Tuesday, October 21, 2025

10/21 Links Pt2: When the police suggest being Jewish is a provocation; Louis Theroux’s whitewashing of Bob Vylan is disgraceful; The Maccabi Tel Aviv ban is a shameful act of appeasement

From Ian:

Stephen Pollard: When the police suggest being Jewish is a provocation
There is an old adage: when you’re in a hole, stop digging. It’s a notion that the beleaguered Metropolitan Police might observe. Under fire over almost everything it does – or rather doesn’t (such as catching criminals and tackling open Jew hate on the streets of London) – the Met have somehow managed to make the latest bad situation worse, this time over the arrest of a Jewish solicitor who was monitoring an anti-Israel demonstration in August.

Video emerged over the weekend of the suspect being questioned at Hammersmith police station, where he had been taken after his arrest. The lawyer claimed that he had been taken away – handcuffed and then detained by police for nearly ten hours – because he had been wearing a Magen David necklace and that this was considered provocative, given that he was in the vicinity of an anti-Zionist protest.

The Met responded with a lengthy statement to the effect that this wasn’t at all why he was arrested: “[T]he claim this man was arrested for wearing a star of David necklace is not true. He was arrested for allegedly repeatedly breaching Public Order Act conditions that were in place to keep opposing protest groups apart…The man told officers he was acting as an independent legal observer but his actions are alleged to have breached the conditions in place, and to have gone beyond observing in an independent and neutral way to provoking and, as such, actively participating as a protester.”

But the Met’s statement is an object lesson not so much in missing the point as in demonstrating just how far gone the police now are, and how problematic – to put it mildly – the attitudes raised by their questioning of the arrested man are. To be blunt, it is entirely irrelevant why he was arrested. Maybe be breached the conditions, maybe he didn’t. We don’t know. The issue is not why he was arrested but the questioning he faced when he was being interviewed. And what we do know, with stone cold certainty, because we can all see the footage, is how that questioning by the police played out. And it is chilling.
Nicole Lampert: Louis Theroux’s whitewashing of Bob Vylan is disgraceful
In a podcast interview with the Bob Vylan rapper Pascal Robinson-Foster – who became infamous for his anti-Semitic rant at Glastonbury about his Jewish former record boss followed by his cry of “death to the IDF” – Theroux ends up exposing his own mad ideas, such as the view that Jewish Zionists created a “prototype” of ethno-nationalism which is now being rolled out in other countries such as Hungary and America.

Ignored in their chat, which showed how far some Left-wingers have gone down the anti-Semitic conspiracist rabbit hole, were inconvenient facts about how now over 20 per cent of Israelis aren’t Jewish, and the long history of white supremacist movements which predate Zionism.

One could also comment on how Jews, who are never seen as white by the far Right, were the primary victims of the Nazi ideas of white supremacy. Apparently, mentioning that is “post Holocaust Jewish exceptionalism”. Or something.

The much-loved broadcaster made his comments after Robinson-Foster said that Zionism is “white supremacy” and then repeated the idea that American police officers had been taught how to use racist tactics against “black and brown communities” by the IDF. This much-debunked claim became popular after the murder of George Floyd. All anti-Semitic conspiracies posit that the ills of the world are ultimately down to the Jews, and this is no different.

Theroux not only failed to challenge this but agreed in sentiment: responding to the claptrap dressed in the language of academic anti-Zionism. “There’s an even more macro lens which you can put on it which is that Jewish identity in the Jewish community, as expressed in Israel, has become almost like an acceptable quote, unquote, way of understanding ethno-nationalism,” says Theroux, who earlier this year made a BBC documentary about extremist settlers in Israel which was accused of being biased at the time.

“And so it’s like they’re prototyping an aggressive form of ethno-nationalism, which is then rolled out, whether it’s by people like Viktor Orban in Hungary or Trump in the US.” He added: “It’s become sort of this certain sense of post-Holocaust Jewish exceptionalism or Zionist exceptionalism, has become a role model on the national stage for what these white identitarians would like to do in their own countries.”

Robinson-Foster agrees: “Yes, big time, that’s the point I was making. It needs to be viewed [with] a wider lens, a much wider lens.”


Jake Wallis Simons: Keir Starmer owes Suella Braverman an apology
Now that the Prime Minister has endorsed the idea that “from the river to the sea” is antisemitic, however, Sir Sadiq has surely been outranked. And given the thousands upon thousands who intone the slogan every week, this should be something of a big deal.

The vast majority of those radicals who continue to march against Israel despite the ceasefire, whether in London, Manchester, Edinburgh or elsewhere, indulge with enthusiasm in the provocative chant.

If all of them, according to the Prime Minister, are indeed expressing antisemitism, a great many laws are being routinely broken, from the Public Order Act to the Equality Act and back again.

By Starmer’s reckoning, what we are seeing, in other words, is nothing less than massed criminal hate speech, week after week, with the police standing meekly by. Remind you of anybody? Step forward Suella Braverman, who as home secretary in 2023, drew much controversy by referring to the Gaza rallies as “hate marches” and accusing the police of “double standards”.

