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Thursday, December 25, 2025

12/25 Links: Would Jesus Be Safe in a Synagogue Today?; Ben Shapiro vs the crank right; The King hails heroes who ‘ran into danger’ at Bondi; Rabbi’s car torched in Melbourne

From Ian:

Jeff Jacoby: Would Jesus Be Safe in a Synagogue Today?
I used to scoff when some American Jews told opinion surveys that antisemitism in the U.S. was "a very serious problem." I thought Jews had been blessed in America with a degree of tolerance and goodwill virtually unparalleled. America's story was rooted in Judeo-Christian soil. The founders of the American republic believed that they, like the Israelites of old, had been led to a Promised Land.

Jews seemed familiar - the original protagonists in the very story the founders believed they were continuing. Jews were embraced as heirs to the scriptures Americans revered. George Washington in his famous 1790 letter to the Jewish community of Newport, R.I., said that in America, every Jew would live safely "and there shall be none to make him afraid."

But the golden age has been replaced by a grim new reality in which antisemitism is being normalized with terrifying speed. Today, American synagogues and Jewish schools must spend a fortune on security. Jewish-owned businesses are targeted by antisemitic mobs, podcasters with huge followings platform Holocaust deniers, and social media is awash in anti-Jewish venom.

Rev. Daniel Joslyn-Siemiatkoski, an Episcopal priest and director of the Center for Christian-Jewish Learning at Boston College, noted the difference between synagogues with rigorous security protocols and nearby churches where people were free to walk in and out of the open doors. "Why are we Americans willing to live like this? Why are Christians, who worship Jesus the Jew, willing to stand for this? Why do we stand by as Jews in our communities are threatened by antisemitic graffiti, as Jewish children are bullied in their schools, and as more and more Jews feel they must hide their Jewish identity for fear of harassment - or worse?"

"Jesus lived as a Jew and taught as one. The gospels recount that one of the first acts of his public ministry was to teach in his home synagogue. If Jesus were to reappear today, what would he make of armed guards and locked doors at the entrance of U.S. synagogues?... Antisemitism threatens all of us. Rarely do those who target Jews with persecution, threats, or violence stop there. They come for others....Jesus would not keep silent at the sight of Jewish worshipers who need armed guards to pray in safety."
Victor Davis Hanson: We know the reasons for violence against Jews — but refuse to say them aloud
Indeed, most polls show that 60% of Democrats favor the Palestinians over the Israelis. Translated, that means they prefer a terrorist autocracy over a Western liberal constitutional government.

The right used to be a unified corrective to left-wing antisemitism. It still polls nearly 70% in favor of Israel.

For a while longer, it is far more likely to condemn antisemitic violence than the left.

But recently, its own base, in varying degrees, has come full circle and joined the left in its distaste for Israel and Jews in general.

The new anti-Israel right despises Israel and the US support of it, either in terms that are commercial (there are more Arabs, with more money and oil), cowardly (trashing Jews does not earn terrorist reprisals; rebuking Muslims can), political (Jews more often vote Democratic), or simply antisemitic (cabals of Jews control Wall Street, Hollywood, the media, etc.).

Once-fringe antisemites like Nick Fuentes are now welcomed to air their views openly, but mostly the conspiracy venom is of the more insidious sort, like “I’m just throwing this out there. . .” or “Here is something to consider. . .”

In the last few weeks, we have been told — without any evidence — by right-wing influencers that the Jews may well have had a hand in killing Charlie Kirk, in bombing an Iranian nuclear facility, in pressuring the Maduro kleptocracy and in the 9/11 slaughter.

One hallmark of the new right-wing furor against Jews and Israel is the strange symbiosis they employ.

Formerly edgy podcasters become vicarious hosts of virulent antisemites. The partnerships are a way of not directly owning up to their toxicity but just “putting it out there.”

Candace Owens initially championed Kanye West (“I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up, I’m going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE”).

Then she graduated to expressing her own old antisemitic tropes: “There is just a very small ring of specific people who are using the fact that they are Jewish to shield themselves from any criticism. . . . All Americans should want answers because this appears to be something that is quite sinister.”

Tucker Carlson hosted critics of the US effort against Hitler in World War II and Israel-behind-it conspiracists before escalating to inviting Nick Fuentes on in a mostly friendly manner — which might be attributed to his interview format, except he has attacked fellow conservatives far more than has odious Fuentes.

But now Carlson himself too throws out story-line hints about just maybe Jews’ involvement in Charlie Kirk’s death, or a sort of/kind of Jewish effort behind 9/11, or perhaps it was those Jews eating hummus, not the Roman prefect of Judea who ordered Jesus killed for supposed sedition — a common fate of any provincial residents who even appeared to defy the absolute authority of the Roman imperial state.

Carlson strangely categorized Israel as an “insignificant” country. But is not Israel a democratic Western outpost in a sea of Middle East autocracy, the most technically advanced and scientifically sophisticated nation for its size in the world and the ancient home of the Judeo-Christian tradition?

Somehow, many on the right forgot who funds the virulently anti-American mouthpiece Al-Jazeera, or where the 9/11 murderers came from, or who has killed Americans in Syria, Lebanon and on the Red Sea, or whom the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS and theocratic Iran have vowed to destroy.

And as for Oct. 7 and what followed, Israel waited in vain for nearly three weeks for Hamas to give up the 3,000 terrorists who murdered 1,219 Jews, wounded 3,400 and took 254 hostages before mounting a full invasion of Gaza.

Where does it all end?

Either there will be an 11th-hour Western intolerance of antisemitism, a limit of student visas and immigration from the illiberal nations of the Middle East, a return to melting-pot assimilation, an end to DEI tribalism and a reform of the weaponized university curricula — or we will see more images of gunmen shooting Jews as if they were mere animals.
Ben Shapiro vs the crank right
If this contrarianism were simply about ‘owning the libs’, it would be of no real consequence. However, ‘just asking questions’ has become a right-wing ploy to promote conspiracy theories while maintaining plausible deniability. And in a world where clicks generate cash and algorithms favour outrage, there’s a financial incentive to go all in on the outlandish. All this matters because it’s doing significant brand damage and shattering trust in institutions.

