Thursday, April 16, 2026

04/15 Links Pt2: Abbas honors ‘pay-for-slay’ official on Yom Hashoah; Carlson’s antisemitic rhetoric: A dangerous echo of Father Coughlin; Attempted arson attack on Finchley synagogue

From Ian:

My grandfather, the Nazi: A German historian helps families unravel forebears’ crimes
When his grandfather died in 2006, Johannes Spohr began to delve into his wartime past.

The historian’s discoveries were grim. Rudolf Spohr was a member of the Nazi party, applied to join the SS, and, as a Wehrmacht officer, was aware of the gassing of Jews.

But the grandson’s revelations led him on a path to helping others research their families’ roles in the darkest chapter of German history.

Germany’s Erinnerungskultur — or “culture of remembrance” — is well-known. Over the past two decades, the country has sought to collectively confront its past with memorials and monuments, exhibitions, public commemorations, and, perhaps most visibly, the “stolpersteine” embedded in streets to mark the lives of individuals murdered and persecuted by the Third Reich.

Nonetheless, for many Germans, discovering how members of their own families may have been involved in the Holocaust is an altogether more unwelcome prospect and one to be avoided.

An increasing number of Germans, however, take a different view, wanting to know just what their uncles, grandfathers and other ancestors did during the war. Spohr’s “Present Past” workshops help those wanting to research their Nazi-era family history learn how to dig into records held by the country’s archives and institutions, as well as how to interpret their findings. The Berlin-based historian also undertakes bespoke research projects for individual clients.

Spohr, 43, admits that, when it came to his own grandfather, “the suspicion was always there.” A copy of “Mein Kampf” sat on the bookcase at his grandparents’ home, while a Wehrmacht uniform hung in the closet. National Socialism, he tells The Times of Israel, was “somehow present in my childhood,” but he also knew that, by and large, it was not a topic to be openly discussed.

“My grandmother would only say the war was a ‘very cruel time,’” says Spohr, “but she didn’t say for whom it was cruel or what she meant by it.”

Two or three stories about the war — one involving his grandfather accidentally meeting his brother in Italy and enjoying a day together on the beach — were frequently recycled. He later discovered that this use of a small number of oft-repeated anecdotes to fend off further discussion was common among many other families.

When Spohr occasionally pressed the subject, Rudolf would usually portray himself as an opponent of Hitler who had opposed the war and had reluctantly been forced into the Wehrmacht. He told others that his reaction to the unsuccessful attempt on Hitler’s life in July 1944 was to ask: “Did they get the pig?”

After his grandfather’s death, Spohr — spurred by the discovery of documents, photos and Nazi-era artifacts in Rudolf’s home — began his research. He was helped by an internship at a concentration camp memorial, where he learned how to make archival requests and interpret pictures.

Spohr’s investigations turned up his grandfather’s Nazi party membership — Rudolf and his father joined up on the same day soon after Hitler came to power — and an ultimately aborted attempt to join the SS in 1933.

Was Rudolf a true believer? Spohr says it is impossible to tell, but he suspects that he was more of a conservative nationalist who was neither an opponent of the regime nor a fanatical supporter. Instead, he believes, he was “an opportunist” who knew how to get on in society whatever the prevailing political winds.
Abbas honors ‘pay-for-slay’ official on Yom Hashoah
Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas on Monday evening awarded a medal posthumously to the late overseer of the P.A.'s so-called “pay-for-slay” program, through which Ramallah provides stipends to terrorists imprisoned in Israel and to the families of dead terrorists.

Abbas awarded the “Star of Merit of the Order of the State of Palestine” to relatives of the late Qadri Abu Bakr, according to WAFA, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency.

Abu Bakr, who died in a car accident in Samaria in 2023, had been the director of the P.A.-funded PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs, which was part of the system that the Palestinian Authority has used to pay out to terrorists and their families, according to the Israel Defense And Security Forum think tank.

Under international pressure, the Palestinian Authority has instituted several changes to the pay-for-slay system in an attempt to claim it has ended. Ramallah announced a change last year, claiming it meant that Palestinian prisoners would not receive money for their actions but solely based on their socioeconomic status.

Critics of the Palestinian Authority, including the Palestinian Media Watch organization, have presented evidence that the latest change was merely an attempt to mislead Western donors while continuing to funnel many millions of dollars to terrorists and or their families.

As it announced changes it said would end the remuneration of terrorists and their families, the Palestinian Authority has also sought to reassure those families and hardliners that the Palestinian Authority’s support for imprisoned terrorists and the families of dead ones was unwavering.

Holocaust Historian Rafael Medoff, the director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, noted in an op-ed published on Tuesday that the ceremony took place just as Israel began observing Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day. Yom Hashoah is commemorated on 27 of the Hebrew calendar month of Nissan, which this year began at sunset on April 13 and ended 24 hours later.

“Is it just a coincidence that Abbas chose to honor Abu Bakr on Holocaust Remembrance Day? Probably not, given Abbas’s own deep interest in the Holocaust,” wrote Medoff, referring to Abbas’s 1983 Ph.D. dissertation-turned-book, titled “The Other Side: The Secret Relations Between Nazism and the Leadership of the Zionist Movement.”

In it, Abbas asserted that David Ben-Gurion and other Zionist leaders “collaborated with Hitler” and wanted the Nazis to kill Jews, because “having more victims meant greater rights and stronger privilege to join the negotiating table for dividing the spoils of war once it was over.”


Hungary's PM-elect invites Netanyahu after signaling return to ICC
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a “warm introductory conversation” with Hungarian Prime Minister-elect Peter Magyar, who invited him to Budapest, the Prime Minister’s Office said on Wednesday.

The call came two days after Magyar announced his intention to return Hungary to the International Criminal Court (ICC), a policy shift from the previous government.

Despite this, Magyar said he intends to continue the close relations between Hungary and Israel and extended an invitation to Netanyahu to attend a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the Hungarian Uprising.

Netanyahu welcomed the remarks and responded positively, inviting Magyar to a government-to-government meeting in Jerusalem. He also expressed confidence that ties established under outgoing Prime Minister Viktor Orban would continue under the new leadership.

The leadership change follows recent elections in Hungary that ended Orban’s long tenure in power. Both leaders agreed that their foreign ministers will meet as soon as possible to discuss the continuation of bilateral cooperation.


Stephen Pollard: Attacks on British Jews are the new normal
Another day, another attack on British Jews – this latest was an attempted arson overnight at Finchley Reform Synagogue, also in north-west London, after last month’s firebombing of Hatzolah ambulances in Golders Green.

