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Tuesday, June 02, 2026

06/01 Links Pt1: Gazology: How Gaza Became The West's Moral Obsession; IDF doctor killed, 7 hurt by Hezbollah drone attack; Israel commemorates victims of 1941 Baghdad Farhud pogrom

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: What Iran Is Really Asking of Trump
So Trump’s strategy is to keep talking and use the embargo as leverage to get a better deal. Iran’s strategy isn’t a secret either. It’s to allow Trump to think he’s close to a deal in order to for him to force Israel to stop beating up Iranian forces in Lebanon.

Each side thinks it’s playing the other, while the soldiers still dying are mostly Israelis.

Of course, the antiwar crowd has an answer at the ready: Israel can stop its pursuit of Hezbollah in Lebanon! Except, the reason Israel is in Lebanon is because Israel not being in Lebanon doesn’t prevent Israelis from being killed by Hezbollah.

On a simpler level, here’s what just happened: Iran announced that a specific part of the war—namely, Hezbollah in Lebanon—was of utmost importance to it. In response, Trump conceded that part of the war as a down payment on renewed negotiations, without getting anything in return.

Why would Iran think it’s doing anything other than winning at the moment?

There is another aspect to this refreshing bit of honesty from the Iranians. They have admitted that Hezbollah is Iran and Iran is Hezbollah. Of course, we knew this. But it’s better to have Iran openly admit it in a way that makes it impossible for its numerous American supporters to pretend otherwise.

Thus, we have three powers in Lebanon: Israel, Lebanon, and Iran. Only two of those are arguing for a permanent right to control the country: Lebanon and Iran. So which of those two has a stronger case to control Lebanon?

It’s not a trick question. Iran is confirming, yet again, that the Western narrative of this conflict is the correct one. Iran is an occupying power in Lebanon and elsewhere, and the deaths in Lebanon are indeed Iran’s responsibility.

It is also confirming something else. Any belief that Iran can be merely contained while leaving its threats intact is shortsighted in the extreme. The entire region was blown open by October 7, which was the work of one of Iran’s militias, Hamas. The fact that Iran is asking to preserve the ability to have its proxies repeat the conflagration is proof that the choice before Trump is war now, in which the U.S. has a distinct advantage, or war later, when the enemy has rearmed. The president should choose wisely.
JPost Editorial: Forcing the IDF to leave Lebanon is a betrayal of Israel's citizens
Trading Israeli lives for a few more days of quiet
Accepting another extension under these conditions would mean trading Israeli lives for a few more days of quiet, which is not truly quiet at all.

The collapse of the ceasefire extension was inevitable. Israel cannot maintain a truce with an organization whose purpose remains its destruction. The IDF’s recent maneuvers, including the capture of strategic high ground such as Beaufort Castle, reflect a clear military need to dismantle Hezbollah’s infrastructure in a lasting way.

Those hard-won gains must not be bargained away for another fragile agreement that Hezbollah will violate as soon as it suits its interests.

The airstrikes in Dahiyeh must be relentless and unrestricted. That is where decisions are made, where precision weapons are stored, and where Hezbollah’s Iranian-backed leadership feels most secure.

Israel does not need an extension of a failed policy. It needs the restoration of real deterrence. That deterrence will not come through gradual de-escalation, American-brokered road maps, or futile negotiations with Iran. It can only come through the systematic destruction of Hezbollah’s will and capacity to fight.

The time for begging for permission to defend Israel is over. The government must resist international pressure to preserve the ghost of a ceasefire and give the IDF the mandate to finish the job. Anything less would be a betrayal of the citizens still huddled in shelters, waiting for a government that values their lives more than its standing in Washington.

The ceasefire is dead. Israel should stop pretending otherwise before more Israelis pay the price for this diplomatic fiction.
France bans Israel from defense exhibition, limits Israeli companies to showing defensive weapons
The French government barred Israel's official participation in the June EUROSATORY defense exhibition, according to a Monday statement by the Israeli Defense Ministry, with its French counterpart saying that Israel was limited to defensive platforms.

The Israeli government and the ministry will be unable to participate in the exhibition or establish a national pavilion. Israeli defense firms would be prevented from displaying offensive weapon systems.

