Tuesday, June 02, 2026
Seth Mandel: The Easiest Test You’ve Ever Failed
It’s not that I don’t understand what is happening. Having watched a similar process take place within the GOP, the entire political world knows exactly what it’s seeing: The base sees every character flaw in a candidate as a feature not a bug; defeating the other party becomes a matter of life and death and therefore justifies any behavior; the party’s institutions get in line.Nothing Is Disqualifying By Abe Greenwald
All of it is inexcusable but uncomplicated to decode.
And so progressives have made Platner the hero of the hour, a living idol and a human litmus test. Je suis Platner, they seem desperate to cry out. Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Democrats’ floor leader in the upper chamber, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee jointly announced they’ll ensure Platner has all necessary resources to bring his Totenkopf to the halls of the Senate. And professional ex-Republicans fall all over themselves to prove their loyalty to their new party by saturating the punditry with anti-anti-Platnerism whose irony is apparently lost on them.
But the truly wild part of all of this is that rejecting Platner was supposed to be the absolute least that was expected of them. Platner wasn’t supposed to be the “country over party” test because it was too easy to mean anything. You weren’t supposed to deserve credit for rejecting Nazi iconography.
This weekend’s latest additions to Platner’s long list of scandals is that he was sexting up to a dozen women while married and had an active account on a singles’ site with a reported reputation for lax age-limit gatekeeping.
To add this to what we already know—the Nazi tattoo, the anti-Semitism, the misogyny, the racist postings, the cheering of the killing of U.S. soldiers, the fascination with violence, and all of the dishonesty about it—is to realize just how insane the conversation has become. Ideally, a person who criticizes Platner would prove nothing except that they are still human. Yet somehow we got to a point at which Platner’s denunciators truly do deserve praise because Democrats seek the political destruction of these dissenters. When Rep. Jake Auchincloss had the temerity to say the Nazi stuff was disqualifying, it was Auchincloss who was put on the defensive and made to explain himself.
Democrats have legitimate reasons to be concerned about Republican abuse of power, but it turns out they are far more afraid of what the progressive left is capable of once in power. That, at least, is the clear message they are broadcasting.
And so we are left begging for crumbs of decency. Yes, we say, it is brave to denounce Platner. And it is—because his party has made it so.
Via Commentary Newsletter, sign up here.Brendan O'Neill: Israelophobia is rotting Ireland’s soul
If a Democrat has a shot at winning, he can do no wrong. Adam Hamawy volunteered with an al-Qaeda front group in Bosnia and was an associate of “the Blind Sheikh,” Omar Abdel-Rahman, who masterminded the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Today, Hamawy is in the lead for a New Jersey congressional seat and has been endorsed by Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and the newest neo-Squadnik, Ro Khanna.
Abdul El-Sayed is a strong contender in a Michigan Democratic primary battle despite his voicing sympathy for the mourners of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, bragging about smashing a bottle in a liquor store, struggling with Israel’s right to exist, and various disconcerting escapades.
Of course, the exemplar here is Zohran Mamdani. In his successful run for mayor of New York City, he showed that support for terrorist causes, involvement in anti-American activism, and staunch socialist zeal were more than acceptable in Democratic politics.
Platner represents something different from all these. His deficiencies aren’t foremost ideological or political. They’re deeply intrinsic to his character. He’s a messy amalgam of glowing red flags that, in everyday life, would signal, well, human garbage.
Like Nick Fuentes, Platner is at once a Nazi admirer and Communist sympathizer. He’s on record mocking a wounded U.S. soldier as a “Dumb motherf-----” who “didn't deserve to live.” Platner has said that women should “take some responsibility for themselves and not get so f***ed up they wind up having sex with someone they don't mean to.” And he was most recently exposed for sexting with women on a hook-up app while married to his current wife.
With a guy like this, it’s a safe bet that we’ve only begun to scratch the surface.
It wasn’t long ago that a large majority of Democrats would simply recognize Platner as unfit to serve in the janitorial staff of the U.S. Senate, let alone as a senator.
That flag is so omnipresent that it feels like Ireland has been colonised again – not by the Brits this time but by that Euro-fervour of anti-Zionism. All of the most Guardian-approved, Shoreditch-thrilling Irish artists – Sally Rooney, Kneecap, the Mary Wallopers – bow obsequiously at the altar of Israelophobia.
It stinks up the political class, too. Indeed, just last week, Margaret Connolly, the sister of the Irish president, Catherine Connolly, returned from one of those thwarted flotilla jollies to Gaza that the hyper-smug love to engage in. She said Israel behaves like a ‘Nazi state’. She described her brief detention in Israel as being akin to a ‘concentration camp’. She said she and her fellow seafaring narcissists ‘got a feeling of what the Jews felt like during the Second World War’. Comparing the two-day detainment of posh, well-fed mugs with the incarceration and burning to death of millions of Jews? There’s repugnant, then there’s that. Stay classy, Israel-haters.
Defamations against Israel fall from the mouth of every influencer here. Even a sports presenter, following the game with Qatar, could casually say on air that Israel is waging a ‘genocidal campaign’ in Gaza. Nothing to say about Qatar? The team we just played? Which funded the army of anti-Semites that killed more Jews in one day than anyone else has since the Nazis? Of course not. Israel is the all-consuming devil that stalks the fever dreams of Ireland’s pious. It is a substitute Satan in a post-Catholic land. You can’t even watch the footie here without being subjected to self-righteous homilies about the uniquely wicked nature of this far-off nation. It is relentless. It is exhausting.
And get this – the Irish men’s cricket team is due to play Afghanistan in Belfast in August. Do the sanctimonious of Dublin 4 long to stop that game too, in protest against the Afghan government’s violent gutting of women’s rights, its theft from women not only of the right to play sport but also of the right to show their faces in public, speak in public and attend schools and universities? Nope. There have been a few expressions of ‘moral discomfort’ about hosting the Afghanis but nothing like the orgy of moral inebriation that greeted the news that the Irish football team would play Israel. As I say, moral circuit boards fried, all over this isle.
