Saturday, June 27, 2026

06/26 Links Pt2: We owe the Jews of the 1930s an apology; The Hamasniks are coming to power; The Jew who financed American independence

From Ian:

We owe the Jews of the 1930s an apology
For most of my life, I looked back at the Jews of the 1930s with a question I could never quite answer: Why didn’t they see it?

Why didn’t they recognize what was unfolding around them? Why did so many continue believing that reason would ultimately prevail, that institutions would protect them, that the political rhetoric wasn’t meant literally or that the hatred would eventually burn itself out?

Those questions become harder to ask with confidence when we look honestly at the world today.

Perhaps we owe the Jews of the 1930s an apology.

Perhaps they saw far more than we ever gave them credit for. Perhaps they understood exactly what was happening but found themselves trapped by institutions they trusted, political coalitions they had spent generations building and a natural human reluctance to believe that civilized societies could unravel as quickly as they eventually did.

That possibility should make every Jew stop and think.

History rarely repeats itself exactly, but it often rhymes with unsettling precision. The slogans change. The technology changes. The politics change. But human nature changes very little. Every generation convinces itself that it is more enlightened than the one before it; yet every generation eventually discovers that prejudice has an extraordinary ability to reinvent itself while insisting it is something entirely different.

Today’s antisemitism rarely introduces itself honestly. It often disguises itself as activism, social justice, anti-colonialism, academic theory or political purity. It changes vocabulary without changing intent. Hatred has always been remarkably adaptable. It learns the language of the moment because it makes it easier to recruit people who would never knowingly associate themselves with antisemitism.

That is what makes this moment so dangerous.

There are candidates seeking public office who have been trafficking in antisemitic rhetoric or repeatedly associating themselves with those who do. There are elected officials who cannot bring themselves to condemn antisemitism with the same clarity they demand on virtually every other form of hatred. There are universities where Jewish students increasingly question whether they can openly express their identity without becoming targets. There are institutions that seem more comfortable explaining antisemitism than confronting it.

None of this should feel normal.
In new book, former AJC chief David Harris traces antisemitism’s past — and warns about its present
David Harris spent more than three decades leading the American Jewish Committee, where he navigated crises facing the Jewish community and built bipartisan coalitions to advance the group’s mission of supporting Israel and Diaspora Jewry.

His book, Antisemitism: What Everyone Needs to Know, published by Oxford University Press last year, is Harris’ attempt to reach beyond the Jewish community — churches, classrooms and the “average New York Times reader.” His goal, he said, is to turn the “silent majority” into the “loud majority.”

Written in the shadow of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks in Israel, the book arrived at a moment of surging antisemitism in the U.S. and around the world. It traces antisemitism from its ancient roots through the Holocaust, the Soviet era and its recent resurgence — the explosion on college campuses and beyond after Oct. 7 and the ensuing war in Gaza.

Harris, who quipped that he retired “for about 30 seconds” after serving as AJC’s CEO from 1990–2022, sat down with Jewish Insider on Thursday to discuss the book at a moment in which he said he has “never been more worried” about antisemitism — yet also remains optimistic about the Jewish future.
Thank you, Mayor Zohran Mamdani: Your hate might just be a blessing in disguise
Mamdani, the newly elected Mayor of New York City, has chosen to lead the charge as an overt anti-Zionist, deploying rhetoric that positions himself squarely against the Jewish state and the mainstream Jewish community. From his policy decisions to his endorsement of congressional candidates aimed at reshaping the American legislature, his positions are stark.

Mamdani is performing a vital service: he is alerting us before it is too late. By abandoning the polite euphemisms that long characterized progressive anti-Israel rhetoric, he is letting us know exactly where we stand. When he openly mocks the traditional Israel Day Parade in NYC while happily attending other cultural parades, he is showing us that the water is bubbling.

Consider his recent public declaration regarding the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Mamdani openly branded the mainstream pro-Israel lobby as “monsters” who move millions in “dark money.” Speaking from City Hall, he argued that they weaponize capital to “preserve their power so that they can turn us against one another.” He declared: “In the wealthiest city, in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, we need not live in fear of monsters any longer.”

The mayor governing the city with the largest Jewish population in the world outside of Israel is not just looking to have a local impact, but a national and global one. Utilizing the laundering of classic, ancient conspiratorial accusations from the highest municipal podium in America. When an elected official swaps out traditional diplomatic expressions for terms like “monsters” and a hidden hand, “turning us against one another,” he normalizes a dangerous propaganda pattern characterized by three distinct realities:
• The Creation of Moral Binaries: reducing a multi-layered, existential regional conflict into a simplistic fairy tale of pure oppressors and pure oppressed.
• Emotionally Charged Outrage: mobilizing a political base by framing ideological opponents not as mistaken, but as morally illegitimate and subhuman, literal “monsters.”
• The Deployment of Scapegoating: suggesting that a powerful, Jewish-associated organization is the clandestine architect of broader domestic societal suffering.

Mamdani operates within a democratic framework subject to courts and elections; the danger lies in his techniques. History teaches us that when you systematically dehumanize a group and simplify complex realities, you create a social atmosphere where raw prejudice becomes acceptable, normalized, and eventually weaponized.


Brendan O'Neill: The Hamasniks are coming to power
In response to the storm over her 8 October behaviour, Ms Chevalier says she was agitating against what Israel might do in response to Hamas’s anti-Semitic terror. She says she knew there would be an ‘outsized reaction’. Imagine hearing about the rape and murder of Jews and thinking: ‘Oh shit, how are the Jews going to respond?’ Imagine hearing of the worst pogrom in 80 years and saying: ‘I hope the victims of this fascist slaughter don’t overreact.’ It is the very definition of moral depravity.

