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Wednesday, December 03, 2025

12/03 Links Pt2: NGO Monitor: Hamas' Coercive Grip on Aid and NGO Operations in Gaza; Dublin City Council Members Blame ‘Zionist Lobby’ and ‘Israeli Intelligence’; Antisemitism ‘scourge’ continues to wreak havoc in Australia

From Ian:

Dublin City Council Members Blame ‘Zionist Lobby’ and ‘Israeli Intelligence’ for Thwarting Proposal To Rename Herzog Park
Dublin City Council members accused Israel of wielding its lobbying power to interfere in Irish politics during a heated debate over postponing a vote to strip an Irish-born Israeli president’s name from a city park.

The Monday night meeting concluded with a 35-to-25 vote to send the renaming proposal back to a planning committee after the council’s chief executive noted a procedural error in the renaming process. Footage from the preceding hour-long discussion, however, is sparking outrage among Ireland’s Jewish community.

“Deranged conspiracy theories were rife at the Dublin City Council meeting last night,” a native Dubliner and doctoral student at Trinity College Dublin, Rachel Moiselle, remarked on X. Ms. Moiselle, an Irish writer of Jewish heritage who has been outspoken in defending Ireland’s Jewish population, has helped lead the effort against renaming Herzog Park.

“The hatred is visceral and frightening,” she continued in a separate post. “There is a real evil here and the people who embody it have positions of political power. We will need international support to fight it.”

Clips from the live-streamed session show council members suggesting that pushback against the proposal reflected a coordinated campaign by “Zionist” or “Israeli” influences.

“This was a full-court press by the Zionist lobby and they think they will win it,” stated councillor Ciarán Ó Meachair. “They will not win this.” Earlier in the session Mr. Meachair accused Herzog of having “raped, murdered and pillaged innocent civilians.” He vowed to continue to push for a renaming, offering instead a British Jewish communist politician, Max Levitas.

Another council member, Pat Dunne, of the United Left party, went even further, claiming that the Israel Defense Forces were somehow involved in the effort. “I’m further convinced that whatever phone calls were made to our CEO and to other officials probably emanated from Israeli intelligence attached to the Israeli Defence Forces because they’re active in every issue in relation to Palestine,” Mr. Dunne said. “Trace it all the way back, Richard, and you’ll find that’s the source.”
Alex Hearn: The comforting myth of Britain as a safe haven for Jews clouds our immigration debate
This notion of Jewish impurity polluting the nation remained, even when it was being popularised in Nazi propaganda a few decades later. In 1933 the conservative MP for Tottenham asked the Home Secretary what measures he was taking to prevent “alien Jews from Germany entering England”.

The 1938 Evian Conference saw Britain refuse to take significant numbers of Jewish refugees. Prioritising Arab sensibilities, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain refused to help 10,000 Jewish children emigrate from Nazi Germany into British mandate Palestine, which became official policy in 1939 with The White Paper. After Kristallnacht the situation became impossible to ignore and children were grudgingly allowed into Britain itself on Kindertransport.

It was largely a private rescue effort by Jewish organisations such as Central British Fund for German Jewry (CBF), while the initiative came from German Jews such as Wilfrid Israel, who saved about 15 times more lives than Oskar Schindler yet his name is largely unknown. Heroic individuals like Trevor Chadwick did agonising selection work because British guarantors often wanted “girls aged seven to 10 and, if possible, fair-haired”. Fuelled by eugenics thinking, the Home Office excluded children with disabilities or sickness.

The British government restricted Kindertransport. They created Jewish orphans by barring parents, and imposed a £50 guarantee per child, limiting the number of children who could be saved. Kindertransport symbolised British hostility to Jewish immigration.

In 1939 when the MS St Louis returned to Europe after being rejected by the US, Canada and Cuba, Britain accepted a minority essentially saving their lives, but most were returned to be murdered by the Nazis.

By 1942 with the full knowledge of Jews being systematically mass-murdered, Labour Home Secretary Herbert Morrison didn't want to grant entry to 350 children from Vichy France, citing fears of provoking “anti-foreign and antisemitic feelings”. In Parliament he was asked about German Jewish refugees who had been stripped of their nationality and facing certain death. His chilling answer was that they were not considered stateless, but were instead viewed as “aliens of enemy nationality”.

Comparisons with Jewish immigration ignore another critical distinction: when Jewish refugees arrived in Britain, the Board of Guardians and other Jewish charities ensured they wouldn't be a drain on the state. No such self-sustaining community network exists for today's asylum seekers — there are professional charities, not community organisations.

The “Britain as sanctuary” narrative obscures historical reality. With the current system — even with Mahmoud's proposed policies — many more Jews would have been saved in the 19th and 20th centuries than Britain actually admitted.

There are legitimate concerns about whether asylum policies are too harsh, and the Jewish community is right to care about the treatment of refugees. But the comparison is fundamentally ahistorical, and the argument of Britain being a safe haven to a thriving Jewish community ignores present realities: record levels of antisemitic incidents and substantial Jewish emigration, with applications for Israeli citizenship spiking dramatically.

