Friday, January 16, 2026

01/16 Links Pt1: Israel cannot heal from war with Hamas while Ran Gvili remains in Gaza; Neither the ayatollah nor the shah; Israel’s quiet gambit on the Red Sea chessboard

From Ian:

JPost Editorial: Israel cannot heal from war with Hamas while Ran Gvili remains in Gaza
Israel is approaching a new phase in the Gaza plan: a technocratic committee, tentative negotiations over disarmament, and renewed international focus on reconstruction.

Yet one unresolved wound keeps cutting through every communiqué and timetable: the fate of one young man whose absence sits at the center of the country’s conscience.

St.-Sgt.-Maj. Ran Gvili, the last hostage held in Gaza, is a son, a soldier, and a human being with a family waiting for him. His return, even for burial, remains unfinished business for a nation built on a promise that those who serve will never be abandoned.

Phase II is being described in diplomatic language as the movement from fighting to governance. In The Jerusalem Post’s coverage of the new phase, US special envoy Steve Witkoff framed it as “moving from ceasefire to demilitarization.”

The words matter, because they signal intent. They also expose a hard truth: A plan that claims to turn a page still cannot close the most basic chapter, bringing home the last hostage.

As the Post’s Seth J. Frantzman has noted in analysis and reporting around the plan, Phase II proceeds while Gvili's remains are still in Gaza, still unrecovered.

Policy architecture matters. Ceasefire terms matter. Demilitarization frameworks matter. Committees and clauses still fail a society when they float above the human cost that created them. Israel’s public can hold complexity and trade-offs in its head. Israelis also understand something simpler: There is no “next stage” in national healing while the last hostage remains in limbo.

Gvili's family has said this plainly, and it deserves to be treated as national guidance, not private grief: “We cannot move to the next phase of the deal while even one hostage remains in Gaza.” That sentence carries more moral weight than a dozen briefings.

For Gvili's family in Meitar, the war’s human ledger will feel balanced only when he is home. His mother’s words captured a widely felt truth: “Without Gvili, our country can’t heal.” Grief does not respond to diplomatic phrasing. Communal cohesion does not form around progress reports. It forms around shared obligations kept.

Gvili's story is deeply Israeli. He was recovering at home, wounded and awaiting treatment, when the October 7 massacre unfolded. He put on his uniform and ran toward danger to protect people in kibbutzim who were not his own. He acted out of responsibility and out of a reflex Israelis know well: You move when others are in danger. His last known actions were in defense of life.
Longest-held Israeli hostages David and Ariel Cunio break their silence
Among the longest-held living Israeli hostages freed from Gaza, brothers David and Ariel Cunio, have begun speaking publicly for the first time since their release, describing their prolonged captivity marked by starvation, abuse and constant fear that escape would cost their loved ones their lives.

The Cunio brothers, kidnapped from their homes during the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, are giving their first joint interviews as part of an international media tour coordinated by Fuente Latina, a nonprofit news organization that works to bring accurate reporting and firsthand testimonies about Israel, the Middle East and antisemitism to Spanish-language media worldwide.

Ahead of their media appearances, the brothers spoke exclusively with Fuente Latina, which provided their testimonies to JNS.

The Cunio brothers were released from Hamas captivity on Oct.13, 2025, as part of a hostage-release agreement under the Gaza ceasefire plan. After 738 days in captivity, Ariel Cunio said he believed for much of that time that he would never see his brother David again.

“In captivity, every day I planned an escape,” Ariel said. “But I knew that if I got out, I would be lynched in the street. And even if I survived and got home somehow, I feared discovering later that my brother or my girlfriend had been killed because I escaped.”

The brothers, both Argentine-Israeli citizens, were among eight members of the Cunio family abducted during the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, making them the largest single family taken hostage that day.

Ariel described watching his brother Eitan’s home burn as Hamas terrorists attacked their kibbutz. In a family WhatsApp message sent shortly before he was taken, Ariel wrote, “Here begins the nightmare.”

