Thursday, April 17, 2025

04/17 Links Pt1: Trump Blocks Israeli Strike on Iranian Nuclear Sites; Did Biden Fund Anti-Netanyahu Politicking?; The Anti-Semites in the Conservative Manosphere; Catering to Qatar

From Ian:

Israel's Most Conclusive Victory since 1949
Tenacity is the most important virtue of national leaders at war, which allows them to press on with no assurance of victory, fending off tremendous political pressures to fold. Winston Churchill displayed this quality in 1940, when Paris and Western Europe had fallen and Germany appeared unstoppable.

As Israel fought a major, multifront war in October 2023, key U.S. officials encouraged domestic uproar against Netanyahu and worked to constrain him and even collapse his government. Netanyahu had to overcome calls and protests by Israelis and American Jews, as well as all the usual suspects in European capitals and almost every other world government incessantly demanding a ceasefire, not as a pause, but as an end to the war.

It is against this backdrop that Netanyahu's pure resolve must be understood. His tenacity was the only thing that mattered. Having withstood this unrelenting pressure over the course of a year, Netanyahu had maneuvered into a position where, in the second half of 2024, Israel was able to turn the tables and reshape the entire geopolitical picture

The Mossad and the IDF brilliantly wrecked Hizbullah with exploding pagers, booby-trapped field radios, and the elimination of senior Hizbullah commanders in a precision strike that left the group totally paralyzed, nullifying its vast rocket arsenal. Because he had monopolized Hizbullah's command and control, Nasrallah's death shut down the organization.

As a consequence of Hizbullah's demolition, Iran's Syrian vassal, Bashar al-Assad, found himself defenseless, having long become dependent on Hizbullah and Iranian militias for manpower. With the fall of Assad, and with the IDF in control of the Gaza-Egypt border, the Iranians lost the ability to rebuild Hizbullah and Hamas, giving Israel its most conclusive victory since 1949.

Israel's astounding technical prowess and the fighting spirit of its military are, of course, integral to this victory. But it couldn't have happened had Netanyahu not held out against an unfriendly American administration and an accompanying assortment of authoritative figures and institutions, as well as howling mobs in Israel and around the world that demanded a ceasefire and the Israeli prime minister in handcuffs.
NYTs: Trump Blocks Israeli Strike on Iranian Nuclear Sites
Israel had planned to strike Iranian nuclear sites in May but was waved off by President Trump in recent weeks in favor of negotiating a deal with Tehran to limit its nuclear program, according to administration officials. Israel had sought to set back Iran's ability to build a bomb at a time when Iran has been weakened militarily and economically. Almost all of the plans would have required U.S. help.

Earlier in April, Trump informed Israel of his decision that the U.S. would not support an attack and discussed it with Prime Minister Netanyahu during his recent visit to Washington. Trump made clear to Netanyahu that he would not provide American support for an Israeli attack while the negotiations were playing out.

Israel has long planned to attack Iranian nuclear facilities, rehearsing bombing runs and calculating how much damage it could do with or without American help. But support within the Israeli government for a strike grew after Iran suffered a string of setbacks last year. In attacks on Israel in April, most of Iran's ballistic missiles were unable to penetrate American and Israeli defenses. Air defense systems in Iran were destroyed, along with facilities to make missile fuel. Hizbullah, Iran's key ally, was decimated, and the fall of the Assad regime in Syria cut off a prime route of weapons smuggling from Iran.

Inside the Trump administration, some officials voiced concerns about the Israeli plan, including Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence; Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff; Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth; and Vice President JD Vance.

There is still significant debate within Trump's team about what kind of agreement with Iran would be acceptable. If the talks failed, Trump could then support an Israeli attack, Vance said.
Seth Mandel: The Leak Was the Whole Point
That latter point is one reason Israel reportedly ordered attack plans to be redrawn such that the mission could be launched before Kurilla’s exit. Gabbard’s isolationist leanings and Vance’s incoherent FDR-style cynicism toward allies are now the dominant ideological strands in Trump’s Cabinet, and the president nixed the strike plans.

Kurilla wasn’t the only reason time is of the essence. Last year, Israeli retaliatory attacks on Iran reduced Tehran’s air-defense systems to rubble. The nonproliferationists are open to the idea of taking advantage of this situation, which makes any U.S. involvement in strikes significantly less dangerous while (likely) permanently ending the nuclear threat from Iran, a Mideast client state of China and Russia.

The divestors don’t want this outcome. They don’t see Iranian nuclear proliferation as much of a threat, and they are comfortable with Iranian hegemony over our allies and over the region’s shipping lanes. This was President Obama’s approach as well—to empower Iran and weaken the Saudis and Israel so that a magical balance-of-power would emerge and keep the Middle East on its equilibrium, likely with a cascade of nuclear proliferation throughout the region. Although encouraging this nuclear cascade in the Middle East is an act of apocalyptic stupidity, presidents (and Congress) do like being given excuses to kick the can down the road.

And kicking the can is exactly what this is all about. Trump has been convinced to try his hand at negotiating with Ayatollah Khamenei, who will walk away from the table as soon as Iran’s defenses are in better shape.

Along those lines, part of Israel’s rushed plans to strike Iran—the ones intended to be launched while Kurilla was still around—included further demolishing Iranian defenses. If that isn’t paired with bombing Iran’s nuclear sites, it will at least buy the West some more time to do so by widening the window of opportunity.

That’s where the New York Times article comes in. The detailed leaks are most likely the Gabbard faction’s attempt to delay even that kind of attack by telling the Iranians what to expect. It’s hard to see this as anything other than the director of national intelligence enabling U.S. and Israeli intelligence to be put in front of an enemy state.

The leak is the point. It’s a tactical play to more or less help Iran torpedo American action. That’s the intent, anyway. Whether it succeeds might depend on whether Walz and Hegseth find their voices and their spines.


Jonathan Tobin: Will Trump and Witkoff repeat Obama and Kerry’s Iran blunders?
The Obama deal myth
Democrats and their press cheerleaders still seek to promote the myth that Obama’s deal was working and that it was Trump’s supposedly impulsive decision to withdraw from it that enabled Iran to become a threshold nuclear power. This is false.

When Trump became president in 2017, he understood that sooner or later, a U.S. president was going to have to scrap that deal and either replace it with a tougher one or attack Iran. He wisely chose not to procrastinate and withdrew from Obama’s agreement in May 2018, after which he embarked on a series of sanctions that devastated its economy and stripped the regime of its ability to effectively fund terrorism. Had he been re-elected in 2020—or if his successor, President Joe Biden, had stuck to this course—Tehran might have been forced to surrender its nuclear program. But Biden, who put pro-Iran diplomat Robert Malley in charge of the issue, fecklessly reverted to Obama’s appeasement policies. That allowed the Islamic Republic not only to get immeasurably closer to a nuclear weapon, but the sanctions relief gave it the ability to escalate anti-Israel and anti-Western terrorism in the region using its Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthi proxies.

Sadly, the advice that Trump is getting from Vance and Gabbard seems to be steering the administration toward a repeat of those mistakes. And by putting the inexperienced and naive Witkoff, who was bailed out by Iran’s Qatari allies in a New York City real estate deal, and whose statements and actions mark him as someone who is not only tainted by his business connections but compromised by them, the talks with Iran seem headed for another round of Obama-Kerry-style appeasement.

