Pages

▼

Thursday, December 18, 2025

12/18 Links Pt2: Waiting for Ran Gvili; The suicidal vanity of Palestine Action; A War on Christmas Was Never about Israel; Norman Podhoretz, a Grateful American

From Ian:

Israel's Enemies Have Only Been Weakened, Not Defeated
The hostage release and ceasefire President Trump brokered in October has brought Israelis palpable relief and renewed optimism. However, they also recognize that peace is not yet at hand.

"We're living with traumas and scars," an Israeli brigadier general told me. "But we're resilient. We need to be because our enemies have only been weakened, not defeated."

Iran's rulers and their main proxies (Hamas, Hizbullah and the Houthis) have no interest in a "two-state solution," except as a step toward a "final solution" in the sense the Nazis used that phrase.

Their goal remains the extermination of the people of Israel. There's a word for that: genocide - one of the crimes Israel is relentlessly accused of.

A new Israeli defense posture is evolving. It will not depend on wishful thinking or deterrence.

It will focus on early detection of threats, followed by kinetic operations to prevent those threats from metastasizing.

This will not make Israelis more popular, but it's necessary if the people of Israel are to live.
Brendan O'Neill: The suicidal vanity of Palestine Action
Last night in London, four days after the slaughter of Jews in our cousin nation of Australia, radical leftists held a vigil. For the dead Jews? Don’t be daft. It was for the Palestine Action hunger strikers. It was for those silver-spooned self-harmers, those preening, plummy food-dodgers who think they can do to the nation what they once did to mummy and daddy: stomp their feet until they get what they want. And there you have it: self-styled anti-fascists weeping not for the Jews murdered by fascists, but for vain, posh Brits whose torment is wholly self-inflicted.

It’s not just in London. In Cambridge too, and outside the Dรกil in Dublin, the keffiyeh classes have mournfully assembled in recent days to lament the agonies of the hunger strikers. Let history record this. Let it record that following one of the worst acts of anti-Semitic barbarism of modern times, ‘anti-racists’ gathered not to offer solidarity to Jews but to wang on about their fellow narcissists in the cult of Palestinianism. As Aussie Jews fall victim to the West’s swirling pox of Israelophobia, leftists pay tribute to the activist class that helped spread that deadly pox. Shameful doesn’t cover it.

I’ve always thought the Palestine Action hunger strike was preposterous – am-dram self-destruction designed less to shift the dial in the Middle East than to make a spectacle of the strikers’ own depthless self-regard. But after Bondi, after that merciless slaying of Jews by suspected adherents to the death cult of ISIS, the strike feels callous, too. Anyone who distracts public attention from the anti-Semitism crisis by droning on about five hungry twats in British jails has forfeited the right to be considered a decent person.

Seven Palestine Action activists joined the hunger strike in recent weeks. Two dropped out last night, leaving just five food-avoiders. Their demands include immediate bail for all Palestine Action activists being held on remand, the lifting of the proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation, and the shutting down of all Elbit Systems sites in the UK. Elbit is one of the main producers of military equipment for Israel. It employs close to 700 people in the UK, including many veterans. It is hubris of historic proportions that five smug activists are saying they won’t eat until 700 Brits are thrown on to the dole queue. Rarely has the conceitedness of the lily-handed left been on such stark display.

Let’s be clear about what this is: moral blackmail. These activists are the political equivalent of the scumbag husband who tells his wife he’ll harm himself if she ever leaves. Their hunger strike is a staggeringly elitist stunt. In the past, hunger strikes tended to be one small part of a larger democratic movement. Think of Gandhi’s hunger strike during the Quit India uprising of the 1940s. The Palestine Action hunger strike is the precise opposite – this is about circumventing democracy.
A War on Christmas Was Never about Israel There's a habit or reflex in discussing antisemitic violence to explain or even excuse it as being a response to purported Israeli injustices. Yet it is hard to explain exactly how attacking Jews celebrating Hannukah in Australia has anything to do with Gaza. It is also thunderingly obvious that Islamist radicals are not principally acting out of grievance at Israeli foreign policy, as they are simultaneously waging war on open and public Christianity in Europe.

German authorities announced Saturday that five men have been arrested on suspicion of planning an attack on a Christmas market in the Dingolfing area of southern Bavaria. Authorities believe the plot was motivated by Islamist extremism. Bavaria is not exactly the center of IDF activity.

In 2024, a car drove into a crowded outdoor Christmas market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg, killing at least five people and injuring more than 200. In a 2018 attack on a Christmas market in Strasbourg, France, five people were killed and several more were injured. In 2016, an Islamist extremist drove a truck into a crowd at a Berlin Christmas market, killing 13 people and injuring dozens more.

In Paris, authorities canceled an annual New Year's celebration that drew half a million people last year, because their safety from Islamist radicals can no longer be secured. It starts with Jews, but it never ends there. These are enemies of our entire civilization, and their only actual demand is submission.


Waiting for Ran Gvili
For over 800 days, The Times of Israel has kept a numbered red tag, “Israel at War,” at the very top of our site, underlining that we entered a new and terrible era with the Hamas invasion, slaughter and mass abductions of October 7, 2023.

There are compelling reasons to argue that the war is now over, and compelling reasons to assert that it is not. Several readers have written to us about this, more making the first argument than the second. I’m not quite persuaded.

Wars tend to end with ceasefires, and a ceasefire agreement of sorts was indeed signed by Israeli and Hamas representatives in Sharm el-Sheikh on October 9 this year, was sort of approved by the Israeli government, and took effect the following day.

