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Tuesday, April 14, 2026

04/13 Links Pt2: Holocaust Memorial Day has been universalised. Yom HaShoah cannot be; Sayyid Qutb: the godfather of Islamism; The Paranoid Prophet of Loserdom; The Arab Case for Israel

From Ian:

Sayyid Qutb: the godfather of Islamism
Throughout the early 1950s, the deepening of Qutb’s Islamism, the intensification of his cultural opposition to what he called the ‘Western disease’, meshed with his increasingly vocalised anti-Semitism. This was writ large in Our Struggle Against the Jews, a work that conjured up Jewish people as the eternal, cosmic enemy of Muslims everywhere. For Qutb, Israel was the face not just of the Western ‘crusaders’, but of evil.

As Qutb’s Islamist embrace deepened, Egyptian nationalist forces were in the process of putting an end to British occupation and toppling the monarchy. In the initial aftermath of the Free Officers coup d’รฉtat in July 1952, Egypt’s new leader, Colonel Gamal Abdel al Nasser, was seemingly keen to keep the Muslim Brotherhood onside. Qutb himself, his status as an Islamic intellectual rising, was also promoted by the new regime. He spoke at Free Officers events and was given a chance to deliver public radio lectures on the importance of Islamic values.

Yet the secular aspirations of Nasserite nationalists – ‘Religion is for God and the nation for all’, as Nasser put it – always sat uneasily alongside the Islamist dreams of the Muslim Brotherhood and now Qutb. In February 1953, Qutb finally joined the Muslim Brotherhood. He proclaimed: ‘No other movement can stand up to the Zionist and the colonialist crusaders.’

In the months that followed, tensions between the Muslim Brotherhood and Egyptians’ nationalist rulers mounted, culminating in the disbanding of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1954 and the arrest and eventual imprisonment of hundreds of members, including Qutb. It was in prison that Qutb – ill, embittered and hardened against Nasser and secular nationalism – produced Milestones, arguably the defining document of Islamism. From the start, Milestones is shot through with revolutionary intent. Cosplaying as a What Is to Be Done? – Lenin’s 1901 political cri de coeur – for Islamists, it begins by offering a diagnosis of the spiritual crisis in which mankind finds itself. This amounts to a recapitulation of Qutb’s long-standing cultural critique of the West, of the way in which the elevation of human reason has disenchanted the world, depriving people of ‘any healthy values for the guidance of mankind’. Only Islam has the answer, he writes. Only Islam has the capacity to re-enchant the world, to suffuse it with the breath of the divine.

The problem, Qutb argues, is that the world is steeped in Jahilyyah (‘age of ignorance’). Previously, this was a term scholars used to refer to the supposed moral turpitude of the pre-Muslim world. But Qutb turns it into something more abstract – a reference to any society under the sway of an authority other than that of Allah. Any society, that is, that elevates human reason to a position of authority, or that places a value on freedom or material progress. That goes for all social forms and political ideologies of Western origin, from the liberal to the Communist to the nationalist. All societies are ‘jahili’, Qutb writes, that have ‘delegated the law-making capacity of God to others’ – that have, in short, usurped the ‘sovereignty’ of Allah. There is, he writes, ‘no authority except God’s, no law except from God, and no authority of one man over another, as the authority in all respects belongs to God’.

‘Sovereignty’ is the key concept in Milestones. Adapted from the work of Indian Islamist, Abdul Maududi (1903-1979), with whom Qutb had been corresponding in prison, ‘sovereignty’ in Qutb’s world ought to belong solely to Allah – an assertion he draws from the Muslim declaration of faith, ‘There is no deity except Allah’ (La ilaha illallah). This sovereignty is not limited to spiritual affairs. There is no room for secularism in the Islamist worldview. Allah’s writ applies to every aspect of human reality. As he put it in In the Shade of the Koran, ‘it is not natural for religion to be separated from [the affairs] of the world’. Qutb’s stated ambition in Milestones is to replace every man-made law, custom and tradition ‘with a new concept of human life, to create a new world on the foundation of submission to the creator’. This, he says, is Islam’s ‘revolutionary message’.

At points, Qutb frames this message in terms of freedom and even ‘autonomy’, stating that Islam ‘is really a universal declaration of the freedom of man’. He argues that jahili societies enslave men to laws made by other men, and – in a pointed allusion to what he perceives as Western freedom – enslave them to their own animal-like desires. Islam, by contrast, will liberate men both from secular authorities and from their own impulses. Not by encouraging them to exercise their own reason, as the actual self-governing promise of ‘autonomy’ has it, but through their submission to their only right and true ruler: Allah. This is Qutb’s vision of freedom, ‘the total submission to God alone’.

It is a singular, brutal vision. It not only recognises no other authority, but also, as Qutb makes clear, no other ties, bonds or commitments. It floats free of family, friends and, importantly, nation. It’s a vision that, in its sheer, inhuman abstraction, transcends all boundaries – a vision global in scope, and horrifying in ambition.

And how is this Islamic society to be realised? Through what Qutb calls a ‘vanguard’ of true believers. Those who, in every aspect of their existence, have freed themselves from jahili society and submitted themselves entirely to Allah. Those who live only according to the laws of God, not man. That is who Milestones is aimed at – the revolutionary cell.
The Paranoid Prophet of Loserdom
With his long beard, resonant voice, outgoing personality, and bellicose, mystical rhetoric, Dugin is regarded by his global fan base and by his enemies alike as a kind of geopolitical genius, the most prominent representative of contemporary Russian political thought, and, most of all, the inspiration behind Russia’s foreign policy—Putin’s personal Rasputin. Like most things in the 21st century, the reality is far more childish, more ridiculous, and, because of that, more frightening.

The puerile grandiosity of his book titles, with their aura of esotericism and science fiction—The Fourth Political Theory, Eurasian Mission: An Introduction to Neo-Eurasianism, Last War of the World-Island—is in line with their content, which is a jumble of nihilistic fantasies, fascist dreams, totalitarian plans, and ridiculous predictions. In a piece written in the aftermath of Oct. 7, Dugin announced that Pakistan, Turkey, and Indonesia were about to rally to the side of the Palestinians, who will launch an uprising in East Jerusalem that will lead to the sealing-off of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and to World War III, during which Russia will “at last” side with the Muslims against the Israelis, the West, and the forces of LGBTQ.

