Tuesday, July 30, 2024

07/30 Links Pt2: Trump: ‘We’re going to save Israel’; How Obama Ended Normalcy in American Politics; The youth of Israel are a reason for hope

From Ian:

Trump: ‘We’re going to save Israel’
Speaking to Syrian Jewish real estate developers and others on the Jersey Shore, Trump claimed Vice President Kamala Harris ‘hates Israel,’ said Schumer ‘became a Palestinian’ and slammed Biden on Iran

Trump spoke at a large outdoor tent in front of American flags, approaching the stage to the song “God Bless the U.S.A.” by Lee Greenwood, and proceeded to riff on Israel, Iran, Jewish voters, Vice President Kamala Harris and more for 36 minutes.

Here are some of the highlights:
On Israel: “We had a little pre-meeting of 25 people, and a couple of them were talking about the problems we have with China, problems we have with other countries. I said, ‘Well, we have a problem with Israel. We have to say this. Israel is in big trouble.’ All the things you see happening would not have happened. Oct. 7 would not have happened if I were president.”

“We’re going to be fine with China. We have a bigger problem with Israel. Israel is under siege. Israel is under attack. That was a big weapon that came yesterday and killed 13 beautiful children and I’ve never seen such graphically displayed death not on a battlefield. They showed these young children … in a position that – I’ve never seen anything like it … It’s going to wake people up and they’re going to do something about what’s happening.”

“Israel is under attack. Israel – I don’t know if I should say it, but it’s true – it does not get good public relations. I had a meeting with Bibi in Mar-a-Lago. We had a good meeting, had a strong meeting, and he wants to be able to win this war. … He’s getting tremendous kickback, and when you see a thing like what happened yesterday, you realize something is going to happen very, very fast. We have to do one thing, we have to get me elected because if I’m elected, it’s all going to come to an end.”

“I got the Golan Heights for you. They didn’t even ask for it. I recognized the capital of Israel. I recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. Just so you know, the Golan Heights, they’ve been after that for 81 years [Israel conquered the Golan Heights in 1967 – LH] … I asked [former ambassador to Israel] David Freidman and I asked some other people to give me a lesson, five minutes or less, on the Golan Heights, and they did. They said it’s very important for security because of the height. It’s a very large parcel of land, a very important location. I said thank you and I thought about it for a day. No one asked me. I got Golan Heights.”

“I got the capital of Israel, Jerusalem, and very importantly, I got the embassy built.” Trump went on an extended riff about lowering the costs of constructing the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem and the beauty of Jerusalem stone, and concluded: “It’s beautiful and we got it done. We only spent $500,000, we renovated a building and we got it open. If I didn’t get the building open, this administration would have changed it and taken the capital away.”

“None of this would have happened, the attack yesterday, Oct. 7, if I were president. They didn’t play games with me. I almost used a very foul word, I was going to use the F word but I decided not to because there are children here.”
Lee Smith: How Barack Obama Ended Normalcy in American Politics
The end of normalcy in American politics has left Americans in a daze, unable to accurately grasp the new reality or to recognize its alien features. Some say Biden was toppled in a coup, but that’s wrong. It was never truly his presidency in the first place. He was serving in a ceremonial role on behalf of a politburo, and thus his executive authority owed less to his total 81 million votes, 58 percent of which were mail-in ballots harvested on his behalf, than to his former boss who saw him as the most plausible vehicle through which to exercise power. But Oct. 7 and the aftermath showed that Biden couldn’t be trusted to balance the appearance of normalcy with the psychopathy of the faction’s priestly warrior class. So his time was up.

It was Obama’s voice you heard when Harris spoke after her meeting with Netanyahu. One day after pro-Hamas mobs desecrated the American flag, Harris lectured Americans on the dangers of “Islamophobia.” But what does that mean? No one is going to the streets to beat up Muslims or burn Palestinian flags or celebrate the slaughter of Arab infants. “Islamophobia” is a made-up concept, designed to give cover to the terror adjuncts laying waste to American cities and college campuses. Criticize them or their historic cause—i.e., murdering Jews—and you’re Islamophobic. And that, as Obama likes to say, is not who we are as Americans.

Harris’ speech was filled with Obamaisms: pairing antisemitism with Islamophobia and “hate of any kind,” foisting responsibility for “Palestinian self-determination” on Israel, and urging Americans not to see the war in Gaza as a “binary issue.” That is, Americans should forsake the moral clarity that comes naturally to them because, as Obama said in November, we have to “admit” that “nobody’s hands are clean.” Americans have to take in “the whole truth.” See, it’s nonbinary.

Harris is ridiculed for her vacuous rhetorical style, but Biden was never a good stand-in for Obama’s gaseous speechifying, and the dissonance has long unnerved the new Democratic base. Never mind the habits and ticks that stuck to the old man after nearly half a century in Washington; by 2020, he could barely string two sentences together no matter who typed his speeches into the teleprompter. With Harris, however, Obama has an ideal instrument through which he can speak directly and in his preferred prose. She’s an empty vessel. What listeners hear in her is the immediacy of Obama, which is precisely what the party—the people—crave.

The opposition, meanwhile, is struggling to recognize the contours of the new political anatomy. Those who can are often hesitant to call it what it is, for fear of being called a bigot for recognizing that normalcy in American politics came to an end with Barack Obama, who happened to also be the country’s first Black president. Discretion is laudable, up to a point. But when Obama lieutenants leak to the media that Obama is calling the shots, as they have been since the debate, it’s clear that fear of being called a racist has nothing to do with it. The failure to frankly identify the source of our political abnormality is a cause for concern.

We are now in the second decade of a phenomenon previously unknown in American politics. Instead of identifying it, dissidents have devised formulations to avoid naming it, like the deep state or wokeness or DEI, etc. But these are just the adornments of a deracinated regime, and to cast an amorphous leviathan in the role of adversary is to commit to a never-ending and ultimately unwinnable struggle. It is in this space where people lose hope, for it’s a vacuum that engenders the culture of the conspiracy theory—elaborate and colorful accounts of despair explaining that we have no control over our lives, our fate, the future of our families, communities, or our country because of hidden forces that are too big and too entrenched.

The truth is that an American political faction is employing third-world tactics—surveillance, censorship, election interference, political prosecution, and political violence—to put the United States under the thumb of a single party led by a man who in his mind has become the people.
WSJ: Antisemitic Protesters Make the Case for Zionism
The antisemitic demonstrators roiling our campuses and cities certainly don't mean to, but they're making a powerful case for Zionism. In 1896, Theodor Herzl, a Viennese journalist and very assimilated Jew, published The Jewish State, a manifesto calling for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in the biblical land of Israel. That set into motion the modern Zionist movement.

Herzl had awakened to his Jewish origins when he covered the trial of Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer falsely accused of betraying France. Dreyfus was an assimilated Jew and a proud Frenchman. Yet he was being treated as a traitor because he was a Jew, with cries of "Death to the Jews" reverberating on the streets of Paris. Confronted with this, Herzl came to the reluctant conclusion that Jews, observant or assimilated, needed their own nation to be safe from persecution.

In the wake of Oct. 7, we can't deny being witness to a worldwide paroxysm of hate against Israel, which has steadily morphed into classic antisemitism.

Since its founding, the U.S. has been a most extraordinary haven for Jews. Yet today, even in the halls of Congress, antisemitism has dramatically surfaced, and Jews are being intimidated. It turns out that Herzl was right about the need to re-establish the Jewish homeland.

Those in the forefront of the anti-Israel and anti-Jewish demonstrations are giving full credence and impetus to the Zionist dream. Even in the most welcoming nation on earth, Jews feel at risk. Only in a secure Israel can Jews be certain that they won't be persecuted by reason of who they are. The purveyors of anti-Israel and antisemitic propaganda are the best recruiters any Zionist could ever want.


Elliott Abrams: Palestine and Jordan
On Thursday, the London Arabic newspaper Al-Araby al-Jadeed published an article in favor of creating a Palestinian entity in the West Bank in confederation with Jordan. The author, Jawad al-Anani, doesn’t say so explicitly, but such an outcome would be far better for Jordan than the two-state solution so favored by international diplomats. After all, Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank most likely would lead to a Hamas takeover, and then violence spilling over the river into Jordan.

