Tuesday, November 04, 2025

11/04 Links Pt2: The horseshoe politics of America is coming for the Jews; Melanie Phillips: New York's fateful choice; BBC’s bias ‘pushed Hamas lies around the world’

From Ian:

The "Jews" Are a Proxy for a Bigger Political Fight over the American Future
Since Oct. 7, 2023, American Jews have found themselves squarely in the crosshairs of the political left and the political right, between progressive internationalists and extreme isolationists.

On the left, antisemitism takes the form of anti-Zionism. Universities that style themselves champions of diversity now host chants for Israel's eradication. Encampments celebrating Hamas set the moral tone. When mobs target Jewish students, administrators avert their eyes and invoke "free speech." Yet the same administrators spring into action when non-Jewish groups suffer even a "microaggression."

On the right, Tucker Carlson has updated the Protocols of the Elders of Zion for the 21st century. He elevated the podcaster Darryl Cooper to "the best and most honest popular historian in the U.S." Cooper trivializes the Holocaust as a bureaucratic mishap and depicts Winston Churchill as the agent of rich Jews. World War II becomes the first in a series of misguided American interventions abroad - engineered, ultimately, by Jews.

Israel has always carried a special symbolic weight in America. From the beginning, Americans cast their self-understanding in Israel's image. The Puritans saw themselves as Israelites crossing the Red Sea. When Americans talk about Israel, they are often talking about themselves. Evangelicals still see in Israel a covenantal twin.

Progressives give more attention to Israel than to any other foreign nation, casting Israelis as "white colonizers" and Palestinians as "oppressed people." Yet Israel is not a "white" society. Its Jewish population includes, among others, Yemenite and Ethiopian communities - unmistakably people of color. Their very presence highlights the absurdity of the racial binary on which the progressive coalition depends.

Israel is the archetypal nation-state: God, people, land. Covenant and borders. Israel's miraculous rebirth, and its power and flourishing - despite the destruction of European Jewry, and its multiple wars for survival - stir American nationalism. The very existence of the Jewish state and the excitement it provokes in America shatters the dream of a post-national, multicultural world run by a global managerial elite.

Carlson and progressives are firing at the same target: the bond between America and Israel. To sever it is to rewrite the American story. Arguments about Israel are, at bottom, arguments about America. To be for or against Israel is to choose among competing visions of the American future. When Trump embraces Netanyahu while waving off Carlson, he is not just setting Middle East policy - he is declaring who America is.
Melanie Phillips: New York's fateful choice
I left New York last night as the city braced itself for a fateful decision. Today it votes for a new mayor, and the front runner is Zohran Mamdani.

Mamdani is an individual who believes Israel shouldn’t exist as a Jewish state and who doesn’t see anything wrong with chanting to “globalise the intifada”.

He has claimed that the Israelis are behind acts of violence committed by the New York Police Department — a riff on the ancient antisemitic trope that the Jews are responsible for problems that have nothing to do with them.

His pledge to shut down the NYPD’s strategic response group, which broke up the violent anti-Israel protests at Columbia university, suggests that he won’t protect New York’s Jews against the tsunami of antisemitism to which they are being subjected.

Less than three weeks after the Hamas-led atrocities in Israel on October 7 2023, he was rabble-rousing on New York streets inciting the mob against Israel’s “genocide”.
Stephen Daisley: The horseshoe politics of America is coming for the Jews
Alighting on the Jews as the cause of the world’s iniquities is nothing new, but it is significant that both American leftists and rightists draw on antisemitic and anti-Zionist frames for their scorched-earth approach to contemporary politics. Rejecting the gradual reform of liberalism or conservatism, the progressives and the nationalists are as one in their conviction that the reigning order must be toppled. The systemic flaws or injustices that led them to this conclusion no longer matter as much as the zealous pursuit of political destruction.

This year-zero temperament is bound to put its ideologues, whether leftist or reactionary, on a collision course with Jews. Jewish observance and Jewish culture are bound up with ideas of creation and repair, and in the Torah as in Jewish history, destruction is almost always a source of great sadness and loss.

The Tanakh is a story of building, of establishing a people, forging kingdoms, erecting a temple, and instituting laws and customs. The defeat of the kingdoms and destruction of the temple are not cause for abandoning the commandments but the consequence of not hewing to them.

Burning everything to the ground is a punishment, not a plan of action. Destruction is reserved to God, which is why the Aleinu prays for the Lord to obliterate idols and remove false Gods, while it reserves to mankind the duty of tikkun olam — perfecting the world. But the prayer doesn’t stop there. It adds ‘be-malchut Shaddai’, rendering the full phrase as ‘perfecting the world under the sovereignty [or kingdom] of the Almighty’.

