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Tuesday, June 16, 2026

06/15 Links Pt2: Coleman Hughes vs. Peter Beinart; Boy George: ‘I would never turn my back on my Jewish friends’; Post-Platner Democrats must ask: ‘Are we the baddies?’

From Ian:

David Collier: From anti-Zionism to Antizionism
One of the most disturbing political developments in the modern West is watching self-described progressive universalists adopt one of the most aggressive nationalist movements on the planet while failing to recognise it as nationalism at all.

That contradiction is the beating heart of antizionism.

Antizionism presents itself as opposition to nationalism while marching beneath a national flag. It speaks the language of universal human rights while denying Jews the very national rights it demands for others. And because the movement refuses to recognise itself for what it is, it increasingly treats opposition not as disagreement, but as complicity with evil.

Spurred on by Islamist rhetoric, fed by decades of Soviet-era propaganda, and radicalised inside social media echo chambers, modern antizionism draws much of its energy from antisemitism – a prejudice far older than the State of Israel itself.

And that is what makes the movement so dangerous: The moral certainty with which it carries itself. The belief that any action, slogan, intimidation, or even violence can become justified once directed against the world’s designated evil: Israel.

And the most unsettling part of all?

They believe they are the good guys.

Stop using the hyphen. Antizionism is a modern hate movement.
Boy George: ‘I would never turn my back on my Jewish friends’
Pop icon Boy George says he would “never turn his back on his Jewish friends”, despite being targeted by pro-Palestinian activists.

The colourful singer who achieved worldwide fame in the 80s with his group Culture Club, lived in Golders Green during the 90s and was in the area on the day on the day two Jewish men were stabbed.

He was interviewed ahead of a charity auction which will see some his most outrageous clothing sold to raise funds for struggling musicians.

George, 65, whose biggest hits include Do You Really Want to Hurt Me and Karma Chameleon, has incorporated the Star of David into some of his clothes.

He said: “Over the years it’s been a really personal thing. It doesn’t mean that I don’t have compassion for Palestinians, it doesn’t mean that I agree with what’s going on in Israel, but I am always going to defend the people that I love.

He added: “I have a lot of Jewish friends and there would never be a situation where I’d turn my back on them.”

He also spoke about Culture Club’s Jewish drummer Jon Moss, and his great friend, club promoter Phillip Sallon.

George told The Sunday Telegraph: “Jon Moss was one of the great loves of my life. He’s Jewish, and I remember when I met Philip Sallon [known as the ‘King of Clubs’ in the 80s] he said: ‘I’m a Jew, I’m a homosexual and I’m f--king proud of it.’”

The auction will feature some of his hats from British milliners Stephen Jones and Philip Treacy, and the striking Hasidic Samet hats that he’s worn throughout his life.

He says he's always worn the hats as a subliminal symbol of support and one coming under the hammer is a felt black hat, given to him by Moss.

In May he hit the headlines after appearing on Patrick Kielty’s Irish talk show.

Having been in Golders Green on the day of the attack, which saw two Jewish men allegedly stabbed by a Somali-born British national, he expressed his support for the Jewish community.

In response, Kielty referenced “the backdrop of that obviously is the horrors of Gaza and this is a complex thing”.

It led to a fierce backlash online, with the charity Holocaust Awareness Ireland condemning the Kielty's response because the show airs on the Irish state broadcaster.

George, who appeared in Eurovision singing alongside San Marino’s entry, was also singled out by pro-Palestinian activists who criticised him for participating, as well as for his statements supporting Israel’s continued participation in the contest.
Brendan O'Neill: How synagogues became fair game for the Israelophobic mob
In fact, the political class helped to whip up the anti-Zionist mob. The day before the Edgware event, London mayor Sadiq Khan tweeted: ‘I condemn any attempt to sell property in the settlements in the West Bank, be that in London or anywhere else in the world.’ Again, the organisers firmly deny that West Bank property was on sale. The mayor’s comment came off like incitement of the mob. He was making it clear that he, too, was morally repulsed by what was due to unfold in Edgware, effectively giving a green light to every wanker who wanted to rage about it. Let’s see if he now tweets: ‘I condemn anyone who tells London’s Jews to “watch their backs”.’ I won’t hold my breath.

There’s one thing the synagogue mob didn’t reckon with – the determination of Edgware’s Jews to defend their place of worship. Huge numbers of Jews and their friends gathered to tell the keffiyeh bigots that ‘They shall not pass’. It was like a mini-Cable Street, only this time ‘the left’ was firmly on the other side – not the side of Jews who only want to live free of harassment, but the side of that twisted Islamo-left nexus that has made a bloodsport of taunting ‘Zionists’. The Jews danced and sang and waved the Israeli flag and the Union flag: a display of genuine anti-fascism against the fake anti-fascists of the Jew-state haters.

The magnitude of these events cannot be overstated. The unthinkable is not just thinkable now – it is doable. In vile mimicry of those 1930s mobs that swarmed synagogues and boycotted Jewish goods, now ‘the righteous’ scream about Zionism at the doors of synagogues and boycott Jewish State goods. In Manhattan, keffiyeh gangs raged outside the Park East Synagogue, also on the pretext that it was hosting an Israeli real estate event. A Jewish girl had her hair violently yanked by a masked bigot. Placards featuring Jeffrey Epstein said: ‘Free America from Isra-hell.’ The synagogue mobs of the 1930s likewise looked upon the Jews as a paedophilic race from which Germany should be ‘freed’. There have also been synagogue protests in New Jersey, LA, Canada and France.

