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Tuesday, January 13, 2026

01/13 Links Pt2: Why the West Is Split Over Political Islam; Scott Wiener’s Dangerous Cowardice; Australian writers’ festival canceled after booting Pro-Hamas author

From Ian:

Pierre Rehov: Why the West Is Split Over Political Islam
Trump's executive order represents the most serious American effort in decades to confront Islamist political networks that, in Washington, had long been considered merely political differences rather than lethal security threats.

Across the Atlantic... in the European Union and many of its major capitals, political Islam — often embodied by Muslim Brotherhood-linked organizations — remains part of an approach for a larger "dialogue with Islamists". Can you imagine a "dialogue with Bolsheviks" or a "dialogue with the Third Reich"?

[T]he European Union has taken a far more cautious, at times permissive, approach, apparently preferring to regard Islamic extremists as potential voters.

The West ends up assimilating into Islam, rather than the other way around.

Rather than confronting liberal democratic values, these "entryist" actors advocate for "reinterpretations" that often blur the lines between religious freedom and political Islam.

Many Muslims in the West, of course, just want an opportunity for a better life, but they are not the ones in the engine room, driving the extremist Muslim train. The agenda, according to Islam itself, consists of sharing Allah's precious gift of Islam (Dar Al Islam, the "Abode of Islam") with the rest of the world (the Dar al Harb, the "Abode of War," those who have yet to submit to Islam) -- either by infiltration or force. Finally – when everyone in the world has submitted to Islam, whether they wanted to or not -- then there will be "peace." That, evidently, is when the world will enjoy "the Religion of Peace."

The result is a West that now follows two opposite paths. On one path, the United States under the Trump administration is moving toward clarity and confrontation, willing to codify ideological enemies and remove them from the political landscape. On the other path, Europe continues its policy of engagement, accommodation and submission, risk-balancing between wished-for civic inclusion and ideological risk. This split only serves to impede counterterrorism and jeopardize the West.
Who radicalized the Mississippi synagogue arsonist?
Hate found its way to Mississippi’s largest Jewish house of worship, Congregation Beth Israel, when an arsonist intentionally set fire to the synagogue at about 3 a.m. Saturday, damaging the only synagogue in Jackson.

The alleged suspect’s name, Stephen Spencer Pittman, was released late Monday. According to the FBI, he faces charges of maliciously damaging or destroying a building by fire or an explosive.

Russ Latino, a native Mississippian and founder of the Jackson-based Magnolia Tribune Institute, said an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi alleges Pittman admitted to law enforcement that he set the fire at Beth Israel because of its “Jewish ties.” Latino added that Pittman referred to the synagogue as the “Synagogue of Satan” and detailed the steps he took leading up to the arson.

Latino noted that “Synagogue of Satan” is an antisemitic phrase that both Nick Fuentes and Candace Owens have used in recent years. “Nothing in his personal profile points out anything political. There is no Trump or Biden or Harris. There are just a lot of bible verses,” he said, adding, “But ‘Synagogue of Satan’ well, that is a pretty specific alliteration and the same phraseology used by Fuentes and Owens,” he said.

His social media presence on X shows a young man posting about his Christian faith and baseball, where he was a standout player in both high school and college.

Latino said the entire Jackson community has rallied around the Beth Israel congregants. “Many different faith organizations had reached out and offered their houses of worship for the Beth Israel members so they can practice their faith,” he said.
Pro-Palestine protesters plotted to spy on Maccabi players
Pro-Palestine protesters plotted to spy on Maccabi Tel Aviv players after West Midlands Police “ignored” the threat to the Israeli football team.

The Telegraph has seen a message in a group chat that discusses trying to “obstruct” the visiting players from taking part in a fixture against Aston Villa on Nov 6.

Members of the West Midlands Palestine Solidarity Campaign were asked to scour hotel lobbies in Birmingham for Maccabi players, in an attempt to stop the match from going ahead.

Craig Guildford, Chief Constable of West Midlands Police, is facing mounting pressure to resign for banning Maccabi fans last year.

Critics argue his decision was politically motivated rather than based on genuine safety concerns, and that Mr Guildford has misled Parliament with his version of events. The force has also been accused of ignoring threats to the Israeli players and their fans.

The Telegraph can reveal attempts by pro-Gaza activists to track down Maccabi players the night before the match.

An unidentified campaigner said the group could “still cancel this match if we obstruct team Maccabi from attending” and called for volunteers for “MISSION CRITICAL search actions”.