That’s the rub. Jewish text and tradition teach an obligation to repair this earthly realm so that it conforms to the designs of the Almighty, not the passing preferences of man. Obligation is exactly what the revolutionaries of left and right are furiously trying to shake off. Obligation constrains and they want to be free to remake the world in their own image and according to their ideological impulses.

There is an angry messianism spreading across American politics, and perhaps our own soon, too. On left and right, among those of all faiths and the fiercely faithless, a zeal to cleanse, purge, smash and bring down — to destroy to save — is taking hold. The world is too defiled to be conserved or reformed. The only salvation lies in smouldering ruins. The tables of the temple must be overturned, and many a self-appointed saviour is only too keen to volunteer.

For those who yearn to destroy, the people of the book and of the laws are a constant reminder of men’s obligations to creation and its perfection. However strong the will to power, there are limits temporal and divine. Those who demolish in spite will be left with only spite for building blocks.
Seth Mandel: Why the Two Parties Have Diverged on Fighting Anti-Semitism
The reason this reaction is important is because the fight against anti-Semitism is a long one. (It’s not called “the world’s oldest hatred” for nothing.) The Labour Party learned the hard way that it could rid itself of Jeremy Corbyn but that would not cure its Corbynism—and it now has no serious internal mechanism to do so.

The Democrats risk falling into a similar trap. The RJC is part of the Republican Party’s immune system. But the Democratic Party was for so long able to take Jewish support for granted that its own partisan Jewish infrastructure atrophied. It had completely let down its guard. Republicans, meanwhile, are benefiting from the fact that they had to build something—arguably beginning in the 1980s—that would be a specifically Jewish part of the party’s organizational world and could withstand resistance from existing groups. Once it had a foothold, it would have the energy of a start-up not a legacy institution.

Start-ups, of course, have their own weaknesses. But at the moment, that start-up energy enables the wider conservative world to multitask. And it’s why those who claim that fighting anti-Semitism is a “distraction” are, for the moment, losing that argument.


Douglas Murray: Conspiracy kook Tucker Carlson is no conservative and no friend to Charlie Kirk and JD Vance
Because Carlson also claims to be friends with Vice President JD Vance. He has appeared on stage with him and warmed up for him and Trump at rallies.

Most of us think friendship includes defending your friends and defending their wives. Not Carlson.

Here is just some of what Fuentes has said recently about Vance and his beautiful and impressive wife, Usha.

During one recent rant, Fuentes described JD Vance as “A fat race-mixer who’s married to a jeet, who named his son Vivek.” For anyone not up on their racist cesspool terms, a “jeet” turns out to be a racist term used to smear people of South Asian (especially Indian) ancestry.

Fuentes went on to claim that Vance was mentored by “a Jewish neocon and a gay fed” and again called Vance “a fat, gay race traitor who married a jeet.” Elsewhere, he has attacked people for supporting Vance because of the ethnicity of Vance’s wife and the fact that the couple have produced children whom Fuentes calls “non-white.” Fuentes has attacked Vance because “his kids are brown.”

These are vile things to say about anyone. Most of us wouldn’t want to be anywhere near someone who said such things about total strangers. But if you had somebody in front of you who had said that about your own “friend,” his wife and children, wouldn’t you bring it up?

Putting aside for a moment why you would platform such a toxic toad in the first place, why allow him to normalize himself in front of a worldwide audience without even bringing up all the disgusting things he has said about people you claim to know and love?

At the end of last week, the president of the Heritage Foundation in Washington tied himself to a completely avoidable political mess by issuing a video defending Carlson. Goodness knows why Kevin Roberts chose to do that. It wasn’t as though the nation was desperate to hear from him. But I suppose Roberts did it — like other people who have stood up for Carlson during his recent downward spiral — because he values loyalty and friendship.

If that is the case, then Roberts — like Trump, Vance and others in the Republican movement — should reflect on what a “friend” they really have in Tucker Carlson. A man who seems intent on normalizing Holocaust deniers and on destroying the MAGA movement from within.

Some patriot. Some conservative. Some friend.
Christian leader denounces ‘Nazi’ Tucker Carlson, demands Vance disavow him
An American Evangelical Christian leader took aim Monday at anti-Israel figures within the conservative movement, part of the so-called “woke right,” while criticizing Vice President JD Vance and the Heritage Foundation for not disavowing podcaster Tucker Carlson.

