Wednesday, December 17, 2025
The light answers
In 1931, Rachel Posner placed her family’s chanukiyah on a windowsill in Kiel, Germany. Across the street hung a Nazi flag. She photographed the scene and wrote on the back: “ ‘Death to Judah,’ says the flag. ‘Judah will live forever,’ the light answers.” That menorah now resides at Yad Vashem, returned each year to Posner’s descendants to light anew.Reading Washington’s signals: Redefining Israel’s role in America
The light answers. It answered in ghettos where Jews fashioned menorahs from scraps. It answered in Soviet gulags where prisoners risked everything for observance. It answers today, when Jewish communities worldwide face the highest levels of antisemitic vitriol and violence in decades.
To every Jew reading this, I plead: Do not dim your flame. Place your chanukiyah in the window. Let it be seen. The entire purpose of pirsumei nisa is to proclaim, publicly and unapologetically, that we are still here. Darkness has tried to extinguish us before. It has failed. It will fail again.
And to our neighbors—Christians, Muslims, those of other faiths or no faith at all—I ask you to consider lighting candles of your own. In 1993, after a brick was thrown through a Jewish child’s window in Billings, Montana, thousands of non-Jewish households placed menorahs in their own windows. The message was unmistakable: An attack on our Jewish neighbors is an attack on us all.
We need that message again. The Lubavitcher Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson—taught that Chanukah carries “a universal message of freedom of the human spirit, freedom from tyranny and oppression, and of the ultimate victory of good over evil.” When Project Menorah encouraged non-Jews to display menorahs after Oct. 7, 2023, rabbis responded with overwhelming support. What matters is the intent. Not appropriation, but alliance. Not mimicry, but moral witness.
As the Rebbe wrote, “a little light dispels a lot of darkness.” The Chanukah menorah is not a mere decoration. It is a statement of resolve—that light persists, that the few can overcome the many, that the sacred endures and that evil is a mere shadow against the light.
Rabbi Eli Schlanger died bringing that light to his community on a beach in Sydney. In Los Angeles, plotters driven by the same hatred were stopped before their bombs could detonate. The light endures while darkness fails.
Tonight, and every night of Chanukah, I will add another flame. The darkness grows no darker, but our light grows stronger. Place your candles where they can be seen. Let the light answer.
The United States is gradually shifting its view of the Middle East from a troubled region to an emerging one. This forming zeitgeist is exactly where Jerusalem must meet Washington. Israel cannot offer luxury planes or other expensive gifts, much less free oil. What it can offer is a realization of America’s vision for the Mideast, a source and destination of investments.The Saudis have mastered the art of manipulation
Unlike its neighbors, Israel’s greatest asset is its people and their minds. Israeli innovation has produced an exceptionally high number of companies that are traded on American stock markets. Tel Aviv’s stock exchange is one of the best-performing in the world, especially considering the circumstances of the last half-decade. In the wake of the two-year, seven-front war, the country’s defense exports have reached an all-time high, with its missile-defense systems utilized throughout much of the world.
To an extent, Israel is already offering the United States access to much of this. Many Israeli-origin defense articles are developed and produced jointly with the United States. The two nations work together to engage in research that enables the creation of cutting-edge technologies, ensuring a mutual qualitative edge. Israeli entrepreneurs will try their luck in Silicon Valley or on Wall Street long before they’ll do so in any European or Asian capital. What’s missing is a greater governmental commitment to these efforts.
The message from Washington is clear: America wishes to see Israel elevated to the level of an equal partner and ally.
U.S. diplomats visit the country, see construction booms in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and rightfully conclude that it is capable of this. Israeli governments, whoever might lead them in the future, should step up to this moment and pursue extensive business diplomacy with the United States. Their primary task is to make sure that every emerging American entrepreneur is fully aware of just what it is—and just how much of it—Israel can provide.
Since the “classic” American reasons for maintaining a strong relationship with Israel seem to lose validity with each passing year, it is on Jerusalem to create new ones. To that end, it must showcase its advantages and make certain that they work in America’s favor. While this most recent prescription was jotted by the Trump administration, a proper Israeli response will resonate on both sides of the aisle and can define the relationship between the two countries for decades to come.
The message was clear: Saudi Arabia has successfully bought American support while keeping its options open with Washington’s greatest adversary.
Meanwhile, Trump has made clear through his negotiations on Gaza, Lebanon and Iran that he is much more concerned with satisfying Arab interests than Israel’s. In that regard, he, too, is an Arabist.
Israel has traditionally been allied with the United States due to shared values and interests. Trump, however, cares only about interests—financial interests. He is unbothered by the disparate values of dictatorships. The murder and dismemberment of an American journalist doesn’t interest him. The Saudis are also less troublesome than the pesky Zionists, whom he sees as ruining his chance for the Nobel Peace Prize. The Saudis also have more to contribute to both the American and the Trump family coffers than the Israelis.
Trump is not necessarily pro-Israel; he is transactional. Values do not factor into the transaction.
Moreover, the deals with the Saudis benefit America. The pledge of up to $1 trillion in Saudi investment would inject massive capital into the American economy. Nvidia will prosper, and the contractors and subcontractors that make the F-35s and the other weapons Trump is selling will reap the benefits and create jobs. The economic activity will provide Republicans with talking points to showcase economic growth and industrial strength.
Trump is like his predecessors in appeasing the Saudis. The distinction is that the others weren’t interested in Saudi-Israeli peace. Instead, they were more focused on appeasing the Saudis’ supposed fealty to the Palestinian cause. Trump realizes that the Saudis have no love for the Palestinians. Notice that they have not agreed to allow any Gazans refuge in the kingdom or volunteered to pay to reconstruct Gaza. They look down on the Palestinians and support them only to the extent that it serves their interests.
This is why MBS appeared willing to sell out the Palestinians and normalize ties with Israel during talks with the Biden administration. But that became untenable after Oct. 7.
