Monday, November 25, 2024

11/25 Links Pt2: Why Palestinians Will Not Have New Leaders; The Guardian’s culture of cowardice; Man charged with shooting Orthodox Jew had map of Jewish targets

From Ian:

Bassam Tawil: Why Palestinians Will Not Have New Leaders
For the past three decades, leaders of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas have systematically targeted political activists, journalists, social media users, students, professors and human rights activists as part of an ongoing campaign to silence critics and deter others from speaking out against the lack of democracy and freedom of speech.

Torture included beatings, solitary confinement, feet-whipping, threats and taunts, and forcing detainees into various painful positions for extended periods. [Human Rights Watch] commented that "the habitual, deliberate, widely known use of torture, using similar tactics over years with no action taken by senior officials in either authority to stop these abuses, make these practices systematic."

This abuse has transformed the PA-controlled areas in the West Bank and the Hamas-run Gaza Strip into Palestinian dictatorships similar to those that have long existed in most Arab countries. In addition, it has resulted in the suppression of the emergence of new leaders capable of leading the Palestinians towards security, stability and prosperity.

Palestinians still remember how political activist and human rights defender Nizar Banat, an outspoken critic of corruption in the Palestinian Authority, was beaten to death by PA security officers in Hebron in 2021. Until today, no one has been punished for the killing of Banat.

The family of the slain political activist was naïve enough to believe that the ICC or any other international agency would serve them justice.

The ICC does not care about crimes committed by Palestinians against their own people. Instead, the court's antisemitic prosecutor is busy searching for ways to punish Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for daring to fight back in a war that was launched by Hamas on October 7, 2023.

Palestinians have not only been deprived of a large portion of the international financial aid -- stolen by corrupt Palestinian leaders -- but also of the right to elect new leaders and representatives through free elections.

Those who are hoping that a new (and pragmatic) Palestinian leadership will take over one day are in for a disappointment. Even after 89-year-old PA President Mahmoud Abbas is gone, his cronies and inner circle will continue to run the show. They will not, under any circumstances, share the cake with other Palestinians.

The same applies to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. No Palestinian will agree to play any role in the administration of the Gaza Strip after the current Israel-Hamas war, as long as the Iran-backed terrorist group and its friends are still around. That is why it is necessary to eliminate Hamas completely and make sure that it loses its military, political and civilian capabilities in the Gaza Strip. This could take a few more months or years, but it is far better than ending the war in a way that keeps Hamas in power.
Telegraph Editorial: The Police must prioritise the ancient hatred: Anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism is sometimes called “the oldest hatred”, but on the streets of London and other British cities it was until recently still comparatively unfamiliar.

Since October 7th last year, however, Jews in this country have endured thousands of vile attacks, often in connection with marches and other protests against the war in Israel, Gaza and Lebanon. Perhaps for the first time in recent history, British Jews have felt anti-Semitism to be a serious threat.

The police have been slow to respond to the scale of this hostility. They have shown culpable reluctance to pass even the most egregious cases on to the Crown Prosecution Service.

Now Jews are fighting back. Gideon Falter, head of the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism (CAAS), says that his charity has been forced to bring private prosecutions when police refused to act. In effect, the CAAS is doing what ought to be the police’s job.

Meanwhile, the notorious (and now abandoned) investigation by Essex Police into a year-old social media post by our columnist Allison Pearson has highlighted the colossal waste of police time on trivial incidents online. In Mr Falter’s words: “Recent events show that the police do have the capacity and will to act when they want to, but they too often devote their resources to nonsense.”

It is high time that recognising, pursuing and prosecuting anti-Semitism were made a top priority by the police and criminal justice system. As the late Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks explained, this form of hatred is a virus that has mutated over time and now appears most conspicuously in the form of Anti-Zionism.

Jews were first hated for their religion, then for their race, and today for their state. Denying Jews the right to live peacefully in their own state, as Hamas, Hezbollah and various other Islamist organisations do, is the most dangerous present-day manifestation of anti-Semitism.
Julie Bindel: The Guardian’s culture of cowardice
“I’m not sorry to be leaving Guardian newspapers. For years now being Jewish, however non-observant, and working for the company has been uncomfortable, at times excruciating…It will be a joy to know that I’m not a part of that anymore.”

