Friday, August 01, 2025

08/01 Links Pt2: The inverted optical fantasy of Palestine; Benny Morris: The Irish and Gaza; Melanie Phillips: The West Is Dying – And Only Israel Can Save It

From Ian:

Yisrael Medad: The inverted optical fantasy of Palestine
The framework of settler-colonialism has fixed Zionism within a box-cum-coffin.

For more than 25 years, college students have been convinced by their professors that the only way to look at Israel (and a few other countries) is through the lens of a theoretical paradigm that emerged in the 1960s, although it essentially was the Communist critique of an unacceptable Jewish nationalism since the 1920s. Some of them, in turn, became diplomats, politicians, heads of organizations, and, most importantly, media people. In short, influencers.

Zionism, they claim, is foreign to the Middle East. It represents a white and European imperialist domination of an indigenous people.

But what if an optical perversion took place? What if a true and genuine review of the history of “Palestine” revealed an inverted presentation of what took place, and is taking place? What if the historical events had been juggled and rearranged?

What if, instead of an ancient Arab people called “Palestinians” having suffered an invasion of their homeland, what actually happened was that a foreign raiding people invaded a country that had its 2,000-year-old name altered from Judea to Palestine? And these invaders emerged not as the original “Palestinians,” but were and are Islamic colonialists who had subjugated the native Jewish population?

What if they were, quite simply, another part of a large Arabian tribal federation that coalesced around a new religion that set about to take over and settle large swathes of not only the Arabian Middle East, but of the Far East, Africa and on into Europe?

“Settler colonialism,” according to the literature, is racial and is a mode of domination. It is a social formation whereby persons, typically from Europe, live on and exercise sovereignty over land inhabited by Indigenous communities. Settler colonialism seeks to eliminate Indigenous populations and to replace their societies. Unlike “Franchise colonialism,” settler colonialism has endured into the present because “settler colonizers come to stay.” It is a “structure” and not just an event of economic exploitation and temporary residence by foreigners.

It can be argued by proponents of applying that theory to Zionism that “Israeli settler-colonialism indeed stands out as a peculiar phenomenon within the spectrum of global colonial history and practices, marked by distinct features that underscore its exceptionalism.” However, they counter themselves that due to Israel’s “deep entrenchment with U.S.-led imperialism,” an “evolution within the domain of settler-colonial practices” has permitted Zionism to adapt to changed dynamics. This “adaptation is marked by the strategic employment of innovative strategies that enable the continuation and justification of settler-colonial expansion.”

Have they thus trapped Zionism in an inescapable position? Or, is it possible to point out that, in essence, the real settler colonialists who engaged in military conquest, subjugation of native populations, forced conversions and empire-building were the Muslims themselves?
Dave Rich: Antisemitism Today: the permitted prejudice
It leaves us asking the question: what can we do? We have to start, I think, by recognising the reality of where we are. The eighty-year anomaly since the Holocaust, in which antisemitism was a taboo that carried political and social costs for those who broke it, has gone. This has come as a tremendous shock to many in the Jewish world and beyond, although it has not dropped out of a clear blue sky; the signs have been there for a while, the trend lines pointing in the wrong direction for several years. But many were lucky enough not to notice until it became impossible to avoid.

And yet. This does not mean that catastrophe is inevitable. While being clear eyed about the new dangers we face, it is important not to assume all is lost. Many in our Jewish communities have found a resilience and an inner strength since October 7, a determination to stand up for our rights and our values. Perhaps they did not feel this previously, because they didn’t have to. But many have found it now. We need to build on that. There is a tradition and an ethos of campaigning and activism, of Jewish pride, that I fear we have lost sight of, and that we need to reconnect with. Any of you who remember the Soviet Jewry campaigns of the 1970s and 1980s will know how entire communities mobilized to advocate for the rights of Soviet Jews, who were at that time one of the largest Jewish communities in the world, suffering terrible oppression under Communist rule. That campaign was a tremendous success, not only in achieving its immediate goals of helping large numbers of Soviet Jews to escape persecution, but in energizing our communities in the US, the UK and other countries. That activist tradition and spirit exists in our recent history, and we would benefit from reviving it now.