Unfortunately, it might be too late for another “maximum pressure” sanctions campaign as employed by Trump 1.0 to work. With the backing of Russia, and especially China, which is buying almost all of Iran’s oil exports, it may be able to survive another round of sanctions, even ones that forced America’s European “allies” to give up its economic ties to the regime.

After the first inconclusive meeting between Iranian officials and Witkoff, the U.S. envoy first said his goal was a deal that would allow Tehran to keep its nuclear program and then backtracked on that staggering blunder. That, combined with a bellicose statement by Trump about using military force if the Islamist regime continued to try to drag out the talks by “tapping us along,” raised hopes that he was ready to act in concert with Israel to end the threat from Iran.

But then came the leaks to the Times that made it clear that, at least for the moment, Vance and Gabbard are in the driver’s seat on Iran policy with the witless and possibly corrupt Witkoff doing their bidding in talks that seem designed to serve Tehran’s goal of putting off American and Israeli strikes until it might be too late.

Trump should not be blamed for wanting to achieve the goal of ending Iran’s nuclear project without the use of force. But everything known about the Iranian regime and its diplomatic history makes it obvious that it has no intention of giving up its nuclear dreams without a fight. And if, as Trump and every one of his predecessors has said at one time or another, preventing Tehran from getting a weapon is a goal that would justify military force if there was no viable alternative, then sooner or later, the United States is going to have to act.

A possibly fatal delay
Moreover, delaying a joint U.S.-Israeli strike on Iran may not be so much a postponement as a decision that will ensure that Iran will never be attacked. In time, the Iranians—with Russian and Chinese help—will restore their air defenses and make it even harder to attack their nuclear facilities, as well as hide other assets in what is a large and mountainous country.

If the goal of the Iran appeasers at the cabinet table is—as the Times articles seem to suggest—a willingness to tolerate Iran as a threshold or even actual nuclear power, that is a momentous development. If Washington were to treat a nuclear Iran as an insignificant threat to U.S. interests or that of its allies, then what we are witnessing may be nothing less than a repeat of Obama’s folly. A new deal with Iran that doesn’t compel the dismantling of its nuclear program or force it to give up financing international terror—a key point that no one in the administration, including Trump, seems to be currently interested in—will have enormous consequences for the region. And what would ensue would likely be a similar rerun of what happened after Biden relaxed sanctions, including an upsurge in Iranian-backed terror, such as the Hamas-led assault in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the Houthi interdiction of international shipping in the Horn of Africa.

Yet for all of the leaking about the factions in the White House, this is an administration with a strong leader who is not likely to be swayed by New York Times articles any more than he is by a foreign-policy establishment and experts who have always been willing to endanger Israel and the West by going soft on Iran.

Obama knew what he wanted with respect to Iran. So does Trump, though his goal of stopping, rather than empowering and enriching the Islamist regime, is very different. This president prides himself on not engaging in the sort of “stupid” diplomacy with Iran employed by Obama and Biden that weakened the United States and strengthened the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. He also knows that Iran is trying to spin out the talks until the window of its air-defense vulnerability closes, and it gets even closer to its quest for a bomb. Still, if the Iran appeasers among his advisers continue to prevail and the ayatollahs run out the clock by continuing to exploit Witkoff’s incompetence, then that is exactly what he will be doing.
Leak on Iran attack to NYT 'one of most dangerous leaks in Israel's history,' source tells 'Post'
The Post revealed on Thursday that since the Islamic Republic’s attack with around 200 ballistic missiles on Israel on October 1, Israeli defense officials had considered striking Tehran's nuclear facilities.

The military was confident in its abilities to strike Iran, and several senior Israeli officials were in favor of the idea in theory.

However, The NYT report detailed that the officials were not ready to carry out such an operation without US approval.

The article noted a few possibilities for striking Tehran's nuclear facilities, including a joint US-Israeli plan. This would either look like a massive bombing campaign or a combined attack using airstrikes and commando raids, as Israel did to Syria’s underground facility.

The officials reportedly waited until Trump assumed office to convince him to join a possible attack. That being said, several members of the Trump administration opposed a joint attack and pushed for a US-Iran deal, especially in a scenario where the US could be dragged into a war.

The Post noted that Israel’s capability for attacking Khamenei’s nuclear facilities underground only became familiar to the public on January 2 of this year. However, even after that revelation, dropping hints that something similar could be done in Iran was often seen as off-limits for Israeli journalists.


Activist group trying to use UK courts for war crimes claim against Israeli minister denies Hezbollah link
One of two organisations attempting to pursue a private prosecution in the UK against an Israeli minister has denied its founder has links with the Hezbollah terror organisation.

The Brussels-based Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) announced on Wednesday that it had joined with the London-based Global Legal Action Network (Glan) in seeking to obtain an arrest warrant for Gideon Sa’ar as the Israeli foreign minister made a private visit to the UK.

The activist groups claimed Sa’ar’s position in the Israeli security cabinet and his public statements on Gaza are grounds for alleging the foreign minister’s complicity in war crimes carried out by the IDF.

But as they attempted to gain publicity for their actions, whose action is supported by the hardline anti-Israel MP Zarah Sultana, a spokesperson for HRF hit back at what they said was a “baseless smear campaign” against the group’s founders Dyab Abou Jahja and Karim Hassoun in relation to comments they have made about the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shia Islamist group Hezbollah and Hamas.

In a New York Times interview in 2003 HRF chair Jahja, who grew up in Lebanon states he joined Hezbollah and is “still very proud” of the military training he received.

In September 2024, Jahja said he organised meetings as director of the International Union of Parliamentarians for Palestine in which “Hezbollah’s political leadership” met with political figures including William Hague, who was shadow foreign secretary at the time.

Jahja also has a history of making openly homophobic remarks including an article he wrote in which he referenced “Aids spreading fagots.”

Hassoun, the HRF secretary, meanwhile has a similar history of controversial comments, including a post on X in December 2023 stating Hassoun “I condemn Hamas for taking only 100 hostages instead of 500 or 1,000″ following the October 7 massacre.
Jonathan Schanzer: Catering to Qatar
As Hamas and other Iran-backed proxies waged war against the Jewish state, another war was raging here at home. Anti-Israel, anti-American, and anti-Semitic protests erupted on campus and on Main Street. University officials appeared indifferent to the tumult. With the benefit of hindsight, we now understand why. Estimates suggest that Qatar has gifted anywhere from $7 billion to $20 billion to institutions of higher learning over the past two decades. Alarmingly, researchers are now combing through data revealing that Qatar has invested untold sums in K–12 public schools as well. Indeed, the Islamist dictatorship that funds Hamas and the Taliban has a foothold in American education.

But the problem is greater than education. It’s fair to ask whether the Qataris are making a play for “state capture.” Law firms, lobby groups, public relations shops, and other levers of influence are all on generous Qatari retainers. Hedge funds, mutual funds, joint ventures, and other generators of American wealth are similarly beholden to Qatari cash. Large parcels of real estate in one city after the next have been gobbled up by Qatari-backed developers. And that’s just what we know.

