Pages

▼

Sunday, November 02, 2025

11/02 Links: Omer Neutra confirmed as one of three slain Gaza hostages returned to Israel on Sunday; The Arab World Rejects Hamas While New York City Glorifies It

From Ian:

When Truth Splits in Two: The Arab World Rejects Hamas While New York City Glorifies It
The Great Moral Reversal
In the Middle East, proximity to Hamas’s rule has produced clarity. People who live under or near Islamist militias know the cost of their fanaticism. They have seen the beheadings, the executions, the corruption, and the cruelty. They know that Hamas, like the Houthis or Hezbollah, does not liberate, it enslaves.

In the West, by contrast, ideological distance paired with obsession of the oppressor vs oppressed narrative breeds delusion. The further one stands from Hamas’s victims, the easier it is to romanticize its violence. Western activists, many of whom would never tolerate a prayer led by a homophobic priest or a law that could affect a woman's right to control her own medical decisions, suspend all judgment when those same forces wrap themselves in Palestinian flags.

It is an irony only modern politics could produce. Arab liberals call for Hamas’s elimination, while American progressives dance beneath its banners.

Why This Matters
The implications reach beyond moral outrage. When American cities normalize pro terror rhetoric, they erode the social immune system that protects against radicalization. When politicians legitimize extremists in the name of diversity, they invite violence and antisemitism into civic life.

One world is waking up. The other is descending into moral sleep. In Riyadh, Cairo, and Manama, journalists write that Hamas’s “role has ended.” In Brooklyn, protesters shout that “resistance is glorious.”

The former seeks peace. The latter seeks purpose. The former has seen war’s reality. The latter plays at revolution from the safety of American democracy.

The lesson is painfully clear: moral clarity still exists, but you will find more of it today in the Arab world than on the streets of New York City, a city now poised to dive even deeper into fanaticism and moral inversion.
The Qatar Problem
Knowledge Production and Narrative Control
Tensions between Saudis, Iranians, and Qataris had simmered for years, and I could still feel the heat at a security forum in Europe in late August 2023. After I led a teach-in on the Middle East, the Qatari ambassador to Canada, Dr Khalid bin Rashid Al Mansouri, approached me to ask if I needed funding for my initiatives. I declined. Mid-sentence, a Gazan social-media activist cut in: “Will you keep financially supporting our people in Gaza even now that Saudi is normalising with Israel?” The ambassador turned, took his hands, and answered, “We will never ever stop supporting our Palestinian brothers.”

That was not a humanitarian promise, it was policy. Qatar has bankrolled Hamas since 2007, when the group seized Gaza after a bloody rampage that overthrew the Palestinian Authority. In 2012, Qatar’s then-Emir made a red-carpet visit to Gaza and pledged US$400 million for projects, a watershed moment that signalled Doha’s unabashed embrace of Hamas’s rule. Patronage matured into a routinised cash flow, and by 2021, about US$30 million per month was entering Gaza, framed as “humanitarian” transfers that sustained Hamas-run salaries and government operations.

At the same time, Qatar was investing heavily in Western knowledge production and narrative control. Since 2001, US colleges and universities have reported an estimated US$6.25 billion in Qatari funding, making Qatar one of the five largest foreign donors in American higher education. Think tanks and policymakers were folded in, too. Qatar gave upward of US$9.1 million to US think tanks between 2019 and 2023. The Brookings Doha Center and related initiatives received US$14.8 million in a single three-year pledge, part of a broader, longer-running relationship that raised persistent questions and prompted FBI investigations about policy manipulation and censorship across the Beltway ecosystem.

Lobbying followed the same template. In a single recent year, Qatar retained 33 FARA-registered PR and lobbying firms, spending around US$18 million to create surge capacity for bookings, op-eds, and Hill and press engagement. To give you a picture of the scale of Qatari reach in DC, I spent several months after 7 October trying to publish a piece titled, “Qatar Is a Leading Saboteur of Regional Integration.” I sent it to everyone I know in media and policy, including Ambassador Dennis Ross who promised, when I begged him at a Washington Institute event in November 2023, to get it published. I had hit multiple walls, including at a think tank of which I am a member.

A friend at one of these publications told me: “I think they [the editorial team] have an issue with the fact that they have an upcoming partnership in December with Qatar. One of the directors flagged it as problematic and might put them in a delicate situation and prefer to go with another piece they had commissioned with a lighter touch on the subject. Sorry for that.” I asked if there was somewhere I could send it where there would not be a conflict of interest. “It is hard in DC,” my friend replied. “Everyone has interests with the Qataris.”

Even public grief was asked to stand down in deference to Doha’s leverage. After 7 October, several planned protests by hostage families in front of the Qatari embassy were quietly shut down. A source close to the Hostage Families Forum in DC told me they were explicitly warned not to “endanger” diplomatic talks with the only mediators deemed capable of securing releases. I do not fault the families for yielding, especially when even Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff continue to celebrate Qatar’s role as the indispensable mediator for peace.
WAPO: Palestinian Talks on Gaza's Future Could See Hamas Help Shape Its Rule
Palestinian political factions are holding closed-door discussions that could see Hamas play a role in shaping a postwar administration in Gaza.

The eight Palestinian factions and armed groups involved - including Fatah, which leads the Palestinian Authority based in the West Bank, and Hamas - are working to reach a consensus over key elements of an interim administration.

To avoid a protracted postwar insurgency, Hamas must be included in any political settlement, say Palestinian political factions and mediators from Arab countries.