The French Defense Ministry said that exhibits would be limited to air defense and anti-missile defense equipment, and that Israeli exhibitors would be able to display their wares if they complied with that framework.

"The French decision encompasses: a ban on government representatives attending the exhibition; a ban on opening an Israeli national pavilion; and a restriction limiting Israeli defense industries to displaying air defense products only, with offensive systems explicitly excluded," said a statement by the Israel Ministry of Defense.

"This policy is applied selectively and discriminatorily relative to other participating nations - in direct violation of the established norms governing international defense exhibition," it added.

Participating companies confirm their attendance months in advance and despite the ban on the Israeli government and offensive weapons, many Israeli companies are expected to have their own smaller private desks to present their systems. Defense & Tech by The Jerusalem Post understands that among the Israeli companies still planning to attend with their original lineups including Elbit Systems, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. Dozens of Israeli companies acquired by the American defense conglomerate Ondas will also participate at the expo.

According to the French ministry, EuroSatory organizers have been informed of the decision and are expected to enforce the restrictions.

The Israeli Defense Ministry decried the restrictions at one of the world’s largest defense industry exhibitions as a selectively applied and discriminatory policy, “in direct violation of the established norms governing international defense exhibition,' said the ministry.”

"This is a disgraceful decision, one that reeks of political and commercial calculation, and regrettably, it comes as no surprise. It fits a deeply troubling pattern in French conduct in recent years - a pattern that has consistently placed France on the wrong side of history,” said the ministry. “France, which prides itself on the values of liberty and democracy, is acting in direct contradiction to the principles it claims to uphold. It is hiding behind a pretense of political justification to exclude Israeli offensive defense systems from an international forum - systems that have proven far superior to their French counterparts, and that have demonstrated exceptional precision and effectiveness against terrorist organizations and regimes threatening not only Israel, but regional and global stability at large.”

Paris' desire to undermine Jerusalem as a competitor
Eurosatory, one of the world’s largest defense exhibitions, takes place on the outskirts of Paris every two years.

During the last Eurosatory in 2024, France prevented the attendance of dozens of Israeli defense companies. At the time, the French Defense Ministry said that “the conditions are no longer right to host Israeli companies at the Paris show, given that the French president is calling for the cessation of IDF operations in Rafah.” The move was overturned by the Paris Commercial Court, which found that the order would lead to discrimination, but many Israeli companies decided not to attend the show.


IDF doctor killed, 7 hurt by Hezbollah drone attack in southern Lebanon
A medical officer was killed and seven others were wounded in a Hezbollah explosive drone attack in southern Lebanon on Monday, as the Iran-backed terror group kept up its relentless rocket and drone attacks, and the IDF pushed ahead with its renewed offensive.

The slain officer was named as Cpt. Dr. Ori Yosef Silvester, 30, the doctor for the Givati Brigade’s Shaked Battalion, from Tel Aviv.

The news came as US President Donald Trump announced that the two sides had agreed on a fresh truce in Lebanon, though it was not immediately confirmed by Israel.

During the attack, shortly after noon, two explosive-laden first-person view (FPV) drones launched by Hezbollah struck an armored vehicle in the town of Zawtar al-Sharqiyah, according to an IDF probe.

The explosion from the drones killed Silvester and wounded the seven other soldiers.

Two officers and a soldier were seriously wounded in the same attack, another soldier was moderately hurt, and two officers and a soldier were lightly injured.

Among those lightly hurt was the commander of the Shaked Battalion, a lieutenant colonel. The IDF said the battalion commander is due to return to command the unit in the coming days.

Silvester was the 14th IDF soldier to be killed in the fighting against Hezbollah since a US-imposed ceasefire ostensibly took effect in April. His death was also the second announced by the IDF in less than a day, after Staff Sgt. Adam Tzarfati was killed in a Hezbollah drone attack in southern Lebanon in the early hours of Monday.


Seth Frantzman: Community security: Nir Oz volunteers train to defend Israel's frontlines after Oct. 7
The paths here are lined with flowers and small bushes and even trees that provide a bit of shade. It’s quiet. There is a small butterfly. A green lamp-post. Small houses line the path on one side. Here and there are other paths, where one can choose to go right or left.

