Thursday, February 12, 2026

02/12 Links Pt2: Natan Sharansky: Why I'm Optimistic about the Jewish Future; The BBC rewrites the history of Jews in Morocco; Trump invited to receive Israel Prize in Jerusalem

From Ian:

Natan Sharansky: Why I'm Optimistic about the Jewish Future
"Jewish children have to be reminded how much strength the Jewish people have; you will not find anything like the story of the Jewish people," Natan Sharansky, who served 9 years in a Soviet prison, told the Jerusalem Post on Monday.

After the Six-Day War, when Jews in the Soviet Union began to connect to Israel and learn about their identity, "You discover that there is a great history that you want to be a part of. There are great people, there is a great country."

"Then, there suddenly appear values in your life which are bigger than survival, than political career, professional career, and then you have enough strength to say publicly that you want to go to Israel; that you want to be Jewish."

While working as Israel's interior minister, he realized that the "Free World" was not as free as he thought.

"In 2003, I had my trip as a minister of Israel to certain different universities; it was the time of the Second Intifada. I discovered that there are more and more Jews in the best universities in America - at Harvard, in Columbia, in Berkeley - who want very much to express their solidarity with Israel, but they're afraid that it will condemn their careers."

Sharansky then wrote an article published in Maariv called "Traveling to Occupied Territory," referring to the American universities.

This was "the most important battle for the future of the Jewish people, because our survival depends on whether we have a proud, strong Jewish identity."

"I believe that our history, our very tragic history, is very optimistic. You will not find anything like this. Not in terms of survival of a people, not in terms of rebuilding after thousands of years and gathering in exiles and rebuilding the state. So yes, I am optimistic."
Bret Stephens: We Jews Have the Honor of Being Hated
This article is adapted from the author’s “State of World Jewry Address,” delivered on February 1, 2026, at the 92nd Street Y.

After Édouard Manet caused a firestorm in the late 1860s with his politically provocative paintings The Execution of Maximilian, he got a consoling note from his friend, the poet and critic Charles Baudelaire. “Monsieur,” Baudelaire wrote, “it seems you have the honor of inspiring hatred.”

And that, in a sentence, is also the state of world Jewry in 2026. The Jewish people—Israeli Jews and Diaspora Jews; observant Jews and secular ones; right-wing Jews and left; all of us together; all of us, ultimately, in the same boat, whether we like each other or not—have the honor of being hated.

We should take it as a compliment, just as Baudelaire intended it.

We have the honor of being hated by the people who say “Zio” when what they mean to say is “Jew.” We have the honor of being hated by the campus lemmings chanting anti-Semitic slogans whose meaning most of them aren’t bright enough to understand—though some of them understand it perfectly well. We have the honor of being hated by Ali Khamenei, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and other despots whose loathing of Jews is directly proportionate to their crimes against their own people. We have the honor of being hated by Nick Fuentes, Candace Owens, Alice Walker, Roger Waters, Francesca Albanese, Tucker Carlson—the out-and-out Jew-haters and their sly enablers. We have the honor of being hated by those who think Jesus was a Palestinian. We have the honor of being hated by the so-called feminists who downplayed the rape of Israeli women on and after October 7, and by the so-called progressives who denied it. We have the honor of being hated by virtually every political movement, left or right, that also opposes the idea of personal merit as an organizing social principle. We have the honor of being hated by UN mandarins who would like you to know that the preponderance of human rights violations are committed by one small country: Israel. We have the honor of being hated by “Queers for Palestine,” who have neglected to notice what happens to queers in Palestine. We have the honor of being hated by the Hamas water carriers masquerading as reporters at the BBC and other media. We have the honor of being hated by all the Hollywood celebrities who see nothing amiss with demanding boycotts of Israeli artistic institutions but not of, say, Chinese ones. We have the honor of being hated by our charming new mayor, who thinks that he can endorse the erasure of one state and one state only, the Jewish state, and still acquit himself of the charge of anti-Semitism. We have the honor of being hated by people who parade their so-called Jewishness only when it serves as a tool to defame and endanger half the Jewish people—as if they’ll be spared the furies should, God forbid, Israel someday fall.

In short, we have the honor of being hated by an axis of the perfidious, the despotic, the hypocritical, the cynical, the deranged, and the incurably stupid. What shall we do with all this hatred—other than to take it as a badge of honor and turn it to our advantage?
Melanie Phillips: The deepening madness against the Jews
In a thoughtful but provocative lecture last week at New York’s 92nd Street Y, New York Times columnist Bret Stephens said that since antisemitism is immune to rational engagement, Diaspora Jews should stop trying to defeat it. Instead, they should concentrate on building and maintaining thriving Jewish communities devoted to instilling Jewish knowledge and culture among their young.

Building up Jewish identity and peoplehood is indeed absolutely critical. However, that’s no reason to abandon the fight against the madness engulfing the West.

First, Jews have a duty to bear witness against such a monstrosity and to stand up for truth and justice. Second, it’s wrong to cast the issue as antisemitism. While anti-Jewish feeling is certainly at its core, it expresses itself through anti-Zionism. And this has gained such traction because it uses claims that purport to be observable facts.

Even though these are wildly distorted and false, they derive from actual events, such as the war in Gaza, which gives these claims a level of plausibility. That has persuaded many who are not antisemites to believe them as true, and therefore to hate Israelis and Zionism.

Those lies can and should be fought. Indeed, anti-Zionism is an evil in itself and should be attacked as such.

It is bizarre and wrong to single out one country for double standards—to demonize it alone by wall-to-wall lies and distortions, to deny to one people alone the right to their own ancestral homeland. Anti-Zionism should be fought as a form of bigotry in itself.

But while there are good reasons for not publicly identifying this onslaught as antisemitism, the fact remains that bigotry against a country doesn’t have the same level of evil as bigotry against a people—and this bigotry only happens with Jews.

We need to face squarely what we’re up against. Jew-hatred isn’t just another kind of prejudice or racism. It’s a unique desire to rid the world of a people because their very existence is felt to be unbearable.

Such haters don’t think Jews are victims because they don’t behave as victims. They are instead conspicuously successful. This inspires resentment and jealousy among Westerners, who therefore think claims of antisemitism and Jewish victimization must be a Jewish scam to sanitize Jewish wrongdoing.

And the really terrible reason that the murderous attacks on Jews incite and inspire such Westerners to double down with calls for more attacks on Jews is that, like the Islamists, they believe they’re now within sight of their goal to get rid of the “Jewish problem” once and for all.

They treat as gospel what’s said by the entire global humanitarian establishment that has framed the demonization of Israel and dehumanization of Zionists as “anti-racism” and has cast Israel and its supporters as pariahs. They hear no push-back whatever from the lily-livered liberals and revolutionary fellow travelers that form the governments of Britain and France, Canada and Australia.

