Friday, January 09, 2026

01/09 Links Pt2: Archives Confirm the Nazi Origins of Palestinian Terror Finance; The Birmingham Maccabi scandal proves multiculturalism has failed

From Ian:

Explosive Archives Confirm the Nazi Origins of Palestinian Terror Finance
Archival material newly unsealed in Belgrade casts a harsh spotlight on collaboration between Nazi Germany and Islamist leadership during the Second World War. Hidden for decades in Yugoslavia’s national archives, a slim investigative file on Mohammed Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, confirms both the scale of his operational role in Nazi Europe and the political suppression that later ensured the case would never be pursued.

The file is not thin because evidence was lacking. It is thin because the investigation was stopped.

The documents reinforce a historical continuum stretching from the Mufti’s wartime collaboration with Nazi Germany to the postwar survival of Nazi capital networks that later financed the emergence of Palestinian terror organizations. This is precisely the through-line Patricia Posner and I documented in our 2024 joint investigation published by the Jewish Chronicle, Revealed: Nazi Financial Fixer Who Funded Palestinian Terror. In that exposé we traced how François Genoud, a Swiss Nazi financier, preserved Hitler’s political and financial legacy and redirected looted Nazi assets into Middle Eastern militant causes in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The Belgrade materials focus heavily on al-Husseini’s activities in Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia, particularly Bosnia and Herzegovina. Far from acting merely as a political intermediary or propagandist, the Mufti pushed aggressively for operational control. He helped facilitate the creation of multiple Waffen-SS divisions composed of local Muslims, units that went on to commit mass atrocities against Jews and Serbs, including village burnings, executions, rape, and systematic terror.

What emerges from the archive is not only violence, but design.

Just the Facts with Gerald Posner is a reader-supported publication. Subscriptions make this work possible.

Documents assembled by Yugoslav investigators before their work was halted reveal how deliberately the alliance between the Nazi leadership and the Mufti was constructed. A wartime memorandum authored by a senior German official responsible for Muslim minority affairs in occupied territories records extensive coordination between Nazi authorities and al-Husseini aimed at mobilizing Muslim populations for the Nazi war effort.

The Mufti was not simply endorsing Third Reich objectives. He was shaping policy. He advocated embedding religious authorities directly within German military units, arguing that imams should be used to indoctrinate and motivate Muslim soldiers serving in both the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS. He pushed for the creation of formal training institutions designed to fuse political Islam with National Socialist ideology, producing cadres capable of spreading both doctrines in tandem.

This was not theoretical. A similar religious training model had already been implemented under his direction in Bosnia. Graduates of that system were deployed across the Balkans, reinforcing Nazi control and participating directly in atrocities against civilian populations. The Belgrade files confirm that the fusion of Islamism and Nazism was neither accidental nor rhetorical. It was institutionalized.

The archives also expose another dimension of the alliance that resonates powerfully with what followed in the postwar period: money.
UK must stop giving millions to the corrupted fiefdom of Unrwa
The West is divided into nations that recognise the dangerous reality that has crept up on them, and nations that cling onto the hope that appeasement underpinned by the mirage of international law will prolong the illusion of peace.

While Israel has been forced to confront threats on seven fronts, the West has mostly had the luxury of appeasement.

A newly assertive United States has been awakened from the “All eyes on Rafah” delusion under President Biden, which obstructed Israel’s fight against antisemitic Hamas terrorists, to siding with Israel when President Trump neutered Iran’s threats of a second Holocaust by bombing their underground nuclear facilities.

Then there is the United Kingdom, which, along with others, continues to feebly call for “restraint” every time Israel strikes a blow against common enemies who hate Jews and the West, while keenly lapping up one piece of propaganda after another.

As Israeli hostages were starving in the dungeons of Gaza, Sir Keir Starmer demanded an end to the “man-made humanitarian crisis” there while recognising a State of Palestine without even conditioning it on the return of the hostages. He handed hardened terrorists the diplomatic jackpot free of charge. So much for moral clarity.

CAA’s polling now reveals that 91 per cent of British Jews opposed the move, with barely 5 per cent in favour. This was a climax of Britain’s immoral and self-defeating foreign policy, after decades under the spell of anti-Israel propaganda. Unsurprisingly, Israel pays little heed. British calls for “an immediate ceasefire” no longer land when Israeli children have been kidnapped in the wake of Palestinian terrorists committing the worst antisemitic atrocity since the Holocaust.

Nothing demonstrates willing Western gullibility more than the United Nations. For decades, the UN has been a parody of itself. Its Human Rights Council bulges with the worst perpetrators of human wrongs. As Israel witnessed in southern Lebanon, UN peacekeepers are simply a shield behind which terrorists prepare for mass murder.

