Friday, October 17, 2025

10/17 Links Pt2: Democrats’ Ugly War on AIPAC; What is happening in Birmingham is a sinister vision of Britain’s future; Emily Damari calls Maccabi ban a ‘disgusting decision’

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Democrats’ Ugly War on AIPAC
Winking at these conspiracy theorists is all the rage among Democratic officeholders with higher aspirations. Rep. Ro Khanna, a California progressive who mostly talks about Jeffrey Epstein when he’s not badmouthing AIPAC, is likely to run for president in the next cycle. Yet to Khanna’s credit, his hatred of AIPAC and his desire to capitalize on his base’s suspicions of the group haven’t stopped him from at least slapping down the claim that AIPAC should register as a foreign agent.

“They’re American citizens,” Khanna has said. “If you’re an American citizen and you’re articulating a point of view, that’s your right. … They’re American citizens. They’re lobbying for their interests. They’re lobbying for the Netanyahu government’s interests because they think that’s what benefits America.”

Unfortunately, Khanna made that statement in an interview with an anti-Zionist filmmaker for a video including anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists such as Ian Carroll. Khanna also repeats in the video the debunked lie about Israel’s supposed intentional starvation of civilians.

Khanna posted a clip of the video on his Twitter account. The video he posted begins with Carroll saying to the camera: “Ninety-three out of 100 U.S. senators were taking money from a group that represents a foreign government and foreign interests in order to operate our government on behalf of someone else,” as a Star of David in American flag colors appears on screen.

So the best Democrats can do is a congressman who says AIPAC isn’t a foreign agent but then posts on social media a video of a Holocaust distortionist explicitly saying that AIPAC is the agent of a foreign government?

As a dedicated progressive, Khanna can be expected to wade into these extremist waters. But Moulton, like Slotkin, was supposed to stand athwart the screeching Jew-baiters and conspiracist slop-artists. That he believes he needs them in order to win a Senate seat is an ominous sign for the direction of American politics.
Isabel Oakeshott: What is happening in Birmingham is a sinister vision of Britain’s future
Given the demographics, some such trouble in Birmingham did seem likely. Indeed, such is the hatred towards Jews among extreme elements of the Muslim population in this country that a number seem to want bloodshed. In the kind of language that would risk landing a Right-wing protestor in jail, one influential figure – Islamic scholar called Asrar Rashid – has gone so far as to publicly call for visiting fans to be shown “no mercy”.

Various pro-Palestinian politicians have lost no time in joining the charge. Among those who have been winding up Muslim voters is Ayoub Khan, an Independent MP whose Perry Barr constituency includes Aston Villa’s grounds. He has spent weeks demanding that the fixture be cancelled, on safety grounds. This is the same Ayoub Khan who, in the immediate aftermath of the October 7 horrors in 2023, publicly questioned whether the massacre of innocent Jews by Hamas had been exaggerated.

At the time, he was a Liberal Democrat councillor and was offered “anti-Semitism training” by the party. Utterly unrepentant, he turned it down, claiming there was “simply no need” for him to undertake such a course.

Plenty of other political influencers have fuelled the fire, including a pro-Palestinian activist named Hussain “Hoz” Shafiei, who is one of the main characters promoting tomorrow’s march. His social media content is a projectile vomit of crackpot conspiracy theories and anti-Israeli propaganda (“Israel is the Devil”). He describes himself as a “Proud British Citizen, Iranian by blood, Arab by birth and English by upbringing”. Such a mix of identities might sound confusing, but is hardly unusual in Birmingham, a city in which many recent arrivals now seem unsure exactly who, or where, they are.

As the countdown to the match on November 6 begins, the authorities have become increasingly rattled. Their scandalous solution to what should simply be a policing challenge? To ban Israeli fans from watching the match. What a grotesque insult to all Jews – and what a craven response to what should be a total non-dilemma.

Of course there might be trouble – yet all the police need to do is their actual job. Isn’t maintaining order in all manner of settings their core offer? It is a role that West Midlands Police, and other forces, perform well enough, week in week out, including at countless pro-Palestinian marches. What exactly is different about this?

It is hard to avoid a horrible feeling that the answer to this question is the type of people who would have been coming to Birmingham for the match, namely Jews. As the Israel Solidarity Movement has pointed out, the decision is about far more than a sporting restriction. It is a deeply disturbing symbol of how Jews and Israelis are increasingly treated in our country, not only by countless faceless ignorami, but by far too many people in positions of authority, who should know better.
Brendan O'Neill: The ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans is a moral outrage
To witness a ‘Jew hunt’ like that and think to yourself ‘We can make sure it doesn’t happen here by keeping the Jews away’ – do people understand what a profound moral outrage this is? I can’t believe this needs to be said, but if there had been another ‘Jew hunt’ in Birmingham, the problem would not have been the Jews but their hunters. The pox on our society would not be the young Jews visiting from Israel for a day or two of footie and rowdiness but the elements within our society whose minds have been so addled by Israelophobia that they would have felt compelled to fume against those Jews. To ban Jews to try to calm those who hate them is a grotesque genuflection to the twisted logic of Jew hatred.

