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Friday, May 30, 2025

05/30 Links Pt2: Phillips: Diaspora Jews under siege; The Anti-Israel Right Joins the Pro-Iran Left; Dishonest reporting kills: DC antisemitic murders are a wake up call

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: Diaspora Jews under siege
It’s not what it actually is: a uniquely murderous and deranged creed that all people of conscience must oppose. Unbelievably, for the Western liberal, antisemitism has become a moral obligation. The destruction of the Jewish homeland and the abuse of Jews have become an expression of liberal conscience.

And that’s why the entire humanitarian establishment—the United Nations, the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice, the whole apparatus of human-rights law, and NGOs like Amnesty and Human Rights Watch—all of this is focused on singling out Israel and the Jews to be demonized and dehumanized.

It’s why the most “progressive” countries—Britain, Canada and Australia—are the most viciously hostile to Israel. It’s rank, murderous, racist bigotry, all in the name of conscience and justice.

It’s as if Stalinism and Nazism are finally winning against civilization, destroying the Jews through frying the Western brain. This is why so many feel they have stepped through the looking-glass into a living nightmare.

So what is to be done? Clearly, the Jewish world is up against the old evil, but of an unprecedented type and scale. And, of course, against such derangement, reason doesn’t work.

It’s important, though, to put the facts into the public domain for those who are not immune to reason but are simply ignorant of Judaism, the Middle East and the history of the Jewish people. That, unfortunately, includes many Jews.

As for the haters who are indeed beyond rational argument, there is a strategy that would be effective. This involves recognizing their Achilles’ heel.

What they most care about is not the oppressed Palestinian Arabs whose cause they so noisily proclaim. They care, above all, about their image to themselves and to others as moral, compassionate and smart. There’s no point calling them out for antisemitism. And playing defense is worse than useless because it’s to argue on the mind-twisting terms they have set out and so is bound to fail.

Israel’s defenders should instead put these people on the back foot by calling them out for being the very things that they purport to hate.

So, for example, they should be accused of promoting imperialism, in supporting the Arab conquest of another country and extinguishing the rights of its indigenous people; of being stupid, sloppy and credulous in writing and broadcasting manipulative falsehoods; and of being racist.

Arabs comprise about 20% of Israel’s population. By demanding that the “settlers” be removed from the disputed areas of Judea and Samaria because this supposedly prevents the creation of a state of Palestine, the Israel-haters are supporting ethnic cleansing and promoting a doctrine of racial purity. They should be told that their progressivism is bogus.

Jews in America and Britain should stop presuming to lecture Israel about what it should be doing. If they don’t live there, they have no right to do so. Their task—and it could not be more urgent—is instead to start educating Diaspora Jews about Judaism and the Jewish people, and then take the fight to the enemy in a far smarter and more strategic way.
Stephen Pollard: The Left don’t care about racist attacks when the victims are Jews
The hate marches which are now a regular feature of city life are suffused with anti=Semitism. Backing for Palestinian ‘resistance’ – terror – is ubiquitous. Support for Hamas and Hezbollah – both of which are prescribed – is repeatedly on display. Calls to ‘globalise the intifada’ – are the norm.

You want to globalise the intifada? Start at Hampstead underground station – after last week’s murders in Washington DC.

But it’s not the perpetrators of hate who are dealt with. It’s those who oppose it. Last week, for example, the Telegraph reported that a Jewish counter-protester was arrested and charged after he was seen holding a placard satirising Hassan Nasrallah, the former Hezbollah leader. In his police questioning he was asked over and over again if he agreed that the image would offend “clearly pro-Hezbollah and anti-Israel” activists. No one who follows the police’s actions – last year the Met pinned down a counter-protestor carrying a banner reading “Hamas is terrorist” at a march and then arrested him – will be remotely surprised by this. At a march in Manchester after the October 7 massacre, for example, a banner reading “Manchester supports Palestinian resistance” was protected by police standing alongside it.

Open anti-Semitism is rarely met by action, but it is often accompanied by drivel, the most frequent example of which is the phrase repeated ad nauseam by politicians that “There is no place for anti-Semitism”, followed by the name of a city or an organisation which has just proved there is every place for anti-Semitism in its fold.

In December, for example, after an expose of truly shocking examples of open anti-Semitism from NHS staff, health secretary Wes Streeting came out with the usual words: “There is no place for anti-Semitism in the NHS”. The expose had shown that there is in fact a warm welcome for anti-Semitism in the NHS, with none of the NHS Trusts or managers having done anything about it. The same phrase falls regularly from the mouths of Yvette Cooper and Sir Sadiq Khan, but only after an incident which has proved the opposite.

This time, after Monday’s attack on three Jewish boys on the Underground, they can’t even be bothered to be as unbothered as before and trot out some meaningless platitude. Jews hate? Assault? We really don’t care.
The Anti-Israel Right Joins the Pro-Iran Left
Donald Trump says he is going to fight to end antisemitism and the left-wing delegitimization and hatred of Israel that has plagued college campuses since Oct. 7, which led to the murder last week of two Israeli embassy employees. Standing in the way of his efforts to rid America of a violent and deadly scourge are the radical left, Democrats, federal courts, and university presidents who are determined to protect pro-Palestinian terrorists from his deportation campaign.

Everyone wants Trump to lose. This includes certain self-proclaimed MAGA influencers, who are obsessed with the idea of Israel as a uniquely evil force in world history and American Jews as a malignant fifth column. The influencers are joined by Trump officials trying to reorient the president’s Middle East policy and negate the successes of his first term. Both camps now find themselves on the same side as the globalist institutions they say they despise: the United Nations and other world bodies that threaten national sovereignty, America’s as well as Israel’s.

Since Oct. 7, the United Nations has used its monopoly on aid distribution to bring Israel’s military campaign to a halt and save Hamas. The international body has also been the leading voice in what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as the “blood libels against Israel,” baselessly accusing the IDF of genocide and creating a climate that led to the murder of the two embassy employees. On May 20, the day before the attack, the United Nations’ under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs Tom Fletcher said, “There are 14,000 babies that will die in the next 48 hours unless we can reach them.”

But there is no famine—only an ongoing series of reports, many produced by the same organization, warning of famine since almost immediately after Oct. 7, without ever having produced one starvation victim. It’s a blood libel meant to incite antisemitic violence, and it’s also a pro-Hamas propaganda campaign. Call it the famine hoax. It began even before Israel entered Gaza, and was designed to reshape the rules of war in ways that would ensure Hamas’ survival.

On Oct. 16, 2023, nine days after 1,200 were killed and hundreds taken hostage, the World Health Organization warned of a “catastrophe” in Gaza, claiming that there were only 24 hours of water, electricity, and fuel left. “You cannot use aid, or food and water, as an instrument of war for any political or military ends,” said Marwan Jilani, director general of the Palestine Red Crescent Society. “There is an urgent need to alleviate the suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza,” said Egypt’s foreign minister. But back then, Israel hadn’t invaded Gaza yet. Egypt controlled the Rafah crossing—and was fully capable of getting food into Gaza. But it didn’t. Needless to say, no international tribunals threatened Cairo with war crimes charges, nor did Palestinian activists accuse the Egyptians of genocide.

