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Saturday, December 07, 2024

12/07 Links: Why the media keep underestimating Israel; Syrian rebel commander urges Israel to support uprising; IDF assists UN forces in Syria repel attack

From Ian:

Why the media keep underestimating Israel
Most recently, Israel has confounded expectations in its war against Hamas. The IDF has ground Hamas into the rubble of Gaza, killing most of its leaders. It has wreaked sufficient devastation on Hezbollah to produce a ceasefire agreement, albeit a shaky one. Commentators warned solemnly of ‘escalation ladders’ and a ‘wider regional war’, predicting that Iran would not stand idly by as its proxies were degraded. Yet apart from a few token missile strikes, that is precisely what has happened.

Heeding caution in military matters is wise, as Iraq and other misadventures have shown. But an aversion to conflict at all costs grants bad actors free rein. As Israel’s enemies sue for peace – precisely because of Israel’s resolve in pursuing a war many deemed unwinnable – it’s clear that caution has its limits. While a decisive victory has yet to be achieved, Israel certainly appears to be winning. It has demonstrated that the murder of its citizens has dire consequences – a fact it must constantly prove to secure its survival. Israel has also shown that Iran, reportedly leaning on Hezbollah leaders to agree to a ceasefire, has little appetite to risk its neck for its proxies.

Yet many commentators continue to treat ‘de-escalation’ and an immediate ceasefire as the only viable routes to peace, scarcely hiding their disappointment when the realities on the ground suggest otherwise. After Hamas’s military leader, Yahya Sinwar, was killed by the IDF in October, Jeremy Bowen, the BBC’s international editor, snarked that ‘to get a ceasefire and a deal you need every side really in it’. He thought this would be harder after the assassination. Yet since Sinwar’s death, Hamas has actually shown more interest in negotiation. Similarly, when Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was eliminated in September, journalists at Israel’s Channel 12, which has also taken a defeatist view of the war, reportedly greeted the news with ‘mournful faces and barely hidden disappointment’.

Contrast this with the elation of ordinary Israelis – and many others around the world – at these momentous victories. Such enthusiasm is well placed. Nasrallah’s policy of showering rockets on northern Israel until the IDF withdrew from Gaza has, for now, been discontinued. This is a tangible win for thousands of Israelis who can now return to their homes in the north.

The war itself enjoys widespread support within Israel. It is, among other things, democracy in action (just not the kind favoured by the media and commentary classes). Yet so many media outlets portray it as little more than a ruse by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cling to power. This narrative conveniently diverts attention from Israel’s strategic gains.

Reflecting on the Second Intifada, which broke out in 2000 and led to over 1,000 Israeli deaths, writer Pascal Bruckner remarked that journalists sympathetic to the Palestinian uprising had taken a more sanguine view of it than the Palestinians themselves. In 2004, Fatah leaders conceded that the ‘militarisation of the Intifada had been a great failure and had left society exhausted and on the brink of civil war’. According to Bruckner, this failure was a ‘disappointment for the militants, but also for the press correspondents, who thus found themselves repudiated’. The journalists, he concluded, had ‘allowed themselves to be blinded by their convictions: these men in the field had seen in reality only the projection of their own fantasies’.

Twenty years later, fantasies and wishful thinking still cloud much of the media’s judgement.
Victoria Coates: Palestinians lost battle with Israel – 'someone has to tell them'
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict ended decades ago with the country's founding and its victory in the 1967 Six-Day War, according to former U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Victoria Coates.

Speaking to ILTV on Monday at the Misgav Institute for National Security & Zionist Strategy, she said the Palestinians were never told they lost. Instead, "they were encouraged, particularly after the Iranian Revolution, to continue this self-defeating, suicidal, genocidal [behavior] we saw on October 7."

"Someone has to have the nerve to say to the Palestinians, we are not negotiating a ceasefire, we're negotiating terms" to end the conflict, she added.

Coates, an evangelical Christian and staunch supporter of the Jewish state has visited Israel many times. She has held several key political leadership roles, including serving in the Department of Energy, where she advised Secretary Dan Brouillette on national security issues and acted as his representative in the Middle East and North Africa.

Today, she serves as Vice President of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at The Heritage Foundation. She recently published a book, The Battle for the Jewish State: How Israel—and America—Can Win, which focuses on October 7 and why America must stand with Israel.

She said the possibilities for the Palestinians, if they were to disarm and accept defeat, are abundant.

"You could imagine what would flow into both the West Bank and Gaza, just the offers of assistance and the enthusiasm on the part of Israel," Coates said.

She added that some actions from the Trump administration, such as cutting funding, might help deliver this message.

However, while Coates is deeply passionate about Israel, she said her book aims to address issues in her own country. "Because this [Islamic extremism] isn't a Jewish or an Israel issue. This is a Western civilization issue," she explained.

"They might be coming for Israel right now, but the United States is next, make no mistake about it," Coates said.
Caroline Glick: A coup attempt in the shadow of Oct. 7
This week, Channel 11’s journalist Ayala Hasson broadcast a two-part exposé on the Israel Defense Forces’ self-investigation of the massacre at the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, which took place a kilometer from the Gaza Strip. Hasson’s reports reinforced the fact that the IDF and Shin Bet top brass are to blame for Hamas’s successful day of genocide.

A total of 364 people were brutally murdered at the Nova music festival and along avenues of escape. Thirty-nine were taken hostage. The rave opened on Oct. 5 with 3,800 revelers.

According to earlier investigative reports, the IDF intercepted Hamas’s invasion plans a year before Oct. 7. They received multiple, rapidly escalating warnings of the impending invasion from a variety of sources in the Southern Command in the months, weeks and days prior to that day. Intelligence head Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi and Shin Bet director Ronen Bar did not share the warnings or Hamas’s intercepted invasion plans with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Instead, they repeatedly briefed him that Hamas was deterred, and Israel simply needed to provide it with more cash from Qatar and more work permits for Gazans in Israel to keep the terrorist regime fat, happy and deterred.

On Oct. 10, we learned that on the night between Oct. 6 and Oct. 7, Halevi, Bar, Southern Command Chief Maj. General Yaron Finkleman, Operations Directorate Chief Maj. Gen. Oded Basiuk and Haliva’s assistant (Haliva was on vacation and not answering his phone), held two telephone consultations, at midnight and 4 a.m., when they discussed multiplying indications that Hamas was about to carry out its invasion, slaughter and kidnapping plan. They chose to do nothing, told no one and agreed to meet again at 8 a.m. Hamas invaded at 6:30.

Hasson’s reported excerpts from two-and-a-half hours of recordings of a conversation between Halevi’s representative Brig. Gen. Ido Mizrahi and police commanders in the Southern District. Halevi appointed Mizrahi to conduct the IDF’s inquiry into the slaughter at Nova.

