Tuesday, May 20, 2025

05/20 Links Pt2: The psychology of kinocide: Why do terrorists target families and women?; Ask Your Doctor if Jihad Is Right for You; Jordanian textbooks justify Hamas Oct. 7 massacre

From Ian:

The psychology of kinocide: Why do terrorists target families and women?
So, what drives these violent fantasies? Why are women the primary targets?
HAMAS’S TERRORIST psychological mechanism of splitting and projection enables them to project onto Jews what they unconsciously hate about themselves. Hamas terrorists likely failed to develop empathy due to their inability to psychologically separate from their mothers. Their rage against Jewish women is a displacement of rage against their own mothers and families.

Hamas fighters grew up in shame-honor cultures that demanded enmeshment with the mother. In these cultures, the bond between mother and child is viewed as inseparable. The terrorist’s bond with his mother becomes a prison – one that he never managed to escape. The result is a pathological unconscious fusion that stifles individuality and autonomy, yielding sexual frustration, as Mosab Hassan Yousef, author of The Green Prince and Son of Hamas has emphasized: the greatest enemy is shame. In their culture, “to cleanse honor” they must willfully spill blood.

It is no wonder then that the Jewish family becomes the ultimate target, because it embodies safety, continuity, identity, and autonomy. It is everything they long for but cannot have nor bear. It reminds them of everything they lacked and thus becomes intolerable to Hamas.

The hallmark of envy is attacking. In these attacks, Hamas fuses violently with its victims, expressing an unconscious fantasy of killing the mother. This is the psychological heart of the attack.

YAHYA SINWAR, the mastermind of the attack, studied Jewish culture while in Israeli prison. He knew the Jewish emphasis on life, family, and the rejection of child sacrifice. The Jewish family became a symbol of everything he didn’t have, and never would. It is the emotional fabric – the “super glue” – that binds Jewish peoplehood together, and that becomes the ultimate target for destruction. And it all starts with killing the mother. Sinwar’s plan was an attempt to adapt to his own internal fantasy life, shaped by a broken familial past.

Another poignant example, noted by Elkayam-Levy, is the painful separation of two Israeli brothers held hostage. When one was released, their mother’s heartbreak symbolized the emotional fabric Hamas seeks to destroy. It reflected the twinning of brothers – the shared soul – that is sacred in Jewish families.

Hamas’s hatred for such bonds mirrors their own internal disintegration. This vignette speaks volumes about what the October 7 perpetrators were trying to work through by inflicting such brutality upon the Jews, because they sense that they have been used and abused by their own mothers, families, and society.

Final words: In Judaism, Jewish identity is determined by the mother. A Jewish mother is the guarantor of the Jewish people’s continuity, and the mother embodies the link between generations, carrying the identity and future of the Jewish nation.

The jihadi fantasy is one of regression – to return to the womb where all needs will be taken care of, to fuse with the victim, kill the mother, and fulfill the fantasy of destroying any Jewish continuation and family growth. Because that fantasy is unreachable, it is enacted violently – through rape, murder, and annihilation of women.

This is why they target the family. This is why they slaughter the mothers. Kinocide is not only an important legal term; it is a psychological mirror that helps us to stay on guard and warns us to defend what they most seek to destroy: the sanctity of life and the familial bond that is the soul of Jewish peoplehood. After all, we are one big family.
Seth Mandel: Stop Listening to Fake Experts and Pretend Historians on the Middle East
In the May issue of COMMENTARY, I wrote about the anti-Semitism circling throughout the right-wing “manosphere,” a collection of popular social-media influencers and YouTube personalities. Among them was Darryl Cooper, a podcaster who appears as a guest on Joe Rogan’s show and Tucker Carlson’s show to pose such challenging queries as whether Winston Churchill or Adolf Hitler was the real villain of World War II.

Cooper is known as a “historian,” presumably because he has read books. One of the authors he relies on is David Irving, perhaps the world’s most famous Holocaust denier.

Over the weekend, Cooper got himself into a spot of trouble yet again, thanks to his reliance on discredited figures. This time it was Trita Parsi, an infamously dishonest activist who echoes Iranian regime propaganda about Israel. Parsi tweeted a video of a young Gazan girl who was clearly suffering. Parsi claimed “Israel starved her to death two days ago.”

Cooper was outraged on the girl’s behalf, and declared that Israel’s counteroffensive against Hamas is a “Gaza Holomodor.” When asked how he knew it was real, Cooper responded: “Because I trust” Parsi.

But as Eitan Fischberger pointed out, the girl in the video was clearly suffering from an unmentioned medical condition. The journalist who took the video posted by Parsi had, in fact, mentioned this on his own feed: She was flown to the United Arab Emirates for treatment.

Contra Parsi, the girl wasn’t dead, nor was her condition a result of a food blockade. Parsi eventually deleted the tweet, leaving Cooper out on that limb all by his lonesome.

These are the “historians” accusing Israel of world historically evil crimes. Like the “experts” doing the same, they are just making stuff up.

Meanwhile, you’re better off trusting Hamas than trusting these “experts,” because Hamas sometimes eventually admits the truth. The “experts” will tell you that Israel is conducting a massive ethnic cleansing campaign that amounts to genocide. Hamas’s own numbers, however, will show that twice as many babies were born in Gaza during the war as the number of civilians killed (somewhere between 20,000 and 25,000, once natural deaths and combatants are accounted for in Hamas’s casualty statistics).

Lesson: Experts aren’t actually telling you that Israel is committing genocide and other war crimes. Those claims are coming from people who pose as experts, because that’s what their friend Joe Rogan calls them or because they are conducting their activism from a university campus or because Sky News anchors woke up on the crabby side of the bed and needed someone willing to spout nonsense they could dress up as “expertise.”

These are not experts, they are not historians. They are just people on the internet. And they are making fools of Israel’s critics.
Ask Your Doctor if Jihad Is Right for You
The challenge posed by foreign-trained doctors is that they arrive in the U.S. after having largely completed their moral formation, sometimes in political systems that explicitly promote antisemitism in their schools. The antisemitism they openly display in the U.S. may have been considered appropriate or even enlightened in their home countries. In fact, in the Middle East, higher levels of education are associated with an increased propensity for professing antisemitism. While education may not be protective against antisemitism, coming from cultures that openly embrace antisemitism enables it to publicly flourish even within polite society. Combine those attitudes with an American health care system that normalizes racial and ethnic tribalism with ideas like whiteness as a form of psychopathology, and the results are predictably disastrous.

This problem will only get worse as the rate of importing doctors from abroad is rising. In 1981, only 9% of doctors newly placed in residencies came from foreign medical schools. By 2024, 25% of residencies were filled with people trained abroad. Blame for the dramatic shift toward foreign-trained doctors is partly due to latent effects of supply constraints imposed by the gatekeepers of MD and DO granting schools. Until 2005, the American Medical Association and the Association of American Medical Colleges encouraged restrictions on medical school expansion due to their (erroneous) prediction of a looming glut of physicians in the United States. Those restrictions ultimately necessitated reliance on foreign-trained doctors.

Even after recognizing that there was a shortage rather than a glut of doctors, U.S. medical schools have failed to keep up with demand so that there are now 1.39 residency openings for every graduate of U.S. medical schools. A shortage in the domestic training of doctors now arises from a dearth in the availability of clinical training sites. The gap that this creates between the demand for new physicians and training of new physicians currently must be filled with foreign-trained doctors.

