Thursday, November 21, 2024

11/21 Links Pt1: BHL: There Is No ‘Genocide’ in Gaza; ICC fake charges against Netanyahu and Gallant prove US must never recognize the court; Anti-Israel vandals target Sydney suburb

From Ian:

Bernard-Henri Lévy : There Is No ‘Genocide’ in Gaza
I have “studied” these subjects in depth. I have seen genocides in Srebrenica and Darfur with my own eyes. I have filmed those tortured by Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and the bodies burned alive, thrown from rooftops, beheaded, by ISIS at Mosul. I have documented, on the ground, the indiscriminate killings by Russia in Ukraine.

I covered, long before that, the carnage of the Islamic Salvation Front in Algeria, from which the French writer Kamel Daoud escaped. I have borne witness to those survivors in the Christian villages of the Middle Belt of Nigeria, their lives decimated by the Islamist Fulani.

In short, I know what it means to be promised death. I have seen skeletons exploited to their last strength and, when that strength expired, thrown into a pit. In other words, I know what genocide and crimes against humanity mean.

The world has willingly forgotten that, in this war of Israel against the Islamic Republic of Iran and its puppets, the IDF is the first army in the world to take so many measures, sometimes to its strategic detriment, to ensure that as few innocent civilians as possible are caught in the furnace of battles.

Thus, myths are forged.

Thus, we go from the Judeo-Masonic conspiracy, or Judeo-Bolshevik, or Judeo-Capitalist conspiracy, to the Judeo-genocidal conspiracy of which all the Jews of the world would be more or less complicit. And thus we insult, not only the truth of facts and names, but the holy memory of the victims of the genocides of the last century. BERNARD-HENRI LÉVY
Unsanction Israel
President Biden's sanctions regime against Israelis "for undermining peace, security, and stability in the West Bank" violates several standards of sanctions policy. America almost never sanctions other democracies. Americans respect the desire of other self-governing peoples to govern themselves, rather than to obey coercive dictates from Washington. If America cannot peacefully persuade another democracy to change its ways, America lives with it.

America sanctions rogue states and non-state groups that brutalize people lacking recourse to courts or democratic institutions. Think China, Russia, Iran, North Korea. Or the terror groups and states within states in Yemen and Sudan.

American sanctions policy now classes Israel with the world's worst regimes, including Iran, a state sponsor of terror officially dedicated to Israel's destruction. Actually, American sanctions now treat Israel worse than Iran: by targeting the speech of its citizens. Sanctioning Israel in wartime also advances the best hope of Israel's enemies - to isolate Israel from its friends.

Moreover, the sanctions regime the administration has set up grossly misidentifies the culprit. West Bank Palestinians have committed hundreds of terrorist attacks and killed at least 20 Israelis since Oct. 7, 2023. Nearly all alleged incidents of West Bank Jews committing violence against Arabs involve property crimes.

Settler violence is so infrequent that the Biden administration has struggled to find perpetrators to sanction. Instead, it has sanctioned persons never accused of violence or already dealt with by the Israeli authorities. Meanwhile, endemic Palestinian property crimes against Jews remain under-prosecuted by Israel, ignored or encouraged by the Palestinian Authority, and unsanctioned by America.

At a recent Israeli parliament meeting, both opponents and supporters of the Netanyahu government condemned the sanctions regime. Americans should join with Israelis in opposing this intervention in Israeli public life - to protect their own free-speech rights and to support an American security partner.
State Department’s last-gasp effort to sabotage an Israeli victory over terrorists
Israel’s detractors believe that America’s unwavering support for Israel is driven by the mythologically omnipotent “Jewish lobby.” The truth is it is the Arab lobby, entrenched within the deep state, which has been adversely affecting U.S. policy since the discovery of oil in Saudi Arabia in the 1930s.

The Arabists fought first to prevent the establishment of Israel, then to strangle the nascent state at birth, and ever since, have sought to drive a wedge between the two countries despite their shared values and interests. This tradition has continued in the Biden administration, where the Arabists are determined to make a last stand before Donald Trump takes office and make their anti-Israel positions as Trump-proof as possible.

We have seen this movie before.

In the 1940s, President Harry Truman’s push for the creation of Israel was met with fierce resistance. The Arabists in the State and Defense Departments were adamantly against the establishment of a Jewish state, fearing the United States would lose access to Middle East oil (which we did not yet depend on), that Israel would be Communist, and that the Soviets would exploit Arab anger with America to gain influence in the region. Truman ordered them to support partition; however, after the resolution to create a Jewish and Arab state was adopted, American diplomats tried to prevent its implementation. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations announced that partition was unworkable and proposed an international trusteeship for Palestine instead. Truman learned about it from the newspaper. Historian Robert Silverberg said Truman “became a staunch Zionist for the first time” and ensured that he would no longer listen to “the appeasers of the Arabs, the worriers over oil, the frenetic anti-Communists and the subtle anti-Semites in the Departments of State and Defense.”

The Arabists have never given up.

We saw President Barack Obama’s Arabist instrument, John Kerry, sticking it to Israel as he headed out the door in a preemptive strike against the incoming Trump administration. As I wrote at the time, he and Hillary Clinton “carried out President Obama’s agenda to turn on our most fervent allies, such as Israel, make catastrophic deals with enemies such as Iran and, in a nod to Nero, fiddled while Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya and Yemen burned.”

After the failure of Kerry’s efforts to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians, and Trump defeated Clinton, Obama ordered the United States to abstain rather than veto Security Council Resolution 2334, a one-sided measure labeling Israeli settlements “a flagrant violation of international law” that damage the prospects of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Obama had previously vetoed a similar resolution but now claimed the vote reflected longstanding U.S. policy.
The US media’s war on Trump’s Middle East policy
In recent articles on Hezbollah’s rocket attacks on northern Israel, the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal all referred to the “Israeli-occupied” or “Israeli-controlled” Golan Heights. The terms were revealing. In March 2019, President Trump recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan, making it an indivisible part of the Jewish state. In describing the Heights as “occupied” and “controlled” by Israel, America’s papers of record were publicly rejecting the position of the country’s democratically elected leader in favor of those of Belgium, China, and the Obama administration.

The willingness of the mainstream press to make its own foreign policy signals a deeply troubling trend. Presidents often rescind their predecessors’ decisions. George Bush and Donald Trump withdrew America’s representation on the flagrantly anti-Israel UN Human Rights Council and Barack Obama and Joe Biden restored it. Trump nullified Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran and Biden tried to revive it. But the negation by the and large parts of the public of a formal White House policy poses far greater challenges. More than Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, at stake is the legitimacy of presidential decisions.

