Sunday, December 07, 2025

12/07 Links: The Seven Days that Shatter the ‘Nakba’ Myth; Our Man in Amman; Hamas chief rejects key points of Trump peace plan, calls for Israel’s destruction

From Ian:

David Collier: The Seven Days that Shatter the ‘Nakba’ Myth
In anti-Israel circles, the dominant narrative of the Palestinian ‘Nakba’ rests on a single, almost unchallenged assumption: That a passive and defenceless Arab population was suddenly overwhelmed by violent Jewish militias determined to expel them and seize their land. From this foundational myth flow all the modern accusations of ethnic cleansing and genocide, repeated by governments, activists, and even the UN. This is the central pillar upon which the entire pro-Palestinian movement is built

Take this recent post from the UN Palestine account which ties all the different strands together:

But that story collapses the moment you look at what actually happened. Not decades later, not in later stages of the war, but in the very first seven days after the UN partition vote.

Using mostly Arab newspapers of the time, the record is unmistakable: within hours of the UN decision, Arab political factions, militias, and regional actors launched a campaign of violence and mobilisation aimed at preventing the creation of a Jewish state. The civil war that followed – and the refugee crisis it produced – emerged from this aggressive, openly-declared Arab rejectionism, not from a premeditated Jewish plan.

What follows is a look through that history, reconstructed day by day from contemporary Arab and Jewish press.

Day one – November 30 1947
Arab media reacts to partition with mobilisation and incitement.

The morning after the UN vote, neither Ad-Difa nor Al-Wahda reported the partition as a political event. Instead, both papers erupted with outrage and calls for Arab mobilisation across the region. The pages were saturated with threats, anti-Jewish invective, and demands for an ‘Islamic Front’ to rise.

Ad-Difa’s lead built explicitly toward violent resistance. Al-Wahda’s headline declared: “O Arabs, the West has chosen your enemies. Will you remain stunned, or will you prepare?”

There is no ambiguity here. Arab media was calling on the Arab people inside the Mandate area and across the region to mobilise.

Day two – 1 December 1947
Violence erupts across the country. The Palestine Post reported seven Jews murdered in multiple attacks on 30 November.

Arab newspapers themselves documented the killings. Look at Ad-Difa’s own front page on the same date. Ad-Difa was a staunchly Pan-Arab media outlet that was aligned with the Husayni, ‘Holy War’ factions in the mandate area. It eventually promoted open support for the Nazis. At the time, the paper was run by Ibrahim al-Shanti.

Its headline read: “23 Jews killed and wounded in 8 separate incidents in Haifa, Jaffa, Beit Ve-Gan, Sarona, and Jerusalem.”

The article described bus ambushes around Jerusalem, attacks in Lod, Tulkarm, Haifa and Jaffa, and other assaults on Jewish civilians.

The war had begun – and it had begun with Arab-initiated violence.
The scholars fueling the current wave of antisemitism
Former US President Bill Clinton understood this when then-Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat declared that Jerusalem had never been Jewish. Clinton threatened to walk out of the room at the Camp David Summit in July 2000 if Arafat continued uttering such false claims. He recognized the statement for what it was—the purest form of antisemitism.

What Clinton grasped instinctively, these intellectuals refuse to see: that the Jewish people and Israel are inseparable. To delegitimize Israel is to delegitimize Jews. That is why antisemites applaud efforts to weaken IHRA; it leaves them free to proclaim Israel a crime and Zionism a pathology.

Delrio’s initiative represents moral courage at a time when it is desperately needed. The Jewish scholars who oppose him, intentionally or not, provide cover for those who seek to dissolve the line between criticism and hatred, between debate and incitement.

These Jews do not understand that the Jewish people and Israel are the same. The stances expressed by King, Clinton and now Delrio are more Jewish than theirs.

History is watching. And today, as in the past, the refusal to name antisemitism is its most reliable accomplice.
Our Man in Amman
Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown that was invented by the British and then funded by the Americans. Constantly lies the head of state who claims to protect the Palestinians while cooperating with the Mossad. Abdullah II is the fourth king of Jordan, the state that Winston Churchill lopped off the Palestine Mandate in 1921 with, he said, "the stroke of the pen one Sunday afternoon in Cairo." The plan, as proposed by Lawrence of Arabia in 1918, was to install the three sons of Hussein, the Sharif of Mecca, as the Hashemite emirs, Britain's proxies in the states it was carving out of Ottoman territory. Abdullah is the last Hashemite standing. He has a pronounced facial tic.

In 1951, the first Jordanian emir, Abdullah I, was shot to death at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque by a Palestinian terrorist. His son Talal lasted a year before being deposed on grounds of mental illness. But Talal's son Hussein saved his family. He saved Jordan too, notably by massacring Palestinians when they tried to overthrow him in 1970, then cutting them loose when the Palestinians in the West Bank rebelled against Israeli control in 1988. Abdullah II inherited the poisoned chalice after his father's death in 1999.

The Most American King, by the journalist Aaron Magid, is the first biography of Abdullah, who will probably still be king by the time your copy arrives. Deeply researched with plenty of interviews, it is both a groundbreaking primer on our man in Amman and a study in timeless imperial politics. Take away the helicopters and Swiss bank accounts, and the Hashemites' relationship to the United States is no different from that of the ancient Moabite and Edomite satraps to their Hittite, Assyrian, or Neo-Babylonian emperors.

The British invented Jordan, but the Americans took over after the Suez Crisis of 1956. Abdullah's mother was the daughter of a British military adviser; she may have met Hussein on the set of Lawrence of Arabia, where she was a typist and he was catching up on some family history. Abdullah was educated at an English boarding school, Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts for high school, and then Sandhurst for officer training, despite not being a British subject. He then read international relations at the University of Oxford despite, a contemporary tells Magid, having shown no academic aptitude at Deerfield beyond being the "incredibly ripped" captain of the wrestling team. Favorite food: cheeseburger. Language he had trouble learning: Arabic.

