Friday, January 30, 2026

01/30 Links Pt2: Europe’s silenced scholars: the forced Gaza genocide ‘consensus’; Stealing the Holocaust from the Jews; Yoram Hazony’s 15 Minutes

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: For U.S. Jewish Groups, There’s No Going Back to the Old Ways
No one in their right mind will ever again pay into that racket. It was, in a sense, an expression of organizational decadence, mixed with complacency. Anti-Semitism was at low tide, and instead of remembering that the tide always turns, Jewish groups believed they could afford to chip in and show solidarity with fellow “marginalized communities.”

Regardless of the merits of this thinking before October 7, it is clear now that such a strategy cannot be employed again.

So where should the money go instead? A good place to look for answers remains Jack Wertheimer’s 2024 Mosaic essay on the American Jewish community’s post-October 7 philanthropy, since the overall trends remain the same even if the dollar figures have changed since then.

One area Jewish donors have turned to is groups that do nothing more than seek to combat anti-Semitism in the public square. One of Wertheimer’s sources in the philanthropy world told him: “The eyes of funders are now open in new ways; anti-Zionism is well-funded and pervasive in certain sectors. For the first time, funders realize how much those ideas have captured institutions.”

Indeed, this has only become more apparent since the essay’s publication. Anti-Zionism, it turned out, has been molded into a full-fledged ideology, more prevalent on the left than the right. That ideology has little or nothing to do with what Zionism actually is; instead, it’s a movement that sets itself in opposition to Zionists. That is, rather than participate in a debate over Zionism, anti-Zionism is a mercenary ideology that targets people who identify as Zionists—and, crucially, people the anti-Zionists accuse of harboring Zionism in their hearts.

What that means in practice is classic anti-Jewish discrimination in the professions, in academia, and the media. That’s because most Jews believe that Jews have a right to self-determination. So targeting self-identified “Zionists” is a way of targeting Jews.

Anti-Zionism is preposterously well-funded, because it has become a catchall progressive tag, and so some of the mountains of dark money set aside for progressive activism falls in the lap of any group that claims the anti-Zionist mantle. Which, at the current moment, is most of them.

So that’s one place Jewish communal resources must go toward: The battle against anti-Zionism must be joined in earnest. This also means that Jewish organizations should stop playing footsie with Jewish anti-Zionists. Even a big tent must draw the line at those who want to tear the tent down.
Andrew Fox: How academic propaganda is made
The intellectual lineage of this project is obvious: it is AirWars all over again. The same methodological sleight of hand. The same overconfidence and lack of access to genuine intelligence. The same collection of social media claims and hearsay, presented as forensic truth. AirWars gained a reputation by counting allegations as facts and treating propaganda as data, and this project repeats those errors nearly exactly. The only difference is that the flaws are now so well-documented that repeating them can only be a deliberate act.

Then there is the plan to publish via AOAV, described as “respectable.” This is simply not true. AOAV’s leadership has openly campaigned against Israel for years, including promoting the genocide hoax in Gaza, and they specialise in the kind of partisan hit jobs that are the trademark of the far left. Whilst presented as a neutral research platform, in reality it is an activist ecosystem. Publishing there does not enhance credibility: it indicates that the author knows their work would not withstand rigorous peer review by neutral military, intelligence, or legal professionals. It is a safe ideological bubble where conclusions are celebrated rather than examined.

Remove the academic jargon, and this project is extremely simple. It starts with the assumption that Israel is intentionally killing civilians. It then develops a method guaranteed to “prove” that conclusion by excluding all evidence that might challenge it. Classified intelligence is disregarded because it is inaccessible. Operational context is ignored. Hamas-controlled information is given priority. Anything that is not visible in open sources is considered non-existent. The final product is presented as objective scholarship.

This is propaganda with footnotes, but it is rare for a researcher to be so pompous and confident in his echo chamber that he explains the sleight of hand before the magic show begins. The most charitable interpretation is that its author genuinely does not understand how wars are fought, how intelligence operates, or how the law is applied in combat situations. The less charitable interpretation is that he understands perfectly well – and is counting on his audience not to. Either way, no serious person should take this work seriously. We can only thank him for revealing his hand in advance.
Europe’s silenced scholars: the forced Gaza genocide ‘consensus’
Anyone who has followed academia over the past two years might be forgiven for concluding that scholars have reached near-unanimous agreement on one claim: that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.

Not a week passes without another open letter from academics – often amassing hundreds or even thousands of signatures within days – denouncing Israel in the strongest terms. Across Europe, dozens of universities have now severed ties with Israeli institutions, citing alleged complicity in genocide – or at the very least, systematic war crimes.