If we're going to invoke Jewish history in these debates, we owe it to those who were turned away to get that history right — and to face present realities rather than comforting myths.
British pro-Palestine protesters ‘more at risk of radicalisation than I was,’ claims former jihadi
A former jihadist turned anti-extremism educator has claimed that British pro-Palestinian protesters are at an even greater risk of being radicalised than he was when he joined a terror group in the 1990s.

Speaking exclusively to the JC at an event organised by pro-Israeli campaign group Stop The Hate, Noor Dahri, originally from Pakistan and a former member of Lashkar e Tayyaba (LT), said that he sees an undeniable likeness in his own descent into extremism and the rhetoric of some British activists.

LT, which was proscribed in the UK in 2001, aimed to “liberate” the disputed province of Kashmir from India and annex it to Pakistan, creating a unified Islamic state. It gained wider infamy when it perpetrated a series of 12 coordinated attacks in Mumbai over three days in November 2008, killing 166 people.

But Dahri sees parallels between the group’s espousal of Islamist ultra-nationalism and the propaganda pushed by Hamas.

"[To the protesters], the Palestinians are like heroes," he said. "For Muslims [when he became a jihadist], Kashmiri people were the heroes. We wanted to liberate them. We wanted to be like them."

He explained that he ultimately left the group when he realised the reality of what he was part of, saying he was "hurt" by what he saw and that people were "losing their lives because of the [group's] goals".

"[It is] exactly the same," he went on. "The ideology and grievances which [Hamas] have created are exactly the same as [those LeT created]."

"We were [poorly] educated in [Pakistan] because we had a jihadist surrounding, but in Western countries, especially the UK, the atmosphere isn't jihadist - the state doesn't support it. This is a Western democratic country...

"There are three types of people who are radicalised: those who have absolutely no knowledge, those who have very limited knowledge, and those who have knowledge but who deny the truth.

"People here are more radicalised than in Pakistan because there they don't have options [to see the truth for themselves], here they have options - they have a British passport, they can travel to Israel, they can see a democratic life where Jews and Muslims are living side by side. [They can see] everyone there executing their rights without persecution.

"But [British pro-Palestine protesters] don't want to know. They are [further along in being of being] radicalised because they are able to know something and still [chose not to] and deny it.


Internal Hamas Documents Reveal Terror Group's Infiltration of UN-Affiliated Aid Groups in Gaza
Hamas operatives infiltrated dozens of U.N.-affiliated aid groups in Gaza between 2018 and 2022, embedding personnel into senior positions to direct humanitarian operations on the ground and ensure the groups served Hamas's interests, internal security documents uncovered by Israeli forces and reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon show.

The documents, authored by Hamas's internal security apparatus, detail for the first time how the terror group systematically co-opted nonprofits affiliated with the United Nations and the governments of multiple Western countries, including the United States. They reveal how Hamas placed its allies into key positions throughout these nonprofits, ensuring they "can be exploited for security purposes in order to infiltrate foreign associations, their foreign senior personnel and their movements," according to one December 2022 document among a tranche the NGO Monitor watchdog group published Wednesday.

The revelations come as the United States and other Western governments chart a course for humanitarian operations in post-war Gaza. The Trump administration has said the Hamas-tied U.N. Relief and Works Agency will not play a role in the region under President Donald Trump's 20-point peace plan, but the framework authorizes the U.N. and other NGOs to play a role in the humanitarian aid process. If those groups include those Hamas has already penetrated, the terror group will control a lucrative aid pipeline that will help it stay in power.

Hamas's scheme relies on a system of "guarantors," or local Gazans—primarily Hamas loyalists and intelligence operators—who serve as points of contact between aid organizations and the terror group's leadership. In order for NGOs to operate in Gaza, Hamas requires that its guarantors "hold senior administrative positions" within the aid groups. The arrangement ensures that Hamas has "access to the highest levels of the NGOs' local branches and operations," according to NGO Monitor's analysis of the documents.

The guarantors also allow Western NGOs to informally coordinate with Hamas and bypass government restrictions on direct engagement with the terror group. An April 2022 Hamas intelligence report, for instance, makes clear that "American associations present in the Gaza Strip do not engage with the Gaza government directly, but via an intermediate individual" who offers the aid groups plausible deniability.

The December 2022 document lists the names and personal details for 55 individuals acting as guarantors at 48 separate NGOs in Gaza. The terror group identified at least 10 of the individuals it tapped for leadership roles within nonprofits as "Hamas members or supporters, or employed by Hamas-affiliated authorities."
NGO Monitoir: Puppet Regime: Hamas' Coercive Grip on Aid and NGO Operations in Gaza
Conclusion
NGOs operating in Gaza are fully aware of the realities of working under Hamas rule. Instead of disclosing the coercive conditions under which they operate, NGOs consistently omit or downplay Hamas’ violations, refusing to expose how deeply the terror group has infiltrated, distorted, and exploited the humanitarian space.

