Saturday, June 13, 2026

06/12 Links Pt2: Civilization and Barbarism in the Biblical Heartland; Melanie Phillips; Islam and Jihad in the UK; Four Palestine Action activists jailed for Elbit factory raid

From Ian:

Josh Hammer: Civilization and Barbarism in the Biblical Heartland
I’ve just returned from my seventh trip to Israel. I spent a good amount of time in Judea and Samaria. I visited some of the major Jewish “settlements”—tendentious nomenclature aside, better thought of simply as flourishing suburbs—such as Ariel and Efrat. I visited a brand-new hilltop settlement outside Efrat, called Eitam, where the founder offered a tour of the local Herodian ruins and explained why he first pitched a tent without so much as electricity or running water. Further out in the Judean Desert, at the stunning Arugot Farm, the founders quoted biblical passages that harmonized their project with the vision of the prophets. The Israeli government is not advertising the extension of sovereignty on a mass scale, but there is a lot of new building happening on a micro level on the ground.

In a sensible world, this would be celebrated. But it’s not. Humorously, in virtually every other geopolitical hot spot, it is the Chinese- and Russian-funded anti-civilizational Left that clamors for “indigenous rights” at every opportunity. Yet in Judea and Samaria, the leftist Soros/NGO script flips on its head entirely. The actual indigenous population, acting in furtherance of the miraculous fulfilment of the biblical prophecy of the ingathering of the exiles, is instead deemed cruel, oppressive, “colonialist,” or even “genocidal.” Curious, that. Even worse: In our morally confused and biblically illiterate age, far too many on the “Right” accept the prevailing narrative and clap along.

Even holding aside the terror-supporting, Hamas-loving nature (as confirmed by myriad polling) of the radicalized local Arab population, it is difficult to describe the extraordinary impracticability of any kind of divided political resolution to the question of Judea and Samaria. The Western mind often thinks of the “settlements” as comprising a few gruff hilltop cranks—and some surely do exist. But there are now well over a half-million Jews living in the biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria—from the tony suburbs of Gush Etzion to the far-flung outposts near the Jordan River or the Dead Sea. Simply put, the Jews of Judea are not going anywhere. And on the ground, Jewish towns are interspersed all throughout with Arab towns. There are no clean borders to be drawn here.

To attempt to neatly divide this on a map is an exercise in logistical and cartographic futility. Give the freaks of “Students for Justice in Palestine” credit for one thing: The geopolitical unity inherent in the cry of “from the (Jordan) River to the (Mediterranean) Sea” makes a heck of a lot more sense than continuing to indulge the Oslo Accords-era delusion of a workable carving out of a new Palestine Liberation Organization/Hamas terror entity in the core of the biblical heartland—even if, per leading Oslo proponent Yitzhak Rabin himself, the entity would be “less than a (full) state.” The land is going to be controlled by either Jews or, after 90-year-old Ramallah-based PLO kleptocrat-in-chief Mahmoud Abbas croaks, Hamas.

It’s pretty much that simple.

As in so much else in our politics, then, the relevant question in Judea and Samaria is not the procedural question of whether there will be one or two (or more) states, but the substantive question of who will rule in the entirety of the biblical heartland. The Left knows its answer: Hamas and the broader Muslim Brotherhood of which it is a part. But again: Why doesn’t most of the Right, which is at least ostensibly committed to the defense of Western civilization, have its own competing answer in response to the Red-Green Alliance narrative?

The answer to this specific geopolitical question dovetails with the broader explanation for the rise of the “Retard Right” phenomenon, in the first place: increased lack of civilizational or national self-confidence, diminished understanding of America as founded upon the ecumenical biblical inheritance and committed to upholding it for our progeny, the successful injection of debilitating information operations from wily foes such as Russia and Qatar, and a broader rotting of the American people’s minds that has led to a chronic inability to distinguish fact from fiction and right from wrong.

But the Trump administration, though not immune to infiltration by some prominent individuals (Joe Kent, anyone?) who are card-carrying members of the “Retard Right,” has generally acted in a way to diminish the influence of the most cancerous pro-Russia, pro-China, Islamophilic, and anti-American voices within the Right’s midst. Furthermore, the current U.S. ambassador to Israel is evangelical Mike Huckabee, a lifelong proponent of Jewish rights in Judea and Samaria and a deep skeptic of the Palestinian-Arab narrative.

Even if rudimentary morality is off the table in our confused time, the Trump administration can and should make an even more straightforward argument about the American national interest when it comes to the future of the biblical heartland.

To be “America First” is to ask, in each and every geopolitical hot spot around the world, what course of action best advances the American national interest. In Judea and Samaria, the answer—especially in the aftermath of the regional Israeli-Arab rapprochement that was the 2020 Abraham Accords pacts—should be obvious: Greater Israeli autonomy is preferable to greater Hamas/Muslim Brotherhood autonomy. This is true for national security reasons. This is true for Iranian regime containment regions. This is true for China great power competition reasons. This true for Christian holy site protection reasons. Indeed, this is true for virtually every reason conceivable. Even the Arab states know it, despite their meek protestations to the contrary—and they especially know it in light of Operation Epic Fury, which has fully exposed Iran’s threat to the region.