In August 2025, the International Association of Genocide Scholars adopted a resolution that appeared to settle the question: the Jewish state, it declared, was guilty of the “crime of crimes”.

In reality, the accusation of genocide is as obscene as it is absurd. Netanyahu and his far-right cronies may be guilty of many things, but there’s no evidence whatsoever that Israel intends to exterminate Gazans, and abundant evidence to the contrary. The eagerness of Western intellectuals to nonetheless accuse Israel of genocide is by now depressingly familiar, as is their blindness to Hamas’s cynical war tactics and the extraordinarily difficult conditions under which Israel has had to pursue its legitimate aims of defeating Hamas and freeing the hostages. In my latest book, Het verraad aan de verlichting (The Betrayal of Enlightenment), I trace this reflex to a postcolonial ideology that casts the West as perpetual oppressor and anti-Western forces as inherently virtuous victims.

A contrived consensus
And yet, there are clear indications that this supposed academic consensus was artificially contrived, a product of intense social pressure, ideological hectoring, and a “spiral of silence.” The IAGS resolution, for example, is not grounded in any original research and offers little substantive argumentation.

In Europe, social pressure is even more intense than in the US. A petition opposing the IAGS resolution garnered hundreds of American signatories, but only a handful in Europe – primarily in Germany and around a single London-based centre for antisemitism research.

In the Low Countries, where I live, my stance on Gaza has left me increasingly isolated within the ivory tower. The rector of my alma mater, Ghent University, declared that any academic questioning the genocide in Gaza can no longer rely on the protections of academic freedom: “This is a line that cannot be crossed.” Five professors have called on the previous rector to discipline me for my “Zionist-tinged” views. I’ve also been deplatformed twice at the University of Amsterdam for my view on Israel.​

A spiral of silence
And yet, for the past two years, I have been receiving regular emails from academic colleagues that can be summarised as follows: “I completely agree with you and am glad that you’re fighting this battle, but please keep it quiet – I don’t want to get into trouble.” The social pressure to condemn Israel has become so intense that many “dissidents” no longer dare to speak out.

This reluctance to speak up gives rise to what psychologists call pluralistic ignorance: people mistakenly assume that they are alone in holding a dissenting opinion and therefore either remain silent or misrepresent their own views, inadvertently perpetuating the illusion of consensus and raising the social cost of dissent, as Steven Pinker notes in his book When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows.

I wanted to see if there was a way to break the cycle. What if people could speak honestly without risking their careers? I tested this by inviting primarily Dutch-speaking academics to share anonymous views on Israel and Gaza. What arrived was sobering – and chilling.
'Nothing Less Than Holocaust Inversion': Prominent Holocaust Scholars Denounce Israel-Bashing Nonprofit Named After Holocaust Survivor
More than 100 prominent Holocaust and genocide scholars are sounding the alarm on an "extremist" Israel-bashing nonprofit named after a Holocaust survivor who coined the term "genocide," according to a letter obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. Exploiting the survivor's name while accusing the Jewish state of genocide, the letter's leader said, is "nothing less than Holocaust inversion."

The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, a Pennsylvania-based nonprofit named after Holocaust survivor Raphael Lemkin, was established around 2021 without permission from its namesake's family. It has since used the late lawyer and activist's reputation to undermine Israel on the international stage, the scholars wrote ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The institute began accusing Israel of "genocide" just 10 days after Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, attack, later claiming Hamas did not commit sexual violence against Israeli civilians.

"As scholars who have written about the Holocaust or other genocides, we share your family's concern about extremists exploiting Raphael Lemkin's name to attack Israel," the experts, led by Rafael Medoff, the director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, wrote in a letter to the Lemkin family. "Israel's counter-terror campaign in Gaza is not genocidal, either in intentions or actions. The civilian deaths there are the result of Hamas embedding itself in residential areas and using the population as human shields."

Medoff told the Free Beacon that the institute's "false accusation of genocide in Gaza" amounts to "nothing less than Holocaust inversion," adding that "the fact that extremists are exploiting Lemkin's name to do so adds insult to injury."

The letter is meant to bolster the Lemkin family's months-long bid to pressure the institute to drop Lemkin's name, saying the institute's "policies, positions, activities, and publications are anathema to Mr. Lemkin's belief system." The family, with legal backing from the European Jewish Association, petitioned Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro (D.) and the state's Bureau of Corporations and Charitable Organizations to intervene on their behalf, though the governor and state have not taken yet any action. As Free Beacon senior writer Ira Stoll reported in late 2024, a Lemkin family member said he was "totally outraged" to see his relative's name used for anti-Israel activism.


