Wednesday, July 08, 2026

07/07 Links Pt2: Anti-Zionism Is Repackaged Antisemitism; How the NYT's Boosted Graham Platner; Mamdani’s wife co-hosting pricey pro-Palestine retreat in Corsica — after skipping July 4

From Ian:

Anti-Zionism Is Repackaged Antisemitism
Yes, anti-Zionism is antisemitism. Unless one believes, in the spirit of John Lennon's "Imagine," in a world without any nation states, denying the Jewish people the right to a state - where more than 10 million live today and which is roughly the size of Wales - goes far beyond political disagreement. It signals deep-seated prejudice.

There are 193 UN member states. Only one - Israel, the lone Jewish-majority nation - has its legitimacy routinely questioned. That is ironic, since very few states can match the longevity of the Jewish people's ancestral link to a specific territory, stretching back more than three millennia.

The Hebrew Bible is replete with place names that existed in ancient times and endure today, beginning with Zion - a hill in King David's Jerusalem - and Jerusalem, the ancient and modern center of Jewish national life and capital of Israel. The Christian Bible builds on the Hebrew Bible, and its geography is inseparable from Jesus, the Judean Jew. The seventh-century Qur'an contains more than 40 references to the "Children of Israel."

Wars imposed on Israel since its rebirth in 1948 by those who rejected any Jewish national presence led to conflict. But Zionism's core purposes are to ensure Jews are no longer dependent on the goodwill of others for their survival; to provide a safe haven after centuries of persecution; to serve as a "light unto the nations"; and to establish a state at peace and in coexistence with its neighbors.

Israel rests on multiple layers of international recognition of a Jewish national home in the land. Compare that to the "legitimacy" of other states. What precisely are the foundations of legitimacy for the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand? In historical terms, they rest on conquest and subjugation of indigenous populations.

Most states derive legitimacy from the simple fact of their existence: they exist, therefore they are. Only Israel is persistently required to relitigate its right to exist in the face of persistent anti-Zionism - even 78 years after its rebirth and 77 years after joining the UN.
Palestinian Culture of Anti-Normalization Is a Central Obstacle to Peace
Were all Palestinians supporters of Hamas, or were there Palestinians who opposed the massacre and longed for a different future? My search for the answer led me to Moataz Al-Mansi in Gaza. "The future of Palestine is not built on hatred or on the dreams of cancelling the other," he wrote. "I dream of a relationship based on good neighbors, shared interests, and mutual respect."

I invited him to appear on my podcast, "Conversations at the Peace Table." Moataz told me he had lost both of his businesses during the war. His children had not attended school in years. Yet he refused to abandon his belief that Israelis and Palestinians must one day live as neighbors rather than enemies.

My friend Inbal, who worked closely with Palestinians in the West Bank for years, often told me that many Palestinians quietly desired coexistence but were afraid to say so publicly. Those who engaged with Israelis risked being labeled collaborators or traitors. Again and again, I heard the same story: Palestinians who sought dialogue often faced pressure from their own society, while Israelis who sought partnership struggled to find counterparts who could safely engage.

This helped me understand a central obstacle to peace: the culture of anti-normalization. Anti-normalization discourages dialogue, joint initiatives, business partnerships, cultural exchanges, and even personal friendships with Israelis or Jews. A Palestinian who speaks publicly about cooperation can be accused of betrayal. The result is that peace becomes socially dangerous and the public square becomes dominated by those who reject coexistence.

Two days ago, Moataz contacted me again. An article had appeared in a Gaza newspaper calling him a traitor. He believed the danger to his life had become immediate. He asked me to tell his story. "If something happens to me, it is because I chose peace."

Peace must first become socially acceptable among ordinary people. That requires protecting those courageous enough to see humanity in the other side. The ideology that condemns Moataz for reaching across the divide is the obstacle to peace. Until Palestinians who seek coexistence are free to do so without fear, and until activists stop treating anti-normalization as a moral virtue, those yearning for peace will continue to pay the highest price.
Solomon’s Pools: How the Palestinian Authority Neglected a Historical Treasure
To the north of the Israeli town of Efrat, and to the south of Bethlehem, lie Solomon’s Pools. The pools were part of an extensive water infrastructure originating in the Judean hills that supplied water to the Jewish Temples in Jerusalem. Whether the pools are those referred to by King Solomon in the Book of Ecclesiastes (2.6), who wrote, “I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees,” remains a subject of debate.

In the Oslo Accords, Judea and Samaria were divided into three areas, which can generally be defined as follows: Area A – mostly under the complete jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority, subject to overriding Israeli jurisdiction to combat terror; Area B – joint control with the PA holding jurisdiction for civilian affairs and Israel holding security jurisdiction; Area C – full Israeli jurisdiction.

Each area in which Israel transferred jurisdiction to the PA – i.e., every area that would become part of areas A and B – was carefully delineated on agreed maps, with area C being the remainder.

The Oslo Accords never envisaged a situation in which Areas A and B would be off limits to Israelis. Rather, the accords included specific provisions regarding both the treatment of Israelis present in those areas and the manner in which the PA treated Jewish historical sites that were included therein.