Worse still, many of these organizations are quick to level public condemnations of Israel, while failing to acknowledge Hamas’ systematic abuse of humanitarian mechanisms. This one-sided narrative enables Hamas to operate with impunity, shielding its criminal behavior from scrutiny and distorting the international understanding of the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

By choosing to stay quiet and cooperate with the regime, NGOs not only provide cover for Hamas’ abuses, they begin to internalize and adopt Hamas’s own agenda and propaganda. The result is an aid sector that, in many cases, no longer acts independently or impartially, but instead functions within a terror-controlled system and becomes an integral part of misinformation and disinformation campaigns.


Seth Mandel: What Did Nelson Mandela Ever Do To You, Brian Eno?
Hillary Clinton isn’t wrong about the role that TikTok and other social media play in the spread of anti-Israel propaganda, but it’s clear now that there is something worse than brain-melting short-form agitprop: the elite celebrities of the arts.

Once a certain coterie of actors and musicians and writers decided to spend most of their time signing vapid open letters about Israel, it was inevitable that they would put their names on one so aggressively ignorant that it would discredit everything they’ve ever said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

And now they have.

Margaret Atwood, Ian McKellen, Richard Branson, Sting, Brian Eno, and of course Mark Ruffalo and Sally Rooney—among many others—have announced their support for a campaign to free arch-terrorist Marwan Barghouti from the Israeli prison in which he is serving consecutive life sentences for the murder of innocents.

I have written before about why freeing Barghouti is a silly idea supported by silly people, but it is now clear that this campaign is still growing in popularity and will continue to do so. Indeed, the campaign has specifically chosen to appropriate Nelson Mandela’s name in a transparent attempt to launder Barghouti’s legacy of evil.

“History shows us that cultural voices can shift the course of politics,” says Eno. “Just as global solidarity helped free Nelson Mandela, we all have the power to accelerate the day that Marwan Barghouti walks free. His release would mark a turning point in this long struggle and bring much-needed hope to all of us.”

Well that’s just about the worst thing a person can say about Nelson Mandela, and I don’t know what the man did to deserve the insult.

Anyone in the public who might have taken this crew’s previous nonsense seriously might want to reconsider now that these “cultural voices” have explicitly equated Mandela with an unrepentant terrorist convicted for organizing the drive-by shooting of a Greek Orthodox monk. That’s just one of the civilian deaths for which Barghouti is behind bars.

And it’s not only the “cultural voices” who discredit themselves. The Guardian article about the campaign is just as embarrassing. “Barghouti, 66, has spent 23 years in prison after what legal experts described as a flawed trial,” writes diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour. But that is fantasy. An old but undistinguished group for global parliamentarians complained that Israeli courts had no right to put Barghouti on trial because he should’ve had parliamentary immunity—an argument the Israeli court dispensed with easily when Barghouti’s team asserted as much.
More than 200 public figures back petition calling for Barghouti’s release
More than 200 cultural and public figures have signed a petition calling for the release of top Palestinian terrorist Marwan Barghouti, the group organizing the effort said on Wednesday, the third day of the drive.

Among the celebrities who signed the petition are anti-Israel activist Angela Davis; Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei; novelist Margaret Atwood; and actors Benedict Cumberbatch, Cynthia Nixon, Mark Ruffalo and Ian McKellen.

The list also includes several Jewish names, including Paul Simon, Stephen Fry, Miriam Margolyes, Naomi Klein, Nan Goldin, Peter Beinart, Gabor Maté, Ilana Glazer and Hannah Einbinder.

The petition expresses “grave concern at the continuing imprisonment” of the convicted terrorist, and denounces alleged “violent mistreatment and denial of legal rights” by Israeli prison authorities.

“We call upon the United Nations and the Governments of the World to actively seek the release of Marwan Barghouti from Israeli prison,” the statement adds.

Barghouti, 66, one of the most notorious figures of the Second Intifada, was convicted in 2002 for masterminding terror attacks against Israelis. He was sentenced to five consecutive life terms plus 40 years.

Although Barghouti’s name has periodically surfaced during prisoner-exchange negotiations, successive Israeli governments have refused to release him, citing a risk that he could reignite large-scale terrorist violence.


Apollo CEO slams Mamdani as ‘enemy’ of Jews for ‘normalizing antisemitism’
Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan called New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani an “enemy” of Jews and accused him of normalizing antisemitism as he urged the Jewish community to confront the far-left pol directly.

“Someone who uses antisemitism in their campaign and normalizes antisemitism, he is our enemy,” Rowan proclaimed Monday night at a packed dinner hosted by UJA-Federation Wall Street.

“We should make no mistake, we face challenges at home. I don’t think we have to wait to know,” said the exec, who chairs UJA-Federation of New York’s board along with running one of the world’s biggest asset managers.

Nearly 2,000 people attended the dinner at the Marriott Marquis, which raised $57 million for pro-Israel causes, according to Jewish Insider.

