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Tuesday, November 11, 2025

11/11 Links Pt2: Elie Wiesel: Zionism and racism; Western Institutional Collapse and the BBC; The Warped Collapse of Modern Feminism; Gal Gadot wins 2026 Genesis Prize

From Ian:

Why Israel Is Thriving Despite Years of War and International Attacks
Well, besides economic measures, other indicators also defy expectations. For example, it was also recently reported that life expectancy in Israel increased by one full year, a significant jump, to 83.8 years, between 2023 and 2024. Life expectancy in Israel is now the fourth highest in the 37 member OECD, exceeded only by Switzerland, Japan, and Spain.

Israel also ranks near the top for measures such as low infant mortality and success in disease prevention. Israel is among the countries with the lowest mortality rate from heart disease. And this high level of care is delivered efficiently at relatively low cost. OECD-member states typically devote 11 to 12 % of GDP to health care. The value for Israel is only 7.6 %. (Health care expenditure in the US is about 17% of GDP.)

Then there is the “Global Flourishing Study,” a new study that asks the question “What makes people flourish?” Published In April 2025 in the journal Nature Mental Health, the study, headed by Tyler J. Vanderweele of Harvard University, is a multi-year survey of 200,000 people, across 22 culturally and geographically diverse countries, including Israel, the US, Japan, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

The domains measured included: happiness and life satisfaction, physical and mental health (how healthy people feel, in body and mind), meaning and purpose (whether people feel their lives are significant), character and virtue (how people act to promote good), social relationships (both friendships and family ties), and financial and material stability.

Israel ranked number two (of 22 nations), behind Indonesia when financial indicators are included, and number four (after Indonesia, Mexico, and Philippines) when financial indicators are excluded. The primary finding of the study so far (the study will be completed in 2027) is that high income countries are not necessarily flourishing countries. Israel is the outlier.

The 2025 World Happiness Index also shows Israel is still high up the list of 147 countries, at number 8.

If you ask Google AI why Israel continues to thrive in conditions not normally conducive to success, you get a prosaic answer: Israel’s ability to thrive, in spite of regional challenges and limited natural resources, is due to the combination of an emphasis on higher education and research, a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, significant foreign support and investment, defense needs, and a democratic institutional framework that protects property rights and promotes a market economy.

But to Alistair Heath Israel doesn’t make sense unless you believe in something beyond the math. “There is no historical precedent for surviving the Babylonians, the Romans, the Crusaders, the Inquisition, the pogroms, and the Holocaust, and still showing up to work on Monday in Tel Aviv,” he wrote. Perhaps the secret to understanding Israel’s success is not any different from appreciating the resilience displayed by the Jewish people through the ages. Or, as expressed by a quotation attributed to the noted Swiss psychologist Carl Jung, “I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.”
Seth Mandel: Western Institutional Collapse and the BBC
The culture at the top of the BBC, then, is not one of carelessness but of total disregard for the facts. From politics to sports to war, the rot appears to have infected the whole range of BBC coverage.

Yet the targets of all this very fair and substantial criticism have a different theory of the case. “I do hear everyone when we have to be very clear and stand up for our journalism,” Davie told the BBC staff on his way out. “We are in a unique and precious organization. I see the free press under pressure. I see the weaponization. I think we’ve got to fight for our journalism. I’m really proud of our work.”

Proud of… what, exactly? Davie chalked up the criticism of the BBC’s massive and widespread apparent violation of journalistic ethics to “our enemies,” as if a documented investigation is some kind of tabloid smear campaign. Despite calls for reform, Davie said: “We are the very best of what I think we should be as a society and that will never change.”

That really is the problem, isn’t it? Averaging two corrections a week in its coverage of the world’s top story for two years is “the very best” they can be? To Davie, the answer is yes. Because Western journalism has been consumed with rooting out objective reporting for years now, and this is the result. What matters to these figures isn’t what’s true but what helps the “right” side “win.”

Meanwhile one would be crazy to put one’s trust in any institution that behaves this way. The problem is that so many of them behave this way. Western leaders love to convince themselves that society is being dragged down by the populist hordes rising from the streets. But the fish rots from the head. So, too, does Western Civilization.
Seth Mandel: What They Want From Josh Shapiro
That is one way Democrats might try to avoid the issue—just ignore it. Another possibility, and a more likely one, came from a tweet that got effectively piled-on until it was deleted. But more interesting to me than the wording was what it said about where things go from here. It was from a progressive who noted, in response to the article on Shapiro, that he and his friend “agreed that Shapiro would be the dream candidate for Democrats in 2028 if not for his pro-Israel baggage.” His solution? “I hope he can credibly and visibly commit to ending military aid to Israel before the primary.”

Much of the response to the tweet was aimed at the euphemistic first sentence. But the second sentence is what’s important going forward. It would be much more satisfying for the progressive left to get Shapiro to renounce his people than to ignore him altogether. And so the strategy is simple: Offer him a place in the party elite in return for a public apology for his Jewishness.

