Gil Troy: This Is Our Moment for Fearless Zionism
Fearless Zionists are not swivel-headed, forever looking over our shoulders, wondering, “What will they say?” We are level-headed, forever looking straight ahead, asking ourselves, “Who are we? What do we need to do? And how do we do it right?” We learn from Americanism, not just Zionism, that liberal-democratic nationalism is a force for good in this world, and that while no nation is perfect, some dictatorial regimes and terrorist organizations are perfectly evil. We are proud, passionate, thoughtful patriots, not afraid of words like “pride,” “love,” “power,” or “anger.” We define true patriots as those who love their country because of its politics always, despite its politics always.Melanie Phillips: Reconciliation — or surrender?
Fearless Zionists understand that war is hell. We know that this war’s moral calculus starts with holding Hamas responsible for everything that has happened since October 7: They started the war, committed despicable crimes, keep holding and abusing hostages, refuse to surrender, and hide behind their own civilians as human shields. We can regret the deaths of Palestinian civilians caught in the crossfire, we try to minimize the death of innocents, but we know the moral onus is on Hamas, not us.
Fearless Zionists aren’t “April 1 Zionists”: supporters of Israel who nevertheless blamed Israel and not the fog of war, along with the instigators of the war Hamas, when seven aid workers were killed mistakenly, tragically – and then started saying “enough, stop fighting,” as the media turned increasingly on Israel. Fearless Zionists don’t call fending off 320 Iranian missiles “taking the win.” They know the difference between defense and offense, between avoiding catastrophe and restoring deterrence. And fearless Zionists have a moral code too, but theirs doesn’t come from anguishing and blaming our soldiers for the holy work of doing the Western world’s dirty work. Our moral code comes from fighting evil, not just condemning it, while understanding how restrained and disciplined and, yes, ethical Israel has been despite facing an enemy that turns mosques into HaMosques, hospitals into Hamaspitals and kindergartens into killergartens.
We reject Jean-Paul Sartre’s formulation, and The New York Times’ assumption: The antisemite doesn’t make the Jew. The anti-Zionists, including that small, loud minority of anti-Zionist Jews, don’t define the Jew. The Jew makes the Jew. I am not a Zionist because of their hatred, but I do occasionally have to shape my Zionist agenda to fight it.
Fearless Zionists learn from our courageous soldiers. We can come from the right and the left, be religious and nonreligious, be pro-Bibi or hate him, pro-Trump or hate him, but we focus on our enemies and fight them with clarity when they come to get us. And we never, ever, stop singing and dancing and continuing our celebration of life.
At Texas Hillel, before starting Friday night services, so many students said how grateful they were for their community, their camaraderie, their people. And one student — soon enlisting as a lone soldier in Israel — declared his gratitude about belong to a people who refuse to be Jews with trembling knees. That’s Fearless Zionism.
And in building our big, broad, blue-and-white tent, we emphasize our foundational consensus, which doesn’t start in hedging or regretting or fixating on those who betray us. Instead, we affirm. We root ourselves in our amazing tradition and our 3,500-year-old story, reach out to our people and likeminded allies worldwide, and find our strength and joy in shouting from the rooftops: “We are Zionists – and will continue to thrive, not just survive.”
At a time when the west is beginning to wake up to the nature and extent of the threat from the Islamic world, Jewish faith leaders in Britain appear to be waving the white flag of surrender.Seth Mandel: The Myth of the ‘War That Created Israel’
Earlier this month, a group of prominent Jewish and Muslim faith leaders — including Britain’s Chief Rabbi — presented to the King the “Muslim-Jewish Reconciliation Accords” which had been created in secret over the course of a year.
Described as a “framework of reconciliation, understanding, and solidarity”, the document calls for “sustained dialogue, mutual understanding and practical collaboration”.
Acknowledging that “tensions in the Middle East often have ripple effects on Muslim-Jewish relations locally,” it says:
These conflicts can lead to mistrust, heightened emotions, and fractures to relationships that we cherish and value so dearly.
Talk about understatement. “Tensions”? “Ripple effects”? “Mistrust”? Do such bland vagaries really convey the impact of the past 16 months of Muslim-led hate-marches against Jews and Israel following the Hamas-led pogrom in Israel on October 7 2023?
While most Muslims pose no threat whatever, and many of the most vicious antisemites and Israel-bashers are white-skinned, Muslims have played a disproportionate part in this anti-Jewish hysteria. The incitement against Israel and the Jews has been orchestrated by both Sunni and Shia Muslim extremists in alliance with the western left. And as opinion polling repeatedly reveals, antisemitism in the Islamic world is far higher than in the general population.
The inter-faith document says that “both communities must strive to offer reassurance, promoting dialogue and reaffirming our shared commitment to peace and mutual understanding”.
“Shared commitment”? Really? How many Muslim members of this group publicly denounced Hamas after the October 7 atrocities and said “Not in our name”? How many have publicly rejected the Muslim Brotherhood, the jihadi parent body of Hamas that’s entrenched in Britain’s Muslim community? How many have publicly condemned those members of their community who regularly parade through the streets chanting for intifada, the death of Jews and the destruction of Israel?
The Israeli War of Independence has no other name. This shouldn’t create much of a problem, even for anti-Zionists: they simply oppose the state that won its independence in that war.Seth Mandel: If Hamas Won’t End the War, Israel Will
But lately, the trend of discounting Israel’s existence has picked up steam in the media, which has latched onto the “nakba” narrative. Now, “nakba” is not a replacement for “Israeli War of Independence.” Nakba is a descriptive term coined by Arab intellectuals after the war for the combined Arab armies’ military defeat by Israel. (Later on, it was repurposed to refer to the flight of Arabs during the war.)
The fact that nakba isn’t a substitute for the war’s name poses a problem for the Western press: What does one call the war if one doesn’t want to accurately convey what one is talking about?
It would appear the current answer is: Call it “the war that created Israel.”
Now, it should be noted that this, too, is purely descriptive. So it is possible to use this phrase organically and not necessarily to signal one’s disapproval of the fact of Israel’s existence. But the context in which it is usually used makes clear that, most of the time, it is deployed in bad faith.
Sometimes the bad faith is overt and undisguised.
In the New York Times this week, Fatima AbdulKarim and Erika Solomon published a highly editorialized “report” about Israel’s current operation in and around Jenin, where Iran-backed separatists have dug in and threatened the security of both Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Israel’s attempt to suppress the terrorist hive required evacuation of certain neighborhoods. (There is a dispute as to whether 14,000 or 40,000 were temporarily displaced, and a few thousand have already returned to their homes.) Although Palestinians were already returning home after three weeks, AbdulKarim and Solomon claim the displacement “evoked painful memories of the Nakba, the Arabic word that has been used to refer to the mass flight and expulsion of Palestinians during the 1948 war that created Israel.”
You can see from the text how awkward it would be to call the war by its name: It would make clear that the nakba has always been about the failure to destroy the Jewish nation.
The clunky phrase “war that created Israel” isn’t new, but it has been cropping up all over print media recently. (It is rarely used even in the written stories of broadcast news agencies like CNN and Fox.) In October, the Financial Times ran an absurd piece making the case for UNRWA—the Hamas-adjacent agency whose employees were involved in the Oct. 7, 2023 slaughter—to win the Nobel Peace Prize. In it, UNRWA is described as having a “mandate to care for Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war that created Israel.” The Financial Times had used that exact same phrasing just months earlier in reporting on UNRWA’s Hamas-connected employees.
This is a good reminder that the deal on the table here has always been on the table. Gaza invaded Israel to spark the war, taking hostages; Israel went into Gaza to get those responsible—i.e., the leadership of Gaza’s governing party and armed forces, Hamas—and to bring back its hostages. That Israel was willing to let Hamas leaders leave the enclave alive was generous. There is no reason that all of the pressure from world leaders (and, ahem, protesting publics) should not have focused on lobbying for this particular outcome from Day One.
Wars are not over when both sides get a few good shots in; that’s a hockey fight. Wars do not end when their fundamental underlying conditions are left intact, even if fighting temporarily ceases; that’s an intermission. It is rather maddening to remember that “give back the hostages you took and leave Gaza” was the offer to Hamas leadership—not every member of Hamas, let alone everyone in Gaza; just the top leaders—and yet the war continues because Hamas and its supporters around the world believe “give back the hostages you took” is incompatible with a freshman decolonization course someone tricked their parents into paying thousands of dollars for.
What if Hamas leaders don’t want to live in a penthouse in Qatar? They can keep releasing hostages under the rubric of phase one.
So that’s two overly generous offers from Israel to Hamas. What’s behind door number three? Ah, that would be the gates of hell: “Hamas can choose the end of the ceasefire, which would mean a return to all-out war.” As one Israeli official told the Times of Israel, “It would be different [than before]. A new defense minister, a new chief of staff, all the weapons we need, and full legitimacy, one hundred percent, from the Trump administration.”
The deadline is March 8. If there are no additional hostage releases by one week from Saturday, the cease-fire ends.
This clarity is, as the official suggests, almost entirely a function of the change of administration in Washington. Donald Trump came into office wanting this war over. Both sides have the means to end this war—Hamas by surrendering and accepting exile for its leaders, Israel by forcing Hamas out of power and its leadership out of Gaza. For the next 11 days we will watch as Hamas mulls over whether it or Israel will end the war.
But one of them will. And after the series of demonic festivals-of-death performed by Hamas each week, and after the revelations of what Palestinians did to those hostages and to the Bibas family, and after it became clear that there was no famine and certainly no genocide and that Hamas had made it all up, Israel may very well have the stomach to end the war if Hamas won’t.
Trump shares Gaza AI-video showing him, Netanyahu sunbathing
President Donald Trump shared an AI-generated video on his Truth Social platform Wednesday depicting his vision of Gaza's potential future under his proposed plan.
The video, which Trump posted without additional comment, uses artificial intelligence to visualize a transformed Gaza landscape according to his recently revealed plan of temporarily relocating Gazans to neighboring Arab countries to allow for massive reconstruction.
The video shows constant partying and dollar bills flooding the coastal enclave after a period of heavy rebuilding from the ongoing war. "Gaza 2025, what's next?" the caption reads in the beginning before moving on to show Elon Musk throwing dollar bills at people. There is also a golden colossus of Trump being erected in a main Gaza throughfare as well as the president dancing with women and
The post comes amid ongoing discussions about American involvement in Middle East peace efforts and reconstruction planning. While the video presents a visual representation of potential development, the administration has not yet released specific details regarding implementation timelines, funding mechanisms, or diplomatic frameworks that would support such initiatives.
The White House has not issued an official statement elaborating on the specific proposals illustrated in the video or how they align with current diplomatic strategies. Officials from the State Department, when reached for comment, indicated that formal policy announcements would come through official channels.
Trump's use of AI-generated imagery represents a novel approach to communicating policy visions, though analysts caution that such visualizations should be distinguished from concrete policy frameworks.
Trump just released an AI video of how “Trump Gaza” will look like in the future.
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) February 26, 2025
It ends with Trump and Netanyahu hanging out at a pool pic.twitter.com/JreV1SKIFh
There’s the obvious furore about Trump’s AI video of Gaza.
— Joo🎗️ (@JoosyJew) February 26, 2025
Albeit no women with beards, belly-dancing on the beach, it’s worth reminding yourselves what Gaza was actually like before Hamas and the Islamic Republic of Iran sacrificed it all to feed their lust for Israel's blood. pic.twitter.com/putokUgGaY
Actually, the liberal cosmopolitan vision features a development-free Gaza with extraordinary rates of poverty, run by terrorists who indoctrinate children into the prospective murder of Jews. https://t.co/q03oeNm2WZ
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) February 26, 2025
David Harsanyi: It’s time to end the fantasy of a ‘Palestinian’ state
In the years after the creation of modern Israel, the Islamic world ejected around 750,000 Jews from their ancestral homes, some from communities that predated the Muslim invasions in the 600s. Israel didn’t refer to these expulsions as a “tragedy.” They welcomed those Jews, “racially” indistinguishable from Arabs despite the identitarian fictions of Ta-Nehisi Coates and other ignoramuses, rather than condemning them to forever refugee status. Israel came to terms with reality a long time ago. It’s about time Arabs did as well.The Trump Revolution in the Middle East Has Just Begun
Endless propaganda from Western media, academics, and politicians has convinced many Americans that Arabs of Gaza have centuries-old connections to the land. Not a day goes by that I don’t read some pundit inanely contending that the Israel-Arab conflict goes back thousands of years. Not even Palestinians who live in Gaza, which was virtually empty when Israel won its independence, claim to have some deep connection to the place. Most Palestinians in Gaza live in 70-year-old “refugee camps,” with the help of an entire U.N. agency devoted to keeping them in generational poverty, teeming with people waiting to go back to their imaginary homes in Israel proper. The same can be said for many Arabs in the “West Bank,” which is filled with descendants of Arabs who immigrated to the region in the 20th century, not the ancient Palestinians of the lore.
