands of Israelis.
Israeli social worker consoled 2 kids as they hid from Hamas in closet for 12 hours after parents’ Oct. 7 murder: ‘Don’t open the door’
An Israeli social worker comforted two terrified kids for 12 grueling hours on Oct. 7 as they hid from Hamas terrorists in a tiny closet — inches from their mother’s corpse.

Photojournalist father-of-three Roy Mor Edan, 43, left the family’s home in Kfar Aza around 6:30 am and snapped photos of Hamas paragliders.

Unbeknownst to him, terrorists had entered his home and shot and killed his wife Smadar, 40, in front of their three children.

Mor Edan’s son Michael, 9, phoned his father for help and the father rushed home, picked up his youngest Abigail in his arms and fled with the other two kids in tow.

Hamas was lying in wait outside. They fatally shot Mor Edan, and took Abigail, 4, hostage.

Michael and Amelia, 6, scrambled back inside to their bedroom, where their mother’s dead body lay, and hid in the closet.

Hundreds of terrorists had flooded the kibbutz and police were too overwhelmed to rescue the kids. Volunteer ambulance service United Hatzalah got involved when their distressed aunt posted on Facebook begging for someone to please save her niece and nephew.

Dr. Tamar Shlezinger, a PHD social worker and volunteer who works with United Hatzalah’s psycho-trauma response unit Hosen — Hebrew for resilience — contacted the kids at 9:30 am.

“I’m afraid, please come save us!” Little Amelia begged in the heart-wrenching audio, provided to The Post by the heroic volunteer group.

“My daddy and mommy are dead because they shot them,” the 6-year-old says in the heartbreaking exchange.

Shlezinger assured the children that help was coming, and that she wouldn’t leave them.


‘My Colleagues Don’t Have Spine to Defend Jews’: Musicians, Influencers Discuss Digital Advocacy for Hamas Hostages
David Draiman, frontman of the American heavy metal band Disturbed, and musician Montana Tucker were among the panelists at an event in Israel on Monday that focused on media and digital advocacy for the hostages abducted from southern Israel on Oct. 7 by Hamas terrorists.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum hosted in Sderot a conference titled “Impacting Public Opinion Under Fire,” and it featured a panel discussion about “impacting public opinion on the hostages through social media.” The panelists included stand-up comedian Daniel-Ryan Spaulding, beauty influencer Ashley Waxman-Bakshi, and Daniel Braun, who has over 4 million followers on TikTok.

“It’s very hard to be one of the only ones; one of the only prominent Jews supporting our people during this incredibly difficult time,” said Draiman.

The “Sound of Silence” singer is currently in Israel touring the country and visited some of the kibbutz areas impacted by the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks. The singer talked during the panel discussion on Monday about losing many friends in the music industry because of his avid support for Israel, especially following Oct. 7.

Draiman shared that he used to have dinner on a regular basis in Los Angles with “two very dear friends of mine” — Serj Tankian, lead singer of System Of A Down, and American guitarist and singer-songwriter Tom Morello from the band Rage Against the Machine. Tankian has accused Israel of committing “war crimes” and “genocide” during the Israel-Hamas war, and Morello was among the anti-Israel activists who pressured the Download music festival to remove Barclays Bank as a sponsor of the event because of its association with Israel.

“I used to pride myself on being a man who always tried to cross the divide with everyone everywhere all the time … I can’t even speak to these people anymore,” Draiman said. “There’s no point trying to convince someone who’s been so seduced by the narrative of the other side.”

“Most of my colleagues simply don’t have the spine and the wherewithal to stand fast and to stand true in defense of the Jewish people,” he added. “They simply don’t.”


Call Me Back PodCast: Call me Back LIVE – with Michael Rapaport
Hosted by Dan Senor
Today in this special episode, we are releasing the first episode of the Call me Back podcast recorded before a very enthusiastic live audience at the Comedy Cellar in Manhattan. Our guest was actor, director and comedian Michael Rapaport.

The focus of our conversation is about how Michael became such an energetic, provocative, and hilarious voice on behalf of Israel and the Jewish people since 10/07, as well as his observations on why more Jews from the creative arts and entertainment industry have not been as outspoken as him (or, even worse, why so many have remained silent).

We also discuss his reaction to those who criticize Israel “as a Jew”, and his experience dealing with the professional cost of proudly advocating for Israel and the Jewish people.


Anti-Israel activists protest AOC, Bowman primary rally
Anti-Israel activists protested a Democratic Party primary rally for New York City congresspeople Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman on Saturday.

The event, which featured guests such as Senator Bernie Sanders, was according to the event website aimed at rousing supporters for canvasing before the Tuesday primaries -- but the "squad" members faced opposition from within the progressive coalition.

Within Our Lifetime demonstrated outside the event, demanding that the New York politicians un-endorsed US President Joe Biden in his incumbent race for the White House in November, and for them to renege on their denunciation of the anti-Israel group's June 10 protest of the Nova Music Festival Massacre exhibit.

Accusations of genocide
The activists accused Biden of supporting a supposed genocide in Gaza, and said that Ocasio-Cortez, Bowman, and Sanders had tied themselves to that alleged crime. According to footage published by WOL on Twitter, activists chanted "Over 40,000 dead, AOC your hands are red!"

While both Bowman and Ocasio-Cortez have been strong critics of the State of Israel and have framed their primary challenges as a fight against American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a WOL statement of demands said "To claim to support our struggle while aligning you yourself with Genocide Joe is an irreconcilable contradiction and we are here to pressure these election representative to abandon him."

As recompense for condemning the June 10 protest, WOL demanded that the progressive politicians reaffirm that "antizionism is not antisemitism."

Ocasio-Cortez had on June 11 taken to social media to condemn the protest, which saw the waving of Hamas and Hezbollah flags and a speech denigrating those massacred, as "callousness, dehumanization, and targeting of Jews." Bowman also condemned the protest as "antisemitic and unacceptable."

