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Thursday, January 29, 2026

01/29 Links Pt2: The Men Who Bring Them Home; Arsen Ostrovsky: Surviving the Bondi Beach Attack: Terror, Trauma, and Combating Antisemitism; Jewish orgs welcome EU terror designation of IRGC

From Ian:

The shallow claim that anti-Zionism isn’t antisemitism
You can tell if they are serious by looking at their anti-racism policies. Organisations cannot pretend to oppose antisemitism unless they define it. Without a definition they cannot discipline members for racist conduct.

If you cannot define it, you cannot oppose it.

Ominously, many want to shut down any attempt to limit Jew hate. They want a world without boundaries, where anything goes, and anti-Jewish racism can never be called by its real name.

Their first target is the widely used International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which has been circulating in various forms since the early 2000s. The global left denounces it because it says that the definition has been used to “wrongly label criticism of Israel as antisemitic”.

Within a day of becoming mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani showed his political priorities by withdrawing the city’s endorsement of the definition.

The precise form of words the IHRA drafters used is that it is antisemitic “to deny the Jewish people their right to self-determination by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour”.

You can argue about that. As I said above, people who want to abolish the world’s only Jewish state need to bend over backwards to prove that they don’t just hate Jews.

Good-hearted left-wing Jewish academics took the complaint seriously, and went out of their way to accommodate Palestinian and leftist concerns.

They produced the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism in 2021. It emphasised that it was not antisemitic “to support arrangements that accord full equality to all inhabitants between the river and the sea, whether in two states, a binational state, unitary democratic state [or] federal state”.

All true opponents of racism need to do was oppose anti-Jewish conspiracy theories and race hatred.

A bare minimum you might say. But even this stripped down, permissive, definition of antisemitism is too much for many on the left to bear.

I hoped that the election of the Jewish Zack Polanski to the leadership of the Green Party would mark a break with the antisemitism that so disfigured the Corbyn movement,

Not if a faction among Green Party members has its way, it won’t.

A motion before the Green Party spring conference calls for the party “to reject the IHRA and JDA [Jerusalem Declaration] definitions which have been weaponised to silence legitimate criticism of the state of Israel”.

When the conference starts in March, we will see whether Polanski has the political courage to fight back, or whether he’s just another empty sloganeer.

Turn to the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, and it is the same story,

It too will not even accept the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism because it is “being used to reinforce the illegitimate policing of speech about Palestine and advocacy for Palestinian rights.”

You search its website in vain for examples of the Jerusalem Declaration silencing legitimate debate – and of course there are none. You search for any definition of antisemitism that would be acceptable to pro-Palestinian activists – and of course there isn’t one.

They have no formal means of condemning The Protocols of the Elders Zion, Mein Kampf or the Hamas Charter.

More pertinently from a modern left-wing point of view, they have no means of condemning Nick Fuentes and the antisemites flourishing in Donald Trump’s America.

The Maga movement is loathed by leftists. But at least some on the left would rather give the far right a free pass than accept the smallest restraint on the loathing of Jews.
Seth Mandel: Can Elaine Luria Handle the Squad’s Heat?
Luria was once the kind of Democrat that party leaders wanted to recruit: liberal but poised, with a military career on the resume. (Luria spent 20 years in the Navy.)

Military experience tended to go hand-in-hand with support for Israel, just as exposure to reality tends to increase support for Israel. Those with national security experience in the field would be much less vulnerable to the paranoid conspiracism of the Code Pink world and campus activists, the thinking went. An inherent toughness could make it less likely they’d bend or break in the face of progressive pressure.

And all of that was true—except that last part. One by one, “moderate” Democrats fell in line. Elissa Slotkin, now a senator from Michigan, entertained the idea that AIPAC should register as a foreign agent. Seth Moulton, a Massachusetts Marine, folded like a cheap suit in the face of anti-Israel primary pressure this cycle. Accommodating progressive anti-Semitism became the norm, with very few exceptions (Ritchie Torres, John Fetterman).

Luria says she wants to turn back that tide, or at least show it some resistance. The question is how far she is willing to go when locking horns with her party.

During Luria’s time in Congress, she was at the forefront of a group of Democrats criticizing Ilhan Omar’s anti-Semitism, but she opposed removing Omar from her committee assignments, as Republicans had done with Steve King.

Luria’s willingness to call out some of the anti-Semitism from her own party has the potential to shift the debate if she gets back into office. But the extent of her impact will be decided by where Luria places the limits of her posture. Would she go beyond statements? That is, would she support actual consequences for Democrats who engage in rank anti-Semitism?

Most of the time, Luria seems willing to criticize Omar by name. Will she do the same for Rashida Tlaib, who has been headlining a conference tied to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine? How about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the thin-skinned Squad ringleader and blood libel specialist who may run for president in 2028?

As of now, the odds are in Luria’s favor. Virginia Democrats still nominate ostensibly moderate candidates, and the national mood certainly seems to have swung against Republican incumbents. (Republican Rep. Jen Kiggans, who defeated Luria two years ago, holds the seat.)

Is Luria prepared to be a Slotkin/Moulton Democrat, living in fear of the Hamasniks in her party, or can she envision herself as a Torres/Fetterman Democrat, the much more rare breed with a spine strong enough to stand on principle? The fundamentals of the midterm elections mean we’ll probably soon find out.
Iran's Options: Talking or Fighting
President Trump's ultimatum to Iran calls for it to negotiate away its nuclear program or face a possible attack. Either path risks putting the already weakened regime in a more precarious position. Along with insisting that Iran halt domestic enrichment of nuclear fuel and hand over its stockpile of uranium, Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff has indicated Tehran must accept limits on its ballistic-missile arsenal and abandon its support for militias in the region.

A decision to halt enrichment of uranium would be a humiliating public retreat on a core national priority for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Rebuffing the demand is increasingly likely to prompt Trump to order strikes, further exposing the government's vulnerability.

"Their strategy right now is just buying time," said Alan Eyre, a former senior U.S. diplomat who specialized in Iran and is now at the Middle East Institute. "Their whole strategic outlook is when you're in a weak position you don't compromise, because that invites further aggression."

"The supreme leader is able to do compromises, but those compromises cannot touch the basic pillars of the regime, meaning he won't forgo a missile buildup, he won't forgo helping proxies and he won't forgo enrichment," said Danny Citrinowicz, a former Israeli intelligence officer and a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.

Citrinowicz said killing Khamenei or expecting the other members of the regime to turn against him under U.S. pressure is a faint hope, given Iran's unity at the top. Even if Khamenei was somehow removed, the regime would likely coalesce quickly around a new leader, he said. For all the setbacks the regime has suffered, there are few signs it is facing imminent collapse, such as splits within the leadership or defections.

"They still have cohesion. The regime is still functioning," Citrinowicz said. "If they feel this war is aimed at toppling this regime, it won't topple this regime, because to do it will take time, and Trump has no intention to invest that time."

"You could do airstrikes that significantly restrict this regime's ability to control its population and to project power abroad," Eyre said. "But to get from there to a better form of government in Iran? You can't get there from here."