Actually, then as now, “from the river to the sea” was the mildest of the chants deployed by the Palestine mob. Other choice slogans include “globalise the Intifada” and, more recently, “death, death to the IDF”.

Given his candid views, therefore, you’d have expected Sir Keir to defend Braverman, right? Wrong.

Here’s what Starmer wrote in the Sunday Telegraph at the time: “Few people in public life have done more recently to whip up division, set the British people against one another and sow the seeds of hatred and distrust than Suella Braverman. In doing so, she demeans her office.”

How times change, eh? To be fair to the man, Sir Keir edition 2023 would have taken one look at the sea of Union flags at his own conference 2025 and squealed about the “far-Right”. Flip-flopping has always his modus operandi.

Nonetheless, I think the Prime Minister owes Braverman an apology. If “from the river to the sea” is inherently antisemitic, then the Gaza marches are indeed hate marches, whatever the Mayor of London may think.

So what is Starmer going to do about it? Surely he can’t just do nothing. Admitting to such mob displays of antisemitism and failing to curb them would be demeaning to his office indeed.


Israel Advocacy Movement: Why Jews Like Me Are Fleeing Britain

Louis Theroux has 'lost the plot in a very dangerous way' according to former BBC boss after conducting a 'soft' interview with Bob Vylan in wake of antisemitic Glastonbury chants
The BBC admitted to breaking editorial guidelines when Bob Vylan’s ‘deeply-offensive’ Glastonbury chant was broadcast live to millions.

But in the Louis Theroux interview, Robinson-Foster claimed he was praised by members of the Corporation when he came off stage following his set in June.

He said BBC staff on the ground at the event told him that they ‘loved’ his set, and called it ‘fantastic'.

In his first major interview since the festival, Vylan said BBC staff acted like it was ‘normal’ when they finished performing and went so far as to heap praise on the band.

‘It wasn't like we came off stage, and everybody was like [he gasps]. It’s just normal,’ he told the Louis Theroux podcast.

‘We come off stage. It's normal. Nobody thought anything. Nobody. Even staff at the BBC were like “That was fantastic! We loved that!”.’

Vylan, who had his US visa revoked and gigs cancelled in the wake of the scandal, said that, even hours after the performance, he was still being praised by BBC staff.

‘This was a couple hours later because it took us a little while to get back,’ he said.

‘Nobody at the BBC at that time was there like, “oh my gosh”. You know? But it was very normal. And then we got back and then, yeah, like I said, we went and got ice cream.’

The Corporation partially upheld complaints and admitted breaking editorial guidelines in relation to harm and offence.

BBC Chairman Samir Shah said that the decision not to pull the live feed of the performance was ‘unquestionably an error of judgement'.

In a letter to the select committee, Davie admitted there were 550 BBC staff on the ground at the festival and some were authorised to kill the live feed.

Despite the ensuing furore, Vylan has now said he would lead the same chant again and has no regrets over the decision.

‘Yes, I would do it again. I'm not regretful of it,’ he said.

‘I'd do it again tomorrow, twice on Sundays. I'm not regretful of it at all, like the subsequent backlash that I've faced.
OPINION: The bland malevolence of Louis Theroux
The result again is a moral flattening: Theroux helps present a world where two thoughts can no longer be held at the same time. Condemnation of a dehumanising chant can’t possibly be just that; critics of it can’t be genuine — they are only doing so as part of a political distraction.

At no point in the interview is Bob probed inquisitively about his Kanye-esque rantings made before the calls to kill. The trope-riddled tirade about a record label boss he used to work for is seemingly irrelevant to the interviewer, who is no stranger to interviewing conspiracists, racists and extremists.

Before his “Death to the IDF” chant, Robinson-Foster railed about a boss who had talked about Israel and had put his name to a letter urging Glastonbury to cancel Irish-language rap trio Kneecap’s performance.

Robinson-Foster said: “Who do I see on that list of names but that bald-headed [expletive] I used to work for? We’ve done it all, all right — from working in bars to working for [expletive] Zionists.”

When Robinson-Foster is asked about the spike in antisemitic incidents recorded by CST after his performance — with record numbers reported the next day — the presumably well-read and well-researched interviewer offers nothing in the way of challenge to Robinson-Foster’s suspicious, “What are they counting as antisemitic?”

Theroux offers no context, no mention of CST’s rigorous methodology or well-documented examples of attacks on Jews.

Instead, he offers an interesting phrase: “It was alleged that there was an uptick.”

A not-so-subtle casting of doubt on the verified data of a group that works day and night to protect the Jewish community from attacks like the one we saw in Manchester.

Like it or not, this aligns Theroux with the narrative of scepticism over Jewish safety concerns.

This matters because Theroux’s core audience includes a dedicated Gen Z fanbase in their 20s, the only group still silly enough to be at all interested in what Bob Vylan has to say, and a generation who, according to recent polling, includes one in ten 18–24-year-olds with a favourable view of Hamas. Forty-eight percent of the same group believe that Israel treats the Palestinians like the Nazis treated the Jews, which is antisemitic according to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Definition of Antisemitism.

