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Friday, October 10, 2025

10/10 Links Pt2: Melanie Phillips: The return of hope; Biased media fuels American Jewish opposition to Israel; Manchester and the Exodus From Britain

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: The return of hope
For the past two years, they and others with a similar world-view — and all four of them desperately trying to appease a Muslim population that is threatening their own countries no less than Israel — have been essential to Hamas in its strategy of psychological and diplomatic war against the Jewish state. These four leaders have led their countries in gaslighting Israel and the Jews, shedding crocodile tears over the hostages and over the rampant Jew-hatred in their own countries, and disseminating wall-to-wall lies and falsehoods produced by Hamas that have been swallowed by the west to defame, demonise and delegitimise Israel as a means to its eventual destruction.

This victory over Hamas has been achieved despite Starmer, Macron, Carney and Albanese; achieved in the teeth of everything they have been so dishonorably doing to ensure that Israel lost this desperate war of survival; and against the background of the Jew-hatred convulsing their own population that they did absolutely nothing to stop and a great deal to foment. Any claim to any moral authority that these four leaders ever had has been shot. No-one should anyone view anything they say with respect ever again.

The war against the Jews is far from over. Iran is re-arming and regrouping. Israel will probably have to go to to war against it once again. Qatar remains an enemy not just of Israel but of the west, which it is assiduously subverting through the Muslim Brotherhood that it leads. And the war against the Jews being waged by the haters of Israel and the west within the west will not only continue but may become ever more frenzied as western countries fall apart through social and cultural division and the accelerating crumbling of their own identity.

In the coming days, the Jewish world will hopefully rejoice at the return of its people from their underground tomb where we all feared they would be lost forever; but it will also mourn.

It will mourn those who have been lost on October 7, in the hellish dungeons of Gaza and in this terrible war.

And it will also mourn what we have so shatteringly learned in the past two terrible years: that when the Jews were faced with a second Holocaust, openly declared by Iran and Hamas, the world either didn’t care or was actually cheering it on.

We learned that far too many in the west were determined to deny the Jews the status of victims. Deny they had been victims of anything; ever. Deny that they were victimised now, on October 7 and in the war of self-defence that followed.

Instead, these western “progressives” were determined to stick it to the Jews, to blame them for their own extermination, to accuse them of being the prime source of evil in the world. They appropriated the word “genocide”, the term invented to describe the unparalleled evil that happened to the Jews under the Nazis and was now being openly threatened against the Jews once again, and instead accused the Jewish state of committing that monstrous crime by waging its war of defence against it.

They have stolen the word “genocide” from the Jews just as the Palestinian Arabs try to steal from the Jews their own homeland and their own history in the land of Israel. The west has aided the genocidal “Palestinian” agenda by turning Israel into the Jew among nations.

For this the west will never be forgiven. The Jewish people owe Trump a debt of gratitude. The four horsemen of the anti-Jewish apocalpyse, Starmer, Macron, Carney and Albanese, deserve nothing but contempt.

Israel is hopefully now emerging from a long nightmare. Western nations are descending into theirs.
The end of ‘the West’
Countries cannot exist without people; economies depend on workers to maintain themselves and avoid collapse. Governments understand this; those suffering from a birth crisis have turned to welcoming migrants into their borders. What they’ve failed to understand is that countries cannot be merely a collection of individuals who live in proximity to each other and pay taxes to the same government. They also require an ethos, produced by a collective memory of a shared history that cannot be imported. When native populations are cut by a quarter—in some cases by half—with each generation and are replaced by a massive influx of people who do not carry with them this collective memory, the ethos fades away. A nation, a people, is turned simply into a population, and societal collapse is sure to follow.

That’s the thing about low fertility rates; both their cause and their effect signal troubled societies. The societal collapse in most of the Western world is already showing on the streets. Major protests in support of Islamic terrorism against not just Israel but these countries’ own governments are emblematic of this. The massive and violent protests in Europe, Canada, Australia and the United States signal trouble for these countries first and foremost, less so for Israel.

While some politicians have tried pacifying these protesters (through, most recently, unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state), this has not helped since the root of this unrest is much deeper. In the United Kingdom, the murder of Jewish attendees at a Yom Kippur service in Manchester, England, took place after statehood was declared by Prime Minister Keir Starmer; in France, the government has collapsed for the fourth time in President Emmanuel Macron’s second term. A new parliamentary election could see his political camp fall apart, with calls for his resignation growing ever louder. His move to recognize “Palestine” did nothing to prevent or alleviate this.

For many of these countries, it’s too late to change course. Too much damage has been done; the current trajectory cannot be reversed. For some, recent events sound a dire warning; they have not yet fallen off the cliff, but are dangerously close to it. Major changes in policy are required. First and foremost, pro-natal ones are necessary to encourage those living in these countries to build new generations of natural-born citizens. Another requirement is for immigration policies to be centered on social and political assimilation, even if this draws cries from advocates of political correctness.

As for our ally Israel, what should it do? The first conclusion, which I’ve highlighted in previous pieces, is to adopt a policy of maximalist self-sufficiency. Jerusalem must realize that many of its traditional partners are no longer the reliable allies they once were. Those who still are, such as the United States, may unfortunately also change for the worse in the coming years, and Israel must be prepared for this.