Shapiro isn’t going to take that offer. But the subtler version of it will buzz like a fly around him for the foreseeable future. Democrats will want Shapiro to play down the stuff he likes about Israel—Jews being alive, good food—and to chime in only when he has something negative to say—Bibi this, Bibi that.

We can call this the Schumer Model. It’s not that they’ll need him to be anti-Zionist; they just want him to keep mum unless he has an anti-Zionist-ish thing to say.

And further, this applies no matter what Shapiro’s personal ambitions are. The governor of Pennsylvania won’t be ignored by the media. So his party will lay on the guilt, urging him not to unnecessarily divide the left. To be a team player. To, perhaps, know his place.

It’ll be up to Shapiro to resist this quiet capitulation. In politics, we learned a long time ago that emancipation isn’t always a synonym for freedom.


Elie Wiesel: Zionism and racism
Fifty years after the United Nations passed its infamous 1975 resolution equating Zionism with racism, Elie Wiesel’s words remain as piercing and prophetic as ever. In this essay—originally published in the aftermath of that moral outrage—Wiesel warns that the resolution was not merely a political maneuver, but a continuation of the oldest hatred in history: the attempt to isolate the Jewish people and deny their right to dignity, identity and nationhood. His defense of Zionism as a human, moral and spiritual movement stands as both a rebuke to the cynicism of the U.N. and a call to conscience for every generation. This article is republished at the request of the Wiesel family.

Reproaches, condemnations, indictments by other nations—the plot is clear. It leads to public humiliation, the forced isolation of a people whose suffering is the oldest in the world.

Arrests, decrees, Nuremberg laws—do you remember? That was how it all began. The victims were designated, then legally expelled from so-called civilized society, forcing them into helplessness, then resignation and, finally, death.

To prepare “solutions” to the “Jewish problem,” the first step was to divorce the Jew from mankind. The process is not new; it has endured for some two thousand years. We hear again and again, in explanation of outrages rife in many places, that there are the Jews and there are the others; the Jews are never entirely innocent, nor are the others ever entirely guilty. Object and non-subject of history, the Jew has been at the mercy of a society in which persecuting him first and murdering him later has at times led to sainthood or power.

This is why the United Nations’ infamous resolution comparing Zionism to a form of racism is shocking and revolting. It must be viewed in a context of chilling horror.

As always, where the Jewish people is concerned, the problem is more relevant to history than to politics. This is not the first time the enemy has accused us of his own crimes. Our possessions were taken from us, and we were called misers; our children were massacred, and we were accused of ritual murder. To weaken us they tried to make us feel guilty. To condition us they attempted to distort our self-image. No, the process is not new.

We are told that this is not about Jews, this is about Zionists. That, too, is hardly new. They try to divide us, to pit us one against the other after having pitted us against the world.


The Privilege of Surprise By Abe Greenwald
Via Commentary Newsletter, sign up here.
I recall this because, by contrast, I am in a mild state of shock over the right’s nominally internecine battle over anti-Semitism. And my fellow Jewish conservatives seem comparably taken by surprise. There is, of course, a long history of right-wing anti-Semitism in this country. But, unlike today’s Squad-hyping liberal establishment, the right’s leaders faced up to their own side’s anti-Semitic problem decades ago. The organized Jew-haters had been severed off from modern American conservatism as established by William F. Buckley Jr. in the early 1960s.

To be clear, I’m not shocked that the online “right” now features anti-Semitic influencers with millions of viewers. Nor was I blindsided by the edge peddlers, such as Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly, who exposed the lunatics to a wider audience. All those players have been making their moves out in the open for a while.

What caught me off guard was that there was any significant portion of the conservative establishment that was willing to reintegrate the Jew-haters into the mainstream right. While I remain heartened by the overwhelming pushback on Heritage president Kevin Roberts’s attempt to clear the way for the new Birchers, it’s obvious that I’ve had a delayed and sustained shock reaction to the fact that Roberts even tried—and that he had any support or assistance in this effort.

And now, I’ll snap out of it. Because the lesson here is that if you’re a Jew, you must learn never to be surprised by anti-Semitism. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in Israel, Europe, or the U.S., or whether you’re on the right or left. You cannot afford to be shocked by the appearance of Jew-hatred because once it arises, you’re in a fight for your existence and have much hard work to do. This country has bestowed many luxuries on its Jews. Being caught off guard is one we can no longer afford.
Rod Dreher: What I Saw And Heard In Washington
What about the Jews? This, to me, remains the most puzzling and sinister thing. Douglas Murray gave a talk over the weekend at a Prager U event, in which he reflected on the fact that lots of young conservatives notice that liberal secular Jews are disproportionately involved in organizations pushing mass migration, and draw anti-Semitic conclusions. Murray pointed out accurately that in Europe, by far the most prominent and influential advocates for open borders are the current pope and the previous one — yet few people blame Catholics for the problem. Why, then, do they all blame Jews?

