Wednesday, July 23, 2025

07/23 Links Pt2: Jewish Peoplehood Is Not a Right-Wing Concept; The most rock and roll thing about Ozzy Osbourne was his defence of Israel

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Jewish Peoplehood Is Not a Right-Wing Concept
Whatever its American politics, a Jewish rabbinical institution training Jewish clergy to oppose Jewish peoplehood is a blatant attempt at ethnic self-destruction.

And that brings us to the larger forces at work here. Attacking the legitimacy of the very concept of Am Yisrael has gained purchase in American liberal Jewish circles because for the first time in modern Jewish history, Jewish nationhood has been designated a right-wing, conservative value.

The country saw a glimpse of this after President Trump announced an executive order to fight campus anti-Semitism during his first term, in 2019. Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, it is a violation to discriminate on the basis of race or national origin. Building on the work of federal agencies in the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations, Trump instructed that Title VI be applied to protect Jews on campus. This was uncontroversial among those who had been following the policy development for a decade and a half, but a fair number of left-wing commentators and activists—a surprising number of them Jews—objected vociferously to the concept of Jewish peoplehood being integrated into U.S. law.

It was a glaring neon sign that something was amiss in part of the American Jewish community’s understanding of its own heritage. More broadly, the left seemed to settle on the idea that this was Jewish nationalism as a right-wing political concept and was therefore to be discarded from modern Jewish identity.

Past Jewish intellectuals would have been shocked by such a mistaken assumption. Simon Dubnow, the great Russian Jewish historian who died in 1941, rejected his parents’ Orthodox lifestyle as so much superstition, but he became a prominent advocate of Jewish autonomism. Ahad Ha’am, among the most famous Jewish intellectuals of his era, is universally regarded as having founded “cultural Zionism.” Ha’am’s key insight was that the Jews must first understand themselves as a nation while in diaspora; only then could they responsibly pursue statehood.

It’s true that Vladimir Jabotinsky, the founder of Revisionist Zionism, is his era’s foremost authority on Jewish (or any other) nationalism, and that his political heirs today are on the Israeli right. But Jewish peoplehood was not then, nor ever, a right-wing concept—neither politically nor religiously. (There are ultra-Orthodox anti-Zionists still today.) American Jews must educate themselves on this heritage and embrace it just as their leaders all across the political spectrum always have. Kehillat Israel’s letter is a well-timed reminder of this important facet of Jewish identity.
Gil Troy: 50th anniversary of the Zionism-is-racism resolution - opinion
In four months, a sobering anniversary risks being overlooked: the 50th anniversary of UN General Assembly Resolution 3379 condemning Zionism as racism. Unless they start planning now, America, Israel, and the Jewish people seem doomed to blow the educational and ideological opportunity.

Jewish organizations and educational institutions, along with the Israeli government, should use November 10, 2025, to convey three important messages:

1. Fifty years ago, the Western world united, Left and Right, black and white, to condemn this anti-Zionist resolution as antisemitic, not “just” anti-Israel. Most understood Israel’s centrality to modern Jewish identity. They recognized the Jew-hatred singling out only one form of nationalism, Jewish nationalism, in that forum of nationalisms.

2. Although the UN rescinded this resolution in 1991, this libel nevertheless entered the international bloodstream. Today, too many people believe “Zionism is racism,” that “Israel is apartheid, settler-colonialist, and an oppressor” and now, that Israel is committing a genocide in its justified war of self-defense against Hamas. Resolution 3376, creating a Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, also passed in 1975, keeps doing damage. Establishing a permanent institutional infrastructure for anti-Israel hatred made Israel the most hated nation.

3. Mainstreaming this green-and-red, Islamist-progressive lie, it’s now fashionable to attack not only what Israel does but that Israel is. What Israel’s UN ambassador Chaim Herzog told America’s UN ambassador Daniel Patrick Moynihan then remains true: “The real core of the conflict is the denial by the Arabs of Israel’s sovereignty and Israel’s right to exist.” Fortunately, it’s now “most” Arabs, not all. What Moynihan feared would happen then, is also true now: Whenever violence erupted in the Middle East, “whether Israel was responsible, Israel surely would be blamed: openly by some, privately by most.” Eventually, “Israel would be regretted.”

The forces shaping anti-Zionism
Another framing for the anniversary examines the origins of the Zionism-is-racism resolution to expose the forces still shaping anti-Zionism. Moynihan didn’t focus on “the accused… but the accusers.” The “obscene” anti-Israel resolutions, he observed, “reeked of the totalitarian mind, stank of the totalitarian state.”

It’s extraordinary that so-called “progressives” toast sexist, racist, homophobic dictators, terrorists, and rapists – in Iran, in Hezbollah, among Palestinians – as long as they oppose Israel. Moynihan denounced this “politics of resentment” and “economics of envy.” Understanding anti-Zionism as an attack on America, democracy, and decency, he proclaimed: “If you define the world as rich and poor –we are guilty; if you define the world as liberal and illiberal – they are guilty.”
The Blood Libel Express
This is based on an ancient prejudice, a conspiracy theory if you like, holding that Jews kill children for ritualistic reasons. In modern times it is more coded, suggesting Jews provoke wars which result in the “suffering of innocents”, or deliberately target children, or institutions linked to children like schools and paediatric hospitals. Or – most recently – images as above depicting the children as starving to death, reminiscent of the images from the Ethiopian famine that provoked Bob Geldof to launch “Live Aid“.

I was disappointed to see an approving repost by British journalist, James Bloodworth, who sneered: “When you’ve lost the daily express …”

The implication is, I suppose, that the “war crimes” of Israel are so great that even the right-leaning Express can’t ignore them.