Elliott Abrams has long argued that such an arrangement at least deserves consideration alongside the now-sacrosanct principle of Palestinian statehood, and has long been told that “the Jordanians will never, never agree to a confederation.” He writes:

Al-Araby al-Jadeed is Qatari-owned and run by Azmi Bishara, a Palestinian Christian based in Doha. Who is Mr. al-Anani, the author of the article? Not exactly a marginal figure: he is a former [Jordanian] deputy prime minister, minister of labor, minister of industry and trade, minister of tourism, minister of foreign affairs, president of the Royal Court, and president of the Economic and Social Council.

There is no chance of establishing a sovereign and independent Palestinian state in the near—or, I would say, the foreseeable—future, whatever fatuous remarks about this are made in Washington or European capitals, or by Arab states. Confederation is certainly no less realistic and perhaps far more so. It should be debated and analyzed. The obsessive focus on the dangerous and unreachable objective of the “two-state solution” most often prevents serious debate on that “solution” and on the alternatives. With Israel’s “unsustainable occupation” now in its 57th year, preventing that debate does Palestinians, Israelis, and Jordanians no favors.


House Abraham Accords Caucus meets with Abraham Accords ambassadors on Gaza reconstruction
The House Abraham Accords Caucus met last week with the ambassadors of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco to the United States last week to discuss the reconstruction and future of the Gaza Strip, as the U.S. pushes for Arab states to become involved in the “day-after” plan for the territory.

The caucus’ co-chairs, Reps. Ann Wagner (R-MO), Brad Schneider (D-IL), David Trone (D-MD) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), formed a Gaza Working Group earlier this year to focus on ways the Abraham Accords can be involved in post-war Gaza.

The meeting with Ambassadors Yousef Al Otaiba of the UAE, Sheikh Abdullah bin Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa of Bahrain and Youssef Amrani of Morocco was the working group’s second convening.

Wagner said the meeting focused on “the role our critical partners can play in ensuring a stable and deradicalized Gaza.” She said that it’s “more important than ever” that the U.S., Israel and Arab allies have a “united front” against Iran and its proxies.

Schneider said that the group’s discussions are “crucial in shaping effective strategies that will ensure a peaceful and prosperous future for Gaza and the broader Middle East.”
To join the 'Abraham Alliance,' Palestinians must renounce the path of violence
In his speech to the United States Congress on July 24, 2024, Israel's prime minister Bejamin Netanyahu presented a vision for the Middle East, which he dubbed the “Abraham Alliance.”

According to Netanyahu’s vision, the USA and Israel would establish a regional security alliance, standing together to counter the threat posed by Iranian regime and its terrorist proxies across the Middle East. Countries in the region that have already established diplomatic relations with Israel will be invited to join the alliance, as would be any others that do so in the future.

In his address, Netanyahu observed that Israel saw the potential inherent in a regional security alliance on the night of April 14, when “half a dozen nations worked alongside Israel” to help neutralize Iran’s missile attack against Israel. The aim of such a regional alliance—to unite the moderates in the Middle East against Iran—is inspired, according to Netanyahu, by the alliance formed by the United States with European countries after World War II in face of the geopolitical threat posed by the Soviet Union.

This same aftermath of World War II also provided inspiration for Netanyahu with regard to an equally pressing matter: Israel’s relations with the Palestinians. One of the Allies’ great successes, orchestrated by the United States, was to take advantage of their overwhelming military victory over Japan and Germany in turning the two into prosperous, secure, and peaceful countries. Importantly, both countries had been promised the prospect of prosperity, security and independence before the end of the war—for Germany with the Atlantic Treaty of 1941, and for Japan with the Potsdam Declaration of 1945.

After Germany and Japan’s surrender, the Allied Nations acted with determination and consistency in investing resources into rehabilitating the countries, thus guaranteeing their transition into independent and prosperous entities. They also invested in deradicalizing the defeated countries, by way of revising the content of the educational systems’ curriculums and rebuilding their governmental structures and institutions, among other initiatives. In parallel, the countries of Europe realized that they need to act in consort if they were to prevail against the enemies of freedom and democracy. This understanding formed the foundations for what ultimately became the European Union.
Kohelet Policy Forum's Eugene Kontorovich on the left's double standards where Israel is concerned



Lindsey Graham vows UNRWA won’t receive ‘one dime’ from U.S.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) vowed to attendees of the Christians United for Israel summit on Monday that “Not one dime of your money is going to [the U.N. Relief and Works Agency] as long as I’m in the U.S. Senate,” days after the Senate Appropriations Committee voted to extend the freeze on the U.N. agency with ties to Hamas and Oct. 7 perpetrators.

“I want to stand up to Iran before it’s too late,” Graham said in his keynote address at CUFI’s “Night to Honor Israel” event.

The Republican lawmaker said that he plans to “introduce legislation that would say that any country who buys oil from Iran, we’re gonna put tariffs on your products if you sell them to us.” Graham also intends to “introduce authorization to use military force to stop the Iranians from getting [a] nuclear weapon,” which he warned “they are close” to.

“I am tired of just sitting on the sidelines and watching the Iranian regime run wild. … Let’s not only have Israel’s backs, but our own backs,” Graham said.

“As a young man in South Carolina, I was raised to understand that God blesses those who bless Israel,” Graham said to applause from the more than 1,000 attendees, many of them evangelical Christians. “That’s my foreign policy.”
Ernst accuses Harris of emboldening pro-Hamas demonstrators, Iran by skipping Netanyahu speech
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) accused Vice President Kamala Harris of emboldening pro-Hamas demonstrators outside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent speech to Congress, as well as the Iranian regime, by not presiding over the Netanyahu speech.

Ernst said at the Christians United for Israel summit outside Washington, D.C., on Tuesday that Harris’ absence “sent a very powerful message” to the anti-Israel “rioters” who vandalized Union Station during the speech.

“It also sent a clear signal to Hamas’ backers in Tehran,” she continued, alleging that the Biden administration “does not have the backbone to stand up to the pro-Hamas wing of the Democratic Party.”

Harris missed the Netanyahu speech due to what her team said was pre-scheduled campaign travel, and met personally with Netanyahu later in his visit to Washington last week. She condemned the antisemitic and pro-Hamas rhetoric and activity in the demonstration. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ernst also said that university presidents should be “on notice” that “if you allow… antisemitism to win, your funding will be revoked.”

The Senate Armed Services Committee member again threatened U.S. military aid and support to Qatar and Egypt, warning that “anything short of the maximum effort in the hostage negotiations will have consequences.”

She said the “the best way to secure [the hostages’] release is to fully support Israel in its war of self-defense,” arguing that Israel’s military campaign against Hamas secured the last hostage deal in November.


The Israel Guys: SPECIAL REPORT - The Palestinians' Secret Illegal Plan to Take over the West Bank Forever
Regardless of what gets talked about on the public stage, the Palestinian Authority has been enacting a secret plan to take over the West Bank. Every day they take a little bit more land. Luke Hilton and Naomi Kahn break it all down for you in this show. This is an episode from the Keep God's Land series filmed in cooperation with Israel 365.


Bassam Tawil: Kamala Harris's 'Only Path' To Destroy Israel
What is insupportable is that Harris completely ignored that the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip are suffering because of a war initiated by Hamas. She could have done many Palestinians a favor had she called on Hamas to relinquish control over the Gaza Strip and stop using its people as human shields in its Jihad (holy war) against Israel.

Harris seems not to know or to have forgotten -- either is not excessively impressive -- that on October 6, 2023, there was a ceasefire in place between Israel and Hamas. Hamas broke it.

"Sometimes, on happier days, I like to comment on the remarkable similarities between Singapore and the Gaza Strip. Both are self-governing city-states located at key crossroads of world trade on the opposite ends of the Continent of Asia. Both combine density of population with a significant urban buildup and dramatic natural advantages, including a high-quality harbor. And yet, due to differences in civil culture and governance, Singapore has been built into the trade hub of East Asia. Gaza, as Saturday's (October 7, 2023) events have demonstrated to the world, has chosen another path: becoming a terrorist dystopia like the benighted lands formerly under ISIS (Islamic State)." — Bassam Eid, Palestinian human rights activist, Newsweek, October 9, 2023.