The Israeli participants in the talks with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Israeli authors of the accords certainly did not anticipate a situation in which this area would become dominated by hostile PA forces and other Palestinian terrorist organizations, and that almost every entry of a Jew into those areas would potentially be accompanied by mortal danger.

Here, it should be stressed that the danger posed in areas A and B is only to Israeli Jews. Israeli Arabs – i.e., the millions of Arabs Israeli citizens – are free to enter, study, and even live in areas A and B.

Since the classification of an area as Area A, B, or C was not meant to be a hindrance to access, the Oslo negotiating sides saw no obstacle to including Solomon’s Pools within Area A. The inclusion of this specific site within area A, did, however, present a unique challenge to the PA.

According to the PA narrative, Jews are modern-day European colonizers of “Palestine,” a state that never actually existed. Jews, according to the PA, have no history or connection to the area. For the PA, the statement in the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, in which “recognition has thereby been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country,” was simply wrong and baseless. The PA narrative is so dogmatic that it even outrageously denies any Jewish connection to the Temple Mount.


Anatomy of a Hype Job: How the New York Times Boosted Graham Platner
A New York Times columnist who has repeatedly risen to the defense of U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner is now publicly accepting "blame," saying that she "deeply" regrets a column she wrote defending the Democratic nominee, who put his Maine campaign on hold this week after being accused of rape.

Apologies from the rest of the paper’s staff for the newspaper’s oddly gentle treatment of Platner haven’t yet emerged, but they’d be warranted.

"While I’m assigning blame, I shouldn’t leave out myself," Times columnist Michelle Goldberg writes. "Last October, when stories about Platner’s tattoo and Reddit posts first broke, I went to Maine to write about him. I tried to convey what I saw: a campaign that was electrifying angry Maine voters. But I deeply regret that, impressed by Platner’s political charisma, I wrote that he was ‘nothing like the edgelord caricature I encountered online.’" In retrospect, Goldberg now acknowledges, "If anything, he seems to be significantly worse."

Even the apology doesn’t quite do justice to how deeply in the tank Goldberg was for Platner. She didn’t defend him only in that October column; she also wrote a May 8, 2026 column headlined "Graham Platner Is No Nazi." It went on: "Platner, from a young age, seems to have seen the Palestinians as one oppressed people among many. His condemnation of Israel, unlike that of some of the country’s right-wing enemies, has nothing to do with its Jewish character, but with its killing and dispossession of a subject population, a stance shared by many left-wing Jews."

Goldberg gave the October 16, 2025 Doft Lecture at Harvard’s Center for Jewish Studies, where she explained the Times’s lack of pro-Trump columnists by saying the paper has a hard time finding people who are "pro-Trump, honest, and not racist."

That followed a May 4, 2026 column by Timesman Frank Bruni—who is also the Eugene C. Patterson Professor of the Practice of Journalism and Public Policy at Duke: "If Democrats Have Appropriate Fear of Trump, They Will Elect Platner."

Nor is the opinion section the only part of the Times that has been plumping for Platner.
'Political Operative and Known Fabricator': Left-Wing Lawmakers and Pundits Who Attacked Platner's Conservative Accuser Now Believe His Liberal One
It's always the one you most suspect.

When Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner faced allegations of physical abuse from an ex-girlfriend who worked for Republican organizations, left-wing lawmakers and pundits attacked her as a "political operative and known fabricator" who could not be trusted because of her involvement with "right-wing political operations." Many of them are now distancing themselves from Platner after a left-wing ex-girlfriend accused him of rape.

Rhode Island senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D.) dismissed Platner's first accuser, Lyndsey Fifield, who said Platner "twisted her arm behind her back, shoved her into a bedroom and held the door closed from the other side so she couldn't get out," as "a woman who works for right-wing political operations."

"Seems like a lot of nothing," Whitehouse said. But the Rhode Island lawmaker withdrew his support for Platner on Tuesday, calling the rape allegations from 41-year-old Maine Democrat Jenny Racicot "extremely serious."

Former MSNBC pundit Mehdi Hasan called Fifield "an anti-Palestinian racist and bigot," citing a 2024 tweet in which she criticized Palestinian terrorism. Hasan also noted that Platner denied Fifield's allegations and that the New York Times "has been unable to corroborate" them, though Fifield provided texts, social media messages, and diary entries supporting her claims. Hasan has since boosted a number of posts calling Racicot's allegations "immensely damaging," "credible," and "very serious" and calling on Platner to end his campaign.

A who's who of leading anti-Israel media figures also attacked Fifield.

Former Times writer Wajahat Ali called her "a Republican operative" who "is known to be a hardcore right-wing activist" and concocted "an obvious Republican hit job" against Platner. Intercept cofounder Glenn Greenwald called her "a pathological liar … whose main cause is Israel" and whose politics are "clearly relevant" to the validity of her allegations. Commentator Krystal Ball, formerly of The Hill, called her a "political operative and known fabricator." Former Intercept reporter Zaid Jilani called her a "hardcore GOP operator." Drop Site News cofounder Ryan Grim called her a "Republican" who presented a "confusing" timeline of her relationship with Platner. Writer and frequent MS NOW contributor Matt Stoller called her "a professional Republican operative" making "uncorroborated claims." And the left-wing pundit Emma Vigeland said her allegations were part of a "right-wing smear campaign."

