Wednesday, June 04, 2025

06/04 Links Pt2: The BBC’s biased Israel reporting is fuelling anti-Semitism; Azealia Banks: 'I'm a Zionist, no black person should support Palestine'

From Ian:

The BBC’s biased Israel reporting is fuelling anti-Semitism
Again, really? Why do we always “have to assume” the worst possible behaviour by the IDF when independent experts say they have inflicted historically low casualties for warfare in a built-up area. Not that all casualties aren’t dreadful and distressing (and 27 more Palestinians were tragically killed on Tuesday while waiting for aid to be distributed), but Allied forces inflicted worse when they drove the equally wicked Islamic State out of Iraq. President Obama ordered a siege of the city of Mosul because the terrorists had embedded themselves within civilian areas. There was a notable shortage of media outrage about the 10,000 civilian deaths because the world mainly agreed that the planet was a better place without those fundamentalist b------s in it.

Oh, and by the way, what possible motive would Israel have for shooting scores of civilians when it has a vested interest in proving those aid hubs can succeed?

Let’s not forget it was the BBC which reported that an explosion at Al-Ahli hospital simply must have been caused by Israel before overwhelming evidence emerged that a misfired Islamic Jihad rocket was responsible. Jeremy Bowen said he didn’t regret “one thing in my reporting, because I think I was measured throughout, I didn’t race to judgment.” When the interviewer pointed out that Bowen falsely reported that the hospital building was flattened, he said, “Oh, yeah, well, I got that wrong.” No biggie, Jeremy.

Not coincidentally, Monday’s Today programme also carried news of an attack on an event in Boulder, Colorado, which was raising awareness about the Israeli hostages. Twelve people were badly injured, some burned by Molotov cocktails including an elderly lady who had survived the Holocaust.

The appalling worldwide surge in anti-Semitism since October 7 2023 – including the recent murder of a young couple who worked for the Israeli embassy in Washington DC – is undoubtedly fuelled by grossly partisan reporting. A week ago there was a racially-motivated knife attack by a group of men on three Jewish boys at Hampstead Tube station; one lad ended up in hospital. More and more British Jews, among our most successful and patriotic citizens (I have never been to a Jewish event where they didn’t sing God Save the King), are being driven out of the UK. What on earth must they think when they hear Jeremy Bowen’s palpable contempt for Israel – it’s so bad I can’t bear to listen any more. And much of other BBC reporting is barely disguised anti-Semitism.

They say the devil has all the best tunes and Hamas has played the media like a violin. Surely very little by the way of civilised conduct is to be expected from men who strangled the tiny Bibas brothers, baby Kfir and toddler Ariel, with their bare hands. Monsters who streamed over the border and killed nearly all the young women soldiers at the border observation station; most of their bodies so savagely mutilated in acts of sexual rage and depravity what remained of them was unfit to be shown to their grieving parents. Yet the Western media, and a large proportion of the educated liberal world, including the BBC, has been entirely captured by this extremist Islamist group which would murder in cold blood every value, every enlightened idea, every uncovered woman, every gay person, they hold dear.

All of the sane Muslim states have banned the crazies, knowing what destruction they wreak, how murderous their creed, how anti-life they are. “Hamas are terrorists” – a message on a placard that my friend from Our Fight: For Israel Against Anti-Semitism, Mark Birbeck, has been arrested for even holding in central London. A truth – Hamas are terrorists – that the BBC will still not speak.

You know, I took some comfort from Yuval Raphael’s amazing win in the Eurovision popular vote. Despite the relentless propaganda, a vast number of viewers across the continent decided to support New Day Will Rise and Israel’s entry.

“Be quiet,” he replied. “Yuvali, my daughter. Yuvali, breathe deep. Hide. Play dead.”

Hamas massacred 40 beautiful young people in that roadside shelter, and their bodies protected Yuval, so that one day she would sing. And the death-cult shall have no dominion, and they will not win. Must never win.
Andrew Pessin: The Tsunami of Campus Jew-Hate
I’ve known that the problem of campus Jew-hate was bad since at least 2015, which was when I began to track it seriously. That tracking led to my co-producing, with Doron Ben-Atar, the 2018 volume Anti-Zionism on Campus: The University, Free Speech, and BDS, which attempted to document the phenomenon both quantitatively and qualitatively. Though the reality that that book documents seemed awful at the time, it seems quaint in comparison to today. I think this truly instantiates the “frog in slowly heating water” scenario—too many people simply did not see or understand how serious the problem was and was becoming, until, post October 7, the water was fully boiling.

Earlier this year I independently published a two-volume collection of my writings that amounts to a kind of update to the 2018 book. Called Israel Breathes, World Condemns, the two volumes document and analyze both the trajectory that led to the large-scale explosion of campus Jew-hate on and post the October 7 massacre, as well as the course that explosion has taken since October 7. (Vol 1, The Trajectory, is here; Vol 2, The Aftermath, is here.) Trigger warning: it does not always make for pleasant reading. The title of one of the essays in the collection—“When You Realize Nearly Everyone in Your University Wants You Dead”—gives you the idea. Full-frontal truth is not always pleasant, but it is, I think, nearly always necessary. So, no, I’m not much fun at parties, but given that, as an unabashed Jewish Zionist on a typical liberal arts campus, I don’t get invited to parties anyway, I’ll take on the uncomfortable role of being the unpleasant teller of the truth, or at least the truth as I see it.

Hiding one’s head in the sand does have its advantages, but I suppose I prefer to see what’s coming—or, in this case, with the recent murders and attempted murders of Jews in Washington DC, Boulder CO, and elsewhere, what’s already here. Don’t just take my word for it—at least go read the books themselves—but there’s a straight line from what’s been happening on campuses for the past decade and more and those attacks.