Money is no object for Qatar. This is a country that controls more than 10 percent of the world’s energy. And the needs of the country’s tiny population make it such that the regime can spend money on soft power and influence without limit.

Today, the Trump administration features numerous senior figures who have had business dealings with Qatar. Jared Kushner’s business ties are by now well known. But Witkoff, Attorney General Pamela Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin are among the more notable names.

To be fair, it’s unclear how much Qatar influences these figures—if at all. We must hope the influence is minimal. What’s needed now are government mechanisms to monitor the flow of Qatari cash and to minimize the effect of the country’s operations. Concurrently, Qatar needs to be sidelined as a negotiator for the terrorist groups it funds. And a serious government effort must now be mounted to counter the influence of a tiny, wealthy, and insidious regime that most Americans couldn’t point out on a map.
'We are all Hamas': Qatari defense minister posts, then deletes message in support of Hamas
Qatari deputy prime minister and defense affairs minister Sa'oud bin Abd Al-Rahman Al Thani this week posted and quickly deleted a Twitter/X post in support of Hamas: “We Are all Hamas… Oh Al-Quds, revolt and commemorate Al-Qassam!”

Thani, who was appointed in November as Qatar’s deputy prime minister and defense affairs minister, has served as head of the Emiri Diwan for several years before that.

The tweet was first exposed by independent analyst and blogger Eitan Fischberger.

However, the Qatari minister quickly deleted the post, along with other posts endorsing Hamas, in an attempt to erase his history of support for the terrorist group.

Further examples of Thani's problematic rhetoric, including claims that Israel “controls” the US, and alleging that ‘Al-Quds is the capital of Palestine,’ were also exposed by the Washington, DC-based Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

In their expose, MEMRI added: “over the years, Al Thani posted messages in which he supported Hamas, incited against Israel and criticized the US and President Donald Trump. He also called to increase Qatar's influence on decision-makers in the US”


John Spencer and Arsen Ostrovsky: Why Israel’s War Against Hamas Is Necessary
Necessary War, Constrained Conduct So, was Israel’s war against Hamas necessary?

That depends on which kind of necessity you mean. But in truth, it meets both tests:
Was the war morally necessary? After October 7th—following the deliberate massacre of civilians, the kidnapping of hostages, and Hamas’s declared intention to repeat those atrocities—the answer is unequivocally yes.

Are Israel’s military operations legally necessary? While each strike must meet specific legal thresholds, the IDF operates under one of the most stringent legal and ethical frameworks in modern warfare. It is bound by the law of armed conflict and has demonstrated an unprecedented commitment to minimizing harm, even while engaging an enemy that hides among civilians and violates every rule of war.

A war can be both morally justified and legally constrained. Israel’s campaign against Hamas is exactly that. It was not launched lightly or recklessly—it was waged in defense of life, sovereignty, and the rule of law.

Anyone asking whether Israel’s war was necessary should first understand what they are really asking—and then recognize that the answer, by every standard that matters, is yes.
Boundless Insights: Inside One of the Most Complex War Zones on Earth - with John Spencer
Since October 7, Israel has been fighting a war unlike any in modern history — against a terror group that hides in hospitals, stores weapons in schools, and holds hostages underground. The IDF is operating under intense pressure, with international demands for zero civilian casualties, blocked operations in key Hamas strongholds, and constant pauses driven more by perception than fact.

Urban warfare expert John Spencer joins Aviva Klompas to explain what’s really happening on the ground in Gaza. He’s been inside Hamas’s tunnels, studied the world’s most complex battlefields, and advised top U.S. generals. Together, they unpack the realities of urban combat, the misinformation war playing out across social media, and what the world gets dangerously wrong about how Israel is fighting.

Guest Bio:
John Spencer is an award-winning scholar, internationally recognized expert and advisor on urban warfare, military strategy, tactics, and other related topics. Considered one of the world’s leading experts on urban warfare, he served as an advisor to the top four-star general and other senior leaders in the U.S. Army as part of strategic research groups from the Pentagon to the United States Military Academy. John currently serves as the Chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point, Co-Director of the Urban Warfare Project, and host of the Urban Warfare Project podcast.


Hamas rejects Israel's proposal to release 10 hostages in exchange for 45-day ceasefire
Hamas rejected Israel's proposal to release 10 hostages in exchange for 45 days of ceasefire on Thursday night.

"We will not accept partial deals that serve [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu's political agenda," Hamas negotiating team head Khalil al-Hayya said in a statement, which the terror group claimed is based on the continuation of the war. "

Netanyahu’s partial agreements are a cover for his agenda based on continuing the annihilation, even at the cost of sacrificing his captives," he said in the statement. "We welcome the position of the American envoy Adam Boehler to end the issue of the captives and the war together, which aligns with the movement’s position.”

Al-Hayya said Hamas is ready to immediately negotiate a deal to swap all the hostages with an agreed number of Palestinians who are imprisoned in Israel.

“Netanyahu responded to the mediators’ proposal with impossible conditions that do not lead to an end to the war or to a withdrawal. We affirm our readiness to immediately begin negotiations on a comprehensive agreement package – negotiations on a comprehensive package that includes the release of all the captives in our hands and an agreed-upon number of our prisoners held by the occupation.

"In return, the occupation must completely end the war against our people and fully withdraw from the Gaza Strip.”

Israeli hostages can be released if the Israeli government agrees to end the war, fully withdraw from Gaza, and allow for the reconstruction of Gaza to start, al-Hayya said.

In the statement, al-Hayya stressed that Hamas would refuse to lay down its weapons to Israel.

“The resistance and its weapons are tied to the existence of the occupation, and they are a natural right of our people.


Report: Cash-strapped Hamas unable to pay its members
Israel’s military campaign against Hamas has triggered a major financial crisis for the terrorist group, which is now struggling to pay its gunmen, according to a report on Wednesday.

Moumen al-Natour, a lawyer from the Al-Shati area in central Gaza, told The Wall Street Journal that Hamas has “a big crisis” on its hands. “They were mainly dependent on humanitarian aid sold in black markets for cash,” he said.

The group also imposed taxes on merchants, collected customs fees at checkpoints and seized goods for resale, according to the Journal.

Many Hamas government workers have stopped receiving salaries altogether, according to the report. Since last month, senior operatives and political figures have reportedly been paid only about half of their usual income, while lower-ranking terrorists are said to be getting just $200 to $300 per month.

A temporary financial boost occurred during a ceasefire in January, which allowed increased aid to enter Gaza. However, when the truce ended in March, Israel resumed its military campaign and halted aid deliveries, worsening Hamas’s financial condition, according to the Journal.

The report also noted that Israeli airstrikes have focused on Hamas officials who handle cash distribution, forcing some into hiding.

Beyond payroll issues, Hamas is said to be struggling with recruitment and maintaining public support. Some residents in Gaza have been protesting against the group.

Israel may broaden its restrictions to include not only aid that could be used militarily, but also goods of significant economic value to Hamas, the Journal reported, citing unnamed officials.

