Hamas and Genocide in Israel
"Article II: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such..." — Definition of genocide, The United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, December 9, 1948.My Son Was the First American Killed by Hamas
Their genocidal aim, clear to the Hamas terrorists, was to murder Jews; others, such as Asians and Muslims, were also murdered. What is illuminating is how easily the civilized world, in this instance, accepted that as well as the abduction of 250 hostages. Those who slaughter and take hostages should be the subject of disgrace and condemnation. Instead, frequently, they were celebrated.
Israel, of necessity, responded to this massacre. Israel's goals, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, called by Andrew Roberts "the Churchill of the Middle East," are "returning hostages from Gaza, eliminating Hamas' military and governing capabilities, ensuring that Gaza will not constitute a threat against Israel and also returning displaced Israeli residents securely to their homes in both the south and the north." Israel's goal is not to destroy the Palestinians, Arabs or Gazan civilians.
The situation of displaced Gazans -- temporary evacuations are allowed by Geneva IV, Article 49 -- is certainly unfortunate; however, the main problem is the aggressive nature of Iran's and Hamas's totalitarian regimes. That is what has led to the October 7 massacre and is the seminal reason for the war and the Gazan casualties.
"Israel Implemented More Measures to Prevent Civilian Casualties Than Any Other Nation in History"; "Israel Has Created a New Standard for Urban Warfare: Why Will No One Admit it?" — John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point; Newsweek, January 31, 2024, and March 25, 2024.
It is, in fact, Iran and Hamas that should be on trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
"Hamas is a religious movement, and they are a raging religious movement against Israel. The mainstream media cannot say this because they are afraid to ignite a religious war. And what I say, it already is. They want to annihilate the Jewish people because they are Jewish people, because they are a Jewish state." — Mosab Hassan Yousef, son of Hamas co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef, Fox News, October 23, 2023.
The recent news that a group called American Muslims for Palestine was ordered by a Virginia court to provide financial documentation to state Attorney General Jason Miyares as part of an investigation into the group’s funding sources and allegations it may have used funds for “benefitting or providing support to terrorist organizations,” was another reminder of the need to shut down Hamas and its terror tentacles worldwide. But to me, the news hit particularly hard, because my son David Boim was the first American citizen killed by Hamas.The Lancet’s anti-Israel pseudoscience
It was Monday, May 13 of 1996, and David was 17. Although he was born in New York, he was studying at a yeshiva in Israel, and, that fateful morning, he was standing at a bus stop with his friends, chatting happily as he waited for his ride back home to Jerusalem.
Tragically, Amjad Hinawi and Khalil Tawfiq Al-Sharif had other, evil plans. The two Hamas terrorists contemplated an attack on a nearby military base, but the sight of soldiers with guns made them lose heart. Better, they reasoned, to seek out more vulnerable targets. Driving around, they first shot at a bus, wounding two passengers. Then, they spotted the kids at the bus stop and opened fire.
David’s friend Yair Greenbaum was shot in the chest and later recovered. David wasn’t so lucky: He was struck in the head and was pronounced dead within the hour. Hinawi and Al-Sharif fled to the Palestinian Authority and remained committed to murder and terrorism. A year after he had murdered my son, Al-Sharif blew himself up on Jerusalem’s Ben Yehuda street, killing five and wounding 192 Israelis.
The same newspapers that minimized our suffering as understandable collateral damage today continue to draw false equivalences. The same so-called defenders of human rights extend sympathy to everyone but Jews.
Over the years since David was murdered, I have visited his grave hundreds of times. I told him about the lawsuit his father and I filed against American organizations we believed were fundraising fronts for Hamas. I shared with him the good news when we won that lawsuit in 2004 and were awarded a $156 million judgment. And I wept for him as the same organizations found guilty of providing material support to the terrorists quickly disbanded rather than comply with the court’s ruling. Then I was told that many of the same terrorism supporters went on to play very similar roles in very similar organizations, only with different names.
I’m not a lawyer and not a legal expert, but I know a mockery of justice when I see one, which is why my husband and I decided to file another lawsuit and insist that justice prevail.
But it’s not the legal proceedings I’ve been thinking about since Oct. 7. It’s not even hearing that some of the very same people who provided support to my son’s killers are now training young college students, not much older than David was when he was murdered, to once again hate and assault Jews. Rather, it’s that so little seems to have changed since my son was shot for no other reason than being Jewish. The same terrorists who helped plan my son’s execution are now overseeing the murder and kidnapping of other young Jews. The same newspapers that, back then, minimized our suffering as understandable collateral in a complicated conflict continue to draw false equivalences and refuse to condemn the murderers for what they are. The same so-called defenders of human rights and dignity seem to extend sympathy to all but the targeted Jews.
You’d think that all this causes me nothing but anguish. But that’s not the case.
When I lost David, I swore to myself that his death shall not be in vain. That even though I cannot bring him back to me, hold him once more in my arms, tell him again how proud I am of him and how much I love him, I can—and will—not only hold the perpetrators and their helpers accountable, but also continue to warn the world about what happens when we let evil men do evil things without standing up for what’s right.
And the horrors of Oct. 7 reminded me that my work here is far from done.
The eye-catching nature of the 186,000 figure, as well as the fact it was published in such a well-respected medical journal, has turned it into international news. It has been seized on by pro-Palestine campaigners. It was spray-painted by vandals on the ground by the Cenotaph in London last week, and has been quoted as fact by a Labour MP.
Some might try to argue that these outlandish figures are in no way being endorsed by the Lancet, as they were published in a letter and not a peer-reviewed article. But this is tosh. Peer-reviewed articles naturally carry more weight because they are more carefully scrutinised by outside reviewers. However, letters to the editor are not published at random. They are not akin to below-the-line comments on a website. They must be approved by an in-house editor and the vast majority are rejected. Approval and subsequent publication confers the imprimatur of a prestigious medical journal, whether the editorial staff publicly agrees with the letter or not. The fact that this was published at all carries some kind of implication.
Nor was this incident a one-off for the Lancet. The journal was previously involved with a different type of well-publicised scientific innumeracy during the Iraq War in the 2000s. In 2006, it published a study claiming that there had been 655,000 excess deaths in three years of war. This would have meant 500 deaths daily or 2.5 per cent of the Iraqi population. This surely could not have gone unnoticed by the authorities or journalists present, none of whom reported such daily carnage at the time. More recent analyses suggest the mortality figures were considerably lower than those published in the Lancet. The study, well-quoted by the anti-war community at the time, has been discredited by many sources.
The Iraq War study and the Gaza letter are examples of agenda-driven scientific reporting. Sadly, this phenomenon is not restricted to the Lancet. Respected American medical journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association have abandoned objectivity in numerous editorials, letters to the editor and scientific reports. A recent study that examined content from Nature, Science and Scientific American – three of the world’s top scientific journals – found a growing number of political articles published at the expense of scientific ones.
The Lancet’s nakedly partisan Gaza letter cannot be unseen. It is the latest example of an insidious trend in medical journals of abandoning their role as neutral reporters, while simultaneously using science to advance political causes. This pernicious drift into politics will do immeasurable long-term damage to the scientific world – and to the public seeking its guidance.
Amb. Alan Baker: The ICJ Generates the Fiction of Palestinian Statehood
The institution that describes itself as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) represents a motley bunch of predominantly non-democratic states that have taken the institution hostage. Its judges are merely political appointees acting upon instructions from their respective governments, presided over by a Lebanese judge with a record of hostile, anti-Israel political statements. The ICJ is nothing more than another biased and politically motivated UN body. It functions under the influence of a politically driven automatic majority of partisan states dictating their political will to the court and to the international community.WSJ: A Judge from Uganda Sides with Israel
The new non-binding advisory opinion issued by the court, according to which Israel is "obliged to bring an end to its presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible," ignores the fact that both the Palestinian leadership and Israel are committed in the Oslo Accords to negotiate between them the permanent status of the territories.
This is an internationally recognized commitment to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by negotiation, rather than by an imposed political diktat by a UN kangaroo court.
Moreover, the court is deliberately ignoring Israel's long-recognized and legitimate historical and legal claims to the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem.
In fact, by attempting to prejudge and prejudice the outcome of any final-status negotiation, the international court is itself violating the international law requirement to resolve disputes by negotiation, as it absurdly gives credence to the fiction of a non-existing "state of Palestine."
In a gross miscarriage of justice that surprised no one, the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion Friday saying that Israel's "occupation" of the "Palestinian territories" violates international law. The ICJ's opinion will reinvigorate the Palestinian crusade against Israel.The ICJ damages the cause of peace
In legal terms, the opinion is little more than a warmed-over presentation of the Palestinian narrative. Several judges took issue with the majority opinion, but it was Uganda Judge Julia Sebutinde, the court's vice president and the only full dissenter in the case, who has come out to tell it like it is.
Judge Sebutinde's dissent is a masterful analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that dismantles the majority opinion point by point, arguing that the court shouldn't have taken the case to begin with. The Israel-Palestinian conflict will be solved by a political process based on negotiations between the parties, Judge Sebutinde wrote, not a judicial settlement in The Hague.
She asserts the legality of Jewish rights in all of Mandatory Palestine, cites the legal documents and principles that justify those rights, recounts the history of Palestinian intransigence, and notes a Jewish presence in the land going back to ancient times. "Israel is not a colonizer," she wrote. Judge Sebutinde also points out how a "pro-Palestinian group of states" is hijacking institutions like the ICJ to create on paper what they can't build on the ground.
The opinion also makes little to no mention of Israel’s security concerns. In fact, some of the judges write in their dissenting declarations that they believe Israel’s security should have been given more weight.ICC accepts over 60 filings for arrest requests of Netanyahu, Gallant, and Hamas officials
On the other hand, Judge Dire Tladi of South Africa, in his particularly strident anti-Israel opinion, justifies ignoring Israel’s security by saying that all nations have security concerns of one sort or another but they cannot be used to justify violations of international law. In a thinly veiled reference, he asks rhetorically whether Russian security concerns regarding Ukraine potentially joining NATO could possibly justify its invasion.