The October 7 massacres, if anything, demonstrate why the creation of a Palestinian state is actually a surefire way to perpetuate the Palestinian jihad against Israel, as well as instability and insecurity throughout the Middle East. China, Russia, North Korea and Iran are watching and taking note that unacceptable behavior goes blissfully unpunished.

Hamas.... did not spend millions of dollars to boost the Palestinian economy or give young Palestinians in the Gaza Strip employment prospects. Rather than constructing a medical facilities or educational institutions, Hamas opted to build hundreds of tunnels to smuggle weapons, attack Israel, and shelter its terrorists and leaders.

[I]f and when a Palestinian state is established, as Harris and the Biden administration insist, it will be controlled by the same murderers, rapists and terrorist jihadists.

This is the time to remind Harris that Hamas's charter views the Jihad as the way to take all of "Palestine" from the Jews and to destroy Israel. Harris sees a Palestinian state as the "only path" to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Palestinians, on the other hand, view the establishment of such a state as the first step towards eliminating Israel. The Hamas charter begins with a quotation attributed to Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan Al-Bana: "Israel will arise and continue to exist until Islam wipes it out, as it wiped out what went before."

Harris's remarks regarding a Palestinian state are seriously problematic: they send a message to the Palestinians and others that the US is happy to reward them for terrorism and the October 7 atrocities. Instead of talking about a Palestinian state, she should have told the Palestinians that they will never achieve a state as long as they back Hamas or vow to destroy a UN member state. Harris should also have warned the Palestinians that they will never be granted their own state unless they recognize Israel's right to exist as the ancestral home of the Jewish people, stop radicalizing their youth, and renounce violence and terrorism.
The hypocrisy of Australia: Condemning Israeli 'settlers' while settling Aboriginal land
ISRAELI “SETTLERS” do not enslave Palestinian Arabs, force Arab children to become indentured child laborers, take them away in chains, or forcibly remove Arab children from their families. But the descendants of the Australian settlers who did that to the Noongar now have the chutzpah to impose sanctions on the Israelis.

Has the mistreatment of the Aboriginals ended?

According to Hannah McGlade, the Noongar to this day face “the removal of children from their mothers,” “high incarceration rates,” “very inhumane prison conditions,” and, as a result, “more Aboriginal suicides.” McGlade said the Noongar suffer from “the shocking, ongoing impacts of colonization, and we know that systemic and institutional racism and discrimination is a key driver of these issues.”

She pointed out that the Australian government is still refusing to embrace the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which the United Nations issued over 10 years ago. “Australia cannot claim leadership internationally, without respecting its international commitments in respect to indigenous peoples,” McGlad said.

To which I would add: Australia cannot claim to be concerned about “settler violence” in other places of the world, when it has still not addressed its own history and its modern-day consequences.

There’s another important aspect to this week’s hypocritical Australian action against Israelis.

One of the victims of the Hamas attack on October 7 was an Australian. If you didn’t know that, it’s because Australian officials hardly ever mention her.

A grandmother named Galit Carbone, who was born and raised in Sydney, was among those who were murdered on Kibbutz Be’eri. Her brother Danny, who lives nearby, later recalled the phone call he received from Galit, who was huddled in fear in her home as she heard the Hamas terrorists approaching. “And that was the end,” he said. “I didn’t hear anything from her afterward.”

“You were always full of love, of helping, of nonchalance, and of giving,” Galit’s daughter, Maya, said at her funeral. “You taught us to look at the world with wonder and you taught us values. You pushed us to be independent and reminded us to be ourselves.”

So where are the Australian sanctions against the Palestinian Arabs who took part in the mass murder on October 7?

Why doesn’t Australia impose sanctions on Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement, which has boasted that it participated in the October 7 attack?

Why is Australia giving $20 million to UNRWA this year, even after it was revealed that many UNRWA staff members are Hamas terrorists and even involved in holding Israelis hostage?

Last week, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong issued a statement about the sanctions on Israelis, saying: “We call on Israel to hold perpetrators of settler violence to account and to cease its ongoing settlement activity, which only inflames tensions and further undermines stability and prospects for a two-state solution.”

Well, I call on Australia to hold the perpetrators of the October 7 terrorist attacks to account and to cease settling Australians in Aboriginal territory, which only inflames tensions between Australian settlers and native Aboriginals and further undermines stability and prospects for a peaceful solution to their 200-year-old conflict.
Bari Weiss's guidelines for how to fight antisemitism in the 21st century
The resurgence of antisemitism in the 21st century has been unnerving and dangerous, but it shouldn’t come as a surprise, writes founder of The Free Press and former New York Times and Wall Street Journal staffer Bari Weiss in her 2019 book, How to Fight Anti-Semitism.

Composed partly in response to the 2018 murders at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, where Weiss became a bat mitzvah, this brief (200-page) book explores how we got to this distressing point – well before Oct. 7 multiplied antisemitic attacks and language tenfold – and what we can do about it.

I’m not going to go into details here about the horrific history of antisemitism – more qualified scholars have written extensively on the subject – but I want to share excerpts from Weiss’s final chapter, simply titled “How to Fight.” The book may be a few years old, but the calls to action are even more relevant today.

Weiss’s approach is to accentuate the positive. “Building is better than begging, affirming is better than adjuring.” And while “nothing can remind you of who you are like a gut punch, the Jews did not sustain their magnificent civilization because they were anti-antisemites. They sustained it because they knew who they were and why they were.” Here are a few of Weiss’s suggestions for fighting antisemitism:

Trust your discomfort. We try to “put on a good face, to blend in with our neighbors, keen not to play the victim,” writes Weiss. That might have worked for a brief time, but that time is over.

“If an organization you supported is making common cause with [antisemites], don’t look for a way to justify a relationship.” That’s an important rejoinder for Jewish supporters of protest groups like Students for Justice in Palestine or Jewish Voice for Peace. “Do not give your time and money to causes, institutions, nonprofits, or universities that condone antisemitism.”

Resist hierarchical identity politics. For the Right, Jews can never be white enough. For the Left, Jews can never be oppressed enough. “Typically, the only way out of this vise is for the Jew to confess her sins and disavow part of herself,” Weiss writes. But any party “that forces us... to check part of our identity at the door is not one worth joining.”

Call it out. Especially when it’s hard. Publicly calling out antisemitism risks your being called “hysterical, oversensitive, a racist, [or a] white supremacist.” But the opposite response – to hold your tongue and “hope someone changes the subject” – has led to “a conspiracy of silence [that has taken] hold among too many progressive Jews. Outrage is increasingly reserved for the privacy and safety of our own homes. This tactic will not stop the spread of antisemitism. It will hasten it.”
Marking civil rights act’s 60th year, Biden avoids mentioning Jew-hatred
Despite surging antisemitism since Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack, and many of the U.S. Department of Education’s probes under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act relating to alleged Jew-hatred, U.S. President Biden didn’t mention antisemitism in his 25-minute remarks marking the 60th anniversary of the law.

Speaking at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and Museum in Austin, Texas, Biden said that the 1964 law is “one of the crowning achievements” and “a defining moment that has since opened doors for all Americans regardless of race, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religion, national origin.”

A White House fact sheet called the law “the most significant piece of civil rights legislation in our nation’s history since Reconstruction.” The fact sheet referred to protecting students who are black, Latino, Native American and part of the “LGBTQI+ community,” but did not mention Jewish or Israeli students.

Currently, there are 145 open probes of schools and districts for alleged discrimination based on national origin “involving religion,” per the U.S. Department of Education. JNS has reported that many of those probes relate to alleged Jew-hatred.
New nonpartisan report slams WaPo’s Middle East coverage as unprofessional
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy is releasing an analysis this morning accusing the Washington Post, which has been widely criticized for its coverage of Israel’s war in Gaza, of “abuse of anonymous sourcing” in its coverage of the conflict. The report comes the same day that the paper included an editor’s note in its print edition over a headline of a story about Hezbollah’s attack on Israel.