Douglas Murray’s recent bust-up with podcaster Joe Rogan and comedian Dave Smith demarcates this new dividing line on the right. The two-hour conversation hit a brick wall over whether to trust experts or spurn them.

This schism is having real-world effects in the realm of foreign policy. Thanks to the America Firsters, Uncle Sam can no longer be seen as a reliable ally, even at a time when Europe is facing Russian aggression.

This new form of conservatism is also redrawing the battle lines of the culture war. In recent years, the right has seemed like a paragon of reason compared with the left, which has imbibed woke orthodoxies, from critical race theory to trans activism. That is no longer the case.

I don’t sign up to everything Shapiro has to offer. I part ways with him on abortion and gun control, for example. But he’s right to stand up for traditional conservatism, which approaches new ideas with suspicion and defends institutions.

What does this new intake stand for?


Father of Slain Daughter Unveils Jarring Details About The Islamist Who K*LLED Her!
Why is the mastermind of a deadly Hamas terror attack walking free and celebrated as a media personality in Jordan despite a U.S. extradition order and a $5 million bounty on her head?

Arnold Roth, father of 15-year-old Malki who was murdered in the Sbarro bombing, delivers a devastating indictment of American inaction, Jordanian betrayal and the global silence surrounding justice denied. From the Bondi massacre to the failures of U.S. Jewish leadership, this is not just a story of grief, it’s an urgent call to action. Justice for Malki is still possible, but only if we open our eyes.

CHAPTERS
00:00 – Introduction: Who was Malki Roth?
01:40 – Why her killer walks free in Jordan
03:25 – U.S. silence & $5M bounty ignored
06:05 – Betrayal by allies: Jordan’s defiance
09:10 – Bondi Beach massacre and painful parallels
12:30 – The Malki Foundation: a legacy of love
16:00 – Palestinian Authority rewards terrorists
18:10 – The fallout of the Shalit deal
21:45 – Failed leadership in media, Congress & Jewish orgs
25:15 – Final plea for justice and public awakening


Former hostage Romi Gonen recounts repeated sexual assaults by captors in Gaza
Former hostage Romi Gonen tells Channel 12’s “Uvda” program about her harrowing ordeal in Gaza. Gonen says she was sexually assaulted by four different men during her time as a hostage.

She says the first assault happened on her fourth day in captivity, the abuser being a doctor who was tasked with caring for her injuries sustained during the Hamas-led October 7 attack and her abduction.

Gonen says she was allowed to take a shower, and the man followed her in “because he’s a nurse and he came to ‘help’ me in the shower.”

“I was injured, I had no power, and I was in a situation in which I couldn’t do anything,” she says.

“He took everything from me,” she says. “Afterward, I had to continue living with him in the house.”

Gonen says her next attacker was a cameraman who filmed clips of her for propaganda purposes. When she was moved homes, she was forced to stay alone with man, Muhammad, who then began touching her. Gonen says she told him to stop and went to another room, but that the next day Muhammad told her he would be beside her from then on out. “And that’s how my ordeal in that house began,” she says.

She says that for many days, Muhammad and a second man, Ibrahim, assaulted her.

“I’m sitting on the bed. Ibrahim comes and sits next to me, and harasses me. Everything happens in the room, in complete silence. I start crying insanely. Everything is quiet, and he says, ‘Be careful, if you don’t calm down, I’ll get angry.’ And that’s how the days pass: I go to the bathroom and Muhammad is with me, and he watches me. I pee, and with one hand I pull down my pants. I sit on the toilet so that God forbid he won’t see anything of me. Ibrahim keeps bothering me endlessly. They grab my leg and move up to my thigh. I kick. It went on for 16 days… Those were by far the worst 16 days of my captivity.”

But Gonen says the worst single attack came later, when another captor in another house followed her into the toilet and assaulted her for some 30 minutes.

“I remember this one moment when I looked — there was a kind of window there, a small square like a picture frame — and I looked through the window and said to myself: ‘Wow. Blue skies, birds chirping, and this is the situation I’m in right now.’ The dissonance between life outside, the beautiful, normal, clean life, and the filth and brutality and utter disgust that’s happening here inside the bathroom — It’s a moment I will never forget in my life,” she says.
Romi Gonen shared a powerful and courageous testimony

Hamas's low-quality, 'harmless' manifesto should raise the alarm for all of us on Gaza - comment
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to meet Trump at the White House next Wednesday. By publishing this manifesto now, Hamas is making it abundantly clear that it has no intentions of respecting the terms of the deal and disarming before Phase II.

Combining that with the weekly, if not daily, ceasefire violations by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, it's crucial that Netanyahu drives the following point home to Trump: The pressure to move on to Phase II is misplaced.

Rather than putting joint pressure on Israel to move on to the next phase without all of the hostages returned or without a disarmed Hamas because "99% is good enough, I guess," won't achieve the permanent end to the conflict that Trump touted so proudly in the Knesset just months ago.

If there were doubts that Hamas was not going to respect the terms, publishing this manifesto makes that point clear as day.

The second main danger of this document is the misinformation. As I've stated previously, Hamas lies all the time, so why would this be any different?

To understand this, one must look at what happened when Hamas published its previous manifesto, a 16-page document titled “Our Narrative: Operation Al-Aqsa Flood."

While it contains similar declarations of victory and denials of rape, murder, and other atrocities, its publication had a meaningful impact on public opinion on the war in the US and even pressure on the Biden administration.

The document spread like wildfire online and was even distributed on college campuses, including King's College, in November 2024.

Trump currently feels cornered due to a lot of internal issues in the US - the release of the Epstein files, and the ambiguity revolving military action in Venezuela, to name a few. In instances like these, Trump has a tendency to try to see where he can pull off wins. Moving onto the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire can be sold as a win, while admitting that there's still a long way to go cannot.

If this publication renews a wave of campus protests or even generic support for moving to Phase II before all the conditions are met, Trump would have an incentive to keep up the pressure campaign despite anything Netanyahu tells him.