Those challenges will certainly mount under the incoming administration. Much of the controversy will center, once again, on the Middle East. President Trump has selected Secretaries of State and Defense, a National Security Advisor, and ambassadors to Israel and the UN, whose outlook on the region sharply diverges from that of the previous policymakers. While the Biden administration sought to limit Israel’s ability to defend itself, condemned Israeli settlement-building in the West Bank, and supported the creation of a Palestinian state that the vast majority of Israelis opposed, the Trump team believes that Israel should fight as it sees fit, calls the settlements communities and the West Bank by its Biblical name, Judea and Samaria. And though President Trump’s 2020 peace plan provided for a Palestinian state, those soon to be forging US foreign policy will undoubtedly oppose the establishment of any Palestinian entity bound to quickly fail and fall to Hamas. The Biden White House refused to stand up to Iran in any significant way and tried to appease it back to the negotiating table. In complete contrast, Trump’s senior staff will work to thoroughly isolate and weaken Iran. Should it ever come back to the table, it will do so begging for a deal.

All of this, of course, is good news for the majority of Israelis. Many dubbed Trump’s selection of Secretary Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, and Ambassadors Elise Stefanik and Mike Huckabee, the “Dream Team.” The Iranian regime promptly told that team it was no longer planning to attack Israel and was willing to negotiate with Trump. The restoration of trust in the relations between the United States and Israel, and fear among our common enemies, holds out the promise of unprecedented stability in the Middle East, the conclusion of wars, and the expansion of existing peace treaties. But will it last?


Int’l Criminal Court issues arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant
‘Geopolitical bombshell’
“It’s a geopolitical bombshell. It’s the first time the court has issued arrest warrants against a Western country and also the first time that they are issuing arrest warrants when there’s no jurisdiction in the case, but they’ve invented it for themselves,” NGO Monitor legal advisor Anne Herzberg told JNS, adding that it was “outrageous.”

Based in Jerusalem, NGO Monitor is a pro-Israel research institute that scrutinizes non-governmental organizations claiming to be advancing human rights agendas.

Herzberg said that the ICC’s decision should be placed in a political context given the results of the recent U.S. election, which put skeptical Republicans in charge of the executive and legislative branches of government.

“Clearly, I believe the court acted because they know the Trump administration’s coming in a few weeks and it’s going to have an incredibly hostile stance toward the court,” she said, noting that Senate leaders had issued a statement on Wednesday to the effect that they were considering sanctions against the court.

“So I’m sure they’re trying to get as much done [as possible] before Trump takes over. So I think we have to look at it in those respects,” said Herzberg, who co-authored an amicus submission to the ICC in the prosecutor’s case against Netanyahu and Gallant.

She said the decision must also be examined in terms of its potential consequences for the 101 hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza.

“Is this going to make a hostage deal now even more unlikely? Because again, putting all the pressure on Israel, there’s no pressure on the other side, there’s no pressure on Iran, nothing happens to these countries, to Iran, to Qatar, for supporting Hamas. And they’re placing all the blame on Israel. So again … we see these international institutions that are basically enabling a terror war against Israel,” she said.

While stressing that it is not likely that Netanyahu and Gallant will actually be arrested, the warrants have severe implications because the two men won’t be able to travel to Europe for fear of arrest.

“Not only does this have importance for [Israel’s] national security, but it also … for NATO, because you can’t have in-person meetings now. And even if these countries, you know, hate [Netanyahu] and are anti-Israel, they have to start thinking about what the implications are for their campaigns against Russia or China if you can’t have Israeli security cooperation in person,” Herzberg told JNS.

“And I think the other big implication is that other individuals that are involved in the Israeli government or the Israel Defense Forces are also now going to be limited in where they can travel because a lot of times there are requests made for warrants that aren’t made public in advance. So it could be there are other individuals the prosecutor asked to indict, and so we don’t know now what the outcome of that is or other people they’re considering. So this is not only hampering, again, Israel’s national security interests, they are interfering with the national security of the entire Western world,” she added.

Eugene Kontorovich, professor at the George Mason University Scalia Law School, and director of the international law department at the Kohelet Policy Forum, a Jerusalem think tank, told JNS: “An illegitimate court issued arrest warrants against a non-state member, on behalf of a non-existent state, for fake crimes based on unsubstantiated reports.

“To give it a veneer of ‘even-handedness,’ the court issued a warrant against an arch-terrorist eliminated four months ago,” he added.

“It’s time for Israel to pass an act barring all cooperation with the ICC and sanction Israeli organizations that pass information to the Court. Israel’s allies should sanction this illegitimate court,” Kontorovich said.

Avi Bell, a law professor at the University of San Diego and Bar-Ilan University, told JNS: “This is the culmination of a 15-year process, a collaboration between the ICC and the PLO [Palestinian Liberation Organization] to bring up Israelis on fake charges. And the only reason I hesitate saying the word ‘culmination’ is because it’s not the end. They’re going to keep going and bringing further charges against more Israelis as we go along.”

It has nothing to do with legal developments, but only political ones, that is, the court wants to have “Jewish Israeli defendants,” Bell said.

He noted that the court’s timing was peculiar, given that the ICC prosecutor is accused of sexual misconduct and trying to suppress those claims, and Israel questioning the impartiality of an incoming judge on the panel, who came from the prosecutor’s office.

Bell suggested the decision to push ahead with the indictments might have to do with the victory of President Donald Trump, or it could be connected to the fact that the ICC is eager to appear impartial and knows there’s a limited timeframe in which it can use Deif as a fig leaf, given that he is likely dead. Bell noted that Hamas, in fact, admitted Deif died two weeks ago.

As to what Israel can do, Bell said that the strategy should be one of total non-cooperation and that one of the reasons it’s in “this mess” is that it has not followed that strategy.

“It has to pass the equivalent of the American what critics call the Hague Invasion Act [formally the American Service-Members’ Protection Act],” Bell said.

In other words, Israel should not only forbid cooperation with the court but threaten “to liberate any Israeli, who is taken into custody by force, if necessary,” and to define collaboration with the ICC as collaborating with attempted kidnapping “and to punish it criminally.”

“Israel should be very, very aggressive in its moves against the court. It should have been very aggressive years ago,” Bell said.

According to a JNS poll, 84% of Israelis believe that the ICC is a political body, not a legal one. Twelve percent disagreed, while 5% had no opinion.
NY Post Editorial: ICC fake charges against Netanyahu and Gallant prove US must never recognize the court
The latest outrage from the International Criminal Court: arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

International Kangaroo Court is more like it, and one more reminder why the United States should never recognize the ICC.

The warrants come over utterly false charges of “crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024.”

That’s antisemite for “waging a humane and justified counterattack against genocidal butchers” — note the start date and that poisonous “at least.”

The charges refer specifically to “the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.”
'You Can Expect a Strong Response': Republicans, Weeks Away From a Trifecta, Ready ICC Sanctions Following Bibi Arrest Warrant
The International Criminal Court's decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister sparked a flurry of promises from Republican leaders to sanction the court and erode its legitimacy on the world stage.

The GOP-controlled House passed a bill earlier this year that would do just that, though Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) blocked it from coming to a vote in the upper chamber. In a matter of weeks, however, Schumer will be in the minority—and Republicans will control both the House and the executive branch. Incoming GOP leaders in the House, Senate, and White House made clear that, come January, the ICC will face sanctions and other punitive measures.