Terrorists entered his safe room, killed his puppy, and abducted him and his girlfriend, Arbel, on a motorcycle. During the journey into Gaza, they fell multiple times, and their captors intervened to prevent a mob celebrating the attack from lynching them.

Ariel said he was held above ground in civilian buildings and observed weapons stored in UNRWA-marked bags and in areas designated as humanitarian zones.

“My captors tried to convince me to convert to Islam,” he said. “They told me it was a pity that I would die and go to hell as a Jew instead of going to paradise as a Muslim.”
White House confirms Gaza Board of Peace members including Turkish, Qatari representatives
The White House announced the members of the new Gaza Board of Peace (BoP) on Friday, which will be responsible for rebuilding the enclave and ensuring the disarmament of Hamas.

The announcement includes a list of members of the BoP, alongside the designation of the commander of the International Stabilization Force (ISF), and the Gaza Executive Board, which includes representatives from Turkey and Qatar.

The statement also detailed that Dr. Ali Sha’ath will be in charge of the technocratic National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), which will "oversee the restoration of core public services, the rebuilding of civil institutions, and the stabilization of daily life in Gaza, while laying the foundation for long-term, self-sustaining governance."

The BoP, with US President Donald Trump assuming the role of chairman, will be composed of seven executive founding members: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio; US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff; Jared Kushner; Sir Tony Blair; Marc Rowan; Ajay Banga; and Robert Gabriel.

The statement also confirmed that former UN Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov will have an executive role "on the ground" as the High Representative for Gaza and serve as a link between the BoP and the NCAG administration.


Israel’s quiet gambit on the Red Sea chessboard
The strategic value of Somaliland
The UAE has long recognized Somaliland’s strategic value and has invested heavily in its ports and infrastructure, integrating it into a broader Emirati vision of Red Sea and Indian Ocean connectivity. Somaliland is therefore not a neutral space: It is already embedded in an emerging UAE-led maritime architecture. Israeli recognition would reinforce this axis, further consolidating influence over the Red Sea corridor.

For Saudi Arabia, this is uncomfortable. Riyadh and Abu Dhabi are partners but also competitors, with diverging interests in Yemen, the Horn of Africa, and regional leadership. As the UAE deepens its footprint in Somaliland and southern Yemen, Saudi Arabia risks watching critical maritime and strategic terrain fall under a framework it does not fully control.

At the same time, Saudi Arabia’s rapprochement with Iran – brokered by China – has bought Riyadh short-term deescalation, but at the cost of strategic ambiguity. It has not dismantled Iranian proxy networks, nor has it secured lasting guarantees against future pressure. Israel’s Somaliland move underscores this reality: While Riyadh hedges, others are actively shaping the board.

This is the essence of the gambit.

Recognition of Somaliland does not coerce Saudi Arabia directly. It narrows its options. It signals that a US-Israel-UAE security and maritime architecture is taking shape regardless of Saudi hesitation and that remaining outside it carries tangible strategic costs.

Timing only sharpens the effect. For Israel, Saudi entry into the Abraham Accords would lock in a transformed regional order. For Washington, Saudi-Israeli normalization would be a rare and visible foreign-policy achievement ahead of domestic political milestones. Delay favors no one, but it hurts Saudi Arabia most.

In chess, zugzwang is not about forcing an immediate blunder. It is about reaching a position where every move worsens one’s standing. Recognition of Somaliland may appear peripheral, but it tightens Saudi Arabia’s strategic space. The question is no longer whether Riyadh can avoid choosing sides. It is whether it will shape the emerging order or be shaped by it.


Melanie Phillips: The high stakes in Iran
The stupendous courage of the Iranian people has inspired awe at this massive display of unquenchable human spirit. Hundreds of thousands of Iranian demonstrators literally walked into the guns in their struggle for freedom from the monstrous Islamic regime.