In late December 2023, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification issued a famine warning and claimed that at least a quarter of people in Gaza were experiencing famine-level forms of deprivation. In mid-March 2024, the Biden White House’s USAID administrator Samantha Power said that Gaza was at a “serious risk of famine,” meaning that the famine predicted four months previously had not materialized. She called to “dramatically surge” humanitarian aid “as conditions continue to deteriorate.” Again, there was no famine.

That didn’t stop top Biden administration officials from using words like famine and starvation, any more than Israel’s record-low urban warfare casualty rates have prevented celebrity activists like Mark Ruffalo from repeatedly claiming that Israel was committing “genocide.” It seems Biden’s vice president didn’t understand the difference between a famine and a report forecasting a possible famine. “People in Gaza are starving,” said Kamala Harris. “The conditions are inhumane, and our common humanity compels us to act,” she continued.

In reality, of course, the people who were being starved in Gaza for the past two years were Israeli hostages who were fed a quarter of a pita per day while their captors gorged themselves on stolen food aid. After the Palestinians put their captives on parade, Trump expressed revulsion. “It looked like many years ago, the Holocaust survivors,” said the president, “and I don’t know how much longer we can take that when I watch that.”

Famine, starvation, and genocide are simply keywords in an information campaign whose goal is to generate enough outrage among the public and policymakers to ensure Hamas’ survival through Western aid packages, and thereby to ensure that Israel loses its war in Gaza. For instance, a few weeks ago, Iran regime lobbyist Trita Parsi posted a picture of what he claimed was a young Gazan girl who had died of starvation. In fact, it was a photo of a child who was being treated at a UAE hospital for a rare disease that left her emaciated. The veracity of the picture was irrelevant. The point was to advance the famine op.


Not All Terrorists Wear a Jihad Band, Some Wear Keffiyehs and Tote Bags
We have trained ourselves to see terrorism as a “Middle Eastern problem” or an “Islamist issue.” But the Lod Airport massacre proved, 53 years ago, that terror for Palestine is an open franchise. And today, business is booming.

Still recruiting. Still dreaming of the same goal: the obliteration of Israel and the spread of revolution through violence. But now, they don’t need Japanese guerrillas or Arab hijackers. They’ve got disillusioned students. TikTok radicals. Academic foot soldiers. Self-righteous Westerners who think social justice means blood.

Some terrorists don’t wear jihad bands.
They wear Ivy League credentials.
Some don’t shout in Arabic.
They quote Fanon and Foucault.
Many don’t carry Qur’ans.
They carry manifestos.

And when the time comes, some of them—like their predecessors—will use violence and bloodshed and justify their radicalized minds.

Make no mistake: there is a growing international movement that sees murdering “Zionists” for Palestine not as a crime, but as a moral act.

It dresses itself in “decolonization,” in “anti-imperialism,” in “resistance.”

It speaks in hashtags and open letters, but behind the language is something ancient, violent, and blood-soaked.

It’s not just Hamas.
It’s not just Islamic Jihad.
It’s not just the PFLP.
It’s the activist in Chicago.
The anarchist in Berlin.
The grad student in New York.

It’s a network of people who would never walk into a mosque, but would have no problem walking into a consulate, a Jewish school, or a synagogue—with a pistol or a bomb.

The terror now walks among us in the language of social justice.
And it is getting bolder.

We ignored the radicals in the ’70s.
Then they blew up airports and embassies.
We’re ignoring them again now.
Don’t be surprised when the rivers of blood starts spilling—again.
Terrorism for Palestine is borderless.
It is post-ideological.
And it is coming from places no one wants to look:
the campuses, the protests, the editorials, the DMs.

This is your wake-up call.

Not all terrorists wear a jihad band. Some Wear Keffiyehs and Tote Bags
Is it now a crime to make fun of Hezbollah terrorists?
The Met does not operate in a vacuum. It is directly accountable to London mayor Sadiq Khan and to UK home secretary Yvette Cooper. So far, both have been conspicuously silent on the police’s failings. This inaction is particularly hypocritical coming from Khan. As mayor, he has repeatedly pledged to protect London’s communities from hate and extremism. It seems he needs to protect them from the Met, first and foremost.

None of these cases has ever made it to court. The CPS dropped the charges against the anti-Hezbollah protester and against myself. Ghorbani was ‘de-arrested’ and not charged. But the damage had already been done. Having charges dropped does not compensate for being arrested, held in a cell overnight, having your house raided or being out of pocket for legal fees.

This has a clear chilling effect on public debate, too. Jewish and Iranian communities, where I come from, are increasingly fearful of expressing support for Israel or criticising Islamist extremism in public spaces, knowing how the Met might react.

Clearly, these arrests cannot all be coincidental mistakes. A public inquiry into Met training and procedures is a must. There also needs to be accountability for senior officers, and clear guarantees that the police will uphold the law.

Because if we are arresting citizens for criticising terrorists, something has gone very, very wrong in Britain.
Dishonest reporting kills: DC antisemitic murders are a wake up call
A half year before Hamas’s invasion of Israel and massacre on Oct. 7, 2023, Israeli police used force to remove armed rioters from Al-Aqsa Mosque, who intended to attack worshipers during a sensitive time when Passover, Ramadan, and Easter overlapped.

The videos went viral. Incorrect reports said the police had attacked Muslim worshipers when, in fact, the police used force in self-defense against rioters who intended to attack worshipers and ended up attacking the police.

The incorrect reports led directly to anti-Israel riots across the globe, rockets fired at Israeli civilians, and the murders of an Italian tourist in Tel Aviv and and her daughters, Maia and Rina, near Hamra, in the Jordan Valley.

Lucy’s widower, Rabbi Leo Dee, passionately begged the international media at the time to report about Israel more responsibly.

“World media: Show me your true colors,” he implored. “Do you really believe in moral equivalence? Will you continue to support evil by giving it a voice? Am I and my family really a threat to world peace? We who teach kindness and love? We who value life over anything else? Is this anonymous killer really justified? Is he progressing moral values and a future for himself?

“Come on! Wake up! Listen to your souls. Do you really believe it? Or does it just sell advertising space for material goods none of us really need?”

Spoiler alert: The media did not wake up. They employed the usual false moral equivalence in reporting about the Dee family’s murders. Al Jazeera’s headline was “Israeli settlers killed in occupied West Bank shooting,” and the Associated Press’s headline wasn’t much better.

After Rabbi Dee’s dare went unheeded, no one should have been surprised that incorrect reports about Jews ascending the Temple Mount during Sukkot six months later led to ordinary Gazans joining Hamas’s well-planned infiltrations and murders.