Indeed, no mob better encapsulates the crisis of our civilisation than the 8 October people. From the bigots who danced and let off fireworks outside the Israeli Embassy in London to the Islamist headbangers who chanted ‘Fuck the Jews’ outside the Sydney Opera House to that DSA gathering with its swastikas and incinerated Stars of David, these weren’t ‘pro-Palestine’ rallies – they were pro-pogrom rallies. It was an unholy alliance of moneyed socialists and regressive Islamists celebrating the extermination of Jews. It was as horrific as if people in NYC and London had poured on to the streets to whoop for Kristallnacht.

It gets even worse for Ms Chevalier. She was for years an activist at that leafy hotbed of turbo-smug progressivism, Columbia University. She was a co-founder of Columbia University Apartheid and Divest, a whackjob outfit that gushed over Yahya Sinwar, the chief architect of the Jew slaughter of 7 October. It hailed him as a ‘hero of the revolution’ and called on Columbia students to ‘reflect on how we can make ourselves more like him’. Imagine thinking you’re an anti-fascist as you emulate a fascist who put to death more Jews in one day than anyone else had since the Nazis.

These were the Hamasniks – the bored hyper-entitled adultescents of the American left who saw in Hamas’s savagery the sexiness of purpose and agency. Who wilfully mistook Hamas’s imperious barbarism on behalf of the Islamic Republic for an act of ‘anti-imperialism’. Who viewed the murder of those ‘settler-colonial’ Jews as being on a spectrum with their own juvenile, philistine purging of books by white men from their palatial campus libraries – that is, as an act of decolonisation. The keffiyeh was the Hamasniks’ uniform, hatred of Israel their religion, a resuscitated Socialism of Fools their rotten legacy.

And now the Hamasniks are coming to power. Chevalier is not alone. Two other Dem socialists won primaries in NYC this week: Claire Valdez and Brad Lander, both voluble loathers of Zionism. All three were heavily promoted by NY mayor Zohran Mamdani. It seems his virulently anti-Zionist rich-boy Third Worldism is elbowing aside the more moderate wing of the Dems. Mamdani himself might not be an 8 October person – he didn’t attend that sick rally – but his wife is. In fact she’s a 7 October person: on the day of the pogrom itself she liked social-media posts calling it a heroic act of ‘resistance’.

DSA members love to pose as Marxian warriors for working-class people. Yet the evidence suggests Ms Chevalier did far better among affluent Dems than she did in black, Hispanic and working-class communities. Let’s be honest about what these people represent: that grating bourgeois exhaustion with the very idea of America and with the virtues of Western civilisation. Far from repping the working classes, it is the common sense of working-class communities that will need to be brought to bear against these campus crazies who are now off to DC.
Melanie Phillips: Alarm bells go off in New York
Defaming and delegitimizing Israel and Zionism is not only deeply unjust. It’s a direct onslaught on Judaism and leads inexorably to attacks on Jews.

After Lander’s opponent, Goldman, visited a coffee shop in Brooklyn, N.Y., with his 7-year-old daughter, the cafe subsequently posted the message: “We don’t serve racists fascists homophobes genocide enablers or anyone in between. Too bad we didn’t recognize you right away, or we would have turned you away.”

A journalist on Fox & Friends had reported that people in line for a food bank in New York City had been talking to her, too, about AIPAC. As a studio presenter said, “They believe that the United States is taking the money that could go to them and is donating it to Israel.”

Many wonder why the interests of so many Americans have become identified with events taking place thousands of miles away. Back in 2023, a Harvard-Harris poll found that two-thirds of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 agreed that “Jews as a class are oppressors and should be treated as oppressors.”

Most New York voters, who may assume that all the libels they are fed about Israel are true, nevertheless almost certainly don’t put Israel at the top of their concerns above the cost of living.

But Israel now stands proxy for something else: a nation state that’s supposedly grinding the faces of the poor and disadvantaged. So a vote for those who hate “oppressor” Israel is a vote for the “oppressed” everywhere.

Tragically, many liberal American Jews sign up to this warped, perverse and hateful mindset because this is now the dominant thinking in the Democratic Party.

Anti-Zionism, which shockingly has now framed the demonization of Israel as conscience itself, has driven liberals off their moral compass. As a result, they are pawns in a far bigger game being played: to conquer America and the West for Islam.

The Democrats are turning into an extremist party posing an increasingly acute danger to America. And Jews who still support it are debauching Judaism, betraying the Jewish people and aiding the mortal enemies of the West.
Jonathan Pollard: Dan Goldman and the decline and fall of liberal Jewish Democrats
The mainstream liberal media has normalized antisemitism since Oct. 7. With blood libels like The New York Times’ absurd claim that Israelis trained dogs to rape Palestinian prisoners accepted as truth rather than fiction, we can’t be surprised that rank-and-file liberal Democrats, who make up more than 90% of its readership, should draw conclusions from such screeds. Anyone who won’t parrot these lies is someone whom they think deserves to be targeted for discrimination. And once you go there, it isn’t much of a leap to decide that such persons don’t merely deserve to be voted out of office, but to be targeted for humiliation and, ultimately, violence.

Will decency prevail?
All of Goldman’s wealth, his attempt to use the law to target Trump and his perfect liberal voting record didn’t save him from this kind of treatment. And the same will be true of every other liberal Jew who won’t bend the knee to the left on Israel as did Lander.

