Saturday, May 03, 2025

05/03 Links: Harvard Is Spraying Perfume on a Sewer; Collier: The NYT, Mohsen Mahdawi and Another Pack of Lies; IAF delivers humanitarian aid to Druze in Syria

From Ian:

David Wolpe: Harvard Is Spraying Perfume on a Sewer
This false moral equivalency is everywhere at Harvard and places like it. And it was present this past week, too. The antisemitism report was published concurrently with a report on Islamophobia. (It is worth noting that according to the FBI’s 2023 Hate Crime Statistics, 68 percent of all religion-based hate crimes were committed against Jews, and 8.7 percent against Muslims.)

Any American of any religious stripe or political denomination should condemn any bigotry toward another group. Full stop. And I don’t doubt that Muslim students felt uneasy or even rhetorically attacked. But the idea that the venom directed against the two groups was in any way equal, or equally motivated, is absurd.

For example, the Muslim students in the Presidential Task Force on Combating Anti-Muslim, Anti-Arab, and Anti-Palestinian Bias report complained of the perils of wearing a keffiyeh. (“I was harassed when I wore a keffiyeh at my . . . work-study job”). I do not doubt that this occurred—and perhaps on many occasions. In my observation however, the keffiyeh was the fashion accessory of the season, whether you hailed from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, or Greenwich, Connecticut. You could not walk across campus without seeing scores of students and some faculty in a keffiyeh, among the far, far fewer kippot and Jewish stars. At one point, the statue of John Harvard was draped in a keffiyeh; I never saw him wrapped in tefillin.

There was also a striking asymmetry of action: Zionist students did not camp out in Harvard Yard; they did not break into classrooms; they did not come with bullhorns (as I myself witnessed) into local restaurants and chant in Arabic, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be Arab.” Their teaching assistants did not offer passes on exams to attend rallies, or attend rallies with them. They did not insist on wearing masks outdoors, so they could yell slogans with impunity. They did not continually yell slogans in the yard after they were understood to be eliminationist.

The Jews did, however, gather to light a Hannukkiah in public.

The public doxxing of Muslim students in mid-October 2023 by a truck (which came from outside Harvard) was egregious and should not have happened. Yet even in objecting to slights and slurs, the Islamophobia report itself somehow includes toward the end a deliberation about adopting Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) policies, as if anti-Zionist activism was an expression of Muslim safety. Welcome to the fun house mirror of what a past president of Harvard told me was the “world’s most important NGO.”

These two reports should not have been issued in tandem; it is an example of “bothsidesism” on steroids.

The antisemitism report has some important recommendations on admission, encouraging a more ideologically pluralistic and tolerant student body, creating rules for protest, and offering ideas for building a genuinely diverse community.

But what the report offers no solution for is that there is a deep ideological commitment among much of the faculty—particularly in the humanities and social sciences—that is anti-Western, anti-Israel, and often antisemitic. The Islamophobia report mentions “donors” (read: Jewish donors) who influence policy, but the antisemitism report does not focus on millions flowing from places like Qatar. The confluence of Islamism, old-line Christian antisemitism, and hard progressive antagonism to the Western and Israel project produced a perfect storm in places like Harvard Divinity School. Without a vast unlearning—among the faculty, not just the students—all the reports in the world will not change the atmosphere on campus. We will only be spraying perfume on a sewer.
David Collier: The NYT, Mohsen Mahdawi and Another Pack of Lies
Mohsen Mahdawi has America eating out of the palm of his hand. The media is salivating for his byline. The camera can’t keep away from his face. Politicians are pretending to be pop stars, shouting into microphones to praise his release on bail.

This is despite the fact that the one available court document shows him being questioned by the FBI for allegedly saying he liked to “kill Jews.” And despite him repeatedly lying about multiple elements of his backstory since 2015, nobody seems to be questioning his version.

Well, we have caught him lying again.

The NYT and the Mohsen Mahdawi back peddle
This latest lie comes in a New York Times ‘guest essay’, penned by Mohsen, that was posted just yesterday.

The difference is – as Mohsen scrambles and back peddles to try to get himself out of trouble because of his collapsing pyramid of lies – he is only digging a deeper hole for himself. In fact – we are now in a position where we can PROVE Mohsen has been lying about his childhood trauma – and all of the material needed to do so – is Mohsen in his own words.

Mohsen’s story begins to collapse
On Friday, the New York Times published a guest essay from Mohsen and the only thing the Grey Lady confirmed with this story was their willingness to publish utter nonsense.

Mohsen’s entire story hinges on two key events: the death of his best friend and the death of his uncle Thayer. These are the two traumatic events that Mohsen has repeated constantly for years – and used to gain credibility and legitimacy as he worked his way into Vermont hearts.

As anyone who reads this research would know, I had shown a major problem with one of those events. Mohsen Mahdawi had said he was ten years old when his best friend was killed – and yet NO CHILDREN were killed in his camp at that time. This made Mohsen’s statement impossible.

Yet Mohsen repeated the 10-year-old line every time he touched on the subject — and this fiction went unchallenged and unchecked all the way through until the end of 2023.

In December 2023 – Mohsen appeared on 60 Minutes – and as part of his fictional but well-worn story – once again claimed he was 10 when the tragedy happened. The trouble was – that it appeared the 60 Minutes fact-checkers had stumbled on the detail that no children died in his camp at that time. Realising that the only child who had died had been killed in 2002 (although not from being shot, as Mohsen had claimed) the narrator of the interview placed the year as 2002.

And Sixty Minutes went out with that glaring error. The narrator says the event happened in 2002 – and 20 seconds later – Mohsen said he was ten years old when it did. Only one of those can be accurate.
John Spencer: A Promise Kept: Israel Moves to Defend the Druze Across the Border
In Israel, Druze citizens serve in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), in combat units, the Border Police, intelligence branches, and senior command. Their loyalty has never been abstract—it is proven on the battlefield and enshrined in the graves of fallen Druze IDF soldiers across the country.

The events that set this week’s escalation in motion occurred not in Syria, but in northern Israel. On July 27, 2024, Hezbollah fired a rocket that landed on a soccer field in the Druze town of Majdal Shams, killing 12 children and wounding over 30 others. For weeks, Hezbollah had launched near-daily rockets and drones into Israel’s north, displacing tens of thousands and forcing entire towns to evacuate. But the killing of Druze children—noncombatants—marked a breaking point. It triggered not a limited reprisal, but a sustained Israeli campaign that methodically degraded Hezbollah’s military-political leadership through high-value precision strikes, fractured its operational communications by exposing key command nodes—including the now-infamous “Beeper” and walkie-talkie deception—and neutralized the group’s most treasured asset: its long-range rocket stockpiles, many hidden in reinforced subterranean bunkers once thought impervious.