Here’s what I think: if it is not safe for Jews from Israel to attend a football match, then that match needs to be called off. There should be no event, no venue and no street in Britain where Jews, whether British or Israeli, are not safe from the hate and the blows of anti-Israel fanatics. Historically, you’ve been able to tell a lot about a society by how it treats its Jews. By whether it ghettoises them or lets them live freely. By whether it occasionally hunts them or leaves them alone. What we can tell about Britain from this nauseating decision is that we now prize the peace of Jew haters more highly than the rights of Jews – the sacrifice of Jewry at the altar of anti-Semitism.

Then there’s the despicable role played by certain MPs and the anti-Israel bigots of the left. They’ve been whipping up suspicion towards the visiting Maccabi fans for months. They’re thrilled by the ban. Ayoub Khan, a Birmingham MP, said he ‘welcomed the decision’. He wrote: ‘Sports entertainment should be enjoyed by all, regardless of their race, ethnicity and background. But….’ But! You don’t even need to know the rest of that sentence. There should never be a ‘but’ when it comes to the right of all people, whatever their ‘race’, to partake in the joy of sport. That there now is a ‘but’, and that it applies to one group alone, is proof of how thoroughly the Israelophobic mania has corrupted our country.

‘Kick racism out of football’ was the cry of Britain’s ‘progressives’ for years. Now it’s ‘Kick Jews out of football’. Now it’s ‘Kick Israelis out – for their own protection’. This cannot stand. Keir Starmer says the ban is ‘wrong’. ‘We will not tolerate anti-Semitism on our streets’, he says, and the police must ‘ensure all football fans can enjoy the game, without fear of violence or intimidation’. Well, do something about it then. Put your money where your mouth is. Overturn this gross ban and deploy whatever forces are necessary to defend visiting Jews from racist violence. A nation where Jews from overseas cannot travel freely and securely is an anti-Semitic nation. Is that us?


Jake Wallis Simons: What neuroscientists say about how Hamas manipulated the West
Based on a study of 200,000 people from seventy-five countries, they found that people living under autocracies were more likely to exhibit the ‘dark triad’ of negative personality traits: narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy. In democracies, by contrast, more people displayed the ‘light triad’ of humanism, faith in humanity and ‘Kantianism’, or treating people with dignity in their own right rather than viewing them as a means to an end.

This may help explain the dynamic. When a light triad Westerner, who enjoys a privileged life of le dimanche éternel within a ‘comfort democracy’, encounters a dark triad Hamas terrorist, who has grown up in one of the world’s worst autocracies and risen to become one of its enforcers, the stage is surely set for manipulation. The underlying presence of centrist fundamentalism and Israelophobia only makes it that much easier.

The neuropsychologist Dr Orli Peter has described this phenomenon in terms of two different types of empathy. ‘Cognitive empathy is the ability to accurately understand and model the thoughts, feelings and values of others,’ she writes. ‘It’s like hacking into someone else’s algorithm for how they think and feel, enabling you to predict their reactions to your actions.’ This is a primarily cerebral, calculating quality.

Emotional empathy, on the other hand, is about warmth, described as ‘the ability to feel what you believe the other person is experiencing’ and be moved by their suffering. Hamas, with its preponderance of dark triad traits, holds a malign cognitive empathy, giving it a gimlet-eyed insight into how the Western mind works. People in the democracies, however, where light triad traits are more common, have little cognitive empathy. This keeps them ignorant of the way jihadis think and inclined to view them as basically fine.

On the other side of the equation, dark triad jihadis have little ‘emotional empathy’, leaving them unmoved by human misery. In the West, by contrast, we have a glut of the stuff. Show a soft-hearted Westerner a picture of Palestinian suffering and they’re anybody’s, even when it has obviously been generated by artificial intelligence.

From a neuropsychological point of view, as Andrew Fox has argued, exposure to images of suffering activates our amygdala, which sits in the brain’s limbic system and is responsible for emotional reactions. This in turn shuts down critical thinking by suppressing the logical prefrontal cortex, submerging us too deeply in the amygdala stress process to analyse the situation properly.