But this comparison is far off the mark. Particularly after Oct. 7, no one can deny the risk that any territory from which Israel withdraws would immediately be taken over by Palestinian terrorists devoted to its destruction. Israel’s security concerns are not grounded in abstract, geopolitical calculations like Russia’s or most other nations. Instead, Israel is confronted with constant, ongoing violence and explicit threats of more violence.
The ICJ’s majority opinion also gives no weight to Israel’s historic and legal claims to many parts of the territory that the court considers occupied—such as Gush Etzion, from which Jews were expelled in 1948, and the Old City of Jerusalem. The opinion dismisses this in a few sentences, merely saying that it isn’t going to judge historical matters and historical claims cannot justify the acquisition of territory by force.
Why, then, should there be any legal weight to the Arab conquest of these places during Israel’s 1948 War of Independence? In their decision, the judges actually are deciding historical claims in favor of the Palestinians and legitimizing territorial conquest carried out by Arab armies. The majority only objects to the acquisition of territory by force when, in the context of defending itself, Israel managed to take these areas back.
In her strident dissent, Judge Julia Sebutinde of Uganda stated that the majority omitted the historical backdrop that is crucial to understanding the conflict and that their opinion was a one-sided audit of Israel that does not reflect a comprehensive, balanced or impartial examination of the questions involved. In her view, the ICJ should have declined to give any opinion at all. Instead, it should have encouraged Israel and the Palestinians to resume negotiations to find a lasting solution to their conflict.
Several other judges joined with Sebutinde in expressing the fear that this ICJ opinion may make such negotiations both more difficult and less likely. Unfortunately, they’re probably right.
The International Criminal Court Pretrial Chamber on Tuesday accepted the filings of more than 60 governments and NGOs to intervene regarding a request from ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan to issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three top Hamas officials, including Gaza Chief Yahya Sinwar.JCPA: What Is Behind South Africa’s Anti-Israel Lawfare Campaign?
The court also said that those filing could send their legal positions regarding the issues at stake by August 6.
The process of gathering and analyzing such a large volume of filings, let alone subsequently deciding on them, is likely to take months if not longer.
A senior Israeli legal source said that around 30 of the parties were stepping in on Israel’s side, including the US, Germany, the Czech Republic, and others, while around 40 parties were coming in against the Jewish state, including South Africa, Spain, Ireland, and Brazil.
Moreover, Hungary, Argentina, and the Democratic Republic of Congo are all intervening on Israel's side, the Jerusalem Post understands.
On May 20, Khan filed his request to the Pretrial Chamber to approve the arrest warrants, charging that there was a reasonable possibility that he could prove that Netanyahu, Gallant, and the Hamas leaders had committed various war crimes.
ICC grants extensions for interventions
However, already in June, England had requested to intervene on the issue and the ICC granted it an extension until July 28 to file its position.
Meanwhile, the court also granted other countries and NGOs the right to request intervention until July 28 as well. Now those other parties have two more weeks to file.
Despite the now built-in delay of months, the fact that the ICC is only giving the various parties a couple of weeks to respond could signal that it will not let the process be drawn out as much as it did regarding the question of Palestinian statehood.
The ICC first opened a preliminary probe of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 2015.
Several families with close ties to the ANC, which lost its dominance for the first time in the June 2024 elections, are at the forefront of many of the controversies involving anti-Israel actions, close dealings with Iran, Russia, and Hamas, and an overall ongoing orgy of corruption plaguing the government and the party.IOC hears Palestinian request to ban Israel from Olympics over war in Gaza
The ICC and ICJ share South Africa’s anti-Israel lobby campaigns, including a probable triangulated coordination between South Africa, the two courts, and several pro-Iran, pro-Hamas, pro-Qatar, and pro-Muslim Brotherhood nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).
If South Africa’s ruling elite is receiving compensation for its lawfare operations against Israel, it is likely via indirect, carefully concealed, and seemingly unrelated personal financial dealings. A specific quid pro quo is difficult to trace without an extensive investigation.
The most important, albeit former, political figure with ANC ties is Zwelivelile “Mandla” Mandela, the tribal chief of the Mvezo Traditional Council and the rogue grandson of Nelson Mandela. Mandla converted to Islam in 2016 upon marrying a Muslim woman. He is one of the leading voices supporting Hamas and Hizbullah, linking Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas interests in South Africa.
A missing Russian cargo ship, under U.S. sanctions and refused service at the Ngqura-Port Elizabeth as a result, was allowed to load South African weapons for use by Russia against Ukraine with an Emirati company’s facilitation and under a high-security detail.
The International Olympic Committee was Tuesday weighing a Palestinian call for Israeli athletes to be barred from the Games over the war in Gaza, three days before the Opening Ceremony in Paris.‘Terrorist Zionist Regime’: Iran Condemns ‘Reception and Protection’ of Israeli Delegation at Paris Olympics
As the Israeli Olympic team settled into the Athletes’ Village, the IOC was studying a letter sent by the Palestine Olympic Committee to President Thomas Bach asking him to ban the Israelis, citing the bombings of the besieged Gaza Strip as a breach of the Olympic truce.
The letter sent on Monday “emphasized that Palestinian athletes, particularly those in Gaza, are denied safe passage and have suffered significantly due to the ongoing conflict.”
It said, “Approximately 400 Palestinian athletes have been killed, and the destruction of sports facilities exacerbates the plight of athletes who are already under severe restrictions.”
The IOC is likely to reject the Palestinian call, but it highlights how the rising death toll and growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza is impacting the Paris Games.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday condemned Israel’s participation in the 2024 Olympic Games and demanded that Israeli athletes be banned from this year’s Olympics in Paris because of the Jewish state’s ongoing war against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip.Lebanese Journalist Injured in Israeli Strike Carries Olympic Torch in Paris
“Announcing the reception & protection of the Apartheid & terrorist Zionist regime’s convoy only means giving legitimacy to the child killers. They do not deserve to be present at the Paris Olympics because of the war against the innocent people of #Gaza,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted on X/Twitter. The ministry also shared a picture of the five Olympic rings, some of which bear images of wounded children. The middle ring is on fire and features an image of Israel’s national flag.
Iran’s widespread and systematic violations of human rights include torture, unlawful deaths, extra-judicial executions, arbitrary arrests, rape, sexual violence, unjust prosecution, and unfair trials. These violations have been confirmed by human rights groups, the United Nations and also the US Department of State. The Iranian regime also backs Hamas and has for years provided the terrorist organization that perpetrated the Oct. 7 deadly attacks in southern Israel with arms, funding and training. Iranian officials have continued to support Hamas and meet with its leaders as the terror group fights Israeli troops in Gaza.
Iran, which Western intelligence agencies have labeled the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, does not recognize Israel and prohibits Iranian athletes from competing against Israelis. Authorities imposed a lifetime ban on Iranian professional weightlifter Mostafa Rajaei in August 2023 after he shook hands with an Israeli competitor during a competition in Poland. Rajaei, who won the silver medal at the competition, is banned for life from all sports for what the head of Iran’s weightlifting federation described as “unacceptable and unforgivable” behavior.
Lebanese photojournalist Christina Assi of Agence France-Presse (AFP) carried the Olympic torch in Paris on Sunday, almost a year after being wounded in an Israeli military strike in south Lebanon while on the job.PMW: Palestinian Authority recognition makes 899 Gazans eligible for Pay-for-Slay
She participated in the Olympic torch relay in a wheelchair pushed by her AFP colleague Dylan Collins, who was also injured in the same incident. Assi carried the Olympic torch to honor journalists wounded and killed in the field.
“I hope what we did today honors all the journalists and friends who have been killed this year,” she said, according to AFP. “It’s amazing and heartwarming to see all these people cheering after we survived a targeted attack as journalists.”
Assi was one of six journalists wounded by shelling fired from an Israeli tank on Oct. 13, 2023, while reporting on fire exchanged along the border between Israeli soldiers and members of Lebanese Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terrorist group. Assi was severely wounded and had her right leg amputated. The attack also killed 37-year-old Reuters reporter Issam Abdallah. Despite accusations by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch that it was a deliberate attack on civilians and should be investigated as a war crime, the Israeli military said it did not target the journalists.
“The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] deplores any injury to uninvolved parties, and does not deliberately shoot at civilians, including journalists,” IDF spokesperson Nir Dinar said in March. “The IDF considers the freedom of the press to be of utmost importance while clarifying that being in a war zone is dangerous.”
Hezbollah has long been accused of using Lebanese civilians as “human shields” while fighting Israel.
9,750 terrorist prisoners are now recognized by the PA as eligible for monthly terror rewards, up from 4,300 prior to October 7Palestinian Government Paying $16 Mil a Month to Imprisoned Terrorists, Including Hamas Fighters, Watchdog Finds
This means the PA is committing to pay nearly NIS 60 million a month to terrorist prisoners
The PA has recognized Hamas’ Martyr count, and a total of 38,983 new Martyrs' families are currently eligible for terror rewards
This means nearly 55 million shekels in additional monthly payments to the families of Martyrs
899 terrorists who were captured in the Gaza war have been recognized by the Palestinian Authority as prisoners (asra in Arabic = POWs), and 9,750 terrorists are now recognized by the PA as prisoners from PA-controlled areas [PA Commission of Detainees Affairs’ Facebook page, July 21, 2023]. This recognition is significant because it means the PA considers them eligible for monthly terror reward salaries.
“The occupation’s [Israeli] Prison Service announced that 899 are imprisoned under the definition of ‘illegal fighter.’”
[WAFA, official PA news agency, June 16, 2024]
“Illegal fighter” is a term that the Israeli Prison Service uses to classify Gazan terrorists.
Salary calculations – new prisoners
Palestinian Media Watch calculates that once the processing of the new prisoners is complete, the PA will be paying a minimum of 59,560,000 shekels (about $16.4 million) a month in salaries to terrorist prisoners, up from 52,000,000 shekels (about $14.3 million) a month prior to October 7.
PMW last reported on January 10, 2024 that the PA had already recognized 661 terrorist prisoners from Gaza and a total of 8,800 prisoners.