And it should be done with pride. The organisation in the UK that I work for, the Community Security Trust, advises, funds and organises physical security across the UK Jewish community. We have done this for decades, because the terrorist threat to Jewish communities that we are all, now, tragically familiar with, is actually quite old. In Europe we have lived with it for many years. But importantly, we do this security work not because we are scared to be Jewish; but because we are proud to be Jewish. We are proud of our way of life, proud of the contribution that the Jewish community makes to wider society and to our nation as a whole, and we want to protect it.

Because make no mistake, protecting Jews from antisemitism also, at the same time, protects society as a whole from terrorism, from extremism and from hate. Most Jews in the world today live in democracies where the rule of law and protections for minorities are still fundamental parts of our political culture. We need to ensure this remains the case. A polity that would scapegoat and demonise one minority could do it to any minority. A society where hate and extremism are allowed to spread is one where nobody is safe.

Just as tackling antisemitism is a task that benefits all of society, so it should involve all of society. This is the part that we in the Jewish community often forget: we have many friends. Jews are not alone: there are so many people across society – I still believe they are the majority – who find anti-Jewish hatred abhorrent, who see it as an affront to their own sense of decency and their own values, and who are potential allies and partners in this struggle. We are not always good at finding them. But they are there. Perhaps many of you are here this evening. At a time when the fear and reality of antisemitism puts pressure on Jews to turn inwards, we need to resist that pressure and look outwards, to build relationships based on dialogue and communication, to reach out across communities – and to educate people about antisemitism, both the impact it has on Jewish people and the danger it poses for wider society.

Finally, and perhaps hardest of all, we need to find the self-confidence within ourselves to remain optimistic. There is a well-known, and very old, Jewish saying in Ethics of the Fathers, that reads: “It is not your duty to complete the task, but neither are you free to desist from it.” It has always struck me as a fitting description of what it means to fight antisemitism. There may not be a silver bullet that can end this blight forever, a way to erase antisemitism from our world for good, but sitting on our hands and assuming all is lost is not an option. It might seem like an impossibly daunting task: but that is no reason not to try, and there is no time other than now to start.
Benny Morris: The Irish and Gaza
On page two the Times that day sported another, medium-size piece about an Irish MP (Social Democrat Gary Gannon), who had filed legal proceedings against Ireland’s Central Bank for “facilitating the sale of Israeli [government] bonds on the European market.” Gannon claimed that the “bonds are not neutral financial instruments. They are a funding pipeline for a military campaign that includes the bombardment and starvation of thousands of civilians.” All the Times articles that day, highlighting the injury and death of Gaza civilians, avoided mention that a war was actually ongoing between Israel and Hamas, a war launched by Hamas, and that fighters on both sides were being killed.

The Times that day also published an article about the Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin asking to see a report, published by an Israeli organization, alleging that Irish school textbooks promoted antisemitism. In one textbook, according to the Times’ report, Auschwitz was described simply as a “prisoner of war camp.” The body overseeing Irish school curriculums responded that individual schools choose their textbooks and publishers were responsible for textbook content.

The tone and content of the reporting on Gaza\Israel in other quality Irish newspapers was no different. The Irish Independent of 23 July sported two long articles in a two-page spread, accompanied by photographs depicting Palestinian hunger and death, one by Nidal al-Mughrabi and Dawoud Abu Alkas and the other by Nedal Hamdouna (all Arab names and, presumably, Palestinians). The first article was titled “Six-week-old boy among 15 people to die of Starvation in Recent Days”; the second, “Skeletons Marching to Death - Palestinians Face Hunger and Bullets as Israel Steamrolls into Gaza.”

Hamdouna’s article opened her article with a striking quote by “Younis,” a 32-year-old Gazan father of four: “The gunfire was so intense that it was like they were aiming to drink our blood.” A curious phrase, given that I have seen no reports of anyone drinking anyone’s blook in Gaza these past twenty months of combat – but, deliberately or not, it echoes the Medieval antisemitic trope about Jews drinking the blood of Christian children. I suspect that Hamdouna authored the quote, but I may be wrong, maybe the Gazans have been so indoctrinated that they believe Jews routinely do this.