But Israel’s month-long assault on Hezbollah had a secondary effect few anticipated: it left Syrian President Bashar al-Assad dangerously exposed. For over a decade, Assad had relied heavily on Hezbollah fighters—trained, armed, and embedded alongside Syrian forces—to hold critical terrain and suppress opposition movements. But as Israel dismantled Hezbollah’s command centers, eliminated senior field commanders, and forced the group to redirect its remaining forces northward to defend its strongholds in Lebanon, Assad was left without the reinforcements he had once depended on. With Hezbollah redeploying away from key sectors in southern Syria and around Damascus, rival militias and Islamist factions quickly exploited the vacuum. Already isolated and weakened, Assad’s regime collapsed within weeks—its territorial control evaporating and its political center buckling under pressure. What ultimately brought down Syria’s long-standing dictator was not just internal opposition, but the absence of his most capable proxy army.

The fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in late 2024 created a power vacuum in Syria. In the months since, jihadist factions—including those with links to the new government—have intensified attacks on minorities, especially the Druze. Druze towns like Sahnaya, Jaramana, and Suwayda have faced shelling, executions, and forced displacement. With Syrian army units abandoning positions and central authority collapsing following Assad’s fall in the south, vulnerable regions—including the Syrian side of Mount Hermon—were left exposed. Israel responded.

Following the collapse of Assad’s army in the south, the IDF moved quickly to secure the Golan frontier. Israeli forces deployed along the border and into former Syrian military zones around Mount Hermon to prevent hostile forces from occupying the terrain or threatening Israel and nearby Druze communities.

In conjunction with last week’s strikes on Damascus, the IDF publicly confirmed that it is “deployed to southern Syria and prepared to prevent hostile forces from entering the area and Druze villages.” Israeli medical units have also quietly evacuated wounded Syrian Druze across the border for treatment—part of an ongoing policy that has saved hundreds of lives since the Syrian civil war began in 2011.

This week, the Israeli Air Force carried out a significant humanitarian mission, airlifting aid to the Druze community in Syria's Suwayda District—located roughly 70 kilometers from the Israeli border. The delivery marked the first time an Israeli transport helicopter had flown that distance to provide food and relief supplies to Syrian Druze. Approved by Israel’s political leadership, the operation aimed to help the community cope with severe shortages. The mission underscores not just military protection but sustained humanitarian solidarity with the Druze amid Syria’s unraveling.

After the Damascus strike, Prime Minister Netanyahu also spoke directly with Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif, the spiritual leader of the Druze in Israel. Sheikh Tarif expressed deep gratitude for the decisive action, particularly the strike on the Presidential Palace compound— symbolic and strategic show of force. Their conversation was more than ceremonial—it reflected a consistent, operational Israeli policy toward its Druze citizens and their kin across the border.

The U.S. State Department issued a statement condemning the violence against Syrian Druze, calling it “reprehensible and unacceptable,” and urging the interim Syrian authorities to “ensure the security of all Syrians.”

But words are not enough. Israel acted.

The Druze in Israel have been tested many times. They have never wavered. In return, Israel’s promise to them—to see them as full citizens, to protect their lives, to honor their sacrifices—is not contingent on borders.

Syria’s political future may remain fragmented and fragile. But Israel’s commitment to protect the Druze—on both sides of the border—has never been clearer.


Netanyahu denies ‘intensive’ talks with Mike Waltz over Tehran
Contrary to reports, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not have “intensive contact” with outgoing U.S. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement on Saturday evening.

“Netanyahu had a warm meeting with Mike Waltz and [U.S. Special Envoy] Steve Witkoff at Blair House in February prior to the Prime Minister’s meeting with President [Donald] Trump at the White House,” the statement posted to X further read.

“Mike Waltz also joined [Vice President] JD Vance in a meeting with the [prime minister] before leaving Washington,” it continued.

Since then, Netanyahu and Waltz had one phone call with Witkoff that did not deal with Iran, the Prime Minister’s Office said.

The statement came on the backdrop of a Washington Post report that suggested that the president was upset at Waltz over his hawkish stance on Iran, favoring military action against the Islamic Republic versus diplomacy. Trump has now nominated Waltz to be ambassador to the United Nations.

Waltz appeared to share Netanyahu’s conviction that it is high time to strike Iran, two top officials with knowledge of the matter told the Post on condition of anonymity.

The former national security advisor held “intense” conversations with the Israeli premier ahead of the latter’s visit to Washington in February, the report claimed.

Waltz “wanted to take U.S. policy in a direction Trump wasn’t comfortable with because the U.S. hadn’t attempted a diplomatic solution,” said one of the unnamed officials.

“It got back to Trump and the president wasn’t happy with it,” this official went on to say.

A Trump adviser told the Post, “If [former U.S. Secretary of State] Jim Baker was doing a side deal with the Saudis to subvert George H.W. Bush, you’d be fired. You can’t do that. You work for the president of your country, not a president of another country.”


PMO tells Qatar to 'stop double talk' after Doha's ICJ comments
Following Qatar's statements at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) debate, in which it called Israel's actions in Gaza a crime, accused Israel of starving civilians and carrying out a "colonialist campaign," the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) called on Qatar to choose a side on Saturday.

"The time has come for Qatar to stop playing both sides with its double talk and decide if it's on the side of civilization or if it's on the side of Hamas barbarism. Israel will win this just war with just means," the PMO wrote.

"Israel is fighting a just war with just means. After the October 7 atrocities, Prime Minister Netanyahu defined the War of Redemption as a war between civilization and barbarism," the statement added.

Qatar later rejected the statements as "inflammatory."

"The State of Qatar firmly rejects the inflammatory statements issued by the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, which fall far short of the most basic standards of political and moral responsibility," Qatar's foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari posted on X early on Sunday.

Al-Ansari criticized the portrayal of the Gaza conflict as a defense of civilization, likening it to historical regimes that used "false narratives to justify crimes against civilians."

In his post, Al-Ansari questioned whether the release of 138 hostages was achieved through military operations or mediation efforts, which he said are being unjustly criticized and undermined.

Exanding operations in Gaza
On Friday, Israel's security cabinet approved plans for an expanded operation in the Gaza Strip, Israeli media reported on Friday, adding to signs that attempts to stop the fighting and return hostages held by Hamas have made no progress.


