Friday, February 20, 2026

02/19 Links Pt2: Tucker Carlson's detention claim shattered by viral video; Bari Weiss’ Daniel Pearl Memorial Lecture canceled; Why I acquired the whiteprint of the Auschwitz-Birkenau crematoria

From Ian:

Noah Rothman: The Revolt of the Revolting
Review of 'The Revolutionists' by Jason Burke
Ilich Ramírez Sánchez was jubilant upon his return to London in 1971. When the Venezuelan national’s parents had last seen their son, he and his brother had just secured positions to study at Moscow’s Patrice Lumumba Peoples’ Friendship University—the front from which so much Soviet-sponsored radicalism and militancy was cultivated, refined, and exported. But that had been years earlier. On arrival, Ramírez was chided by a family friend for failing to tell his worried family where he’d been, but the reason for his prolonged absence was simple. “I’ve been in the Middle East,” he confessed, “learning how to kill Jews.”

That certainly explained the low profile. Ramírez embarked on that project under an assumed name, “Carlos,” to which the appellation “the Jackal” would soon be indelibly appended. Although he was perhaps the most famous revolutionary left-wing terrorist and assassin of his generation, Carlos actually had serious competition for the title. He would, however, make an outsize contribution to the bloodshed that bathed the decade to follow.

Although they talked a good game about proletarian solidarity and compassionate self-sacrifice, the violence that the Jackal and his terrorist allies dispensed was more often an outgrowth of narcissistic self-reverence that masqueraded as altruism. The Revolutionists: The Story of the Extremists Who Hijacked the 1970s, by the British author and journalist Jason Burke, tells Carlos’s story and those of many others like him.

Burke’s rich narrative distills a violent decade to its intellectual concentrate. He chronicles the international Marxist left’s turn from socialist ardor toward nationalism and Islamism. It was a transformation that occurred in tandem with Israel’s progression from a fledgling state into a regional power. The Communist East and its fellow travelers turned on Israel as it evolved from an incipient socialist experiment into a Western-oriented capitalist democracy—one that had had the temerity twice to defeat the coalition of Arab nations in whose success Moscow had ill-advisedly invested substantial sums. The international left’s bitterness did not die when the Warsaw Pact pivoted late in the Cold War from confrontation to accommodation with the West, leading the global Marxist vanguard to throw their chips in with the Islamist radicals still in the fight.

It’s only proper, then, that Burke’s story begins not with the rash of civilian-aircraft hijackings that closed out the turbulent 1960s and set the stage for the violence to come, but in 1948, with the Jewish state’s founding. The birth of Israel was accompanied by the rise of a particular radicalism in the region influenced by “Marxist ideology,” one of the earliest expressions of which was George Habash’s Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, founded in 1967.
Seth Mandel: The Problem With ‘Epstein Class’
Back in 2017, during the heady days of the Trump-Russia “collusion” accusations, the release of the Steele Dossier supercharged the story. A former British spy had been very clearly duped by the Russians into putting together a file of colorful and compromising tales about Trump. The main effect this had was to turn the American political discourse into a conspiracist circus.

And when that happens, it’s only a matter of time before the sleuthing public finds a way to make it about the Jews.

Sure enough, in April 2017 Politico ran one of the wackiest articles about Jews to appear in a mainstream publication in years. Under the headline “The Happy-Go-Lucky Jewish Group That Connects Trump and Putin,” the article intimated that Chabad-Lubavitch institutions were the link between Trump and Putin’s oligarchs. The piece never establishes this, of course, because it’s nonsense. But it conjured a false picture that many people, eager to get Trump on collusion, bought into.

It is an iron rule that conspiracy theories find their ways to Jews if left to fester in the public’s imagination. So while the dossier’s intent had nothing to do with Jews, the irresponsible collation of rumors inevitably ended up there.

So it is with the Jeffrey Epstein files. Led by the bipartisan duo of Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie, Congress forced open the files relating to the well-connected financier who was convicted of sex offenses. Epstein has been the subject of endless but groundless speculation by conspiracy theorists that he was working for Israel.

The Times of London provided a perfect example of the type of conspiracy mongering enabled by the mass release of the Epstein files. “Was Epstein a Mossad agent? New files deepen mystery over Israel links,” the headline promised. Several paragraphs into the story we get this: “An FBI report from the Los Angeles field office written in October 2020 said the bureau’s source had become ‘convinced that Epstein was a co-opted Mossad agent.’”

So now the reader has imbibed this rumor along with terms like “FBI report” and descriptions of certain messages as Department of Justice documents. Which they are—technically. But the “source” is a Holocaust denier and all-around disgraced kook—the report protects his identity, but it is not a secret. Still, the Times gets to play games by painting them as official documents coming from the feds.
Nicole Lampert: The pro-Gaza luvvies are engaged in their nastiest purity spiral yet
Towards the end of China’s Cultural Revolution, those who had dared to indulge in wrongthink were forced to wear signs around their necks detailing their alleged crimes and dragged into public stadiums. They were tortured and some of them were even the victims of ritualistic cannibalism.

Though not as extreme as the gruesomely violent aspects of the Cultural Revolution, some of the intolerance that characterised that movement can now be found in response to Israel. This week, 80 actors and directors, including Javier Bardem (a keffiyeh-clad poppinjay), Tilda Swinton, Brian Cox and Mike Leigh, denounced the Berlin Film Festival in Variety magazine because its organisers dared to say that not everyone has to express an opinion on Gaza.

They are furious that the Berlinale’s mild-mannered German jury president, Wim Wenders, voiced his belief that filmmakers should stay out of politics. “We have to do the work of people and not the work of politicians,” he said when asked repeatedly about Gaza. In 2026, this counts as bravery.

