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Wednesday, August 20, 2025

08/20 Links Pt2: Yes, anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism; The Betrayal of Journalism in Gaza; World's first spinal cord transplant to take place in Israel

From Ian:

Brendan O'Neill: Yes, anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism
Let’s leave to one side Ms Sultana and take a look at the broader Israelophobic animus that has swept the West like a fever since Hamas’s fascistic pogrom of 7 October 2023. There is nothing more disingenuous than when leftist hotheads or liberal scribes say, ‘It isn’t anti-Semitic to criticise Israel’, because we are not talking about criticism of Israel. We are talking blind hatred for Israel. Hysteria about Israel. The fantasy of Israel’s death. The wild and demented conviction that Israel is the most murderous state in existence, if not the most murderous state ever, and that it wields staggering power over the obsequious nations of the West. That’s not criticism – it’s a species of madness, built on the foul belief that the Jewish State is the most nefarious, most bloody and most sneakily powerful state on Earth.

Show me one other anti-war movement that called not only for an end to war but for the end of an entire nation. ‘We don’t want two states / We want ’48!’, cry the keffiyeh-adorned bigots of America’s Ivy League to signal their desire to return to 1948 before the modern State of Israel existed. Shorter version: obliterate that filthy country. Which other nation is referred to as ‘the pigs of the Earth’, as ‘uniquely murderous’, as a ‘scum state’, as ‘the new Nazi state’? Name another country whose annihilation is feverishly envisioned by that unholiest alliance of radical Islamists calling for the army of Muhammad to return to slaughter every last Jew and Israel-sick leftists screaming ‘From the river to the sea’.

And name one nation – just one – that is not only lambasted for its actions but also finds its entire right to nationhood ceaselessly called into question. ‘Fuck Zionism’, protesters cry. Zionism is ‘a cancer to the planet’, they say. Destroy the ‘Zionist entity’, mobs wail, like that’s normal; like it’s normal to pine publicly for the erasure of a nation of nine million souls. Until someone shows me footage of hundreds of thousands of fuming Westerners hitting the streets to say ‘Fuck Turkish statehood’ or ‘Destroy the Pakistani entity’, I will entertain not one single protestation that anti-Zionism is just ‘criticism of Israel’. No, if you have sworn yourself solely to the upending and elimination of the project of Jewish nationhood, then you can’t be too surprised if someone calls you a Jew hater.

Criticism? Please. We’ve now reached a point where I struggle to envision what ‘criticism of Israel’ would even look like. We never see it. We only see a savage and violence-tinged loathing for Israel that long ago left the plane of geopolitical critique and now exists entirely in the realm of bigotry. Everything they once said about the Jews – they love to let blood, they love to kill children, they’re all-powerful, they’re a cancer on humanity – they now say about the Jewish nation. Some people might accept that this is entirely coincidental – I am not one of those people.
The Betrayal of Journalism in Gaza
While it might seem obvious that uniformed military personnel would not be considered journalists, CPJ seems all too willing to grant ununiformed terrorist operatives who perform equivalent military functions for their respective militant groups that very title, artificially inflating the number of journalists killed and undermining the contributions of actual media professionals who make the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty.

Finally, there have been several individuals who operated as journalists for reputable news organizations while moonlighting as full-fledged combat operatives for terrorist groups. Unlike the previous group, these were no mere propagandists, but rather key members of rocket launching squads, snipers, and commanders of combat battalions.

Anas Al-Sharif, whose death last week triggered the current wave of international opprobrium, was such an individual. While both CNN and the BBC have confirmed that he previously served as a Hamas propaganda operative, he went on to join Al Jazeera, becoming a recognizable face to millions in the Arab world as he broadcast from Gaza throughout the current war.

In October 2024, the IDF released a ream of personnel files, salary records, and other documents captured in Gaza proving that six Al Jazeera employees were active Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror operatives. Al-Sharif was identified as the commander of a Hamas rocket launching squad and a member of the group’s Nukhba Force — the elite unit that spearheaded the October 7 attack — and was shown to be on Hamas’s payroll. Al Jazeera angrily rejected the charges, claiming that they were being used as a pretext to target its journalists, and continued employing Al-Sharif and the others.

After Al-Sharif and his colleagues were killed in an Israeli airstrike, CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg declared the killings to have been unlawful. “International law is very clear on this point that the only individuals who are legitimate targets during a war are active combatants,” she told the BBC. “Having worked as a media advisor for Hamas, or indeed for Hamas currently, does not make you an active combatant,” she added. Her comments were later echoed by Foreign Press Association President Ian Williams, who told CNN’s Bianna Golodryga that he “[doesn’t] care if Al-Sharif was in Hamas or not,” saying that “Hamas is a political organization” and “we don’t kill journalists for being Republicans or Democrats or, in Britain, Labour Party.”

But that comparison is plainly ridiculous and it is simply untrue that only “active combatants” can be targeted in wartime. Under international humanitarian law, an individual who performs a continuous combat function (CCF) is viewed as having lost his or her civilian status and is indeed considered a legitimate military target. In point of fact, that standard has been applied in numerous conflicts — from the Kosovo War to the Iraq War to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine — to justify the targeting of propaganda officials and functionaries whose activities contributed directly to war efforts. Even a “media advisor” for Hamas — or a propaganda operative for one of its media outlets, like the individuals discussed above — could indeed be targeted if he or she had a CCF, meaning he or she was fully integrated into the terrorist group and was continuously engaged in hostilities.

Yet according to the evidence produced by Israel, Al-Sharif was no mere “media advisor” — he was an actual combatant on behalf of a recognized terrorist group, having commanded a rocket squad and served as a member of Hamas’s commando force. There is no question, then, that he was a legitimate military target.

Which begs the question: Why are media organizations and journalists’ associations defending terrorists?
Radical U: Professors as architects of the campus Palestinian resistance
In the span of a few years, American academics have escalated their support for the Palestinian “resistance” from rhetorical to material.