Abdullah returned to Jordan in 1983, for the first time in 15 years, short vacations aside, and joined an armored brigade. As Magid reports, he put away much "vodka and beer," wore cowboy boots when he listened to country music, and was never seen praying. He built up an extensive collection of Luger pistols, because you never know. In 1987, when he was studying at Georgetown, he impressed his Israeli tutor with a paper arguing that the Israelis had been right to pursue Palestinian terrorists across the Jordan River and into his father's territory in 1968. In 1993, Abdullah married Rania al-Yassin, a Kuwaiti-born Palestinian whose family had been expelled from Kuwait in 1991 by Saddam Hussein. They honeymooned in the United States, obviously.


'We found human remains melted into asphalt': archaeologist reveals horrific evidence from October 7 sites
When archaeologist Dr. Ayelet Dayan first shared the title of her new book, The Body-Sifting Project, colleagues warned her no one would read it. But the work, produced in the aftermath of the October 7 massacre, is not meant for comfortable reading. It is a record of destruction — written by the woman who led the Israel Antiquities Authority team tasked with locating the remains of Israelis murdered by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza border communities.

Dayan and her team were dispatched days after the attack to kibbutzim, the Nova festival site and stretches of Highway 232. The archaeologists, normally experts in ancient layers of ruin, suddenly found themselves documenting scenes no more than weeks old. “In excavations you don’t have smell, you don’t have blood, you don’t have color,” she said. “But here you stand in a place that was a paradise and see it destroyed.”

As she worked around the clock to help identify the missing, Dayan kept a real-time diary. It became a tool to organize memories she hoped to be able to forget — and a way to ensure the evidvence would remain accessible when needed. Names and house numbers were removed due to censorship rules to protect families unless they proactively sought information. Even a brief reading, she says, makes clear why she wanted to forget parts of what she saw. And why archaeologists were called in at all: the job required the skill to find fragments most people would never recognize.

A road where remains melted into asphalt
In one November 2023 entry, Dayan describes being sent with her team to Highway 232 near the Mefalsim bend — a stretch exposed to fire and often closed to vehicles. “It was the first time I agreed to watch a video showing the cars burning,” she wrote, to focus the search for remains. There they found personal items belonging to missing Israelis and “the remains of a murdered woman who burned and melted into the asphalt. I identified a necklace and hair. It was hard to believe what we saw.”

Dayan gently separated jewelry into boxes and collected tissue fragments. “After that, every time we drove down that road, we were careful not to drive over the stains,” she recalled.


Hamas chief rejects key points of Trump peace plan, calls for Israel’s destruction
Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal on Saturday repeated his call for Israel’s destruction, rejecting U.S.- and U.N.-backed demands to disarm the Iranian-supported terrorist group and demilitarize the Gaza Strip.

“The time has come for the ummah [the Islamic nation] to commit to the liberation of Jerusalem as the banner and symbol of freeing Palestine; to cleansing the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque; and to reclaiming Islamic and Christian holy sites,” the top terrorist said, speaking by video link at a pro-Palestinian conference hosted in the Turkish city of Istanbul.

The global anti-Israel sentiment that has emerged since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre has created opportunities “to remove this entity [Israel] from our homeland and exclude it from the international stage,” Mashaal told attendees.

The terrorist leader denounced the demand that Hamas give up its weapons under U.S. President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan for the Gaza Strip, telling the conference that “protecting the resistance project and its weapons is the right of our people to defend themselves.”

“The resistance and its weapons are the ummah’s honor and pride,” he continued. “A thousand statements are not worth a single projectile of iron.”

Mashaal in his speech also dismissed “all forms of guardianship, mandate and re-occupation of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and all of Palestine,” rejecting another key part of the U.S. peace plan, which received backing from the United Nations Security Council on Nov. 17.

The resolution implemented a mandate for Washington and partners to launch an International Stabilization Force and a Board of Peace, which will serve as the transitional government authority for the Gaza Strip.

However, Mashaal said “the Palestinian is the one who governs himself and decides for himself.” He added: “Attempts to place our causes, our national principles and rights into misleading frameworks are rejected,” he said.

“This is our land, our homeland, this is our destiny and we are a people who do not break,” Mashaal continued. “Two years of war have passed, and all the weapons that came to the Zionist entity from all corners of the world have failed to impose their will on our people. This is Gaza and this is the great Palestine—the one that drives out invaders.”
Hamas ready to discuss ‘freezing or storing’ its weapons, says terror group official
Hamas is ready to discuss “freezing or storing” its arsenal of weapons as part of its ceasefire with Israel, a senior official in the terror group said Sunday, offering a possible formula to resolve one of the thorniest issues in the US-brokered truce in Gaza.

Bassem Naim, a member of Hamas’s decision-making political bureau, spoke as the sides prepare to move into the second and more complicated phase of US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan for the enclave.

“We are open to have a comprehensive approach in order to avoid further escalations or in order to avoid any further clashes or explosions,” Naim told The Associated Press in Qatar’s capital, Doha, where much of the group’s leadership is located.

The ceasefire, which took effect on October 10, followed two years of war in Gaza triggered by the Hamas-led invasion and massacre in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which some 1,200 people were murdered and 251 abducted. Asked whether that attack was a mistake, Naim called it an “act of defense.” Hamas leaders have vowed to carry out further October 7 onslaughts in pursuit of the terror group’s avowed goal of destroying Israel.