It is possible to argue that such extremism is a prescription of political doom for the left. Antisemitism has always been a political loser in American politics. Most Americans never voted for the woke catechism of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) that is inextricably linked to Jew-hatred. Trump’s 2024 victory was largely the result of a sense that Democrats had tipped too far to the left on a host of social and cultural issues that most citizens regarded as bizarre and wrongheaded.

But in 2026, Democrats appear to be doubling down on the very same laundry-list of woke beliefs with hatred for Israel at the very top. And, though antisemites have been repeatedly defeated in Republican primaries this year, the willingness of Vice President JD Vance to continue to legitimize the far-right’s Jew-hating podcasters like Tucker Carlson and their enablers like Megyn Kelly illustrates that similar ideas are also having an impact on the GOP and the political right.

Turning these trends around will require genuine leadership by America’s political, cultural and religious thought leaders in the coming months and years, as well as punishment at the polls for Mamdani and his fellow extremists outside of deep urban enclaves. Trusting in the common sense and decency of the American people has been a formula for Jewish acceptance and success for the last 250 years.

Contrary to the prevailing narrative that Jewish liberals have long accepted about this country, Jews are not victims in America, but fellow stakeholders in a republic where Jewish life was cherished. But the demise of Dan Goldman forces even the most sanguine observers to ponder whether that faith in the exceptional nature of the American experiment in constitutional democracy will continue to be justified.
JPost Editorial: Mamdani's Democrats: New York City's primary results bode ill for US-Israel relations
All three of Mamdani’s candidates, who are pegged to win their races in November, have ties to the Democratic Socialists of America ‌and favor ending US support for Israel. The future of the Democratic Party’s relationship with Israel has never been more in question.

Mamdani, at a rally last week backing his preferred candidates, compared pro-Israel lobbyists AIPAC to “monsters,” a statement that organizations such as the Union for Reform Judaism and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) criticized.

Mamdani’s statement preceded a much-publicized outrage last week when a Brooklyn cafe rejected the business of Lander’s opponent, the Jewish incumbent Goldman, on the grounds that his money for a cup of coffee was “probably coming from AIPAC,” since it had endorsed Goldman.

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, warned about the immediate and physical dangers posed to Jews in New York as a result, calling out Mamdani’s “monsters” statement as crossing “the line into antisemitic tropes about sinister Jewish political influence.”

The takeaway from Tuesday’s results is that in the biggest concentration of Jews in the world aside from Israel, candidates, including Jews, are winning elections by taking a page out of Mamdani’s playbook and demonizing Israel.

Of course, denouncing Israel is only one of many issues that the primaries’ winners agree on. And it may be low – or not even appear – on the list of voters’ priorities, trailing the socialist, anti-establishment, economic reform planks that directly affect them and have propelled these candidates and their ilk to the mainstream of the Democratic Party.

It goes hand-in-hand with that most American term, “intersectionality,” that has infected US culture, which dictates that if you believe in liberal, humanist values, then you think Israel is evil.

Those Democrats – Jewish or otherwise – who voted for Mamdani’s candidates either buy into that philosophy or don’t care one way or the other about Israel.
Yisrael Medad: The Mamdani ‘monster-in-the-making’
The real monster is what is developing politically. That is the “monster-in-the-making.”

A false narrative about the Jewish people’s national identity and Israel’s actions in its defense has moved from the murky depths of Arab propaganda to college lecture halls. From there, it proceeded to campus lawns and city streets. Gathering strength, its woke approach and neo-Marxist justification drew in the Jewish remnants of the failed communist, socialist and progressive camps who then attracted Jewish liberals.

These liberals were and continue to be embedded deep in Jewish establishment elites, both the anti-Zionist and the accepted legacy organizations. In short, Jewish political and sociological structures are being undermined.

Mamdani’s Democratic Socialists of America slate of primary winners on Tuesday—Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier (who helped lead the 2024 pro-Palestine protests at Columbia University), and progressive Brad Lander—won House races. That, of course, will reflect on the very possible coming conquest of the Democratic Party by Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ro Khanna of California and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, not to mention the turbulence within the Republican Party.

Also, pay attention to this report: The city’s Board of Elections reported 420,527 voter check-ins in the 2026 primaries, including the 172,743 voters who took part in the nine-day early voting period that concluded on June 21. That means a little less than 250,000 voters had cast ballots on Primary Day itself. By contrast, more than 1 million votes were cast in the 2025 mayoral primary.

In a piece on March 14, 2024, I quoted Ze’ev Jabotinsky’s words, published in June 1939, and as they seemed not to have enough of an effect, I repeat them. He observed that his fellow Jews were as if “lulled to sleep by chloroform” with “their lethargy, their … ‘it doesn’t concern me’ attitude.” He wrote that he witnessed the abeyance of his fellow Jews’ “abilities to think, fight, desire, even groan in pain.”

Two months later, it became a “too late” situation. Without morbid comparisons, how much time is “too late” for too many American Jews when a “monster” appears?
Pro-Israel Rep. Ritchie Torres weathered far-left NYC primary wave – as his constituents say DSA ‘don’t live in neighborhoods like ours’
Not like us.

Bronx residents repped by Rep. Ritchie Torres — a pro-Israel moderate Democrat who trounced a progressive challenger this week — said a “whole ocean” separates them from the far-left wave that swept crunchy Big Apple neighborhoods.