The WAFA report shows that among the thousands of terrorists arrested from Hamas-controlled Gaza, 238 have been recognized by the PA as prisoners since January, and the number of individuals that the PA recognizes as prisoners overall has increased by 950 since January. The PA rewards terrorist prisoners a salary of 1,400 shekels a month for the first 3 years in prison, and the salary gradually rises to 12,000 after 30 years. The PA pays an additional 300 shekels/month for each wife, 50 shekels/month per child, 300 shekels/month extra for residents of Jerusalem, and 500 shekels/month extra for Israeli Arabs.
The Palestinian government will pay $16.4 million a month to imprisoned terrorists and their families, including nearly 900 Gaza-based fighters captured by Israeli forces in the wake of Hamas's Oct. 7 terror attack, a watchdog group found.Radical UK Islamist preacher Choudary convicted of terrorism offenses
Payments by the Palestinian Authority (PA) to imprisoned terrorists have risen by $2 million a month, and are being reliably doled out even as the West Bank-based government teeters on the brink of financial collapse, according to watchdog group Palestinian Media Watch. The PA has recognized thousands of those terrorists as eligible for "pay-to-slay" payments in the wake of Oct. 7, including 899 who were captured in Gaza in recent months.
All told, "9,750 terrorist prisoners are now recognized by the PA as eligible for monthly terror rewards, up from 4,300 prior to October 7," according to Palestinian Media Watch, which tracks the PA's terrorist payment system. The watchdog group "calculates that once the processing of the new prisoners is complete, the PA will be paying a minimum of 59,560,000 shekels (about $16.4 million) a month in salaries to terrorist prisoners, up from 52,000,000 shekels (about $14.3 million) a month prior to October 7."
The payment scheme, buoyed by international aid dollars, is one of the primary reasons that Republican officials want to cut off U.S. aid to the Palestinians, which has totaled upwards of $1.5 billion since America began pumping humanitarian aid into the war-torn Gaza Strip. Prior to Oct. 7, the Biden administration pushed through plans to send millions of dollars to the Palestinian government as part of its drive to reignite the peace process with Israel and prop up the fledgling PA.
In the nine months since war broke out with Hamas, the PA has consistently added new terrorists to its pay-to-slay program. Another 899 terrorists captured in Gaza were recently "recognized by the Palestinian Authority as prisoners, ... and 9,750 terrorists are now recognized by the PA as prisoners from PA-controlled areas," according to Palestinian Media Watch's latest analysis.
Those figures are likely to continue increasing as Israel captures Hamas fighters and other would-be terrorists operating in the West Bank.
As of January, for example, the PA had recognized 661 terrorists from Gaza and a total of 8,000 prisoners. The latest spike indicates the PA has no intention of stopping these payments, and views the Hamas fighters captured by Israel as its financial responsibility.
This is likely to complicate U.S. ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas that are aimed at freeing those still being held hostage by the Iran-backed terror group. The latest proposal reportedly places the PA at the helm of any Gaza reconstruction effort.
British radical Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary, whose followers have been linked to numerous plots around the world, has been convicted of terrorism offenses after a trial in London, the capital's Metropolitan Police said on Tuesday.
Prosecutors said the 57-year-old Choudary directed al-Muhajiroun, which was banned as a terrorist organization more than a decade ago, and encouraged others to support the group. Choudary denied the charges.
He was found guilty of directing and being a member of a terrorist organization, as well as addressing meetings to encourage support for a proscribed organization after a six-week trial at Woolwich Crown Court.
Commander Dominic Murphy, Head of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, said Choudary was facing "a significant sentence." He is due to be sentenced on July 30.
He stood trial alongside Canadian citizen Khaled Hussein, 29, who was arrested on the same day as Choudary in 2023 when he arrived on a flight at Heathrow Airport. Hussein was found guilty of membership of a criminal organization.
"I have no doubt that these convictions have left communities here in London, but also right across the UK and beyond, much safer," Murphy said. Police around the globe unite
The joint investigation by the Met Police and Britain's domestic spy agency MI5 was assisted by the New York Police Department and Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who together gathered evidence that Choudary was running and directing al-Muhajiroun via online lectures with followers based in New York.
Police said Hussein helped him host the lectures with other extremists and edited extremist online blogs and publications for Choudary.
Nizar Dahan has been abusing Cardiff and Swansea since the atrocities of 7 October. You can see a sample of the hate march leader's oeuvre in the video below.
— habibi (@habibi_uk) July 23, 2024
Now, perhaps South Wales Police @swpolice could tell us if explicitly supporting those atrocities is OK? https://t.co/FAZgJfpSGD pic.twitter.com/4HY4pPG5nQ
Often enough, those who go on and on about cutting off arms exports to Israel have nothing to say about Iran supplying weapons to terrorists across the Middle East.
— habibi (@habibi_uk) July 23, 2024
Zarah Sultana is one of those creeps. pic.twitter.com/UxhkwFEvIJ
Regular speaker at pro Palestine demonstrations, Ibrahim Essad can be seen here sharing videos calling for the bombing of Tel-Aviv and 'accidentally' mistranslating jews (Yahud) to Zion. Not an easy mistake to make🤔 pic.twitter.com/7OIvx1qLwq
— The Electronic Uprising (@uprising_1) July 23, 2024
Cage International has shared a video of the Hamas commander Hamam Al Hashash, calling him a "fearless lion" and praying for his ascendency to martyrdom.@CAGEintl, whose HQ is in London, is nothing more than a terrorist support group masquerading as a global advocacy org !! 🧵 pic.twitter.com/ACNJ0nLQkz
— The Electronic Uprising (@uprising_1) July 22, 2024
IRS pressed by ADL to investigate anti-Israel groups linked to protests
The Anti-Defamation League is requesting the IRS launch investigations into a pair of anti-Israel nonprofit groups that it argued in a letter to the agency appear to be “abusing their tax-exempt status.”The New Girl Disorder
In a Monday letter obtained by the Washington Examiner, the ADL made the case to the IRS why WESPAC Foundation and Alliance for Global Justice may be violating federal law. The two organizations are connected to anti-Israel protests after the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack on Israel last year and, through an arrangement known as fiscal sponsorship, lend their tax-exempt status as charities to projects that the ADL warned are “engaging in activities that are contrary to public policy and raise serious concerns that we believe warrant further investigation by the IRS.”
“We believe it is in the interest of the IRS to understand the nature of WESPAC and AFGJ and what causes they are supporting,” ADL Chief Legal Officer Steven C. Sheinberg wrote in the letter to IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel.
The 10-page letter to the IRS from the ADL, a New York-based nonprofit group aiming to combat antisemitism, comes on the heels of the ADL in early July asking state attorneys general in New York and Arizona to investigate WESPAC Foundation and Alliance for Global Justice, or AFGJ.
The New York-based WESPAC Foundation houses Students for Justice in Palestine, a national group behind anti-Israel protests on college campuses. The Arizona-based AFGJ sponsors the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, an Israeli-designated terrorist group, the Washington Examiner reported. AFGJ’s ties to Samidoun, among others, prompted payment processors and left-wing donors to sever relationships with AFGJ.
The ADL told the IRS in the Monday letter that AFGJ appears to be misleading donors and regulators about its activities and stewardship of charitable funds. That’s because AFGJ, Sheinberg said, does not make clear on its website how much control it exerts over projects such as Samidoun. The Israeli-designated terrorist group shares staffers with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a U.S.-designated terrorist faction.
Available data for American campuses suggest that Muslims rarely make up more than 3 percent of the student population at particular schools. Yet Muslim women had a noticeably large presence at the protests. By social-justice logic, Muslim women are the most victimized of victims, ennobled by a triple oppression—misogyny, Islamophobia, and colonial subjugation. Non-Muslim protesters paid them homage, abandoning their former disgust with cultural appropriation. In fact, the protests were a festival of such appropriation. Countless students wore keffiyehs—though, given that only one small factory making the Arab scarves remains in the Palestinian territories, these were probably churned out by Chinese factories and delivered overnight via their parents’ Amazon Prime accounts. (The Babylon Bee mocked the protesters by imagining Uighur slaves staffing the factories, a distinct possibility.) At Columbia, several white female students knelt on the encampment lawn to pray to Allah with the Muslims, their heads covered; they remained separate from male supplicants, as Muslim women are generally expected to do. At a Rutgers workshop, female students learned tatreez, a Palestinian embroidery, taught by an older Palestinian woman.
Elevated by their victim status, Muslim women students were perhaps even more adept at disguising aggression behind emotional manipulation and safetyism than their American sisters. The most widely reported example occurred at a Berkeley Law School dinner honoring first-year students at dean Erwin Chemerinsky’s home. An uninvited graduating student, Malak Afaneh, turned up, offered a brief prayer in Arabic, and began lecturing guests about the law school’s indifference to Gazan suffering, using a microphone she had sneaked into the event under her jilbab. Catherine Fisk, a law professor and the dean’s wife, repeatedly asked her to stop, reminding Afaneh that this was their home, not a public forum. When Afaneh refused, Fisk tried to take her microphone away. Later, Afaneh accused Fisk of “assaulting” her. The local Council on American–Islamic Relations got involved, deeming Fisk’s actions “an apparent act of Islamophobia.” Luckily, Chemerinsky, a prominent First Amendment scholar who begged Afaneh to stop abusing his and his wife’s hospitality, kept some physical distance. If he, a white Jewish male, had come too close to the “proud Muslim . . . survivor,” as Afaneh describes herself, he would have been caught in a symbolic battle he was sure to lose. Afaneh’s supporters have demanded that both Chemerinsky and Fisk resign.
Women like Afaneh, with close ties to the Middle East, surely know what social justice–intoxicated American students do not: their status, safety, and freedom to express themselves in the West far exceed anything they could expect in the former colonies they were chanting about. In Gaza, under Hamas rule, honor killings, child marriage, and marital rape are not prosecuted. The unpunished crimes committed against women in the Islamic republic of Iran, Hamas’s close patron, include “extrajudicial and unlawful killings and murder, unnecessary and disproportionate use of force, arbitrary deprivation of liberty, torture, rape, enforced disappearances, and gender persecution,” according to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Muslim women in most Middle Eastern societies don’t cover their hair because it’s a way to express their chosen identity; they do it because they have to. Showing your hair in front of unrelated men is haram—immoral. And they don’t demonstrate against the authorities who enforce rules like these unless they are willing to be shamed, beaten, jailed, or even, as with Iran’s Mahsa Amini, murdered.
