Friday, June 19, 2026

06/18 Links Pt2: Jewish leaders mark America’s 250th with open letter; The Left-Wing Case Against Anti-Zionism; Hillary Clinton: No alternative to Trump’s Gaza plan

From Ian:

‘The single best diaspora experience’: Jewish leaders mark America’s 250th with open letter
As the U.S. approaches its 250th anniversary, American Jewish leaders have signed an open letter expressing gratitude to a nation “unlike so many others through Jewish history [that] did not merely tolerate Jewish life, but made possible its flourishing,” while also highlighting Jewish contributions to the country’s founding.

“From the earliest days of the American experiment, Jews were drawn to the promise of a nation founded not on bloodline, monarchy, or established religion, but on liberty, covenant, and the dignity of the individual,” the letter reads. “Having known the weight of persecution and exclusion, Jews recognized in America’s founding ideals something rare in human history: the possibility of belonging without surrendering our identity.”

The letter continues, “Here, Jewish immigrants arrived with little and built lives of dignity. Here, Jewish communities established synagogues, schools, charities, businesses, and institutions of civic life. Here, Jews rose not because success was guaranteed, but because freedom made striving possible.”

The letter was spearheaded by David Bernstein, CEO of the North American Values Institute, and Phil Darivoff, chairman emeritus of the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, to increase American Jewish involvement in America 250 celebrations.

“America 250 is an opportunity to express gratitude to America, the country that’s been the single best diaspora experience that Jews have ever had,” Bernstein told Jewish Insider. “American Jews have been an integral part of this country and its story from the very beginning and we want to remind our fellow Americans of that.”

“It’s also an opportunity to ensure that America lives up to its founding ideal,” continued Bernstein. He asserted that America’s core civic values, such as freedom of conscience and the rule of law, “are the best defense against antisemitism,” which reached historic levels in America following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza.

“It’s incumbent on the American Jewish community to double down on those values, both because they protect us and because they allow America to live up to its highest potential,” said Bernstein.

The letter also acknowledges America’s shortcomings, noting, “America has not always lived up to its own ideals. Its history is marked by acts and periods of injustice, exclusion and failures that wounded many communities, including at times our own.”

It concludes with a call to action for American Jews.
Adam Louis-Klein: The Left-Wing Case Against Anti-Zionism
Anti-Zionism recoded the left’s concern with abuses of state power and the rights of minorities into a hatred of the Jewish state, just as the classical anti-Semitism of the 19th century recoded right-wing concern with the integrity of the nation and foreign influence into a hatred of Jews as a dispersed, stateless minority. But the internationalism that transformed Israel into a beacon of “ultranationalism” and “fascism”—the Soviets reveled in Holocaust inversion and in the depiction of Israelis as Nazis—would itself become a global system of oppression, subjecting one small state to an endless trial of elimination.

Discussions of whether anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism obscure the fact that anti-Zionism, as it actually exists, remains genocidal in intent, demanding the erasure of a national group that is protected under international law. The Genocide Convention protects all national groups, including those based on shared citizenship. Discrimination against Israelis qua Israelis—and the “Zionists” who appear as their proxies—is a moral wrong.

The left’s internationalism—once the calling card of progress—has hardened into hostility to Israel, across academia, NGOs, mainstream-media outlets, and the United Nations. The constant accusations that circulate across these networks of authority are not normal critiques of a state, but claims that cast Israel as the exemplar of the three great sins of the postwar international order—colonialism, apartheid, and genocide—a “rogue state” said to violate the very fabric of the world.

The progressive case against anti-Zionism recognizes the freedom of Israelis to choose the nature of the society they want to live under. It recognizes that Israel may be becoming more like other Middle Eastern countries—that its increased religiosity in recent years is partially driven by the Mizrahi segment of its population, those who were expelled from other countries in the region. And it seeks to extend to Israel the same allowance that progressives extend to other nations in the region, an acknowledgment that societies can differ from secular Western ideals.

Since the Six-Day War in 1967, which resulted in the emergence of the messianic Gush Emunim movement and the planting of settlements in the West Bank, changes within Israeli society have alienated many American Jews, as well as secular, left-wing Israelis. Religiosity and nationalism have fused, displacing cosmopolitanism. The language of leftist universalism now seems ever more remote from Israel’s reality.

But the left must adhere to its own standards, irrespective of changes within Israel. It needs to acknowledge the harms caused by anti-Zionism—the forced exodus of Mizrahi Jews across the Middle East, the cultural erasure of Jews under the Soviet Union, and the anti-Jewish violence and purging happening in the West today. And it needs to address them.

The brokenness that anti-Zionism sees in the world, as a vast oppressive conspiracy that sustains the existence of Israel—the system that Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, claimed is “the enemy of humanity”—is a brokenness that anti-Zionism brings into the world. The oppressive system is anti-Zionism itself. It’s a brokenness that, it just so happens, Jewish tradition tasks the Jewish people—and all of humanity—to repair.
Jewish Statehood and American Tribal Law
The United States pursued a one-state solution to the American-Indian conflict between 1887 and 1934. Treaty promises were ignored. Tribal governments were dismissed. Territorial boundaries were erased. Native peoples were no longer classified as members of foreign nations and instead given allotments of land to build private farms and ranches. Many of their children were placed in federal boarding schools where they were taught to assimilate into the culture of the newly unified nation. Known by historians as the Allotment Era in U.S.-Native American relations, these assimilationist policies were championed in part by idealistic reformers who believed that Indian poverty would be alleviated when native peoples abandoned tribal ways for the universalist principles of American citizenship. Their intention was good; their one-state experiment, a tragedy.

