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Sunday, February 01, 2026

02/01 Links: For Decades, Israelis Were Told There Were "Partners for Peace" in Gaza; Responsibility for Death Toll in Gaza Lies with Hamas; Why the West abandons Iran to the ayatollahs

From Ian:

Jake Wallis Simons: Genocide once meant something. Now the term is just political invective
Of the many examples of moral collapse that followed October 7, the debasement of genocide has been among the ugliest. Using the megaphone of social media, activists, hostile states, the media and non-governmental organisations have corrupted a precise legal term to smear troops who were issuing evacuation orders, facilitating aid handouts and fighting an enemy that used human shields. What begins with Jews never ends with Jews. If the meaning of genocide is lost, no Western army will be safe.

As Keir Starmer’s failed attempts to marshal international law against our own troops who fought in Iraq demonstrated, such instincts are strong amongst progressives. As in London and Strasbourg, so in the Hague. On Thursday, judges at the International Court of Justice, the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, finished hearing a genocide case against Myanmar. Given the appalling atrocities against the Rohingya, few would dispute the verdict if the crime is confirmed. Scratch the surface, however, and trouble is brewing.

Genocide as a modern legal concept first emerged in print in Axis Rule In Occupied Europe, a 1944 book by Polish-Jewish jurist Raphael Lemkin. Crucially, it described mass violence with the intent to “destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”. Lemkin was influenced by the 1915 Armenian massacres, but it was the Nazi’s attempted extermination of the Jews – in which 49 members of his own family were murdered – that provided the catalyst for its inclusion on the statute books.

Since 1945, only five legally-confirmed genocides have been recognised by the British government: the Holocaust, Rwanda, Bosnia, Cambodia and the liquidation of the Yazidis by Islamic State. Between the Srebrenica massacre – the last time the International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered a guilty verdict – and Myanmar, times have changed.

As part of the hearing this week, hostile Facebook posts were presented as evidence. Social media has become part of life since 2007, but there are fears that relying upon such contextual and emotive ephemera may eclipse the hard facts, especially as the ICJ’s next case is against Israel.

Aggressive posts and videos of soldiers chanting bloodthirsty slogans already form the backbone of the prosecution’s case against the Jewish state. Are these really evidence of genocidal intent in an army that warns civilians to flee before it attacks? The Myanmar precedent may lead judges – who are human, after all – to give such things undue weight.

Similarly, NGOs giving evidence against Myanmar included Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, both of which have a well-established bias against Israel. None of this necessarily invalidates the case. But it reveals the weakness of the court.
Ben-Dror Yemini: Responsibility for Death Toll in Gaza Lies with Hamas
Recently, multiple media outlets reported that unnamed sources within the IDF were inclined to accept Hamas's casualty figures from Gaza.

But who exactly were these sources? I repeatedly contacted the IDF Spokesperson's Unit and was told: "That's not our position."

The IDF spokesperson to the foreign media, Nadav Shoshani, said: "The details published do not reflect the official data of the IDF."

An investigation reveals that, indeed, an IDF source did say something in a background briefing. But he wasn't an authorized spokesperson.

He didn't intend for his words to be understood the way they were. And his comments were twisted and distorted. But the damage? Enormous.

Hamas Health Ministry figures on the numbers of dead in Gaza identify no Hamas fighters, no deaths from natural causes, or those killed by rockets misfired by Gaza terror groups. They do show that the majority are men of combat age.

Hamas alone is to blame. It is Hamas that for years incited genocide against Jews. It is Hamas that launched a murderous rampage on Oct. 7.
The silence of the graveyard: Why the West abandons Iran to the ayatollahs
In January 2026, the Islamic Republic of Iran carried out what may prove to be one of the largest episodes of state violence against its own population in modern history. Reports from within the Ministry of Health and independent monitors suggest that on the nights of January 8 and 9 alone, the death toll exceeded 30,000.

It was a methodical, ruthless slaughter of students, workers, and women whose only crime was a refusal to submit to theocratic cruelty. The regime plunged the country into digital darkness to shroud the carnage, yet the subsequent mass executions have been met in the Western public sphere with a curious, stifled silence.

Contrast this with the totalizing mobilization surrounding Gaza – a cause that has dominated Western activism, academia, and media ecosystems for over two decades. Rather than a mere shortage of facts, this staggering disparity represents an active ideological filter that renders certain atrocities invisible.

The Foucault ghost and the red-green alliance
The roots of this silence run deep into the bedrock of French Theory. When Michel Foucault traveled to Tehran in 1978, he famously romanticized the Islamic Revolution as a “political spirituality” that could challenge Western modernity. That intellectual legacy persists today.