US President Donald Trump, who was central to the brokering of that agreement, has repeatedly declared the war over, and made clear his determination to prevent a resurgence of intense military conflict.

Most of Israel’s troops have withdrawn from the Gaza Strip, most reservists have been sent home, and the IDF has generally, though not exclusively, been confining itself to defensive operations.

And all but one of the hostages abducted on October 7 have been released, or their bodies returned.

On the other hand, the two core declared goals of the war have not been fully achieved.

Hamas has not been disarmed, and indeed is adamant that it will not lay down its weapons as required by the second phase of Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan, which itself has yet to be finalized, much less to come into effect.

And the body of one last deceased hostage, Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, a member of the Yasam police elite counter-terror unit who was killed battling terrorists at Kibbutz Alumim on that darkest of days, has yet to be brought home. The return of all the hostages held in Gaza was required under the first phase of the ceasefire deal.


Meir Y. Soloveichik: Norman Podhoretz, a Grateful American
It is Norman Podhoretz’s love affair with America that explains his own political journey, as his ardent admiration for this country remained with him "all my life, including that part of it I spent in the camp of the radical Left." He came to understand that the Left’s aim was to ensure that students never repeated his own academic experience, that they leave college "feeling not reverence for Western civilization and/or America but hatred and contempt." As his patriotism fueled his own migration to the Right, he would admonish, in the 1990s, his now-fellow conservatives whenever he felt their frustration with American policies or American culture bordered on a rejection of America itself. Already retired from his position at Commentary, he described engagement in these admonishments as a blessing: "Being summoned from the reserves into active duty, and having to defend this country once more, served to remind me of why I loved it so much."

When I read My Love Affair with America as a young man, I could scarcely have imagined then that I would become friends with its author, nor how relevant his book would be to the particular moment in which he would pass away. America has offered Ilhan Omar the very same benevolence that was bestowed upon the Podhoretz family; yet gratitude to America, it is safe to say, does not lie at the heart of her political worldview. Meanwhile, the podcasting Right features the ravings of those who, in a strange and striking moral mirror of Norman’s Love Affair with America, join anti-Semitism with anti-Americanism, and hatred of the West in general. We are told the very freedom for which America fought was a mistake; that it might have been better had it allied itself with Hitler; and that the current problems of the Western world are the fault of figures such as Winston Churchill.

In the midst of all this, there is much to see that has vindicated the way in which Norman argued for our obligation to love this country, and how this was especially incumbent upon Jews. In his book, Norman noted Yogi Berra’s famous reflection upon hearing that the lord mayor of Dublin was Jewish: "Only in America." To understand the humor of the remark is also to intuit its profundity. There is no "Only in America" in Europe. In the past two years, as Hamas-praising mobs swept across college quads, Norman would mourn the way in which Jew-hate and anti-Americanism had overtaken his "beloved Columbia." But this difficult period for Jews also revealed how so many Americans opposed Jew-hate, and how many American leaders stood with Israel in its dark and difficult hour. I rejoice that Norman, at the end of his life, was able to see the United States lead in the neutralization of the Iranian nuclear threat, a policy for which he had long argued, and a fulfillment of the world leadership to which he believed this country was called.

My favorite image of Norman Podhoretz is a photograph of him receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004. This photo of Mrs. Podhoretz’s son would surely have stunned the young woman in steerage had she glimpsed this picture of her family’s future. And Norman himself understood this. One of the most beloved songs at the Passover Seder is "Dayenu," a long litany of events in Jewish history for which Jews express gratitude to God. Norman invoked this holiday hymn at the conclusion of My Love Affair with America, giving his own dayenu for all he owed this country.

This is exquisitely apt. The biblical name Judah—from which the word "Judaism" emerged—means gratitude, a name bestowed by the grateful matriarch Leah when her fourth child was born. To be a Jew, in other words, is to be grateful. To know Norman Podhoretz is to know his Jewish gratitude to America; and, I, in turn, will remain forever grateful for what he has given this country, for the blessing of spending time with him, and, therefore for the fact that his mother boarded a boat and sailed across the ocean over a century ago.
Seth Mandel: Norman Podhoretz’s Lesson for American Jews
My second-favorite piece of Norman Podhoretz’s writing is the 1971 speech he delivered (and then published in essay form) to the American Jewish Committee. My favorite, though, is Norman’s written recollection of giving that speech, which gets its own chapter in his 2009 book Why Are Jews Liberals?

After Norman Podhoretz died on Tuesday at the age of 95, I reread his account of the whole affair. And I realized that even if it hadn’t been my personal favorite, it would still be first one I’d recommend to others in the wake of his passing.

When Norman was became editor of COMMENTARY, the magazine was published by the American Jewish Committee. It was also liberal in its orientation. To its great credit, the AJC gave COMMENTARY editorial independence. The AJC was liberal, too, but not as liberal as Norman—but by 1971 the dynamic had flipped. Repelled by the anti-American turn of the radical left, Norman moved right—which meant, at the time, that he moved to the center. The AJC was, by contrast, a bit spooked by the radical left and was careful not to provoke its wrath.

It was at this moment that the AJC did something rather strange: It invited Norman to give the keynote address at its annual meeting on the subject of his changing politics, more or less guaranteeing some sort of confrontation. In the book, he twice mentions his surprise at receiving the invitation. He would rise to the challenge.

There were two drivers of the political changes that Norman would discuss at that dinner. The first was the Six-Day War.

The period between World War II and the Six-Day War was a Golden Age for American Jews. The Holocaust had pushed political anti-Semitism outside the range of acceptability, and cultural anti-Semitism became tainted by association with fascism. University quotas faded into oblivion.