AND NOW, after nearly 20 months of war on the military and media battlefields, why is anyone still surprised that dishonest reporting kills?
Meet the Left-Wing Groups and Operatives Rallying Behind Jewish Museum Shooter Elias Rodriguez
A radical student group at Brandeis University. Members of a socialist organization affiliated with House "Squad" members. The treasurer of a Democratic super PAC funded heavily by George Soros. These are just some of the figures and groups calling to "free" Elias Rodriguez, the Chicago man police say confessed to the Washington, D.C., murders of two Israeli diplomats.

Twenty-one organizations, along with Democratic activist Kamau Franklin, signed an open letter in support of Rodriguez organized by the Tariq El-Tahrir Youth and Student Network. It calls Rodriguez's shooting of Israeli diplomats Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky outside of the Capital Jewish Museum "fully justified," "eminently defensible," and "morally righteous." It also urges readers to "give pause to the zionists" and "GLOBALIZE THE INTIFADA," a popular rallying cry among student radicals on Ivy League campuses like Columbia University and Harvard University. One signee, Unity of Fields, has been involved in the Columbia protests.

Another signatory is the Liberation Caucus of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)—"Squad" members Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.), Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.), and Greg Casar (D., Texas) are members of DSA, the largest socialist group in the country. Franklin, who serves as treasurer of the Black Voters Matter Action PAC, a Democratic group that received $2.4 million from Soros and the Soros-funded Democracy PAC, signed the letter and promoted it on his Twitter page. So did the Brandeis Jewish Bund, a self-described "Anti-Zionist" group at Brandeis University, a school founded by Jewish Americans to address anti-Semitism in the American education system. Another signee, Bronx Anti War, was cofounded by Janet Goodman-Clarke, a member of the Soros-funded Jewish Voice for Peace.

While many of the groups backing Rodriguez are not well known beyond radical activist circles, their ties to prominent Democratic lawmakers, donors, and organizations reflect the extent to which anti-Semitism has infiltrated the party. Ocasio-Cortez, for example, held a virtual event with DSA’s New York chapter in December. She has not addressed the Liberation Caucus's signing of the pro-Rodriguez letter.

Some signatories have links to Palestinian terrorist groups.

The leader of Nidal Seattle, another signatory, is a member of Samidoun, an anti-Israel group that the United States and Canada designated as a terrorist group last year because of its ties to Hamas. Bissan Barghouti, the Nidal Seattle leader, is also a former official with the Washington chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, one of the largest liberal activist groups in the country, according to its annual reports.
Behind the Lines: How Journalists Gain Access to War Zones
Israel is no different. Reporters must be credentialed by the IDF and embedded through official channels to enter Gaza. Since October 7th, many have followed those procedures and gained access to Gaza. But most have demanded special access far beyond what any modern military would allow. When Israel enforces the same security protocols observed in every other conflict zone, it’s accused of “hiding the truth.” That accusation isn’t just wrong—it’s willfully dishonest.

Meanwhile, much of the reporting from inside Gaza comes from so-called “local journalists” most linked to Hamas and other terror groups. Investigations have documented these ties. Still, Western media uncritically amplify their footage and narratives without context or verification. Basic journalistic ethics vanish when the subject is Israel. IDF says Gaza documents prove 6 Al Jazeera journalists are Hamas, PIJ operatives | The Times of Israel

And let’s not pretend Gaza is a black box. It's one of the most visually documented conflicts in history. Smartphones and social media flood the internet with footage—some authentic, some staged, some contradictory. Scenes of civilian tragedy sit beside videos of Hamas fighters launching rockets from hospitals, or TikToks of people dining in bustling cafes—all from within the same war zone.

Footage that contradicts the narrative? Ignored. Hamas’s use of human shields—routine. In any other conflict, that’s front-page news. In Gaza, it’s memory-holed. The media isn’t confused. It’s complicit.

Look at Ukraine again. Reporters respect blackout rules, avoid filming sensitive positions, and risk blacklisting if they violate terms. That’s considered responsible journalism. So why the double standard for Israel? This model is nearly identical to Israel’s. The difference lies not in the policy, but in the media’s agenda when covering each nation.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, journalists embedded with U.S. or NATO forces during major campaigns. The 2003 Iraq invasion marked the beginning of formalized embed programs, giving reporters proximity to battle—but with strict limitations. They couldn’t report troop locations, upcoming missions, or classified intel. The same rules applied in Afghanistan, where independent journalism outside embeds carried huge risks: kidnapping, targeting by insurgents, or detention by suspicious authorities. None of this was controversial. It was common sense.

Covering the war against ISIS was a logistical and moral gauntlet. During the brutal Battle of Mosul (2016–2017), journalists had to coordinate with Iraqi or Kurdish forces for any access an be embedded with Iraqi special forces. In Syria, the risks for journalists were even greater. In areas controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)—primarily Kurdish-led forces in regions like Rojava—journalists could gain access by applying for press permits through local media offices or civil councils. The Kurdish authorities, much like other organized military groups, enforced a system of accreditation and escorts, especially in or near active combat zones.

Despite these conditions, no media outlet claimed they were being “denied access” or accused the U.S. military of hiding war crimes. Why the double standard when it comes to Israel? So why is Israel expected to act differently? Why are Hamas talking points treated as news? Why are media outlets pretending they don’t know the rules?

The answer is uncomfortable: many international outlets are less interested in truth than narratives. When they ignore how war zones actually work to accuse Israel of bad faith, they’re not holding power to account—they’re running interference for terrorist propaganda. War reporters are meant to serve the public as our eyes and ears on the front lines. But the reality of gaining access is more than a logistical hurdle. Journalists must play by the rules. And so should media outlets.

The current situation—where Israel is held to standards no other military faces, and where Hamas propaganda is laundered through the world’s biggest newsrooms—isn’t just biased. It’s deliberate propaganda and it’s dangerous.

In today’s info war against Israel, the truth isn’t just the first casualty—it’s the target. And far too often, the media is pulling the trigger.. And when the media becomes part of the propaganda machine, it doesn't just fail journalism—it fails humanity.
UN to Cut Budget 20%, Fire 7,000 Employees
I’ll believe it when I see it. Or more specifically, when I see the ‘internationaliat’ of Turtle Bay swap out 5-star Manhattan restaurants for Chick-Fil-A. International organizations, like the Palestinian Authority, announce budget cuts in the hopes that someone will swoop in and shower them with money, but the money showers may be over. It’s not just the Trump admin. The rest of the world is navigating challenging economies and cutting back.

So there’s less money for the international sex trafficking fund known as the UN.

The United Nations is looking to cut its budget and eliminate nearly 7,000 jobs, an internal memo obtained by Reuters found.

The directive from the U.N. Secretariat asked staff to detail cuts by June 13 as it prepares to slash its $3.7 billion budget by 20%.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said that the budget changes were because it was a time of “intense uncertainty and unpredictability.”

“Resources are shrinking across the board — and they have been for a long time,” he said.