The crown prince fears that if he acts while Israel is killing Palestinians, then he might suffer the same fate as former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, who was assassinated by radical Muslims in 1981, several years after making peace with Israel in 1979. Moreover, as long as King Salman remains alive—a man steeped in antisemitism—normalization is unlikely.
Israel will survive Trump’s betrayal. Security compensation will eventually follow. Arms deliveries will be delayed and modified. Quiet intelligence cooperation with Saudi Arabia will continue against Iran. But the damage is real: The status of the Saudis has been elevated while Israel has been downgraded from strategic ally to negotiable asset.
A trillion dollars bought Saudi Arabia U.S. indulgence. Israel got nothing, except the lesson that loyalty, values and history carry less weight than a well-timed check.
Norman Podhoretz, influential and contentious Jewish neoconservative, dies at 95
Norman Podhoretz, the Jewish intellectual and boastful, hardline editor and author whose books, essays and stewardship of Commentary magazine marked a political and deeply personal break from the left and made him a leader of the neoconservative movement, has died. He was 95.John Podhoretz: Norman Podhoretz, 1930-2025
Podhoretz died “peacefully and without pain” Tuesday night, his son John Podhoretz confirmed in an essay on Commentary’s website. His cause of death was not immediately released.
“He was a man of great wit and a man of deep wisdom and he lived an astonishing and uniquely American life,” John Podhoretz, now Commentary’s editor, wrote. “His knowledge extended beyond literature to Jewish history, Jewish thinking, Jewish faith, and the Hebrew Bible, with all of which he was intimately familiar and ever fascinated. He made the life of the mind a joyous sport.”
Norman Podhoretz was among the last of the so-called “New York intellectuals” of the mid-20th century, a famously contentious and largely Jewish circle that at various times included Norman Mailer, Hannah Arendt, Susan Sontag and Lionel Trilling.
As a young man, Podhoretz longed to join them. In middle age, he departed. Like Irving Kristol, Gertrude Himmelfarb and other founding Jewish neoconservatives, Podhoretz began turning from the liberal politics he shared with so many peers and helped reshape the national dialogue in the 1960s and after.
The son of immigrants, Podhoretz was 30 when he was named editor-in-chief of Commentary in 1960, and years later transformed the once-liberal magazine into an essential forum for conservatives. Two future US ambassadors to the United Nations, Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Jeane Kirkpatrick, received their appointments in part because of essays they published in Commentary that called for a more assertive foreign policy.
Despised by former allies, Podhoretz found new friends all the way to the White House, from former president Ronald Reagan, a reader of Commentary, to former president George W. Bush, who in 2004 awarded Podhoretz the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, and praised him as a “man of “fierce intellect” who never “tailored his opinion to please others.”
Podhoretz, who stepped down as editor-in-chief in 1995, had long welcomed argument. The titles of his books were often direct and provocative: “Making It,” “The Present Danger,” “World War IV,” “Ex-Friends: Falling Out with Allen Ginsberg, Lionel and Diana Trilling, Lillian Hellman, Hannah Arendt, and Norman Mailer.”
My father died tonight, December 16, a month shy of his 96th birthday. Norman Podhoretz passed peacefully and without pain, with a new translation of The Odyssey on his desk that had been sent to him by his friend Roger Hertog. It sat next to a copy of Alexander Pope’s legendary translation, which he had asked my sister Naomi to order for him so he could compare the two.Commentary Podcast: The Meaning of Norman Podhoretz
At the very end of his life, Norman Podhoretz was his truest self, a man of letters.
His greatest teachers, the men who had the most profound effect on him—Lionel Trilling at Columbia and F.R. Leavis at Cambridge—were critics who believed the life of the mind as expressed in literature was a high and noble calling. And I don’t think it’s bragging to say that he was a great literary critic, the last and maybe finest flowering of the group often called the “Partisan Review crowd”—though he did not write much for PR and published his most remarkable work in Commentary‘s pages, beginning with a review of Bernard Malamud’s first novel, The Natural, pushed at the ripe old age of 23. Our website records he published 145 articles in these pages from 1953 to his final appearance, in a colloquy with me about the magazine, in November 2020.
There will be so much to be said about him in the days and weeks and months to come. I’ll say more, as will many, many others. But right now, what I think you might be most surprised to know about my father is not that he was an astonishingly courageous intellectual force… though he was. Nor that his determination to remain true to his ideas, his country, and his people were actually profoundly costly to him in terms of the hostility that he generated and the friends he lost…though all of that is true. Nor that he changed America and the world with his own work (those 145 articles, two decades of newspaper columns in the New York Post and the Washington Post, and 12 books) and his 35 years at the helm this magazine, unequivocally and inarguably one of the most important editorships in American history…though he did.
What you really need to know is that what mattered most to him was writing. Great writing. Good writing. Clear writing. Honest writing. He was the most literate man I have ever known, possessed of an encyclopedic knowledge of the written word in our time and in times past, who found true moral, intellectual, and aesthetic purpose in the act of reading and deciphering and comprehending. And he was himself a prose stylist of magnificence. There is no other word for it, and anyone who says otherwise is judging him not by his sentences but by views he held they do not like. That was a sin against honesty he never committed. There were many writers whose views he abhorred, but whose gifts he would absolutely acknowledge and ruefully refuse to deny.
Today, we discuss the life, work, and ideas of longtime COMMENTARY editor and intellectual giant Norman Podhoretz, who died yesterday at age 95. From there, we move on to the strange developments in the Brown University shooting investigation, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles's unusual interview with Vanity Fair, and the Trump administration generally.Tom Cotton: Norman Podhoretz, American Patriot
Thanks to great thinkers like Norman, I cannot claim to be a “neoconservative.” I was, if I could borrow a phrase, “right from the beginning.” Generations of young readers learned the easy way from Norman what he had learned the hard way, never flirting with liberalism in our youth.
As, in his own words, “a filthy little slum child” of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, Norman was eternally grateful to America for welcoming his family and providing him with unlimited opportunity. Norman said that he had “a love affair with America.” A love affair with America—I think that’s a very apt way to put it, and something we should all try to emulate and instill in our kids and grandkids.