I make a right through more foliage and a field and come to another house. This is where a surreal scene unfolds. A young man and woman are wearing camouflage and holding black M-16 style rifles. They peer around the side of a home. On the path, a woman is walking her dog. The soldiers smile as she passes. A moment of near levity. Then the seriousness returns.

The people in camouflage are part of the security team, or kitat konenut, here in Nir Oz. Security teams – civilian emergency standby squads – are composed by armed members of the various Israeli communities. They are usually former IDF soldiers and their job is to protect the community at a moment’s notice.

Life under guarded quiet in Nir Oz
On Oct. 7, thousands of Hamas and other terrorist groups invaded Israel in a massive attack. They penetrated the Gaza border fence at dozens of locations and landed like a tidal wave on several Israeli communities. All along the Gaza border on that dark day these communities found themselves under attack, surrounded, and cut off from one another.

Nir Oz was one of the hardest hit communities. It had 386 residents that day. A total of 69 people were killed: 47 of them were killed on Oct. 7 and others while they were held in Gaza. In all, 76 were kidnapped to Gaza. In terms of massacres, this was one of the worst in the history of the Jewish people.

According to an IDF report published by Kan, the community had a nine member kitat konenut on Oct. 7, four of whom were killed. This small team of fighters faced off against an estimated 450 terrorists.

Today, the community is still trying to recover. A key to recovery is security.

Communities on the Gaza border and all over Israel need security. This is also the case in northern Israel and throughout communities in Judea and Samaria, the area known as the West Bank. It is also true in the Negev and elsewhere. An armed and trained populace is a safe population. That much has been clear to Zionist pioneers since the beginning. Jews have had to arm themselves because of attacks.


Khaled Abu Toameh: Turkey's Palestinian State Fantasy After October 7, 2023
For years, Israel was told that economic development, international aid, and territorial withdrawals would moderate Hamas. Instead, Hamas used billions of dollars in foreign assistance to build military tunnels, manufacture rockets, train terrorists, and prepare for war.

The result was the slaughter of 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals, as well as the kidnapping of more than 250 others.

Turkey nevertheless appears determined to ignore this reality.

Before demanding the creation of a Palestinian state, Turkish leaders, and others, should answer a simple question: How would such a state be prevented from becoming another Hamas-ruled Gaza? No one in Ankara or anywhere else appears willing to provide an answer.

Turkey, and others, instead continue to present Palestinian statehood as a magical solution to the conflict while avoiding the far more difficult questions about terrorism, anti-Israel incitement, Iranian influence, and the refusal of Palestinian leaders to accept Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state.

What makes the position of Turkey and the others even more remarkable is that they place all responsibility on Israel while making virtually no demands of Hamas, such as abandoning terrorism, disarming and recognizing Israel's right to exist.

For the past century, Palestinian and Arab leaders have rejected multiple opportunities to establish a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

This pattern [of Palestinian leaders refusing a Palestinian state] raises a legitimate question: Was statehood ever the primary objective? Or was the larger goal always the elimination of Israel?

[T]he conflict is not actually about land and borders. Hamas and its supporters in the West Bank do not seek a state alongside Israel. They seek a state instead of Israel.

It is hard to believe that those pressing for a Palestinian state, including many European countries and the United Nations, do not know all this – which raises another legitimate question: Are they, too, actively trying to bring about the annihilation of Israel?

For years, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has claimed that "Jerusalem is ours," based on his reported goal of reconstructing the Ottoman Empire. Just a year ago, he called for Israel's destruction.

In 2024, Erdogan threatened to invade Israel. A recent credible report concluded that "Turkey has been quietly preparing for a war, with Israel the primary target," with Israel "now framed as a fundamental national security threat" in Turkey's strategic doctrine.
HonestReporting Canada: Gazology: How Gaza Became The West's Moral Obsession
Please join us on May 31 at 7PM ET for an important conversation, where we unpack not just the Israel-Hamas war, but the broader narrative framework through which much of the world has come to interpret it.

Since October 7, the war in Gaza has increasingly become more than a geopolitical event. It has emerged as a symbolic lens through which broader questions about morality, power, colonialism, victimhood, and even Western society itself are being filtered and understood. Why has this conflict come to occupy such a uniquely central place in global discourse? What happens when journalism shifts from reporting events to reinforcing moral narratives? And how has the modern media environment contributed to the flattening of complexity into emotionally simplified stories of oppressor and oppressed?