Commentary Podcast: Praying in Jerusalem and Minneapolis
A quiet revolution is underway on the Temple Mount, where for six decades Jews have been forbidden to pray due to the rules established by a Muslim authority with dominion over the Dome of the Rock mosque—rules allowed to stand by the Israeli government. What changed and why is this so important? And why are the grounds for arresting former CNN anchor Don Lemon for participating in the disruption of a church service in Minneapolis stronger than you might think?


‘Holocaust erasure’ on the BBC
As the world marked International Holocaust Memorial Day on Jan. 27, BBC anchors on several programs told their audience that what was being commemorated was the extermination of “6 million people.” Not 6 million Jews; 6 million people. The omission amounted to what the French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy called “Holocaust erasure”: acknowledging that the event took place without specifying who was targeted or why.

In its subsequent apology, the BBC did not explain how the script ended up “incorrectly worded” so that “Jewish” was dropped in between the terms “6 million” and “people.” We are therefore forced to guess why, and the plausible answer comes from examining the culture which the BBC itself represents.

To begin with, there is a long tradition on the left of excising Jews from their own tragedy. In the Soviet Union, memorials to the victims of the Nazi genocide referred to them as “Soviet citizens” with any mention of “Jews” strictly forbidden. It is no accident that this coincided with the Soviet Union’s aggressive pushing of an “anti-Zionist” foreign policy, which meant repressing Soviet Jews domestically by stigmatizing their religion, banning the study of Hebrew and preventing them from making aliyah to Israel.

These attitudes have been transplanted to the West. In an environment where Jews are perceived as privileged whites whose Israeli cousins have dispossessed an indigenous nation, talking about their historic victimhood won’t do. And if you sincerely believe that Israel is guilty of genocide in Gaza, then you will likely find that discussion of the Holocaust leaves a bad taste in your mouth. After all, legacy media outlets, of which the BBC is one, have not been immunized from the dunderheaded “oppressor/oppressed” bifurcation that distinguishes so many of the political contributions on social media.

Or you may feel that the proper purpose of Jan. 27 is now to encourage, or even compel, Jews to atone for Israel’s supposed crimes against the Palestinians—for doing to them, in other words, what was done to us.

Whatever the motivation, the fact remains that for the BBC, Holocaust Memorial Day cannot be uncomplicatedly marked in the way that it is intended: as a commemoration of the Nazi slaughter of 6 million Jews for the sole reason that they were Jews. With its ostensible “mistake,” coupled with its apparent refusal to investigate whether the omission really was an error, or whether it might have been deliberate, the BBC has demonstrated that it can be swayed by the antisemitic tropes that are increasingly common in the cultural and discursive environment in which we live.

It’s worth pointing out that unlike its competitors, the BBC receives a whopping 65% of its income by levying a so-called “license fee,” currently priced at around $250, on its British audience. While BBC executives bristle when the corporation is described as a “state broadcaster,” the fact remains that as an institution, it could not survive without forcing the British public to cough up the cash for its operations.

Increasing numbers of Britons, including those who appreciate the BBC, are tired of subsidizing such bias and believe that the corporation should be forced to stand or fall in the marketplace, just like other broadcasters. They are, quite simply, correct.
Brendan O'Neill: Stealing the Holocaust from the Jews
It’s a species of Holocaust denial. I’m not saying these people are ideological racists like David Irving and other lowlifes who devote their every waking hour to lying about the greatest crime in history. But the consequence of their failure to use the J-word is nonetheless to obfuscate, to blur, to deny. When you say the Holocaust was a sad event in which people died, you are diverting from the singular, epoch-shaping truth of that event – which is that the Nazis sought to exterminate the Jews.

There’s something else going on, too. Something incredibly creepy. In my book, After the Pogrom: 7 October, Israel and the Crisis of Civilisation, I call it ‘Holocaust envy’. Today’s all-ravaging culture of grievance, the nauseating spectacle of competitive victimhood, has given rise to a situation where people chip away at the Jewishness of the Holocaust in order to weaken the Jews’ claim to historic victimhood and boost their own. Hence we increasingly see advocacy groups saying the Holocaust was as much a crime against gay people, trans people and left-wing people as it was against Jewish people.

We now have the truly obscene situation where those who insist the Holocaust was an industrialised campaign to destroy the Jews and their history are themselves accused of ‘Holocaust denial’. ‘How dare you distract attention from trans suffering and gay suffering, you denier!’ – that now gets barked at people, primarily Jews, who cling for dear life to the truth of the Shoah as the seas of moral relativism, institutionalised self-pity and outright racism swirl dangerously around it. In this twisted Kafkaesque universe, truth is denialism, and denialism truth.