That day, the Independent also ran two relevant letters to the editor. One, by Declan Foley from Melbourne, Australia, read: “The abhorrent and continuing inhumanity to the people of Gaza cannot be described as anything other than genocide.” It can, but I won’t go into this here. But the letter fails to note that “the people of Gaza” – and, incidentally, the Arab population of the West Bank – overwhelmingly endorsed the Hamas onslaught on Israel on 7 October 2023 (while, of course, denying the mass rape, mass executions, decapitations, etc. that accompanied it). Foley laments “the killing [by the IDF] of innocent people – God’s children” and goes on to decry the “antisemitism” charge voiced by Israel’s defenders by saying, in effect, that Arabs, “Phoenicians” and “Akkadians” are also “semites,” so they can’t be accused of antisemitism.

The flood of reportage on Gaza’s suffering in the Irish press appears to stake the moral high ground and Irish righteousness. I wonder whether these newspapers devoted a hundredth of their attention to the world’s other humanitarian crises during the past decades, especially crises in which Muslims slaughtered fellow Muslims actually in their hundreds of thousands.


BBC aired Israel war crime claims made by ‘sacked aid worker with a grudge’
The BBC aired Israel “war crime” claims made by a sacked worker with a grudge, it has been claimed.

Anthony Aguilar worked with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a scheme set up by Israel and the US in February to distribute aid in place of the United Nations.

Military veteran Mr Aguilar was hosted on the News at 10 by Jeremy Bowen on July 26, when he made claims that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was committing “war crimes” at aid distribution centres.

He has also claimed the GHF’s management of these sites was itself “criminal”, and this caused him to resign on principle from the organisation’s partner, UG Solutions. The company provides security for the GHF’s operations in Gaza.

Mr Aguilar’s motives for speaking out have been questioned by UG Solutions, which claims that its former employee swore to become their “worst nightmare” after getting sacked.

David Panzer, counsel for UG Solutions, said that Mr Aguilar had not in fact resigned, but rather his contract had been terminated for “poor performance, volatile conflicts with staff, and erratic behaviour”.

Following this, it is claimed that Mr Aguilar sent several messages to the UG Solutions asking for a new role. In one message, according to the GHF, he wrote: “Your best friend or your worst nightmare. Stop effing around. Put me back to work and let’s get this mission done.”

He is then alleged to have messaged: “Figure something out or I’m on a plane come Tuesday and the gloves are off.”

This was allegedly sent on June 21, and in July an interview was aired with the former Green Beret, who spoke from Washington on the News at 10.

In this interview, he told the BBC that he had seen IDF soldiers open fire on Palestinian civilians with tank and mortar rounds.

He said that the aid sites operated by the GHF were run in an “amateur” and “criminal” way, adding that he had never seen equivalent “brutality and use of indiscriminate and unnecessary force against a civilian population, an unarmed, starving population”.

Mr Panzer said that Mr Aguilar’s claims were unreliable.


Melanie Phillips: Gaslighting is not a Jewish value
Who would have thought that hundreds of rabbis would endorse vicious blood libels against the Jews? And worse still, call this a Jewish moral response?

An open letter signed by more than 400 rabbis from around the world has called on the Israeli government to end what it describes as “the callous indifference to starvation.”

The rabbis wrote: “The Jewish people face a grave moral crisis threatening the very basis of Judaism as the ethical voice that it has been since the age of Israel’s prophets. We cannot remain silent in confronting it.”

On the contrary, it is these rabbis, along with progressive rabbis and other Jews in America making similar claims, who are posing a moral crisis for the Jewish people.

In the face of an unprecedented global campaign of lies demonizing Israel as a means to its destruction, there is a duty based in Jewish values, as well as in common decency, to call this out as a great evil. Instead, these 400 rabbis have actually joined it.

The letter’s signatories say: “We cannot condone the mass killings of civilians, including a great many women, children and elderly, or the use of starvation as a weapon of war.” And they decry “the policy of withholding of food, water and medical supplies from a needy civilian population.”

The lay leadership of Britain’s Jewish community, the Board of Deputies, said much the same thing. Referring to Israel’s decision to allow air drops of aid into Gaza and open the way for more U.N.-supervised food distribution, the board said that “the new measures announced by Israeli authorities to address the humanitarian crisis are essential if long overdue.”

It is profoundly shocking that these rabbis and lay leaders should be parroting such falsehoods and distortions.
The West Is Dying – And Only Israel Can Save It | Melanie Phillips in Jerusalem
While the West spirals into cultural confusion and moral collapse, Israel is thriving — and may be the West’s last hope.