To explore these questions, we are honoured to be joined by Matti Friedman, award-winning journalist, author, and columnist for The Free Press. Through both his reporting and essays, Matti has become one of the clearest and most incisive voices examining the international media environment surrounding Israel and the broader narrative frameworks shaping contemporary public discourse.

The conversation will be moderated by Tristin Hopper, columnist at the National Post, whose writing on Canadian politics, culture, and public discourse has made him one of the country’s most thoughtful and distinctive commentators.


What happened to World Vision's former Gaza director Mohammed el-Halabi?
Hamas called his wife to probe whether he stole from them
In the interview with the Post, Halabi revealed that Hamas “thought that I have stolen the $50m. and put them in my pocket. So they have investigated the staff, and even they have called my wife and they asked for a bank statement for her bank account... which exists in my house.”

Addressing comments he has made to the Sydney Morning Herald, in which he said Hamas had investigated him on suspicion that he embezzled funds from the group, Halabi said the inquiry stemmed from Israel’s allegations. He claimed Hamas was searching for resources Israel alleged he had taken for it, suspecting he had stolen from the group, but that

Hamas dropped the accusation after reviewing his and his wife’s personal accounts.

Basically, Halabi said that Hamas was swept up in “Israeli propaganda” and the large funding numbers Israel accused him of laundering.

Further, Halabi essentially said that though he never worked for Hamas, the group had sought his expertise as a sort of middleman for understanding the other NGOs operating in Gaza, including making complaints to him about other NGOs.

Halabi appeared to be making this claim to show that Hamas would not threaten him or use him directly, because he and they had worked out relations in which he assisted them as an outsider to liaise with some of the NGOs against which the terrorist group had complaints.

In addition, Halabi said, “There were emails on my laptop which I wanted the Shin Bet to see, which they ignored... my lawyer presented the emails.” In these emails, he said, various organizations, including Hamas, applied to World Vision to receive funds.

According to Halabi, he “raised this with my national director, and we have not supported them, and I said not to deal with them, to rule them out.”

With this claim, Halabi seemed to be implying that if the emails show that he blocked funds for Hamas, then he would of course never be intimidated into cooperating with it.

The Post has no way to evaluate these claims, given that Halabi said Israel will not produce the emails. The prosecution has said it is not familiar with the existence of the claimed emails.

Halabi was asked why Hamas, which sat at negotiation tables for months discussing, among other matters, the names of prisoners to be released, would agree to his return to Gaza if it suspected he had stolen from the group. He said his name was among hundreds and could have been easily overlooked. Further, he said he did not believe Hamas arranged specifically for his release.

While maintaining that he was not afraid of Hamas, Halabi acknowledged that he feared being caught in ceasefire violations.

“We cannot know if we will be injured or die; they will try to target someone” nearby, he said.

Hamas has prohibited Gazans from contacting Israelis, charging those who do so with the crime of treason and normalization with the Jewish state.

Despite this, Halabi’s father, Khalil, has written repeatedly for Israeli media outlets, and neither he nor his son expressed hesitation about speaking with the Post.

Asked why he would take the risk, Halabi responded, “Why should I have to be afraid of Hamas? At this time, there is no Hamas.”

Despite that claim, Israeli military assessments have found that the terrorist group has been rebuilding many aspects of its military wing.

Halabi believed that clearing his name was the first step in returning to the humanitarian field and a normal life. At the time of the interview, he claimed that his bank account was closed; he can no longer travel; and it has been hard for him to find employment, even if employers believe he is innocent.

Whether innocent as he claims, or guilty as found by an Israeli court after a six-year trial, following his release in 2025, Halabi continues to try to rehabilitate his name to find his place in the new postwar era.


Trump brokers partial Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire, averting planned Beirut escalation
President Donald Trump announced on Monday that Israel would not carry out strikes against Hezbollah in Beirut in exchange for the terror group halting its persistent attacks on northern Israel and IDF soldiers, cutting off imminent Israeli plans to expand its operations against Hezbollah in the Lebanese capital.

Trump made the announcement in a post on Truth Social where he touted successful phone calls earlier Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and “highly placed representatives” representing Hezbollah. In a subsequent post, he added that he had asked Netanyahu “not to go into a major raid of Beirut” and Netanyahu “turned his Troops around.” Hezbollah likewise “agreed to stop shooting at Israel, and its soldiers.”