The project of “civilizing” native children in boarding schools became notoriously abusive. Many allotted lands proved unfit for small-scale agriculture while others required costly equipment most families could not afford. Thousands of impoverished Indians were left with no choice but to sell their property or lose it through foreclosure. Tribal landholdings plummeted from nearly 138 million acres in 1887 to 48 million acres by the time the allotment policy was repealed in 1934. It was a loss whose “devastation and trauma to tribal communities…cannot be overstated,” to quote the textbook Mastering Native American Law.

It was into this climate of anti-tribal reform, now largely forgotten, that Theodor Herzl’s The Jewish State first entered the public debate in the United States. Various reform rabbis and Jewish intellectuals, who had absorbed the anti-tribal zeitgeist, opposed Herzl’s “tribal” assumptions. Prominent among them was the distinguished philosopher Morris Raphael Cohen who in 1919 published an influential essay in The New Republic entitled “Zionism: Tribalism or Liberalism?”

Cohen argued that Zionism and Americanism are irreconcilable. “A national Jewish Palestine must necessarily mean a state founded on a peculiar religion, a tribal religion, and a mystic belief in a peculiar soil,” he wrote, “whereas liberal America has traditionally stood for separation of Church and State, the free mixing of races, and the fact that men can change their habitation and language and still advance the process of civilization.” When Cohen reissued the essay in his 1945 book The Faith of a Liberal, he likened Zionism to Nazi Aryanism, declaring that “tribalism is a creed that leads to grief and massacre.”

Against Herzl, Cohen insisted that “the Jewish problem is one that must be settled in each country separately” through assimilation and individual freedom. He maintained that as the world’s nations became ever more liberal, antisemitism would wither away. Though global Jewry’s faith in such promises mostly evaporated after the traumas of the Holocaust and the mass expulsion of Jews from Arab countries, Cohen’s portrayal of Zionism as inherently illiberal and backward nevertheless reverberated down the decades, giving birth in our time to a school of anti-Israel thinkers whom this paper calls anti-tribalists.


Hillary Clinton: The world may not like Trump’s Gaza plan — but there is no alternative
There is a particular kind of diplomatic paralysis that sets in when governments decide that the perfect is the enemy of the possible. I have seen it before in the Balkans, in Northern Ireland and in the Middle East itself. And I see it again now, as Europe and many of its traditional partners approach the Board of Peace and the Trump administration’s 20-point plan for Gaza with the studied scepticism of those who believe they can afford to wait. But we cannot. None of us can.

There is no alternative framework waiting in the wings. No rival coalition is quietly preparing a more viable proposal. The 20-point plan is not the one many of us would have drafted, but it remains the only framework backed by sufficient leverage, political engagement and potential resources to move the parties towards implementation. It has been reinforced through a UN Security Council resolution and further advanced by the roadmap from Nickolay Mladenov and the Board of Peace (which seeks to link reconstruction and governance transition to the dismantling of Hamas’s military infrastructure and longer-term stabilisation in Gaza).

Without such a plan, the crisis in Gaza will only deteriorate, with Hamas retaining both political and practical influence over a devastated population through armed actors, local administrative structures, aid distribution networks and access to basic goods and services. Reconstruction frozen. Investment absent. Civilians trapped in dependency and despair, with reportedly up to 1,000 killed since the ceasefire. Another generation of children growing up amid rubble, fear and hopelessness. There will be no security for Israel. No viable path to Palestinian self-determination

Gazans understand this as well as anyone: without demilitarisation and a transition away from Hamas rule, there will be no meaningful reconstruction, no realistic prospect that Israel will ever withdraw from the 60 per cent of the Gaza Strip it now controls and no credible pathway towards a future led by Palestinians themselves.

In recent months, international attention has understandably drifted elsewhere. But treating Gaza as secondary is a profound strategic mistake. An unresolved Gaza does not remain contained — it fuels instability across the region. The longer it stays as it is, the more difficult any future political solution becomes. Prolonged paralysis weakens moderate voices, deepens instability and further entrenches realities that will become harder to reverse with time.


Guernsey’s Jewish residents urge island to adopt IHRA antisemitism definition
Jewish community members in Guernsey have spoken out about their fears of antisemitism on the island, and called on its government to adopt the IHRA definition.

Speaking to the BBC, Ariel Levy, who moved to Guernsey three years ago, said she would not wear a Star of David necklace or openly display the fact that she is Jewish.

While she said that her local community has been “safe and welcoming” and admitted she has not personally faced antisemitism since the move, she expressed concern over the general climate of hostility faced by British Jews.

"You almost make a horrible conscious decision that I'm just not going to wear it today, especially when you don't know the crowds you're around,” she said.

