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Saturday, May 10, 2025

05/10 Links: A demilitarized Palestinian state is a dangerous illusion; Douglas Murray: 'Canada has disgraced itself'; A new low for the Pulitzer Prize; Why the Kashmir Crisis Matters to Us

From Ian:

A demilitarized Palestinian state is a dangerous illusion
WHAT DOES all of this ultimately mean for any Palestinian demilitarization “remedy” and Israel’s national security? Prima facie, the Arab world and Iran still have only a “one-state solution” for the Middle East. This “solution” eliminates Israel altogether. Unassailably, it is a “final solution.” Even today, official maps of “Palestine” show a new jihadi state comprising all of the West Bank (Judea/Samaria), all of Gaza and all of the State of Israel.

Back on September 1, 1993, Yasser Arafat affirmed that the Oslo Accords would remain an integral part of the PLO’s 1974 Phased Plan for Israel’s destruction: “The agreement will be a basis for an independent Palestinian State, in accordance with the Palestinian National Council Resolution issued in 1974.” This PNC Resolution calls for “the establishment of a national authority on any part of Palestinian soil from which Israel withdraws or is liberated.”

Later, on May 29, 1994, Rashid Abu Shbak, then senior PA security official, remarked straightforwardly: “The light which has shone over Gaza and Jericho will also reach the Negev and the Galilee.”

Since these early declarations, nothing has changed in authoritative Palestinian definitions of Israel and “Palestine.” This is true for the leadership of both Hamas and the PA. It makes no tangible difference whether one jihadi terror group or another is in power. Both would intend a State of Palestine that is irredentist and violence-centered. To be sure, the egregious crimes of October 7, 2023, would remain a proud symbol of Palestinian “self-determination.”

Those who would still consider accepting Palestinian statehood in some form should recall the following: The Islamic world contains 50 states with more than one billion people. Islamic states comprise an area 672 times the size of Israel. Israel, together with Judea/Samaria, is less than half the size of San Bernardino County in California. The Sinai Desert, transferred by Israel to Egypt in the 1979 Treaty, is three times larger than the State of Israel. Israel is less than half the size of Lake Michigan.

There is one last noteworthy point. The many-sided threat of Palestinian statehood is part of a much larger and more portentous enemy threat.

This suggests, ipso facto, that any crime-based jihadi state would become a significant “force-multiplier” for Israel’s adversaries, both state and sub-state. In a worst-case but fully realistic scenario, the creation of “Palestine” would heighten the probability of a mass-casualty international war in the region. At some not-too-distant point in time, this could mean a no-holds-barred, unconventional conflict.
Why the Kashmir Crisis Matters to Us
The free world has more to lose than China does if the war goes nuclear. India has no interest in becoming America’s sidekick, but its independence and well-being are more important to America than Pakistan’s is to China. A nuclear war would be a humanitarian catastrophe, break another set of international taboos, and significantly set back the effort to keep Asia free from Chinese domination.

A war would also give China invaluable information about its arsenal. Pakistan has nearly 200 Chinese-made fighter jets, and India has dozens of French ones. China had no hard data about how its jets stack up against the competition, but one of them has already reportedly shot down one of India’s French fighters. During the Cold War, Israel’s military repeatedly faced off against Soviet-supplied Arab armies, which helped Washington learn how to defend itself and its allies from the U.S.S.R. China will reap similar benefits.

In an ideal world, New Delhi would punish Pakistan into ceasing its support for terror without triggering a nuclear war. This will be hard to pull off. As of this writing, Pakistan seems eager to match India blow-for-blow.

This is not a fight that the U.S. military should enter, but Washington still has options to stop a war. Pakistan’s military—which essentially runs the country behind a token civilian government—is wary of becoming a Chinese vassal. During the Cold War and the war in Afghanistan, Washington’s aid and equipment gave Pakistan some freedom for maneuver. But Pakistan allegedly supported the Taliban, and American forces found Osama bin Laden living close to a Pakistani military academy. Offering inducements does not seem wise.

But threatening to cut off its other choices might. Pakistan owes $20 billion to the World Bank and is counting on receiving another $40 billion over the next decade, which depends on Washington’s good will. The Gulf Arabs have also propped up Islamabad, and if they use that leverage, Islamabad will have to choose between deescalating and becoming a Chinese satrapy.

This will be a hard sell to the Gulf Arabs, however. For decades, rumors have floated about a secret deal for Pakistan to give Riyadh nuclear weapons when requested. If true, Riyadh will not be eager to give up on Pakistan.

Unless the United States can offer something better—like security guarantees.


Interview with author Douglas Murray: 'Canada has disgraced itself'
Bestselling author of eight books, including The War on The West and The Madness of Crowds, Douglas Murray has just released On Democracies and Death Cults: Israel and the Future of Civilization.

In it, he paints a detailed picture of the minutes, and hours, of the devastation wrought in the Gaza envelope during the massacres of October 7, 2023, as well as the hours, days and months afterwards; the heroism of Israelis who defied orders, and fended off Hamas on their own; the weaponry IDF soldiers discovered in civilian Gazan homes; and the exclusive harrowing accounts of the massacre’s survivors. As one of the first outside observers inside Gaza, he recounts the “pitiful sight” and the “utterly avoidable devastation” triggered by the Hamas-led attacks.

Murray takes a microscope to the question of how modern Jew-hatred has reached unprecedented levels since wartime Europe. That includes the global campus demonstrations that sprung up almost immediately, which he describes as “revolutionary cosplay,” their message communicated with “bludgeoning” — subsequently thanked by a Hamas leader as the “great student flood.” He follows the blood-soaked international money trail that has made Hamas leaders billionaires, and details the global web of Jihad supporters — the “death cults” — as an imminent danger not just to Israel, but to civilization.

Dave Gordon interviews Murray, a columnist for the New York Post and The Free Press, who has for decades filed stories from Middle East war zones, frequently appears on major broadcast channels, and recently had a much-discussed, tension-filled appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast.

DM: Three things. One, was I wanted to get down as accurate an overview as possible, of what happened on October 7 in Israel, by collecting first hand testimony, and much more. The second thing was to give a firsthand account of the Israeli response to October 7, the war, and just get as much as possible up close, an account accurately and truthfully, in an era where much is written a lot about it untruthfully.

And thirdly, to look at this question which haunted me throughout the last 18 months and indeed many years before, which was: why so much of the world finds it so hard to decide which side to be on, in a fight between a democracy like Israel, and a death cult like Hamas?

After October 7, Western democracies doubled down on a two-state solution. Why?

DM: I think that much of Western policy making has just ended up in the realm of magical thinking in recent years. Put aside whether or not they deserve one, but there’s this completely magical belief that the Palestinians have to get another state, and it will right some great historical wrong. This thinking goes, it would cause an outburst of peace and growth, not just in the Middle East, but in the wider world.

I think they mucked up in Gaza so badly, by now it’s clear that another Palestinian state would just be another terrorist proxy state, another Iranian front state, and that it would have done nothing to improve the lives of anyone in the region or the wider world. Article content

The two state solution paradigm has failed completely since 1948, when Arabs rejected having a state, and rejected ever since, and they only ever responded with violence.

Is this a case where Western leaders don’t want to say the conflict is about jihadism, lest they be seen as Islamophobic?

DM: Yeah, very weak and dangerous world leaders will quite often try to give themselves some kind of collateral in the human rights bank, by saying how important a two state solution is, and how important another state for the Palestinian people is.

My belief, as I explained the book, is that the “death cult” has the ideology that seeks a downfall, not just of Israel, but of all Western democracies. The triumph of jihadism. The people who think they’re buying themselves time by wittering on about a two state solution are, at best, in denial.
Why do some Irish people hate Israel so much?
The Irish case is a peculiar one, steeped in history, theology, and a kind of moral posturing that has curdled into something uglier.