"The ICC has no credibility and these allegations have been refuted by the U.S. government," Rep. Michael Waltz (R., Fla.), President-elect Donald Trump's incoming national security adviser, said in reference to the court's determination that Netanyahu and former Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant are guilty of war crimes. "Israel has lawfully defended its people & borders from genocidal terrorists. You can expect a strong response to the antisemitic bias of the ICC & UN come January."

House majority whip Tom Emmer (R., Minn.) echoed Waltz, telling the Washington Free Beacon that Republicans in the lower chamber "will continue doing everything in our power to combat this pro-terrorist, illegitimate court."

"House Republicans passed bipartisan legislation five months ago to sanction the ICC for unlawfully targeting our ally, yet it has done nothing but collect dust on Chuck Schumer's desk," Emmer said.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) also took aim at Schumer. "It is time for the U.S. Senate to act and sanction this irresponsible body," he said. "Now."

Following months of debate, the ICC determined that Israel has intentionally starved Palestinians in the war-torn Gaza Strip during its yearlong war to eradicate Hamas. The charges carry little legal weight, as the United States and Israel are not members of the court.

It's unlikely that an ICC sanctions bill will land on President Joe Biden's desk before the octogenarian leaves office. Whether such a bill passes this year or in January, however, it will do so with bipartisan support. Sen. John Fetterman (Pa.), often the lone Democratic voice defending Israel from international persecution, categorically rejected the ICC's charges, indicating that the next Senate's Republican majority will have at least one ally in its fight against the court.


US rejects ICC's Netanyahu warrant, Hamas celebrates as reactions pour in
The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant on Thursday afternoon, eliciting global uproar following the move.

The United States rejected a decision by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue arrest warrants on Thursday for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense chief, a White House National Security Council spokesperson said.

"The United States fundamentally rejects the Court’s decision to issue arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials. We remain deeply concerned by the Prosecutor’s rush to seek arrest warrants and the troubling process errors that led to this decision," the spokesperson said, adding the US is discussing next steps with its partners.
World split over Netanyahu, Gallant arrest warrants, as some in EU vow to uphold them
In the hours after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant on Thursday, European officials said they were prepared to obey the decision. American lawmakers panned it, calling to sanction the court instead.

The decision to issue the warrants, granted unanimously on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes during Israel’s campaign against the Hamas terror group in Gaza, marked the first time the ICC has ever issued arrest warrants against leaders of a democratic country.

Both Netanyahu and Gallant will be liable for arrest if they travel to any of the more than 120 countries that are party to the ICC. The court also issued an arrest warrant for slain Hamas military leader Mohammad Deif, noting it could not confirm his death.

The EU’s outgoing foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said Thursday that the decision was not a political one but made by a court and thus should be respected and implemented, writing on X, “These decisions are binding on all States party to the Rome Statute, which includes all EU Member States.”

The Netherlands’ foreign minister Caspar Veldkamp said his country was prepared to act upon the warrants, Dutch news agency ANP reported. Veldkamp was expected to visit Israel on Friday.

Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris, in a statement, said that “Ireland respects the role of the International Criminal Court. Anyone in a position to assist it in carrying out its vital work must now do so with urgency.”

Harris’s statement also called for “an immediate ceasefire, release of all hostages, and unhindered access for humanitarian aid in Gaza,” calling the situation in the enclave “an affront to humanity.”

France’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Christophe Lemoine said the French reaction to the warrants would be “in line with ICC statutes” but declined to say whether France would arrest the leaders if they came to the country. “It’s a point that is legally complex,” he said.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani likewise hedged his response, saying, “We support the ICC, while always remembering that the court must play a legal role and not a political role. We will evaluate together with our allies what to do and how to interpret this decision.”

The foreign ministers of Sweden and Norway both expressed confidence in the court, but did not say explicitly whether they would execute the arrest warrant if in a position to.
ICC warrants unlikely to lead to trial but likely to block Netanyahu travel
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s travel options will be much narrower after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for him and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, but there are unlikely to be other practical ramifications, experts said shortly after the issuance of the warrants was announced on Thursday.

Still, an Israeli official dealing with the implications to Israel in international courts called the warrants “unprecedented challenges.”

The immediate implication of the warrants is that the 124 countries that are party to the ICC, including much of Europe, are able to arrest Netanyahu and Gallant if they visit.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s office said earlier this year that, should Netanyahu visit and the ICC issue an arrest warrant, Berlin would arrest and deport him. Soon after this year’s election in the U.K., the new Labour-led government dropped London’s objection to the ICC prosecutor’s request for warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant.

Netanyahu could, however, travel to the U.S., India, Russia and China, among other countries that are not party to the Rome Statute establishing the ICC.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s situation after an arrest warrant was issued for him in March 2023 could be indicative of the future that awaits Netanyahu. The full details of his warrant, like Netanyahu and Gallant’s, have been kept confidential, and it has not been referred to the U.N. Security Council.
Netanyahu slams ICC warrants as ‘modern-day Dreyfus trial’
The following statement was released by the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office in response to the issuing on Thursday of arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant by the International Criminal Court:

The antisemitic decision of the International Criminal Court is a modern Dreyfus trial—and will end the same way.

Israel utterly rejects the false and absurd charges of the International Criminal Court, a biased and discriminatory political body.

No war is more just than the war Israel has been waging in Gaza since October 7th, 2023, when the Hamas terrorist organization launched a murderous assault and perpetrated the largest massacre against the Jewish people since the Holocaust.

The decision to issue an arrest warrant against the prime minister was made by a corrupt chief prosecutor who is trying to save himself from sexual harassment accusations and biased judges who are motivated by antisemitic hatred of Israel.

The ICC prosecutor lied when he told American senators that he would take no action until he had visited Israel and heard its side.

Instead, he canceled his arrival in Israel last May, several days after suspicions of sexual harassment were made against him, and announced his intention to issue arrest warrants against the prime minister and former defense minister.

No anti-Israel decision will prevent the State of Israel from defending its citizens.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not give in to pressure. He will continue to pursue all the objectives that Israel set out to achieve in its just war against Hamas and the Iranian axis of terror.


Commentary PodCast: Jews in the Crosshairs Anew
The news that the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant came the same day that 19 Democrats voted to embargo "offensive weaponry" to Israel—and a former Israeli cabinet minister was denied entry to a conference in Australia because her very presence might be "disruptive." The war against Jews is relentless and ever-morphing, and there is going to be pushback.


Trump’s nominee for security advisor vows ‘strong response’ to ICC
The incoming Trump administration’s nominee for national security advisor dismissed international arrest warrants issued on Thursday against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and promised a “strong response” in January.

The International Criminal Court, which issued the warrants against Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, “has no credibility, and these allegations have been refuted by the U.S. government,” wrote Mike Waltz, whom President-elect Donald Trump nominated last week to serve as National Security Adviser.