Activists were tasked with searching “hotel lobbies and dining areas” on the night before the game, looking for faces in a lineup of Maccabi players on the team’s website in an attempt to cancel the match.

They were also asked to work as “spotters” at the stadium, to be “watching the Villa Park entrances for the team coach”.

“We can then mount a quick response, to protest them, or the spotters can follow them back to their hotels to find out where their [sic] staying, and mobilise a protest at the hotel.”

The message suggests there was an organised attempt to target the Israeli players ahead of the match, despite West Midlands Police’s insistence that it was Maccabi fans who were likely to cause violence or intimidation.


Hamas 'will not give up until last Israeli is gone,' former hostage Eitan Mor says
Former hostage Eitan Mor said he was “amazed” by how much intelligence he saw Hamas had on Israel during his time in captivity, adding that the terrorist group had been focused on rebuilding and preparing for further attacks.

Mor’s remarks came as right-wing ministers and lawmakers called for a complete takeover of the Gaza Strip during a Knesset conference on Monday titled Gaza the Day After: The Political Plan of the Israeli Right.

“People underestimate how organized they are,” Mor said about Hamas. “Shifts. Guard rotations. Thousands of shafts. Even under siege, they have food supplies for a year. The only real weakness is water.”

Water resources run out in the tunnels, he noted.

“They will not give up. Many of them told me: ‘Until the last Israeli is removed from here, we’ll keep kidnapping.’ Jihad is the highest commandment in their religion. They are obsessed with us; this is their life’s purpose,” Mor said.

Hamas maintained strict discipline
Hamas maintained strict discipline while holding hostages, he continued. “Their safety discipline shocked me. When moving hostages, there’s always a safety briefing. One terrorist, now dead, used to say: ‘The first mistake is the last mistake.’”

“They have booklets on the army and the tools we have. Everything down to the smallest detail.”

Mor was working as a security guard at the Nova music festival when Hamas invaded on October 7. He was held captive for two years and released as part of the latest US-brokered ceasefire deal in October 2025.

“On October 7, I saw the atrocities. I knew they were huge, but I didn’t understand the scale,” Mor said, speaking about the beginning of his time in captivity.


Bipartisan bill would limit US funding to United Nations if Israel expelled
Bipartisan legislation introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday would cut American funding for the United Nations if it expels Israel.

H.R. 7018, informally named the Stand with Israel Act of 2025, would target any U.N. agency that carries out such an action. It has been referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Calls for Israel’s expulsion have increased among opponents of Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip following the terrorist group’s attacks on Oct. 7, 2023. Malaysia announced in November that it would draft such a proposal.

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), the bill’s lead sponsor, noted that “Israel is one of America’s strongest partners across the world.”

“The U.N. has a responsibility to uphold its own rules, not bend them to appease extremists or reward antisemitism,” Lawler stated. “The United States should not bankroll institutions that engage in discriminatory and unlawful actions against our allies.”

No nation has ever been expelled from the United Nations, although Arab states tried to take such action against Israel in 1982. They dropped the bid due to a lack of support. At the time, then-U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz cited existing American policy to withhold its dues in response to such actions.
UN chief threatens to refer Israel to World Court over laws targeting UNRWA
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned Israel in a letter that he could refer the country to the International Court of Justice if it does not repeal laws targeting the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA and return seized assets and property.

In a January 8 letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Guterres said the United Nations cannot remain indifferent to “actions taken by Israel, which are in direct contravention of the obligations of Israel under international law. They must be reversed without delay.”

The Knesset passed a law in October 2024 banning the agency from operating in the country and prohibiting officials from having contact with the agency. It then amended that law last month to ban electricity or water to UNRWA facilities.

Israeli authorities also seized UNRWA’s East Jerusalem offices last month.

Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon on Tuesday dismissed Guterres’s letter to Netanyahu.

“We are not fazed by the Secretary-General’s threats,” Danon said. “Instead of dealing with the undeniable involvement of UNRWA personnel in terrorism, the Secretary-General chooses to threaten Israel. This is not defending international law; this is defending an organization marred by terrorism.”


Jerusalem severs ties with 7 UN agencies, citing anti-Israel bias
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced on Tuesday Israel’s withdrawal from several United Nations agencies and associated organizations for reasons ranging from their alleged anti-Israel bias to “ineffective bureaucracy.”

