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Monday, March 16, 2026

03/16 Links Pt2: Profiles in Terror; Bob Vylan and the rise of ayatollah chic; Drop Site News Called Michigan Synagogue Attack Self-Defense

From Ian:

Profiles in Terror
For those who need reminding, the late 1970s were a truly awful stretch for the United States of America: from stagflation at home to the Soviet Union and friends on the march in Afghanistan, Africa, and Central America, to the Khomeini revolution in Iran. David Frum's account of the period, How We Got Here, should be required reading for anyone under 40 now complaining that Ronald Reagan's conservatism didn't amount to a hill of beans in staving off national disaster. We were, as they say, thisclose.

Now comes Jason Burke, a veteran journalist for the United Kingdom's Guardian, with a timely reminder that the early 1970s also stank. The Revolutionists is an extensively reported chronicle of the leading figures of the time in violent pursuit of radical change, whether communist revolutions in Europe and elsewhere or the eradication of the state of Israel. Burke makes a plausible but understated case that the terrorism problem that seized the world by the lapels on September 11, 2001, has to be understood in the context of its origins and evolution over the previous 30 years.

Burke's subtitle is "The Story of the Extremists Who Hijacked the 1970s." The operative word is "hijacked," not in a metaphorical sense but literally, as in smuggling guns and bombs aboard commercial airplanes, commandeering them shortly after takeoff, forcing pilots to fly to hijacker-friendly Middle East destinations, and demanding of governments the release of previously captured and incarcerated extremists plus millions in ransom. Mostly, the hostages survived, but only after being thoroughly terrorized by the hijackers' threat to blow up the airplane and its passengers, sometimes seat-belted for days in their own excrement on a blisteringly hot tarmac with little food or water, sometimes subjected as well to deranged lectures on the justice of the Palestinian cause or the class conflict leading inevitably to proletarian revolution. It is astonishing now to read of the seeming ease with which armed extremists passed themselves off as ordinary passengers through minimal security.

There were literally hundreds of such attempted hijackings, the vast majority of them successful, in the period from 1968 to 1980—that is, in the wake of the stunning Israeli victory over massed Arab armies in the 1967 Six-Day War, which landed Israel control of the West Bank, Gaza, the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, and Jerusalem. In Burke's telling, Palestinians who cheered the onset of the war wept at its conclusion—feeling "grief equivalent to a bereavement," as he writes. One was Leila Khaled, who would go on to join George Habash's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, where she won fame as an early female perpetrator of hijackings and other terror attacks in Europe. The "armed struggle" was on.

Without making a polemic of it, Burke destroys any lingering doubt about the interconnectedness of the violent extremists of the time. Most terrorists in the Palestinian cause were homegrown, but their training camps and havens in the Middle East hosted communist radicals from West Germany, Central America, and Japan. Fusako Shigenobu, leader of the communist Japanese Red Army, became so concerned about security in her homeland she moved her base of operations to Beirut under the PFLP umbrella. The notorious "Carlos the Jackal" was born Ilich Ramรญrez Sรกnchez from Caracas, Venezuela. In the Arab world, he was known as Saleem Mohammed. His surge to global notoriety began in London in 1973 with his assassination attempt on Joseph Edward Sieff, the Jewish president of the retail chain Marks & Spencer.
Andrew Pessin: Tobias Gisle, We Need to Talk About the Most Influential Academic Fraud of the 20th Century
The Middle East is not the only part of the world that endlessly complains about being hard done by the West, and nurses and nurtures a culture of revanchism and militarism against the mean West from inside dictatorships. This is an apt description of Russia. This is exactly Putin’s ideology. All poor Russia needs is a little more space. A little more Lebensraum for the biggest country in the world. Therefore, justice demands that it should be free to invade its neighbours at will. Most people in the West alternate between disbelief and fear at this ludicrous suggestion. Yet this is exactly what the Arab-led activism championed by Said suggests. The reasoning is equally absurd. The reason that the Arabs and Muslims have such rubbish lives is that Arab lands used to be colonized long ago and that there is that terrible humiliation of there being a tiny Jewish state covering 0.17% of “Arab lands.” Instead of laughing in disbelief, we give Said and all his acolytes the best professorships in the lands of the West. Incidentally, when Said tried to claim victimhood for the Arabs, he missed something fundamental about Israel and Zionism. Israel may have been established by desperate refugees fleeing persecution, but the secret of Israel’s success is precisely that it is not revanchist. If I would go around complaining all day that the Nasser regime stole my children’s grandfather’s house in Alexandria, all Israelis would tell me to get a life and move on. Of course, we remember the Holocaust and the persecution, but this is not the focus. We are looking to the future, not looking for revenge.

Orientalism theory is black and white thinking with the goal of fermenting victimhood and revanchism among Arabs and Muslims. This is reflected in Said’s political legacy, where he bravely stood against the chance at statehood for Palestinians in the 1990s so that we could have a few more decades of good ol’ war instead.

It’s high time we rid ourselves of this theory. Said and Foucault both explain nothing and do nothing for the Middle East. The entire field needs a new paradigm. The real Middle East needs theories that challenge each and every phenomenon that hurts the people who live here. Authoritarianism, oppression of women, reliance on oil, sectarianism, and of course political Islam and the other debunked, useless ideologies of the Middle East. We don’t need any more theories that blame Israel and the West for all the problems of the region. We certainly don’t need “orientalism.”

The idea is the theoretical equivalent to people insisting they are “anti-racist” while at the pro-Palestine demonstration with Hamas flags fluttering and “Khaybar, Khaybar, ya Yahud” filling the Autumn breeze.

Enough with the indulgence of this poison.
Khaled Abu Toameh: Hamas Crimes No One Talks About
As international attention is focused on the Iran war, Hamas has stepped up its crackdown on the Palestinian people as part of its effort to reassert control in Gaza. Hamas has murdered, arrested, assaulted, or summoned for interrogation dozens of Palestinians for allegedly speaking out against the terror group.

Gaza-born political activist Hamza Howidy wrote last week: "Since the war with Iran began, Hamas's thugs have intensified their brutal, savage, barbaric campaign against Gaza's own residents. The people in this photo are just some of many who have been executed, shot, kidnapped, or brutally tortured in recent weeks. The list of atrocities grows by the day, and the sheer sadism on display goes beyond anything comprehensible.... The 'crime' those people committed? Saying their own opinions."

