Thursday, May 29, 2025

05/29 Links Pt2: A Secular Jihadi Brings the Intifada to Washington; Mamdani’s Astonishing Hezbollah Propaganda; The Man Who Ran Toward Danger: Ari Fuld Remembered

From Ian:

Clifford D. May: A Secular Jihadi Brings the Intifada to Washington
On May 21, a college-educated terrorist fatally shot Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, two young Israeli Embassy staffers. He shot both in the back and then fired repeatedly when they fell to the ground. After that, he tossed away his weapon and strolled into the Capital Jewish Museum. When the police arrived, he pulled out a red keffiyeh and shouted, "Free, free Palestine!"

Elias Rodriguez's red keffiyeh is associated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a secular, Marxist-Leninist organization. The group receives financial and military backing from Tehran. Designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and EU, the PFLP supports "armed struggle" in alliance with Islamists. The annihilation of Israel is its primary goal. Rodriguez, the executioner of a defenseless young woman and an unarmed young man, regards himself as a revolutionary.

Certain circles that claim to champion "diversity and inclusion" find it intolerable that one tiny Jewish state exists among the more than 20 Arab states and more than 50 Muslim states. Note, too, that no one who shouts "Free Palestine" means to suggest that people in Gaza and the West Bank should be guaranteed freedom of speech, press, religion and assembly, which are rights enjoyed by Jewish, Christian and Muslim Israelis.
Sharon Osbourne and Debra Messing among 400+ stars condemning anti-Israel lies after deadly DC shooting
More than 400 entertainment leaders – including actors Mayim Bialik, Debra Messing and Uzo Aduba – have signed a powerful open letter condemning a “toxic mix of distortion, bigotry and incitement” from the anti-Israel movement, warning that celebrity-amplified propaganda fuels deadly antisemitic violence.

The letter, released on Thursday by the non-profit Creative Community For Peace (CCFP), follows the fatal shooting of two young people outside the Washington, D.C., Jewish Museum on 21 May. The attacker reportedly shouted “Free Palestine” during the incident.

“This stream of lies against the Jewish people and the Jewish ancestral homeland has now – unsurprisingly to anyone watching closely – turned deadly in the United States,” said The Big Bang Theory actress Mayim Bialik. “This moment requires public figures to use their platforms responsibly.”

The unprecedented statement – backed by senior industry figures including Haim Saban, Sharon Osbourne, Patricia Heaton and the CEOs of Mattel, Warner Records and FOX Entertainment Global – accuses the anti-Israel campaign of pushing disinformation, justifying Hamas atrocities, and endangering Jews globally.

“We are saying enough,” the letter reads. “Enough with the lies, and enough with the extremism.” It warns that many well-meaning public figures have been “manipulated” into spreading Hamas-aligned narratives, often without realising the damage.

In a joint statement, CCFP chair David Renzer and executive director Ari Ingel said: “For the past 600 days, the anti-Israel movement has espoused an unrelenting stream of extremist rhetoric to demonise Israel and anyone who supports the country… Without a course correction, we will only see more hate, more violence, and more innocent people targeted simply for being Jewish.”

The letter directly links social media-driven incitement to real-world consequences, referencing the D.C. shooting as proof that slogans like “Free Palestine” are being weaponised into calls for violence.
Seth Mandel: Mamdani’s Astonishing Hezbollah Propaganda
Zohran Mamdani is the progressive candidate surging in New York’s Democratic mayoral primary. It’s difficult to get to that position as a progressive without being sufficiently hostile to the Jewish state, and Mamdani certainly checks that box. But this week he crossed a line that was staggeringly militant even in our current age of say-anything shock-jock politics.

To be clear, Mamdani has never been subtle about his extremism. He founded his alma mater’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, the campus pro-Hamas organization that has been most vocal in support of violence against Jews in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks. Mamdani instituted a policy of “non-normalization,” meaning he would not allow the group to work with anyone who believed in the Jewish right to self-determination.

These days, Mamdani spends his time promising to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and getting fundraising help from the Democratic Socialists of America, which just endorsed the murder of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, D.C., outside the Capital Jewish Museum. A key campaign ally of his is Linda Sarsour, among the most infamous and virulent anti-Semites in the modern history of New York City politics.

As if all that weren’t enough, Mamdani, currently an assemblyman, refused to support a resolution condemning the Holocaust. When pressed on the move, his campaign manager made clear it was a campaign-related decision—essentially the product of a left-wing candidate running further to his left, banking on gaining more voters than he’d lose by refusing to take sides on the Holocaust. He has also attended rallies organized by Within Our Lifetime, whose founder has said, “I hope that a pop-pop [of a gun] is the last noise that some Zionists hear in their lifetime.”

Mamdani, then, is a post-Oct. 7 vessel for the de-stigmatized tidal wave of anti-Semitism in the West. And yet, his comments at a campaign stop this week at a mosque showed he could sink further still.

He brought up Israel’s pager operation, likely the most carefully targeted such operation in the history of warfare, in which the pagers only of Hezbollah exploded, maiming thousands of terrorists after the group had waged months of war on Israeli civilians.

Here is how Mamdani characterized the operation:

“Israel’s blowing up of thousands of pagers across Lebanon and killing scores of Lebanese civilians including a young girl by the name of Fatima, who picked up her father’s pager in an act of love and lost her life.”