Perhaps the worst UN agency is Unrwa. Whereas all the world’s refugees fall under the remit of UNHCR, Unrwa focuses only on those designated as refugees under their own special definition in Gaza and other territories neighbouring Israel. Founded in 1949, Unrwa spends over $3 billion a year on six million people, while UNHCR spends $11 billion on 21 times that number.

Unrwa is a corrupted fiefdom within the already distorted world of the UN. Its practices have been exposed endlessly. Its educational curricula have referred to the Jewish state as the “enemy”, taught mathematics by counting “martyred” terrorists, used phrases such as “jihad is one of the doors to paradise” in grammar lessons, and more. Its facilities have been used to store munitions and as rocket launch pads in practically every conflict with Israel.

Perhaps the worst open secret has been that Unrwa teachers and officials repeatedly moonlit as terrorists. Israeli intelligence alleged that 12 of Unrwa’s staff participated in October 7, including taking hostages. UN Watch investigators claimed that 490 Unrwa staff had links to terrorist organisations. Yahya Sinwar was found carrying an allegedly fake Unrwa identification card but there was no such excuse when the leader of Hamas in Lebanon was found to have served as head of the Unrwa teachers’ union.

Hostages who made it out of Gaza alive described being held by Unrwa personnel or in Unrwa facilities, including British-Israeli hostage Emily Damari.

The importance of Unrwa to Palestinian terrorists perhaps became most blatant amid the storm that followed the establishment by the US of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which essentially briefly replaced Unrwa. Its Gazan workers were murdered by Hamas, and disinformation campaigns convinced many a credulous Western leader and journalist that Israel was massacring Gazans collecting food amid a supposed famine depicted using the emaciated figures of children suffering from congenital diseases.

In a pre-October 7, totalitarian, Hamas-run Gaza, one might argue that there was no way Unrwa could operate without becoming enmeshed with terrorist organisations using it for cover. I would agree.

It is therefore no wonder that our polling found that 89 per cent of British Jews do not want taxpayers to fund Unrwa. When the previous government suspended funding to Unrwa, it had good reason.


Bondi hero Ahmed al-Ahmed honoured with gold menorah by Jewish billionaire Bill Ackman
Ahmed al-Ahmed, the unarmed bystander who wrestled a weapon from one of the Bondi Beach terrorists on December 14 has been presented with a golden menorah by Jewish billionaire Bill Ackman at a Chabad awards gala in New York.

The 43-year-old Muslim shopkeeper was shot several times as he tackled one of the gunmen during the antisemitic Chanukah terror attack in which 15 people killed..

Al-Ahmed wore a kippah at the awards event, which was also attended by relatives of several of the victims as well as leading community figures.

The shopkeeper, whose arm was in a sling, was met with a standing ovation.

Presenting him with the gold menorah, inscribed with the words “light will win”, hedgefund manager Ackman was visibly moved.

'[Jews] are 0.2 per cent of the world. So seeing someone step forward on behalf of people he didn't know, to risk his own life, and the calculus of going after a guy with a gun,' he told those gathered.

“It's really one of the great acts of heroism, and I think it was very reaffirming to the Jewish community to have someone stand up on behalf of our community in the most profound, life‑affirming way.”

Explaining the meaning behind the gift, Ackman said: “The menorah represented endurance, represented courage, represented persistence and, most of all, represented life and light in the darkness. And this man deserved this.”

Al-Ahmed told reporters: "It felt like my duty as a human being, helping [keep] people safe … I’m looking at the world from the side of peace."

The injuries al-Ahmed sustained have resulted in the loss of some motion in his fingers. He said: “Honestly, there’s a pain. You know, my fingers … They’re not working, but it’ll be all right … I need time, you know, one, two months, that’s what the doctor say ... Hopefully everything will be good."

A GoFundMe page set up to raise money for al-Ahmed and to "show support and gratitude" shows the largest donation comes from "William Ackman", who contributed $99,999 (£75,000), $1 (75 pence) less than the maximum donation the platform allows for individuals.

The total fund is nearing its $3 million (£2.3 million) target.

Rabbi Yehoram Ulman of Bondi Chabad, the father-in-law of one of the victims, British-born rabbi Eli Schlanger, travelled from Australia to the US alongside al-Ahmed and also spoke at the event.
Bill Ackman Honors Bondi Hero Ahmad Al Ahmad at the Colel Chabad International Awards Gala 2025
Colel Chabad provides essential humanitarian aid in Israel, ensuring food security and dignity for widows, orphans, and the elderly.