Even Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, has bought into this. Today, calling for the recognition of a ‘Palestinian State’, he emoted: “Starving children searching hopelessly for food in the rubble. Family members shot dead by Israeli soldiers as they search for aid…”

Israel certainly is losing the propaganda war chiefly because, I think, the suffering of Jews is subconsciously viewed as “deserved” for the same reason blood libels are so effective. Whether they acknowledge it or not, many otherwise ‘good people’ like to think the worst of Jews and ascribe absolutely everything they do to malice. Even an existential fight for survival is viewed as ‘malicious’ when undertaken by Jews. But I am no psychoanalyst, so I will leave it there. Why did Hamas start a war and take hostages when it knew this is what the outcome would be? The answer is not a big reach: because it created precisely the opportunity they wanted. The real frontline fighters are not the armed wing of Hamas, they are the media officers at their so-called Health Ministry. Their daily salvos are more damaging to Israel than rockets.

Any journalist can watch endless footage coming out of Gaza showing well-fed people. Why don’t they ask themselves how this handful of children can be starving when others around them are not? Is it too much to ask that journalists ask questions before pumping out this fiction? There are plenty of wide-angle images of civilians in Gaza in the news every single day. None show incidental cases of starvation. The only ones that do are specifically posed close ups. The reason is obvious!


The most rock and roll thing about Ozzy Osbourne was his defence of Israel
Ozzy Osbourne bit the head off a bat, table danced at the White House, spent time in jail, and took enough drugs to have killed him several times over. But perhaps the wildest thing he did was stand up for Israel at a time when fashion dictates that celebrating her enemies is the coolest thing in pop.

Bands like Kneecap and Massive Attack like to talk about “being cancelled” for “speaking up for Palestine”. But brandishing a Palestine flag is de rigeur on rock stages: instead of being cancelled, those who do it enjoy the publicity and self-satisfaction of appearing to be martyrs sticking it to the establishment.

In reality, it is people who are Jewish – such as the band Oi Va Voi, or the Israeli rock singer Dudu Tassa whose performances with Jonny Greenwood were cancelled after pressure from anti-Israel activists – who are the real victims here. They are just two examples of a silencing of Jewish musicians for the crime of simply existing.

The fact that barely a soul in the music industry had anything to say about the 378 young people killed at the Nova music festival on October 7 – and that the following summer acts at festivals across the world were celebrating those who had killed them – tells you everything about where the real cancellation is taking place.

Ozzy had a choice – he was not Jewish – and yet still he chose to still stick up for Jews and for Israel. Towards the end of his life this man who had never been political – he once said, “I try to stay away from politics. They don’t understand me and I don’t understand them” – was the most famous name on a letter from the creative industry to the BBC demanding an open inquiry into “systemic bias against Israel” by the corporation.

At his final concert, just a few weeks ago, he invited fellow rocker David Draiman, a Jew and a Zionist, onto stage with him. There were a few boos, but they were far outnumbered by the cheers as the man Draiman yesterday called “my teacher…a father to all of us…a friend” gave his blessing and support to someone who has faced multiple death threats.

Yesterday the demons of social media were out and about revelling in the death of this “ultra-Zionist” – his other crime was daring to play in Israel not just once but twice, defying the BDS-hatred orchestrated by Roger Waters and his ilk.

But he was someone who really didn’t care that much what people thought other than his beloved wife Sharon. It is through Sharon that Ozzy became aware of anti-Semitism. Her father Don Arden had changed his name from Harry Levy to escape anti-Semitism. But, of course, you cannot escape it.
Lefty keyboard warriors try to posthumously cancel Ozzy Osbourne for performing in Israel: ‘Broke the boycott’
Leftists on the internet are attempting to posthumously cancel the late Prince of Darkness Ozzy Osbourne for supporting and performing in the state of Israel.

Tributes from all corners of the internet poured in for Osbourne, the father of heavy metal and trailblazer of reality television, who died on Tuesday — but some anti-Israel keyboard warriors tried to spoil the moment.

“Ozzy Osbourne was a supporter of Zionism,” account Antifa Ultras wrote on X, garnering over 95,000 likes and nearly 7 million impressions.

“He broke the boycott by performing in Israel and, during a time when thousands of children in Gaza were being killed, he called on other artists to do the same. Never forget that,” the post concluded.

The “Paranoid” singer twice performed in the Jewish state — first with 2010’s Ozzfest in Tel Aviv and then in 2018 as part of his “No More Tours 2” tour, The Times of Israel reported.

Another X account, “ProudSocialist,” said Osbourne had “a stain on his legacy” over his stance on the Israel-Hamas war.

“Ozzy Osbourne recently signed a letter to stop the BBC from airing a documentary chronicling Israel’s genocide in Gaza,” the user tweeted. “It’s a stain on his legacy and a far cry from his Black Sabbath days when he released the song ‘War Pigs’, which condemned leaders who initiate wars for profit.”


Why A Religious Charity In Israel Went Into Hyperdrive To Help Syria’s Druze: ‘People Are Needlessly Dying’
The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ), the largest philanthropic organization operating in Israel, is stepping up to assist the Druze community in Syria, who are currently facing persecution, kidnappings, and massacres by Islamic militants.

Violence broke out in the Druze-majority region of Suwayda on July 13, after Bedouin tribes and militants claiming allegiance to Syria’s interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, launched attacks against the Druze community. Videos recorded by the attackers show the execution of civilians during the assault, including one of a 35-year-old American citizen, Hosam Saraya.

IFCJ has so far sent 1,500 boxes of food to Druze in Syria and sent medical equipment for a clinic inside Syria. The organization’s president and CEO, Yael Eckstein, told The Daily Wire that more aid is on the way.