The agencies Israel withdrew from, effective immediately, are the: Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict; UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women); UN Conference on Trade and Development; UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia; UN Alliance of Civilizations; UN Energy; and Global Forum on Migration and Development.

In a statement announcing the move, the Foreign Ministry said it was ceasing cooperation with the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict after it added the IDF to a “blacklist” in its annual report on children in armed conflict, along with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

“Israel is the only democratic country to be listed, alongside ISIS and Boko Haram,” it noted, adding that Israel already cut ties with the office in June 2024.

Similarly, it said, Sa’ar pulled Israel out of UN Women after it “deliberately ignored all cases of sexual violence committed against Israeli women on October 7, 2023.”

It cited “virulent anti-Israel reports” as the reason for withdrawing from both the UN Agency for Trade and Development and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, and says the Alliance of Civilizations is “used as a platform for attacks against Israel.”


Seth Madnel: The Law Cannot Fix a Broken Culture
The Adelaide writers festival canceled its invitation to an author whose appearance was deemed, in the wake of the Bondi Beach massacre, in poor taste.

The writer, the Australian-born Randa Abdel-Fattah, is blaming something fascinatingly termed “anti-Palestinian racism.”

The actual reason appears to be that she has said “if you are a Zionist you have no claim or right to cultural safety.” The call for Jews to be denied safety by an Australian does indeed seem a bit impolitic considering all the vigilante Jew-hunting there. She reportedly also posted: “The goal is decolonisation and the end of this murderous Zionist colony”—a rather genocidey thing to say.

The response has been predictable: Dozens of authors pulled out of the event in solidarity with Abdel-Fattah, and the festival’s employees are currently being subjected to a campaign of threats. “In one email,” notes the Advertiser, “an irate critic of Dr Abdel-Fattah’s axing made ‘threats’ about the raping of children.”

The framing of this by Abdel-Fattah and her supporters as a kind of “cancel culture” is interesting, because Abdel-Fattah is a vocal proponent of such cancellations. The obvious example is her call for the general public to ensure Jews (sorry, “Zionists”) are unsafe in public. Even the most generous reading of that statement is that Jews with opinions she doesn’t like should be removed from public spaces where they might share those opinions.

But Abdel-Fattah also led the charge in 2024 to have the Adelaide writers festival cancel its invitation to columnist Tom Friedman over what she said was Friedman’s offensive description of the Middle East. It would seem, then, that in canceling Abdel-Fattah’s appearance, the festival was taking its cues from Abdel-Fattah.

Abdel-Fattah, by the way, defends her attempted cancellation of Friedman.

So now that we know this isn’t about cancel culture or freedom of expression, what is it all about?
Australia’s new anti-hate bill may shield Islamic hate preachers, critics condemn loopholes
Australia’s new Combating Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill 2026 might protect preachers of hate due to a clause stating that if religious scripture is being quoted, the rhetoric does not constitute a hate offence.

The Attorney-General’s Department released the draft bill on Tuesday, and it will go to the Australian Parliament next week.

Encompassing a comprehensive package of reforms, the bill sets out to further criminalize antisemitic, hateful, and extremist conduct, and to ensure that those who seek to spread hate face penalties that reflect the seriousness of the conduct.

It comes in the wake of significant terror events in Australia, including the recent Hanukkah Bondi Beach massacre.

It’s new amendments to the criminal law act – called the racial vilification offence – stipulate that a person commits an offense if they promote or incite hatred of another person (the target), or a group of persons (the target group), because of the race, color, nationality, or ethnic origin of the target or target group.

These amendments also hold accountable those who disseminate ideas of superiority over, or hatred of, another person (the target) or a group of persons (the target group) on the basis of the target’s or target group’s race, color, national or ethnic origin.

The example given is “inciting antisemitic hatred against Jews in a public place where a reasonable member of the Jewish community would be intimidated or fear violence.”


The Lessons of Bondi Beach: Terrorism, Hatred and the Law
Keynote speech by Jonathan Hall KC
Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation and Independent Reviewer of State Threats Legislation

The speech will be followed by a Q&A with the audience.


‘Disgusting’: SMH cartoon mocking Bondi Royal Commission calls draws condemnation
Former editor-in-chief of the Age Michael Gawenda says he was “disgusted” by the Sydney Morning Herald’s highly offensive cartoon, which mocked calls for a Royal Commission into the Bondi terror attack.


