Wednesday, January 21, 2026

01/21 Links Pt2: Inciting Terrorism Is Not Free Speech; Nation to pause to honour Bondi victims; One in 10 young Irish adults believe Holocaust is a ‘myth’

From Ian:

Inciting Terrorism Is Not Free Speech
Our law has long recognized that words can be dangerous, even criminally so. That is why we have rules against crimes like solicitation, incitement, and conspiracy. To be sure, the line between protected speech and speech in furtherance of criminal behavior is fuzzy. But courts are perfectly willing to uphold convictions involving, for example, antitrust violations based on this distinction.

Despite these precedents, the court of appeals held that Al-Timimi’s convictions could not be squared with the First Amendment. Al-Timimi did not commit incitement, the court concluded, because his “exhortations were vague and general,” failing the “imminent lawless action” standard set out in 1969’s Brandenburg v. Ohio. Though he “encouraged unlawful acts generally,” he was not guilty of criminal solicitation because “the evidence did not demonstrate that he encouraged, with the requisite intent, a specific unlawful act.” This may seem like a loophole for bad actors, but the court reminds readers that “plenty of speech encouraging criminal activity is protected under the First Amendment.”

This is true, but plenty of speech is also not protected. The only standard the court employed to tell if Al-Timimi’s speech was protected was whether the criminal acts he encouraged were sufficiently specific. Since that standard can only be resolved by intuition, it’s probably best left to a jury—like the one that concluded Al-Timimi’s encouragement, advice, and instruction did meet that standard.

One wonders what is left of crimes like solicitation and conspiracy under the court’s reasoning. After all, prosecutors could have hardly hoped for better evidence in their favor. The men even testified at trial to Al-Timimi’s decisive role in helping them overcome their fears and join terrorist groups. If telling men you know are heavily armed to attack America is too vague and general to warrant prosecution, then any form of solicitation will be extremely hard to prove.

The Supreme Court will not likely review, much less overturn, this case. But it should be on the lookout for cases that allow it to re-establish the proper relationship between national-security concerns and the First Amendment.

The Court has already made clear that limitations on dangerous speech tailored to prevent terrorism are constitutional, even if applied liberally. In Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project (2010), the Court held that simply explaining the law to terrorist organizations may be prosecuted as material support for terrorism consistent with the First Amendment. “Given the sensitive interests in national security and foreign affairs at stake,” the majority wrote, courts should defer to the political branches when they “have adequately substantiated their determination that . . . it was necessary to prohibit” acts, even speech-based acts, that further terrorism.

In spite of this, lower courts have consistently balked at the notion of enforcing laws designed to disrupt terrorist networks before they begin victimizing Americans. They have set the bar for conviction so artificially high that, as in Al-Timimi’s case, no prosecutor could possibly reach them.

The First Amendment does and should protect even abhorrent expression. What got Al-Timimi prosecuted, though, was not the abhorrence of his expression. It was that his speech played an important role in getting dangerous people to take up arms against the United States. Judges’ appeals to the “vitality” of “offensive” speech in letting him off the hook ring hollow.
Seth Mandel: Josh Shapiro and the ‘No Free Shots’ Rule
Jewish leaders wasted no time in taking the Harris Committee on Un-American Activities to task for its embrace of the dual-loyalty canard. And Harris certainly deserves every ounce of criticism she and her team have received, and probably more. After all, if Shapiro can be disqualified for having as a teenager visited Israel and volunteering on a kibbutz, it could potentially have a chilling effect on young American Jews, who are already being pressured into hiding their involvement in Jewish communal activities. The attack on Shapiro is an attack on American Jewry.

Which is why Shapiro’s response is so noteworthy. We know about the obnoxious questioning not from an anonymous campaign leak or (don’t laugh) a high-status reporter digging into the undercurrent of anti-Semitism at the highest levels of progressive organizing. We know about it because Josh Shapiro wrote about it, put his name to it, and swung back at his party’s presidential nominee for good measure.

“I wondered,” he writes, “whether these questions were being posed to just me — the only Jewish guy in the running — or if everyone who had not held a federal office was being grilled about Israel in the same way.”

In any event, Shapiro concluded, the whole affair “said a lot about some of the people around the VP.”

