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Thursday, January 22, 2026

01/22 Links Pt1: The Genocide Slur Is Not Just for Jews; Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Islamism, Iran and the West’s descent into barbarism; Fanon and the Ayatollahs; The ICC is the theater of the absurd

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: A Caesar in the White House
Opinion today is divided between those asserting that Trump is saving the world and those asserting that Trump is destroying the world.

The reality is that he’s not a fascist, racist or madman; he is rather a self-styled emperor. He demands fealty, is driven by transactionalism, narcissism and revenge, and gets his way through the exercise of raw power.

This is hardly desirable. Still, Trump is motivated by love of America, Western civilization and the Jewish people. His political opponents, on the other hand, are motivated by hatred of America, Western civilization and the Jewish people—or are chillingly indifferent to those who do.

There’s surely no contest.

Trump’s new world order has emerged because the old one has so catastrophically failed. International law and transnational institutions were created to destroy the power of imperial overreach in the interests of peace, freedom and justice. But that international order has betrayed and abandoned peace, freedom and justice. The outcome is a Caesar in the White House.

Trump is the best friend Israel has ever had in the Oval Office. That doesn’t make him perfect. He can be the Jews’ best shot and can do some brilliant things, and yet at the same time be a flawed individual. Those flaws may sometimes prevent him from doing the right thing and lead him instead into making terrible errors.

We must all just hold our breath.
John Spencer: The Genocide Slur Is Not Just for Jews
The Korean War underscores the same point even more starkly. Roughly 2 million North and South Korean civilians were killed over 37 months of war. If the same statistical logic now applied to Gaza were imposed retroactively, stripped of context about who died, how they died, and who killed them, that figure would translate into more than 54,000 civilian deaths every single month. Yet the Korean War is understood, correctly, as a lawful collective defense against invasion, not as a genocide.

This is what happens when the laws of armed conflict are replaced by statistical absolutism. Law becomes a tool of political warfare. Legal terms become slogans. The side that fights lawfully becomes uniquely vulnerable, judged not by intent or conduct, but by the inevitable suffering that accompanies urban combat.

When civilian suffering becomes the decisive weapon, advantage flows to those who want civilians to suffer. If accusation and optics define legality, the optimal strategy is to embed among civilians, prevent evacuation, fight from protected sites, and manipulate information so that every death becomes ammunition. That is not the protection of civilians. It is the exploitation of them.

If this logic becomes the standard, the result will not be fewer civilian deaths. It will be more. The new standard by which Israel “committed genocide” in Gaza will validate hostage taking, the use of human shields, the engineering of humanitarian crises, and the manipulation of casualty figures as weapons. It will tell future adversaries that the fastest way to defeat a democratic military is not to fight it, but to endanger civilians until the defender is condemned for trying to stop the violence. In that world, urban areas become more lethal, not less. Civilians become more vulnerable, not more protected.

The implications for the United States military are direct and dire. Every serious contingency in the Pentagon’s war-planning scenarios involves dense urban terrain. Defending Seoul, Taipei, or NATO’s eastern flank means fighting in cities where civilians cannot be separated from the battlefield and where adversaries are trained to exploit information and lawfare as much as maneuvers and firepower. If civilian harm alone becomes proof of criminality, democratic militaries face an impossible choice: Fight and be condemned, or refrain and concede defeat.

Accusations of genocide being leveled against Israel do not merely constitute baseless defamation of an ally, as I have personally seen with my own eyes during six research trips to Gaza over the course of the war. It is a weapon aimed at lawful self-defense. The tragedy of civilian suffering in war is real. It should never be denied. But turning tragedy into a legal verdict without proof of intent is not moral progress. It is paralysis.

If baseless slander becomes law, lawful self-defense becomes impossible. And if lawful self-defense becomes impossible, democracies will have lost the next wars before they begin.
Seth Mandel: You Can’t Have It Both Ways on ‘Genocide’
Similarly, today Jewish Insider reports that Scott Wiener is stepping away from his post as co-chair of the California legislature’s Jewish Caucus. As I wrote last week, Wiener declined to say Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza constituted genocide at a candidates debate against two of his congressional primary opponents. He, like Mallory McMorrow, thought they had moved on. He was wrong, and he got slammed by progressives for equivocating, and so he filmed a soul-crushingly pathetic video changing his answer to “yes.”

It certainly would be inappropriate for him to continue on as Jewish Caucus co-chair, and he recognized as much. But I was struck by his plea for open-mindedness: “As we move through this moment, it is even more important for Jews here and globally to foster open dialogue and acceptance of disagreement, even on the hardest of issues.”

Does he feel that way about other genocides? Again, how much “acceptance of disagreement” does he feel there should be in the Jewish community toward Holocaust denial?

Wiener and McMorrow—and who knows how many others, but the number is high—don’t think Israel committed genocide. They don’t actually believe that there are much more important things to talk about and that genocide is a distraction. They lowered themselves to gain the approval of terrible people, and they feel dirty about it, and they would like to not have to do it again. Their problem is simple: It’s degrading to accuse Israel of genocide and then have to look at yourself in the mirror.
Seth Mandel: A Trumpian Version of ‘Leading From Behind’
The post-WWI map of the Middle East briefly looked very different from the one that was to gain a patina of semi-permanence. The Ottoman state, having lost the war, was divided up by Western powers in 1920. Among the minority nations who were given a taste of autonomy under Western rule were the Kurds. Turkish nationalists rebelled and this time were successful in their more limited ambitions; a new treaty in 1923 inaugurated a Turkish state—at the Kurds’ expense.