"What makes this even worse than the suffering of those victims itself is the silence of the people who built entire careers screaming about Palestinian suffering. The same commentators, the same 'human rights advocates,' the same influencers, and the same media outlets that spent months positioning themselves as the moral conscience of the world, packaging Palestinian pain into clout, followers, and book deals, have gone completely dark....The Palestinians left to die under Hamas's boots are apparently the wrong kind of Palestinians."

Another Gaza-born political activist, Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, wrote on March 12: "Hamas terrorists conducted a parade in their trucks inside the al-Mawasi tent zone for the displaced. These gunmen are the same ones who are killing, kidnapping, torturing, and shooting Gazans every single day; they're making their presence known to say "shut up & pay us taxes"! They hide in tent areas and use civilians as shields to lessen the chance of being struck by Israeli drones and air strikes."


NGO Monitor: NGO Malpractice: MSF (Doctors Without Borders) and the Gaza “Genocide” Campaign
This report presents a detailed history and analysis of the transformation of MSF (Doctors Without Borders) into a leading source of false accusations and demonization targeting Israel. The comprehensive study traces initial MSF involvement in Gaza and the introduction of politicized commentary and bias into “testimonies” from staff and volunteers, and in reports on medical and health services.

Following the October 7, 2023 Hamas atrocities, MSF joined other influential NGOs in the intensive advocacy campaign that labeled the Israeli response as “genocide,” based on manipulated and distorted evidence to support a predetermined conclusion. The accusations rely on invented criteria and unverified evidence, while blatantly omitting essential details and context: large-scale militarization of hospitals and military requirements for neutralizing a terror organization with a massive underground network embedded in civilian infrastructure. The political campaign, including in social media, parroted invented legal arguments applied exclusively to Israel, and incorporated blatant hypocrisy and double standards in comparison to responses in other conflicts.

In particular, this report highlights MSF’s repeated silence regarding the extensive Hamas presence in the hospitals in which MSF personnel maintained an active presence, and were clearly aware of closed and off-limits sections. In addition, the evidence confirms systematic and blatant erasure of the conditions in Gaza, including exploitation of schools, mosques, and other civilian facilities for terror. This report also highlights the ways in which MSF’s accusations were amplified by the international media including professional medical journals, in university frameworks, United Nations agencies, and used as evidence in proceedings before international courts. Recommendations include:
Comprehensive, independent, and public investigations to document how MSF International and its national branches – specifically MSF USA and MSF UK – became central participants in demonization campaigns involving unsubstantiated claims of starvation and genocide, and steps to restore the principles of political neutrality and integrity of medical personnel.
Immediate end to the “genocide” accusation, as well as intentional starvation, famine, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and similar unsupported allegations.
All MSF personnel and volunteers must be externally vetted to prevent the inclusion of individuals who support or have links to terrorist organizations.
Removing sources of bias, and implementing accountability mechanisms to prevent weaponizing medicine to marginalize Jews and Israelis or provide cover for extremist ideologies. Review of the grant charitable status for MSF branches in their respective countries.
Gil Troy: Dutch Mistreat: Anti-Zionists in the Netherlands Tried Disrupting My Zoom Lecture
StandWithUs Nederlands organized a four-city Dutch lecture tour for me this week. With flights from Tel Aviv canceled, I addressed three university audiences remotely. At Delft University of Technology, Palestinian hooligans tried intimidating me and shutting me down… via Zoom.

They failed.

Trying to shut down a Zoom lecture feels particularly pathetic and cowardly. It’s as anti-intellectual as razoring out a page from a textbook. It shows a fear of the ideas themselves.

Denouncing my invitation, anti-Zionists smashed over 25 plate-glass windows in two nights of vandalism. Their graffiti proclaimed: “Stop your Zionist war propaganda” and “stop zios.” They spread butyric acid — a slimy substance smelling like vomit — on two buildings. They’re engineers, after all.

StandWithUs changed the location. I began my lecture “Anti-Zionist Rhetoric on University Campuses: An Academic and Zionist Response,” empathizing: “It’s hard to be a Jew on campus. It’s hard to be a Palestinian on campus, too.” I added that I never characterize “the” Palestinians — demonizing people. Instead, I criticize actions, political culture, charters, rhetoric, terrorism.

To inspire, I told a story of another student at a top technical university, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. In 1967, nineteen-year-old Anatoly Shcharansky noticed the anti-Semitic jokes targeting him change in six days. Instead of calling him weak and cowardly, Jew-haters called him a bully… following Israel’s Six Day War victory. Curious about how a country 2,700 kilometers away so affected him, he launched his Jewish and Zionist journey. In discovering his identity, he discovered his freedom, becoming today’s Zionist activist and human rights warrior, Natan Sharansky.

The “anti-Semite doesn’t make the Jew,” I explained. The Jew, the Zionist, makes the Jew. Beyond explaining how anti-Zionists – particularly mainstream Palestinian nationalists –fortified their anti-Zionism with traditional anti-Semitism, I wanted to end by celebrating Zionist empowerment, and liberal-democratic nationalist optimism, for Jews and non-Jews alike.

Air-raid sirens wailed in Jerusalem just as I began.

I was in my basement office. Although, it may not have been my most prudent decision, I kept lecturing. I’m an educator. I didn’t want to miss a thoughtful campus conversation about these issues.

Ultimately, the sirens weren’t what bothered us.

Within minutes, seven keffiyeh-masked hooligans intruded, to disrupt the event. Campus security watched haplessly – this university doesn’t remove protesters menacing speakers.
California Teachers Criticize Antisemitism Law on Turkish State Broadcaster
The Erdogan regime does not label Hamas a terrorist organization, has provided logistical and financial support to Hamas and Recep Tayyip Erdogan has met with several Hamas leaders.

TRT World “regularly features contributors who express sympathy toward Hamas and promote narratives consistent with Ankara’s geopolitical messaging.”

The teachers in the segment are Rebecca Villagran, a history teacher at Berkeley High School and LoRayne Ortega, an English teacher at Archie Williams High School.

