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Thursday, July 10, 2025

07/10 Links Pt2: The West clings to the two-state myth—but Arab leaders are moving on; Edan Alexander told senior Saudis about Hamas captivity in chance WH meeting

From Ian:

The West clings to the two-state myth—but Arab leaders are moving on
In 1915, an Arab clan leader made a bold decision that would change the course of history: Emir Hussein bin-Ali rebelled against the Ottoman Empire, aligned himself with the dominant Western power of the time, Great Britain, and lent his support for the reestablishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

In 2025, a similar sequence of events might be occurring: Sheikh Wadee al-Jaabari of Hebron, along with 20 other local sheikhs announced this week their plans to rebel against the Palestinian Authority, join the US-led Abraham Accords, and recognize the Jewish state.

Since The Wall Street Journal broke the story on Sunday, public discussion has focused on whether the plan to establish the Hebron emirate is feasible, and what the security implications are. Those conversations belittle the magnitude of the event: We are witnessing a historic paradigm shift that goes far beyond the mechanics of the actual proposal.

The parallels between today and 1915
This was also the case back in 1915. While the move by the Hashemite emir shaped history, it did not do so in the way originally intended. The plan was to establish a pan-Arab kingdom in Syria that would live in peace and partnership with the Jewish state. This did not come to fruition as France demanded Syria for itself, launched a war, and obliterated the nascent Arab kingdom.

Yet, the Hashemite emir’s move shaped history in a much more grandiose way: It reorganized Middle Eastern political structures from empire-dominated monarchies to family-based Arab ones: The Hashemites established their Kingdoms in Jordan and Iraq, the Sauds in Arabia, and various others families in the Gulf. Moreover, it ended 400 years of Turkish homogeneity in the Middle East (1516-1917), and ushered in more than a century of European intervention (1917-2025).

It is too early to tell if this week’s Jaabari emirates initiative will evolve in the way intended: annulment of the Oslo Accords, and establishment of clan-based emirates. Yet, it affirms the irreversible trends toward peace discussed in this column and in my two books (see end).

First, the Jaabari announcement underscores the shift of the guiding principle for Middle East peacemaking: From “divide the baby” frameworks that keep all unhappy (two-state solution) to win-win deals that benefit everybody (Abraham Accords). More broadly, it is moving from a mindset of peace through appeasement to one of peace through strength. The sheikhs stated it clearly: they reject the idea of the two-state solution, and embrace the Abraham Accords.

The demise of the two-state solution removes an artificial peace-blocker placed by the West. The exclusivity of this template was so pronounced, that both the US under former president Joe Biden as well as the UK listed opposition to the “two-state solution” as grounds for sanctions.

Jabarii told The Wall Street Journal what is obvious to those in the region, but indigestible to Europeans: “There will be no Palestinian state – not even in 1,000 years.”

Indeed, the sheikh’s announcement affirms another trend discussed in this column: A shift from focus on Palestinian national rights to focus on Palestinian human rights.
David Collier: An open response to Peter Oborne and Irfan Chowdhury
This is what happens when outrage is hijacked by propaganda. Moral energy is misdirected, and those with no lobby are abandoned to their fate.

Somehow, I doubt our streets will be flooded with protests urging the government to save the people of Sudan. When there’s no anti-Israel obsession driving the outrage, the streets stay empty.

If Gazans just hand back the hostages, and Hamas agrees to relinquish control, the conflict ends. The people of Sudan have no such choice. This is how the lies about Gaza cost lives. They take attention from places where people really are dying without food. ‘All eyes on Rafah’ – so nobody is looking as millions are actually dying from famine elsewhere in the world.

These NGOs and many others like them have been ruined by activists within who have politicised them. I know how bad the situation has become because I wrote a detailed report on the demise of Amnesty – and found that the face of Amnesty in Gaza, both celebrated Islamic Jihad terrorists, AND (importantly) posted about how people needed to self-censure to protect the ‘resistance’. I am sure if she were still there, you would be relying on her terrorist supporting words as yet more evidence of a ‘truth’ that you think I should answer to.

These politicised outfits are relying on information provided by people embedded within Gazan clans that are affiliated to one of the many terrorist factions that operate there. There is no ‘independence’ in Gaza. These outfits are striving to end the conflict in such a fashion that would allow Hamas to retain control. As such they are doing the work of Hamas and all their messaging should be treated as propaganda designed to aid that proscribed terrorist group.

I get this is the truth, but I am not surprised that people who think that the CfMM are a credible outfit fail to see it. I hope I helped to open your eyes a little.
Melanie Phillips: Nazi chic and soft-soaping the Jew-baiters
Let’s conduct a thought experiment. Let’s imagine that Nazism had broken out of its wartime German-dominated confines and had become the creed of millions throughout the West.

Let’s imagine that, for the past 21 months, the streets of London, New York and other Western cities had become forests of Nazi flags as hundreds of thousands of people marched for the ethnic cleansing of Jews—mob events justified as exercising the “right to free speech.”

Imagine that thousands of young people waving the Nazi flag at a rally in England had chanted “Death, death to the Jews!” while a demagogue leapt around the stage whipping the crowd up to a delirium.

Imagine that the only way to gain social or professional acceptance was to agree that the Jews deliberately killed babies and starved people to death, that they were destroying society and that they must be treated accordingly as pariahs.

Imagine that trade unions representing teachers, doctors and public-sector workers supporting the Nazi party all passed resolutions calling for Jews to be boycotted. Imagine that shops in Britain displayed signs on their doors saying “No Jews welcome.”

Imagine that the swastika had become a fashion accessory, printed onto casual clothing or painted onto people’s faces—or that when turning up for a hospital appointment, you saw that the nurse was wearing on her uniform a swastika pin.

Imagine that the United Nations had become an arm of the Nazi party, and that its Special Rapporteur on the Jewish Question had stated that Jews who had been slaughtered had brought this upon themselves, that the Nazis had a right to murder them, and that the Jews were running the U.S. Congress, the media and the universities.

All these things have happened, with one obvious difference—that instead of the Nazi party, they have been in support of the Palestinian cause and against Zionism, the State of Israel and the Jews who are assumed to support it.


Diaspora Minister Chikli: 'Chuck Schumer is a Palestinian & a self-hating Jew'
Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli (Likud) accused Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) of being a "self-hating Jew" and called the Senator a "Palestinian" over Schumer's support for radical left-wing Democratic candidate for mayor of New York City Zohran Mamdani.

In a post to X today (Thursday), Chikli wrote: "The phenomenon of Jews who hate their own people is a well-documented and recurring pattern throughout history. It’s called a self-hating Jew. The new form of antisemitism that's no longer based on race, but rather on the denial of the Jewish people’s right to self-determination, has enabled some Jews to participate in the campaign of incitement and hatred against their nation."

"We see this with Jewish senators and members of Congress in the Democratic Party, such as the 'Palestinian' Chuck Schumer, who is promoting the candidacy of a Hamas fan advocating the globalization of the Intifada," he stated.

The minister also included the Israeli Haaretz newspaper in his criticism of "self-hating Jews" over the newspaper's publishing of accusations of genocide against the State of Israel.

Chikli's use of the term 'Palestinian' to describe Senator Schumer echoes the language used by US President Donald Trump to describe Schumer.

