Friday, February 06, 2026

02/06 Links Pt2: Melanie Phillips: The West’s pragmatic fallacy; The Smearing of Isaac Herzog; Why That Super Bowl Ad Hit a Nerve; Lawrence Bender: Feels ‘extra special’ making films about Israel

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: The West’s pragmatic fallacy
Pragmatism is fine within the guardrails of normative morality. But if it tears out those guardrails and throws them into the trash, then it goes belly-up.

Pragmatism has corrupted the West and exposed it to grave danger in one particularly graphic example. Qatar, an Islamist Muslim Brotherhood state, works to destabilize and ultimately conquer the West for Islam.

Accordingly, over the decades, it has insinuated itself into America and Britain, turning their universities into Islamic propaganda factories and buying up countless individuals in politics and the media.

As a result, instead of viewing Qatar as an enemy, America has treated it as a valuable ally. It used Qatar—the sponsor of Hamas—as an honest broker in the Israeli hostage negotiations, which is why they dragged on at the cost of countless hostages’ and Israeli soldiers’ lives.

And now, Qatar has pride of place on Trump’s Board of Peace—and is using all its influence to stop Trump from destroying the Iranian regime.

You might say that Qatar is the Jeffrey Epstein of world politics.

Dealing with the devil never ends well. Abandon principle for pragmatism, and everything goes smash. It’s a lesson the West clearly has yet to learn.
Starmer has broken his promise to sanction Hamas officials, British hostage families say
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has been accused by the families of British Gaza hostages of reneging on a pledge to sanction Hamas officials.

In September last year, days before the prime minister announced he would recognise a Palestinian state, he said new sanctions on individuals linked to Hamas would be imposed within weeks.

Nearly five months on, however, no measures have been announced.

Eight families of British hostages seized by Hamas on October 7 have written to Starmer seeking “urgent clarity” on when he will fulfil his commitment.

They claim the prime minister personally assured them at a Downing Street meeting on September 11 that sanctions against Hamas and other groups involved in anti-Jewish terrorism would be “deepened and widened”.

Starmer reiterated the pledge publicly days later in a speech announcing Palestinian statehood.

According to The Times, officials have admitted privately that there is no imminent sign of new penalties being imposed due to concern it could upset ongoing peace discussions.

Since Labour entered government in July 2024, there have not been any sanctions placed on individuals associated with Hamas, according to the Foreign Office website.

There are currently 30 individuals with links to the terror group under sanctions by the UK. The last time sanctions were imposed was in March 2024 under the Conservatives.

Some individuals based in Britain have been sanctioned by allied countries to the UK, such as Zaher Birawi whom the US accused of being a “senior official” in Hamas.

Birawi, who describes himself as a journalist, has organised pro-Palestine marches and assisted Greta Thunberg’s flotilla to Gaza.
PEN America, Advocate for 'Free Expression,' Withdraws Defense of Israeli Comedian Who Refused To Condemn Jewish State
PEN America, a self-described "free expression" advocacy group, withdrew its defense of the free speech rights of an Israeli comedian, Guy Hochman, whose New York City show was canceled after protesters blocked the entrance to the performance venue.

"On January 29, 2026, PEN America issued a statement on the abrupt cancellation of performances in New York and Los Angeles by an Israeli comedian, who has been accused by advocacy organizations of incitement to genocide in Gaza," the free speech group wrote in a Tuesday statement. "On further consideration, PEN America has decided to withdraw this statement. We remain committed to open and respectful dialogue about the divisions that arise in the course of defending free expression."

The organization initially issued a statement on Jan. 29 supporting Hochman, who served in the Israel Defense Forces and whose performances were canceled after anti-Israel agitation. A mob in New York City blocked the entrance and a Los Angeles venue demanded that he issue a statement accusing Israel of "genocide, rape, starvation, and torture of Palestinian civilians."

PEN America claims to advocate for "human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide," and initially called the mob action "a profound violation of free expression to demand artists, writers or comedians agree to ideological litmus tests as a condition to appear on a stage."

The group did not respond to a request for comment on why it backtracked.

PEN America’s board includes prominent writers, reporters, and literary figures, including the Atlantic’s George Packer, novelist Jodi Picoult, Harvard Law professor Jeannie Suk Gersen, Brooklyn Public Library CEO Linda E. Johnson, and Hachette Book Group CEO David Shelley. None of these board members responded to requests for comment.

