Friday, October 03, 2025

  • Friday, October 03, 2025

10/03 Links Pt2: Qatar, Not Israel is Taking Control of D.C.; Ben Shapiro: Trump’s peace deal, Charlie Kirk’s legacy; Uni of Maryland Student Govt. Passes BDS Res. on Yom Kippur

From Ian:

Mossad reveals role in arrest of Hamas-linked cell in Germany said plotting to kill Jews
The Mossad was involved in Wednesday’s arrest of a Hamas-linked cell in Germany that planned to carry out attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets, the agency announced Friday.

The Israeli foreign intelligence service said the arrest was possible because of close coordination between the Mossad and Germany’s security and intelligence services.

German prosecutors said on Wednesday that they arrested three suspected foreign operatives of Hamas they believe were preparing a serious act of violence in Germany.

The three men are suspected by prosecutors of being involved in procuring firearms and ammunition for Hamas since at least the summer of this year, to be used for assassinations targeting Israeli or Jewish institutions in Germany.

“In the course of today’s arrests, various weapons, including an AK-47 assault rifle and several pistols, as well as a considerable amount of ammunition, were found,” said the federal prosecutors in a statement at the time.

The three, identified in line with German privacy laws only as German citizen Abed Al G., Wael F. M., born in Lebanon, and German citizen Ahmad I., were arrested in Berlin on Wednesday.

Anti-terrorism investigators had been surveilling the suspects for some time before operational forces nabbed them at a weapons handover in the German capital.

Police intervened in the exchange and discovered arms, including an AK-47 assault rifle, a Glock pistol and large amounts of ammunition, the prosecutor’s office said.

The Mossad said that the effort to stop the cell spanned several countries, and was “part of an extensive Mossad effort throughout Europe during which weapons caches were located and further arrests were made of operatives suspected of terrorist offenses.”
MSNBC Host Ayman Mohyeldin Attends Festival Featuring Former PLO Spokeswoman
A longtime MSNBC host last month attended an anti-Israel gathering alongside a long list of Hamas cheerleaders, social media posts reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon show.

Ayman Mohyeldin, an Egyptian-born MSNBC personality, appeared in an Instagram post at the London "Together for Palestine" music festival with British actor Khalid Abdalla. Also at the festival were a former spokeswoman for a designated terrorist organization, a United Nations official currently under U.S. sanctions, and disgraced former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan.

Between musical numbers, the audience heard from people like Diana Buttu, a former Palestinian Liberation Organization spokeswoman, who has spent more than a decade defending Hamas. She described the Oct. 7, 2023, attack as the "natural consequence, unfortunately, of 56 years of military occupation and the denial of freedom."

On the day of the massacre, Buttu said, "When you punch your abuser in the face, it feels good. The first reaction was elation—we saw that both in Gaza and in the West Bank."

She has also praised Hamas as a "movement for freedom, for liberation," and lauded its former leader, Yahya Sinwar, who was killed in an IDF operation in October 2024.

"The Israelis will never understand what it means to die a hero," she said.

Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, who has been under U.S. sanctions since July, also spoke at the festival.

"For nearly a century, the Palestinian people have lived under the weight of a brutal settler colonial project, a perpetual occupation justified as security—security of whom?—and enforced through apartheid," Albanese said.

The Trump administration sanctioned Albanese over the series of letters "riddled with inflammatory rhetoric and false accusations" she sent to a long list of companies in an effort to pressure them against doing business in Israel. The State Department also noted that Albanese claims to be an "international lawyer" despite never having been licensed to practice law.

Former MSNBC anchor Mehdi Hasan delivered a fiery sermon on behalf of Palestinian "journalists," many of whom have collaborated with Hamas.