Start with the Catholic past. For centuries, the Church peddled the old lie of Jews as “Christ killers,” a venom that lingered in Ireland well into the 20th century. In 1959, Pope John XXIII struck the word “perfidis” – commonly translated as “perfidious” – from the Good Friday prayer for the conversion of Jews, a belated acknowledgement of the damage such language had done.

However, in Ireland, where Catholicism was more than a faith but a cultural bedrock, the stain proved harder to wash out. Figures like Denis Fahey, a theology professor at the Holy Ghost Fathers’ seminary in Dublin, and Edward Cahill, a Jesuit confidant of Éamon de Valera, fanned the flames of anti-Semitism into the 1930s and ’40s. Fahey saw Jews as a threat to Christian civilisation, tying them to communism and Freemasonry in a grand conspiracy against Christ. These weren’t fringe voices; their ideas appeared in respected Catholic journals, like the Irish Catholic. During the Nazi era, Ireland’s government turned a blind eye to Jewish refugees, offering asylum to the wealthy, middle-aged, and Catholic – hardly a lifeline for many of those fleeing the Holocaust.

Ireland hasn’t always been hostile. In 1948, Seán MacBride, Ireland’s minister for external affairs, wrote to his Israeli counterpart, Moshe Sharett, drawing parallels between the two nations: both ancient peoples, both new states born of struggle. Yitzhak Shamir, a future Israeli prime minister, took the nom de guerre “Michael” after the IRA’s Michael Collins, inspired by Ireland’s fight for independence. Once, as Foreign Policy notes, Ireland was a staunch supporter of Jewish aspirations in the Promised Land. What changed?

The shift came with Ireland’s own historical lens. By the mid-20th century, the Irish – especially republicans – began to see the Arab-Israeli conflict as a mirror of their own struggle against British rule. A 1945 piece in Dublin’s the Bell magazine cast Palestinians as the virtuous Irish, suffering under British “terrorists,” with Israelis doomed to play the role of the occupying British.

By the 1980s, Belfast murals in nationalist areas showed IRA and PLO fighters united under the slogan “IRA-PLO one struggle.” Sinn Féin, the IRA’s political wing, remains a vocal critic of Israel, its rhetoric often veering into anti-Semitic territory.

In recent years, Ireland has seen growing support for the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement against Israel, exemplified by parliamentary debates and the advancement of measures like the Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018, which targets trade with Israeli settlements. Some observers have noted vituperative anti-Israel rhetoric in these discussions, including a legislator’s invocation of ‘Jewish supremacy’. This isn’t a grassroots phenomenon but a top-down one, driven by Ireland’s political and academic elites aided, as Mosaic Magazine notes, by activist groups amplifying anti-Israel sentiment on campuses.

The modern Irish left, steeped in a simplistic oppressor-oppressed binary, finds this narrative irresistible. It ignores the reality of Israel’s diverse population – Mizrahi, Ethiopian, and Ashkenazi Jews alike – and casts the nation as a European colonial implant, a myth that erases the Middle Eastern roots of most Israelis.
Hamas releases second propaganda video of hostages Bohbot, Ohana
The Hamas terrorist organization released a propaganda video on Saturday featuring Israeli captives Elkana Bohbot, 35, and Yosef-Haim Ohana, 24.

This was the second sign of life from the two abductees, after Hamas released footage of both on March 29.

The two men were kidnapped from the Supernova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im during the Hamas-led onslaught on Oct. 7, 2023, as thousands of terrorists invaded the Jewish state and slaughtered roughly 1,200 people.

Bohbot, an Israeli-Colombian dual national from Mevaseret Zion near Jerusalem, is an employee of a production company that builds stages for massive parties. He was a co-producer at the Supernova festival.

Before his abduction, he texted his wife that there was shooting at the party and that he is providing aid to wounded partygoers amid Hamas’s massacre. The couple has one child.

Following the previous video of Bohbot from March, his family said in a statement, “We are anxious and worried. How much longer can Elkana survive in the hell of Gaza? We are pleading with the people of Israel—listen to Elkana’s cry. Do not forget him. We must save him and our brothers in captivity. …

“Elkana, if you can hear us—we will not stop fighting until you come home to us.”

Ohana is from Kiryat Malachi in southern Israel.


Brendan O'Neill: A new low for the Pulitzer Prize
In his social-media outbursts, Abu Toha was essentially repackaging a crime against humanity as an act of resistance. It was a species of atrocity denialism, where the racist seizing of Jews was reimagined as the just detainment of soldiers. In a stinging open letter to the Pulitzer Prize board, Ms Damari has described Abu Toha as the ‘modern-day equivalent of a Holocaust denier’. In ‘question[ing] the very fact of my captivity’, and the captivity of the other stolen Israelis, he ‘denies truth [and] erases victims’, she says. And now, she tells the Pulitzer board, you’ve ‘joined him in the shadows of denial’.

Abu Toha had even worse virtual meltdowns. He called Israeli hostages ‘killers who join[ed] the army’ and slammed the global media for ‘humanis[ing]’ them. Yes, heaven forfend that anyone mistake an Israeli for a human being. He laid into the BBC when it reported on claims that Hamas terrorists had used their bare hands to kill the Bibas children: four-year-old Ariel and Kfir, who was just nine months old when Hamas dragged him to a hellish jail in Gaza. Was he a soldier too, Mr Toha? ‘If you haven’t seen any evidence, why did you publish this?’, he asked of the BBC. He answered his own question: it’s because you are ‘filthy people’.

You know what’s filthy? Getting angrier about the coverage of the kidnap and killing of Jewish infants than about that atrocity itself. Imagine how far into the cesspit of Israelophobia you’d need to have sunk to shout ‘filthy’ not about the fascist bastards who held Jewish children captive, but about the BBC for reporting on the possibility that the children were killed by hand. It is a testament to the moral rot of the Anglo-American literary elite that people like this win prizes now.

This is a new low for the Pulitzer. And that’s saying something. In 2023, it gave its prize for literary criticism to Andrea Long Chu, a man who masquerades as a woman and who has written grossly misogynistic things. He once described ‘the asshole’ as ‘a kind of universal vagina through which femaleness can always be accessed’. ‘Getting fucked makes you female because fucked is what a female is’, he wrote. This is what passes for prizeworthy writing now? Men in dresses denying the truth of womanhood and men from Gaza denying the truth of Emily Damari’s unjust subjugation? Men who think women are all about getting fucked and men who think Israeli women deserve to be fucked over by Hamas? If this is literary society, drop me out.
An Open Letter to the 2024-2025 Pulitzer Prize Board
Dear 2024-2025 Pulitzer Prize Board,
We, the undersigned, are deeply concerned by your decision to award a Pulitzer Prize in Commentary to Mosab Abu Toha, who has repeatedly denied the humanity of Israelis taken hostage during the attacks of October 7, 2023 on social media, justified their abduction, and disparaged calls for their release.

While Abu Toha has since deleted some of his most egregious social media posts, you will find at the bottom of this letter some screenshots. In two cases, Abu Toha insists that young Israeli women who were violently abducted on October 7, 2023, are not in fact “hostages,” but killers — simply because they served in the Israeli military, as nearly every Israeli is required to do.

In another since-deleted post, Abu Toha ridiculed news organizations for covering the murder in captivity of Shiri Bibas and her two young children. In a not-yet-deleted post on X, Abu Toha encouraged his followers to doubt that Israeli hostages had been tortured during their captivity in Gaza. Finally, more than a year after Hamas’s false claim of an Israeli airstrike on a Gaza hospital was widely debunked, Abu Toha continues to peddle that claim.