In this urgent and powerful address at the Argaman Institute for Advanced Studies in Jerusalem, renowned British journalist and author Melanie Phillips lays out a stark contrast: the West is committing cultural suicide, while Israel preserves life, meaning, and identity.

Drawing from her new book, Phillips delivers a wake-up call to Jews and non-Jews alike:
🔥 “The West is dying. But Israel chooses life.”


📖 In this speech, she explores:
The moral collapse of Western elites after October 7
Why antisemitism is rising across the West
How the West abandoned reason, truth, and God
Judaism’s role in shaping science, freedom, and democracy
Why Israel’s national identity offers the West a blueprint for survival
This isn’t just a speech. It’s a civilizational warning — and a cultural blueprint.


Why the West Is Turning on the Jews | Melanie Phillips in Jerusalem
In this explosive and unfiltered Q&A filmed in Jerusalem, British commentator and author Melanie Phillips responds to audience questions on:
The rise of antisemitism on both the Left and the Right
Why Tucker Carlson and the new Right pose a danger to Jews
The unholy alliance between woke progressives and Islamist radicals
How Diaspora Jews have failed to defend Jewish identity
And why Israel must become a moral, not just military, leader
Melanie also addresses Muslim and Hindu reformers, critiques the secular void in Western politics, and delivers a scathing indictment of the modern conservative movement.

📍 Recorded at the Argaman Institute for Advanced Studies in Jerusalem, this Q&A is a raw and urgent wake-up call for Jews, Zionists, Christians, and anyone who still believes in Western civilization.

Chapters
00:00 Defending Values: A Broader Perspective
03:10 The State of Conservatism in America
06:01 Optimism Amidst Challenges
08:56 The Future of Jewish Americans
11:52 The Role of Israel in Global Dynamics
14:47 Cultural Belonging and Identity
17:49 The Importance of Leadership
20:38 The Need for Truth in Advocacy
23:24 Religious Foundations and Societal Values
26:32 The Role of Christianity in the West
29:26 Building Alliances for Common Causes
32:30 The Search for Meaning and Belonging
35:10 Reflections on Jewish Leadership
38:03 Navigating Challenges in Israel
40:48 The Future of Jewish Identity
44:03 Concluding Thoughts on Community and Values


Jewish supermodel Caprice took down mezuzah over fear racists may target her children
Jewish supermodel Caprice Bourret has said she no longer feels safe in the city amid rising antisemitism.

Bourret was born in California and moved to London when she was 25. As well as modeling for famous brands she is a media personality and a socialite.

In a recent interview with MailOnline, Bourret revealed her fears over being openly Jewish in London.

She said that she took her mezuzah down as she was “afraid of the safety” of her children, adding that she “doesn’t recognise this country anymore".

According to the Community Security Trust (CST), antisemitic incidents in the UK have reached an all-time high. The CST recorded over 4,000 in 2023 — the highest number since records began.

She said: “It’s such a terrible time to be Jewish because of the hate we can and do receive.

"I don’t recognise this country anymore. Nobody should feel afraid or intimidated because of their religion. The whole concept is bizarre to me, but it’s happening right now."


Academic who prompted Edinburgh University to review antisemitism policy tried to justify October 7
One of the academics behind a radical new Edinburgh University-commissioned report, which recommends scrapping the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, sought to justify Hamas’ killing spree on the morning of October 7, the JC can reveal.

In a message posted just after 7am – as news broke about the terrorist rampage in southern Israel – Dr Nicola Perugini wrote on X: “Context: Palestine is brutally colonised.”

Hours later, he posted: “Colonialism is indiscriminate by definition.” He also posted: “Dehumanising people under siege for 16 years does not work”.

Following the publication of the report, Edinburgh University is considering abandoning the internationally accepted IHRA definition, a move that Jewish groups have urged against.

Perugini and Dr Shaira Vadasaria, two of the lecturers behind the “Race Review” – a document commissioned by the university in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement – have previously campaigned against the IHRA definition.

The academics both taught for several years at al-Quds University in east Jerusalem and last year addressed an anti-Israel rally in Edinburgh, where they spoke against “imperialism, settler-colonialism and epistemic violence.”