Norman’s love affair with America, I suspect, was behind his dogged support for Donald Trump, when so many of his old friends abandoned our party in 2016. But Norman saw President Trump’s election as “a kind of miracle.” He believed that President Trump could, in his words, “save us from the evil on the Left.”
Despite all their differences, with their shared love of America, their hatred of communism, their shared New York roots—indeed, their shared Brooklyn-to-Manhattan journey—Norman and the president may not be quite the strange bedfellows that they first appeared to be. I’m confident that Norman was pleased with the president’s muscular defense of the American way of life upon his return to office. And I’m especially pleased that Norman lived to watch America join with Israel to devastate Iran’s nuclear program on President Trump’s watch.
One of the great benefits of my work as a senator is the opportunity to cross paths with great men like Norman Podhoretz. After learning from his writing for so many years, I’ve had the occasion to meet him and share a modest correspondence. I can share that Norman may have receded from public writing in recent years, but he remained as witty, brilliant, and courageous as ever in his private correspondence.
Yet, as we all sometimes do when we reflect on our lives, Norman too acknowledged that he at times wondered “what it all amounted to” and sometimes feared the answer was, “not much.” But nothing could be further from the truth, I assured him. For nearly seventy years, Norman informed, educated, persuaded, and succeeded with his words. He taught multiple generations not just to love our country, but also why we should love it and how to defend it. His words reached into the United States Congress, into the Oval Office, and into the councils of nations.
Without Norman and the little magazine he led, the course of history—the Reagan Revolution and the Cold War in particular—might indeed have been very different. I therefore join Norman’s family not only in mourning the loss of this great man, but also in celebrating the highly consequential life of a true American patriot.
Norman Podhoretz was a towering figure of American letters and politics, and changed history with his words.
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) December 17, 2025
I join Norman’s family not only in mourning the loss of this great man, but also in celebrating the highly consequential life of a true American patriot. pic.twitter.com/ELhS7kA6n1
David Collier: October 7 – The al-Shifa Hospital Hostage Convoy
Shortly after 10:40am on October 7 2023, a large convoy of vehicles drove through the gates of al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest medical complex. They were not ambulances, and they were not carrying wounded terrorists. They were carrying Israeli hostages.
Using newly uncovered footage, it can now be shown that al-Shifa Hospital functioned as a key Hamas control hub in the transfer and distribution of abducted Israelis.
This is the first time this material is being publicly presented and properly analysed.
Until now, official evidence has suggested that only two or three hostages passed through al-Shifa on October 7. The evidence below, including frame-by-frame analysis of previously unseen footage, demonstrates that this figure is a significant underestimate and indicates the true number was far higher.
One of the most revealing aspects of what happened at al-Shifa is not only what occurred, but what didn’t. With prominent Gazan journalists present, no one reported the arrival of hostages. One even misrepresented a jeep full of captive Israeli women as “injured Palestinians” brought for treatment.
On the morning of October 7, one of the gravest failures in the history of the IDF unfolded at the Nahal Oz army base near Gaza. The base was rapidly overrun by large numbers of terrorists, and more than 50 soldiers were killed there – including sixteen female surveillance personnel.
Ten live hostages were abducted from the base – seven female surveillance “spotters” and three members of a tank crew.
Of particular importance to this investigation are two pieces of video footage showing hostages abducted from the base.
Firstly – an extended video was released with the families’ permission in May 2024. A frame-by-frame analysis shows that six hostages were forced into a single stolen IDF jeep: four female “spotters,” all visibly alive at the time; a fifth hostage lying prone on the floor of the vehicle; and a sixth, a soldier, who appears to have been seriously injured or already dead:
What follows is a second piece of footage of the hostages. Filmed somewhere inside Gaza, it shows the vehicle surrounded by a noisy mob, and was uploaded to Palestinian Telegram channels on October 7:
The critical evidentiary detail captured in this footage is the vehicle’s number plate. The abducted women are shown inside a jeep bearing the registration number 703-145:
With the registration plate identified, and by searching through dozens, if not hundreds, of Telegram channels, it became possible to trace part of this vehicle’s journey.
Dear @bbcnews - for two years you argued al-Shifa Hospital was not a Hamas outpost. So perhaps you can explain this:
— David Collier (@mishtal) December 17, 2025
Four Israeli girls were forced into a jeep at Nahal Oz. Shortly afterwards it arrives at al-Shifa, surrounded by cheering crowds and terrorists.
Any idea why? pic.twitter.com/5GENaQ052I
Palestinian Researcher Hani Al-Masri: On October 7, Mahmoud Abbas Said It Was the Greatest Day in Palestinian History; Recognizing Israel as a Jewish State Would Invalidate the Palestinian Narrative; PA Salaries to Prisoners, Families of Martyrs Are a Pillar of Our National… pic.twitter.com/6JZiPmgkT7
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) December 17, 2025
Israel says famine monitor did not seek aid facilitators’ input for upcoming Gaza report
An upcoming report by a UN-backed famine monitor on the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip does not include input or responses from the Israeli body responsible for coordinating the entry of goods into the enclave, the unit said Wednesday.
According to the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, or COGAT, the IPC famine monitoring organization failed to contact it or the US-led Civil-Military Coordination Center for relevant information, with the report ostensibly set to be published this week.
The IPC did not immediately respond to a request for comment on COGAT’s allegation that it did not contact the Israeli agency or the CMCC for their input, or coordinate with COGAT on the expected timing of its next report, which would be the first since a ceasefire was reached in Gaza in October.
In mid-November, an IPC representative told The Times of Israel that an updated report was expected soon, but none has yet been published.
A spokesman for the Israel-based CMCC, which is staffed by foreign military officials and works closely with UN aid organizations, did not respond to a request for confirmation.
In a press update on Wednesday, COGAT stated that the number of trucks with food aid entering Gaza every week far exceeded the territory’s nutritional requirements, as determined by the World Food Program and previously cited by the IPC itself.