The Men Who Bring Them Home
Yasar Darom is the IDF unit that spent more than two years making sure every deceased hostage had a proper burial. This week, they finally completed their sacred mission. The unit was born from tragedy. In May of 2004, two armored personnel carriers were blown up on the Philadelphi Route in Gaza, killing 13 soldiers and scattering their remains across the sand. Fellow soldiers were forced to sift through the debris on hands and knees, collecting body parts while cameras captured images that shocked the nation.

In the aftermath, the IDF recognized the need for specialized units to handle such work with professionalism and dignity. Yasar Darom was established under the office of the Chief Military Rabbinate, with a mission both sacred and strategic: to ensure that every fallen soldier receives a proper kevurah—buried with a name, with dignity, with a grave that a family can visit—and to deny the enemy any opportunity to use Israeli remains as bargaining chips or propaganda tools.

Since Oct. 7, Yasar Darom has been everywhere. In the burned homes of the Gaza border communities, where entire families were erased in minutes. At the Nova site, sifting through the wreckage of a music festival that had become a killing field—where young people who had come to dance beneath the desert stars instead met monsters at dawn. In open fields and bomb shelters and safe rooms that had not been safe at all. Inside Gaza itself, in territory that wanted them dead for the act of reclaiming the dead.

They have recovered hundreds of bodies—soldiers and civilians alike—sometimes days later, sometimes weeks, sometimes piece by piece, often under fire. No one was abandoned; no one forgotten.

We prayed shacharis, the morning prayer, with the men of Yasar Darom that morning in the little shul on the moshav.

It was an ordinary prayer service at first. The familiar rhythm of the words, the quiet shuffle of men finding their places, the low murmur of words spoken almost automatically by people who had been saying them their entire lives.

But then, my friend Reuven, a Kohen, stepped forward to the front of the shul. As he covered his head with his tallis, the chazzan’s voice, which had been steady until that moment, began to waver. Not from weakness. From weight.

And then came Birchas Kohanim, the priestly blessing.

As Reuven began to melodiously recite the ancient words, something in the room gave way. I looked around and realized, with a shock that I can still feel in my bones, that every single person in that room was crying. Soldiers who had walked through horrors I could not imagine. Men who had held what remained of other men in their hands. Weeping like children.

I did not understand. Not yet.

And then it landed.

To do what Yasar Darom does—to recover the fallen, to crawl through wreckage and open graves and sift through debris—you cannot be a Kohen, because Kohanim, members of the ancient tribe that once served in the Temple, cannot, according to Jewish law, be exposed to dead bodies. And exposure to dead bodies is a constant and unavoidable part of the work of Yasar Darom, which means that since the war began, through all those weeks of retrieval and recovery, these men had not once heard Birchas Kohanim. Not once. Something that had been part of the daily rhythm of their lives—a blessing so familiar it had perhaps faded into routine—had been taken from them precisely when they needed it most. They had given up this gift so that they could perform the ultimate chesed, the ultimate kindness that asks nothing in return.

And now, suddenly, unexpectedly, here it was. A Kohen standing before them, hands raised beneath a tallis, blessing them. Men whose days were spent bringing home the dead so that other Jews could be buried with names, with the dignity that Jewish law demands we afford to everyone.
‘We did not assess all would return’: IDF shutters its Hostages HQ 846 days after Oct. 7
Over two years after the October 7, 2023, attack, with the return of all the captives, living and dead, from the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces said on Thursday that its Hostages and Missing Persons Headquarters was going dormant.

The unit had been established under the Military Intelligence Directorate in the wake of the Hamas-led onslaught and was tasked with intelligence-gathering efforts on the hostages and missing persons. Until November 2025, it was headed by Maj. Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon, who also served as the IDF’s point man on hostage negotiations.

“The scenario in which everyone returned [from Gaza] is beyond all imagination; we did not assess that we would reach this situation,” a senior officer in the unit said in a call with reporters on Thursday.

In all, the headquarters dealt with 255 hostages held in the Strip — the 251 abducted in the October 7 attack and four who had been taken captive in 2014 and 2015.

During the initial days of the war, the unit was looking into 3,100 missing people, a number that dropped over time. It took until the end of 2024 to confirm that a total of 251 had been abducted, according to the officer.

According to the IDF’s data, 38 of the hostages were abducted alive and killed in captivity after October 8, 2023. In many cases, they were murdered by their captors, and in others, the military has confirmed that its own actions, including airstrikes, led to the deaths of hostages.

“Each such case was thoroughly investigated; there were different types of errors, and therefore there were several cases of harm to hostages,” the senior officer said.

The unit was made up of some 2,100 soldiers, around 60 percent of them reservists. The soldiers largely came from the Intelligence Directorate’s Special Operations Division, with others from dozens of units.
Ask Haviv: Episode 84: Why soldiers wept when Ran came home, lessons from Tu Bishvat
This week, Israel finally brought home the remains of its last hostage, 24-year-old Ran Gvili. To outsiders, the sheer scale of the national sacrifice and the collective exhalation of relief that followed his return can seem like a mystery. Every nation honors its fallen, but few go to the lengths Israelis do to reclaim a body from the hands of the enemy.

In this episode, we use the upcoming holiday of Tu Bishvat as an entryway into the Jewish psyche. We explore the idea of "hesed shel Emet" -- the "true kindness" of a dignified burial, which is called "true" because it can never be reciprocated. We dive into a world where a dignified burial is more than a ritual; it is a declaration that even in death, a human being remains a reflection of the divine. Through the teachings of the Malbim and the Sfat Emet, we re-examine Tu Bishvat not as a simple children’s holiday, but as a sophisticated meditation on the human condition. From the sap stirring in the dead of winter to the "inner light" hidden within the shells of the Seven Species, we discover a "New Year of the Human"—a day that honors our unique mission to find meaning in our mortality and uncover the sacred within the broken.

Chapters
00:00 The Loss of a Soldier and National Mourning
02:03 Understanding the Cultural Significance of Loss
04:06 The Importance of Tu B'Shvat
04:53 The New Year for Animals and Its Deeper Meaning
04:58 Tu B'Shvat: The New Year for Trees
10:22 The Inner Awakening of Tu B'Shvat
10:41 Acknowledging the Gifts of the Land
15:26 Judaism's Ecological Perspective
19:06 The Value of Things in Our Lives
20:12 Planting for Future Generations
22:02 Guardianship of the Earth
23:36 The Fall and Knowledge
26:35 The Debate on Free Will
32:47 The Gift of Mortality
40:02 Dignity in Death
46:59 Stewardship and Human Duality


Kennedy Centre to stage October 7 play based on survivor testimony
A stage production entitled October 7 written by married Irish journalists Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney and based on survivor testimony of the Hamas-led attack on Israel will be staged at the Kennedy Centre in Washington DC.

The play, which uses verbatim testimony, premiered in New York City in May 2024 and has toured college campuses, will be performed in the US capital tonight.

McAleer said the work was designed to avoid narration or political framing and to let survivors’ words drive the performance.

The “verbatim” format affects audiences differently than conventional theatre does, according to McAleer: “When it’s verbatim, people lean forward a little,” he said. “They don’t want to miss a word.”

“When I produced the script for some people in New York, at the end of it, somebody said, ‘You know what this needs is a journalist character to put context in,’” McAleer added.