If Western civilization is going to be saved, then America must do the saving. If America is going to be saved, then the Right must do the saving. But that can only if the Right actually understands what it is fighting to preserve: the intellectual and tangible fruits of the ecumenical biblical inheritance. After my most recent trip to the Holy Land, I’ve never felt firmer in my conviction that such an effort must encompass a robust defense of the biblical heartland itself. Judea and Samara must forever remain part of Team Civilization, not Team Barbarism. And “America First” should understand that.
Man in the mirror: Norman Finkelstein and his own Holocaust industry
I owe Norman Finkelstein something. He was my professor at New York University in the mid-1990s, and for a young Jewish kid from Queens, N.Y., he was an electric disruption. He challenged everything I thought I knew, introduced me to Noam Chomsky and wrote the recommendation that got me into graduate school. I read his work for more than 30 years. This essay is not written in contempt. It is written in disappointment, with the same demand for consistency he spent his career imposing on others.

Norman Finkelstein built his reputation on a single devastating argument: that suffering can be exploited, historical trauma can be weaponized and moral authority can become currency. His 2000 book The Holocaust Industry accused Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel of turning tragedy into a brand, commanding speaking fees upward of $25,000 while claiming the Holocaust was “noncommunicable.”

He accused attorney Alan Dershowitz, professor emeritus at Harvard Law School, of fraud. He accused Jewish organizations of running “an outright extortion racket.” His standards were ferocious and he insisted they apply to everyone.

It is time to hold Finkelstein to his own standard.

Today, his public identity revolves around Gaza and his identity as the son of Holocaust survivors. His mother survived Majdanek. His father survived Auschwitz. Both survived the Warsaw Ghetto. Their suffering is not incidental to his public persona. It is the credential that accompanies him into every interview, every introduction, every podcast appearance.

He has built two books totaling more than 900 pages on Gaza alone, to be sold as a matched box set modeled on Vasily Grossman and Ilya Ehrenburg’s documentation of Nazi atrocities. He promotes his new volume, Gaza’s Gravediggers, across every available platform.

The man who accused others of transforming historical suffering into moral authority now relies on his own inherited suffering as his primary credential. The man who condemned what he called an industry has built one himself. The subject matter changed. The mechanism did not.

Earlier this year, I reached out to Finkelstein directly, as a former student who had read his work for 30 years. I asked about antisemitism that predates Israel by centuries. I asked about the institutional silences that followed the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, before any Israeli military response began. I asked about the future of Jewish life in the Diaspora.

Not one question was engaged. Instead came dismissal, sarcasm and the declaration that “those who want to know, know.”

He told me Gaza was “about as complex as an Auschwitz gas chamber.” That comparison, deployed casually in a personal letter to the son and grandson of survivors of Bergen-Belsen and Terezín, reveals something important. The man who once demanded that arguments be answered rather than dismissed now pronounces verdicts and calls it scholarship.

On Oct. 7, Finkelstein posted that it “warms every fiber of my soul” to see Gaza’s “Jewish supremacist oppressors” humbled. He invoked the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising—the very one his own parents survived—as a parallel to Hamas’s assault on a music festival and kibbutz families.
Insurance giant Allianz given green light to sue Palestine activists
A British court has allowed German insurance giant Allianz to pursue a civil lawsuit against six pro-Palestine activists accused of vandalising its offices in London and Guildford, Surrey.

The defendants, who conducted separate protests at the site in 2024 and 2025, are facing criminal damage charges after targeting the company as the then-insurer of Elbit Systems, an Israeli-based defence firm.

Known as the Allianz6, the activists occupied the office building and sprayed it with red paint, which the firm said caused £79,000 in damage.

In its filings to Central London County Court, Allianz requested permission to seek up to £300,000 in damages, £200,000 of which it claimed were incurred through “reputational damage and commercial embarrassment”.

The activists represented themselves last month in the early stages of their criminal trial and say they cannot afford legal representation to contest the civil case.

They argued that the suit should be held until the conclusion of the criminal proceedings, scheduled separately for October this year and January 2028, to safeguard their right to a fair trial.

However, Judge Alan Johns rejected this request, ruling on Monday that the suit could proceed concurrently with the criminal cases.

One of the defendants, Seren John-Wood, told Middle East Eye: “We took action and are prepared to face legal consequences in a criminal court as we believe we are not guilty.

"But this attempt to move the case away from the criminal courts, where we are not able to access financial support for legal representation and have our cases heard by juries, is as appalling as it is unprecedented.”


Islam in America
Third Worldism is not a recent invention. Its intellectual roots run through the Algerian War of Independence, when Jean-Paul Sartre and Frantz Fanon moralized revolutionary violence as a cleansing, liberatory force, and through Edward Said’s Orientalism, which recast Western knowledge itself as a colonial enterprise. Institutionalized in American universities over the following decades, these ideas hardened into what Hudson Institute scholar Zineb Riboua calls a “political theology”: a worldview that treats any movement arrayed against Western power as inherently righteous. By October 7, 2023, it had migrated from the fringes of academia into mainstream political life. The slogans that appeared within hours of the Hamas attacks were not spontaneous expressions of outrage but the product of a conceptual system built over decades, now fluently spoken by a generation of American politicians and activists.