A pivotal question is whether Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu or President Trump would object to a Gazan government born out of talks between Hamas and Fatah.

For Israel, nearly every aspect of the inter-Palestinian talks is unpalatable.

"The fear for Israel is that Hamas will open the gates of Gaza and say to the PA, 'You're the boss here. Just bring money to Gaza and you can declare yourself the minister of agriculture or education. Just don't touch weapons, and we'll be the dominant player,'" said Michael Milshtein, a former Israeli military intelligence analyst.

Daniel Shapiro, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, said, "There is a risk that the end state that emerges will be what we wanted to avoid....Hamas is battered and bruised but hanging on to power, preparing for the next round."
WSJ: Hizbullah Is Rearming, Putting Ceasefire at Risk
Hizbullah in Lebanon is rebuilding its armaments and battered ranks, defying the terms of a ceasefire agreement, and raising the prospect of renewed conflict with Israel, according to Israeli and Arab intelligence.

The intelligence shows Iranian-backed Hizbullah is restocking rockets, antitank missiles and artillery. Some weapons are coming in via seaports and still functional smuggling routes through Syria. Hizbullah is also manufacturing new weapons itself.

Under the agreement that ended a two-month Israeli campaign against the group a year ago, Lebanon is required to start disarming Hizbullah in parts of Lebanon, before continuing to the entire country as per a previous agreement.

Israel is losing patience after new intelligence findings highlighted Hizbullah's rearmament. "Should Beirut continue to hesitate, Israel may act unilaterally - and the consequences would be grave," Tom Barrack, U.S. ambassador to Turkey and a key American envoy for Lebanon and Syria, said in October.

The standoff highlights the difficulty of quashing an established militia with a base of support among the population even when it has been badly beaten. The difficulties are also evident in Gaza, where Hamas is resisting demands that it disarm and relinquish power.


Omer Neutra confirmed as one of three slain Gaza hostages returned to Israel on Sunday
Omer Neutra was one of the three slain hostages whose remains were returned to Israel US President Donald Trump first announced on Sunday, this was later confirmed by Omer's parents. The National Forensic Center has still not made any public statement on the identities of the returned remains at this time.

Omer's father Ronen confirmed Trump's statement to Israeli media saying, "Our Omer is finally on the soil of Israel. So much pain and so much relief."

Neutra was a lone soldier from New York, serving as a tank platoon commander in the 77th Battalion of the 7th Brigade. With Neutra's return, this would leave Itay Chen as the only dual US-Israeli national whose remains are still within the Gaza strip.

The remains of three slain hostages crossed into Israeli territory on Sunday evening at around 9:30 p.m. and have been transferred to the National Center for Forensic Medicine for identification according to the Health Ministry.

The remains are now en route to the L. Greenberg Institute of Forensic Medicine at Abu Kabir for identification.

Hamas claimed that it had located the remains of three hostages, sources within the terrorist organization told Al Arabiya on Sunday.

On Friday, Hamas returned the partial remains of three people, though forensic testing revealed that the remains did not belong to any of the remaining hostages in Gaza.


Mourners lay slain hostages Amiram Cooper, Sahar Baruch to rest in southern Israel
Slain hostages Amiram Cooper, 84, and Sahar Baruch, 25, were laid to rest on Sunday in their homes of Nir Oz and Be’eri, respectively, after their bodies were returned to Israel last week.

In the morning, hundreds attended Cooper’s funeral in southern Israel, gathering around his coffin draped in a white flag bearing the logo of Kibbutz Nir Oz, which he helped found seven decades ago.

Amiram’s wife, Nurit Cooper — who was also taken captive in Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre — eulogized her late husband, recalling the time they spent together in captivity.

“Even in the tunnels we were together — we shared a mattress and the little food we received and hoped to return alive,” she said. Nurit was released by Hamas in a humanitarian gesture alongside fellow Nir Oz resident Yocheved Lifshitz, weeks after being taken hostage.

Nurit, who came to Kibbutz Nir Oz at age 18, recounted hearing about Cooper as “a guy who writes poems and whistles melodies,” before the two officially met. “I loved his poems…. Later we met, fell in love, and started a family,” she said.

“This is a great loss for all of us. Life without him is lonely. I miss you so much, and I love you dearly,” she lamented.

President Isaac Herzog also attended the funeral and paid tribute to Cooper, asking forgiveness on behalf of the state for failing to save his life.

“I stand here today with my head bowed to ask of you, Amiram, forgiveness,” Herzog said. “I’m sorry, Amiram, that we didn’t manage to rescue you in time from the jaws of captivity. Sorry that it took us far too long to bring you back to the landscape of your homeland. Sorry that you were captured while still alive, and that you return to us only to be buried in the ground.”


Netanyahu: Disgraced military advocate general caused state’s worst PR crisis
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday blamed Military Advocate General Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi for “perhaps the most severe public relations attack the State of Israel has experienced since its establishment,” after she admitted to leaking video recordings allegedly showing the mistreatment of terrorist detainees from Gaza.

The video of the alleged incident at the Sde Teiman detention center in the Negev “caused immense damage to the image of the State of Israel and the [Israel Defense Forces], to our soldiers,” the premier told reporters on Sunday, speaking ahead of the weekly Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.

Netanyahu said the public-relations damage Jerusalem suffered due to the leak was more “focused with such intensity” than any previous assault on Israel’s international legitimacy that he could recall.

