Monday, December 29, 2025

12/29 Links Pt2: Is Anti-Zionism a New Form of Hatred?; Massive protests rock Iran after currency sinks; Former Israeli hostages engaged to marry

From Ian:

Is Anti-Zionism a New Form of Hatred?
Antizionism is a hate movement that seeks to undermine and erase Jewish sovereignty in Israel and Jewish life around the globe. It perceives the State of Israel as a moral offence, targeting Jewish existence itself.

Antizionism vs. antisemitism
Antizionism can be considered a dangerous form of antisemitism, where the denial of Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state is rooted in age-old hostility and hatred toward Jews. In addition, antizionism can be used as a cover for antisemitism.

However, it is important not to collapse antizionism into older categories, but to address it as a hate movement with its own narratives, libels, and mechanisms of violence. If antisemitism is the traditional hostility to or prejudice against Jewish people, antizionism may be considered a contemporary face of Jew-hatred.

Negationist anti-Zionism
Negationist anti-Zionism delegitimizes the Zionist project altogether, calling for the elimination of the State of Israel or any form of Jewish self-determination.

According to Prof. Ethan Katz from the University of California, Berkeley, this common form of anti-Zionism “ignores, downplays, or writes out from history the longstanding Jewish roots in the Land of Israel, the history and ongoing reality of antisemitism, and large parts of the history of Zionism and the State of Israel.”

Anti-Zionism: A new form of hatred?
Is anti-Zionism a new form of hatred? According to Adam Louis-Klein, founder of Movement Against Antizionism, the answer is yes.

Movement Against Antizionism (MAAZ) is a newly formed initiative aiming to confront anti-Zionism as the hate movement it is. Through education, advocacy, and professional training, MAAZ seeks to counter the spread of antizionist narratives, libels, denialism, and dehumanizing rhetoric.

At the same time, MAAZ strives to support Jewish communities at risk around the globe, form new collaborations and alliances, and advance the pursuit of peace based on mutual recognition and responsible dialogue.

The mission is “to critically examine and expose the structural dynamics of anti-Zionism, while affirming the dignity, security, and equal belonging of all communities—Jewish, Israeli, and Palestinian alike.”

Here's how to counter anti-Zionism
This interview with Adam Louis-Klein has been edited for clarity.
PodCast: American Antizionism - With Shaul Kelner
Sociologist and Jewish studies scholar Dr. Shaul Kelner joins Dr. Rachel Fish to examine the rise of antizionism as a distinctly American political and social movement. Kelner argues that contemporary antizionism is less an intellectual critique of Zionism than a political mass movement defined by praxis: the othering and exclusion of Jews through social and institutional action.

Their conversation explores why debates over whether antizionism equals antisemitism often obscure more than they clarify, the distinction between 'anti-Zionism' and 'antizionism', how ambiguity about end goals of the pro-Palestine movement enables broad coalition-building, why higher education became especially fertile ground for this movement, and more.

Further Reading
Shaul Kelner, “American Antizionism,” Sources Journal
Isabella Tabarovsky, "The Cult of 'Antizionism'," Tablet Magazine
Isabella Tabarovsky, "Zombie Anti-Zionism," Tablet Magazine
David Hirsch, "'Anti-Zionism' and 'Antizionism'," Australia/Israel, and Jewish Affairs Council

Guest Bio
Shaul Kelner is a Professor of Jewish Studies and Sociology at Vanderbilt University, specializing in the study of contemporary Jewish life.

His latest book, A Cold War Exodus: How American Activists Mobilized to Free Soviet Jews received grant support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and won a National Jewish Book Award.


Editorial: Albanese has no moral authority – he must call antisemitism royal commission
The belated admissions and half-hearted apologies for not doing more by the prime minister and other senior ministers are not nearly enough. A comprehensive inquiry is also needed to grapple with a broad range of issues that must be honestly confronted after the Bondi atrocity, which includes relevant immigration and multicultural policy settings.