Our reliance on foreign-trained physicians increases the risks of importing antisemitism into the medical profession. To be clear, the average foreign doctor is not an antisemite. The problem is that in such large numbers, extremists among foreign doctors become more common. Moreover, the tribalized cultural milieu of American medicine gives them the impression that open group hostility is tolerated or expected.

As in our universities, antisemitism in the American medical profession is perhaps overwhelmingly an import from third world countries where it is a normative if pathological part of the dominant political and religious cultures. The more medical school students and professionals we import from these dysfunctional countries, the more overtly antisemitic our hospitals and doctor’s offices become. In this respect at least, doctors from countries like Pakistan turn out to be Pakistanis first and doctors second, with corresponding effects on American institutional life.

Removing the accreditor stranglehold on medical education would prevent cartel behavior that artificially limits the domestic training of new physicians. Moreover, effort and resources might need to be expended by health authorities to ensure a sufficient supply of clinical training sites. These efforts can be undertaken without sacrificing quality. After all, the acceptance rate for U.S. medical schools has fallen over time while the average MCAT scores and GPAs of those accepted have risen. There is more than enough high-quality domestic demand to become a doctor for medical schools to expand without diluting quality.

Unfortunately, even purging DEI ideology from medical training and limiting the importation of foreign doctors will only make a moderate and gradual difference in the antisemitism that has infected health care professionals. Cultural changes develop over long periods of time and are not easily reversed.

But every long journey begins with the first step. We must first recognize that, as the set of people profiled by Stop Antisemitism demonstrates, there is an exceptional problem among health care professionals, in general, and doctors, in particular. Moreover, we have to recognize that a lot of the problem with antisemitism in medicine comes from abroad. Clearly understanding the nature of the problem will invite remedies beyond those imagined here and help rescue medicine from the moral abyss.


Yarden Bibas speaks of meeting Sinwar while in captivity, asking to stay with David Cunio
Yarden Bibas revealed that during his captivity in Gaza, he asked former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar to allow him to stay with his best friend, David Cunio, he told N12 in an interview aired on Tuesday, a day before Cunio’s 35th birthday.

The interview also featured David’s twin brother, Eitan, and his wife, Sharon Cunio, in an attempt to bring renewed attention to David’s continued captivity. A chance meeting in the tunnels

Yarden told N12 about the emotional moment he reunited with David during captivity in November 2023 — the day Sharon and her two daughters were released after 53 days.

“He passed through my tunnel,” Yarden said. “When he saw me, he was shocked. He thought I was a ghost. I didn’t recognize him at first either. We hugged, and then he continued.”

On the day he learned from Hamas about his family's murders, Yarden asked to be transferred to David’s group. “I was afraid to ask,” he admitted. “But after the video, I knew I needed to be near him.”

According to N12, that request may have saved his life. “The people I had been with — Haim Perry, Yoram Metzger, Alex Danzig, Nadav Popplewell, Avraham Munder, and Vigev Buchstab — were later murdered by Hamas during an IDF operation in Khan Yunis,” he said.

Support, even in separation
"I was with David for what I think was about two or maybe three weeks, and then we were separated—even though I asked Sinwar. He asked me, 'What can I do to help you?' and I told him, 'I want you to let me stay with David.'"

"I told him, 'He’s my best friend. I want to stay with him," Bibas said. "He told me, 'No problem. You’ll stay with him."

"But it didn’t happen," Yarden told N12.

Despite being apart, they continued to find ways to support each other. “One time, David passed other hostages and sent a pillow for me,” he recalled. “Occasionally, we’d run into each other in the tunnels — a quick hug, a few words, then keep moving.”
Hostage Matan Zangauker struggling to stand, suffering severe health issues – report
Hostage Matan Zangauker is struggling to stand on his own and suffers from severe health issues such as continuous periods of intestinal problems and stomach pains, according to a Tuesday report based on information that was passed to his family.

Channel 12 news reported the deterioration of Zangauker’s physical condition, citing an account from captive hostage Edan Alexander, who was held alongside him until his release last week.

He was also reportedly held alongside other hostages, including Avera Mengistu, an Ethiopian-born Israeli who was held captive in Gaza for over a decade and was released during the ceasefire that took place earlier this year.

According to the report, Zangauker suffers from shakes and weakness due to muscular dystrophy that he has developed in captivity, a disease that several members of his family also suffer from.

The report also said that the captive has been shackled and held in cages, and goes through long periods of closing himself off in a corner of the tunnel where he is held, refusing to speak or eat.

He has also undergone “physical and mental torture,” including brutal Hamas interrogations and psychological terror, according to the report.

While held in harsh conditions, Zangauker has suffered rat and flea bites and reportedly has eaten mainly moldy dry bread and rice and relied on contaminated water not suitable for drinking.

According to Hebrew media reports, in November, IDF soldiers found a handwritten note attributed to Zangauker inside an underground area that the military believes housed senior terrorists.

The note had his name written in Hebrew, English and Arabic and described him as a civilian, and said that his condition at the time of writing was “good.” It is unclear when the note was written.
Siegel family’s pancake tradition raises awareness for Israeli hostages
The sweet scent of maple syrup wafting through the air and the sound of pancakes sizzling on a griddle: For decades, that was the quintessential Shabbat morning in Keith and Aviva Siegel’s home on Kibbutz Kfar Aza in southern Israel.

In that home, the couple’s four children — and eventually five grandchildren — would gather for family meals centered around pancakes — a recipe that originally belonged to Keith’s mother, a recipe that “brings back memories of special and happy family times,” he told Jewish Insider.

Those meals were put on hold for 484 days. Keith and Aviva were both kidnapped from their home by Hamas during the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks. Aviva was released from Gaza one month later during a brief ceasefire in Israel’s war with the terrorist group. Keith was released on Feb. 1, 2025, in a U.S.-brokered deal. At 66, he was the oldest living American-Israeli hostage in Gaza. While held captive in tunnels 130 feet underground, Keith said he dreamed of eating his family’s pancakes several times a day.

While Keith was in Gaza thinking of the pancakes, his daughter, Shir, posted on social media every Saturday morning about how much she missed her dad’s pancakes. Soon, Israelis were tagging her in their own pancake photos as a show of solidarity, and eventually, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum advocacy group published Keith’s now-famous recipe in a cookbook.


BBC faces questions over Gaza ‘analyst’ who led Hamas TV channel
The BBC is investigating claims that a “journalist” regularly interviewed about the conflict in Gaza was the boss of a television channel controlled by Hamas.

Wesam Afifa has repeatedly appeared on the BBC Arabic channel described as a “journalistic writer” and “political analyst”, it is claimed.

Afifa was the editor-in-chief of Al-Aqsa TV, which the BBC has described as being controlled by Hamas, from 2017 until September last year.

He was also editor-in-chief of the al-Resalah news website, which is closely associated with Hamas, from January 2006 to September last year. He continues to write for the service, according to his professional profile.

Afifa was most recently introduced as “a journalistic author” by Akram Shaban, the BBC presenter, during an interview on May 2 in which he referred to “atrocious massacres” and “hunger” in Gaza.

Research by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (Camera), a pro-Israel media-monitoring organisation with headquarters in the US, has identified two other earlier interviews.

In August last year, when he was still the boss of Al-Aqsa TV, he was described by BBC Arabic as a “journalistic author” when interviewed about ceasefire negotiations. Four months later he was introduced as “author and political analyst” as he criticised Palestinian Authority operations against Hamas in the West Bank.

Afifa has since appeared on the BBC Arabic service at least six times, a source claimed.