“Millions of Christian Zionists are puzzled as to why Vice President JD Vance still appears to be colluding with Tucker Carlson,” said Laurie Cardoza-Moore.

“As American conservative institutions like the Heritage Foundation and Turning Point USA are censured for platforming and defending Tucker, a Jew-hater and Nazi sympathizer, we ask for moral clarity from the West Wing.”

Last week, Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts came under fire, including from senior members of his organization, after he defended Heritage’s ties to Carlson and rejected criticism over Carlson’s decision to interview Fuentes, despite his history of openly praising Adolf Hitler.

Cardoza-Moore, a conservative activist and host of the award-winning Focus on Israel television program on the NRB TV Christian cable channel, has in the past condemned Carlson, accusing the former Fox News host of antisemitism.

The Evangelical leader denounced attempts by “Woke Right” influencers, such as Carlson, commentator Candace Owens, and white supremacist Nick Fuentes, to link their political views to Christianity.


NSFW



Coalition for Jewish Values Severs Ties With Heritage Foundation Over President Kevin Roberts’s Defense of Tucker Carlson
The Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV) cut ties with the Heritage Foundation's National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism on Tuesday morning, saying in a letter shared with the Washington Free Beacon that the group "cannot grant legitimacy to an effort to combat antisemitism operated by the Heritage Foundation while Heritage is validating antisemitism and giving it a platform."

"To keep us within a coalition hosted by Heritage would have required a full-throated retraction and apology from Mr. Roberts," the CJV's executive vice president, Rabbi Yaakov Menken, wrote in the letter, referencing Heritage president Kevin Roberts's videotaped statement defending his "close friend" Tucker Carlson for conducting a friendly interview with Hitler and Stalin supporter Nick Fuentes.

"He would have needed to articulate that he (a) had not previously listened to critics of Carlson's antisemitism, (b) did not recognize how the lies spread by Carlson align with Nazi and pre-Nazi Jew-hatred, (c) apologized to the Jewish and allied advocates whom he tarred with name-calling and straw man arguments, and (d) disavowed, personally and on behalf of Heritage, working with Carlson, [Candace] Owens, and others of their ilk, recognizing the fundamental and obvious difference between permitting free speech and platforming hate."

The move comes as Heritage's anti-Semitism task force bleeds members in the wake of Roberts's defense of Carlson.

Mark Goldfeder, CEO of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, became the first to leave it on Sunday, issuing a letter of resignation in which he stated that Roberts’s decision "to defend and even celebrate Tucker Carlson’s decision to platform Nick Fuentes—a figure whose record of overt racism, sexism, and antisemitism is beyond dispute—makes continued participation impossible."

David Bernstein, author of Woke Antisemitism, also resigned from the task force over Roberts’s remarks, and the Zionist Organization of America demanded that Roberts leave Heritage in its own statement sent Monday.

"Unless Kevin Roberts retracts and apologizes for his praise for Jew-hating Israel-basher Tucker Carlson, who legitimizes and mainstreams antisemites like Nick Fuentes, and publicly condemns and ends Heritage Foundation's relationship with Tucker Carlson, Roberts is not fit to continue as Heritage Foundation's president."


Mamdani – progressive for the West, blind for the rest
Grossman, however, was right – “Progressive Except Palestine” is a mirror of the failings of those who most fervently believe in it, and nowhere is that clearer than with Zohran Mamdani, whose politics, alongside those of much of the far-left, can be best described as “Progressive for the West, anti-imperialist for the rest”. Countries that engage in hideous human rights violations on a regular basis can be ignored, because the west is worse.

Take the United Arab Emirates. There is clear evidence that the UAE is responsible for arming the RSF in Sudan. Over the last two and half years – in other words, before 7 October 2023 – the RSF has been carrying out full-scale massacres of men, women and children. No one knows the full number of the dead – largely because so many ‘human rights’ organisations effectively left the area as soon as the slaughter began. As many as 150,000 may have been killed, and it is one of the world’s most open secrets that the UAE is ultimately responsible. The ICJ managed to shrug off responsibility for investigating, not because the evidence does not exist, but because it claimed it did not have jurisdiction.

That matters because at the same time as Mamdani’s foam-flecked denunciations of Israeli “genocide”, last December he held a lavish destination wedding – in the UAE.

Or take Uganda, where Mamdani was born, and where his family still owns property. Another part of Mamdani’s multi-continental wedding was held there, and the US politician – who has regularly taken part in LGBT+ parades in NYC, was photographed smiling next to a prominent Ugandan politician infamous for pushing a draconian law calling for gay people to be jailed for life. Uganda is one of the most homophobic countries in the world – but if you’re looking for Mamdani’s regular, full-throated condemnation of Uganda’s policies, you’ll look in vain.