The activists rejected that their protest was antisemitic, contending that it was instead a "anti-colonial liberation struggle." WOL stood by the June 10 speech by its leader Nerdeen Kiswani and a June 12 statement, arguing that the exhibit on the massacre of civilians in southern Israel was "a propaganda project manufacturing consent for our people's genocide."

For its third demand, WOL called on the politicians to "recognize the right for an oppressed people to resist annihilation and engage in armed struggle as enshrined in international law."

Protesters at the event held up a banner that proclaimed "resistance until return."


My 20-minute conversation with a man who flew a swastika flag
Over the past few months, the world has been subjected to horrible imagery displayed in anti-Israel demonstrations. From the streets of London to the Harvard Yard commons, Palestinians and their advocates have screamed “Kill the Jews,” “Intifada,” and called to end Israel. Protesters have held marches, blocked highways, and “occupied” college campuses.

Many in the pro-Israel community worry that these protests have influenced American and global opinion against Israel. Not only have polls shown this to not be true, these protests, and their offensive methods and messaging, have helped influence American opinion to think positively about Israel.

On a hot Friday afternoon, I was trying to cool down by relaxing and perusing headlines when I saw a horrific story about a Palestinian who flew a large swastika-Nazi flag outside his off-road truck repair shop in Jacksonville, Florida. This wasn’t the first time Palestinians had used Nazi paraphernalia in their advocacy for Palestinian causes, but the insensitivity of brazenly associating with Nazis still shocked me. There wasn’t much I could do sitting in my house in Mitzpe Yeriho (a suburb of Jerusalem and Jericho), but it wouldn’t be right to do nothing.

I searched online for the number of the store, and before I had really thought about a plan found myself calling the number. The owner, Radi Ahmed, answered the call and asked how he could help me. I was taken aback that Ahmed would answer the phone like any other business. I was sort of expecting a greeting akin to “Heil Hitler” or “Free Palestine.” Without a plan and not sure why I called, I asked Ahmed if he had flown a Nazi swastika flag outside of his store. He responded by asking if I had called to curse him or to listen to him. I don’t think we should give Swastika-Nazi flag fliers a chance to express their views, but I heard myself saying, “Sure, I’ll listen to you.” Ahmed attempting to normalize the swastika

What Ahmed went on to say disgusted me. It didn’t surprise me; I’ve heard antisemitism and all the usual slanderous accusations of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians before Ahmed repeated them one by one as if reading off a list of Palestinian talking points. Ahmed’s complete normalization of the Nazi swastika flag and his attempts to equate Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to the German Nazi treatment of Jews without any sense of hesitation or shame repulsed me. As a grandchild and student of Holocaust survivors and a rabbi to survivors, listening to someone try to negate the singularity of the Holocaust sickened me.

AHMED TOLD me that the genocide being perpetrated by the Israelis in Gaza required him to go further than just protest Israeli actions but to make the point clear to everyone that Israel wasn’t legitimately carrying out a military operation but was carrying out a genocide akin to the Nazi genocide of the Jews during the Holocaust. “People need to know the truth!” Ahmed emphatically explained over the phone.

“You can’t know what it’s like to be a Palestinian under Israeli control in the West Bank, you’ve never seen it!” Ahmed continued to lecture me. “If you had ever seen what Palestinians go through on a daily basis, you’d agree that flying the Nazi swastika flag was an appropriate expression of protest to the Israeli genocide against Palestinians.” Throughout Ahmed’s lecture he mentioned checkpoints and other perceived wrongs (in Ahmed’s eyes) that Israel commits against Palestinians. I listened patiently to his rant and waited until he finished.

When Ahmed finished, I calmly explained to him that flying a Nazi swastika flag outside his store didn’t promote truth. I told him that he had every right to his views on Israel’s conduct during the war and its treatment of Palestinians. I disagree with his characterizations and know that he’s wrong. I told him that I considered his opinion slanderous, but I wasn’t going to convince him, and he wasn’t going to convince me. I did explain that I live in the region that he’s referencing and if eye-witness accounts are a determining factor – as he claimed – than my opinion should weigh more than his on these issues.
Masked anti-Israel protestor who accosted Jewish man on NYC subway revealed
The craven, masked pro-Palestine protester who made the front page of The Post after he allegedly accosted a Jewish man on the subway is a privileged, bicoastal agitator who still lives with mommy and daddy in their $1.8 million California home, The Post can reveal.

Christopher Khamis Victor Husary is an America-hating, former business major with arrests tied to protests in California and NYC — where he even scored a $17,000 payday last month after he claimed he was beaten by cops during a 2020 Black Lives Matter protest in Brooklyn, records show.

His identity was first uncovered by the activist organization Jew Hate Database based on Husary’s own social media posts — where he all but admitted he was the person on The Post’s June 15 cover.

“Goes to ny for a day,” Husary, 36, wrote alongside an Instagram post sharing the Post front page. “I can smell a baby killer from a mile away …. call homeland security … i went through jfk with this shirt & had all the patriots panicked af.

“i love real jews just fyi,” he added.

He made no bones about his twisted allegiances Friday when confronted by The Post at his family’s five-bedroom home in the tony San Francisco suburb of Hayward.


My University Is Known for Anti-Israel Activity; Here’s How I Am Fighting Back
York University, celebrated for its diverse student body and commitment to social justice, finds itself at a crossroads.

The institution is increasingly associated with anti-Israel activism, which is raising alarms not just among supporters of Israel, but for those who want a peaceful and respectful academic environment. This shift is adversely affecting York’s reputation, transforming the campus atmosphere, and influencing the discourse around complex international issues in its educational programs.

Speaking to many upcoming university students, I have noticed that York’s growing association with anti-Israel activism has hurt its reputation, due to students’ hesitancy in choosing our school. Normally, universities champion learning, research, and healthy debates — but that’s not the case at York, where Jews and supporters of Israel have been vilified and attacked.