So, while the manifesto may appear to be mangled AI-generated slop that was published in a rush to have something before the world's attention disappears for Christmas break, Hamas is stating loud and clear that it has no intention of going anywhere.

While we all have high hopes that the new year will bring all of our hostages home and an end to the conflict, Hamas's declaration of victory is really a declaration of continuing to fight.


The King hails heroes who ‘ran into danger’ during terror attacks against Jews
The King has used his annual Christmas Day message to hail the heroes who ran into danger during the terror attacks on Jews in Manchester and Sydney.

Over video showing him meeting Rabbi Daniel Walker on his visit to Heaton Park Synagogue and flowers being laid at Bondi Beach following the Chanukah outrage, His Majesty says: “Individuals and communities have displayed spontaneous bravery, instinctively placing themselves in harm’s way to defend others.”

King Charles is also seen meeting Pope Leo as well as the Chief Rabbi and Imams Syed Razawi and Qari Asim during the signing of the historic Jewish-Muslim Dumlanrig Accords at Buckingham Palace early in 2025.

“As I meet people of different faiths, I find it enormously encouraging to hear how much we have in common,” he says. “With the great diversity of our communities we an find the strength to ensure that right triumphs over wrong.”

There are also images of him attending the commemorations for the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz in January in Poland.
Brave cop shot in the eye during the Bondi Beach terror attack is pictured for the first time since leaving hospital
Hero police officer Jack Hibbert has been photographed for the first time since he saved a member of the public during the deadly Bondi Beach terror attack.

Probationary Constable Hibbert, 22, was one of several officers already at the beach when the shooting began, walking with his son near Archer Park when the gunmen allegedly opened fire.

He was pulling members of the public to safety when he was struck by a bullet, shrapnel tearing into the nerves behind his eye.

Constable Hibbert was rushed to hospital in a critical condition, with the prospect of losing his eye.

But on Christmas Eve, the massive Dolphins fan was presented with a special jersey after finally being released from hospital.

Police Association of NSW acting president Ian Allwood visited Constable Hibbert and his family,

A photo of the celebrations, shared by the association, showed the police officer smiling alongside Mr Allwood, Mark Bouris representing the NRL and Sydney Roosters captain James Tedesco.

It came just two days after Constable Hibbert's family released a statement via NSW Police announcing that he had been discharged from hospital in time for Christmas.
Australia creates special honor list for heroes of Bondi attack, will open nominations to public
Australia has created a special honors list to recognize the bravery and heroism of those who responded to last Sunday’s Bondi Beach Massacre, Australian Governor General Sam Mostyn announced on Wednesday.

The public will be able to nominate those they believe worthy of being honored for their actions in response to the Hanukkah party terrorist attack that claimed the lives of 15 and wounded 40.

Mostyn said on Facebook that the approval of the honors list came following the advice of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who announced that he had written to the Governor General about the matter the same day.

“What happened at Bondi showed the worst of humanity – hatred, antisemitism, and violence. But it also showed the best,” Albanese said in a Wednesday statement. “People ran toward danger. They put themselves at risk to help others, not because they had to but because it was the right thing to do.”

Awards will be announced in 2026. According to the Governor General’s website, Australian bravery decorations are announced in March and August, while the Order of Australia, meritorious awards, and military awards are announced in January and June.


Rabbi’s car torched in Melbourne
A car with a Chanukah decoration on its roof was set ablaze in Melbourne early Thursday, as a wave of antisemitism persists in Australia.

The Christmas morning attack came just 10 days after the Sydney Chanukah mass shooting that killed 15 people and wounded dozens in the most lethal assault on Jews since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led massacre.

There were no injuries reported in the 2:30 a.m. arson in the Melbourne neighborhood of St. Kilda East, but the occupants of a nearby house were evacuated as a precaution.

Balaclava Road, where the vehicle was parked, passes through a major Jewish neighborhood, and close to the location of a number of Jewish institutes, including a large Orthodox Jewish girls’ high school.

Victoria police, who described the incident as a “suspicious fire,” said on Thursday that they had identified a person of interest in the case.

Australian Jewish community leaders already reeling from the Sydney attack condemned the arson, which they attributed to a climate in which extremist rhetoric has been normalized.

“This heinous antisemitic attack has seen a young family have their car destroyed and being too frightened to stay in their home simply because they chose to share the joy of Chanukah with the community,” said Colin Rubenstein, executive director Australia/Israel Jewish Affairs Council, in a statement to JNS.

“It further emphasizes the urgent need for the state and federal governments to crack down on the antisemitism and incitement to and perpetration of violence rampant on our streets before there are more tragic outcomes. The Jewish community deserves to go about our lives and to celebrate our culture in safety, and the governments must do everything they can to ensure that is the case.”


Israel to spend $110 billion on independent arms industry, PM Benjamin Netanyahu says
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday Israel would spend 350 billion shekels ($110 billion) on developing Blue and White arms to reduce dependency on foreign countries.

“I approved, along with the defense minister and finance minister, a sum of NIS 350 billion [$108 billion] over the next decade to build an independent Israeli munitions industry,” Netanyahu said during a graduation ceremony for Israeli Air Force pilots.

"We will continue to acquire essential supplies while independently arming ourselves," he continued. “I don't know if a country can be completely independent but we will strive to ensure our arms are produced as much as possible in Israel, and that includes some aerial platforms.”

While Israel relies on the United States for its fighter planes, refuelers and helicopters, there are several local companies that build unmanned aerial platforms including Elbit Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries-IAI.

“Our goal is to build an independent arms industry for the State of Israel and reduce the dependency on any party, including allies. The finest minds in our defense industries are hard at work developing weapons systems that will guarantee Israel's advantage on the battlefield of the future."

Israel faced barrage of arms embargos during Gaza war
During the war between Israel and Hamas, many countries imposed various restrictions on military sales to Israel, such as arms embargoes. Those countries included friendly countries like Germany, the UK, and even the United States briefly under the Biden administration.

Spain approved a total arms embargo on Israel which forbids the European country from exporting any defense material or dual-use products or technologies to Israel and the import of any arms to Spain.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has called the war in Gaza a “genocide” and has called to ban anyone who has participated directly in the war from entering the country.