“The last thing it needs is a journalist character to put context in, because that just means distorting whatever these people are saying.”

The play’s creators described the production as a historical record drawn solely from first-hand interviews collected in Israel in the weeks after the attack.

“The first question was not, tell me what happened on October. 7,” McAleer said. “It was, ‘Tell me about your day on October 6.’”

“I wanted to show people at peace and a country at peace,” he said. “The horror came to them. They didn’t go looking for it.”

McAleer said there was “a bit of scepticism” in Israel about the play as Ireland is not known for its supportive attitude to the Jewish state.

“Normally, when you go abroad as an Irish journalist, being Irish is a real advantage,” he said. “Everyone loves the Irish. Whisky, Irish music and all that. It opens doors. People trust you.”


Freed hostage Alexander Sasha Troufanov reveals sexual harassment trauma during Gaza captivity
Former hostage Alexander Sasha Troufanov was buried in a cage and sexually harassed in captivity, he told BBC in an interview on Thursday.

For around six weeks, while in the cage, one guard repeatedly tried to encourage him to do a sexual act on himself. Additionally, a hidden camera filmed him during his once-a-week shower, the only moments he was allowed to clean himself.

"I noticed the camera, and I took the shower trying to avoid my private parts towards this angle, but I had to do it because I needed to shower," he explained.

Troufanov stated that he found relief in hearing that St.-Sgt.-Maj. Ran Gvili was finally buried in Israel. "It felt wonderful. We waited so long for this to happen."

Troufanov, speaking during a visit to London, told BBC that the end of the wait for all the hostages to be back home was a burden that he carried ever since he came back from Gaza. "It was like a weight on my shoulders that kept me from coming back to my life. Although we were released, we didn't really come out of Gaza because our friends and brothers were still there."

Gaza captivity leaves Troufanov wounded
The former hostage, an Amazon electronics engineer, was kidnapped by a Palestinian Islamic Jihad gunman on October 7, 2023. His fiancée Sapir Cohen, mother, and grandmother were also kidnapped and taken to Gaza.

The female members of his family were released after about 50 days, while he was only freed after 498 days in Hamas captivity, approximately one year ago. The day he was released, he discovered that his father had been murdered on October 7, coming to the realization when he noticed his father was not there to welcome him home.

These memories were further brought to the forefront when Gvili's remains were returned, coincidentally on the day of Troufanov's father's birthday, pairing the aforementioned relief with grief and sorrow.

He also recalled the day he was taken captive during the interview. At that time, he and Cohen were visiting his family on Kibbutz Nir Oz when Palestinian gunmen stormed their homes. Cohen tried to hide by rolling herself in a blanket and going under the bed, but they were both caught.


Jewish leader walks out of Bolton Holocaust Memorial Day over Gaza references
A senior Jewish community leader walked out of Bolton’s Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration after a Labour councillor’s speech referenced Gaza, describing the remarks as “deeply inappropriate” and a politicisation of the event.

Marc Levy, chief executive of the Jewish Representative Council for Greater Manchester and region, left the ceremony at Bolton Town Hall on Tuesday before delivering a scheduled reading, after comments made by the borough’s deputy council leader, Labour councillor Akhtar Zaman.

The annual service, organised by Bolton Council with volunteers from across the community, was attended by schoolchildren and focused on Holocaust remembrance, including the murder of six million Jews by the Nazis and other victims of Nazi persecution.

During his speech, Councillor Zaman referred to a number of contemporary conflicts, including Sudan, Myanmar and Gaza. He said: “In Myanmar, the Rohingya minority continues to face systematic persecution and live under conditions of apartheid. The conflict in Gaza is also flagged under a genocide emergency by some international experts and UN bodies, with immense civilian casualties and the systematic destruction of life-sustaining infrastructure raising grave concerns under international law.”

Following the address, Levy chose to leave the hall in protest. Speaking afterwards, he said: “When the keynote speaker felt it appropriate to start discussing other conflicts in the world, especially with a focus on the terrible situation in Gaza, with no context, I felt it was deeply inappropriate because it completely misses the point of what today is meant to be about.

“It is astonishing that whoever signed off on that speech felt that it was a compelling reason to do so, because it completely got away from what the day was supposed to be about. Today is about the commemoration of those who have genocide committed against them and, whilst the conflict in Gaza is tragic and awful, what it most definitely is not is a genocide.

“In a room full of children, to reference that with no context or the ability to speak about the atrocities that were committed on 7 October and the hostage taking, it was the politicisation of the Holocaust Memorial Day.

“As a result, I felt unable to stay and attend the rest of the commemoration. The world is a very difficult and dangerous place at the minute, and you have to have responsibilities and sensitivities to all communities.”


'You betrayed Matilda': Grieving parents of youngest Bondi terror victim deliver devastating message to Anthony Albanese
The grieving parents of Matilda, the youngest victim of the Bondi terror attack, have spoken of the betrayal they experienced from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's government.

Michael and Valentyna Britvan have opened up about their bright, happy 10-year-old daughter, who had her whole life ahead of her, in an upcoming Sky News documentary.

They say she was a victim, not just of the two shooters, but of the escalating antisemitism that has plagued Australia over the two years prior to the Bondi terror attack.

When I asked them if they felt it could have been different for their daughter, Michael said:

"I personally feel that the government betrayed us. They betrayed Matilda."

The strength, emotion and clarity of Matilda's parents in this interview is remarkable and a must-see.

Our Sky News documentary, titled Bondi: A Timeline of Terror, will air on February 24th at 7.30pm.

At 90-minutes in length, it includes gripping interviews with survivors, the families of those killed and first responders.

It includes never-before seen footage and extraordinary stories of survival.
Surviving the Bondi Beach Attack: Terror, Trauma, and Combating Antisemitism
In this powerful episode of Mideast Horizons, recorded on the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, hosts Asher Fredman and Lahav Harkov sit down with Arsen Ostrovsky, Misgav Institute Senior Fellow and Head of the Sydney Office of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC).

Arsen shares his harrowing firsthand account of surviving the Bondi Beach terror attack, which claimed the lives of fifteen innocent people gathered for a Chanukah celebration. As gunfire rang out and victims lay wounded around him, Arsen was shot in the head and believed he might never see his wife and daughters again. His survival, which doctors later described as a miracle, has reshaped his personal mission and intensified his resolve to combat antisemitism worldwide.

The conversation explores the explosion of antisemitism since October 7, how anti-Zionism increasingly serves as a mask for anti-Jewish hate, and how unchecked incitement led to Islamist violence. Arsen discusses the lessons that the global Jewish community, Australia, and all democracies must learn from the deadly attack.

The episode also delves into the rise of AI-generated disinformation, the role of social media companies and governments in confronting online hate, the rise of Holocaust distortion, and strategies for defending Israel in the international legal and diplomatic arenas.

In the first part of this episode, Lahav and Asher discuss the challenges and opportunities presented by President Trump’s Board of Peace, the danger of Israeli concessions in Syria, developments in Iran, and the deeper trends driving Saudi Arabia’s increasingly hostile stance towards Israel and the UAE. This is a sobering, courageous, and ultimately hopeful conversation about resilience, responsibility, and the urgent need for moral clarity and bold action in the fight against antisemitic hate.