Jay Rayner’s parting shot as he announced his departure from The Observer after 28 years tops off a turbulent few months at Guardian Media Group (GMG). Next week, indignant journalists will be striking in protest at the sale of the paper to Tortoise, an online media organisation. The Scott Trust, they claim, is betraying its commitment to The Observer — a feeling reflected by The Observer’s former editor, Paul Webster, who lambasted the deal as a betrayal when he retired last week.

Rayner also expressed concern at the sale, claiming that “The Guardian has told me they will terminate all our contracts if they can sell The Observer to Tortoise”. Perhaps he was also anticipating this cost-cutting by the new owners as he resigned. But his strongly worded statement about the failure of the Editor in Chief, Katherine Viner to deal with antisemitism struck a chord.

Rayner is not the first big name to have publicly accused Viner of not handling controversial issues as she should. In December 2020, Suzanne Moore jumped ship, having been the subject of a complaint sent to Viner, signed by over 300 “colleagues” after she was finally allowed to write about the gender wars.

Moore was followed by Hadley Freeman in November 2022. She resigned because she was unable to write freely about the “gender issue”. But in her resignation letter she disclosed that she had been warned off writing about Israel “from her perspective as a Jew” describing the paper as “internally dysfunctional”.

I’m no fan of Rayner: it often feels like his ego is bigger than his appetite. A decade ago, I made a joke about his attitude on Masterchef, and received a nasty, vitriolic email in response, despite having never corresponded with him in the past. Nevertheless, I believe him when he says there are antisemites at the paper — because I have encountered them myself. Once upon a time, before I was slowly cancelled from every section of the newspaper, I would go to parties there, and I recall one particular member of staff saying the most outrageous things about Jews under the guise of anti-Zionism.


The October 7 War: Israel's Battle for Security in Gaza By Seth Frantzman
According to the National Library of Israel, approximately 170 books have been written about the October 7 Hamas massacre and the ensuing war.

Most are in Hebrew and focus on the impact on Israeli society, the hostages, the IDF's war efforts, and the role of political leadership. Many written works preserve testimonies and tell stories of heroism.

Seth Frantzman's The October 7 War: Israel's Battle for Security in Gaza brings a bit of everything. What distinguishes his account is the immediacy of his reporting. Frantzman has been covering the ongoing conflict between the Gaza Strip and Israel since 2005, including, of course, the escalations in 2012, 2014, and 2021. His depth of experience is extraordinary.

As Executive Editor at ILTV, I recently hosted Frantzman and three other authors—Haaretz's Amir Tibon, Hadassah Ben Ari, and Gil Troy—for a studio discussion about their recently published books that are anchored in the October 7 massacre.

Several weeks into the war, after he had been to the south multiple times, interacting with Israeli military units, commanders, soldiers, and the police. Frantzman realized that he had interviewed nearly every unit involved in the conflict. He had spoken with those living in affected communities. The displaced. Frantzman wanted to give people a broader perspective; the forest through the trees. Instead of daily articles, he aspired to build a more holistic narrative.

People questioned how he could write a book about a war still unfolding. To him, October 7 was Israel's 9/11—a transformative day for the country and the Jewish people. He wanted to capture not just the event itself but the weeks, months, and even years leading up to it, along with its immediate aftermath.

For Frantzman, the war began with the first siren in Jerusalem. He writes about his 8-year-old son shaking him awake, telling him there were sirens.
A Hero Speaks: Natan Sharansky on the US and Israel At This Hour
Natan Sharansky is a renowned human rights activist, former Soviet dissident, Israeli politician, and author. In 1977, Sharansky was sentenced to 13 years of hard labor in a Soviet prison for the crime of advocating for human rights and the right for Soviet Jews to emigrate to Israel. After nine years of imprisonment, under harsh conditions and including long periods of solitary confinement, Sharankly was released in 1986 as part of a political prisoner exchange between the Soviet Union and western nations. Upon his release, he emigrated to Israel, where he became a prominent figure in Israeli politics and global Jewish advocacy.