The BBC was asked about the number of appearances Afifa has made on the Arabic channel, if he has been paid, and if his on-screen description met the broadcaster’s editorial guidelines.
Jordanian textbooks justify Hamas Oct. 7 massacre
Jordanian textbooks justify the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre and promote antisemitism and violent jihad, marking a troubling decline in the Hashemite Kingdom’s educational standards, an international think tank reported Monday.

A study by the London-based watchdog IMPACT-se found that nearly 300 textbooks used in the 2023–2025 curriculum “promote antisemitism, glorify violent jihad, and express strong hostility toward homosexuality.”

At the same time, and somewhat contradictorily, the materials also “generally advocate concepts of religious moderation, tolerance, and peacemaking,” the report noted.

Alarmingly, a 2024 Jordanian Grade 10 National and Civic Education textbook includes a passage that appears to justify the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. The text frames the destruction of “Israeli colonies” inhabited by “settlers” as a response to Israeli oppression—implicitly suggesting that the civilians who were attacked, murdered and kidnapped were legitimate targets, according to the study.

The report also highlights that textbooks referencing Jews in Islamic history perpetuate harmful stereotypes, portraying deceit, treachery and hostility toward Islam as inherent characteristics of Jewish people.

While the Jordanian curriculum discusses jihad as a multifaceted concept, it frequently leans toward militant interpretations. A Grade 10 Islamic Education textbook cited in the study teaches that jihad includes fighting enemies and defending the nation, with martyrdom presented as a religious ideal.

At the same time, Jordanian textbooks largely omit mention of the landmark 1994 peace treaty with Israel. When referenced, it is often portrayed as a reluctant concession to the “Israeli Occupation State,” the study found.
More than 350 filmmakers denounce Israel over ‘genocide’ in Cannes-linked letter
More than 350 international filmmakers and actors have signed an open letter accusing Israel of carrying out genocide in Gaza, timed to coincide with the opening of the Cannes Film Festival.

The signatories – including directors Pedro Almodóvar, Alfonso Cuarón and David Cronenberg, and actors Susan Sarandon, Mark Ruffalo, Viggo Mortensen and Ralph Fiennes – condemned the killing of the 25-year-old Palestinian photojournalist Fatma Hassona, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike last month.

Hassona was the central figure in Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, a documentary selected for screening at Cannes as part of its ACID programme. The strike that killed her, along with ten members of her family, came the day after the film’s selection was announced. Festival organisers said the documentary is intended to “honour her memory”.

“We cannot remain silent while genocide is taking place in Gaza,” the letter reads. “We are ashamed of such passivity.”

The statement accuses the Israeli army of “targeting civilians” and claims over 200 journalists have been “deliberately killed”. It also refers to the March detention of Oscar-winning Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal, who was allegedly attacked by settlers and arrested by the IDF before being released following international pressure.

The letter goes on to urge the film industry to break its silence. “What is the point of our professions if not to draw lessons from history, to make films that are committed, if we are not present to protect oppressed voices?”

The publication of the letter comes as the Cannes Film Festival opens with an official day of programming dedicated to Ukraine. Three films highlighting the country’s war with Russia will be shown on “Ukraine Day”, including two documentaries featuring President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. No comparable programme for Gaza has been scheduled.

The signatories also accused cultural institutions of silence and complicity, saying far-right “colonial” forces were waging “a battle on the battlefield of ideas”.
Zohran Mamdani spews antisemitic trope by falsely claiming taxpayers foot NY Pol trips to Israel: Jewish activists
Democratic socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is being accused of spewing antisemitic tropes — after he falsely claimed taxpayers were footing the bill for New York lawmakers’ trips to Israel.

Jewish advocates railed that the Queens state Assembly member was insinuating Jewish pols were swindling New Yorkers to benefit Israel at their expense.

“The danger that Mamdani poses to Jewish freedom in New York City is palpable,” fumed Queens Councilman Rory Lancman, a senior counsel at the non-profit Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law.

Mamdani, 33, made the bogus claim in recently resurfaced video from a May 11, 2021, pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protest, where he also led chants of “BDS” — supporting the economic boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against the Jewish state.

“We have elected officials paid for trips to Israel,” he said in the clip posted on his Facebook page, which came back to light Sunday — hours before the Salute to Israel Day parade in Manhattan.

“They are going there paid for by your tax dollars,” Mamdani said.

“They show up at the Israel Day parade and they say, ‘We stand in solidarity,’” he went on. “We want to let them know that there are three letters that we have as an answer to what is happening in Palestine. It’s BDS.”

But the trips taken by state legislators and city council members are sponsored and paid for by the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York via philanthropic dollars, said JCRC CEO Mark Treyger, the grandson of Holocaust survivors.

He called Mamdani’s inaccurate claim “insulting and deeply offensive,” and slammed the lefty pol’s run for mayor as “one of the most divisive citywide campaigns in modern New York history.”

“Many Jewish New Yorkers are still outraged that Mamdani spent hours sipping espresso with hate influencer Hasan Piker, who has referred to Jews as bloodthirsty pig dogs,” Treyger said, referring to an interview Mamdani did with the controversial left-wing Twitch streamer.
UKLFI: Amnesty International BDS Letter Criticised
A letter sent by Amnesty International to UK local councils urging them to engage in BDS has been criticised as erroneous and as promoting unlawful action.

Amnesty International’s letter asked local councils to “adopt a procurement policy that excludes all goods sourced from Israel’s illegal settlements in Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and excludes tenderers that do business with settlements in light of their illegality as confirmed by the International Court of Justice in their Advisory Opinion of 19 July 2024.”

UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) is writing to all UK local councils, setting out why Amnesty International’s letter is incorrect in its view. Jonathan Turner, Chief Executive of UKLFI, said “We are pleased to have received many responses from local councils confirming that they intend to comply with the law on public procurement.”

Errors and omissions
Amnesty International’s letter referred to a legal opinion that tenderers who conduct business in or with Israeli communities in the West Bank have engaged in ‘professional misconduct’ entitling local authorities to exclude them under the applicable legislation on public procurement.

However, this opinion did not mention the most relevant legal judgments interpreting this term in the context of public procurement. According to these judgments, this ground for exclusion enables public authorities to reject tenderers whose misconduct undermines their reliability as a contracting party.

UKLFI’s letter points out that conducting business directly or indirectly with occupied or disputed territories does not make a business unreliable as a contracting party. Indeed, many well-known and reliable companies conduct business directly with such territories.

Furthermore, as the UK Supreme Court observed in Richardson v DPP [2014] UKSC 8, a company does not necessarily commit any criminal offence by producing goods in or near an area of Israeli settlement in the West Bank; and still less does a connected company commit any criminal offence by purchasing those goods and supplying them in the UK.

Similarly in Case 11/05331 AFPS and OLP v Alstom and Veolia, the Court of Appeal of Versailles held that companies did not breach any legal or ethical obligations by participating in a consortium to construct and operate a public transport system serving both Israeli and Arab neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem.

More generally, operating in and trading with occupied or disputed territories is a normal and widely accepted commercial practice.

Amnesty International claimed that the Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law as determined by the UN Security Council (UNSC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

However, UKLFI’s letter points out that the UNSC is not a court or a tribunal and has no legal right or mandate to determine whether something is or is not illegal under international law. It has no fact-finding powers of its own and is ultimately a political body.
Co-op to consider full Israel boycott after AGM vote
The Co-op supermarket chain is to consider whether to stop selling any Israeli products, after a vote at the organisation’s Annual General Meeting saw almost three quarters of representatives backing a boycott.