Resources shrink for socialists but expand for capitalists. When you can’t create value, then growth is not exactly an option except as parasitism, and when the explicit premise of your globalist movement is to end growth, then decline and malaise is all you’ve got.

But don’t worry, there’ll be plenty of money for global conferences and private jets for the brass. They may just have to cut down from 9 assistants to 7 and maybe even free a few of their child slaves.
Hamas Terrorist Said Group Collaborates With US Campus Protesters: 'We Have Our Own People Everywhere'
A Hamas operative who held Israeli civilians hostage in Gaza said Hamas works with anti-Israel protesters and the media to spread anti-Semitism in the United States, according to a federal lawsuit filed Friday.

Former hostages Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov, and Shlomi Ziv say in the lawsuit that one of their Hamas captors, Abdallah Aljamal, told them that "Hamas in Gaza was coordinating with its allies, including its allies in the media and on college campuses, to foment hatred against Israel and Jews," the Times of Israel reported.

Ziv's captors, including Aljamal, "showed him a news report with stories and pictures of the Columbia protests and the Encampment," the court filing says.

"With the news report on, his captors told him, 'You see we have our own people everywhere,'" the filing goes on. "They then told him that Hamas has an 'army' operating out of Gaza that focuses specifically on media and sending Hamas propaganda and messaging throughout America and all around the world."

Jan, Kozlov, and Ziv were rescued in an Israel Defense Forces operation last June that killed Aljamal.

The revelation comes after anti-Semitic, pro-Hamas protests have swept U.S. college campuses following the terrorist group's Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel. President Donald Trump has cracked down on campus anti-Semitism, revoking billions of dollars in federal funding from universities that have repeatedly failed to protect Jewish students.

Columbia University, which Ziv's captors singled out, in particular has sparked widespread backlash for failing to curb pro-Hamas encampments and demonstrations that glorify violence against Jews. Earlier this month, a mob of agitators stormed a campus library, passed out pamphlets that openly endorsed Hamas's attacks, and chanted, "There is only one solution, intifada revolution."
‘I always chose life’: Ex-Hostage Eli Sharabi launches memoir of captivity and survival
Just a few months ago, this scene would have been unimaginable: Eli Sharabi, free, and standing before a crowd at a Tel Aviv museum to launch a book about his 491 days as a hostage in Gaza.

Even now, as he speaks publicly for the first time in this kind of setting, dozens of hostages – including people he was held with – remain just a few kilometers away, still trapped underground.

“I never looked at death as an option,” Sharabi told the packed auditorium at the ANU Museum at the Jewish People. “I always chose life.”

More than 300 people gathered Thursday to mark the publication of ‘Hostage’ – the first memoir written and published by a returned Israeli captive. The event was part memorial, part tribute, and part national reckoning.

Sharabi, 52, was abducted from his home in Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7, 2023 during Hamas’ onslaught. His wife Lianne and daughters Noiya, 16, and Yahel, 13, were murdered that day. His brother Yossi was also kidnapped and murdered by his captors, who still hold his body.

Sharabi was held in Hamas captivity for 491 days and was released on February 8 as part of a temporary ceasefire deal brokered by Qatar, Egypt, and the US. Eli Sharabi and singer Yuval Dayan at his book launch at ANU – The Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv, May 30, 2024. (Guy Gueta)

The evening included a reading of Sharabi’s book by actor Uri Gavriel, a musical performance by singer Yuval Daniel – the favorite singer of his late daughters – and Sharabi’s niece, and an onstage interview led by actress Tzufit Grant.

It also served as a tribute to those who supported Sharabi and his family throughout his captivity and return.


THE IMPOSSIBLE HYPOCRISY OF MEHDI HASAN
You almost have to admire Mehdi Hasan’s sheer chutzpah.

The man has accused others—like journalist Peter Savodnik—of committing whataboutism, when in truth, Mehdi Hasan isn’t just guilty of it. He’s the undisputed heavyweight champion of the concept. He’s mastered the art so thoroughly that professors of rhetoric may one day name a logical fallacy after him. And yet, without a shred of irony, here he is accusing someone else of what he’s spent an entire career doing.

To give some context, here’s Hasan—Qatari-funded, Islamist-apologist, professional moral gymnast—calling out Peter Savodnik for “whataboutism.” What had Savodnik said? He simply pointed out the grotesque hypocrisy of those who obsess over Israel while turning a blind eye to genocides, mass slaughters, and brutal repression across China, Sudan, Syria, Burma, Venezuela, and beyond. Hasan’s reply? “Whataboutism, the last refuge of the pro-Israel scoundrel.” Well, Mehdi, let’s see who the pot calling the kettle black really is. Here are just seven examples of Mehdi Hasan’s own whataboutist gems:

Number 1:
After the Charlie Hebdo massacre in 2015, while most of the world stood in horror at the Islamist slaughter of cartoonists, Hasan decided to redirect the conversation. Rather than focus on the atrocity itself, he asked: “Has your publication run cartoons mocking the Holocaust? No? How about caricatures of the 9/11 victims falling from the twin towers?” Yes, in response to jihadist murder, Mehdi’s instinct was to go full “but what about…” the Holocaust. Tu quoque, level: elite.

Number 2:
In a 2013 Oxford Union debate, Mehdi was asked to address violence carried out in the name of Islam. He didn’t. Instead, he snapped back with: “I’m not going to take lessons in antisemitism from someone defending the Judeo-Christian values of a continent that murdered six million Jews.” The motion was “Islam is a peaceful religion,” yet Hasan, without missing a beat, turned it into a lecture on Christian Europe and the Holocaust. A master deflector.

Number 3:
Fast forward to 2022. Russia had just launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But instead of sticking to that topic, Hasan used his MSNBC platform to say: “At what point do we also offer our support to all people fighting repression and occupation—not just brave Ukrainians?” Then he pointed to Yemen and Palestine, claiming our allies are the real oppressors. What should have been a show of solidarity with Ukraine became another excuse to pivot back to Israel and the West.
Joe Rogan and the death of expertise
Such a person might also have believed comic Dave Smith, on April 3, when he claimed during a solo appearance on Rogan’s show, before his “debate” with Murray, that the United States is bombing Yemen “on behalf of Israel,” or when he said of Palestinians in the West Bank, “under Israeli control they have zero rights, zero rights whatsoever,” or when he said that Israel has “gotten us into like seven wars.” Or they might have believed podcaster Darryl Cooper’s Holocaust revisionism on March 13. But these are just the same old tired conspiracy theories—at root, most antisemitism is conspiracy theory—now recycled into a new media environment that has no guardrails.

It’s good to know, of course, that Carroll doesn’t believe in conspiracy theorist David Icke’s theories about reptiles (calling them a “grift”) or that the earth is flat (purposeful misinformation meant to “obfuscate the narrative,” he says), but is that our new baseline? One would hope not.

Rogan ended the episode, after play-acting for the supposed censors, “I can’t believe what you said … . I am so upset that I even platformed you, you’re outrageous!” by more seriously telling Carroll that he was “very, very reasonable” and performing a “valuable service.”