I still don’t have the answer, but I at least came away from Washington convinced that the issue of anti-Semitism on the young Right is much deeper than I had guessed. A couple of people — both of whom reject anti-Semitism — spoke plainly about how a lot of this is reaction to how Jewish organizations like the ADL have policed speech critical of Israel, and of anything to do with Jews, so heavily over the decades that they have caused intense resentment among the Gentile Zoomercons. One man told me that for as long as he has been in politics, any criticism of Israel got you tagged as an anti-Semite, and that was a potential career-killer. So his generation has come to hate that, and to cease caring about the opinions of Jews.

An older friend — another despiser of anti-Semitism — said that we have to find a way to talk about the reality of Jewish influence in American life, for good and for ill. I took him to mean basically this: Jews really are disproportionately powerful in American life, and they are not shy about using that power to advance their own interests, and the interests of other groups they favor. The taboo against noticing that, and talking about what that might mean, is gone with the Zoomers. If we want to fight anti-Semitism, we have to face this seriously.

OK, fine. But one thinks of the black comedian Dave Chappelle’s lines in his 2022 SNL monologue addressing Kanye West’s anti-Semitic rants:

“There are two words in the English language that you should never say together in sequence, and those words are ‘The’ and ‘Jews.’ I’ve never heard anyone do good after they said that.”

That’s right. If you know anything about history, you know that whenever a small minority has been successful out of proportion to their numbers within a society, the mob may turn on them. The Chinese minority in Indonesia and Malaysia, for example, have repeatedly suffered discrimination and hatred from the majority native population. Why? For one, the European colonizers made them into the tax collectors and moneymen — a caste that will never be beloved. For another, they historically enjoyed success, being good at running businesses. The Chinese are not Jewish, but they were hated by Malays and Indonesians as if they were, because they were successful — and were not allowed by the majority culture to assimilate.

Human nature being what it is, once one notices these things, and speaks of them, it’s not far to leap to scapegoating, and then persecution. This recurs in many societies, though Jews have typically been the archetypal scapegoats.

Why are Jews so dominant in finance? They have been for centuries, because in Catholic Europe, Jews were not subject to the anti-usury restrictions on Catholics. So they became bankers because that profession was open to them as it largely wasn’t to Christians. And they got good at it. Why should they be ashamed of it? Jews traditionally excelled as classical musicians and scholars because their culture valued classical music and scholarship. Why should they be ashamed of their success? I don’t get it.

I guess my question is this, per Dave Chappelle: If we agree to talk openly and even critically about Jewish success and power in American life, where does that conversation lead? What is the point of it? Recently at the Heritage Foundation, before the whole Tucker controversy broke, the think tank’s chief Kevin Roberts noted in a discussion about the porn industry the names of a senior corporate official at Pornhub. He ais Jewish. But Roberts neglected to note that the CEO is a Gentile (Italian), and so is the No. 2 (Arab Christian). Maybe he meant nothing by it … but it was an odd choice. Roberts also brought up Leonid Radvinsky, a Ukrainian Jew who owns OnlyFans. Boo to him … but is anybody blaming Ukrainians as pornographers too? Recall that the most successful mainstream pornographer of our time was one Hugh Hefner, raised in a strict Methodist family.
Nicole Lampert: The BBC Conspiracy
Many of the BBC’s defenders have tried to pretend this is simply a story about Trump and I’ve been staggered to find some journalists defending how the BBC edited his speech. The antisemitism and the gender issues have been ignored by many; it was telling how few women were invited even to discuss the report on the BBC’s many navel-gazing shows about its failings.

And then a group of mainly white middle-class establishment men have created a conspiracy theory around it. My old Sun editor, David Yelland, who has a BBC podcast and whose wife was a PR supremo there, came up with the frankly madcap theory that there had been a right-wing ‘coup’ – he was invited to discuss this theory on the BBC, of course.

Former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger has dusted down his conspiracy theory spider web, which has BBC board member Robbie Gibb and the Jewish Chronicle (Gibb used to helm the board which owns the paper) at the centre. There’s always an antisemitic element to every conspiracy (but if Zionists were really conspiring to take over the BBC, don’t you think it would be less antizionist?)

Meanwhile, Tony Blair’s former PR man Alastair Campbell, who was no stranger to lambasting the BBC when he was in government, raged: ‘The real weakness of the BBC, as exemplified by recent events, is its failure to stand up to ludicrous claims from the right that it is hugely biased to the left. This is the work of right-wing journalists and owners working hand in glove with right-wing forces inside the BBC to undermine it.’ They are so pickled in their dogma that they can’t even see how biased or ridiculously conspiratorial they really are.

Often, they are the same people who stood up for BBC newsreader Huw Edwards until he pleaded guilty to viewing indecent images of children. Their knee-jerk defence of the BBC whatever it does has become a cultural war symbol in itself. And this is siege mentality on steroids from people who really should know better.

None of them have addressed the real systemic problems within the BBC, an organisation Brits have to pay for if they want to watch live television. And these problems exist. For those who value the BBC – and I used to consider myself among them – the key to the BBC’s survival isn’t pretending there are no problems but to try and make it better. Because it is very sick.

Impartiality is one of the BBC cornerstones. If Britain’s ‘most trusted news brand’ is creating Jew hatred and ignoring the rights of women because it has gone too far down the road of ‘progressive’ politics (personally, I find nothing progressive in Jew and women-hating), then it needs to be turned around.