The organization’s decision to withdraw its support for Hochman's right to perform free from mob interference comes after a long period of time in which it has backed up anti-Israel figures, including members of designated terrorist groups, as the watchdog group HonestReporting has shown. Its "Writers at Risk" list includes Khalida Jarrar, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror group; PFLP member Rasem Obaidat; and Ahed Tamimi, a Palestinian activist who wrote in a public message to Israelis: "We’ll slaughter you, and you’ll say that what Hitler did to you was a joke. We’ll drink your blood and eat your skulls."

PEN America has not, to this point, issued any withdrawals of its support for those individuals.


Seth Mandel: The Smearing of Isaac Herzog
In sum: Israel has been attacked by a terror state that is part of a coalition of foreign states, but it recognizes the existence of civilians among the population and will go out of its way to avoid harming them.

None of this is remotely controversial. But in his clumsy English, after calling Gaza “a state in a way,” Herzog called it “an entire nation that is responsible.”

That phrase was plucked by bad-faith actors seeking to manufacture a “genocidal intent” quote, even though nobody—especially the people manufacturing the smear—could find Herzog’s meaning confusing. And so, after saying Israel will separate “the enemy” from the “civilian population,” Herzog was accused of claiming there is no such thing as a civilian in Gaza. The ICC picked up the quote and added it to its “genocide” blood libel.

This sort of disinformation campaign was carried out all the time by an army of pro-Hamas social media trolls. Indeed, Herzog’s case is far from the most prominent. That award goes to the many outlets that spread the “Amalek” lie.

Early in the war, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referenced Amalek, the biblical avatars of eliminationist enemies of the Israelites, when talking specifically about Hamas. Reporters jumped on the comment and pretended Bibi was talking about all Palestinians. NPR, for example, claimed Netanyahu was referencing a line in one of the books of the Prophets about eliminating Amalek, but was forced to correct (sort of) the article when it was pointed out that Netanyahu quoted a line from Deuteronomy word for word that simply said: “Remember what Amalek did to you.”

You can see why these lies take off: No one pays much attention to the granular details of what the biblical verses actually say or mean. It sounds like nit-picking. And in politics, when you’re explaining, you’re losing.

But in this week’s coverage of Herzog’s looming visit, the Guardian took the disinformation to a new level. “Herzog’s initial bellicosity resonated,” the paper claimed. “The slogan ‘there are no uninvolved’ was subsequently chanted by Israeli soldiers deployed to Gaza, even written in Hebrew on an IDF watchtower in the West Bank.”

That sentence in the Guardian story links to… Bibi’s “Amalek” comment! There is no mention of Herzog at the link. The Guardian simply invented a story about Herzog influencing soldiers’ behavior.

So to recap. Terrorists fulfilling the directive to “globalize the intifada” committed a massacre of Jews celebrating Hanukkah in Sydney. As a gesture to the Jewish community, the government invited a ceremonial figure of Israeli consensus-building. And he will be greeted by raging anti-Semites and a few obnoxious politicians lending them legitimacy, all basing their criticisms of Herzog on a lie. We live in an era dominated by blood libels to an extent not seen since the Middle Ages.


Fact Sheet: Claims Israeli President Isaac Herzog “incited genocide” are baseless incitement
In the leadup to the visit to Australia by Israeli President Isaac Herzog, claims that he “incited genocide” in Gaza have been widely circulated. These claims are themselves baseless incitement.

The claim that Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza is false. The many measures Israel took to preserve civilian life, and the ratio of civilian casualties as against fighters, which compared favourably to other recent urban warfare campaigns, demonstrate unequivocally there was no genocide.

The specific claim against President Herzog was made by a UN Commission of Inquiry, which concluded in September 2025 that Herzog and others made ‘direct and public incitement to commit genocide.’ However, the report did not directly quote Herzog or provide any other evidence to show that Herzog made inciting remarks.

It has since been frequently repeated, including by Chris Sidoti, one of the Commissioners on that UN Commission, who wrote, in the Guardian on February 5, “Herzog made the statement that all Palestinians, ‘an entire nation’, are responsible for the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023.” However, this is a complete misrepresentation of what Herzog said.

The comments in question were made by President Herzog as he answered questions at a press conference six days after the October 7 atrocities, after he and all Israelis saw sickening footage of Hamas terrorists being cheered by huge mobs on the streets of Gaza as they paraded hostages and the bodies of slain Israelis, and crowds defiling the dead bodies and beating the hostages as they passed.

He said, “First of all, we have to understand there’s a state, there’s a state, in a way, that was a, that has built a machine of evil right at our doorstep. It’s an entire nation out there that is responsible. It’s not true this rhetoric about civilians were not aware, not involved, it’s absolutely not true. They could have risen up. They could have fought against that evil regime which took over Gaza in a coup d’etat, murdering their family members who were in Fatah.”