The ceasefire agreement required Hamas to return all living and deceased hostages it was holding, in exchange for Palestinian security prisoners. With the remains of only one hostage still held in Gaza — Israeli policeman Ran Gvili, who was killed in the October 7 attack — the sides are preparing to enter the second phase of the US-backed plan.


Hamas Rejects Disarmament, Threatens Another October 7 – Media Silence
Two years after Hamas’s horrific massacre in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and barely two months after the terror group agreed to the first phase of U.S. President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan, Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal delivered an unfiltered message in Arabic: no disarmament, no relinquishing rule of Gaza, no acceptance of any international authority, and a renewed commitment to Israel’s annihilation.

Yet not a single major Western news outlet reported the speech.

Meshaal’s comments were delivered remotely in Arabic at a conference in Istanbul titled “The Commitment to Jerusalem.” According to experts, his statements were not rhetorical flourishes. They were a clear repudiation of the peace plan Hamas supposedly accepted.

And the silence surrounding them is staggering.


Seth Frantzman: Sharaa begins pushing back on Israeli demands, decries Syria's 'dangerous position'
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa is increasingly concerned about Israel’s demands for Syria to be demilitarized between Damascus and the Golan. Recent Israeli raids near the border, including a deadly raid on November 26 targeting the village of Beit Jinn, are worrying Damascus.

Israel has said it wants Syria to be demilitarized in the south. This would set up a power vacuum along the border. The vacuum would then lead to possible threats to Israel and more Israeli incursions. On the other hand, from Jerusalem’s perspective, the Syrian government could also pose a threat.

Sharaa often remains relatively quiet on issues relating to Israel. He doesn’t want a conflict and has preferred to focus on other issues. However, at the annual Doha Forum, he spoke about the challenges from Damascus’s point of view.

“Sharaa said Saturday that by seeking a demilitarized zone in his country’s south, Israel puts Syria in a dangerous position, as Israeli forces keep up operations in the area,” Arab News noted.

The report said that Syria has insisted on respecting a 1974 disengagement agreement with Israel, which has held for over 50 years – in one way or another, it is a successful agreement,” Sharaa told the forum. He wants a return to the 1974 status quo that existed from 1974 to 2024. “Seeking other agreements such as a demilitarized zone... could lead us to a dangerous place,” he said.

Al-Arabiya also reported on Sharaa’s comments: “During his participation in the Doha Forum... Sharaa stated that Damascus respects the 1974 agreement with Israel. He warned that Israel’s efforts to establish a buffer zone in southern Syria would place the country in a dangerous position.”

He also said Israel was exporting crisis to other countries, it said. “Sharaa confirmed that since December 8, [2024], Israel has carried out more than 1,000 airstrikes and 400 military ground incursions into Syria to date.”
Qanta Ahmed: General Abdi warns Syria’s fate relies on US support and integration of the SDF
Abdi said, “At the moment. Ahmed al-Sharaa is working to convince the West to give Syria a new chance, but there are still real concerns on the ground. In Latakia, 2,000 Alawites were killed. In Suwayda, 1,000 Druze were killed. Even as these atrocities were being committed against the Druze community, the videos were circulating.” he added, “and the message was, ‘the Kurds will be next.’

“The SDF is a coalition of Kurds, secular Arabs, Christians, different ethnicities. We have less internal problems, less conflict, less disagreement, and less sectarianism in our forces because we are diverse,” he said.

“There are major challenges in integrating the forces. How can we integrate the female battalion? They have no female battalions at all, and we cannot separate our women fighters.”

What of Iranian and Turkish influence? General Abdi responded:

“US forces are repositioning in Erbil. In 2019, Turkey made a peace accord between the Kurds. And there is now less Iranian footprint, following the war with Israel, the fall of the Assad regime and the fall of Hezbollah.

“From 2013 to 2014, Hezbollah was a serious fighting force in Northeast Syria, before the US engaged with the SDF. They were harmful to the Kurdish cause. But although Iran is now weaker, it is still trying to rebuild proxy groups.

“The SDF is ready to work with the United States and other active powers to protect Syria. We know that some former regime officers are abroad and have already been contacted likely in attempts to create proxy groups,” Abdi clarified.

What of al-Sharaa’s prognosis?

Abdi said, “We do not know yet whether he will grow stronger or weaker. It depends on him. If he is rational, and he wants to meet the needs of the Syrian people, he could succeed. 2026 will be a defining year.”

The Alawites and the Druze support the SDF, as do the secular Syrian Arabs, he explained. Syrians are not and were not extremists before this civil war came and drew extremists from everywhere to fight. This support could strengthen the SDF.

“Americans must see a more balanced role. There are no alternatives to the SDF; we need to see genuine change from Ahmed al-Sharaa, not just promises,” he said.
Israel’s Diaspora minister pans Doha Forum, spotlights bad actors
Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Amichai Chikli sharply criticized the Doha Forum held this weekend in Qatar’s capital. The annual conference, which has taken place since 2003, bills itself as a “global platform for dialogue.”

“Doha, the world capital of the Muslim Brotherhood and the ATM of Hamas, is opening this weekend its annual Terror Laundering Gala, the @DohaForum,” Chikli wrote in a Dec. 5 post on X.

Qatar is a major sponsor of the Muslim Brotherhood, a transnational Islamist group that spreads fundamentalist Sunni Muslim ideology around the world.

The group is engaged in a “grand jihad” to destroy Western civilization from within, according to a 1991 document uncovered during a U.S. government investigation of the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development.

“A brief reminder of the terror money trail: hundreds of millions to Al Qaeda in Syria; hundreds of millions of dollars every year to the Taliban through Doha banks; Qatari ‘charities’ caught funneling money to Al Shabaab; more than two billion dollars to Hamas,” Chikli wrote.