The non-binding motion at the AGM called on the organisation’s Board to “show moral courage and leadership, apply the same ethical principles and values it did to Russia, and take all Israeli products off the shelves.”

A Board response to the member’s motion in the AGM handbook noted that “the nature of international food supply chains means that it is very often impossible, impractical or unsafe to stop sourcing products entirely from specific countries…Following the invasion of Ukraine, we stopped ranging products which were self evidently from Russia like Russian Standard Vodka. We did not stop sourcing all products from Russia and would not have been able to do so due to the international food supply chain complexities noted above.”

The response went on to say that “our Co-op has always advocated for building peace through co-operation”. It made no recommendation to members whether to support the motion or not.

Earlier this month, the UK Lawyers for Israel group wrote to the Co-op, requesting that the motion “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.” Jonathan Turner, Chief Executive of UKLFI, stated that “Ceasing all trade with Israel, as proposed in the motion, while continuing to trade with many other countries involved in armed conflicts or engaging in very serious violations of human rights, would constitute racist discrimination against Israel. Passing this motion and giving effect to it would endorse its false and defamatory allegations against Israel, inciting hatred against Israeli and Jews who are associated with the only Jewish State.”

The Manchester-based consumer co-operative has not sourced products from the West Bank since 2007, in response to a motion which was passed by its members at the time. In response, many members of the UK Jewish community have since avoided shopping in the Co-op supermarkets.
JPost Editorial: Yuval Raphael is a symbol of Israel's astonishing resilience
When 24-year-old Yuval Raphael took center stage Saturday night at the Eurovision Song Contest in Basel, Switzerland, she stood there not only as a gifted singer and dynamic performer, but also as a symbol of Israel’s astonishing resilience.

Just 589 days earlier, Raphael wasn’t basking in the limelight – she was hiding under a pile of dead bodies in a roadside bomb shelter that turned into a death trap for dozens who fled there from the Supernova music festival on October 7. Of some 50 people in the shelter, she was one of only 11 who came out alive.

An experience like that could easily have shattered Raphael’s soul and extinguished her spirit. But she didn’t let it. Instead, she continued to chase her dream of becoming a singer. Earlier this year, she won the HaKoakh HaBa televised song contest, earning the right to represent Israel in the Eurovision contest.

And on Saturday night, she represented the country with grace, dignity, pride, and indomitable spirit. At the end of her song, aptly titled “New Day Will Rise,” she thanked the crowd. Then she shouted out three words that encapsulated both her own strength and the spirit of the nation she so fittingly represented: “Am Yisrael Chai” – the People of Israel live.

Shivers traveled down the spines of millions of her compatriots.

Raphael is the living embodiment of those words. On October 7, her barbaric tormentors left her for dead. But she wasn’t. She survived. Not only did she survive, but she also embraced life with passion. She didn’t wallow in victimhood but performed, created, and carried on with tremendous energy, fervor, and excitement.

That is what she brought to the stage in Basel.

And she was rewarded with a second-place finish overall. Had the contest been judged solely by the public in the 36 other competing countries – and not also by national panels often composed of artistic elites who tend to follow a particular woke orthodoxy regarding Israel—she would have won first place. Raphael came in first among the audience votes, but only 14th among the judges’.
Stephan Pollard: What the haters get wrong about Israel’s Eurovision vote
There’s a common theme to many of the posts, well represented by this one: “Look at the streets worldwide. Massive protests. This is the only vote you should pay attention to.” That sums up the mindset of the anti-Israel crowd – they take to the streets in large numbers so it should be obvious to anyone that they represent the majority. That’s a pretty standard mindset for any demonstration – an inability to comprehend that just because you feel strongly about an issue, and just because a lot of other people also feel strongly, it doesn’t mean that you are speaking for anyone except yourself.

So when you prepare to storm the stage and throw fake blood at a competitor who, 18 months ago, spent eight hours hiding under a pile of dead bodies in order to survive, you are not speaking for anyone except yourself – indeed you are shouting about yourself to the world, and when the world hears you it reacts not by cheering you but by cheering your intended victim.

The outraged and deeply puzzled social media posters make a fundamental mistake. Like their fellow bigots and racists throughout history, they assume that most people share their bigotry and racism. But as the vote showed both this year and last, they don’t. Here in the UK, Israel topped the audience poll – as it did when all the votes cast across Europe were aggregated.

It's not a scientific poll, of course. No one suggests it is. But those who dismiss it suggest the very opposite: that they speak for the majority. Simply put, they don’t. It behoves no one to make unsubstantiated claims about public opinion, least of all on the back of a vote in a song contest. The Eurovision vote isn’t an interrogation of Israeli policy or even of the war itself. But it c an be seen as an expression that Israel is understood – that far from regarding it as barbaric and genocidal, those who voted for Israel regard it as part of the community of nations. And at the very least, that a song contest should be about music, not politics. Which is all Israel needs or wants.
Stephen Daisley: An Israeli Musical Victory in the City of the First Zionist Congress
The annual Eurovision song contest, a sort of musical Olympics where each country chooses one performer (or musical group) to represent it with a single song, is a major cultural event for Europeans—and for Israelis, Australians, and Armenians. As with any international forum, Israel’s presence attracts much anger, and the country’s enemies seemed particularly incensed because the Israeli contestant, Yuval Raphael, survived the attack on the Nova music festival. She was naturally greeted by boos and the waving of Palestinian flags.

Winners are determined by a combination of votes from viewers (the rules prohibit voting for your own country’s contestant) and a score granted by a jury of show-business professionals. And something surprising happened: for all that we’ve heard about rising anti-Semitism and Israel becoming a pariah nation, Raphael won the popular vote. Stephen Daisley explains:
In the end, Austria’s JJ leapt from fourth place among viewers to overall first thanks to a very favorable jury vote for “Wasted Love.” Raphael came second overall. This made some Eurovision-fixated progressives very happy, an odd way to respond to a singing contest but hardly the first time Europeans have sided with an Austrian over the Jews.

Others were not so satisfied. How could Israel, the global pariah reviled by all right-thinking people, have won the popular vote across enlightened, progressive Europe? . . . It might just be that the viewers liked the song. Israel-haters struggle with this. If that were true, it would mean viewers saw Eurovision as a mere music competition rather than another platform for doing their mandatory daily devotion to the Palestinian cause. The masses might be frightfully unideological but their consciousness couldn’t possibly be in need of that much raising. Or maybe viewers felt bad for what Raphael had been through and gave her a sympathy vote.

This year’s final was held in Basel, Switzerland, the city where in 1897 Theodor Herzl convened the First Zionist Congress and proposed that the Jews, tormented and vilified across Europe, return to their ancient homeland and establish a Jewish state in Palestine. It was a provocative idea then and remains so now, albeit the identity of those provoked and the nature of their objections have switched a few times since. Israel didn’t come back to Basel to justify itself; it came to sing its song. It will go on singing its songs for as long as there are Jewish songs to be sung.


Bitter spirits: Spain appeals Eurovision vote after Israel secures 2nd place
Austria, which won the overall competition, experienced the opposite scenario – dominating the judges' vote but receiving fewer than 200 points from audience members.

Spanish officials, whose contestant finished in 24th place with only 10 audience points, argue that public voting is unduly influenced by political and security situations. They specifically cited Ukraine and Israel as examples of countries engaged in prolonged military conflicts that "profit" from audience sympathy votes.