Hypocritically wringing their hands about Bondi, Manchester and Oct. 7—and professing falsely that there’s no place for antisemitism in their own countries while doing nothing to stop it—these governments parrot propaganda that incites hatred of Israel and have given way to Islamist intimidation and cultural creep at home.

So Jew-haters think their time has come. If they now pile in to kick the Jews in the gut when they’re down and vulnerable, they may get rid of them altogether from their heads, their conscience and their world.

In other words, the Jews are facing a cultural war against them. The proper response to such a war is not to give up or deflect it. It is to fight back better.
Seth Mandel: Define ‘Anti-Zionism’
Recent Jewish intracommunal debates have focused on the lack of a common definition for “Zionism.” But what would be more useful at this point is for the adherents of “anti-Zionism” to define the term by which they self-identify.

A Jewish Federations of North America survey making waves this week contended that only a third of American Jews publicly categorize themselves as Zionists. When you dug into the poll questions, however, you saw quickly that 90 percent of U.S. Jews are Zionists—the gap is between them and the number who self-identify as such. Nine out of 10 respondents believe Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish state, and therefore are Zionists whether they are comfortable saying so or not. The rest either have a different definition of Zionism or are intimidated by peers into avoiding the word.

Zionism is a specific term that, at its core, revolves around one concept: Israel’s existence. It can conjure all sorts of other ideas, emotions and affiliations. So for many Jews, belief in Israel’s existence might be the necessary ingredient of Zionism but it isn’t sufficient to describe their own worldview.

As interesting as this discussion is, then, it doesn’t get into a much bigger quandary: Jewish anti-Zionism. Or, rather, Jewish “anti-Zionism.”

Zionism and anti-Zionism are not opposites. Anti-Zionism isn’t Zionism’s evil twin, even if it might be evil. The two terms aren’t even the same species: Zionism is a concept and anti-Zionism is an ideology.

This isn’t unusual. “Anti-Semitism” isn’t the opposite of “Semitism,” which isn’t really a thing outside of esoteric linguistic trivia. But it can be confusing. Any coherent definition of anti-Zionism died in 1948, because it only makes sense if the question of Jewish statehood has not yet been answered.

But it is undeniable that there are many people who call themselves anti-Zionists. So what do they actually believe? This is a lot less clear than what Zionists believe.

In the wake of the Jewish Federations survey cited above, JTA interviewed Robbie Gringras, who co-leads a project with Abi Dauber Sterne in which the two interview self-described Jewish anti-Zionists. “I have a feeling many more of these pieces are now going to come out,” Gringras said. Get ready for this discussion to take a central place in Jewish communal discourse, in other words.

Gringras and others, such as the social researcher Janet Aronson, talked about engagement with anti-Zionists in the context of two opposing sides of an argument. For her part, Araonson doesn’t think that’s likely to work.

“For these highly engaged anti-Zionists who have gone through serious Jewish education and involvement, they actually have already heard all of the arguments that mainstream Judaism has to present,” she said. “I think that’s one of the reasons why they say, ‘We don’t need to hear your side.’ Because they’ll say, ‘We have learned it. You’ve taught it to us and we reject it.’”

But that strikes me as a mistake. I don’t believe many anti-Zionists know what they believe.


One-on-one with the President
Across the West – and Australia is no different – a lot of Jews feel that institutions we once trusted, universities, arts festivals, cultural bodies, the media have failed the Jews, especially since October 7, leading to what happened in Bondi. How do we reverse or fix this?

It’s a long, drawn out process that actually enjoyed an oversight by many who didn’t alert, who were silent, who didn’t want to do anything about it, who were not tough enough, even when the [university] encampments went in following October 7 and the whole apparatus in what I call the eighth frontier against Israel, which is the public opinion and the digital sphere and the public sphere campaigns against us.

It is something that runs very deep. There has to be a change, a deep change in the way, for example, universities function. I have friends telling me they can’t open their mouth and express the fact that they are Zionists who believe in Israel and its right to exist and to protect itself and defend itself. Because they won’t be able to be promoted in campuses, for example, they won’t be able to sit on committees or enjoy their professional success because of their personal views on Israel.

This is outrageous, and I think now is the moment, I think, post-December 14. Bondi is a watershed, and because it’s a watershed – it’s a tragic watershed – clearly the President of Israel should land in Australia and be received without the need for thousands of police to protect him, because we are allies of Australia and friends of Australia and Israel should be a bipartisan issue in Australia. But somebody has hijacked this discussion, and turned it into a long process of protests all over Australia, and it’s about time there’s a counter-reaction.

And what is your message to those protesters? I was at the event where you spoke on Monday night, it was beautiful, there was unity and peace, and just a few blocks away there were these hateful scenes of protest.

Many of these protesters have no clue about which River and which sea and what Intifada is about, and of course, about the story of Israel and Australia, and the fact that Australia has been there from day one with us in the creation of our national homeland, and is a strong ally.

And we are defending the free world. We are at the frontier of defending the free world against an empire of evil. This empire of evil spreads havoc all over the world, including in Australia, bloodshed, terror, jihadism, and these demonstrators don’t have the courage to turn against Iran and say, ‘How come you’ve been butchering tens of thousands of your own people who want freedom and love?’ You know why they don’t demonstrate? Because they’re politically motivated, they’re brainwashed. They have no intention of really fighting for the good cause of humanity, but rather simply because they’re totally distorted in their vision of what Israel is all about and what the conflict is all about.

And what do you want to tell Jewish people who have aligned themselves with that?

Well, I can only regret that. I read, of course, some of the statements. But honestly, I know that the huge, overwhelming majority of the Jewish community and the members of the Jewish communities around Australia, are allied with Israel and are extremely moved and happy that I came over.

You’ve spoken about resetting and upgrading the relationship between Australia and Israel. You’ll meet with the Prime Minister on Wednesday in Canberra. What are you planning to tell him?

It cannot be that the only issue that’s at stake all the time is what you term the two-state solution. There are so many other topics on our agenda. We are two nations that are incredible in their economic results, in their innovation, in their science, in their contribution to humanity. We can share on so many grounds.

We can discuss the solution of peace with the Palestinians and how to get there. We can argue – we are a democracy, you are a democracy – but that cannot impact the love and affection and cooperation that must ensue, and was always there from the beginning between Israel and Australia.


‘Unbelievably wicked’: Douglas Murray blasts Grace Tame for ‘globalise the intifada’ rant
Author Douglas Murray claims he was “pretty startled” when he saw 2021 Australian of the Year Grace Tame chanting ‘globalise the intifada’ during Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s visit to Australia.

“I’m pretty amazed that just weeks after the blood was on the sand of Bondi Beach, you have somebody … actually calling for much more blood to be spilt,” Mr Murray told Sky News host Rita Panahi.

“The only use of the term intifada is to describe the massacring of civilians … it isn’t used in any other context.

“I am just amazed that an Australian can be so unbelievably wicked in public and in front of a crowd who seem to be wanting to join in on that wickedness.”