The police were the heroes of the festival. By declaring that Israel was under invasion at 6:30, Southern District Commander Superintendent Amir Cohen precipitated the Ofakim police station commander’s order to disperse the concert-goers. That decision is credited with saving the lives of 90% of the party’s attendees. According to Mizrahi, about 200 people were at the party site when the Palestinian rape, murder and kidnapping gangs arrived a bit after 9 a.m.

Forty policemen and women died staving off the invading Palestinian terrorists from the Nova festival. IDF forces didn’t show up until after the massacre was over and the 39 hostages had been taken to Gaza. All the same, Mizrahi tried to shift the blame for the mass slaughter from the IDF onto the police, asking why there were still 200 people at the party site at 9.

Surprised, the police explained that they couldn’t enforce the order because they were busy fighting Hamas since the IDF didn’t arrive.

Mizrahi disclosed to Cohen and his officers for the first time that on nighttime telephone calls, Bar, Halevi and their associates discussed the Nova festival but opted to do nothing. The police officers noted that had they known this at 4 a.m., the slaughter would have been prevented.


'Time is running out': Hamas releases video of hostage Matan Zangauker
Hamas published a three-minute video of hostage Matan Zangauker, 24, to Telegram on Saturday, entitled “Time is running out.”

In the video, Zangauker introduces himself and tells the camera that he has been in captivity for over 420 days. He then sends a message to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “I heard about your new plan to return us home. I heard that you will give $5 million to whoever returns us safely home and provide them a safe exit from the Gaza Strip. I am very disappointed. Now I am certain that you do not know your enemies and you do not understand their mentality. This is your failure and the failure of the government since October 7.”

Similar to the video of Israeli-American hostage Eden Alexander Hamas released last week, Zangauker states that “the guards informed us of the new instructions, and we are very afraid, my friends and I, for our lives.”

Zangauker says that “we die a thousand times every day, and no one feels for us. The people of Israel, do not neglect us. We are still alive. We want to return before we go crazy. Isolation is killing us, and the darkness here is frightening. It is illogical that we pay the price for the government’s mistakes, and it is time to put an end to our suffering.”


Kassy Akiva: Anti-Israel Attacker Charged Months After He Tackled Disabled Veteran And Was Shot
Caleb Gannon was charged with assault and battery months after he ran through traffic and tackled pro-Israel activist Scott Hayes in Newton, Massachusetts, a source with knowledge of the situation told The Daily Wire.

Gannon, 31, was charged in Newton District Court on Friday. His arraignment is set for December 30.

Gannon attacked Hayes on September 12 while the veteran was participating in a demonstration with six to eight other pro-Israel activists by holding American and Israeli flags next to a busy intersection.

Gannon has a history of inflammatory social media posts where he advocated for the destruction of the United States, refused to denounce Hamas, and labeled murdered American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin as a terrorist who “got what he deserved.”

“I don’t condemn Hamas. I condemn my family,” Gannon wrote in one post about the terrorist group that killed, raped, or took hostage over 1,000 citizens from Israel on October 7.



Gannon’s father told the police that his son is mentally unstable and possibly autistic after the incident, The Boston Globe reported.

At the start of the incident, Gannon shouted his anti-Israel views at the group from across a street, calling the pro-Israel demonstrators “sick” and accusing them of “defending genocide.”

He then began to charge across the street until Hayes stepped onto the street with the hand on his waistband where his lawfully possessed firearm was secured in a holster under his shirt, according to a motion filed by Hayes’s attorney.

“Hayes did not brandish or even remove his gun from this holster, yet Gannon knew that Hayes had a gun, shouting ‘Are you carrying a f***ing gun?” the motion reads. “Hayes acknowledged that he did have a gun.”

Gannon backed away while making obscene gestures while Hayes started to dial 911 on his phone. This is when Gannon rushed through traffic and tackled Hayes, as caught on a video provided to The Daily Wire.


Assad remains in Syria, urged to govern in exile after fall of Hama
Syrian President Bashar Assad remains in Syria as of Friday, though Egyptian and Jordanian officials have urged him to leave the country and form a government in exile, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The advice reflects the regime’s rapidly deteriorating position amid the ongoing offensive being led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebels. They have captured Aleppo and Hama, two of Syria’s largest cities, and are poised to strike at Homs, the last major city under regime control on the road to the capital of Damascus.

The capture of Homs would also cut off Damascus from the coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus, predominantly Alawite areas that are home to Assad’s most loyal supporters and the site of Russia’s Mediterranean naval base.

Government resistance appears to be crumbling elsewhere as well, with U.S.-backed Kurds taking the city of Deir al-Zour in the east on Friday and rebel uprisings around Daraa province near the border with Israel.

According to WSJ, Assad’s wife and children traveled to Russia last week, and his brothers-in-law have departed for the United Arab Emirates.
IDF assists UN forces in Hader area in Syria repel attack by armed forces
The IDF is currently assisting the UN forces in repelling an attack that was carried out by armed individuals at a UN post in the Hader area in Syria, the IDF announced Saturday evening.

On Friday, the IDF ordered reinforcements be sent to the Golan Heights after southern Syrian rebels took over much of the south and border region on Friday.

The town of Hader lies just over the border from the Golan Heights, near the town of Majdal Shams, where Hezbollah killed 12 children.

A UN base sits between the Israeli-controlled territory to the west and the Syrian-controlled territory to the east.

The Golan Regional Council informed its residents that "in the last few minutes, gunfire has been heard in the area. This is the firing of our forces, who are deployed in defense in the area."

Residents of the Golan told Maariv that they were wary of developments and weren't sure whether the rebels would be any different than Assad.
Syrian rebel commander urges Israel to support uprising, strike Iran-backed forces
For over a week, insurgents have been battling Syrian regime forces and their allies in a lightning uprising, taking control of Aleppo and Hama, respectively the country’s second and fourth largest city, and pushing toward Homs, a key crossroads city linking the capital Damascus to Assad’s coastal heartlands.

The assault has registered unexpected advances as it engendered a “domino effect,” according to a Syrian journalist based in Aleppo who spoke to The Times of Israel on condition of anonymity, as contingents loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad retreated one after the other upon hearing of the insurgents’ first achievements.

Pro-government forces backed by intense Russian airstrikes have been trying to halt the insurgents’ advance, but Assad is now in dire straits, as his traditional allies Moscow and Tehran are mired in conflicts of their own, while the Shiite terror group Hezbollah, which assisted him in staving off the civil war and allowed him to maintain his grip on power, has been decimated by the Israel Defense Forces in Lebanon.

This week, The Times of Israel spoke with a rebel commander from the Free Syrian Army, a secular coalition of opposition forces founded by mainly Sunni defectors from the Syrian military at the outbreak of the civil war in 2011.

Its primary goal is to organize resistance against the Assad regime. Over a decade ago, the group positioned itself as a moderate alternative to more extremist factions, advocating for a democratic and secular Syria.