Let us be clear: everyone suffered under the Nazis. The working classes, trade unionists, homosexuals and especially disabled people and the Roma. But only one people was expressly targeted for complete and utter destruction. Say it: the Jews. The Holocaust was an attempt to dejudify Europe. Now we are witnessing the dejudification of the Holocaust itself. The ‘liberation’ of that crime from those who suffered it in order that other special interest groups might lay claim to it instead, and in the process indulge their depthless capacity for self-pity and self-promotion. It is something even worse than Holocaust denial – it’s Holocaust theft.
Even after his death, Rabbi Sacks' idea of antisemitism stays dangerously relevant
The ideas survived. They were true. Truth survives even when its prophet dies. At that conference in Jerusalem, in a room full of living, breathing, important people, the most important voice belonged to a man who would never give another speech, never write another essay, never see whether his warnings were heeded.

He was in the room, though. I felt it. Everyone felt it. His words were in every speech, his framework in every analysis, his warning in every call to action. The hate that starts with Jews never ends there. This is the closest thing we have to a unified theory of antisemitism, and it came from a rabbi who understood that theology and politics, history and prophecy, are different ways of seeing the same truth.

So here’s what I’m left with: a deceased rabbi won the argument. His ideas now structure how we think about the oldest hatred in the world. Ideas, even brilliant ones, can diagnose the disease. They cannot cure it alone.

Rabbi Sacks knew this, too. He ended his European Parliament speech with a plea: “Stop it now, while there is still time.” That was in 2016. Now it’s 2026.

Sacks didn’t live during the massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh; he didn’t hear about the pogrom in Australia just a few weeks ago. He didn’t live to see it, but he knew very well that this was the direction we were heading.

The time is running out. We know what we’re fighting. We know who helped us see it clearly, even from beyond the grave.
Yoram Hazony’s 15 Minutes
After the scandal over Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts’ video defense of Tucker Carlson, my discomfort grew. I urged Yoram to address the issue publicly and make a public, written statement from his desk, with moral clarity about the evils of antisemitism and insights about how to handle “friends” who flirt with antisemitic ideas or personalities. He did not take me up on my suggestion. While I had hoped to part ways amicably, our difference of opinion led to a sharp break.

To me, the problem here is larger than the existence or nonexistence of an explainer video. It is a question of how to handle Jew hatred. To appease it? To tolerate it for a greater good? To be cautious and strategic in how one addresses it for the sake of building alliances? To call it out, and to strengthen alliances with people who don’t require fancy intellectual or diplomatic footwork?

Is it time to maneuver behind the scenes, in “the king’s court,” as Mordechai did until Haman demanded the people prostrate to him? Or is it time not to “bow,” emphatically, in the public square, to a Jew hater?

I believe it’s time not to bow. There might be negative consequences. The Haman faction may consolidate more power, but God, in the end, as Mordechai assures Esther, will provide relief and deliverance.

“Do not imagine in your heart that you, of all the Jews, will escape because you are in the king’s palace. For if you insist on remaining silent at this time, relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from elsewhere, but you and your father’s house will perish” (Esther 4:13-14).

Ironically, it is Yoram’s own musings in his book on Esther about why God did not prevent the Holocaust that haunt me until this day: “that there were too many such as Mordechai who were placed to invest for the crisis, but who did not bother to do so, and that there were too many such as Esther who were placed to act boldly to stem the tide, but who chose to remain silent at that time.”

I was hoping I could put my chapter with the natcons behind me, but I cannot be silent in the face of this strange omission. I hope Yoram, in the spirit of a beautiful intellectual legacy that I do not want to see perish, will make our video public—especially if, as he says, it has the power to influence others and change the course of history.
Seven New Tucker Carlson Themes Since 2023



Ireland turns a blind eye to antisemitism as Jews grapple with rising hostility
Oftentimes, it is difficult to grasp the scope of a situation, with media reports raising exceptional incidents so that they are perceived as the norm. This, too, is the case with antisemitism in Ireland, according to a few community and civil leaders.

Ireland is not a systemically antisemitic society, and anti-Israel sentiment usually does not translate into persecution or violence toward the local Jewish community, they argue, but by the same token, they contend that government officials and public figures have refused to acknowledge and address growing antisemitism, and ignored how the anti-Israel movement has served as catalyst and cover for anti-Jewish incidents.

Jewish Representative Council of Ireland chairman Maurice Cohen said that the number of antisemitic incidents had grown as of late. In a few weeks, the council is set to issue a report on almost 150 incidents that had been reported over the last five months. These incidents range from antisemitic graffiti to Jews being refused service in a shop and even refused treatment in hospitals. These were not anti-Israel incidents, said Cohen, with Israel-related events recorded only if they were used as a pretext for a personal attack on a person.