Protesters prevent Israeli President visit to Adass Synagogue
Sky News host Freya Leach says protesters are “going wild” preventing Israeli President Isaac Herzog from visiting the Adass Synagogue.


Melbourne University condemns ‘death to Herzog’ graffiti on campus building
Melbourne University in Australia has condemned a piece of graffiti reading "death to Herzog" after it was found on its campus.

The slogan, painted onto the side of a university building, read: "Death to Herzog + Israel + Oz."

In response, the Australasian Union of Jewish Students said it was "deeply disturbed" by the incident and urged the university to investigate.

"Calls for violence against any individual or nation are not ‘legitimate criticism’ of government policy," the group said.

"They cross a clear moral and legal line and have no place on a university campus."

A university spokesperson said: "Racism, hatred and violence have no place in our society or our nation.

"We became aware of the offensive graffiti on the edge of our Parkville campus this morning and immediately sent cleaners who swiftly removed it."


Penny Wong refuses to condemn Grace Tame's 'intifada' speech at rally and dismisses the 'cycle of outrage'
Penny Wong has hit back at Liberal Senator Michaelia Cash after being grilled on her response to former Australian of the Year Grace Tame's speech at a protest against visiting Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

During Monday's rally outside Sydney Town Hall, Tame fired up the crowd with the chant 'from Gadigal to Gaza, globalise the intifada'.

The slogan triggered immediate backlash across politics, with Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce demanding Tame be stripped of her Australian of the Year title.

NSW Premier Chris Minns and Queensland Premier David Crisafulli have both called for the phrase to be banned, suggesting it can be interpreted as a call for violent uprising.

At Senate estimates, Cash pressed Wong on how the government interpreted the phrase 'globalise the intifada' and whether it has spoken to Tame.

Wong said she was 'not aware' whether the government had raised the matter directly with Tame, and that it was not her responsibility to.

'The Foreign Minister of Australia doesn't ring up everyone who has said things during this debate,' she fired back.

Wong then pointed to comments from Australia's Envoy for Antisemitism, Jillian Segal, highlighting her view that the phrase 'was used to whip up hatred against Jews' and said that she 'thinks [Segal] is right'.


Our homes are a last bastion of protection – now anti-Zionists want to take that too
Let’s set the scene. You’re at home, going about the day, when suddenly the doorbell rings. You answer it, to find a keffiyeh-clad young man with a friendly expression, clutching a clipboard. “Good afternoon. I’m here to talk to you about an ‘Apartheid Free Zone’ campaign we’re conducting to boycott Israel in response to the apartheid in Palestine. We’d like to know whether you will join us, and pledge not to buy Israeli goods.”

You find yourself apologising – you’re a British Jew, after all, so apologising comes naturally – but tell them that you’re not interested. And as they walk away, you see them making a mark on their clipboard.

If asked, they would doubtless say that they’re simply recording your house number so that they don’t bother you again. The other way of looking at it, of course, is that your house has now been identified as a place which opposes something the campaigners believe to be an obvious expression of good.

By declining their polite invitation, therefore, you have therefore chosen to side with evil. For all you know, your house will now end up on a database, with others deemed hostile to the cause. This is slightly different to campaigning by political parties. All major political parties electioneer on the doorstep, but there are not, as far as I’m aware, simultaneously a large number of incidents around the country where people are targeted for physical and verbal abuse specifically because they will not agree to boycott the Conservative party, for instance.

Many so-called “anti-racist” campaigners seem to have no idea why many Jewish people are reacting to this so viscerally. The answer is simple. Vandalism of Israeli (and often kosher) items in supermarkets, or a campaign attempting to pressure shops not to buy Israeli products, is viewed as extremely unpleasant, but at a relative distance.

Although this door-knocking is not specifically targeted at Jews, there is, for so many of us, the perception that our homes are a safe place. That no matter what is being screeched at “anti-Israel” rallies or what hatred is directed towards you in the street, in this country your home is somewhere you can exist, unmolested. This is particularly valued, given the family stories so many of us have about our relatives having been driven out of their homes, whether in Europe or the Middle East.

Except now the anti-Zionists want to take away that safety too.
Cabinet Minister asks police to investigate Brighton anti-Israel door-to-door campaign
A senior member of the government has vocally condemned a door-to-door anti-Israel campaign for “creating an environment of fear and intolerance”, saying he has asked the police to investigate under new hate crime and incitement laws.

Peter Kyle, MP for Hove and Secretary of State for Business and Trade, told Jewish News that an “Apartheid Free Zone” campaign currently taking place in Brighton “should not be happening”, putting forward “the appalling scenario of a vulnerable Jewish resident being door-knocked by a gang of people wanting to harangue them.”

There has been widespread dismay within the Jewish community, both in Brighton and across the country, in response to a Sky News report showing “Apartheid Free Zone” campaigners going door to door in attempt to get local residents in Brighton to sign up to their Israel Boycott campaign. Organisers vehemently rejected the idea that their actions were antisemitic, but were fine being described as anti-Zionist, describing Zionism as “an apartheid ideology”. They claimed it was “no different from the actions of a political party like the Conservative Party or the Labour Party who also go door to door and ask people how they feel.”

Kyle, who has served as a Secretary of State since Labour’s election victory in July 2024, said:

“The moment I became aware of this campaign to door-knock residents under the banner of ‘Apartheid Free Zone’ I contacted the police and asked they investigate under the hate crime and the incitement laws which the Government has recently brought in.
David Collier: The BBC rewrites the history of Jews in Morocco
Time after time, BBC News has been caught spreading a demonising image of Zionism or Israel. When challenged, BBC executives typically retreat behind claims of “conflict complexity” to excuse error or bias.

This time, that defence does not apply. There is no Israel, no Zionism, and no contemporary conflict to hide behind.

In a recently published BBC podcast Jewish suffering in Morocco was erased, centuries of persecution were reframed as harmony, and Islamist propaganda was presented as historical fact. Conditions approaching slavery were recast as a “model” of Muslim-Jewish coexistence.

The end product is the BBC engaging in antisemitic historical falsification.

Living side by side: Morocco’s Jews and Muslims
On 9 January, BBC Sounds published a podcast titled Living side by side: Morocco’s Jews and Muslims. The BBC has been conspicuously proud of it, repeatedly promoting it across its social-media channels.

The podcast promises an exploration of “how two Abrahamic faiths in Morocco have embraced peaceful coexistence.” Its introductory text opens with the claim:
“Relations between Jews and Muslims in Morocco have historically been strong, unlike elsewhere in North Africa and the Middle East.”

This assertion is not merely misleading, it is historically false. It reduces centuries of legally enforced Jewish inferiority, periodic violence, Islamic supremacy, and systemic humiliation to a feel-good slogan. And from this introductory act of ahistorical propaganda, the programme itself only makes things even worse.