But the furore was immediate, with Indian novelist Arundhati Roy storming out of the festival, which was due to present a 1989 film she wrote. She described Wenders’ comments as “unconscionable”.

Then came the letter, which had the frankly breathtaking audacity to compare the Berlinale’s stance with that of Germany in the 1930s, because the previous year it had tried to stem the anti-Semitic impulses of too many righteously insane filmmakers who wanted to denounce the Israeli state for daring to defend itself.

What is more, the letter did not just have the usual lie that the war in Gaza is a “genocide”, but the kind of claim that only people who spend too much time in the land of make-believe could come up with – that Palestinians had been “evaporated” by the IDF.

These puffed-up self-righteous celebrities, who have forgotten we only want to see them crying on film and wearing nice clothes on the red carpet, are becoming dangerous with their anti-Zionist conspiracies.

While we may not be quite at cannibalism in this new attempted cultural revolution, in which everyone should bow down to the victimhood of the Palestinians, I fear we are getting ever closer.


“Christ is King”: Rise of the ‘Anti-Zionist’ Christian Influencer
A Sacred Phrase at a Sacred Season
With the arrival of Lent, the solemn Christian season preceding Easter and commemorating the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, the contrast becomes starker.

Jesus of Nazareth was born, lived, and died a Jew. The earliest followers of Christianity were Jews. Christianity emerged from Judaism.

For much of the past two millennia, Jews were persecuted, expelled, and violently targeted in Christian-majority societies, often justified by theological hostility. In the modern era, particularly in the United States, many Christians and Jews have instead forged strong theological, cultural, and civic alliances.

The NCRI warns that allowing sacred language to be weaponized carries broader consequences. The report argues that when religious phrases are co-opted to legitimize hatred, it does not merely distort language; it erodes the moral authority of religious participation in public life and risks normalizing extremism under the veneer of faith.

That is the real danger.

Not that Christians proclaim “Christ is King.”

But that the phrase is transformed into a dog whistle of exclusion.

No faithful people, Christians, Jews, Muslims, or otherwise, should allow sincere declarations of belief to be commandeered by those seeking to spread division.

There is another popular phrase in Christian culture, often seen on bumper stickers: “What would Jesus do?”

If some of these self-described defenders of Christianity truly believe that turning Jews into conspiratorial enemies is the answer, they may wish to revisit the New Testament.

Because weaponizing faith for hatred is certainly not what Jesus would do.
Tucker Carlson's detention claim shattered by viral video
Tucker Carlson was seen hugging and taking a photograph with a Ben-Gurion Airport employee, according to footage circulating on social media on Thursday, contradicting his claim to The Daily Mail that he was detained and hauled off by security.

In the video, he was seen smiling and hugging staff at the airport. He appeared to be unaccompanied, further contradicting his claims that he was travelling with security guards.

Sources confirmed to The Jerusalem Post that Carlson did not leave the airport during his visit and conducted the interview with US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee there. He departed Israel around 3 p.m., concluding a trip that lasted only a few hours.

"Men who identified themselves as airport security took our passports, hauled our executive producer into a side room, and then demanded to know what we discussed with Ambassador Huckabee," Carlson stated in his Wednesday interview with The Daily Mail.

A spokesperson for the US Embassy in Israel told The Daily Mail that Carlson's claims were inaccurate and clarified that he only received the same passport-control questions that many visitors to Israel encounter.

Israel Airports Authority further confirmed that Carlson was "politely asked a few routine questions, in accordance with standard procedures applied to many travelers" in a late Wednesday X/Twitter post.

The questions were asked in a private, VIP lounge to protect his and his party's privacy, the authority said, adding that "no unusual incident occurred" and it rejects any such claims.


Commentary Podcast: Tarmac Tucker
Today we discuss Tucker Carlson's concocted controversy surrounding his airport interview with Ambassador Mike Huckabee, the growing anticipation of a potential American attack on Iran, the U.S. hockey victory at the Winter Olympics, and Prince Andrew's arrest. Plus, John recommends Marty Supreme.




‘Woke’ politics fuelling arts sector antisemitism, Archibald winner Tim Storrier warns
Archibald and Sulman Prize winning painter Tim Storrier has accused cultural leaders and artists of “callous” indifference and a lack of “moral courage” over the sector’s rising antisemitism, a “disturbing” trend he attributes to the growth of “woke” identity politics.

In a provocative address to the Sydney Institute think tank to be delivered on Wednesday night, Storrier says he is “deeply concerned by what I see as the increasing marginalisation of Jewish Australians within significant parts of our cultural life”.

The NSW Southern Highlands landscape painter – one of the country’s leading artists – says the culture industry is increasingly driven by ideology and identity politics rather than by aesthetic judgment. He adds: “We have ­arrived at an unfortunate alliance of convenience; the ‘woke’, LGBTQIA+, Indigenous, feminists, progressives and radical Islam, and I believe it is from this that a culture of hatred for Jews has emerged, sadly, yet again.’’

In his address, Storrier also takes aim at the cultural establishment’s silence, claiming that “when Jewish artists are targeted, harassed, or excluded, there is rarely a strong institutional ­response”.

“Again and again, there has been silence from those in positions of authority – directors, curators, board members, chairs.’’

Storrier says that while some cultural identities are “amplified and rewarded” and shielded from criticism, “Jewish artists and Jewish perspectives appear to be becoming less welcome, less visible and more easily excluded’’. He says the marginalisation of Jewish artists is “rarely explicit” but operates “through omission, silence, and a series of decisions that … when viewed collectively, reveal a disturbing pattern”.

The artist, who characterises his hard-hitting address as a personal reflection, claims that when a series of 2024 and 2025 concerts by singer Deborah Conway and her husband Willy Zygier was cancelled, the duo, who are pro-Israel, were being “targeted because they are Jewish’’. Conway, he says, “encountered the same callous indifference from parts of the music industry that I have observed across the wider arts sector – a reluctance to stand up for Jewish artists … and a readiness to abandon individuals’’.