Modern activists have inherited a neo-Marxist framework that has replaced the old class struggle with a rigid hierarchy of identity groups. In this moral cartography, social legitimacy is derived from one’s place in the “Oppression Olympics.” Because the Iranian regime frames itself as an opponent of the West – the source of all evil in the world – its crimes are “decoded” or contextualized away. To stand with the Iranian people would require activists to admit that an anti-Western regime can be a totalitarian engine of slaughter. For many, that admission is ideologically intolerable.


For Decades, Israelis Were Told There Were "Partners for Peace" in Gaza
Vivian Silver, 74, was a lifelong peace activist who built her entire identity around Jewish-Arab coexistence.

She lived on Kibbutz Be'eri, just miles from Gaza, and was a founding leader of "Women Wage Peace" that advocates dialogue, reconciliation, and a two-state future.

She also volunteered with the group "The Road to Recovery," personally driving Palestinians from Gaza to Israeli hospitals for lifesaving care.

On Oct. 7, Hamas terrorists and ordinary Gazans set her home on fire and she was murdered. Her son, Yonatan Zeigen, was on the phone with her as the attack unfolded.

They continued texting as Silver hid in a closet as terrorists moved through the house. Her final message to him was: "They're inside the house. It's time to stop joking and say goodbye."

We are told that if Israelis show enough goodwill, enough restraint, enough empathy, enough "understanding," then peace will follow.

Silver dedicated her life to Palestinian welfare. She believed in coexistence until her final moments. It did not save her.

A viable solution requires moral reciprocity, the basic recognition that those who extend their hand in peace should not be murdered in return.

Gazan society did not mourn people like Silver. In fact, her murder was celebrated there.

You cannot murder your most committed allies and expect the world to keep pretending that nothing has changed.


Kicking and Screaming Against America and Israel
REVIEW: ‘Kicking the Hornet’s Nest: U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East from Truman to Trump’ by Daniel E. Zoughbie In the 1970s, after the Six-Day War had time to sink in, an impressive number of Western academics, journalists, politicians, diplomats, spooks, and especially oil executives gave Israel a centripetal eminence in the Middle East that neither its population, geography, faith, wealth, nor even military accomplishments merited. Thirteen hundred years of Islamic history over 3.8 million square miles started getting boiled down to onerous and acrimonious conversations about the contemporary bloody wrestling matches between Jews and Arabs on less than 11,000 square miles of the eastern Mediterranean littoral. Modern Middle Eastern studies, where certainly the most passionate if not the most accomplished students gravitated, became battlefields where anti-Zionist sentiments usually proved triumphant.

This Arabist critique—that Israel was the fulcrum of Middle Eastern instability—was actually the lingua franca in the State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency, and oil companies long before the Palestinians became a cause célèbre. It centered overwhelmingly on the math: one poor, socialist Jewish state versus an ever-increasing number of Arab countries, many of which had vast amounts of untapped oil and ruling elites with enormous appetites. This view also had a personal aspect: Often mannerless, ill-clad Ashkenazi Israelis (Eastern European socialists weren't known for their etiquette or fashion) didn't appeal to America's WASPy officials and oil execs who served overseas. Arabs were warmer, more hospitable, and urbane.

But this mindset started to weaken (outside of universities) in the 1980s as Middle Eastern issues tangential to the Israeli-Arab controversy took center stage. Saddam Hussein's decision to invade the Islamic Republic in 1980 had absolutely nothing to do with the troubles in the Holy Land. The resulting Iran-Iraq war defined that decade in the Middle East and set the stage for the great Sunni-Shiite tug of war, which has since drawn battle lines across the region.

And from the 1980s to 9/11 an increasing number of Western observers began to realize that the growth of Islamic militancy, from Morocco to Indonesia, had little to nothing to do with the battle between Jews and Muslims. As Muslims tried to digest a Western-born modernity, as increasingly savage secular dictatorships arose, especially among the Arabs, and Westernized Middle Eastern princes led exuberantly hypocritical, corrupt lives, Islamic radicalism gained ground. Westerners—especially among the cosmopolitan set who run foreign and intelligence ministries—have always had great difficulty appreciating the role of religion in earthly affairs. Islam is particularly problematic since the allure seems, for many Westerners, retrograde. But after 9/11, after the Europeans also started getting attacked, most folks understood more clearly than before that Israel wasn't a culprit for this animus. Hatred of Zion is a common denominator of Islamists; it's not even in most places a tertiary cause for Islamic extremism.