Stephen Pollard: Political Islam is now a feature of British elections: Gaza is just the symptom, not the cause
Last July showed the pattern when “Gaza independent” MPs won in Leicester South, Blackburn, Birmingham Perry Barr and Dewsbury and Batley, after similar candidates had won two months earlier in local elections in Blackburn, Bradford and Oldham. That pattern was confirmed on Thursday.

In the general election Labour’s vote fell by over 14 per cent from 2019 in constituencies where the Muslim population was above 15 per cent. Overall, 37 constituencies have a Muslim population of over 20 per cent, and in another 73 seats the Muslim population is between 10 and 20 per cent. Thursday’s results demonstrate again that sectarian Muslim candidates can either win or secure enough votes in such seats to pose a real threat to Labour.

In Burnley Central East, for example, Maheen Kamran won with 38 per cent of the vote, beating Reform on 30 per cent. Labour trailed in third with just 14 per cent – down from 49 per cent in 2021. Ms Kamran says she wants “segregated areas” to prevent “free mixing” between men and women. She is joined on Lancashire County Council by her fellow independent Usman Arif from Burnley North East, who left Labour over the Gaza war.

Azhar Ali, dumped as Labour’s candidate in last year’s Rochdale by-election, won in Pendle. Ali was removed by Labour after he had been recorded making insinuations about “certain Jewish quarters” in the media and had said Isael “allowed” the October 7 Hamas massacre to happen to justify a war in Gaza.

It is no longer a prediction but a statement of fact that Britain has sectarian politics. The rise of Reform has led to much commentary about the shattering of political assumptions. But Reform merely challenges the existing party system. The emergence of sectarian politics challenges the foundations of our democratic norms. It is not so much identity politics as theocratic politics.

This is not some organic development in the wake of the Gaza war, in the narrative pushed by the independents, but rather a long-planned and well co-ordinated move to push Islamist politics into the mainstream. Gaza energised it and gave it cut through, but the real story is the creation of The Muslim Vote, an umbrella alliance of 24 activist groups which promotes and endorses selected candidates. The Muslim Vote has a long policy agenda, of which Israel and Gaza is merely one. Others – there are eighteen in all – include the legal adoption of a new definition of Islamophobia and reform of Ofcom’s rules on extremism.

Labour’s huge majority in 2024 masked how fragile many of its wins were, but Thursday’s local elections have put the fear of God into Labour MPs. It is going to get worse. Next year there will be London-wide elections. Aspire (a de facto Bangladeshi party) already controls Tower Hamlets; last July Labour’s Rushanara Ali clung on narrowly in Bethnal Green. Boroughs like Redbridge and Newham are also prime territory for sectarian candidates. Health Secretary Wes Streeting only just held his seat by 528 votes in July and in Birmingham, which will also vote, Jess Phillips scraped home by around 700 votes.

The insidious impact of sectarian politics is that MPs with small majorities will tack to embrace their demands to try to head off the threat – and thus start to act as sanitised advocates for Islamist ideas, pushing them into the mainstream and changing not just politics but our country itself.
How Hamas won the (dis)information war: the manipulation of Gaza casualty data
The histogram signals that the Israeli army must have been taking major precautions attempting to avoid harm to women and children over a four-month period of intense urban fighting. In contrast, in recent urban armed conflicts in other parts of the world, civilians comprise two to nine times more casualties than combatants, instead of a fraction of males as seen here.

To further obscure the casualty data, the Hamas Ministry of Health did not distinguish, identify and separately publish thousands of deaths from natural causes or disease, or those killed by Hamas itself. It included as fatalities thousands of people who were reported online, created placeholder identities, and belatedly admitted that many were not properly verified or were not even dead. Moreover, the Ministry did not report some known Hamas fallen operatives, and it removed others from its casualty lists, which further inflated the the rate of civilian casualties –and it presented all deaths as civilian.

When questioned by a few in the press about internal inconsistencies in its data, the ministry gave misleading explanations that proved to be false. Our report shows how epidemiological models predicting astronomical death tolls based on ministry data were wildly exaggerated, yet they persisted like ghosts in the genocide discourse.

Rarely studied injury data from hospitals allowed us to discern whether anecdotal reports about civilian casualties given by visiting foreign doctors were validated by corroborative raw hospital data, but in fact they were contradicted. As an example, the leader of the group claimed: “Overwhelmingly, our victims were children. I would say 70-75 per cent of the people we operated on were elementary school age or younger.” Yet the Hamas Ministry of Health statistics for the same hospital during that period show a different picture: children were the group with the least number of injuries, 16-20 per cent of the total, while adult men nearly 60 per cent.

We also found that over much of 2024 the ministry did not publish data on changes in the dynamics of the war over time, as is usually done. It published jumbled cumulative casualties, leading to complete misrepresentations of changes of the war’s intensity over time, especially for disaggregated men, women and child casualties. The ministry’s key publications also made it difficult to make sense and keep track of Gazan unidentified casualties or to see that the overall monthly rate of identified Gazan casualties in mid-2024 was down to about 15 percent of what it was at the start of the war.

The tragic reality is that Hamas’s military defeat was always inevitable. Its leadership knew this. In response, it turned its own people into a macabre sacrifice, orchestrating a gruesome tableau designed to indict and delegitimise Israel. Its hybrid warfare strategy drove multiple points of international pressure through a narrative of genocide that struck against the entirety of the Israeli society. The strategy had the unique advantage of targeting the Jewish state, which ensured that most global media eagerly propagated it.

This narrative – the centrepiece of Hamas’s wartime disinformation – has been its greatest strategic victory in the awful months since 7 October 2023.
UKLFI: Co Op motion to boycott Israeli goods does not comply with Co-Op rules
A non-binding motion to take all Israeli products off the shelves of Co-Op stores contains false and defamatory statements, promotes racial hatred of Israelis and Jews, and should be rejected under the Co-Op’s rules.

UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) has written to the Co-Op Group Secretary explaining why Motion 13, listed for consideration at the Co-Op’s AGM on 17 May 2025, should be withdrawn by the Co-Op Council. If it is wrongly allowed to proceed and is passed, it should be treated as invalid and disregarded.