“This requires an independent, impartial investigation, and I expect such an investigation to take place,” the premier added.

In July 2024, IDF Military Police arrested nine IDF reservists guarding the makeshift detention center as part of a probe into an incident of alleged abuse of a imprisoned Hamas terrorist.

“Following a suspicion of serious abuse of a detainee who was held in the prison facility, an investigation by the Military Police was opened by order of the Military Advocate General’s Office,” the IDF said at the time.

During the investigation, security camera footage allegedly documenting an assault on the terrorist by five reservists stationed at Sde Teiman was leaked to Israel’s Channel 12 News.

On Wednesday, Tomer-Yerushalmi went on leave pending an investigation into her office.

On Friday, Tomer-Yerushalmi acknowledged in a resignation letter that she had signed off on the leak, claiming that she had done so in an attempt to “fend off false propaganda directed against military law enforcement authorities.”
MAG Tomer Yerushalmi, former military prosecutor Matan Solomesh arrested in leak probe
MAG Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi and former military prosecutor Matan Solomesh were arrested late Sunday night as part of an ongoing Israel Police investigation into a suspected leak and other serious criminal offenses.

A police spokesperson said the arrests were carried out by a special investigative team and form part of a continuing inquiry.

Both suspects are expected to be brought on Sunday before the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court for a remand hearing, according to the police statement.

Tomer-Yerushalmi found alive near Tel Aviv beach after suicide concerns
Former IDF Military Advocate-General Maj.-Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi was found alive and unharmed on Sunday evening on a beach in north Tel Aviv after a widespread search lasting hours, following a report of her disappearance, and fears were raised that she might take her own life.

The embattled top military jurist, the second woman in the IDF to hold the rank of major-general, resigned on Friday after Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened to fire her for allegedly leaking the Sde Teiman investigation video that shows soldiers using excessive force against a Palestinian terrorist in detention. She then apparently lied about not knowing the source of the leak.

“This afternoon, we received a report about a missing person with concerns for her life. With bolstered forces, we arrived in the area and deployed all the resources at our disposal – by sea, on land, and through technological means. I can say that after extensive searches, she is currently being escorted by soldiers and police officers for a physical examination, and she will be brought to us at the police station,” the Tel Aviv District Police commander stated after she was found.
Jordan, Germany: Int’l force for Gaza needs UN Security Council mandate
Jordan and Germany said on Saturday that the International Stabilization Force envisioned under U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace plan for the Gaza Strip should be deployed under a United Nations mandate.

“In order for that Stabilization Force to be able to be effective in getting the job done, it has to have a Security Council mandate,” said Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, speaking at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) Manama Dialogue in Bahrain.

A U.N. mandate will allow other nations to “come in and so that we [can] really work out the details of the interfacing between the international force and the Palestinian force which, again, must be in charge of security of the Palestinians,” Amman’s top diplomat continued.

“We in Jordan, along with our brothers in Egypt, have said repeatedly that we’re willing, ready and able to train Palestinian police and deploy that force,” he said, adding that the Hashemite Kingdom is “too close to the issue” and therefore cannot deploy its own soldiers to police Gaza.

“Of course, the elephant in the room is going to be Israeli presence in Gaza. Israel remains in about 53% of Gaza,” he said of the peace plan.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul told attendees that the peacekeeping force would “need a clear basis in international law.”

“We understand that this is of utmost importance to those countries who might be willing to send troops,” the German diplomat said. He noted that Berlin “also wants to see a clear mandate for this mission.”

“It is important that we pressure and contain those who actively work against this vision,” said Wadephul. “Let us counter those strive to instability and ensure that opponents to peace cannot succeed.”

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office and the U.S. State Department had not replied to a request for comment on Safadi and Wadephul’s remarks at time of publication.
Netanyahu: IDF eliminating Hamas holdouts in Israeli-controlled Gaza
The military is “systematically eliminating” two Hamas pockets in areas of Gaza under IDF control—in Rafah and Khan Yunis—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.

Speaking at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting, Netanyahu emphasized freedom of action to protect IDF troops positioned in the Strip, saying that “if there is an attempt to harm our forces, we strike those who inflict the harm and also their organization, for the purpose of protecting our forces.”

He clarified that Jerusalem does not seek permission to act from the United States, maintaining “supreme security responsibility” that will not be relinquished.

Shortly after the prime minster spoke, the IDF said that the Air Force struck a terrorist who crossed the Yellow Line into Israeli-controlled territory in northern Gaza in violation of the ceasefire, posing an immediate threat by advancing toward troops.

Netanyahu also emphasized that the government is committed to returning the 11 remaining deceased hostages from Gaza, decrying Hamas’s handing over the remains of individuals having nothing to do with the captives.

“Their attempts are pathetic, trying to mislead us, the U.S. and the world; they will, of course, not succeed, and we will gradually bring back all of our hostages. We are committed to this,” the premier said.

Netanyahu stressed that Jerusalem hasn’t altered its war goals.

“Disarming Hamas, demilitarizing the Gaza Strip is the principle we uphold. This is the principle agreed upon between me and President Trump. This is how we operate, according to a clear plan. Of course, if this is not done in the first way [through the 20-point peace place], then it will be done in the second way [by the IDF], and everyone knows what the second way is and who will also carry it out,” Netanyahu said.
Hamas demands temporary immunity for terrorists in tunnels beyond Gaza's Yellow Line
Hamas has demanded, through mediators on Sunday, temporary immunity for terrorists stationed in underground tunnels in Rafah to move to areas within the Yellow Line, a source familiar with the details told The Jerusalem Post.