Villagran is the co-lead of Berkeley International High School, an International Baccalaureate program within Berkeley High School.

The program “promotes global citizenship rather than just one of Berkeley, California, and/or the US and helps them to think critically about identity, intersectionality, global perspectives, and comparative values and beliefs in local, regional, national, and global contexts.”

During the TRT segment, Villagran admits that she called Israel a “settler state” in the classroom and teaches a class which compares Israel to South Africa under apartheid.

In a 2024 opinion piece, Villegran made similar startling admissions including that since October 7, 2023 “Multiple students have requested to be moved out of my class, which has never before happened in my 12 years of teaching.”

Villegran sees that not as an indictment of her teaching or professionalism but rather as evidence of “McCarthyism.”
Stephen Pollard: Gail’s derangement syndrome is getting out of hand
If that was Liew’s only argument it would be ludicrous but amusing, albeit unintentionally. But it gets a lot worse. He describes the “Palestinian” cafรฉ as “a fixture of the north London social scene, a source of comfort and community in troubling times”. That may be true. I have no idea as the only comfort I have ever sought from a barista, whether in Archway’s community or elsewhere, is a double espresso. But Gail’s, on the other hand, is the epitome of nasty, corporate, Zionist evil: “its parent company, Bain Capital, invests heavily in military technology, including Israeli security companies.”

For Liew, Gail’s is the Zionist chain, expanding its way through innocent communities and brooking no opposition to its might: “its very presence 20 metres away from a small independent Palestinian cafe feels quietly symbolic, an act of heavy-handed high-street aggression”. Heavy-handed, indeed – Liew’s use of oh-so-hackneyed tropes of greed and power is about as heavy-handed as it gets.

I did actually wonder if Liew was high when I read this: “And so somehow these two north London cafes, from two entirely separate worlds, with what we have to assume are two almost entirely separate clienteles, have found themselves on the frontline of a war. A deeply asymmetric war, defined by gross imbalances in power and resources and platforms, but a war nonetheless, and one that simultaneously feels more distant and more local than ever.” War? He is talking about two cafes competing for customers, as happens on most high streets in most towns in most countries. But when one is a Zio cafรฉ – in the mind of Liew and his compadres, rather than in reality – then it is really about Palestine rather than cinnamon buns.

Which means, for Liew, that the vandalism and the protests are not only right but, he implies, the only moral course to take: “Palestinian activism has arguably never been less capable of exerting a meaningful influence on global events, and so is increasingly defined by small acts of petty symbolism. A smashed window. A provocative sticker. You can’t lay a glove on the US-Israeli military-industrial complex, and you can’t get your local council to boycott Israeli goods, and you couldn’t stand with Palestine Action and the protest march on Sunday has been banned by the Metropolitan police. So some people then direct their ire at the bakery with distant links to Israeli security funding.”

No one will be surprised to see such a piece in the Guardian. But when a mainstream newspaper publishes a screed attacking the arrival of a business on the grounds of the most tenuous linkage to Israel, it’s clear that the rise of anti-Semitism has a long way further to go.
INTERVIEW: Badenoch condemns Guardian column as ‘cover for disgusting antisemitism’
Kemi Badenoch has described a Guardian newspaper column that suggested the presence of a Jewish-founded Gail’s bakery close to a Palestinian cafe was “heavy-handed high street aggression” as “a cover for disgusting antisemitism.”

Speaking to Jewish News as she joined party activists to campaign in Golders Green ahead of May’s local elections, the Conservative Party leader condemned the column in the strongest terms. “I think it was an utterly ridiculous column… appalling, actually,” Badenoch said.

“What it was insinuating, in my view, was based on antisemitism. We are a country where it hasn’t mattered where you’ve come from… we have always been open and tolerant. I think this openness and tolerance of our society is being exploited, and is targeting Jewish people.

“It’s extraordinary that Gail’s bakeries are being attacked now, supposedly because they are Israeli-owned. This is just a cover; it’s antisemitism. It is disgusting. We need to stamp out this culture. We need more enforcement, more punishment for people who carry out these violent acts… they are trying to intimidate people.”

On Monday, the Guardian responded to widespread anger about a column written by Jonathan Liew, headlined headlined ‘A corner of north London where food has become a battleground in the Israel-Gaza war’ by telling Jewish News: “Complaints about Guardian journalism are considered by the internally independent readers’ editor under the Guardian’s editorial code and guidance.”

But as she spoke to us during her visit to Golders Green, Badenoch also responded with anger to a survey by the Union of Jewish Students, laying bare the extent of antisemitism on university campuses.

The UJS study showed one-in-four students had witnessed harassment of Jewish students, and one-in-five said they would not want a Jewish housemate.

The Tory leader, who visited the Kosher Kingdom and Coco bakeries in Golders Green on Monday as she joined activists and senior Jewish Tory figures to boost the local election campaign, said the findings alarmed her deeply.
Contributor to Soros-Funded Drop Site News Called Michigan Synagogue Attack Self-Defense
A contributor to the George Soros-funded Drop Site News defended the Thursday terrorist attack against a synagogue and preschool in Michigan as an act of self-defense, claiming that the synagogue was engaged in "criminality" because it supports pro-Israel charities.

Abubaker Abed, a self-styled Palestinian journalist, suggested that Ayman Muhammad Ghazali—the terrorist who rammed his explosives-packed car into the synagogue—was trying "reasonably to defend [himself]."

"A person is not criminally responsible if they act reasonably to defend themselves against an imminent and unlawful use of force," wrote Abed in a post on X. "Israel murdered his relatives and is illegally bombing and invading his country."

Abed suggested Temple Israel was "guilty of a crime" over its membership in the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ)—a progressive religious branch—and its support for the Association of Reform Zionists of America, a liberal pro-Israel group.

"Under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Article 25, an individual is guilty of a crime if they aid, abet, or otherwise assist in committing the crime," he wrote. "Temple Israel in Michigan actively promotes donations to ARZA and its parent organisation [URJ], which support the Reform movement in Israel that supports the Israeli military as 'an essential institution for national security.'"

