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Friday, April 17, 2026

04/16 Links Pt2: The Holocaust began with words and then ordinary people normalising hate – the same pattern we see today; Israel Memorial Day 2026: 170 soldiers killed, 79 victims of terror

From Ian:

Lord Pickles: The Holocaust began with words and then ordinary people normalising hate – the same pattern we see today
This is the full text of a speech delivered by Lord Eric Pickles at Northwood and Ruislip Synagogue on Yom Hashoah, April 14, 2026

We gather this evening with solemnity and gravity, conscious that the Holocaust occupies a unique and terrible place in human history. On Yom HaShoah, you come together as a Jewish community – and with friends of the community – to honour the six million Jewish people murdered in the Shoah: lives extinguished not by chance, not as an accidental by‑product of war, but as the deliberate outcome of hatred, ideology, and systematic dehumanisation.

Six million can dull rather than sharpen understanding. Our task tonight is to resist that temptation – to remember that the Holocaust did not happen to a statistic, but to individual human beings: each with a name, a family, a profession, relationships, ambitions, and a future that was violently taken from them.

Yom HaShoah holds a particular moral weight because it is anchored not only in catastrophe, but in resistance. It falls on the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, when Jews – starved, besieged, abandoned by the world – chose dignity over submission and moral courage over silence. The day’s full name: the Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust and of Heroism – reminds us that Jewish history in this period cannot be reduced to victimhood alone.

This day exists because memory matters. Memory hosts truth.

But memory on its own is not enough.

Yom HaShoah was never intended to be comfortable. It exists not to console us, but to confront us. It demands reflection not only on what happened, but on how it could happen; not only on the dead, but on the living; not only on history, but on ourselves.

Because the Holocaust did not begin with gas chambers. It did not begin with death camps or mass murder. It began earlier, and far more quietly. It began with language that reframed human beings as problems to be managed. It began with laws and institutions that made exclusion appear reasonable, even necessary. And it began when ordinary people – people not unlike ourselves – chose not to stand up while standing up still seemed possible.

History rarely announces catastrophe.

History whispers long before it screams.

One of the greatest dangers facing Holocaust remembrance today is ritual without responsibility.

Ritual has its place. Ceremony can bind communities together in shared memory and collective mourning. When remembrance becomes routine, it risks losing its capacity to disturb, to challenge, and to warn.

The central lesson of the Holocaust is not simply that evil exists. Humanity has always known that. The deeper and more uncomfortable lesson is that evil flourishes when good people fail to act – when silence is reframed as prudence, caution mistaken for wisdom, and delay justified as restraint.

The Holocaust did not require universal hatred. It required acquiescence. It required millions of small decisions to comply, to adapt, to adjust expectations, and to wait for clarity that never came.
Jonathan Tobin: Neutrality in the fight against genocidal terror isn’t moral
Wars do solve some things
Still, that’s not the same thing as the pontiff actually being in the right on the underlying issue.

It is all well and good for Pope Leo to say he’s against all suffering, but in point of fact, he’s wrong about wars not solving anything. They may cause incalculable pain and are truly horrible. But wars have solved some problems. To take but one example from history in which the Vatican’s professed neutrality about conflicts didn’t cover it in glory, the defeat of Germany and its allies in the Second World War was the only way to defeat Nazism and end the Holocaust.

Not to put too fine a point on it, if a second Holocaust—the goal of Iran’s Islamist regime, as well as its Hamas and Hezbollah allies in Gaza and Lebanon, with respect to the state of Israel and its population—is to be avoided, it’s going to require more than papal sermons on the evil of wars.

And that is the focal point of the debate about the current Iran conflict, just as it was in the war against Hamas.

A just war
Calling for a permanent ceasefire may put a temporary end to the suffering caused by the conflict. And blasting warlike rhetoric from the combatants always makes those denouncing them seem morally superior. But if it means allowing Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah in their strongholds to rebuild and rearm—and to allow Tehran to resume its nuclear project, missile building and spreading terrorism around the globe—it is neither merciful nor just. Appeals to end the fighting while leaving jihadists in power—and capable of continuing their war on the West and non-Islamist civilization—are as inappropriate as they would have been for a ceasefire before the unconditional surrender of the Nazis in 1945.