At their even less incoherent, the so-called neo-Eurasian or fourth-political theories that he presents as original are, in fact, largely copied and pasted from more coherent anti-modern, anti-Enlightenment Western theorists and philosophers. The result is a vision of history that can only be called gnostic and that can be summarized in a simple paragraph:

The present geopolitical situation is the latest episode of an ancestral cosmic war. Two types of societies clash: The evil ones, which he calls “thalassocratic,” are essentially treacherous because they’re governed by the mischievous, untrustworthy “Atlanticists” and are engineered by commerce, exchanges, individualism, and egalitarianism. The good ones, the “tellurocratic” societies, are rooted in soil, knighthood, religion, and vertical hierarchy. The thalassocratists (the United States, Western Europe, protestants, atheists, Israel, and the Jews) are liberal children of darkness. The tellurocratists (the Russians, the Orthodox and the Catholics, and Muslims, especially Shiites) are children of light. At stake is the human soul. Should the Russians (or the Iranians) lose, there is no reason that the world should continue: In a recent interview, Dugin declared that Moscow would provide nuclear weapons to anyone dedicated to fighting “the West.”
The Phantom Base
In an Information State, the struggle centers on who can generate and assume control over these bubbles of attention. The aim is to become expert at producing them so that when one bursts, another can take its place. This has become the work of a strange alliance: nominally pro-Trump figures like Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon joining forces with liberal media outlets. Once shunned for their ties to Trump, Carlson and Bannon are now treated as credible and brave sources by publications eager to amplify stories that cast him in a damaging light.

The result: the enduring trope of a “MAGA base in revolt,” which entered the news cycle even as Trump was winning by a historic margin in 2024 and has never left. Notably, in light of factional skirmishing among right-wing elites, coverage of this supposed civil war relies less on field reporting than on breathless accounts built around overt partisan messaging and leaked quotes from anonymous administration officials.

On a single day in mid-June 2025, for instance, Politico ran one story touting “the MAGA split over Israel,” citing Tucker Carlson’s claim that Israel was dragging the United States into war with Iran, and another headlined: “MAGA Warned Trump on Iran. Now He’s in an Impossible Position.” In a lengthy post on X, Carlson warned that “the first week of a war with Iran could easily kill thousands of Americans.” He called a strike a “profound betrayal” that would end Trump’s presidency and predicted that the United States would lose to Iran’s supposedly superior military. Bannon said that military action would “tear the country apart.” His protรฉgรฉ Jack Posobiec asked followers what a new Middle East conflict would do to summer gas prices—after Carlson had already forecast $30-a-gallon fuel and a “collapse” of the U.S. economy.

To point out that these predictions were inaccurate is too generous. They functioned as threats, issued by the Carlson-Bannon faction and echoed by sympathizers within the administration, aimed at asserting a veto over the president’s policy. When Trump nevertheless ordered strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, his base overwhelmingly backed him. According to a CBS News /YouGov poll, 85 percent of Republicans supported the action, including 94 percent of self-identified “MAGA Republicans.”

Trump’s base faced its ultimate stress test this March, when the U.S. and Israel jointly launched a war against Iran. This time, Carlson, Bannon, and others moved past dire predictions into an open conflict with the president and his party. With the war underway, they were joined by former National Counterterrorism Center director Joe Kent, a decorated combat veteran, failed congressional candidate, and member of the Carlson media circle. Kent resigned from his post with a flamboyant open letter in which he blamed Israel for dragging America into the current war; for the death of his first wife, killed in Syria in 2019 by an Islamic State suicide bomber while deployed as a U.S. Naval officer; and for the U.S. decision to invade Iraq in 2003. Within hours of resigning, Kent embarked on a press junket that had clearly been coordinated beforehand. First stop: an interview with Carlson.

If the premonitions of civil war were valid, this was the moment when the simmering discontent on the Right should have erupted into a full-scale rejection of Trumpism. After all, Trump had betrayed his promise to end “stupid wars” in the Middle East. Yet even as a majority of Americans expressed disapproval of the war, the military action received overwhelming support from Republican voters and proved exceptionally popular with self-identified members of the MAGA base. One poll conducted by CBS News and YouGov between March 17 and March 20 found that 92 percent of MAGA Republicans supported the military action against Iran. Of course, pollsters are often wrong—but so are podcasters. If MAGA sentiments shift, a possibility that becomes more likely if ground forces are deployed in a protracted struggle, that would only confirm the truism that unsuccessful wars are unpopular.


Holocaust Memorial Day has been universalised. Yom HaShoah cannot be
The Nazis did not begin with gas chambers, they began with cartoons, with slogans, with the steady dehumanisation of a people until their removal could be presented not as a crime, but as a necessity.

This is not a distortion of history, it is a continuation of it.

So when Jews say that Yom HaShoah is ours, this is why.

Because when you have lost 63% of your entire continental population, when entire languages, cultures, and communities are erased within a generation, you do not dilute that experience into something abstract. You do not universalise it until it loses its meaning.

You protect it, you define it, you hold it, precisely because the world has shown, time and again, how easily it forgets.

If any of this feels uncomfortable to hear, it should, because what we are witnessing today is not new. It is the rehabilitation of antisemitism in real time. Not always in its crudest form, but in something more dangerous.

Respectable, debatable, contextualised, excused.

We are told it is politics, we are told it is activism, we are told it is about a state, not a people. Yet the language, the imagery, the accusations remain exactly the same. History does not repeat itself in identical form, but it echoes and right now, those echoes are getting louder.

Which is why Yom HaShoah is not only about remembrance, it is about recognition. It is about the ability and the willingness to see what is in front of us, before it is too late.

It is about something else too, it is strength.

Because the 27 Nissan was not chosen at random. It is anchored in the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The moment when Jews, facing certain death, chose to fight back.

Not because they believed they would win, but because they refused to disappear quietly.

They drew a line and they held it.

That line did not end in Warsaw, it carried forward. Into the rebirth of a Jewish homeland, into the refusal to ever again be stateless, into a simple, unbreakable principle:

That Jewish existence is not conditional, not negotiable, not subject to approval.

So this Yom HaShoah, the message is clear.

To the world: Respect this day, learn from it, but do not redefine it. Do not dilute it, do not take something that is specific and render it meaningless in the name of universality. Leave it intact.

And to the Jewish people:

Remember why this day exists. Not only because of how we died, but because of how we fought. Because of the moment we stood, when standing seemed impossible. Because of the line we drew and because, in every generation since, we have been tested on whether that line still holds.

This is our answer.

We remember, we draw the line and this time, we hold it.
Teaching about the Holocaust in the Muslim world
Finally, positive stories invite new audiences. It is no secret that the Holocaust remains mostly unstudied in the Arab world. For many, it is considered a European epoch and irrelevant to the Middle East. For others, the Holocaust is seen purely as a political tool used to support the Israeli government and military actions. Too many either choose to deny the magnitude of the tragedy or to place Jews in the role of “new Nazis.”