Israelophobia is rotting Ireland’s soul. The Irish establishment’s frothing animus for the Jewish state is an embarrassment to us Irish who refuse to convert to the cult of Israel-hate. It is disproportionate, hysterical, and so obviously driven by bigotry, meaning these people will go mental over a sports fixture against the Jewish nation but say nada about a sports fixture against an Islamist nation ruled by violent men who treat women like cattle. Let Ireland be a lesson – when you drink too heartily from the Kool-Aid of Israelophobia, you lose your reason and decency. You become so consumed by hatred for a tiny foreign state that you let your own state go to moral rack and ruin.
How Anti-Zionists Demonize Jews for Remembering Their Own History
In 2005, Hebrew University sociology student and ardent anti-Zionist Tal Nitzan began work on a Master's thesis examining the (presumed) systemic rape of Palestinian women by the IDF.Yisrael Medad: How Palestinianism wages war on Zionism and Jewish history
To her chagrin, Nitzan couldn't find a single documented case of rape by any IDF soldier.
Undeterred, she adjusted her thesis. The IDF were still bent on humiliating Palestinian women, but her new "theory" had them accomplishing this by refusing to rape them.
For a more famous and recent example, Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times is claiming that sexual violence against imprisoned male Palestinians is happening "day after day."
His charges are unreliably sourced, and he did not ask the Israel Prison Service for comment, yet claims sexual violence is "standard operating procedure" in Israeli prisons.
Academic Naomi Klein, Canada's leading Marxist public intellectual, wrote in the Guardian in October 2024 about "How Israel Has Made Trauma a Weapon of War."
She decries the Jews' excessive "memory culture" that turns traumatic events into educational experiences through art and technology.
Israelis and diaspora Jews' continuous mourning over Oct. 7 disturbs Klein, who is particularly hard on the documentaries and exhibitions that show footage from the Palestinian invaders' GoPro cameras, or that recreate scenes of violence such as the Nova Exhibition.
She also finds Holocaust memorialization extremely annoying. In her anti-Zionist playbook, it is only permissible to invoke the Holocaust in its inversion form, where Israelis are the new Nazis, Palestinians the new Jews.
Several foundational myths construct the theory of “Palestinianism,” a term I have been pushing these past two decades.Andrew Pessin: Putting Antizionism On Trial
I first coined the term Palestinianism back in 2006 and described its essential purpose as being the negation of Zionism and the undermining of Jewish nationalism. In other words, it really had little to do with an actual Palestine or a Palestinian people. Its purpose was to serve as a cover for antisemitism, since being pro-Palestine is a more acceptable form of Jew hatred.
Later, I added another element and asserted that the animosity to and the onslaught against Jewish nationalism and the concept of a Jewish state in any geographical or political configuration is what drives Palestinianism. Again, its purpose was to deny Jews our national identity and to erase our history, especially our links to Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel.
Palestinianism and its need to be recognized necessitates a process of inventivity. That is, it creates ‘facts’ which, simply put, are untruths regarding Jews, Jewish history, and Zionist history.
Among these non-facts are: “Zionism is European,” that there was no continuum of a Jewish presence throughout the last 18 centuries in the Land of Israel, that in the land, Jews created literature, culture, and language, or that Jews all over the world consistently supported those living there financially.
Claims of 'historic Palestine'
Moreover, that inventivity also works in another way. Not only has a Palestinian Arab national identity been created where none existed before, but it also seeks to use imagined claims that the current Arab population of “historic Palestine” has existed from time immemorial, that Jews stole Arab lands, among the hundreds that have been pushed to erase Jewish nationalism.
The most elemental aspect of a people’s national identity is its homeland. Yet those Arabs who assert their Palestinian identity refer to their supposed homeland in its foreign Latin name, and as they have no ‘P’ sound in Arabic, the best they can do is Filastin.
I have been watching – documenting, analyzing, writing about – the campus scene since 2015. It started for me when I was “cancelled” for being, ultimately, I would say, a proud Jew. I was, and am, the only openly Zionist faculty member at my institution. I won’t bore you with the details of my cancellation except to say it was very unpleasant and it was very enormous—I and my family received death threats from around the world—and a scholar wrote a whole book about it because it illustrated many important themes that he had been writing about for some time before that. The scholar is Richard Landes, and a few years ago Landes also published a masterpiece of a book called ‘Can the Whole World Be Wrong?’ Lethal Journalism, Antisemitism, and Global Jihad. I was privileged to write a review of that book, called “The Book That Saw October 7 Coming From a Mile Away.” Everyone must read that book.NYC Councilman: 'Jewish people must confront those playing for the other team'
Landes saw October 7 coming from a mile away—and also saw the campus response to October 7, the mass celebration of, endorsement of, and calls for mass violence against Jews, coming from a mile away as well.
After a decades-long campaign by its proponents, we must now face the facts: antizionism, as an ideology, a worldview, and a movement, reigns over the academy, dominating entire disciplines, the most important institutions, and the public square on campus after campus. With that, the atmosphere for Jews, and for Israel, has become toxic in all too many places.
It’s not that we haven’t tried to fight it. There was the development of Jewish Studies, Israel Studies, Holocaust Studies, and Antisemitism Studies, the promotion of Zionism, the IHRA definition, the attempt to have Jews protected by the DEI industry, campus-related lawfare, and the effort to identify antizionism with antisemitism, among others. Each strategy was well-intentioned, produced some or much value, and should continue. Nevertheless, empirically speaking, they all simply failed—they failed to stem the tide of Jew-hate that exploded into full view after the October 7 massacre. They failed ultimately because none of them addresses the actual root problem: the ideology that produces the hate. Lawfare, for example, as necessary and valuable as it is, can only get schools to clamp down on expressions of Jew-hate. But what we need is to get people to stop hating Jews so much in the first place.
We must go after that ideology in a collective, organized, scholarly manner.
