Saturday, July 11, 2026

07/10 Links Pt2: Howard Jacobson: “Had we been living in Berlin, what would we have done?; The trillion-dollar campaign to conquer the West; Andy Burnham’s shameful pandering to anti-Israel bigots

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: The trillion-dollar campaign to conquer the West
More and more information is surfacing to reveal that the Islamic holy war against the West isn’t just being waged on the battleground of the Middle East.

Even more significantly, it’s also being waged through a trillion-dollar influence campaign to colonize and subvert the Western mind, organized by extremists from the Islamic world.

These have tunneled into the West through a vast civic infrastructure whose real purpose and sources of funding have been as well concealed, and in their own way are just as deadly as the subterranean genocide factories in Gaza and Lebanon.

To those with eyes to see, it was obvious from the start that the hate marches springing into existence after Oct. 7, 2023—even while the Hamas-led atrocities were still going on—weren’t spontaneous protests against Israel.

They were instead a globally coordinated campaign to turn gullible Westerners into the unwitting army of Islamic jihad through support for the Palestinian cause.

An important new report by NGO Monitor shows that this post-Oct. 7 protest infrastructure in Britain has used the signature liberal causes of humanitarianism and human rights to launder the Islamic jihad against the West.

The report found that, through a series of concentric circles, just six groups have been involved in more than 80% of the major protests.

In the innermost circle sit the states hostile to the West: Iran, China, Russia and Qatar; terrorist organizations, such as Hamas, Hezbollah and Al-Qaeda; and extremist religious-political movements like the Muslim Brotherhood.

Lapping around them are charities, campaign groups, protest movements and advocacy organizations that provide legitimacy for these hostile forces, amplify their propaganda and transmit extremism to society.

Out of 40 organizations mapped in the report, at least 11 have links to extremist groups or officials who have cooperated with Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Muslim Brotherhood.
New Ted Cruz-aligned organization takes aim at right-wing antisemitism
Allies of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) are launching a new political organization aimed at countering antisemitism within the Republican Party, Jewish Insider has learned, led by Arielle F. Klepach, a former assistant U.S. attorney and senior counsel for the National Jewish Advocacy Center.

The Front Line (TFL) will operate as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, meaning the group will not have to disclose its donors and can spend unlimited sums toward political activity, provided campaign finance is not its primary purpose and it does not contribute directly to campaigns.

A source familiar with the matter told JI that those behind the organization, which Cruz is not directly involved with, raised several million dollars to fund the operation. Klepach will run the operation as executive director.

In a statement on her hiring, Klepach said she was enthusiastic to join an effort focused on preventing Republicans from mimicking what she described as Democrats’ embrace of anti-Israel sentiment.

“There has been a surge of antisemitism across America, which first engulfed the left and is now threatening the moral integrity and political unity of the conservative movement and the Republican Party,” Klepach said. “I am excited to lead The Front Line’s efforts to defeat right-wing antisemitism before it takes conservatives down the same path of anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and pro-Sharia advocacy that has taken the left.”

TFL’s mission statement describes the group as “an issue advocacy organization aligned with the positions of Ted Cruz dedicated to countering right-wing antisemitism, by making antisemitism disqualifying in the Republican Party and conservative movement, through activities across political, policy, and digital spaces.”
Sanders compares Israel with Sudan and Russia
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who has long accused Israel of “genocide,” compared the Jewish state with Sudan and Russia in a statement on Thursday.

“One might have hoped that, after thousands of years of war, humanity could have come up with a better way to resolve conflicts than killing and mass destruction,” the Jewish senator said. “Unfortunately, that is not the case. There is now more war and bloodshed raging across the world than at almost any point in decades.”

In a statement ostensibly about “civil war and genocide in Sudan,” Sanders noted Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine “without provocation” and what he said is “genocide” in Gaza.

“In October 2023, Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 innocent people and taking 251 hostages,” he said. “In response, Netanyahu and the Israeli military did not simply wage war against Hamas. They waged war against the entire population of Gaza.”

He accused the Jewish state of destroying “virtually the entire physical infrastructure of Gaza.”