Storrier questions if the 2026 Sydney Biennale – presided over by Hoor Al Qasimi, a member of an Emirati ruling family – will include Jewish perspectives or if they will be “filtered out as in­convenient”.
Harrowing minute-by-minute account of Bondi terror attack revealed in new book
A new book will tell the story of the deadliest terror attack in Australian history.

Two gunmen opened fire at a Chanukah by the Sea celebration on Bondi Beach - a day that now lives in infamy in Australian history.

Bondi Terror tells the story of the deadly attack which left 15 innocent people dead, including a 10-year-old girl and an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor, and dozens more wounded.

The new book, by Sky News host Sharri Markson and Alex Ryvchin - co-chief executive officer of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry - reconstructs the massacre in real time.

It will lay bare the chilling final moments of the victims and harrowing stories from survivors as well as incredibly moving accounts of selfless acts of heroism.

Bondi Terror delivers a minute-by-minute account from the moment the very first shot was fired.

Markson and Ryvchin have called on dozens of hours of harrowing eyewitness testimony from survivors, witnesses and first responders.

The book will also examine how Australia found itself being confronted with the deadliest terror attack the country has ever faced. ‘They were protecting children’: Heartbreaking stories of the Bondi survivors

Appearing on Sharri on Thursday evening to launch the book, Mr Ryvchin said he wanted to write the book because "memories fade and memories falter."

"It's critical we undertake this work now, to record this while it's fresh, and to have this as a part of Australian history.

"It's now part of the Australian story, for better or for worse, and it needs to educate future generations about where government policy inaction policing can lead, the road to terror, what it does to communities, what does to society, and how it has changed this country forever."

Markson said it was so important to take the project on as "I've such a strong sense that the other media will not do this properly.

"Just like after the Holocaust ... all of those stories need to be recorded and we have to do that now.

"It is incredibly important."

Markson and Ryvchin's powerful book comes after Markson's 90-minute documentary on the terror attack, Bondi: A Timeline of Terror, which premieres on Sky News Australia on Tuesday.
‘Bondi Terror’: The untold story of the massacre and the fight for a Royal Commission

‘Need more murder’: Protesters ‘don’t understand the consequences’ of their actions
Father of Malki Roth Arnold Roth, is disappointed by Australians protesting to ‘globalise the intifada’.

“There genuinely are people, large numbers of them, who don’t understand the consequences of calling for mass murder in the streets,” Mr Roth told Sky News host Chris Kenny.

“That’s what Australia is confronting now.

“Essentially saying we need to be doing more murder, that’s what we’re missing in our lives.”




How Australia’s National Broadcaster Turned Jewish Mourning Into a Political Debate
In the wake of more than two years of escalating hostility toward Australia’s Jewish community – including doxing campaigns, campus encampments, synagogue firebombings, and the murder of 15 Australians at Bondi Beach – Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s planned visit was intended as an act of communal solidarity.

But on 4 February 2026, the country’s publicly-funded ABC Radio National reframed that moment of mourning into a staged debate about internal Jewish division.

Hosted by Fran Kelly, the segment featured Lillian Kline (Project A) and Sarah Schwartz (Jewish Council of Australia, JCA). What unfolded was not simply a discussion about a presidential visit, but rather a case study in how “balance” can distort reality when fringe activism is presented as equivalent to mainstream communal representation.

Manufacturing Division
Kelly opened by framing Herzog’s visit as inherently divisive: “Will he bring comfort and connection… or create new ruptures in our community?”

She introduced the guests as “two Jewish leaders,” immediately establishing equivalence between Project A – a grassroots group formed after 7 October to combat antisemitism – and the Jewish Council of Australia, a recently formed activist organisation with a limited signatory base.

That framing matters.

The ABC did not provide listeners with context about the JCA’s size, structure, or representative mandate. Nor did it explain that the group positions itself in opposition to mainstream Jewish institutions. By contrast, Project A was described as having formed “after the Hamas attacks,” subtly positioning its perspective as reactive rather than foundational.

This is not impartiality. Section 4.1 of the ABC Editorial Standards makes clear that impartiality is not merely about allocating equal airtime – it requires representing weight and context accurately. Without that context, listeners were left with the impression of a community evenly split over whether solidarity with grieving families was appropriate.

There is no evidence of such parity.
KPMG pulls logo from Sydney Writers' Festival following pro-Palestinian activist Randa Abdel-Fattah invite
KPMG has asked for its logo to be removed from the Sydney Writers Festival website after pro-Palestinian author Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah was announced as a speaker.

Ms Abdel-Fattah's invite to the festival comes just weeks after she was uninvited from the Adelaide Writers' Festival in the wake of the Bondi Beach shooting, after previously stating that Zionists do not have the right to cultural safety.

The decision to axe the controversial author sparked widespread backlash and resulted in dozens of artists withdrawing from the event and the Adelaide festival subsequently confirming it would not go ahead as scheduled due to the boycott.

On Wednesday, organisers of the 2026 Sydney Writers' Festival announced the Palestinian-Australian author will speak at two sessions.

Following the publication of the invite, the list of "partners" section on the Sydney event's website disappeared.

A Sydney Writers' Festival spokesperson told SkyNews.com.au: "KPMG audit the Festival and according to their definition, are not considered a 'partner'.

"The website now reflects this. Sydney Writers' Festival have many wonderful partners and supporters, and we are grateful to all of them."