That’s why I have launched the Institute for the Critical Study of Antizionism (ICSA). ICSA, with its growing roster of over 220 scholars and 4200 followers on substack, produces and disseminates critical scholarship on antizionism or “the antizionist complex.” The tagline captures it: We need teams of scholars producing reams of scholarship about antizionism.
New York City Councilman James F. Gennaro delivered a passionate and unapologetic address Friday at the Arutz Sheva and Chazaq Summit in Queens, warning of growing anti-Israel sentiment in the United States and calling on supporters of Israel to confront both external and internal challenges.PragerU: Lions vs. Scavengers: Who Hates the West?
Speaking before a packed audience, Gennaro argued that one of the greatest difficulties facing the Jewish community is the presence of vocal Jewish critics of Israel whose statements, he said, provide cover for Israel's enemies.
"It's like a baseball game where you have nine men on the field and three or four are playing for the other team," Gennaro said. "That gives refuge and cover to the Israel-haters."
The councilman, a practicing Catholic whose wife is Jewish and whose family has deep ties to Israel, also turned his attention to what he described as troubling developments within the Catholic Church.
Gennaro sharply criticized the late Pope Francis, describing him as a proponent of Marxist ideas, and expressed disappointment with statements by Pope Leo regarding the Middle East conflict.
Referring to recent calls for a two-state solution and comments concerning those involved in military action against Iran, Gennaro said he had publicly challenged the Vatican's position.
"I wrote that he is the one who should go to confession," Gennaro said, drawing applause from the audience. "That's what needed to be said."
The councilman warned that anti-Israel messages are being heard by Catholics worldwide and claimed that anti-Israel narratives have increasingly found their way into church discourse since the October 7 Hamas massacre.
At the same time, he praised evangelical Christians and the Pentecostal movement for their strong support of Israel.
"For every Jew in America who supports Israel, you've probably got fifty Pentecostals who would die for Israel," he said.
Gennaro also blasted New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani over what he described as anti-Israel rhetoric and the promotion of a "Nakba Day" narrative.
Reading from a prepared statement, he accused the mayor of presenting a one-sided version of history that ignores Arab rejection of the 1947 UN partition plan, the invasion of the newly established State of Israel by neighboring Arab armies, and the expulsion of Jews from Arab countries.
"The mayor's Nakba Day propaganda is nothing short of a disgraceful, one-sided rewrite of history," Gennaro declared.
"The mayor's four-minute sob story ignores the Jewish refugees, the decades of pogroms, and the fact that Nakba narratives too often mask the real goal - erasing Israel as a Jewish homeland. This isn't an isolated slip. It's part of the mayor's disturbing pattern of enabling and amplifying anti-Jewish sentiment from his DSA roots and Israel-bashing rhetoric to platforming one-sided catastrophe tales at taxpayer expense while Jewish New Yorkers [face] skyrocketing hate crimes in our streets and schools. He consistently signals which side he despises. New York City has the largest Jewish population outside Israel, yet under leaders like him, It feels like their pain, security, and history or afterthoughts or worse, fair game for distortion," he said.
Ask Haviv Anything: 120: Sam Harris on tribalism, religion, and what actually saves us
Haviv sits down with philosopher, neuroscientist and podcaster Sam Harris to explore the moral and informational crisis gripping the West. Sam explains why his defense of Israel has nothing to do with identity politics and everything to do with the long-term threat of jihadism to open societies, a position he has held consistently since 9/11. We dissect the profound generational shift in attitudes toward Israel and Jews, backed by stark polling data on Holocaust denial and acceptance of political violence among young Americans.
We explore how social media shattered our shared reality, creating a “funhouse mirror” effect that radicalizes both sides while making coherent moral reasoning nearly impossible; the rise of antisemitic conspiracy thinking on the right, particularly Tucker Carlson’s evolving rhetoric and the laundering of extreme voices; and we debate tribalism, dogmatism, the limits of secularism, and whether healthy particularism can survive in open societies.
An honest, sometimes uncomfortable conversation on trying to make sense of a world that doesn’t seem to anymore.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Sam Harris and His Work
02:18 Support for Israel: A Complex Stance
03:53 The Evolution of Harris's Views on Israel
08:30 Understanding the Enemy: Jihadism and Its Implications
10:05 The Moral Confusion Surrounding Israel
18:39 Generational Radicalization and Its Impact
22:03 The Role of Social Media in Political Polarization
37:59 Navigating Political Homelessness and Radicalization
40:39 Political Identity and Jihadism
44:56 The Rise of Anti-Semitism
49:29 Conspiracy Theories and Their Impact
56:44 Tucker Carlson and the New Right
01:06:57 Religion, Community, and Tribalism
01:18:09 The Value of Responsibility and Parental Love
01:18:29 Ethics in Emergency Situations
01:20:28 The Dangers of Tribalism and Identity Politics
01:22:24 Secularism vs. Religious Tribalism
01:25:40 The Challenge of Faith in Humanity
01:28:05 The Ethics of Truth and Lies
01:30:15 Cultural Problems and the Role of Media
01:33:04 Navigating Human Suffering and Happiness
01:48:25 Advice for a Troubled Society
Call me Back Podcast: ISRAEL VOTES: How Israel’s Elections Work - with Nadav Eyal and Amit Segal
In a few months elections will be held in Israel, the first since Oct. 7th, and arguably one of the most consequential in Israel’s history. But how do the elections actually work in Israel?
As part of our Israel Votes series, Dan is joined by Amit Segal and Nadav Eyal for a practical guide to the mechanics behind Israeli democracy: the Knesset, coalition-building, electoral thresholds, and the structural realities that will shape the next election long before a single vote is counted.
In this episode:
Why Israel Chose a Parliamentary System
The Knesset, the Government, and the Courts
How Votes Become Knesset Seats
How Israel Actually Chooses a Prime Minister
Coalition Negotiations and the Fight Over Ministries
What Caused Israel's Five-Election Deadlock?
What Election Night Looks Like in Israel
Does Israel End Election Night With a Governing Majority?