"It'll be an attitude of people won't be helpful to you or won't be nice to you and that kind of worry.

"There are a lot of keyboard warriors online, you will never see it in real life, but there is definitely antisemitism here.”

Meanwhile, Jasmine Cohen, who has lived on the Channel island for eight years, noted a shift in the atmosphere since the October 7 attacks and the start of the Gaza War.

"We found ourselves a little lost and isolated after the 7 October attacks and it was very hard speaking to other people because suddenly that part of your identity matters a lot more,” she explained.

Levy and Cohen were speaking after Clive Lawton, chief executive of the Commonwealth Jewish Council, visited the island to discuss the issue of antisemitism with the local Jewish community, who number around 60.


Third man charged over Adass Israel Synagogue firebombing in Melbourne
Counter-terrorism police have charged a third man over the 2024 Adass Israel Synagogue firebombing attack in Melbourne.

Australian Federal Police (AFP) arrested a 20-year-old Airport West man at the Metropolitan Remand Centre, where he is in custody for unrelated offences.

He was charged with arson, conduct endangering life and motor vehicle theft.

He is expected to appear in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court next Tuesday, June 23.

The synagogue in Ripponlea was gutted in a suspicious blaze on Friday, December 6, 2024.

The AFP allege the Airport West man is one of three individuals who broke into the synagogue and deliberately set the place on fire.

The offence of arson carries a maximum penalty of 15 years’ imprisonment.

Theft of a motor vehicle and conduct endangering life both carry a maximum penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment.

A Werribee man, 21, was charged in July 2025 over his alleged role in breaking into the synagogue and igniting the fire.

A Melton South man, 20, was also charged for allegedly stealing a communal crime car, which is alleged to have been used to drive to the synagogue.

A 20-year-old Meadow Heights man was charged with arson in August 2025 after police carried out a search warrant.

AFP Assistant Commissioner Peter Crozier said the AFP, Victoria Police and ASIO had remained laser-focused on identifying those responsible for the attack on the Jewish community and prosecuting those responsible.


UN Report Chooses Scapegoating over Fact-Finding
I was scheduled to address the UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday to rebut claims in a report by the Commission of Inquiry (COI) against Israel. I had been allotted 90 seconds, but after allowing multiple speakers to attack Israel, the council declared that there was "no time" for an Israeli to speak in his nation's defense. Here is what I would have said had I been allowed to speak:
I am not a thief, I am not a murderer. I am just a proud Jew living in my 3,500-year-old ancestral homeland. But this UN report chooses racial profiling over fact-finding. Imagine the outcry if the claim was that all UN peacekeepers are sexual predators, or that all UN secretary generals are Nazis, that all Muslims are hijackers, that all Somalis are pirates, that all Irish Catholics are terrorists, that all Colombians are drug dealers. Stereotyping and scapegoating have no place in decent society. They are false, they are ugly, they incite hatred.

So why does this Council tolerate vile stereotypes when they are made by this commission of inquiry against Jews? Over 750,000 Jews live in Judea and Samaria and eastern Jerusalem. Less than 0.01% are involved in crime of any sort. But according to the COI, all are violent settlers, and no different from the genocidal Gazan terrorists who raped, murdered and tortured Jews simply for being Jews. Vicious generalizations and stereotyping are the tools of racists and the familiar instruments of the Nazis, and now the diabolical devices of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and Der Sturmer are joined by their successors, the reports of this so-called UN Commission of Inquiry.
Hillel Neuer – The Truth About the United Nations: On Dictatorships, Corruption and Moral Depravity
UN Watch has recently released a new 104 page report called “From Watchdogs to Ideologues,” which finds that the United Nations’ top human rights experts have abandoned the role of independent monitors, and are instead advancing politicized agendas that erode the credibility of the international human rights system.

We discuss what happened to the UN; from having good intentions after the second world war, to becoming a corrupt organization rallying around their common enemy in the West, Israel and the US. We speak of the moral depravity festering in the UN, and why this developed. We also speak about the fact that the UN still has not unequivocally condemned October 7th.

Earlier this year 54 nations, including Norway, nominated Iran to the UN’s Committee for Program and Coordination, to shape policy on women’s rights, human rights, disarmament, and terrorism prevention. How can this happen?

Also we discuss the political influence on human rights mandates within the United Nations, along with criticism of special rapporteurs and how authoritarian regimes manipulate international institutions. Neuer shares insights from a new report that reveals how human rights mandates have been politicized, and provides a historical perspective on the development of the UN and its current challenges, particularly in relation to Iran and nuclear weapons.

Neuer also gives his opinion on the 14 point MOU between the US and the Iranian Regime.

Hillel Neuer is an international human rights lawyer and the Executive Director of UN Watch, the leading independent watchdog holding the United Nations accountable for bias and double standards.

Neuer has become one of the most prominent voices challenging human rights abuses on the global stage. He is widely known for confronting authoritarian regimes at the United Nations Human Rights Council, and he’s testified before the UN and U.S. Congress, and has become one of the most outspoken critics of moral failures at the world’s leading human rights body.

