Tuesday, February 17, 2026

02/17 Links Pt2: The West's Suicidal Empathy; Emmanuel Macron: France Needs Jews in Order to Remain Itself; Trial of man accused of killing Paul Kessler in 2023 to begin

From Ian:

The West's Suicidal Empathy
Professor Gad Saad, 61, born in Lebanon to a Jewish family that fled during the civil war, is the author of The Parasitic Mind - How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense. In it, he uses the imagery of viruses and parasites to describe how harmful cultural ideas can hijack public discourse, academia, and social institutions, damaging freedom of expression, critical thinking, and basic logic of ostensibly rational human beings.

"Those who want to control us try to control both our cognitive system and our emotional system," Prof. Saad explained. "In my new book, Suicidal Empathy,...I focus on the way they try to manipulate our emotions."

"Empathy is a wonderful thing that every social creature needs. But like everything else in life, empathy must be applied in the right amount, in the right situation, and toward the right objects. When it's applied incorrectly, it harms the person possessing it to the point of threatening their existence. In my book, I examine a long series of domestic and foreign policy issues where the West adopts approaches that endanger its existence, and I show how they all stem from suicidal empathy."

Suicidal empathy works overtime when it comes to Israel. "If you go to study in Middle Eastern studies programs at any institution of higher learning in the West, they teach you that Israelis are white colonialists, devoid of any ancestral rights to the land they conquered, that they're evil exploiters oppressing the noble and peaceful Palestinians, who opened the door to white Jews from Austria and Russia, and the Jews exploited the opportunity to steal the land from its owners."

"Islamist groups don't hide that they intend to conquer the West through three methods - the womb, immigration, and exploiting the West's freedoms against it. Why does the West refuse to see this clearly?...The West tries to be understanding, compassionate, considerate, and generous toward other cultures, assuming they'll reciprocate in kind, while other cultures interpret the West's behavior as a sign of weakness....Blind Westerners mistakenly think that the values embedded in their culture are also dear to other cultures' hearts - and nothing could be further from the truth."

Two years ago, Prof. Saad was pushed out of Concordia University, which had been his academic home for many years. His presence on campus became too dangerous, literally. The same Jew-hatred he knew in Lebanon caught up with him even in distant Canada. Now he teaches at the University of Mississippi.
Emmanuel Macron: France Needs Jews in Order to Remain Itself
Too often, sentences handed down for antisemitic offenses and crimes seem derisory. Too often, the antisemitic nature of such acts struggles to be recognized. We will strengthen training for magistrates in this area. And to ensure transparency and truth, I want precise monitoring of sentences and sanctions to be established. On this basis, the Government and Parliament will work to strengthen penalties for antisemitic and racist acts.

Our elected officials are the sentinels of the Republic and must remain so. Justice has been seized regarding statements made by some of them, and the judiciary is doing its work independently. For the future, I wish to see the establishment of mandatory ineligibility penalties for antisemitic, racist, and discriminatory acts or statements.

School, justice, elected officials—the mobilization must be general: that of the State, the Government, all public services, and everyone in the Republic. Ladies and gentlemen, there have been too many words; there have been too many deaths. The time has come for action and for an uncompromising patriotic and republican mobilization.

The mobilization that follows in the footsteps of Zola, Jaurès, Clemenceau, and Picquart, who defended Dreyfus. And on July 12 next year, for the first time, we will hold a national day of commemoration for Alfred Dreyfus.

The mobilization that honors Robert Badinter, his humanism, and his love of freedom.

That honors Marc Bloch—who will be inducted into the Panthéon on June 23—who liked to say that he claimed to be Jewish only in the face of an antisemite.

That recognizes itself in de Gaulle, who carried the Republic with him, far from the state antisemitism of Vichy, Pétain, and Laval.

The mobilization of all our contemporary struggles, from which we will yield nothing.

Ilan Halimi had his whole life ahead of him. The oak tree we plant here at the Élysée will not restore the years taken nor fill the void left behind. But through it, Ilan’s memory will live in the hearts and minds of all who pass through these halls—as a reminder and as a demand.

What does this tree tell us above all—ilan, meaning “tree” in Hebrew? That the place of this fight against antisemitism is here, because this fight is existential for France and for the Republic. For as Abbé Grégoire proclaimed when he affirmed the entry of Jews into French citizenship, “France without Jews is a tree without branches.”

And the Republic is unrootable, just like Ilan’s memory now rooted here. They may try to uproot them all; they will never exhaust the republican sap or the French spirit. In the end, there will always be one left—and one is enough. And let every French woman and every French man say it to themselves: They are that last person who carries the honor of all and must take up every fight.

To Ilan Halimi, to his family, to all victims of antisemitism, to all of you—I swear that in this struggle, the Republic will prevail. Because the Republic is you. It is us. It is, at every second, the person who fights for the dignity of another.

Yes—we will prevail.

Long live the Republic. Long live France.
Trial of man accused of killing 69-year-old Jew in LA area in 2023 to begin
Loay Abdel Fattah Alnaji, who is accused of killing a 69-year-old Jewish man at nearby pro-Israel and anti-Israel rallies on Nov. 5, 2023, is scheduled to go on trial on Feb. 18 in Ventura County Superior Court in California.

Alnaji, 52, allegedly killed Paul Kessler less than a month after the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in Israel on Oct. 7. He has pleaded not guilty to multiple felonies, including involuntary manslaughter by an unlawful act, per the court docket. He was released on $50,000 bail.

The district attorney’s office alleges that an altercation between Alnaji, a computer science professor at Moorpark College, and Kessler resulted in the latter’s death. Alnaji was among the anti-Israel protesters, and Kessler was part of a smaller contingent of pro-Israel protesters that day in Thousand Oaks, Calif., near Los Angeles.

