Wednesday, June 17, 2026

06/16 Links Pt2: How ‘Settler Violence’ Became a Tool for Sanctioning Jews; Foiled plot targeting AIPAC-affiliated politicians at WH UFC fight; Batya Ungar-Sargon: ‘It’s over for Jews in Europe’

From Ian:

Mark Goldfeder and Eugene Kontorovich: How ‘Settler Violence’ Became a Tool for Sanctioning Jews
The Biden administration’s play was designed to open the floodgates of European and other Western sanctions. In turn, the European sanctions, which are even worse, are themselves a dress rehearsal for what we can expect under a future Democratic administration in the United States.

One of the sanctioned organizations, Regavim—also a plaintiff in the Texas case—has been exposing the European Union’s role in promoting violations of the Oslo Accords by sponsoring the ongoing Palestinian land grab in Area C, the area left under full Israeli control by those agreements. Regavim’s research and whistleblowing activity, it turns out, is also considered settler violence.

Regavim’s work forensically documents how the “settler violence” sausage is made, thereby clarifying the function not only of leftist NGOs in Israel, but also of groups like Dawn MENA in the United States. The production cycle goes like this: A deceptive NGO report becomes a settled account, trumpeted by human-rights organizations that are themselves funded by the European Union. Reporters and international bodies cite the NGOs without independent corroboration. Policymakers cite the resulting consensus. The European states that funded the NGOs making the claims then impose sanctions accordingly. What passes for evidence is often nothing more than a chain of ideological citations. And when a handful of these stories were finally forced to address facts, the narrative fell apart.

Take the case of Amana, a company that has built tens of thousands of homes throughout Judea and Samaria for decades. The Biden administration made sure to sanction Amana on its way out, two weeks after it lost the election in November 2024. As justification, it cited Amana providing a loan to Manne, whom it had sanctioned in August of that year. Another justification was that “the settlers and farms that Amana supports play a key role in developing settlements in the West Bank, from which in turn settlers commit violence.”

Following the Biden administration’s lead, last month the European Union sanctioned Amana for “initiating, financing, and facilitating at least 30 violent outposts and settlements.” The word violent in that sentence is doing Herculean work. What makes an outpost “violent”? Amana pours concrete and lays roads. But under the definitions used by the United Nations, anything from exercising self-defense to an individual committing petty theft is classified as violence. This then allows the European Union to state with a straight face that Amana “facilitated violent outposts” without identifying a single act of violence that Amana directed, funded, or encouraged. This is not a legal standard. It is a word game.

Based on spurious accusations and bogus legal reasoning, the Biden administration, and now the European Union, turned the very idea of Jews living in the West Bank into a sanctionable offense and an inherent violation of Palestinian human rights.

Criminal and political violence—typically vandalism and property crime—directed at Palestinians by Israeli Jews (not necessarily settlers) in the West Bank does exist. It is both wrong and rare. Israel’s leaders and rabbis condemn it categorically, in contrast with the Palestinian Authority, which pays pensions to its terrorists. The clearance rate on such incidents is low, but that is also true of property crime in U.S. and European cities.

Our lawsuit alleged that while the sanctions were facially neutral—aimed at any perpetrators of violence in the West Bank—they were applied discriminatorily, exclusively targeting Jews. The settlement agreement states that the government will not “target private organizations and Israeli citizens living in the West Bank,” a hint that this is exactly what Democrats have done and want to do again.

Framing settler violence as a crisis worthy of global concern reinforces a narrative of predatory fundamentalist Jews dispossessing Palestinians. The low level of criminal activity by Jews in Judea and Samaria is a domestic Israeli law enforcement matter and should be treated as such. Thankfully, the Trump administration recognizes this. In the Justice Department’s settlement agreement, the government declares that it “categorically rejects any policy that would infringe upon Israel’s sovereignty.” Using such language to discuss measures relating to the West Bank is, in fact, a quiet but potentially significant policy change that should be celebrated.
A Mostly Violent Protest Movement
The indictments brought in the Eastern District of Michigan last week against eight 20-somethings deeply involved in anti-Israel protests at the University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor campus pull back the curtain on what that movement is really about.

Announcing the indictments, FBI director Kash Patel described a "campaign of violent, criminal acts" in which the Michigan eight engaged in a coordinated campaign of intimidation against university leaders—the president, the provost, the chief investment officer, members of the board of regents, and university police officers, plus "anyone they believed supported" the State of Israel—after the school shut down their illegal "solidarity encampment."

They threw noxious chemicals through the windows of victims’ homes, taped demand letters to their doors, defaced the Jewish Federation of Detroit on the one-year anniversary of Oct. 7, and spray-painted private homes with messages like "Intifada" and "Free Palestine."