We amplify the words of freed Israeli hostage Emily Damari, who survived 471 days in Hamas captivity, during which she suffered physical and emotional torture and starvation: “You claim to honor journalism that upholds truth, democracy, and human dignity. And yet you have chosen to elevate a voice that denies truth, erases victims, and desecrates the memory of the murdered. Do you not see what this means? Mosab Abu Toha is not a courageous writer. He is the modern-day equivalent of a Holocaust denier. And by honoring him, you have joined him in the shadows of denial. This is not a question of politics. This is a question of humanity. And today, you have failed it.”

Had Abu Toha dehumanized any other people — or justified a terrorist attack on any other nation — it is doubtful that the Pulitzer Prize Board would have considered him for the most esteemed prize in journalism and literature. Certainly, an Israeli author who dehumanized innocent Palestinians in Gaza would — justifiably — not be awarded a Pulitzer Prize. We call on the Pulitzer Prize Board to rescind the 2025 Prize for Commentary awarded to Mosab Abu Toha, and to include a more careful examination of an author’s social media posts before awarding future prizes.
Daniel Greenfield: Terrorism rebranded as ‘armed resistance against civilians’
Since Oct. 7, there’s been an aggressive effort to rebrand Hamas terrorism as “armed resistance.”

Now, Peter Beinart, speaking at the Harvard Divinity School, which recognizes only one deity, Allah, used a curious term of art to describe the mass murder of Jews as “Palestinian armed resistance against civilians.”

Beinart returns to this term over and over again, describing the terrorist massacres of Jews as “Palestinian armed resistance against civilians.”

The premise of “resistance” is that at least in theory, the perpetrators are defending themselves against an attack. But what does “armed resistance against civilians” mean?

How are unarmed women and children the attackers? How is massacring them resistance rather than genocide?

The whole point of using the term “resistance” is to equate Islamic terrorists to the French Resistance fighting Nazis, or the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto attacking the SS. Now “resistance” has not only been rebranded to mean killing Jews, but massacring Jewish unarmed men, women and children just going about their lives.

“Resistance” has come to be indistinguishable from Nazism. In both terms it whitewashes the religiously and politically motivated massacre of Jews.
BBC fails to call Hamas terrorists nine in 10 times
The BBC has been accused of failing to describe Hamas as a banned terror organisation in nine out of 10 news reports.

An analysis of BBC News online stories found that the broadcaster barely mentioned that the group is a proscribed organisation banned in the UK, despite saying it would do so after the October 7 attacks on Israel.

The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (Camera) found that of 145 online news articles between January 1 and April 30 this year which referred to Hamas, only 12 (8.2 per cent) explicitly stated that it was a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK.

Ten articles (6.8 per cent) mentioned that Hamas was proscribed in other countries, but failed to acknowledge the UK’s designation

During the same period 30 articles (20.6 per cent) referred to Hamas as either an “armed group” or “militant group”.

Camera also found that of 17 videos on the BBC News website that referred to Hamas between January 1 and April 30, only one explicitly stated that it is a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK.

The findings appear to conflict with comments by Dr Samir Shah, the chairman of the BBC, in which he restated only last week that the BBC would describe Hamas as a terror group “only with attribution”, as a proscribed organisation banned by the UK Government.
Gulf diplomatic sources debate if Trump will announce US recognition of Palestinian state
Saudi Arabia will host a Gulf-US summit in mid-May, part of US President Donald Trump's first visit to Saudi Arabia during his second term. This follows the summit held on May 21, 2017, during Trump's first term.

The summit, hosted by Saudi Arabia in its capital, Riyadh, was preceded by numerous predictions regarding the announcement that Trump referred to, describing it as a "very important announcement" during a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at the White House on Tuesday, May 6.

In addition to what Trump intends to announce, the summit's agenda and the deals and agreements expected to take place have become the talk of the town, ranging from security and military deals to technology deals and artificial intelligence deals.

All Gulf leaders are scheduled to participate in the Gulf-US summit, with the exception of King Salman bin Abdulaziz, who has not participated in public events or meetings for a long time due to his health conditions.

Will Donald Trump recognize a Palestinian state?
A Gulf diplomatic source, who declined to be named or disclose his position, told The Media Line, "President Donald Trump will issue a declaration regarding the State of Palestine and American recognition of it, and that there will be the establishment of a Palestinian state without the presence of Hamas."

The source also added, "If an announcement of American recognition of the State of Palestine is made, it will be the most important declaration that will change the balance of power in the Middle East, and more countries will join the Abraham Accords."

The source confirmed that economic agreements will certainly be present, but many of them have already been announced, and we may witness the Gulf states being exempted from tariffs.

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee denied the statements made by this source on X/Twitter Saturday afternoon, saying that Israel has no better friend than the US.

Ahmed Al-Ibrahim, a former Gulf diplomat, told The Media Line, "I don't expect it to be about Palestine. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and King Abdullah II of Jordan have not been invited. They are the two countries closest to Palestine, and it would be important for them to be present at any event like this."


Seth Frantzman: US faces large hurdles as it takes lead on Gaza aid delivery
This is not an Israeli plan, Ambassador Huckabee noted. Israel will not be involved in the distribution or transport of the food. Israel will secure the area outside of where the aid distribution happens. This makes sense for the IDF because the IDF is not well positioned to be a provider of aid and its leadership does not want to risk the IDF in a complex aid operation. Israel is supportive of the US initiative, the ambassador said. In the coming days more details will be released. Non-profit organizations will be part of the logistical considerations. Initially around one million people will be fed and then the full two million in Gaza.

The delivery of aid will not depend on a ceasefire, apparently. It solely depends on the ability to get food into Gaza. The concept so far speaks of several distribution zones. Each zone may provide aid to tens or hundreds of thousands of people. The IDF apparently will secure the perimeter of these zones in southern Gaza. Huckabee mentioned “private security” in distribution centers themselves. Because the IDF is not operating the aid program, this will enable some partners to take part so that they don’t have to work directly with the IDF. Apparently, this means some countries or NGOs that are wary of direct connections to the IDF could get involved. Publicly the UN and other aid organizations have opposed the Israeli plan that was approved on May 4, but may be more flexible regarding the US initiative.

The initial number of aid distribution centers will be small, but the number will grow as it is scaled up, according to the May 9 press conference at the US Embassy. According to one question directed to Huckabee at his press conference, there are now some 400 distribution centers in Gaza, while the new initiative will only begin with a few. Apparently the number will grow. It is not clear how many private contractors will need to be employed to secure this. If one has to scale up from three or four points of distribution to dozens, then that requires hiring a lot of private security.

The ambassador was asked about who will staff the private security and how the funding is being worked out. He said details are still in motion and he could not give the specifics.

He said funding would come from numerous entities. Huckabee said the US was not trying to work around the Israeli government in this initiative. The US is close to Israel, he noted. “There is no issue here of some kind of workaround going on.” He also said this is not an Israeli operation. He noted some partners would not want to be involved if Israel was operating the logistics of moving the food or the distribution. The US believes that ties with Israel are iron clad and that this humanitarian aid operation will move forward.

The hurdles here are clear. This is a big logistical operation. It requires a lot of support and it requires organizations that are good at moving and distributing aid. The US has not been involved in something of this scale for a while. It’s not clear how the private security will be recruited or deployed. Past experiences in Gaza have been problematic. For instance, when aid was delivered to north Gaza in late February 2024, after a long pause, people rushed aid trucks and more than 100 people were killed. The US has tried this kind of good intentions approach in the past. It sought to do so in Somalia in 1993. This was designed to enable distribution of aid as well. However, by inserting itself in a war zone with warlords present, the US ended up in a firefight with locals and eighteen Americans were killed in the Black Hawk Down incident.

The US is realistic that there are challenges ahead. Huckabee and others know there are logistical challenges. The big question is how fast this can happen and how the IDF will be able to secure the perimeter. Up until now throughout 19 months of war in Gaza, the IDF has always asked Gazans to evacuate from areas where the IDF operates.