To give you a sense of just why I have this admittedly dark perspective, know that for many years I have served as the Campus Bureau Editor for the Algemeiner, a terrific news source focusing on Israel/Jewish matters. (Sign up there for the free daily newsletter with the most important stories of the day!) In that capacity I have kept a close eye on the campus scene, scouring the internet for the stories and incidents and receiving tips and info from various sources. Before October 7 I was generating perhaps 10-15 possible stories per day; after October 7 that number probably tripled. They’re not all bad news: there are wins in there, positive developments, along the way. But it’s mostly bad news, and sometimes very very bad news. When you follow the campus scene closely, and see what they are actually saying and doing, it’s hard not to reach the conclusion that while there may not be a majority, there is a substantial and very vocal minority of students and faculty on many major campuses who really do want you dead—and that most campus bystanders and most of all most campus administrators were perfectly willing to let them say and do those things.
Columbia protester and self-proclaimed ‘Jew-hater’ had direct link to Hamas’ terror cell, disturbing phone records reveal: DOJ
A “Jew-hater” who protested against Israel on Columbia University’s campus and contemplated setting a student on fire allegedly had a direct link to Hamas’ deadly al-Qassam Brigades militant group, The Post can reveal.

Tarek Bazrouk — awaiting trial after being indicted on three federal hate crimes against Jewish people — was “a member of a chat group that received regular updates from Abu Obeida,” the official spokesperson for the brigades, according to allegations in federal documents.

The accusation is the first evidence of an agitator receiving information directly from Hamas and taking action during protests on the university campus.

Bazrouk, 20, who was not a Columbia student, also frequently wore the green headband used by Hamas terrorists and boasted to friends about having relatives overseas who were part of the terror group, prosecutors claim in a letter filed with the court.

While on Columbia’s campus during protests in April 2024, Bazrouk allegedly texted a pal saying he lit a flare and considered lighting someone on fire, but that there were “too many” people around for him to take on, otherwise he “would’ve hurted [sic] them.”

Columbia University said it has no record of Bazrouk being on campus and wanted “to be clear that this individual is not affiliated with our University in any way,” adding that the school “strongly condemns antisemitism and violence, and we are horrified by the violence and hate crimes described in the indictment.”

Bazrouk, a US citizen born and raised in New York, was also arrested next to the campus in December 2024 for one of the three attacks against Jewish people of which he stands accused.

It is not clear how Bazrouk got on campus, which is private university property, but Columbia was beset with anti-Israel protesters shielded by masks throughout 2024, resulting in the NYPD being called to flush them out in April that year.


Azealia Banks: 'I'm a Zionist, no black person should support Palestine'
Controversial rapper and musician Azealia Banks announced that she identifies as a Zionist in a series of posts on X/Twitter.

Responding to a user’s question about whether she supported Israel or Palestine, she wrote, “I’m a Zionist.”

In separate posts, she elaborated on her opinions regarding Israel, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the current war in Gaza.

“If any of the Arab countries were going to support Palestine, they would have done it by now. I don’t see why this is America’s problem and, more specifically, any of my black American businesses,” she wrote.

“No black person should be supporting Palestine. Whenever I see stupid ass musicians supporting Palestine blindly without raising the question about black people’s safety and the ongoing *industry* of CHATTEL SLAVERY enslavement of black peoples in the Islamic world, it makes my blood BOIL,” Banks continued.

Azealia Banks weighs in on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Banks explained that much of her support for Israel has to do with the way she perceives the Arab world treating Black people.

“The Israel-Palestine dilemma is just a way for non-Jewish whites to throw a chip at Jews. Because if you really gave a f*** and REALLY examined the situation, you would see that there are black people who have been silenced and had their limbs chopped off and thrown in cages for Arabs to have actually colonized the Middle East.”
Seth Mandel: Bibi Vindicated on ‘Jewish State’ Demand
From the beginning of Benjamin Netanyahu’s return to the premiership in 2009, he repeatedly insisted that the Palestinian Authority recognize Israel as a Jewish state. “Israel expects the Palestinians to first recognize Israel as a Jewish state before talking about two states for two peoples,” Netanyahu reportedly told Obama’s Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, at their first meeting.

Netanyahu never really let up on the demand, though he obviously let his government negotiate with Mahmoud Abbas’s team despite the latter’s adamant refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, and therefore it wasn’t exactly a “precondition” to talks.

Netanyahu’s fixation on this divided the commentariat. His critics claimed he was simply trying to make it impossible for Abbas to come to the table and that the demand was intended as a roadblock to peace.

“I think it’s a mistake for some people to be raising it again and again as the critical decider of their attitude toward the possibility of a state and peace,” then-Secretary of State John Kerry said in 2014 when asked about the demand that Palestinians recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. He added that “‘Jewish state’ was resolved in 1947 in resolution 181, where there are more than 30 mentions of ‘Jewish state.’”

Haaretz agreed with Kerry: “Netanyahu’s insistence on the declaration is designed to push Abbas into an impossible position…. Abbas cannot state publicly what Netanyahu is asking of him.”

Former Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath piled on: “Do you think that any Palestinian leader in his right mind can ever accept this or is this simply an attempt to make it impossible for any Palestinian leader to sign a peace agreement with Israel? This is a new torpedo for the blame game.”

The idea was that the PLO had “de facto” recognized Israel and that any final-status peace agreement would result in full recognition by the Palestinians and by the Arab states, so anything that got in the way of final-status talks was a distraction that put Israel’s desired recognition farther away.

The obvious counterpoint was that Palestinians’ refusal to accept a Jewish state was why those final-status negotiations never produced a Palestinian “yes.” After all, by the time Netanyahu took office in 2009, the Palestinians had been offered full statehood alongside Israel twice, and their various demands had been met. First Yasser Arafat and then Abbas rejected the offer anyway.