Then they tried to intimidate a witness, identified in the indictment only as a University of Michigan student the defendants believed was cooperating with federal authorities. Defendants Paige Feyock, a Wellesley graduate and University of Michigan medical researcher, and Zainab Hakim, a 2024 University of Michigan graduate who was then hired by the university for a full-time job in the Center for South Asian Studies, hatched a plan to confront the witness. In mid-July 2024 Feyock aired her concerns about a "snitch" who was "going to send us to federal prison." In early August, she told her pals she and Hakim planned to get coffee with the witness: "ima strip search [him] ... to see if he is wearing a wire. not taking no chances with him." After the fact, she reported, the victim "knows not to talk."

The alleged criminality on display in Ann Arbor is hardly an isolated incident. At UCLA, so-called protesters set up a "Jew Exclusion Zone" barring Zionists from a portion of the campus. At Columbia, pampered rich kids stormed and occupied a university building and held two janitors hostage. At Harvard, a pair of graduate students accosted a fellow student walking across campus.

We’re picking up what they’re putting down. The nucleus of the "pro-Palestine" protest movement more closely resembles the violent left-wing movements of the past, from the Weather Underground to the Symbionese Liberation Army and Black Lives Matter, that have used terror, violence, and intimidation in an attempt to achieve their political aims.

The Weather Underground didn’t end U.S. imperialism. The SLA didn’t spark an uprising against capitalism. We are still living through the backlash to BLM and the George Floyd protests.

How will the "pro-Palestine" movement fare? The leading candidate for the Democratic Senate nomination in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed, had one of the alleged thugs on his payroll and not a whole lot to say about the indictment except that he blames the Trump DOJ for selective prosecution. One of the Democratic Party’s nominees for University of Michigan regent is a Dearborn attorney, Amir Makled, who has represented anti-Israel protesters on campus and is more or less a proxy for the alleged criminals. The party chose Makled in favor of Jordan Acker, the pro-Israel regent whose law firm, home, and car were vandalized by the Michigan eight.
The predictable idiocy of Palestine Action
To put it as simply as possible for the benefit of some remarkably simple minds on the far left of politics, the British government cannot, under any circumstances, afford to be seen as weak on national security. And when a group proudly infiltrates a British military facility and broadcasts it to millions, then the government effectively has little option but to ban it, or else demonstrate its weakness for the entire world to see.

In some ways I believe the RAF incident was inevitable. If a direct action group continues to carry out similar sorts of attacks, but with no significant results, their alternatives are either to up the ante or to see members siphoned off to join groups which are prepared to go even further. To stay relevant in the hysterical arena of pro-Palestinian activism in the UK, Palestine Action had to become more extreme or see itself slide into irrelevance.

But in other ways the latest descriptions of Palestine Action mask the real story, the ever-shifting attempts to market it in a way best designed to grab public sympathy. I don’t believe that a single one of the high profile individuals damning the proscription decision, for example, has referred to the RAF base infiltration in their screeds condemning the ruling. One possible reason is because that designating this as a simple civil liberties fight is far more likely to gain wider public sympathy.

Such efforts have been constant; a moving of the goalposts dependent not on what is actually true, but what works best to score pity points. People may have forgotten, for example, that there were an awful lot of attempted defences of Palestine Action last year prior to its proscription that described it as a “non-violent organisation”.

It is hard to understand how such descriptions had arisen – the group itself never explicitly described itself as non-violent – and the only feasible conclusion is that the people claiming this really wanted it to be true and therefore simply decided to act as if it was true – something of a leitmotif in 21st century activism. Since then, of course, many of Palestine Action’s most doughty defenders have moved on to arguing that that the member who fractured a policewoman’s spine didn’t intend to do it, and that it wasn’t a bad fracture, really.

This fight is unlikely to be over. No doubt Ms Ammori will now try and take this to the Supreme Court, and if that fails, to the European Court of Human Rights. In the meantime, other groups mimicking Palestine Action techniques have begun to spring up – for example, one calling itself “People Against Genocide”, which features the red triangle of Hamas – a group specifically dedicated to genocide – on its banner.

It remains to be seen whether they will be as stupid – and arrogant – as Palestine Action proved itself to be.


FBI foils explosive-drone, sniper-fire terror plot targeting White House UFC fight
US law enforcement disrupted a plot to attack the White House during a mixed martial arts event attended by US President Donald Trump and other top officials over the weekend, FBI Director Kash Patel said Tuesday.

“Thanks to the rapid action of this FBI, our partners, and the Department of Justice in a multi-state operation, multiple individuals are now in custody and allegedly planned attacks were stopped cold,” Patel said on X.

His post included a caption of a Fox News headline reading: “FBI disrupts alleged explosive-drone plot targeting White House UFC event, officials say,” and he shared a link to the article in a separate post.

Fox News reported that five people had been taken into custody, according to unnamed US officials, with investigators identifying 23 people in a “potential network of plotters.”