As to whether Shapiro would, as Harris requested, grovel and beg the forgiveness of people chasing Jews while cheering Hamas’s Nazi atrocities, he “flatly” said no.

What is unusual about this news cycle is not that an ambitious politician with national aspirations sought to put some distance between himself and his party’s failed past leaders, or that he would paint himself as having shown toughness and nerve in his own recollections of the incidents at hand.

Instead, what is striking is that he would do so on the subject of Israel and anti-Semitism. Shapiro isn’t letting them take free shots at the Jews.

The Harris team’s behavior was atrocious, but they might have expected to get away with it on the assumption that no one wants to draw attention to accusations that they are a double agent or a Manchurian candidate. Shapiro, however, refused to play that game. His response was, essentially, OK let’s talk about it. Let’s play “Ask the Jew” in front of the whole country.

Josh Shapiro wasn’t supposed to be confrontational about it. He was supposed to take the hint and know his proper place as a Jew in national politics. He was not supposed to tell them to their faces how offensive their medievalist questioning was, and then to tell the world.

There is probably not one campaign operative in a thousand who would tell Shapiro to center his Jewish pride at a moment when so many progressive activists and organizers are out for Jewish blood. It contradicts the conventional wisdom.

But conventional wisdom didn’t prevent some anti-Semitic and anti-Israel lunatic from burning Shapiro’s house while his family was inside on Passover. Should he apologize to the man who tried to murder his family, too? Surely the Harris campaign would say yes.

Shapiro didn’t ask for this fight, but he’s not running from it. Hopefully it stays that way. The next generation of American Jewish activists and politicians are watching.
Tevi Troy: Are Jews Still Welcome in the White House?
Yet this same dynamic of high visibility combined with inter-elite competition and grassroots hatred may bring about a period of unprecedented friction and danger for Jews, in which high-level Jewish political involvement proves irksome to antisemites and even to other inter-elite competitors—who, in turn, will have no shortage of Jewish rivals to scapegoat. This dynamic would likely be mirrored throughout the rest of society. Disaffected individuals or groups may also target prominent Jewish officials as a way of gaining sympathy for violent actions. We saw an element of this with the Passover firebombing of Gov. Josh Shapiro’s mansion by a disturbed anti-Israel activist.

Another, also unpalatable, possibility is that this fourth phase could couple rising elite and popular antisemitism with diminishing opportunities for Jews, as national politicians fear that prominent Jewish appointees might alienate key voting blocs, be they Muslims in Michigan, progressive Israel critics, or anti-globalists on the right. In the summer of 2024, for example, Gov. Shapiro’s Jewishness clearly seemed to count against him in the Democratic vice presidential selection process, as demonstrated by the offensive question from the Harris team of whether Shapiro was an Israeli agent. Bypassing Shapiro resulted instead in the choice of the less-talented Tim Walz as Kamala Harris’ running mate.

In fact, there is evidence to suggest that the increasing mainstream acceptance of antisemitism in both major parties may already be causing the pipeline of future higher-level Jewish appointees to dry up. Baer, for one, suggested that the high-level Jews in the Biden administration could be a lagging indicator, reflecting high Jewish participation in the Clinton and Obama years rather than the current reality. According to Baer, some Jews faced challenges breaking into the lower levels of the Biden administration, which could affect Jewish participation in future Democratic administrations. This could stem from both discomfort with Jews from anti-Israel Democrats and reductions in qualified Jewish applicants being admitted to top schools—driven by that same discomfort. In the future, Baer feared that opportunities for Jewish staffers “might be hitting a brick wall depending on where the Democratic Party goes.”

Related to this are concerns about a broader decline of Jews in elite institutions. As Jacob Savage wrote in his widely read 2023 Tablet article “The Vanishing,” “Suddenly, everywhere you look, the Jews are disappearing … In academia, Hollywood, Washington, even in New York City—anywhere American Jews once made their mark—our influence is in steep decline.” If it continues, this scenario could be bad for Jews and bad for America, as countries that mistreat their Jews often struggle with other pathologies. Bernstein, however, is less worried, noting that the likely 2028 Democratic candidates have “plenty of Jewish senior people around.”