Nevertheless, official trade data indicates that Spain continues to buy weapons from Israel, reaching €7 million in 2024 and €10.2 million in 2025. Over the past year, Spain imported €6.8 million worth of bombs, grenades, torpedoes, mines, missiles, and similar munitions. Another €3.4 million worth of war weaponry and ammunition were also imported.

Australia has also been heavily critical of Israel’s war in Gaza.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has insisted that the country does “not sell arms to Israel. Yet, Australia’s defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy defended the country’s use of Israeli military systems, saying that the administration “makes no apology for getting the best possible equipment for the Australian Defense Force.”


Michael Doran: The U.S. Needs Israeli Innovation for Our Defense
For decades, the U.S.-Israel partnership has delivered significant returns: providing the U.S. with world-leading defense innovation and access to intelligence from across the Middle East.

President Trump's Golden Dome air defense system is the latest expression of that partnership, designed to protect America from ballistic missiles, hypersonic weapons, and cruise missiles.

In building such a system, the U.S. is drawing directly on Israeli technology, expertise, and combat experience.

Israel provides mature, combat-tested interception technologies and supplies real combat data generated under sustained missile and drone assault.

Together, these accelerate development, reduce risk, and close gaps the U.S. has struggled to address on its own.

There is a deeper truth missed by critics of the U.S.-Israel relationship. Israel functions across multiple domains of national security as an operational component of American power.

It helps the U.S. develop, refine, and validate capabilities that cannot always be generated domestically.

When Israel innovates under fire, American cities become safer.
Amit Segal: Selling F-35s to Turkey Could Lead to War
When Turkey's President Erdogan accuses Israel of encroaching on its neighbors' territory, he's mirroring his own desire to revive the Ottoman Empire, which once ruled those same regions. When he claims that Israel has "set its sights on" Turkey, he ignores his own prayers to Allah asking for Israel's destruction. While claiming that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians, he denies the genocide his country committed against the Armenians.

Turkey stands by many bad actors in the region, supports terrorists and fuels instability. It has aided Pakistan against India, is reportedly building military bases in Sri Lanka, and hosts and protects Hamas members. Nothing good would come of allowing Turkish power in the region to increase.

The U.S. recently signaled that it would try to sell F-35s to Saudi Arabia. Although Israel expressed concerns about such sales, it's clear that the Saudis would use these aircraft to defend against Iranian aggression, not to attack Tel Aviv. By contrast, Mr. Erdogan preaches the destruction of "Zionist Israel." There is no doubt that F-35 fighter jets sold to Ankara are intended for a future war with Israel.

Selling the jets to Turkey would unsettle the delicate balance in the region and diminish or even wipe out the Israel Defense Forces' qualitative military edge. Why should the U.S. enable a future scenario in which F-35 jets conduct dogfights against each other? It would be a mistake to equip an increasingly aggressive and Islamist Turkey with far more advanced American weapons.
Foreign criticism of West Bank settlements 'discriminatory against Jews,' Sa'ar says
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar responded on Wednesday to the condemnation by a number of Western countries about the West Bank settlements program, saying that "foreign governments will not restrict the right of Jews to live in the land of Israel, and any such call is morally wrong and discriminatory against Jews."

"Israel strongly rejects the statement issued by foreign countries regarding the cabinet decision on settlements in Judea and Samaria," Sa'ar said in a statement.

Sa'ar assured that the decision to establish 11 new settlements and formalize another eight, which had been considered illegal, aims to address several security threats. He also said that all of the settlements are in Area C and "situated on state land."

Sa'ar also cited international law, the 1917 Balfour Declaration, and the San Remo Conference of 1920, which established "the right of the Jewish people to establish its national home extends over the entire territory of 'Mandatory Palestine.' These rights were preserved in Article 80 of the Charter of the United Nations."

"In the aforementioned statement, the blatant silence of foreign states regarding the Palestinian Authority’s illegal construction in Area C is extremely striking," he concluded.
UKLFI Charitable Trust: Natasha Hausdorff discusses legal status of Judea & Samaria (West Bank) and settlements
In this new interview, Natasha Hausdorff discusses the legal status of Judea & Samaria (West Bank) and Israeli settlements there.

Natasha puts forward her views regarding the current legal status based on international law rules as applied to other territories around the world. This status can be changed by final status agreements as contemplated by the Oslo Accords.

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:02 Uti possidetis juris
03:21 International agreements
05:04 Abba Eban's denial of annexation
07:00 Legal status of Israeli settlements
09:48 Analysis of the argument that Israeli settlements are illegal
15:49 Media representation of territory and settlements
16:46 Final thoughts




Georgetown University severs ties with UN’s Francesca Albanese over antisemitic remarks
Georgetown University has severed its ties with Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur, due to her antisemitic statements, including those justifying the events of October 7, according to an article by UN Watch.

Albanese was previously listed on the "Other Affiliated Scholars" page of Georgetown University's Institute for the Study of International Migration. However, she has now been completely removed, and her information can no longer be found on the university's site. Her biography page has also reportedly been deleted.

The action taken by Georgetown University follows a significant campaign by UN Watch that highlighted Albanese's support for terrorism and antisemitism. The UN Watch article mentioned a 60-page document compiled by UN Watch that details Albanese's discriminatory remarks.

For over six months, UN Watch has been advocating for Georgetown University to remove Albanese from its faculty.

Hillel Neuer, the Executive Director of UN Watch, praised and welcomed the university's decision in a celebratory post on X/twitter, stating, “Thank you, [Georgetown]. It's time to expel all supporters of terrorism from our universities.”

A message for the UN and Universities alike
In the UN Watch report, Neuer emphasized that this decision sends an important message to both academic institutions and the United Nations, asserting that "Positions of authority at the United Nations do not grant immunity from accountability, and universities should not serve as safe havens for those who use their platforms to promote hatred."

Neuer also urged the UN to follow suit and remove Albanese from her position.

