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Thursday, November 14, 2024

11/14 Links Pt2: Ayaan Hirsi Ali on the Antisemitic Violence Engulfing Europe; Ben & Jerry’s sues Unilever for blocking ‘pro-Palestine’ action

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: America’s electrifying counter-revolution
America is attempting to clean up its house. Europeans are burning theirs down.

Within hours of his re-election as president of the United States, Donald Trump started the process of rolling back the influence of the left on American society.

In a series of uncompromising statements, Trump announced that he would reclaim the universities from “Marxist maniacs,” deport Hamas sympathizers and haters of America, and tear up the entire “climate change” agenda.

His picks for government positions have been no less uncompromising. One after another, his senior appointments have been of people who take absolutely no prisoners in their support for Israel, in their attachment to core Western values, including biblical faith, and in their commitment to uphold and defend America’s interests at home and abroad.

It’s an electrifying turnaround following four years of America’s defeatism, self-destruction and dumping on its allies. Israel is daring to wonder if, at long last, it might be allowed to win its war of survival and if, even more amazingly, an elusive peace might actually be brought to the whole region.

Others are more cautious, viewing Trump as the ultimate loose cannon and observing uneasily that a couple of his administration picks have controversial and even obnoxious records.

Nevertheless, his victory has given hope to those who have watched aghast as America has steadily immolated itself in the flames of cultural division, national self-hatred and unreason—the bonfire of Western identity and constitutional order that was lit and relentlessly stoked by the left.

In that process, the mainstream media have been active players by reflexively pushing the falsehoods and distortions of anti-American, anti-West and anti-Israel ideology.

Trump’s stunning victory was as much as anything an emphatic repudiation of those media outlets by millions of Americans who just aren’t buying it anymore and are instead getting their information—for good and ill—from X, podcasts and other social media.

Parts of the media appear to understand this and are also going in for some house cleaning. Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, the billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Times, has announced that he will revamp his “very left” editorial board in order to include more conservative and centrist opinions in the paper.

And CNN is reportedly about to make sweeping layoffs, including some of its biggest stars, in a bid to save the network’s crashing reputation and ratings.

These are promising developments but will scarcely scratch the surface of the problem. The cultural malevolence in the “progressive” world, of which the media is its propaganda arm, is deeply ingrained and extends way beyond American politics.
Exposed: Anti-Israel Group Under Fire for Using Name of Raphael Lemkin, Zionist Who Coined the Term Genocide
Members of the family of Raphael Lemkin, a Jewish lawyer who coined the term “genocide” and pushed for the passage of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, say they are outraged that a Pennsylvania-based nonprofit organization is using the Lemkin name to pursue an agenda of extreme anti-Israel activism.

The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention was initially registered as a Pennsylvania nonprofit corporation on Aug. 19, 2021, and won US federal tax-exempt recognition in September 2023. In recent months, it has veered into strident anti-Israel political advocacy, supporting anti-Israel campus protests and reaching millions of viewers with social media posts that falsely accuse Israel of genocide.

Less than one week after the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel last Oct. 7, the institute released a “genocide alert” calling the onslaught an “unprecedented military operation against Israel” while decrying the Jewish state’s actions against Hamas as “genocide.” The Oct. 13 message came before Israeli launched its ground offensive in Gaza.

Then on Oct. 18, 2023, the Lemkin Institute called on the International Criminal Court “to indict Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the crime of #genocide in light of the siege and bombardment of #Gaza and the many expressions of genocidal intent.” The social media post accumulated 1.3 million views, according to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

The institute’s vocal anti-Israel advocacy has continued unabated for the past year. In September, for example, it described Israel’s war against Lebanese Hezbollah as “terrorism” and “the slaughter of Arab peoples” leading to “the wanton slaughter of all mankind.” The post did not mention that Hezbollah is an internationally designated terrorist organization that began firing rockets at Israel the day after the Oct. 7 attacks.

‘Totally Outraged’: Lemkin Family Disavows Institute
Joseph Lemkin, a New Jersey lawyer who is related to Raphael Lemkin, said he was unfamiliar with the institute until being informed of it by The Algemeiner.

Lemkin, who represented the family at a UN event marking the 65th anniversary of the genocide convention, described himself as “totally outraged” to see his late relative’s name used to push an anti-Israel agenda. His father was Raphael Lemkin’s first cousin.
Ben & Jerry’s sues Unilever for blocking ‘pro-Palestine’ action
Ice cream manufacturer Ben & Jerry’s on Wednesday sued its parent company, Unilever, for allegedly blocking its efforts to voice support for Palestinians in Gaza.

The lawsuit, which was filed in the United States, claims that Unilever had threatened to dismantle Ben & Jerry’s board and pursue legal action against its members over this issue, Reuters reported.

The lawsuit highlights ongoing tensions between Ben & Jerry’s and Unilever that began in 2021 when Ben & Jerry’s announced it would no longer sell its products in Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria. Doing so ran contrary to Ben & Jerry’s values, the firm said. This decision prompted some investors to divest from Unilever.

Ben & Jerry’s has taken legal action against Unilever before, after it sold the brand’s business in Israel to a local licensee, allowing continued sales in Israel and Judea and Samaria. That lawsuit was settled in 2022.

In this latest legal action, Ben & Jerry’s accuses Unilever of violating terms of the confidential 2022 settlement. Under this agreement, Unilever is required to “respect and acknowledge the Ben & Jerry’s independent board’s primary responsibility over Ben & Jerry’s social mission,” according to the lawsuit.

“Ben & Jerry’s has on four occasions attempted to publicly speak out in support of peace and human rights,” the lawsuit states, “Unilever has silenced each of these efforts.”

Unilever did not immediately respond to requests for comment, Reuters reported.

Last year, a Manhattan judge dismissed another lawsuit against Unilever by investors who said that Ben & Jerry’s political involvement on behalf of the Palestinians was hurting Unilever, and that Unilever had failed to properly disclose details about this.


The Rabbi Showing the Real Israel to the Arab World
How does Israel explain itself to the Arab world? With so few official lines of communication in Arabic, one man has taken up the cause as a one man Arabic Citizen Spox, having participated in over 800 interviews since the start of the war. Rabbi Elhanan Miller lives in Jerusalem, graduated with a master's degree in Islamic and Middle Eastern studies from the Hebrew University. In 2019 he was ordained as an Orthodox rabbi at Beit Midrash Harel.

Today, Miller divides his time between teaching, interviews and research at the Hartman Institute to run the "People of the Book" project , which aims to tell the Arab and Muslim world about Judaism and the Jews. Eylon sits down for a fascinating conversation about the future of relations across the Arab-Israeli world and how we are going to change narratives.


Yardena Schwartz on 100 Years of Anti-Semitic Riots. Also, a Reply to Dave Smith and Jake Shields.
1. Yardena Schwartz, author of "Ghosts of a Holy War," discusses her new book on the 1929 Hebron Massacre and how it informs the modern day. https://www.amazon.com/Ghosts-Holy-Wa...

2. Noam responds to the accusation made on the Jake Shields podcast that he had taken Dave Smith and Nick Fuentes out of context.


Fathoming the Intellectual Revolution of our Times | “Critical Whiteness Studies” and the Demonisation of Israel: An Interview with Balázs Berkovits
In the past several years, “whiteness” has emerged as a ubiquitous academic buzzword, spawning an entire field of “whiteness studies.” While the term sprung out of efforts to deconstruct notions of race, Balazs Berkovits argues that it has become part of a worldview based on immutable racial characteristics. Experts on “whiteness” also tend to ignore anti-Semitism, or engage in it, as Berkovits explains in conversation with Alan Johnson:

Within “woke” discourse everything can be reduced to race, to racial and ethnic group membership. Individuals are construed as being fundamentally determined by collectives that are often racially defined. This is how “white privilege” is acquiring importance in the discourse on social inequalities. The term white privilege not only expresses inherited social status as unmerited advantage, but it narrowly associates it with skin color. Also, it often signals a kind of original sin, which is why white people in the U.S. and maybe also in Britian are often sent by educational institutions or their employers to participate in training sessions to confess their guilt.