“When we see our Druze and Christian brothers and sisters right over Israel’s border being targeted and killed, we have to do something to act,” Eckstein said. “Right now they are facing the very real threat of being wiped out from Syria if the free world does not do something to stop that.”

The Druze are an ethnoreligious minority found in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, and in diaspora communities in the West. Syria has the largest Druze population, accounting for about 3% of the country’s total population. Although their faith originated as an offshoot of Islam, the Druze do not consider themselves Muslims. They believe they are descendants of Jethro — Moses’s father-in-law — whom they revere as a prophet and their spiritual founder.

Israel has been the only country to intervene on behalf of the Druze, fulfilling a promise made shortly after Sharaa took power to protect the Druze community.
MAGA-Geddon: It’s Been One Month Since Donald Trump Started ‘World War III’ by Bombing Iran
June 21, 2025. A date which will live in infamy. One month ago today, disgraced former president Donald Trump started World War III by sending U.S. aircraft to bomb Iranian nuclear sites over the objections of prescient critics who correctly predicted the calamitous aftermath that would follow: millions of deaths, a global economic depression, and civilizational collapse.

"The first week of a war with Iran could easily kill thousands of Americans," Tucker Carlson, the alternative history podcaster, warned on June 4. "It could also collapse our economy, as surging oil prices trigger unmanageable inflation. Consider the effects of $30 gasoline." He went on to predict, with chilling accuracy, that the United States would "lose" the war after China and Russia joined the fight on Iran's behalf. The humiliating defeat would "end" Trump's presidency, the pundit wrote, adding: "None of these are far-fetched predictions."

It goes without saying that Carlson was right. Of course, his prediction about shape-shifting neocons traveling to Jeffrey Epstein's private island to host a "fantasy war draft" party with other elite pedophiles to celebrate the conscription of young American soldiers who would soon be ordered to "die for Israel" seemed a little far-fetched at the time, but even that turned out to be true.

Tucker wasn't the only esteemed Iranian sympathizer who got it right. "We are entering a nuclear war—the World War, the World War III, because the entire world is going to erupt," Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.) said the day after U.S. bombs fell on Iranian nuclear sites. Former NFL quarterback Robert Griffin III was also spot-on in his analysis. "Donald Trump just started World War III by bombing Iran," he wrote. "Pray for us all."

Fact check: As you might have noticed by now, none of these "World War III" doomsayers were right about anything. Most people have already forgotten about Operation Midnight Hammer and Iran's telegraphed, performative response—a handful of missiles fired at a U.S. air base in Qatar with no reported casualties, as opposed to the thousands of American deaths Carlson predicted. Within days, Trump announced a ceasefire between Iran and Israel that continues to hold. Gas prices have declined and stabilized at roughly $3 per gallon. U.S. stock markets hit record highs on Monday.

The decision to strike Iran did not, in fact, end Trump's presidency. Carlson predicted Trump would suffer politically because striking Iran "would amount to a profound betrayal of his supporters." Trump's actual supporters didn't see it that way. A poll taken immediately after the strike on Iran found that 90 percent of Trump voters approved of Trump's decision. A YouGov poll published earlier this month found that 85 percent of Trump voters approved of his job performance, up slightly from 84 percent in mid-June before the attack. Trump's support among Republicans has remained steady at 87 percent during that period, and has increased 6 percent among independents.
Jake Wallis Simons: From Lammy to LBC: How Hamas propaganda has captured Britain’s discourse
Anybody with a normal moral compass would have stopped there. Smearing all Israelis as holding “warped” views? Has he ever met two Israelis and their three opinions? Clearly, this was a prelude to even more deplorable allegations.

So it proved. “My wife was brought up Jewish and at Shabbat school in a leafy Hertfordshire town…” his message continued.

By this point, O’Brien should have pressed the off button. My “wife”? Yeah, right. “Shabbat school”? What? Everybody knows that Jews don’t go to school on Shabbat. Don’t they?

Then came the payload. Apparently, the “wife” of “Chris” was taught at her “Shabbat school” in her “leafy Hertfordshire town” that “one Jewish life is worth thousands of Arab lives and that Arabs are cockroaches to be crushed”.

There you have it. What can only be described as an antisemitic lie, amplified by O’Brien to his million-and-a-half listeners, many of whom will retain an impression of British Jews as just as bad as Hamas – his apology 24 hours later notwithstanding.

So much for objectivity. Moral relativity, more like.

The most disturbing aspect of all this is that it isn’t an outlier but is representative of a cultural trend.

Ever since October 7 – in fact, long before that – the West has become a cesspit of antisemitic conspiracy theories that have the deepest foothold on the Middle Class left.

The disinformation about the supposed massacres carried out while Gazans are receiving aid, which is produced by Hamas, magnified by the media and believed by the government, shows how foreign policy is now effectively following the agenda of jihadism.

This will be confirmed if Lammy announces fresh sanctions on Israel, which he threatened to do unless it ended the war (presumably leaving the hostages in the catacombs and Hamas in power).

At the same time, civil society is swamped by similar propaganda, as evidenced by the gullibility of James O’Brien. Is it any surprise that Jews in the arts, in the NHS, at school and in the university system are subjected to constant bigotry, as a high-profile report revealed last week?

This is the pincer movement of jihadi propaganda that has society where it wants it. Don’t get me wrong, I’d rather that Israel was winning the shooting war and losing the battle for hearts and minds than the other way round.

But it is essential that we begin to turn the tide of antisemitism and misinformation that is poisoning our culture. Not just for the sake of the Jews, but also for the sake of the West.
Islamophobia watchdog role given to Prevent critic
While South Africa-born banker Randeree’s foundation has been supported by King Charles III, his partner in this new organization, billionaire property magnate Asif Aziz, is a controversial figure.