However, when we elevate the stories of Arab and Muslim heroes as an inroad, we can open hearts and minds. All Moroccans can honour King Mohammed V’s rejection of anti-Jewish laws during the Vichy occupation, famously asserting, “There are no Jews in Morocco. Only Moroccan subjects.” Likewise, we can teach the courageous actions of Muslim communities like the Grand Mosque of Paris and its Rector, Si Beghrabit, who hid Jews among Muslim families, issued life-saving Muslim identity papers to Jews, and facilitated Jewish escape from deportation through the mosque’s tunnel systems.

Episodes like these can create pride points for young Arabs and Muslims and serve as inspiration for both Jews and Muslims to take a stand – together – against unchecked hate. We cannot and should not ignore the darker parts of this history, whereby Nazi propaganda found audiences in Arabic and Persian, but if the only entry points to Holocaust education are negative, few will cross the threshold.

With all that said, we are not naรฏve to the serious challenges in Muslim-Jewish relations today. Years of war leave fertile soil for extremists of all communities to sow seeds of hate. However, the most effective antidote to any radical ideology is an alternative vision for the future and a coalition willing to fight for it. When some assert that violence and demonisation are the only way forward, we must demonstrate the power of understanding and partnership. When they weaponise history to divide, we must push back with the truth.

As the most recent episode of war began, conference organisers naturally considered postponing our program; would participants be able to travel safely from their home countries, some of which were under active attack? Beyond physical safety, would the necessary psychological safety exist to explore such sensitive subjects productively?

The decision to move forward was bolstered by a shared ideal that the path towards peace for all peoples of the region—Muslim, Jewish, Christian, and others—lies in engagement and dialogue between them. Even when disagreements arose, this commitment allowed us to build and strengthen new and productive friendships across lines of nationality and faith.

To study the Holocaust is to cultivate empathy for human suffering and to see beyond the demonizing labels of whole religious, ethnic, and national identities. It is to recognize that there is a day after war and that the time to prepare for that day is now. It is not easy, but it is only by doing this work together that we can hope to build a future that preserves the lessons of “Never Again.”


Trump signs legislation helping families recover Nazi-looted art
U.S. President Donald Trump signed legislation into law on Monday that helps Holocaust survivors and their families recover artwork looted by the Nazis.

The bill, the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act of 2025, will remove a “sunset” provision from a 2016 law of the same name, which was scheduled to expire on Dec. 31. The measure ensures claims can continue to be heard and limits the use of procedural defenses—such as statutes of limitations—that have often led courts to dismiss cases without considering their merits.

The bipartisan bill passed Congress unanimously in March after clearing both chambers.

Joel Greenberg, president of the nonprofit Art Ashes, which assists families seeking to recover Nazi-looted art and which pushed for the legislation, told JNS that law is significant for Holocaust survivors and their families, particularly on the eve of Yom Hashoah, Holocaust remembrance day.

“It’s very important because it sends a very important message to the world that the crimes of the Holocaust, no matter how many years have passed, will not be forgotten,” he said.

Greenberg told JNS it is essential that the new law “has no sunset.”

“A number of museums, dealers and collectors knew the deadline and were not displaying the Nazi-looted art, so they were just waiting for the law to expire, and now it will never expire,” he said. “Many of the loopholes that the courts over the last 10 years have read into the HEAR Act have been closed by this new extension.”

One of the loopholes that was closed is a legal doctrine known as “laches,” under which courts dismiss a case when families wait too long to file a claim, even if the statute of limitations hasn’t expired, Greenberg said.

“Every survivor and their family will have the right to have their case heard purely on the merits, which means whether the art actually was looted from their families,” Greenberg told JNS.

Matt Brooks, CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition, stated that it was “deeply meaningful” that the law was signed on Yom Hashoah.


Holocaust Survivors & Israeli Teens Read Antisemitic Attack Testimonies
"These Stories Must Be Heard": Holocaust survivors and Israeli teens come together to read testimonies of antisemitic attacks and incidents from recent years

As we mark Yom HaShoah, commemorating the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, antisemitism continues to rise worldwide, with attacks targeting synagogues, schools, and communities. Israeli teens from StandWithUs’ Tevel Youth Program, together with Holocaust survivors and Zikaron BaSalon, came together to raise awareness about the global rise in antisemitism.

People must hear these stories. Antisemitism isn’t just a Jewish problem; it is a global problem. To eradicate it, we must stand united against hate. Stand up to hatred. Never forget.

Make sure to subscribe to our channel to stay up-to-date on all StandWithUs content.


Jonathan Sacerdoti: The warning we ignored — Holocaust survivor Martin Stern on history repeating itself
This Yom Hashoah special episode features Holocaust survivor Martin Stern, who shares his story and reflects on his fears for the world today.

Martin Stern survived arrest, deportation, and life in camps as a young child, his survival dependent on individuals who chose courage over conformity at moments of real danger. His life since has been shaped by that experience, through decades of reflection and education, including his work teaching younger generations about the Holocaust and other genocides.

In this challenging conversation, Martin It examines how ordinary people come to adopt ideas they have not properly interrogated, how crowds form around moral language that has lost its substance, and how institutions fail to cultivate independent thought. What emerges is not simply memory, but a warning about how societies drift, how certainty replaces judgement, and how easily moral language can be detached from reality.

๐Ÿ‘‍๐Ÿ—จ Watch if you want to understand how Holocaust testimony exposes the deeper failures shaping the present

๐Ÿ’ฌ We Discuss:
• ๐Ÿ•ฏ Why Yom Hashoah demands moral seriousness rather than symbolic remembrance
• ๐Ÿง  How a five-year-old child experienced arrest, interrogation, and deportation under Nazi rule
• ๐Ÿš‚ What the camps revealed about ordinary people carrying out extraordinary evil without reflection
• ๐Ÿงญ How individual acts of courage, like those which saved Martin and his sister, illuminate moral choice under pressure
• ๐Ÿ› How modern institutions and media environments fail to cultivate independent moral judgement
• ๐Ÿ—ฃ Why large groups adopt identical slogans without genuine understanding or inquiry
• ⚖ The role of conformity, social approval, and intellectual laziness in shaping belief systems
• ๐Ÿ”ฅ How contemporary hostility toward Jews reflects deeper ideological and civilisational tensions
• ๐Ÿงฉ The convergence of identity politics and inherited prejudice as a destabilising force
• ๐Ÿ“‰ Why “never again” has not held, and what that reveals about human nature
• ๐Ÿง‘‍๐Ÿซ The collapse of education as a system for teaching ethical reasoning and responsibility
• ๐ŸŒ What it means to live in an era where truth is contested and moral certainty is performative




Aron Heller: 1.5 million-strong Jewish band of brothers
Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with journalist and debut author Aron Heller.