I’ve written many times on these pages about the broader context behind the acceleration in anti-Semitic attacks, of which last night’s is the latest. Last year’s Community Security Trust figures (compiled with the police) showed 3,700 instances of anti-Jewish hate across the UK, the second highest annual total ever reported. They show a pattern – that when Jews are murdered, anti-Semites are inspired. The worst ever figures were the 4,298 anti-Semitic incidents in 2023, with a huge spike following the Hamas massacre of 1,200 Jews on October 7.

That context is the normalisation of Jew-hate, most obviously in the form of the regular hate marches on the streets of London and elsewhere. Remember, the first such march on October 14, 2023 took place before a single Israeli solider had entered Gaza. And it was organised with a request to the Metropolitan Police on October 7 itself, while the massacre was still in progress.

As for that initial march, the police stood and watched while anti-Semitic chants and banners were given free rein. The message sent by that inaction was clear: if you want to take over the streets with anti-Semitic poison, feel free. If the police had intervened from the start it would have sent a very different message. As it was, the anti-Semites took their cue and have pushed their hate ever since.

The recent survey of students, which shows that one in five (20 per cent) wouldn’t share a house with a Jew and that 49 per cent have seen Hamas and Hezbollah glorified on campus, with 47 per cent having seen the October 7 attacks justified, shows how deeply anti-Semitism has taken hold again.

I say again, because anti-Semitism doesn’t arise out of nowhere. It’s not known as the oldest hatred for nothing. Shocking and appalling as the resurgence of anti-Semitism is, I believe it is a profound mistake to view what is happening now as some new development that requires a new approach and new analysis. Rather, we are now reverting to the norm. In the decades after 1945 it was considered at the very least impolite to be an open anti-Semite. The Holocaust was not the historical talking point it is today but something immediate and present. Jew hate was confined to a nod and a wink, and was in the main kept private. The greatest evil known to humankind provided a pretty serious reason for anti-Semitism to return to the crevices of society. And that’s how it has been until relatively recently.


Man, 46, and woman, 47, arrested over attempted arson attack on Finchley synagogue
A man and a woman have been arrested on suspicion of arson endangering life after an incident at a synagogue in north London.

Two bottles thought to contain petrol were hurled at Finchley Reform Synagogue in Fallow Court Avenue, Finchley, shortly after midnight on Wednesday, in an incident being treated as an antisemitic hate crime.

On Wednesday evening, the Metropolitan Police said officers had arrested a 47-year-old woman and a 46-year-old man on suspicion of arson endangering life.

The force said the woman was arrested at an address in Watford and the 46-year-old man was arrested in the Watford area.

Both are in custody, Scotland Yard said.
Man accused of attempting terrorist attack at London's Israeli embassy goes on trial
A man armed with two knives and carrying a "martyrdom note" tried to carry out a terrorist attack at Israel's British embassy because he wanted to send a message about "the killing of children," prosecutors told a London court on Wednesday.

Abdullah Albadri, 34, who was born in Kuwait and twice entered Britain from France in a small boat, was arrested by two armed officers trying to scale the fence outside the embassy in west London last April, prosecutor Catherine Pattison said.

They found he was carrying two knives and a piece of paper which appeared to be a note about martyrdom, and later told police he wanted to send a message about stopping the war, a reference to the Israel-Hamas war, Pattison told London's Old Bailey court.

"The prosecution says that Mr. Albadri's intention was to use or threaten serious violence against the Israeli government, to exact revenge for its alleged murder of children," she said.

"The existence and contents of his suspected martyrdom note, along with his two knives and material downloaded from his mobile phone, demonstrate his intention to use violence against people inside the Israeli embassy and sacrifice his own life in the process – to die, in his words, 'for the glory of God'."

Albadri denies charges of preparing an act of terrorism and possession of two bladed articles, and he said in a statement to police that he had the knives because he was homeless.
Tennessee bill nixing use of ‘West Bank’ awaits governor’s signature
Tennessee’s legislature has voted to change references in state documents to the biblical regions north and south of Jerusalem to “Judea and Samaria.”

The term, which has always applied to the region in Israel, will replace references to the “West Bank,” which was invented and used by the international community following the liberation of the region from the Jordanians in the Six-Day War of 1967.

“The ideological and cultural conflict over Judea and Samaria represents a broader civilizational struggle between Judeo-Christian values,” state House Bill 1446 and its Senate companion Bill 1663, known as the “Recognizing Judea and Samaria Act.”

The bills say the term “West Bank” is a “deliberate attempt to erase the Jewish identity of Judea and Samaria, and to obscure the deep historical, religious and legal connections of the Jewish people to the land.”

Both houses passed their respective bills on April 9, by votes of 24-8 in the Senate and 68-21 in the House of Representatives. The measure now heads to Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, for his signature.

The law mandates that any tax-funded communications from state agencies or official state materials use the historical nomenclature, rather than the more recent internationally recognized term.

Debate over the legislation largely hinged on criticisms that the measure erased Palestinian heritage or amounted to biblical indoctrination, with others saying that the legislature has more pressing, relevant matters at hand.
Bethany Mandel: Elise Stefanik reveals the sick truth of elite colleges’ moral collapse
The book builds that case by tracing how elite universities became agents of radical activism, hollowing out their core mission.

“Radical left-wing political ideology is now synonymous with higher education,” she argues, producing campuses that function not as places of debate but as monocultures, where faculty and administrators “operate like a herd” and dissent is all but unknown.

That ideological shift, she argues, has been reinforced by bureaucratic structures — particularly DEI offices — that don’t simply administer policy but enforce their beliefs about power, identity and justice.

Meanwhile, financial incentives pull universities in the wrong direction.

Elite institutions, Stefanik writes, are “no longer prioritizing American students” and are increasingly shaped by billions of dollars’ worth of foreign funding through donations, tuition and research partnerships.

The result is a system that’s less anchored in American principles and more responsive to outside pressures — a dynamic that, in her telling, has real consequences for what is taught, what is tolerated and what is ignored.

During our conversation, Stefanik described how deeply she was affected by her private conversations with faculty and alumni who were unwilling to speak publicly.

And as a graduate of Harvard, she was personally horrified to realize the truth: that the leadership of some of the most influential institutions in the country had, in critical moments, simply failed.

That’s the thread that runs through the book — and through a letter she received from Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which has not previously been made public.

By “demanding answers and refusing to accept moral relativism,” Netanyahu wrote, Stefanik “exposed a collapse of leadership at some of the most influential institutions in the United States.”

Stefanik argues that if our universities cannot say, clearly and without qualification, that calls for genocide are wrong, then the problem is not simply academic.

It is civilizational.

She understands better than most in public life the lasting truth of Abraham Lincoln’s observation: “The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.”