Huckabee says next memorandum of understanding ‘ends aid’ to Israel
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said on X that the next U.S. memorandum of understanding with Israel will end U.S. aid to Israel in favor of prioritizing trade.Tikvah Podcast: Why Israel Should Stop Taking U.S. Military Aid | Dr. Raphael BenLevi
“Israel receives $3.8 billion but spends far more than that buying US military goods. US also receives intel, tech innovations so that ROI is many times more,” Huckabee said on his personal account on X, responding to former National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent, who had argued in an interview that U.S. aid to Israel does not confer benefits to America. “New MOU w/ Israel ends aid & will be based on trade.”
Analysts have widely predicted that the next MOU, after the current one ends in 2028, will prioritize partnership programs jointly funded by both sides — which constitute a portion of current U.S. assistance to Israel — rather than direct financial aid, but the comments by Huckabee appear to be the first confirmation from a U.S. official that such plans are in the works.
Huckabee’s comments did not make clear whether the next agreement would phase out aid gradually or immediately.
The comments also come following repeated declarations by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he wants to end U.S. financial assistance to Israel in the next decade, and on a backdrop of growing skepticism of U.S. aid to Israel on both sides of the aisle.
For decades, the United States has provided Israel with approximately $3.5 billion annually in military aid—a package built for a young, vulnerable state of limited means. But today, Israel is an economic powerhouse, with U.S military aid now representing less than 1% of its GDP.
In the spring of 2026, Israel and the United States launched a fully integrated joint offensive against Iran, coordinating targets, dividing airspace, even helping rescue each other's pilots. These joint operations have highlighted the new dynamic between Israel and the United States—one of partnership rather than of a client and its patron. So why does the aid model persist? And what does it really cost to maintain?
To address these questions, Dr. Raphael BenLevi published an article titled “America Should Be Israel's Partner, Not Its Patron". BenLevi is a senior fellow at the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy and a reserve officer in IDF intelligence. In this conversation, he sits down with Jonathan Silver to make the pro-Israel case for ending American aid when the current memorandum of understanding expires in 2028. They explore why that aid no longer buys Israel the security it once did, and the importance of Israel being able to exercise independence and sovereignty in a volatile region.
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
05:38 Israel and U.S. Military Cooperation
08:58 Technological Integration in Warfare
12:00 The Evolution of U.S. Aid to Israel
20:48 Critiquing the Current Aid Model
28:52 Israel's Independent Military Actions
35:03 The Influence of Aid on Israeli Decision-Making
37:25 The Relationship between Aid and Sovereignty
46:57 Economic Implications of Military Aid
55:02 Deterrence and the Aid Relationship
01:02:11 Zionist Sovereignty and American Support
Joe Kent is either not very smart or just dishonest. Israel receives $3.8 billion but spends far more than that buying US military goods. US also receives intel, tech innovations so that ROI is many times more. New MOU w/ Israel ends aid & will be based on trade. https://t.co/qOA9FqJa5S
— Ambassador Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) June 1, 2026
Erin Molan: Megyn Kelly Crossed a Line I NEVER Thought She Would (BAD!)
A comment was made this week that stopped Erin Molan in her tracks.
In this special response video, Erin reacts to remarks from Megyn Kelly that she believes crossed a line — and explains why certain language, certain comparisons, and certain historical echoes cannot simply be brushed aside as "just an opinion."
Where is the line between legitimate criticism and something much darker? Why do words matter? And what happens when history's lessons are ignored?
This is one of the strongest reactions Erin has ever recorded — and one she felt could not wait for the next episode.
If you care about honest debate, responsible public discourse, Israel, antisemitism, free speech, media accountability, and the consequences of inflammatory rhetoric, this is a conversation you need to hear.
@spencerpratt @billmaher @ClubRandom_ https://t.co/BEjgXzCLQh
— Jason Cohen 🇺🇸 (@JasonJournoDC) June 1, 2026
EylON the Record: Is Britain Still Safe for Jews? | Dov Forman
Britain was once seen as a model of stability, decency, and quiet integration for its Jewish community. Today, many British Jews are asking whether that promise still holds.
In this episode of EylON the Record, Eylon Levy speaks with Dov Forman, New York Times bestselling author of Lily’s Promise, former adviser to Robert Jenrick, and a prominent voice against antisemitism in the UK, about Britain’s worsening antisemitism crisis, the rise of anti-Israel radicalism, and whether Jewish life in the UK is becoming increasingly unsustainable. They discuss Jeremy Corbyn’s legacy, the normalization of anti-Zionist hostility, Iran-backed threats on British soil, the failures of policing and prosecution, and what all this means for Britain, Israel, democracy, and the future of the West.
In this episode, we discuss:
• How antisemitism in Britain moved from the political fringe into mainstream society
• Why “anti-Zionism” has become a social purity test for British Jews
• How weekly anti-Israel marches, weak law enforcement, and political cowardice have emboldened extremists
• Whether Britain can still offer a secure future for its Jewish community, or whether more Jews will look to Israel
This conversation moves beyond headlines about protests and political slogans. The deeper question is whether a democratic society can protect a small minority when ideological extremism, foreign influence, and social intimidation are allowed to grow unchecked. For British Jews, this is not an abstract debate about foreign policy. It is about whether they can walk openly as Jews, speak honestly about Israel, and trust the institutions meant to protect them.
🎯 Key moment: “The purity test doesn’t actually exist, because the man who stabbed two Jews didn’t ask them what their stance on Israel was before he attacked them.”
00:00 Intro
01:44 Why Israel Feels Safer Than Britain
03:16 How Britain Changed After Corbyn
09:29 “Anti-Zionism” and the New Purity Test for Jews
13:52 Britain’s Broken Political System
16:46 Why UK Politics Is Failing British Jews
18:20 Hate Marches, Weak Policing, and Everyday Antisemitism
38:31 Has Jewish Leadership Failed the Community?