Additionally, recognizing Israel’s existence isn’t the same as recognizing its right to be the national home of the Jewish people. Israel doesn’t need anyone’s recognition in order to exist. “What it does need is for the Palestinians to truly and irrevocably recognize Israel as it is, not just the Israeli state, which has guaranteed its existence by achieving military superiority, but the legitimacy of its character,” as Chuck Freilich put it at the time. “Only when the Palestinians can bring themselves to do so, will Israel be confident that they are truly ready for peace, an end to the conflict and the painful concessions that will be required by all.”
European calls for Palestinian statehood isn't principled diplomacy, it's panic
From the beginning of Benjamin Netanyahu’s return to the premiership in 2009, he repeatedly insisted that the Palestinian Authority recognize Israel as a Jewish state. “Israel expects the Palestinians to first recognize Israel as a Jewish state before talking about two states for two peoples,” Netanyahu reportedly told Obama’s Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, at their first meeting.

Netanyahu never really let up on the demand, though he obviously let his government negotiate with Mahmoud Abbas’s team despite the latter’s adamant refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, and therefore it wasn’t exactly a “precondition” to talks.

Netanyahu’s fixation on this divided the commentariat. His critics claimed he was simply trying to make it impossible for Abbas to come to the table and that the demand was intended as a roadblock to peace.

“I think it’s a mistake for some people to be raising it again and again as the critical decider of their attitude toward the possibility of a state and peace,” then-Secretary of State John Kerry said in 2014 when asked about the demand that Palestinians recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. He added that “‘Jewish state’ was resolved in 1947 in resolution 181, where there are more than 30 mentions of ‘Jewish state.’”

Haaretz agreed with Kerry: “Netanyahu’s insistence on the declaration is designed to push Abbas into an impossible position…. Abbas cannot state publicly what Netanyahu is asking of him.”

Former Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath piled on: “Do you think that any Palestinian leader in his right mind can ever accept this or is this simply an attempt to make it impossible for any Palestinian leader to sign a peace agreement with Israel? This is a new torpedo for the blame game.”

The idea was that the PLO had “de facto” recognized Israel and that any final-status peace agreement would result in full recognition by the Palestinians and by the Arab states, so anything that got in the way of final-status talks was a distraction that put Israel’s desired recognition farther away.

The obvious counterpoint was that Palestinians’ refusal to accept a Jewish state was why those final-status negotiations never produced a Palestinian “yes.” After all, by the time Netanyahu took office in 2009, the Palestinians had been offered full statehood alongside Israel twice, and their various demands had been met. First Yasser Arafat and then Abbas rejected the offer anyway.

Additionally, recognizing Israel’s existence isn’t the same as recognizing its right to be the national home of the Jewish people. Israel doesn’t need anyone’s recognition in order to exist. “What it does need is for the Palestinians to truly and irrevocably recognize Israel as it is, not just the Israeli state, which has guaranteed its existence by achieving military superiority, but the legitimacy of its character,” as Chuck Freilich put it at the time. “Only when the Palestinians can bring themselves to do so, will Israel be confident that they are truly ready for peace, an end to the conflict and the painful concessions that will be required by all.”
PMW: Arafat’s associate admits “Palestinians” are a modern invention
There is an old Jewish expression based on the Talmud (Shabbat 104A) that says: "A lie has no legs." True to the expression, a senior Fatah official – in a surprising moment of clarity on official Palestinian Authority TV – unwittingly exposed the fundamental lie of "Palestinian history" in all its legless glory.

Salim Al-Zre'i, a Fatah Revolutionary Council member and associate of former PLO and PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, made the bombshell statement right after saying "history is a pure driving force." The veteran Fatah terrorist, who took part in the 1968 Karameh battle against Israel in Jordan, admitted that "the Palestinian people arrived" only after the 400 years of Ottoman occupation of the Land of Israel:
Fatah Revolutionary Council member and veteran terrorist Salim Al-Zre'i: "The wars will only end when [the Palestinians] will restore [their] rights. The Israelis will not achieve security or peace as long as Palestine is occupied. This is according to the logic of history, and history is a pure driving force...

Believe me, [the Israelis] will necessarily disappear from Palestine and not one of them will remain on this land. The Crusaders were here for 200 years, the [Ottoman] Turks for 400 years, and they all left, and then the Palestinian people arrived."

[Official PA TV, At War, May 19, 2025]

The Ottoman Empire's rule over Israel ended in 1917 during World War I. If the Palestinians only arrived after that time according to Al-Zre'i, it follows that he unwittingly acknowledged the historical fact that "Palestinian peoplehood" is a modern invention.

This statement of course flies in the face of decades of PA lies. The entire Palestinian narrative is based on a fabricated Palestinian history, claiming an unfounded historical right to the Land of Israel. Accompanying this lie is a denial of Jewish history in Israel, in order to delegitimize the Jewish state. The PA has long usurped Jewish history, such as when former PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh replaced the Jews with Palestinians in recounting the historical enemies of the Jewish people:
50 years after infamous UN resolution: Anti-Zionism is racism, and this is why
ANTI-ZIONISM, in theory and in practice, functions this way. It excludes Jews from the global consensus that every people has a right to self-determination. It singles out the Jewish nation as uniquely illegitimate. And it ignores, or worse, justifies violence against Jewish individuals and institutions in the name of resistance.

Anti-Zionism is not simply an abstract rejection of nationalism; it is a selective rejection of Jewish nationhood. There is no global movement to dismantle Italian, Japanese, or Pakistani national identities despite their flaws and controversies.

Only the Jewish national project is targeted for erasure. In doing so, anti-Zionism reinscribes the long history of Jewish marginalization: the assumption that Jews must live as guests in other people’s lands, always subject to the tolerance of the majority, never fully at home.