Some of the personalities participating in the conference included Ahmad al-Sharaa, Syria’s present leader, whose past associations as a terrorist and Al-Qaeda commander have been whitewashed, Chikli said. (U.S. President Donald Trump welcomed al-Sharaa to the White House on Nov. 10.)

Other featured speakers included former Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan. Ankara, under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s rule, has been supportive of the Muslim Brotherhood, extending sanctuary to Hamas members.

“And who flies in to bless this spectacle?” Chikli asked, listing first American pundit Tucker Carlson, “the man who described Hamas jihadists as a ‘political party’ and wondered ‘what is so bad about Sharia.'”

Another participant was CNN Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour, who hosts “every blood-soaked Islamist foreign minister on earth,” Chikli said. In 2023, Amanpour apologized in the face of a potential $1.3 billion lawsuit after she described the cold-blooded murder of three Israeli women as a “shootout.”


Israel is not a democracy, US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack suggests at Doha Forum
US Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack appeared on Sunday evening to suggest that Israel is not a democracy while speaking at the 23rd edition of the annual Doha Forum in Qatar's capital.

"We have never had a democracy in [the Middle East]...I don't see a democracy," Barrack said, adding that "Israel can claim it is a democracy, but in this region, what's worked the best, whether you like it or you do not like it, is a benevolent monarchy."

Barrack: Syria must choose its own future
Taking part in a Doha Forum panel on Syria along with Damascus' foreign minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani, Qatari state minister Dr. Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Al-Khulaifi, and Norwegian foreign minister Espen Barth Eide, Barrack noted that Syria must define its future, "without going in with Western expectations of, 'we want a democracy in 12 months.'"

Israel will strike Iraq if militias seek to support Hezbollah, US envoy warns Baghdad
Barrack warned Baghdad not to involve itself in Israel’s war against Hezbollah, telling officials the country may face Israeli strikes if they or Iran-backed militias there intervened, the Saudi state-run Al Hadath news outlet reported on Monday.


Hypocrisy? South Africa shuts its door on Palestinians it claims to defend
South Africa has just made a decision that perfectly exposes the gap between its rhetoric on Israel and its actual treatment of Palestinians in need of protection.

As our International Affairs Correspondent Mathilda Heller reported in The Jerusalem Post, “South Africa has withdrawn its 90-day visa exemption for Palestinian passport holders on account of the visas being used to ‘relocate Palestinians from Gaza,’ the country's Department of Home Affairs announced on Saturday.”

The department claimed there was “deliberate and ongoing abuse of the 90-day visa exemption for Palestinian ordinary passport holders by Israeli actors linked to ‘voluntary emigration’ efforts for residents of the Gaza Strip,” and pointed to charter flights that brought 153 Gazans to South Africa as a supposed example of this abuse.

In other words, the same government that accuses Israel of “genocide” and “forcible displacement” at the International Court of Justice is now shutting its own doors for fear that too many Palestinians may actually succeed in leaving a war zone and landing on its territory.

According to Heller’s report, South Africa’s Border Management Authority initially refused entry to the 153 Gazans because they could not indicate “the duration of their stay or the address of their accommodation.”

Civil society organizations stepped in, and 130 of them were ultimately processed for entry on 90-day visas, while 23 continued to other destinations. Now Pretoria’s answer is not to improve its refugee procedures or crack down on dubious brokers, but to cancel visa-free entry for all Palestinian passport holders.

South Africa accused Israel of genocide, now denies Palestinians
When President Cyril Ramaphosa suggested that travellers on the latest charter flight may have been “flushed out of Gaza,” and his home affairs minister declared that South Africa “will not be complicit in any scheme to exploit or displace Palestinians,” the language sounded uncannily like the accusations South Africa levels at Israel.

The difference is that this time, it is Pretoria using the fear of “displacement” as a reason to keep Palestinians out.


European Parliament Report Exposes Muslim Brotherhood Networks in EU Institutions
A new report commissioned by the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) Group in the European Parliament reveals the extensive infiltration of Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated organizations into EU funding mechanisms and policy-making structures, raising urgent questions about oversight and the protection of European democratic values.

The 50-page report, titled “Unmasking the Muslim Brotherhood: Brotherism, Islamophobia & the EU,” was authored by Dr. Florence Bergeaud-Blackler, a Senior Researcher at France’s Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, alongside Dr. Tommaso Virgili, a Visiting Researcher at Berlin’s WZB Social Science Center. €23 Million in EU Funding Identified

The investigation documents how organizations linked to the Muslim Brotherhood have received significant European Union funding despite connections to extremist ideology. According to parliamentary records cited in the report, the European Network Against Racism (ENAR) alone received approximately €23 million in EU funding between 2007 and 2020. ENAR was headed from 2010 to 2021 by Michaël Privot, a former sworn member of the Muslim Brotherhood who later publicly renounced his affiliation.

“The European Commission does not finance extremists,” EU Commissioner for the European Way of Life Margaritis Schinas declared in 2019 when confronted by ECR MEP Charlie Weimers about Islamist funding. The new report directly challenges that assertion with documented evidence of systematic financial and institutional support flowing to Brotherhood-affiliated networks.

“Brotherism”: A Strategic Ideology of Gradual Infiltration
The report discusses the concept of “Brotherism” — a sophisticated strategy of societal transformation that operates through legitimate-appearing civil society organizations while pursuing a long-term agenda of implementing Islamic law. Unlike violent extremist groups, the European Muslim Brotherhood employs “entryism” — a patient strategy of infiltrating institutions, building networks, and gradually shifting societal norms.