A third direction that the future may take is that the current surge in antisemitism will wane, and the fourth phase will be a better version of the third phase, with opportunities rising and antisemitism dwindling. This scenario is optimistic about both the Jews and America. As former Obama and Biden aide Chanan Weissman notes, “The Jewish story is the best story that America tells about itself.” He adds, “Societies that treat their [Jewish] communities well, benefit.” His scenario may not be one that many Jews see as likely at the moment, but it would be in keeping with the generally positive trajectory we have seen up until now. The problem with it is that straight-line extrapolations are often lacking in predictive power; in this case, they ignore the recent reemergence of antisemitism—which appears to be quite real.

The long history of the Jews and power in America is ultimately unique because of how little public controversy it has caused. Jews and Jewish ideas have been an essential part of this nation since its founding. While the current attacks on Jews from both the left and the right are by no means unique in the context of Jewish history, they are alien to American political culture—which is what makes this moment frightening. The attempt to mainstream antisemitism on both the left and the right should be properly understood as an attack by extremists in both parties on the existing political culture and on the principles of the American founding.

The American tradition is far more closely linked to the Jews and their many contributions to it than it is to the antisemites of the left or the right, whose hatred of the Jews reveals a rejection of that tradition—which they hope to reorder and replace with various European-born ideologies, from communism to fascism to theocracy, that have proven toxic to their political hosts. As Americans, Jews must lean in rather than retreat in the face of antisemitism, which in turn entails an embrace of this nation’s philosemitic and Enlightenment-based founding principles.

In America, Jews belong everywhere, from the White House on down. Any future White House that rejects Jews would be reflecting its own rejection of the American founding tradition.
Seth Mandel: Matt Gaetz and the Jewish Firebugs
As Jews, we’re encouraged to be a light among the nations. But sometimes I think people get the wrong idea. Every so often, we are collectively accused of setting things alight among the nations.

That’s what happened in recent weeks as fires raged in Argentina. A conspiracy theory gained some traction online that held that Israelis were setting wildfires in Patagonia in order to cheapen the value of land and then buy that land. How were they setting the fires? With Israeli grenades.

By January 12, all of this had been thoroughly debunked, and an Argentine broadcaster at the center of it apologized. Naturally, the following day, Matt Gaetz—the scandal-soaked weirdo chased from Congress by ethics investigations into another career as a wannabe Candace Owens—did a whole segment repeating the conspiracy theory about Jewish firebugs and Zionist grenades.

The fact that Gaetz chose to run a segment on it after the country where it started denounced and debunked every falsehood is one reason Gaetz is viewed as a clown even among the crowd of maniacs he associates himself with.

Nevertheless, this clown was a congressman and was even nominated to be attorney general by President Trump. Tucker Carlson, currently the dean of the anti-American propaganda fetishists, has been making appearances at the White House. So we have to grapple with the question of how much damage we think the right-wing influencer ecosystem is capable of. After all, it wouldn’t be much consolation to say Matt Gaetz has the intellectual depth of a ceramic ash tray if he were the U.S. attorney general.

One type of damage is indicated by the fact that we’re talking about the firebug conspiracy theory, and that such a canard is worth talking about at all. On that front, history has a warning.

Included in the anti-Semitic slang that has managed to persist through time is the phrase “Jewish lightning.” It’s a relic, and it’s not all that common, but it refers to the reputation that American Jews got thanks to rumors that they were uniquely liable to carry out insurance fires in the 19th century. As a result, insurance companies began to deny Jews insurance coverage. Industry manuals warned of the risk of Jewish firebugs.


Nation to pause to honour Bondi victims
Australians will observe a National Day of Mourning today (Thursday) to honour the 15 people killed in the antisemitic Bondi Beach terrorist attack on December 14 last year.

Flags will fly at half-mast across the country while 15 buildings will be illuminated in white light as symbols of remembrance, including the Sydney Opera House, Bondi Pavilion, Sydney Tower and the Maritime Museum.

At 7.01pm, Australians will be invited to observe a minute of silence wherever they are, with many expected to mark the day by lighting candles, checking in on neighbours or sharing meals.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin said the day is an opportunity to come together in support of 15 devastated families and thousands more dealing with physical and mental trauma.

“Those taken from us were patriotic Australians, proud Jews and devoted members of our families and our community. They were kind and decent people. We should each seek to live in their image, contributing more, giving more and loving more,” he said.

