Sunday, June 08, 2025

06/08 Links: America’s Anti-Jewish Assassins Are Making the Case for Zionism; Journalists for genocide; Hamas tunnel found meters from hospital; Gaza Civil Defense rep is a Hamas terrorist

From Ian:

Yair Rosenberg: America’s Anti-Jewish Assassins Are Making the Case for Zionism
Simply put, Israel exists as it does today because of the repeated choices made by societies to reject their Jews. Had these societies made different choices, Jews would still live in them, and Israel likely would not exist—certainly not in its present form. Instead, Israel is a garrison state composed precisely of those Jews with the most reason to distrust the outside world and its appeals to international ideals, knowing that these did precisely nothing to help them when they needed it most. In this manner, decade after decade, anti-Semitism has created more Zionism. Put another way, the unwitting agents of Zionism throughout history have been those unwilling to tolerate Jews in their own countries.

Given this dynamic, a rational anti-Zionist movement would devote itself to making Jews feel welcome in every facet of life outside of Israel, ruthlessly rooting out any inkling of anti-Semitism in order to convince Jews that they have nothing to fear and certainly no need for a separate state. Such an anti-Zionist movement would overcome Zionism by making it obsolete. But that is not the anti-Zionist movement that currently exists. Instead, Israel’s opposition around the globe—whether groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah or their international apologists and imitators—often seems determined to persuade those Jews who chose differently than Herzl did that he was right all along.

Attacks such as those in Colorado, Washington, and Pennsylvania, not to mention the white-supremacist massacre at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in 2018, have raised the costs of being Jewish in America. Synagogues, schools, and other Jewish institutions collectively pay millions of dollars to secure their premises, resulting in communities that are less open to the outside and attendees being forever reminded that they are not safe even in their places of worship. And now American Jews thinking of attending communal events must stop to consider whether would-be attackers will associate them with Israel and target them for death.

America, at least, was not always this way. The country has long stood as the great counterexample to the Zionist project—proof that Jews could not just survive but thrive as equals in a pluralistic liberal democracy, without need for their own army or state. After Barbra Steinmetz, the 88-year-old Holocaust survivor in Boulder, was attacked, she had a message for the country. “We’re Americans,” she told NBC News. “We are better than this.” That is what most American Jews and their allies believe, and the justification for that belief was evident in Colorado this week, where Jared Polis, the state’s popular Jewish governor, forthrightly condemned the attack. But if the perpetrators and the cheerleaders of the incipient American intifada have their way, that spirit will be stifled.

Such a victory, however, would be self-defeating. According to video captured at the scene, the Boulder attacker accidentally set himself on fire in the middle of his assault. It would be hard to script a better metaphor for the way such violence sabotages the cause it purports to advance. If the anti-Zionist assassins succeed in making Jewish life in the United States less livable, they will not have helped a single Palestinian, but they will have made their opponents’ case for them. They will have proved the promise of America wrong, and the darkest premonitions of Zionism right.
The Boulder Attack Didn’t Come Out of Nowhere
For years, American Jews watched with horror the attacks on their European co-religionists. A young man kidnapped and tortured to death, an elderly lady beaten and thrown out the window of her home, and a teacher and three children murdered outside a Jewish day school are among a long list of violent anti-Semitic incidents in France alone—the country with the world’s third-largest population of Jews after Israel and the United States.

“What history had taught him was Amazement,” Lion Feuchtwanger writes of the conclusion reached by one of the characters in his deeply prescient 1933 novel about Nazi Germany, The Oppermanns. “A tremendous amazement that each time those in jeopardy had been so slow in thinking about their safety.” Despite the sharp increase in the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S. recorded over the past decade by the Anti-Defamation League, American Jews also once believed that the violence against Jews in France, Britain, Germany, and other European countries couldn’t happen here. Many told themselves that this threat was unique to European Jewry, given the internal frictions within their own countries, which had absorbed large immigrant populations from former colonial possessions. But yesterday’s attack, coming on the heels of the firebombing of Shapiro’s residence and the D.C. murders, has proved otherwise. As Ian Fleming, the former spy and novelist who created James Bond, reportedly observed, “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.”

Arguably the system was already blinking red after the 2018 mass shooting at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue, where a gunman killed 11 people, and the near tragedy averted four years later, when an armed man took hostage the rabbi and worshippers at a Colleyville, Texas, synagogue. The October 7 attacks heightened that awareness and led Jews to emulate the security measures standard at synagogues, day schools, community centers, and senior residences in Europe. Private companies were hired to provide guards at the entrances to synagogues and schools. Volunteers were solicited, trained, and deployed by community-based security organizations. The positioning of at least one local police car and patrol officer in front of synagogues became commonplace.

But in today’s threat environment, the question for Jews everywhere is inevitably: How much security is enough?
Melanie Phillips: Journalists for genocide
Next month, the London freelance branch of Britain’s National Union of Journalists is to hold a meeting to discuss ”the ethics and realities of reporting genocide when the only journalists on the scene are being slaughtered.”

The meeting is being sponsored by the hard-left Labour MP and former Corbyn apparatchik John McDonnell, who has accused Israel of murder and called for its economic and military isolation.

So a fair, balanced and objective discussion, then.

Accusing Israel of “genocide,” when it’s fighting a just war against genocidal attack, when it’s allowed into Gaza tens of thousands of tons of food and other aid, when it’s repeatedly moved Gaza’s civilians out of harm’s way and has killed a far lower proportion of civilians to combatants than any other military in war, denotes either illiteracy, imbecilism or malice.

As for “the only journalists on the scene being slaughtered,” a number of those individuals have been exposed as terrorists masquerading as journalists.

Yesterday, the Israel Defence Forces said it had killed two Islamic jihadi terrorists who had posed as journalists and who had operated from a command centre in the courtyard of the Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza. So not only were these individuals not journalists but they were terrorists engaged in the war crime of using a hospital as cover for terrorism.

Will the NUJ meeting discuss the “ethics and realities” of that?

Last October, the IDF disclosed that intelligence information and numerous documents found in Gaza had confirmed the military affiliation of six Al Jazeera “journalists” to Hamas and Islamic Jihad. This discovery included personnel tables, lists of terrorist training courses, phone directories and salary documents for terrorists.