The report, authored by Washington Institute Executive Director Robert Satloff, is based on the institute’s database for reporting on the war, which collected 436 articles in total from seven major media outlets, 379 of which “drew from an anonymous or confidential source who was a government or organizational official or someone described as being knowledgeable about sensitive political, military, or diplomatic issues.”

The Post, according to the report, “was responsible for 72% of all the citations of Gaza-related unofficial anonymous sources — more than five times as many as both The New York Times and all the other major U.S. media platforms combined.”

“Quite apart from accusations of advocacy, bias, or partisanship, these findings point to serious professional journalistic failings that distinguish the Post from the other six U.S.-based media organizations included in the database,” Satloff writes.

“Indeed, abuse of anonymous sourcing at the Post appears to be a systemic problem, with responsibility that runs from correspondents in the field to the most senior editors in Washington. This may not be the reason the Post is currently going through convulsive change, but one can only hope that it comes out at the other end with this problem fixed.”

In his analysis, Satloff contrasts the Post’s use of anonymous sources with that of The New York Times, saying that the latter “appears to have done a commendable job of following its in-house rules on use of anonymous sources in its Gaza war reportage.”

“Unlike the Post, which frequently drew upon anonymous sources for colorful quotations or scene-setting observations, other news media generally restricted such use to providing factual information not available elsewhere. As for the New York Times specifically, it cited unnamed local people more than any media platform besides the Post, but all eight stories did so to relate factual information,” he says. “In none of the Times’s articles is the unnamed source given a platform to offer an opinion or just provide additional color.”

The analysis references five stories where “the anonymous source in the Post was the main subject of an article,” with Satloff saying that “each of these stories was itself problematic.”
John Oliver Compares Israel to Nazi Germany in Simplistic West Bank Analysis
One of the most egregious aspects of this entire piece is Oliver’s use of morally-charged terminology to tarnish his large audience’s view of the Jewish state.

Early on in this segment, Oliver describes the founding of the State of Israel following the Holocaust and then quickly refers to the “Nakba” as the Palestinians’ “own collective trauma,” drawing a direct comparison between a genocide and the result of a war that was not initiated by Israel.

This diminishment of the gravity of the Holocaust is further made clear near the end of the piece when Oliver makes the grotesque implication that Israel is acting like the Nazis, saying
A phrase that gets brought up a lot with regard to Israel is ‘never again,’ an anti-genocide slogan often invoked in memory of the Holocaust. And it’s always been open to two interpretations: There’s the one that means this must never again happen to the Jewish people and the one that means this must never happen again to any people anywhere. And in the West Bank, as in Gaza right now, it’s pretty clear which one the Israeli government has favored.

Only a complete perversion of morality could produce such a statement.

And yet, morality is what Oliver continually relies on to portray his view as the just one and those that disagree as immoral.

Oliver refers to the building of settlements as “immoral” and suggests the adoption of extreme steps against Israel by the United States as a moral step in the right direction, including conditioning military aid to the Jewish state and allowing anti-Israel resolutions to pass at the United Nations Security Council.

Oliver ends this piece by saying that the United States should “have the moral backbone that’s been shown by Ben & [expletive] Jerry’s,” a reference to the ice cream company’s decision to not allow its wares to be sold in the West Bank (in an ironic twist, this decision was harmful for local Palestinians who worked for the Israeli ice cream company).


Radical UK Islamist preacher Choudary jailed for life for terrorism offenses
British radical Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary, whose followers have been linked to numerous plots around the world, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Tuesday for directing a terrorist organization.

Choudary, 57, was convicted last week of directing al-Muhajiroun, which was banned as a terrorist organization more than a decade ago, and encouraging others to support the proscribed group.

"Organizations such as yours normalize violence in support of an ideological cause," Judge Mark Wall told Choudary at London's Woolwich Crown Court.

"Their existence gives individuals who are members of them the courage to commit acts which otherwise they might not do. They drive wedges between people who otherwise could and would live together in peaceful coexistence."

Wall imposed a life sentence on Choudary with a minimum term of 28 years before he can be eligible for parole, less just over the year that he has spent in custody since his arrest.

Choudary's other controversies
Once Britain's most high-profile Islamist preacher, Choudary drew attention for praising the men responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and saying he wanted to convert Buckingham Palace into a mosque.

He was previously imprisoned in Britain in 2016 for encouraging support for Islamic State before being released in 2018 after serving half of his five-and-a-half-year sentence.

Prosecutor Tom Little said on Tuesday that Choudary became "the caretaker emir" of al-Muhajiroun after fellow Islamist preacher Omar Bakri Mohammed was jailed in Lebanon in 2014.

Choudary's lawyer Paul Hynes argued that al-Muhajiroun was "little more than a husk of an organization" and that almost all terrorist acts linked to the group had already taken place.

But Wall said al-Muhajiroun was "a radical organization intent on spreading sharia law to as much of the world as possible, using violent means where necessary."
Organizer of Violent Protest During Bibi Address Hosted Terrorist Leader on His YouTube Show
The man who organized the violent protests against Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, D.C., last week hosted a leader of a U.S.-designated terrorist organization on his YouTube show in January.

Brian Becker, National Park Service records show, applied for the permit on behalf of the anti-Israel activist group ANSWER Coalition. Protesters waved terrorist flags, clashed with law enforcement, and applauded terrorist groups. Those protests ultimately turned violent, with authorities arresting 23 individuals. Local prosecutors later let most of the arrested protesters go free, although federal prosecutors have brought charges against at least eight.

But perhaps more disturbing are Becker's ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Less than four months after Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on Israel, Becker hosted Haytham Abdo, a leader of the terrorist group who resides in Lebanon, on his YouTube show The Socialist Program.

The first question Becker asked Abdo in his interview was about the PFLP's terrorist designation, which the latter dismissed as "imperialism" from "Western powers."

"Who is the terrorist? The terrorist is the Zionist occupation, the terrorist now is the one who supports this occupation," Abdo said. Later in the interview, Abdo said the PFLP is also coordinating with other terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

The PFLP is a Marxist-Leninist terror organization based in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Its members have also found refuge in Syria and Lebanon. Attacks by the PFLP have resulted in the deaths of both Israelis and Americans alike, including a 2014 incident at an Israeli synagogue that killed three Americans.

The State Department designated the PFLP as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997. Japan, Canada, and the European Union also make that designation.

Even with the designation, the PFLP appears to be the terrorist group of choice by Western anti-Israel activists. The Israeli government considers the nonprofit Samidoun, which is a subsidiary of the Alliance for Global Justice, a front group for the PFLP. Members of the European Parliament have reached similar conclusions as well.

Samidoun often organizes protests with ANSWER, including those that involve unlawfully blocking roads and bridges. But Samidoun is able to headquarter itself in Tucson, Ariz., where supporters can mail tax-deductible donations. The organization's two leaders were barred from entering the European Union in 2022 for their ties to the PFLP.


Kassy Akiva: Harvard Relocates Program From Hamas-Friendly University Over ‘Security Concerns’
Harvard University has relocated a summer program with a Palestinian university whose faculty and students have endorsed and collaborated with Hamas and other terror groups, a spokesman told The Daily Wire.

Birzeit University, which called for “glory for the martyrs” after Hamas’s October 7 terrorist massacre in Israel, was slated to host Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s “Palestine Social Medicine Course” from July to August. But the school has moved the program to Jordan, a spokesman told The Daily Wire, “due to security concerns in the West Bank.”

According to the program’s website, the “three-week intensive summer course is designed to introduce students to the social, structural, political, and historical aspects that determine Palestinian health beyond the biological basis of disease.”

The program kicks off this week and ends August 17.

Students on the trip will learn from health practitioners, academics, and activists about topics including “Settler colonialism and its manifestations in Palestine” and “Health and racism,” the website states.

Harvard’s relationship with Birzeit University came under scrutiny after The Daily Wire revealed the Palestinian university’s connections with terrorists and anti-Semites, prompting a group of lawmakers to call for an end to the partnership.