Hamas is believed to have stashed around $500 million overseas, including funds from Qatar, according to Western and Arab estimates cited by the Journal. Gaza faces a shortage of physical currency. Israel’s central bank has stopped delivering fresh bills, and numerous banks and ATMs have been destroyed. In response, Palestinians have turned to “money repair shops” to mend damaged currency, the Journal reported.


WSJ: Did Biden Fund Anti-Netanyahu Politicking?
Agency for International Development transferred tens of millions of dollars, directly and indirectly, to Israeli nongovernmental organizations working to topple the Netanyahu government. Two House committees are investigating how U.S. funding to six of these groups was used. Which is just as well, as federal funding of foreign organizations can be a thorny thicket to navigate, requiring investigators to try to ascertain precisely what the funds were designated for and whether they were properly applied. But publicly available records tell a suspicious story: Many of the organizations that received funding from the Biden administration also played a key role in the movement to unseat Mr. Netanyahu.

Take Itach Ma’aki, or Women Lawyers for Social Justice. The group received more than $8,000 from the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem in 2023, designated for a development project in the Negev, a desert in the south of Israel. That same year, the group helped replicate America’s “Handmaid’s Tale” protests in Israel. Photo Israel, an organization dedicated to “the promotion of the art of photography in Israel and abroad,” received nearly $80,000 from USAID in 2024 for a photography program it says motivates young Israelis to “social and community activism.” Photo Israel’s recent activities include “The Protest From Heaven,” an exhibition celebrating the anti-Netanyahu movement.

Sikkuy-Aufoq, a nonprofit working for “equality and partnership” between Jews and Arabs, received more than $1 million in State Department funds between 2021 and 2024. Tax documents claimed the organization used these funds to strengthen local authorities and reduce crime in Arab communities. Sikkuy-Aufoq has organized demonstrations and lawsuits targeting Mr. Netanyahu’s government and its policies.

An investigation may reveal that none of the funds allocated to these organizations were used for political purposes. But the fact that so many prominent players in the anti-Netanyahu movement received American dollars suggests that something more than coincidence may be at play, which is precisely why investigations are urgently needed.
Board of Deputies stands firmly with Israel… not THAT letter
The Board of Deputies is a democratic organisation. It is a broad tent, containing 300 representatives from all denominations of Judaism and spanning a wide range of political opinion. Deputies regularly speak out in public on a range of issues and often take positions which are at odds with the official policy of the Board itself.

This is not surprising. We all know that, where there are two Jews, there are three opinions. And the world’s only Jewish state is the most rambunctious of democracies. Ordinarily, we celebrate this diversity of opinion.

This case is different. Whether intentionally or otherwise, the impression that has now been put forward by certain national and international news outlets is that yesterday’s letter published in the Financial Times, signed by approximately ten percent of Deputies, is the position of the Board of Deputies as an organisation, and therefore the position of the UK Jewish community as a whole. This is emphatically not the case, and as president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, I speak for the organisation as a whole.

I know many of the signatories well and do not doubt for a moment the deep and fierce love of Israel among the signatories and their devotion to its wellbeing. As the war has gone on, I have observed, however – both in Israel and outside it – what seems to me to be a deeply regrettable loss of perspective, mirrored again in this letter.

Hamas – its initiation of this hideous conflict and its determination to continue it – is barely mentioned, and when it is, this is only insofar as to blame the Israeli government for its existence and actions. In this telling, absolutely no agency is given to Hamas regarding the failure of the implementation of the second stage of the hostage deal.

We yearn for the return of the remaining hostages, whose absence is more acute than ever now, during the Festival of Freedom. Yet given that Hamas just this week rejected yet another mediation put forward via Egypt, which would have required the terrorist group to disarm, I am simply unable to agree with the viewpoint aired in the FT letter which lays blame squarely on the Israeli Government. I am confident that the vast majority of Deputies and the Jewish community as a whole agree with me.


Non-Orthodox movements sign letter standing with campus Hamas supporters
Former J Street press secretary Amy Spitalnick, who runs the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, and has turned it into an anti-Israel pressure group, boasted of bringing together the Union for Reform Judaism (and other Reform groups) and the Rabbinical Assembly of Conservative Judaism along with Reconstructionist groups to stand up for campus Hamas supporters.

The letter claims that Jewish safety is tied “to the safety of others,” in this case the safety of those calling for the murder of Jews on college campuses, and warns that “escalating federal actions have used the guise of fighting antisemitism to justify stripping students of due process rights when they face arrest and/or deportation, as well as to threaten billions in academic research and education funding.”

The Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements then claim that they “reject any policies or actions that foment or take advantage of antisemitism,” thereby adopting the leftist anti-Israel language which accuses Jews of “weaponizing” antisemitism.

“We unequivocally condemn the exploitation of our community’s real concerns about antisemitism to undermine democratic norms and rights, including the rule of law, the right of due process, and/or the freedoms of speech, press, and peaceful protest,” they assert.

Every non-Orthodox movement’s rabbinates have now chosen to stand with the leftists and Islamists who assaulted Jewish students and faculty, and with university administrators who turned a blind eye to it, over the Jewish students and communities they targeted.

They have fatally discredited themselves, not just as religious movements, but as Jewish ones. They have made it clear that they will sell out Jews to antisemitic violence as long as it comes from their side.


Seth Mandel: The Anti-Semites in the Conservative Manosphere
This combination of arrogance and ignorance is a hallmark of the “just asking questions” influencer corps. At the same time, there is something telling about Gaines’s crazy statement that no one knew what a Zionist was until October 7, after which “people started looking into this conflict.” On October 7, only one side was carrying out violence, and all that violence was against innocent Israelis. There’s an echo of this same idea near the end of the Joe Rogan–Ian Carroll interview. Carroll goes on a rant about the Jewish state being essentially a criminal enterprise founded and governed by mobsters and terrorists. Then Rogan cuts in and says: “And what’s interesting is, you can talk about this now, post–October 7.” To which Carroll responds: “Exactly. It opened wide open.”

October 7 was a moment of Jewish vulnerability, and it brought a particular coalition of alienated Internet celebrities out of the woodwork: washed-up UFC fighters, wannabe pick-up artists, pseudo-historians and philosopher-bros chasing respectability, trust-fund Instagram royals seeking validation from serious-minded people, right-wing populist lay preachers with a persecution complex. These are self-styled tough guys (and gals) who can’t explain how a state made up of supposed genetic degenerates keeps coming out on top. Israel is the Jew of the nation-states; how did it field a fearsome army and a network of super-spies? It must be lying, cheating, and stealing.

Nick Fuentes, ironically, has been the most honest and forthright about the envy and frustration of the tough guys and the “master race” types. In December, a bit over a year after the war started, Israel had turned the tables on its pursuers. Fuentes, on his America First show, had a radically self-aware meltdown. “It’s time for a little self-reflection, it’s time for a little honesty,” Fuentes said smiling, palms held up as if in surrender. “Do you know how much it sucks being on the other side of Israel?” Then came a brief airing of grievances: “They killed everybody in Hezbollah. They made Hezbollah look like an absolute b—ch when they blew up all their pagers. And then they blew up all their other stuff the next day, and then they killed them all.” He concluded: “Damn, this sucks. It’s just watching this defeat in slow motion.”