Ali, Ball, Jilani, and Vigeland have since said that Platner should drop out over Racicot's allegations, which Stoller called "far more credible" than Fifield's. Greenwald and Grim called on Maine Democrats to replace Platner with another progressive.


Shai Davidai: Good Ideas Are Worth Fighting For
Ideas, of course, rarely remain confined to classrooms. Eventually, they reshape campuses, politics, and society itself.

You can see this most clearly in the vocabulary that has become common in the pro-Hamas campus movement. Emphasizing the illegitimacy of the United States, National Students for Justice in Palestine describes its work as taking place across “occupied Turtle Island,” treating the United States as an illegitimate settler-colonial project whose very legitimacy requires scare quotes. Calling for colleges and universities to sever ties with the “fundamentally immoral economic and political system of the United States,” the organization no longer treats America as a work in progress but as a first draft to be discarded. Similarly, Columbia University Apartheid Divest—the coalition led, at the height of the Columbia protests, by figures such as Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Madhawi—declared its commitment to fighting for the “total eradication of Western civilization.” This is not criticism. It is a rejection of the American idea itself.

This is precisely why American Intellectual Antisemitism—the subject of my forthcoming book—is not merely a Jewish problem. It is, at its core, the anti-Jewish expression of a broader assault on the American idea.

An ideology that teaches students to see Israel as inherently illegitimate will eventually teach them to see America the same way. An ideology that insists Israel’s founding sins can never be redeemed will soon insist the same about America’s. An ideology that denies one democracy’s right to exist rarely stops at one democracy. American Intellectual Antisemitism does not end with Jews. It begins there.

The movements excused by this ideology make the point unmistakable. By supporting Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and the Iranian regime—all openly hostile to America and Israel—students, faculty, and staff across the country excuse organizations that reject the very liberal values they claim to defend. While condemning the United States for failing to embody its ideals, American Intellectual Antisemitism teaches students to excuse violent movements that reject those ideals simply because they speak the language of liberation. A movement that excuses America’s enemies while condemning America’s imperfections is not trying to repair America. It is trying to replace the moral framework that makes repair possible.

The solution begins where the problem began: education. Pretending America’s betrayals never happened produces propaganda. Pretending its founding ideals never existed produces cynicism. Neither teaches students how to improve their country.

The answer to this ideology is neither blind patriotism nor a denial of America’s many sins. It is to tell the whole truth about America’s ideals, its failures, and the long struggle to bring the country closer to the benchmark it set for itself. Only by teaching America’s failures fully, honestly, and without excuses—alongside the ideals those failures betrayed—can we produce citizens capable of criticism without contempt, patriotism without parochialism, and reform without revolution.

Such education is not a luxury. It is an imperative. The Roman Republic lasted nearly five centuries and disappeared. The Republic of Venice lasted for roughly a thousand years and disappeared. The Byzantine Empire lasted for more than a thousand years and disappeared. The Ottoman Empire lasted for more than six centuries and disappeared. Every civilization looks permanent—until it isn’t. History offers no guarantee that America – and it ideals – will endure.

America’s next 250 years will not be secured by fireworks, slogans, military power, or economic strength alone. They will depend on whether Americans still believe the ideas that made the country worth creating are also worth perfecting. Some ideas deserve to be criticized. Some deserve to be revised. Some deserve to be abandoned. Others are worth defending. America’s founding ideas belong there—in the last category—not because America has lived up to them perfectly, but because without them we lose the very standard that allows us to distinguish justice from power.

Good ideas are worth fighting for.


HonestReporting: Stop Asking Permission: Why Pride, Not Defense, Is the Answer to Jew-Hatred
The founder of the Jewish Pride movement says Jews have spent so long fighting for the right to exist that they've forgotten how to be proud that they do.

Ben M. Freeman — a gay Jewish kid from Glasgow who had to come out twice, first as gay and then as an unapologetic Zionist — joins Ben Chertoff to make the affirmative case: that Jews are not a religion but a people, an ancient civilization indigenous to the Land of Israel, and that pride, not defense, is the real answer to Jew-hatred.

Highlights:
• Internalized antisemitism and his "3 D's"
• The non-Jewish gaze
• Why he reframes "Eastern European Jews" as "Jews who lived in Eastern Europe"
• The UN's own criteria for indigeneity
• Why he says anti-Zionism is antisemitism

Chapters:
0:00 – Cold Open & Introduction
2:05 – Two Comings Out: Gay and Zionist
5:15 – What Jewish Pride Actually Means
7:21 – The Non-Jewish Gaze and the Broken Mirror
10:08 – The Three D's: Diminishment, Denial, Deployment
17:37 – Has the Holocaust Become Our Identity?
20:50 – Drawing Boundaries on Anti-Zionist Rabbis
26:49 – Historical Echoes: From the Hellenistic Period to Reform Judaism
31:04 – The UN's Criteria and the Case for Jewish Indigeneity
39:19 – Jews Who Lived in Eastern Europe
44:03 – On Palestinian Indigeneity
48:53 – Anti-Zionism Is Antisemitism
1:02:27 – Head, Hands, Heart: Raising a Proudly Jewish Generation
1:04:51 – What "Doing Jewish" Looks Like Day to Day
1:07:19 – Grief, Mourning, and Jewish Ritual
1:10:11 – Coming Home to Israel
1:11:18 – His Message to Every Jewish Viewer


HonestReporting Canada: My Journey From Anti-Israel Activist To Critic Of Pro-Palestinian Movements: With Sana Ebrahimi
Sana Ebrahimi is an Iranian-born academic and activist in the United States, where she is an outspoken opponent of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the pro-Palestinian political movement.