“Not only were obstacles removed, but invitations were issued,” Norman wrote. “Not only were Jews less and less excluded from more and more places; they were also made to feel more and more welcome, more and more at home. Having, for example, always considered itself—without thinking about the matter very much—a Christian country, the United States was now extending recognition to Judaism as, along with Protestantism and Catholicism, one of the three major American religions. The rabbi became an obligatory partner of the minister and the priest on every ceremonial occasion, and though this development was not without its problems, the fact remained that Jews as Jews were being invited in, no longer alienated to that most literal extent.”
Johanathan Tobin: Norman Podhoretz’s intellectual journey and the fate of American Jewry
It must be recognized that the man was a prophet who was largely rejected by those he cared most about. American Jews, for whom political liberalism came to replace traditional Jewish faith. They remained stubbornly wedded to the political left and erstwhile minority allies, who were increasingly willing to treat them and the security of a besieged Israel as unworthy of their concern. They remained stuck in the ideas of the early 20th century, in which they embraced the left and distrusted both new religious allies on the right, and the America that was not a product of the two coasts and elite opinion. He would memorably dissect this problem in his 2009 book, Why Are Jews Liberals? It remains the most important work on the topic.

Even his early writings, such as his controversial essay “My Negro Problem—and Ours,” published in Commentary in 1963, spoke of growing up in a divided neighborhood where the races were at odds with each other. It speaks eloquently to America’s current post-Black Lives Matter problems with its advocacy for a color-blind society, as opposed to efforts by leftists to make such divisions permanent.

The American Jewish experience
Podhoretz’s life was a microcosm of the American Jewish experience in which a child of immigrants raised in poverty ascended to the heights of influence in the worlds of literature and politics. In 2004, President George W. Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom—the nation’s highest civilian honor.

The real proof of Podhoretz’s greatness, however, rests in the way his magazine and his writing helped lead the way forward at a moment in history when the forces of totalitarianism seemed to have the wind at their backs. It emerged at a time when the country’s intellectual establishment had essentially disarmed itself in the name of morally bankrupt liberalism.

Just as important, his example fostered a new generation of American thinkers and writers who recognize those threats and who are willing to engage in the intellectual battles needed to defend the West and Israel, as well as to bear witness against antisemitism. Among them are his son John, who followed in his footsteps as editor of Commentary; his daughter, my friend and valued colleague JNS senior contributing editor Ruthie Blum; myself; and many others. Whatever we may achieve as we continue to take up the struggle for this righteous cause that he passed on to us is only because we stand on the shoulders of a giant.

May his memory be for a blessing.
Commentary Podcast: John Talks About His Father
Today, John returns to discuss the life of his father, Norman Podhoretz. Give a listen.


Tikvah: Norman Podhoretz - Reflections of a Jewish Neoconservative (2014)
As part of the Advanced Institute on "Liberalism, Conservatism, and the Jews," Tikvah hosted the legendary editor of Commentary, Norman Podhoretz. Podhoretz has been a partisan of the left, the right, and, most of all, the Jews. In an interview with Tikvah's executive director Eric Cohen, Podhoretz discussed his life's work and his ideological transformation. He reflects on his early education and the conflict between his low-brow immigrant Judaism and his high-brow training under Lionel Trilling. He discusses the early days of Commentary, when it was ambivalent about Zionism and part of the anti-communist left. He explains what turned Commentary away from the left, and what kind of foreign policy vision it offered the nascent neoconservative movement. And what about Podhoretz himself? Famously frank and wide-ranging, Podhoretz spends the last half of the event commenting on theology, the American Jewish scene, Radical Islam, classical music, and Shakespeare.


US imposes sanctions on two ICC judges over Israel probe
The U.S. State Department announced on Thursday that it imposed sanctions on two judges on the International Criminal Court in The Hague over their role in affirming an investigation into what it alleges are Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

Gocha Lordkipanidze, a Georgian national, and Erdenebalsuren Damdin, a Mongolian national, voted in the ICC’s appeals chamber on Monday to uphold the investigation, ruling that the examination of Israel’s conduct in Gaza since Oct. 7 fell within the scope of the ICC’s wider probe from 2021 looking at all Israeli treatment of Palestinians in Gaza, eastern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria since 2014.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that the sanctions are part of an American policy to reject the ICC’s claims of jurisdiction over nations like the United States and Israel that are not party to the Rome Statute, which created the ICC.

“These individuals have directly engaged in efforts by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute Israeli nationals, without Israel’s consent, including voting with the majority in favor of the ICC’s ruling against Israel’s appeal on Dec. 15,” Rubio said.

“The ICC has continued to engage in politicized actions targeting Israel, which set a dangerous precedent for all nations,” he added. “We will not tolerate ICC abuses of power that violate the sovereignty of the United States and Israel and wrongly subject U.S. and Israeli persons to the ICC’s jurisdiction.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the decision on Thursday.


Iran Rejected U.S. Diplomatic Offer during 12-Day War
Israeli security officials knew that to do more than fleeting damage to Iran's sprawling nuclear program, they had to decimate the "brain trust," a generation of Iranian engineers and physicists who U.S. and Israeli intelligence officials believed were working on turning fissile nuclear material into an atomic bomb. On June 13, in the opening minutes of Israel's 12-day war with Iran, Operation Narnia, the campaign against Iran's top nuclear scientists, got underway. Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, a theoretical physicist and explosives expert under U.S. sanctions for his nuclear weapons work, was killed in his Tehran apartment. Fereydoun Abbasi, a nuclear physicist who once led Iran's atomic energy organization and was under U.S. and UN sanctions, died in another strike in Tehran two hours later. In all, Israel said it assassinated 11 senior Iranian nuclear scientists. Iran's nuclear work probably has been set back years, officials from Israel, the U.S. and the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency said.