42:30 Teaching Young Jews to Fight Back
48:51 Outro
Streeting led calls for PM to recognise Palestinian state, newly released Mandelson files show
Wes Streeting was at the forefront of pressure on Keir Starmer to announce UK recognition of a Palestinian state—even as the Prime Minister was described as “not attracted to gestures,” newly released files relating to the Mandelson crisis reveal.
The documents confirm that the former Health Secretary sought help from the now disgraced former UK ambassador Lord Peter Mandelson to pressure the PM ahead of the eventual decision to on recognition.
Streeting also circulated a video and a note to the entire cabinet as he urged the Prime Minister to recognise Palestine and impose further sanctions on Israel in response to the war in Gaza.
But the files also show Mandelson’s private reaction to Streeting’s campaign.
After receiving a lengthy email from Streeting about Israel, Mandelson messaged cabinet minister Pat McFadden, then Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, describing Streeting’s message as a “long, hysterical message” and claiming it “reflects pretty badly on his maturity.”
Mandelson went further, writing: “It is pathetic,” and adding, “I think Wes is experiencing an early midlife crisis.”
McFadden replied to Mandelson regarding Streeting’s persistent advocacy on Israel-Palestine, saying, “He is very active on the MPs WhatsApp groups on this subject.”
The newly disclosed documents also shed light on government thinking in the months leading up to the eventual decision to recognise Palestine in September 2025. McFadden, who had described the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza, told Mandelson: “Keir not attracted to gestures but he might have no alternative.”
Mandelson, for his part, also dismissed recognition as a “gesture.”
Responding to Streeting’s email, he warned: “Such a gesture could blow a 2 SS [two-state solution] out of the water if Israel decided unilateral recognition justified further WB [West Bank] annexation which the US would be powerless to stop or reverse.”
Instead, Mandelson argued that “The PA with reform and new leadership” could move towards a peaceful resolution “with Arab/US/European support,” warning that the alternative was a “deadlocked death spiral.”
Streeting pushed back, stating: “Israel is doing it anyway.”
On July 24, 2025, Wes Streeting messages Mandelson saying that Starmer needs to follow Macron and 'up the ante' on Israel
— Steven Swinford (@Steven_Swinford) June 1, 2026
He says Israel is 'committing war crimes before our lives'
Mandelson is withering about Streeting's intervention in a message to Pat McFadden less than 24… pic.twitter.com/ouDsNwNOhL
‘He Hates Us’: New York Jews and Israeli Officials Say Mamdani Isn’t Wanted at the Israel Day Parade, as Hizzoner Becomes First Mayor in 60 Years to Skip Celebration
There was no love lost on Sunday for Zohran Mamdani, who became the first New York City mayor to skip the annual Israel Day Parade in more than 60 years.
Top Israeli leaders and Jewish American figures mingled among heavy security during the festivities and generally agreed it was better that the famously anti-Israel mayor stayed away.
"A great day, a great day, we don't need him," Israel's ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon told the Washington Free Beacon while being whisked past a media scrum.
Before the main event, Amir Ohana, the Speaker of the Israeli Knesset, held court with former New York City mayor Eric Adams and other VIPs at the William Ziegler House—a landmark mansion on Manhattan's Upper East Side.
"This is an impressive show of strength and a clear, direct message to the local leadership that is despicably fueling the flames of hatred in the city against Israel and its Jewish residents. You will not intimidate us," a defiant Ohana told reporters at an impromptu press conference.
When the Free Beacon asked Israel's consul general to New York City, Ofir Akunis, whether he was upset that Mamdani was not marching, he responded with just one word: "No."
Rumors have been swirling that Akunis will soon be replaced by Caroline Glick, an Israeli-American aide to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has a significant following among the Jewish right in Israel and the United States, where she was born and educated.
Israel's finance minister Bezalel Smotrich proved so popular with parade goers that he lingered outside Ralph's Coffee at the corner of 72nd and Madison Avenue after finishing the march and taking selfies with well-wishers.
This rhetoric from a NYC Mayor is solely for the purpose of inciting hate. It’s precisely why he became Mayor.
— Manhattan Mingle (@ManhattanMingle) June 2, 2026
Shame on Jewish New Yorkers who voted for Zohran Mamdani.
Shame on you. pic.twitter.com/4zpXr8FYFd
First The Israel Day Parade, now this.
— Rabbi Poupko (@RabbiPoupko) June 1, 2026
Zohran Mamdani is planning on removing the name of NYC Mayor Ed Koch from the East 59th Street iconic Ed Koch Bridge (aka Queensboro Bridge).
A disgraceful erasure of Jews by a NYC mayor. pic.twitter.com/SKy63FokKR
Smotrich attendance at the NYC Israel Day Parade blew up Mamdani's promise to arrest Israeli leaders targeted by the ICC! https://t.co/J6LMOdV3et
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) June 1, 2026
To underscore how insane this is @LevineJonathan reported on how a leading Democratic candidate was caught doing full blown jihadist propaganda -- and #NJ12 is poised to send him to Congress https://t.co/la5mukyYkX pic.twitter.com/lJQGZYbx9K
— Matthew Foldi (@MatthewFoldi) June 1, 2026
The meaning of the Food Coop’s boycott of Israel in Mamdani's New York
The problem with the logic at play in Park Slope Food Coop is that it can extend from boycotting products to boycotting individuals, making it harder for Israeli musicians to perform in New York or prompting calls to boycott a bakery during its staff’s unionization efforts against their Jewish owners over “their support for the genocide.”
This symbolic violence can (and has already) become physical, against Israelis, supporters of Israel, or Zionists, and ultimately all Jews.
This is a very dangerous slippery slope that preceded Mamdani, but that the mayor vindicates and legitimizes, in the biggest Jewish city in the world, when he refuses to condemn slogans like “Globalize the intifada.”
Mamdani could have made a brief appearance at the pro-Israel parade, said a few words – even critical of Israel’s government – and left.
Instead, he chose not to engage but to ignore Israel and render it invisible – or even non-existent – implying to his “Jewish brothers and sisters” that Israel is not a legitimate or politically correct expression of their Jewishness.