“It is also incumbent on us to contemplate how we got here. How we as a nation allowed a poison to flourish in our beautiful country. How hateful mobs and sinister clerics used our landmarks and our streets to summon others to do violence. How our institutions became inhospitable to Jewish Australians. How synagogues and businesses burned. And how 15 of our fellow Australians died for the crime of being Jewish.”

Ryvchin said the overwhelming majority of Australians are good, kind, fair-minded and loving people, with many thousands having conveyed their sorrow and solidarity.
Parents of youngest Bondi terror victim recount final moments of their daughter
The parents of the youngest victim of the Bondi Beach terror attack have spoken of the moment their daughter was shot as she ran back towards them during the antisemitic attack on a Chanukah celebration.

Ten-year-old Matilda was among 15 people murdered on 14 December when two ISIS-inspired terrorists opened fire during a Chabad-run family event on Bondi Beach, held to mark the first night of Chanukah.

Speaking to ITV News, her parents said they had attended the annual beach celebration every year since Matilda was born and initially struggled to understand what was happening when gunshots were heard.

“So the first couple seconds, you kind of think it’s going to end, it’s going to end,” her father said. “And then it just kept on going.”

Matilda and her younger sister had gone to the petting zoo area on their own moments earlier. As shots rang out, Matilda ran back towards her parents.

“I crawled across the chairs back to where we were sitting, and that’s when I saw her, she was wounded on the ground,” her father said.

He described trying to protect his children while giving first aid. “I was staying low, covering my children, took off my shirt, and she was conscious, so I could talk to her, and I said, ‘Just calm down,’” he said. “She was saying it was hard to breathe.”

Matilda died in hospital a few hours later.

Her parents said they believe they would now be mourning both of their daughters were it not for the actions of a worker at the petting zoo, who sheltered their six-year-old during the attack.
‘Light will win’: Thursday’s memorial of Bondi attack victims will be a ‘historic evening’
Chabad of Bondi Rabbi Mendy Ulman expects Thursday night’s memorial service commemorating the victims of the Bondi attack will be a “historic evening”.


Brother-in-law of slain Rabbi shares message of ‘light’ in exclusive interview with Sky News
Brother-in-law of slain Rabbi, Rabbi Mendy Ulman, says he wants “light to win” in the wake of the Bondi Beach attack.

“The overwhelming support has been the silver lining in this,” Mr Ulman told Sky News Digital Presenter Gabriella Power.

“The Jewish people, we’re a very small people, but we’re a very large family.

“To see the country rally behind our community has been the only answer that we could look for.”


Australian Jewish groups welcome hate-crime laws after Bondi attack
Australia’s organized Jewish community on Tuesday welcomed hate crime laws passed by the country’s parliament earlier in the day, more than a month after an antisemitic terrorist attack at a Chanukah gathering at Sydney’s Bondi Beach killed 15 people.

The legislation was passed, together with tighter gun laws, after Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese recalled senators and members of the House of Representatives from summer recess early for a special two-day session.

“We are very pleased that the hate speech bill has passed through Parliament. The surge of antisemitism over the past 27 months and the horrific Bondi terrorist attack demonstrated that strong national action is desperately needed to counter this hatred,” said Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council executive director Colin Rubinstein. “The new legislation is a very important and constructive start, although there is much work still ahead of us,” he added.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Daniel Aghion said “no legislation is perfect, but the provisions of this new legislation represent a substantial achievement,” adding that “the speed of its passage demonstrates that our parliament can work quickly and decisively when faced with urgent necessity.”

Aghion warned that “if not addressed robustly, the problem of growing racial hatred will only get worse. Whilst the Jewish community is presently the main target, every group and every individual in society is potentially at risk in the future.”

In a statement, the Zionist Federation of Australia welcomed the “bipartisan agreement to strengthen Australia’s visa and prohibited organisation regimes,” while thanking the government and Liberal Party “for moving swiftly to pass this important legislation.”

It noted that the Combating Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill 2026 provides a framework to act against the radical Islamist political group Hizb ut-Tahrir Australia (the measure also targets the neo-Nazi National Socialist Network), stressing that the government “should move promptly to ensure the organisation is formally banned.”

The package, rushed through in a special sitting, has divided some Jewish leaders over how far governments should go in curbing hate.
Randa Abdel-Fattah kept paraglider photo for five months
Anti-Israel activist Randa Abdel-Fattah kept the image of a Palestinian paratrooper as her Facebook cover photo for at least five months after Hamas terrorists’ murder, rape and kidnapping of 1200 Israelis had become apparent.