“We need to be the ones to call him out. We need to say it. And I know that UJA, as it relates to the Jewish community, is going to do that,” Rowan said of Mamdani, a Muslim and Democratic socialist who takes office Jan. 1.

Mamdani’s inflammatory statements about Israel and Zionism have drawn heavy criticism from high-profile Jewish leaders and major Jewish organizations, including the American Jewish Committee.
NYC school said to decline Holocaust survivor’s talk over ‘messages on Israel, Palestine’
A Brooklyn middle school declined to host a motivational talk from a pro-Israel Holocaust survivor, saying his message would not be suitable for the students, The New York Post reported Tuesday.

MS 447 Principal Arin Rusch responded to a parent’s request that Sami Steigmann address students about antisemitism by saying his presentation would not be right for the school “given his messages around Israel and Palestine.”

While the head of a Jewish teachers’ advocacy group called the situation “appalling,” the city Department of Education backed the principal, as did the office of Mayor Eric Adams, a vocal Israel advocate.

A statement from City Hall said the mayor “is dedicated to ensuring all New Yorkers — particularly our students and young adults — hear stories from the genocide and oppression of the Holocaust, so we never again perpetrate such evil.”

“While this speaker wasn’t the right fit, we will continue to ensure our students hear from the living survivors of this history into the future.”

NYC Department of Education spokeswoman Nicole Brownstein told The Post, “We are proud to have welcomed many Holocaust survivors into our schools, including MS 447, to share their stories. We thoroughly evaluate every classroom speaker and are careful to ensure speakers maintain political neutrality, especially on contentious current events, as required in a public school setting.”

According to The New York Post, a parent had written to Rusch suggesting that Steigman speak at the Boerum Hill school.

In a responding letter on November 18, Rusch wrote, “In looking at his website material, I also don’t think that Sami’s presentation is right for our public school setting, given his messages around Israel and Palestine.”
In the US, teachers are organising walkouts where students chant ‘kill the Jews’
Problems are pervasive, so where should Congress focus? Izabella Tabarovsky, Senior Fellow with the Z3 Institute and author of Be a Refusenik: A Jewish Student’s Survival Guide, observed, “Whether they use the IHRA definition [of antisemitism] or the 3D Framework by Natan Sharansky” or tropes “in those anti-Zionist actions and violations”, members should “have it clear in their mind why those are, in fact, harming Jewish students, why they attack Jewish identity, why they attack Jewish peoplehood, why and how they attack the existence of the Jewish state”.

Zooming in on BUSD, Miller suggested concentrating on its “pattern and practice of ignoring complaints of antisemitism, failing to respond to complaints within a reasonable time or at all in some cases, and the overall hostile environment faced by Jewish families in the district”.

Ilana Pearlman, BUSD parent and a member of the Jewish Coalition of Berkeley, further recommended looking into “the entire Ethnic Studies department” and “speak[ing] with Israeli kids” whose experience with the district must “be really next- level awful”.

Pearlman hopes that this investigation brings “repair” for Berkeley’s Jews and ends the expectation that Jews “just take” antisemitic abuse.

Shamefully, parents can’t simply assume their Jewish or Israeli children will be treated equally in American public schools in 2025. This is a continuing battle, and it must still be won.
ECAJ's 2025 Anti-Jewish Incidents Report Reveals Sustained Crisis in Australia
A comprehensive new report released by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) documents 1,654 antisemitic incidents across Australia between October 2024 and September 2025, maintaining levels approximately three times higher than any year prior to October 2023.

The data reveals a particularly disturbing trend: while total incidents decreased slightly from the previous year’s record of 2,062, attacks involving arson and vandalism—the most dangerous forms of anti-Jewish violence—actually increased.

The twelve-month period witnessed eighteen major antisemitic incidents between October 2024 and February 2025 alone, including some of the most severe attacks in Australian history. These included the firebombing of a kosher catering business in Bondi and the complete destruction of Melbourne’s Adass Israel Synagogue in an arson attack later declared an act of terrorism.

Foreign Terror and Domestic Threats Converge
Australian authorities and ASIO confirmed in August 2025 that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) orchestrated major arson attacks targeting Jewish institutions and businesses. This foreign terrorist involvement represents a dramatic escalation in the threats facing Australia’s Jewish community.

The ECAJ report documented 621 cases of verbal abuse, 359 graffiti incidents, 379 instances of antisemitic posters and stickers, 238 threatening messages, 33 vandalism attacks, and 24 physical assaults. New South Wales recorded the highest number of incidents with 738, followed by Victoria with 662, Western Australia with 108, and Queensland with 50.
‘Sickening to watch’: Antisemitism ‘scourge’ continues to wreak havoc in Australia
Sky News host Chris Kenny has discussed the “scourge of antisemitism” that continues to grip Australia.

“It’s been alarming,” Mr Kenny said.

“Apart from threatening and intimidating the Jewish community; it has undermined our national cohesion, and challenged our national values.”