Over the years, his work has brought attention to issues ranging from political repression in Iran and China to the treatment of dissidents across the Middle East. His speeches have reached millions online. Hillel has confronted dictatorships head-on, exposed moral inversions in international institutions, and given a voice to the voiceless — all while becoming a target for those who prefer silence.




‘Blood libel': Israel cuts ties with top EU diplomat over ‘apartheid’ remarks
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced on Thursday that he would be cutting ties with the office of E.U. High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas “until she retracts the blood libel she directed at the world’s only Jewish state.”

Kallas “has for some time now been acting obsessively and with blatant unfairness toward the State of Israel,” Sa’ar tweeted, responding to reports that the European official, during a closed-door meeting, likened Jerusalem’s treatment of Palestinians to South Africa under the apartheid regime.

“Recently, it was published that during her visit to Mexico, she compared Israel to the racist apartheid regime that existed in South Africa. I am grateful to the many European elected representatives who condemned this grave statement,” Sa’ar said.

Jerusalem’s top diplomat noted that “to date, no denial, clarification or response has been issued by her regarding this severe statement.

“Therefore, as the foreign minister of the State of Israel, I have no choice but to sever all contact with Ms. Kallas until she retracts the blood libel she directed at the world’s only Jewish state, which is also the only democracy in the Middle East,” he concluded.

Kallas, a former Estonian prime minister who took up her post as the European Union’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy in December 2024, visited Mexico City on May 20-22 as part of an E.U. delegation attending a summit.

During closed-door meetings with Mexican government representatives, Kallas likened Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in Gaza, Judea and Samaria to the racist policies of apartheid South Africa, E.U. affairs news website Euractiv reported last week, citing officials and diplomats.

Officials and diplomats, including those present at the meeting, told the outlet that she described how moved she was by a visit last year to South Africa and its apartheid museum in Johannesburg.

“The comparison with apartheid is unacceptable and not E.U. policy. It is a big problem if she is making these kinds of statements while officially representing the E.U. on the world stage,” said one E.U. diplomat, according to Euractiv.


Triggernometry: Where Islamist Terrorism Really Comes From - Ed Husain
00:00 - Trailer
01:01 - Ad: Hillsdale
01:14 - The Muslim Brotherhood & The Origins Of Modern Islamism
10:54 - Islam, Islamism & The Dream Of A Caliphate
22:52 - Why The Muslim Brotherhood Keeps Winning
30:41 - How Islamist Ideas Spread Across The West
40:21 - Britain's Blind Spot On Extremism
49:18 - Integration, Identity & The Future Of Europe
58:40 - Why Ed Hussain Left Britain For America
01:07:30 - Islam, The Prophet Muhammad & The Hard Questions
01:18:59 - Can Europe Reverse Course?
01:28:16 - What’s The One Thing We’re Not Talking About?




The Brink: Media ‘Gazaology’ exposed: Former AP journalist Matti Friedman
In this episode of The Brink, Andrew and Jake are joined by journalist and author Matti Friedman for a wide-ranging conversation on media bias, anti-Semitism, propaganda, and the growing gap between reality and perception in the coverage of Israel.

Drawing on decades of experience reporting from Israel, Friedman reflects on his time at the Associated Press and explains why he became convinced that much of the Western media no longer seeks to describe reality but to advance ideological narratives. He discusses his concept of “Gazology”, the growing industry of books, commentary, and activism that uses Gaza as a vehicle for broader political and cultural causes often disconnected from events on the ground.

The conversation explores why Israel receives such disproportionate attention from the international media, the role of social media and alternative outlets in shaping public opinion, and how anti-Semitic narratives have evolved in the modern age. We also examine the information war surrounding October 7th, claims of genocide, the treatment of journalists in Gaza, and the challenges of separating reporting from activism.

Finally, we discuss the future of Israel, the decline of trust in Western institutions, the shifting relationship between Israel and the United States, and whether Israeli society can emerge stronger from the profound challenges it has faced since October 7th.

A fascinating and deeply insightful discussion about journalism, propaganda, anti-Semitism, and the future of both Israel and the West.

Chapters
00:00 Why Gaza Dominates Western Attention
03:16 Media Bias, Activism & The AP
08:32 Why Israel Matters More Than Sudan Or China
12:07 The West’s Obsession With The Jews
13:55 Was Israel Always Going To Be Blamed?
16:41 Gazology: How Gaza Became An Ideological Symbol
18:59 Why People Care More About Israel Than Reality
24:04 Social Media, Misinformation & The Gaza Narrative
30:06 Why Trust In The Media Has Collapsed
35:04 The Claim That Israel Is Killing Journalists
40:15 Hamas Propaganda & Western Reporting
43:01 Trump, Netanyahu & The Future Of Israel




Revealed: the Green plot against Zack Polanski
As Keir Starmer struggles to keep his crown, another leadership battle is raging. Away from the media spotlight, there is a fight for the future of the Green party between its various official ‘Special Interest Groups’ and its leader, Zack Polanski. What are they fighting about? Why, Palestine and racial politics of course.