The plan involved using drones to hit buildings near the White House during the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) contest and prompt a mass evacuation that would “steer crowds toward a pre-staged sniper team,” Fox News said.

There were also plans to storm the White House gates with a “second wave,” the report said.
Suspects in White House attack plot targeted lawmakers linked to Israel — FBI
The suspects arrested for plotting to attack the White House during a mixed martial arts event attended by US President Donald Trump and other top officials over the weekend were seeking to harm politicians linked to Israel, according to a criminal complaint unsealed on Tuesday.

FBI Director Kash Patel said that US law enforcement had disrupted the attempted attack, calling the plot a “multi-state operation” planned by “multiple individuals” who had discussed using drones and gunfire to attack Sunday’s Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event on the White House lawn.

The “UFC Freedom 250” event fell on Trump’s 80th birthday and was meant to kick off this year’s festivities for the 250th anniversary of US independence.

One of the suspects, Tycen Proper, 19, told his co-conspirators on May 13 that the assailants should target US Sen. Marsha Blackburn, according to the criminal complaint filed by an FBI agent investigating the case.

“I got a possible target Marsha Blackburn is senator for Tennessee,” Proper said in a chat.

Asked why the group should target Blackburn, Proper said, “She’s taken money from the Israel pro Israel [sic] lobby and supports them,” according to the complaint.

Two weeks later, Proper said in a text message, “These are people we’re going to focus on,” alongside images of US Sen. Jim Justice, US Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, US Rep. Carol Miller, and US Rep. Riley Moore.

The images appeared to have been taken from the website “TrackAIPAC.com” and included information about how much money each lawmaker had received from “pro-Israel PACS,” the complaint said.

During the investigation, police spoke with Proper’s father and grandmother, who said that Proper had recently made statements in support of Adolf Hitler and posted antisemitic comments on social media, according to the complaint.

Proper was charged with offenses related to conspiracy, attempted murder and firearms.


US Justice Dept indictment alleges ex-Southern Poverty Law Center official steered $1.2 million to neo-Nazi informant
The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a superseding indictment alleging that a former Southern Poverty Law Center official directed more than $1 million in donor funds to a neo-Nazi informant with whom she was romantically involved.

The June 2 indictment identifies the official as “Employee 2,” a former senior member of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project. Based on details contained in the filing, multiple media outlets have identified the individual as Heidi Beirich, the former director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project and a co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism.

According to prosecutors, an informant identified as “F-9" received roughly $1.2 million from the SPLC over more than two decades while remaining active in the National Alliance, a neo-Nazi organization. The indictment alleges that F-9 continued fundraising for the group while receiving payments from the SPLC.

Prosecutors further allege that Employee 2 and F-9 were in a romantic relationship and “shared a house and two bank accounts.” Between 2015 and 2021, approximately $140,000 in donor funds allegedly flowed into those accounts and was used to pay the couple’s living expenses, according to the indictment.

The accusation is part of the Justice Department’s indictment against the SPLC for allegedly “manufacturing extremism” by funneling millions of donor funds to individuals affiliated with white supremacist and extremist groups, including the National Alliance, the Ku Klux Klan and Aryan Nations.
‘Antisemitism having rotting effect on British society,’ Pickles warns
Conservative peer Lord Pickles has warned that antisemitism is “alive and kicking online,” urging the government to propose concrete solutions to a problem that “is having a rotting effect upon British society.”

Earlier, during a discussion on online hate speech, Labour peer Baroness Berger urged the government to investigate the X platform for allegedly failing to “remove five accounts which are breaking its terms of service by repeatedly posting anti-Jewish and Holocaust denial.”

Responding to these concerns, Tech Minister Baroness Lloyd told peers: “The government is clear that hatred or division, whether online or offline, will not be tolerated.”

“We have both criminal offences and regulatory measures in place to prevent and punish this type of behaviour.”

While commending the minister’s understanding of these issues, Lord Pickles responded: “The noble lady said there was no place online for antisemitism.

“But I am afraid to say antisemitism is indeed alive and kicking online. Conspiracy theories, Holocaust denial, and extreme Jew-hatred are having a rotting effect upon British society, posing a serious threat to public safety, social cohesion, and democratic trust.

“We’ve heard the noble lady’s excellent critique of what’s happening, but what we need are solutions that address the underlying problem, not just the symptoms of this dreadful disease.”
Leaked email reveals secret meeting between human rights museum and Palestinian ambassador
Internal emails obtained by National Post show that senior officials at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) had a discussion with the Palestinian representative to Canada, in which she attempted to get involved in, and was updated on, the progress of its upcoming “Nakba” exhibit, raising fresh questions about the political agendas behind the highly controversial presentation at the publicly funded institution.