Those who claim to support it should be fighting for its survival, not attacking those who want it to be better.


Nandy warns MPs of ‘serious concerns and failings’ within BBC Arabic service
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has told the House of Commons there are “serious concerns and failings” within the BBC Arabic service.

Addressing MPs in a week of turmoil that saw the resignations of Director-General Tim Davie and BBC News chief executive Deborah Turness, Nandy said the BBC “must renew its mission for the modern age.”

But she also warned that two senior departures alone would not solve the broadcaster’s deep-rooted challenges.

Responding to concerns raised by Shadow Culture Secretary Nigel Huddlestone over bias at the BBC in relation to its coverage on Israel, Nandy said she had been in front of MPs “too many times” to provide updates on “editorial failings” such as the Gaza documentary narrated by the son of a Hamas official, and over the coverage of the Bob Vylan concert at the Glastonbury Festival.

She said:”I am pleased the chair of the BBC, Dr Samir Shah, has accepted where the institution has made mistakes … and is setting out concrete actions.”

But Nandy continued:”I think it is important to recognise that there have been serious concerns and failings on the part of the BBC Arabic service.

“In response to that, in his letter to the chair of the Select Committee, Dr Shah set out a number of steps that are being taken.

“I understand these include structural changes as well as individual staff changes.”


Selective Outrage: The Warped Collapse of Modern Feminism
Across much of the Middle East and Africa, women live under a brutal and very real apartheid — gender apartheid.

In more than a dozen countries — including Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iran, and Afghanistan — women are legally required to obey their husbands. Guardianship laws, which exist in at least 17 countries, mean a woman cannot work, travel, study, or even receive medical treatment without a man’s permission. In over 20 nations, such as Libya, Syria, Iraq, and Jordan, rapists can escape prosecution by marrying their victims. And in more than 15 countries across the MENA region (besides Israel), domestic violence, spousal rape, and workplace harassment go unpunished — not because they are rare, but because they are not illegal.

Honor killings are so common that no government can keep accurate statistics. Thirty countries still practice female genital mutilation. According to UNICEF, more than 650 million women alive today were married as children, many before they reached their teens.

This is what systemic oppression looks like. Yet it’s almost never the target of Western outrage.

Modern Feminism Forgot Women
There was a time when feminism was universal — when it embodied the belief that all women, everywhere, deserve equality and safety. Feminists once stood beside dissidents in Tehran and spoke for girls denied education in Kabul. It was about rights, not optics.

But in today’s West, feminism has mutated. It’s no longer about solidarity with women — it’s about signaling. Activists posture against “patriarchies” in Los Angeles while ignoring real brutal ones in places like Tehran, Tripoli, and Gaza City.

The movement that once defended women from oppression now routinely excuses or even celebrates their oppressors — so long as those oppressors aren’t perceived as “white” or Jewish.

When Linda Sarsour, who praises the Sharia that relegates nearly one-third of the world’s women to second-class citizenship, became a face of the Women’s March — and ironically said “Zionists can’t be feminists” — the mainstream left barely blinked. The same activists who once shouted “My Body, My Choice” now stand silent as women are beaten and even killed for showing their hair.

The Greta Example
A public figure who exemplifies this hypocrisy is Greta Thunberg.

Thunberg began as a symbol of youthful moral clarity. Since then, she has traded universal concern for selective outrage. She rails against Western governments and fossil fuels — but not against regimes that execute women for dancing in public or beat them for not wearing a hijab.

Instead, she joined the chorus chanting “From the river to the sea,” a slogan that doesn’t call for coexistence but for the eradication of the world’s only Jewish state — and with it, the only place in the Middle East and North Africa where women, including Arab and Christian women, enjoy full equality under law.

Her silence on gender apartheid in Gaza and Iran isn’t an oversight; it’s the logical endpoint of a moral framework that judges actions not by ethics but by identity. In this worldview, oppression is only wrong when committed by the “right” kind of oppressor — and only matters when the victims fit a preferred narrative.
Regrets on the global stage as countries rethink bans on Israel
According to World Israel News, Israel’s Ministry of Defense reported that Israeli arms exports hit a record $14.8 billion in 2024, with 54% of those exports going to European countries; a dramatic rise from just over 33% in 2023.

World Israel News also reported: “Despite public statements about severing ties with Israeli defense firms, Spain has authorized a €350 million ($420 million) deal with Elbit Systems for tactical radio communication systems.”

Norway declined to enforce its rules requiring divestiture from companies that have investments/facilities in Israel, including Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet. Finance minister Jens Stoltenberg said withdrawing “would undermine the purpose of the fund to be a broad, diversified global investment fund.”

After a September announcement that German arms exports to Israel had fallen to zero, Ha’aretz reported in October that Germany had, in fact, approved arms exports worth at least $2.9 million.

The Israeli and Greek Air Forces held a joint aerial refueling drill, and Israel, Greece, Cyprus and the United States met to discuss restoration of the East Med Gas Pipeline, which had been nixed by the Biden administration.

The “State of Palestine” offered little in the way of progress to real Palestinians.