It is categorically untrue that “scores of civilians” were killed, and not even Lebanese authorities claimed as much. The only way that number is accurate is if Mamdani considers Hezbollah terrorists to be civilians—which is possible, because he does not mention Hezbollah at all in his remarks. Incredibly, Mamdani frames a successful, unimaginably well-targeted counter-terror operation as a wanton attack on random Lebanese civilians. He closes with a classic child-murderer swipe at the Jewish state.


What the Hell Is Going On: #WTH Is No One in the Music Industry Standing Up for Israeli Hostages? Five for Fighting’s John Ondrasik Explains
John Ondrasik is standing up for Israeli hostages in the best way he knows how. Having written and performed songs with strong social messages over the last several decades, he is responding to the horrors of Hamas’ October 7th attacks by rewriting the words to his hit song “Superman (It’s Not Easy)”. Ondrasik’s revised lyrics turn pain into resilience, but why aren’t other artists speaking out? Ondrasik has sung about 9/11, about Afghanistan, about Ukraine, and about terror attacks in Israel. But he is almost alone in the music industry. Why are artists so afraid to do the right thing, and stand against terrorism?

John Ondrasik is a Grammy-Award nominated singer-songwriter who has spent the last several decades writing deeply personal songs with strong social messages in six studio albums featured in over 350 films, TV shows, and advertisements under his hockey moniker, Five for Fighting. Most recently, John has been using his platform to advocate for Israel and denounce the holding of Israeli hostages and the Oct. 7th attacks by the terrorist group Hamas. He has recently updated the words of his song Superman to highlight Israeli hostage Alon Ohel, and the other hostages still held by Hamas.


Sexually harassed, nearly killed in an airstrike: Rescued hostage Ori Megidish speaks
For the first time, Ori Megidish, an Israeli soldier who was the first hostage to be rescued from the Gaza Strip following the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, has spoken about her experiences, including sexual harassment by a Hamas guard, nearly dying in an airstrike, and being treated by doctors at a Gaza hospital.

Megidish spoke to Channel 12’s Uvda program in a pre-recorded interview that was broadcast on Wednesday night, as the families of hostages remaining in Gaza marked 600 days since the devastating Hamas attack in which they were abducted.

“The whole 23 days I feared I would die,” Megidish said of the period until she was rescued. “It never left me for a moment. It is a fear you can’t describe.”

Megidish was abducted from the Nahal Oz Base by Hamas gunmen. In total, 53 soldiers were killed in Hamas’s assault on the base, and several others were taken hostage.

During the assault, Megidish said that she and others took refuge in a bomb shelter at the base. Hamas terrorists who overran the base then threw a grenade in.

When she looked up, she saw another female soldier, whom she didn’t know, still in pajamas, on her knees and firing back at the terrorists.

“She is my hero,” she said.

According to Channel 12, that soldier in question was Cpt. Eden Nimri, 22, who positioned herself at the entrance to the shelter and fought back against the attackers. Nimri was eventually killed, as were many others inside the shelter.


Capital Jewish Museum reopens with victims on the minds of DC Jews
The Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., reopened on Thursday with nine speakers, more than 100 invited guests and two people on everybody’s minds.

Giant photographs of Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Milgrim, 26, greeted the speakers and guests. A lone gunman, who shot the couple to death outside the museum on May 21, told police that “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza,” per court documents.

After going through tight security, with uniformed guards on duty, visitors wanded and bags searched, the audience sat to a haunting version of “Oseh Shalom” sung by Cantor Ze’evi Tovlev of Temple Shalom, a Reform congregation in Chevy Chase, Md. At one point, an audience member started singing a more familiar version of the song, which calls for peace, and other guests and the cantor joined in.

Chris Wolf, president of the museum’s board of directors, said that the institution will dedicate its future work to Lischinsky and Milgrim, and that its reopening was a searing response to those who would harm Jews.

“We will not be deterred from this vital work,” Wolf told the audience. “It is an act of resilience. It is a declaration that we will not allow hate to silence our commitment.”

Speakers balanced eulogies for the slain couple, who were planning to get engaged next week in Jerusalem, with condemnations of last week’s antisemitic attack and calls for peace and an end to Jew-hatred.

“It is not up to the Jewish community to say, ‘support us,’” said Muriel Bowser, the D.C. mayor, who drew criticism for skipping a unity and solidarity gathering the prior night.

“It is up to us to denounce antisemitism in all forms,” Bowser told the audience.
DC mayor a no-show at Jewish unity gathering, after gunman kills Israeli embassy staffers
On May 22, some 15 hours after a gunman killed two Israeli embassy staffers outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, Muriel Bowser, the D.C. mayor, stated that she was sending “prayers and condolences” to relatives of the victims and that “we will not tolerate antisemitism.”

Six days later, the mayor was a no-show at a Jewish unity and solidarity gathering held on the George Washington University campus on Wednesday night.

Rabbi Levi Shemtov, the executive vice president of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad), told the audience that it would hear “the words of comfort that the mayor has to say for us tonight.”

Shemtov stepped away from the podium for about 25 seconds, leaving it empty.

“That’s exactly right, folks,” he said, upon returning to the microphone. “The mayor’s staff said she was coming, and we all heard her message of concern for our community, which is nothing tonight.”