Alnaji allegedly hit Kessler with a megaphone. The county medical examiner’s office determined that he died from blunt force trauma from the megaphone and then hitting his head on the pavement.

Ron Bamieh, Alnaji’s attorney, said on Oct. 16, 2025, that Kessler “put his cell phone in my client’s face and said, ‘Baby killer. Baby killer. Baby killer.’”

“My client, with his left hand, swiped at the cell phone to knock it out of his face; the bullhorn hit Mr. Kessler on the face and the head, and Mr. Kessler turned, stood for two to three seconds, and then collapsed to the ground,” he said.

A few months before that, Bamieh said that Kessler, whom he called an “Israel advocate,” had a brain tumor that caused him to have balance issues, so “we’re saying it’s just as reasonable that he fell because of the tumor.”

The lawyer also said it is “reasonable” for someone to attempt to swipe away a cell phone put in their face and that Alnaji hit Kessler in the face accidentally.

The district attorney’s office stated on May 15, 2024, that “while antisemitic hate speech was heard at the Nov. 5, 2023 rally, there is no evidence those words were said by Alnaji.”

Alnaji faces up to four years if convicted on all charges, the office said.


Seth Mandel: The ‘Free Speech’ Advocates Who Love Blacklists
In the world of the arts, the Orwellian redefinition of “free speech” to mean “forced speech” is having quite the moment.

The author Arundhati Roy is boycotting the Berlinale film festival because organizers have suggested that artists should not be compelled to talk about politics. This would seem to be unobjectionable: free speech should also apply to artists who don’t want to let reporters troll them into a political controversy, especially at a gathering meant to display the art itself.

The controversy began on the first day of the Berlinale, when jury President Wim Wenders responded to the accusation that the film festival is institutionally pro-genocide because it does not position itself against Israel. “We are the counterweight of politics,” Wenders said, “the opposite of politics, we have to do the work of people — not the work of politicians.”

Roy exploded. “To hear them say that art should not be political is jaw-dropping. It is a way of shutting down a conversation about a crime against humanity even as it unfolds before us in real time — when artists, writers and film-makers should be doing everything in their power to stop it.”

Berlinale head Tricia Tuttle then explained that that is obviously not an accurate description of the film festival: “There are 278 films in this year’s program… There are films about genocide, about sexual violence in war, about corruption, about patriarchal violence, about colonialism or abusive state power.” Some of the filmmakers at Berlinale “may face prison, exile, and even death for the work they have made or the positions they have taken. They come to Berlin and share their work with courage. This is happening now.”

The festival’s perspective is very simple, Tuttle said: “Artists are free to exercise their right of free speech in whatever way they choose.”

Sounds like a good policy. But it was bound to only further antagonize the celebrities who agree with Roy. A group of 81 actors and other festival participants—among them Tilda Swinton and Javier Bardem—signed an open letter hitting back at the Berlinale and making clear what this fight is really about: “Berlinale has so far not even met the demands of its community to issue a statement that affirms the Palestinian” narrative of the war, the statement complained. More to the point, the letter warned: “The tide is changing across the international film world. Many international film festivals have endorsed the cultural boycott of apartheid Israel.”
Letter to a Catholic Friend
What happens if good men and women don’t take up the fight and vociferously reject the loonies in their midst? I’ll tell you, because, again, I’ve seen it happening in my own community. What starts on the fringes soon takes over the supposed mainstream. Before you know it, you have folks like Jonathan Greenblatt, head of the Anti-Defamation League, making common cause with the Reverend Al Sharpton, a man who still hasn’t apologized for inciting a pogrom that claimed Jewish lives in 1991. Before you know it, you have the UJA-Federation of New York, arguably the largest and most influential Jewish organization in America, writing a million-dollar check to Gaza. Before you know it, you have politicians like Sen. Chuck Schumer prancing around and talking about how they’re defending the community’s interests while doing everything they can to side with its most prominent adversaries and support policies that outrightly endanger its members. Before you know it, you have people like Phylisa Wisdom being propelled from their role in some marginal, radical left-wing group to become the Jewish liaison to the mayor of New York City, home to the largest population of Jews in the United States. In other words, before you know it, the Overton window has shifted so far and so fast that even groups that ought to know better now feel that they have no choice but to amplify or parrot the crazies.

So, friend, beware. We American Jews have been far too slow to reject our kooks. We allowed mendacious and malicious ideologues to sow too much discord, alienate too many potential allies, and cause too much damage. We spent too much time having inane and fruitless theoretical discussions about Zionism before we wised up to the fact that the un-Jews didn’t really care about us or Zionism or Judaism at all—they cared only about power, their own and that of their fellow travelers. And now the un-Catholics are treating you to the same playbook.

Do not go gently into this plight. Rage against the creeps and the weirdos, against the thrill seekers and the power hungry, against those who hijack your voice but do not share your humility, your compassion, and your depth of faith and feeling.

I realize it’s no easy task to keep your heart and your mind both wide open and your arms outstretched to embrace your fellow believers while at the same time fiercely rejecting those who approach your community and your faith with a bad conscience. But the tension is the key challenge of our time. Rejoice and love like you have no enemies, and fight like you have no friends, and maybe you—maybe we—will find, as we always do, that our faith forever triumphs over even the gravest of challenges.
The Costs of Conformity: Immigration, Ideology, Israel with Lionel Shriver
One of literature’s great contrarians dissent against dogma—on wokeness, borders, and Israel’s Western exception.

Lionel Shriver joins J100 from Portugal for a sharp, wide-ranging conversation on faith, dogma, and dissent. She explains how her religious upbringing shaped her suspicion of imposed moral certainty, why the arts have become politically homogeneous, how she separates column-writing from novelistic truth, and why Israel’s confidence—and survival—matters in a West increasingly ashamed of itself.