The European Broadcasting Union has not yet responded to Spain's request, according to local media reports, which also indicate that additional countries are expected to join Spain's appeal for voting reform.

To conclude with Yuval Raphael's own sentiment – Am Yisrael Chai.


Lineker’s fall will be cushioned by like-minded woke men
It’s always interesting, with these dudes, which issues they choose to be brave about and which they don’t. Lineker has chosen Israel/Gaza but has repeatedly ignored pleas from women to say something about biological men in sport. He has refused to take a line. And when challenged by The Telegraph’s Oliver Brown in an interview last week came out with: “It’s too nuanced. I don’t actually think, in terms of sport, that it will ever be a real issue. Sport, as it’s already doing, will sort it out and work out rules.” He made his sympathies clear. “They’re some of the most persecuted on the planet, trans people. You’ve got to be very careful not to have bigoted views on that. I genuinely feel really badly for trans people. Imagine going through what they have to go through in life. Is there even any issue?”.

At this point a lot of us realised exactly who had an empathy bypass. If you are going to make public pronouncements you can at least educate yourself. Lineker is entitled to his views and is an incredibly talented presenter, but I am afraid he does have “skin in the game” as the BBC is publicly funded.

He cannot present himself as “neutral” in one context and “brave” in another. Free from them, he can tweet away about whatever atrocities he likes and, I am sad to say, there are places other than Israel in the world where terrible things are happening. Sudan?

He has the time to find out himself about what is going on. As he is just a guy trying to do the right thing after all. He just did an anti-Semitic thing by accident. Isn’t that always the way?

The fall from the moral high ground will be cushioned, I am sure, by like-minded apologists who cheer him on. Some humility would be in order. But these guys never know what they don’t know. See Alastair Campbell/Rory Stewart on any issue that involves women’s rights and who just happen to be part of Lineker’s podcast empire.

As I say, it’s a type. If only I had their conceit, I could offer myself up as an expert football commentator. After all, I have a lot of empathy with people who score own goals.
Gary Lineker: how virtue-signalling rots the soul
The issue at hand here is BBC impartiality, and whether or not the pretence of it will hold up if the broadcaster’s most high-profile and well-paid star continues to use the perch given to him by licence-fee payers to signal-boost high-status, bigoted opinions. It’s a tricky line to draw, for sure. Especially where freelancers and non-news personalities, like Lineker, are concerned. If the BBC sacked a presenter every time he or she said something dumb on social media they’d soon have none left.

I’m sure everyone would have preferred this to be resolved more amicably. Something that became increasingly untenable as Lineker continued to push his luck, even signing a letter demanding the BBC reinstate a Gaza documentary it had removed from the iPlayer after it was revealed the main subject of it was actually the son of a Hamas official. But unless you assume impartiality simply does not apply to those with the ‘correct’ opinions, as presumably Team Lineker does, it was obviously going to come to a head at some point.

Indeed, Lineker now joins a rogues’ gallery of presenters who have left the BBC in large part because it wouldn’t allow them to propagandise rather than inform, educate and entertain. Emily Maitlis, now of The News Agents podcast, flounced out of the corporation in 2022, accusing BBC leadership of being in the grip of a pro-Tory cabal – seemingly because it wasn’t happy with her accusing Rod Liddle of ‘casual racism’ or savaging Dominic Cummings on-air while pretending to be impartial. There is a suite of prominent broadcasters who perceive any attempt at balance as a kind of sop to the forces of Brexity, right-wing, even Zionist, reaction.

The irony being that – in Lineker’s case – his pursuit of social-media glow, his apparent inability to think outside the simplistic narratives on his phone screen, has made him blind to one of the most reactionary movements on Earth, and the moral necessity of defeating it. Namely, the genocidal anti-Semites of Hamas. He’s the walking, talking embodiment of the proverbial empty vessel that makes the loudest noise. Here is a man who seems to have given zero thought to Israel-Palestine prior to 7 October, and even now seems to be getting his takes almost exclusively from viral videos. And yet, such is his compulsion to appear righteous, he will parrot any old rubbish, even if it turns out to be wrong and heinous.


Amid surge in antisemitism, scholars debate the future of Jewish students at elite schools
Will the recent surge of antisemitism on college campuses mark the end of an era for Jews at elite universities? Jewish scholars analyzed the current crisis — and debated whether Jewish students still belong at elite bastions of higher education — at a symposium hosted by the Center for Jewish History in Manhattan, NYC, on Sunday.

Rabbi David Wolpe, a former visiting scholar at Harvard University Divinity School, delivered the event’s opening address.“I certainly don’t think that we should abandon great citadels of learning or be chased out of them, although to be there takes fortitude that I don’t think should be asked of every student,” Wolpe said. “So I’m going to give a selective answer: it depends who.”

“But one of the things that you have heard, and that has been controversial, is how much money, how many scholarships, how many chairs, how many buildings, we have given over the years to all of these institutions — and that’s true,” continued Wolpe, who stepped down from an antisemitism advisory committee at Harvard in December 2023, due to the increase of antisemitism at the school in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attacks in Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza.

“It was a dream of our ancestors that Jews be able to go to places like Harvard, Stanford, Yale and Princeton, and on and on, certainly Columbia,” Wolpe said. “It was their dream and they invested their souls in enabling their children and grandchildren to realize that dream. With all my caveats, I’m not ready to give up on the entire investment of all of those souls because others have been so cruel, so thoughtless, so blunt and even evil in the treatment of their descendants. How many souls have we invested? The answer is a lot.”

“And my guess,” Wolpe continued, “is that we are not done.”

The antisemitism symposium was held against the backdrop of intense debate over campus antisemitism among Jewish leaders in recent months as the Trump administration has pulled billions of dollars in federal funding from Ivy League schools.

In the keynote panel, titled “The Future of Jews and Elite Universities: What Is to Be Done?” Deborah Lipstadt, President Joe Biden’s former antisemitism envoy, praised some of the Trump administration’s “initial actions” on campus antisemitism.

“But what we’re seeing now has gone beyond the pale,” Lipstadt, who served on Emory University’s faculty for nearly 30 years, continued. “What we’re seeing now is an attack on elite universities in the name of antisemitism, which does exist on the campuses. But what scares me is if the universities that are fighting back win, they will say we won despite the suggestion that we were antisemitic — or despite the Jews — and if they lose they will say we lost because of the Jews.

“Either way, the Jews lose,” Lipstadt said.
Cambridge University investigates senior researcher who dubbed Chief Rabbi ‘Israeli Nazi’ and called October 7 ‘an act of resistance’
The University of Cambridge has said it is investigating one of its senior researchers who called the Chief Rabbi an “Israeli Nazi”, described October 7 as an “act of resistance”, and said antisemitism is a “fake problem”.

Edward Tomasz Napierała, a software engineer in the department of computer science and technology at the top institution, made the comments on his public X account.

In one post from April 2024, Napierała – whose LinkedIn says he has worked at Cambridge since 2017 – equated “Jews in 2024” with “German Nazis in 1945”.

“Do you know how Nazis argue about differences fascism and Nazism? You’re doing it now,” Napierała wrote in response to another X account.

“Everyone know [sic] what you did. Jews in 2024 are German Nazis in 1945. Your children will have to live with this stigma. And some of you will, hopefully, get hunted like German Nazis did.”

The JC was alerted to the researcher’s online activity by investigative research group Gnasher Jew.