At the New Jersey protest, Jews were called ‘Zionist pigs’ and ‘baby killers’. At the Paris protest, hundreds of Jews were trapped inside their synagogue as stones rained down on the building. And now in Edgware, Jews are told by a frothing mob to ‘watch their backs’. Can we be real? These are not protests – they’re practice pogroms. We are witnessing the sinister resuscitation of the medieval belief that Jews are pigs who kill children and thus their ‘Synagogues of Satan’ are fair game for mob fury. Not content with making life harder for Jews in the West, now the keffiyeh army tells them they are forbidden from escaping to Israel. So where can they go? Don’t answer that.

It is a testament to the battering our civilisational values have taken since 7 October that 1930s-style mobbings have returned and no one in power seems to give a damn. Good on the Jews who stood up to the keffiyeh bigots in Edgware – next time I want to see many more non-Jews standing with them.


Jews are no longer safe in Britain, so I left
I have left the UK and emigrated to Israel. I did not leave because I dislike Britain. I was born here. This is the country that shaped me. My first historical obsession was the Tudors and Stuarts. I was raised on its values, culture and humour. I was raised to be a monarchist and to see it as a privilege to live here. Britain is woven deeply into who I am. For most of my life, it was my home.

But my sense of British identity has been chipped away over many years, crisis after crisis, wave after wave of anti-Jewish hate. For many British Jews, the Corbyn years were deeply destabilising and traumatic. The reaction to October 7, particularly the willingness of so many people to excuse, minimise, or even celebrate anti-Jewish violence, only intensified that feeling. You begin to realise that you no longer feel fully at home in the country you were born into, and that your acceptance was never quite as secure as you were led to believe.

This is not a political debate, as many seem to think. A friend of mine was physically attacked for being visibly Jewish. I was verbally accosted in the street in Islington for wearing a Star of David necklace. For more than a year and a half, I watched demonstrations where flags and symbols associated with organisations that openly advocate the murder of Jews were displayed on the streets of British cities. Reports of assaults, stabbings, arson attacks, and other acts of anti-Jewish violence became distressingly familiar. Each new incident reinforced the same uncomfortable reality: Jews were being targeted because they were Jewish. As a visibly Jewish person, I found myself questioning my safety whenever I left the house.

At the same time, I found myself feeling increasingly isolated. I began noticing the subtle but unmistakable looks people would give me when they realised I was Jewish. Conversations with friends often left me feeling misunderstood. Questions about Israel and Zionism were framed with suspicion. I was being asked to justify my identity rather than explain it. It was exhausting.

This atmosphere seeped into everyday life. I encountered anti-Jewish abuse on dating apps and social media, including death threats, for identifying myself as a Jewish Zionist. I watched the BBC and others repeatedly frame Jewish fears as matters for debate rather than realities to be understood. I saw celebrities I had once admired spread anti-Jewish messages that left many Jews feeling isolated and unsafe. I watched a Jewish event at the British Museum postponed because organisers feared protests. Gradually, the sense of comfort and belonging I had once felt as a British Jew was eroded.
Badenoch warns Britain must ‘stop being naive’ about antisemitism
Kemi Badenoch has spoken of her determination to ensure “never again” is a reality as she set her sights on tackling antisemitism and said she felt “vindicated” by the resignation of the defence secretary over spending.

The Conservative leader received a rapturous reception from nearly 700 guests before and after her address to Norwood’s annual property lunch – at which she also claimed the prime minister doesn’t enjoy the job.

In conversation with LBC’s Nick Ferrari, Badenoch told guests: “If you had asked me on 6 October 2023 if there was an antisemitism problem in Britain I’d have said ‘not really’. For me, 8 October was a revelation and I suddenly saw monsters everywhere I didn’t know existed. The fact people came out protesting against Israel before any action in Palestine.

“The endless marches that became a cover for hate against Jews, we have to fight that.”

The Tory leader called out the common threat of Islamic extremism faced by Israel and countries globally including many Muslim majority nations. There is an urgent need to counter the “naïve” belief that everyone coming to the country would contribute positively to the country. “We need to stop being naïve. It is damaging the country. I believe the fight against antisemitism is one of many fights facing the country.”

She acknowledged she hadn’t initially called for a ban on the Gaza marches but “by time Rishi started speaking out it was too late. We should ban the marches.

“The right to protest came from the universal suffrage movement…it’s not about terrorising this nation’s Jews,” she added.
Canada must confront its rising antisemitism crisis
Rampant antisemitism is causing prominent Canadian Jews to leave the country. They include bestselling author and evolutionary behavioral scientist Gad Saad, who announced he is permanently leaving Canada to join the University of Mississippi due to persistent safety threats; and Emmanuel Moss, chief of cardiac surgery at Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital, who cited a sharp increase in antisemitic incidents across the city for relocating his family and practice to Atlanta.