What happens in today’s lecture halls will have a tsunami effect in the halls of power for decades to come.
Rep. Elise Stefanik’s new book ‘Poisoned Ivies’ on campus antisemitism tops Amazon bestseller list as she launches tour
Rep. Elise Stefanik’s new book about the rise of antisemitism and “anti-Americanism” at US universities has topped the Amazon bestseller list on the day of its publication, as the congresswoman announced a nationwide tour.

“Poisoned Ivies,” out Tuesday, comes nearly three years after the New York Republican’s highly watched confrontation in a Capitol Hill hearing with Ivy League presidents and aims to tell the story of how that “reset the course of American higher education” in the years to come.

“It became the most watched hearing in congressional history, more than Watergate, more than impeachment hearings, more than any other issue ever in the history of the United States Congress,” she told attendees at a book-signing event in Washington, DC, Tuesday, “and what it highlighted was the lack of moral clarity and moral leadership at our most quote unquote esteemed and elite institutions.”

Stefanik hadn’t even planned to ask the question, she noted, and expected the Harvard, Pennsylvania and MIT presidents to answer “yes” when she pressed them on whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” — referencing chants from protesters on their campuses — violated their universities’ codes of conduct.

“I worded it in a way that it was supposed to be an easy question and to my astonishment, one after the other after the other, MIT, Penn, and Harvard presidents said, ‘It depends on the context,’ and the world heard,” she added. “They tried to not only equivocate, but they tried to hide under legalese, under sort of moral relativism. That’s not acceptable.”

“Within 48 hours, the Penn president was forced to resign. Within 2 months, the Harvard president was forced to resign,” Stefanik recounted. “These institutions and higher education institutions at large are educating our next generation of leaders and they have fundamentally lost their way.”

Since then, there’s been “seismic shifts” in campus life that have revealed it’s “more competitive” to apply to Vanderbilt University and others that cracked down on antisemitism “than some of the Ivy League schools” still struggling to smother campus hate, Stefanik told The Post in a brief interview before the book signing event.

“Poisoned Ivies” is currently in the top 10 on Amazon’s overall bestseller list and reached first place for “Best Sellers in Political Conservatism & Liberalism.”
Duke Suspends Students for Justice in Palestine Chapter Over Illustration Depicting ‘Zionism’ as Pig Holding Star of David
Duke University suspended and froze funding for its campus Students for Justice in Palestine chapter after the anti-Israel organization shared an illustration flagged for "antisemitic imagery," the Duke Chronicle reported Wednesday.

The student organization advertised an event last month in an Instagram post featuring an illustration of two pigs, one labeled as "Zionism" and depicted holding a Star of David, and the other as "U.S. Imperialism" holding the Statue of Liberty’s torch.

A university official informed SJP leadership that the university's Office of Institutional Equity received 10 student complaints about the image, which was originally published in the Black Panther Party's newspaper in 1970. The university's Student Affairs office suspended the group and revoked its funding over "alleged harassment under the Policy on Prohibited Discrimination, Harassment and Related Misconduct," the Chronicle reported.

SJP officials told the Chronicle that the illustration "was never intended to be antisemitic" and that anti-Zionism is "not the same as targeting Jewish people."

Noah Hamid, a leadership member of Duke's Students Supporting Israel chapter, told the Washington Free Beacon in a statement that "the suspension of Students for Justice in Palestine feels like a long-overdue acknowledgement of what many of us have been experiencing for years."

"This is not about one protest, one chant, or one controversial flyer," he said. "It is about a pattern—one that has too often crossed the line from political advocacy into something that isolates, intimidates, and, at times, openly targets Jewish students."

Duke's SJP chapter has shared social media posts excusing Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, attack against Israel. In one Instagram post from July 2024, the group shared a graphic claiming that the Hamas attack was "a reaction and resistance to decades of oppression," adding that "to insinuate otherwise reveals a deep lack of historical knowledge, a lack of empathy for the daily lived reality of Palestinians, or both."

On Sept. 11, 2024, the group posted another graphic on its Instagram page that compared Israel’s retaliatory war against Hamas to 9/11.


Tucker Carlson’s antisemitic rhetoric: A dangerous echo of Father Coughlin
In the 1930s, Father Charles Coughlin used his massive radio platform to pump toxic antisemitism into American homes. He wrapped his hatred in the language of patriotism and populism, masking bigotry as enlightenment. Today, Tucker Carlson has taken up that same dark mantle. His tactics, his rhetoric, and his fixation on Jewish conspiracy theories follow the Coughlin playbook, line by line.

Carlson has accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of “controlling” America, an accusation straight out of the blood-libel playbook. He claims Jewish elites secretly guide US policy. He paints Israel as the real aggressor, while Hamas, the butchers of October 7, 2023, are excused or ignored. Like Coughlin before him, Carlson repackages old conspiracies in language designed to sound like truth.

Carlson is not only attacking Israel; he is attacking the president of the United States, the commander-in-chief, at a moment when America and Israel face very real threats from Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas. He is not strengthening America. He is not strengthening our allies – he is strengthening our enemies’ narrative. He is strengthening the narrative of our enemies. This mirrors Coughlin’s pattern, undermining American leadership during moments of global instability, while elevating narratives that serve hostile forces.

This is how nations lose clarity in moments of crisis: when voices from within begin to echo the propaganda of those who wish to destroy us.

Carlson recently stooped even lower, insinuating that the president of Israel had ties to Jeffrey Epstein’s island. There was no evidence. No sourcing. Just an attempt to stain a Jewish leader with one of the most toxic conspiracies of our time.

This is how antisemitic myths grow: through whispers, insinuations, and baseless accusations dressed up as “questions.” It is the same corrosive strategy that allowed Father Coughlin’s influence to spread unchecked in his era.


Stephen Pollard: Tucker Carlson has just given Jews another reason to hate the BBC
On Sunday, the BBC, which has been under fire for months over its anti-Israel and sometimes antisemitic stance, with a memo from its own broadcasting standards supremo lambasting its bias against Israel (and Trump), decided that Carlson was exactly the man who should be invited to be a guest on its flagship news programme, the Laura Kuenssberg show on BBC1.

Kuenssberg was away, so Carlson was interviewed by Victoria Derbyshire. As is his wont, Carlson used the interview to push his obsession, repeating his view that Trump is a “slave” to Israel, repeating one of the most blatant and historic antisemitic themes, that the Jews hold the rest of the world in their thrall.

It was a painful watch. Derbyshire tried to push back, but she is not as good an interviewer as Carlson is an interviewee, and she barely had any impact. And to make matters worse, two of the three guest panellists on the programme said they agreed with Carlson.