At time of writing, it’s unclear whether US President Donald Trump will come to their aid as he promised. An apparently planned US attack on Wednesday night was reportedly called off at the last minute.

The enormous risks of such an operation may mean that it will take place when all ducks are finally in a row. It’s hard to believe that Trump would be happy to be seen to have been played by the regime and thus leave it in place.

He must be aware that this wouldn’t merely be a stunning betrayal of the Iranian people. It wouldn’t merely torch his own reputation. The resulting weakening of America and strengthening of the axis of evil in the world would be a dire outcome.

For decades, the West has refused to face up to and deal with the threat posed by Iran.

Just as in the 1930s a refusal to grasp the true extent of the danger posed by Nazism led to the Holocaust and a terrible world war, so the eventual reckoning with the mullahs is turning out to be far more difficult and deadly than if the Iranian jihadi bullet had been bitten years ago.

Whatever may happen over the next few days or weeks, the terrible result of this vacillation is that many thousands of Iranians have now been murdered while the world did no more than wring its hands. And some haven’t even done that.

The stunning indifference of so much of the West to the Iranians’ heroism and the vicious savagery of the regime reflects the persistent inability of Western nations to understand the stakes. And that’s rooted in turn in a moral perversity to which much of the West has succumbed.
Neither the ayatollah nor the shah
Reza Pahlavi himself is also an implausible candidate for leadership. By virtue of his lineage alone, with his father having fled the country amid mass unrest, he is inevitably a divisive figure rather than a unifying one. He has no political record, no experience of governing and has not held a proper job for decades.

Some argue he could serve merely as a ‘transitional’ figure, but Iranians have heard that promise before. Ayatollah Khomeini, too, was presented as temporary – and history shows how catastrophically that logic can fail. The Islamic Republic he founded is still here, almost five decades on.

Too much Western commentary presents Iranians with a false choice: theocracy or monarchy. This binary is not only intellectually lazy – it undermines the very aspirations expressed by the protest movement. The demand being voiced on Iran’s streets is not for a different strongman, but for an end to strongman politics altogether.

The lesson should be obvious. Freedom cannot be delivered from above, whether by clerics, generals or kings-in-waiting. It must be built through institutions that disperse power, protect dissent and allow societies to argue their way forward – slowly, imperfectly and without saviours.

History offers a clear warning. Time and again, societies emerging from repression have been tempted to place their hopes in ‘safe’ figures who promise order first and freedom later. Too often, later never comes.

None of this is a defence of the Islamic Republic, which continues to violently suppress opposition and restrict political life. Indeed, any lingering nostalgia for the shah speaks to just how totalitarian and brutal ayatollah’s regime has become. The desire to replace tyranny with something familiar is understandable – but it is also a trap.

Iran’s protest movement deserves to be taken seriously on its own terms – as a genuine, if fragile, rejection of unaccountable power.
‘Where are all the Pro-Hamas, anti-Israel protesters’ on Iran, Grassley says
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, wondered aloud, about halfway through his opening statement on Thursday to an executive business meeting of the Senate panel, why anti-Israel protesters didn’t appear to care about Iranians risking their lives to demand freedom.

“Since Iran’s in the news again, I’d like to highlight some of my oversight from last year,” he said. “First of all, where are all of the Pro-Hamas, Anti-Israel protesters?”

“You’d think they’d be out here supporting the people of Iran against the repressive regime,” he added. “But they’re nowhere to be seen.”

Grassley tied the point to a critique of the Obama-era approach to Iran, citing a report that his office released last year detailing “whistleblower-provided records.”

“Those records showed that the Obama-Biden State Department obstructed law enforcement efforts to arrest high-level Iranian targets,” he said. “This obstruction, led by then-secretary John Kerry, was done because of the political considerations of the failed Iran Nuclear Deal.”