On October 10, Birzeit University’s school’s X account called for “glory for the martyrs” and repeatedly declared support for student encampments on American college campuses whose members harassed Jewish students.

The account also mourned “with great pride the martyr,” Aysar Safi, a student killed in a combat mission against the IDF, who was a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), according to the terrorist group’s website. Birzeit posted a photo of Safi’s on-campus funeral, where attendees were seen holding flags of the student wing of the PFLP and Hamas’s al-Qassam brigade.

Hanan Ashrawi, chairman of the university’s board of trustees, denied that Hamas sexually assaulted Israeli civilians on October 7. Ashrawi has also defended Hezbollah, and endorsed the lynching of Israeli soldiers, according to CAMERA UK.


The BBC is making British Jews less safe and we shouldn’t be afraid to say it
Asked on a recent Zoom meeting with members of the community what he thought about the idea that the BBC was helping to worsen antisemitism in this country, Richard Burgess, the corporation’s director of news content was sanguine.

"Obviously it is not the BBC’s intention to make that any worse," he said. "I don't believe we have but, I mean, obviously, that’s unknowable."

But the thing is, it isn"t an unknowable.

The BBC regularly trumpets itself as the nation’s most trusted news brand. And if the nation"s most trusted news brand is intent on demonising Israel, focuses on stories about the bombing of schools in Gaza without explaining they are Hamas holdouts, never queries people when they call the Israel-Gaza war "genocide" and positions stories so that it seems that even when children in Israel are killed, somehow it is the fault of Israel for being there (and they are no longer children but young people) doesn’t it stand to reason that the people who support this "genocidal baby-killing" must be monsters?

And isn't it then practically incumbent on good caring people to despise these Israel-supporting Jews who turn out to be just as bad as everyone said?

I don't know a single Jewish person who isn’t concerned about BBC bias. The people who are most critical of all, are the Jewish people who work at the Beeb. They have concern not only about the output but – for at least some of them – a hostile work environment. Mostly they whisper painfully, "It's an absolute sh*t show". A few are still wondering whether they can stay.

For some Jewish BBC staff, the corporation has an unconscious bias to always see Israeli as the aggressor, and the Palestinians the victims.

We see that in the way they usually fail to examine the wider picture of Iran's aggression (and it's no surprise it has barely touched the war in the North). One recent example, a long primer about Hezbollah and the war in the north, omitted a key fact: that the terrorist organisation is breaking UN Resolution 1701 which compels Hezbollah to remain ten miles away from the border, behind the Litani River. It is the omissions, as well as the wrong emphasis, which adds to this picture of aggressive Israelis.


Sky News Journalist Alex Crawford Doubles Down on ‘Revenge Lust’ Libel on Social Media
But the most disturbing part of the piece wasn’t the omissions or Crawford’s almost sympathetic portrayal of the terror group as unflinching in the face of “threats and accusations from their Israeli neighbours,” it was a few words included in the very last line:
The war has entered a very dangerous stage and the Lebanese authorities who’re in direct contact with their Hezbollah partners are urging restraint whilst encouraging the Americans to leverage pressure on the Israelis to reign [sic] in their lust for revenge.“

HonestReporting swiftly condemned the outrageous libel in a widely shared post on the social media site X, rallying our supporters to lodge complaints with Sky News and Alex Crawford.

But rather than retracting the accusation when social media users noted its resemblance to ancient blood libels, Crawford doubled down, posting a mocking response to a comment by British journalist and editor of the Jewish Chronicle, Jake Wallis Simons.

Crawford claimed that this alleged Israeli “lust for revenge” had been “demonstrated over the last 9 months,” implying that the vile charge was evidenced by “starvation” in Gaza.

Sky News must now take action. Not only should it issue a retraction and apology, but it also needs to consider whether it wants its journalists perpetuating harmful stereotypes and making unprofessional remarks on social media. Such behavior undermines journalistic integrity and damages Sky’s reputation.
Board of Deputies complain to Sky News over claim Israel has ‘lust for revenge’
Alan Johnson, editor of the pro-Israel Fathom Journal, said: “I repeat what I tweeted yesterday: the mainstream western media is now the most important global driver of the demonisation of Israel.”

Earlier this year, Crawford was accused of taking “a side” in the war between Israel and Hamas after claiming the former had committed “war crimes”.

Writing on X, she said: “It is absolutely farcical to try to peddle the view that foreign journalists are not entering Gaza because it’s ‘dangerous’.

“International journalists have been delib blocked from entering Gaza by primarily Israel who doesn’t want them seeing the war crimes.”

Danny Cohen, a former director of television at the BBC, told The Telegraph: “Alex Crawford appears uninterested in the principles of impartiality, balance and accuracy that underpin broadcast journalism in the UK. She has clearly taken a side in the Israel-Hamas war, accusing Israel of war crimes without presenting any evidence.”

He added: “At a time of exponentially rising antisemitism, Sky News must act to ensure their journalists are reporting the war without bias and purely on the basis of facts.”

Writing on X, Honest Reporting, a media monitoring watchdog, said: “Dear @SkyNews, thank you for your empathy for the loss of 12 children murdered by Hezbollah. Israelis want and deserve security and to return safely home. Your calling that a ‘lust for revenge’ while our children are being buried is deeply offensive.”

Sky News have been contacted for comment.
CBC As It Happens Interviews Former US Official Falsely Claiming Israel Deliberately Starves Gaza
In mid-July, Israeli Benjamin Netanyahu visited the United States for a series of meetings with senior officials, including President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as to make a high-profile speech to the U.S. Congress.

The visit was certainly worthy of media coverage and analysis, but for the CBC radio program As It Happens, that commentary was as predictable as it was hostile to Israel.

One of the segments of the July 24 episode featured a discussion on Netanyahu’s visit, along with guest Lily Greenberg Call, a former official in the Biden administration who resigned in May, 2024 in protest of the president’s support for Israel.

Greenberg Call was the only guest featured to offer her opinion on Netanyahu’s visit, which included false and baseless accusations that Israel has carried out “a policy of forced starvation and withholding of aid.” No guest was present to offer a rebuttal to Greenberg Call’s false statements, or their own views. No Proof Of Famine In Gaza

Despite the popularity of those allegations by anti-Israel activists, there remains not a scintilla of evidence to support them. Hundreds of aid trucks enter Gaza every single day, and more food trucks are being sent to the territory than before Hamas’ October 7 massacres. Human rights organizations which previously bellowed that a famine was imminent had to quietly backtrack their claims, and video footage shows busy markets inside the enclave.

But that doesn’t mean there are no shortages of food from within Gaza; just that the culprit is not Israel. Hamas terrorists have stolen aid from Gazan civilians and threatened anyone daring to take food for themselves. And thanks to the incompetence of United Nations agencies such as the disgraced UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East), huge amounts of food have sat inside Gaza waiting to be distributed.

But the fallacious allegation that Israel is somehow orchestrating a food shortage went entirely unchallenged by the program’s host, Nil Köksal.

Greenberg Call shared that she was among the protesters in Washington, DC when Netanyahu spoke to the US Congress, a scene of mayhem and chaos, when thousands of anti-Israel demonstrators violently attacked security personnel, defaced historical sites, burned flags and created one of the most memorable scenes of lawlessness and violence seen anywhere in the world since October 7, and though there is no evidence that she participated in that violence, it was never acknowledged or condemned by her, though As It Happens sanitized the mob as having “showed up to speak out against the visit.”


Poll shows pro-Israel primary challenger to Rep. Bush in Missouri takes lead
Citing recent research, DMFI PAC chairman Mark Mellman says voters in Missouri’s 1st District have grown disillusioned with Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) and have been drifting towards her primary opponent, Wesley Bell.

The poll released Monday by DMFI PAC shows that of the 400 voters surveyed from July 21-24.

Bell now leads Bush 48% to 42%. In June, Bell led by one point over Bush while in January she led him by 16.

“In just the last month, Congresswoman Bush saw a 12-point increase in the number of voters who say she does not get things done for her district and an 8-point increase in those who do not think she’s honest or ethical,” Mellman says. “Meanwhile, a large majority of voters (60 percent) view Wesley Bell favorably, a 17-point advantage over Rep. Bush.”