Albanese has justified his intransigence on a royal commission by pointing to the Abbott government not holding one after the Lindt Café siege in Sydney in 2014. This justification appalled the family of Katrina Dawson, one of the two victims killed in that terror incident. The family’s statement issued on Christmas Eve called for “a much-needed royal commission into antisemitism and Islamic extremism” that has the power to get to the truth of these and related issues. The families of the people killed on December 14 have now echoed this call to find the answers and solutions by issuing their own statement urging the prime minister to appoint a royal commission.

Albanese maintains that the priority is acting quickly rather than waiting for the recommendations of a royal commission. Yet, he has spent the past two weeks engaged in political management. The national gun law reforms he has pushed are worthwhile, but do not confront the bigger issue of antisemitism and its manifestation as radical Islamist terrorism.

There is a narrative fostered by Labor that the Bondi tragedy has been politicised, after Opposition Leader Sussan Ley issued proposed terms of reference for a royal commission. Such claims are hypocritical. Labor’s ineffective response to threats to the safety of Jewish people over the past two years is due to playing sectarian politics with antisemitism. This took the form of drawing a false equivalence with Islamophobia and a preference for generalised statements over meaningful action because the government did not want to alienate Muslim voters in outer suburban Sydney and Melbourne electorates over the Gaza war in the lead-up to the 2025 election.

These failures to protect a vulnerable racial and religious minority are underscored by the fact that it has taken the worst loss of Jewish life since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, assault on southern Israel for Albanese to finally launch the crackdown on “hate preaching” recommended by the report of antisemitism envoy Jillian Segal. Having done too little too late to stem the resurgence in Australia of the world’s oldest prejudice, the prime minister has forfeited his moral authority and is unable to convincingly provide the leadership required at this time of crisis.

Both Jewish Australians and the wider public will have no confidence in Labor’s handling of the response to Bondi unless a royal commission provides the independent scrutiny, transparency, and accountability that is needed to help the nation heal.


Lord Mayor Clover Moore adds menorah to NYE Sydney Harbour Bridge tribute after Jewish groups’ plea
Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore has yielded to calls from the Australian Jewish community to display a Jewish-specific symbol on the Sydney Harbour Bridge for New Year’s Eve.

It comes after Ms Moore announced a dove and the word “peace” would be displayed on the bridge to recognise the Bondi Beach terror attack in which 15 people were killed.

Following concerns from Jewish Australian creatives, sent in an open letter to Ms Moore, she has agreed to display a menorah at the world-famous celebration to honour victims.

“I continue to listen to the community to ensure the acknowledgment of the horrific attacks at Bondi Beach during New Year’s Eve is appropriate,” Ms Moore said in a statement.

“There are no words that can make this moment easier, nor explain the evil we have seen.

“People from all cultures, nationalities and faiths should feel safe, included and respected in our city.

“Now more than ever, we must hold tightly to everything that makes Sydney a diverse, peaceful, and harmonious city.”

The about-face followed an open letter sent by 30 prominent Jewish artists who accused the City of Sydney of erasing the antisemitic nature of the Bondi Beach attack.

The letter had called for the overt recognition of the victims by displaying a Jewish-specific symbol, rather than a generic dove.

“We acknowledge the City of Sydney’s plan as a gesture of remembrance, and agree with the need for such a gesture,” the letter said.

“However, we consider the imagery and word chosen to be insufficient as they do not acknowledge the Jewish particularity of the Bondi massacre.

“It is insulting to strip our friends and family, who were killed for being Jews, of the dignity of being recognised as Jews in their death.”

Under the revised plan, a minute’s silence will be observed at 11pm, during which the pylons of the Harbour Bridge will be lit in white and a menorah projected.
Bondi Beach hero Ahmed al Ahmed: I just wanted to protect ‘innocent people’
Bondi Beach shooting hero Ahmed al Ahmed recalled the moment he ran toward one of the attackers and wrestled the gun from him, saying in an interview published Monday with a US outlet he wanted to protect “innocent people.”