During a campaign rally in summer 2024, Trump told the crowd: "Look at a guy like Senator Schumer. I've known him a long time. I come from New York. He's become a Palestinian. He's a Palestinian now. Congratulations."

"He was very loyal to Israel and to Jewish people," Trump continued. "He's Jewish, but he's become a Palestinian, because they have a couple more votes or something."

In another campaign rally, Trump stated that Schumer had "refused to shake the Prime Minister's hand. Chuck Schumer has become a Palestinian." He added that Schumer "has become a proud member of Hamas."
Trump team used Canary Mission site to target anti-Israel activists for deportation
Newly unsealed court records and trial testimony show that top Trump administration officials relied heavily on Canary Mission, a controversial website that targets pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel activists, as part of a secretive effort to deport foreign students and academics from American universities.

The revelations emerged during an ongoing federal lawsuit in Boston brought by the American Association of University Professors and the Middle East Studies Association, challenging what they call “ideological deportations” that they say violate the US Constitution’s First Amendment.

The case is one of the most closely watched challenges to US President Donald Trump’s deportation efforts.

A Department of Homeland Security “tiger team” formed in 2019 built dossiers on thousands of noncitizen academics and students by pulling names from a public list of 5,000 individuals compiled by Canary Mission, according to Politico’s reporting on the trial.

The site — which publishes profiles of pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel activists, identifying protests they’ve participated in and often archiving inflammatory posts they’ve made on social media — became a primary resource for the team, according to sworn testimony from DHS official Peter Hatch.

Hatch, the assistant director for intelligence at Homeland Security Investigations, testified that more than 75% of the deportation referrals prepared by his unit were based on names first identified through Canary Mission, adding that the information was independently verified before being compiled into official reports, according to Politico.

“Many of the names or even most of the names came from that website, but we were getting names and leads from many different websites,” Hatch said.

“We received information on the same protesters from multiple sources, but Canary Mission was the most inclusive. The lists came in from all different directions.”

“Canary Mission is not a part of the US government,” he said. “It is not information that we would take as an authoritative source. We don’t work with the individuals who create the website. I don’t know who creates the website.”

Trump officials cited another pro-Israel outside group as a key source of intelligence: Betar USA.
Anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil sues Trump administration for $20m over imprisonment
On a recent afternoon, Mahmoud Khalil sat in his Manhattan apartment, cradling his 10-week-old son as he thought back to the pre-dawn hours spent pacing a frigid immigration jail in Louisiana, awaiting news of the child’s birth in New York.

For a moment, the outspoken, anti-Israel Palestinian activist found himself uncharacteristically speechless.

“I cannot describe the pain of that night,” Khalil said finally, gazing down as the baby, Deen, cooed in his arms. “This is something I will never forgive.”

Now, weeks after regaining his freedom, Khalil is seeking restitution. On Thursday, his lawyers filed a claim for $20 million in damages against the Trump administration, alleging Khalil was falsely imprisoned, maliciously prosecuted, and smeared as an antisemite as the government sought to deport him over his prominent role in campus protests.

The filing — a precursor to a lawsuit under the Federal Tort Claims Act — names the US Department of Homeland Security, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the US State Department.

It comes as the deportation case against Khalil, a 30-year-old recent graduate student at Columbia University, continues to wind its way through the immigration court system.

The goal, Khalil said, is to send a message that he won’t be intimidated into silence.

“They are abusing their power because they think they are untouchable,” Khalil said. “Unless they feel there is some sort of accountability, it will continue to go unchecked.”

Khalil said he plans to share any settlement money with others targeted in Trump’s “failed” effort to suppress pro-Palestinian speech. In lieu of a settlement, he would also accept an official apology and changes to the administration’s deportation policies.

In an emailed statement, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, called Khalil’s claim “absurd,” accusing him of “hateful behavior and rhetoric” that threatened Jewish students.

The State Department said its actions toward Khalil were fully supported by the law. Inquiries to the White House and ICE were not immediately returned.


The LIE of “Palestine” & The “Nakba” - DOCUMENTARY

Ireland will regret its anti-Israel boycott
Ireland is on the verge of passing an incredibly discriminatory — and legally dangerous — piece of legislation: the so-called Israeli Settlements (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025.

This first-in-Europe measure would criminalize the importation of goods from Israeli businesses operating in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Framed by its supporters as a political statement, the bill is being pushed with rhetoric about “genocidal activity,” invoking the language of demonization rather than diplomacy. But beyond the usual anti-Israel bias, this bill creates a very real and immediate legal risk — not for Israel, but for American companies and investors.

The U.S. has a clear and long-standing policy position: It opposes foreign government-led boycotts against Israel, including those targeting Israeli-controlled territories. Since 1977, when President Jimmy Carter signed the anti-boycott provisions of the Export Administration Act, every American administration and every Congress — Democrat and Republican — has upheld this principle. As Carter himself noted, our concern about foreign boycotts stemmed from both our special relationship with Israel and the broader economic, military and security needs of the U.S.

That bipartisan consensus was reaffirmed as recently as 2016, when President Barack Obama signed the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act, which directs federal agencies to oppose boycott efforts and requires regular reporting on entities that participate in activities related to the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.

Federal anti-boycott laws make it illegal for U.S. companies to comply with foreign government boycott requests targeting Israel. That means American firms that change their behavior in response to Ireland’s new law — whether by canceling contracts, terminating suppliers or rerouting goods away from Israeli partners in the West Bank — could face serious penalties at home.

In addition to federal restrictions, more than 36 U.S. states have adopted laws that bar companies from receiving state contracts if they boycott Israel (or, in many cases, Israeli territories). Some laws, like that of Texas, even require vendors to certify that they are not boycotting Israel. Firms that comply with Ireland’s law will risk contract termination, state debarment and enforcement actions from state attorneys general.

So the U.S. position is clear: It supports Israel. It does not support the movement to boycott, divest from or impose sanctions against Israel. Under federal law, U.S. firms are prohibited from refusing to do business with Israel, or furnishing boycott-related information, when those actions are taken at the request of a foreign government. Violations can result in steep civil penalties, loss of export privileges and, in egregious cases, criminal charges.
UKLFI: Legality of Irish PIGs Bill Challenged by UKLFI and IIA
Ireland Israel Alliance (IIA) and UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) have made a joint written submission to the Irish Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee claiming that a new Bill proposed by the Irish government would contravene EU and WTO rules.

Alan Shatter, former Minister of Justice, and Natasha Hausdorff will represent IIA and UKLFI at a public session of the Committee on 15 July 2025.

The new Bill would ban imports into Ireland of goods originating in specified areas of Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem. It is intended by the Irish government to replace a private member’s Bill introduced in the Irish Senate in 2018, which the then Irish Attorney General advised was contrary to EU law.

The full name of the previous Bill is “Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill” and it is commonly referred to as the “Occupied Territories Bill” or “OTB”. The full name of the new Bill is “Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill, and it has been given the acronym “PIGs Bill”.

IIA and UKLFI submit that the new PIGs Bill would also contravene EU law, which allocates exclusive competence for foreign trade policy to the EU. EU member states are precluded from acting unilaterally.

The Irish government has argued that these EU rules are overridden by international law. It claims that Ireland is required by international law to ban imports of goods from areas of Israeli settlement in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in accordance with the advisory opinion given by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on 19 July 2024.