“Israel has lawfully defended its people and borders from genocidal terrorists. You can expect a strong response to the antisemitic bias of the ICC & UN come January,” Waltz, a Republican congressman from Florida, wrote on X.

The Department of State did not immediately issue a statement about the decision to issue an arrest warrant against the Israel leaders.


Israeli politicians condemn ICC warrants against Netanyahu, Gallant
Israeli politicians from across the political spectrum condemned the International Criminal Court’s decision on Thursday to issue arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said the warrants mean that the ICC has “lost all legitimacy for its existence and activity,” as “it acted as a political instrument [wielded by] the most radical forces working to undermine peace, security and stability in the Middle East.”

The warrants are “in fact an attack on Israel’s right to defend itself,” he wrote, calling on “all decent countries and people” to reject them.

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, a harsh critic of Netanyahu, tweeted: “I condemned the decision of the court in The Hague. Israel is defending its existence from terrorist groups that attacked, murdered and raped out citizens. These arrest warrants are a prize for terrorism.”

The court in The Hague announced on Thursday it would act on the recommendation of prosecutor Karim Khan to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant and Hamas leader Mohammed Deif, who is dead according to the Israeli military.

Amir Ohana, speaker of the Knesset and a top member of Netanyahu’s Likud Party, wrote: “Targeting the democratically elected leaders of Israel, the Middle East’s only democracy and the world’s only Jewish state, is nothing short of an assault on justice, truth and the universal right of self-defense.”

Education Minister Yoav Kisch wrote that the decision “will deter neither us nor the State of Israel from striking its enemies without hesitation until a total victory.”

Benny Gantz, another prominent opposition leader, called the ICC’s decision “moral blindness and a shameful stain of historic proportions that will never be forgotten.”

Yair Golan, the leader of the Democrats Party—perhaps the most left-of-center of the Zionist political parties in Israel—wrote that the decision was “shameful,” adding: “Israel has always had and will always have the right to defend itself from our enemies.”

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett, a right-wing critic of Netanyahu, wrote: “Israel is fighting … the most just of wars against pure evil. All Israelis, left and right, stand behind the war, whose goals are to release the kidnapped Israelis, demolish Hamas and restore security to Israel. Shame on ICC.”


Herzog: ICC decision a ‘dark day for justice’
Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Thursday harshly criticized the International Criminal Court’s decision to issue arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes.

“This is a dark day for justice. A dark day for humanity. Taken in bad faith, the outrageous decision at the ICC has turned universal justice into a universal laughingstock. It makes a mockery of the sacrifice of all those who fight for justice—from the Allied victory over the Nazis until today,” said Herzog.

“It ignores the plight of the 101 Israeli hostages held in brutal captivity by Hamas in Gaza. It ignores Hamas’s cynical use of its own people as human shields. It ignores the basic fact that Israel was barbarically attacked and has the duty and right to defend its people. It ignores the fact that Israel is a vibrant democracy, acting under international humanitarian law and going to great lengths to provide for the humanitarian needs of the civilian population,” continued the president.

“Indeed, the decision has chosen the side of terror and evil over democracy and freedom, and turned the very system of justice into a human shield for Hamas’s crimes against humanity.

“This cynical exploitation of the international legal institutions reminds us once again of the need for true moral clarity in the face of an Iranian empire of evil that seeks to destabilize our region and the world, and destroy the very institutions of the free world.”


Gallant: ICC arrest warrants legitimize murder and rape
Former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant slammed the International Criminal Court’s decision to greenlight arrest warrants against him and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, accusing the tribunal in The Hague of encouraging terrorism and murder.

“The ICC’s outrageous decision will live in infamy,” said Gallant, who now serves as a lawmaker for Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party after being dismissed as defense minister on Nov. 5.

“It places the State of Israel and the brutal terrorist organization Hamas in the same equation. Today’s decision legitimizes and rewards the murder, rape and kidnapping of Israeli children, women, and men,” Gallant wrote on X.

Gallant added, “The State of Israel will not be deterred—long gone are the days when the nation of Israel could not defend itself. The IDF will continue fighting to achieve the goals of this war: Dismantling Hamas, ensuring the return of the hostages, and enabling Israel’s northern communities to return to their homes.”

The former Israeli defense minister concluded his statement by saying he was “proud of the extraordinary privilege I had in leading Israel’s defense establishment during our hardest hour.”


ICC Arrest Warrents Reward the Axis of Evil that Blatantly Violates International Law
The International Criminal Court in The Hague has lost all legitimacy for its existence and activity. It acted as a political tool in the service of the most extreme elements working to undermine peace, security, and stability in the Middle East. These absurd warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Galant are not merely personal attacks against them. In essence, they are an assault on Israel's right to defend itself.

This is an attack on the most threatened and targeted nation in the world - also the only country in the region openly called for and acted against by other nations seeking its destruction. From a moral perspective, this represents a moral eclipse that turns good into evil and serves the forces of evil.

From a political perspective, issuing warrants against a state that operates in accordance with international law is a reward and encouragement for the axis of evil, which blatantly and consistently violates it. Decent nations and every moral person in the world must unequivocally reject this injustice.


Senate Shoots Down Bernie's Attempted Arms Embargo on Israel
Senate Democrats failed on Wednesday to implement an arms embargo on Israel, with the upper chamber swatting away three measures led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.).

Lawmakers voted overwhelmingly against three separate disapproval resolutions that called for an immediate pause on American arms sales to Israel and accused the United States of supporting mass war crimes in the Gaza Strip. While Sanders received support from some leading Democrats, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), Republicans and other Democrats rejected the measures.

A Sanders-led resolution to block tank cartridges from Israel, for example, failed by a 79 to 18 margin, with the following Democrats voting in favor: Sanders, Warren, Illinois's Dick Durbin, Virginia's Tim Kaine, Maryland's Chris Van Hollen, Oregon's Jeff Merkley, Vermont's Peter Welch, Georgia's Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, Connecticut's Chris Murphy, Minnesota's Tina Smith, New Hampshire's Jeanne Shaheen, New Mexico's Ben Ray Lujan and Martin Heinrich, Hawaii's Mazie Hirono and Brian Schatz, Massachusetts's Ed Markey, and Maine's Angus King. Sanders's other resolutions, which targeted mortar rounds and smart bombs, failed by similar margins.

Sanders and a cohort of his Democratic colleagues—Van Hollen, Merkley (D., Ore.), and Welch (D., Vt.)—launched the eleventh-hour attempt to kneecap Israel on Tuesday, though the effort was largely symbolic. The anti-Israel coalition emphasizes the growing fissures in the Democratic Party over support for Israel and its war to eliminate terrorists.

The Arms Control Export Act, which governs foreign arms sales, gives Congress a mechanism to block arms sales if both the House and Senate pass disapproval resolutions. In the case of Sanders's resolution, however, the deadline to do so had passed.