For example, in Karen Brodkin’s so-called pioneering book on “Jewish whiteness” (How Jews Became White Folks, 1998), the [term] “Euro-ethnics” seems to refer implicitly to skin color, subverting the original thesis according to which “whiteness” is a historical construction. This is why she gets into circular arguments, since it is not clear whether Jews are already white, or at least prone to whiteness, . . . or, while considered non-white at the beginning, they only acquire this status over the period of couple of decades.

Coming to terms with the presence of anti-Semitism would have made this kind of theoretical overdetermination based on color difficult to maintain. This is partly the reason why Jews constituted an (epistemological) obstacle to that criticism, and received the “white” label. This obstacle is clearly expressed by Matthew Frye Jacobson, a “whiteness scholar.”

What’s more, Berkovits argues, this nonsense doesn’t simply place Jews in the irredeemable white category, but plays directly into the demonization of Israel as a “white, settler-colonial state” which must therefore be destroyed.

By purportedly using some social-scientific concepts and procedures, whiteness and race scholars as well as other “social critics” frequently implicitly, but occasionally even directly, support a number of anti-Jewish stances that are presented as anti-hegemonic positions. This means that the critique of Jews in Western societies is presented as a legitimate social critique, stemming not from hostility to Jews, but from a political position, susceptible to being bolstered by rational arguments.
The Three Best Chapters on Holocaust Inversion, recommended by Lesley Klaff
Holocaust inversion is, in the words of the late Manfred Gerstenfeld, ‘the portrayal of Israel, Israelis and Jews as modern-day Nazis, and Palestinians as the new Holocaust-era Jews.’ There is much very good, informative material about it, but it’s generally written alongside discussion of other forms of Holocaust distortion, such as denial, trivialisation, universalisation, and relativisation. As a consequence, there is no single book on Holocaust inversion alone, only chapters, sections in chapters, and essays.

The main contributors to this literature include Manfred Gerstenfeld, Robert Wistrich, and Deborah Lipstadt, with further contributions by Anthony Julius, Alan Johnson, Ben Gidley, Clemens Heni, Philip Spencer and several others (including myself). It’s a difficult task to pick just three chapters to write about. So, I’ve made my choice on the basis of what the chosen chapter contributes to my knowledge and understanding of Holocaust inversion over and above the common coverage of definition, provenance, manifestations, and impact.

In fact, I would currently recommend the reading of any chapter or essay whatever on the topic of Holocaust inversion, given its prevalence in political debates about the Israel-Palestine conflict, and the readiness of many of those who are hostile to Israel to deploy this particular form of Holocaust distortion, alongside the constantly repeated use of the charge of genocide. My personal choice is of three chapters which I’ve found particularly illuminating: one by Robert Wistrich, one by Anthony Julius, and one by Philip Spencer.
No More Heroes: Contemporary Antisemitism and the West’s Culture of Victimhood
Zionism as anti-victimhood
Zionism is despised for something else: it runs counter to the culture of victimhood. After the Holocaust, the Jews didn’t fall into the abyss of victimisation. They took their destiny into their own hands, becoming a culture of heroes who deployed agency and empowered themselves to recreate their state in their historic homeland. That attitude is what differentiates Israel and other former colonies. The former didn’t succumb to victimist temptation and became a first-world democracy and an economic miracle, while many of the latter continue blaming their former colonial masters, remaining in a state of chronic dysfunction, wracked by corruption, underdevelopment, and poverty.

The victimhood ideology is antisemitic by necessity. Without demonising the Jews, the entire edifice falls apart. It presents Jews with an antisemitism that sees itself as righteous, a hatred disguised as virtue. As we saw, this mutation of the ancient antisemitic virus has been growing for decades, but it is now, on university campuses and Western streets where the full extent of its noxious nature can be seen. What we failed to see is how inevitable it was.

Perhaps one of the most effective forms of fighting antisemitism today is to rebel against the ideology of victimhood; to stop accepting it as a dogma; to challenge the apostles of the new academic religion of the ‘grievances studies’ and show all victims of oppression that the difficulties of agency are more productive than the immobilism of self-pity. Victimhood may be morbidly comforting, but it guarantees the permanence of oppression.

In sum, we need to bring back the courage and the greatness of the hero.
Jonathan Tobin: The sorry symbolism of a pro-Israel rally that flopped
Only a couple of thousand people were in Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 10 for an event billed as “Stand Together: An Event of Unity, Strength and Resilience.” And maybe as many as half of that number were associated with the organizations sponsoring the gathering rather than rank-and-file members of the Jewish community who responded to the appeal. So, as photos of the much-ballyhooed rally illustrated, it might be said that most of those who attended it came disguised as empty seats.

The largely vacant stadium was more than a measure of the disappointing turnout for a pro-Israel gathering a year after some 290,000 people showed up for a previous unity rally held on the National Mall a year ago on Nov. 14, 2023. It was an apt metaphor for the equally disappointing response of both American Jewry and the leading organizations that purport to represent them during a genuine crisis.

Some hoped that the horrors of Oct. 7 might galvanize American Jewry in the way that both the 1967 Six-Day War and the 1973 Yom Kippur War did more than a half-century ago. The initial response to the massacre in southern Israel carried out by Hamas terrorists and other Palestinians was promising in terms of fundraising and public actions like the unity rally on the Mall. But what followed in the ensuing months—even as the surge of antisemitism in the United States steadily grew in the streets of major cities and on college campuses—demonstrated that the Jewish community was far too divided by politics to stand together against a deadly threat to not just Israel but to their own security and that of their children.

A year of crisis
The current war on Israel continues into its second year, with Hamas terrorists seeking to retake parts of the Gaza Strip in the south, coupled with the launching of rockets and missiles into the Jewish state from Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon to the north. Their paymasters in Iran also still present a deadly threat. But most American Jews spent this year far more focused on domestic partisan politics and debating whether Israel deserved their support than rallying to aid it.

Just as depressing has been the response of the Jewish world to a surge of antisemitism here in the United States. The takeover of numerous college campuses by pro-Hamas demonstrators advocating for Israel’s destruction has had a devastating impact on many Jewish students. But again, the reaction from the organized Jewish world has been largely low-key, and more importantly, mostly ineffective in demonstrating a willingness to fight back against open antisemitism or even to force change at institutions that were unable or unwilling to defend Jewish students.

It’s true that the organizers of the event at Nationals Park were not seeking to rival last year’s rally in terms of attendance. Instead, they apparently just wanted to have something that would serve as a pep rally for those who were attending the annual General Assembly of the JFNA. Yet by choosing a venue that can accommodate up to 41,000 people and deliberately hyping it as a major event, they set themselves up for both failure and ridicule at a moment in time when that is the last thing the pro-Israel community needed.

To be fair, anyone who thought American Jewry could duplicate or even come close to the responses to crises in 1967 and 1973 was dreaming.

Changes in the community since then made that impossible.
US Jews are no longer arguing about what is needed, rather how to implement it
The last time I walked into the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America, it was in Tel Aviv in 2023, a conference so weighed down by division that you could feel it the moment you entered the room. Back then, the gap between American Jews and Israelis had reached what felt like a breaking point.

The debate over Israel’s judicial reform was tearing the Jewish community apart. From opposite sides of the Atlantic, it felt like we were speaking different languages, our concerns and priorities on completely different planes. But here, in Washington, DC, just a year-and-a-half later, the atmosphere was charged with something new. You could sense it in the air — this year, they weren’t divided by ideology or identity. They were bonded, galvanized by a shared purpose and the shared trauma of what happened on October 7.

That day changed everything, and it didn’t just close the ideological chasm; it erased it. Suddenly, the “why” of supporting Israel, the “why” of preserving Jewish identity, the “why” of being Jewish wasn’t up for debate. Now, the mission was clear to everyone in the room: they were no longer debating what needed to be done — the participants were consumed by the question of how to do it.