Irish Chief Rabbi Yoni Wieder said that some of the increasingly common antisemitic graffiti in Ireland had explicit calls to kill Jews. He also knew of one man who had been verbally abused on a bus, being called a “genocidal Jew,” and another assaulted in a Dublin pub because he was wearing something that identified him as Jewish. Jewish parents and their children had confided in the rabbi about bullying at school, including one child who had reportedly been chased around the playground while classmates shouted “from the river to the sea.”

Wieder said it is important to maintain balance when discussing antisemitism in Ireland. While there has been an alarming rise in incidents of hostility toward Jews, this does not mean that antisemitism has become a day-to-day issue for all Jews in Ireland. However, it does point to “persistent and serious concerns that have yet to be properly addressed.”

“There is little reason to think that the average Irish person gives much thought to Judaism or to Jewish people. For most people, it’s not an issue on their radar,” said Wieder. “But there is certainly a minority who do hold anti-Jewish views, and who actively seek to intimidate or target Jewish people. In the current climate, those individuals feel more emboldened to express their hostility openly than they would have done even a couple of years ago.”
Italian leaders react coldly to anti-Israel rapper’s planned Winter Olympics set
Italian rapper Ghali’s slated performance at the opening ceremony for this year’s Winter Olympics in Milan has drawn criticism from Italian leaders over his past activism against Israel.

Ghali Amdouni, a prominent Milan-born rapper of Tunisian parents, will be joined by a host of performers, including Andrea Bocelli and Mariah Carey, during the opening ceremony on February 6. This year, nine Israelis will compete, including the national bobsled team for the first time.

The selection of Ghali drew criticism from members of Italy’s right-wing League party.

“It is truly incredible to find a hater of Israel and the center-right, already the protagonist of embarrassing and vulgar scenes, at the opening ceremony,” a source from the party told the Italian outlet La Presse. “Italy and the games deserve an artist, not a pro-Pal fanatic.”

In early 2024, Ghali drew criticism from Italian Jewish leaders and Israel’s former ambassador to Italy, Alon Bar, after he called to “stop genocide” during his performance at the Sanremo Italian song festival. The spat later spurred protests outside the office of the Italian public broadcaster RAI.

On X, the rapper has also criticized other artists for not using their platforms for pro-Palestinian activism and appeared to refer to the war in Gaza — which began after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, massacre in Israel — as a “new Holocaust.”

Ghali’s selection comes as Italy has become an epicenter of pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel activism that has been sustained even as such activism has receded in other places. In October, over two million Italians took part in a one-day general strike in support of Palestinians and the Global Sumud Flotilla. The previous month, a separate general strike was organized in response to a call from the country’s unions to “denounce the genocide in Gaza.”
Judge’s appointment challenged by Jewish group over alleged antisemitic posts
The head of a conservative Jewish community group has pleaded for the NSW Supreme Court to delay swearing-in a controversial barrister and is calling for a formal investigation by the state regulator of the judiciary.

Australian Jewish Association president Robert Gregory lodged a complaint with the Judicial Commission of NSW on Thursday calling for Chief Justice Andrew Bell to investigate the alleged antisemitic conduct of barrister Phillip Boulten who will be appointed a Supreme Court Justice on Tuesday.

The complaint asks the Commission to postpone the swearing-in ceremony until an investigation can take place, and for it to determine whether the NSW parliament would have grounds under the state constitution to vote upon his removal from the judiciary.

Any motion would have to pass both Houses of Parliament.

“For a period in excess of two years — at the very least — (Mr Boulten) has engaged in misbehaviour within the meaning of … the Constitution Act 1902 by openly, publicly, and repeatedly publishing social media posts that vilified, demonised and delegitimised Zionists/Jews,” the complaint alleges.

“The narrative repeatedly endorsed by (Mr Boulten) — that Israelis are uniquely evil and genocidal, and that Jews and Zionists who support Israel are therefore complicit in genocide — is precisely the narrative that has fuelled the explosion of antisemitic hatred in Australia over the past two years.

“To treat such conduct as irrelevant to misbehaviour is to ignore the causal role of incitement in real-world violence.”

Mr Gregory’s complaint recognises its “unusual” nature as it concerns a person who has not yet been sworn in as a judge, and seeks as a matter of urgency interim relief to postpone Mr Boulten’s swearing-in “pending the finalisation of the … investigation, and the provision of any report … and the Government’s determination of the steps, if any, that it will take as a result of any report”.