Third Worldism’s most visible manifestation is not terrorism but what my colleague Tal Fortgang calls civil terrorism: mass unlawful behavior designed to coerce people into adopting unpopular political positions, typically by going just far enough to break the law while stopping short of bodily harm. Think of the college students who took over campus quads and libraries while raging against “Zionists”; nonprofits that vowed to keep blocking roads until Americans stopped supporting Israel; or vandalism that lionizes terrorist groups. None of these actions are constitutionally protected protests. They are harassment, intimidation, and antisocial behavior — a deliberate strategy to maximize disruption at minimal personal risk. That protesters so often hide their faces and evade accountability is itself the confession: Theirs is a politics of coercion, not conscience.

The secular character of Third Worldism also explains phenomena that might otherwise seem incoherent. Consider the seeming contradiction of “Queers for Palestine.” Presumably, the activists behind this movement oppose the criminalization of homosexuality, a core tenet of Islamism. Their choice of ally, therefore, makes sense only if they understand Islam primarily as a political identity rather than a religious one and if their chief motivation is hostility to American power and its perceived proxies. Third Worldism’s capacity to recruit across racial, religious, and ethnic lines is precisely what makes it a more expansive and durable ideological challenge than Islamism. It is also what makes it so dangerous as a permission structure for Islamist violence. By celebrating “anti-imperialist” resistance movements as inherently righteous and insisting that the real violence is always structural, always Western, and always Zionist, Third Worldism provides the moral vocabulary according to which attacks like Ghazali’s become, for some, not atrocities but acts of liberation.

The policy responses available are imperfect but not negligible. First, states should vigorously enforce existing laws against civil terrorism and raise penalties for antisocial behavior that exploits the gray zone between criminality and prosecution, as Utah’s legislature recently did. The logic is familiar from “broken windows” policing: Tolerating minor disorder signals that major disorder will be tolerated, too. Civil terrorists count on prosecutors looking the other way. Vigorous prosecution would prove them wrong. Second, the federal government should investigate the networks organizing acts of civil terrorism for criminal conspiracy, nonprofit law violations, and material support for terrorism. You can’t criminalize Third Worldist ideas, but you can dismantle the infrastructure that translates them into organized campaigns of harassment and intimidation.

The deeper challenge is the ideas themselves. Foreign funding of American educational institutions warrants disclosure requirements and perhaps even outright prohibition. But that only addresses the problem on the margins. Our universities are already saturated with anti-Western orthodoxies that require no foreign subsidy. The more fundamental reform is structural: increasing the accountability of universities to their trustees and, through them, to the public. The goal is not ideological coercion but the restoration of a minimal civic commitment: respect for the society that makes free inquiry and religious liberty possible in the first place.

Third Worldism, left unchecked, won’t remain on the radical fringe. Consider the first months of Zohran Mamdani’s mayoralty. In March 2026, two men inspired by ISIS attempted to detonate shrapnel-filled improvised explosive devices outside Gracie Mansion. Mamdani forcefully condemned the anti-Islam rally that preceded the attack — but even after describing the bombing attempt as “a heinous act of terrorism,” he declined to name or condemn the jihadist ideology that inspired it. The following month, he vetoed a city council bill establishing protest buffer zones around schools, citing concerns about the rights of pro-Palestinian demonstrators. Somehow, Third Worldists always insist on maximum vigilance about Islamophobia while offering little more than equivocation about jihadism.
UK Jews decry policy paper in which Muslim police group calls Zionism form of hatred
British Jewish groups say they are alarmed about revelations that a fraternal society for Muslim police officers published a policy paper that described Zionism as a form of anti-Muslim hatred and called the Israeli army a “Zionist terrorist group.”

The Board of Deputies of British Jews called the paper posted by the National Association of Muslim Police “disturbing” in its presentation of Jewish identity, history and the nature of antisemitism.

“If this is being circulated among officers, it poses a direct challenge to the integrity of policing and it should be withdrawn immediately,” the group said.

NAMP has distanced itself from the report and, in a statement, rejected any allegation that the group “supports Hamas.”

The 39-page paper titled “From Past Prejudices to Present Policies: Confronting anti-Muslim hatred and Promoting Human Rights,” was written by NAMP’s then-vice president, Khaldoun Kabbani, and published in July 2025. It says “Zionism represents one of the manifestations of anti-Muslim hatred”; likens the war in Gaza to the Holocaust; and disputes facts about the atrocities committed during the bloody Hamas-led massacres in Israel on October 7, 2023, including that the thousands of invading terrorists slaughtered Israeli children.

The Spectator, a right-wing British newspaper, drew attention to the report in a piece published on Friday that said the report illuminated “the disturbing truth about the National Association of Muslim Police.” The group has a formal affiliation with 16 of 43 police departments in the UK and says it represents more than 20,000 officers.

Kabbani, a forensics officer, was briefly the chair of the Scottish Muslim Police Association but planned to move abroad after retiring earlier this year, according to a post by the group on LinkedIn.

The revelation of the NAMP report comes at a time of heightened tension over policing in the UK, amid both a surge in anti-Jewish crimes and a renewed uproar over a December murder that has fueled allegations of “two-tier policing” that treats some victims differently from others. The Spectator referenced the victim, Henry Nowak, in the column about NAMP.

The NAMP report has spurred distress for many British Jews who are on edge amid a string of violent incidents targeting Jewish communities. The Campaign Against Antisemitism, a watchdog group, said its polling shows that 83% of British Jews do not think the police are doing enough to protect them — and that the report suggested their concerns were well founded.