Hamas is known to embed deliberately among the civilian population and to use it as human shields.

Five paragraphs into the statement about genocide in Sudan, Sanders finally mentioned Sudan, before pivoting to U.S. President Donald Trump.


Howard Jacobson: “Had we been living in Berlin, what would we have done? When would we have decided to leave?” | Fathom Long Interview
Howard Jacobson is a British Jewish novelist and journalist who has written more than twenty books, including seventeen novels, and won the Booker Prize for fiction. This interview focuses on three of his books: The Finkler Question (2010), J (2014) and his most recent novel, Howl. Fathom spoke to him in early July.

Jews and others
Calev Ben-Dor (CBD): Howard, thank you so much for joining us — we’re really excited to speak to you.

Howard Jacobson (HJ): You won’t be anything like as excited and anxious as I am normally. Fathom is a different thing for me, because Fathom is a place that I don’t associate with talking about my work. Fathom is a place I go to to read people who who are not like me, actually, who are mainly historians who know things. And I don’t go in for knowing things. I’m not. I’m a novelist. So guesswork is what I do. So I feel I’m in a place of authority and learning and scholarship, and I don’t know whether I have any right to be here, but I will do my best.

CBD: I want to start with a question about Jews and others. Central to the background of your novel J, which is incredibly dark, is that something terrible happened to a group of people two or three generations earlier. It’s referred to throughout as ‘what happened, if it happened.’ That kind of phrase also appears in your newest book, Howl, in which the janitor at Ferdinand Draxler’s school, Hasheen, comes to talk to Ferdinand about the events of October 2023. You write: ‘Hasheen’s English wasn’t perfect, but he employed the past conditional tense with great expertise: “I am celebrating what we did — had it been true we did it,” he said.’ What did you detect in attitudes to Jews or Israel that led you to write about this theme and this phrase?


The Adjusters By Abe Greenwald
Via Commentary Newsletter, sign up here. Since then, I’ve witnessed similar adjustments everywhere on the right and left, including among those I’ve thought of as friends. When the topic arises, they’re not belligerent but sheepish about their new position. They squirm a bit as they talk about Israeli belligerence or the “unhealthy relationship” between the U.S. and the Jewish state. They appear somewhat ashamed.

The latest adjuster, however, is someone with little shame. The career Democrat, White House veteran, and 2028 presidential hopeful Rahm Emanuel delivered a speech in Tel Aviv yesterday. “For too long,” he said, “American policy towards Israel operated under the assumption that the best thing Washington could do for Jerusalem is to blindly, to silently, stand behind your government without conditions, without demands, without consequence, even when we disagreed.” His own time in the Clinton and Obama administrations should provide more than enough evidence to debunk this popular and wicked myth.

But Emanuel was in Israel to advance falsehoods, not to disprove them. He blamed Israel’s “isolation” on its supposed recklessness and laid out a vision for U.S.-Israel relations in which Washington would sanction Israeli citizens, officials, and companies deemed to transgress on Palestinian rights and end U.S. subsidies for Israel’s defense.

Emanuel is a Jewish Zionist whose father was born in Jerusalem. He’s no one’s idea of a Jew-hater, but he came to Tel Aviv in part to deliver a softened, sweetened version of the leftist anti-Semites’ analysis and terms of engagement. Those terms include a narrowly tailored BDS regime and American military disengagement. Why? Because he’s trying to curry favor with potential voters on the American left.

His speech included these words: “You cannot fight indefinitely against a world that has stopped believing you have the right to fight.” This admonition is immoral, false, and an unwitting imputation of centuries of Jewish history—the fight he describes is that of Jewish survival itself.

Above all else, these words amount to a confession. He cannot, in the end, bear the burden of fighting for Jewish self-defense.

Like the other adjusters, Emanuel is trying to bridge the gap that’s opened up between himself and the anti-Semites around him. And like the others, his foremost concern isn’t Israel’s status as a pariah but his own.


Why US politics feels like it’s all about Israel — and what that does and doesn’t mean for Jews
One of the most surprising things about the implosion of Graham Platner’s campaign for US Senate, given the current state of American politics, is that it had nothing to do with Israel.