Antisemitism is 'running amok' in Britain, Trump's ambassador says as he urges Starmer to crackdown on protesters making parts of UK 'no-go zones' for Jewish people
Donald Trump's antisemitism tsar has warned that Jew hatred is 'running amok' in the UK as he urged Sir Keir Starmer to crackdown on protests.

Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun said that he was being 'inundated' with pleas from British Jews 'asking for our assistance' during a two-day visit.

'Coming to England was a priority for my office,' he told The Telegraph. 'Because we have been inundated by calls from people within the UK asking for our assistance in working with the Government to help stem the tide of antisemitism, which has been running amok in the UK throughout many of its regions.'

Reports of antisemitism have surged to record highs in Britain since Hamas' October 7 attacks in 2023, according to a report by The Community Security Trust.

In the last year alone, 3,700 incidents of hate towards Jews were recorded.

Rabbi Kaploun said the 'alarming' statistics were representative of a 'tremendous breakdown in law and order' under Starmer's leadership.

He added: 'It's a record that is sad because we're dealing in a society that, instead of being able to work on programmes that decrease antisemitism, we're seeing a tremendous rise.

'It's kind of a sad indictment that we're not learning from history to protect our children and give them a better future.'
Report sets out shocking extent of failed mass terror plot against Jews
A new report by the Community Security Trust lays bare the terrifying extent of the planning undertaken by men imprisoned last week after being found guilty of preparing to carry out mass terror attacks against the Manchester Jewish community – as well as how the security services managed to neutralise the threat.

Walid Saadaoui and Amar Hussein were jailed for life , while Bilal Saadaoui – Walid’s brother – received six years for failing to disclose information about the plot.

The timeline of the plan stems from 13 December 2023, when Walid first made contact with “Farouk”, an undercover police operative, until 8 May 2024, when the Saadaoui brothers and Hussein were arrested. As CST notes in its timeline of the plot, the trial of the brothers began on 7 October 2025, “just five days after the deadly terrorist attack on Heaton Park Synagogue, meaning that Manchester’s Jewish community was already in a collective state of shock when the chilling details of Walid’s and Amar’s intended plot began emerging in the local and national news.”

After Walid and “Farouk” met online in December 2023, Walid, who believed that the undercover officer was a fellow extremist, began discussing his murderous hatred of Jews and his intention to kill them.

As the plan developed, it took on the following form – Walid and Amar, who believed they would be backed up by “Farouk”, intended to use AK-47 assault rifles and other firearms to attack a march against antisemitism which would take place in the centre of Manchester, killing as many Jewish people and responding police officers as possible. They would then drive north to the Manchester Jewish community in the Broughton Park and Prestwich areas, targeting Jewish sites there. If not captured or killed by that time, they intended to target an army base and kill members of the armed forces.

While Walid made it clear that he wanted to use firearms to kill as many people as possible, he also told “Farouk” that, “It is a must that we grab a Jewish person and slaughter him and remove his head and wipe (the floor). Rub blood on my body with his blood and throw it away. That is the least we can do.”

Walid carried out reconnaissance of the Jewish communities in Prestwich and Broughton Park. On one occasion, he and “Farouk” walked past a local Jewish school. Walid said: ““This is a school this one. It is a school time. There is one hour and a half left. We will go to poison them; we will put poison in the water… Their children, their cars and their houses.”


'As a Jew - I no longer feel safe in the UK'
A survivor of the Manchester synagogue attack has said he does not feel safe in the UK after discovering he could have been caught up in another plot to kill.

Yoni Finlay was shot by a stray police bullet as he barricaded the doors of Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue during a deadly attack in which two people were killed in October 2025.

The 40-year-old had feared for some time that an attack like this could unfold on the streets where he had grown up.

"You fear somebody is going to attack us and that's why we have the security that we do and they do a great job but there's always a chance of something happening," he said.

But unbeknownst to him, Finlay could have been caught up in an earlier attack if the plot had not been foiled by an undercover police operative.

Walid Saadaoui, 38, and Amar Hussein, 52, had planned to target the Jewish community in Manchester in what could have been "the UK's most deadly terror attack" if they had succeeded.

The men had arranged for guns to be smuggled into the UK as part of an "Isis-inspired plot".

Prosecutors said the men planned to launch a gun assault on a march against antisemitism by the end of summer 2024, and then head to north Manchester to kill more Jews.

In one message, Saadaoui said: "Here in Manchester we have the biggest Jewish community [outside of London].

"We will carry out here."

The next day, he took the undercover operative to areas where Jewish communities live in Manchester - this time to identify specific targets he wanted to attack after targeting a march.

Finlay was among the thousands of people who attended a march against antisemitism in Manchester in the summer of 2024.

At the time, he and his fellow marchers were completely unaware that a plan had been foiled, potentially targeting that event.

He only found out when he returned home from hospital after being shot.

"I think for everybody there was an element of it was going to happen because antisemitism has been allowed to grow and fester and become normalised," Finlay said.
The ‘anti-Zionist’ inquisition comes for Matt Lucas
That’s what happened to Matt Lucas. He wasn’t challenged because of anything he had said or done. He was challenged because he had the temerity to exist as a Jew in public space.

The Brighton door-knockers predictably insist they’re ‘not anti-Semitic, but anti-Zionist’, as if the semantic gymnastics provide moral cover. But when your campaign involves compiling lists of residents based on their presumed views about the world’s only Jewish State, you’ve crossed a line that should horrify anyone with even a cursory understanding of 20th-century history. Similar ‘boycott’ campaigns in both Europe and the Middle East were followed by the wiping out of entire Jewish populations. It’s a familiar reality for Jews, so we recognise it when it arrives in British cities carrying clipboards.