“Let’s see how long that lasts — Hopefully it will be for an ETERNITY!” Trump wrote.

Netanyahu, who had said in a video statement hours earlier that he had “instructed the IDF to strike terrorist targets in Beirut,” seemingly confirmed the deal, saying after Trump’s announcement that Israel would stop firing on Hezbollah targets in the capital for as long as the terrorist group ceased its attacks on Israel.

“I spoke this evening with President Trump and told him that if Hezbollah does not stop firing at our cities and civilians, Israel will strike terrorist targets in Beirut. This position remains unchanged,” Netanyahu said. “At the same time, the IDF will continue operating in southern Lebanon as planned.”

The Lebanese Embassy in Washington said on Monday that, “Lebanese authorities received confirmation of Hezbollah’s agreement to the U.S. proposal calling for a mutual cessation of attacks.”

The embassy said the “scope of the ceasefire” will “subsequently [be] expanded to encompass the entirety of Lebanese territory,” a provision that Netanyahu made no mention of.

The announcement came hours after Iranian state media reported that Tehran had suspended peace talks with the U.S. over Israel’s expanding military campaign in Lebanon. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X on Monday that, “a ceasefire between Iran and the United States constitutes, without any ambiguity, a comprehensive ceasefire across all fronts, including Lebanon.”

Trump dismissed this reporting, writing on Truth Social that “talks are continuing, at a rapid pace, with the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Trump tells Netanyahu he kept him out of jail, should be grateful on tense call
US President Trump accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being the reason for global hatred of Israel in an angry call on Monday, Axios reported.

Earlier on Monday, Iran had threatened to stop negotiating with the US due to Israel’s action in Lebanon, prompting the call in which Trump at one point yelled at Netanyahu, “What the f*** are you doing?”

According to one US official, Trump felt that Netanyahu was reacting disproportionally to Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel. He objected to Israel destroying buildings to take out a single Hezbollah commander, and Israel’s threats against Beirut, Axios wrote.

Another source summarized part of Trump’s comments as “everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this,” according to Axios.

Trump also accused Netanyahu of being ungrateful, with the source saying Trump claimed the prime minister would have been in prison if not for him.

Attacks on Beirut canceled
While Netanyahu released a statement after the call that Israel’s position “remains the same,” a US official told Axios that Trump had actually “steamrolled” Netanyahu.

"Bibi said, 'OK, OK, just make sure everything is taken care of,'" Axios quoted the official as saying.


Terror suspect who allegedly plotted to kill Ivanka Trump sports evil grin as he pleads not guilty to NYC synagogue bomb plan
A suspected terrorist who allegedly plotted to assassinate Ivanka Trump sported a brazen smirk in Manhattan court Monday as he pleaded not guilty to preparing to bomb a city synagogue.

Mohammad Baqer Saad Dadwood al-Saadi, 32 — who boasted to the feds that he was a close pal of Iran’s late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — grinned throughout the proceeding and at one point began claiming that all’s fair in war.

“I’m not a criminal. … Our children are being killed by your rockets,” al-Saadi said in Arabic, which was translated by a court interpreter.

“I’m not guilty. … I’m in a war situation,” added the suspect, who allegedly planned to bomb the Big Apple house of worship as part of a global reign of terror that spanned nearly a decade.

Al-Saadi also plotted to kill President Trump’s daughter — and even had a blueprint of her Florida home — sources have told The Post. He has not been charged over those allegations.

The accused terrorist, a leader of the terror group Kata’ib Hizballah with ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard and the terror group Hezbollah, coordinated the bombing of a Bank of New York in Amsterdam, a synagogue in Belgium and the stabbing of two Jewish victims in London, according to authorities.

In all, federal prosecutors said al-Saadi has been linked to 16 planned or executed attacks of international targets in March and April alone.

“Al-Saadi claims to be part of the ‘resistance,’ a group that includes IRGC, an Iran-based designated foreign terror organization,” US Attorney Jay Clayton said in a statement.

“All Americans should recognize that we have sworn enemies and when your enemies tell you something and when they act, you should know that they mean it,” Clayton said.