York is supposed to represent a cross-section of viewpoints, but due to its reputation for anti-Israel activity, prospective students and teachers might start seeing York as a university overwhelmed by a single, dominating viewpoint. This could turn away people looking for a more neutral learning environment. Recently, the media has put a spotlight on York because of intense protests and activism on campus.

For instance, York University students set up a pro-Palestinian encampment, led by York Popular University for Palestine (YPU4P), demanding that the university divest from and disclose ties to entities involved in the “Palestinian genocide.” They also want the school to boycott Israeli academic institutions.

The increase in campus activism has created challenges for those with diverse perspectives, particularly concerning Israel. From my personal experience, this atmosphere often discourages students from expressing themselves freely, leading to a lack of diverse opinions — a crucial component of a robust education.

For instance, Jewish students or supporters of Israel may feel excluded or silenced, fearing negative reactions, and they are pleading for York University to intervene. But by not taking action to ensure safety and free debate on its campus, the school’s administration has contradicted the university’s goal of fostering an inclusive environment.
Columbia Dean Calls Cops on Free Beacon Reporter
Columbia College dean Josef Sorett called the police on Friday in response to a knock on his door from a Washington Free Beacon reporter.

The call came after the Free Beacon visited Sorett’s Morningside Heights residence to ask him about his involvement in a series of text messages he and three other Columbia University administrators sent during a panel on anti-Semitism late last month.

Sorett never came to the door, asked the Free Beacon to leave, or declined to answer questions. But when the Free Beacon emerged from the building, several campus policemen and New York City Police Department officers were outside and informed the Free Beacon that they had received a complaint.

A Free Beacon reporter approached Sorett's apartment building around 2 p.m. Friday and an employee let the reporter into the building. The reporter had come from campus, where Sorett was not present in his office.

When the Free Beacon rang Sorett’s doorbell, a female approached the door but never opened it. The reporter identified herself and her outlet and indicated her desire to speak with Sorett. She heard the woman call, "Babe?" but Sorett never came to the door.

After waiting for roughly 10 minutes, the Free Beacon left—and was greeted outside the apartment building by officers representing the New York City Police Department and Columbia University Public Safety.

A Columbia University Public Safety officer asked if the Free Beacon reporter was on Sorett's floor, telling the reporter he "got a call complaining, it's nothing crazy." The reporter provided identification and informed the officer of the purpose of the visit. The officer then appeared to take a call from a Columbia University official, saying, "It's a person from the press. I'm actually standing here talking to her right now at the front door."

The officer went on to suggest Sorett "raised a whole big issue" and said he was surprised that the NYPD also responded to the call.

"You saw the cops going in," the officer said. "I didn't even expect them to show up." After taking the Free Beacon reporter's information, the officer thanked the reporter. "You're all set," he said. "Thank you so much."

Sorett’s willingness to call the police to protect him from a reporter comes four years after he signed a 2020 faculty letter calling to "defund the NYPD by $1 billion."


New Jersey school district apologizes for offending Muslim group with question about ISIS terror group in quiz
A New Jersey school district apologized for offending a Muslim activist group this week after a middle school teacher featured a class quiz question naming the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, as a terror group.

The Wayne Township Public Schools superintendent’s office sent out a statement to the district expressing regret over an “inappropriate” question that was asked during a quiz at Schuyler-Colfax Middle School earlier this week.

“The question was offensive and contrary to our values of respect, inclusivity, and cultural sensitivity,” the office said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

The superintendent’s letter addressed a recent complaint made by the activist group “Teaching While Muslim” (TWM) on social media.

The group, which describes itself on its website as a network of Muslim educators that confronts “discrimination, implicit bias, and institutional racism” against Muslims in public schools, shared an Instagram post condemning a quiz question that one teacher posed to his seventh-grade students about the Islamic State.

The group shared a screenshot of the question, which read, “It is a terrorist organization that commits acts of violence, destroys cultural artifacts, and encourages loss of life in order to achieve its goal of global rule under strict Islamic Sharia law.”

Students were prompted to choose the group from the multiple choices below, which included, “The Shining Path,” “al Qaeda,” “Islamic State,” and the “Palestinian Liberation Organization.”

The image featured the “Islamic State” bubble filled in, as it was the correct answer. TWM condemned the question in the post’s caption, stating, “We have seen anti-Muslim & anti-Palestinian sentiments, teachers, and content in our schools over and over again. But we must not allow it to continue. Call and email everyone that you can.”

“This is not okay on a million levels. Go. And yes. This is real,” the post added. It also included a screenshot of the school principal’s alleged apology for the question, as pointed out by conservative journalist Andy Ngo on X.
‘Nothing short of a scandal’: USYD does deal with Islamists
NSW Jewish Board of Deputies (JBD) president David Ossip said the the University of Sydney’s engagement with the Jewish community “has been thoroughly deceptive and insulting” after vice chancellor Mark Scott did a deal with Islamist groups linked to the extremist Hizb ut-Tahrir to pack up their ostensibly pro-Palestinian encampment.

In a deal announced on Friday as the Jewish community was getting ready for Shabbat, Scott offered the Sydney University Muslim Students Association full disclosure of all research agreements, partnerships and all investments in defence and security-related industries, in addition to a seat on the university’s working group that will review its investment policies.

The deal was outlined on the Muslim Students Association’s Instagram account in a collaborative post with the group Stand4PalestineAus. An explosive 60 Minutes report last weekend revealed the latter’s ties to Hizb ut-Tahrir.

Ossip said the university had “hideously capitulated” in doing the deal “with a group dominated by Hizb ut-Tahrir – an organisation proscribed as a terrorist organisation in much of the world including the UK”.

“This is nothing short of a scandal,” Ossip said.