In mid-April, President Trump gave Iran 60 days to agree to a nuclear deal. The deadline expired on June 12. He and Netanyahu maneuvered to keep the Iranians unprepared for what would happen next. Trump told reporters on June 12 that he preferred a negotiated solution. Israeli officials leaked word that top Netanyahu adviser Ron Dermer and Mossad chief David Barnea would soon meet U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff. A new round of U.S.-Iranian nuclear talks was scheduled for June 15.

Israel had decided to strike, as the U.S. well knew. The planned diplomacy was a ruse, and officials from both countries encouraged media reports of a U.S.-Israeli rift. "All the reports that were written about Bibi not being on the same page with Witkoff or Trump were not true," a person familiar with the matter said. "But it was good that this was the general perception."

Even after the Israeli bombing, the Trump administration made a final diplomatic push on June 15 and secretly transmitted a proposal to Iran to resolve the standoff over its nuclear program. The terms of the proposed deal included Tehran ending support for proxies such as Hizbullah and Hamas, as well as "replacing" the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant and "any other functioning facility" with alternative facilities that do not allow enrichment. In return, the U.S. would lift "all sanctions placed on Iran." Shortly after the U.S. transmitted the proposal to Iran via Qatari diplomats, Tehran rejected it, and Trump authorized U.S. strikes.
US-led coordination center in Israel maps Gaza's future amid hope and skepticism
Board of peace
Trump previously proposed forming a “board of peace” to oversee redevelopment – an idea supported in the UN resolution. He also stated that the Palestinian Authority, often criticized for corruption and supporting terror, could only join the rebuilding process once it “has completed its reform program.”

The PA response to its exclusion has been measured. Mahmoud al-Habash, a senior Palestinian official and adviser to PA President Mahmoud Abbas, said he welcomed the UN resolution and Trump’s efforts to help Gaza.

“In principle, we are pleased with the steps the US is taking, including the center they established, as long as it helps prevent the situation in Gaza from deteriorating and stops Israel’s aggression,” he told the Report.

“We support anything that can deprive [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu of the excuse to continue the fighting. We do not mind if it’s in Kiryat Gat, Tel Aviv, or anywhere else. We also do not have any problem with the presence of stability forces in Gaza,” Habash continued.

“The most important thing is that they fulfill their duties toward the Palestinian people – prevent displacement, stop renewal of the war, and create the circumstances for a political and diplomatic course,” he said.

However, some Palestinians have expressed frustration, saying the CMCC’s setup suggests that Washington and Jerusalem still do not see Gaza and the West Bank as a single, unified entity under PA responsibility.

Impotent tool
Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, who was born in Gaza, said there were “some growing and learning pains” with the post-war efforts.

He noted the presence of internal US tensions regarding the degree of American involvement and a broader political reluctance to commit to “any long-term contingency of troops or soldiers.”

“There’s a broader political ethos that is against any further entanglements in the Middle East,” he said.

Countries that America had hoped would get involved, such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia, are holding back, he said, “upset that the US has essentially acquiesced or given too many concessions, from their point of view, to the Qataris.” Allowing Qatar and Turkey to take leading roles “has left Hamas in place,” the senior Atlantic Council fellow said.

Nevertheless, some Gazans see “hope” that external intervention will “expose Hamas, expose their criminality, end their grip,” Alkhatib said, adding that the increase in aid trucks entering the enclave is a positive sign of the CMCC’s effectiveness.

Still, he warned: “There is a fear that the CMCC could potentially become an impotent tool.”

“The US has the right intentions, the right posture, the right tools, [and] the right attitude, but it has stopped short of actually going after Hamas,” Alkhatib said, “and is already looking at ways in which it can pull back.

“I have immense concern that this is not heading in a very good direction at all – unless there’s a way to really have solid leadership, solid US commitment,” he stated. ■


Anything can happen. Anywhere. To Anyone. Especially Jews.
Hugh opens the show with a monologue on that and then is joined by Noah Rothman to discuss whether everyone should get a gun, get trained, and carry when legal.


Heroes, Villains, and Speaking for a Nation with Eylon Levy
In this episode, I sit down with Eylon Levy, former spokesman for the State of Israel, to ask, what is the role of a government spokesman, and does every country have one? We begin by examining the function of state advocacy, public diplomacy, and crisis communication, separating myth from reality in how nations speak for themselves on the world stage.

From there, the conversation widens to the deeper challenge facing Israel today. We argue that advocacy cannot remain reactive or limited to fact-checking and image repair. Instead, it must pivot toward confronting the ideological forces that fuel anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hostility, particularly the belief systems that distort moral language, weaponize grievance, and normalize demonization.

I conclude with a reflective note: Who are our heroes today? Eylon names Abba Eban, who spoke ten languages fluently! Eylon recounts the legend that when Eban expressed interest in becoming Israel’s prime minister, Golda Meir quipped, “Of which country?”—a remark that captured Eban’s legendary diplomacy and global stature. His mastery of moral clarity, eloquence, and restraint offers a model of leadership and courage that feels both historic and urgently relevant today, laying bare that Israel was and continues to be the solution, not the problem, facing our world.