Some 1.5 million Jewish soldiers fought for the Allies in World War II, and 250,000 of them died in battle. One of those who fought and returned was Heller's grandfather, Mickey Heller.

In his new book, "Zaidy’s Band," Heller attempts to trace his grandfather's military service, but is met with resistance by his patriarch whenever the subject is broached.

However, before we learn about Heller's grandfather and his friends, we delve into the longtime journalist's vast experience covering Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day and hear how the concepts of "hero" and "survivor" have shifted over the years.

And so this week, we ask Aron Heller: What matters now?

What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Ari Schlacht.




Israel reports 1,000 antisemitic incidents worldwide, 20 killed in past year
In the past year, antisemitism has claimed the lives of 20 Jews, with approximately 1,000 antisemitic incidents recorded worldwide, the Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Ministry revealed on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The ministry’s report shows a sharp rise in antisemitic incidents following geopolitical developments, including harassment, significant security incidents, physical assaults, vandalism, arson targeting Jewish property, and deadly attacks against individuals and institutions.

During the reporting period, over 300 incidents were recorded in the United States, and over 130 incidents each in the United Kingdom and France. There were dozens of physical assaults and hundreds of vandalism cases globally, and, as mentioned, 20 Jews were killed in antisemitic attacks. 15 of these deaths were during the massacre at a Chabad Hanukkah event at Bondi Beach, Australia, in December 2025.

In total, 958 antisemitic incidents were recorded across 72 countries, averaging more than 74 incidents per month. In April 2025 alone, 118 incidents were recorded.

More than 70% of incidents occurred in Western countries with large Jewish communities. The ministry also highlighted particularly high levels of antisemitism in regions with Muslim and Palestinian populations.

Social media is also a key arena where the ministry expects antisemitism to surge. The ministry wrote that platforms such as X and Facebook serve as central arenas for explicit rhetoric, while video platforms present more concealed content through visual language and edited narratives.

Additionally, it stated that algorithms and a lack of effective enforcement enable disinformation, war imagery, fabricated claims, and misleading texts, all of which will continue to spread rapidly and become perceived as “truth” with “moral certainty.”

The report also pointed to a direct link between the rise of such content and increases in harassment, copycat behavior, and the normalization of conspiracy theories.
UK topped per capita antisemitic assaults in 2025, report finds
The United Kingdom had in 2025 the highest per capita rate of real-life antisemitic assaults of any country with a large Jewish community, according to a report published Monday by Israel’s Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating antisemitism.

The report, published on the eve of Israel’s national day of commemoration for the victims of the Holocaust, said that “high and sustained levels of antisemitic activity“ were recorded in several areas, “with a notable concentration in a select number of countries: the United States, the U.K., Australia, France, Canada and Germany.”

The United Kingdom topped the chart of violent antisemitic incidents per capita with 121 cases in a country with a Jewish population of 292,000, as per the figure cited in the report. The Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR) estimates that the United Kingdom has 313,000 people who self-identify as Jewish—a figure that still puts the United Kingdom at the top of the per capita chart.

The United States had the highest absolute number of incidents, with 273 cases, but the lowest of any country outside Israel with a large Jewish community (of more than 100,000 people). The ministry estimated that the United States had 7.6 million Jews, whereas the JPR says it has about 6.3 million people who self-identify as Jewish. The United States had the lowest number per capita of violent incidents under both estimates.

After the United Kingdom, Australia, with 117,000 Jews according to the ministry’s estimate and that of the JPR, had the highest per capita rate of violent antisemitic attacks, with 45 cases. France followed Australia in the per capita chart, followed by Canada. The data were collected from official statistics and those of credible watchdog groups, the authors wrote.

On Dec. 14, two jihadists killed 15 people on Bondi Beach in Australia. They were among 20 people who died in antisemitic attacks outside Israel, according to the report.

Another two victims died in the Oct. 2 jihadist terrorist attack on a synagogue in Manchester, England. The remaining three fatalities occurred in the United States: the slaying of two Israeli embassy staffers in May 2025 in Washington, D.C.; and a woman in Boulder, Colo., by a man who used a flamethrower and firebombs against pro-Israel demonstrators in June.
The thriving and lucrative business of antisemitism
So, what is the motivation of Kelly, who supposedly left the demanding nightly show on Fox, in part, to be more available to her family? Certainly, being a podcaster allows her those important moments to spend with her children, so it must be the lust for unmatched fame that is taking her in an unseemly direction.

Either way, Kelly knows what she’s doing. By embracing the likes of Candace Owens, who’s really gone to the dark side, saying she will not condemn the “young mom,” she has to know that she is aligning with a major promoter of dangerous Jewish conspiracy theories.

By also refusing to call out Tucker Carlson, because he is a friend, Kelly has chosen to abandon mainstream common sense and take the Colosseum path of Rome, knowing that it will benefit her business model, apparently the deciding factor in what she is willing to abandon for the sake of the demanded entertainment she is providing.

So, this is what it boils down to. Bigotry and racism have become the new commodity, packaged as a business but rendering the same results as thousands of years ago.

It will continue to do its intended damage by characterizing Jews as the vilified scoundrels who are responsible for everything that goes wrong in the world. It will also cause regular folks to reassess their own personal viewpoint of who these people are, because that always happens when whispers turn into vicious innuendo.

Before long, the justifications will be found, laying them at the feet of Jews, whether it’s in the form of higher food and gas prices or just the differences they exhibit in their personality. It’s always something!

People like Megyn Kelly, whether realized or not, play on the fears of both ignorant and informed people who need a reason to stop looking at themselves and take personal responsibility for whatever is not going right.

This blame game has turned out to be a lucrative and thriving business because it is needed at a time when so much corruption is being discovered in so many areas of society.

And while Jews make up a mere 0.2% of the world’s total population, it boggles the mind to believe that this microscopic speck of people could actually be the culprits of every evil that exists. Yet, that is what clever, deceptive podcasters would like us all to believe, and when they have an audience eating it up, who among them would be eager to walk away from that kind of immeasurable success?

But here’s a tip, and it goes hand in hand with how Joel Waldman ends his remarkable article. King Solomon, known for being the wisest man who ever lived, said, “A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold” (Proverbs 22:1).

Similarly, Waldman extends a personal invitation to Megyn Kelly to take some time out and meet his mother, the woman who survived one of the worst periods of history. He says that by doing so, Kelly will meet up, face to face, with the attributes of “quiet strength, resilience, and the power of humility,” all exemplified in the woman who gave birth to him.

That’s an offer that should not be refused, just as the wise words of King Solomon, but somehow, it’s not likely that either will be chosen.
I reported ‘anti-Semitic’ art show to the police. Now they are investigating me
Tabatha Caplan believed she was doing the right thing when she reported an anti-Semitic art show to the police.