“Despite assurances to the Jewish community that any offer to the encampment was off the table and that the university would be pursuing alternate options to clear the encampment, the University instead reopened negotiations with Hizb ut-Tahrir.”

He said when the JBD found out on Wednesday about the negotiations and formally requested immediate crisis talks, “Mark Scott ignored this request and has still not picked up the phone to us.

“Instead, the University negotiated with only one side, reached an agreement with a group dominated by Hizb ut-Tahrir, sought to bury the story on a Friday night and allowed the radical activists to first announce the deal.”
Antisemitism ‘in the air’ at Stanford, university committee finds
A new report from a Stanford committee focused on addressing antisemitism and anti-Israel bias determined that antisemitism is “widespread and pernicious” at the elite Palo Alto, Calif., university, capturing the atmosphere on campus in its eye-catching title: “It’s in the air.” The 148-page document is the first official account to be released publicly by the committee, which was created by Stanford President Richard Saller in November weeks after the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks in Israel set off a wave of antisemitism on American campuses.

Comprising Stanford faculty, staff, students and alumni, the 12 members of the committee detailed the hostile conditions faced by Jewish and Israeli students on campus since October. They described an environment of intimidation and fear, with students and Jewish faculty facing a complex mixture of exclusion and harassment. The report’s authors outlined instances of antisemitism across campus — in the classroom, on social media, in residential life and at campus protests.

“Some of this bias is expressed in overt and occasionally shocking ways,” the committee found, “but often it is wrapped in layers of subtlety and implication, one or two steps away from blatant hate speech.”

Occasionally, the level of antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment “reached a level of social injury that deeply affected people’s lives,” the report’s authors found. Students moved out of dorm rooms because of antisemitic incidents, such as mezuzot being torn down from their doors; some students were “ostracized, canceled or intimidated” for identifying openly as Jewish “or for simply being Israeli”; other Jewish students feared displaying Jewish symbols “for fear of losing friendships or group acceptance.”

One incident of particular concern, which was reported widely in the fall, happened days after Oct. 7, when the instructor of an undergraduate seminar asked Jewish students to raise their hands, saying “he was simulating what Jews were doing to Palestinians” by taking a Jewish student’s personal belongings while the student was “turned around and looking out the window,” according to the report. The instructor also minimized the deaths of Jews in the Holocaust. The instructor was suspended, and his contract expired at the end of last year. But more than 1,700 students signed a petition supporting him; Stanford has an undergraduate population of roughly 7,800.
Title VI: Lafayette College did not ‘redress hostile environment’ on campus
A review by the federal government determined that administrators at Lafayette College in Easton, Pa., failed to properly follow the 1964 Civil Rights Act in response to campus antisemitism.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced on Friday that it found that the school “did not adequately discharge its obligation to take steps reasonably designed to assess the existence of, or redress any hostile environment affecting its campus.”

The OCR noted that administrators had “misapplied the legal standard, particularly with respect to harassment occurring on social media.” The agency described how “records show inconsistent responses to the same conduct depending on whether it occurred on or off campus.”

The announcement said Lafayette University’s responses to Jew-hatred “were not reasonably designed to redress any hostile environment” and its efforts to counter social-media threats also failed in “recognizing its Title VI obligation.”

In response, the school agreed to a review of its policies and increased training for all employees on following Title VI legal requirements.

Catherine E. Lhamon, OCR assistant secretary, said Lafayette’s “commitments today build on many laudable practices the college already had in place to support its campus community against discrimination, importantly bringing its responses in line with applicable Title VI legal requirements.”
Visegrad24: HIDDEN CAM: Queens College Platforms Radical Islamist YouTuber On Campus
Our undercover investigative series of exposés into American higher education institutions, has shown the widespread institutional anti-Semitism from the top down from the admins to the professoriate down to the student activists and the agitprop protesters who’ve invaded campuses from NY to CA is back in NYC.

This latest in the series exposes the public higher education CUNY (City University of NY) system on their Queens College campus. It is worth noting that CUNY even put together an anti semitism task force headed by the well regarded jurist and former head of the NY Appeal Court, Judge Jonathan Lippman. And earlier this week the federal Dept of Education’s Office for Civil Rights determined that Queens College did not do enough to protect Jewish students.

What we found on Queens College campus in this investigation was shocking. The MSA (Muslim Students Association) brought to campus the well publicized speaker Daniel Haqiqatjou earlier this year and his rhetoric was filled with hateful tropes, classic anti semitic “blood libels” against Jews, and outright calls for violent warfare (known colloquially in Islamism as “jihad”). This speaker has been well demonstrated to be a hatemonger by the ADL and has been covered by such on all sides including by outlets such as National Review.

What makes this event even more shocking beyond the speaker’s inflammatory rhetoric (which our journalist caught on tape) is the attendance at this lecture by the Dean of Students Dwayne D. Jones Sr., who when asked by our journalist about it he openly admitted to being there and since then has in no way made any statements disavowing this speaker’s presence on campus. This willful sanctioning of this speaker by high up administration being present is a clear form of complicity with this speaker’s hate speech and certainly would not make Jewish students feel safe on this campus.

Some of the speaker’s statements captured on tape by our journalist boggle the mind that they might be said on a college campus in 2024 and even more so at a taxpayer funded school with an antisemitism task force convened to address exactly this issue. A few examples of many of these noxious statements he can be seen making to students include:

“Racial superiority is one of the main, or a very significant teaching, within the Jewish religious texts”

“This was the claim, mass rape. Reality? False. It’s completely debunked as a hoax.”

“The IDF has been raping, Israel has been raping, not only other IDF soldiers but Palestinians”

“Israel has flouted all international law, they have flouted all standards of basic human decency, they have committed war crime after war crime shamelessly”

“So when it comes to war, like this is something that maybe is the only thing that Israel is gonna understand, if surrounding countries, if they wake up one day and realize that Israel’s plan is not just to wipe out the Palestinians, they have other regional interests”

“If there needs to be a military intervention then inshallah that will happen. That’s what we want. To make it very clear, that’s what we want.”