But that wasn’t always the case, and in this fascinating interview, Sana shares her own personal journey, what led her to where she is today, and the remarkable parallels she sees between Iranian state media and Western media.


In Tel Aviv speech, Rahm Emanuel to tear into Netanyahu for leading Israel to ‘dead end’
Rahm Emanuel, a top Jewish Democrat and likely candidate for the party’s US presidential nomination in 2028, will denounce Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv this week and deliver a bracing message that the country’s relationship with the United States is “at a crossroads.”

“It cannot stand or survive as it has been,” Emanuel will say at Tel Aviv University on Wednesday, according to remarks obtained by The Times of Israel. “To maintain the strength of our ties, we need significant changes and a new direction.”

In an interview ahead of his speech, Emanuel told The Associated Press that Israel’s continued military response to Hamas’s October 7 onslaught has been “reckless and careless in the treatment of Palestinian life — not only the military campaign but using food and medicine as an instrument of your military goals.”

Israel has adamantly rejected allegations that it has used food as a weapon in the war against Hamas, pointing to its facilitation of large amounts of aid into Gaza throughout the war. But it did withhold that assistance for nearly three months last year, as it sought to pressure Hamas to release hostages.

Asked whether Israel had committed genocide — an accusation leveled by some human rights organizations and rejected by the Israeli and US governments — Emanuel said the question should not be considered in isolation without also examining conflicts in Ukraine and Sudan.

“I’m ready to have that discussion,” he said, “but I don’t think it should be politicized, and then dilute the power of what genocide means.”


Re-treat herself Mamdani’s wife Rama Duwaji co-hosting pricey pro-Palestine retreat in Corsica — after skipping July 4 celebrations
New York City’s controversial first lady, Rama Duwaji, is co-hosting a pro-Palestinian all-female spiritual retreat where they will honor Jesus’ mother Mary, described as a “Palestinian woman giving birth under occupation.”

Duwaji, 29, will travel to the sold-out “spiritual” retreat in Corsica this week, where participants — most of them Muslim women — will pray at a 15th-century monastery for “our sisters in Palestine,” according to a report.

The event, starting July 9, is being organized by The Women Sanctuary, a Muslim-and-women-focused travel group run by Parisian designer Rym Nur.

In Corsica, attendees will “honor the legacy of Mary, the most honored woman in the Quran,” according to a description on the group’s website. The retreat, priced from $3,100 to $5,260 for a private “casita” with a living room, garden views and a private bathroom, features lectures, daily prayers and farm-to-table dining.

“At every prayer, lecture and meal, there was mention of our sisters in Palestine,” said a 2025 Vogue Arabia article about last year’s Corsican retreat, which was also held in celebration of the Virgin Mary, who is honored in both Christianity and Islam.

“At the heart of this retreat is the luminous legacy of Mary, the most honored woman in the Qur’an, chosen, purified, and elevated above all women of the worlds,” says the Women Sanctuary website.

“She is the only woman mentioned by name in the Qur’an — mentioned 34 times. Her story is not only one of divine motherhood, but of unwavering faith, sacred retreat, and total devotion to Allah.

“One guest… had just returned from Gaza’s Nasser Hospital, where she volunteered for a month to help deliver babies under bombardment. She spoke of mothers laboring through terror and of tender life ­arriving in the shadow of death,” wrote one attendee in the article for Vogue Arabia.

“It is not lost on us that Mary, too, was a Palestinian woman giving birth under occupation. In the Qur’an, she cries out in anguish, ‘I wish I had died before this and had been long ­­­forgotten,’” she added.
El-Sayed says Democratic support for Israel can only be about money
As the heated Democratic Senate primary in Michigan enters its final stretch, far-left candidate Abdul El-Sayed told CNN this week that he does not believe that a politician’s support for Israel could be about anything other than money.

“Not if you’re a Democrat and you believe in human rights,” El-Sayed told CNN when asked about such a distinction.

Asked whether it was possible to be a Zionist and be a progressive, El-Sayed said, “Every definition of a Jewish state ends up in some articulation of illiberal values, every single one.”

El-Sayed is facing off against Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) in the Aug. 4 primary, following state Sen. Mallory McMorrow’s departure from the race on Sunday.

Stevens, a moderate lawmaker who has been supported by AIPAC and pro-Israel donors throughout her career, has drawn a contrast between herself and El-Sayed on the issue.