Over the last two months, Bush’s job approval rating has plummeted—going from 53% to 43%.

The pollsters—the Mellman Group—mote their analysis of the results that “a lot can happen in the final two weeks of a race like this, but Bell clearly has the momentum in this contest.”
Rep. Cori Bush boasted of helping a Jewish resident—who isn't Jewish
Congresswoman Cori Bush put her chutzpah on display at a recent campaign fundraiser.

At a virtual Jews for Cori fundraiser on July 17, Bush told attendees that earlier in the day, she had rushed to the aid of someone who’d collapsed at an event. Bush meant the story to be one about putting differences aside: Bush, a former nurse, described the woman in need as a Jewish, AIPAC-affiliated critic who had “brought [AIPAC] to my doorstep,” according to a Jewish Insider article about the fundraiser.

“I did what nurses do, take care of the person that was in need,” the article quoted Bush as saying.

However, political activist Debbie Kitchen tells SLM that she’s the person Bush assisted, and that not only is she not Jewish, she doesn’t have ties to AIPAC.

“It just blew my mind,” Kitchen tells SLM. “Then to find out that she raised $30,000 that night—I was livid.”

The Bush campaign did not respond to several messages seeking comment.

Kitchen says she and Bush know each other well because she was active in Indivisible St. Louis, which endorsed Bush in 2020 and 2022. The progressive-leaning group is endorsing Bush’s opponent Wesley Bell in this year’s August 6 Democratic primary, and Kitchen is a very vocal backer of Bell, too.
Expelled former Conservative mayor apologises following exposure of “offensive and inappropriate comments”
Councillor Atiqul Hoque, the former Conservative Mayor of Salisbury, has apologised after a number of “offensive and inappropriate” messages were leaked.

In a published statement, issued on his behalf, it said: “Cllr Atiqul Hoque in considering the content of his texts which were reported in the Salisbury Journal and the response which they have occasioned, has reflected and revisited those words and the offence that they have cased. He wishes to offer an unreserved apology.

“He wholeheartedly regrets and apologises for any hurt and or offence that he may have caused when his words were reported in the Salisbury Journal. His texts, written in haste, were clumsy.

“He intended no offence to anyone and apologises without reservation. Cllr Hoque is opposed to violence from whatever source and is deeply committed to peace and the inclusion of all people of whatever religion, racial or cultural persuasion.”

Cllr Hoque was expelled from the Conservative Party in February, following complaints from a whistleblower regarding a number of messages on WhatsApp and a post on Facebook. At the time, the Party confirmed that Cllr Hoque had been expelled for sending “offensive and inappropriate comments”.

One of the alleged messages appeared to refer to “Zionist pay masters”.

According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Making mendacious, dehumanising, demonising, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions,” is an example of antisemitism.

Our representing polling also shows that eight in ten British Jews consider themselves to be a Zionist. Only six percent do not.
The Inside Story of the Hijacking of the British Parliament and the Manipulation of Muslim Public Opinion
A British-based pressure group called The Muslim Vote (TMV), launched in December 2023, claimed to represent the interests of Britain's four million Muslims and urged them to vote for a list of candidates whose credentials they had already "vetted."

Nigel Farage, a British MP and the leader of Reform UK, accused TMV of engaging in "sectarian voting" in an attempt to take over councils and win seats in the British Parliament by supporting and endorsing candidates standing on a "Gaza agenda." Farage said, "More than 40 council seats went to candidates standing on the Gaza platform. Of course, they all won thanks to standing in Muslim-majority constituencies. If that is not a sectarian vote, then what is?"

Today, in modern Britain, there are 22 MPs, including 14 Labour backbenchers, who have put their name to the pro-Gaza agenda. The former Labour Shadow Minister, Jon Ashworth, who held his Leicester South seat since 2011, was defeated due to a vigorous smear campaign against him, branding him as being "pro-genocide," with thousands of posters posted on walls and delivered to houses in his constituency.

Who is bankrolling the 1,000s of pro-Hamas rallies that have taken place across Britain since Hamas's Oct. 7 massacre? Who is financing printing tens of thousands of posters defaming British MPs? Who is funding the circulation of anti-Israel and also antisemitic literature and stickers posted on underground stations and business premises?


Israeli forces foil stabbing near Hebron
Israel Defense Forces troops foiled an attempted Palestinian terrorist attack near Hebron in Judea, the army said on Tuesday evening.

Troops killed one terrorist near the Beit Einun interchange between Hebron and the Jewish community of Kiryat Arba after he tried to stab soldiers, the military announced in a post on X.

No casualties to Israeli forces were reported, the army noted.
IDF indicts reservist for severely beating Palestinian detainees, filming acts
An Israel Defense Forces reservist was indicted on Tuesday for abusing Palestinian detainees, unrelated to an ongoing investigation against nine soldiers who were taken for questioning on Monday over the alleged sexual abuse of another detainee.

The soldier, named as Staff Sgt. (res.) Yisrael Zakaria Hajbi, was serving at the Sde Teiman base — which houses a detention facility — at the time of the alleged abuse.

According to an indictment filed by military prosecutors, the reservist on several occasions between February and June, while securing the transport of terror suspects, allegedly “used severe violence against the detainees he was entrusted with guarding.”

“During some of the transports, without any danger from the security detainees, and while the detainees were handcuffed and blindfolded, the defendant hit them,” the IDF said.

The reservist allegedly hit the detainees with a stick and his personal weapon, while filming the acts, according to the incitement.

He was charged with several counts of aggravated abuse and conduct unbecoming a soldier.
Otzma MK: Nukhba Terrorist Injured when Soldiers Extracted Smuggled Phone from his Orifice
MK Limor Son Har-Melech (Otzma Yehudit) on Tuesday cited an attorney for one of the ten reservists who were arrested in military police masked raid on the Sde Teiman detention facility, regarding the anal injuries that were suffered by the terrorist who filed a complaint against the soldiers.

According to her, the terrorist, a company commander for Hamas who participated in the October 7 atrocities and has a lot of Jewish blood on his hands and other parts, was caught with a smuggled phone in his rectal tract. The injuries he endured were the result of the soldiers trying to dislodge the contraband device while the prisoner was biting and kicking them.

“That terrorist took the phone and hid it in the place where he claims he was injured, and the device had to be removed – but we are told that this is an act of sodomy and rape,” said the MK, adding, “It was about something completely different, but the military prosecutor repeatedly accepts the terrorists’ versions.”

Meanwhile, the Chief Prosecutor at the Military Prosecutor’s Office admitted on Tuesday at a Foreign Affairs and Security Committee hearing on the issue of the detention of the fighters in Sde Teiman that the Prosecutor’s Office did initiate phone calls to the terrorists who were released to Gaza in order to find out about the conditions of their detention in prison, reports our reporter Motti Castel.

The chief prosecutor confirmed that IDF investigators initiated calls to the Nukhaba terrorists who had been released from Sde Teiman to Gaza and asked them about the conditions of their detention.

MK Meir Cohen (Yesh Atid) flipped, exclaiming: “I’m in shock. I was interviewed about this in the morning and I said there’s no way they would do such a thing (Do a Yelp review with Nukhba terrorists – DI).”
MEMRI: Jordanian MP: Iran Is Waging A War Against Jordan; We Must Support Iranian Opposition Elements
Against the backdrop of Iranian efforts to undermine the Jordanian regime and destabilize the region,[1] Jordanian MP Aisha Al-Hasanat published an article on the Saudi news website Elaph in which she came out strongly against the Iranian regime and called to support Iranian opposition elements in order to overthrow it.

Al-Hasanat claimed that, as part of its imperialist plan, Iran is waging war against Jordan by facilitating the smuggling of weapons and drugs into the country, fostering local extremist forces and exhausting the Jordanian security forces by employing the Iran-backed militias to create unrest on Jordan's borders with Syria and Iraq. The Iranian regime and its proxies, she added, are also subordinating the Palestinian cause to their needs: they are acting to eliminate the PLO, and have brought about the destruction of Gaza by supporting "the disgrace they called the Al-Aqsa Flood," i.e., Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack against Israel.