And, on the side, after months of nasty rhetoric emanating from Cairo, and weapons smuggling in Sinai near the Israeli border, Egypt acknowledged its dependence on Israel and signed a new natural gas deal. Israel still has to address the weapons in Sinai.

Even in Hollywood, reality may be intruding on fantasy. In October, as the ceasefire was drawing closer, a new boycott of the Israeli film industry and Israeli actors took shape. But Warner Bros. Discovery told Variety, “Our policies prohibit discrimination of any kind, including discrimination based on race, religion, national origin or ancestry. We believe a boycott of Israeli film institutions violates our policies.” After a boycott letter circulated at Paramount, the studio released a statement condemning it for “silencing individual creative artists based on their nationality.”

To close the loop, the countries of Central Asia were always smarter about their interests. They have longstanding ties with the State of Israel. They are increasingly interested in increased relations with the Gulf states and the United States, particularly in light of their concerns about China and Russia, the historic powers in the region. Neither they nor the Abraham Accords countries were taken in by the propaganda shared by Hamas, Russia, Iran and Qatar about Gaza (although Gulf state concerns were sincere and expected).

Central Asia and the Abraham Accord countries are moving ahead, and Europe and Hollywood are catching up.
Corbyn says his new political party is committed to ‘absolute opposition to Zionism’
Jeremy Corbyn has declared his new political party’s commitment to “absolute opposition to Zionism,” signalling a shift toward the hardline anti-Israel stance backed by Zarah Sultana.

Corbyn’s comments came during a Your Party meeting in Wandsworth, south-west London, as questions continued about the party’s direction and leadership.

Corbyn and Sultana, both prominent left-wing MPs, have often clashed over the leadership and ideological direction of Your Party.

Sultana, MP for Coventry South, has consistently advocated for a staunchly anti-Zionist platform, while Corbyn had previously been less explicit about his stance.

At Sunday’s meeting, Corbyn stated: “The whole Zionist project was about expanding Israel forevermore, which is exactly what Netanyahu is doing with the Greater Israel project. So, yes—absolute opposition to Zionism, and absolute solidarity with the people of Palestine.”

He continued, “Zionism was a creation… I was reading about the imperial history of Zionism—actually, it first reared its head in the late 19th century, with US Zionism in 1840, influenced by British policy in the Middle East.”

His response was welcomed by the female activist who had asked for clarity on Your Party’s position on Zionism.

Corbyn also mentioned he is writing “a very long article at the moment on things to do with Palestine that I’ve been involved with over the past 40 years,” adding that the situation had become even more “horrific.”

He added, “And now we have the genocide, and it is a genocide in Gaza. We in Your Party are absolutely in solidarity with the people of Palestine, and will be guided by them on the policies we develop and the direction we take going forward.”

In August, Sultana—who had initially attempted to cast herself as co-leader of Your Party—accused Corbyn of having “capitulated to the IHRA definition of antisemitism” as Labour leader.


US students almost 25% likelier to disapprove of Israeli gov than of Hamas, survey suggests
The Hamas terror organization has a higher overall favorability rating (19%) and lower unfavorable rating (45%) than does the Israeli government (18%, 56%) on U.S. campuses, according to a new survey of 500 university students.

That difference in favorability ratings is not statistically significant, because it falls in the margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points, according to Carly Cooperman, partner and CEO of Schoen Cooperman Research, which conducted the survey for the Israel on Campus Coalition between Oct. 15 and 21.

But the 11 percentage-point difference, a roughly 25% increase in the Israeli government’s unfavorability rating compared to that of Hamas among college students, is significant, according to Cooperman.

She told JNS that the survey suggests that American students are hostile toward Hamas to “a lesser degree” than they are toward Israel, and they are likelier to be unfamiliar with or to have no opinion about the terror organization.

The “steep” drop of 24 percentage points in Israel’s favorability among students since Oct. 7, 2023 “speaks to the deep-seeded belief that Israel has used excessive force,” Cooperman told JNS.
Harvard Hillel director ‘shocked’ by student op-ed justifying ending friendships with Zionists
Rabbi Jason Rubenstein, executive director of Harvard Hillel, said he was “shocked” by the publication of a recent op-ed in the Harvard Crimson, a student paper, that stated it is “justifiable” to end friendships with Zionists.

“This is exactly the kind of shunning, ostracization, demonization” of “Zionist Jews and Israelis that we’ve been speaking out against, working against for the last two years,” Rubenstein said.

The op-ed, published on Nov. 6, was part of the paper’s “Amateur Ethicist” column, in which Andrรฉs Muedano, a Crimson Editorial editor, responds to ethics questions submitted by members of the Harvard University community. The piece was written in response to an anonymous submission from someone claiming to be an anti-Zionist Jew, asking if he or she should end their friendships with supporters of Israel.

“If what you are asking is whether you are justified in letting go of your Zionist friends, then the matter is simple. The answer is yes,” Muedano wrote. “Because friendship is volitional by definition, we are never obligated to be friends with someone.”