"The fact that they do this in a temple doesn't rule out its gravity and criminality," Abed added. "Reminder that Israel always claims mosques were used by Hamas and has obliterated most of them in Gaza under the pretext of defending itself."
Fetterman trashes ‘ignorant’ AOC’s ‘tone-deaf’ views on Israel — and predicts she won’t challenge Schumer
Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman is trashing “ignorant” far-left New York City Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for her “tone-deaf” approach to Israel — and predicted she won’t challenge Big Apple Dem Sen. Chuck Schumer in 2028.

“To accuse Israel [of] genocide, and you’re sitting in Germany, like, can you talk about tone deaf and just ignorant to the history?” Fetterman told podcast host Sean Hannity, referring to AOC’s disastrous gaffe-prone foreign-policy outing in Munich last month.

“I mean, more than 6 million Jews [were massacred] — you know the Holocaust — and now to accuse Israel during that just war for genocide,’’ he said in the interview, set to air Tuesday.

“That’s my issue, not because her answer wasn’t great,’’ Fetterman told Fox News Media’s “Hang Out with Sean Hannity” in a nod to the Democratic Socialist rep’s bungling of her appearance at the time.

Ocasio-Cortez’s participation in the panel at the Munich Security Conference was widely interpreted as a test of her foreign-policy bona fides amid speculation over her 2028 aspirations.

Ultimately, her fumbles, such as erroneously claiming that Venezuela sits below the equator, fueled criticism from her detractors that she wasn’t ready for prime time.

The 36-year-old rep, who majored in international relations, has fired back at her critics by contending that she was demonstrating the importance of thinking before speaking.

Fetterman, who revealed that Senate Minority Leader Schumer leans on him, predicted that Ocasio-Cortez won’t challenge his buddy.

“She would never run,” Fetterman said when Hannity predicted that Ocasio-Cortez would crush Schumer in a 2028 primary.

“Either she’ll run for president, or she’ll just kind of continue to rise in” the House of Representatives, the Keystone State senator added.

During another portion of their conversation, Fetterman ripped into Democratic former Vice President Kamala Harris for calling President Trump a fascist.


Trump defends Mark Levin after pundit’s wild podcast feud with rival Megyn Kelly
President Trump threw his support behind Mark Levin amid the radio host’s bitter back-and-forth feud with podcaster Megyn Kelly.

Trump praised Levin as a “truly Great American Patriot” who was “somewhat under siege by other people with far less Intellect, Capability, and Love for our Country,” in a Truth Social post late Sunday.

Levin is “far smarter than those who criticize him but, above all, he is a man of Great Wisdom and Common Sense who truly loves our Country,” Trump wrote.

Levin and Kelly traded personal attacks online over the weekend, in what has been a broader ongoing rift among conservative podcasters — such as Tucker Carlson, Ben Shapiro and Candace Owens — including over the US and Israel’s military action in Iran.

The president suggested that Levin’s critics were motivated by jealousy, writing that those attacking the conservative commentator were “jealous and angry Human Beings, whose ‘sway’ is much less than the Public understands.”

“Those that speak ill of Mark will quickly fall by the wayside, as do the people whose ideas, policies, and footings are not sound,” he wrote.

“THEY ARE NOT MAGA, I AM, and MAGA includes not allowing Iran, a Sick, Demented, and Violent Terrorist Regime, to have a Nuclear Weapon to blow up the United States of America, the Middle East, and, ultimately, the rest of the World,” Trump railed.

Levin said he was “beyond humbled” by the president’s words.

“Your courage, strength, and moral clarity are truly unparalleled. And your leadership has made our country and the world much safer,” the pundit wrote on X. “Both you and what you are doing deserve our support. And I will not be intimidated and bow to threats.”


Sharri Markson hits out at ABC for giving platform to Grace Tame and her ‘hateful views’
Sky News host Sharri Markson slams the ABC for giving Grace Tame a platform to “spout her hateful views”.

“In an interview with ABC host Hamish Macdonald, Grace Tame was praised, and barely challenged, as she made outrageous claims that the violent rape of Jewish girls on October 7 was simply propaganda,” Ms Markson said.

“She also downplayed the violent and shocking terrorism committed against Israel, claiming it was simply resistance by Palestinians who have been oppressed.

“Hamish Macdonald ... failed to press her on the fact that the chant ‘globalise the intifada’ has been realised with dozens of terror attacks around the world, including at Bondi.

“Instead, Maconald shockingly praised Tame.

“This is an outrageous failure of the ABC to give Tame a high-profile platform to express her dangerous and hateful views that can have serious repercussions for the Jewish community.”




Religious Liberty Commission Has Productive Meeting Without Loony Aging Beauty Queen Who Hijacked February Hearing To Bash Israel
The Department of Justice's Religious Liberty Commission convened for a productive hearing on Monday without dramatic and distracting interjections from Carrie Prejean Boller, the former beauty queen and sex tape star who was terminated from the body after using a hearing last month to bash Israel.

The hearing, held in an auditorium at Washington, D.C.'s Museum of the Bible, included discussion of vaccine mandates, gender reassignment surgery, and abortion, among other subjects. As participants heard testimony from witnesses who spoke about having faced government persecution for exercising their faith, Prejean Boller spent the duration of the meeting posting furiously on X.

"Catholics aren't allowed on this commission who dare to say there is a genocide in Gaza," she wrote. "They only want puppets who bend the knee to Israel and believe in a false heretical theology in order to serve on this commission. @DanPatrick should be removed from office never to return again."

She also reposted a video on X showing a former intelligence officer being escorted out of a congressional hearing for interrupting with shouts about "Israel burn[ing] children alive."


Josh Shapiro tests measured, pro-Israel message in progressive podcast tour
As Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro eyes a 2028 presidential campaign, he is using a series of big-name podcast interviews to refine and test out his messaging on Israel — and taking aim at California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a potential rival, in the process.

In interviews with the “Pod Save America” and “Higher Learning” podcasts that dropped in recent days, Shapiro put himself in the line of fire from interviewers with more left-wing views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict than he holds. In response, he made the case that, as the starting point for any public political conversation about Israel, the fact of Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state must be respected.

“I think what is dangerous here, and I’m not accusing you of this by any stretch, is for those who think Israel doesn’t have a right to exist in [the] conversation. That to me is a recipe for permanent war,” Shapiro told “Higher Learning” host Van Lathan, who said a national conversation about Israel is needed. (“Higher Learning” is part of a podcast network from the digital media company The Ringer.)