And once again, Jews are screaming. The normalisation of antisemitism doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It happens with the help and sanitisation of society’s most favoured and respected figures it infects everyone footballers, presenters, MPs, popular culture, to politics.

Louis is a smart man. He knows Jews in Britain have things to be scared of. He recorded the interview before the Manchester attack, but even before Jews were bludgeoned to death on the street, we had seen faeces smeared on synagogue doors, Jewish businesses targeted by arsonists, and Jews attacked in the street in the name of Palestine. Jewish children go to school behind armed guards and yet, in the interview with Robinson-Foster, Theroux frames Jewish fears as “nervousness”.

It is not nervousness that dictates whether Jewish schoolchildren are taught what to do when a terrorist breaks through their fortified gates and armed security. It is threat.
Jake Wallis Simons: Ranting next to Bob Vylan about ‘aggressive’ Israeli Jews, Louis Theroux finally comes out of the closet
This, however, was only the tip of the iceberg. The cosy chat between Theroux and Vylan – which, the presenter was anxious to inform viewers at the start, took place “before the Manchester synagogue attacks… and before the ceasefire in Gaza” – contained numerous other gratuitous provocations of Israelis, Jews and all decent people.

For one thing, when questioning the so-called musician about his “death to the IDF” chant, Theroux criticised it on the grounds that it gave pro-Israel types “a stick to beat anyone who disagreed with Israeli policy”.

“You could argue that it gave them an opportunity to distract millions of people, hundreds of thousands of people,” from the supposed atrocities in Gaza, Theroux argued. “That becomes an opportunity to misdirect.”

That’s his problem with it? Sure, he was careful to interrogate it from other less controversial angles, too. But even then it had a soft-soap feeling, as if Theroux was coaxing cheeky details out of a friend.

“You reached out to me on Insta, didn’t you?” the presenter said at one point. “Saying like, if you want to do a chat, let’s hook it up. And we did.” How lovely!

Theroux’s defenders will surely point to the panoply of misfits, eccentrics and reprobates he has interviewed in the past and accuse the Jews of being too sensitive.

I’m sure they will also accuse us of weaponising antisemitism to shut down free speech.

But those who make that argument are hardly likely to be the ones concerned for the safety and wellbeing of Britain’s oldest minority, which is still grieving the murder of two worshippers in Manchester, still reeling from the banning of Israeli fans from a football match in Birmingham, and enduring an unprecedented level of daily threat.

Anyway, Theroux made it pretty clear what he thinks. Normally, like any good journalist, he hides his views in oblique questions, deft angles and ironical asides. On this occasion, however, he suggested that Jews from Israel – the sole democracy in the Middle East, where the majority are not white and Pride marches are held annually – was the “prototype” for “white identitarians”.

It rather gave the game away.

Never Again? How the West Betra


BBC producer shares claim Charlie Kirk’s widow was ‘Zionist handler’
A BBC Radio 4 producer shared a social media post on a group she moderated accusing the wife of murdered political activist Charlie Kirk of being his “Zionist handler”.

Jayne (also Jane) Egerton works with Laurie Taylor on ‘The Long View‘, a series in which stories from the past are compared to current events. She has reportedly been a radio producer with the BBC for more than 30 years.

She is part of the 2.3k member, female-only Facebook group ‘Actual Gender Critical Left’ and was, until last week ago, an admin on the group, responsible for approving content.

The group, which has now made itself ‘private’, describes itself as “Open to all persons of the female sex, including transmen and non-binary, detransitioned and reidentified women” which opposes “all alliances, collaboration, and coordination with organisations of the religious right or white nationalist/xenophobic right.”

In one of a series of troubling posts shared over several months, Egerton shared tweets by radical feminist activist Sasha S. Graham, who goes by the social media handle ‘@SeparatistSista’.

Egerton appears to have removed herself as an admin on the group after Jewish News contacted the BBC for comment last week.

In July, she shared a piece on the group called “Debunked: A reckoning with Zionist charges in contemporary left discourse”, with the writers of the piece saying they had been “shocked to see the amount of people defending Israel in the name of feminism” and that they intended to “arm anti-zionist feminist with a useful toolkit of information”. Egerton described the piece as “impressive…deserves wide circulation”.
The Maccabi Tel Aviv ban is a shameful act of appeasement
Those saying Maccabi Tel Aviv’s Brum ban was well-earned don’t seem to have followed the court cases in Amsterdam, in which it was shown those attacks were organised well in advance of the Europa League fixture against Ajax. The scumbags rallied on WhatsApp and Telegram groups. One of them had 900 members. They were salivating about beating up the ‘Cancer Jews’. In all, 62 arrests were made, and only 10 of them were Israelis.

The cancellation of the Israeli Premier League derby between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Tel Aviv on Sunday, following what police described as ‘public disorder and violent riots’, has provided more grist to the Jew-haters’ mill. Even though there is no proof, as of yet, that Maccabi fans were the main culprits there.