On one side, Polanski and his officials are at least trying to appear to be dealing with allegations of anti-Semitism and extremism within the party. On the other, a powerful affiliate group, the Global Majority Greens (GMG), is accusing its leader of creating a ‘hierarchy of racism’, with allegations of anti-Semitism taken more seriously than other complaints. Polanski, it claims, has failed to be truly anti-racist because he has not backed the ethnic-minority Greens who have been suspended over alleged anti-Jewish rhetoric. Most extraordinarily of all, it believes the Greens – yes, the Greens – are too pro-Zionist.

The GMG boasts that it exists ‘to promote the contribution, experience, opportunities, rights, unity, perspective, culture and history of people from African, Caribbean, Asian, Latin American and others of Global Majority ethnic descent in England and Wales’. It wants Britain to pay slavery reparations and for the party to put anti-racism policies above all else.

Crucially, the group is formally backed by Mothin Ali, who serves both as deputy leader of the party and GMG treasurer. Ali, a devout Muslim who cried ‘Allahu Akbar’ after being elected as a Leeds councillor, has endorsed official reports compiled by the GMG accusing Polanski of a litany of crimes against racial justice. In private WhatsApp groups, documents and Zoom calls leaked to The Spectator, Ali’s disdain for his boss’s conduct is plain.

Included in the leaks is a scathing draft GMG report that will be presented at the Green party AGM later this month. It accuses Polanski and his team of ‘performing anti-racism’ without putting it into practice. The report, which covers the first year of Polanski’s leadership, condemns a ‘serious governance problem inseparable from institutional racism’. Specifically, it criticises the party for suspending members accused of anti-Semitism – even though in most cases the evidence of anti-Semitism is clear-cut.

Among those suspended in recent months include council candidate Saiqa Ali, who called Starmer a ‘Jewish Zionist’ in an English government ‘over-represented with Zionists Jews [sic]… [who] care more for Israel than England’. Another suspended candidate, Sabine Mairey, shared a post saying: ‘Ramming a synagogue isn’t anti-Semitism. It’s revenge.’ Another, Aziz Rahman Hakimi, shared posts blaming Israel for arson attacks on Jewish volunteer ambulances in Golders Green. Last month, more than 30 local election candidates were accused of making anti-Jewish comments on social media. Almost a dozen were suspended and two were arrested.

Despite all this, the GMG report insists that ethnic-minority members – particularly Muslim members and supporters of Palestinian liberation – have been disproportionately targeted by party disciplinary processes. It claims that ‘media attacks’ before last month’s local elections were ‘concentrated on Global Majority candidates and those who support Palestinian liberation’, feeding what it calls a narrative that ‘demonises migrants and Muslims’.


Democratic Senate Hopeful Roy Cooper Hosted Imam Closely Tied to Hamas at Secret ‘Iftar Dinner’ at NC Governor’s Mansion: Muslim Soiree Kept Under Wraps for Weeks
Former North Carolina governor Roy Cooper quietly hosted a controversial imam with deep ties to Hamas at the North Carolina governor's mansion in 2018 for a dinner where the imam led a Muslim prayer, mingled with fellow Muslim leaders, and posed for pictures with Cooper and his wife.

The imam’s presence at the secret soiree, reported here for the first time by the Washington Free Beacon, could be a complication for Cooper, a self-styled "moderate Democrat," as he seeks to flip the Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Thom Tillis (R., N.C.). Cooper is already under pressure for what critics say is a milquetoast response to a series of post-Oct. 7 resolutions by the North Carolina Democratic Party which demonized Israel and trafficked in antisemitic tropes.

The 2018 gathering at the Executive Mansion in downtown Raleigh was held to mark iftar, the end of the Ramadan fast. At the time, Cooper’s team issued no press release about the dinner and published no guest list for the event, which the Free Beacon has learned was attended by more than 35 local Muslim leaders, including Dr. Mohamed AbuTaleb, a prominent imam with close affiliations to several Hamas-aligned organizations.

AbuTaleb delivered a prayer at the dinner and was pictured standing directly behind Cooper in a group photo taken at the mansion that evening, according to pictures and a video obtained by the Free Beacon. At the time, AbuTaleb served as imam of the Islamic Association of Raleigh and led the organization as it cut checks to a subsidiary of a group with alleged connections to terrorist entities including Hamas. Today, AbuTaleb is a frequent speaker at events hosted by the Muslim American Society, which federal prosecutors say is an "overt arm" of the Hamas-aligned Muslim Brotherhood, and works at an Islamic think tank alongside another imam who encouraged students to "take out" a pro-Israel professor in 2024.

Sam Westrop, the director of the Middle East Forum's Islamist Watch project, said that while AbuTaleb is more careful with his own rhetoric than the extremist people and groups with which he frequently associates, Cooper should have thought twice before inviting him to the governor’s mansion.
California Democrat who says Palestinians face ‘genocide’ leads race for Swalwell’s House seat
Aisha Wahab, a Democratic California state senator who has described Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza as a “genocide,” will be advancing to a runoff in the special election to succeed former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.).

With roughly 82% of ballots counted in California’s 14th Congressional District, Wahab led the field with about 42.5% of the vote. Melissa Hernandez, a Democrat and former mayor of Dublin, Calif., was second with 16.7%, while Rakhi Israni Singh, a Democrat and attorney, trailed with 13.2%, according to the Associated Press.