The world of right-wing influencers is obsessed with conquest and superiority, and on October 7 they thought their time had finally come. Yet 18 months later, they’re back where they started. So they have taken their quest to the 21st century’s version of the wise men atop the mountain: the podcast maestros with massive audiences and an endless appetite for questioning everything. They are crowdsourcing their war on the Jews.
Israel’s Darkest Day and the Spirit That Refused To Die
His quest to “work out what happened” took him into Gaza, one of only a few Western journalists allowed to enter. It took him to where the leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, died in the bombed-out city of Rafah, to a top security prison where he looked into the eyes of captured terrorists, to the northern Israeli cities under constant rocket attack from Hezbollah in Lebanon. It took him into the army barracks and kibbutzim where Hamas ran amok on the murderous rampage of October 7. His moving account of what happened at the Nova festival site includes not just the accounts of rape and murder, but also the stories of heroes, often unarmed, rescuing people form the hands of Hamas.

And the heroism and resilience shown by ordinary Israelis is probably the most important element of this book for us non-Israelis to learn from. As Murray says, “In Israel on 7 October, almost every part of the state failed. The intelligence services failed. The military failed. The politicians failed.” But the people did not fail. Israelis suffered a terrible loss on October 7. It was not just the dead, wounded, and kidnapped that hit Israelis so hard, it was a shock to their existential security. Israelis have always had great faith in the Israeli Defence Force (IDF). Before October 7, Israel had not suffered an armed invasion for 50 years, since the Yom Kippur War in 1973. The last internal uprising of Palestinians, or intifada as it is known, was from 2001 to 2005. More Israelis died in one day on October 7 than in the five years of the Intifada. As one man in Kibbutz Magen, where they resisted the Hamas invaders until the IDF arrived, said to me last year, “We thought of the army as our mum and dad, always there to look after us, but not anymore.”

Yet within 15 months of October 7, Israel had rallied to inflict significant damage, not only on Hamas, but also on Hezbollah in Lebanon and on Iran, the main sponsor of Islamist terror in the Middle East. This was made possible by the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of young Israelis into the IDF and support services. Before the war, many older Israelis feared that younger people—who had not experienced war themselves and had been seduced by consumerism and a pacifistic yearning to avoid conflict with their Arab neighbours—would be reluctant to fight when necessary. But as one military veteran put it to Murray, “I owe the younger generation an apology. I thought they had become weak… but I was wrong. They have stepped up. They are magnificent.’’

What we can learn from Israel
We in the West, as Murray points out, have preferred to play down the threat of Islamic terrorism, even when it has led to mass casualties in our own cities. We have seen mass demonstrations against Israel and in support of Hamas on our own streets. Sections of our youth have fallen prey to an ideology that denigrates our own history and elevates “the oppressed” death cult of Hamas against “the colonialist” Israel, the only functioning democracy in the Middle East.

As Murray says, many young people in the West “have a historically low view of the virtues of their own country.” Our support for Israel should begin by challenging this interpretation of our own history as one characterized by colonialism, while standing up for Israel against Hamas. We are entering a new world, the post-1945 state of permanent peace is no longer, and we must be prepared to fight for the defence of our borders, our democracies, and our liberties, as Israel is already. We should be inspired by the example of Israel, and hope, as Murray does,

that Canada, Britain, Europe, Australia and America should be so lucky as to produce a generation of people like Israel has.

If you wish to be inspired and to inspire others, read this book. It is the best and truest account of life in Israel post 7/10 by any non-Israeli.
Unfortunately, we cannot all fit into Douglas Murray’s cellar
Now, of course, the story has never seemed more relevant. Now, after 545 days of hostage slavery in Gaza and trending antisemitism, it is just a little harder to laugh over the silly songs and wear the funny animal masks and eat the egg and salt water without remembering that the hostages were given salt water when they were parched and weakened in their underground prisons. Now the assimilated are drifting back to the heim, and communities are swelling as we realise we need to check up on each other’s wellbeing.

So, for my colleagues who say, “Oh, I never speak out. I’m not political,” I say, “The way you bring up your kids is political and the way you buy your clothes and drink your coffee is political and perhaps you might consider how many of your non-political, non-affiliated friends would hide you? We can’t all get into Douglas Murray’s cellar.”

Visiting South Hampstead shul, which my partner has helped to prosper and grow, has been something of a revelation. It is breathtakingly vibrant. Noisy, like the shul of my childhood, but happy for kids to play football in the foyer. Inclusive and attentive to their women congregants, full of humour and irreverence but steeped in both tradition and as much modernity as United Synagogues can allow. There is cholent bubbling in the community hall, classes and debate in rooms all over the building and backchat between rabbis and congregants. It feels freer than many other shuls I’ve visited.

Mind you, as one of the congregants, Meir, a young Jewish refugee from Iran now living in Israel, pointed out to David when commenting on the Muslim wars between Shia and Sunni: “It’s a good thing the ten tribes of Israel got lost or every year there’d be another ten broigeses to contend with.”
Douglas Murray Warns that October 7th Will Happen Again, in the West
As Murray asks of Israel’s critics, in the book:
“If an enemy breaks into your country, murders your citizens, rapes women at a music festival, and carries hundreds of your citizens into captivity what is the “proportionate” response? Would Israel be permitted to call it quits if it killed precisely the same number of men, women, and children as Hamas had killed that day? Or raped precisely the same number of women? Or kidnapped precisely the same number of innocent civilians from their homes and then held them in underground tunnels? Of course not. In fact, the world would rightly condemn any such move.”

But the world has not condemned the British government who have, for decades, allowed social workers, police forces, and local councils to cover up the rape, trafficking, torture, and murder of thousands of English girls by gangs of Pakistani Muslim men. It is an indictment of Britain’s politicians that they have not reacted to the rape-gang scandal just as Israel did after October 7th. Israel took the side of its people. The British state has not.

This knowledge that our state will side with our abusers is fomenting fears of civil war. Once the preoccupation of conspiratorial cranks and a mercifully few remaining swivel-eyed racists, temperamental moderates like Tim Stanley are warning of its imminence in the Telegraph. Stanley, however, focused more on the second-order issue of a white-identitarian retaliation, rather than its Islamic-sectarian provocation. Likewise, Inaya Folarin Iman has admitted that the Radio Rwanda-esque anti-white racism she once dismissed — and labelled the likes of me a “white identitarian” for being alarmed about — is a very real and institutionalized threat.

It’s easy to see, when police-hiring policies and sentencing guidelines render white men second-class citizens in their own countries. But this enshrines in law an ethnic contempt which has already been culturally normalized. When Murray lists the abundance of antisemitic literature on offer at a train station in Egypt in 2010 — copies of Mein Kampf, copies of The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, and a range of other conspiracy tracts focusing on Israel and the Jews — one cannot help but recall the prominent displays of White Fragility, Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race, and How To Be An Anti-Racist in the windows of highstreet Waterstones stores while Black Lives Matter set American cities ablaze.