The Israelophobes are now having to pretend that a few bad apples is totally unheard of in European football; that banning all of a team’s fans is a totally normal response to pockets of (alleged) disorder. As Barney Ronay, chief sports writer for the Guardian, points out, are we going to demand Paris Saint‑Germain supporters be banished from every ground in the land, given their Champions League ‘celebrations’ last season left two fans dead and a copper in a coma? I’ll wait.

We all know why the authorities in Birmingham caved in. They fear a repeat of what happened in Amsterdam, and I don’t mean a few idiotic Maccabi ultras burning some of the city’s plentiful supply of Palestine flags. They fear a ‘Jew hunt’ on our own soil. They fear that thugs will listen to that Birmingham imam, who was filmed saying Maccabi supporters should be ‘shown no mercy’. They fear – and not without cause, it must be said – that at a time when anti-Semitic incidents recently hit a 40-year high, when an Islamist whose name was literally Jihad recently went on a fatal stabbing spree at a synagogue in Manchester, that Jews might not be totally safe here.

So it is that Britain, a nation that likes to pride itself on its Second World War stand against Nazism and Jew hatred, has become a nation in which Jewish football fans are fearful to tread. We desperately need to reckon with how we got here. But before that we need to ensure fans are never banned like this again, simply because we have allowed being Jewish to become a provocation.

The answer to mob anti-Semitism isn’t appeasement. It is defiance. Footing the bill for more officers is a small price to pay for maintaining Britain’s reputation as a country with something resembling a moral compass. The problem here isn’t a shortage of resources. It’s a famine of moral courage. Time to find some.
WSJ Editorial: Birmingham, England, Bars Israeli Soccer Fans rather than Police Islamist Radicals
On Thursday authorities in Birmingham, Britain's second-largest city, prohibited the fans of an Israeli soccer team from attending a match next month, even though the threats to cause trouble are coming from locals. It comes barely two weeks after an Islamist terror attack on a synagogue in Manchester.

What is unusual is that these fans are being barred not as likely perpetrators of violence but as potential victims. The police cite a 2024 riot in Amsterdam after a match between that city's Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv, in which Muslim cabbies and others hounded and assaulted Jewish fans. Asrar Rashid, a local Muslim scholar, said this month of Maccabi fans: "We will not show them mercy in Birmingham."

Birmingham appears to have a radical Islamist problem, and authorities are bowing to it rather than policing it. It's a shocking statement about antisemitism in Britain if officials can't guarantee the safety of a relatively small number of peaceful soccer fans backing an Israeli team.
Security fears remain even after Maccabi Tel Aviv declines away tickets for Villa game
Both the government and West Midlands Police continue to have “serious concerns” about potential threats to the security and safety of a visiting Israeli football team in Birmingham next month, despite the absence of away fans at the match.

Downing Street has confirmed ongoing discussions with regional police chiefs about deploying additional resources for next month’s Europa League clash between Aston Villa and Maccabi Tel Aviv.

This comes even after the Israeli club announced it would not accept ticket allocations for its supporters.

Jewish News understands these talks are focused on the risk that hardline anti-Israel activists in Birmingham may still attempt to target the Israeli team upon their arrival in the UK.

On Tuesday, a Downing Street spokesperson emphasised the government’s commitment to ensuring the safety of British Jews.

In response to questions about threats from Islamist extremists in cities like Birmingham, the spokesperson acknowledged: “The government accepts that there are, and have been, well-documented cases of antisemitism on our streets.”

Starmer’s spokesperson added, “That needs to be tackled, and we are intent on doing so.”

Ahead of the Europa League match, it is understood there are also concerns that activists linked to the proscribed Palestine Action group, or associated with Islamist organisations in Birmingham, could be planning to disrupt the game, either outside or inside Villa Park.

Although some campaigners, including local MP Ayoub Khan, claimed to support a ban on Israeli fans to protect the city’s predominantly Muslim community from what they allege is a hardcore racist element among Maccabi Tel Aviv’s supporters, they have also initiated a petition to ban the match itself.


‘Jewish supremacy’ diatribe doctor arrested, blames ‘Israeli-Jewish lobby’
A doctor who has become notorious for her diatribes about “Jewish supremacy” in the UK has been arrested by the police, days before another hearing into her conduct is due to be heard by a medical tribunal.

Video footage released on social media showed Dr Rahmeh Aladwan, who has previously described herself as a “British-Palestinian doctor” being arrested this morning.

In video footage, a female Metropolitan Police officer can be seen telling Aladwan: “You’re under arrest for four offences: malicious communications times three, and for inciting racial hatred”, referring to “section 1 of the Malicious Communication Act and section 127 of the Misuse of Public Communications Network.”

The officer refers to a speech “on 21 July, at a pro-Palestine protest which took place outside the Foreign and Commonwealth Office… which amounted to calls for the eradication of Israel and implied support for all those involved in armed resistance against Israel, including organisations such as Hamas.”