I am not going to dissect every sentence of the podcast, I could fill a book there are so many problems. A full transcript is available for those who wish to take a more detailed look themselves. Whatever image the producer, Mike Lanshin, carried into this project bears little resemblance to reality. The result is nearly thirty minutes of incoherence, in which even the programme’s own internal logic collapses. Lanshin’s central case study is a fractured family: the parents are divorced, and the child of the mixed Jewish – Muslim marriage is no longer in contact with his Muslim father. This is presented, somehow, as evidence of “coexistence.”

But this sleight of hand is the programme’s central method. It whitewashes centuries of persecution while promoting the familiar and false anti-Zionist trope that, before Zionism, Jews and Muslims “lived side by side” in harmony. The mass departure of Moroccan Jews is attributed to wars involving Israel and the Arab world, rather than the more obvious reality: once a persecuted population had somewhere to go, it left. At one point, Moroccan Jews are even accused of “betrayal” for not informing their Muslim neighbours of their departure – a remarkable inversion that reproaches the persecuted for the manner in which they escaped persecution.
Richard Landes: When the Left takes its cues from Jihadis
The silence on Iran is a massive demonstration that the “anti-war” movement is driven not by the compassion it so loudly emotes on behalf of Gazan victims, but by an alliance with Jihadis against the enemies of Jihad. (NB: the alternative explanation is deep-seated Judeophobia.) When Iranians once again broke out in protests against a theocratic regime that spent the national wealth on its global jihadi ambitions even as they immiserated their own people, they were doing what Gazan civilians cannot do: objecting to their rulers sacrificing them for the cause of Jihad and a global Caliphate. Apparently for the progressives, that’s too close a comparison with their favorite resistance movement for comfort.

If the Palestinianist movement were, as it claims and Gay and Feminists and “Gender-fluids for Palestine” believe, a non-violent movement for Palestinian rights to live in a free, hence gay and women-friendly society, then they would find the behavior of the Khameini regime and the IRG unacceptable; if it were a militant movement pretending to be progressive and anti-war, but waiting for the right time to break out in war, then they would side with their fellow jihadis. Can the progressive camp recognize that the Palestinianists sided with the jihadis on Iran in 2026, the way they did with Hamas in 2023? Can they recognize the degree to which they take their lead from these enemies of all they hold dear?

Is it possible you’ve been duped? – your compassion, hijacked; your grand capacity for empathy for the other, truncated. Somehow, Iranian dissidents and Israelis – two movements resisting global jihad – fall far outside the ring of your now weaponized empathy: the passionate compassion of “the whole world” now exclusively riveted by Palestinian suffering. One of you reads credulously an accusation against Israel in a propaganda news organ (Al Jazeera) and yet another wants to know when the International Court will go after Israel. It’s almost instinctive.

Do you really think that handing the land from the River to the Sea to Arab Muslims with a highly articulated Jihadi supremacism and a genocidal hatred of Jews, is a way to create a better world for your grandchildren? And if not, then what do you think of all those thoughtful and serious people who do?

Would that we had thoughtful and serious people on the progressive left!
Jonathan Tobin: The virus of Jew-hatred on the right is spreading
A noxious brand of Jew-hatred
I don’t agree. I think the focus of the Natcons on a more common-good version of conservatism—stressing the importance of faith, tradition, nationalism and opposing globalist economics—is entirely correct. But while I’ve been a vocal critic of the ADL, what has happened with Carlson and his supporters isn’t the organization’s fault. It’s a function of a revival of a particularly noxious brand of Jew-hatred that has a long history on the right, dating back to Father Charles Coughlin in the 1930s to Pat Buchanan in the 1990s. And, as is the case with left-wing antisemites like New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, there is no way to compromise with them or sweet-talk them into giving up their ideological obsessions with scapegoating Jews.

It may be that Vance will realize that his presidential ambitions—right now, he is the clear GOP frontrunner in the 2028 presidential race—are incompatible with a stance of neutrality or a lack of concern about right-wing antisemitism. If so, that will cause him to cut his ties with Carlson. Nor is there any reason why he or other prominent Republicans should turn on Israel the way Carlson has. Indeed, Vance has at times shown himself to be an advocate for the U.S.-Israel alliance.

But if he won’t disown Carlson, then it is incumbent on all decent people, including those who rightly see great merit in national conservatism and its defense of the West, to cut ties with him. The same must apply to anyone on the right who, like Carlson, opposes the idea of a Judeo-Christian heritage (something that is antithetical to national conservatism), and who makes common cause with leftist antisemites and anti-Zionists.

The focus on right-wing conservatism isn’t a plot against Vance, the Trump coalition or national conservatism. Antisemitism is never caused by anything the Jews do. It is always a manifestation of the neuroses and the willingness of political factions to use hatred against this particular minority to gain power.

The hate-mongers must be condemned
Opponents of antisemitism and supporters of Israel must seek to persuade a generation of young people to disdain the voices of the woke right. Those who haven’t been on trips to Israel—or who may have been influenced by far-right ideas and the pervasive woke leftism in the education system—must realize that they are making a mistake by going down the rabbit hole of antisemitism. They need to reach those being misled into believing that their Catholic faith is antithetical to support for Israel and Zionism—something that was made clear at the Religious Liberty Commission hearing. But just like the effort to roll back the woke tide on the left that Trump has championed, that won’t be accomplished by going easy on the haters.

Doing so may come at a political cost. Yet it shouldn’t break up the burgeoning national conservative coalition. That movement includes both American and European right-wingers who also reject the erasure of borders and the war on Western civilization that the woke left has been waging. Many of these people are natural allies of Israel and the Jewish people. But if it does, then so be it.

The hate speech of Carlson, Owens and Boller and the failure of some prominent figures on the right to condemn them must never be condoned, rationalized or excused. Those who would pull their punches in combating right-wing Jew-haters out of a concern for maintaining partisan alliances are just as profoundly wrong as liberals who do the same thing with erstwhile allies on the left.
Two Trump religious liberty appointees joined forces in anti-Israel push for antisemitism hearing
For the first hour and a half of the White House Religious Liberty Commission’s Monday hearing on antisemitism, the Jewish witnesses testifying about their experiences of antisemitism seemed to be in alignment with the commission’s members — all generally conservative and eager to see antisemitism stamped out.

Then Commissioner Carrie Prejean Boller began questioning the witnesses with a sharply anti-Israel bent, in an adversarial tone. Following public backlash, she was removed from the commission two days later by the commission’s chair, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. (Prejean Boller insists Patrick does not have the authority to remove her.)

Prejean Boller, who wore a Palestinian flag pin at the hearing, has used the criticism to deepen her line of attack against so-called “Zionist supremacy in America,” doubling down on her opposition to Israel. “I am a free American. Not a slave to a foreign nation,” she wrote on X on Tuesday.

While Prejean Boller may have been removed from the body, she found an ally who has stood by her this week and who remains on the commission’s advisory board: Sameerah Munshi, a Muslim activist who first gained a public profile in the summer of 2023, when she testified at a Montgomery County, Md., school board hearing against the inclusion of LGBTQ-related material in elementary school classes.

