Thursday, June 25, 2026

06/24 Links Pt2: The Church of England’s problem with antisemitism; Liberal Jews must stop appeasing the socialist radicals who hate them; VDH: JD Vance's Iran deal, midterms, & the right wing realignment

From Ian:

The Church of England’s problem with antisemitism
In the photos posted on social media, Sarah Mullally is seen in their living room, and prominent on the wall is a painting of a man; when they are standing and praying, Sarah is standing right in front of him.

This man is Layan’s great uncle, the brother of her paternal grandfather, Kamal Nasser. Nasser was born in 1924, and became a celebrated political leader, writer, and poet. In 1967, he joined the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), led by Yasser Arafat, who has invented the term ‘Palestinian’ to refer to those who wanted to destroy Israel and return to their land (prior to that, ‘Palestinian’ has been a regional term that described modern Israel, Jordan, and Syria). Nasser was also a ‘Palestinian Christian’—and this is the point where we need to recognise that, in this context, the term ‘Christian’ really functions as a tribal and ethnic identifier, more than the sense of someone who has made a personal commitment to Jesus as we might use it.

Nasser had joined the PLO just at the point where it made the Khartoum Resolution, in response to the defeat of the Arab armies by Israel in the Six-Day War of 1967. This was known for its three ‘Nos’: no peace agreement; no negotiation; no recognition of the State of Israel. This led inevitably into more warfare, culminating in the Yom Kippur War of 1973.

Part of the violence of the PLO, which (with Russian help) developed into the foremost global terror organisation, was the 1972 Munich massacre, when Palestinian terrorists infiltrated the Olympic village, killed two Israeli athletes, took nine more hostage, and eventually killed them during a failed rescue attempt. Nasser was one of the people who masterminded this operation.

For anyone outside the situation, it is hard to understand how ‘Palestinian Christians’ could be involved with anti-Israeli and antisemitic terror. But in fact the links between the two are longstanding and well developed. Nasser’s father was Reverend Butrus Nasir, who was a leader within Palestine’s Arab Protestant community from Bir Zeit. The founder of the PFLP, a radical Marxist terror organisation, was George Habash, a ‘Palestinian Christian’.

And the Greek Orthodox Church has had long links with the PLO going back to the 1960s. Many ordinary Palestinian Orthodox Christians and clergy of Palestinian descent are sympathetic to or actively involved in Palestinian nationalist politics — many Palestinian officials across ministries, the PLC, the PNA, and the PLO are Christians. There’s also a documented history of crossover between Greek leftists and the PLO more broadly: during the late 1960s and early 1970s, many Greeks belonging to the anti-dictatorship socialist movement trained in PLO camps in Lebanon, and when the PLO was forced to leave Lebanon, Greece—under PM Andreas Papandreou, who had close ties with Arafat—became its first destination.

That is why we can see a picture of Yasser Arafat on the wall of the office of Archbishop Benedictus, as he is meeting Sarah Mullally. Our archbishop has managed to be photographed in front of, not one, but two notorious terrorist leaders within the space of a couple of days—quite an achievement! And you can see the intertwining of terrorist resistance with Christian devotion in the painting of Nasser: in the background of the canvas, there is a traditional iconographic depiction of the Virgin Mary holding the infant Christ.

It is worth reflecting how both Israelis and British Jews will be made to feel by seeing these images.
Liberal Jews must stop appeasing the socialist radicals who hate them
The old saying goes that an appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile hoping it will eat him last.

When it comes to progressive Jews and the DSA, the well-fed crocodiles are just about ready for dessert.

I’ve been watching this strategy of inclusion of hateful actors by Jewish groups and politicians play out since I came to the US almost 20 years ago from Israel.

As someone who always believed in freedom, peace and equality, I imagined I’d find a home on the American left.

Imagine my confusion when I learned that in many circles, being a liberal in good standing meant denouncing the only democracy in the Middle East, staying quiet in the face of racism and violence directed at my community from other minority groups, and all but a pledge to agree that, sure, synagogues are being fire-bombed and Jews threatened every day, but don’t let the statistics confuse you — it’s only real antisemitism if it comes from the MAGA-hat region.

I have yet to encounter a club where turning my back to the truth was worth the price of admission.