Platner, the anti-Israel progressive Democrat running an insurgent campaign to unseat Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins, announced he was dropping out on Wednesday in the face of a credible rape allegation, which followed reports of his toxic behavior toward women as well as social media posts downplaying sexual assault. He also had been dogged by controversy over a Nazi tattoo he sported on his chest for years, which some critics linked to his harsh criticism of Israel.

In the end, a different matter did him in. But somehow, Israel still managed to make an appearance in the discourse over Platner’s downfall — starting in his own announcement that he was suspending his campaign.

“All we were asking for was healthcare, was to end the genocide, to use our taxpayer dollars at home to uplift our communities instead of waging war overseas,” he said more than nine minutes into the 11-minute video. “We were asking for a fairer system.”

In other words, the number-two issue in Platner’s final, drawn-out campaign statement that he felt the need to reference was the accusation that Israel committed genocide in Gaza. He did not admit to the rape allegation, nor apologize to his accuser. He did criticize Israel.

He was not the only one. Far-right former GOP representative Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote — and then apparently deleted — a social media post suggesting the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC was behind the Platner rape accusation. That conspiracy theory was so widespread that the Forward ran a piece headlined, “AIPAC isn’t to blame for the Graham Platner scandal — no matter what social media trolls say.”

Liberal pundit Joy Reid said, of Platner’s potential replacement, that if the Democratic Party “shoves an AIPAC candidate down your throat, you have my permission to not vote for them”
Ask Haviv Anything: 130: Here's to the next 250 years
America’s 250th birthday came and went. Americans celebrated – or fretted about – their past and looked forward to their future.

Now, a week later, recorded on an ordinary Thursday that commemorates no great war or rebellion, Haviv offers belated good wishes for America’s next 250 years.

The real miracle of America, after all, isn’t in epic triumphs of the sort commemorated on July 4, but in the ordinary, messy days between the holidays, in the humble, everyday pragmatism, built-in institutional humility and wild inventiveness that gave the world its first large-scale democracy.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Dedication
02:15 America's Greatness and Human Struggles
05:28 America's Focus on Ordinary People and Everyday Redemption
08:05 American Labor Movement: Immediate Goals, No Utopias
10:28 The American Labor Philosophy of Continuous Improvement
12:34 Protection from Utopian Revolutions
15:00 Checks and Balances: Madison's Vision
17:07 The Reality of Faction and Conflict in Democracy
19:15 The Pragmatism of the American Founders
22:23 American Legal Pragmatism and Experience
24:31 Humility as the Foundation of Liberty
27:07 The Constitution as a Mechanism for Change
30:22 American Innovation and Its Global Impact
31:22 Immigrants and American Innovation
32:16 The American Spirit of Practical Innovation
34:09 America as an Invention Machine
35:04 Humility and Institutional Design in America
36:01 America as a Practice, Not a Noun
37:30 The Everyday Significance of American Values
38:53 Conclusion: America’s Ongoing Journey


UKLFI: Monitoring Online Antisemitism
This is a recording of a UKLFI Charitable Trust webinar on "Monitoring Online Antisemitism" with Tamir Wertzberger and Nóra Eszter Zay-Kieselbach of Action and Protection League (APL) , chaired by Natasha Hausdorff which took place on Thursday 9 July 2026.

APL, based in Budapest, has developed monitoring software to collect, analyse and report antisemitic content on the Internet in multiple languages, taking into account different applicable national laws. It is now seeking partners in different countries to support enforcement against illegal content. The speakers in this webinar explain APL’s strategy, their aims for international cooperation, and details of their monitoring system.


travelingisrael.com: The Lie That Fooled Millions. (Abby Martin, Explained)
Abby Martin’s viral video about Israel was watched by millions — but behind the dramatic language and emotional footage is a much deeper problem. In this response, Oren breaks down the claims, the editing choices, the missing context, and the manipulation techniques that turn a complicated conflict into a simple moral accusation. This is not about defending every Israeli policy. It is about asking what Abby Martin showed, what she cut out, and why so many people believed they were watching journalism.




