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Monday, June 01, 2026

05/31 Links: Rachel's Life in Pieces; Einat Wilf: What the Arab World Knew All Along & How Israel Lost the Information War; Netanyahu hails capture of Lebanon’s Beaufort Castle

From Ian:

Rachel's Life in Pieces
REVIEW: 'When We See You Again' by Rachel Goldberg-Polin
"Once upon a time, I was meandering down the road of life with my husband, Jon. It was a regular and beige life, and it worked. It was a warm beige. We felt, and were, blessed and lucky. Normal.

"Suddenly, one day, while walking along our way, a metaphorical 18-wheeler semitruck hit us from behind and broke every bone in our bodies. All 412 of our combined bones were fractured, our spirits were mangled, and our hearts were stolen. Our life was stolen.

"That day was October 7th, 2023."

So begins the soul-searing memoir by Rachel Goldberg-Polin, the Chicago-born American-Israeli whose globe-trotting efforts to free her son Hersh from Hamas captivity ended when he was murdered in a tunnel in Gaza 330 days after his kidnapping.

When We See You Again is a book no parent should ever have to write but every American should read. That every Israeli will read it I take as given, considering the prominence of Hersh in the country's national consciousness and the fact that posters pleading for his release still cling stubbornly to street signs across the world's only Jewish state.

The book is an attempt by a bereaved mother, beloved by the millions of people across the globe who read and watched her and her husband's efforts on behalf of their only son, to capture Hersh's personality beyond the headlines and psychologically work through her unimaginable grief. "Since my heart is shattered into tiny pieces," she writes, "it is easier to share than when it was one mighty, solid, and strong heart. So please take a shard. Be careful, they are sharp." Its brilliance lies in the author's weaving of unending loss and boundless frustration alongside attempts to find measures of comfort through Jewish teachings (by profession, she is an educator). Additionally wise is her avoidance of distracting the reader with partisan politics. No political figure in America or Israel is mentioned by name and she does not take a side on the debate that roiled the global Jewish community as to whether imprisoned terrorists should be freed in exchange for civilian hostages.

The reader is reminded of Hamas's brutality, often absent from daily headlines about Middle East negotiations and by those who would seek a Palestinian state. Describing how Israeli authorities found the bodies of Hersh and his fellow murdered captives, she unsparingly and clinically notes, "They were all skeletal, filthy (the coroner estimated they had not bathed in months), bearing scars of torture, and riddled with close-range bullet wounds. Hersh had six. And his hair was covered in gunpowder." She details how Chaim Peri, an 80-year-old peace activist, was kidnapped and murdered after 100 days of captivity. While Goldberg-Polin doesn't dwell on every horrific detail, it's worth reminding readers that on the 7th, Hamas also killed Holocaust survivors, burned Jews alive in their homes, sexually abused both living and dead victims, and livestreamed the murder of grandmothers on Facebook. Forty-six Americans had their lives snuffed out that day.
Jake Wallis Simons: The anti-Zionism mob is showing its true insidious colours
On the surface, the anti-Zionist cover story is quite convincing. They simply long for the evil state of Israel to be replaced by a single, democratic country with equal rights for all. The Zionist project was a historic mistake and should be humanely dismantled. Pretty reasonable, no?

Not so fast. For one thing, if you’re going to start dismantling every country with a history of injustice, best of luck to America, Australia, Canada, Turkey, Pakistan and India, all the Latin American states founded through Spanish and Portuguese conquest, all the European states built through centuries of feudal warfare and empire, and much of Africa and the Middle East.

Secondly, any practical thoughts on that single state for Jews and Palestinian Arabs? Here’s a clue: think October 7 and multiply it. So what’s the solution? Send the Jews back to the countries from which they most recently fled, like Poland, Russia, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Egypt and Libya? What about the racists in those countries who persist in their demands that the Jews go “back to Israel”?

They must know all this, just as they must know that “Death to the IDF” would mean a second Holocaust. Regardless, celebrities like Gary Lineker and Juliet Stevenson craft the anti-Israel narrative, while progressive Jews like Miriam Margolyes and Zack Polanski provide the alibi. “Respect” is awarded. Then the shock troops go in.

Here’s another flavour of the idiocy of the scene. Molly Crabapple, an anti-Zionist writer, recently published a book about Bundism. This was an Eastern European Jewish socialist movement of the 20th century which opposed the Zionist dream of returning to the land of Israel. Instead, Bundism promoted “doikayt”, a Yiddish word meaning “hereness”, insisting that Jews should fight for dignity where they already lived. According to The Economist, this could inspire modern Jews who “want to celebrate their heritage without tying themselves to Israel”.

Thanks for that. Here’s the problem: the Bundists were slaughtered in the Holocaust. This, then, is a vignette with a warning. To prevent the rhyming of history, we need immunity to spin. Insidious ideas must be given their true names, regardless of the nomenclature shrilly demanded by their proponents.
British Museum evacuated after ‘suspicious device’ found days after Jewish event postponed
The British Museum was evacuated on Saturday after staff discovered a suspicious device in a visitor toilet and received what it described as “malicious communications”, just days after the institution faced criticism for postponing a Jewish Culture Month lecture on ancient Israel over security concerns.

Police were called to the museum at around 2.50pm and between 12,000 and 16,000 visitors were evacuated as a precaution.

The Metropolitan Police later confirmed that the package was found to be non-suspicious and that there was no ongoing threat. The museum reopened shortly before 4pm.

In a statement, the museum said: “Earlier today, the British Museum was evacuated as a precaution after a suspicious device was discovered in a visitor toilet. At the same time, the museum received malicious communications, which were treated seriously and reported to the relevant authorities.

“As this remains a police matter, we will not be providing further comment on the nature of the communications received.”

The incident comes less than a week after the museum postponed a lecture on the kingdoms of ancient Israel and Judah, which had been scheduled as part of Jewish Culture Month.

The lecture, due to be delivered by Paul Collins, Keeper of the Department of the Middle East, was postponed after concerns that activists planned to disrupt the event. Museum officials said intelligence suggested a significant proportion of those registered to attend intended to prevent the lecture from proceeding.

The decision sparked widespread criticism, with politicians, historians and public figures accusing the museum of capitulating to threats of disruption.
David Collier: Antisemitism and Ignorance on Display at Cambridge Market Square
Last week someone showed me a photograph of a pro-Palestine stall in Cambridge Market Square. What I saw was not angry students or hardened activists, but four elderly women – probably in their seventies – who had chosen to spend their day urging strangers to boycott Israel.