About the guest: Eylon Levy is a former Spokesman for the State of Israel, who became one of the most globally recognized voices for Israel in the October 7 War. During the war, he gave over 600 interviews to international media outlets, earning him praise from President Trump for his “words of wisdom.” His press conferences from the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office were broadcast live globally. He now heads the Spokesoffice, a civil society initiative that advocates for Israel and the Jewish People in international media. He is a regular panelist on Israeli primetime news, and continues to use his major social media presence to advocate for Israel.




Revealed: How British and European taxes fund Hamas
In this episode of The Brink, we’re joined by Anne Herzberg, Legal Adviser at NGO Monitor, to examine how international NGOs have become deeply entangled with Hamas in Gaza and how Western taxpayer money has been misused as a result.

Anne walks us through explosive findings based on Hamas documents seized by the IDF, revealing how aid organisations were monitored, infiltrated, and manipulated through so called “guarantors.” We discuss how cash aid programmes were diverted, how humanitarian projects were shaped around Hamas’ military needs, and why many NGOs remained silent despite knowing what was happening on the ground.

The conversation also exposes the role of Western governments, including the UK, and the failure of oversight within institutions like the UN and major charities. We explore the “halo effect” that shields NGOs from scrutiny, the use of lawfare and libel threats to silence journalists, and how propaganda claims around famine and genocide have had real world consequences, from ICC warrants to the prolonging of the war itself.

This is a disturbing but essential conversation about aid, accountability, and how good intentions have been exploited by a terrorist organisation, with consequences that continue to shape the conflict today.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction
03:25 Anne Hertzberg's Background and NGO Monitor's Mission
06:14 Influence of NGOs and Media Bias
11:43 Hamas' Control over NGOs in Gaza
24:38 Hamas' Civil Service and Military Interaction
32:00 Cash-Based Programs and Diversion of Aid
37:04 Meetings with Hamas and NGO Officials
43:55 NGOs' Complicity and Long-Term Consequences




travelingisrael.com: The Muslim society is more violent. Almost always. In almost every field and almost everywhere.
Why do Christmas markets need security, but mosques don’t? This video looks at violence in the Muslim world, how it manifests in Europe, and why Western media figures refuse to talk about it. The data is clear — the silence is the real danger.


"Absolute Codswallop!" | Online Open-Source Wikipedia Accused Of Going 'Woke'
In this TalkTV segment, we investigate claims that pages are being rewritten, language policed, and dissenting views sidelined in favour of progressive activism.

As trust in institutions erodes, we ask whether the world’s most-used reference site can still be trusted or if Wikipedia has truly gone woke.

Speaking with Editor and Investigative Officer at NPOV Ashley Rindsberg, Talk's Kevin O'Sullivan says: "This is a fascinating story!"


Zohran Mamdani appointee made vile antisemitic comments in unearthed social media posts
A high-profile Zohran Mamdani appointee resigned Thursday after newly unearthed posts revealed a series of antisemitic comments online — including rants about “money hungry Jews” and defunding NYPD “piggies.”

The short-lived appointment fell apart once the Anti-Defamation League of New York and New Jersey demanded answers Thursday from Mayor-elect Mamdani’s team about whether its members knew about Catherine Almonte Da Costa’s past antisemitic posts on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Da Costa, whom Mamdani tapped on Wednesday as the city’s next director of appointments, had several vile stereotype-laden posts from 2011 and 2012, the ADL revealed in a post on X.

“Money hungry Jews smh,” she tweeted in January 2011.

“Woo! Promoted to the upstairs office today! Working alongside these rich Jewish peeps,” she tweeted in June that year.

In June 2012, Da Costa posted: “Far Rockaway train is the Jew train.”

The posts remained up until Thursday afternoon, when Da Costa apparently deleted the account.


'Globalise the intifada’ chant banned at protests in London and Manchester
The phrase “globalise the intifada” has been banned from all protests in London and Manchester, with police receiving new powers to protect the Jewish community.

Many in the community regard the slogan, which is often chanted at anti-Israel rallies, as a call for violence against Jews.

In an announcement on Wednesday morning, police leaders in London and Manchester said anyone using the phrase “globalise the intifada” will face police action.

While the immediate measures have been announced by only two forces, it is understood that other locations could follow if the National Police Council decides to roll out the policy further.

The decision follows the terrorist attack on a Chanukah event in Sydney on Sunday and the Heaton Park Synagogue attack in Manchester on Yom Kippur.

A joint statement from the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Mark Rowley, and the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, Sir Stephen Watson, acknowledged that the Jewish community was “worried and scared,” and that increased anti-Jewish crime had impacted Jewish life.

“No community should have to live like this. That must change,” they said.

The high number of terrorist attacks disrupted in recent years, as well as the two recent attacks, meant that an “enhanced response” to antisemitism is required, Rowley and Watson said.

Acknowledging that “current laws are inadequate,” the police leaders referenced the fact that the Home Secretary has asked Lord Ken Macdonald KC to review current public order and hate crime legislation.

“The words and chants used, especially in protests, matter and have real-world consequences. We have consistently been advised by the CPS that many of the phrases causing fear in Jewish communities don't meet prosecution thresholds. Now, in the escalating threat context, we will recalibrate to be more assertive,” Rowley and Watson said.

“We know communities are concerned about placards and chants such as ‘globalise the intifada’ and those using it at future protest or in a targeted way should expect the Met and GMP to take action. Violent acts have taken place, the context has changed - words have meaning and consequence. We will act decisively and make arrests.”

They said that frontline officers will be briefed on this “enhanced approach” to the phrase.
Palestine Solidarity Campaign chief claims crackdown on ‘globalise intifada’ is ‘repression’
Palestine Solidarity Campaign director Ben Jamal has described new police guidance targeting chants of “globalise the intifada” at anti-Israel protests as “another low in political repression.”