“There is a difference between me and Abdul,” she said in an MS NOW interview on Monday. “I believe in a two-state solution. I want to see the people of Palestine and in Gaza live peacefully, side by side, with the people of Israel. He cannot qualify Israel’s right to exist.”
From AI Policy to the National Debt To Chuck Schumer, El-Sayed Blames Problems on Israel in Michigan Senate Debate
The debate highlighted El-Sayed’s efforts to center the race on Israeli and U.S. foreign policy. He has spent much of the campaign thus far slamming AIPAC and accusing the organization of buying off politicians. He has also made campaign appearances with the antisemitic influencer Hasan Piker and joined the Holocaust-denying Shiite cleric Fadhel Al-Sahlani on stage last month to celebrate the opening of a new mosque, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

Despite his vocal denunciations of Israel, El-Sayed has avoided criticism of the Iranian regime. He privately told staffers he wouldn’t make a public statement about the assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei because "there are a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad" about his death, according to audio of a campaign meeting obtained by the Free Beacon.

During Tuesday evening’s debate, El-Sayed was asked whether he believes the Democratic Party is "shifting" too far to the left. "If you want your politics dictated to you by AIPAC or Chuck Schumer, then I'm not your guy. I think we need to go back to the idea of government of the people, by the people," he said. "That's money that buys something on the back end, so if you elect the person who took that money, don't be surprised when they betray you."

Stevens responded by noting that she was recently criticized by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. El-Sayed claimed it was part of a ploy by the Israeli government to secretly boost Stevens’s candidacy.

"I don't think Benjamin Netanyahu is attacking [my opponent] to actually attack her. I think he's attacking her to try and steer away the stink of how staunchly she stands for their policy," said El-Sayed.


Middle East minister warns of ‘unintended consequences’ of West Bank sanctions impacting British Jewish community
The Middle East minister has told an influential committee of Parliament that he takes “seriously” the concerns of British Jews about the unintended consequences of “blunt” measures aimed at targeting Israeli settlements.

Hamish Falconer was taking questions from the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee and was asked by the committee’s chair, Dame Emily Thornberry about “the ban on goods and services to settlements and the ban on sale of goods to the UK”.

Speaking to Parliament last week, Falconer had confirmed that the government was exploring taking more robust measures against Israel in response to settlement construction in E1 in the West Bank.

He told MPs then: “We are in discussion with partners, including those few countries who have explored how a ban on settlement trade might work. We are looking at further concrete steps to counter settlement expansion and promote peace and security.”

At the committee, Thornberry questioned why the government couldn’t easily distinguish between goods and services originating from Israel’s internationally recognised borders.

She noted that in the current trade agreement between the two countries “the West Bank is excluded” from the tariff preferences that Israel enjoys.

“If we can do it on a trade deal, why can't we do it otherwise?”, she asked, adding: “Why is it that other countries think that it can be done, and we're taking so long to be able to do anything?”

While Falconer said that he believed more robust measures could be introduced, there were questions that needed to be asked.

“There are enforceability issues, because this is a complex area, and everyone who has sought to implement a ban of this kind has faced enforceability issues.

“There is an effectiveness issue. I do worry about over compliance in any measure that we take in the Foreign Office, or indeed in HMG [His Majesty’s Government], you can have unintended consequences” he continued.

He went on to say: “There clearly exists within Israeli society people who do not accept the green line distinctions that we do. If we put in place measures, and as I say, we are in advanced and detailed work on those questions, I want to make sure they can be enforced effectively.”


Messi leads Argentina in stunning late 3-2 comeback to oust Egypt from World Cup
It was another World Cup epic from an Argentina team that simply doesn’t know when it’s beaten.

Trailing 2-0 against Egypt with 11 minutes of regulation time to play on Tuesday, the defending champions rallied for an improbable 3-2 victory and a spot in the quarterfinals.

“We have a phenomenal group, a group that never gives up no matter the difficulties and adversity. We’re always together,” said Enzo Fernandez, who scored the winning goal in stoppage time.

Argentina will play either Switzerland or Colombia in the next round on Saturday in Kansas City, Missouri.

For much of Tuesday’s game, it looked like it would be a painful exit for the 39-year-old Lionel Messi in what might be the last of his six World Cups.

Egypt led after goals in each half from Yasser Ibrahim and Mostafa Zico and could have been ahead 3-0 if not for a video review that ruled out another score.

Argentina looked down and out, its bid to be the first team to win back-to-back World Cup titles since Brazil in 1958 and 1962 all but dead.

Cue a monumental comeback.


I'm an Arab Muslim - I Still Don't Understand the Antisemitic BDS Movement
I understand grievances. I understand the pain of a conflict that has cost lives on every side.

What I do not understand is a movement that insists it advances justice by demanding that human beings reject the very things that heal them, feed them, protect them and connect them.

Here is the uncomfortable truth: if you truly boycotted everything Israel has given the world, you would have to dismantle a large part of modern life.

You must give up Waze, which now tells half the planet how to get home. Much of the chip architecture inside the world's laptops was developed in part at Intel's research labs in Haifa. The USB flash drive was developed in large part by the Israeli company M-Systems.