“Records highlighted in this report show that former secretary Kerry’s actions endangered national security,” he added. “The records also show that DOJ and FBI leadership apparently allowed it to happen until the first Trump administration altered course. The Obama administration’s conduct is a roadmap of what not to do.”


UKLFI: As US mulls strikes on Iran, Natasha Hausdorff explains applicable international law
Thousands of anti-regime protesters have been killed in Iran during a brutal crackdown. Donald Trump has threatened US military intervention if the regime continues to kill protestors.

In a new interview, UKLFI Charitable Trust Legal Director, Natasha Hausdorff, explains the international laws applicable to such intervention: both the jus ad bellum, regarding whether it would be lawful for the US to intervene militarily, and the jus in bello (law of armed conflict) regarding the conduct of any such intervention.

00:00 Introduction
00:35 Applicable legal frameworks
06:39 Are there limits to intervention?
08:20 What is the U.S. legal position?
10:11 How could it apply to Israel?


Jonathan Sacerdoti: Why the next days will decide Iran’s future: the window is closing fast — Niyak Ghorbani
For nearly half a century the Islamic Republic has ruled Iran through fear, censorship and organised cruelty. It has crushed dissent at home while exporting terrorism abroad, and it has relied on a simple calculation: that the world would look away while its own people suffered in silence.

Today that calculation is collapsing.

Across Iran, ordinary men and women are rising against a regime that has impoverished them, humiliated them and treated their lives as disposable. They are marching in the streets knowing they may never return home. And for the first time in decades, they feel that the outside world might finally be listening.

In this powerful and deeply personal conversation, Jonathan Sacerdoti is joined by Iranian activist Niyak Ghorbani, one of the most visible organisers of protests in the United Kingdom and a relentless opponent of both the Islamic Republic and the antisemitic movements it sponsors. Drawing on his own experience of life under the regime, and on the stories of family and friends still trapped inside Iran, he describes what this moment feels like from the inside.

👁‍🗨 Watch if you want to understand why the battle for Iran’s future matters far beyond its borders, and why this uprising feels different from all those that came before.

💬 We Discuss:
🇮🇷 What daily life under the Islamic Republic is really like for ordinary Iranians
🔥 Why this wave of protests feels closer to regime change than ever before
🇺🇸 How Donald Trump’s words transformed Iranian morale
📺 The failure of mainstream media to report the uprising honestly
👮‍♂️ Niyak’s own arrests in Britain for opposing antisemitic marches
🕊️ The bravery of protesters who know they may be killed for demonstrating
👑 Why many Iranians now rally behind Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi
🌍 How Iran’s struggle mirrors the rise of Islamist influence in the West
📱 Social media, citizen journalism and the fight to break regime censorship
⚠️ The lessons Britain should learn from Iran before it is too late


An appeal to Jews: Stand with the Iranians
We are Jewish writers: Roya, an Iranian American living in the United States, Yossi, an Israeli living in Israel. We have come together to appeal to Jewish communities throughout the world to take up the cause of the Iranian people.

In the terrible days after October 7, Jews felt alone and abandoned by much of the world. Yet Iranian expatriates throughout the West openly joined us in grief and outrage. The ancient Iranian flag flew at our solidarity demonstrations; often the only non-Jews who stood with us in the streets were Iranians.

Even inside Iran, many have courageously refused to participate in the regime’s anti-Israel spectacles. Over the years, numerous video clips have shown Iranians refusing to step on the Israeli flags laid out by the regime at the entrance to mosques and on university campuses; one of the most popular chants in the current protests is against the regime’s support for radical Islamist terror groups.

Today, Iranians face their own October 7th — except that they are unarmed and their military, useless against external enemies, is deployed to suppress them. Like Israelis since 2023, Iranians feel abandoned by the international community, which has been largely silent in the face of the regime’s systematic atrocities. Like us, Iranians are experiencing the hypocrisy of those who presume to speak in the name of the conscience of humanity.