Father and son Sajid and Naveed Akram are accused of targeting a Hanukkah event on Sydney’s Bondi Beach on December 14, killing 15 people and wounding dozens in an antisemitic terrorist attack.

Ahmed’s interview was broadcast as the families of the victims called for a national inquiry into antisemitism and alleged failures in policing, intelligence and policy around the Bondi attack. Despite the failures, tales of heroism emerged of those who tried to stop the two gunmen during their deadly rampage.

Among them was Ahmed, a tobacco shop owner, who won plaudits for ducking between parked cars as the shooting unfolded and then wresting a gun from one of the assailants, in an action caught on camera.

“My target was just to take the gun from him, and to stop him from killing a human being’s life and not killing innocent people,” he told CBS News in an interview that aired Monday.

“I know I saved lots of peoples’ lives, but I feel sorry still for the lost.”


‘He took 11 bullets’: Daughter of Bondi hero recounts how he saved many innocent lives
Daughter of Reuven Morrison, Sheina Gutnik narrates how her father acted in the Bondi terror attack, where he was “redirecting” the terrorist away from the crowd.

“My father was down on the ground as the gunshots rang out, he saw that no one was doing anything and he jumped up right away,” Ms Gutnik told Sky News Australia.

“He stood the gunman down.

“He took 11 bullets; he saved so many lives in his moment of action.

“Truly dying in the way that he lived his life, standing up for what he believed was right and protecting others.”




NSW Premier doesn't rule out deploying army to protect Sydney’s Jewish community
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns didn't rule out the possibility of deploying the army to Jewish areas to protect the community, he implied in a press conference on Sunday, ABC News reported.

During the press conference, the NSW Premier warned the public that Sydney residents could expect to face increased security on the streets.

He added that police officers carrying long-armed guns are expected to be placed in the Australian capital before and after New Year's Eve.

"I want to send a clear message that NSW Police will be out in massive numbers," he said.

"We haven't normally seen long-armed firearms on the streets of Sydney, but NSW Police will have them, and that will be confronting for some people," he added.

Minns declared that "nothing was off the table" regarding the possibility of deploying army troops to protect the Jewish community.

The NSW Premier explained that discussions on the matter are underway, but that he couldn't make this approach the first option because it would represent a significant change to Sydney's routine.

"We're going to look very closely at security programs and measures in the future. We have to do things completely differently," he said.

He added, "The situation as it currently stands, it can't continue … there's a big challenge ahead of us to rebuild Jewish life in Sydney. So I'm not going to take anything off the table."


Ruthie Blum: Returning home after parting from my father
The pilot on my flight, in contrast, speaks not as an activist but as a citizen. This is especially uplifting for me at the moment, as I have come from burying my father.

At his funeral and shiva—the seven-day Jewish mourning period—the conversations focus mainly on his contribution to the battle of ideas. He was a public intellectual, after all, whose death naturally has been noted with a series of articles by admirers and critics.

I peruse the obituaries with a mixture of pride and ill ease. For me, he is not an author or editor or controversial pundit. He is a parent.

Though he and I discussed politics ad nauseam, his ideas about the world weren’t what mattered most to me as his daughter. Not because they weren’t important, but because they constituted only a fraction of our deep, sometimes fraught, always tight, personal connection.

The same applies to my relationship with Israel. It’s not an abstract concept. Not a cause. Not a problem to be solved or reimagined.

So many of those who don’t live in Israel—whatever side of the spectrum they occupy—view it as a project to be dissected, judged and analyzed, either for its betterment or for its destruction.

For me, it’s more personal than political. When the pilot lauds the IDF, I hear names and see faces, including those of my own kids. When he mentions Gvili, I envision the ache of a family yearning for closure.