The image stayed with me – and I decided that I wanted a closer look at what was actually taking place. So yesterday I went up to Cambridge to listen to what they were saying. Selling a Fictional Palestine

When I arrived, the stall was slightly larger than the one I had seen in the photograph, with perhaps six people gathered around it. The women from the original image were there, now accompanied by a couple of younger men. For a while I simply stood nearby, looked through the maps and leaflets laid out on the table, and listened to the conversations taking place with members of the public who had stopped to engage.

At one point, one of the Cambridge Palestine Solidarity Campaign activists was speaking to three young people, probably in their early twenties. The discussion turned to the word “Palestine” – and it quickly became clear that none of those involved had any real grounding in the history they were attempting to discuss.

For much of the last two millennia, “Palestine” was primarily a geographic term used by successive imperial and colonial powers in reference to the Holy Land. It was not part of the traditional identity of the local Arab population. Yet the subject has become so politically charged that many pro-Palestinian campaigners now tie themselves in ahistorical knots trying to pretend otherwise.

Which was exactly what I encountered.

After the group moved on, and noticing my interest in the stall, one of the women approached me. I deliberately chose not to challenge her or present myself as informed. I wanted to test the depth of her knowledge, so rather than appearing as an adversary, I presented myself as someone open to being educated.

We spoke for around twenty minutes, and almost everything she told me was either misleading, historically confused, or simply false.

Here are a few examples:
Invading armies
I was told that while the Arab armies did invade in 1948, they only entered the areas allocated to the proposed Arab state and did not enter the Jewish enclave. This is simply false. Egyptian, Syrian, Jordanian and Lebanese armies all entered areas allocated to the Jewish state. Jordanian forces also captured the Jewish areas within the international zone around Jerusalem and ethnically cleansed them of their Jewish population. At one stage, the Egyptian army was just twenty miles from Tel Aviv.

The woman was not merely mistaken. She was dramatically rewriting the nature, ambition and scope of the invasion.


'Peace, Not Now:' Inside the shaping of Israeli policy - review
Einat Wilf, an Israeli political figure, author, and international Jewish Public Diplomacy leader, has spent more than two decades fighting in the trenches of Israel’s core national security policy. Her latest book, Peace, Not Now, published in English this week, traces the ideas, decisions, and assumptions that shaped Israel in the decades leading up to October 7.

“Once upon a time, we were a society that knew how to produce, build, and accumulate capital – human capital, educational capital, industrial capital, territorial capital, diplomatic capital, military capital, and visionary capital,” Wilf writes in Peace, Not Now, arguing for a confident return to Zionist self-reliance, a clear definition of Israel’s borders, and a renewed emphasis on national cohesion and strength through unity.

Building on years of experience in national security and policymaking, in Peace, Not Now, the author sharply observes the undercurrents that shaped modern Israel. Wilf’s descriptions of events in their broader context are both insightful and precise, while her clear and engaging writing gives the book the pace of a political page-turner.

Today, as Wilf leads the Oz party, a new political party running in Israel’s upcoming elections, the book serves a clear call for change in an internally torn society.

The following is excerpted from Chapter Six of Peace, Not Now.
The Rubin Report: What the Arab World Knew All Along & How Israel Lost the Information War | Einat Wilf
Dave Rubin of “The Rubin Report” talks to Einat Wilf about why the Israeli left’s belief in a two-state solution collapsed after Yasser Arafat rejected peace offers at Camp David and the Second Intifada exposed deeper opposition to Jewish self-determination; the history of Israel, Zionism, the British Mandate for Palestine, and why Palestinians repeatedly rejected partition and statehood proposals; how Hamas, October 7th, UNRWA, and the global anti-Israel movement are rooted in an ideology focused on eliminating the Jewish state rather than building a Palestinian one; the information war over Gaza, antisemitism, Arab normalization with Israel, and the future of peace in the Middle East, and much more.




Israel Is America's Forward Defense Partner
On Nov. 23, 2025, Israel eliminated Hizbullah's chief of staff, Haytham Ali Tabataba'i. The U.S. State Department had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to Tabataba'i, citing his responsibility for operations that killed Americans. For years, Israel has directly advanced American interests and helped protect the U.S., Israel and the Free World from some of the most dangerous terrorist organizations on earth that were responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans. The U.S. benefits from an ally that actively removes direct threats to American interests - often without requiring American forces to fight.

Many countries shared the assessment that Iran posed a grave strategic threat. But only one country had both the capabilities and the willingness to act shoulder to shoulder with the U.S. in carrying out the campaign, while assuming significant risk. The military and intelligence cooperation with Israel enabled exceptional operational results that could not have been achieved in the same way without it.

Israel's unique and diverse intelligence capabilities have served American security in countless ways. Israeli intelligence has helped thwart terrorist activity on U.S. soil, systematically weakened terrorist organizations, and protected Americans in the Middle East. Cooperation between two of the world's leading intelligence communities creates a whole greater than the sum of its parts - making both nations safer.

Israel is also one of the most effective real-world testing grounds for American military systems. Israel's extensive use of U.S.-made weapons creates an unparalleled learning laboratory in which American systems are tested in combat against Soviet, Russian and Iranian-made weapons. When Israeli F-35s successfully operate against Russian or Iranian air defense systems, the U.S. gains critical lessons, and the world sees the superiority of American military technology over its competitors.

Israel's startup culture, when integrated with the scale and depth of the American defense ecosystem, has helped produce some of the world's most advanced missile defense layers. American access to Israeli defense innovation directly serves the U.S. effort to preserve its military and technological edge over its rivals. My American colleagues understood well that the U.S. has few partners as effective, useful and proactive as Israel. Israel's willingness to defend itself by itself makes it one of the highest-return security investments the U.S. can make.
Bret Stephens: A Deal or No Deal with Iran
A deal with Iran that allows the regime to emerge from the war as the perceived victor instantly magnifies our overall geopolitical risks. China will take note of the fact that the president lost his appetite for war after just 39 days and 13 military fatalities. U.S. allies in the region will take similar note. Why would the Saudis or Pakistanis want to incur the domestic risks of recognizing Israel if Israel and the U.S. look like the weak horses against Iran?