If racism is the historical condition that marginalizes a group, then antisemitism is one of its oldest and most enduring forms. And if anti-racism requires not only opposition to hatred but active efforts to repair historical harm, then anti-racism with respect to Jews must involve support for the Jewish return to sovereignty, safety, and rootedness in their land. Anything less is complacency in Jewish persecution and, ergo, anti-Jewish racism.

Structural racism does not always announce itself with slurs or swastikas. Sometimes, it hides behind the language of justice, liberation, and even peace. But if the effect is to deny Jews the ability to determine their own future, to protect their own communities, and to live without fear of exile, it is racism.

Being anti-antisemitic today means more than decrying hate crimes or condemning Holocaust denial. It means recognizing the long arc of Jewish displacement and standing behind the only remedy history has offered that has worked: Jewish self-determination in a sovereign state.

To oppose that remedy is to perpetuate the very condition that made Jewish suffering possible. A sincere commitment to anti-racism must include the Jewish people. And that means standing up, not just against antisemitism but against anti-Zionism, too.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the infamous UN resolution, Zionism is Racism. In 1991, the antisemitic resolution was finally overturned. Nevertheless, Kendi’s theory would deem that repeal insufficient. To truly remedy the historical injustice, the time has come for a UN resolution that declares: Anti-Zionism is Racism.
Rachel Ann Moiselle: Seeing the real Israel destroys the dehumanising myths that dominate in Ireland
In The Innocents Abroad, Mark Twain recounts his impressions of the Holy Land during a 1867 visit: ‘…a silent, mournful expanse… A desolation is here; not even imagination can grace with pomp and action…’

Of course, visiting Israel today, you will encounter a land so drastically altered from Twain’s account as to be unrecognisable. Last week I travelled to the country for the wedding of a very dear friend. My personal chaos of trying to get there – multiple cancelled and rebooked flights – was surpassed by the wonderful, dynamic, and oft infuriating chaotic experience of Tel Aviv.

One single hour in this city would shatter the misconceptions that too many in the West hold about Israel. Indeed, so many of the visuals I bore witness to in Israel – the Yemenite filigree shop in Jaffa, the Black Orthodox man in Jerusalem, a Muslim woman wearing a hijab sitting next to an IDF soldier at a bus stop on the outskirts of Tel Aviv – prompted feelings of disheartenment within me about how the people of Israel have been so egregiously misunderstood in my own country of Ireland.

In some cases, particularly by the Irish establishment, they have been cynically and intentionally misrepresented. Growing up in Dublin, if you had no connection to the Jewish community, you would be forgiven for believing that Israel is a ‘white coloniser entity’: one composed of ontologically evil beings and one on the brink of destruction. Walkingf through the bustling streets of Tel Aviv late in the evening – filled with people of every colour – impresses upon you just how delusional this dangerous, hateful fantasy is.

I admit to experiencing intense frustration and despair regarding the enormous success of the dehumanising narrative in Ireland that positions Israelis as a whole as illegitimate settlers: irrevocably stained from birth for being born on a land that they have, in the Irish consciousness, no claim to. I often bemoan the fact that there has been such a profound failure to communicate the complexities of Israel, the diverse story of the Jews, and the Jewish connection to the land.

I also often get further irked that when I say this, I am often met with defeatism from Israeli friends: ‘The world hates us and has always hated us; nothing we do or say to educate people matters.’ This is an approach that I strongly disagree with. Antonio Gramsci wrote that his mind was pessimistic, but his will was optimistic. This is the attitude that I adopt: through this optimism of the will, I have faith that my compatriots would have less bigotry towards Israelis and Jews if they weren’t so misinformed. So why won’t Israelis just help educate them?
Ireland’s Trinity College severs ties with Israel over Gaza war
Ireland’s prestigious Trinity College Dublin said on Wednesday that it would cut all links with Israel in protest of “ongoing violations of international and humanitarian law.”

The university’s board informed students by email on Wednesday that it had accepted the recommendations of a task force to sever “institutional links with the State of Israel, Israeli universities and companies headquartered in Israel.”

The recommendations would be “enacted for the duration of the ongoing violations of international and humanitarian law,” said the email sent by the board’s chairman Paul Farrell, and seen by AFP.

The task force was set up after part of the university’s campus in central Dublin was blockaded by students for five days last year in protest against the war in Gaza, where Israel is battling to defeat the Hamas terror group following the October 7, 2023, massacre in southern Israel.

Among the task force’s recommendations approved by the board were pledges to divest “from all companies headquartered in Israel” and to “enter into no future supply contracts with Israeli firms” and “no new commercial relationships with Israeli entities.”

The university also said that it would “enter into no further mobility agreements with Israeli universities.”

Trinity has two current Erasmus+ exchange agreements with Israeli universities: Bar Ilan University, an agreement that ends in July 2026, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which ends in July 2025, the university told AFP in an email.

The board also said that the university “should not submit for approval or agree to participate in any new institutional research agreements involving Israeli participation.”
Harvard has brought this reckoning on itself
Moreover, Harvard has shown little interest in self-regulation. It is damning that the university’s recent attempts at reform have come only as a result of external political pressure. Only following the congressional hearing in late 2023, and Trump’s return to the White House earlier this year, did Harvard begin making modest policy changes. As Pinker himself notes: ‘The uncomfortable fact is that many of [Harvard’s] reforms followed Mr Trump’s inauguration and overlap with his demands.’ While Harvard may chafe at Trump’s demands, one has to ask why it did not voluntarily adopt similar, reasonable measures before if it genuinely wishes to uphold academic openness and political neutrality.

The Trump administration’s demands have sparked valid concerns about heavy-handed government intervention in academia and the risk to intellectual freedom. But elite universities have abused the academic freedom afforded to them. Administrators and faculty have used their autonomy to turn these institutions into ideological monocultures, abandoning scholarship for partisan activism. Once academia enters the political arena and surrenders its scholarly mission, government backlash becomes inevitable.

