Tuesday, February 25, 2025

02/25 Links Pt2: The Anti-Semitic Takeover of the Health and Education Industries; Sydney nurse charged for threatening to kill Israelis; Roger Waters loses libel case

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: The Anti-Semitic Takeover of the Health and Education Industries
In order to believe anti-Semitism isn’t at a crisis point, you’d have to believe in coincidences to a degree that would strain credulity.

Two recent controversies provide cases in point.

First, from George Washington University: “A federal civil rights investigation uncovered evidence that the George Washington University faculty retaliated against Jewish students based on ‘shared ancestry-related advocacy’ by placing them in a remediation program after the students lodged an anti-Semitism complaint against an anti-Israel professor,” reports the Washington Free Beacon.

This incident has always been one of the most important anti-Semitism-on-campus sagas because it demonstrates just how far beyond the classroom the bias extends.

The investigation stemmed from a civil-rights complaint filed by Jewish students at George Washington taking a mandatory graduate course by psychology professor Lara Sheehi. (Sheehi has since left to work for a school based in Qatar.) According to the complaint, Sheehi attacked a student’s Israeli background in front of the class. She then invited an infamous blood libelist to give a guest lecture in which, according to the complaint, the speaker “suggested that good deeds done by Jews and Israelis are done to mask sinister activity.” She repeatedly denigrated Israelis and “lionized” a Palestinian who took part in a terrorist attack against a Jewish child in a candy store.

Jewish students raised their concerns with Sheehi at the beginning of the following class. Sheehi responded by denying that the textbook anti-Semitism the students had been subject to was anti-Semitism and that this was a “non-negotiable truth.” Zionism—the belief in equal Jewish rights to self-determination—was arguably the real anti-Semitism, she suggested, thus accusing the Jewish students themselves of being anti-Semites. Sheehi then encouraged the class to see the students’ complaints as evidence of Islamophobia, even though the Jewish students did not mention Muslims. Sheehi further defended her guest lecturer’s advocacy of violence against Jews.

The students spoke with an official in the psychology program who brushed them off, then a dean who refused to let them even exit the class. Sheehi then retaliated against the students by telling the faculty in the graduate program that the Jewish students were racists. She then initiated disciplinary proceedings against the students for objecting to anti-Semitism in a diversity course.

The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has since vindicated the Jewish students’ account.

Mandatory diversity courses such as this have been common in recent years. Orwellian disciplinary processes against students are common. The language used repeatedly in this course—“Islamophobia,” “white Israeli racism,” “white fragility,” etc.—are common. Anti-Zionism is common, to put it mildly.

Which is to say: What happened here is common. And it was essentially a derailing, or an attempted derailing, of Jewish students’ professional education and careers because they were Jewish, full stop. All the evidence above suggests that, too, is common.
Seth Mandel: Antisemitism in America a "virus" which mutates - including as DEI
JFeed: To end off: obviously, none of us are prophets, but based on what you know now and assuming trends continue, how do you see the anti-Semitism wave continuing? Is it going to continue to be in recession or do you see an explosion happening?

Seth Mandel: So I tend to be an optimist by nature, but I'm not on this issue. So...I don't come bearing any sort of sunny optimism on this. I think that the reason we always rely on the comparison of antisemitism to a virus is because it mutates. And I don't think that anything in general stays the way it is. It's sort of like an object in motion stays in motion unless acted upon by an outside force. So it's gonna keep going forward and not just tread water.

I think that antisemitism behaves that way. And so on campus, we had the Tentifada and I wrote a piece warning that it can get worse than this, even if it's not as public, right? That these things have to change to survive. And the Tentifada, especially once the active war stopped, there was not gonna be the same amount of Jews for the tent protests, right? But there were the seeds planted among especially young activists that you could and should wave a Hamas or a Hezbollah flag or wear a hoodie with the picture of Abu Obeida, the spokesman for Hamas on it, like he was Shea Guvara. There was like this normalizing of explicit violence against Jews. And then we saw investigations and some arrests.

You may not have the numbers, but I think that antisemitism itself has been strengthened in a really important way during this time. And you don't need that many people to do terrible things. I'm not saying they're all terrorists on campus or whatever, or even budding terrorists, but the point is that they get, activists tend to get older. Activism itself tends to get older. And it's certainly true in American politics over the years.

Things don't tend to mellow out, pauses don't mellow out because if they do, they disappear, right? You have to always find a reason to push onward. And if your cause relies on the ability to shock, which antisemitism and the... Tentifada and a lot of the pro-Palestinian movement does, then what shocks people changes over time. It's the Overton window problem of moving the Overton window.

So I think that we've accepted, not we, but we as a sort of society, considering the behavior of a lot of elected leaders and institutional leaders, a certain level of Jew hatred as normal. And that wasn't the case before. They would have denied before October 7th and before all these protests, a campus administrator would have flatly denied that such a thing, that level of Jew hatred existed in those places.

And it's gone in those 16 months to now being: not only does it exist, but it's basically been sort of accepted as normal. And then the question turned to what do we do to make our campus safe for everybody? There's almost no thought given to the fact that they sort of read this vile Jew hatred in students and among professors and people on campus. There's just like, all right, well, what do we do about it? So that Jews stop asking, Jewish students stop asking to take their classes via Zoom. and they're not afraid to come on campus. It's been normalized. It's like, all right, this is the status quo.

The status quo is we've got chapters of SJP and all their followers and people who will behave like this and a very large number of people who hate Jews with every fiber of their being and will cheer violence against them with almost no limit. And that's like, all right, that's where we are. Now what do we do just to make our institution run? Not what do we do to turn back that tide and cleanse our institution of the ideas and the hatred and I would say the enabling agents of it, the things that push people to do that or see them as the incentive structure, I guess you could call them.

So, I don't know what form it's going to take. And like I said, it's not a partisan thing, and there's no way to see the future. But I think that there are warning signs that you just have to expect that whatever it is, this is a thing that mutates. And you have to just try to assess the political climate wherever you are. And think about how that virus might gain a foothold, how it might survive, and how it might evolve. in the changing environment. And that's really kind of the best you can do to try to stay ahead of it.
Trouble in Australian Jewish paradise
Australian Jewish community leaders explain the unnerving spate of anti-Semitic incidents in a country so long seen as a safe refuge.

Last month, two men with covered faces, dressed in black, came to a house in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs. They sprayed the garage with red paint, set the cars parked in the street on fire, and added anti-Semitic graffiti. Their chosen target was the former home of Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, the representative body of the country’s Jewish community. They apparently thought that Ryvchin still lived there.

"My wife and I woke up early that morning, because we received the security camera recordings from our old neighbor who lives opposite," Ryvchin relates. "On the cameras, we saw a car pull up and two men pouring gasoline on the road leading up to the house and setting two cars alight. On one of the cars they wrote ‘Fuck Israel’ on one side and ‘Jews’ on the other side. For us it was a shock, but it’s one more event in a series of very similar attacks."

As Ryvchin says, this was certainly not the first anti-Semitic incident in Australia lately. Just over a month ago, for example, a children’s daycare center next to a synagogue in Sydney was set on fire, and in December a Molotov cocktail was hurled at a synagogue in Melbourne. According to data gathered by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the country jumped to 2,062 in the twelve months to September 2024, from just 495 in the previous year. Community leaders tell of continual reports of harassment, abuse of authority against Jews, and shocking physical attacks. The other week, the premises of a Jewish-owned business in Melbourne were sprayed with the words "Gas the Jews".