Worse: Iran's new leaders will draw the lesson that closing the Strait of Hormuz is a card they can play at will, knowing they have a greater tolerance than their adversaries for the pain it might impose. They will use it to extract an ever-increasing list of economic and strategic demands.

The closer we get to the midterms, the more political incentive Trump has to avoid conflict. The Iranians know this, which is why they'll play for time with a carefully balanced set of tantalizing promises and extraneous demands, whether about Hizbullah or the financial payoffs they'll insist upon in exchange for easily reversible concessions.

The Iranian regime hangs by slender threads: a worthless currency, a mostly bankrupt state, a badly wounded military, all-but-undefended airspace, and a leadership whose final claim to legitimacy is that it has stood up to the Great and Little Satans and, so far, survived.
Negotiation as War by Other Means: Why Iran Deals Fail Before They're Signed
Iran views negotiations not as a path to permanent peace, but as a continuation of conflict through diplomatic means. The regime sees agreements as tactical pauses that preserve the broader struggle rather than resolve it.

Iran's strategic culture is shaped by the concepts of endurance, sacrifice, and martyrdom rooted in Shi'a history. Survival and continued resistance are more important than material losses, allowing the regime to frame hardship as ideological victory.

Temporary truces are a recurring strategic model used to buy time, regroup, and strengthen before resuming confrontation. Iran's recent ceasefire behavior around the Strait of Hormuz is an example of this approach. Iran's internal power structure is divided between pragmatic negotiators and hardline ideological institutions tied to the Supreme Leader and the IRGC. These parallel systems are capable of obstructing or quietly reversing concessions even after agreements are signed.

The U.S. must not give up leverage too early through phased diplomacy. Sanctions, military pressure, and blockades have weakened Iran's networks, and easing that pressure prematurely could allow Tehran to regroup economically and militarily.
You Cannot Make a Deal with a Regime that Uses Lies as a Strategic Weapon
I have been watching reports of negotiations between the U.S. and the Islamic Republic of Iran with anguish. I want to believe that President Trump understands what I know as the truth about the Islamic Republic: that you can never negotiate with them, and they will always lie and do anything to stay in power.

I have lived inside this regime's cruelty. I have suffered in its prisons. I have witnessed friends, and my husband, tortured and executed. And I know, with every part of my being, that a deal with the Islamic Republic is not a path to peace. It is a gift of time to an evil regime.

What I learned inside its prison walls is the same thing the world keeps refusing to learn outside them: this regime does not negotiate in good faith. It negotiates for survival. Lying - taqiyya - is its religiously sanctioned strategic weapon.

Western leaders consistently make the same mistake. They look at Iran and see a government with factions - "reformists" and hardliners. They conclude that the "reformists" represent a genuine alternative. They do not. The "reformist" and hardliner structure is a performance, a deliberate good cop, bad cop strategy designed to give Westerners the illusion that progress is possible. Both serve the same system.

The Islamic Republic regime is centered around an extremist Islamic ideology. Leaders have changed but the ideology's goals do not change. From the beginning, that goal has included the export of revolutionary Islam, the destruction of the U.S. and Israel, and the subordination of every nation to an Islamist vision of global order.

The Islamic Republic leaders understand that American presidential terms end. Policies shift. A deal signed today can be quietly undermined tomorrow, and an administration that championed it may no longer be in office to notice, or care. The ideology that drives them and the hostility toward the U.S., Israel, and the West is written into their founding documents. But none of it will appear on any negotiating table.

There is no real victory and no deals to be had for America while the Islamic Republic remains in power. They will never let go of their plans to achieve nuclear weapons and are willing to make a deal now and wait until Trump's successor is looking the other way to break out to a weapon. No deal will change this reality.
Trump requests amendments to enriched uranium, Hormuz clauses in US-Iran ceasefire deal draft
US President Donald Trump asked for several amendments to the US-Iran peace deal draft during a Situation Room meeting on Friday, Axios reported on Sunday, citing a senior administration official and a second source briefed on the issue.

While Trump wants the proposed Memorandum of Understanding signed as soon as possible, two US officials told Axios that there are several points in the deal he wants to strengthen before it is signed, particularly regarding Iran’s enriched uranium.

"It's more specifics about how the US gets the material and the timing," a senior administration official said, according to Axios. "There will be a deal. The imminence of it, we'll see. We're willing to wait so the president gets what he asks for.”

“It could be a week. It could be less. It could be more. At the turn of the week, we hope to have something,” the official added.

A second source added that Trump is looking to amend some of the wording around the agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

However, the official further noted that Trump was told it would take several days for him to receive the Iranian response, as “They're literally in caves and they're not using email.”

The New York Times reported on Saturday that Trump has also been "concerned about parts of the potential deal that would include unfreezing funds for the Iranians."


Iran clears bombed tunnels, restores missile operations paused by US-Israeli strikes
Iran is already poised to continue firing missiles at Israel and other countries in the Middle East, after having dug out the tunnel entrances that US and Israeli bombings had collapsed, CNN reported on Sunday.

According to CNN, Iran used simple equipment such as bulldozers and dump trucks to clear roads and tunnel entrances, which had been destroyed by the bombing, leading experts to tell CNN that their missile capabilities would be very difficult to destroy.

“They were preparing for this kind of war for 20 years,” Timur Kadyshev, a senior researcher at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg, who studies Iran’s missiles, told CNN.

“You have to use very sophisticated, very expensive weapons to do this kind of damage, and the recovery is very low tech – it’s just bulldozers.”

Other experts said that Iran still has around 1,000 missiles stored underground, and that these stockpiles were unlikely to have been damaged from strikes at ground level.

An anonymous US official also said that Iran had "exceeded all timelines" for its reconstitution after the damage dealt to it by Israel and the US.
Suspected architect of antisemitic attacks across UK met Ayatollah Khamenei days before his death
The suspected architect of the recent campaign of antisemitic attacks across Britain met Iran’s supreme leader just days before his death at the start of the conflict with Israel and the United States, according to newly released documents.

US prosecutors allege that Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, a senior Iraqi militia commander accused of directing attacks against Jewish targets in Britain and Europe, travelled to Iran for a meeting with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei shortly before war broke out earlier this year.

The claim is contained in a 35-page federal indictment, obtained by The Sunday Times, which provides the most detailed account yet of what American authorities describe as an Iranian-backed campaign targeting Jewish communities in the West.