However, IIA and UKLFI say that the ICJ’s majority advisory opinion does not alter the fact that it is for the EU to decide on any measures of foreign policy that may be required, not for individual states. In any case, they point out that the ICJ’s majority opinion is not binding and is based on inaccurate information. Furthermore the opinion does not actually advise that a State must ban or may ban the import of goods from specified areas of East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

The Irish government also claims that the ban is permitted under an exception for “public policy” (or “order public” and similar terms in other equally authentic texts). However, case-law of the EU’s Court of Justice has interpreted this term as requiring a “genuine and sufficiently serious threat to the requirements of public policy affecting one of the fundamental interests of society”. IIA and UKLFI observe that it cannot realistically be claimed that the import into Ireland of goods originating in parts of the West Bank constitutes such a threat.

IIA and UKLFI add that the PIGs Bill would also infringe other provisions of EU law, including the prohibition of restrictions on imports from other EU member states and from the UK, as well as provisions relating to the EU’s external policy.
Australian PM mum on adopting new plan to fight Jew-hatred
The Australian government’s envoy for fighting antisemitism unveiled an action plan on Thursday that recommended withholding public funding from problematic institutions, but the country’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, wouldn’t say that he would implement it.

In a 20-page document, Jillian Segal suggested recommendations that require “action by state governments. Some of them require action by society,” Albanese told a reporter who asked him at a press conference about implementation. “This will be a process, my government is committed to working constructively,” he said.

The plan follows a surge in anti-Jewish, anti-Israeli incidents in Australia that some, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have blamed at least partly on the relatively critical approach that Albanese’s Labour-led government has taken vis-à-vis the Jewish state.

Australia experienced a fourfold increase in documented antisemitic incidents in 2024—the steepest rise among English-speaking countries with available data—according to a report published in May. The tally of such cases rose from 495 in 2023 to 2,062 last year, according to the report by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ).

Responding to the torching of a Melbourne synagogue in December, Netanyahu said at the time that “it is impossible to separate this reprehensible act from the extreme anti-Israeli position of the Labor government in Australia.”

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said last year that Canberra would consider recognition of a Palestinian state. Her government has walked back the decision by the previous Liberal Party government to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Last year, she lumped Israel together with China and Russia, saying she expects those countries “to abide by international law.”

Australia has banned entry to Ayelet Shaked, a former Israeli minister of justice and interior, and to Hillel Fuld, a pro-Israel activist whose brother had died in a terrorist attack. The report mentions Israel once, and does not reference the government’s policies towards it.

Israel’s minister for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, Amichai Chikli, earlier this week sent Albanese a letter expressing his “deep alarm following a profoundly disturbing weekend in Melbourne.” Chikli referenced an arson attack on July 4 on the East Melbourne Hebrew Congregation synagogue and vandalism targeting the Israeli restaurant named Miznon.
Albanese receives plan to help combat antisemitism
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his government will “carefully consider” the ‘Special Envoy’s Plan to Combat Antisemitism’, stating some recommendations will be “implemented quickly”, while others will require “more work”.

Prime Minister Albanese and Home Affairs Minister Tony Bourke joined Australia’s Antisemitism Envoy Jillian Segal to launch her report on Thursday, which she described as an “action plan”.

“It addresses antisemitism in many places in our laws, classrooms, universities, media, workplaces, online spaces and public institutions,” said Segal.

“It calls on government and society and leaders to support the initiatives. In addition to measures to counter antisemitism, there is also the positive side that it looks at, and that is increasing the vibrancy of Jewish life.”

Albanese said the report found antisemitism had risen to “deeply troubling levels”, but it also reaffirmed that the issue “didn’t begin on October 7″.

“This is something that government needs to work with civil society on at all levels and each and every day and every week and every month and every year to make sure that antisemitism is pushed to the margins,” he said.

Albanese said the “kind of hatred and violence that we have seen on our streets recently is despicable and it won’t be tolerated”, vowing those responsible will face “the full force of the law”.

The plan was launched less than a week after the arson attack on the East Melbourne Synagogue, but not in response to it, with Segal clarifying the timing was “coincidental” as it has been in the works for months.

Albanese condemned the actions of protestors in Melbourne who attacked an Israeli restaurant, while adding a line is crossed when the Jewish community is targeted.

“The idea that somehow the cause of justice for Palestinians is advanced by behaviour like that is not only delusional, it is destructive and it is not consistent with how you are able to put forward your views respectfully in a democracy,” he said.


Albanese scorched for ‘performative compassion’ on antisemitism scourge
Sky News Senior Reporter Caroline Marcus has slammed the “performative compassion” from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on the antisemitism crisis in Australia.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has avoided committing to recommendations from his hand-picked envoy to crack down on antisemitism, including university funding cuts, instead suggesting the government would "carefully consider" the report.

“There are a lot of worthy recommendations in there ... but here's the sticking point – they are just recommendations,” Ms Marcus said.

“Unless some of these key recommendations are acted upon urgently, it's only a matter of time before someone is seriously hurt.”


‘Elephant in the room’: Radical Islamism is ‘incompatible’ with Western democracies
Sky News host Danica De Giorgio addresses the “elephant in the room”, being radical Islamism and Labor’s stance on promoting multiculturalism.

“Don't forget, after October 7, in the first instance, Labor conflated antisemitism with Islamophobia – as if both were an equal issue in the country; what about the hate being spewed out of some of the Mosques?”

“And the elephant in the room remains – the topic most politicians in this country don't want to touch … multiculturalism,” Ms De Giorgio said.

“Radical Islamism is incompatible with Western democracies, yet the PM told us today that multiculturalism is our strength.

“The common denominator is radical Islamism; until we wake up to that fact, and have this conversation, I fear that nothing will change.”


Palestinian woman deemed ‘risk to security’ detained after raid on Sydney home
A Palestinian woman aged in her 60s, who has been deemed a “risk to security”, has been taken to an immigration detention centre following a raid at her home in Sydney's south-west.

A crowd of protesters gathered outside of Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke’s Punchbowl office on Thursday, rallying against the detention Maha Almassri, 61, who her family say was detained early that morning.

The Daily Telegraph has reported a letter related to the matter says Ms Almassri failed a visa “character test” following an Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) assessment.

The Department of Home Affairs was “provided with an Adverse Security Assessment in which ASIO advised that it has assessed Ms Almassri to be directly or indirectly a risk to security,” according to documents seen by the masthead.

The Daily Telegraph said it understands Ms Almassri moved from Gaza to Australia in 2024.
Jewish Democrats in Congress raise concerns about Zohran Mamdani’s anti-Israel positions
Some Jewish Democrats in Congress, including the prominent House member Debbie Wasserman Schultz, are coming out to condemn Zohran Mamdani for his record of anti-Israel stances just weeks after prominent Jewish Democrats in New York endorsed the upstart mayoral candidate.

Mamdani, a state assemblyman who shocked the political system by winning New York’s Democratic primary for mayor last month, has previously endorsed the boycott Israel movement, known as BDS, and has also drawn pushback for refusing to condemn the popular pro-Palestinian protest slogan “globalise the intifada.”