As if that were not enough, a couple of weeks ago the world received a particularly viral demonstration of the anti-Semitism in Australia. Israeli content producer Max Veifer happened upon two nurses from a Sydney hospital on TikTok the other week. The two, Ahmad Rashad Nadir and Sarah Abu Lebdeh, refugees from Afghanistan, made clear at the beginning of the conversation that they were not exactly fans of Israel, but things rapidly deteriorated. Lebdeh said of Israeli patients, "I won't treat them, I will kill them," and added later, "I want you to remember my face, so you can understand that you will die the most disgusting death," while Nadir chimed in with, ""You have no idea how many Israeli dog (sic) came to this hospital and I send them to Jahannam (hell)."

The Australian authorities reacted quickly to the incident. The nurses were suspended from the hospital and an investigation was opened. But the situation has caused great anxiety among Australia’s Jewish population of almost 120,000. "We are chasing every rabbit down every hole, and that takes time," New South Wales deputy police commissioner David Hudson told "The Wall Street Journal." State and federal police have set up a special hate crime investigation unit. Last year, Australia outlawed Nazi salutes and the public display of Nazi insignia, and the other week the federal parliament passed government-sponsored legislation introducing mandatory prison sentences for hate crimes.

Even so, many in the Jewish community still think that the Labor government, headed by Anthony Albanese, is not doing enough. Whether or not that is a fair assessment, police helicopters currently patrol Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs nightly, and synagogues and Jewish businesses are protected.

How has a country perceived by Israelis as a place of refuge where no-one cares about their ethnicity become a place where they are hated? Local sources say that antis-Semitism began to rear its head in Australia straight after October 7. A few days after the war broke out, a grotesque demonstration took place outside the Sydney Opera House, with participants recorded shouting "Death to the Jews" and "Jews to the gas chambers." The world was horrified, the Australian government condemned the incident, but nothing substantial was done.
Sydney nurse charged for threatening to kill Israelis
A Sydney area nurse was charged for threatening to kill Israeli patients in a viral video that created a massive uproar around the world, the New South Wales Police Force announced on Wednesday.

Twenty-six-year-old Bankstown Hospital nurse Sarah Abu Lebdeh was arrested on Tuesday and charged with threatening violence to a group, using a carriage service to threaten to kill, and using a carriage service to menace.

The Condell Park woman was granted conditional bail and is set to appear at the Downing Centre Local Court on March 19.

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said in a statement that the antisemitic task force had exhaustively investigated the incident, in which Abu Lebdeh wished a harsh death on Israeli influencer Max Veifer that she wouldn't treat Israeli patients but instead would "kill them."

“Strike Force Pearl detectives must be commended for acting swiftly under enormous pressure and public expectation,” Webb said of the antisemitism task force established in December to address rising antisemitic incidents in New South Wales. "These charges have been laid following a lot of hard work and legal advice, received yesterday from the Commonwealth DPP [Director of Public Prosecutions]."

Webb noted that the detectives had to overcome obstacles and jurisdictional challenges since their commended their investigation on February 12. The NSW police faced controversy when they had contacted Veifer for a full version of the video, but had allegedly not provided him with an email address to submit the content.

The full video showed Abu Lebdeh and a male nurse engaging in conversation with Veifer over a random video chat platform. When the other nurse discovered that Veifer was Israeli, he said that Veifer would eventually be killed and go to hell.


‘We fought for peace, were attacked by those we helped’: Yocheved Lifshitz parts from Oded
Family, friends and the president on Tuesday eulogized Oded Lifshitz, the 83-year-old peace activist who was taken hostage on October 7, 2023, from Kibbutz Nir Oz and slain in captivity, with his wife lamenting that he was killed by those he sought to help.

Lifshitz was laid to rest days after his body was returned from Gaza as part of a ceasefire-hostage release deal. He was buried in Nir Oz, a community he helped found 70 years ago, which was completely devastated in the Hamas-led assault with 117 of its 400 residents either killed or kidnapped.

Thousands of Israelis lined the route of the funeral procession to the kibbutz.

Lifshitz, who was shot in the hand and then taken hostage by Hamas terrorists along with his wife, Yocheved, from their kibbutz safe room on October 7, was murdered in captivity by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad shortly after being captured, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

He was described by all as a man who loved playing piano, tending his cactus garden and traveling with Yocheved or ‘Yochke’, his wife of 63 years, often along with their grandchildren.

Yocheved Lifshitz, 86, who was released from captivity two weeks after being taken hostage separately from her husband, said their abduction and his death in captivity had deeply shocked her.

“Our abduction and your death have shaken me to the core,” said Lifshitz at her husband’s funeral. “We fought all through the years for social justice, for peace. To my sorrow, we were hit by a terrible blow by those we helped on the other side. I stand here staggered to see the number of graves, and the terrible destruction of our community that was completely abandoned on October 7.” Former hostage Yocheved Lifshitz (right) with her daughter Sharone Lifschitz, at the funeral of her husband, slain hostage Oded Lifshitz, at Kibbutz Nir Oz on February 25, 2025. (Screenshot)

Lifshitz noted that members of the community are still being held chained underground for more than 500 days, and insisted that the government must get them all released. Advertisement

“I’m not giving up,” she said. “I will continue to be part of this struggle until the last one returns home.”
‘Dad, you’re home now’: Oded Lifshitz laid to rest in the kibbutz he built
Thousands of mourners, including the Israeli president, gathered in solemn tribute on Tuesday as 83-year-old pioneer, peace activist and great-grandfather Oded Lifshitz was laid to rest in the kibbutz he helped build. The earth of Nir Oz, the land he had tilled with hope and conviction, now holds him forever.

Oded was murdered by Hamas after being taken hostage from Kibbutz Nir Oz on 7 October. He endured over 500 days in captivity before his remains were returned to Israel last Thursday.

His wife, Yocheved, 85, was also abducted but released after two weeks. Together, they had dedicated their lives to building bridges, even transporting patients from Gaza to Israeli hospitals for medical treatment—an act of humanity repaid with brutality.

As the funeral procession made its way from Chevra Kadisha in Rishon Lezion, mourners lined the roads, holding Israeli and yellow flags in silent solidarity.

At Sa’ad Junction, voices rose in unison to sing Hatikvah around his coffin– a cry of resilience and remembrance. By noon, he reached his final resting place in Kibbutz Nir Oz, where grief and love intertwined.

Dignitaries, fellow former hostages, and families of the abducted stood among the crowd. President Isaac Herzog, Knesset member Benny Gantz, and survivors Gadi Mozes, Tami Metzger, Ruthie Munder, Einav Tsengauker and her daughter Natalie, Ilana Grichevsky and Sylvia Cuneo paid their respects.

In his eulogy, Herzog honoured Oded as “the embodiment of the Israeli spirit in its purest form—an Israeli, a Zionist, a Jew, a humanist. A man who loved his people and all people. A kibbutznik, a pioneer, a warrior, a settler, a dedicated member of Hashomer Hatzair, a man of conviction and action, and, above all, a devoted family man.”

With deep sorrow, he apologised that Israel had been unable to bring him home alive, calling for a reckoning over the failures of 7 October as “a critical milestone on the road to healing, rebuilding, and strengthening our nation.”


Buenos Aires Jews hold massive demonstration on behalf of Bibas family
Thousands of people gathered in Buenos Aires on Monday to honor the memory of Shiri, Kfir and Ariel Bibas, along with the other victims of the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023, and to call for the release of all remaining hostages being held by the terror group in Gaza.

An estimated 15,000 people attended the demonstration, waving Israeli flags and orange handkerchiefs — an homage to the red-headed Bibas children — in an event marked by emotion, sadness and remembrance.