The FSA gained international attention at the outbreak of the civil war by taking control of significant territories in northern Syria, including parts of Aleppo. At the time it was seen as the primary opposition force against Assad. It began receiving arms and aid from Western and Gulf countries, including the US, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, but over time, Turkey became its main backer.

However, as ISIS and other jihadist groups gained prominence, the FSA struggled to maintain relevance and became embroiled in clashes with other rebel factions. In recent years, the FSA has morphed into a loose coalition of various factions with differing ideologies, leading to challenges in maintaining cohesion and a unified command structure.

The commander interviewed by The Times of Israel participated in the recent seizure of Aleppo and his troops are now fighting government forces, Hezbollah and Iran-backed militias in the area, and pushing south.

The rebel leader, in his early 60s, agreed to be interviewed by phone on condition of anonymity and spoke of the objectives of the ongoing campaign, his vision for the future of Syria and relations with Israel, and the role the Jewish state can play, in his view, in support of the rebels.


Not our war: Trump warns against interfering in Syrian civil war
President-elect Donald Trump said on Saturday that the United States should not interfere in Syria in a post on social media site Truth Social.

"Syria is a mess but is not our friend, & THE UNITED STATES SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT. LET IT PLAY OUT. DO NOT GET INVOLVED!" Trump said.

He also said that the rebels in Syria are on the outskirts of Damascus and are preparing for a major move to remove Assad.

Trump said that because Russia is busy fighting a war with Ukraine, it "seems incapable of stopping this literal march through Syria, a country they have protected for years."

If Russia were forced out of Syria, it "may actually be the best thing that can happen to them" because "there was never much of a benefit in Syria for Russia," Trump said.

A return to isolationism?
Trump's comments echo those he gave in his first term when he pushed for the removal of all US personnel from Syria.

His withdrawal of US troops in 2019 was seen as something that exposed the SDF-Kurdish forces to a Turkish invasion of northern Syria, which ultimately led to them signing agreements with Assad, helping him to preserve his regime.

At the time, Trump dismissed the possibility of the return of major jihadist forces to Syria, saying, "By the way, everybody hates ISIS."

"I campaigned on bringing our soldiers back home, and that's what I am doing," he explained at the time.


Syrian rebels make significant gains toward Damascus, near Israeli border
What matters for our purposes is not the name but the progress the group made recently. It had been in an area called Tanf in the desert near the Jordanian-Iraq border. This area had a 55km zone around it, basically a half circle, that the US kept the regime out of. The regime had attacked this area with drones, and Kataib Hezbollah even targeted an area in Jordan called Tower 22 near here, killing three American personnel in January 2024. Now, the shoe is on the other foot, and these rebel groups have burst out of Tanf and headed toward Palmyra. They also reportedly took a strategic mountain called Gharab near the Iraqi border.

Shaam online media said that “the Free Syrian Army factions in the Al-Tanf area announced today, Saturday, December 7, 2024, the start of their military movement in the Syrian Badia region east of Homs, and launching attacks against regime positions, in parallel with the battles taking place on the outskirts of the northern city of Homs, and the exit of the Daraa and Sweida governorates from the control of the regime, in a scene that seems to lead to tightening the noose and imposing a comprehensive siege on the center of the capital, Damascus.”

The offensive by the rebel group from Tanf is important as it cuts off the Iranian-backed movement from Albukamal toward Palmyra and also toward other bases in the desert called T3, T4, and T2. T4, or Tiyas base, was a key base for the Russians and Iranians.

The Iranians even tried to fly a Khorded air defense system into that base in April 2018. Albukamal, on the Syrian border with Iraq, is important because Kataib Hezbollah once had a base there until a June 2018 airstrike. Iran then built a base called Imam Ali near there. Now it appears the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have taken Albukamal as well as Deir Ezzor. This apparently caused the Syrian regime to also flee Palmyra in the desert.

It's hard to understand all these moves without familiarity with all these places. What’s important to think about is that the Syrian regime's strength lies in Damascus and also a line of cities such as Homs and Hama, Aleppo, and the area of Lattakia. The regime also held Deir Ezzor during the ISIS war when it was under siege from 2014-2017. The rapid collapse of the regime in these areas is fascinating because, in many cases, it had held and fought for these areas, such as Dara’a, for years. Now, it has collapsed in just hours in many of these areas.

One has to imagine now that the regime is losing ground in the north from the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) offensive that began around November 27. HTS took Aleppo and then Hama. Now, it may take Homs. The SDF has caught the regime by surprise, taking areas near Deir Ezzor and Albukamal. The formerly reconciled Syrian rebels of the Southern Operations area have retaken Dara’a province six years after they lost it in 2018. The rebels at Tanf have moved toward Palmyra and secured key areas of the desert.

The Druze have taken parts of the Hauran. This represents a series of moves that could encircle Damascus. The factions don’t necessarily all get along. The SDF and HTS are from different ends of the political spectrum, one a left leaning movement rooted in part in the Kurdish parts of northeast Syria, and one a religious movement rooted in Islam and moving from Idlib in northwest Syria. The rebels in the south are all historic rebels who date back to 2011 in varying ways. They are very different than the SDF or HTS. There are also Arab tribal elements and the Druze. The fact that the Assad regime alienated all these groups shows how weak it is.


IDF announces Capt. Avraham Ben-Pinchas killed in the Gaza Strip
Captain (Capt.) Avraham Ben-Pinchas was killed in battle in the southern Gaza Strip, the IDF announced on Saturday.

Capt. Ben-Pinchas, 23, from Mahrasha, was a Platoon commander in the 46th Battalion in the 401st Brigade.

Notably, he received a head wound nearly two months ago while fighting in Gaza, but chose to return to battle, according to a Facebook post by Israel Gantz, head of the Binyamin Regional Council.

A community remembers
"We bow our heads at the loss of the heroic Avraham, a respected officer who led his soldiers in the fight against the Gazan enemy with the mission to eradicate it and bring back the hostages," wrote Gantz in a Saturday Facebook post.

"We pray that the family finds strength and that God grants them great comfort. Binyamin sends its condolences and support to the Mahrasha community."

Ben-Pinchas was promoted from lieutenant to captain after his death. He leaves behind his parents and nine siblings. He had another sister who died in a car accident four years ago.


Amnesty et al.’s Dictionary Applies Only to Jews
Words matter. But in the media and the “human rights” industry, double standards abound when it comes to words and the Jewish people.

Perhaps the most prominent offender is Amnesty International. The organization just released a new error-laden, methodologically flawed report accusing Israel of committing “genocide.” But as the legal scholar Mark Goldfeder pointed out, Amnesty brazenly redefined the word.

In Amnesty’s own words: “As outlined below, Amnesty International considers [the existing legal definition of the crime of genocide] an overly cramped interpretation of international jurisprudence and one that would effectively preclude a finding of genocide in the context of an armed conflict.”