In the United States, by the time of Barack Obama's presidency, which on its face cared deeply about the Israeli–Palestinian imbroglio, the Arabist gravamen against America—that Washington cocked things up because of the original sin of recognizing Israel in 1948—had become uncommon. The anti-Semitic set of the old Washington establishment might surface the view after a few drinks—questions about dual-loyalty and the pervasive influence of Jews on American culture naturally bleeds into a coked-up view of Israel's perversity. But such eruptions seemed like a daguerreotype of a lost age.


US, Iran ready to talk, with mediators organizing meeting in Ankara — report
The US and Iran have reportedly informed each other that they are ready to conduct negotiations on an agreement to end tensions between them, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held top-level meetings on the situation.

A senior American official told the Axios news site on Sunday that US President Donald Trump’s administration has made it clear it is open to holding such talks as soon as this week.

According to the report, Turkey, Egypt and Qatar are working to organize a meeting this week between White House special envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian officials in Ankara, Turkey’s capital.

US officials told the news site that Trump’s comments calling for a deal are genuine and not a trick ahead of a military operation. The US has built up its forces in the Middle East recently, which Trump characterized as a “massive armada.”

Amid last year’s 12-day war between Israel and Iran — which began with a surprise Israeli strike — an Israeli official revealed that the messaging issued by the US ahead of the attack, seemingly downplaying the probability of a strike, had been part of a deliberate deception campaign.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Trump touted the possibility of negotiations. He was responding to a warning earlier in the day from Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, that an attack from Washington could spark a regional war.

“Why wouldn’t he say that? Of course he is going to say that. We have the biggest, most powerful ships in the world over there, very close — a couple of days [away]…. Hopefully we’ll make a deal. If we don’t make a deal, we’ll find out whether or not he was right,” Trump told reporters.

Speaking on CNN on Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he believes his country can reach an agreement with the United States on his country’s nuclear program.

Tehran’s top diplomat said he is “confident that we can achieve a deal” on the program, which the US and Israel say aims to build nuclear weapons. Iran has consistently denied seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. However, it enriched uranium to levels that have no peaceful application, obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities, and expanded its ballistic missile capabilities.

“Unfortunately, we have lost our trust [in] the US as a negotiating partner,” Araghchi told the US network, while still touting “fruitful” talks being mediated by mutual partners.

Araghchi stressed that talks must be focused on Iran’s nuclear program and not on curbing its ballistic missile program or support for proxy terror groups.
StandWithUs: Special Briefing - Iran Crisis with Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus
With tensions concerning Iran at an all-time high, join StandWithUs TV for Special Briefing direct from Israel, featuring insight and analysis from Lt. Col. (Res.) Jonathan Conricus.


Iranian lawmakers: ‘Death to America,’ ‘Death to Israel’
Iranian lawmakers on Sunday called for the destruction of the United States and Israel, chanting “death” to both nations during a session in which the chamber’s speaker said the Islamic Republic now considers all E.U. militaries to be terrorist groups, according to the Associated Press.

Brussels announced on Thursday that the European Union would designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist group over its deadly crackdown on nationwide protests.

“By seeking to strike at the [Guard], which itself has been the greatest barrier to the spread of terrorism to Europe, Europeans have in fact shot themselves in the foot and, once again through blind obedience to the Americans, decided against the interests of their own people,” said Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, a former IRGC commander, AP reported.

Qalibaf said the designation falls under “Article 7 of the Law on Countermeasures Against the Declaration of the IRGC as a Terrorist Organization,” according to Agence France-Presse.

Qalibaf made the announcement while he and other lawmakers wore IRGC uniforms, chanting “Death to America” and “Death to Israel,” per the report.


Why won’t the BBC use the word ‘Jews’?
I was intrigued to learn from the BBC Today programme on Tuesday that ‘buildings across the UK will be illuminated this evening to mark Holocaust Memorial Day, which commemorates the six million people murdered by the Nazi regime more than 80 years ago’. Who were these unfortunate ‘people’, I wondered? Just anyone at all? Was it a wholly indiscriminate spot of slaughter? I have some vague memory that it was one race in particular that was singled out for extermination, but the BBC dared not say their name.

In fact, the sentence I quoted is wholly inaccurate: the ‘six million’ figure relates only to Jewish people. If you include the homosexuals, Sinti, Roma, disabled and Russian prisoners of war, then you would have to come up with another figure – some say as many as 11 million – who were murdered by the Nazis.