For decades, academics have fostered a friendly territory for radical groups and fertile ground for anti-Israel propagandists, though few actually endorsed terrorism. It’s safer to massage the language, twist a metaphor or two, and figure out a way to excuse violence without actually endorsing it—or at least use language, often abstruse or cryptic language, to provide a degree of deniability.

But all that has changed.

Oct. 7 triggered something in many academics, who suddenly no longer felt constrained. Rather than stopping just short of applauding terrorism against Israel, they adopted Hamas’s slogans and defended its attacks. Colleges and universities today have effectively taken the place of the Palestinian terrorist organizations as the primary disseminators of anti-Israel propaganda to Americans. Middle Eastern studies departments and programs in particular have transformed academia into the vanguard of anti-Zionism in a sick perversion of philosopher John Stuart Mill’s vision for higher education—turning students into “capable and cultivated human beings.”

Along the path to academia’s shocking embrace of Hamas, some moments stand out. The 2006 war with Hezbollah, coupled with military operations against Hamas in Gaza in 2008-09 and 2014, brought new adherents to the BDS movement. However, it was the 2021 Hamas war that inspired many academics to graduate from observers to self-described participants in the Palestinian cause.

Coming a year after the Black Lives Matter-George Floyd riots in the summer of 2020, with most college classes still being taught via Zoom, the brief conflict that lasted 11 days in May 2021 riled a pandemic-restless academia. And so, members spontaneously exploded with a flurry of nearly identical statements and petitions defending Hamas and blaming Israel for the war.

Of the more than 300 “solidarity statements,” one of them, titled Palestine & Praxis: Open Letter and Call to Action, by “Scholars for Palestinian Freedom,” became the manifesto of a new movement. It provided a language to mimic and a template to follow. The word praxis (Greek for “practice,” as opposed to theory) became the jargon term du jour identifying this new movement, and every anti-Israel academic with an axe to grind found a fashionable praxis angle.

Some took to “archiving praxis in Palestine,” while others explained the “praxis of Palestinian democracy.” The Palestinian Feminist Collective developed a “Feminist Praxis for Academic Freedom in the Context of Genocide in Gaza.”

In the fall 2022 publication of the Association for Jewish Studies, Atalia Omer, a professor of religion, conflict and peace studies at the University of Notre Dame, called for “a praxis of restorative justice” that would “interrogate historically the Zionization of Jewishness.”

In 2023, an organization called Radical in Progress, whose “goal is to equip aspiring activists with the vocabulary, knowledge and strategies they need to radically reimagine the future,” published a “Praxis study guide” to Rashid Khalidi’s 2020 book The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine.

In the spring 2024 encampment semester, Students for Justice in Palestine sponsored an anthropology conference at Princeton University titled “Palestine as Praxis, Still.”

Whatever else the term implied, it meant action. The scholars boldly declared in their calls to action that “the critical theory we generate in our literature and in our classrooms must be backed in deed.”


My ‘tolerant’ hometown of Brighton has become a hotbed of racism
In the almost two years since the Hamas attack on Israel, Brighton’s 2,500 Jews have seen their home become the stage for repeated anti-Israel marches, as well as vandalism, graffiti and a growing atmosphere of intimidation.

These incidents, say some in that Jewish community, have wrecked their relationship with their hometown.

Fiona Sharpe, a 59-year-old voluntary worker and activist, was born and raised in Brighton, and is well-placed to assess change in a city that has long promoted itself as a beacon of progressive values and tolerance.

The late 1970s and early 1980s, though synonymous with the activities of the racist National Front, “were so much more tolerant and open [than today], and it feels bizarre to say that,” she says.

Brighton’s Jewish community is centred on Palmeira Square in Hove, with the Brighton and Hove Reform Synagogue just around the corner. In the square is a temporary memorial to the victims of October 7. But that small plaque with flowers and messages has been vandalised more than 50 times since. On several occasions, it has been defaced with faeces.

On the day I visited, someone had drawn a Star of David and an “equals” sign with a swastika on a bus stop on nearby Goldsmid Road.

Abuse like this is commonplace, though it often goes unreported. The Community Security Trust charity says recorded incidents of anti-Semitism in Brighton have risen by 150 per cent since the end of 2023.

“We host teas for the elderly and one woman here was born in Palestine and came to England in the 1940s,” explains Rabbi Dr Andrea Zanardo, 57, inside the synagogue. “She told me, ‘I’ve never seen it as bad as it is now.’”
Radical anti-Chabad protest in New York met with defiance
The radical group claimed on Instagram on Monday that the community had yet to receive justice for the incident, asserting that Cato was “brutally” killed and that his cousin was wounded by “Zionist white supremacists from Chabad.”

A table with candles, flowers, and a picture of Cato was set up at President Street and Utica Avenue, and Chabad-Lubavitch public relations representative Yaacov Behrman shared on X/Twitter that activists distributed pamphlets calling for Haitian, Guyanese, and Jamaican-American residents of Crown Heights to “rise up” and emulate the 1991 riot.

“First, they will come for our children, our elders, our poor and abused brothers and sisters. They will try to kill us, exploit us, raise our rents, and evict us. But we refuse to be powerless,” read a pamphlet shared on social media by Behrman. “We cannot liberate ourselves from white supremacy until we rise up to tear it all down. We must defend each other with our lives. If we remember 1991 and look out for each other, we stand a fighting chance.”

Despite the radical rhetoric, the rally ended without much incident. Behrman, who was present at the site, recounted that a small incident occurred when a Jewish community member sought to light a candle in memory of Cato but was stopped by masked men. Behrman also related how Caribbean-American residents had confronted the masked men, stating they didn’t want them there and that the radicals were trying to inflame tensions with their neighbors.

The Crown Heights Shomrim neighborhood watch group also stated that the “small fringe group spreading antisemitic rhetoric” was “firmly rejected by the local African-American and Jewish residents of our community.”