False Statements
1 The motion claims that by July 2024 at least 186,000 Gazans, mainly women and children, had died as a result of the bombing, destruction of health facilities and denial of essential aid.,” citing the Lancet. The item in the Lancet – a letter which was not peer reviewed – does not say 186,000 Gazans had died. It suggests speculatively that 186,000 may eventually die indirectly as a result of the conflict. This projection has been criticized as lacking a solid foundation and being implausible. It also ignores factors that may increase life expectancy, bearing in mind that obesity was one of the biggest health issues in Gaza prior to the current war.
2 The motion’s claim that Gazans killed were mainly women and children is false. Even the Hamas Ministry of Health now says less than 50% of the “martyrs” were women and children. Moreover, “children” include teenagers up to 18 and many male teenagers are recruited by Hamas and other terrorist organisations. 65% of deaths of those aged 13 to 17 were male; many of them probably combatants.
3 A substantial proportion, probably nearing half of the Gazans killed in the war were participating in armed combat with the Israeli forces. The ratio of civilians to combatants is far lower than normal in urban armed conflict around the world.
4 In addition, a significant number of Gazans have probably been killed by Palestinian fire, including rockets targeting Israeli communities that fell short in Gaza.
5 The motion compares Israel’s efforts to remove Hamas and recover the hostages with Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. This ignores the fact that the war in Gaza started after the barbaric attack on Israel by Hamas and other armed groups on 7 October 2023, including murdering, raping, burning alive and kidnapping residents of peaceful communities in the south of Israel, and threats to repeat this again and again.
6 The motion falsely states that “The International Court of Justice has ruled that Israel has a ‘plausible case to answer’ for genocide”, when the court made no such ruling.
7 The allegations that “Israel has invaded the sovereign nations of Lebanon and Syria” are also misleading. Israel has responded to bombardment of its communities from these countries.

The Co-Op’s Rule 32.5 says that its Council is required to “refuse to grant its approval for a motion for a resolution which it considers … may result in publicity which could adversely impact or diminish confidence in the Society…..; or … is defamatory”.

UKLFI’s letter contends that motion 13 is both defamatory of Israel, Israelis and Jews associated with Israel, and would adversely impact or diminish confidence in the Co-Op Group. Its Council should therefore discontinue its approval of this motion.
Jonathan Tobin: Trump’s revolution at the Justice Department is long overdue
Opposing efforts to stop antisemitism
It is high time that the federal government uses its power to roll back the reign of racially discriminatory DEI actions at schools throughout the country.

Sadly, it’s not just the Times and leftist lawyers on the federal payroll who think that Trump is wrong to act on enforcing civil rights and immigration laws when it comes to pro-Hamas Jew-haters. Some of those who purport to speak for American Jews, like Abe Foxman, the longtime former head of the Anti-Defamation League, and a group of 500 rabbis from the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements, have taken to mimicking the rhetoric of antisemitic groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

Foxman disgraced himself and forever tarnished his legacy by using a congressional Holocaust commemoration to describe the efforts of Trump’s DOJ to target antisemites and enforce the laws by claiming that the government is “abducting” innocent people. He also used that moment to denounce efforts to drive DEIU discrimination from higher education.

Foxman and the left-wing rabbis are part of a partisan pushback against Trump’s campaign to fundamentally reform the Department of Justice as well as American education.

What this effort is exposing is not wrongdoing on Trump’s part. It’s the way so much of our country’s liberal establishment is committed to leftist policies that are essentially racist as well as harmful to Jews. Far from being damaging, Trump’s revolution at the DOJ, and in particular, at the Civil Rights division, is a long-overdue effort to return it to the fight for justice. Instead, it has been weaponized for an ideological crusade for leftist ideas that are aimed at toppling Western ideals and enabling antisemitism.

Trump should do all he can to push these leftist lawyers out of the DOJ and replace them with people who are committed to a justice system that doesn’t enable Jew-haters in the name of toxic progressive myths about race.
Lawmakers press Wikipedia to clarify and enforce editorial oversight to prevent anti-Israel bias
A bipartisan group of 23 members of Congress sent a letter on Thursday to the foundation that oversees Wikipedia, expressing concern about antisemitism and anti-Israel bias on the platform and seeking answers about how the influential online encyclopedia will work to combat prejudice and abuse by editors.

The letter, authored by Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) and Don Bacon (R-NE), comes after the Anti-Defamation League published a report in March detailing allegations of Wikipedia editors conspiring to impose an anti-Israel bias across the site.

“It is clear that more needs to be done to ensure Wikipedia remains free of bias, antisemitism and pro-terrorist content,” the signatories wrote to Maryana Isakander, CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation, the San Francisco-based nonprofit that oversees Wikipedia’s operations.

Wikimedia’s leadership has generally avoided wading into the issue, asserting that its editors — whose volunteer labor is responsible for revising the hundreds of millions of pages on Wikipedia — operate independently, with limited oversight from the foundation.

The congressional letter asks Wikimedia to explain its oversight processes “to prevent biased or coordinated manipulation of content,” and to identify whether it takes specific measures to prevent antisemitic bias among its editors. The legislators also ask Wikimedia to take steps to prevent foreign interference “on behalf of adversaries of the United States,” such as Hamas and Iran, and to take steps to increase transparency. The edit history of all pages on Wikipedia is technically public, but the labyrinthine process is nearly impossible to understand for those without deep editing experience.

“Evidence points to a startling lack of enforcement of Wikipedia’s most basic rules and editorial

Safeguards,” Wasserman Schultz said. “Given the immense influence that Wikipedia articles have over our online and real life global conversations, far more editorial responsibility and transparency is needed, immediately.”

“Antisemitism and anti-Israel views have increased on Wikipedia due to their lack of enforcing their own rules and standards and they need to take steps immediately to fix the problem,” Bacon said.
Gaza is replacing France on the political scene, local lawmaker tells 'Post'
French left-wing politicians are increasingly losing sight of France in their politics, Shannon Seban, president of the Renaissance Party in Seine-Saint-Denis and city council member for Rosy-sous-Boi, told The Jerusalem Post during her visit to Israel last week.

Seban explained that left-wing parties, particularly La France Insoumise, “have decided to instrumentalize the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to gain voters among the Muslim population,” and in doing so, are ultimately doing that community a disservice.

“Hamas is not the ally of the Palestinians. They are also the enemy of all of the Muslims, because they are not giving a good reputation for Muslims,” Seban said, after accusing the extreme Left of becoming the “spokespersons of Hamas.”

“The only word they have in them is ‘Gaza’ – [there is] no proposal for French people about education, security, health, or the salary at the end of the month,” she accused.

Raised in the multicultural district of Seine-Saint-Denis by Algerian and Moroccan Jewish parents, the 29-year-old politician has built her platform around countering racism, fostering open dialogue, and creating opportunities for youth.

While passionate about Israel and committed to preserving the memory of those killed on October 7, Seban’s primary focus remains on addressing France’s domestic challenges.