Meanwhile, the Holocaust Memorial Trust is a little clearer about the business. ‘We commemorate the six million Jewish men, women and children murdered during the Holocaust, and the millions more murdered under Nazi persecution. Prejudice still continues today within our communities and across the UK.’

Sho’ nuff does indeed, not least within the BBC. I suspect that it, like the left in general, is uneasy about a commemoration dedicated to one specific group of people, especially that group of people, a group of people to whom they perhaps do not feel kindly disposed. One might infer that from their speed at conferring the title ‘genocide’ on the war in Gaza, being thus unable to distinguish between tens of thousands of people killed via missile attacks during a prolonged war and a deliberate and stated policy to wipe out an entire race, of which the six million was just the start.
Mormon charities transferred millions to Hamas-linked NGOs
Charities affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are among the top donors to a dozen charities aligned with foreign Islamist movements, according to a study released last month.

A major Salt Lake City-based Mormon charity, Globus Relief, gave a total of at least $119 million to 10 radical Islamist charities tied to the U.S.-designated terrorist organization Hamas, the investigative report by the Philadelphia-based Middle East Forum think tank found.

The Mormon charity’s top grantee, Islamic Relief, is a leading Islamist charitable institution whose branches have been described by the Dutch and German governments as components of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, the study states.

The investigation notes that Islamic Relief branches have repeatedly partnered with senior Hamas officials in Gaza.

Another Mormon-run charity, Lifting Hands International, has provided nearly $20 million to Helping Hand for Relief and Development (HHRD), the chief U.S. charitable arm of the violent South Asian Islamist movement Jamaat-e-Islami, the study found.
German-Israeli IDF sniper sues Guardian, German media after being falsely named as a war criminal
A German-Israeli IDF sniper has taken legal action against The Guardian newspaper and several German papers for falsely identifying him and publishing his photo in an article about war crimes.

In 2024, The Guardian ran an article about an IDF sniper named C., in which he admitted to having carried out, alongside his sniper partner, killings of unarmed civilians in November 2023.

The Guardian worked on the investigation for five-months alongside Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ) and Paper Trail Media, Der Spiegel, and ZDF.

C., however, had never intended for the comments to become public. He had been approached by a Hebrew speaker who claimed he wanted to write about the squad’s experiences and to commemorate fallen soldiers. However, Palestinian journalist and activist Younis Tirawi posted extracts of the interview online, justifying the decision by saying it was in the public interest, given the scale of civilian killings.

Full names, faces published without confirmation from the indiviuals
While C. did not name his partner, The Guardian identified him in the article as a German-Israeli citizen, G., and published his full name and photo. This was done without any confirmation from the individuals involved.

One line read “C. and G.’s location has been traced from photos and videos taken by Israeli soldiers showing the two snipers aiming their weapons through a window and a hole in the wall.”

However, G. wasn’t even in the area at the time, nor was he C.’s partner or even in the same squad.
Israeli woman arrested in Turkey on charges of anti-Palestinian rhetoric, denouncing Erdogan
An Israeli woman was arrested in Istanbul, Turkey, on accusations of engaging in anti-Palestinian rhetoric, denouncing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and cursing the Turkish flag, according to Sunday reports from Israeli media.

The Foreign Ministry confirmed that day that it was aware of an Israeli citizen who was detained in Istanbul.

According to Israeli media, the woman was detained in Taksim Square, a central, heavily trafficked area of the Turkish metropolis.

She has been detained for at least 10 days, N12 News reported.

Photographs shared on social media appear to show police officers handcuffing the woman. However, The Jerusalem Post has not been able to independently verify the images.

Israelis accused of 'spying' on Erdogan
Israelis have been arrested in Turkey in the past.

A notable case included when Natali and Mordy Oaknin were detained after being accused of spying. The couple took photographs of the Presidential Palace, and faced charges of "political or military espionage," Turkish media reported at the time.
Foreign forces in Gaza will fail
It is ridiculous to expect Hamas to melt away in the face of this alphabet soup of international do-gooders. Hamas will instead bamboozle, threaten, bribe or eliminate any European monitor, American official or Egyptian overseer who gets in its way.

And Hamas will have Qatari and Turkish officials—its increasingly assertive Muslim Brotherhood backers—embedded in Trump’s proposed “Board of Peace” and Gaza Executive Board to run cover for the terror group and refill its coffers as needed.

Egypt offers a clear example of why Israel must never rely on Arab actors or the international community for its core security.

Egypt has a peace treaty with Israel and presents itself as a Western partner in stabilizing Gaza. Yet it is among the fiercest purveyors of anti-Israel and antisemitic messaging in the Arab world—and a longtime adversary of the Palestinians themselves.