Audio of harrowing dispatch call from emergency services in Bondi masscare revealed
Never-before-released audio captures the moment emergency services were alerted to the unfolding massacre at Bondi Beach on December 14.

A shaken first responder is heard arriving at Sydney's Campbell Parade, confronted with the full scale of the horror, in the harrowing dispatch call obtained exclusively by Sky News Australia.

"It looks like there is a shooting here; we have at least 40 or maybe 50 patients," the officer relayed.

The distressing audio was played on Sharri on Thursday, ahead of the upcoming Sky News documentary Bondi: A Timeline of Terror, airing on February 24 at 7.30pm.

EXCLUSIVE: Bondi terror attack emergency service dispatch call
At 90-minutes in length, the documentary includes gripping interviews with survivors, the families of those killed and first responders.

"It's been a really heavy six or seven weeks, and in that first week I was telling so many stories - interviewing survivors, so it was a natural progression to make a documentary," Sharri said on Thursday.

"It is the most in-depth, definitive account. We've done so many interviews with witnesses and survivors, it's incredibly powerful.

"For the Jewish community, we will never move on from this. Life is now not the same for us.

"The documentary breaks new ground, there is new vision and audio of emergency services and first responders."

It features never-before-seen footage and extraordinary stories of survival, and heartbreaking stories of loss.

Sharri praised the efforts of emergency services for their response on the day, relaying how one lifeguard she interviewed told her "there wasn't a person dying who didn't have a hand to hold".

"We saw the worst of humanity, radical Islamic extremism came to Bondi, but then we saw the best of Australia. Lifeguards who were there before paramedics, off-duty doctors, nurses, and other first responders who went in and did what they could," she added.

In one exclusive interview, a courageous young father, who survived six bullets, tells Sharri of his determination to survive.

"I knew I was in trouble when I got hit in the chest," he says.

"I didn't want to die in front of my kids."
EXCLUSIVE: Bondi terror attack emergency service dispatch call

Albanese forced to defend the Israeli President’s visit to Australia
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been forced to intervene and defend the upcoming visit of Israel's President Isaac Herzog to Australia.

The endorsement comes as senior Muslim MP and Multicultural Minister Anne Aly refused to back the visit.

Ms Aly later clarified her comments, stressing her support for unity while stopping short of backing the visit itself.


Preventing Israeli President's Australian trip labelled ‘putrid rank hypocrisy’
Former Labor minister Mike Kelly criticises people in the Labor movement for opposing the visit of Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

“The imbalance here is stark,” Mr Kelly told Sky News host James Macpherson.

“It’s just this incredible putrid rank hypocrisy and the pressure and assaults they apply to people in the Labor movement … is deeply disturbing.




Antisemitic slogans found near Bondi Beach massacre site
Unidentified individuals scrawled antisemitic slogans at the restroom of a McDonald’s restaurant on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, near where 15 people were killed last month during an attack on a Chanukah event, a local Jewish group said on Wednesday.

The perpetrators used a black marker to write “f**k Israel” and “Jews rape kids” on the door of the restroom, footage uploaded by the Australian Jewish Association to X showed.

Between Dec. 1, 2024 and Dec. 1, 2025, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) documented 1,654 antisemitic incidents in Australia. This tally did not include the Bondi Beach massacre, which happened on Dec. 15, or its aftermath. The tally published by ECAJ was 19% lower than the one in the corresponding period the previous year.

Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, last week apologized to Jewish Australians, saying, “I am profoundly sorry that we could not protect your loved ones from this evil.”

Israel’s government and many Australian Jews have accused Albanese and his Labor-led government of letting antisemitism flourish by not siding with Israel and criticizing its war against Hamas after Oct. 7, 2023. Albanese’s critics have also said that authorities under his government did too little to identify threats, monitor and intervene against them.


Iran ‘weaker than it has ever been,’ Rubio says
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a Senate panel on Wednesday that Iran is “weaker than it has ever been,” as the United States moves additional military forces into the region for a potential confrontation with the Islamic Republic.

Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Rubio compared the situation in Iran to U.S. forces removing Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro earlier in the month.

“I don’t think anyone can give you a simple answer as to what happens next in Iran if the supreme leader and the regime were to fall, other than the hope that there would be some ability to have somebody within their system that you could work towards a similar transition,” Rubio told the senators.

“I would imagine it would be even far more complex than the one we’re describing now, because you’re talking about a regime that’s been in place for a very long time,” he said.

Prior to Rubio’s testimony, U.S. President Donald Trump wrote on Wednesday that he was sending an “armada,” headed by the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, toward Iran to force the regime to make a deal to relinquish its nuclear program or risk a repeat of the U.S. airstrikes against its nuclear facilities in June.

“The next attack will be far worse,” Trump stated. “Don’t make that happen again.”
Lawmakers, Jewish orgs welcome EU terror designation of IRGC
Lawmakers and Jewish advocacy groups welcomed the European Union’s designation of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization at the Jan. 29 Foreign Affairs Council, urging all nations to follow suit.

In a Jan. 28 letter to E.U. foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, dozens of members of Congress urged the E.U. to “join the United States, Canada and Australia in designating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization.”

“The IRGC has not only committed terrorist acts throughout the Middle East but has also carried out attacks throughout the EU and against EU citizens—all while continuing to brutalize its own citizens at home in Iran, with a brutal crackdown this month leading to the murder of an estimated 12,000 Iranian protesters,” the letter stated.

Reza Pahlavi, son of Iran’s last shah, lauded the decision as an “important step.”

It “sends a message to the criminal regime that it has no global legitimacy. We now need further concrete action to protect the Iranian people and to support a legitimate transitional government leading Iran to democracy,” he stated.

B’nai B’rith International President Robert Spitzer and CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin called the designation “long-anticipated” and said it aligns European policy with the reality of the IRGC’s global threat.

“Today’s decision by EU member states is a critical, if belated recognition of decades of malign activity,” B’nai Brith stated. “For too long, the IRGC has operated with impunity—repressing its own people, plotting terror in Europe and around the world, targeting Jewish and Israeli institutions, arming Russia’s war in Ukraine and financing terror proxies such as Hamas and Hezbollah.”

Ted Deutsch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, stated that the “designation is not symbolic.”

“It is a decisive, long-overdue political act that sends a clear, unmistakable message that Europe, now united with governments around the world, will not tolerate terror,” he wrote.


The Brink: Iran Bloodbath: What the media’s not telling you...
In this episode of The Brink, we are joined by Atbin Moayedi & Haleh Blake to examine the unfolding catastrophe in Iran, where the death toll from the latest nationwide uprising has risen above 30,000 while much of the Western media remains largely silent.

They have been working relentlessly to document what is happening inside the Islamic Republic and to get the truth out to journalists, governments, and the public. Drawing on direct contact with people on the ground, they describe mass killings, executions, mass graves, chemical weapons, and the use of hospitals as sites of repression.