US House speaker welcomes hero who disarmed Bondi Beach terrorist
Rep. Mike Johnson, speaker of the House of Representatives, welcomed Syrian-born Australian tobacconist Ahmed al-Ahmed to the U.S. Capitol on Thursday. Last month, al-Ahmed wrenched a rifle away from one of the two gunmen during the terrorist attack on a Chanukah event at Sydney’s Bondi Beach.

“It was my honor to welcome Ahmed al-Ahmed to the Capitol today. Ahmed is the brave hero who stopped the vicious antisemitic terrorist attacker in Australia on the first night of Hanukkah,” the Louisiana representative posted to his X account.

“He is still recovering from his wounds. Antisemitism must be confronted and defeated wherever it appears, and we continue to pray for those who grieve the loss of their loved ones because of the horrific attack at Bondi Beach,” Johnson said.

Al-Ahmed, a 43-year-old father of two, flew to the U.S. this week for a “second opinion” on injuries after having been shot five times during the terrorist attack on Dec. 14, news.com.au reported on Friday.

Speaking to CNN on Wednesday, he said in imperfect English, “I get five shots. It’s fine to save life. My blood for my country, Australia, and for human beings around the whole world, anywhere and any place.”

Asked why he didn’t shoot the gunman after taking his gun, he said, “I did it as a human being. I didn’t shoot him because I was doing it as humility, to stop him to kill more innocent human beings.”


Real test lies in how the Bondi royal commission will be run
With the Albanese government at last caving in to overwhelming demands for a Commonwealth royal commission into the Bondi Beach attack and concerns about antisemitism, the issue is whether this latest version meets best practice compared to earlier commissions.

Royal commissions are temporary, ad hoc bodies, appointed only by the executive government with members from outside of government.

They have statutory coercive powers and open public processes. They investigate calamitous events like natural disasters, corruption, maladministration and complex policy problems. They are appointed when existing government agencies are deemed biased and compromised and thus are the “institution of last resort”. They are our most prestigious and independent investigatory and advisory body.

The Bondi Beach attack has all these elements warranting a royal commission. It was a horrendous, unprecedented, calamitous event; there were doubts about the effectiveness of both NSW police and national security arrangements, and deeper concerns about the drivers of apparent antisemitism.

Only a royal commission would do, and not just any royal commission. Given the cross-jurisdictional and constitutional responsibilities involved, the issue clearly demanded a nationally initiated federal-state one, and sooner rather than later.

Precedents abound for such joint commissions like those into child sexual abuse, disability, and disaster arrangements, Aboriginal deaths in custody, and trade union corruption.

Unfortunately, the Albanese government, in its strenuous efforts to avoid a royal commission, undermined their value, missed opportunities to consult about its form and membership and resulted in the current confusing shemozzle we saw in the prime minister’s announcement.

For weeks, the Albanese government portrayed royal commissions as inflexible, dominated by quasi-legal processes that take too long, cost too much and are unsuitable for reviewing complex issues.

Yet, the majority of royal commissions have taken less than 12 months and covered complex issues ranging from national health, pensions, banking, human relationships, and veteran suicide. And long-running ones issued interim reports to progress matters quickly.

Instead of quickly appointing a federal-state royal commission, the Albanese government indulged in diversionary tactics.


Brendan O’Neill: The Birmingham Maccabi scandal proves multiculturalism has failed
It can feel hard to comprehend the seriousness of this. A British police force, in the 21st century, post-Macpherson, failed to disclose relevant information about a violent hateful threat against a group of people on the basis of their national heritage. They chose instead to emphasise, incessantly, the supposed threat posed by the targets of this animus that was bubbling up in Birmingham: the Maccabi fans, the Israelis, the Jews.

To respond to information about potential anti-Jewish violence by banning Jews is a moral outrage. It is to do the bidding of bigots. It is to conspire in the creation of the very thing these warped people dream of: a space without Jews. As Kemi Badenoch says, the cops in Birmingham ‘knew extremists were planning to attack Jews’ but their response was to ‘blame and remove Jewish people’.

This was cultural appeasement. West Midlands Police made a choice, consciously or otherwise. They decided that placating the bigoted fury of local Islamists was more important than guaranteeing the safety of visiting Jews. They prioritised the irrational feelings of extremists over the right of Israeli Jews to visit Britain. If they had done this in relation to any other ethnic group, they’d already be out the door.

The mismatch between the size of this scandal and the limp response to it feels alarming. The Times has done a great job digging for the truth. Nick Timothy has been heroic in holding West Midlands Police to account. The Home Affairs Committee made a good fist of grilling the West Midlands chiefs on Tuesday. But where are the protests? Where are the angry thinkpieces in the liberal press? Where are the reports on BBC News at Ten?