Put more simply, the “human rights” organization redefined the law, and then claimed that Israel was acting lawlessly. They’re not just fitting a square peg in a round hole; they’re carving out an entirely new hole.

This isn’t the first time that Amnesty has engaged in such dishonest behavior. The organization used the same tactic to accuse Israel of another grave crime, “apartheid.” In twisting both the law and the facts, Amnesty and other organizations concocted bizarre definitions of key elements of the alleged crime.

But the degradation of the English language isn’t confined to the lengthy reports and slanderous campaigns of “human rights” activists. Consider just a handful of examples from everyday reporting by news outlets.

In 2022, the magazine Foreign Policy claimed that Israel had used “lethal force” against rioters on the Temple Mount in April 2021. After being pressed for a correction, a Foreign Policy editor claimed that the “lethal force” was the use of rubber bullets.

But in other contexts, the same magazine describes rubber bullets as “non-lethal weapons.”

Earlier this year, CNN claimed that Israel had imposed a “blockade on aid” into Gaza. A “blockade” normally refers to “the isolation by a warning nation of an enemy area (such as a harbor) by troops or warships to prevent passage of persons or supplies.”

CNN admitted there “has been a recent uptick in aid being allowed to cross” (in just the month prior, Israel facilitated the entry of over 100,000 tons of aid), but still refused to correct. Allowing aid to cross is not a “blockade.” Had this been an elementary school vocabulary exam, CNN would have failed.

Just this week, Reuters claimed that Israel had “carpet bombed” the southern suburbs of Beirut. Far from a “devastating bombing attack that seeks to destroy every part of a wide area,” as defined by Britannica, Reuters’ own reporting and photographs depict pinpoint strikes leaving surrounding buildings intact.


Netanyahu ties Melbourne shul attack to Labor government’s ‘extreme anti-Israelism’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the torching of a synagogue in Melbourne, Australia, and suggested that the antisemitic act was inextricably linked to the Labor government in Canberra’s “extreme anti-Israelism.”

“The burning of the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne is an abhorrent act of antisemitism. I expect the state authorities to use their full weight to prevent such antisemitic acts in the future,” he said in a statement issued by his office on Friday.

“Unfortunately, it is impossible to separate this reprehensible act from the extreme anti-Israeli position of the Labor government in Australia, including the scandalous decision to support the U.N. resolution calling on Israel ‘to bring an end to its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as rapidly as possible,’ and preventing a former Israeli minister from entering the country.

“Anti-Israel sentiment is antisemitism,” the premier said.

Earlier on Friday, Israeli President Isaac Herzog spoke with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, during which the former expressed his “firm condemnation” of the arson attack.

“Following the atrocities carried out by Hamas against Israel on and since Oct. 7, 2023, there has been an intolerable wave of attacks on Jewish communities in Australia and around the world,” Herzog said.

“I noted to the Prime Minister [Albanese] that this rise and the increasingly serious antisemitic attacks on the Jewish community required firm and strong action and that this was a message that must be heard clearly from Australia’s leaders. I thanked him for his ongoing efforts to combat antisemitism, and expressed my trust that the local law enforcement would do everything in their power to bring the perpetrators to justice,” added the president.


‘Deep parallels’: Nova Peris calls for Aboriginal solidarity with Jewish people
At a small gathering in Melbourne on Friday, former senator Nova Peris will evoke the legacy of Aboriginal rights activist William Cooper to call for greater solidarity among Indigenous people towards Jewish Australians.

It is one of a series of planned commemorations of Cooper, whose 1938 protest against the persecution of Jews by Nazi Germany has in recent years gained totemic status among Australian Jewry. The commemorations will take place against the backdrop on ongoing war in Gaza and surging levels of antisemitism.

The culmination of the Melbourne event will see one of Cooper’s great, great-grandsons, Michael McDonogh, present a Victorian government representative with a statement of unity calling for an end to racism and greater social cohesion.

A sharper message is expected to be delivered by Peris. Her support for Israel since the October 7 atrocities has put her at odds with Aboriginal activists such as Gary Foley – a student of Cooper’s life and now a prominent figure with the pro-Palestine protest movement – and Indigenous senator Lidia Thorpe, who regularly attends pro-Palestine rallies and has drawn parallels between the experience of Indigenous Australians and Palestinians.

According to a copy of her speech provided to this masthead, Peris will tell a group of multi-faith leaders and Jewish and Aboriginal community members that, in leading an Australian Aborigines’ League protest 86 years ago against the persecution of distant people he had never met, Cooper showed a moral clarity needed today.

“When he marched to the German consulate in 1938, he didn’t march for his own people. He marched for the Jewish people – strangers to him but bound to him by a shared understanding of suffering and the unyielding belief in justice,” Peris will say.

“He knew, as we must, that the fight against hate anywhere is a fight against hate everywhere.

“As I reflect on his legacy, I see the deep parallels between the Aboriginal and Jewish peoples. Both of us have endured systemic oppression and attempts to erase our histories, and yet both of us have survived—stronger, prouder, and more determined to ensure that these injustices are never forgotten.

“William Cooper’s protest ... was an extraordinary act of courage. It was an act of empathy, of moral clarity, and of profound humanity. It reminds us that we cannot stand silent in the face of injustice.”

Cooper’s story was first brought to the attention of the Melbourne Holocaust Museum by Foley and now forms part of permanent Holocaust exhibits in Melbourne, Sydney and Jerusalem.
‘PM, how did you let it get to this?’: Frydenberg calls on Albanese to ‘step up’
Former treasurer Josh Frydenberg has called on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to “step up” after the firebombing of a synagogue in Melbourne on Friday.

Emergency services were called to Addas Israel Synagogue of Melbourne in Ripponlea, near St Kilda, on Friday at about 4:10am after calls about a building fire.

The synagogue has sustained significant damage.

“Today, I penned a letter to our Prime Minister. It was a call to action. Enough is enough,” Mr Frydenberg said at a media conference on Saturday alongside former Labor senator Nova Peris.

“The terrorist attack at the Addas Synagogue was just the latest in a long list of antisemitic attacks that has occurred on the Prime Minister’s watch in our country since October the 7th last year.

“Prime Minster, how did you let it get to this, where social cohesion in Australia has broken down, where the Australian Jewish community lives in fear, where antisemitism has become normalised?

“Please, Prime Minister, see what is happening, understand what is happening, and act.

“You and your ministers need to step up, not step back from the challenges we face.”




Explosive device thrown at Jewish community in Cape Town, South Africa
An improvised explosive device was thrown at a Jewish community center in South Africa at 10:30 local time on Friday morning, the Cape South Africa Jewish Board of Deputies announced on Friday.

The explosive reportedly failed to detonate, and no one was wounded.

The Improvised Explosive Device (IED) was discovered at the Jewish Community Offices in Gardens.