“We were told they were going to get her there and specifically how her speaking would work, and we were just waiting to know what time her arrival would be,” Shemtov told JNS. “The next thing we hear, she was having a problem getting there schedule-wise. We were never told about that until closer to the event. We wouldn’t have publicized her name if we didn’t think she was coming.”

“She could have found the time to come even briefly as a person and say ‘I am with you,’” he added.

The mayor’s office told JNS that she was never confirmed for the event “and suggestions to the contrary are incorrect.”
Torres warns American Psychological Association to address ‘persistent and pernicious’ antisemitism in its ranks
Concerned with a “persistent and pernicious pattern of antisemitism” at the American Psychological Association, the preeminent professional organization for American psychologists, Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) is urging the body’s leadership to investigate antisemitism within its ranks and better respond to the concerns of Jewish members.

“I have spoken directly with whistleblowers — many of them longtime APA members — who accuse the organization of enabling a hostile environment,” Torres wrote in a letter, obtained by Jewish Insider, that he sent to the APA’s president and president-elect on Wednesday. “These incidents collectively suggest that the APA has not only been dismissive of the legitimate grievances of Jewish psychologists but also permissive of content that traffics in malicious falsehoods against Zionism, Israel, and the Jewish community.”

Torres’ letter comes as the mental health field grapples with an antisemitism problem that has grown more acute after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel. The Association of Jewish Psychologists said in 2023 that it was “deeply disappointed and terribly saddened” by the APA’s actions in the aftermath of Oct. 7.

Torres reported that Jewish and pro-Israel psychologists have been harassed on APA-sponsored listservs, including one email with the phrase “kudos to Hamas,” according to conversations he had with APA members, and that divisions within the organization have “issued politicized and inflammatory statements” accusing Israel of genocide, while “suppressing dissenting academic voices.”

Torres urged the APA to conduct an independent investigation into antisemitism across its affiliated divisions and listservs; to reform accreditation of continuing education programs “to ensure the APA is not lending institutional legitimacy to bigotry”; to enforce “clear standards for respectful discourse,” including “protections for Zionist Jews”; and to make sure that Jews are represented as the APA works to address antisemitism.

“The APA’s legitimacy as a scientific and professional institution is at stake,” Torres wrote, if the body does not take action.
Counselling body apologises for ‘genocide in Gaza’ comment in membership magazine
The British Association of Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies has apologised to its members for the inclusion of the phrase ‘genocide taking place in Gaza’ in an article on Islamophobia.

The piece was published in the professional body’s February 2025 issue of magazine ‘CBT’ (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy).

In the apology, seen by Jewish News, Tommy McIlravey, chief executive of the association, said the inclusion “was the subject of a number of complaints from both members of BABCP and wider interest groups”, adding that the term ‘genocide’ “remains contested and is the subject of an ongoing legal case in the International Court of Justice.”

On behalf of the organisation, McIlravey apologised “for any distress caused by the unqualified use of the contested term”, going on to say that: “What is beyond argument is that Islamophobia and antisemitism are both scourges upon our society. They affect our members, friends, colleagues, neighbours and clients.”

Accompanying the apology was the publication of a column about antisemitism and mental health, written by psychologist Dr. Sandi Mann, in which the link is made between anti-Israel hate and antisemitism.

The Association also last week cancelled a training session on Islamophobia after several of the invited speakers were discovered to have published or shared highly problematic extreme anti-Zionist social media posts.

In a social media post on Twitter/X, Dr. Tarek Younis of Middlesex University said he was “proud to have contributed” to the application of law firm Riverway to de-proscribe Hamas from the list of banned organisations in the UK under the Terrorism Act 2000.

In a now deleted post, Younis also wrote: “Our work isn’t done until all Zionists are removed from our institutions and shamed, alongside all racists, into nothingness.”
‘Expect massive lawsuits’ against University of California system, Leo Terrell says
Having paused, canceled or audited billions of dollars in federal funding at Harvard University and sought to curb the school’s ability to enroll foreign students over its record protecting Jews on campus, the Trump administration is focusing on the University of California system next, Leo Terrell, who leads the Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, told Fox News on Tuesday.

“I want everyone to understand this. Unlike the previous administration, expect massive lawsuits against the UC system,” Terrell, senior counsel at the U.S. Justice Department, told Harris Faulkner on her eponymous show. “On the East Coast. The West Coast. The Midwest. Expect hate crime charges filed by the federal government. Expect Title VII lawsuits against those individuals who are not being protective, simply because they are Jewish.”

“This is going to stop,” he told Fox News. “We’re going to meet them in court.”

Terrell told JNS earlier this week that the Trump administration planned to file a lawsuit against the 10-campus University of California system.
Federal judge says admin’s effort to deport Mahmoud Khalil likely unconstitutional
A federal judge in New Jersey issued an order on Wednesday ruling that the Trump administration’s monthslong effort to deport Columbia University protest leader Mahmoud Khalil was likely unconstitutional — but that his failure to disclose his affiliations with anti-Israel groups raises concerns.

Judge Michael Farbiarz said in his opinion that the court found that Khalil is unlikely to succeed in his challenge against the claim that he failed to disclose crucial information in his green card application, including former employment by UNRWA and his membership in the campus group Columbia University Apartheid Divest, which has been banned from Instagram for promoting anti-Israel violence.