“The people responsible for publishing this extremist screed on the official police.uk web domain are unfit to be police officers and must be immediately investigated by their respective forces’ professional standards departments and dismissed,” Steven Silverman, CAM’s director of investigations and enforcement, said in a statement.

“British Jews have long suffered two-tier policing that sees antisemitic crime go unpunished,” he said, adding that CAM would press the British government to ensure a clear message is being sent. This cannot pass with the document being quietly deleted.”


Being Jewish with Jonah Platt: Jewish Actress Mayim Bialik WON’T Hide Being Jewish, Even When She Feels Less Safe In Public
Dr. Mayim Bialik: celebrated actor, neuroscientist, bestselling author, and one of the loudest, proudest Jewish voices in Hollywood. She has been protested, threatened, dropped by sponsors, and excluded from liberal organizations she marched for — all for being openly Jewish. She's here to talk about it.

Known to millions as Blossom and Amy Farrah Fowler on The Big Bang Theory, ‪@MayimBialik‬ also a neuroscientist, bestselling author, and someone who was navigating antisemitism and anti-Zionist activism long before October 7th put it on everyone's radar. In this episode she gets into what that's actually looked like — on college campuses, in Hollywood, in her personal life, and in the parking lots of Los Angeles.

If you want to go deeper beyond the podcast, join the Being Jewish Kehillah -- our subscriber community that gives you access to exclusive bonus content, merch discounts, live office hours with Jonah, special community events, and more. Join the Kehillah today at http://beingjewishpodcast.com/join

Start watching or listening to Wondering Jews with Mijal and Noam at http://unpacked.bio/WJ

Jonah and Mayim go deep on what it means to be a liberal Zionist right now, why she thinks the Jewish community's silence isn't apathy, what her family's life in the West Bank has taught her that no news coverage could, and what she's telling her teenage sons as they navigate campus life in 2025.

00:00:00 - Mayim Bialik on Being Openly Jewish in Public Life
00:04:20 - Being Protested as a Zionist
00:07:04 - UCLA & The Rise of Anti-Zionism
00:11:51 - Antisemitism, TikTok & Academic Hijacking
00:16:53 - Processing October 7th
00:21:18 - The Viral TikTok & Liberal Zionism
00:28:07 - Jews as the Canary in the Coal Mine
00:29:50 - Family in the West Bank
00:42:09 - Raising Jewish Sons Right Now
00:47:00 - Hollywood & Lost Sponsors
00:51:28 - Confronted in a Hollywood Parking Lot
00:57:38 - Baal Teshuva & Jewish Identity
01:01:07 - Lightning Round


UKLFI: Natasha Hausdorff examines Zohran Mamdani's Claims About Israel and International Law
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has described Israel as an unlawful occupying power, claimed Israeli settlements are illegal under international law, accused Israel of apartheid and genocide and pledged support for ICC arrest warrants against Israeli leaders.

In this interview, barrister, international law expert and UKLFI Charitable Trust Legal Director, Natasha Hausdorff, examines the legal arguments behind those claims and explains why she believes many are widely misunderstood or misrepresented in public debate.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
01:15 ICC warrants and international law
07:08 Is Israel engaged in an unlawful occupation?
10:54 Are Israeli settlements illegal?
15:20 Does Israel meet the legal definition of apartheid?
18:57 What does genocide mean in international law?
23:04 Contested legal claims
24:46 Impact on international law and public debate


Bernie Sanders to appear with Mamdani’s congressional slate next week
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is set to join a rally in New York City next Thursday with Mayor Zohran Mamdani and a trio of candidates he is backing in closely watched House races, The New York Times reports.

The event, which will be held five days before the June 23 primary at the Kings Theatre in Brooklyn, will lend a jolt of momentum to Mamdani’s preferred slate of far-left congressional candidates — including democratic socialists Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier, and Brad Lander, a former New York City comptroller who also ran for mayor last election cycle.

Sanders, who is seen as a godfather of the modern left, most recently appeared with Mamdani in April at a rally to mark the mayor’s first 100 days in office. The Vermont independent also swore Mamdani in at his inauguration in January.

The senator’s decision to appear at the rally next week, however, is notable in part because he will be aiding Mamdani in his efforts to unseat two Democratic incumbents, Reps. Dan Goldman (D-NY) and Ariano Espaillat (D-NY), who have drawn backlash from the left over their support for Israel and ties to the pro-Israel group AIPAC, a chief source of criticism in the races.

Several House progressive leaders, prominently including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), have remained neutral in the primaries to unseat Goldman, who is defending his seat against Lander, and Espaillat, who is facing Avila Chevalier. Polling has indicated Goldman is in serious trouble, with Espaillat bracing for a closer race than he and his allies had expected.
HonestReporting: The Journalist They Blacklisted for Calling Out Queer Antisemitism
It's Pride Month, and at a queer women's sauna night in Barcelona, two married Jewish women wearing Stars of David were surrounded, interrogated, and thrown out to chants of "Free Palestine." In a room built on the promise that no one gets turned away for who they are, the Jewish identity is no longer welcome.