According to the indictment, Saadi, 32, played a central role in coordinating at least 18 attacks and plots across Britain and Europe, including a series of arson attacks on Jewish institutions in London and an alleged plan to kill worshippers at synagogues in the United States.

US officials allege that Saadi used encrypted communications and Apple’s FaceTime platform to direct attacks in real time from Iraq, at times watching incidents unfold live and helping to produce propaganda videos afterwards.

“Saadi was close with Khamenei,” prosecutors wrote. “Approximately three days before the Iranian military conflict began and Khamenei was killed, Saadi met Khamenei in Iran.”

Western intelligence officials familiar with the case said the allegation appeared credible.


Staff-Sergeant Michael Tyukin killed in combat in southern Lebanon
Staff-Sergeant Michael Tyukin was killed by an exploding Hezbollah drone in southern Lebanon, the IDF announced on Sunday morning. Four other IDF soldiers were lightly wounded in the incident.

Tyukin, 21, from Ashkelon, served in the Givati Brigade’s Reconnaissance Battalion. An only child, he made aliyah from Ukraine with his mother six years ago.

The drone did not use night-vision equipment, an initial IDF investigation showed, according to Army Radio. One assessment of how the drone was able to strike the battalion’s soldiers is that the troops were known to be using that route to advance. Another indicates that Hezbollah terrorists may have used the light from the full moon to navigate, according to Army Radio.

“The entire city of Ashkelon is in pain and mourning his death,” Ashkelon Mayor Tomer Galam said. “Michael was his mother’s only son. The Ashkelon Municipality will accompany his mother through this difficult time and provide her with all the assistance she needs.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu extended his condolences to Tyukin’s mother on Sunday morning, on behalf of himself, his wife, Sarah, and “on behalf of all citizens of Israel.”

Together with his comrades, he fought heroically, deep within Lebanese territory, to protect the security of Israel and the communities of the North,” Netanyahu said. “May Michael’s memory be blessed and enshrined in our hearts forever.”

He also wished the soldiers wounded in the incident a “full and speedy recovery.”


At least four people reportedly wounded after Hezbollah drone hits northern Israel
A Hezbollah explosive drone hit a structure in Moshav Beit Hillel, east of Kiryat Shmona, on Sunday afternoon, according to a statement by the Israel Fire and Rescue Authority.

Fire crews were working at the crash site, where Israeli media is reporting that at least four people were injured. No details on their conditions have been reported.

The drone hit a military zone, and the IDF is investigating the event, according to Army Radio.

The IDF is yet to issue an official statement on the incident.

Additional drone hits natural reserve
An additional crash was reported on the Tel Dan natural reserve, with firefighter teams working to extinguish a fire that broke out.

"We acted with determination and, by quickly combining forces with the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and the firefighters, we managed to stop the fire front and gain control of the fire before it spread deeper into the reserve," said commander for the fire in the Dan Reserve, Lahav Amal Tahish.


Return to Beaufort: Israel’s symbolic conquest of a Lebanese Crusader fortress
In 2007, the Israeli film Beaufort was released. Named for the Crusader-era fortress of Beaufort, it chronicles the lives of Israeli soldiers posted in Lebanon at the fort in 2000 as Israel prepares to leave Lebanon.

The film came out after the Second Lebanon War (2006) and channeled some of the malaise about Lebanon at the time. The First Lebanon War (1982) had been seen as a quagmire in the 1990s, and the 2006 war was initially judged to be a failure.

The IDF is now back at Beaufort Castle, but this time there is a sense of conquest. Israel has changed a lot over the past two decades.

The conquest of the Beaufort has taken 966 days. Hezbollah attacked Israel on October 8, 2023. The IDF only responded with limited precision strikes, because Israel was reeling from the October 7 massacre on the Gaza border.

With more than 1,000 burials to take place and Israel still trying to find out how many hundreds of people had been kidnapped to Gaza, there was no way to wage a rapid war in Lebanon.

Even though some advocated for striking Hezbollah based on existing plans, the IDF held off. The border with Lebanon was evacuated, including the city of Kiryat Shmona.

At the time, in late 2023, those of us covering the Lebanon front referred to this as Hezbollah creating a “security zone” inside Israel. This was a reference to the zone Israel once controlled inside Lebanon, including the Beaufort.

Israelis were now being forced to leave their homes. It seemed as if Hezbollah could attack with impunity.

In September 2024, Israel changed the equation and began an incremental offensive with targeted killings of Hezbollah commanders. This resulted in a ceasefire in November 2024.

Israel continued limited strikes against Hezbollah until this past March, when the IDF again launched a major offensive in response to Hezbollah rocket fire. A new ceasefire began in April, but with the Hezbollah drone threat growing, the IDF is now increasing operations.

Forty-four years since Beaufort's capture in Peace for Galilee War
On Sunday, Defense Minister Israel Katz wrote: “44 years after the heroic battle for the Beaufort, and on the memorial day for the fallen of the Peace for Galilee War, including Golani Brigade soldiers who fell in the battle for the Beaufort – IDF fighters, led by the Golani Brigade, returned to the peak of the Beaufort and raised the flag of Israel and the flag of Golani over it once again.”

This is a meaningful and symbolic image for those from Katz’s generation.


‘We returned stronger than ever’: Netanyahu hails capture of Lebanon’s Beaufort Castle
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday celebrated the IDF’s capture of Lebanon’s historic Beaufort Castle and the surrounding strategic ridge, calling it “a dramatic shift” in Israeli policy as forces pushed deeper into southern Lebanon amid an expanding ground offensive against Hezbollah.

“The capture of Beaufort is a dramatic stage and a dramatic shift in the policy we are leading,” Netanyahu said in a video message released by his office, adding: “Now my directive is to deepen and expand our hold on areas that had been under Hezbollah’s control.”

The statement came as Hezbollah pounded northern Israel with relentless rocket and drone fire. Sunday’s barrages triggered sirens in Acre and the Haifa area, the first attack on the major northern urban area in nearly a month, and caused schools to close near the Lebanon border.

Four soldiers were lightly injured on Sunday afternoon when an explosive-laden Hezbollah UAV struck a military position near the northern border community of Beit Hillel. The army said the soldiers were taken to a hospital for treatment and their families were notified.