The responsibility of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to prevent the mullahs in Tehran from persisting in their genocidal plotting and weapons building, which led directly to the horrors of Oct. 7. To merely denounce what happened on Oct. 7, as the pope did, is fine. But to oppose efforts to ensure that the murderers would be stopped from making good on their pledges to repeat those crimes over and over again, as he insinuated, isn’t an example of a higher morality. Treating murderers and those whose task it is to stop them as morally equivalent—and that’s what the pope and many other world leaders, especially in Western Europe, have done with respect to Hamas and Iran—is wrong, even if the motivation for such statements is rooted in an entirely laudable abhorrence of suffering.

Wars are awful and should be avoided if possible. But the battle against the Islamist terrorists running Iran, and their Hamas and Hezbollah minions whose Oct. 7 atrocities were just a trailer for what they wish to do to all Israelis, is a just one.

It is also impossible to separate the preaching against such just wars from the global surge of antisemitism that has spread since Oct. 7.
Vivian Bercovici: In Carney’s Canada, the law protects antisemites, not Jews
We cannot and should not be told by our government to build ever higher walls around our community centres, homes, schools, and synagogues. It is absurd, obscene and reminiscent of an era I would prefer not to invoke.

Canada’s organised Jewish community has always preferred a quiet approach to dealing with authorities. Even after the synagogue shootings, mainstream organisations were counselling cautious trust as we move forward. Perhaps this time, they said, the authorities and leadership will step up.

Days after the most recent attacks, Prime Minister Carney chose to spend time at an Iftar dinner in Ottawa, having a jolly old time working the room. He quite noticeably (and, one assumes, intentionally) has not met with any Jewish leaders since the shootings. He certainly has not been photographed glad-handing in rooms full of Canadian Jews. That omission is not an oversight.

Since being elected PM with a strong minority government on April 28, 2025 (as a result of a spate of “floor crossings” in the House and recent by-elections he now commands a parliamentary majority), Carney has not spoken with his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu. He has, however, been a reliably harsh and frequent critic of Israeli policy and Netanyahu himself. Among his more notable remarks was one made during an interview with Bloomberg News in October, 2025. When asked if he would honour the more than dubious ICC warrant issued for Netanyahu’s arrest (should he set foot on Canadian soil), Carney unhesitatingly responded in the affirmative.

And he went further, gratuitously criticising Netanyahu, claiming that “the actions of Netanyahu’s government were explicitly designed to end any possibility of a Palestinian state in violation of the UN Charter and going against Canadian government policy of any political stripe since 1947.”

Carney could have easily ducked or finessed his response. Instead, he chose – deliberately – to lash out. He is, of course, entitled to criticise Israeli policy. What he appears not to grasp is that doing so with such zeal stokes and legitimises violent antisemitism in Canada.

The message to Canada’s Jews is not subtle – and nor are its implications.


James Kirchick: The Strange New Respect for Jew-Haters
Fast-forward a year, and Uygur has changed his mind. “No, I’m not going to denounce Tucker Carlson or Candace Owens!” he declares. “We don’t have to denounce her at all. Don’t come at me about denouncing Candace Owens until you denounce Jared Kushner.” Last year, accusing Israel of “proudly doing a genocide”1 in Gaza, Uygur beseeched Carlson, Owens, and Greene to join forces with him and other progressives to “stop this.” He reached back in history to convey the gravity of the situation. “I would hope to god that if I was around in the 1930s and 1940s that I would have said, ‘Work with any right-wing populist and any left-wing populist or anyone period to stop that Holocaust,’ to save one more person,” he said, apparently unaware that it was the right-wing populists who were “doing” the Holocaust. In January, Uygur appeared on Carlson’s show, extending the hand of cooperation. “We’ve been taught by the media to hate each other and to have a tribal brain,” he said.

Carlson has also been gaining fans among Muslims, a proposition that would have shocked anyone who knew him personally or listened to his commentary over the past quarter century. “Democratic leadership has no idea how many people are being won over by Tucker Carlson and MTG right now over Israel,” the left-wing Substack writer Wajahat Ali tweeted, linking to a three-and-a-half-minute video in which the editor of the Economist tried unsuccessfully to get an answer out of Carlson on the question of whether Israel “has a right to exist.” Addressing speculation that Carlson might run for president, Washington Post columnist Shadi Hamid wrote, “If it was [Pennsylvania Governor Josh] Shapiro vs. Tucker, I could imagine a significant number of progressives, young people, Arabs, and Muslims sitting it out or actually voting for Tucker.”