He is also caught on tape endorsing hostage taking by Hamas in order to improve their leverage “to gain some semblance of a future so as not be ethnically cleansed or genocided.” And he bashes prominent Jewish American conservative speaker Ben Shapiro as being a racist who tweets racist attacks against Muslims.

Our expose also shows harassment of Jewish students on campus by the terrorist sympathizing activists and that the campus is filled with anti semitic graffiti and pro Hitler messages scrawled on bathroom stall walls.

Queens College truly has the cancer of anti semitism on its campus and this rot needs to be dealt with much more than the attempts already seemingly undertaken as it still persists and seems to be spreading unchecked.




The Dark Side of Gaza’s Photojournalism
When Yarden Bibas was brutally kidnapped on October 7th, his abduction was freely documented by a professional media worker. What does this reveal about Hamas and Gaza journalists?

We uncover the unsettling truth about how some journalists exploit tragedy for profit and how Hamas uses them to spread their message.


New York Times Calls Israel ‘Aggressive,’ Explains Away Hamas Tunnels
Read the New York Times news coverage carefully enough, and the subtle language tricks that the paper’s reporters and editors use to excuse Hamas and demonize Israel start to seem less subtle, more blatant and outrageous.

Two recent articles provide examples of the Times’s techniques.

One Times dispatch, from a university in Brussels, is by the Times bureau chief there, Matina Stevis-Gridneff.

She offers this context about the conflict: “Jan Danckaert, the university’s rector, had started a listening tour of the campus soon after Hamas led attacks on Israel on Oct. 7. About 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 were taken hostage in those attacks, according to the Israeli authorities, setting off an aggressive Israeli military response that has killed more than 37,000 Gazans, according to health officials there.”

The Times sprinkles an adjective, “aggressive,” into its description of Israel’s response, but the Hamas-led attacks get no such pejorative label from the Times.

Elsewhere in the same dispatch, we hear that, “The three Jewish students disagreed on politics, expressing views ranging from mostly pro-Palestinian to largely siding with the Israeli government line.” Some editor should have edited out “line.” There’s an asymmetry between “pro-Palestinian” and “largely siding with the Israeli government line.” Why not just “pro-Israel,” or, if the Times insists on going down the road of accusing people of taking a party line, what about “siding with the Palestine Liberation Organization line”?

Another Times article, by Matthew Mpoke Bigg, is about a Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar. That article explains in passing that, “Hamas has constructed a network of tunnels beneath Gaza to shield the group from Israeli surveillance and attack.”

That seems like an awfully benign, to the point of inaccurate, way of describing the reason Hamas built those tunnels. It might also be said that Hamas built the tunnels so they could pursue, under cover of secrecy, their mission of killing Jews and wiping Israel off the map. It could be said that the tunnels also advanced the Hamas purpose of hiding from the rest of the world the scale to which they were looting Gaza’s economy and diverting humanitarian aid resources for military use. The “shield…from Israeli attack” language the Times uses makes it sound like the tunnels are defensive, when in fact the tunnels were offensive, used to conceal preparations for attacks on Israel that were perpetrated by Hamas.


The new anti-Israel right’s failure to launch
In four days, Democratic voters will settle the most expensive House primary in American history, capping off a long season of brutal fights over Israel. Most of the money — $14.5 million and counting — has flowed from the pro-Israel group AIPAC, which has spent across the country against Democratic critics of the war in Gaza.

The group has spent less than $400,000 against Republicans, all of it targeting Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, a longtime opponent of foreign aid. “The reason they’re mad at me,” Massie told Semafor, “is that Mike Johnson keeps bringing votes on Israel to the floor to try to catch the Democrats in what I call sticky traps.” His own votes stood out, he said, because no other Republican was applying the party’s Trump-era skepticism of foreign entanglements and spending to Israel.

Nine months after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, support for the war has been slipping. But calls for ceasefires and conditions on US aid have been concentrated among Democrats. Republicans, and the most powerful conservative groups, have largely spoken with one voice while shoving a relatively small minority of dissenting voices to the side with little incident.

“The vast majority of Republicans are resolutely pro-Israel,” said Turning Point Action founder Charlie Kirk, in an interview at the group’s “people’s convention” in Detroit last week.

Nick Fuentes, an antisemitic influencer, was turned away from the conference, dubbing it “Israel-occupied territory.” Kirk had already been confronted by young anti-Israel activists on the right for years, and surmised that they were getting no traction in his party.

“The only objections you might hear on the right is about the amount of money being spent, or whether there should be strings attached,” Kirk said. “You do not hear anywhere in the conservative base that we should not support Israel in their war against Hamas. We will disagree on how that support should look, but not on who is in the right.”

Republican presidents were tougher on Israel in the past; even George W. Bush’s administration clashed with its leaders at times over its push for a two-state solution. But since 9/11 and the Second Intifada, the conservative consensus has consistently moved in one direction — toward strong, full-throated support for Israel as its standard position.
RFK Jr.’s claims that Ashkenazi Jews are more immune to COVID reemerge
In recent interviews, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has returned to bizarre and widely denounced claims he first made nearly a year ago that the COVID-19 virus was “ethnically targeted” such that Ashkenazi Jewish and Chinese people were more immune, and Caucasians and Black people less so.

Kennedy doubled down on the claims in a recent interview, News Center Maine, an NBC affiliate, reported earlier this week. “This is a scientific study. It’s not a racist statement. It’s just the truth,” Kennedy said in a brief clip included in the News Center Maine segment.

The full context of Kennedy’s remarks was not included in the clip, but the study Kennedy has repeatedly cited in connection to the claims does not appear to support them.

His campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Kennedy was first reported to have made the claims in a meeting with reporters in July 2023. He later denied making the comments, saying he was instead arguing that the U.S. and other governments are developing “ethnically targeted bioweapons.” He subsequently said that he “should’ve been more careful about what I said.”

In the original comments, Kennedy said, “COVID-19. There is an argument that it is ethnically targeted. COVID-19 attacks certain races disproportionately… COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese. We don’t know whether it was deliberately targeted or not but there are papers out there that show the racial or ethnic differential and impact.”

Kennedy again addressed the claims in an interview this week with The Young Turks, a progressive digital publication. In that interview, he appeared to express a somewhat different opinion than he did in the News Center Maine interview, while again misrepresenting the study’s conclusions.

“I was just citing a peer-reviewed published paper,” Kennedy said. “There’s certainly some nations that did a lot better but we don’t know why… I wasn’t saying [the paper] was true.”


‘The only person I can trust is myself’: Women explain rush to buy guns after Oct. 7
With many Israelis gripped by a sense of insecurity following Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack, the number of women applying for gun permits has soared, while feminist groups have criticized the rush to arms.

According to security ministry data, there have been 42,000 applications by women for gun permits since the attack, with 18,000 approved, more than tripling the number of pre-war licenses held by women.

The surge has been enabled by the loosening of gun laws under the government and its far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

More than 15,000 women civilians now own a firearm in Israel and the West Bank, with 10,000 enrolled in mandatory training, according to the ministry.

“I would have never thought of buying a weapon or getting a permit, but since October 7, things changed a little bit,” political science professor Limor Gonen told AFP during a weapons handling class at a shooting range in the West Bank settlement of Ariel.

The October 7 attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of some 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians. Israel’s subsequent offensive has killed at least 37,000 people in Gaza, according to Hamas, in figures that cannot be independently verified. Israel says it has killed some 15,000 terror operatives in battle. A picture taken on May 23, 2024, shows Limor Gonen being shown how to use a handgun at a shooting range in the Israeli settlement of Ariel in the West Bank. (MENAHEM KAHANA / AFP)

“We were all targeted [on October 7] and I don’t want to be taken by surprise, so I’m trying to defend myself,” Gonen said after the class, an obligatory step for acquiring a permit.
IDF: Soldiers who tied hurt Palestinian to vehicle acted ‘contrary to orders and procedures’
The IDF says troops who tied a wounded Palestinian to the hood of a military vehicle in the northern West Bank this morning acted against army protocols.

Troops had operated in the Wadi Burqin area, adjacent to the city of Jenin, to detain wanted Palestinians. Amid the operation, the IDF says troops returned fire at gunmen who shot at the soldiers.

The man was shot and detained amid the gun battles by troops who suspected he was involved in the gunfire. He was brought out of the area while tied to the vehicle’s hood.

However, he was later handed over to the Red Crescent.

The IDF in response to a query on the matter says the soldiers’ actions were “contrary to orders and procedures.”

“The conduct seen in the video is not consistent with the IDF’s orders and what is expected of its soldiers,” the military says.

It adds that the “incident is being investigated and will be dealt with accordingly.”


West Bank Palestinian laborers in despair after eight months without jobs in Israel
Ibrahim, a father of four, sat with friends in his living room in the Palestinian village of Hizme, just outside Jerusalem, to talk about the hardship of unemployment over the past eight months: “The Israeli government cannot wage war on every Palestinian as if we are all guilty [of Hamas’s crimes],” he said.

A professional tiler in his late forties, Ibrahim has been at home on most days since October 7, when Hamas terrorists rampaged through southern Israel, killing nearly 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage to Gaza.

Within hours of the onslaught, the Israeli government announced the suspension of work permits for about 150,000 West Bank Palestinians who had been commuting daily to work inside Israel, plus another 18,500 Palestinians from Gaza, leaving an economic hole on both sides of the border.

It is estimated that besides permit holders, an additional 50,000 West Bank laborers were sneaking through the border illegally each day before October 7.

Among those who found themselves unable to work in Israel, where salaries are considerably higher than in the West Bank, were around 80,000 Palestinians who used to work on Israeli construction sites, many of them highly specialized in sectors such as ironwork, flooring, formwork and plastering.

In Israel, Ibrahim earned on average NIS 600 a day ($160) and could live a comfortable life in his hometown of Hizme, halfway between Jerusalem and Ramallah, right outside one of the checkpoints at the entrance to Jerusalem.

Before October 7, many of the 8,000 residents of the village would commute daily to work in the greater Jerusalem area, a short drive away.


Yemen's Houthis claim attack on four ships at Israel's Haifa port
Yemen's Houthis said early on Sunday that they had conducted a joint military operation with the Islamic Resistance in Iraq militant group, targeting four ships at Israel's northern Haifa port.

The Houthi military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said in a televised statement that the two groups launched a drone attack on two cement tankers and two cargo ships at the Haifa port on Saturday.

He said the ships belonged to companies that "violated the ban on entering the ports of occupied Palestine."

Escalating attacks
The Israeli military did not immediately comment, though it had previously denied a similar claim by the Houthis early this month.

Saree also said the Houthis had attacked the Shorthorn Express in the Mediterranean using drones as part of the group's campaign to disrupt shipping in key waterways, which they say is an act of solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza war.

"The two operations successfully achieved their objectives, and the strikes were precise and direct," Saree said.

There was no independent confirmation of strikes, and Reuters could not verify the claims.

The Iran-aligned Houthis first launched drone and missile strikes in shipping lanes in November. In dozens of attacks, they have sunk two vessels, seized another and killed at least three seafarers.


FDD: Iran and Taliban discuss “joint action” against Israel
The foreign ministers of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Taliban discussed taking “joint action” against Israel in support of Hamas. The Taliban and Iran have cooperated in the past to oust the US from Afghanistan and overthrow the Afghan government.