With time, global trends will give rise to new powers, and with that to new alliances and partnerships. We’re already seeing this, for example, in Israel’s growing relationship with India. The end of the fossil-fuel age will also change global dynamics in Israel’s favor. While I have no doubt that opportunities will be abundant, a change of course and preparation for a tough interim period, spanning several decades, is a must.
Drew Pavlou: The World After October 7
Civilisational Conservatism
Witnessing all this, I personally decided that I opposed the concept of having my own head sawn off by Third Worldist jihadists in the name of race communism.

This is just the stand that I chose to make: opposing the idea that everybody I love should have their heads sawn off by raving jihadists in the name of ‘‘decolonisation.’’ I still supported universal public healthcare, but if my own personal reluctance to be beheaded by jihadists made me anathema to the left, I was fine with that.

Unlike drug-addled depressed communists like Gretchen, I loved life. So I didn’t yearn to bare my neck to the executioner’s blade as some kind of penance for having been born as a Westerner in a first world country.

After October 7, I realised that deep down I was a philosophical conservative, simply because I liked my country, my culture and my civilisation. I didn’t hate myself and crave my own oblivion and destruction. I didn’t hate my parents and my family members and my loved ones. So I rejected the radical left’s deep yearning for personal and collective suicide and self-destruction. And I rejected their blood libel.

October 7 taught me that all their decolonial talking points targeting countries like Australia as inherently ‘‘genocidal’’ settler colonies - it’s blood libel designed to prepare the road for terrorist violence in the West. It’s blood libel meant to justify terrorist violence to destroy liberalism and democracy and Western civilisation more broadly.

Our culture, our way of life, our loved ones - they would heap everything we love onto the bonfire and destroy it if they could. Because they don’t share our morality. Nothing we love has any value to them. We saw what their ‘‘decolonisation’’ looked like and it was demonic.

It’s ultimately as simple as this: if you spent the past 24 months cheering on jihadist pack rape and murder and mass killings while promising that your most ardent desire was to extend this bloodshed to Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the US, all the ‘‘Western settler colonies’’ - we are fucking enemies. It’s as simple as that.

I refuse to go meekly to my grave and offer my neck to the executioner’s blade like Gretchen. I’m not going quietly. I choose Western civilisation over barbaric jihadism and suicidal Third Worldist race communism. And like the Israelis, I choose to fight rather than roll over and die.


Jonathan Tobin: Biased media fuels American Jewish opposition to Israel
It’s simply a matter of “garbage in—garbage out” as with any system. If people are fed biased coverage produced by a generation of liberal editors and writers more interested in activism than journalism, and who have already been indoctrinated to believe that Zionism is racism, then why be surprised that a demographic slice of their most loyal readers and viewers—liberal Jews—have been heavily influenced by their efforts?

So, what should be the response of the Jewish community to these troubling results?

While an increased campaign to combat anti-Israel disinformation on social media is important, let’s not kid ourselves. Clever use of the tools of modern communication certainly can help. Still, no matter how much effort is put in, it wouldn’t be enough to counteract belief systems that are the result of choices about identity, religion and politics that predispose people on the left to think that Israel is always wrong and the Palestinians are right, no matter what either of them actually does.

Encouraging more Jews to care about Israel, and to be willing to listen to the truth and disregard blatant falsehoods about it, involves investments in education and Jewish experiences like schools, summer camps and trips to the Jewish state, not hiring influencers to post on TikTok. And if you want to put them in touch with accurate information about what actual Israelis and Palestinians do and believe, then you have to invest in alternatives to a corrupt and biased mainstream media that is more interested in producing work that conforms to their ideological prejudices about intersectional victims than in telling the truth.

It is awful that so many people who claim some sort of Jewish identity are willing to believe the lies spread about Israel. That they do so even while telling pollsters that they feel less safe because of the increase in antisemitism fueled by such coverage is not so much ironic as indicative of the problem posed by the spread of disinformation about Israeli “genocide.”

Support alternative voices
The good news is that outlets like the Post, which lie at the heart of the problem in Jewish disaffection, are declining in influence. Even as the liberal-leaning plurality sinks further into assimilation and a willingness to believe smears of Israel as being true, alternatives to mainstream thinking are proliferating. Outlets like JNS, The Free Press, Tablet and a host of non-leftist foundations and educational institutions are gaining in strength and growing both their reach and support. That’s the real story of Jewish revival that papers like The Washington Post and The New York Times ignore while they highlight the activities of anti-Israel and even antisemitic organizations that claim to be Jewish.

As this poll shows, much of American Jewry is abandoning its heritage and drifting toward the acceptance of antisemitic blood libels to stay in sync with liberal fashion. We have all witnessed the way antisemitic propaganda has been promoted by the political left, as well as by a loud but influential minority on the political right.

But the battle for the soul of America and American Jewry is not lost. Those Jews who understand that their safety—and that of Israel—is bound up with a struggle to defend Western civilization against toxic leftist doctrines, and the bizarre red-green alliance of Marxists and Islamists, are not giving up. More to the point, they are on the same side as the majority of Americans who, with good reason, don’t believe what the liberal press tells them about any topic. The triumph of woke progressivism that is integral to the turn against Israel reached its peak during the Black Lives Matter summer of 2020 and then during the Biden administration. It is now in retreat.