Many are saying the police chiefs’ positions are untenable now. I agree. But this goes deeper than that. This scandal makes clear that the ideology of multiculturalism itself is untenable. It confirms that sectarianism is the bastard child of this divisive ideology that too often prioritises ‘cultural stability’ over truth and freedom.

Just as people in power turned a blind eye to the ‘grooming gangs’, lest they should unwittingly stir up multicultural tension, now it seems police downplayed a threat of potentially ‘armed’ violence against Jews in order to placate an Islamist mob. Any ideology that demands the suppression of truth, the silencing of working-class girls and the banning of Jews is an ideology worthy only of contempt. Those chiefs need to go, and so does the ideology that fuelled their scandalous appeasement.
Stephen Pollard: After the West Midlands force covered up the fact that Islamist thugs planned to attack Jewish football fans and told a string of lies to justify banning the Israelis from the UK, this police chief MUST resign
You might think that the ongoing controversy over how West Midlands Police handled a football match last year between Aston Villa and the Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv was about the game itself.

You'd be wrong. It's really about two far more important things: who controls the streets of Britain, and the police's duty to be open and honest.

On Monday, senior officers from West Midlands Police gave evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee. The MPs wanted the police to explain the reasoning and evidence behind their extraordinary decision to ban Israeli fans from November's match, ostensibly on 'safety' grounds.

This was the second time the officers had been hauled before MPs. Their first session, last month, was a car crash, with much of the evidence they had provided unravelling under a moment's scrutiny.

Astonishingly, Monday's session was even worse.

The day had started badly enough, with a newspaper publishing what appears to be the real reason the police had banned the Israeli fans. This was, in the police's own words, 'high-confidence intelligence' that 'elements of the community' were looking to 'arm themselves' to fight Jewish fans.

The 'community' to which they were referring, in a city as diverse as Birmingham, scarcely needs explaining.

Needless to say, the officers had made no attempt to reveal this intelligence in their previous appearance before the select committee last month. When one MP at this week's hearing asked West Midlands Chief Constable Craig Guildford why he had effectively hidden this crucial material from the committee during his previous appearance, Guildford replied: 'This is the first time specifically that you have asked for that detail.'


Antisemitism in China is not accidental, or marginal
In the last five years, millions of words have been written about Israel, its wars and policies, Zionism, Jews, Judaism, and surging antisemitism. But with regard to China, with its population of nearly a billion and a half people, little has been written on these topics. Why?

First, there are very few Jews in China, and it denies that it harbors any antisemitism. Second, China is perceived not to matter much in the global discussion about Jews and antisemitism. And third, there are probably no more than five academic experts on antisemitism who speak and read Chinese.

The Jewish People’s Policy Institute’s new publication, Chinese Antisemitism 2021-2025, Its Origins and Purposes, fills an important gap. It contradicts assumptions that antisemitism is not a Chinese issue and that China’s position on this subject does not matter.

Why China's stance on Jews, Israel matters
Since 2020, China has taken a more hostile public stance against Israel and advised Israeli contacts to take a low profile in China. There was no single reason for this; rather, it resulted from the confluence of several factors. Israel, admonished by the United States, made Chinese investments, particularly in hi-tech and infrastructure projects, more difficult. The Chinese expressed their resentment quite openly. Second, China was in the midst of expanding its presence in the Arab Middle East, offering major economic cooperation and long-lasting political ties. A harder attitude against Israel was a cheap sweetener for such offers. And third, Israel’s domestic crisis eroded its “strongman” image in Chinese eyes. A country wracked by mass demonstrations and numerous ineffective elections could no longer be taken as seriously as it had been.

After the short 2021 Gaza war, a Chinese UN delegate accused Israel of war crimes. This was unusual. Antisemitic comments appeared in China’s media. In other words, antisemitism was not an isolated initiative, but part of a larger, coordinated policy trend.

A second, stronger, and still unabated antisemitic wave hit in the wake of October 7. Antisemitism, not just criticism of Israel’s military conduct, surged in the official press and on social media platforms. The rhetoric was particularly vitriolic in China’s universities, which became key transmitters of antisemitic tropes. When a senior political figure pontificated that “political survival in the US” is “parasitically attached to Israel’s powerful Jewish forces,” he was trafficking in traditional antisemitic imagery; he did not lament Gaza’s children.

When a publishing house cancelled planned books on Jewish history, the whiff of Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia was unmistakable. Still, it did not advance the case for a Palestinian state. Neither did the removal of memorial plaques from a former synagogue in a place where Jews once lived. Some manifestations of Chinese antisemitism looked Orwellian: wiping out the memory of long-dead Jews.
Europe’s harshest Israel critics aren’t driven by Islamism or antisemitism, report suggests
The underdog myth
Shavit also found that six of the P-8 countries have national narratives of independence acquired through struggle from a more powerful country, a factor that strengthens perceptions of the Palestinians as a David fighting against an Israeli Goliath.