Iranian Interim Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani and Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi called on the member states of the Islamic Cooperation Organization to exert pressure on Israel during a phone conversation between the two diplomats, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-affiliated outlet Mehr News reported on June 17.

The Taliban had informed Tehran that it is prepared to deploy thousands of troops to fight against Israel, a senior reporter working with the Lebanese Hezbollah-run Al Akhbar Daily claimed in an interview on June 13. Iran has sought to facilitate a relationship between the Taliban and the Iranian regime’s proxies, including Hezbollah.

A week prior, Tehran hosted various meetings between members of the Taliban and Hamas, in addition to other high-level gatherings during the funeral of former Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in late May. Taliban Foreign Ministry Deputy Spokesperson Hafiz Zia Ahmad reported on the meetings between Hamas Chief Political Leader Ismail Haniyah and Taliban Deputy Prime Minister Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and Foreign Minister Mullah Abdul Ghani held in Tehran on May 23.

Iran and the Taliban align on Israel
The Tehran regime and the Taliban administration have reaffirmed their growing ties and anti-Israel sentiment throughout the Gaza conflict. In February 2024, Iranian Special Presidential Envoy for Afghanistan Affairs Hassan Kazemi Qomi stated that “if need be, a martyrdom division from Afghanistan is prepared to fight in Gaza,” adding that “the way we see it, Afghanistan is also part of the Axis of Resistance.”

Following the Islamic Republic’s April 13 drone and missile attack on Israel, the Taliban was quick to issue a statement supporting the action by employing a similar rhetoric regarding Israel. The next day, Taliban Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Abdul Qahar Balkhi posted on X that Iran’s attack on the “criminal Zionist regime” was a “legitimate defense.”

Iran supported the Taliban’s insurgency
Although the Taliban and Iran have clashed in the recent past over controversial issues such as water rights and refugees, the two also cooperated for nearly two decades as the Taliban fought to expel the US and its allies from Afghanistan. The Taliban ultimately succeeded when the US left the country in August 2021.

Iran provided significant support for the Taliban, including safe havens, training, finances, intelligence, and weapons. The extent of this assistance was proven in US federal court in October 2022, in Cabrera v. Iran. (Note: Bill Roggio was a witness in this case. His expert report can be read here, and the court’s opinion can be read here.)

Iran supported the Taliban because it did not want the US to maintain a presence on its eastern border, nor did it want an American-friendly government in power in Afghanistan. Not only did Iran provide a safe haven for Taliban leaders and fighters in Iran, but it also operated training facilities for Taliban recruits. Additionally, Iran provided safe havens and support to Taliban allies such as Al Qaeda. Top Al Qaeda leaders, including the group’s purported emir, Sayf al Adl, are known to operate in Iran.

Additionally, Iranian members of Qods Force, the external operations branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), entered Iran to provide training, advice, and intelligence to Taliban commanders in western and southern Afghanistan. IRGC support for Taliban networks extended all the way into the capital of Kabul.

While discussions of Taliban support for Iran’s proxy terror network may be downplayed as aspirational or propaganda, they should not be dismissed out of hand, given the deep ties developed between the Taliban and Iran over the past two decades.
Pressure mounts on NGO to sever ties with ex-Iran official who supports atomic
American expert on Iran, Alireza Nader, told the Jerusalem Post last week that former Iranian regime nuclear negotiator Seyed Hossein Mousavian, who expressed a desire for the former Islamic Republic president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to have built an atomic bomb, has a goal which is to "advance Iran’s nuclear weapons program all along. But why does Princeton continue to present this dangerous man as a trustworthy academic?”

Mousavian previously told an Iranian regime-controlled news outlet, “If I was the decision-maker [during the Ahmadinejad era] … I would have produced a nuclear bomb.” Nader added “It’s incredible that the Obama and Biden administrations relied on Mousavian as a credible interlocutor and advocate on the nuclear issue."

Nader’s criticism of the pro-Hamas and pro-Hezbollah academic, Mousavian, who teaches at Princeton University, comes amid a slated Thursday demonstration against the former Iranian official in front of the Körber Foundation in Hamburg, Germany.

A multi-pronged international campaign launched by the California-based Alliance Against Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists (AAIRIA) is demanding that Körber and Princeton sever ties with Mousavian.

Mina Ahadi, a prominent Iranian dissident in Germany, is spearheading the Hamburg protest against Mousvaian. In a public letter to the director of Körber, Lothar Dietmar, Ahadi wrote, “Mousavian has been active in the Iranian government since his youth and served as ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Germany under the governments of [Akbar] Rafsanjani and [Mohammad] Khatami. He is accused of being involved in the killings of at least 24 opponents of the Islamic Republic abroad, including the Mykonos massacre.” Seyed Hossein Mousavian Endorsed Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's Fatwa Condemning British Author Salman Rushdie To Death (credit: MEMRI)
Iran top court overturns rapper Toomaj Salehi's death sentence, lawyer says
Iran's supreme court has overturned Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi's death sentence on charges linked to the country's 2022-23 period of unrest, his lawyer wrote in a post on the X social media platform on Saturday.

"The death sentence of #Toomaj_Salehi was overturned and based on the appeal decision ...of the Supreme Court, the case will be referred to (another) branch for consideration," attorney Amir Raisian wrote on X.

There was no immediate official confirmation of the ruling.

Protesting against Iran's brutal killing of Mahsa Amini
Salehi's songs supported protests sparked by the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish Iranian woman arrested for allegedly wearing an "improper" hijab.

Salehi was prosecuted on charges of corruption on earth, a charge used often by the regime in Iran to target activists.
French YouTube Channel Tackles False Narratives About Israel, Jews in an Effort to Combat Antisemitism
A recently launched French-language YouTube channel aims to combat misinformation about Jewish and Israel-related topics, and help stop the spread of antisemitism, by providing young French speakers with educational videos based on facts and the truth.