Guinness World Records ‘no longer accepting submissions from Israel, Palestinian territories’
Guinness World Records is no longer accepting submissions from Israel or the Palestinian territories, a Jerusalem-based NGO which helps people make voluntary kidney donations said on Wednesday.

The NGO, “Matnat Chaim” whose name means “Gift of Life” in Hebrew said it had contacted Guinness World Records regarding an event it is planning next month, which will bring together 2,000 Israeli kidney donors in the hope of having the gathering entered into the next Guinness Book of World Records.

However, the British body informed the Israeli group two months ago that it was no longer accepting submissions from Israel or the Palestinian territories, the Israeli nonprofit said.

The charity made a second appeal after the ceasefire with Hamas went into effect in October, but has not received a response, a spokesman said on Wednesday.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Wednesday condemned the new policy, calling it “inexcusable.” Israelis, he added, “expect and demand that this twisted decision be revoked immediately.”

Israel is “leading the whole world in this wonderful revolution of mutual responsibility in altruistic kidney donations,” Matnat Chaim President Rachel Heber told JNS. “The fact that Guinness refuses to include the Israeli achievement that astonished the entire medical world is unacceptable.”

“We don’t even have to say that this is a political decision,” Judy Singer, vice president of the organization, told JNS on Wednesday. “It’s black and white in their statement.”


U of Florida must readmit student banned for antisemitic posts, US federal judge rules
A University of Florida law school student who posted that Jews must be “abolished by any means necessary” on social media was ordered to be readmitted to the school by a US federal judge last week.

The student, Preston Damsky, was banned from the campus for three years in April after he posted dozens of antisemitic and xenophobic statements to his X account. He also drew attention for having won an award for an academic paper where he argued that the Constitution applies solely to white people.

Damsky then sued the school in September, arguing that his expulsion violated his First Amendment rights.

In a ruling last week, Chief US District Judge Allen Winsor in Tallahassee granted a preliminary injunction ordering Damsky to be readmitted to the law school, writing that the school had failed to prove that Damsky’s speech constituted a real threat to the University of Florida.

“The University, of course, has an interest in maintaining order, but it has no interest in violating the First Amendment to achieve that goal,” wrote Winsor in his ruling.
Famine Claims in Gaza Fall Apart, Western Media Don’t Even Blink
For months, Western media outlets amplified one of the most dramatic accusations of the Israel–Hamas war: that Israel was causing famine in Gaza. The IPC, a UN-backed hunger monitor that has been criticized for faulty methodology, published a report in August 2025, claiming that over half a million Gazans were already experiencing famine. The report was repeated across major outlets with almost no scrutiny. Headlines warned of “mass starvation,” photos of emaciated children (mostly with pre-existing conditions) filled front pages, and Israel was vilified as deliberately starving civilians.

But when new data emerged that undermined the entire famine narrative, those same outlets suddenly lost their appetite for reporting.

The updated numbers, released in July-August by the Global Nutrition Cluster (GNC), a group of UN and other aid agencies, paint a starkly different picture. The GNC found malnutrition rates roughly 23% lower than those used by the IPC. The highest rate measured was 11.9%, which is below the 15% malnutrition threshold that defines famine. This is not a minor revision. It is a total collapse of the most alarming claim made about Gaza’s humanitarian situation.

And yet, the media that treated the original IPC report as gospel did not cover this correction. Not one major Western outlet ran a headline acknowledging that the famine claim had been based on flawed data. The story simply evaporated. No accountability. No follow-up. No explanation.

This silence matters. The IPC’s famine declaration did not unfold in a vacuum. Its figures were used to hammer Israel diplomatically, spark UN condemnations, inflame protests, and put Jewish communities at risk worldwide. Once “Israel is starving Gaza” became a viral talking point, it didn’t matter that Israeli officials and independent analysts questioned the report’s accuracy. It didn’t matter that key data was missing. It didn’t matter that the numbers were inconsistent or that the methodology was weak. What mattered was that the accusation fit the narrative, so it was believed.


The Missing Context: Media Distort the West Bank Terror Threat
Compared to the terror threats emanating from numerous fronts, including Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iran, the international media often downplays or dismisses the dangers Israel faces from the West Bank.

After the October 7 massacre, Hamas made no effort to hide its intentions to open a front in the West Bank, calling on Palestinians to take up arms against Israel.

In 2024, Israel faced over 18,000 incidents of terrorism, according to the National Public Diplomacy Directorate. The Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, thwarted 1,040 incidents in the West Bank and Jerusalem in 2024, with an additional 231 significant terror incidents reported.

In 2025, the threat persisted. In February 2025, a terrorist from the Nablus area of the West Bank triggered a series of explosions on buses in the Tel Aviv area. Fortunately, the explosives detonated when the buses were empty, causing no injuries.

In September, a deadly terror attack at the Ramot Junction in Jerusalem killed six innocent people and injured twenty-one others. The terrorists came from the West Bank.