These examples are hardly anomalies of the bleak situation Canadian Jews are facing. According to the Anti-Defamation League’s 2025 J7 Annual Report on Antisemitism, instances of Jew hatred rose nearly 83% (from 492 incidents to 900 incidents) from 2021 to 2023. Fully 19% of all hate crimes were motivated by antisemitism, and Jews accounted for 70% of religiously motivated hate crimes, making Canadian Jews the most targeted religious minority in the country. Incidents include “shootings targeting Jewish schools, arson attacks against synagogues, and vandalism of Jewish-owned businesses and other community institutions.” In 2025, B’nai Brith Canada documented a record 6,800 incidents of antisemitism, the equivalent of 18.6 instances on average each day.

Carney believes a new council can counter Canada’s rising antisemitism, but its usefulness is highly doubtful. Among the most controversial members appointed is Omar Alghabra, a politician who once said he did not believe that Hamas “wants the elimination of Israel” and was president of a group that lobbied to have Hamas and Hezbollah removed from Canada’s list of official terrorist entities. Another member is Avnish Nanda, an Edmonton lawyer who previously represented anti-Israel encampment activists at the University of Alberta, where slogans such as “globalize the intifada” were reportedly displayed during demonstrations. That phrase is most closely associated with a callback to the violence of the first and second intifadas, which marked a period of widespread Palestinian protests, civil disobedience, and acts of terrorism against Israelis.

Is it any wonder why antisemitism in Canada is surging? Under Carney, Canada became the first Group of 7 nation to recognize a Palestinian state less than two years after the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre (the largest slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust). Rather than calming tensions, this move helped trigger a global wave of antisemitic violence. Far from reversing that tide, it has emboldened it. After years of ignoring this problem, Carney should seriously consider what kind of country Canada will become if it continues to go in a direction that is inhospitable to its Jewish citizens.
Shai Davidai: Someone taught him to hate
The ideas of American Intellectual Antisemitism may have originated in American colleges and universities, yet these are not the only institutions responsible for spreading them. The media helped normalize these ideas. Politicians amplified them for political gain. Social media platforms ensured they reached millions. Once unleashed onto the world, these ideas helped create an environment in which Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were murdered in Washington, DC; Jewish demonstrators were firebombed in Boulder, Colorado; Jewish celebrations were attacked in Bondi Beach, Australia; and where a stranger felt comfortable rolling down his car window and screaming obscenities at a family walking to synagogue.

The man in the car may not have been the source of this ideology, but he was one of its many adherents.

As we approached the synagogue, my son asked me how some people can be so bad. It was the same question I had been silently asking myself — and one I had hoped he would never ask.

“The truth is,” I told my son, “that I do not think the man in the car was a bad person. I’m sure he loves his family, is kind to his friends, and believes in many of the things that we do.” What made him the way he is, I told my son, was not his lack of humanity. It was the ideas he had been taught to believe.

If hatred can be taught, it can also be untaught. That is why education remains our most powerful defense against hatred—not teaching students what to think, but teaching them how to do so.

Long before that man in the car decided to scream at me and my children, the ideas that shaped his worldview were being created and propagated on American college campuses. To fight such hatred, we must demand that our institutions of higher education return to their most basic purpose. They must become places where curiosity, dialogue, and empirical evidence matter more than ideological conformity, dogma, and emotional reactions. They must become places where students learn to question assumptions, weigh evidence, and grapple with complexity — places where disagreement is treated as an opportunity for learning and intellectual courage matters more than ideological certainty.

Curiosity undermines hatred. If we want fewer people screaming at strangers and their children on the way to synagogue, we need institutions that cultivate curiosity rather than certainty, inquiry rather than indoctrination, and education rather than ignorance.
Becoming an “October 8th Christian" on Campus
It began with a seemingly polite question from my longtime doctor during my annual physical in December, 2023: “So how are things at Pepperdine?”

Immediately, in the context of that moment, I knew it was much more than small talk. Over almost 20 years as my GP, we’ve rarely discussed faith — he a Jew, and I a Christian. Just a year earlier, he had told me with great pride that his daughter had been admitted to a highly-regarded public university in the Midwest. On this day, he haltingly described that young lady’s trials as Jew on campus, wondering whether she should put a Hanukkah Menorah up in her dorm room window out of fear of attack.

The phrase “October 8th Jew” is credited to Israeli writer and activist, Hen Mazzig, to describe those — especially outside of Israel — who became newly sensitized to the poisonous antisemitism in Western societies following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. It was an awakening to the awokening.

A recent survey of American Christians found that in the wake of the post-October 7th protests and actions 87% are “concerned about antisemitism in America today.” I am one of them. Becoming an “October 8th Christian” has been a journey both spiritual and professional, to explore my own roots as a Christian, academic leader, and American — to re-orient both sides of the Judeo-Christian relationship.

The fact that the locus of so many of the protests was the university campus doubled the impact of these events, and is changing me personally and professionally. I’ve discovered I’m not the only one who has become much more aware of the impact of this new wave of antisemitism on our own faith journeys, and on the campuses where we work.

While the national data regarding the rise of antisemitism is disturbing, its increase on campuses throughout the country is overwhelming: since the 2022-2023 academic year, the number of antisemetic incidents on campus have increased almost ten-fold. In another survey, over 70% of Jewish faculty reported witnessing antisemitism from colleagues or administrators — not just from students.
Post-Platner Democrats must ask: ‘Are we the baddies?’
Platner insists that these are all lies. Democratic leaders are clearly choosing not to believe them. They are also dismissing the accounts of former girlfriends alleging that Platner physically and mentally abused them.