Washington, DC, gave us autumn leaves and a brisk chill that seemed to mirror the tone of this year’s GA — sober, urgent, but profoundly determined. Gone was the usual back-and-forth over ideological nuances. Instead, everyone was focused, with eyes fixed not on abstract questions but on practical answers. The tone was set right from the start: it wasn’t about debating support for Israel; it was about making sure they knew how to do it well, sustainably, and effectively in the face of a world that, now more than ever, seems eager to challenge us at every turn.

One of the speakers who captured this transformation perfectly was formerly Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg. She walked onstage looking every bit the accomplished business leader she is but spoke like someone who had rediscovered her own roots. She didn’t just talk about Jewish identity as a part of who she was — she owned it, saying, “Jewish identity is now as important a part of my identity as anything else.”
The ‘shomer’ who isn’t watching out for the Jewish community
For a man who pretends to wear the mantle of shomer, “guardian,” of Israel and the Jewish people, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s recent actions, or lack thereof, tell a different story.

In moments when Jewish communities are under increasing threat, particularly on America’s college campuses, Schumer has been conspicuously absent, leaving many to wonder if the emperor has no clothes. At a time when public outcry is desperately needed to confront antisemitism, Schumer’s silence and inaction are as disturbing as they are disappointing. A clear case of actions speaking louder than words.

The plight facing Jewish students on college campuses has been well documented, with incidents at institutions like Columbia University serving as particularly egregious examples. Columbia, an Ivy League institution located in the heart of New York, Schumer’s own state, has become a hotbed of antisemitic rhetoric and hostility. This hostility has increasingly been cloaked under the guise of “pro-Palestinian” activism, a term that often leaves Jewish students feeling marginalized, unsafe and targeted. And yet, Schumer, positioned in one of the most powerful roles in the U.S. Senate, has failed to so much as publicly condemn these actions at his home-state institutions. His inaction leaves Jewish students to fend for themselves against an environment that fosters hate and bigotry. A recent congressional report shows how he texted then-Columbia president Minouche Shafik telling her to keep her head down as the noise is only coming from Republicans.

One of the most distressing aspects of Schumer’s abandonment has been his refusal to bring an antisemitism bill to the Senate floor. Passed in the House, where Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and her Republican colleagues have taken a more proactive stance, the bill addresses the urgent need to combat antisemitism on college campuses. Republican-led efforts have brought a spotlight to the moral decay within higher education, exposing administrative complacency, outright hostility, and environments that breed antisemitism. Stefanik, in particular, has taken the kind of bold, unapologetic stance that the Jewish community had once hoped would come from Schumer. Instead, Schumer’s silence underscores his detachment from the concerns of the Jewish community.

Schumer’s reluctance to act is particularly troubling given the severity of what Jewish students endure. Encampments and protests on campuses like Columbia have grown more extreme, and they are not limited to expressions of political opinions. Rather, they often cross into displays of outright hate, targeting Jewish students with a vitriol that seeks to marginalize and intimidate. In many cases, these events are tolerated by university administrations under the guise of free speech, further isolating Jewish students who have no allies in either their administration or, it seems, in the Senate.

Despite his claims of being a defender, a shomer, for Jews and Israel, Schumer’s silence gives the impression that these issues are either too controversial or too inconsequential to merit his attention. His inaction sends a message that Jewish students’ rights to safety and dignity are not worth protecting, at least not with any urgency.


My Parents Are Being Held as Bargaining Chips in Gaza. Where Is the Outrage?
Now that Americans have cast their votes, and the 2024 election is behind us, it remains imperative to reflect on the core values that define our nation: freedom, leadership, and democracy. Over the past year, these principles have been challenged by the ongoing captivity of American citizens held hostage in Gaza. Despite the gravity of their plight, this issue has been conspicuously absent from the forefront of political discourse during this election cycle.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists violated a ceasefire agreement, launching an unprovoked attack that took over 1,200 lives and resulted in the kidnapping of more than 250 people, including American citizens. Seven Americans are still held hostage in Gaza. My parents, Gadi Haggai and Judi Weinstein Haggai, were among those taken. For three agonizing months, we prayed for their safe return, only to learn last December that they were murdered on October 7 and that their bodies remain in Gaza, held by Hamas, denying us even the closure of a proper farewell.

My parents embodied the values of liberty and justice, living for freedom and unity. Now, they are held as bargaining chips in Gaza. They, along with the other hostages, have endured unimaginable conditions for over a year, and their suffering, along with that of their families, has largely been overlooked. This neglect raises a critical question: Where have our values of freedom, democracy, and humanity gone?

If we don’t fight for their release, we risk abandoning the very principles that define us as Americans. Each day they remain captive, held by terrorists who show no regard for human life, marks a failure of our commitment to American ideals. Freedom, justice, and unity—values my parents lived by—are not just words; they are promises we make to ourselves and each other. Failing to bring the hostages home erodes those promises, making us a nation that accepts injustice.

The normalization of such atrocities poses a profound threat to our society’s moral fabric. Each day that passes without decisive action to secure the release of these hostages signals troubling complacency. It suggests that the abduction and prolonged captivity of innocent Americans can be relegated to a mere footnote. These hostages are not just statistics; they are parents, sons, daughters, husbands, and friends. Their continued captivity is a direct affront to the principles we profess to defend. If we fail to prioritize their release, we risk eroding the very foundation of our democracy.

If we don’t confront this issue now, it could be any of us next. This isn’t just a humanitarian crisis; it’s a matter of national responsibility. Terrorism cannot be allowed to operate unchecked. The alarming increase in antisemitism and the justifications of the atrocities committed on October 7 highlight a broader erosion of human rights and dignity.

Where is the outrage? Where is the leadership demanding the unconditional immediate release of these hostages? The absence of a robust response from our leaders is a glaring omission that must be rectified. The release of all hostages is not just a humanitarian imperative; it is a reaffirmation of our commitment to American values and a test of our resolve to stand as a beacon of freedom and justice.
‘Qatar is holding our hostages as much as Hamas is,’ scholar and former MK says
Qatar carries out a destructive role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israeli political scientist and former member of Knesset Dr. Einat Wilf told The Jerusalem Post in a wide-ranging interview.

In the interview, Wilf argued that through its support for Hamas and undermining of Israel, Qatar poses a major threat to regional stability.

Wilf began by asserting that contrary to the perception that Qatar is a mere mediator, "Qatar is not our friend. Qatar and Hamas are one and the same."

She stressed that Qatar had provided Hamas with the economic, material, and moral means to build the army that invaded Israel on October 7 and committed the massacre, all the while maintaining the group in power in Gaza.

"Despite the terrorist infrastructure destroyed and the many militants dead, Hamas has yet to pay a high toll for the massacre they committed,” Wilf added. “Any tunnel or military capabilities destroyed will be quickly fixed by Qatar, who is keen on keeping them in power in Gaza."

This dynamic, she explained, has prevented Hamas from truly feeling the consequences of its actions. "As long as Hamas remains in power in Gaza, we haven't achieved anything, and it will keep on terrorizing our citizens."

Wilf also discussed Qatar's broader efforts to undermine Israel through its state-owned media outlet Al Jazeera. "Al Jazeera is a crucial part of Qatar's arsenal against the political existence of Israel. The channel is quoted disproportionately by American media outlets, giving it an outsized impact, as proven by studies.”

Wilf continued: “What Qatar discovered is that antisemitism is a great way to talk to both the left and the right, and this is why it is a central element at Al-Jazeera.


Lego store refuses to make figurine featuring yellow hostage ribbon
A father has urged Lego to “do better” after a manager at one of its largest stores refused to print a custom figurine featuring a yellow hostage ribbon.

Shai Davidai, a Columbia University professor, was allegedly told when he visited the shop in Manhattan with his eight-year-old son that the ribbon was a “political” issue.

While designing a mini-figure to match his appearance, including a black T-shirt with a yellow hostage ribbon and the slogan ‘Bring them home’ on the back, the shop manager intervened.