In an email dated Dec. 5, 2024, Ramsey Zeid, the president of the Canadian Palestinian Association of Manitoba (CPAM), who has been a member of the Palestinian Content Advisory Network (PCAN) for the exhibit, wrote to Matthew Cutler, the CMHR’s vice-president of exhibitions, and Isha Khan, the museum’s CEO.

Zeid said that Mona Abuamara, who was serving as the representative of the Palestinian Delegation in Canada, would be visiting the museum on Dec. 11 for a tour and requested a meeting with staff “to discuss the Nakba exhibit.” CPAM promoted her visit on Instagram and hosted a talk by her on Dec. 10.

In his email, Zeid said that Abuamara was “keen to receive an update on the progress of the project, understand where we currently stand and explore how she might be able to assist if necessary.”

Cutler responded the next morning, writing: “Thanks for this invitation — we’re always glad to have the ambassador visit, and I know many of our team will be at the event on the 11th.” He then told Zeid that he would connect with a colleague to “ensure that one of us is able to speak with Mona during her visit about our work around sharing Palestinian human rights stories through the museum, including the exhibit.”

The Palestinian General Delegation confirmed to the Post that the meeting took place, but would not disclose what was discussed. The Palestinian General Delegation has represented the Palestinian Authority’s interests in Canada since 1995. The meeting took place nearly a year before Canada recognized a Palestinian state.

The apparent co-ordination between the museum and the Palestinian representative occurred amid repeated complaints from Jewish organizations about inadequate consultation and a lack of historical balance. And they have good reason for concern.
Can US Engagement Rescue the United Nations From Irrelevance?
In some cases, the United Nations has likely done more harm than good. Such is the case with UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. It was formed in 1949 as a refugee agency dedicated to the descendants of the original Palestinian refugees from Israel’s 1947-48 War of Independence. But the odd way that “refugee” has come to be defined in regard to UNRWA’s mandate has served to perpetuate a stateless Arab underclass that has little incentive to find permanent settlement.

The much larger UNHCR, known officially as the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, has a mission to integrate first-generation refugees and their offspring into the countries hosting them. UNRWA, by contrast, operates on a (theoretically perpetual) multi-generational model. And it has actually fuelled the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by effectively supporting the so-called Palestinian “right of return” for millions of Arabs who were born decades after the original displacement of their ancestors.

Not unreasonably, Israel takes “right of return” as code for the elimination of the Jewish state through a mass UN-sanctioned influx of Palestinians, many of whom have spent their lives being radicalised in UNRWA-funded schools. According to the UN’s own internal investigation, at least nine UNRWA staff members participated in the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel.

The difficulties faced by the next UN Secretary-General will be exacerbated by the multi-polar nature of today’s global politics. During the Cold War, the US-Soviet rivalry often stymied the UN’s ability to act. The world of the late 2020s and 2030s will likely be marked by a more complex three-way division of the world among American, Chinese, and Russian spheres of influence. Anti-western rogue states such as Iran and North Korea will have their choice of two dictatorial permanent UN Security Council members to court as financiers and geopolitical enablers.

The two leading candidates to replace Guterres have offered different visions of how to rehabilitate the United Nations. For Grossi, the goal, rooted in what he calls a “principled, pragmatic multilateralism,” is fundamental structural reform that would “improve coordination, eliminate duplication, digitise operations, and align structures with clearly defined goals.” For Bachelet, the answer lies in an unabashedly activist role for a Secretary-General “who maintains a strong field presence and actively engages on the ground,” and who pushes “sustainable development” as a “tool for conflict prevention and stability.”

While either plan would face long odds, a Grossi victory may at least result in the United States being more amenable to paying the dues it owes. It might also reverse US moves to resign from or defund a slew of UN agencies. Under Trump, the US has withdrawn from the Human Rights Council (UNHRC), World Health Organization (WHO), and the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); while also ending financial support for several lesser known entities, among them the UN Democracy Fund, the UN Peacebuilding Fund, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC).

Even under Trump, the US government continues to see value in the Security Council, where the United States has exercised its veto power on 20 occasions since 2000 (mainly to head off measures directed against Israel). Over the last year, the Trump administration has enthusiastically pointed to its success in advancing various Security Council resolutions in concert with its allies. This includes Resolution 2803, which implemented the Trump-backed Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict. This past March, the Security Council passed Resolution 2817, which condemned Iranian missile and drone attacks against Arab Gulf states, and called (unsuccessfully) for freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. These developments show that the relationship between the United Nations and the United States has not yet completely fractured.

The next UN Secretary-General would be well-advised to focus on improving the organisation’s relationship with the world’s most powerful and geopolitically influential nation. Otherwise, he or she may be remembered by history as just another placeholder in a line of UN officials who presided over the institution as it slid into irrelevance.


spiked: ‘It’s over for Jews in Europe’ | Batya Ungar-Sargon on Islamist anti-Semites & woke useful idiots
Batya Ungar-Sargon returns to The Brendan O’Neill Show to talk about her new book, The Jews and the Left. Batya and Brendan discuss why America historically welcomed Jews, the Democrats’ Nazi problem and why the woke now cosplay as Islamists.