This week, on November 29, a terrorist hurled an iron rod at the windshield of a car on Route 5, a highway in the northern West Bank. Miraculously, no one was physically injured, but the incident underscores the threat targeting Israelis.

The security challenge is real and ongoing. It targets Israelis, no matter where in the country they are.

After the ceasefire went into effect in the Gaza Strip in October, analysts found that Hamas and other terrorist organizations began reorganizing their operations in the West Bank as a way to continue their so-called “resistance.”
Inside the Anti-Israel Agenda of the LA Times’ Middle East Bureau Chief
The Los Angeles Times seeks to hold itself above reproach. Unfortunately, its Middle East bureau chief, Nabih Bulos, has consistently published biased and inaccurate articles – as well as his own social media posts – that betray the very standards he is meant to uphold.

With over 63,000 followers on X and writing for the largest daily metropolitan newspaper, Bulos’s impact is unmistakable. But his anti-Israel bias speaks volumes about the narrative he is spreading and brings into question his capacity to report accurately on such a tense region.

Distorting History, Blaming Israel
Bulos repeatedly demonstrates an inability to recognize the complex and dangerous neighborhood in which he is reporting from. In one post on X, responding to a statement that “Israel is in a tough neighborhood,” Bulos questions, “Why did it become a tough neighborhood?”

The insinuation is clear: Israel is to blame for the instability and hostility in the region. This kind of historical revisionism distorts decades of regional dynamics, conflicts, and threats from terrorist organizations and countries that previously or currently seek Israel’s destruction.

Similarly, in response to a statement by Piers Morgan that Hamas’ October 7th massacre cannot be compared to the Russia-Ukraine war, Bulos sarcastically suggested that Israel bears responsibility for the terrorist attacks because of the conditions that preceded them. In reversing the responsibility and denying Hamas’ initiation of the war, Bulos implied that the massacre was essentially a natural response to prior Israeli actions. This rhetoric presents a narrative that portrays Israel as the root cause of regional violence – a position starkly at odds with the neutrality expected from a major newspaper’s Middle East bureau chief.

This belief is not only found on his X feed but also in his published work. In one 2024 story covering the potential options for governance in post-war Gaza, Bulos suggested that because Israel “secretly helped create Hamas decades ago as a rival to the Palestinian Authority,” it would be concerned over any potential unity of Palestinians.

Except, Israel did not create Hamas. It gave money to the charity organization Mujama al-Islamiya in 1979 as a way to curb the violence that Israeli civilians were facing from the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). When Mujama al-Islamiya began collecting arms, its leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, was thrown in jail in the mid-1980s. After the outbreak of the First Intifada, Yassin and four other Palestinians created Hamas, but Israel was not the party responsible for its creation.

Yet again, this is not the first historical inaccuracy Bulos has published. He has also once claimed that 750,000 Palestinians were expelled in 1948, distorting the fact that the vast majority were displaced, either in anticipation of or as a result of the war or in response to the Arab nations’ calls to leave the land while their armies invaded the newly formed Jewish state.


Kylie Moore-Gilbert: Five years on, Australia is calling out the thugs who jailed me for what they are
Last week I quietly marked the fifth anniversary of my freedom from prison in Iran. November 25 was on the surface a day like any other, unremarkable to most family and friends, but to me this date is more significant than my own birthday.

It has been five years since I was pulled, blindfolded and handcuffed, from a solitary confinement cell in Evin prison, thrown into the back of a car and, after an abortive attempt to film a propaganda video in front of the prison gates, deposited outside the Australian ambassador’s residence in downtown Tehran.

It has been five years of learning to breathe deeply again, five years of shaky normalcy, five years of clawing back a life I wasn’t sure I’d have a second chance at living. Five years of reckoning with who had stood up for me and who had been silent. Five years of awe, discombobulation and finally, renewal.

Many of the heightened emotions of the early days post-captivity have faded into the background, overcome by new routines and the slow-moving balm of time. One sensation, however, stubbornly refuses to fade: Anger. At those who stole 2½ years of my life (and far more from countless other victims). At those who continue to turn a blind eye to Iran’s hostage diplomacy. At those who to this day provide material and rhetorical support to my captors, including from here in Australia.

Last week, the Australian government gave me a most welcome anniversary present. Five years to the day that I landed back in Australia, the attorney-general, foreign minister and home affairs minister announced that the government had officially listed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the group that took me hostage, as a state sponsor of terrorism.

This much-anticipated listing came after parliament passed the Criminal Code Amendment (State Sponsors of Terrorism) Act in early November. Legislative change was required as previously only non-state actors could be proscribed as terrorist organisations under Australian law.

For me, and other victims of the IRGC in Australia, our country’s strong stance against atrocities committed against us by the Iranian state is both a recognition and a vindication.
Iran’s currency falls to a new low as nuclear sanctions squeeze its ailing economy
Iran’s rial currency fell Wednesday to a new low of 1.2 million to the US dollar as nuclear sanctions squeeze Tehran’s ailing economy.