As sobering as some of the recent samples of public opinion about Israel may be, we should not be too discouraged. The majority of Americans, and even most Jews, still stand by Israel. Poll results notwithstanding, Jewish backers of Israel are still on the right side of history.
Jonathan Tobin: Megyn Kelly is wrong: Neutrality on right-wing antisemitism is immoral
Buckley’s example
She couldn’t be more wrong. And it contradicts the example of the late William F. Buckley, a seminal figure of modern American conservatism. He was the founder and editor of National Review, which was the touchstone for conservative thought in the decades following its first issue in 1955.

The patrician and self-consciously intellectual Buckley couldn’t have been more different from Kirk. But as one of the nation’s leading authors and opinion leaders, he was as strong a believer in dialogue across the political divide as the Turning Point USA founder. William F. Buckley Jr.William F. Buckley Jr. attends the second inauguration of U.S. President Ronald Reagan, Jan. 21, 1985. Credit: SPC 5 Bert Goulait/U.S. Military via Wikimedia Commons.

Buckley created “Firing Line,” the first and most influential talking-heads show on American television, in which he interviewed and debated a wide cross-section of political thinkers, including many he strongly disagreed with.

He sought to build a broad conservative coalition, and it is impossible to imagine the Republican victories of the late 20th century without Buckley. He also thought that there needed to be limits to what was considered acceptable discourse. Buckley thought that it was important to hold putative allies on the right accountable as it was to do the same as opponents on the left. To that end, he chased the racists and fanatical extremists of the John Birch Society out of NR and mainstream conservatism in the early 1960s.

He did the same thing three decades later as antisemitism started to rise again on the right. When longtime colleagues Pat Buchanan and Joseph Sobran used their bully pulpits to bash Israel and stigmatize Jews for their support for the Jewish state, it was Buckley who took on the haters. He repudiated Sobran’s writing, which he labeled antisemitic, and pushed him off the magazine’s masthead. As the issue continued to percolate in the aftermath of the Persian Gulf war in December 1991, he devoted an entire issue of the magazine to an essay titled “In Search of Anti-Semitism”(also the title of the book he later published on the same subject), in which he took on Buchanan.

His conclusion was damning: “I find it impossible to defend Pat Buchanan against the charge that what he did and said during the period under examination amounted to anti-Semitism, whatever it was that drove him to say and do it,” Buckley wrote.

Both of those fights weren’t just good for the Jews. They made for a better American conservatism and a healthier national public discourse.

The same imperative is at play today with the likes of Carlson and Owens.

The need for moral clarity
Influenced by our contemporary culture in which all gatekeepers are considered intrinsically wrong, coupled with the way the internet and social media have made it easier for extremists and haters to be heard, podcasters like Kelly are incentivized not to do the right thing. Worse than that, she seems interested in seeking applause from extremists and antisemites for standing up to the Jews, instead of denouncing their hate.

That was made clear when she followed Carlson’s lead when discussing the Jeffrey Epstein case over the summer and claimed that the deceased accused sexual abuser was a Mossad agent. She admitted that she had not a sliver of evidence for this assertion but said it anyway. The only possible motive for someone who is a former lawyer to do that was to feed into the standard antisemitic prejudices of internet conspiracy fans.

People like Carlson and Owens have every right to spout their views, even if what they say is vile. Yet at a moment when antisemitism is surging and Jews are increasingly feeling themselves under siege in the United States, as well as in Europe and the Middle East, thought leaders shouldn’t hesitate not only to shun them, but to make it clear that their hatred has no place in the public square. Doing so is a defense of sanity and decency, not an attack on free speech.

Whether she likes it or not, we have every right to expect that sort of moral clarity and courage from Megyn Kelly. Such criticism doesn’t make her a martyr or a heroine for defending open discourse. It’s a sad testament to the way the hunger for attention has led her to believe that neutrality about antisemitism should be mistaken for conscience or principle.
Lee Smith: Israelis Are Running Through the Halls of the Pentagon!
That senior U.S. officials have mostly kept quiet about Carlson’s anti-Trump campaign is due in part to the belief that he was part of a coalition that helped the president win reelection. Thus, attempts to exile or even discipline him, they assume, may be seen by the base, and especially his audience, as divisive.

But keeping the peace with an influencer who habitually accuses Trump cabinet officials of treason seems suicidal. Consider, for instance, the anti-Trump media’s failure to press the administration for comment on Carlson’s volatile fantasies. Is that because what Trump calls the fake news media doesn’t bother chasing what it instinctively recognizes as fake news? No, they’re quiet because they don’t dare interrupt their opponents in the middle of a monumental blunder.

Every Carlson allegation of Trump administration treachery will be repurposed to hurt Republicans. Local media will force GOP congressional candidates across the country to answer questions about the U.S.-Israel relationship—with the specter of Carlson and his associates in the background ready to jump on responses that don’t pass antisemitic purity tests. And come the 2028 presidential elections, it’s not hard to imagine debate questions directed at likely Republican candidates: Secretary Rubio, since you served in two top national security roles, why didn’t you advise the president to fire Hegseth for failing to stop Israeli officials from commandeering the Pentagon? Every conspiratorial claim will be resurrected to do maximum damage: Vice President Vance, do you also believe that the Jews killed Charlie Kirk? Do you think the Jews killed Jesus, too?