Dr Abdel-Fattah, whose removal from the Adelaide Writers Week program this month triggered the withdrawal of 180 authors, the dissolution of the festival’s board, the resignation of director Louise Adler and ultimately the cancellation of the event, has previously defended her decision to post the image one day after Hamas terrorists used paragliders to launch a massacre of Jews on October 7, 2023.

She told the ABC this week she had “no idea about the death toll’’ when choosing the image of a parachute in the colours of the Palestinian flag as her cover image. However, The Australian can reveal the confronting picture still featured on her Facebook page at the end of March 2024.

On Tuesday, Dr Abdel-Fattah’s Facebook page was wiped of all images and posts.

Hundreds of supporters have pledged $110,000 towards her $150,000 crowd-funding appeal for legal costs in defamation action she has taken against South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas in the fallout of the Adelaide Writers Week fiasco.

She has filed two defamation concerns notices against Mr Malinauskas. One notice was over an interview in which he said: “Dr Abdel-Fattah’s views, in my view, are extremist.”

Mr Malinauskas has also repeatedly backed the decision to dump her from the Writers Week line-up, telling reporters: “Can you imagine if a far-right Zionist walked into a Sydney mosque and murdered 15 people?

“Can you imagine that as Premier of this state, I would actively support a far-right Zionist going to AWW and speaking hateful rhetoric towards Islamic ­people? Of course I wouldn’t.”

Dr Abdel-Fattah’s lawyers have not released the concerns notices outlining the specific defamatory allegations.

A search of Dr Abdel-Fattah’s social media accounts reveals she wiped all her Facebook posts on Tuesday, along with an inflammatory post from 2024 that said: “May 2025 be the end of Israel.”


Half of Irish adults do not know six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust
Half of Irish adults do not know that six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, a new survey from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany has found.

Conducted Oct. 25 to Nov. 6, the online survey of 1,000 Irish adults also found that 8% of people in Ireland believe the Holocaust is a myth and did not happen, while 17% believe the number of Jews killed had been greatly exaggerated.

The survey adds to a country-by-country series by the Claims Conference, which coordinates reparations for Holocaust survivors and sponsors Holocaust education programmes. The number of Irish adults who believed the death toll of the Holocaust had been greatly exaggerated was slightly higher than the United States at 15% and the United Kingdom at 11%, but far lower than in France, where the Claims Conference found that a third of adults believe the death toll has been greatly exaggerated.

The Irish survey also found lower reports of Holocaust distortion than in other countries. A quarter of Irish adults said they believed distortion was common in their country, compared to 49% of adults in the United States, 44% in France and Germany and 47% in Hungary.

The survey did not attempt to answer whether perceptions of Holocaust distortion in Ireland are accurate.


From Egypt to the West: How the Muslim Brotherhood Grew Into a Global Movement
What is the Muslim Brotherhood’s Core Ideology?

The core ideology shared by members of the Brotherhood (whether radical or moderate), as put forth by Hassan al-Banna in the early years of the movement, calls for:
Full implementation of Islamic law in the lives of all Muslims at the personal and communal level.
Assumption of power in traditionally Muslim lands and the overthrow of foreign-backed regimes.
Replacing the old regime with one run according to the strictures of Islamic law.
The coalescing of Sharia-run Muslim lands into one Islamic caliphate, which will then serve as the springboard for spreading Islam worldwide, replacing Western regimes and leading to the global dominance of Islam.

Where is the Muslim Brotherhood banned?
Due to the anti-establishment worldview of the Muslim Brotherhood and its inspiration of various Islamist terrorist groups that pose a threat to existing regimes, the Muslim Brotherhood has been banned and designated as a terrorist group in several countries, including:
Syria (banned by the Assad regime in the 1980s).
Russia (designated as a terrorist organization in 2003 due to its connection with Muslim separatists).
Kazakhstan (designated as a terrorist organization in 2006).
Egypt (designated as a terrorist organization in 2013).
The United Arab Emirates (designated as a terrorist organization in 2014).
Saudi Arabia (designated as a terrorist organization in 2014).
Libya (designated as a terrorist organization by the Tobruk-based government in 2019; only relevant in areas where they have control).
Comoros (designated as a terrorist organization in 2023).
Paraguay (designated as a terrorist organization in 2023).
Jordan (designated as a terrorist organization in 2025 following the discovery of a Brotherhood cell planning terrorist operations).
Kenya (designated as a terrorist organization in 2025).