‘Extreme’ groups cut from government relations invited to law review
Groups banned from engaging with the government over Islamist extremism fears have been invited to feed into new laws on public order and hate crime in the wake of the Manchester synagogue attack, The Times can reveal.

At least three groups which have prompted concerns about extremism were invited to give evidence to a government-commissioned review aimed at “protecting communities from hate and intimidation”. Documents seen by The Times show officials sent a “call for evidence” to groups including the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) and Friends of Al-Aqsa.

The MCB, Britain’s largest Muslim umbrella organisation representing more than 500 mosques, schools and charities, has been frozen out of formal government engagement since 2009 after a senior figure was accused of supporting violence against Israel. It remains government policy not to engage with the MCB.

MAB has been named in parliament as a “cause for concern” under extremism definitions, while the founder and chairman of Friends of Al-Aqsa has previously been criticised for praising Hamas. The latter two groups, alongside the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign — which was also asked to submit evidence — were among the organisations behind some of the largest pro-Palestine demonstrations in Britain over the past year.

The invitations were issued as part of an independent review into public order and hate crime legislation launched after a terrorist attack on a synagogue in Manchester during Yom Kippur in which two Jewish men were killed.
Revealed: Green Party candidate’s Holocaust smear against Angela Rayner
The Green Party candidate for the Gorton and Denton by-election drew parallels between the atrocities of the Nazi Holocaust and Israel’s actions in Gaza in vile social media posts.

In one instance, above a photograph of Labour’s former deputy leader Angela Rayner lighting a candle for Holocaust Memorial Day, Green candidate Hannah Spencer wrote in a post on X: “‘Never again’ but still selling arms to Israel.”

Spencer, who is standing in the February 26th by-election for Zack Polanski’s party, also responded to a post on X showing Rayner visiting the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

Spencer retweeted a post that criticised Rayner’s visit as “performative” amid what it described as a “real ongoing genocide” in Gaza.

The original post, by Sharmen Rahman, had referenced Rayner’s visit to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Bergen-Belsen’s liberation by British forces, where millions of Jews and other victims of the Nazis perished.

It shows Rayner pictured with veterans involved in the liberation of Belsen.

Spencer, 34, who currently leads the Greens on Trafford Council, shared Rahman’s post in April last year.

Rahman was last year appointed the Greens national spokesperson for Equalities and Diversity.

A review of Spencer’s social media activity on X shows that she has become increasingly outspoken in her criticism of Israel over the war in Gaza, frequently accusing the Israeli Defence Forces of committing genocide in the territory.

Her posts in support of Palestinians and Green politicians’ statements on the issue have grown more frequent.

More recently she has mocked the government’s proscription of the Palestine Action group in a post on X, saying those who had failed to support the violent group should be known as “Palestine Inaction.”

Tellingly, Spencer did not post any comments in response to the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.


Largest US labor union accused of ignoring Jewish concerns during Holocaust education event
The National Education Association, the nation’s largest labor union, is being accused of politicizing an online International Holocaust Remembrance Day event.

The Jan. 27 “understanding antisemitism” event was a conversation between Becky Pringle, president of the union, and Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.

“At JCPA, we believe that engagement and solidarity, not retrenchment and insularity, is the way to strengthen our democracy and end the rise of antisemitism, bigotry and hate in our country,” JCPA stated. “Together with our allies at the National Education Association, JCPA is working to provide educators, administrators and school boards with the resources needed to provide Jewish students and educators with safe, inclusive spaces.”

During the discussion, Pringle linked Holocaust remembrance to contemporary activism, citing events in Minnesota and saying that the safety of the Jewish people is “connected to the safety of all” and “is so critical right now, as this administration focuses on stoking fear and division between within and among groups.”

“Genocide continues to confound us, where even as we mourn the horror and the inhumanity, we are at this moment repeating history,” she said.

Spitalnick raised concerns during the webinar about Jewish educators being targeted in professional spaces.

“As we’ve seen, particularly since this past spring, increasing violence seeking to hold Jews accountable for the actions of the Israeli government, targeting Jewish people, leaders, institutions here under the guise of protesting Israel,” she said.
Sunday Times school of the year links Holocaust to Israel’s conflict with Hamas
A top independent girls’ day school in Hemel Hempstead used Holocaust Memorial Day to draw moral equivalence with Israel’s conflict against Hamas in Gaza.

Abbot’s Hill School was named the Independent 11–16 School of the Year 2026 by The Sunday Times Parent Power Guide and annual fees start at around £15k.