It's understood KPMG asked the festival to remove their name from the website, according to The Australian.
Human Rights Watch Diverted Far from Its Founding Vision and Principles
Human Rights Watch was established in 1978 as Helsinki Watch by Robert Bernstein, president of Random House, after he met with dissidents in the Soviet Union. Bernstein believed in exposing abuses to pressure regimes and lead to positive outcomes.

HRW became an NGO superpower with an annual budget of $100 million, and the accompanying media footprint and political power. However, having diverted far from Bernstein's founding vision and principles, HRW is dominated by radical ideologues who help lead a worldwide orchestra that demonizes Israel, including the Gaza "genocide" blood libel, through the manipulation of human rights values and institutions.

In 2009, Bernstein denounced the organization for abandoning the founding mission "to pry open closed societies, advocate basic freedoms and support dissenters;" ignoring "brutal, closed and autocratic" Arab dictatorships; and exploiting human rights in order to turn Israel into "a pariah state."

Most journalists still embrace the NGO halo effect, treating them as altruistic non-partisan research-driven frameworks that are beyond criticism.
Who Edits the Truth? Wikipedia, Reddit, and the Battle for Reality
Iran and Wikimedia Commons: a developing influence channel
In one of the most concrete examples about state-linked material, Rindsberg describes patterns he says point in the direction of Iranian regime influence. He does not claim definitive attribution but cites a developing pattern.

“We have a pattern of evidence that shows some kind of coordination in the direction of the regime,” he says, describing edits that remove mention of human rights abuses and activity that shapes key Iran-related pages.

Then he points to Wikimedia Commons, the media repository that supplies images and videos across the Wikimedia ecosystem. “A mass upload of at least 10,000 to 15,000 individual images and videos produced by Iranian state and state-affiliated media,” he says.

He names sources, including the @Khomeini.ir X account, Tasnim, Mehr, and major news agencies, which he describes as state-owned, and says some of the uploaded materials are watermarked. There are also images carrying threats, including threats against the US president and threats against Israel.

“These are being uploaded by the thousands to Wikimedia Commons and sort of becoming a distribution point of this type of material outside of their own little walled gardens in Iran.”

He explicitly says he cannot confirm whether the uploaders are Iranian government personnel. “Is that the Iranian government? It could be,” he says. “It could be some third party, I don’t know.”

His point is the operational effect: the Wikimedia ecosystem becomes a hosting and distribution layer for state media assets that can then be used and circulated beyond their original channels.

What does media literacy look like when the reference layer is compromised?
The most frustrating part of the story is that there is no single fix available to the average user.

“There’s not a code. There’s not like a turnkey solution,” he says.

His advice is closer to a mindset: dig when you can, recognize patterns, and seek out trusted communities and investigative sources that specialize in exposing manipulation and narrative capture. “It’s about seeking out high-quality sources,” he says, including organizations like HonestReporting and his own project.

“You won’t be able to do that on every single case,” he adds. “But it’ll sort of train you to identify a pattern that looks like it’s something of that nature.”

You can find Rindsberg’s work on his X account, Substack, and the website Neutral Point of View: www.neutralpov.com


Call me Back: Zionophobia - with Judea Pearl
Do most people misunderstand the true nature of Antizionism?

Dan sits down with renowned computer scientist and public intellectual Judea Pearl to understand why he coined the term “Zionophobia.” Pearl argues that Antizionism is not simply policy criticism but a rejection of Jewish collective sovereignty.

Pearl shares his personal story, that dates back to the founding of Israel, and explains how the murder of his son, Daniel Pearl, and the violence of the Second Intifada have reshaped his thinking about Israel, identity, and moral clarity.

The conversation spans failed peace efforts, the politics of language, the meaning of indigeneity, and Pearl’s warning that Israel’s greatest long-term vulnerability may be the erosion of bipartisan American support.

Read Judea’s book Coexistence and Other Fighting Words.

In this episode:
03:00 - From AI pioneer to Zionist advocate
24:00 - “Zionophobia,” not anti-Semitism
29:00 - Terrorism, moral asymmetry, and the Carter controversy
35:00 - Education as the true battlefield
38:00 - Why peace efforts failed and what was misunderstood
41:00 - Indigeneity, sovereignty, and competing narratives
44:00 - The bipartisan question and Israel’s strategic future


SSI Super Bowl Commercial

US – Antisemitism in healthcare - Ep. 209
Since October 7, Jewish healthcare workers and patients are experiencing antisemitism at healthcare institutions. Peggy Shapiro reflects on this with us in this episode. She is the Executive Director at the Center for Combating Antisemitism, where she develops and organizes training programs for healthcare and other professional sectors to reduce antisemitism in organizations (www.cca-training.org). She also tells us about the conference ‘Combating Antisemitism in Healthcare’ in Las Vegas on March 15-16, in collaboration with Stand With Us, with many prominent speakers from the healthcare sector.




Comedy Cellar USA: Live from the Table: NYC’s Only Ethiopian-Israeli Restaurant Forced to Close Due to Antisemitism
Noam Dworman, Dan Naturman and Periel Aschenbrand are joined by Beejhy Barhany. Hailed "Harlem’s queen of Ethiopian Jewish cuisine," Barhany is the owner of Tsion Cafe, the Ethiopian Jewish restaurant, where she recently ended dine-in service, due to anti-Israel harassment. She is also the author of Gursha: Timeless Recipes for Modern Kitchens, from Ethiopia, Israel, Harlem, and Beyond. The book has been heralded as one of the best cookbooks of 2025 by The New York Times and The Boston Globe.


Nearly half of New York City Council joins JVP, CODEPINK in pro-Cuba appeal
A raft of Democrats — including 23 members of the 51-seat New York City Council, multiple state lawmakers and four candidates for Congress — have joined forces with a Beijing-aligned tech tycoon to bail out the fuel-starved dictatorship in Cuba.