Last month, Al Jazeera and other Arabic outlets mourned the death of “journalist” Bilal al Hatoum, who they said had been targeted and killed with a group of “civilians” in Gaza. Yet Al Jazeera analyst Saeed Ziad eulogised Bilal as a “beloved martyr” who “fought from the dawn of the Day of the Flood [October 7th] until noon today”. And someone else who called him his “beloved brother” described him as having been “martyred” with “a group of mujahideen” in a “blessed battle”.

Will the NUJ meeting discuss the “ethics and realities” of that?
The Reporting on the Gaza War Is Fundamentally Broken
The bias is so out of control that in February, the BBC discovered, much to its embarrassment, that it had aired a pro-Palestine documentary without realizing that its narrator is the son of a senior Hamas militant. The narrator expressed what the BBC already believed about the evils of Israel and the righteousness of the Palestinian cause. Consequently, BBC journalists didn’t bother to scrutinize the documentary.

(As a brief aside: Last February, the New York Times celebrated Gaza photographer Yousef Masoud for winning a George Polk Award, despite accusations of his collaboration with the October 7 attackers. This came after the Times rehired a Palestinian video journalist who had praised Adolf Hitler.)

As is the case with so much careless reporting, the failure goes beyond journalists simply failing to adhere to even the basic standards of their chosen profession. The danger lies in the perpetuation and dissemination of outright falsehoods, which risk enflaming further these ancient blood feuds.

Last weekend, in Boulder, Colo., a 45-year-old Egyptian national, who is in the United States illegally, attacked peaceful Jewish demonstrators with a “makeshift flamethrower,” severely injuring 15. When the attacker was arrested, he was heard shouting “Free Palestine!”

On May 22, a gunman murdered two Israeli Embassy staff members, an Israeli and an American, outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. At the time of his arrest, the alleged gunman shouted, “Free, free Palestine!”

The corrections and retractions of inflammatory anti-Israel stories from around the time of both heinous crimes are proper and all, but couldn’t these newsrooms have worked a bit harder to confirm the stories before publishing?

A little due diligence could spare media the embarrassment and Americans Jews from being murdered and maimed.




Hamas documents reportedly show deep ties, coordination between Qatar, terror group
Documents seized in Gaza over the course of the war against Hamas and published by an Israeli TV channel Sunday night purport to shine a light on Qatar’s intensive collaboration with the terror group spanning a number of years, including attempts to thwart regional peace efforts by the US, marginalize Egyptian influence on Gaza, and bolster the roles of Turkey and Iran.

The documents appear to contradict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent characterization of Qatar as a “complicated state, but not an enemy state,” and his attempts to downplay years of Qatari cash infusions of millions of dollars a month to Hamas in Gaza, which he recently claimed didn’t play a significant role in allowing the terror group to prepare for, and execute, its ongoing war against the Jewish state, which erupted with the October 7, 2023, invasion and massacre in southern Israel.

According to Channel 12 news, the documents show that the payments, which were transferred with Israel’s blessing, were significant enough that in December 2019, then-Hamas politburo leader Ismail Haniyeh told Qatar’s Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Hamad Al Thani that the Gulf state’s cash to Gaza was “Hamas’s main artery.”

In May 2021, immediately after the conclusion of an 11-day mini war between Israel and Hamas, Haniyeh told the terror group’s leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar that Qatari emir Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani had privately “agreed on discreet financial support” for the group’s “resistance” efforts, according to the report.

“He agreed in principle to supply the resistance discreetly, but he does not want anyone in the world to know. Until now, $11 million dollars have been raised from the emir for the leadership of the movement,” Haniyeh reportedly wrote.

The political leader asked Sinwar to “write a letter, in which you will focus on the military campaign, your urgent needs —and dedicate the victory [in the war] to His Highness.”

In addition to Doha’s cash, Qatari intelligence officials reportedly met with a Hamas representative at one point — the report did not provide a date — to discuss supervising special training units for Hamas fighters on military bases in Qatar and Turkey, and for the integration of Syrian Palestinians who fled to Lebanon amid the Syrian civil war into Hamas’s Lebanese battalions.

That meeting was recorded, according to Channel 12, in a classified document belonging to the Palestinian Authority.
Abbas praises October 7 massacre ahead of pro-Palestinian summit
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas praised the October 7 Hamas attack as achieving “important goals.”

In an interview published last Sunday by the Palestinian Authority’s official daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, and exposed by Palestinian Media Watch, Abbas described the attack in terms that focused on its “strategic impact” against Israel, ignoring the casualties and the hostages.

“On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched a sudden attack... killed 1,200 Israelis, abducted 250 others, and took them as hostages. This attack shook the foundations of the Israeli entity,” Abbas stated in the interview, which originally took place a few months ago, but is now being published as part of a series of articles, providing a glimpse into a new book that will be published about Abbas’s life and work.

Abbas highlighted what he characterized as Hamas’s achievements, saying the operation “exposed the [false] claims that... it has an invincible army” and revealed “the glaring failure of this entity’s components, especially the army and the various security forces.”

Abbas also stressed Israel’s failure “to discover what Hamas was planning and to block the attack and prevent heavy losses,” framing the intelligence failure as a strategic victory for the Palestinian cause.

The PA chairman’s only criticism of the October 7 attack centered not on its brutality, but on its consequences for Gaza residents.

“As important as the goals that Hamas attempted to achieve through this attack may have been, they are not comparable to the damages and heavy losses that the Gaza Strip residents... have suffered,” Abbas said.
Macron backs down on Palestinian state at upcoming conference
An international conference, the brainchild of France, to recognize a Palestinian state, has lowered its sights.

Scheduled for June 16-18 at United Nations headquarters in New York, it will now focus on determining steps toward recognition rather than recognition itself.

The redefined goal signals a retreat from the conference’s earlier ambition of seeing a large bloc of countries, including France and the United Kingdom, recognize a Palestinian state, The Guardian reported on June 7.

French President Emmanuel Macron said recognizing “Palestine” “was not only a moral duty but a political necessity,” speaking during a press conference in Singapore on May 30.

That day, in response to Macron’s comments, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz promised to establish a “Jewish Israeli state” in Judea and Samaria.

“This is a decisive response to the terrorist organizations that are trying to harm and weaken our hold on this land—and it is also a clear message to Macron and his associates: They will recognize a Palestinian state on paper—but we will build the Jewish Israeli state here on the ground,” Katz said, according to a statement from his office.

Seeking to reduce tensions, French officials visited Israel earlier last week, assuring their counterparts that the conference would not jump to recognition.
Herzog condemns ‘hate crime’ arson at former chief rabbi’s shul
Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Sunday condemned as a “serious hate crime” a suspected arson attack on the synagogue belonging to Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, the country’s previous Sephardic chief rabbi.