In this wide-ranging interview, Sharansky discusses pressing geopolitical issues, including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the nature of anti-Semitism on university campuses, and the role of the United States in supporting Israel and the broader free world. He also reflects on the 1977 Oslo Accords, the resilience of Israeli society amid ongoing threats, and the enduring significance of freedom and identity in Sharansky’s life and worldview. Sharansky also examines America’s responsibility as a leader in the free world, the challenges posed by Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and the deeper cultural and spiritual threads that unite the Jewish people.


Ben Shapiro and Douglas Murray on why US Jews mostly vote for Democrats – 'Freedom of Zion Conference' in Jerusalem
Approximately 3,000 Israelis attended the “Freedom of Zion” conference at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem, where Ben Shapiro and Douglas Murray discussed “the spirit and strategy of Israel’s fighting forces and a plan for Israeli renewal, reconstruction, and prosperity on the day after the war.”

One matter that arose was the propensity of American Jews to vote for Democratic Party candidates, even at the expense of Israel’s welfare during the current war. Shapiro warned the audience that “after speaking glowingly about Jewish unity” he was about to be “incredibly divisive,” before launching into a speech about his frustration with Jewish voting habits in the United States.

“The reality is that a very high percentage of American Jews don't prioritize either Judaism or Israel. And so speaking to them in that language is utterly ineffectual because you're talking about secular atheists who identify as Jewish, that they can be part of the woke coalition, and not be considered white. That's just the reality. And I wish this weren't the reality, but it is the reality."

Shapiro continued: "Now, with that said, a historic percentage of Jews in the swing states particularly voted in favor of the Republicans. I was talking with a data analyst, one of the best data analysts in the United States, and he said the single greatest predictor of the size of the swing in the vote from Democrat to Republican was the percentage of Jews in a particular district."

Furthering the point that Trump closed the margin in the swing states, including those he lost, Shapiro added, "And you saw that in New Jersey, which is a state where Donald Trump last time lost by 13 points – he lost it by five this time. You've seen it in Florida, which has gotten extremely Jewish, like a lot more Jewish. And Florida went from a dead-even state to a state that Donald Trump won by 13 points. You saw it in New York, where in New York City, Donald Trump won 33% of the vote, almost entirely in Jewish precincts of New York. And so I think that what you're seeing, actually, in the Jewish vote in the United States is that October 7th was a polarizing moment."


Douglas Murray on why he defends Israel - Freedom of Zion Conference in Jerusalem

Ben Shapiro: Debunking Social Media Lies | Montana Tucker
Montana Tucker is a multi-talented American influencer and activist, whose online following of over 14 million on platforms like TikTok and Instagram has made a tremendous impact on how young Americans absorb information about Israel and antisemitism on social media. In today’s episode, Montana discusses her experiences touring college campuses, the most common misconceptions she hears about Israel, and her takeaways from personally meeting with the families and victims of the October 7th attacks. Using the power of dance and storytelling, Montana has inspired so many to utilize their creative platforms for good. Stay tuned for this wonderful conversation with Montana Tucker, on the latest episode of the Sunday Special.


Slain Chabad rabbi’s funeral gets underway in Israel
The funeral for Rabbi Zvi Kogan took place in the central Israeli town of Kfar Chabad on Monday evening, a day after the Chabad-Lubavitch emissary was found murdered in the eastern Emirati city of Al-Ain.

The funeral procession began with speeches at the Chassidic group’s Israeli headquarters in Kfar Chabad ahead of his burial at the Mount of Olives cemetery near Jerusalem’s Old City later on Monday night.

Thousands, including Israeli government ministers, traveled to Kfar Chabad to attend the ceremony, per local media reports.

Among the attendees was Rabbi Nachman Holzberg, the grandfather of Kogan’s wife, Rivky. In November 2008, Holzberg’s son and daughter-in-law, who were Chabad envoys in Mumbai, were murdered by Islamist terrorists.

The body of Kogan, who was a dual Israeli-Moldovan national, was repatriated to the Jewish state earlier on Monday, the ZAKA rescue group said.

Video footage posted to social media showed ZAKA volunteers reciting Kaddish—the traditional Jewish mourning prayer—near Kogan’s body after it arrived at Ben-Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv.

Kogan was an emissary for the Abu Dhabi Chabad branch and ran a kosher supermarket in Dubai. Chabad is one of the largest religious Jewish groups in the world with branches in scores of countries.