The con0versation explores how the regime has imposed a de facto military lockdown across the country, cutting off internet access, arresting people in the streets, and targeting anyone with signs of protest. We discuss the systematic use of torture, sexual violence, organ removal, and financial extortion of grieving families, as well as the psychological toll this violence is taking on Iranians both inside the country and across the diaspora.

We also confront the failure of international institutions, Western governments, and major news organisations to respond with urgency. We ask why Iran receives so little coverage compared to other conflicts, how economic and geopolitical interests shape media narratives, and why the Islamic Republic continues to enjoy impunity despite its actions at home and abroad.

Finally, we look ahead to what comes next. We discuss the role of Reza Pahlavi, the possibility of international intervention, and whether this moment represents a genuine chance for the collapse of the regime and the birth of a free Iran.

This is a harrowing and essential conversation about courage, hypocrisy, and one of the worst human rights crises of our time.

Chapters
00:00 – Introduction
01:43 – A People’s Revolution, Not a Proxy War
04:09 – 30,000 Dead: What’s Really Happening on the Streets
06:15 – Iran as a Military State
08:36 – Door-to-Door Arrests & Hospital Executions
10:52 – Organ Removal, Silence & Regime Brutality
12:16 – Why the Media Looked Away
14:46 – Oil, Gas & the Money Behind Silence
18:16 – Why Gaza Dominates Coverage
19:43 – The Regime’s Lobbying Network in the UK & US
22:58 – Western Media as Regime Amplifier
25:28 – A Universal Human Rights Struggle
28:07 – Celebrity Silence & Moral Cowardice
32:26 – Who Iranians Really Are


A Flood of Iranian Propaganda on Wikipedia is Reshaping the Protest Narrative
As Iran’s regime carried out what observers have described as one of the bloodiest two-day massacres in modern history — with estimates suggesting as many as 36,500 people killed — the government simultaneously shut down internet access, blocked journalists, and sealed the country off from outside reporting.

Now an NPOV investigation reveals a surge of protest-related media sourced from Iranian state outlets appearing on Wikimedia Commons, Wikipedia’s media repository.

In recent weeks, over 10,000 images and videos from Iranian state-owned or controlled media outlets—most related to the recent protests—have been uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. The content appears as the results for searches on “Iran protests,” “Iran protests 2026,” “Khamenei,” and related keywords.

Out of thousands of pieces of content returned on these searches, only a few dozen—mostly of an anti-regime protest in Sweden—were not sourced from Iranian state media. Pro-regime content continued to be uploaded in real time during NPOV’s investigation—with hundreds more added during the course of our investigation.

Sanctioned State Media in Wikipedia’s Media Pipeline
The Iranian-sourced images and videos are produced and licensed by three Iranian government media outlets: Khamenei.ir, the official website of Iran’s Supreme Leader; Mehr News Agency, owned by Iranian government’s Islamic Ideology Dissemination Organization; and Tasnim News Agency, an entity sanctioned by the U.S. government on account of its ownership by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a U.S.-designated Foreign Terror Organization.

The presence of this content on Wikimedia Commons, which, along with Wikipedia, is owned and operated by Wikimedia Foundation, a U.S.-based nonprofit, raises potential sanctions-compliance and liability questions.

Clicking on the attribution section on the Wikimedia Commons files leads users directly to the Iranian state propaganda outlets’ website. This includes Khamenei.ir, where the footer notes that the site is The Official Website of the Office for the Preservation and Publication of the Works of the Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei.

Nearly all of the content has been uploaded by a single user, 999real, an account with less than 1,000 edits on Wikipedia, but over 1 million edits on Wikimedia Commons.

999real is the third-ranked author on the Wikipedia entry for the Tasnim News Agency. This is despite the fact that the account was registered less than three years ago, in November 2023. (By comparison, the first- and second-ranked authors on the Tasnim entry were registered 20 and 17 years ago, respectively.)

It’s unclear whether 999real’s mass upload of Iranian state-affiliated media is coordinated by Tehran. What is clear is that the content of the images and videos distinctly present the viewpoint pushed by the government. The titles and content provide strong indication that these are narrative artifacts designed to depict protesters as violent extremists while portraying regime gatherings as expressions of national unity.


Iranian regime executing elite wrestlers who back protestors as thousands take to streets
Elite wrestlers and bodybuilders are being targeted for death in Iran as they condemn the atrocities of the nation’s regime.

As protests intensified across Iran earlier this month, Olympic wrestler Alireza Nejati posted a message to his more than 78,000 Instagram followers that resulted in his violent arrest, torture and imprisonment two days later, The Post has learned.

“I wish everyone a beautiful weekend full of success and good vibes,” the 27-year-old Greco-Roman wrestling champion posted to an Instagram Story on Jan. 7. “This is the end.”

While the message may seem innocuous, to the embattled regime of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini, it has dangerous undertones — representing “a political signal” to protestors to step up their demonstrations against the government — according to Iranian dissidents.

“On its face, the statement is completely benign, and that’s precisely the point,” said Lawdan Bazargan, director of Alliance Against the Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists (AAIRIA), a nonprofit made up of former Iranian political prisoners and their families.

“In today’s Iran, any language that hints at an ‘end,’ closure, or transition can be read as revolutionary because the regime is operating in a state of extreme paranoia.”

That paranoia has resulted in a slew of arrests, detention and even execution of numerous sports figures by regime authorities, according to Iran International, an independent Persian-language news service based in London.

Wrestlers and bodybuilders are among the most popular sports heroes in the country, often with tens of thousands of followers on social media — a threat to the authority of the ruling mullahs, Bazargan said.
Khamenei's son built secret overseas property empire - Bloomberg
Mojtaba Khamenei, the 56-year-old son of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, directs a significant overseas real estate network through intermediaries, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday citing a year-long investigation.

No assets appear directly in Mojtaba's name, but he has been actively involved in deals dating to at least 2011, according to Western intelligence assessments, insider accounts, real estate records, and confidential documents reviewed by Bloomberg.

The portfolio includes luxury London properties exceeding $138 million (one bought for $46.5 million in 2014), a villa in an elite Dubai district, and upscale hotels in Frankfurt and Mallorca.

Funding, largely from Iranian oil sales, moved through British, Swiss, Liechtenstein, and UAE banks via shell companies such as Ziba Leisure Ltd., Birch Ventures Ltd., and Emirati entities, as tracked by the report.

Iranian banker Ali Ansari, sanctioned by the UK in October, features as owner or director in many transactions. Ansari denies any connection to Mojtaba and plans to challenge the sanctions, the report said.

The sanctions on Ansari were imposed for allegedly financing Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards and building a European property portfolio worth about €400 million, according to a Financial Times investigation based on corporate filings.

The Financial Times reported that the assets include luxury properties across several European countries, ranging from a golf resort in Mallorca to a ski hotel in Austria.


Brooklyn man sentenced to 15 years over Iran-backed plot to kill US-based dissident
A 51-year-old man from Brooklyn has received a 15-year prison sentence for his role in a failed Iranian murder-for-hire plot against prominent US-based dissident and activist Masih Alinejad.

Carlisle Rivera previously pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit murder and one count of conspiracy to commit stalking before US District Judge Lewis Liman, who imposed Wednesday’s sentence, the Justice Department confirmed.