Egypt did nothing to stop Hamas from overthrowing the Palestinian Authority and seizing Gaza. It allowed the Sinai Peninsula under its control to become a hub for international terrorism and large-scale weapons and drug smuggling into Gaza and Israel.

By turning a blind eye to—and benefiting from—this massive smuggling industry, Egypt helped transform Hamas-ruled Gaza into a major Islamist terror base, paving the way for the Oct. 7 massacre.

Over the past two years, the IDF has uncovered more than 100 smuggling tunnels beneath the Gaza-Egypt border. There is no credible scenario in which Egyptian police, military and political officials were unaware of or did not approve this activity.

It is also worth remembering that Egypt cares even less about Palestinians than it does about Israel. It has kept Gaza sealed for decades, denied medical treatment to wounded Palestinians during the past two years of war, and refused to offer refuge in Sinai to those fleeing the fighting.

The idea of once again placing the Rafah border crossing and the Philadelphi Corridor under Egyptian supervision, alongside flimsy EUBAM monitors and only token Israeli involvement, is not only preposterous. It is dangerous.

Only full-scale, permanent IDF control of Gaza’s southern border can guarantee Israel’s security.

Ultimately, only the destruction of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities can offer Gaza any chance of recovery and Israel any chance of long-term security. And only the IDF can achieve that.

All the fancy mechanisms now being floated will do little more than get in the way—or worse, entrench Hamas even further.
Somalia blocking Israeli carrier from transiting its airspace
The East African country of Somalia is holding up permits for Israeli airline Arkia to continue flying over it to and from the Far East, the Israeli Transport Ministry says.

The delay comes amid tensions between the two countries over Israel’s recognition on Dec. 26 of the breakaway Republic of Somaliland as an independent state. Somalia views the autonomous region as an integral part of its territory.

“The reason for not granting the approval to Arkia is not clear because the authorities in Somalia did not specify the reason for their refusal,” the Transport Ministry said in a statement on Thursday. “This refusal constitutes a violation of the Convention on International Aviation to which Somalia, a member of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), is a signatory.”

The ministry added that it is working with “all relevant parties” and using “all means at its disposal” to assist the Israeli carrier in resolving the issue.

Arkia said that it has not received a renewal of its permit to fly over Somalia airspace, which expires at the end of January, and may be forced to alter its flight route to Thailand.
Israel tests limited reopening of Rafah Crossing
Gaza’s Rafah border crossing with Egypt reopened on Sunday for the first time since the IDF captured it in May 2024, with a limited pedestrian pilot program.

“The Rafah crossing has reopened for movement of people only,” the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) unit said. “Today, a pilot is underway to test and assess the operation of the crossing. The movement of residents in both directions, entry and exit to and from Gaza, is expected to begin tomorrow.”

On Dec. 3, Israel offered to reopen the Rafah Crossing to allow the exit of Gaza residents, but Egypt said no unless it opened in both directions.

On Sunday, dozens of Egyptian Red Crescent ambulances entered the Gaza Strip to prepare for evacuating wounded and sick Palestinians, Sky News Arabic reported, adding that hospitals in northern Sinai were ready to receive patients.

An Israeli security official told the outlet that the trial opening was underway but it remained unclear whether Gaza residents would be allowed to cross, while vehicles carrying Palestinian officials were seen arriving on the Egyptian side ahead of expected operations on the Gaza side.

In a statement on Friday, COGAT said exit from and entry into Gaza via Rafah will be conducted in coordination with Egypt, following Israeli security clearance and under the supervision of a European Union monitoring mission, similar to a mechanism used in January 2025.

“The Israeli Defense Ministry unit said the return of Gaza residents from Egypt will be permitted only for those who left the enclave during the war and after Israeli security approval. The move is part of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire reached in October 2025 between Israel and Hamas after two years of war.
IDF destroys arms-packed terror tunnel in south Gaza
Israel Defense Forces troops dismantled a tunnel stretching hundreds of meters in the Khan Yunis area, east of the ceasefire Yellow Line in the southern Gaza Strip, the military said on Sunday.

The tunnel contained three living quarters and dozens of weapons, including roughly 45 grenades, 35 ammunition magazines, 10 rifles, RPG rockets, an RPG launcher, around 10 explosive devices and six tactical vests.

“IDF troops under the Southern Command are deployed in the area in accordance with the ceasefire agreement and will continue to operate to remove any immediate threat,” the statement added.