Like Israel after October 7, the Iranian people are experiencing their version of “massacre denial.” Despite numerous eyewitnesses telling the world that modern Iran has never experienced anything like this massacre, both in extent and in the depth of its cruelty, many around the world have downplayed the catastrophe.

The connection between Jews and Iranians extends back to ancient times. Jews have lived in Iran for 2,500 years, and it was only with the rise of the fundamentalist regime in 1979 that most of the Jewish community fled. In the long memory of the Jewish people, we recall that it was King Cyrus of Persia who enabled us to return home and rebuild the Temple after the Babylonian exile. That generosity was repeated when the Sassanid Persians conquered Jerusalem from the Byzantines in 614 CE and allowed Jews to return to the city.
‘Deep sense of grief’: Iranian author describes watching her country unravel
Author and Journalist Roya Hakakian discusses her experience watching the current state of Iran.

“A piece of me feels a deep sense of grief, even for those I do not know, and yet I feel like I am in mourning,” Ms Hakakian told Sky News host James Morrow.

“It’s painful, it’s tragic, it’s suspenseful.”




Pentagon sends ‘USS Abraham Lincoln’ to Middle East amid Iran turmoil
The Pentagon has ordered the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and its carrier strike group to move to the Middle East amid mounting unrest in Iran, according to multiple media reports.

The San Diego-based Nimitz-class aircraft carrier was operating in the South China Sea when the order was issued. It is expected to take roughly a week for the strike group to transit from the Indo-Pacific to the Middle East, Forbes reported.

The move comes as protests continue to spread across Iran over economic hardship and restrictive social policies imposed by the Islamic Republic. U.S. President Donald Trump has warned that the United States could use military force if Iranian authorities harm demonstrators.

The Abraham Lincoln strike group includes the guided-missile destroyer USS Spruance, also based in San Diego, as well as the Pearl Harbor-based destroyers USS Michael Murphy and USS Frank E. Petersen Jr. A U.S. Navy fast-attack submarine typically operates alongside a carrier strike group, though its identity is not disclosed for operational security reasons.

With a crew of 5,000, the carrier was deployed to the Middle East in August 2024 to deter Iran from attacking Israel. Its redeployment fills a rare gap in U.S. naval presence in the region

At present, the United States has no other aircraft carrier strike group operating in either the Mediterranean Sea or the Indian Ocean, as a sizable U.S. naval presence remains positioned off Venezuela.

Defense analysts noted that while a carrier is not essential for offensive operations, its presence in the Middle East serves as a visible signal of deterrence and U.S. military readiness amid rising tensions with Tehran.


Iranian forces raid cities in Oct. 7-style rampage
As the information blackout in Iran persists, a grim picture is emerging from the few reports slipping through the regime’s digital blackout. Heavy weaponry, typically reserved for war zones, has been turned against the citizenry, with heartbreaking accounts of families torn apart by state-sponsored violence now coming to light.

Basij paramilitary volunteer militia forces and IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) operatives have flooded city centers, creating scenes that look eerily familiar to many Israelis from the atrocities of Oct. 7, 2023: Hundreds of gunmen wielding machine guns have been seen on pickup trucks and armored vehicles across the country.

Social media users who managed to bypass the blackout reported that armored vehicles had taken up positions near public institutions in Tehran and Mashhad. Meanwhile, the mayor of Tehran said that at least 16 mosques in the capital were torched and damaged during the popular uprising. Human rights organizations have reported continued arrests of citizens who participated in protests or publicly criticized the regime. In the city of Fuladshahr, the Basij arrested three members of a single family, taking them to an undisclosed location.

In Sanandaj, the Revolutionary Guards arrested Kia Moradi, a young woman, after she participated in a protest organized by the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement. Moradi is 18 years old, and her family fears for her life following her transfer to an unknown facility.