This is true at the highest levels. Time and again, we find world leaders citing ‘the pictures coming out of Gaza’ when taking steps against Israel, often backed up by bogus casualty figures. Since when were television pictures a sound basis for policy? And why do people still dignify those figures? All of this makes it easy for the jihadis to play with our passions to achieve their goals.


How the media's slander of Netanyahu leads to the slaughter of Diaspora Jews
Recently, I made a huge mistake. I watched HBO’s Last Week Tonight. When the episode about Israel popped up on my YouTube feed, I clicked, against my better judgment. What followed was 20 minutes of misrepresentation posing as comedic journalism. The host, John Oliver, displayed either a startling ignorance or, worse, a willful disregard for context.

The segment solely focused on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. I did minimal checking on the topic, but I’m confident that Bibi is one of the only leaders outside of America to whom Oliver has dedicated an entire show. The exposé portrays the prime minister as evil while ignoring relevant details.

Oliver glibly makes reference to all of the Arab nations Israel has “attacked” in the last two years. From Lebanon to Iran to Yemen, according to Oliver, these actions display Bibi’s insatiable warmongering. What he fails to mention is how every one of these nations struck Israel first and how Israel’s actions have reshaped the Middle East, curbing Iran’s proxies and weakening much of the West-hating extremism in the region.

The most egregious section of the episode deals with the Oslo Accords. Bibi is shown protesting in front of a makeshift coffin that says, “Rabin is killing Zionism.” Oliver offers this as proof that the prime minister had Yitzhak Rabin assassinated. The host never mentions that the Oslo process unleashed the Second Intifada, resulting in the murder of thousands of Israelis. In Oliver’s narrative, Rabin was a man of peace, and the war-crazed Netanyahu had him extinguished.
Jonathan Sacerdoti: Solidarity as spectacle: When ‘Free Palestine’ became a fashion statement
Palestine fantasy
For politicians and states, nothing about this position is consistent or makes any logical sense, either. Palestinian rule in Judea and Samaria is under the Palestinian Authority, a regime rife with corruption and incitement. No Palestinian political entity stands for peaceful coexistence with Israel. The imagined Palestinian state does not meet the Montevideo criteria for statehood. There is no defined territory, no effective government, and no capacity for foreign relations.

Indeed, some of the same governments recognizing a Palestinian state simultaneously maintain that Israel is the occupying power in the very territories that state is meant to encompass. This means that the supposed new state does not, in fact, have effective governance over its territory – a Montevideo requirement for recognition. One cannot logically affirm both positions.

This lack of coherence points to the real underlying motivation of those nations now indulging the Palestinian fantasy. Like that of their Hollywood counterparts, these political leaders’ behavior is performative. Recognition has become a symbolic gesture devoid of diplomatic content. And symbolism, when uncoupled from strategic vision, becomes not virtue but vanity.

The recognitions are offered without conditions, without reforms, and without reciprocal commitments. They should be rewards for peace but are, in fact, reactions to a war ignited by Hamas’s massacre of Israeli civilians on October 7 and prolonged by its continued holding of hostages.

Instead of being based on the Palestinians meeting the requirements of statehood, these recognitions were actually being made out of spite toward Israel. They are not designed to advance peace but to express disapproval. And in doing so, they may actually prolong the conflict. Hamas interprets them not as repudiations but as rewards.

So, too, does the Palestinian Authority, which promises elections and reform as a pretext, not a prerequisite, for recognition.

What explains this strange, counterproductive rush? The answer lies in domestic politics. The UK’s Labour Party under Starmer faces internal unrest, accusations of hypocrisy, and declining credibility among parts of its base. French President Emmanuel Macron, too, wants to detract from domestic strife with his pretense at international statesmanship.

Among European Muslim voters, the issue of Palestine has become a litmus test. Among younger activists, Palestine functions as a symbolic rebellion against the West itself. As with so-called “progressive” celebrities, it is an aesthetic: a cause to wear on a lapel, not to study in a book. Recognition costs Western leaders nothing in policy terms. But it offers them the currency of moral applause at home.

The Emmys and the United Nations General Assembly are not as different as they appear. Both are stages. Both reward the actor who can read the room. And both reward the script that tells the audience what it wants to hear. That this script happens to be incoherent, one-sided, and strategically ruinous is beside the point. What matters is that it flatters the right constituencies.

Populism of Palestine
Palestinian statehood may one day arrive, but not by these means. A real path to Palestinian sovereignty requires hard choices, which include the renunciation of violence, the reform of political institutions, and the willingness to live side by side with a Jewish state. These recognitions demand none of that and, in fact, make it all less likely to occur. They inflate the illusion of progress while entrenching the reality of conflict.