The officials in question lent their names to the “Let Cuba Live” campaign, which denounces President Donald Trump’s oil embargo on the island nation and seeks to triage solar panels and generators to defray the crippling impact on its energy production.

All donations for the effort run through the People’s Forum, a Manhattan-based nonprofit established and financed by Shanghai-based magnate Neville “Roy” Singham, part of his sprawling web of organizations promoting the interests of China and its allies Russia and Iran.

The People’s Forum and Singham, a devout Maoist who reaped a fortune from the sale of his software firm Thoughtworks, were at the center of a House hearing last week on foreign influence operations and overseas funding of activist groups.

Let Cuba Live’s website reveals the involvement of other Singham-linked groups, including CODEPINK — co-founded by his wife, Jodie Evans — and the ANSWER Coalition, both of which spearheaded anti-Israel protests beginning the day after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel. Jewish Voice for Peace and the Democratic Socialists of America are also signatories, along with well-known left-wing celebrities such as Susan Sarandon and Roger Waters who have long been vocally hostile to Israel.

But unlike Singham’s other attempts to influence U.S. policy and promote its geopolitical foes, this effort has attracted backing from dozens of leading Democrats, the vast majority of them representing parts of New York City.
Rep. Jan Schakowsky yanks endorsement of Donna Miller over alleged AIPAC support
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) rescinded her endorsement of Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller, who is running in a Democratic congressional primary in Illinois’ 2nd District, over support Miller is reportedly receiving from AIPAC-aligned forces.

Miller has not been endorsed by AIPAC and neither the group nor its super PAC are publicly spending any money in the district. But it’s widely rumored in the Chicagoland area that pro-Israel forces are backing a new group, Affordable Chicago Now, that’s spending about $900,000 on behalf of Miller’s campaign. Schakowsky also said Miller is accepting individual donations from AIPAC supporters.

Schakowsky’s reversal is a notable step in a campaign by progressives to make even perceived ties to AIPAC or any individual donors who have supported the pro-Israel group toxic within the Democratic Party — even if their support for a candidate isn’t coming through AIPAC.

“Illinois deserves leaders who put voters first, not AIPAC or out-of-state Trump donors,” Schakowsky said in a statement. “I cannot support any candidate who is funded by these outside interests.”

It’s not clear how much influence Schakowsky’s endorsement will have outside her district, given her limited profile in a majority-Black district — as opposed to her wealthy, progressive Lakefront constituency. But it comes amid a broader campaign by left-wing activists in the Democratic Party to turn AIPAC and its donors into a burden for Democratic candidates.
CBS Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss’ UCLA on-campus lecture canceled
Bari Weiss will no longer come to campus Feb. 27 to deliver the annual Daniel Pearl Memorial Lecture, the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations announced Wednesday.

Weiss’ team pulled out of the on-campus lecture, said Steve Lurie, the associate vice chancellor for campus and community safety, in an emailed statement. Her team cited insufficient security measures as reasoning for the cancellation, said Judea Pearl, the father of lecture namesake Daniel Pearl – a Jewish American journalist kidnapped and killed by Islamic extremists in 2002 – in an X post.

The university was prepared to provide security for Weiss, Lurie added.

“UCLA remains committed to supporting public programming which represents a wide range of viewpoints, with safety planning tailored to each event,” Lurie said in the statement.

Weiss, the editor-in-chief of CBS News, was scheduled to speak at Schoenberg Hall on Feb. 27. While the campus lecture is off, Weiss is still hoping to conduct the lecture over Zoom, said Margaret Peters, the associate director of the Burkle Center, in a texted statement.

A final decision has not yet been made on whether Weiss – who was slated to speak about the future of journalism – will conduct the lecture virtually, Peters added in the statement.

The annual lecture, organized by the Burkle Center, has previously hosted journalists and international relations scholars including Jake Tapper, Bob Woodward, Condoleezza Rice and Anderson Cooper.
UCLA Professor Threatens To Resign Leadership Role if Bari Weiss Gives Journalism Lecture
A UCLA political science professor threatened to resign from her leadership role at the university's research center for international relations if CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss is allowed to deliver an annual lecture about the future of journalism.

Weiss was set to deliver the annual Daniel Pearl Memorial Lecture at the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations next week. But the event, which was expected to bring a wave of protesters, was canceled after CBS's security team "raised the issue of safety and asked for additional measures of security," a source familiar with the matter told the Washington Free Beacon. The university is "seriously considering now reinviting Weiss at a later date in person or virtually," the source added.

The Burkle Center's associate director, Margaret Peters, said she would resign from her leadership position if Weiss is allowed to share her thoughts. She accused Weiss of using free speech to attack liberals and argued that delivering the lecture would legitimize the Free Press founder, the Daily Bruin reported.

"To invite somebody who is working against that mission in highly powerful places just seems like anathema in the university mission," Peters, who also serves as the Department of Political Science's vice chair for graduate studies, said.

Weiss has repeatedly faced left-wing criticism since taking over CBS News. She faced particular heat after delaying a 60 Minutes story decrying the deportation of illegal aliens from the United States to a maximum security prison in El Salvador—she explained that it "didn’t advance the ball" and that the outlet needed "to get the principals on the record and on camera." The correspondent behind the story, Sharyn Alfonsi, was up in arms about the delay, but there was precedent for additional scrutiny: In 2021, she falsely reported that Florida governor Ron DeSantis (R.) gave preferential treatment to a campaign donor to distribute coronavirus vaccines.


Code Pink takes credit after Bari Weiss event at UCLA scrapped
The anti-Israel protest group Code Pink took credit after an event about the future of journalism with Bari Weiss, editor-in-chief of CBS News, was canceled at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“After mounting pressure from a Code Pink letter campaign, students and community members in Los Angeles, the Burkle Center of International Relations has canceled Bari Weiss’s lecture, which was scheduled for next week,” the group stated of the lecture in a series named for Daniel Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter who was kidnapped and killed in Pakistan in 2002.