Journalist Eve Barlow knows these spaces from the inside. She was deputy editor of NME, wrote cover stories for GQ, and was at the beating heart of progressive culture. Then, around 2019, she said one thing out loud: that the anti-Zionism rising around her was antisemitism wearing a new coat. The world that let her in turned on her. She named her newsletter after what they did to her: Blacklisted.

The Barcelona sauna incident — and why the perpetrators were elites (a university sociologist, a lawyer, a teacher), not the ignorant
Where "Queers for Palestine" actually comes from — the queer-theory and post-colonial lineage that turned a civil-rights movement into an oppressor/oppressed morality play
Why marginalization became a political identity the movement can't put down — and the eerie parallel to how Jews went from "oppressed" to "oppressor"
The "as-a-Jew" anti-Zionists — Matt Bernstein, Zach Polanski — and the market that rewards them
The pinkwashing smear, flipped on its head: Israel's real LGBTQ+ record vs. the rest of the region
Released hostage Emily Damari, and the particular vulnerability of being openly gay in captivity
And a closing message to the queer Jewish kid who's been told to choose between their people and their pride Eve's argument: Pride began as a celebration of how far people had come in a single generation. Somewhere along the way it inverted — from celebrating victory into a contest over who is most oppressed. The moment a people succeeds, it gets recast as the oppressor. Her answer isn't to shrink. It's to refuse the trade.

0:00 Cold Open
2:23 Introducing Eve Barlow
3:14 What Actually Happened in Barcelona
11:50 Eve's Background: From NME to Blacklisted
21:16 She Saw It Coming Before Anyone Was Looking
29:12 Where "Queers for Palestine" Actually Comes From
37:29 The Subconscious Political Pathology of Marginalization
43:38 How Online Hate Becomes Real World Permission
48:38 The Closet They're Building for Jews
52:57 The "As-a-Jew" Anti-Zionists: Matt Bernstein and Zach Polanski
57:35 The Pinkwashing Smear, Flipped
1:04:28 The Movement That Abandoned Its Own
1:05:38 Emily Damari and the Particular Vulnerability of Gay Hostages
1:09:26 A Message to the Queer Jewish Kid Told to Choose


Islam and Jihad in the UK: A Conversation with Melanie Phillips
Khaled Hassan, a Former Muslim, convert to Judaism and national security researcher in conversation with Melanie Phillips, Journalist, author, public speaker and columnist.




Four Palestine Action activists jailed for Elbit factory raid
Four Palestine Action activists who mounted a “terrorist” raid on an Israel-based defence firm’s UK factory, causing £1.2 million of damage and leaving a police officer with a fractured spine, have been jailed.

Charlotte Head, 30, Samuel Corner, 23, Leona Kamio, 30, and Fatema Rajwani, 21, were in an old prison van which crashed into the Elbit Systems site near Bristol in the early hours of August 6, 2024.

The activists, all wearing red boilersuits, used sledgehammers and crowbars to destroy computers, drones and other equipment before police and security intervened.

In total, the four were jailed for over 22 years.

Justice Johnson’s ruling on the terrorist connection is believed to be a legal first – marking the defendants as “terrorists” after their convictions for criminal damage.

The judge said the raid on Elbit Systems had the intention of stopping the company’s weapons and technology being used in Gaza, rather than attempting to influence policies of the Israeli government itself, and did not meet the criteria for a terrorism connection on that point.

But he found the group had caused serious damage and was attempting to “shut down” Elbit or influence the British government into blocking the company’s operations in the UK.

He said all the defendants were “well aware of the underlying sentiment and aims and strategies of Palestine Action”.

“Each defendant agreed to take part in high-level actions, and did so with the shared aim of shutting down Elbit and ending what they regarded as British complicity in Israeli war crimes.”

He ruled: “I’m satisfied the action was designed to influence the UK Government and also to intimidate a section of the public, and was for the purpose of advancing an ideological or political cause.”

The ruling means the activists will not qualify for early release from prison provisions, the Parole Board will assess their risk to the public when it determines when they can be set free, and they will face monitoring from counter terror policing in the future.

The defendants Charlotte Head and Fatema Rajwani were seen wiping away tears after the ruling was delivered.

Meanwhile, Police arrested 107 protesters on Friday as hundreds gathered outside the court where four Palestine Action activists were sentenced.


Irish, Israeli soccer teams to play at neutral sites after calls to boycott the matches
Ireland’s home game against Israel in the Nations League will be played at a neutral site and behind closed doors, the Irish soccer federation confirmed Friday.

The Football Association of Ireland, which faced calls by pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel activists for a boycott, said the October 4 game originally scheduled for Aviva Stadium in the Irish capital posed “operational challenges.”

At a recent home friendly against Qatar, Irish activists hurled tennis balls onto the pitch in protest. The balls had “Stop the Game” messages on them, referring to the Nations League matches against Israel.

The Irish federation confirmed that it received UEFA approval to move the October game. A location hasn’t been announced. The teams will also meet on September 27 at a neutral site for Israel’s “home” game.

“Following consultation with various stakeholders, the Association is of the view that operational challenges could impact on the delivery of the game on home soil, so the fixture will be played away from the Aviva Stadium,” it said in a statement.

“The Association understands and respects the views expressed by players and staff, supporters, its members, campaigners, members of the public and the Irish footballing community in relation to this fixture.”