The 52-year-old dog trainer – who founded the campaign group Action on Antisemitism – also encouraged supporters to report the art exhibition in Margate to the authorities.

The exhibition by artist Matthew Collings had been fiercely criticised for its alleged depiction of Jewish people as devils, baby eaters, and people who control the government and media.

But Ms Caplan has now been told Kent Police are looking into her campaign of email activism to see if it caused a “potential criminal offence”.

“I was stunned when I saw the email from Kent Police,” Ms Caplan told The Telegraph.

“It’s extraordinary that we have any police force in Britain who, at a time when Jews are literally being killed for being Jewish, are more interested in going after those fighting anti-Semitism than those perpetrating it.”

Pictures of the offensive artwork started appearing on social media on March 21.

Kent Police attended the exhibition but decided the show did not “meet the legal threshold for recording a criminal offence”.

Ms Caplan drafted a letter to the force on March 24 and encouraged supporters of Action on Antisemitism to use her pre-written template to send their own complaint emails.

Around 1,042 people individually contacted Kent Police – and using the drafted template, which is available on a US-based third-party website – expressed their concern over the force’s decision not to take action over the exhibition.

This campaigning tactic is frequently used to draw attention to a particular issue.

The letter called for a formal review of the force’s decision by the police professional standards watchdog, pointing out that “declining to act in circumstances where material is blatantly anti-Semitic risks undermining public confidence”.
Ireland concert hall cancels Israel aid event for second time
Dublin’s National Concert Hall canceled for a second time a fundraising event for a civilian rescue service in Israel, the head of the Magen David Ireland association said on Sunday.

“The event’s cancellation by the NCH can be properly described as an act of antisemitic censorship,” MDA Ireland head Alan Shatter, a former minister of justice, wrote on X. “What behind-the-scenes lobbying or pressure, if any, impacted the decision is unknown.”

The scheduled event was a play titled “OCTOBER 7,” which consists entirely of eyewitness accounts of the Oct. 7, 2023 massacres in Israel. Ann McElhinney, who wrote the play with her husband, Phelim McAleer, penned an op-ed in the Irish Independent on Sunday where she said that with the cancellation, “no venue in Ireland has the courage to stage” the piece.

In response to a JNS query on the reasons for the cancellation and for a reaction of the hall’s management to Shatter’s allegation, a spokesperson for the hall wrote only: “The proposed event with MDA Ireland on 11 May will not proceed.”

The concert was booked in November as a venue for the show, which would have featured a narrator’s reading of accounts of survivors and victims of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacres in Israel, Shatter said. Management then canceled, but reversed its cancellation, only to cancel again with “each cancellation having a spurious basis,” he wrote.

Magen David Adom is an emergency medical intervention organization in Israel, with thousands of Jewish, Muslim and Christian volunteers. Charities in countries around the world collect money for the group by soliciting donors and organizing benefits.

Gilad Erdan, the world president of Magen David Adom, in a statement Monday wrote that the National Concert Hall’s decision “to cancel a non-political charitable event designed to help save lives in Israel clearly shows that its integrity and morality are compromised at best, and perhaps has been abandoned entirely.”

He added: “This decision is antisemitic—censorship tainted by bad faith and ignorance.”
Jake Donnelly: Israel Will Be Fine: A Hardened Generation & Self-Reliance Beats External Pressure
Israel is Finally Calling America's Bluff Here’s the irony from America’s side: past episodes of conditional aid have inadvertently accelerated Israel’s push toward independence. In May 2024, the Biden administration paused shipments of thousands of bombs (including 1,800 2,000-pound and 1,700 500-pound munitions) that Israel had already paid for, citing concerns over potential use in Rafah . Israeli officials argued the delays slowed operations, prolonged fighting, and contributed to higher costs—including Israeli lives, especially in Lebanon—by limiting tempo and signaling weakness to enemies.

When allies attach strings during existential fights—second-guessing the country actually under fire—it exposes the vulnerability of over-reliance. Such moments force acceleration toward self-sufficiency. Israel already boasts a world-class domestic defense industry—advanced drones, missiles, cyber tools, Iron Dome derivatives, and more.

In late 2025, Prime Minister Netanyahu announced a major plan: over $110 billion (350 billion shekels) over the next decade to build an independent munitions and arms industry, explicitly aimed at reducing dependence on any single supplier.

In a world of shifting politics and conditional support, this “ironic bone” from past pauses ultimately strengthens Israel. It frees decision-making from external vetoes that ignore on-the-ground realities. Israel can act decisively against threats like Hamas charters, Hezbollah arsenals, or Iranian encirclement without waiting for approvals that may come with unacceptable delays or caveats. Combine a younger, more right-leaning, religiously rooted generation—forged in fire and faith—with accelerating military and technological independence, and the math favors resilience. External criticism and rigged narratives may bring diplomatic headaches or short-term friction, but they don’t alter the fundamental imperatives: deter those who seek annihilation, secure defensible borders, and protect Jewish life.

Israel has defied worse odds before. This hardened next generation, less beholden to yesterday’s failed formulas and more committed to realism, is positioned to ensure the Jewish state not only survives but thrives—on its own terms, for its own people.


The Arab Case for Israel
Lebanese-Iraqi journalist and scholar Hussain Abdul-Hussain, currently a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, has written The Arab Case for Israel, based on decades of firsthand experience in the Arab world. He makes two compelling overall observations: that the Jewish state is good for the Arabs; and that the Arabs have never articulated a cogent alternative, dwelling on an imagined past rather than an imagined future.

"Palestinians have always wanted to rewind the clock, but to what time, exactly?...The problem for Palestinians has been that no matter which period in history they chose, they would never find a time when the Arabs of Palestine were sovereign over the land," he writes. "Throughout history, the only locals to have ever been sovereign over the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea were...the Jews."

"Palestinians have never admitted their inability to imagine a future modern Palestine, or their failure to build a single modern institution in their history, let alone to build and manage a functioning state that is not the kind of medieval Islamist emirate that Hamas constructed in Gaza after 2007."

Arabs should seek peace with Israel not "out of despair or fear, but out of a conviction that - as a friend and an ally - the State of Israel is much more valuable to the Arabs than ejecting it and constructing in its stead a Palestine that would, at best, be a mediocre state."

"In over two millennia, since the Arabic language first started taking shape, there was never an Arab or Muslim dynasty that considered Jerusalem to be its capital." If the Palestinians ever choose to "prioritize measurable higher living standards over unquantifiable, manufactured, and manipulative concepts of pride, dignity, and national sovereignty, they will realize that peace with Israel, rather than defeating it, is their actual victory. It is Palestinians that need to be liberated, not Palestine."