“We are always entitled to dissolve our friendships. But even when we find the morals of our friends to be misguided, condemnable and maybe even despicable, we remain entitled to have faith in their decency,” he added.

Rubsenstein stated in a video posted on Nov. 7 that “this is exactly the kind of shunning, ostracization, demonization” of “Zionist Jews and Israelis that we’ve been speaking out against, working against for the last two years.” He added that there are “echoes” of Austria in the 1930s in the op-ed in terms of “a moral crusade that will take Jews as some of its victims.” (JNS sought comment from the paper.)

Rubenstein said the op-ed reflects a broader trend nationwide. A 2024 report funded by the Jim Joseph Foundation found that one in five non-Jewish respondents did not want to be friends with a Zionist.
Suit against Chapman University over Jew-hatred could ‘expand civil rights law,’ attorney says
Jewish students at Chapman University were subjected to discrimination and harassment with “direct approval” of the highly-ranked private school in southern California, a new lawsuit alleges.

The new suit is different from others against universities over their responses to Jew-hatred in that it accuses Chapman of violating a statute that lawyers typically invoke in instances of workplace discrimination, according to Matthew Mainen, a litigation attorney at the National Jewish Advocacy Center.

“We’re curious to see how the courts take to this new application of this law, because we really think there’s an opportunity here to expand civil rights law,” he told JNS.

Bob Hitchcock, director of strategic communications at the university, told JNS that “we are aware of the matter and are reviewing the filing.”

“We stand by our strong record of supporting Jewish students and continuing to do so is a priority and commitment for us, consistent with our mission and founding,” Hitchcock told JNS.

The 33-page lawsuit, which JNS viewed, was filed on Oct. 28. The National Jewish Advocacy Center and In Every Generation, a division of Hershenson Rosenberg-Wohl APC, are representing Eli Schechter and Talya Malka, both 2024 graduates of the school.

Mainen told JNS that “the administration was presented with clear evidence that students were being prohibited from an event for nothing more than having a Jewish-sounding last name, including a guy who was not remotely Jewish at all.”


Gil Troy: ‘The New York Times’ lies about Israel, Palestinians spreading among US Jews
I kept encountering these questions and misconceptions. Each subject deserves a book, but brief rejoinders can help:
“The war was too brutal.” Wars are brutal. Urban warfare, with terrorists hiding behind civilians, is even harsher. Without offering realistic alternatives for an Israel threatened with Iran’s seven-fronted ring of fire, critics also miss fundamental benchmarks.

Israel’s formidable legal infrastructure assesses the morality of targets repeatedly, risking our soldiers’ lives by warning Gazans of impending strikes or aborting missions to save civilians.

Moreover, reflecting urban warfare’s savage calculus, the UN estimates that democratic armies often kill ten civilians for every combatant. America often averaged four to one. Israel averaged between one and two civilians for every combatant – even with Hamas’s claims of 60,000 dead, but factoring in 25,000 terrorists. Finally, had Hamas allowed the Gazans into its 400-mile tunnel network, tens of thousands more would be alive today.
“Netanyahu unnecessarily prolonged the war for political reasons.” Often, the more brutal the war, the longer it is. I recently saw a cartoon of a vampire menacing a young woman – a classic antisemitic image. The caption read: He “is a vampire, sucking the blood and life of” his country, “prolonging the war to protect his own power.” Oops! The cartoon, from November 26, 1864, and displayed in the Lincoln presidential museum in Springfield, Illinois, imagines a monstrous Abraham Lincoln sucking the blood of “Columbia,” representing America.

The US fought for nine years to a draw in Iraq and for 20 to lose Afghanistan. In two years, Israel miraculously freed 168 live hostages, degraded Hamas, crushed Hezbollah, weakened Iran, and watched Syria collapse. Are we really so sure so much could have been done sooner?
- “Israel would be popular if not for Bibi, Ben-Gvir, and Smotrich (O my!).” The venom with which people spit out those names often eclipses their Hamas-hatred. I have long criticized this government’s domestic politics and its deference to its goonatics. Still, considering how quickly critics blasted Israel for defending itself – buying the big lie that Israel killed 500 people in Al-Ahli Hospital on October 17 – the world gave Israel 10 days to defend itself. Then, “ceasefire” demands already began, a week before Israel invaded Gaza.
- “Look how unpopular Israel is - Hamas won.” To jihadists, “victory” means Israel’s eradication. If forced to choose between winning the war versus being popular – better for us to survive, stronger than ever. Besides, Hamas and the Palestinians are not stupid. They see the devastation of Gaza the terrorist group’s barbaric attack triggered. They feel the abandonment of a reeling Iran, the blocked Hezbollah-Syria arms smuggling pipeline, the loss of their top commanders, and the Arab world blasting Hamas. Can Hamas really afford such “victories?”
- “Why didn’t Israel free the Palestinian ‘Mandela,’ Marwan Barghouti?” What an insult to Mandela’s nonviolence! Marwan Barghouti headed the armed Tanzim. Accused of 30 murders, judges convicted him of five. That reflects his lethality and the court’s credibility in weighing the evidence. He claimed he never targeted civilians “in Israel,” making anyone in the territories fair game, including the Greek Orthodox monk Father Georgios Tsibouktzakis.