He appears to have been correctly noting that Hamas was not simply a terrorist group operating in Gaza, but was the government of Gaza, and had turned that territory into a terror statelet. He also uses the word “state” twice as well as “nation”, making it clear that he is referring to Hamas-run Gaza, not Palestinians as a people.

Moreover, in the same answer, Herzog also said, “We are working, operating militarily according to rules of international law, period. Unequivocally.”


Major donor walks out, pulls funding over show ‘repulsive’ to Jews
Sydney Festival has lost one of its major individual supporters, who says she walked out of a performance of the headline show of its 2026 program in disgust because it included repulsive comments about Israel and demeaned Holocaust victims.

Jacqui Scheinberg, a founding member of Sydney Festival’s ‘Director’s Circle’ donor group and inaugural member of its philanthropy committee, has withdrawn all future support for the event after seeing Nowhere, a monologue by actor Khalid Abdalla.

In an opinion piece for AFR Weekend, Scheinberg wrote that despite reassurances from the festival’s directors that Nowhere would “promote peace rather than division” she experienced the opposite during the show.

“I walked out midway in disgust, passing festival directors on my way out, after Abdalla repeatedly accused Israel of committing ‘genocide’ in Gaza and even of perpetrating another Holocaust,” Scheinberg writes of the show, which took the form of a monologue by the Scottish actor who has Egyptian heritage.

“That latter accusation is particularly repulsive and inexcusable. It is a form of Holocaust distortion, made all the more unconscionable as it was delivered just as we marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day ... even the charge of ‘genocide’ alone is not a neutral political critique. For Jews, it is a blood libel that grotesquely inverts history, demeans the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust and weaponises our collective trauma against us.”

Sydney Festival has become the latest in a series of arts organisations to face criticism from Australia’s Jewish community that they are platforming antisemitism. Adelaide Writers’ Week was cancelled last month after an author boycott, triggered by the disinvitation of a pro-Palestinian author who called for Zionists to be “denied cultural safety”.
ABC staff ordered not to delete emails ahead of Bondi royal commission
ABC staff have been ordered not to delete emails, photographs and documents relating to antisemitism, social cohesion and the Bondi terrorist attack ahead of an upcoming royal commission into the December massacre.

In a message to staff seen by this masthead, the ABC’s director of news Justin Stevens said the National Archives of Australia had issued “disposal freeze notices” to institutions including the ABC and SBS.

The orders inform staff that the public broadcaster is required to keep any document or record which could be relevant to the commission, including on social cohesion, antisemitism, religiously motivated extremism, radicalisation, law enforcement, border control, and the circumstances surrounding the Bondi attack.

Last month, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a royal commission into the devastating attack of December 14, which left 15 people dead.

Albanese initially opposed a federal inquiry, arguing that a NSW-based inquiry would be sufficient, but backtracked after criticism from across the political spectrum. Former High Court judge Virginia Bell was hand-picked to be commissioner, with the probe set to conclude before December 14, 2026.

The commission will investigate “the nature and prevalence of antisemitism in institutions and society... in Australia.”

Stevens told ABC employees that the message about keeping records was being sent “to all news staff to ensure we don’t inadvertently miss anyone, however, only some of you will have materials that are relevant.”
‘No basis whatsoever’: The ABC suggests it’s Herzog's fault a Sydney Mosque was threatened
Sky News host Caleb Bond calls out the ABC for spreading misinformation and insinuating a mosque being threatened was related to Herzog’s visit.

“The top story in the ABC's bulletin at the top of the hour was a threatening letter being sent to a mosque in Sydney that the police were investigating,” Mr Bond said.

“They then somehow connect that to the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, who's visiting Australia next week.

“It's odd for the ABC to link the two things as though they were somehow connected or one precipitated the other.

“That's basically what they seem to be suggesting by insinuation, which they've done with no basis whatsoever.”


Superbowl antisemitism advert is late 20th century response to 21st century problem
The most charitable thing I can say about this ad is that if it encourages even a few people to stand up for Jews, then it’s perhaps not a total waste of money. But the reaction of Jews to the ad in online spaces has been almost uniformly negative, and it’s not hard to see why.

The script is more wooden than your average shul bimah. The concept of using hashtags to advance social justice campaigns should be left in the 2010s where it belongs. The idea of a Jewish guy and black Muslim guy teaming up to counter the (white) racist bullies feels absurdly hackneyed in an era where black Muslim Youtubers can team up with far right Hispanic white supremacists to perform Nazi salutes as they sing a song called “Heil Hitler”, released by one of the most successful African American music artists of the 21st century.