Israel is operating in the Rafah area where Hamas terrorists are underground.

"For several months, the IDF has been surrounding and pursuing Hamas terrorists hiding in the 'enclave' in the Rafah area, terrorists who killed three of our brave soldiers just in the past few days," Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said, arguing that if the military allows them to leave safely before it has a chance to kill them, it is "security and moral stupidity."

"These terrorists deserve death," he argued.

Notably, this indicated that the IDF is aware that there are still terrorists in tunnels in certain parts of Gaza, which would be a violation of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.

Israeli media reported that Hamas is seeking immunity for around 200 terrorists. Israeli officials did not comment on the matter at the time of publication.

Army Radio reported that the group of three terrorists killed IDF soldiers in the past few weeks, and have also fired at IDF forces operating in Gaza.


Arab-Israeli teen charged over Al-Qaeda plot to kill Netanyahu
Israeli authorities on Sunday filed charges against a 14-year-old Arab citizen who allegedly sought to carry out terrorist attacks, including the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on behalf of Al-Qaeda.

The suspect, who was identified only as a resident of the country’s center, was active in a Signal chat group titled, “Cyber and Armed Jihad Movement,” which was operated by a “foreign agent affiliated with Al-Qaeda,” the Office of the State Attorney charged in the indictment.

Some two months ago, the foreign agent asked members of the group to gather intelligence for an “operation” in Israel, according to the charges. The suspect complied, documenting two buildings that had previously been used as Israeli military installations. He sent Al-Qaeda their exact coordinates, and also shared a video clip for propaganda purposes.

The suspect subsequently wrote to the foreign agent that he had planned to record a police station in Tel Aviv and carry out multiple terrorist attacks, including the assassination of the prime minister.

In addition, the teenager allegedly contacted the Gaza-based Hamas terrorist organization, sharing with them his plans to harm Jewish Israelis using a knife or a fire bomb.

The indictment noted that the suspect acted with intent to harm state security and requested that he remain imprisoned pending the proceedings.


Danny Danon: Francesca Albanese is motivated by hatred of Israel, not peace and human rights
Francesca Albanese wants you to believe she speaks for peace. But peace is not what drives her. From her first day as UN special rapporteur to her most recent deranged report on the “situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967,” Albanese has used her position not to mediate, but to inflame; not to bring justice, but to wage a political war against Israel.

Her reports are framed as human rights documents. In truth, they are polemics dressed in the language of law, despite the fact that she holds no legal license to practice law. They omit the facts that matter, erase the victims who don’t fit her narrative, and read more like propaganda pamphlets than credible investigations.

The target is always the same: Israel. The villains are always the same: Israelis. The beneficiaries are, time and again, those who openly glorify terror.

For years, Albanese has trafficked in rhetoric that blurs the line between criticism of Israel and outright antisemitism. She’s accused Israel of everything from “apartheid” to “genocide,” while excusing or ignoring the actions of Hamas, an internationally recognized terrorist organization that calls for, in its founding charter, the annihilation of Jews worldwide. She’s likened Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza to the systematic extermination of Jews by Nazis in the Holocaust.

When a UN rapporteur’s loudest cheerleaders are Hamas leaders and their online acolytes, it’s a sign that something has gone profoundly wrong.

Her latest report marks a new low. It invokes the gravest of crimes, “genocide,” yet makes scant mention of the October 7 massacre that left more than 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals dead in a single day. There is not a word about the rape, the torture, or the kidnapping of Israeli hostages. Not a whisper about Hamas’s execution of its own people in Gaza since the ceasefire was reached in early October. Instead, Albanese casts Israel as the aggressor, a nation supposedly consumed by cruelty, while the actual aggressors are airbrushed out of the story entirely.
How a sanctioned UN operative captured South Africa’s institutions
United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese’s October 2025 visit to South Africa was neither an academic tour nor a humanitarian mission. It was a deliberate act of political defiance against the West, particularly the United States, orchestrated by the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) and the Nelson Mandela Foundation (NMF).

At the time, Albanese was under active U.S. Treasury sanctions for “directly engaging with the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate, arrest, or prosecute nationals of the United States or Israel.” Yet in South Africa, she was treated as a dignitary and provided security, state coordination and high-profile platforms.

The Justice Department blocked lawful service of foreign legal papers; DIRCO, South Africa’s foreign ministry, facilitated her travel and parliamentary access, and the Mandela Foundation, under the chairpersonship of former Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor, lent moral cover and institutional prestige.

What might have embarrassed South Africa became instead a display of pride. The visit validated Albanese’s work and integrated her into the lawfare network supporting South Africa’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) case against Israel.

Albanese’s political worldview was shaped long before her U.N. appointment. From 2010 to 2012, she served as a legal officer for UNRWA in Jerusalem, helping draft a “strategic framework” aligning agency policy with human rights mechanisms. During this period, South Africa’s Gift of the Givers organization operated in Gaza, running clinics in UNRWA facilities later shown to be near Hamas operations.

Her bias was never subtle. During the 2014 Gaza war, she wrote that the United States was “subjugated by the Jewish lobby.” Her subsequent work, including UNRWA and Palestine Refugee Rights: New Assaults, New Challenges (2018) and Palestinian Refugees in International Law (2020), advocated for the Palestinian “right of return” and compensation from Israel.