This is the populism of Palestine: a cause transformed into a fashion, a strategy replaced by sentiment, and a solution postponed in favor of performance. And until serious leaders confront this spectacle for what it is, the suffering will continue: in Gaza, in Israel, and for all those whose lives are not served by hashtags, handbags, or hollow recognitions.
Portland city councilors call for arms ban, boycott of ‘genocidal’ Israel
Mitch Green, a member of the city council of Portland, Ore., said on Thursday that he and five fellow council members intend to announce their “landmark” pledge to launch a “municipal approach to challenging U.S. complicity in Israel’s ongoing occupation of Palestine.”

The self-identified Socialist said that the local officials aim to push for a probe of the “manufacturing and transport of weapons to Israel within Portland’s city limits.”

He also said that they will encourage colleagues across the country to follow suit and create a “national groundswell of local action for an arms embargo and to end municipal support for what the pledge describes as ‘Israel’s illegal occupation, apartheid or genocidal violence against Palestinians.'”

Green made the announcement after U.S. President Donald Trump brokered a peace deal between the Jewish state and the Hamas terror organization. Hamas violated the terms of the deal almost immediately by withholding the overwhelming majority of the bodies of hostages, whom it murdered and whose bodies it was supposed to return.

The Portland city councilman connected what he and colleagues called Israeli war crimes with U.S. federal troops operating in Portland.

“Portland in this moment cannot be separated from the broader historical context of the militarization that we are embedded in,” he stated. “For my entire adult life, I have witnessed the federal government pour trillions of dollars into a machine that wages war on a global scale, and now that war has come home.”
America's 'Largest Media Conference' Replaces Canceled Conservative Reporters With Think Tank Researcher Working To Boycott Israel
The organizers of MediaFest, billed as "the largest media conference" in the country, canceled two conservative journalists scheduled to speak this week at a seminar on faith and religion—and replaced them with a researcher from an anti-Israel think tank who has lobbied officials in Maryland to enact BDS policies and label Israel an "apartheid state."

MediaFest, organized by the Society of Professional Journalists and two college media groups, disinvited Mary Margaret Olohan, the White House correspondent for the Daily Wire, and Daily Signal reporter Virginia Allen from its "Faith Central" program, which focuses on journalism related to faith and religion. The move came after an Oregon State University student objected to their reporting on LGBT, abortion, and immigration issues.

In response, MediaFest amended its schedule to add speakers from diverse religious backgrounds. "We even have a Muslim coming," an organizer told Columbia Journalism Review.

That speaker is Erum Ikramullah, a senior research project manager at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU), an anti-Israel think tank funded by liberal charities like the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and Tides Foundation. Ikramullah will speak on a "Faith Central" panel on Friday regarding "story ideas tied to religion on your campus," according to a schedule for the conference, held at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, D.C.

ISPU has been highly critical of Israel in its war against Hamas. Dalia Mogahed, an ISPU scholar and former director of its research division, justified Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on Israel as legal "resistance" against a "colonial occupation force."

Ikramullah, who worked under Mogahed and has authored reports on "Islamophobia" at colleges, has personally lobbied Maryland officials against Israel, according to emails that county officials released last year.
Socialist Minneapolis Mayoral Candidate Falls for 'Chief Rabbi of Gaza' Parody Account
Pray it ain't so.

Minneapolis mayoral candidate Omar Fateh engaged in a series of friendly conversations with a parody X account masquerading as the "chief rabbi of Gaza" and "nude yogi," screenshots shared with the Washington Free Beacon show.

"I would love to do a fundraiser for you," Rabbi Linda Goldstein wrote. "How do I get in touch? This anti-Zionist rabbi loves and supports you."

Fateh replied on August 11.

"Thank you for reaching out," he wrote. "Can you share with me your phone and email? I'll have my finance director reach out to you."

Goldstein responded, "It's been so hard since being displaced as Chief rabbi of Gaza after the Israeli aggression of Oct 7. I'm happy to do anything I can to help fight Zionism."

Gaza has no chief rabbi and has not had any Jews at all in the territory since Israel withdrew in 2005.

"Why am I not in on this??" Goldstein asked on Aug. 16, sharing a link to a "Jews for Fateh" fundraiser.

Fateh replied two days later.

"We would love for you to join!" he wrote. "This was planned by a group of supporters, but would love for you to get more involved, you can sign up/attend the event or we will have more ways of getting involved in the future. Thank you!"

Goldstein—whose account is a parody of far-left Jewish clergy—has become notorious online for beclowning progressives looking for Jewish supporters to cover for anti-Israel and sometimes anti-Semitic positions.