While three Mayor Zohran Mamdani-backed lefties prevailed over establishment Dems in areas including swanky Manhattan and Brooklyn neighborhoods, Torres dominated his foe Michael Blake in the 15th House District covering the working-class south and west Bronx.

A slew of Torres’ constituents told The Post that the lefties’ mix of Israel-bashing and Democratic Socialists of America ideological box-checking wouldn’t fly on their turf.

“When you think of Park Slope and Greenwich Village and who lives there compared to us here, the Bronx, there is a whole ocean separating us,” said Carlos M., 38, a dad of two who works in sales.

“They don’t have to think about not having enough money to pay the rent, skipping one bill to pay another, roaches crawling all over your apartment like they own the place,” he said, shaking his head.

“They don’t live in neighborhoods like ours,” he added. “They don’t have our worries, so they can vote on what is going on in the Middle East and not on real issues affecting real people in our neighborhoods.”

The far-left red sweep by Mamdani’s DSA allies Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez, along with avowed progressive Brad Lander, clinched the mayor’s status as a lefty kingmaker and his potential takeover of the Democratic Party.

But moderate Dems, including House Minority Speaker Hakeem Jeffries, argued chatter about the DSA’s party takeover was overblown — and pointed at Torres’ success in The Boogie Down during Tuesday’s primaries.

Jeffries pointed out during an MS NOW interview that many districts won by Mamdani’s crew tended to be higher-income, with an outsized focus on issues connected to the Middle East.

“Ritchie Torres was running against somebody who was heavily critical of Ritchie Torres’ position on Israel, and he won by 50 points,” he said.

Several Bronx residents said lefty voters’ focus on Israel came at the detriment of bread-and-butter issues.
More than 700 rabbis urge Mamdani to apologize for calling AIPAC ‘monsters’
More than 700 rabbis from across the United States have signed an open letter urging New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to apologize for referring to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee as “monsters,” arguing that the rhetoric endangers American Jews.

The appeal came as a new poll found that most Jewish New Yorkers believe the normalization of anti-Zionism is fueling antisemitism in the city.

Among the signatories are 176 rabbis from New York, 96 from New Jersey, 76 from California and 53 from Florida, along with hundreds of others representing Jewish denominations ranging from Orthodox to Reconstructionist Judaism.

“Using the language of ‘monsters’ against political opponents is an act of dehumanization, and when the targets of that dehumanization are overwhelmingly associated with the Jewish community, the consequences become especially dangerous,” the letter states. “By casting pro-Israel civic participation as monstrous, conspiratorial and anti-democratic, Mr. Mamdani has put a target on the backs of American Jews and their allies.”

“Mayor Mamdani should apologize,” it states. “He should retract his remarks and affirm clearly that Jews and pro-Israel Americans are full participants in our democracy.”

The poll, commissioned by The Jewish Majority and conducted by Mercury Public Affairs, surveyed 665 Jewish voters in New York City. It found that 82% are concerned about rising antisemitism in the city, while 73% “hold the normalization of anti-Zionism responsible” for the increase in Jew-hatred.

By a 3-to-1 margin, respondents “believe Mamdani’s refusal to strongly condemn the phrase ‘globalize the Intifada’ has directly emboldened pro-Hamas protesters,” according to the survey. The poll also found that 84% of Jewish voters who supported Mamdani favor a two-state solution, a position that The Jewish Majority said conflicts with the mayor’s anti-Zionist views.
Commentary Podcast: New York, Old Hatred
Jewish Insider Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar joins us to discuss the radicalism and antisemitism festering in New York's DSA circles, and the piling up of scandals that would have doomed political careers in the past. How did we get to this point, and how will both parties approach this trend in the lead up to the midterm elections?


Democratic Socialist challenging Colorado incumbent unsure Boulder firebombing was antisemitic


Melat Kiros, a Democratic Socialist running to unseat Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), said this week that she is unsure if the firebombing attack in Boulder last year, in which Karen Diamond, 82, was killed, was antisemitic.

The lawyer, who has said that Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack was the “inevitable consequence of apartheid,” made the comment in an interview with Kyle Clark, of 9 News, in Denver. Clark framed the question in terms of what he said is a debate in the Democratic Party about what is “antisemitism” and what is “anti-Zionism.”

“That firebombing attack in Boulder on the group of peaceful protesters there that were protesting in support of the Jewish hostages being held by Hamas. Was that firebombing attack on them an act of antisemitism?” Clark asked.

“I don’t know what was in the heart of the perpetrator,” Kiros said. “All I know is that he went and attacked innocent people because of what they might have believed. And I don’t even know what the people that were at that protest believed, too.”

Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 46, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and 2,128 years, the maximum available sentence, after pleading guilty in May to first-degree murder and 100 other charges for throwing Molotov cocktails at people rallying, on behalf of Hamas-held hostages, in Boulder, Colo., on June 1, 2025.

Kiros told Clark of the victims that “in fact, most of them were probably just there to, you know, ask that the people who were kidnapped during Oct. 7 be returned home to their families,” she said. “That’s not a political statement in and of itself.”

“I think the fact that we’re having a conversation about whether it was anti-Zionism or antisemitism is a political debate that, you know, I think everyone has the freedom to have,” she said. “But, to me, it was a loss of innocent life regardless of what the perpetrator had in mind when he took those lives.”

“Matters less to me than you know our responsibility to making sure that people understand that even in the face of these kinds of disagreements that violence is not the answer,” she said.

“You would not describe it as antisemitism?” Clark asked.

“I don’t know,” the candidate said. “I don’t know what his intentions were.”