What we’re witnessing in this live-action demonstration of the horseshoe theory of politics is the convening power of anti-Semitism. It’s hard to think of another issue that could unite such an ideologically diverse set of characters. Progressives by and large seem to be the drivers of the emerging alliance, so excited at the prospect of a conservative crack-up over Israel that they’re willing to overlook many areas of disagreement to usher it along. The January cover story in Harper’s by Andrew Cockburn entitled “How Gaza Broke MAGA,” reveals this dynamic. Cockburn, son of the British Stalinist journalist Claud and brother of the deceased crackpot columnist Alexander, claims that, prior to his death, Charlie Kirk “had shown clear signs that he was changing sides” on the matter of the Israel–Palestine conflict, something that “made him dangerous” in the eyes of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Cockburn’s basis for this allegation is a report from the pro-Assad stooge Max Blumenthal about a meeting in the Hamptons where the investor Bill Ackman browbeat Kirk over his supposed heresy.

Everyone who actually attended the meeting and has spoken on the record about it disputes this claim. No matter. Cockburn writes that Blumenthal’s story was “buttressed by Candace Owens,” which is like saying P.T. Barnum corroborated something said by Pinocchio. Owens, whom Kirk cut off long before his assassination and who has since devoted her career to tormenting his widow, appears to have been Cockburn’s main source for his story. “Charlie’s feelings toward Israel were changing,” she told him “in a long phone call.” Cockburn credulously reports her assertion that Netanyahu offered Kirk “a ton of money,” and he repeats a widely debunked claim that Israel pays social media influencers $7,000 per post. And this is the supposedly reasonable Cockburn.

Like the rest of his Stalinist comrades at the time, Claud Cockburn turned on a dime when the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany made peace in the fall of 1939. Overnight, they went from denouncing Hitler to lambasting Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. “Suddenly the scum of the earth and the blood-stained butcher of the workers (for so they had described one another) were marching arm in arm,” George Orwell wrote of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, whose supporters exhibited a level of cynicism and ruthlessness that repulsed decent people. The same can be said of their latter-day epigones.


Ask Haviv Anything: 107: What does Ezra Klein get wrong?
Welcome to another installment of our short-form episodes that dive into often-asked questions about Israel, Jews and the Middle East.

Our current episode tackles the New York Times’ Ezra Klein’s recent video about the “one-state reality” of Israelis and Palestinians, which many listeners have asked us to respond to. We watched it and were disappointed. We ask the question:

What does Ezra Klein get wrong?

Chapters
00:00 Response to Ezra Klein's Video
03:05 The Reality of Israeli Power
06:06 Palestinian Politics and the Future
08:57 Understanding Hezbollah and Lebanon
12:14 The Complexity of Gaza and Hamas


Pope Leo Celebrates Christian Genocide in Algeria
In 1955, Algeria had over 1 million Catholics and 140,000 Jews. Today, as Pope Leo visits Algeria, there are some 8,000 Catholics in Algeria and there are fewer than 200 Jews.

99% of the population of what was one of the old territories of Christianity are Sunni Muslims.

Was Islam so popular that all the Christians and Jews decided to convert? Not at all. They were persecuted, murdered, tortured and driven out by Islamic violence that occurred in our lifetimes.

Christians and Jews had lived in Algeria since Roman times. Now they’re gone.

This Christian genocide was endorsed by major world powers, aided and abetted by the French government and celebrated in movies, books and classroom lessons. And by Pope Leo XIV.

Alongside paying tribute to the 19 Martyrs of Algeria, beatified in 2018, priests, monks and nuns, including 7 beheaded monks and 2 nuns murdered on the way to mass, by Islamic terrorists who later received amnesty for their crimes, Pope Leo also paid tribute to Muslim Jihadists.

Pope Leo visited Algeria’s so-called Martyrs’ Monument, “Maqam Echahid,” located above the El Mujahid or Jihadi Museum, erected by former Islamic-Socialist terrorist dictator Houari Boumédiène who had headed the ALN, one of whose specialties was the “Smile of Kabylie” in which the tongue was pulled through a slit throat, and which was responsible for the Oran Massacre of Christians and Jews thereby ethnically cleansing a formerly non-Muslim city.

Women and children had their throats cut by Muslim mobs bent on slaughter. 250,000 non-Muslims had lived in Oran. After the massacres, over 200,000 survivors fled.