Rivera and another defendant, Jonathan Loadholt, had been hired by an operative working on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) to kill Alinejad, with each receiving a payment of $100,000.

A long-time critic of Iran’s Islamic regime and its enforcement of compulsory head coverings for women, Alinejad is a prominent dissident and activist, often recognised for wearing a symbolic flower in her hair. She fled Iran in 2009 out of fear for her safety.

On social media, particularly X, where she has more than 780,000 followers, Alinejad frequently reposts videos of women in Iran defying the country’s modesty laws.

Prosecutors said the IRGC has repeatedly tried to target Alinejad.

It is the third time that she – as well as her husband Kambiz Foroohar – have faced their would-be killers in court. During Wednesday’s proceedings, in front of Rivera, she described having to constantly be on the lookout for people who mean to do her harm.

“I never thought that in the US, I [would] have to look over my shoulder. I have to because of people like you,” she said.


Despite reforms, Tunisia’s textbooks remain full of antisemitic rhetoric, study finds
Tunisia’s national school curriculum is rife with antisemitic rhetoric and hostility toward Israel despite modern social reforms, according to a study released on Tuesday.

The report, by the London-based Impact SE watchdog group, finds that while Tunisian school textbooks generally present peace, diversity and tolerance as foundational values, they continue to display a hostile attitude toward Israel, as well as antisemitic rhetoric.

According to the study, which analyzed 80 textbooks from grades 1-3 against UNESCO-based standards for peace and tolerance in education, while the curriculum “celebrates gender equality, condemns racism, and encourages civic duty, tolerance, and peaceful dialogue,” these values are “selectively applied.”

While some textbooks acknowledge tolerance for Tunisia’s minorities, other materials include antisemitic stereotypes that depict Jews as greedy, conspiratorial and harmful, thereby undermining messages of tolerance, the report found.

A Grade 11 Arabic Language textbook, for example, portrays a Jewish merchant as greedy and deceitful, stating that this is emblematic of all Jews, “who are always like this.”

Although textbooks discuss World War Two and the Nazis, the Holocaust receives virtually no attention, with Adolf Hitler described as having turned Germany into “a great economic and military power.”

Similarly, the curriculum emphasizes peace, coexistence and intercultural dialogue, promoting shared humanity and rejecting extremism, but at the same time, consistently frames Zionism as a colonial project and includes instances where violence against Israelis is justified or glorified.

Most curriculum maps erase Israel by labeling the territory as “Palestine,” including internationally recognized Israeli territory, thereby denying Israel’s legitimacy.

A Grade 13 history textbook cited in the report describes the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre as a “fedayeen operation,” legitimizing the attack rather than recognizing it as terrorism.
BBC premieres Kneecap song branding Starmer ‘Netanyahu’s b**** in genocide armour’
BBC Radio 1 has become the first radio station to broadcast controversial Irish rap group Kneecap’s new song, featuring the lyrics: “F*** Keir Starmer, Netanyahu’s b**** in genocide armour”.

Titled Liars Tale, the song focuses on Sir Keir’s stance in relation to Israel’s military offensive against Hamas in Gaza.

Announcing their new album on Wednesday, the Irish rap trio said that criticism from Sir Keir was “all the motivation we needed” and said the album was dedicated to “everyone speaking truth to power”.

The song was played for the first time on Jack Saunders’ BBC Radio 1 show moments before the music video premiered on YouTube.

The video features the three musicians in guillotines and a zombie that looks like Margaret Thatcher, after a voiceover says that the Prime Minister had contacted previous leaders “for foreign policy advice”.
Lib Dem councillor draws concern over ‘Israel lobby’ and ‘paymasters’ remarks in Facebook post
A Liberal Democrat councillor in Worcestershire has drawn concern after publishing a social media post claiming that the Labour Party is “influenced by the Israel lobby” and suggesting that MPs act on behalf of unnamed “paymasters”.

Cllr Sam Ammar, a former Labour member now serving as a Lib Dem councillor, made the remarks in a public Facebook post commenting on national Labour Party politics and its leadership.

In the post, Ammar described the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee as “mostly political thugs influenced by the Israel lobby” and referred to “brain-dead MPs who will do as told by their paymasters”.

The language prompted scrutiny within the Jewish community, where references to political parties being controlled by an “Israel lobby” or by financial “paymasters” are widely recognised as echoing long-standing antisemitic tropes about Jewish power, money and influence.
University lecturer and Redbridge local election candidate backed ‘peace deal with Hitler’
A senior lecturer at the University of East London, who is standing on a pro-Palestine ticket in the forthcoming local elections, has suggested that Britain should have entered into a “simple deal with Hitler” and “made peace with the Nazis” to prevent the Second World War.

Marwan Elfallah, a lecturer in the University of East London’s Department of Education, School of Childhood and Social Care, is standing for the Redbridge Independents in May’s local council elections.

A leading figure in the Redbridge Community Action Group, Elfallah was previously at the centre of a campaign to unseat Wes Streeting at the last general election in his Ilford North seat, repeatedly accusing the Health Secretary of being under the control of the “Israel lobby.”

At a meeting in the London borough this week, Jeremy Corbyn announced his endorsement of the Redbridge Independents’ local election campaign, telling supporters: “Let’s change our world.”

However, social media posts uncovered by Jewish News reveal that Elfallah has disputed claims that Britain fought in two world wars because of the threat from Germany and the risk of invasion.

He responded online: “Britain wasn’t under threat if they made peace with the Nazis. Simple deal with hitler (sic) and (the) UK would have been very safe.”

Asked for comment on Elfallah’s stance, a spokesperson for the University of East London said: “At the University of East London, we pride ourselves on being one of the UK’s most socially inclusive universities, where antisemitism and all forms of discrimination have no place.

“Beyond just policies, we actively champion anti-racism through comprehensive EDI training and dedicated sessions designed to ensure every student and staff member feels supported. We have clear reporting processes and dedicated support for anyone who needs it.”


Candidates for Canada’s New Democratic Party leadership agree Israel guilty of genocide
Four of the five candidates seeking to lead Canada’s New Democratic Party said Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and that they would arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visited Canada.

Tanille Johnston, Avi Lewis, Heather McPherson and Tony McQuail participated in a “Leadership Debate on Palestine” hosted by Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East on Jan. 21 and moderated by Yara Shoufani, the organization’s president. The live-streamed debate was viewed by nearly 4,000 people, according to the group.

The candidates seek to replace Don Davies, a member of Parliament for Vancouver Kingsway since 2008. He was selected to be the interim NDP leader in 2025 until the party chooses a new leader at the Winnipeg Convention in March.

In a final lightning round of the debate, all four agreed that Israel is guilty of genocide, Canada should recognize the nakba (the Arab term for “catastrophe” referring to the 1948 establishment of the State of Israel) and Palestinians have a right of return.

They also agreed that Canada should sanction organizations that support Israeli settlements or the IDF, that they would arrest Netanyahu if he visited Canada and to replace the IHRA definition of antisemitism with “an alternative definition that does not conflate criticism of Zionism with antisemitism.”

Lewis, a journalist and co-creator of Al Jazeera’s “Fault Lines,” described himself as an “anti-Zionist Jewish person” seeking to “unlearn and unpack the Zionist myths that most Canadian Jews were brought up with.”