Improve ties with Israel to defend Britain, former RAF chief tells Starmer
The UK must restore relations with Israel to help address gaps in Britain’s air defence capabilities, a former RAF chief has warned.

Air Vice-Marshal Philip Lester said there were “notable gaps” in the UK’s air defences that could be exploited by hostile states seeking to strike the British mainland.

He described Israel as a “valuable partner” in strengthening national security and urged the prime minister to show a “willingness to learn” from the Jewish state.

The intervention from the former senior RAF figure comes amid mounting concerns over the state of Britain’s Armed Forces.

Britain is facing greater threats, highlighted by an Iranian missile strike on RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus last month.

At the same time, relations between the UK and Israel have deteriorated to a historic low. Sir Keir Starmer has not spoken to his Israeli counterpart since the UK recognised Palestinian statehood. The government has also suspended some arms export licences to Israel, while the IDF has been barred from the Royal College of Defence Studies.

Lester, who previously held a senior position at the college, made his remarks in a foreword to a new report by Labour Friends of Israel on strengthening UK air defences.

He wrote: “The UK faces a clear and pressing challenge. While it retains world-class capabilities in many areas, there are notable gaps in IAMD [integrated air and missile defence], counter-drone technologies and the rapid fielding of innovative systems.

“Addressing these gaps will require not only investment but also a willingness to learn from those who have already confronted similar threats.”

Reported first in the Telegraph, he went on, “Israel, with its unparalleled experience in defending against a spectrum of aerial threats, offers a valuable partner in this endeavour.

“Yet in recent years, this relationship has not always been leveraged to its full potential, particularly in the defence and security sphere. Re-energising the UK–Israel defence dialogue is therefore essential.”

His comments were echoed by the leader of the opposition, who argued that Labour must repair its “damaged” relationship with Israel in the interest of national security.

Kemi Badenoch said Britain needed to re-arm for a “21st-century war,” and Israel could act as an example in defending against missiles.


Hungary’s PM-elect vows return to ICC, but stresses ‘special relationship’ with Israel
Hungarian prime minister-elect Peter Magyar pledged on Monday to return Budapest to being a member of the International Criminal Court, after outgoing leader Viktor Orban quit the body last year in support of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Holding his first news conference following his election win a day earlier, Magyar said he would move to return Hungary to being an ICC member, but stopped short of expressing any opinion about the court’s arrest warrant against Netanyahu on allegations of war crimes in Gaza.

Orban’s withdrawal from the ICC “is a process we cannot stop, however we are going to relaunch Hungary’s accession to the International Criminal Court,” Magyar said in response to a question from a reporter on Monday.

“I think it’s in the interest of the international community and Hungary for us to be there,” the incoming leader added.

Orban pulled Hungary out of the court last year after it issued an arrest warrant against Netanyahu for alleged war crimes, arguing that it had become a “political court.” He announced the move as he welcomed the Israeli prime minister for a visit to Budapest, defying Hungary’s legal obligation to arrest him as a party to the ICC.

Magyar’s decision could mean Netanyahu would not be able to visit Budapest again due to fears of arrest. However, a number of other countries have indicated they would not arrest Netanyahu were he to visit, despite maintaining their memberships in the ICC.

Magyar, who won a decisive victory after campaigning against Orban’s record, stressed on Monday the importance of maintaining close ties with Israel.

“Israel and Hungary — obviously there’s a special relationship, a lot of Hungarians live in Israel, a lot of Israeli citizens come here to Hungary,” he said.

“We have a very strong Jewish community living in Hungary, one of the largest, thankfully, in security, safety and peace and zero tolerance in Hungary to all forms of antisemitism,” Magyar added. “This is going to continue.”

The prime minister-elect said that “Israel is also an important economic partner. We strive for pragmatic relations.”


Rick Scott calls to revoke Yale’s federal funding over student organization hosting Hasan Piker
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) called for the federal government to “immediately” pull funding from Yale University over Yale Political Union’s decision to host Hasan Piker, an antisemitic streamer who previously suggested that the senator should be killed. Piker is scheduled to speak on campus Tuesday for a debate titled “Resolved: End the American Empire.”

Scott, who spoke last year at YPU, a storied debate society at the Ivy League university, wrote on X on Friday that “Yale receives billions from the federal government — President Trump and Congress need to IMMEDIATELY revoke it.”

Piker, a far-left Twitch streamer, has recently been invited to speak at several high-profile events, despite a laundry list of antisemitic, anti-American and terror-supporting rhetoric, which includes justifying Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks in Israel. He has also called Orthodox Jews “inbred” and claimed America deserved 9/11.

For Scott, Piker’s incendiary language is personal; the streamer was briefly suspended from Twitch last year after urging followers to “kill Rick Scott.”

“An elite private university that hosts an antisemite who says a Senator should be killed, capitalists should be killed, and the U.S. deserved 9/11, shouldn’t get ONE CENT from taxpayers,” Scott wrote.
Hasan Piker doubles down on Hamas support
Given the chance to walk back some of his most incendiary commentary on an episode of the “Pod Save America” podcast released Sunday, antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker instead doubled down on his support of Hamas and other inflammatory rhetoric.

“This [quote] is from January,” host Jon Favreau, a former speechwriter to President Barack Obama, told Piker in a segment looking back on some of Piker’s comments that have been picked up by national media. “‘Hamas is a thousand times better than a fascist settler colonial apartheid state,’” Favreau quoted.

Piker responded quickly, “I stand by that.”

Favreau then said, “[T]his is the one that bothered me most when I first heard it …. Even if you believe what happened in Gaza is genocide and what’s happening in the West Bank is apartheid, those are different claims from ‘Hamas is a thousand times better,’ because Hamas is an organization that has massacred, raped, kidnapped civilians on Oct. 7. They’ve also been catastrophic for Palestinians by almost every measure. … Do you actually mean that or is that a rhetorical move or like a solidarity signal?”

“I mean, it’s all of the above. I do mean it,” Piker responded. “I’m a lesser-evil voter and therefore I would vote for Hamas over Israel every single time.” He described Hamas as a “paramilitary organization that has like a political party as well, a politburo as well, that is entirely comprised, not as an alien force, but of orphan children that have had their parents killed by an apartheid state that has been dominating the lives of Palestinians for 80 years at this point.”

“So my perspective on this has always been that I think that Hamas’ tactics, which I oppose at times, or its like internal governance issues, are secondary to the conversation,” he continued. “And it makes me feel silly to consistently talk about what Hamas has done, especially when there has been an Oct. 7 times a thousand, if not more than a thousand at this point, in the hands of Israel against the Palestinian population in its entirety. I mean, they’re doing an Oct. 7 to Lebanon right now as we speak.”