“The hostages are a political issue,” the manager reportedly said, adding that company policy prohibited political content. Davidai countered that hostages were a humanitarian issue. “I was shocked,” he said, adding that the exchange happened in front of his young son.

Davidai recounted: “You create your mini-figurines and while you wait for them to be printed out, you choose things like what kind of legs you want them to have, all the fun stuff about Lego.

“As we were doing that, the manager came up to me – obviously he recognised me because I looked just like the figurine I had made – and he said I couldn’t have what I had picked.”

The manager gave Davidai two options: to modify the figurine’s design or to accept a refund. Reluctantly, Davidai chose the latter, feeling “astonished, hurt, and depressed” at the experience.

At the cash desk, he challenged the manager, saying: “This is unacceptable— there are hostages who are children, who would be playing with Lego if they were free.” According to Davidai, the manager responded: “I think you know that it is [a political issue].”


'I pray for your people,' says Pope Francis to families of hostages who
A delegation of released hostages and family members of hostages departed on Wednesday for the Vatican to meet with the Pope and additional decision-makers in Italy.

The goals of the delegation include increasing awareness internationally of the hostage situation and causing the Pope and Italian leadership to pressure Hamas to release the hostages. Who was part of the delegation?

Yelena Trufanova, who was released from Hamas captivity in November and whose son is still held captive, joined the delegation. Footage of Trufanova’s son Alexander “Sasha” Troufanov was released Wednesday by Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

This is the third such video of Troufanov. The videos cannot be corroborated by a third party and are considered by Israel to be a form of psychological warfare.

In the video, Troufanov said that he and the other hostages were running out of food and basic hygiene products. He called on the Israeli public to continue to push for a deal to bring the hostages home.

Yocheved Lipshitz, also freed in the November 2023 deal and whose husband Oded is still held hostage, also took part in the delegation.

Adi Shoham and her young children Naveh and Yahel, all freed from Hamas captivity in November and whose husband and father Tal is still held captive, also joined the delegation.

Mor Korngold, Tal Shoham’s brother, has been active in the fight to bring Tal home. “I try to remind people that when discussing a deal, they are talking about human life,” said Korngold in June.

“I ask them to remember Naveh and Yahel,” he added.


Hamas tied to Amsterdam pogrom, Israeli officials say
Israeli intelligence officials have identified Dutch organizations with Hamas ties as the primary instigators of last week’s disturbances in Amsterdam, according to a report released Wednesday by Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Ministry.

The report details how several local organizations allegedly utilized social media platforms to heighten tensions and orchestrate attacks against Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer fans following their match against a Dutch team. Evidence includes screenshots from that evening showing explicit calls for violence and coordinated sharing of locations and tactical information.

The report identifies the Palestinian Community in the Netherlands (PGNL) as the primary organization behind the violence, claiming it maintains direct connections to Hamas. The document provides detailed evidence of these connections, including specific individuals reportedly serving as intermediaries.

Additional organizations and individuals involved in escalating tensions were allegedly linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a terror organization that maintains significant support and presence across Europe.

In a related development, Geert Wilders, leader of the largest party in the Dutch Parliament, demanded the resignation of Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema over her handling of the violent incidents. “Her incompetence is unprecedented,” Wilders stated.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali on the Antisemitic Violence Engulfing Europe | FP LIVE
Today on The Free Press Live, Michael Moynihan and Batya Ungar-Sargon interview Ayaan Hirsi Ali on the recent violence in Amsterdam directed toward Jewish residents—and what this disturbing event signals about ongoing trends in the West.


‘Sorry, sir, we are unable to help you right now’
Before I left for this trip to see Maccabi Tel Aviv play in Amsterdam—the month before I will be starting my service in the Israel Defense Forces—I couldn’t have imagined that it would make every headline in Israel and some major headlines worldwide.

I flew to the capital of Holland with a friend; we got to our hotel on the main street near Dam Square on Nov. 6. When we went out to explore, we happened to notice how heavily present Muslim immigrants were around the city, trying to taunt small groups of Israeli sports fans.

The next day, Maccabi supporters gathered in the Dam Square—the main public area in Amsterdam—to get a little rowdy and stir up the atmosphere before a game. There was a police presence there, enough to arrest tens of Arabs trying to start fights with Jews. At around 5 p.m., an organized march to the Central Metro station of Amsterdam began for Maccabi Tel Aviv fans. During that walk and all the way to the stadium, there was a significant police presence; they surrounded fans, making sure that nothing and nobody could get near the Israeli group.

But on the way back from the stadium once the match ended, there was no police presence whatsoever. After a horrendous but memorable game of soccer (we lost 5-0), we started heading back to the central station. My friend and I got on the first train back from the game, which was full of Israeli families—women and children. Because we were on the first train back, unfortunately, we were bound to be the first group to be ambushed by groups of Arabs.

Following my arrival at the central station, I headed to my hotel, trying to stay in a big group as much as possible. It’s important to mention that I was wearing Maccabi Tel Aviv gear from head to toe, including yellow clothes and a team scarf; it was easy to recognize me and the many fans based on our appearance. After seeing groups of Arabs waiting in the main streets, we decided to get closer to more Israelis so we could walk more safely. As soon as we gathered up together, they started multiplying.
Police neglect is a pogrom’s essential ingredient
In Amsterdam, in the heart of Europe, on Nov. 7, Israeli football fans were hunted, beaten and terrorized by gangs. Was this a pogrom? According to conventional wisdom, it takes two to make a riot and three to make a pogrom. A pogrom requires three parties: instigators, victims and the public instrument of law and order that either neglects or condones the violence.

The instigators, in this case, were the Arab-Dutch gangs who went on a “Jew hunt.” The victims were clearly the Jewish supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv. And the third ingredient?

The Dutch police made 62 arrests before and after the riot but none during the assaults.

The Anti-Defamation League has said, “Given the extent of the rampage and violence, the number of detentions to date is alarming[ly] low.”

A month before this incident, there were alarming media reports that local police officers were refusing to safeguard Jewish and Israeli sites across the country.

We have been here before.

There is a long colonial tradition of the authorities ignoring mob attacks on Jews in Arab countries. The British army stood outside the gates of Baghdad but failed to quell the Farhud massacre of Iraqi Jews on June 1-2, 1941. It was only when the rioters began threatening Muslim quarters that the troops were ordered to intervene. By then, 179 Jews had already been murdered; women had been raped, babies mutilated, and extensive looting and destruction of property had taken place.
Protesters taunt Amsterdam cops with pogrom slogan
Dozens of people chanted “Say ‘Free Palestine,’ then we go” at police officers at an illegal rally in Amsterdam on Wednesday night.

The phrase heard at the protest, where many participants had a Middle Eastern appearance, echoes those an assailant was filmed telling an Israeli who had jumped into a canal in the city to avoid a beating on Nov. 7. In the video, the swimming man says “Free Palestine” almost immediately after being prompted, drawing laughter from his attackers watching him from the embankment.

That incident was part of a series of preplanned assaults, which many Dutch Jews and others consider a pogrom, by at least 100 Muslim men against Israeli soccer supporters returning from a match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and the local Ajax team.

The chants, which were widely interpreted as a celebration of the violence exercised against Israelis on Nov. 7, were heard during the second anti-Israel gathering on Wednesday night at Dam Square, a central location that features a large monument for the victims of World War II.

Also on Wednesday night, demonstrators clashed with police at an illegal protest in Paris against a pro-Israel benefit held by local Jews.

Earlier this week, Belgian police arrested suspects whom detectives said were inspired by Amsterdam rioters to attack Jews in Antwerp.

These and other events are causing concern across Europe about a new security reality for Israelis, Jews and law enforcement agents. The Amsterdam assaults showed the ability of local groups of Muslim rioters to use instant messaging to mobilize quickly and coordinate concentrated attacks on moving targets that they pursued in real-time.