The feds have not identified the “prominent” synagogue that was targeted but said al-Saadi allegedly paid a person who turned out to be an undercover agent $3,000 of a promised eventual $10,000 to carry out the attack.

The suspect has boasted that he was like a son of Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the IRG who was killed by a US air strike in 2020, and close to Khamenei, huddling with him just three days before the supreme leader was killed by America at the start of its war on Iran.


Commentary Podcast: Maine Squeeze
Contributing editor Eli Lake joins us today to discuss Iran pulling out of talks with the US over Israel's expanding offensive in Lebanon, the American fear of utilizing ground troops, and Trump's only way out of the deadlock. Plus, Graham Platner's latest controversy and the aggressive attempts to tamp it down.
Tikvah Podcast: Ryan McBeth on Why the U.S. Doesn't (Yet) Have a Munitions Crisis
How did the most powerful military in the history of the world arrive at this moment? What does the supply chain behind a Patriot missile actually look like, all the way down to the raw materials? And what would serious industrial mobilization require?

These are among the questions that Mosaic's editor Jonathan Silver takes up with Ryan McBeth. McBeth spent twenty years in the U.S Army as an infantryman, and is now an intelligence analyst with a popular YouTube channel he uses to explain military affairs to non-specialists. You can learn more about him, and follow his work, at ryanmcbeth.substack.com. In today's podcast, McBeth explains why he is not quite so worried about the state of the American arsenal.




Israel commemorates victims of 1941 Baghdad Farhud pogrom
Israel marked on Monday the Farhud pogrom that took place 85 years ago to the day, shattering the Jewish community in Baghdad.

The two-day pogrom that started on June 1, 1941, unfolded with the collapse of the pro-Nazi government of Iraq.

Arab mobs murdered, assaulted and looted Jews, killing more than 180 people, wounded 1,000 more and destroying some 900 homes.

Some sources, such as the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center, a museum and research center in Or Yehuda, central Israel, estimate the death toll at between 600 and 1,000 when unrecorded casualties and mass grave burials are taken into account.

The riots erupted after the quick defeat of Iraqi forces by the British, with conspiracies spreading that the Jewish community—one of the oldest in the world—had assisted the British.

Israel’s official account on X commemorated the victims of the pogrom, saying that the Farhud “became a symbol of the persecution faced by Jewish communities across the Middle East.”


Jake Wallis Simons: The Home Office has saved the Oxford Union from itself. It should not have had to
Last year, I debated Israelophobic social media clown Cenk Uygur. It was unintentional: the producers didn’t tell me who I was facing until it was too late. This was on the Saudi television channel Al Arabiya and it went exactly as you’d expect: within a short time, Uygur was bellowing like a stuck bull, making off-the-planet claims like “Iran is almost identical to what Israel is actually doing”. Today, he has been banned from travelling to Britain.

Alongside Uygur, a vicious little rabble rouser by the name of Hasan Piker has also been barred from this country. Here is a man who once argued that “America deserved 9/11” (he later apologised) and said he would “vote for Hamas over Israel every single time”.

Obviously, I’d never intentionally debate Piker, either: as the saying goes, if you wrestle with pigs you get covered in muck and the pig enjoys it. Like Uygur, Piker reckons he’s not anti-Semitic, only brimming with hostility towards the world’s only Jewish state.

I mention all of this because it takes us directly to the heart of the debate over free speech in Britain. Before we get there, however, let’s take a quick look at the reason these two contemptible characters were winging their way to these shores in the first place.

Both were scheduled to appear at SXSW London, a British edition of the รผber-hipster American festival that brings together tech bros, global political poseurs and celebrities for a big progressive love-in. Given the disproportionate buy-in of trendy jihadi propaganda found in such circles, so much is hardly a surprise.

In addition, they had been booked to address the formerly august Oxford Union. Given its descent into unbridled radicalism in recent years, this too is hardly a shock. Take a step back, however, and the episode represents another milestone along the steep road of our national decline. The Government stepping in to save our brightest students from themselves? How did we end up here? More worryingly, where is this all heading?

Before you cite the famous 1933 Oxford Union debate on the motion “this House will under no circumstances fight for its King and country”, I’ll do it for you. Of course, Oxford has made a point of courting controversy with provocative speakers and motions over the years; when I was a student there, in 2001, the Holocaust denier David Irving was invited to address the debating chamber.