The group said on social media that while the vigil was “intended to sow division and hate,” it was unsuccessful in part due to the presence of the New York Police Department and the neighborhood watch. The NYPD also said on Wednesday that the demonstration concluded without incident. Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday condemned attempts to “reopen old wounds.”


'UK is in a dire situation': Manchester man punched in eye in antisemitic attack
A Jewish Manchester man was spat on and punched in an unprovoked attack on Saturday when a companion began to speak about Israeli politics.

Ehud Woodbridge told The Jerusalem Post that he was in central Manchester with an acquaintance who was speaking loudly about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

A visibly Muslim man approached Woodbridge and spat in his face, though Woodbridge had not spoken or engaged in the conversation with his acquaintance.

Woodbridge said that he instinctively pushed the man away in self-defense to distance himself from the attacker. The man then struck Woodbridge in the eye, leaving him with a swollen black eye and sore jaw. The victim's glasses were also knocked off in the attack and damaged.

Incident leaves Jewish victim feeling shaken, unsafe walking in Manchester
Despite being attacked, Woodbridge did not contact the police out of a belief that they wouldn't investigate or address the matter.

The incident left Woodbridge shaken, and unsafe walking in Manchester, but his concern was primarily about how the attack served as an indicator of a wider societal affliction in the United Kingdom. The unprovoked assault, motivated by what he felt was explicitly antisemitic, demonstrated the dangers faced by British Jewry and how antisemitic rhetoric by some actors could escalate into physical violence by others.

"I believe the UK is in a dire situation. Over the years, many people have been let in from Muslim-majority countries who are pushing ideologies that are harmful to society. This is creating major unrest between locals and these communities," said Woodbridge. "Recently, I visited a migrant hotel and was shocked at what I saw. There were no women or children, only fighting-aged men. Our government is importing large numbers of men from countries that do not share British values."
Jews and Israelis harassed in France, Austria, Italy and Holland
A Jewish family was allegedly kicked out of a taxi in Austria last week and called “murderers” by the driver, who reportedly assaulted one of the passengers.

In France, “Free Palestine” graffiti was sprayed on Jewish-owned cars on Wednesday.

In the Netherlands, Israelis were filmed at a vacation park and threatened online last week. And in Italy, a hotel employee demanded that an Israeli guest cancel her booking if she supported her government’s actions.

The incidents, all reported in local media, were part of a wave of violence and hate speech directed at Jews and Israelis in Europe since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

In the incident in Vienna, an Uber driver reportedly assaulted the family’s father en route to a birthday party upon learning that the family was originally from Israel. This happened in front of the man’s wife, their two children aged 10 and 13 and another 75-year-old relative, according to the Jewish Community in Vienna.

The driver forced the family out on the side of the road, telling them he didn’t want “child murderers” in his vehicle. He stayed near the family to shout insults at them before finally assaulting the man, according to the incident report by the Jewish Community’s Antisemitism Reporting Center. It has been quoted in several mainstream Austrian media outlets.

The incidents in France happened in Châtel, an Alpine town near the border with Switzerland. Many Jewish families vacation there during the summer. Nine cars belonging to Jewish vacationers were spray-painted with the words “Free Palestine” on Wednesday morning, according to a report by CNEWS.


‘Nazi Summer Camp’: Fidelity Investment Employee Launches Antisemitic Tirade Against Jewish Journalist
A telecenter operator who was, until recently, employed by Fidelity Investments launched on Monday a volley of antisemitic insults at a Jewish journalist via social media after learning that her children attend a summer camp which fosters pride in Zionism.

“F—k you and f—k your kid who goes to Nazi summer camp!” Danielle Gordon, the now-former employee, wrote to Bethany Mandel, author and contributor to the “Mom Wars” Substack. “Free Palestine from you sick f—ks!”

The exchange began when Mandel publicly discussed the presence of a paraglider over the camp’s property which, due to lingering trauma caused by the memory of the use of paragliders in Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel — which preceded an explosion of antisemitic incidents across the US — appeared to pose an imminent security threat. Gordon seemingly took umbrage at Mandel’s concern for Jewish life and the lives of her children, and hastily fired off the messages from an account which listed her legal name.

“I found it troubling that she sent such antisemitic vitriol when she’s just a working class, college educated white woman living in Denver — that is how far this rot has spread,” Mandel told The Algemeiner on Monday after her sharing of Gordon’s messages amassed over a million views on X. “Antisemitism has become normative discourse for people of her demographic.”

Mandel continued, “That word, Zionist, triggered her very much, and she had no qualms about coming at me, coming at my kids … There should be consequences for talking like this.”

On Tuesday, StopAntisemitism, a Jewish civil rights group based in New York City, reported that Fidelity Investments promptly fired Gordon from her role, citing anonymous reports from people close to the situation. The corporation, however, has so far declined to publicly comment on the matter.

“Internal Fidelity employees have confirmed that Danielle Gordon’s employment has been terminated. Fidelity Investment Services deserves recognition for acting swiftly and decisively, sending a powerful message that violence and blatant antisemitism have no place in our society,” StopAntisemitism said in a statement. “At a time when moral clarity is often missing, their response sets an example we should all uphold.”


Israeli defense firms barred from major Dutch arms fair amid Gaza war — report
Israeli defense companies will not be permitted to participate in the Netherlands’ largest military exhibition, Hebrew media reported on Wednesday.

The NEDS event, held annually in Rotterdam and focused largely on the naval sector, has in recent years hosted Israel’s biggest defense contractors, including Israel Aerospace Industries, Elbit Systems and Rafael. But the event’s organizers wrote in a recent letter that this year’s event, scheduled for November 20, will bar Israeli firms, a Globes report said, citing Israeli sources.

Israeli sources confirmed to Globes that they will not attend. Organizers cited “security and organizational” reasons for the ban and did not respond to Globes’ requests for comment.