Pope Leo XIV visited the Jihadi site and in his remarks claimed that “our presence here at this monument pays tribute to this history of Algeria and to the very spirit of a people who fought for the independence, dignity and sovereignty of this nation.”


Hasan Piker and the Hamasification of the Democrats
He also said of the sexual violence committed by Hamas: ‘It doesn’t matter if rape happened on October 7. It doesn’t change the dynamic for me.’

Honestly, what is it with young lefties and their glib, shallow cruelty? Back in my day, lefties were mostly portly old men in charity-shop jumpers, plus a handful of firebrand young women in leather jackets and bookish but cute young fellas. This is a new breed entirely. They advocate for killing billionaires and Israelis like a bunch of blood-soaked fanatics, yet they also evince a spoiled world-weariness reminiscent of the rich-kid villains in 1980s teen movies. They show none of the starry-eyed idealistic fervour young lefties (myself included) had in the past. They are grotesque.

It’s disconcerting – to put it mildly – that views like this are now openly promoted on mainstream platforms like Pod Save America. Clearly, the left has an extremism problem.

Ultimately, Piker represents the triumph of the radical professors over the old blue-collar Democratic Party. This is a tragedy for the American working class, who in election after election have told Democrats that they have no truck with pie-in-the-sky, rich-kid communists and their destructive ideas.

More sensible Democrats are calling on their fellow party members to ‘draw a line in the sand’ and ‘shun’ Hasan Piker. But they are likely to lose this battle. That is not good for any American, left or right.
Mamdani dodges continued questions about wife’s extreme social media history
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani refused to speak directly to his wife’s inflammatory social media history, a day after First Lady Rama Duwaji indicated in an interview she regrets posting a racial slur online while in high school, but stopped short of apologizing for much more recent activity signaling support for Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks.

The democratic socialist mayor initially dismissed JI’s reporting by asserting his wife was a “private person.” But on Wednesday, Duwaji made the latest in a string of media appearances, discussing her art career with the online cultural outlet Hyperallergic.

In the discussion, Duwaji appeared to address revelations by The Washington Free Beacon that she had used the N-word on Tumblr as an adolescent — but not the conservative outlet’s reporting of posts she shared celebrating Palestinian terrorist figures, or of JI’s earlier discovery that she had liked posts that applauded and defended the 2023 Hamas assault on Israel.

“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 Hyperallergic’s editor-in-chief. “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.”

Hyperallergic did not follow up on this point, and the mayor’s office declined to answer a New York Times query on Wednesday on whether she felt remorse over her more recent political posts.


Hamas bomber, PFLP commander exchanged for Oct. 7 hostages to speak at Argentina trade union HQ
Two Palestinian terrorists released in ransoms for the October 7 Massacre hostages are set to speak on Friday at the San Lorenzo headquarters of Argentina's State Workers Association (ATE), according to social media posts by the union's Rosario branch and Action for Palestine Rosario.

While it is unclear if they will be speaking to participants remotely, Hamas terrorist Osman Bilal and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine commander Nader Sadaqa are listed by Action for Palestine as the "Palestinian activists and former prisoners" who are set to give live talks at a Palestinian Prisoners' Day event.

Bilal was serving 27 life sentences before he was released last February alongside hundreds of other terrorists in exchange for hostages Avera Mengistu, Eliya Cohen, Hisham al-Sayed, Omer Wenkert, Omer Shem Tov, and Tal Shoham. According to the Palestinian Information Center, Bilal was involved in the planning of the July 1995 Ramat Gan and August 1995 bus suicide bombings, which collectively murdered 12 and wounded over 140.

Sadaqa, a Samaritan man, served 22 years of his six life terms before being released as part of the October ceasefire deal and exiled to Egypt, according to Ynet. He served as one of the commanders of the PFLP's Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, and in 2004 was indicted for involvement in a series of attacks, including the December 2003 Geha Junction bombing, the February 2003 Mount Gerizim attack, and the April 2003 Beqaot base attack. Those three attacks alone resulted in the death of four civilians and four soldiers, and 34 were wounded.

The event was organized by Action for Palestine Rosario, but the ATE Rosario branch promoted the event.


Australian court overturns law clamping down on protests in wake of Bondi massacre protest law
A law clamping down on protests following the deadly Bondi Beach terror attack targeting Australia’s Jewish community was overturned by a court on Thursday, a written ruling showed.