COGAT also cited data from the Palestinian Authority demonstrating that food prices have dropped sharply in Gaza, reflective of the increase in the supply of goods, and asserted that it was ensuring the provision of sufficient winter supplies, such as tents, tarpaulins, winter clothes and other equipment.
Long overdue. American taxpayers shouldn’t bankroll bloated UN bureaucracy while the organization fails at its core mission.
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) December 17, 2025
Members of the U.N.'s Human Rights Council include Cuba, China, Sudan, Algeria, Burundi, Vietnam, and Bangladesh. https://t.co/CI1HBZ5uYe
The latest data 👇 pic.twitter.com/IM4k0zkYyF
— COGAT (@cogatonline) December 17, 2025
Does the exhibition include this photograph of UNWRA staff too? https://t.co/FTORtl3P73 pic.twitter.com/PqowgfhcO1
— Joo🎗️ (@JoosyJew) December 17, 2025
Ankara's absence: Why Turkey’s exclusion from meeting on joint Gaza force matters
Turkey was conspicuously absent on Tuesday from a US-led conference in Doha examining the possible deployment of an International Stabilization Force (ISF) to Gaza. That absence was not procedural. It was political. And from Israel’s perspective, it was both welcome and necessary.Greece, Israel, Cyprus working on 2500-strong force for Mediterranean defence
According to multiple diplomatic sources, Jerusalem insisted on Ankara’s exclusion. Qatar and Turkey pressed Washington to reconsider, but Israel held firm. The result was an instance where Israel drew a red line, stood firmly behind it, and it was respected.
Turkey's willingness to enter Gaza
To those outside the region who do not follow it all that closely, Turkey’s exclusion might seem a paradox. While the world is not exactly beating down the door to send troops to Gaza to demilitarize Hamas as part of the second stage of the Trump peace plan, Ankara has said it is ready to send some troops immediately.
So at a time when Washington is struggling to find countries prepared to operate in contested areas of the Strip, Turkey’s willingness might seem like an asset. But it is not. Far from it.
The stated purpose of the ISF is to help disarm Hamas, maintain security during a transition to Palestinian technocratic governance, and prevent Gaza from again becoming a launchpad for attacks on Israel.
Any force that cannot advance those objectives would be worse than useless because it would make it more difficult for Israel to do so if it felt it had no other choice. Just look at the UNIFIL example, where not only did its troops fail to keep Hezbollah from building up in southern Lebanon, but they also made it more difficult – diplomatically and operationally – for the IDF to operate there when necessary.
Furthermore, allowing Turkish troops into Gaza would not only undermine the mission – it would invert it.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s deep hostility toward Israel did not begin on October 7. It is a core ideological position that has defined his leadership since he took office as prime minister in 2003. Over two decades, through Operation Cast Lead, the Mavi Marmara incident, repeated Gaza wars, and most intensely since October 2023, Erdogan has portrayed Israel not as a rival or adversary, but as a moral and political enemy.
Israel and Greece are working on a fast response mechanism with 2500 soldiers to act as a counter to the growth of Turkey’s forces, Greek newspaper TA NEA reported on Wednesday.
According to the report, Greece is considering implementing Israeli measures and offering a coordinated response mechanism to protect against potential threats from enemy states, top defense officials cited by the newspaper said.
The report explains that Israel, Greece, and Cyprus will have access to this force, which will have air and sea capabilities.
"A Greek-Israeli rapid reaction force is not an alliance against anyone. It fills a strategic void. From Rhodes to Cyprus and Israel, platforms, pipelines, and electricity cables are exposed,” said an official to TA NEA.
The official also emphasized the importance of this infrastructure not only for Greece but for Europe as a whole, as a key asset for delivering natural gas, oil, and electricity to the continent.
Mediterranean Rapid Response Force
This force, responsible for defending assets in the Mediterranean Sea, would comprise 1000 soldiers from Greece, 1000 from Israel, and 500 from Cyprus.
The Israeli and Greek air forces would also participate, with each of them providing one squadron, according to the report.
The report also cited the recent incidents in the Baltic Sea, where cables and pipelines were destroyed by Russian and Chinese ships in alleged sabotage operations.
A joint investigation by The Washington Post and PBS Frontline has disclosed further details of a long running Israeli covert campaign aimed at crippling Iran’s nuclear program during the June 2025 war, including the use of specialized weapons and a broad internal agent network.… pic.twitter.com/TeFEEx4aGp
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) December 17, 2025
The IDF says it can confirm that a drone strike it carried out yesterday in southern Lebanon killed a Hezbollah operative.
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) December 17, 2025
The strike was carried out near the town of Taybeh.
According to the military, the operative was involved in collecting intelligence on Israeli troops in… pic.twitter.com/pSu4f3jGRo
Ask Haviv Anything: Episode 68: Antizionism is inherently violent, with Adam Louis-Klein
After the massacre at Bondi Beach, anthropologist Adam Louis-Klein returns to the podcast to help us make sense of the new Jew-hatred.
Antizionism, Adam argues, may be a form of hatred of Jews, but it's a far cry from the classical antisemitism of the 19th and 20th centuries. It's also not mere criticism of Israeli policies or governments. So what is it? And how do you fight it?
Adam Louis-Klein is an anthropologist and writer whose work focuses on Jewish peoplehood, indigeneity, and contemporary anti-Jewish ideologies, especially the rise of antizionism. He is the founder of the Movement Against Antizionism and a postgraduate fellow at the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism.
Jewish Man INFILTRATES the Islamic World, What He Found Is BEYOND SHOCKING
0:00 Intro
2:20 Your initial reaction to Bondi massacre
5:15 The West continues to stay asleep
10:20 We have to be honest about Islamic antisemitism
17:17 Islamic literal reading of violent texts
37:23 Will the West wake up and what must they do?