'Horrific crime': White house condemns murder of Chabad emissary Zvi Kogan
The White House and other American officials condemned the murder of the Chabad emissary to the United Arab Emirates, Rabbi Zvi Kogan.

"We condemn in the strongest terms the murder of Rabbi Zvi Kogan in the UAE, and our prayers are with his family, the Chabad-Lubavitch community, the broader Jewish community, and all who are mourning his loss," National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett said in a statement.

"This was a horrific crime against all those who stand for peace, tolerance, and coexistence," the White House added, noting it was working in coordination with Israeli authorities as well as those in the UAE.

US reactions
New York Mayor Eric Adams shared, “ I am absolutely devastated to learn about the barbaric and senseless murder of Chabad Shaliach Rabbi Zvi Kogan."

Adams continued, "Our hearts and prayers are with his wife — a native New Yorker — his entire family, and the Jewish community who is grieving right now. This is yet another jarring reminder of how it is dangerous to simply be Jewish in many parts of the world — New York City will never be one of those places.”

Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, stated, “Horrified by the news that Chabad Rabbi Zvi Kogan was kidnapped and murdered.

We appreciate the actions of UAE authorities to hold accountable those who planned and carried out this heinous act. The ongoing targeting of Jewish communities worldwide is abhorrent and must stop”.

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) posted, "I am shaken by the news of the antisemitic abduction and murder of Rabbi Zvi Kogan, who was kidnapped and killed simply for being Jewish. May his memory be a blessing."


UAE publishes names and photos of suspects in murder of Chabad Rabbi Zvi Kogan
Authorities in the United Arab Emirates have released the names and photos of the three suspects arrested in connection with the murder of Rabbi Zvi Kogan, an Israeli-Moldovan national and Chabad rabbi, who was killed in Abu Dhabi over the weekend.

The suspects, all Uzbek nationals, have been identified as Olimboy Davlaterov (28), Makhmudjon Kenzhaboev (28) and Azizbek Ismoilov (33).

The UAE Ministry of Interior emphasised its determination to quickly investigate the murder, saying that the time for the three men to be arrested was unprecedented.

According to a statement from the ministry, the suspects are now in custody, and the case will be referred to public prosecution for further investigation.

"The competent security authorities have revealed the identities of the perpetrators, and the necessary measures are being taken to uncover all the details surrounding the incident, including its circumstances and motives," the Ministry posted on X.

"We are committed to using all human, professional, and technical capabilities to ensure the swift resolution of this case and to safeguard the security and stability of UAE society,” they added.

The murder of Rabbi Kogan, who was affiliated with the Chabad movement, has sparked strong reactions from Israeli officials.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the killing as a "heinous antisemitic terrorist act" and vowed that Israel would do everything in its power to bring those responsible to justice.


Man charged with shooting Chicago Orthodox Jew had map of potential Jewish targets
The man charged with shooting an Orthodox Jewish man on his way to synagogue in Chicago last month had mapped out the locations of several synagogues and Jewish schools shortly before the attack, prosecutors revealed on Friday, according to Chicago news outlets.

At a detention hearing in Leighton Criminal Courthouse, Chicago, prosecutors revealed that Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi, 22, had researched potential targets on his cellphone in the days before the shooting, including a synagogue near to where the shooting took place.

Two weeks before the shooting, his Google history also showed he had looked up "Jewish Community Center" as well as a gun store, according to Assistant State Attorney Anne McCord Rodgers.

His phone also had over 100 "antisemitic and pro-Hamas" videos and images, the prosecutor added.

The hearing marked the first time Abdallahi, an immigrant from Mauritania, had appeared in court, after he was hospitalized with gunshot wounds following a shootout with police on the day of the attack.

McCord Rodgers said “This was not anything but a planned attack … an attempted assassination of these people.”

“This was a calculated plan, on a public street... and an attempted slaughter of that person and law enforcement officers.”

Judge Susana Ortiz ordered that he be detained on multiple accounts including attempted murder and hate crime.


Celebrating Israeli first responders, those in real-life ‘Fauda’ who face chaos
Hilel Jonathan Jolodenco recalled the morning of Oct. 7, 2023, as one that started out rather normally. He heard alarms at 6:30 a.m. in Sderot, in the south of Israel, where he lives and works as a parademic and the city’s head of ambulance services for Magen David Adom. But he wasn’t ruffled.