‘Continuity’ expected in UK foreign policy on Israel under Burnham
Andy Burnham will resist calls from pro-Palestine campaigners to label Israel’s actions in Gaza a “genocide,” instead maintaining the current government stance that such determinations should be left to international experts and lawyers, Jewish News understands.

However, three sources familiar with Burnham’s views on this divisive foreign policy issue suggest he will also seek to show he “understands” the anger over Israel’s actions in Gaza following the October 7 Hamas attacks, and that he remains “profoundly concerned” about the ongoing suffering in the region.

With a major foreign policy speech expected in the coming weeks, sources suggest there will be no significant departure from UK foreign policy under Keir Starmer if, as now seems likely, Burnham becomes the next Prime Minister.

Burnham is said to be determined to offer “clarity” on his views regarding Israel and Palestine, but does not want the issue to define his leadership, particularly among the political left.

He also believes he can win back voters who have left Labour for the Greens, without adopting the divisive stance of Zack Polanski on the matter, sources confirmed.
Foreign Secretary urges next PM to toughen stance on Israel’s West Bank policies
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper has called for the next Prime Minister to take “stronger action” against Israel in response to rising settler violence and settlement expansion in the West Bank.

In an interview with Robert Peston for ITV News, Cooper was asked about the widespread view among Labour MPs that likely new PM Andy Burnham should be “tougher on Israel and its actions in Gaza and the West Bank.”

Cooper responded: “I’m very worried about what is happening in the West Bank, where we’ve seen increases in settler violence and also the expansion of settlements in a way that looks designed to prevent any possibility of a sustainable two-state solution. Some people are even talking about the most dangerous and damaging things.

“That’s why I think we are going to have to do more on Israel-Palestine, and we are going to have to take stronger action.

“We started to do that with some stronger sanctions, particularly around the West Bank. We’re looking at what further we can do and how we can strengthen the sanctions regime.”

Asked about a recent UN commission’s claim that Israel has committed genocide against children in the region, Cooper said: “I think the impact on what’s happening to children is just horrific.”

Israeli military vehicles in the West Bank.

When pressed on whether she believed genocide was being committed, Cooper replied: “As you know, there is a legal position that the UK takes—that this needs to go through a court process, and we respect that. But either way, in some ways the language doesn’t get away from the reality of what is happening to children.
Police force accused of avoiding 'elephant in the room' of Islamist extremism presents awards to imams despite controversial posts
A police force accused of avoiding the "elephant in the room" of Islamist extremism has been found to have praised two imams despite criticism of their extremist behaviour.

West Yorkshire Police officers helped present certificates to two imams at a Bradford council-organised event in 2023, despite both religious leaders facing previous accusations of extremist conduct.

The revelation emerges after the same force dismissed the chairman of a policing scrutiny panel for raising concerns about Islamist extremism.

The woman who led the Bradford Hate Crime Scrutiny Panel was removed from her position after accusing West Yorkshire Police of attempting to appease Muslims rather than prioritising the Jewish community following October's synagogue attack in Manchester.

Her comments during a meeting discussing the anti-Semitic terrorist incident were deemed "divisive and inflammatory" by the force, which acted after Muslim officers present lodged complaints.

Both imams who received awards are connected to Bradford's al-Hikam Institute.

Mohammed Adil Shahzad rose to national attention as a principal organiser behind the 2021 protests targeting a Batley grammar school teacher who had shown a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad in class.

That teacher continues to live in hiding after receiving death threats and being accused of blasphemy by Muslim campaigners.


Hamas-accused says civilian deaths in Israel could be ‘justified’
An activist has denied supporting Hamas at a student rally two days after bloody attacks on Israel, but told jurors the deaths of civilians could be “justified”.

On 9 October 2023, Sarah Cotte gave a speech to between 60 and 70 people outside the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, where she was studying at the time.

At the event, the then-19-year-old expressed “unconditional solidarity with the Palestinian armed resistance” and later repeated her views in a WhatsApp group chat, the Old Bailey has heard.

The prosecution alleged her remarks were a “thinly veiled” reference to the banned group Hamas, which was credited with orchestrating the 7 October attacks.

On Thursday, French national Cotte was quizzed about her views on the armed attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip, which targeted military bases, civilian communities and social events.

Quoting agreed facts presented in the trial, prosecutor Frederick Hookway said fatalities included approximately 1,100 Israelis and 79 foreign nationals, of whom 800 were civilians, at least 282 women and 36 children.

In addition, 251 people were taken hostage, the court heard.

Mr Hookway asked: “Did you agree with everything that happened on 7 October?”

Cotte said she had been “sceptical” about the mainstream media, saying an early report of babies being beheaded was not true.

Pressed on what is now known to have happened, she said: “I think that the killing of civilians is always a tragedy. At the same time, I don’t think it is a surprise.

“I think saying it is understandable and agreeing with it is two different things, so I think it is understandable and could be justified.”

Judge Richard Marks KC clarified: “You are saying what happened on 7 October could be justified? Justifiable?”

Cotte agreed, adding: “I don’t think it’s my role to impose conditions on the Palestinian people and their struggle.”

Mr Hookway went on: “The use of violence against non-combatant civilians could be regarded as an act of terrorism.

“Can I suggest you agree with the use of acts of violence in the furtherance of Palestinian nationalism?”

Cotte replied: “I support the Palestinian people as a whole. I think they are right to use whatever tactics they use.

“I don’t support Hamas, and I have never supported Hamas. I was supporting the right to resist.”