The Bibas family, which held mixed Argentine, Israeli and German citizenship, became a symbol of the struggle to return the hostages from the Strip. At 4 years old and 9 months old, respectively, Ariel and Kfir Bibas were the youngest captives to remain in Gaza. Their bodies, along with that of their mother Shiri, who was 32 at the time of her kidnapping, were returned to Israel last week, laying to rest the last hopes that they might come home alive.

They were among the 251 people taken hostage on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas gunmen stormed across the border, killing some 1,200 people, most of them civilians.

Four of the remaining hostages being held in the Strip are Argentine citizens.

The event was organized by the AMIA Jewish Community Center; the DAIA, which is the umbrella organization of Argentina’s Jewish community; the Argentine Zionist Organization; and the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

The demonstration began with a candle-lighting ceremony by Argentine relatives of hostages and victims of the Hamas atrocities marked by emotion. As they embraced each other, one cried out, pleading for the well-being of their loved one. Even without the aid of a microphone, the anguished cry pierced the crowd.

Israel’s ambassador to Argentina, Eyal Sela, addressed the attendees, firmly holding the Hamas terror group responsible for the deaths of the Bibas children and mother, and excoriating Hamas for the horrific and cynical manner in which it returned the victims’ bodies to Israel.

“The way Ariel and Kfir’s bodies were returned and what they have done with Shiri’s remains are among the most macabre actions of evil in the world. Nazism was the evil of the last century, and radical Islam is the evil of this century […] From here, together, we demand the freedom of all hostages — the living to be reunited with their families, the dead to be laid to rest,” Sela said.


Jeers for Israel and a top award for a doc about hostages at Berlin film festival
A powerful film about an Israeli family’s ordeal since the Hamas terror onslaught of October 7, 2023, has won the top documentary prize at this year’s Berlinale film festival, one year after a film about West Bank Palestinians took home the same award.

“Holding Liat,” a US production that held its world premiere here on February 16, follows the family of Liat Beinin Atzili after Hamas terrorists abducted her from Kibbutz Nir Oz. Her husband, Aviv, was killed. Liat returned home in the first hostage deal in November 2023.

The prize-winning documentary, by American director Brandon Kramer, is one of two films dealing with October 7 that had their world premieres at the festival. The other, “Letter to David,” from Israeli director Tom Shoval, brings viewers close to the Cunio family, several of whose members — including brothers David and Ariel Cunio — also were abducted from Nir Oz. The film was, by Shoval’s choice, not in competition for an award.

The prize for “Holding Liat,” announced February 22, and displays of solidarity for hostages by the festival leadership and some celebrities, contrasted with last year’s Berlinale, where public vilification of Israel went virtually unanswered, critics say.

But while the new festival director, Tricia Tuttle, said she tried to get protests under control this year, warning participants about which statements might get them into trouble, it turned out to be difficult to keep the lid on.

Scottish actor Tilda Swinton, winner of this year’s Honorary Golden Bear for lifetime achievement, used her award ceremony to condemn — without naming Israel — the “entitled domination and the astonishing savagery of spite, state-perpetrated and internationally enabled mass murder.”

And Hong Kong director Jun Li, whose film had nothing to do with Israel, chanted “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” — a phrase that is against the law here in some circumstances — from the stage. Following complaints, police have launched an investigation.

Tuttle said the Berlinale regretted what had happened. “We had indicated to our guests which political statements were particularly sensitive, and which were even likely to be criminal,” she said.
‘It is very hard to see your son begging for his life’
“Looking at their scared, frightened faces, begging to come out, wanting to be like their friends who got released, it is very hard to see your son begging for his life, asking to come out,” Ilan Dalal, the father of Guy Gilboa-Dalal, told JNS on Monday.

On Saturday, Hamas published a propaganda video showing Israeli hostages Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Evyatar David at their friends’ release ceremony from captivity in Gaza.

Hamas compelled the two to watch the ceremony from inside a vehicle as hostages Eliya Cohen, 27, Avera Mengistu, 39, Hisham al-Sayed, 36, Omer Shem Tov, 22, Tal Shoham, 40, and Omer Wenkert, 23, were released.

Gal Gilboa-DalalGal Gilboa-Dalal, a survivor of the Supernova festival massacre whose brother Guy Gilboa-Dalal is being held captive in Gaza, speaks at a memorial ceremony at the site of the terrorist attack, Jan. 5, 2024. Credit: Courtesy of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum HQ.

“This is the first sign of life we received in eight months,” Dalal told JNS. “The last sign of life was before the Israel Defense Forces conducted a rescue operation [that freed four hostages in June]. Since then, Hamas has hidden everyone in the tunnels. We had no information about them until yesterday,” he said.

“I saw my son for the first time in 16 months and heard his voice. It’s a very strong sign of life; we know he is alive, he is not wounded. They’re pale and thin, but they’re okay. The most important thing for us is to get them back home,” he added.

While Guy is meant to be released in the second phase of the ceasefire-hostage/prisoner exchange, there is currently no guarantee that the second phase will be reached, or that the current stage will be extended, noted Dalal.

“The parties haven’t even started to talk about it, but we have hope that they will continue this phase and the release of more hostages and that somehow we will manage to bring everybody back,” he said.

Over the past two days, Dalal and the rest of his family have spoken to all Israeli channels and attended meetings with officials to explain the urgency of getting the hostages out.

“They have no time. If we go back to war instead of releasing them, we will be risking their lives. If we really want to eliminate Hamas, we must first get the hostages home because the IDF cannot operate in Gaza in full strength as long as there are hostages there,” said Dalal.
Hen Mazzig: The brothers of two hostages seen in Hamas propaganda video speaks out
Boundless cruelty: Hamas forced hostages Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Evyatar David to watch release 'ceremony’ on Saturday and drove them back to captivity.

The terror group's video showed the two hostages in Hamas vehicle as an audience in release 'ceremony' held in Gaza; couple addresses Netanyahu, saying 'we just want this to end'; clip gives families first sign of life in a year.

Gal and Ilay shared with me what it’s like to have a brother held hostage for over 500 days.




EU delegation cancels Israel visit after lawmakers’ entry barred
A European Union parliamentary delegation has canceled its scheduled visit to Jerusalem and Ramallah after Israel barred entry to French MP Rima Hassan and delegation leader MP Lynn Boylan, along with two E.U. staffers.

The bloc’s mission to the Palestinians confirmed the trip’s termination in a statement to The Times of Israel on Monday.

The Israeli Interior Ministry cited Hassan’s support for boycotting Israel as the reason for her ban, though the E.U. mission stated no official explanations were given for the other denials. Despite three other MPs being allowed entry, Boylan chose to cancel the entire trip.

Israeli Interior Minister Moshe Arbel said Hassan has “consistently worked to promote boycotts against Israel in addition to numerous public statements both on social media and in media interviews.”

Arbel’s decision followed a recommendation from Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism.

“The State of Israel is not obligated to allow the entry of any official from a foreign country, including members of parliament, if they work to boycott and undermine its legitimacy,” said Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli.

“Rima Hassan leads hostile campaigns against Israel, calls for boycotts and encourages economic sanctions,” he added. “We will use all the tools at our disposal to prevent the exploitation of our democracy for anti-Israeli purposes.”

Boylan, who chairs the European Parliament EU-Palestine delegation, and Hassan were refused entry at Ben-Gurion Airport and ordered to return to Brussels.
Roger Waters loses libel case over ‘genocide’ accusation
A High Court libel claim against the co-founder of rock band Pink Floyd could go to trial after he accused a documentary maker of “cheerleading the genocide of the Palestinian people” in Gaza.