Plenty of Jewish viewers are also smarting at the not-particularly-subtle message in the ad that they should simply walk away from antisemitic bigotry, rather than standing up to it. Jews in school are not, on the whole, having someone stick a note to their bags. They’re getting assaulted by people screaming at them that they’re ‘baby-killers’.

I do not have $15 million. But I’d be willing to bet a little bit of the small amount of money I do have that no one under the age of 35 was a major part of the process which led to this ad’s production. And I’m pretty sure I’d win.

The painful thing behind this ad is that the motive is obviously a good one. A wealthy Jewish person wants to fight antisemitism. And I’ve spent more than half this piece criticising the ad – the obvious riposte to that is that it’s easy to just condemn something without offering an alternative.

Without wanting to go full Tevye, if I had that kind of money and wanted to fight antisemitism, what would I do? I’d engage directly with Gen Z and Gen Alpha. I’d announce a $15 million annual initiative to fund the best ideas from our younger generations on how to tackle antisemitism. God knows our community is full of young, bright, ambitious people with ideas – why not give them the chance to make those ideas a reality? Make it like Dragons’ Den (Shark Tank, for American viewers) and invite people to come in and present their full and detailed plans on how to combat Jew-hatred. Many of those ideas won’t be good ones. Some will be. And a few could be game-changers.

Instead of funnelling money into ads, or into legacy Jewish organisations in America which have, regrettably, dropped the ball in so many different ways – empower those who know how young people think because they are young themselves.

This is not the first Superbowl ad that Kraft’s Blue Square Alliance Against Hate has run, but it really should the last. It’s time to stop coming up with late 20th-century solutions to 21st-century problems.

And best of luck to the Patriots, Robert.


Waiting for Bilal
Now, look: Robert Kraft—this can’t be said sincerely or loudly enough—is a good man who cares deeply about the Jewish people and has done more than most to show it. And Kraft made his own money. He made his money in America. America is a great and godly country, which means he’s free to spend his shekels as he pleases.

But the new ad is so offensive not only because it blows—or because, in reality, prominent American Muslims have spent the past three years acting very un-Bilal-like and drumming up everything from modern-day blood libels to violent antisemitic pint-sized pogroms on college campuses—but also because of what it tells us about the mindset of so much of organized Judaism these days.

Here’s a story that captures this mindset perfectly. The other day, I was attending a social gathering and fell into conversation with an executive of one of the country’s largest and most well-endowed Jewish organizations. The official said that the organization believed, based on its expert data, that no message resonated more loudly than victimhood, which was why they were focusing on telling donors, partners, and anyone who would listen stories about quivering Jewish children, wary of the next attack and in need of help and rescue.

In other words, the executive was saying that their organization, too, was telling the story of David and Bilal, the quivering Jew begging the righteous gentile to come in and save the day.

Respectfully, fuck that.

You would think that nearly three years of ramped-up antisemitism surging in from all corners would make these so-called communal leaders wiser. You would think that scores of milquetoast rallies—always featuring progressive clergy delivering some soapy universalist message but rarely a bearded rabbi delivering a genuine Dvar Torah—would’ve proven by now that appealing to the kindness of strangers, and focusing on liberal strangers exclusively at that, was a recipe for annihilation. You would think that the men and women who declare themselves our wiser, savvier leaders and who hold vast chunks of our collective communal fortune would wake up by now.

And along comes this ad to show us that the old establishment Jewish organizations aren’t just dozing—they died in their sleep a long time ago.

Forgive me, then, for not being able to match Kraft dollar for dollar. But since we Jews were never short on imagination, close your eyes and picture this, Liel Leibovitz’s ad for Super Bowl LX:

Int. A kitchen in Beirut. Day.

Middle Eastern music is playing in the background, interrupted by the trill of a beeper bouncing around the kitchen table. A man approaches the table. We only see his midriff. He’s dressed in black and carrying an AK-47. He picks up the beeper, looks at it, and places it on his belt, next to his groin. We hear a loud explosion. The screen goes bright white. Loud music comes on. It’s “Tamid Ohev Oti.” Cut to:

Int. Fighter jet cockpit.

We see an Israeli Air Force captain flying his plane.

IAF captain:

“Tally Target 12 o’clock. Welcome to Tehran, boys.”

Int. Living room somewhere. Night.

A television screen is running a series of news reports about the killings of Hassan Nasrallah, Ismail Haniyeh, Mohammed Deif, Yahya Sinwar, and other murderous terrorists.

Ext. IDF base. Day.

A group of hot IDF soldiers is standing around, cleaning weapons, getting ready for action. Cut to:

Black screen. Caption: “Don’t Like Jews? Fuck Around, Find Out.”