Religious liberty panel that advises Trump recommends tying federal funds to prompt probes of Jew-hated
The U.S. Religious Liberty Commission advised U.S. President Donald Trump to expedite federal investigations and prosecutions of “credible allegations” of Jew-hatred and “tie future federal funding to prompt remediation.”

Texas lieutenant governor Dan Patrick and Dr. Ben Carson, chair and vice chair of the commission respectively, and other members of the panel delivered a final draft report to the president in the Oval Office on Friday.

The report is based on findings of seven commission hearings over the last year on religious liberty in the military, education, healthcare, parental rights, faith-based institutions and antisemitism.

It advises Trump to direct the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate whether antisemitic attacks are being financed by terrorist groups and for the department’s Jew-hatred task force to work with the FBI and state and local governments to track incidents of antisemitism, allowing policymakers to respond effectively.

Created in May 2025, the commission advises and reports to Trump on opportunities to “identify emerging threats to religious liberty, uphold federal laws that protect all citizens’ full participation in a pluralistic democracy and protect the free exercise of religion.”

In the report, the panel recommends that the Justice Department and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission offer training and guidance in both the public and private sectors to detail best practices on religious accommodation and identification of modern forms of Jew-hatred.
Florida university denies appeal from students disciplined over antisemitic group chat
Florida International University denied internal appeals on Wednesday filed by four students disciplined for participating in a WhatsApp group chat containing racist and antisemitic messages.

Hours later, Abel Carvajal, Dariel Gonzalez, Ethan Ratchkauskas and Dante Mojena filed an amended complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, asking the court to block the university from enforcing disciplinary sanctions imposed over what they describe as “private, off-campus speech.”

According to court filings, FIU reviewed more than 1,200 pages of evidence before finding that the students violated the university’s nondiscrimination policy and student code of conduct.

Messages cited by the university included antisemitic comments such as, “You can f*** all the k**** you want. Just don’t marry them and procreate,” and “I would def not marry a Jew.” Other messages included racist remarks such as, “Ew you had colored professors?” and “Avoid the coloreds like the plague.”

The lawsuit acknowledges that the chat contained “crude, offensive and controversial remarks,” but argues that the messages did not contain “illegal speech or categories of unprotected speech such as true threats, incitement or fighting words.”

In an earlier order, Chief U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga noted that FIU alleged Ratchkauskas also wrote, “Let’s go blow up Dolphin Mall with an explosive device or something,” and, “She just has to Swiss cheese the professor at that point.” The students’ attorney, Anthony Sabatini, argued that those comments were made “in a humorous and hyperbolic context” and were not intended or understood as literal threats.
California faculty union leads backdoor maneuver to repeal campus protest restrictions
The 29,000-member California Faculty Association, California State University’s teachers’ union, is spearheading a backdoor legislative push to repeal the time, place and manner restrictions implemented across the state’s university system following its 2024 anti-Israel encampments.

The California Faculty Association, which represents faculty across the 23 campuses of the California State University system, announced it would sponsor AB 2551, authored by Assemblymember Sade Elhawary. AB 2551 would repeal SB 1287 — California’s landmark campus safety and civil rights law — in its entirety by Jan. 1, 2029.

Under SB 1287, which was introduced in August 2024, California’s public universities and colleges must adopt and enforce rules against violence, harassment, intimidation and discrimination.

It mandates the establishment of clear, content-neutral protest guidelines and requires schools to provide mandatory student training on free speech limits. The legislation bars tent encampments, overnight demonstrations and in some cases wearing masks, signatures of the spring 2024 anti-Israel protest movements both within the Cal State schools and across universities nationwide. Cal State LA played host to a 40-day encampment in 2024, in which protesters barricaded and trashed an administration building.

“SB 1287 was the product of a public and transparent year-long negotiation process — hearings, testimony, amendments, and ultimately an overwhelming bipartisan vote,” said David Bocarsly, CEO of Jewish California, a coalition of local Jewish organizations formerly known as JPAC. “Jewish students across California are safer because of it. AB 2551 uses a backroom maneuver to fully erase that progress — without public process and without consulting the communities this law was designed to protect. Other communities wouldn’t stand for that, and we won’t either.”

According to Jewish California, AB 2551 bypassed the normal legislative process through a “gut-and-amend” maneuver. This tactic replaces a bill’s existing language with entirely new provisions late in the session, effectively avoiding the rigorous public hearings and committee scrutiny that landmark measures like SB 1287 undergo. Consequently, the July 1 Senate Education Committee hearing will likely be both the first and last policy committee vote the bill receives.


2 men go on trial in Germany over alleged Iran-backed plots targeting Jews
Two men went on trial in Germany on Friday accused of planning attacks on prominent pro-Israel public figures and spying on Jews on behalf of Iranian secret services.

Danish national Ali S. is charged with espionage, attempted murder, attempted arson and sabotage, while his alleged Afghan accomplice, Tawab M., is accused of attempted murder.

Ali S. allegedly spied on the head of the German-Israeli Society, the former Greens MP Volker Beck, as part of plans to assassinate him, according to prosecutors.

He is also accused of spying on the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, as well as two Jewish grocers in Berlin, as part of plans to carry out arson attacks.

Prosecutors say Ali S. in early 2025 took orders from the Quds Force, the foreign operations branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The two men were remanded in custody in Germany following their arrest last year in Denmark and subsequent extradition.

Volker Beck was in the public gallery at the opening of the trial, accompanied by police protection, Marayke Frantzen, a spokeswoman for the court in Hamburg, told AFP.