Seth Mandel: Student Civil War Over Gaza Gets Even Crazier
The piece noted the violence against Jews and others on campus. The signatories of the piece “are disgusted by Chowdhury and Vice President Elias Atkinson’s tacit endorsement of these actions, and we unequivocally condemn their complicity in the violence, intimidation and assault against our peers.”

Chowdhury and Atkinson refused to resign. On Tuesday, articles of impeachment against them were passed. As early as next week, the student judiciary will try those charges. If Chowdhury and Atkinson are convicted by the student judiciary, they will be removed from their positions and the assembly speaker will become student president.

Here’s where the plot really takes a turn. The assembly speaker’s name is Mario Thaqi. He voted to restore student funding and voted against Chowdhury’s and Atkinson’s motion to send the funding to the West Bank. For that, Thaqi was subject to the aforementioned threats and harassment.

Mario Thaqi’s grandparents are Palestinian, and his mother was born in Jordan. He participated in campus protests against Israel, in fact. He supports the Palestinians of Gaza, and the issue is personal to him. But he doesn’t approve of the thuggish tactics of the supposedly “pro-Palestinian” contingent holding student life hostage.

For that, he told the Chronicle, he’s been called “a Zionist, a race traitor, and a bootlicker.”

That Hamas supporters’ rhetoric would mirror Hamas’s own isn’t surprising. But that a Palestinian student who protests Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza would be marked and threatened as a collaborator for being insufficiently radical—well, it’s hard to find a better capsule review of Western political discourse over the past 13 months than that.
Trump to universities: Stamp out antisemitism or lose accreditation
All American universities must end campus antisemitism or they will lose accreditation, President-elect Donald Trump promised during a rally against antisemitism in Washington.

To “defeat antisemitism and defend Jewish citizens in America,” Trump said he would inform every college president that if they do not “end antisemitic propaganda,” they would lose accreditation and federal support.

“We will not subsidize the creation of terrorist sympathizers, and we’re not going to do it – certainly on American soil,” he said.

Trump added that once in the Oval Office, he would inform all educational institutions that if they permit violence or harassment against Jewish students, they will be “held accountable for violations of the civil rights law.”

“It’s very important – Jewish Americans must have equal protection under the law, and they’re going to get it,” he said. “At the same time, my administration will move swiftly to restore safety for Jewish students and Jewish people on American streets.”
Carleton fans the flames of toxicity by employing convicted terrorist
The Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah is meant to be a joyous occasion marking the completion of the reading of the scriptures. But in 1980 at Paris’ rue Copernic synagogue, the deadliest antisemitic attack in France since the Second World War turned a celebration to horror.

At around 6:30 p.m., more than 300 worshipers were rocked violently by a terrible blast. The synagogue’s front gate blew off, its ceiling collapsed, and glass shards tore through the sanctuary. Eyewitnesses outside described a 20-metre flame erupt into the night sky followed by the sight of cars launched into the air.

Forty-six people were injured that night. All four of the murdered had the misfortune to have been outside the synagogue at that moment: 22-year-old Phillipe Bouissou was killed instantly while driving past on his motorcycle; chauffeur Jean-Michel Barbé was waiting for his client who had been praying inside; Hilario Lopez Fernandez, the concierge at the hotel across the street, succumbed to his wounds two days later.

The fourth victim was the Israeli cinematographer, Aliza Shagrir. She was the mother of my friend and colleague, Hagai, a teenager at the time who survived only because he had returned early to his hotel room. To this day, Hagai remains traumatized and laments having gone through life without his mother.

While it took many years for the authorities to find the culprit and even more time to prosecute the case, Hassan Diab was finally convicted by a French court in April 2023. This decision brought a measure of justice to the victims and the families affected.

Last week, however, those families, indeed Jewish communities worldwide, were shocked to read in the National Post that while Diab awaits the extradition to France to be processed, to serve his life sentence, he is employed by Carleton University to teach a course on, of all topics, social justice. Although this news would be difficult to accept at any time, it is especially unsettling in the wake of the horrors of October 7, 2023 — the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust that also took place on the festival of Simchat Torah.
IDF veteran recounts brutal assault at Chicago campus, vows to continue his activism
An Israeli student on Thursday described being violently beaten at Chicago’s DePaul University while inviting conversation about the Israel Defense Forces last week, vowing that the incident would not deter him from his US campus activism.

Max Long, who immigrated to Israel in 2015 from Boston and served in the IDF, told Channel 12 news he wanted to continue to contribute to Israel after he started his degree at DePaul this year and decided to establish the stand, offering apple and honey and inviting people to “talk about the IDF and Israel” over the Rosh Hashanah holiday in October alongside another pro-Israel activist. The stand has since become a regular installment.

Long had deferred his university studies while he served two rounds of reserve duty in the ongoing war in Gaza against Hamas. He spoke from his home in Chicago, where he was recovering from a concussion and swelling in the face and neck. Michael Kaminsky, the activist from Students Supporting Israel, had his hand broken in the assault.

“Every Wednesday I would come for a few hours. Each time the university would look for a reason to keep me away; they said they wanted to stay neutral, and demanded that I remain outside the campus. Surprisingly, most of the conversations were with people that wanted to listen,” Long said.

During the conversations, he showed students videos of tunnels he found in Gaza. “It’s different when it’s not something you are just seeing on social media, when a person is actually standing in front of you,” he noted.

Long said that there was a usual crowd of people that would yell, “Baby murderer” and swear at him, but he would not respond aggressively and would always invite them to talk.


MacEwan University Campus Newspaper Condemns Israel For Targeting Hezbollah Terrorists
Even by the admittedly low editorial standards demonstrated by The Griff, a campus newspaper at Edmonton’s MacEwan University, a recent opinion column masquerading as a news article was particularly amateur.

The November 1 piece entitled: “Israeli terror targets more than Hezbollah,” which was aspirationally titled an “analysis,” was written by David Slater, whose ‘journalism’ has been characterized as being largely repeating anti-Israel propaganda and passing it off as thoughtful analysis.

His latest column castigated Israel for its apparent targeted mobile device operation against thousands of Hezbollah terrorists in September, which he called “terror.” Despite the counter-terrorism operation being hailed as arguably among the most precise of its kind in modern history, overwhelmingly striking Hezbollah terrorists, Slater opted to speak to assorted students on campus for their geopolitical expertise.

One student, identified only as “Abdul” (Slater told reader he wouldn’t share his surname due to unnamed “security concerns,”) opined that “his family could have been at a grocery store,” referring to footage of a Hezbollah terrorist in a Lebanese grocery store when his pager exploded. “It was just complete terror,” Abdul is quoted as saying.

Ironically, the grocery store footage demonstrated the remarkable precision of Israel’s alleged operation: the terrorist fell to the floor while the fruits beside him remained untouched, and everyone else was uninjured. Unless Abdul or his family were terrorists, he should have felt no “terror.”

Despite Abdul sharing that “I can’t explain their justification to myself of why they went through such an act,” the reasons why Israel targeted Hezbollah terrorists are obvious. Starting on October 8, 2023, the day after Hamas’ massacres in southern Israel, Hezbollah began a campaign firing rockets into northern Israel, in an unprovoked act of aggression aimed at showing solidarity with their Hamas allies in Gaza.
Carleton University Journalism Lecture Features Two Anti-Israel Propagandists, Moderated By Deeply Problematic CBC Reporter
A November 12 & 13 Carleton University-sponsored event will feature two guest lecturers discussing the subject of the “gravity of the role of journalism during the Israel-Gaza war” and the “brutal experience [of] covering the Israeli military campaign in Gaza.” The two speakers are Gazan writer Shrouq Al Aila and Israeli columnist Gideon Levy.

Unfortunately, while interest and engagement from Canada’s future journalists in trying to understand the Middle East is encouraging, this event’s promotional materials contain several concerning red flags.

Event attendees may think that this is an opportunity to hear multiple perspectives and to learn about the conflict objectively and with balance, due to the participation of both a Palestinian and an Israeli in the discussion. However, despite their different ethnic backgrounds, both speakers essentially share the same anti-Israel opinion.