Days after October 7, NEU teachers shared lesson plan asking pupils if they would ‘fight back’ if they lived in Gaza
Members of Britain’s biggest teachers’ union shared lessons plans days after October 7 asking pupils if they would “fight back” if they lived in Gaza, the JC can reveal.

The National Education Union (NEU) already faces accusations of alleged antisemitism within its ranks after a Jewish MP, Labour’s Damien Egan, was barred from visiting a school in Bristol because of his support for Israel.

Now it can be revealed that shortly after the massacre carried out by Hamas in 2023 NEU members in the city shared lesson plans which Jewish leaders claim appear to justify the attack.

The materials have been passed on to the JC by a whistleblower teacher in Bristol who had access to documents shared online in a Google Drive folder titled “Palestine4Educators”.

The document, entitled "How can educators teach about Palestine?" is emblazoned with both the NEU logo and the red, green and black Palestinian flag, bearing the words ‘Free Palestine’.

It begins with the notorious slogan “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, which is widely understood as invalidating the legitimacy of the entire state of Israel.

Elsewhere in the documents:
• Pupils are asked if Israeli military actions amount to “terrorism”;
• Critics of Israel are said to fear being labelled antisemitic if they speak out;
• Staff are told to avoid an intercommunal peace group recommended by the “notoriously racist” Home Office;
• A branch motion justifies “struggle… by all available means, including armed struggle”.


New York Times Hiring a Reporter To Cover US Jews
The Times job listing puts the base pay for the religion correspondent job at between $124,979.94 and $170,000. It lists "Detailed and expert understanding of Judaism and clarity about the intricacies of its place in America" as a basic qualification. "Preferred qualifications" include "Collegial and collaborative behavior, integrity with assignments." How anyone at a news organization approved a job listing that discusses integrity as anything other than a basic requirement is a puzzler, but I guess enough time has passed at the Times since the Jayson Blair scandal that some editor okayed this. "Accuracy" isn’t listed as a qualification, either, though the editors are seeking someone with "an eagerness to experiment with new story forms and a passion for bringing Times journalism to a global audience across digital, print and other media."

Times coverage of Judaism (and, as Baquet acknowledged, of other religions, too) has been almost comically, clumsily bad. The news coverage, while bad in its own right, is also tainted by its association with the Times Opinion pages, whose favorite Jew, Peter Beinart, declared in 2020 that he no longer believes in a Jewish state. (Beinart apologized in November 2025 for what he called a "serious mistake" and "failure of judgment" of speaking at Tel Aviv University in violation of a boycott of Israeli academic institutions.)

The Times executive editor, Joe Kahn, told Semafor’s Ben Smith in a May 2024 interview, "I’m not an active Jew." As I commented then: Maybe the New York Times can sell sweatshirts: "Inactive Jew." Who, exactly, is supposed to find that distinction between "active" and "inactive" Jews reassuring? Maybe they can put it on top of the front page in place of "All the News That’s Fit to Print": "Edited by someone who wants the public to know he’s not an active Jew."

For now, Times coverage of American Judaism is pieced together by a variety of contributors. Liam Stack is a frequently appearing byline on the topic, and his work, like that of some other Times reporters, tends to mislead readers by describing the American or New York Jewish community as divided over Israel or over Zohran Mamdani when the reality is that the mainstream community is overwhelmingly united and the Jews-for-Hamas are a fringe minority, even among the younger generation. Jonathan Mahler, a former managing editor of the Forward, contributes occasional pieces on the topic to the Times magazine. Jodi Rudoren, a former editor of the Forward, returned to the Times in 2025 as its editorial director of newsletters. Joe Berger, who retired officially from the Times in 2014, still pitches in an occasional piece on Yiddish, the Holocaust, or Hasidism.