The phrase “at the Kurds’ expense” would become a familiar one. This week, Western powers would continue their century-plus tradition of seeking stability at the Kurds’ expense.

In essence, recent events are the result of simple power politics and the Trump administration’s prosecution of its foreign policy along those lines.

President Trump tends to favor the stronger party in any conflict, or at least tends to give the stronger party more latitude in finishing the fight. This sometimes works against America’s traditional allies—Ukraine, for example, and this week the Kurds. It’s a form of leading from behind as applied to Trump’s unsentimentalist approach to conflict resolution.

The Kurds have held semi-autonomous regions in Iraq and Syria and their militias were instrumental in the American war on ISIS. Thousands of Kurds died in the war and many more continued to put their lives on the line guarding ISIS prisons.

Full Kurdish independence has never seemed just around the corner, but the working assumption was that the U.S. would never diminish Kurdish sovereignty, even if we couldn’t bring ourselves to expand it. That policy survived the Syrian civil war and the fall of the House of Assad, but it died this week in favor of aiding Ahmed al-Sharaa’s consolidation of power in the new Syria.

Sharaa is an exemplar of win-and-you’re-in geopolitics. Had his militia, which had its roots in an al-Qaeda offshoot, failed, Sharaa would have been immediately forgotten by history. Instead, he led the coalition of rebels to victory over Damascus and, now, has received U.S. backing and the lifting of sanctions. Sharaa has traded fatigues for tailored suits, like many an erstwhile rebel before him.


Is Trump's Board of Peace an Alternative UN?
President Donald Trump unveiled his 20-point peace plan for Gaza in September. The Board of Peace was the ninth point. In four months, the Board has gone from a mechanism designed to oversee governance in Gaza to, according to its charter, "an international organization that seeks to promote stability, restore dependable and lawful governance, and secure enduring peace in areas affected or threatened by conflict." In other words, an alternative United Nations.

Trump said Tuesday that "I wish the United Nations could do more. I wish we didn't need a Board of Peace." Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel would accept Trump's invitation to join the new world body.

It is clearly in Israel's interest to be at the table where decisions about Gaza's future are being made. The Board could provide Israel with a channel to shape demilitarization arrangements, border controls, and monitoring mechanisms, rather than leaving those sensitive issues to be worked out among Turkey, Qatar, and Egypt.

Joining the Board signals Israel's alignment with the Trump administration's foreign policy priorities and objectives. Israel has a clear interest in staying on the president's good side, and this is a relatively low-cost way of doing so.

Moreover, if the rise of the Board ultimately weakens the standing of the UN, that would be a boon for Israel, given the UN's long record of entrenched bias toward Israel.
Board of Peace to Set 3-5 Month Timeline for Gaza Disarmament
The Board of Peace led by President Donald Trump is expected to present Hamas with an ultimatum demanding that it agrees to disarm in the coming days. The ultimatum will include an explicit requirement for Hamas to hand over all types of weapons in its possession. Hamas will be given a short period of time to respond on whether it accepts the demand.

If the response is positive, the policing forces operating on behalf of the "technocratic committee" that is to run Gaza would be responsible for collecting all weapons held by Hamas, including rifles, rockets, explosive devices and other arms.

Neither the IDF nor the International Stabilization Force (ISF) would carry out the collection. Instead, it would be handled by a Palestinian police force that has been trained in recent months in Egypt. The assessment is that this process would take 3-5 months.

Senior officials told Israel Hayom that all parties understand that full disarmament of Gaza and stripping Hamas of its weapons are an essential and critical condition for implementing the peace plan. Without this, there will be no progress in Gaza's reconstruction and the international community will not transfer funds for that purpose. This is a fundamental principle agreed upon by all parties, including Arab states.

If this scenario does not materialize, the officials said there is also agreement among the international bodies that Israel would receive authorization to disarm Hamas by force.


Putin meets Abbas in Moscow, pledges to secure Palestinian interests in Board of Peace
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday during a meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the Kremlin that he will accept President Donald Trump’s invitation to join the Board of Peace (BoP) and meet the $1 billion requirement.

Trump’s 20-point plan to end the Gaza conflict calls for the establishment of a transitional administration to govern the Gaza Strip, of which the Board of Peace is to be a critical part.

A $1 billion fee is required for member countries to secure a permanent seat. Russia said it would pay using frozen assets in the United States, which would require U.S. action to unblock.

Putin made clear he was joining the BoP to secure Palestinian interests and will pay the $1 billion “first and foremost to support the Palestinian people and to direct those funds to the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip and, in general, to resolve Palestinian problems,” according to TASS, Russia’s state-owned news agency.

Trump launched his Board of Peace at a ceremony on Thursday on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The board, which will initially focus on solidifying the ceasefire with Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, “can do pretty much whatever we want to do” once it is “completely formed,” said Trump.

Representatives of at least 18 nations attended, including Argentina, Hungary, and Morocco, among others.