The IDF said on Saturday that it struck four commanders and additional terrorists from Hamas and Islamic Jihad across the Gaza Strip, in response to a ceasefire violation the previous day in which terrorists were identified exiting tunnels in eastern Rafah.

The military said it also struck a Hamas weapons storage facility, an arms manufacturing plant and two launch sites in central Gaza.

“The terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip systematically violate international law, brutally exploiting civilian infrastructure and the Gazan population as human shields for terrorist activities,” the IDF said.

The military reiterated that Jerusalem views any violation of the agreement with “utmost seriousness” and will continue to act against any attempt to carry out terrorist attacks against IDF troops and Israeli civilians.


Israel Advocacy Movement: Muslim Poses as a Christian to Criticize Israel… Gets Exposed

Why ‘Deep Cuts’ Should Replace Odessa A’zion With Another Jewish Actor
Odessa A’zion recently announced she would be backing out of an upcoming film based on the novel “Deep Cuts.” Apparently her casting in the role of Zoe Gutierrez generated some social media uproar due to the fact that the character is half-Mexican, while A’zion is not at all Mexican.

TheWrap’s article on this story quoted a few of those complaining on X over A’zion’s casting: One said, “I can tell you right now there are thousands of beautiful, talented and passionate Mexican actors out there waiting for their big break … To see a white woman steal that opportunity in the current political climate is not only disgusting but also disheartening.”

Another suggested Melissa Barrera and Eiza Gonzalez as far better choices for the role, “over white girl Odessa A’zion,” since both are of Mexican descent.

None of those quoted mentioned that, while the character is half-Mexican, the character is also half-Jewish. And Odessa A’zion is Jewish.

Then, after A’zion backed out of the role, over 100 Latino creatives, including Eva Longoria and John Leguizamo, signed an open letter to Hollywood commending A’zion for exiting the project and condemning the system that cast her in the first place, saying it “exposed a troubling pattern.”

I agree with many of the points that the letter makes about the need for better Latino representation in Hollywood. But regarding this particular case of the casting of “Deep Cuts,” the letter did not mention that the character is half-Jewish and that A’zion is Jewish.

Why is the character’s Mexican half considered determinative, while her Jewish half is so inconsequential it doesn’t even bear mention?


Turning Point USA Disaffiliates Woman Who Verbally Attacked Jewish Students: Reports
The Turning Point USA chapter of Miami, Florida, has reportedly fired a right-wing influencer and University of Miami student who upbraided Jewish peers in a tirade in which she denounced them as “disgusting” while accusing rabbis of eating infants.

“Christianity, which says love everyone, meanwhile your Bible says eating someone who is a non-Jew is like eating with an animal. That’s what the Talmud says,” the social media influencer, Kaylee Mahony, yelled at members of Students Supporting Israel (SSI) who had a table at a campus fair held at the University of Miami. “That’s what these people follow.”

She continued, “They think that if you are not a Jew you are an animal. That’s the Talmud. That’s the Talmud.”

The Talmud, a key source of Jewish law, tradition, and theology, is often misrepresented by antisemitic agitators in an effort to malign the Jewish people and their religion.

Mahony can also be heard in video of the incident, which took place on Tuesday, responding to one of the SSI members, saying, “Because you’re disgusting. It’s disgusting.”

Students told The Miami Hurricane newspaper that she further charged that “rabbis eat babies” during the altercation.

Mahony, who has more than 125,000 followers on TikTok, was the head of public relations for the university’s College Republicans club and the head of social media for Turning Point USA’s Miami chapter, according to her LinkedIn.

However, The Miami Hurricane reported that College Republicans terminated Mahony’s membership in the club. And now it appears that Turning Point (TPUSA) has taken a similar step.

According to StopAntisemitism, a nonprofit which tracks antisemitic incidents across the world, Mahony is “no longer affiliated” with the organization and is now being investigated by the university to determine whether her comments violated its code of conduct.


Tribunal Decision challenged in Dr Abu-Sitta Case
The Professional Standards Authority (PSA) has confirmed that it is reviewing a decision of the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) concerning Dr Ghassan Abu-Sitta.

UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) has made a detailed submission to the PSA raising serious concerns about the decision and has

asked the PSA to consider referring it to the High Court under section 29 of the National Health Service Reform and Health Care Professions Act 2002.

UKLFI contends that extensive evidence was not properly presented or pursued by the General Medical Council (GMC). UKLFI had provided the GMC with detailed material, including numerous social media posts, public speeches, and published writings. The majority of this evidence was not put before the tribunal.