43:53 Ban “Globalize The Intifada”
🚨 Ben Shapiro completely dismantles Tucker Carlson
— Ryan Saavedra (@RyanSaavedra) December 17, 2025
Watch every second of this pic.twitter.com/9kndKusD2I
Bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities was the single most important foreign policy decision of President Trump’s second term.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) December 17, 2025
I am not interested in forever wars — but that doesn’t mean you run away from the world. pic.twitter.com/lkZqItgpLW
The truth seldom gets told regarding Palestinian peace refusals, and despite constant interruptions, I reminded everyone that Israel has offered Palestinians to end the conflict 4 times, all met with refusals. Our conflict can only end when they will be willing to compromise. pic.twitter.com/Qd60jALw2T
— Jonathan Conricus (@jconricus) December 17, 2025
Here’s my answer to Tucker’s ignorance. https://t.co/nrrjxnjFhd pic.twitter.com/qJwHqkVg38
— Mike (@Doranimated) December 17, 2025
For those who still haven’t grasped this, Tucker Carlson‘s favorite historian is an actual literal Nazi.
— Haviv Rettig Gur (@havivrettiggur) December 17, 2025
And Tucker’s favorite version of Islam, the Muslim Brotherhood, drew a great deal of its politics and vocabulary from the Nazis. Look it up.
Now let’s get back to pretending… https://t.co/cEDpBp1tlF
Noam Dworman is doing the work no one else is doing to clarify what and who these people are.
— Haviv Rettig Gur (@havivrettiggur) December 17, 2025
Karl Radl's X bio declares he's a "National Socialist" and his answer to Noam is that he's a "bar of soap."
We need more of this clarifying. https://t.co/nSNrTDdu3c
Erika Kirk vs. Candace Owens: One is clearly carrying on the legacy of Charlie Kirk; the other is experiencing “brain rot.”
— Nathan Livingstone (MilkBarTV) (@TheMilkBarTV) December 17, 2025
This week, @MrsErikaKirk, during her town hall with @bariweiss, was asked by the father of Sarah Milgrim - who was fatally shot outside the Capital Jewish… pic.twitter.com/HlhIZqFQok
The Rubin Report: The Dark Sickness at Elite Universities Fueling Antisemitism | Rabbi Wolpe
Dave Rubin of “The Rubin Report” talks to Rabbi David Wolpe about the rise of antisemitism at America’s most elite universities like Harvard University; how real world interaction can help combat the rise of online antisemitism; they discuss the real reason that Hanukkah is so important; what the future holds for peace in the Middle East; the need for human connection in a digital age; what we can learn from biblical stories; and much more.
I’m just gonna leave this here. pic.twitter.com/ED192DSAXS
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) December 17, 2025
Last time I checked, nobody is chanting “free Israel” while they gun down an unarmed couple in America.
— The Misfit Patriot (@misfitpatriot_) December 17, 2025
Maybe that’s why… https://t.co/GkghzIzX8x pic.twitter.com/UxEvfM8quT
The Jewish People are indigenous to the Middle East. After 2,000 years of statelessness and persecution, they returned with a commitment to build the kind of Western nation-state they had come to admire along the way. I am glad to clear up your confusion. https://t.co/geBCEtAcSG
— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) December 17, 2025
FIRED BECAUSE OF ME?
— dahlia kurtz ✡︎ דליה קורץ (@DahliaKurtz) December 15, 2025
Dr. Nahla "Dеath to Israel" Al Sarraj claims I got her fired.
That I "doxxed" her.
I would expect a psychiatrist to have a better grasp of basic vocabulary.
I shared her videos. And quoted her words.
The more they hate me, the more power they give me.💅 pic.twitter.com/PohPdXvr5m
NYC-DSA is facing internal turmoil after Liberation Caucus accused leadership of political persecution in the Trans Rights & Bodily Autonomy Working Group. The dispute centers on a member who previously praised Elias Rodriguez, the alleged DC Capital Jewish Museum shooter.
— Stu Smith (@thestustustudio) December 17, 2025
While… pic.twitter.com/ovKWrCvMUO
Hadeeqa Arzoo Malik, a CCNY SJP leader and former Zohran Mamdani intern, didn’t just “get suspended for Islamophobia.” She also violated CUNY’s Henderson Rules of Public Order and lost her appeal after review.
— Stu Smith (@thestustustudio) December 17, 2025
CUNY rules prohibit:
• obstructing or interfering with others’… pic.twitter.com/XRU4TpBHgV
Swedish Anti Israel JewHater meets Irish AntiIsrael JewHater. They get on famously https://t.co/aaIv2c2G07
— Irish Jewish Voice (@Irishchutzpah) December 17, 2025
This is a totally contrived drama. Pro-Pals got what they wanted and an ambulance took away the hunger striker. Then they blocked the road and provoked the police into removing them and screech that they’re the victims. pic.twitter.com/fF1Db4HRfr
— Heidi Bachram 🎗️ (@HeidiBachram) December 17, 2025
The pro-Pals outside the prison gave up at the first sign of possible arrest. Look what happens when you say no to them. They crumble. More of this please. pic.twitter.com/tjPgrBHfjh
— Heidi Bachram 🎗️ (@HeidiBachram) December 17, 2025
I’ve just come across this parody poster of the pro-Pal hunger strikers protest in Brighton. So they haven’t captured the entire city. pic.twitter.com/2IRFBzg37D
— Heidi Bachram 🎗️ (@HeidiBachram) December 17, 2025
‘Pro-Iran regime’ University of Arkansas prof. now under investigation over academic fraud: Publisher
A University of Arkansas professor removed from her position for her apparent pro-Iranian regime stance is now under investigation for potential academic fraud, The Post has learned.
Shirin Saeidi was removed as director of the King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies last week after it emerged she used the school’s letterhead to write a letter of support for a convicted Iranian war criminal.
Now her 2022 PhD dissertation “Women and The Islamic Republic: How Gendered Citizenship Conditions the Iranian State” is under probe by the publisher of her thesis for alleged fabrication and using material without permission.
A US based Iranian dissident group activist group claim they “uncovered patterns of misuse of survivor testimony, and unauthorized claims of interviews with former political prisoners.”