Roger Waters is being sued for libel by John Ware over comments made in an episode of the Al Jazeera programme The Stream, in which the musician also described Ware as a “pro-Zionist, pro-genocider”.

Ware denies the comments and is also suing the channel as part of the legal action.

Waters’ comments came in response to a documentary made and presented by the journalist for the campaign group Campaign Against Antisemitism, entitled The Dark Side Of Roger Waters, which sought to “examine the evidence for the charge that Roger Waters is an antisemite”.

In a judgment on Tuesday, Mrs Justice Eady said it was agreed that the statements “are defamatory of the claimant at common law”.

She also ruled on several preliminary issues in the case, including the “natural and ordinary” meanings of the posts and whether they were statements of fact or opinion.

A further hearing in the case could now be heard at a later date.

The court heard earlier in February that the first version of the broadcast at the centre of the legal claim was presented by Anelise Borges, who introduced it as a “conversation” with “one of the world’s most outspoken musicians”.


Jewish Hollywood group pans bid for Oscar attendees to wear pro-Gaza pin
An organization of Jews in Hollywood condemned efforts by a pro-Palestinian group of artists to wear pins supporting Gaza at the upcoming Academy Awards, calling the buttons an “emblem of Jewish bloodshed.”

Artists4Ceasefire, a collective of well-known people in the entertainment industry, sent letters to attendees of the annual award show, requesting that they wear a pin calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, though a ceasefire has in fact been in effect for more than a month.

The pins depict an orange hand holding a heart in front of a red background. Artists4Ceasefire said in its letters that the pin “symbolizes support for universal human rights and lasting peace.”

Brigade — an organization of Jewish Hollywood personalities founded in the wake of the October 7 massacre to advocate for Jews and Israel — decried that the letters were sent out on February 20, the same day that the bodies of Ariel and Kfir Bibas, two young redheaded hostages murdered in Hamas captivity, were released from Gaza.

“On the very day it was discovered that the Bibas babies — innocent Jewish children — were strangled to death by the terrorist’s bare hands, you asked Hollywood to wear [the pin] with pride,” said a

The Brigade letter also noted that red hands are a symbol of the lynching of two Israel Defense Forces reservists who accidentally entered the Palestinian city of Ramallah in 2000 during the Second Intifada. During that event, one of the lynchers, Aziz Salha, stood at the window of the police station in which the two Israelis were killed and held his blood-stained hands out to a cheering crowd. Salha was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza in October.

“That infamous image is now your ‘ceasefire’ badge,” the letter said.
Fetterman’s Progressive Staff Reportedly Flees His Moderate Change, Support for Israel
Another one bites the dust.

Sen. John Fetterman’s steadfast support for Israel has reportedly led to the departure of six staff members in recent weeks.

According to The Intercept, a former Fetterman (D-Pa.) staffer said his staunch support of the Jewish state coincided with his “disavowal of progressive politics” and his openness toward working with President Donald Trump, who is also a firm ally of Israel.

When Fetterman campaigned in 2022, he ran as a progressive Democrat. However, he suffered a stroke in May 2022, which limited his time on the campaign trail. But voters who spoke to DVJournal after attending the event Fetterman missed that night said they supported him because he was a progressive.

But perhaps it’s just smart politics. Fetterman may have noted the country has shifted toward the right with the overwhelming support in both the popular vote and swing states for Trump in 2024. While the DelVal Democratic congresswomen opposed the Laken Riley Bill, Fetterman sponsored it in the Senate. Named for a 22-year-old nursing student murdered by an illegal immigrant, that law requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to detain illegal aliens who have been arrested for burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting.

Fetterman has also voted for some of Trump’s cabinet members, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio. He broke with the progressive camp to sponsor a bill to protect Jewish college students from antisemitism on campus.
It’s all in the family
Mapheze Ahmad Yousef Saleh, daughter of a senior Hamas official, was a graduate student at Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, according to recent reports. The story doesn’t stop there.

The Middle East Forum think tank has uncovered that Saleh, the daughter of longtime Hamas leader Ahmed Yousef, is married to Georgetown post-doctoral fellow Badar Khan Suri. Even more troubling, Suri—who holds a position at Georgetown’s Alwaleed Center for Christian and Muslim Understanding, funded by Saudi tycoon Alwaleed bin Talal—has repeatedly endorsed Hamas terror and actively spreads its propaganda while claiming to specialize in “peace processes in the Middle East.”

Ahmed Yousef was a senior Hamas figure in Gaza and an adviser to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. He also founded the United Association for Studies and Research, which had ties to officials at Georgetown and its Alwaleed Center where his son-in-law, Suri, now works. The United Association for Studies and Research was a Hamas-affiliated think tank that operated in the United States from 1989 to 2004. According to the Investigative Project on Terrorism, it was established by Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook and served as a front for Hamas activities in the United States, including propaganda and fundraising.

Suri isn’t just connected to Hamas by family. He actively spreads the terror group’s propaganda and promotes virulent antisemitism on social media. In a blatant act of revisionism, he denied well-documented reports of the Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, posting on Facebook: “Three lies by Israeli occupation, no proof whatsoever of babies beheaded, rapes or mass killings at carnival.”
Class divide CUNY’s taxpayer-funded Hunter College promotes hateful ‘Palestine’ course targeting Jews, activists fume
Lefty taxpayer-funded Hunter College is promoting hateful instruction targeting Israel for “settler colonialism, genocide,” “apartheid” and “infrastructure devastation,” furious Jewish watchdog groups charge.

The Upper East Side CUNY school recently laid out the disturbing description in a job posting for a professorship of “Palestinian Studies.”

“We seek a historically grounded scholar who takes a critical lens to issues pertaining to Palestine including but not limited to: settler colonialism, genocide, human rights, apartheid, migration, climate and infrastructure devastation, health, race, gender, and sexuality,” the posting says.

Pro-Palestine protestors gather during a "Day of Rageâ protest at Hunter College on Monday, May 6, in New York, N.Y. 5

“We are open to diverse theoretical and methodological approaches,” the seemingly increasingly radicalized top CUNY college tells applicants.

Critics say the posting comes right out of the anti-Israel playbook that accuses Jews of all these atrocities.

A former longtime trustee at the City University of New York said the posting peddles antisemitism by demonizing the Jewish state of Israel, and the source likened it to how the Nazis fomented hate against Jews in 1930s Germany.

“What the hell are the trustees at CUNY doing allowing a course like this to be accredited?” fumed Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, who served as a trustee for 15 years.

“To make a Palestinian Studies’ course — completely about alleged Jewish crimes — is akin to courses offered in the Nazi era which ascribed all the world’s crimes to the Jews. This course takes antisemitism to another level at CUNY.


California lawmakers introduce bill to root out antisemitism in ethnic studies courses
A week after a California school district agreed to halt its teaching of ethnic studies courses amid accusations of antisemitism in the curriculum, a group of Democratic state lawmakers in Sacramento introduced legislation on Monday to provide greater scrutiny of the ethnic studies course that will soon be a graduation requirement for California students.

The bill’s authors made clear that the measure is a response to antisemitic material appearing in ethnic studies courses in California public schools. Beginning with the class of 2030, California high schoolers will be required to pass an ethnic studies course to graduate.