Once again, politicians and pundits are assuring voters that these women, like the tattoo, are not critical to their voting for Platner. This includes figures like Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), who previously insisted that “we must believe survivors, not bully them.”

Whitehouse now says he is “unimpressed” by the allegations and the multiple women coming forward “seems like a lot of nothing.” He also reminded voters that one of the alleged victims is a Republican. So “MeToo” is apparently now “meh” in the new Platner party.

The question is whether Democrats will put their rhetoric through a certain denazification. Democrats have repeatedly analogized Trump to Hitler and his followers to brownshirted neo-Nazis. Indeed, defeating Republicans today has been compared to stopping Hitler in 1933.

So, for a party that literally sees Nazis around every tree, the one possible Nazi that they cannot see is the Democrat who had the Nazi tattoo on his chest.

In the meantime, Democrats keep openly cultivating hatred. This week, during protests in San Antonio against the Turning Point USA Women’s Leadership Summit, one organizer called on protesters to be “obnoxious” and “make sure they know we hate them.” As he spoke, a man dressed as death chopped the air with a sickle. Another protester mimicked Charlie Kirk being assassinated, to the delight of the crowd.

All of this still leaves Democrats in the same position as the characters in the skit where Hans (like Klain) tries to say that maybe a Totenkopf is just like a harmless skull and crossbones. After all, he notes, pirates have skull symbols, and “Pirates are fun!”

But his friend then asks if that is really “how it comes across?”

The same question could be asked of fellow Democrats as speakers call for hate, as a guy dressed as the Grim Reaper hacks at invisible Republicans.

When you start dismissing Nazi tattoos, alleged female abuse victims, and calling for abandoning any moral high ground, you might want to ask, “Are we the baddies?”
South Carolina man charged with hate crime of vandalizing Charlotte Jewish sites, including with symbol Graham Platner had tattooed
Dalton Ray Mullis, 24, of Indian Land in South Carolina, was arrested on June 11 and charged with a hate crime for allegedly posting antisemitic materials, including a Totenkopf, on “multiple” sites in a Jewish complex in Charlotte, the U.S. Justice Department said on Friday.

Graham Platner, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Maine, had a Totenkopf tattoo. He has said that he didn’t know it was a symbol which the Nazis embraced, although those around him, including an ex-girlfriend, have said that he bragged and knew about its Nazi association.

Mullis is accused of defacing buildings in the Jewish Community Center in the Foundation of Shalom Park, which also includes the Charlotte Jewish Day School, Holocaust Memorial and “other facilities occupied by multiple organizations that operate Jewish religious, cultural and educational programs,” , on Jan. 19, per charging documents.

He remains in custody and faces up to 20 years in prison.
Alex Hearn: Zeteo UK won’t speak truth to power – only grievances to its echo chamber
You could call any one of these a misstep. Together they are a worldview. The thread is not hard to find: a fraught relationship with the mainstream Jewish community, and a shared conviction that antisemitism is less a problem to be confronted than a plot to be exposed. That is not a flaw in the hiring. On a platform like this, it reads like the qualification.

These standards were on show before a single hire was confirmed.

Zeteo UK sells itself as adversarial journalism – the outlet that speaks truth to power. Zack Polanski, leader of the Greens, is that power. His party has councillors and MPs; he sits on the London Assembly himself. So watch how the platform treats him. Zeteo brands its own founder an "all-round troublemaker." When the Telegraph reported Polanski rejoicing at the platform's arrival, the Green leader leaned in – telling his followers the "troublemaker" was in fact a "brilliant and highly respected journalist," and steering them to follow Zeteo UK. The warmth predates the UK launch. The original Zeteo hosted Polanski for an exclusive Q&A with its subscribers. Zeteo boosted him; he boosted Zeteo UK. That is not the press holding power to account.

So this is the brave new journalism: one opinion, every bias pointing the same way, dissent dispatched to the social media gulag. Siloed outlets, each circling a single viewpoint that no one inside is willing to challenge. If that is the future, count me out. Learning to sit with disagreement cannot become a thing of the past – or we all end up deeper inside our own echo chambers, certain and unchallenged and worse for it.

It doesn't matter how much funding they have. A boutique grievance newsletter is not a glittering new chapter in serious journalism. If Zeteo UK is what comes next, then the future isn't what it used to be.
UN Watch: Appeals court keeps sanctions on Francesca Albanese in force, signals major weakness in her case
A U.S. federal appeals court has allowed sanctions against UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese to remain in force while her legal challenge proceeds, delivering what UN Watch called “a major setback” to her effort to overturn the measures imposed by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Legal observers say the ruling strengthens the administration's position and raises serious questions about the viability of Albanese's case.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit granted the government's request to keep the sanctions in effect pending appeal, reversing a lower court ruling that had temporarily blocked enforcement of the measures imposed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The ruling means that the sanctions designation against Albanese under Executive Order 14203 will remain fully enforceable throughout the appeal.