So my confusion turned to rage over the years as I saw fellow Jews align themselves with people who openly and proudly spread hateful propaganda and support violence against the Jewish community.

Many cloaked these partnerships in the language of “allyship,” patting themselves on the back for being open-minded enough to have conversations with those who disagree with them.

But at what point do you close the flaps of the “big tent” of Jewish thought to those who are trying to destroy it from within?

Brad Lander, who less than a year ago still considered himself a Zionist, was happy to trade in his dignity for Instagram likes, embracing the lie of a genocide in Gaza, and posing happily in campaign ads alongside Darializa Avila Chevalier, who chose to celebrate the massacre of Oct. 7 in Times Square as Israeli mothers were still frantically searching for their missing and murdered children, among them several Americans and New Yorkers. They may not see eye to eye on political issues like whether Lander’s friends in Israel deserve to live or not, but hey — we can agree to disagree, right? Other politicians and activists practically trip over themselves to virtue-signal their standing as “Good Jews.”
Yehuda Teitelbaum: No, New York Didn't Vote on Gaza
I'm already seeing people trying to turn the election results into some grand lesson about Israel and Gaza. Sorry, but no.

If anti-Israel politics were really driving these races, Ritchie Torres would have been in trouble. Instead, he just won nearly 72% of the vote in one of the poorest and most heavily minority districts in the country.

Whatever else yesterday showed, it certainly didn't show that Democratic voters are punishing politicians for being pro-Israel.

The candidates who won have spent an extraordinary amount of time and energy spreading horrific blood libels about Israel, accusing Jews and Zionists of all sorts of crimes, praising convicted terrorist Rasmea Odeh, marching with people celebrating Hamas on October 8 while Jews were still being slaughtered, defending Mahmoud Khalil, and treating a conflict 6,000 miles away as though it were one of the central issues facing New York.

And yet I don't think any of those things are what put them over the top.

The average voter is not lying awake at night thinking about Gaza. The average voter is worried about paying the rent and buying groceries, and progressive politicians have figured out that they don't actually need to explain anything in order to capitalize on that anxiety. They don't need to explain where the money is coming from. They don't need to explain how any of it works. They just need to promise lower costs, free healthcare, free childcare, free college, debt forgiveness, more benefits, and some version of economic salvation.

Once people become convinced that there's a pot of gold sitting in front of them, almost everything else becomes irrelevant.

That's not an excuse for the voters, and frankly, I find it astonishing that someone can spread grotesque lies about Israel, praise actual terrorists, mock American symbols, and still get elected. Not very long ago, pulling just one of these stunts would have ended an entire political career.

But that's where we are, and confusing what voters tolerated with what they actually voted for is a serious mistake.


The Mamdani effect: Democratic incumbents now have to worry about being too pro-Israel
What should really alarm the pro-Israel community, however, is that this progressive playbook contributed to victories in two very different races. In the case of Lander versus Goldman, you had two Jewish self-described Zionists running in a very Jewish district. Avila Chevalier, on the other hand, was a non-Jewish anti-Israel challenger taking on a non-Jewish incumbent with strong pro-Israel credentials in a district with relatively few Jews (at least by New York’s standards).

As Mamdani’s handpicked squad heads to Washington, the pressure on other congressional Democrats to speak out strongly against Israel and back measures such as end to US arms sales will only intensify. That was clear from the election night victory speeches.

During Avila Chevalier’s speech, the crowd erupted into cheers of “Free Palestine.” She couched her victory as a rejection of funding from AIPAC, crypto and other corporate interests.

Lander promised in his victory speech to be “one of the Jewish members of Congress most willing to stand up loud for Palestinian human rights.”

“We cannot keep paying for Netanyahu’s wars with our tax dollars,” he added. “Democratic voters across the country are saying this loud and clear.”

It’s possible that Lander’s wrong and that Mamdani’s rise and coattails are an only-in-New York thing. But based on several other results this election cycle and polling in upcoming races, that hope increasingly feels like betting against the Knicks.

For the pro-Israel community, there’s at least one bright spot: At least for now, they still have Ritchie Torres.
AIPAC-backed Adrian Boafo wins Maryland primary, as other Democrats turn on lobby group
Pro-Israel candidate Adrian Boafo won Maryland’s Democratic primary to fill longtime Rep. Steny Hoyer’s seat on Tuesday, after waging a campaign supported by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee at a time when other members of his party are disavowing the pro-Israel lobbying group.