IDF calls up tens of thousands of reservists ahead of expanded Gaza offensive
The Israel Defense Forces said Saturday night that it was sending out tens of thousands of call-up orders to reservists, as the military was set to significantly expand its offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The tens of thousands of reservists being called up would begin to show up in the military in the coming week, according to the IDF. The reservists have likely been called up multiple times already during the war.

On Friday, during a security consultation, the military presented Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with its planned staged offensive in Gaza, which will require substantial mobilization.

Israel’s security cabinet was slated to convene on Sunday so ministers could vote to approve the military plans authorized by Netanyahu.

Currently, three IDF divisions are operating in Gaza, in an offensive that the military has said is aimed at pressuring Hamas back into a hostage deal, and not destroying the terror group.

Israeli officials have repeatedly warned that if no hostage deal is reached soon, the military would launch a major offensive aimed at defeating Hamas. The intensified offensive would see the IDF operating in new areas of the Strip.

The military said that the pressure on Hamas would increase incrementally, and the call-up of the reservists was part of its staged plans, because the terror group has been refusing to agree to a deal.

The reservists may not be sent to Gaza, but rather to other fronts — Lebanon, Syria, and the West Bank — and swap out members of the standing army who will be deployed to the Strip.


IDF commandoes kill wanted terrorist outside Nablus
The Israel Defense Forces killed a senior Palestinian terrorist in the Nablus region of Samaria on Friday, the military and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) said in a joint statement.

Members of the Duvdevan undercover counter-terrorism unit (Unit 217), guided by Shin Bet intelligence, were operating in Balata to arrest Omar Mustafa Abu al-Leil, a resident of Nablus and one of the senior terrorists in the Balata terrorist network in recent years, the statement read.

“During the searches, the wanted terrorist was shot and eliminated [inside a building],” the statement continued.

Additionally, the fighters searched the terrorist’s vehicle and located a gun and ammunition magazines, the military said.

Another Palestinian terrorist who was present in the building was detained and transferred to security forces for interrogation, the IDF and Shin Bet said.

According to the military, Ab al-Leil was involved in several shooting attacks against IDF soldiers in the Nablus region in recent years, but inflicted no injuries to the troops.

“He was [further] involved in facilitating the transfer of weapons to terrorist networks in Nablus and Jenin, and was known for providing shelter and aid to wanted suspects in Nablus,” the statement added.

“The IDF and Shin Bet will continue to operate to thwart terrorism throughout Judea and Samaria, wherever and whenever necessary to protect the safety and security of Israeli civilians,” the statement concluded.


UN, aid groups hit out at Israeli plans for resuming Gaza aid distribution
Israel has blocked aid from entering Gaza for two months and says it won’t allow food, fuel, water, or medicine into the besieged territory until it puts in place a system giving it control over the distribution.

But officials from the UN and aid groups say the proposals that Israel has floated are untenable. These officials say they would allow military and political objectives to impede humanitarian goals, put restrictions on who is eligible to give and receive aid, and could force large numbers of Palestinians to move, which would violate international law.

Israel has not detailed any of its proposals publicly or put them down in writing. But aid groups have been documenting their conversations with Israeli officials, and The Associated Press obtained more than 40 pages of notes summarizing Israel’s proposals and aid groups’ concerns about them.

On Friday, The Times of Israel reported that the IDF plans to transition away from wholesale distribution and warehousing of aid and to instead have international organizations and private security contractors hand out boxes of food to individual Gazan families, according to Israeli and Arab officials familiar with the matter.

The IDF will not be directly involved in the distribution of aid, but troops will be tasked with providing an outer layer of security for the private contractors and international organizations handing out the assistance, the officials said.

There is no exact timeline for when the new system will become operational, but the IDF believes that it only has several weeks before a major humanitarian crisis, the Israeli official said.


Malta, Greece, Turkey said threatening to seize Gaza activists’ drone-hit ship if it docks
At least three countries are said to have denied entry and threatened to confiscate a reportedly Hamas-affiliated Gaza-bound humanitarian aid ship whose operators accused Israel on Friday of attacking it with drones in international waters near Malta.

Tighe Barry, an activist with anti-war group Codepink, told the Associated Press that the Pacific island nation of Palau, which has warm ties with Israel, revoked its flag from the Conscience prior to the alleged attack.

As a result, authorities in Malta, Greece and Turkey have warned that they would seize the ship if it comes to port, he said, adding that it was unclear where the vessel could stop for repairs. There was no formal comment from those countries.

“To get a new flag will take months, so they’re just stuck out there,” said Barry, who was among a group of activists who took speedboats to the Conscience after the attack.

The boats were turned away by Maltese authorities, he said, but one person made it aboard and spoke to the captain.

The Conscience was operated by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, an international non-governmental organization, which is campaigning to end Israel’s blockade of Gaza. Another Coalition ship to Gaza in 2010 was stopped and boarded by Israeli troops, leading to the death of nine of the activists, who resisted the troops and injured 10 of them. Other ships have similarly been stopped and boarded, without loss of life.


Seth Frantzman: Israel using old airstrike policy with new Syrian gov't - is it outdated?
Israel has carried out two sets of airstrikes on Syria over the last two days. On Friday, the army said, “IDF fighter jets struck adjacent to the area of the presidential palace in Damascus.” In the first hours of Saturday, the IDF said that “a short while ago, the IDF struck a military site, anti-aircraft cannons, and surface-to-air missile infrastructure in Syria.”

Both rounds of strikes were carried out amid tensions between Damascus and Druze in southern Syria.

Israel has said it will support the Druze in Syria in the past. The military, on the other hand, has only said that, “The IDF will continue to operate as necessary to defend Israeli civilians.”

Israel’s decision to use airstrikes as a policy is not new in Syria. During the Syrian civil war, Israel used airstrikes against Iranian weapons that were being trafficked via Syria to Hezbollah. These strikes also targeted Iranian entrenchment in Israel’s northeastern neighbor.

This was a use of airstrikes as policy, which became a substitute for other policies.

When the Assad regime fell and the Iranian threat ended in Syria, the airstrikes continued. Now, they target the new government. This shows that they do not necessarily have a military goal.

Whatever government is in charge of Syria, it is seen as a worthy target, regardless of its policies. The new government there hasn’t threatened Israel. It is unclear whether the strikes will achieve their stated goals. Specifically, it’s not clear if they will have a positive impact on the issues Druze face in Syria. To understand this, it’s relevant to understand the current tensions.


Five additional Syrian-Druze civilians evacuated for medical treatment in Israel
Five Syrian-Druze civilians were evacuated Friday overnight to receive medical treatment in Israeli territory, the IDF announced on Saturday.