MSNBC canceled Hasan’s show in November 2023 after the former host spent the weeks after Oct. 7 defending terrorism. He notably pushed the discredited idea that Israel bombed al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza, an explosion that turned out to have been caused by a misfired Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket. Hasan has compared non-Muslims to "cattle" and blamed Hamas’s attack on Israel as well, and has previously been accused of plagiarizing a column he wrote in defense of spanking children.
Henry Hamra, a Syrian Jew living in US, running in elections for new Syrian parliament
Henry Hamra, who fled Syria to the US in 1992, is running for a seat on Sunday in Syria’s first legislature since the December ousting of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.

If elected, Hamra, who is running for a seat representing the Damascus district, would be the first Jewish representative to enter parliament since 1947, according to Syrian historian Sami Moubayed.

In the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Damascus on Friday, an AFP photographer saw posters on walls bearing Hamra’s image alongside the Syrian flag and reading: “Candidate for Damascus for the Syrian People’s Assembly.”

A flyer published on Hamra’s campaign account on X reads: “Towards a flourishing, tolerant and just Syria,” while his program sets out pledges including bringing together Syrian Jews, protecting Syria’s heritage and cultural identity, and working with US Syrians to abolish the US “Caesar Act,” which imposes economic sanctions on Syria without conditions.

Electoral commission spokesperson Nawar Najmeh told AFP that Hamra is an “official candidate for the elections and announced his election program like any other candidate.”

Two-thirds of Syria’s 210-seat legislature will be selected by local committees, while the rest will be nominated by Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in a selection process that has been criticized as undemocratic.

Hamra fled the Syrian capital to the US with his father, Rabbi Yusuf Hamra, at the age of 15 in 1992, the year Assad’s father and predecessor, Hafez, removed restrictions on Jews’ travel abroad.

The elder Hamra is a leader of Brooklyn’s Syrian Jewish community and is the brother of the late Rabbi Avraham Hamra, the last Syrian chief rabbi, who fled to Israel in 1994 and settled in Holon.

In February, Henry Hamra and his father visited Damascus from the United States, participating in a group prayer for the first time in more than three decades in the Old City’s Faranj synagogue.

At its peak, Syria’s millennia-old Jewish community numbered some 100,000 people, but today, only a handful remain.


Ben Shapiro: Trump’s peace deal, Charlie Kirk’s legacy, and his new book
Ben Shapiro joins The Jerusalem Post's Editor-in-Chief Zvika Klein for an exclusive interview on Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan, the legacy of Charlie Kirk, and his latest book. In this conversation, Shapiro offers his perspective on the challenges and opportunities facing Israel and the United States as the region looks toward possible new frameworks for peace.

The interview also touches on Charlie Kirk, the late founder of Turning Point USA, whose influence on young conservatives shaped political debates in the US. Shapiro reflects on Kirk’s legacy and the importance of continuing to have hard conversations.

Shapiro also discusses the ideas behind his new book, Lions and Scavengers: The True Story of America (and Her Critics), why he chose to write it now, and what message he hopes readers will take away.


Israel seizes last flotilla boat, readies to deport hundreds, as more ships set sail for Gaza
The Israeli Navy on Friday intercepted the last of the 42 vessels trying to break the maritime blockade on Gaza as part of the Global Sumud Flotilla, with the Foreign Ministry saying it had deported four activists so far out of 470 who were detained trying to deliver symbolic humanitarian aid directly to the war-torn Strip.

Meanwhile, a new group of nine vessels banded together to form a new flotilla, trying to succeed where its predecessor failed.

“Procedures are underway to wrap up the Hamas-Sumud provocation and to finalize the deportation of the participants in this sham,” the ministry said. “Already, four Italian citizens have been deported. The rest are in the process of being deported.

“Israel is keen to end this procedure as quickly as possible,” it added.

The ministry also shared photos of Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg and other activists who were taken upon their arrival in Israel Thursday night. “All are safe and in good health,” the ministry said.
Ben-Gvir blasts Greta and her flotilla friends as ‘terror supporters’
Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Friday lambasted Swedish climate activist “Greta Thunberg and her pro-Hamas friends” on board the “Global Sumud Flotilla” intercepted by Israel en route to Gaza this week.