In the days that followed October 7, Perugini, an International Relations lecturer at Edinburgh, referred to Hamas’s political standing in another X post: “Remember that the EU punished Palestinians also when they democratically elected Hamas in 2006. Democracy or violence, what the EU wants is a politically obedient Palestinian society.”

Since then, he has co-authored a paper with the United Nations special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, accusing Israel of “legitimising genocide in Gaza”.

He has also reposted material on X from the Hamas-affiliated Quds News Network and said Israeli soldiers are engaged in “colonial savagery”.
‘Serious problem’ in Philly school district, as Jewish groups wait for response to hate speech
The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia wrote nearly a month ago to the School District of Philadelphia, addressing antisemitic comments made by district administrator Ismael Jimenez.

At the end of its letter, dated July 10 and signed by several other local Jewish organizations, Federation stated: “We are watching. And we are waiting.”

With the start of the new academic year just weeks away and seemingly no action taken by the school district, waiting seems to be exactly what these groups are doing.

In a video clip of a November 2023 episode of the “Freedom Friday” podcast with Chris (“Citizen”) Stewart and Sharif El-Mekki that was recently circulated, Jimenez, director of the social studies curriculum for the school district, made statements that “appear to rationalize the Hamas-led massacre of Israeli civilians” on Oct. 7, 2023, the Federation letter stated.

And on June 4 of this year—three days after the firebombing attack in Boulder, Colo.—Jimenez posted a blank red square on Instagram that reads: “The groups who align themselves with American savageness should not be surprised when the savageness is turned on you.”

“Mr. Jimenez has made a pattern of denying the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel, refusing to speak about peace or coexistence and downplaying the lived experiences of Jewish people in the face of violence,” Federation wrote. “These actions raise serious concerns about whether he can serve all students with integrity and respect.”

The letter continued, asking the school district, “At what point does inaction become complicity?”
Michigan reportedly issues complaints against 11 anti-Israel student protesters
The University of Michigan issued formal complaints against 11 students for participating in four anti-Israel protests on the public school’s campus last year, The Michigan Daily, a student newspaper, reported.

The paper reported that “multiple” students confirmed that they have been called in for hearings through the public school’s Office of Student Conflict Resolution.

Among the charges, per documents that the student paper viewed, are refusing to leave specific areas, obstructing public safety operations, entering an event under false pretenses, failing to comply with police orders, obstructing police officers and engaging in a physical altercation.

Kay Jarvis, the university’s director of public affairs, told JNS that “protests are welcome at the University of Michigan, so long as those protests do not infringe on the rights of others, disrupt university operations or threaten the safety of the community.”

“The university has been clear that we will enforce our policies related to protests and expressive activity and that we will hold individuals accountable for their actions in order to ensure a safe and inclusive environment for all,” she said.

Jarvis declined to provide information about those subjected to disciplinary proceedings, citing school policy. “Disciplinary matters that go through the Office of Student Conflict Resolution are typically resolved within six months of the office receiving a formal complaint,” she said.
Bristol University fails to prevent repeated Open Day anti-Israel disruptions
The University of Bristol faces accusations of failing to prevent anti-Israel open day disruptions, despite commitments that it would do so following similar incidents last year.

Advocacy group UK Lawyers for Israel have written to the institution expressing serious concern, telling Jewish News that despite previous warnings and commitments from the University to review its protocols, this latest disruption raises significant questions about whether adequate action was taken.

During the Friday 11th June Open Day for potential applicants to Bristol University and their parents, a group of current students, some masked and carrying banners, entered the lecture theatre, took over the podium, and delivered a political message for approximately three minutes of the scheduled thirty-minute talk.

UK Lawyers for Israel claim the protesters urged “Free Palestine” and demanded the University sever ties with companies allegedly linked to the arming of Israel.

One of the parents present with her daughter called the event “shocking and upsetting for us”.

This incident mirrors similar disruptions that occurred during last year’s Open Days, which were the subject of previous correspondence between UKLFI and the University.

UKLFI had highlighted the serious impact of those protests, including the harassment of attendees through the creation of an intimidating, hostile, and offensive environment for Jewish, Israeli and Zionist audience members.

The conduct appeared to contravene the Equality Act 2010, UKLFI said, and may also have constituted criminal offences under the Public Order Act 1986 and the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, in addition to contravening the University’s own policies on acceptable behaviour and freedom of speech.