Fanon and the Ayatollahs
Like Fanon, Khomeini taught that oppression could only be answered through sacralised violence. Responding to the suicide bombing of Mohammad Hossein Fahmideh during the Iran–Iraq War, he declared: “Our leader is that twelve-year-old child [in fact, thirteen] ... who carried his bomb and threw himself under the enemy tank, blowing it up, savouring the drink of martyrdom.” Fahmideh’s face became an icon of Khomeinist propaganda. In Sartre’s preface to Les Damnés de la Terre, he writes that Europe branded its colonial subjects with the “red-hot iron” of Western culture. In the Islamic Republic, that iron has been replaced by the crimson headbands of the regime, binding the faithful, children included, to an eternal revenge cycle.

The ultimate tragedy of the Third-Worldist ideologues is that their insistence on anchoring decolonial solidarity in essentialised racial and religious identities—and their endorsement of violence as the preferred (or only) means to achieve it—can only result in the destruction of the peoples for whose freedoms they are supposedly fighting. Research suggests that over the past 120 years, approximately 51 percent of nonviolent movements achieved their stated objectives, compared to only 26 percent of violent campaigns. This 2-to-1 margin in favour of nonviolent resistance directly undermines the Fanonian premise that decolonisation is necessarily a violent process.

The utopian idealism of left-wing intellectuals has produced a long and ignoble record of blindness to the criminal despotism of the regimes and movements they insist on celebrating. That Michel Foucault, while in revolutionary Iran and exposed to the virulent antisemitism, misogyny, and xenophobia of Khomeinist ideology, could still write of the Islamic Republic as a radiant new “political spirituality” is a stark illustration of this fatal ignorance.

Khomeinist expansionism is now discernible even within the most prestigious Western elite institutions. On 13 November 2025, during a debate at the Oxford Union, an overwhelming majority of members (265–113) voted for the motion that “Israel is a greater threat to regional stability than Iran.” One of the speakers supporting the proposition was none other than Ataollah Mohajerani, an Iranian politician who presided over one of the most aggressive periods of press suppression in the Islamic Republic’s history. Such episodes reflect a deeper failure within Western education, where Third-Worldist narratives that equate violence with moral legitimacy have become disturbingly mainstream.

On 4 June 1989, The New York Times published an obituary of Ruhollah Khomeini, crediting him with transforming Iran into “the most hardline Islamic nation in the world.” It acknowledged his role in initiating a brutal war with Iraq, his rejection of democratic reform, and his calls for the assassination of Salman Rushdie. It detailed Khomeini’s methods of silencing dissent through mass executions, his orchestration of the US Embassy hostage crisis, and his frequent invocation of the “Great Satan” label for America. It acknowledged that his enmity was rooted not in politics, but in an eschatological worldview.

And yet, decades later, as Khomeinist atrocities unfold in plain view—protestors shot dead by rooftop snipers, women raped in detention, dissidents tortured in prison—Western policymakers remain paralysed. They continue to debate whether foreign intervention in Iran is “justified,” or whether the IRGC should finally be designated a terrorist organisation, despite overwhelming evidence of its support for groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and al-Qaeda. If our leaders persist in this politics of immobilism, they will no longer be mere observers. They will be invariably complicit in the surrender of global freedom to a Third-Worldist death cult.
Iranian Regime Claims It Tested a Long-Range Missile That Can Hit US Eastern Seaboard
Iran claimed this week to have successfully tested its first long-range intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), a capability that would enable Tehran to strike the eastern seaboard of the United States, according to regime-controlled outlets.

The regime purportedly conducted its missile launch from an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps base in the city of Semnan, firing toward Siberia with the approval of the Russian government. The missile would have traveled up to 3,700 miles to reach its target, though video of the supposed launch only shows an airborne projectile soaring through the clouds. The footage was initially posted on social media on Monday by an Iranian professor and subsequently amplified by the regime’s press organs, which claimed the missile is capable of traveling up to 6,200 miles.

Even an unsuccessful test—like the failed ICBM launch in September 2025—is likely to advance Iran’s technical knowledge, and the timing of this particular test suggests the Islamic Republic’s leaders are attempting to stave off a U.S. strike that President Donald Trump indicates is still on the table. Trump issued his strongest statement to date against the Iranian regime last weekend, saying, "It’s time to look for new leadership in Iran." In the meantime, the United States has begun positioning an array of military assets in the region—including the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and its strike group—as Trump considers "decisive" action against the regime, according to the Wall Street Journal. The president reportedly called off a strike last week after Israel and other regional allies warned about the Islamic Republic’s ability to respond with missile fire.

Iran has in the past sought to aggressively publicize its missile tests, and the largely quiet nature of the Monday launch outside regime news sources means the Islamic Republic may be serious about refining its ICBM technology and eventually using the missiles on the battlefield.

"There's no shortage of attempts by Tehran's theocrats to engage in hyperbole and bluster to bolster their deterrence, but usually these displays are public," said Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Iran Program. "Yet when the regime shores up and tries to bolster its military prowess without media spotlight and braggadocio, that's when there is room for real concern."
Inside the US military’s massive buildup ahead of possible Iran strike
Overnight, flight-tracking applications documented U.S. Air Force KC-135 aerial refueling aircraft flying eastward over the Atlantic Ocean toward the Middle East, though this movement may also have been linked to the president’s visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos. The military news site The War Zone reported that C-17 transport aircraft were also spotted en route to the region.

During “Operation Midnight Hammer” last June, in which B-2 bombers struck Iranian nuclear facilities, dozens of refueling aircraft took part. The tankers enabled the bombers to fly from their base in Missouri to Iran, a round trip of roughly 18,000 kilometers, and also refueled the fighter jets escorting them.