Former Palestinian official accuses Palestinian Authority of institutional corruption
A former Palestinian Authority intelligence chief on Tuesday publicly accused the Palestinian leadership of allowing systemic corruption to flourish within its institutions, in a rare appeal addressed directly to PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

In an open letter, Tawfik Tirawi, 77, said he repeatedly alerted Abbas to cases of graft, but to no avail.

“The corruption system now operates with confidence and immunity,” wrote Tirawi, a senior member of the Fatah central committee led by Abbas, whose presidential mandate expired in 2009.

Tirawi alleged the involvement of businesses and individuals in the takeover of public and private lands and assets, describing what he called a “moral and ethical collapse” of Palestinian institutions.

He also accused aides around Abbas, who is 90, of “deliberately hiding the truth” from him.

Tirawi, an outspoken Abbas critic, said that after consulting with other Fatah figures, he decided to make the issue public, warning that if the situation persisted he would disclose details of specific cases to the media.

“Did our people make all these sacrifices — martyrs, prisoners and wounded — only for us to reach a stage where thieves and land brokers are left to spread corruption without deterrence or accountability?” he wrote.

Tirawi has in the past advocated for armed Palestinian resistance against Israel, and praised his then-2-year-old son for expressing his desire to kill “Zionists” in a children’s song.


Restricted video
Footage from northeastern Syria showing the killing of Kurdish women.
GRAPHIC WARNING 🚨

Sent by a commander from the Syrian Democratic Forces.

The video contains extreme violence, including the killing of a wounded person and desecration of a body.

Viewer discretion advised.
Vandals scrawl dozens of swastikas on Brooklyn neighborhood playground
Police responded to reports of aggravated harassment on Jan. 19 and again on Jan. 21 after dozens of swastikas were found at a playground in Brooklyn, N.Y., according to the New York City Police Department.

The NYPD told JNS that officers, who responded to a 911 aggravated harassment call at about 10:50 a.m. on Wednesday at Gravesend Park, near 56th Street and 18th Avenue, found “approximately 57 swastikas in the playground and handball court area written on the wall in red, blue and yellow colors.”

“There are no arrests at this time, and the incident is being investigated by the NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force,” the department told JNS.

Brooklyn Community Board 12 highlighted the hateful symbols and pointed to what it described as a similar case.

“Same park, different day. A day later, and this is what happened,” the board wrote. “We are requesting that NYPD Hate Crimes pull out all the stops to catch these vile Jew haters.”

The NYPD told JNS that officers responded to the same park on Jan. 19.

“Upon arrival, officers discovered multiple swastikas drawn in red paint in the playground area of the park,” the NYPD said. “Approximately 16 swastikas were drawn on slides, walls and floor of the playground. The paint bottles were found on scene.”

NYPD told JNS that the incident is also being investigated as a potential hate crime.

Zohran Mamdani, mayor of New York City, stated that “I am sickened by this antisemitic vandalism in Borough Park.”


Leo Terrell to receive Israel’s annual award of honor at Jerusalem antisemitism conference
he Government of Israel will award its annual Award of Honor for the Fight Against Antisemitism to Leo Terrell, senior counsel and chair of the US Department of Justice Task Force to Combat Antisemitism. A special Award of Honor, in memory of the late Charlie Kirk, will also be presented to his personal pastor, Rob McCoy, recognizing Kirk’s legacy of principled advocacy for Israel and his stand against antisemitism.

The awards will be presented at a gala on Monday, January 26, at the Jerusalem International Convention Center (Binyanei HaUma), by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Amichai Chikli.

The ceremony will inaugurate the Second International Conference on Combating Antisemitism, titled Generation of Truth, initiated by Minister Chikli and scheduled for January 26-27, 2026, in Jerusalem, ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The conference is expected to bring together senior Israeli leaders and dozens of international participants.

Since October 7, the Trump administration has taken a firm stance against antisemitism and in support of Israel’s right to self-defense. Terrell is being honored for his sustained efforts to confront the rise of antisemitism in the US, particularly on university campuses. As head of the Justice Department’s Antisemitism Task Force, he has worked to hold academic institutions and their leadership accountable when they have failed to adequately address antisemitism within their communities.

“Senior Counsel Terrell’s leadership and moral clarity have produced tangible impact and earned him broad recognition among Jewish communities and public leaders in the US and around the world," Minister Chikli said. “This award honors those who refuse to remain silent and choose to stand with the Jewish people, with Israel, and with truth."




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