Sanders railed against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a floor speech in support of his arms embargo, saying the foreign leader’s "extremist government has not simply waged war against Hamas; it has waged an all out war against the Palestinian people."
Nineteen Senate Democrats vote to block U.S. aid to Israel
A total of 19 Senate Democrats voted to advance some or all of a series of three resolutions led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) seeking to block transfers of several types of weaponry to Israel.

The resolutions were never expected to pass, but the results reflect growing Democratic opposition to and division over U.S. support for Israel a year after Oct. 7, prior to which such a result would have been nearly unimaginable.

It will likely cause concern in the pro-Israel world about the future ideological direction of the Democratic party, though a handful of lawmakers who’d been vocally critical of Israel’s operations ultimately voted against the measures.

The Biden White House, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and various mainstream Jewish groups strongly opposed the resolutions, while J Street and other left-wing Jewish groups supported them.

The three resolutions pertained to transfers of tank rounds, mortar shells and guidance kits for bombs, known as joint direct attack munitions or JDAMs. None of the transfers are set to arrive in Israel for at least a year, meaning they would have no impact on Israel’s current stockpiles.

Sens. Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Angus King (I-ME), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Tina Smith (D-MN), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Peter Welch (D-VT), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM), Rafael Warnock (D-GA) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) voted in favor of all three resolutions.

Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) voted in favor of two, regarding the tank rounds and mortar shells, but against the JDAMs resolution. Appointed Sen. George Helmy (D-NJ) voted in favor of the resolution on the mortar shells, but against the other two.

Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), who just won a close re-election contest, voted present on all three.

Shaheen’s vote will likely be particularly concerning to supporters of Israel given that she’s set to become the Democratic ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in January, and would become the chair next time Democrats regain the Senate majority.

“For months I have expressed my concern about the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza and continued to push for a ceasefire that ends the human suffering and brings home the remaining hostages,” Shaheen said in a statement. “While I will continue to support Israel’s ability to defend itself from terrorist attacks, I voted in favor of the Joint Resolutions today because I believe the Netanyahu government needs to change course on the conduct of the war in Gaza.”

Durbin is the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate and also chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, making his vote similarly noteworthy.

“This war must end,” Durbin said in a statement after the vote. “Israel’s strategy of deadly attacks on and near civilian populations must end as well. The United States should not be sending arms and ammunition that continue to take the lives of innocent people. It is time for real humanitarian aid to reach the Palestinian people. I will stand by Israel, but I will not support the devastation of Gaza and the deaths of thousands of innocent Palestinians.”
Jewish groups laud Senate’s rejection of Sanders’s bid to block Israel aid
Jewish groups applauded the Senate’s decision on Wednesday night to reject a bid by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to block weapon sales to Israel.

The Senate voted 18-79 against a resolution blocking the sale of tank rounds, 19-78 against a resolution barring the sale of high-explosive mortar rounds and 17-80 against a resolution banning the sale of joint direct attack munitions, CNN reported.

“AIPAC commends the U.S. Senate for standing with Israel and overwhelmingly rejecting proposed bans on critical weapons sales to the Jewish state as it fights to protect its families from Iran and its terrorist proxies,” the pro-Israel group stated. “We applaud the Biden administration for approving these sales and helping ensure Israel has the resources it needs to win.”

AIPAC added that most Senate Democrats and Republicans “again demonstrated profound American support for our ally and rejected the dangerous efforts” of Sanders “and his allies to weaken Israel and undermine the U.S.-Israel relationship.”

“The Jewish state is on the front lines of the fight against common enemies. These arms sales help strengthen our ally, deter further Iranian aggression and create American jobs,” AIPAC said. “America must continue to stand with our democratic ally as Iran continues to escalate its seven-front war and its proxy holds 101 hostages, including 7 Americans.”
Jonathan Tobin: Israel-bashers lose votes but gain ground among Democrats
As is usually the case with election loss post-mortems, Democrats were quick to form a circular firing squad as both moderates and leftists sought to assign blame for Harris’s loss on their intra-party rivals, the candidate herself, Biden and anyone else they could think of.

Centrists want the party to free itself of the burden of defending radical ideologies like gender theory, critical race theory and intersectionality. Along with the party’s shift towards being the home of credentialed elites and its contempt for the working class, these toxic ideas have done much to tarnish the Democratic brand.

Left-wingers have spent the weeks since the election not just mourning Trump’s victory but accusing the half of the country that voted for him of being fascists, racists and misogynists. They want to double down on ideology, and blame Biden and Harris for being too centrist. In particular, they believe that the ambivalent policy towards Israel’s war on Islamist terrorists alienated young voters and others who might have turned out to support a party that embraced the Palestinian myth about Gaza genocide, Israeli war crimes and many other related issues.

This is deeply foolish since there were always more pro-Israel votes in the center to be lost by Harris’s inability to fully condemn the pro-Hamas mobs than on the antisemitic left, where left-wing extremists and Muslim Americans were demanding a more anti-Israel stand.

The logic of American politics dictates that Democrats will return to power when they shuck off the yoke of radicals. Doing otherwise is political malpractice and a gift to a GOP now faced with the challenge of governing. As Democrats face four years of a Trump 2.0 administration that is as pro-Israel as his first, the temptation to oppose everything he does may well shift even more in the party to the left as well as bolster the ranks of anti-Israel progressives.

For now, at least, in the halls of the United Nations and Congress, Israel can still count on some support from Democrats. But if a bipartisan pro-Israel consensus is increasingly a thing of the past, the threat comes almost entirely from a growing left-wing faction of the Democrats. The fate of that party, in addition to hopes to maintain support for the Jewish state on both sides of the aisle, may well hang on whether Israel-bashers continue to gain ground or are banished by responsible Democrats to the fever swamps of the far left, where they belong.
Dem Rep. Jared Moskowitz slams ‘dozens of members’ of his own party over antisemitism: : You ‘don’t get a pass’
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) slammed the “dozens of members” of his party who have engaged in antisemitism and said Democrats “don’t get a pass” when it comes to bigotry against Jews.

“I’ve been angry, and I think the Jewish community should be angry,” the Florida rep said in a forceful speech while accepting the “Ray of Light in Darkness” award from the Israel advocacy org EMET at DC’s Grand Hyatt Hotel on Tuesday evening.

Moskowitz has personally dealt with antisemitism. Earlier this month, he revealed that an armed maniac with a manifesto containing “antisemitic rhetoric” and the 43-year-old’s name on a “target list” was arrested near his home.

Moreover, his grandmother is a Holocaust survivor whose parents were killed in Auschwitz.

“She’s one of those children you read about. She told me about things that seemed unbelievable … never did I think that we would see some of those same currents and themes,” Moskowitz lamented during his speech.

Since Hamas’ barbaric Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that saw 1,200 people murdered, 254 taken captive and thousands injured, the US has seen a surge in antisemitic hate crimes and Jewish students have been harassed and intimidated on college campuses by their anti-Israel classmates.

The Florida congressman bashed his left-wing colleagues for turning a blind eye to the plight of the Jewish community.

He ripped in particular his “progressive colleagues who’ve fought for every endangered species but when it came to Jews they were silent.”