In a tweet from June 2024, Napierała called the attacks of October 7, 2023, which saw around 1,200 killed and 250 taken hostage, “an act of resistance”.


Bloomberg Journalist Among Anti-Israel Radicals Arrested for Storming Columbia Library
Bloomberg journalist Jason Kao was among those arrested at Columbia University during a violent takeover of the school's Butler Library earlier this month, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.

Kao, a graphics reporter for the news outlet and Columbia alumnus, was one of the 81 radicals collared at the library after the violent mob clashed with security officials. During the unrest, rioters injured two, passed out pamphlets endorsing Hamas's violence, vandalized and damaged the library, and renamed the building after Basel al-Araj, a Palestinian terrorist killed in a 2017 shootout with the Israel Defense Forces.

"I currently work for Bloomberg News, where I use data and data visualization to cover the news," Kao wrote on his personal website.

Kao was employed by Bloomberg News as of May 1, based on a social media post from a colleague. A Bloomberg spokesperson told the Free Beacon on Monday that Kao is no longer employed by the company.

An NYPD spokesman confirmed to the Free Beacon that Kao was cuffed and charged with "criminal trespassing in the third degree," suggesting he wasn't simply covering the Butler Library storming as a journalist. Kao did not respond to a request for comment.


Harvard president declines to testify at Senate panel on higher education
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), chair of Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, stated that Alan Garber, president of Harvard University, declined to appear at an upcoming Senate hearing focusing on “issues in higher education.”

“I invited Harvard to testify. It is my firm belief that every person and institution should have the right to make their case,” said the senator. “There appears to have been tolerance of antisemitism on Harvard’s campus. This would have been the chance for Harvard to emphasize its value as a research institution and to tell the committee and the country how it is addressing antisemitism.”

Scheduled witnesses for the Wednesday hearing include other two university presidents: Michael Lindsay at Taylor University, a private Christian school in Indiana; and Mark Brown at Tuskegee University, a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in Alabama.

“Rarely are HBCUs or religiously oriented universities mentioned in conversations about how to improve America’s higher education system,” added Cassidy. “This needs to change because they have their own valuable stories to tell.”


Freed from ICE custody, Palestinian activist graduates from Columbia to cheers
Less than three weeks after his release from an immigration jail, the Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi strode across the graduation stage at Columbia University on Monday morning, savoring a moment the Trump administration had fought to make impossible.

Draped in a keffiyeh, Mahdawi, 34, paused to listen to the swell of cheers from his fellow graduates. Then he joined a vigil just outside Columbia’s gates, raising a photograph of his classmate Mahmoud Khalil, who remains in federal custody.

“It’s very mixed emotions,” Mahdawi told The Associated Press. “The Trump administration wanted to rob me of this opportunity. They wanted me to be in a prison, in prison clothes, to not have education and to not have joy or celebration.”

Mahdawi, a 34-year-old legal resident of the US, was detained during an April 14 citizenship interview in Vermont, part of the widening federal crackdown on pro-Palestinian activists.

He was released two weeks later by a judge, who likened the government’s actions to McCarthyist repression. Federal officials have not accused Mahdawi of committing a crime, but argued that he and other anti-Israel student activists should be deported for beliefs that may undermine US foreign policy.


George Washington University Apologizes After Graduation Speaker Attacks Israel
George Washington University (GW) has apologized to its campus community over an incident in which a student delivered a graduation speech which attacked Israel.

During the speech, graduating senior Cecilia student accused Israel of targeting Palestinians “simply for [their] remaining in the country of their ancestors” and said that GW students are passive contributors to the “imperialist system.” An economics and statistics major, Culver deceived administrators who selected her to address the Columbian College of the Arts and Sciences ceremony, the university said in a statement issued after the remarks circulated on social media.

“The student speaker chose to stray from their prepared remarks, which were materially different when previously reviewed by school leadership,” the university said in a statement. “We are also aware that some students unfurled signs brought under their graduation gowns, despite clear guidance to the contrary. The students’ remarks and signs do not reflect the views of the university.”

It continued, “We apologize to the graduates and families in attendance that their time of special celebration was disrupted. We are investigating this matter immediately, including whether event protocols were followed properly and whether the students’ actions violated the Code of Conduct.”

“I am ashamed to know my tuition is being used to fund genocide,” Culver said during the speech. “Every year, the cost of attending this university increases without a corresponding improvement in the facilities and resources provided to students, staff, and faculty. Instead, our money is put into the pockets of those who unequivocally prove time and time again they do not care about the students and faculty that [sic] create this university’s prestigious university [sic].”

During the remarks, the master of ceremonies, gender and sexuality professor Dr. Kavita Daiya, appeared elated and thanked Culver, for “sharing your words and your views.”


CBS News CEO Resigns Amid Internal Unrest, Anti-Semitism Accusations, and Trump's $20 Billion Lawsuit
McMahon's resignation comes during a tumultuous period for CBS.

The network entered talks last month to settle Trump's $20 billion lawsuit, which accuses 60 Minutes of deceptively editing a 2024 interview with then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris to boost her campaign. An unedited transcript of the interview has confirmed that several of Harris's lengthy, rambling responses—particularly on Israel—were heavily condensed. The show’s longtime executive producer, Bill Owens, abruptly resigned last month, criticizing CBS's parent company, Paramount.

Meanwhile, CBS controlling shareholder Shari Redstone has voiced her dissatisfaction with the network's anti-Israel coverage. CBS faced scrutiny in particular for a January 60 Minutes segment that criticized Israel's war against Hamas terrorists and relied on sources affiliated with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, whose executive director has openly praised Hamas.

CBS also faced backlash last fall after McMahon and then-editorial chief Adrienne Roark reprimanded anchor Tony Dokoupil for challenging guest Ta-Nehisi Coates's criticisms of Israel. Redstone defended Dokoupil, calling McMahon and Roark's reprimand a "bad mistake" and praising the anchor for modeling "what civil discourse is."


CAIR Leader Who Serves on California State Civil Rights Panel Cheers Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis, Says Trump’s ‘Time Will Come’
An official with the anti-Israel Council on American-Islamic Relations who also serves on a California state civil rights board is cheering former president Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis and expressed hope that President Donald Trump’s "time will come too," citing the presidents' stances on Israel's war against Hamas.

Zahra Billoo, the executive director of CAIR's San Francisco branch, said on social media that Biden’s cancer diagnosis was "God’s wrath" for his handling of the Israel-Hamas war. Billoo added that she's praying Biden’s cancer will be "as aggressive" as Israel's military actions against Hamas.

Her remarks came after Biden announced he was diagnosed last week with a highly aggressive form of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones. Other anti-Israel activists cheered the grim prognosis. Former Bernie Sanders surrogate Shaun King called Biden a "genocidal monster," adding that, "I hope his final days are painful." Former Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz wrote that "Hopefully [Biden] rots in hell and rests in piss."

Billoo’s remarks could put pressure on Governor Gavin Newsom, whose office appoints members to the California Civil Liberties Program, which provides "insight and expertise in ongoing civil liberties and civil rights issues." Billoo was appointed to the panel in 2018 by Newsom's predecessor Jerry Brown. A spokesman for the California Library, which oversees the panel, says it has not met since last year due to lack of funding, but that Billoo still serves on the board.

Newsom’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Billoo and CAIR have extensive histories of inflammatory rhetoric and terrorist sympathies. Last year, Billoo mourned the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, saying that "his martyrdom is not in vain." In December 2023, CAIR director Nihad Awad said he was "happy to see" Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, in which 1,200 Israeli civilians were slaughtered.