Boafo, 32, is a state delegate who entered the contest with low name recognition. Hoyer hand-picked his former staffer, who managed some of Hoyer’s recent campaigns.

The octogenarian worked hard to get his protege past the finish line in Maryland’s 5th Congressional District, garnering the support of much of the state’s Democratic establishment and appearing in an ad for him. Hoyer, who was for decades the number two Democratic leader in the House, is a staunch Israel advocate and AIPAC ally who will retire this January after 45 years.

Boafo won with 32 percent of the vote in the crowded Democratic field, with 68% of votes counted on Wednesday morning. AIPAC poured $5.7 million into his campaign through its super PAC, United Democracy Project.

Boafo thanked his supporters and Hoyer late Tuesday night and said that he was Hoyer’s natural successor. “At first glance it might not seem obvious, but our stories are actually very similar,” he said. “Steny and I are both the sons of immigrants. We grew up believing in an America that drew our parents from across the sea.” Boafo’s parents are Ghanaian, and Hoyer’s father was Danish.

His victory offered a glimmer of hope to the party’s pro-Israel wing, coming on the same night that three progressives who ran hard against AIPAC and the war in Gaza swept New York’s primaries, toppling powerful pro-Israel Democrats. Boafo sent a message that AIPAC still has the power to buoy Democratic candidates even as criticism of Israel surges in the progressive wing of the party and the Democratic electorate. The lobby, once seen as a necessary bipartisan stamp of approval, has become a stand-in for Israel’s influence on US politics.

Boafo pledged during the campaign to “strengthen the US-Israel alliance” and “mobilize humanitarian aid for Palestinian civilians,” as well as to “ensure Israel has the security assistance it needs.” Military aid packages to Israel have increasingly divided Democrats amid the deeply unpopular wars fought by Israel in Gaza and Iran.
Ousted Dan Goldman warns antisemitism will be ‘undoing of our democracy’
Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), a pro-Israel Jewish Democrat who was unseated in a bitter primary on Tuesday, warned in his concession speech that antisemitism “will ultimately be the undoing of our democracy if we all don’t lean in and speak out.”

“Jews have given back so much to this country,” the two-term lawmaker said. “As history has taught us, antisemitic tropes and stereotypes, some of which I heard personally on this campaign, will ultimately be the undoing of our democracy if we all don’t lean in and speak out — even if it’s not politically expedient.”

Goldman, who was resoundingly defeated by Brad Lander, the former city comptroller backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, faced blowback during the campaign over his support for Israel and ties to the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC — some of which invoked hostile antisemitic rhetoric.

In the final days of the primary, a Brooklyn coffee shop Goldman patronized wrote in an incendiary online post it was banning him over his pro-Israel views, calling him a “genocide enabler” and saying his purchase “probably” came from AIPAC — which endorsed him but did not engage directly in the race.

The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division said Monday it had opened an investigation into the cafe for discrimination, though Goldman clarified he did not believe the incident warranted legal scrutiny.
‘I Am Appalled at What Happened in This Coffee Shop’: Jewish New Yorkers Protest Outside Anti-Israel Coffee Joint That Banned Rep Dan Goldman
Roughly 50 people gathered outside a Poetica Coffee location in Brooklyn Wednesday morning to protest the chain’s refusal to serve Rep. Dan Goldman (D., N.Y.) over his support for Israel.

The incident—which came to light after Poetica announced on social media it was refunding Goldman’s $9.82 purchase and that he was not welcome back—ignited a firestorm and a federal probe from the Department of Justice.

The post called Goldman, who is Jewish, a "fascist" accustomed to sipping "genocide juice" and Poetica, founded and owned by Parviz Mukhamadkulov, an Uzbek immigrant who owes New York State nearly $400,000 in unpaid sales tax, refunded his purchase.

Goldman said after the fact that he’d bought a coffee at the branch after his seven-year-old daughter used its restroom, and that the barista had provided excellent service. Later, he told CNN that he did not think the DOJ should investigate the incident.