When she applied for the position of U.N. Special Rapporteur in November 2021, her application echoed DIRCO rhetoric almost verbatim, including her call to “re-empower multilateralism” to correct the “asymmetry of power between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.”
United Nations Honors Head of Terror Support Network
On September 26, 2025, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced Ahmed Shehata, CEO of Islamic Relief USA (IRUSA), as its newest Eminent Advocate. The UN praised Shehata for his “strong commitment to advocating for refugees,” recognizing him during a ceremony at the 80th session of the UN General Assembly.

The appointment should spark outrage, as the organization Shehata leads is the American arm of a group that has been banned or blacklisted by multiple nations for alleged terror financing and links to terrorist outfits, including Hamas. By honoring Shehata, the UN appears to have learned little from its own scandals involving staff with extremist affiliations – including UNRWA employees fired in 2024 for suspected involvement in the Hamas-led October 7 massacre – or a Nazi war criminal, Kurt Waldheim, serving as its Secretary General.

Indeed, this isn’t the first time the UN has embraced Islamic Relief. For decades, it has collaborated with the organization, overlooking mounting evidence of its extremist ties.


WZC is supposed to be about unity; J Street made it about division
The World Zionist Congress is meant to convene approximately every five years to unite Jews around a shared Zionist vision – one rooted in Herzl’s dream of the Jewish people’s self-determination, and the collective strength of Israel and the Diaspora. It should be a forum for solidarity, not political theater.

My organization, Hasbara Fellowships, mobilized our student leaders to rally thousands of votes as part of the Aish Ha’am slate for this congress. We joined forces with friends from StandWithUs, the Zionist Organization of America, Aish, and social media activists Lizzy Savetsky, Ari Ackerman, and Shabbos Kestenbaum. Together, we came to champion causes that transcend factional lines: confronting campus antisemitism, ensuring Jewish students feel safe and supported, and securing resources for IDF soldiers coping with PTSD.

We didn’t come to argue about borders or settlements. We came to strengthen Jewish unity.

Our resolutions reflected that purpose. We believed that in 2025 – after the trauma of October 7 and amid the antisemitic surge on campuses worldwide – no one could object to calls for greater campus security funding or to initiatives supporting Israel’s veterans. These were not partisan issues. They were Jewish priorities – moral imperatives that should have united the Congress floor.

Division instead of unity
Yet, instead of the unity we hoped for, we witnessed disruption.

Jeremy Ben-Ami, the founder of J Street, used his platform at the congress not to stand with the Jewish people in a moment of solidarity but to push divisive political resolutions about the theoretical resettlement of Gaza and to advance the narrative that building new Jewish suburbs in Judea and Samaria is somehow the cause of Hamas’s antisemitism and the broader Middle East conflict.

It was breathtakingly out of place – an attempt to import the most polarizing debates of Israeli politics into what should have been a unifying Zionist gathering.

That’s not leadership. That’s sabotage.

Soros funding
The World Zionist Congress is not the Knesset. Its purpose is not to dictate Israel’s security policy or debate its borders. Its mandate is to bring together Jews from around the world to support the State of Israel and the Jewish people – to fund schools, youth movements, Jewish education, aliyah programs, and solidarity initiatives. When delegates hijack that platform to score ideological points, they betray the very essence of Zionism.

Even more troubling is who was doing the hijacking. J Street’s funding is heavily backed by George Soros – a man whose philanthropic empire has underwritten causes that delegitimize Israel and embolden its detractors. Soros-funded organizations have accused Israel of apartheid and lobbied against US aid to the Jewish state. For an organization dependent on his support to sit at the World Zionist Congress – an institution founded to realize Herzl’s dream of Jewish national revival – is an insult to that legacy.

And we know what will happen next. J Street will no doubt use Ben-Ami’s participation as a delegate to legitimize itself in Washington. They will point to his seat at the WZC as proof that he represents the “mainstream Jewish community” while lobbying American leaders to distance themselves from Israel, to question its defensive actions, to constrain its sovereignty, and to weaken its alliances. In other words, the very stage meant to unite Jews will now be cited to divide them.
‘Clearly have antisemitism element of our party,’ McCormick says at RJC
As Jewish Republicans gathered in Las Vegas this weekend to celebrate their successful efforts to re-elect U.S. President Donald Trump and cheer the return of the Israeli hostages in a deal that he brokered, one concern dampened their enthusiasm: rising Jew-hatred and anti-Israel rhetoric among younger conservatives.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) sounded the warning bell first at the event when it got underway on Thursday night. It continued to ring all weekend, as speaker after speaker warned that increased opposition to Israel wasn’t restricted to Democrats.

Much of the Republican Jewish Coalition’s wrath rained down on Tucker Carlson, the conservative firebrand and former Fox News host who has hosted Holocaust deniers and antisemites on his show.

Speaker after speaker called on Jewish Republicans to combat the message being spread by Carlson, who just last year received a coveted prime-time speaking role at the GOP national convention in Milwaukee.

“We clearly have an antisemitism element of our party,” Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.) told JNS. “I think it’s a very small minority, but we have to confront it. It’s never in my opinion appropriate to give platform, to give license, to people who are explicitly pro-Hitler, pro-Nazi, explicitly antisemitic.

“The response that you’re seeing, the backlash, is to make it clear that the majority of us do not sanction those views or presenting those views as reasonable and things to be legitimately discussed and debated,” McCormick said.