The UN Watch article highlighted Georgetown's alleged connections with Qatar, referencing a report from the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism, which stated that Georgetown University has received approximately $1 billion from Qatar since 2005. Additionally, the report found that Georgetown centers were minimizing the threat of Islamist extremism.


IDF PodCast: Hanukkah Miracles: A Soldier's Inspiring Story of Recovery
In this episode of Mission Brief, Sergeant H shares his harrowing experience of losing his legs during a military operation in Gaza. Sergeant H recounts his journey from being drafted into the Armored Corps to the life-changing event on July 2, 2025, when his tank was hit by an IED. Despite severe injuries, Sergeant H survived due to his training as a medic and the bravery of his team. His story intertwines with the spirit of Hanukkah, highlighting the theme of miracles. Sergeant H reflects on his recovery, the support from his loved ones, and maintaining a positive attitude even in the darkest times. His testimony is a powerful reminder of resilience, hope, and the small miracles that shape our lives.
IDF nab Samaria terror cell planning attack
Israeli troops thwarted a planned terrorist attack when they captured four terrorists in western Samaria overnight Wednesday, the military said.

The terrorists were apprehended in the Jayyus area near Qalqilya, with the Israel Defense Forces saying that they “operated to advance terrorist activities in the area and planned to execute a terror attack.”

Three other terrorists were arrested near Kifl Haris and Deir Istiya after they threw rocks at vehicles on a main road.

The detainees were transferred to the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) for questioning, the army said.

“The security forces continue operating to thwart terrorism in the area and against anyone who harms or attempts to harm Israeli civilians and the security forces,” the IDF added.


IDF, Shin Bet kill top Quds Force operative in Lebanon
The Israel Defense Forces and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) said they carried out a joint operation Thursday in the Nabatieh area of southern Lebanon, eliminating a senior operative in Iran’s Quds Force.

According to a statement issued by the IDF and Shin Bet, the target—Hussein Mahmoud Marashd al-Jawhari—was a key terrorist in Unit 840, the Quds Force’s operations unit, and had been involved in recent years in advancing Iranian-directed terror plots against Israel in the Syria-Lebanon arena.

The military said al-Jawhari operated under Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and was involved in terrorist activity, directed by Iran, against the State of Israel and its security forces.

Unit 840, headed by Asghar Bagheri and his deputy, Mohammad Reza Ansari, is responsible for directing Iranian terrorist operations against Israel, the statement said.

“The IDF and ISA view with great severity any attempt by the Iranian regime and its proxies to advance terror plans, and will continue to operate in order to remove any threat against the State of Israel,” it added.


NYPost Editorial: Israel’s haters claim the world hates it — but the facts show a different story
To its haters, Israel is a pariah on the verge of expulsion from the world community, after it had the nerve to defend itself from Hamas.

Yet a series of recent meetings and trade deals proves the Jewish state is firmly integrated in the regional and world economy — and not going anywhere soon.

Last week’s announcement that Israel had finalized its plan to sell $37 billion of natural gas to Egypt is just one example, and a win-win for both parties, as well as for regional stability.

Though Egypt downplayed the diplomatic significance of the deal, it’s obvious the relationship between the two countries is more than an anachronistic holdover from the Carter years.

Israel, Greece and Cyprus, represented by their respective leaders, staged a trilateral summit in Jerusalem Monday to discuss security issues vis-à-vis Turkey, their mutual enemy, and building an undersea electrical grid linking the three countries.

Meanwhile, Israel’s relations with the Arab world are strong. Trade with the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Morocco and Bahrain has grown substantially, and Israel’s ties with Saudi Arabia, though informal, are reportedly robust.

Officials from Israel and Qatar — whose relations were strained by Israel’s botched airstrike on a Hamas compound in Doha in September — met in New York on Sunday to mend ties.

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India and Israel also bolstered their already strong ties in November with a memorandum of understanding on arms sales as well as science, technology and research and development.


Ask Haviv Anything: Episode 71: Why the heck does America support Israel?
Welcome to our new short-form episodes interspersed with the regular interviews that dive into an often-asked question about Israel, Jews and the Middle East.

Our current question: Why the heck does America support Israel?

Chapters
00:00 The Roots of American Support for Israel
03:15 The Evolution of U.S.-Israel Relations
06:09 Strategic Alliances and Military Dynamics
09:04 The Impact of War and Peace Processes
12:11 Contemporary Challenges and Future Implications


NYC Jewish-Syrian community buys two Jerusalem towers in deal worth over NIS 1 billion
A Jewish-Syrian community in New York City has collectively purchased two residential towers in central Jerusalem, in a deal that SNIR Real Estate Agency CEO Nir Shmoul described as "the largest deal in the State of Israel to date."

In an interview with N12 News published on Wednesday about the purchase, Shmoul estimated that the cost exceeded a billion shekels. Learn how to buy your home in Israel with confidence >>

Praising the deal, he said the benefits were twofold: that it helped Jews make aliyah and that it addressed the difficult economic situation in Israel.

The community purchased space for approximately 200 families to move in, but Shmoul said it was unlikely that the entire community would move to Israel in the near future, noting that "maybe their children are in the army or studying here."

"This deal attests to the great potential of the market," he added.

"Maybe we really will see a wave of purchasing here, which could change the real estate landscape," he commented.

He also mentioned the need to avoid creating "ghost apartments," unoccupied properties that lie empty for months or years at a time. According to data published by the Central Bureau of Statistics, approximately 15,000 apartments were reported as ghost apartments in Jerusalem in 2018.


Conspiracy Theorists Are Conspiring to Be Stupid
Out at AmFest, the Turning Point USA convention, one of the big topics was the USS Liberty incident from 1967. That’s another IQ test that takes the form of a conspiracy theory. It’s a perennial favorite among dumb people who blame Jews for everything, from war to pestilence to their own inability to perform sexually with another person in the room. And, of course, we’ve also recently seen the relitigation of 9/11 – my friends who were literally in the Pentagon when it was hit by the airliner are always thrilled to be told they don’t know what they’re talking about by some Internet rando who’s never known the loving touch of another human being who took a deep dive into Reddit subforums and understands that it was really a scheme pulled off by a combination of the Trilateral Commission, the Rand Corporation, the saucer people, and, of course, the Jews.