She also mentioned “comments that can be interpreted as antisemitic, including antisemitic tropes which could be considered grossly offensive in character. On 7 October you posted a variety of communication which demonstrated support for Hamas’s attack on Israel, an attack which involved murder, rape and kidnap of Israeli citizens, all of which may be considered grossly offensive in character.”

Previous comments by Aladwan included the statement that “I don’t condemn Hamas. I don’t condemn October 7. I don’t condemn armed resistance to Occupation. I condemn ‘Israel’.” However, on 7 October this year, marking two years since the mass murder carried out by Hamas, she tweeted: “7 October – the day Israel was humiliated. Their supremacy shattered at the hands of the children they forced out of their homes. The children who watched foreign jews execute their loved ones, rape their land, and live on their stolen soil.”


'My Totenkopf': Graham Platner Associates Say He Knew He Had a Nazi Tattoo, Contradicting Maine Senate Candidate
Graham Platner (D.), the Bernie Sanders-endorsed Senate candidate in Maine, revealed that he has a Nazi-linked tattoo on his chest but claimed to be unaware of its symbolism. Associates of Platner refuted that claim, with one calling him a history buff who "knows damn well" the meaning of the tattoo and another saying he referred to the ink as "my Totenkopf," a reference to the Nazi symbol.

The controversy is the latest—and likely most damaging—stumbling block for Platner, who is already facing backlash over since-deleted Reddit posts in which he identified as a communist and denigrated both white rural Americans and black people.

Platner, who is running to unseat Republican Susan Collins, revealed in an interview on the Pod Save America podcast that he got a Totenkopf tattoo—a skull and crossbones associated with Nazi Germany and white supremacists—in 2007 while serving in the Marines.

Platner suggested he was unaware of the tattoo's symbolism, telling Pod Save America host Tommy Vietor that "at no point" has anyone questioned the meaning of his tattoo. That was until Platner "got wind that in the opposition research somebody was shopping the idea that I was a secret Nazi with a hidden Nazi tattoo," he told Vietor.

But an associate of Platner's told Jewish Insider that Platner openly bragged about the tattoo, which he referred to as "my Totenkopf."

Genevieve McDonald, who resigned as Platner's campaign director last week over his Reddit posts, disputed his claims of ignorance about the tattoo. "Graham has an anti-Semitic tattoo on his chest," she wrote. She said that Platner is "a history buff" who "knows damn well what [the tattoo] means."
Standing by His Man: Bernie Won't Drop Endorsement of Maine Senate Candidate With Nazi Tattoo
This is hardly Platner's first scandal. He sparked controversy last week over leaked Reddit posts in which he said "all" cops are bastards, called white rural Americans racist and stupid, asked why black people "don't tip," and blamed sexual assault victims for their own rapes. Platner said during the podcast that he made most of the posts while drunk.

When reporters pressed Sanders on Platner's Nazi-linked tattoo, the senator lashed out at the "corrupt campaign finance system," according to Punchbowl News cofounder John Bresnahan.

"We don't have enough candidates in this country that will take on the powers that be and fight for the working class," Sanders went on.


Seth Moulton, Who Rejected AIPAC Donations, Took Qatari Junket and Lobbyist Cash
Democratic congressman and Senate hopeful Seth Moulton (Mass.) announced he will reject donations from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a pro-Israel advocacy group. Government records show he accepted an all-expenses-paid junket to Qatar as well as campaign donations from a lobbying firm for the Hamas-allied Gulf monarchy—and he's yet to swear off taking Qatar-linked gifts and campaign donations in the future.

Moulton, who announced last week he will challenge Democratic Sen. Ed Markey (Mass.), traveled to Qatar in October 2020 as part of the "Qatar Educational and Cultural Affairs Program," according to his financial disclosures. During the four-day trip, for which Qatar covered travel, lodging, and food, Moulton toured the Qatar Foundation, a charity controlled by Qatar’s royal family that has hosted Muslim Brotherhood leaders. The charity’s chairwoman, royal matriarch Moza bint Nasser, praised Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar after he was killed by Israeli forces in October 2024.

During the desert getaway, Moulton and Reps. Eric Swalwell (D., Calif.) and Jim Himes (D., Conn.) had multiple "informal" meetings with Qatar’s lobbyists from the firm Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough to discuss "Qatar’s domestic and foreign policy positions." Nelson Mullins has contributed $11,500 to Moulton’s campaigns since 2014, and a lobbyist for the firm, Robert Crowe, gave $1,000 on Sept. 1, 2020, according to the firm’s lobbying disclosures to the Department of Justice.

The Qatari trip and the campaign donations, which haven’t been reported, take on new significance in light of Moulton’s showy disavowal of AIPAC. Moulton said Friday he will return $35,000 in AIPAC donations he received over the years because the group has "aligned itself too closely with Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government."

"I’m a friend of Israel, but not of its current government, and AIPAC’s mission today is to back that government," said Moulton.