“To not be willing to condemn the term ‘globalise the intifada,’ it just demonstrates his callous disregard for antisemitism, terrorist activity. … Anyone that I care about couldn’t possibly distance themselves from him more,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida Democrat who was the first Jewish woman elected to represent Florida in Congress, told The Hill. “It’s really terribly disturbing and potentially dangerous.”

Wasserman Schultz’s sentiments were echoed by fellow Florida Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz, who represents an area of Florida with a large population of Jews.

“I think he’s wrong on all those things,” Moskowitz told The Hill. “If he can’t tell people ‘globalizing the intifada’ — if he can’t say that that’s antisemitic, then obviously he’s going to continue to add to the problem, not deflate it.”

The word “intifada” directly translates to “shaking off,” but most Jews associate it with two violent Palestinian uprisings that included deadly terror attacks in Israel from the late 1980s to the early 2000s. Mamdani has also promoted academic boycotts of Israeli universities and has vowed to try to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if Netanyahu visits New York under his watch.

Rep. Greg Landsman, an Ohio Democrat who is Jewish, said Mamdani’s stances were a “huge problem” in a statement to The Hill.

“It is happening in the context of a violent surge in antisemitism. Two Jews murdered here in Washington, D.C., at an event that some of us would have gone to had we not been voting, and then in Boulder, where Jews were set on fire,” he said. “And now this. It’s definitely something that we’re worried about.”
NYC Jewish pols urged to join ‘Jews for Zohran’ Mamdani and back Israel-bashing nominee for mayor
A coalition of Jewish leaders is pushing other Jewish Democrats in office to get behind socialist Zohran Mamdani for mayor — hoping to cash in on their fears of being primaried by similarly Democratic Socialists of America-backed candidates next year if they don’t rally around their party’s Israel-bashing nominee, sources said.

The “Jews for Zohran” offensive to win over Jewish pols includes Mamdani’s top Jewish surrogates — city Comptroller Brad Lander and Rep. Jerrold Nadler, sources told The Post.

One lawmaker — who requested anonymity — confirmed getting an invite for a Jewish leaders’ meeting with Mamdani.

A source briefed on the matter said the meeting is tentatively scheduled for Monday morning at a union hall.

Lander, the city comptroller who came in third in the mayoral primary, has been Mamdani’s biggest booster in the Jewish community. As a rival mayoral candidate, Lander cross-endorsed him in the ranked-choice primary.

Nadler — the dean of the New York House delegation, first elected to the House in 1992, and who represents much of Manhattan — endorsed Mamdani after he won the primary.

Still, a Mamdani endorsement is a tough decision for some Jewish pols, with many constituents still upset that the Democratic nominee has not denounced the rallying cry “Globalize the intifada.” Mamdani also supports the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel.


Columbia Trustee Takes School to Task Over Campus Anti-Semitism: 'Disturbing Lack of Moral Clarity'
Columbia University has demonstrated a "disturbing lack of moral clarity" and "tarnished" its reputation "for the foreseeable future" by failing to address anti-Semitism on campus, a member of the school's board of trustees, Shoshana Shendelman, wrote in a letter to Columbia leaders.

"The conduct which has been exhibited by Columbia leadership in recent months—particularly the failure to decisively address antisemitism on campus—demonstrates a disturbing lack of moral clarity and poses a significant threat to the safety and well-being of Jewish students, faculty, and the broader community of Columbia University," Shendelman wrote in the Monday letter, first reported by CBS News.

"It is evident that the ongoing failures have resulted in substantial legal and financial ramifications, and our university's reputation has been tarnished for the foreseeable future," Shendelman continued. "Unequivocally, this is the direct consequence of Columbia's failure to adhere with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act."

Shendelman delivered her letter just days after the House Committee on Education and Workforce published texts in which acting Columbia president Claire Shipman called to remove the Jewish trustee and add an "Arab" to the board.

"We need to get somebody from the middle east [sic] or who is Arab on our board," Shipman, who then served as the co-chair of Columbia’s board, wrote in a Jan. 17, 2024, message. A week later, she told a colleague that Shendelman, one of the board’s most outspoken critics of campus anti-Semitism, had been "extraordinarily unhelpful," adding, "I just don’t think she should be on the board."
Israeli prof. Shai Davidai quits Columbia, as university drops harassment investigation
Israeli Prof. Shai Davidai resigned from his post at Columbia Business School on the same day that he received a letter clearing him of harassment allegations.

On Wednesday, Davidai – an assistant professor of business at the university – posted a copy of a letter sent by the vice provost of Columbia telling him that the Office of Institutional Equity (OIE) had closed its investigation into him.

The investigation began on February 8, 2024, after allegations were made about the Israeli professor. Columbia then suspended him temporarily after claiming he had “repeatedly harassed and intimidated university employees in violation of university policy.”

The letter shows that the OIE had closed the probe on July 8, “without any findings or conclusions of wrongdoing and without imposing discipline or penalty.”

Alongside the screenshot, Davidai wrote on X/Twitter: “Columbia tried to smear my name. I wouldn’t let them. Today, they finally admitted that I hadn’t done anything wrong.” Davidai reportedly quits Columbia post

The letter was sent from Costis Maglaras, dean of the business school, to colleagues informing them that the professor “has decided to depart Colombia.”

“Since joining the Business School in 2019, Prof. Davidai has published 27 scholarly articles in top research journals on the psychology of judgement and decision-making, economic inequality and social mobility, social comparisons and zero-sum thinking.”

It noted that he won a Rising Star designation and was named Best 40 under 40 MBA professors by the Poets&Quants website. “We thank Professor Davidai for his service to our community and wish him the best,” Maglaras said.
Inside Philadelphia Public Libraries' 'Palestine Storytime' Events, Where Kids Are Taught To Make 'Protest Art' Promoting 'Palestinian Liberation'
Philadelphia’s public libraries have hosted, and plan to continue hosting, anti-Israel "storytime" events that teach children that Israel "senselessly murdered" thousands of kids in Gaza, depict a map in which Israel is entirely replaced with "Palestine," and create art projects promoting the "Palestinian liberation" movement.

The Free Library of Philadelphia, which receives both state and federal funding, has scheduled at least six "Palestine Storytime & Crafts" events this summer sponsored by an extremist anti-Israel group called Families for Ceasefire Philly.

The Kingsessing Library, for instance, has advertised one storytime event on its website alongside a photo of a child wearing a headscarf that features an image of the Dome of the Rock and the Arabic phrase, "Jerusalem, we are coming," a slogan Hamas and Hezbollah use to call for the destruction of the Jewish state. The library advertises the event—scheduled for Aug. 9—as being for "children of all ages."

The Zionist Organization of America’s (ZOA) Philadelphia chapter has tracked anti-Israel programming in the city’s libraries over the past four years and found that the municipal system has hosted at least a dozen events sponsored by extremist anti-Israel groups since Oct. 7.

The events, which feature children’s books and arts and crafts, have pushed narratives demonizing Israel and promoting contentious policies like the Palestinian "right of return."

The Lovett Memorial Library hosted a June "Palestinian Storytime" event where children heard the picture book "A Map for Falasteen" read to them. The book states that, in 1948, Israeli soldiers "came with their tanks and guns" and "destroyed our villages and gave them new names." It also includes a large map that depicts "Falasteen" instead of Israel.