Then again, decades of violence against Jews have paid political dividends. There is a reason no movement exists to bestow a new state to any other ethnic minority. The Druze, unlike the Palestinians, are a distinct ethnicity. The Kurds, around 40 million spread across the Middle East, are an ancient people. So are the 30 million Igbo in Africa who don’t have a country. The Uyghurs, a truly persecuted people, have yet to see Columbia University students taking up their cause. Maybe if the Rohingya blew up some pizzerias in Jerusalem, they’d get the U.N. and European Union to back their cause.
Still, the world is obsessed with accommodating these Palestinian fictions. There isn’t enough time for us to go into the numerous times Palestinians rejected a state. This week, former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert revealed a 2008 map he offered Abbas for a “two-state solution” that would have given the Palestinians over 95% of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, with Israel annexing a Jewish city and making up for it with other land.
Palestinians can never agree to a state because leaders would be immediately overthrown by extremist groups. Even now, the Palestinian Authority, which refuses to have elections, is propping up Israel.
Even the demands of moderate Palestinians can never be met. They will never have control of Jerusalem proper. Any Israeli politician who even broaches the notion of handing over the home of Jewish cultural, religious, and political identity to Fatah is engaging in an act of political suicide. And there will never be a “right to return,” a proposition that would entail giving Israeli citizenship to all the imaginary offspring of the alleged first-generation Palestinian refugees (likely around 6 million).
The favorite slogan of Palestinian and Western allies is “from the river to the sea,” not from “Jordan border to the 1967 armistice lines.”
There is simply no way to placate these people. After Oct. 7, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) naïvely argued that if only Palestinians in Gaza were given economic opportunities, they would drop their violent behavior. This is a tragic misreading of reality. A theocratic government and population who celebrated the wanton murder of toddlers will not become peaceful over a slight uptick in per capita GDP. Unless they have trillions of dollars of oil under the ground, this is not in the cards.
Even after Palestinian Arabs were given autonomy over the Gaza Strip in 2006 after the Israeli government forcibly removed thousands of Jews from the area, the world promised to help them. American Jews purchased 3,000 existing greenhouses, built by Jews from the land, that stood over 1,000 acres for $14 million and bought them “crucial equipment like computerized irrigation systems” and other modern farming systems. Mobs of Palestinians destroyed all of it. This happened before Hamas came to power.
The problem isn’t opportunity. It’s ideology. A nihilistic one incompatible with peace. And if you believe the preponderance of Palestinians are subjugated by their leaders, the world should let them escape the “open-air prisons” and “refugee camps” and wait out the destruction of Israel in the safe environs of Damascus or Riyadh or Cairo just as President Donald Trump has suggested.
Of course, the anti-Israel movements of the West don’t want Palestinians to go anywhere because they are dispensable props in a propaganda war. But they can keep repeating the word “Palestine” all day long. No such Arab state has ever existed, and there is a very high chance that it never will. It’s about time for those who genuinely want to see peace to come to terms with that reality.
Most Democrats in the US seem to have forgotten the absolute horror of the attack of October 7, 2023. They seem not to understand why most Israelis think that there is no way to coexist with a Gaza Strip in the hands of terrorists thirsty for Jewish blood. These Democrats appear not to see that relocating Gaza Arabs elsewhere has nothing to do with "ethnic cleansing." Trump did not propose to eliminate the Arabs, but to relocate them to safer places. These Democrats also appear to ignore that ethnic cleansing is precisely what is at the heart of the intentions of the members of Hamas, an organization with explicitly genocidal goals.Removing Hamas from power ‘red line’ for Trump administration, Middle East envoy says
The leaders of the main European countries talk about the "two-state solution" while knowing perfectly well that the only outcome Hamas wants is a one-state solution: the destruction of Israel, not a state alongside Israel... Europe's leaders ignore countless polls showing that the residents of the Gaza Strip, as well as those, in the territories mismanaged by the Palestinian Authority, celebrate the October 7 massacre and want above all else Israel's destruction. That, in fact, seems to be the actual goal of everyone who disagrees with Trump.
A Palestinian state would indeed be -- as the Palestinians have openly stated -- a launching pad from which to keep trying to destroy Israel.
[I]n reality, Arab leaders do not like the Palestinians any more than the Israelis do, but it is considered impolite to say so. The positions of at least several leaders of the Arab world might become flexible.
Trump, however, possibly in a hurry to solve the Iran-Hamas-Israel War, should not under any circumstances "go wobbly".
Qatar is reportedly trying to come up with a potentially duplicitous "peace plan" to allow its treasured client and Muslim Brotherhood associate, Hamas, to remain in power in Gaza so it can attack Israel again.
No one bothers to explain how the Gazans can continue to live in an area studded with unexploded ordnance, where 70% of the buildings are destroyed, and which Trump has rightly defined as a "demolition site," while leaving nearly two million people to reside there and hundreds of armed terrorists in tunnels.
No one admits that massive population displacements have successfully taken place in the past. Millions of Germans were moved from territories conquered by Germany after 1945, with no protests voiced.... Jews who lived in the Gaza Strip were expelled in 2005 by decision of the Israeli government to give the Palestinians there a chance to create a peaceful "Singapore on the Mediterranean."
What American Democrats and European leaders should be committed to is preventing Hamas, a terrorist organization, from remaining in power. Netanyahu explains: "[Y]ou can't talk about peace, neither with Hamas or in the Middle East, if this, you know, toxic murderous organization is left standing, any more that you could make peace in Europe after World War II, if the Nazi regime was left standing and the Nazi army was left standing."
Steve Witkoff, the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, said on Tuesday that removing Hamas from power in Gaza was a “red line” for the Trump administration as Israel and Hamas prepare for the next round of ceasefire negotiations.MEMRI: Emirati Columnist: Khamenei's Boasting About A Hamas Victory Over Israel Is A Distortion Of The Facts; Iran Is The One That Should Rebuild Gaza
Speaking at the launch of the American Jewish Committee’s Center for a New Middle East in Washington, Witkoff told attendees that “Phase 2” of those negotiations could begin as soon as Sunday.
“That’s what we’re hoping for, put Phase 2 on track,” Witkoff said. “Have some additional hostages released and we think that that’s a real possibility.”
Under the terms negotiated by the Biden administration, Phase 2 of the ceasefire would include a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the release of the remaining living hostages, most of whom are male soldiers, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
Witkoff delayed a planned trip to the Middle East on Wednesday until the negotiators could resolve the “boundaries” and “contours” of the talks.
“Central to the May 27 protocol that was signed by the Biden administration and the Israelis, central to that is that Hamas cannot have any part of any governing structure in Gaza,” Witkoff said. “That’s a red line for the Israelis, but it’s a red line for us.”
In his January 30, 2025 column in the Emirati daily Al-Arab, which is based in London, Yemeni journalist Hani Salem Mashour mocks Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei for boasting about the "victory" of the resistance axis over Israel and the "steadfastness" of the Palestinian people when the images from the devastated Gaza Strip reflect a completely different reality. He writes that Khamenei exploited the Palestinian cause to strengthen Iran's regional status, and therefore he is the one that should be primarily responsible for rebuilding Gaza and aiding its residents, who paid a high price for the disastrous war waged in their name. Mashour also castigates Hamas' officials, who did not consider the likely consequences of the October 7, 2023 attack and did not provide the people of Gaza with the minimal protection, but instead used them as human shields while they themselves stayed far away from the war zone.[1]Huckabee: Hamas Doesn’t Keep Its Word and Negotiating with Terrorists Helps Them, But We’re Involved in Ceasefire Talks
The following are translated excerpts from his column:
"On his account on the American [social media] platform X, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei keeps posting messages that underscore the victory of his Iranian axis in the 'Al-Aqsa Flood,' as they call it [i.e., in the war against Israel that began with the Hamas attack on October 7]. Khamenei is not the only one repeating these slogans of victory over Israel; all the political Islam organizations [namely groups affiliated with the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood movement] and their members are echoing his statements. This is another instance of consensus among the rival extremist religious schools [i.e., the Shiite and the Sunni ones], with everyone agreeing that the Israelis have been taught a painful lesson unlike anything they had experienced before.
"But the humiliating sights of the Palestinian people returning [to the northern Gaza Strip] after being displaced to the south and after Hamas surrendered and agreed to a lull and a ceasefire are the only ones that reflect the truth and cannot be refuted. Hundreds of thousands of hungry and frightened [Gazans] are returning to the ruins of their homes. That is the picture Khamenei must be honest about when he sees it and follows it, as the entire world is doing.
"What Khamenei called 'the steadfastness of the Palestinian people' is actually hunger, fear and pain without end. There is no such thing as steadfastness amid this Israeli attack. The Hamas officials who carried out the October 7, 2023 attack didn't bother to consider the fate of hundreds of thousands of unarmed civilians. They did not build them shelters or provide them with the minimal [amount of] food or [water to] drink. They did not even provide them with secure routes to flee from the war zones. On the contrary. Hamas' officials turned the civilians into human shields, as usual, in accordance with the fatwas of Ibn Taymiyyah, his disciples and his followers…[3]
"The Al-Jazeera news channel, which always claims that Hamas won, aired a detailed report titled 'The Immense Challenge of Rebuilding the Gaza Strip – Facts and Figures,' which claimed that 'clearing over 50 million tons of rubble left behind by the Israeli bombardment could take 21 years and cost $1.2 billion.' According to UN estimates, the overall cost of rebuilding what the war has destroyed comes to $40 billion, and it will take 80 years to rebuild all the housing units that have been destroyed. A report issued by the UN and the World Bank noted that [the cost of] damage to infrastructure [as of] January 2024 was estimated at around $18.5 billion, and that homes, commercial and industrial buildings and basic services like education, health and energy had been destroyed.
"That is [only] part of the reality in the Gaza Strip, and that is what takes us back to Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, who is the first and last [figure] responsible for repairing [the damage] caused by the October 7 attack, which he welcomed and supported… There is no denying that the Palestinian people is paying a very heavy price for the conflicts waged in its name and in the name of its cause, while [Hamas'] political and military leaders remain far away from the weight of the daily suffering borne by the civilians [in Gaza].
On Tuesday’s broadcast of Newsmax TV’s “Wake Up America,” Mike Huckabee, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be U.S. Ambassador to Israel, said that Hamas never keeps its word and “if you negotiate with terrorists, you only give them more freedom.” But it’s also important the U.S. is “engaged and involved” in negotiations over the next phase of the ceasefire.
Huckabee said Hamas has to be eliminated by Israel, and “every time Hamas says they will do something, they simply never do.”
Co-host Sharla McBride then asked, “[W]e know that U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, will be heading to the Middle East tomorrow to discuss extending that first phase of the ceasefire with Israel, Qatar, and Egypt. And with a lot of the President’s focus on Ukraine and Russia right now, how important is the U.S.’s role in all of these mediations and all of these negotiations over in the Middle East?”
Huckabee answered, “Sharla, the most important thing we’re watching is that we are engaged and involved. Until Donald Trump was sworn in, there was a disengagement, and when we were engaged, it was schizophrenic. We never knew whether the American policy was steadfast with Israel or kind of with Israel, but telling them how they ought to prosecute the war and at what point they could go into certain cities and whether or not we were going to withhold arms, which we did, by the way, withhold the very defense weapons that Israel needed to defend itself, not just against Hamas, but against Hezbollah and the Houthis. Under Donald Trump, there’s clarity. There’s a certainty. The trumpet is blowing a clear, clear signal, and that signal is, America will stand with its allies, number one. Number two, we are not going to flinch when it comes to dealing with these murderous terrorists. Hamas is not a government. I hope everybody remembers that. They are terrorists. There is no governing force of Hamas. They’re not a country. They’re simply Iranian-backed savages. That’s what they are.”
🚨Trump on the hostages, here is the video 👇 https://t.co/5EtFROq5d9 pic.twitter.com/KDwT8YsonA
— Raylan Givens (@JewishWarrior13) February 26, 2025
President Trump defending the IDF operations in the West Bank as being justified:
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) February 25, 2025
“Israel is afraid of things happening there, that's why they are there, it could be terrible if something happens, I'm worried.”
pic.twitter.com/ATW8OMh8zR
Key US House committee to refer to West Bank from now on as Judea and Samaria
The US House Foreign Affairs Committee will from now on only refer to the West Bank by its biblical name, Judea and Samaria, the Axios news site reports, citing an internal committee memo sent yesterday by its chairman Rep. Brian Mast, a Florida Republican, to the 50 GOP staffers on the panel.Cruz: ‘Israel’s right to Judea and Samaria starts in the Bible’
The report says Mast wrote that “in recognition of our unbreakable bond with Israel and the inherent right of the Jewish people to their ancient homeland, the House Foreign Affairs committee will, from here forward, refer to the West Bank as Judea and Samaria in formal correspondence, communication and documentation.”