Al-Hasanat called on the Arabs to back the Iranian opposition movement Mujahideen Khalq, which she said has exposed the conspiracies of the regime and made great sacrifices in fighting it. This, she argued, is the only way to rescue the Iranian people and the countries and peoples of the region from the Ayatollah regime – which is the duty not just of Jordan but of all free people.

It should be noted that Jordanian diplomat and politician Bassam Al-Amoush, formerly the kingdom's ambassador in Iran, likewise penned an article, about six months ago, in which he called to form ties with minorities and opposition elements in Iran in order to counter Iran's efforts to subvert the Jordanian regime.[2]
Support for Hamas Triples in West Bank after Prisoner Exchange Deal
Support for Hamas has more than tripled in the West Bank since the Oct. 7 attacks led to a deal securing an exchange of Palestinian prisoners for Israeli hostages, according to polls by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research. West Bank support for Hamas spiked from 12% in September 2023 to 41% in May 2024.

Veteran Palestinian pollster Dr. Khalil Shikaki attributed Hamas's leap in popularity to the November ceasefire, which saw 105 Israeli civilian hostages released and swapped for 240 Palestinian prisoners. "All of the prisoners released were from the West Bank. And so if you are able to release prisoners through violence, you are able to demonstrate to Palestinians the efficacy of violence. Hamas did that."

Moreover, the Palestinian Authority had "never been as low in terms of legitimacy, credibility, support," with demand for the resignation of President Abbas reaching 94%.
Gazans suffering ‘because of what Hamas did to them,’ says US envoy to the UN
Hamas is to blame for the destruction in the Gaza Strip, but Washington had to—and still has to—pressure the Jewish state to allow aid to reach Palestinians, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told CNN on Monday.

“We cannot forget that Hamas is a terrorist organization, and their actions in Israel were terrorist actions. The Palestinian people are suffering because of what Hamas did to them,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “There was not this level of conflict in Gaza before the Hamas attack.”

“That said, Israel has a responsibility to provide security and to avoid endangering civilians,” she added.

Speaking at length on the Israel-Hamas conflict, Thomas-Greenfield said that the Biden administration “worked with the Israelis, and put pressure on the Israelis,” to allow for greater amounts of humanitarian aid to go freely through Gaza. “We continue to work on those efforts,” she added.

Fredricka Whitfield, of CNN, asked Thomas-Greenfield about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling American leftists who support Hamas “useful idiots” during his address to a joint session of Congress last week. “What did you make of the demeanor of the language?” Whitfield asked. “Did that upstage any potential hope that he may have brought on his visit?”

The U.S. envoy skirted the question. “I think we have to continue to press the Israeli government and to continue to have hope that this will achieve the desired result that we want to see, and that is that there is a cessation of hostilities, and hostages are brought home, and Palestinians’ suffering ends,” she said. “So, this is our hope.”


Iran working to sabotage Trump campaign, says news report
Iran is attempting to sabotage the election campaign of former U.S. President Donald Trump through coordinated online activities, according to an American intelligence agency source who spoke to The Wall Street Journal.

The assessment revealed by intelligence officials to the newspaper differs from previous assessments suggesting that Iran seeks to act as a “chaos agent” within the United States. It now appears that Tehran is explicitly aiming to undermine Trump’s chances of being elected U.S. president, due to concerns that he would adopt a harsher stance toward Tehran.

According to the source, Iran is using “a broad network of online figures and propaganda agents to spread disinformation” and is also conducting separate, funded campaigns online aimed at hurting Trump’s electoral bid.

Senior officials from the American intelligence services have held briefings with selected media outlets in the United States regarding foreign attempts to influence the country’s elections. The officials reiterated the claim that Moscow remains the greatest threat to the U.S. election process.

In a briefing last month, intelligence officials stated that a comprehensive government effort is underway to prevent Russian interference in the elections. They further noted that Russia’s efforts, unlike Iran’s, are focused on favorably influencing the Republican candidate, likely under the assumption that he would improve Russia’s position in the war in Ukraine.
US sanctions Iranian and Chinese people and entities tied to Iranian arms programs
The United States imposed new sanctions on seven entities and five individuals in Iran and China—including Hong Kong—that Washington says helped facilitate Tehran’s ballistic missile and drone programs.

“Today’s action exposes additional key front companies and trusted agents through which Iran has sought to acquire these components,” Brian Nelson, U.S. under secretary of the treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, stated on Tuesday. “The United States will continue to impose costs on those that facilitate Iran’s ability to produce these deadly weapons.”

The sanctions target Buy Best Electronic Pars Company, Tas Technology Company, Cloud Element Company, Btw International, Bright Shore, Azmoon Pajohan Hesgar and Shenzhen Rion Technology Co.

The targeted individuals are Iranian nationals Sayyed Ali Seraj Hashemi, Saeed Hamidi Javar, Mohammad Abdollahi and Ezzatullah Ghasemian Sorbani, as well as Hong Kong resident Thomas Ho Ming Tong.

The sanctioned entities and individuals, which were designated under a U.S. executive order targeting proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery means, helped Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics procure “various components, including accelerometers and gyroscopes,” Washington said.


Seth Frantzman: Iran hosts Hamas, Islamic Jihad leaders at new president’s inauguration, bolstering support
Iran is hosting the leaders of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Iranian state media reported Tuesday. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei met with Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Ziyad Nakhaleh and Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s political bureau chief, on Tuesday, the report said.

The terrorist leaders are in Iran to attend the swearing in of Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian. This demonstrates how the Iranian regime will continue its support for various terrorist groups in the region under the new president.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas continue to carry out attacks on the IDF in Gaza. In addition, both groups are seeking to increase their power in the northern West Bank. Hamas leaders live in Qatar, which is a US ally. The Hamas leaders in Qatar, including Haniyeh, are able to fly around the region and meet with countries that support Hamas, such as Iran and Turkey. This ability to fly around the region has not changed in the wake of the October 7 massacre.

In fact, despite carrying out the largest mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust, the terrorist leaders in the region have suffered no consequences or new sanctions on their movements. Iran sees this as a major benefit of October 7, for instance, since it can leverage the war in Gaza to continue to position Hamas to destabilize the West Bank. Same model Iran uses in Lebanon and Yemen

“The Hamas and Islamic Jihad heads, along with their accompanying delegation, met with Ayatollah Khamenei before the start of the inauguration ceremony of the new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in Tehran this afternoon,” Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), Iran’s official news agency, reported Tuesday.

The terrorist leaders were expected to join 70 other foreign delegations for the swearing in, the report said, adding that “at least five presidents and 10 speakers [were to] participate in the inauguration ceremony.”

Iran treats Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad as the main representatives of the Palestinians and generally ignores the Palestinian Authority. This is the same template Iran uses in Lebanon, Yemen, and other countries, where it prioritizes proxy groups over the official government. This results in undermining these countries and empowering various terrorist groups and militias.
Seth Frantzman: Iran's new President urges Muslim unity, strengthens ties with Central Asia and Africa
Iran’s new president is hitting the ground running, reaching out to Muslim countries and Central Asian states, as he seeks to prepare his administration for what comes next for Iran. Under the previous Iranian President, who died in a helicopter crash, Iran shifted more to be focused on the East, basically pushing a policy that was oriented toward Russia, China, Central Asia, Pakistan, and India. Iran’s new president appears to want to do more of the same.

According to Iranian state media, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian, is pushing to unify “Islamic nations in confronting the Zionists” amid the Gaza war. He also wants to have a foreign policy that will prioritize ties with Muslim countries. This is important messaging. Iran’s state media is today celebrating the swearing in of Pezeshkian.

Iran’s acting foreign minister Ali Bagheri Kani has also spoke about the importance of “cultural” diplomacy, which dovetails with the Islamic outreach of the new president. It is not clear if Kani will stay on as the foreign minister, he continues to hold the position in an interim status after the previous foreign minister died in the same helicopter crash with the former president.