“You are all terrorists,” Ben-Gvir said. “You are supporting murderers, supporting Gaza, supporting terrorists. You are terror supporters. There is no humanitarian aid here.”

An Israeli Foreign Ministry video showed Thunberg, the most famous of the more than 250 activists detained, sitting on a deck circled by IDF soldiers on her second flotilla to Gaza. Another prominent passenger detained was Mandla Mandela, the late South African leader Nelson Mandela’s grandson, who converted to Islam.

In a letter obtained by JNS, his sister, Ndileka Mandela, describing herself as Mandela’s “first and eldest granddaughter,” appealed on Thursday to South Africa’s International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola, “to urgently engage with the Israeli authorities, calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Chief Mandla Mandela and all those detained.”

She added that “the flotilla’s sole purpose was to deliver humanitarian assistance food, medical supplies, nappies [diapers] and other essential relief items to the people of Palestine. The delegation comprised peace activists whose mission was solely in humanitarian principles and posed no threat to the State of Israel.”

Late on Thursday, Israel declared the “Global Sumud Flotilla” over after intercepting dozens of boats attempting to breach the naval blockade of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. The last vessel seeking to break Israel’s maritime blockade on Gaza was intercepted early on Friday.

According to the military, due to mechanical problems, the vessel lagged behind the other 41 ships, all of which were intercepted by the Israeli Navy. The Israel Defense Forces reported that the flotilla’s vessels were stopped without incident and that the passengers were “safe and in good health” before being deported back to Europe.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry mocked the flotilla as a staged stunt, posting on X that “it was never about the aid. It was always about the provocation.” It said Israel Police were searching for the promised humanitarian supplies, “but, so far, they haven’t found much.”


The Numbers Don’t Lie: Qatar, Not Israel is Taking Control of D.C.
The $93.7 Billion Footprint
Lobbying is just the beginning. According to The Free Press, Qatar’s overall U.S. footprint adds up to $93.7 billion, broken down like this:
Business investments: $30 billion
Weapons purchases: $29 billion
Energy plants and export facilities: $20 billion
Al Udeid Air Base: $8 billion
Lobbying and PR: $250 million
Colleges and universities: $6.3 billion



That last figure is astonishing. Qatar is the single largest foreign funder of U.S. colleges and universities in history. The next closest? China and Hong Kong at $5.6 billion. Germany follows with $4.2 billion, England with $4.1 billion, and Saudi Arabia/Canada at $3.7 billion.

Qatar blows them all away.

Six major U.S. universities still operate campuses in Qatar: Virginia Commonwealth, Cornell, Texas A&M, Carnegie Mellon, Georgetown, and Northwestern (though Texas A&M is withdrawing in a couple of years).

Georgetown University (main campus in Washington, D.C.) has received over $1 billion.
Northwestern University has taken around $800 million.
Texas A&M once had $700 million, until their contract was canceled last year.

D.C. Capture
Qatar’s influence isn’t abstract. It’s quite literally physically all over Washington.
Al Jazeera’s subsidiary AJ+, based in D.C., was ordered by the DOJ in 2020 to register as a foreign agent. Five years later, it still hasn’t — and the DOJ has failed (or refused?) to enforce its own order.
Speaking of Al Jazeera, the Qatari government-run outlet also has unrivaled access on Capitol Hill. Congressman Jack Bergman revealed in 2024 that Al Jazeera and its subsidiaries hold 136 congressional press credentials. The New York Times only has 82.
The DOJ itself is now headed by Pam Bondi, who was once a registered foreign agent of Qatar and helped polish Doha’s image ahead of the 2022 World Cup.
And let’s not forget real estate: the sprawling CityCenterDC development — 2 million square feet across five city blocks — is majority owned by Qatari Diar, which allegedly required the project to adhere to Sharia finance principles (equity investment only, no interest) and imposing restrictions on banks, bars, and certain businesses.