Between those events and the present, however, there are crucial differences. Irving’s appearance ended up being cancelled after a furious backlash from dons and members of the Union, backed by the threat of rowdy protests against him. And by 1939, the very men who had voted against fighting for King and country six years before were doing exactly that, in some cases making the ultimate sacrifice in the struggle against Hitler.

That throws a sharp light upon the present day and the more troubling contours of the Uygur-Piker incident. To my knowledge, unlike in 2001, there were no objections from dons or Union members to the planned appearance of these heirs to Irving, no petitions, no protests, no resignations. This presents an uncomfortable truth about our most elite university: a critical mass of students wholeheartedly agree with the likes of Uygur and Piker.


Jonathan Sacerdoti: Is Britain right to ban Cenk Uygur?
I was invited back on to Piers Morgan’s show next week to debate Cenk Uygur, in studio, while he was due in the UK to speak at SXSW festival in London. I politely declined. Uygur is, to put it mildly, not a man whose public manner suggests calm forensic exchange. Morgan himself proudly features a compilation video on his YouTube channel entitled: “Cenk Uygur’s Biggest Piers Morgan Uncensored MELTDOWNS!”, complete with a thumbnail showing no fewer than three images of Uygur snarling and yelling in fury.

It is therefore with some amusement that I now learn that he has been barred from entering the United Kingdom by the Home Secretary.

Uygur was an odd fit for SXSW London, whose own website describes the festival as “the global festival for the convergence of business, technology and creativity,” which, it says, is “grounded in practical optimism.” Whatever else may be said for Uygur, practical optimism is not the first phrase that springs to mind.

I wrote in these pages about my appearance on Piers Morgan’s YouTube show a month ago, bemoaning the conspiracy theories aired on the programme and Morgan’s apparent nonchalance about them, alongside his more energetic attempt to portray me as insufficiently critical of Israel. He also asked me to continue critiquing his show in my writing (happy to oblige), but when I did – in what I can only assume was a case of age-related skin thinning – he reacted with a tantrum on X. He proudly boasted that he had counted all my Spectator articles – 186 apparently – and found only one not to be about Israel. Perhaps he should learn to count better, and also to read past the headlines, since he admitted he had not actually read the columns. (Piers, have you got this far?)

Israel is an area of specialisation in my work, but I have also written on Islam, Jew-hatred, Iran, Yemen, Kanye West, Nigel Farage, Piers Morgan, the Oxford Union, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and the BBC just to list a few other topics. None of this prevented Morgan from declaring me a ‘slavishly biased Israeli shill’. His chief complaint seems to be that I am not sufficiently reflexively negative about Israel to satisfy the change of mind he underwent on the country shortly after he visited Qatar.

Without official confirmation, one cannot state definitively why Shabana Mahmood has apparently decided to exclude one of Piers’ most frequent guests from entry to the UK. One might presume the decision was made on the grounds that his presence would not be conducive to the public good. This is a power she has enjoyed wielding over numerous others recently.

The SXSW appearance would have been in Shoreditch, very close to the Nova exhibition, where survivors of the Palestinian massacre of 7th October 2023 are present, and where enhanced security reflects the obvious risks to Jewish people.

The Community Security Trust recorded 3,700 anti Jewish incidents in 2025, the second-highest annual total ever logged, following 3,556 in 2024. Britain has seen not merely an ugly rise in rhetoric, but arson, stabbings, intimidation, assaults, and the deadly terrorist attack at Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester. Jewish schools, synagogues and community premises require permanent vigilance. This is the country into which Uygur was proposing to arrive.

The case against him is not that he has criticised Israel. Plenty do. It is that he has repeatedly trafficked in language and claims that sit dangerously close to the conspiratorial fever now animating anti-Jewish hatred. He regularly describes Israel’s actions as “genocide”, “barbaric” and “savage” and has claimed that Israel uses Jews as “human shields”. Then there’s his claims that the global war on terror was a “global war against Israel’s enemies”, that America was “occupied” if Israel was “paying 94% of Congress”; and that Jeffrey Epstein was “almost certainly Mossad”.





Buy EoZ's books  on Amazon!

Reclaiming the Covenant on America's 250th (May 2026)

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

    

 

 

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