And when he says, “Welcome home,” it’s not rhetorical. It’s real.

As I walk through the terminal, carrying the weight of the shiva along with my luggage, I suddenly understand the traditional Jewish condolence phrase, “May you be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.”

I want to phone my father to report this revelation to him, since I know he’ll be amused. And then I’m struck by the realization that such a call is no longer possible.
Tikvah PodCast: Ruth Wisse on Norman Podhoretz
Norman Podhoretz, z"l, died on December 16 at the age of ninety-five. For more than three decades, he served as editor of Commentary, transforming it into what Irving Kristol deemed the most influential magazine in Jewish history. He was a literary critic, a political essayist, and one of the fathers of the orientation toward public affairs that came to be known as neoconservatism. In 2004, President George W. Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

What fueled these accomplishments —his books, his essays, his editing —was a commitment to tell the truth, however unpopular, and to defend the things he loved, however much it cost him. Norman Podhoretz loved America. He believed in the justice of Israel. He was grateful to have been acculturated into the civilizing traditions of the West. And he was willing to break ranks and turn friends into ex-friends in order to defend all three.

On this episode, Mosaic's editor Jonathan Silver is joined by Ruth Wisse to pay tribute to this great American, and to examine his legacy. Ruth Wisse is one of the longest-tenured regular contributors to Commentary and, after a career at McGill and Harvard, is now a senior fellow at Tikvah.

We live in a moment when moral confidence is in short supply, when our institutions betray their animating purposes, and when social-media cleverness and clickbait substitute for serious thinking. Norman Podhoretz was different and his example can show us a better way to think and to argue; and because we live in a democratic country that requires us to persuade our compatriots, in helping us think and argue differently he can help us meet the challenges of democratic citizenship as Jews and as Americans.
Meir Y. Soloveichik: Erin Go Blah
In June 2025, the London-based journalist Brendan O’Neill visited Ireland, the land of his ancestors. He found it consumed with one subject above all: “It’s suffocating. Wherever you go, whether city or bog, you’ll see it and hear it—that swirling animus for the Jewish State. The political class speaks of little else. The media are feverishly obsessed. From every political party, every TV set, every soapbox, the cry goes out: Israel is evil!”

This obsession with Israel, O’Neill added, is even more striking because, he says, fads in Dublin usually are often ignored in the Irish countryside. Yet in the green hills of Ireland, Israelophobia is ubiquitous: “There were once statues of the Virgin Mother on Ireland’s roadsides, imploring you to resist evil; now, there are dire reminders of the evil Israel commits. It feels like the Jewish State has become a Satan substitute in post-Catholic Ireland. You prove your virtue through renouncing hate.”

The most recent anti-Semitic act was the attempt to erase the name of the late Israeli President Chaim Herzog from a park in Dublin. Herzog is best known for his dramatic opposition, with Daniel Patrick Moynihan, to the United Nations “Zionism is racism” resolution. He was also an Irish Jew; his father, Isaac Herzog, was chief rabbi in Ireland before taking the same position in the newborn Jewish state.

The attempt to rename the park has been put on pause, but as O’Neill has noted, Ireland’s bizarre hatred of its most distinguished Jewish family has existed for some time: “In 2014 the memorial plaque marking his birthplace in north Belfast was so frequently attacked and daubed with insulting graffiti that it had to be taken down.” Herzog died long before the recent Gaza war, which reflects the fact that, in O’Neill’s words, “the thirst for effacing his legacy has nothing to do with the current war and everything to do with hating Jews who are proudly Zionist.”

How are we to explain the fact that hatred of Israel has, in a sense, become part and parcel of Irish culture? Some, such as O’Neill, have noted that in what was once a Catholic rock of Christendom, Ireland has embraced wokeism with a passion. Others have linked the current moment with perhaps the most shameful event in Irish history: when Eamon de Valera, the Irish taoiseach (prime minister) and one of its founding fathers, visited the German Embassy in 1945 to express his condolences for the death of Adolf Hitler, an event so surpassingly strange that I continue to be shocked every time I read of it. The true explanation lies in something deeper: Ireland’s recent anti-Semitic spasm highlights, in a striking way, the essence of anti-Semitism itself.