0:00 – Intro
0:58 – Why Batya wrote The Jews and the Left
6:17 – Why Jews were never oppressed in America
10:51 – Jewish founding fathers and the American Revolution
15:27 – Russian Jewish immigrants and the birth of the labor movement
21:14 – From the New Deal to the civil rights movement
23:10 – The myth of Jewish oppression in America
23:43 – Why most Jews still vote Democrat
28:56 – Zohran Mamdani and the Jewish vote
32:06 – What left-wing antisemitism actually looks like
36:18 – Anti-Zionism vs antisemitism
40:19 – Oppression envy and Jewish students on campus
44:09 – The Graham Platner Nazi tattoo scandal
49:18 – Two models of masculinity
52:06 – Is Trump's first year living up to the hype?




Goldman declines Lander’s call to accuse Israel of ‘genocide’ at televised debate
Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) drew on the recent New York Knicks NBA finals win in his opening statement during his second televised debate with former city comptroller Brad Lander, who is running to unseat him in New York’s 10th Congressional District.

“We cannot afford to put a rookie in the game,” he said. “We have to put our best players on the court.”

He referred often to Lander’s lack of federal government experience as his opponent being a “rookie.”

Both men are Jewish. Lander has accused Israel of “genocide.” He is backed by Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor, who has said that he would have the Israeli prime minister arrested in the Big Apple.

Lander said that Goldman is endorsed by AIPAC and is a “corporate Democrat,” who takes donations from Walmart, American Express and others. Goldman has acknowledged that he has a PAC that accepts corporate donations but only to distribute the monies to candidates in other Democratic races, he said.

The two are fighting to win the Democratic primary for a district, which spans from Manhattan below 14th Street to the Brooklyn communities of Red Hook, DUMBO and Sunset Park.

The hotly contested district is between 20% and 30% Jewish, according to the moderator of Monday night’s debate.


Doctor suing NHS trust after ‘suspension mid-shift for posts criticising Israel’
A British-Jordanian doctor is suing an NHS trust for discrimination by claiming he was suspended mid-shift for social media posts that criticised Israel and advocated for Palestinians.

Dr Nadeem Crowe, who has Palestinian family and friends, made the comments on a private X account in his free time, the central London employment tribunal was told in written submissions.

He was suspended from his bank work at the Royal Free Hospital, Camden, north London, in August 2024 and was not provided with details of the complaint against him, it is alleged.

The A&E doctor claims the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, and its responsible officer Jane Hawdon, discriminated against him “because of his anti-Zionist beliefs and his manifestation of those beliefs”.

Jude Shepherd, representing the two respondents, told the panel on Tuesday: “The respondents’ primary case … is that there was no disciplinary action.”

On 4 November 2023, under the X account named “Nadeem Haddadin-Crowe” with two Palestinian flags, he posted: “Zionists love calling Hamas fundamentalists but bizarrely can’t see they are too fundamentalists.”

Another, shared a day earlier, said: “Perhaps British Jews should consider how genuine their connection with Israel actually is. Other than the delusion that is Zionism, it seems to be a fairly feeble link that leaves those Zionists who haven’t even set foot in Israel thinking their connection to Israel is stronger than the Palestinians.

“It isn’t just the Jews who have ugly history, and it takes a pretty awful set of values to weaponise the Holocaust under these circumstances.

“There is a genocide going on as a result of an illegal and violent occupation. Not only in Gaza but in the West Bank.

“Perhaps to Palestine the Nakba is as much an emotional trauma as the Holocaust to the Jews (sic).”

On 7 November that year, he said: “Zionists need to stop using Judaism as a human shield.”
Teenager pleads not guilty to hate crime over alleged antisemitic video
A teenager accused of making racially aggravated comments in a video posted to social media has denied committing a hate crime.

Muhammed Rachid, 18, pleaded not guilty to a charge of causing racially aggravated harassment when he appeared in the dock at Snaresbrook Crown Court on Tuesday.

The charge comes after a man allegedly shouted abuse towards the Jewish community in comments made to a camera outside the East London Mosque in Whitechapel in May.

The charge states Rachid allegedly “demonstrated towards another hostility based on his or her membership or presumed membership of a particular group”.

The video came to police attention after it went viral on X on 15 May.
‘Pro-Hamas’ TV channel blamed Israel for Golders Green attack
A “pro-Hamas” TV channel blamed Israel for provoking the stabbing of two Jewish men in Golders Green.