Among the former political prisoners whose testimony was used without her permission is Maryam Nouri, according to Alliance Against the Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists (AAIRIA), who have been investigating Saeidi.
Nouri, who is based in Germany, alleged Saeidi had used parts of her own memoir “In Search of Liberation” in her dissertation “without my written or verbal permission.”
“I was genuinely shocked by the extent of fabrication, fraud, and dishonesty,” said Nouri in an email interview with The Post.
Antisemitism is the belief that Jews stand in the way of redemption.
— Haviv Rettig Gur (@havivrettiggur) December 17, 2025
And it's now the official doctrine of the @Cornell Graduate Students Union. https://t.co/0J6eeAtAR6
It's weird that people think they can spread blood libels and everyone else is suppose pretend it's normal. https://t.co/qituEDmP13
— David Harsanyi (@davidharsanyi) December 16, 2025
Confirmed: Shahab Qureshi, who targeted Jewish women with antisemitic abuse, is no longer employed by the London Borough of Harrow.#Gnashered https://t.co/SMMfhJbZxr pic.twitter.com/Kg3cxXnypU
— GnasherJew®גנאשר (@GnasherJew) December 17, 2025
“We’re doing everything we can to push the Israeli government”
— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) December 17, 2025
Meanwhile in the real world, around 310,000 tents and tarpaulins have entered Hamas Gaza since the ceasefire.
All through Israel’s crossings, by the way.
Egypt’s is still shut. https://t.co/3XbOqvCSTM
We need an exorcist!
— Hamas Atrocities (@HamasAtrocities) December 17, 2025
They are now doing 180 degrees head turns
pic.twitter.com/i6v42Q2vsc
UK charges two men over Hezbollah terror training
Authorities in the U.K. have charged two British-Lebanese men with belonging to Hezbollah and attending terrorism training camps, police said on Tuesday.
Annis Makki, 40, faces six charges including membership in the Iranian-backed group banned in the U.K. since 2019, attending a terrorist training camp at Birket Jabbour Airbase in Lebanon in 2021, preparing terrorist acts and expressing support for Hezbollah and Hamas, another terrorist organization designated by the home secretary and banned under U.K. law. Prosecutors say Makki had access to a network linked to acquiring drone parts.
Mohamed Hadi Kassir, 33, faces three charges including Hezbollah membership and attending a training camp in Baffliyeh in Southern Lebanon in 2015 and at Birket Jabbour Airbase in 2021. Kassir pleaded not guilty.
The men were initially arrested at London homes in April and rearrested last week before being charged with nine total terrorism offenses. A prosecutor told Westminster Magistrates’ Court that Kassir was an entrenched member who trained in hostage-taking exercises.
Both men were remanded in custody until a Jan. 16 hearing at London’s Old Bailey.
🚨WATCH: Iran's Foreign Minister admits for the first time: our nuclear facilities suffered heavy damage. https://t.co/ltiU01duxW pic.twitter.com/l0dSoiGJ0k
— Raylan Givens (@JewishWarrior13) December 17, 2025
For 40 years, the ayatollahs blustered like horny peacocks. Then little Israel cleaned their clock in 12 days.
— Haviv Rettig Gur (@havivrettiggur) December 17, 2025
Now they're back to the same old blustering.
What a terrible sign for Iran.
A country of vast energy wealth and a talented population is going to spend another 30… https://t.co/yQ7G4Bkw2V
MIT professor of physics and fusion shot dead at his home near Boston
A professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was fatally shot at his home near Boston, and US authorities said Tuesday they had launched a homicide investigation.On fifth day after fatal shooting at Brown, unknown if gunman shouted anti-Jewish slur
Nuno F.G. Loureiro, a 47-year-old physicist and fusion scientist, was shot Monday night at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts. He died at a local hospital on Tuesday, the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
The prosecutor’s office said no suspects had been taken into custody as of Tuesday afternoon, and that its investigation was ongoing.
Loureiro, who joined MIT in 2016, was named last year to lead MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, where he aimed to advance clean energy technology and other research. The center, one of the school’s largest labs, had more than 250 people working across seven buildings when he took the helm.
Loureiro, who was married, grew up in Viseu, in central Portugal, and studied in Lisbon before earning a doctorate in London, according to MIT. He was a researcher at an institute for nuclear fusion in Lisbon before joining MIT, it said.
“He shone a bright light as a mentor, friend, teacher, colleague and leader, and was universally admired for his articulate, compassionate manner,” Dennis Whyte, an engineering professor who previously led MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, told a campus publication.
On the fifth day after a gunman shot and killed two students at Brown University and injured others, it remains unknown what the perpetrator yelled during the Dec. 13 attack.Suspect arrested in arson that caused ‘significant damage’ at SF Hillel
Reports that he might have shouted an Islamist phrase remain unsubstantiated, as the Ivy League school and federal and local law enforcement have remained tight-lipped.
Joseph Oduro, the teaching assistant who was running the academic review session the gunman attacked, told The Wall Street Journal that the shooter “screamed something indecipherable.”
Oduro told CNN, “I don’t know what he said, and none of the other students know what he said.”
Nathan Miller, CEO and founder of the public relations and crisis management firm Miller Ink, told JNS that the university and authorities ought to act quickly, given that the Jewish community is “reeling” from “surging” antisemitism, particularly this week with the mass shooting on Sunday at a Chanukah event on Bondi Beach in Australia that left 15 people dead one day after the incident at Brown.
“With rumors swirling that an attacker may have been motivated by the professor’s Jewish identity or scholarship, silence from authorities and Brown only amplifies these fears,” Miller said.
The economics professor who taught the class—said to be one of the school’s most popular courses—who was not present at the time also teaches in the Judaic studies program. She mentions in her biography that she has worked in and researched Israel.
“If Brown University and local authorities wait too long to address the motive in this shooting, it will look like they’re downplaying the rapid rise in antisemitism we’re all witnessing in real time,” Miller said.
“Right now, it feels like open season on Jews—and that demands honest, timely communication from our institutions,” he said.