Or look at Mamdani’s publicly stated view on Israel; he says he recognises Israel’s right to exist – just not as a Jewish state. Why? Because, he says, he does not “recognise any state’s right to exist with a system of hierarchy based on race or religion.” Except, of course, that he seems to have no problem with any other country which does have such a hierarchy. Pakistan, for example, has an official state religion – Islam – and the persecution of non-Muslims there is a matter of public record. That did not stop Mamdani attending a Pakistan Independence Day parade in New York this year – while confirming he would not attend Israel Independence Day parades.

Mamdani and his fellow travellers love to talk about the double standards of Zionist Progressives. Perhaps they figure that if they shout about it loud enough, no one will notice the far larger double standards they themselves adhere to.


Seth Moulton Pledged to Return AIPAC Money. So Why Is He Sending Back Less Than Half of It?
Rep. Seth Moulton, who is challenging Sen. Ed Markey (Mass.) for the Democratic nomination, announced in mid-October that he will not accept money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and will return the donations he has received from the committee’s PAC.

"I am returning AIPAC’s donations and refusing to accept any donations or support from them," he said in a statement.

The Moulton campaign did not respond to a request for comment about just how much money Moulton has accepted from the pro-Israel organization, but a spokesman for the campaign told The Hill that the campaign would return $35,000. That’s the same number cited by the Harvard Crimson. But Moulton, a Marine veteran with three Harvard degrees, has received over $84,000 from AIPAC since the organization launched a political action committee, according to Federal Election Commission records.

A spokesman for AIPAC, Marshall Wittman, declined to confirm how much money the group has given Moulton and how much of that money Moulton has returned. Moulton’s finance director, the Harvard Business School professor Jeff Bussgang, did not respond to a request for comment.

The pro-Israel group supported Moulton, a graduate of the prestigious Phillips Exeter academy boarding school, in his 2024 race and had begun supporting him in his 2026 Senate primary against Markey. Fifteen thousand dollars of that came directly from AIPAC—$5,000 this year and $10,000 in the 2024 campaign cycle. The rest, over $69,000, came from individual donors who made donations through AIPAC, a practice known as earmarking. Moulton accepted nearly $40,000 in earmarked donations in the 2024 cycle and over $29,000 this year.

While Moulton cited his objections to "Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government," Netanyahu was sworn in for his most recent term as prime minister in December of 2022. Moulton accepted donations from AIPAC for the entirety of his reelection campaign in 2024 while Israel was waging a brutal retaliatory war against Hamas in Gaza.

In fact, Moulton continued to accept donations from AIPAC while calling for a ceasefire in the war and accusing Netanyahu of violating "basic human decency" and embracing a "brutalist" approach to defeating Hamas, charges he leveled in March 2024. "These actions run counter to Israel’s strategic interests, not to mention basic human decency," Moulton said at the time.
BBC’s bias ‘pushed Hamas lies around the world’
The BBC’s Arabic news service chose to “minimise Israeli suffering” in the war in Gaza so it could “paint Israel as the aggressor”, according to an internal report by a whistleblower.

Allegations made against Israel were “raced to air” without adequate checks, the memo says, suggesting either carelessness or “a desire always to believe the worst about Israel”.

BBC Arabic, which is funded partly by a grant from the Foreign Office, gave large amounts of space to statements from Hamas, making its editorial slant “considerably different” to the main BBC website even though it is supposed to reflect the same values, managers were warned.

The BBC also gave “unjustifiable weight” to Hamas claims about the death toll in Gaza, which are widely accepted to have been exaggerated for propaganda purposes, and incorrectly claimed the International Court of Justice had ruled that genocide was taking place.

Danny Cohen, the former director of BBC Television, said it was now clear that the BBC was “not safe” in the hands of its senior managers and they should “hang their heads in shame and resign”.

In an article for The Telegraph, he said: “Having made such serious and misleading journalistic errors, BBC executives chose to hide them from the public rather than correct the record.

“Protecting the BBC’s reputation came before the duties and principles enshrined in the BBC’s Charter obligations.”

He added: “That the BBC has helped to push Hamas lies around the world and fuelled anti-Semitism at home cannot now be in doubt.”


Calls for new BBC leadership over damning report into Gaza coverage at Arabic service
A fresh row has erupted over the BBC Arabic Service’s coverage of the Gaza war amid claims it “chose to minimise Israeli suffering” in order to “paint Israel as the aggressor”.