“Jewish roots in this region span centuries,” he added, and “as representatives of the American people, we must do our part to stem this reprehensible tide of antisemitism and recognize Israel’s rightful claim to the cradle of Jewish civilization.”
This is not US government policy, but it reflects the support of many in the party for Israel’s annexing of the territory it seized from Jordan in the Six-Day War in 1967.
US President Donald Trump promised some three weeks ago that the administration would likely announce the matter of West Bank annexation within four weeks.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Tuesday expressed his long-held support for Israel and what he said was its biblically rooted right to its historic homeland in Judea and Samaria
Addressing the Sovereignty Conference 2025 in Jerusalem on Tuesday via video, Cruz reiterated his long-held position that Israel has an “absolute right to determine what happens in Judea and Samaria.”
That right “starts in the Bible and extends through modern times,” he added.
Thanking Yesha Council chairman Israel Gantz for his work to strengthen the U.S.-Israel alliance, Cruz said, “As you meet today, have confidence that the American people stand with you. And under President Trump and our new Republican Congress, the American government stands with you as well.”
The Yesha Council is an umbrella group of local and regional councils in Judea and Samaria.
“As for your enemies, who are also the enemies of America, we know that they seek to weaken you and to weaken us. And then to destroy you. And then to destroy us,” continued Cruz.
He expressed sympathy for the “unfathomable trauma” Israel and the Jewish people endure as “Palestinian savages make the return of every hostage, living or murdered, an ongoing nightmare.”
Cruz quoted remarks by Menachem Begin, part of a famous exchange the former Israeli prime minister had with then-Senator Joe Biden in June 1982.
Biden reportedly banged on the table with his fist, to which Begin replied, “This desk is designed for writing, not for fists. Don’t threaten us with slashing aid.”
BREAKING: Senator Ted Cruz on Israeli annexation of Judea & Samaria (West Bank).
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) February 26, 2025
"Israel has the absolute right to decide what happens in Judea and Samaria.” pic.twitter.com/kcnzpodroH
East Germany, Eritrea, Gaza … the doctrine of restricting emigration
U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to allow Gazans to emigrate from the Gaza Strip is challenging long-standing assumptions about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The proposal has faced fierce opposition from Jordan, Egypt, the Arab League and much of the international community. Professional peace negotiators dismissed it as unworkable, unrealistic and immoral. However, it has the potential to dismantle the Hamas regime’s power structure and trigger a transformative change in Palestinian political culture.Egyptian Judge Orders Trump to Unfreeze Aid to Egypt
Like most autocratic regimes, Hamas strictly limits emigration. It knows that a mass exodus would expose its failures at governance. If Gazans were given the freedom to leave, it would undermine the Palestinian mythology of sumud—a doctrine of steadfast resistance—and deprive Hamas of manpower and resources. For the sake of peace, Israel and the international community must facilitate the departure of those who wish to escape Hamas’s rule.
International law enshrines the right to leave one’s country. Article 13.2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states, “Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.” The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights echoes this principle; nevertheless, Hamas systematically denies Gazans this fundamental right.
Before the war, a survey by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found that 44% of Gazan young adults, ages 18 to 29, wanted to emigrate, while 31% of the overall population sought to leave. Despite no official figures, some estimates suggest that 250,000 Gazans have fled since Hamas took control in 2007.
Hamas restricts access to emigration permits while denying mass emigration altogether. Before the Oct. 7 attacks, it granted exclusive rights to the Passport travel agency to issue visas to Turkey—Gaza’s top emigration destination. In just one week in September 2023, 19,000 Palestinians applied for Turkish visas, with another 83,000 on the waiting list. Reports indicated that Hamas profited from this monopoly, requiring applicants to meet strict financial conditions. As one Gazan migrant in Greece told Le Monde journalists, Passport’s monopoly is the result of an agreement with Hamas. To qualify for a visa, applicants had to confirm that they were employed, and had an up-to-date passport and a bank account with at least $1,000.
For those seeking to leave via Egypt’s Rafah Crossing, Hamas and Egyptian authorities imposed severe restrictions. Men under 40 were generally forbidden from departing unless they paid exorbitant bribes to both Hamas and Egyptian border officials. Hamas understands that young men are essential to both its military apparatus and Gaza’s economy, making their exodus a direct threat to its rule.
Out of the three federal judges who staged a judicial coup and demanded that the Trump administration do whatever they say, two, Judge Loren AliKhan, a Pakistani Muslim, and Judge Amir Hatem Mahdy Ali, an Egyptian Muslim, are Muslims.US Intel Chief Tulsi Gabbard Declares ‘Radical Islamist Terrorism’ Most Urgent National Security Threat
All three are highly unqualified and extremist Biden nominees who do not belong on the bench.
Judge Amir Ali’s order that Trump must disburse foreign aid is particularly egregious since Ali’s ancestral Egypt remains a major beneficiary of that aid.
USAID has funneled $30 billion to Egypt since 1978. Today US aid to Egypt last year was $1.5 billion.
An Egyptian Muslim judge is ordering President Trump to continue stealing money from American taxpayers and sending it to his ancestral Egypt. A country actively collaborating with Islamic terrorists in Gaza.
Judges do not run the country. And certainly foreign nationals like Ali, born to Egyptian immigrants in Canada, don’t.
US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard warned in a recent interview that “radical Islamist terrorism” poses the greatest threat to the safety of the American people, potentially shedding light on her priorities as she starts the job of leading the vast American intelligence community.International Red Cross, Facing GOP Criticism Over Hamas Propaganda Platforming, Seeks Free Beacon Newsletter Sponsorship
While speaking with Fox News host Lara Trump, a daughter-in-law of US President Donald Trump, Gabbard dismissed the declaration made in 2021 by then-Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that white supremacists pose the greatest national security threat to the United States. Instead, Gabbard asserted that Americans face a greater safety threat from “radical Islamist terrorism.”
“We look at the past four years of open borders, where we had tens of millions of people coming across our borders, many of whom we don’t know who they are or what their intentions are, very specifically the threat of radical Islamist terrorism here within our country is higher than it’s ever been before, not only because of [former US President Joe] Biden’s open borders, but because of his and his administration’s fear of being called Islamophobes,” Gabbard said when asked what the chief threat is to the American people’s safety
Following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, US officials have raised alarm bells about rising Islamist extremism across the globe.
Gabbard’s predecessor, former US intelligence chief Avril Haines, warned last March that the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza may have a “generational impact on terrorism,” asserting that Islamist terrorist groups al Qaeda and Islamic State (ISIS) have been inspired by Hamas to attack Americans and Israelis.
Haines also cautioned months later that Iran, which backs Hamas and US intelligence agencies have long called the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism, has ramped up “influence efforts” on American soil, aiming to “stoke discord and undermine confidence in our democratic institutions.” She claimed that “actors tied to Iran’s government” had sought to leverage rising anti-Israel animus by using social media to encourage and finance protests.
Last June, meanwhile, former FBI Director Christopher Wray warned that the “threat from foreign terrorists rose to a whole ‘nother level after Oct. 7.” Wray revealed that following Hamas’s Oct. 7 rampage, his agency saw the emergence of a “rogue’s gallery of foreign terrorist organizations call for attacks against Americans and our allies.” He cautioned that “individuals or small groups will draw twisted inspiration from the events in the Middle East to carry out attacks here at home.”
Just days after the Washington Free Beacon detailed mounting congressional concerns over the International Committee of the Red Cross's (ICRC) participation in a series of shocking Hamas hostage release ceremonies, an official from the aid agency approached the publication about advertising with the Free Beacon and sponsoring our daily newsletter, the Morning Beacon.Why Some Western Liberals Love Palestinian Terror
"Looking to see if I can get more info on newsletter sponsorship or online ads," the ICRC's head of communications and public affairs, Steve Dorsey, wrote the Free Beacon on Monday. Five days earlier, the Free Beacon reported on Senate Republicans' outrage over the participation of ICRC officials in Hamas propaganda rituals and their desire to reassess U.S. funding to the organization.
The ICRC's advertisement inquiry suggests it may be spooked by those talks and looking to shore up support on Capitol Hill. Dorsey told the Free Beacon that the ICRC has not "traditionally done much advertising" and hoped to run spots that would link to its website and boost "generic ICRC visibility."
A Free Beacon review of Meta's ad spending database found that the ICRC ran just five Facebook ads between 2019 and 2023. It did ramp up ad spending at the end of 2024 and beginning of 2025, running a series of Facebook and Instagram spots on the "rules of war" that call for the protection of "detainees," "families," and "civilians." The committee failed to do that job when it did not follow through on its obligation to visit hostages in Hamas captivity or to lodge complaints if and when they were denied that right. None of those ads remain active, and all of them ran in Europe, according to the database.
The United States is the ICRC's top patron, meaning the committee is tapping into a budget that includes U.S. taxpayer funds to advertise at a time when those funds are under threat. Dorsey did not answer questions on the committee's broader ad campaign and the motivations behind it. Instead, he encouraged "Free Beacon readers to review" a Monday ICRC op-ed published in the Washington Examiner, which called the Hamas hostage transfers "disturbing and dehumanizing" but did not address the group's failure to visit Israeli hostages in captivity.
Unlike the Zionist movement, the Palestinian national movement never prioritized a state, instead concentrating on denying statehood to the Jews. As the Palestinian negotiator and academic Ahmed Khalidi explains, statehood is a relatively recent addition to Palestinian aspirations. The main Palestinian impetus after 1948 was of “return,” focusing on reversing the loss of Arab land and patrimony rather than on the fulfillment of classical post-colonial self-determination. For the generation after the Oslo Accords, that Palestinian “liberation” impulse was partially defused, as the newly formed PA channeled its energies into providing healthcare, education, trash collection, and policing (often on behalf of Israel). But the Palestinian movement could quite effortlessly revert to its revolutionary form. As the group of PLO leaders who returned from exile in Tunis to sign and promote Oslo get older, a new generation of Palestinians may conceivably decide they are better off trying their luck in Israel’s Knesset than under the PA’s corrupt nepotism.Pediatricians against the Jews
In light of the demographic impetus pushing towards withdrawal and the security logic of staying put, what might be possible under the circumstances? It’s worth emphasizing—as DeMogge does—that, like in 1967, the policy options available are not between good and bad, but between poor and terrible. Several years ago, the former national security advisor Yaakov Amidror (generally considered politically right-of-center) detailed what he called Israel’s “inelegant solutions” in the West Bank. “The right has no sound response to the demographic argument against annexation” Amidror explained, “while the left has no serious solution to the security threat stemming from Palestinian statehood. Therefore, Israel must choose the lesser evil. Israel’s choices are not a matter of right or wrong, but of electing to assume one set of risks over the other.”
There is unlikely to be a short- or even medium-term solution for those hoping for partition. But choosing to keep that option open—to me a necessity—would mean curbing the far-right proposals for creeping, de-facto annexation. Might the model Israel tried in northern Samaria—in which isolated settlers were evacuated with the IDF staying in place—be worth considering in the medium term? Might it be possible for Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the Trump administration to find some common ground that could facilitate normalization and the de-facto end to the Israeli-Sunni conflict? Might Israel be able to express support for partition in theory while gaining international and regional support for deep Palestinian institutional and cultural changes?
As Khalidi and another negotiator-cum-academic, Hussein Agha, have written, “the contemporary Palestinian national movement—founded and led by Arafat and embodied by the PA, Fatah, and the PLO over the past half century—is reaching its end.” Indeed, we are a chain-smoking-almost-nonagenarian’s heartbeat away from chaos in the West Bank.
Israel needs to be prepared for what comes next. I agree with DeMogge that annexation and withdrawal are unwise policy proposals at the current moment and concur that the country should strive for incremental improvements in the everyday life of all residents between the river and the sea. But it also needs to place the dangers of binationalism front and center, and take steps to minimize its risks.
In the past few years, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has come under serious criticism due to its recommendations surrounding the COVID pandemic and its support—contrary to scientific evidence—for the castration and mutilation of children. Christine Rosen points to another area where it both exceeded its natural realm of authority and came to repugnant conclusions:British Court Rules Against Anti-Semitic Pink Floyd Frontman in Defamation Case Brought by Pro-Israel Journalist—and Al Jazeera Could Pay Damages
Since the 2000s, the AAP has repeatedly made significant mistakes in its health recommendations while also becoming more politicized and left-leaning in its approach to social issues. . . . At the same time, the organization began uncritically embracing political positions popular on the left.