The Bottom Line

The numbers don’t lie. Qatar is:
Spending far more than Israel on lobbying.
Pumping billions into U.S. universities.
Enjoying extraordinary media access.
Embedding itself directly into Washington real estate.

Yet when the FARA conversation comes up, the outrage is laser-focused on Israel — where the actual numbers don’t even come close.

And before all the naysayers start whining about “AIPAC operating as an unregistered foreign agent” or some such nonsense, let me remind you: Washington is full of organizations advocating for strong U.S. ties with Greece (HALC), Armenia (ANCA), Ireland (Irish Caucus networks), India (USINPAC), and Taiwan (FAPA). Yet the outrage always seems saved just for AIPAC.

Any honest conversation about foreign influence in Washington has to start with the country that’s been pouring billions into U.S. politics, universities, media, and even the capital city itself. That country is Qatar.


Polanski accuses Starmer government of ‘murdering Palestinians’ in Greens conference speech
Green Party leader Zack Polanski has attacked Keir Starmer’s government, accusing it of being “an active participant in the murdering of the Palestinians” during his address at the party’s annual conference in Bournemouth.

Polanski’s remarks came just one day after a terror attack at a Manchester synagogue, which he acknowledged with a personal reflection on his Jewish background. “As a Jewish man raised in North Manchester, I feel this deeply, and my heart is with the community,” he told party members.

In his first speech as Green leader, Polanski focused heavily on the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

He condemned the government’s recognition of a Palestinian state as “deeply cynical and morbid,” claiming it coincided with British complicity in the violence.

“We must stop selling arms to Israel, we must stop sharing intelligence, we will do everything we can to stop the genocide,” Polanski declared, drawing loud support from conference attendees.

Polanski also called for the lifting of the ban on Palestine Action, a protest group recently proscribed under anti-terror legislation for its direct actions against companies supplying arms to Israel.
Netherlands maintains ban on export of F-35 parts to Israel despite court ruling
The Netherlands said Friday it would maintain its ban on exporting parts for F-35 fighter jets to Israel despite a Supreme Court order giving it the option to change its policy.

The ban on exporting parts for the jets used by Israel in its campaign against Hamas in Gaza has been in place since February 2024, when an Appeals Court ordered the government to halt exports.

But earlier Friday, the Supreme Court ruled that this court had overstepped its brief and said it was up to the government, not judges, to set foreign policy.

Supreme Court judges gave the government six weeks to review its policy on export licenses, but the decision came in a matter of hours.

“Given the current circumstances, it is unreasonable to resume the export of F-35 components from the Netherlands to Israel at this time,” the government said in a statement.

The US-owned F-35 parts are stored at a warehouse in the Netherlands, then shipped to several partners, including Israel, via existing export agreements.

The government stressed its commitment to the F-35 program as “a vital factor in safeguarding our security and that of our allies.”

It said it had taken the case to the Supreme Court “because, according to the cabinet, it is up to the state to shape its foreign policy.”

However, this step was unrelated to what the government called “the catastrophic situation in the Gaza Strip.”

“A ceasefire must be reached as soon as possible to end the violence and the suffering of the population, and to release the hostage,” said the statement.

Friday’s Supreme Court ruling put an end to a long-running legal saga over the parts.
Ireland poised to blunt sanctions on Israel under corporate pressure, say sources
Ireland is poised to curb planned sanctions on Israel, blunting a law central to its protest over the war in Gaza, after pressure from business groups concerned about the impact on investment, four people with knowledge of the matter said.

Ireland's government is one of the most outspoken critics of the war in Gaza, but, unlike others such as Spain, it hosts the European headquarters of some of the US's biggest companies, making it uniquely vulnerable to pressure from the US.

Mainly US-owned foreign multinationals employ around 11% of Irish workers and contribute most of the corporate tax that makes up almost a third of all Irish tax receipts.

Although many governments have condemned the war in Gaza and Israeli annexation of territories in the West Bank, it has remained largely unsanctioned, shielded from economic pressure by its close alliance with Washington.