Sir Alex Younger, the former Head of MI6, said Carlson’s interview was “amazing” and he is “basically right” that the US went to war in Iran because Trump is a “slave” to Israel.

And historian Mary Beard said that “it was really surprising to find oneself agreeing with some things that Tucker Carlson said.” Sir Alex nodded.

The BBC has become a national embarrassment. Not content with its own biased reporting and its decision to broadcast chants of ‘Death, death to the IDF’ from last year’s Glastonbury, it has sought out one of the world’s most notorious conspiracy theorists, whose conspiracies revolve around Jewish control, and offered him its prime interview slot.

And we, the licence fee payer, have to fund this or face prison


Ask Haviv Anything: 106: After October 7, can Israeli politics be rebuilt?
A new Israeli election is coming -- and it may reshape everything. In this opening episode of our election series, I sit down with former MK and political thinker Dr. Einat Wilf, now leading the new Oz party, to ask a fundamental question: Has October 7 broken Israeli politics as we knew it? We dive into voter realignment, the possible collapse of old “tribes,” the Haredi draft crisis, and whether a new political vision can emerge, or whether the system is too entrenched to change.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Israeli Elections
02:14 The Launch of the Oz Party
04:41 Reflections on October 7th and Political Responsibility
07:35 Critique of Current Israeli Leadership
10:19 The Challenge of Voter Undecideds
12:13 The Oz Party's Vision and Voter Base
15:21 Engaging Young Voters and Breaking Tribalism
18:01 The Haredi Draft and Its Political Implications
27:37 The Haredi Community's Response to Crisis
30:23 Welfare State Dynamics and Haredi Privileges
31:50 Military Service and National Identity
35:08 The Role of National Service in Society
38:15 Political Landscape and Arab Representation
47:12 Future of Israeli Politics and Elections


Gad Saad: Natasha Hausdorff - Ardent Legal Defender of Israel (THE SAAD TRUTH_2011)
Topics covered include Israel, international law, the United Nations, and a life of purpose and meaning.




‘I dig it’: Graham Platner praised Hamas tactics in 2014 graphic video of murders of Israeli soldiers
Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner repeatedly praised the tactics used by Hamas terrorists in comments made about a graphic video of a Hamas raid into Israel in 2014, in which terrorists killed at least five Israeli soldiers.

In archived posts from his now-deleted Reddit profile under the username “P-Hustle,” Platner commented on a video post titled “Helmet Footage from Hamas cross-border raid,” which showed the attack on multiple Israeli soldiers.

The original video, also now deleted but still archived, was posted by a YouTube channel called Sabah on July 29, 2014, with the description, “Secret footage shows the storming of a settlement by the Qassam Brigades and the killing of 10 soldiers.” The description and comments in the Reddit thread appear to match a raid by Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades on a military base near Kibbutz Nahal Oz the day prior.

According to a text description of the video and the raid shared online, the video includes footage of the shootings of several Israeli soldiers, at least one of whom is screaming as the terrorists attempt to kidnap him.

“Looks like an all around well executed and successful small unit raid to me,” Platner wrote in 2014 on the Reddit forum r/CombatFootage, a discussion board for footage and photographs of past and current armed conflicts.

Responding to another user who criticized the “execution” of the Israeli soldiers and emphasized that the attack would lead to heavy reprisals in Gaza, Platner said he was not interested in discussing the geopolitical or strategic implications, but suggested Hamas’ tactics and actions were reasonable.

“As for your aversion to ‘execution’, a small unit raid tends to be used to inflict casualties and take prisoners in a short period of time,” Platner wrote. “Pragmatically I have little problem with killing an enemy combatant who you attempt to capture but for whatever reason cannot. From a strictly professional standpoint, this was a damn fine looking and successful raid against a superior opponent, I dig it.”

He acknowledged, in response to another user, that the terrorists’ actions were brutal and that the terrorists should have shot one of the soldiers instead of beating him to death.
NYC first lady apologizes for past ‘harmful’ social media content – without mentioning pro-Palestinian terrorists, anti-Israel posts
Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s wife, Rama Duwaji, expressed regret for the “hurt” caused by her past alarming social media posts – but failed to directly apologize for the troubling content praising Palestinian terrorists and bashing Israel.

The Big Apple’s 28-year-old first lady issued the mealy-mouthed mea culpa for a flurry of “harmful” posts she made on X and Tumblr in her teens and early 20s in a sit-down with Hyperallergic, an arts news outlet.

“When a tabloid recently published old tweets I wrote as a teenager, I felt a lot of shame being confronted with language I used that is so harmful to others; being 15 doesn’t excuse it,” Duwaji told the publication.

“I’ve read and seen a lot of what others have had to say in response, and I understand the hurt I caused and am truly sorry,” she added.

Controversial posts unearthed by the Washington Free Beacon last month — linked to her partly through facial recognition — showed her inflammatory content dated back to 2013, when she was reportedly 15.

In one 2015 post, she raged that Tel Aviv “shouldn’t exist in the first place,” calling its residents “occupiers,” and dropped the N-word in another post two years earlier.

On her now-inactive Tumblr, she hailed Palestinian plane hijacker Leila Khaled and members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, while reposting a tirade accusing US service members of “mercilessly slaughtering 3rd world civilians” to maintain “American hegemony.”


A Brief Reply to Ezra Klein - With Some Facts On Lebanon
Earlier this week, Ezra Klein offered a case for a more pluralist progressive discourse- one that, in his view, can comfortably include anti-Zionist positions without crossing into antisemitism.

I have much to say about the piece as a whole - first published under the headline “Hasan Piker Is Not the Enemy,” later changed to “This Is Why There’s No Liberal Joe Rogan”.

As to Israel, I find the argument, at its core, hollow. Is there really a shortage of rabid anti-Zionist views in progressive circles - from Zohran Mamdani to many others? Or on the Right, for that matter? If Klein wanted to make the case for a more pluralistic discourse in progressive circles, he might just as well have argued for those who defend Israel—they are the real minority. Instead, he chose Israel because it’s easy, I suppose.

Now Klein urges acceptance of Hasan Piker’s “arguments” - those heavy-duty contributions like admiring Hezbollah’s flag or claiming Hamas is “a thousand times better” than Israel.
What drew my attention was not the broader thesis — I do not think there’s a case to answer — but a single sentence, casually inserted, within a general indictment of Israel’s conduct.

That sentence claimed that Israel “used the Iran war as an opportunity” to invade Lebanon, displace more than a million people, and prevent hundreds of thousands from returning to their homes.
Some of the criticism of the Israeli government, in the same paragraph, I share and write about in my own columns. That is not the issue. The problem is the fusion of fact and distortion.