Authorities have been made aware of the incident and are investigating.
Germany’s appeasement of Islamists has got to stop
What was Berlin’s chief of police thinking, when she warned Jews and gay people to hide their identities in certain parts of the city?

In an interview last month in the Berliner Zeitung, Barbara Slowik said: ‘There are areas of the city, we need to be perfectly honest here, where I would advise people who wear a kippah or are openly gay or lesbian to be more careful.’ She also said that while she didn’t want to blame any one group for this, ‘there are certain neighbourhoods where the majority of people of Arab origin live, who also have sympathies for terrorist groups… and are openly hostile towards Jews’.

The interview has since caused a huge stir in Germany. Sigmount A Königsberg, a leading Jewish-community activist, praised Slowik for ‘so correctly and clearly’ naming the main perpetrators of anti-Semitism in modern Germany. Berlin’s CDU mayor, Kai Wegner, also backed his police chief: ‘She addresses the problems openly, as I expect from her.’ But there has been plenty of outrage, too. The left-liberal Taz newspaper slammed Slowik’s ‘alarmism’ as a gift to right-wingers and conservatives. There is nothing ‘brave’, it argued, in giving voice to what it characterised as anti-Muslim prejudice.

Slowik’s intervention echoes a similarly bleak warning, made several years ago, by the German government’s anti-Semitism commissioner, Felix Klein. In 2019, he said that he wouldn’t advise Jews to wear the kippah ‘everywhere, all the time’ when out in public. His remarks caused widespread shock and outrage, with many arguing that Germans must never allow there to be ‘no-go areas’ for Jews.

It’s a damning indictment of the German state that now, five years later, the woman whose primary task it is to ensure the safety of Berlin’s streets, is also advising Jews – and now gay people, too – to hide who they are.

In truth, things have got considerably worse since 2019. The Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023 in Israel opened the floodgates to open anti-Semitism in Germany. Within hours of the massacres, people in Berlin’s Neukölln and other areas were seen celebrating and cheering. By December 2023, the police had registered over 1,100 anti-Semitic offences – these included an arson attack against a synagogue and other violent threats. As a result, Israel’s National Security Council issued a travel warning for its citizens travelling to Germany. ‘People should avoid outward displays of their Jewish identity or Israeli citizenship’, the warning said.

If Slowik’s words can be called ‘brave’, then that is only because they mark a change to the usual denialism that characterises the German political class’s attitude to Muslim anti-Semitism. For far too long, the threats emanating from militant Islamism among certain migrant communities have been downplayed or ignored in mainstream and elite circles. Any mention of this has long been considered insulting to migrant communities – or pandering to the right-populist Alternative for Germany (AfD).
German Police Foil Planned Islamist Terror Attack on Augsburg Christmas Market
A 37-year-old Iraqi asylum seeker has been arrested in Augsburg, Germany, for allegedly planning a terrorist attack on the city’s popular Christmas market, local police confirmed.

Authorities acted after discovering evidence that the suspect, named as Ali Al-G, had scouted the market and engaged with Islamic State (IS) operatives online. The arrest has highlighted ongoing security concerns surrounding Christmas markets across Germany, which have been targets for Islamist terrorism in recent years.

Die Welt reports that Ali Al-G was detained on Wednesday evening at an asylum seekers’ residence in Augsburg. Police cited a warrant issued by the Augsburg District Court to secure his deportation under Section 58a of Germany’s Residence Act, a rarely invoked measure for individuals deemed an imminent security threat. According to law enforcement, Al-G had taken photographs of Augsburg’s Christkindlesmarkt and discussed using a vehicle to ram into the crowd, a method reminiscent of previous IS-inspired attacks in Europe.

Investigators revealed that Al-G had a history of posting pro-IS content on social media, including videos glorifying suicide bombings and executions. These activities first came to the attention of German authorities through a foreign intelligence agency. The suspect reportedly maintained contact with IS members and openly supported jihadist ideology in online forums.

This incident is the latest in a series of thwarted plots targeting Germany’s Christmas markets, which are particularly vulnerable to attacks. Last month, a 17-year-old male of Turkish descent was arrested in Elmshorn, Schleswig-Holstein, on suspicion of planning a truck attack on a local market. In November 2023, another Iraqi national was detained in Hanover after authorities discovered plans for a similar assault. Two teenagers were also apprehended last year for conspiring to execute an attack in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia, using a fuel-laden truck.

Authorities have been on heightened alert following the 2016 Berlin Christmas market attack that claimed 12 lives. German security agencies continue to collaborate with international counterparts to intercept communications and pre-empt attacks. Despite these efforts, concerns about the influence of extremist groups in the digital space persist, particularly among younger individuals.


Call that free speech? Anti-terror probe launched into Oxford Union Israel debate which labelled Israel an 'apartheid state responsible for genocide'
The Oxford Union has a reputation as one of the world’s most prestigious debating societies and is a bastion of free speech.

But it has found itself at the centre of a censorship row after publishing muted footage of a debate on genocide.

Jonathan Sacerdoti, a Jewish journalist and Oxford alumnus, was heckled and abused during a speech opposing a student motion branding Israel an ‘apartheid state responsible for genocide’.

One woman shouted at Mr Sacerdoti that he was ‘a liar’ before adding: ‘F*** you, the genocidal motherf*****!’

A spokesman for Counter Terrorism Policing South East said it was ‘making enquiries’ into reports of ‘a person expressing support for a proscribed organisation’ during the event.

Mr Sacerdoti has now accused the 200-year-old society of airbrushing out the abuse levelled against him by muting parts of a video of his speech uploaded to YouTube.

Around eight minutes into the footage, he says that Israel has given 700,000 tons of food to Gaza, which prompts shouts from the audience.
Yoseph Haddad's speech at Oxford



John Fetterman Says His US Senate Votes Will ‘Follow Israel’ During Trump Presidency
US Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) on Thursday defended President Joe Biden’s record on Israel and stated that he plans on maintaining his support for pro-Israel efforts advanced by President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration.

During an appearance on the ABC talk show “The View,” Fetterman said that he would remain an “unapologetic” supporter of Israel during the Trump presidency and that he will continue to support legislation and initiatives that benefit the Jewish state.

“I’m a really strong, unapologetic supporter of Israel and it’s really not going to change for me when Trump becomes [president]. My vote and voice is going to follow Israel,” Fetterman said.

Fetterman also vouched for Biden’s record on Israel, although he conceded that he has disagreed with some of Biden’s policy positions regarding the Israel-Hamas war.

“I do think that the president has been a strong supporter of Israel, although there were times when I disagreed with some of the choices he made,” Fetterman said.

In the year following Hamas’s invasion of southern Israel last Oct. 7, Fetterman has emerged as a surprisingly stalwart ally of the Jewish state. He has regularly criticized other Democrats, including Biden, over their perceived fragile and unreliable support of Israel.