Australian Press Council finds SMH/The Age cartoonist Cathy Wilcox relied on antisemitic tropes
The Australian Press Council has found cartoonist Cathy Wilcox relied on antisemitic tropes in a controversial cartoon published in the wake of the Bondi Beach terror attack.

The cartoon, published by The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, depicted Australian politicians marching to the drumbeat of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In a scathing adjudication, the Press Council concluded the January 7 cartoon, breached its Standards of Practice and encoded an “antisemitic trope”.

“The Council considers this imagery encodes the antisemitic trope that Jewish people secretly control or manipulate global events, governments, financial systems, or the media,” the ruling said.

“The Council considers this imagery was likely to cause or contribute to substantial offence, distress and prejudice particularly to those who are Jewish.”

The cartoon depicted a crowd calling for a Royal Commission into the Bondi Beach terror attack, being carried by Coalition MPs and public figures.

Separate from the group, a figure resembling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu beat a drum accompanied by the words “Boom Boom”.

The publications argued the cartoon was intended to critique the politicisation of calls for a Royal Commission into the Bondi attack.

The Press Council rejected the newspapers' justification, finding the public interest in political commentary did not outweigh the harm caused. ....
Following fierce backlash, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age issued a public apology acknowledging the hurt caused to Jewish Australians.

The publications also claimed Ms Wilcox had not intended to offend or “cause hurt to the Jewish community”.

However, just hours after the apology was published, Ms Wilcox publicly appeared to criticise the decision on social media.

When contacted by SkyNews.com.au at the time, Ms Wilcox unleashed an extraordinary expletive-laden rant.

“Why in God's name do you think I would answer the questions of Murdoch's petty little propaganda operation, to give them more fuel for their campaign of hatred?” she said.

“The irony of me having to answer to charges of hatred when your grubby outfit gives not one shit about what you do to people you target.

“Remind the boss about how much they cared about free speech when one of theirs was in the spotlight.

“Political correctness gone mad, eh? You and your hit squad goons can fuck right off.”
BBC Arabic using a terrorist as a source? It’s nothing new
BBC Arabic’s whitewashing of Ahlam Tamimi is by no means a novelty. The service has a longstanding policy of quoting Palestinian terrorists as sources, only insofar as their statements are not self-incriminating.

As a result, the murderers’ proudly proclaimed responsibility for their crimes and expressions of hatred is constantly reframed as a position attributed to other parties – with Israel and the United States often cast as the sole “accusers”. The BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit has repeatedly stood by such material omissions, failing to keep the Arabic service aligned with basic journalistic standards.

One clear example is the case of unrepentant terrorist Ismat Mansour. Convicted as a teenager of killing a civilian in 1993, Mansour was released from prison in Israel after nearly 20 years.

By 2024, he had already become a regular contributor to BBC Arabic, at times introduced as an “analyst” of Israeli affairs.

At CAMERA’s request, information concerning Mansour’s murder conviction was eventually added to some webpages featuring his interviews, including one in which the interviewer sought his professional opinion about an attack eerily similar to the crime which he carried out.

BBC Arabic declined to provide essential context about Mansour’s own admission and lack of remorse, including his post-release statement claiming that the murder was intended “to promote peace.”

Last December the Arabic service was forced to explicitly acknowledge that Hamas’s 1988 Charter is antisemitic.

Even then – four years after the piece was published – the revised version employed the same deflective tactic.

By misleadingly suggesting that Hamas’s 2017 policy document could constitute a “new charter,” BBC Arabic framed any rejection of that claim as an “allegation,” even though Hamas leadership itself stated explicitly that the newer document does not replace the original antisemitic charter.

The same approach is evident in BBC Arabic’s coverage of Palestinian fatalities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which frequently omits individuals’ affiliations with terrorist organisations.


Restricted Video: This is brutal footage from Gaza
Hamas fighters are seen shooting and stomping on a civilian lying helpless on a mattress in the rubble. You can hear the gunshots and the man crying out in pain as they stand over him and point rifles at him.

Raw evidence of Hamas terrorizing their own people.


Restricted Video: Watching this should horrify you
It should cause you to be angry.

Yet this is what millions in the west march in support of.

Hamas gunmen in Gaza dragging, beating, and executing their own people in the streets. Bodies left on the ground while armed men celebrate and gesture at the camera.

This is how Hamas maintains control over Gazans with brutal violence and fear, even amid the rubble of their own making.

Footage shared by Safaa Subhi.


Washington state lawmakers urge governor to remove human-rights panelist over Jew-hatred remarks
Lawmakers from both parties in Washington state are urging Gov. Bob Ferguson, a Democrat, to remove Luc fils Jasmin from the Washington State Human Rights Commission after video surfaced on June 10 showing the commissioner dismissing concerns about antisemitism and making derogatory remarks about Jews.

During a commission meeting on March 27, 2025, Jasmin said Jews are “always crying” about antisemitism and accused Jews of “killing millions” of Palestinians while commissioners debated a proposed resolution condemning antisemitism. The meeting video was uploaded to the commission’s website and YouTube channel more than a year after the meeting took place. The commission later adopted the antisemitism resolution unanimously on April 17, 2025.

Jasmin, a Spokane pastor appointed by then-Gov. Jay Inslee in June 2023, serves a term that runs through June 2028. Under state law, the governor has the authority to remove commissioners for misconduct.