Just as the deans of Harvard, U-Penn, and MIT smiled in indifference to calls to genocide of Jews on campus, Western media, academia, and politicians have encouraged the revision of our history and replacement of our people — with the ironic pretext of preventing the return of Nazism. But in Britain, it isn’t just kids at the Cambridge campus encampments, or the Ummah selectively ignorant of their brothers suffering in Syria and Yemen, siding with Islamic terrorists. It is the civil service, the politicians, the police, and the intelligence agencies. Per anti-white recruitment policies, dressed up as efforts to “boost diversity”, these institutions will continue to be filled with people more likely to sympathize with the cause.

The fear befalling Westminster’s polite commentariat is the realization that, if an October-7th-style attack happened in the UK or Europe, our institutions would excuse it, encourage it, even enable it. It is a fear I feel when I walk around quiet London suburbs, hearing robins sing among the pink blossoms of early spring, knowing that a mob with no affinity for birdsong could burn down everything I love, like it was a kibbutz in Re’im. Should that fatal flare go up, we know our state will be standing on the opposite side to its people. Murray’s warning is to prepare for that day accordingly.


TalkTV: "Deport, Deport, DEPORT!" | Douglas Murray Furiously Calls For "Death Worshippers" To Be Exiled
Author Douglas Murray says the UK should take a "deport, deport, deport" approach to people who "want to worship death".

"We have no place for them - get them out!"

Douglas Murray also questions why Brits were "force-fed this pap" of gender ideology and calls for the creators to face the courts.

"Let's find the mutilators and ensure they're held accountable - including politicians that encouraged it through cowardice!"


BBC Newsnight: Douglas Murray talks Joe Rogan, Trump and is challenged on “less Islam” comments
Author and Associate Editor of The Spectator Douglas Murray speaks to Newsnight about his recent praise from Donald Trump and appearing on Joe Rogan’s podcast. Mr Murray is also challenged on his “less Islam” comments by Political Editor Nick Watt.

The Newsnight panel for the programme, Jo Swinson, Liberal Democrat leader 2019, Anita Boateng, Conservative Special Adviser, 2016-19, and Matthew Stadlen, broadcaster and political commentator, react to the issues raised in the interview.




ICJ Rules Against South Africa: ‘Serious’ Procedural Abuses Give Israel 6 More Months to Respond to Accusations
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ruled against South Africa on a procedural dispute in the ongoing “genocide” case, granting a 6-month extension for Israel to file its responses after abuses by the South African team.

Israel’s i24 News reported Wednesday:
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague has agreed to postpone proceedings in the case brought by South Africa against Israel, following Israeli objections regarding procedural violations and a lack of transparency.

As a result, Israel will now have until January 12, 2026, to respond to South Africa’s claims—pushing the deadline back by six months from the original July 2025 date.

According to i24NEWS legal commentator Avishai Grinzaig, the court determined that South Africa’s attempt to present evidence without allowing Israel access to it was a serious breach of legal norms. The ICJ ruled that witness identities and evidence cannot be concealed from the defendant state, reinforcing the principle of due process.

South Africa has led an effort to isolate and demonize Israel in international forums — an effort that has had no benefit to Palestinians, and may have harmed them by encouraging terrorists to keep fighting, which in turn has forced Israel to continue responding to attacks.

President Donald Trump has criticized South Africa for bringing the ICJ case, one among many ways in which the Trump administration says that South Africa is harming U.S. foreign policy and national security interests.


‘We want Hamas out’: Gazans protest against terror group
Social media footage published on Wednesday, including by Israel’s Foreign Ministry, showed mass protests against Hamas in northern Gaza, with people holding up signs and chanting, “Hamas out,” “We want to live” and “Listen, listen, all people. Beit Lahia is not Hamas,” referring to the city in the northern Strip.

The demonstrators were also seen carrying Egyptian flags, apparently showing support for Cairo’s mediation efforts toward a ceasefire agreement and hostage deal.



These protests have continued sporadically for several weeks, featuring curses and calls against the terror organization. Hamas has attempted to suppress the demonstrations through threats and executions, but without success.


CENTCOM announces strikes on Houthi-controlled oil port
The U.S. military conducted strikes aiming at destroying the Houthi-controlled Ras Isa fuel port in Yemen, U.S. Central Command announced on Thursday.

“Today, U.S. forces took action to eliminate this source of fuel for the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists and deprive them of illegal revenue that has funded Houthi efforts to terrorize the entire region for over 10 years,” read the CENTCOM statement. “The objective of these strikes was to degrade the economic source of power of the Houthis, who continue to exploit and bring great pain upon their fellow countrymen.”

It added that the Iranian proxy has been able to sustain its military operations and receive economic benefit by “embezzling the profits” from oil through the Ras Isa port, adding that the fuel should be legitimately supplied to the people of Yemen.

“Despite the Foreign Terrorist Designation that went into effect on April 5, ships have continued to supply fuel via the port of Ras Isa,” read the CENTCOM statement. “Profits from these illegal sales are directly funding and sustaining Houthi terrorist efforts.”

U.S. President Donald Trump reclassified the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization after it was downgraded under former President Joe Biden.


IDF destroys Hamas training camp in Gaza, kills head of group’s smuggling unit
The chief of Hamas’s smuggling unit was killed in an airstrike in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis earlier this week, the IDF and Shin Bet said Thursday, while also announcing the killing of a prominent Palestinian Islamic Jihad member last week.

Yahya Fathi Abd al-Qader Abu Shaar, who worked in recent years to smuggle weapons and other military equipment for Hamas, including equipment used during the terror group’s October 7, 2023, onslaught, was killed on Tuesday, the IDF said.

The IDF released footage of the strike.

The military said another strike in Khan Younis last week killed a leading member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group, which is allied with Hamas and also participated in the October 7 onslaught.

Mazen Ibraheem Mahfouz Farah had directed “significant” terror attacks in Israel over the past two years, and especially in recent months, according to the IDF. Footage released by the IDF on April 17, 2025, shows a strike on the chief of Hamas’s smuggling unit in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis. (Israel Defense Forces)

In both strikes, the IDF said it took numerous steps to mitigate civilian harm, including the use of a “precision munition, aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence.”

Additionally, a Hamas operative at one of the terror group’s command centers was targeted in an airstrike in northern Gaza’s Jabalia on Thursday, the IDF and Shin Bet said on Thursday.

Palestinian media reported that the strike hit a school in Jabalia that served as a shelter for displaced Gazans. The reports said six people were killed and several others were wounded in the attack.

The command center had been used by the terror operative “to plan and carry out terror attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops,” the military said.

The IDF said it took steps to mitigate civilian harm in the strike, including the use of a “precision munition, aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence.”

“The Hamas terrorist organization systematically violates international law while taking over civilian infrastructure, and while brutally exploiting the civilian population as a human shield for its terror attacks,” the military added.


Commentary Podcast: Trump's Restrainers, Restraining Israel A two-hander today as Abe Greenwald and I delve Talmudically into the New York Times story on how Donald Trump decided not to participate in an Israeli strike on Iran and why. Give a listen.