Despite that rhetoric, Newsom’s office has worked closely with CAIR to combat what the organization claims to be an epidemic of "Islamophobia." Days after the Hamas attack on Israel, Newsom’s office quoted CAIR official Hussam Ayloush in a press release that announced statewide grants to bolster security at houses of worship. Newsom met with Ayloush and other CAIR leaders in January 2024, weeks before Newsom called for an Israeli ceasefire in Gaza.


West Bank Palestinian indicted for killing Israeli partner while in labor, setting body on fire
An indictment was filed against a Palestinian resident of A-Ram, in the West Bank, for the murder of his Israeli partner while she was in labor, Israel Police said on Monday.

The Palestinian, a 35-year-old man, murdered the woman while she was in labor, and then set her body on fire. After this, he then sold her car for profit.

The police said they found the burned body of the mother with the baby still connected to her by the umbilical cord on April 1, 2025.

After weeks of investigation, Yamar arrested the main suspect
Judea and Samaria District Central Unit (YAMAR) of the Israel Police arrested the father of the baby as the main suspect in the investigation.

Since the indictment, the father will be charged with murder under aggravating circumstances.

In a statement, the police spokesperson said, "The Judea and Samaria District of the Israel Police will continue to operate resolutely and professionally to uncover the truth, bring justice to the victims, and ensure that those who harm human life are held accountable."
Two more Israelis charged with spying for Iran
In a joint operation at the end of April, the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and the Israel Police’s Lahav 433 unit arrested two Israeli citizens on suspicion of perpetrating security-related offenses on behalf of Iranian operatives, according to a statement released by police on Tuesday.

Investigators allege that during 2025, Roi Mizrahi established contact with Iranian agents and undertook a series of sensitive tasks under their direction, some of them in coordination with the second suspect, Almog Atias. The activities focused on the town of Kfar Ahim, where Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz resides. Both suspects are 25 years old.

Both suspects were aware they were being handled by hostile foreign actors and that their actions posed a threat to national security, according to the Shin Bet. Neither is thought to have been previously involved with criminal activities; as both were deeply in debt, financial gain is believed to be the likely motivation.

Among the tasks attributed to Mizrahi was purchasing a camera that transmitted real-time video and installing it at crowded checkpoints in Haifa. He was subsequently expected to transfer control of the cameras to his operators. In one particularly alarming instance, Mizrahi was allegedly instructed to dig up a buried bag—believed to contain an explosive device—and transfer it from one location to another. Authorities say he followed the orders precisely.

The Shin Bet emphasized that the case highlights ongoing efforts by Iranian intelligence to exploit Israeli civilians via digital channels for espionage and terrorism.
Danish man charged with terror plot involving drones for Hamas
A 28-year-old man was remanded in custody on Monday by the Copenhagen City Court on suspicion of conspiring to purchase drones for use by Hamas in a planned terrorist attack, according to the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET).

The charges stem from a large-scale counterterrorism operation in December 2023, during which several arrests were made across Denmark. PET said the individual, who was located abroad at the time, was imprisoned in absentia and later extradited.

Authorities believe the man is a leading member of a banned Danish gang and maintains ties to the Hamas terrorist organization. PET and the Prosecution Service allege that he had purchased drones intended for use in a terrorist attack “at an unknown location in Denmark or abroad.”

“The court agreed today that there is reasonable suspicion in this matter, and, on that basis, decided to remand the suspect in custody,” said Flemming Drejer, PET’s Head of Operations.

Drejer added, “It is of course deeply concerning if we have a terrorism case on Danish soil with links to an organization like Hamas. And I want to emphasize that if parts of the gang environment in Denmark are moving onto a path where terrorist attacks are being planned, those individuals will draw the full attention of PET—whether they are in Denmark or abroad.”


Iran-Backed Houthi Terrorists Declare ‘Maritime Blockade’ of Israel’s Haifa Port
The Iran-backed Houthi terrorists of Yemen declared a “maritime blockade” of Israel’s Haifa port on Monday – a blockade they presumably intend to enforce with missile and drone attacks on shipping.

“All companies with ships present in or heading to this port are hereby notified that, as of the time of this announcement, the aforementioned port has been included in the list of targets,” said Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree.

Another Houthi spokesman, Ahmed Salah, said that civilian vessels are now “prohibited” from loading or unloading cargo at Haifa, which is Israel’s largest seaport. Ships which defy the order will be considered “military targets” by the Houthis.

“The presence of any vessels heading to the Port of Haifa, or having any indirect connection thereto, will expose your company and its fleet to sanctions,” Salah said.

“In the event that your company is listed on the sanctions list, its fleet will be prohibited from transiting the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandab Strait, the Gulf of Aden, the Arabian Sea, and the Indian Ocean. Moreover, it will be subject to targeting by the Yemeni Armed Forces wherever reachable,” he said.

Neither Houthi spokesman mentioned whether Israel’s other ports would be included in the “blockade.”

The Houthis have been attacking civilian ships in the Red Sea ever since Hamas launched the Gaza War by attacking Israel on October 7, 2023. The Yemeni insurgents, who drove the legitimate government out of the national capital in 2014 and control much of Yemen’s coastline, have a habit of declaring escalated attacks or “blockades” whenever Israel escalates its military activity in Gaza.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a new operation in Gaza after Hamas refused to release the remaining hostages it kidnapped on October 7. IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said on Tuesday that Hamas will “pay the price for its refusal” by losing more of its territory and “terror infrastructure.”

“Hamas has one option, and that is to release our hostages. If there is an agreement, the IDF will know how to adjust its activity accordingly,” Zamir said.


$10m reward for info to disrupt Hezbollah finances in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay
The U.S. Department of State’s Rewards for Justice program is asking for information about Hezbollah funding networks in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, the department stated on May 19.

The program, run through the Diplomatic Security Service, has been offering a $10 million reward for information that disrupts “the financial mechanisms of the terrorist organization,” the department said.

Those who back Hezbollah have raised money for the terror group in the three countries via money laundering, drug trafficking, smuggling charcoal and oil, illegal diamond trading, forging documents, counterfeiting U.S. dollars, and smuggling large amounts of cash, cigarettes and luxury goods, per the State Department.


Alan Dershowitz: Open Letter to President Trump Urging Him to Prevent an Iranian Nuclear Arsenal
There can be no reasonable doubt that Iran's mullahs are determined to obtain nuclear weapons, despite their assurances to the contrary. Nor can Israel, which is the intended target of an Iranian bomb, be expected to rely on deterrence or containment. Iran must be prevented from achieving their dangerous goal.

[U]nless your deal includes the complete and total destruction of all Iranian nuclear facilities, there will be no guarantee that its scientists could not surreptitiously use civilian nuclear infrastructure to build military weaponry. The only deal that would prevent this catastrophe would be one modeled on the agreement made with Libya made back in 2003. That deal completely dismantled Libya's nuclear facilities and made it impossible for them to weaponize nuclear energy infrastructure. Anything short of that will create an unacceptable risk.

We urge you to use your incredible negotiating skills to achieve the goal that you have set out: namely a 100% certainty that Iran will never get a nuclear bomb.
Rubio: Iranian proxy terrorism hasn’t been part of negotiations with Iran
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in his first appearance on Capitol Hill since being confirmed as secretary of state that Iran’s support for regional terrorist proxies has not been part of the ongoing talks between the Iranian government and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, which Rubio said have been focused wholly on Iran’s nuclear program and enrichment capabilities.