A now deleted public post to its Facebook group on 27 January, attributed to senior deputy head Jennifer Davison, read: “This year, following a powerful talk from Marianne Lederman from Stevenage Synagogue in our senior assembly, we reminded students that commemorating HMD or being Jewish does not mean supporting the policies of the Israeli government or condoning atrocities in Gaza.”

She continued: “Education and awareness must remain consistent, even when global politics make these topics complex” adding “schools have a vital role in helping young people learn to question disinformation, confront prejudice, and hold multiple truths at the same time – now more than ever.”

Responses to the post were swift and furious, with angry parents denouncing the post as “atrocious”, and an “horrific statement by someone educating future generations”.
UKLFI: University of Edinburgh Cancels “Zionist Free Zone” Event
The University of Edinburgh has cancelled a proposed event promoting a “Zionist Free Zone”. UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) wrote to the University raising serious legal and equality concerns regarding this event.

The event, which had been advertised on Instagram as taking place on University premises on 29 January 2026, caused significant alarm within the University’s Jewish community. The promotion of a “Zionist Free Zone” would reasonably be experienced by many Jewish students and staff as creating a hostile and exclusionary environment.

UKLFI wrote urgently to the University’s Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Peter Mathieson, on the morning of the planned event, setting out the University’s legal obligations under the Equality Act 2010.

UKLFI explained that targeting “Zionists” frequently operates in practice as a proxy for targeting Jews, the overwhelming majority of whom identify as Zionist, and that permitting such an event on campus could amount to unlawful harassment and discrimination.

In a response sent later the same day, Professor Mathieson confirmed that the University had not been made aware of, nor approved, the event, and that it had now been cancelled and would no longer take place on University premises.


Mamdani Voter Ezra Klein Tries, Fails To Achieve Solidarity With Student Activists Who Called Him a 'Zionist Pig'
Ezra Klein. Bless his heart, the poor guy.

Earlier this week, the New York Times columnist and Democratic Party thought leader tried to express solidarity with pro-Hamas activists who disrupted his event at Sarah Lawrence—a mid-to-bottom-tier liberal arts college in New York. He was not successful.

In a video taken at the event—a conversation between Klein and Sarah Lawrence president Cristle [sic] Collins Judd—a keffiyeh-clad agitator berated Klein while a group of masked students held a banner denouncing the Jewish journalist as a "Nazi normalizer." Judd sat silently throughout.

The disruption did not come as a surprise. The day before Klein arrived on campus, which happened to be Holocaust Remembrance Day, pro-Hamas activists decorated the campus with graffiti blasting Klein as a "Zionist pig" and "genocide denier." They had even organized a faculty-sponsored counter-event to protest the platforming of a "liberal Zionist mouthpiece."

The student agitator accused Klein of enabling Israel's so-called genocide in Gaza. The columnist, whose speaking fees typically run from $40,000 to $70,000, sought to assure the shrieking activist that he also despised Israel, which he said was tormenting Palestinians through "apartheid and subjugation." The activist kept ranting about fascism, so Klein pleaded for his attention. "Buddy, buddy, talk to me," he said. "I am right here." They didn't care.

The anti-Israel agitators made their way to exit, chanting as they went. "Ezra Klein, you're a liar, you set Palestine on fire," they shouted. "Every time Ezra lies, a neighborhood in Gaza dies." They soon joined other protesters outside the venue, clapping along to more chants about how Sarah Lawrence was inviting fascists and protecting Zionism.

"Welcome to Sarah Lawrence," Judd quipped. Klein thanked her for the courtesy.


GUARDIAN CONTINUES TO DISAPPEAR HAMAS
In Graham-Harris’ Guardian-style narrative, only Israelis are the “extremists” and peace “obstructionists”, not Hamas, whose refusal to disarm is intentionally obfuscated by the writer’s use of passive language.

Whereas, Israelis are portrayed as moral and political actors who obstruct – or, at least, attempt to obstruct – peace, Hamas, in a manner erasing their power as human actors, “must be disarmed” – the action being assigned to a third-party who must disarm the terrorist group – for peace to be achieved.

Contrary to Graham-Harris’ framing, a mechanism can not be created inside Gaza “to oversee the disarming of Hamas” if the terror group, which reportedly still has around 20,000 active fighters, with thousands of small arms and hundreds of rockets, continues in its refusal to lay down its weaponry – which is an explicit demand of the US 20-point peace plan.

In other words, Palestinian leaders in the territory – who are, by virtue of their terror affiliations, extremists – have agency.

Israel, to be sure, has its own extremists.

However, Hamas’ cruel, destructive and fanatical decisions, both on Oct. 7, 2023 and over the following 27 months, including their use of human shields, their continuing refusal to surrender despite the horrible toll their unwinnable war has exacted on the civilian population, and the group’s current refusal to disarm, represent the most serious threat to the lives and livelihood of civilians in the Strip.