It is chilling how institutions bend to these demands. Sussex Police initially saw no problem with activists compiling neighbourhood lists of suspected Zionists. They only reversed course after sustained pressure from Peter Kyle and others. Green MP Sian Berry wrung her hands about the tactic being ‘confrontational’, while rushing to assure everyone the door-knockers were ‘well intentioned’. Her colleague, Carla Denyer, Green MP for Bristol Central, dispensed with even that fig leaf. She joined a similar door-knocking campaign herself in Bristol, and proudly signed its pledge to boycott Israeli goods.

When elected officials participate in campaigns that leave Jewish constituents feeling unsafe in their own neighbourhoods, and police forces need to be arm-twisted into recognising obvious harassment, we’re witnessing the normalisation of something profoundly ugly. This is a worldview that demands public declarations of political allegiance as the price of acceptance. That sees Jews not as individuals but as collectively accountable to a righteous group of activists. When stripped of its ‘progressive’ veneer, it is indistinguishable from age-old anti-Jewish racism.

Matt Lucas kept his dignity on that escalator, but he shouldn’t have had to. No British Jew should have to navigate public transport wondering if they’ll be the next person filmed for an ideological litmus test. No Jewish family should open their door to find activists with clipboards asking them to renounce Israel.

This is what the new inquisition looks like. It comes with clipboards instead of torches, and the show trial now takes place on Instagram. But it’s the same question Jews have been asked for centuries: do you really belong with us? And in Britain in 2026, that question should have no place at all.
The hounding of Matt Lucas tells us all we need to know about the ‘Free Palestine’ mob
These exchanges are deeply uncomfortable to watch. Not least because, to the best of my knowledge, Mr Lucas has never shared his views on Gaza. Why, then, was he being hounded in such an obnoxious manner?

Well, allow me to take a wild guess. Could it possibly be because he’s Jewish?

Naturally the “Free Palestine” crew will deny it. Why, of course they’re not anti-Semitic. Perish the thought. When they publicly harass a Jewish celebrity, they do so only from the noblest of intentions.

Once again, I’m reminded of the wisdom of Aldous Huxley, who in 1933 wrote: “The surest way to work up a crusade in favour of some good cause is to promise people that they will have a chance of maltreating someone… To be able to destroy with a good conscience, to be able to behave badly and call your bad behaviour ‘righteous indignation’ – this is the height of psychological luxury, the most delicious of moral treats.”

Exactly so. Radical progressives make such a big song and dance about “compassion”, because it gives them carte blanche to be cruel.
Saatchi gallery refuses to change erroneous references to ‘Palestine’
The Saatchi gallery has declined to change a painting description in its current exhibition which repeatedly refers to areas inside Israel’s internationally recognised borders as “Palestine”, saying that it does not “take a position on the political or historical interpretations that may arise from an artist’s work.”

The gallery is currently exhibiting a work called “shifting sands”, by Dima Srouji. Srouji was born in Nazareth, Israel, in 1990, despite the description claiming she was born in ‘Palestine’.

The caption alongside the work says that it was “an ode to the river Belus south of the city of Akka, Palestine.”

The river, better known as the Na’aman, is again within Israel’s internationally recognised borders, as is the city of Akko.

The exhibit description goes on to say: “Due to the rich sands and high amounts of silica, this river was a centre of worship. The same sand was extracted from the Belus to make raw glass in large furnaces in what are now archaeological sites all around Palestine. From the raw glass cubes, glassblowers in Palestine, Lebanon, and Egypt made vessels used for rituals of mourning, celebration, and cleansing.”

The first mention of glassblowing taking place in the region dates from the 1st century BCE, when the land was populated both by Seleucid Greeks and the local Jewish population.

Finally, the language in the Saatchi gallery claims that “This infinite cycle that exists between the land, the glass objects, and the Palestinian body are teased out in this installation through a 3.5-metre glass river. Today, the River Belus (Naamein) is highly polluted as Israeli weapons factories surround the area, eroding its historic properties and causing rising cancer rates in nearby cities.”

There is no indication in any mainstream media sources that any Israeli weapons factories which may or may not be in the area have polluted the river.

Responding to an inquiry from Jewish News, the museum said: “The gallery presents artists’ work and respects how artists choose to describe themselves and contextualise their practice. The accompanying text reflects the artist’s own perspective.
Four in 10 Jewish students report experiencing hatred on campus, per study
A new survey released on Feb. 17 finds that a significant share of Jewish college students in the United States report encountering antisemitism on campus, with many altering how they express their Jewish identity as a result.

The study, conducted by the American Jewish Committee in partnership with Hillel International, shows that 42% of Jewish students say they have experienced antisemitism while at a university.

Among those students, more than half said they felt uncomfortable or unsafe at a campus event because of their Jewish identity.

Overall, 34% said they had avoided publicly displaying their Jewish identity due to fear of a backlash—being intimidated or threatened for doing so.

Nearly four in 10 respondents said they have refrained from sharing their views on Israel with classmates or on campus, increasing to 68% among those who reported experiencing antisemitism.

Dr. Laura Shaw Frank of AJC said the findings highlight ongoing concerns even as large-scale campus disruptions have eased. “While we welcome the fact that the vast majority of campuses have not been disrupted by uncontrolled protests in the past year, the data make clear that Jewish students are still experiencing antisemitism on their campuses,” she said.

The survey further indicates that a campus climate plays a role in student perceptions. Nearly one-third of Jewish students said student life or campus activities had fostered a hostile environment for Jews, and one-quarter reported being excluded from a group or event because they were Jewish.
American University suspends Students for Justice in Palestine chapter
The Students for Justice in Palestine chapter at American University, a private university in Washington, D.C., has been suspended for “violations of university policies,” a spokesperson for the school told JNS.

According to the university’s website, the suspension of the SJP chapter runs through Nov. 6, 2027, stemming from February 2025 findings against the group for violations of the university’s anti-discrimination policy.