Activists had challenged the New South Wales legislation, enacted 10 days after the December 14 massacre that killed 15 people and wounded dozens at a beachside Hanukkah candlelighting event.

Australia launched ​a government-backed inquiry into antisemitism and social cohesion, with findings due by December. The government has already strengthened gun laws ​and introduced new hate speech legislation following the Bondi massacre.

The protest law gave police the power to restrict public assemblies in declared areas, making it impossible to get a permit for any protests and allowing officers to order people to move away.

The state government pushed for the crackdown to protect cohesion and community safety at a time of high tensions, the Court of Appeal heard.

But the legal provisions were “constitutionally impermissible,” Chief Justice Andrew Bell found in a written ruling.


Thai fighter abruptly withdraws from bout against Israeli
A Muay Thai fighter from Thailand has withdrawn from a bout in Lithuania against an Israeli contestant 48 hours before the fight was scheduled to take place, Israel’s broadcaster Channel 12 reported on Thursday.

Sources close to the Israeli Thai boxer Ahavat Hashem Gordon were cited as saying that Saksri Superlek decided to withdraw after learning that his rival was from Israel.

Superlek officially seceded due to a visa-related problem.

The two were scheduled to fight on April 18 at the Žalgiris Arena in Kaunas in a title match, in a competition hosted by the Lithuanian UTMA (Unique and Talented Martial Artists) organization.

A Spanish fighter agreed to fight Gordon instead, but they will not fight for a championship belt, according to Channel 12.

On Feb. 21, Gordon defeated Turkish fighter Ali Koyuncu in a highly anticipated fight also hosted by UTMA in Lithuania. Before the fight, the Turkish national slandered Gordon and made some anti-Israel comments, Walla News reported at the time.

Koyuncu surrendered after two rounds. Gordon celebrated his victory wearing an Israeli flag and a yarmulke on the ring.
Mets Decline to Hold Jewish Heritage Night Again
The New York Mets will not be hosting a Jewish Heritage Night celebration this season, despite having done so in previous years. The team's 2026 special events calendar includes heritage nights for various other communities, but the Jewish community has been left out once again. Why it matters

The Mets' decision to exclude a Jewish Heritage Night is seen as disappointing by many fans, especially given the large Jewish population in New York and the surrounding area. The team's failure to recognize this community stands out in contrast to the other identity-based events they have scheduled.

The details
The Mets had previously held a Jewish Heritage Night in past seasons, but discontinued the event in 2023. This year, the team's packed slate of identity-based events includes celebrations for Italian, Puerto Rican, Japanese, Korean, Irish, Dominican, and Mexican communities, as well as Black Legacy and Pride events, but no recognition of the Jewish community.

The Mets discontinued their Jewish Heritage Night in 2023.
The team's 2026 special events calendar was recently released, revealing the absence of a Jewish Heritage Night.
George Washington University Hires Federal Judge Overseeing Antisemitism Lawsuit Against It To Teach 'Ethics and Discretionary Judgment'
George Washington University hired the federal judge who is presiding over a lawsuit accusing the school of "pervasive and severe antisemitic harassment" to teach a GW Law course on "ethics and discretionary judgment," social media posts and course materials reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon show. That judge, Biden appointee Loren AliKhan, has yet to recuse herself from the case, prompting criticism from legal experts.

GW Law School's Field Placement Program announced on February 25 that it hired AliKhan, who sits on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, to teach a corequisite course on "judicial lawyering." Topics covered in the class include "protocol, professionalism, judicial decision-making," "an attorney's ethical duties and discretionary judgment," and "the attorney's role in creating a legal system that should provide equal access and eliminate bias, discrimination, and racism in the law," according to a course bulletin, which says the class is part of the Spring 2026 semester. That semester started on January 12, suggesting AliKhan was hired before the school's announcement.

AliKhan—whom then-president Joe Biden nominated to the court in May 2023, noting that she would be "the first South Asian woman to serve on United States District Court for the District of Columbia," and who needed a tie-breaking vote from then-vice president Kamala Harris to secure Senate confirmation—has not recused herself from the antisemitism lawsuit against her new employer. In fact, it wasn't until weeks after the job announcement that AliKhan acknowledged a potential conflict of interest when she issued a 10-day stay on March 30 "to assess whether she has a conflict that warrants her disqualification, disclosure to the parties, or other appropriate action." She later scheduled a "status conference" for April 20.