Others at risk of being targeted by Poetica said they felt differently. "As a Jewish civil rights movement we need to stand strong and stand firm—which is why we’re here today. A Jew was denied service, full stop. Period," Michelle Ahdoot, director of programming and strategy at End Jew Hatred told the Washington Free Beacon.

Ahdoot said her movement would not be stopped even after election results saw a slate of candidates accused of antisemitism sweep Democratic primaries. Goldman himself was defeated by a giant margin by former city comptroller Brad Lander in a primary campaign dominated by the Israel issue.

"We have no choice but to never get deflated. We have to keep rising up even when we get pushed down," she said.

Many attendees carried Israeli and American flags, and one man held a blown-up image of Martin Luther King Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel marching together during the civil rights movement.


Canadians need answers from Ottawa on foreign involvement in antisemitism
Canada’s approach to antisemitism in all levels of government needs to be revamped to address these realities. A recent Senate report, for example, emphasizes the need for an interdepartmental task force and more education and training about antisemitism. These are worthy initiatives, but they do little to stop paid gunmen from targeting synagogues.

Likewise, the federal program that partially offsets the heavy costs Jewish institutions are paying for security measures is essential, but without more aggressive policing and security work, video cameras may document crimes, rather than prevent them. Individual synagogues and schools can’t be left alone to defend themselves against foreign terror.

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s recent speech on antisemitism fell flat, in part because he didn’t tackle the issue of antizionism – the complete rejection of Israel’s existence.

The Prime Minister, the Minister of Public Safety, the director of CSIS and the Commissioner of the RCMP need to talk more candidly about the nature of the threats and what they are doing to protect the community. This must go beyond generic calls about the merits of diversity – authorities must put more resources into preventing attacks.

After a slow start, security officials do seem to be taking antisemitism more seriously. The Toronto police recently arrested five people who displayed or distributed antisemitic signs at a pro-Palestinian protest. CSIS has stepped up operations to combat activity directed by Iran, which is believed to be targeting individuals in Canada who are critical of the regime.

Jewish Canadians are living in fear, and it needs to end. But this isn’t just an issue for a single community. Antisemitism tears at the fabric of Canadian society.

The network of shooters-for-hire alleged to have targeted synagogues was connected to probes of other major crimes, such as shootings at buildings belonging to waste company GFL Environmental and tow-truck companies. A recent police raid on the shooters-for-hire operation left one officer dead, a married father of two.

Antisemitism is a cancer, and it must be rooted out – both the homegrown varieties and those being directed from abroad. In order to fight it, Canadians need to know exactly what we are facing. Ottawa needs to shed more light now on what is known.
‘Safer in Florida than anywhere in Canada,’ says resigned, former lone Jewish trustee of Canadian human rights museum
When Mark Berlin resigned from the Canadian Museum for Human Rights on Monday, the former lone Jewish trustee at the federal institution in Winnipeg saw it as the culmination of years of dwindling hope in both the museum and in the country.

“That hope is gone, gone,” Berlin, a legal scholar and human rights expert, told JNS. “I’m optimistic by nature. I will always fight, but I absolutely have lost hope and faith in certain institutions in this country, and the museum is one of them.”

Berlin left the museum in protest of a scheduled exhibit on the “nakba,” the term some use for the “catastrophe” of the founding of the modern Israeli state.

Berlin spoke to JNS from his second home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where he said he and his husband feel safer than they do in Canada amid rising Jew-hatred.

“The truth is that my husband and I, along with my sister and her husband and numerous cousins, feel far more comfortable in Fort Lauderdale, in southern Florida, than we do anywhere in Canada right now,” he said. “I think that’s an unmitigated indictment of Canadian society right now.”

Berlin told JNS that he raised concerns about the exhibit more than two and a half years before it was slated to open on June 27, 2026. He brought it up in nearly every board meeting since, he said.

“I said, ‘It’s an important story. It has to be told,’” he said that he told the museum’s then-vice president.

He asked if he could, as the only Jew on the board, “help bridge divides” and act as “an emissary from you to the Jewish community and vice versa.”

“I had that conversation,” he told JNS. “I was never, ever asked again to participate in any discussion on the exhibit.”

The exhibit, which seems to be about the displacement that occurred at the time of Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, actually spans a much longer period, according to Berlin.