Teva is the largest maker of generic medicine on earth. Mobileye, the collision avoidance system, came out of Israel's Hebrew University.

Check Point, the modern firewall that shields banks, hospitals and governments from cyberattack, was built by an Israeli company. Wix, the website builder used by millions of small businesses worldwide, is Israeli.

Since the Abraham Accords, I have met Israelis who want nothing more than to live beside us in peace.

I have learned that you do not honor the Palestinian people by impoverishing everyone, including yourself. You honor them by demanding leaders who choose negotiation over slogans, and life over hatred.
NYC Muslim groups announce anti-BDS campaign in response to Mamdani
A coalition of Muslim groups in New York City will launch a campaign on Thursday to counter the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

The new group, called the Unbreakable Bond Coalition, said the program “seeks to benefit Israel, its Arab citizens and Palestinians employed by Israeli companies.”

“The reality is that Israelis and Palestinians are deeply connected economically,” the group said in a statement. “Broad boycotts can unintentionally harm the very workers and communities they claim to support.”

The group said it believes that building economic bridges leads to dialogue, understanding and partnerships that foster peace.

The participating organizations are the American Muslim & Multifaith Women’s Empowerment Council (AMMWEC), Muslim Women Speakers Bureau, Global Youth Unity Project (GYUP), Abraham PRC and Muslims Israel Dialogue.

The group aims to collect at least $1 from 500,000 supporters by 9 October 2026. The funds will be invested in Israel treasury bonds, and investment proceeds will be distributed to four nonprofits — the coexistence group Sharaka, the Jerusalem Interfaith Center, the Combat Antisemitism Movement, and Debate for Peace, an Arab-Jewish student group.

The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) confirmed its relationship with organizers and stated its support for the anti-BDS campaign.

“CAM is proud to stand with Muslim partners in the fight against the hate-fueled BDS movement,” said director Sacha Roytman. “We look forward to continued collaborative efforts to counter extremism and revitalize the ancient Abrahamic bonds linking Muslims and Jews.”
Harvard Med School, Fordham profs launch program to combat Jew-hatred in psychology education
Dean McKay, a psychology professor at Fordham University, and Miri Bar-Halpern, a psychology lecturer at Harvard Medical School, plan to create a program to fight Jew-hatred in their field.

McKay told JNS that the initiative, which the Academic Engagement Network is supporting with a $75,000 grant over three years, will “address issues in professional training that may have antisemitic components to it, which is growing increasingly common in the profession.”

Anti-Zionism is embedded in the “decolonial psychology movement,” which teaches that Zionism is a “settler-colonial” movement and that “Zionism is associated with a lot of other social ills,” according to McKay.

“These all ignore and usually distort, if they do address it at all, what Zionism is actually about, which is, in a nutshell, that Jews have a right to a homeland in their native Israel,” he told JNS.

The movement also “ignores, usually, archaeological evidence showing that Jews have occupied that land in one way or another for millennia,” he said.

“The decolonial approach, we feel, is an applied version of what has been present in academia for many years in some of the non-applied disciplines, and it’s just made this transition now, basically into the therapy room,” McKay told JNS.

The new initiative is intended to “educate people, among our colleagues, to understand what Judaism is, what Zionism is and, of course, of what it isn’t, to dispel some very widely held misconceptions that are present in academia in general as well as in clinical psychology in particular,” McKay said.

“That would serve as the basis for beginning to help dispel this among other trainers in different programs,” he told JNS.

Both McKay and Bar-Halpern have experienced Jew-hatred in their professional circles, according to the Fordham professor.

McKay has dealt with “intimidating rhetoric online,” was “tossed off of a social media network for expressing concerns out of open requests for anti-Zionist therapists” and was subject to a protest outside of a conference he attended in November 2023, where protesters donned keffiyehs and chanted “from the river to the sea,” he said.


Grassroots org asks Australian public commission to subpoena ‘NY Times’ over reporter leaking Jewish WhatsApp chat
Minority Impact Coalition, an Australian advocacy group, asked the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, a government-appointed, independent panel, to subpoena the New York Times and one of its reporters as part of its probe into the reporter’s decision to leak messages from a private Jewish WhatsApp group to an unnamed person, unrelated to the reporter’s job.

A Times spokeswoman said in 2024 that “it has been brought to our attention that a New York Times reporter inappropriately shared information with the subject of a story to assist the individual in a private matter, a clear violation of our ethics.”

“This was done without the knowledge or approval of the Times,” the spokeswoman said. She added that the company took “appropriate action” against Natasha Frost.

In its submission to the royal commission, Minority Impact urged the panel to subpoena the Times to identify the person with whom Frost shared a downloaded copy of the chat from the WhatsApp group “Jewish Academics and Creatives.”

The group said that members of the chat were subjected to death threats, harassment, vandalism and professional repercussions, and two years later, many victims continue to experience backlash from the leak.

“It would be extraordinary if the royal commission did not seek information from the New York Times and Natasha Frost” about the identity of the recipient, Minority Impact stated.