Traders offered the new exchange rate as attempts so far to restart negotiations between America and Iran over its nuclear program appear stalled.

The new record low is increasing pressure on food prices and other costs have been making daily life that much more challenging for Iranians. Prices are up on meat, rice and other staples of the Iranian dinner table.

Meanwhile, people worry about a new round of fighting between Iran and Israel — as well as potentially the United States — after June’s 12-day war, when Israel targeted Iran’s nuclear scientists and facilities and its ballistic missile program in widespread bombing campaigns.

“Life will not only become more difficult for ordinary people, but it will also fuel public concern over whether the government — given the limited inflow of foreign currency caused by sanctions — has the resources to maintain and repair the country’s aging infrastructure,” said Ali Moshtagh, a 53-year-old electrical engineer.

Iran’s economy has been severely affected by international sanctions, particularly after US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2018. At the time of the 2015 deal, which saw Iran drastically limit its enrichment and stockpiling of uranium in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions, the rial traded at 32,000 to the dollar.

After Trump returned to the White House for his second term in January, he restarted his so-called maximum pressure campaign targeting Tehran with sanctions. He again went after firms trading Iranian crude oil, including those selling at a discount in China.


Delaware man charged with having machine gun reportedly told police about being martyr
Luqmaan Khan, 25, was charged last month will possessing a machine gun illegally, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware said on Monday. He faces up to 10 years in prison.

Police recovered a notebook, in which Khan wrote about using guns to carry out an attack “and how law enforcement detection could be avoided once an attack was carried out,” the Justice Department said. It added that he drew a map of what he called the police station of the University of Delaware and marked entrances and exits.

Police recovered a loaded handgun, ammunition and an armored ballistic plate during a traffic stop just before midnight on Nov. 24, and when the FBI searched Khan’s home the following day, agents found a handgun “equipped with an illegal machine gun conversion device,” a rifle and scope, 11 more magazines and tactical vest with a ballistic plate, the Justice Department said.

Khan reportedly was born in Pakistan and told police that “becoming a martyr is one of the greatest things you can do,” per court documents.

“The university has temporarily separated the student from the university, including a ban from all UD campuses while legal matters are being resolved,” stated Laura Carlson, University of Delaware interim president. “We have been working closely with law enforcement throughout this matter and are sharing this information with you now that we have been cleared to do so.”
NY man charged with threatening museum ‘death to Jews,’ ‘justice worse than Oct. 7’
Michael J. Keitz, 56, of Canandaigua, N.Y., was charged with making an interstate threat for allegedly emailing a museum threatening to kill Jews, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of New York said on Tuesday.

The U.S. Justice Department alleges that Keitz wrote to the Granger Homestead and Carriage Museum stating “death to the Jews” and threatening to “bring a swift justice worse than Oct. 7.”

He is accused of doing so after first indicating that he might donate $20,000 to the museum. His threats forced the museum to cancel an event, which ended up costing it about $10,000, the Justice Department said.

The museum, which includes an 1816 house and a large collection of horse-drawn vehicles, said on Nov. 8 that a dinner dance scheduled for that day was canceled “due to a credible terrorist threat.”

The arrest “should serve as a warning for those who use the internet to threaten violence and terrorize people,” stated Philip Tejera, special agent-in-charge of the FBI’s Buffalo Field Office.

Keitz faces up to five years in jail and a $250,000 fine.
Geezer who terrorized Jewish-owned businesses with Nazi graffiti given slap on the wrist
A hateful geezer was given a slap on the wrist after admitting he terrorized Montauk residents and businesses with Nazi and antisemitic graffiti, a report said.

Michael Nicholoulias, 75, painted swastikas and phrases like “Jews Die” and “Jews Burn” in targeted attacks in the beachfront destination from October to December 2023 — before he was finally arrested and sentenced to just five days in Suffolk County jail on Nov. 14, according to 27East.

“I am guilty of everything,” Nicholoulias told prosecutors, according to the local East-End news outlet.

Nicholoulias pleaded guilty in August to two felony hate crimes as part of a plea deal agreement worked out by Suffolk County DA Ray Tierney — but despite the five-day sentence, he ended up serving no time at all, walking away with just probation due to “good behavior” from his one and only day in jail in December after being caught, the outlet reported.

Cops tacked the aged vandal through a GPS tagged on his 2004 Chrysler PT Cruiser, according to the report.


Israeli exits top $70 billion in 2025 on surging deal activity
The first 11 months of 2025 saw exits worth approximately $70 billion recorded in Israel across about 110 deals, according to a new annual report by Poalim Tech and Dealigence. The report also shows that a significant portion of the transactions were carried out by Israeli companies acquiring other Israeli companies. The data reflects activity recorded between January and mid-November 2025.