“The burning of holy books, the spraying of crosses and the attempted burning of Torah scrolls at the Jerusalem synagogue of Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef are deeply shocking,” the head of state tweeted.

“I call for swift and decisive action to investigate this serious hate crime and bring the perpetrators to justice,” Herzog’s statement on X added.

Israeli Interior Minister Moshe Arbel, a lawmaker for the ultra-Orthodox Sephardic Shas Party, denounced it as an “attack on a national symbol.”

“This morning, I addressed the head of the Shin Bet and demanded their cooperation in investigating the heinous hate crime of arson,” he stated.

Shas head Aryeh Deri instructed that private security be hired for Yosef immediately until the background of the arson becomes clear.

According to Deri, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar informed him that the organization was investigating the fire as nationalistic terrorist attack.

Police and firefighting teams were called to the Or Habib synagogue in northern Jerusalem’s Sanhedria neighborhood on Sunday morning after a fire broke out at the site, the Israel Police said earlier in the day.

In a possibly related incident, shortly before police were alerted to the arson attack, they received a report that a cross was found graffitied inside a nearby apartment building.

Israel’s National Fire and Rescue Authority subsequently announced that “after examining all the findings at the scene of the incident, ” it “unequivocally determined” that an arson attack caused the blaze.


Coalition demands answers from Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke after barring Israeli-American speaker Hillel Fuld from Australia, citing islamophobia
The Coalition has demanded Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke provide a "detailed statement of reasons" as to why Israeli speaker and technology expert Hillel Fuld, born in New York, US, had his his visa revoked.

In a decision statement, Mr Burke cited “islamophobia rhetoric” which risked inciting discord against Australia’s Muslim population.

Mr Fuld, who was set to speak at fundraising events in Sydney and Melbourne hosted by Magen David Adom, an Israeli national emergency service, confirmed he had been barred from Australia “because of my tweets”.

The Jewish American entrepreneur has more than 176,000 followers on X where he has posted extensively on the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Shadow home affairs minister Andrew Hastie put out a statement on Sunday morning calling for Mr Burke to explain the cancellation of Mr Fuld's visa under Section 128 of the Migration Act 1958.

Mr Hastie questioned whether controversial political opinions were now considered "a risk to the health, safety and good order of the Australian community" as concluded by the Home Affairs Minister.

"If there is a new political precedent in the standard for issuing entry visas to Australia, the Australian people should be informed as soon as possible," Mr Hastie said.

In one post on X, Mr Fuld claimed up to 15 per cent of Muslims were “radicalised” , that Islam was a “global plague” and compared Gazans to Nazi-era Germans and should be “treated as such”.

In another post, Mr Fuld said liberal western values can “never coexist next to radical Islamic values”.

In the report on the decision, the Home Affairs Minister said Mr Fuld had used social media to deny “documented atrocities” and had the potential to use the speaking events to make more “inflammatory statements”.

According to The Australian, the visa cancellation decision cited one Instagram post, made in March 2024, in which Mr Fuld dismissed reports by international media outlets that Israeli troops had opened fire on Palestinians seeking aid as “propaganda”.


Why international law is on Israel’s side in the Gaza conflict
For Israel, the core existential threat is no longer “Pan-Arab War.” At some still-ambiguous point, Hamas and other jihadi forces (plausibly, with Iranian support) could prepare to launch mega-terror attacks on Israel. Such potentially perfidious aggressions, unprecedented and in cooperation with allied non-Palestinian Jihadists (e.g., Shi’ite Hezbollah), could include chemical, biological, or radiological (radiation-dispersal) weapons.

Foreseeable perils could also include a non-nuclear terrorist attack on the Israeli reactor at Dimona. There is a documented history of enemy assaults against this Israeli plutonium-production facility, both by a state (Iraq in 1991) and by a Palestinian terror group (Hamas in 2014). Neither attack was successful, but various fearful precedents were established.

International law is not a suicide pact. Even amid long-enduring world-system anarchy, it offers a binding body of rules and procedures that permits any beleaguered state to accept its “inherent right of self-defense.”

But when Hamas celebrates the explosive “martyrdom” of manipulated Palestinian civilians and Palestinian leaders seek “redemption” (i.e., a presumed power over death) through the mass murder of “Jews” (sometimes “Zionists”), the wrongdoers have no rightful claims to immunity. Moreover, Hamas celebrations of “martyrdom” underscore the two-sided nature of Palestinian terror/sacrifice – that is, primal sacrifice of the reviled “Jew” and reciprocal sacrifice of the sacred “martyr.”

Significantly, this murderous reasoning is codified within the Charter of Hamas as a “religious problem.” Under international law, terrorists are considered hostis humani generis, or “common enemies of humankind.” This category of criminals invites punishment wherever the wrongdoers can be found.

Concerning their required arrest and prosecution, jurisdiction is now unambiguously “universal.” Correspondingly relevant is that the universality-declaring Nuremberg Principles reaffirm the ancient legal principle of “No crime without a punishment.”

Once again, Israel is waging mandatory war against an exterminatory foe, this time a jihadist terrorist organization and its allies. In assessing these difficult circumstances, the international community should finally take seriously the insidious truth of jihadi perfidy and the reciprocal falsehood of Israeli wrongdoing. While Israeli weapons harm Palestinian civilians in Gaza, the Hamas policy of “human shields” bears full responsibility for these harms.

In binding law, Palestinian perfidy is exculpatory for the Jewish state.
Rachel Johnson's Difficult Women: Natasha Hausdorff: Law to her Core
Natasha Hausdorff is a British barrister and legal director of UK Lawyers for Israel. A passionate debater since her school days, she is the UK’s fiercest and most uncompromising advocate for Israel’s legal rights to exist and defend itself. With experience spanning the UK, Israel, and international courts, Natasha Hausdorff brings her legal chops to bear on the most controversial war in the world


BBC Director’s Fantasy: Gaza Journalists ‘Free’ from Hamas—Sure, And I’m the Queen of England
A report led by British lawyer Trevor Asserson in September 2024 found that the BBC breached its editorial guidelines over 1,500 times during the Israel-Hamas conflict in less than 12 months, revealing a significant bias against Israel. The report, which analyzed four months of BBC coverage across various platforms, uncovered a worrying pattern of downplaying Hamas terrorism while portraying Israel as aggressive and militaristic.