And it matters, because it reflects something deeper: a conversation increasingly detached from basic chronology and attached only to sentiment. Piker’s sentiment, it seems.

As to Lebanon falsehood: With global attention fixed on Gaza, many simply do not know what has unfolded in the north of Israel since October 7. Klein either doesn’t know, or doesn’t care.


Rep. Ilhan Omar praises Marjorie Taylor Greene, Candace Owens for breaking with Trump
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) in an interview on the “Pod Save America” podcast praised former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) — once a vocal Omar foe who called for the congresswoman’s deportation while they were both in the House — and far-right influencer Candace Owens over the pair’s break with President Donald Trump.

All three have faced repeated accusations of antisemitism. Owens, in particular, has become a propagator of rampant and often bizarre conspiracy theories, including becoming one of the most prominent antisemitic voices on the right. Greene and Owens have broken with Trump over his continued support for Israel and the war in Iran, among other issues.

“I think as Americans, it is really important for us to work together for the preservation of everything that is good in our country, and to support leaders that we can trust to safeguard what is good of our country,” Omar said, in response to a clip of Greene disavowing Trump on conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ podcast. “And I believe the thing that has been very fascinating, especially about Marjorie and Candace, is that they are not just coming out — like the other ones that you’d mentioned — where they’re saying, ‘This action is wrong,’ right? They’re saying, ‘I am done with you.’”

“We should give them credit for that, the fact that they’ve had this wake up call to finally seeing this con man, this corrupt, chaotic man for what he is,” Omar continued. “I think is an important thing for us to put our arms around and say, ‘Yes, and now let’s figure out, how do we save our country from the disaster that this man is creating?’”

While Omar is not the first Democrat to praise Greene or to suggest that Democrats should be partnering with her, her comments are particularly notable in light of the enmity between the two women while they served in the House together.


Green Party sets up support group for ‘smeared’ anti-Israel candidates
The Green Party has set up a support group for candidates “smeared” by the media after making controversial comments about Israel.

The party told them they would be given “all support they need” after coverage of posts they had shared on social media.

Some messages celebrated the Oct 7 2023 terrorist attacks on Israel, blamed “Zionists” for 9/11, and said Benjamin Netanyahu “works for Jeffrey Epstein”.

Mothin Ali, the party’s deputy leader, has privately told members accused of anti-Zionist comments they were making “the right type of noise”, adding: “Know you are not alone.”

Green Party local election candidates have shared posts claiming that the October 7 attacks were part of Palestine’s “legal right to resist” and shared posts on Facebook saying that the attack on Jewish community ambulances in Golders Green was “a false flag” operation.

On Monday, candidates on the Greens for Palestine WhatsApp chat were offered help to deal with media “smears”.

The message read: “Hey all, As many of you know there is an ongoing coordinated smear campaign from the legacy media to attack pro-Palestine and anti-Zionist candidates in the local elections in May.

“As an emergency response to this as discussed in the meeting yesterday I have set up a support group for any candidate experiencing smears from the press and needing support.”


The hateful posts of yet another Green party candidate
The extremism of some in the Green party is increasingly being compared to Labour in Jeremy Corbyn’s time. But there is a critical difference. Most of the haters in Corbyn Labour were ordinary activists. In the Greens, they are likely to become holders of public office with real power.

Earlier this week, we brought you Ifhat Shaheen, a Green council candidate in the highly-winnable ward of Stoke Newington, who defended the October 7th attacks, suggested that Israel is harvesting organs from Palestinians ‘to help alter [the] DNA of Zionists to claim land,’ and asked whether ‘Zionist funding’ was behind the racist Tommy Robinson marches.

Today we reveal the views of Saiqa Ali, a Green council candidate in Streatham St Leonards, the party’s strongest ward on Lambeth council, south London, where all three of the councillors are currently Green.

On 23 September 2024, Ali’s Instagram account posted a picture of a masked fighter, holding a rifle and a string of bullets and wearing what appears to be a Hamas headband. ‘Long live the Resistance,’ writes Ali. ‘Free Palestine!’
Green Party faces calls to drop election candidate over ‘abhorrent' conspiracy theory Facebook posts
THE Green Party is facing calls to remove support for one of its council election candidates over reports he used Facebook to share conspiracy theories about 9/11 and the recent Golders Green ambulance arson attack.

Aziz Hakimi, who is standing in the Haverstock ward, is accused of sharing a post in which a speaker blames “Zionists” for the hijacked airplane terror attack on the twin towers in New York in 2001. Screenshots circulated this week also appear to show he posted “stay strong Hamas” in 2018, while more recently shared an article which suggested the attack on the Hatzola ambulances was a “false flag” operation. When a Jewish boy was attacked in Hampstead in what police said was a racially-aggravated attack last year, comments attributed to his account claimed misinformation was being shared and “everyone knows who’s playing the victim card.”

Several other social media posts are under investigation.

The New Journal has attempted to contact Mr Hakimi in relation to his posts and for a full right of reply, but have not received a reply so far.

Labour council leader Councillor Richard Olszewski said: “Aziz Hakimi’s conduct is abhorrent and antisemitic and I’m appalled the Camden Green Party selected him. His views have no place in our borough. The Camden Green Party must drop Hakimi immediately and make this clear to voters in Haverstock that they no longer support his candidacy.

“Camden is a diverse and tolerant borough where every resident from all backgrounds is welcomed. We firmly stand against any forms of antisemitism, hatred and conspiracy theories in our politics in Camden.”


Anti-Israel activist network targets New York pizzeria, 2nd Ave Deli
A viral social media video targeting a Jewish-owned pizzeria in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., has raised concerns over a pattern of harassment by the video’s creators against Jewish businesses.

In a video circulating on social media, an individual who identifies as being affiliated with a group called the “Palestine News Network” approaches Isaac Garson, owner of Slices Pizza, and questions him about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A man accompanying the cameraman appears to carry a cobbled-together sign that reads, “End U.S. aid to Israel.”

“I’m going to be calm,” Garson says at the beginning of the video. “I want peace around the world.” The person behind the camera says, “What about Palestine? Can you say Palestine, specifically?”

Later in the clip, Garson asks the men to acknowledge how many people were killed in the Hamas-led attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The cameraman replies, “We support Oct. 7.”

Tom Drake, the mayor of Hastings-on-Hudson, condemned the incident, calling the group a “Jewish hate group” that targeted a local business owner “based solely on his Jewish faith and heritage.”