There are rarely any Gazan civilians near the IDF. The IDF, therefore, does not seem used to dealing with large numbers of civilians. However, this plan seems to envision the IDF controlling a long defensive line around these aid distribution points and watching over hundreds of thousands of Gazans transitting back and forth. This appears to be a recipe for challenges ahead. How will anyone know who is a Hamas member and who is not among the people going south to get aid. Checking them all will be a complex process. If they are all on foot it means they can’t carry much back to their families, meaning more people will need to be checked. If they are in cars then they can carry more but it increases the chance Hamas will waylay the cars when the cars return to parts of Gaza under Hamas control.

The IDF has not proven itself capable in the past of dealing with large numbers of civilians. In the West Bank the IDF conducts raids at night because it doesn’t want to end up doing the job of checkpoints and police work and riot control. Decades of Israeli military occupation have taught the IDF it is not good at crowd control and that crowd control leads to dangerous incidents. Crowds are hard to control. In August 2021 a bombing occurred amid crowds at Afghanistan’s Kabul International Airport that killed 13 Americans and wounded 170 Afghans. These are the kinds of threats the IDF will want to prevent. Large numbers of civilians pressing up against soldiers is when these threats can materialize. If the IDF stands back and watches as it did on Salah al-Din road in the early months of the war as Gazans fled south from Gaza City then there will be no way to check the Gazan civilians. There are no easy answers here.
Over half of Senate Democrats blast Israel’s Gaza operations plan
A group of 25 Senate Democrats, comprising more than half of the caucus and led by several senior leaders, wrote to President Donald Trump on Friday condemning new plans for expanded Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip and accusing the Trump administration of failing to push for peace.

“This is a dangerous inflection point for Israel and the region, and while we support ongoing efforts to eliminate Hamas, a full-scale reoccupation of Gaza would be a critical strategic mistake,” the lawmakers said, of Israel’s plan to expand military operations in Gaza.

The letter was led by Sens. Chris Coons (D-DE), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Jack Reed (D-RI). Coons is the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Defense. Shaheen and Reed are the ranking members of the Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees, respectively.

They said that the plan had increased tensions and could “engulf the volatile region in conflict.” The letter links the Houthi strike on Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport and ongoing Houthi attacks to the war in Gaza and warns the ongoing conflict could undermine stability in Jordan. It also highlights that the continued war would block a pathway to normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

“Israel’s planned actions would severely undermine Jerusalem’s path to a more secure, stable and regionally integrated future, which you championed in your first term through the Abraham Accords,” they wrote. “Israel’s proposed occupation plans take us further away from permanently ending the Israel-Gaza war and upholding Israel’s security, both goals that you have promised to achieve under your administration.”

They also asserted, citing Israeli government officials’ comments, that “Hamas’s military capacity had been effectively obliterated.”
Shooter arrested near Israeli consulate in Istanbul
A shooting incident took place on Friday near the Israeli consulate in Istanbul, the foreign ministry in Jerusalem said.

Bullet holes were spotted on a building near the legation. A suspect was arrested by local security forces.

There were no casualties or damage to the consulate, the ministry said.

The incident came hours after an “unusual envelope” was received at the Israeli embassy in Paris. The envelope was inspected and handled by local security forces in coordination with the Israeli security team. There were no casualties and no damage was caused, the ministry added.

On May 3, five men, four of them Iranian nationals, were arrested hours before a planned attack on Israel’s embassy in west London.

“[T]he Home Secretary described [it] as one of the biggest counter-terror operations in recent years,” The Telegraph reported on Wednesday.

The arrests occurred across England, including in Swindon, west London, Stockport, Rochdale and Manchester, according to the report.

British counter-terrorism police arrested three more Iranians over the weekend in a separate investigation, bringing the total number of Iranians arrested to seven, the Metropolitan Police announced on Sunday.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Friday said that this “wave of terrorist attacks” against Israeli missions around the world “proves that terrorism seeks to target us everywhere.”

He added his appreciation to the staff of the foreign ministry, stressing that they “will not be deterred” and will continue to “represent Israel with pride.”
Judge Orders Release of Tufts Student Detained by ICE
U.S. District Judge William Sessions III ordered the release of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish Tufts PhD student, from ICE detention.

ICE detained Öztürk for allegedly showing support for Hamas. The government terminated her visa.

Authorities arrested Ozturk in Boston. They drove her to New Hampshire and Vermont, where they flew her to Louisiana.

In April, Sessions ordered authorities to transfer Ozturk to Vermont from Louisiana.

The media and Sessions claim ICE took Rumeysa Ozturk over an op-ed:
U.S. District Judge William Sessions III ruled that Ozturk had been unlawfully detained in March for little more than authoring an op-ed critical of Israel in her school newspaper.

“That literally is the case. There is no evidence here … absent consideration of the op-ed,” the Clinton-appointed judge said, describing it as an apparent violation of her free speech rights. He also said Ozturk had made significant claims of due process violations. “Her continued detention cannot stand.”

Sessions said the Trump administration’s targeting of Ozturk could chill the speech of “millions and millions” of noncitizens.

However, according to DHS, it goes deeper. From told Fox News:
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told Fox News that Ozturk was “granted the privilege to be in this country on a visa.”

“DHS and ICE investigations found Ozturk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans,” the spokesperson said. “A visa is a privilege not a right. Glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be terminated. This is commonsense security.”

Sessions’ order applies to Ozturk’s “immediate confinement.” Her possible deportation “will continue in immigration court.”


Arsen Ostrovsky: Exposing the Gaza ‘Famine’ Lie
In an article for The FP this week, investigative journalist Michael Ames methodically and objectively analyzed available data from Gaza, by comparison to international criteria for what constitutes ‘starvation’, concluding “so many unthinkable tragedies have occurred since Hamas’s massacre on October 7, 2023, but a famine in Gaza isn’t one of them.” According to Ames, “lazy journalism, bad data, and skewed statistics” have fueled such false accusations of war crimes against Israel.

Ultimately, the real cause of humanitarian suffering in Gaza always was, and remains Hamas, which systematically hijacks and weaponizes aid for its fighters, then taxes it in order to underwrite its terror operations, while beating up, torturing and violently abusing those civilians who try to access the aid.

The Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, himself, in an unprecedented statement this week, condemned Hamas for “looting and stealing” humanitarian aid intended for the people of Gaza.

Yet, the international community remains silent.

Even when Israel, in coordination with the United States, proposed a creative plan to circumvent Hamas and distribute aid directly to civilians in Gaza, through a new independent international foundation backed by other states and philanthropic entities, the United Nations and aid groups reflexively rejected it. So much for that threat of ‘famine’.

Instead, the international community would rather see the people of Gaza suffer and Hamas remain in power, so that they can continue using Israel as a forever-scapegoat.

As is often the case when it comes to the Jewish state, facts have become expendable and international law weaponized, in the service of a broader political narrative—one in which Israel is cast as the perpetual villain, no matter the truth or facts on the ground.

It is no accident that Hamas, along with their apologists and enablers in Western capitals and international media, pushes this narrative. It is psychological warfare aimed at reframing Israel as the aggressor and diverting attention from their own war crimes—chief among them the weaponization of civilians, and the ongoing captivity of hostages.

The lie of “starvation in Gaza” is not just an insult to truth—it is a danger to all who believe in the integrity of humanitarian law. It weaponizes empathy, it corrodes moral clarity, and it cheapens the memory of real famines and genuine atrocities.


IDF says terrorists near defeat in Rafah, fighting now limited to one neighborhood
The Israeli military said Saturday that it was close to defeating all remaining Palestinian terror operatives in southern Gaza’s Rafah, with fighting now only taking place in the Janina neighborhood.

Troops of the Golani Brigade have been operating in Janina in recent days. The Israel Defense Forces said the soldiers had destroyed terror infrastructures, located dozens of tunnel shafts and killed dozens of operatives.