The point of the discussion seemed to be to demonstrate a kind of modeling — that Shapiro, a Jewish Democrat who has long been both a supporter of Israel and a critic of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, can show Democrats how to have a difficult yet transparent and empathetic conversation amid deep disagreements over Israel’s actions in Gaza.

Shapiro is making clear that if he runs for president, he does not intend to sidestep the party’s most fraught foreign policy debate. He intends to shape it.

In the “Higher Learning” interview, Shapiro laid out his views on Israel while taking flack from Lathan, who called Israel “one of the worst human rights violators” and said he is worried that in describing Israel as an “apartheid state,” people will think he is saying he hates Jews.

“I fundamentally disagree with your viewpoint, but I don’t think you’re an antisemite. I think that you are learning and struggling and grappling with issues that are really, really tough, and you formed an opinion, one that I disagree with, that you seemingly hold very honestly,” said Shapiro. “I don’t think that you’ve got hate in your heart toward someone because they’re Jewish. I think you’ve got different views, say, than I do about Israel or about the Middle East.”
Anti-Israel activist who called Jews ‘cockroaches’ has multiple links to Mamdani’s family
Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s family has crossed paths with the anti-Israel activist who called Jews “cockroaches” and “vampires,” despite his attempts to distance himself from her.

Susan Abulhawa, 55, is a member of the Advisory Policy Council of the Gaza Tribunal along with Mamdani’s Columbia University professor father, Mahmood Mamdani.

The group, which features just 29 members, was established in London in 2024 and describes itself as an independent “people’s tribunal” that collects evidence against Israel in Gaza. British Member of Parliament Jeremy Corbyn is another prominent figure within it.

Mamdani’s artist wife, Rama Duwaji, came under fire last week for illustrating a short story that was included in an anthology of writing by young Palestinians co-edited by Abulhawa. Diana Islayih’s “Trail of Soap” is included in “Every Moment is a Life: Gaza in the Time of Genocide,” published earlier this year in English and Arabic by Simon & Schuster.

The same story, using one of Duwaji’s illustrations, was also included in February’s edition of “Everything is Political” magazine, published by Slow Factory.

Mamdani’s spokespeople sought to distance he and his wife from Abulhawa, saying in a statement Duwaji, 28, has “never engaged with or met,” the activist.

But Abulhawa was a featured speaker at Columbia University’s Center for Palestine Studies which Mamdani Sr. — a professor in the school’s Department of Anthropology — has long been associated with, appearing in a bio on their website.

Abulhawa was also among the prominent signatories to a 2018 open letter to members of the Saudi royal family to urge them to release professor and women’s rights activist Hatoon al-Fassi. Mamdani’s filmmaker mother, Mira Nair, as well as his father were also among the signatories.

Abulhawa, a novelist, traveled to Gaza in 2024 to give eight writing workshops for young writers. She is the founder and executive editor of the Palestine Writes Literature Festival as well as Playgrounds for Palestine Inc., a nonprofit founded in 2001.
Mamdani to meet with hand-picked Jewish leaders to discuss concerns — but critics fume it’s nothing more than ‘photo op’
Mayor Zohran Mamdani plans to meet with some Jewish leaders Monday amid concerns he and his wife have been hostile to worries about anti-Israel rhetoric — but critics say it’s nothing more than a “photo op.’’

The sit-down is expected to cater mainly to Orthodox Jewish community leaders, including at least one who endorsed Mamdani for mayor, as opposed to mainstream Jewish advocacy groups — and last just 15 to 20 minutes, disgusted sources said.

One Jewish leader declined to attend the session after learning the Muslim mayor would only briefly be there, calling it an “insult” and a “photo-op,” according to a source briefed on the meeting.

Rabbi Moshe Indig — a leader of a Satmar sect in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, who stirred controversy by endorsing Mamdani for mayor last year — confirmed that he, for one, will be attending.

“It’s a meeting with Jewish community leaders. I don’t know the topic. We’ll see,” Indig told The Post on Sunday.

Rabbi David Niederman, president and executive director of the United Jewish Organization of Williamsburg, which has received millions of dollars in city funding over the years to provide services to the Jewish community in Brooklyn, is also expected to attend, according to a source.

Sources said mainstream Jewish advocacy groups such as the Anti-Defamation League/United Jewish Appeal, the Jewish Community Relations Council and the American Jewish Committee are not attending.

“We were not invited,” said Scott Richman, New York-NJ regional director of the ADL.


Anti-Israel Illinois congressional candidate scrubs call to remove Hamas from power from campaign website
One of the most prominent anti-Israel candidates seeking a seat in Congress in the 2026 midterms deleted language, which called for Hamas to be removed from power in Gaza, from her website on Monday.

Kat Abughazaleh, a 26-year-old social media influencer and former producer for the left-wing Media Matters for America who is running as a Democrat in Illinois’s 9th Congressional District, maintains a section on her campaign site calling for a “free and sovereign Palestine.”

A version of that page archived early on Monday morning said that “there is no acceptable scenario that leaves Hamas in charge of the Gaza Strip.”

The language calling for the removal of the U.S.-designated terrorist group from power no longer appears and has been replaced with a line saying that “Democratic elections must be held for the people of Palestine to elect their own leaders,” without any mention of Hamas.

Another section on Abughazaleh’s website calling for a “humane foreign policy” noted that previous versions of the campaign materials did not properly reflect Abughazaleh’s views and have now been corrected.

“After our website was updated, portions of our policy platform were not accurately updated and do not reflect Kat’s views or the values of this campaign,” the website states. (JNS sought comment from Abughazaleh’s campaign.)


Two Israeli films come up short at Oscars, where actor uses time on stage to call for ‘free Palestine’
Two Israeli films were nominated for Academy Awards—a documentary about an anti-war vigil in Tel Aviv and a movie about a Palestinian butcher in a Tel Aviv supermarket accused of tearing down hostage posters. Neither Hilla Medalia’s “Children No More: Were and Are Gone” nor Meyer Levinson-Blount’s “Butcher’s Stain” won an Oscar on Sunday night, though the Jewish state made news during the program anyway.