An event at the Moore Library last November, titled "Watermelons & Kefiyyehs: Protest Art of Palestine," involved "imagery used in Palestinian liberation struggles" and "protest art" featuring keffiyehs and other "resistance" symbols.

Another program hosted by the Fishtown Library provided children with coloring pages that promoted the Palestinian "right of return." One page featured an image of a key and read: "When Palestinians fled from, or were thrown out, of their homes during the Nakba in 1948, they took their house keys with them. The keys have been passed on from generation to generation as lasting symbols of their ‘right of return.’"
Stanford Lab Director Launched Bogus Sexual Harassment Investigation Into Israeli Chemist, Prompting Him To Leave the School: Lawsuit
A Stanford University lab director created a fake sexual harassment investigation as part of a campaign of "acute antisemitism and anti-Israel bias" against an Israeli chemist, according to a federal lawsuit filed on Thursday.

Israeli chemist Dr. Shay Laps alleges his colleagues at Stanford’s Danny Chou Lab created a hostile work environment in the months after Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror spree over his Jewish and Israeli origins. Lab assistants allegedly sabotaged Laps’s diabetes research, prevented him from accessing necessary equipment, and socially ostracized the doctor for being an Israeli Jew, according to a copy of the complaint the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law filed in the Northern District of California.

Dr. Danny Chou, the lab’s director, allegedly fabricated a sexual harassment complaint against Laps and threatened to have him deported after he reported this behavior. When Laps eventually raised the matter with Stanford’s leadership—including president Jonathan Levin and School of Medicine dean Lloyd B. Minor—the university "concluded that the conduct was pursuant to its rules and lawful," according to the suit.

"From the moment he stepped foot in the lab, he was surrounded by hostility," the complaint reads. "At first, Dr. Laps kept his head down. He knew that Jews and Israelis were being driven off American campuses."

Laps arrived on campus on April 1, 2024, just months after Hamas slaughtered more than 1,200 Jews and ignited a wave of violent anti-Semitic protests at colleges across America, including Stanford. Pro-Hamas activists on the California school’s campus stormed the president’s office and injured a police officer during one June 2024 episode.

The Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights opened an investigation into Stanford in December 2023 and warned it again in May 2024 that its failure to protect Jewish students from discrimination and harassment had violated federal civil rights laws.

Laps entered the Chou Lab as a postdoctoral appointee tasked with developing "‘smart,’ bodily-responsive insulin that could revolutionize diabetes treatment worldwide," according to the complaint. He had been "hand selected by Dr. Chou, before October 7, 2023, and the subsequent upheaval on American college campuses."

Shortly after Laps arrived on campus and entered the lab, a staffer named Terra Lin "introduced herself by telling Dr. Laps to never speak to her." When the Jewish doctor "tried to sit with colleagues at lunch, [Lin] told him to sit elsewhere."

Lin, the complaint alleges, also "delayed" Laps’s requests for equipment and materials, "or snapped at him" when he placed requests. She also "redirected her trash duties to Dr. Laps, and had her friends freeze him out in the limited lab common areas."
In a fight between the NEA and ADL, the Jews lose
When America’s largest teachers’ union severs ties with the Anti-Defamation League, it’s tempting to reach for the popcorn. After all, few organizations have done more to undermine Jewish security and moral clarity in recent years than the ADL—and few institutions have been more responsible for indoctrinating children with radical, antisemitic ideologies than the National Education Association.

But the spectacle is no cause for amusement. It is, in fact, a grim warning—another signpost on the road to civilizational hell. Because while the NEA and ADL trade rhetorical blows, it is the Jews who lose. Again.

How did we get here?

Once the flagship of Jewish communal defense against hate (though even then embarrassingly tone-deaf, left-leaning, and partisan), the ADL was commandeered and repurposed as a political weapon by its Obama-operative CEO and national director, Jonathan Greenblatt, who transformed the organization from self-important partisan hackery into a focused partisan war room.

Under Greenblatt, the ADL adopted a strategy of ideological weaponization: labeling mainstream conservatives and pro-Israel leaders as extremists if they dared praise friendly Republicans—or, worse, chastise hostile Democrats—while redefining antisemitism to provide cover for progressive politics, partnering with the very forces that enable and spread anti-Jewish hatred and enmity towards Israel.

Now, having helped define deviancy down to the point where silencing Jews based on the hateful and inane ideology of identity “privilege,” indoctrinating whole societies with blood libels, and calling for the annihilation of the Jewish state are considered legitimate forms of expression in polite society, the ADL finds itself—inevitably—on the receiving end of the very Jew-hating culture it helped foster. The NEA, wallowing in the intersectional dogma Greenblatt championed, has declared the ADL insufficiently “inclusive,” i.e., too Jewish.

This, as the late, great (Democrat) Daniel Patrick Moynihan warned when he popularized the concept of “defining deviancy down,” is what happens when moral standards are corrupted by political agendas. It’s also how the Overton window shifts: Greenblatt’s ADL has muddied the waters of antisemitism so thoroughly that even organizations explicitly hostile to Jewish identity and Israel could pose as anti-racist champions. Meanwhile, Jews who resisted this betrayal—especially Orthodox, Zionist or politically conservative Jews—were smeared as bigots or racists, including by the ADL itself.
Why Did the NEA Drop the ADL? Accuracy In Media Investigates
The NEA — the only union in the country with a federal charter — severed ties with the ADL. In this video, Accuracy In Media attended last year's annual NEA conference and uncovered how antisemitism has become normalized within this Congress-backed education union.


Antisemitic school board member wrote Washington State Human Rights Commission's resolution on antisemitism
An antisemitic member of Washington State’s Human Rights Commissioner Han Tran, also a Northshore School Board member, took it upon herself to draft a resolution on antisemitism, which was approved by the agency.

Tran, who has a well-documented history of anti-Israel activism and antisemitic rhetoric, used her role to intentionally distort the definition of antisemitism and empower known anti-Israel extremists.

When the University of Washington (UW) released an internal report revealing that the overwhelming majority of Jewish students had experienced antisemitism on campus, Tran didn’t seek to address the problem. Instead, she sought to erase it.

Internal emails obtained by The Ari Hoffman Show on Talk Radio 570 KVI revealed that Tran turned to allies at the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR)—an organization with ties to Hamas and listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terror financing trial in US history, to craft the HRC’s resolution on antisemitism.

Rather than consult with mainstream Jewish organizations, she collaborated with fringe anti-Israel faculty members at UW, including Liora Halperin, Sasha Senderovich, Dan Berger, and Keshet Ronen—professors who openly backed the violent, antisemitic encampment on campus. These activists were chosen because they objected to an internal report by UW that revealed the rampant antisemitism on campus.

In emails obtained by Hoffman, Tran wrote that she enlisted them to help write the resolution "given the recent events with the federal government and the inauguration."

Together, they rewrote the resolution on antisemitism to falsely claim that anti-Zionism—the belief that the Jewish people do not have the right to self-determination—is not antisemitic. This deliberate effort to sideline the internationally recognized IHRA definition of antisemitism, which includes anti-Zionism as a form of Jew-hatred, laid the groundwork for legitimizing campus harassment under the mask of "activism."