The fact that big MAGA figures like D’Souza have stepped up to challenge Carlson while administration officials are lying back highlights a growing concern that, unlike the president, many of his aides feel no real sense of urgency to accomplish his agenda. Two weeks ago Trump himself fired a shot across Attorney General Pam Bondi’s bow when he posted on Truth Social that the Justice Department’s failure to bring charges against anti-Trump conspirators was “killing our reputation and credibility.”

Trump’s post focused on Erik Siebert, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, who nearly managed to run out the clock on the statute of limitations for charges against former FBI Director James Comey. Then Trump replaced Siebert with his onetime personal attorney Lindsey Halligan, who indicted Comey with only days to spare. What really beggars belief is that no one in the administration seemed to know that Comey’s son-in-law worked as a prosecutor in that office until he resigned after the corrupt spy chief was indicted.

Why are parts of the Trump team not going all out as their boss is? Maybe they think that whatever they don’t finish by the end of his term will get done during his successor’s presidency. So, on that theory, what’s the hurry? Polls show Democrats have high unfavorability numbers, and according to a view widely held by GOP consultants, voters don’t want to return to the chaos that Democrat rule entails, from vaccine mandates and open borders to soaring crime rates and runaway inflation.

But voters have short memories, and even recent history doesn’t support overly rosy assessments of MAGA’s future. Kamala Harris, perhaps the worst presidential candidate in American history, won 75 million votes in 2024 after campaigning for a little more than 100 days.

Time is running out. And Americans who voted for a return to normalcy are rightly concerned that unless the president’s aides bear down and realize they might not get more than three years, the country will be in worse shape four years from now than it was two years back. The failure of administration officials to distance themselves from demoralization campaigns designed to undermine Trump policy, damage U.S. national security, harass Jews, and divide evangelicals seems likely to ensure that future.
The real genocide lie: How a slur against Israel puts all Jews in danger
Recognising the terrible suffering and tragic loss of innocent lives on both sides—the Israelis and the Palestinians caught in this conflict – is a matter of shared humanity. Every life lost is a human tragedy deserving empathy and respect. With a breakthrough peace deal now progressing, there is at last hope that both peoples might step back from the abyss.

A new academic paper, “The Genocide Libel: How the World Has Charged Israel with Genocide,” by historian Norman J.W. Goda, exposes how the toxic genocide accusation has been hurled at Israel not just in recent years, but ever since the 1940s—right from the time the concept of genocide was first defined after the horrors of the Holocaust.

A Claim That Isn’t New—and Isn’t True
For nearly eight decades, activists and Israel’s fiercest critics have twisted the meaning of genocide to suit their political agenda. As Goda reveals, when the term “genocide” first entered international law, there were deliberate attempts to broaden its meaningfrom systematic killing – to include everything from population shifts to lost homes and cultural change. Through careful manipulation of language, Israel quickly became the main target and painted as a “genocidal state” , regardless of what the law actually says.

Goda’s research is clear: the legal definition, adopted in 1948, is precise and severe—it refers only to mass killing with the intent to wipe out a people, nothing more. The constant effort to stretch it, year after year, has been a calculated move to make the accusation stick to Israel. Such false charges are not legitimate criticism; they’re part of a cynical, long-standing strategy to delegitimise Israel and vilify Jews worldwide.

Blurring the Line Between Debate and Demonisation
This misuse of language goes far beyond reasoned debate. By labelling Israelis—and by extension, Jews everywhere—as “genocidal,” activists revive the oldest and most pernicious antisemitic myths, leading to real consequences on Britain’s streets and fuelling hatred across the globe. The claim is not about proportionality or policy; it’s about demonisation.
Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Venezuelan activist Maria Corina Machado
Venezuela’s Maria Corina Machado has won the Nobel Peace Prize.

She won “for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee says in its citation.

US President Donald Trump had made no secret of the fact that he was hoping to win the prize, but on Thursday, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said it had held its final meeting earlier in the week, before Israel and Hamas agreed to Trump’s plan for ending the Gaza war.


Manchester and the Exodus From Britain
Melanie Phillips, a columnist for the Times of London, says the attack in Manchester “took place against the backdrop of two years of demonization, incitement and intimidation directed at the Jewish community.” In an email, she adds that “this has been orchestrated by a Muslim-Far Left alliance with now almost daily street demonstrations that feature chants to destroy Israel, kill Jews and ‘globalize the intifada.’ This has left Jews too frightened to walk in central London when these mobs are allowed to rule the streets with the police doing virtually nothing.” Like Rabbi Dunner, she believes British Jews are “thinking the unthinkable,” asking whether they ought to leave.

“There’s been a massive surge of antisemitic incidents after the Oct. 7 attacks,” says Dave Rich, director of policy for the Community Security Trust, a charity that raises money to protect Jews in Britain. “Antisemitism has become much more mainstream and normalized. People encounter it at schools, workplaces and hospitals, where it just wasn’t present before.”