According to the report, the decision appears to be linked to the Gaza war and is part of a broader Dutch policy shift relating to Israel.

The Netherlands has been pushing within the European Union to impose economic and trade sanctions on Israel. In May, Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp backed a legal review of the EU Association Agreement with Israel — the framework governing bilateral ties — which later found “indications” that Israel had violated the human rights requirements of the agreement. Since then, the Netherlands has sought to suspend Israel’s participation in the EU’s Horizon research funding program and reduce trade links.

The Netherlands already halted direct arms exports to Israel several months after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, massacre that launched the war in Gaza. It continues, however, to supply Israel indirectly with F-35 fighter jet parts via third countries, according to Globes.
Renowned trauma expert banned from NY healing center over ‘antisemitic comments’
For decades, Bessel van der Kolk, a psychiatrist whose ideas about how the body records pain helped millions find language for their suffering, has been regarded as the world’s leading expert in the study of trauma. His 2014 best-selling book, “The Body Keeps the Score,” turned him into an unlikely celebrity, a household name among therapists, yoga teachers and patients.

But earlier this month, at a bucolic retreat in the Hudson Valley, the 82-year-old van der Kolk triggered trauma and suffering among many of his students with strident comments on Israel.

According to interviews with several participants as well their written accounts, van der Kolk strayed from his course on trauma and neuroscience to share his political views on a variety of current events, including the war in Gaza. They say he compared Israelis to Nazis, and doubled down on the analogy after being challenged by an audience member who told him she was the descendant of Holocaust survivors.

“At what was meant to be a trauma workshop, the person leading it inflicted fresh trauma on me and on several other Jewish attendees,” Avinoam Lerner, a Boston-based trauma recovery coach, said in an interview.

Van der Kolk’s remarks prompted several of the roughly 125 attendees to walk out and later to lodge complaints with the Omega Institute, the retreat center that hosted the event. Omega, a prominent global hub for alternative healing and spiritual practice, responded swiftly, condemning van der Kolk’s comments and announcing he would no longer be invited to teach there.

“Dr. van der Kolk made inappropriate and antisemitic comments that are deeply troubling and entirely inconsistent with Omega’s core values and community standards,” the institute said in a statement Friday.

Van der Kolk sent an apology letter to participants, retracting his claim about the war in Gaza and tracing the reaction he shared to his early life. He was born in the Hague in 1943.
Hundreds protest as Kneecap rapper appears in court on terror charge
Hundreds of Kneecap supporters waving flags and holding banners have greeted one of the rap trio’s members as he arrived at court for allegedly supporting a proscribed terror organisation.

Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, is accused of displaying a flag in support of Hezbollah at a gig in November last year.

Demonstrations in support of the rapper were organised outside Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London where he arrived on Wednesday, as well as in Dublin.

The Metropolitan Police has imposed conditions limiting where the demonstration outside the court can take place, saying they are needed to “prevent serious disruption”.


First Palestinian to enter Miss Universe accuses Israel of genocide
A model from Palestine who accused Israel of committing genocide will be the first Palestinian to enter Miss Universe later this year.

Nadeen Ayoub, who was crowned Miss Palestine in 2022, will be attending the global beauty competition in November — a first for the territory. She has said she will use the platform to be “the voice of a people who refuse to be silenced”.

Ayoub, who lives in Ramallah in the West Bank but also has a home in Dubai, represented Palestine at the 2022 Miss Earth where she came third.

Speaking to The National, she said: “After Miss Earth, I was supposed [to] go to Miss Universe but I postponed it because I did not want to go when genocide was happening.

"I wanted to focus more on staying behind the scenes because the spotlight was supposed to be on the people in Palestine who are suffering, rather than me.”

“There hasn’t been another Miss Palestine since 2022, due to the genocide."


Australia's upcoming Marches for Palestine are 'high risk,' says Israel's antisemitism center
Two protests scheduled as part of Australia’s Nationwide March for Palestine carry a “high risk level,” according to Israel’s National Center for Combating Antisemitism. Pro-Palestinian groups, including the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, local Justice for Palestine branches, and an affiliate of the UK’s Palestine Action, have jointly planned a day of coordinated action on August 24 across 27 cities.

Multiple trade unions and union federations have also backed the protests, including the National Tertiary Education Union, Unions NSW, Hunter Workers, Unions WA, and the South Coast Labour Council. This is the first time union federations have backed Palestine Action in any coordinated way, Australian media reported.

The key demands of the groups are sanctions on Israel, an end to the two-way arms trade, and an end to “genocide.”

The National Center for Combating Antisemitism noted that many of the protests are not located in areas with significant Jewish or Israeli communities, with the exception of two: one in Sydney and one in Melbourne.

Given that these protests are set to take place in highly central areas of major Australian cities, the NCCA said there is a likelihood of spontaneous clashes with security forces and passersby. Additionally, the turnout is expected to be in the thousands, leading to the NCCA’s designation of a “high risk level.”
‘Pours fuel on antisemitic fire’: Netanyahu’s letter to Albanese examined
Sky News host Sharri Markson examines the contents of a “blistering letter” from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has penned a blistering letter to Anthony Albanese over his recognition of a Palestinian state and his failure to confront antisemitism,” Ms Markson said.

“Australian Jews are in deep distress – and Israel's response gives comfort to many in the community.”


Albanese has ‘swallowed Hamas propaganda’ by recognising Palestinian state
Sky News host Andrew Bolt says Australia is at a “turning point” and sliding “into barbarity” after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote a letter to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese shaming his decision to recognise Palestine.

“No wonder Israel is furious ... because you consider how radically Albanese has shifted Australia from pro-Israel to viciously against,” Mr Bolt said.

“Him and Foreign Minister Penny Wong have also swallowed Hamas propaganda.