Nicole Lampert: Britain’s ‘godless’ university has become dogged by anti-Semitism
In just a couple of months, University College London (UCL) will celebrate its 200th anniversary. Its controversial launch in February 1826 as a university outside Oxford and Cambridge, which would admit people of all religions, attracted fury from the likes of esteemed educator Thomas Arnold, who called it a “godless institution in Gower Street”.

Founded by a diverse group, it has always claimed to value inclusion, and was the second British university to award degrees to women. One of its most contentious and pioneering concepts was not only to admit Jews but also to teach Hebrew and Jewish studies from the start.

Now it is the second-largest university in the country, and Jewish students from the UK and around the world (55 per cent of the student body are not British) make up about 1 per cent of UCL’s student body (around 25 per cent of the students come from China and Hong Kong).

The 200th anniversary should go down as a success story by almost every measure; UCL is now recognised as one of the world’s leading universities. But when it comes to Jews or anyone else concerned about extremism, the question on the lips of both students and academics is: “Just how much worse can things get?”

While many British universities – in particular the elite Russell Group to which UCL belongs – saw an existing undercurrent of anti-Zionism explode after the Hamas massacre of October 7 2023, the problem at UCL remains frighteningly acute even as the war in Gaza has ended with an (albeit shaky) ceasefire.

In November, Dr Samar Maqusi, a former UCL researcher lecturing at the university on the origins of Zionism, held a lecture repeating the anti-Jewish conspiracy that Jews had murdered a monk and used his blood to bake holy bread – “a blood libel”.

Another, professor of ophthalmology Michel Michaelides, reposted tweets about “cult Zions” controlling the BBC, and a third, James Smith, a lecturer in humanitarian policy and practice, joined Greta Thunberg on a flotilla to break the blockade of Gaza.


Princeton course on ‘genocide’ in Gaza ‘deeply troubling,’ NJ rep says
Princeton University’s course “Gender, Reproduction and Genocide,” listed for the spring term, states that it will have a “central focus on the ongoing genocide in Gaza” and that it will compare the plight of Palestinians to that of Jews during the Holocaust.

That description, which “falsely characterizes Israel’s right to self-defense as ‘genocide,’” is “deeply troubling,” according to Rep. Tom Kean (R-N.J.).

“Israel was the victim of a brutal terrorist attack on Oct. 7 at the hands of Hamas, and any honest discussion must begin with that fact,” stated the congressman, whose district does not include the university. “Hamas is a terrorist organization that deliberately targets civilians and hides behind innocent people to advance its violent agenda. While I support freedom of speech and the offering of different perspectives in the classroom, words matter.”

“Recklessly misusing the term ‘genocide’ does nothing to advance peace, justice, understanding or open dialogue,” he added. “Israel has both the right and the obligation to defend its people, and that reality should not be erased or rewritten in the classroom.”

One of the 14 slots available to students in the course is currently enrolled, per the Princeton site. A sample reading list includes titles referring to “reproductive genocide in Gaza” and “reprocide in Gaza.” It also says that it will, in part, situate “Gaza within comparative histories of the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust and genocide against black and indigenous populations.”

The course’s listed instructor, Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, is a “leading scholar in the fields of violence against women in conflict zones and the impacts of political violence on childhood, focusing primarily on the experience of Palestinians,” per the Princeton site. (JNS sought comment from the university, from the U.S. Department of Education and from the House Committee on Education and Workforce, which has been probing Jew-hatred on campus.)

Princeton adds that Shalhoub-Kervorkian, a visiting professor of gender and sexuality studies, is chair in law emeritus at Hebrew University of Jerusalem.