Man arrested after allegedly threatening Florida temple with bomb
A man was arrested on Jan. 28 as a result of a bomb threat made against a synagogue in Ormond Beach, Fla., six miles from Daytona Beach in the northern part of the state, according to local police.

The Ormond Beach Police Department stated that Robert Tuck, 57, is suspected of calling Temple Beth-El, a Reform synagogue in the city, that morning and making the threat. The synagogue’s elementary school was subsequently placed on lockdown, and law enforcement searched the area for explosives, ultimately finding none.

Tuck was arrested that afternoon in Daytona Beach.

He faces charges that include threatening to throw, project, place or discharge a destructive device and issuing a false report on planting a bomb, explosive or weapon of mass destruction, per police.
Performer crows about his Gaza outburst at Holocaust event as ‘serious Palestine Action’
A performer hijacked a Holocaust Memorial Day event to talk about Israel’s “indiscriminate killing” and later crowed over the outburst as “serious Palestine Action”.

Joshua Gold, a volunteer with disability arts group Razed Roof, caused visible distress at the event in Harlow Civic Centre when he referred to “70,000 Palestinians killed by the state of Israel in the Gaza Strip”.

Gold admitted to the JC that he had included the line in defiance of earlier requests by a rabbi to leave it out, and later described the uproar over his actions as a “Zionist scum crackdown”.

Following the event, which left Jewish audience members in tears, and further shocking comments by Gold, Harlow Council reported the charity to the police, the regulator and the Community Security Trust (CST) and barred it from local authority buildings.

Harlow Council leader Dan Swords said the incident had caused “profound, immediate, and widespread distress.

“Jewish attendees were visibly distressed, many left the event in tears, and others reported feeling shocked, intimidated, and unable to remain at what should have been a solemn and respectful act of remembrance.”

The council also referred the matter the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, as well as the Charity Commission, indicating the incidents “raise serious concerns regarding charitable governance, political activity, safeguarding, reputational risk, and whether Razed Roof is operating in accordance with its charitable objectives and legal duties”.
How a Housewife Became the Mossad’s Greatest Asset
Shulamit Cohen lived a life few could imagine: a housewife raising children in Beirut while secretly passing critical intelligence to Israel and helping Jewish refugees reach safety. Over more than a decade, she balanced domestic responsibilities with covert operations, navigating suspicion, imprisonment, and political tension. Her story reveals how courage, ingenuity, and determination allowed a young mother to operate in plain sight, shaping history in ways most never expected.

0:00 Intro
1:03 Who was Shulamit Cohen?
2:57 1947 UN Partition Vote
6:04 Recruitment: Future Mossad Network
7:02 First Smuggling Mission
9:47 Refugee Pipeline Expands
12:22 Lebanese Intel Closes In
16:45 Prison, Release, Legacy


Guy Sasson wins historic quad tennis title in Melbourne
Israeli wheelchair tennis player Guy Sasson and his Dutch partner, Niels Vink, took the quad doubles wheelchair tennis title at the Australian Open in Melbourne on Friday.

The victory makes the pair the reigning champions in all four Grand Slam tournaments, following titles last year at the French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open.

Sasson and Vink defeated Heath Davidson (Australia) and Andy Lapthorne (Britain) in straight sets, 6–3, 6–1, in a match that lasted 63 minutes.

The win carried added significance after Sasson and Vink lost last year’s Australia Open final to Lapthorne and Sam Schröder (the Netherlands).

The victory gives Sasson a career Grand Slam in quad doubles and positions him and Vink to attempt a calendar-year Grand Slam— something never achieved in quad doubles competition.

Born and raised in Ramat Gan, the 45-year-old Sasson took up wheelchair tennis after a snowboarding accident in France left him paralyzed from the knees down.

Following Friday’s victory, Sasson reflected on the team’s mindset heading into the final, noting lessons learned from previous losses.

“In the last two years coming into this final match, we were the favorites and I came to this match very relaxed and we didn’t get the result that we wanted,” the 45-year-old said. “This time I also felt that we are very strong and we played very well, but I had my thoughts about the last two years. Once we were getting going, I felt that it was going our way.”

Sasson dedicated his share of the trophy to the victims of the terrorist attack at Bondi Beach on Dec. 14, 2025.

“I want to dedicate my side of this trophy to the 15 people we lost, the Jewish people at Bondi Beach a month and a half ago,” he said. “It’s terrible, but we have to continue. Let’s rise and shine. Am Yisrael chai!”




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PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

    
 

 



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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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