Jonathan Tobin: El-Sayed’s anti-AIPAC antisemitic conspiracy mongering is winning votes
This last week, the political world has been focused on events in Maine as the campaign of the Nazi-tattooed Graham Platner crashed and burned in the wake of new sexual-assault allegations. But his exit from the midterms doesn’t eliminate the most dangerous Democrat currently running for the U.S. Senate. Indeed, lost amid the understandable focus on Platner’s disgraceful conduct and churlish withdrawal was the continued rise of another left-wing Democratic Senate hopeful, Abdul El-Sayed, the current favorite to win his party’s nomination for a Michigan Senate seat.

Indeed, El-Sayed’s performance in a debate against his last remaining opponent, Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.), deserved a lot more attention than it got. He didn’t just pummel his opponent as a creature of the party establishment but depicted her campaign as solely a manifestation of a Jewish plot to buy American elections for the sake of Israel.

As far as the Detroit public-health official is concerned, the main issue in 2026 isn’t the usual Democratic talking points about affordability, the economy or even their laundry list of complaints about President Donald Trump. It’s AIPAC, and he is seeking to make this primary matchup a referendum on its legitimacy and that of the entire pro-Israel community.

Crossing a line
Although he claims that he is opposed to antisemitism, his obsessive focus on the pro-Israel lobby isn’t really rooted in a concern about campaign finance laws. It’s about labeling support for the Jewish state—expressed in the same manner that Americans do on every conceivable issue—as an evil foreign plot. Combined with his trafficking in blood libels about Israel committing “genocide” in Gaza and his opposition to the existence of the one Jewish state on the planet, the El-Sayed campaign has crossed a line that few, if any, mainstream major party Senate candidacies have even approached in living memory.

As he reaches the home stretch of a bitter primary battle, he has now dropped any pretense that what he is doing is anything other than a war on the Jewish presence in the American public square. And if the polls are accurate, he’s likely to be the Democratic nominee in a race that will garner the lion’s share of the attention this fall. If he goes on to defeat the Republican nominee, former Rep. Mike Rogers, then he will be more than a prominent member of a Senate version of the far-left “Squad.” He’ll be using the U.S. Senate as a platform to mainstream the demonization of Israel and Jews.

Up until now, El-Sayed was largely in the shadow of Platner in terms of national media coverage. Platner’s ability not only to garner attention, but to generate a wave of support, from liberals around the country who seemed to think that a former Marine and Oyster fisherman (albeit from an upper-class background) with a Nazi-symbol tattooed on his chest and a checkered past filled with abusive relationships and comments was the Democrats’ perfect answer to Trump and the Republicans.

Though more of a Washington insider’s idea of a working-class American than a real one, he attracted a following around a nation willing to rationalize and excuse everything he had done or said, no matter how outrageous. That Platner combined edgy faux outsider appeal with Israel-bashing made him the ideal standard-bearer for progressives in 2026 and helped him win the Democratic primary in Maine. Democratic stalwarts were ready to stand by him, despite the obvious evidence of not only antisemitism but also violent misanthropy (they dismissed allegations of sexual violence until a victim who was a liberal activist came forward), says a lot about their cynicism, insincerity and tolerance for Jew-hatred.

The son of Egyptian immigrants, El-Sayed is more polished, with none of Platner’s personal baggage. Yet he is even more ideologically committed to the war on the Jewish state. What’s more, his rise in the polls to his current position over Stevens speaks volumes not only about what appeals to Michigan Democrats, but to the rapid sea change in the party around the country.
NY’s Lander endorses Michigan candidate El-Sayed, who said Dem support for Israel is only about money
Brad Lander, a progressive Democrat who won a congressional primary in New York City last month, endorses anti-Israel Michigan candidate Abdul El-Sayed in his Democratic Senate primary.

Lander, who is Jewish, identifies as a Zionist but opposes US military aid to Israel and has accused the country of genocide. He is closely allied with anti-Israel New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and has campaigned with anti-Zionists.

El-Sayed has a history of hardline rhetoric against Israel and its supporters.

Asked this week by CNN whether one could be Zionist and progressive, El-Sayed said, “Every definition of a Jewish state ends up in some articulation of illiberal values, every single one.”