“I think I just got used to it—the ‘emergency normality,’” the 34-year-old, originally from Argentina, told JNS. “There’s always an emergency.”

He was referring to his line of work and the fact that Sderot—less than a mile from the border with the Gaza Strip—has been a primary target of rockets launched by the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror organizations for more than 20 years.

But then he saw men running by the window of his home firing machine guns. His first thought was, “Who’s shooting a movie on a Saturday morning?”

Jolodenco called dispatch and learned what was happening, and was told not to go outside. And so he didn’t for a full two hours. Finally, he left and made it to the nearby MDA station, where three staff members were trying to respond to calls of injuries from Hamas-led terrorists that had overrun Sderot.

General protocol is initial basic care at the station, after which first responders transport the wounded to Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon, about 20 minutes away. They had about 15 ambulances but only one that was bulletproof (they have since gotten one more). So, Jolodenco said, “we had to improvise.”

This meant that as they managed to reach people and people started to reach them, they had to drive individuals, one at a time, to the hospital in the sole bulletproof vehicle. Additionally, they couldn’t use the direct route because armed terrorists had overtaken the road, so they had to travel the longer route, making the trips 45 minutes each way.

“We weren’t trained for something like this,” he acknowledged. “Triage, yes, but not something like this.”


Jews ditch Dutch leftist party over Amsterdam pogrom wavering
The Netherlands is ground zero for Volt Europa, a growing political movement whose progressive, pro-European Union agenda has drawn thousands of left-wing voters across the bloc, including many young Jews.

Yet following the Nov. 7 mass assaults by Arabs on Israelis in Amsterdam, several Jewish Volt Netherlands members have left the pan-European movement in protest of what they consider a failure by it and its leaders—including some Jews—to denounce Muslim antisemitism clearly and unequivocally.

“We see people who supposedly stand up for all minorities but do not do so when it comes to Jews,” two disillusioned ex-party members who are Jewish wrote in a statement last week about leaving Volt, which was founded in 2017 and has placed “Diversity, Inclusion and Equity” high up on its platform.

Volt, which was established in the Netherlands as an international pro-E.U. political movement with affiliated parties in several countries, has other Jewish members who still stand by the movement.

But the Jewish walkout from it encapsulates the growing estrangement of many left-wing Jews in Western Europe from parties and movements that they thought had their back, but which they say have left them in the lurch amid Muslim antisemitism and Israel-related vitriol.

Ariel’s decision to leave developed gradually. The 23-year-old former party member and volunteer spoke to JNS and asked that his last name be withheld from this article, citing safety concerns.

“At first there was silence. Silence on the Volt WhatsApp group,” he said, in describing the response to a long message he wrote on an activists’ group urging others to speak up about the assaults. “Then there was resistance. Claims that the facts are not known” about the assaults, which Ariel and many others call a pogrom.

“We wanted Volt to be the party where progressive Jews could also feel safe and heard,” Ariel and another Volt Jewish voter, Hadassah, wrote in a letter announcing their departure. But “antisemitism and concerns about our safety are seen as difficult topics to be avoided. When we ask for attention to rising antisemitism, we get platitudes in return. We are told that we should ‘not get caught up in victimhood’ and that we should first ‘go for a drink’ to ‘calmly discuss all the facts.’”
Lawmakers urge ‘swift action’ from Dutch government in response to anti-Jewish attacks
A bipartisan group of House lawmakers urged the Dutch prime minister last week to take prompt action in response to the string of recent antisemitic attacks and mob violence in Amsterdam that followed a soccer match more than two weeks ago.

In a new letter to Prime Minister Dick Schoof, the lawmakers requested information on “what concrete steps the [Dutch] government intends to take to protect Jewish people from further harm and to combat the rise of antisemitic rhetoric and violence,” demanding “immediate action” to protect Jews and to “send a clear message that such behavior will not and cannot be tolerated.”

The lawmakers expressed “deep outrage” about the attacks, which they said “have caused tremendous fear and distress within the Jewish community worldwide.”

They described the attacks as “horrific but not unpredictable,” “the culmination of the failure of leaders and officials to confront antisemitism” and “a dangerous escalation in the normalization of antisemitism.”