The war between Trump and Harvard is likely to continue for years, as both sides possess the resources for a prolonged fight. In the short term, Harvard may prevail in certain legal battles. The Trump administration’s blunderbuss approach invites legal challenges. The administration has taken procedural shortcuts. Its actions often lack proportionality (such as slashing scientific-research funding when the DEI issues are primarily in other departments) and appear retaliatory in nature.

Yet Trump has two significant advantages that could turn the tide in the law courts and the court of public opinion. First, given the vast scale of government funding, private universities like Harvard function as quasi-public entities. If taxpayers are footing the bill, it is reasonable to expect some accountability in return. No constitutional principle guarantees Harvard unlimited access to public funds.

Second, and perhaps more critically, Harvard and the Ivy League are deeply unpopular. Public trust in higher education has collapsed – according to Gallup, only about a third of Americans now view universities as valuable, down from nearly 60 per cent a decade ago. Many Americans see universities as hostile to their values and blame them for unpopular policies, such as biological males competing in women’s sports. After years of elite condescension, Harvard can hardly expect the working class to rush to its defence. Many families may even welcome Trump’s promise to redirect billions in federal funding from elite universities to trade schools.

The message from Harvard and its defenders is that Trump must be stopped from waging an authoritarian war on higher education. But the more urgent task is for Harvard to acknowledge its own failings and restore its historic mission. Unless Harvard and other major universities commit to genuine reform – and there’s little evidence to suggest they will – they will continue to face external pressure, including calls for government intervention. Harvard may resent the Trump backlash, but it brought it upon itself.


Santa Ono rejected as University of Florida president
In an unprecedented move, the Florida Board of Governors rejected the confirmation of Santa Ono, the former president of the University of Michigan, as the University of Florida’s next president.

During a three hour meeting on Tuesday, Ono was questioned by the board, which oversees the state’s 12 public universities, about an anti-Israel encampment last year that remained on the Michigan campus for a month, as well as his stance on antisemitism.

Alan Levine, vice chair of the board, grilled Ono about what he described as an inadequate response to antisemitism at Michigan during Ono’s tenure to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Israel, The Gainesville Sun reported.

“What happened on Oct. 7 deeply affected the members of my community and me personally, and so at UF I would be consistently focused on making sure antisemitism does not rear its head again,” Ono responded.
Federal judge tosses antisemitism lawsuit against Penn
Mitchell Goldberg, the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, dismissed a lawsuit that Jewish students and former students brought against the University of Pennsylvania, alleging Jew-hatred on campus.

In the decision on Monday, Goldberg wrote that the suit did not demonstrate “intentional discrimination or deliberate indifference on the part of Penn.”

Jordan Davis and Noah Rubin, both Penn students, and Penn alumnus Eyal Yakoby filed the suit on Dec. 5 with the nonprofit Students Against Antisemitism.

The plaintiffs allege that the Ivy League university failed to protect them from antisemitic harassment after the Hamas-led terror attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and “permitted, tolerated and/or facilitated multiple antisemitic incidents on its campus that have created a hostile educational environment for Jewish students.”

The court found that the plaintiffs did not meet the legal bar necessary to hold the university liable under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which would require proving that the university discriminated intentionally or ignored harassment.

The judge also ruled that Penn had taken steps to address Jew-hatred on campus by creating a task force to launch an “action plan to combat antisemitism.”
The Day VicPol Finally Did its Job
On Sunday the 18th May, 2025, I had the great honour to stand shoulder to shoulder with the courageous Lions of Zion and supporters to face down an enraged mob of 20,000 pro-Hamas marchers in Melbourne. The Lions are fiercely proud Jewish Australians and allies formed in response to the national antisemitism crisis which has seen incidents surge by over 700% in Australia. To Australia’s great disgrace, this surge was in response to the largest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust, the biggest terror attack in Israel’s history, and Hamas’ declaration of war on October 7, 2023.

We stared down the thousands of pro-Hamas thugs spewing hatred and vitriol as they proceeded on their march from the Yarra to St Kilda — their sick little joke about “River to the Sea”. St Kilda and neighbouring Caulfield are meccas for Jewish life in Melbourne. Of all available destinations, there can be no doubt this route was chosen for maximum intimidation.

Early on that Sunday morning I was picked up at my hotel by a film crew from Rebel News. I was hooked up with an audio wire. It was important that my conversations with the police be recorded.

We then drove to end of Princes Bridge, where I met with the brave Lions, proudly displaying Aussie and Israeli flags. They were very happy to see me and gave me a very warm welcome. One member of the group furiously shook my hand and said, “We heard there was a criminal barrister coming down from Sydney to stand with us. We are so glad you are here.”

I gave them a briefing, first of all asking if anyone had any weapons. Of course none did. They were armed only with Israeli flags, Aussie flags, fierce pride and great courage. Some were huge, powerfully built bodybuilders and martial arts experts. I myself am a former wrestling champion and have been a lifelong body builder. But we were only 40 against 20,000 screaming Hamas supporters and all their left-wing woke neo-Marxist hangers-on. I explained to the Lions the law of self-defense: if attacked by the Hamasnik thugs, the law does not expect them to turn the other cheek. The law allows them to use reasonable force to protect themselves and to protect each other. But this force must not be excessive. You are not allowed to pound your assailant into a coma.

I then approached the top cop in charge of the several hundred present at the scene. I introduced myself with my barrister’s ID card. He inspected it twice. I explained who I was and why I was there: to protect my people from assault, not only by the thugs, but also from assault by Victorian Police. I was there to protect their legal rights.
French mayor bans Palestine flag as ‘riot symbol’ after violent football celebration
A ban on the Palestinian flag in the French town of Chalon-sur-Saône has been instigated by the local mayor.