Shrouq An Anti-Israel Radical
Alia lives in Gaza and has garnered attention for sharing her takes on the war, during which she tragically lost her husband. The only issue is that she is far from just an objective reporter sharing her experiences. Shrouq regularly falsely refers to the situation in Gaza as a “genocide” — sometimes taking it even further and provocatively calling it a “holocaust” — despite all available firm data refuting this propagandistic characterization. She refers to Israeli hostage rescue operations as “massacre[s]” and describes her own journalism as “writ[ing] for Palestine” and a “way to resist and fight back against Israeli propaganda.” She has been making the same outlandish and baseless claims about Israel allegedly targeting journalists since years before the current war began. Gideon Levy Regarded As The “Most Hated Man In Israel”

Meanwhile, Levy, whom CBC has previously referred to as the “most hated man in Israel,” is a regular favourite guest in the anti-Israel media landscape, as an Israeli journalist who virulently and consistently fills the niche of attacking the Jewish state, victim-blaming those attacked on October 7th, legitimizing the claims and language of Israel’s most extreme haters, supporting a boycott of his own country, and even advocates the dismantling of Israel as a state. Suffice it to say he does not in any way represent the views of mainstream Israelis on any part of the political spectrum — and to suggest otherwise is brazenly dishonest.

Neither of these known and biased provocateurs — who share the same political views on the situation they’re discussing — instil confidence that this event will constitute a fair and balanced sincere discussion.

Furthermore, the event will be hosted by CBC’s Nahlah Ayed, who also has a long history of wrongdoings when it comes to fairness in covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Ayed’s record includes disseminating false quotes and whitewashing murderers. Would any reasonable person expect this to be a balanced conversation?


French arms supplied to Sudan rebels defying UN ban
Amnesty International revealed Thursday that French-made weapon systems have been supplied to Sudan's rebel group, following an analysis of images and materials from the conflict zone in the African nation.

According to evidence published on social media and analyzed by the organization, French-manufactured military systems were installed on armored vehicles supplied to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who are fighting government troops and stand accused of numerous massacres and war crimes against civilians and ethnic minorities.

This represents a violation of two separate UN embargo resolutions on the country, dating back to the regime of dictator Omar al-Bashir, who was ousted in the country's 2019 coup. One of these embargo decisions specifically concerns the Darfur region in the western part of the country, where terrorists are carrying out massacres against the tribal Christian minority residing in the province.

According to Amnesty International's claims, Galix vehicle defense systems, manufactured by French company Lacroix, were supplied to RSF forces by the United Arab Emirates, a major purchaser of French military equipment. While the armored vehicles were manufactured in the UAE, the defense system, designed to provide screening in case of kinetic attacks, originates from France.
Most Russians Don’t Support Israel, Even as It Fights for Its Survival
It is hard not to notice that the war Israel is waging, with the support of the United States and other allies in the Western bloc, against Iran’s terrorist alliance and its radical Islamist Arab proxies — Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, Shiite militias in Syria and Iraq, and others — has its reflection in the ideological, political, and diplomatic discourse of post-Soviet conflicts, primarily the Russian-Ukrainian and Armenian-Azerbaijani conflicts.

This also introduces adjustments to the foreign policy stance of those USSR successor states that have various geopolitical interests in the Middle East.

A prime example in this regard is the Russian Federation, whose return as a key player in the second half of the 2000s became an important factor in the new configuration of political forces in the region. In Israel, the early Middle Eastern reflections of Russia’s bid to reclaim its status as a global superpower was met with mixed assessments. Optimists were inclined to believe that Moscow was returning to the Middle East not as a proponent of any particular ideology, but out of purely pragmatic considerations. Therefore, even if global geopolitical interests might, in principle, place Israel and Russia on opposite sides of the barricades, this would not necessarily lead to direct confrontation between the two countries, leaving ample room for cooperation beyond points of disagreement.

On the other hand, pessimists were convinced that Russia would sooner or later revert to the global political models and views of the late Soviet era — including seeing Israel as a potential adversary, given its strategic partnership with the United States.

Consequently, the dynamics of a potential intensification of US-Russian competition in the Middle East would ultimately shift almost any discrepancies between Jerusalem and Moscow from the category of “disagreements between partners” to that of “direct confrontation, leaving little room for compromise,” according to experts and staff from relevant Israeli, American, and Russian think tanks.

Initially, Moscow indeed attempted — with some success at times — to position itself as a party capable of cooperating with virtually all actors in the Middle Eastern conflict and even mediating between them.

However, after October 7, 2023, Russia explicitly supported Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Iranian bloc as a whole. At the same time, the profile of the rapidly developing Russian-Israeli relations of the past decade sharply diminished, although Moscow and Jerusalem attempted to maintain a semblance of “business as usual”.
Polish FM walks out of interview after question on his wife’s Jewish ancestry
Poland’s Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski abruptly left a local TV studio after answering a question from the anchor about whether his American wife’s Jewish ancestry would harm his chances as a candidate in next year’s presidential elections.

The public fuss over the question on the interview on Poland’s largest private broadcaster raised anew questions regarding antisemitism in the country.

Poland’s top diplomat later issued a statement dismissing allegations of antisemitism, but called on the television station to “restore journalistic standards.”

In the interview broadcast on TVN on Tuesday evening, the presenter asked Sikorski in her final question for his reaction to a newspaper report that “the ancestry of your wife is a problem” for some members of his party.

“I would say that there is already a secular tradition that the first lady should be a person of Jewish origin,” he responded.

Agata Kornhauser-Duda, the wife of Polish President Andrzej Duda, had a Jewish grandfather, while her predecessor as Poland’s first lady, Anna Julia Komorowska, had a Jewish mother.

The foreign minister’s wife, Anne Applebaum, is a journalist and historian.

Sikorski left the studio while the credits were still rolling, causing the anchorwoman to look up in startlement.
Jaffa light rail attacker to be charged with murder, terror acts
An indictment is set to be filed against one of the two Palestinian men suspected of perpetrating a Hamas terror attack in Jaffa on October 1 that left seven people dead and 16 wounded, Israel Police and the Shin Ben security agency announced on Thursday.

According to the joint statement, the State Attorney’s Office will charge Ahmed Himouni, 25, from Hebron in the West Bank, with acts of terrorism and murder.

During the attack, the two terrorists, one armed with a rifle and the other with a knife, attacked civilians on the Tel Aviv light rail, then got off and continued their rampage on foot along Jerusalem Street in Jaffa.

The second attacker, Mohammad Mesek, 19, also from Hebron, was killed at the scene by a municipal security officer and armed civilians who shot the two terrorists. Himouni was seriously injured.

The owner of a taxi company and two taxi drivers were indicted earlier this month for driving the two into Israel.

The three indicted individuals were accused of driving the terrorists, whom they knew didn’t have entry permits into Israel, to Tel Aviv. Those indictments were on charges of causing death by negligence and causing death by recklessness.
The EU Attempts to Promote Gender Equality in the Palestinian Authority
Since 2007, the EU has donated over 1.8 billion euros to the Palestinians to promote "Gender Equality." More EU funds were donated to achieving this goal than any other goal. Despite the substantial support, the Palestinian Authority has failed to adopt the legislative steps to implement this goal. While it had full jurisdiction to pass new legislation, for over 30 years the laws regarding personal status and criminal offenses implemented by the PA are still British Mandate law, Egyptian law (in Gaza), and Jordanian law (in Judea and Samaria).

While the PA has been willing to take the substantial EU donations, Palestinian society, which is deeply rooted in Islamic Sharia law, rejects "Gender Equality." In order to ensure that the EU aid to the Palestinians is used to reach the goals for which it was donated, the EU must set clear, non-negotiable, benchmarks that the PA must comply with before any additional funding is provided.