Law professors told the Free Beacon that the delay is unnecessary—because federal law and other rules make clear that AliKhan should have recused herself immediately.
Brandeis Center convenes inaugural conference on antisemitism at Harvard
Held as America prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary this summer, Marcus said the headline session will focus “on how we define antisemitism as lawyers and professionals, and why a proper definition of antisemitism matters for America at this point in time.” The panelists will include Andrea Martin, co-chair of the Center for Jewish Legal Studies; Nathan Diament, executive director for the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center; Alyza Lewin, president of U.S. affairs for Combat Antisemitism Movement; and Julie Paris, Mid-Atlantic regional director of StandWithUs.

The plenary session, “Towards a Jewish Civil Rights Movement,” moderated by Marcus, will feature William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations; Elan Carr, CEO of Israeli-American Council and former special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism; and Miriam Elman, executive director of the Academic Engagement Network.

A separate panel, moderated by Anat Alon-Beck, a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, will explore new avenues for litigation against antisemitism.

Attendees are expected to include Harvard community members, Jewish activists, lawyers and scholars, according to Marcus, who served as assistant secretary of education for civil rights in President Donald Trump’s first administration.

In January 2025, the Brandeis Center settled its lawsuit with Harvard, which alleged that since the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel, students and faculty on campus called for violence against Jews and celebrated Hamas’ terrorism as the university ignored harassment — including a physical assault — of Jewish students.


Israeli court rejects NYT writer’s libel suit
An Israeli court on Sunday dismissed a libel suit filed by New York Times journalist Ronen Bergman against Gadi Taub, a prominent intellectual on Israel’s political right. Taub had argued that Bergman’s reporting jeopardized the Mossad’s 2024 pager operation against Hezbollah.

Bergman said this week that he plans to appeal. The case became a rare wartime legal clash over public discourse and journalistic ethics, pitting two prominent figures from opposite ends of Israel’s increasingly polarized media landscape against each other.

The ruling also came amid a wave of lawsuits over right-wing rhetoric online. In dismissing the suit and ordering Bergman to pay 15,000 shekels (about $5,000) in court costs, the court upheld Taub’s right to criticize what he has called “the Ronen Bergman method.” Taub uses that phrase to describe what he sees as a symbiotic relationship between unelected defense officials seeking to shape Israeli policy and a journalist who gives them access to international media in exchange for exclusive information.

Taub, a frequent op-ed contributor to JNS, has argued that this dynamic, while not unique to Israel, became dangerous in Bergman’s coverage of the pager operation shortly before it was carried out.

Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court Judge Lior Gelbard wrote that Bergman had failed to prove the central claim in his suit, in which he sought 330,000 shekels (about $109,000) in damages. Bergman had argued that Taub defamed him personally by suggesting his reporting, based on leaks from defense officials allegedly trying to block the operation, had endangered the mission.

“Taub criticized [Bergman’s] journalism, which he [Taub] said ‘faithfully echoes’ the security establishment,” Gelbard wrote. The criticism, he added, “apparently also was directed at Bergman, but it does not seem from [Taub’s] text that Bergman knew about the pager operation or tried to thwart it. Bergman is not the focus of the article, the establishment is.”

Taub made the remarks on X and on his podcast, Shomer Saf (“Gatekeeper”), in response to an article by Bergman in Yedioth Ahronoth, where Bergman also writes in addition to his work for the New York Times.


Argentinian judge to be tried for antisemitism after calling Jews 'rats' and 'vipers'
For the first time in history, an Argentinian judge is set to be tried for antisemitism due to discriminatory remarks made about Jews on social media. The proceedings follow complaints filed in March 2025 by the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations (DAIA) and the Argentine Forum Against Antisemitism (FACA).

On Wednesday, the plenary of the National Council of the Judiciary unanimously voted to begin removal proceedings against Judge Alfredo Lopez of Federal Court No. 4 of Mar del Plata (Buenos Aires) for poor performance, citing antisemitic expressions on social media.

DAIA and FACA said Judge Lopez has repeatedly used the terms “Race of vipers” and “rats” to refer to the Jewish people. He has also accused Argentinian Jews of not being truly Argentine (on X/Twitter: “The one they’re persecuting is me, but I’m Argentine and you’re foreigners”).