“The Brotherhood is a wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing,” writes Swedish MEP Charlie Weimers in the report’s foreword. “They pose as reformists, eager to work within existing systems and engage with governments and society. But we must not be fooled—this tactical pivot is not a change of heart.”
Sweden’s funding scandal empowered antisemitic networks, endangered Jews
In recent years, Sweden-long known for its liberal and democratic image-has become one of the most complex and challenging places for Jews in Europe. Incitement against Jews began well before October 7, 2023, and gradually evolved into an organized effort by extremist elements, some of which received substantial public funding that was distributed with negligence and willful blindness.

A major investigation published by the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter recently exposed a scandal shaking the country: Roughly $100 million in public funds, designated for education, welfare services, and childcare, were diverted to institutional networks tied to radical Islamic actors. Some of these groups have spent years deepening hatred toward Jews, promoting antisemitic agendas, collaborating with cells affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, and fueling campaigns of incitement.

Antisemitism in Sweden is a layered phenomenon. Some of its roots trace back to World War II, when parts of Sweden’s intellectual elite adopted a highly critical view of Jews. In the past few decades, additionally, large waves of immigration from Muslim-majority countries introduced cultural and identity tensions that authorities failed to address adequately.

Violence, demonstrations, and online discourse reveal how anti-Israel rhetoric has long since crossed into explicit antisemitism. Synagogues have been vandalized, rabbis threatened, and Jews subjected to verbal and physical attacks. Jewish communities in Malmö and Stockholm report escalating insecurity – children avoid wearing Jewish symbols in public, and Jewish schools require heavy security.

Sweden's systemic failures for Jews
The new funding scandal has sharpened this reality. It not only exposed systemic failure but also illustrated how hatred, when supported by institutional and financial infrastructure, can become a force that erodes the social fabric of an entire nation.

The Swedish investigation revealed troubling details. Institutional networks in Stockholm and Gothenburg, including the Al-Azhar group, operated under the guise of legitimate educational institutions while funneling funds to purposes entirely unrelated to their public mandate. Through these bodies, money was used to purchase real estate and luxury vehicles and to support organizations aligned with extremist ideologies, such as the Muslim Brotherhood.

Regulatory authorities admitted that oversight over these funds had been exceedingly lax for years.


Palestinian artist who celebrated Oct. 7 to decorate Norway's new gov't building
A Palestinian visual artist and filmmaker who seemingly praised the October 7 Hamas attack was selected to design the biggest and most visible space in Oslo’s new Government Quarter, which will open in 2026.

Jumana Manna, who was raised in Jerusalem but lives in Berlin, was selected by a Norwegian jury for the project in 2022. Her proposal, which is named Sebastia and is about 800. sq. m., will be publicly accessible once it is finished.

So what is the controversy? On October 7, Manna reposted a picture on Instagram of Hamas terrorists paragliding into Israeli territory. Alongside it, she wrote “Long live the creativity of resistance.” In another post, she typed a laughing-face emoji above a photo from a video of teenagers riding bikes into Israel shortly before the Hamas attack.

Manna, however, denied that the posts celebrated terror.

In an op-ed in Hyperallergic in November 2023, she claimed that “upon hearing early news that Hamas militants breached the barrier surrounding the Gaza Strip, I shared a few stories on my Instagram page.”


Toronto Publication Expands "IDF List" to Target Jewish Institutions
The Maple, a Toronto-based digital publication, has launched a new database targeting Greater Toronto Area (GTA) institutions connected to Jewish Canadians who served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), marking an escalation of a controversial project that began earlier this year by compiling personal information on individual IDF veterans.

The initiative, titled “GTA to IDF,” was released in early December by The Maple’s opinion editor Davide Mastracci, who describes it as an extension of his previous “Find IDF Soldiers” database. The new project profiles seven Jewish institutions—including summer camps, day schools, and synagogues—that were attended by at least four individuals listed in the original database of over 200 Jewish Canadian IDF veterans. Pattern of Targeting Jewish Community

The latest database represents Mastracci’s second attempt to publicly catalog and profile members of the Canadian Jewish community based on their connection to Israel’s military. In February, Jewish Onliner reported that Mastracci had created a public list of 85 Jewish Canadians who served in the IDF, including Ben Mizrachi, a 22-year-old Canadian murdered by Hamas during the October 7th, 2023, attack at the Supernova music festival. The entry on Mizrachi omitted any mention of Hamas or the circumstances of his death.

Since its launch, the “Find IDF Soldiers” database has expanded to include 206 profiles, all compiled from publicly available information, according to The Maple’s website. The publication claims the project aims to understand “who Canadians that have joined the Israeli military are, why they made the choice they did, who or what influenced them to do so, what they did while in the military, and how they may feel about it.”

Now, Mastracci has turned his attention to the institutions themselves. The new “GTA to IDF” database includes detailed profiles of each institution, containing descriptions of their missions, public statements on Israel, charitable status records, references to the IDF made after October 7, 2023, and connections to individuals in the original database.
Vassar College Shuts Down SJP Event Glorifying PFLP Terrorist Organization
Vassar College administration shut down a Students for Justice in Palestine educational “teach-in” set to focus on the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a US-designated terrorist organization. The cancellation, which occurred on December 2nd, sparked immediate backlash from SJP, who released a statement on December 6th, 2025, accusing the college of “suppressing” anti-imperial education and cooperating with what they called the federal government’s “fascist agenda.”

According to promotional materials shared by the Israel War Room on December 1, 2025, the cancelled event was designed to help students learn from the PFLP’s “historic example.” The promotional imagery featured a book titled “They Will Certainly Be Victorious: On Palestine, Pan-Arabism, and the Palestinian Front” with messaging predicting: “They Will Certainly be Victorious: On Palestine, Pan-Arabism and the Palestinian Front.”