Right-wing, Squad members vote against State Department global antisemitism guidelines
Twenty-one House members, most of them coming from the right wing of the Republican Conference, joined by three members of the progressive Squad, voted against a resolution that expressed support for the State Department’s global guidelines on combating antisemitism.

The guidelines, released by the State Department and dozens of international partners, make nonbinding recommendations for how governments around the world can counter antisemitism, including adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism.

The resolution, led by Reps. Kathy Manning (D-NC) and Chris Smith (R-NJ), the co-chairs of the House antisemitism task force, condemns global antisemitism, praises the global guidelines and urges states and international organizations to combat antisemitism and embrace the guidelines. It passed 388-21.

On the right, Reps. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), Thomas Massie (R-KY), Chip Roy (R-TX), Harriet Hageman (R-WY), Bob Good (R-VA), Ronny Jackson (R-TX), Andrew Clyde (R-GA), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Eric Burlison (R-MO), Michael Cloud (R-TX), Clay Higgins (R-LA), Josh Brecheen (R-OK), Wesley Hunt (R-TX), Ryan Zinke (R-WY), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Diana Harshbarger (R-TN) and Eli Crane (R-AZ) voted no.

From the left, Reps. Cori Bush (D-MO), Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) opposed the resolution.

In a statement, Tlaib said she opposed the resolution because of its support for the IHRA definition, “which dangerously conflates criticism of Israel with antisemitism” and “does not recognize that the fight against antisemitism is connected to our fight against Islamophobia, racism, white nationalism, and all other forms of hate.”

Omar similarly expressed opposition to IHRA and said the resolution “does nothing to combat antisemitism” and said she would “continue to stand against any attempt to silence genuine concerns of the Israeli government as antisemitism.”

Some Republicans have also opposed the IHRA definition because one of its associated examples states that it is antisemitic to say that Jews are responsible for killing Jesus — something that some GOP lawmakers have claimed is part of Christian scripture — and due to concerns about free speech.


The UNRWA Funding Anomaly
The continued funding of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) by the U.S. and European countries serves as an obstacle to achieving a negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There is mounting evidence of UNRWA's infiltration by Palestinian terrorist organizations and its contribution to the radicalization of the "Palestinian refugees."

Based on UNRWA's annual financial reports, 64% of UNRWA's funding came from European countries, 26% came from the U.S., and only 10% was sourced in Arab countries. The Palestinian leadership sees the continued financial support for UNRWA as an expression of U.S. and European acceptance of their political stance.

During President Trump's first term, his administration halted all U.S. funding to the agency. During the Biden administration, the number of UNRWA refugees grew by 346,130 people. If the U.S. and European countries are genuinely committed to a political solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and since it is unreasonable that Israel will ever agree to commit "national suicide" and acquiesce to Palestinian demands, the Western countries must reconsider their approach to endlessly funding UNRWA, thereby fundamentally undermining any real potential of achieving their goal of peace.
UNRWA officials tell Hamas, PIJ 'we are one' in secret Lebanon meeting
Former UNRWA commissioner general Pierre Krahenbuhl met with leaders of designated Palestinian terrorist organizations during his term, assuring them that “we are one” and “no one can separate us,” as published on a UN Watch expose.

According to the expose, the meeting took place in Beirut in February 2017, with participants including, in addition to Krahenbuhl and UNRWA Chief in Lebanon Hakam Shawan, Ali Baraka from Hamas, Abu Imad Al-Rifai from the Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Salah Al-Youssef from the PFLP, as well as other representatives from different Palestinian factions such as the DFLP, the PFLP – Central Command, and Fatah Al-Intifada.

Hamas leader Ali Baraka, who oversaw the terror organizaiton’s foreign relations with the regimes in Tehran and Syria, was recently designated by the US for his role in Hamas. Likewise, Abu Imad al-Rifai, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad's leader from Lebanon, had previously boasted about dispatching suicide bombers to Baghdad to target American and British military personnel. Meetings held secretly

Strikingly, Krahenbuhl appeared to have been completely aware that such meetings were problematic, as according to UN Watch’s expose, he warned those present to maintain their discussions out of the public sphere, so as to avoid a “challenge” to their “credibility”, as well as “lead to a loss between donor countries and UNRWA, which might result in reduced or even halted funding.”

During these clandestine discussions, Krahenbuhl explicitly emphasized a "spirit of partnership" with those present in the room, and encouraged them to challenge UNRWA's decisions privately, promising potential modifications or complete reversals of decisions. In his own words, Krahenbuhl advocated for a mutual partnership, inviting terrorist representatives to critique UNRWA's decisions freely. He suggested they could meet "a thousand times" to discuss concerns, with the potential to alter or completely rescind existing policies.

“Your cooperation with us in security matters and your commitment to not closing UNRWA institutions, facilities, schools, or offices also completes this partnership,” said the UNRWA official to the leaders of Palestinian terrorist organizations, concluding by saying “If we can achieve this, it means we are united, and no one can separate us.”

These documents provide a stark insight into the complex and controversial interactions between UNRWA leadership and organizations designated as terrorist groups by multiple international entities.


Call Me Back PodCast: Ending the Lebanon War – with Nadav Eyal
Hosted by Dan Senor On an almost daily basis, Hezbollah fires hundreds of missiles and rockets into Israel’s North. And yet there seems to be progress being made in negotiations towards a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

If we are approaching a deal, what does it look like? How will it be enforced? What are the political forces shaping the deal – in Jerusalem, in Tehran, and in Washington D.C., as the U.S. transitions to a new administration?

And, crucially, how many of the some 60,000 Israelis who were evacuated from the north over a year ago will be able to return to their homes?

To help us understand what’s going on here, we are once again joined by Call Me Back regular Nadav Eyal.

Nadav Eyal is a columnist for Yediiot. He is one of Israel’s leading journalists. Eyal has been covering Middle-Eastern and international politics for the last two decades for Israeli radio, print and television news.


IDF names soldier killed alongside civilian in Lebanon
The Israel Defense Forces on Thursday morning identified the soldier killed in Southern Lebanon on Wednesday alongside a civilian researcher as Sgt. Gur Kehati, 20, of the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion, from Nir Banim.

He was killed alongside Maj. (res.) Ze’ev Erlich, 71, a renowned scholar and archaeological expert. According to Israel’s Kan News public broadcaster, Erlich had entered Lebanon as a civilian alongside IDF soldiers.

The Hezbollah attack was said to have taken place at a historic fortress roughly four miles from the Jewish state’s northern border. According to Channel 12‘s Amit Segal, who grew up with Erlich in Ofra, he was shot at the Shrine of the Prophet Shimon in the village of Shama.

Though Erlich was not active in reserve service, the IDF’s Personnel Directorate has reportedly decided to recognize him as a fallen soldier.

A military official told JNS on Wednesday night that the circumstances surrounding his entry into Lebanon were being probed by the army.