The boycott at Park Slope will not weaken Israel’s economy, but it does single out a country that most Jews still identify with and love, despite their criticisms.
It marks a desire to erase Israel’s existence symbolically and, thereby, the possibility to define one’s Jewish identity through the country, which is no longer “kosher.”
In essence, the “Jewish heritage” that is celebrated by progressives and New York’s mayor does not include the Jewish state. It is at best tone-deaf, and at worst, a dangerous hypocrisy that puts Jewish life and lives at risk.
Nick Griffin spewed a load of anti-Jewish and racist nonsense about Jews encouraging mass migration outside Israel while having the Jewish State “pure”. Tadhg Hickey sat there and let it happen. It’s not funny. It’s not satire. It’s a mask they wear to excuse hate. pic.twitter.com/kpTxss9ntT
— Heidi Bachram (@HeidiBachram) June 1, 2026
Muhammad Al-Mukhtar Al-Shinqiti, Professor at Qatar’s Hamad Bin Khalifa University: Western Liberal Societies Need a “Cultural Revolution”; Their Only “Salvation” Is Mass Conversion to Islam pic.twitter.com/KSZcYD9GHk
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) June 1, 2026
"They try to sugarcoat their stuff"
— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) June 1, 2026
The Free Palestine movement's next target: The elderly.
Here is a protest outside a B'nai Brith home for the elderly, with protesters holding Hezbollah flags and signs glorifying the leaders of the regime in Iran.
So brave. pic.twitter.com/RUHBWjCYMb
Even if they’re arrested and prosecuted a jury will likely let them off. Our legal system isn’t protecting our national security. https://t.co/pSA7ZCnTnI
— Heidi Bachram (@HeidiBachram) June 1, 2026
There’s nothing that represents the pro-Pal movement more than a broken Flotilla boat landing on the shores of Gaza and them celebrating by going on a mad antisemitic rant claiming it as a success. Useless haters. pic.twitter.com/KkRFlQobZz
— Heidi Bachram (@HeidiBachram) June 1, 2026
Former Columbia President Katrina Armstrong, Who Told Feds She Couldn't Recall Specifics of Any Antisemitic Incident on Campus, Out as University's Medical Center Chief
Former Columbia University president Katrina Armstrong, who resigned after telling the federal government she couldn't recall specifics of any antisemitic incident on campus, is stepping down as CEO of the Ivy League institution's medical center and dean of the medical school, Columbia acting president Claire Shipman announced Monday.
Armstrong will leave those roles to launch the Vagelos Institute for Basic Biomedical Research, which will be housed in the medical school and will center on areas such as cell engineering and gene therapies. It stems from a $400 million donation from former Merck chair and CEO Roy Vagelos and his wife Diana. Together, the couple has dumped $900 million into Columbia—and hundreds of thousands into Democratic candidates' campaigns, including nearly $30,000 to President Joe Biden's campaign and more than $13,000 to Kamala Harris's campaign.
Armstrong's transition comes as a congressional committee investigates whether Columbia is complying with the terms of its $221 million settlement with the Trump administration. She featured prominently in a House Energy and Commerce Committee letter announcing the probe, with committee chair Brett Guthrie (R., Ky.) questioning whether she had "become a better leader capable of helping oversee the implementation of the agreement."
A Columbia spokesman pointed the Washington Free Beacon to the university's announcement.
Armstrong stepped in to head Columbia after her predecessor, Minouche Shafik, resigned in August 2024 amid scandals surrounding anti-Israel and frequently antisemitic protests that gripped the campus, but her own tenure proved no less controversial. Unrest continued during Armstrong's leadership, yet she told the federal government in an April 2025 deposition that she had "no specific memory" of anti-Israel activists calling for the destruction of Israel or other high-profile incidents detailed by Columbia's antisemitism task force, such as allegations that students spat on their Jewish counterparts.
Update: antisemite Elmahdi Oummih is no longer employed with Astoria Values. https://t.co/6PyBsomkHD
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) June 1, 2026
Cedar Sinai is not just any hospital.
— Rabbi Poupko (@RabbiPoupko) June 1, 2026
It is a hospital built in 1902 because the general hospitals in California refused to hire Jewish doctors or respect Jewish patients.
Having a Keffiyeh while working in this hospital is a violation of every tenant of its existence. https://t.co/n7nitBlhKq
JPost editorial: The New York Times must answer serious questions about Kristof column
Immediate criticism in Israel and from Jewish organizationsNGO Monitor calls for independent probe of ‘NYT,’ Kristof scandal
The column drew immediate criticism in Israel and from Jewish organizations. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar instructed Israeli officials to initiate legal action against the Times, calling the column defamatory. Israel planned to sue the newspaper over the piece, Reuters reported on May 14. The Times has defended the column, and media-law experts have questioned whether such a lawsuit would succeed under US defamation law.
The controversy widened after former prime minister Ehud Olmert, who was cited in the column, said his remarks had been misrepresented. That claim alone should concern any serious newspaper. When a named source publicly says his words were distorted after publication, the matter cannot be dismissed as ordinary criticism from an unhappy reader.
This is where the shareholder demand becomes important.
The issue is not whether the Times may criticize Israel. Of course, it may. The issue is whether one of the world’s most influential newspapers applied proper standards before publishing grave allegations against Israel during a war and at a time of rising antisemitism and intense global hostility toward the Jewish state.
The New York Times is a private company with a public role. Its reporting and opinion writing affect policy-makers, diplomats, universities, activists, investors, and Jewish communities worldwide. A column in the Times does not remain confined to the opinion page. It moves quickly through social media, international institutions, and political discourse. In the case of Israel, it can harden narratives before facts are tested.
That is precisely why internal processes matter.
Members of NGO Monitor, an Israel-based research institute, signed an open letter on Sunday calling for an independent investigation of The New York Times following its publishing of an opinion column alleging Israeli authorities sexually assaulted Palestinian security prisoners.