“As a community, we cannot let stickers placed on signs or other forms of hate to become normal,” he said, referring to the recent appearance of antisemitic stickers near a middle school on a sign honoring Ali Marpet, a Jewish Hastings-on-Hudson high school graduate and former NFL player with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

“While they may seem small in some cases, they are intended to cause fear and intimidation,” Drake said.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, PNN is “a network of people who harass strangers, often Jews, prodding them about their stance on Palestine.” The group was founded after the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas. The ADL identified its founders as Ramsey Aburdene and David Wolf, describing the latter as “a Jewish man from New Jersey and an extreme anti-Zionist.”

A similar incident was reported on Monday by the 2nd Ave Deli in New York City, which stated that protesters carrying the same style of sign targeted the kosher restaurant and harassed customers. The deli also reported an influx of negative online reviews from people who had not visited.


Seven Jewish professors, staff look to join Justice Dept. lawsuit alleging Jew-hatred at UCLA
Seven Jewish professors and staff members at the University of California, Los Angeles, are seeking to join the U.S. Department of Justice’s lawsuit alleging antisemitism and a hostile work environment at the school.

The department filed the suit against the university in February, alleging that UCLA violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act by failing to protect Jewish and Israeli employees from harassment and discrimination.

In a motion filed on Tuesday, the seven employees stated that they have “been subjected to the same discriminatory conduct” described in the federal complaint and are seeking to intervene in the case. (JNS sought comment from the university.)

According to the Justice Department, antisemitic incidents at UCLA intensified after the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, with Jewish faculty and staff allegedly facing threats, workplace disruptions and exclusion from parts of campus.

Holtzman Vogel, the law firm representing the employees, stated that “UCLA—one of the nation’s premier public universities—allowed antisemitism to flourish on its campus while punishing Jewish-Zionist faculty who spoke out against it.”

“Our clients devoted their careers to UCLA, only to be subjected to harassment, physical assault, exclusion and retaliation simply because they are Jewish,” the firm stated. “This lawsuit seeks to hold UCLA accountable and to ensure that no faculty member is ever again subjected to such blatant discrimination.”
School that blocked Jewish MP sacks diversity lead over Hamas ‘heroes’ posts
A school trust that previously postponed a visit by a Jewish MP has dismissed a senior diversity staff member after she described Hamas as “heroes” in social media posts following the 7 October attacks.

Cabot Learning Federation, which oversees Bristol Brunel Academy, confirmed it had taken action after an investigation into comments made by inclusion and diversity co-ordinator Saima Akhtar.

The dismissal follows scrutiny first reported by The Times, which highlighted a series of posts written in the immediate aftermath of Hamas’s massacre in Israel, in which more than 1,200 people were killed.

In one post, Akhtar wrote: “This is an oppressed people standing up and fighting back… Heroes fighting for justice and their right to exist. Palestinians are no different. #FreePalestine.”

She also urged others to ignore what she described as “media attempts to paint Israel as a victim”, and later claimed that Western governments and mainstream media were the “real problem”, accusing them of enabling “ethnic cleansing and genocide”.
Bath mayor leaves University of Exeter after antisemitic conspiracy row
The former mayor of Bath, Dr Bharat Pankhania, has left the University of Exeter following controversy over social media posts claiming a Jewish ambulance arson attack was an “Israeli false flag”.

In a statement to Jewish News, a university spokesperson confirmed: “Dr Pankhania has left the University.”

The spokesperson added: “Any communication of the nature retweeted by Dr Pankhania is not aligned with our values, and matters of this nature are taken extremely seriously.”

Pankhania, who joined Exeter Medical School in 2017, was a senior clinical lecturer and course lead in health protection, and had been widely involved in public health teaching and infectious disease control, with a career spanning pandemic planning, outbreak response and medical education.

His departure follows mounting backlash after he shared posts on X alleging that the torching of four ambulances belonging to Jewish emergency service Hatzola in north London was staged.


New Database Empirically Proves Everything You Suspected About the New York Times
A new database of all the New York Times articles published in the past 25 years provides empirical evidence of some of the biases that many of the newspaper’s critics have long suspected.

The developer of the database, Ted Alcorn, is not a media critic but a former policy analyst for New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He’s a freelance journalist who does some work for the Times and also teaches at Columbia and NYU. Alcorn this week launched "Below The Fold," a dashboard that allows readers to parse and sort a database of 25 years' worth of New York Times articles in ways that concretely quantify the paper’s quirks and record the way the coverage has changed over time.

For example, the dashboard allows for sorting coverage by country and sorting that by population, to get a Moneyball-style statistic called articles/million residents/year, or AMRY. The tiny Pacific island of Nauru is tops because of climate change coverage, but Gaza is next with an AMRY of 104.4, followed by Israel at 55.7 and the West Bank at 41.14. Countries that the Times is less obsessed with include Japan, with an AMRY of 1.32, Germany, with an AMRY of 2.78, and Singapore, with an AMRY of 2.33. In raw number of articles, the Times tagged 14,483 with coverage of "Israel" over the quarter century from 2000 to 2025. India, with a vastly larger population, generated 10,678 Times stories.

The dashboard also allows a similar sorting of states by how much attention they get from the Times, adjusted by population. The early presidential primary and caucus states of Iowa and New Hampshire attract a lot of Times coverage, as does the District of Columbia. Sparsely populated Times summer vacation destinations like Vermont and Maine also do well. The states that get the least attention from the Times relative to their populations include Alabama, Connecticut, Indiana, New Jersey, and Arkansas. What Times reporter wants to use an Ochs-Sulzberger expense account to go to Indiana, New Jersey, or Arkansas when they could be in Vermont or Maine?
ADL says that Instagram removed just 7% of extremist content it reported
The Anti-Defamation League alleged in a report on Wednesday that Instagram removed just 7% of the content that it flagged for violating the platforms policy.

The nonprofit said that two weeks after it reported 253 accounts and posts to Instagram between Jan. 14 and Feb. 17, but the social media company removed just 11 accounts and eight posts. The ADL says it reported material that was connected to white supremacist networks, supporters of foreign terrorist groups and vendors selling merchandise with Nazi symbols.

A Meta Platforms spokesman disputed the findings and said that the Instagram parent company remains committed to fighting Jew-hatred and violent content, which “has no place on our platforms.”

“Over two-thirds of the accounts and posts flagged by the ADL were removed prior to the publication of this report, while some did not violate our policies,” the Meta spokesman told JNS.

The ADL report documents what it says are tactics to evade detection. In one case, an account posted a video of Islamic State fighters carrying out executions but used an unrelated caption about a clock tower in Mecca. Sellers of Nazi-themed merchandise blurred parts of images to avoid moderation, the report states.

