Wednesday, January 29, 2025

01/29 Links Pt2: The dark descent into Holocaust erasure; Trump Executive Order To Deport Anti-Semitic Student Visa Holders; Peter Beinart justifies Hamas

From Ian:

Nicole Lampert: Don’t mention the Jews
This removal of Jews from Holocaust Memorial Day has long been the plan of that weird marriage of the far left and Islamists. For too many leftists, Jews have never been good enough victims for their compassion. They certainly don’t want to remind people that anti-Semitism, the creed they so often march alongside with, is dangerous. Instead, they like to paint Jews as oppressors – or genocidal maniacs. So they have to hide the fact that Jews were the ones attacked in the most heinous and deliberate genocide in history.

There is another reason for removing Jews from the memory of the Holocaust. It’s a way of undermining the necessity of Israel’s existence – a state that had to come into being because the world closed its doors to Jews, despite knowing they were being slaughtered.

Parts of the left really do seem keen on taking the focus of Holocaust Memorial Day away from Jewish suffering. In 2011, Jeremy Corbyn was among a group of mainly Labour politicians who supported a parliamentary motion to rename Holocaust Memorial Day, saying instead it should be called ‘Genocide Memorial Day – Never Again for Anyone’. This was despite the fact it already did officially remember later genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

It is telling that, a few weeks ago, the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) wrote to 460 town halls and educational centres around the UK asking them to boycott this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day because apparently it wouldn’t be inclusive enough (the organisers failed to categorise the war in Gaza as a genocide). In truth, the IHRC hardly needed to go to all that trouble. The message of Holocaust Memorial Day has become so watered down that it is an act of bravery to even mention who the victims of the Holocaust were – especially after Hamas’s pogrom in Israel on 7 October 2023.

One London Jewish councillor tells me that, having organised Holocaust Memorial Day events in the past, since the 7 October attacks she hasn’t been allowed ‘near’ it at the council. ‘I think lots of councils think erasing Jews from their events is “playing it safe”’, she tells me.

I’m ashamed to say that some Jewish organisations have let activists and politicians do this. They’ve let them water down the Holocaust because, otherwise, no one will talk about it at all.

What does that tell you about all those who drearily intone ‘Never Again’ with their crocodile tears about some anonymous horror? If they meant it, they would talk about what must never happen again. They would talk about Jews and anti-Semitism.

All the while, anti-Semitism is surging. As a Jewish person who writes about this stuff, sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the fear, the angst, the terror of people writing to me about the anti-Semitism they have faced.

You’ve seen the weekly images of ‘pro-Palestine’ protesters marching with swastikas, chanting blood libels, calling for another genocide of the Jews. You’ve seen how our political class has done nothing to challenge any of it. You’ve seen how news channels repeat Hamas propaganda. You’ve seen how anti-Semitism has been normalised, even as public figures slap themselves on the back because they lit a candle on Holocaust Memorial Day.

Not one Jewish person who I know has felt entirely safe in the UK since 7 October. Never Again has become a hollow slogan, and not one of our cowardly leaders is prepared to call that out.
The dark descent into Holocaust erasure
More worrying, however, is the ongoing attempt to draw comparisons between the Holocaust and the current conflict between Israel and Hamas. To compare the systematic murder of 6 million Jews to Israel’s war on Hamas is not only absurd but deeply offensive to survivors and the wider Jewish community.

Many in the community will have seen the Irish President Michael Higgins address a Holocaust Memorial Day event which he was asked not to attend by members of Ireland’s Jewish community. While it was not a surprise that he used his speech to reference the conflict in Gaza, it was shocking to see Jewish members of the audience thrown out of the room for objecting.

Only recently, Ireland adopted the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism, which states that equating the State of Israel to Nazi Germany is antisemitic. Higgins’ hijacking of Holocaust Memorial Day makes one wonder why they did.

Even more disgracefully, the Islamic Human Rights Commission called for boycotts of Holocaust Memorial Day events this year unless they included a reference to Gaza. Those who call to boycott Holocaust Memorial Day events, unless they are inverted to associate modern-day Jews with their persecutors, are the clearest example of why we must keep the memory of the Holocaust alive.

This Holocaust Memorial Day I had the privilege of hearing Janine Webber’s testimony at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration event.

Unfortunately, as Holocaust survivors grow older, first-hand survivor accounts are becoming less easily available. Initiatives like the Holocaust Educational Trust’s Ambassador Programme and Testimony 360 do vital work to advance Holocaust education.

I also support the construction of a new Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre in Westminster, which will enshrine Holocaust remembrance at the heart of our democracy. In a world of rising antisemitism, where people seek to abuse the memory of the Holocaust, this is more important than ever.
JPost Editorial: Cheapening the Holocaust: Irish president’s remarks equate Nazi and Gaza conflicts
Higgins has had no qualms about calling Israel’s war to remove Hamas from power in Gaza and free the hostages a “genocide,” but he could only muster calling the Nazi extermination attempt of the Jews “an attempted genocide.”

His statements spurred a protest by some members of the audience, with video footage showing at least one attendee being dragged away by security.

What does any of that have to do with International Holocaust Remembrance Day? There is a time and place to hurl criticism of Israel and its policies, but it’s not on a solemn day that honors those slaughtered by the Nazis and those who survived.

At Monday’s main ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland, where roughly 1.1 million Jews were murdered, only 50 survivors were expected to be present – down from 300 a decade ago and 1,000 a decade before that.

The focus should be entirely on them – now more than ever.

Incidents of global antisemitism have spiked to unprecedented post-World War II levels, and public figures like Elon Musk are quoted telling supporters of the rising far-Right German political party Alternative for Germany that “there is too much focus on past guilt, and we need to move beyond that.”

Clearly, the lessons the world needed to learn from the Holocaust are getting muddied and faded the further we move from the actual events that took place. As the survivors die, and along with them their first-hand accounts of the horrors perpetrated against the Jews, the easier it will be for people like Higgins to diminish their magnitude and use them for cheap political gain.
Abe Greenwald: The Self-Defeated ‘Resistance’
Via Commentary Magazine Newsletter, sign up here. And the very fact of the pro-Hamas movement goes a long way in explaining why there’s no anti-Trump resistance this time around. The people who made up the resistance at the start of the first Trump presidency are the same people who show up at every radical protest, whatever the nominal purpose. The Women’s March is Black Lives Matter is Free Palestine. And when each cause has its moment in the spotlight, it deprives the others of fuel. What’s more, as each one winds down, it’s revealed as a failure in one way or another. There’s no resistance because America’s radical protesters are grievance dilletantes and literal losers.