The move came in the aftermath of trouble at the Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) victory in the Champions League final over Inter Milan, which was held at the French capital’s Parc de Prince stadium.

Gilles Platret argued the banner served as a “symbol of riot” during the unrest across the country and his town in eastern France.

He said “football served as a pretext” but “the real motive was marked by the presence of a Palestinian flag” during the celebrations of the team’s win.

“After the legitimate celebrations by Parisian fans, individuals from the outskirts of our city seized the opportunity to create disorder with a political motive”, Platret said on June 1.

Two people died and hundreds were arrested across France after PSG’s win on May 31, according to the French interior ministry.

In the south-west town of Dax, a 17-year-old boy died after being stabbed in the chest late on the evening, of May 31, local media reported.

A 23-year-old man who was riding a scooter in central Paris was also killed after being hit by a vehicle, the prosecutor’s office said.

According to the mayor, rioters launched fireworks at police, set fire to public property and hurled cobblestones and bottles at police officers.

One of the ringleaders, he claimed, repeatedly targeted police while brandishing a Palestinian flag as a symbol of mobilisation, something he said “clearly indicated a political intent”.


Jewish student leader in Germany receives antisemitic death threat mocking Holocaust
Hannah Veiler, 27, a social work student at Heidelberg University and former president of the Union of Jewish Students in Germany (JSUD), received a disturbing four-page letter filled with antisemitic incitement, Holocaust mockery and Nazi slogans — including a note inviting her to “Auschwitz to have a party for happy Holocaust.” The letter was signed “Heil Hitler.”

In an interview with UK-based outlet Jewish News, Veiler said she opened the letter a few days ago while checking mail at the Berlin office of the Jewish organization, which still receives correspondence addressed to her.

“I arrived and I started opening mail – everything looked normal. And one of the letters was a four-page letter, including a death note,” she said. “There’s an English one and then there’s another one in German saying, ‘Why did the Jews love to go to Auschwitz? Because the trip was for free.’”

The letter also featured a printed image comparing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler, alongside the message: “Oh Hanna, you are very sweet judensau… Let’s go to Auschwitz and have a party for happy holocaust… I want to **** ya three nights long for happy Holocaust.”

Veiler said she stopped reading as soon as she understood the contents. “I just didn’t read them because I saw enough, and everything was clear to me. There was no need to continue.” The letter has since been turned over to German police and is under investigation.

According to Veiler, this isn't the first time she’s received threats. “About a year ago, I received a letter – three pages – and the person described how they wanted to send me through the gas chambers of Auschwitz. Emails, comments on social media – this has become a part of our reality. Not just for me, but for everyone who’s publicly Jewish, who works for a Jewish organisation.”
House education committee threatens to subpoena Bowdoin College over antisemitism records
The House Education and Workforce Committee threatened on Monday to subpoena Bowdoin College, accusing the school of failing to comply with the committee’s requests for information regarding antisemitism on campus.

A letter from Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI), the committee chair, and Rep. Burgess Owens (R-UT), a subcommittee chair, states that the Maine liberal arts college failed to comply with the committee’s repeated requests for documentation regarding disciplinary action taken against those involved with an encampment on the school’s campus earlier this year, as well as all students disciplined for antisemitic incidents since Oct. 7, 2023.

The committee leaders provided a June 16 deadline for the documentation requested, and stated they would pursue subpoenas if the deadline is not met.

The letter states that “Bowdoin provided a narrative response that briefly summarized the administration’s conversations with the encampment participants, but it did not provide documents related to any disciplinary action, documents related to any understanding it reached to disband the encampment, or a list of student disciplinary or conduct cases relating to alleged antisemitic incidents or encampments.”

After being pressed further, the school provided a “a brief summary of Bowdoin’s actions addressing the encampment and noted that the College revoked the charter of Students for Justice in Palestine for the remainder of the 2024-2025 academic year and the next academic year.”


Sharaa in First Interview with Jewish Newspaper: Stable Syria Will Not be Built Through Speeches, Slogans
Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa broke all barriers that surrounded ousted President Bashar al-Assad, when he spoke last week about his responsibilities and about Syria’s domestic and foreign policy.

He is direct in addressing taboo issues that were previously tackled with slogans in public and a different reality under the table, such as Syria’s relationship with Israel and the latter’s occupation of Syrian territory.

Legacy of Assad Regime
The last barrier Sharaa broke was an interview he made with a Jewish newspaper, the first since assuming power six months ago. The article, written by Jonathan Bass, was published by the Jewish Journal on May 28.

“Many Syrians see Sharaa not as a revolutionary but as a restorer, someone capable of stitching together a nation fatigued by war and fractured by identity. It is perhaps his very ordinariness, his refusal to play the strongman, despite his extremist former life, that makes him a man of the hour,” the Journal wrote.

Bass said the Syrian President carries himself with quiet conviction. “Sharaa is soft-spoken, but every word lands with deliberation. There is no triumph in his voice, only urgency,” he wrote.

In the interview, Sharaa said, “We have inherited more than ruins,” he said. “We’ve inherited trauma, mistrust, and fatigue. But we have also inherited hope. Fragile, yes, but real.”

For decades, Syria was ruled by a regime that confused loyalty with silence, coexistence with hate, and stability with suppression.

The Assad dynasty, first Hafez and then Bashar, ruled with an iron grip, using fear and executions to cement control, while the country’s institutions withered and dissent turned deadly.

Bass said Sharaa is clear-eyed about the legacy he inherits.

“It would be dishonest to speak of a clean slate,” Sharaa said. “The past is present, in the eyes of every person, on every street, in every family. But our duty now is not to repeat it. Not even as a softer version. We must create something entirely new.”


Trump: No uranium enrichment under any Iran deal
U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday stated unequivocally that the nuclear deal currently being discussed with Iran will not allow any uranium enrichment, contradicting earlier media reports.