A leaked memo, written by Michael Prescott, the former independent adviser to the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee (EGSC), charges the Arabic Service with multiple instances of bias. These include that allegations against Israel were not properly checked and were instead “raced to air”, which Prescott declared smacked either of carelessness or “a desire always to believe the worst about Israel”.

Prescott said that BBC Arabic, which is partly funded by the Foreign Office, devoted significant coverage to Hamas statements, resulting in its editorial slant becoming “considerably different” to the main BBC website, although both were supposed to tell readers the same thing. He said that the BBC had also given “unjustifiable weight” to Hamas claims about the death toll in Gaza, which are widely accepted to have been exaggerated for propaganda purposes, and incorrectly claimed the International Court of Justice had ruled that genocide was taking place.

Prescott, who sent his findings to the BBC Board, said that in one case BBC Arabic gave a platform to journalists making extreme antisemitic comments. One such comment said that Jews who’ll be burned “as Hitler did”: this man appeared as a guest on BBC Arabic 244 times in 18 months. Another man who described Israelis asless than human and Jews as “devils” appeared 522 times in the same period.

Prescott’s damning memo has drawn fury from both the Israeli embassy in London and the former BBC director of television, Danny Cohen. In a long and angry statement, a spokesman for the embassy said it was “extremely alarmed” by the findings which, it said, “confirmed its suspicions” about BBC Arabic’s “systematic bias”, of which it understood “high-ranking BBC officials were aware”.


Green councillor suspended from mosque role amid charity watchdog probe
A Green Party councillor and magistrate has been suspended as chair of the biggest mosque in Bristol as the Charity Commission look into pro-Hamas social media posts.

Jewish News has previously detailed how Cllr Abdul Malik shared a video of a Hamas press conference in the wake of its attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

Earlier this year he was given a formal warning for serious misconduct by a judicial watchdog in relation to his role as a magistrate for sharing the Hamas video.

Now Malik, chair of the Easton Jamia Masjid mosque, has confirmed he has been “temporarily suspended” while the “Charity Commission reviews a historic social media matter”.

He also said he faces a “review” in relation to his activities while chair of the influential mosque. It is understood that the charity watchdog are looking into Malik’s social media posts as part of a wider investigation into the mosque, which is a registered charity.

In a post on social media Malik said: “This is an administrative process, not a finding of wrongdoing, and I continue to cooperate fully with the Commission to resolve it as quickly as possible.”

Confirmation of the probe will raise further questions over the Green Party’s conduct in relation to complaints about Malik.

Former co-leader Carla Denyer previously accepted Malik’s initial claim that he unwittingly shared an 18 minute long Hamas press conference after being tagged into the video.

Denyer had also continued to campaign for Malik and appeared on his leaflets during the local elections, telling the Guardian that she was “satisfied” his case had been “dealt with.” After he was elected in Bristol Malik was also promoted by the Greens Group to a cabinet role on the council.

But the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office (JCIO) found that Malik had “failed to exercise due care and diligence” and his actions “had a detrimental effect” upon the “reputation of the magistracy”.


Princeton to Introduce Anti-Israel Course Titled "Gender, Reproduction, and Genocide"
Princeton University is offering a new course in Spring 2025-2026 titled “Gender, Reproduction, and Genocide” that lists as its central focus “the ongoing genocide in Gaza,” according to a Jewish Onliner review of Princeton’s official course offerings. The course description states students will explore “how genocidal projects target reproductive life, sexual and familial structures, and community survival,” comparing Gaza to “the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust, and genocide against Black and Indigenous populations.”

The instructor is Dr. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, whom Princeton named its Global South Visiting Scholar in October 2024—six months after she was briefly arrested in Israel for suspected incitement.

The appointment comes as Princeton navigated a federal funding freeze over antisemitism concerns, with the Trump administration having frozen approximately $210 million in April 2025.

From Arrest to Ivy League
Shalhoub-Kevorkian’s path to Princeton began with mounting controversy at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where she had been a professor. In October 2023, just weeks after the Hamas attacks of October 7th and shortly after Israel’s ground incursion into Gaza began, she signed an open letter accusing Israel of “genocide.”

In March 2024, Hebrew University suspended her after she appeared on Israeli television and stated: “It’s time to abolish Zionism. It can’t continue, it’s criminal.” In the same interview, she cast doubt on reports of Hamas’ sexual violence on October 7th, saying: “They will use any lie. They started with babies, they continued with rape, and they will continue with a million other lies.”

Hebrew University said her statements “took advantage of her academic freedom of expression for incitement and to create division,” making suspension necessary to “ensure a safe and conducive environment for our students on campus.”