Campaigners are demanding a clampdown on Al-Hiwar TV after guests claimed the attack in north London was not the result of anti-Semitism, but a reaction to Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.

The Ofcom-licensed channel, which has more than 6.4 million followers on Facebook and 1.9 million subscribers on YouTube, has also been accused of peddling Hamas propaganda.

One of its presenters described the Oct 7 attacks as “like a fantasy”, and it has broadcast sympathetic interviews with supporters of the banned terror group.

The day after the stabbing of two Jewish men in Golders Green on April 29, guests on the Arab-language channel claimed that Israel was to blame for the attack.

One argued that the incident was not anti-Semitic but an act of opposition to Israel’s actions in Gaza and that the Jewish state bore “the lion’s share” of responsibility for what happened.

Jafaar El-Ahmar, a London-based journalist, told the channel: “This is not anti-Semitism but rather an expression of his [the attacker’s] rejection of the Israeli attacks against the Palestinian people.”

Contributors to Al-Hiwar also described last December’s Bondi Beach attack in Australia – when 15 civilians were shot dead at an orthodox Chabad event – as a reaction to Israel’s military offensive in Gaza rather than an anti-Semitic attack on Jews.

Campaigners have called on Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator, to examine whether the channel, which is also available to British audiences via a number of foreign satellite TV providers and through multiple websites and apps, has breached UK laws against promoting terror groups.


ADL files federal civil-rights complaint over alleged antisemitic bullying in Colorado school district
The Anti-Defamation League has filed a federal civil-rights complaint against the Boulder Valley School District in Colorado, alleging that a student was the victim of antisemitic bullying and physical abuse while attending Southern Hills Middle School.

According to the complaint filed on June 11 with the U.S. Department of Education and with the Denver Office for Civil Rights, the victim, identified as “Student A,” was subjected to repeated antisemitic bullying, slurs and physical assaults by multiple students during his seventh- and eighth-grade years, from 2024 to 2026.

According to the filing, students called Jews “dirty” and “contaminated,” attempted to organize a game dubbed “Jew touch tag,” and directed Nazi salutes and Holocaust-related taunts at the student.

In a December 2025 incident cited in the complaint, a classmate allegedly used a charging cord to pull the student backward by the neck while calling him a “stupid kike,” prompting a police investigation. In April, another student allegedly told him, “Hitler should have killed all the Jews when he had the chance.”

The ADL alleges that school and district officials were repeatedly notified of the incidents but failed to take effective action to stop the harassment. The organization is asking federal officials to investigate whether the district violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and to require corrective measures.

“The record here is overwhelming: written pleas from the student’s parents, formal school reports and a police investigation all point to the conclusion that antisemitic harassment at Southern Hills Middle School was pervasive, escalating and severe,” James Pasch, vice president of litigation for the ADL, stated.

“No family should have to fight this hard to ensure a Jewish child’s safety at school, and certainly no Jewish student should face the threat of assault or harassment because of their Jewish identity,” Pasch said.
Code Pink hosts workshop series teaching parents, educators to challenge Zionism, Holocaust education in K-12 schools
Anti-Israel group Code Pink is hosting a four-part workshop series this week aimed at teaching educators, parents and students to challenge Zionism and Holocaust-related curricula in K-12 schools.

According to the North American Values Institute, speakers participating in the series are affiliated with teachers’ unions and activist education networks, including groups connected to the National Education Association.

The series, titled “Challenging Zionism in Our Schools,” began Monday with a session examining Anti-Defamation League educational materials. Code Pink described the workshop as an effort to show “how organizations like the ADL use Holocaust education to justify state violence and silence Palestine.” The session featured Marcy Winograd, who leads the group’s “Drop the ADL” project and heads a pro-Palestinian caucus in the California Teachers Association.

Tuesday’s session focuses on strategies for establishing Students for Justice in Palestine clubs and incorporating Palestinian culture into K-12 education. Featured speakers include Colette Cavanagh, education director for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and Merri Nijimy, former president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association.

Wednesday’s workshop will focus on “literature and art as tools for resistance,” and on Thursday the group will close the series with a session on “the meaning of the slogan ‘from the river to the sea,’” featuring Maha Nassar, an associate professor in the School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies at the University of Arizona.
Fourth suspect nabbed in Dutch synagogue arson probe
Dutch police have arrested a fourth suspect in connection with an attempted attack in March on the Heemstede synagogue near Amsterdam, the De Telegraaf newspaper reported on Monday.

The suspect, aged 20, has been in custody since June 9, according to the report.

The other suspects, who are awaiting indictment, are aged 14, 17 and 18. They were arrested within days of the alleged attempt to start a fire at the synagogue.

In a March 23 statement on the arraignment of the two youngest suspects, the Dutch General Prosecution Service said they were arrested due to a “suspicious situation.” Police found a cache of “heavy-duty fireworks” near the place of the teenagers’ arrest, according to the statement.