As early as 2018, the leaders of the half-million strong Women’s March were exposed as anti-Semites with links to Islamists and the Nation of Islam (which, in itself, makes it clear that every radical protest campaign is the same as the next). The bad press, ugliness, and infighting eventually sundered the movement. It’s now rebranded as the People’s March and is one-tenth the size of its predecessor.

Black Lives Matter, alternately, can claim a win—which turned into a ruinous loss. After the killing of George Floyd in 2020, the calls by BLM and adjacent parties to defund the police were heeded to varying degrees by several cities including New York, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia. Then violent crime shot through the roof, and defunding became toxic. Moreover, a number of BLM leaders were revealed to have gotten rich off the back of the movement, which enabled them to buy suburban mansions while cities went down the drain.

And what do the pro-Hamasniks have to show for their 15 months of chaos and violence? Those geniuses turned on the administration that was trying play nice with them. In denying Democrats their vote, they helped Trump win Michigan. And while they managed to make life very unpleasant for American Jews, Israel pulverized Hamas (and other enemies). His first week in office, the president whom the anti-Israel mob helped elect announced that he was lifting the Biden administration’s hold on delivering 2,000-pound bombs to Israel.

As I noted in a previous newsletter, the pro-Hamas movement will continue to die down as Israel continues to win. By then, there will be another cause behind which the same wandering malcontents will rally. And they’ll lose again. They can’t resist.


Antisemites portray themselves as false allies to Jews as ‘political cover,’ experts say
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), a member of the progressive “Squad” in Congress, condemned on Oct. 7, 2023, “the horrific acts we are seeing unfold today in Israel against children, women, the elderly and the unarmed people who are being slaughtered and taken hostage by Hamas.” She added that the “senseless violence” would only continue a cycle of violence and called, even before the Jewish state had defended itself, for “de-escalation and ceasefire.”

On Jan. 27, Omar, who has often criticized Israel in antisemitic terms, wrote that “on Holocaust Remembrance Day, we honor the 6 million Jews and millions of other people murdered during the Holocaust and carry the stories of survivors who showed strength in the darkest of times.” She added that “we must recommit to fighting against antisemitism and bigotry in all forms. Never again.”

Rabbi Yaakov Menken, executive vice president of the Coalition for Jewish Values, told JNS that “antisemites are quick to condemn the previously-accepted facades of Jew-hatred, while simultaneously promoting the same underlying lies in new forms.”

“The more hateful their rhetoric, the more they are anxious to prove they aren’t actually hateful,” Menken said. “When support for Hamas is so blatant and barbaric, they need political cover more than ever.”

It’s not new for those, who have denounced Israel, to portray themselves falsely as allies to Jews, according to Deborah Lipstadt, a historian, Emory University professor and former U.S. special envoy for monitoring and combating antisemitism. “But it is much more pronounced since Oct. 7,” Lipstadt told JNS.

Omar, who referred to some Jewish students at Columbia University as “pro-genocide” in April, is one of several public figures and groups Jewish leaders accuse of hypocrisy for what are say were insincere Holocaust tributes on the 80th anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation.

Jeremy Corbyn, the left-wing British parliamentarian who has long drawn criticism for antisemitic statements, marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day on social media with a post stating that “fascism doesn’t arrive in uniform overnight. It arrives with suited politicians, one piece of legislation—or executive order—at a time.”

Amnesty International, which released a nearly 300-page report last month accusing Israel of “genocide,” stated on Monday that “Today is Holocaust Memorial Day. The genocide of the Jewish people, Roma and other minorities during World War II is a brutal reminder of what hatred and prejudice can lead to.”
Zionism rejected: Prominent US columnist Peter Beinart justifies Hamas
Peter Beinart’s purpose in writing Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning is encapsulated in its title.

In a foreword, he explains to someone he describes as a “former friend” (former, because they have diverged so sharply in their views) why he rejected the idea of calling his book "Being Jewish after October 7". It was not, he writes, because he minimizes the horror of that day. He chose his title, he explains, “because I worry you don’t grapple sufficiently with the terror of the days that followed, and preceded it as well.” In short, he believes mainstream Israeli opinion is unbalanced as regards the rights and wrongs of the Gaza conflict, and his aim is to redress the perspective he sees as mistaken.

Beinart is a prominent left-wing American columnist, journalist, and political commentator. Born and raised in an Orthodox Jewish family, Beinart began as an ardent liberal Zionist but slowly moved toward an increasingly extreme left-wing position. Finally, in July 2020, in an article in The New York Times, he renounced Zionism entirely and declared himself in favor of a unitary Arab-Jewish state in place of Israel.

In this new book, he writes, “When I enter a synagogue I am no longer sure who will extend their hand and who will look away.” He sounds genuinely mystified, if perhaps somewhat disingenuous when he writes: “How does someone like me, who still considers himself a Jewish loyalist, end up being cursed on the street?”

THE ANSWER lies partly in the pages of his new book, where one of his most contentious claims is a call to reimagine Zionism. He believes the movement is at odds with democratic principles and Jewish ethics. He suggests that it perpetuates injustice by prioritizing Jewish self-determination over Palestinian rights.

This blinkered understanding of the movement pays no regard to the absolute need for Zionism in the early 20th century as a response to millennia of statelessness and the continued persecution of the Jewish people. So urgent did the need for a Jewish homeland become that at one point Theodor Herzl and other Zionist leaders toyed with the idea of siting it in Africa, Argentina, anywhere – a short-lived diversion from Zionism’s historic purpose, perhaps, but it demonstrates that at the time the alleviation of Jewish suffering outweighed any other consideration.

In short, Beinart entirely fails to appreciate that the establishment of Israel was not a political demonstration of Jewish colonial arrogance but a lifeline for Jews fleeing constant pogroms, widespread discrimination, and finally the aftermath of the Holocaust. For many Jews, Zionism represents the affirmation of their right to exist in a hostile world and determine their own future.


The Builder’s Stone: A New Book by Melanie Phillips - Conversation Moderated by Dr. Daniel Gordis
Join acclaimed author and commentator Melanie Phillips in a compelling conversation with renowned scholar Dr. Daniel Gordis about her latest book, The Builder’s Stone. In this thought-provoking work, Phillips delves into the moral and cultural crises facing the West, exploring how recent events—including the aftermath of the October 7 pogrom in Israel—expose deep fractures in Western civilization. She argues that the West’s erosion of foundational values and drift toward cultural self-destruction underscore a pressing need to heed the wisdom of the Jewish experience.

This conversation promises to challenge conventional thinking and offer critical insights for anyone concerned with the future of Western society and its moral compass.