These are just a few examples of the BBC’s dangerous entanglement with Hamas propaganda, but they barely scratch the surface. From platforming known Hamas operatives as civilian spokespeople to parroting unverified claims that serve the group’s agenda, the BBC has repeatedly abandoned journalistic integrity in favor of narrative-driven manipulation. Whether it’s legitimizing terror affiliates, ignoring evidence that exposes their sources, or broadcasting stories that align seamlessly with Hamas messaging, the pattern is undeniable: the BBC is not merely failing at journalism—it is actively participating in a campaign of deception that shields terrorists and misleads the world. Demand Accountability

Public trust in mainstream media is crumbling, and the BBC is among the worst offenders. This taxpayer-funded institution has abandoned journalism in favor of amplifying Hamas propaganda, and it must be held accountable.

British citizens should demand better. The BBC must be forced to answer for its systemic complicity in spreading terror-linked narratives and ideological corruption. At a time when misinformation dominates the global stage, transparency and fairness are non-negotiable. If the BBC wants to salvage any credibility, it must undergo a complete overhaul—starting with those responsible for these disgraceful editorial decisions.

Until then, viewers should be extremely skeptical of what they’re being told—and by extension, anyone quoting the BBC as a source. When a broadcaster so openly manipulates coverage in service of a terrorist agenda, it calls into question the reliability of any information linked back to it. Because if the BBC is willing to manipulate coverage this blatantly in service of a terrorist organization, there’s no telling how deep their deception really goes.
BBC VERIFY ‘EXPLAINS’ THE CORPORATION’S HAMAS QUOTES
Apparently Ros Atkins and his BBC Verify colleagues would have audiences believe that quoting and promoting “with clear attribution” the “official information” provided by a ministry run by a murderous proscribed terrorist organisation is entirely different from taking “the word of Hamas”.

While some of the White House Press Secretary’s remarks were indeed inaccurate, it is nevertheless remarkable that the BBC chooses to defend its use of information supplied by a terrorist organisation and to claim that it does so because – as Atkins put it – “Israel doesn’t allow international news organisations into Gaza”.

Perhaps Ros Atkins and his colleagues assume that BBC audiences have forgotten that the corporation’s practice of uncritically quoting and promoting Hamas supplied casualty figures began over a decade ago when numerous BBC journalists were on the ground in the Gaza Strip.


Israel, US agree to cease UNIFIL ops. in southern Lebanon
The United States and Israel agreed that the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon must cease its operations in southern Lebanon, The Jerusalem Post confirmed Sunday, following reports.

The American administration has decided not to renew UNIFIL’s mandate, and Israel reportedly “did not try to convince them otherwise.”

The vote on the mandate in the United Nations Security Council is expected to occur within a few months.

What is UNIFIL?
UNIFIL was created in 1978 following the First Lebanon War, founded with the intention of confirming Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon – as well as assisting the government with restoring authority in the area.

After the Second Lebanon War, UNIFIL’s mandate was extended to monitor hostilities in the region and ensure humanitarian access to local civilian populations.

UNIFIL currently has over 13,000 uniformed personnel, and its top military contributor is Indonesia.

No officials from the United States, Israel, or the UN have addressed the announcement.


IDF troops seize body of Mohammed Sinwar from Gaza tunnel
Israel Defense Forces soldiers retrieved the body of slain Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar from a terror tunnel complex under the European Hospital in the Khan Yunis area, the military confirmed on Sunday.

“Following the completion of the identification process, it has been confirmed that the body of Mohammed Sinwar was located in the underground route beneath the European Hospital in Khan Yunis,” announced the IDF in a Hebrew statement on Sunday evening.

Sinwar was killed on May 13 when Israeli Air Force jets attacked the underground base with bunker-busting munitions. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed his death on May 28.

According to Israel’s Channel 12 broadcaster, Sinwar’s body was pulled from the tunnel by soldiers of the Golani Commando Battalion (formerly known as the Golani Reconnaissance Battalion) over the weekend and transferred to Israel for confirmation of identity.

The remains of Hamas Rafah Brigade commander Mohammed Shabanah, who died alongside Sinwar, as well as weapons and intelligence documents, were also seized from the compound, according to the report.

Sunday night’s IDF statement said that “during the operation, additional terrorist bodies were found; their identities are currently being verified.”

The IDF had previously confirmed on Saturday that its soldiers had operated in underground infrastructure near the European Hospital.

“During the activity, IDF troops reached an underground route that was struck three weeks ago, where Muhammad Sinwar and other terrorists were located,” the army stated at the time, adding, “Bodies of terrorists who have not yet been identified were located in the area.”

Sinwar was a senior Hamas commander and a brother of Yahya Sinwar, the leader of the terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip, who Israeli ground forces killed on Oct. 16. Following his brother’s death, Mohammed Sinwar served as the group’s top “military” leader.


IDF kills Hamas terrorist involved in Nova festival massacre on Oct. 7
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed on Sunday that it had eliminated a Hamas terrorist who was involved in the Nova music festival massacre and infiltrated Kibbutz Re’im as part of the Oct. 7, 2023, onslaught.

Arafat Diab, of the Hamas Sheikh Radwan Battalion, was killed in a May 31 airstrike coordinated by the IDF and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), the army stated, adding that the terrorist also “commanded a police station for the group and promoted terror operations against Israeli civilians.”

Hamas murdered more than 300 civilians at the site of the Nova music festival, while more than 40 others were taken back to Gaza as hostages. At the nearby Kibbutz Re’im, seven civilians were killed, and five were taken captive.


IDF: Gaza Civil Defense rep is a Hamas terrorist
A spokesperson for the Palestinian Civil Defense Agency in the Gaza Strip often quoted by international media is an active Hamas terrorist, the Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson’s Unit revealed on Sunday.

Documents recovered during operational activities in Gaza listed Mahmoud Saber Tafesh Bassal among other Hamas personnel, according to the IDF.

Bassal has used his public position to disseminate false and unverified information to international media, including accusations of war crimes against Israel and fabricated casualty figures, the IDF said, adding that the information has been widely circulated and has significantly distorted the reality on the ground.

The BBC quoted Bassal saying that dozens of Palestinians were killed on June 2 near an aid distribution point after they “were hit by gunfire from tanks, helicopters and quadcopter drones.” The IDF has denied the report, as well as a similar one on June 1.