That moment thrust Munshi briefly into the national spotlight, where she worked alongside conservative Christians who also opposed the liberal Maryland county’s approach to educating about LGBTQ issues. Prejean Boller, too, first gained national attention for her opposition to gay marriage at a beauty pageant in 2009.

The two women — both of whom were appointed by President Donald Trump — have now joined together as the anti-Israel wing of the commission. Both of them have publicly defended antisemitic commentator Candace Owens, who uses conspiracy-laden language to discuss Jews and Israel. In a shared Instagram post last week, Prejean Boller and Munshi pointed fingers at a shadowy cabal that they blame for both the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the alleged crimes of Jeffrey Epstein.


Manchester synagogue attack triggered anti-Semitism surge
The deadly terror attack on a Manchester synagogue triggered a surge in anti-Semitic abuse, including some celebrating the incident, a study has revealed.

The Community Security Trust (CST), which monitors anti-Semitism in the UK, said 40 were recorded on the day and a further 40 the day after – the highest daily totals of the year.

The anti-Semitic incidents included face-to-face taunting of Jewish people, celebrations of the attack, abusive responses to public condemnations of the killings from Jewish organisations and individuals, or antagonistic emails sent to Jewish people and institutions.

The report, published on Wednesday, also revealed that Bob Vylan’s chant of “Death to the IDF” at the Glastonbury Festival prompted 32 copycat incidents. There were no reported examples of it being used before the punk duo’s appearance at the festival.

The CST’s report for 2025 said it was the second-highest annual total ever recorded for anti-Jewish hate incidents, at 3,700 – up 4 per cent on the 3,556 incidents recorded in 2024. Only 2023 recorded more incidents, at 4,298, after the Oct 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, called the numbers “shocking” and said the Government “stands against the scourge of anti-Semitism”.

She said: “We are providing record funding for security at synagogues, Jewish schools and community centres. I will go further to strengthen police powers so they can crack down on intimidating protests.”

Lord Mann, the Government’s independent adviser on anti-Semitism, said it was “particularly troubling” to see the large number of incidents which took place “immediately after the horrific terrorist attack on Heaton Park Synagogue on Yom Kippur, celebrating the killing of British Jews on our streets”.

He said the latest figures were “deeply alarming and illustrate the unrelenting nature of anti-Semitism in our country today”.
Corbyn to hold event with ‘October 7 was done by Israel’ Your Party activist Wednesday 11 February's Your Party "The Many" event, featuring Jeremy Corbyn and Hannah Hawkins
Jeremy Corbyn is due to appear in conversation this evening with a “Your Party” candidate who has publicly said that “October 7 was done by Israel to justify this war and genocide”.

Hannah Hawkins is currently the North East region candidate for “The Many” slate in the “Your Party” central executive committee elections. Voting began on Monday 9 February to elect a 16-member committee for the organisation.

Hawkins’ claim about 7 October came in a Facebook post in November last year, as she shared a video from a notorious misinformation account called “Shadow of Ezra”, which shared video footage of Israeli MK Na’ama Lazimi speaking in the Knesset. “Shadow of Ezra” said that “Benjamin Netanyahu is now being accused of bearing responsibility for the October 7th terrorist attack in Israel and for allegedly funding Hamas. Israeli Knesset Member Naama Lazimi claims Netanyahu issued a stand-down order and ignored key security protocols before the attack”. Hawkins’ comment said: “I’ve been saying this for a while now. Oct 7th was done by Israel to justify this war and genocide.”

In reality, Lazimi’s speech in the Knesset, which was in Hebrew, apportioned blame to Netanyahu for 7 October in terms of “funding Hamas, turning a blind eye to the existential threat to us and of abandoning the security of the state as a policy”, but said nothing about any stand-down order or ignoring key security protocols. A policy of allowing funds to be sent to Hamas by Qatar was adopted by Netanyahu in the 2010s in a bid to keep the territory functioning.

In another social media post about the release of “One Day in October”, a TV series about the mass-murder carried out by Hamas on 7 October 2023, Hawkins responded saying “I think I’ll wait for the prequel ‘1948’ to come out, thanks.” In another post by an anti-Zionist campaigner about how the IDF now omits officer’s name and faces during ceremonies, Hawkins compared Israel to the Nazis, saying “nuremberg 2.0 is coming for them so fast and they know it”.

“Your Party”, set up last year in confused circumstances amidst friction between Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana, has no overall leader. Instead, political slates broadly associated with Corbyn and Sultana – ‘The Many’ for the former. ‘Grassroots Left’ for the latter, are competing for seats on the organisation’s executive.
Green Party is reported to the counter terror police over 'anti-Zionist' elements as fears grow 'it is becoming a breeding ground for extremists'
The Green Party has been reported to counter-terrorism police by an internal whistleblower.

Fears are growing that the party is becoming a breeding-ground for anti-Jewish extremists.

Hard-Left activists have joined the Greens in recent months in protest at Labour’s stance on the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

But a push by pro-Palestine Greens to declare the party ‘anti-Zionist’ has horrified many existing members, who fear extremism, sectarianism and anti-Semitism are being tolerated under Zack Polanski’s leadership.

The Daily Mail can reveal that one member has taken the dramatic step of reporting their party to counter-terror police, after groups in the party called for anyone seeking a Jewish state in Palestine to be branded racist.

Backed by the Greens For Palestine group, the ‘Zionism is Racism’ motion calls for the party to declare itself ‘anti-Zionist’ and for the ‘de-proscription of Palestine Action’, but rejects accusations that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitic.

The motion, backed by the party’s deputy leader Mothin Ali, effectively calls for Israel to be replaced by a ‘single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine, with Jerusalem as its capital’.

A campaign poster for the motion depicts a map of the state of Israel painted in the colours of the Palestinian flag.


Ireland will fulfil Nations League fixtures against Israel
The Republic of Ireland insist they will fulfil their Nations League fixtures against Israel in the autumn despite calling for the country to be banned by UEFA last year.

In November the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) approved a motion calling for Israel to be banned from UEFA over the military assault on Gaza, but this was rejected.

The countries were drawn together in Group B3 of the Nations League on Thursday and the FAI immediately issued a statement confirming the matches would go ahead.

“In 2025, a motion was proposed by members of the FAI General Assembly to vote on issuing a formal request to the UEFA executive committee for the immediate suspension of the Israel Football Association from UEFA competitions for a breach of UEFA statutes.

“Members then voted in favour to submit the motion to UEFA, which the association did in November 2025.

“While consultation has taken place with UEFA officials, the association does recognise that UEFA regulations outline that if an association refuses to play a match then that fixture will be forfeited and further disciplinary measures may follow – including potential disqualification from the competition.”

The matches will be highly charged politically, with support for the Palestinian cause historically strong in Ireland.