On Feb. 25, 2025, university officials canceled an SJP event scheduled for that evening after reviewing a social media post advertising the program that “contained imagery and language that contributed to the safety concerns about the event.”

Administrators said the event “did not undergo the necessary safety assessment” and that the chapter failed to submit the content for review prior to posting. The social media graphic for the event, titled “Debunking Zionist Lies Workshop,” included the words “Smash Zionism!” alongside an image of a person in a red and white keffiyeh holding a slingshot.

The chapter had previously been placed on probation in 2024, according to the university.
Meet Columbia Encampment Radical Khymani James's Harvard-Educated Lawyer, Who Compared Hamas Terrorists to WWII 'French Resistance' Fighters
Khymani James, the Columbia University encampment organizer who fantasized about "murdering Zionists," has responded defiantly to his suspension from the Ivy League school, filing lawsuits against Columbia and his critics in Congress. Spearheading the legal action is an activist attorney who has repeatedly defended Hamas terrorists, including by comparing them to World War II-era "French Resistance" fighters whom "we collectively adore."

The attorney, Harvard Law School graduate Jonathan Wallace, cofounded the Parachute Project, a group of self-described "movement attorneys," to represent "pro-Palestine students, faculty, & staff at campuses nationwide" in the wake of Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack. That includes James: Wallace is representing the anti-Semitic activist in his suit against Columbia—which alleges that the school discriminated against James for his anti-Israel views—as well as in his suit against Rep. Virginia Foxx (R., N.C.), the former House Education Committee chair who revealed that Columbia promised to expel James but never did so.

Wallace's defense of James fits neatly within his broader activism. Wallace regularly publishes anti-Israel screeds on his blog, "The Ethical Spectacle." One post published weeks after Oct. 7 compared the Hamas terrorists who carried out the attack to those working to "kill Nazis and blow stuff up" during World War II and praised their "cleverness" for hiding among Gaza's civilian population.

"As a thought experiment, remember the iconic violent resistance fighters we collectively adore, the French resistance: they too sheltered among the civilian population, looking just like them, then surging out to kill Nazis and blow stuff up," Wallace wrote in the post.

"Like so many Ontologies, this settles down to a question of whether we hate or love the cause and the people carrying it out; Resistance fighters are objectively indistinguishable from terrorists, except that we thought the Nazis Had It Coming," he continued. "We laud their cleverness in hiding in plain sight until the opportune moment, but hate Hamas for doing the same."

In another post, Wallace accused Israel of indiscriminately murdering Palestinians "like dogs." In January 2026, he wrote that the Israeli soccer fans who were hunted down by anti-Semitic mobs following a match in Amsterdam had "started the violence." And in 2015, he wrote that he was considering "converting from Jewish atheism to some other brand, maybe Unitarian" out of a desire to "disassociate" from Israel.


Israeli suppliers empty out inventories selling sweets, soft drinks to Gaza for Ramadan
Israeli manufacturers have seen their inventories of sweets, soft drinks, and energy drinks dry up after Israel approved their entry into the Gaza Strip in the run-up to Ramadan.

A, a large candy manufacturer in Israel, told Walla on Monday that he had never seen such an influx of demand for his products as he is seeing now in the Gaza market.

"Two and a half months ago, I started receiving calls from all kinds of importers looking for goods to send to Gaza. At first, it was reasonable quantities, but it increased," A told Walla.

Four months after a ceasefire took effect in Gaza, Israel has continued to allow around 700 humanitarian aid trucks a day to enter the enclave with food, shelter supplies, and medical equipment.

COGAT has publicly cited a daily range of 600 to 800 trucks since the ceasefire began, according to a December report by The Jerusalem Post.

According to industry sources, Israeli merchants are receiving large volumes of orders, even for goods set to expire within two or three weeks. Additionally, prices rarely need to be negotiated because Gazan merchants pay well above the Israeli market rate.

The goods are transported into the Strip through private channels and upsold in Gazan markets, a system which constitutes a substantial source of profit for several parties along the supply chain. When the trucks containing the goods enter the Gaza Strip, they are transferred to licensed local resellers.

The whole process is supervised by the state but carried out entirely by private entities on both sides of the border. To provide adequate oversight, the Israeli government decided in December 2025 that any purchase classified as aid must go through one of a limited number of Israeli companies granted "approved supplier" status.


The Plan Trump Has Already Set in Motion Against Iran
It appears that a principled decision to strike at the Iranian regime was taken two months ago at Mar-a-Lago. What we have seen in recent days, and what we are likely to see soon, is not a series of impulsive reactions; it is a managed and carefully planned event, advancing according to clearly defined stages.

The first stage is the campaign of the slain: a continuous flood of death tolls, harrowing footage, and testimonies seeping out of Iran following a partial reopening of the internet. The U.S. needs a smoking gun, a casus belli, a justification for war. Americans require a moral and political rationale to legitimize a broader move.

The second stage is talk of a siege, the creation of a sense of tightening suffocation. The Iranian regime is accustomed to living under sanctions. Nevertheless, it creates an appearance of pressure, a sense that diplomacy is underway. It is a pattern Trump has used repeatedly.

The third stage is discourse - negotiations. Iran will talk and threaten, while simultaneously sending quiet messages and asking for time. However, the terms placed on the table will be such that the Iranian regime cannot accept them. The real demand is not the dismantling of the nuclear program, but the dismantling of the regime's very essence, and the radical Shiite regime in Tehran cannot agree to its own dissolution.

Here the central element comes into play: surprise. The strike, when it comes, will not be a symbolic event nor a one-night operation. It will be a prolonged aerial campaign, sustained over time, with repeated waves of strikes targeting regime symbols, Revolutionary Guard headquarters, the Basij militia, and the infrastructure of control and repression. The objective is not merely to damage military capability, but to create conditions under which the people take to the streets.