According to reports, Israel conveyed concerns to Washington last week about its defensive capabilities should Iran attack, after having used a significant portion of its interceptor stockpile during the war in June.

Against this backdrop, senior U.S. officials told WSJ that additional air defense systems would be deployed to the region, including Patriot and THAAD batteries. The arrival of additional forces will give the U.S. more offensive options, American officials told the newspaper.

In the Persian Gulf itself, two U.S. destroyers with precision strike and air defense capabilities are currently operating, along with three mine countermeasure ships, which could prove critical in the face of a potential Iranian threat to close the Strait of Hormuz, according to USNI News of the U.S. Naval Institute.

The United States operates an extensive network of military bases across the Middle East. The most prominent is Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, which hosts U.S. Central Command. The headquarters of the Fifth Fleet is located in Bahrain, and Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates hosts some of the most advanced U.S. fighter aircraft. Additional bases are spread across Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Turkey.

These bases could become targets if Iran decides to retaliate against a U.S. strike. According to Reuters, an Iranian official said last week that Tehran had made clear to countries in the region, from Saudi Arabia to the United Arab Emirates and Turkey, that American bases on their territory would be considered targets.


UKLFI: Aurele Tobelem AKC discusses justifications for proscribing the IRGC under UK terrorism legislation
In this interview, Aurèle Tobelem discusses the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), its structure, ideology and activities inside and outside Iran, and the justification for proscribing it under UK counter-terrorism legislation.

The conversation takes place against the backdrop of recent anti-regime protests in Iran, reports of violence against protesters, and renewed calls for the UK to proscribe the IRGC as a terrorist organisation.

Aurèle explains what the IRGC is, how it operates domestically and internationally, and the arguments that have been made in support of designation, including its relationship with armed groups beyond Iran’s borders.

The discussion also examines how the IRGC is funded, its role in supporting other organisations that are already designated by the UK and its allies, and the objections that have been raised by the UK government to proscription.

Aurèle is the Research Director at the Forum for Foreign Relations and a Trustee of UKLFI Charitable Trust.

Chapters
00:00 – Introduction and context
00:53 – What the IRGC is: structure and ideology
03:44 – The IRGC’s role during Iran protests
04:54 – IRGC operations beyond Iran
06:28 – Funding and material support
10:24 – UK government’s position




The International Criminal Court is the theater of the absurd
If William Shakespeare was right and all the world’s a stage, it follows that the International Criminal Court can be seen as the theater of the absurd.

The ICC in The Hague was established in 2002, based on a statute agreed in Rome in 1998. Its role is to investigate and prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression, and act when the national courts of those states that have signed up to the court are unable or unwilling to do so. The pursuit of justice is one of humankind’s most noble instincts.

The reality is that the ICC has shown itself to be incapable of delivering anything approaching justice. The questions about the ICC’s ability to do so are self-evident to all except for naive, political opportunists or pro-ICC zealots. Despite manifest failings, the court has issued arrest warrants for sitting presidents and prime ministers, indictments enthusiastically embraced by the international human-rights industry that helped to create it.

Let’s leave aside fundamental issues, such as is there any such thing as international law (questionable); whether an international court can be international without the United States, Russia, China or India as members (it can’t); or how independent the ICC can be given that it grants the U.N. Security Council prosecutorial rights of referral and deferral to the court (not a lot), and whether or not the treaty-based ICC can claim to be able to unilaterally impose itself upon the citizens of a country that has not signed up to that treaty (it cannot). It is the rot at the heart of the court that disqualifies it as a functional legal entity.

The ICC’s track record has been appalling. Prosecutors have been mired in allegations of misconduct, political selectivity, failures in due process, ethical irregularities and double standards in case after case.
The fall of UNRWA: Dismantling the engine of perpetual conflict
UNRWA existed to prevent that necessary psychological reckoning. It kept the “Right of Return”—a euphemism for the demographic destruction of Israel—alive as a central tenet of Palestinian identity. As long as the international community funded this delusion, there was no incentive for Palestinian leadership to compromise, build their own institutions or look toward a future alongside Israel, rather than one replacing it.

The removal of the agency’s foothold in Jerusalem forces a confrontation with the truth: Israel is sovereign, its capital is undivided, and the fantasy of reversing 1948 is over.

This assertion of sovereignty is the language of stability in the Middle East. Ambiguity has only ever invited aggression, while clarity invites respect. Egypt and Jordan made peace with Israel not because Israel retreated into self-doubt, but because it demonstrated permanence and strength. The era of managed conflict, characterized by internationalized indecision and endless concessions, produced nothing but entrenched poverty, radicalism and regional war. The Palestinian cause can no longer be weaponized by external actors like Iran, who have long used the frozen conflict as a tool to destabilize the region.

This move clarifies reality rather than denies it. It ends the contradiction of a sovereign state being forced to accommodate an institution built around its own impermanence. More importantly, it confronts Palestinians with a necessary reckoning: Liberation will not come through inherited grievance or externally sustained fantasies, but through responsibility, reform and the abandonment of a politics that has led only to ruin.