Farbiarz also noted that the charges in Khalil’s case are “unprecedented” and likely unconstitutional, stating, “the issue now before the Court has been this: does the Constitution allow the Secretary of State to use Section 1227, as applied through the determination, to try to remove the Petitioner from the United States? The Court’s answer: likely not.” Farbiarz said he will soon issue an order about next steps in the case.

The opinion ruling was a response to an appeal filed by Khalil’s lawyers last month, after the Trump administration presented claims against Khalil, a former graduate student who led last year’s anti-Israel campus protests against the war in Gaza and subsequent student negotiations with university administration.

A memo submitted to the court in Louisiana — where Khalil remains held in an ICE detention facility — signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio cited the president’s authority to expel noncitizens whose presence in the country could have adverse foreign policy consequences, regardless of whether they have committed a crime. It stated that Khalil’s arrest and planned deportation are based on his “participation in antisemitic protests and disruptive activities, which fosters a hostile environment for Jewish students in the United States.”

“Condoning anti-Semitic conduct and disruptive protests in the United States would severely undermine that significant foreign policy objective,” Rubio wrote in the two-page memo.

One day after the memo was submitted, an immigration judge in Louisiana ruled that the government’s argument that Khalil’s presence in the U.S. posed “potentially serious foreign policy consequences” was sufficient to rule he could be removed from the country. Khalil’s lawyers argue that he’s being punished for what they say is protected speech.
Harvard Hosts Anti-Trump, Anti-Israel CNN News Anchor As Grad Speaker
Amanpour also challenged CNN’s leaders in 2024 over Israeli influence over the network’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas war that kicked off when the terror group massacred more than 1,000 Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023, Business Insider reported. CNN has faced severe criticism for its anti-Israel coverage since the war began.

Between October 7, 2023, and November 17, 2023, Israel was accused of “genocide” or being “genocidal” 13 times on “Amanpour,” with Hamas only being accused of similar atrocities 3 times, according to Newsbusters.

In May 2023, Amanpour faced backlash after referring to a terrorist attack that killed a mother and her two daughters as a “shootout” during an interview with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh. The victims — Lucy, Maia, and Rina Dee were shot by Hamas-linked terrorists while driving on a highway. Amanpour later apologized, saying she had “misspoke.” Rabbi Leo Dee, the husband and father of the victims, said he did not accept her apology, The Times of Israel reported.

A 2007 documentary by Amanpour titled “God’s Jewish Warriors” faced criticism from the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America for “equating the extremely rare cases of religiously-inspired violence on the part of Christians and Jews with radical Islam’s global, often state-supported, campaigns of mass killing.”

Amanpour has had a four-decade career in television journalism, beginning at CNN in 1983. She has reported on international conflicts throughout her career and currently hosts “Amanpour,” CNN’s flagship global affairs interview program, and “The Amanpour Hour.”

“Anyone who follows world news recognizes her signature determination to cut through the noise and help her viewers better understand complex global events,” said Kennedy School Dean Jeremy Weinstein. “At this time of change and uncertainty, she is the perfect person to address the next generation of public servants as they graduate from Harvard Kennedy School.”

Amanpour, who was born in London to an Iranian father and British mother, was raised in Tehran before moving to the United States following the 1979 Iranian revolution.


Dismiss Our Cases, Keffiyeh-Clad Columbia Radicals Tell NYC Court
A parade of keffiyeh-clad students descended on Manhattan Criminal Court on Wednesday to face formal arraignment for their roles in a violent takeover of Columbia University’s Butler Library. Their lawyer accused Israel of "genocide," asked the court to consider dismissal, and ultimately secured adjournments for procedural documents that will delay the cases for more than a month.

A total of 56 defendants were arraigned at the courthouse, with a few joined by their nervous parents. Among the defendants present were Ramona Sarsgaard, the nepo baby daughter of Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard. Dima Aboukasm—whom Mayor Eric Adams once hailed as a peace activist—also had her day in court. They were represented by Matthew W. Daloisio, the same attorney who represented those arrested for storming Columbia's Hamilton Hall in 2024.

Daloisio defended his clients' conduct, saying they "set up a teach-in in a library." He asked the court "to consider dismissal in the interest of justice" before requesting and receiving an "adjournment for supporting depositions" from Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg's office, which requires law enforcement to produce documents "signing off on the criminal allegations [and] saying the charges are true," local defense attorney Jason Goldman told the Washington Free Beacon. Goldman speculated that Daloisio "wants this adjournment to see in fact whether Bragg's office upholds the arrests and moves the case forward in a criminal prosecution."

"It's a good strategy" meant to "avoid the public scrutiny" and "see if they can get the case dismissed," Goldman said. "Bragg dropped charges in 2024, and I think he'll do it again."

Goldman was referring to Bragg's decision to dismiss dozens of cases for the Columbia rabble rousers who stormed Hamilton Hall during a similar explosion of campus violence last spring. The decision earned him widespread criticism from Jewish and good-government groups at the time.

Rioters in the more recent Butler Library melee injured two security officers and distributed pro-Hamas literature to students who had been studying quietly for final exams, resulting in 81 arrests. Some of the defendants were testy as they paraded into court.