In early January 2025, the current president of the AAP, Dr. Susan Kressly, sent a letter to then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken demanding to know “the whereabouts and wellbeing of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya,” a Gaza pediatrician who had been taken into custody by the Israeli army. Kressley noted that the AAP was joining other groups in calling for the “immediate release” of Safiya.
Kressley did not ask Blinken about the Israeli children still being held hostage by Hamas, such as Ariel and Kfir Bibas, or demand the release of the remaining hostages. And the Anti-Defamation League noted, “According to Israeli authorities and other sources, Abu Safiya is a member of Hamas, the terrorist group behind the October 7th massacre and who is dedicated to Israel’s destruction, reportedly holding the rank of colonel. The AAP’s failure to acknowledge this vital detail is a serious omission, and does a disservice to AAP’s mission and values, fundamentally compromising the integrity of the Academy.”
A British court determined in a preliminary ruling that Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters defamed John Ware, a veteran journalist who made a documentary critical of Waters's anti-Semitic history, when he called Ware a "lying, conniving Zionist mouthpiece" who supports the "genocide of the Palestinian people." The development puts both Waters and the Hamas-friendly network Al Jazeera on the hook for damages.Lost in translation? BBC edits Hamas to be more palatable
In the Tuesday ruling, the British High Court of Justice found that Waters's "statements are defamatory" because they were offered as fact, not opinion. The decision sets the stage for Ware to receive financial compensation not just from Waters but also from Al Jazeera, the Arab network funded in large part by the Hamas-friendly nation of Qatar. Waters's comments targeting Ware came during a 2024 interview on the Al Jazeera network, which Ware sued in addition to Waters. The case could go to trial to determine damages, though barrister Simon Myerson predicted that Waters and Al Jazeera will settle with Ware.
Ware, a documentarian who produced a 2023 film examining Waters’s vast anti-Israel advocacy, sued the musician and Al Jazeera last year. Waters appeared on Al Jazeera to bash Ware’s film and accused the journalist of "cheerleading the genocide of the Palestinian people like almost more than anyone else on earth."
Ware’s documentary, The Dark Side of Roger Waters, was produced for the Campaign Against Antisemitism, a British nonprofit that combats Jew-hatred. In it, Ware examined the singer’s long history of anti-Israel activism and embrace of anti-Semitic imagery. Waters, for instance, dressed in Nazi regalia during a 2023 show and displayed an inflatable pig emblazoned with Jewish stars. Ware’s documentary detailed the musician’s plans to add other slogans and symbols to the pig, including "dirty kike," "follow the money," and "scum."
His Nazi cosplay earned a rare rebuke from the Biden administration State Department, which described Waters as having a "long track record of using antisemitic tropes to denigrate Jewish people."
In the wake of Oct. 7, Waters said Hamas's terror attack was justified and accused Israel of "making up stories" about widespread rape and torture on that day.
"Was it justified for [Hamas] to resist the occupation? Yeah," Waters said just a month after the attack. "They are absolutely legally and morally bound to resist the occupation since 1967."
The British Broadcasting Corporation "whitewashed" and covered up jihadist and antisemitic expressions from Gazan Hamas supporters in its controversial documentary "Gaza: How To Survive A War Zone," according to an investigation published Tuesday in the British Telegraph.BBC removed references to ‘Jews’ and ‘jihad’ in Gaza documentary
According to the Telegraph, throughout the film, the words "Jew" or "Jewish" were translated as "Israel," "Israeli forces," or removed from subtitles – in at least five different instances. This way, antisemitic statements against Jews would sound like statements against Israel. An interviewee who praised Yahya Sinwar, former Hamas leader, for "jihad against the Jews," was also mistranslated, as if he was "fighting Israeli forces."
This is the second time within a week that the film, intended to reflect Palestinian life during wartime, has sparked public criticism. Previously, it was revealed that one of the main interviewees is 14-year-old Abdullah al-Yazouri, son of Hamas' deputy agriculture minister. Al-Yazouri was presented in the film without proper disclosure about his family connections.
Following al-Yazouri's appearance, the British opposition leader, Kemi Badenoch from the Conservative Party, approached BBC Director General Tim Davie demanding to check whether the network transferred money to Hamas, and even threatened to lead a move to cancel the television license fee responsible for funding the broadcasting corporation. Following the interview with the Hamas senior official's son, the broadcasting authority removed the film from its website and published an apology.
During the film, a Gazan woman is seen fleeing from areas captured by the IDF in the Strip. She responds to the cameraman's question "What's happening?" saying: "The Jews invaded our area." However, in the subtitles, she is quoted as if she said: "The Israeli army invaded our area."
In another scene, a child explains that he left home because of the bombings. "The Jews came, destroyed us, Hamas and the Jews," was translated in the subtitles to "Israelis destroyed everything, and so did Hamas."
When a girl observes Iranian missiles fired toward Israel in October, the subtitles state: "We are used to seeing flashes of lightning in the sky. But now these are real missiles. We are happy that for once the rockets are not falling on us." In reality, she says: "At first when we saw the flashes they were illumination bombs, by the way. From the Jews. But now it turns out they are (real) missiles."
A minute later, a woman is interviewed about Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7. She is quoted as if she said: "This is the first time we invaded Israel – it's always been the other way around." In fact, she says: "We invaded the Jews for the first time."
Toward the end of the film, a woman shows photos of Sinwar during his assassination. In the subtitles, she is quoted as if she said: "His face was covered and his weapon was ready for battle." The translation reveals that she actually said he was "ready for jihad." She is quoted in the subtitles: "The video shows he was fighting and resisting Israeli forces. He wasn't hiding." But in reality, she says: "Sinwar engaged in resistance in jihad against the Jews. Not underground."
Melanie Dawes, CEO of Ofcom (the UK's communications regulatory body), noted that the BBC is dealing with "some really important questions," adding that the organization is watching closely what happens, conducting several conversations with the corporation, and will wait for its response before deciding whether to take action or not.
The BBC initially kept the documentary online with an added disclaimer at the start, arguing that it remained an “invaluable testament” to Palestinians’ experiences of the war. But it has since removed it from iPlayer while it conducts “further due diligence” with Hoyo Films, the production company.
Amid growing questions over the documentary, it can be revealed that on several occasions the word Yahud was wrongly translated. Translations by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (Camera) raise fresh questions over the BBC’s handling of the film.
Around four minutes in, a Gazan woman among a convoy fleeing from part of the besieged strip is asked by the cameraman: “What’s going on?” She replies: “The Jews invaded our [area].” However, the BBC subtitles quote her as saying: “The Israeli army invaded our area.”
In another clip, around half an hour in, a boy says that he had left home because of bombings and that “the Jews came, they destroyed us, Hamas and the Jews”. This was translated in subtitles as “the Israelis destroyed everything, and so did Hamas”.
In a harrowing scene 40 minutes into the film, in which a doctor amputates the arm of a child in front of the camera, the medic is quoted as saying: “Look what the Israelis are doing to the children of Gaza.” However, the word Israeli was not used by the doctor, according to a translation.
Two minutes later, a young girl is seen watching Iranian missiles in the sky as the Islamic Republic launched its attack on Israel in October last year.
“We’re used to seeing flashes of lightning in the sky”, the subtitles state. “But now it’s real missiles. We’re happy that for once the rockets aren’t falling on us.” According to a translation by Camera, the girl actually says: “At first, when we would see these [flashes], they would be flares, by the way. From the Jews. But now they turned out to be [real] missiles.”
Around a minute later, a woman is interviewed about the Oct 7 Hamas attacks and is quoted as saying that was the “first time we invaded Israel – it was always the other way round”. However, she actually says: “We were invading the Jews for the first time.”
Towards the end of the documentary, a Palestinian woman holds her phone as she shows the camera crew footage of Sinwar being killed. In the subtitles, she is quoted as saying that “his face was covered and his weapon was ready, prepared for battle”, but a translation reveals she says that he was “ready for jihad”.
Later, the participant is quoted as saying: “The video shows that he was fighting and resisting Israeli forces. He wasn’t hiding.” But according to Camera, the woman says: “He was engaging in resistance and jihad against the Jews. Not underground.”
Alex Hearn, the co-director of Labour Against Anti-Semitism, said the mistranslation of the word Jewish to Israeli was one of a number of “ongoing issues” with “the BBC’s sympathetic coverage of Hamas”.
“In so doing, the BBC have sanitised views expressed about Sinwar, orchestrator of the Hamas massacre, and instead presented a more acceptable version for a Western audience,” he said.
“It is this whitewashing that keeps viewers ill-informed about the nature of Hamas, and promotes sympathy for their deadly ideology. This documentary signifies the institutional failure behind the BBC’s reporting of the Israel-Hamas conflict.”
Orly Goldschmidt, of the Israeli embassy in the UK, accused the corporation of “intentional mistranslation”, which she described as a “sinister and misleading policy of the BBC”.
She said the translation was “not only false and deeply offensive, but it also excuses racism” and “does not allow viewers to see how children, and Palestinians at large, have been taught to hate ‘Jews’ from a very young age”.
She added that omitting the word “jihad” from the translations “downplays the threat of terrorism that Israelis face on a daily basis”, and that the issue of mistranslations went beyond the documentary. “It reflects a very serious and systematic issue, which has taken root at the BBC, with regards to its anti-Israel bias,” she said.
🔴 BBC removed references to ‘Jews’ and ‘jihad’ in Gaza documentary pic.twitter.com/WHFRgoHOYC
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) February 25, 2025
I finally watched the BBC documentary in full, and beyond the partially staged scenes (like the overly dramatic fleeing, set against the sound of AK-47 gunfire, familiar Pallywood actors, a “severely injured” child staying perfectly calm in his father’s arms, or doctors… pic.twitter.com/U8n7euTuTw
— GAZAWOOD - the PALLYWOOD saga (@GAZAWOOD1) February 25, 2025
Mr. FAFO in the BBC documentary?
— GAZAWOOD - the PALLYWOOD saga (@GAZAWOOD1) February 26, 2025
Alongside the BBC cameramen, exactly at the location that was "bombed" within the first few seconds, with so many cameras ready? pic.twitter.com/7JKvsXdESo
2015: Why ‘Jews’ were lost in translation in BBC Gaza documentary
2019: BBC slammed for mistranslating 'Yahud' as 'Israeli'
Pro-Israel activists protest at BBC over Hamas-linked
Pro-Israel activists protested outside the British Broadcasting Corporation’s London Broadcasting House on Tuesday night in response to revelations that the state broadcaster produced a Gaza documentary featuring people tied to Hamas.PROTESTERS TELL THE BBC: “STOP WHITEWASHING TERRORISM”
Activists and supporters, including Campaign Against Antisemitism, demanded transparency and an inquiry into the possibility that any of the £400,000 worth of license-fee funds used to produce the documentary Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone was paid to Hamas officials. Antisemitism is at a record high. We're keeping our eyes on it >>
“The BBC has become a mouthpiece for terror,” CAA CEO Gideon Falter said at the event. “It cannot call terrorism by its name. The BBC has become a spokesperson for terrorists.” CAA argued on X/Twitter that the BBC could not be trusted to review its own mistakes and respond to complaints and should be regulated in the same manner as other broadcasters.
Researcher David Collier, who was the first to discover Hamas ties to the documentary aired last Monday, spoke at the rally and, according to CAA, said that the BBC only removed the production on Friday because they had been caught.
The protest was organised by Campaign Against Antisemitism, following the broadcast of a documentary that was tantamount to a Hamas propaganda film.
The crowd was addressed by Gideon Falter, Chief Executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism, who said: “The BBC has become a mouthpiece for terror. It cannot call terrorism by its name. The BBC has become a spokesperson for terrorists.”
We then heard from investigative researcher David Collier, who exposed the BBC in his investigation into the documentary, who said: “Last Monday night, the BBC aired a Hamas propaganda documentary. Four days later they took it down. But let us be clear about one key point. They did not take it down because it was raw Hamas propaganda. They did not take it down because it was full of distortion and lies. They did not even take it down because it featured continuity issues and children reading from their Hamas written scripts. All of those issues may be true – but the key point is this: The only reason the BBC took down its documentary is because they were caught and this time – they had no excuses to hide behind.”
Michael Marlowe, the father of Jake Marlowe, who was brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists during the 7th October attack, told the crowd: “For decades, the BBC stood as the bastion of honest and trustworthy reporting. It was the world’s first port of call for global and national news, respected for its integrity and neutrality. But that BBC is long gone.”