The UNRWA model offers nothing but endless dependency and recurring war. Its removal creates the first real opening—however difficult—for a future not defined by rejection, but by choice.
Israel to Shut Down UNRWA's Water, Electricity
Israel was to begin shutting down water and electricity at all UNRWA institutions in the country starting on Wednesday, following legislation passed by the Knesset at the end of December mandating the cutoff, Energy and Infrastructure Minister Eli Cohen told the Jerusalem Post on Tuesday. "Warning letters have already been sent to properties that we identified as belonging to UNRWA," Cohen said. Both opposition and coalition lawmakers supported the legislation.

Referring to international condemnation of the move, Cohen noted, "Anyone who says UNRWA should remain is doing so out of antisemitism, because it is clear that UNRWA is part of the terror infrastructure. UNRWA was involved in employing Hamas terrorists who took an active part on October 7, including the kidnapping of Israelis, their murder, and other acts. We have many additional testimonies." Cohen added that the UN agency "operates in a systematic way to incite against Israel....We will not allow UNRWA, which operates as a front for Hamas activity, to continue operating within the State of Israel."
Father of son abducted by UN worker places mezuzah on UNRWA complex
The father of Yonatan Samerano, who was murdered on Oct. 7, 2023, and whose body was taken to Gaza by a Palestinian United Nations employee, affixed a mezuzah on Wednesday to the gate of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) compound demolished by Israeli authorities the previous day.

Kobi Samerano led the symbolic ceremony in Jerusalem, representing personal closure for the bereaved father, U.S.-based nonprofit American Friends of Judea and Samaria said on its Instagram account.

In a video posted on X, apparently by Kobi Samerano’s personal account, Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Arieh King and Likud Party lawmaker Dan Illouz could be seen accompanying the father.

“This is closure for my family and me. A despicable UNRWA employee viciously abducted our Yonati, and for a long time we could not live in peace until we brought him for Jewish burial,” the father was quoted as saying by Israel National News, referring to the retrieval of Samerano’s body on June 22.

“Finally justice is done: the UNRWA offices in Jerusalem were completely destroyed. UNRWA is outlawed, and it is out of Israel. Thank you to all those who helped and pushed for the law that enabled this demolition. I hope that we will not see any more of UNRWA in Israel,” Samerano continued.


Belgian Jews call on universities to revoke honor to Albanese
Belgian Jews this week protested the announcement by three universities that they would give an honorary doctorate to Francesca Albanese, an Italian anti-Israel U.N. official who has been accused of antisemitic hate speech.

Both the French-speaking Coordinating Committee of Jewish Organizations in Belgium (CCJOB) and the Flemish-speaking Forum of Jewish Organizations (FJO) condemned the decision by the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) to honor Albanese at a ceremony in April. VUB, which is a top-ranked Belgian institution, announced the move along with the University of Antwerp and Ghent University.

To many of her critics, Albanese represents the nexus of antisemitism and Israel hatred, which has made European universities hotbeds of Jew-hatred, especially after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.

The honorary doctorate recognizes the “exceptional commitment to the protection of human rights and the strengthening of international law” by Albanese, who was appointed in 2022 as U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, the three universities wrote in a statement.

FJO wrote on Monday, “Her repeated comparisons of Israel to the Nazis are perceived as Holocaust trivialization and antisemitic under the IHRA definition, and the U.S. government also labels it as such. This sends the wrong message to students and is in no way an example of academic integrity or ethics.”

CCJOB announced on Tuesday that it was joining FJO’s call on the university to revoke the honor.

Albanese has long faced allegations of antisemitism, which she has denied.

In February 2024, she wrote on X to French President Emmanuel Macron that the victims of the Oct. 7 onslaught were “not killed because of their Jewishness, but as a reaction to Israel’s oppression.”

In 2014, she stated, “America and Europe, one of them subjugated by the Jewish lobby, and the other by the sense of guilt about the Holocaust.” Albanese has since said that she regrets this remark.


A War Without Headlines: Inside Israel’s 2025 Terror Wave
For the past two and a half years, Israel has been fighting a sustained defensive war on multiple fronts. While the battlefield and regional conflict dominate headlines, a parallel and often underreported front continues within Israel – relentless terrorism that targets all Israelis.

Even as the IDF reported that 2025 saw a steep decline in terror attacks in the West Bank, the threat of terrorism has not disappeared. According to the Shin Bet, 4,744 terror-related incidents were recorded from January through December. These attacks left countless civilians injured and many others dead.

What follows is a breakdown of the terrorism incidents that took place in Israel throughout 2025. It is a sobering reminder that for Israelis, the war has never been confined to the front lines.
Binyamin father of five dies of Rafah battle wounds
Israel Defense Forces Sgt. Maj. (res.) Asael Babbad, 38, from the Binyamin region of Samaria, died on Thursday from wounds sustained in battle in Rafah on Oct. 19, 2025, the Binyamin Regional Council announced.

Babbad, a resident of Bnei Adam (Sneh)—a small hilltop community adjacent to and in the process of being formally incorporated as a neighborhood of Geva Binyamin (Adam)—was married to Hagit and the father of five children: Tamar, Shai, Ayala, Gilad and Noga.

He was to celebrate his 39th birthday in two weeks and is the 60th resident of the Binyamin region slain in the current war and the 924th soldier killed since Oct. 7, 2023.​

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara in a statement on Thursday extended their “heartfelt condolences to the family of Sgt. Maj. (res.) Asael Babbad, of blessed memory, who was severely wounded in Rafah three months ago and passed away today from his injuries after a prolonged struggle.