The lawmaker openly criticized Biden after the president threatened to withhold arms from Israel if the Jewish state greenlighted military operations in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza. Fetterman repudiated Biden’s ultimatum, saying that the US should “stand with our key ally throughout all of this.” He has also rebuffed pressure by progressives to adopt a more adversarial posture against Israel, saying that he does “not support any conditions” on American military aid to the Jewish sate.

Fetterman on Thursday also lauded Israel for its progress in deteriorating the Hamas terrorist group’s military capabilities. The senator asserted that Hamas needs to be completely eradicated and removed from the Gaza Strip.

“We cannot allow Hamas to function at all. They can’t be a part of any rebuilding Gaza or anything. Hamas has to surrender. It’ll be completely destroyed, and I think right now that largely that’s already happened now,” Fetterman said, adding that he wants to “salute what Israel has accomplished.”
Democrats’ Support for Israel ‘Absolutely’ Contributed to US Presidential Election Loss, NC Party Chair Claims
Anderson Clayton, chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party, said in a new interview that Democrats’ general support for Israel’s defensive military operations against Hamas in Gaza contributed to their poor performance in last month’s elections.

Clayton made the remarks while appearing on the media outlet Zeteo this week to explain why she believes her party lost big across the US, most notably in the presidential election. Speaking with Mehdi Hasan, a journalist and outspoken critic of Israel, Clayton argued that the Democratic Party “abandoned” wide swaths of its voter base, adding that the party’s support for Israel likely alienated many younger voters.

When asked by Hasan whether the Israel-Hamas war resonated with the electorate in North Carolina, Clayton argued that the ongoing military conflict in Gaza “absolutely” eroded the Democrats’ standing with young voters.

As The Algemeiner reported, a survey of swing voters by Blueprint, a Democrat-leaning research firm, found the issue of Israel and the Palestinians barely registered as motivation for choosing Republican Donald Trump over Democrat Kamala Harris in the presidential race. Voters were more worried about inflation, immigration, and certain cultural issues. Among those voters for whom it was a factor, the survey found more people concerned that Harris was too “pro-Palestine” than those upset she was too “pro-Israel.”

Nonetheless, Hasan, citing anti-Israel protests at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, suggested that Democrats’ support for Israel disillusioned and enraged many young voters.

Clayton defended the “Uncommitted Movement” — an effort launched by anti-Israel activists to persuade the Democratic Party to officially endorse an arms embargo against the Jewish state and not support outgoing US President Joe Biden — as “using political power in the right way.”

She added that Democrats should be “embracing” anti-Israel efforts like the Uncommitted Movement, saying “that is something that we want so see more of in our party.”
Jewish Democrat Announces Primary Challenge Against Anti-Israel New York City Councilwoman
Maya Kornberg, a Jewish Democrat from Brooklyn, New York, has launched a campaign to unseat New York City Councilwoman Shahana Hanif, an outspoken critic of Israel.

Kornberg announced on Tuesday that she will seek to represent District 39 in the New York City Council. Much of the city’s Jewish community has expressed outrage at Hanif over her repeated repudiations of Israel, including her false accusations that the war against the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza constitutes a “genocide.”

“I am thrilled to announce that I’m running for NYC Council in District 39! With the Trump presidency looming, local governance is more important than ever, and the City Council is our best line of defense,” Kornberg wrote on X/Twitter on Tuesday. “Together, I believe we can build a district where everyone can feel happy, safe, and thrive.”

“I’ve dedicated my career to making democracy work better,” Kornberg added in a statement, promising that if elected she will concentrate on “standing up against hate, providing reliable constituent services, and delivering meaningful change for every resident in every corner of the district.”

Kornberg’s decision to enter next June’s Democratic primary contest sets up a showdown between a self-described “pragmatic” liberal and a far-left democratic socialist. Hanif, who represents heavily Jewish neighborhoods in central Brooklyn such as Park Slope, has reportedly enraged her constituents by ignoring concerns about antisemitism and unloading an unrelenting barrage of criticism directed at Israel.

Following Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel last Oct. 7, Hanif issued a statement blaming the Jewish state for the terrorist attacks.

“The root cause of this war is the illegal, immoral, and unjust occupation of the Palestinian people. The Occupation has brought violence toward Israelis and Palestinians for over 75 years. There will be no peace unless the rights of all people in this region are respected,” Hanif wrote on X/Twitter on Oct. 13.


‘Pee on Hamas’ stickers lining NYC streets, Central Park designed to fool antisemites
Peel these stickers at your own risk.

“Pee on Hamas” labels being sold on Instagram have found their way onto the Upper West Side’s utility poles, trash cans, street signs and fire hydrants, and in Central Park.

The stickers are sold on Instagram and can already be found on the Upper West Side J.C. Rice

The stickers feature the silhouette of a dog relieving itself, and if placed low enough, passing pups can do their business on them, as intended.

Handsy antisemites, prone to ripping down posters supporting Israel or Israeli hostages, will end up with dog urine on their hands if they try to remove the stickers.

“They’re amazing,” offered a Post tipster. “If the Hamas supporters rip those down, they at least are touching dog pee.”

The Post contacted the creators of the stickers through their Instagram page, but has not received a reply.

They claim all proceeds from their sale will be donated to Friends of the IDF, under the name “Pee on Hamas.”

Buyers are also encouraged to put the stickers over pro-Hamas propaganda they come across.


Israeli Creatives Discuss Being Boycotted, ‘Systematically Canceled’ by Film Festivals Over Gaza War
Israeli filmmakers, television producers, and other creatives in the entertainment industry opened up to Variety in an interview published on Thursday about being backlisted from prestigious film festivals and losing collaborators, jobs, and funding since the start of the Israel-Hams war last year.

Directors, producers, and actors discussed with Variety how their projects have been intentionally excluded from film festivals, which would prefer not to stir controversy and incite anti-Israel protesters by featuring Israeli films. Israeli filmmaker Shoval Tshuva told the publication that her short film “Funky,” which is about her personal experience facing sexual assault, was dropped from multiple festivals following the Hamas-led Palestinian terrorist attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

“I made a film about the most dehumanizing experience that I ever had to go through. And in a way, I was so focused on being a woman and telling a female story that I forgot that I’m Israeli and Jewish and that that comes with a whole other sort of discrimination,” Tshuva explained. “The fact is Israeli filmmakers are getting systematically canceled.”

The Toronto Film Festival in September only included one Israeli project – Shemi Zarhin’s relationship drama “Bliss” — which was included last-minute and not part of the initial lineup, according to Variety. The film festival did, however, include four films from Palestinian directors.

“During my participation at the Jerusalem Film Festival in July, filmmakers and producers shared with me that they are being told by programmers for the major festivals, including Sundance and Toronto, that they are not comfortable taking Israeli films or documentaries at this point in time,” said veteran Hollywood attorney Craig Emanuel, who counsels Ryan Murphy Productions and has advised the Sundance Film Festival in the past. “Programmers are saying they are concerned about pushback and demonstrations regardless of whether [a film] is political or not. That’s just not a healthy thing for us as an industry or a society.”