The lawmakers added, “As Members of Congress, we cannot remain silent in the face of such blatant acts of hateful violence against a group of people based solely on their identity and faith,” emphasizing, “these people were targeted simply because they are Jewish.”

The letter notes that incidents have continued since the initial night of attacks on Jews and Israelis following a match in Amsterdam between the Maccabi Tel Aviv team and Dutch team Ajax, including a group that lit a train on fire while shouting antisemitic slogans, even though Amsterdam’s government had put in place a demonstration ban.

The lawmakers asked Schoof to outline what the Dutch government will be doing to protect the Jewish community and prevent similar incidents, how the more than 60 individuals identified as being part of the riots are being held accountable, whether “Dutch authorities believe these attacks were coordinated and organized through domestic or international channels” and whether there is information authorities can share with other countries to prevent similar incidents.

The letter was signed by Reps. Haley Stevens (D-MI), Bill Huizenga (R-MI), Brad Sherman (D-CA), Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Kathy Manning (D-NC), Joe Wilson (R-SC), Greg Landsman (D-OH), Dina Titus (D-NV), Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ), Jim Costa (D-CA), Shri Thanedar (D-MI), Brad Schneider (D-IL) and Anthony D’Esposito (R-NY).


Germany charges four for setting up Hamas weapons depots across Europe
German federal prosecutors said Monday they had charged four suspected members of Hamas, allegedly tasked with sourcing and storing weapons for the Palestinian terror group in Europe.

Two men born in Lebanon, an Egyptian citizen and a Dutch man were suspected of “membership in a foreign terrorist organization,” the federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

The men “held important positions within the association with direct ties to leaders of the military wing” of Hamas, prosecutors said.

One of the two suspects born in Lebanon, named by prosecutors only as Ibrahim El-R., was said to have set up a weapons storage site for Hamas in Bulgaria.

Established in early 2019, the Bulgarian depot contained weapons, including a Kalashnikov assault rifle, and ammunition, prosecutors said.

In mid-2019, Ibrahim El-R. had “cleared out” another weapons cache in Denmark and was said by prosecutors to have brought a pistol from there to Germany.

Between June and December 2023, all four suspects were said to have set off from Berlin in search of another Hamas weapons store in Poland, but failed to locate it, according to investigators.

Prosecutors said Hamas had long ago “set up underground weapons depots in various European countries in order to keep them ready for possible attacks against Jewish institutions in Europe.”


Plans for Jewish eruv spark influx of antisemitism in small English village
According to Jewish law, the prohibition on carrying objects outside on the Sabbath can be circumvented with a system of poles and string or wires that creates a symbolic wall around a large area. Many American cities with significant Jewish communities have them, and on a few occasions the construction of this inconspicuous legal fiction has caused strife with other locals. Eruvim are somewhat less common in Europe, but the Orthodox community in the English village of Hale decided to ask permission to build one. Local official issued a report in favor, but then, the Jerusalem Post reports:
over 1,000 complaints over the plan [were submitted to the municipal council]; many of the complaints were dismissed by the council as “racist.”

In addition to a large number of complaints, households in the area reportedly received leaflets complaining of a “permanent religious boundary” “for a tiny minority”—with some objectors claiming that 8,000 homes would be affected by the “religious enclave” in an unspecified way.

As has often been the case, one of the loudest objectors appears to be Jewish himself:
The property developer Mark Guterman, who claimed Jews didn’t want the construction of an eruv, claimed, “With the heightened tensions of the Middle East and anti-Semitism on the rise, a small group of vigilantes are fronting for Hale Synagogue. This has made life much more uncomfortable for Jews that live in the area, and it is destroying years of inter-faith work for what purpose?”

Whatever Guterman’s actual motivations, the idea that Jews putting their Jewishness on display will provoke anti-Semitism is one of the most damaging to Jewish well-being, and one of the most thoroughly disproven. But there is good news too: despite the uproar, the council approved the eruv.


3rd season of ‘Tehran,’ featuring Hugh Laurie, returns to Apple TV, Kan
British actor Hugh Laurie joins the third season of “Tehran,” which will return on December 9 to streaming platform Apple TV+ and Israel’s Kan public broadcaster.

The release of the latest season of the award-winning series was delayed in May due to the ongoing multifront war against Iran’s multiple regional terror proxies in Gaza, Lebanon and elsewhere in the Middle East.