And asked whether support of Israel could be about something other than money, he said, “Not if you’re a Democrat and you believe in human rights.”

The progressive Nexus Project called that statement “a clear example of anti-Zionism crossing into antisemitism.”

He has equivocated between Israel and Hamas and refused to say whether he backs Israel’s right to exist. He has called his pro-Israel opponent, Haley Stevens, “a suit with a large AIPAC bank account,” a reference to the pro-Israel lobby backing her.

Lander says he and El-Sayed will be allies in Washington.

“Abdul and I will also be partners in resetting US foreign policy to achieve a just peace for Palestinians and Israelis, beginning by ending US military aid to Israel while it violates international law and Palestinian human rights,” Lander says.


Maine Democrat challenging Susan Collins vows no AIPAC support, calls for tougher Israel policy
As Maine Democrats jump at the chance to replace Graham Platner on the ballot against Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), one of the issues where candidates are staking their claim early is U.S. foreign policy — and Israel and Gaza in particular.

Jordan Wood, a former chief of staff to Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA), shared his views on the U.S.-Israel relationship with Jewish Insider on Thursday. He entered the race after placing third in last month’s congressional primary to replace retiring Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME).

He told JI that he considers Israel “our strongest ally in the Middle East” but that its government must be reined in.

“The United States should absolutely have a cooperative relationship with Israel, and I want that relationship to work. But a real partnership is not a blank check,” said Wood. “It comes with honesty and accountability. The United States has enormous leverage with the Israeli government, and we’ve been refusing to use it.” He pledged to “push America to actually use that leverage to stop the genocide in Gaza.”

Wood spent a decade in Washington as a political staffer, with stints as a vice president at End Citizens United and executive director at a pro-democracy nonprofit.

Shortly after announcing his campaign, he said in his first official statement that he would not accept support from AIPAC. In a post on X hours later, he said that the U.S. “can’t continue to fund Israel’s genocide in Gaza,” and that he would support the Block the Bombs Act.

Still, he told JI, he believes that “Israel is our strongest ally in the Middle East.”

“But there’s a difference between the Israeli people and the Netanyahu government, and nothing about self-defense justifies waging a war without limits,” said Wood. “Starving children and flattened hospitals don’t make Israel safer, and they don’t make America safer.” He referred to the family members of the Israelis taken hostage after Oct. 7, many of whom protested in Tel Aviv for two years, and said “they deserve leaders, in Israel and in America, with the courage to deliver the peace they’ve been asking for.”

Wood said Hamas should have no role in governing Gaza and called for the group to disarm. “The Oct. 7 terrorist attack was a horrific crime that shocked the world’s conscience,” said Wood.


Victor Davis Hanson: As Mamdani skewers America’s ‘dividers,’ he paints a picture of . . . HIMSELF
Zohran Mamdani, New York’s self-described socialist mayor, could not resist using the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration to trash the very country that he and his parents voluntarily sought out.

As is his custom, Mamdani speaks in stereotypes and generalities, offering few if any examples, all laced with his accustomed unctuous hypocrisy.

“America, they will tell you, belongs only to those with the right accent or the right shade of skin. The rest of us, they insist, should be grateful for merely being allowed to visit. How small they are. How weak, how unoriginal.”

“At every moment in our past, those who led through exclusion and isolation have tried to win power and enrich themselves by turning us against one another.”

Thus spoke the pampered rich kid from Uganda, who immigrated to America with his now-endowed professor father and elite filmmaker mother.

Upon arriving, the Mamdanis joined what is statistically America’s wealthiest and most highly credentialed ethnic group: the enormously privileged Indian American community. (But how was that possible in Mamdani’s version of a racist America that supposedly detests the wrong accents and skin colors?)

When this nepo baby includes himself among the supposedly “victimized” (“the rest of us”), should we laugh or cry?

If Mamdani wishes to invoke the tired Marxist oppressed-oppressor binary, then by his own revolutionary vocabulary, he once belonged to a settler-colonial Indian expatriate elite: After all, although Uganda’s Indian community comprises only about one percent of the population, it still controls roughly 60 percent of the nation’s GDP.