This is too much Jewish pride and joy and confidence and purpose than the good men and women of storied Jewish institutions can take. So let them keep on waiting for Bilal, but let us, in turn, pick up the fight they long ago abandoned.


Why That Super Bowl Ad Hit a Nerve
I’ve watched the new Super Bowl ad about standing up to Jewish hate dozens of times now to make sure I’m not missing why so many people hate it. I can see why some think it’s mawkish, and why my dear friend and colleague Liel Leibovitz would like an ad about ending Jewish hate to be about ending Jewish haters, like Israel did with Hezbollah and Hamas. Personally, I’d much prefer if the Jewish kid in the ad picked out the bigger of the two bullies harassing him and dropped the guy. “Jab, jab, cross,” he tells his proud father picking him up from school after he’s been suspended for a week. “And I pulled the hook, dad—just like you taught me.”

But the ad, paid for by New England Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft, is an eerily accurate allegory for what antisemitism looks like today in America, or at least one aspect of it.

Sure, Jewish kids are most likely to get harassed, or threatened, or chased through the halls, or hit by someone wearing a keffiyeh and shouting Free Palestine. But the voluble denials from prominent right-leaning social media accounts that Jew-hate has found a host among whites, conservative whites, GOP-voting whites—actually we’re the best friends the Jews ever had!—seems to be a tacit acknowledgment that they may recognize themselves or colleagues in the ad.

Consequently, the objection seems designed to obscure a fact that’s plain to anyone who’s ever visited Elon Musk’s website: There is a large and influential group of white podcasters and media personalities, many of them aligned with MAGA, who have made Jew hate their brand. Indeed, the vertical is so crowded that some of its stewards, like Nick Fuentes, are keen to distinguish their kind of obsessive Jew hate from low-brow knuckle-dragging Jew haters like Jake Shields.

But it’s just a race to the bottom, where you find Tucker Carlson, whose reputation as MAGA’s most famous influencer sustains the financial and cultural viability of the entire white Jew-hate cohort. Their target, above all, has been normal-looking white kids, preppies like the ones in the 60-second spot, dressed in khakis and baseball caps like they’ve just left a Turning Point USA event, and who have become a very visible and significant bloc in the current Jew-hate movement.


Israel team marches to smattering of boos at Milan Winter Olympics opening ceremony
Israel’s Olympic team walked into the stadium during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics opening ceremony on Friday to a smattering of boos at what had otherwise been an upbeat and festive celebration of the global winter sports extravaganza.

The Israeli delegation, waving the country’s flag and smiling, marched into the San Siro stadium during the parade of participating countries with the boos quickly drowned out by the loud soundtrack.

In Cortina d’Ampezzo, where a simultaneous parade was held for competitors located in the mountain cluster, Israel’s athletes earned some cheers, while in Predazzo, site of the ski jumping venue, there were some boos heard.

Israeli athletes said prior to the opening ceremony they were prepared for a potentially hostile reception following the war against Hamas in Gaza.


Global social-workers federation to vote on expelling Israeli union
The International Federation of Social Workers, a global umbrella organization representing about 3 million social workers through more than 150 national member associations, will hold a special online meeting on Feb. 18 to vote on whether to suspend or expel the Israeli Union of Social Workers.

The motion, proposed in October by the Irish Social Workers Union and seconded by the Hellenic and Spanish Unions, will only address the Israeli union, which represents roughly 5,000 social workers. A 75% majority of members present and voting is required, and each member organization is entitled to one voting representative.

The motion’s sponsors will have 30 minutes to “present their concerns,” followed by a 30-minute response from the Israeli union.

In a Jan. 19 report to member organizations, Pascal Rudin, interim secretary general of IFSW, outlined the proposal, which calls on the federation to “condemn the genocide in Gaza,” demand a ceasefire and immediately suspend cooperation with Israeli state, professional and academic institutions operating in what it described as “illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories,” including Ariel University.

The Jewish Social Worker Consortium described the planned vote as “a clear escalation in selective enforcement,” citing what it called “coordinated pressure by anti-Zionist organizations” to push member groups to endorse the Israeli union’s expulsion.

The group called on the IFSW to halt the vote and urged the U.S.-based National Association of Social Workers, a member organization with over 120,000 members, “to reject endorsement of expulsion and to affirm that ethical accountability must be conduct-based, not identity-based.” The U.S. association has not commented publicly.