“Albanese has decided to punish Israel by recognising a Palestinian state next month, despite one Hamas leader saying just a week earlier that would show Hamas was right to slaughter 1,200 Israelis on October 7 two years ago.”


‘Only inflamed the situation’: Netanyahu’s ‘stinging and personal’ attack against Albanese
Sky News host Chris Kenny discusses Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s scathing attack against Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

“The first thing I have to say about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s stinging and personal attack on our Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, is that I agree with him,” Mr Kenny said.

“The Israeli prime minister only inflamed the situation, and it got worse when someone in the Israeli system leaked a letter from Netanyahu to Albanese.”


Albanese government continues to ‘abandon’ Jewish community and ‘demonise Israel’: Chris Kenny
Sky News host Chris Kenny says the Australian government is “not good enough” as they continue with the “terrible demonisation of Israel”.

“This is not a matter just for the Australian Jewish community, this is for all Australians, their fight is our fight,” Mr Kenny said.

“We cannot have a whole section of this country demonised in this dangerous way.

“It continues to make the Australian Jewish community feel abandoned by their own government.”


‘Direct evidence': Albanese ‘rewarded’ Hamas with Palestinian recognition
Shadow Foreign Minister Michaelia Cash says the “direct evidence” shows Prime Minister Anthony Albanese “rewarded” Hamas with Palestinian recognition.

“The direct evidence is there, Mr Albanese has indeed rewarded the terrorists Hamas who butchered and slaughtered Israelis on October 7, 2023,” Ms Cash told Sky News host Sharri Markson.

“In fact, he has given them what they themselves have described as the fruits of October 7.”




'Many of Our Grad Students Are Angry': UC Berkeley Rescinded Job Offer to Israeli Professor Over National Origin, Lawsuit Alleges
The University of California, Berkeley rescinded a job offer to a visiting Israeli professor solely because of her national origin, according to a new lawsuit. Though the professor, Dr. Yael Nativ, taught a course at the school prior to Oct. 7, Berkeley's theater department chair said campus was too "hot" following Hamas's terrorist massacre.

Berkeley hired Nativ, an Israeli dance researcher and sociologist, in January 2022 to teach a course on Intersectional Perspectives on Contemporary Dance in Israel at Berkeley's Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies. The course was well received, and Berkeley "expressed their hope that Dr. Nativ would return and teach again" in the 2024-25 academic year, according to a copy of the lawsuit reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.

Just a month after Hamas's Oct. 7 terror spree in Israel ignited anti-Semitic demonstrations at college campuses across America, however, Berkeley rescinded its offer to Nativ, citing her Israeli citizenship as the chief obstacle, the lawsuit alleges.

"[M]y dept cannot host you for a class next fall," Dr. SanSan Kwan, the theater department's chair, wrote in a Nov. 18 text message to Nativ included in the lawsuit. "Things are very hot here right now and many of our grad students are angry. I would be putting the dept and you in a terrible position if you taught here."

The lawsuit, filed by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and Olivier & Schreiber PC, is the latest in a series of legal filings alleging widespread discrimination against Jewish staff and faculty at some of the country's most renowned universities. At Berkeley, a separate November 2023 lawsuit alleged a "longstanding, unchecked spread of anti-Semitism" on campus that endangered Jewish students and faculty. Other lawsuits have targeted similar behavior at MIT, Stanford, UCLA, and Columbia.

In Nativ's case, all appeared well with Berkeley until the Oct. 7 attacks turned campus into a hotbed of anti-Israel activity.

At the end of her first semester, Nativ "was asked to take part in an event for donors of Berkeley's Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies (HDI)," according to the lawsuit. "She was thrilled when HDI invited her to apply for another semester."

Both Kwan and Rebecca Golbert, HDI's executive director, were "involved in selecting Dr. Nativ in 2022 and funding her course." They both "expressed their hope that Dr. Nativ would return and teach again at Berkeley," the lawsuit states.

That offer was reaffirmed in March 2023, when Kwan traveled to Israel on a HDI-funded trip that Nativ helped facilitate, according to the complaint. Several months later, HDI emailed Nativ to express "gratitude for her prior work" and urge her "to reapply for the 2024-2025 academic year."
Education Dept to investigate Haverford for allegedly failing to address campus Jew-hatred
The U.S. Department of Education has opened a Title VI investigation into Haverford College for allegedly violating federal civil rights law for failing to address harassment against Jewish and Israeli students on campus, the department announced on Wednesday.

“Jewish students—like all students—deserve to learn and thrive in an environment free from wanton hostility and intentional intimidation,” stated Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights at the department.

“The Trump administration will not allow Jewish life to be pushed into the shadows because college leaders are too craven to respond appropriately to unlawful antisemitic incidents on campus,” he said.

According to the department, senior leadership at the private liberal arts college in Haverford, Pa., allegedly told Jewish students that they should be “brave” when dealing with antisemitic bullying and harassment and not expect to be “safe,” in response to student complaints following the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

The college also blamed “the wind” for the vandalism and removal of hostage posters and posters advertising Jewish student events, only acknowledging they were “antisemitic acts” when Haverford president Wendy Raymond was called to testify before Congress, the department stated.


Media boss Harding insists it is ‘untrue to say BBC is antisemitic’
The BBC is “not institutionally antisemitic”, former Times editor James Harding has said, as he discussed the difficulties of media coverage of the Gaza conflict at the Edinburgh TV Festival.

“I am Jewish, proudly so,” he told the audience. “I’m proud, too, to have worked for the most important news organisation in the world.

“The BBC is not institutionally antisemitic. It’s untrue to say it is.”

Delivered the James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture at the festival on Wednesday, Harding added:“It’s also unhelpful – much better to correct the mistakes and address the judgment calls that have been wrong, than smear the institution, impugn the character of all the people who work there and, potentially, undermine journalists in the field working in the most difficult and dangerous of conditions.”