One month later, Israeli police arrested Shalhoub-Kevorkian on suspicion of incitement, though released her after a court found insufficient evidence to extend her detention.

In August 2024 she retired from Hebrew University. Shalhoub-Kevorkian was appointed Princeton University’s Global South Visiting Scholar in October 2024 and is featured in both the Anthropology and Gender and Sexuality Studies departments of the university website. She first taught a six-week graduate seminar in Fall 2024 titled “Monstrosity and Colonialism.”

Glorifying Former PFLP Leader
Two weeks after her suspension from Hebrew University, on March 26, 2024, Shalhoub-Kevorkian posted on Facebook a tribute to Ghassan Kanafani, featuring his photograph and a quote from one of his books.

The post did not mention that Kanafani was one of the leaders of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which the U.S. State Department designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization for its role in numerous terrorist attacks, including airline hijackings. The group began executing suicide bombing attacks during the Second Intifada, a violent uprising in which over 1,000 Israelis were murdered.

According to Time Magazine, in 1972, “It was Kanafani’s office which in May dispassionately bragged of the P.F.L.P.’s role in the Lod Airport massacre,” an attack that killed 26 people, including 17 Americans.
California finds Oakland Unified discriminated against Jewish students
The California Department of Education has found that Oakland Unified School District created a discriminatory environment for Jewish students in several instances over the last few years. An investigative report released this month cited as problematic OUSD providing maps of the Middle East that did not include Israel, a school allowing a Palestinian flag to be flown from a school flagpole for a month, and teachers participating in a teach-in about the war in Gaza that did not include Jewish or Israeli perspectives.

The agency also found that the district had not carried out its internal investigations into the incidents with fidelity, and it issued corrective actions that include training on bias and complaint procedures.

The state agency undertook an investigation in response to complaints filed by Marleen Sacks, an Oakland attorney who is also suing Oakland Unified on behalf of the Oakland Jewish Alliance, a group that was formed in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack in Israel, to advocate for Jewish residents. In each case, the state found, Sacks filed a complaint against OUSD for discriminating against Jewish students, and the district responded well beyond the statutory deadline for investigating such complaints. The district ultimately did not issue a determination on whether the incidents constituted discrimination. Sacks appealed those decisions to the state, which arrived at a very different finding: that the district had created a discriminatory environment for Jewish students and staff.

The complaint in one case concerns actions the district took during Arab American Heritage month over multiple years. In 2021, and then again in 2023 and 2024, the district sent out resource guides to the school community that included a map of the Middle East without the state of Israel. (The image of the map was not included in the state report; historical maps dated before 1948 would not have included Israel.) In her complaint, according to the state report, Sacks also took issue with the district’s linking to materials from the Arab Resource and Organizing Center, or AROC, a Bay Area organization that advocates for Arab and Muslim communities; Sacks claimed that the group was “anti-Israel.”

Mohamed Shekh, an organizer with AROC, said the complaints conflated criticism of Israel with antisemitism.

“They’re using accusations of antisemitism to squash any discussion of the experience of Palestinian American students or about Arab American heritage,” Shekh told The Oaklandside. “Their issue with AROC is that they accuse us of being critical and opposed to the actions of a state that is committing genocide against our community.”

Asked for comment, Scott Roark, a spokesperson for the California Department of Education said, “We believe the decision speaks for itself.”


Iran says missile that killed Haniyeh locked onto his phone
Hamas “political” leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was slain by Israel in Tehran on July 31, was struck by a missile that zeroed in on him using his own mobile device, an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps spokesman said on Sunday.

“The assassination was based on digital operations and radio signals that made it possible to easily discover the point where he was standing and target him,” and “was not a sophisticated operation,” the IRGC official said.

The IRGC claim contradicts earlier reports that Haniyeh was killed by a remote-controlled bomb planted months earlier by the Mossad.

The IRGC spokesman strongly rejected that version of events and said that the targeted killing was carried out using signals from Haniyeh’s cell phone. The spokesman added that Haniyeh had been explicitly cautioned about the risk by the IRGC but chose to ignore the warnings.

A shoulder-fired, or stationary, missile hit Haniyeh through a window. The missile hit at the exact moment when Haniyeh answered the phone, the IRGC claimed.

Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed in December of last year that Israel was behind the killing of Haniyeh. Until then, Jerusalem had not taken responsibility for the attack.

Early reports, including that of the Al Mayadeen media network affiliated with Hezbollah, claimed that the killing was “carried out by means of a missile launched from country to country, not from within Iran.”