The Mars–Venus divide in modes of aggression revealed at the protests is no simple evolutionary psychology curiosity. It has grave implications for university admission policies, curricular decisions, difficult debates, and, more generally, the pursuit of knowledge that is supposed to be the mission of these institutions. One final example from way back in 2009—when Larry Summers, then president of Harvard, spoke to a small seminar of prominent women scientists—should suffice to give a sense of the dead end we are reaching. The topic at hand was the dearth of women at the highest level in STEM fields. Summers offered several speculative answers. One possible theory was that there could be more variability in scientific ability among men, meaning more men were at both extremes on the bell curve—the least able and most able. “I’m here to provoke you,” Summers said, attempting to jolly the audience into lively debate. No chance of that. Men, especially alphas like Summers, enjoy direct confrontation and competition, but women shy from debates that might be challenging for those whom they believe to be weak or powerless. If there were some attendees willing to engage, they were silenced by the loudest and most emotional women, a not uncommon dynamic during debates on controversial matters. One professor simply walked out of the discussion. “I just couldn’t breathe,” she said, “because this kind of bias makes me physically ill.” Another who did remain announced that she was ready to “speak truth to power,” referring to President Summers. Yet Summers, head of the most prominent university in the country, if not the world, would be forced to resign in part because he had supposedly insulted the women scientists during this incident.
It’s a lesson university women and men need to understand: power can hide in unlikely places.
Theatrical antisemitism after October 7
The historical association of Jews with finance and moneylending goes back to the Middle Ages, when the idea started to take shape that Jews are particularly suited to finance and commerce – and that finance and commerce, in turn, somehow have a ‘Jewish’ character. As Europe emerged from the Middle Ages and stock markets began opening in its main trading centres, the idea grew that money, shares, interest, and the whole world of abstract trading was ‘Jewish’, in contrast with the Christian sphere of real labour and spiritual value.Chicago bookstore removes novel from book club poll due to 'Zionist' author, sparking controversy
How to control the dramatic spread of this ‘Jewish’ practice in a Christian society became a pressing issue for some of Europe’s greatest thinkers. According to historian David Nirenberg, “it is difficult to think of a financial innovation, practice, or crisis that was not discussed in terms of Judaism in the nineteenth and the early twentieth century.” This was more about the practice than the practitioners. When Edmund Burke complained about about “Jew brokers” in his critique of the French Revolution, he didn’t mean that the people who brought down the French monarchy in 1789 were actually Jewish by birth. There were relatively few Jews living in France in 1789, and they were not found amongst the leading revolutionaries. Rather, it was that the traders, brokers and lawyers in that movement were driven by material value rather than some higher purpose, and this was, for Burke, a ‘Jewish’ form of behaviour.
This is where the true antisemitism of The Lehman Trilogy lies: not in pointing out that the Lehmans were Jewish people, but in suggesting that the modern banking methods they undoubtedly practiced are somehow ‘Jewish’. It is the latest dramatisation of a very old idea that a form of banking based on greed and exploitation is Jewish in origin and character, and that the way Jews relate to money has corrupted our world. When Massini (who is Italian) was asked why he had written about Lehman Brothers rather than Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, a venerable old Italian bank that lost billions following the 2008 crash, saw several executives put in prison and needed a huge bailout to survive, he explained that “The Lehman brothers are emblematic, paradigmatic, of a much bigger historical phenomenon” and their story offers the hope that “we can understand man’s relationship with money.” Ben Power, who adapted Massini’s work for stage, said that the play tells us “how the structures we live in in the world were built.” These assumptions, that a Jewish American bank is emblematic of “man’s relationship with money” and reveals something about the construction of our world in a way that an Italian bank is not, only make sense because of the long history of antisemitic thinking on this subject.
Right now, lots of people around the world are thinking intensely about what is happening to the world we live in. Conflict in Europe and the Middle East threatens to proliferate, democracies are under challenge from authoritarians and populists, and, coming off the back of a financial crash and a global pandemic, antisemitism is surging. It’s not uncommon at times like this for people to blame the Jews for the things they most fear, whether this is war and terrorism, immigration or globalisation, climate change or the legacy of colonialism. The idea that Jews benefit while others suffer has been worryingly popular at times in the past, and threatens to be so again. In this light, the way The Lehman Trilogy depicts the 1929 Wall Street Crash is chilling. While Bobby Lehman is shown touring the racecourses and art auctions of Europe, swilling champagne and living a carefree life of untold wealth, in New York one banker after another commits suicide in the face of unimaginable loss. Strikingly, unlike all the other bankers shown in the play up to that point, these victims of the system the Lehmans supposedly built do not appear to be Jewish. Rather than having names like Emanuel and Mayer, they are called Teddy, Vernon, Jimmy, Don and Fred. They are still bankers, but honourable and sympathetic ones, and not Jewish. And they, too, like the fire in Montgomery in 1853, are invented. The popular legend of stockbrokers jumping out of windows as the market crashed in 1929 is a myth. Massini and Powers could have given their fictional suicidal bankers any names they chose - but in the tradition in which they are writing, it has to be non-Jews who are the unsuspecting victims of Jewish malpractice. Jews making money while non-Jews die is about as antisemitic as it gets.
When I wrote about The Lehman Trilogy almost 18 months ago I said that I did not want it to be cancelled: I just wanted people to recognise and think about its antisemitic themes, as they do for The Merchant of Venice. However, we live in a different world now where Jews and antisemitism are concerned. Anti-Jewish hate crimes have hit record levels over the past nine months, leaving many Jews scared to reveal their identity in public or in their workplaces, and the arts and culture sectors have not been exempt from this. Unlike the last time The Lehman Trilogy was performed in London, when it opens in September it will land in a city that feels much less welcoming for many of its Jews. I wrote in the updated edition of Everyday Hate that antisemitism after October 7 is different from what went before, and this means our responses to it also need to be rethought. In this light, the decision by the National Theatre to bring this antisemitic play back to the stage, with no understanding or appreciation of the damage it can do, should not have been made.
Chicago book store City Lit Books removed a book from the poll for their September book club because the author is supposedly a ‘Zionist,’ according to leaked emails.After Violent Attack at North Carolina Library, Jewish Victim Receives New Threat
The novel Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow was removed from the poll for the Pretty in Paperback book club after participants approached the moderator “to express discomfort with this title,” the store said in an Instagram statement on Sunday.
“It was brought to my attention that the author Gabrielle Zevin is a Zionist and I am not comfortable having us reading something by her, especially knowing people would buy it from the store and she would receive monetary support from us,” assistant manager Charlie Schumann allegedly wrote in the leaked email.
Schumann urged those who wanted to read the book to borrow it from the library and “read it critically.”The store acknowledged on Sunday that it would have been better to open the discussion to the group rather than unilaterally make the decision.
In the statement, the store also denied rumors that it had banned or censored the book, or that the decision was motivated by antisemitism.
Police in Asheville, North Carolina, have made one arrest, charged two others with “ethnic intimidation,” and shared photos of about 10 people of interest since two Jewish residents and a senior citizen were beaten and dragged out of the West Asheville Library during an anti-Israel event on June 29.Terrorist guide taught in Toronto by PFLP-tied group
The three victims are pro-Israel. The event — which was labeled an “Anarchist Bookfair” — attracted about 60-80 anti-Israel activists.
The two Jewish victims, David Moritz and Monica Buckley, along with 79-year-old Bob Campbell, were interviewed by The Algemeiner.
Moritz, the son of Holocaust survivors, informed The Algemeiner that he recently received a threatening letter in the mail, which said, “Stop harassing others before it’s too late.”
Moritz reported the letter to police.
On the day of the event, Asheville police arrested and charged Taylor Danielle Zarkin with “two counts of resisting, delay, and obstruct.” The police report states that Zarkin’s employer is the “Asheville Public Library.”
Buncombe County, which includes Asheville, issued a statement: “We are aware the arrest report states the person’s employer is Asheville Public Library System. To clarify, this person is not and has never been a Buncombe County employee.”
Asked to clarify this information, a police spokesperson told The Algemeiner that Zarkin’s “employer of record on the arrest report is due to the fact that is what she indicated to officers at the time of her arrest.”
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist group’s foundational strategy document was taught by a PFLP-linked group in Toronto on Wednesday, the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network said on Friday.
Samidoun Toronto held a seminar on “Strategy for the Liberation of Palestine” which explains the front’s objective as destroying “the state of Israel as a military, political, and economic establishment.”
Presentation slides listed below them enemies of the movement, including “the Zionist entity known as Israel, the Zionist movement, world imperialism, and reactionary Arab regimes.”
The text advocates for political violence as the only solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
“The Front identifies armed resistance and protracted people’s war as the only way to liberate Palestine,” said Samidoun. “As an organization grounded in the traditions and politics of the Palestinian revolutionary left [sic], we at Samidoun Toronto discussed and reflected upon how we can apply the lessons learned from the Front in 1969 to our local solidarity organizing.”
Samidoun complained that a similar July 5 seminar at the Mayday Space community center in Bushwick had been met with pro-Israel protests.
NGO claims they are suppressed
The NGO, which has been designated by Israel as a PFLP subsidiary since 2021, said that such instances were examples of censorship against them. The group noted another example of supposed suppression, such as the Toronto Police Service arresting a protester with a PFLP flag.
The PFLP is designated as a terrorist organization in Canada.
The Mesa, Arizona Office of Congressman Greg Stanton (D) is being occupied by pro-Palestine activists carrying around bloodied doll babies. In the four minutes of footage available, you can hear the following chants.
— Stu (@thestustustudio) July 22, 2024
"Israel has got to go."
"Israel is a fascist state."
"Greg… pic.twitter.com/lmeeqQOjoc
The pro-terror mob has shown up at NYC's Grand Central Terminal to ruin everyone's evening commute pic.twitter.com/3qKnRQvI5z
— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) July 23, 2024
A Berlin restaurant co-owned by an Israeli and a Palestinian that promotes coexistence was attacked over the weekend.
— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) July 23, 2024
Vandals destroyed the interior and food, but nothing was stolen. That’s why the owners think their goal was to prevent any form of coexistence.