“There is little need to explain why, in the Republic of Ireland, which gained independence after centuries of brutally imposed British rule, such sentiments are strong,” the report said. But Malta, Slovenia, Iceland and Norway all fought for independence at various points, and Luxembourg, Belgium and Spain have complicated national memories of struggles for self-determination.

These narratives might have aligned them more with Zionism in 1948 or 1967, Shavit said, but today they are more popularly linked with the Palestinian cause.

“In 2026, anyone who sees themself as a David fighting Goliath automatically identifies with the Palestinians,” he said.

Israel can still rebuild its relationships with European countries, Shavit said. It must open fully functioning embassies in every European country, employ trained communications professionals to interact with media, and encourage more bloggers and influencers to visit the country and experience it for themselves.

Officials must reach out to moderate elements within European social democracies, engage in open dialogue, and avoid labeling all criticism and hostile diplomatic initiatives as antisemitism.

“Europe is not lost, but the gap between us is growing,” Shavit said. “We have to act.”


If we don’t ban Iran’s terror gang now we never will
There is a tendency in Britain to treat Iran as a distant tragedy: brutal, regrettable, but ultimately someone else’s concern. That is a serious mistake.

The Iranian regime, and in particular the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has plotted assassinations on British soil, taken British citizens hostage and backed armed groups that threaten our allies and disrupt global shipping. The same regime now brutally suppressing protests across Iran is one that poses a direct risk to British security. These are not conjectures. They are established facts.

Responding to events in Iran is therefore not an act of altruism. It is an act of self-defence.

Yet Britain still refuses to take the most obvious and effective step available: the proscription of the IRGC as a terrorist organisation. We have imposed sanctions and issued condemnations but we have stopped short of the one measure that would seriously constrain its operations, finances and freedom of movement.

The scale of events inside Iran should concentrate minds.

Over the past fortnight, protests have spread to more than 100 cities. What began as strikes by bazaar merchants, driven by a collapsing currency and inflation running at over 40 per cent, has become something broader and more dangerous for the regime: open demands for its removal.

The response has been predictable. Protesters have been shot. A 15-year-old boy was killed in Hafshajan. In Ilam Province, Revolutionary Guard units stormed a hospital, fired tear gas into wards and removed wounded protesters from their beds, while doctors barricaded doors to try to protect patients. Local residents surrounded the building to prevent abductions. Tribal leaders warned of armed resistance if detainees were not released.

This is the organisation Britain has declined to proscribe.

A regime able to act with such impunity at home does not draw a line at its own borders. It never has. The IRGC’s record in Europe is well-documented. In 2018, a plot to bomb a large gathering of Iranian dissidents near Paris was foiled only through the intervention of European intelligence services. An accredited Iranian diplomat was later convicted in connection with the plan. British parliamentarians attending the rally were amongst those at risk.

For many in Westminster, the danger is well understood. Members of both Houses have faced threats, surveillance and intimidation for supporting Iran’s democratic opposition. Dissidents in Britain are monitored. Their families in Iran are harassed. The regime expects its behaviour to be met with no real consequences.
Stephen Pollard: Why won’t Britain proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood?
What is it going to take for the British government – any British government, of any party – to proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood?

It was revealed today that the UAE is now limiting the number of students it will enrol at British universities because of the prevalence of Muslim Brotherhood (MB) influence on campuses. The UAE pays for most of the higher education of its citizens, and until now many UAE students have come to Britain. But having spent many years alerting the UK authorities to the ever-growing influence of the MB on campus, and having seen no evidence that anyone in a position to act is taking any serious notice of those concerns, the UAE has now decided that enough is enough and that it has no choice but to stop paying for students to come to Britain because the risk – indeed, the likelihood – of their being radicalised here is too great.

The UAE’s decision that Britain is, in effect, too far gone as a breeding ground for Islamist radicalisation is a damning indictment – albeit only the latest – of our ongoing, wilfully blind and dangerous refusal to tackle the extremism in our midst.

The MB, which is a sort of ideological clearing house for Islamists, has a skilled modus operandi. It does not operate in its own name but sets up front organisations which can appear to anyone uninformed about how the MB operates to be legitimate, independent bodies. These vary from small individual groups to student associations to national bodies.