Knesset subcommittee debates phasing out reliance on U.S. aid
Knesset members and experts debated whether Israel should reduce its dependence on U.S. aid in a subcommittee meeting on Monday, indicating greater acceptance of what was once a fringe idea in Israel.

The meeting was one in a series that began as the Biden administration held up weapons shipments to Israel, a decision that President Donald Trump reversed this week. Israel also took recent steps to reduce its dependence on the U.S. by bolstering its domestic arms manufacturing. Likud lawmaker Amit Halevy, chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Subcommittee for Security Doctrine and Force Buildup, invited several experts who supported scaling down or rethinking aid.

Halevy cited former U.S. envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell as having once said that Washington can use military aid as leverage to force Israel into peace talks, and asked attendees to consider the influence of military aid on Israeli decision-makers.

“What is its influence on Israel’s status in the region and the world? How is it seen in American politics and society and what is its future in light of the changes in American society?” Halevy asked.

Gideon Israel, president of the Jerusalem-Washington Center, argued that Israel’s reliance on the U.S. during emergencies is a major challenge for the Jewish state.

“Isn’t it strange that within 24 hours of Oct. 7 we were asking for aid from the U.S.? That we couldn’t fight the war on our own? Not three weeks passed and we already had a package of requests for $15 billion of aid? This tendency to beg, where not a moment goes by and we already ask for help from the U.S. is an Israeli quality that has existed for over 50 years … and no one thinks, ‘wait a minute, maybe we need to reevaluate,’” Israel said.

“There are no free lunches,” he added. “We have to pay attention to this tendency to be schnorrers [Yiddish for beggars] where we don’t even consider doing what a sovereign state needs to do to be ready for war.”
Israel bans two Hamas-related NGOs operating in the north
Two NGOs operating in the North with relations to Hamas and an organization outlawed in 2015 have been banned.

Following prolonged activity, the Ifsha’ Al-Salam committees, belonging to the outlawed Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement, have been banned, and their offices were closed on Tuesday, according to a statement by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and the Defense Ministry.

The official statement added that Defense Minister Israel Katz signed an order outlawing Ifsha’ Al-Salam “after the presentation of well-founded and unambiguous intelligence information collected on their activities.”

The Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement was declared an illegal association in 2015 due to economic and ideological ties with Hamas and inciting activity in Jerusalem and on the Temple Mount.

Its counterpart, the Southern Branch, is seen as more pragmatic and moderate, even participating in Israeli politics under the Ra’am party.

Raed Salah, an imam from Umm el-Fahm who was arrested several times for incitement to violence and has led the Northern Branch for years, was arrested again in this context.

He was accused of having built his public image over the years as a “defender of Al-Aqsa and Jerusalem” from the Jewish takeover, “while inciting and inflaming sentiments and using jihadist expressions, which translated into violence and disorder on the ground.”

The Ifsha’ Al-Salam committees were established by Raed Salah in 2017, two years after the ban of his former association. According to the statement, despite the committees’ stated goal of dealing with the issue of violence in the Arab sector, in practice, they were established as a cover for the continuation of the Northern Branch’s activities, “in accordance with the worldview of the Muslim Brotherhood and to spread the Islamic Movement’s anti-Israeli agenda.”


Seth Mandel: The Return of Anti-Jewish Travel Bans
There’s more, believe it or not—when all is said and done, the laundry list of lies aimed at Israel disintegrates—but suffice it to say the ICC’s actions have been revealed to be far more dangerous to the free world than even the court’s critics initially might have thought. Yet it will avoid, for now, the repercussions it richly deserves thanks to Schumer and his caucus.

Republicans will now negotiate with Democrats to see if there’s a version of the bill that Schumer’s caucus will consider supporting. Any delay in punishing the ICC for its lawlessness, however, is costly.

That’s because, like any vigilante given a hero’s welcome on the world stage, the ICC inspires copycat attacks.

For example, presumably emboldened by the ICC’s freelance Jew-hunting, New Zealand has begun denying tourist visas to Israeli travelers. Israelis are being asked upon entry if they served in the IDF, which would be a “yes” for most of the country if the individual had reached draft age. According to the Times of Israel, an affirmative answer leads to further questions: “In the first questionnaire, visa applicants were asked about the dates of their military service, the location of their bases, the corps and units in which they served, the military camps where they were stationed, their rank, details of their roles, and their military ID number.”

Obviously this is an attempt to deny as many Israelis as possible a visa because soldiers are not authorized to yap in detail to jumped-up hall monitors about their service. This much is proved by the second questionnaire, which asks, for example, “Have you been associated with any intelligence service or group, or law enforcement agency?”

Again, these are moronic questions posed by officers of an unserious government, but Israelis apparently must answer them or be turned away. A similar policy is being carried out by Australia, though from the numbers of those admitted, it would appear that the questions asked of Israeli visitors are somewhat less knuckleheaded than those posed by the super troopers protecting the New Zealand border. “Less dumb than New Zealand,” however, is not quite a respectable basis for policy.

When the Abraham Accords were signed and additional Arab states recognized Israel, thus opening the door to Israeli visitors, there was something even more significant at stake. Arab governments have notoriously used bans on Israelis to enforce a de facto ban on Jews. Such policies begin with anti-Israel rules, and the cloud of suspicion is—intentionally—spread to anyone seen as affiliated with Israel. Jews who traveled to these countries have faced immediate suspicion of having been to Israel or having family there and therefore determined to be personae non grata.

Is New Zealand prepared to go down this road? Is Australia? Are Chuck Schumer and the Senate Democrats prepared to facilitate this? I suppose I shouldn’t ask questions to which I may not want to hear the answer.
Dutch parliament motion demands greater transparency in funding to Palestinian NGOs
The Dutch government must provide greater transparency about its funding to Palestinian organizations and should ensure that the groups’ activities are in accordance with the Netherlands’ foreign policy goals, according to a motion passed by the Dutch House of Representatives.

The motion introduced last Wednesday by Reformed Political Party member Chris Stoffer requested that the Foreign Ministry’s foreign aid website provide information about supported Palestinian organizations, including information about directors, their projects, and activities.

Funding from the Dutch government should take into account its Israel and Palestinian policy principle when making decisions about financing Palestinian organizations, said Tuesday’s approved motion, including ensuring that the groups at the very least recognize the State of Israel.

The preamble of the document explained that more transparency was needed in the funding of Palestinian groups following the cessation of subsidies to the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, which has been accused by Israel and the United States of being an affiliate of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist organization. In 2020, the government suspended funding of UAWC following a 2019 bombing by two of the NGO’s employees.