The PFLP is a Marxist-Leninist terrorist group notorious for hijacking passenger planes to “Free Palestine,” according to information shared by the Israel War Room. The organization has carried out numerous terror attacks throughout its history and participated in the October 7, 2023 massacre that killed over 1,200 Israelis and sparked the current Gaza war.

SJP Condemns Administration
In their press release, Vassar SJP rejected the administration’s rationale for cancelling the event, stating: “We rebuke the college’s complicity with the federal government’s fascist agenda and suppression of anti-imperial education!”

The group claimed that during an in-person meeting on December 3rd, two Vassar administrators expressed concern about international students, “alleging that our post triggered threats of ICE visiting campus via social media.” SJP said they offered to edit promotional materials and move the event to a designated sanctuary space, but “the college dismissed these suggestions.”
IDF sees sharp rise in enlistment from Druze, Bedouins, and Arab Christians
When deadly clashes erupted last July between Bedouin and Druze militias in the southern Syrian city of Sweida, some members of the Druze community living in Israel crossed the border to protect their kin. For Safi Ibrahim, an IDF colonel from the community, the crisis sparked genuine solidarity and brought emotions to the surface. As part of the events, he participated in a military operation in Syria – a mission that became deeply personal for him, fusing his military service with his identity.

For him and other members of Israel’s Druze community, the turmoil across the border has become a catalyst for a broader shift within their community – which includes a dramatic rise in IDF enlistment among Druze who live on the Golan Heights, who are long known for their opposition to Israel. The events in Syria, coupled with the shock of the Hamas massacre on October 7, 2023, are reshaping attitudes toward the Israeli state, the army, and the Druze community’s place within both.

“Protecting lives and defending your people makes you feel you did something really important and valuable. It’s a great pride,” Ibrahim told The Jerusalem Report in a recent interview.

“The Druze residing in Syria believe there is no one who can help them more than the State of Israel,” he said, adding that “there is a very strong awareness among the Druze here and the general leadership [in Israel] about the necessity to support the Syrian Druze. That is meaningful to me as a Druze serving in the IDF.

“In the end, they are our brothers,” said Ibrahim, 45, who hails from the Druze-majority town of Maghar in northern Israel. “It’s true they belong to another country, but they are still our own flesh and blood.”
IDF chief says Gaza ceasefire line ‘a new border’
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said on Sunday that the Gaza ceasefire line known as the “Yellow Line,” demarcating the Israeli military withdrawal, is “a new border line.”

“We have operational control over extensive parts of the Gaza Strip, and we will remain on those defense lines,” Zamir said during a tour of Gaza, according to remarks provided by the IDF.

“The Yellow Line is a new border line—serving as a forward defensive line for our communities and a line of operational activity.”

Israel controls about 53 percent of Gaza under the first phase of U.S. President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan.

The military chief reiterated the Israeli government’s position that Hamas will not be allowed to reestablish itself and, after the failure of Oct. 7, 2023, is preparing for future surprise attack scenarios.

He noted that Israel was waiting for the return of the final deceased hostage.

“The overwhelming majority of our hostages have returned, but our mission will not be complete until the last fallen hostage, Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, is brought home,” Zamir said.


EXCLUSIVE Qatari Opposition Leader: ‘The Regime’s Days Are Numbered’ — FIRST Ever English Interview
In a historic first, Qatari opposition leader Khalid Al-Hail sits down with Erin Molan for his first-ever English television interview — breaking his silence on the regime he says has tortured dissidents, funded extremists, manipulated the West, and built its global power on deception.

For years, most of the world never knew Qatar had an opposition movement at all. According to Al-Hail, that was by design.

In this unprecedented conversation, he reveals:

✔️ Why he believes the current regime’s “expiry date” is coming
✔️ How he says Qatar built influence by playing arsonist and firefighter
✔️ His claim that the regime’s existence is “based on terrorism”
✔️ His torture, imprisonment, and escape from Doha
✔️ His warning to Western influencers and political figures
✔️ His promise: “No Hamas. No Muslim Brotherhood. No extremists in Qatar.”

This interview is already making waves — and the implications for the Middle East, the West, and global security are enormous.

⭐️ CHAPTERS
00:00 – Qatar’s Hidden Opposition
02:00 – Torture, Imprisonment & Escape
06:40 – “The Regime’s Existence Is Based on Terrorism”
10:00 – Inside Qatar’s Power System
13:00 – “This Regime Has an Expiry Date”
15:30 – Promise to End Funding to Extremists
19:00 – Influence, Money & Western Politics
24:00 – Qatar’s Global Network
26:30 – Warning to Influencers Visiting Qatar
28:30 – Is There a Target on His Head?
30:00 – “We Are the Future. Not Them.”
32:00 – Final Thoughts from Erin Molan


Israel Advocacy Movement: I Visited A Dangerous Palestinian Village… And Uncovered A Dark Secret

I won’t allow my people to be bullied into quiet
There is everything right — and nothing reckless — about dignified, peaceful Hadar Yisrael: telling the mayor-elect clearly that his rhetoric has contributed to a climate in which protests against synagogues become possible, even normalized. When phrases such as “globalize the intifada” or false accusations of “genocide” are said or tolerated or left unchallenged, a message is sent: that incitement is acceptable.

When the Jewish people’s right to a Jewish state is opposed, Israel itself is delegitimized. And when outrage is directed at Israel alone while real genocides receive little or no attention — in Sudan, in Nigeria where Boko Haram has kidnapped hundreds of Christian children, or in China where Muslim populations face internment — the double standard is unmistakable.

And when the mayor-elect’s office declares that discussing aliyah in a synagogue is a “violation of international law,” a defilement of sacred space, that crosses the line from disagreement into intimidation, it is intolerable.