America might reasonably ask why Mamdani is so angry at the country that welcomed his family and afforded it such extraordinary opportunities. Why is he so eager to slander it as xenophobic and racist?

If America is as hostile toward people of Indian ancestry as Mamdani alleges, why have some 5.4 million Indians immigrated here, making them one of the nation’s largest and fastest-growing foreign-born populations?


Brendan O'Neill: Andy Burnham’s shameful pandering to anti-Israel bigots
My question for Burnham is the same one I’ve asked countless keffiyeh people these past three years: what should Israel have done in response to Hamas’s pogrom, and its missiles, and its ritualistic humiliation of half-starved Jews, and its threat to bring about the apocalyptic destruction of the Jewish nation? I know what the bigots of the Islamo-left would say: Nothing. Let yourselves be killed, Jews. It’s not a big deal. Presuming that isn’t Burnham’s position, perhaps he might deign to say what Israel is permitted to do against the army of anti-Semites that invaded its territory and slaughtered its people. Do tell, Andy.

That’s the point here: it’s one thing for time-rich activists in search of a moral mission to misrepresent the Israel-Hamas War so that Israel appears insane and they appear virtuous. But for our next PM to dabble in such thin, lethal moralism? That’s frightening. Where’s his geopolitical nous? Does he care more for retweets from plummy Gazaholics than he does about Britain’s relationship with Israel and the White House? Burnham says he will ensure that ‘no British bombs or bullets’ are used in Gaza. So it will be Britain’s official position to oppose the right of Jewish soldiers to dispense justice against the racist terrorists who carried out the worst mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust? Is that right? If so, we’re in even deeper moral shit than I feared.

Burnham condemned anti-Semitism in the UK. Yet he gave voice to the very Israelophobic misinformation that powers modern-day Jew hatred. The myth that Israel is depriving Gaza of aid, his mention of its killing of children, the suggestion it might be behaving criminally and that this scars the world’s ‘conscience’ – this is the foundation of myth and bigotry upon which feverish ‘anti-Zionism’ is built. Anyone serious about taming the irrational rage of this new species of Jew hate would do everything in their power to neuter the ugly, untrue claim that Israel is a uniquely barbarous nation that the world must condemn. Burnham has done the opposite.

And why? That’s the clearest part for me: he’s done it to try to win back the Islamist bloc and metropolitan luvvies who mistake hating Israel for having a personality. He has sacrificed our historic friendship with the Jewish nation to the low end of vote-farming. He seems to care more about preserving Labour’s post-working class alliance of minority groups and the middle classes than he does about preserving the Jewish State. Appeasing Britain’s regressive elements for fleeting political gain – it is suicidal folly.
Melanie Phillips: Amoral Andy sticks it to the Jews
This was all an obscene travesty of truth and fairness and a shocking display of either brainwashed ignorance or the most shameless cynicism.

There was zero condemnation of Hamas for causing that suffering in Gaza by using “innocent Palestinians including children” not just as human shields but as cannon fodder — war crimes against their own people.

He made no mention that Hamas has been regularly torturing and murdering Gazans who dare oppose the tyrannical terrorist group.

No mention that Hamas hid in the tunnels they built to commit war crimes against innocent Israelis, including children, while failing to build one single shelter for their own civilians. Hamas prevented the Gazans from sheltering in the tunnels because the Islamist barbarians wanted as many of them as possible to die under bombardment as a strategy of war to get the credulous, post-truth progressive world to support barbarism against civilisation. As has happened, and as Burnham has now done.

It is Hamas, not Israel, that’s been repeatedly breaching the ceasefire in Gaza. Burnham omitted that bit, thus reversing aggressor and defender as is routinely done against Israel to delegitimise and destroy it.

No mention that Hamas, although much depleted, are still attacking Israeli soldiers in Gaza and refusing to disarm because, as they have repeatedly declared, they intend to commit more atrocities against Jews.

No mention of putting more pressure on Hamas and its state sponsors in Qatar and Iran to abandon their genocidal agenda.