BEFORE AND AFTER D.C. KILLINGS, NY TIMES WORKED TO ‘NORMALIZE THE INTIFADA’
Noteworthy, indeed. The author, Sharon Otterman, was also correct in noting that the killings “cast a harsh spotlight on the pro-Palestinian movement in the United States.” She even quoted an ADL official early in the piece, who made the point that anti-Israel groups “created an environment” that made the killing more likely.

It was an encouraging start. But it was procatalepsis — an argument presented so it could be rebutted. The rest of the piece, the bulk of it, was a platform for anti-Israel groups:

CAIR pleaded innocent — though readers were kept in the dark about the organization’s “happiness” on Oct 7 and its incitement against Jews along with mainstream synagogues, campus Hillels, and Zionist groups, which are depicted as backstabbing “enemies” to be “opposed.”

JVP pleaded moderation — without a word about the Columbia chapter’s support for the Oct. 7 attack.

We were told that SJP opposed violence in the United States but backed “the right of resistance, including through armed struggle” — though Otterman didn’t share that this is a euphemism for indiscriminate attacks on Israeli civilians, which the group celebrates.

Rather, she insisted that the above groups do not “openly glorif[y] armed resistance by organizations that the United States considers terrorist organizations,” though they demonstrably do. Again, the Times came to the defense of those who defend terrorism.

Finally, Otterman turned to two groups, Unity of Fields and Samidoun, which have been involved in campus and which, in the reporter’s words, showed “some hint of acceptance about the killing” of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky.

A day before the publication of her article, Unity of Fields announced: “We commend Hamas, we commend Hezbollah, we commend Ansar Allah, we commend Elias Rodriguez.” Some hint of acceptance.

That same day, Samidoun’s co-founder posted about the murders and, after suggesting they were legitimate, concluded that, “yes,” activists should “globalize the intifada.”

The New York Times didn’t share the Unity of Fields quote, and didn’t tell readers of the connection Samidoun made between murdering people at a Jewish event and “globalizing the intifada.” And why would it, after having worked so hard for so long to normalize the intifada?
WASHINGTON POST EDITORIAL PAGE PROMOTES FALSE “GENOCIDE” CLAIM
To know that the claim is false, one only has to ask, “What would happen if Hamas released the hostages unconditionally and surrendered tomorrow?” If this were actually a genocide, it would be the first genocide in history in which the government of the people being genocided had the power to stop it immediately, had that power from the beginning, and somehow chose not to do so.

The charge is so obviously false, and has been rebutted so many times in so many places by so many experts, that it is not even worth reviewing Hamid’s claims point by point here. As just one example, it ought to be obvious that Israel’s Agriculture Minister, Avi Dichter, has no decision-making authority over the conduct of the war. Hamid appears to have lifted this talking point about Dichter (“Just one month into the war, Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter said, ‘We are now rolling out the Gaza Nakba,’”) straight out of overly-earnest college newspapers.

The false accusation of genocide is made for one reason and for one reason only: to attempt to pressure Israel to end the war without removing Hamas from power, so that the terror organization can remain in power in Gaza, rebuild, and attack Israel again, as it has pledged to do and as history shows it has a record of doing. Anyone making this charge is – wittingly or unwittingly – aiding Hamas in its goals.


Horror month at ABC Australia continues with humiliating correction over false claims 14,000 babies in Gaza would starve to death in 48 hours
ABC News has issued an embarrassing correction after it repeated an “absurd” claim that thousands of babies were at risk of dying of starvation in Gaza over a 48 hour period.

The national newsroom headed by News Director Justin Stevens admitted it had reported an “incorrect” claim made by a UN spokesperson in its 11th correction published this month.

The UN’s Tom Fletcher had claimed during an interview with the BBC last week that “14,000 babies would be at risk of dying in Gaza within a 48-hour period due to starvation”, the claim was then picked up by multiple international media outlets and was repeated by ABC News Breakfast, ABC News Mornings and Afternoon Briefing.

Just hours after the BBC published the claims online, it had added a clarification, quoting a UN figure who admitted the initial claim had overstated findings from an IPC report that was projecting there could be 14,100 cases of severe acute malnutrition in Gaza over the next year.

Not only does the IPC report's projection cover an entire year – from April 2025 to March 2026 – rather than 48 hours, it also refers to severe acute malnutrition among children aged between six months and five years.

In its own correction, published on Wednesday, May 28 – a full week after the BBC had added its own correction - the ABC admitted its reporting was wrong.

“The remarks were based on an IPC report that warned 14,100 severe cases of acute malnutrition were expected to occur between April 2025 and March 2026 among children aged between six months and five years,” the ABC’s correction states.

“The relevant content has been removed from all on-demand platforms.”

The correction, which fell short of an apology, was only made after Sky News Australia's Chris Kenny fact checked the programming, pointing out the errors.
MORE POLITICALLY MOTIVATED ERASURE OF JERUSALEM HISTORY BY BBC NEWS
On the evening of May 26th the BBC News website published a report by Wyre Davies and Ruth Comerford headlined “Far-right marchers attack Palestinians as Israel marks taking of Jerusalem”.

What is in fact marked on Jerusalem Day is the reunification of the city after nineteen years of Jordanian occupation of its eastern sector rather than the “taking of Jerusalem”.

As is so often the case in BBC reporting on that Israeli holiday, Davies and Comerford fail to provide their readers with necessary context.

“Crowds of far-right Israelis chanted insults and assaulted Palestinians during an annual parade for Jerusalem Day on Monday.