Adelaide Writers’ Week cancelled, claims antisemitism ‘widespread’
Human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky says it is “terribly sad” that Adelaide Writers’ Week has been cancelled, claiming antisemitism has become “so widespread and entrenched” in the event.

“It’s terribly sad,” Mr Ostrovsky told Sky News Senior Reporter Caroline Marcus.

“It should be forums for free speech … but sadly, over the years they’ve become hubs where antisemitism has become so widespread and entrenched.”




Pro-Hamas Australian booted from literary festival draws boycotts, resignations
While the statement pointed to no particular rhetoric or action by Abdel-Fattah, she made a social-media post on Dec. 17, three days after the Bondi massacre, slamming those “quickly surrendering to the agenda of those who are using a horrific act of antisemitism to entrench anti-Palestinian racism.”

Abdel-Fattah’s post continued, saying, “Now is the time to insist on principles, not abandon them. To see through the shameful and dangerous political exploitation of the murder of 16 people by Zionists, white supremacists, the far right to advance their racist, violent, oppressive agendas.”

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas said he does “not support the inclusion of those who actively undermine the cultural safety of others, who celebrate the death of innocent civilians or those who dox other artists simply because of their faith or cultural background.”

Abdel-Fattah’s legal team announced on Jan. 11 that it is demanding organizers provide every statement Abdel-Fattah made that went into the decision to remove her from the festival lineup.

The day after the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Abdel-Fattah published an image on Facebook of a man parachuting, with the parachute itself in the colors of the Palestinian flag. Hamas terrorists had used paragliders to enter Israel the day before.

In February 2024, Abdel-Fattah was linked to the promotion of an incident in which a WhatsApp group of Jewish Australian creatives and academics had their personal conversations and information leaked.

In April 2024, video showed Abdel-Fattah leading young children in chants of “intifada” and other anti-Israel slogans in what was billed as a “kids’ excursion” to Sydney University.

She has made other inflammatory social-media posts, including one claiming that Zionists have “no claim to cultural safety.”

Among those withdrawing from the festival as a result of Abdel-Fattah’s removal are Pulitzer Prize-winning American Percival Everett, along with British author Zadie Smith and former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis.
Australian writers’ festival canceled after booting Palestinian author who lauded Oct. 7
Abdel-Fattah said the move to bar her was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” and was a “despicable attempt to associate me with the Bondi massacre.”

She has advocated for making spaces “culturally unsafe” for Zionists and appeared to laud Hamas terrorists who infiltrated Israel on October 7, 2023. In interviews, she has refused to acknowledge the murder of Israelis, and one day after the devastating attack, she changed her Facebook profile picture to a Hamas terrorist in a hang-glider, depicting one of the methods the terror group used to infiltrate Israel.

She also wrote a post on X in October 2024 saying: “The goal is decolonisation and the end of this murderous Zionist colony.”

According to the Australian Daily Telegraph, Abdel-Fattah once wrote: “To hell with you all. Every last Zionist. May you never know a second’s peace in your sadistic miserable lives.”

In an interview on Sky News Australia just days after the October 7 massacre, Abdel-Fattah said that she “does not see Hamas as a terrorist organization,” and that the attack on southern Israel was inevitable after “every avenue of peaceful resistance” had been shut down.

And in February 2024, Abdel-Fattah signed on to a letter calling for the cancellation of an appearance at the same festival by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, accusing him of “hate speech” and “racism.” Friedman ultimately backed out of his appearance at the event.

In the wake of the festival’s decision last week to disinvite her, a wave of writers dropped out in solidarity, including former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern, British author Zadie Smith, Australian author Kathy Lette, Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist Percival Everett and former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, Australian media reported.


Seth Madnel: Scott Wiener’s Dangerous Cowardice
Let’s start with the wording of the video. Wiener explains that he hasn’t characterized Israel’s defensive war in Gaza as a genocide because the word was coined to refer to the Holocaust, “the industrial extermination of 6 million Jews.” Therefore, many Jews find the “Gaza Holocaust” lie to be “painful” and “traumatic.” Then he says this:

“But despite that pain and that trauma, we all have eyes, and we see the absolute devastation and catastrophic death toll in Gaza inflicted by the Israeli government. And we all have ears, and we hear the genocidal statements by certain senior members of the Israeli government. And to me, the Israeli government has tried to destroy Gaza and to push Palestinians out. And that qualifies as genocide.”