“The exhibit is intentionally called ‘The Nakba: Then and Now,’” he said. “I haven’t seen it, but the one picture the museum posted on the website from 2025, from Gaza, lets me believe that they’re talking about 1948 to 2025 or 2026.”

That sort of framing is “a blasphemy,” he told JNS.

“It’s like saying ‘the Holocaust: Then and Now.’ I would not say what happened on Oct. 7 was a Holocaust. It was attempted genocide. It was a mass murder of Jews. But it wasn’t a Holocaust,” he said.

“How can you therefore say, if nakba is about a point in time, 1948, that there is an ongoing nakba?” he said. “To use that terminology, the intentional objective is to continue to demonize Jews and suggest that Israel is in a constant pattern of trying to displace Palestinians.”

“It’s not the case,” he told JNS. “Two million Arabs live in Israel. They’re not being displaced.”
New SNP MP mocks swearing-in
While attention in the Commons chamber this week has understandably been fixed on one Andy Burnham, another new MP has been busily trying to claim the spotlight for herself. The SNP’s attention-craving Lara Bird, who won the Arbroath and Broughty Ferry by-election, decided it was a great idea to behave like a petulant child while being sworn in to her new job.

Before taking the oath, as all new MPs do, she announced in a sarcastic tone:
I take this oath only so that I can serve the people of Arbroath and Broughty Ferry. My first allegiance is and always will be the sovereign people of Scotland.

Bird then mockingly took the traditional oath while shaking her head and crossing her fingers, rather than holding a Bible.

The 28-year-old gave up reading International Law and Legal Studies as a PhD student at King’s College London to run for parliament. Her full name is actually Pyla Lara Bird-Leakey and she is, of course, obsessed with Palestine. Unearthed videos of the qualified English barrister on social media appear to show that she has significantly dialled up her Scottish accent since becoming an MP, having previously spoken in a rather posh English tone.

The Commons chamber was already turning into something of a nursery for tantrum-throwing toddlers, so Mr S assumes the new Nat will have no trouble fitting in.


Greens senator David Shoebridge under fire over 'hijacked government' podcast appearance
The Greens have been accused of antisemitism and “outrageous lies” after federal senator David Shoebridge appeared on a podcast with a controversial activist who claimed the Australian government has been “hijacked” by Jewish lobby groups.

In a clip revealed on Sharri on Wednesday night, Mr Shoebridge agrees with Lebanese-Australian filmmaker Daizy Gedeon’s suggestion the Jewish groups were secretly wielding power behind the scenes of government.

Ms Gedeon has previously blamed “Zionism” for a rise in paedophilia and sex trafficking.

“You wonder whether, you know, the Australian government has been hijacked by Zionists,” Ms Gedeon asks the senator in an episode of her podcast Reel Talk that aired earlier this month.

“How do you respond to the idea that we are, sort of, hijacked… they’re just embedding themselves further and further into our government?”

Mr Shoebridge responds: “Yeah, I think whenever you see a foreign government, I don’t really care what the foreign government is, having undue influence [on] Australian decision-making, we should be rejecting it.”

In the interview, Ms Gedeon cites the peak Jewish representative body, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), among other groups.

“I’m not here to be delivering on Tel Aviv’s foreign affairs policy or Washington’s foreign affairs policy - I’m here to be delivering on what Australians need,” Mr Shoebridge also says in the interview.

“I think for many people the mask is being ripped off and we can see the way the world works and we do not have to accept that.”

An edited clip from the interview was also shared by Ms Gedeon to her hundreds of thousands of followers on social media, with the title “Have Zionists Hijacked the Australian Government?” and set to ominous music.


Victor Davis Hanson: JD Vance's Iran deal, midterms, & the right wing realignment
Vice President JD Vance is returning from the Swiss Alps having concluded the opening phase of the Iran talks with a view to achieving a peace deal. Are critics right to claim that the whole war has been a humiliation for America? Freddy Gray speaks to Stanford Professor Victor Davis Hanson about MAGA foreign policy, the midterms, why oil is so important to the American voter & the right wing realignment in Latin America.


Commentary Podcast: Empire State of Mind Virus
Contributing editor Eli Lake and FDD's John Schanzer join us today to mourn New York City in the wake of the string of radical left candidate victories in the democratic primaries. Plus, the latest on the Iran MOU and Israel's impossible position with regards to Hezbollah.