The picture isn’t irredeemably bleak. The “overall population” are “very well-disposed toward Jews compared to most countries around the world,” Mr. Rich says. The “solidarity” with the Jewish community after the Manchester attack has been “incredible and deeply moving.” And yet there’s a demonstrable threat—from the far left, which sees Israel as a colonial-occupier state, and from within Muslim communities, 6.5% of Britain, which have “levels of antisemitism far higher than in the rest of the population.” The insecurity Jews feel can be seen, Mr. Rich says, in the government’s spending “£18 million a year on paying for commercial security guards at synagogues, Jewish schools and other Jewish buildings.”

David Hirsh, author of “Contemporary Left Antisemitism,” says that despite the absence of violence against Jews in Britain before last week, the country has always been “a pioneer in ‘anti-Zionist’ antisemitism.” The movement for the academic boycott of Israel was “born in Britain in about 2002.” Mr. Hirsh holds the “anticolonial left” most at fault for current antisemitism, suggesting that the far left has devised a vocabulary that allows other kinds of Jew-hatred to flourish. “Nostalgia for the British Mandate in Palestine is the only part of imperial memory that the left can get behind.”

The left’s trump card, Mr. Hirsh says, is its assertion that Israel is committing “genocide” in Gaza. Its effect is “to remove the protections that Jews have had since the Holocaust against antisemitism.” That one word, more than any other, is killing the Jewish way of life in Britain.
Mosque where Imam made derogatory remarks about Jews denies radicalising Manchester terrorist
A mosque near Burnley where repeated derogatory references to Jews have been made in sermons has denied radicalising the Heaton Park Synagogue terrorist, who described in 2022 how he “rly [sic] love the mosque there.”

Jihad Al-Shamie, who carried out the terror attack at the North Manchester shul on Yom Kippur, where two were killed and three seriously injured, had attended the Masjid Sunnah Nelson, twenty-five miles north of Manchester. As reported by the Telegraph, in November 2022, Al-Shamie attended a three day “knowledge conference” at the mosque with his younger brother. His message about how he “really love[d] the mosque” was sent to one of his three wives, who has since spoken about being raped by him.

On more than one occasion, Imam Abul Abbaas Naveed, has made comments about the “yahud” – Jews. In October 2023, as reported by the Telegraph, Naveed cited a hadith – a series of Islamic religious texts read alongside the Quran – which claimed that a Jewish woman from the conquered city of Khaybar served Mohammed and his companions poisoned meat.

“This also shows us the traits of the Yahud [Jews], how treacherous they are and how much they betray and oppress people, because they did this with the greatest of the humans,” Naveed said, in video footage.

Last week, Naveed gave a sermon in which he said that Jews had rejected Islam and that “Whoever has knowledge and does not act by his knowledge, then he has a resemblance to the yahud [Jews].”

Naveed has also referred to Israel in his speeches, saying in August that “each day when you think that the murderous Zionist regime cannot become more evil and more depraved, they surpass themselves, and they add a new level of cruelty and brutality not seen the day before.”

There is no indication of how many times Al-Shamie attended the mosque, and no suggestion that he was among the worshippers who heard these particular sermons given by Naveed.

The Masjid Sunnah Nelson was opened by a charity called Fountains of Knowledge in 2021. In 2023, Fountains of Knowledge was reported to the Charity Commission by the National Secular Society over a sermon given six days after the 7 October massacre by Naveed, in which he linked the situation in Gaza to the “plotting of the kuffar [non-believers] against Islam”.

At the time the Charity Commission said it had given “guidance” to the mosque about not using “inflammatory language”.


Gun plot terror accused ‘hero-worshipped’ Paris attacks mastermind, jury told
A man accused of plotting a gun atrocity on a mass gathering of Jews “hero-worshipped” the mastermind of the 2015 Paris terror attacks, a court has heard.

Walid Saadaoui, 38, and Amar Hussein, 52, are alleged to have plotted to cause “untold harm” and kill as many Jewish people as they could in the north-west of England.

Saadaoui had access to “fierce weapons” including assault rifles which were capable of firing several hundred rounds of ammunition per minute, Preston Crown Court heard, and were the type of firearms used across Paris when 130 people were killed and hundreds more were injured.

Continuing his opening of the prosecution case on Thursday, Harpreet Sandhu KC told jurors: “Abdelhamid Abaaoud’s actions which led to those deaths and injuries were a source of inspiration for Walid Saadaoui.

“He wanted to replicate what Abaaoud had done.

“Walid Saadaoui hero-worshipped that terrorist.”

In social media posts the defendant wrote about the Belgian-born Islamic terrorist – suspected of organising multiple terrorist attacks in Belgium and France – with “pride and reverence”, said the prosecutor.

In a Facebook post in January 2023 he wrote: “At only the age of 26 he humiliated the most notorious heretic states, Belgium and France, and broke their strength. He made the streets run with their impure blood.”
Queen Rania and manifestations of antisemitism in Jordan
The gap between the Hashemite tradition and the open expressions of antisemitism in Jordan’s public sphere reflects the ongoing tension between Israel and Jordan, fueled by Israeli policy toward the Palestinians. This tension has peaked due to fears of a mass expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza (and possibly also from the West Bank) – a scenario considered a “redline” in Jordan, intensifying uncertainty about the future of the peace agreement.