Former representative Jamaal Bowman said he was "grateful" to have the rabbi's support, and Francesca Albanese was in talks with Goldstein to speak about the "morality of infada."
Emily Damari calls Maccabi ban a ‘disgusting decision’; says she is ‘shocked to my core’
Maccabi Tel Aviv fan Emily Damari has today said she is “shocked to my core” by the “outrageous decision to ban me, my family and my friends from attending an Aston Villa game in the UK”, with Jewish supporters of Aston Villa also expressing deep anger at the decision.

The British-Israeli ex-hostage, who supports both Maccabi Tel Aviv and Tottenham Hotspur, has condemned the decision by West Midlands Police to classify the Aston Villa v Maccabi Tel Aviv fixture in Birmingham as high risk based on “current intelligence and previous incidents, including violent clashes and hate crime offences that occurred during the 2024 Uefa Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv in Amsterdam”.

In a statement on Friday morning, she said: “I was released from Hamas captivity in January and I am a die hard fan of Maccabi Tel Aviv. Football is a way of bringing people together irrespective of their faith, colour or religion and this disgusting decision does the exact opposite. Shame on you. I hope you come to your senses and reconsider.”

The 28-year old, whose best friends Gali and Ziv Berman, also Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, were released from Hamas captivity on Monday 13 October after 738 days, added: “I do wonder what exactly has become of UK society. This is like putting a big sign on the outside of a stadium saying: “No Jews allowed.”What has become of the UK where blatant antisemitism has become the norm? What a sad world we are living in.”

Speaking today to BBC Radio 4 Today’s programme, Maccabi Tel Aviv manager Jack Angelides said the decision to block his team’s supporters from attending the Europa League match against Aston Villa had been met with “dismay” at his club.

He added: “I do find it somewhat difficult to understand why this has come to pass in the sense that our fans cannot be secure in attending this match”, and questioned whether it meant players and staff were also in danger. “Are we saying that they will be secure also or that there are issues with them?”

He said that “small events leading up to something more sinister” amounted to anti-Semitism.

Andrew Fox, honorary president of Aston Villa Jewish Villa’s supporters’ club, Jewish Villans, said the decision to ban fans of the Israeli side is “a political message rather than a safety message”.


EXC: Aston Villa FC ‘Safety Advisory Board Member’ Called for Boycott of Israel
Zaffar, a former chairman of Birmingham City Council’s social cohesion group, was reprimanded by the Labour Party in 2016 for comments on Israel. Speaking at a “Free Gaza” protest in 2014, he backed a boycott of Israel: “We need to ensure that there is a clear list of companies that are supporting the Zionists out there in Israel. We need to continue to boycott them.” In a 2016 open letter to Ruth Jacobs, of the Birmingham and West Midlands Jewry Representative Council, Zaffar said: “Palestinian violence has been a reaction to Israeli oppression and violence. Even when Palestinians protest peacefully, they are shot and often killed or maimed by the Israeli armed forces.” Labour said: “These views are not shared by the Labour party and Councillor Zaffar has been reminded of his responsibilities as a Labour councillor”…

Birmingham City Council leader John Cotton publicly opposes the Safety Advisory Group’s decision and said he is “asking that they urgently review their decision.” The West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner has requested an “immediate review” of the ban decision…
‘No mercy’ for Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, vows Birmingham-based Islamic preacher in video
Footage has emerged of a Birmingham-based Islamic preacher threatening Maccabi Tel Aviv fans ahead of their scheduled game with Aston Villa in November.

In the video the preacher, who has been identified as Asrar Rashid, is seen saying: “When the Tel Aviv fans come to Birmingham in a few weeks, we will not show them rahma [mercy] in Birmingham.”

The clip, which has come to light following the announcement that Maccabi Tel Aviv fans will not be allowed to attend the match, was recorded in Amsterdam on October 1 during a talk Rashid was giving titled The Responsibilities of Muslims In Europe.

Reacting online Rashid – who has 11,000 followers on X and 98,000 subscribers on YouTube – wrote: “I stand by the fact that IDF are shameless murderous foul beings. Here is the full clip to what I said regarding IDF soldiers visiting Birmingham at the Aston Villah Stadium. A clip posted by the Mossad MEMRI TV. Typical Judeo-Christian Zionist propaganda in action.”

West Midlands police and Birmingham council have faced a huge backlash since the ban was announced on Thursday evening.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer criticised the move, saying "we will not tolerate antisemitism on our streets" and that the role of police was "to ensure all football fans can enjoy the game, without fear of violence or intimidation".

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch branded the decision a "national disgrace". She wrote on X that Starmer should "guarantee that Jewish fans can walk into any football stadium in this country.