They were evacuated to the Ziv Medical Center in Safed after sustaining injuries in Syrian territory.

The military stated that it deployed soldiers in southern Syria and is prepared to prevent hostile forces from entering the area, including Druze villages.

In addition, the Army Radio confirmed 16 Syrian-Druze citizens treated in Israel in recent days.

The spiritual leader of the Druze community in Israel, Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif, met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday and thanked him for protecting Druze, sending a message to Syria.

The Druze factions in Syria confirmed that food aid was delivered to them overnight from IDF forces, Channel 12 reported. A video circulated online shows IDF fighters transferring packages that are loaded onto trucks.
IAF delivers humanitarian aid to Druze in Syria
An IAF transport helicopter delivered an "exceptional" amount of humanitarian aid to members of the Druze community in Syria's Suwayda District in the southern area of the country in an overnight operation between Friday night and Saturday morning.

The mission to deliver aid was conducted in collaboration with the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ), which also announced that they provided aid to persecuted Christian communities in Syria as well.

The district in southern Syria is reportedly 70 kilometers from the Israeli border. This is the first time that an Israeli transport helicopter has delivered food to the Syrian Druze community that far from the country's border, according to a report by Israel's public broadcaster KAN.

A source told KAN that the aid is intended to enable the Druze to cope with the humanitarian challenges they face in Syria, and that the delivery was approved by Israel's political echelon. The aid included 1,500 food boxes for families living in extreme poverty, according to the IFCJ.

“If there is violence and persecution happening on Israel’s border, we cannot look away,” said IFCJ President and CEO Yael Eckstein. “It is our responsibility to stand with the Druze and Christian communities on our borders to provide them not only with aid to support their physical needs, but also to give them hope that they are not alone.” Aid delivery comes after a series of assistance from Israel to Syrian Druze community

The report comes hours after five Syrian-Druze civilians evacuated for medical treatment in Israel, and were sent to Ziv Medical Center in Safed after sustaining wounds in Syria.

Early Friday morning, the IDF conducted a strike in Damascus adjacent to the area of the Palace of Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa, with Syria's presidency saying in response that the strike was a "dangerous escalation."

Israel had prepared more targets for attack in Syria, both military and government, in an attempt to send a message to Al-Sharra's administration not to carry out acts of violence against the Druze population, KAN reported.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz stated Israel would not allow any harm to happen to the Druze community, their offices announced in a joint statement.

“This is a clear message to the Syrian regime. We will not allow forces to be sent south of Damascus or any threat to the Druze community,” they said. The prime minister then instructed the IDF the day before to prepare to "defend a Druze village in southern Syria" after Syrian forces launched a security operation in the area. Last Wednesday saw the IDF striking a Syrian extremist group that was planning to attack the Druze community in As-Suweida, Netanyahu and Katz said.


PFLP-GC terror group says leader was arrested by Syrian authorities
Officials of a small Palestinian terrorist group that was close to the ousted Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, said their leader was arrested Saturday by the country’s new Islamist-led authorities.

The arrest of the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) came after the armed wing of another Palestinian terrorist group, Islamic Jihad, said last month that the new authorities had detained two of its officials on unspecified charges.

The United States, which blacklists both Palestinian groups, the PFLP-GC and Islamic Jihad as terrorist organizations, has said it will not ease Assad-era sanctions on Syria until it has verified progress on priorities including acting against terrorism.

Speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, a PFLP official told AFP that “Secretary General Talal Naji was arrested” in Damascus.

A second official confirmed the arrest, while a third said: “Naji was asked… to report to one of the security branches and has not returned. Most likely, he was arrested.”

The first official said the faction had contacted Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and senior Hamas official Khaled Mashaal “to request their urgent intervention.”


Hamas releases second propaganda video of hostage Maxim Herkin
The Hamas Islamist organization released another propaganda video on Saturday of hostage Maxim Herkin, who has been held in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023.

The footage is the second sign of life from Herkin, after a first propaganda video sounding the voice of the abductee was released last month. His family requested not to publish any footage or photos from the video.

Herkin was kidnapped from the Supernova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im during the Hamas-led onslaught on Oct. 7, as thousands of terrorists invaded the Jewish state and slaughtered roughly 1,200 people.

His family said it was Maxim’s first trance festival.

Herkin, 36, a dual Israeli-Russian citizen, is from Tirat Carmel, south of Haifa, and has a 3-year-old daughter.

He is the son of a single mother, has an 11-year-old brother, and acts as the family’s father figure.

Maxim’s friends pleaded with him to attend the Supernova party near Gaza, and he agreed on the spur of the moment. His plan was to stay for only a few hours. After the first barrage of Gazan rockets, he texted his mother that “Everything is alright, I’m making my way home slowly.”

A few minutes later he sent a message that read, “Mother, I love you.”

His family has not heard from him since.
Some non-Israeli hostages beaten to death by Hamas for not understanding Arabic, English - report
The head of the IDF's foreign hostages team, Lt.-Col. A., has said that some of them were beaten to death in Hamas captivity in an interview with Ynet.

Discussing the specific cultural issues that come with handling the cases of foreign hostages, A. said that due to a "language gap," some of the foreign hostages held by Hamas were beaten to death.

"There is a language gap here," A. told Ynet. "You can't speak Hebrew or English with them, and that's not an easy challenge. Think about the Hamas people who have to talk to the hostages, some of whom were beaten to death in captivity because they didn't understand what Hamas wanted from them. This is unimaginable."

The remaining foreign hostages range from Thai to Tanzanian, all of them either agricultural students or workers.

On October 7, 35 foreigners were kidnapped: among them 31 Thais, a Nepalese, a Tanzanian, and a Filipino citizen.

Different countries have different approaches to hostages
A. described the cultural differences between some of the foreign hostages, saying that each country has taken a different approach, but that often similar difficulties can arise.


Call me Back Podcast: The Echoes of Israel’s Founding Fathers - with Yossi Klein Halevi
Flames engulfed more than 5,000 acres around Jerusalem as Israel marked its 77th Independence Day. Dozens of Independence Day ceremonies were canceled, and according to many Israelis — the feelings of national solidarity that normally characterize this day were scarce. For the families of hostages in Gaza, this was their second Yom Haatzmaut without their loved ones. And yet, Israelis are nothing if not resilient. The country’s population has now surpassed 10 million people. Forty-five percent of all Jews on Earth today call Israel home. So, while there are reasons for concern, there are also reasons for hope.