As the IDF pushed deeper into Lebanese territory, an Israeli soldier was killed Saturday night during clashes with Hezbollah in Zawtar al-Sharqiyah, just west of the Beaufort Ridge. Staff Sgt. Michael Tyukin, 21, who was killed by an explosive drone, was the 13th soldier killed since an ostensible ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon was reached on April 16.

Hours after the deadly attack, Israeli troops took over territory in the Beaufort Ridge and Wadi Saluki stream area, and expanded strikes north of the Litani River overnight. Footage from Sunday morning showed Israeli and IDF flags flying over the Crusader-built fortress.


West Bank car ramming attack wounds several
A terrorist was killed on Sunday evening after a car ramming attack at the Gush Etzion Junction, West Bank.

Magen David Adom said that the vehicle hit several pedestrians, with paramedics providing treatment to three wounded, including two in serious condition who remain conscious.

One of them was a 17-year-old girl who was transferred to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in serious condition with injuries to her limbs.

Another 15-year-old girl, who is in moderate condition with facial injuries, was also transferred to Shaare Zedek Medical Center, MDA said.

The military said it had dispatched soldiers to the area of the attack, with one of them being the one who killed the terrorist. Israel Police and the military are conducting additional searches in the area to rule out the possibility of other suspects being present at the scene of the attack.

Gush Etzion Regional Council confirms IDF soldier killed the terrorist
A spokesperson from the Gush Etzion Regional Council confirmed the attack and said that the road southwards towards Kiryat Arba was closed to traffic, asking people to please avoid the area.

"A terrorist tried to run over a group of boys and girls, leaving a number of them injured. The terrorist was killed very quickly by military forces in the area," said Yaron Rosenthal, head of the Gush Etzion Regional Council.

The soldier who killed the terrorist also provided emergency medical treatment to one of the wounded, saving their life, a spokesperson from the Gush Etzion Regional Council said.


Argentina’s October 7 case could reshape international law
The strategic implications of a criminal case brought under universal jurisdiction over the Hamas-led massacre that began on October 7, 2023, extend far beyond the possible punishment of its material perpetrators – whom Israel is already pursuing de facto – toward a much deeper consequence: the reformulation of the factual and legal framework through which the conflict is understood internationally, with direct impact on the construction of its legal truth and the broader narrative dispute.

First and foremost, because it demonstrates that this was not an isolated event, but rather a continuing crime prolonged through kidnappings and enforced disappearances – involving torture and murders committed in captivity – that persisted until the recovery of the final hostage or the return of their remains.

This is consistent with international doctrine and with the position of the United Nations itself, which classifies enforced disappearances as “continuing crimes” that persist until the fate or whereabouts of the victim are clarified (UN Doc. A/HRC/16/48, 1/26/2011). Consequently, the criminal act extends until January 26, 2026, the date on which the remains of the final hostage were recovered.

That continuity is reinforced by the persistence of attacks against the civilian population carried out not only by Hamas, but also by other actors who progressively joined the aggression: Hezbollah, beginning on October 8, 2023, and the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, beginning on April 13, 2024, to support and expand the initial assault, escalating both the scale and intensity of indiscriminate missile, rocket, and projectile attacks against the entire civilian population of Israeli territory.

Such conduct falls not only within the category of crimes against humanity under Article 7 of the Rome Statute, but also – insofar as it involves acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic or religious group – within the category of attempted genocide under Article 6 of the Statute, the consummation of which was prevented only by circumstances beyond the perpetrators’ control.

The specific intent (dolus specialis) emerges not only from the operational dynamics of the attacks themselves, but also from the founding charters and manifestos of the organizations involved, as well as from the repeated public statements of their leaders explicitly reaffirming the same exterminatory objective.

Within this framework, the prosecution of the material perpetrators necessarily extends to their financing networks, logistical support structures, and mechanisms of international coordination – potentially enabling arrest warrants, extradition requests, and even trials in absentia should the perpetrators refuse to appear or remain under state protection.

Yet there is an additional dimension: the prosecution of organized forms of legitimization, propaganda, and ideological support for these crimes disseminated through media platforms, satellite organizations, and transnational advocacy networks, which may themselves fall within criminal categories associated with incitement or the glorification of international crimes.

Properly characterizing the events as a continuing crime also carries another decisive consequence: it radically alters the legal framework in which Israel’s actions must be assessed, since they can no longer be treated as an isolated and disconnected phenomenon, but rather as a sustained reaction to an ongoing criminal assault.

As long as Israel remains the victim of a continuing aggression, any potential criminal responsibility can only be examined in terms of self-defense and its possible excesses.
ICC Prosecutor Khan Undercuts Gaza Genocide Narrative Against Israel
Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, was recently asked why he hadn't charged Israel with genocide.

The answer: "It would be a reckless prosecutor to move simply because of clamor. You move based upon evidence."

The interviewer pressed him. Hasn't there been evidence in Gaza? There is no evidence.

What makes this especially significant is that Mr. Khan is no friend of Israel. He rushed to prosecute Israeli leaders after Oct. 7, 2023.

Moreover, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, the Kenyan jurist who served as the UN's Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, explicitly stated that Israel's operations in Gaza did not meet the definition.

In the summer of 2025, I led a congressional delegation to Israel, traveled to the Gaza border, and met the senior IDF official for humanitarian aid.

He provided evidence that the Israelis allowed 600 aid trucks into the strip every day, while the Gaza population could comfortably survive on 300 trucks.

The tragic truth is that any Gaza residents going hungry were doing so because their Hamas government stole their aid and profited from it.

For two years influencers irresponsibly hurled "genocide" to generate viral content, and no one bothered to fact-check.


The United Nations’ false equation
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas employed sexual violence as a weapon in the orders issued by its then-leader, Yahya Sinwar. It was used against women, men and children, and later against hostages held in Gaza. Rape was often accompanied by mutilation and murder. All of this is documented in thousands of records, videos filmed by Hamas itself, firsthand testimonies and accounts from those who collected the remains—often only fragments of bodies.

Having visited the kibbutzim immediately after the massacre, I encountered the evidence firsthand.

Now the United Nations has once again demonstrated its moral failure, completing a campaign against Israel that began with the infamous 1975 resolution equating Zionism with racism. Israel has now been placed on the same blacklist as Hamas and ISIS for allegedly committing sexual violence in conflict.