Broadcaster and comedian Josh Howie declared on stage that he would no longer be paying his license fee, saying: “Jews and and non-Jews are here together to tell the BBC we’ve had enough. Together we declare: ‘No to a licence of hate.’”
Those in attendance also observed a minute’s silence for those that were murdered on 7th October 2023 and hostages who were since murdered in Hamas captivity and those still being held.
Powerful speech from @joshxhowie as he declares he is, from now on, refusing to pay his BBC license fee saying, ‘I will no longer pay the wages of those who hate Jews.’ pic.twitter.com/10UL32Ttmw
— Nicole Lampert (@nicolelampert) February 25, 2025
Gary Lineker among celebrity signatories of letter criticising BBC for dropping controversial Gaza documentary
Gary Lineker is among a raft of famous names who have signed a letter criticising the BBC for dropping a controversial documentary about Gaza after it was revealed that the film’s narrator had family ties to Hamas.
Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone, originally broadcast last week on BBC Two, aimed to document the war in the Strip through the eyes of its young people.
But controversy erupted when investigator and campaigner David Collier found that one of the teen’s prominently featured, Abdullah Al-Yazouri, was the son of a minister in the Hamas government.
The BBC has since pulled the documentary from all of its platforms, including iPlayer, after being accused of “whitewashing Hamas propaganda”.
And a wave of allegations are still emerging – with a report yesterday from the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (Camera) sharing a review of some of the Arabic interviews used in the programme.
Camera claimed that the discussions had been incorrectly translated to remove references to “jihad” and changing interviewees’ criticism of “Jews” to that of “Israelis”.
Yet more than 500 media figures have now called on the BBC to reinstate the documentary in a letter to BBC executives, including director general Tim Davie.
The letter, seen by the Guardian, was signed by former Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker, who stepped down from the corporation’s flagship football programme following a row about his social media posts, in which he criticised the then-governments immigration policies.
The erstwhile Leicester City striker has also previously been outspoken in his criticism of Israel, including reposting a call for the Jewish State to be barred from international football tournaments.
Lineker later characterised his stance as “anti-Israeli government” and denied accusations of antisemitism, saying: “I’m not anti-anybody. I’m anti-bad people and there are really bad people involved in this.”
He was joined as a signatory by celebrities like Miriam Margolyes, Bridgerton star India Amarteifio and award-winning actress Juliet Stevenson.
The letter described the controversial documentary as “an essential piece of journalism offering an all-too-rare perspective on the lived experiences of Palestinians”.
It also claimed that criticism of the film was based on “racist assumptions and weaponisation of identity”, adding: “This broad-brush rhetoric assumes that Palestinians holding administrative roles [like Al-Yazouri’s father] are inherently complicit in violence – a racist trope that denies individuals their humanity and right to share their lived experiences.”
This is @PeterBeinart's friend, you'll recallhttps://t.co/8hAzXlSh9G
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) February 26, 2025
Not once does this piece mention Hamas, the terror group which initiated Oct 7th massacre and is responsible for all the destruction in Gaza, in case you were wondering if The Hague Group is anything but a diplomatic front for Hamas! Shame on @ForeignPolicy for publishing! https://t.co/1xBNO7Oj3c
— Arsen Ostrovsky 🎗️ (@Ostrov_A) February 26, 2025
A quick thought on this. Where was this talking point on October 8 when there were 38 dead children as a result of the Hamas massacre? What was Daniel Levy's talking point on that day?
— Seth Frantzman (@sfrantzman) February 26, 2025
What's interesting is that this talk at the UN will come and go, but those involved in it knew exactly what they were doing. They could have kept quiet and said what Lapid recently said about how children shouldn't be killed in the wars of grown ups. There are ways to say this…
— Seth Frantzman (@sfrantzman) February 26, 2025
Franny is descending into paranoia.
— Joo🎗️ (@JoosyJew) February 26, 2025
“…hitting us every day” says the (ahem) ‘Independent’ @UN Rapporteur, before segueing neatly into the oil and water Omnicause™️ of Palestine + LGBTQI+ activism.
As a voice for the United Nations, her social media output is ludicrous. pic.twitter.com/i9GsKkCUx2
Philanthropist Kathy Shand quits as chair of Sydney Writers' Festival, issues warning about this year's program
Australian businesswoman and philanthropist Kathy Shand has quit as chair of the Sydney Writers’ Festival, warning that this year’s festival may not be a “safe and inclusive space” for all attendees.
Ms Shand was appointed chair of the writers’ festival just two years ago, having spent almost a decade on the organisation’s board.
However, the prominent Jewish Australian has now resigned from the organisation, with the decision reportedly being sparked by disagreement over the views set to be presented about the current conflict in the Middle East.
The program for this year’s festival is set to be released on March 13, but the Sydney Morning Herald has reported there has been debate over the speakers list as part of a “years long tussle over the emphasis placed on presenting a diversity of views on issues such as the Middle East conflict and geopolitics”.
Jews Being Driven From The Arts - AJA on 2CC - Canberra Radio
— Australian Jewish Association (@AustralianJA) February 25, 2025
AJA CEO Robert Gregory spoke to Stephen Cenatiempo on 2CC Radio in Canberra after the Sydney Writers Festival head Kathy Shand resigned because the upcoming writers festival is set to be heavily anti-Israel.
Robert… pic.twitter.com/aRNBkrguSY
Microsoft boots workers from meeting with CEO for protesting sale of services to IDF
Five Microsoft employees were ejected from a meeting with the company’s chief executive on Monday for protesting contracts to provide artificial intelligence and cloud computing services to the Israeli military.Protecting our University from the whitewashing of antisemitism
The protest came after an investigation by The Associated Press claimed last week that sophisticated AI models from Microsoft and OpenAI had been used as part of an Israeli military program to select bombing targets during the recent wars in Gaza and Lebanon, triggered by the Hamas terror group’s devastating October 7, 2023, attack.
The story also contained details of what it said was an errant Israeli airstrike in 2023 that reportedly struck a vehicle carrying members of a Lebanese family, killing three young girls and their grandmother.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was speaking about new products at an employee town hall meeting at the company’s corporate campus in Redmond, Washington. Workers standing about 15 feet to his right then revealed t-shirts with words that spelled out the question “Does Our Code Kill Kids, Satya?” when their wearers stood side-by-side.
Photos and video of the incident, which was live streamed throughout the company, shows Nadella kept speaking and did not acknowledge the protesters. Two men quickly tapped the workers on the shoulders and ushered them out of the room.
“We provide many avenues for all voices to be heard,” Microsoft said in a statement provided to the AP. “Importantly, we ask that this be done in a way that does not cause a business disruption. If that happens, we ask participants to relocate. We are committed to ensuring our business practices uphold the highest standards.”
Many student protesters, including leaders and organizers, have made it abundantly clear that they absolutely do support terrorism. CUAD, the coalition of groups leading these protests, has been vocal about their support for U.S.-designated terrorist organizations, including Hamas—which committed the massacre of Israelis on October 7, 2023. In a statement released days after the attack, SJP and Jewish Voice for Peace celebrated October 7 as a “historic moment for the Palestinians of Gaza.” As an organization, CUAD openly includes members who support “armed resistance,” which they define as integral to anti-imperialist struggle.Senate Judiciary Committee to hold antisemitism hearing on March 5
Furthermore, a protester displayed the Hamas insignia inside campus last year, and CUAD sponsored and hosted a “Resistance 101” event that featured an alleged affiliate of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, another U.S.-designated terrorist organization. This past October, CUAD and SJP hosted a one-year anniversary gathering, which resembled a celebration, for the October 7 massacre. Similarly, on November 7, 2024, CUAD venerated Hamas’ leader, arch-terrorist, and October 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar in a post on their Substack. Four days later, CUAD celebrated what they called “Martyr’s Day” in place of Veterans Day. During the protest, which took place in the center of campus, students gave speeches valorizing terrorists “who resisted, whether violently or non-violently.” The list goes on and on, making it clear that support for Hamas is integral to CUAD’s movement and ideology.
Lest we forget what it means to support Hamas, the terror group’s original charter states the following: “The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.” This is not “criticism” of Israel—it is pure antisemitism. Why, then, do these Jewish faculty members defend the students who support such a movement?
I propose two possible answers to this question. One is that these professors are woefully uneducated about the nature of Zionism and anti-Zionism, confusing the latter with criticism of Israel. In reality, anti-Zionism is a denial of Israel’s right to exist a priori, regardless of whether it is governed by the Likud or Labor parties.
Alternatively, many of these professors may truly support CUAD’s cause. This answer concerns me most. What does it say about the moral credibility of Columbia’s faculty if some of its members defend CUAD-affiliated students who declare that “violence is the only path forward”? For those who believe in this ideology of resistance “by any means necessary,” all Israeli citizens are “settlers” and therefore legitimate targets, from one-year-old Kfir Bibas to 85-year-old Shlomo Mansour. This is a reprehensible worldview.
But looking past the moral depravity of this ideology, these professors’ general support for the protesters’ purportedly pro-Palestinian cause, has led them to offer blanket support for this movement—regardless of how antisemitic, anti-American, or antithetical to the mission of liberal arts education protesters prove to be. These professors have displayed their willingness to undermine Columbia’s academic mission—thereby neglecting their duties as faculty members—by peddling misleading statements, all in the name of promoting their own dogmatic social-political agenda.
Beyond mischaracterizing anti-Zionism and the protesters, the authors of the op-ed discuss Trump’s executive order, “Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism.” They write that “the order calls for deporting student visa holders accused of protesting Israel’s war in Gaza.” This is a malicious mischaracterization of the executive order, which Trump stated would cancel student visas for “all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses.” This mischaracterization can be traced to their distortion of the student protests themselves. As discussed, the protests are not about criticizing Israel’s war policies; rather, they support a U.S.-designated terror organization and violence in the name of eradicating Israel altogether.
Trump’s characterization of the campus protests in the executive order is much more accurate: “vile anti-Semitic discrimination, vandalism, and violence against our citizens, especially in our schools and on our campuses. Jewish students have faced an unrelenting barrage of discrimination; denial of access to campus common areas and facilities, including libraries and classrooms; and intimidation, harassment, and physical threats and assault.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing examining the rise in domestic antisemitism next Wednesday, March 5, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) told Jewish Insider.Harmeet Dhillon pledges to combat campus antisemitism at Senate confirmation hearing
Grassley, the committee’s chairman, intends to announce the scheduling of the hearing on Wednesday morning, one week before it is scheduled to take place. The title of the hearing, “Never To Be Silent: Stemming the Tide of Antisemitism in America,” was inspired by Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel’s famed 1986 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, during which he said: “I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation.”
“Since Hamas’ horrific Oct. 7 attack on Israel, antisemitic incidents have exploded in the United States, particularly on our college campuses. The Senate can’t turn a blind eye to these atrocities. We must confront antisemitism head on, and with moral clarity. I look forward to chairing this long-awaited hearing in the Judiciary Committee next week,” Grassley told JI in a statement.
Next week’s hearing will be the first specifically focused on antisemitism in the Senate since the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7, 2023. No Senate committee held hearings focused on the subject in the last Congress, with Democrats and then Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) largely avoiding the issue while in control of the upper chamber.
The hearing’s singular concern with antisemitism marks a shift from how Democrats on the Judiciary Committee approached the issue when they held the majority. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), who chaired the committee until Republicans retook the Senate, declined requests from his GOP colleagues to hold a hearing specifically on rising antisemitism.
Harmeet Dhillon, a former lawyer for President Donald Trump and his nominee to lead the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice, pledged at her confirmation hearing to confront antisemitism on college campuses if confirmed.
“We’ve seen antisemitism sweep the nation, and it is very problematic that many people of the Jewish faith are barred by professors and fellow students from access to the classroom,” Dhillon said. “In addition to race, I would see religious discrimination and other forms of discrimination on campus as an appropriate target for the Civil Rights Division.”
She said that she would commit to enforcing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which bans discrimination on the basis of shared ancestry at universities that receive federal funding.
The comments suggest that the Trump administration may see an expanded role for the Department of Justice in combating campus antisemitism, a portfolio that was largely handled by the Department of Education’s own Office for Civil Rights during the Biden administration.
The future of that office and campus antisemitism enforcement responsibilities are in question given the Trump administration’s potential plans to eliminate or significantly downsize the Department of Education. Some reports have suggested that the OCR’s responsibilities could transfer to the DOJ.
"But but but freedom of speech" they bleat.
— habibi (@habibi_uk) February 26, 2025
Look at what happens when the Israeli ambassador shows up at LSE.