Born in Malawi and brought up in Britain, Aziz is known as “Britain’s meanest landlord”, having created a multi-billion-pound fortune buying up larger properties and turning them into flats. He has transformed the West End of London by purchasing Leicester Square’s Trocadero, which contains a hotel that includes a large Islamic center. He also bought the world’s oldest YMCA in Bloomsbury and subsequently closed it.

As well as paying for the Ramadan lights in the West End, his Aziz Foundation funds the Centre for Media Monitoring (CMM), which is run by Muslim Council for Britain spokesman Miqdaad Versi. The Muslim Council for Britain has its roots in Islamist group Jamaat-i-Islami and is boycotted by the Government because of its alleged links to extremism.

A recent study of the reporting work of the CMM by the Policy Exchange, meanwhile, found that many news reports — such as coverage of Islamist terrorist attacks — were wrongly labelled Islamophobic by the organization.

The Aziz Foundation has also expressed its enmity towards the Government anti-extremism program Prevent, which works to “de-radicalize” children and adults who are susceptible to terrorism and extremism.

In a 2021 tweet, the Foundation said: “The Aziz Foundation’s values do not align with those of the Prevent policy, which actively harms Muslims.” The following year, it funded a fellowship to investigate Prevent within universities “to help ensure Prevent is not used in ways that cause harm”.

It also supports the Islamophobia Response Unit, which was originally set up by Muslim Engagement and Development (Mend), a campaign group accused in the Commons of extremism.

Until a few weeks ago the Aziz Foundation, which also sponsors Muslim students through British Universities, had a mentor on its books who openly backed efforts to de-proscribe Hamas, saying he was “proud to have contributed” to a recent failed legal submission. Dr Tarket Younis, a senior lecturer in psychology at Middlesex University, also wrote on Twitter: “Our work isn’t done until all Zionists are removed from our institutions and shamed, alongside all racists, into nothingness”. His page on the foundation’s website disappeared after a newspaper article looked at his social media activities.

“The public needs to look very carefully at who the other groups the Foundation behind this has funded,” adds Mughal. “We cannot and must never allow people and groups with values that are fundamentally different to British values and traditions get a foothold in the country where so many died for the freedoms we so casually enjoy today.”


How to Interview a Hamas Supporter By Abe Greenwald
Via Commentary Newsletter, sign up here There are a lot of rumors swirling about broadcast newsroom shake-ups, and I hope we see some major overhauls. With that in mind, I’m offering, free of charge, my suggested interview outline for the real journalists who might soon put the old guard out of work and potentially get to grill someone like Khalil:

Mr. Khalil, thanks for joining us. We’ve seen multiple online posts from your organization, Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), praising the October 7 attacks on Israel as “[Yahya] Sinwar’s crowning achievement,” mourning the death of Sinwar and other Hamas leaders. My first question is, how did you come to support Hamas? Were you born into this tradition, or did you come by it later in life? And have you gotten over your grief for the death of Yahya Sinwar?

Staying on Hamas, do you share the terrorist organization’s general understanding of Islam, or do you simply appreciate its deadly actions? Do you support the group only in its violence against Israel or do you also support its suppression of women, killing of gay people, and the way it treats Palestinians over all? I’m going to play you this clip of a Hamas leader talking about the necessity of mass Palestinian death in bolster Hamas’s aims worldwide and ask for your response. I want to talk about the hostages. Presumably, you would be disappointed in Hamas if they were to allow their kidnapped hostages to return to their families, correct? Okay, one last question about Hamas, and then I want to move on. What kind of contact has your group CUAD had with Hamas, either directly or indirectly?

I’d like to move on to Iran for a bit. As you know, the Iranian regime, which supports Hamas, suppresses its own people, and its religious police have imprisoned or even shot women for showing their hair in public. I guess this is a question that could apply to Hamas as well: How do you square the actions of these oppressive and cruel regimes with your contention that they are forces for liberation?

Before we conclude, I would like to talk about your time in the U.S. You moved here in 2022. Did you tell the entire truth regarding your possible connections to anti-American organizations and institutions on your green card application? And finally, if you feel that Hamas is right to commit acts of violence against innocents, where else would you recommend that supposedly oppressed people wage violence against civilians? You’ve said you believe that the United States is complicit in what you view as Israel’s crimes. Is that, then, cause for a violent Hamas-like massacre in the United States?

It would be great. He might lie a bit, reveal his ignorance, panic, evade, or he just might show the full extent of his depravity. Whatever he might do in a real interview, at least viewers would get something out of it. But no—the legacy media think it’s their job to sit down with people whose entire life is devoted to their obsessive hatred of Israel and the United States—and try to throw them a lifeline.

That’s their choice. But mainstream journalists shouldn’t be surprised when no one comes to rescue them once networks can no longer afford to fund pure propaganda.
Anti-Israel protester Mahmoud Khalil repeatedly refuses to condemn Hamas in tense CNN interview: ‘Disingenuous to ask’
Anti-Israel protester Mahmoud Khalil repeatedly refused to denounce Hamas during a tense CNN interview — insisting it was “disingenuous” for the anchors to demand his position on the terror group.

The outspoken Palestinian activist, who was detained for over three months by the Trump administration for his prominent role in often violent Columbia University protests, dismissed co-anchor Pamela Brown’s repeated grilling over his views on Hamas as both “absurd” and hypocritical.

“Do you specifically condemn Hamas, a designated terrorist organization in the United States, not just for their actions on October 7?” Brown pressed the 30-year-old, who appeared on “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer” Tuesday morning.

A tongue-tied Khalil replied that he condemns the killing of “all civilians, full stop,” but not Hamas.