“Janina is the last area where fighting against terrorists in the Rafah Brigade is taking place,” the military said.

Four IDF soldiers have been killed and several others have been wounded during fighting in the Janina area in the past week.

Meanwhile, the military said that over the past day, the Israeli Air Force had struck some 60 terror targets across the Gaza Strip. Hamas authorities reported 23 killed and dozens more wounded in the previous 24 hours.

In the Strip’s north, the IDF said troops of the 252nd Division killed two gunmen who approached forces; in the Morag Corridor area, the 36th Division struck a booby-trapped building where several operatives were located; and in Rafah, Gaza Division forces destroyed Hamas infrastructure both above and below ground.

Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defense agency said that five people were killed in an Israeli strike on a tent in Gaza City — all members of a single family, according to relatives. The figures could not be verified and did not differentiate between civilians and fighters.

“Three children, their mother and her husband were sleeping inside a tent and were bombed by an [Israeli] occupation aircraft,” family member Omar Abu al-Kass told AFP. The strikes came “without warning and without [them] having done anything wrong,” Abu al-Kass alleged, saying he was the children’s maternal grandfather.
One kilometer long, 8 stories deep: Captured Hamas terrorists lead IDF to major Rafah tunnel
A major underground Hamas tunnel network in Rafah was destroyed following intelligence gathered from terrorists who surrendered to Israeli forces, the IDF and Shin Bet security agency said in a joint statement Friday.

The demolition of the tunnel system comes after the interrogation of Hamas operatives captured in the Rafah area, who, according to the statement, provided “significant intelligence pointing to the location of the infrastructure.” The tunnel reportedly served as a key hideout and operational base for senior Hamas operatives in the Shaboura neighborhood of Rafah.

Guided by the intelligence, Yahalom combat engineering unit commandos, along with other forces under the command of the 188th Armored Brigade’s battle team, located and destroyed the site. The tunnel system stretched approximately one kilometer and reached a depth of about 25 meters (80 feet), the military said.

Inside the complex, forces discovered living quarters, bathrooms, a kitchenette, blast-proof doors and multiple exit shafts. After thoroughly investigating the site, the IDF said the facility was completely demolished.

In addition to the main operation, Israeli forces raided several other terrorist infrastructure sites in the area, uncovering weapons and military equipment, all of which were destroyed.

Earlier this week, the IDF released footage showing the surrender of two senior Hamas figures: Yousef Qadi, a company commander involved in the October 7 massacre and previously responsible for guarding several released hostages, and Mohammad Zaarab, a sniper unit commander.


IDF joins forces with NGO to turn community security teams into lean fighting machines
It looked like something from the hit Israeli television show “Fauda.”

In the blinding sun, a line of men wearing army fatigues, bulletproof vests, and ear protection were firing at targets in quick succession, two at a time.

“Most Israeli men are hard of hearing thanks to this kind of noise,” said instructors Georgi and Rada, handing this reporter a set of earplugs.

They stood with stopwatches next to each man due to shoot. “Five seconds to shoot five bullets,” they barked.

The range they were practicing on is located in the Israel Defense Forces’ Gaza Division headquarters near Kibbutz Re’im in southern Israel, but the 14 trainees were not professional sharpshooters. Rather, they were members of a civilian kibbutz security team on the first day of a new intensive tactical training course.

The course is aimed at ensuring that Gaza border communities can defend themselves against a repeat of the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel. Some 1,200 people were slaughtered during the full-scale invasion, and 251 were abducted to the Gaza Strip.

Kibbutz Gvulot, just over 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) from the Gaza Strip, was not invaded on October 7. Lacking rifles, security team members who had pistols went to help fight terrorists in Kibbutz Holit, about a 15-minute drive away.

It is nevertheless one of 66 localities within the Gaza border area — including the city of Sderot — whose security teams are undergoing one day of training per month over the course of a year, for a total of 12 days. Eight of those sessions will count toward the participants’ military reserve duty and are being funded by the IDF, while the remaining four days are paid for by a private NGO, Magen Yehuda, and its program, Magen 48.

First-response security teams on Israel’s borders are the responsibility of the army, with each community required to have at least 24 members who are trained and armed by the IDF. These members, however, are volunteers, often fathers in their 30s and 40s who have completed compulsory military service and are willing to be on call to defend their villages and towns. One of them is appointed commander and may also serve as the civilian security coordinator, whose salary is paid by the army and the local authority.


Call me Back Podcast: The Saudi Deal and the Reoccupation of Gaza – with Lahav Harkov
It’s been a busy week with a lot of moving pieces - there are new war plans in Gaza, the US-Houthi agreement, and of course, the Gulf Summit and a potential new deal between the US and Saudi Arabia. Here’s what we do know:

On Tuesday, during a press availability in the Oval Office of the White House, President Donald Trump told reporters that the total number of living hostages in Gaza dropped from 24 to 21. “As of today, it’s 21. Three have died.”, he said. Israel maintains that officially, the list of living hostages remains 24.

Trump also said that the US would stop bombing Yemen’s Houthis after the Iran-backed group had agreed to stop interrupting important shipping lanes in the Middle East. The announcement did not mention the Houthi attacks on Israel, including a missile that hit Ben Gurion international airport on Saturday, to which Israel responded with a crippling attack on Yemen's international airport in Sanaa. Following Trump’s announcement, a spokesman for the Houthis pledged that the strikes on Israel would continue.

On Thursday, sources told Reuters that the United States is no longer demanding Saudi Arabia normalize ties with Israel as a condition for developing its nuclear program - a major concession by Washington. Senator Lindsey Graham says he opposes any pact with the Saudis that excludes normalization with Jewish state.

Earlier in the week, on Monday, Israel’s security cabinet authorized plans for the widening of the Gaza invasion, which if taken to its logical conclusion, meaning Hamas refuses to surrender and release the hostages – could result in an Israeli reoccupation of Gaza and reestablishing some permanent presence there.

It is unclear at this point if this military plan is going to be implemented, or if it is used as leverage on Hamas as a negotiating tactic. That said, Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich said on Monday that “We are finally going to occupy the Gaza Strip. We will stop being afraid of the word’ occupation.”


Jewish Policy Center: Is Holocaust Education the Answer?
Sports makes strange bedfellows – including for the JPC. Over the weekend, some nasty people at Barstool Sansom Street in Philly had that sign – you know, the unprintable one Kneecap had at Coachella. It went viral on social media. Owner Dave Portnoy's immediate reaction was equally unprintable. His second was to have the perpetrators agree to visit the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Is Holocaust education at Auschwitz the answer? The question takes on increasing importance as antisemitism rises across the US from a variety of political and religious angles. It invites a serious discussion – and we plan to have it.

Professor Max Abrahms is an expert in international security, especially in the areas of terrorism, US foreign policy, and the Middle East. He notes, “The global intifada that erupted after 10/7/23... seems to have forced a re-think about the relationship between Holocaust education and antisemitism.”

Join us for what promises to be an important conversation about time, history, and what seems to be a never-ending battle to counter antisemitism.




Pro-Palestinian protesters halt Gal Gadot's new film The Runner again as filming is brought to a standstill in London
Pro-Palestine protesters banged drums and shouted 'shame on you' as they brought Gal Gadot's new film The Runner to a standstill in London.

The Israeli actress, who served in the IDF, has been vocal in her support of Israel's invasion of Gaza following the October 7 Hamas attacks.

Footage of Eye on Palestine members at the scene shows a man with a dog and several other objectors chanting and clapping in the face of police officers.

They shout slogans addressed at Ms Gadot like 'your hands are bloody' and 'we can't deal with genocide'.

The 40-year-old - who was previously seen on set donning a tight blue running jacket and black leggings - was reportedly replaced with a body double.

Her character is seen on a run after dropping her child at school.