Code Pink had previously urged people to tell the public school to cancel Weiss’s talk. “She has a history of flagrant xenophobic remarks about Palestinians, Muslims and Arabs, and prides herself on her extreme views,” the group said.

Steve Lurie, associate vice chancellor for campus and community safety at UCLA, told JNS that “the decision not to move forward with the annual Daniel Pearl Memorial Lecture was made by the speaker’s team, not UCLA.”

“The university was ready to implement a comprehensive security plan for this event, developed in coordination with campus safety and external law enforcement partners,” Lurie told JNS. “UCLA remains committed to supporting public programming which represents a wide range of viewpoints, with safety planning tailored to each event.”
Yale Vows to Investigate Anti-Semitic Graffiti On Campus Quads
Yale University said it is investigating an incident in which anti-Semitic graffiti was spray-painted into the snow on major campus quads, a university spokeswoman told the Washington Free Beacon.

The university declined to say whether it had video footage of the individuals who left the graffiti, which included the phrases "Intifida" and "IDF Die." A Yale senior, Sahar Tartak, said on social media that "every gate" facilitating entrance onto the quad where the graffiti was found is "locked and recorded" by video surveillance.

"On Wednesday morning, messages that appear to have been spray-painted on the snow at Old Campus and Cross Campus were removed by the university, consistent with Yale’s policies on postering and chalking," Yale spokeswoman Karen Peart said. Those policies preclude messages whose content is "harassing" or "threatening."


DePaul University investigating ‘inexcusable’ harassment of Jewish students at Chicago cafe
It’s been a week since Jewish students from DePaul University, Loyola University Chicago and Roosevelt University were targeted by anti-Israel protesters at the Olive & Oak Cafe, an off-campus eatery.

Robert Manuel, president of DePaul, stated that on Feb. 11, the Jewish students were at the cafe for regularly scheduled coffee hours hosted by Metro Chicago Hillel and Jewish United Fund of Chicago.

“According to reports the university received, individuals inside the cafe began harassing the Jewish students, calling for them to leave, and a JUF staff person was allegedly ‘shoulder checked,’ which the Chicago Police Department has classified as a battery,” he said. “The incident remains under investigation, and the university will share updates as available.”

He added that “while this incident occurred off campus, I am outraged that our students were targeted and harassed because of their Jewish identity.”

“These actions are inexcusable,” Manuel wrote. “DePaul University condemns antisemitism in all its forms and will continue to stand firm in doing so, in line with our Catholic, Vincentian values.”

According to Manuel, university leadership has reached out to the affected students to offer support and is working to determine whether any of the offenders are affiliated with the DePaul community.

“We will take swift, consistent action if any violations of university policy are identified,” he stated.


UKLFI: Pembrokeshire Council warned over legality of proposed divestment
“Solidarity with Palestine Pembrokeshire”, has submitted a petition calling on the Council to urge the Dyfed Pension Fund to “divest our pension money from companies profiting from genocide”. The Council is one of a number of public authorities in Wales that are members of the Dyfed Pension Fund.

UKLFI has now written to senior councillors and officers at Pembrokeshire ahead of its full Council meeting on 5 March 2026, setting out relevant legal considerations.

Fiduciary duties cannot be ignored
UKLFI’s letter reminds the Council that those responsible for investing Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) funds have strict fiduciary duties. These duties were clarified in the Law Commission’s Report on Fiduciary Duties of Investment Intermediaries, endorsed by the Supreme Court in R (Palestine Solidarity Campaign) v Secretary of State, and mandated by government regulations and guidance.

Under that framework, non-financial factors may only be taken into account where:
There is good reason to think that scheme members share the concern; and
The decision does not involve a risk of significant financial detriment.

UKLFI warned that divestment on the basis of highly controversial allegations of “genocide” would plainly fail the first condition. The Law Commission itself cautioned that where an issue is clearly controversial, trustees should focus on financial factors rather than become embroiled in political disputes.

The second condition – avoiding significant financial detriment – is equally critical. UKLFI drew attention to legal advice given to other pension funds that both the likelihood and scale of potential financial harm must be considered.

UKLFI also cited analysis indicating that long-term exclusion of companies targeted by the BDS campaign could reduce investment returns very substantially over time. Since the LGPS provides defined benefits, any shortfall would ultimately fall on employers and taxpayers.

UKLFI further pointed out that the petitioners have not identified any specific genocide or defined what “profiting” means. Developing criteria, investigating multiple global conflicts, consulting members, and restructuring investments would in themselves incur substantial costs. A decision taken without properly estimating those costs, UKLFI argued, would risk being irrational.
Green Party promotes then deletes interview with site censured for anti-Jewish and LGBT hate
The Green Party’s Leader, Deputy Leader and candidate for Gorton engaged in an interview with a publication which has repeatedly platformed some of the UK’s most notorious Neo-Nazis and white supremacists for rants about Jews and LGBT people, with the interview subsequently shared on the Green’s Twitter account.

Zack Polanski, Mothin Ali and Hannah Spencer appeared in a video interview conducted by 5 Pillars, a notorious Islamist outlet which has used its “Blood Brothers” podcast to host individuals such as former BNP leader Nick Griffin, Patriotic Alternative Leader Mark Collett and former Britain First deputy leader Jayda Fransen.

That video interview was subsequently shared on the Green Party’s Twitter account, but was removed on Thursday morning, some 12 hours after Jewish News approached the party for comment.