Reflecting on how far Israel has come, and where it may go from here, we are joined by bestselling author and senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, Yossi Klein Halevi, to discuss the debt we have to Israel’s founders, and to the soldiers who have fallen in its defense.




Australian Jewish groups express concern, disappointment as Albanese secures second term
Australian Jewish groups expressed differing reactions after Anthony Albanese claimed a historic second term as prime minister on Saturday.

Albanese made a dramatic comeback against once-resurgent conservatives that was powered by voters' concerns about the influence of US President Donald Trump.

Albanese is the first Australian prime minister to win consecutive terms in two decades. He said Australians had voted for fairness and "the strength to show courage in adversity and kindness to those in need."

The Australian Electoral Commission website projected the Labor Party, led by Albanese, would win 80 of 150 seats in the House of Representatives, increasing its majority, as 90% of polling places have been counted.

The Zionist Federation of Australia (ZFA) congratulated Albanese on his re-election, and said it looks forward to engaging "constructively with the new government on issues of shared concern."

However, ZFA president Jeremy Leibler noted that the election had taken place against the backdrop of a "deeply painful period for Jewish Australians."

Antisemitism in the country has soared in the last year and a half, following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel. In November, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry revealed that there was a 316% increase in antisemitic occurrences in Australia between the periods of October 1, 2023, and September 30, 2024.

Alluding to this, Leibler said, "For the first time in history, many Jews in this country felt they had to justify their place in Australian society."

He added that the relationship between the Jewish community and the Albanese Government has strained, and that certain foreign policy decisions and responses to antisemitism have challenged the sense of trust in the government.

While he said ZFA welcomes the pre-election commitments made by the government to increase security funding for the Jewish community, to combat antisemitism, and to support social cohesion, he acknowledged the electoral loss for Liberal candidate Peter Dutton who had expressed "unequivocal support for the Jewish community and for the Australia-Israel relationship."


Election 2025 humiliation for Adam Bandt as voter ruthlessly takes him down by faking a selfie: Watch video
Adam Bandt was humiliated on election day by a voter who asked him to pose for a selfie - and then accused him of exploiting the Jewish community for his own political gain.

The Greens leader was asked to appear in the short birthday message video by a man named Zac at a polling booth in North Melbourne on Saturday.

A beaming Mr Bandt obliged, thinking he had a fan, before Zac flipped the script on him while filming his startled reaction.

Zac had asked Mr Bandt to send a birthday message to his friend, Zoe, but the encounter quickly went sideways as the Greens leader realised he had been set up.

'I'm Zac and this is Adam,' Zac said before Mr Bandt waved his hand and wished Zac's friend Zoe a happy birthday.

But then Zac blindsided him by adding: 'And let's say this together: I've demonised the Jewish community for my own political gain.'

Mr Bandt immediately turned his back on Zac and walked off at the mention of the Jewish community, before he resumed handing out Greens how to vote flyers.

The Greens leader and MP for Melbourne has previously been called out for his party's support for Palestine and not strongly condemning Hamas throughout the Israel-Gaza war.


Keffiyeh-clad protesters ram fence at US airbase in Ireland
Anti-Israel activists used a commercial vehicle to ram through the fence and break into Shannon Airport in western Ireland, a facility also used by the U.S. Air Force.

The activists attempted to reach a U.S. Air Force aircraft that had stopped for refueling but were caught by the airport’s security unit and removed from the site. Media reports suggested the protesters may have attempted to disrupt the control tower frequencies. Flights at the airport, the fifth largest on the island, were suspended for approximately two hours.



Members of the Palestinian Action Ireland organization documented themselves during the break-in while cutting the airport’s fences. The footage shows at least one activist, dressed in a red outfit and wearing a keffiyeh, running toward an aircraft on the runway.

The incident received minimal coverage in Ireland’s mainstream media, despite the disruption caused to passengers and the potential damage to already strained relations with the U.S.


Top evangelical leader: Iran has played US admins like a fiddle
The Iranian government has exploited weak U.S. policies to strengthen its influence and enable attacks like the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas massacre, a prominent American evangelical leader said Monday.

Speaking at the JNS Policy Summit in Jerusalem, Pastor John Hagee, founder and chairman of Christians United for Israel, criticized multiple American administrations for what he described as years of appeasement toward Tehran.

“America’s capitulation to Iran a decade ago broke our promise to never again abandon the Jewish people,” Hagee said. “As a result, the Iranian government has played multiple American administrations like a fiddle.”

Hagee said U.S. policies had “at least in part” enabled the Oct. 7 attack, the deadliest assault on Jews since the Holocaust. “We must remember: in war, there is no substitute for victory,” he said.

The remarks come as the United States holds talks with Iran over its advancing nuclear program. Hagee praised Trump for withdrawing from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal brokered by President Barack Obama, but avoided directly criticizing current negotiations.

“Gone are the days when pallets of cash will resolve our problems with Iran,” Hagee said to loud applause. “Either the Islamic Republic will dismantle its nuclear program voluntarily, or the free world will do it for them.”

Addressing divisions within the Republican Party, Hagee warned against isolationism.

“As enemies of Israel and America integrate, America must never isolate,” he said, repeating the line twice for emphasis.
Paraguay’s terror designation of IRGC matters
In a move that has global implications well beyond its borders, Paraguay officially designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization. This bold and principled decision announced by President Santiago Pena on April 25 positions Paraguay firmly within a growing coalition of nations determined to confront terrorism and the forces that sustain it.

While Paraguay may be a small country geographically, this act demonstrates that moral clarity and international responsibility are not reserved for global superpowers. It is also a vital decision as the international community continues to work toward preventing Tehran’s race toward nuclear weapons capability.

The IRGC, founded after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, was originally established to defend the regime and its revolutionary ideals. However, in the decades since, it has morphed into a sprawling, state-sponsored military, intelligence, and economic enterprise with one consistent trait: a central role in Iran’s support for international terrorism.

From directing Hezbollah operations in Lebanon and Syria to aiding Hamas in Gaza to orchestrating attacks on civilians and dissidents abroad, the IRGC is a linchpin in Iran’s campaign of global destabilization.

Paraguay’s designation is not an isolated gesture; it builds on its earlier classification of Hezbollah and Hamas as terrorist organizations and signals a coherent and comprehensive strategy to cut off support and legitimacy for groups that perpetrate violence and extremism.
Explosion heard at power plant in Karaj, Iran
An explosion was heard at a power plant in the city of Karaj in Iran, according to footage shared on social media on Saturday night.

Videos published by Iran International appeared to show a fire at the scene.