Palestinian-American convicted of assaulting Jews released early from prison
Tarek Bazrouk, a Palestinian-American activist and former City University of New York student, was released early on Tuesday after being sentenced to 17 months in federal prison in October 2025 for assaulting three Jews at pro-Israel demonstrations.

Activist groups, including CUNY for Palestine and PAL-Awda, stated that Bazrouk “was freed one month early as a result of his successful completion of an early release program.” The groups held a Brooklyn fundraiser for Bazrouk and two other men tied to antisemitic crimes on June 19.

“Just as Tarek was liberated today, the tens of thousands of prisoners who remain steadfast in Zionist prisons will be liberated,” they stated. “Until then, our struggle continues.”

The assaults included kicking a Jewish college student in the chest during a protest near the New York Stock Exchange in April 2024, punching a visibly Jewish Columbia University student during a December 2024 protest and punching a third Jewish victim in January 2025 at a pro-Israel rally in Manhattan’s Gramercy Park, according to prosecutors. The third victim was wearing a Star of David necklace and had an Israeli flag draped over his shoulders.

The U.S. Department of Justice said a search of Bazrouk’s phones uncovered “extensive pro-Hamas and pro-Hezbollah propaganda,” as well as evidence prosecutors said showed antisemitic bias.

An online fundraiser supporting Bazrouk, set up by the Anti-Imperialist Student Front, has raised over $11,000 from 338 separate donors as of Wednesday morning.

“Being sent to prison for hate crimes should be a rock-bottom moment,” Stu Smith, an investigative analyst at the Manhattan Institute, told JNS. “Tarek Bazrouk was facing up to 30 years before a sweetheart plea deal spared him from that fate.”


South Bank Centre chair Misan Harriman announces intention to leave role in Autumn
The Chairman of the South Bank Centre, who was reportedly the focus of “urgent investigations” earlier this month into his social media activity, has announced that he will step down from the position in the Autumn, maintaining that he had always planned to do so.

Misan Harriman, whose second term as chair of the prestigious arts centre is due to end in a few months, confirmed that he would not be looking to continue in the role, with a spokesperson for the venue confirming that he had made that clear to them earlier this year.

In a social media post on Tuesday, Harriman wrote that he had “decided way before this madness that I was going to do two terms,” he said. “I came on just after Covid, two terms, then handing the baton to whoever the next chairman will be. We will find out in due course and of course I am going to support that.”

As reported by The Times two weeks ago, Lisa Nandy, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport had written to Labour Peer Lord Mendelssohn that “the Southbank Centre is currently conducting an internal investigation using its established internal process for handling complaints and allegations against staff, including governors.

“They have also referred themselves to the Charity Commission, with a response due to them on the internal investigation by mid-June. Additionally, the Charity Commission is assessing concerns raised in the media and will report shortly on what further action they intend to take.”

Harriman, the son of a Nigerian billionaire who made his name as a photographer during the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, regularly attends anti-Israel marches in London, photographing what he refers to as “observations” by members of the crowd. These have included signs exhibiting Holocaust inversion – people likening the actions of the Nazis against Jews with that of Israelis against Palestinians, as well as examples of people making the triangle insignia – which has become widely associated with Hamas support – with their hands.
Holocaust Educational Trust slams BMA vote on international definition of antisemitism
The Holocaust Educational Trust has criticised the British Medical Association’s vote in favour of ditching the international definition of antisemitism across the NHS, calling it “outrageous”.

A motion was passed at the BMA annual general meeting on Tuesday urging “the government and NHS England to revoke the mandatory adoption of the IHRA definition across the NHS until proper safeguards..." are in place to help protect “free speech in healthcare settings”.

The motion expressed “grave concern” about the IHRA definition of antisemitism in the NHS, and claimed it means that NHS doctors cannot express “ethical concerns about Israel’s actions in Palestine”.

But HET slammed the move by the doctors’ union, and defended the IHRA definition.

The charity said in a statement: “It is outrageous that the BMA has voted to challenge the IHRA definition of antisemitism.

“This comes less than a month after the Government’s review into antisemitism in the NHS which exposed widespread, systemic discrimination including Jewish staff facing “routine ostracism” and Jewish patients hiding their identity or fearing access to care.”