The Spanish actor Javier Bardem, who plays Rubรฉn Cevantes, the ambitious owner of the fictional APXGP team in “F1 the Movie” (2025), nominated for Best Picture, was on stage alongside British Indian actress Priyanka Chopra as a presenter at the 98th Academy Awards.

“No to war, and free Palestine,” Bardem said from the stage. (“F1” was up for four awards and won best sound.)

Before the show, Bardem said on the red carpet that he was wearing a lapel pin “that I used in 2003 with the Iraq war, which was an illegal war.”

“We are here, 23 years after, with another illegal war created by Trump and Netanyahu with another lie, which is to defeat the regime,” he said. “But they are radicalizing the regime by their horrific actions.”

“So that’s not the reason, as it was not the reason with weapons of mass destruction in 2003,” he added. “Also, the Palestine symbol of resistance,” he added, pointing to a second pin.

At an Oscars after-party, Bardem defended his on-stage statement.

“It’s important to understand that you can be part of the movie-making community and also be a citizen who uses this huge speaker to denounce injustice,” he said. “In this case, it’s the genocide in Palestine that is still going on.”


Bob Vylan and the rise of ayatollah chic
Any pretence that this was all about the benighted people of Palestine was dropped this year, replaced by tear-drenched mourning for the recently despatched Ayatollah Khamenei, Khomeini’s successor as Supreme Leader, who was assassinated in the opening salvos of the US and Israel’s war with the Islamic Republic. One speaker – reportedly from the Islamic Human Rights Commission, a troll of a name given this organisation’s well-documented links to the brutal, rights-crushing mullahs – called Khamenei a ‘great martyr’. This is the same Khamenei who is believed to have killed as many as 30,000 of his own people this year because they dared to demand their freedom, and who threw money and resources at every anti-Semitic militia going.

Among all this was that prick Bobby, addressing the crowd in front of a banner depicting Khamenei and claiming this murderous theocrat was on ‘the right side of history’. Bobby finished his speech with a reprisal of his favourite chant, ‘Death, death to the IDF’. It was this blood-curdling cry to kill the soldiers of the Jewish State – the army almost all Israelis are required to serve in, charged with protecting Jews from the genocidal, Tehran-backed forces on Israel’s borders – that first sealed Bob Vylan’s infamy when they debuted it to thousands during their Glastonbury set last summer. (Avon and Somerset Police eventually concluded the chant didn’t meet the criminal threshold. The Met are currently investigating Robinson-Foster once again.)

Bobby luxuriated in the Glasto backlash. He didn’t so much refute claims the chant was anti-Semitic as casually brush them off. He even told a credulous Louis Theroux on a podcast that the only reason he chose the word ‘death’ is because it rhymed with ‘IDF’. He was only speaking up for the innocents of Gaza, of course. Is anyone seriously still buying this? Here’s an idea: if you don’t want to be accused of being anti-Semitic and calling for the murder of Jews, maybe don’t address a demonstration glorifying an anti-Semite who commissioned the murder of Jews. It’s not hard.

The Bob Vylan debacle has shown the Israelophobes are truly beyond shaming. Or saving. They clearly get off on the notoriety, on the shudders they send through our already embattled Jewish communities, on the frisson of the Islamist company they now keep. It’s been tempting to call the ‘progressive’ wing of the ‘pro-Palestine’ movement useful idiots, marching in lockstep with 7th-century nostalgists who would happily hang them from a lamppost. But they clearly know exactly what they’re doing. They just don’t care. They are lost to this bigotry, to this cocky nihilism, to this barbarian chic.

I don’t want them censored, or locked up. It only fuels their grift. But I do want everyone to stop pretending that this is anything other than old poison in a new bottle.
Met chief says force taking advice from CPS after ‘death to IDF’ chant The head of the Metropolitan Police said the force will be taking advice from the Crown Prosecution Service after “death, death to the IDF (Israel Defence Forces)” chants led by Bobby Vylan at the Al Quds Day demonstration.

The artist, real name Pascal Robinson-Foster, who is a member of punk duo Bob Vylan, repeated his controversial Glastonbury chant while appearing as a speaker at the protest on Sunday.

Those in the crowd appeared to join in.

The Metropolitan Police said: “We are aware of chanting made by a speaker at the Al Quds protest and will be investigating. We recognise the concern footage and chanting like this causes, particularly with London’s Jewish communities.

“When this language had been used previously we sought advice from the CPS who determined that there would be insufficient evidence to take a case forward.”
Woman told crowd Hamas is ‘fighting for freedom’, court hears
A woman accused of expressing support for Hamas told a crowd the proscribed organisation is “fighting for freedom”, a court has heard.

On Monday, Bristol Crown Court heard Kwabena Devonish, 27, is alleged to have said she was “sick” of “being told to condemn Hamas”.

Devonish is accused of having expressed an opinion or belief in support of the proscribed organisation during a speech in November 2023.

The court heard Devonish had attended a march in Cardiff and addressed a crowd gathered at Ty William Morgan in Central Square.

Devonish was arrested in January 2024 after a video of the speech was posted on social media.

In a video played to the jury, Devonish said: “I would never condemn the resistance of Palestinians because their resistance is due to the occupation.

“So, if you want to talk about violence, if you want to talk about atrocities, then point the finger to the state of Israel.

“I am sick of being told to condemn Hamas, when Hamas are fighting for freedom, Hamas are fighting for the people.”


In SXSW Appearance, Columbia Encampment Organizer Mahmoud Khalil Says It’s ‘Very Racist’ To Ask Him To Condemn Hamas
In an appearance at the South by Southwest festival on Sunday, Columbia University encampment leader Mahmoud Khalil said "it's very racist to ask a Palestinian" to condemn Hamas.

The moderator, the Guardian's U.S. editor, Betsy Reed, asked Khalil to explain why he refused to condemn Hamas during a July interview with CNN. Khalil dismissed CNN's request as "disingenuous and absurd."

"It's very racist to ask a Palestinian this question just to validate their views," Khalil said Sunday. "I don't see them asking any Israeli or American politician about condemning all the killing that's happening—whether in Lebanon and Palestine and Iran, anywhere."

"That sort of hypocrisy and double standards that's being used against us [sic]," he continued. "I refuse to be part of that, and they would never answer such a question."