Censored video Tucker Carlson: It's "evil" for Jews to warn their children about anti-Semitism.
To grasp just how evil Tucker's rhetoric has become, PLEASE WATCH this video.

I've spent weeks editing this, for you to see reality side-by-side vs Tucker's words.

A Jewish preschool was targeted less than a week later, outside Detroit, when a Hezbollah operative slammed his explosive-filled truck into the preschool — with 140 Jewish kids right inside.

But on that day, March 12, the only statement Tucker made was to condemn... @LauraLoomer.

He spoke about "violent attacks you believe are coming," as in FUTURE TENSE.

Mere hours after an attack on a Jewish preschool.

Quite simply, Tucker does not want Jews to be on guard.




The trouble with the Green party’s Ifhat Shaheen
The Green party’s embrace of extremists is gathering pace. Let me introduce you to Ifhat Shaheen (also known as Ifhat Shaheen-Smith or Ifhat Smith), who is likely to become a Green councillor in Hackney next month.

Shaheen has been selected in Stoke Newington ward, possibly the wokest place in Britain. It already has one Green councillor, who’s stepping down, and it would be fairly surprising, given Labour’s collapse, if there were not three after the election. But the voters of Stokey – which is right next door to London’s biggest Orthodox Jewish area – should perhaps know more about Shaheen’s stance on ‘Zionists’ and other subjects before they make up their minds.

Let’s look at Shaheen’s Twitter account, which is registered under the name ‘Ifhat Smith’ (we know it’s her, for reasons I’ll explain later). After last month’s arson attack on Jewish ambulances in Golders Green, she reposted a message saying that ‘since Golders Green is now in the news, I want to take the opportunity to make people aware that the Jewish community in North London host IDF soldiers in their synagogues and raise funds for the IDF during a “family fun day”.’

When a small number of Jews demonstrated in front of Hackney town hall, Shaheen attacked them as ‘emboldened Zionists’ and ‘pro genociders’ who should not be there. She asked whether ‘Zionist funding’ was behind the racist Tommy Robinson marches, and said that ‘Corbyn would have been a great PM, the Zionist lobby worked hard to keep him out’. She suggested that Israel is harvesting organs from Palestinians ‘to help alter [the] DNA of Zionists to claim land’.

On the day of Hamas’s 7 October attacks on Israel, Shaheen also posted that the mass murder, rape and abduction of civilians was just Palestinians ‘inevitably try[ing] to defend themselves’. She reposted an attack on Keir Starmer for condemning ‘the Palestinians’ fightback against their Zionist oppressors’, while not also condemning Israel – adding her own ‘applause’ emoji.

Shaheen is a big supporter of David Miller, the anti-Zionist activist, Hezbollah funeral attendee and long-time Iran regime cheerleader who was sacked by Bristol University after saying that many Jewish students were ‘pawns’ of Israel. Miller won an unfair dismissal case after a tribunal ruled that his anti-Zionism was a protected belief. Shaheen promoted his fighting fund, and said he was ‘speaking up for justice’. She tweeted her congratulations at the outcome of Miller’s tribunal.


Violent disorder charges dropped against activists accused over Elbit raid
Charges of violent disorder have been dropped against Palestine Action activists who are accused of a raid at the UK site of an Israel-based defence firm, a court has heard.

Charlotte Head, 29, Samuel Corner, 23, Leona Kamio, 30, Fatema Rajwani, 21, Zoe Rogers, 22, and Jordan Devlin, 31, are all charged with criminal damage after the incident at the Elbit Systems site near Bristol on August 6 2024.

Head, Corner and Kamio also faced one count each of violent disorder, but the prosecution told Woolwich Crown Court on Monday that it will offer no evidence in relation to those charges.

Mr Justice Johnson formally acquitted Head, Corner and Kamio of violent disorder, saying: “I will direct not guilty verdicts in respect of those three defendants on that count.”

The six defendants continue to face trial on criminal damage, and Corner faces a further count of causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Police Sergeant Kate Evans.


Another anti-Israel flotilla attempting to sail to Gaza
Stormy weather in the western Mediterranean has forced the Global Sumud [“Steadfastness”] Flotilla to delay its entry into international waters as anti-Israel activists attempt to sail toward the Gaza Strip, the group said on Sunday.

The latest attempt to break the Israeli blockade in place to prevent terrorist attacks like the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre departed from Barcelona on Sunday.

Organizers said the fleet’s vessels are ready and will continue toward Italy, the next stop on the route to Gaza, once a storm system moving from Menorca passes.

The civilian-led mission, backed by more than 70 vessels and joined by Greenpeace’s “Arctic Sunrise,” is coordinated with land-based “We Rise” solidarity actions worldwide.

Several missions were intercepted by the Israeli Navy last year, with the participants detained and deported, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg.

Jerusalem’s relations with the left-wing government in Madrid recently hit new lows. Spain said last month it had permanently withdrawn its ambassador from Israel. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on April 9 condemned Spain’s decision to reopen its embassy in Tehran, accusing Madrid of aligning itself with “the Iranian terror regime.”

Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday condemned an April 5 Easter display in a village in Spain, where an effigy of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was blown up using 31 pounds of gunpowder.

“The appalling antisemitic hatred on display here is a direct result of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s ⁠government’s systemic incitement,” a spokesperson for Israel’s Foreign Ministry wrote in a statement on X about the display in El Burgo, near Malaga.


Activists plan protests and ‘day of fasting’ for Palestinian Political Prisoners Week
Palestinian activist groups are planning events across North America for Palestinian Political Prisoners Week 2026, marking the annual April 17 National Day for the Palestinian Prisoner.

The Palestinian National Council chose the date in 1974 to commemorate the April 17, 1971, release of Fatah member Mahmoud Bakr Hijazi, who had killed 20 Israeli soldiers in 1965 and was later exchanged for Shmuel Rozenvasser, an Israeli kidnapped by Fatah.

Stu Smith, an investigative analyst at the Manhattan Institute, told JNS that “the events will likely vary from chapter to chapter based on the level of local support and organizing capacity.”

“In New York, for example, direct action and mass protest are clearly on the table,” he said.

The New York chapter of the Palestinian Youth Movement announced a Palestinian Prisoners Day March, set for April 18 in Manhattan’s Herald Square, to “honor those enduring the cruelty of the colonial Zionist entity.”

The Chicago chapter has scheduled a week of events, including “black-Palestinian solidarity: prisons as a tool for genocide; prisoners and the execution law” at Pilsen Community Books on April 15, and a “freedom and dignity: prisoner justice panel” at the Al Nahda Center on April 17. Prisoner-themed films will also be featured at the Chicago Palestine Film Festival.