Nor was Carroll the first obvious kook that Rogan had on his show. He has previously hosted actor Terrence Howard, former Pink Floyd member and anti-Israel activist Roger Waters, and Abby Martin, who made a film called “Gaza fights for freedom.”

And just last week, Rogan was once again suggesting that aliens may have built the pyramids in Egypt. Rogan pushed back much harder on the former Egyptian minister of antiquities, Zahi Hawass, who opposes such bonkers theories, than he ever pushed back on Carroll. But it took Carroll just a couple of minutes to promote the claim that the pyramids could have been built by telepathic aliens, and it took an actual archeologist with decades of experience two hours to rebut it.

No one knows better than my colleagues at CAMERA, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle Reporting and Analysis, and I do, that the credentialed experts don’t always get things right. But that’s not an excuse to promote baseless conspiracy theories pedaled by someone with no credibility whatsoever. Rogan is entertaining, and many people enjoy the super-long format that has at other times allowed him to get much more in-depth into issues than television news, even magazine formats like “20/20” or “60 Minutes,” can allow. But if a listener can learn one thing from the Carroll, Cooper and Smith interviews on this podcast, it’s that Rogan—who boasts, “I was arguing with people about the moon landing on the radio before [expletive] there was any podcasts”—doesn’t vet his guests for any type of intellectual rigor whatsoever, and often lacks the knowledge to push back on some of his guests’ crazier claims. And, he’s happy to use his show to promote wild conspiracy theories, including, but certainly not limited to, those about Jews and Israel.
Emily Austin: What happened to Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens?
Many who claim to be pro-Trump, “America First” conservatives are actually falling for this fringe, primeval balderdash. In one sense, we are sympathetic to them. Throughout the pandemic, conservatives who spoke out about ballot harvesting and election fraud, FBI informants present on Jan. 6, or COVID-19 leaking from a lab in Wuhan were marginalized and labeled “conspiracy theorists.” It is easy, when such sinister government schemes and private-public collusion appear all around you, to fall into the rabbit hole of seeing conspiracies everywhere. But that hole eventually leads to the Holocaust, and evidently, we have arrived there — with full-blown deniers and distortionists now celebrated by the world’s leading political podcasters, generating tens of millions of views and shaping the hearts and minds of young, vulnerable Americans.

Both of us proudly voted for President Donald Trump in 2024, and we are thrilled about his political appointments and moves he has taken to gut the federal bureaucracy and restore constitutional liberties. But as the saying goes, politics is downstream from culture. Trump may have won the battle, but putting Republicans in office is just the first step. The real war is fighting to preserve MAGA principles to ensure that we deliver on our promises and win future elections. Though we may be fearful of dividing the movement by publicly criticizing its members, choosing country over party is the truest test of American patriotism.

Antisemitism has united the left-wing and the right-wing for generations and is the most glaring example of the horseshoe effect. It only took a small group of Jew-hating progressives to hijack the entire Democratic Party and make the majority beholden to the minority. If we do not excise the poison from our own camp, there is no reason why this won’t happen to us.
Jonathan Tobin: In Trump v. Harvard, the stakes involve more than antisemitism
At the heart of this battle is a struggle for a university system that is currently dominated by those who regard America as an irredeemably racist nation, or those who wish to discard the Western canon and replace it with progressive doctrines that racialize society and divide us into permanently warring groups of alleged victims and oppressors.

We know what Harvard wants, as well as other schools that have been applauding from the sidelines as efforts make their way through the courts to keep their federal funding and foreign students. Their goal is to go on producing new elites steeped in woke doctrines that are at odds with the basic values of the American republic and the Western canon—and that fuel antisemitism and anti-Zionism. And they want American taxpayers, including working-class kids who deserve better from their government as well as these strongholds of privilege, to go on enabling and subsidizing all of this.

The idea that Harvard, Columbia or any such school is entitled to undermine this country and do so on the backs of ordinary Americans is as outrageous as it is disconnected from any reasonable interpretation of the law. What Trump is doing in this war on Harvard and academia is defending the interests of the American people, including Jews. Those who are opposing him aren’t defending freedom. They are—whether they realize it or not—defending those people and ideas that seek the destruction of the West and the source of freedom.

Seen from that perspective, Trump is right to oppose Harvard with more vigor than Putin, even though the Russian authoritarian remains truly awful. Hard as it may be for some liberals who are still blind to what the progressives are attempting to do to the United States to comprehend, at the moment, Harvard and other elitist leftist institutions are currently a greater threat to America than any foreign dictator.
Columbia Let Him Walk. What if He’s Guilty?
At Columbia, victimhood is a virtue and accountability is a vice. The University refuses to address incongruities between its public values and institutional choices. Lip service about “combating antisemitism” seldom yields substantive action. Take the release of the Sundial Report (unrelated to this publication), commissioned by the University Senate to document campus protests and antisemitic incidents from October 2023 through December 2024. On April 30, the Stand Columbia Society released an annotated version—aptly dubbed the Sunlight Report—which identified 470 inaccuracies, omissions, and biases within the original report’s 1,273 claims.

Among its most glaring oversights: The Sundial Report fails to mention that, in his inaugural session, Mailman School of Public Health Professor Abdul Kayum Ahmed named and disparaged Jewish Columbia donors, describing them as “wealthy white capitalists” who laundered “blood money.” It also neglected several incidents in which faculty barred Israeli students from attending classes, curtailed their campus access, and devolved into ad hominem invectives against Jewish student leaders.

During May’s Senate plenary, Chair Jeanine D’Armiento publicly acknowledged that the report had neither been submitted to the University president nor transmitted to the Board of Trustees—an overt breach of Columbia’s governing statutes. While the report’s allegations implicated officer conduct, it bypassed all prescribed channels of internal review. It was published online and circulated to the press without notifying many of the Senate members who ostensibly authorized it. Under these conditions, it cannot plausibly be considered an official act of the University Senate.

This procedural farce bespeaks a deeper institutional rot. D’Armiento herself, who had once championed Senate term limits, later tried to deem herself exempt from the very regulations she helped codify. No sooner had she professed her fidelity to institutional norms than she attempted to circumvent them—all while asserting that Mohsen Mahdawi was “unlawfully detained.” The irony is glaring: The University Senate cast aspersions on the American justice system while willfully ignoring its own bylaws.

After Mahdawi’s arrest, Columbia remained conspicuously silent. The district judge permitted his temporary release on bail, but did not exonerate Mahdawi.

The University’s approach to Mahdawi mirrors its treatment of Hadden—presuming innocence until the optics are untenable.

We want to be proud of Columbia. We take no pleasure in watching our campus become a national flashpoint. We do not fault President Shipman for letting Mahdawi graduate—he’s innocent until proven guilty. Nevertheless, we condemn her partiality while he faces due process. The University must consider the implications of a guilty verdict.