The growing popular solidarity in Jordan with the Palestinians, in general, and with Hamas, in particular, together with the victory of the “Islamic Action Front” (the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood) in the 2024 parliamentary elections, granted legitimacy to a wave of virulent criticism from Jordanian officials and public figures.

This criticism included not only condemnations of Israeli policy but also openly antisemitic statements. In this context, the changes in textbooks must also be understood. These books are the product of a process supervised and approved by state authorities.

Textbooks, especially in history and civics, reflect both the narrative the regime wishes to promote and the “spirit of the times.” For instance, an Arab Barometer survey conducted in January 2025 showed that only about 3% of Jordanians support normalization with Israel, the lowest support rate among all Arab states. The textbooks thus reflect the profound change in attitudes toward Israel, not only in the general public but also within state institutions.

The changes in Jordanian textbooks may not be surprising in light of recent events, but they are surprising compared to positive trends found in textbooks in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE in recent years regarding depictions of Jews and Israel.

UNESCO’s charter, which also deals with textbook revisions, states that since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed. Accordingly, revising textbooks in Jordan – or elsewhere in the Middle East – aimed at eliminating biased and stereotypical depictions of Jews and Israel is essential for building peace between peoples, even if such peace currently seems distant.
Eurovision shocker: Austria will not host if Israel boycott is approved
In a shocking move, the leaders of the Austrian People’s Party (ร–VP) and Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker and State Secretary Alexander Prรถll announced that if there is a boycott against Israel’s participation in the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest, set to be held in Vienna, then Austria’s national broadcaster ORF should not host Eurovision, the website Eurovision Fun reported on Wednesday.

The Eurovision Broadcasting Union (EBU), the body that runs the Eurovision Song Contest, recently announced that its general assembly will hold a vote in November on whether Israel can participate. This vote had been planned for December but was suddenly moved up.

International pressure to boycott Israel
There has been pressure to hold this vote from various European public broadcasters, and several countries have already announced that they will not take part in the 2026 song contest if Israel takes part, because of the war in Gaza.

Spain, Ireland, Slovenia, the Netherlands, and Iceland have all announced they will not participate if Israel takes the stage. Spain’s decision is especially significant because it is one of Eurovision’s “big five” sponsors, along with France, Italy, Germany, and the UK.

Other countries have offered support. Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz previously said that Germany would also withdraw from the contest if Eurovision were to boycott Israel, noting that he feels Germany has “historical responsibility.”

Refusing to host the song contest would be difficult for Austria in many ways, because the country agreed to host in 2026 if it came in first in 2025, which it did, when JJ of Austria won for the song, “Wasted Love.” It could face a potential penalty fee of up to 40 million euros.
Indonesia to block Israeli team from gymnastics world championships
Indonesia will block Israeli athletes from competing at the upcoming gymnastics world championships in Jakarta, officials said Friday, claiming that the sport’s international governing body supports the decision.

The decision to deny visas to the Israeli athletes comes after their planned participation had sparked intense opposition in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, which has long been a staunch supporter of Palestinians.

Israel is among 86 countries registered to compete in the competition that begins in Jakarta on October 19, with a team highlighted by 2020 Olympic gold medalist and defending world champion Artem Dolgopyat in the men’s floor exercise.

Now its participation is in doubt, even though the Israeli Gymnastics Federation said in July that it had been assured by Indonesian officials that it would be welcome at the worlds. That would have gone against Indonesia’s long-standing policy of refusing to host Israeli sports delegations for major events.

On Thursday, Indonesia’s senior minister of law, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, made it clear the Israeli team will not be allowed into the country, despite Israel and Hamas having agreed to a ceasefire-hostage release deal.

“The government will not grant visas to Israeli gymnasts who intend to attend the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Jakarta,” Mahendra said.


UKLFI: World Gymnastics championship risk cancellation after Israeli athletes barred
Indonesia’s decision to deny visas to Israeli gymnasts in the upcoming World Artistic Gymnastics championship means that the event should be cancelled, according to the rules of the Fรฉdรฉration Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG).

UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) have written to FIG following reports of the denial of visas, after the Israeli team was set to participate in the championship in Jakarta, Indonesia, from October 19 to 25.

“Entry visas must be granted to the gymnasts/athletes and to the officials of all Member Federations,” states Article 26.4 of the FIG Statutes 2025, quoted by UKLFI in their 10 October letter to FIG’s President, Morinari Watanabe.

“In the event that this requirement is not fulfilled, the allocation of the event would be cancelled with immediate effect by the Executive Committee,” the rule continues.

UKLFI has pointed out to FIG that the Executive Committee must immediately cancel the championships, unless Indonesia revokes its decision to refuse visas.

UKLFI adds that continuing with the championships while Israel is excluded is also liable to violate rules of the International Olympic Committee and of French laws that prohibit discrimination, as well as other FIG rules prohibiting discrimination.


Brussels concert American metal band banned due to risks concerning pro-Israeli frontman
The mayor of the Brussels municipality of Forest, Charles Spapens, has issued a police order banning a concert by the American metal band Disturbed, scheduled for 15 October at the Forest National venue. He fears that major problems for public safetys could arise. The band's frontman, David Draiman, is an ardent supporter of the Israeli army.