In March, Bassal told CNN that Israel had executed 15 Red Crescent aid workers in Rafah. The following month, Israel’s probe of the incident determined six of the deceased were terrorists, and that IDF forces fired on the Red Crescent vehicles because they had felt threatened.

The documents now in the IDF’s possession constitute “unequivocal” proof of Bassal’s affiliation with Hamas, said the military, which claimed he plays a central role in the group’s psychological warfare and propaganda efforts.

According to the documents, Bassal joined Hamas on Jan. 29, 2005, and served as “Hamas Operative in Gaza City Brigade – Zeitoun Battalion.” His personal number within Hamas’s personnel files is 865984, the IDF said.

The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit urged media outlets to “exercise caution” when reporting information originating from the Gaza Civil Defense or other Hamas-affiliated sources.


'Not afraid' Hundreds defiantly flock to Central Park for Israel hostage rally after Colorado terror attack
Hundreds of people defiantly gathered in Central Park on Sunday despite the recent terror attack in Colorado to support the hostages in Gaza and to pay tribute to two of the Americans killed by Hamas.

The Central Park rally, which takes place every Sunday, saw even more people come out than usual after last week’s terror attack in Boulder, which targeted supporters of the remaining hostages, according to Sunday’s organizers.

Former hostage Raz Ben Ami, 58, said during the park rally that she was moved to see such a turnout in the wake of more tragedy against the Jewish community, with the gathering reassuring her that her advocacy was important enough to overcome her fears.

“I was scared to come,” Ami admitted following the attack in Boulder that left 12 people injured.

“If I survived Gaza, I don’t want nothing to happen to me somewhere else.”

But “I’m glad I came and glad to see all those people are coming and they are not afraid,” she said.

Ami, who was held in captivity for 54 days, recounted the horrors of the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack that saw Hamas gunmen drag her out of bed barefoot and in her pajamas.

Ami, who served as an administrative social worker in Kibbutz Be’eri, said that even if her destroyed home were restored, she’d be too afraid to return.
House to vote on two resolutions condemning Boulder attack, antisemitism
The House of Representatives is set to vote next week on two resolutions condemning antisemitism and the terrorist attack on a hostage march in Boulder, Colo.

One resolution from Republicans, focused on Boulder, highlights immigration issues and denounces the slogan “Free Palestine,” while the other, which is bipartisan, links Sunday’s Colorado attack to a series of other recent violent antisemitic attacks.

The first of the two resolutions is already attracting criticism from some Democrats. Led by Reps. Gabe Evans (R-CO), Jeff Crank (R-CO) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO), it includes a line that describes “Free Palestine” — a slogan shouted by both Mohamed Sabry Soliman, the Boulder attacker, and Elias Rodriguez, who killed two Israeli Embassy employees at the Capital Jewish Museum, during or shortly after their crimes — as “an antisemitic slogan that calls for the destruction of the state of Israel and the Jewish people.”

Evans’ resolution also notes that Soliman, an Egyptian national, violated U.S. immigration restrictions and states that the case “highlights the need to aggressively vet aliens who apply for visas to determine whether they endorse, espouse, promote, or support antisemitic terrorism or engage in other antisemitic or anti-American activity” and “demonstrates the dangers of not removing from the country aliens who fail to comply with the terms of their visas.”

It criticizes Colorado’s sanctuary state policies, stating that Colorado “hinders immigration enforcement” activities and prohibits law enforcement officials from providing information to federal immigration officials.


Christian Pro-Israel Conference Cancels After ‘Overwhelming’ Number Of Credible Terror Threats
A pro-Israel conference hosted by Christians was forced to cancel at the last minute after credible terror threats were directed towards the venue in Texas.

The Israel Summit, organized by the pro-Israel nonprofit HaYovel and The Israel Guys podcast, was expected to draw more than 1,000 attendees from June 9 to 11. The event was originally scheduled to take place in Dallas, but organizers switched venues due to “heightened threat levels and an overwhelming security burden estimated in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

The new venue outside Dallas initially agreed to host the event and implement necessary security protocols, but backed out after facing direct and indirect threats from American pro-Hamas and jihadist groups that called for targeting the private conference, according to organizers, who were reportedly working with the sheriff’s department, Texas state Rangers, and the FBI.

Now, the summit’s organizers are questioning whether it’s even possible to safely host pro-Israel events in the United States.

“This isn’t just about our event being shut down — it’s part of an alarming trend that’s escalating,” Israel Guys host Joshua Waller told The Daily Wire. “The threats against our Summit were direct, coordinated, and credible. When over 1,000 people can’t safely gather in Texas to stand with Israel, something is deeply wrong.”

Waller cited the recent murder of two Israeli embassy staffers, Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, who were attacked while leaving a pro-Israel event in Washington, D.C., as well as a firebomb attack in Boulder, Colorado, where a man threw Molotov cocktails at participants in a walk raising awareness for the 56 hostages still held in Gaza, injuring 15 people.

“This should be a wake-up call for every American who still believes in truth, freedom, and the biblical mandate to stand with and support Israel,” Waller added.

Scheduled speakers included former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, Israeli Knesset members, former members of Congress, media figures, rabbis, and survivors of the October 7 Hamas massacre. Some speakers only learned the event had been canceled after landing in the United States from Israel.

The event was planned to be “a bold and timely declaration of solidarity with Israel.”

Canceling “was not a decision made lightly,” the organizers said. “While the desire to stand with Israel was overwhelming, so were the threats. Every option was explored — yet ultimately, no safe path forward remained, a reality organizers never imagined possible in the United States.”
Something VERY DARK Is Happening in America Right Now
This is the video we never wanted to make.

Our Israel Summit—meant to bring together Christians, Americans, and allies of the Jewish people—has been shut down by violent threats from pro-Hamas, anti-Israel extremists.

Yes, in Texas, of all places.

From flamethrower attacks at Jewish rallies to threats that forced us to cancel our venue not once, but twice, we are now witnessing the dangerous normalization of antisemitic terror on U.S. soil.

We are Christian Zionists, and we will not be silenced. In this video, we explain the horrifying reality of what’s happening in America right now, and why your voice matters more than ever.


History Is REPEATING Itself In America Right Now And No One Cares
I’m scared because something that should have been condemned by all is now being excused, minimized, or even ignored. The silence surrounding the deaths of Jews is deafening.

Now, our basic rights of free speech are being threatened.