Tran’s resolution specifically condemned “the equation of antisemitism with anti-Zionism, or criticism of the Israeli government or its policies,” claiming it had been “instrumentalized as a pretense for attacks on the First Amendment rights of free speech and protest, including against members of Washington’s Jewish communities.”

The resolution, which was passed by the HRC, also whitewashed the violent pro-Hamas protesters, writing, “Threatening or attacking those that peacefully protest and advocate for Palestinian rights, including Jews, does nothing to make the Jewish community safer, and in fact, distracts from and undermines the ability to confront actual antisemitism where it exists.”

Tran’s resolution on antisemitism also noted that “it is essential to safeguard the rights to peaceful protest and advocacy for human rights, Palestinian rights,” and “other political causes,” despite there being no mention of Jewish rights in the HRC’s statement on Islamophobia.
Prominent Jewish academic leaves ‘toxic, bullying, antisemitic’ union
A leading academic in the study of antisemitism has resigned from the University and College Union (UCU) describing it as “by far the most toxic, bullying, antisemitic space I have ever been in.”

Professor David Hirsh, who teaches sociology at Goldsmiths College, said he had been a founder member of the union, having also been a member of one of its predecessors, the Association of University Teachers (AUT).

“For many years now I have been afraid to speak at meetings because I knew what kind of responses would come my way”, Hirsh said in his statement.

“I have obeyed every strike call during that time, and every other call for solidarity with my colleagues, even when I thought they were counterproductive. But UCU has not offered any solidarity at all with Jews, who have been working in an increasingly institutionally antisemitic environment on campus.

“Well, of course it didn’t, because UCU was a pioneer and a legitimizer of that antisemitism, so it would make no sense to imagine it could help in addressing it.”

Hirsh, who published the book Contemporary Left Antisemitism in 2017, is also the academic director and CEO of the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism.

“When the campaign to exclude Israeli colleagues from our campuses, journals and conferences was treated as legitimate in the union, it brought with it waves of antisemitic rhetoric, anger and exclusions”, he said.

“When I spoke out against some of that, I was excluded permanently from the union online discussion.

“When I was denounced by the President of our Student Union as a ‘far right white supremacist’, and after she referred my work as a ‘Zionist Goldsmiths academic’s explicit racist history’, my UCU branch turned up on Twitter to offer 100% solidarity to her, but zero solidarity was offered to me. They were content that a union member and an expert in antisemitism was being denounced as a Nazi and they were siding with the person who had done that.”


Media’s Grotesque Holocaust Dog Whistle: ‘Internment Camp’ Lie Built on Retracted Reuters Claim
The Guardian described Israel as having drawn up “plans for an internment camp on ruins of Rafah,” in an analysis piece by Emma Graham-Harrison, the paper’s newly appointed Jerusalem-based Middle East correspondent.

The BBC reported “plans to move Gaza’s population to camp in Rafah.”

ABC Australia ran a headline referring to the construction of a “large-scale camp,” citing so-called “human rights lawyers” who had denounced the proposal.

Germany’s DW News presented it as a foregone conclusion: “Israel to confine Gazans in camp near border.”

And the Irish Times went even further, dropping the pretense. A recent op-ed accused Israel of creating “ghettos” for Gazans.

The implication is chillingly clear. The Jewish state, they suggest, is now echoing the crimes once committed against its own people. Israel, the inheritor of Holocaust memory, has become a Nazi regime. The grotesque irony is not lost on the editors who chose these headlines. It is intentional.

And it is also clearly a lie.


Labour’s planned Islamophobia definition threatens free speech and security
I recommend reading the Policy Exchange report, Bad Faith Actor: A study of the Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM), in full. It looks at how the CfMM is not the objective, impartial force for balance it claims to be but an offshoot of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) with a specific agenda.

CfMM’s founder, Miqdaad Versi, claims that the British media is one of “the biggest drivers of Islamophobia in the country…misrepresenting Muslims, misusing terminology or misinterpreting Islamic beliefs and practices are common occurrences in the media with almost one in ten articles analysed by CfMM falling under this category.” CfMM claims that around 60 per cent of news stories about Muslims are negative, which it says proves the media’s “widespread… Islamophobia”. This statistic is regularly cited by politicians and campaigners.

But when Policy Exchange dug into CfMM’s own data, it showed a very different result: “It says it has monitored over 200,000 articles and analysed almost 60,000 ‘online print and broadcast clips’ about Muslims. Across all those, and across its entire seven-year existence, the Ipso database records that only one complaint by CfMM has resulted in a newspaper being required by the regulator to make a correction. CfMM also complains directly to news outlets, though it has made very inconsistent claims about the number of corrections it has secured by this route, ranging from 22, to 100, to 300. Even 300 corrections, however, is a minute proportion (around one-tenth of one per cent) of the 260,000 items it claims to have monitored. It does not come close to supporting Versi’s and CfMM’s sweeping claims of a tide of media Islamophobia, or of almost 10 per cent of stories about Muslims being wrong.”

CfMM’s real purpose, as its own site says, is “taking control of the narrative” about Islam – by promoting and pressurising the adoption of the MCB’s specific view of Islam. It demands that journalists should never use the words “Islamism”, “Islamic extremism” or “Muslim extremism” and attacks journalists for describing terror groups, including Hamas, as Islamist. CfMM has also criticised TV dramas which show Muslim characters who do not want to wear a hijab, or who drink alcohol, or who are gay.

The point here is that CfMM currently operates in what is effectively a vacuum. Its arguments only carry weight if those it criticises choose to be cowed by it, or if bodies chose to lend it credence (as press regulator IPSO has done by allowing Versi to act as an adviser).

But once there is an official definition of so-called Islamophobia, backed by the government – and possibly legislation criminalising Islamophobia – then we will have entered a whole new ball game, in which we will have handed over the policing of free speech and our freedom to criticise aspects of one specific religion and the actions of some of its adherents to the very people whose record and agenda themselves give cause for concern.




Riverway Law sunk: Attempt to overturn Hamas proscription dismissed by Home Office
An attempt by Hamas to overturn its designation as a terrorist organisation in the UK has reportedly failed, with the Home Office believed to have dismissed a legal challenge claiming that proscription of the group breached the European Convention on Human Rights.

As reported by The Times, Hamas will now have the opportunity to appeal to the Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission. Only a handful of organisations have ever successfully contested their proscription.

In April, Riverway Law, led by solicitor Fahad Ansari, brought the application attempting to legalise Hamas. The case was supported pro bono by Franck Magennis, a barrister at Garden Court Chambers. Later that month, following complaints by the Campaign Against Antisemitism and others into Ansari’s conduct, the Solicitor’s Regulation Authority opened a case into Riverway Law, which has since ceased trading. However, this week the firm announced it had relaunched itself as Riverway to the Sea – understood to be a reference to the “from the river to the sea” chant often used by pro-Palestinian protestors, and seen by many pro-Israelis as a call for Israel’s complete destruction. The relaunched firm, to be led by Ansari and Magennis, described itself as “dedicated to understanding and confronting the racist ideology of Zionism” through “strategic litigation”.

The Home Office said: “The government keeps the list of proscribed organisations under regular review. While we do not routinely comment on individual groups proscribed, we can confirm that Harakat al-Muqawamah (Hamas) is still listed as a proscribed organisation.”