The owners are… pic.twitter.com/SUxF4v5P5y
Touro president: These are three reasons that antisemitism spread on campus - interview
The three main reasons that antisemitism and anti-Israel rhetoric have spread on American campuses are the illusion that antisemitism was gone, zero-sum ideologies based on oppressor/oppressed dynamics, and foreign propaganda campaigns, Touro University President Alan Kadish told The Jerusalem Post in an interview about how his institution served as a safe campus for Jewish students.City University of New York Professors Ask US Supreme Court to Sever Ties to ‘Antisemitic’ Public Sector Union
Most "disasters," like airplane crashes or the one unfolding at US universities and colleges, are multifactorial, Kadish explained. One such factor was a "false illusion" that antisemitism was gone.
"Some people, such as the founder of OpenAI, Sam Altman, were under the illusion that antisemitism was gone. He's publicly posted on the net that he was under the illusion that anti-Semitism was gone and now realizes he was wrong," said Kadish. "Among some people, young and old, antisemitism has been around for a couple of thousand years, and it's never disappeared. I think it was socially unacceptable for a time, and that kept it under the lid, but it never disappeared."
Kadish also cast blame on a worldview in which success was automatically deemed evil, and those unsuccessful assumed their victims -- a framework that didn't align with the educator's experiences.
"The worldview that's been developing on college campuses, assigned in curricula, promulgated by professors, made its way down through K through 12 education, is that Israel and Jews are somehow part of the oppressor class," said Kadish.
"But it ignores the long history of antisemitism. It ignores the fact that Israel, as a country, was established by the United Nations and has the same legitimate right to exist that all countries do. But in this dichotomy of oppressor and oppressed, we've been labeled oppressors without much thought to context or history. This intersectionality idea that you have to be on the right side of the oppressed, whether it turns out to be true or not, has led to some very smart students reacting instinctively and opposing Israel, socially ostracizing Jews. And opposing Jews because of their real or purported support for Israel."
Attorneys for the National Right to Work Foundation (NRTW) and the Fairness Center have asked the US Supreme Court to hear the case of six City University of New York (CUNY) professors who are suing to be “freed” from their public sector union, The Algemeiner has learned.Harvard Corporation Reverses Course, Awards Degree to Rhodes Scholar and 10 Other Leaders of Anti-Israel Encampment
According to court documents, the professors, five of whom are Jewish, resigned from CUNY’s Professional Staff Congress (PSC-CUNY) after it passed a resolution during Israel’s May 2021 war with Hamas that declared solidarity with Palestinians and accused the Jewish state of ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and crimes against humanity.
But the professors, because of New York State’s “Taylor Law,” must remain in the union’s “bargaining unit” — which, according to the plaintiffs, is coercive, denying the professors’ right to freedom of speech and association by forcing them to be represented in collective bargaining negotiations by an organization they claim holds antisemitic views. Beyond the plaintiffs, 263 other professors and staff have resigned from the union as well, according to the website of the Resign.PSC campaign, which accuses the body of having “violated its mandate” by weighing in on a contentious political issue.
A New York district judge dismissed the professors’ suit in November 2022, ruling that several previous cases have affirmed the constitutionality of compulsory union representation and rejected the argument now advanced by NRTW.
“Taken to its logical extreme, plaintiffs’ theory would entitle every single member of a bargaining group to negotiate separately with the public employer over terms and conditions of employment,” the judge wrote in his opinion.
In appealing the decision, NRTW and the Fairness Center argued that the court’s dismissal was “misguided.” They are betting on the nation’s highest court, which holds a 6-3 conservative majority, sharing its view of the matter.
“The core issue in this case is straightforward: can the government force Jewish professors to accept the representation of an advocacy group they rightly consider to be antisemitic?” says the petition filed with the court on Friday. “The answer plainly should be ‘no.’ The First Amendment protects the rights of individuals, and especially religious dissenters, to disaffiliate themselves from associations and speech they abhor.”
Harvard University's highest governing body, the Harvard Corporation, reversed its decision to withhold degrees from 11 students who participated in an unlawful anti-Israel encampment, including a Pakistani Rhodes Scholar now set to attend the University of Oxford next year.ADL raises alarm over rampant antisemitism in Philadelphia schools since Oct. 7
Asmer Asrar Safi was among 13 graduating students whose degrees were withheld in May for their roles in the encampment. Safi, an encampment organizer and international student from Pakistan who was originally supposed to graduate two months ago, had said his new commencement date was set for May 2025. No longer.
Safi responded by trashing the value of a Harvard degree, writing in a social media post, "What does it mean to be conferred a degree from a university that holds millions of investments in illegal occupation, bankrolls the annihilation of Palestinians, and mistreats its students for a political agenda?"
"While we know our fellow organizers … will continue to mobilize, please remember that every student, faculty and staff member at the university has a responsibility to challenge the status quo," Safi added.
In an Instagram message, Safi thanked students and faculty for pressuring Harvard into reversing its decision to withhold degrees. "After relentless student and faculty pressure, Harvard conferred our undergraduate degrees today, three months after the corporation barred us from graduating alongside our peers. We are grateful for the peers and community members who walked out on Commencement, signed and wrote statements, and called on Harvard to listen to its students," he wrote.
The decision from the Harvard Corporation, led by Hyatt Hotel heiress Penny Pritzker, suggests the university is reluctant to take a hard line when it comes to meting out discipline to students who violated school policies last year—and who have promised to resume their activities in the fall.
A university spokesman told the Free Beacon that the Harvard Corporation voted to confer degrees to 11 of the 13 disciplined graduating students because they had "been restored to good standing."
Most of the focus has been on protests that rocked college campuses this spring, leading to thousands of arrests. But a recent congressional hearing spotlighted antisemitism in K-12 education, with the leaders of New York City Public Schools, the Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, and the Berkeley Unified School District in California all vigorously denying they had failed to address hostility toward Jewish people.
Like Philadelphia, New York City and Montgomery County are facing Education Department civil rights investigations into allegations of antisemitism. The ADL filed a complaint against Berkeley in California state court.
In Philadelphia, school leaders allowed hostility toward Jewish students to spread and intensify over the past nine months, and “failed to address a rampant culture of retaliation and fear” that prevented Jewish students and parents from even coming forward, James Pasch, ADL’s senior director of national litigation, said in an interview Tuesday.
“There’s an environment here that really needs to change, and it really needs to change now,” he said.
In May, a group called the School District of Philadelphia Jewish Family Association made similar allegations in a complaint to the education department under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on shared ancestry.
After that complaint was filed, a group of pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel teachers called Philly Educators for Palestine said that while any incidents of discrimination should be addressed, it’s not antisemitic to criticize Israel or advocate for Palestinians. The group said the complaint was an attempt to silence teachers and students and a distraction from “the carnage being inflicted upon Palestinians in Gaza by Israel.”
A message was sent to Philly Educators for Palestine seeking comment on the latest allegations via an allied group, the Racial Justice Organizing Committee.
All doctors should be able to attend the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) annual conference, and this includes Jewish doctors.
— Campaign Against Antisemitism (@antisemitism) July 23, 2024
It is disappointing that the RCGP has scheduled its conference for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which means that many Jewish doctors… pic.twitter.com/tbHExlKjBa
— Canary Mission (@canarymission) July 22, 2024
Full Birzeit statement https://t.co/uGbldgrpxx
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) July 22, 2024
Hey folks in Michigan - seeking communication services?
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) July 22, 2024
Meet Sam Thornsen, a design & engineer tech for Western Tel-Com, who actively shares antisemitic bigotry such as:
- believes Zionism is a "stain" on Jewish history
- compares Jews to Nazis
- blames Israel for the 9/11… pic.twitter.com/LHYpF12L7W
In addition, Sam Thornsen:
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) July 22, 2024
- states that all Zionists (95%+ of Jews globally) "need to go"
- shockingly posts that Jews invoke the Holocaust in order to commit crimes
Concerned? https://t.co/5wHMsoRRIt
All of Sam Thonsen's tweets archived here:
- https://t.co/GehM5CMrV8
-… pic.twitter.com/DP2kkm2mOx
Are we shocked @JosieGrillasSTL endorses fellow antisemites Rashida Tlaib and Cori Bush? No.
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) July 23, 2024
But on August 6th, residents of St. Louis can say NO! to antisemitism and boot Bush from office! pic.twitter.com/sQIGxudUUf
UPDATE: Matthew Alan Mccall is no longer employed by Keller Williams Realty. https://t.co/2P47Nzttix
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) July 23, 2024
What does Stacy Talus, Principal of Reynolds Learning Academy West, have to say about one of his teachers defending Hamas, denying the mass rapes of 10/7, and telling Jews to go back to where they came from?
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) July 22, 2024
"Freedom of speech" and calls on others to make the teacher feel "safe… https://t.co/FJG1vYOG7X pic.twitter.com/5rpgQdEvMr
More Than 10 Journalists Were Removed After We Exposed Anti-Israel Bias, But There Are Too Many More Out There
In early July, when CNN fired Abdel Qader Sabbah due to his Hamas ties, he became the 11th antisemitic, Hitler- or Hamas-praising journalist reassigned, suspended, or fired, thanks to the work of HonestReporting in less than two years.Editor Of The Conversation Pens Letter Spreading Anti-Israel Misinformation
Because Soliman Hijjy of The New York Times was fired for praising Hitler in August 2022, outrageously rehired after October 7, 2023, and fired again shortly thereafter due to HonestReporting, we can count them as 12 biased “journalists” that have been fired.
But why does it matter?
Sabbah came to our attention for his article on the “famine” in Gaza. Among the many misrepresentations and lies he penned were:
- Israel continues its siege on Gaza, preventing aid groups getting enough food into the enclave…
(Note: There is no siege on Gaza. Israel is not preventing aid, and international groups have actually recorded an increase in aid getting into Gaza).
- …southern Gaza could soon see the same “catastrophic levels of hunger” recorded previously in the north…
(Note: The report he’s referring to here was corrected days before he published. There never were “catastrophic levels of hunger” in the north. There was a miscounting of how much aid was actually getting into Gaza.)