"If not, it sends a horrendous and shameful message: there are parts of Britain where Jews simply cannot go."
“It's A Serious Disgrace” | Aston Villa Bans Maccabi Tel Aviv Fans Amid Israel-Gaza Tensions

“They Said They Would Stab Me” | Outrage Over Aston Villa’s Ban on Israeli Fans
Pressure is mounting on West Midlands Police after its decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending their Europa League match against Aston Villa next month. The force has classified the game as “high risk” following violence at a 2024 match between Maccabi and Ajax in Amsterdam.

The move has sparked backlash across the political spectrum. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch both condemned the ban, while West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster has called for a full review of the decision, seeking evidence that it is “proportionate” and “justified.”

The Campaign Against Antisemitism has announced plans to launch a judicial review, describing the ban as “pernicious” and “a stain on Britain.” Senior ministers, including Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, are meeting to discuss the controversy, with the government saying it will do everything possible to find a solution.

UEFA has urged local authorities to allow Maccabi fans to travel, stressing the importance of safe and inclusive sporting events. Maccabi Tel Aviv’s chief executive, Jack Angelides, said the club had not received formal notice of the ban and criticised the decision as unnecessary, noting that other matches involving Israeli teams have been held safely.

Alex Phillips interviews military and defence analyst and chairman of the Aston Villa Jewish Villans supporters’ club, Andrew Fox, to discuss the issue further.




Israeli football fans banned from Aston Villa match as Birmingham preacher urges 'no mercy' for them
Journalist Jonathan Sacerdoti condemns what he calls “a serious disgrace to this country” — after British police effectively banned Israelis and Jews from attending a football match, citing “safety concerns.”

This is the result of years of appeasement and moral cowardice, where Britain has allowed unbridled hatred of Jews and Israel to seize the country. He names politicians and preachers openly spreading hate, and calls out the double standard that jails one woman for anti-Muslim comments while doing nothing to those calling for violence against Israelis.


Banning Israeli Football Fans: A New Low for Britain | The Brink Rapid Response
In this Rapid Response clip, we react to Aston Villa’s shocking decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending their upcoming Europa League match — a move that has sparked outrage and raised serious questions about double standards, fear, and antisemitism in Britain.

Andrew and Jake unpack how a combination of local politics, police weakness, and community intimidation led to this decision — and what it says about the state of Britain’s values. We explore how Islamist pressure, media hypocrisy, and political cowardice have converged to create a climate where protecting Jewish fans has become controversial.

From the police’s failure to confront real threats, to the wider culture of capitulation spreading through British institutions, this rapid response asks: who really runs Britain’s cities — our elected government or the mob?




Andrew Lawrence: POLICE- Advice for Jews.

IOC expresses ‘great concern’ over Indonesian ban on Israeli gymnasts
The International Olympic Committee on Friday hit out at the Indonesian government’s refusal to issue visas for Israeli athletes at the upcoming gymnastics World Championships.

Last week, Indonesian authorities denied Israeli gymnasts entry visas for the championships that start on Sunday, before the Israeli Gymnastics Federation appealed the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), demanding that it either guaranteed their athletes’ presence or forced a move or cancellation of the event.

But CAS rejected the appeal, meaning that Israeli athletes will not compete in the October 19-23 championships in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country.

In a statement released on Friday, the IOC expressed “great concern” over the Indonesian decision and said it would “discuss the specific situation” of the Asian country at its next Executive Board meeting.

“The IOC’s principled position is very clear: all eligible athletes, teams and sports officials must be able to participate in international sports competitions and events without any form of discrimination from the host country,” the IOC said.

“It is therefore the direct responsibility of the host country, the organizer and the sports organizations directly concerned to make sure that this principle is fully respected,” it added.

“Sport must remain a safe space for athletes to fulfill their dreams; and athletes must not be held responsible for political decisions.”
Federal Islamophobia advisor used office to back pro-Palestinian activism
Newly released federal records show Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Special Representative on Combating Islamophobia, Amira Elghawaby, used her taxpayer-funded office to advocate for pro-Palestinian activism among public servants and to criticize Jewish organizations, including B’nai Brith.

Blacklock's Reporter says Access To Information documents reveal that Elghawaby, who earns $191,300 a year, encouraged Muslim federal employees to “speak out on Palestinian issues” and privately corresponded with officials to raise complaints about alleged “anti-Palestinian racism.”

“Anti-Palestinian racism takes various forms including justifying violence against Palestinians, failing to acknowledge Palestinians as an indigenous people or as having a collective identity,” Elghawaby said during a 2024 videoconference.

She claimed discrimination could include “escorting an employee out of the workplace for making pro-Palestinian remarks,” though she provided no examples.

The comments were made to the Muslim Federal Employees Network, a volunteer group founded in 2021 that gained prominence after Hamas’ October 7, 2023 massacre of Israelis, which killed and kidnapped hundreds, including eight Canadians.