The Runner centres on a high-flying attorney (Gal) who has to race through London to try to save her abducted son.

It is being produced by David Kosse via his new London-based production company Rockwood Pictures.


Yad Vashem’s Dani Dayan: University heads now taking ‘different tone’ on antisemitism
Yad Vashem chairman Dani Dayan heard a “different tone” from heads of American universities during a recent visit to the United States, he shared with The Jerusalem Post this past week.

“I remember in November 2023, about six weeks after October 7, I began hearing reports about what was happening on Ivy League campuses in the US,” Dayan said. “When I arrived, what I witnessed truly shocked me. I returned to Israel completely appalled. It was unlike anything I had ever seen in those institutions – the calls for Israel’s elimination were explicit.”

Dayan added that in the immediate aftermath of the October 7 massacres, the protests weren’t about policies or military actions in Gaza. “It was about the very right of the State of Israel to exist. When I heard the presidents of the leading universities testify before Congress and say things like ‘the genocide of the Jews depends on context,’ I wasn’t even surprised. But this time, the tone is completely different.”

The problem goes beyond students protesting against Israel
In his trip, Dayan met with Prof. Linda Mills, president of New York University, and Claire Shipman, interim president of Columbia University. “For the first time, I felt a genuine sense of understanding. This is not just about protests or encampments – it is a moral issue, and they realize it needs to be confronted,” the Yad Vashem chairman said.

He emphasized that the problem goes beyond students protesting against Israel, and the safety of Jewish and Israeli students. “It’s embedded in the courses, the syllabi, the faculty. But I sensed a willingness, or at least an expression of willingness, to make changes.”

When asked whether this shift is due to political pressure, such as threats from the Trump administration to cut funding, or from internal moral reflection, Dayan responded: “I want to give them the credit and believe they reached these conclusions on their own.”

“I don’t think the main issue is the physical safety of Jewish students,” he said. “What I raised with the university presidents is the fact that this began at least a decade ago – brick by brick, article by article, book by book. Pseudo-academic theories using buzzwords like ‘ethno-nationalist’ and ‘settler-colonialist’ have taken root. These pseudo-intellectual and pseudo-scientific frameworks are calling for the delegitimization and ultimately the elimination of the State of Israel.”
11 Percent of Columbia Library Arrestees Identify as They/Them—Nearly 7 Times America's Trans Population
It's a they-tifada.

At least 9 of the 81 people, or 11 percent, arrested in connection with storming a Columbia University library Wednesday use "they/them" pronouns, a review of public records by the Washington Free Beacon shows. That share is well above the 1.6 percent of Americans who identify as transgender or nonbinary, according to the Pew Research Center, and more than double the 5 percent of people who identify as transgender or nonbinary under 30.

The brood of agitators run the gamut from longtime professional protesters, to otherwise carefree writers and poets. Most have long histories steeped in transgender activism. The group was part of a mob that raided and vandalized Butler Library, handed out pro-Hamas pamphlets, and injured two security officials. They were offered a chance to leave peacefully if they showed their identification, but the radicals refused and were arrested after a standoff.

The disproportionate numbers come amid growing awareness of transgender-inspired violence which has in recent years included shootings in Covenant School in Tennessee, STEM School Highlands Ranch shooting in Colorado, and a 2018 mass shooting in Aberdeen, Maryland, which left four dead. Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, also famously suffered from gender dysphoria, and once attempted a sex change.

"They just go and get released in 24 hours. It’s not brave at all," said Michael Lucas, an LGBT adult performer who has faced industry criticism for his outspoken support of Israel. "They go through a lot of bullying and mistreatment and unfortunately a lot of them become very damaged people. So they have no common sense and end up taking the side of Hamas, even knowing that these people would kill them in the most barbaric way."

One arrestee who identifies as they/she, Khanh Doan, may be in particular trouble as a Vietnam native. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Wednesday that the State Department was "reviewing the visa status of the trespassers and vandals who took over Columbia University’s library."

Doan's senior thesis focuses on the Gaza Solidarity Encampment and has interests such as "liberatory movements, and transnational solidarities," according to a bio that was deleted Friday.

Also among the arrested is Rose Bottorf, who uses the pronouns "they/she/he." Bottorf is a serial campus agitator who was among the 100 people arrested during pro-Hamas rioting on campus in April 2024. As an undergraduate philosophy student, Bottorf taught "critical race theory and activism to children ages 14-17." Before that, Bottorf worked as an intern at City Mission Boston, a defunct nonprofit which "expose[d] systemic barriers" and "use[d] storytelling as a healing tool for social change." Bottorf has also worked at the European Institute of Policy Research and Human Rights, in Dublin according to her LinkedIn.

Another student arrested was Leigh Oldershaw, an undergraduate at Columbia University majoring in creative writing and minoring in educational studies. Oldershaw is gender-nonconforming and uses they/them/their pronouns, according to a 2022 profile in the Portland Press Herald. While at Windham High School in Portland, Maine, Oldershaw wrote "Bach in the Barn," a young adult novel.


Leeds student group reported to police after calling for ‘armed resistance’
A hardline student group in Leeds has openly backed “armed resistance” and urged supporters to lay siege to offices linked to what it calls the “Zionist genocidal project”.

In a shocking Instagram post still live at time of writing, leedsstudents4palestine called for a “global escalation” and praised the “heroic Resistance” fighting to “liberate Palestine from the river to the sea”.

The group urged followers to join a Saturday protest and let their “collective rage erupt”, rallying around what it described as a struggle for decolonisation, the right of return and use of force.

The post urges followers to join a “global siege against the offices of collaborators sustaining the Zionist genocidal project” and calls on them to “let our collective rage erupt”. It continues: “This is a call to strengthen unity around decolonisation, armed resistance, the right of return and self-determination.”

Arieh Miller, Chief Executive of the Union of Jewish Students (UJS), said: “This week, the group publicly called for escalation, the spread of ‘armed resistance,’ and a ‘global siege,’ using language that glorifies violence and echoes narratives associated with proscribed terrorist organisations.”

He added: “This forms part of a broader and growing pattern of intimidation, glorification of terrorism, and antisemitic imagery that Jewish students are being forced to navigate.”

Miller warned: “Inaction has consequences, and Jewish students are already paying the price. When does complacency become complicity, enabling the spread of hate and the erosion of student safety?”

A spokesperson for West Yorkshire Police told Jewish News: “West Yorkshire Police has been made aware of concerns relating to an Instagram post from a pro-Palestinian student group in Leeds. This post is currently being reviewed to assess whether any criminal offences have been committed.”

They added: “We are aware of this protest and there will be a police presence.”

The controversy follows weeks of tension on Leeds’ campus. Just last month, the president of the Leeds Palestine Solidarity Group publicly criticised the university for what he called a “weaponisation” of disciplinary procedures against pro-Palestinian activists, after being investigated for unauthorised protests and receiving a formal warning.


Israel, the Druze and Syria’s reign of lies
After the suppression of the Alawites, the government of Syria incited the Bedouin tribesmen against the Kurds and pretended not to be involved in the matter for fear of the American reaction. The attacks failed, so they tried to reach a compromise agreement with the Kurds. The Kurds withdrew from the agreement after discovering that it was impossible to trust the regime in Damascus.

After failing with the Kurds, the regime began inciting against the Druze. Social media in Syria has been flooded for some time with calls to wipe out the Druze, to massacre them, to burn their villages. The regime seems neither to see nor hear. A fabricated recording of a Druze speaker cursing the Prophet Muhammad, which apparently came from Turkey, was the excuse for the current attack.

The regime in Damascus pretends to be moderate and innocent in the international and Arab media and lies about its intentions and actions on the ground: they lied about disbanding the militias; they moved under their direction and came all the way from Edlib in the north to Jaramana. Then they lied about the role of foreign Islamist terrorists in the new security forces. And finally, their biggest lie is about the integration of minorities. Instead, they built a sectarian jihadist establishment.