- Israeli attacks in Gaza have since killed 37,658 Palestinians and injured another 86,237…
(Note: These numbers are given as fact, without explaining that they do not distinguish between combatant and civilian. They are inflated based on unconfirmed media reports based on claims by the Hamas terror organization, without corresponding names or even bodies to validate them.)
In short, the platform afforded to Abdel Qader Sabbah by CNN allowed him legitimacy to promote Hamas propaganda over fact.
And, it was entirely avoidable. Sabbah didn’t hide his affiliation with Hamas leaders. He bragged about it. He posted guidelines for how Palestinians could best protect the “mujahideen” who were firing rockets at Israeli cities.
CNN took swift action when they learned of Sabbah’s history, but CNN never should have hired him in the first place. Especially after being put on notice by 14 states attorneys general that “willful blindness” could not be an excuse for hiring those with terrorist connections.
On July 19, The Conversation Canada published a letter penned by their Culture & Society Editor Ibrahim Daair, filled with links directing readers to disinformation and outright fabrications about the ongoing war between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas, and the so-called ‘Palestinian culture’.Trio Of Anti-Israel Letters In Newfoundland’s The Telegram Newspaper Show How Anti-Israel Activists Try To Mislead The Public
Daair opened his letter by writing that: “a recent paper in the British medical journal The Lancet estimated that ‘up to 186,000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza.’” What Daair conveniently didn’t mention is that this ‘paper’ isn’t actually a paper at all – it’s a letter published in the correspondence section of the journal; it’s the equivalent of a letter to the editor. This ‘paper’ was not peer reviewed and is not based on anything more than a half-baked opinion about what the long term outcome of the conflict may look like years or decades from now in a dystopian, worst-case scenario. The authors of that letter cited “severe shortages of food, water” as one of their factors which would lead to poor health outcomes. This alone should be enough to make one question their outrageous mortality numbers, given the fact that more food is entering the Gaza Strip now than before the conflict began.
A Direct Attempt To Erase Jewish Identity And History
Daair went on to direct his readers to a piece about Palestinian food culture, and the idea that the land was agriculturally ‘blooming’ prior to the establishment of Israel. Written by Ateqah Khaki and Vinita Srivastava, the article repeatedly described “Jewish Israelis” as colonizers who are bent on removing ‘indigenous’ Palestinian connections to the land. This narrative is a common one, despite it being a complete inversion of fact, history, archaeology and indeed the religious tradition of both Jews and Muslims alike. Trying to paint Jews as ‘colonizers’ in their own indigenous land is a direct attempt to erase Jewish identity and history, and to gain support from well-meaning, if ignorant, Westerners trying to assuage their own colonizer guilt. The narrative of “Jew as colonizer” is so blatantly ridiculous that anyone seriously engaging in it has lost all credibility to speak with any authority on the history of the region.
Finally, Daair directed his readers to a piece written by Elizabeth Vibert, a professor of colonial history at the University of Victoria. She argued that much of Western discourse around the Palestinian people is designed to paint them as backward savages who engage in violence to get what they want (that is, a Judenrein, or Jew-free, Israel). Leaving aside the very valid question of how exactly ‘liberation’ of Palestine is supposed to be carried out without violence, so much of what she said in this piece deserves only mockery, from the mention of the October 7 Hamas attacks that left over 1,200 Israelis dead being characterized as “defending their land with stones,” to this gem: “the dismissal of Palestinians as ‘barbaric’ or somehow less human is rooted in a long history of colonizing narratives, including views of Indigenous lands and peoples as ‘uncivilized.’”
The suggestion that “Palestinians” (who define themselves as Arabs) are somehow ‘indigenous’ to Israel shows a deep lack of understanding of what that term means. Simply because someone isn’t a white European does not grant them automatic indigenous status to everywhere else. Arabs are indigenous to the Arabian Peninsula (hence their name) – a long way from land in question. How exactly Vibert is defining that term is unclear, but her love letter to the Palestinian people doesn’t require something so conventional as an honest definition or exploration of ideas.
The Telegram is a daily newspaper based in St. John’s, Newfoundland, which says its “mission has a singular focus: to provoke thought and action for the betterment of our communities.”CNN Hides a Chief Terrorist
But that supposed “singular focus” appears to be highly compromised given that in recent days, the newspaper has printed multiple letters to the editor which have spread asinine and hateful anti-Israel propaganda.
On July 18, a letter from Bill Hynd was published where he made the indefensible accusation that there is “genocide in Gaza.”
This is not simply a matter of being innocently mistaken, but of being catastrophically wrong.
Hamas is a genocidal Islamic terrorist organization which on October 7, brutally raped, tortured, burned alive and murdered 1,200 innocent people, before kidnapping 250 more, in their massacre in southern Israel. It was the biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, and Hamas has since promised that it will continue to do it again and again until Israel is stopped. Israel, obviously, cannot allow Hamas – armed and funded by Iran – to threaten its existence, and has since carried out counter-terrorism operations in Gaza.
But despite media coverage suggesting otherwise, Israel has done more to protect civilians in war than any military in history, according to some of the top experts in urban warfare in the world. Israel cancels strikes if civilians are nearby, it puts its own soldiers in harm’s way, it provides warnings, and more. Hamas, for its part, does everything possible to harm its own civilians, using them as human shields, and then boasting about it.
Despite Hamas using its own civilians as human shields, there is a lower proportion of civilian casualties in Gaza than virtually any other conflict in history. Hamas is the genocidal party, and they make no bones about it. Hynd’s claim that Israel is guilty of genocide is not only factually ignorant, but morally repugnant.
The next day, two more letters of the same amateurish calibre were published.
That narrative has focused on the tragic effects of the war on civilians and attributes blame, via implications and omissions, on Israel.
In this case, all CNN communicated to its audience is that some “Saturday attack” by the IDF harmed children.
Now consider the material details left out by the authors:
- The attack targeted, and (almost certainly) succeeded in killing, one of the most wanted terrorists in the world, Mohammed Deif, who was considered to be one of the chief architects of the October 7 massacre of Israeli civilians;
- The attack also killed another senior Hamas terrorist leader, Rafa’a Salameh, who was the commander of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade;
- Several dozen Hamas operatives were also present at the site of the strike;
- The senior terrorists were hiding inside a humanitarian zone created to give civilians a safe place, demonstrating yet again Hamas’s cynical exploitation of civilians; and
- After the strike, Hamas placed a close guard on the hospitals and funeral homes that received the casualties in order to control the information that got out about the attack.
This information dramatically changes the story. Readers may still come to different conclusions with this information, but at least now they can understand the motivation for and the context around the strike.
It would not take much to better reference the incident, either. A simple rewording would suffice: “…a Saturday strike, which targeted and likely killed Hamas’s terrorist leader Mohammed Deif, resulted in children requiring treatment for shrapnel wounds.”
The absence of just this minimal amount of additional information points to the continued decline in the quality of CNN’s journalism. Far too many of the network’s reporters are more interested in reporting a narrative of the conflict, rather than the reality.
What bullshit headline is this @CBCNews?
— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) July 22, 2024
A Canadian with a KNIFE attempted to STAB Israelis and was shot before he could MURDER PEOPLE. pic.twitter.com/xH8WUwwQPB
The Israel Narrative™ requires omitting that Israel was attacked first by Arab belligerents like Hezbollah. Here @nytimes introduces conflict in north as “both sides” doing the same thing, no mention Hezbollah attacked Israel unprovoked on 10/8 with rockets on civilian towns. pic.twitter.com/ZsWtZEFrgb
— Aizenberg (@Aizenberg55) July 23, 2024
How does @CNN get away with this headline?? The article clearly states, "...it was no secret that the family had links to Hamas..." Yet, CNN chooses to highlight that the patriarch, Dr. Ahmed Aljamal, who was holding hostages, was a "pious man" & the neighborhood was "shocked?" pic.twitter.com/vxoP7IZtF4
— Canary Mission (@canarymission) July 23, 2024
Said Dr. Perlmutter from North Carolina, who went on a mission to Gaza to decry what he is seeing in Gaza hospitals, is a die hard anti-Zionist. His report for CBS news is belied by his agenda. pic.twitter.com/NgZGp8xMur
— Menachem (((Menkah))) Feuer (@menachemenkis) July 23, 2024
Hey @SkyNews, if you are so desperate to not call Hezbollah a terrorist organization after firing more than 5000 rockets and drones at Israel since October 7, can't you do better than "fighting group?" pic.twitter.com/W1vHQuvs44
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) July 23, 2024
MEMRI: Kuwaiti Muslim Brotherhood Leader Tareq Al-Suwaidan: October 7th Awakened The Islamic Nation, Which Hit Rock Bottom In 1967 When It Lost Jerusalem; Do You Really Think That All The Action In Western Universities Is Carried Out By Non-Muslims? It Was Our Muslim Boys And Girls Who Mobilized The Westerners; I Was Doing Islamic Activity In The U.S. In The 70s And 80s; Allah Said We Will Fight The Jews Until They Hide Behind Rocks And Trees
In a lecture uploaded to his YouTube channel on July 12, 2024, Kuwaiti Islamic scholar and Muslim Brotherhood leader Tareq Al-Suwaidan discussed the hadiths, according to which the Prophet Muhammad assures the Muslims that they will fight the Jews at the end of times, and they will hide behind the rocks and trees and that the Muslims will conquer Istanbul and Rome. He said that the "action" on Western university campuses such as the Sorbonne and Harvard were led by Musim young men and women, who "mobilized" Western students. Al-Suwaidan said that the October 7 attack has awakened the Islamic nation, just like the 1967 war did. He explained that "October 7 was a one-day victory followed by pain, destruction, and genocide but it will change history."
Tareq Al-Suwaidan, who openly promotes jihad, calling to "let the mujahideen do their work," urges Muslims to plan to "wipe out Israel," and in 2013 was fired from his position as director of the Saudi Al-Risala TV after announcing online that he is a Muslim Brotherhood leader, currently resides in Turkey. He spent several years as an Islamic leader in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was an unindicted co-conspirator in the case against Hamas terrorism funding by the Holy Land Foundation, and has been banned from entering several countries, including the United States and Belgium, for antisemitism and supporting terrorism.
October 7th Awakened The Islamic Nation, Which Hit Rock Bottom In 1967 When It Lost Jerusalem
Tareq Al-Suwaidan: "We hit rock bottom in 1967 when we lost Jerusalem.