Ireland has been preparing to sanction trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank for a year, provoking criticism from Israel, international company lobby groups, and threats of reprisal from US lawmakers.
University of Maryland Student Government Passes BDS Resolution on Yom Kippur
The University of Maryland Student Government Association passed a Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) resolution on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year.

The student government voted 29-1 Wednesday night in favor of the resolution, which urges the university to sever ties with companies and institutions that "support or profit from Israel’s regime of apartheid and occupation," according to the Diamondback, the student newspaper. The resolution is symbolic and can’t change university policy.

The decision to set the vote at the beginning of Yom Kippur rips an anti-Semitic page out of the United Nations’ playbook. Under pressure from Islamic states, the UN Security Council scheduled a critical meeting on the Gaza war during the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah in late September, the Washington Free Beacon reported. The Security Council also refused Israel’s requests to change the date, ultimately preventing the Jewish state from partaking in any debate.

The University of Maryland Student Government Association likewise originally scheduled the vote for Rosh Hashanah, but later changed it to Yom Kippur, according to the Diamondback. Planning the vote for the high holidays prompted 18 Jewish student groups to boycott future meetings regarding BDS, saying they would "not legitimize the efforts of any SGA members’ one-sided, anti-Israel, and antisemitic agenda."

As the student government discussed the resolution, a senior justified the decision to schedule the vote during the holy day.

"Today is the beginning of Yom Kippur. You know who does not care that it's a holiday? The Israeli occupation forces," the senior said, a recording of the meeting shows. "The Zionists’ goals is [sic] nothing but complete genocide and elimination. So the Zionists have no problem doing the evil work of genocide on the high holiday."


After antisemitic rants and skits, streamer allegedly sought by Twitch for partnership
A Kick streamer with a recent history of engaging in antisemitic rants and skits was allegedly approached by Twitch seeking his involvement in their partnership plan, though the streaming platform insists that it had only sought to discuss their policies.

Cameron Jordan, who goes by the streaming alias Cuffem, had gone on a September 23 live stream dressed in a hat with fake sidelocks in mockery of religious Jews. While streaming, he went on a random video chat platform with settings in place so that he would be paired with users from Israel. Jordan would greet users from Israel by rubbing his hands together in mimicry of an antisemitic meme of a plotting Jew, declaring "shalom, my brother. Psyke, I'm a k**e."

In an attempt to antagonize users from Israel, he called them derogatory slurs, performed Nazi salutes, and waved a Nazi flag, which he referred to as his "logo." He also claimed to be related to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, and accused Jews of running the world and media.

In June, according to streamer news Instagram channel Stream Cream TV, Jordan remarked that while he didn't know the background on the 12-day Israel-Iran war, he hoped that Israel would be destroyed.

"I don't give a damn who started it. The k**es are wrong, kill all Jews," said Jordan. "All I want to see is 60 thousand nukes bombing Israel. That's all I want to see. Take over Israel, Iran."

In February, Jordan said on X/Twitter that he wanted to have a livestream talking about Jews.

"F**k these Jews," wrote Jordan.


How a 29-Year-Old Outsmarted the N@zis & Saved 669 Kids in WW2 | Explained
Nicholas Winton was just 29 when he took on the impossible. In 1938 Prague, on the eve of war, with no office, no staff, and no authority, he forged papers, bribed officials, and organized trains that carried 669 children to safety.

He wasn’t a diplomat or a soldier—just a stockbroker who refused to look away. His daring rescue, hidden for fifty years, proved that even one ordinary man can alter the fate of generations.

Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:57 Who was Nicholas Winton
01:40 Lead up to WW2
02:11 British Committee for Refugees from Czechoslovakia
03:43 Formulating the plan
05:10 The forged documents
06:04 Executing the plan
07:30 The challenges
08:26 The successes
10:59 The failed transport
11:58 Continued work for the war effort
12:27 Delayed recognition






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