Both Magennis and Ansari continue to make highly inflammatory statements relating to the current conflict. Last weekend Magennis was reported to have told a crowd at the Socialist Workers Party’s annual Marxism festival that “Zionism was dying…it looks like it is not long for the world, but that doesn’t mean that we can be complacent. We must assure that we kick it to death. It must not be allowed to survive this crisis.” Earlier this week, Ansari responded to reports of a number of IDF casualties by tweeting “the IDF took one hell of a beating last night. Zionist accounts crying, people of conscience celebrating.” In response to reports that 888 Israelis soldiers had fallen in battle since 7 October 2023, Ansari tweeted “888 reasons to be happy”.


Senior Israeli official: Intel shows enriched uranium was at Iran sites when bombed
A senior Israeli official said Thursday that Israeli intelligence shows that Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium had not been removed from Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan before the three nuclear sites were struck by the US last month amid Israel’s 12-day war with Iran, and has not been moved since.

The stockpiles of some 400 kilograms (880 pounds) of uranium enriched to 60 percent had not moved, the unnamed official told Reuters.

The official suggested, however, that the Iranians might still be able to gain access to the enriched uranium at Isfahan but that it would be very difficult to remove it.

Speaking on Fox Business during his visit to Washington, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel remains concerned about Iran’s supply of enriched uranium.

Asked if Iran has hidden any of the material, Netanyahu said, “We think we know where it is, it’s sort of buried underground, and we don’t have contrary information.”

Addressing Israel’s campaign against Iran, Netanyahu said, “The one thing that we didn’t deal with that we knew we didn’t deal with was the enriched uranium.”

“So it has to be made clear to them, and I think it has been, that they don’t get this enriched uranium,” he continued.

Netanyahu added that enriched uranium “is not enough to make atomic bombs — it’s a necessary component, but it’s not sufficient.”

Israel “want[s] that necessary component to be under control too,” he said, adding that “I think the Iranians understand that what the US and Israel did once we could do twice, and thrice.”

Asked by Fox why anyone should trust that Iran won’t attempt to renew nuclear efforts, Netanyahu replied: “Because they’re afraid.”


Report warns of ‘significant increase’ in threat from Iran to UK Jewish and Israeli interests
Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) has warned there has been a significant increase in the threat posed by Iran against Jewish and Israeli interests in the UK.

In a report released on Thursday, the ISC said Iran poses one of the gravest state-based threats to British national security, on a par with states like Russia and China.

The 240 page report highlighted Tehran’s escalating willingness to carry out assassinations, espionage, and cyber attacks within the United Kingdom, and calls for a fundamental shift in British strategy toward the Islamic Republic.

Drawing on classified intelligence and interviews with senior officials across MI5, MI6, GCHQ, the Cabinet Office, and the Home Office, it warns:”Since the beginning of 2022, there has been a significant increase in the physical threat posed by Iran to those residing in the UK.

“It has significantly increased both in pace and with regard to the number of threats. This threat is focused acutely on dissidents and other opponents of the regime. There is also an increased threat against Jewish and Israeli interests in the UK.”

It added: “There have been at least 15 attempts at murder or kidnap against British nationals or UK-based individuals since the beginning of 2022.”

Sources in the intelligence community elaborated that the Iranian threat was mainly: “related to media organisations but there is also [the] threat to dissidents associated with political parties that are seen as in opposition to the Iranian regime and also occasionally to Jewish individuals of prominence as well.”

Worryingly, the report noted how British intelligence officials had testified that Iranian operatives have shown a willingness “to attempt assassination within the UK, and kidnap from the UK.”

“The threat of physical attack on individuals in the UK is now the greatest level of threat we currently face from Iran,” the Homeland Security Group told the Committee. “It is comparable with the threat posed by Russia.”


MEMRI: PFLP-Affiliated Designated Terror Organizations Masar Badil And Samidoun Proclaim Solidarity With Iranian Regime, Call For Attacks On U.S. Bases In Middle East, Besieging Western Embassies, Mobilization To 'Confront Zionist-U.S. Aggression Against Iran'; Liberation Of The Arab World Is Underway – October 7 Attacks Bagan A New Qualitative Step
Responding to the ongoing Iran-Israel war and the recent U.S. intervention in Iran, Samidoun and Masar Badil have called for targeting U.S. bases in the Middle East. In addition, a delegation from Samidoun and Masar Badil in Brussels met with the Iranian Ambassador to Belgium to express their full support and solidarity with "Iranian revolutionary leadership."[1]

Samidoun is affiliated with the designated terrorist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and in October 2024 was designated terrorist by the U.S., Canada, and other countries. It raises funds for the PFLP.

Khaled Barakat, founder of both Samidoun and Masar Badil, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement, and a member of the latter's executive committee, has been identified by the U.S. government as a senior member of the PFLP. He is also designated terrorist by the U.S. and Canada. A Canadian citizen, Barakat has been residing in Beirut for several months after being designated in Canada in October 2024.

Charlotte Kates, Barakat's wife, is Samidoun's international coordinator. Kates was arrested in May 2024 following her speech at a rally in Vancouver, British Columbia in which she expressed support for Hamas, the PFLP, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Lebanese Hizbullah and demanded that they be removed from Canada's terror list. In August 2024, Kates traveled to Iran to accept Iran's "Eighth Annual Islamic Human Rights And Human Dignity Award," presented in Tehran on August 4 by the secretary general of the High Council for Human Rights of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The following day in Tehran, she gave a detailed interview to Iran's Ofogh TV, discussing her arrest. Kates traveled to Lebanon to attend the funeral of Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah in February 2025.

Following the murder of a young Jewish couple, both employees of the Israeli Embassy, outside the Capital Jewish Museum in May, Barakat and Kates both expressed support for the murder and blamed "Israel's crimes in Gaza".


West End venue drops queer Jewish musical after anti-Israel backlash
A musical about being queer and Jewish in the wake of October 7 has been cancelled by a central London venue after it came under attack on social media.

Israeli actor Roi Dolev, 28, had been set to stage a work-in-progress reading of his new show, Useful Idiots, at the Phoenix Arts Club in Soho on Friday.

But less than two weeks before the performance, the venue pulled the show, citing safety concerns and confusion over the play’s message following negative Instagram comments.

The musical, written in response to Dolev’s feeling of exclusion from LGBTQ+ spaces since October 7, was approved by the venue in May.

Dolev approached Phoenix to stage the reading because “this is such a queer show – it is a queer show more than it is a Jewish show – and I figured it was a good match [with the venue]".

He emailed Phoenix to ask about programming and was delighted when they found him a night in July to perform his work-in-progress. “They saw the poster, the full description, and they thought it was cool,” Dolev told the JC. “It was going to be a profit share – we’ve been selling tickets for around a month.”

But late on Sunday night and with no clear explanation, the venue suddenly stopped selling tickets for the show and, hours later, informed Dolev that his show had been cancelled.


New AI-guided tour shows visitors occupied Amsterdam through Anne Frank’s eyes
In Amsterdam, 1941, every day young Anne Frank and her sister Margot walked 2.5 kilometers to school, as Nazi anti-Jewish laws barred them from using public transport or bicycles.

Now, in 2025, using artificial intelligence, a new immersive guided tour traces the route taken by this Amsterdam icon through the city, offering an interactive smartphone reconstruction of the Dutch Jewish experience under Nazi occupation.