“We are shocked by [Erlich’s] departure,” said Binyamin Regional Council head Israel Ganz, describing him as “a man whose name was a symbol for knowledge and love of the land” and one of the founders of Ofra.

The Yesha Council, which represents the interests of the some 500,000 Israelis living in Judea and Samaria, eulogized the slain researcher as “one of the pillars of the settlement [movement] and the forefathers of the study of geography, archeology and Jewish history in Judea and Samaria.”


Anti-Israel vandals target Sydney suburb
NSW Premier Chris Minns has labelled overnight anti-Israel vandalism in Sydney’s Woollahra “absolutely deplorable”.

Up to a dozen cars were vandalised, a vehicle was set alight, and buildings were defaced with anti-Israel graffiti in leafy Wellington Street, Woollahra, with the defacement extending to nearby Ocean Street, where the upmarket restaurant Chiswick was also daubed with offensive slogans.

Labelling it an “antisemitic attack”, Minns said the vandalism “is unacceptable, unAustralian, and it will not be tolerated”.

“The NSW Police have stood up Strike Force Mylor to investigate those who participated in this disgraceful behaviour,” Minns said.

“The Jewish community is an integral part of the wider NSW community and we are completely committed to ensuring the safety and security of Jewish people in NSW.”

In a rare joint press conference on Thursday afternoon, Labor Member for Macnamara and Liberal Senator Dave Sharma stood united in condemning the incidents.

“The vandalism and the violence we saw in the eastern suburbs of Sydney overnight needs to be rightfully condemned. They have no place in modern Australia,” Burns said.

“I understand people have strong views about conflicts right around the world, including the Middle East, but to target Jewish people in Australia is not a legitimate form of political discussion … [it] is antisemitism plain and simple.

“I also want to say that I’m really pleased to be standing here with Dave. This is above politics. This is about the sort of country that we want to see together.”

Sharma said, “This is an attack that’s designed to menace, intimidate and silence one group of Australians only. This community of Australians, Jewish Australians, have been feeling besieged and under threat for the past year, and it simply has to stop.

“It’s an attack, as Josh said, on the values and the social compact that holds us all together as Australians.”
Celebrity chef's restaurant, cars and a unit block are sprayed with anti-Israel graffiti and set on fire in shocking attack in Sydney's eastern suburbs
Celebrity chef Matt Moran's Chiswick restaurant has been vandalised with anti-Israel slurs overnight along with several cars in the same exclusive Sydney suburb, one of which was set on fire.

Emergency services were called to the car fire on Wellington Street in Woollahra about 12.35am on Thursday.

Fire and Rescue NSW extinguished the fire but police then found up to a dozen cars graffitied with anti-Israel messages.

Multiple cars were covered in white spray paint that read 'f**k Israel'.

The cars had been parked along Wellington Steet, Tara Street, Fullerton Street and Ocean Street. The door of a unit complex in Ocean Street was also spray painted with the anti-Israel slogans.

Chiswick is co-owned by Mr Moran and Elliot Solomon, the Jewish CEO of Solotel Group.

The letters 'PKK' were also seen on multiple cars and the windows of Chiswick.

PKK could refer to the Kurdistan Workers' Party which some countries, including Australia, have designated a terrorist organisation.

It is understood the Emanuel Synagogue, located just up the road on Ocean St, is reviewing its security in the aftermath of the vandalism.

The Wolper Jewish Hospital is also located nearby as are the consulates of Turkey, Russia, Poland and Serbia.

Mr Moran said it would be business as usual for Chiswick after his team spent Thursday morning on a clean up.

'It's incredibly disappointing to see this amount of vandalism,' Mr Moran told Daily Mail Australia.

'There's no place for it in the community and we're co-operating with the relevant authorities in their investigation.'


John Howard delivers rousing speech condemning antisemitic attack
Former prime minister John Howard has condemned the "demonstration of naked anti-Semitism" seen on the streets of Woollahra overnight, saying he wished more had been done to denounce anti-Semitism in the wake of the October 7 massacre.

Mr Howard, speaking at the Jewish House gala dinner on Thursday night, said he was "angry and disgusted" to hear a car had been torched and multiple buildings vandalised by horrendous anti-Semitic slurs in the eastern Sydney suburb.

"I just wish more had been done in the aftermath of those terrible events of the 7th of October 2023 to denounce anti-Semitism," he told the audience.

"Because people respond to leadership on these issues and in many areas it was not provided."


‘Deeply upsetting’ the government has let antisemitism persist
Executive Council of Australian Jewry Co-Chief Executive Alex Ryvchin discusses the “deeply upsetting” antisemitism still persisting in Australia.

A densely Jewish-populated Sydney suburb was the centre of an anti-Israel attack on Thursday morning, with a car set on fire and other vehicles and properties vandalised with slurs.

“There’s a sense that we’ve allowed it to come to this,” Mr Ryvchin told Sky News host Peta Credlin.

“As a result, these extremists, these fanatics, these degenerates have a role in our lives – they determine whether we can freely walk in the CBD on weekends … and now this.


‘Weak’ Albanese government must take ‘stronger action’ against antisemitism
Sky News host Chris Kenny urges the “weak” Albanese government to take “stronger action” against antisemitism in Australia.

“At every step along the way, the Anthony Albanese Labor government has been too weak,” Mr Kenny said.

“I think our state governments and state police forces should’ve done more.

“If this stuff is escalating, we need stronger statements, stronger action from politicians and police authorities.”


Liberal and Labor MPs make bipartisan condemnation of 'abhorrent' antisemitic attack
Liberal MP Dave Sharma joined Labor MP Josh Burns in a bipartisan condemnation of an antisemitic attack in the suburb of Woollahra in Sydney's east.

"The attacks we saw of vandalism and abuse of property and violence in Sydney's eastern suburbs last night was abhorrent and should be condemned by everyone," Mr Sharma said.

"This is an attack that's designed to menace, intimidate and silence one group of Australians only - it took place in the heart of Sydney Jewish community."

"It has no place in Australia."


High-profile Federal Court judge Justice Michael Lee says leadership needed on antisemitism, in major speech
High-profile Federal Court Judge, Justice Michael Lee, has made a major intervention in our social cohesion crisis, saying that we need to shine a light on antisemitism.

In a major speech to a Jewish fundraiser, Justice Lee says that he no longer recognises aspects of Australian life since the October 7 terrorist attacks on Israel by Hamas.

Justice Lee, who rose to prominence presiding over the Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial, argues Australia needs to shine a light on the problem of antisemitism and reflect on its cause.

He says that since October 7 he has had a “stark and discomforting realisation that despite living our whole lives in this country, and thinking we knew it so well, we do not now recognise an aspect of it.”

“The growth and mainstreaming of antisemitism we have all seen emerge over the last 13 months must be tackled, but understanding how it is to be tackled requires some understanding of how we got to where we are," he says.

For more on this exclusive story, make sure to watch 'Sharri' at 8pm with a SkyNews.com.au Streaming Subscription.