Hezbollah may be more motivated to strike Jewish targets in Latin America, experts warn
Jewish communities and law enforcement in Latin America should be on high alert, after Israel killed Hezbollah’s senior command and destroyed large numbers of its weapons near the border, experts warned in recent interviews with Jewish Insider.

There is “an incentive for [Hezbollah] now to try to hit soft targets abroad in response to what is happening to them in Lebanon,” Emanuele Ottolenghi, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told JI.

“The risk [to Jewish communities] has always been there, latent and present,” he added.

Latin America has long been an important base of operations for Hezbollah, with activities originating in the border area between Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina, countries with large Lebanese populations. Those countries’ tri-border area has weak law enforcement that the terrorist organization uses for money laundering. Hezbollah later expanded into Venezuela as Caracas became more aligned with Tehran.

In Latin America, Hezbollah is only considered a terrorist organization in Argentina, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras and Paraguay, weakening authorities’ ability to prosecute members of its network in the rest of the region. The Lebanese terrorist group has long been involved in organized crime in Latin America to fund its terrorist activities around the world.

Hezbollah was behind major attacks in Buenos Aires: the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy, which killed 28 and injured 242, and the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center, which killed 85 and injured over 300. Members of the original cells involved in the AMIA bombing remain in Latin America, Ottolenghi said.
IRGC: Israel to face massacre in ‘historic confrontation’ with Iran
Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, threatened a “real and historical confrontation” with Israel, speaking at a military drill in Tehran on Thursday,

“Infidels” will share the fate of the Jews massacred by the prophet Muhammad in 628 C.E., he warned.

“We are standing face to face, and we will fight with you until the end—we will not allow you to dominate the fate of Muslims,” the IRGC head vowed in an address translated by Iran’s Press TV propaganda outlet.

“Most modern armies of the world have come to the aid of the Zionist regime,” Salami said, slamming a “global formation of powers that intend to submit to their will so that they will rule over Muslims’ fate, occupy their land and rob them of their religious identity.

“We will take revenge. You will receive painful blows; keep waiting,” Salami told fellow IRGC members. “Study history; nowhere will you find a place where Muslims submit to infidels, polytheists and hypocrites.

“Look at Khaybar at the beginning of Islam—your fate today will be the same as the fate of the Battle of Khaybar,” continued the terrorist.

Salami’s remarks referred to a seventh-century confrontation between Muhammad’s forces and Jewish tribes in the Arabian Peninsula. After Muslim conquerors attacked and took control of the oasis of Khaybar, they massacred the men and sold their wives and children into slavery.

Israel believes that Iran has decided to postpone a third direct attack on the Jewish state following last week’s U.S. election, won by President-elect Donald Trump, Israel Hayom reported earlier on Thursday.

The Israeli report came a day after Iranian sources told Sky News that Trump’s impending return to the White House led the Tehran regime to delay the attack.
Treasury slaps sanctions on Syrian company funnelling hundreds of millions to Iran
The U.S. Treasury Department announced that it was imposing new sanctions on Thursday on a Syrian conglomerate accused of funneling hundreds of millions of dollars to Iran.

The Al-Qatirji Company allegedly used a fleet of oil tankers to sell Iranian oil to Syria and China, ultimately benefiting the Houthis in Yemen and the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force.

“The Al-Qatirji Company enabled the IRGC-QF to generate and access hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue this year alone,” stated Matthew Miller, the U.S. State Department spokesman. “The Al-Qatirji Company launders revenue from selling Iranian oil and then provides millions of dollars per month to the Houthis, knowingly funding attacks carried out by the Houthis.”

According to the U.S. Treasury, the company exports millions of barrels of oil annually and then launders the money through cities like Beirut and Istanbul before splitting it between Iran and the Houthis.

“Iran is increasingly relying on key business partners like the Al-Qatirji Company to fund its destabilizing activities and web of terrorist proxies across the region,” stated Bradley Smith, acting under secretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence.

In total, Treasury sanctioned 26 individuals, companies and entities related to Al-Qatirji.

Most of the 11 oil tankers involved in the scheme were previously identified by the United Against Nuclear Iran advocacy group as part of Iran’s “ghost fleet” of sanctions-evading oil tankers.
FDD: Iran, Russia Link Banking Systems in Effort to Bypass Western Sanctions
Latest Developments
• Russia and Iran Connect Banking System: Iran and Russia have begun linking their banking systems to allow Iranians to use their bank cards in Russia — an apparent effort to blunt the impact of Western sanctions on both countries. On November 13, Iran’s state broadcaster IRINN showed footage of cash being dispensed from an ATM in Russia using an Iranian bank card. IRINN noted that in-store cash transactions using Iranian cards will also soon be possible.

• Attempt to Bypass International Sanctions: Both nations’ banking systems are restricted from SWIFT, the international financial messaging service that is used to send and receive wire transfer instructions between bank accounts. SWIFT barred Iranian banks from the service in 2018 when the Trump administration reimposed sanctions against Iran. SWIFT dropped several of Russia’s largest banks in 2022 after its invasion of Ukraine.

• Seeking Alternatives to Western Financial Systems: Both Russia and Iran have recently pushed to create alternatives to Western financial systems. IRINN’s report noted that other countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, and Turkey could soon be linked to the same financial messaging service as well. Mohammad Reza Farzin, governor of the Central Bank of Iran, said on November 11 that Iran and Russia have completely removed the U.S. dollar from their bilateral trade transactions. Farzin also said that the second phase of the project would allow Russians card holders to use their cards in Iran.

FDD Expert Response
“Linking the two sanctioned banking systems may provide some marginal benefits, but it is unlikely to be a game changer. Iran and Russia are natural rivals and historical adversaries, with similar economies that limit their potential for complementary trade, leading to modest economic exchanges.” — Saeed Ghasseminejad, Senior Iran and Financial Economics Advisor

“First you make sure that all platforms involved are subject to secondary sanctions. Second, you make sure every other would-be participant in the world knows we will bring the hammer down on them if they connect. Third, you restore maximum pressure on Iran. Put together, you have the recipe to kill this and keep it dead.” — Richard Goldberg, Senior Advisor

“Russia has doubled down on its relations with Iran since 2022. Weapons transfers have been the main area where they’ve expanded cooperation, but the two regimes are also working to boost their economic and political ties and counter Western sanctions. While Iran will likely never be a major economic partner for Russia, this is part of Moscow’s broader effort to promote alternatives to Western-dominated institutions. — John Hardie, Deputy Director of FDD’s Russia Program
Jewish groups applaud Canada’s new resource on Jew-hatred
Jew-hatred has been surging in Canada—as it has throughout the world—since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel. One thing that the Great White North has that no other country does is a handbook on the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism.

The federal government launched the guide on Oct. 31, reportedly fulfilling a 2022 commitment that Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, made to create an educational resource for understanding, recognizing and combating Jew-hatred.

“Canada is the first single country to produce a government handbook on the IHRA working definition,” Deborah Lyons, Canada’s special envoy on preserving Holocaust remembrance and combating antisemitism, told JNS.

Lyons said that her office, which led development of the handbook over 10 months, incorporated input from more than 150 stakeholders, including Jewish leaders, law enforcement, academia and many government officials.

The aim of the project was to guide school policies and campus codes of conduct, as well as “helping administrators and institutions draw the line as to what is and what is not antisemitism,” Lyons told JNS.

“It is crucial that this handbook becomes built into institutional processes that seek to address antisemitism, whether in workplaces, on university campuses, in the judiciary, in the legal system, in government or in civil society at large,” she said.
Fury as Trudeau REFUSES to release the names of 900 Nazi war criminals who fled to Canada after WWII: 'Justice denied'
Justin Trudeau has sparked outrage after refusing to release the names of 900 alleged Nazi war criminals who fled to Canada after the Second World War.

Jewish groups have called the decision, 'disgraceful' and say it dishonors Holocaust victims and survivors.

The Canadian government is concealing the list of names amid fears it could be too embarrassing for the country, TNC reports.

Large numbers of Ukrainian SS Waffen soldiers relocated to Canada following the war.