“Our research also demonstrates that Meta failed to remove violative content that clearly featured hate and foreign terrorist organization symbols,” stated Alex Friedfeld, director of research and analysis at the ADL’s extremism center, citing ISIS flags and swastikas. “The report shows how violative posts have garnered thousands to millions of views, with Instagram’s collaborators function being used as a key tool to bring smaller extremist profiles out of obscurity and into more people’s feeds.”


NYC maniac who slugged TikTok influencer, berated Jewish couple learns his fate
An anti-white maniac who sucker-punched a TikTok influencer, assaulted two other women and berated a Jewish couple in a crazed spree of hate and violence will spend at least three years behind bars, a Manhattan judge ruled Tuesday.

Skiboky Stora, 42, went on a bizarre, 15-minute rant in Manhattan Supreme Court — accusing prosecutors of using AI videos to frame him — before Justice Josh Hanshaft sentenced him to 3-to-9 years in prison for the string of assaults in 2023 and 2024.

“I just want to start off by saying I’m not an ignorant person, judge,” Stora, wearing a brown jail-issued jumpsuit, whined. “Actually, I’m registered right now to run for governor of New York and I’m the great great grandson of Marcus Garvey.

Stora was convicted of assault, hate crime, stalking and harassment charges in February after the judge deliberated for just 30 minutes before finding him guilty.

“How can the court convict me of all hate crimes?” he ranted Tuesday, unleashing wild claims that, “It’s an AI video, artificial intelligence generated video…. The people are being framed throughout New York state.”

At trial, prosecutors showed a trove of Stora’s self-recorded videos where he could be seen shouting slurs against white people.

Stora, who has run long-shot races for city mayor represented himself, turning the four-week-long proceedings into a circus.
Kanye West cancels French show weeks after UK visa cancellation
Racist rapper Kanye West has cancelled a concert in France amid mounting political opposition.

West was due to perform at the Marseille Velodrome on 11 June, but the event faced growing backlash.

The rapper said in a post on X: “After much thought and consideration, it is my sole decision to postpone my show in Marseille, France until further notice.”

Earlier this month, West was denied a UK visa, which led to the cancellation of his headline appearances at Wireless Festival following repeated antisemitic remarks.

French interior minister Laurent Nunez on Tuesday told Politico he was “very determined” to prevent the concert from going ahead.

In March, Marseille Mayor Benoit Payan said in a post on X that he refused to let the city “be a showcase for those who promote hatred and unapologetic Nazism”.

He added: “Kanye West is not welcome at the Velodrome.”


Meet Harry Marsh: The YouTuber harassing Jews for views
The Jewish Community Council (JCC) of Stamford Hill is calling on YouTube to ban a content creator who has racked up millions of views harassing Jews in the area.

Harry Marsh, who goes by the name Penofein, has made at least ten videos of himself throwing money onto the ground and calling it a “Jew trap”, chasing after Jews jingling coins shouting “here boy”, and trying to get Jewish women’s phone numbers by offering them cash.

Marsh, who the JC understands lives in Sussex, has been travelling to the area to make his videos for YouTube and TikTok.

One video shows him asking a Jewish woman for her number and when she refuses, he proceeds to chase after her shaking a fistful of coins and asking: “Will this change your mind?”

He continues to pursue the woman despite her turning round, looking visibly scared, and beginning to run.

In the last week alone, his YouTube subscriber base has doubled to 40,000, and on TikTok, as of Tuesday, his followers number 150,000, having garnered over a hundred million views on both platforms combined.

But with the growing popularity, he attracted the attention of the Jewish community, and many reported him on all his platforms. His TikTok account has been banned, and his YouTube videos featuring Jews have been deleted, though his account remains active and his other videos are still available.

In the last video Marsh posted on YouTube before deletion, he claimed that he had been told by Sussex Police that he was not allowed to film inside shopping centres and shops for a year, but insisted that this wouldn’t affect his content and vowed to continue.

The JCC told the JC: “We are deeply concerned about the increasing trend of social media creators using their platforms to harass members of the Jewish community in Stamford Hill. Recent antisemitic videos shared online - including those created by Harry Marsh, who travelled from Sussex to Stamford Hill - highlights the seriousness of this issue.
Police probe online thugs using social media to torment Jews for clicks
Police have launched an investigation into a series of online videos showing Jews being targeted in the street in Stamford Hill, as concerns grow over antisemitic prank content gaining traction online.

The sick videos have been linked online to content creator Harry Marsh, known as “Penofein”, whose clips have attracted millions of views across YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. He is believed to be based in Sussex.

The footage shows members of the strictly Orthodox community being approached, filmed and subjected to behaviour critics say draws on longstanding antisemitic tropes.

In one clip, coins are thrown onto the pavement and described as a “Jew trap”, with passers-by filmed to see if they pick them up. In another, a visibly Jewish man is approached and asked: “Excuse me sir, would you like a pound or should I double it and give it to the next person?” – before the filmer walks away muttering: “Well, well, well.”

Other videos include clips titled “Rizzing up Jewish women”, in which a woman is approached for her phone number and continues to be filmed after declining, as well as footage of individuals being followed, while the person filming calls out “Here boy” while holding money.

A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said: “We have launched an investigation after receiving reports of antisemitic social media videos filmed in Stamford Hill. Anyone with information is asked to contact police on 101, quoting reference 01/7425291/26.

“Hate crime of any kind has no place in our communities, and we take all reports incredibly seriously.”
Auckland council advances Israel sanctions review
The City Council of Auckland, the capital city of New Zealand, voted on Tuesday, Israel’s national memorial day for Holocaust victims, in favor of a resolution that calls for applying sanctions on the Jewish state, local activists said.

The Auckland Council Policy, Planning and Development Committee voted 14 to 2 to request a staff report by July “on the alignment of Auckland Council’s policies and practices with United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334. including any potential facilitation of trade with relevant UN-identified entities and advice on how alignment could be strengthened,” according to The Daily Blog news site.

That Security Council resolution “Reaffirms that the establishment by Israel of settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law,” its text says.

The Auckland City Council text also seeks a report on compliance with United Nations Human Rights Council Resolution 31/36, also passed in 2016, which calls on world nations to make sure “that they are not taking actions that either recognize or assist the expansion of settlements or the construction of the wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.”
Holocaust stunt causes “deep hurt”
A video of a vehicle driving through a heavily Jewish area of Melbourne with a sign reading “There is a Holocaust in Gaza” was posted to Instagram on erev Yom Hashoah this week.

It was shown passing several Jewish buildings including at least one synagogue and the Melbourne Holocaust Museum.