We’re through the looking glass here, people.

At least no one is currently talking about JFK, other than by demeaning Trump by adding his name to that of the failed president, but highly successful pervert, on the Trump-Kennedy Center. I’m old, and I’ve had to deal with people all my life coming up with complex and intricate theories as to how JFK got shot that all ignore Occam’s Razor – a communist jerk who knew how to shoot shot him, and a bunch of leftists hated the fact that a leftist shot him, so they decided to blame everybody else but leftists. Many are just bored with their lives, while others are delusional, imagining they were the special ones capable of peeling the onion of a giant plot that no one else had the insight to detect.

As I said, conspiracy theories are IQ tests, and far too many people are failing.

But we ought to define our terms. A "conspiracy theory" is a conjecture about a plot in which a large group of people work together to achieve an invidious result while also blaming someone else to support their narrative. A conspiracy theory is not a conspiracy theory if it’s a result of idiocy. That’s an idiocy theory. And we shouldn’t underestimate the power of stupidity because it’s essentially the cold fusion of human endeavor powering almost everything bad that’s going on through history. This is not to say that sometimes people don’t get together and try to do something bad, then blame it on someone else. It’s just to say that it’s unbelievably hard, to the point of implausibility, to do it effectively regarding something substantial and important over time.


Regional elections deal blow to Spain’s anti-Israel leaders
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialist Party on Sunday lost more than a quarter of its seats in regional elections, which right-wing parties carried handily.

ACOM, a prominent pro-Israel nongovernmental organization in Spain, welcomed the result as a sign of weakness for a government that has led efforts to isolate and punish the Jewish state within the European Union and beyond.

Angel Mas, ACOM’s president, told JNS that the result likely reflects a broader discontent with the Socialists nationally. It may mean a shift to the right in the next elections, he added, but only if the conservative bloc unites enough to govern together.

The Socialists clinched 18 out of the regional parliament’s 65 seats. Their share was 28 seats in the 2023 elections. The share of the incumbent, center-right Popular Party remained steady. The right-wing Vox party more than doubled its seats, to 11.

Sanchez’s party is currently facing several corruption scandals, including one involving last month’s arrest of one of his predecessors, Jose Luis Abalos, allegedly for taking bribes. Sanchez’s wife and younger brother are also facing graft allegations.

Critics of the Sanchez government, including ACOM, have alleged that its hostility toward Israel is meant to divert attention from its scandals. This critique was the premise of a satirical sketch featured in October on a local counterpart of “Saturday Night Live” (“Polònia,” aired by the Catalonian public broadcaster TV3.)

Spain was the first E.U. member state to intervene against Israel in the trial for genocide that South Africa initiated in 2023. In May, Sanchez called Israel a “genocidal state.” Last year, the de facto leader of a coalition partner of the Socialists, Labor Minister Yolanda Díaz, ended a televised address with the slogan: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

The Popular Party has been friendlier to Israel than the Socialists, but it is split on the issue, according to Mas. The incumbent president of Extremadura, Popular Party member María Guardiola, said in a speech in September that she must “speak out against the barbarity and horror being experienced in Gaza.”


Jonathan Tobin: Mamdani’s team of Jew-haters will change New York
The most important thing about the Anti-Defamation League’s latest “Mamdani Monitor” is that its results were so unsurprising and generated few headlines in New York or anywhere else. That 20% of New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s 400 appointees to various transition committees have ties to anti-Zionist and antisemitic groups—or have engaged in acts of Jew-hatred online—is, in and of itself, an astounding figure. It’s even more astounding when you consider that they are engaged in an effort to govern a city with the largest Jewish population in the world.

But then, what else would you expect from someone whose entire political career is rooted in opposition to the existence of the one Jewish state on the planet?

Mamdani dismissed the ADL’s data as unimportant and claimed that those who accuse him of complicity with Jew-hatred don’t distinguish between “criticism of Israel” and actual antisemitism.

A hostile administration
That isn’t true since the ADL report took into account such a difference. Like Mamdani himself, appointees who had engaged in antisemitism weren’t merely “critical” of Israeli government policies. They seek the destruction of the Jewish state and/or support terrorism against it, as well as acts of intimidation and violence elsewhere aimed at bolstering Hamas’s genocidal goals and silencing Jews who will not renounce their ties and affection for Israel.

The question is: Will the sheer numbers of antisemites in the Mamdani camp overwhelm the ability of those seeking to hold him accountable for his tolerance and encouragement of Jew-hatred? One such appointee, Catherine Almonte Da Costa, who was set to hold the crucial job of director of appointments, was forced to resign after her record of making antisemitic comments on social media was made public.

But in an administration where there will be more than 1,200 political appointees, the ADL report points to an obvious problem. It indicates just how prevalent this sort of behavior, which would have been considered aberrant even in the most liberal of governments in the recent past, has become among the Democratic Party activists who will take these jobs after Mamdani takes office on Jan. 1.
Zohran Mamdani brings controversial children's influencer Ms. Rachel and Cynthia Nixon onto his inaugural committee
New York City Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani announced who will be joining his inaugural committee, including children's influencer Ms. Rachel and progressive activist Cynthia Nixon.

This committee, comprised of over four dozen people, is responsible for organizing the inauguration party and giving Mamdani advice on his early policy agenda.

The appointment of Ms. Rachel, full name Rachel Griffin Accurso, has gotten attention because of her outspoken opposition to Israel's war in Gaza, a position she shares with Mamdani.

'Over 14,000 precious children have been un-alived in Gaza. Gaza has the largest number of child amputees in history. We can't be silent about these kinds of conditions for children,' she said in a video she posted to TikTok in December 2024.

In a video she posted to Instagram in May 2025, she shared a picture of an emaciated Palestinian child.

'World leaders, please help this baby. Please look at her. Please, please look at her. Just, please look at her eyes for one minute,' she said in the video. 'If you just think about a baby you love, think about a baby you care so much for, there's no way that we all don't know that you can't kill 15,000 kids.'