Harding, now editor-in-chief at The Observer newspaper insisted the perception of a “political presence looming over the BBC” is a problem and the broadcaster needs to be “beyond the reach of politicians”.

The BBC has repeatedly criticised for a number of incidents in recent months which include breaching its own accuracy editorial guidelines and livestreaming the Bob Vylan Glastonbury set, where there were chants of “Death, death to the IDF (Israel Defence Forces)”.

Discussing the BBC’s coverage of the Gaza Harding appeared to take issue with Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy’s intervention.

He described how “newsrooms are in a furious argument with ourselves over the coverage of Israel and Gaza”, with the situation “very hard to view dispassionately”.


Zarah Sultana previously expressed support for antisemitism definition she now opposes
Anti-Israel MP Zarah Sultana “willingly” expressed support for the IHRA definition of antisemitism during the 2019 general election, despite now accusing Jeremy Corbyn of “capitulating” to those who support it.

Jewish News has learned that the Coventry South independent MP, now co-leader of a new left-wing party alongside Corbyn, expressed support for the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of Jew-hate after taking part in a survey.

Sultana was one of the 18 Muslim Labour MPs at the time to express support for IHRA.

Sources told Jewish News there had been no objection to the definition expressed by Sultana at the time.

Some pro-Palestine organisations have claimed that IHRA conflates criticism of Israel with antisemitism and is designed to silence those campaigning against Israeli oppression.

An initiative by the All Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism and Lord Mann invited MPs to sign up to the definition after the General Election that year.

“The result was 637 parliamentarians personally signed up to the definition in what is believed to be the largest collective parliamentary support for any non-parliamentary document in modern times,” the Antisemitism Policy Trust, which provides the secretariat for the APPG, said.

It is now understood the only Labour MP not to back the IHRA definition in the 2019 survey was Graham Morris.

Speaking to the New Left Review, Sultana has now claimed that Corbynism “capitulated” to the IHRA definition of antisemitism. Zarah Sultana: I'm a loud and proud anti-Zionist. Print that.

She also said it “equates” antisemitism with anti-Zionism, although there is nothing in the definition to confirm this claim.
Independent MP tells neo-Nazi account he’d ban kosher meat
Independent MP Rupert Lowe has come under fire after telling a neo-Nazi social media account that he would support banning kosher meat in the public sector.

The Great Yarmouth MP, suspended by Reform UK in March over bullying allegations, was replying on X when he made the remark.

Lowe had written that “no public sector institution should serve halal meat.” When asked by an account bearing the lightning bolt logo of Oswald Mosley’s British Union of fascists, “What about kosher meat?”, he responded: “Ban it.”

The anonymous account, operating under the name @PureNomad, is linked to the New British Union (NBU), a self-described fascist organisation led by former BNP and Britain First activist Gary Raikes. The group wears black shirt uniforms and adopts Mosley-era insignia.

The account regularly shares Holocaust denial, antisemitic conspiracy theories, and open praise of Adolf Hitler. On the same day it engaged with Lowe, it wrote: “I don’t think Hitler was initially wrong,” and blamed “Zionist hands on the country’s purse” for starting the Second World War.

This is the latest controversy involving Lowe, a former Southampton FC chairman elected in July 2024. In June, he told Parliament that halal and kosher slaughter should be banned, calling non-stun meat “morally repugnant.” A month earlier he referred to a small camera in the Commons as a “Jewish camera.”


Moldy food, claims of pork in Gaza aid drop force denial from Spain
A video circulating on social media since the beginning of the month has sparked controversy over the quality of humanitarian aid supplied by Spain that was airdropped into Gaza.

The footage shows a bag of food with Spanish writing and bearing the logo of JOMIPSA, a company based in Alicante, Spain, which produces food kits for humanitarian missions across Europe and for NATO.

A young man, unseen in the video clip, says the bag was dropped near Khan Yunis. It contained 24 individually wrapped food items. He removes them and shows that the packets are covered in mold.

Along with France, Germany, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, Spain airdropped food and medical supplies into Gaza on Aug. 1.

Spain provided 12 tons of food in that drop using 24 parachutes. It included 5,500 rations, enough to feed 11,000 people, Euro News reported on Monday.

The young man in the video said the bags were sold for around 75 euros ($87) in local markets.

Other videos circulating online showed bags similar to the one in the video. Sources told Spanish news outlet EFE that they were being sold for 90 euros ($105) in Gaza markets.

Further controversy emerged after claims that the Spanish shipment included pork-based items.


Israel seeks end to UN mission in Southern Lebanon
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar has formally informed U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio that Israel seeks the immediate termination of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

In a letter, Sa’ar argued that UNIFIL has failed in its core mission, pointing to Iranian-backed Hezbollah’s continued terror buildup since the 2006 Second Lebanon War.

“The force was intended to be temporary from the outset and has failed in its fundamental task—to prevent Hezbollah’s entrenchment south of the Litani River,” wrote Sa’ar, according to Israel Hayom.

The top Israeli diplomat is expected to meet Rubio, who also serves as the U.S. National Security Advisor, during a visit to Washington next week.

The Trump administration has said it wants to see UNIFIL, which the White House described as “fraught with waste and abuse,” wind down as Lebanon’s military disarms Hezbollah.

But a France-drafted U.N. Security Council resolution, which JNS viewed, proposes to extend UNIFIL’s mandate by a year, with no condition for its ultimate end. The mandate is set to expire on Aug. 31. As a permanent member of the council, Washington holds veto power over its extension.

The Associated Press reported that Rubio had approved earlier this month “a plan that would wind down and end UNIFIL in the next six months, according to Trump administration officials and congressional aides familiar with the discussions.”

The French draft contains no mention of a planned end to UNIFIL’s operations, even as the AP reported that Washington is willing to support a one-year extension, so long as it’s “followed by a time-certain wind-down period of six months.”