“The job of a human rights commissioner is to fight bigotry, not participate in it,” Travis Couture, a Republican state representative, told JNS. “Mocking Jews for speaking out against antisemitism is vile, discriminatory and completely incompatible with the mission of the Washington State Human Rights Commission.”

“Commissioner Jasmin has proven he is unfit to serve, and Gov. Ferguson has the authority to remove commissioners for misconduct,” he said. “If he fails to act, every Washingtonian will be left wondering why bigotry and antisemitism are simply tolerated in his administration.”

Mari Leavitt, a Democratic state representative, told JNS that Jasmin “should have been asked to resign or removed over a year ago” after the meeting happened.

“His commentary is precisely why we must have resolutions and speak about it in the first place,” she said. “The rise of antisemitism is data-centric and proven.”

“It’s fine for folks to criticize the Israeli government,” said Leavitt, who has been outspoken in her support for Israel and against antisemitism. “I am not enchanted either with their decisions or actions all of the time. That’s called critical thinking. But it’s not the Jewish people, and it is a fact that our Jewish community in Washington are, in my view, under attack.”

“His dismissive and careless manner in which he cast aside those concerns, and seemingly casual way in which he did so, suggests to me he is not fit to sit on the commission and should resign,” she said.
Anti-Jewish hate surging at ‘staggering margin’ in NYC, up 150% last month, by some NYPD metrics
The New York City Police Department said that anti-Jewish hate crimes were up 70.8% in the city last month compared to May 2025. It didn’t inform the public that, if it compared statistics from the months in a broader way, the increase was more than double that—150%.

Under New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who overturned many of his predecessor’s executive orders protecting Jews and Israelis hours into his tenure, the city has twice changed the way it reports hate crimes after the Big Apple recorded a 182% increase in antisemitic hate crimes in Mamdani’s first month on the job.

In February, the city shared only “confirmed” hate crimes but not “reported” ones, and after a backlash, it said in March that it would record “confirmed” and “reported” hate crimes separately.

Mamdani’s spokeswoman has said that synagogues that host pro-Israel events violate international law, and the mayor has said several times that he would have the Israeli prime minister arrested in New York City. Jewish leaders have told JNS that the mayor isn’t doing enough to protect Jews in the city.

A JNS analysis suggests that since the city reported hate crime statistics for “confirmed” and “reported” incidents separately for March, the city has suggested that there is no percentage change in the 103 anti-Jewish “confirmed” hate crimes in that span in 2026 compared to 2025. But if the city also shared the statistics for “reported” anti-Jewish hate crimes, it would suggest that the 140 reported anti-Jewish hate crimes in the city from March to May are a 32% increase over similar incidents from March to May in 2025.

Last month, the NYPD said that there were 41 “confirmed” anti-Jewish hate crimes in the city, which it said was a 70.8% increase on the 24 “confirmed” in May 2025. When the department shared statistics last month on “reported” hate crimes, it said that 60 such reports targeted Jews. It didn’t provide information on how that compared to reported incidents in May 2025.
Jewish schoolgirls get lost in NY creek tunnel, online abuse follows
When dozens of Jewish girls emerged from a storm drain in Nyack, New York, Wednesday after becoming lost on a school trip, local officials described the episode as a fortunate ending to a potentially dangerous situation.

On social media, however, the incident quickly drew a slew of antisemitic comments.

“They can’t help it. Roaches and rats love the sewers,” wrote one Facebook user on a post by the Rockland Daily.

“Those tunnels were promised to them 3,000 years ago,” another user wrote, referencing the common online antisemitic phrase ridiculing the Jewish connection to Israel.

Many of the comments also referenced the 2024 incident at the Chabad-Lubavitch movement’s world headquarters in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, in which a group from the movement attempted to dig an unauthorized tunnel beneath the building.

“From the tunnels in Brooklyn to the tunnels in nyack! The black coats never disappoint 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣,” one user wrote. “There drawn to tunnels. Natural instinct😂,” another wrote.

Schoolgirls managed to exit tunnel on their own
The girls, students from the Toras Emachu school in Monsey, New York, had been visiting Nyack Memorial Park on a school trip when they entered a large drainage culvert located in the park, according to the Orangetown Police Department.

While walking through the tunnel system, the students got lost but were heard by individuals in the town who alerted police, according to Nyack Mayor Joseph Rand.

“First responders immediately came to the scene and located all the girls at various points in Nyack,” Rand wrote in a post on Facebook. “Technically, none of the girls were ‘rescued,’ because they all came out in their own power, but everyone’s lucky that the authorities responded and figured out where all the girls were as quickly as they did.”
Santa Monica police chief says chase of couple called ‘genocidal’ does not meet hate crime threshold
Santa Monica Police Chief Darrick Jacob stated on Thursday that a May 24 incident in which a man allegedly chased a couple and called them “genocidal” was not a hate crime.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office stated on May 28 that the suspect, Nay Min Tar, faces one felony count of criminal threats and one misdemeanor count of battery.

Prosecutors allege Tar yelled threats at pedestrians from his vehicle, then exited the car and “began chasing, swinging his fists and threatening to kill the victim, who was walking with his girlfriend on the sidewalk.”

Authorities also allege that Tar directed his male Cane Corso dog to attack the victim, which resulted in a bite and constituted a battery.

Video footage of the incident on social media appears to show a man shouting “you are genocidal” at two people, returning to his car and running after them with his dog.