Editorial Bias: Campus Newspapers Must Stop Marginalizing Jews
Much has been said about the shifting campus climate at elite universities, with scholars, policymakers, and the public expressing alarm over rising antisemitism. Yet, amid all this scrutiny, one crucial driver of campus culture has been largely overlooked: Student journalism.

Campus newspapers are not just a reflection of the discourse on campus — they shape it. These publications set the agenda for campus debates, influence perceptions, and focus campuses on certain issues. They also train the next generation of media professionals. While global media has zoned in on the behavior of students in classrooms and protest movements, few have paused to examine how activist-driven editorial boards are entrenching polarized narratives about Israel on campus.

Student journalism at these institutions isn’t a sideshow; it’s a powerful force in normalizing ideas that can have far-reaching implications. Publications at some of our most esteemed universities are at the forefront of legitimizing rhetoric that vilifies the Jewish state and marginalizes Jewish and pro-Israel students. The Dangerous Nexus of Journalism and Activism

The rise of anti-Israel sentiment in campus newspapers predates the events of Oct. 7, 2023. Student journalism at some of the most elite universities had already become a breeding ground for rhetoric that marginalizes Jewish voices and vilifies Israel.

On April 29, 2022, the Harvard Crimson editorial board endorsed the Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel. In so doing, it embraced a campaign that explicitly calls for the dismantling of the world’s only Jewish state. BDS co-founder Omar Barghouti has stated unequivocally that the movement “opposes a Jewish state in any part of Palestine.” BDS’ objective is not dialogue but destruction — an end to Jewish sovereignty and self-determination. The editorial’s language, couched in appeals to justice and human rights, cloaked an ideology steeped in discrimination under the guise of progressive advocacy. The board aligned itself with a movement that rejects coexistence and referred to Israel as “America’s favorite [F]irst [A]mendment blindspot.” This endorsement is not without consequence. According to research from the AMCHA Initiative, institutions where BDS and anti-Zionist rhetoric take root are up to eight times more likely to experience harassment and harm targeting Jewish students. The Crimson’s position signaled to the academic world that such hostility is mainstream in America’s elite institutions.

In 2022, Wellesley College’s student newspaper, The Wellesley News, endorsed the Mapping Project, an initiative that marked Jewish institutions in Massachusetts — including schools, synagogues, and community organizations — as “highly militarized forces” complicit in “white supremacy” and “colonialism.” The project targeted institutions like Gann Academy, a Jewish high school, and the Synagogue Council of Massachusetts — hardly entities of systemic oppression. By calling the Mapping Project a “vital service,” the editorial board gave credibility to a campaign widely criticized as antisemitic for its dangerous singling out of Jewish organizations. The Anti-Defamation League condemned the project, warning that it could incite violence against Jewish communities by portraying them as enemies in a fabricated war against social justice. Endorsements like this exemplify how campus newspapers have strayed from responsible journalism, instead providing platforms for extremist ideologies that undermine Jewish identity and legitimize antisemitic conspiracies.
Columbia University's SJP prints its first newspaper 'Columbia Intifada'
Columbia University's Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) organization issued its first print paper known as "The Columbia Intifada," according to a post this week by Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD).

The CUAD also said that they're distributing 1,000 copies of the first paper.

US Republican Congressman Mike Lawler (NY-17) described the introduction of the paper as "outrageous," stating that the university should "lose federal funding and have their tax-exempt status revoked" if Jewish students are not protected on campus.

He further said that any university student in the country on a visa who is "engaging in an 'intifada'" against American Jewish students should be deported.

Contents of the paper
"The Columbia Intifada" contains extreme anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian content. Notable headlines seen on the front cover include "Palestinian Prisoners," "The Myth of the Two-State Solution," and "Zionist Peace Means Palestinian Blood."

CUAD reportedly had a read-in of the paper at Butler Library on the university campus.


Reuters Accidentally Exposes Gaza ‘Famine’ Claims to Be a Downright Lie
The so-called “special investigation” published by Reuters this week examining the global famine prevention system was certainly revealing — though perhaps not in the way the wire agency intended.

While claiming to expose the failures of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system in preventing hunger — failures that Reuters insists are through no fault of the IPC — the investigation inadvertently highlighted glaring flaws in how famines are measured, particularly in Gaza.

The article discusses several famines from around the globe, including the alleged one in Gaza, where the IPC had warned of an “imminent famine” in the northern region. That famine, of course, never materialized, with HonestReporting previously revealing how the IPC quietly walked back its claim.

According to Reuters, however, this inaccurate forecast wasn’t due to dubious data or exaggerated claims — it was, naturally, Israel’s fault.

Citing “Israeli bombing and restrictions on movement” as the obstacles to collecting data on malnutrition and non-trauma-related deaths, Reuters sidesteps key facts.

For example, Israel has facilitated the entry of nearly half a million aid trucks into Gaza since the start of the war — information Reuters conveniently omits. Also missing is any mention of Hamas’ well-documented habit of stealing and hoarding aid.

In fact, the word “Hamas” appears a grand total of twice in the 4,000-word piece, and only then in photo captions referencing the “Israel-Hamas war.”


Satellite images of alleged Iranian nuclear site hit by Israel indicate Tehran tried to hide sensitive debris
New satellite imagery of an Iranian military site that Israel apparently destroyed in October and that some Western analysts said was a nuclear facility shows that Iran made efforts to conceal the debris. Those efforts indicate the site contained something of value, the analysts told VOA.

The commercial satellite images from Maxar Technologies published Monday on the X platform by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security show the destroyed building known as Taleghan 2 at Iran's Parchin military base on November 6 and November 24.

An archive of Iranian nuclear documents seized by Israel from Tehran in 2018 and later shared by Israel with the institute included what the group has said were pre-2004 images of Taleghan 2, showing the building housing equipment used in nuclear weapons research.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has said Iran suspended an active nuclear weapons program in 2003. Iran has denied Israel's allegation that it has covertly continued that program.

Israel apparently struck Taleghan 2 in its October 26 aerial assault on Iran, according to Western media citing researchers who examined before-and-after commercial satellite images of the rectangular building, which had been built in a carved-out section of hillside.

The new images published by the institute show that by November 6, Iran had covered the demolished building with a makeshift horizontal structure and erected vertical security screens next to debris piles, shielding the site from being viewed from above and on the ground.

The images also show that by November 26, the vertical security screens had been removed, while the horizontal structure remained over the building and the debris piles remained visible around the site. The institute identified one pile as probably containing destroyed equipment.

In an interview with VOA, the institute's president, American physicist David Albright, said the resolution of the commercial satellite imagery was not high enough to identify what kind of equipment likely had been destroyed inside Taleghan 2. But he said the erecting of two vertical screens at the site for several weeks indicates that some of the debris was of a sensitive nature.