During an April virtual candidate forum, Wahab and Hernandez were asked whether they “think what is happening to the Palestinian people is a genocide. Yes or no?” Wahab answered, “Yes.”

Hernandez did not give a direct yes-or-no response. Instead, she said “Israel had the right to defend itself” after the Hamas-led attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and to secure the release of the hostages. At the same time, she said that “the destruction in Gaza has gone too far, and the people are paying the cost, and so are the civilians.”

Under California’s special-election rules, a candidate who receives more than 50% of the vote wins outright. If no candidate secures a majority, the top two finishers advance to a special general election on Aug. 18, regardless of party affiliation.

Dan Schnur, a political science lecturer at Pepperdine University, the University of Southern California and the University of California, Berkeley, told JNS that “it looks as if the Genocide Caucus in Congress will continue to grow.”

“Wahab’s likely election reflects the continued trend within the bases of both parties to take aggressive anti-Israel positions without fear of political consequence,” he said.


‘Flagrantly unconstitutional': Jewish groups urge Massachusetts city to reject anti-Israel ordinance
The Somerville, Mass., City Council is set to consider an “Ethical Procurement Ordinance” on June 30 that would bar the city from contracting with or investing in companies deemed complicit in what the measure describes as “the violence and destruction taking place in Gaza and Palestine by Israel’s actions, which are supported by the United States.”

If approved, Somerville would become the third Massachusetts municipality to adopt such a measure, following similar actions in Medford and Northampton.

The proposal follows a nonbinding ballot question approved by Somerville voters in November 2025. The measure passed with 55.7% of the vote and called on city officials to end business relationships with companies that “engage in business that sustains Israel’s apartheid, genocide and illegal occupation of Palestine.”

On Nov. 25, 2025, the council adopted a resolution supporting divestment and pledged to “work toward passing an ordinance within a year.”

On Wednesday, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and the Anti-Defamation League sent a letter to Somerville Mayor Jake Wilson and other city officials urging them to reject the proposal, calling it “flagrantly unconstitutional” and warning that its adoption could prompt legal challenges.

Richard Rosen, senior vice president for legal advocacy at the Brandeis Center, told JNS that the proposal comes amid rising Jew-hatred in the city.

“Israelis and Jews are being vilified in this community. There is a hostility toward Jews in the community. Jewish families are leaving,” Rosen said. “The idea that a Jewish family would feel obligated to leave their home in the United States in 2026 because of antisemitism—it’s easy to say it’s shocking, it’s mind-blowing, but it is.”

Rosen told JNS that the pending ordinance is “written so broadly that it would prohibit the city from doing business with Microsoft.”

“They are not focusing on Israeli companies,” he added. “An American company that is contracting with Israel is covered.”

“Somerville is not supposed to be conducting U.S. foreign policy,” Rosen said. “They don’t like the foreign policy of the United States, so they’re freelancing to set their own foreign policy with respect to contractual relations with companies that do business with Israel. They’re not allowed to do that. It’s that simple.”
Brooklyn fundraiser to benefit men tied to anti-Israel, Jew-hatred crimes
A coalition of anti-Israel activist groups in New York is set to host a fundraiser for two convicted men and a third awaiting trial in cases tied to anti-Israel and anti-Jewish incidents, including the vandalism of a Pittsburgh Chabad center.

The event, titled “Repression Breeds Resistance,” is scheduled for Friday at Widdi Catering Hall in Brooklyn. Organizers say it will raise money for Jakhi McCray, Tarek Bazrouk and Mohamad Hamad.

More than two dozen groups are sponsoring the event, including PAL-Awda and CUNY for Palestine.

Jayne Zirkle, communications director for EndJewHatred, told JNS that the participation of campus-affiliated groups such as CUNY for Palestine “openly encouraging and providing support for terrorism and extremist ideologies, including radical Islamist agendas, represents a serious challenge that universities can no longer ignore.”

Zirkle noted that these organizations have crossed the line from political expression into promoting and justifying violence, and that universities should hold participating campus groups accountable.

“Universities are creating an environment where Jew-hatred and extremism can take root,” she said.

McCray, a Brooklyn activist, pleaded guilty in April to federal arson charges after admitting that he set fire to 10 New York City Police Department vehicles and a trailer in a secured police lot in Brooklyn in June 2025, causing an estimated $800,000 in damage. Prosecutors said the attack strained police resources ahead of planned anti-Israel demonstrations. McCray, who blamed his indictment on state “repression” of the anti-Israel movement, faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison.

Bazrouk, of New York City, was sentenced in October 2025 to 17 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to a hate-crimes conspiracy charge stemming from a series of assaults on Jewish victims in New York City between 2024 and 2025. Federal prosecutors said he targeted victims because they were Jewish or were perceived to be Jewish.
‘Stupid k***’: Jewish student strangled, assaulted at Colorado school, ADL alleges
An eighth-grade Colorado Jewish student was called a ‘stupid k***’ while being strangled by a laptop charging cord, in one of many antisemitic assaults by other students described in a Title VI complaint to Boulder Valley School District.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has filed a federal civil rights complaint with the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, alleging that Jewish student A was subjected to repeated antisemitic bullying, slurs, and physical assault by multiple fellow students at Southern Hills Middle School throughout seventh and eighth grade.