Moulton has made no similar pronouncements regarding funding from Qatar. It could suggest Moulton is more concerned about being seen as too pro-Israel and aligned with AIPAC than he is about connections to Qatar, an oil-rich regime that harbors Hamas leaders and blamed Israel for provoking the Oct. 7 attack. It’s a plausible theory, given the success anti-Israel groups such as Track AIPAC have had in portraying the group as part of a pervasive "Israeli lobby" aiming to influence American politics. Markey, who is running for his third term in the Senate, is a staunch critic of Israel who does not take donations from AIPAC.

While that perception is gaining traction among Democrats, Israel trails far behind other countries in terms of lobbying expenditures. Qatar outspent Israel on lobbying over the past decade, $260 million to $195 million, according to OpenSecrets.
Mikie Sherrill Rallies With Farrakhan Apologist, Defund Police Advocate As New Jersey Gubernatorial Race Tightens
Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D., N.J.) rallied with Newark mayor and Louis Farrakhan acolyte Ras Baraka (D.) and Chigozie Onyema (D.), a defund the police advocate, on Sunday as her lead in New Jersey’s gubernatorial race shrinks heading into the home stretch.

Baraka and Onyema offered rousing endorsements of Sherrill before the three Democrats led volunteers on a door-knocking campaign in New Jersey’s largest city. Onyema, a state assembly candidate, said Sherrill "understands what it means to love," while Baraka urged the crowd to tell "everybody you know up and down the block, at work, in the barber shop, in the beauty parlor" to vote for her.

The pair joined the campaign event, which also included Maryland governor Wes Moore (D.), as polls show Sherrill’s Republican opponent, Jack Ciattarelli, closing in. A Fox News survey last week put Ciattarelli within the margin of error, though a Fairleigh Dickinson University poll released Friday gave Sherrill a 7-point lead.

Calling on Baraka and Onyema for an event in deep-blue Newark suggests Sherrill is concerned about shoring up her left flank.

Baraka—whose father, Amiri Baraka, was stripped of his post as New Jersey’s poet laureate after publishing a poem suggesting Jews had advanced knowledge of the 9/11 attacks—has long praised the Nation of Islam and Farrakhan, the group’s notoriously anti-Semitic leader.

In 2004, Baraka, serving as Newark’s deputy mayor, called Farrakhan a "role model" while introducing him before a speech. Video footage that surfaced earlier this year shows Baraka cheering after Farrakhan says, "The cracker hit you on your jaw, you break his neck." When Baraka was asked about the incident, he defended the Nation of Islam and said, "I will not be bullied or silenced."

He also said former Newark mayor Sharpe James (D.), who served jail time for using his power and influence to defraud residents, "helped define me, my values."


Ingrassia withdraws nomination for special counsel position over ‘Nazi’ and racist texts
Paul Ingrassia, President Trump’s pick to lead the Office of Special Counsel, withdrew his nomination late Tuesday after reports that he sent racist texts demeaning the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and declaring he had “a Nazi streak.”

The move comes just days before Mr. Ingrassia’s confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

“I will be withdrawing myself from Thursday’s HSGAC hearing to lead the Office of Special Counsel because unfortunately I do not have enough Republican votes at this time,” Mr. Ingrassia wrote on X.

“I appreciate the overwhelming support that I have received throughout this process and will continue to serve President Trump and his administration to Make America Great Again!” he said.

Mr. Ingrassia’s decision came after it was clear that his nomination was in trouble with Republicans.

“He’s not gonna pass,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, South Dakota Republican, told reporters on Monday.

It appeared that at least four Republican senators opposed his nomination, making it impossible for him to be confirmed if all Democrats also vote against him.
Jewish group withdraws support for embattled special counsel pick accused of racist texts
Paul Ingrassia, President Donald Trump’s embattled nominee to lead the Office of Special Counsel, lost the support of the main Jewish group backing his nomination on Tuesday after a new report revealed that he sent racist and antisemitic text messages.

The text messages, obtained by Politico, allegedly included Ingrassia saying he has “a Nazi streak,” and arguing that Martin Luther King Jr. Day “should be ended and tossed into the seventh circle of hell where it belongs.” Ingrassia also reportedly used racial slurs against Black and Asian Americans.

On Tuesday, Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), which had previously backed his nomination, told CNN in a statement, “If these text revelations are accurate, I have no choice but to immediately withdraw my support. In this time of a surge and growing antisemitism, it is incumbent upon all of us to fight even any hint of antisemitism or racism.”

The move leaves the Trump administration’s nominee — already facing collapsing Senate support after a series of CNN KFile reports detailed his history of inflammatory and conspiratorial statements — with almost no Jewish groups backing his candidacy. The administration had previously defended Ingrassia’s ties to prominent White nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes by claiming he had the backing of many Jewish organizations – a claim disputed by several they listed.
Northwestern University Can Toss Students Who Refuse To Complete Anti-Semitism Training, Judge Rules
Northwestern University can strip students’ financial aid, access to on-campus housing, and even their student status for refusing to complete a mandatory anti-Semitism training, a federal judge ruled Monday.