The NYT deeming Barghouti “popular” while soft-pedaling his crimes doesn’t make him Mother Teresa. Moreover, even those buying the Barghouti-Mandela con shouldn’t undermine moderate Palestinians by giving Hamas extremists bragging rights for freeing Barghouti. It’s remarkable how often the supposedly “civilized” world rewards Hamas’s barbarism – and Palestinian terrorism overall.
- “And I won’t even mention the settlers!” I’m not afraid to talk about the settlers and the settlements. Start by acknowledging, “It’s complicated.” Skipping the history lecture justifying Israel’s ties to the land, I’m shocked that people uncritically accept the Palestinian spin that Israelis don’t belong there, making every disputed Israeli community illegitimate. Why is “settler growth” since 2005 – with few new settlements but many settler babies born – an international scandal, but not the West Bank Palestinians’ expansion by one million (further disproving the genocide lie)? Why are 1,400 incidents of “settler violence” since October 7 – which I denounce – over-reported, while 10,469 Palestinian terror attacks (almost 7.5 times as many) are ignored? Concerned leftists may dream of establishing a Palestinian state – but why prop up that position with one-sided, all-or-nothing, ahistorical narratives, only blaming the Jews and blindly accepting the Palestinian spin?


Report: Senior official says Israel aims to topple Iranian regime by end of Trump’s term
According to a security source speaking to Channel 13, if a new confrontation materializes, “Israel will respond much more aggressively” than in previous rounds of fighting, and Jerusalem is preparing for hostilities to last far longer than 12 days this time.

The reports came a day after The New York Times reported that Tehran has greatly increased its missile production, and that senior sources increasingly believe that another war between Israel and Iran is “only a matter of time.”

Iran is working around the clock to revamp its ballistic missile systems in hopes of being able to “fire 2,000 at once to overwhelm Israeli defenses, not 500 over 12 days,” Ali Vaez, the Iran project director at the International Crisis Group, told The Times.

“Israel feels the job is unfinished and sees no reason not to resume the conflict, so Iran is doubling down preparedness for the next round,” Vaez said, adding, however, that there was no suggestion that any renewed fighting was imminent.

The Times also quoted regional officials and experts as believing that Israeli and US strikes during the war in June caused less damage to Tehran’s nuclear facilities than previously thought, and that both countries are preparing for the prospect of another round of conflict.

On June 12, Israel launched a sweeping assault on Iran’s top military leaders, nuclear scientists, uranium enrichment sites, and ballistic missile program, arguing it was necessary to prevent the Islamic Republic from realizing its avowed plan to destroy the Jewish state.

Iran has consistently denied seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. However, it enriched uranium to levels that have no peaceful application, obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities, and expanded its ballistic missile capabilities, all while regularly threatening to flatten Israeli cities. Israel said that leading up to the June war, Iran had taken steps toward weaponization.

Iran retaliated to Israel’s strikes by launching over 500 ballistic missiles and around 1,100 drones at Israel.

The attacks killed 32 people and wounded over 3,000 in Israel, according to health officials and hospitals. More than 1,000 people died in Iran.

In all, there were 36 missile impacts and one drone strike in populated areas of Israel, causing damage to 2,305 homes in 240 buildings, along with two universities and a hospital, and leaving over 13,000 Israelis displaced.
Khaled Abu Toameh: Iran Seeking to Revive the "Axis of Resistance" Against Israel
The Iranian regime and its proxies are doing their utmost to ensure that their Jihad (holy war) to destroy Israel continues in full force.

Although Iran's proxies have been weakened, they are trying to rise from the ashes with the help of their patrons in Tehran.

More than 250 representatives of Iran-backed groups attended a conference in Beirut in November organized by the Arab National Conference, where key speakers included leaders of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hizbullah, and the Houthis.

ANC Secretary-General Hamdeen Sabahi emphasized the need to counter narratives of Arab defeat. "The nation has won, and the day of Palestine's liberation is near," he said.

He rejected calls to disarm the Palestinian terror groups in Gaza and Hizbullah in Lebanon.

The war in Gaza may be over, but the Islamist terrorists' desire to destroy Israel remains as strong as ever.
Inside Iran after the 12-Day War
When Alireza Talakoubnejad, a young Iranian living in the U.S., returned home to Iran after its June war with Israel, he saw a country significantly changed.

He wrote on X that mistrust of the government "has significantly exacerbated with the electricity & water shortages and then the experience of the war."

He described nightly water outages, summer power cuts, and suffocating smog that blanketed major cities. Inflation has soared to unbearable heights. Basic goods have turned into luxuries.

Many Iranians expressed a reluctant respect for Israel's calculated restraint.

"As a pro-government friend described to me: 'Fighting Israel is not like fighting the Taliban, where they randomly shoot at different parts of the city. They had precise intelligence and weapons. Every single strike was intentional and had a purpose.'"


Pakistani attacker charged after assaulting Orthodox Jewish tourists in Milan
A group of Orthodox Jewish American tourists were attacked at Milan's Central Station on Monday by a Pakistani man, according to Milan Police Headquarters.