“Where credible evidence exists that persons or organizations possess information identifying individuals potentially involved in serious antisemitic offending, the exercise of compulsory powers is consistent with established royal commission practice,” it added.
A New York Times Map Overlooks the Jews
On the eve of the July 4 holiday, the New York Times posted a multimedia map illustrating "How a Nation of Immigrants Traces Its Roots."

A celebration of diversity, it includes 200 "unique identities" represented across all 50 states.

But there are no Jews. Hover over Manhattan, home to one of the largest Jewish communities in the world, and you'll find pockets where 20% or more of the residents are Chinese, Puerto Rican, African American, Dominican, German and Italian, but there is no heading for "Jewish."
Gaza Officials "Taking Bribes" to Let Healthy People on Medical Flights
Officials within the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza are taking bribes to place healthy people on medical evacuation lists, the families of ill and injured Gazans have claimed. Healthy people are said to have acquired forged medical papers by saying they require evacuation on medical grounds.

Gazan refugee Ramzi Herzallah organized demonstrations in front of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza and Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis after discovering that "healthy individuals were being evacuated instead of [genuine] patients, using forged medical reports," while trying to get his sick father out of the strip.

Exiled Gazan activist Hamza al-Masri said, "The protesters emphasized that there is clear discrimination and corruption in the mechanism for selecting names permitted to travel for treatment. They pointed out that priority has shifted to those who pay money to certain doctors and officials affiliated with the Hamas government, while the remaining patients and wounded are left to their fate."


Spanish anti-Israel mob blocks Jewish poet's book launch
A poetry book presentation by a Jewish author at a Spanish book fair has been cancelled after hundreds of anti-Israel demonstrators occupied the venue and prevented the event from taking place.

Marcos-Ricardo Barnatán, an Argentine-born Jewish writer, was due to present his latest collection of haiku, The Silver Dollar, alongside his son, Jimmy Barnatán, at the Santander and Cantabria Book Fair (FELISA) on Sunday.

However, shortly before the event was due to begin, dozens of protesters carrying Palestinian flags, banners, and wearing keffiyehs circled the stage in Santander's Plaza Porticada, chanting: "It's not a war, it's a genocide", eventually forcing organisers to cancel the presentation.

The demonstration had been organised after Barnatán's inclusion in the festival programme prompted criticism from pro-Palestinian groups over his public support for Israel and comments he has made on social media.

Sergio Tamayo, a spokesman for the Interpueblos solidarity organisation, described the action as a "cultural boycott" of "a Zionist who says Palestine does not exist".

"We have come here to stage a cultural boycott," he said, arguing that events involving Barnatán helped "whitewash" Israel's image.

Barnatán is an outspoken pro-Israeli advocate and has been critical of the pro-Palestine movement, once calling the Palestinian cause “the Viagra of the impotent Left”.

Reacting to footage of the incident posted online, Israel’s embassy in Spain said on X: “It seems that for some, freedom of speech does not include Jews.

“These images, from the Santander Book Fair, are not acceptable. Harassing a Jewish writer during his presentation is not activism. It is antisemitism.

“Culture must be a space for dialogue, never for finger-pointing and hate.”

The organisers of the fair said they had been aware of the controversy surrounding Barnatán before the event but decided to proceed because the presentation concerned a poetry collection rather than politics and that Barnatán "was not invited to speak about either Israel or Palestine".


Israeli tourist cancels Italy hotel booking after receiving 'No Room for Genocide' email
An Israeli tourist received an automated email from a hotel she had booked in Italy, informing her that the hotel was part of BDS Italy's "No Room for Genocide" campaign, leading her to cancel her booking.

"I wrote that I didn't feel safe to go there," the tourist, R, told N12. "It made me a little less eager to travel, but I'm getting over it. It's still a very unpleasant feeling, and it ruins my mood even before the trip."

In the emailed response, the hotel, Decumani Hotel De Charme, wrote that "This property endorses the No Room for Genocide campaign and respects freedom and human rights of communities suffering racist, ethnic, social, and other forms of harm and discrimination. We warmly welcome Palestinians, refugees and all those peacefully resisting oppression and struggling to attain their internationally recognized rights."

The goal of the No Room for Genocide campaign is to pressure countries to prosecute Israelis who are, as BDS Italy claims, "involved in war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide against Palestinians on their soil.

Automatic email, and background questions
The text in the email came from BDS Italy's No Room for Genocide toolkit, and BDS Italy recommends that it be included in confirmation emails for businesses who are part of the campaign and use booking.com.

"This email," BDS Italy explains, "Which typically explains logistical information and house rules, can include a brief message stating your position, welcoming guests from diverse backgrounds, and deterring suspected war criminals."
Woman convicted after antisemitic attack on children outside Jewish school
A woman has been convicted after directing antisemitic abuse at children outside a Jewish secondary school in north London before assaulting a father who challenged her behaviour.

Syeda Khatun, 39, was found guilty at Stratford Magistrates’ Court on Friday, 3 July, over the attack, which happened outside a school in Stamford Hill on 10 May.

The court heard that Khatun approached pupils who were waiting outside the school gates after returning from a school trip. After shouting antisemitic abuse at a mother pushing a baby, she turned towards the children and began aggressively swinging her arms at them.