Left-wing students weren’t the only ones on college campuses who sided with Palestinians after Hamas’s terror attack against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

“Regarding the young generation, I think we saw it during the war—that it was very easy to incite them and to channel their energy towards anti-Israel campaigns,” Danny Danon, Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, told JNS at the RJC event.

“I think we have to invest more in education, exposing the real facts bringing youngsters to Israel,” the Israeli envoy said. “I think we should focus on college campuses and bring the next generation—the leaders, the influencers—to Israel, and once they come to Israel, it’s much easier. It changes their perspective.”


Turkish FM Hosts Hamas Delegation Ahead of Guarantors Meeting in Istanbul
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with Hamas chief Khalil al-Khayya and other senior members of the jihadist group’s political bureau in Istanbul on Saturday.

Al-Hayya, a senior Hamas negotiator, was among the terror chiefs surviving an Israeli strike on their Doha residence last month. Topics of discussion, according to the Turkish foreign ministry, included the state of the ceasefire and the flow of humanitarian aid.

The meeting comes ahead of Monday’s Istanbul gathering of the foreign ministers of the so-called “guarantor countries” as stipulated in the ceasefire plan put forth by the U.S. administration of President Donald Trump. The countries include Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.


Leading NYC Reform rabbi warns about Mamdani — and communal split stemming from election
Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, a leading figure in the US Reform movement, warned Friday about threats posed by New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, and about divisions in the local Jewish community wrought by the contentious election.

“Some fear that in the most Jewish city in the world, we are becoming strangers once again. I share many of those fears,” Buchdahl told her congregation, the Reform Central Synagogue in Manhattan.

She expressed fears about the normalization of anti-Zionism, the demonization of Israel, of children feeling ashamed to identify as Zionist or wear Jewish symbols, and how anti-Zionist rhetoric and antisemitism have caused deadly anti-Jewish violence.

“Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has contributed to a mainstreaming of some of the most abhorrent antisemitism,” Buchdahl said, pointing to Mamdani’s 2023 accusation that Israel was responsible for police violence in New York, which recently received media attention.

“This crosses the line clearly into antisemitism — not only demonizing Israelis but echoing the age-old antisemitic trope that Jews across the world are the root cause of our problems here,” she said, also denouncing Mamdani’s “false claims of genocide” in Gaza, his unwillingness to condemn the phrase “Globalize the intifada,” and his opposition to Israel as a Jewish state.

“It is hard not to fear that the environment we witnessed for our Jewish children on Columbia’s campus after October 7 [2023] could be a preview of the way that New York City could start feeling for all Jews,” she said.

Buchdahl said the “hateful ideas” were not limited to Mamdani, but were part of a broader trend to delegitimize Jewish peoplehood and Israel, driven by an oversimplified, binary view of the world between oppressors and the oppressed, and an ignorance of Jewish history.


Zohran Mamdani vows to shut down Technion’s New York campus over IDF ties
In a statement that has stirred sharp backlash just days before New York City’s mayoral election, anti-Israel frontrunner Zohran Mamdani said that if elected, he would move to boycott the Technion’s activity in the city due to its ties with Israel’s defense establishment.

Mamdani singled out the Technion’s joint campus with Cornell University on Roosevelt Island, known as Cornell Tech, arguing that “an Israeli institution involved in developing weapons for the IDF should not receive city benefits or funding.”

His campaign confirmed his intention to reassess Cornell’s partnership with the Technion and determine whether it aligns with the city’s “values and human rights principles.” As mayor, Mamdani would have the authority to appoint new members to the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation board — the body managing the island and its projects — giving him potential leverage to place supporters of boycotts against Israeli institutions in key positions.

Cornell Tech opened in 2017 after winning an international competition launched by then–Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The project was designed to make New York a global hub for technology and innovation, attracting startups, researchers, and investors. Cornell partnered with the Technion, chosen for its strong reputation in engineering and the sciences. The city provided the project with extensive subsidies, tax breaks, and valuable land, viewing it as a long-term investment in the local economy.

Mamdani, who has opposed the project from its inception, said: “If we examine this partnership through the lens of BDS, it’s clear Cornell-Technion should be part of that conversation.” He described the Technion as “an Israeli university that helped develop weapons used by the IDF,” using that claim to justify calls for a boycott.

His comments drew swift condemnation from city officials, Jewish community leaders, and business representatives.


Jeremy Corbyn ‘ignored direct pleas’ from Jewish MPs over Labour antisemitism, former party chair reveals
The former chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) has revealed that Jeremy Corbyn ignored direct pleas from Jewish MPs for him to deal with the antisemitism they faced within the wider party.

Lord Cryer, who served in the role from 2015-2024, reflected on the weekly PLP meetings during which, he claimed, Corbyn failed to act on what his Jewish parliamentary colleagues were telling him.

“Part of the problem with those meetings was he just wouldn't respond to the questions”, he told former Labour MPs Gloria De Piero and Jonathan Ashworth on their Politics Inside Out podcast, which will be available from November 6.

“He [Corbyn] just didn't respond to the criticism”, the former MP for Leyton and Wanstead recalled. “You had MPs who were Jewish, who were getting threats, who were getting abuse from their own members.

"I can remember one particular MP – I don't want to name anybody because it's still pretty raw – who had somebody who was sending the most vile, antisemitic poison remain a member of the Labour Party.

“[Labour] wouldn't suspend this person, so they used to come along, sit bang in front of the MP” at the monthly meetings of their local constituency party, “just glaring at this MP”, he recounted.