Columbia says it holds students to “the highest standards of ethical conduct.”

We don’t buy it.


Harvard Commencement Speaker Lauds Classmate Who Assaulted Israeli Student—to Whoops and Cheers From the Crowd
A Harvard Divinity School graduate selected by faculty members to speak at the school's commencement ceremony used her address to praise Elom Tettey-Tamaklo, a classmate who faced criminal charges for assaulting an Israeli classmate.

"Class of 2025, Palestine is waiting for us to arrive," the speaker, Zehra Imam, told the crowd Thursday while draped in a keffiyeh and holding a Palestinian flag. "Elom Tettey-Tamaklo … our friends [sic] and classmate who continues to show up not just for Palestine, but for each of us by extending to us the water we need in our most vulnerable moments. Together we must refuse to be ruled by the tyrants of our time because our liberations are intertwined."

Tettey-Tamaklo and his fellow Harvard graduate student, Ibrahim Bharmal, were captured on video, first reported by the Washington Free Beacon, pushing, shoving, and surrounding a Jewish student during an October 2023 "die-in" protest, using keffiyehs to obscure their faces and block the student’s view. They faced assault charges over the incident, and a Suffolk County judge ultimately ordered them to perform 80 hours of community service and take an in-person anger management class as part of a pretrial diversion program. Soon after, Tettey-Tamaklo was made a class marshal for the divinity school’s graduation ceremony.

A committee of Harvard Divinity School students, faculty, and staff selected Imam—a Muslim Associate-Chaplin at MIT who has long pushed anti-Israel sentiment—as a student speaker for the commencement ceremony, according to a school spokesman. He said Imam deviated from her originally planned speech.

"Staff had no prior knowledge of the revised and given speech," the spokesman added. "Neither [Harvard Divinity School] nor Harvard condones the action taken by the students to deviate from the submitted and approved speech. The views and opinions expressed by the speakers during this ceremony are solely those of the individuals and do not reflect the official policy or position of HDS or Harvard University."

Imam’s anti-Israel sentiment is long known. Last year, she called on MIT to divest from Israel through a poem she read on a Turkish television show. She also joined a sit-in for "Palestinian freedom" at the university roughly a month after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack.


Student speaker accuses Israel of ‘genocide’ at MIT graduation
Clad in a red keffiyeh, Megha Vemuri, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s class of 2025, addressed graduates at the school’s commencement on Thursday.

“You showed the world that MIT wants a free Palestine,” she said.

“It is no secret that at this time, academic institutions across the country are shrouded in a dark cloud of uncertainty,” she said. “The question of what will happen next echoes in our minds, and there is a lot of fear in many of our hearts.”

Vemuri told graduates, to some applause, that “last spring, MIT’s undergraduate body and graduate student union voted overwhelmingly to cut ties with the genocidal Israeli military.”

“You called for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, and you stood in solidarity with the pro-Palestine activists on campus. You faced threats, intimidation and suppression coming from all directions, especially your own university officials, but you prevailed,” she said. “Because the MIT community that I know would never tolerate a genocide.”

As she and her peers graduate, “there are no universities left in Gaza. We are watching Israel try to wipe Palestine off the face of the earth, and it is a shame that MIT is a part of it,” the student said.

“The Israeli occupation forces are the only foreign military that MIT has research ties with,” she said. “This means that Israel’s assault on the Palestinian people is not only aided and abetted by our country, but our school.”

“As scientists, engineers, academics and leaders, we have a commitment to support life, support aid efforts and call for an arms embargo, and keep demanding now as alumni that MIT cuts the ties,” she said.

After telling students to turn their rings around so the MIT emblem faces outward, the student said that the school “is directly complicit in the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people, and so we carry with us the obligation to do everything we can to stop it.”


GCSE exam paper withdrawn over ‘anti-Israel bias’
Pearson Edexcel has removed a GCSE English language paper from circulation after a pro-Israel legal group claimed it contained politically biased content relating to the 2014 Gaza war.

According to the Jewish Chronicle, the 2023 International GCSE exam included a reading task based on an extract from David Nott’s memoir War Doctor: Surgery on the Front Line, describing his experience treating patients in a Gaza hospital during the conflict.

The passage focused on a young girl wounded in a bombing and Nott’s decision to stay with her despite fears of an imminent strike on the hospital. One line described his action as “a pointless act of defiance against the warmongers”, a phrase UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) said could be interpreted as referring to Israel.

In a formal complaint to Pearson, UKLFI said the inclusion of such an extract in an unseen comprehension task could place “students who are supportive of Israel in an invidious position” when answering exam questions. They also warned that its continued availability online risked “similar detriment” for mock exam candidates.

In response, Pearson removed the exam paper, mark scheme and examiner report from its website, and said its anti-piracy team had been instructed to issue takedown notices to third-party platforms hosting the material.

In a letter to UKLFI, the board said the passage was “no longer considered appropriate” in light of the October 2023 Hamas attacks and the subsequent escalation of conflict in the region.


Extremist cleric apologises for calling Jews ‘bloodthirsty monsters’
Sheikh Ahmed Zod has apologised to “the Australian Jewish community” for preaching during a sermon that Jews “loved to shed blood” and accused them of raising their children on “violence, terrorism and killing”.

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) lodged a complaint against Sheikh Zod in March 2024 before the Australian Human Rights Commission for the 2023 sermon he delivered entitled “The truth of the Jews and their characteristics”. It was spoken in Arabic at the Masjid As-Sunnah, a Mosque in Lakemba NSW, and included a series of derogatory and dehumanising language and stereotypes against Jews.

During the sermon, Sheikh Zod preached that Jews were “bloodthirsty monsters” who “ran like rats” from the October 7 Hamas attack.

“Who are these terrorists … these monsters … who have removed mercy from their hearts,” he preached.

“These (people) are the Jews, not all of them, but most of them. The most important characteristic of the Jews is that they are thirsty for bloodshed … another is betrayal and treachery.”

He has now apologised “unreservedly and unconditionally” to ECAJ co-CEO Peter Wertheim, deputy president Robert Goot, and “the Australian Jewish community”.

“I deeply regret the way I framed my comments and understand how they could be interpreted as targeting Jewish people as a whole,” said Sheikh Zod.

“I did not intend to make such a sweeping generalisation. I did not seek to harm Jewish people based on their race or religion. This is not an excuse but an explanation to hopefully assure you that I will not repeat these comments.”

Wertheim welcomed Sheik Zod’s admission of wrong-doing and said he hopes that it will serve as an example for the future about the limits of freedom of expression.


IAF strikes Hezbollah site in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley
The Israeli Air Force carried out an overnight strike on Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure site in eastern Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley, the military said on Friday.

The site contained weapons and showed signs of efforts by Hezbollah to rebuild it after previous IDF strikes, according to the army statement.

The Israeli military “will continue to take act to remove any threat to the State of Israel and will prevent any attempt by the Hezbollah terrorist organization to establish itself,” the brief Hebrew statement added.