In the 5 Pillars video, the Green party’s by-election candidate for the Gorton and Denton constituency, Hannah Barnes, told the interviewer that “I’m really keen to show that we’re not divided…I’m the only candidate that is challenging Reform UK. I’ve sat at the hustings and challenged Matt Goodwin about the things he’s said about our communities…in the face of such hatred and division, we need someone who’s going to stand up to the bully.”

5 Pillars used to be a publication under the imprint of the Impress media regulator, but left after it was repeatedly disciplined for breaching the discrimination clause of its standard code.


IDF demolishes home of Palestinian who murdered two Israelis
The Israel Defense Forces demolished on Tuesday the home of a terrorist in the Palestinian village of Silat al-Harithiya, northwest of Jenin in Samaria, who was involved in the murders of IDF Capt. Alon Sacgiu and Yonatan Deutsch in 2024.

The terrorist, Raafat Dawasi, was slain on Aug. 17, 2024. He was a senior operative in the Hamas terrorist network in Jenin, which was dismantled by IDF troops as part of “Operation Iron Wall,” the military said.

Dawasi was part of a terrorist cell that planted the explosive device that led to the killing of Sacgiu and wounding of 16 additional soldiers during operational activity in Jenin on June 27, 2024, the army added.

In addition, the Hamas operative took part in a shooting attack on Aug. 11, 2024, at the Mehola Junction in the Jordan Valley, in which Deutsch was murdered and another Israeli civilian was wounded.

The demolition completed a brigade-level counter-terrorism operation executed by troops from the IDF Combat Engineering Corps’ elite Yahalom unit, the Border Police’s Yiftach unit, the engineering forces of the Menashe Brigade and the Nahal Reconnaissance Battalion, according to the IDF.

Moreover, forces from the Nahal Reconnaissance Unit and the Yiftach Border Police unit arrested terrorists, located and confiscated weapons, and conducted dozens of field interrogations of suspects involved in terrorist activity.

Sacgiu, 22, from Hadera, was a commander in the Kfir Brigade’s Haruv Reconnaissance Battalion.

Deutsch, a 23-year-old resident of Beit She’an, served in the IDF’s Maglan commando unit and took part in the recent war as a reservist. He was gunned down while off duty on the way to his fiancée’s hometown of Ofra in Samaria.


Australian bar shut down over posters depicting ‘Netanyahu in Nazi uniform’
A bar in Australia has been shut down by police after reportedly displaying posters depicting several prominent figures, including Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, in Nazi uniforms.

Investigators have declared the Dissent Cafe and Bar in the capital, Canberra, a crime scene and have seized the images.

Others show in Third Reich regalia included X owner Elon Musk and Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as US President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, according to images shared on social media.

There were also signs in the bar’s windows bearing slogans including “sanction Israel” and “stop genocide”.

In a statement, police said officers had asked the bar’s owner to remove the posters, citing a complaint about “possible hate imagery”.

"The owner declined this request, and so a crime scene was established,” it went on.

"Five posters were subsequently seized and will be considered under recently enacted Commonwealth legislation regarding hate symbols.”

The closure was enforced under new hate crime laws, passed by the Australian parliament last February, criminalising the display of Nazi imagery.

Those convicted or displaying such images or making the Nazi salute face a mandatory custodial sentence.

The law does, though, provide an exemption for those using Nazi imagery for a “legitimate purpose”, such as artistic, educational or literary uses.

A spokesperson for Dissent insisted that the images were visibly intended to be satirical, saying: “The crime is displaying these posters, clearly and obviously parody art with a distinct anti-fascist message.”


In breakthrough, Israeli scientists use deep-brain stimulation to counter schizophrenia
In a breakthrough study, Israeli scientists say they have developed a novel deep brain stimulation approach for patients with schizophrenia. This therapy for the severe chronic mental disorder could restore functions that control movement, learning and decision-making.

“The study proposes a new therapeutic direction, which may in the future expand the treatment options for patients with schizophrenia who do not respond sufficiently to existing treatments,” said Dr. Nir Asch, a doctor and researcher in the psychiatric department of Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa.

Asch led the peer-reviewed research, which leveraged computational modeling, data analysis and machine learning, and appeared in the scientific journal Nature Communications. The work was conducted under the guidance of 2024 Israel Prize laureate Prof. Hagai Bergman, a neuroscientist from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a pioneer of deep brain stimulation, which is also known by its acronym, DBS, for Parkinson’s disease.

“A problem we have with many psychiatric diseases is that we define them by the symptoms,” Asch, 44, told The Times of Israel. “In our paper, we provide a clear theory about what is happening on a mechanical level in the brain, and also a way to solve it.”

According to Ozma, an Israeli mental health organization, there are about 70,000 people with schizophrenia in Israel — or roughly one in 143 people.

“Why should we care about schizophrenia?” Asch asked out loud and then answered his own question.

“The World Health Organization says that 21 million people around the world have schizophrenia,” he said. “One-third of these are what we call treatment resistant. This is a big burden. So, I think that we should care.”
Jewish sound editor wins Oscar sci-tech award for dialogue software
Marc Specter has been named a winner of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Scientific and Technical Awards

He received a Technical Achievement Award for designing the Kraken Dialogue Editors Toolkit, a software system used by dialogue editors in film and television post-production.

The Academy announced the recipients on Wednesday.

Specter is among 27 individual award winners who will be honoured at the Scientific and Technical Awards ceremony on 28 April at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles.

The Scientific and Technical Awards recognise innovations that have made a lasting contribution to filmmaking and are not tied to work released in a single year.

Explaining the software, Specter told Jewish News: “Kraken was built as a Swiss-army knife toolkit to help with a wide variety of dialogue editing tasks including assembly, editing, transcription and workflow troubleshooting.” The toolkit features an intuitive user interface and transcription-based audio asset management, enabling direct access to edit decision lists and audio session files and helping editors identify and resolve issues more efficiently.