Cryer continued: “And when you had the leader there at the, at the PLP meetings on a Monday evening – not that he came particularly often – he would just not deal with these issues”.

“I think now we know why he wasn’t dealing with it because there was a culture around him of keeping people inside who were seen as supportive of the leadership.”

The landmark report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission in 2020 on antisemitism in Labour under Corbyn found that “there were unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination for which the Labour Party is responsible”.

It also found “evidence of political interference in the handling of antisemitism complaints throughout the period of the investigation”.


Twin brothers sue Columbia University over continuing campus climate that fosters Jew hate: ‘Structural antisemitism is still there’
A pair of Long Island twins are blasting Columbia for allowing antisemitism to run rampant, alleging in a new lawsuit that the university’s trustees continue to foster Jew hate on campus.

Jewish students at Columbia University are subjected to an “institutional tolerance for antisemitism” that manifests across campus, including in the lecture halls, seniors David and Jonathan Lederer, 23, claim in the federal discrimination suit.

“Just this week, a student brought up the war between Israel and Gaza, and the professor goes, ‘Poor choice of words,'” recalled David, who is studying financial engineering.

“And the kid said, ‘What? Genocide?’ And the professor goes, ‘Better.'”

Harassment on campus has been continuous since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israeli civilians, with both brothers accosted by “radical student protestors” and “called slurs like ‘kike,’ ‘Zionist pig,’ and ‘baby killer,'” according to the court filing.

In March, the Trump administration announced that it canceled $400 million in federal grants over the Ivy League school’s noncompliance with anti-discrimination laws.

The administration accused Columbia of violating civil rights law by “acting with deliberate indifference toward student-on-student harassment of Jewish students” since the start of the war in Gaza.

The twins have also been repeatedly doxxed online and been followed by mobs of masked protestors, screaming obscenities and yelling at them to go back to Poland, the suit, filed in Manhattan federal court, states.
Syracuse University chancellor: Iran 'encouraged' campus protests
Iran fostered protests at Syracuse University, the university’s chancellor Kent Syverud said at a Monday Alums for Campus Fairness panel, which also saw Vanderbilt University Chancellor Daniel Diermeier asserting that third-party organized networks had exacerbated the campus unrest.

Syverud explained, according to a YouTube video uploaded on Tuesday, that in the first few months after October 7, there was a hospitable campus atmosphere for both pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian vigils and activities, but then there was an artificial change.

The demonstrations “I really believe [they] were encouraged from Iran; it did not have the involvement of very many – if any – of our own students,” said Syverud.

Diermeier said that Vanderbilt had experienced a similar situation in which there was accommodating and respectful activism for the first months, but then things soon changed due to the involvement of “organized networks.”

'More than a social contagion'
Some protests were due to “social contagion,” but the chancellor said it was “much more direct coordination across campus that was fully established in the late fall and winter.” “There was not a large group, maybe 30+ students or something, but they were looking; they were using the playbook that they had seen at Columbia [University] and at other places that were putting into it – it was the same messaging,” said Diermeier.

“So it’s more than social contagion. I think they’re organized networks as well, and for sure we saw that and that was we saw that things were pivoting much more aggressive[ly]; it was very clearly intended to have us denounce Israel of genocide, divest, and so forth.”


New Report Documents Years of Terror Glorification by University of Virginia SJP Chapter
A new study by the Antisemitism Research Center (ARC) has uncovered a pattern of posts glorifying terrorism and violence spanning more than three years on the Instagram account of the University of Virginia’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter, with content that researchers say violates Meta’s Community Standards.

The investigation, which analyzed posts from May 2021 through November 2024, documented multiple instances where the UVA SJP chapter used euphemistic language like “resistance” and “freedom fighters” to express support for designated terrorist organizations and violent attacks against Israeli civilians. Post-October 7 Content Raises Alarm

Most troublingly, just two days after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that killed over 1,200 Israelis, the UVA SJP account shared imagery from the massacre alongside the phrase “Decolonization is not a metaphor,” promoting a campus meeting to discuss “solidarity with Palestinians resisting occupation.”

The ARC’s findings reveal a consistent pattern of content that whitewashes terrorism under the guise of political activism. In January 2023, the group reframed a terrorist attack that killed seven Israelis in Jerusalem’s Neve Yaakov neighborhood as merely a “shooting in an illegal Israeli settlement,” justifying the violence as an “act of Palestinian resistance.”

The monitoring effort is part of the ARC’s broader initiative to track extremist content promoted by SJP chapters across North American college campuses, documenting glorification of terrorism, hate speech, and incitement to violence.


German police arrest Syrian man suspected of plotting ‘jihadist’ attack
German authorities said Sunday they had arrested a 22-year-old Syrian man in Berlin suspected of preparing a “jihadist” attack, without giving details of the alleged plot.

The suspect, arrested on Saturday in the capital’s southern Neukoelln district, appeared before an investigating judge on Sunday and was ordered remanded in custody.

He is suspected of “preparing an act of serious violence against the state” as well as “spreading propaganda material of anti-constitutional and terrorist organizations,” said a joint statement from Berlin police and prosecutors.

He was alleged to have plotted “a jihadist-motivated attack,” a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office in Berlin told AFP earlier.

The newspaper Bild reported that a search by special police units of three Berlin residential addresses linked to the suspect had turned up items that could be used to build explosives.

The daily said the alleged plot was thought to be an attack in Berlin, but that no other details had yet emerged.