These statements constitute antisemitic behavior, as defined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), which was adopted by Argentina in 2020.

The Accusations Commission of the Council analyzed posts made between 2024 and 2025 and concluded that, taken together, they could constitute grounds for misconduct. The commission found 17 posts that contained antisemitic content.

Council member Jimena De la Torre said that “freedom of expression does not protect hatred, discrimination, or the loss of decorum required by the position,” and considered that the statements evaluated affect the dignity of the judiciary and public trust in the justice system.
Counter terror cops look at possible foreign influence over attacks on UK Jews
Counter-terrorism officers are looking into the possibility that foreign state actors are paying people in this country to carry out attacks on Jewish and diaspora Iranian communities.

Confirmation that this was one of several lines of inquiry came as two of the Metropolitan Police’s most senior officers revealed they are dealing with an “unprecedented level of national security investigations, some with suspected links to foreign states”.

Appearing at a media briefing on Thursday, Deputy Commissioner Matt Jukes and Deputy Assistant Commissioner Vicki Evans, the Senior National Coordinator for Counter-Terrorism Policing, both highlighted the threat to the Jewish and other communities posed by those feared to be acting for foreign states.

Although the pair stopped short of explicitly stating fears over Iranian influence.

It also emerged that three separate incidents are now being investigated by Counter Terrorism Policing London: an arson attack on the Golders Green Hatzola Jewish community building on 23 March, an attempted arson at Finchley Reform Synagogue in the early hours of 15 April, and an arson attack on the offices of Iran International, a Persian-language media organisation, later the same evening.

While none have been formally declared terrorist incidents, and police are treating them as separate cases, officers acknowledged they are obviously similar in nature, although officers retain an open mind in respect of any motivation behind any of the attacks.

In a wider context, police also confirmed that 28 people have now been arrested in connection with antisemitic hate crimes since the Golders Green attack — including 20 arrests in the two weeks immediately following the incident, among them 13 during the Passover period alone.

Significantly, Jukes issued a broader warning about the threat of foreign interference in the UK — though he was careful to stress he was not commenting directly on the three live investigations when doing so.
Ohio restaurant cancels gubernatorial candidate’s event over ‘pro-Nazi opinions’
An Ohio restaurant canceled a campaign event for Republican gubernatorial candidate Casey Putsch after citing his past remarks about Nazis, prompting him to relocate the rally to a “secret location.”

The Wielezynski family, owners of La Chatelaine French Bakery & Bistro, stated on Wednesday that they withdrew from hosting the April 17 event at its Worthington location after learning of statements Putsch had made about Adolf Hitler, Nazis and the Holocaust.

“We unequivocally denounce those who express pro-Nazi opinions and beliefs and will not host individuals who are at odds with our stance,” the family said, noting their roots in Poland, France and Belgium and relatives who suffered under Nazi persecution.

“We acknowledge we should have more carefully researched him and his campaign before agreeing to host this event,” the owners stated. “We sincerely apologize for this oversight.”

Putsch, a northwest Ohio entrepreneur known online as “Casey the Car Guy,” is running in the Republican primary for governor alongside Vivek Ramaswamy and Heather Hill. The winner is expected to face Amy Acton, the Democratic candidate, in November.

The controversy follows criticism of Putsch’s campaign messaging, including promotion of an April 9 “beer hall rally” in Toledo — a name widely viewed as a reference to the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, Adolf Hitler’s failed coup attempt in Munich.

“Drive your German car to the brewery and Beer Hall Rally, and I’ll buy you a beer,” he wrote. “It’s okay if it rains. German cars don’t rust like Italian, Japanese or British. And who drives a Russian or Israeli car anyway?”

After the cancellation, Putsch said the event was called off “due to extreme harassment from the left and Vivek shills,” adding that he relocated it “to protect the French restaurant owners.”

He has denied Nazi sympathies, but has drawn scrutiny for past comments about Hitler, rhetoric targeting Israel and Jewish figures and received support from white nationalist podcaster Nick Fuentes.


Two Israeli films selected for Tribeca Festival
Two very different Israeli films will screen at the 2026 Tribeca Festival in New York. Israeli films have long had a strong presence at the festival, which will run from June 3-14.

Ruthy Pribar’s new feature, What is to Come, has been selected for the international competition and will have its world premiere at the festival, according to press materials. The film stars Ronit Yudkevitz and Yaakov Zada Daniel.