It added: “The IHRA definition does not silence free speech or prevent criticism of Israel. What it does is draw a clear line between legitimate political debate and antisemitism. That is not censorship; it is a basic safeguard against hatred and discrimination.”

HET also hit back at the BMA, saying: “Instead of lecturing Jews on what constitutes antisemitism, the BMA should focus on restoring trust and ensuring the NHS is once again a safe and welcoming place for Jewish staff and patients alike.”


Ethnic studies a ‘gateway’ to Jew-hatred, California superintendent candidate says
An older woman came up to Sonja Shaw at a Starbucks in Chino, Calif., some 35 miles east of Los Angeles. “We voted for you,” the teacher told the school board president of Chino Valley Unified School District, who is running for state superintendent.

“She’s one of our good teachers, really good teachers,” Shaw told JNS at the coffee shop earlier in the month. “She was the one that everyone wanted.”

Shaw has been president of the school board, which oversees a district with more than 26,000 students across 37 schools, since 2023. She is slated to square off against Richard Barrera, president of the San Diego Unified School District Board of Education, for the superintendent position, which leads the state’s Department of Education.

Shaw told JNS that she decided to run for superintendent of public instruction this election cycle at the urging of Bill Essayli, who at the time was a Republican member of the state Assembly and is now the first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California.

She had been “hitting walls” during her tenure as school board president, because “we kept getting attacked by the state,” Shaw told JNS.

“The state keeps attacking us for something that we’re doing best,” she said. “We don’t have all these culture issue wars in our district, and when we do have those, we shut them down very quickly.”

Shaw believes that ethnic studies is a “gateway” to divisive ideologies like antisemitism and gender ideology and that it should be cut altogether.

“We don’t need it,” she told JNS. “We need to teach real, honest history, real honest things about how we did things wrong, the horrifying things of the Holocaust, exactly what we do in Chino Valley. That needs to be in every curriculum across California.”

“Ethnic studies is literally, in my eyes, the Trojan horse for everything we don’t want and need here in California,” she said.


Wikipedia bans co-founder indefinitely for promoting initiative to make it less biased, including against Jews, Israel
Larry Sanger, a co-founder of Wikipedia, was banned from the site indefinitely on Monday for promoting an initiative that, among other things, aims to prevent the site from being biased against “currently disfavored views and groups,” including Jewish and pro-Israel views, he told JNS.

“Wikipedia has become more of a mob-rule anarchy than ever,” Sanger said. “In the kangaroo court in which a mob ousted me, Wikipedia’s administrators showed that they are above trivial details like formal charges, a designated prosecutor, basic decorum, distinction between prosecution and judge, dispassionate adjudication and so forth.”

“They have no proper system other than triggering a mob to selectively enforce their hodgepodge of vague rules,” he told JNS. “That same mob has blocked me for trying to bring an intellectually diverse group of thinkers and editors to the site.”

Sanger submitted an application on Friday for community approval on his proposed “WikiProject Intellectual Diversity” for contributors who believe in helping “reinforce Wikipedia’s original, firm commitment to intellectual diversity.”

The crowdsourced online encyclopedia defines a “WikiProject” as being a “group of contributors who want to work together as a team to improve Wikipedia” focused on specific topic areas.

The initiative had a series of goals, including making Wikipedia’s decision-making processes more transparent, expanding the number of usable sources and reinforcing “genuine neutrality.”

“We did not want to push Wikipedia to be pro-anything, just not exclusively pro-GASP,” he said, referring to a “globalist, academic, secular and progressive” point of view.

Sanger also told JNS that he aimed to ensure that the site is “not biased against currently disfavored views and groups,” including some Hindus, Christians, Jews, Zionists and those who are politically conservative.

“It is ridiculous that after Oct. 7, antisemitism became open and even mandatory on Wikipedia,” he told JNS. “I have my criticisms of Israel, but you don’t report one side and call yourself neutral.”