Days later, the group hosted an online event titled Free Expression And Safety In The Workplace, where participants discussed how to “navigate resistance” faced by Muslim employees when speaking about Palestine.

Records show Elghawaby maintained regular contact with the group and lobbied on its behalf with senior federal officials.

About 2% of federal employees identify as Muslim, according to a 2024 government survey.

Elghawaby also used her position to correspond about the Hamas attacks, with one senior analyst in her office writing to Muslim employees on October 9, 2024, saying: “I hope you are well especially during what is a very difficult week. Know that our office is thinking about you and your members.”

In her notes for an “anti-Palestinian racism” event, Elghawaby wrote that the Hamas massacre was “difficult for Muslims” and that “anti-Palestinian sentiments are on the rise in Canada.”


Ofcom rules BBC Gaza documentary was ‘materially misleading’
Ofcom, the UK’s broadcast media regulator, has ruled that the BBC committed a "serious breach" of its rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of their documentary Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone was the son of a Hamas official.

The documentary, which premiered on BBC Two on February 17, was later pulled from the iPlayer after it emerged that the narrator and chief protagonist – a 13-year-old boy named Abdullah al-Yazouri – was the son of Hamas' deputy minister of agriculture.

This fact had not been disclosed to audiences prior to the broadcast.

Making its ruling on Friday, Ofcom said: "Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC. This failing had the potential to erode the significantly high levels of trust that audiences would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war. ”

It went on: "Our investigation found that the programme's failure to disclose that the narrator's father held a position in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.

"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the information he provided.”

The regulator has ordered the BBC to broadcast a prime-time statement about its conclusions, saying: "As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed.”


New charge added to private prosecution against David Miller
A fourth charge has been added to a private prosecution brought against the former Bristol University academic, David Miller, by the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA).

Like the other three charges, the fourth complaint relates to social media posts allegedly made by Miller, which the CAA say “cross the line from accepting a philosophical political debate” about the nature of Zionism, to “criminal” material.

At Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday, Miller was present for the latest stage in a complicated case against him. His defence counsel, Richard Thomas KC, made a bid to claim that the CAA had “an ulterior motive” in pursuing the prosecution, adding that such a motive rendered the prosecution “abusive”.

He questioned why “none of the posts complained of” had been reported to the police, and added that there was internal material within the CAA which had not been disclosed to the court and which could well reveal the alleged “ulterior motive” in bringing the prosecution against Miller.

But barrister Gary Grant, appearing for the CAA, told Judge Michael Snow that the “ulterior motive” submission was “fanciful” and without any evidence. He asked the judge to look at the posts allegedly made by Miller — the latest of which was published in May this year — and which all end with the hashtag “dismantle Zionism”.

One of the posts was particularly pertinent as it related to comments on last year’s Amsterdam riots when Maccabi Tel Aviv played in the Dutch city. Miller, now a presenter on the Iranian-backed Press TV, is said to have told his followers that “every Zionist Jew must be held accountable and de-Zionised”, while in another, posted in March this year, the writer says: “the entire Zionist movement globally must live in fear of accountability until it is dismantled and its ideology eradicated. And let’s be clear, there are Zionists everywhere, in every town and city. Find out where they are.”

Another post read: ““Every genuinely anti-Zionist Jew can count on being kept safe by the movement, when the time comes. Every Zionist Jew must be held accountable and de-Zionised”.

The May post, which has led to the fourth charge against Miller, refers to an IDF soldier from Manchester. Miller allegedly urged people to identify this man — “find him and hold him accountable”.


“Too much disinformation to rebut in one letter”
Canberra Times
Letter to the Editor, October 17, 2025
As usual when Jack Waterford indulges his obsession with demonising Israel, there’s far too much disinformation in his October 11 column to rebut in one letter.

Israel’s war was against Hamas, not civilians. Hamas are proscribed terrorists, not a “political group”.

Protecting civilians by evacuating them to safe areas is not ethnic cleansing. No doubt had Israel not done so, Waterford would have called that genocidal.

Waterford defending Hamas by claiming it was provoked is disgusting. Israel completely withdrew from Gaza in 2005. The Palestinians have rejected many offers of statehood. Hamas are genocidal fundamentalists who repeatedly attack because they’re committed to destroying Israel.

Israel did not deliberately starve Gaza. There was enough aid overall, but Hamas stole vast quantities.

Hamas, not Israel, prolonged the war by refusing to surrender and release the hostages.

Israel’s campaign was not disproportionate and certainly not genocidal. The percentage of fighters killed as against civilians was better than in any other recent urban warfare campaign, despite Hamas sacrificing civilians as human shields.