Member organizations from Switzerland, Germany and the Dominican Republic have submitted their statements in advance of the meeting, recommending dialogue or suspension rather than expulsion.
Meet the Next Chair of the Harvard History Dept, Who Called Trump 'Narcissist White Supremacist Habitual Liar Lunatic’
In the conflict between the federal government and the Trump administration, Jasanoff has been dismissive of concerns about Harvard's anti-Semitism. In a May television appearance, Jasanoff said, "what we are seeing from the Trump administration is a wholesale attack. ... to try to knock down this bulwark of American democracy, of American liberal society." When an MS Now personality asked Jasanoff about what he called Israel's use of pagers against "innocent Lebanese people"—the pagers actually targeted Hezbollah terrorists—Jasanoff replied, "I very much appreciate your question," and denounced "the way in which anti-Semitism was instantly wielded as a charge against these protesters." She defended the anti-Israel protesters, saying, "it must be noted that they themselves were victimized by all kinds of doxxing and other assaults on their freedom."

"Not only Jewish students, but of course Muslim students, Arab students, pro-Palestinian students were also being thrown into positions of great politicized persecution in the wake of the October 7th attacks," Jasanoff said.

Jasanoff is a member of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), a group that in 2024 reversed its longstanding position and endorsed the use of academic boycotts as a weapon against Israel. As an AAUP member, she participated in a 2025 lawsuit on behalf of Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent leader of the anti-Semitic Columbia University Apartheid Divest who served as a lead negotiator with Columbia during the illegal 2024 encampments. "The ideological-deportation policy has harmed Jasanoff's ability to hear from her noncitizen colleagues and students. She has recently observed that noncitizen colleagues and students are reluctant to speak publicly about politics and world affairs out of concern that they will be targeted for ideological deportation," the suit claimed.

Jasanoff's mother is Sheila Sen Jasanoff, who is Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies at the Harvard Kennedy School. Her father is Jay Jasanoff, who is Diebold Professor of Indo-European Linguistics and Philology, Emeritus in the Harvard Department of Linguistics. Both parents got bachelor's and doctorate degrees from Harvard, and Jasanoff graduated from Harvard College in 1996. A Harvard Magazine article about them was headlined, "It Runs in the Family: Three Jasanoff Professors at Harvard." It's not Maya Jasanoff's fault who her parents are, yet at the same time, Harvard's habit of preferring Harvard candidates for jobs is widely mocked at other universities, which see it as a kind of unhealthy inbreeding more appropriate to downwardly mobile European royalty than to a meritocratic modern research university. (One Harvard medical school professor was a descendant of four generations of Harvard medical school professors, including one who served as dean from 1864 to 1869.) Jasanoff told Mary Julia Koch of the Harvard Independent in a 2021 interview that ending up as a Harvard faculty member was "a total fluke" and that she'd been "extremely lucky."

Daniel Pipes, whose own father was Harvard history professor Richard Pipes, cited Jasanoff as an example in a fall 2021 article attributing Harvard history's decline to an excess of endowed chairs: "Many university-based historians have no need to attract students or readers. Assured funding from endowed chairs liberates them from having to address anyone other than fellow professional historians. Deans do not demand they fill classrooms; spouses do not clamor for royalties." At the time, Jasanoff had three endowed chairs: "Simultaneously the X.D. and Nancy Yang Professor, the Coolidge Professor of History, and Harvard College Professor. Jasanoff emulates the late sultan of Oman, for he served as prime minister, minister of defense, foreign affairs, and finance, and supreme commander of the armed forces and police."
Federal judge orders Carnegie Mellon to disclose Qatari funding in Jew-hatred lawsuit
A federal judge has ordered Carnegie Mellon University to turn over discovery materials related to nearly $1 billion in funding from the Qatari government amid an ongoing civil rights lawsuit alleging antisemitic discrimination against a Jewish student.

The order stems from a lawsuit that Yael Canaan, a former student at the private Pittsburgh school, filed against the school, alleging that it violated Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act by failing to address antisemitic harassment and retaliating after she raised complaints.

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania ruled that Qatar’s financial and contractual ties with the university are relevant to determining whether foreign influence affected how Jewish civil-rights complaints were handled on campus.

The Lawfare Project, which represents Canaan, announced the ruling earlier in the week, calling it a major procedural victory.

“Foreign governments with appalling human-rights records are funding the very offices meant to protect students’ civil rights,” stated Ziporah Reich, director of litigation at The Lawfare Project and counsel for Canaan. “This should alarm every parent, every student, and every policymaker in this country.”

Reich said the court recognized that foreign government funding “is not peripheral, but potentially central, to understanding how civil-rights laws are applied on campus,” a determination she said could open “the door for courts nationwide to examine whether hostile foreign state interests are shaping institutional behavior in ways that undermine U.S. law.”