Trump either enters the history books as the one who freed the Middle East from an extremist regime that destabilizes the global order, or he falls into the Iranian trap of delays, prolonged talks, and stalling tactics.
Khamenei Threatens American Troops, Attacks Iranian Civilians Mourning Slain Protesters Amid Nuclear Negotiations With US
Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei threatened to attack U.S. warships in the Middle East as his representatives took part in indirect nuclear negotiations with the United States. At the same time, his security forces fired on civilian crowds gathered in Iran to mourn those killed during the anti-regime protests earlier this year.

"The Americans constantly say that they’ve sent a warship toward Iran," Khamenei wrote on X early Tuesday morning, referring to the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and other military assets that President Donald Trump sent to the region. "Of course, a warship is a dangerous piece of military hardware. However, more dangerous than that warship is the weapon that can send that warship to the bottom of the sea."

Just hours after Khamenei issued his threat, Iran International published a video of Tehran’s security forces opening fire on a crowd of mourners gathered in the southern city of Abdanan for a vigil honoring the thousands the regime slaughtered in January. Other videos posted on social media and verified by outlets like Iran International showed civilians screaming as they fled from the gunfire.

Khamenei’s post and news of the attack on mourners came as U.S. and Iranian diplomats wrapped up a round of indirect negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland, meant to address the Islamic Republic’s nuclear weapons program. Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said the discussions made "good progress" following a session in Oman earlier this month. Iranian leaders, though, have already stated that they will not stop enriching uranium and that their ballistic missile program is not on the table.

The threat from Khamenei and further violence against civilians throws another wrench into the negotiation process. Trump has repeatedly warned the Iranian regime against targeting civilians and has stated that a good deal with Iran would mean "no nuclear weapons, no missiles." Last month, Trump said that "it’s time to look for new leadership in Iran" after a reporter read him a series of social media posts from Khamenei.

Khamenei’s Tuesday comments appeared to refer to the country’s arsenal of anti-ship ballistic missiles. The Islamic Republic’s weapons are smaller and less sophisticated than those the U.S. military employs, but still pose a threat to vessels operating in the region. Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior director of the Iran program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the Washington Free Beacon that Iran’s anti-ship missile system would be an obstacle to overcome should Trump approve military action against Tehran.


Iranians chant ‘Death to Khamenei,’ ‘Long live the shah’ at memorials for slain protesters
Iranians shouted slogans against the leader of the Islamic Republic on Tuesday as they gathered to commemorate protesters killed in a crackdown on nationwide demonstrations that rights groups said left thousands dead, according to videos verified by AFP.

The country’s clerical authorities also staged a commemoration in the capital Tehran to mark the 40th day since the deaths at the peak of the protests on January 8 and 9, in line with Shiite mourning tradition.

Officials acknowledge more than 3,000 people died during the unrest, but attribute the violence to “terrorist acts,” while rights groups say many more thousands of people were killed, shot dead by security forces in a violent crackdown.

The protests, sparked by anger over the rising cost of living before exploding in size and anti-government fervour, subsided after the crackdown, but in recent days, Iranians have chanted slogans from the relative safety of homes and rooftops at night.

On Tuesday, videos verified by AFP showed crowds gathering at memorials for some of those killed again shouting slogans against the theocratic government in place since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

In videos geolocated by AFP shared on social media, a crowd in Abadan in western Iran holds up flowers and commemorative photos of a young man as they shout “death to Khamenei,” referring to Iran’s supreme leader, and “long live the shah,” in support of the ousted monarchy.

Another video from the same city shows people running in panic from the sounds of shots, though it wasn’t immediately clear if they were from live fire.


Israel joins US in criticizing Belgian antisemitism
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Monday highlighted Belgium’s antisemitism problem in a public exchange with his Belgian counterpart.

The unusual comments followed a rare condemnation by the U.S. ambassador in Brussels of local authorities’ treatment of three Jewish mohels—men who perform nonmedical circumcision on Jewish infants.

The 316-word post by the ambassador, Bill White, alleged that the ongoing police investigation of the mohels was antisemitic. This prompted Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot, who has accused Israel of engaging in a genocide in Gaza, to insist on X that “any suggestion that Belgium is antisemitic is false, offensive, and unacceptable.”

Sa’ar replied to Prévot’s post by listing recent antisemitism data relevant to Belgium. Sa’ar ended the tweet by saying that White’s post was a “mirror” that Prévot finds “unpleasant, but one might want to take this opportunity to take a hard look in that mirror and acknowledge reality.”

In addressing Belgium’s antisemitism problem, Sa’ar noted that “there has been a sharp and consecutive rise in antisemitic attacks in Belgium for more than five years.”

Jews in Belgium, Sa’ar added, “are afraid to wear a kippah in the streets. Two Jewish cemeteries were desecrated. There was an attempt to set fire to a synagogue in Antwerp. Jewish students report constant harassment and discrimination.”

Anti-Defamation League surveys, Sa’ar also wrote, show that “antisemitism in Belgium is two to three times more common than in its neighboring countries.”

The ADL’s Antisemitism Index, which relies on polling, gives Belgium a score of 30, which is the third highest in the Western Europe region. Belgium’s larger neighbors—Germany, the Netherlands and France— have scores of 9, 8 and 13, respectively. Luxembourg is not ranked.
Israeli minister urges IOC to condemn Swiss broadcaster over ‘genocide’ remarks
Israeli Minister of Culture and Sports Miki Zohar urged the International Olympic Committee on Tuesday to censure Switzerland’s Broadcasting Corporation after one of its commentators accused an Israeli athlete of supporting “genocide.”