San Francisco police have arrested a man in the suspected arson at SF Hillel on Dec. 5.Jewish New Yorker recounts stabbing just centimeters from his heart by antisemitic sicko: ‘Going to kill a Jew today’
The fire, which caused “significant damage” to the building and forced its closure, started in outdoor garbage bins located along the side of the building, according to SF Hillel. The fire started while Hillel’s student life team was inside the building and preparing for the final Shabbat of the semester.
The San Francisco Police Department told J. on Wednesday that officers identified a man who was already in jail for an unrelated matter as the suspect.
Mitchell Hoyt, 36, of San Francisco was booked Tuesday for allegedly “causing a fire to an inhabited structure,” a felony, and “setting property on fire,” a misdemeanor.
Last year, a person with the same name was convicted in San Francisco of first-degree burglary for breaking into a home and stealing an electric scooter while the residents were inside.
SF Hillel said no one was harmed by the fire.
“The San Francisco Fire Department arrived quickly and extinguished the fire,” SF Hillel said in a Dec. 6 email to students and supporters. “The staff and students are safe and there are no injuries.”
A Jewish New Yorker described Tuesday how he was stabbed just centimeters from his heart by a hateful sicko — who made a chilling promise before lunging at him on a Brooklyn street.
“I’m going to kill a Jew today,” the knife-wielding goon seethed before launching the antisemitic attack, said victim Elias Rosner, 35, in an interview with The Post on Wednesday.
Rosner, a member of the Lubavitch Hasidic community in Crown Heights, had just left the temple on Tuesday afternoon when he came across the still-at-large attacker spewing antisemitic slurs.
“I was waiting in a crowd of Jewish people and this guy started spouting stuff,” Rosner recalled.
“I’m going to kill Jewish people, I’m going to kill a Jew today, I don’t give a f–k … We wouldn’t be in this mess if the Holocaust had happened,” the unhinged man ranted, according to Rosner.
The man “looked very serious” — but Rosner refused to cower in the face of the ugly threats, he said.
“I guess I was the one guy that had the bravery to look him in the eye,” he said.
“So, he was waiting. He set a trap up for me a block ahead. He came around the corner and it just started happening.”
🚨 BREAKING: Video shows a visibly Jewish man stabbed multiple times in an unprovoked attack on Kingston Ave, Crown Heights.
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) December 17, 2025
Police say the victim was stabbed multiple times, the suspect fled, and the victim is in stable condition.
Credit: The News Trending via X#BreakingNews… pic.twitter.com/GjFK7fDIkQ
Yet another horrific antisemitic incident: a Jewish man was brutally attacked and stabbed in Brooklyn, New York. The world must stand in solidarity with the Jewish community and take a clear, unwavering stand against antisemitism. pic.twitter.com/ng9cBXNO3c
— StandWithUs (@StandWithUs) December 17, 2025
Football clubs posted Chanukah greetings and acknowledged the tragedy of the Bondi massacre.
— Joo🎗️ (@JoosyJew) December 17, 2025
Here’s a snapshot of 4, though the same theme applies to all I saw. 😆 emojis and 😡 emojis (at acknowledging this event) draw the same crowd.
Not all cultures are equal. pic.twitter.com/9LLvObaMXd
‘Historic moment’: Netanyahu announces $34.7 billion natural gas deal with Egypt
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Wednesday that he had approved the largest energy deal in Israel’s history with neighboring Egypt, expected to boost Israel’s economy by billions of shekels within the coming years.German parliament approves $3.5b expansion of Arrow 3 deal with Israel
In a video statement alongside Energy Minister Eli Cohen, Netanyahu said that the natural gas deal with Cairo was worth NIS 112 billion ($34.7 billion), of which NIS 58 billion ($18 billion) would go into public coffers. In the first four years, he said, around NIS 500 million ($155 million) would go to the state, and this was expected to climb to NIS 6 billion ($1.9 billion) by 2033.
“The agreement is with the American company Chevron, with Israeli partners who will supply gas to Egypt,” Netanyahu said.
“This money will strengthen education, health, infrastructure, security, the future of the coming generations,” said Netanyahu, adding that he only approved the deal, which was held up in October, after he ensured that it met Israel’s vital needs, including security.
“The deal greatly strengthens Israel’s position as a regional energy superpower, and contributes to regional stability,” argued Netanyahu, adding that it would encourage other countries to search for gas in Israel’s waters.
He stressed that the companies would be required to sell natural gas to Israelis “at a good price.”
Germany is set to sign a 3 billion euro ($3.5 billion) expansion to the Arrow 3 long-range missile defense system deal with Israel, after the Bundestag on Wednesday approved the contract.Israeli-founded cyber unicorn Cyera said to raise $400m, soaring to $9 billion valuation
This month, Israel delivered the first Arrow 3 battery to Germany, as part of a roughly 4 billion euro ($4.6 billion) deal signed between the countries two years earlier.
The expansion to the deal is to be signed on Thursday in Germany by Israeli and German defense officials, after German lawmakers approved the contract on Wednesday — as part of a massive 50 billion euro ($58 billion) spending package on more than 30 contracts, amid the threat of Russia.
The 3 billion euro contract includes interceptor missiles for the Arrow 3 system, according to procurement documents cited by Bloomberg.
Israel’s Defense Ministry said the expansion contract would “significantly increase the production rate of Arrow 3 interceptors and launchers to be supplied to Germany, substantially enhancing its air and missile defense capabilities.”
In total, the Arrow agreement signed between Israel and Germany was valued at some $8 billion, making it the largest-ever Israeli defense export deal. Israel’s Arrow 3 missile defense system is handed over to the German Air Force at the Holzdorf Air Base, eastern Germany, on December 3, 2025. (Defense Ministry)
The delivery of the Arrow 3 in early December marked the first time that the Israeli-made system had been deployed beyond the borders of Israel and the United States, and the first time it was operated independently by another country.