Little about the threat it poses is unknown, which is why it is all the more negligent that no government has yet acted against it. One of the MB’s key tactics is to encroach so deeply into organisations and public bodies (usually with the appointment of its fronts as outside ‘advisers’ and groups involved in ‘consultation’) that they are essentially taken over, even when the actual decisions are taken by others. This is, for example, what seems to have happened when West Midlands Police barred Israelis from attending a football match at Villa Park, having effectively taken their instructions from local ‘community groups’. The police made the actual decision, but it was taken because of the influence of outside groups on the police.
UAE restricts students studying in Britain due to Islamist indoctrination at UK universities
The United Arab Emirates has moved to limit the number of its students coming to study at UK universities, out of concern that British academic institutions have failed to prevent Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood from spreading their indoctrination.

As reported by The Times, the UAE, which provides significant bursaries via government programmes to citizens who seek to study abroad in specific fields, will withdraw these benefits for those seeking to study in the UK, while maintaining them for other countries. This means that while wealthy Emirati families can still choose to send their children to study in Britain, footing the costs themselves, the number of Emirati students at UK academic institutions, currently approximately 8,500, is likely to shrink significantly in the coming years.

Set up as a transnational Islamist organisation in Egypt almost a century ago, the Brotherhood has been declared a terrorist group in countries including Egypt, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, while its key backers have been Qatar and Turkey. Last year, the Jordanian government also announced a full ban on the organisation after reportedly uncovering evidence relating to a sabotage plot linked to its members. The group’s longtime spiritual leader, Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, was banned from entering the UK more than a decade ago due to his infamous views on issues including Jews, homosexuality and non-religious Muslims.

The Western world has also moved to clamp down on the organisation. In November, Donald Trump ordered US government officials to investigate different branches of the Muslim Brotherhood should be listed as terrorist groups. Last year the French government published a report on the Brotherhood’s attempts to infiltrate and subvert democracies, with a growing likelihood that the country will move to severely restrict the organisation this year under its principle of Laïcité – constitutionally mandated state secularism.

Last year, after meeting Emirati officials, Nigel Farage indicated that if Reform UK wins the next general election, he would move to ban the Muslim Brotherhood in this country.


Man who described 7 October as ‘a justified act of resistance’ allowed to remain a teacher
A religious studies teacher who wrote on social media in early 2024 that Hamas had “committed no crime”, called them “defenders of humanity” and referred to 7 October as “a justified act of resistance” has been allowed to continue in the profession after a misconduct panel heard he was “remorseful”.

Ronan Preston, from Ireland, had been teaching at the Ursuline Catholic High School in South London when he made the comments via a Twitter account between January and May 2024. When his identity was revealed by the “GnasherJew” social media account, Ursuline suspended Preston, also known as Preastuin, and subsequently dismissed him following a disciplinary hearing.

However, The Telegraph has reported that Preston has managed to being struck off the teaching register, after a Teaching Regulatory Agency misconduct panel found that he had committed unacceptable professional conduct but concluded that it would be enough of a punishment for him if they published their findings.

Among the posts on the Twitter account belonging to Mr Preston were the statements that “October 7 was a justified act of resistance under a brutal and crushing occupation”, and that “I’m delighted to tell you monsters that Hamas committed no crime”.

Other posts included one stating “Glory to Hamas and freedom for humanity…victory over the imperialist racists!”

As reported by the Telegraph, the panel described Preston’s posts as “abhorrent and extremely offensive, demonstrating a lack of tolerance and respect for Israel, Jewish people and Judaism”, but said that they were “entirely out of character”. The panel also concluded that there was “no evidence that any pupil at the school saw the posts in question or was harmed by them”.


How much more evidence is required for the BBC to engage in genuine change?
For months, critics of the BBC have been told to wait. Wait for internal reviews, for leadership changes, for the organisation to “listen and learn”.

When the Director-General and the Head of News were finally forced out, some were encouraged, it turns out naively, to believe this marked a reckoning, that accountability at the top would correct what had gone wrong beneath it. That a change of faces would mean a change of culture. It hasn’t.

Because the problem was never about individuals. It is endemic, systemic, institutional and crucially, it is not confined to one corner of the BBC. It spans news, factual programming and entertainment alike. That breadth matters, it tells us this is not a rogue editor, a compromised bureau or a single newsroom gone astray. It is a worldview that runs through the organisation’s bloodstream.

If there were ever any doubt that removing senior figures would neutralise the BBC’s editorial pathology, the corporation itself has erased it, not over years, the time it normally takes for them to mark their own homework, but in just the last few weeks.

A leaked internal memo recently instructed BBC staff that “the argument over how much aid has crossed into Gaza is irrelevant”, and that Israel should be blamed regardless. That sentence alone should chill anyone who still believes the BBC’s problems are exaggerated. Once an organisation decides facts are irrelevant, journalism is no longer the objective, the outcome is. When a publicly funded broadcaster resolves the conclusion first and treats evidence as an inconvenience, fitted up to deliver the “right” answer”, it stops informing the public and starts shaping it. Call it what you like, but it no longer resembles reporting and hasn’t for sometime.