The situation in Lebanon remains volatile following the expiration of the ceasefire on Feb. 18. The deal ended more than a year of war, after Hezbollah began attacking Israel the day after Hamas’s massacre on Oct. 7, 2023.

The terms of the Nov. 27 ceasefire agreement between Jerusalem and Beirut required Hezbollah to vacate all areas south of the Litani River.

Defense Minister Israel Katz has repeatedly warned that the ceasefire deal with Beirut would be void if Iranian-backed Hezbollah refuses to withdraw from Southern Lebanon as required by the agreement.

On Thursday afternoon, an Israeli Air Force aircraft struck a Hezbollah terrorist operative in the Beaufort Ridge area, in southeastern Lebanon’s Nabatieh Governorate, the IDF said. He was rehabilitating a site used by Hezbollah to manage its fire and defense array. The activity at the site constitutes a blatant violation of the understanding between Israel and Lebanon, the statement read.

Two days earlier, the IDF killed a senior Hezbollah terrorist who had commanded a compound near the Jewish state’s northern border.


40% of Syrians back peace with Israel
Over one in three Syrians supports Damascus signing a peace treaty with Israel to improve the Arab Republic’s economic and security situation, a recent survey by the Syrian Center for Public Opinion Studies found.

The center surveyed a representative sample of 2,550 male and female Syrians of all ages across the country’s regions from April 18-26.

Some 60% said they expected a normalization pact to be signed in the future, and 40% expressed support for a peace deal with Jerusalem.

Despite what the report called a “significant shift” in the opinion toward peace with Jerusalem, respondents still described Israel as the top threat facing Syria (76.86%), followed by Iran (66.27%) and the United States (47.41%).

Even if a peace agreement were to be signed, only 16.78% of Syrians expressed support for Jerusalem opening an embassy in Damascus; 17.02% said they would accept a Syrian diplomatic mission in Israel.

Most Syrians link peace with the Jewish state to economic stability and prosperity, with more than 70% of respondents saying normalization would lead to increased Arab and international investment in Syria, and therefore an improved economy.

More than half of Syrians believe normalization would end regional wars and improve Damascus’s security conditions.

According to the report, Syria’s Kurdish, Druze, Christian and Alawite groups expressed the greatest support for a peace treaty, following the Israel Defense Forces’ vow to protect minorities in the post-Assad era.


American Adversaries Meet To 'Coordinate Their Positions' on Iran's Nuclear Program
Iranian officials on Thursday met with their Chinese and Russian counterparts to discuss ongoing nuclear negotiations between Tehran and the Trump administration. Leaders of the three countries met to "coordinate their positions ahead" of an upcoming International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) hearing on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.

The summit is yet another sign of deepening ties between the United States’ adversaries. Russian president Vladimir Putin earlier this month agreed to extend a line of credit to Iran, begin building a new nuclear facility in the country, and expand operations at an existing plant.

Russian permanent representative to international organizations Mikhail Ulyanov described Thursday’s discussion as "very useful," saying it helps the three countries "coordinate closely our positions," and Iran's deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, Kazem Gharibabadi, confirmed that he met with Chinese and Russian officials to discuss the negotiations.

"In separate meetings with the ambassadors of Russia and China, we reviewed the development and strengthening of cooperation within the framework of these two important groups of countries," Gharibabadi said.

Western nonproliferation experts, meanwhile, fear that Iran, China, and Russia have crafted plans to weaken the Trump administration’s negotiating position.

"Russia and China are coordinating on how to cajole Trump into a weak Iran nuclear deal and helping Tehran evade consequences at an upcoming IAEA board meeting, which would include avoiding the U.S. and E3’s [France, Germany, and the United Kingdom] restoration of U.N. Iran sanctions before their expiration in October," Foundation for Defense of Democracies research fellow Andrea Stricker told the Washington Free Beacon. "This is what friends do for their junior ‘Axis of Aggressors’ member."

Russia and China, both U.N. Security Council members, are capable of persuading the international body to refrain from reimposing the economic sanctions lifted as part of the original 2015 nuclear deal. Both countries’ diplomatic sway enables Iran to take a hardline approach in its negotiations with the United States.

Iran’s foreign ministry emphasized on Wednesday—just a day before the trilateral meeting—that the country will not give up its right to enrich uranium, the fuel that powers a nuclear bomb.
The UK’s Arab allies can’t wait for London to finally proscribe Tehran’s IRGC
The IRGC has grown emboldened by the abject failure of authorities across the Western world to ban the organisation (US and Canada aside), as well as the increasing desperation of their fundamentalist regime in Tehran, which is reeling in the aftermath of the decimation by Israel of its prized assets, Hezbollah and Hamas.

Projecting violence and instability outside Iran’s borders is the IRGC’s raison d’être and they have worked overtime since Hamas’ October 7 pogrom.

It has led analysts to question the extent to which the IRGC and its agents of hate have been involved in cynically stoking anti-Israel sentiment and outright anti-Jewish racism on British university campuses and high streets.

It is no secret that Iran’s extremist ideology is already disseminated in plain sight through institutions across the UK. The Islamic Centre of England reportedly held an infamous candlelit vigil for Qassem Soleimani – an arch-terrorist with the blood of tens of thousands on his hands.

Other IRGC commanders have been documented telling British audiences that the Holocaust was “a lie and a fake”, that universities have become “the battlefront”, and calling for British students to become “soft-war officers”. The Charity Commission opened investigations, but they need more powers – which can only come from formally criminalising the IRGC.

Cross-party parliamentarians have resumed their long-running demand for the IRGC’s proscription. It is a move that would be welcomed by the UK’s Arab allies in the Middle East, who are looking on in bemusement at the UK’s laissez-faire approach to Islamist extremism.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper both called for proscription while in Opposition, and Labour’s 2024 election manifesto even endorsed the move. And yet, the necessary decision keeps getting kicked into the long grass with the Foreign Office seemingly trying to pacify parliamentary pressure by incrementally expanding existing sanctions frameworks and introducing the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme.

Indecision and diversionary tactics are merely delaying the inevitable and have left a vacuum which Iran is more than eager to fill.

So why have Labour failed to make good on their word? Speculation has focused on a long-running disagreement between the Home Office and Foreign Office and alleged concerns about Iran’s diplomatic retaliation to proscription.

This strikes me as a wilful misreading of Iran’s previous actions – the British Embassy in Tehran was already attacked little over a decade ago and since then a number of British Iranian dual nationals have been belligerently taken hostage by Tehran. Weekly, calls are made by regime figures for the destruction of the UK (known as “Little Satan”). If October 7 has taught us anything, it is that the time has come for us to take extremists at their word.

The UK’s world-renowned security services are playing their part admirably in thwarting Iran’s murderous ambitions, but the IRGC only needs to get lucky once. All the while, the IRGC is executing an ideological war in the heart of the UK’s towns and cities.