The authorities fear that the concert, which is taking place in the middle of a residential area, could lead to counter-demonstrations or protests that could escalate.

According to the police's risk analysis, the presence of singer David Draiman, a fervent supporter of the Israeli army, could cause considerable tension. In June, he posted a photo of himself signing an artillery shell at an Israeli military base near Gaza, with the caption “Fuck Hamas”. This gesture caused a wave of outrage, particularly among pro-Palestinian groups active in Brussels.

“My priority and responsibility is the safety of residents, demonstrators, spectators and the staff of Forest National,” stated the mayor of Forest. “Given the unfavourable opinion of the police and the unique geographical location of the venue, it was my duty to take this decision.”


Gaetz ‘confused,’ people didn’t want to talk to him, AIPAC says
AIPAC stated that Matt Gaetz was “confused” and anything but the life of the party after the former Republican congressman from Florida, who has criticized the U.S.-Israel relationship extensively, alleged that he was given a badge with a barcode for donors to scan at an AIPAC event.

Gaetz, nominated by Trump to be U.S. attorney general and who was the subject of ethics probes, said on the Timcast podcast on Tuesday—the second anniversary of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in Israel—that at his first AIPAC reception, “you had to wear a name badge with a QR code, talk to donors and if they liked you, they scanned it to donate on the spot.”

“It was so weird,” he stated.

“The accusation about our fundraisers is, of course, a lie. Barcodes are on name badges for security reasons, not fundraising, and are scanned for that purpose,” AIPAC stated. “Maybe Matt Gaetz was confused, because he wanted people to scan his barcode and they didn’t even want to talk to him.”

Gaetz wrote back. “Are you actually denying that donors scanned people’s name tags to get their donation information?” he stated. “Actually, I prefer when nobody talks to me. More time for hummus.”

It wasn’t clear if he was referring to a reference that former Fox News host Tucker Carlson—a podcaster and political commentator who regularly shares antisemitic conspiracy theories—made recently to hummus eaters having killed Jesus.


Wikimedia Foundation removes anti-Israel board hopeful from ballot
The Wikimedia Foundation, the San Francisco-based nonprofit that oversees Wikipedia, announced on Oct. 3 that an anti-Israel candidate for its board of trustees will not appear on the ballot for a vote.

Ravan Al-Taie has a history of anti-Israel social-media posts, including accusing Israel of “unprecedented genocides.”

“While you are not one of the candidates on the final ballot, I want to thank you on behalf of the board for putting yourself forward and dedicating so much of your volunteer time to the board selection process,” the foundation’s outgoing board chair told Al-Taie.

“I chose not to comment on the decision of the foundation,” Al-Taie stated.

Shlomit Lir, a researcher at the University of Haifa who studies technology, including Wikipedia, wrote that “anti-Israeli bias in Wikipedia cannot be addressed by those entangled in it” and that “a reform is a must.”
Mehdi Hasan Bursts Into Laughter at ‘Joke’ About Pro-Israel Congressman’s Legs Getting Blown Off in Afghanistan
To disgraced former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan, losing your legs fighting for America is a big joke. Especially if you’re a pro-Israel member of Congress.

During a live taping of his show at the anti-Israel ArabCon conference last week, Hasan burst out laughing when his guest, Bassem Youssef, mocked Rep. Brian Mast’s missing legs, which the Florida Republican lost after stepping on an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan in September 2010 during Operation Enduring Freedom.

Hasan, a British-born Muslim, brought up Mast’s support for Israel, which the lawmaker displayed by wearing an Israel Defense Forces uniform on Capitol Hill after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

"He lost his legs, and then he lost his balls and his honor," said Youssef, an Egyptian comedian best known for a viral interview after Oct. 7 with Piers Morgan in which he refused to condemn the terrorist group Hamas.

The ArabCon audience laughed at Youssef’s remarks. After recovering from his own laughing fit, Hasan piled on Mast.

"He is one of the most racist people in Congress, and that’s saying a lot," said Hasan.

Mast's response included a warning to Hasan and Youssef. "They should be careful, if some of their terrorist friends knew how interested they are in my balls they may be thrown off a building," Mast told the Washington Free Beacon.

It’s not surprising rhetoric for Hasan or ArabCon, which the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) hosted this year in Dearborn, Mich., which has been dubbed "America’s Jihad Capital" because of its high concentration of pro-Hamas activists. Hasan, who has compared gay people to pedophiles and non-Muslims to "cattle," had his MSNBC show canceled in November 2023 after his continuously one-sided, often inaccurate coverage of Israel’s war with Hamas. He left the network shortly thereafter.


ABC blasted over ‘one-sided’ coverage of Israel-Palestine conflict
Sky News Australia's Media Watch Dog Columnist Gerard Henderson has slammed the ABC’s “one-sided” view of the Israel-Gaza conflict.




Sydney man charged for threatening gesture at synagogue on October 7 anniversary
A Sydney area man made threatening gestures outside a synagogue on the anniversary of the October 7 Massacre, according to New South Wales Police and local officials, leading to the charging of the suspect for intimidation.

On Tuesday, the 21-year-old man was believed to have pointed a firearm from a moving truck toward the Cremorne Synagogue. NSW police told The Jerusalem Post that there was no evidence to indicate that a firearm was in fact involved.