In one incident, students in A’s sports class attempted to play a game called “Jew touch tag” and said Jews were “dirty” and “contaminated.”

In another incident, in December 2025, a classmate reportedly fashioned a Chromebook charging cord into a lasso, threw it around the student’s neck, and dragged him backward from a chair while calling him a “stupid k***.”

This was deemed severe enough that the Boulder Police Department was called in to investigate. Following this particular incident, the police department opened a juvenile court referral for third-degree assault.

ADL says no meaningful action taken by school district over assault
As a result of these incidents, student A no longer wears a Star of David necklace and does not share his religious identity with anyone.

ADL and the family allege that the school took no meaningful action despite being informed of the situation on multiple occasions. For example, the complaint says the school failed to enforce the no-contact order between student A and the classmate involved in the Chromebook assault.

The complaint also says that the burden was consistently placed on the victim, such as reassigning his study hall class rather than restricting the aggressor, forcing him to miss a school trip, and asking him to leave class early to avoid crowded hallways.


‘Food May Be the Most Effective Form of Propaganda’: New York Times Awards First-Ever Four-Star Outside-New York Review—to a Palestinian Restaurant Led By Anti-Israel Chef
The New York Times has awarded what the paper says is its first-ever four star review of a restaurant outside of New York City—to what the review describes as "a Palestinian restaurant" in Washington, D.C., that has existed since 2020 but reopened in 2025 stressing the Palestinian aspect.

The restaurant, Albi, includes on its website a portion of a poem by Mahmoud Darwish, who resigned from the Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee in protest in 1993 in opposition to the Oslo Accords between the PLO and Israel.

It has a 31-page wine list that includes dozens of options, priced up to $650, from Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, as well as a $158 white from 2022 billed as offering unspecified "indigenous varieties … Grapes of Wrath" from "West Bank, Palestine." No wines identified as Israeli are on the list. A 2024 article in the New York Times identified the Bekaa Valley as "a Hezbollah bastion," "where Hezbollah holds immense sway and has a significant support base" and "one of Hezbollah’s most fertile recruiting grounds." Hezbollah is designated by the U.S. government as a foreign terrorist organization. The U.S. government says the group is responsible for the 1983 suicide truck bombings of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and the U.S. Marine Corps Barracks in Beirut; the 1984 attack on the U.S. Embassy Beirut annex; and the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847.

In a May 2026 interview with the Columbia Journalism Review, the Times restaurant critic who wrote the review, Ligaya Mishan, said she hoped her work would "undermine the current order and redistribute power."
BBC Arabic ‘challenge’ raised with new director general by Culture Secretary
The Culture Secretary has raised concerns about the “challenge” of BBC Arabic with the Corporation's new director general, the JC can reveal.

In an exclusive interview, Lisa Nandy said that she had discussed the issues at the under-fire language service with incoming chief Matt Brittin in his first weeks in the post.

Speaking to the JC on Wednesday evening at JW3 after announcing £1 million in government funding for the Jewish Museum, Nandy said: "The foreign secretary has been very proactive on this to make sure that there are robust standards in place at BBC Arabic.

"The BBC has acknowledged that there is a challenge that they need to deal with."

Saying she was "very confident that the new director general understands the seriousness” of the issues, Nandy added: "The BBC is one of the most trusted sources of news in the world… it is more important now than ever.

"But that means that where there are mistakes made, where there is bias, that has to be dealt with and acknowledged quickly.

"The problems that have emerged at BBC Arabic, or the issues about the Gaza documentary or at Glastonbury, the BBC in the past has been too slow to understand and acknowledge that.

"I'm confident though, that at the most senior levels of the BBC, that is now understood and that action is being taken to turn that around."

Asked whether she believed the BBC's new leadership would be "strong enough on BBC Arabic", Nandy replied: "I discussed it with the incoming director general."

Brittin, a former Google executive, took the helm of the corporation last month after Tim Davie resigned following the leaked Michael Prescott report, which identified serious editorial and impartiality failings across the BBC.

The report devoted its longest section to the BBC’s alleged anti-Israel bias, highlighting stark differences in coverage between the broadcaster's English and Arabic-language services.

The JC previously revealed that a BBC Arabic reporter, Sally Nabil, who had liked social media posts appearing to justify the October 7 attacks, travelled to the United States to cover a meeting between Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump.

Last year, the BBC was forced to withdraw a Gaza documentary after it emerged that it featured the son of a Hamas minister without disclosing the connection.
Heir of one of largest California raisin companies charged with felony hate crimes for alleged threat to kill rabbi
Bruce Alfred Lion, 64, heir to one of the largest raisin companies in California, was charged with three felony hate crimes for allegedly threatening to kill a rabbi, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said on Thursday.

At about 8 p.m. on June 5, Lion allegedly stood on the balcony of his Pacific Palisades home and yelled antisemitic threats at his neighbor, a rabbi leading a Shabbat prayer service in his home, according to the district attorney’s office.