“His heroism and courage will be forever cherished in our hearts. May his memory be a blessing,” the statement from the premier added. IDF Master Sgt. (res.) Asael Babbad, 38, a father of five from Bnei Adam in the Binyamin region, who died from wounds sustained in battle in Rafah in October 2025. Credit: IDF.

According to the IDF’s announcement of his death, Babbad was a combat soldier in the 941st Battalion of the Menashe Regional Brigade.


IDF hits Hezbollah arms routes, top smuggler
The Israel Defense Forces struck four border crossings on the Syria-Lebanon frontier used by Hezbollah to smuggle weapons and killed a senior arms dealer for the Iranian terrorist proxy near the southern Lebanese city of Sidon on Wednesday, Israel’s military said.

The attacks on the border crossings took place in the mostly Shi’ite Hermel area along the Syria-Lebanon border.

Earlier on Wednesday in the Sidon area, the IDF killed Muhammad Awasha, describing him as a key Hezbollah weapons dealer and smuggler.

Awasha managed weapons transfers to Hezbollah through a shell company that ordered prohibited goods from countries including Iraq, Syria and Gulf states, and oversaw many smugglers moving arms from Iraq to Syria and Lebanon, the army said.

Also on Wednesday, the IDF said that it carried out airstrikes on Hezbollah infrastructure across several areas of Southern Lebanon, targeting weapons storage facilities and an underground arms depot embedded in the middle of civilian neighborhoods and used to turn residents into human shields.

“Hezbollah’s activities at these sites, intended to reestablish its capabilities, constitute a violation of the ceasefire understandings between Israel and Lebanon, and pose a threat to the State of Israel,” the IDF said, adding that it “will continue to operate to remove any threat to the State of Israel.”

In a separate statement on Thursday, the military said that, in recent months, it eliminated 10 Hezbollah operatives who served as liaisons between the terrorist group and the population of Southern Lebanon.

“These operatives served as Hezbollah’s executive arm on the ground, deliberately exploiting the civilian population by embedding terror infrastructure in populated areas, seizing private property, and enabling the transfer of weapons and operatives,” according to the IDF statement.


Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Islamism, Iran and the West’s descent into barbarism | The Brendan O’Neill Show
Ayaan Hirsi Ali – founder of the AHA Foundation and the Restoration Bulletin – returns to The Brendan O’Neill Show to discuss the Iranian revolt against the ayatollahs, how Islamism enabled Britain’s grooming-gangs scandal, and how multiculturalism has institutionalised misogyny, sectarianism and anti-Semitism.


Call me Back Podcast: Phase II of Trump’s Gaza Plan - with Nadav Eyal and Amit Segal
Who’s actually in charge of Gaza now, and who’s paying the bills? Dan Senor is joined by Ark Media contributors Nadav Eyal and Amit Segal to cut through the fog around “phase two” of the Gaza plan. They break down the new governing structure — Trump’s “Board of Peace,” the Gaza Executive Committee, a Palestinian technocrat government, and an International Stability Force — and explain what will actually matter on the ground: money, security control, and whether Hamas truly disarms. They also assess Israel–U.S. friction, the odds of renewed fighting, what daily life in Gaza looks like right now, and how all of this collides with Israeli election politics.

In this episode...
Understanding the Governance of Gaza
Who Holds Power in Gaza? Money, Security, and Accountability
Hamas After the War
Phase Two, the Yellow Line, and Israeli Withdrawal
The International Stability Force Explained
Life in Gaza Right Now
Gaza Meets Israeli Politics
The Bigger Regional Picture


Episode 81: Israel's future and the ticking Gaza clock, with Andrew Fox
Andrew Fox is a frontline conflict researcher who has visited Gaza, Syria and Lebanon to study Israeli deployments and strategy there.

He joins the podcast to talk about what he calls Israel’s ticking diplomatic clock — the inevitable moment when Israel finds itself where Europe is now: suddenly shorn of American backing and having to navigate an increasingly chaotic region and world. We discuss Israel’s strengths, its weaknesses, how Israel itself contributed to its diplomatic troubles, and what it all means for the prospects of rebuilding and deradicalization in Gaza as the territory enters Phase II of the Trump plan.

Andrew served for 16 years in the British Army, from 2005 to 2021, leaving the Parachute Regiment with the rank of major. He is currently a senior associate fellow at the Henry Jackson Society in London, the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security in Israel, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute in Canada, and the Euro-Med Middle East Council in France.

Andrew co-hosts the podcast The Brink with former Jewish Chronicle editor Jake Wallis Simons.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to the Middle East Conflict
03:16 Israel's Strategic Position and Challenges
08:09 Perception of Israel in the Global Context
09:29 The Role of American Support for Israel
15:13 The Future of European Defense
19:18 The Gaza Situation and Potential Military Actions
28:29 Insights from Gaza: IDF and American Involvement
32:32 The Humanitarian Crisis: Aid Distribution and Its Challenges
35:36 The Role of the Israeli Government: Competence and Strategy
42:07 Strategic Autonomy: Israel's Future in a Volatile Region
47:54 Regional Threats: Turkey, Iran, and the Broader Strategic Environment


The West’s Antisemitism Crisis with Brendan O’Neill & Rachel Riley | The Brink Live
In this special live episode of The Brink, Andrew and Jake are joined by Rachel Riley and Brendan O’Neill for a powerful and often confrontational discussion about antisemitism, Holocaust memory, and the moral collapse of Western institutions since October 7.