Reich told JNS that, as noted in court findings and allegations in the amended complaint, a portion of the salary of Carnegie Mellon’s assistant vice provost for diversity, equity and inclusion—who also served as the university’s Title IX coordinator—was funded by Qatar.
2 month suspension for doctor who shared posts blaming ‘Zionists’ for 9/11 and World Wars
An NHS doctor who shared videos claiming that “Zionists” were responsible for 9/11 as well as both World Wars has been suspended for two months by a medical tribunal, in a decision branded a “profoundly pathetic slap on the wrist.”

The hearing into the conduct of Dr Najmiah Ahmad, which began last month, was set to “inquire into the allegation that, in or around December 2023 to January 2024, Dr Ahmad reposted two comments on social media, one of which included an image, which were objectively antisemitic, seriously offensive and motivated by racial or religious hostility and/or prejudice against Jews.”

One of the posts shared by Ahmad, a consultant working for the NHS’s Frimley Health foundation trust in Surrey, said: “The Zionist owned-and-controlled mainstream media has suppressed this important story for years. Are you surprised? 9/11 was an inside job, The Zionist owned-and-controlled US government was complicit.”

As revealed by the ‘GnasherJew’ social media account, other posts shared by Dr Ahmad included a video referring to America in late 2023, saying that “in the exact same way as Zionists lit a fire in Germany to get the German Jews to go to Palestine, the Zionists are doing the exact same thing in the United States right now…the whole goal of World War I and World War II was to create Israel and to destroy strong sovereign nations like Germany, Italy and Japan and create a one-world government.” Ahmad shared the video, writing “I’ve always wanted to know why Hitler was hellbent on killing.”

In another post, Ahmad shared a video on “The hidden history of the incredibly evil Khazarian mafia”, by two contributors to the Neo-Nazi ‘Veterans Today’ website. The DR shared it with the caption “for my own watching. Learning each day.”


Former UN Palestinian aid official contributing to outlet that features Hamas content
Jonathan Whittall, a former senior U.N. official from South Africa, recently began contributing articles to Drop Site News, an online outlet widely viewed as a mouthpiece for the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip.

Whittall led the Palestinian branch of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) from 2022 until the summer of 2025, when Israeli authorities declined to renew his visa, accusing him of “biased and hostile conduct.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar stated at the time that Whittall “distorted reality, presented falsified reports, slandered Israel and even violated the U.N.’s own rules of neutrality.”

OCHA regularly disseminates casualty and humanitarian data from the Gaza Health Ministry, which is administered by Hamas. The agency does not consistently identify the ministry as being run by the U.S.-designated terrorist organization.

The former envoy has long been critical of Jerusalem, including during his tenure with Doctors Without Borders. He often describes Israel as a settler-colonial state and accuses it of practicing apartheid.

Whittall has written at least three reports for the independent news startup, which debuted in July 2024, and has promoted exclusive interviews with Hamas officials and published Hamas statements in full. Its critics have said the outlet, which has described Hamas as a “resistance” movement, does not challenge claims made by the group.


Damascus synagogue reopened by rabbi who wants to revive Jewish community in Syria
An abandoned synagogue in Syria has been reopened by a rabbi who hopes to bring back to life the country’s once-thriving Jewish community under the recently installed new regime.

The Franje shul in the Old City of the capital Damascus was built by Sephardic Jews who had fled Spain after the expulsion in the 15th century.

On Wednesday, it was formally reopened by Rabbi Michael Eilyahu Houry, who told the JC he is seeking to revive Jewish life in Syria.

The community numbered around 100,000 at the turn of the last century but is now all but extinct, with just seven Jews believed to be left.

The Tunisian rabbi said: “The main reason for my visit to Syria is to help ensure the return of Jews to Syria.”

He says he has the backing of the country’s new president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, the former al-Qaeda fighter who has been seemingly rehabilitated as a legitimate politician.

Speaking at the rededication of the synagogue that lies hidden away on a side street in the millennia-old city, Rabbi Houry made what would until recently have an unthinkable claim: “I believe that Jews in Syria would have a very good life. They would be safer here than in Europe.”

He added: “From a religious point of view, Islam is very close to Judaism. Today, Jews do not feel comfortable in other countries.”

Although the synagogue has stood largely unused for decades, much of the interior has survived intact, with old menorahs, Torah scrolls and psalm books still inside.


Plaque honoring Nazi ally removed from Broadway — and Jewish groups are outraged that it may be coming back
The city removed a plaque honoring a convicted Nazi collaborator on Broadway’s Canyon of Heroes after deeming it a “tripping hazard” — and Jewish groups are outraged over a plan to return it, sources said Friday.

“It’s like putting asbestos back in a building,” Menachem Rosensaft, General Counsel Emeritus of the World Jewish Congress, told The Post. “It’s even worse than ignoring it.”