“Israel never had any intention of a real two-state solution,” Lewis said. “The Palestinian position was absolutely proven true, that the whole thing was a sham.”

He added that he “will continue to say that and to help people understand the political ideology of Zionism and how its current incarnation in the 21st century is linked inextricably to the ethnic cleansing of Palestine as an end game with the ethno-state, a Jewish state of Israel, as its rationale.”


Harvard Lecturer on 'Women Leaders' To Appear at Al Jazeera Conference With Hamas Chief, Iranian Foreign Minister
A Harvard lecturer who writes a column for Zeteo, the anti-Israel blog of former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan, is slated to speak at a conference in Qatar next month with a top Hamas official and Iran’s foreign minister, who has denied the regime’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.

Diana Buttu, who teaches courses on negotiation skills and female leadership at Harvard’s Division of Continuing Education, is slated to appear at the Al Jazeera Forum in Doha on Feb. 9 on a panel about "leveraging influence to achieve tangible change across issues intersecting with Palestine," according to an itinerary.

The forum convenes executives from Al Jazeera, the Qatar-funded news outlet, foreign journalists, think tank scholars, and government leaders from Turkey, Somalia, and Qatar. Its marquee speakers are Khaled Meshaal, the Doha-based leader of Hamas's operations outside of Gaza, and Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi.

Meshaal, who was targeted in an Israeli airstrike on Hamas leadership in Doha in September, will speak on a panel entitled "Gaza after Two Years of War: The Resistance Project, Occupation Plans and Prospects for Internationalisation." The description of the talk notes that "the resistance retains its weapons and brigades."

Araghchi will give a keynote address for the forum, one of his first public appearances since being disinvited from the World Economic Forum in Davos over Iran’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. Anti-regime activists say more than 6,000 people have been killed in the uprising. Araghchi claimed in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed that the regime has dealt peacefully with the protesters, but that Israel’s Mossad has stoked violence in order to "drag the U.S. into fighting another war on behalf of Israel."

No representatives from Israel, the United States, or other Western governments are slated to speak at the Al Jazeera Forum, according to a review of the itinerary.


Revealed: Ofsted failed to speak to pro-Israel MP before clearing school which blocked him
Ofsted did not speak to pro-Israel MP Damien Egan for a report saying it found no evidence that a school which blocked him had been politically biased, the JC can reveal.

Yesterday, the schools watchdog published a report into Brunel Bristol Academy which declared that the school displayed “no evidence of partisan political views” and that “leaders at this school ensure political impartiality in the curriculum and teaching”.

The report was prompted by concerns that the visit “may have been postponed due to coordinated pressure from staff, and external groups”.

However, the JC understands that during the course of its investigation into the school, Ofsted never actually spoke to Egan.

A senior Labour source also strongly criticised Ofsted over its apparent failure to take account of the posts by the Bristol Branch of the National Education Union (NEU) about the incident.

In September, Bristol NEU publicly boasted that it prevented Egan, who is Jewish and whose partner is Israel, from visiting the school.

The group said on Facebook: “MP Damian (sic) Egan’s planned school visit ... this Friday has been cancelled after concerns were raised by the NEU trade union staff group, parents and local constituents”.

They added: “This is a clear message: politicians who openly support Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza are not welcome in our schools.”

They continued to attack Egan over the fact that he is vice chair of Labour Friends of Israel “and has visited Israel since the current onslaught on Gaza began, demonstrating his support.”

The post went on: “We celebrate this cancellation as a win for safeguarding, solidarity, and for the power of the NEU trade union staff group, parents, and campaigners standing together.” It was followed by an emoji of the Palestinian flag.


Senior BBC employee rants about ‘Jewish-backed’ MPs influencing police resignation
The BBC has been criticised for having “normalised a culture of hate” and exhibiting “fundamental cultural problems” after a longstanding employee talked about “Jewish-backed” MPs leading to the resignation of West Midlands police’s chief constable.

Tom Poole, a senior broadcast engineer at the BBC for more than 16 years, was found to have taken issue with criticism of the corporation this week after multiple presenters vaguely referred to “six million people murdered by the Nazis” rather than specifically referring to them as Jews.

“Hysteria and nonsense”, he said. “Jews were not the only ones murdered”, before describing it as “a style guide choice. Then a Jewish pile-on”.

Poole, who is a Birmingham resident, also made a series of disturbing remarks concerning the resignation of the West Midlands Chief Constable earlier this month. Craig Guildford retired after concerns relating to the force’s mismanagement of a Europa League tie between Aston Villa and Maccabi Tel Aviv in Birmingham last year.

In one tweet, Poole said: “What pisses me off is the ban was the correct decision. But a known Jewish-backed MP was upset and demanded a select committee investigation.”

It is believed that Poole was referring to Nick Timothy, MP for West Suffolk, who grew up in Birmingham and is an Aston Villa fan.

In an apparent reference to Members of Parliament on the Home Affairs Select Committee, which questioned the then-Chief Constable of WM Police, Stephen Guildford, on two occasions, Poole said: “These individuals in some cases take considerable £ from a Jewish lobby. Or Jewish £ backed media. I smell something here. I don’t think I have made all this up. I think I can see what is going on.”

When another Twitter account responded to Poole saying that “We are a deeply corrupt country, now a vassal state of Israel. There must be NO room for quislings in power”, Poole responded saying: “I think it needs an inquiry. I don’t think it’s right.” When the same account said that “virtually all our institutions are controlled by Zionists”, Poole responded: “Influenced not conrrolled [sic]. But Israeli £ in politics, it needs attention.” Another tweet by Poole read: “UEFA should have banned the club. The Jewish pile on on this incident is ill judged and misplaced hysteria. MPs should know better.”
Erasing Jew-hate from Nazism: Redefining the ideology to fit a narrative
The New York Times Magazine did not print the genocide lie outright. Instead, it casually presented “fact” and opinion by a rabid antizionist who justified the Hamas-led terror attacks on Oct. 7, 2023: Professor Nimer Sultany.

The Times’ Michael Steinberger opened his piece, “‘This Could End Very Badly’: A Human Rights Lawyer Fears a New Age of Impunity” by acquainting readers with attorney Philippe Sands, who now represents Gambia in the International Court of Justice (“ICJ”) against Myanmar. Conveniently, The Times omitted mention of the fact that Sands also represents the “State of Palestine” at the ICJ.

Many are carefully watching the Myanmar case, explained Steinberger, believing the outcome will have implications for South Africa’s genocide case against Israel. He further elaborated that if Myanmar is cleared of genocide allegations, this could bode well for Israel and reduce the likelihood of the Jewish State becoming the first in the world to be found guilty of the crime.

Thus began Steinberger’s slow roll into the Gaza genocide libel.