The "featured session" centered on the "cost of dissent" and included one of his attorneys, Baher Azmy. It offered "an unflinching conversation on his ordeal, the system that tried to silence him, and the personal and political stakes of resistance," according to the description of the event, written by the Guardian and posted to SXSW's website.

SXSW's decision to feature Khalil gave the anti-Israel activist a massive platform—the Austin, Texas, conference and festival drew more than 300,000 attendees and nearly 400,000 views on YouTube in 2025. Tickets for the festival, which was sponsored by major corporations such as Sam's Club, Rivian, and Carnival, can cost up to $2,095 for full access.
Peers grill minister over ‘terrifying’ rise in campus antisemitism
A Foreign Office minister faced sustained pressure in the House of Lords to explain the government’s approach to tackling campus antisemitism, as a damning new report by the Union of Jewish Students laid bare the scale of Jew-hatred at British universities.

Baroness Berger, who wrote the foreword to the UJS report and acts as an advisor to it, told peers the polling of 2,000 students found that one in five said they would be reluctant to, or would never, house share with Jewish students.

“There are terrifying case studies in the report, including the experience of Jewish students in Birmingham who were followed home and whose pursuers lingered outside for several nights and told passers-by to remember this address as ‘Jews live here’,” she told the Lords.

Berger said the situation was “getting worse” and called for “urgent action to be taken to reverse these horrific findings.”

Lord Collins, the Foreign Office minister, said £7 million had been invested into tackling antisemitism, including through support for students and training of university staff, along with plans to strengthen the complaints system and the whistle-blowing procedure.

“The government condemns all racial and religious hatred in the strongest possible terms and strongly encourages universities to take steps to foster cohesion on campus,” he said. “We make no apology for acting decisively to tackle the unprecedented rise in antisemitic abuse in universities, particularly since October 7, 2023.”

But Collins also drew a distinction between antisemitism and legitimate political debate, stressing that antisemitism “has been around a long time, and often events globally are an excuse — an excuse to exploit that antisemitism. But it doesn’t change the fact that people do have genuine concerns about what’s going on in the Middle East.”
1 in 5 UK university students ‘reluctant’ to share house with Jewish student — poll
One in five university students in the UK would be “reluctant” to share a house with a Jewish student or would never do so, according to a poll commissioned by the British Union of Jewish Students and published Monday.

The poll was conducted by JL Partners between January 26 and February 4, and polled a representative sample of 1,000 UK university students at 170 institutions. The report did not give a margin of error, nor was the precise wording of all the questions immediately available.

The survey found that nearly one in four students (23 percent) had seen behavior that targeted Jewish students for their religion or ethnicity. Almost four in 10 (39%) who “witness regular Israel-Palestine protests” had seen frequent harassment of Jewish students, according to the poll.

In addition, close to half had heard chants or slogans “glorifying Hamas, Hezbollah or other proscribed groups on campus” (49%) or seen justification of the October 7, 2023, attack led by Hamas (47%), the poll said. Among those who encountered Israel-related protests regularly, the latter number rose to 77%.

A large majority (82%) said calls to “globalize the intifada” are antisemitic.

Most students (65%) said that protests had in some way disrupted their learning, and 69% said they disapproved of demonstrations that block access to learning. Students march and wave Palestinian flags during an anti-Israel inter-university march in London on the second anniversary of the Hamas onslaught that sparked the war in Gaza,

In its report, UJS described a marked worsening of conditions for the UK’s roughly 10,000 Jewish university students in the two and a half years since the October 7 attack on Israel triggered a regional war, saying “relative inaction has bred a culture of normalized antisemitism.”


Jewish enrollment at Harvard drops to lowest level since before WWII
A new report by the Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance found that Jewish undergraduate enrollment at Harvard University has dropped to about 7% in 2025, its lowest level since before World War II and the lowest among Ivy League schools with reliable data.

Titled “Jewish Enrollment at Harvard and Its Peers, 1967–2025: A Narrowing Gate,” the analysis reviewed nearly six decades of figures from Hillel International, historical Harvard Crimson surveys and peer‑institution reporting. It found that the share of Jewish undergraduates at Harvard has fallen by roughly half over the past decade and is now less than a third of the roughly 25 percent average in the late 20th century.

The authors compared trends at nine elite universities, testing explanations commonly offered for enrollment changes, including geographic diversification, expanded financial aid, international student growth and athletic recruitment. They concluded that none of these factors fully accounts for the sharper decline at Harvard relative to its peers.

The report notes that Harvard tracks and publicly reports detailed demographic data on race, gender and income, but does not systematically track religion or “Jewish students, a federally protected group,” in admissions.

The alumni association is urging Harvard to begin voluntarily collecting Jewish self‑identification data, commission an independent review of admissions processes, and take corrective steps if policies are found to disproportionately affect Jewish applicants.


Hamas acknowledges ‘NGO fundraiser’ killed by IDF as one of its own
Hamas admitted that Wissam Taha, who was killed in an Israeli Defense Forces strike on Sunday, was a member of their organization. Taha presented himself abroad as a fundraiser for “sustainable development” NGOs.

Taha represented two Lebanon-based NGOs: Ghirass for Society Development and Jeel Sustainable Development. The two groups appear to be legitimate.

However, a Hamas source told the AFP news agency “on condition of anonymity ” that Taha was “an official” from the terrorist group.

UN Watch’s Hillel Neuer brought attention to Hamas’s admission. “Hamas just told AFP that Wissam Taha, who raised donations worldwide for a ‘sustainable development’ NGO in Lebanon, was one of their officials. He was eliminated today by an IDF strike on his apartment in Sidon. His bro is close to UNRWA,” Neuer wrote on social media.

According to UN Watch, Taha’s brother Jihad Taha is a senior Hamas leader and its international spokesperson, serving as the main public representative of Hamas in Lebanon.

He frequently appears in global media to discuss developments such as leadership decisions (including the selection as chief of Yahya Sinwar after Ismail Haniyeh’s death) and ceasefire negotiations.
Alleged perpetrators of attack on Israeli Americans arrested, but not charged with hate crimes
Three men accused of assaulting two Israeli American men outside a restaurant in a Silicon Valley shopping mall last week were arrested on Monday, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office announced. The alleged assailants were charged with both misdemeanor and felony offenses, but they were not charged with hate crime-related offenses.