At the same time, Rubio insisted that any sanctions related to terrorist activity and weapons proliferation would remain in place if such issues are not part of the nuclear deal.

Rubio’s comments indicate the deal might still be subject to what some critics in the United States and the region described as a key flaw of the original nuclear deal — that it failed to address other malign activity by the regime. One U.S. lawmaker who traveled to the Middle East recently said that U.S. partners in Israel and the Arab world had argued that any deal must include non-nuclear provocations.

Rubio added that sanctions will remain in place until a deal is reached, and that European partners are working separately on re-implementing snapback sanctions, potentially by October of this year, when such sanctions expire.

He also said that Iran cannot have any level of nuclear enrichment under a nuclear deal, as it would inevitably provide a pathway for Iran to enrich to weapons-grade levels.

“About 90% of the work of enrichment is getting to that 3.67% level [necessary for civilian nuclear power]. After that, the rest of it is just a matter of time,” Rubio said. “They [Iran] claim that enrichment is a matter of national pride. It is our view that they want enrichment as a deterrent. They believe that it makes them a threshold nuclear power, and as a result, [become] untouchable.”
Ted Cruz expresses concern about influence of some Trump officials on Iran policy
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said on Tuesday that he is concerned about the views of some of the officials in the White House shaping President Donald Trump’s Iran policy, marking the most critical comments yet from the hawkish senator about Trump’s approach to Iran.

He urged members of NORPAC, a pro-Israel advocacy organization, to raise the issue in their meetings with anyone in the Trump administration.

“We need clarity with the Trump administration, and as NORPAC talks to the administration, I would say, I worry there are voices in the administration that are not eager to hold up the president’s red line of dismantlement,” Cruz said at NORPAC’s annual Washington lobbying mission, referring to mixed messaging from some U.S. officials on the acceptable contours of a potential new nuclear agreement with Iran.

Cruz, a staunch opponent of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama administration, has not formally come out against Trump’s negotiations with Iran, although he said in his remarks that he has “more than a little skepticism” that “this threat can be dealt with diplomatically.”

But in recent weeks, Cruz has challenged one talking point on the negotiations made by officials including Vice President JD Vance, Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio — that Iran should be allowed to maintain a civil nuclear program.

“There are some in the Senate who say, Well, Iran can have civilian peaceful nuclear power. Baloney. I see no reason for Iran to have anything nuclear whatsoever,” Cruz said Tuesday, echoing comments he has made in the past. “The only way to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon is to eliminate the centrifuges.”
Iran does not believe nuclear talks with US will yield results, says Khamenei
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday that the chances of a breakthrough in negotiations with the United States over Iran’s nuclear program are slim, accusing the U.S. administration of making “nonsense statements.”

“The Islamic Republic does not believe that the current negotiations with America will yield positive results, and no one knows what will follow,” he said at a ceremony commemorating former Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi and foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who both died in a helicopter crash in May, 2024, near the border with Azerbaijan.

“The Americans must stop making nonsense statements and issuing futile remarks,” said Khamenei, according to Iran’s semi-official news agency Mehr.

The Iranian leader pushed back against American demands to stop its enrichment of uranium, calling them “outrageous.”

“We are not waiting for anyone’s permission. The Islamic Republic has its own policies, its own path, and will pursue its strategies independently,” he said.

On Monday, U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff said that Washington will not accept enrichment of uranium in any deal with Tehran.

“We have one very, very clear red line, and that is enrichment. We cannot allow even 1% of an enrichment capability,” Witkoff said in an interview with ABC’s “This Week.”

An indispensable condition for an accord with Iran from U.S. President Donald Trump’s perspective, the envoy continued, is that it “does not include enrichment. We cannot have that. Because enrichment enables weaponization. And we will not allow a bomb to get here.”

He added that U.S.-Iran talks will resume this week in Europe, expressing optimism that they “will lead to some real positivity.”


Mezuzah stolen from north London home in suspected antisemitic incident
A man has been caught on security camera allegedly removing a mezuzah from a Jewish home in Golders Green in what is being investigated as a possible antisemitic attack.

Footage released by Shomrim North West London shows a man walking up to the front door of a property on Sunday morning and appearing to use a knife to remove the religious scroll from the doorpost before walking away. The incident was one of several reported across the area in recent days.

A mezuzah, a small decorative case containing a handwritten Hebrew prayer, is traditionally affixed to the doorframe of Jewish homes. Its presence makes such homes highly identifiable.

Shomrim said the pattern of incidents appears to be “deliberate acts of antisemitism” and confirmed it is liaising with police as part of an active investigation.

“The religious Jewish community have traditionally borne a lot of the brunt of antisemitic attacks because they are most visibly Jewish,” said a spokesperson. “This has a profound impact on our quality of life. This person is caught on camera. He must be identified.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism condemned the incident as “cowardly and costly vandalism”. A spokesperson said: “This sort of targeting sends the message that British Jews aren’t safe, even in places where they think they are. We join Shomrim in calling for information so appropriate action can be taken. If this were your home, you’d want others to help you get justice too.”


Alleged Hamas supporter jailed after trying to enter UK illegally
An alleged Palestinian gunman who reportedly called for the slaughter of Jews has been jailed for nine months after attempting to enter the UK illegally.

Abu Wadee, 33, also known as Mosab Abdulkarim Al-Gassas, pleaded guilty on Monday to trying to get into the country on March 6 without leave or valid entry clearance.

He was arrested by immigration enforcement officers after arriving on a small boat in Kent, having paid smugglers 1,500 euros (£1,300), Canterbury Crown Court heard.

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

He had livestreamed his arrival on an “overcrowded and rigid inflatable boat”, the court heard.

Judge Sarah Counsell, sentencing, said there is “legitimate public concern about breaches of border control” over illegal boat crossings, which are of “significant profit to organised criminals”.

She told Wadee that there was a “risk of death or injury to you and others”.

The defendant, who left Gaza in 2022 before making asylum claims in Greece, Germany and Belgium, had no familial or financial ties to the UK and had stayed between Calais and Dunkirk in France for a week before making the crossing, the court heard.

He livestreamed his dinghy being approached by a Border Force vessel on TikTok.

The court was shown a 20-second clip of the livestream on Monday, but it is not known how many viewed it at the time.

Wadee has a large following on social media, where his TikTok videos attract up to 2.5 million views, The Mail on Sunday claimed.

He is alleged to have charted his journey from Gaza on the social media channel.

His arrival in the UK made national headlines after it was reported that Wadee, a Palestinian from the city of Khan Yunis in Gaza, had posted on social media support for terror group Hamas, and hate-speech calling for the death of Jews.

He posted a video on his Facebook page last September in which he is filmed calling for Allah to “punish (Jews) completely”, it was reported.


Former Hamas hostage Omer Shem Tov honored at Fenway Park
Omer Shem Tov, who was abducted by Hamas during the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre and spent 505 days in captivity, threw out the ceremonial first pitch at Fenway Park on Monday as the Boston Red Sox celebrated Jewish Heritage Night.

Shem Tov, 22, wore a Red Sox jersey with his name and the No. 25.

He also donned a yellow ribbon in solidarity with the estimated 58 hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza, and his sneakers bore the inscription “Bring them home.”

The event was part of Shem Tov’s U.S. visit, during which he spoke publicly about his ordeal and urged international efforts to secure the freedom of the remaining captives.

He was released on Feb. 22, 2025, under the terms of a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.




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2019 Nobel Peace Prize nominee

Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون



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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