“Titling an article ‘Gaza genocide’ and burying any mention of the Israeli perspective deep in the article is not neutral,” Sanger said. “Nor is it neutral to title an article ‘Yahweh’ and say that this was the chief god of an ancient Near East pantheon, in Wikipedia’s own voice, with no mention of Christian or Jewish perspectives, when we worship Yahweh.” (The Tetragrammaton is a Hebrew divine name that appears in the Torah.)
Our holiday landlord realised we were Jewish. What happened next was deeply troubling
There is a peculiar human instinct to believe that certain things happen only to other people. Until they happen to you, prejudice or discrimination can feel like distant problems – possible, certainly, but not immediate.

When I booked a summer holiday rental for my family in eastern France at the start of May, I thought nothing of using my personal email address. I had used it countless times before. The address happens to contain the word “rabbi”, but it had never caused an issue. The correspondence with the property owners was entirely routine: emails were exchanged, the booking was accepted, and we paid the required 50 per cent deposit. Then, just under a month later, an email arrived from the owners that transformed our ordinary family holiday booking into something else entirely.

“We hesitated for some time whether to present or not the following to you, as it concerns a very sensitive and painful matter,” it began.

“We are always curious about who our guests are. In your case, our curiosity was piqued by your email address, from which we gather that you are a rabbi, and we quickly found some more information on the internet.

“Can you confirm to us that you are a member of a progressive, liberal Jewish movement and that this movement condemns the violent actions of the Israeli army, on orders from the Israeli government, in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, and recently in Lebanon?

“We are against every form of terrorism, such as that of Hamas and Hezbollah, and also believe that every country and people has the right to defend themselves, whether Israeli, Palestinian, or Lebanese, regardless of their faith or beliefs. However, we completely disagree with the violent and, in our view, inhumane and criminal actions of the Israeli army in the areas mentioned; we also consider the boarding of ships and the imprisonment of, among others, our compatriots in international waters to be highly reprehensible and unacceptable.

“We would like to hear whether you belong to the ones who likewise disapprove of this and speak out against it, and whether you are opposed to the violent and criminal actions of the Israeli government and army.

“If that is not the case, we are unfortunately unable to offer you accommodation, as this conflicts too strongly with our principles. In that case, we will have to cancel the reservation and, of course, refund the deposit.


Seven Israeli researchers win prestigious EU grants for breakthrough science
The ERC Advanced Grants will support projects at the Weizmann Institute, Hebrew University, Technion and Rambam, including studies on Type 1 diabetes, heart arrhythmias, brain development, bacterial immunity, RNA and stellar explosions

Seven researchers from Israel have won prestigious ERC Advanced Grants from the European Union’s Horizon Europe program, awarded to senior scientists with exceptional research achievements over the past decade.

Four of the recipients are from the Weizmann Institute of Science, two are from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and one is affiliated with both the Technion and Rambam Health Care Campus.

The grants give outstanding researchers the opportunity to pursue ambitious, curiosity-driven projects that could lead to major breakthroughs. They cover a broad range of fields at the forefront of research, from life sciences and exact sciences to the humanities and social sciences.
Colombia’s president-elect vows to work with Israel ‘like never before’
Colombia’s new right-wing president-elect Abelardo de la Espriella said Wednesday that his country and Israel will share a relationship “like never before” once he takes office.

De la Espriella won Sunday’s runoff presidential vote by less than a percentage point and has promised to strengthen the South American country’s ties to the United States and Israel.

Bogota’s relations with Jerusalem nosedived under Colombia’s first-ever leftist government led by President Gustavo Petro, an ardent critic of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, which he has cast as a genocide — a charge vehemently denied by Israel.

Petro severed diplomatic ties, halted coal exports and suspended the purchase of weaponry from Israel — formerly one of Colombia’s main military partners. Colombia had long depended on Israel for military hardware that includes assault rifles, intelligence equipment and even fighter jets.

De la Espriella has said he will reverse these decisions, and one of his main campaign pledges was to “renew a strategic alliance with the State of Israel,” open an embassy in Jerusalem, and “defend the Judeo-Christian principles that form the foundation of Western civilization.”

“Colombia will restore and strengthen its relationship with the State of Israel like never before,” the millionaire lawyer posted on X following a phone call with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar.

In his own post, Sa’ar called De la Espriella “a true friend of the Jewish people and the State of Israel,” and said his win “creates hope and possibility for a better future.”

Nicknamed “The Tiger,” De la Espriella holds dual Colombian and US citizenship. He’s a Trump supporter and a member of the US Republican Party.





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Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون



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