Syria issues rare confirmation of talks with Israel as US pushes to stabilize ties
Syria’s foreign minister held a rare meeting with an Israeli delegation in Paris on Tuesday, the Syrian state-run news agency reported. The talks were brokered by the United States, which has been pushing for Syria and Israel to normalize relations, the report said.

The SANA news agency said Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani met with Israeli officials to discuss deescalating tensions and restoring a 1974 ceasefire agreement. The talks resulted in “understandings that support stability in the region,” according the agency.

“These talks are taking place under US mediation, as part of diplomatic efforts aimed at enhancing security and stability in Syria and preserving the unity and integrity of its territory,” it added.

There was no immediate comment from Israel on Tuesday’s talks, which Hebrew media outlets earlier reported would be attended by Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, who is a top aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack.

Dermer and al-Shaibani previously met in Azerbaijan late last month, and held another meeting in Paris the week before that.

“The United States continues to support any efforts that will bring lasting stability and peace between Israel and its neighbors,” a senior Trump administration official, who was not authorized to comment publicly, told the Associated Press after Tuesday’s meeting.

The official noted US President Donald Trump’s outlined “vision of a prosperous Middle East” that includes a “stable Syria at peace with itself and its neighbors — including Israel,” adding that “we want to do everything we can to help achieve that.”


Why the clock is ticking on the Iranian regime
Iran’s domestic challenges did not materialise suddenly and unexpectedly. They are result of years of water mismanagement, government corruption, and a foreign policy that prioritised regional hegemony over the basic needs of its people. Already in 2011 Iranians were protesting over the government’s plundering of the country’s natural resources. Hundreds were arrested as they chanted about the near-demise of Iran’s biggest lake. “Lake Urmia is dying, and [Iran’s] parliament ordered its death,” protesters shouted.

Billions of dollars have been spent in developing a nuclear weapons programme and a reserve of ballistic missiles that severely imperils the Middle East and robs ordinary Iranians of basic supplies.

Even before the Islamic Republic’s military defeat to Israel and the United States, the regime’s economic backbone was crumbling.

In May and June of this year, truck drivers staged massive protests across 163 cities, grinding vital supply chains to a halt. They protested because of desperately low wages, skyrocketing inflation, rising insurance costs and a government increasingly callous about their grievances.

Rather than confront these domestic challenges, the Islamic Republic is resorting to mass arrests of civilians deemed insurrectionary — as many as 700 in June alone, including at least 35 Jewish Iranians in Tehran and Shiraz — and retreating into self-delusion.

With its military commanders battered and reputation heavily tarnished, the regime is attempting a desperate rebranding by embracing ancient folklore and pre-Islamic patriotic symbols that the theocracy had previously openly mocked to create a rally-around-the-flag effect for its populace.

In Tehran’s bustling Vanak Square pedestrians can now amble past an imposing billboard of Arash the Archer, a heroic figure in Persian mythology, firing arrows alongside the Islamic Republic’s ballistic missiles heading to Israel.

But many Iranians are likely to see this as a transparent attempt by the regime to cling to history it once scorned and to distract a disillusioned population from the rot it has created.

Nowhere is this disillusionment more powerful than in the courageous generation that rose up in the autumn of 2022, following the killing of 22-year-old Jina Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police. Her death ignited the most significant uprising in the Islamic Republic’s 46-year history.

“Woman, Life, Freedom” was not just a chant — it was a reckoning. Across provinces, ethnic lines and generations, Iranians demanded a future beyond religious authoritarianism. Women burned their headscarves. High school and university students clamoured for more freedoms. Workers in key industries staged nationwide strikes.

Though the regime responded with unrelenting violence and mass arrests, the embers of that movement still burn.

Now, with the regime weakened militarily, battered economically, suffocating under its own environmental mismanagement – and, in some instances, literally unable to keep the lights on – some Iranians have told me they sense opportunity.

The regime may think it can crush dissent through brute force or distract it with romanticised folklore, but it is mistaken. You cannot rewrite reality with an anthem and the people of Iran have had enough.


Iran says it has developed new, better missiles; will use them if Israel attacks again
Iran warned on Wednesday that it was prepared for any new Israeli attack, announcing it had developed missiles with greater capabilities than those used during the recent war.

“The missiles used in the 12-day war were manufactured… a few years ago,” Defense Minister Aziz Nassirzadeh said, quoted by the official IRNA news agency.

“Today, we have manufactured and possess missiles with far greater capabilities than previous missiles, and if the Zionist enemy embarks on the adventure again, we will undoubtedly use them.”

Nassirzadeh’s comments came after a senior official in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Sunday that another war with Israel or the United States could begin at any time.

“We are not in a ceasefire, we are in a stage of war,” Yahya Rahim Safavi, a senior military adviser to Iran’s Supreme LeaderAli Khamenei, told Iranian media. “I think another war may happen, and after that, there may be no more wars.”

Nassirzadeh was speaking on Wednesday with Iranian media outlets on the sidelines of a meeting with allied military personnel, who were visiting the Islamic Republic ahead of the country’s National Defense Industry Day on August 22.

According to the semi-official Mehr News Agency, Nassirzadeh spoke extensively about Iran’s “success” during its 12-day war with Israel, which opened on June 13 with a surprise Israeli attack against Tehran’s nuclear and military capabilities.
Soldiers suspended from Canada’s army after Nazi salute on video
Five soldiers have been suspended from the Canadian military after video footage provided to the military allegedly showed them performing the Nazi salute, CBC reported on Tuesday.

It shows people at what appears to be a basement house party, where an individual takes an unidentified substance before “other individuals perform the Nazi salute,” confirmed Lt. Gen. Mike Wright, the commander of the Canadian Army.

He also stated that the army launched an immediate investigation to “determine the breadth and scope of the incident.”

Wright stated that at least five individuals in the video were identified as members of the Canadian army and have since been suspended pending investigation.

“These members remain subject to administrative and disciplinary action that may lead to their release,” he said.