When the father of one of the children asked why she was targeting youngsters, Khatun struck him in the face, pulled his beard and continued shouting antisemitic abuse.

The Crown Prosecution Service authorised charges within 24 hours of receiving evidence from the Metropolitan Police. Prosecutors said eyewitness testimony and CCTV footage formed a strong case against Khatun.

She was convicted of three counts of racially aggravated assault, one count of racially aggravated assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and one count of using racially aggravated words and behaviour causing harassment, alarm or distress.

She is due to be sentenced at Thames Magistrates’ Court on 24 July.

Ragvesh Singh, Senior Crown Prosecutor for CPS London North, said: “This was a shocking attack where Syeda Khatun targeted people with antisemitic abuse in a public place, including children who were waiting outside their school.


German FM visits Israel, signs Yad Vashem funding deal
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul arrived on Tuesday for a short visit to Israel as the guest of Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar. This is the ninth meeting between the two in the past year.

During the meeting, the ministers signed an agreement between the governments of Germany and Israel, under which Germany will provide financial support in the amount of five million euros per year until 2030 to Yad Vashem for the purpose of Holocaust research and documentation, and for conducting education and commemoration activities.

The move was initiated in meetings between Yad Vashem Chairman Dani Dayan and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Wadephul last September in Berlin.

The agreement states that it comes as the governments are “aware of the eternal responsibility of the German people for past events—that is, the events of the Holocaust and their consequences, confronting them and acting to preserve and strengthen the memory of the Holocaust through Yad Vashem.”

During joint statements following the signing ceremony at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, the two men agreed that U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan for the Gaza Strip must be fully implemented, including the disarmament of the Hamas terror group.


JPost Editorial: Israel’s humanitarian mission to Venezuela reflects its national character
'You do not need to be Israel’s friend, for Israel to help you'
The lesson from Venezuela is brought even more into focus when one considers the recent diplomatic relations between the two. It is a lesson. You do not need to be Israel’s friend for Israel to help you.

For two decades, its leadership helped turn hostility to Israel into a political language. Former president Hugo Chávez condemned Israel during the 2006 Lebanon war in extreme terms, accusing Israel of “going mad and inflicting on the people of Palestine and Lebanon the same thing they have criticized, and with reason: the Holocaust. But this is a new Holocaust.”

In August 2006, Reuters reported that Chávez had called for Israeli leaders to face a trial for genocide, stating the Jewish state had “done something similar or, perhaps worse, who knows, than what the Nazis did.”

In 2008, during a diplomatic disagreement with neighboring Colombia over the latter’s intrusion into Ecuador, Chávez said: “the Colombian government has become the Israel of Latin America.”

In 2009, during the Israel-Hamas War, Venezuela expelled Israel’s ambassador and broke diplomatic relations. A year later, Chávez accused Israel and the Mossad of plotting against him and denounced Israel as a “terrorist and murderous state.”

Under Chávez, Caracas also saw a deepening relationship with Iran. Under Chávez’s successor, Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela and Iran signed a 20-year cooperation plan in 2022, binding two sanctioned regimes together in economics, energy, aviation, technology, and political defiance of the West.

There is no need to pretend that these acts never happened lest anyone confuse humanitarian aid with political forgetfulness. Israel has no obligation to erase the record of those who have vilified it, embraced its enemies, or helped normalize some of the ugliest rhetoric used against the Jewish state.

Israel’s strength of character on display for the world
But Israel’s strength is that it can remember this and still act.

Received with gratitude by local Jews and acknowledged by its interim president, Israeli uniforms in Venezuela are a reminder that the caricature the world sometimes portrays of Israel collapses a different reality appears. The state so often accused of cruelty sends experts to help save lives and rebuild homes, even to those who do not wish diplomatic relations with us.

Israel’s humanitarian instinct is part of the country’s national character.

That does not mean Venezuela will change course diplomatically. But it does mean the Venezuelan people have seen, on the ground, Israelis there helping day in and day out since the disaster occurred.

Because Israel shows up, and when it does, even its fiercest critics have no choice but to say thank you.
IDF delegation documents assistance efforts in Venezuela
The Israel Defense Forces-led delegation dispatched to Venezuela published on Monday materials documenting their relief efforts in the earthquake-hit country.

Maj. Ahed Shibli, deputy commander of an IDF Engineering Assessment Team, shared some of his team’s work in a recorded message, saying, “We are currently conducting an assessment of a residential building. At the moment, we’re in the basement beneath the structure, below ground level. We are examining the building’s structural elements—the columns and beams—to determine whether there are any cracks or settlement affecting the load-bearing system.”

He continued, “From a structural standpoint, the building appears to be in good condition. There is some minor damage on the upper floors, and we have marked those areas in red, but overall the building appears to be in good condition and does not pose a danger to occupants.”

The Israeli search-and-rescue team is moreover seen walking in a residential area impacted by the tremors and speaking to senior Venezuelan officials.

Israel is assisting despite the absence of diplomatic relations between Jerusalem and Caracas.

The official casualties from the June 24 twin earthquakes stand at 3,342 deaths and 16,470 injuries. More than 17,000 people have been left homeless.





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