Jacob said the Santa Monica Police Department determined the evidence did not meet the legal threshold for a hate crime.

“While the language used during the incident was disturbing and harmful, the evidence did not show that the victim was targeted because of actual or perceived Jewish identity, Israeli identity, or any other protected class,” he stated. “The investigation also found that the suspect made similar statements toward others who were not Jewish or perceived to be Jewish.”

Jacob stated that the suspect’s behavior was still unacceptable and “does not minimize the fear caused by the incident or the impact it had on the victim, witnesses or the broader community.”

“I recognize that this explanation may not satisfy everyone who saw the video or heard reports about the language used,” Jacob said. “I also understand why many in the community viewed the incident through the lens of rising antisemitism and felt strongly that it should be treated as a hate crime. SMPD takes those concerns seriously.”

The suspect’s “you are genocidal” remarks are “disturbing and harmful language, and SMPD understands why many people would hear it in the context of antisemitism, Israel, Zionism or Jewish identity,” Lt. Lewis Gilmour, a spokesman for the Santa Monica Police Department, told JNS. “However, the word ‘genocidal’ itself does not identify a protected class. It is an accusation.”
Despite war, Israel’s high-tech industry continues to grow
Israeli startups raised roughly $8.6 billion of capital in the first half of 2026, up 45% compared to the $6 billion raised in the same time period last year, a report published by Poalim Tech and Dealigence on Wednesday shows.

Entrepreneurs with a record of success have enjoyed a comparative advantage over new entrepreneurs, raising 39% of the funds compared to 34% in 2025, the report reads.

Although the overall investment has grown, the number of funding rounds fell by about 35%, indicating that more new capital is being concentrated in fewer firms.

In addition, investment in cybersecurity firms doubled compared to the first half of the previous year. During the war with Iran, the cyber sector maintained stability, raising about $580 million in March, similar to last year, according to the report.

The report also tracked layoffs and cost-cutting measures at big technological companies, offset by recruitment at early- and mid-stage startups, which increased by 2%.

Poalim Tech wrote on LinkedIn, “The data point to a clear trend: capital is still here [in Israel], but it is flowing to companies that know how to display efficiency, focus, and performance in today’s competitive market.”

Another trend specified in the report is the growing number of lean companies, at times staffed by a single founder, which use AI-driven tools to develop products and services with limited early-stage funding, Ynet reported.

“One of the most interesting findings in the report is that the AI revolution has not changed the fact that young companies still need talented people in order to grow,” Ynet cited Adam Lazovski, co-founder and CEO of Dealigence, as saying.

“Experience shows that it is often during periods [of instability and change] that the most successful companies are built—companies that know how to do more with less, develop outstanding products and think about their business model from the earliest stages,” Lazovski added.


Jane Yolen, author whose book ‘The Devil’s Arithmetic’ became Holocaust classic, dies at 87
Jane Yolen was already an award-winning author and illustrator of more than 100 titles for young readers when her editor suggested she write a Jewish children’s book.

At first, she resisted the idea. Sure, she was Jewish. But she didn’t grow up in a religiously observant family, and she insisted she didn’t know enough about Judaism to take on the project.

Finally, she relented. Drawing on a spark of an idea about a Holocaust time-travel fantasy, Yolen turned in the first draft of what would become “The Devil’s Arithmetic,” her 1988 young adult novel. “I thought, ‘OK, I’m going to try this,’” Yolen recalled to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency years later.

The book won immediate acclaim and garnered multiple awards. Today, it’s seen as a classic of the genre — and one that remains caught up in banned-book lists.

For Yolen, who died Thursday at 87 in her home in Western Massachusetts, “The Devil’s Arithmetic” became her signature title. Still in print, the book was also made into an Emmy Award-winning Showtime feature starring Kirsten Dunst. It was the cornerstone of a titanic legacy in children’s literature, her family said in a statement.

“It is with profound sadness that I, along with my brothers, Adam Stemple, and Jason Stemple, share the news of our mother, Jane Yolen’s passing,” her daughter Heidi Stemple wrote on Facebook, adding that Yolen had “passed gently with no pain or stress” and her family by her side, reading one of her books to her.

Yolen was born on Feb. 11, 1939, in New York City. Her father was a journalist and her mother was a psychiatric social worker until Yolen was born.

An alumna of Smith College, where she won poetry and journalism awards, she worked first as an editor in New York City, writing at her breaks and time off. Her first published book, “Pirates in Petticoats,” a nonfiction work about women on the high seas, was published when she was 22.

She soon pivoted to children’s literature, becoming one of the most prolific authors in the genre. She went on to publish 450 children’s books, including more Jewish titles, and was known as “the Hans Christian Andersen of America.” She won the prestigious Caldecott Medal for her 1987 picture book, “Owl Moon,” and her “How Do Dinosaurs …” series is a staple in many preschool classrooms. (It includes one Jewish title: “How Do Dinosaurs Say Happy Chanukah?” Her 450th title was published just this year, her children said.

But it was “The Devil’s Arithmetic,” scholars have said, that cemented her legacy as a leading author for young Jews. The novel was a trailblazer for its blending of time-travel with historical veracity, according to the late Norman H. Finkelstein, a National Jewish Book award winner who was a children’s librarian himself.





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

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