Tragedy struck another family in Karaj, west of Tehran, where three members were killed when their car came under fire from security forces during demonstrations on Jan. 9, Iran International reported. The victims were identified as Bijan Mostafavi, a retired education professional, his wife, Zahra Bani Amerian, a retired social security employee, and their 19-year-old son, Daniel Mostafavi, a university student, according to a source close to the family.

According to information obtained by Iran International, the family was traveling in their private vehicle when it was struck by heavy gunfire amid the unrest. The couple’s eldest son, Davoud Mostafavi, was also in the car at the time, though his condition remained unknown.

Harrowing testimonies continue to emerge regarding the massacre the Islamic regime has perpetrated against demonstrators over the past week. A protester identified only as Reza told BBC Persian that he witnessed his wife being shot and killed by Basij members.


Restricted video
⚠️ WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT — SIGNS OF EXECUTIONS
New, extremely graphic videos emerging from a morgue in Iran show the scale of anti-regime protesters murdered by the Islamic Republic, with indications consistent with executions.


Israel says Gaza strikes hit senior terrorists in response to truce violation
The Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet carried out strikes across the Gaza Strip on Thursday against Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives, the security bodies confirmed, in response to what they describe as a “blatant violation” of the ceasefire agreement earlier this week, during which gunmen exchanged fire with troops in western Rafah.

The joint statement followed reports from Gaza that a strike in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah had killed Muhammad al-Hawli, a commander in Hamas’s armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades. Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan confirmed Hawli’s death, claiming at least five others were killed in the strike, including Hawli’s wife and daughter, and accusing Israel of seeking to undermine the ceasefire.

Hamdan said the attack “is a dangerous escalation and reveals Israel’s intent to undermine the ceasefire agreement.”

He called on US President Donald Trump and his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff to hold Israel to account.

“The ball is now in Trump’s and Witkoff’s court, and Washington must demonstrate Israel’s commitment to the ceasefire agreement,” he said.

Separately, Arabic media reported that an Israeli airstrike Thursday night hit a home in the Nuseirat refugee camp, killing Ashraf al-Khatib, a commander in Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s al-Quds Brigades, along with his wife, and wounding several others.

The IDF and Shin Bet said they view any breach of the ceasefire with the “utmost gravity” and will continue acting against attempts by terror groups in Gaza to carry out attacks against troops or civilians.

Six Palestinian gunmen were killed Tuesday during an exchange of fire with the IDF in western Rafah.

The incident unfolded on the Israeli-controlled side of the Yellow Line in the southern Gaza Strip after troops identified six armed individuals near their positions. Tanks moved in and opened fire, prompting the gunmen to return fire and triggering a firefight along with Israeli airstrikes.


Gaza’s Two Wars: The Fight Israel Won, and the Fight Hamas Did | Andrew Fox
Urban warfare isn’t just fought street by street. It’s fought tunnel by tunnel—and headline by headline.

In this first episode of EylON the Record, Eylon Levy speaks with Andrew Fox, a former British Army officer and military analyst who has studied the IDF’s campaign in Gaza and what Western militaries—and Western democracies—should learn from it. They examine how Israel adapted in real time to tunnels, civilian shields, and a battlefield designed to produce global outrage, and why the information war can decide what happens in the physical war.

In this episode, we discuss:
• How the IDF adapted under fire: tunnel operations, command integration, and rapid learning loops
• The surprising battlefield edge: data-driven medicine and forward deployment that saved hundreds of lives
• Why “civilian harm” became a strategic weapon—and what that means for future Western wars
• The enemy’s playbook: how Hamas “deletes itself” from coverage, goes underground, and builds a media ecosystem before the first shot

This conversation goes beyond slogans about “morality” or “PR.” It’s about how democracies should fight enemies who use civilians as human sacrifices, treat cameras as weapons, and understand that delegitimization can be as powerful as rockets. If the West gets the lesson wrong, the next war will be harder—and the next enemy will be smarter.