Palestinians film dragging remains of endangered whale shark with ropes on Gaza shores
“Ofek,” the whale shark, died off the coast of Gaza on Friday, according to the environmental conservation organization Sharks in Israel.

He was likely hunted by fishermen from the Gaza Strip or washed ashore.

“Ofek,” named by the conservation organization, was filmed with crowds of Palestinians crowding around it in the area of Khan Yunis, being dragged along the shore by ropes. In Gaza, it was reported that the “largest fish in the world” is about ten meters long.

The whale shark had previously been spotted off the coasts of Ashdod, Ashkelon, Netanya, Bat Yam, Tel Aviv, and other areas along the Mediterranean coastline.

A Gaza resident said, according to Ynet, “For two years Israel did not allow us to fish - and today, when it was allowed, we managed to catch a fish weighing several tons."

Whale shark classified as endangered species
Whale sharks were first identified in April 1829, after one was caught in a South African bay. It has been seen several times in the Gulf of Eilat. The species was officially recorded in 1849 by zoologist Andrew Smith.

The species is a shark the size of a whale, with an eating technique similar to that of a whale. It is classified as an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Its size ranges from 12 to 14 meters long, and it can reach a lifespan of over 100 years.

“His story is primarily a sad one. He brought us joy for several weeks, kept beach managers on their toes, and reminded us that there’s still much to learn and understand in the Mediterranean,” Sharks in Israel said in a statement.


Nazi-inspired trio jailed for planning terror attacks on mosques and synagogues
Three Nazi-worshipping extremists have been jailed for up to 11 years for planning terrorist attacks on mosques and synagogues.

Christopher Ringrose, 35, Marco Pitzettu, 25, and Brogan Stewart, 25, – who are not believed to have met in the real world before they appeared together in the dock – were preparing to use more than 200 weapons they had amassed, including machetes, swords, crossbows and an illegal stun gun, Sheffield Crown Court heard.

Ringrose had also 3D-printed most of the components of a semi-automatic firearm at the time of his arrest and was trying to get the remaining parts.

On Friday, Stewart was jailed for 11 years, Ringrose for 10 years and Pitzettu for eight years by a judge who said she believed they all continued to adhere to their extreme right-wing ideology.

The judge, Mrs Justice Cutts, outlined how the online group the trio belonged to were preparing for an attack on an Islamic Education Centre in Leeds before they were arrested by counter-terror police.

In May, a jury rejected claims the defendants were fantasists with no intention of carrying out their threats and found Ringrose, of Cannock, Staffordshire, Pitzettu, of Mickleover, Derbyshire, and Stewart, of Tingley, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, guilty of a charge of preparing acts of terrorism and charges of collecting information likely to be useful to a person preparing or committing an act of terrorism.

Ringrose was also convicted of manufacturing a prohibited weapon.

The judge said she believed each of the defendants would be dangerous after their release from prison and gave them extended sentences, with additional licence periods.

She said the trio’s ideology was “laid bare” in a 374-page dossier of internet activity put before the jury.
Two years’ probation for SF attacker slammed as ‘far too lenient for antisemitic gang attack'
Jewish groups denounced a sentence of two years of probation and time served for a man convicted of attacking a Jew in San Francisco as a slap on the wrist that fails to dissuade would-be attackers.

A spokesman for the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office told JNS that Juan Diaz-Rivas was convicted of “assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury” and admitted to committing a hate crime for his involvement in an attack in June, in which about half a dozen people cursed at Jews and said “free Palestine.”

A male victim and his female friend told the group to stop. Members of the group pursued the man and punched and kicked him. They also attacked a witness, who worked at a nearby business and sought to intervene.

“He served 83 days in custody and was sentenced to an additional two years of formal probation, 80 hours of community service and 16 sessions of anger management,” the district attorney’s spokesman told JNS. “In addition, he must stay away from the victim and write an apology letter.”

The victim was made aware of the sentencing and had the chance to address it in court, the spokesman said. A second person was arrested in connection with the assault, per the district attorney’s office.

“We realize that there are additional suspects yet to be identified in connection to this incident, but if they are identified and arrested, this office will not hesitate to take action,” the spokesman said.

Gerard Filitti, senior counsel of the Lawfare Project, told JNS that the sentence is “far too lenient for an antisemitic gang attack.”

“Violence motivated by hate is the most dangerous kind. It targets entire communities, not just individuals,” he told JNS. “When our justice system fails to impose real consequences, and when open support for terrorism is tolerated in our streets and on our campuses, it only invites more violence.”

“Until hate is punished with the full force of the law, the justice system itself remains complicit,” Filitti said.




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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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