"I remember that in 1967, I walked into the mosque, and all the eyes of the people at the mosque turned to me. Do you know why? Because they saw a young man entering the mosque. You cannot even imagine what it was to see a young man entering a mosque. Everybody at the mosque was old, on the verge of death, This was the situation back then. At Kuwait University, we had only three women wearing the hijab in 1970. Not three percent. Three girls. This was the situation throughout the Islamic nation, but following 1967, we began our awakening.
"I was doing Islamic activity in America in the 1970's and 1980, The peak of the Islamic activity was back then, in America, and all the way to Australia. There is no place in this world, where there was no Islamic awakening following 1967.
"What happened on October 7th? Some people who have no understanding – excuse me for being bold – think that October 7th was a catastrophe for us. Right? Isn't this what Mahmoud Abbas and his people say?
"I swear by Allah, the magnitude of October 7 is no less than what happened in 1967. It has awakened the Islamic nation once again. True, there was a lot of pain in 1967 – defeat, humiliation, the loss of Jerusalem – but the outcome was very beneficial for the Islamic nation. October 7... Okay, it is a one-day victory, followed by pain, destruction, and genocide, but it will change history.
Kuwaiti Muslim Brotherhood Leader Tareq Al-Suwaidan: The Prophet Muhammad Promised Us that We Would Kill the Jews, Conquer Rome, and We Must Not Doubt This; Students at Western Campuses Are Mobilized by Muslim Youth; October 7 Will Change History @TareqAlSuwaidan pic.twitter.com/0TqfEkYO7N
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) July 22, 2024
Canadian Imam Adnan Abyat in BC Friday Sermon: We Have to Raise Our Families on the Idea of Jihad; A Bunch of Filthy Zionist Jews Decided to Destroy Muslims; We Have to Defend Ourselves; Muslim Blood Has Become the Cheapest Liquid on Earth #Canada pic.twitter.com/zQJfoo3Gr7
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) July 23, 2024
Canadian Islamic Scholar Sheikh Younus Kathrada: The Jews Are the Enemies of Allah, Yet We Want to Emulate Them – This Is a Calamity; Allah Will Take Revenge Against the Oppressors in Palestine and Elsewhere #Canada pic.twitter.com/lnBqArJOTp
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) July 23, 2024
MEMRI: Terror Organizations Consolidating Their Control Over Tulkarm, Tubas In Northern West Bank, Undermining Control Of Palestinian Authority
The Tulkarm and Tubas governorates in the northern West Bank have lately become hotspots of terrorist activity against Israel, a situation that undermines the control of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in those areas, as has already happened in the governorates of Jenin and Nablus. This process – in which militias comprising fighters from multiple Palestinian organizations, including Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, gain strength and engage in escalating terror against Israel while undermining the security control of the PA on the ground – began before the outbreak of the Gaza war. But since then it has steadily increased, and in the recent months Hamas and other organizations have even been threatening to carry out attacks in the West Bank similar to Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack in southern Israel.[1]
Incidents in which these militias fired at nearby Israeli localities and tried to infiltrate them occurred before the Gaza war, but the recent months have seen an escalation in their terror activity and their defiance of the PA's security apparatuses. A conspicuous example is a series of clashes between the Tulkarm Brigade militia and the PA security forces, which included exchanges of gunfire, after several PIJ terrorists were killed during the PA's attempts to arrest them between March and May 2024. In several incidents, Tulkarm terrorists prevented the PA security forces from entering the refugee camps in the area and even seized one of their vehicles. Similar clashes took place recently between the Tubas Brigade militia and the PA security forces.
The PA, for its part, is ambivalent in its treatment of these militias. On the one hand, it regards their growing power as a threat to its very existence and as an Iranian attempt to carry out a coup against it by means of its local proxies.[2] On the other hand, it continues to condemn Israel for combating the terror activity of these militias, presenting this as unwarranted aggression and as the murder of innocent Palestinian civilians.
This report reviews the activity of the Tulkarm and Tubas terror militias and the erosion of the PA's control over those governorates in the recent period.
The Tulkarm And Tubas Brigades – Groups Comprising Fighters From Various Factions Modeled On Nablus And Jenin Militias
The last two years have seen a significant surge in Palestinian terror activity in the West Bank. A conspicuous phenomenon has been the appearance of militias such as the Lion's Den in Nablus and the Jenin Brigade in Jenin, which include fighters from various Palestinian factions and thus embody military cooperation between these factions. Hamas and PIJ leaders have praised this model and recommended to expand it to all parts of the West bank, and have in fact announced that they are acting to achieve this.[3] The Tulkarm Brigade and the Tubas Brigade, which emerged in the last two years, are indeed based on this model, and now coordinate the operations against Israel in their respective governorates.
The Tulkarm Brigade comprises two separate militias, each based in one of the city's two refugee camps. The first, called "Tulkarm Brigade–Al-Quds Brigades," was founded in March 2022 and controls the Nour Al-Shams refugee camp in the city. This militia is affiliated exclusively with the PIJ, and its founder, Sayf Abu Libda, who was killed by Israel in April 2022, held ties with the Jenin Brigade. The second militia, called "Tulkarm Brigade–Rapid Response," is based in the city's other refugee camp, the Tulkarm camp, and was founded in 2023 in response to the killing of terrorists from the Lion's Den militia in Nablus. This militia includes fighters from several organizations: Fatah's military wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which does not obey the political leadership of Fatah and the PA, and whose fighters comprise the majority in this refugee camp; the Hamas military wing, the Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades, the PIJ military wing, the Al-Quds Brigades and the Jund Allah organization. The fighters from the various organizations operate both separately and jointly.[4] The fighters themselves have disclosed that some of their operations are carried out by a joint nuhba (elite force).[5]
Moreover, despite the apparent division of the Tulkarm Brigade into two militias, in practice there is cooperation and coordination between them, as noted by the militia operatives and by the Palestinian and Arab media. An article on the Palestinian Metras website stated: "The two [Tulkarm refugee camps] support one another. When the Israeli army besieges one of the camps, the fighters from the other come out to defend it and engage the enemy."[6] An article in the Al-Arabi Al-Jadid daily quoted an operative of the Tulkarm Brigade–Rapid Response militia, based in the Tulkarm refugee camp, as saying: "We all fight in a single trench, all the factions [together] in fraternity and unity, and in coordination with the brigades in the Nour Al-Shams [refugee] camp."[7] Further proof of the coordination between the two parts of the Tulkarm Brigade came in May 2024: After the PA security forces killed an operative of the Tulkarm Brigade–Al-Quds Brigades, a joint statement was issued by "the brigade in the Nour Al-Shams refugee camp and the brigade in the Tulkarm refugee camp and all their military organizations," which called for an uprising against the PA.[8] The cooperation is also evident on Telegram: Each of the various terror organizations in Tulkarm has its own Telegram channel, but all of the channels identify as affiliated with the Tulkarm Brigade. For example, one channel is called "The Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigade–Tulkarm Brigade."[9]
pic.twitter.com/WeLoCbbgBo
— Liza Rosen (@LizaRosen0000) July 23, 2024
A popular Palestinian music video on the Palestinian Authority's official television channel calls on Muslims to invade Israel and kill Jews: "Burst over the borders… Slice open the enemy's chest".
If you want to better understand the conflict in the…
pic.twitter.com/MPA9AaRbk4
— Liza Rosen (@LizaRosen0000) July 23, 2024
Watch: popular Palestinian music video features a child soldier calling on Muslims to continue waging Jihad (Islam's Holy War) against Israel and the Jewish people.
If you want to better understand the conflict in the Middle East, please follow: @palwatch
Zach Sage risked his life to go into the West Bank and interview Palestinians.
— The Persian Jewess (@persianjewess) July 23, 2024
He was attacked by terrorist thugs while making this film. They forced him to delete the footage, but he successfully recovered it.
More than 75% of Palestinians support Hamas. pic.twitter.com/U7ehlm0nEP
A Gazan youth remembers his daily routines before the war.#TheGazaYouDontSee Gaza
— Imshin (@imshin) July 22, 2024
Link in 1st comment pic.twitter.com/JMx6mHPDoO
This young woman in South Gaza rants for 5 minutes about the soap/shampoo situation.
— Imshin (@imshin) July 23, 2024
I've told you before that the shampoo situation is what seems to be bothering Gazans in the south most of all these days.
Long story short, she bought shampoo, soap for laundry and soap for… pic.twitter.com/U60FX7iczd
Dalia makes a coffee and chocolate flavored no-bake cake in North Gaza. She says this is the only sweet they have in North Gaza, but just 6 days ago she posted a video with cookies and chocolates 🤷♀️
— Imshin (@imshin) July 23, 2024
TikTok timestamp: 1 hour ago#TheGazaYouDontSee
Link in 1st comment https://t.co/EVd7vFWWvo pic.twitter.com/g1qXNa1d89
Seth Frantzman: Assad praises Russia and Iran for support, highlights anti-western alliance and cooperation
According to Iranian reports, Syria’s regime leader Bashar al-Assad spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday. Pro-Iran outlet Al-Mayadeen reported that “President al-Assad emphasized that both nations have supported one another for eight decades and have stayed steadfast in their commitment to values and dignity.”WSJ Editorial: The Triumph of the Houthis (and Iran)
Days later, the Syrian regime hosted Ali Asghar Khaji, the senior adviser to the Iranian Foreign Ministry, along with a delegation. “In this meeting, Assad emphasized the depth of relations between Syria and Iran, as well as the strengthening of cooperation and coordination between the two countries in various fields,” Iranian state media IRNA noted. Khaji also met with Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad and his deputy Bassam al-Sabbagh.
In the talks with the Russian leader, Assad praised Moscow for working toward a multi-polar world: a world order anchored in Moscow and Beijing and one that challenges the West. Syria’s regime is backed by Iran, which is also close to Russia and China. Additionally, Turkey has recently become closer to Russia and China, as well as becoming another cog in this anti-Western world order. Increasing regional influence
From Sunday to Tuesday, China hosted 14 Palestinian factions, which shows how Beijing’s clout is increasing in the region. This is part of the “multipolar” world that Assad praised Putin for helping create. “In light of the hegemony we face and the war we are witnessing, the final word is resilience, not retreat or defeat,” Assad said.