“If Islamic countries and Muslim nations had maintained their unity and cohesion as well as followed the advice and command of the Holy Prophet of Islam, the Zionist regime and its backers would never dare commit such crimes against the oppressed Palestinians,” Pezeshkian said in a meeting with the Deputy Secretary General of Lebanon’s Hezbollah Movement, Sheikh Naim Qassem.

The new Iranian leader also spoke about how Iran would continue its policies in support of Palestinian groups. According to Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), “Pezeshkian made remarks on Monday night during the meeting with Ziyad Nakhaleh, the Secretary General of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement who has traveled to Iran to participate in the presidential inauguration ceremony.” The Iranian leader’s comments focused on the need to unify Muslim countries against Israel.


Nonprofit funds Holocaust education to ‘prevent something like that from happening again’
The idea to launch a Holocaust education foundation came to Ann Arnold in 2016 after she published a book about how her father, aunt and grandmother survived the Holocaust. It included curricular content, but after Arnold, who lives in Norwood, N.J., talked to schools, she learned that they couldn’t cover the $300 budget required to purchase sets of the book.

Arnold was “shocked” to learn that a donor was necessary for that sort of thing, she told JNS earlier in the month on a video call with her father, Mark Schonwetter, now 90.

“I could not find any place as an educator to get funding for Holocaust education. I found a lot of professional development courses that could be taken—many for free. I found museums that would help you come to their museum. But nothing if I wanted to build a curriculum,” Arnold told JNS.

And so, she, her father, and her sister, Isabella Fiske, created the Mark Schonwetter Holocaust Education Foundation in 2019. Since 2020, the nonprofit “has offered grants to schools across the country to support field trips, programming, books and having Holocaust survivors speak to students,” per its website. “Through this work, we aim to educate our youth about the dangers of hate and inspire them to create a better, brighter future.”

Schonwetter, who lives in New Jersey with Luba Schonwetter—his wife of 55 years—works with schools to provide talks and resources, which teachers can incorporate into curricula. The nonprofit has granted about $300,000, which has reached more than 114,000 students in 32 U.S. states, according to Arnold.

Hid under in barns, under pigsties and floorboards

The Nazis invaded Poland in 1939 when Mark Schonwetter, then 5½ years old, was living in Brzostek. Not long thereafter, the family was forced from its home. As a leader of the city’s Jewish community, Mark’s father, Israel Schonwetter, was often brought in for questioning by the Nazis. When he didn’t return home from one such interrogation in 1942, his wife, Sala Schonwetter, fled with her two children—Mark and his younger sister Zosia. (She later learned that he was murdered by the Nazis in the forest and buried in a hole.)
Trump Shooter Believed To Be Author of 'Extreme' Anti-Semitic Comments Online, FBI Says
Former president Donald Trump’s would-be assassin is believed to have shared anti-Semitic posts online the FBI described to the Senate Tuesday as "extreme in nature."

In its ongoing investigation into Thomas Matthew Crooks’s attempted assassination of Republican nominee Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally in July, the FBI "very recently uncovered" a social media account "believed to be associated with the shooter in about the 2019-2020 timeframe," FBI deputy director Paul Abbate told a joint hearing of the Senate Homeland Security Committee and Judiciary Committee.

Some of the over 700 comments from the social media account, Abbate told senators, "appear to reflect anti-Semitic and anti-immigration themes to espouse political violence and are described as extreme in nature."

Abbate reiterated that the investigation is ongoing and the team is still working to verify the account. He noted "the general absence of other information to date from social media and other sources of information that reflect on the shooter’s potential motive and mindset." Twenty-year-old Crooks was killed at the scene by a Secret Service sniper.

"While the shooter is dead, our work is very much ongoing and urgent," Abbate told senators. The FBI continues to investigate Crooks while the USSS is conducting its own internal review to determine how such an attack occurred.


Vladimir Nabokov’s Philo-Semitic Inheritance
While the Russian-born English-language writer Vladimir Nabokov’s warm attitudes toward Jews, and principled opposition to anti-Semitism, have often been attributed to the fact that he was married to a Jewish woman, Shalom Goldman argues that these feelings went deeper still. Indeed, he claims, they were something of a family legacy:

Nabokov’s parents and grandparents were prominent liberals and advocates for Jewish rights in tsarist Russia. . . . Vladimir’s grandfather Dmitri Nabokov (1826–1904) . . . became an advocate for Jewish rights and an outspoken opponent of Konstantin Pobedonostev, Tsar Alexander III’s reactionary adviser who famously declared of Russian Jews that “one third will be baptized, one third will starve, and one third will emigrate, . . . then we shall be rid of them.” Pobedonostev vilified Dmitri Nabokov for his objections to the persecution of Russian Jews.

Dmitri’s son, Nabokov’s father Vladimir, condemned the publication of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the notorious pamphlet first circulated in 1903. . . . When he condemned the Kishinev pogrom of 1903 and pointed the finger of blame at the politicians and policemen who enabled the attacks, he suffered the consequences of taking a principled stand.

In his fiction, Nabokov links the persistence of anti-Semitism to the rise of totalitarian regimes. Two short stories written in the 1930s, “Cloud, Castle, Lake” and “Tyrants Destroyed,” express the writer’s contempt for the Nazi and Stalinist regimes. . . . The persistence of anti-Semitism, even after the Nazi crimes against the Jews had been revealed, is the theme of another Nabokov short story, “Conversation Piece.”
The youth of Israel are a reason for hope
THE ZIONIST movement was created by Jewish youth.

The Warsaw Ghetto uprising was young Jews. Young men and women who were willing to give up their lives, to die in the sewers of Warsaw, in the hope of making a statement and saving Jewish lives.

It was Zionist youth who rejected the lives of their parents and left Europe. They built the settlements, drained the swamps, and established towns and cities. Young Jews organized Zionist groups in Europe and in the United States. They taught themselves Hebrew, created practice farms to learn agriculture, and then went off to British Mandate Palestine. Years later, it was young Jews behind the Iron Curtain who smuggled in books and taught other young Jews to read and write Hebrew and how to become “Jewish Jews.”

Theodor Herzl, the father of modern political Zionism, died in July 1904 at the tender age of 44. In 1894, at 34, he had witnessed the Dreyfus Affair. That experience, that scandal, that libel, transformed his life. And as a young man, Herzl began his revolution to create a Jewish state.

The “old man of Zionism” was Aharon David Gordon. Everyone called him A. D. Gordon. The “elder” statesman of Labor Zionism, Gordon left Europe to come to Palestine in 1904 – at the age of 48. Hardly an old man.

Gordon firmly believed that working the land was a spiritual and transformative experience. He believed that the Jewish people in the Diaspora had been removed from the world of toil and labor, from working their land.

Labor and work were not Marxism to Gordon. He rejected socialist and Marxist ideals. Instead, once living in Palestine, he created a youth movement called Hapoel Haztair, The Young Worker. His movement was a break from Ber Borochov and Nahum Syrkin and their Poele Zion because they were ideological, they were socialist-Marxist.

For Gordon, work was a religious experience and, while not religious, he formed a very good relationship with Rav Isaac Abraham Kook, one of the fathers of religious Zionism. For Gordon, the primary objective was “the work.” Work, working the land, would transform the Jewish people and create a society and organic healthy happy spiritual society. For Gordon, it was not about statehood. He believed in an organic community based on family, values, and labor.

After his death, young people created a youth movement called Gordonia, promoting his philosophy of Hebrew labor. They were dedicated to learning agriculture and Hebrew, and then coming to Palestine. The movement spoke to young Jewish people – especially those who did not embrace the Marxist ideals of Hashomer Hatzair. Gordonia even had a presence in the United States, especially in the Washington DC-Baltimore area. They created a summer camp on the banks of the South River, just outside Annapolis, MD. Eventually, Gordonia merged with Habonim.

The youth of Israel today are walking in the footsteps of the founders of Zionism.

Conscripted soldiers and reservists, elementary and high school students volunteering to keep agricultural communities alive or to teach displaced children living in hotels are showing verve and dynamism that will keep the Jewish spirit and the Jewish nation alive. Their presence makes a difference in the world. Because of them, I have great faith in the future.




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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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