Israel’s interests in this situation are threefold: A. Israel owes the Druze-Jewish alliance at least the obligation to apply diplomatic pressure and air cover to the Druze in Syria, and this is what it has been doing. B. Israel has to be vigilant with a regime whose people came from ISIS and needs to keep it in check all the time, and not wait for a Syrian Hamas-style invasion of the kind seen on October 7, 2023. Strategically, Israel must mark a zone of interest in southern Syria that will balance what Qatar and Turkey are building in northern Syria.

Jews are a small minority in the Middle East, and the alliance of minorities has never been more necessary than today. Israel is an essential player in protecting minorities and thus in protecting itself.
Seth Frantzman: Can the UAE pave the way to Israel-Syria dialogue?
The United Arab Emirates could help ease tensions between Israel and Syria’s new government. Reports last week indicated that the UAE was mediating secret talks between the two countries, with sources noting that the indirect contacts have been focused on security and intelligence issues.

As the Middle East undergoes a quiet realignment, the Emirates’ quiet and judicious diplomacy could help ease Syria-Israel tensions.

Israel has been bombing Syria in the aftermath of the Assad regime’s collapse on December 8, 2024. The Jewish state had bombed Syria in the past, targeting Iranian entrenchment. After December 8, the official Israeli reason for keeping up the strikes has been to remove threats and also warn Syria against attacks on minorities such as the Druze.

The UAE, which has ties with both Jerusalem and Damascus, wants stability. Therefore, it can play a role in mediating between the two countries.

Will Turkey quiet the Damascus-Jerusalem tensions?
The Emirates is not the only country with interests in ending Israel-Syria tensions. Turkey wants the bombing to stop, and so does Qatar. However, Ankara and Doha both back Hamas. The US also wants the tensions to end, and so does Azerbaijan. The UAE possesses the strategic economic vision and also an understanding of both sides, which may help.

The UAE was a key member of the Abraham Accords. Abu Dhabi has demonstrated a pragmatic approach that includes economic interests with regional calculations. It understands that influence in the modern Middle East is built through this kind of embrace of stability and quiet power.

Abu Dhabi was also willing to work with the previous Syrian regime. It moved to normalize ties with the Assad regime, even when other countries such as Qatar did not.
Khamenei endorses ‘Death to America’ chants ahead of nuclear talks
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Saturday endorsed chants of “Death to America” during a speech to workers in Tehran, just one day before Iranian negotiators are set to resume a fourth round of nuclear talks with the United States, Iran International reported.

Last week, US President Donald Trump said he was seeking “total dismantlement” of Iran’s nuclear program, while remaining open to Iran operating a civilian energy program. Two days later, Russia’s Foreign Ministry asserted that Iran—and other non‑nuclear‑weapon states—have a legitimate right to develop civil nuclear energy.

Israeli officials have cautioned that any agreement must fully dismantle Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities or risk repeating the perceived shortcomings of the 2015 nuclear deal.

During his address on Saturday, Khamenei praised the crowd’s support of the anti‑American slogan. “Your judgment is right,” he told the workers after they chanted “Death to America.” He added, “Americans fully support Israel — in the true sense of the word.

In the world of politics, things may be said that suggest otherwise, but that is not the reality,” according to Iran International. Framing Israel’s campaign in Gaza as part of a broader Western war effort, he asserted, “The people of Gaza are not facing Israel alone — they are facing America and Britain."

'An enrichment program can never exist in Iran'
Hardline rhetoric extended into Iran’s state‑aligned press. Kayhan, a daily overseen by Khamenei’s office, ran a full‑page commentary portraying former President Donald Trump as the personification of US power.

“Trump is not a passing phenomenon,” the paper wrote. “He is a framework based on narcissism, superiority delusions, and threat‑based tactics,” warning that American diplomatic gestures are “a tool for deception, not an indication of true boundaries."

In Washington, Trump’s special envoy at the talks, Steve Witkoff, set out the maximalist conditions for any agreement. “An enrichment program can never exist in the state of Iran ever again. That’s our red line,” Witkoff told Breitbart News on Friday. “No enrichment. That means dismantlement.”
Fears over Iran-linked charity’s plans for children’s summer camp
An Islamic group with links to Iran has raised concerns with its plan to run a summer camp for children.

Ahlulbayt Islamic Mission (AIM) routinely shares material online from sermons and speeches by Ali Khamenei, the Iranian supreme leader, and his predecessor, Ruhollah Khomeini. In one post, AIM called Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps commander who was killed in 2020 in a US drone strike, a “great hero”.

AIM, a not-for-profit organisation, has also shared material from an imam ­who is Khamenei’s representative in the UK. A preacher who previously spoke at its summer camp has shared antisemitic material online. On October 12, 2023, five days after the Hamas attack on Israel, AIM’s Instagram account shared a message saying that “a flood was inevitable” and the “Zionists brought this disaster on themselves”.

AIM, a charity based in Cricklewood, northwest London, will run Camp ­Wilayah for children aged nine to 14 in the Hertfordshire countryside in August. Activities include climbing, ­abseiling, archery, sports, lectures and discussions. AIM describes it as an “amazing place to enjoy the outdoors, make new friends, learn and build on Islamic values”. Portrait of Lord Walney with arms crossed.

Lord Walney, the government’s former extremism adviser, said he was alarmed by the plans. “We cannot allow propaganda and influence from this theocratic dictatorship to be spread to children in the UK,” he said. “It is deeply alarming that schoolchildren are being taken to these camps. This raises ­further questions about the influence of Iran here in the UK.” Security officials have warned of the increased threat from Iran, saying that Tehran has used groups in the UK to spread its influence.

Police and MI5 have disrupted more than 20 assassination and kidnap plots linked to Iran since January 2022. Last weekend, counter-terrorism ­officers arrested five Iranians suspected of plotting an attack on the Israeli embassy.

AIM says that it offers spiritual, ­educational, cultural and recreational activities and is committed to peace. It said in a statement: “The Ahlulbayt Islamic Mission serves communities in Britain. Unlike the roughly 3,000 ­Zionist organisations in the UK, it neither takes orders from nor represents the interest of any foreign power.

“We are proud of our record in opposing the 140-year Zionist campaign of genocide against the people of the Levant, which has included forced ­displacement, ethnic cleansing and ­indiscriminate aerial bombardment, among many other crimes.

“Times readers should ask themselves why this newspaper is so ­invested in laundering propaganda for the state of Israel and attempts to smear British citizens on behalf of a hostile and illegitimate foreign state.”


Are Jewish leaders afraid to fully call out antisemitism?
When giving a major address on antisemitism, current Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer felt the need to offer this qualification: “Every single American ought to condemn, with full-throated clarity, antisemitism, Islamophobia, and all forms of racial and religious prejudice. We must condemn all forms of hate.”

These are just a few examples of the curious phenomenon that Jewish lawmakers feel the need to qualify their objections to antisemitism. I don’t understand their belief that they can’t simply object to antisemitism and must qualify their objections to Jew-hate.

One might posit that they think antisemitism isn’t a bigger problem in America than any other form of hate. However, all studies on antisemitism confirm that antisemitism is the most frequent and problematic form of hate in America.

In a recent poll commissioned by the Israel on Campus Coalition, 74% of Jewish college students believe antisemitism is a serious problem on campus, and 30% reported experiencing antisemitism.The ADL reported an over 360% rise in antisemitism across America. Antisemitic incidents were 68% of all religion-based hate crimes, according to the data, even though Jews only make up some 2% of the US population.

WE DO not find other forms of hatred qualified by expanding objections to them by including antisemitism. There would be outrage if a resolution against racism, sexism, or Islamophobia were amended with an objection to antisemitism. If antisemitism in America is at higher levels than other forms of hate, why do Jewish leaders feel the need to qualify their objections to antisemitism?