According to reports, a 4.0 magnitude earthquake was felt in Karaj, located northwest of Tehran; however, it was unclear whether it was triggered by the explosion or vice versa.

Iranian officials respond
Iranian officials cited by the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Mayadeen news outlet claimed the power outages reported in the area were due to bad weather.

On April 26, an explosion occurred at the Port of Bandar Abbas, killing at least 70 and wounding over 1,000 people.

According to The Washington Post, the blast at the Islamic Republic's largest port was caused by a chemical fire that began in a shipping container, as confirmed by visual evidence and explosives experts.


Trump announces eight new appointees to Holocaust Memorial Council
U.S. President Donald Trump announced eight new appointments to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, which oversees the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.

The move comes days after Trump fired several of Joe Biden-era appointees from the board, including Doug Emhoff, the husband of former vice president Kamala Harris.

New appointees include Alex Witkoff, CEO of the Witkoff Group, son of U.S. special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, and pro-Israel conservative radio personality Sid Rosenberg, host of “Sid & Friends in the Morning” on WABC.

Rosenberg has been a fierce supporter of Israel and Trump, speaking at the latter’s campaign rally at Madison Square Garden in 2024 and this year’s JNS International Policy Summit. He was in Israel when he received news of his appointment, according to Israeli media.

Alex Witkoff wrote that he was “proud to be appointed” to the council.

The others are Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz, founding editor and publisher of haredi Orthodox publication Yated Ne’eman; Barbara Feingold, a Republican Jewish Coalition board member; Betty Schwartz, a previous board member of the museum and the daughter of a Holocaust survivor who helped found it; Ariel Abergel, who worked for Fox News and in the White House during Trump’s first term; Robert Garson, president of the American Association of Jewish Lawyers; and Fred Marcus.

While council members are often political appointments, they usually serve five-year terms. The council is traditionally made up of 68 members, including 55 members appointed by the president.
Azerbaijan’s case for joining the Abraham Accords
The tolerance for its own Jewish citizens underpins Azerbaijan’s deep partnership with Israel. Aliyev has compared this relationship to an iceberg, with visible cooperation on energy and security – Azerbaijan supplies 60% of Israel’s oil and imports 69% of its arms from Israel – sitting atop a deep, largely hidden foundation of trust, intelligence sharing and shared strategic interests.

But unlike Egypt and other Arab states, whose covert dealings with Israel are buried under layers of denial and antisemitic incitement, Azerbaijan has no need to hide. By joining the Abraham Accords, it could transform its quiet alliance into a proud blueprint for Muslim-Jewish partnership, proving that normalisation is not betrayal but progress.

Azerbaijan’s inclusion in the Abraham Accords would normalise normalisation itself, transforming the process from a diplomatic novelty into a sustainable precedent. This would resuscitate the fading momentum for Jewish-Muslim coexistence, offering Israel a vital lifeline to reclaim its moral and strategic footing after the horrors of October 7 and the devastating war against Hamas.

For Israel, welcoming Azerbaijan – a Shia-majority, Turkic nation – into the Abraham Accords would break the Sunni Arab monopoly on normalisation, demonstrating that pragmatic ties transcend sectarian divides. Azerbaijan’s secular pluralism shows how a Muslim-majority country can maintain strong Islamic traditions while celebrating its Jewish history, rejecting the false choice between identity and tolerance.

This would also isolate Iran. The Islamic regime’s influence is already constrained in the South Caucasus by Azerbaijan’s joint energy projects and intelligence-sharing with Israel. Formalising these ties would amplify their deterrent effect, while also demonstrating a more constructive way for a Shia-majority nation to engage with Israel.

Economically, deeper energy ties would benefit both markets while incentivising other energy-rich Muslim countries to follow suit; and Azerbaijan joining the Abraham Accords could persuade the US to lift its Section 907 sanctions, unlocking greater bilateral trade and defence cooperation.

The UAE’s success under the Accords – $3 billion in trade with Israel, interfaith initiatives, and a booming Jewish community – proves that pragmatism can triumph over dogma. Azerbaijan’s history of tolerance shows that it should also be welcomed into this pact, bringing benefits to all concerned.

As Rabbi Zamir told me: “Hatred is a choice. So is tolerance.” The Abraham Accords were designed to heal, not divide. By welcoming Azerbaijan, the US and its allies can put another nail in the coffin of Jew-hatred in the Muslim world – and build a world where both Jews and Muslims flourish.
German gov't appoints Holocaust survivors' granddaughter as first Jewish minister in 100 years
Incoming Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced the appointment of Karin Prien as Federal Minister for Education, Family, Elderly, Women, and Youth on Monday, making her the first Jewish minister to be appointed to a Federal German government since 1922.

Prien is the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors and was born and raised in Amsterdam, but graduated from high school in Germany and later received German citizenship.

She has been a member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) since the early 1980s. According to the Berlin Morgenpost, she will also be the first CDU minister from Schleswig-Holstein in over 30 years, German public radio reported. Prien served in a similar role in the Schleswig-Holstein cabinet from 2017.

Prien will serve in the newly created ministry after Merz decided to separate education from research and technology, in an attempt to boost Germany's research development prospects, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Prien is also the spokeswoman for the CDU's Jewish Forum and has increasingly spoken about her Jewish heritage and rising antisemitism in Germany, in particular since October 7. German conservative candidate for chancellor and Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party leader Friedrich Merz attends a press conference following the German general election in Berlin, Germany, February 24, 2025. (credit: REUTERS/Liesa Johannssen/File Photo)


Israel of yore seen in Jerusalem exhibit of French photographer’s works
There’s a deep sense of familiarity and prescience in “Chris Marker: The Lost Photographs of Israel,” a new Israel Museum exhibit presenting still images captured by the influential French director of the post-war New Wave period.

The mostly black-and-white images feature regular folk in their daily lives, eating lunch in a kibbutz dining room or striding along a Tel Aviv or Beersheba street, with signs and symbols of the emerging nation always apparent in the background.

Marker took the stills during a month-long trip to Israel in 1960, when he traveled on a Vespa moped from north to south, gathering material for a documentary film about the young country, produced by film lovers Wim and Lia Van Leer.

The resulting one-hour film, “Description of a Struggle,” won first prize at the 1961 International Berlin Film Festival.

Then the photographs vanished for decades.

It was through the efforts of retired photographer Shuka Glotman that the stills were eventually located. Glotman and curator Gilad Reich created the exhibit of 120 stills, which opened on April 14 (through October 14), and offers a snapshot of Israel some 12 years after statehood.
Description of a Struggle (1960)



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

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