Another leak revealed something more serious still. Internal BBC communications confirmed what critics have warned for months, the corporation had evidence contradicting its own viral “mass graves” narrative, evidence showing the graves were dug by Palestinians before Israeli entry and the story was broadcast regardless. This was not a failure to verify, it was a decision to proceed despite verification. That is how propaganda functions, not through ignorance, but through editorial selection.


Hungarian textbooks portray Jews positively, contain unbiased Holocaust coverage
Hungarian textbooks consistently portray Jews in a positive light and contain detailed and balanced coverage of Jewish history, the Holocaust, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, IMPACT-se found in its new research, released on Thursday.

The report revealed that the curriculum includes extensive detail on Jewish history, including the historic role of Israel and the Jewish contribution to Hungary (such as the achievements of Hungarian Jewish Nobel laureates).

The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) found many of the descriptions of Jewish life to be free of bias and inclusive.

An example is an Ethics, Grade 6 textbook, which prompts an activity discussing what students have learned about the major religions.

The institute said the textbook’s depiction of Judaism is informative, free of bias, and empathetic. The text discusses antisemitic persecution suffered by Jews, including the Holocaust, which is referenced as a genocide.

There is also discussion of the Land of Israel as the historical home of the Jewish people, as well as the modern state that contains a large population of Jews, the report found.

The curriculum covers the Holocaust in depth and in an empathetic manner. IMPACT-se reported that textbooks describe discriminatory laws, deportations to Auschwitz, and the destruction of Hungarian Jewry, often using primary sources, survivor accounts, and historical photographs.

The textbooks also acknowledge the existence of Hungarian collaboration with the Nazis, while the curriculum personalizes the Holocaust through individual stories, including those of Anne Frank and Hannah Senesh.

However, there was a notable exclusion of the role of Nazi collaborators in the Hungarian local authorities.

Antisemitism is placed in an appropriate context, with one textbook clearly stating, “Antisemitism is not a product of the 20th century but has resurfaced in Europe for many hundreds of years.”

IMPACT-se also noted that Hungary is one of the few countries to directly confront a local case of antisemitism.
UN school in New York investigates swastika carved in locker room
An incident at the United Nations International School (UNIS) in New York is under investigation after a swastika was etched into a boys’ locker room on campus, school officials confirmed to JNS.

In a letter dated Jan. 8 to the school community that was provided to JNS, executive director Dan Brenner described the “antisemitic incident” as “deeply troubling.”

“Acts and symbols of hate have no place at UNIS,” Brenner wrote. “They cause real harm, particularly to our Jewish students, families, faculty and staff, and they run counter to the values of dignity, respect and international-mindedness that define our school.”

Brenner said the school, which educates children of diplomats and international civil servants in New York, is conducting an investigation. “There will be severe consequences for those involved,” he said, and the administration will be “taking deliberate steps to address this incident through education, dialogue and collective action.”

He added that the school’s goal is “to ensure that our Jewish community members feel seen, supported and protected, and to help all members of our community better understand antisemitism—its history, its contemporary forms and our shared responsibility to confront it.”

Brenner announced plans for UNIS to offer a community-wide event on Jan. 27, Holocaust Remembrance Day,” with a “special guest speaker from the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center” followed by a “Walk Against Antisemitism, culminating at the United Nations.”

He also said he is communicating with the American Jewish Committee in the hopes that the organization will “engage directly with our student body during January as part of our broader educational response.”
Antisemitic vandal carves ‘Die Thieves’ on NYC library door hosting Jewish exhibit, threatens employee with blade
A antisemitic vandal carved the words “Die Thieves” into the front door of a 142-year-old Upper East Side library where a Jewish gallery exhibit was on display – and then threatened an employee with the same blade, cops and sources said Friday.

The long-haired, bearded suspect was caught in the act by a worker as he etched the disturbing words on the door of The Grolier Club on East 60th Street near Park Avenue around 12:15 p.m. Dec. 27, police said.

When the 24-year-old employee approached, the menace flashed the tool he’d used to make the carvings and spewed “anti-Jewish remarks,” cops said.

The hateful suspect then ran off, heading east on 60th Street, police said.

No one was hurt.

The disturbing incident came while the private museum, library and social club – founded in 1884 – was featuring an exhibit called Jewish Worlds Illuminated, which the venue said was “devoted exclusively to Jewish books.”

The exhibit was composed of Hebrew manuscripts from the Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary, according to the club’s website.
Danish auction house peddles antisemitic World War II pamphlet for $7
An auction house in Denmark this week marketed a copy of an antisemitic pamphlet containing a Nazi collaborator’s text, drawing protests from a prominent European-Jewish group.