“The lack of rigorous curriculum standards for ethnic studies has allowed groups with biased ideological agendas to peddle factually inaccurate and blatantly antisemitic curriculum to school districts, posing a threat to Jewish children’s safety,” Democratic Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur, one of the bill’s authors, said in a statement. “Antisemitism has only increased since the Oct. 7 attacks. We must ensure that ethnic studies has standards like we do for other core curriculum.”

When California’s Legislature first considered mandating the teaching of ethnic studies in 2019, Jewish activists waged a statewide advocacy campaign against the first draft of a statewide model ethnic studies curriculum, which was drafted by far-left academics who endorsed the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and invoked antisemitic tropes. By the time Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, signed the bill into law in 2021, he had worked closely with Jewish leaders and activists from other ethnic and religious groups to draft a model curriculum that better represented Jewish history and the history of other minority groups.

But it quickly became apparent that local school districts could teach ethnic studies — a discipline examining the history and culture of different racial and ethnic groups in the United States — in any way they wanted, including with material that the governor had omitted because of concerns about antisemitism.


GW professor’s office vandalized, called ‘a pernicious symptom’ of ‘bloodthirsty Zionism’
George Washington University economics professor Joseph Pelzman arrived at his office Tuesday morning to find that anti-Israel activists had defaced the door overnight.

The academic papers that were usually hung there were torn down and replaced by dozens of copies of a threatening sign, which called him an “architect of genocide,” and read, “Every sector of this community will be mobilized against you.” The document, titled “Notice of Eviction,” went on to call the professor a “pernicious symptom of the bloodthirsty Zionism permeating this campus” and stated that the group would “upend” the university if Pelzman is not removed from the university’s premises.

Pelzman, who heads the university’s Center of Excellence for the Economic Study of the Middle East and North Africa, authored a plan to relocate Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and redevelop the enclave and submitted it to President Donald Trump’s team in July 2024, part of a 49-page paper he wrote called “An Economic Plan for Rebuilding Gaza,” he told Jewish Insider on Tuesday. The sign on his door referenced Pezlman’s “active role in incepting the genocide and planned ethnic cleansing of Gaza” and his “disgusting plan for the complete destruction and foreign occupation of Gaza.”

Pelzman said he’d be “happy to consult” if Trump’s team does call. “I put it in the mailbox, I have no idea whether he got it,” the professor quipped.

The professor first publicly shared details of the historic plan in August on the podcast “America, Baby!” He painted an idyllic picture of Gaza, which would include “an above ground monorail system with sidewalks and green spaces,” focused on three main economic sectors: agriculture, tourism and technology.

“We sent a copy of the paper to Trump’s people and to [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu. I’m not a political person, I’m an economist,” Pelzman told JI. “But we thought, nobody has a plan, we’re academics, we have a plan. It doesn’t deal with genocide.” Pelzman noted that he has not heard back from the Trump administration regarding the plan, which appears to have overlap with the president’s proposal earlier this month to evacuate Palestinians from Gaza.


LSE defends decision to host launch for book claiming Hamas wrongly vilified since Oct 7
The London School of Economics has defended its decision to stage the launch of a book at its Middle East Centre which claims Hamas has been wrongly “vilified and demonised” since carrying out the 7 October massacre.

The book’s co-authors Helen Cobban and Rami G Khouri also use 244-page Understanding Hamas And Why That Matters to claim that the Islamic group has undergone a “transformation from early anti-Jewish tendencies” and now “differentiates between Judaism and Zionism.”

The book claims that branding Hamas “as ‘terrorist’ or worse,” has meant that “demonisation intensified after the events in Southern Israel on October 7, 2023.”

Promoting the event on the LSE website, it is claimed Hamas has been “subjected to intense vilification” in mainstream Western discourse as a result of the classification in many Western states as a proscribed terrorist group.

The March 10th launch also features a line-up of other academic speakers who have condemned Israel and Zionism and criticised attempts to portray Hamas as “irrational terrorists.”

Asked about its decision to allow an apparently overwhelmingly one-sided event that sought to question the government’s decision to proscribe Hamas as a terrorist organisation to take place at the LSE a spokesperson for the university said:”Free speech and freedom of expression underpins everything we do at LSE.

“Students, staff and visitors are strongly encouraged to discuss and debate the most pressing issues around the world. ”


Anti-Israel Bias at the CBC
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) and HonestReporting Canada (HRC) have filed a complaint with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) that the CBC, Canada's public broadcaster, is operating in violation of its broadcasting license by failing to adhere to its "journalistic standards and practices" in its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.

The complaint provides a detailed account of the CBC's "pattern of inaccurate, unfair and unbalanced news coverage of Israel" following the Oct. 7 massacre, and the "lack of impartiality on the part of (its) journalists."

The CBC's "director of journalistic standards" sent a memo to employees just days after Oct. 7 admonishing them not to refer to Hamas as "terrorists" even though Hamas has been listed as a terrorist organization by the Canadian government since 2002, and not to note that Israel ended its occupation of Gaza in 2005.

Since then, the CBC has blindly repeated much of Hamas's propaganda and downplayed Israel's version of events, while anti-Israel voices have been featured "with such regularity and consistency that to see it as a coincidence would be difficult and defies credulity."


Rolling Stone_ Covering a Year and a Half of War
This is the first of a three-part series examining Rolling Stone’s coverage of the war in Gaza that Hamas started on October 7, 2023.

In October of 2023, coverage of the barbaric October 7 attack on Israel and the Israeli response dominated headlines in the mainstream press as well as broadcast news around the world. Despite its nominal mission as a music magazine, in that first month of the war, Rolling Stone obsessively covered those events as well, in about twenty articles over the first three weeks, with mixed results.

Some of the coverage was well done. On the day of Hamas’s horrific attack, the magazine reported, “President Biden Condemns ‘Appalling Hamas Terrorist Attacks’ Against Israel,” and on October 11 the magazine quoted Gigi Hadid saying, “while I have hopes and dreams for Palestinians, none of them include the harm of a Jewish person. The terrorizing of innocent people is not in alignment with and does not do any good for the ‘Free Palestine’ movement.” On October 15, a Rolling Stone article provided one of the earliest, and to-date one of the most comprehensive, accounts of the gruesome and sickening events at the Nova music festival.

Other articles also gave readers insight into the terrifying details of the October 7 attack. But for the most part, even articles that purported to document the attack from the Israeli perspective, placed the blame for the attack onto the Israeli Prime Minister. A commentary piece by Israeli writer Yaakov Katz on October 7, “This Is a Pearl Harbor Moment for Israel,” described “an attack directed against civilians – children, women, men, old and young hiding in their homes, in bomb shelters and in open fields. When armed terrorists go door-to-door in a Kibbutz there is nothing military about that. It is about murdering civilians for one reason – that they are Jewish and are living in the land of Israel.” Katz, however, also blamed the attack on Netanyahu’s refusal to accede to the demands of anti-judicial reform protesters.
Los Angeles Times Falsely Claims All 1948 Palestinian Arab Refugees Were Expelled
In their Feb. 12 page-A1 article, “Jordan makes its case against Trump’s Gaza plan,” veteran Los Angeles Times journalists Tracy Wilkinson and Nabih Bulos wrongly reported that all of the 1948 Palestinian Arab 1948 were expelled, when in fact most fled (also online here).

The article erred: “About 750,000 Palestinians were expelled — some of whom fled to Jordan — during what Arabs refer to as the 1948 Nakba, or ‘catastrophe,’ when Israel was created.” (Emphasis added.)

The vast majority of Palestinian Arabs refugees fled in 1948— often at the urging of their own leadership which promised return following the eradication of the nascent Jewish state — and were not expelled. Significantly, the “catastrophe” was the outcome of multiple neighboring Arab states invading the emerging Jewish state, launching a failed war of annihilation alongside the Palestinian Arab population.