Brown interrupted Khalil and asked again if he would disavow “Hamas specifically.”

“No, I am very clear with condemning all civilians. I’m very straight in my position in that part,” said Khalil, who was visibly flustered, later blasting the question as “selective outrage.”

“But it’s disingenuous to ask about condemning Hamas while Palestinians are the ones being starved now by Israel. It’s not condemning October 6, where 260 Palestinians were killed by Israel before October 7,” he continued.

“So I hate this selective outrage of condemnation because this is not, this wouldn’t lead to a constructive conversation. And this is also, like what we want to deal with is the root cause of why that happened. And it’s no way anyone can justify the killing of civilians.”

Brown pushed back on Khalil’s claims, arguing that her question was justified after the Trump administration accused him of sympathizing with the Palestinian terrorist group responsible for the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, while he was studying at the Ivy League school.

He replied that he was “simply” protesting the war in Gaza.


Columbia University, Trump administration reach deal over funding
Columbia University has reached a deal with US President Donald Trump's administration over federal funding, it said on Wednesday.

In a statement, the university said will pay a $200 million fine over three years to settle allegations that it failed to do enough to stop the harassment of Jewish students on campus.

"Under today’s agreement, a vast majority of the federal grants which were terminated or paused in March 2025, will be reinstated and Columbia’s access to billions of dollars in current and future grants will be restored," Columbia said in a statement.

The US Department of Education did not immediately respond to request for comment.

The announcement came one day after the university disciplined dozens of students over pro-Palestinian protests on campus.

In March, the Trump administration canceled grants and contracts worth about $400 million for the Ivy League school because of what it described as antisemitic harassment on and near the school's New York City campus.

Columbia is officially adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, the university’s interim president, Claire Shipman, said on July 16.

She added that while the university’s Office of Institutional Equity (OIE) has been working in a manner “consistent with applicable regulations and guidance from the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR),” the formal incorporation of the IHRA definition will “strengthen our response to and our community’s understanding of modern antisemitism.”
Largest Teachers' Union in United States Erases Jews From the Holocaust
The nation's largest teachers' union plans to promote a version of Holocaust remembrance that does not mention Jews, according to its 2025 handbook, which references "victims of the Holocaust from different faiths" and teaches that Israel was founded through "forced, violent displacement and dispossession," its most recent guide for members shows.

The National Education Association, which represents nearly three million public school teachers and education workers, outlined the priorities in its 2025 handbook. The NEA publishes the document each year as a guide on the group's priorities and strategic goals for the association's national and state leaders, staff, and members. It includes the NEA's bylaws and is updated with any new resolutions and policy positions the union has endorsed.

The news comes amid a surge in both anti-Semitism and anti-Israel extremism at public schools and within teachers' unions themselves. The NEA Representative Assembly—the union's parliamentary body—passed a resolution to boycott the Anti-Defamation League's Holocaust education materials earlier this month, a vote the union's leadership rejected.

The NEA handbook, though, indicates that union leadership does back the extremist anti-Israel and anti-Jewish positions of many of its members.

The handbook says the union will "promote the celebration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day" by "recognizing more than 12 million victims of the Holocaust from different faiths, ethnicities, races, political beliefs, genders, and gender identification, abilities/disabilities, and other targeted characteristics." The description does not mention the attempted extermination of the Jewish people by the Nazis.
No Breach Found in University Presentation Comparing Conservative Jews to Neo-Nazis
An independent review has found that a university presentation that likened supporting Israel to neo-Nazism was not anti-Semitic.

The two-day symposium in January, hosted by the Queensland University of Technology’s (QUT) Indigenous research wing, the Carumba Institute, quickly came under scrutiny after featuring a profile called “Dutton’s Jew.”

The slide, presented by Sarah Schwartz of the left-wing Jewish Council of Australia, was aimed at critiquing conservative Jews who supported former Liberal Leader Peter Dutton, as well as his support for Israel.

The slide was met with laughter by the audience, but caused concern among some attendees, as well as the broader community including the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies, the Australian Jewish Association (AJA), as well as Liberal Senator James McGrath and Jewish Labor MP Josh Burns.

What Did Schwartz Say?
The presentation featured a slide with a cartoon image named “Dutton’s Jew,” which listed the supposed attributes of politically conservative Jews as: hating immigrants, holding Judeo-Christian values, and defending Western civilisation and Australian culture.

It included images of Pauline Hanson of One Nation, Dutch conservative politician Geert Wilders, Elon Musk at the Auschwitz death camp, and U.S. President Donald Trump in Israel.

During her talk, Schwartz remarked: “It’s honestly getting pretty hard to tell the difference between Zionist anti-Semitism warriors and neo-Nazis.”


TikTok Taps Biden Anti-Semitism Consultant as 'Hate Speech' Manager
TikTok, the Chinese social media platform awash in anti-Semitism, has hired a former official from a heavily scrutinized Biden administration agency to help combat the issue, a source familiar with the matter tells the Washington Free Beacon.

TikTok tapped Erica Mindel, who previously consulted for Biden administration anti-Semitism envoy Deborah Lipstadt, as its new public policy manager for hate speech. Lipstadt faced criticism in her role for her failure to speak out against the anti-Semitic campus protests after Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel.

The move comes amid a sharp rise in anti-Semitism on TikTok, which the Jewish Federations of North America said has been the "worst offender." Those who use TikTok more than 30 minutes a day are 17 percent more likely to hold anti-Semitic or anti-Israel views than those who do not, according to a 2023 survey. The problem grew after Oct. 7 to such a degree that Jewish celebrities and influencers have called the company to account for its role in promoting hatred against Jews.

Sacha Baron Cohen, for instance, told TikTok executives that their platform "is creating the biggest anti-Semitic movement since the Nazis."