At universities across the country, just about any speaker deemed "pro-Israel" may well be greeted by a baying mob. Hatred flourishes at British universities. https://t.co/jyREQdilnX pic.twitter.com/HUWLuPskPq
From the book being launched at the LSE:
— David Collier (@mishtal) February 26, 2025
There were no rapes at all.
Hamas didn't mean to do it.
Hamas did not take civilians.
Most Israelis who died were killed by Israel.
Hamas is demonised unfairly.
etc.
This is dangerous, revisionist, pro-terrorist propaganda. pic.twitter.com/8RhCbqnO34
I resigned from the American Psychological Association last year after 43 years of membership. Sally Satel @slsatel explains the reason - takeover (and ruination) of scholarly & civil-society institutions by illiberal radicals. https://t.co/ingN1WSuLM
— Steven Pinker (@sapinker) February 26, 2025
Student protesters aren’t interested in peace
If the original concept of these protests lay in demanding a ceasefire, then why are they still ongoing? It seems that for many of those involved in the protests, the goal lies not in ending the current conflict, but in challenging the very existence of the State of Israel itself and cutting all possible academic ties to it. By continuing these demonstrations, the group signals that it will not end until Israel ceases to exist in its current form and its partnerships are completely severed. Once again, this is a breach of the IHRA definition as the only democratic nation is being bound by calls to disparish its entire existence.American University SJP event canceled over safety concerns
The repercussions of elongated “resistance” leave Jewish students continually alienated and targeted simply for their identity. This time, it is not even because of the war but Israel’s pure existence.
In this environment, it’s even more important to note that the university has no official ties with the Israeli government or research bodies.
These anti-Israel demonstrations not only undermine the protesters’ original calls for peace but heighten and foster an environment of deepening division. The continued targeting of Israel and its existence is evidence that these protests have taken the shift from advocating for immediate concerns about humanitarian situations to an ideological stance and fight aimed at delegitimizing Israel’s right to exist.
In this specific case, polarized political identities fueling these protests aren’t helped by the presence of Ilan Pappé. Having a professor on campus who advocates for the “collapse of Zionism,” acts as an incentive to protesters who are fabricating division.
The big questions remain: Will these protests stop? If so, when?
While the answers remain elusive, the message seems clear: Their fight extends far beyond a ceasefire, and until Israel’s legitimacy as a state is challenged by university leadership, the protests will continue. Time will tell whether these continued demonstrations lead to understanding and solidarity or further entrench division and hatred.
Citing “possible concerns or threats to the community,” American University in Washington abruptly canceled a Students for Justice in Palestine event titled “Debunking Zionist Lies Workshop.”U of Florida investigating veteran medical school faculty member over anti-Israel posts
The event, which was shut down on Tuesday just hours before it was set to begin, was advertised online with a photo of a masked individual wielding a slingshot and the call to “Smash Zionism,” which the university said contained “imagery and language that contributed to the safety concerns.”
“This event did not undergo the necessary safety assessment,” American University wrote in a statement on Tuesday, announcing that the event would not take place that evening as advertised. “When evaluating safety conditions for campus events, AUPD examines possible concerns or threats to the community, the event organizers, attendees, or outside guests. We will work with student organizations to ensure they are aware of and engage in the necessary safety assessments for events.”
The statement also noted that “the social media post about the event contained imagery and language that contributed to the safety concerns about the event, does not represent AU’s values and creates discord in our community.”
The post — which was not submitted to or reviewed by the university prior to its posting — is under evaluation, the university said.
American University’s chapter of SJP has been under disciplinary probation since April 2024, following an indoor protest which the university had banned.
The crackdown at AU comes as dozens of universities nationwide have started to respond to antisemitic incidents — particularly those stemming from SJP and affiliated anti-Israel groups — with a harder line since the Trump administration issued executive orders aimed at deterring campus antisemitism.
The University of Florida is investigating a senior member of its medical school faculty after dozens of his anti-Zionist social media posts were unearthed by Jewish Insider, a spokesperson for the university confirmed.Gov. Hochul orders CUNY remove Hunter College ‘Palestinian Studies’ job posting, calls for probe into ‘antisemitic theories’
Dr. Mobeen Rathore, the founding director of the UF Center for HIV/AIDS Research, Education and Service and chief of the division of pediatric infectious diseases and immunology at the university’s Jacksonville medical school campus, shared posts on X late last year describing Zionism as “the root of all evil” and calling “for the disappearance of Zionism and Israel.”
“While the University of Florida supports the right to free speech, it is investigating the social media posts made by Dr. Rathore so that consideration may be given to whether they fall outside of free speech protections applicable to public employees or violate state or federal law or university policies or regulations,” Steve Orlando, UF’s interim vice president for strategic communications and marketing, told JI in a statement.
Even as the university investigates whether Rathore’s rhetoric crossed a boundary, Orlando condemned the content of his posts.
“The University of Florida reiterates that Dr. Rathore’s social media posts do not reflect the core values of the University of Florida,” Orlando stated. “The university does not condone calls for the elimination of a nation or group of people. Neither does it condone generalizations about a nation or group of people based on the perceived actions of a few.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul ordered the City University of New York to immediately shut down a “Palestinian Studies” professorship posting at Hunter College that critics argued promotes hateful instruction that demonizes Israel.CUNY union reverses Israel boycott policy
The governor also directed CUNY to probe the taxpayer-funded Upper East Side institution “to ensure that antisemitic theories are not promoted in the classroom,” her office said in a Tuesday night statement.
In the job listing, the four-year CUNY college stated: “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.”
Hochul and CUNY responded Tuesday night to the outrage from Jewish watchdog groups over the posting.
“Governor Hochul has directed CUNY to immediately remove this job posting and conduct a thorough review of the position to ensure that antisemitic theories are not promoted in the classroom,” a Hochul spokesperson told The Post.
“The Governor has continued to strongly condemn all forms of antisemitism and has made clear that hateful rhetoric of any kind has no place at CUNY or anywhere in New York State.”
The job listing has since been removed from CUNY’s website.
The Professional Staff Congress, a 30,000-member labor union for the City University of New York, rescinded its resolution supporting boycotting Israel on Sunday.Should Jewish Students Stop Attending Sarah Lawrence College?
Fran Clark, director of communications at PSC, told JNS that the resolution was scrapped due to voting irregularities.
“The PSC Delegate Assembly voted to rescind its resolution, passed on Jan. 23 by a 73-70 vote, which committed to divesting the union’s reserve funds from Israeli corporate securities and urging the Teachers Retirement System to do the same,” Clark told JNS.
“The Delegate Assembly chose to rescind the resolution because irregularities were identified in the Jan. 23 vote,” he said. “The irregularities were corrected, and a revote was held on Feb. 20. The divestment resolution failed with a vote of 113 opposed, 63 in favor.”
Jeffrey Lax, a law professor at CUNY and founder of a nonprofit that combats campus Jew-hatred, told JNS that he believes his organization’s public campaign influenced the union’s decision to reverse course, including pressure from professors who threatened to resign from the union.
“There is not one iota of the union having done this because it was the right thing to do,” Lax said. “It’s not like they suddenly realized that this is hateful, racist and antisemitic. They did it because they were worried there would be no more union if they actually went through with this.”
Lax told JNS that repealing the BDS resolution does not change the public college system’s problem with Jew-hatred.
In August, Sarah Lawrence professor Suzanne Gardinier posted on X, “That sick uniformed glee in civilian suffering I used to call Nazi—watching a whole generation learn to call it Israeli.” According to the US Department of State, one example of antisemitism is “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.”
It may come as a huge shock to parents spending more than $66,000 a year in tuition to send their children to Sarah Lawrence that professors would espouse such views.
Some of my fellow graduates even rely upon gaslighting or trolling arguments in attempts to deny or diminish antisemitism. In one such absurd exchange, a graduate actually stated that it is a “weak argument” for Zionists to complain of antisemitism because Palestinians are Semites too.
In another such exchange, a graduate put forth the view that it is antisemitic if you do not ask if Sarah Lawrence has “any investments in Israel that we need to divest from?” To make such a noxious view even worse, it was made by a graduate who identified herself as an instructor or professor at a nearby university.
In his most recent column, published last week, Abrams concludes: “Those numerous alumni who have engaged in anti-Semitic behavior serve as a stark reminder that SLC has not instilled the critical thinking skills necessary to foster a truly open and tolerant society.”
In early 2025, the US Department of Education opened a Title VI antisemitism investigation in response to a complaint filed by Hillel accusing the college of fostering a hostile environment towards Jewish students.
Jewish families and our allies need to stop sending our children to Sarah Lawrence. The college has chosen its side. Now it is time for Jewish families to move on from Sarah Lawrence.
MUST WATCH: 10 Infamous activists who backed Columbia's pro-Hamas encampment. List includes actress @SusanSarandon, rapper @macklemore and notorious congresswoman @IlhanMN pic.twitter.com/wdJ8QKzgOV
— Canary Mission (@canarymission) February 26, 2025
Edward Said didn’t just invent much of the frameworks used to demonize Israel.
— Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance (@HarvardJews) February 24, 2025
He invented his own childhood story, portraying himself as a refugee from Jerusalem. However, Said’s father had been living in Cairo, Egypt, for at least 9 years before Said’s birth in 1935 https://t.co/jGlP5IExz4
Jews don't have reasonable concerns on future persecution in countries that are currently safe, they are merely "paranoid". 1930s Vienna & Berlin, anyone?
— Queen of Broccoli 🥦👑 (@jobellerina) February 26, 2025
Yet a knifeman killed during a terror attack miraculously turns into an innocent "political prisoner" https://t.co/ZR7mYB2RT8 pic.twitter.com/R4dvGqGE21
It's mind-boggling that a woman so dishonest about Jews & other issues is launching a book at LSE to argue Hamas "differentiates between Judaism & Zionism" despite ALL evidence otherwise.
— Queen of Broccoli 🥦👑 (@jobellerina) February 26, 2025
Not only offensive but teetering on the edge of a criminal offence.https://t.co/MLMEWC9Ke6 pic.twitter.com/iCOIGThdxj
"Journalist" Rahma Zein @zein_rahma squeezes classic antisemitism into anti Zionist discourse at a @UniofNottingham @ucu event held earlier this month.
— The Electronic Uprising (@uprising_1) February 26, 2025
"They're in every single industry, we mock artists who won't speak up for Palestine, because who is their manager? A Zionist!" pic.twitter.com/HQenEU3bpz
This Centre is owned by Camden Council. @CamdenCouncil, are you really going to host a meeting of terrorist groupies? Samidoun is a front for the PFLP terrorist group. pic.twitter.com/PCJLerFFnf
— habibi (@habibi_uk) February 26, 2025
The PFLP took part in the 7 October atrocities.
— habibi (@habibi_uk) February 26, 2025
Perhaps the sickos could enjoy some snuff films from that day at the event. pic.twitter.com/YFrPH4Mklp
— Canary Mission (@canarymission) February 26, 2025
— Canary Mission (@canarymission) February 26, 2025
Are you proud of yourselves @jvplive ??
— Amelia Adams 📟🚁 (@neuroticjewgay) February 23, 2025
Needless to say, this was forced and under duress (confirmed via @HenMazzig’s recent tweet) pic.twitter.com/IeUeeAmZdL
IDENTIFIED BY CANARY MISSION
— Canary Mission (@canarymission) February 26, 2025
🟠 Sonali Chigurupati is proud of ripping down a memorial for the Bibas family -- mother Shiri & babies Kfir & Ariel Bibas who were taken captive on Oct. 7 & brutally murdered by Hamas.
- Chigurupati lives in Fort Lee, NJ & is suing @Columbia as a… pic.twitter.com/rodqJnisyU
Sonali Chigurupati: photo, tattoo, and IG page.
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) February 26, 2025
Future employers beware. pic.twitter.com/zlYSMcebjq
Update: this poster has been removed by the daycare's owner/CEO. https://t.co/43u4fykiIM
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) February 25, 2025
Enjoy being famous for being racist pic.twitter.com/PCGpSXFuNV
— Shoshanna Keats Jaskoll (@skjask) February 25, 2025
AP’s continued bias toward Israel undermines its gold standard
In today’s media landscape, accuracy is supposed to be the bedrock of credible journalism. Yet the Associated Press, a pillar of news reporting for decades and considered the gold standard of news, continues to lower its standards, especially when covering events involving Israel.
Having spent nearly two decades in mainstream media and being educated at the University of Southern California’s School of Broadcast Journalism, it was relentlessly drilled into me: Avoid bias, report only facts and let viewers form their own conclusions. What we witness today is a troubling departure from these core journalism principles.
I think Americans need to understand the pivotal role that the AP plays in our media. They’re not just another news source, they set the standard. What the AP reports shapes coverage across the media landscape, influencing how other outlets frame their narratives. When the AP leads, others rarely step out of line, amplifying the consequences of any bias or inaccuracy.