UKLFI also highlights what it describes as serious procedural and evidential failures by the GMC, including the omission of stronger allegations, failure to establish key facts such as dates of posts (even though evidence was provided to the GMC), and a lack of engagement with the complainant during case preparation. As a result, the Tribunal did not consider the full pattern of conduct alleged.

Section 29 of the National Health Service Reform and Health Care Professions Act 2002 gives the Professional Standards Authority (PSA) a statutory power to challenge decisions made by healthcare professional regulators and their tribunals, including the MPTS.

The power exists to protect the public where a regulator or tribunal decision is considered insufficient to achieve one or more of the following statutory objectives:
Protect the health, safety and wellbeing of the public
Maintain public confidence in the profession
Maintain proper professional standards and conduct

This power was previously used when the pharmacist, Nazim Ali, was acquitted by a Tribunal of antisemitism. The High Court ordered a reconsideration of the decision, and the Tribunal subsequently upheld two of the charges.


Britannica removes map labeling Israel as 'Palestine' after backlash
The Encyclopedia Britannica has removed a map from its Britannica Kids edition that labeled the territory of Israel as “Palestine,” following a complaint by a British pro-Israel legal group and media inquiry by The Telegraph.

The change came after criticism that the educational content effectively erased the State of Israel and promoted a politically charged narrative.

The map, published on the Britannica Kids website, showed the entire area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea as “Palestine,” with no mention of Israel. A caption accompanying the map read: “The name Palestine refers to a region in the Middle East. The region lies between the Jordan River and the Medi­ter­ranean Sea.”

The group UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) said the depiction echoed the controversial slogan “From the river to the sea,” widely used by pro-Palestinian activists and militant groups, including Hamas, to describe a future Palestinian state encompassing all of Israel. UKLFI argued that Britannica’s map promoted a modern political agenda and called for urgent corrections.

In its letter to the encyclopedia’s U.S.-based publishers, UKLFI wrote: “These descrip­tions effect­ively erase the exist­ence of Israel, which in fact lies between the River Jordan and the Medi­ter­ranean sea. By defin­ing Palestine as extend­ing unin­ter­rup­ted from the river to the sea, the entries closely mir­ror the lan­guage and geo­graphic fram­ing of con­tem­por­ary act­iv­ist slo­gans such as ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’. This phrase has been widely used as a ral­ly­ing cry for Palestinian ter­ror­ist groups and is con­tained in the 2017 charter of the Hamas ter­ror­ist group, which led the Octo­ber 7 attacks.”

Following a Telegraph inquiry, Britannica removed the map from its site and updated the entry to reflect that “Today the State of Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip are loc­ated within this area.”

The organization’s concerns were first raised in November 2024 by Shari Black, a London-based Jewish children’s book writer with family in Israel. Black contacted Britannica directly and received a response saying the editorial team would review the issue, but she said she was not informed of any resulting changes. “Accuracy is really important when you're writing books for children and I was surprised that such a respected website would publish historic inaccuracies like this,” Black told The Telegraph. “It pushes a certain agenda, an erasure of Israel, a delegitimization of the country—even though it was established by international concensus.”

UKLFI also objected to broader language used in Britannica Kids, which referred to “Palestine” as a historical term dating back thousands of years. Historians cited by The Telegraph questioned this portrayal, noting the term “Palestine” was introduced by the Roman Emperor Hadrian only after the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 CE to suppress Jewish identity in the region once known as Judea.


Over half of Europeans believe antisemitism is a problem in their country - poll
Over half of Europeans consider antisemitism to be a problem in their country, according to a European Commission poll published on Tuesday.

The Eurobarometer survey, published on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, asked over 26,000 EU residents about their levels of perceived antisemitism. Of those who responded to the poll, 55% believe that antisemitism is a problem on some level, up from 50% in 2018.

Nearly half of Europeans (47%) also said that they believed antisemitism had increased over the last five years. Almost 70% expressed a belief that the conflicts in the Middle East affected how Jews were perceived in their country.

France, Italy, Germany seen as having highest risk of physical attack on Jews
The highest percentages of people claiming that antisemitism was a problem in their country came from France (74%), Italy (73%), and Sweden (73%), while the countries with the highest percentages of people who believed that Jews were at risk of physical attack in their country were France (90%), Italy (81%), and Germany (74%).

Threats to Jews described within the survey included hostility and threats in public spaces, which 62% of responders considered a problematic manifestation of antisemitism in their country, antisemitic graffiti or vandalism of Jewish buildings (61%), and antisemitism online (61%).