Jewish TikTok employees have accused the app's moderators of allowing open bigotry and the proliferation of false claims about Jews and Israel on the platform, and some TikTok staffers have used the company's internal chat system to praise terrorism and anti-Israel boycotts.

Some of the examples of anti-Semitism spreading on TikTok include the conspiracy theory that contemporary Jews are not Jews but actually "Khazars" and bent on world domination, notions that Jews are responsible for the world's wars in an effort to gain power, and suggested searches with names like "Ashkenazi Jewish witchcraft Satanism."

In a notable November 2023 episode, a letter written by Osama bin Laden discussing motivations for 9/11 went viral. In it, the al Qaeda founder mentions Jewish "control of your economy, through which they have then taken control of your media, and now control all aspects of your life making you their servants and achieving their aims at your expense."

The uptick in anti-Semitism on TikTok, which is linked to the Chinese government through parent company ByteDance, has reportedly followed a similar explosion in anti-Jewish conspiracy theories on the Chinese internet.
Jake Wallis Simons: Why did James O’Brien recycle an anti-Semitic lie on live radio?
Let’s make this absolutely clear. Of the 15 million Jews in the world, you’ll be hard pressed to find any who holds such repugnant views of anybody, including Arabs. Attend any pro-Israel rally and you’ll never hear anything like it. Especially not in Britain.

It is true that a handful of extremists, especially in Israel, sometimes chant disgraceful things about their enemies. Jews have their thugs and nutters just like any other people. But these are in the vanishingly small minority, like the BNP in Britain.

To suggest that this amounts to an institutional indoctrination, akin to the brainwashing in Gaza, is quite obviously an anti-Semitic lie. Obvious, at least, to anybody with common sense.

In concluding his shameful monologue, O’Brien intoned: “Whilst young children are being taught such hatred and dehumanisation, undoubtedly on both sides, as Chris points out, then they will always be able to justify death and cruelty.”

He added: “There is a danger, perhaps, that we only ever hear one side of the dehumanisation and propaganda.”

No, there isn’t. Not everything has two sides, James. There is such a thing as right and wrong. Obviously Israel, being a real-life country in the real world, isn’t perfect; obviously it has its own extremists and criminals, like every other state on Earth.

But there should be no equivalence between Israel and Hamas. Think of the scenes on October 7, when the half-naked corpses of Jewish women were paraded through Gaza while mobs spat at them, jeered and beat them with sticks.

Could you imagine such a thing happening in Tel Aviv? Could you imagine Israelis cheering as children and the elderly were taken hostage? Of course not. But I wonder whether O’Brien can.

Maybe I shouldn’t be so surprised. In 2014 and 2015, the author of How They Broke Britain gave vast amounts of airtime to the bogus claims of the VIP sex ring based on testimony by Carl Beech, who was later imprisoned both for sex offences and for perverting the course of justice.

He later expressed regret. But in August last year, he caused outrage by praising a video on social media that blamed “Zionist backers” for the Southport riots. He later claimed not to have watched the clip in full and condemned it.

A certain pattern is emerging here. As inexplicable as it might be, O’Brien has a huge listenership and more than a million followers on social media. LBC has removed the “warped views” clip from the internet. For untold numbers of people, however, the damage has already been done.
James O’Brien apologises after airing antisemitic ‘blood libel’ on LBC about Jewish children
James O’Brien has issued an on-air apology after reading out a listener’s message falsely claiming Jewish children in the UK are taught to view Arabs as “cockroaches to be crushed”.

The LBC presenter addressed the controversy at 11:48am on Tuesday, acknowledging the anger sparked by comments he had broadcast during Monday’s programme, which focused heavily on the war in Gaza.

He said: “At this time yesterday on the show, I read out a message from a listener called Chris who said that his wife had been brought up in the Jewish faith and had attended what he described as a Shabbat school.

“He went on to make further claims about what he said she had been taught in that school. As with all the texts and messages that I read out on the programme, I did so in good faith, but the message has understandably upset a lot of people, and I regret taking those unsubstantiated claims at face value, and I’m genuinely sorry for that.”

He added: “It is very important that I get that out there, and thank you for your attention.”

O’Brien’s apology came after a firestorm of condemnation from Jewish groups, who said the original remarks – aired without challenge – amounted to broadcasting a “modern blood libel”.

The original segment, which LBC also shared on social media before deleting it, quoted the listener as saying: “My wife was brought up Jewish and at Shabbat school in a leafy Hertfordshire town she was taught that one Jewish life is worth thousands of Arab lives, and that Arabs are cockroaches to be crushed.”

The reference to “Shabbat school” – a term that does not exist in the Jewish community – and the grotesque nature of the claims triggered an outcry.


AFP, Whose Photojournalists Crossed Into Israel With Hamas, Now Begs Israel To Protect Its Freelancers
AFP news agency, which has paid its freelancers to cover the atrocities committed by Hamas in Israel on October 7, 2023, now calls on the Jewish state to help evacuate them and their families from war-torn Gaza – and other media outlets are helping amplify the wire agency’s plea.

In a statement published on Tuesday (July 22), AFP said that despite their “exemplary courage,” its freelancers face an “appalling situation” in Gaza, due to hunger and deteriorating living conditions caused by the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.

The agency, however, conveniently omits the fact that its so-called “courageous” freelancers infiltrated Israel to document the murders and abductions of Israelis during the attack that triggered the war.

Their graphic images from that day are still on sale, with prices ranging from 150-275 GBP (203-372 US dollars). Some are even labeled as “Pictures of the Day.”

AFP doesn’t mention the full names of its suffering freelancers, and there are no full credits on the photos.