The strategy to avoid calling out Mamdani’s name is mistaken. Silence does not strengthen us – silence weakens us. Public moral clarity does not endanger negotiators; it empowers them. It strengthens the hands of those who must sit across the table because it shows they represent a community that will not be bullied into quiet.

Our responsibility is to raise a voice of moral conscience, of Jewish conscience — with dignity, with strength, with gevurah. To live what we have learned over decades: to speak truth to power. This is not a time to hide. This is a time to stand tall. For the quieter we are, the more vulnerable we become. The louder we speak — in peace with moral courage — the more protected we are.


Federal officials investigate alleged antisemitism in FCPS schools
The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and Workforce is investigating Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) and whether it is protecting the civil rights of its Jewish students.

Chaired by Michigan Rep. Tim Walberg, the committee sent a letter to FCPS Superintendent Michelle Reid last week, announcing that it is investigating “whether there was or is a hostile environment against Jewish K-12 students.”

Further, the committee is investigating whether or not “FCPS is fulfilling its obligation under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to end harassment, eliminate any hostile environment and its effects, and prevent any harassment from recurring.”

The investigation will inspire remedies against antisemitism in schools, based on what the committee uncovers. “The information gathered will aid the committee in considering whether legislative changes, including legislation to specifically address antisemitic discrimination, are needed,” according to the letter.

The committee observed that allegations of antisemitism have been an ongoing problem in the school system.

The letter stated that the committee is “deeply concerned” that FCPS is “failing to uphold its obligations” under Title VI. The letter claimed that FCPS experienced “significant antisemitic incidents” in the past.

According to the committee, Jewish students allegedly faced “repeated antisemitic bullying,” where students harassed fellow Jewish students by gesturing the “Heil Hitler” salute and throwing coins at them.

The letter said that students at another school allegedly refused to remove a hallway display that featured swastikas and Nazi flags.

Before the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas against Israel, the letter stated that one high school’s Muslim Students’ Association (MSA) hosted a speaker who had made “grotesque antisemitic statements.”
Parents left outraged after 'hostile' Muslim students tell Jewish classmates: 'Jerusalem is ours'
A Pennsylvania school district has come under fire from Jewish parents after a Muslim student organisation engaged in "hostile" activism during a culture fair.

On Monday, students at Wissahickon High School were invited to set up booths to represent various cultures.

However, Jewish parents were left furious after a booth run by Muslim Students of America was seen distributing Palestinian headscarves to staff and students, showing off anti-Israel imagery and displaying provocative slogans such as "Jerusalem is ours".

Wissahickon School District mother Lynn Simon said: "My child came home shaken and unsure of whether it’s even safe to speak up as a Jew at school."

Photos on Instagram show the district’s superintendent, Dr Mwenyewe Dawan, alongside assistant superintendent Sean Gardiner.

The school’s principal, Dr Lynne Blair, also shared images from the event on the school’s official social media pages, which have since been taken down.

Ms Simon fumed: "When the principal is posting pictures of students wearing slogans like ‘Jerusalem is ours,’ and the superintendent is encouraging illegal minor-led games of chance, while visiting and taking photos with politically charged booths dressing students up in keffiyehs, that’s not education - it’s indoctrination.

"We don’t send our kids to school to be marginalised. We demand accountability, not photo ops."


Seth Frantzman: Christmas returns to Bethlehem after two years of silent nights
The annual Christmas tree lighting took place this weekend in Bethlehem. Thousands of people came to the city’s Manger Square, which is perched atop a line of hills south of Jerusalem, to participate in the event.

Bookended by a large mosque and the city’s Church of the Nativity, this is a historic square. The Christmas tree, which towers over the square and is as tall as the church, was covered in lights with a red star on top. A stage was erected below, and during the ceremony, as in years past, there was singing, strobe lights, and festivities.

Christmas festivities have been mostly cancelled over the last two years because of the war in Gaza. With Hamas starting the warfare on October 7, 2023, there was pressure on Palestinian Christians to cancel their celebrations.

This is not the first time Hamas has sought to ruin Christmas. It has started several wars over the years, with the result being that the Christian community in Bethlehem is then told that it has no choice but to cancel the holiday in “solidarity” because of “suffering” caused by the conflict.

The interesting thing about Hamas’s wars that led to Christmas being cancelled in the Holy Land is that Hamas never cancels Islamic holidays for its wars or the suffering it causes.

For instance, Ramadan in 2024 continued as usual in Gaza. Israel was even pressured to have a kind of de facto ceasefire in March 2024 so that Gazans could celebrate Ramadan as normally as possible. Christians had to cancel Christmas in Bethlehem for the Hamas war in Gaza, but for some reason, Ramadan got a month of peace.

Numerous media outlets covered the Christmas tree lighting event in Bethlehem this weekend. DW News wrote, “Manger Square, long venerated as Jesus’ birthplace, came alive again after two quiet years marked by the war in Gaza. Thousands from across the occupied West Bank and Israel gathered for the Christmas tree lighting.”


Seth Frantzman: Hezbollah will not disarm without Iranian consent, Lebanon's top diplomat warns
Lebanon continues to claim that it will try to disarm Hezbollah. However, it appears there is yet a difficult road ahead. Over the weekend, Al-Arabiya quoted Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Youssef Raji as admitting what was widely known: Iran is behind Hezbollah’s weapons.

“In this context, the Lebanese foreign minister stressed that Hezbollah cannot hand over its weapons without an Iranian decision, and its concern today is to buy time and preserve itself internally to regain its power,” Raji said, according to the report.

On the one hand, one could see this admission as merely telling us what we already knew. On the other hand, it could be a message to Iran that Tehran needs to make a decision soon. Lebanon knows that tensions are rising with Israel. It is also closely watching the comments of US officials, such as Ambassador Tom Barrack, the US envoy to Syria.