The Los Angeles Times itself routinely provides accurate reporting on the fact that the estimated 700,000 Palestinian Arab 1948 refugees include those who fled or were expelled. Most recently, an Associated Press article republished in the Times Feb. 20 said of the 1948 war: “During that war, 700,000 Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes in what is now Israel.”

Media outlets which previously corrected the identical error falsely stating that all of the 1948 refugees were expelled include Agence France Presse, Reuters (in Arabic), and The Guardian. CAMERA contacted The Los Angeles Times to request correction in print and online, making clear that of some 700,000 Palestinian Arab refugees from 1948, most fled and a minority were expelled. Stay tuned for any updates.


MSNBC reporter Ayman Mohyeldin FAIL false reporting on Jerusalem
MSNBC anti-Israel reporter Ayman Mohyeldin FAIL after confronted by anchor Jose Diaz-Balart for false reporting on Palestinian terrorist




Pro-Hamas Malaysian PM ‘told to tone down Gaza rhetoric to head off Trump tariffs’
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim – who has been a vocal supporter of Hamas – has been told by his advisers to tone down his rhetoric on the Gaza war to prevent US President Donald Trump from imposing tariffs on Kuala Lumpur, Bloomberg reported this week, citing people familiar with the matter.

The Prime Minister’s Office of Malaysia and its Economy Ministry initially failed to answer a Bloomberg request for comment on Wednesday, while its International Trade and Industry Ministry declined to respond.

Speaking with reporters in Bahrain on Thursday, Ibrahim said he was “not choosing to oppose anyone, but wherever there is oppression and cruelty, we must stand in defence of the oppressed.” He continued, “We have our own stance and have expressed it firmly on various platforms.”

America is Muslim-majority Malaysia’s third-largest trading partner — slightly behind China and Singapore — and it is one of the largest holders of foreign investment stock in the country, according to the State Department.

Following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre that killed some 1,200 people in southern Israel, Malaysia’s prime minister called the terrorist group’s then “political” leader Ismail Haniyeh to express his “unwavering support for the Palestinian people.”

Ibrahim also condemned Israel’s military response in the Gaza Strip, referring to the ground operation as “genocide” and “the height of barbarism,” while describing Hamas as “freedom fighters”.

Defying calls by the Biden administration to cut ties with the Islamist terrorist group, Ibrahim sat down with top Hamas leaders in Doha in May 2024.

However, in an interview with CNN’s Richard Quest that aired shortly after Trump was re-elected in November, Ibrahim answered “yes” to the question of whether he recognises Israel’s right to exist and defend itself.

“The only concern, Richard, is the attempt by the discourse, particularly in the West, to erase the decades prior to October 7,” Ibrahim told the US broadcaster. “We must stop the excesses on both sides.”

Malaysia, a country with sizeable Buddhist and Christian minorities, does not have diplomatic relations with Israel.

At the same time, Hamas’s “military” wing is known to run operations in Malaysia. In 2010, Hamas sent a group of men to the country to train in paragliding. Hamas used paragliders to infiltrate Israel on October 7.


Israel Police warns against fake news, incitement ahead of Ramadan in Jerusalem
As the holy month of Ramadan is set to start at the end of the week, Israel Police is preparing to “ensure prayers take place safely and securely while maintaining public order,” its Spokesperson's Unit announced in a statement on Tuesday.

The Muslim holiday of Ramadan is marked by fasting from sunrise to sunset, prayer, reflection, and community. Muslims believe this month is when the Quran was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad.

Israel Police noted that terrorist organizations exploit Ramadan to “incite and disseminate misleading narratives about events in Jerusalem, especially in the Old City and on the Temple Mount.” False publications and narratives—such as misleading images, edited videos, slogans, and music—can influence the behavior of young people at holy sites, they added, and can provoke unrest.

Hamas responded by condemning Israeli attempts to "desecrate" and "impose control" on the site. They called for members of the public to intensify confrontations with the Israel Police.

An Israeli source recently told N12 that "the volatility of Ramadan will largely depend on the situation in Gaza." The Israeli news outlet reported that this week, Israel’s security establishment is set to recommend limited access to the Temple Mount due to a heightened fear of attacks.

In 2023, during Ramadan evening prayers at al-Aqsa Mosque, Israel Police injured 50 Palestinians and arrested about 400 after they barricaded themselves in the mosque amid fears of religious provocations. As a response, rockets launched by armed Palestinian groups were sent into Israel from Gaza and Lebanon.


Shin Bet, IDF foil 100 kg bomb attack in the West Bank
IDF and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) foiled a terrorist plot involving a 100 kg bomb in Kabatiya, the IDF announced on Tuesday.

Nahal Brigade troops joined the counterterrorism operation in the northern West Bank under Shin Bet's direction.

During the operation, the soldiers searched dozens of terrorist infrastructure sites, apprehended 15 terrorists, located weapons, and dismantled explosives, including a high-powered improvised explosive device.

Earlier this month, the Israeli air force struck a terror cell in a vehicle in Kabatiya as part of its ongoing counterterrorism operation in the West Bank, named Operation Iron Wall.

Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a speech on Sunday night that Israel would prevent large numbers of Palestinian civilians from returning to villages where there were suspicions of continuing terrorist activity.


Israeli-Arab announcer fired after hailing Hamas
The match announcer of Israel Premier League soccer team Bnei Sakhnin F.C. was dismissed on Monday after an interview in which he praised Hamas surfaced in Hebrew media.

Saeed Hassanain, who is a long-time Israeli sports journalist, urged Israeli Arab citizens not to join the Israel Defense Forces, which he dubbed “the enemy’s army, the occupation army.”

Speaking to the Hamas-run Al-Aqsa TV, he further remarked that the way Hamas treated female hostages during captivity in Gaza “proves conclusively who is the barbarian and who is the humane one” in the Israel-Hamas conflict.

In the interview, obtained and aired by Israel’s Channel 14, Hassanain said that freed hostage Omer Shem Tov kissed his captors’ forehead during the prerelease ceremony staged by Hamas “willingly, because he appreciates and respects what the person who held him did for him.

“He who only thinks about joining the occupation army,” he continued, appealing to Israeli Arabs, “must think a million times where he is going and how he is selling his conscience, his moral compass and his religion on this immoral path.”

These remarks led to a public storm. Bnei Sakhnin released an official statement, saying that Hassanain’s volunteer role as the play-caller of the team in its home games has come to an end and that “it was made clear to him that the things he said do not represent the club.”

Israeli Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar called for the dismissal of Hassanain.
Arab Israeli comedian arrested for incitement
The Israel Police on Monday evening arrested Nidal Badarny, an Arab stand-up comedian who joked about the hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, posting some of the offensive clips on social media.

“The footage raised concerns about a breach of public peace,” police said, according to Kan News, Israel’s public broadcaster.

Two shows by Badarny in Haifa and Nazareth were recently canceled following a public protest and a threat by the police to revoke the venue’s business license.

Btsalmo, an Israeli human-rights NGO, brought Badarny to the attention of police and the State Attorney’s Office, leading to his arrest.

Btsalmo CEO Shai Glick told JNS that Badarny was arrested, questioned and released under restrictive conditions.

In one example of his humor, Badarny makes light of the captivity of Thai hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7.