Responding to the joint statement by Metropolitan and Greater Manchester Police chiefsnow instructing officers to arrest those using the inflammatory chant, Jamal said: “The police have not consulted with the Palestine coalition, who organise the major protests in London, nor representative groups of the Palestinian community in Britain, before making this far-reaching statement on our rights.

“The Arabic word intifada means shaking off or uprising against injustice. It came to prominence during the first intifada, which was overwhelmingly marked by peaceful protest that was brutally repressed by the Israeli state.

“The implication that slogans used to support the liberation of the Palestinian people are only open to interpretation by groups who have maintained complicit support for Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people and denial of their rights is deeply problematic.”

In contrast to Jamal, the hate crime lead for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said the organisation will “work with police to identify what more can be done to meet the threshold for charging.”
Natasha Hausdorff discusses the meaning of “Globalise the Intifada” with Julia Hartley-Brewer.
Natasha Hausdorff, UKLFI Charitable Trust Legal Director, discusses the Police’s changed approach to incitement on hate marches and slogans like “Globalise the Intifada” with Julia Hartley-Brewer on Talk TV.


Arrests for chanting 'globalise the intifada': too little, too late — Jonathan Sacerdoti
Protesters chanting “globalise the intifada” will now be arrested, according to the heads of Greater Manchester Police and the Metropolitan Police. The announcement has been framed as a response to a “changed context”.


Police make first arrests for calling for intifada at pro-Palestinian demo in UK crackdown
Jonathan Sacerdoti reports as police have made their first arrests after two people allegedly shouted chants involving 'calls for intifada', amid a crackdown after the Bondi Beach shooting.

Five people were taken into custody yesterday at a pro-Palestinian demonstration held in central London.




Stefanik hits Hochul for Qatar-funded curriculum and teacher material in NYC that allegedly twists history of 9/11
Rep. Elise Stefanik and House Oversight Chairman James Comer are demanding Gov. Kathy Hochul provide transparency about curriculum and teaching materials funded by Qatar or “malign domestic actors” being used in New York schools.

Stefanik (R-NY), who is running against Hochul (D) in next year’s election, and Comer (R-Ky.) contended that because the New York City Department of Education (NYC DOE) has refused to release the curriculum, the governor needs to step in.

“The [NYC] DOE has refused to provide copies of teaching materials that twist the narratives of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks and the Hamas-led massacre on October 7, 2023, in Israel,” Stefanik and Comer wrote in the letter obtained by The Post.

Stefanik and Comer raised concerns about curriculum and other content funded by Qatar and teaching materials from “malign domestic actors” that could give students a distorted view of 9/11.

The New York and Kentucky reps pointed to $1 million in funding from Qatar Foundation International that went to P.S. 261, an elementary school in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, and P.S./I.S. 30, a public school in Bay Ridge.

Stefanik and Comer also raised concerns about teaching material from Bridging Cultures, an education contractor led by Dr. Debbie Almontaser, who is also in charge of the Muslim Community Network (MCN) and has a “long history of soft-pedaling violence.”

Almontaser will see her influence over New York City rise under Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani (D), the two warned.

Bridging Cultures offers a course on teaching the history of 9/11 in the classroom. But Stefanik and Comer underscored how MCN has a history of vilifying “those who want to recognize radical Islam’s role in the attacks.”

The two pols recalled how MCN petitioned to scrap federal funding for the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, contending that it conflates “all Islam with specific terroristic ideologies.”

Bridging Cultures held workshops about the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks, which she argues “erases Israeli suffering.”
Ohio State SJP to Host Book Club on Memoir of PFLP Terrorist & Airplane Hijacker
Students for Justice in Palestine at the publicly-funded Ohio State University will host a book club discussion on January 3rd focused on the autobiography of Leila Khaled, a senior member of the U.S.-designated terror group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), who participated in two airplane hijackings in 1969 and 1970. The event, scheduled for 2 PM at Little Moon Cafe, will discuss Khaled’s memoir “My People Shall Live,” which details her role in hijacking TWA Flight 840 and attempting to hijack El Al Flight 219.

News of the event has drawn attention from Jewish students and community advocates who argue that celebrating a terrorist hijacker normalizes political violence. An email template circulating online provides contact information for Little Moon Cafe and Ohio State administrators, allowing concerned individuals to express objections to the event.

The event announcement describes the autobiography as providing “insight into how life under occupation shapes Palestinian revolutionaries, and the necessity of the Palestinian struggle for Liberation.” The announcement by SJP-OSU, which is an official student organization at the university, features an image of Khaled holding an AK-47 rifle.

An examination of SJP-OSU’s social media activity and reading materials reveals a systematic pattern of commemorating PFLP officials and individuals convicted of terrorist acts.

On July 9, 2024, SJP-OSU posted a commemoration of Ghassan Kanafani, describing him as a “martyr” killed by “the Zionist regime.” The post omitted that Kanafani served as a co-founder and official spokesperson for the PFLP and publicly claimed responsibility for the 1972 Lod Airport massacre, in which three Japanese Red Army members killed 26 people, including 17 American citizens, and injured 80 others at Israel’s main airport. Kanafani appeared in photographs with the attackers shortly before the operation and defended the tactics used in interviews.

A December 2024 post celebrated the 37th anniversary of the First Intifada, referring to its “glorious heroes” and “revolutionary spirit.” Over the course of the intifada, 200 Israelis were murdered by Palestinian terrorists.


UK Investigation Targets Iranian Bot Network Pushing Scottish Independence
UK Secretary of State for Scotland Douglas Alexander confirmed this week that a UK investigation into foreign political interference will examine an Iranian influence network that deployed thousands of fake social media accounts to promote Scottish independence.