As if such crimes were an intrinsic characteristic of the Jewish state. As if Israeli military and civilian law did not severely punish sexual violence. Indeed, one of Israel’s most controversial recent scandals involved the detention of five reservists over allegations of abuse at Sde Teiman, where many of the Oct. 7 perpetrators are imprisoned.

Many Israelis viewed the case as an example of judicial and media overreach, but the fact remains that allegations were investigated. Sexual violence is recognized as one of the most serious forms of dehumanization, attacking the body, identity and human dignity of its victims.

The accusation against Israel is itself a form of moral criminalization. As his tenure draws to a close, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is leaving behind an international organization that has effectively joined the campaign against Israel, aligning itself with anti-Western forces that seek the Jewish state’s elimination.

Israeli journalist Amit Segal recently suggested examining the record of the U.N.’s so-called special rapporteurs. Francesca Albanese, who routinely portrays Israel as the source of the world’s ills, hardly requires further discussion. But consider Reem Alsalem, who refused to investigate the mass sexual atrocities committed in Israel and claimed there was “no evidence” of such crimes.

Or Michael Fakhri, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, who led accusations that Israel was causing famine in Gaza while ignoring the hundreds of aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip daily—many of whose contents were routinely seized by Hamas—and overlooking the starvation endured by Israeli hostages.

Then there is Tlaleng Mofokeng, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Health, who has argued that Hamas is not a terrorist organization and that armed struggle is not a crime.


Spanish sauna faces legal action after denying entry to woman wearing Star of David
An advocacy group is preparing legal action after two Jewish women were allegedly denied entry to a Barcelona bathhouse when staff spotted a Star of David necklace and demanded to know whether they were “Zionists”.

The incident, captured on video and widely shared online, has sparked outrage among Jewish organisations in Europe and renewed concerns about the blurring of anti-Zionist activism and anti-Jewish discrimination.

The women, described as American Jews living in Barcelona, were attempting to enter Sauna Thermas, a popular sauna in the Spanish city, when members of staff, identified as Marta Busquets Gallego and Irene Cruz Gomez, allegedly noticed a Star of David necklace and challenged them over their political beliefs.

In footage circulated on social media, a woman appearing to be an employee asks one of the pair: “Are you a Zionist person?” Another member of staff then says: “The question is not Jewish, is Zionist.”

When one of the women replies that Judaism and Zionism are “kind of the same thing”, tensions escalate. Video appears to show staff and other patrons surrounding the pair and forcing them towards the exit while shouting “Free Palestine” and accusing them of supporting “genocide”.

One of the women can be heard saying: “So we’re kicked out because we’re Jewish.” The pair later attempted to re-enter the venue but were refused access. According to reports, the women have filed a police complaint.
Spanish Jews to sue Barcelona gay spa over alleged exclusion
A Spanish-Jewish group said on Sunday that it would take legal action against the management of a bathhouse in Barcelona whose staff were filmed interrogating Jewish visitors on their attitudes to Zionism before kicking them out of the establishment.

“ACOM’s legal team immediately initiated all relevant legal actions (criminal, administrative and civil) against Sauna Thermas and the responsible persons, for possible infringement of Law 15/2022 on equal treatment and non-discrimination, the hate crime of article 510 of the Penal Code, articles 14 and 16 of the Spanish Constitution (equality and religious freedom) and the regulations of public establishments and municipal licenses,” the Action and Communication on the Middle East group wrote in a statement about the incident last week.

On Friday, two women filmed another woman asking them: “Are you a Zionist person?” at the bathhouse. One of the two women filming can be heard asking whether the question was in connection with her Star of David pendant.

Sauna Thermas advertises itself as “Gay sauna Barcelona” on its website under the tagline “welcome everybody” and “everyone’s sauna.”

“I am not against the star,” one employee said, and another added: “The question is not Jewish, it’s Zionist.” The visitor added: “They’re kind of the same thing,” and the second staffer replied: “Not really.” Noticing that one of the women was recording, that staffer said it was not allowed, leading to other staffers shoving the visitors out despite their protests. One staffer is heard saying, “We don’t condone genocide,” and “Free Palestine, please leave.”

Israel’s Foreign Ministry reacted to the incident on X, writing: “Another antisemitic attack in Spain. Let’s be clear: targeting Jews because of Jewish symbols—and demanding they distance themselves from Zionism to be accepted—is blatant antisemitism. Jewish identity and Zionism are inseparable. Authorities must act decisively.”

The Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain (FCJE) also condemned the incident in a statement on Sunday.


Eve Barlow: The "Queer" Inquisition
Mica and Nikki, American married lesbian Jews, live in Barcelona, they tell me on the phone. They’ve been there for about six months and so far they feel “lucky” that they have yet to experience the de rigueur Jew hatred that has been adopted as the sport of the LGBTQ+ community there. They should feel lucky. For the “queers” of Spain rank among the most racist on the planet right now, given their full-time jobs policing the alleged “genocide” that is solely happening in Gaza.

Last night, Friday May 29, at around 11.45pm, the couple went to a queer women’s sauna event - Thermas Barcelona – at a venue on Carrer De La Diputacio 46. A private organization named Bollers Al Vapor rents the space out every few months. “We waited in line, and put our names down, they were pretty nice to us, and we were standing waiting for the towels and one of the organizers came up to my wife and abruptly asked us if she was a Zionist,” recalls Mica. “We hadn’t said anything political,” she says. “It was out of the blue.”

Indeed, when the staff there noticed their Stars of David, the atmosphere turned hostile. They recognized that Mica and Nikki were Jewish and so began the antizionist purity test. They argue antizionism is just criticism of Israel, so why does it perform as a violent hate movement against Jews every single time? A verbal sparring match with two of the staff ensued. Eventually more staff joined the spectacle until Mica and Nikki were surrounded by bullies.

Finally, Mica was physically thrown out. “I wasn’t hurt but they were trying to grab my phone and push me out of there,” she says. Watch:

The glee of one of these Queers For Palestine is sickening. Look at the unfiltered so-called queer “joy” on the face of self-righteous bigot nรบmero dos. It’s the most fun for them. They’ve found a mechanism to openly hate a minority group; a salve for their shame, their self-loathing, their envy, their victimhood, their navel-gazing oppression. While Mica and Nikki were forced to leave, they were told that the establishment does not “condone genocide” and the Jew haters proceeded to repeat the words “Free Palestine” at the couple, who were given no air to voice their own reality, share their beliefs or - most ironically - identify and define themselves. Instead, they were tossed out like scraps. The return of the Spanish inquisition? Jews being expelled as progressive? In Spain there is a saying. “Aunque la mona se vista de seda, mona se queda.” Even if a monkey dresses in silk, it remains a monkey.