The column, penned by Nicholas Kristof, drew a flurry of criticism worldwide, culminating in the recent United Nation’s decision to place Israel on a list of parties suspected of committing sexual violence in conflict.
The members of NGO Monitor’s International Advisory Board members wrote, “[We] call for a thorough and fully independent investigation of the sourcing, fact-checking and methodology employed by Kristof and the Times staff in the May 11 piece.”
Such a probe, the letter continued, “is necessary in the wake of the ‘halo effect’ that protects advocacy NGOs claiming human rights agendas from independent scrutiny.”
The members of the board added, “Relying primarily on anonymous and unfalsifiable testimonies, Kristof’s column lacked credibility from the beginning. And the subsequent attempts by Kristof and the Times to deflect the substantive criticism have only added to these concerns. The claims of ‘rigorous vetting’ and thorough investigation by the Times are equally unverifiable.”
NGO Monitor has exposed dubious sources used in Kristof’s column, some of which have direct links to Hamas.
I'm surprised that AP is covering forced child marriages in Gaza, a widespread practice. What a lovely society. pic.twitter.com/ds7Um6tBDU
— Noah Pollak (@NoahPollak) June 1, 2026
Seth Franzman: Several figures emerge as next leaders of Hamas in Gaza, but who will end up leading?
Israel eliminated Hamas’ latest leader in Gaza, Mohammed Odeh, on May 26. This came just two weeks after the IDF had killed his predecessor, Izz al-Din al-Haddad. As such, Hamas appears to be leaderless in Gaza.My Nazi grandfather sent Tomi Reichental to Bergen-Belsen death camp
However, Israel has not sought to take advantage of this, nor has it attempted to remove Hamas from Gaza and free the two million Gazans trapped under Hamas. Instead, Hamas is left in control of around 40% of Gaza, able to rebuild itself and choose new leadership.
Regional media are interested in who may come next. Notably, Hamas leadership has been divided between Gaza-based leaders and those who have been living abroad for decades.
For instance, when October 7 began, many key Hamas figures were living in Qatar; these included Ismail Haniyeh, Ghazi Hamid, and Khaled Meshaal. Saleh al-Arouri lived in Lebanon. Haniyeh and Arouri were killed over the past two years, but several key Hamas figures remain in Qatar.
Meanwhile, the entirety of Hamas leadership in Gaza has been eliminated, according to IDF statements. This includes almost every Hamas battalion and brigade commander. Yahya Sinwar, Marwan Issa, Mohammed Dief, and other key commanders in Gaza were killed during the Israel-Hamas War. Hamas has replaced a number of its commanders, but, in some cases, these replacements were also killed.
Who will lead Hamas in Gaza next?
This week, Walla reported that Hamas has several key figures within Gaza who could lead Hamas in Gaza.
When discussing Hamas in Gaza, reports often claim that there is a “military” wing and a "political" one. In the current reports about Hamas leaders in Gaza, the reference here is to the “military” wing because it is the prevalent one in Gaza.
Hamas is one organization, but has often pretended to have separate pieces. This is a fiction that terrorist groups often use so that their “political” side can freely travel and negotiate.
It is a fiction that harkens back to when terrorist groups were more popular around the world; groups like the IRA in Northern Ireland would pretend that their “political” side had no role in their “military” activity. The reality is that Hamas, like other terrorists, only has one leadership.
I was deeply anxious during the train journey from Vienna to Bratislava, the Slovak capital, in 2014. Holocaust survivor Tomi Reichental was expecting me there, together with Gerry Gregg’s film crew. They were shooting the documentary Close to Evil.Toronto police arrest five more suspects for ‘wilful promotion of hatred’ at anti-Israel protest
Tomi was born in Czechoslovakia but moved to Ireland in 1959. He had been a young boy when he and his family were deported by the Nazis to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany in 1944. Tomi survived, but 35 of his relatives were murdered in the Holocaust; his grandmother died before his eyes in the camp.
My grandfather, however, was Hanns E Ludin, the “envoy of the Third Reich to Slovakia”, and it was he who signed the deportation orders. Ludin was convicted as a war criminal and executed in Bratislava in 1947.
Tomi’s and my family histories were thus tragically intertwined. I feared we might meet on a hostile, or at the very least deeply unsettling, note. My daughter Magda, then 19, accompanied me, albeit reluctantly. As the train pulled into Bratislava’s station, my heart was pounding.
There was Tomi waiting on the platform, visibly just as tense as me. But we embraced, dissolving our fears. That was so generous of him. A day into filming, I asked Tomi whether he would accompany me to my grandfather’s anonymous grave. “But surely not to commemorate him?” he asked, clearly taken aback.
That was not my intention, I explained. I wanted to share this visit with him in a way I could not with my own family. Because I had publicly confronted my grandfather’s guilt – a guilt they continue to deny – I had become estranged from them. I had challenged my family’s narrative and somehow “soiled the nest”.
Now, I stood with Tomi at the grave. When he recited the names of his murdered relatives, I burst into tears. In that moment we established an extraordinary connection, sharing the burden of our profoundly different histories. Through dialogue and shared grief, we bridged an abyss created by the past.
Five people were arrested Sunday and charged in connection with the display and distribution of antisemitic signs at an anti-Israel demonstration in Toronto on March 15, according to the Toronto Police Service.Motorola Solutions acquires Israeli drone defense startup D-Fend for $1.5 billion
Police said Hosaam Hemdan, 19; Omer Turcan, 43; Hasan Aydin, 48; and Yasaf Shaikh, 46, all of Toronto, as well as Syed Hussaini, 43, of Whitby, were charged with “wilful promotion of hatred” and “public incitement of hatred” at a protest near Bathurst Street and Sheppard Avenue. Hemdan, Turcan and Hussaini also face charges of wearing a “disguise with intent.”
Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center stated that the signs depicted Jews as rats and as grotesque caricatures with exaggerated features, imagery widely associated with antisemitic propaganda. The group filed a complaint with police and called for criminal charges and prosecution.