The probe, ordered after former Reform UK politician Nathan Gill received a ten-and-a-half-year prison sentence for accepting Russian bribes, will scrutinize all foreign actors attempting to shape British democratic processes. Alexander specifically identified Iranian operations targeting Scotland’s constitutional debate as falling within the investigation’s scope.

The interference came to light following the Israel-Iran War in 2025, when strikes on Iranian infrastructure in June triggered a nationwide internet blackout across Iran. During the outage, dozens of X accounts that regularly championed Scottish independence abruptly ceased posting, according to reporting by UK Defence Journal.

Analysis revealed these accounts displayed hallmarks of coordinated inauthentic behavior despite posing as ordinary Scottish activists. Many used Scottish imagery, local references, and independence movement language while their technical footprints told a different story.

When X introduced a transparency feature allowing users to view account origin data, numerous pro-independence profiles showed connections through Iranian Android app stores, even when routing traffic through VPN servers in the Netherlands. Several accounts that claimed Glasgow locations were flagged as Iran-based.

One particularly revealing account, allegedly belonging to a Glasgow environmental science student named Alisa Stewart, began posting messages supporting Iran’s Supreme Leader immediately after the June blackout: “We stand with Iran’s Supreme Leader” and “The Supreme Leader of Iran stands as a symbol of dignity.” The account later resumed posting Scottish independence content, including sharing posts from SNP politicians.


French court jails nanny for poisoning Jewish family but dismisses antisemitism charge
A French court on Thursday sentenced a nanny to a two-and-a-half-year jail term for poisoning the parents of Jewish children in her care in 2024, but ruled out the aggravating circumstance of antisemitism.

The 42-year-old Algerian woman, known as Leรฏla Y., had been working as a nanny for their three children when the parents filed a complaint in January 2024 after noticing that a bottle of grape juice smelled of bleach and that the mother’s eye makeup remover burned her eyes.

She was detained the following month and charged with “administering a harmful substance resulting in incapacity exceeding eight days, committed on the grounds of race, ethnicity, nationality, or religion.”

Her arrest was only publicized this month, ahead of the start of her trial.

Investigators charged that shortly after she was hired in January 2024, the suspect began mixing toxic household cleaning agents into wine, juice, pasta and cosmetics belonging to the couple who hired her to care for their three children, aged 2, 5 and 7 at the time, according to a Le Parisien report.

According to the report, the mother of the family first alerted police on January 30, telling officers she had tasted what seemed to be cleaning fluid in her wine. She reported that her makeup remover had burned her eyes and that grape juice in the refrigerator appeared to foam and smelled of bleach. A pasta dish that had tasted normal one day suddenly had a strong “perfume” aroma the next, she said.

Several days later, on February 3, the couple’s 5-year-old daughter told her mother she had seen the nanny pour a soapy substance into a bottle labeled “Jerusalem,” a brand of kosher alcohol.
Italian PM Meloni fumes after court frees imam arrested for defending October 7
Mohamed Shahin, an Egyptian imam who heads a Muslim community in Turin, Italy, was ordered freed from custody this week by a local court following his arrest last month for defending Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre in Israel.

The decision to release Shahin was met with anger from Italian Prime Giorgia Meloni, who blasted the court’s decision in a statement on Monday.

“We are talking about a person who described the October 7 attack as an act of ‘resistance,’ denying its violence. Where I come from, that means justifying — if not inciting — terrorism,” wrote Meloni.

“Can someone explain to me how we are supposed to defend the safety of Italians if every initiative aimed in that direction is systematically overturned by certain judges?”

According to the ANSA Italian news agency, Shahin was arrested in November and Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi issued an order to have him deported from Italy due to his comments.

However, a court in Turin on Monday ruled in favor of an appeal by Shahin’s lawyers, the agency reported, saying that there were no “public safety” grounds to justify his arrest.

His attorneys have also argued that Shahin would face danger if he were deported back to Egypt, since he has been an outspoken critic of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.

The news agency reported that Shahin was arrested after he described Hamas’s October 7 attack — in which terrorists invaded southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, kidnapping 251 and committing numerous atrocities — to be “not a violation and neither was it violence.”
Nacua sorry for antisemitic gesture on livestream
Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua has apologised for performing an antisemitic gesture during a livestream appearance.

Nacua, 24, was encouraged to perform the move as a potential new touchdown celebration while appearing with internet personalities Adin Ross and Mikyle Rafi.

"When I appeared the other day on a social media livestream, it was suggested to me to perform a specific movement as part of my next touchdown celebration," Nacua posted in a statement on Instagram. , external

"At the time, I had no idea this act was antisemitic in nature and perpetuated harmful stereotypes against Jewish people.

"I deeply apologise to anyone who was offended by my actions as I do not stand for any form of racism, bigotry or hate of another group of people."

On the livestream, Ross, who is Jewish, suggested that Nacua use a touchdown celebration in which he rubs his hands together - a gesture used as an antisemitic stereotype to portray Jewish people as greedy.

Nacua then enacted the celebration multiple times and when asked by Ross if he would perform the celebration in a game, said: "I promise, I got you, man."

The NFL said it "strongly condemns all forms of discrimination and derogatory behavior directed towards any group or individual".

Its statement added: "The continuing rise of antisemitism must be addressed across the world. The NFL will continue to stand with our partners in this fight. Hatred has no place in our sport or society."