We begin with the alarming decline of Holocaust education in British schools and ask why Jewish history is increasingly treated as a provocation rather than a warning. Rachel explains how fear, appeasement, and cultural cowardice have led schools and institutions to erase Jews rather than confront antisemitism, while Brendan argues that comparisons between Gaza and the Holocaust represent a dangerous inversion of history and morality.

The conversation widens to Britain’s failure of integration, the influence of Islamist ideology, and how appeasement has shaped policing, education, and public life. We examine the Aston Villa and West Midlands Police scandal, exposing how misinformation, institutional bias, and political pressure led to the exclusion of Israeli fans and the creation of what amounted to a Jew-free zone.

We also explore the role of the media, social platforms, and NGOs in spreading propaganda, the double standards applied to Israel compared to Iran and other conflicts, and why antisemitism has re-emerged in respectable language under the banner of anti Zionism. The panel reflects personally on why they continue to speak out, despite professional and social costs, and whether there are still grounds for hope.

This is a raw, urgent, and unflinching live conversation about truth, courage, and what happens when a society loses the confidence to defend its own values.


Jonathan Sacerdoti: Why his asylum proposal has struck a nerve: will British Jews flee to the United States?
Donald Trump’s lawyer went on the record and said it plainly: Britain’s Jews need protection. They need somewhere to flee. He's urging the US President to let them come to America.

When The Telegraph put the proposal on its front page, it was no longer a hypothetical concern whispered in private, but a public warning, issued at national level, about the condition of Britain itself.

In this frank and unsettling conversation, Jonathan Sacerdoti speaks with Robert Garson, the Manchester-born barrister and US attorney who is close to Donald Trump, about why he believes the idea of asylum for British Jews is no longer extreme, but overdue. Garson explains how a lifetime of loyalty to Britain collided with the reality of a country that increasingly refuses to enforce its own laws when Jews are threatened.

👁‍🗨 Watch if you want to understand how the US could provide refuge for British Jews, and what that idea reveals about Britain now.

💬 We Discuss:
🇬🇧 How Britain reached a point where asylum is openly discussed
📰 Why The Telegraph front page mattered
🚨 From fringe antisemitism to mass intimidation
👮 Policing, fear, and the refusal to enforce the law
🇺🇸 Why the US responded differently after October 7
🛡️ Jewish self defence and the limits of state protection
🎓 Universities, emigration, and collapsing confidence
🏛️ Institutional weakness inside British Jewish leadership
✈️ Asylum, visas, and the search for alternatives
⚠️ What Britain risks losing if its Jews decide to leave


What the Hell Is Going On: WTH Is Christian Zionism? Ralph Reed Has the Gospel. Explicit
The so-called “pro-Israel lobby” in Washington, D.C., has long been a target for antisemites and for fringe voices on both sides of the aisle. Contrary to conventional wisdom, however, support for Israel in the United States is not a predominantly Jewish cause. Once a Democratic hallmark, its strongest base today is Evangelical Christians, whose theology and values profoundly shape their political advocacy for the Jewish people and their homeland. Yet antisemitism and hostility toward Israel persist, with October 7th exposing eroded support across the political spectrum. What ideology drives these attitudes? How can the generational divide over Israel be bridged? And what do these trends reveal about America’s values?

Ralph Reed is the founder and chairman of the Faith & Freedom Coalition and is the chairman and CEO of Century Strategies, a public relations and public affairs firm. Prior to founding the Faith & Freedom Coalition, Ralph served as Executive Director of the Christian Coalition where he built one of the most effective public policy organizations. Reed also served as a senior advisor to the 2000 and 2004 Bush-Cheney presidential campaigns and was chairman of the Southeast Region for Bush-Cheney 2004. As chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, he helped elect the first Republican Governor and third U.S. Senator since Reconstruction. Reed has worked on seven presidential campaigns and has advised 88 campaigns for U.S. Senate, Governor, and Congress across 24 states. He is the best-selling author and editor of seven books, including his latest novel, Awakening.


Mamdani rejects comptroller’s plan to invest in Israel bonds, hardening fault line
Investments in Israeli government bonds have emerged as a significant fault line between New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the city’s comptroller, Mark Levine.

Levine and Mamdani have long held opposing positions on the bond investments, but the potential dispute came into focus this week, as each took opposite sides on the issue in public statements, just a few weeks into their terms.

Mamdani is a far-left anti-Zionist, and Levine is a Jewish centrist who often greets crowds in Hebrew at Jewish community events. As comptroller, he serves as the city’s financial watchdog. The position is seen as the second-highest role in the city government.

Levine said last week that he intends to resume the city pension funds’ investment in the bonds. His predecessor, Brad Lander, had decided against reinvesting in the bonds after they reached maturity.

“Israeli bonds had been part of the portfolio for decades,” Levine told The City in an interview last week. The city had held Israel bonds since the 1970s.

Levine has also backed investing in the bonds in other recent statements, defending the bonds as a solid investment that the city has profited from for decades.

Mamdani, a longtime supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement targeting Israel, came out in opposition to Levine during a Wednesday press conference.