Reports of antisemitic incidents in Spain surged 321% since October 7, 2023, according to the Observatory Against Antisemitism. Jewish groups and Israel’s Foreign Ministry have condemned this specific incident. Barcelona’s Jewish community has urged authorities to investigate it as a hate crime.


Ask Haviv Anything: 119: Canada’s Jewish reckoning, with Prof. Gil Troy
Historian Gil Troy joins the podcast to trace the remarkable story of Canadian Jewry, from its post-war flourishing in Montreal and Toronto to its current crisis of rising antisemitism and violence. We confront the “Europeanization” of Canada, the polite face of rising antisemitism, and what happens when a decent society stops defending its Jewish minority.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Canadian Jewry and Rising Anti-Semitism
02:07 The Distinctiveness of Canadian Jewish History
04:08 The Impact of Immigration on Canadian Jewry
07:07 Europeanization and Its Effects on Canada
09:40 The Historical Context of Canadian Jews
12:59 Post-World War II Jewish Immigration to Canada
15:53 The Rise of the Sephardic Community in Canada
18:27 The Evolution of Jewish Identity in Canada
21:19 The Future of Canadian Jewry
24:28 Conclusion and Reflections on Canadian Jewry
37:26 The Shift from Montreal to Toronto: A Jewish Perspective
39:10 Defining Antisemitism: A Complex Landscape
41:11 Understanding Antisemitism: Obsession and Its Implications
45:22 Polling Insights: Canadian Attitudes Towards Jews
49:33 The Rise of Antisemitism: Trends and Demographics
54:11 The Current State of Antisemitism in Canada
58:29 Community Response: Leadership and Action
01:05:48 The Role of Canadian Jewish Institutions
01:14:48 Conclusion: A Call for Unity and Action


The Jerusalem Post: How Hamas-linked NGOs got the New York Times to run their narrative
Dr. Gerald Steinberg, founder of NGO Monitor, traces how Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, which he says has documented Hamas ties, helped shape a viral New York Times op-ed on Israeli sexual violence, published the day before a landmark report documenting Hamas atrocities on October 7.

In this wide-ranging interview, Steinberg explains how NGOs with combined budgets in the billions coordinate simultaneous media campaigns to reframe Israel as perpetrator and Hamas as victim, what he calls "The Eighth Front" of the October 7 war. He details open-source evidence linking Euro-Med's founder, Rami Abdu, to Hamas leadership, including photographs with senior Hamas figures and a 2011 Israeli Defense Ministry designation of his activities as part of Hamas's propaganda operation. On Nicholas Kristof's column's central "dog" allegation, Steinberg points to a critical inconsistency: the lawyer who made the claim had given an extensive interview to a separate outlet just days earlier, with no mention of the incident. "Every NGO actor in the Israel demonization world knew this report was coming," Steinberg says. "It could be a headline story. That's the name of the game."

Steinberg, who is stepping down as NGO Monitor president after 25 years to hand leadership to Olga Deutsch, places today's campaigns in a historical arc stretching from Soviet-era anti-Zionism through the 1975 "Zionism is racism" UN resolution to the Durban process, arguing that a network of radical-left and Arab-aligned actors captured the NGO sector by the early 2000s and now operates as a largely unaccountable political industry with no checks, no competition, and billions in annual funding. He says cracks are beginning to show, and the blowback against the Kristof column may mark a turning point.

Chapters:
00:00 — Introduction: Who is Dr. Gerald Steinberg and what is NGO Monitor?
01:14 — The NYT Kristof op-ed: what it claimed and which NGOs it relied on
05:48 — Timing of the op-ed: published the day before the Civil Commission report
08:08 — Drawing a straight line: Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor's Hamas ties
09:31 — Open-source evidence: photos, family links, and Israeli Defense Ministry designation
12:37 — Why do so many NGOs share an anti-Israel bias? The historical roots
15:17 — From the Soviet era to Durban: how the NGO world was captured
24:22 — How NGOs operate inside the UN Human Rights Council
26:55 — December 2024: Amnesty, HRW, and MSF simultaneously declare Israeli genocide
29:17 — "Mirror imaging": accusing Israel of what Palestinians have done since 1948
35:52 — The NGO playbook: embargoed reports, coordinated media, no time to respond
41:41 — The dog allegation: origins, contradictions, and what the Israeli High Court found
46:17 — Organ trafficking claims and other narratives from the Euro-Med network
52:05 — Will there be a reckoning? Oxfam, insider accounts, and government action
54:09 — Steinberg announces stepping down after 25 years; plans to write a book


NY leaders join over 50,000 marchers at Israel Day parade boycotted by Mamdani
New York’s Democratic party leadership, but not New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, turned out on Sunday for the city’s annual Israel Day parade, alongside tens of thousands of Jews and allies from the city and the surrounding region.

The event maintained its festive atmosphere and went off without a hitch, despite the boycott from the mayor and security fears that had prompted heavy precautions from police.

Mamdani’s refusal to participate marked the first time a mayor had boycotted the parade since it was first held in 1965.

The annual parade, officially called Israel Day on Fifth, sees Jewish and pro-Israel groups march up Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue.

New York leaders kicked off the event in Midtown Manhattan. Governor Kathy Hochul, Sen. Chuck Schumer, other members of Congress, Attorney General Letitia James, state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, City Council Speaker Julie Menin and City Comptroller Mark Levine all addressed the crowd, alongside Jewish communal leaders.

“Today we march in defiance and also to stand up for the values that defined New York State since its very beginning,” Hochul said.

The Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, a communal group that organizes the parade, estimated that more than 50,000 participants marched, alongside thousands of spectators, in one of the event’s highest turnouts ever.

The massive crowd and support from the city and state leadership marked a show of force for a Jewish community that feels increasingly embattled due to antisemitism, hate crimes, terror threats and increasing hostility to Israel.


Streaming platforms host pro-terror songs that glorify October 7
Music streaming platforms are hosting songs that glorify October 7 and include phrases such as “death to Israel”, a new report has revealed.

One song on SoundCloud which has been listened to more than two million times features an image of Mohammed Deif, former commander of the al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing.