Unpacking Hamas' Italian Network: What Saturday's Sting Operation Reveals
Italian police arrested Mohammad Hannoun, a Jordanian national identified by authorities as heading an Italian Hamas financing operation, along with six associates, for allegedly channeling over €8 million ($9.5 million) to the terrorist organization through charitable fronts. Italian prosecutors stated that over 71% of donations from three implicated charities — which were ostensibly earmarked for humanitarian aid — actually reached Hamas-linked entities in Gaza.

The arrests also shed light on a sophisticated pan-European Hamas network, with Hannoun serving as a central node connecting multiple organizations across several countries.

Who is Mohammad Hannoun?
Last October, the U.S. Treasury Department identified Hannoun as having moved at least $4 million to Hamas during the previous ten years. Genoa-based investigators describe the 62-year-old as running the Italian branch of the terrorist network.

Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi noted that authorities discovered operations that masked “support for and participation in organizations with clear Islamist terrorist aims” behind purported Palestinian humanitarian initiatives.

The case has brought renewed attention to unresolved questions about Hannoun’s potential involvement in terrorism in the 1980’s, specifically allegations recently highlighted by The Media Line about how Italian intelligence identified a "Mohamed Hannoun" as head of the central information committee within the Abu Nidal Organization—a Palestinian terrorist group responsible for deadly attacks in Rome during that era—according to a partially declassified 1986 dossier released in 2014. Whether this refers to the same individual who now leads Palestinian organizations in Italy remains unresolved.

Three Decades Building Hamas Infrastructure in Italy
Since arriving in Genoa in 1983, Hannoun has built an interconnected network of organizations that U.S. and Israeli authorities now identify as forming the backbone of Hamas’s Italian operations. Prosecutors allege the funding flowed primarily through associations linked to Hannoun, channeling money to entities and individuals in Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel designated illegal by Israeli authorities because of alleged links to Hamas. He serves as president of at least four organizations:


Debuting new spokesman, Hamas admits former ‘Abu Obeida’ killed in August
Hamas’s armed wing officially confirmed on Monday the deaths of its longtime spokesman and a number of other senior officials, months after they were killed in Israeli operations in the Gaza Strip.

Making his public debut, the new spokesman of the al-Qassam Brigades, said he would also go by the nom de guerre Abu Obeida — like his predecessor. He also announced that the terror group’s commander, Muhammad Sinwar, and Rafah brigade chief Muhammad Shabana had been killed in May, that senior Qassam officer Hakem al-Issa had been killed in June, and that Hudhaifa Samir Abdallah al-Kahlout — the former Abu Obeida — was killed in August.

The deaths of all four had already been confirmed by Israel.

“We have inherited the title ‘Abu Obeida’ from the commander Hudhaifa al-Kahlout, and we pledge to continue the journey,” said the spokesman in his first public speech, without revealing his own identity.

He also paid tribute to Qassam’s slain second-in-command Raed Saad, who was killed by Israel earlier this month, and whose death Hamas had already officially acknowledged.

Monday’s statement was the first time Hamas referred to Kahlout by his real name or showed his face in public. The IDF had publicly revealed Kahlout’s name and image early in the war.


Massive protests rock Iran after currency sinks; Tehran shopkeepers shutter stores
Iran’s largest protests in three years erupted Monday after the country’s currency plummeted to a record low against the US dollar, and the head of the Central Bank resigned.

State TV reported the resignation of Mohammad Reza Farzin, while traders and shopkeepers rallied in Saadi Street in downtown Tehran as well as in the Shush neighborhood near Tehran’s main Grand Bazaar. Merchants at the market played a crucial role in the 1979 Islamic Revolution that ousted the monarchy and brought Islamists to power.

The official IRNA news agency confirmed the protests. A journalist from the pro-labor news agency ILNA reported “demonstrations” at several bazaars in the center of the capital on Monday, the agency said.