The army said the video was taken in 2023.


German court rules Nazi camp memorial can bar visitors wearing keffiyeh
A German court said Wednesday that a Nazi concentration camp memorial has the right to refuse entry to those wearing the Palestinian keffiyeh scarf.

The higher administrative court in the eastern state of Thuringia rejected a request from a woman to be allowed entry to the Buchenwald concentration camp memorial while wearing a keffiyeh.

According to local media reports, the woman was turned away when she attempted to attend a commemorative event marking the 80th anniversary of the camp’s liberation in April while wearing the scarf.

She then petitioned the courts to allow her to return to the memorial for another commemorative event this week while wearing a keffiyeh.

The court found that the memorial was within its rights to deny her entry, pointing to the woman’s declared aim of “sending a political message against what she saw as the [memorial’s] one-sided support for the policies of the Israeli government.”

“It is unquestionable that this would endanger the sense of security of many Jews, especially at this site,” the court said.
Thoma Bravo in talks to buy Israeli cybersecurity firm Armis at $5b. valuation
US private equity fund Insight Partners is in talks to sell Israeli cybersecurity company Armis to US private equity firm Thoma Bravo at a company valuation of $5 billion, sources familiar with the negotiations have told "Globes."

The deal will likely be completed by selling control to Thomas Bravo at a valuation of $5 billion and by injecting hundreds of millions of dollars into the company. At this stage, it is unknown what the holding percentage of existing shareholders will be.

If the deal is completed, Insight Partners, which focuses on young growth companies, will gain $2-3 billion. Other major shareholders include Canadian fund Georgian, Chicago-based GT Squared, and New York-based One Equity Partners, for which the investment is managed by Ori Cohen, Capital G, Brookfield, General Catalyst, and Alkeon Capital.

Nearing an IPO?
According to PitchBook's investment database, since its acquisition by Insight Partners in 2020, which was intended to enhance the company for a sale, Armis has raised over $800 million in venture capital and loans from Hercules Capital

The company announced earlier this month that its annual revenue growth rate (ARR) was about $300 million — a $100 million increase over 2024. This gives a valuation multiple ono ARR of only 16-17, low compared with the double-digit multiples at which cybersecurity companies like Wiz or Dazz have been acquired recently.

The company was only recently valued at $4.5 billion during a private sale of shares (a "secondary" round) in which long-time investors and employees sold shares totaling $100 million.
World's first spinal cord transplant to take place in Israel, could allow patients to walk again
Israel is preparing to perform the world’s first-ever human spinal cord implant using a patient’s own cells, a medical breakthrough that could allow paralyzed patients to stand and walk again, Tel Aviv University announced on Wednesday. The surgery, expected in the coming months, will take place in Israel and marks a historic milestone in regenerative medicine.

According to the World Health Organization, over 15 million people worldwide are living with spinal cord injuries, with the majority resulting from traumatic causes such as falls, road traffic accidents, and violence.

Currently, spinal cord injuries cannot be fully cured, so treatment focuses on stabilizing the patient, preventing further damage, and maximizing function. Emergency care often involves immobilizing the spine, reducing inflammation, and sometimes performing surgery to repair fractures or relieve pressure.

Rehabilitation includes physical and occupational therapy, as well as assistive devices like wheelchairs and braces. While experimental therapies—including stem cells and robotic devices—are being explored, no treatment yet reliably restores full spinal cord function.

Spinal cord injuries are one of the few human injuries where the body cannot naturally heal itself, and the tissue is both structurally complex and extremely sensitive.

“The spinal cord transmits electrical signals from the brain to all parts of the body. When it is severed by trauma—such as a car accident, a fall, or a combat injury—the chain is broken. Think of an electrical cable that has been cut: when the two ends no longer touch, the signal cannot pass, and the patient remains paralyzed below the injury,” explained Professor Tal Dvir, head of the Sagol Center for Regenerative Biotechnology and the Nanotechnology Center at Tel Aviv University, who is leading the effort. Dvir is also the chief scientist at Matricelf, the Israeli biotech company commercializing the technology.

Unlike other tissues, spinal cord neurons cannot naturally regenerate, and over time, scar tissue blocks remaining signals. The new procedure aims to replace the damaged section with a lab-grown spinal cord that fuses with healthy tissue above and below the injury. Animal studies in rats have shown remarkable results, with the animals regaining the ability to walk normally.
First Nefesh B’Nefesh charter flight since Oct. 7 very emotional for new immigrants
It wasn’t lost on Ofir Sofer, the Israeli aliyah and integration minister, how unusual it was for someone of his prominence to fly to another country solely to board a charter return flight full of new immigrants.

“Flights like this—a big group of olim that come in one day to Israel is a strong message that is conveyed to our people that is not just happening today. It’s happened since Oct. 7,” Sofer told JNS aboard the first Nefesh B’Nefesh charter flight since the terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

JNS spoke with the minister after he recited the evening prayer and as the El Al crew dimmed the lights and the plane flew over the ocean, Tel Aviv-bound.

A sea of blue T-shirts, many customized with family names, filled the plane. Nefesh B’Nefesh told JNS that 225 people made aliyah on the flight—its 65th to date—that landed early on Wednesday morning.

New immigrants ranged in age from 72 to nine months, and there were 45 families, 125 children and 10 single people among the olim, who were split about evenly between men and women. Immigrants hailed from Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington, as well as Ontario, per Nefesh B’Nefesh.

Before the plane departed from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, travelers sang “Hatikvah,” the Israeli national anthem, overseen by heavily armed Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department officers.

Despite rising Jew-hatred in the United States necessitating such guards at U.S. airports, Sofer told JNS that the new immigrants were motivated to move to Israel rather than fleeing from North America.

“I talked to a few families. They told me that they thought about aliyah. I asked them when they decided. They decided in the last year, but they thought about it for eight years, decades,” he said. “Oct. 7 pushed them to make the decision.”






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