Arsen Ostrovsky, John Spencer: The selfie flotilla: Greta Thunberg’s Gaza stunt and the weaponization of activism
In 2011, a United Nations panel led by former New Zealand Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer reviewed Israel’s enforcement of the blockade after the Mavi Marmara incident. The panel concluded that the blockade "was imposed as a legitimate security measure to prevent weapons from entering Gaza by sea" and that its implementation "complied with the requirements of international law."

The IDF, therefore, has every legal and moral right to intercept Greta’s vessel before it breaches that blockade.

This flotilla, though, is not about peace or aid. It is about optics, politics, and provocation.

Is Greta aware that Hamas hijacks humanitarian aid, stockpiles supplies for its fighters, and sells food at inflated prices to fund its war effort? Are Gazans beaten or shot for trying to collect aid outside Hamas control? That fuel and medicine routinely go to rocket teams and tunnel infrastructure rather than civilians?

And for someone so concerned with emissions, does she realize how many tons of carbon Hamas’s rockets have spewed into the atmosphere? Or the environmental devastation caused by the October 7th massacre?

If she genuinely cared about helping Gazans, Greta would support the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a joint US-Israel initiative which has already delivered more than 9 million meals in just over a week, for the first time bypassing Hamas entirely, by distributing aid directly to civilians.

Where was Greta when Hamas looted aid convoys? Or when civilians were tortured for accessing food outside of Hamas' control? Silent. Because those facts do not support the narrative she is helping advance.

She knows exactly what she is doing. This is not a naive act of idealism. It is a deliberate effort to side with those manipulating global perception while holding their own people hostage.

If Greta truly cared about human rights, there are far more urgent destinations for her vessel.

She could sail to Yemen, where the Iran-backed Houthis, who also fire rockets at Israel, are causing a real famine. She could dock in Tehran, where women are brutalized for refusing to wear the hijab. She could visit Nigeria, where Boko Haram still enslaves children. Or she could speak out on behalf of the hostages still held captive in Gaza, under the most brutal of conditions by Hamas.

But she will not. Those causes do not come with trending hashtags or media-friendly photo opportunities. They require real moral courage, not curated activism.

Greta Thunberg has every right to protest. But when she uses that right to serve as a willing agent of Hamas, a designated terror organization committed to destroying Israel and murdering Jews, she forfeits the claim to moral leadership.

This is not activism. It is complicity.

The people of Gaza deserve more than shallow solidarity from foreign influencers. They need protection from the very group Greta is helping legitimize. They need food, security, and a path to a better future, not another Western activist sailing in with a camera and an agenda.
Kassy Akiva: Greta Thunberg’s Brazilian Flotilla Buddy Attended Funeral Of Hezbollah Leader Hassan Nasrallah
Thiago Ávila, a Brazilian activist sailing to Gaza alongside Greta Thunberg on the “Freedom Flotilla,” has a long record of anti-Israel radicalism—including attending the funeral of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Ávila is currently on board the Madleen, a 59-foot boat carrying Thunberg and other activists that is approaching Israeli waters in an attempt to sail to Gaza. The group, which has been mocked as the “selfie flotilla,” is using the voyage as a publicity stunt. Ávila has been seen in numerous videos filmed on the boat singing and spreading anti-Israel rhetoric.

The vessel is set to arrive on June 7 or 8, though it is unlikely that the Israel Defense Forces will allow the boat anywhere near Gaza. Other activists aboard the Madleen include a French member of the European Parliament, Rima Hassan, and “Game of Thrones” actor Liam Cunningham.

Regarding the blockade, the IDF told The Daily Wire that it is “prepared for a wide range of scenarios which it will act upon in accordance with the directives of the political echelon.”

This voyage is not Ávila’s first: he was also aboard a larger vessel that was attacked and disabled before arriving in Malta to pick up Thunberg last month. It was later reportedly towed to Libya. The group accuses the IDF of the attack, though the IDF has not taken responsibility.

Ávila, who has half a million followers on Instagram, has a long history of radical activism. He met the hostages in Gaza “prisoners,” meeting with terrorists, idolized Nasrallah at his funeral, and said that he “despises” both the United States and Israel.

Ávila has highlighted his interactions with terrorists, including posting a photo of himself meeting with Leila Khaled—a former member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) who hijacked a civilian airliner in 1969. Jerusalem Post reporter Michael Starr shared a screenshot from Ávila’s Instagram story of the meeting where he said she is one of the people he “most admire[s] in the entire world.”


What Should Happen to Greta Thunberg, Thiago Ávila and The Rest of The Flotilla Crew?
It doesn’t stop there. The organization of the “Freedom Flotilla” has well established links to Hamas, including its media contact Zaher Birawi, who has been previously designated by Israel’s Ministry of Defense as a main Hamas operative in Europe. In a 2017 interview with Felesteen, Hamas’ official newspaper, Birawi admitted the flotilla’s goal was never humanitarian aid but to wage an information war—“a battle for hearts and minds” against Israel. He is also “one of the most prominent Hamas/Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated operatives in the UK.” In October 2023, UK Labour MP Christian Wakeford named Zaher Birawi as a “key Hamas operative residing in London.” Maybe this is how they are able to sail under the UK flag?

According to Turkish NGO Humanitarian Relief Foundation (known as IHH), which is the primary organiser of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), it is comprised of human rights and peace activists. IHH was banned by Israel in 2008 and IHH Germany has been outlawed in Germany because of links to Hamas. Despite all this, the UK allowed them to sail under their flag.

Under Israeli law, anyone who attempts to enter Gaza illegally can be charged with various offenses depending on intent and affiliation. Israel’s Counter-Terrorism Law is applicable in this case. If Greta Thunberg and the rest of the flotilla are arrested, the legal framework is clear:
For Thiago Ávila, Now consider Thiago Ávila, this is a man who was caught on camera chanting: “Allahu Akbar! Death to America! Death to Israel! Victory to Islam!” He’s also been documented attending a memorial for Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Under Israel's Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance, should justify a sentence of life imprisonment.

For Greta and others on board, if no concrete evidence ties them to direct coordination or support of Hamas, they would still potentially face years in prison for participating in an operation that aids or legitimizes a terror group and for aiding an illegal effort to breach a lawful blockade imposed to prevent arms smuggling and terrorist infiltration.The maximum sentence? Twenty years in prison.

So what should happen? The answer is simple: apply the law—fully and without apology. We’ve spent far too long indulging this performance activism that hides violent ideologies behind humanitarian slogans. It’s time to dismantle the infrastructure of “terror tourism” and treat these provocations for what they are: deliberate, coordinated attacks on the sovereignty and security of a democratic state.