To be clear: Scott Wiener is suggesting that he has believed, for at least several months but perhaps more (the cease-fire was signed three months ago), that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza. But he didn’t acknowledge it because to do so would have been painful.

That this will be used by anti-Semites—whose votes Wiener hoped to attract by recording the statement—to cast doubt on the honesty of every Jew and to send conspiracists to the rooftops claiming vindication seems inevitable now.

Wiener has not only joined the Big Lie but has done so in the most damaging possible way to the Jewish people.

That is further indicated by the timing of his flip flop. What made him suddenly reverse course this late in the game? On January 7, he participated in a candidates debate with Saikat Chakrabarti, the millionaire former chief of staff to the furiously anti-Zionist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and a local official named Connie Chan. The moderator asked the candidates for a simple yes or no: Did Israel commit genocide in Gaza? Chakrabarti and Chan both said yes. Wiener said nothing.

The progressive backlash against Wiener was swift and harsh. So Wiener caved—not because the facts changed but because he was presented with clear evidence that if he did not participate in the left’s Holocaust distortion, he would not win his election. He decided that shivving the Jewish people was a fair price to pay for a chance to become a congressman.

Wiener’s confessional video makes for difficult viewing: It is never easy to watch a man’s soul leave his body. But it is instructive of our current moment, in which slandering the Jews amid an explosion in anti-Semitic violence is seen as the ticket to political power within the progressive coalition. After all, Brad Lander—the Zohran Mamdani superfan and longtime enabler of New York’s anti-Semitic left—is running the same play in his primary against Rep. Dan Goldman.

Are Wiener and Lander correct that tokenization is the only path to success? The truth is, no matter who wins these races, Americans of conscience have already lost.


Zohran Mamdani's Father Calls Columbia's Anti-Semitism Task Force a 'Prosecutorial Agency' That Acts Like British Imperial Colonizers
Mahmood Mamdani, the Columbia University professor and father of New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani (D.), called Columbia's new anti-Semitism task force a "prosecutorial agency" during a recent University Senate meeting. Professor Mamdani compared the panel to imperial British colonizers using their race-based "divide and rule" strategy to maintain power, according to an unofficial transcript obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

"It became very clear that [the task force] saw itself not as representing the community, but as a prosecutorial agency," Mamdani—who teaches classes on decolonization and researches subjects like "racial capitalism" and "colonialism"—said at the Dec. 12 meeting.

Two sources who attended the December meeting confirmed Mamdani's remarks, which have not been previously reported, while a third said the unofficial transcript matched his notes verbatim.

When Mamdani finished speaking, acting Columbia president Claire Shipman, who is the University Senate's presiding officer, thanked him. "If I have your permission, I will come to you for guidance," she said, addressing him as "Senator."

Mamdani did not respond to a request for comment. Asked about when and on what issues Shipman would seek Professor Mamdani's guidance, a Columbia University spokesman said that Shipman hears from a variety of people on a broad range of issues and believes that "listening—particularly to those with whom you disagree" is a hallmark of "good leadership."

Columbia established its Task Force on Antisemitism in November 2023 after its campus saw a surge in anti-Semitic incidents following Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack. Mamdani's criticism was a response to the panel's fourth and final report, published December 9 of last year, which Mamdani said he did not read. The report's authors painted a "disturbing" picture of life as a Jewish student at the Ivy League institution, where instructors smeared Jews and Israelis in their classes as occupiers and "murderers" and used their lectures on unrelated topics like astronomy to rail against "genocide" in Gaza.
Anti-Israel activist introduces congressional candidate at NYC event
Anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil, who led Palestinian protests at Columbia University and was a spokesman for the campus encampment, spoke at the campaign launch event for Claire Valdez, who is running for Congress in New York’s 7th District.

Khalil, 30, who was arrested by federal agents in 2025 and accused of providing false information on his green card application, took the stage to introduce the candidate at the launch at SILO Brooklyn on Jan. 9.

In footage on social media, Khalil appears to lead the crowd in a “free, free Palestine” chant and introduce Valdez, 36, as someone who was there for him “when the full weight of the state comes down hard.”

Valdez was “among the first of elected officials” to organize for his release, he said. “She put her body on the line,” he added, noting she “was arrested while protesting the genocide in Gaza.”