“We created this product to bring Anne Frank closer to more people,” said Moti Erdeapel, director of CityFans, the tourism-tech firm behind the project.

“The Anne Frank House, the museum, is a very small place and it has limited capacity, so a lot of people come here and get disappointed because they didn’t get to visit Anne Frank,” he said.

Each year, more than one million tourists visit the narrow house and annex where the Jewish girl and her family hid from the Nazis for two years.

To visit the place where Anne Frank wrote her famous diary, visitors must book six weeks in advance. Tickets sell out fast.

All that is required for the virtual tour is a mobile phone and a pair of headphones. A unique code grants access to a seven-kilometer (four-mile), 12-stop route.

An audio narrative guides the visitor, along with lifelike animations generated by AI using data from the Anne Frank Institute, the city of Amsterdam and the Holocaust museum.
The Most Hated Imam? Sheikh Drammeh on Surviving Fatwas| EP 47 Sheikh Musa Drammeh Pt 2 of 2
In Part 2 of a powerful conversation on "Here I Am with Shai Davidai," host Shai Davidai continues his discussion with Sheikh Musa Drammeh. Together, they explore complex topics including community safety, the impact of 9/11, racial profiling, and the challenges of bridging divides in New York City. Sheikh Drammeh shares his unique perspective as a Black Muslim imam, reflecting on his experiences with activism, interfaith work, and efforts to promote peace and understanding across diverse communities. This episode is the second of a two-part series—be sure to check out Part 1 if you missed last week’s episode!




In memory of his K9 partner, wounded IDF soldier develops sleep tech for trauma survivors
During Israel’s 2014 Operation Protective Edge, Oketz K9 unit soldier Ben Fuxbruner and his dog Kimba were wounded in combat. Kimba later died from her injuries. Alongside his physical trauma, Fuxbruner developed severe sleep disturbances—a struggle that would eventually inspire him to found a sleep technology company named after his dog.

“In a single moment, I aimed my weapon at one of the buildings and placed Kimba under cover. Suddenly, I heard six shots from the right. Everything turned white, there was a loud ringing in my ears, and I was thrown to the ground. When I opened my eyes, I saw Kimba covered in blood. I touched my face and saw my hand was full of blood. I grabbed Kimba and jumped into a room, where I saw more wounded soldiers.”

That is how, 11 years later, Ben Fuxbruner, now 30, described the moment he was seriously injured during the battle of Shuja'iyya, a neighborhood in Gaza City. Fuxbruner was a soldier and commander in the IDF’s Oketz K9 unit, which had been attached to the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion during the operation. He also survived the infamous APC disaster, in which seven soldiers were killed, including Staff Sgt. Oron Shaul.

Fuxbruner was airlifted to a hospital with serious injuries. Kimba, who was also wounded, was taken to the IDF’s veterinary hospital in Beit Dagan, where she died months later. Fuxbruner underwent multiple surgeries, and to this day, parts of his face remain too sensitive to touch.

“Many times I think Kimba stayed alive just long enough to help me survive. When I finally stood up and returned to the army, she let go. That was extremely difficult,” he recalled. Despite returning to service, he struggled with post-traumatic stress and debilitating sleep disorders.

“Every time I closed my eyes, I saw my blood-covered hand,” he said. “Every little noise startled me into a combat-ready state. It was impossible to fall asleep, and if I did, I’d wake up sweating from nightmares. At the time, I wasn’t open to talking about it. I wanted to appear strong. I believed that if I ignored it, it would go away.”
Edan Alexander told senior Saudis about Hamas captivity in chance White House meeting
During an unexpected encounter at the White House last week, freed US-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander spoke with Saudi Arabian Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman and Riyadh’s Ambassador to Washington Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud, recounting his experience in Hamas captivity, Channel 12 news reports.

Following Alexander’s Thursday meeting with US President Donald Trump, who helped secure the 21-year-old’s release from Hamas captivity in May, the young man and his family ran into the two senior Saudi officials, who had met with Trump the same day to discuss de-escalation efforts with Iran.

According to Channel 12, Alexander conversed with the top Saudi diplomat in “fluent Arabic,” which he had picked up in Gaza during captivity, and told them about what he had experienced during his 584 days held by Hamas.

Both the White House and the Saudi Arabian embassy in Washington declined to comment, adds the network.

The impromptu conversation came at a time of growing speculation around potential normalization agreements between Israel and nearby Arab states, including Saudi Arabia and Syria — topics expected to be on the agenda during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington this week.
‘Stark, unflinching’ memoir of former hostage Eli Sharabi set for US release
Former Hamas hostage Eli Sharabi’s memoir about his experiences in captivity in Gaza is scheduled for release in the United States on Oct. 7, 2025—the second anniversary of the Hamas-led attack on the Jewish state, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday.

The book, titled “Hostage,” the first published memoir of a freed Hamas captive—has become a best seller in Hebrew.

The English edition will be published by Harper Influence, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

“It was important to me that the story come out as quickly as possible, so that the world will understand what life is like inside captivity,” Sharabi said in a statement cited by AP.

“Once they do, they will not be able to remain indifferent. But I also want readers to know that even in the darkest of times, you can always seek out the light and choose humanity,” the statement continued.

Sharabi, 53, who was abducted from his home in Kibbutz Be’eri on the border with Gaza, said he had no access to the news in captivity and only learned after his release that his wife and two daughters had been murdered on Oct. 7, 2023.

“I thought I was returning to my family,” he told Channel 12 News at the time. “I had no idea.”

Sharabi met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem ahead of his memoir release, the president’s spokesperson said on Thursday.


Former hostage Romi Gonen leaves hospital after six months of rehabilitation
Former Hamas hostage Romi Gonen was released from the hospital on Thursday after undergoing almost six months of rehabilitation and surgeries for wounds sustained in the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Gonen, who was released by Hamas on Jan. 19 as part of the hostages-for-ceasefire agreement with the terrorist group, underwent two operations during her stay at Sheba Medical Center at Tel HaShomer, Ramat Gan.

“Today, I am being discharged and taking another step toward my freedom,” Gonen wrote in a Hebrew Instagram post on Thursday.

“On 7.10 [Oct. 7], I was brutally kidnapped to the Gaza Strip. On 10.7 [July 10], I’m being discharged from the hospital after a very difficult period,” continued the former Hamas hostage. “Suffering from pain, undergoing surgeries, getting up and falling down again and again.

Gonen revealed that she would soon return to the hospital for a third surgery on the gunshot wound she sustained in her right arm when Hamas-led terrorists shot her at the Nova festival on Oct. 7.

“The people of Israel were with me every moment—whether it was the friends I met during rehabilitation or the food that was always handed out,” the ex-captive said. “Thank you—truly, it’s not taken for granted.”

Gonen wrote that her release came with “mixed emotions of sadness and joy” as 50 hostages are still held in the Strip.

“It’s hard to grasp how many events and experiences—good and bad—we go through, while for them in the tunnels, time stands still,” she said, adding: “I pray that we can once again be a united and whole people.”

Gonen, Emily Damari and Doron Steinbrecher were handed over by Hamas terrorists to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza on Jan. 19, as part of the ceasefire deal with the terrorist group.




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