He said the recognition carries personal significance. “I’m delighted to be recognised by the Academy for creating Kraken. The only bittersweet element is that my mum, Rochelle Selwyn (a set designer at the BBC in the 1970s and 1980s), did not live long enough to see this, having died last year.”

Specter developed Kraken independently over many years while working as a dialogue editor in film and television. His screen credits include Baghdad Central, Kill Command, and iBoy. He has also received Emmy, BAFTA and Royal Television Society awards for his work.
Why I acquired the whiteprint of the Auschwitz-Birkenau crematoria
When I first saw the faded whiteprint, an architectural drawing of the earliest design concept for what became Crematoria II and III at Auschwitz-Birkenau, I felt the crushing weight of evil. This piece of paper with its neat geometric lines—so professional, so precise—was proof of the intent to incinerate the corpses of hundreds of thousands of Jewish men, women and children who would be murdered on an industrial scale.

I have dedicated much of my philanthropic work to support Jewish organizations and to combat antisemitism. I knew immediately that this artifact had to be brought to light, especially in our era of surging Holocaust denial and resurgent antisemitism.

That’s why I acquired the whiteprint for $1.5 million, a sum chosen to honor the 1.5 million Jewish children murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

The document, drawn by SS architect Walter Dejaco in October 1941, has been authenticated by Robert Jan van Pelt, one of the world’s leading experts on Auschwitz. Van Pelt has called it “quite literally irreplaceable.”

The whiteprint represents crucial architectural evidence of Nazi extermination infrastructure. It is a tangible link to the systematic planning behind the Holocaust and an irrefutable record of genocidal intent. Physical artifacts such as this provide enduring evidence of the Nazi pursuit of the “Final Solution.”

Yet preservation by itself isn’t enough. The whiteprint must be seen, studied and understood.

For that reason, I intend to exhibit it at various Holocaust museums and institutions dedicated to fighting antisemitism before permanently donating it to one such institution. Each viewing will be an opportunity to educate, to remember and to inoculate future generations against denial and distortion.

The proceeds from the acquisition will support an early-childhood curriculum designed to combat extremism and hate before they take root. By emphasizing altruism and empathy in young children, we can build immunity against the dehumanization that makes hatred and ultimately violence possible.
Israeli UN envoy leads colleagues on tour of Auschwitz, Israel
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, on Wednesday led in Poland a delegation of his counterparts from more than 20 countries, who joined him on a tour of Auschwitz-Birkenau and Holocaust-related sites, and later Israel, his office said.

After the delegation lands in Israel this week, “they will conduct a security tour of the south and meet with senior officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog,” according to a statement from Danon’s office.

A spokesperson for Danon’s office listed 23 countries whose U.N. envoys joined the delegation, including Italy, Australia, Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Albania. The list had six African nations, three Latin American ones, five Pacific Island countries and Papua New Guinea.

Most of the participating envoys have never visited Israel, and are also visiting Poland for the first time, Danon told JNS. The attendance represented a “shift into a phase” in Israel’s diplomatic relationships at the United Nations following the implementation in October of the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel in Gaza, he added. Israel has been under fierce criticism and attempts to isolate it at the U.N. during the war that broke out after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

“The presence of the world’s ambassadors here today is a clear reminder: we will never allow the world to forget what took place here,” Danon wrote on X about the delegation.

“The Jewish people stand strong and move forward with pride. We are heralding a new era on the diplomatic front—an era of strengthening ties, building alliances, and ensuring that the past is remembered and the future is preserved,” the statement read.


Is Hebrew a European Language? Debunking Five Myths About Modern Hebrew
One of the popular methods used by those on social media who seek to discredit Zionism and delegitimize the State of Israel is by spreading absurd claims about modern Hebrew that portray it as a modern tongue detached from its Biblical foundations.
These claims run the spectrum from a misunderstanding of reality to complete fabrications, such as the assertion that modern Hebrew is a European language and not a Semitic tongue.
While the myths may seem ludicrous to someone familiar with modern Hebrew and Jewish history, those who spend their days on social media without the proper historical and linguistic understanding are susceptible to this online propaganda.
If you spend enough time on social media, you’re likely going to come across claims about Hebrew that will make your head spin.

Hebrew is a European language.

Hebrew is actually stolen Arabic.

There is no connection between Modern Hebrew and Biblical Hebrew.

For any student of Jewish history or a Hebrew speaker, these outrageous assertions are not just patently wrong, but utterly absurd.

Yet they are not random. They form part of a broader effort to delegitimize Zionism and deny the Jewish people’s historic ties to the Land of Israel.

This piece examines some of those claims and the facts that dismantle the myths.

Myth: Hebrew Was a Dead Language Until Eliezer Ben Yehuda Revived It
Hebrew was not a dead language before the late 19th century. But it was not yet the dynamic, everyday vernacular spoken today by millions in Israel and around the world.

To understand the roots of modern Hebrew, we first must go back to the second century C.E. Following the Roman suppression of the Bar Kokhba revolt, Hebrew gradually declined as a spoken language among Jews in the Land of Israel, as Aramaic and other languages took precedence.

But Hebrew did not disappear and did not cease to exist as a language. Rather, it transitioned from a daily spoken language into a primarily literary and liturgical one, preserved in prayer, scholarship, poetry, legal discourse and correspondence.

The Jewish legal corpus, the Mishnah, was written a couple centuries later in Hebrew.

Rabbinic commentaries, correspondence between different Jewish communities, scholarly texts (including a medical textbook) were all written in Hebrew throughout late Antiquity and the Medieval period. The first Hebrew printing press in the Land of Israel was established in the 16th century.

The Enlightenment of the 18th and 19th centuries saw the emergence of Hebrew newspapers and a new Hebrew literature.






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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.

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