The YouTube channel “On déballe!”,” which translates to “We unpack”, features videos on Judaism, the Jewish people and Israel that were originally shared on the “Unpacked” English-language channel, including one on “The History of Ethiopian Jews” and another that discusses how a boycott of Israel harms Palestinians instead of aiding them. Some other videos debunk antisemitic conspiracy theories and stereotypes, like myths about a “Jewish-looking” nose and lies about Jews running the slave trade in America. The videos are translated into French, which is the fifth most spoken language worldwide, and hosted by native French speakers.

“Unpacked” is a division of OpenDor Media, a non-profit media organization that produces and distributes short-form educational videos as well as full-length documentary films about Jewish- and Israel-related topics for a young audience. The company says it hopes to impact as many people as possible with its content and make Jewish education, values and stories accessible to all. Its name is inspired by the Hebrew word Dor, which means “generation.”

In 2022, the organization had 9 million YouTube video views and 1,811 institutions used their education materials, according to its website.

“We believe that misinformation can lead to ignorance and hate, and by providing accurate, nuanced, and thoughtful content, we can inform audiences with credible information on Israel and the Jewish people and do our part to combat antisemitism,” OpenDor Media’s Chief Executive Officer Andrew Savage told The Algemeiner. “Unfortunately, antisemitism is increasing rapidly in France, and around the world, and our hope is that by shedding light on the truth, we can help turn this troubling trend around.”

The YouTube videos on “On déballe!” discuss topics that would cater best to a French audience — like the Dreyfus Affair and whether or not Napoleon Bonaparte invented Judaism — as well as what was successful and popular among audiences on the “Unpacked” English channel, Savage explained.
Two French teens charged over terror plot to attack Jewish targets
French prosecutors have charged a 19-year-old man and a youth in the Paris region with planning a terror attack on Jewish targets, a judicial source told AFP on Friday.

While no details on the pair have been released, French anti-terrorist investigators have expressed increased concern over the young age of some suspects detained in recent months for planning militant attacks.

The 19-year-old has been charged with “terrorist conspiracy” to commit attacks and the “acquisition and possession of arms for a terrorist enterprise,” said the judicial source, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The youth, aged under 18, was detained on June 13, the source said.

The pair made contact on social media and were planning a “a violent action notably aiming at Jewish targets,” said the source without giving details on the plot.

Anti-terrorism investigators say a growing number of youths have been held in recent months for preparing attacks.

“This is a necessarily worrying phenomenon,” senior anti-terrorist prosecutor Olivier Christen said at an evidentiary hearing on Wednesday.

French politicians have also condemned a growing number of attacks on the country’s Jewish community, the biggest outside Israel and the United States.

Outrage has been expressed over the rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl in a park in the Paris suburbs last Saturday. Two 13-year-old boys have been charged with rape and making antisemitic insults.


An Israeli-American Author Delivers a Pitch-Perfect Academic Satire
Maya Arad’s latest trio of novellas, recently published in English translation as The Hebrew Teacher, all concern Israelis who, like herself, live in the United States. In her review, Allegra Goodman finds them all rewarding, but the best is a biting academic satire that features a professor of Jewish literature who hates the Jews:
The first time I laughed out loud was on page eleven, when Ilana Goldstein, the titular Hebrew teacher, . . . meets the newly minted professor of Hebrew and Jewish literature at her midwestern university. Yoad Bergman-Harari . . . had “been born Yoad Harari, but during his university studies he’d added on his father’s original name, Bergman.” In her innocence, Ilana asks why. “‘To negate the negation of the diaspora,’ he replied, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.”

Arad is pitch perfect as she captures Yoad’s arrogance, his interest in problematizing literature rather than reading or teaching it, and his determination to distance himself from Jewish literature and culture in particular. Of course, the more unlikeable Yoad seems, the more attractive he becomes to Ilana’s chair. How he will keep Yoad here is his main concern.

Valiantly, Ilana carries on with her Israel independence celebration in the face of activists with a Palestine Liberation Organization flag and signs declaring “Remember Nakba Day” and “Support Palestine.” In protests that now seem almost quaint, campus activists craft a BDS petition signed by faculty, including Yoad, and published in the campus paper.


New Middle East discovery may corroborate epic biblical account, expert says
A recent discovery in Israel may corroborate an epic biblical account of an angel of the Lord wiping out 185,000 Assyrian soldiers, an independent scholar claims.

Stephen Compton, an independent scholar specializing in Near Eastern archaeology, utilized a modern mapping technique to find the discovery of, what he believes, are ancient Assyrian military camps, from circa 700 B.C.

The discovery, which is also detailed in Assyrian texts, Greek histories and the Hebrew Bible, could verify the biblical account of 2 Kings 19:35; Isaiah 37: 36-38 and 2 Chronicles, 32:21.

The scholar detailed his finds in the journal Near Eastern Archaeology and shared with Fox News Digital the historical significance.

"One of the important cities that he conquered, which is mentioned in the Bible as well as in Assyrian documents, is Lachish," he said. "And on the wall of Sennacherib's palace he had a relief depicting, in stone carving, the conquest of the city of Lachish, and then after one side his military camp. And his military camp was a large oval. This image from the wall of his palace is now on the wall of the British Museum. But it's never been found."

Matching the landscape to the relief in Assyrian King Sennacherib's palace and using early aerial photographs of Lachish prior to modern development, Compton created a virtual map to pinpoint the site of the military camp.

The oval shape of Assyrian King Sennacherib's military camp helped narrow down Compton's research.

"We knew it was an oval. What I did was I took the image of the relief and match it up with recognizable features in the landscape with the actual landscape and overlayed the two," he said. "I used earlier photographs of the landscape from World War II, right before major changes were made."

"And it was a match," he said.

Compton said the military camp's location, position, dates and name fit into the historical context of Sennacherib’s invasion camp.




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