Raji made other interesting comments as well. He said that “the inclusion of a civilian figure (former Lebanese Ambassador Simon Karam) in the Mechanism Committee [meeting with Israel on the border] is a positive step.”

“We hope this will open the door, if possible, to spare Lebanon from a large-scale military campaign that the Israelis have threatened us with,” Raji said.

He also said that he “hoped that the United States would continue to pressure the Israeli side to ‘convince’ it that Lebanon’s appointment of a civilian figure in the [Mechanism Committee] negotiations was a sufficient first step to spare Lebanon any possible military action.”


Bratislava hosts Europe’s first conference on antisemitism in sports
The first European conference dedicated exclusively to antisemitism in sport was held recently in Bratislava, Slovakia, bringing together delegates from eight countries to confront a phenomenon that organizers say has escalated sharply since Oct. 7, 2023.

The groundbreaking gathering, titled “The Other Side of the Coin: Antisemitism in Sports,” on Nov. 25-26, was organized by Maccabi Ukraine, Jewrope, the Slovak Maccabi Organisation and B’nai B’rith Tolerancia, and formed part of the third annual MAZEL TOV Jewish Culture Festival.

The conference was moderated by festival organizer and initiator Tomáš Stern, who said sport’s unique visibility makes it a powerful tool for both influence and abuse.

“People don’t realize how powerful sport is,” Stern said. “It’s one of the most effective platforms antisemites have at their disposal, which is why confronting antisemitism in sports has become a top priority.”

Organizers pointed to a sharp rise in antisemitic incidents in sporting arenas, locker rooms and online spaces since the outbreak of the Israel–Hamas war. Soccer stadiums have seen anti-Jewish chants, Israeli athletes have faced refusals to compete against them, and coordinated digital harassment campaigns have surged—often without effective intervention from authorities.

Dagmar Gavorníková, president of Maccabi Europe, said the situation across the continent has become urgent. “With antisemitism on the rise across Europe, something like this is really needed,” Gavorníková told JNS. “Sport has been weaponized by antisemites, and we must use sport to combat it.”


'I'll die as a Zionist': Daniella Pick talks about life in TLV with husband Quentin Tarantino
In a Channel 12 news interview with Danny Hecht on Saturday night, actress/model/singer Daniella Pick, who has been Mrs. Quentin Tarantino since 2018, talked candidly about their life together, her first major movie role, and how the famed Hollywood director, who has made such classics as Pulp Fiction and Inglourious Bastards, coped with the war.

The couple has been living in Tel Aviv for years with their two children. When Hecht asked whether Tarantino thought about heading back to Hollywood as bombs fell on Tel Aviv during the war, Pick said, "Absolutely not. First of all, Quentin takes it the easiest way in the world. Most of the time, he wouldn't even go down to the shelter if I didn't tell him, and … I have two small children in my arms, so he helps me … He isn't afraid, and once he said something funny to me: 'Well, whatever. Like if something happens, I'll die as a Zionist.' So I said, ‘Well, OK."

It was never a question that the family would spend the war in their home in Israel. "It was during the war that Tarantino said, 'We'll be here.' It was clear,” she said.

Although a few months ago, there were reports that Tarantino would be working on a play in London, Pick reiterated that there were no plans to uproot the family from their comfortable home in north Tel Aviv.

Daniella Pick opens up about family life in north TLV
The director, who has spoken often about enjoying being a hands-on father and who is learning Hebrew, was shown in the news feature telling reporters, "I love it [in Israel]. If I didn't love it, I wouldn't be there. Playing with my kids, walking around the neighborhood, or riding my bike around the neighborhood. Just going out with my good friends and having fun, drinking and smoking cigars, or having dinner with my good friends."

Said Pick, "And he's an amazing father, I have to say that. He's warm, family-oriented, huggable, funny, and playful, and he's also an amazing and supportive husband, and he always pushes me, and we get along really well. From the first moment we met in life, we got along really well."


German Chancellor pledges to keep memory of Holocaust victims alive on visit to Yad Vashem
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has pledged to “keep alive the memory” of the victims of the Holocaust and affirmed his nation’s commitment to Israel while visiting Yad Vashem.

Speaking this morning as the first European leader to visit the Jewish state since the Gaza ceasefire came into effect, he said: “Germany must stand up for the existence and security of Israel.”

Wearing a kippah, Merz laid a wreath at the memorial to the six million Jewish victims of the Shoah and acknowledged Germany’s “enduring historical responsibility”. He wrote in the guestbook: “We will keep alive the memory.”

His two-day visit is focused on German-Israeli relations and bolstering US President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan.

Merz said yesterday: “We hope that this peace process can enter its next phase and, in particular, that Hamas can be disarmed.”

The visit comes after recent months have tested the German government’s postwar principle of solidarity with Israel. In August, Merz announced a partial arms embargo, a move prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu called “disappointing” at the time.

Last month, Berlin restored the suspended arms exports, saying the situation in Gaza had stabilised following Trump’s peace plan.

Merz met with Netanyahu and the rest of his cabinet in Jerusalem on Sunday morning.

The prime minister said: “I speak to many world leaders, but when I speak to Merz, it’s an honest and open conversation, even when we have disagreements.”

The discussion covered the two-state solution, which Merz supports although Germany has not joined the UK and France in recognising a state of Palestine.

Netanyahu said he and Merz “have a different point of view, obviously, because the purpose of a Palestinian state is to destroy the one and only Jewish state”.

He added: “We believe there’s a path to advance a broader peace with the Arab states, and a path also to establish a workable peace with our Palestinian neighbours, but we’re not going to create a state that will be committed to our destruction at our doorstep.”




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Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون



This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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