Dutch NGO Center for Information and Documentation Israel said on X/Twitter on Wednesday that the move “reduces the risk of money ending up in the wrong hands.”


Jewish organizations urge pediatricians to retract letter of support for Hamas doctor
In early January, the American Academy of Pediatrics — the largest professional body for pediatricians in the U.S. — wrote a letter to former Secretary of State Tony Blinken calling on the State Department to look into the situation of a Gazan doctor who was detained by the Israeli military. Now, several major Jewish organizations are calling on the AAP to issue a retraction to their letter, given Dr. Hassam Abu Safiya’s affiliation with the terrorist group Hamas.

The Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Medical Association, Hadassah and StandWithUs wrote in a Tuesday letter obtained by Jewish Insider that the AAP’s failure to mention that Abu Safiya has been determined by “Israeli authorities and other sources” to be a member of Hamas risks “fundamentally compromising the integrity of the Academy.”

“The implications and optics of such a statement are troubling, especially given the Academy’s slow response to the kidnapping, captivity, torture and murder of Israeli children by Hamas,” the organizations wrote.

In the letter, they called on the AAP to issue a retraction, clarify that the organization “does not condone terrorism,” institute mandatory training for AAP leadership about antisemitism and anti-Zionism and strengthen policies on hate speech within AAP online forums and listservs. The Jewish organizations argued that such changes are necessary to “restore trust” in the body.

“The letter [to Blinken] also undermines your members’ ability to effectively serve their patients,” the organizations wrote. “Parents who bring their children to the doctor are now having to worry that they may face antisemitism from their family’s health care provider.”

Jewish physicians have been sounding the alarm about growing antisemitism within the medical field for months. The American Jewish Medical Association was formed in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks to address Jewish doctors’ concerns about bias in the field.
Antisemitism row roils Florida’s Democratic Party
The first few times that Russell Miller, a Democratic activist in the Tampa Bay area, took to social media to share incendiary content about Israel following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks, Jewish volunteers in the party felt uncomfortable seeing a fellow Democrat compare Israel to Nazi Germany, but chose not to make a public fuss about it. After all, 2024 was an election year, and they needed to focus on electing Democrats — an increasingly difficult task in Florida.

But by the summer of 2024, Miller took to Facebook to publicly lambaste the Hillsborough County Democratic Jewish Caucus, an official branch of the Democratic Party, and urge Democrats against working with them.

“Please do not attend future HCDJC meetings or accept support from them,” Miller wrote in July, alleging that the Jewish Caucus “is actively trying to intimidate and punish” people who discuss the “genocide” in Gaza. He accused Jewish Democrats of “petty, effete, self-serving whining and complaining” and called for the removal of the Jewish caucus’ chair.

He created a group called “Anti-Genocide Democrats” and promoted it in correspondence with party volunteers, and described those who disagreed with his characterization of the war in Gaza as genocide as “Zionazi sympathizer[s].”

Jewish Democrats in the county, which is one of the largest in the state, asked party leaders to take action against Miller, hoping that the matter could be resolved quietly without affecting their work to elect Democrats. Over the next few months, Miller was stripped of his titles as a volunteer coordinator and a district leader, and he was privately reprimanded. But his antisemitic postings continued.

Through all of it, he remained a precinct captain, an elected leadership position with the Hillsborough County Democrats.

Vanessa Lester, the local Democratic Party chair, refused to weigh in on the matter. Instead, at the urging of the Jewish Caucus and Nikki Fried, the statewide Democratic Party chair, Lester brought the matter to a vote among the party’s executive committee — who voted on Monday to let Miller remain a precinct captain. Lester did not take a stand on whether Miller’s actions crossed a line.
Trump to ‘marshal all federal resources’ to fight antisemitism with new executive order
President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Wednesday focused on countering antisemitism, in what the White House described as an effort to “marshal all federal resources” to “combat the explosion of antisemitism on our campuses and in our streets since Oct. 7, 2023.”

The executive order will require every federal department and agency to review criminal and civil authorities that could be used to fight antisemitism, with a requirement to report back to the White House within 60 days, according to a fact sheet provided by a White House official.

The Justice Department will be required to take “immediate action” to “protect law and order, quell pro-Hamas vandalism and intimidation, and investigate and punish anti-Jewish racism in leftist, anti-American colleges and universities,” the White House fact sheet said, without detailing specific actions the Justice Department will take.

“I will issue clear orders to my attorney general to aggressively prosecute terroristic threats, arson, vandalism and violence against American Jews,” Trump said in the fact sheet. “I will be the best friend Jewish Americans have ever had in the White House.”

The action also demands the deportation of foreign nationals living in the U.S. and foreign students who broke the law in the course of anti-Israel protests on American campuses, a policy that conservative activists pushed Trump to adopt during his campaign.

“To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you,” Trump said in the fact sheet. “I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.”
Trump To Sign Executive Order To Deport Anti-Semitic Student Visa Holders
President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order Wednesday directing all federal agencies to look into deporting anti-Semitic resident aliens, including student visa holders, who broke U.S. law.

The order, part of the Trump administration's larger push against anti-Semitism, calls for deporting anti-Jewish protesters who committed crimes following Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks. It also gives agency leaders 60 days to submit recommendations to the White House and instructs the Justice Department to investigate pro-Hamas intimidation and graffiti on college campuses and beyond, according to the New York Post.

House Republicans have pushed for stronger federal action on anti-Semitism, with six GOP-led committees issuing a report last month that blasted the Biden administration for not preventing anti-Semitism on campus. The report singled out Columbia University, which received $2.7 billion in federal funding in fiscal year 2023. An encampment at the university last year featured anti-Semitic rhetoric and ignited anti-Israel protests nationwide.

During the encampment, anti-Israel activists staged weeks of protests at Columbia, at one point storming and occupying a campus building and calling for an "intifada" against Jews. The Ivy League university faced further scrutiny when administrators were caught exchanging text messages that scoffed at Jewish students' concerns over the eruption of anti-Semitism, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

As recently as Monday, a Columbia student group observed Holocaust Remembrance Day by comparing Israel's treatment of Palestinians to Auschwitz.

Trump, who pledged on the campaign trail to deport pro-Hamas students on visas, signed an executive order last week that lays the groundwork for such action. The order mandated that the government "ensure that admitted aliens and aliens otherwise already present in the United States" do not "support designated foreign terrorists."


NY governor condemns NYC university system’s faculty union for Israel boycott vote
The faculty union for New York City’s public university system, the City University of New York, voted last week to boycott Israeli entities, putting the 30,000-member union at odds with the US university’s administration and the state government.