What the Hell Is Going On: WTH is Going On in the Negotiations With Iran? Elliott Abrams Explains Explicit
Following a surprise Oval Office announcement by President Trump during Bibi Netanyahu’s trip to Washington, the United States has once again restarted negotiations with Iran over its nuclear weapons program. Thanks to Israeli attacks on Iranian air defenses and its proxies, coupled with crippling U.S. sanctions, Iran has never been weaker and America has never had more leverage over the Islamic Republic. However, Iran’s nuclear program is also significantly larger and more advanced than it was in 2015 or throughout the first Trump administration. What should Trump demand in a new nuclear deal with Iran? And is the administration’s current approach a recipe for success, or are they being played by the Ayatollah?

Elliott Abrams is a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, the Chairman of the Tikvah Fund, and the Chairman of the Vandenberg Coalition. He previously served as deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security advisor in the administration of President George W. Bush, where he supervised U.S. policy in the Middle East for the White House, and as Special Representative for Iran and Venezuela in Donald Trump’s first administration. His most recent book is If You Will It: Rebuilding Jewish Peoplehood for the 21st Century (Wicked Son, 2024).
Defending Israel with David Harris- Arsen Ostrovsky Returns
International human rights lawyer and social media influencer Arsen Ostrovsky joins David Harris in the studio to discuss defending Israel in the courts, on campuses, with governments, and in the media.




Canada’s New Prime Minister Is Failing His Country’s Jews
On March 14, Mark Carney succeeded Justin Trudeau as Canada’s prime minister. In eleven days, he will lead the Liberal party in national parliamentary elections. Carney has, in this short time, already shown himself to be no friend of Canadian Jewry, writes Vivian Bercovici:

Carney’s government announced that Canada was providing approximately $100 million to UNRWA on an emergency basis; even though numerous members of the organization have been exposed for actively colluding with Hamas, including some in the October 7 attacks. In recent months, the U.S., Switzerland, [and] the Netherlands have consequently revoked funding commitments.

Carney has steadfastly avoided public contact with the Canadian Jewish community; the fourth largest in the world. Since October 7, our community has been subjected to violence and incitement by Canadian Islamists who have teamed up with the hard left—a phenomenon seen throughout the Western world. But except for the province of Alberta (and very few municipalities)—law enforcement has been alarmingly permissive, allowing the pro-Hamas crowd to run amok. . . . But Carney has ignored this reality.

Then there are Carney’s off-the-cuff remarks about the war in Gaza. For instance, he stated in an interview that there is “a common theme in the situations of Canada, Ukraine, and Gaza: it’s about territorial integrity”—as if Israel, not Hamas, had begun the current war. And while Carney is currently reconsidering his approach to campaigning, Bercovici believes it unlikely that there will be any change on this subject, “given his intransigence and voter demographics.”
Poilievre vows UNRWA funding cut over Hamas ties, Carney wants to maintain it
Canadian funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) became a hotly contested item during the Wednesday federal party leaders’ French-language election debate, with Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney confirming that he would continue funding the international program, Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre vowing to support of UNRWA, and NDP leader Jagmeet Singh slamming Poilievre’s description of the UN agency’s ties to Hamas.

According to a live stream and its translation on the Cable Public Affairs Channel, when the debate between the Canadian federal leaders turned to the topic of reducing foreign aid, Poilievre said that he would end funding UNRWA, among other issues.

“We saw UNRWA, the organization in the Gaza Strip, whose employees took part in the attacks of October 7. So I don’t think we should be funding that type of activity either. The aid we give should be directly to people in need and not through multinational bureaucracies and terrorists,” said Poilievre. “Nonprofit groups will deliver the services directly to Gazans because it is a waste of money when the money is not even getting to the people.”

Singh responded that if an organization had issues, it should be investigated, but what Poilievre said “about UNRWA was disgusting.”

“This is the only organization that is helping people on the ground,” said Singh. “You painted the entire organization with the same brush, calling it a terrorist organization. That is unacceptable, that is hateful, and is entirely inappropriate.”

Liberal Party leader Carney said that he agreed with Singh that there were only a few organizations operating in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas War and that he would continue to fund UNRWA.


J-TV: What happened to CANDACE OWENS? - Ami Kozak On The WOKE RIGHT
Ami Kozak is a brilliant comedian, impersonator and musician who has been an outspoken advocate for Israel and the Jewish people, especially since October 7th. He has featured on Candace Owens podcast multiple times, to try to show her a different perspective on Israel and Jewish issues - even debating Dave Smith. Ollie talks to him about the "woke right".

0:00 Intro
0:45 Why did you start speaking out on Israel?
7:10 Using comedy to persuade
10:10 Biggest mistakes in Israel advocacy
17:45 What happened to Candace Owens?
40:14 Will the antisemitic right grow?
56:12 Ami performs HILARIOUS impressions




Hamas supporter who called for slaughter of Jewish people live-streamed illegal arrival into UK on small boat
Abu Wadee - also known as Mosab Abdulkarim Al-Gassas - is charged with arriving into the UK without leave or valid entry clearance.

The 33-year-old reportedly posted a video to TikTok showing him giving a V for victory sign at the front of a boat full of migrants wearing orange life jackets.

He was arrested by immigration enforcement officers after arriving on a small boat in Kent on March 6, having paid smugglers 1,500 euros (£1,300), a previous court hearing was told.

Wadee was then placed in a hotel in the Manchester area.

Canterbury Crown Court heard on Thursday that Wadee, who left Palestine in 2022 before making asylum claims in Greece, Germany and Belgium, had no familial or financial ties to the UK and had stayed between Calais and Dunkirk in France for about seven days before making the crossing.

Prosecutor Harriet Palfreman said: "The chronology of the countries that he has been through suggests he has an understanding of the immigration system."

Views shared by the defendant online showed he "presents a clear threat to the Jewish community", Ms Palfreman told the court.


DA files charges against woman accused of threats to send explosives to Palm Springs Chabad
The Riverside County District Attorney filed a felony complaint on Friday against suspect Gohar Kagramanyan, charging her with violation of California Penal Code sections 422(a) and 422.6(a) - Criminal Threats and Hate Crimes.

Her arraignment is scheduled for Monday, April 14 in Indio. Due to the nature and severity of the threats, detectives obtained a bail enhancement, and she is being held on $500,000 bail at the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility in Banning.

Palm Springs police arrested Kagramanyan, 36, in Desert Hot Springs on Wednesday after being accused of threatening to send explosives to the Palm Springs Chabad.

The investigation started on April 3, when the threats were first made.

"The suspect... threatened to send explosives to the Palm Springs Chabad and expressed intent to kill the victim and others associated with the organization," Palm Springs police wrote in a news release.

Due to the nature and severity of the threats, detectives obtained a bail enhancement, and she has been held on $500,000 bail at the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility in Banning.

"The Palm Springs Police Department takes all threats of violence and hate-motivated crimes extremely seriously. We remain committed to protecting the safety and security of all members of our community," PSPD wrote.
Anti-Israel protesters to march through ‘heart’ of small Jewish community in Essex
An anti-Israel march is scheduled pass through a Jewish area of Southend this Shabbat – instead of taking what is described as the “normal route” from the town’s pier towards the High Street.