Chants of “death to Arabs” and nationalistic slogans were repeated during the event, which commemorates Israeli forces taking Palestinian-majority East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.”

And – note the punctuation:
“The parade marks Israel’s capture of East Jerusalem in the 1967 war and the “unification” of a city that the Israeli government says is their eternal capital.

Palestinians also want Jerusalem as their future capital and much of the international community regards East Jerusalem as Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory.”

As is frequently the case in BBC reporting, the portrayal by Davies and Comerford completely erases the 19-year illegal Jordanian occupation of parts of Jerusalem from the story. Their account fails to note the inclusion of Jerusalem in the territory assigned by the League of Nations to the creation of a Jewish homeland and the fact that the city was never “Palestinian territory”.

The belligerent British-backed Jordanian invasion and subsequent ethnic cleansing of Jews from districts including the Old City in 1948 – a point relevant to their “Palestinian-majority” claim – together with the destruction of synagogues and cemeteries, is completely ignored, as is the fact that the 1949 Armistice Agreement between Israel and Jordan specifically stated that the ceasefire lines were not borders. Israel’s warning to Jordan not to participate in the Six Day War is also eliminated from the BBC’s account of events.


IDF demolishes home of Tel Aviv suicide bomber
Israel Defense Forces troops on Wednesday night dismantled the home of Ja’far Muna, the Hamas-affiliated terrorist who carried out a suicide bombing near a Tel Aviv synagogue on Aug. 18, 2024, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said.

The operation, conducted in Nablus (Shechem) by forces from the Samaria Brigade in coordination with Yahalom combat engineering special forces troops, was part of Israel’s policy aimed at deterring future terrorist attacks. The demolition was authorized by legal authorities within the defense establishment.

According to the IDF, Muna belonged to a terrorist cell from Nablus that was directed by Hamas operatives based abroad. He had arrived in Tel Aviv armed with an explosive belt, intending to carry out a mass-casualty attack near a synagogue. However, the device detonated prematurely, killing only the attacker.

The IDF emphasized that the nature of the attempted attack met the criteria for home demolition. The measure is intended to send a clear message that even failed terror attempts will be met with firm consequences.
How Will We Know the PA Has Ended the "Pay-for-Slay" Policy?
A recent report quoting Israeli security sources attributed a reduction in terror in the West Bank to more stringent prison conditions. "If, in the past, we saw young Palestinians entering Israeli prisons to receive stipends from the Palestinian Authority while enjoying good conditions - meals, showers, and academic studies - today, the conditions in security prisons...are harsh. Terrorists are reconsidering their course of action and fear imprisonment."

As part of the PA's "Pay-for-Slay" policy, every Palestinian terrorist arrested by Israel is paid a monthly salary, which has two main components. One part is paid directly by the Authority to the terrorist and his family, with salary increases over time spent in prison. The second part includes NIS 400 per month, deposited by the PA every six months into the prisoner's account for purchasing items in the prison canteen and additional clothing.

Another central part of the "Pay-for-Slay" policy are PA-PLO payments to wounded terrorists and the families of dead terrorists. In addition to the imprisoned terrorists and released terrorists, there are an additional 40,000 families of dead terrorists and tens of thousands of wounded terrorists who also receive payments.

A 2018 Israeli law imposed punitive measures on the PA for its "Pay-for-Slay" program. Since its first implementation in 2019, Israel has deducted close to NIS 4 billion - a sum equivalent to the PA payments to the terrorists in 2018 through 2024 - from the taxes Israel collects and transfers to the Authority under the Oslo Accords.

In February 2025, the PA announced what it claimed was the abolition of the "Pay-for-Slay" policy. However, this was a hoax to mislead the international community. The only way to judge whether the PA has indeed halted these payments will be to assess the quiet on the Palestinian street. When the families of the terrorists, who have suddenly lost their primary source of income, take, en masse, to the streets to demonstrate against the PA, we will know that the PA has truly stopped the payments.
US reopens ambassador’s residence in Syria, suggests non-aggression pact with Israel
The US flag was hoisted Thursday outside of the long-shuttered American ambassador’s residence in Damascus, in a sign of growing ties between Washington and the new Syrian government.

The US ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, who has also been appointed special envoy to Syria, arrived to inaugurate the residence, Syrian state-run news agency SANA reported.

On Thursday, speaking to Saudi channel Al Arabiya in Damascus, Barrack described the long-standing conflict between Syria and Israel, who have technically been at war since 1948, as a “solvable problem” through dialogue, proposing a “non-aggression agreement” between them.

Reuters reported earlier this week that Israel and Syria are in direct contact and have, in recent weeks, held face-to-face meetings aimed at calming tensions and preventing conflict in the border region.

Washington hasn’t formally reopened its embassy in Damascus, which closed in 2012 after protests against the government of strongman president Bashar al-Assad were met by a brutal crackdown and spiraled into civil war. Assad was unseated in December in a lightning rebel offensive.

But Barrack’s visit and the raising of the flag were a significant signal of warming relations.


Latvia reopens criminal investigation into 'Butcher of Riga' following condemnation
Latvia has decided to reopen the criminal investigation into the crimes of the so-called Butcher of Riga, walking back on the country’s prosecution office’s choice to close the case last month.