Whether or not they were taken by the same individuals, it doesn’t change the fact: AFP crews infiltrated Israel on October 7 and aided Hamas’s barbaric propaganda.

And the question remains: Does AFP think this kind of work, photos taken by those who stood shoulder to shoulder with the terrorists as they brutalized innocent civilians, is courageous?

Does the agency still transfer a portion of the profit it makes selling those gruesome pictures to the photographers and their families?
We Went To The “Burned” Palestinian Church, What We Found There Is Beyond SHOCKING!



Wife of Slain October 7 Mastermind Yahya Sinwar Fled Gaza for Turkey: Report
The wife of slain October 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar fled Gaza before her husband was killed and has now gotten remarried in Turkey, according to a report.

Sinwar's wife, Samr Abu Zamer, "crossed through the Rafah border using a fake passport" while Sinwar, a longtime leader of Hamas who orchestrated the terror group's Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, was still alive. Abu Zamer got remarried in Turkey, where she is living, a few months after Israeli forces eliminated Sinwar, Israeli outlet Ynet reported Wednesday.

Sinwar planned Hamas's bloodthirsty Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack that killed more than 1,200 Israelis and saw 251 people, including Americans, taken hostage.

Abu Zamer's border crossing involved "high-level coordination, logistical support, and large sums of money that regular Gazans don't have," while her remarriage was arranged by senior Hamas political bureau member Fathi Hammad, according to Ynet's source.

The wife of Yahya Sinwar's brother, Muhammad Sinwar, also left Gaza before her husband was killed, possibly for Turkey as well, Ynet reported based on local sources. Israel in a May airstrike eliminated Muhammad Sinwar, who served as the de facto leader of Hamas following his brother's death.

The news that the Sinwar wives have fled Gaza comes as the Trump administration and Israel face left-wing criticism over proposals to relocate Palestinians away from Gaza.


Hezbollah refusing to surrender weapons to Lebanese government – report
Hezbollah has informed Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri that it will not surrender its weapons to the government, al-Hadath reported on Wednesday, contradicting previous indications that the terror group was willing to disarm.

Unnamed sources told the Saudi outlet that Hezbollah’s refusal to disarm would continue even if Israel were to withdraw from the five strategic points it has been holding since a ceasefire between the adversaries came into effect in November.

According to the report, in a meeting with Tom Barrack — the US ambassador to Turkey and envoy to Syria, who has also recently taken on a diplomatic role in Lebanon — Berri said the Lebanese government could not promise to disarm Hezbollah north of the Litani River, which has historically served as the line north of which Israel has historically demanded that Hezbollah withdraw its forces.

The Lebanese government believes Hezbollah’s obstinacy regarding its arms is “a waste of an opportunity,” but Beirut is nevertheless moving forward with its commitment to have the government monopolize weapons in the country, the sources said.

After a recent meeting with Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rahi, the head of the Maronite Church, Barrack said, “I understand the difficulties in Lebanon, and I hope communication between its leaders will continue. It is up to the Lebanese state to decide its own fate, and we are ready to help.”

He also stressed the importance of “limiting weapons to the Lebanese state while exercising patience.”


Iranian officials said to suspect Israel behind mysterious blasts across country
Iranian officials believe that explosions across the country over the past month are acts of sabotage by Israel, according to a Tuesday report.

While officially the mysterious blasts hitting apartment buildings, oil facilities, and factories have been blamed on aging infrastructure, three Iranian officials, including a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, told The New York Times they suspect Israel is to blame.

A European official who deals with Iran also told the newspaper he suspects Israel is involved.

Recent times have seen one or two such incidents a day. Some locations involved key infrastructure, such as a fire that killed one person over the weekend, while others, at apartments and a shoe factory, are sowing a feeling of chaos, the report said.

The Iranian officials who spoke to the Times did not provide evidence for their claims and said authorities are not formally accusing Israel, as that would put them in a position of needing to respond.

Publicly, officials have blamed the incidents on a range of causes, including gas leaks, garbage fires, and dilapidated infrastructure. The national gas company has put out figures it says show no increase in gas leaks compared to the number of incidents last year.

Some Iranians have mocked the situation. A photoshopped image circulating on social media showed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the uniform of Iran’s national gas company.

Israeli officials declined to comment for the report. However, the Mossad itself appeared happy to ride on the wave of suspicions and fears in Iran.


Oregon man who pleaded guilty to bomb threats at Jewish hospitals gets 60-month sentence
Domagoj Patkovic, 31, an Oregon man who pleaded guilty in February to threatening Jewish hospitals in Queens and Long Island, N.Y., faced up to 15 years in prison for conspiring to make threats and conveying false information about explosives. He was instead sentenced to 60 months, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Wednesday.

Beginning at least as early as May 2021, Patkovic made six separate calls to Jewish hospitals and care centers in New York, threatening the institutions and stating his intent to detonate explosive devices.

Patkovic “livestreamed the calls to others on an online social media and electronic communications platform to amplify his hate-filled actions,” stated the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.

“The defendant endangered patients and diverted precious law-enforcement resources to advance his hateful agenda against people of the Jewish faith,” stated U.S. attorney Joseph Nocella. “His actions fed a rising tide of antisemitism in America.”

He said his office will continue “to prosecute dangerous bomb threats and swatting schemes to the fullest extent of the law, especially those motivated by hate, and those targeting vulnerable communities in hospitals and care centers.”

In September 2021, Patkovic’s bomb threat, which turned out to be a hoax, resulted in a partial evacuation and lockdown of an entire hospital on Long Island. No explosive devices were found in reported locations.


Israelis attacked in Rhodes amid Greek protests
A group of Israeli teenagers was attacked early on Wednesday on the Greek island of Rhodes by dozens of pro-Palestinian assailants, some reportedly armed with knives.