Direct tensions between Israel and Iran have seen an unprecedented escalation, with Iran firing 300 missiles and drones at Israel on April 13 and again attacking on October 1, firing some 200 missiles, with most projectiles intercepted during both attacks and with Israel retaliating for both with airstrikes on Iran.

Additionally, the Islamic Republic has accused Israel of being behind the assassination in July of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

The show’s creators, Moshe Zonder, Dana Eden and Maor Cohen, say the third season will continue to deal with the core, general issues of the Israeli-Iranian conflict and the personal conflicts of protagonist Tamar Rabinyan.

At the end of the second and latest season, Rabinyan, a young Israeli agent sent to the Iranian capital by the Mossad to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, finds herself alone in the heart of Tehran, pursued simultaneously by the Mossad and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

The young heroine must find a new way to regain Mossad’s support to survive.

This season, Hugh Laurie will play Eric Peterson, a nuclear supervisor.
Rare ancient amulet featuring King Solomon discovered in Turkey
Archaeologists have unearthed a rare ancient amulet bearing biblical imagery in Turkey, marking a significant historical discovery. The remarkable artifact, comparable in size to a large coin, features an elaborate battle scene and carries a sacred inscription. Researchers from Karabuk University made the discovery in Hadrianopolis, a Roman-period city situated near the Black Sea coast. Scientific analysis dates the amulet to at least 1,500 years ago.

The amulet's primary face depicts an intricate engraving of King Solomon astride a horse, wielding a spear against Satan. Biblical texts identify Solomon as the son of King David and the builder of the First Temple in Jerusalem, a figure revered in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Encircling the scene, an inscription reads: "Our Lord has conquered evil." The reverse side features the names of four angels: Michael, Gabriel, Israfil, and Azrael.

The discovery holds particular historical significance, as only one comparable artifact has previously been found in Jerusalem. The amulet's presence in Hadrianopolis corresponds with the city's established military importance, where earlier excavations confirmed the historical presence of a conquering cavalry unit. The city's archaeological significance extends beyond its military heritage.

The site has yielded numerous well-preserved mosaics within its ancient churches, featuring religious imagery and animal motifs. The excavations have also revealed an array of tombs, ancient baths, and defensive fortifications.
‘Not some colonial effort’: Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at Reagan Library shows Jewish ties to Israel
For the first time in nearly a decade, Dead Sea Scrolls manuscripts are on view in the United States in an exhibit of artifacts from the Israel Antiquities Authority, including some objects that have never been exhibited publicly before.

A sheet of the Great Psalms Scroll, from Qumran Cave 11, which dates to the first century of the Common Era and is written in square Hebrew script that remains in use today, is among the items that haven’t been previously shown.

“The Israel Antiquities Authority is very strict in terms of its policies as to what can be exhibited, in what conditions and for how long and at the same time,” Joe Uziel, head of the Dead Sea Scrolls unit at the authority, told JNS.

Uziel is a curator of a traveling exhibit (through Sept. 2, 2025), which recently opened at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, Calif.

“There is a story to be told in every exhibition,” he said. “The objects chosen aimed at bringing to light the period in which the scrolls were written,” particularly “the Second Temple Period, with a particular focus on different regional and chronological moments relating to that story.”

Highlights of the show, according to Uziel, are “never-exhibited-before finds along Jerusalem’s main pilgrimage road, fragments of the sunken boat found in the Sea of Galilee, finds from Masada and artifacts relating to the Roman conquest of the region in 70 C.E.”

One of the show’s unique aspects, he said, is its “focus on scientific breakthroughs made relating to Dead Sea Scrolls research, beginning with their initial discovery in 1947 and through to today.”

New technologies and approaches “are teaching us things about the scrolls that were never known before,” he said.

Uziel hopes that the public can gain a better sense of Israel’s cultural history by visiting the exhibit. “In a period where we see the spread of claims relating to the connection between the Land of Israel and the Jewish people, this exhibit presents tangible artifacts that substantiate this connection,” he told JNS.

“At the most basic level, I think you realize the rich cultural heritage of Israel’s past. Particularly in the Second Temple period, we are witness to finds that relate to the formation of identities that are still part of our world,” he said.




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