Pro-Israel advocacy groups argue she has pushed Hamas propaganda and has selective empathy, because she rarely focuses on Israeli victims in the conflict that was kicked off by the October 7 attack in 2023.

In April, watchdog organization StopAntisemitism said Attorney General Pam Bondi should investigate how Accurso's social media channels are funded.

'We urge you and your office to investigate whether or not Ms. Rachel is being remunerated to disseminate Hamas-aligned propaganda to her millions of followers,' the group's director, Liora Rez, wrote in a letter to Bondi.
In 1st Christmas mass, Pope Leo laments ‘rain, wind, cold’ facing displaced Gazans
Pope Leo XIV decried conditions for Palestinians in Gaza in his Christmas sermon on Thursday, in an unusually direct appeal during what is normally a solemn, spiritual service on the day Christians across the globe celebrate the birth of Jesus.

Leo, the first US pope, said the story of Jesus being born in a stable showed that God had “pitched his fragile tent” among the people of the world.

“How, then, can we not think of the tents in Gaza, exposed for weeks to rain, wind and cold?” he asked.

Heavy rains have battered Gaza in recent weeks — compounding the harsh conditions of the Strip’s residents, nearly all of whom were displaced during the war sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught. The UN has said that an estimated 1.3 million people currently need shelter assistance in Gaza and has warned of the increasing risk of hypothermia as temperatures dip.

Leo, celebrating his first Christmas after being elected in May by the world’s cardinals to succeed the late pope Francis, has a quieter, more diplomatic style than his predecessor and usually refrains from making political references in his sermons.

But the new pope has also lamented the conditions for Palestinians in Gaza several times recently and told journalists last month that the only solution in the decades-long conflict between Israel and the Palestinians must include a Palestinian state.


New Yorkers enraged over Times Square Christmas billboard that proclaims 'Jesus is Palestinian'
A billboard in Times Square proclaiming that 'Jesus is Palestinian' has been branded 'embarrassing' and 'inflammatory' by onlookers and social media users alike.

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) launched a controversial billboard campaign in the popular New York City tourist spot ahead of Christmas in an attempt to raise awareness about Gaza.

The campaign features two digital messages about the geographical and cultural origins of Jesus Christ, who according to the Bible was born in Bethlehem, a city in the Palestinian West Bank territory.

'Jesus is Palestinian. Merry Christmas,' the first message reads. The second featured a passage from the Quran, the central religious text of Islam, in which the birth of Jesus was announced.

'Remember when the angels proclaimed, "O Mary! Allah gives you good news of a Word from Him, his name will be the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary; honored in this world and the Hereafter, and he will be one of those nearest to Allah",' the verse said. The phrase 'Merry Christmas' was alongside the passage in both Arabic and English.

The ADC was heavily criticized over the billboard, with many social media users pointing out how Jesus - as detailed in the Bible - was Jewish.

Others noted how Palestine did not exist at the time of Jesus, with the region instead being under Roman rule and known as Judea.

But most visitors were frustrated by a 'divisive' message being put on display during what is meant to be a season of peace and giving.


CNN’s Women’s Rights Narrative on Israel Collapses Under Misleading Data
Israeli women are living in a dystopian reality where, year by year, they are being stripped of their most basic rights. At least, that’s what one would think from reading CNN’s “Women’s rights are on a sharp decline in Israel. Advocates blame Netanyahu’s far-right government.” But it is a far stretch from the truth.

Without reading a single sentence, the article frames Israel through a distorted lens of reality. Women wearing red gowns and a white hat lead the cover image of the article. It presents the context of the article as a nightmarish reality, where women are living in a version of Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale.” But read the fine print, and you see that this image, taken nearly three years ago, concerned demonstrations against Israeli legal reforms, not the decline of women’s rights.

From there, the framing of the article is set. The continued distortion of women’s rights is not accidental but structural, rooted in how CNN selects imagery, language, and ultimately the data it relies on to construct its narrative.

CNN’s article is based on data from the Women Peace and Security Index (WPS Index) by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security. The index scores and ranks 181 countries on women’s wellbeing based on 13 indicators, including employment, education, and access to justice, cellphone use, son bias, and proximity to conflict. Taken together, these indicators are not uniquely gender-specific. Many reflect broader societal conditions that affect the entire population.

The findings declared that Israel ranked in 84th place, noting that in 2023, Israel ranked 27th. Remarkably, Israel is behind several countries that have extremely poor women’s rights. Oman ranked 58th, despite openly discriminating against women in terms of divorce and legal guardianship. Saudi Arabia ranked 63rd, though women require a male guardian, and Qatar ranked in 70th place, despite women requiring a guardian’s permission to leave the country, marry, or pursue higher education on a scholarship. There are several other countries with long-demonstrated records of laws that restrict women in several aspects of life. Israel is not one of them.

CNN originally published the article without mentioning that three years ago, Israel was not in the midst of a multi-front war after terrorist organizations attacked its sovereign borders. It since issued a correction and a one-line update, but it is remarkable that it was published without this crucial information in the first place, as this directly impacts the findings of the WPS Index, which encompasses many categories related to safety, terrorism, and conflict more broadly. Thus, even if there is a lack of change in other categories, the change in the security situation directly impacts the index.


Majority of Hezbollah terrorists 'work with Israel,' Lebanese operative claims in N12 interview
Israel has infiltrated Hezbollah so deeply to the extent that 70% of its terrorists are "working with Israel," an anonymous terrorist in the Lebanese terrorist organization's military wing claimed in an interview with N12 published on Thursday.

"We fear Israel will eliminate us, but it turns out that 70% of Hezbollah operatives work with Israel. Israel knows the name of every child here, their father, and their sister," he said. "Israel knows more about us than we know about ourselves.

"We still haven’t understood how Israel penetrates us this way," N12 quoted the operative as saying.

When asked how he thinks the information reaches Israel, he replied, "I don’t know. We have a significant intelligence gap. I suspect that some senior officials are double agents. We don’t know. We wait every day for [IDF Arabic Spokesman Avichai Adraee] to speak out so we know what to do."