The incident is part of a wave of attacks in Europe targeting Jews and Jewish institutions since Oct. 7, 2023.

U.S. authorities are preparing to indict an Iran-born man whom they say directed attacks on European Jewish institutions and had also tried to hire a Mexican cartel operative to target American Jews, The Sunday Times reported this week.

Mohammad al-Saadi, 33, is accused by U.S. 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 newspaper, which quoted U.S. court documents.

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


Toronto police: Criminal-for-hire network recruiting youth tied to recent shootings at consulate, synagogues
A series of shootings, including at the U.S. Consulate and at synagogues, are connected via a criminal network that pays young people to commit the crimes, according to the Toronto Police Service.

Police Chief Myron Demkiw said at a Tuesday press conference that firearms seized by police have been used in multiple shootings by a group of people who also filmed their crimes. Police believe that the firearms are shared among the group.

“What we are dealing with in this case and other related incidents, including shootings at Jewish synagogues and schools, is a recurring and similar modus operandi,” he said. “That is criminals for hire.”

He said young people are recruited through encrypted messaging apps to carry out attacks on various targets, and that to get paid, “they are required to film their attacks.”

“Who’s paying for this? That is what we are trying to determine,” he said, noting that there has been reporting of “foreign actors” but that police and law enforcement partners are still investigating.

“It is clear that some of the people hiring these criminals want to create a sense of fear in our communities, including in the Jewish community,” he said.

Casey Babb, director and senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, said that the foreign entities are “likely proxies connected to the Iranian regime.”

“Dozens of shootings, a murdered police officer, synagogues shot at and the U.S. Consulate in Toronto hit with bullets,” he said. “This is the new normal.”
Exclusive footage showing labourer stealing an Israeli flag from a Sydney home
Exclusive footage obtained by Sky News shows 33-year-old labourer approaching a home in western Sydney, stealing an Israeli flag from a front window and taking off in his work ute.


Cornell student who ‘won’t work for Jews’ is a symptom of a far darker hatred that must be stopped
As if you needed more reasons to worry about America’s future, now we have Austin Franco.

The 19-year-old Cornell student logged on to the school’s job board recently and applied for a summer internship with a New York-based start-up.

But when invited for an interview, he declined to show up.

The reason he gave?

“Not interested in working for a Jew.”

The Ivy League school, no surprises there, released an embarrassingly idiotic statement, accusing Franco of being “in violation of the [university’s] online job board’s terms of service” and announcing it will further investigate Franco.

The administrators in Ithaca needn’t bother: No further investigation is necessary.

Because Franco isn’t the problem.

He’s merely a symptom of something far darker, a hatred that, left unchecked, may have disastrous consequences.

What is it? Since the story broke, enraged pundits referred to Franco’s attitude as “antisemitism.”

But that, alas, is a misnomer, a distraction that, if we’re not careful, could keep us from identifying, and thereby solving, the real problem.

Because the real problem isn’t that a dim and arrogant college kid somewhere dislikes Jews.

It’s that we now live in an America where being openly, even proudly, antisemitic is a form of social clout.

When given a chance to clarify his statement, Franco doubled down.

So did his supporters: A crowdfunding effort was quickly launched to reward Franco for his bigotry, raising more than $13,000 in just a few days.

And that’s a problem, because antisemitism, as any semi-serious student of history knows, is a virus that has a nasty way of devouring any host society that lets it spread unchecked.


Inside Elbit's laser lab: How an aerial Iron Beam will alter modern warfare
In 2021, Elbit’s laser succeeded in shooting down drones while simulating the Iranian Shahid 101 and 136 during experiments at the Palmachim Air Force Base.

Responding to a question about the drone threat, Ben David said, “First, currently, many countries are fighting against drones and against cruise missiles with air-to-air missiles. That’s a very expensive fight, and it’s not sustainable. Because of that, we thought that bringing [the] high-power laser to the air will create a new situation, where we actually are becoming the asymmetric power player.”

In March of this year, Elbit Systems President and CEO Bezhalel Machlis responded to a question about the drone threat and lasers at a briefing relating to investors. “Putting a high-power laser in the air enables us to first overcome some of the challenges of the ground, like weather and dust and turbulence,” Machlis said. “Flying above the clouds will enable us to gain more range and be more effective, and also to eliminate the threats far away from our borders. Now, from a technical point of view, it’s not an easy task.”

Machlis explained: “You need to miniaturize the elements. While moving, you need to lock yourself on a target and in a very precise way. We were able to overcome all these challenges, and we are very advanced in the development. When the solution will be mature and operational, I believe it will be a breakthrough in the way countries are defeating swarms and other types of threats.”

Advantages over land-based laser defense
“Using lasers to shoot down aerial threats, air-to-air at the same height or from above, has a number of distinct advantages over ground-based laser defense,” Ben David stated.