Steinberger slyly insinuated that ICJ judges might have a different reason not to find Israel guilty, as judges “will be under considerable pressure, because the case against Israel could have onerous consequences for them.” In support, he referred to the Trump Administration’s sanction of “a handful of judges and one prosecutor” from the International Criminal Court (“ICC”) over its 2024 decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant. (Steinberger is incorrect; as of August 2025, the Trump Administration has actually sanctioned at least three prosecutors.) The “one” prosecutor Steinberger referred to, who issued the warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant, but who Steinberger did not identify in the entirety of his article, was Karim Khan.
BBC London fails to mention Jews in report on the Battle of Cable Street
The BBC has once again faced criticism after failing to mention Jews in a segment about the Battle of Cable Street – one of the key moments in Anglo-Jewish history.

The two-minute report – which was aired on BBC London’s lunchtime news bulletin on Monday – highlighted the presence “the Irish and dockers”, but gave no mention to the central role that Jews played in events.

Throughout the broadcast, vague references were made to various “communities” which joined forces on the day.

Narrating over black and white footage of the battle, BBC reporter and presenter Thomas Magill says: “Those communities that joined forces included the Irish, Dockers from the nearby Thames and others.”

Near the end of the report, Prof Nadia Valman of Queen Mary University of London describes the battle as “a mass movement that united people from extremely different backgrounds, different religions, different places of origin, different languages, and young people and old people,” but stops short of mentioning Jews specifically.
SOAS Antizionist Professor Helps The New York Times Subtly Advance the Genocide Libel

Alabama man said to have called for ‘D-Day on Tel Aviv’ charged with trying to kill Biden
Adam Benjamin Hall, 23, of Crane Hill, Ala., appeared in federal court on Wednesday to face charges of stalking and trying to kill then U.S. President Joe Biden on June 27, 2024, the U.S. Justice Department said.

“Our highest priority is protecting the president of the United States, and every potential threat is treated with the utmost seriousness,” stated Robert Donovan, acting special agent in charge of the U.S. Secret Service Atlanta field office.

Theodore Hertzberg, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, stated that “Hall’s alleged actions went beyond mere words and included traveling to Georgia with a firearm to murder President Biden.”

The Justice Department alleges that the 23-year-old drove from Alabama to Atlanta in June 2024, intending to sneak into the CNN presidential debate in order to kill the then president.

“A screenshot of a map allegedly found on Hall’s phone contained a location marker indicating that the phone was three blocks from the debate site approximately 28 minutes before the debate’s scheduled start time when adjusted to local time,” the department said.

Federal prosecutors also allege that Hall’s phone had what he called an “exposé” and “manifesto” addressed to “all the Palestinian journalists” and “in remembrance of the ones who lost their lives along the way.”

“Our enemies are not in any other country but our own and Israel’s,” he allegedly wrote. “It’s time we overthrow these bastards and threaten to pull a f**king D-Day on Tel Aviv.”


Apple acquires Israeli audio AI startup Q.ai
Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab on Thursday said it has acquired Q.ai, an Israeli startup working on artificial intelligence technology for audio. Apple did not disclose terms of the deal for Q.ai, which was backed by venture capital firms Matter Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins, Spark Capital, Exor and GV, formerly known as Google Ventures. The deal valued the startup at about $1.6 billion, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Apple did not say how it will use Q.ai's technology but said the startup has worked on new applications of machine learning to help devices understand whispered speech and to enhance audio in challenging environments.

Q.ai last year filed a patent application to use "facial skin micromovements" to detect words mouthed or spoken, identify a person and assess their emotions, heart rate, respiration rate and other indicators.

Q.ai's 100 employees, including CEO Aviad Maizels and co-founders Yonatan Wexler and Avi Barliya, will join Apple, the companies said.

Maizels founded three-dimensional sensing firm PrimeSense and sold it to Apple in 2013. The PrimeSense deal eventually helped Apple move away from fingerprint sensors on its iPhones and toward facial recognition technology.

In a statement, Maizels said, "Joining Apple opens extraordinary possibilities for pushing boundaries and realizing the full potential of what we’ve created, and we’re thrilled to bring these experiences to people everywhere.”

Apple has been putting new AI features into its AirPods earbuds, last year introducing technology that allows them to translate speech between languages.

Q.ai "is a remarkable company that is pioneering new and creative ways to use imaging and machine learning," Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware technologies, said in a statement. "We’re thrilled to acquire the company, with Aviad at the helm, and are even more excited for what’s to come.”
Conservative British pro-Israel commentator Douglas Murray joins Yeshiva University
Yeshiva University has announced that prominent British conservative author and pro-Israel commentator Douglas Murray will teach a class at the school this spring.

Murray, who is not Jewish, was appointed as the school’s inaugural President’s Professor of Practice, a role the flagship modern Orthodox university in New York City billed as bringing “a leading public intellectual into the academic setting.”

“Douglas Murray will join a generations-long conversation about great works from the Jewish canon and the broader humanistic tradition that is alive and impassioned on our campuses, and we look forward to him sharing his insights and perspectives,” said Rebecca Cypess, Y.U.’s dean of the undergraduate faculty of arts and sciences and vice provost for undergraduate education.

At Y.U., Murray is set to teach an honours poetry course titled “The Values of Verse: Sacred and Secular Perspectives.”

“Great poetry is not an ornament of civilisation,” Murray said in a statement distributed by Y.U. “It is one of the ways civilisations think, remember and endure. In an age of noise and distraction, returning to verse is a way of recovering seriousness – about life, love, loss and responsibility. I’m honoured to join Yeshiva University in a setting where those questions are taken seriously and explored with intellectual rigour.”

Murray, who has an undergraduate degree in English literature from the University of Oxford, is not the first non-Jewish public figure to be honoured by the university. At the school’s last two commencement ceremonies, it gave its highest award to pro-Israel lawmakers, including Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman and New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik. (Dozens of Y.U. Faculty members opposed Stefanik’s selection for the award.)

In recent years, Murray, an associate editor of The Spectator and columnist for the New York Post, has risen to be one of the most prominent non-Jewish pro-Israel voices for his frequent defence of the Jewish state and harsh criticism of the pro-Palestinian movement.
Artwork for mural dedicated to Scot who cared for Jewish girls unveiled
Artwork for a mural dedicated to a Scottish missionary who was murdered by the Nazis after caring for Jewish schoolgirls in Budapest has been unveiled.

Jane Haining was the matron of the Scottish Mission School in the Hungarian capital during the Second World War.

Miss Haining refused to return to Scotland during the war and decided to stay with the Jewish girls in her care.

She was arrested in April 1944 and eventually deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp in Nazi-occupied Poland where she died in a gas chamber a few months later.

The artwork was unveiled at a special event to honour Miss Haining in Paisley and to mark Holocaust Memorial Day on Tuesday.

The town was chosen for the first wall mural in Scotland in her memory as she worked as a secretary at J&P Coats’ Ferguslie Mill for 10 years before moving to Budapest to take up her role at the Church of Scotland school.

Measuring about 9ft high and 65ft long, an image of Miss Haining surrounded by children reading a book is at the heart of the mural, with portraits of her as a young woman and older woman on either side.

It is to be painted on a wall at Brown’s Lane and Shuttle Street, thoroughfares that Miss Haining used on her way to and from work.

The artwork was commissioned by the Renfrewshire branch of Unison and the mural was designed by Paisley-based artists Alexander Guy and Caroline Gormley.

They hope to start work on it in the spring of this year and estimate that it will take around 25 days to complete.




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