Khalil called out politicians who are “not doing something about the Israeli occupation.”
Celebrities, NGOs sign letter accusing Israel of ‘direct attack’ on Gaza health care
Some 40 celebrities, as well as about 10 nonprofits and another 10 Palestinian medical personnel, signed a letter published Monday accusing Israel of deliberately targeting medical facilities in Gaza and the West Bank and urging an end to all restrictions on the entry of aid.

The three-page letter alleges that “the government of Israel has deliberately inflicted conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of Palestinians in Gaza” — a formulation lifted from the Genocide Convention — and that it has targeted civilians and medical personnel, allegations that Israel strenuously denies.

The letter will be delivered to UK and EU lawmakers in meetings this week, according to The Guardian.

The letter claims that Israel “has systematically undermined Gaza’s healthcare system for more than two decades; since October 2023, the healthcare system has been under direct attack.”

At no point does the letter mention the Hamas terror group, its October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, or the 251 hostages kidnapped from Israel on that day, some of whom were held in Gaza for two years prior to the recent ceasefire.

The letter says that, despite the ceasefire, “Israeli forces carry out daily attacks in Gaza” and “the Israeli government continues to block humanitarian assistance and prevent essential medical supplies and personnel from entering Gaza at the scale required.”

Israel denies deliberately targeting civilians, and notes that terror groups intentionally operate from within sensitive areas, including hospitals.

Israel also says that its restrictions and inspections of humanitarian aid entering the Strip are necessary to prevent outright arms smuggling as well as the entry of dual-use items that can be used by combatants for attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians.
Israeli-Argentinian imprisoned in Venezuela for over a year released, returns home
An Israeli-Argentinian man was released from prison in Venezuela and returned to Israel on Tuesday, the Prime Minister’s Office said, over a year after his arrest for allegedly serving as a mercenary on behalf of the United States.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Yaakov Harari, 72, upon his return, as well as with Harari’s two daughters Yael and Ya’ara, who expressed their appreciation to the premier, the Jewish community in Caracas and diplomats who worked to secure his release, the PMO said.

According to Ynet, Harari was among 125 people, mainly US citizens, arrested in January 2025, with Venezuela’s interior minister accusing them of serving as mercenaries for Washington with the aim of attempting a coup in the country.

Caracas said on Monday that 116 prisoners have so far been released as part of a process announced last week to “seek peace” with US President Donald Trump, after the US captured Venezuelan leader Nicholas Maduro.

Netanyahu hailed a wide-ranging effort to free Harari.

“The Prime Minister expressed appreciation to the Foreign Ministry, the Mossad and the coordinator of the government coordinator for hostages, Gal Hirsch, for their work and wished to thank the US government, the German government, the Austrian government and the Italian government for the assistance they provided to Israel in the process of returning Yaakov to his homeland,” the PMO added.

It is unclear why Harari was in the country, which cut ties with Israel in 2009 after Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, and has maintained a hostile stance toward Jerusalem.


Hendon school says Holocaust will be ‘briefly’ addressed in Memorial Day session
A Hendon school has told parents that the Holocaust will be only “briefly” addressed during a session held for Holocaust Memorial Day, in what the school later said was a miscommunication.

In a message seen by Jewish News, Gateways School said it would host an “upcoming speaker on 19 January, between 12:00-13:30”, welcoming “Bethany from the Anne Frank Trust” to deliver a session to pupils.

Gateways is an alternative education provision supporting young people aged between 14 and 25 who are, or have struggled to remain, in mainstream education.

According to the communication, the session will be an “interactive talk” focusing on “the importance of acceptance, and, within that, racism and Islamophobia”.

While the Holocaust will be referenced, the message makes clear it will not be the central focus of the session. It states: “The session will briefly touch upon the events of the Holocaust; however, this will not be our main focus this year.”

The school told parents that the session was being held “in preparation for Holocaust Memorial Day”, which takes place annually on 27 January and marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz Birkenau.
Open University drops ‘ancient Palestine’ reference after complaint
The Open University has agreed to stop using the term “ancient Palestine” in its teaching materials after a student raised concerns that the wording was historically inaccurate and risked erasing Jewish history.

The change follows a complaint backed by UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI), which warned the university that describing the Virgin Mary as being born in “ancient Palestine” could create a hostile learning environment for Jewish and Israeli students. The development was first reported by The Telegraph.

The wording appeared in Discovering the Arts and Humanities, an entry-level Open University module that introduces students to myths, religion and cultural history. Course materials referred to Mary’s birthplace as “ancient Palestine”, described Aramaic as “a language widely spoken in ancient Palestine”, and included a map labelled “Map of ancient Palestine”.