Republic of Ireland head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson said on Thursday that he stands by comments he made last year questioning why Israel had not been banned from football.
South African school head dismissed after antisemitism row
The head of a leading South African private school has been dismissed following an antisemitism controversy sparked by the cancellation of a sports fixture with a Jewish school.

According to the SA Jewish Report, Roedean School’s Senior School Head, Phuti Mogale, left her post with immediate effect after a crisis meeting this week, with the publication reporting that she had in fact been dismissed earlier.

The development follows the emergence of a leaked audio recording – first revealed by The Common Sense – which appeared to undermine Roedean’s public explanation for cancelling a scheduled tennis fixture with King David Linksfield, a prominent Jewish day school in Johannesburg.

Roedean had said the match was called off because of prior academic commitments and compulsory workshops. However, the leaked audio suggested the decision was driven by pressure from within the school community not to play a Jewish school, linked to political tensions surrounding Israel.

In the recording, a Roedean representative refers to parental pressure and describes the situation as “presenting as a Jewish day school issue”.

King David pupils travelled to Roedean for the fixture on 3 February but never took to the court, according to the SA Jewish Report, and were ultimately turned away.

The South African Jewish Board of Deputies condemned the cancellation, with its national director Wendy Kahn saying: “What occurred between Roedean School and King David High School constitutes antisemitism.”

“The tennis fixture didn’t fall away because of prior school commitments or academic workshops,” she said. “It fell away because in the words of Roedean’s school principal, ‘It’s presenting itself as a Jewish day school issue’.”
In the UK, Jew-hatred is hijacking education.
Daniel Kebede is the General Secretary of the UK’s largest teaching union, the National Education Union.

Last year, he was photographed at an anti-Israel rally with Louise Regan, an executive committee member for the union who also serves as chair of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. In 2021, Kebede stood at another anti-Israel demonstration and called to “globalise the intifada.”

A year ago, when I first wrote about the National Education Union’s anti-Israel obsession — and how it was seeping into classrooms — it was circulated to Labour Party ministers. It was ignored.

Then, last month, at the Jewish Labour Movement conference, Communities Minister Steve Reed attempted to explain how he understood that antisemitism was wrong because a colleague and friend of his had been banned from visiting a school in his own district. He did not seem to realise how shocking that admission would sound to many of us. Following my original article, I was asked to write a series of further deep dives into what is unfolding in our schools.

Fortunately for me as a journalist — though far less fortunately for me as a Jewish person confronted with the full horror of anti-Israel propaganda — examples were not difficult to find.

For The Telegraph, I spoke to two Jewish National Education Union members. One revealed that the union representative at her school had calmly informed her that Israel did not exist. The other described the emotional toll of the union’s relentless Israel obsession, recounting how teachers proudly showcased their pro-Palestine classroom activities.

For the Daily Mail, I examined the classroom impact: historical distortions and outright falsehoods designed to erase the Jewish story. In the Jewish Chronicle, I helped expose how, just days after the October 7th massacre, the Bristol branch of the National Education Union — which had previously celebrated preventing Jewish Member of Parliament Damien Egan from visiting one of their schools — circulated teaching materials inviting pupils to sympathise with Hamas’ actions.

In another piece for The Telegraph, I revealed how even Holocaust Memorial Day is now being weaponised against Jews, as claims of a “Gaza genocide” are promoted by both pupils and teachers.

The shadow education minister has since called for an investigation into the National Education Union. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has said she will look into the matter — which, in journalism, feels like a small but meaningful victory.

This could not be more important. For years, we have witnessed rising hostility toward Jews on university campuses. Now that same atmosphere is being replicated in schools. And yet this has been developing for a long time. I worry that the political will to confront it simply is not there.
Report Finds Philadelphia Schools Systematically Adopted Radical Curriculum
A comprehensive investigation by Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) reveals that the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) has systematically dismantled its traditional social studies curriculum in favor of an ideologically-driven framework that marginalizes major historical events while promoting anti-Israel and anti-American narratives.

The report, based on a briefing written in January 2025, documents how the district, serving nearly 200,000 students, has institutionalized teachings rooted in critical race theory, Paolo Freire’s liberation pedagogy, and decolonization theory. The findings underscore a troubling pattern of curricular decisions that have created what the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) characterized as a “viciously hostile” environment for Jewish students.

Perhaps most striking is what students no longer learn. In a year-long world history course, major global developments are either entirely omitted or minimally addressed—from ancient Western civilizations like Greece and Rome, to the Renaissance, Enlightenment, French Revolution, Russian Revolution, both World Wars, the Holocaust, and the Cold War.

The curriculum similarly omits vast swaths of Eastern and non-Western history, including ancient Chinese and Japanese civilizations, the Mongols, the Aztecs, the Incas, and the Ottoman Empire. Students receive only two days of instruction on major world religions, while spending 20 days critiquing capitalism.

Instead of chronological study, the curriculum emphasizes thematic frameworks organized around what the report calls “the three sins of Western Civilization”—capitalism, racism, and settler colonialism.

This approach provides students with isolated events stripped of historical context, essentially guiding them toward predetermined ideological conclusions rather than fostering independent analysis. “The curriculum is not about the study of history, but the study of grievance,” the report states.
Communist student arrested at UCL Palestine protest over alleged ‘intifada’ chants
A student organiser linked to the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) was arrested by Metropolitan police officers during a pro-Palestinian protest at University College (UCL) earlier today, with police citing alleged chants referencing “intifada”.

The protest was organised by the UCL Coalition for Palestine as part of a national student day of action calling on universities to sever ties with defence companies connected to Israel, including BAE Systems.

In a statement issued after the arrest, the Metropolitan Police said: “Officers deployed at this protest arrested a man on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence in relation to the alleged chanting of slogans involving calls for intifada. We’re reviewing other available footage to identify anyone else involved.”

The RCP said the individual arrested was a senior student organiser who had been addressing the crowd shortly before being detained. Supporters claimed the arrest followed a complaint made to officers present at the protest. No charges had been announced by Wednesday evening.

A UCL spokesperson said: “A demonstration took place today at UCL as part of a nationwide ‘Student Day of Action on Palestine’, during which a student was detained by police for using the term ‘intifada’.


House members say Syrian government is not meeting U.S. expectations for sanctions relief
House members on both sides of the aisle raised concerns about the new Syrian government’s recent moves against minority groups, particularly the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, in some cases questioning whether Damascus is complying with lawmakers’ expectations after the Caesar Act sanctions on Syria were lifted.

Speaking at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Republican and Democratic lawmakers highlighted ongoing abuses by the Syrian government, with some appearing to argue that there might be cause to revisit the imposition of U.S. sanctions on Syria. Some, particularly Republicans, had been hesitant to back full sanctions repeal, but did so under pressure from the Trump administration.

Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), the committee chair, said that no one expected the transition away from the Assad regime to be seamless, “but we’ve already seen too many incidents, in my opinion, too many incidents of sectarian violence against religious and ethnic minorities.”

He called the Syrian government’s advances against U.S. allies in the SDF “unacceptable” and criticized Russia’s ongoing presence in Syria. He said the recent ceasefire agreement between the government and the SDF is a positive step but emphasized that several such agreements have been signed and not enforced in the past.

Mast said the country is “nowhere near where it needs to be today” and he is “not satisfied with the progress that [Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa] has made yet” and sees “many of his actions as steps backward.”

Mast, who was one of the final obstacles to full repeal of the Caesar Act sanctions, said that al-Sharaa “does not have a blank check from the United States of America” and that the repeal came with an expectation — albeit not formally binding — that Syria would meet various conditions, including protecting minorities.
Islamist and Kurdish texts banned under Assad openly displayed at Damascus book fair
Owning a copy of Sayyid Qutb’s “Milestones” could land you in jail or worse in Syria when the Assads ruled. But at a Damascus book fair this month, the title by the radical Islamist ideologue was on prominent display and selling well.

Held for the first time since Bashar al-Assad was ousted, this year’s Damascus International Book Fair reflects deep changes in Syria since its nominally secular order was overthrown by Islamist rebels led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

In addition to once forbidden Islamist texts, there are titles by secular critics of the ousted government and a section dedicated to Kurdish culture and language, which was banned under Assad’s Ba’athist state but recently recognized as a national tongue by Sharaa.

“In the new Syria, it’s a fair where no book is banned,” said Zuhair al-Barri, the event coordinator, adding that the country had been in “intellectual and cultural darkness” under Assad.

All books are permitted, he said, except for those that are at odds with “civil peace and social cohesion,” that “violate the values and customs of Syrian society,” or that glorify the Assad regime.
US confirms pullout from al-Tanf base in Syria as government forces move in
The United States on Thursday confirmed its forces have departed al-Tanf in Syria, as Damascus said its troops took control of the base near the Jordanian and Iraqi borders.

“The orderly departure of US forces from al-Tanf” was completed the previous day, US Central Command (CENTCOM) — which is responsible for American forces in the Middle East — said in a statement.

It described the move as being “part of a deliberate and conditions-based transition.”

CENTCOM chief Admiral Brad Cooper insisted that American forces remained ready to respond to threats from the Islamic State jihadist group, saying that maintaining pressure on the militants “is essential to protecting the US homeland and strengthening regional security.”

Syria’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said in a statement that its army units have taken control of Al-Tanf “and have begun deploying along the Syrian-Iraqi-Jordanian” border nearby.

During the Syrian civil war and the fight against IS, US forces were deployed in the country’s Kurdish-controlled northeast, as well as at Al-Tanf.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were a major partner of the US-led international coalition against IS, and were instrumental in the group’s territorial defeat in Syria in 2019.

However, following the fall of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad more than a year ago, the United States has drawn closer to the new government in Damascus, recently declaring that the need for its alliance with the Kurds had largely passed.


New law could make Anne Frank and ‘Night’ mandatory reading for Texas public schools
In the years since school libraries became a culture-war flashpoint, Texas has been one of the most active states to pull books from shelves in response to parental complaints — sometimes including versions of Anne Frank’s diary and other Jewish books.

Now, Texas is pursuing a new approach: requiring that Frank’s diary, and several other Jewish texts, be taught throughout the state.

The Texas state education board recently discussed draft legislation that would create the nation’s first-ever statewide K-12 required reading list for public schools. Among the roughly 300 texts on the list: Elie Wiesel’s Holocaust memoir “Night”; Lois Lowry’s young-reader Holocaust novel “Number the Stars”; George Washington’s letter to a Rhode Island synagogue in 1790; and Frank’s diary — the “original edition.”

Each of the works could become mandatory reading for Texas’s 5.5 million schoolchildren as soon as the 2030-31 school year, as the state’s conservative education leaders seek to reverse a nationwide decline in the number of books read or assigned in class while also eschewing the texts that activist parents tend to object to. Instead of letting individual teachers put together reading lists that might include “divisive” or progressive content, Republicans in Texas are trying to nudge the curriculum toward a “classical education” said to draw on the Western canon.

Supporters said the list would help ensure every student is on the same page.

“We want to create an opportunity for a shared body of knowledge for all the students across the state of Texas,” Shannon Trejo, deputy commissioner of programs for the Texas Education Agency, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency about why the group undertook the list project.
Jewish boy held at knifepoint in antisemitic attack in Paris
A 13-year-old boy walking to a synagogue in Paris’s 18th arrondissement this week was attacked by five people, beaten, threatened with a knife, and robbed while they shouted antisemitic slurs at him.

Authorities say the attack occurred at around 7:20 p.m. on Boulevard de la Chapelle on Monday evening. The boy told investigators that he was holding his kippah in his hand rather than attract attention by wearing it, when the group of men set upon him, demanded that he hand over his coat and empty his pockets.

He was knocked to the ground, punched in the face and had a knife pressed to his neck. His airpods, shoes and coat were stolen.

The attack happened whilst the teenager was on a video call to a friend, who was later able to identify one of the attackers. As a result, an 18-year-old suspect has been arrested and taken in for questioning whilst the four others remain at large.

The prosecutor’s office has said: “the investigation is continuing into the offenses of armed robbery and armed violence, committed by a group and aggravated by discrimination, in order to identify and apprehend the other individuals involved.”
Grand jury indicts Mississippi synagogue arsonist on civil rights charges
The Mississippi man indicted last month in connection with setting the state’s largest synagogue on fire is facing two additional federal charges.

Stephen Spencer Pittman, a 19-year-old who admitted to committing arson on Jackson’s Congregation Beth Israel in the early hours of Jan. 10 due to “the building’s Jewish ties,” was indicted by a federal grand jury this week on civil rights and arson offenses. The indictment adds additional counts to an earlier arson charge, making it a three-count indictment.

“The Department of Justice will not tolerate attacks on houses of worship,” said Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general of civil rights at the Justice Department. “This superseding indictment shows that we will investigate and we will prosecute such vicious attacks that strike at the core of our country’s long tradition of religious liberty.”

According to court documents from his arrest, Pittman is alleged to have used gasoline to set fire to the house of worship. He referred to the institution as the “synagogue of Satan,” a historically antisemitic phrase that has been re-popularized by far-right commentator Candace Owens.

Two Torah scrolls were destroyed in the fire, and five more were damaged. A Torah that survived the Holocaust, which was kept in a glass case, was unharmed. The congregation’s library and administrative office were also destroyed. The building also houses the offices of the Institute of Southern Jewish Life, which supports Jewish life in the region.
Brooklyn man arrested for antisemitic stabbing released on $50,000 bail
Armani Charles, 23, was arraigned and released on $50,000 bail in connection with the alleged stabbing of a Jewish man near Chabad-Lubavitch world headquarters in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y., according to court records.