They must pay for the consequences of their actions to the fullest extent of law, despite Greta’s childish Hamas green hat, they are not children, they are all adults. Greta was clear in her interview with CNN, she understands the risks of her “aventure.” Enough is enough.

Why is this important? Extremists around the world are escalating their rhetoric and their violence—they aren’t just cheering bloodshed, they’re demanding it. For them, Greta simply sailing to Gaza isn’t enough; they’re disappointed she’s not carrying a rifle. Some even draw parallels between her and Japanese Red Army terrorists, like those who carried out the Lod Airport massacre in 1972—also in the name of Palestine. This is the level of radicalism we’re dealing with. If we continue to excuse or romanticize these theatrics, we embolden the very ideologies that seek to destroy us.


Brendan O'Neill: No, Dawn French, 7 October was not a ‘bad fing’
It’s her use of the term ‘bad thing’ that has caused a stink. Or ‘bad fing’, as she says, because remember she’s doing Israel as the irascible brat of world affairs that can’t even speak proper. She’s referring to Hamas’s pogrom of 7 October 2023. ‘Bad thing’, Dawn? Are you for real? The bloodiest slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust? The rape of young Jewish women at a music festival? The burning alive of Jewish families? Writing that off as a ‘bad thing’ – worse, a ‘bad fing’ – is as gross a minimisation of Jewish suffering as I have seen in the 20 months since that darkest of days.

How sick to ‘minimise’ the ‘severity’ of 7 October, said Heidi Bachram, whose husband lost family in Hamas’s carnival of anti-Semitic violence. Actress Tracy-Ann Oberman lamented French’s ‘mocking’ tone. It is hard to imagine the moral pretenders of the faux-virtuous elite describing any other act of racist butchery as a ‘bad fing’. Imagine if someone said that about the anti-Muslim savagery at the Christchurch mosques in 2019 or about any of Boko Haram’s ferocious assaults on Christian girls. It is a testament to the lazy, bleak animus for Israel that has taken hold in cultural circles that someone like French could even think this about 7 October, never mind film herself saying it out loud.

It’s her weary air of exhaustion that really sticks in the craw. Oh I’m sorry that the Jewish State’s fight for survival against the army of anti-Semites that wishes to destroy it is spoiling your Cornwall brunches. ‘NO’ is easy for French to say – she doesn’t live next door to an army of racists that murdered her friends and dreams of murdering her, too. Her vain tirade is as mad as if some famous arse in the 1940s had berated Britain for pushing back against the Nazis on the basis that the London and Coventry Blitzes were just bad fings, no big deal.

French has now deleted her video. Her intention, she said, was never to ‘mock, or dismiss, or diminish the horror’ of 7 October. She just wanted to say ‘NO’ to ‘BOTH sides’. Okay. But you didn’t. You didn’t tell Hamas to lay down its arms, release the hostages and give up on its twisted genocidal dream of a Jew-free Middle East. You just told Israel to stop. In my view, French was less making an anti-war statement than she was signalling her moral fitness for high society, where being anti-Israel is now all but mandatory. Natch she has the Palestine flag, the Pride flag and the Be Kind blue heart in her X bio – the digital mating cries of the virtuous rich.

This debacle confirms how scarily mainstream anti-Israel sentiment has become. It isn’t only depressed Corbynistas in keffiyehs and radical Islamists who are noisily raging against Israel. The entire wankerati is at it. From finger-wagging imams to the Vicar of Dibley, from posh pretend Marxists to their parents who love Richard Curtis films, they’re all telling Israel to stop. They’re all minimising 7 October. They’re all being disgustingly blasé about the Jewish State’s pursuit of the religious hysterics who butchered more than a thousand Jews less than two years ago. French’s last tour was called ‘Dawn French is a Huge Twat’. You said it, sister. You’re all huge twats.
Jonathan Sacerdoti discusses Dawn French's monologue mocking Israeli suffering and slaughter



Lineker crossed a line with his Israel hate so I won’t allow him to speak at dad’s memorial
The son of football writer Brian Glanville has accused Gary Lineker of providing fuel for people holding antisemitic views after confirming he has barred the former Match of the Day presenter from delivering a tribute at his father’s memorial service.

In an emotional interview, Mark Glanville, 66, who sang kaddish at his father’s funeral last week, shed new light on his dad’s passionate support for the state of Israel, and an often complicated relationship with his faith.

Glanville – once described by The Times as “the doyen of football writers, arguably the finest football writer of his, or any other generation” – died last month, aged 93, following a lengthy battle against Parkinson’s Disease.

The funeral, in west London, was a private affair for family and only the closest of friends.

But overwhelmed with tributes to the journalist, who worked for the Sunday Times for 30 years, and also wrote over 20 novels, the family has now begun preparations for a memorial service to allow all those who came to know and love Brian to pay their respects.

Speaking to Jewish News, Mark, a classically trained opera singer and writer, revealed that his sister had raised the prospect of Lineker delivering one of the speeches at the memorial.

Like most football fans, their father had recognised Lineker as a class act on the pitch and as a presenter offering his unique insight into the game.

Lineker had also recognised how Glanville was a master at his profession as he wrote about the game.

But Mark revealed he has now barred Lineker, 64, from paying tribute to his father at the memorial in response to the presenter’s frequent social media posts in relation to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.


Far-left NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani urges boycott of Cornell school with ties to Israel: ‘Blatant antisemitism’
Far-left mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has said Cornell Tech on Roosevelt Island should be boycotted because of its partnership with an Israel-based school — a stance blasted as “blatant antisemitism.’’

“There are ways to make what seems to be an international battle into a local one,” the Democratic socialist said on a “Talking Palestine” podcast with Sumaya Awad shortly after getting elected to the state assembly in 2020.

“If you were to look at the lens of BDS [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions] and how it applies here in New York City, you would say that Cornell-Technion is something you would be talking about,” Mamdani said of the Roosevelt Island college, which is partnered with Technion University in Israel and is also referred to as the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute.

“Technion University is an Israeli University that has helped to develop a lot of weapons technology used by the IDF [Israel Defense Force],” said Mamdani, as he voiced support for economic boycotts against Israel.

Mamdani — who also recounted how he co-founded the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter at Bowdoin College when he attended the school — said a boycott campaign would scrutinize any government funds that Cornell-Technion received.

“I’m sure that if we look close enough, there are either municipal subsidies or state subsidies granted to a project such as this on Roosevelt Island,” Mamdani said.