United Arab Emirates named as Elbit's mystery $2.3 billion customer
The UAE is the mystery customer in Israeli defense electronics company Elbit Systems' huge new $2.3 billion deal signed last month, the "Intelligence Online" website reports. Similar to a previous deal Elbit signed in August with Serbia, worth $1.63 billion, the company chose to remain vague about the content of the agreement and the purchasing country, and in this case, even refrained from specifying on which continent it is located.

In its original announcement, Elbit said that the deal would be carried out over eight years, but did not specify which systems were involved.

From drones to intelligence capabilities
The same agreement with Serbia, which is expected to be delivered over five years, includes the supply of long-range precision artillery rocket systems and a wide range of unmanned aerial combat systems for surveillance and combat, including individual drones.

Elbit will also provide Serbia with advanced intelligence (ISTAR) capabilities, including COMINT, SIGINT, and electronic warfare systems. The agreement includes the supply of intelligence collection and processing systems, advanced electro-optical (E/O) systems, night vision, and upgrades to combat vehicles and defense systems.

The latest deal is considered to be of historic scope, and joins a series of huge deals signed by Israeli defense companies in recent years. At the top of the list is the sale of the Arrow 3 system by Israel Aerospace Industries to Germany in 2023, for $3.5 billion. In addition, at the end of June, Rafael won a tender from the Romanian Ministry of Defense for the purchase of a short-range and extremely short-range air defense system (V/SHORAD), in a deal worth an estimated $2.2 billion.
Germany doubles its investment in Israel's Arrow 3 with new $3.1 billion expansion deal
The German Bundestag has approved an expansion of the Arrow 3 defense system contract with Israel, valued at approximately $3.1 billion, which will complement the initial purchase agreement signed by Israel and Germany approximately two years ago, valued at roughly $3.5 billion, Israel's Defense Ministry announced on Wednesday.

Together, the Arrow agreements, signed by the ministry and the German Federal Ministry of Defense (BMVg), total approximately $6.5 billion, representing the largest Israeli defense export deal ever.

The announcement comes only two weeks after the initial Arrow 3 battery Israel provided to Germany was deployed at a major ceremony at Holzdorf Air Force Base, attended also by The Jerusalem Post.

As part of the contract expansion, the ministry said that it and the BMVg "have agreed to significantly increase the production rate of Arrow 3 interceptors and launchers to be supplied to Germany, substantially enhancing its air and missile defense capabilities."

Israel-Germany Arrow project
For years, successive defense ministers have worked on the Israel-Germany Arrow project, with former minister Yoav Gallant signing a final deal, Director General Maj. Gen. (Res.) Amir Baram repeatedly visiting Germany, and Baram and Defense Minister Israel Katz focusing on expanding defense exports to significantly enhance the IDF's force build-up and strengthen Israel's defense industry and economy.

The latest contract expansion will be signed on Thursday in Germany, led by Director of the Israel Missile Defense Organization (IMDO) within the Ministry’s Directorate of Defense Research and Development (DDR&D), Moshe Patel, and the Director General of the German Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology and In-Service Support, Annette Lehnigk-Emden.
UK aliyah surges 70% since 2023
Aliyah from the UK has risen by more than 70 percent since 2023, prompting Shivat Zion to launch a £65,000 end-of-year fundraising campaign to meet rapidly growing demand for support.

Figures from the Jewish Agency show that the number of British Jews making Aliyah climbed from 391 in 2023 to 577 by October 2025. This includes a 76 percent increase between 2023 and 2024, followed by a further 20 percent rise in 2025, with projections suggesting numbers will increase again in 2026.

Shivat Zion, which is officially authorised by the Jewish Agency, says it is seeing unprecedented levels of demand from individuals and families seeking guidance not only through the aliyah process but also in preparing for life in Israel.

The organisation reported that in the first 11 months of 2025 it received 25 percent more requests for help than in the whole of 2024. Use of its online services, including its digital information tools, rose by 30 percent over the same period. Compared with 2023, Shivat Zion says it is now providing around 150 percent more support overall.

The charity says the trend reflects a wider shift across Europe since the 7 October attacks, with growing concern about antisemitism driving many Jews to consider aliyah as a long-term solution for security and stability.

In 2025 alone, up to November, Shivat Zion supported more than 500 complex aliyah cases, handled around 5,000 individual help requests and facilitated hundreds of one-to-one preparation meetings. That represents a further 30 percent rise on last year, with weeks of the year still remaining.

Shraga Evers, CEO of Shivat Zion, said: “Over the past two years we have witnessed a remarkable wave of commitment from British Jews who feel that this is their moment to come home. Every day we speak with families who are looking for a better future and a partner to guide them.
Erin Molan: He Gave $100,000,000 — This Was His Answer
He didn’t issue a statement. He didn’t post a hashtag.
He gave $100,000,000.

In this episode of The Erin Molan Show, Erin sits down with Sylvan Adams — one of the world’s most generous philanthropists — to unpack what real leadership looks like when societies are under strain and truth feels under attack.

After a missile strike hit a major hospital in southern Israel, Adams made a decision few people on Earth could — or would — make. Instead of rebuilding quietly, he chose to expand, modernize, and send a message: if you try to break us, we come back stronger.

This conversation goes far beyond money.

Erin and Sylvan discuss:
Why the world feels like it’s at a breaking point
How misinformation and propaganda are reshaping public opinion
The failure of Western institutions to call things by their real names
What courage, leadership, and moral clarity actually look like right now


This episode was recorded in the aftermath of a devastating week in Sydney, Australia — and asks a question many are afraid to confront: When everything feels broken… what does a real response actually look like?








Buy EoZ's books  on Amazon!

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

    
 

 

at