Both defendants exercised their right to remain silent after the indictment was read out, Frantzen said.
Seven arrested over March bombing of Belgian synagogue
Seven people were detained on Thursday over a bomb attack on a synagogue in Belgium in March, shortly after the start of the Middle East war, the federal prosecutor’s office said.

The blast, which shattered windows and damaged the main door of the Great Synagogue of Liege, in eastern Belgium, was condemned by the government as a “despicable antisemitic act.”

A wave of raids led by a Belgian anti-terrorism judge on Thursday led to the arrest of seven suspects, who have not been named.

The federal prosecutor’s office declined to provide any details about where the police operations took place.

“At this stage, and in the interest of the investigation, no further information can be released,” the office said.

The Liege attack was followed a few days later by at least two similar criminal acts targeting Jewish sites in the neighboring Netherlands, including a Jewish school in Amsterdam.

Two teens were also arrested later in March for a suspected antisemitic torching of a car in Antwerp, amid a rash of attacks on Jewish communities in Europe and elsewhere since the start of the US-Israeli war with Iran on February 28.

In several cases, claim-of-responsibility videos have circulated on social media, shared by groups identified as pro-Iranian, but no official link has been established among the attacks.
NJ club that canceled heavy metal music festival says organizers scrubbed Nazi imagery from initial ad
The Wisla Club in Garfield, N.J., some 15 miles northwest of midtown Manhattan, canceled a heavy metal festival after it says that it uncovered ties between organizers and some performers to neo-Nazi and white supremacist ideologies—views that it says were not articulated in the original promotional poster that organizers shared with it.

The club’s board of directors shared the original poster with JNS exclusively and said that it “was not informed about the true intentions of the organizers” of the Vengeance Fest VII event and that the venue was shown a different version of a poster, which later included Nazi symbols.

“We were told that this would simply be a rock and metal music festival,” it told JNS. “Even the promotional poster we received from the organizers was different and contained no Nazi symbols or extremist imagery. The organizers assured us that it was a safe and friendly event for fans of heavy rock music.”

The club sent JNS the altered version of the poster, with neo-Nazi symbols blacked out of band logos.

“At first, we were completely unaware of the seriousness of the situation,” the board said. “Wisła Club rents out its hall, along with professional sound equipment, to event organizers—primarily for Polish artists but occasionally for Spanish and other international performers as well.”

“Like many community organizations, we rely on rental income to help support the club’s operations,” it told JNS. “We would also like to emphasize that Wisła Club is one of the last remaining Polish community venues in the area where both local Polish artists and performers visiting from Poland can hold concerts and cultural events.”

“Fortunately, the event was canceled,” it said. “As soon as we became aware of the connections between some of the bands and the organizers and extremist ideologies, we immediately withdrew our support and canceled the rental. We sincerely regret that this situation occurred.”
Man admits threatening to behead Jewish schoolchildren
A man has admitted threatening to “kill Jewish schoolchildren”.

Mohamed Ullah, 35, from Hackney, east London, made the remark to Avani Hari on February 13, threatening to “decapitate” the youngsters.

Ullah, who is in custody, pleaded guilty at Wood Green Crown Court to making a threat to kill, as well as racially aggravated harassment on the same day.

He has also admitted damaging a water dispenser and causing a flood at Homerton Hospital in Hackney that day.

Ullah first admitted the offences on June 5, but a judge imposed a reporting ban as he denied three assault allegations from the same day.

Reporting restrictions were lifted on Friday after Ullah pleaded guilty to assaulting a woman, Janet Chukwu, and prosecutors agreed to drop the other two assault charges.

Judge Daniel Fugallo ordered the probation service to make an assessment of dangerousness of Ullah, before his sentencing hearing on August 5.

Defence barrister Tom Kharran told Friday’s hearing: “The defendant at the time of the offending was about to be discharged as a patient from a mental institution, and he has been assessed as fit to plead.”
Staff at Waitrose store reportedly refuse to call police after ‘F*** the Jews’ shopper tirade
Waitrose has been urged to implement a branch-wide response in the event of antisemitic hate crimes, after reports that staff at its branch in Harrow refused to contact the police after a Jewish woman received antisemitic abuse in the store from a fellow shopper.

As reported by the Jewish Chronicle, an Orthodox Jewish woman was queuing to pay when another person in line began verbally abusing her. A witness told the paper that the man “loudly claimed that the problems in the UK are not immigration or the Government but the ‘f****** Jews.’” The man was also accused of saying “F*** the Jews” and “kill Zionist Jews”.

The witness told the JC that he had told the man to shut up or he would call the police, but the man continued, leading to the Jewish woman leaving the store, “highly distressed”. The individual alleged to have engaged in the antisemitic abuse was able to pay for his shopping before leaving the store. The witness said that he had no phone and had therefore asked staff members to call the police but they had refused, and described how the branch manager subsequently also declined to contact law enforcement because the person responsible had already left the store. The witness described the attitudes of the Waitrose staff as “astonishing”.

Responding to the news of the incident, a Campaign Against Antisemitism spokesperson said:

“Has antisemitism become so normalised that supermarket staff refuse to report it to police? A witness reportedly informed two members of staff, including the store manager, but they allegedly refused to contact the police. The witness later allegedly reported the incident himself, and police have since opened an investigation. A Waitrose spokesperson has said that the branch reported the incident to police after an initial delay.

“It beggars belief that Waitrose did not immediately treat this incident with the urgency that it deserved. The supermarket chain must ensure that this does not happen again going forward, with clear, consistent procedures being implemented across every branch to ensure an appropriate response to antisemitic hate crime.”