In its response last year, the University had stated that it would review its security and protest protocols and seek input from relevant community organisations to inform that process. It also reaffirmed its commitment to maintaining a safe and inclusive campus for all.


Gaza journalist who urged killing of Jewish ‘sons of dogs’ now living in Paris
A Palestinian freelance stringer whom The New York Times fired for calling Jews “sons of the dogs” and urging their killing “wherever they are” left the Gaza Strip last week and is living in Paris, JNS has learned.

The Times fired Fady Hossam Hanona in 2022 after the HonestReporting media watchdog group, uncovered a string of antisemitic and pro-terrorism social media posts he shared between 2013 and 2021.

“I don’t accept a Jew, Israeli or Zionist, or anyone else who speaks Hebrew. I’m with killing them wherever they are: children, elderly people and soldiers,” he wrote on his Facebook account in 2013, according to screenshots obtained by the NGO three years ago.

“The Jews are sons of the dogs. … I am in favor of killing them and burning them like Hitler did. I will be so happy,” added Hanona.

HonestReporting also said that during the 2014 Israel Defense Forces ground operation in Gaza, known as “Operation Protective Edge,” Hanona took to social media to threaten the murder of Ghassan Alian, an Israeli Druze who commanded the IDF’s Golani Brigade at the time.

Then, on Aug. 18, 2014—days before a truce took effect between Israel and Hamas—he urged the Palestinian “resistance” to reject a ceasefire and continue its rocket attacks on the Jewish state’s densely-populated central region, which had at that point already cost the lives of five civilians.

In another post from the same month, Hanona went as far as invoking Adolf Hitler to support his point about the strength of Gazan fighters.

“As Hitler said, give me a Palestinian soldier and a German weapon, and I will make Europe crawl,” the Gazan journalist was said to have written.


Reuters Provided Nearly $4 Million in Services to Iranian State-Run Broadcaster, Leaked Documents Show
The Thomson Reuters news corporation provided nearly $4 million in services to Iran's sanctioned state-controlled broadcaster, according to leaked internal documents that show the media conglomerate issuing payment requests to an Iranian executive closely tied to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Reuters provided the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) with roughly $3.8 million in news services, enabling the state-run propaganda organization to publish content on a variety of platforms including the English-language Press TV, according to private communications first published by the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), an independent analyst group that monitors online threat networks.

A Reuters spokesman subsequently confirmed to the Washington Free Beacon that it has sold "text newswires and video news products into Iran" for more than 10 years and disclosed this work to the Treasury Department, which administers sanctions on the IRIB and other Iranian propaganda fronts.

The relationship, which NCRI detailed for the first time through invoices and internal emails dating back to 2021, has raised questions about how the media conglomerate was able to work with a sanctioned Iranian entity and receive payment for these services. Reuters content, an NCRI analyst told the Free Beacon, has likely helped fuel the hardline regime's propaganda efforts, including on its virulently anti-Israel Press TV website.

"Would Press TV be as effective in amplifying genocidal, anti-American propaganda without help from Reuters?" the NCRI analyst asked. "Providing services in support of Press TV is the modern-day equivalent of supplying Goebbels and his Nazi Ministry of Propaganda with syndicated news content in support of their propaganda efforts."
Iranian President Says Country Is on Brink of Dire Water Crisis
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian warned against excessive water consumption which he said was untenable for the country and could leave Tehran facing severe shortages by September, semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Thursday.

Faced with resource mismanagement and over-consumption, Iran has faced recurrent electricity, gas, and water shortages during peak demand months.

“In Tehran, if we cannot manage and people do not cooperate in controlling consumption, there won’t be any water in dams by September or October,” Pezeshkian said on Thursday.

The country has faced drought conditions for the last five years according to the director of the Environmental Protection Organization Sheena Ansari and the Meteorological Organization recorded a 40 percent drop in rainfall over the last four months compared to a long-term average.

“Neglecting sustainable development has led to the fact that we are now facing numerous environmental problems like water stress,” Ansari told state media on Thursday.

Excessive water consumption represents a major challenge for water management in Iran, with the head of Tehran province’s water and wastewater company Mohsen Ardakani telling Mehr news agency that 70 percent of Tehran residents consume more than the standard 130 liters a day.