Al-Mayadeen noted that “The Russian President congratulated the Syrian government and people and wished them prosperity. He emphasized that both nations had made significant progress together in a number of areas, most notably the fight against terrorism.”
It also noted that “back in April, Major General Ali Mamlouk, the National Security Advisor at the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Syrian Republic, and Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of the Russian Security Council, emphasized the significance of enhancing Syria-Russia relations and coordinating efforts to combat terrorism during a meeting held in Moscow.”
The recent meetings with the Syrian regime and Assad’s call with Putin illustrate how Syria is positioning itself these days. Iran and Russia are the main backers of the regime. Syria’s regime is also considering working more closely with Turkey via reconciliation that could be brokered by Iraq.
The bombing exchange between the Houthis of Yemen and Israel over the weekend represents the failure of U.S. policy to contain the Iran-backed Houthis as they terrorize commercial shipping in the Red Sea. The Biden Administration told Israel nine months ago that the U.S. would handle the Houthi threat and it should stick to playing defense. But the attack on Tel Aviv shows that the U.S. effort is a bust.Houthis threaten to attack Israeli ports, gas fields after weekend strike on Hodeida
The Houthis have all but shut down Western shipping in the Red Sea, at enormous cost to global businesses and consumers. They continue to attack U.S. naval vessels, which have been forced to play a high-stakes game of catch the drones and missiles. That one or more haven't killed sailors and damaged ships is a tribute to U.S. naval training and technology. But sooner or later one might get through and result in American casualties.
The Iran-backed Houthis are preparing to strike new sensitive targets in Israel and the region, according to sources from Yemen’s capital Sana’a quoted by the Lebanese Hezbollah-affiliated daily Al-Akhbar on Tuesday.
Sources close to the Yemeni militia quoted by Al-Akhbar said that in response to the Israeli retaliatory strike on the Houthi-controlled Hodeida port in western Yemen on Saturday, itself a response to a deadly Houthi drone attack on Tel Aviv, Houthi military leaders have added new items to their “target bank.”
The Yemeni rebel group — in cooperation with other members of the so called Axis of Resistance of Iran-backed paramilitary groups in Lebanon, Iraq and Syria — was said to be planning to hit the Israeli Mediterranean ports of Ashdod, Ashkelon and Haifa, in addition to the Red Sea port of Eilat.
The Israeli gas fields in the Mediterranean were also reportedly in the Houthis’ crosshairs, as well as oil tankers transporting fuel from Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan to Israel through the Eastern Mediterranean.
The Houthis were also said to be planning to target maritime trade in the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean, with the rebel group reportedly aiming to use long-range projectiles to target “enemy maritime trade” directed toward the Cape of Good Hope along African coasts.
The route is much longer than the one through the Suez Canal, but has become increasingly popular since the Houthis began targeting ships transiting through the Red Sea with alleged connections to Israel, the United States, or Britain.
WATCH
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) July 23, 2024
Footage of the Houthis practicing to “liberate Jerusalem” pic.twitter.com/uxl8fNdUdG
A Team of Ukrainian Armed Guards aboard a Commercial Cargo Ship in the Southern Red Sea, were able to Successfully Destroy a One-Way Surface Drone launched by the Houthi Terrorist Group in Western Yemen. pic.twitter.com/FP43RkfEFJ
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) July 23, 2024
Wiz turns down $23 billion Google deal, says it’s aiming for IPO
Wiz, the $12 billion cloud security startup that was in acquisition talks with Google parent Alphabet, has decided not to move forward with the deal and will remain an independent company, according to an internal note sent to company’s 1,200 employees on Monday viewed by Fortune.
“While we are flattered by offers we have received, we have chosen to continue on our path to building Wiz,” CEO Assaf Rappaport wrote in the note. Rappaport added in the email that the company’s next target is to reach $1 billion in annual recurring revenue and to take the company public.
A source familiar with the matter told Fortune that Wiz’s investors were fully supportive of the decision. From Rappaport and Wiz’s end, the decision to walk away from a possible deal with the tech giant came down to a simple calculation: Wiz is already big enough on its own to gun for an IPO, which is the ultimate goal for the company, the source said.
Expected regulatory scrutiny of the deal, which would have represented the largest acquisition in Google’s history, may also have contributed to Wiz’s decision to go at it alone.
“The market validation we have experienced following this news only reinforces our goal – creating a platform that both security and development teams love,” Rappaport wrote in the note to employees Monday. “We are grateful for the faith our employees, investors, and customers have in us as we build the best cybersecurity company in the world.”
Speaking at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference last week, Rappaport said that the cybersecurity industry was ripe for consolidation. Still, he noted that IPOs and acquisitions are merely “milestones” in a longer journey.
“That’s kind of the mindset that we always have, being private, being public, and a startup.”
Rappaport’s interview at Brainstorm Tech is the only place he has spoken publicly since news of a possible deal broke.
The @nytimes is so quick to single out Israel when it does something wrong. As @DrMichaelOren says, why not mention the Jewish state when it has a success?https://t.co/TpIdV6SWpp pic.twitter.com/8HHVMsYOFA
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) July 23, 2024
Applied Systems buys Israeli AI insurtech startup to open a local R&D center
United States insurance software provider Applied Systems has struck a deal to snap up Israeli tech startup Planck, a developer of an artificial intelligence-based insurance data platform, to make a foray into the country and open an R&D center.WSJ: Jews and Arabs Work Side by Side in Israeli Hospitals
Financial details about the transaction were not disclosed. To date, Planck has raised $73 million from a series of venture capital funds, including Team8, 3L Capital, Greenfield Partners, Viola Fintech, Arbor Ventures, and Vintage Investment Partners. In the latest funding round in 2022, the startup was valued at $250 million.
Founded in 2016 in Tel Aviv by Elad Tsur, CEO; Amir Cohen, CTO; and David Shapiro, Planck’s AI platform allows insurers to automatically underwrite commercial businesses by drawing on a range of data sources including public records, online images, videos, and reviews and applying machine learning to generate risk-related insights.
The deal marks Applied Systems’ first investment in the Israeli market at a time when the country is almost 10 months into a war with the Hamas terror group and many tech workers and startup founders are still called up for reserve duty to join the fighting. Despite the wartime challenges, the US cloud-based software provider for the insurance market said that following the transaction, it will open a local development center, which will absorb all of Planck’s 65 employees.
The R&D center will be tasked with further developing AI products tapping the Israeli startup’s technology, while building AI-based solutions for Applied Systems’ products. Planck’s founders will join the management team, with Tsur serving as chief AI officer of Applied Systems, leading the AI domain across the software provider’s products.
“We believe the time is now to take bold steps to lead the insurance industry in discovering and implementing the benefits AI has to offer,” said Applied Systems CEO Taylor Rhodes. “By acquiring Planck, we will be investing behind a world-class team of AI and Data Science experts to accelerate the application of leading AI capabilities to insurance workflows.”
Tensions over the Gaza war have spread to American medical centers, with doctors feuding and wearing pins to express their positions. The hospital at the University of California, San Francisco even had a protest encampment.Here Are the Israelis Competing in the 2024 Olympics
Yet Israeli hospitals are free of such acrimony. Arabs and Jews work and receive treatment together.
A year ago, my 94-year-old mother broke her hip and was treated in Jerusalem's Shaare Zedek Medical Center, so I spent most of a week there.
Many doctors and nurses were Arab. So were many patients - and they shared rooms with Jews receiving treatment. Everyone got along fine.
The harmony in Israeli hospitals comes as a shock to many opponents of Israel. When I described the atmosphere to participants in the Harvard Yard Gaza encampment, they were incredulous that Jewish and Arab patients were treated in the same hospitals.
The teach-ins they attended told them that there was apartheid in Israel, so they assumed hospitals would be segregated.
Once again, we find ourselves at the dawn of another Summer Olympics.
Last time around, Israel had its best ever Olympics — winning two gold and two bronze medals, as well a couple of fourth place finishes. It was the country’s largest delegation ever, featuring 90 athletes.
This year, Israel is sending 88 athletes in 16 sports to Paris — and they’re an incredible squad.
So which Israeli athletes should you watch out for this summer?
Reigning Olympic gold medalist in the floor exercise, Artem Dolgopyat, is back and will be hard to beat.
Also competing in artistic gymnastics is Lihie Raz, who will perform in the individual all-around. Daria Atamanov is competing in the individual all-around of rhythmic gymnastics, and Israel’s incredibly skilled quintet is also competing in the team event.
Following in the footsteps of the Israeli baseball team that played at the Tokyo Olympics, Israel has qualified in a ball sport for the second consecutive Olympic games — this time, it’s soccer. Given how much Israelis like the sport, expect this to be closely followed, especially since Israel hasn’t qualified for a World Cup since 1970.
Israel’s soccer team is in a group with Mali, Paraguay, and Japan. If they can advance to the knockout rounds, anything is possible.
The Israeli swimming team features 20 athletes, which is just remarkable. The stand-out performers are Anastasia Gorbenko, who is competing in six individual events and two relays, and Matan Roditi, who is competing in the 10KM open water event after finishing in fourth place in Tokyo.
Israel’s swimming depth is showcased by the fact that it’s able to field teams in four of the relays. Additionally, Shelly Bobritsky and Ariel Nassee will compete in the duet of artistic swimming, and could make the finals for the first time.
The next largest team is the judo team, featuring five men and seven women. The headliners are world champion Inbar Lanir and European champion Raz Hershko. Israel didn’t win an individual medal in Tokyo, but it won bronze in the team event, which it will be competing in once again.
Staying with the martial arts, reigning bronze medalist Avishag Semberg is back again. In other categories, shooter Sergey Richter and badminton player Misha Zilberman are both back for their fourth Olympics.
His father is a Muslim Arab. His mother is Jewish. Both are Israeli. His name is Adam Maraana, 21, and he served in the Israeli navy. He'll be swimming for his country in the Paris Olympics this week and he's had enough of your shit pic.twitter.com/PZozzI7vWj
— Jake Wallis Simons (@JakeWSimons) July 23, 2024
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