The Prosecutor General’s Office announced on Wednesday that it was reopening the investigation into Nazi collaborator Herberts Cukurs regarding crimes of genocide, provided for under Article 71 of the Criminal Law. This comes after the same office terminated the inquiry on April 4.

Latvian lawyer David Lipkin told KAN News that “the prosecution has come to the conclusion that Cukurs’s actions do not contain elements of genocide or any other crime, and therefore the case is effectively closed.”

Yad Vashem condemned the move at the time, saying that the “Latvian war criminal and Nazi collaborator” was “infamous for his role in the Holocaust and involvement in the killing of tens of thousands of Jews” and that “this decision was baffling because Cukurs’s horrific war crimes are indisputable.”

According to Yad Vashem, Cukurs held a “senior, operative position in the Arajs Kommando, the unit that from June 1941 until March 1942 carried out mass killings of Jews and other civilians.”

“Among other crimes, at the end of 1941, he personally participated in murder operations in Riga’s ghetto and the nearby Rumbula killing site, where Jewish men, women, children, and infants were murdered indiscriminately.”
Woman banned from Brighton stadium after antisemitic outburst
A woman has been banned indefinitely from Brighton and Hove’s Albion’s stadium after making an antisemitic comment directed at a Jewish couple during a Premier League match.

Sharon Hales, 55, was convicted earlier this month of religiously aggravated harassment following the incident, which occurred during Brighton’s home game against Fulham on 29 October 2023.

According to Sussex Police, Hales was in a hospitality lounge at the Amex Stadium in Falmer when she approached staff and gestured toward a couple dining nearby, making a clearly antisemitic remark. Officers arrived to find her intoxicated and still using abusive language.

She was found guilty at Brighton Magistrates’ Court on 13 May 2025 and fined £120, with an additional £650 in court costs and a £96 victim surcharge. A three-year Football Banning order was imposed, prohibiting her from attending professional football matches in the UK or abroad.

Brighton and Hove Albion separately confirmed it had issued Hales an indefinite club ban, describing her conduct as unacceptable. “In line with our zero-tolerance approach to xenophobia, the individual will also be subject to an indefinite ban from the club,” a spokesperson said.


Medical breakthrough in Israel: Artificial heart implanted at Hadassah Ein Kerem
The life of a 63-year-old man was saved on Sunday thanks to the first-ever implantation in Israel of an artificial heart.

The groundbreaking, seven-hour procedure was carried out at Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center by an extensive medical team that included cardiologists, heart surgeons, anesthesiologists, intensive care specialists, operating room nurses and heart-lung machine technicians.

The patient’s heart was replaced with a unique artificial organ made of titanium, animal-derived tissues and advanced sensors.

The Hadassah team underwent specialized training in France, where they learned the implantation technique from local heart surgeons and representatives of the French company that developed the device. Upon their return to Israel, the team trained additional medical staff to prepare for the surgery.

“This is a major milestone for Israel and required extensive coordination with the patient’s health maintenance organization and the Health Ministry, with full support from Hadassah’s management,” said professor Ofer Amir, senior cardiologist and head of the Heart Institute at Hadassah, who led the effort over the past several months.

After securing initial approval and funding from Clalit Health Services, the team began the dual-track preparation: training the staff and preparing the patient for the complex procedure.
Resurrecting its past, Iraq’s tiny Jewish community restores a long-forgotten shrine
In a vibrant Baghdad district, laborers are working tirelessly to repair the centuries-old shrine of a revered rabbi in an effort to revive the long-faded heritage of Iraq’s Jewish community.

A few months ago, the tomb of Rabbi Isaac Gaon was filled with rubbish. Its door was rusted, the windows shattered and the walls stained black from decades of neglect.

Today, marble tiling covers the once-small grave, and at its center stands a large tombstone inscribed with a verse, the rabbi’s name and the year he died: 688. A silver menorah hangs on the wall behind it.

“It was a garbage dump and we were not allowed to restore it,” said the head of Iraq’s Jewish community, Khalida Elyahu, 62.

The Jewish community in Iraq was once one of the largest in the Middle East, but now it has dwindled to just dozens.

Baghdad today has one synagogue left, but it has no rabbis. And many houses that once belonged to Jews are abandoned and dilapidated.

The Jewish community itself is funding the shrine’s restoration, at an estimated cost of $150,000.

The project will bring “a revival for our community, both within and outside Iraq,” Elyahu said.
Holocaust survivor’s story brought to stage as Kinloss marks 80 years since Hungarian deportations
A moving theatrical tribute to Holocaust survivor Susan Pollack OBE will be staged at Finchley United Synagogue on Sunday 9 June, as the community marks 80 years since the deportation of Hungarian Jewry.

The production, Kindness: A Legacy of the Holocaust, tells Pollack’s story in her own words and has been hailed as one of the most powerful pieces of Holocaust theatre in the UK. It is created by Voices of the Holocaust, Europe’s only dedicated Holocaust theatre charity, which uses physical and verbatim performance to preserve and amplify survivor testimony,

Susan was just 13 years old when she was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau in the summer of 1944. Over just eight weeks, more than 424,000 Jews were deported from Hungary, the vast majority murdered at Auschwitz. By the end of the Shoah, around 565,000 Hungarian Jews had been killed.