“Under our potential Agreement — WE WILL NOT ALLOW ANY ENRICHMENT OF URANIUM!” Trump posted on social media.

The statement came shortly after Israeli news outlet Walla, citing two sources familiar with the deal, reported on Monday that Washington was open to permitting Iran limited, low-level uranium enrichment for an unspecified duration.

That report conflicted with earlier reassurances from senior administration officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and United States Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, who is leading the U.S.-Iran talks, that no uranium enrichment would be permitted.

On Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi said Iran would reject any deal that didn’t recognize the Islamic Republic’s right to enrich uranium, according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency.


Khamenei rejects US uranium enrichment demands
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday defiantly rejected U.S. demands to halt uranium enrichment, declaring that the Islamic Republic will not concede to “the rude and arrogant leaders of America.”

In a televised address, quoted by Reuters and the Associated Press, Khamenei insisted that “uranium enrichment is the key to our nuclear program, and the enemies have focused on the enrichment.” He went on to criticize the latest U.S. proposal, claiming it “contradicts our nation’s belief in self-reliance and the principle of ‘We Can.’”

The 86-year-old cleric added, “The rude and arrogant leaders of America repeatedly demand that we should not have a nuclear program. Who are you to decide whether Iran should have enrichment?”

Khamenei also warned that without domestic enrichment capabilities, Iran’s nuclear infrastructure would be effectively paralyzed: “If we had 100 nuclear power plants but no enrichment, they would be useless. Without enrichment, we would have to extend our hand and beg the U.S.”

“Khamenei’s position doesn’t surprise me. I said in real time that I didn’t trust there would be any agreement between the United States and Iran,” Israeli Knesset member Tally Gotliv (Likud) told JNS on Wednesday.

“There was never a chance Iran would agree to a nuclear deal. Israel, as the nation responsible for its own security—and given Khamenei’s stated desire to eliminate the Zionists—should act accordingly and strike Iran’s nuclear facilities. Israel is fully capable of carrying out such an operation, and I believe that’s exactly what will happen,” she added.


Machine gun, grenade launchers, Nazi material found during FBI raid in Washington state
Federal agents, who executed a search warrant in Lacey, Wash., found 35 guns, including an MG42 machine gun and short barrel rifles, grenade launchers, explosives, body armor and ballistic helmets “surrounded by Nazi paraphernalia,” Derek Sanders, the sheriff of Thurston County, Wash., stated on Tuesday.

Sanders wrote that the U.S. Army’s criminal investigation division contacted the sheriff’s office for help executing the warrant, which he stated was “a result of a violent robbery and theft of military weaponry-armor” and which involved suspects who “were actively involved in Nazi white nationalist efforts.”

An FBI SWAT team found the weapons, including “multiple rifles” that “were staged at windows throughout the residence,” per the sheriff.

“Two suspects were apprehended and booked into Thurston County Jail on firearm-related offenses, with additional federal charges likely to be filed at the completion of the federal investigation,” Sanders stated. He added that the superior court set bail at $500,000 for each of the defendants, “despite requests to set bail at only $5,000.”
Councillor claims Hitler ‘had no beef with Jews’ and calls Holocaust ‘massively over-exaggerated’
A parish councillor in Cornwall has been filmed claiming the Holocaust was “massively over-exaggerated” and defending Adolf Hitler’s actions – remarks now at the centre of a political storm.

Peter Lawrence, who sits on Mylor Parish Council and represents the far-right British Democrats, made the comments at a protest in Truro on 24 May. In video footage captured and published online by the activist group Cornwall Resists, he is head stating that Hitler “didn’t have beef with the Jews” and that “world Jewry declared war on Germany”.

He claimed: “They were bankrupting them from the Treaty of Versailles… They were blockading the food, starving them out. Hitler didn’t have beef with the Jews – he just didn’t want them disrupting what was going on.”

Challenged further on whether Hitler was right to kill Jews, he said: “From what I’ve read, the revisionist historians I’ve read cannot find a single order from Adolf Hitler calling for the execution of the Jews.”

When asked directly if he believed in the Holocaust, Lawrence replied: “The Holocaust has been massively over-exaggerated.”


Romanian pleads guilty to ‘swatting’ threats against Biden, NY synagogues
Thomasz Szabo, 26, a Romanian citizen, pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Monday to leading a “years-long conspiracy that targeted victims across the United States with ‘swatting’ and bomb threats,” including New York City synagogues, then U.S. president-elect Joe Biden and members of Congress and their families, the U.S. Justice Department stated.

“Szabo and his co-conspirators falsely reported ongoing violent emergencies at government buildings, houses of worship and private residences, including the homes of senior government officials,” the Justice Department stated.

The defendant, who also goes by “Plank,” “Jonah” and “Cypher” and who was extradited from Romania in November 2024, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of threats and false information about explosives. He is slated to be sentenced on Oct. 23.

Szabo’s “targeted and ruthless behavior put countless people in danger, including law enforcement, public officials and ordinary citizens,” stated Jeanine Ferris Pirro, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.

“Swatting attacks, that is, falsely reporting an ongoing threat of violence at a victim’s home address for the purpose of provoking a police response there, drain precious resources and can result in major injury or even death,” she stated. “Anyone who hijacks police resources for senseless crimes like these will have to answer for their actions.”

“This perpetrator hid behind a computer screen on the other side of the world, believing he could commit these crimes with impunity,” stated Matt McCool, the U.S. Secret Service special agent in charge of the Washington field office. “It was a gross miscalculation to underestimate our determination in pursuing and bringing to justice those who would commit these crimes, wherever they may be.”


A Muslim in Israel: I was taught Jews unjustly took this land. I found acceptance
Afghanistan once had a small Jewish community, but over the course of different regimes and civil wars, nearly all of them fled the country. The last known Jew fled in 2021, when the Taliban took control once again.