Performing before an Arab Israeli audience in Arabic, Badarny says, “Who told the Thais they were hostages? The Thais sit, they see a van pass by, get on it, thinking someone’s taking them to work. They get to Gaza. There are whistles, everyone’s clapping. Women come out cheering, throwing rice. And the Thais say, ‘Oh, wow, what a reception. What are the work conditions here?’ The first time in their lives that the Thais were respected—first time.”

The audience can be heard laughing appreciatively.

Thirty-one Thai nationals were taken hostage on Oct. 7, according to the Thai government. More than 40 were killed on the day of the attack.

The majority, 23, were released in a November 2023 ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Eight remained in Gaza, of whom five were released on Jan. 30. Of the remaining three, it is believed that two have since died. The fate of the third—Nattapong Pinta—is not known.

Of the Hamas handover ceremonies, in which hostages are made to thank their tormentors and handed gift bags and certificates, Badarny said, referring to the recent transfer of female Israeli hostages:

“Today the whole world asks, ‘What are these certificates of appreciation that Hamas gave to the female prisoners as they took them out of Gaza yesterday?’ According to my analysis, how I saw the female Israeli captives released home in athletic clothes, it appears that those are certificates of completion for a course in Pilates,” he said.


Netanyahu: Israel Demands "Full Demilitarization" of Southern Syria
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israeli troops will stay on the Syrian side of Mt. Hermon and the buffer zone in the Golan Heights for "an unlimited period of time....We will not allow [Hayat Tahrir al-Shams] forces or the new Syrian army to move into territory south of Damascus. We demand full demilitarization of southern Syria from troops of the new Syrian regime in the Quneitra, Daraa and Suweyda provinces," adding that Israel will not accept any threats to Druze in southern Syria.

He also said, "Hamas won't rule Gaza. Gaza will be demilitarized, and its fighting force will be dismantled." He added that "We support President Trump's groundbreaking plan to enable the freedom to leave for Gazans and the creation of a different Gaza."
Seth Frantzman: Druze community in Syria caught between regime, and a hard place
The Druze community in southern Syria has been thrust into the spotlight by recent events. The community mostly lives in the area of Suwayda, a city in an area called Jebel Druze or the Hauran. This area is located in southern Syria near the Jordanian border.

There are other Druze communities in Syria, such as a handful near the Golan. They are part of the wider Druze community in Lebanon and Syria.

The Druze in Syria underwent many hardships over the years. During the Syrian civil war, they generally remained on the side of then-president Bashar al-Assad’s regime, but they chaffed under the state’s rule.

While many were serving either in the army or in local security units, they suffered a massacre at the hands of ISIS. They also suffered after the war due to neglect and continued controversy regarding the Assad regime’s attempts to restore authority over Suwayda.

When the Assad regime fell, the community sought to position itself in regard to the new rulers in Damascus. Like many minority communities, the Druze have watched closely to see if Syria’s incoming leader, Ahmed al-Shaara, and the new authorities would be tolerant. Shaara’s rebel group, Hayʼat Tahrir al-Sham, and its previous incarnation – the Nusra Front – were not always friendly toward the Druze or other minority groups.

Now, Syria is seeking to embrace various groups and encourage a more open national dialogue.

The Druze thus find themselves in a complex position, with various agendas tugging at them.
New Druze military organization announced in Suwayda
A new military organization was announced on Monday by Druze militants in the southern Syrian province of Suweyda, named “The Suweyda Military Council.”

During the announcement ceremony, the founders stated that its role will be to protect the Druze communities and guard the border against arms smuggling and infiltration of extremist terrorists.

The new council’s leader is Tareq Al-Shuofi, a Druze military leader who was wanted by the Assad regime after having defected from the military and having protested and advocated against the regime in the past decade, and who appears to be rather unknown internationally or outside the local arena.

Al-Shoufi announced during the launching ceremony that the council is operating in full coordination with the spiritual leader of the Druze in Swayda, Sheikh Hikmal Al-Hijri, which in turn means that it enjoys a large consensus within the local Druze community.

Al-Shoufi also stressed that the council aspires to remain under the national framework of Syria and, in due course, to join the national army of the new state, which he described as a “Modern, equal citizenship and human rights (granting), democratic, secular, decentralized Syrian state, a state of justice and regional and global peace.”

In an interview for the local Step News Agency, Al-Shoufi explained that the concurrent council was started a couple of years ago by a group of former officers who refused to take part in the military of the Assad regime, and which took part in the long standing anti-Assad protests at the Al-Karama square and movement.

Al-Shoufi directed his words at current Syrian leader Ahmad Al-Sharaa, calling on him to learn from the mistakes of the past and form an army made up of all the populations in Syria.
Syria calls for Israel's withdrawal from its lands, national dialog closing statement says
Syria condemned on Tuesday Israel's incursion into its territories and called for Israel to withdraw, according to a the closing statement of a national dialog summit organized by Syria's new Islamist rulers to outline the country's political roadmap.

Israel moved forces into a UN-monitored demilitarized zone within Syria after rebels led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former Al Qaeda affiliate, toppled former President Bashar al-Assad in December.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel will not tolerate the presence of HTS in southern Syria, nor any other forces affiliated with the country's new rulers, and demanded the territory be demilitarized.

“We will not allow forces of the HTS or the new Syrian army to enter the territory south of Damascus. We demand full demilitarization of southern Syria, in the provinces of Quneitra, Daraa, and Sweida,” Netanyahu said.“And we will not tolerate any threat to the Druze sect in southern Syria.”
Hezbollah struggling to pay followers in wake of Israel’s offensive
The blow delivered against Hezbollah by the Israel Defense Forces is becoming clearer as the Lebanese terror group struggles to maintain financial commitments to its followers, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The Iranian proxy wielded unrivaled military and political power in Lebanon prior to the Israeli offensive, which came in retaliation for months of missile bombardment on Israel’s north.

Hezbollah operates like a shadow state in Lebanon, offering jobs, banking and social services to its adherents. It also paid relatives of Hezbollah fighters who lost their lives and those who lost their homes or businesses.

“But the spiraling bill from its latest war is making many of those payments impossible,” the Journal said.

Sources told the Journal that Hezbollah’s primary financial institution, Al-Qard Al-Hassan, froze payments in recent weeks for compensation checks already issued.

Fadwa Hallal of the southern Lebanese town of Habboush said she had received a $7,000 compensation check for damage to her home on Jan. 28. She was then told by Al-Qard Al-Hassan that it couldn’t pay. She cashed her check after about a month but said others had faced longer delays, the Journal reported.

Other said they had never received support. “I have so many questions about why we were dragged into this conflict, the suffering we endured and who will compensate for our losses,” said Jalal Nassar, a restaurant owner in the Lebanese coastal city Tyre.
Terror Group Leader Who Trained Columbia Students on ‘Palestinian Resistance’ Attends Hezbollah Chief’s Funeral
Among a crowd mourning Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah's death and chanting "Death to Israel, death to America" in Beirut on Sunday was Charlotte Kates, a leader of the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, which the United States sanctioned for providing financial support to terrorists. Just last spring, she was instructing Columbia University students on "Palestinian resistance" tactics.

Tens of thousands of black-clad mourners flooded the funeral at Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium, Lebanon’s largest sports arena. They vowed support for Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed terrorist group that began attacking Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, in solidarity with its ally, Hamas, following the latter’s Oct. 7 massacre of Israeli civilians. Israel, in response to Hezbollah’s assaults, invaded Lebanon and killed Nasrallah on Sept. 27, 2024.

"It is such an honor to be here in Beirut today, one among a sea of over a million people in collective tribute, mourning, love and commitment to the road of resistance and liberation exemplified by Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Sayyed Hisham Safieddine," Kates posted to X on Sunday with photos of the crowd.