Lion, of Lion Raisins, was arrested on June 13. Bail was set at $225,000, and he faces up to nine years and four months in state prison. He was scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday.

He faces one count of violation of civil rights and two counts of criminal threats, according to the district attorney’s office.

The neighbor is reportedly Rabbi Zushe Cunin, of Chabad of Pacific Palisades.

“Hate has no place in Los Angeles County. My office is aggressively prosecuting these disturbing acts that tear at the fabric of our society,” stated Nathan Hochman, Los Angeles County district attorney.

“Los Angeles County is experiencing an alarming increase in hate crimes, with record-high antisemitic offenses and unprecedented levels of crimes targeting individuals based on their religion, race, nationality, gender or sexual orientation,” he said. “Our county is home to hundreds of cultures and traditions, and we will prosecute any crime motivated by prejudice against them.”

JNS reported earlier in the month that Los Angeles is on pace to record 12% more antisemitic hate crimes in 2026 than it did in 2025.
Pennsylvania man arrested after allegedly threatening FBI agents, who came to talk about his Jew-hatred posts online
Dale Ankney, 72, of Jeannette, Pa., was arrested on Thursday on federal charges for allegedly threatening FBI agents who came to his home to question him about anti-Israel, antisemitic and anti-ICE messages that he posted online

According to an FBI affidavit, investigators reviewed Ankney’s public Facebook account and identified many posts advocating violence against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and others. On Jan. 14, he allegedly posted, “May f****** Israel burn, Zionist burn, IDF burn, Mossad burn, think Holocaust going to happen again only for a good reason this time.”

On June 17, two FBI task force officers and an FBI special agent visited Ankney at his home. When he answered the door, they told him that they had questions about his online posts. “F*** whoever reported it, and f*** you too,” he allegedly told them.

One of the FBI task force officers advised Ankney to “stop posting threatening language online.”

As the federal agents were leaving, Ankney allegedly said, “I will cap your a**.”

After checking the state’s database, agents determined that Ankney owned registered guns.

A U.S. magistrate judge issued an arrest warrant the same day, and Ankney was taken into custody on Thursday morning. He was scheduled to appear in court later in the day before the same judge.
Toronto teen, wanted for consulate shooting, arrested at international airport
Toronto police have located and arrested Zara Jabbi, 19, who was wanted in connection with a shooting at the U.S. Consulate on March 10.

A Toronto Police Service officer was fatally shot while executing a search warrant connected to Jabbi on June 11.

Police Chief Myron Demkiew said on Tuesday that the consulate shooting was connected to other incidents, including “shootings at Jewish synagogues and schools” as part of a criminals-for-hire scheme in which foreign actors recruit young people to carry out attacks and pay them to film themselves doing it.

Jabbi was arrested on Wednesday at Toronto Pearson International Airport.

He has been charged with theft of a motor vehicle, possession of property obtained by crime worth more than $5,000; discharging a restricted or prohibited firearm; attack on premises of internationally protected persons; possession of a firearm knowing its possession is unauthorized; and possession of a loaded prohibited or restricted firearm.

He is scheduled to appear remotely for a bail hearing on Thursday.
Bayreuth festival cancels lecture on Wagner’s antisemitism over ‘security concerns’
The Bayreuth Festival, held annually to celebrate the works of Richard Wagner, has cancelled a lecture which was specifically intended to address the composer’s notorious antisemitism, citing “security concerns”.

As reported by the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, Jewish author and broadcaster Michel Friedman was due to give a speech at a memorial concert, “Silenced Voices”, to be held on the morning of 26 July, immediately ahead of the opening of the festival itself later that day. However, the Bayreuth festival itself has since announced the cancellation of the earlier event.

Speaking to Bavarian Broadcasting, the interim managing director of the Bayreuth Festival , Heinz-Dieter Sense, said that it was “impossible to manage the highest security level in the Festspielhaus twice in a row. The time between the end of the morning performance and the start of the afternoon performance is too short.

Given the current global situation, everyone is being extremely cautious. If no one can guarantee that it’s feasible, then I can’t hold the event.”

However, Friedman himself furiously condemned the decision, telling the Süddeutsche Zeitung that “the seriousness of confronting the anti-Semite Wagner is rendered absurd by this cancellation…cancelling events for security reasons is suicide in a democracy”.

The German TV host rejected claims that Bayreuth was unable to provide adequate security for the event, saying that the festival should provide it and “save yourselves all the Sunday sermons.”

The situation has been exacerbated by the fact that this year marks the 150th anniversary of what has become an internationally famous festival, with the original iteration begun by Wagner himself. Despite being helped earlier in his career by famous German-Jewish composers, Wagner’s antisemitism was notorious. In an 1850 treatise, Das Judenthum in der Musik (Judaism in Music) Wagner claimed that Jewish people were inherently incapable of producing genuine German art, claiming their music was superficial and that as outsiders to German culture, any contributions Jews could make were merely superficial. Wagner originally published the essay under a pseudonym, later writing to fellow composer Franz Lizst that he had done so “not out of fear, but to prevent the question being dragged down by the Jews to a purely personal level”.





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