Experts on antisemitism have addressed the reluctance of some Jews to call out antisemitism.Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, has highlighted the emotional and social toll of confronting antisemitism, which can deter public action.

David Feldman, a historian and director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism, points to the complexity of distinguishing legitimate criticism from antisemitism as a potential barrier.

Deborah Lipstadt, a prominent Holocaust scholar and former US special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, suggested that Jews may internalize a sense of futility or trauma from centuries of persecution, leading to a cautious approach.

Noah Feldman, a Harvard Law professor and author, touches on the psychological dimension, noting that antisemitism’s resilience “engenders fear, pain, sadness, frustration, and intergenerational trauma.” This emotional burden could make Jews hesitant to speak out against antisemitism.

I’m not an expert on antisemitism, but I think there are Jews who are embarrassed to call out antisemitism because they fear doing so would differentiate them from their gentile colleagues and neighbors. They are fearful of being different than the gentiles. Instead of being proud of their uniqueness, they are ashamed.

The need to qualify objections to antisemitism, no matter how it is done, is wrong. Qualifying objections to antisemitism – either by expanding the objection to all forms of hatred, conflating it with Israeli policy, or making it political – serve to dilute and minimize the objections to antisemitism. By not keeping antisemitism a standalone subject of objection, the danger of antisemitism becomes muddied in the public’s eye. It must stop.


Why does US media not celebrate Jewish American Heritage Month?
Did you hear about Jewish American Heritage Month? Well, if you’re like me, the answer is no. I discovered it because I was curious what would happen if I searched online for “Jewish history month.” But it’s been around for almost 20 years.

In 2006, then-US president George W. Bush proclaimed May as Jewish American Heritage Month. He believed in the crucial need for a month each year that recognizes over 350 years of Jewish contributions to America and its culture.

I agree with former President Bush. We need Jewish American Heritage Month so we can honor a unique and ancient history, and celebrate the richness of Jewish heritage.

As an Ashkenazi and Black father, I am heartened that every February for Black History Month, all major streaming platforms curate films and TV shows amplifying Black stories for me and my children to watch.

I discovered King in the Wilderness, a 2018 HBO Films documentary about the last years of Martin Luther King's life, because the Max streaming service had a selection of films for Black History Month. I love the documentary and have watched it many times. But I might not have even known about it if Max had not made it easily accessible on its homepage.
Margot Friedlander, German Holocaust survivor who landed Vogue cover, dies at 103
Margot Friedlander, a Holocaust survivor who grew prominent in Germany when she returned from the United States decades after surviving the Holocaust, recently died, aged 103.

The Margot Friedlander Foundation announced her death on Friday, just weeks after opening applications for a 25,000 euro prize to recognize efforts to fight antisemitism and promote democracy. Friedlander was known for her concern about the rise of the political far right in Germany, as well as her impeccable style and the mantra she promoted: “Be human.”

Friedlander had appeared less than two days before her death at Berlin’s commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and the rule of the Nazi Party. There, she read from her story, as she had countless times to student groups, public gatherings and public officials.

Friedlander was born and raised in Berlin and hid there after the Nazis rose to power and began deporting and murdering Jews. She was apprehended in April 1944 and sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, where she remained until its liberation a year later. Her entire family had been murdered.

Friedlander and her husband, whom she met in Theresienstadt, moved to New York City, where they lived an unassuming life in Queens. But after her husband’s death in 1997, she began writing about her Holocaust experience, ultimately catching the eye of a filmmaker who brought her to Germany over the course of making a documentary about her.

The trip, which Friedlander had once sworn never to make, changed her life. She moved back permanently in 2010, at age 89, and quickly became a local celebrity, according to a Forward profile that appeared three years after her arrival. She made hundreds if not thousands of appearances to tell her story, taking center stage in a country haunted by its Holocaust history.


'We became family': Tal Shoham recounts how he and fellow hostages survived Hamas captivity
Tal Shoham, a former hostage who was held by Hamas for 505 days, wrote a personal account in Time magazine on Friday, detailing his abduction and captivity in the Gaza Strip.

In the essay, he called on US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to intensify efforts to secure the release of the remaining hostages.

Shoham was kidnapped on October 7, 2023, from his in-laws’ home in Kibbutz Be’eri. “I was kidnapped… My wife and children were with me,” he wrote. “When terrorists couldn’t break open the door of our safe room, they came in through the window.”

He described being dragged from the home, shoved into a car trunk, and paraded through Gaza.

For over eight months, Shoham was held underground in a Hamas tunnel with fellow hostages Evyatar David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal, both 22, who were abducted from the Supernova music festival, and Omer Wenkert. The four shared a soaked mattress and subsisted on a single pita per day in a space Shoham said was just 12 meters long and less than a meter wide.

Shoham said the men developed a close bond during captivity. “We were strangers when we entered that darkness. But we became brothers,” he wrote. The hostages were kept under constant surveillance, with a bomb placed overhead “rigged to detonate if Israeli forces came too close.”

He recalled the poor physical condition of his fellow hostages: “They’d been fed almost nothing. Their hands were bound behind their backs, their ankles tied, their heads covered with plastic bags.” Despite this, he wrote, “somehow, they still had spirit.”

To maintain their mental strength, the group developed routines. “In a place built to break us, we held each other up. We became a unit. We became family.”
For 500 days a London shul saved a seat for Emily Damari. Only her picture sat there until today
Those acquainted with synagogue etiquette (or lack thereof), will know that the rabbi rarely needs to ask their flock to start chatting among themselves during a break in services. Quite the opposite, in fact. But today’s Shabbat service at Highgate United was no ordinary one.

So special was it that word went out in advance that non-members couldn’t attend because of the unusually high turnout anticipated. Inside the shul, one regular observed, it was busier than Yom Kippur but with a simcha atmosphere that felt like the entire congregation was related to those celebrating. From about 10.55am, a quiet buzz of anticipation filled the room ahead of the arrival of the VIP guest, necks craning in unison for any sign of movement at the door.

When Emily Damari finally walked in, the room erupted in a round of applause the likes of which I’ve never seen in a synagogue for any visiting politician, celebrity or member of the Royal Family. The ovation must have continued for at least three minutes. Two years ago, almost no one present would’ve even heard of the British-Israeli Spurs fanatic, but that all changed with the atrocities of 7 October 2003 and the tireless campaign for her return led by her mum Mandy.

The campaign was joined by the Highgate community who ‘adopted’ the then 26-year-old hostage, including holding a front row seat for her for nearly 500 days. But only her hostage poster had sat there – until this morning.

The shul’s Rabbi Nicky Liss recited the Shechechyanu blessing expressing said on special occasions, before reading out the names of the 59 hostages still in Hamas captivity, his voice breaking as he did so. The rabbi thanked those including his wife Shuli – and PR professional Emily Cohen – who had done so much to support the campaign and Emily herself, who we now know cared for fellow hostages in Gaza and even asked that American Keith Seigel go free instead of her. Emily and Mandy Damari in London

Mandy was introduced as “the bravest woman I know”, with Rabbi Liss saying her tears of anxiety when she last time spoke from the pulpit at Rosh Hashanah “had turned to tears of joy”. Indeed, it’s hardly surprising that Mandy struggled to hold back the tears at the end of her own prolonged ovation. But, unlike six months ago, this time Emily was quickly by her side to offer give a hug that left barely a dry eye in the house.

“From the moment Emily was released from captivity she showed the world her true strength of character, her extraordinary spirit, and despite all her suffering, her inner light and optimism, ever present, shines through,” she said as she regained her composure, Emily leaving a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “The way she raised, her bandaged hand, missing two fingers, when she spoke to her brothers on the phone and shouted “I survived”. She found words to inspire a nation when she lit the torch at the ceremony for Israel’s 77th Independence Day.”




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