Aerial lasers are the holy grail of lasers, as they can be used more quickly and effectively on both defense and offense. Ground-based lasers, in contrast, must adjust their direction and target far more slowly.

When firing a laser from the ground to the air, one faces a variety of environmental challenges: friction, wind, turbulence, the temperature and intensity of the laser beam as it barrels toward its target, and the electromagnetic interference or dust in the air.

Because of all these factors, firing a laser from the ground requires high wattage, so that it can travel farther and compete with the elements.

Engineers work to keep the laser’s beam hot and its inner machinery cool, so that it does not overheat and cease to function. A related challenge is developing a coating for the glass to make sure it neither overheats nor explodes.

Once in the air, especially at 20,000 or 30,000 feet, many of the elements that reduce the laser’s intensity are themselves diminished. Because of this, lasers meant to be placed on aircraft can be smaller and less intense than their grounded counterparts. This saves on money, energy, weight, and wattage.
Payoneer purchased by Canada’s Nuvei for $2.75 billion
Israeli fintech company Payoneer is being acquired by Canadian payments firm Nuvei in an all-cash transaction valued at $2.75 billion.

The deal valued Payoneer at a 21% premium to its Nasdaq closing price on Friday, Israeli business news site Calcalist reported on Monday.

The company ended last week with a market capitalization of approximately $2.26 billion. Nuvei has previously expanded its presence in Israel through acquisitions including cryptocurrency payments company Simplex and payments processor SafeCharge, founded by Israeli entrepreneur Teddy Sagi.

Payoneer operates a global payments platform serving businesses, freelancers, e-commerce merchants and service providers, facilitating cross-border transactions in markets worldwide.

Reuters reported last week that Payoneer was in talks to be acquired by a Canadian company for about $2.7 billion. Following the report, Payoneer shares rose sharply, bringing the company’s market value closer to the final purchase price.

According to Calcalist, the transaction comes five years after Payoneer entered the public markets through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger in June 2021 at a valuation of $3.3 billion.
Amir Tibon wins Sami Rohr Prize for dramatic chronicle of Oct. 7
Israeli journalist Amir Tibon was awarded the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature on Tuesday for The Gates of Gaza: A Story of Betrayal, Survival, and Hope in Israel’s Borderlands, his harrowing account of survival on Oct. 7.

The Gates of Gaza is Tibon’s first-person account of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks and Israel’s Gaza policies as a resident of the border’s region. On the day of the attack, he, along with his wife and their two young daughters, spent 10 hours hiding in the safe room of their home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, less than a mile from Gaza, as terrorists rampaged through the community.

In the book, Tibon details efforts by his father, a retired major general in the IDF, traveled from Tel Aviv by car to rescue the family, stopping numerous times along the war to assist others and fight groups of terrorists. The Gates of Gaza intersperses Tibon’s accounting of the day, his parents’ experiences and Israeli government policy regarding Gaza over the years.

“The mission of the Rohr Prize has never been more important,” Tibon, a reporter for Haaretz, said, “as we confront a rising tide of antisemitism around the globe and its unique ripples within the world of books and literature.”

The book also received the 2024 National Jewish Book Award, the Wingate Prize and the Bernstein Prize.
‘This pregnancy is our victory’: released hostage Elkana Bohbot and wife rebuild their lives
During Elkana Bohbot’s long months in Hamas captivity, his wife Rebecca found herself unwillingly thrust into the center of a public campaign for his release. In one of the many interviews she gave while pleading for him to come home, she said: “With God’s help, we will get through this and we will have more children. I already want to be pregnant.”

Two months ago, six months after Elkana was freed, the couple closed that circle with an emotional video announcing that they are expecting their second child, a daughter and sister to their 6-year-old son, Re’em.

“Last Sukkot, Re’em and I were staying at a hotel in Tiberias,” Rebecca says. “At night, Re’em told me he was sad because all the children at the hotel had siblings and he didn’t. I explained to him that he would have siblings, that we were waiting for Daddy because I couldn’t make him a brother on my own, but it broke me. I realized the child was losing hope.

“I prayed to God and said, ‘God, enough, mercy. The child wants a sibling. Bring me my husband already.’ That same night, President Trump announced the release of Elkana and all the other hostages.”

Elkana: “For two years there, I ate my heart out, especially in the moments when I thought I wouldn’t come back, when I thought it was a shame Re’em didn’t have a brother or sister. And now, thank God.”

Rebecca: “Two months before he was kidnapped, Elkana told me, ‘Let’s have another baby,’ and I stopped him. I only stopped nursing Re’em when he was 3, and I wanted a little time for myself before starting again with breastfeeding. When he was kidnapped, I regretted that we hadn’t done it.”





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

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

    

 

 



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Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون



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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