It said protesters “are demanding immediate government intervention to rein in exchange-rate fluctuations and set out a clear economic strategy.”

Monday’s protests were the biggest since 2022, when the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Jina Amini in police custody triggered nationwide demonstrations. She was arrested by the country’s morality police for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly.

Witnesses told The Associated Press that traders shut their shops on Monday and asked others to do the same. ILNA said many businesses stopped trading, even though some kept their shops open.

Price fluctuations are paralyzing the sales of some imported goods, with both sellers and buyers preferring to postpone transactions until the outlook becomes clearer, AFP correspondents noted.

“Continuing to do business under these conditions has become impossible,” ILNA quoted protesters as saying.

State news agency IRNA reported: “Many shopkeepers preferred to suspend sales in order to prevent potential losses.”


Lawyers for Pittsburgh synagogue shooter ask court to reconsider his death sentence
Attorneys for Robert Bowers, who was sentenced to death on Aug. 3, 2023 for shooting and killing 11 worshippers at Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha in Pittsburgh on Oct. 27, 2018, are asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit to resentence their client, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported on Sunday.

The lawyers claimed earlier this month that they weren’t given enough time to make the case that they disagreed with potential jurors that the prosecution excluded and included and that their client should not have been shackled in the courtroom, which they say prejudiced the jury.

“U.S. district judge Robert J. Colville, who presided over the Bowers trial, dismissed Bower’s initial appeal in early 2024. It’s taken nearly two years for shooter’s attorneys, a team of federal public defenders, to finalize their appeal to the Third Circuit,” the Post-Gazette reported. “Even then, records show, attorneys argued they’d not been given sufficient time to go through five years of pretrial motions and three months of trial testimony.”

Per the paper, lawyers said that the prosecution “improperly excluded potential jurors who were black, Hispanic and Jewish” and that the prosecution “improperly struck, or excluded, jurors who said they were opposed to the death penalty but could follow the law—that is, that they could impose the death penalty if they believed prosecutors had sufficiently argued for it.”

The judge opted to have Bowers shackled due to concerns from U.S. marshals. The lawyers said that it took months after the trial for them to be told the reason that he was shackled—that marshals said he had “made efforts in recent days to close the distance between himself and the armed deputy” and that “Butler County prison officers have reported that Bowers told them he knows who is armed and he feels confident he could disarm them,” according to the paper.
Israel Bonds top $2 billion in global sales for third straight year
Israel Bonds announced on Monday that it exceeded $2 billion in global sales in 2025, the third year in a row it has nearly doubled its typical annual totals before 2023, said Dani Naveh, president and CEO of Israel Bonds.

“This record-breaking momentum reflects sustained global confidence in Israel’s economy,” Naveh said. “Investing in Israel Bonds is both a financial decision and a meaningful way to stand with Israel and the Jewish people.”

“We play an important part in Israel’s economic resilience,” he added.

Israel Bonds said global sales “rose sharply” following the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and have “remained consistently elevated” during what it described as an “increasingly hostile global climate toward the Jewish state and its supporters.

“This achievement demonstrates that the surge of support we witnessed was not a temporary response, but a true show of solidarity with Israel,” said Dr. Andrew Hutter, national and international chairman of Israel Bonds’ board of directors.

Israel Bonds are government-backed bonds issued by Israel that let individuals and institutions invest in the country’s economy while earning interest. Since its founding more than seven decades ago, Israel Bonds has generated more than $55 billion in global investment.

The announcement comes as Israel Bonds approaches its 75th anniversary in 2026 and as U.S. state investments in the bonds continue to draw political scrutiny.
Fire-blackened 2,000-year-old mikveh is a portal into 70 CE Roman conquest of Jerusalem
Some 2,000 years ago, as the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70 CE, their army set the great Jewish Temple on fire. The blaze destroyed the building and its surroundings, as the conquest put an end to Jewish life in the city for centuries to come.