Save A Child’s Heart, a hospital in Tel Aviv, treats children with complex heart conditions, mostly from Africa and Middle Eastern Muslim countries. Since 2017, it has saved five Afghan children, including one in 2022. This was during Taliban rule — the same group that supports Hamas, named a school after Yahya Sinwar, a Palestinian militant and Hamas leader (killed in 2024), and celebrates Hamas’s attacks on Israelis.

Israel is a multicultural, multi-ethnic nation, a fact rarely highlighted. Some 1.2 million Arab Israelis enjoy social freedoms and political representation. About 250,000 Bedouins and Druze have equal rights alongside other Israelis. I met members of both communities, some whom lost family in the Hamas attack simply for being Israeli.

On the road to Hebron in the West Bank (known as Al-Khalil in Arabic), Israelis must travel in armoured buses. As the road passes through enclaves where Palestinians live, parts of it are flanked by tall concrete barriers to deter gunfire from surrounding areas. Bullet marks were visible on the window of the bus beside my seat.

Hebron, one of the oldest cities in the Levant, is a holy site for Muslims, Jews and Christians, with a long history of conflict and contested land. The Tomb of Patriarchs and Matriarchs lies beneath a Crusader-era church. Here, in a series of caves, are buried Abraham, Isaac, Sarah, Jacob, their tombs adorned with inscriptions in Arabic — dating back to the Ottoman era — and in Hebrew.

Orthodox Jews sing, study and pray in the synagogue section of the Tomb, and Muslims pray and worship in their Mosque of Ibrahimi. Two sides of the same Tomb. Male infants are also circumcised here, a procedure performed by a traditional doctor. Once it’s done, the crowd breaks into song and the father reveals the baby’s name.

When the Muslim cleric delivers the adhan, the Islamic call to prayer, the doors remain closed, and the Jewish worshippers are held inside until the call for prayer concludes. Israeli Jews are not permitted in the mosque. A large contingent of Israeli soldiers for the protection of Jews are visible here and throughout Hebron.

As I left the ancient city, I wondered how Abraham would have felt, seeing his Jewish and Muslim descendants locked in conflict rather than living in peace. As one local said, “We are all the grandchildren of Abraham. Why shouldn’t we live in peace?”
Iraqi Jew SPEAKS OUT on growing up in Baghdad
In June 1941, the Farhud tore through Baghdad — a brutal pogrom where Jews were beaten, raped, and murdered in the streets.

Jack Hikmet was born in its aftermath. Growing up as a Jew in Iraq, his life was marked by fear, violence, and uncertainty.

This is Jack’s story.


Huckabee meets parents of 2001 Sbarro pizzeria bombing victim
Arnold and Frimet Roth, parents of Malka Chana Roth, a 15-year-old American citizen killed in the Sbarro pizzeria bombing in Jerusalem on Aug. 9, 2001, presented a petition bearing some 30,000 signatures to U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee during a private meeting at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem on May 13.

The petition urges the United States to pressure the Kingdom of Jordan to extradite Ahlam Tamimi, 44, a Hamas terrorist who helped plan and engineer the bombing, which killed 16 people, including seven children and a pregnant woman. Some 130 were injured.

Three Americans were killed in total, two on that day: Malka, and Judith Shoshana Greenbaum, a pregnant 31-year-old teacher. A third American, Chana Nachenberg, died in May 2023 after 22 years in a coma.

In 2013, the United States charged Tamimi with participating in the attack. She is at the top of the FBI’s “Most Wanted” terrorist list. The U.S. State Department’s Rewards for Justice program has offered up to $5 million for information leading to her arrest.

The Roths, who have been stymied by successive U.S. administrations in their efforts to bring Tamimi to justice, were encouraged by their meeting with Huckabee. It left them with the hope that the second Trump administration will act differently than its predecessors.

“Ambassador Huckabee himself is a man who projects integrity and he was clear about how appalling it is that Jordan continues to harbor this woman,” Arnold Roth told JNS.

The experience was entirely different from encounters with nearly all his predecessors, said Roth, (the Roths found themselves sitting with the ambassador within a week of sending an email requesting a meeting).

“How welcome it was to be in his company and to be having the kind of conversation that we had,” said Roth. Huckabee told Roth: “I’m going to be asking questions.”
Former hostage honored for pioneering farming work in Africa
Former hostage Shoshan Haran had been awarded an honorary doctorate by the Open University for her pioneering work helping African farmers access better farming methods.

Haran grew up on Kibbutz Be’eri, the daughter of a founder of the kibbutz, and raised her own family there.

Wearing a yellow scarf at the May 29 award ceremony to demonstrate her support for the hostages still held in Gaza, Haran said she learned at the kibbutz about the value of equal opportunities.

Haran had been working as a plant biologist at seed producer Hazera Genetics when she and another seed expert founded Fair Planet, a nonprofit that built bridges between seed companies and African farmers and helped them find the right seeds for their farms.

In a video created for her honorary doctorate, Haran described showing farmers how to best utilize seeds and watching their production grow, which then brought other farmers into the fold — a total of over 100,000 in Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Rwanda — helping alleviate poverty and hunger.

Haran also spoke in the video about what happened to her family on October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists invaded the kibbutz.

“They broke into our sealed room, they invaded our home,” she said.

Haran was taken hostage from her home in Kibbutz Be’eri with her daughter Adi Shoham and two grandchildren, her sister-in-law Sharon Avigdori and niece Noam Avigdori, all visiting for the Simchat Torah holiday.

Her husband, Avshalom Haran, sister Lilach Kipnis and brother-in-law Eviatar Kipnis, also Be’eri residents, were killed that day. Haran only found out when she was freed after 50 days of captivity.

Her son-in-law, Tal Shoham, was taken captive separately from his family and freed after 505 days of captivity.




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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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