Natural resource management has been a chronic challenge for authorities, whether it is natural gas consumption or water use, as solutions require major reforms, notably in the agricultural sector which represents as much as 80 percent of water consumption.


‘Objective’ tour at Auschwitz largely ignores the Jews
In 1944, during World War II, my parents, a young married couple, were transported to the Nazi death camp Auschwitz. One of my mother’s first sights was of Dr. Josef Mengele, the “Angel of Death.” Mengele allowed her to survive even though she was helping a young, orphaned boy, who ultimately died. One of her indelible memories was of refusing to throw Jewish bodies into a mass grave, defying the orders of a German soldier. Yet my parents survived.

Before my recent visit to Auschwitz, I was prepared to be grief-stricken, expecting a guide to delve into the atrocities suffered by the Jewish victims. Instead, I was incensed at the lack of empathy and respect for the horrors that took place against Jews in this death-haunted outpost.

Our museum tour guide “minimized” the experience of the Jews by replacing much of the camp’s Jewish history with a focus on what happened to the non-Jewish Polish people.

When the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939, 3.5 million Jews lived there, the largest concentration in any country. The Nazis refurbished Polish military barracks into Auschwitz I, which began as a prison camp but then exploded into a sprawling complex. This death center grew to include Auschwitz II, also known as Birkenau, where Jews were gassed in a ghastly industrial program, and Auschwitz III, also known as the Monowitz factory center. When the war ended in May 1945, a total of 1.1 million Jews had died: worked, tortured or gassed to death.

With more than 44,000 established camps, subcamps, ghettos and other sites of incarceration, the German Nazis killed more than 6 million Jews. In addition, the Reich killed an extraordinary number of Poles, Russians, Romanians and other prisoners. Not once did our tour guide mention the enormity of these numbers.


Indonesian textbooks show improved attitudes on Jews, Israel
Indonesia’s new national school curriculum significantly improves portrayals of Jews, Israel and minority communities, according to a report released by IMPACT-se, an international watchdog that evaluates textbooks for tolerance and peace.

“The curriculum now presents a more balanced and tolerant portrayal of Jews and removes antisemitic stereotypes from previous textbooks,” it said in a press release. “Although there is little reference to Israel, new textbooks drop hostile portrayals.”

The report, published on July 31, assesses more than 40 textbooks from Indonesia’s “Merdeka Curriculum,” comparing them to the older 2013 curriculum. The findings show a notable move toward inclusivity and a departure from religious and ethnic stereotypes.

“It is very encouraging to see that Indonesia’s textbooks are on a firm trajectory of growing inclusivity,” said IMPACT-se CEO Marcus Sheff. “Negative portrayals of Israel found in earlier editions have been removed, signaling a more neutral and responsible educational approach.”

A major shift is the treatment of Jews and Judaism. The curriculum now recognizes Jews as “People of the Book,” affirms the Torah’s overlap with the Quran, and highlights traditions such as the Jewish Sabbath as socially beneficial. Stories of Muhammad’s cooperation with Jews are used to promote interfaith harmony.

Antisemitic content from previous editions—such as Jews being depicted as greedy or deceitful—has been removed. One deleted example involved Jews using counterfeit money in a story about honesty; another portrayed a Jew spitting on the Prophet Muhammad for money.
One of Yemen's last Jewish women makes aliyah to Israel
One of Yemen’s last remaining Jews, Badra Youssef, has made aliyah, Israeli media reported on Wednesday.

Youssef reportedly left Yemen in June, a year after her husband Yahya’s death, according to Yemeni independent journalist Ali Ibrahim Al-Moshki.

“Thank God for your safe arrival, Aunt Badra,” Moshki wrote, writing that she and her husband were some of the “wonderful patriotic Jews of Yemen.”

According to Moshki, the couple lived in Yemen “through bitter and bitterness,” and rejected all “temptations” of travel during their marriage.

Yemen’s Jewish history
According to the Jewish Virtual Library, the Jewish community in Yemen dates back to ancient times, with a presence that flourished particularly during the medieval period.

Jews in Yemen have faced various challenges, including periods of forced conversion and persecution, such as during the rule of 'Abd-al-Nabī ibn Mahdi in the late 1160s and the enforcement of the Orphan's Decree in the 18th century.