"The masses are truly out in the streets, affirming the indelible living legacy of the great anti-imperialist leader of our day, the great Arab and international revolutionary, the beloved speaker of truth and warrior of justice," Kates, Samidoun’s international coordinator, added.

In October, the United States sanctioned Samidoun and Kates’s husband, Khaled Barakat, for providing support to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a terrorist organization that participated in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack. Less than a year before Nasrallah’s funeral, Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD)—the Ivy League school’s most notorious anti-Semitic student group—invited Kates and Barakat, a PFLP member, to deliver speeches on "the fight for liberation," as part of a lecture titled "Palestinian Resistance 101." Shortly after the event, which the Washington Free Beacon attended virtually, Columbia student radicals launched the anti-Israel encampment and eventually stormed a campus building.

In November, a month after the sanctions were issued, CUAD passed out pamphlets just outside Columbia's Morningside Heights gates encouraging attendees to "get involved" with Samidoun. They included a QR code that sent users to Samidoun's website, which touts an "Amsterdam free from Zionism" and calls to "globalize the intifada!"

"The fact is that October 7 changed the world … we saw the potential of a future for Palestine liberated from Zionism," Kates told a group of keffiyeh-clad Columbia students during her March 24 speech.


The complexity of reimposing ‘maximum pressure’
The US is imposing sanctions targeting Iranian oil exports. This is part of a wider campaign to slowly increase pressure on Iran as US President Donald Trump’s administration seeks to return to some aspects of the “maximum pressure” campaign from his first term.

The US State Department said on February 24 that it is “designating 16 entities and vessels for their involvement in Iran’s petroleum and petrochemical industry.”

Among the targets are eight “entities” based in Iran, India, Malaysia, the Seychelles, and the UAE. They are involved in the sale, purchase, and transportation of Iranian petroleum. In addition, eight vessels were identified as part of this network.

Both the US Treasury Department and the state have made statements about this new initiative. The State Department and the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said they were “concurrently sanctioning a combined total of 22 persons and identifying 13 vessels as blocked property across multiple jurisdictions for their involvement in Iran’s oil industry.”

The sanctions affect the entities, oil tankers, and dozens of people, according to the Associated Press. Per that report, the sanctions are aimed at getting to a deal. The new Trump administration doesn’t want to go as hard on Iran as it did the first time. It prefers some kind of accommodation.

Absent that, the US will increase pressure. However, Trump has distanced himself from some of the Iran “hawks” of the first administration, such as then-US national security advisor John Bolton.

“We will see whether or not we can arrange or work out a deal with Iran,” Trump has said.


Iran's Growing Energy Crisis
As of Monday, public services in 22 of Iran's 31 provinces had been completely shut down, including government offices, courts, banks, and educational institutions, due to winter energy shortages, effectively reducing Iran's workweek.

Intelligence sources say blackouts in Iran's major cities have reached unprecedented levels, and the situation is even worse in smaller cities and rural areas where the majority of the population resides.

Authorities in greater Tehran have ordered the shutdown of all heating systems to conserve fuel.


CEO of Idaho construction company resigns after giving Nazi salute
Tom Hill, CEO of Engineered Structures Inc. in Idaho, resigned “effective immediately” on Monday after a video of him performing a Nazi salute at a company event went viral online, according to the Idaho Statesman.

“It is with a heavy heart that I announce my voluntary resignation as CEO of ESI Construction and chairman of the board of directors, effective immediately,” read a statement from Hill posted on ESI’s Facebook page. “While my behavior was never intended to promote hatred or extremist views, I recognize that it has rightfully generated intense backlash and has overshadowed the mission of our company.”

He added that he takes “full responsibility” for his actions.

Neil Nelson, the company’s president, has become the new CEO and board chair. He plans to focus on “healing and moving forward,” according to an official ESI press release.

Before Hill resigned, ESI posted a separate statement on Sunday where Hill outlined that the gesture was part of a “political skit” mimicking billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk and U.S. President Donald Trump. (Musk made a similar gesture in January, sparking massive backlash and controversy, though Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that Musk did not perform a Nazi salute).

In Hill’s statement, he apologized for his actions, saying that it was an “attempt at humor and parody” and that the gesture was “being used by others to unfairly judge me” and ESI, according to the Statesman.


Holocaust survivor, journalist and historian Marian Turski dies at 98
Holocaust survivor Marian Turski, who worked in postwar Poland as a journalist and historian, died on Feb. 18 in Warsaw. He was 98 years old.

Born Moshe Turbowicz to Eliasz and Helena Rachel Turbowicz on June 26, 1926, he grew up in what was then part of Poland and what is now Lithuania.

In 1942, he and his family were sent to the Lodz ghetto. His father and younger brother, Wolf, were transported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and death camp in Poland, where they were killed; his mother was sent to Bergen-Belsen in Germany. She survived and was later reunited with her son.

Turksi was sent on one of the later transports from the Lodz ghetto to Auschwitz, where he survived the camp and a death march in January 1945, after which he was transported to Buchenwald in Germany, followed by another death march to Theresienstadt, where he was liberated by Russian troops. He was said to have lost more than three dozen family members in the Holocaust.

Unlike many Polish Jews who fled war-torn Europe, Turski settled in Warsaw. He studied at the University of Wrocław and married Halina Paszkowska, a survivor of the Warsaw ghetto. She died in 2017. The couple had one child, Joanna Turska, a flautist who lives in Chicago.
Rose Girone, world’s oldest Holocaust survivor, dies at 113
New Yorker Rose Girone, who celebrated her 113th birthday on Jan. 13 and was believed to be the oldest living Holocaust survivor, died on Monday morning.

The cause, according to her daughter, Reha Bennicasa, was old age.

Girone — who ran a knitting shop in Forest Hills, Queens and credits the craft as helping to save her family during the Holocaust — was, by all accounts, a remarkable person, and was well-loved in New York’s knitting community. Girone was also outspoken about her experiences during the war; she provided testimonies to the USC Shoah Foundation, the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County and others.

“Everything that’s out there is really who my mother was,” Bennicasa said, referring to the press coverage her mother received in recent years. “She was a strong lady, resilient. She made the best of terrible situations. She was very level-headed, very commonsensical. There was nothing I couldn’t bring to her to help me solve — ever — from childhood on. She was just a terrific lady… and I don’t know, when God made her, they broke the mold.”

Born in Janov, Poland in 1912, Girone’s family settled in Hamburg, Germany, where they ran a theatrical costume shop. In 1938, Girone (née Raubvogel) married Julius Mannheim in an arranged marriage; later that year, the couple moved to Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland), just as Kristallnacht launched waves of violence against Germany’s Jews. Mannheim was arrested and sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp and Girone, eight months pregnant, fled the city to stay out of harm’s way.

In 1939, Girone jumped at a chance to leave Nazi Germany: A cousin sent her a paper he said was a visa, written in Chinese. Shanghai was one of the last open ports in the world; Girone presented the visa to the Nazi authorities and was able to get Mannheim released from Buchenwald.

“They let my father out with the proviso that we pay them and get out of the country within six weeks, and so we did,” Bennicasa, now 86, told New York Jewish Week writer Tanya Singer in 2022.

Conditions in the Chinese city were difficult for the Jewish refugees, but Girone — who had learned to knit from an aunt as a child and took to it immediately — was able to find wool and knit clothes for her baby girl. Soon enough, an entrepreneurial Viennese Jewish man saw her creations and helped her sell her work and taught her about business. Advertisement




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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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