The 9 June event not only marks the historical anniversary but also offers a moment of communal reflection and renewed engagement with survivor testimony through meaningful, immersive theatre. The evening performance follows a matinee session hosted for local schools – part of Kinloss’s wider outreach efforts to engage audiences beyond the Jewish community.

“Kindness acts as a conduit for lived experience,” said Cate Hollis, co-author and Artistic Director of Voices of the Holocaust. “It re-humanises experiences that were dehumanised. It asks us all to bear witness.”

Pollack, now 94, has spent decades sharing her story in schools. She has endorsed the production, describing it as “so real, so accurate… a truer version of my story could not be shown.”
Holocaust survivor and ‘dancing angel,’ dies at 100
New Yorker Helena Weinstock Weinrauch, a Holocaust survivor known for taking up ballroom dancing in her late 80s, died at her home on the Upper West Side on Sunday. She was just one week shy of her 101st birthday.

The cause was likely congestive heart failure, her niece Judy Paskind said.

“She loved being made up and dressed up,” Paskind, a retired accountant, recalled. “And a lot of people [at the funeral] yesterday were saying how elegant she was, and she was! She always looked put together. Until she got sick in the last year, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen her without makeup.”

Weinrauch’s incredible story of survival — and how she discovered, at 88, the joy of ballroom dancing — was the subject of a 2015 documentary, “Fascination: Helena’s Story.”

Weinrauch was also known for wearing the same hand-knit blue sweater during the first Passover seder every year for more than 75 years. The sweater — with fluffy angora sleeves, a metallic blue bodice and a scalloped V-neck — had been made by Weinrauch’s friend Ann Rothman, who stayed alive during the Holocaust by knitting for the wives of Nazi officials while a prisoner in the Łódź Ghetto.

“She became known in the ghetto,” Weinrauch told the New York Jewish Week in 2022. “She was so good at knitting that she knitted coats for the wife of the German people and it became known that Ann can knit skirts, a blouse — anything you want, she can knit it.”

Weinrauch was born in Dusseldorf in 1924 to a family of German-speaking Jews. Her mother, Gisela, was a concert pianist; her father, Maximilian, was a Viennese engineer who owned oil wells. She had a sister, Erna, who was six years older. The family soon moved to Drohobycz, Poland (today’s Ukraine) for her father’s work, and Weinrauch was 9 years old when the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933.
Marthe Cohn, a Jewish Spy in Nazi Germany, Dies at 105
Marthe Cohn, a French Jew, was asked to spy for the French army in late 1944. She had already lost her fiance, a member of the French resistance who had been tortured and shot by the Germans outside Paris. One of her younger sisters, Stephanie, had also been killed - arrested and deported to Auschwitz while trying to help people escape to unoccupied France.

Cohn had managed to survive the Nazi occupation with help from false identity papers provided by a friend. She was also aided by her blond-haired, blue-eyed appearance and her fluency in German, which she learned as a child in Metz, a French city not far from the border.

After joining French military intelligence, she was able to cross enemy lines and spend a month in Germany, where she passed as a German nurse while making small talk with SS officers and Nazi soldiers, gathering information about troop movements.

During one encounter, she told the German soldiers that she was terrified about the prospect of an Allied invasion. "They told me not to worry," she said. "And then they told me in precisely which section of the Black Forest the German army was waiting for the Allies." She also revealed that German troops near Freiburg were withdrawing from the fortified Siegfried Line.

Her spying earned her France's Croix de Guerre and was credited with saving the lives of Allied troops. More than 50 years later, she was named a knight in the Legion of Honor, the country's highest order of merit. Cohn died May 21 at the age of 105. She shared her story at schools and community centers across Europe and the U.S., where she worked as a nurse after the war.
The Man Who Ran Toward Danger: Ari Fuld Remembered | Judeacation
What does it mean to live with courage, conviction and purpose in Israel’s biblical heartland? In this emotional episode of “Judeacation” on JNS TV, host Josh Hasten sits down with Miriam Fuld to honor the life, legacy and heroism of her late husband, Ari Fuld—an American-Israeli hero who was murdered in a 2018 terrorist attack.

Broadcasting from the JNS Media Hub in Jerusalem, Josh and Miriam reflect on Ari’s extraordinary life as a Torah teacher, IDF soldier and fearless advocate for Israel on social media and beyond. Viewers will hear firsthand how Ari ran toward danger, even with a fatal wound, to stop a terrorist from harming others—an act that saved lives and cemented his place as a modern-day hero.

Miriam shares deeply personal stories about Ari’s passion for truth, his impact on Israeli and global audiences and the ongoing legal battle in the U.S. Supreme Court to hold the Palestinian Authority accountable for supporting terror. The episode also touches on how the Fuld family continues Ari’s mission through the Ari Fuld Project, supporting IDF soldiers and truth-based Hasbara. This episode is a powerful reminder of what it means to defend your people, your land and your truth—no matter the cost.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Judea and the Fuld Family
03:05 Miriam's Background and Life in Israel
06:05 Ari Fuld: His Life and Legacy
09:01 Ari's Impact and Community Involvement
11:56 Ari's Use of Social Media for Truth
14:54 Reflections on Jerusalem Day and Ari's Passion
18:08 The Current Conflict and Ari's Murderer
21:04 Legal Battle Against the PA/PLO
23:52 The Ari Fuld Project and Its Mission




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

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