The ruling represents an early blow to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in the lawsuit it filed against Northwestern on behalf of the school’s Graduate Workers for Palestine, alleging the training violates federal civil rights law and bans "expressions of Palestinian identity." The plaintiffs had asked the court for a temporary restraining order to stop the school from punishing students who boycotted the training while the case played out, but Judge Georgia Alexakis rejected that request.

"Because the plaintiffs have failed to meet their burden in this threshold inquiry, we do not move on to conduct a balancing of the harms," Alexakis said, according to the student paper, the Daily Northwestern. "For that reason, I have to deny the motion."

CAIR’s suit focuses on a training video produced by the Jewish United Fund that shows quotes from Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke alongside those from anti-Israel activists to make the point that "you can’t tell the difference." CAIR, a terror-tied pro-Hamas group, argued the video "equates critical engagement with Zionism with anti-Jewish statements by the Ku Klux Klan" and discriminates against "the University's Palestinian and other Arab students by branding their ethnic and religious identities, cultures, and advocacy for the rights of their national group as antisemitic and subject to discipline."

Northwestern barred students who didn’t complete the training from registering for classes and gave them until Monday to view the video. After that, they would face escalating penalties, including the loss of financial aid, access to on-campus housing, and even the revocation of their student status, effectively booting them from the university and forcing them to reapply. Northwestern attorneys have identified 16 students who have not completed the training, the Daily Northwestern reported.


Six weeks after deadline, House panel still awaits bias, Jew-hatred materials from Wikipedia parent
A month-and-a-half after the deadline that a House panel gave the Wikimedia Foundation to provide documents about how it responds to bias, including Jew-hatred, on Wikipedia, the San Francisco-based nonprofit has yet to send the required materials, Carlie Baker, press assistant to Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), told JNS.

“The Wikimedia Foundation is engaging with the Oversight Committee about its request, but it has not satisfied document production at this time,” Baker said on Tuesday. (JNS sought comment from the foundation.)

Mace, who chairs the House Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology and Government Innovation, and Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, penned a letter to the CEO of the foundation on Aug. 27.

The lawmakers sought “documents and information related to actions by Wikipedia volunteer editors caught violating platform policies,” as well as the CEO’s “efforts to thwart intentional, organized efforts to inject bias into sensitive topics.” They gave the foundation until Sept. 10 to provide the documents.

The Republican lawmakers stated in their Aug. 27 letter that a recent report “raised troubling questions about potentially systematic efforts to advance antisemitic and anti-Israel information in Wikipedia articles related to conflicts with the State of Israel.”

An Anti-Defamation League report in March found that 30 Wikipedia editors have been coordinating to “introduce antisemitic narratives, anti-Israel bias and misleading information.”

Wikipedia, which was created in 2001, is one of the most visited sites on the internet.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, sent a letter to Wikimedia’s CEO on Oct. 3 requesting “information about ideological bias on the Wikipedia platform and at the Wikimedia Foundation.”

The senator stated that there is “detailed evidence of a coordinated editing campaign to push antisemitic content on the platform.”

“Through more than 1.5 million edits over the past decade, a coordinated group of editors pushed antisemitic narratives on Wikipedia while whitewashing the activities of groups like Hamas,” he wrote. “These were not ‘organic changes that occur on Wikipedia as editors update pages to reflect evolving understandings of complex issues,’ but rather a ‘long-running, coordinated scheme that involved serious infractions to Wikipedia’s anti-bias policies.’”


Florida charges Texas man over threats to Jewish conservative media figures
State officials said a Texas man was arrested for making death threats against Jewish conservative media figures who live in Florida.

State Attorney General James Uthmeier announced on X that the Office of Statewide Prosecutor was notified last week of the threats. He added that, after an investigation, authorities got an arrest warrant and have charged Nicholas Ray of Spring, Texas, with extortion, written threats to kill and unlawful use of a two-way communication device.

Laura Loomer, the far-right activist and ally of President Donald Trump, announced on social media Monday evening that she was one of those targeted with death threats and had reported them to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. In her post, she said conservative commentator Josh Hammer and Seth Dillon of The Babylon Bee were also threatened.

Loomer, in her post, said she became a target because the suspect “was radicalized by the false accusations that I am a foreign agent, and then he proceeded to make a serious and credible threat against my life.”

Both Dillon and Hammer also went online to thank Uthmeier and the attorney general’s office for the arrest.

“I don’t recommend threatening Florida residents,” Dillon posted on X, adding “my family is sincerely grateful.”


Germany signs €2 billion deal for Israeli Spike missiles despite arms embargo
Israeli defense contractor Rafael Advanced Defense Systems will supply the German army with Spike anti-tank missiles in a deal worth approximately €2 billion, one of the largest agreements signed by Israeli defense industries in Europe in recent years. The contract is especially notable given the arms embargo imposed on Israel earlier this year by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, following the Israeli cabinet’s controversial decision to extend the war in Gaza.