This year’s deal volume stands out sharply against the average of recent years, which ranged from just 60 to 70 deals, highlighting the substantial expansion the market is undergoing. Even after excluding unusually large transactions, such as the acquisition of Wiz by Google for $32 billion, the industry still shows a consistent upward trend in activity. A notable shift is also emerging in the makeup of acquirers: Israeli companies accounted for 35 percent of all acquisitions, compared with only 23 percent in 2024.
Thailand buys Israel’s Barak MX air defense system in $107 million deal
Thailand’s Royal Air Force has selected Israel Aerospace Industries’ Barak MX air and missile defense system to enhance protection of bases and assets, according to Janes.

The procurement includes one initial Barak MX battery worth $107 million, the international defense and security news site reported on Tuesday.

This acquisition fulfills the Air Force’s Military Base Defense Development Project, outlined in a June 2025 white paper which called for ground-based air defense capability over a range of at least 35 miles by 2028.

The Barak MX can intercept aircraft, drones, cruise missiles and ballistic threats. The network-centric system was combat-tested during Israel’s successful interception of an Iranian missile and drone barrage in 2024.

“The Air Force must be prepared for future threats by procuring modern weapon systems to enhance air defense, which currently faces limitations in dealing with emerging threats effectively,” said the Royal Thai Air Force.

Barak MX batteries have already been sold to countries including Morocco, Azerbaijan and Slovakia—where a 560 million euros ($580 million) agreement was signed in 2024.

Globes reported on Monday that Greece is close to signing a major 3 billion euro ($3.5 billion) deal with Israel for three air defense systems, including Barak MX.
Israel hands over Arrow 3 defense system to Germany
Israel Defense Ministry officials on Wednesday handed over the first operational Arrow 3 system to the German Army at a formal ceremony at a German Air Force base near Berlin, ministry officials said.

The development “marks a significant step in implementing the defense export contract signed between the two nations approximately two years ago, and is considered the largest defense export deal in Israel’s history,” according to an Israeli Ministry of Defense statement.

The Arrow 3 air-defense system, which is designed to intercept ballistic missiles outside the Earth’s atmosphere with exceptional long-range interception capabilities, has had hundreds of successful interceptions since the outbreak of war between Israel, Hezbollah and Iran, the statement said.

The event represented the first operational delivery under the landmark defense agreement signed more than two years ago. At an estimated value of $3.5 billion, the deal is the largest of its kind in Israel’s history.

The Israeli Defense Ministry’s director general, Maj. Gen. (res.) Amir Baram, commented on the symbolism of Israel providing Germany with defensive weapons during his speech at the handover ceremony.

“As a second-generation Holocaust survivor, I stand here deeply moved because a ballistic-missile defense system, developed by the finest Jewish minds in Israel’s aerospace industry, out of our existential necessity, will now help defend Germany,” he said during the handover ceremony.

Israelis, including descendants of Holocaust survivors, “want to see Germany strong and prosperous, proud and leading in Europe and throughout the world,” he added, and “deeply appreciate that Israeli systems are part of Germany’s renewed force build-up.”

The handover marks “only the beginning for Israel and Germany,” Baram said. “Our cooperation will strengthen and deepen—whether in the air, on land, or in space.”


World Jewish Relief’s archives are a historical treasure trove
It happened unexpectedly during a visit to a friend, Alex Pfeffer, in Manchester. We were chatting and I happened to mention that my mother came over on the Kindertransport.

He literally leapt up from his chair, disappeared for ten minutes, and came back and handed me a file of documents. Inside were the records of my mother’s arrival in Britain in May 1939, rescued on the Kindertransport by the Central British Fund for German Jewry, now called World Jewish Relief.

I was absolutely overwhelmed. My mother was just fourteen when she came to Britain. She arrived just months before the outbreak of war in May 1939. The document had a specific number: it was her reference number for the CBF. To date, I had only thought of numbers and the war years, as an identity cruelly tattooed onto the arms of the victims of the concentration camps. But this was not a number about death. It was a number that signified life.

The document detailed her initial studies, her first employment, and even small acts of kindness, such as receiving cinema tickets from her rescuers. She was always grateful for these gestures, and that gratitude defined her entire life. In fact, it was recorded in these documents that she called the CBF to express her thanks.

Alex supports World Jewish Relief as an archives volunteer, which is how he came into possession of my mother’s records. For years I had known her for her resilience, her gratitude and her commitment to her faith and community. But holding that file in my hands made her story tangible, real and personal. Now I had a framework for all the vignettes, all the fragments of memory that she had shared with us, her children and grandchildren.

In Jewish thought and language, the word to remember is zachor. In Torah Hebrew (classical Hebrew), it is exactly the same root as the word for a male, zochor. Torah Hebrew is a Divine language where words share roots, they share conceptual meaning. What is the connection between memory and a male? In Judaism, history is not simply the recollection of the past, but yesterday’s story, “seeds”, tomorrow’s episode. Past becomes present and present becomes future.

As we mark the anniversary of the Kindertransport amid an alarming rise of antisemitism worldwide, these documents provide a powerful testimony to resilience, the determination and the faith of people like my mother who were determined to build a better future.




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