UKLFI argued that the terminology was anachronistic and politically loaded, particularly given the current climate following the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on 7 October, 2023. The group said the term “Palestine” was not applied to the region of Judea, Samaria and Galilee until after the Bar Kokhba revolt, when the Roman emperor Hadrian renamed the province “Syria Palaestina” around 135 CE – more than a century after Mary’s lifetime.

Mary is widely believed to have been born in the late first century BCE in Galilee, a predominantly Jewish region under Roman rule, with most historical accounts identifying Nazareth as her home village.

In a letter to UKLFI, the Open University confirmed it would no longer use the term in future materials and would add context to existing content. The university acknowledged that the wording had become “problematic in a way that, perhaps, it was not when the materials were written in 2018.”


Less than 40% of CBC's reporting on Israel-Hamas conflict was 'balanced': study by Jewish group
Less than 40 per cent of CBC’s reporting on the Israel-Hamas conflict was “balanced or neutral,” finds a new study by a Jewish advocacy group.

B’nai Brith Canada also found that more than 50 per cent of CBC’s news articles and videos included in the study met its threshold for pro-Palestinian bias, while less than seven per cent met the threshold for pro-Israel bias. This was based on a sample of 299 items published between Oct. 1, 2024 to April 30, 2025.

The pieces reviewed included reporting on military operations, humanitarian conditions, diplomatic initiatives, hostage negotiations and Canadian domestic implications, such as protests or antisemitic-related incidents.

The purpose of the report is to evaluate “whether CBC’s English-language online coverage during that period met public-broadcaster expectations of balance and impartiality.”

“For generations, CBC has been a fixture in Canadian homes: trusted, valued, and woven into our national life. This is not about factual inaccuracies or intentional distortions. It’s about what Canadians deserve: a public broadcaster they can count on for neutral, impartial, and fair reporting,” the group wrote in a post on X about the study.

“It’s time for the CBC to regain that trust.”

B’nai Brith Canada said it was requesting a meeting to review the study’s findings with CBC.
Traitors contestant compared Israel to Nazis in posts missed by BBC
The BBC is facing further criticism after social media posts by a contestant on The Traitors emerged in which he compared Israel to Nazi Germany, prompting outrage from Jewish organisations and fresh questions over vetting standards.

Marzook Bana, known as “Maz” on the prime-time reality series, posted comments on Facebook in 2021 likening an Israeli checkpoint in the West Bank to the actions of the Nazis and accusing “Zionists” of forgetting the Holocaust.

Under an image appearing to show an Israeli checkpoint, Bana wrote: “Nazis all over again, the oppressed have become the oppressors!! The Zionists have short memories of what Hitler did. Never again, they said!! The world’s political leaders should be ashamed of themselves of being subservient to ISRAEL!”

In the same thread, he later stated that “to criticise Israel’s behaviour towards the Palestinian people is not antisemitic.”

Further posts attributed to Bana accused Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer of being positioned to “annihilate the Labour Party” and bowing to “his paymasters”. He later liked a reply identifying those “paymasters” as “the pro-Israeli lobby, the Board of Deputies and anyone else who finds the idea of Palestinians having human rights abhorrent”.

Bana, a 59-year-old retired police officer from Preston and a father of five, was eliminated from the programme last week. In a statement, he said: “I apologise for any offence my comments may have caused. It’s never been my intention to offend, marginalise or discriminate against any individual or group. I refute any allegations that I am antisemitic. My viewpoint has always been from a humanitarian perspective rather than a political one.”

Jewish groups said the language used echoed well-established antisemitic tropes, particularly Nazi comparisons and claims of covert Jewish influence over political leaders.

Studio Lambert, the production company behind The Traitors, said the comments were not uncovered during background checks. It said: “We employ reputable companies to conduct thorough background and social media checks as part of our due diligence, which we take extremely seriously.”
Israeli security forces nab Bedouins posing as IDF in robbery near Hebron
Israeli security forces on Tuesday arrested three armed Bedouins who impersonated troops and robbed a store in Dhahiriya, a Palestinian town near Hebron in Judea, the Israel Police said in a statement.

The three Bedouins “posed as security forces and robbed a jewelry store in Dhahiriya,” police said, adding that three M-16 rifles and a handgun were seized after a “swift and precise operation” that led to their arrest.