Israeli-founded Cyera, a developer of an AI-powered data security platform, is raising $400 million in a funding round led by New York-based alternative asset manager Blackstone that values the company at $9 billion, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the news. The investment comes just six months after Cyera secured $540 million in a funding round in June that doubled its valuation to $6 billion. It also raised $300 million in November 2024, at a $3 billion valuation.
Four years after it was founded, the startup is set to be backed by about $1.7 billion in funding from global and local investors, including Accel, Coatue, Cyberstarts, Georgian, Lightspeed and Sequoia. Cyera and Blackstone declined to comment when contacted by The Times of Israel.
Cyera was founded in 2021 by Yotam Segev, CEO, and Tamar Bar-Ilan, CTO, who met during their Israeli army service, during which they both built and ran the cloud security division for the Israel Defense Force’s elite intelligence Unit 8200.
Exposed to the challenges of securing data in the cloud, Segev and Bar-Ilan decided after their military service to develop and build a unified data security platform to provide businesses and organizations with a complete view of where their data “lives, how it’s used, and how to keep it safe.”
The startup says the platform helps businesses eliminate blind spots, cut threat alert noise and protect sensitive information scattered across their cloud environments; Software as a Service, or SaaS, programs; databases; and applications, as they increasingly adopt AI tools.
The fast adoption of AI applications by organizations and businesses has accelerated the need to secure their most sensitive data. Cyberattacks are becoming more sophisticated, with bad actors leveraging AI to outsmart traditional defenses and exploit blind spots in data and cloud systems of businesses and corporations.
the impossible dinner
— Nuseir Yassin (@nasdaily) December 17, 2025
All this food was made without a single animal. It's wild when you think about it.
Thank you to @Remilk_Foods @beeio_ @RedefineMeat @oshiseafood Yo Egg Foods and Meshek Barzilay for agreeing to be part of this video! pic.twitter.com/FmXCUZ6BqU
Meet my new friend Faith from Zambia. She's 3.
— dahlia kurtz ✡︎ דליה קורץ (@DahliaKurtz) December 17, 2025
Israel just saved her life.
Save A Child's Heart gives FREE life-saving heart procedures to children all over the world — including Palestinians. All-expenses paid.
Faith just got discharged. Watch her melt my heart at the end.❤️ pic.twitter.com/hhlsR6OxXj
‘I Will Always Be A Friend And A Champion To The Jewish People’: Trump Shines At Hanukkah Party
President Trump hosted a Hanukkah party at the White House on Tuesday night and spoke of his unwavering support of the Jewish people while calling out the antisemitism spouted by some lawmakers.
“As president of the United States, I will always support Jewish Americans and I will always be a friend and a champion to the Jewish people,” he stated bluntly.
He warned about the antisemitism among some members of Congress, specifically calling out leftist congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar.
“You have a Congress in particular which is becoming antisemitic. You have AOC plus three; you have those people like Ilhan Omar. She hates Jewish people,” Trump said.
“They hate Israel,” he continued. “And if you would have told me 15 years ago that that was possible, I would have said there’s no way. … You see what goes on in Australia or October 7. And then you have people that deny it ever happened. People deny the Holocaust, but you figure, well, that’s just many years; October 7 is not many years at all. And you have people that deny October 7. I saw tape; I wish I never saw it. But then they’ll say, ‘Oh, the tape was a rigged tape. It was a tape that never existed. They made it up. It’s just propaganda.’”
Speaking of the antisemitism that has ramped up on university campuses and elsewhere, he declared, “I’m president, and the DOJ and Harmeet [Dhillon], we’re not going to let it happen.”
“We are deporting foreign jihadist sympathizers and terrorist supporters at record levels. We’re deporting them. We’re not putting them in jails,” he asserted.
“The story of Hanukkah reminds us that light will always prevail over darkness and faith [will] triumph over fear. Together, let us honor the eternal flame and the faith that has always protected the Jewish people. You are protected. You are special, special people,” he concluded.
Mark Levin jokingly referred to President Trump as "Our first jewish president," prompting Trump to laugh and reply, "It’s true." pic.twitter.com/cvWiWDOSfy
— Awesome Jew (@Awesome_Jew_) December 17, 2025
Two Holocaust survivors - Michael Bornstein (left) and Jerry Wartski (right) - were honored at last night’s Hanukkah celebration at the White House. pic.twitter.com/TfD2jk7z7K
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) December 17, 2025
Former hostages Liri Albag, Naama Levy, Agam Berger, and Emily Damari, dreamed and prayed that they would celebrate Chanukah together when they were finally free.
— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) December 17, 2025
This Chanukah, their wish came true, as they bring so much light to our screens ❤️🩹 pic.twitter.com/XKL19n7o7D
1,300-year-old Menorah pendant discovered in Jerusalem rubble
A very rare, personal necklace pendant from the 6th – early 7th centuries CE (Late Byzantine period) was recently discovered in a large-scale archaeological excavation in the Davidson Archaeological Park of Jerusalem.
Decorated on both sides with an identical image of a seven-branched menorah, it was apparently worn by a Jew who arrived in Jerusalem during the Byzantine period, when Jews were prohibited from entering the city.
Ayayu Belete, who made the astonishing discovery, said: “One day while I was digging inside an ancient structure, I suddenly saw something different, gray, among the stones. I picked up the object out and saw that it was a pendant with a menorah on it. I immediately showed the find to Esther Rakow-Mellet, the area director, and she said it was an especially rare find. I was deeply moved and excited!”
The object bearing the menorah decoration was discovered within a layer of rubble, inside a late Byzantine period building.
The pendant was designed as a disk with a loop at the top, most likely intended to be worn on a necklace. Both sides of the pendant depict a seven-branched menorah, highlighted by a circular frame. One side was well-preserved, while the other was covered with patina, a natural layer of weathering. Each menorah design displays three arms on either side of the central shaft.
At the top of each arm is a horizontal crossbar, with flames rising above it.
Tests conducted at the Israel Antiquities Authority’s analytical laboratories found that the pendant contains approximately 99% lead – making the find exceptionally rare.
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"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024) PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022) |
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