The union, the Professional Staff Congress (PSC), has been a battleground for anti-Israel activism for years. Jewish professors said the boycott resolution was the latest discriminatory measure by the union, their sole labor representation. The resolution also divided the union’s delegate assembly, the governing body that voted on the measure.

The text of the resolution cites the death toll in Gaza and anti-Israel measures from the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice as reasons for the boycott.

The resolution said the PSC will divest its own funds from “investment vehicles that include Israeli corporate stocks and government bonds” by the end of January.

The resolution also calls on the Teachers’ Retirement System, a New York City municipal institution, to enact a “complete disinvestment from Israel.” Around one-quarter of the union’s pension plan participants contribute to the retirement system, the PSC told The Times of Israel.

The union will also establish a volunteer committee to investigate further divestment. That committee will report to the union’s delegate assembly by next month, the resolution said.

The resolution passed PSC’s delegate assembly by a close vote of 73-70, on January 23, the union confirmed. The union’s executive council and principal officers opposed the resolution, the PSC told The Times of Israel.
Colo. high school coach hung Palestinian flag, refused to shake hands during basketball game against Jewish school
A Colorado high school is facing backlash after its basketball coach reportedly hung up a Palestinian flag during a game against a Jewish school and then refused to shake hands with the opposing coaches.

A boys basketball game between Lotus School For Excellence and Denver Academy of Torah (DAT) last Wednesday showed flashes of antisemitism, particularly over the non-handshake postgame, Brandon Rattiner of the Jewish Community Relations Council said in an interview.

Rattiner, who was talking on behalf of the Denver Academy of Torah, called the actions disappointing and shocking.

“I think everybody in the Jewish community is very aware that there’s been a rising tide of antisemitism since Oct. 7,” he said in reference to Hamas’ 2023 terror attack on Israel.

“And we’ve seen it in schools here and all throughout the country on many different occasions.”

Attendees at the high school game told Rattiner that the Palestinian flag was draped over the rafters and the Lotus coach would not shake hands with opposing coaches at DAT, he said.

“The key issue here is when the coach refuses to engage with a Jewish coach and Jewish students simply because they are Jewish or holding them personally accountable for a conflict started, not by Israel by the way, halfway across the world thousands and thousands of miles away,” he told The Post.

“Holding Jewish people accountable for the state actions of Israel is a textbook form of antisemitism,” he added.
Columbia Student Group Observes Holocaust Remembrance Day—By Noting 'Parallels' Between Auschwitz and 'Zionist Dungeons and Torture Camps'
Columbia University's chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) issued a Monday statement for International Holocaust Remembrance Day. It compared Auschwitz to "Zionist dungeons and torture camps" in Gaza.

"Eight days into a fragile ceasefire in Gaza, as Palestinians bury their dead and return to their destroyed homes, as aid trucks finally enter with food and the search for bodies under the rubble can commence, as hundreds of Palestinian prisoners are freed from Zionist dungeons and torture camps, it is impossible to ignore the parallels," Columbia JVP wrote in an Instagram post.

Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorates the 1945 liberation of Auschwitz—where an estimated 1 million Jews died—but doesn’t mark the end of the suffering Jews experienced at the hands of the Nazis. Columbia JVP equated this to conditions in Gaza following the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement, which released 33 civilian Israelis kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, many of whom were convicted of terrorism and murdering Jews.

"A return to the status quo prior to October 7 is not enough," JVP Columbia wrote. "The parallels between January 27, 1945 and the ceasefire agreement enacted on January 19, 2025 remind us that the road to liberation goes on. We must continue to stand in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, Jenin, and beyond as the struggle continues."

Last week, anti-Israel student activists unleashed mayhem at Columbia to kick off the spring semester. Four keffiyeh-clad student activists stormed an Israeli history class and targeted Jewish students with anti-Semitic flyers that glorified Hamas, showed a trampled Star of David, and advocated violence.

One flyer stated, "THE ENEMY WILL NOT SEE TOMORROW," and used an upside-down triangle—a symbol Hamas uses to denote Israeli targets—to spell "TOMORROW." The flyer depicted a truck full of Hamas terrorists brandishing RPGs and machine guns.

Another flyer with the caption "CRUSH ZIONISM," depicted the Star of David underneath a boot. A third encouraged students to "BURN ZIONISM TO THE GROUND."


Media hide main cause of antisemitism in favor of a bankrupt ideology
Media hide the religion or radical affiliations of war criminals. Last May, for instance, NPR published an article about the International Criminal Court seeking arrest warrants for Hamas leaders. The article failed to note Hamas’s Islamist agenda, and instead cited the terrorist group’s argument that they “were operating under a right afforded occupied peoples by international treaties to resist occupation in all forms, ‘including armed resistance.’” NPR also neglected to mention that Gaza hasn’t been occupied by Israel or anyone except Palestinians in the past 20 years. In other words, it considers Hamas simply a liberation movement fighting for self-determination—not a genocidal Islamist militia determined to exterminate the Jews, destroy Israel and create an Islamic caliphate, as the Hamas Charter clearly states.

ADL research reveals Muslim MENA region is the most antisemitic part of the world. The Anti-Defamation League’s Global 100 Index, which surveyed 58,000 people in 100-plus countries, revealed that the mostly Muslim MENA region is the most antisemitic in the world with its population most likely to subscribe to stereotypes. About three-quarters of its population hold “deeply entrenched antisemitic attitudes.” Surprise: The most anti-Jewish people in MENA and the entire world are Palestinians in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, as 97% of them believe in classic antisemitic tropes.

Brandeis Center data show Muslim college students are far more antisemitic than non-Muslim colleagues. No wonder that Muslim students are instrumental in attacks on Jewish students, in addition to anti-Israel destruction and violence. The recent Brandeis study on campus antisemitism, which surveyed undergraduates in 60 schools with large Jewish student bodies, found that Muslim students are far more likely to harbor anti-Jewish and/or anti-Israel sentiments. Muslim students are also more hostile to Jews than other ethnicities. Whereas 66% of non-Jewish students said that they were not hostile to Jews or Israel, only 29% of Muslim students said the same. An equal number of Muslims said they were hostile to Israel, and 36% said they were hostile to Jews. In comparison, only 16% of all non-Jewish students expressed hostility toward Jews and 15% toward Israel.