🎯 Key moment:
“The first lesson for an asymmetric enemy is this: delete yourself from the battlefield. If no one sees your casualties, if you’re absent from the coverage, the war stops looking like force-on-force—and starts looking like one side simply destroying the other.”


Jonathan Sacerdoti: "Anaesthetic, not a cure" — the challenge of protests, policing, free speech and incitement
The Algemeiner J100 Podcast opens 2026 with a conversation that shifts away from the battlefield and onto the West itself. Host David Cohen introduces the British journalist broadcaster and commentator Jonathan Sacerdoti, one of The Algemeiner’s newest contributors, whose work on antisemitism, extremism, media responsibility and the erosion of moral clarity has taken on new urgency and a much wider reach.

Sacerdoti is joining The Algemeiner as a monthly columnist, and this episode is a first taste of the questions he is intent on forcing back into view: what Britain is becoming, what Western institutions are now willing to tolerate, and what happens when societies learn to manage symptoms instead of confronting causes.

Topics you’ll hear in this conversation:
🧭 Why Britain is becoming the frontline for a different kind of war
🎓 Universities, intimidation, and the collapse of genuine debate
📺 Media responsibility, propaganda, and moral confusion in Western institutions
🚔 Protest policing, “lawful” chants, and when speech becomes real world threat
🕍 Security, Jewish visibility, and the quiet pressure to “stay away”
⚖️ The difference between managing symptoms and confronting causes
🌍 Britain, Europe, and America: what looks different, what doesn’t, and why
🏺 Ceramics, creativity and forming things from earth: the studio behind the commentator




NYC Council speaker rolls out initiatives to fight antisemitism — and they could put her at odds with Mamdani
City Council Speaker Julie Menin rolled out a wave of initiatives to combat antisemitism Friday — potentially putting her at odds with Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Menin, the council’s first Jewish speaker, unveiled a five-point legislative plan, including establishing safety perimeters around houses of worship during protests and boosting security for private schools.

“I make no apology about insisting on a proportionate response to the disproportionate discrimination against our Jewish community,” she said from the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan.

The proposed legislation comes amid rising concerns in the Jewish community after Mamdani on his first day in office ended executive orders from Mayor Eric Adams’ administration that focused on fighting antisemitism and supporting Israel.

The orders adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism and barred city officials from boycotting or divesting from Israel.

The two revoked measures were part of a slew of orders issued by Adams after he was indicted on federal charges in 2024 that Mamdani reversed.


Cori Bush blames AIPAC for past loss, seeks return to Congress
Cori Bush, who is running for the congressional seat she lost in 2024, blamed her loss on the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

“AIPAC didn’t make me, so AIPAC can’t break me,” she stated.

“AIPAC and their allies poured $15 million into St. Louis last cycle to lie about me and silence our movement. They thought I would go away. But just like St. Louis, I never break,” she wrote.

“I’m running for Congress to fight for all of us. For the people. For everybody who stands up against the forces trying to crush progress. I’m running for you,” she added. “Our primary election on Aug. 4 is about us getting back stronger and louder to finish the work we started: lowering costs and protecting our neighbors.”

A far-left Democrat and former member of the anti-Israel, progressive “Squad” in the U.S. House of Representatives, in 2024, Bush lost the primary in St. Louis to Wesley Bell by nearly 6,800 votes, 5.5 percentage points. AIPAC congratulated Bell “for his consequential victory over an incumbent anti-Israel detractor.”

“Once again, a progressive pro-Israel Democrat has prevailed over a candidate who represents the extremist fringe that is hostile to the Jewish state,” AIPAC stated at the time. Bell was elected to represent Missouri’s 1st Congressional District.

After announcing that she was running, Bush accused Bell on Jan. 14 of being “paid by big pharma, AIPAC and Donald Trump’s mega-donors.” She has accused Israel of genocide.




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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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