There is no alternative to proscription. For the security and well-being of the UK’s citizenry and democracy, the Labour government can ill-afford to procrastinate a day longer.
Yonkers man gets six years for assaulting Jewish barber
Ahmed Al Jabali, 34, of Yonkers, N.Y., was sentenced to six years in federal prison and three subsequent years of supervision for “his vicious, antisemitic assault on a Jewish barber in Yonkers,” the Westchester County, N.Y., district attorney’s office stated on Thursday.

“The Westchester County district attorney’s office will continue to prioritize combating antisemitism and all hate crimes,” stated Susan Cacace, the county’s district attorney. “There will be no tolerance for this type of despicable behavior in our community.”

Jabali pleaded guilty in April to an assault in the second degree as a hate crime, per the district attorney’s office.

After entering a Yonkers barber shop on Aug. 29, 2024, and asking for a shave, he “grabbed a pair of barber’s shears” and referred to Slava Shushakov as an “(expletive) Jew,” per the district attorney’s office. “He then repeatedly attempted to stab Shushakov, slashing him in the arm and hand several times, all while yelling antisemitic slurs.”

“No one should have to go through what I went through,” Shushakov stated. “This attack is a reminder that we have a lot more to do to eradicate hate and antisemitism in Westchester County.”


French lawmakers back posthumous promotion for Alfred Dreyfus
A French parliamentary committee has unanimously approved a bill to posthumously promote Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer whose wrongful conviction for treason in 1894 exposed the deep currents of antisemitism running through the French establishment.

The legislation backed this week by the National Defence and Armed Forces Committee proposed elevating Dreyfus to the rank of brigadier general. It will be presented to the full National Assembly for a final vote on 2 June.

In a statement confirming the move, the French Embassy in Israel said: “The French Nation is just and does not forget. This rights an injustice, honours a warrior, and clarifies that antisemitism, from history to today, will never have a place in the Republic.”

Dreyfus, an artillery captain and one of the few Jewish officers in the French army at the time, was falsely accused of passing secrets to Germany. He was sentenced to life on Devil’s Island, a remote penal colony, based on forged documents and antisemitic suspicion. His case became a national crisis after novelist Émile Zola published his explosive letter J’accuse!, accusing the military of a cover-up.

The affair sent shockwaves far beyond France. It profoundly influenced Theodor Herzl, who covered the trial as a journalist and came to believe that Jews would only be safe in a state or their own – laying the groundwork for political Zionism.

Dreyfus was exonerated in 1906 and reinstated as a major. He went on to serve in the First World War and died in 1935 at the age of 76. Despite his legal rehabilitation, he never received full symbolic restitution from the military.

The proposed posthumous promotion, nearly 130 years after his arrest, is being viewed as a long-overdue act of national justice. If passed, it will mark the first time the French military has formally elevated a historical figure wronged by state antisemitism.


Art Garfunkel captivates Tel Aviv audience
Art Garfunkel of the legendary musical duo Simon & Garfunkel delivered a performance for the ages at Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park on Thursday evening as a guest of Israeli rocker Aviv Geffen, marking the first visit by a major international artist to the Jewish state since war erupted almost 19 months ago.

“I am happy to be here in Israel,” the 83-year-old performer told tens of thousands of audience members, who greeted him with enthusiastic cheers. Performing alongside his son, Art Garfunkel Jr., and Geffen, he delivered several of the duo’s timeless classics, including “The Sound of Silence,” “The Boxer” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”

Geffen highlighted Garfunkel’s commitment to performing in Israel despite the security situation, which has caused concern among international artists. During the early part of the concert, before Garfunkel appeared on stage, air-raid sirens were activated throughout Israel, including in Tel Aviv, due to Houthi missile fire from Yemen. Rather than halt the proceedings, the show continued against the backdrop of interceptions—a stark reminder of the complex realities facing the region.

Art Garfunkel, born Arthur Ira Garfunkel in 1941 in the Forest Hills neighborhood of Queens, N.Y., rose to fame as the distinctive voice of Simon & Garfunkel, one of the most successful folk-rock partnerships in music history.
A Shavuot Story: How Ruth’s Loyalty Inspired American Liberty
On the holiday of Shavuot, the biblical book of Ruth is read in synagogue. Explanations for this practice include the springtime setting of both the tale and the holiday, as well as the heroine’s acceptance of Judaism, which thematically connects to the festival’s commemoration of the acceptance of God’s law at Sinai by the Israelites in the days of Moses. While the scriptural story records Ruth as the ancestor of King David, American history credits her as a figure who helped advance civil rights and liberty.

In a Jan. 6, 1874 speech, Representative Robert Brown Elliott invoked the heroine in arguing before Congress on behalf of equal treatment for all Americans.

Elliott was a fascinating figure. Born in 1842 in Liverpool, England, he was educated at the prestigious Eton College, served in the British Royal Navy, and then immigrated to America, where he settled in South Carolina in 1867. There he campaigned against the Ku Klux Klan, was elected to the state legislature and later commanded the South Carolina National Guard, the first Black man to do so. Elliott also served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1870 to 1874. It was there that he gave a speech urging the passage of what would become the Civil Rights Act of 1875.

Powerfully, he began by arguing that while the cause was undoubtedly personally relevant, that was not why he was advocating for the legislation: “While I am sincerely grateful for this high mark of courtesy that has been accorded to me by this House,” he said, “it is a matter of regret to me that it is necessary at this day that I should rise in the presence of an American Congress to advocate a bill which simply asserts equal rights and equal public privileges for all classes of American citizens. I regret, sir, that the dark hue of my skin may lend a color to the imputation that I am controlled by motives personal to myself in my advocacy of this great measure of national justice. Sir, the motive that impels me is restricted by no such narrow boundary but is as broad as your Constitution. I advocate it, sir, because it is right.”

Citing Alexander Hamilton’s argument that “natural liberty is a gift of the beneficent Creator to the whole human race,” Elliott reminded the House that “it is scarcely 12 years since [the South] shocked the civilized world by announcing the birth of a government which rested on human slavery as its cornerstone.” He expressed relief that the “progress of events has swept away that pseudo-government which rested on greed, pride, and tyranny.”
Newly released photos show Shavuot celebrations in Israel in the 1930s, ’40s
The Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund has released a new collection of rare archival photographs that capture Shavuot holiday celebrations from the 1930s and 1940s, predating the establishment of the modern-day State of Israel.

The images portray children and young adults in festive attire, dancing and carrying traditional baskets filled with first fruits (bikkurim). The holiday took on renewed agricultural and symbolic meaning, celebrated in schools, kibbutzim and cities as a reflection of national revival and a deep connection to the land.

“These are powerful moments of pride and joy that illustrate how an ancient custom was revived and brought to life in the homeland,” said Ifat Ovadia-Luski, chair of KKL-JNF. “This continuity of the Zionist enterprise—from the early days of Zionism to the present—lies at the heart of our identity as a people.”

She said they are “far more than historical documentation; they tell the story of the renewal of the Jewish people in their land.”




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