According to various reports, there are currently four remaining Jews living in Yemen, most notably Levi Salem Musa Marhabi, who was imprisoned by the Houthis in 2016 for allegedly attempting to smuggle a Torah scroll out of the country.
Who were the last 2 Jews in Somalia? | Unpacked
In a nation that claims to be 100% Muslim, one teenager dared to say otherwise.

In the heart of Mogadishu, a young man named Rami lit his menorah in secret, whispered prayers no one could hear, and blogged about being Jewish in a place that denied he could even exist.

His story captivated a Jewish psychoanalyst halfway across the world—and then, just as suddenly, he vanished. Were he and his mother the last Jews in Somalia? Or merely the last ones willing to say so?

Their brief flicker of connection defies erasure—and hints at a forgotten Jewish past buried beneath fear, silence, and sand.

Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:42 Brief modern history of Somalia
01:29 Dr. Hartevelt Kobrin's discovery of Rami's blog
02:52 History of Jews in Somalia
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BBC doc uncovers stories of Belsen babies – and a journalist’s hidden family link
A new BBC documentary released today traces the extraordinary post-war lives of Jewish babies born in the Bergen-Belsen Displaced Persons camp – and the hidden family history of the journalist who set out to find them.

Amie Liebowitz, a Jewish-Australian reporter now based in London, presents Bergen Belsen: Among Graves, We Were Born for Radio 4’s Heart and Soul series, marking 80 years since the liberation of the former Nazi concentration camp in northern Germany.

The 28-minute programme is part memoir, part detective story. It opens with a memory from Liebowitz’s grandmother in Sydney, who reminded her of her three cousins – Mina, Leah, and Brenda – who survived Belsen. “ I really didn’t know a lot about them,” Liebowitz says in the episode, “except that they survived Belsen.”

From that seed of curiosity, Liebowitz travelled to the site of the camp, microphone in hand, to join a reunion of survivors and descendants. “I left with a recording kit to see what I could find with a vague plan,” she told Jewish News. “I had no idea about the Bergen Belsen babies or life in the DP camp – which, in the end, made my creative process a lot different to what I would have expected.”

The result is a deeply personal and profoundly moving radio documentary that captures the lives of Jewish women born amid the ruins. More than 2,000 babies were born in the DP camp before it closed in 1950 – among them Karen Lasky and Susan Schwartz, both featured in the programme.

“I was born in the DP camp,” says Schwartz, who now lives in Los Angeles. “And when I go to the DP camp, I feel comfortable. I feel like I’m at home, really.” Susan Schwartz. Phot Credit: Andrew Schwartz

Her recollections blend humour and horror. She shows Liebowitz the steps where she played as a toddler, proudly recounts the fur coat she wore at age three, and tells stories of ice cream runs to nearby towns. But she also shares that her pet dog – a gift from her parents after liberation – had a swastika burned into its ear. Her mother had pretended to be a chef for the SS; her father sabotaged bombs during forced labour.

For Karen Lasky, born nearby in 1946, the camp was the place her parents – both Holocaust survivors – met after losing their families. “There’s so much death here,” she says, standing by one of the camp’s mass graves. “And then for me, I look at this more as a place of life… The liberation here is what I connect to.”
Ex-hostage Eli Sharabi honored as book recounting his captivity becomes a bestseller
Former hostage Eli Sharabi is honored with a Platinum Award for his bestselling book, “Kidnapped,” which sold more than 70,000 copies in its first five days, making it a bestseller in the Israeli market.

“I didn’t believe there would still be hostages when the book was released,” says Sharabi at a ceremony for the award.

“Kidnapped” was published by Rotem Sela in May.

Sharabi says he hoped the book would be a memory from the past when he wrote it. It is the first testimonial book written by a released hostage after the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack.

“Even 173 days after I was released from captivity — they’re still there,” says Sharabi, referring to the remaining hostages. “Every day I think about them — what they eat, how they survive, how they deal with the constant hunger. We must not get used to this situation. We must not pretend that life goes on while they are not here.”

Sharabi said he hopes the upcoming English translation of the book, being published by HarperCollins in the US ahead of the second anniversary of October 7, will help Americans understand the reality of the hostages.




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Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون



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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