Just last week, the AP irresponsibly reported that Israeli hostages—the beautiful Bibas family, including the two young boys, Ariel and Kfir, and their mother, Shiri, who were kidnapped from their home and whose only crime was being Jewish—“died” rather than using the accurate term “murdered.” This semantic dilution is more than just a matter of word choice; it deliberately minimizes accountability and misleads the public about the true nature of these brutal crimes. I immediately called out the AP’s misleading headline, as did Donald Trump Jr. and Rep. Elise Stefanik, Trump’s appointee as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Language matters. The word “died” implies neutrality, obscuring the deliberate, violent act inherent in murder. When the AP chooses neutrality over clarity, it diminishes the moral outrage and severity these events rightfully deserve.
It's a scandal that the @washingtonpost is doing stories based on Gaza Health Ministry propaganda. But given it still employs Karen Attiah, who said last night she makes no apologies for supporting Hamas on October 7, the entire enterprise is corrupted.https://t.co/zsYnQb6iYa
— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) February 26, 2025
I need a friend at @Channel4News (total anonymity)
— David Collier (@mishtal) February 26, 2025
If you work there and understand Hamas is a terrorist group PLEASE GET IN TOUCH.
I think Chan 4 News is deleting material that publicly connects its journos with Hamas. I need inside help.
Please repost to get this around
Haaretz has spent the past year vilifying Israelis, accusing Israel of genocide, war crimes, Apartheid, and countless other baseless and vile claims.
— Shelley G (@ShelleyGldschmt) February 26, 2025
Now it is surprised that people actually believed what it says and are acting on it? pic.twitter.com/qxWWpMlQ64
Why has ADL, the far leftwing group not put on its extremist list, the extremists anti Israel Jewish Voice for Peace, Not in our Name, J Street, and Peace Now who all support BDS. https://t.co/tRM60GlbIO
— Morton Klein (@MortonAKlein7) February 25, 2025
God changes ‘a.m. to p.m.,' terrorists can't account divine intervention
The words in the headline aren’t mine but of Amjad Taha, a UAE journalist and political strategist who was commenting on the failed terrorist plan to cause massive casualties on five Israeli buses on Thursday, February 20 – in Bat Yam and Holon south of Tel Aviv – after timers were apparently set to detonate them at 9 or 10 at night instead of 12 hours later in the morning. Bombs exploded and destroyed three of the empty buses, and were found and diffused on the other two.MEMRI: Palestinian Authority Presents Terrorists Killed By Israel As Murdered Civilians, While It Fights Terrorists From The Same Organizations
“When God chooses to protect you, He bends time itself, turning a.m. to p.m.,” Taja posted on X/Twitter. “Was it divine intervention or sheer blinding them? Palestinian Islamist terrorists from the West Bank set their bomb for p.m. instead of a.m., an attack meant to slaughter Israeli women and children during the morning rush, only to detonate in an empty parking lot. A mistake or a miracle?”
The observation is astounding, but not as much as when in 2014, even Hamas acknowledged that “their God changes the paths of our rockets in mid-air” (www.news24.com). When people in other countries – and even terrorists – state the obvious, it makes you wonder why these terrorists continue to plan their next moves to eliminate the Jewish state, after seeing miracle upon miracle by a God who is obviously fighting for us, thereby choosing a side.
Yet, while such events may seem like a modern-day phenomenon, things like this actually happened thousands of years ago. One such story is recorded in the 7th chapter of the biblical book of Judges, centering on Gideon, who was called to fight Midian and the Amalekites. Before engaging in war, he took his servant, went to the enemy’s camp and overheard a man relating a dream he’d had to one of his friends.
“I had a dream. A loaf of barley bread was tumbling into the camp of Midian and came to the tent and struck it so that it fell and turned it upside down so that the tent lay flat” (v. 13).
Immediately, his friend responded by saying, “This is nothing less than the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has given Midian and all the camp into his hand.” (v. 14)
As the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) continue to fight the terrorist militias in the West Bank, especially in its northern regions, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and its officials continue to refer to Palestinian terrorists killed in the course of this fighting as innocent civilians murdered by Israel, while concealing their involvement in terrorism.[1] The real identity of the individuals killed is evident from social media posts by the terror organizations themselves, which confirm that they were terrorist operatives, and from pictures that show them bearing arms and wearing the organizations' uniforms.
Moreover, some of the terrorists killed during IDF operations in the West Bank in recent months also served simultaneously in the PA's security forces, which are meant to be fighting the terrorist militias. Naturally, in these cases too, the PA conceals their involvement in terrorism and makes sure to honor the terrorists and describe them as "martyred heroes."[2]
Presenting these terrorists as innocent civilians, while deliberately ignoring their involvement in terrorism[3] is characteristic of the discourse and the media coverage of the PA, which, in recent months, has been conducting a military campaign against the Jenin Brigade terrorist militia, which is challenging its rule in the West Bank.[4] This crackdown is taking place concurrently with the IDF's operation against the same terrorist organizations.[5]
This report presents instances in which the PA media presented the killing of terrorists as the murder of civilians.
PA Presents All Palestinians Killed By Israel As Civilians, Even When They Are Terrorists
As part of their counterterrorism operations in the West Bank, the Israeli security forces carry out airstrikes against concentrations of armed terrorists. Many of those killed in these attacks are members of terrorist organizations like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), whom the PA regards as mercenaries of the Iranian regime that is seeking to overthrow its rule in the West Bank.[6] Despite this, in reporting their deaths the PA media consistently presents them as civilians and disregards their terrorist activities.
For example, following Israeli airstrikes in the Tulkarm and Nur Al-Shams refugee camps in the Tulkarm Governorate, the PA local governor, Mustafa Taqatqa, told the WAFA news agency on December 25, 2024, that Israel was carrying out "an ongoing attack on civilians."[7] This was despite the fact that the attacks targeted terrorists such as Jum'a Salem and Mahmoud A'mar from Hamas's military wing;[8] Amran Al-Haroun, Qusay Akasha and Muhaimin Al-Akhras from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade,[9] and Fathi Abid from the PIJ military wing.[10]
Fatah Official in Syria Amer Issa Rejects Claims that Palestinian Leadership Has Given Up “Pay to Slay” Policy: It Is an Attempt to Circumvent U.S. Pressure, the Payments Will Continue in a Different Way pic.twitter.com/VOHPDR4pIk
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) February 26, 2025
PMW: Terrorist murderer of a mother and 2 children released, as Israel mourns Shiri Bibas and 2 children
With tragic poignancy, in the week that Israel is mourning the murder of Shiri Bibas and her two sons, Ariel and Kfir, of Kibbutz Nir Oz, Israel released the terrorist responsible for the murder of Revital Ohayon and her two sons, Matan and Noam, of Kibbutz Metzer.Released Fatah terrorists praise Hamas: “We as Fatah members are proud of this partnership”
Terrorist Muhammad Naifeh was convicted of involvement in the murder of 13 Israelis, including Revital and her sons, on their kibbutz in 2002. Like the images of Shiri Bibas trying to protect her children, Revital was murdered while hovering over her sons Matan and Noam, trying to protect them.
Last week, the murderer of Revital and her sons—literally moments after being released from prison in exchange for Israeli hostages and still on the terrorists' bus—already pledged to return to terror in "proud partnership" with Hamas terrorists. He "saluted" them for successfully releasing the Fatah terrorists. "Thank you for all this sacrifice... We, as Fatah members, are proud of this partnership [with Hamas], which will be better in the coming days than in the past":
Released terrorist murderer Muhammad Naifeh: "Me [Muhammad Naifeh], ‘the Frenchman' (13 life-sentences), Abu Satha (9 life sentences), Mansour Shreim (14 life sentences), Ahmed Abu Khader (11 life sentences; all released terrorists), and everyone, and Abd Al-Karim Aweis (6 life sentences), and the entire leadership of [Fatah's] Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades [terror wing] and their founders, we salute you [Hamas], and we will be by your side. We are partners of the future, Allah willing. Thanks to the [Hamas'] Izz A-Din Al-Qassam Brigades. Thank you for all this sacrifice. The Hamas Movement is a respectable movement, and it exists, and the occupation (i.e., Israel) cannot eliminate Hamas. Hamas is an idea that cannot be eliminated, and it is a main and true partner of the Palestinian national project. We as Fatah members are proud of this partnership, which will be better in the coming days than in the past days, Allah willing."
[Quds News Network (Hamas), X (Twitter) account, Feb. 15, 2025]
Hamas TV Tours Supermarkets in the Gaza Strip, Shoppers Say: “Everything Is Back to Normal”; Stores Are Well Stocked and Prices Are Better Than They Were Before the War pic.twitter.com/tazoKXEJvB
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) February 26, 2025
Lunch today at Chef Hamada's in Gaza City + hanging Ramadan lights outside the restaurant.
— Imshin (@imshin) February 26, 2025
From Instagram Stories: 1 hour ago#TheGazaYouDontSee
Link in 1st comment https://t.co/F6PgqxJjq9 pic.twitter.com/ZoxTkeGAHQ
🚨Horrifying: Hamas shot over 10 Gazans yesterday and executed two others.
— Hamza (@HowidyHamza) February 26, 2025
The people who were shot were accused by Hamas of "stealing humanitarian aid." The other two were accused of "collaborating with Israel."
For how long is this going to continue? I have been posting… pic.twitter.com/Fa1TqBiimF
and these ⬇️⬇️ pic.twitter.com/gdFrMbE6hD
— Ario (@Ario454286) February 26, 2025
PreOccupiedTerritory: Palestinians Insist ‘Gulf Of America’ Originally Called ‘Julf Al-Mariq’ (satire)
Opponents of Jewish sovereignty in the ancestral Jewish homeland who regularly assert without evidence that the Hebrew names for numerous locales are “colonialist” replacements for “authentic” Arabic names continued the trend this week in response to the Trump administration’s imposition of a new name for the Gulf of Mexico, with the contention that in fact the body of water bore an Arabic name from time immemorial.Mossad director says beeper operation 'broke' Hezbollah
Palestinian activist Mariam Barghouti made the claim Tuesday morning in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation.
“It was Julf Al-Mariq for hundreds of generations of indigenous Palestinians,” Barghouti argued, with no pushback from the BBC interviewer. “What Trump is trying to do is exactly what the Zionists have been trying to do for a hundred years – erase the true Arab Palestinian origins and identity of every geographic feature.”
“They erase Tel Al-Rabiye and called it ‘Tel Aviv,'” she elaborated, referring to a city founded by Jews on theretofore empty dunes in 1909. “They rechristen Al Quds as ‘Jerusalem’ and pretend it was always called that. The Zionists have nothing but lies. Trump will not get away with it just as the Zionists do not get away with it. The indigenous Palestinian population of Julf Al-Mariq will resist this imperialism just as we resist Zionist settler colonialism, by all means necessary.”
Barghouti dismissed the interviewer’s one feeble attempt at pushback, as the host cited ancient Biblical names in line with the Hebrew. “You have to understand the deceptions that the Jew- I mean the Zionists weave,” she explained. “Who printed those Bibles? Who owned the media that distributed all those ‘ancient’ sources? You will not find even in those highly suspect ‘ancient’ sources a single mention of any ‘Gulf of America,’ or even of the previous colonialist name, ‘Gul of Mexico.’ We all know why.”
Mossad Director David Barnea was honored by the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) on Tuesday on behalf of the Mossad for their beeper operation targeting Hezbollah terrorists in September.
Following his acceptance of the award on behalf of the organization, Barnea spoke to the crowd.
"The beeper operation is a clear example of the realization of our mission. It was planned by Mossad employees creatively, using sophistication and cunning."
"It showed intelligence, penetration, and a deep understanding of the adversary, technological superiority, and first-rate operational capabilities."
Barnea added that "the operation symbolizes the turning point in the war in the north and the starting point for the ten days during which the tide turned against our enemies. A clear line can be drawn in the war in the north - from the beepers to the elimination of Nasrallah to the ceasefire."
"Above all - our obligation is to return home all the hostages, living and dead. It is the supreme moral imperative to return our brothers and sisters from the infernal tunnels."
Lebanese MP Camille Chamoun: Israel’s Continued Presence in Lebanon Is Justified Until Hizbullah Surrenders Its Weapons; Hizbullah Should Finance the Reconstruction on Their Own – They Caused the Destruction pic.twitter.com/1KQzZzqePZ
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) February 26, 2025
Terror Group Leader Who Trained Columbia Students on ‘Palestinian Resistance’ Attends Hezbollah Chief’s Funeral
'The fact is that October 7 changed the world … we saw the potential of a future for Palestine liberated from Zionism,' Samidoun's Charlotte Kates told Columbia students Samidoun leader Charlotte Kates (Workers World Party/YouTube)Will Western ‘Influencers’ Who Attended Hassan Nasrallah’s Funeral Face Arrest? Part 1: David Miller
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.