“It is unacceptable that broadcasting unions around the world disgrace Israeli athletes and portray them as supporters of genocide and call for their disqualification,” Zohar said in a Hebrew-language statement.

“I stand with Israeli athlete Adam Edelman and call on the International Olympic Committee to condemn the remarks of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation and keep the Winter Olympics free of politics,” he added.

Commentator Stefan Renna was covering Edelman’s participation on Monday in the men’s bobsleigh event at the Milan Cortina Games for the Swiss RTS broadcaster when he accused the athlete of posting “several messages on social networks in support of genocide in Gaza.”

During the two-minute-long segment, Renna went on to say: “Edelman, who described the Israeli military intervention as, and I quote: ‘The most morally just war in history.’

“He also mocked a free Palestine inscription on a wall in Lillehammer on the sidelines of a World Cup stage, and asked his followers to send strength to [Ward] Fawarseh when this member of the Israeli team, present here in Cortina, was engaged in an Israeli army operation.”

Despite Edelman’s run coming to an end, Renna continued: “This raises the question of his presence in Cortina during these games, as the IOC has said that athletes who, and I quote: ‘Actively supported the war by participating in pro-war events, being military engaged or via their activities on their social networks were not eligible to participate.”
Suspect in Rhode Island ice rink shooting shared antisemitic, racist posts
Robert Dorgan, 56, the suspect in a fatal shooting at a Rhode Island high school hockey game on Monday, had shared “thousands” of antisemitic and racist posts online, according to the New York Post.

Dorgan, who identified as “Roberta Esposito,” allegedly opened fire during a game at an ice rink in Pawtucket, killing two people and wounding three others before taking his own life, authorities said.

The Post reported that Dorgan’s social media account included “worrying remarks” against anti-trans hate as well as extremist and racially offensive content, including support for Nazi ideology. One day before the shooting, he responded to a video praising Adolf Hitler using an Asian slur.

Dorgan’s account also featured references to “white power” and “white pride worldwide,” as well as a reposted video of individuals giving a Nazi-style salute.

In a separate post the night before the attack, Dorgan appeared to threaten violence in response to another user who called Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.), a transgender member of Congress, a man. “Keep bashing us. But do not wonder why we go berserk,” Dorgan wrote.
Brazilian scientist faces antisemitic hate speech charges
A prominent sociologist and author in Brazil, Jessé Souza, is facing criminal hate speech charges for linking Jeffrey Epstein to “Jewish Zionism.”

Guto Zacarias, a lawmaker for the center-right Brazil Union party in the state parliament of Sao Paulo, filed a criminal complaint against Souza last week, the O Globo newspaper reported.

Souza had said in a video that Epstein, the deceased Jewish-American sex offender, was “the most perfect product of Jewish Zionism,” whose actions were intended to blackmail world leaders to ignore “the Palestinian Holocaust.”

Epstein “is not an isolated case of human evil. Epstein is the most perfect product of Jewish Zionism. He was not only financed by the Jewish lobby Mossad and Rothschild, but Zionism is the driving force behind all the crimes that were committed. The industrial pedophilia network only existed to later serve as a means of blackmailing politicians and billionaires, especially Americans, to gain support for Israel’s murderous practices in the Middle East and Palestine,” Souza said in one video.

Souza, a former head of the Brazilian government’s Institute of Applied Economic Research, is a far-left thinker and the author of several books, including best-sellers “The Elite of Backwardness” and “The Brazilian Rabble.”

In the video, he added: “The Jewish Holocaust was orchestrated by Zionism, with the help of Hollywood and the entire world media dominated by the Jewish lobby, to label any criticism of Israel as antisemitism. It was this fraud that allowed the Holocaust of the Palestinian people.”
Brandan Koschel's antisemitic speech at Sydney March for Australia rally 'abhorrent', says prosecutor
A Sydney man's antisemitic speech during an Australia Day rally has been described by prosecutors as "abhorrent" and designed solely to spur hundreds of people into harbouring the same hatred as him towards the Jewish community.

Brandan Koschel was arrested after he appeared on a stage for an open mic session during the anti-immigration March for Australia event at Moore Park.

The 31-year-old last week pleaded guilty to publicly inciting hatred on the grounds of race, causing fear, and his lawyer has now argued for him to be spared a custodial sentence.

Koschel's speech lasted 40 seconds and was made as he wore a black shirt with a white Celtic Cross.

A statement of agreed facts in the case identifies two sentences in particular, directed at the Jewish community, which constituted the offending.

He also made reference to prominent Neo-Nazis Joel Davis and Thomas Sewell.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Adrian Walsh today said Koschel's references to the Neo-Nazis were "concerning" and the offending was serious, particularly in light of the current social and political climate.

"It could be said this was a very public act that's sole purpose was to encourage or to spur on the several hundred people present into harbouring the same hatred the accused has towards Jewish people," he told the court.


Oscar-winning documentarian Frederick Wiseman, shut out for being a Jew, dies at 96
Frederick Wiseman became a globally celebrated documentary filmmaker by capturing the inner workings of a wide range of social institutions, from governments to schools, small towns, and cultural centers.

But years before they opened their doors to his cameras, institutions were shutting Wiseman out — because he was Jewish.

“I’m very aware of my Jewish heritage. I was aware of antisemitism from the time I was four years old,” Wiseman, who died Monday at the age of 96, recalled to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in 2021.

In Boston in 1930, Wiseman’s father, a Russian-born judge, had his appointment to municipal court rejected when his superiors discovered he was Jewish. As a child, Wiseman recalled his family would hear Father Charles Coughlin, the antisemitic “radio priest,” over the airwaves. When Wiseman himself enrolled in Williams College in the postwar era, he found that all the campus fraternities excluded Jews.