The arrests follow the earlier charging of Muhammad Anas Sial, 33, of Toronto, who was accused of carrying antisemitic signs and shouting derogatory remarks at pro-Israel demonstrators during the same protest. He was later charged with both “public incitement of hatred” and “wilful promotion of hatred.”
Counter-drone specialist joins U.S. giant amid global surge in battlefield drone warfare.U.S. Navy buys Israeli anti-drone rifle scope
Israeli defense technology startup D-Fend has been acquired for $1.5 billion by the U.S. company Motorola Solutions. D-Fend operates in the rapidly growing counter-drone sector, specifically focusing on neutralizing hostile drones, a capability that has become increasingly relevant in Israel and globally.
The company’s technology enables hostile drones to be taken over using RF (radio frequency) signals without the need for kinetic interception. However, its solution is less effective against optical, camera-guided drones, which rely on visual navigation rather than RF communication links. The sale of D-Fend was recently revealed by Calcalist.
Although D-Fend is not a young company, it was founded in 2016, the exit represents a highly profitable outcome. To date, it has raised only $67 million. In its last funding round, held nearly two years ago, the company was valued at approximately $250 million.
An Israeli fire control technology company has now secured contracts with all four major branches of the U.S. military, completing a sweep across the American armed forces that took less than a year. Smart Shooter announced June 1 that it received its first significant U.S. Navy contract, a $1.8 million award for soldier-portable SMASH 2000LE fire control systems, following earlier agreements with the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, and Air Force.Shot synagogue hero completes Manchester half-marathon months after terror attack
The contract, awarded by the Naval Surface Warfare Center and procured through Atlantic Diving Supply, calls for delivery in the second half of 2026.
The SMASH 2000LE, also designated SMASH 3000SA in some configurations, is a fire control system that mounts on a standard rifle and uses computer vision and targeting algorithms to dramatically improve a soldier’s ability to hit small, fast-moving aerial targets. Standard rifle marksmanship training prepares soldiers to hit stationary or slow-moving targets at ground level, where the shooter can anticipate the target’s movement and apply standard ballistic calculations.
A small drone flying at 20 meters per second (65 feet per second) on an unpredictable course presents a targeting problem that those same skills do not transfer to well. The SMASH system addresses the gap between a soldier’s existing marksmanship capability and the demand that counter-drone engagement places on it by computing the solution electronically: the soldier tracks the drone, the system calculates when the conditions are right for a hit, and the weapon fires only when the computed probability of kill meets the threshold the system requires. The trigger still belongs to the human, but the fire control system eliminates rounds that would miss.
A Jewish father who was shot during last year’s deadly terror attack outside a Manchester synagogue has completed the Great Manchester Run half-marathon, fulfilling a promise he made during his recovery.US Jews mark a year since Colorado firebombing, but most Americans never heard of it
Yoni Finlay, who was injured while helping barricade the doors of Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation during the Yom Kippur attack in October, crossed the finish line of Sunday’s 21.1km race less than eight months after being wounded.
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News after the run, Finlay said completing the challenge marked an important personal milestone.
“Around seven months ago, I was shot outside the Heaton Park synagogue, on Yom Kippur. On that day, I promised myself that I would get back to a half-marathon. I did one two years ago, and I promised myself that I would do it again.
“Seven months later, I’ve managed to do it. I’m slightly disappointed because I was five seconds slower than two years ago, but I’m really, really pleased that I did it. I got through it.”
Finlay used the event to raise money for The Friendship Circle, the Salford-based charity supporting Jewish children and adults with physical and learning disabilities.
US Jews on Monday marked the one-year anniversary of the firebombing attack in Boulder, Colorado, in which an anti-Zionist attacker hurled gasoline bombs at a rally for Israeli hostages, killing an elderly woman and wounding more than a dozen.Family, friends of slain embassy staffers mark first anniversary of Capital Jewish Museum shooting
“Karen Sorin Diamond, an 82-year-old mother and grandmother, did not survive,” Susan Rona, the Mountain States regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said in a column mourning the attack. “I have spent the past year carrying that and thinking about that. I think many of us have.”
The attack came weeks after the murder of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington, DC.
They were among 20 Diaspora Jews murdered in 2025, the most deadly year for Diaspora Jewry in decades.
While the killings in Washington and Colorado were an earthquake for the US Jewish community, most Americans are unaware of the deaths and other incidents of violence against Jews, according to data shared with The Times of Israel.
The Blue Square Alliance Against Hate, a US nonprofit that monitors and fights antisemitism, polled Americans on violent antisemitic attacks late last year. The data have not been previously reported.
An emotional memorial ceremony at the Israeli Embassy in Washington on Monday marking the one-year anniversary of the murders of Israeli Embassy staffers Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky was filled with many tears, some anger and even a few laughs.Sky News Australia: ‘I will never be that person again’: Debra Messing reveals the ‘cost of advocacy’ after October 7
Milgrim’s father, Robert, told an assembled crowd of dignitaries, Jewish leaders and D.C. staffers that he was saddened not only by the death of his daughter but by the ways in which her death exemplifies the challenges facing every Jewish community.
“I’m sad, not only because of the tragic loss of our daughter, but I’m sad due to the state of affairs in which Jews live today,” Robert Milgrim said. “We now live in a world where every Jewish institution needs to be protected by an armed guard wearing a bulletproof vest.”
He said that, in the wake of Milgrim’s death, “we have learned the true meaning of what it is to be a Jew, and even though we are scattered across many lands, we are all part of the same family. This family has provided us with the support, with the support that we need now, and for that I say, thank you to everyone here.”
He said that those gathered should honor Milgrim’s work by “doubling down on full, unapologetic bridge-building.”
Milgrim’s mother, Nancy, recounted her daughter’s upbringing as a member of a small Jewish community in Kansas and her growing love for Israel through multiple visits to the country.
Actress Debra Messing sits down with Sky News host Sharri Markson to talk about her struggles dealing with antisemitism.
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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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