A spokesperson for Waitrose said: “We want all our customers to feel welcome when shopping with us and have a zero tolerance policy towards antisemitism. We are very sorry our customer experienced such a distressing incident in our shop.

“We reported it to the police earlier this week, and we will cooperate with their investigation including sharing CCTV, which has been retained. Our branch management team was not given the full details of the incident at first, and we apologise for the initial delay in reporting it.”


The Jew who financed American independence
The Jewish population of the 13 colonies at the time of the war was only 2,500 out of a total of 2.5 million. It is estimated that as many as 90% of American Jews supported the patriot cause, including Haym Salomon’s brother-in-law, Lt. Col. Isaac Franks (his wife’s brother), who served in George Washington’s army.

By 1781, with the war in its sixth year and resources dwindling, Gen. George Washington was in dire need of $20,000 for a crucial battle. He sent word to Morris, who responded that the troops were on the verge of mutiny. According to a widely reported account, Washington wrote back: “Send for Haym Salomon.”

The money, secured by loans through Salomon’s brokerage company, was raised within days, enabling Washington’s troops to continue on to Yorktown and deliver the decisive blow that forced Lord Cornwallis to surrender, leading to the war’s end.

Salomon sacrificed nearly his entire fortune to American independence. When he died suddenly in Philadelphia on Jan. 6, 1785, at just 44 years old, he left his wife and young children penniless, as the government had not repaid most of the money that Salomon had advanced.

His contribution went mostly unacknowledged for many years. But in 1975, the U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp in his honor, describing him with these words: “Financial hero—Businessman and broker: Haym Salomon was responsible for raising most of the money needed to finance the American Revolution and later to save the new nation from collapse.”

Happy 250th birthday, America—with gratitude to our founders, the brave soldiers who fought gallantly and those like Haym Salomon, who financed a young nation and propelled it to victory.
Work started to restore historic Jewish cemetery in Damascus, heritage group says
Work has begun to restore a historic Jewish cemetery in Damascus, a heritage fund announced on Thursday, posting a video of graves being cleaned and repainted.

“A vital step for history and cultural preservation: The restoration and renovation of the historic Jewish cemetery in Damascus, Syria has officially begun,” said the Syrian Mosaic Foundation in a post to X.

“Honoring the past, restoring dignity to sacred grounds, and ensuring this rich heritage is preserved for the future,” said the foundation, a heritage preservation group founded by Joe Jajati, the grandson of a former leader of Syria’s Jewish community.

A video posted with the announcement showed workers cleaning graves and repainting inscriptions on tombstones. The clip included a shot of a recent gravestone, with a death date from 2024.

Reporter Roi Kais of the Kan public broadcaster wrote on X that one of the graves being renovated was that of Rabbi Nissim Nadavo, the former chief rabbi of Damascus who was with legendary Israeli spy Eli Cohen just before he was hanged in the city’s central square.

The cemetery is also the resting place of 16th-century Kabbalist Hayyim Vital.
Israel declassifies Entebbe files on 50th anniversary
The Israel State Archives on Friday released thousands of pages of previously classified documents detailing the Israeli government’s deliberations during the 1976 Entebbe hostage crisis, marking the 50th anniversary of the operation that rescued 102 hostages from Uganda.

The declassified collection includes protocols of Cabinet and Security Cabinet meetings, records of consultations by a special security team established by then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, audio recordings, photographs and diplomatic correspondence surrounding one of Israel’s most celebrated military operations.

Among the newly released material is the moment Rabin informed ministers that an Air France flight en route from Tel Aviv to Paris had been hijacked.

“Before we continue, I have an announcement,” Rabin said as he interrupted a Cabinet meeting. “It seems that the plane has been hijacked.”

According to the protocols, Rabin immediately insisted that France bore responsibility for the fate of the Israeli passengers aboard the Air France aircraft.

“My intention is to hold the government of France responsible for the fate of the Israelis flying on the Air France plane and not to absolve the government of France from this responsibility,” he said.

The documents trace the government’s deliberations during the week-long crisis as ministers weighed negotiations with the terrorists against military options.

Israel ultimately agreed to enter negotiations to buy time while simultaneously preparing the rescue mission that culminated in the successful raid on Entebbe Airport in the early hours of July 4, 1976.

The operation freed 102 Israeli hostages and the French flight crew.
Chetz the dog, wounded in Iranian strike during Operation Rising Lion, learns to walk again
Chetz (Arrow), a dog from Ness Ziona who was severely wounded in an Iranian missile strike during Operation Rising Lion, has spent the past year recovering with his family by his side.

In June of 2025, an Iranian missile struck the Levi family’s next-door neighbors, and Eran found his family’s beloved dog sprawled out and badly injured in the yard, with broken limbs and shrapnel embedded in his body.

“I thought he was finished,” Eran told Mako.

The team at the University Veterinary Hospital Beit Dagan in Rishon Lezion worked alongside Chetz for the full duration of recovery, and the lead vet even brought him home part of the time to oversee his treatment during the nights

“There was no real choice,” Dr. Talia Adler told Mako, “I couldn’t not help him.”

Chetz had to have his stomach opened in order to ensure every bit of shrapnel was removed, and had to be treated for four broken limbs.

Chetz wanted to live, and the vets wanted to help him
“At first, I'd have given him a low chance [of survival], but the more I got to know him, I saw he wanted to. He wants to live, he wants to fight. So let’s give him that chance,” Adler said.





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

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