The selection marks a return to Tribeca for Pribar, whose debut feature, Asia, also screened there and won three awards – the Nora Ephron Prize for Pribar, Best Actress for Shira Haas, and Best Cinematography for Daniella Nowitz – before going on to take nine Ophir Awards in Israel.

“Our film was created during a period of much pain and uncertainty and presents the possibility of a new beginning and hope,” Pribar said. “I am happy and filled with pride at the opportunity to present the film before an audience, and I believe that the humanity in it will find its way into viewers’ hearts.”

The film centers on Yehudit and Michael, a farming couple in their 60s who fall into a deep financial crisis and decide to end their lives. At the last moment, Yehudit changes her mind, but for Michael it is too late. Left alone for the first time in 40 years, she must grapple with fear, guilt, and mounting debts. When creditors come knocking, she flees to Eilat, where she meets Eli and tries to build a new life.

“Participation in an international festival has become a high bar for Israeli films,” producer Yoav Roeh said. “We hope that the screening in New York marks the beginning of a change, and that in the near future, we will return to days when it was a source of pride to represent Israeli culture.”


PA said to extradite to France key suspect in 1982 Paris antisemitic terror attack
The Palestinian Authority has extradited to France a key suspect in a deadly 1982 terror attack on a Jewish restaurant in Paris, Arabic news reports said Thursday.

The terror shooting, in which six people were killed and 22 injured, was at the time the deadliest antisemitic atrocity in France since World War II.

Mahmoud Khader Abed Adra, known as “Hicham Harb,” is suspected of leading the attackers in the gun assault on the Jo Goldenberg restaurant in Paris’s Marais district, a historically Jewish quarter. He has been the subject of an international arrest warrant for 10 years.

Last September, reports said Harb, now 70, had been arrested by PA security forces, though this was never officially confirmed by the authority.

According to the Qatari newspaper Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, a hearing had been scheduled for Thursday at a Palestinian court in Ramallah regarding France’s extradition request.

However, Harb’s family instead received a call from the Ramallah police chief informing them that he was en route to Jordan, from where he would be extradited to France, the report said. People stand in front of the Chez Jo Goldenberg restaurant in Paris on August 11, 1982, two days after the Jewish delicatessen was attacked by terrorists. (AFP / JOEL ROBINE)

The attack began around midday when a grenade was tossed into the dining room of the Parisian eatery.

The attackers then entered the restaurant, which had around 50 customers inside, and opened fire with Wz-63 Polish-made machine guns. They also shot at passers-by as they escaped.

French authorities announced in 2015 — nearly 33 years after the attack — that international arrest warrants had been issued for Harb and five other suspects. In July, a French judge ordered a trial for them.

One of the defendants, Hazza Taha, was detained last year in Paris. Another defendant, Walid Abdulrahman Abu Zayed, 66, had emigrated with his family to Norway and was extradited to France in 2020.

The six suspects in the terror attack are thought to have been members of Abu Nidal, a terror group named for its late leader, whose real name was Sabri al-Banna.
Israel Memorial Day 2026: 170 soldiers killed, 79 victims of terror since last year
Ahead of Memorial Day next Tuesday, the Defense Ministry and the National Insurance Institute on Thursday released updated figures on the number of fallen service members, civilian victims of attacks and bereaved families since Oct. 7.

According to the Defense Ministry, the total number of those who have fallen in Israel’s military campaigns since 1860 now stands at 25,644. Over the past year, 170 people were added to that number, along with 54 disabled veterans who died as a result of their disabilities and were recognized as fallen service members.

The military bereavement circle now includes 59,583 family members in Israel, the ministry said. That figure includes 8,420 bereaved parents, 4,872 widows, 14,430 orphans, 31,814 bereaved siblings, 12 fiancées and 35 guardians.

At the same time, National Insurance data underscored the scale of the toll on civilians. The number of civilian victims since the establishment of the Jewish community in the land in 1851 stands at 5,313. Since the establishment of the state, 4,587 civilians have been killed, including 810 children and teenagers.

Since the Oct. 7 attack and the start of the war, 1,017 civilians have been killed, the agency said. In the past year alone, 79 civilians were killed, many of them during the two operations against Iran.

National Insurance said 99,156 victims of attacks are currently registered in Israel and 14,815 bereaved family members are being treated by the agency, including 4,932 orphans.




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