One of the groups promoting the march, Chelmsford for Palestine, split from national umbrella organisation Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) earlier this year, reportedly over its decision to invite controversial academic David Miller – who has called for Zionists to be “targeted” – to speak at a workshop.

The “Essex march for Palestine” will pass through a quiet residential area that is home to several hundred Jews.

Michael Nelkin, a member and former chair of Southend and Westcliff Hebrew Congregation, a United Synagogue, said the timing and location of the demonstration over Passover is a cause for concern, especially as synagogue-goers would be walking home from the service when the protest begins.
Brighton memorial to 7 October victims targeted during pro-Palestinian march
Brighton counter-protest held as march passes 7 October memorial site.

A pro-Palestinian march that passed through the heart of Brighton’s Jewish community sparked outrage on Saturday after demonstrators were seen threatening Jewish counter-protesters and a memorial for victims of the 7 October Hamas massacre.

The event, organised by Brighton & Hove Palestine Solidarity Campaign, began near the Palmeira Avenue memorial site, which commemorates Israelis murdered by Hamas. Protesters reportedly shouted abuse, made Holocaust-related slurs and chanted “From the River to the Sea” – a slogan many in the Jewish community consider a call for Israel’s destruction.

In video footage shared with Jewish News, one marcher was seen walking behind Jewish demonstrators while making gun-like hand gestures at the back of their heads and then toward the memorial. Another was heard shouting “Die, die, terrorists” at Jewish community members and allies guarding the site.

Despite appeals at the time, Sussex Police allegedly refused to intervene or remove the individual making threatening gestures.

Organisers of the counter-protest, led by the Palmeira Memorial Group, said they had made a formal request ahead of the march for police to move the start point away from the memorial and nearby synagogues, as it coincided with Shabbat Hagadol – one of the most significant Sabbaths in the Jewish calendar. The request was denied.

Adam Ma’anit, a counter-protest co-organiser whose cousin Tsachi Idan and 18-year-old daughter Ma’ayan were murdered by Hamas and are among the victims honoured at the site, said:

“It’s outrageous that the march was allowed to proceed so close to the memorial and synagogues during Shabbat Hagadol and that Jewish people were abused and threatened. But it’s even more distressing that the police refused to act and that a Member of Parliament endorsed those who intimidate our community.”


UKLFI: Teacher broadcast on Facebook demonstrating against Israel in supermarket
An East London schoolteacher is featured in a Facebook video, clearing supermarket shelves of Israeli products and chanting “free Palestine”. She appeared in a Redbridge Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) video, as part of their Boycott Apartheid Day of Action on 5th April 2025.

UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) brought this to the attention of her school’s head teacher, highlighting that she is likely to have committed the criminal offence of aggravated trespass, contrary to section 68 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.

It is an offence under section 68 for someone to trespass on land and do anything intended to obstruct or disrupt any lawful activity taking place there. The teacher appeared to be obstructing or disrupting the shop’s lawful trade by removing whole sections of goods from shelves without intending to buy them. She is unlikely to have had permission to enter the shop for this purpose and was therefore a trespasser.

UKLFI flagged to the school that a teacher committing a criminal act on video that is then broadcast on social media is not only setting a very poor example for pupils, but places the school at risk of breaching its legal obligations relating to political indoctrination.

If a teacher feels so strongly about opposing Israel that she is prepared to commit a crime for this, there is a risk that she would be eager to spread the same partisan political views to pupils.

Section 406 of the Education Act 1996 requires the governing body and head teacher to forbid the promotion of partisan political views in the teaching of any subject., and section 407 requires thegoverning body and head teacher to take steps to ensure the balanced presentation of opposing views on political issues when they are brought to the attention of pupils.


How Qatar Bought a Slice of Australia – And What It’s Costing Us
Banned in a dozen countries for incitement, including Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, it is the only major media outlet banned in Israel where a special law labelled it a ‘Hamas mouthpiece’. Even the Palestinian Authority bans it.

In the US, Al Jazeera was required to register as a foreign agent. It is sidelined with a tiny audience because major networks avoid the station once known for broadcasting Osama bin Laden’s speeches.

ABC and SBS provide Al Jazeera unparalleled legitimacy.

Australia sanctions Russian and Iranian media yet the major role that Qatar’s state-owned, extremist media is granted by Australia’s taxpayer-funded broadcasters is a stark example of foreign influence.

Qatar also focuses its influence on education. It is the largest foreign donor to American universities with estimates of $10 billion since 2000.

It’s unsurprising that campuses experiencing the greatest explosions in antisemitism include Qatar’s major beneficiaries. Qatari money reportedly flows to American K-12 schools.

Unlike the US, Australia doesn’t disclose individual foreign donors, but Austrade boasts over 20 Australian universities collaborate with Qatari institutions.

Chinese Confucius Institutes on Australian campuses faced scrutiny. Qatar’s involvement, including in Islamic and Arabic studies centres demands similar attention.

Qatar pursues a dual agenda, funding Islamist extremism globally while sanitising its image by buying up Western cultural icons like French football team, Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), UK Department store, Harrods and Italian fashion house, Valentino. Qatar’s purchase of Harvey Weinstein’s Miramax film production company granted it rights to 700 movies. This strategy climaxed in the 2022 FIFA World Cup where the world overlooked Qatar’s abysmal human rights record, discrimination against women and gays and credible bribery allegations.

Journalists, thinktanks and influencers both right and left are on Qatar’s payroll. Tucker Carlson and Jeremy Corbyn fawn over Qatar. Qatari charm offensives have seen a US Senator and EU parliamentarians charged with accepting bribes. Aides in Israel’s Prime Minister’s office of all places were charged with taking Qatari funds. Is something similarly sinister occurring in Australian politics?

With just 350,000 citizens, fewer than Newcastle, Qatar’s influence here is outsized. Nobody begrudges Australians cheaper holidays on Greek beaches or Swiss ski-slopes, but Australian politicians must be clear-eyed. Qatari money and influence mustn’t serve as a Trojan horse, importing extremist values, damaging social cohesion and risking national security.
Parties respond to ECAJ policy questionnaire
A cold-case taskforce examining unresolved acts of antisemitism in Australia since the Hamas terror attacks of October 7, 2023, is a key component of the Coalition’s pledge to make Jewish Australians safer in their communities.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said, if elected, his government would set up a national taskforce on antisemitism, including revisiting past cases in the nearly 18 months since the Hamas attacks.

The announcement stems from responses the government and opposition have made to a comprehensive Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) pre-election survey of policies relating to the Australian Jewish community.

Their answers revealed stark differences between the parties not just on how to tackle antisemitism, but on the status of west Jerusalem, UNRWA funding, UN voting patterns and the recognition of a Palestinian state.

Notably the survey did not include the Greens, with an ECAJ spokesperson stating, “For the first time we have not sought responses from the Greens due to their consistent bile about Israel and the Jewish community.”

The opposition pledged not to enter any arrangement with the Greens if the Coalition were in a position to form government with the help of minor parties or independents.

The plan to launch a cold-case antisemitism taskforce follows condemnation from Jewish leaders of politicians and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) as “reckless and irresponsible” for downplaying antisemitism as the driving force behind a string of attacks on shules, homes and childcare centres in Sydney and Melbourne earlier this year.




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