In a separate opinion accompanying the court's order, Circuit Judge Gregory Katsas, joined by Circuit Judge Karen Henderson, suggested that Albanese's central constitutional claim may fail because she is a foreign national acting outside the United States.

The sanctions were imposed under Executive Order 14203, which authorizes measures against foreign nationals who directly assist efforts by the International Criminal Court to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute protected U.S. or allied persons without consent. The Trump administration cited Albanese's advocacy in support of ICC proceedings targeting Israeli leaders.

For UN Watch, which has documented Albanese's conduct for years and filed submissions in the case, the ruling marks a significant turning point.

"This is far more consequential than the court's earlier administrative stay," said UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer. "The sanctions were already back in force. What changed today is that the appellate court has now indicated, after reviewing the parties' arguments, that the government has met the demanding standard required to keep those sanctions in place throughout the appeal."

Neuer said the concurring opinion by Judges Katsas and Henderson was particularly significant.

"The real news is not that the sanctions remain in force," he said. "The real news is that two federal appellate judges signaled that Albanese's core First Amendment theory may fail altogether."

"For months, Albanese and her supporters portrayed this case as a straightforward free-speech dispute. The court has now suggested that the threshold question may be whether the First Amendment protects a foreign UN official operating abroad in the first place."


Coleman Hughes vs. Peter Beinart Debate: Should Israel Be a Jewish State?
Peter Beinart grew up a committed Zionist and changed his mind. He now believes that Israel, as currently constituted, cannot be reconciled with the principle of equality under the law, and he has spent the last decade making that case publicly in The New York Times, Jewish Currents, and most recently in his book Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza. We dig into that, and a lot more.

This is my third conversation in our ongoing series of debates on Israel-Palestine. I’ve talked to Dave Smith and Glenn Greenwald, both of whom come at the issue from a very different angle than Peter. What makes Peter’s perspective distinctive is that it comes from a place rooted in Jewish identity and Jewish tradition. He’s not hostile to Israel in the way that some of his fellow travelers are. He cares about it deeply, which is why I think his critique is worth engaging with seriously.

We debate whether a potential Palestinian right of return would be comparable to Jewish immigration. I argue that the cases are fundamentally different, and that accepting the right of return as a universal principle would create chaos on a global scale. We get into whether a one-state solution would produce equality or civil war, and I push back on the South Africa analogy, which I think is superficially persuasive but falls apart under scrutiny. We also talk about jihadist ideology as an independent variable in the conflict, something I think the left consistently under-weights, and we debate whether Iran is a genuine existential threat to Israel or whether that framing is overblown.

Strong disagreements on this topic have a way of turning ugly fast. This one didn’t, and I thank Peter for his willingness to engage.

0:00 Intro
1:35-Peter Beinart's Background and the Case for Equality
6:31-The Palestinian Right of Return
11:48-Israel's Law of Return and Immigration Policy
16:48-Who Started the 1948 War?
19:06-Should Any Country Preserve an Ethnic Majority?
45:01-The One State Solution and Risk of Civil War
48:34-The South Africa Analogy
57:36-What Nonviolent Palestinian Resistance Should the World Support?
1:02:31-Palestinian Nonviolence, BDS and International Pressure
1:05:43-Are There Arab Muslim Liberal Democracies?
1:23:48-Coleman's Engagement with Palestinian Voices
1:27:27-The Iran Threat and Is It Existential?


Call me Back Podcast: The Sum-of-All-Fears Election - with Yossi Klein Halevi and Donniel Hartman
Why is Israel’s next election being driven more by fear than hope?

Dan is joined by For Heaven's Sake hosts Yossi Klein Halevi and Donniel Hartman to discuss the emotional forces shaping Israel's coming election. As Israelis prepare to vote, different communities are carrying different traumas, fears, and visions for the country's future, from tensions over Arab and Haredi political power to questions of national unity, leadership, and diminishing hope that life there can improve. They also consider whether Israelis can rediscover the unity of October 8th and what Israelis and diaspora Jews are each looking for in the country's next leader.

In this episode:
Why this is a fear-based election, not a hope-based election
The fear of Arab parties in a post-October 7 Israel
The role and concern over Haredi voters reshaping politics
The forces that threaten to shut down Israel’s economy
Can Arab parties become part of Israel's political mainstream?
Is the unity of an "October 8th Israel" still possible?
Can Israel's political center hold?
Why Gadi Eisenkot appeals across ideological lines
Israelis and diaspora Jews each want something different from Israel’s leader


Tribeca Shabbat dinner a punch in the gut for drawing anti-Israel activists to table
Only in New York: A kosher vegan meal, priced up to $5,000, drew attendees to Shabbat dinner on June 12.

And not just any attendees. Brad Lander, a far-left Jewish candidate for New York’s 10th Congressional District challenging Jewish Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) in the Democratic primary on June 23, and Palestinian activist Linda Sarsour joined others at an event organized by the activist group Climate Defiance as part of the Tribeca Film Festival.

“Just community and connection and tradition,” organizers wrote.

Held at the Lower Manhattan home of filmmaker Jill Goldman (no relation), it was billed as an “intimate Shabbat dinner” (no phones or cameras allowed), following the premiere of the 2026 full-length climate documentary “Just Look Up.”