He was arrested following the December incident in which he allegedly made antisemitic statements before stabbing Elias Rosner, 35, in the chest. Rosner was hospitalized, telling the New York Post that his sweater likely saved his life.

According to Rosner, Charles declared before the stabbing, “I’m going to kill Jewish people,” and said, “We wouldn’t be in this mess if the Holocaust had happened.”

Prosecutors filed 14 charges against Charles, including assault with intent to cause serious physical injury, menacing, criminal possession of a weapon, and aggravated harassment based on race or religion. Six of the counts are being prosecuted as hate crimes.

Charles pleaded not guilty at his initial court appearance. He is scheduled to return to court in April.


Israel welcomed 100,000 UK visitors in 2025 as tourism gathers pace
Israel welcomed 104,100 visitors from the UK in 2025, making Britain the country’s third-largest source market worldwide, according to figures released as tourism leaders gathered at IMTM 2026 in Tel Aviv.

The data shows that 1.318 million international tourists visited Israel in 2025, up from 962,000 in 2024, marking a 37 percent year-on-year increase. Despite the rise, visitor numbers remain well below pre-pandemic and pre-war levels.

Only the United States (447,100) visitors and France (176,100) recorded higher arrival numbers than the UK, underlining the continued strength of travel links between Britain and Israel.

Tourism officials said the recovery has been uneven, with demand strongest among visitors with family, religious and community ties to Israel – particularly from Jewish and Christian communities in the UK.

Much of the continued UK travel has centred on longstanding religious and historic sites, including Jerusalem’s Old City, the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and destinations such as Masada, the Dead Sea, and city tourism in Tel Aviv and Jaffa.

Michael Ben Baruch, Director of the UK Ministry of Tourism, said: “Israel’s appeal as a travel destination is undeniable and unbreakable. Many travellers in the UK, particularly from the Jewish and Christian communities, have shown their solidarity with Israel and made a visit in 2025, attracted by its unique sites, incredible hospitality as well as friend and family connections.

“These figures demonstrate the enduring appeal of Israel to British travellers and reflect growing confidence in the destination. As we enter 2026, the substantial hotel investment pipeline and the positivity of the tourism industry position Israel well to accommodate continued growth from the UK market.”
Texas doubles investment in Israel bonds to record $280m
Kelly Hancock, the acting Texas comptroller, announced on Thursday that the state will increase its investment in Israel bonds from about $140 million to $280 million, a move he called “the largest one-time investment in Israel bonds in Texas history.”

According to Hancock, the increased investment elevates Texas “from the sixth-largest to the second-largest U.S. state investor in these securities.”

“Texas proudly stands with Israel,” Hancock said. “This expanded investment reinforces our long-standing relationship and shared commitment to faith, freedom and economic opportunity.”

“Texas and Israel have built a partnership that stretches beyond finance, and this step reflects both our solidarity and our belief in what we can accomplish together,” he added.

Texas has included Israel bonds in its investment portfolio since 1994 as part of a “diversified portfolio strategy.” The bonds, issued by the Israeli government, offer fixed interest rates and have a record of meeting principal and interest payments, according to state officials.

The announcement comes as the Texas Economic Development and Tourism Office works to finalize plans for a State of Texas Israel Office in Jerusalem. The office would be the state’s first in the Middle East and its fourth international location.

State leaders said the new office is intended to strengthen trade and business ties between Texas and Israel, with bilateral trade approaching $4 billion annually, according to the state.
Nasdaq-giant Astera Labs dips into Israeli high-tech industry
U.S. chip firm Astera Labs announced on Monday that it is opening advanced research and development centers in Tel Aviv and Haifa.

Semiconductor industry veteran Guy Azrad, senior vice president of engineering and general manager of Astera Labs Israel, will lead the new Israel operations, and will be supported by Ido Bukspan as vice president of ASIC Engineering, the U.S. company said in a statement.

“With offices in Tel Aviv and Haifa, the new Israel design center will look to tap into the region’s world-class engineering talent to focus on the full chip design flow—from architecture through production, including software and system design for cutting-edge AI fabrics and emerging inference applications,” Azrad was quoted by Astera Labs as saying.

“We’re building an engineering team with a strong focus on execution, covering hardware, silicon, and software solutions, to support the growing adoption of Astera Labs’ Intelligent Connectivity Platform,” he added.

Azrad recently served as vice president of chip design engineering at Google, where he led silicon development for compute applications.

Through collaborations with leading Israeli universities and the venture ecosystem, the design center is expected to serve as a hub to advance technologies critical to support next-generation AI infrastructure worldwide, the U.S. firm stated.

Astera Labs, currently traded on Nasdaq with a market cap of $28 billion, is entering the Israeli market in the footsteps of Nvidia, which announced in December its plans to establish a mega-campus in the Jewish state, set to become the tech giant’s second-largest after its Silicon Valley headquarters.
After CyberArk purchase, Palo Alto Networks seeks Tel Aviv listing
American cybersecurity giant Palo Alto Networks announced on Wednesday the completion of its $25 billion-worth acquisition of Israeli firm CyberArk.

The U.S. firm also stated that it plans to register a second listing on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) under the ticker CYBR.

Its primary listing on the NASDAQ is as PANW.

Palo Alto Networks would be the largest company listed in Israel by market cap. The company said the move would further solidify its Israeli research and development center, which is already its largest outside of Silicon Valley.

Speaking to local media during his visit to the country in December, Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora said, “I firmly believe that the most amount of innovation in cybersecurity comes out of Israel. It’s not for debate; it’s a fact,” financial outlet Calcalist reported.

Palo Alto has about 1,600 staffers in Israel, and the acquisition of CyberArk is expected to double this figure, Calcalist reported.

Its R&D center occupies 22 floors of Tel Aviv’s Alon Tower, constituting more than half of the building’s space.

According to the Palo Alto Networks website, the landmark deal with CyberArk establishes Identity Security as a core pillar of the company’s “platformization strategy,” enabling it to secure “every identity across the enterprise—human, machine, and agentic.”


Trump invited to receive Israel Prize in Jerusalem
Minister of Education Yoav Kisch on Tuesday invited U.S. President Donald Trump to attend the Israel Prize Award Ceremony in Jerusalem on April 22 at which he will be awarded the Israel Prize for Lifetime Special Contribution to the State of Israel and the Jewish people.

“This evening I sent a formal invitation to the President of the United States Donald Trump to participate in the Israel Prize ceremony,” Kisch posted to X. He included a copy of the letter in his post.

Kisch’s ministry oversees the prizes, which are awarded annually on Israel’s Independence Day.

On Dec. 29, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Trump would receive the Israel Prize in the category of “Unique Contribution to the Jewish People.” It is the first time a foreign leader will receive the award.

“[It was] a historic decision that expresses recognition of his extraordinary contribution and its lasting impact on the Jewish people in Israel and around the world,” Kisch posted.




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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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