The arrests were first reported by Ynet some 10 minutes after the Israel Defense Forces confirmed a manhunt “following a report about armed suspects impersonating IDF soldiers and robbing stores in Dhahiriya.

“The forces are currently conducting a chase after the suspects,” the military statement added. “We stress that these are not IDF soldiers.”

Dahariya is a Palestinian city in southern Judea, located south of Hebron near the Green Line marking the Jewish state’s pre-1967 borders. It lies along a key north–south route linking Hebron with the Negev Desert, home to dozens of Bedouin tribes with semi-nomadic traditions.

According to the police, the suspects drove a car “made to appear as a security vehicle, including emergency lights, while dressed in IDF uniforms and equipped with body armor, helmets and firearms.


Ex-Navy SEAL, who saw US government as ‘controlled by Israel, Jews,’ convicted in plot to bomb police
A U.S. Navy SEAL, who displayed neo-Nazi symbols and praised terrorist groups, was convicted on Jan. 12 of planning to use explosives against police at a California protest, federal prosecutors said on Monday.

A federal jury found Gregory Vandenberg, 49, guilty of “transporting explosives with intent to kill, injure or intimidate” law enforcement officers, and of trying to bring illegal fireworks into the state.

Prosecutors said Vandenberg was driving from El Paso to San Diego ahead of the June 14, 2025, “No Kings Day” protests when he stopped at a travel center in New Mexico. There, Vandenberg wore a shirt that read “Amalek,” a reference to a biblical tribe and nemesis of the Jews.

At the travel center, he bought mortar fireworks and dozens of M-150 firecrackers and told a store clerk he planned to throw the fireworks at police officers and asked how much damage they could cause, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Alarmed by his comments, store employees recorded his license plate and shared it with authorities. Federal agents arrested Vandenberg the next morning while he was sleeping in his car at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson.

A search of his vehicle recovered shirts with neo-Nazi symbols, an al-Qaeda flag, a reference to Israel attacking the USS Liberty in 1968 and a claim, in Latin, that “Judea must be destroyed.”

FBI agents also found a Taliban flag displayed on the home screen of Vandenberg’s phone. Investigators found phone messages “suggesting Vandenberg was upset with the U.S. government, including President Trump, because he viewed the U.S. government as being controlled by Israel and the Jews,” per the Justice Department.
Antisemitic lunatic stalks NYC family, yells ‘I’m going to kill all the Jews’ — before punching dad
A Jew-hating lunatic allegedly hurled a torrent of antisemitic abuse at a young couple who were out walking their four children in Brooklyn — screaming “I’m gonna kill you Jews” before sucker-punching the dad, according to law enforcement sources and court records.

Isharae Summers, 35, was arrested over the vicious attack after she allegedly started stalking the 26-year-old victim near the corner of Nostrand and Willoughby avenues in Bedford-Stuyvesant just before 11:30 p.m. Friday.

At one point, the perp screamed, “I’m gonna kill your kids and choke your kids” and “Your kids are dead tonight” as she allegedly tailed the victim, his wife and their kids during their late-night stroll, according to a criminal complaint.

Summers then allegedly punched the young father in the chest and head — leaving him with pain and swelling, sources said.

The young family, who are Orthodox Jews and were celebrating the weekly Shabbat holiday at the time of the attack, live around the corner from where the hateful incident unfolded.


‘Nova House’ to be inaugurated in forest near Netanya
A center for survivors of the Nova music festival massacre offering long-term recovery programs, cultural and sports activities will be unveiled on Wednesday in a forest near the Israeli coastal city of Netanya.

The $3.2 million project, primarily funded by UJA-Federation of New York donors, seeks to be a place for recovery, support and remembrance benefiting thousands of survivors of the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on the southern Israel music festival, where nearly 400 Israelis were killed.

The Nova House, located in the Ilanot Forest approximately 8 miles southeast of Netanya, will offer community programs, training workshops, recovery activities, access to treatment and an education and commemoration center.

The public unveiling and ribbon-cutting ceremony will include remarks from a Nova survivor, a returned hostage, a bereaved family member as well as UJA leaders.

“The UJA New York Nova House stands as a symbol of hope, resilience, and the enduring strength of the Nova community,” said Eric Goldstein, CEO of UJA-Federation of New York. “True to the Nova slogan, ‘We will dance again,’ this House will provide opportunities for healing, growth, and community connection.”




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