While the victims were checking the train schedule board, the attacker, a 25-year-old Pakistani man, charged at them and punched and kicked one victim, and hit him in the head with a blunt metal ring in his possession.

During the attack, the Pakistani man shouted racist threats and insults in Italian, such as “dirty Jews” and “you kill children in Palestine, and I’ll kill you."

The assault ended when bystanders intervened and called the Railway Police officers (Polfer) who restrained the man, however he reportedly continued repeating the same phrases along with “Allahu Akbar.”

The victim was taken to the hospital with a minor injury.

Charged with assault aggravated by racial hatred
The attacker has been charged with assault aggravated by racial hatred, charges to which he admitted.

The presiding judge, Judge Sofia Fioretta, said the charges were fast-tracked due to “the seriousness of the conduct, its brutality, and the total absence of remorse.”

The 25-year-old told the judge that he regularly attends a mosque and is out of work and without a fixed abode. His court-assigned public defender Gianluca Rozza asked for a lower sentence given his until-now clean record.
London theater faces discrimination claims over refusal to host Jewish events
Jewish community leaders in London allege that the Troxy, a historic music and events venue in the city’s East End, has been refusing to host Jewish-related events. Activists have filed a complaint with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), calling for an investigation into claims that since the October 7 Hamas terror attack, the theater has adopted a policy of discrimination against Jews.

According to the Jewish Community Council (JCC), several event organizers and charities have had their booking requests rejected in recent years, allegedly because they were associated with the Jewish community, The Telegraph reported.

Troxy management has denied the allegations, saying its decisions “are never based on faith or race.”

Among those calling for an inquiry is a children’s charity that accused the venue of canceling a planned January concert because the organizers were Jewish. The event was meant to raise funds for orphaned and disadvantaged children and was to feature ultra-Orthodox singer Yaakov Shwekey.

Other Jewish events reportedly rejected by the theater included a concert by Benny Friedman, an American Hasidic performer, and a charity fundraiser supporting a Jewish medical organization.

In response, Troxy said it had declined the events because they “did not meet standard safety requirements.”

In a formal complaint, Rabbi Levi Shapiro, director of the JCC and founder of the United Jewish Fund, wrote: “I personally tried to book the Troxy for a community event and was also turned down — again, with no justification other than the Jewish identity of the organizers. This blatant form of discrimination is unacceptable in modern Britain.”
Gal Gadot wins 2026 Genesis Prize, will donate $1 million proceeds to help Israelis heal
Actress Gal Gadot will be awarded the 2026 Genesis Prize, the annual $1 million award that honors Jewish contributions to humanity, the foundation announced Tuesday.

The Genesis Prize Foundation calls the actress, known for portraying the Wonder Woman superhero character in several films, “a hero on screen and an even greater hero in real life.”

Gadot said in a statement that she was humbled to receive the Genesis Prize.

Like other past Genesis laureates, Gadot will donate her $1 million prize, giving it to organizations that will help Israelis heal, rebuild and recover after the Hamas terrorist attack of October 7, 2023.

“I am a proud Jew and a proud Israeli,” said Gadot. “I love my country and dedicate this award to the organizations that will help Israel heal and to those incredible people who serve on the front lines of compassion. Israel has endured unimaginable pain. Now we must begin to heal – to rebuild hearts, families and communities.”

Since October 7, Gadot has used her social media platform to speak out about the global silence surrounding sexual violence against women on that day and about the terror group’s atrocities.

She also posted regularly about the hostages taken captive on that day and hosted screenings of footage about Hamas atrocities carried out on October 7.

Gadot has said that in the past, she generally avoided speaking about political issues, but that changed after the massacre.

The actress has also been the subject of death threats and pro-Palestinian protests during the last two years, including during the March 2025 ceremony for her Hollywood star.

In August 2024, anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian activists called for a boycott of the live-action “Snow White” film with Gadot cast as the evil queen.
Rob Rinder hosts 60th anniversary celebration at site of ‘Windermere Children’
A school built on the site where hundreds of young Holocaust survivors began new lives in the Lake District has marked its 60th anniversary with an evening of tributes, music and reflection hosted by broadcaster and barrister Rob Rinder MBE.

Rinder, whose grandfather was among the 300 “Windermere Children” brought to Britain after the Second World War, led the celebrations at The Lakes School in Windermere, which opened in 1965 on the grounds of the former Calgarth Estate.

The event brought together alumni, staff, students and members of the local community to honour the school’s legacy and its unique connection to the survivors who once called the site home.

Alumni singer Marcella Nield opened the evening, followed by a moving address from Angie Cohen, chair of the ’45 Aid Society, who thanked the people of Windermere for welcoming the survivors eight decades ago.

Ken Pickering, Head of humanities, told guests the school’s recent recognition as a UCL Holocaust Beacon School reinforced its “ongoing commitment to education and historical understanding”. A standing ovation was given to Arek Hersh MBE, one of the Windermere Children and a longtime friend of the school, who has shared his testimony with generations of pupils.




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