Media, as well as politicians and anti-Israel activists, cover up Muslim antisemitism. This is why nearly all major mainstream media outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post and NPR, did not report on the ADL’s findings. No major outlet covered the Brandeis study. The incontrovertible fact of Muslim antisemitism creates cognitive dissonance for the media—and the left generally—which holds world history to be a struggle between white colonizers and victimized people of color. Unfortunately, the hard facts of history betray this analysis. First, Arabs, who comprise one of the world’s largest groups of “people of color,” have also been some of the world’s most prolific colonizers and slave traders. Now, however, data reveals they are also one of the world’s most racist.

As commercial enterprises in a free society, media outlets have the right to express any opinions the media marketplace will bear. However, to base news coverage on hidden political bias or by disregarding or burying information relevant to journalists’ analysis is outright lying and deception. Even where free speech is permitted, such dishonesty and journalistic malpractice are bound to fail, as the sinking commercial fortunes of leading media prove.


New Year, New Washington Post?
The entire framing of the Post’s report is problematic. The newspaper attempts to strike a false equivalency between imprisoned terrorists and their victims. And to do so, they not only rely on terrorists and terror groups for quotes, but they also turn to Al-Jazeera, a Qatari state media whose anti-Israel bias and agenda are well known. As CAMERA and others have documented, numerous former employees of Al Jazeera have made their way to the Post, including the newspaper’s current Middle East editor. Al Jazeera celebrated the October 7 massacre, and its coverage continues to show why it’s a key tool in Hamas’s arsenal of information warfare. But the Qatari network isn’t alone.

Indeed, as Fischberger pointed out, one of the “reporters” behind the January 26 report, Niha Masih, was accusing Israel of perpetrating a “genocide” more than a decade ago. In an Aug. 5, 2014 tweet, she claimed that the Jewish state was guilty of “genocide”—a libelous claim that meets the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. Masih’s clear bias, including her penchant for regurgitating Hamas-supplied casualty stats, should have disqualified her from writing on Israel. In fact, it’s a clear violation of the Post’s stated standards and ethics. But as CAMERA has highlighted, the newspaper eschews such ethics. At the Washington Post, slandering Israel counts in your favor. One only need look at Masih’s colleagues.

A Washington Post contributor, Hajar Harb, celebrated the October 7 attacks on her social media. The paper continued to file dispatches from Harb long after her comments were brought to the attention of editors. The Telegraph, among others, covered CAMERA Arabic’s expose of Harb’s posts. But the Post was unmoved.

As CAMERA has documented, the Post has reporters and columnists who have claimed that Israel intentionally targets civilians. In 2022, Rana Ayyub pronounced Israel guilty of intentionally murdering Shireen Abu Akleh, mere hours after the Palestinian-American journalist was killed during an Israeli counterterror raid. Long before an investigation occurred and before the facts were known, Ayyub called it a “murder in cold blood.” This too is part of a trend.

Post columnists Karen Attiah and Ishaan Tharoor also showed themselves predisposed to immediately blaming the Jewish state. Before the IDF even commenced military operations in Gaza, both columnists accused Israel of waging war in an indiscriminate manner. Like Ayyub, both have professed themselves concerned with the welfare of journalists like Akleh who are covering the conflict. The Post published no fewer than a dozen articles, editorials, and op-eds on Akleh’s death, and partnered with to Committee to Protect Journalists to insinuate that Israel intentionally targeted her.

Yet, when a Palestinian journalist named Shatha al-Sabbagh was killed in a December 2024 counterterrorist raid in Jenin—allegedly by Palestinian Authority Security Forces—the Post was silent. Outlets like BBC covered Sabbagh’s death, but the Post hasn’t filed a single story on the incident. Similarly, recent reports of Hamas executing alleged collaborators and dissidents in Gaza have also gone unmentioned by the newspaper. Its pretensions aside, the Washington Post cares little for the state and wellbeing of Palestinians when the newspaper can’t blame Israel. CAMERA has documented this aspectof the Post’s “reporting” for years. Nothing has changed, and nothing has improved.

Going forward into 2025, the Washington Post is a newspaper with declining readership and decimated ethics. If the Post is to right the ship, it will have to regain the trust of consumers. And that is a daunting task indeed.
Husam Zomlot Promotes Genocide Libel on Amanpour
Husam Zomlot, the Head of the Palestinian Authority Mission to the United Kingdom, appeared once again on Christiane Amanpour’s program on CNN last week on January 22. As he’s done in the past, he used the platform to make many claims that were simply detached from reality, but this time he also made very big admission. Amanpour seemed to believe her role in the interview was merely to assist him with his propaganda.

No less than three times, Zomlot made the false claim that there is a genocide in Gaza – a baseless blood libel that has been debunked repeatedly, including most recently by a report from the Henry Jackson Society, a British think tank. The HJS report found that Hamas casualty figures included about 5,000 natural deaths, included people killed by misfired Hamas rockets, included people who died before the war even began, and in some cases classified fighting-age men as children. There is no genocide in Gaza. Only a war that was started by Hamas, a point that both Zomlot and Amanpour ignore.

“What happened to Gaza will have to be recorded in human conscience as the first ever live streamed genocide,” Zomlot falsely claims. In fact, it was the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that was the first ever live-streamed attempted genocide.

And a day earlier, on January 21, in an interview conducted for the Amanpour program by Paula Newton, Palestinian teacher Asma Mustafa was permitted to falsely call herself a “survivor of the genocide,” saying the war has been “the most violent war ever, I have ever witnessed in [the] Gaza Strip.” Mustafa also spoke of being displaced repeatedly, including from humanitarian zones. But, incredibly, she mentioned the date “the seventh of October” only in the context of an increase in hardship and trauma for Palestinians. In her entire segment, there was not a single mention by interviewer or subject, of the cause of the war – the barbaric and savage attack on Israel that day.

Returning to Zomlot’s interview on the 22nd, he was eager to put the blame for everything that has happened on both sides onto Israel. The reason for all of this, he claimed, is “Israel has no vision, has no plan, has no horizon for the future,” Israel’s government is “fanatical,” Israel’s “war on Gaza has nothing to do with security, it was an ideological war to protect their own occupation.” Israel, he claimed, “is set on one thing, to undermine the Palestinian government and to undermine with it any possibility of a two-state solution,” and Hamas, he claimed, is the “product,” not the cause, of the conflict. But it was Zomlot’s Palestinian Authority that rejected a two-state solution in 2000, 2008, and 2014. And in 2005, Israel granted independence to the people of Gaza, who used that opportunity to vote Hamas into power. Neither Zomlot nor Amanpour bring up either of these points.


BBC’s Donnison again erases terror links of Palestinian convicts
Once again readers are told nothing of Kwaawish’s PIJ membership or why he had been imprisoned.

Notably, this is the second batch of reporting from Jon Donnison in which he fails to adequately explain the terror links of released inmates.