The film included a scene of the group’s founder, Michael Greenberg, preparing a Shabbat meal.

“Spending $5,000 to eat a Shabbat dinner with Linda Sarsour and other anti-Israel activists,” said Joel Petlin, superintendent of the Kiryas Joel school district in Upstate New York. “Every single part of that sentence is completely insane.

Trisha Posner, founder of Antisemitism Watch, described the gathering as “progressive Jews embracing those who would eliminate Israel, and feeding the frenzy of antisemitism,” adding that Lander has “given antisemites the perfect cover.”


Socialist in Tight House Race Showered Convicted Palestinian Terrorist With Love and Praise, Taunted Jewish Student Who Objected to Her Disruptive, Anti-Israel Agitating
A Democratic Socialist backed by Zohran Mamdani, Darializa Avila Chevalier, who is looking to stage an upset primary victory in New York's 13th Congressional District, openly championed a notorious female terrorist convicted of plotting an Israeli supermarket bombing that killed two people, public records show.

"Help Rasmea come home! 💗💗💗," Chevalier posted to Facebook in December 2014 during the immigration fraud trial in Detroit of Rasmea Odeh, a violent Palestinian operative who'd been released from her life sentence in an Israeli prison as part of a prisoner swap before slipping illegally into the United States.

Chevalier—who is now leading incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat ahead of the June 23 Democratic primary—was helping to raise money in 2014 for Odeh's bail so she could get out of jail in Michigan while she awaited sentencing for an immigration fraud conviction. Odeh was released but was ultimately rearrested and deported to Jordan in 2017 after her sentencing.

Earlier in 2014, when Chevalier was a student at Columbia University, she and her fellow members of the Ivy League school's chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine—which has since been banned from Columbia's campus for threatening rhetoric and intimidation—hijacked a rally protesting sexual assault on campus. The SJP members shouted about "Rasmea Odeh's rape" (Odeh claims she was raped in Israeli custody in 1969). The disruption earned an annoyed rebuke from a Jewish student, who accused the group of hijacking the event in a letter to the editor published in the Columbia Daily Spectator, the student newspaper.

"Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine, wait your turn," the student said, also noting how SJP had staged an anti-Israel protest on 9/11—another day which didn't belong to them.


London appeals court rules Palestine Action ban legal
The British government’s decision to ban the Palestine Action group under counter-terrorism legislation was ‌lawful, the Court of Appeal of England and Wales in London ruled on Monday.

The Court of Appeal overturned a High Court ruling issued in February that found the ban unlawfully interfered with freedom of expression. Palestine Action remained proscribed pending the government’s appeal.

Lady Chief Justice Sue Carr said the organization’s behavior was not that of a nonviolent protest group and that proscription was justified and proportionate, Reuters reported.

Carr said the ban was “highly controversial” ⁠but called it “a fundamental mistake to overlook the fact that Palestine Action overtly promoted unlawful violence amounting to terrorism.”

British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood had argued at a hearing in April that the conclusion that the ban had a significant impact on freedom of expression ⁠was “overstated and wrong.”

Board of Deputies Acting President Adrian Cohen today welcomed the ruling, saying in a statement that, “Palestine Action’s targets have included Jewish communal institutions and Jewish-owned businesses. Peaceful protest is a fundamental democratic right. Violence, intimidation and the deliberate targeting of property and infrastructure are not.”

However, Huda Ammori, who co-founded Palestine Action in 2020, said the move had imposed “severe restrictions on the fundamental free speech ⁠and assembly rights of vast numbers of people” who supported the anti-Israel cause.

The British government in July 2025 outlawed Palestine Action and declared it to be a terrorist organization after its followers vandalized aircraft at a Royal Air Force base, as well as a series of what the group called “occupations” of firms with ties to Israel.

On Friday, a British judge sentenced four Palestine Action activists to prison terms totaling over 20 years for a 2024 raid on an Elbit Systems UK factory that caused about £1 million (around $1.3 million) in damage and left a police officer with a fractured spine, a case he said had “terrorist connections.”


UCL cuts dedicated antisemitism role despite surge in anti-Jewish incidents, source tells 'Post'
University College London has axed its dedicated Antisemitism Programme Manager, a UCL source told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.

UCL's Antisemitism Programme Manager position was started in November 2022, and has been held by Anthony Orkin for that whole period. It was the first and only dedicated antisemitism role at any UK university.

The source told the Post that the role helped to respond to an 841% increase in antisemitism reported through UCL's own Report and Support system in the year following October 7, 2023, "responding with sensitivity, expertise and urgency to an unprecedented and sustained volume of incidents, concerns and requests for support."

Orkin held confidential support sessions for Jewish students and staff, delivered training and awareness sessions to over 2,430 students, staff, and stakeholders across UCL and beyond, and arranged and facilitated CST antisemitism training for UCL's senior security staff in April 2025.

Most recently, Orkin delivered an antisemitism awareness session to the EDI Community of Practice on May 21, achieving an average participant feedback score of 4.75 out of 5.