Hezbollah operative: ‘I would give up my weapons for a dignified life’
The interview was held near Israel's northern border with Lebanon, N12 said, near a village where the Hezbollah operative resides. The operative's house was destroyed in fighting with Israeli forces last year. Despite that, he said he would be willing to have his weapons taken away.


Ogden man arrested for terrorist threats against Jewish community, explosives found in home
After making terroristic threats to the Jewish community, an Ogden man was arrested on Tuesday, and explosives were recovered from his home, the Ogden Police Department announced on Wednesday.

Ogden resident Skyler Rose was charged with threat of terrorism, seven counts of possession of weapons of mass destruction, possession of a dangerous weapon by a restricted person, and drug offenses after a tip originally received by the FBI Salt Lake City Field Office indicated that threats were being directed against Jewish community members and synagogues.

Ogden Police said that it acted on the information from law enforcement colleagues, and attended the 21-year-old's home, discovering explosive devices, explosive materials, and multiple firearms. Bomb technicians responded to secure the devices, and they were removed from the residence for disposal.

The case is still under investigation.

"We will utilize all lawful tools, resources, and partnerships available to us to prevent threats, respond decisively to acts of intimidation or hate, and hold offenders accountable," Ogden Police said in a statement. "Our department will continue to act swiftly and professionally to ensure that all people in Ogden can live, gather, and worship freely, consistent with the rights guaranteed to them under the constitution."


Israel Post issues stamp marking 100 years of the Hebrew University
The Israel Post, Israel’s national postal service, has issued a new stamp marking 100 years since the founding of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the university said on Tuesday.

The stamp was released by Israel Post’s Philatelic Service as part of the official events marking the university’s centenary throughout 2025.

Designed by Studio Mench, a leading Israeli creative agency, the stamp features the iconic amphitheater on the Mount Scopus campus, on the site of the university’s opening ceremony in 1925. The design looks out toward the Judean Desert and the Edom Mountains, linking the university’s historic origins to its physical and intellectual landscape.

The Hebrew University was founded by luminaries such as Albert Einstein. It is dedicated to advancing knowledge, cultivating leadership, and promoting diversity, according to the university.

Home to over 23,000 students from 90 countries, the institution is ranked as the world’s 88th top university, according to the Shanghai Ranking of 2025.

Moreover, its groundbreaking contributions have been recognized with major international awards, including 10 Nobel Prizes, two Turing Awards and a Fields Medal.
Jewish war hero laid to rest in South Carolina 82 years after deadly mission over China
A Jewish American fighter pilot shot down over China in World War II was finally laid to rest on American soil last week, with dirt from Israel placed over his coffin.

Lt. Morton Sher, who flew with the famed Flying Tigers, was buried on Sunday in a cemetery in Greenville, S.C., where his headstone and an empty grave have awaited him for 80 years.

The oldest son of David and Anna Sher, he was born in Baltimore before his family moved to the South. Active at Congregation Beth Israel in Greenville, Sher was also a founding member of the B’nai B’rith Youth Organization’s Aleph Zadik Aleph (AZA) teen fraternity in the city.

Enlisting in the Army Air Corps after studying at the University of Alabama as a commerce major, Sher was assigned to fly security missions over the Panama Canal before heading to China with the Flying Tigers. He traversed treacherous supply routes over the Himalayan Mountains, protecting bombers as they raided Japanese targets.

Sher was shot down after helping to successfully bomb a power plant that Japan had captured in Hong Kong. He suffered only a head bump and received a hero’s welcome in the Chinese village where he landed.

Over a summer 1943 series of strikes on Japanese targets, Sher was killed flying a mission near Hengyang City in China, and even as local villagers honored him by placing a memorial stone at the crash site, his remains were deemed unrecoverable, long believed to have been burned in the crash.

Acting on a private citizen’s tip, the U.S. Defense Department agency responsible for identifying and bringing home the remains of American servicemembers sent a team to China in 2012 and again in 2019 in search of Sher’s body. It came up empty.

Returning in 2024 for a more in-depth search, the team discovered the wreckage of Sher’s plane and remains, which were tested earlier this year and came back as a DNA match for Sher.


‘David’ is a Goliath of a film
A new animated feature film in theaters titled “David” retells the story of King David in a moving and impactful way. It does not universalize the story, but rather, directly assigns indigenous credibility to Jewish people being in the land of Israel thousands of years ago.

In doing so, it dispels any notion that the Jews don’t belong in the land from the “river to the sea.” This movie is a great tool to teach and inform children, teens and adults alike. At the end, Phil Cunningham—the creator and one of the directors, along with Brent Dawes—appears to explain the mission of reaching a wide audience in the millions.

The lessons in the movie not only highlight the roots of the Jewish people to the land but also remind the audience that, similar to modern history, the story of King David, at its core, is a story about asymmetry.

Throughout the film, which was released on Dec. 19, the Israelites face enemies who appear overwhelming. Goliath is a seemingly unbeatable foe. The Philistines are a powerful rival civilization (not to be confused with Palestinians, an entirely different people separated by millennia). The Amalekites represent a dark enemy who seeks Jewish annihilation.

In each case, the odds are stacked decisively against Israel. And yet, through faith, ingenuity and resilience, the Israelites prevail. Does this sound familiar to anyone?

This pattern did not end in antiquity, and the examples are many. Of course, Jewish history has patches of darkness, yet also lots of light. “David” the MovieA scene from the animated feature film “David” (2025). Credit: Courtesy of Angel Studios

To bring this to the modern era, in October 1973, during the Yom Kippur War, Israel faced what should have been a catastrophic defeat on the Golan Heights. The Syrian army launched a surprise assault with approximately 1,400 Soviet-built T-55 and T-62 tanks. Israel initially had roughly 170 tanks in the sector—primarily, British Centurions, and American M48 and M60 Pattons, many of them tanks from World War II.

Military logic suggested the outcome was predetermined by the sheer quantity of steel surging toward the Israelis.

And yet, in what became known as the Valley of Tears, Israeli tank crews—often outnumbered 10-to-one—demolished the Syrian tanks. The Syrian tank crews were reported to have referred to the Israeli tanks as “ghosts.”




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