"I think Iran put up the screens because it was nervous that foreign intelligence agents could use a telescope from down the road to figure out what was in the debris," Albright said. "They later took down the screens probably because they had hauled away the sensitive stuff and wanted to make it easier to continue the cleanup process at the site."
Iran’s Nuclear Leap ‘Extremely Serious, Has No Civilian Justification’
Iran’s increase in the amount of uranium enriched to up to 60 percent purity is “extremely serious,” unjustified for civilian purposes, and contradicts Tehran’s statements regarding credible nuclear negotiations, a Western diplomatic source was quoted by Reuters as saying on Saturday.

“These measures have no credible civilian justification and could, on the contrary, directly fuel a military nuclear program if Iran were to take the decision,” the unnamed official said. “They are in contradiction with Iran’s declarations on its willingness to return to credible negotiations.”

The International Atomic Energy Agency later confirmed in a confidential report to member states that Iran was speeding up uranium enrichment, a process that refines the raw material so that it can be used as fuel in civil nuclear power generation or, potentially, nuclear weapons.

“The information reported by the Director General of the Agency, indicating a significant increase in Iran’s capacity to produce highly enriched uranium at 60%, is extremely serious,” the Western diplomatic source told Reuters.
British Iranian film-maker raises money for Hezbollah families
A British Iranian film-maker is fundraising for families of terror group Hezbollah, whose fighters he has described as “brave men”.

Dr Reza John Vedadi, a media commentator who has appeared on the Iranian state-owned Press TV, said on social media that he was raising money for families whose “sons, husbands and fathers fought and gave their lives and limbs” in Lebanon.

Vedadi, who has addressed Islamic and Iranian student societies at several leading London universities, also memorialised the late “Butcher of Tehran” Ebrahim Raisi as a “martyr”, sharing an image of the late Iranian president sweeping snow with his servants.

The film-maker, who researches the representation of Muslims in Hollywood, previously described fighters in Yemen and Lebanon as “brave men”.

“Get yourself a friend like those brave men of Yemen and Lebanon. No matter how tired they are after fighting global oppressors, they will still come to aid you in your [h]our of need,” he posted on Instagram on Monday.

In the wake of the Lebanon ceasefire deal, he posted: “A Lebanese family in Qom/Iran is in need of financial aid. If you would like to donate please DM [direct message]. The war has stopped for now, but many will need our support to get back home and rebuild.

“Please remember their sons, husbands and fathers fought and gave their lives and limbs. Least we can do is support those in need.”

On LinkedIn he posted about Ayatollah Khamenei’s “enlightening sermon” on October 4. Vedadi said Khamenei’s speech – in which the Supreme Leader referred to October 7 as a moment of “fierce defence” – sent a “powerful message to the world”.


Memphis police arrest juvenile for murder of Israeli citizen Aviv Broek
Memphis police arrested a 17-year-old male last week in connection to the murder of Israeli citizen Aviv Broek in late November, the police confirmed on X/Twitter last Thursday.

Police said the 17-year-old was charged with “First Degree Murder in Perpetration of a Robbery and Especially Aggravated Robbery.”

“His name was not released due to his age,” a police spokesperson told the Jewish News Syndicate.

Aviv Broek, a 21-year-old Israeli national with a British parent, was working as a locksmith in the area. On the morning of November 22, he responded to a client call on Hernando Road - it was while responding to the call that he was murdered.

Broek, who was reportedly born and raised in Rehovot, was robbed of his work equipment and his body was discovered outside his car by a friend who came to look for him, the New York Post reported.


British Jews, pro-Israel supporters to rally in London against hate
Tens of thousands of British Jews and pro-Israel supporters from across the United Kingdom are expected to gather on Dec. 8 in London to raise awareness of an alarming uptick in antisemitism.

The March Against Antisemitism 2024 comes after a record-setting number of incidents of Jew-hatred, including violence against children, across the United Kingdom, coupled with massive anti-Israel protests in the center of London following the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

“Over the past year, antisemitic hate crime has quadrupled, and Jews are now the most targeted faith minority in the country, despite our minuscule numbers,” a spokesperson for the Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is organizing the event, told JNS. “Week after week, our capital city and other urban areas have become ‘no-go’ zones not just for Jews but for many British people, the majority of whom say that Palestine protests put them off going into town. These regular protests have unleashed a tidal wave of antisemitism that has left no part of our society untouched. Jewish people feel like we’re drowning.”

The last major pro-Israel rally took place in London on Nov. 26, 2023, when as many as 60,000 people filled the city streets after anti-Israel protesters gathered for the eighth week in a row.

According to the Community Security Trust, which represents the security needs of the Jewish community, in the first six months of 2024, there were 1,978 instances of Jew hate recorded across the United Kingdom, the highest January-to-June total ever reported to the organization, dwarfing the previous record of 1,371 incidents in 2021.


NYC fashion professor’s proud Zionist brand seeks to ‘piss off the Jew haters’
It’s a fashion brand antisemites will love to hate.

An adjunct professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology who was suspended after getting arrested while counter-protesting an anti-Israel rally is launching a new fashion line he hopes will “piss off the Jew haters.”

Mark Greiz’s Generation Diaspora is touted as a collection of proudly Zionist clothing and accessories launches, offering such items as women’s $20 underwear that boldly proclaim “Kiss My Ham-ass” and $28 T-shirts that read “F*ck Hamas.”


Another tee reads, “Trigger Warning: This brand contains content that may offend neo-Nazis, Jew-haters, Hamas lovers, self-haters, anti-Zionists and radical leftists.”

Other more poignant pieces include totes that say “Never Forget, Never Forgive,” referring to the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas terrorists on Israel.
From Fat Camp to Media CEO, Comedian, and Jewish Activist | EP 20 Zach Sage Fox
Welcome to the 20th episode of "Here I Am with Shai Davidai," a podcast that delves into the rising tide of antisemitism through insightful discussions with top Jewish advocates.

In the podcast episode, guest Zach Sage discusses his experiences and perspectives as a Jewish media CEO and comedian. The conversation touches on themes of resilience and Jewish identity, with Zach emphasizing the importance of standing up to authority and questioning societal norms. He shares personal anecdotes about his upbringing, including his struggles with ADHD and bullying, and how these experiences shaped his strong sense of self and Jewish identity. Zach also talks about his production company, Fat Camp Films, which he started at a young age, and its evolution into a multimedia studio. The discussion delves into the challenges and responsibilities of being a Jewish public figure, especially in the context of rising antisemitism and the recent events in Israel and Gaza. Zach expresses frustration with the lack of vocal support from Jewish celebrities and highlights the importance of speaking out against antisemitism. The podcast also explores the impact of social media, particularly TikTok, on public perception and misinformation regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Zach shares his experiences of creating content that challenges these narratives and his commitment to using his platform to advocate for Jewish causes.




Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!
 

 

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