“I don’t think we should purchase Israel bonds,” Mamdani said. “We don’t purchase bonds for any other sovereign nation’s debt and the comptroller has also made his position clear and I continue to stand by mine.”


‘Looks Like He’ll Go to Algeria’: DHS Plans to Rearrest and Deport Columbia Encampment Leader Mahmoud Khalil
DHS plans to rearrest Columbia University encampment leader Mahmoud Khalil and deport him to Algeria, DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said on Wednesday.

"Are there plans now to rearrest [Khalil] and continue with deportation proceedings?" NewsNation host Katie Pavlich asked McLaughlin.

"There are," McLaughlin replied. "And it looks like he’ll go to Algeria. That’s what the thought is right now."

"It’s a reminder for those who are in this country on a visa or on a green card," she added. "You are a guest in this country. Act like it. It is a privilege, not a right, to be in this country to live or to study. And if you’re pushing propaganda that relishes the killings of Americans or promotes terrorists, door’s that way."

McLaughlin’s announcement comes less than a week after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit threw out a district court order that released Khalil from detention, ruling he could be rearrested and deported. That decision could also provide the Trump administration with new legal justifications against other foreign nationals it’s aiming to deport over anti-Semitic activities.

After Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack, Khalil became a prominent leader of the anti-Semitic Columbia University Apartheid Divest and served as a lead negotiator with Columbia during the illegal 2024 encampments. He pledged further unrest in the buildup to the fall 2024 semester, telling the Hill he would continue to push Columbia to divest from Israel by "any available means necessary."
Mamdani stands by anti-Israeli activist Mahmoud Khalil — calls deportation ‘an attack’
Mayor Zohran Mamdani stood by Mahmoud Khalil on Thursday, telling reporters that plans to deport the controversial anti-Israeli activist and Columbia University grad student is an “attack” on freedom.

“Mahmoud Khalil is a New Yorker,” the lefty mayor said at an unrelated Brooklyn press conference. “He should remain in New York City. I see this attack on him as part of a larger attack on the freedom of speech that is especially pronounced when it comes to the use of that speech to stand up for policy to human rights.”

Khalil, 31, a Syrian-born activist, was arrested by ICE early last year, and is slated to be booted from the US after the Trump administration accused him of committing fraud on his green card application.

The Trump administration claims Khalil is a Hamas supporter, and is using a rarely deployed statute that allows for noncitizens to be deported if their beliefs can pose a threat to US foreign policy interests.

The feds are calling for him to be deported to Syria or Algeria.

The activist spent three months in a Louisiana federal lockup before a three-judge panel in New Jersey ruled in June that he should have been allowed to work through the immigration process — a decision overturned by a federal appeals court last week.

On Thursday, Mamdani said he’ll do what he can to keep him in the Big Apple.

“I will make that clear to everyone and I have said time and again that he deserves to stay in the city, he deserves to be in the city just like any other New Yorker,” the mayor said.


Not a Mistake, but a Pattern: Ms. Rachel’s Tearful Non-Apology for ‘Liking’ an Antisemitic Post
This is not a matter of clumsy thumbs or a lack of social-media fluency. Ms. Rachel is acutely aware of the record she is building and the audience watching it unfold. Her growing alignment with increasingly radical voices, including recent collaborations with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, underscores that awareness rather than undermines it.

What makes this especially alarming is Ms. Rachel’s global reach. She is a household name. Children adore her and parents trust her. When her fixation on Israel begins to dominate her platform, it is often waved away as “advocacy,” rather than scrutinized for the misinformation and antisemitic tropes it repeatedly amplifies.

Influence carries responsibility, particularly when it extends into millions of homes and classrooms. When that influence is used to distort facts, legitimize antisemitic narratives, or normalize hostility toward Jews, it ceases to be activism and becomes something far more dangerous.

So if Ms. Rachel insists she would “never agree with an antisemitic thing like the comment,” then her actions still betray her. Removing a “like” or comment and offering tearful explanations does not erase the normalization of hate. When this conduct repeats, it stops being careless and becomes disqualifying for someone positioned as a safe figure for children.
Ms. Rachel caught liking call to ‘Free America from the Jews’ — claims she ‘was just tapping’ to delete in tearful apology
Controversial kids’ YouTuber Ms. Rachel has admitted liking a vile antisemitic Instagram comment calling for America to be “free from the Jews” — while trying to cry it off as an innocent mistake, saying she thought she was deleting it.

The social media star, whose real name is Rachel Griffin Accurso, was forced to issue a groveling apology late Wednesday after she ignited a firestorm on social media over the glaring mishap.

The tech-savvy toddler-whisperer copped to liking the vile comment someone left on one of her posts only after a fan informed her privately of the apparent error.

“So I thought I deleted a comment and I accidentally hit ‘like and hide’,” she sobbed in an Instagram video explaining her actions.

“I would never agree with an antisemitic thing like the comment. We have Jewish family, a lot of my friends are Jewish,” she said. “I delete antisemitic comments.”

The saga erupted when Ms. Rachel had shared a statement from her notes app on Instagram that read “Free Palestine, Free Sudan, Free Congo, Free Iran” with each country’s respective flag.

Under her post, another user’s account quickly replied, writing: “Free America from the Jews.” The comment garnered four likes – including one from Ms. Rachel’s account, according to screenshots shared online.

The 43-year-old online sensation claims a well-meaning fan then messaged her privately to point out what she was sure was “an accident.”




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