Justice Lee quotes the Racial Discrimination Act, which is about to reach its 50th anniversary, and he makes this point that “the Jewish people are protected from discrimination and vilification under this Act because the laws provide that they can be classified as an ‘ethnic group’”.

But he is clearly concerned about the extent of the law's ability to offer protection.

"But the law has gone and will only go so far. No one in this room would be under any misapprehension as to the scope of the present problem," he told the audience at the Jewish House fundraiser in Sydney.

Justice Lee says good leadership can make a difference on antisemitism.


‘Distressing to wake up to’: Sharri Markson on antisemitic attacks in Sydney
Sky News host Sharri Markson has discussed the rise in antisemitism after anti-Israel slurs were graffitied on multiple cars and properties in a prominent Jewish community in Sydney's east.

“This was distressing to wake up to today, the spate of anti-Jewish vandalism in Sydney last night, In the very streets where we live, eat and work,” Ms Markson said.

“This criminal, antisemitic violence is too much.”


‘Not the Australia we want’: TV host blasts antisemitic graffiti and police response
Sky News host Chris Kenny reacts to the “atrocious” fire and graffiti attack in Sydney's eastern suburbs and slams police for not addressing the core reason for the attack.

Anti-Israel slurs were graffitied on multiple cars and properties in a prominent Jewish community in Sydney's east.

Mr Kenny addressed the “provocative protests” going on in Sydney’s suburbs as graffiti has been strewn across businesses spreading words of Hamas and how schoolchildren have been subject to antisemitic “taunts”.

“There are Muslim hate preachers still spreading bile in our cities and governments do nothing to stop them and now we have had this atrocious fire and graffiti attack in Sydney’s eastern suburbs,” Mr Kenny said.

“It is antisemitic, anti-Israel graffiti, it is Jew hatred near a Jewish hospital, the police did not even mention the word Jew, or Jewish, or Israel or antisemitism but they said … an isolated incident?”


Penny Wong ‘grilled’ over support of recognising Palestinian sovereignty
Sky News host Sharri Markson says Foreign Minister Penny Wong was “grilled” in the Senate over her support of recognising Palestinian sovereignty.

“Penny Wong was grilled in the Senate today about why she rejected the recommendation of Australian diplomats at the United Nations,” Ms Markson said.

“Instead supported the one-sided motion recognising Palestinian sovereignty.”


Australia bars visit by Israel’s former justice minister
The Australian government has declined to grant an entry visa to former Israeli justice minister Ayelet Shaked, who had planned to travel there to attend a pro-Israel event, Shaked said on Thursday.

Shaked, a right-wing former politician who is ideologically to the left of several current cabinet ministers in Israel’s government, told Channel 12 News that the decision was due to “the anti-Israel and radically pro-Palestinian” policies of the current Australian government, which has been led by the left-wing Labor Party since 2022.

“The current Australian government is an anti-Israel, radical pro-Palestinian government, some of it even antisemitic. For political reasons, since I’m opposed to a Palestinian state, it won’t allow me to attend a strategic dialogue” on Israel-Australian relations, said Shaked. “These are dark days for Australian democracy. This government chose to be on the wrong side of history.”

She applied for a visa to attend an event organized by the Australia Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, or AIJAC, the main pro-Israel group in the country.

In September, Australia’s parliament introduced new hate-speech legislation following the targeting of the Jewish and pro-Israel community in the aftermath of the Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Shaked was barred to “offset” that move, an unnamed source familiar with the decision told Channel 12.

Last November, Shaked said during a television interview that “with God’s help and the Israel Defense Forces, [the southern Gaza city of] Khan Yunis will become a soccer field.” She also called for the international community to let in refugees from the Gaza Strip.


After Amsterdam pogrom, Dutch lawmakers vote to close antisemitic mosques
The Netherlands’ House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a motion calling to shutter mosques whose leaders preach the destruction of Israel.

The motion, submitted by the leader of the coalition’s Farmer–Citizen Movement and titled, “The closure of Salafist mosques and institutions that preach the destruction of the Jewish people and Israel,” passed by 91 to 58.

“Noting that antisemitism and incitement to antisemitism are increasing, and this has led to a Jew-hunt, [the resolution] calls on the government to close Salafist mosques and institutions that propagate the destruction of the Jewish people and Israel,” its text states.

“Jew-hunt” refers to a series of assaults against visiting Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam on Nov. 7, which resulted in five moderate injuries and about 20 to 30 minor ones.

Witnesses described about 100 young men of Arab descent assaulting Israelis in a coordinated manner. The European country’s largest-scale antisemitic incident in decades shocked many Dutch Jews and Holocaust survivors.

Dutch Justice and Security Minister David van Weel is set on Friday to present a broad strategy to fight Jew-hatred, which will reportedly build on motions passed in the House of Representatives.

“This is a clear step forward in the fight against antisemitism. The Farmer–Citizen Movement continues to work for a Netherlands in which everyone feels safe,” the party said after Tuesday’s motion passed.

Geert Wilders, who leads the largest faction in the Dutch parliament, the Freedom Party, hailed the passing of the motion as a “historic” moment.


Palestinian John Aziz on Standing Up to Islamic Imperialism
If we are to fight for liberty for everyone—including Muslims—we must be serious about being ready to stand up to Islamists like Hamas, who seek to revive Islamic imperialism, writes British-Palestinian author John Aziz.

00:00 - Introduction to the context of the conflict
00:15 - Discussion on the events of October 7, 2023
00:28 - Overview of Hamas and its ideology
00:42 - Historical context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
01:10 - Discussion of events from the 1920s and 1930s
01:50 - The origins of Hamas and its connection to the Muslim Brotherhood
02:05 - Explanation of Hamas's ideological beliefs
02:31 - The significance of the Battle of Khaybar
03:50 - Historical narrative of Islamic domination
04:47 - Misinterpretations of Hamas's motives
05:01 - Western perceptions of Islamist ideology
06:12 - Islamism as a global struggle
07:20 - The danger of anti-Muslim bigotry
08:03 - The impact on Muslim communities
08:44 - Southport murders and killer Axel Rudakubana
09:56 - Islamist propaganda and its consequences
10:34 - Counter-extremism measures in Muslim-majority countries
11:42 - Balancing civil liberties and countering extremism in the West
12:26 - Importance of understanding Islamist ideology
12:52 - Promoting pluralism and democracy


Richard Hanania's Controversial Opinion on the Palestine Problem
Richard Hanania is an American political scientist and commentator known for his analyses of U.S. foreign policy, domestic politics, and social issues. He is the founder and president of the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology (CSPI), a think tank that supports research on how ideology and government policy contribute to scientific, technological, and social progress. His father is Palestinian.

Quillette is an Australian-based online magazine that focuses on long-form analysis and cultural commentary. It is politically non-partisan, but relies on reason, science, and humanism as its guiding values.


Has UNIFIL Failed?
Were Hezbollah to disappear tomorrow, the world would be a safer place. Instead, thanks to UNIFIL’s failure to fulfil its mandate, the Middle East is on the precipice of a war of unprecedented destruction.






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