However, then-Israel Defense Forces spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said during a press briefing on Aug. 1: “There was no additional aerial attack—not a missile and not an Israeli drone—in the Middle East that night, and I won’t say anything beyond that.”
Iran frees French pair held for over 3 years for allegedly spying for Israel, France
Iran has released from prison a French pair held for more than three years and sentenced to lengthy jail sentences on espionage charges their families always rejected, French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Tuesday.

Cecile Kohler, 41, and Jacques Paris, 72 — she a high school teacher, he a retired teacher, both on a tourist visit to Iran when they were arrested in May 2022 — are now “on their way to the French embassy in Tehran,” Macron said on X.

He welcomed this “first step” and said talks were underway to ensure their return to France as “quickly as possible.”

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot added in a separate post on X that they were now at the residence of the French ambassador and “awaiting their definitive release” from Iran.

Their Paris-based legal team said in a statement to AFP that the release had “ended their arbitrary detention, which lasted 1,277 days.”


Iran celebrates anniversary of 1979 US Embassy takeover with ‘Death to Israel’ chants
Iranians on Tuesday celebrated the anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran — the first such commemoration since the US bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities during a 12-day war with Israel in June.

On November 4, 1979, Iranian students overran guards to take over the embassy, seizing dozens of hostages in a crisis that would last for more than a year.

In what is a yearly commemoration, thousands of people returned to the spot in downtown Tehran on Tuesday chanting “Death to US” and “Death to Israel.” Some hanged effigies of US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and set fire to US and Israeli flags.

State media said similar gatherings took place in other Iranian cities and towns.

Mock-ups of Iranian missiles were on display on the sideline of the rallies, some inscribed with the words “Death to America.” Replicas of centrifuge machines used in uranium enrichment were also on show.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed Monday during a meeting with students that there would be no move toward normalizing ties with Washington soon — a message echoed on banners at Tuesday’s rallies.


New Report Reveals Modded Version of GTA5 May be Vehicle for Inciting Terrorism
A dramatic investigative journalism cover image showing a young person wearing gaming headphones in a dark room, their face illuminated by screen glow showing reflections of a video game interface. On the computer screen visible in the composition, show a Grand Theft Auto style game environment with Middle Eastern architecture, checkpoints, and Palestinian keffiyeh patterns. The room has posters and symbols related to Palestinian identity. Dark atmospheric lighting with green and red accent colors, creating tension between gaming entertainment and serious radicalization themes. Split screen effect showing virtual game world bleeding into reality. Professional photojournalistic style, cinematic, serious tone. Include subtle digital elements like Discord icons and TikTok symbols floating in the background to represent social media amplification.

A seemingly innocuous video game modification has evolved into a sophisticated digital ecosystem for normalizing violence and radicalizing young Palestinians, according to a new report by the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT). The Magic City server—a modified version of Grand Theft Auto V—has attracted over 100,000 registered users who engage in simulated attacks against Israeli forces and civilians.

The Magic City server operates on FiveM, a modding platform that allows users to create customized multiplayer environments within GTA5. What distinguishes this server from typical gaming communities is its deliberate reconstruction of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict landscape.

Players navigate virtual representations of West Bank geography complete with IDF military vehicles, checkpoints, separation barriers, and Israeli police forces. With more than 700 daily active players and over 50,000 Discord members, Magic City functions as a vehicle where terrorism is gamified and glorified, according to the report.

The Three-Pronged Ecosystem
The ICT report reveals that radicalization occurs through a three-pronged ecosystem: the game itself, adjacent Discord communities, and viral TikTok content centered on it. Within the game, players assume the role of Palestinian characters confronting Israeli military presence through simulated violence. TikTok video posted from Magic City game depicting attack on IDF forces. Credit: ICT Magic City Report

The environment doesn’t rely on scripted narratives; instead, symbols, geography, and player choices construct a persistent story of resistance and confrontation. Players can pursue various paths including organized crime, casual exploration, or what the report describes as “simulated terrorism“ targeting IDF soldiers, police, and civilians. TikTok video posted from Magic City game of player attacking civilians. Credit: ICT Magic City Report

Discord: The Ideological Backbone
The radicalization process extends well beyond gameplay. Magic City’s Discord server — which the report describes as a “networked radicalization environment,” functions as the organizational and ideological backbone, hosting over 50,000 members across multiple channels. Here, moderators coordinate in-game events, including documented competitions rewarding players for civilian collisions with in-game prizes.