On February 23rd, the funeral was held for Hassan Nasrallah, one of the most notorious terrorists of our time. The Hezbollah leader left behind a legacy of bloodshed—thousands of civilians killed worldwide, alliances with brutal regimes that torture their own people, organized crime spanning multiple continents, and a hand in drug trafficking.
One might assume only terrorists, their loyal foot soldiers, and some members of Lebanon’s Shia community would publicly mourn such a man. But among the mourners praising Nasrallah’s “resistance” were not just extremists from Hezbollah’s inner circle but also European journalists, university professors, political activists, and self-proclaimed “anti-Zionist” influencers.
According to the LA Times, Hezbollah operatives coordinated 70 international delegations, welcoming thousands of foreign activists and social media influencers to join the mourning. Attendees came from Iran, Tunisia, Yemen, and Iraq—but also from Brazil, Ireland, Turkey, and the UK.
One British attendee stood out: David Miller, a former University of Bristol professor with a long track record of antisemitic incitement.
Miller, who was dismissed from his university post for his obsessive demonization of Jews and Israel, has been bankrolled by Iran’s state-owned Press TV, where he co-hosts ‘Palestine Declassified’ with former British MP Chris Williamson—who was expelled from the UK’s Labour Party over his own antisemitism scandal. The program, which previously dedicated a special edition to targeting HonestReporting, has relentlessly pushed conspiracy theories, claiming that “Zionists” control world events, have a “stranglehold” over the media, and are “grooming young people.”
But Miller doesn’t just spew conspiracy theories from afar—he actively supports Hezbollah and its broader network of terrorist proxies. At Nasrallah’s funeral, he didn’t just observe—he celebrated. He called the thousands mourning the global terrorist a “tide of humanity” and posted a video urging Hezbollah, “To counter the Zionist aerial supremacy, it’s an urgent matter for the resistance to secure better air defense capacity.”
He is quite openly and brazenly inciting against “over 3,000 Zionist organisations” that he explicitly says need to be “directly targeted in the UK, in Germany, in France, etc…” and to “practically do it, materially”. https://t.co/dOGSjLriCD
— Adam Ma’anit 🎗️ (@adammaanit) February 25, 2025
Michigan Imam Hassan Qazwini in Dearborn Heights Friday Sermon: We Have Not Been Broken or Defeated by the Assassination of Nasrallah; Israel Eliminated His Life, But It Cannot Eliminate His Spirit or His Goals; Victory Will Follow pic.twitter.com/eYE3UAdClW
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) February 26, 2025
When terrorists realize they can achieve more with successful videos than with warfare pic.twitter.com/Wwqdnvh8rY
— GAZAWOOD - the PALLYWOOD saga (@GAZAWOOD1) February 25, 2025
Blind, and with two missing fingers from his right hand, a Hezbollah member weeps on the grave of Nasrallah.
— Hamas Atrocities (@HamasAtrocities) February 26, 2025
Imagine spending your entire existence following the dreams of Nasrallah to wipe out Israel, only to realize it was self destruction.
And then still weep for his death... pic.twitter.com/J4h4t2si7G
Time to Bring Down the Curtain on Iran's Terror Axis
In the US, in the past -- many people may have forgotten -- Iran was found guilty of supporting the 9/11 attacks.... Recently, Iranian state agents have been trying to murder senior US officials who served in the Trump administration, various dissidents, and Donald Trump himself.Iran Rejects Nuclear Talks With US as Trump Admin Ramps Up ‘Maximum Pressure’ Campaign
Iran has an interest in having Democrats re-elected as soon as possible. Even while Iran fired on US forces in the region more than 160 times just since October 7, 2023, the Biden administration never stopped being inordinately generous to Iran and compliant with its nuclear weapons program.
Iran has also been busy setting up a drone factory in Venezuela, as well as expanding its presence in Cuba.
The mullahs might well hope simply to wait until President Trump's term is over to break out their nuclear weapons and resume "exporting the Revolution."
While the US might be reluctant to seek regime change in Iran, if the Trump administration allows the mullahs to stay in power, there will be no peace for the foreseeable future in the US, Europe or the Middle East. In addition, almost 90 million Iranians will continue to have to suffer unimaginable abuses and human rights violations that the mullahs daily impose on them.
Ending Iran's regime would finally put a stop to its becoming a nuclear power and its incessant attacks on US assets in the Middle East, and finally could bring peace to the region. That prospect appears worth serious consideration by the Trump administration.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Tuesday rejected the possibility of nuclear talks with the United States, which imposed new sanctions on Iran’s oil industry as part of the Trump administration’s so-called “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran.Kraft explains Snoop Dogg-Tom Brady Super Bowl ad
“There will be no possibility of direct talks between us and the United States on the nuclear issue as long as the maximum pressure is applied in this way,” Araghchi said during a joint press conference with his visiting Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.
“We will not negotiate under pressure, threat, or sanctions,” he added.
The top Iranian official’s remarks came a day after the US Treasury Department announced new sanctions on Iran’s oil industry, targeting over 30 brokers, tanker operators, and shipping companies involved in transporting and selling Iranian petroleum.
The new oil sanctions were the latest to be imposed since US President Donald Trump reinstated his “maximum pressure” policy toward Tehran, aiming to cut the country’s crude exports to zero and prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Earlier this month, however, Trump also expressed a willingness to talk to Iran’s leaders, stating his desire to reach a “nuclear peace agreement” to improve bilateral relations with Tehran while insisting that the Iranian regime must not develop a nuclear weapon.
Iran’s so-called “supreme leader,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, rejected the idea of negotiating with Washington, calling such a move “unwise” and “dishonorable.”
Tuesday’s high-level meeting between Russian and Iranian officials took place in Tehran to discuss bilateral relations, regional developments, and the 2015 nuclear deal with major world powers that placed temporary restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
“On the nuclear issue, we will move forward with the cooperation and coordination of our friends in Russia and China,” Araghchi said during the press conference.
When Robert Kraft sponsored a Super Bowl ad earlier this month through the nonprofit he founded, Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, the commercial was in line with the group’s goal of reaching a non-Jewish audience that isn’t engaged in the day-to-day incidents of antisemitism but would be alarmed by the scourge of racism and hate of all kinds.Australian police charge seven for making Nazi salutes
But the 30-second commercial, called “No Reason to Hate,” which cost an estimated $8 million to air, sparked criticism from some Jewish activists for not focusing on — or even mentioning — antisemitism when it ran in front of some 127 million viewers during the game. The ad featured rapper Snoop Dogg and NFL great Tom Brady exchanging deliberately vague insults.
In an interview with Jewish Insider — Kraft’s first time speaking publicly about the ad since it aired on Feb. 9 — the billionaire philanthropist and owner of the New England Patriots argued the advertisement achieved its intended goal.
“The challenge is that we just can’t explain the complexity of Judaism or antisemitism in a 30-second ad. But what we can do is invite Americans into a conversation about something they do have experience with: hate,” Kraft told Jewish Insider.
“And as a result, we saw tens of thousands of people who had never engaged with us before coming to our website and following us on social media,” he told JI. “We’re bringing people who had no exposure to our mission into a lasting conversation about the fight against antisemitism.”
The organization’s advertisement aired during last year’s Super Bowl did specifically mention antisemitism.
The ad’s inclusion of Snoop Dogg also drew controversy, as the celebrity has past ties to the Nation of Islam and its leader, Louis Farrakhan, who has a long history of promoting antisemitic rhetoric.
Australian police on Wednesday charged seven men who allegedly performed Nazi salutes during a gathering at a club for Croatian expats.Israeli short story to be adapted by filmmaker Charlie Kaufman
Police in the state of Victoria said the men — six of whom are in their twenties, and one of whom is 19, according to local reports — had been photographed making the “prohibited gesture” on February 8 at the Croatian Club of Geelong.
“The charges follow an extensive investigation into an image circulating online which depicted a group of men performing the prohibited gesture,” police said in a statement.
“All seven men have been charged on summons for public display or performance of Nazi symbols or gestures.”
Croatian Club president Frank Sarcevic said earlier this month he was “absolutely disgusted with this behavior and extremely disappointed.”
Australia passed tough anti-hate crime laws earlier this month, including potential jail time for giving a Nazi salute in public, in a bid to tackle a recent surge in antisemitism.
BREAKING: Police have charged seven Geelong soccer players with publicly displaying the Nazi salute in a crackdown on antisemitic gestures. https://t.co/6qBmY3IzEG @tyra_stowers #7NEWS pic.twitter.com/6uVr01JWwN
— 7NEWS Melbourne (@7NewsMelbourne) February 26, 2025
Gefen, who was born in Israel, is also the author of the novel, Mrs. Lilienblum’s Cloud Factory. He is a PhD student in cognitive psychology at Columbia University in New York, and his work weaves together gentle humor about ordinary people’s lives with insights based on neuroscientific research into how the brain works. He wrote a piece for The Atlantic about how one of his best friends was killed fighting Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, a few weeks before he was supposed to marry.
“Debby’s Dream House” is about a man who creates dreams for other people but then begins giving them nightmares instead.
Kaufman is an Oscar-winning screenwriter and director known for such offbeat comedies as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Being John Malkovich, and Synecdoche, New York. He wrote a comedy, Adaptation, about the difficulty he had adapting the book The Orchid Thief to the screen. It is unclear how closely the movie will follow Gefen’s story.
I'm thrilled to finally share that my short story, “Debby's Dream House” from my debut collection “Jerusalem Beach” will be adapted into a Hollywood film. The Oscar-winning screenwriter Charlie Kaufman is writing and directing the movie, with the wonderful Eddie Redmayne, Tessa… pic.twitter.com/fJHaGttpqp
— Iddo Gefen (@IddoGefen) February 25, 2025
Disturbed releases 'I Will Not Break': A rallying anthem for Israel amid Hamas captivity crisis
American hard rock giants Disturbed dropped a new song last week with special relevance to Israeli listeners.
“I Will Not Break” is a relentless, riff-heavy song with electronic elements that builds up to the powerful refrain: “I will not break this time; I know that vengeance will at last be mine; Time is ticking away, ticking away; If I can leave the past behind that’s been crippling me, sickening me.”
Although written and recorded before the harrowing events of this past week in which Israel received the remains Shiri Bibas and her two children – Ariel and Kfir - killed in Hamas captivity in Gaza, the song connects viscerally to what has taken place since October 7, according to the band’s frontman, outspoken Israel advocate David Draiman.
“I did not realize how poignant and therapeutic this song would become when I originally wrote it. I needed it. I hope it brings some very much needed strength and empowerment to all, especially in light of the horrors of the past 48 hours,” Draiman wrote on social media, in a clear reference to the return of the Bibases.
Disturbed singer David Draiman mourns slain family in emotional video message
Disturbed frontman David Draiman expressed his sympathies with Yarden Bibas following the funeral of his wife and children on Wednesday, who were murdered in Hamas captivity.
The funeral service for Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir Bibas, which took place at the cemetery near Moshav Tzahor in the Eshkol Regional Council, included, among other things, a recording of the song Hold On to Memories by the alternative metal band Disturbed. David Draiman, the band's lead singer, responded on his Instagram account.
Draiman filmed a video for his story in which he said: "Dear Yarden, hello my brother. I am so sorry for your loss. The entire people of Israel weep with you today. Hold on to the memories of your family. Hold on to the memories of your children and your beloved wife. We will all do this. They will remain in our memory. May the memories of your children and your beloved wife be a blessing to you, always. Am Israel Chai. Be strong."
His words were spoken in English, except for the words "Hello, my brother" and "the people of Israel live," which were spoken in Hebrew.
The song Hold On to Memories was one of three songs played as part of the eulogy ceremony by the Bibas family in dedicated to his family who were murdered in Hamas captivity.
Before it was played, the host of the ceremony, Carmit Palti Katzir, said that the song "expresses the place where Yarden aspires to be and his request from us, through the lyrics of the song, which Yarden chose to dedicate."
"Make the most of the rest of your life. Live the world to the fullest while you have the opportunity. Hold on to the memories. Keep every moment close to your heart to keep them alive. The greatest tragedy of all is when souls are forgotten." The song was played, and not a dry eye was left.
Let’s clarify things, shall we? #AmYisraelChai pic.twitter.com/kYFqAwY2o0
— David Draiman 🟦🎗️🇺🇸🇮🇱✡️☮️ (@davidmdraiman) February 26, 2025
"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024) PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022) |
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