"The importance of this role at this moment cannot be overstated," the source told the Post. "Jewish students and staff at UCL need dedicated expert support at the most difficult time for the community in recent memory." ...
Antisemitism complaints will now be tackled by UCL's Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) team, overseen by Addeel Khan. Khan happens to also be the communications manager and trustee for Save One Life, a charity investigated by the UK's Charity Commission last year over allegations that funds raised for Gaza may have been diverted to Hamas.
Montreal City Council delays vote on motion to sever ties with Israel
During a Montreal City Council meeting on Monday, the municipal government postponed a vote on a motion calling on the city to sever institutional ties with Israel.

The measure, introduced by the progressive opposition party Projet Montréal in Quebec, accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza and calls on the city to suspend relations until Israel “returns to its internationally recognized borders, ceases its violations of the rights of the Palestinian people, and ends its violations of international law.”

Jonah Fried, a spokesman for B’nai Brith Canada, told JNS that the vote was delayed until August after Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada’s administration introduced a counter-motion titled “On Civil Peace, Intercultural Dialogue and Living Together.”

“This is a win for the Jewish community,” he said of the two-month delay. “A lot can happen between now and August.”

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs and the Federation CJA called council members to reject the proposal and urged residents to contact elected officials to voice their opposition.

“By taking a one-sided position on one of the world’s most polarized conflicts, this motion risks further fraying the social fabric, contributing to a social climate that is endangering Jewish Montrealers who are already facing unprecedented levels of fear and hostility,” Paola Samuel, regional director of B’nai Brith Quebec, stated.
Smith College rejects SJP chapter’s proposal to divest from Israel
The Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility at Smith College, a private liberal arts college in Northampton, Mass., declined on June 3 to advance a proposal from the school’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter and Smith Alums for Justice in Palestine calling for changes to the college’s investment policies.

The proposal, submitted in November 2025, urged the college to adopt an ethical investment policy that would exclude companies that manufacture weapons, contract with countries found to have committed human-rights violations, including genocide and apartheid, and invest in “values-aligned” funds. The proposal also sought greater transparency, including disclosure of the committee’s membership and decision-making process. It asserted that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

The advisory committee, a subcommittee of the Board of Trustees’ Investment Committee that reviews endowment-related social-responsibility proposals, stated that the measure failed to meet its standards for mission alignment, societal impact and community consensus.

The committee also said the proposal could negatively affect the endowment’s ability to support the college and conflict with the trustees’ fiduciary responsibilities.

“There is also concern that it would have a negative financial impact, limiting the ability of the endowment to support the college’s mission and conflicting with the trustees’ fiduciary responsibility,” the committee wrote. “Further, many of the proposed actions are not viable or implementable.”
Students leave Stanford graduation to attend speech by anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil
An estimated 100 students walked out of the Stanford University graduation on Sunday and marched to a “people’s commencement” outdoor address by Mahmoud Khalil, the anti-Israel activist graduate of Columbia University whose U.S. deportation case is pending.

“Shout out to all the graduates who walked out today,” the group wrote on Instagram, sharing footage that showed students in caps and gowns carrying Palestinian flags and holding signs that read: “Apartheid runs on Google.”

The group walked out of the commencement speech at Stanford Stadium given by Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

“Today, Sundar Pichai was met with the sight of hundreds of students who showed they could not be allured anymore with the talk of a dollar or rapidly expanding AI,” the Stanford chapter of SJP stated. “We know about the crimes of Google in collaborating with Israel, ICE and companies like Palantir.”


UKLFI: Cabinet Office under fire for allowing Al Jazeera News Feed on Government Emergency Platform
A government linked emergency planning platform, “Resilience Direct”, prominently features a continuous Al Jazeera news feed, spreading anti-Israel and anti-Western propaganda to all users of the service.

Resilience Direct is a secure national platform run and funded by the Cabinet Office, which is used by emergency responders, local authorities, police forces and other public agencies for crisis preparedness and emergency management.

UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) has submitted a complaint to the Cabinet Office about the West Midlands Local Resilience Forum, where the Al Jazeera news is displayed. It is operated by West Midlands Police, who faced previous criticism in respect of their decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv football fans from an Aston Villa football match, based on flawed intelligence. The latest controversy risks further damaging confidence among the Jewish community.

In a letter sent to Cat Little CB, Permanent Secretary of the Cabinet Office, UKLFI alleges that the inclusion of Al Jazeera news in a constant ticker tape on screen, as well as in a “Media Wall” on the Resilience Direct platform, constitutes a misuse of a government emergency coordination service.

UKLFI pointed out that the platform should be used solely for operational coordination and information sharing related to emergencies, not for disseminating politically charged international news content.

The complaint cites screenshots from the West Midlands Resilience Forum page showing rolling Al Jazeera headlines concerning Israel and the Middle East, including stories referring to alleged Israeli war crimes and Israeli military activity. UKLFI pointed out that the news feed amounted to “a stream of anti-Israel propaganda” being broadcast to members of the emergency planning community.

UKLFI also raised concerns over the appropriateness of Al Jazeera as a source on a UK government-related platform, noting that the broadcaster is funded by the Qatari state and has faced restrictions or bans in several countries, including the USA, Israel and the Palestinian Authority.


European taxpayer money continues to flow to Palestinian terrorists, Israel says
The European Union continues to deliver funds to the Palestinian Authority, despite the latter’s ongoing violation of its commitments such as ending payments to terrorists and their families, Israel’s Foreign Ministry said in a video released on Sunday.