The document, titled “The Jewish High Finance” and featuring a foreword by Max Johannes Arildskov (1896-1986), a leader of Nazis in Denmark before and during World War II, was marketed with a bidding price of 45 Danish kroner, or $7, on the website of Bastion Auctions.

(After the war, Arildskov was tried and sentenced to eight years in prison. However he was pardoned on May, 9 1948.)

The business, which labels the item “Original anti-Jewish propaganda, WW2,” specializes in military and historical objects.

The text contained conspiracy theories about Jewish power and calls to confront it, including in the closing line, which reads: “Free speech is gagged in the majority of the country’s newspapers, but the truth must come out, so that the people, when the showdown comes, can stand united against any attack!”

Another passage reads: “It is no exaggeration to say that as thing progress, the question of the destructive work of the Jews may become a question of the existence of the kingdom as a Christian, national and independent country.”

The European Jewish Association condemned the sale and called on authorities to stop it.

“At a time when antisemitism and disinformation about Jews are at record levels, when Jews are forced to worship behind fortress like security, and when Jews are being murdered across the world, it is deeply irresponsible for Denmark to allow the sale of such hate on the open market, to allow others to profit from it, and to hand over texts that inspire those lurking on the dark web or in antisemitic chatrooms,” the European Jewish Association wrote in a statement.

The EJA said the object did not appear to have scientific, research-related value.
AI security boom triples valuation of Israeli cyber startup to $9 billion within a year
Israeli-founded Cyera, a developer of an AI data security platform, announced on Thursday that it has raised $400 million in a funding round led by New York-based alternative asset manager Blackstone that triples its valuation from a year ago to $9 billion.

Other investors joining the funding round include Accel, Coatue, Cyberstarts, Georgian, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sapphire, and Sequoia Capital.

The investment comes just six months after Cyera secured $540 million in a funding round that doubled its valuation to $6 billion, and the $300 million it raised at the end of 2024, at a $3 billion valuation. To date, the startup has nabbed more than $1.7 billion.

Cyera was founded in 2021 by Yotam Segev, CEO, and Tamar Bar-Ilan, CTO, who met during their Israeli army service, during which they built and ran the cloud security division for the Israel Defense Force’s vaunted intelligence outfit, Unit 8200.

Exposed to the challenges of securing data in the cloud, Segev and Bar-Ilan decided after their military service to develop and build a unified data security platform to provide businesses and organizations with a complete view of where their data “lives, how it’s used, and how to keep it safe.” With the fast adoption of AI applications by organizations and businesses, there is a growing need to secure their most sensitive data.

“AI is reshaping the foundations of how every organization operates, and our mission is to ensure that this transformation happens securely,” said Segev. “Enterprises want to move quickly, but they also recognize that AI without data security and governance is a risk they cannot afford.”

“This funding strengthens our ability to protect the world’s most sensitive information and help organizations unlock the full potential of AI with confidence,” Segev added.

Cyera’s data and AI platform is deployed by 20 percent of Fortune 500 companies operating in the areas of financial services, retail, media & entertainment, healthcare, technology, and global telecom, the firm said. Over the past 12 months, the startup tripled its workforce to 1,100 employees and expanded its footprint to 15 countries in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. In Israel, Cyera has more than 400 employees.
Israeli team pioneers bacteria ‘factories’ to produce medicine inside the body
Israeli researchers have developed an innovative method that enables medicine to be manufactured within the body itself.

The pioneering approach, not yet tested on humans, uses live, harmless bacteria that act like tiny factories, producing therapeutic proteins inside the body, exactly where they are needed.

“We are accustomed to thinking that to introduce a drug into the body, it must be manufactured in a factory and then delivered via a capsule or an injection,” said Prof. Boaz Mizrahi of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology’s lab for biomaterials in the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering.

“This could be a turning point in the world of pharmaceuticals, and a new paradigm for both drug production and consumption,” he added.

Mizrahi recently spoke with The Times of Israel in a joint interview with Dr. Adi Gross, the study’s lead researcher.

Proteins are used in a variety of medicines, Mizrahi said. One example of a medical protein is insulin, used to help control blood sugar. Another hormone helps people with kidney disease make red blood cells. There are also antibodies and growth hormones made with proteins. Prof. Boaz Mizrahi of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology’s Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering. (Courtesy/Technion Spokesperson’s Office)

However, “proteins are very fragile, and their configuration is critical,” Mizrahi explained. If they are swallowed, for example, the stomach and intestines treat them like food and break them down, so they are ineffective.

The researchers’ novel method enables bacteria to produce and release perfectly configured, ready-for-use proteins within the body.
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