Officials said there are also concerns the list could be used as Russian propaganda against Ukraine amid Vladimir Putin's ongoing invasion of the eastern European nation.

The list of members of the Nazi-led SS Galicia unit was compiled by the Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals in Canada.

The panel then met with members of the Ukrainian community and 'discrete group of individuals or organizations' to consult on whether the names should be released.

But they did not meet with ant Holocaust survivors or advocates pushing for the list's released, the Ottawa Citizen reports.

The decision was met with disgust from Jewish non profit B'nai Brith.

'For decades, B'nai Brith & David Matas, B'nai Brith Canada's senior legal counsel, have fought for full access—only to face endless delays and stonewalling,' the organization said.

'Canada is withholding hundreds of Nazi war-crimes files from the public. This disgraceful secrecy dishonours [sic] survivors and denies justice.'

Bernie Farber, who is the son of a Holocaust survivor and a past member of the Canadian Jewish Congress, branded the decision 'a shameful blot'.

Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, senior director of advocacy and policy at the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre, also expressed anger.


Israel must seize historic opportunity to welcome one million olim in 2025
In the early 1990s, one million new olim arrived in Israel and gave it a big boost forward. In 2025, we should and can bring the next million.

In the early 1990s, the unprecedented wave of aliyah followed the fall of the USSR. A million olim came to Israel and ensured that the country would keep growing. Academics, doctors, teachers, and others pushed Israel to become an emerging country in the West and one of the most promising.

Israel is now on the verge of a similar opportunity – in 2025, a million Jews could arrive in Israel. A combination of tragic circumstances – the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, a nearly unprecedented rise in antisemitism and violence against Jews in the US and Europe, and an awakening of Zionist sentiments among the Jewish people – have created a historic opportunity for Zionism.

Since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas War, over 30,000 Jewish people worldwide have applied for aliyah. Reports in the US say that since October 7, there has been an increase of 200% in antisemitic incidents. And on American campuses? We’ve seen the farce of leaders from the most prestigious universities in the US refusing to admit that calling for the murder of the Jewish people is racism. This might explain a rise of 500% in antisemitic incidents on campuses this past year.

The pogrom in Amsterdam, one of the safest cities for Jews in Europe, has shown that under the surface, the hatred of Jews and of Israel is worse than it has been in a long time. In France, antisemitic incidents have become four times more common in the last year. And the result? Some 38% of French Jews, or about 200,000 people, are now considering leaving the country.

Until October 7, the trend in America had been clear and unfortunate – American Jews had been detaching themselves slowly but surely from Israel. Then it flipped. Zionism has taken center stage again.
Heroes walk among us: This year’s JFNA General Assembly
On Sunday, major Jewish organizations and communities from across North America gathered for the “Stand Together” rally, an event designed to inspire unity and engagement in the face of rising challenges. The rally marked the opening of this year’s Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly, an annual conference that brings together Jewish leaders and community members to discuss pressing issues, foster solidarity, and strengthen ties.

At the conference, a full array of organizations, foundations, nonprofits, Israeli partners, lifelong activists, concerned citizens, and contributors made up the attendees. There were many heroes walking amongst them – heroes who have been working to secure Israel and the worldwide Diaspora for decades.

Julie Platt, chair of the JFNA, highlighted the importance of this unity and invoked recent interviews with activists as evidence of a growing, urgent need for coordinated action. “It’s all hands on deck,” she said, emphasizing that every participant – whether a veteran leader or a first-time attendee – has a role to play in fortifying their community.

Platt noted JFNA’s remarkable contribution of raising over $700 million to support Israel, stressing the importance of resisting “comfort fatigue” and the critical need to redouble efforts. “This is not the time to step back,” she said. “We must push forward, strengthening our resolve to support Israel and protect our communities.”

A recurring theme she emphasized was the need to become “everyday emissaries,” combating antisemitism and standing up for Jewish values not just at organized events but wherever we are – in grocery stores, on social media, and in every corner of our lives. The responsibility, as Platt articulated, extends to family, community, and nation.

“If we don’t take action now, in an organized and coordinated way, we risk undermining our own future.” Platt also acknowledged the value of blending traditional methods with new approaches in the battle for public opinion and awareness.
Singer John Ondrasik Calls ‘Free Palestine’ a ‘Con Job,’ Labels Current College Campuses a ‘Ground Zero for Antisemitism’ at Bailey Hall Event
“Free Palestine has become the greatest, like, con job in the history of the planet,” John Ondrasik, also known as singer-songwriter for Five for Fighting, said at Bailey Hall on Monday night to an audience of approximately 60 people.

Ondrasik and Patricia Heaton, an Emmy-Award winning actress also known for founding the October 7th Coalition — a group of Christians who stand against rising antisemitism in America — were invited to speak and perform at “Combating Antisemitism through the Arts, on Campus and Beyond” in support of the Jewish community amid the Israel-Hamas war.

Ondrasik led the two-hour event, with Heaton extending her support and courage to the Jewish community at Cornell through a video.

Co-sponsor of the event Prof. Randy Wayne, plant biology, opened the event with a speech introducing Ondrasik as well as the rise of antisemitism on college campuses nationwide. Wayne serves as the faculty leader of Heterodox Academy Campus Community at Cornell University, an organization dedicated to open inquiry and constructive disagreement.

“I would like to start with a land acknowledgment: Israel is a Jewish state, and it has a right to exist,” Wayne said.

Ondrasik has written many songs referencing global political events such as “Blood On My Hands,” “Can One Man Save the World” and “OK.” The latter song became a focal point of the event as it discussed the Oct. 7 massacre, in which 1,200 Israelis were murdered and over 200 were kidnapped by Hamas.

“I saw how a song can provide so much in ways no other media can,” Ondrasik said. “It’s important for artists to use their musical platform to provide a counter-narrative to so many who have also been seduced by the oppressor dogma.”

As he performed, footage of the events referenced in the songs played behind. Nathan Reimer, a Cornell staff member who attended the event, explained that he felt that the videos created a somber mood among the audience as they reflected on events revolving around the conflict.

“I think the music Ondrasik played shows the power of using music and a powerful message to get through the clutter of what you hear on mainstream media,” Reimer said. “It made a stronger point because it’s not just what you understand in your head, but what you feel in your heart.”


Social media outrage after Israeli Jew cast as Jesus’ mother in Netflix biblical epic
A Netflix trailer has sparked outrage and boycott calls following the announcement that an Israeli Jew will be playing Jesus’ mother Mary in an upcoming biblical epic.

Mary, directed by DJ Caruso, will star 21-year-old Noa Cohenin the starring role, alongside 22-year-old Israeli actor Ido Tako as Joseph, and is set to be released on December 6.

The release of the trailer on social media on Tuesday sparked a storm among users on X/Twitter, who immediately criticised the film for its casting of Cohen as the Virgin Mary, who some claim should be depicted by an actress of Palestinian descent.

The cast contains many other Israeli actors, including Ori Pfeffer, Mili Avital, Keren Tzur and Hilla Vidor, and features British film and theatre veteran Anthony Hopkins as King Herrod.

“Half the cast is Israeli, including Noa Cohen who plays Mary. Looks like shit anyway, but needless to say avoid this like the plague,” tweeted one account, joining the call to boycott the film.

Antisemitic comments followed the trailer, with one account tweeting: “This is a joke and a slap in the face to all Christians. How dare you let that disgusting jew play Mary.”

Another account described the casting of Cohen in the titular role as blasphemous.

“There is something deeply blasphemous about casting an Israeli to play the role of Mary, the mother of Jesus, while Israel is carrying out a genocide against Palestinians, killing some of the oldest Christian populations in the area and destroying their heritage sites.”

Meanwhile, a different social media user took issue with the film because the titular roles would be played by “white Europeans”.

“The actors in the show are both Ashkenazi Israeli Jews, and white Europeans. The closest people to Mary’s race are Palestinians. Middle Easterners always get whitewashed, blackwashed or indianwashed,” they wrote.




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