The video was taken last year on Yom Kippur, and the woman driving the vehicle, anti-Zionist activist Veronica Sherman, who says she is Jewish and Israeli, said she deliberately re-posted it in time for Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The Jewish Community Council of Victoria said, “Words cannot express the deep hurt that is felt by our community to see this today. We utterly condemn this act of grave harm on behalf of the whole Jewish community, but particularly on behalf of Holocaust survivors who live among us.”

Sherman was contacted by The AJN and when asked if she could understand why people might feel hurt and intimidated by seeing the post she responded, “I actually don’t care at all. There’s so much about Jewish feelings and we need to stop centring Jewish feelings during a genocide.”

Sherman, who identifies as Jewish despite being raised a fundamentalist Christian in Sweden before making Aliyah to Israel at age 10, defended the action as a necessary protest against what she describes as genocide in Gaza.

Robert Gregory, president and CEO of the right-leaning Australian Jewish Association, told The AJN, “Driving past Jewish institutions with such a message appears to have been a deliberate attempt to intimidate the Jewish community. Posting the video on Yom Hashoah was clearly intended to deepen that hurt.”


Lord Mayor of Dublin apologises for scrapped plan to rename Herzog Park
The Lord Mayor of Dublin has apologised to the Jewish community for the "concern and upset caused" when plans by Dublin City Council to rename a park named after former Israeli president Chaim Herzog almost came into fruition last year.

Herzog Park, in the suburb of Rathgar, was named in 1995 for the Belfast-born and Dublin-raised Herzog, who served as the president of Israel from 1983 to 1993.

His father, Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, was the first chief rabbi of Ireland, serving in that role from 1921 to 1937.

In December, councillors were due to vote on a motion to rename the park, proposed by multiple councillors within the city council’s naming and commemorations committee.

Despite significant concerns raised by the city’s Jewish community, the motion was expected to be carried to re-dedicate the space as the “Free Palestine Park”.

Prior to the motion being pulled, Maurice Cohen, chair of the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland (JRC Ireland), said: “Herzog Park sits in the heart of the neighbourhood where much of Ireland’s small Jewish community has lived for generations. It stands beside the only Jewish school in the country. The name of the park is not an abstract tribute. It reflects a real and meaningful Irish story.

"To remove the name of Herzog Park is not a neutral administrative decision. It would single out a Jewish figure for erasure in a city where parks and public places honour people whose words, actions or political beliefs some may not share.”

He added: "It sends a hurtful and isolating message to a small minority community that has contributed to Ireland for centuries. It risks turning a shared space into a symbol of exclusion at a time when Jewish communities throughout Europe are feeling increased anxiety.

“Those who support such a move will be seen by the community, and far beyond it, as acting in a manner that is openly hostile to Jews.”


Shekel surges to 30-year high against dollar
The Israeli shekel broke through what many see as a symbolic three-NIS-per-dollar barrier on Wednesday, reaching its strongest level against the U.S. currency in more than three decades.

The rate of 2.99 shekels to the dollar, a level last seen in October 1995, is thought to reflect investor optimism tied in part to recent diplomatic developments in the region, including a ceasefire with Iran and meetings between the Jewish state and Lebanon. The dollar has lost much of the value it gained since the war against Iran began.

Leo Lederman, chief economic adviser at Bank Hapoalim and former head of the research division at the Bank of Israel, told the Globes business daily that “one event could bring the shekel to a level of about two shekels to the dollar—the fall of the regime in Iran.”

In the interview with the Globes, Lederman cited the potential for increased capital flows, reduced risk premiums and expanded regional investment.

For months, the shekel has been consolidating its position as one of the strongest-performing currencies against the U.S. dollar this year, gaining more than 20%. Until recently, dipping below the three-shekel threshold was widely viewed as unlikely, but in recent months, particularly after the end of the war in Gaza, analysts projected the possibility increasingly.

A strong shekel reduces the prices of imported goods and airline flights while moderating inflation, which has returned to within the Bank of Israel’s annual target range of 1%–3%. Bank of Israel data also reflect increased foreign investment, with net inflows reaching $39 billion in 2025, compared with $25 billion in 2024.
Credo to acquire Israeli chip startup DustPhotonics for up to $1.3 billion
Israeli chip company DustPhotonics is being acquired by the U.S.-based Credo Technology Group for $750 million in cash and an additional $123 million in shares.

The deal also includes a potential earnout of up to 3.2 million additional Credo shares, which, based on the current share price, is valued at approximately $430 million.

Credo, which is traded on Nasdaq with a market capitalization of around $24 billion, specializes in connectivity solutions for data centers. The acquisition of DustPhotonics is expected to accelerate its expansion into the optical communications sector.

DustPhotonics Chairman Avigdor Willenz previously sold Habana Labs to Intel and Annapurna Labs to AWS. Since its founding, the company has raised over $100 million from investors including Willenz and funds such as Greenfield Partners, Sienna Venture Capital, Exor Ventures, and Atreides Management.

"Silicon photonics is becoming a critical building block for AI infrastructure, and DustPhotonics has built a truly differentiated technology platform in this space," said Willenz. "We have been disciplined in focusing on the right architecture and execution, and the results are evident in both the product and customer traction. Combining with Credo creates a powerful platform with the scale, integration, and customer access required to fully capture the opportunity ahead."

DustPhotonics specializes in silicon photonics, technology that integrates optical functions onto a single chip, enabling faster and more efficient data transmission. Its products are already deployed in optical transceivers used in large-scale AI clusters, with capabilities spanning 400G, 800G and 1.6T speeds, and a roadmap extending further.
Apple TV releases 'Unconditional' drama series trailer
Apple TV released a trailer for the new much-anticipated drama series, Unconditional, from co-creators Adam Bizanski (Magpie) and Dana Idisis (On the Spectrum). The eight-episode thriller series is from Keshet International and stars Liraz Chamami (Bad Boy, Manayek) alongside newcomer Talia Lynne Ronn, and will have its premiere in Israel on Keshet 12 before the end of April.

Its global debut will be on Apple TV with the first two episodes airing on May 8, followed by a new episode every Friday through June 19.

Unconditional follows a mother-daughter vacation-turned-nightmare when 23-year-old Gali (Ronn) is arrested for drug smuggling in Moscow. Her mother, Orna (Chamami), refuses to accept that her daughter is guilty as charged, and her fight for Gali’s freedom pulls her into a confusing and deadly web of crime and corruption. The trailer shows the daughter’s arrest and the mother’s frantic efforts to understand what is really going on, as she finds out that her daughter had a stack of foreign passports. She turns to Shin Bet agents and her daughter’s former army commanders, who all tell her something different, and she isn’t sure whom to trust.




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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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