The Roosevelt venture is a pet project of former Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who conducted a worldwide competitive bidding process to operate the sciences and engineering campus.

Cornell won the bid and opened the joint campus in September 2017, paving the way for such things as shared programs and professors.


THE POISONED WELL OF JEWISH STUDIES AT HARVARD DIVINITY SCHOOL
When it comes to restoring academic quality and combating antisemitism, Harvard’s actions continue to defy its lofty promises. Consider just the most recent example: the appointment of Shaul Magid as a “Professor of Modern Jewish Studies in Residence” at Harvard Divinity School.

According to Harvard, the faculty search review committee, composed of Terrence Johnson, Ann Braude, and Charles Stang, “lauded Magid’s scholarship, mentorship, and commitment to intellectual diversity. His appointment, they noted, will be pivotal in enriching Harvard’s strengths in Jewish studies.”

One must wonder whether Johnson, Braude, and Stang bothered to review Magid’s history. Consider just one recent remark by Magid at a two-day conference on “Non-Zionist Jewish Traditions” at Brown University:
“Are we doing this as disinterested scholars? My answer would be no. We are here because we are most interested scholars. Most of us come here because we agree that, with all that has been accomplished, something has gone very wrong with the Jews today.”

He continued: “Nationalism poisoned the well of Jewish nature.”

So, too, did those other “interested scholars” with whom Magid proudly surrounded himself. Another, Omer Bartov, echoed Magid’s “poisoned well” remark, declaring “a poison has been distilled into the veins of the country [of Israel], and slowly but surely it proceeds toward savagery.” Adi Ophir declared that Jews must openly reject support of Israel or “they are complicit.” Beshara Doumani declared “Israel…has become the North Star of the rise of fascism all over the world,” and that Zionism is “a child of antisemitism.” Another academic, Ariella Azoulay, known for particularly outlandish antisemitic rants, claimed Europe “invented us as Jews” and that there is “an evangelical settler colonial death drive implanted in Jews’ hearts.”

Not one participant challenged the conference speakers’ absurdly antisemitic rhetoric.

This is “intellectual diversity” and “enrichment,” according to Harvard Divinity School.


German antisemitism official targeted in road rage over Hebrew song
German police have launched an investigation against a Jordanian citizen who allegedly tried to run a car off the road because it was playing a song in Hebrew. The car belonged to Stefan Hensel, the Commissioner for Combating Antisemitism in Hamburg.

According to German media reports, the incident occurred around 7 p.m. on May 25, shortly after Hensel picked up his young daughter from a swimming pool. To help keep her awake during the drive home, he played the popular Hebrew song "Tamid Ohev Oti" by Sasson Shaulov. While stopped at a red light, a blue Opel van pulled up next to them. The driver asked Hensel to roll down his window, then began shouting at him, calling him a “baby killer” and a “dirty Israeli,” and challenged him to get out of the car “if you’re a man.”

When the light turned green, Hensel sped off, but the other driver followed him and reportedly attempted to force his car off the road. Hensel spotted a police patrol car, pulled over, locked his car with his daughter inside to keep her safe, and ran to ask the officers for help. The suspect also pulled over and continued shouting threats and insults, even in the officers’ presence.

Additional police were called to the scene, and three more officers arrived. The Jordanian driver, 57, was questioned and had his phone confiscated for evidence. Although the police decided not to arrest him at the time, citing insufficient grounds, they opened a formal investigation to determine whether the attack was politically motivated.

“I’m shocked and shaken by this man’s violent reaction—all because of a Hebrew song,” Hensel told Bild. “It shows just how dangerously far Islamist antisemitism has gone. You don’t even have to be Jewish to be targeted. It’s enough to sing along to a Hebrew song with your child. I was truly afraid, especially for my little girl who had to witness all of this.” Politicians from across the political spectrum in Hamburg condemned the attack and emphasized that there is no place for antisemitism in the city. “It is frightening and shameful, especially in light of Germany’s historical responsibility toward Israel and Jewish life in our country,” said Hamburg Mayor Peter Tschentscher. “The Senate supports the Jewish community and is committed to protecting it.”


Israel Unearths the Truth
REVIEW: ‘When the Stones Speak: The Remarkable Discovery of the City of David and What Israel’s Enemies Don’t Want You to Know’ by Doron Spielman

Those who control the past, George Orwell famously warned, control the future. In his new book, When the Stones Speak: The Remarkable Discovery of the City of David and What Israel’s Enemies Don’t Want You to Know, author Doron Spielman brilliantly connects battles over the Jewish people’s past to present efforts to deny the Jewish state’s legitimacy. As he makes clear: The past matters more than ever.

On its surface, When the Stones Speak is about the discovery of the ancient City of David, which sits just south of the Old City of Jerusalem. But thanks to Spielman’s gift for storytelling and his welcome penchant for using history to explain current events, the book is about far more than an archaeological dig.

The City of David was established more than 3,000 years ago by a king named David of the tribe of Judah. Young, willful, and impulsive, David is one of the Hebrew Bible’s most unforgettable figures. He sinned, slew a giant, united the tribes of Israel, and ruled for four decades. One of history’s first warrior-poets, David’s life inspired plays, books, and song and verse for centuries. Some have long dismissed his existence as a mere fable. But the discovery of the city that he established so long ago is evidence otherwise.

David’s descendants ruled for a thousand years, until they were defeated and dispersed by Rome in 70 A.D. First the Romans, and later the Persians, Muslims, Crusaders, and Ottomans would rule over a neighboring hill, which became known as the Old City of Jerusalem. The walls of the Old City excluded David’s original site. "The City of David," Spielman observes, "eventually fell into disrepair and was abandoned and covered by the sands of time until it was forgotten." But this proved to be a blessing.

"Being forgotten was perhaps what saved the City of David," Spielman points out, "for over the next two thousand years while the Old City of Jerusalem was frequently the site of war and was ransacked countless times by marauders searching for treasures from the Bible, the City of David and its biblical treasures lay buried, protected and largely undisturbed."

The dust began to be removed in the 1860s, when explorer Charles Warren was hired to conduct Britain’s first archaeological expedition in the Holy Land. Warren’s work focused mostly on the Old City, but he and his team stumbled upon what would later be identified as the City of David. It would be up to other explorers to fully unearth the city and bring it back to life. And Spielman would not only have a front row seat—he would also be a driving force in the process.




Buy EoZ's books  on Amazon!

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

    
 

 



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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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