The ticker tape parade marker honoring Pierre Laval — a former Prime Minister of France responsible for sending 70,000 jews from France to Nazi death camps during World War II — was temporarily yanked in November due to safety concerns, according to Rosensaft and past reports.

The plaque, along with 28 others that were temporarily removed due to shifting and freezing pavement, is set to be put back in place on lower Broadway after repairs.

But Rosensaft and other advocates want the markers of Laval — along with that of Henri Philippe Pétain, a former high-ranking French military officer and Nazi collaborator — removed once and for all.

“These two are anything but heroes. They are the opposite: They are villains in the truest sense of the term,” Rosensaft said.

“They are knowingly complicit in the Holocaust,” he said.

“In 1942 and 1943, they were responsible for detaining, rounding up and deporting over 70,000 jews from France to their deaths in Nazi death camps such as Auschwitz.”

“There’s no ambiguity. After the war in 1945, they were tried and convicted as war criminals,” said Rosensaft, who is also an adjunct professor at Cornell Law School.
Tennessee firebombing suspect charged with aiding Hezbollah
A Tennessee man already indicted on a neo-Nazi-linked firebombing charge was hit on Thursday with an additional count of providing support for Hezbollah.

Regan Darby Prater, 27, was indicted by a grand jury last year on charges of firebombing the Highlander Center, a nonprofit research and education center in New Market, Tenn., which, in part, trains civil-rights activists.

Prater pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors say that he spray-painted the Iron Guard, a symbol of a World War II-era Romanian Nazi organization, in the building’s parking lot, and was inspired by the 2019 mosque shootings by an Australian man in Christchurch, New Zealand, which left 51 people dead and wounded 40 others.

An FBI agent says in court documents that Prater participated extensively in neo-Nazi online group chats.

On Thursday, prosecutors added a second count of attempted provision of material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. The filing alleges that in late October 2019, Prater knowingly attempted to provide “a list of personally identifiable information for individuals purportedly affiliated with the government of Israel, to a foreign terrorist organization.”

That organization is identified as Hezbollah in the filing.
Lawrence Bender: Feels ‘extra special’ making films about Israel
Lawrence Bender, who produced “Inglorious Basterds” and “Pulp Fiction,” won the Israel Film Festival’s 2026 visionary award earlier this week for the four-part television series about the Oct. 7 attacks “Red Alert,” of which he was executive producer.

“I’ve been making movies for many decades now,” Bender told JNS on the red carpet at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills, Calif., on the festival’s opening night on Feb. 4. “But nothing could have prepared me for what happened on Oct. 8.”

Bender said that it feels “really great” to receive the award. “When I’m doing something with Israel, it makes me feel extra special,” he told JNS.

While filming in Israel last year—his first time in the Jewish state since Oct. 7—the producer, who is used to doing the shooting, experienced being shot at.

“I’ve never had someone shoot an intercontinental ballistic missile towards me,” he told JNS. “It’s very odd. It’s a messed up feeling.”

He added on the red carpet that the show was “life changing” for him and that he was “honored” to have the “real people that the actors were playing” on set as they filmed. The show had strong ratings in Israel, and Paramount-plus was “very happy,” he said.


Cardinal Timothy Dolan on Immigration, Trump & the New Pope.
For the last 17 years, Timothy Cardinal Dolan has been the face and de facto leader of the Catholic Church in America. All that changes tomorrow when Ronald Hicks of Chicago becomes the new Archbishop of New York. So a few days ago, in his final week on the job, I sat down with Cardinal Dolan in his stripped-down Manhattan office for an exclusive exit interview.

There’s a bluntness to Cardinal Dolan that’s often refreshing, regardless of your religion or political affiliation. And that bluntness has been a powerful tool of late. Perhaps as much as any time in living memory, our political debates are religious ones.

Dolan has devoted a substantial part of his tenure working to combat antisemitism, particularly among Catholics and far-right influencers who profess the faith. “Antisemitism is a grave sin, the work of Satan himself,” he wrote in The Free Press last year. “The devil hopes to divide God’s people, to make them fear and eventually hate each other.”

Last year, Dolan formally submitted his resignation to Pope Francis upon hitting the retirement age of 75. But Dolan was reputed to have worked skillfully behind the scenes to install Pope Leo as the first American Pope, so many church observers were surprised when Leo accepted the resignation in December instead of letting Dolan stay on.

What does Dolan say about that? Well, you can watch the video to find out.

Dolan is one of the last old-school, backslapping politicians—quick with a joke, and even quicker to remember your name and how he knows you. He’s been on the scene long enough to see the whole parade of history, and here takes a step back to reflect on it.




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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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