The head of the P.A., Mahmoud Abbas, promised, in a letter dated June 9, 2025, to French President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, ahead of a French-Saudi U.N. conference on the two-state solution, to stop paying monthly stipends to the families of Palestinian security prisoners and “martyrs,” cease incitement to violence and anti-Israel propaganda, and to advance democratic elections for the Palestinians, the ministry noted.

Abbas failed to follow through on all three commitments, “Yet European taxpayer money still flows to terrorists through Palestinian Authority funding,” the Foreign Ministry tweeted.


Iranian operative behind synagogue arsons tried to recruit Mexican cartel against Jewish sites, FBI claims
An Iran-born terror suspect who directed attacks on European Jewish institutions tried to hire a Mexican cartel operative to target American Jews, before being arrested in Turkey last month and extradited to the United States, the US Justice Department has alleged.

Mohammad al-Saadi, 33, whose trial is expected to begin next year in a federal U.S. court, is accused by US prosecutors of orchestrating at least 18 attacks across Europe on behalf of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including firebombings targeting synagogues and other Jewish institutions in the United Kingdom, Belgium and the Netherlands, according to the Sunday Times, citing US court documents.

He was arrested at a hotel in Istanbul on May 1 and transferred to FBI custody two weeks later. He has been charged with eight terrorism-related offences and could face life imprisonment if convicted, the newspaper reported.

Al-Saadi allegedly attempted in April to recruit a person he believed was affiliated with a Mexican drug cartel to carry out attacks against Jewish targets in the United States. Prosecutors said the individual was, in fact, an undercover FBI agent, according to the report.

US authorities reportedly regard al-Saadi as a senior operative with longstanding ties to Iran-backed militias in Iraq, including Kata'ib Hezbollah, which Washington has designated a terrorist organisation (it is a separate entity to Lebanon's Hezbollah group).

Prosecutors allege that al-Saadi helped establish a front organisation known as Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya, or HAYI, which claimed responsibility for a series of attacks across Europe earlier this year.

The attacks began in March and included incidents targeting synagogues in Liege, Belgium and Rotterdam, the Netherlands, as well as a Jewish school and an American bank branch in Amsterdam.


Visiting Somaliland president opens embassy in Jerusalem
Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar opened Somaliland’s embassy in Jerusalem on Monday, the eighth top-level diplomatic mission in the capital.

Abdullahi is making his first state visit abroad since becoming president. In December, Israel became the first country in the world to recognize Somaliland, which broke away from Somalia in 1991.

The Muslim nation’s embassy is in Jerusalem’s Har Hotzvim hi-tech park.

Somaliland’s first ambassador to a foreign country presented his diplomatic credentials to President Isaac Herzog in March.

Dr. Mohamed Hagi, appointed in February, had been serving as an adviser to Abdullahi, and was an architect of Israel-Somaliland relations.

The United States, Guatemala, Honduras, Kosovo, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, and Fiji also have embassies in Jerusalem, while other countries — including Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia — have embassy branches in the capital. Other countries refuse to move their embassies to the city so long as Palestinian claims to its eastern neighborhoods have not been addressed in a peace agreement.

Sa’ar met with Abdullahi earlier at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, revealing in a readout from his office that the two had also met at the ministry in October, in secret, two months before Israel’s recognition.

“I will always be proud of the privilege I had to write, with you and your people, the first pages in the story of the Israel-Somaliland relationship. I am certain this partnership will continue to grow stronger for the benefit of both our nations,” Sa’ar said, thanking Abdillahi for his “historic” decision to open an embassy in Jerusalem.

Sa’ar acknowledged that “there are indeed challenges in building the relationship between Israel and Somaliland.”

Jerusalem’s unilateral recognition of the country was condemned internationally, including by the African Union and over a dozen Muslim-majority nations, which also issued a joint statement condemning Somaliland’s decision to open its embassy in Jerusalem.

“Unfortunately, there are many trying to undermine [bilateral ties]. They will not be successful,” Sa’ar vowed, adding, “I am certain this partnership will continue to grow stronger for the benefit of both our nations.”
Sa’ar meets Somaliland president, reveals past talks in Israel
Israel’s foreign minister met on Monday in Jerusalem with Somaliland’s president, highlighting growing ties between the nations and confirming previously undisclosed contacts.

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar hosted President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi at the Foreign Ministry, where the two men delivered statements to the media at the start of the visit.

Sa’ar said the meeting marked their second encounter in Jerusalem, revealing the pair held a previously unpublicized meeting in October. He said relations were established about six months ago following talks in 2025 and have continued to deepen.

He also noted his visit to Somaliland’s capital, Hargeisa, in January and welcomed strong public support there for Israel.

Sa’ar thanked Abdirahman for deciding to open a Somaliland embassy in Jerusalem, calling it a “historic” step, and said both sides were committed to strengthening cooperation despite challenges.

“I am certain this partnership will continue to grow stronger for the benefit of both our nations,” Sa’ar said.

“We have just opened the Embassy of Somaliland in Jerusalem, our eternal capital,” the top diplomat tweeted on Monday evening.

“The friendship between Israel and Somaliland exists not only between our governments, but also between our peoples. It is rooted in the hearts of the citizens of both countries,” he tweeted.





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