Nearly half (48%) of survey participants thought that the Holocaust was taught sufficiently in schools, and the same percentage of people said they were unaware of legislation prohibiting Holocaust denial.
Survey: 1 in 4 Jewish professionals in Brazil witnessed antisemitism
Danni Mnitentag, co-founder of the movement Executives Against Antisemitism (ECOA), highlights the resilience of the Jewish people, including within the business environment.

ECOA emerged as a response to the rise of antisemitism in companies, with the mission of turning pain into action and impacting both the current and future generations. The project offers support to organizations on a pro bono basis—completely free and tailored to their available schedules—with a focus on education and awareness.

A survey conducted by the movement shows that 1 in 4 Jewish professionals reported having witnessed antisemitic situations in the workplace. Many incidents of prejudice, discrimination, and jokes targeting Jews are common, yet often ignored by companies.

Only 15% of companies have clear policies or are developing concrete initiatives against antisemitism. In most cases where incidents occurred, there were no corrective actions or reprimands from leadership.

For 83% of participants, antisemitism should be addressed more explicitly in corporate policies.
French man who threw 89-year-old Jewish neighbor from 17th floor faces trial
The trial of a 55-year-old man accused of killing his Jewish neighbor by throwing him from the 17th floor of a residential building is set to open Sunday in a court near Lyon, with judges expected to consider whether the crime was motivated by antisemitism.

The defendant is charged with the murder of René Hajaj, 89, who was killed in May 2022. Hajaj’s body was found at the foot of the apartment building where he lived. Investigators quickly arrested a neighbor who lived on the 17th floor and later admitted to pushing Hajaj from his balcony.

The defendant has acknowledged the act but claims it was committed in self-defense. He has denied any antisemitic intent, saying he was experiencing a paranoid psychotic episode at the time and believed the victim was trying to strangle him.

The question of motive — and whether antisemitism played a decisive role — is expected to be central to the proceedings in the coming days.

Two psychiatric evaluations found that the defendant’s judgment was impaired at the time of the killing but not abolished, meaning he remains criminally responsible under French law.

Jewish organizations, including the International League Against Racism and Antisemitism and the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France, have joined the case as civil parties. They argue the crime was clearly antisemitic and have drawn parallels to the 2017 killing of Sarah Halimi, another elderly Jewish woman murdered by a neighbor in Paris.
Maryland man who tried joining IS pleads guilty to planning attacks against Jews, Israel supporters
A Maryland man accused of planning attacks in the US against Jews and supporters of Israel has pleaded guilty to attempting to provide material support to a designated Foreign Terrorist Organisation.

Michael Teekaye, 22, engaged in multiple conversations with an undercover officer (UCO) between March and April 2023, in which he said he wanted to travel to Africa to join ISIS as a fighter.

Teekaye also told the UCO his “plan B” was to carry out an attack in the US against Jews and People who support Israel. He said he had researched buildings close to him that support Israel and had thought about how to “gun down members or anyone involved.”

In mid-2024, he purchased ammunition and range time in Maryland, which he told a UCO was part of his “training” for ISIS, and he then tried to purchase a Kalashnikov assault rifle but was denied due to probation from a state criminal case.

Teekaye then told the UCO he had engaged with a Somali ISIS fighter and had made plans to travel to Somalia to join ISIS. He sent the UCO screenshots of his travel itinerary and the visas he needed for the trip.


Italian venue cancels American metal band’s performance after frontman asks to remove Palestinian flag
A music venue in Italy cancelled an American metal band’s concert after the lead guitarist asked for a Palestinian flag to be removed from the stage.

Dylan Carlson of the historic Seattle-based drone metal band Earth reportedly asked if the Bologna venue TPO could take down a Palestinian flag from its stage just minutes before Earth’s scheduled concert there on Tuesday, which prompted the venue to call off the performance altogether.

According to the music blog Stereogum, the flag had been on display at the multi-purpose social centre since it hosted a cultural event for activist groups the previous weekend. Explaining the cancellation of Earth’s performance on Instagram, TPO Bologa wrote: “We've been asked to remove the Palestinian flag from the stage. It wasn’t a possibility for us. So we decided to cancel the concert.”

Organisers announced the cancellation on stage immediately before Earth was set to perform. TPO assured the audience that they would refund their tickets, but according to translations from Italian, they added: “It is a decisive political choice for spaces like ours, which just a few days ago hosted more than 700 people to discuss how to send this government we’re facing home, and all the kings of the world who make war in this damn world.” They concluded the announcement by leading the audience in chanting: “Free, free Palestine.”




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