German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said in a statement that the arrest of the Syrian national showed that “the terrorist threat in Germany, though often abstract, remains heightened.”

He said the Syrian man had been in Germany since 2023 and that his activities “suggesting preparations for an attack were detected in time.”
D66 party claims win in Dutch vote, expected to seek anti-Israel coalition
The liberal-progressive Democrats 66 party on Friday declared victory in the Netherlands’ general election after calculations by the ANP news agency claimed it could no longer be overtaken by Geert Wilders’s right-wing and pro-Israel Freedom Party.

“Thank you for your trust,” D66 leader Rob Jetten wrote on X. “We are the biggest party in the Netherlands and now we are going to work on behalf of all the Dutch.”

Although not all the ballots cast in Wednesday’s snap election have been counted, ANP reported earlier Friday that D66 was some 15,000 votes ahead of the Freedom Party and could no longer be overtaken.

D66 and the Freedom Party are projected to win 26 seats each in the 150-member House of Representatives, but analysts believe D66 could win an additional seat when the final calculations are made.

Faction leaders are scheduled to meet on Tuesday to decide who should appoint the verkenner—an initial “scout” tasked with exploring possible coalitions during the Cabinet formation process on behalf of the largest party.

Wilders in an X post on Friday charged that “the Electoral Council decides, and not the ANP—what arrogance not to wait for that.”

“Even if D66 becomes the largest,” Wilders tweeted, “the Freedom Party will not let the Netherlands be dismantled by Jetten and his ilk and will oppose his left-liberal mismanagement with full force from day one.”
Dutch chief rabbi: Jew-hate pushing many to consider Israel
Celebrating 50 years of rabbinical service, Dutch Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs warned Sunday that antisemitism is causing many of his community’s members to contemplate moving to Israel. He added that Dutch authorities are committed to keeping Jews safe.

“I get questions about aliyah all the time these days, much more than before,” Jacobs told JNS on Sunday, following a ceremony in Arnhem that honored his 50 years of service. “It doesn’t mean people are moving, but it’s on their minds,” he said.

Jacobs, a Chabad rabbi whose parents survived the Holocaust in the Netherlands, was honored at a ceremony in a synagogue in Arnhem, a city that played a key role in the Allied offensive on Nazism.

“To those seeking a life without antisemitism in a Jewish environment, I often advise making aliyah,” he added. But despite rising antisemitism levels in the Netherlands, “Dutch Jews can still have a meaningful and relatively safe Jewish life here, because the authorities are providing security: They have our backs,” he added.

Still, “We are confronted with antisemitism daily—we can’t even say it’s ‘growing.’ Antisemitism has become commonplace. Dutch Jewry is worried,” Jacobs said in his speech in Arnhem.

Whereas some seek to belong to the Jewish community amid antisemitism, others “withdraw because of all the anti-Israel coverage and hide in the seemingly safe comfort of assimilation.”

Against this background, Jacobs shared his own dilemmas. “How should I respond? Should I call for leaving the Netherlands and advise moving to Israel? Or should I look away and assume it will all blow over, so as not to cause panic?”


Tens of thousands fill Rabin Square to mark 30 years since assassination
Tens of thousands of Israelis filled Rabin Square in central Tel Aviv Saturday night to mark 30 years since the assassination of Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Far right extremist Yigal Amir murdered the Labor party leader on Nov. 4, 1995 at the end of a rally in support of the Oslo Accords at the square, which was then named Kings of Israel Square.

It was the first official commemoration held in five years due to construction and wartime logistical challenges.

Organizers said that 150,000 people attended the event, which included footage of Rabin’s final speech before a moment of silence at 9:42 p.m., the exact time of his assassination. Speakers included opposition leader Yair Lapid and released hostage Gadi Mozes. Major Israeli artists performed and the event concluded with the “Song for Peace,” the anthem Rabin sang minutes before his death.

Former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, The Democrats Party chair Yair Golan and Israeli politician Tzipi Livni also spoke.

“Rabin taught us that we must not stand by. When you see something dangerous—stand up to it; when you see something broken—fix it,” said Lapid.


Ask Haviv Anything: Episode 56: The industrial revolution of prehistoric Israel, with Tom Levy
Today we step out of the politics and anxious debates of this difficult time and go back 5,500 years to the Chalcolithic, the so-called Copper Age. Our guide is Prof. Tom Levy, eminent archaeologist and emeritus Norma Kershaw Chair in the Archaeology of Ancient Israel and Neighboring Lands at the University of California, San Diego.

Tom's new graphic-novel memoir, The Boomer Archaeologist, tells the story of his journey into the deep past of the land of Israel, and offers an opportunity for us to talk to him about his groundbreaking work on the origins of inequality, on the vast copper industry of the ancient Biblical kingdom of Edom - a kingdom whose very existence archaeologists long doubted - and even, along the way, some thoughts on the roots of religion and technological innovation.

Tom has published 12 books and several hundred scholarly articles. The Boomer Archaeologist is available

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Ancient Problems
04:48 Tom Levy's Archaeological Journey
10:44 The Significance of Copper Metallurgy
15:40 Discovering Ancient Societies through Copper Slag
29:31 The Rise of Complex Societies in the Iron Age
36:59 The Evolution of Societal Structures
46:47 Triggers of Social Stratification
54:13 Understanding Deep Time in Archaeology
56:03 Insights from Decades of Archaeological Research




Buy EoZ's books  on Amazon!

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

    
 

 

at