A “global week of action” schedule lists a rally in Toronto’s Sankofa Square and a march in New Orleans on April 17, along with events in New Jersey, Texas, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida and Michigan. Organizers have also called for a global “day of fasting in solidarity with Palestinian political prisoners who are being starved and tortured in Israel prison,” alongside demands to “free them all.”

Jewish Voice for Peace urged supporters to “take action” on April 17, claiming that as of March 2026 more than 9,000 Palestinians are held in Israeli prisons, over 4,000 without charge, and that since Oct. 2023 “nearly 100 detainees have died in Israeli custody.”

Smith warned that “with Palestinian Prisoners’ Day promoting the idea that prisoners are the moral compass of the movement, even seemingly softer programming like film screenings could easily slide into terrorist apologetics.”

He added that “solidarity events” often aim to “bring in partner organizations and frame the moment around shared struggle against ‘imperialism.’”

“Other Palestinian groups will be highly attuned to the day, especially given that only a few years ago their activism was dominating headlines and screens across America as encampments spread across college campuses,” Smith said.


NYPD arrests ‘multiple’ anti-Israel protesters near Schumer’s office
The New York City Police Department told JNS that its officers arrested “multiple” people on Monday after activists from Jewish Voice for Peace and other anti-Israel groups tired to enter the Manhattan office of Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) before blocking traffic on Third Avenue.

The NYPD told JNS that the exact number of people arrested was not immediately available.

Video footage that circulated on social appeared to show protesters trying to access a building that they said contains offices for Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). After being denied entry, some demonstrators appeared to remove outer layers of clothing to reveal shirts stated, “fund people, not bombs.”

Protesters later sat on the sidewalk chanting, “free Palestine” and “stop the bombs on Iran, stop the bombs on Lebanon, stop the bombs on Palestine,” before moving into the street and blocking traffic, according to the footage.

Footage, including from the protest organizers, appeared to show Chelsea Manning, who was convicted in 2013 under the Espionage Act, and Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour participating in the protests. Manning appeared to be taken into police custody.

Darializa Avila Chevalier, a candidate for New York’s 13th Congressional District endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, was arrested “along with 100 others,” according to her campaign, which posted a photo of her being restrained with zip ties.

Jewish Voice for Peace took responsibility for organizing the demonstration, stating that hundreds of protesters were participating in a sit-in to oppose U.S. arms support for Israel and to pressure Schumer and Gillibrand ahead of a Senate vote on weapons transfers.

“Right now, the Israeli military is using the weapons sold by the U.S. to flatten southern Lebanon, ethnically cleanse Palestinians from the West Bank and continue its genocide in Gaza,” the group wrote.


Judge dismisses anti-Israel group’s Jewish ‘conspiracy’ claims against University of South Florida
A federal judge dismissed claims of a Jewish conspiracy in a lawsuit brought by a banned pro-Palestinian student group against the University of South Florida and its officials.

The Tampa Bay chapter of Students for a Democratic Society filed suit after April 2024 demonstrations on the Tampa campus led to arrests and disciplinary action, including the expulsion of the group’s president. The protests, held during final exam week, were dispersed by law enforcement after participants refused orders to leave, and officers used tear gas and made multiple arrests, according to court records.

The group alleged the university violated its First Amendment and civil rights protections and imposed new rules to target pro-Palestinian activism. The university later permanently revoked SDS’s status as a registered student organization, citing repeated violations of the student code of conduct, including activity while under suspension.

In an April 10 order in response to the group’s second amended complaint, Judge Steven D. Merryday of the U.S. District Court’s Middle District of Florida dismissed the case, finding the plaintiffs failed to plausibly allege violations of their constitutional rights or support claims of a conspiracy.

Merryday also rejected as unsupported the plaintiffs’ assertion that Jewish organizations and donors influenced university decisions. The lawsuit pointed to a letter from the Tampa Jewish Community Centers & Federation praising the university’s response to anti-Israel activity, meetings with Jewish communal groups and the Israeli consulate, and fundraising by a campus Hillel chapter.

The judge said those allegations of a Jewish “conspiracy” did not plausibly show any agreement or conspiracy between outside groups and university officials.

“Whether properly characterized as paranoid, antisemitic, delusional or merely fantastical, the suggested ‘inference’ is illusory (and likely malignant) and warrants no consideration in a court of the United States,” Merryday stated.


How an oath by Buchenwald survivors is being used to fuel anti-Israel protests
As anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian activists were shut out of the former Buchenwald concentration camp this weekend, a timeworn fight about the site’s history resurfaced.

That dispute, which dates back to the camp’s liberation in 1945, centers on how the victims of Buchenwald wanted to be remembered. The activists, a group called “Kufiyas in Buchenwald,” said their fight for Palestinians upheld a pledge made by thousands of Buchenwald survivors days after they were freed.

The inmates swore to punish the guilty, destroy Nazism, and create a new world of peace. That promise, known as the “Oath of Buchenwald,” has been invoked by varying regimes and political movements ever since it was uttered.

Kufiyas in Buchenwald was blocked from demonstrating at the Buchenwald memorial on Sunday after a court in the nearby city of Weimar upheld a police ban. The planned event would have marked the 81st anniversary of Buchenwald’s liberation by US troops — and the day before the Jewish world observes Yom HaShoah, Israel’s national Holocaust memorial day.

Judges decided that the rally would likely “violate the dignity of victims” of the Nazis. The activists were offered the alternative of protesting in downtown Weimar, which they refused.

Buchenwald was one of the largest concentration camps on German soil, holding Jews along with political prisoners, Roma, gay people, and prisoners of war. Roughly 56,000 people were killed there, among them some 11,000 Jews.

Kufiyas in Buchenwald argued that their protest would honor the memory of Buchenwald’s victims together with all “victims of genocide and fascism.” The campaign was formed after a German court ruled that Buchenwald could refuse entry to visitors who wear a Palestinian keffiyeh, which has been adopted by left-wing anti-Israel protesters. The memorial foundation argued that, in some contexts, the symbol could be disruptive and undercut the memorial’s purpose. Its critics said the foundation was suppressing speech that criticized Israel and fell in line with the mission of Holocaust remembrance.

By not addressing “the genocide in Gaza,” Kufiyehs in Buchenwald said the memorial became “a place of historical revisionism and genocide denial.”

The memorial site said that Kufiyas in Buchenwald were the ones abusing history.

“This is a completely inappropriate instrumentalization of the memory of the victims of National Socialism for one’s own political, misanthropic agenda,” Rikola-Gunnar Lรผttgenau, a spokesperson for the memorial foundation, told the German broadcaster Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk. The planned rally was also excoriated by the European Jewish Congress, the Conference of European Rabbis, and other groups.




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