Two millennia later, the fire’s marks and ashes are still clearly visible on a Jewish ritual bath, known as a mikveh in Hebrew, that has been unearthed just steps away from the Temple Mount, in a discovery announced by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) and the Western Wall Heritage Foundation on Monday.

“Jerusalem was not a city with a temple, but a temple with a city,” IAA excavation director Ari Levy told The Times of Israel in the archaeological excavation beneath the Western Wall Plaza.

The discovery marks the first time archaeologists at the excavation, conducted by the IAA in cooperation with the Western Wall Foundation, have identified the burned layer from the 70 CE destruction.

“There were many ritual baths around this area, because before one was allowed to enter the Temple, one had to purify oneself in the mikveh. This was true for Jews who lived permanently within the city, and also for Jewish pilgrims who came three times a year for [the Jewish festivals of] Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot.”

Accessible through four steep steps, the structure — measuring 3.05 meters in length, 1.35 meters in width, and 1.85 meters in height — bears a striking resemblance to modern Jewish ritual baths.

While Jewish ritual purity laws essentially lost their relevance after the Temple was destroyed, traditionally, married women are required to immerse themselves once a month after their menstrual cycle, and some men and communities maintain the custom of visiting a mikveh before Shabbat and Jewish holidays.

Carved in the bedrock, the mikveh stood in an area that, according to Levy, featured several public buildings.

“Just north of where we are stands a great bridge, and south of us, what we call Robinson’s Arch, were two of the main entrances to the Temple,” the archaeologist said.

According to Levy, the ritual bath was built in a room to ensure the bather’s privacy, indicated by the stones from the room’s collapse that researchers found inside the pool. On its left, a water conduit used to fill the mikveh remains clearly visible.

The walls of the mikveh and some of the surrounding soil are blackened by fire, bearing witness to the final, tragic days of ancient Jerusalem.





Emily Damari raises her injured hand in Amsterdam: Guys, this is victory
Former hostage Emily Damari published a video on Sunday evening showing herself standing by the river in Amsterdam, one year after the violent incident in which hundreds of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were attacked by local rioters.

During that event, one fan was thrown into the water and forced to shout “Free Palestine.” The footage of the assault was filmed and widely shared on social media.

In the video released Sunday night, Damari recalls that while she was held captive in Gaza - imprisoned in a tunnel together with Romi Gonen - the terrorists showed her that same footage. One of them told her, “Look how they beat this Jew like a donkey,” forcing the two to watch and endure the humiliation.

Now, a year later, Damari chose to stand in that very spot again, describing her return as “a victory.”

In the footage, she is seen smiling and raising her injured hand - the same hand in which she lost two fingers during the October 7 terror attack. “I’m here by the canals above the river, and they’re still there in Gaza cursing the Jews they beat. Guys, this is victory,” she says with a smile.


Former Israeli hostages engaged to marry
Former Israeli hostage Matan Zangauker and his girlfriend, former hostage Ilana Gritzewsky, have become engaged.

Zangauker’s mother, Einav Zangauker, who was one of the most vocal voices among the families of the hostages held in Gaza, posted a photo on Sunday night of Matan, 26, and Ilana, 32, drinking champagne in front of a “Will you marry me” sign inside a flower-bedecked wreath in the form of a heart.

“My picture of victory,” Einav wrote. “Ilana & Matan.”

A large guitar-shaped building in the background placed the photo at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel near Hollywood, Fla.

The couple were abducted separately from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel.

Matan endured 738 days in captivity, while Ilana was released after 55 days, after which time she fought tirelessly along with Matan’s mother for his release and that of all the hostages being held in Gaza.

The news of the engagement, coming three months after Matan was released from captivity, was also tweeted on Monday by Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

“Dear Matan and Ilan: From unimaginable pain you chose life, love and hope,” Herzog wrote on X. “Your decision to build a life together is a moment of profound light for the people of Israel.”




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Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون



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

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