On Sunday, March 8, videos show the two men being assaulted in the middle of the day as other diners and shoppers looked on. The victims, Lior Zeevi, 47, and Daniel Levy, 48, told The Jewish News of Northern California that the attack began after they were overheard speaking Hebrew, and that one of the assailants yelled “f***ing Jew.” According to a police report, a witness heard one of the perpetrators shout “Don’t f*** with Iran” as he ran away.

The charges filed “do not reflect allegations of a hate crime at this time. However, this remains an active investigation,” according to a statement from the Santa Clara DA. A spokesperson for the DA’s office declined to comment when asked why hate crimes charges were not filed.

The San Jose Police Department said last week that it was investigating the incident as a hate crime. The police report identified the attack as a hate crime in which the victims were targeted for their ethnicity or nationality.

The alleged attackers were named as Bruneil Henry Chamaki, 32, Roma Akoyans, 20, and Ramon Akoyans, 18. Chamaki appears to be an attorney who recently left a law firm in Sacramento, according to his LinkedIn. He is also the founder of Assyrian Advisors, an organization for the Assyrian community, a Christian ethnic group indigenous to Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria. A LinkedIn page for Roma Akoyans lists him as an intern for Assyrian Advisors.


Dutch bank blast linked to attacks on Jewish sites
A low-intensity explosion caused minor damage outside a bank in a heavily Jewish part of Amsterdam on Sunday night, Dutch media reported, in what a local politician connected to recent attacks on a Jewish school in the Dutch capital, a synagogue in Rotterdam and another synagogue in Belgium.

The explosion was directed against the Bank of New York in the Zuidas area in southern Amsterdam, the AT5 television channel reported on Monday. A video that circulated on social media showed perpetrators lighting the fuse, Michael Vis, a senior councilor in the City Council of Amsterdam, wrote on X. No one was hurt in the explosion.

The video framed all three incidents in the Netherlands as actions by an Islamist terrorist cell that the video’s makers called Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya, said Viss, who is Jewish.

According to a report published Monday by Israel’s Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Ministry, the Harakt Ashab group first surfaced after the March 9 explosion outside a synagogue in Liege, Belgium. It was linked in online videos to the incidents in Rotterdam and Amsterdam on March 13 and 14, respectively.

The attacks “damaged property and did not cause casualties,” the report said, but their “main objective was psychological warfare, to sow fear in the Jewish communities.” The group allegedly published videos, accompanied by jihadist slogans, of the attacks. The videos “spread quickly on Telegram channels affiliated with Shi’ite militant networks and pro-Iranian circles, including channels linked to Hezollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC),” the report said.

The group’s name means “the movement of the people of the right” and originates in a Quranic term describing the righteous who, on the Day of Judgment, will hold the record of their deeds in their right hands, the report said. In the Sunni interpretation, it refers generally to righteous believers, whereas in the Shi’ite interpretation, it may refer specifically to the followers of Imam Ali.


'I am Turkish, I am a woman, and I support Israel': Inside Turku Avci's journey
Aspiring journalist Turku Avci moved to Israel from Turkey five years ago to study at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In January, she was asked by Instagram influencer Tal the Traveler if she, a Turkish Muslim woman, was a Zionist.

Her response was: “Yes, of course.” That night, the video went viral on Turkish media and social media. Thousands of comments from Turks called for her arrest and assassination.

Avci’s student visa expires in June; she is considering beginning the long process of seeking asylum in Israel.

Here, she writes about what being a woman means to her:

I try to remember my first International Women’s Day. My mother was waiting for me after school. In her hands, she held a photograph of one of the women brutally murdered that year, and two carnations – one for herself, and one for me to hold. Holding my mother’s hand, I was walking to “celebrate” Women’s Day. At a very young age, I learned that if you are a woman in Turkey, celebrating this day actually means resisting for your very existence.

From my first March 8 to today, the way this day is marked in my country has changed dramatically. When I was a child, police were present to ensure that our marches could take place safely. Today, they are there to block demonstrations, surround women, detain those who raise their voices, and photograph protesters to place them under surveillance.

We once had the Istanbul Convention to hold onto; since 2021, it no longer exists – for us. In 2012, Turkey was the first country to ratify the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence; nine years later, it tragically became the first and only one to withdraw from it.

Today, women’s place in society is shaped by a Turkey governed by President Recep Erdogan, who frequently declares that “you cannot make women and men equal: it goes against human nature,” and that “a woman who rejects motherhood and refuses to manage her home, no matter how successful she is in the professional world, is incomplete: she is half.”


Gal Gadot’s Genesis Prize impact set to double to $2 million
A new matching gifts initiative is set to double the impact of Israeli actress Gal Gadot’s $1 million Genesis Prize, providing at least $2 million to support organizations helping Israelis recover from the trauma of war.

The matching gifts program, announced on Monday by the Genesis Prize Foundation and the Jewish Funders Network (JFN), will fund nonprofits assisting Israelis coping with emotional and physical trauma following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led terrorist attacks and the conflicts that followed, including the current war with Iran.

The Genesis Prize Foundation has committed $1 million to the effort, with JFN members and other donors expected to contribute at least another $1 million through the matching program, according to the announcement.

“Conceived by Gal Gadot, the initiative will focus on strengthening Israel’s long-term recovery by investing in the professionals and organizations helping others heal, particularly as Israelis work to recover from the trauma of Oct. 7 and navigate the compounded effects of the current conflict with Iran and Hezbollah,” it said.

Gadot, it noted, has been a prominent global voice calling for solidarity with Israel and the Jewish people, underscoring the importance of resilience and unity during a time of profound national trauma.

When Gadot was named the 2026 Genesis Prize laureate in November, she said she would dedicate the award to organizations helping Israelis recover from the country’s crises.

“I am humbled to receive the Genesis Prize and to stand alongside the amazing laureates who came before me,” Gadot said. “I am a proud Jew and a proud Israeli. I love my country and dedicate this award to the organizations that will help Israel heal and to those incredible people who serve on the front lines of compassion. Israel has endured unimaginable pain. Now we must begin to heal—to rebuild hearts, families and communities.”




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