BBC audiences cannot properly understand the story if they are not provided with an accurate and impartial portrayal of the reasons why those now being released from prison by Israel were detained in the first place and if they are not informed of their links to terrorist organisations which participated in the October 7th 2023 attack on Israel and are holding Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip.
More pointless ‘analysis’ from BBC Verify
Notably, neither BBC Verify nor any other BBC journalist, insofar as we are aware, had anything to tell the corporation’s audiences about the fact that the Red Cross had not visited those or any other hostages in over 15 months and that its “rigorous security measures” did not include preventing armed terrorists from standing on top of its vehicles or terrifying the three female hostages.

Neither does BBC Verify’s ‘examination’ come anywhere near to answering the question it itself posed concerning the manipulative footage: “what it says about the strength of Hamas after 15 months of war”.

By focusing audience attentions on analysis of images of crowds and estimates of numbers, this BBC Verify ‘analysis’ fails to answer the question posed in its synopsis: “what exactly happened in that moment?” BBC Verify chose to sideline the main point which would have struck most people watching that Hamas supplied footage: its portrayal of the final chapter of over fifteen months of intimidation of three young women by a terrorist organisation.


Polish MEP breaks EU moment of silence for Holocaust: 'Pray for Gaza'
A European Union Parliament’s moment of silence for the victims of the Holocaust on Wednesday was interrupted by a Polish member accusing Israel of a Jewish-conducted genocide in Gaza.

“Let’s pray for the victims of the Jewish genocide in Gaza,” far-right, monarchist Confederation of the Polish Crown chairman and MEP Grzegorz Braun twice shouted during the moment of silence.

As performers prepared to play Maurice Ravel’s “Kaddish” violin and piano piece based on a Jewish prayer of the same name, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola expelled Braun from the chamber’s applause.

Braun claims he 'did not disturb the ceremony'

Braun later added on social media that he did not disturb the ceremony for International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp but had rather supplemented the proceedings.

“I shared the comment that apparently all victims are equal, but some are more equal than others,” Braun said on X/Twitter.

Fellow Polish MEP and European People’s Party member Lukasz Kohut condemned Braun on social media as a “disgusting creature” for desecrating the minute of silence.

Dutch Reformed Political Party MEP Bert-Jan Ruissen called Braun antisemitic on X and urged the “highest possible sanction” that the EU body could impose.

The European Jewish Congress described the incident as a “vile display of antisemitism in the heart of European democracy.”


Report: Sydney pub fires trivia host over antisemitic comments, Nazi references
A Sydney pub has fired trivia host Jarred Keane after he made repeated Nazi references and mocked the grandson of a Holocaust survivor, Sky News Australia reports.

During a trivia night at the Iron Duke Hotel, Keane allegedly performed a Nazi salute and made offensive remarks. One attendee, Jonathan Sankey, grandson of Auschwitz survivor and Sydney Jewish Museum founding member Olga Horak, recorded part of the event, and later confronted Keane about the offensive content, Sky News says.

Keane then reportedly doubled down on his comments and took to Instagram to ridicule Sankey, stating that Zionists were “not welcome” at his events and using explicit language to describe them. He further claimed that his trivia nights were fun “unless you’re a conservative or a Zionist” and accused Israel of genocide.

Israel, which was founded in the aftermath of the Holocaust, has adamantly rejected allegations of genocide during its war against the Hamas terror group in Gaza.

The Iron Duke Hotel confirmed Keane had been dismissed and distanced itself from his statements, Sky News says.


Israeli female astronaut will go to space with NASA, minister announces
Israel has reached an agreement with the United States Space Agency to include the first Israeli female astronaut in a future space mission, Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Gila Gamliel, announced Monday morning at the annual Ramon Conference in Tel Aviv.

"We received approval from NASA to send the first Israeli female astronaut into space," the minister said. She added that the Israeli Space Agency has begun screening candidates for the position.

The minister did not say when the Israeli woman is scheduled to join NASA activities and in what framework she will fly into space. Gamliel added that her ministry is promoting the development of the space sector, and that the Israeli space market has the potential to reach an annual turnover of 15 million shekels by mid-century.

President Isaac Herzog, who is in New York for his speech at the United Nations on the occasion of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, sent a recorded greeting in which he said: "We are currently living in an exciting period in space exploration, in which humanity is discovering new ways to utilize space technologies. Not only to explore the stars, but also to promote global health, stability and prosperity on Earth."

Herzog added: "Israel, despite being a small country, stands at the global forefront of the space field and serves as a significant factor in leading international space programs. We are already promoting cooperation with countries that have signed the Abraham Accords, and I am confident that in the near future we will see additional cooperation, which will contribute to both Israel and the international space community. Our leadership in advancing innovation in the field is extremely important to Israel's security, economic and scientific future and should be given top priority."
UAE conglomerate buys $10m stake in Israeli tech security firm that detects drones
UAE-based advanced defense technology group EDGE will invest $10 million to buy a 30 percent stake in Israel’s Thirdeye Systems, a developer of AI-based electro-optical systems to detect drones and unmanned aerial vehicles.

The deal is subject to approval by Israel’s Defense Ministry. The Netanya-based defense tech startup said Tuesday that Abu Dhabi’s EDGE group has also committed to investing $12 million to create a joint venture with Thirdeye that will be tasked with the development and sales of electro-optical object recognition systems to new global regions and markets.

According to the agreement, EDGE will be the majority owner of the joint venture with a 51% stake, Thirdeye will hold 43% and a third party the remaining 6%.

Founded in 2010 by CEO Lior Segal, Yoel Motola and Gil Barak, Thirdeye develops fully automated electro-optical scanning systems to detect fast-evolving threats on the battlefield, including UAVs and enemy drones. The systems rely on dual imaging technology and combine thermal and sensor imaging that detect heat emissions and capture light reflections.

EDGE, an Abu Dhabi-based conglomerate of private firms and government-owned bodies, has 25 subsidiaries and employs 12,000 workers across various sectors: defense platforms and systems; missiles and precision-guided weapons; cyber defense; electronic warfare and intelligence; and mission support. The conglomerate operates in 140 countries and has an order backlog of $12.8 billion.

“This technological and security partnership sends a strong message about the capabilities of our AI-driven products and their contribution to national security,” said Thirdeye CEO Segal. “Partnering with a globally recognized supplier like EDGE will help us showcase Thirdeye Systems’ technological advantages and further expand our footprint in additional international markets.” Israeli defense firm Thirdeye’s Meduza X is a tactical electro-optical system for the detection of drones and UAVs. (Courtesy)

Thirdeye’s systems are deployed by the Israeli army as well as seven defense bodies in NATO member countries. The defense firm’s stock listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange jumped 26% following the deal announcement, giving it a market value of NIS 84 million ($23 million).