The lyrics state: “Hit them with rockets and look at Beersheba. With locally made rockets, we destroyed buildings … The enemy’s security is gone, between those dead and those wounded.”

Another on the platform with 600,000 plays is called Jordanian Flood and urges Jordanians to join forces with Hamas and features lyrics such as “Go to the border and arm yourself” and “The temple is fake ... there is no Jewish state”.

Despite attempts by moderators to remove content praising Hamas and terrorist activity, a report titled Time to stop the music by the Washington DC-based Foundation for the Defence of Democracies (FDD) claims that similar material continues to appear on platforms such as SoundCloud, which allows people to upload and share tracks and podcasts directly with listeners.

Basic searches on the site surfaced Hamas symbols and references, as well as references to ISIS and al-Qaeda.

The report details a sample of more than 550 unique songs shared across more than 100 playlists that violated SoundCloud’s content guidelines based on the above characteristics.

Of a sample of 30 songs whose audio content was analysed, all explicitly glorified violent terrorism; 22 explicitly referenced Hamas, while eight referenced other terrorist factions.

Researchers from FDD used SoundCloud’s “related songs” feature to further explore references, revealing a “plethora” of content related to Hamas.

The problem is not limited to SoundCloud, with hundreds of offensive songs found on other platforms featuring unfiltered imagery of guns, tanks, Hamas flags and terrorist group symbols.

FDD researchers highlighted pro-terror content on Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Tidal, Deezer and Pandora.

The cover of one playlist on YouTube shows a Hamas paraglider with the title “Al-Aqsa Flood 10/7”, a reference to the name Hamas gave to the October 7 massacre, in which more than 1,200 people were killed.

Another song, called Flood by Mohamed Askar, which researchers found was available on Amazon Music, Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Tidal and Deezer, also appears to praise the Hamas-led attack.

An image accompanying a track called Hamas, streamed on Apple Music, showed a photograph of the paragliders used on October 7 and referred to Hamas bombings. Another image, used as the cover art for a Spotify playlist titled War Nasheed, depicted a Hamas fighter.


Israel to open embassy in Fiji
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar will inaugurate a new embassy in the South Pacific country of Fiji on Tuesday, amid growing ties between the two nations.

The move comes less than a year after Fiji opened an embassy in Jerusalem, and marks a strengthening Israeli presence in the Pacific region.

“We view this as a very significant milestone, and it is indicative of how Israel values the importance of the relationship between our two countries,” Fiji’s Ambassador to Israel Jesoni Vitusagavulu told JNS on Sunday.

Fiji’s prime minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, who himself had traveled to Israel with a delegation of senior government ministers for the September inauguration of his country’s embassy in Jerusalem, will attend this week’s event in the Fijian capital of Suva.

He will also host Israel’s top diplomat during his two-day visit to the archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, northeast of New Zealand, and two-thirds of the way from Hawaii to New Zealand.

Israel and Fiji, which established diplomatic relations in 1970, have rapidly expanding ties, with the Jewish state sharing technological, cyber and agricultural know-how and the Pacific ocean nation long offering faith-based diplomatic support.

Israel previously had an embassy in Fiji in the 1970s and 1980s, but it was closed in the 1990s due to budgetary cuts, following which the Jewish state managed relations with Fiji through non-resident ambassadors.

“Our affinity and affection to Israel actually predates our official establishment of ties over half a century ago and dates back to 1835 when Christian missionaries came to Fiji and taught the Bible,” said Fiji’s Ambassador to Israel. “We have a deep appreciation for Israel.”
US antisemitism envoy calls Argentina’s Milei ‘model for the world’
Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, is a “model for the world” at a time of global antisemitism, Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, the United States special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, said on Friday.

Kaploun spoke after a meeting between U.S. officials and the Argentine leader at the Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires; the South American country assumed the annual rotating presidency of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) on March 18.

“Honored to meet for a wide-ranging discussion with @JMilei—a true champion for Jewish communities in Argentina and globally,” Ambassador Kaploun tweeted on X. “As antisemitism surges globally, you are a model for the hemisphere and the world.”

Argentina has undergone a 180-degree shift from serving as a safe haven for Nazis after the Holocaust to becoming, under Milei, one of the staunchest supporters of Israel in the world.

An intergovernmental organization made up of more than 40 countries, the IHRA is most commonly known for its working definition of antisemitism, adopted a decade ago, which has become the gold standard for the oldest hatred and has since been adopted by more than 1,200 entities worldwide, including the U.S. State Department.
Israel Day parade marked by celebratory crowd and large police presence
As an estimated 50,000 New Yorkers stretched along Fifth Avenue waving Israeli and American flags and Hebrew music echoed through the streets, this year’s annual “Israel Day on Fifth” parade carried a palpable sense of relief. For the first time since the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks, attendees could swap out their hostage pins and “Bring Them Home Now” signs for simple flags — marking the first parade since the attacks in which all hostages held by Hamas have been released and Israel’s war in Gaza has ended.

Yet, the festivities unfolded against a remarkable backdrop: For the first time in more than six decades, the city’s mayor was notably absent from the bipartisan tradition.

At a press conference at One Police Plaza on Thursday, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani affirmed his longstanding vow to boycott Israel Day parade, organized by the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, which every Gracie Mansion occupant since Mayor Robert Wagner has attended, starting in 1965.

“I said on the campaign trail that I wouldn’t be attending the parade, and I’ve made my views on the Israeli government abundantly clear,” said Mamdani, who ran on an anti-Israel stance in last year’s election. “While I will not be attending, our administration has been preparing for weeks to ensure the parade is safe for all those who take part.”

Mamdani’s police chief, Jessica Tisch, a self-proclaimed Zionist from a prominent New York Jewish family, served as grand marshal. Tisch and Mamdani together pledged a “comprehensive security plan” at the press conference to protect the celebration.

Tisch said this year’s parade saw the “largest number of officers ever assigned to the event,” which included NYPD patrol units, plainclothes cops and teams from the intelligence and counterterrorism bureaus, amid a heightened threat environment, including the recent federal indictment of a Kataib Hezbollah commander for a thwarted plot to bomb at a prominent Manhattan synagogue. Every participant, spectator and vendor along the parade route, which stretched from East 62nd Street to 74th Street, underwent metal detector screening, and steel barricades were installed along several of the city’s major avenues, obstructing pedestrians.





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