The incident occurred shortly after Israeli cruise ship passengers were barred on Tuesday afternoon from disembarking on another Greek island—Syros—because of pro-Palestinian protests at Ermoupoli Port, where demonstrators accused the Jewish state of “genocide” in its war against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip.

Should Israeli tourists, accustomed to Hellenic hospitality from their close eastern Mediterranean neighbor, be concerned for their safety?

In written comments to JNS, Neil Bar, an expert on radical ideologies at the University of Haifa and UC Berkeley, California, warned that recent anti-Israeli incidents in Greece are part of an alarming and increasingly organized pattern.

“These aren’t isolated events,” Bar noted. “Since October 7th, we’ve seen a steady rise in targeted attacks—not just against Israeli tourists, but against Jews more broadly.”

Bar pointed to several disturbing examples in recent weeks that suggest coordination and intent. “In the last two months alone, a Holocaust memorial in Larissa was defaced, Jewish cemeteries in Volos and Thessaloniki were desecrated, and earlier this month, men in black shirts bearing Palestinian flags were seen patrolling tourist areas in Athens like Monastiraki and the Plaka, threatening Israeli and Jewish visitors,” he said.

“It’s reached a point where the Central Jewish Council of Greece issued a public warning last month, saying Jewish tourists were being ‘attacked and described as murderers,’ simply because of their identity.”


Spanish airline Vueling arrest Jewish camp director in alleged antisemitic incident - report
Spanish airline Vueling forcibly removed the director of a Jewish summer camp and approximately 50 children from a flight, according to footage shared on social media Wednesday.

According to Diaspora Affairs and Combatting Antisemitism Minister Amichai Chikli, the children, aged between 10-15, were singing songs in Hebrew on the plane.

Chikli alleged that the camp director was arrested in a "serious" antisemitic incident.



Vueling has not commented on their reason for removing the camp director, or the children, from the flight.

The children, all from France, are currently in Valencia, awaiting return to France, Chikli claimed.


Jewish community is ‘not alone,’ former neo-Nazi tells Philly-area audience
Arno Michaelis, a reformed neo-Nazi, told guests at Chabad of the Main Line in Merion Station, Pa., on Tuesday night that he is “committed” to his support of the Jewish community and Israel.

Marc Erlbaum, a member of the congregation, had met Michaelis years before, and the two struck up a friendship. Following the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Michaelis’s strong Zionist stance cost him many business relationships. To support and thank Michaelis for standing by the Jewish community, Erlbaum aims to connect him with Jewish institutions to discuss his journey from violent supremacist to preacher of love.

During his talk on July 22, Michaelis couldn’t point to anything obvious in his childhood that led him down this dark path. He had been raised by two loving parents in “a nice home in a nice neighborhood.” Nonetheless, he did identify several markers.

Naturally aggressive as a child, Michaelis quickly became addicted to the rush he felt by making other kids on the school bus afraid. He also did not know how to process the trauma of watching his mother suffer from his father’s alcoholism, which, though never violent—indeed, he described his father as a “fun drunk” rather than a “mean drunk”—it meant his mother bore the financial burden alone. As a result, he distanced himself from his parents.

At age 14, he started drinking and listening to neo-Nazi punk rock and neo-Nazi songs extolling blood-and-soil nationalism, which gave voice to his anger and aggression. Michaelis insists that he has zero musical talent, but that didn’t stop him from starting a band with his skinhead buddies. He could scream, so he became the lead singer.

Eventually, he dropped out of high school, moved away from home and got a job with a Jewish employer. Though he sported swastika tattoos, his boss kept him on and even hired some of his skinhead friends. The workplace boasted cultural diversity, including among its employees a black man, a lesbian supervisor, an Asian and a Latino. The black employee shared his sandwich with Michaelis one day when he had been too drunk the previous evening to prepare food.

His employer’s and co-workers’ kindness and acceptance belied Michaelis’s ideology. “The people that I claimed to hate treated me with kindness,” he said, “when I least deserved it but when I needed it most.”

“And in doing so, they drove home how wrong I was while at the same time shining a light to guide me to a better place,” Michaelis said.
Israeli-founded cyber startup set to be snapped up by Datadog in $1 billion deal
US-based cloud monitoring and security software firm Datadog is in advanced talks to buy Israeli-founded cybersecurity startup Upwind Security for as much as $1 billion to bolster its security offerings for cloud applications, a source familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel on Wednesday.

The terms of the acquisition have not been made public as the deal has not yet been finalized. Upwind and Datadog were not available for comment.

Headquartered in San Francisco with offices in Tel Aviv, Upwind was founded in 2022 by serial entrepreneur Amiram Shachar, together with Liran Polak, Lavi Ferdman and Tal Zuri, the same team that founded Israeli startup Spot.io sold to NetApp for $450 million in 2020. The startup is named after Shachar’s love of wing foiling, a water sport that combines elements of windsurfing, hydrofoiling and kitesurfing.

Upwind has developed a platform to protect businesses from malicious hackers by identifying risks and addressing their most critical vulnerabilities and threats to their applications and workloads while they are actively running in the cloud. The startup says its platform helps businesses manage alert noise, including false alarms triggered by detection tools, to understand and respond faster to actual threats and causes of security issues in their software systems.

With hybrid work now standard, sending entire enterprises and workers online, securing modern environments has become a challenge with the fast emergence and adoption of AI-powered tools and software by businesses and organizations as they move to cloud services.

The digital transformation and migration of businesses to cloud environments have been bolstering demand for solutions to protect critical and sensitive data as they face heightened network security risks, including sophisticated ransomware, malware and other breaches.




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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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