The war with the Hamas terror group and fighting with Iran-backed Hezbollah in the north have exposed the lethal threat drones pose to military and civilian assets. Despite having one of the world’s best defenses against missiles and rockets, Israel has struggled to deal with the drone threat throughout the 15-month war.


Berlin International Film Festival to screen doc on hostage David Cunio
Letter to David, a documentary by Tom Shoval about David Cunio, one of the hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza, will be shown at the 75th Berlinale, the Berlin International Film Festival, which will take place in February, the festival announced last week.

It is one of several movies of Israeli and Jewish interest that will take part in the festival this year.

Documentary filmmaker Nancy Spielberg is one of the producers of Letter to David, which details how Shoval directed Cunio and his brother Eitan in the drama Youth, which won worldwide acclaim in 2013. The Cunio brothers played siblings who, ironically, kidnap a classmate in a misguided attempt to get their family out of debt.

David Cunio was widely praised for his performance, but instead of pursuing acting, he became an electrician. He was living in Kibbutz Nir Oz with his family when he was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists along with his wife and twin daughters. His wife, Sharon Aloni Cunio, and children were released in the hostage deal in November 2023.

David’s brother Ariel Cunio was also taken hostage, along with his girlfriend, Arbel Yehoud, and they are still being held. David is not on the list of hostages to be released in the current hostage deal.

Shoval said that he and David formed a strong bond while making Youth, and that the new documentary includes raw footage from that film.

“The documentary will serve as both a personal letter and a multilayered portrayal of the new reality in war-torn Kibbutz Nir Oz, where many were murdered or abducted,” said Shoval. “This affecting visual journey reflects on what was and never will be again, the cruel separation of the brothers, and the inexplicable connection between life and cinema, memory and reality. The film will not use footage from October 7 but will rely on existing materials to testify to the unimaginable.”
Maya Desiatnik: Surviving October 7 and inspiring change through advocacy
As with many young Israeli soldiers who witnessed October 7, Maya Desiatnik, an IDF soldier who was stationed at the Nahal Oz military base, has suffered from the emotional and physical consequences of that day.

She has learned how to relate to the horrors she faced that day and her recovery, using her past to educate and inspire others. “I will never forget what I saw through the surveillance cameras,” Desiatnik recalls about the October 7 attacks.

“The terrorists breached the border effortlessly, storming into our base. Chaos erupted as they advanced, leaving destruction in their wake.”

She explained how she was trapped in the command center with her fellow soldiers for hours, hearing gunshots and explosions from outside.

When the terrorists set the command center on fire, Desiatnik narrowly escaped, but her fellow soldiers weren’t so lucky.“I was the only one who survived,” she said.

“I lost my closest friends that day. The memories of them and their bravery are always with me.”

In the wake of the massacre, Desiatnik shared that she faced a new battle. She had eventually healed from the physical injuries due to smoke inhalation, but the emotional scars went much deeper. Plagued by PTSD, nightmares, and intense survivor’s guilt, Desiatnik struggled to regain her footing.

Amid her recovery, she discovered that not all her friends had been killed that day; some, including Daniella, Liri, Naama, and Karina, had reportedly been taken captive by Hamas.

Desiatnik explained that this sliver of hope became both a source of strength and of tormenting uncertainty.

Months passed, and during a Belev Echad delegation in New York, Desiatnik was confronted with images of her friends in captivity. “I didn’t want to see them,” she recalls.

“But when I did, I recognized Daniella immediately because of the tattoo on her arm. It was a moment of both hope and pain, knowing they were alive but trapped in such unimaginable circumstances.”

On Saturday, while on another advocacy mission with Belev Echad in Cleveland, Ohio, Desiatnik received the news that her friends had been released from Hamas captivity and were on their way home.

“I felt a tidal wave of emotions – relief, joy, anger, everything at once,” she says. “Relief that they were alive, joy that they were safe, but also anger at Hamas for dragging this out, for separating us, for trying to claim some twisted victory in the end.”
Meet the Masa Changemakers
Emily Schrader never expected to become a journalist, let alone in Israel.

“I saw inaccurate reporting on the Middle East and noticed that certain ‘news’ sources were spreading intentional disinformation, often on behalf of regimes like those in Iran or Qatar.

“As someone with a background in digital campaigns and political marketing, I saw through the campaigns of subversion that we often see being spread around social media and media.

“Sadly, international media continues to pick up inaccurate and biased information that misrepresents the situation in Israel and throughout the region. For this reason, I dedicated myself to getting more accurate information out about the entire Middle East from Tehran to Tel Aviv, which today is my home.”

But her path to Tel Aviv and becoming a journalist was unexpected. Emily, a journalist and news anchor at Ynet and ILTV and a leading advocacy figure in Israel and internationally is originally from California. She came to Israel with the Masa-Academic program.

“Masa enabled me to obtain my MA from Tel Aviv University and to learn more about the Middle East practically. This is where I discovered my purpose and recognized the major problems with international media’s portrayal of the region. I knew I had to act.”

Emily was recognized by Algemeiner as one of the 100 people positively influencing Jewish life in 2022, and in 2023, she was named one of the 18 “Women to Watch by Hadassah Women’s Zionist Organization. She also received the 2023 Bonei Zion Award for Young Leadership from Nefesh B’Nefesh.

With hundreds of thousands of followers across her social media platforms, Emily uses her reach to advocate for Israel. However, her work comes at a price – she has faced threats, including being targeted by the Iranian regime, which has accused her of being a “Mossad agent.”

ANOTHER PERSON who knows something about being shamed and attacked on social media for supporting Israel is Margot Touitou. Like Emily, Margot participated in a Masa-Career program and, shortly after, decided to make aliyah. A few years ago, Margot began posting and sharing her life as a new olah in Tel Aviv and quickly became a well-known online personality, especially in Israel.

During Operation Guardian of the Walls in 2021, Margot felt compelled to speak out and share her perspective on Israel’s situation with the world. Since the current war began, her efforts have intensified. She shares and publishes content about Israel globally and has gained significant recognition in Israel and abroad for her activities.

“I was dangerously targeted by anti-Israel online trolls. However, I transformed a frightening and difficult experience into an opportunity. I created a membership community offering exclusive videos, guides, and weekly newsletters. It’s a safe, troll-free space to empower and inspire those navigating life in Israel.”

But Margot is still using her social media assets to speak up for Israel whenever she can.




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

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