Soon after, the passenger and driver were arrested by police. The 23-year-old passenger was released pending further inquiries, and on Wednesday the driver was charged.

NSW Jewish Board of Deputies CEO Michele Goldman said in a Friday statement that the allegations were concerning, though there did not appear to be a firearm involved as previously thought.

"No one should be the target of threats and intimidation simply for practicing their faith," said Goldman. "We are grateful to NSW Police for their swift response and continued efforts to keep our community safe.”
Minneapolis synagogue targeted with pro-Hamas graffiti on Oct. 7 anniversary
Graffiti targeting “Zionists” and praising Hamas was spray-painted on the preschool wing of a Minneapolis synagogue on Tuesday night, the second anniversary of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

Rabbi Marcia Zimmerman said she was notified by one of Temple Israel’s neighbors about the vandalism. She said that her initial reaction was outrage and pain.

“This does not solve any problem, and blaming American Jews in Minnesota for what’s happening globally is hate speech, it’s antisemitism. It’s nothing different than that,” she said. “It’s not about political differences. It’s about hate.”

On the building was spray-painted “Watch out Zionists,” “F*ck Zionism,” and “Al-Aqsa Flood,” Hamas’s code name for the October 7 attack. There were also 14 inverted red triangles spray-painted on the building — a symbol associated with Hamas, which has used it in videos produced by its military wing to signify Israeli targets. The symbol has appeared in other graffiti of Jewish institutions during the Israel-Hamas war.

Zimmerman said a report has been filed with the Minneapolis Police Department, and video footage has been turned over for the investigation. E-mails to the MPD seeking comment were not returned.


'Dirty Jew...go back to Israel,' two non-Jewish Boston men allege antisemitic assault
Two non-Jewish men said they were the victims of an antisemitic gang assault in Boston last Sunday, the Boston Police Department reported.

The two cousins said they had been approached by four males who shouted antisemitic slurs at them, including “Dirty Jew” and “schnoz boy.” Antisemitism is at a record high. We're keeping our eyes on it >>

The victims were also told to “go back to Israel” and “free Palestine.”

One of the victims told the assailants he was not Jewish, but they attacked them anyway, the police said.

The attackers allegedly punched and kicked one of the victims in the face and body. One of the victims had scratches on his elbow, and the other had a bloody nose and a laceration on his cheek.

One of the victims said he had picked up a wallet that was dropped by one of the suspects, the police said.

Antisemitic gang attack on baseball fan
Nearby that same night, a non-Jewish baseball fan who dresses as Jesus when attending Boston Red Sox games was attacked by four men shouting antisemitic slurs, CBS News reported.

The attackers reportedly stole his backpack, wallet, and Jesus costume, which was a gift from his sister, who had suffered a brain injury, the report said.

“I really hope we can get these guys to see justice, because what they did to me just for thinking I was Jewish, imagine what they would do to a real Jewish person,” the victim told CBS.


US rapper Azealia Banks performs in Tel Aviv on solidarity visit
American rapper Azealia Banks performed in Tel Aviv on Thursday evening as part of a solidarity visit marking the second anniversary of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.

The 34-year-old singer, who visited the site of the Supernova music festival, Yad Vashem and the Dead Sea during her weeklong trip, said that Oct. 7 would be a day of “deep remembrance—honoring every life taken, every family touched.”

“We are grateful for your support of Israel and we are happy to host you here, you are a true friend and a great Zionist,” Israeli Minister of Culture and Sport Miki Zohar posted on X Wednesday.

The popular American singer first gained global recognition in 2011 with her viral hit “212” and continues to maintain a large fan following.


In first, three shipwrecks from biblical times uncovered off the coast of Israel
The remains of three shipwrecks and their cargoes from the Iron Age (1200-586 BCE) have been retrieved in the ancient harbor of Dor, on the Carmel Coast in northern Israel, according to an academic paper recently published by the prestigious journal Antiquity. The discovery marks the first time shipwrecks from those times have been uncovered in Israeli waters.

The Iron Age, also known as the First Temple Period, encompasses the centuries during which a significant portion of the events described in the Hebrew Bible are said to have occurred. At least for part of the time, in the 9th and 8th centuries BCE, Dor was likely under the rule of the Kingdom of Israel.

While almost nothing of the actual ships has survived, the remains of their cargoes, dating to the 11th, 9th, and 7th/6th centuries BCE, provide important insights into the trade routes of a crucial period in the region’s history. Among other things, the findings challenge the long-held belief among many scholars that little commerce took place under the biblical kingdoms.

In addition, shipwrecks from the Iron Age are extremely rare, with only 11 such finds ever recorded in the whole Mediterranean basin.

“Tel Dor is one of the few Iron Age ports that have been discovered in the eastern Mediterranean,” Prof. Thomas Levy from the University of California, San Diego, told The Times of Israel at a meeting in Jerusalem last month. “A little bit to its south, the Dor Lagoon, or Tantura Lagoon, is very rich in ships.”

Levy, one of the paper’s authors, explained that discoveries from the Iron Age are rare for practical rather than historical reasons.

“Underwater archeology is a very expensive endeavor,” he said. “Scholars who are interested in maritime archaeology usually deal with later times, like the Hellenist and Roman periods.”




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