Incensed, Wiseman joined the student newspaper, working to, in his words, “undermine the fraternity system.” His interest in systems would percolate throughout his filmmaking career, beginning with “Titticut Follies” in 1967, an intimate examination of a hospital for the criminally insane. The film’s harrowing footage caused a sensation when it was released, and it was banned from public screenings for decades.

Wiseman’s filmography over the following decades — he would direct 45 in all, plus some theatrical productions in France — would be noted far less for sensationalism than for quieter, more unobtrusive qualities. Working with handheld cameras and a small crew, he would embed himself within various settings and stitch together the resulting footage to create nuanced, minutely detailed portraits of specific places and times. He produced and distributed the films himself under his production company, Zipporah Films, named after Wiseman’s longtime spouse, attorney and law professor Zipporah Batshaw Wiseman, who died in 2021.
Eric Trump invests in XTEND, Israeli drone manufacturer, in billion-dollar deal to go public
Eric Trump, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son, is investing in Israeli drone maker XTEND as part of a $1.5 billion deal to take the company public.

XTEND’s drones have been used during Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip, including in mapping, building exploration and booby-trap neutralization. Some of the drones are marketed as “low cost-per-kill” units.

The U.S. Department of Defense has emphasized the importance and centrality of drones in current and future wars. XTEND says it has clinched a multimillion-dollar Pentagon contract in November for its “one-way” drone kits to be specially built for small tactical teams in “irregular warfare operations.”

The company is now competing for more, with XTEND among 25 companies invited to participate in the department’s first phase of its Drone Dominance Program.

XTEND, which opened a facility in Florida, is merging with JFB Construction as part of the investment deal.

“We are acquiring the resources we need to scale our manufacturing capabilities in the U.S. and gaining access to the U.S. public markets,” by combining with JFB Construction, said Aviv Shapira, co-founder and CEO of XTEND.

XTEND intends to go public through JFB’s Nasdaq listing.
American Jewish speedskater Emery Lehman wins silver medal at Winter Olympics
Emery Lehman, a Jewish speedskater and four-time Olympian, captured a silver medal in the men’s team pursuit on Tuesday, his second career medal.

Lehman, 29, and his teammates Casey Dawson and Ethan Cepuran finished 4.51 seconds behind the host country Italy in what was considered an unexpected loss for the United States. Since the 2021-2022 season, Lehman’s team had set three world records and won five straight World Cup season titles, the 2022 Olympic bronze medal and a 2025 world championship.

Lehman has said he plans to retire from speedskating after the 2026 Olympics.

“Eight years ago, none of us had skated a team pursuit together,” Lehman said after the race, according to NBC. “Now, to be finishing off with two Olympic medals, I’m pretty proud of it.”

Lehman, a Chicago native, took up speedskating at 9 years old to improve his ice hockey skills at the urging of his mother, Marcia. Marcia Lehman is a former executive at Chicago’s Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership and at the American Friends of the Hebrew University of Israel. She is also an alum of the Yeshiva of Flatbush, according to her social media.

Emery Lehman went on a Birthright trip to Israel in May 2018.

“Unreal experience seeing those who fought for Israel throughout the years,” Lehman wrote in a post from Mount Herzl cemetery in Jerusalem. “Seeing all sorts of graves from such a diverse group of people fighting to keep the people in Israel safe was very touching.”
Jubilant Israeli team celebrates last-place finish in Olympic 2-man bobsleigh event
Few Olympic athletes are jubilant at coming in last place. But for Israel’s bobsleigh team, the Olympic dream was never about a medal — but about showing up, hitting the ice and waving the flag.

And their Olympic run isn’t over yet.

Israel’s two-man bobsleigh team, made up of pilot AJ Edelman and brakeman Menachem Chen, finished its third and final heat Tuesday evening in 26th and last place, with only the top 20 sleds competing in the fourth heat.

And they were overjoyed.

“What we accomplished today, some kid is going to see in 10, 15, 20 years, and he’s going to be inspired by that to do his own journey,” Edelman told Israel’s Sport5 channel in an interview shortly after finishing the race Tuesday night.

“We’re very proud, we’re moving forward to the four-man event,” the team’s pilot added. “Israel is in the Olympics, baby! We did something unbelievable in this sport, to do it by ourselves, piecing it together. People might not realize how amazing this accomplishment is for this country.”

The team was never seen as having any real shot at a medal, after just missing out on qualifying outright for the Games, and winning an Olympic spot thanks to reallocation.

But for the Israeli team, and Edelman in particular, the Cinderella run at making it to the Olympics at all was the culmination of eight years of hard work, crushing disappointments and refusing to ever give up.

Edelman — a Boston native who made history as Israel’s first-ever Olympic skeleton athlete at the 2018 Games — cobbled together Israel’s bobsleigh team by recruiting Israeli athletes from other sports.

He brought in Chen from the world of discus throwing, while Omer Katz was a sprinter, Uri Zisman a pole vaulter and Ward Fawarseh — Israel’s first-ever Druze Olympian — a rugby player. Underfunded, overlooked and missing key training days due to IDF reserve duty for a number of its members, the team’s uphill battle has led it to celebrate every step along the journey.




Buy EoZ's books  on Amazon!

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

    
 

 



AddToAny

Printfriendly

EoZTV Podcast

Podcast URL

Subscribe in podnovaSubscribe with FeedlyAdd to netvibes
addtomyyahoo4Subscribe with SubToMe

search eoz

comments

Speaking

Speaking

translate

E-Book

For $18 donation








Sample Text

EoZ's Most Popular Posts in recent years

Search2

Hasbys!

Hasbys!

2019 Nobel Peace Prize nominee

Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون



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.

Donate!

Donate to fight for Israel!

Monthly subscription:
Payment options


One time donation:

Follow EoZ on Twitter!

Interesting Blogs

Show All

Blog Archive

Copyright © Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News | Powered by Blogger
Blogger Templates