TikTok: Viral Amplification
The primary platform where videos of the game are disseminated is TikTok. These videos fall into distinct categories: attacks on IDF forces featuring players shooting at military convoys; assaults on civilians at bus stops and convenience stores; content glorifying real-world terrorists; and checkpoint simulation scenes.

One video, for example, references Ibrahim Nabulsi, a commander of the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade terrorist group, depicting him in heroic light.
Poland to adopt first national plan against antisemitism
Poland’s government is preparing to pass this year its first-ever national strategy plan for fighting antisemitism and strengthening Jewish life, the country’s justice undersecretary announced on Monday.

Maria Ejchart made the announcement at the annual conference in Krakow of the European Jewish Association, a Brussels-based body representing Jewish community interests in Europe.

“Last week, the draft resolution of the Council of Ministers on the adoption of the national strategy for countering antisemitism and supporting Jewish life for 2025-2030 was entered into the list of legislative and programmatic work of the government,” Ejchart told some 200 Jewish community delegates and politicians at the event.

The plan, which allocates budgets and sets out priorities, is currently under consultation, and Ejchart said she believed it would be passed this year.

The surge in antisemitism that has occurred throughout Western Europe after Oct. 7, 2023, was felt also in Poland, “where the situation has been relatively calm so far,” said Ejchart.
Gym instructor who called himself Anglo Jihadi is found guilty of planning a bomb and chemical attack on a major shopping centre
A gym instructor who called himself an Anglo Jihadi has been found guilty of planning a bomb and chemical attack on a major shopping centre.

Muslim convert Jordan Richardson, 21, was arrested on December 19 last year, carrying around a recipe for mustard gas in his rucksack, as well as plans to 'shoot', 'stab' and 'throw grenades' at a crowd, Leeds Crown Court was told.

He also had a link to an ISIS bomb-making video used by the Manchester Arena bomber, showing how to prepare the high explosive TATP.

Richardson had previously suggested an attack on the Meadowhall shopping centre near Sheffield, one of the largest in the country, to a fellow social media user.

His home address in Howden, East Yorkshire was searched and police found a combat knife in a sheath and a crossbow purchased from an online store called SuperGuns UK on August 12 for £35.95.

While awaiting trial, Richardson told a prison officer he was a supporter of the so-called Islamic State.

He was found guilty of preparing acts of terrorism by acquiring weapons, researching explosive substances, identifying possible locations and considering the steps required for an attack, at court on Monday.

Richardson was also found guilty of three counts of encouraging terrorism and two counts of possessing bomb-making instructions useful for terrorism. He will be sentenced next month.


Jerusalem, Nairobi universities sign new academic cooperation agreements
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Nairobi signed landmark agreements on Monday to boost academic cooperation and student exchanges between Israel and Kenya.

Lt. Gen. (ret.) Albert Kendagor, the East African country’s ambassador to Israel, joined Hebrew University officials for the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding and a student exchange agreement focused on joint research in food security, climate change, renewable energy and education.

“Over the years, Hebrew University has welcomed numerous Kenyan students pursuing degrees across disciplines, including agriculture, public health, and the social sciences,” the university said. “The renewed partnership aims to further strengthen these academic bridges and encourage mutual learning between scholars and students from both nations.”

During Kendagor’s visit, Oron Shagrir, rector of the Hebrew University, presented the ambassador with a book on Albert Einstein.

Those in attendance at the signing also included Amb. Yossi Gal, Hebrew University’s vice president for external relations; Saul Burdman, dean of agriculture, food and environment; and Guy Harpaz, vice president for international affairs.
Charlie Kirk to be posthumously awarded at Israeli Christian Media summit
An Israeli Christian media summit is set to start on Sunday, according to the Israeli Government Press Office, with honors to be conferred to pro-Israel media figures, including a posthumous award for Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk - though TPUSA was unaware of the award.

The Christian Media Summit 2025 is expected to have over 100 representatives from leading Christian media outlets, ostensibly aimed at creating a greater understanding of Israeli society and Christian communities.

The Pillars of Jerusalem award, named for the Ethics of our Fathers verse that states that the world stands on the pillars of justice, truth, and peace, is to be conferred at a Wednesday ceremony to journalist Douglas Murray, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem President Dr. Jürgen Bühler, and International Fellowship of Christians and Jews President Yael Eckstein.

While the Government Press Office claimed that Kirk was expected to accept the award via remote video call on behalf of her late husband, a representative of Turning Point USA said that they were unaware of the award and to their knowledge Kirk was not involved in accepting it. The GPO later claimed that another representative was accepting the award, but this has been cancelled, and are attempting to contact the family.




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