The deal will be executed through EuroSpike GmbH, a joint venture owned by Rafael (20%) and German defense firms Rheinmetall (40%) and Diehl Defense (40%), which markets the Spike missile family across Europe. Production will take place at Eurospike’s facilities in Germany.

The Spike missile is Rafael’s best-selling weapon system globally, known for its operational simplicity and compatibility with a wide range of launch platforms. To date, Rafael has sold Spike missiles to more than 40 countries, about half of which are NATO members.

In contrast to Germany’s approval, other European countries have moved in the opposite direction. Citing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Spain recently canceled a planned purchase of 1,700 Spike missiles and 170 launchers from Rafael, valued at roughly ₪1 billion (about €250 million).

Industry sources suggest that the European ownership structure of EuroSpike helped make the German deal possible, allowing Berlin to move forward despite the diplomatic fallout surrounding Israel.

Germany remains Israel’s second-largest defense partner after the United States and a longstanding customer of its military industries. Just before the October 7 war, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) finalized the €3.3 billion Arrow 3 missile defense deal with Germany, the largest defense export contract in Israel’s history. IAI is expected to deliver the first Arrow 3 interceptors by the end of this year, and Berlin is reportedly considering a future purchase of the Arrow 4, which is still under development.
Blood test 95% accurate in spotting suicide risk in bipolar patients, says Israeli scientist
A researcher from the University of Haifa says that she has developed a new method to predict a high suicide risk among patients with bipolar disorder through a simple blood test.

Prof. Shani Stern of Haifa’s Sagol Department of Neurobiology, who worked on the study with researchers from Canada and Italy, said the team developed an artificial-intelligence algorithm based on genetic changes in the white blood cells of patients with bipolar disorder.

The groundbreaking study, published in the peer-reviewed Translational Psychiatry, achieved more than 95% accuracy.

“We were surprised to discover that we had a very good prediction of which patients would commit suicide by finding markers in white blood cells,” ” said Stern, speaking to The Times of Israel by telephone.

Since people diagnosed with bipolar disorder have a risk of suicide death 10-20 times higher than that of the general population, and approximately 40% of them will attempt suicide at some point in life, a reliable blood test could help caregivers become more aware of their bipolar patients’ mental health condition, Stern said.

That means caregivers could monitor bipolar patients more closely — and intervene earlier.
Israeli kibbutz swamped with bookings after listing among UN’s 52 Best Tourism Villages
Just days after Kibbutz Neot Smadar was added to the U.N. Tourism 2025 list of 52 Best Tourism Villages in the world, the kibbutz’s tourism director told Hebrew-language outlet Ynet on Monday that the small community in Israel’s south could not handle the flood of booking requests.

“In the guest rooms they told me, ‘Enough, we’re collapsing, we can’t keep up,’” said Adva Meir-Weil. “Suddenly there were so many inquiries,” the director added.

The kibbutz, located in the southern Arava, was “very surprised” to be included in the prestigious U.N. list, Meir-Weil continued, “but on the other hand we worked four years [to achieve] this. When we received the announcement in September we were thrilled and glad,” she related.

In the letter, the U.N. agency praised the kibbutz for its cultural and natural richness and its commitment to sustainability “in all three dimensions: ecological, social and economic,” according to Ynet.

The list of new villages was announced on Oct. 17 in a special ceremony held in Huzhou City, China.

The small towns were selected from over 270 applications from 65 U.N. Tourism Member States, according to the international body’s website.

Following the recognition, Israel’s tourism ministry and the Southern Arava Regional Council issued a joint statement, saying that Neot Semadar “serves as a unique model of a cooperative ecological community and offers an exceptional tourist experience that includes an Art Center—built over 15 years by community members—an organic boutique winery, an inn featuring local produce, desert guest rooms, artist workshops, stargazing alongside the Weizmann Institute’s survey telescope, and guided tours through breathtaking desert landscapes,” per Ynet.
Israeli-American Nobel laureate says his award is secondary to hostages’ safe return
In the early hours of the day when the Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded, Israeli-American economic historian Joel Mokyr was glued to his screen, following news of the release of Israeli hostages from Gaza.

Little did he know how his day would evolve.

“It was a very odd morning,” said Mokyr of Monday, October 13, when 20 surviving and four deceased hostages came home from two years of captivity. “I woke up very early in the morning, dashing to my computer to see what happened with the hostages, and while reading the news about their return, somehow my inbox pops up with like 20 incoming messages that all say ‘congratulations.’”

He continued, “I thought, ‘What the hell is this,’ as it wasn’t my birthday, and only when I opened some of the emails, which prompted me to check my phone, I saw a missed call from Sweden, called back and was told that I won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.”

Speaking to The Times of Israel a week after winning the most prestigious award in his field, Mokyr, 79, said that the return of the hostages that day warmed his heart far more than the Nobel and meant more than any personal achievement he could ever attain.

“Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew that the Nobel Prize in Economics was going to be awarded because I’m an academic economist,” he said. “But I completely forgot about the announcement, and it never even occurred to me that I might have a chance to win.”




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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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