Instead, Burnham stated that Britain would refuse to provide a single bomb or bullet to help defend civilians in Israel under attack from Gaza or in the disputed territories known as the “West Bank”.

Just think about that. The incoming British prime minister believes it’s doing “what is right” to refuse to assist the prospective targets of genocide against their attackers.

Defaming the half million or so Jewish residents of these disputed areas, of whom a few hundred delinquent boys are genuinely mounting unprovoked attacks against local Arabs — a real issue that’s being grossly exaggerated as another weapon of delegitimisation against Israel — Burnham made no mention of the dozens of murderous attacks and plots against these Jewish residents that are being perpetrated or hatched every day.

He also parroted the untruth that the Jewish “settlements” in these areas are illegal. This reflects Britain’s long-standing and cynical misrepresentation of international law. The fact is that the Jews alone are entitled to live in the “West Bank” under international law many times over.

As for Israel committing war crimes, this is the foulest lie. Israel, which goes to enormous lengths to behave in accordance with the laws of war, has committed no war crimes. These have been committed instead in their thousands by Hamas against Israeli and Gazan civilians.
Why Andy Burnham started with Israel
Which brings me to the part of this story that matters most. Not Andy Burnham, but us, British Jewry. Britain’s Jewish community has spent years falling into the same trap, the mistaking of access for influence.

Politicians attend our dinners, visit our synagogues, speak movingly about antisemitism, receive standing ovations. Sometime they even invite us into No10 for a glass of kosher wine and a sing song. But then we return home, they return to Westminster and pursue policies that many British Jews believe reinforce the exceptional treatment of the world’s only Jewish state.

What do we do in response? We invite them back again, we accept their invitations, almost without exception.

Real influence requires trade-offs, because politicians only change behaviour when choices carry consequences. If there is no communal, political or reputational cost to repeatedly pursuing policies that British Jews overwhelmingly regard as applying discriminatory standards to Israel, why would any rational politician ever change course?

Andy Burnham has given the Jewish community an opportunity. Not necessarily to reject him, not necessarily to embrace him, but to draw a line. To make unmistakably clear that applying standards to the Jewish state which are applied nowhere else is not principled internationalism, it is a double standard. Double standards directed at the world’s only Jewish state do not simply influence foreign policy, they shape the climate in which antisemitism flourishes.

My prediction for British politics is that historians will not remember this as the speech in which Andy Burnham changed Britain’s policy towards Israel. They will remember it as the speech in which Britain’s next Prime Minister legitimised a moral operating system that had spent years moving through our countries institutions, but only at this point finally arrived at the centre of government.

Once governments begin making decisions through an operating system rather than through evidence, Israel will not be the last issue on which conclusions precede facts. It will simply have been the first unmistakable warning.

Andy Burnham appears to have made his choice. The question now is whether Britain’s Jewish community will continue making the same mistake it has made for so long.

If this speech tells us anything, it is that Britain’s political class has already adapted to the new operating system. The only question that remains is whether we intend to challenge it.
Stephen Pollard: Burnham’s pandering to antizionists will unleash a torrent of antisemitism
I’ve written recently that although Andy Burnham has made no substantive comments on foreign policy, you didn’t have to be a psychic to know what was coming.

I refer, of course, to Gaza and to Israel. And sure enough, here it comes. Burnham is nothing if not conscious of the views of the people he needs to become prime minister – Labour MPs – and with so many of them viewing Israel as some sort of evil pariah state, it was obvious that he would hurry to give them what they wanted.

In his video released and in comments to the Guardian, Burnham has gone after Israel. He was always going to do that, because Israel is the easy hit for those like Burnham who take every opportunity to tell everyone that, as he put it today, “I…feel passionately about Gaza.” There’s a remarkable symmetry between those who proclaim their passion for Gaza and those who swallow Hamas propaganda – and, of course, between those who say how much they care passionately about Gaza but couldn’t give a damn about the 1,200 dead Jews murdered by Hamas – by Gazans.

Burnham’s video offers the usual pro forma condemnation of Hamas’s October 7 2023 massacre – because he’s not a fool. He knows it’s useful to be able to say he has condemned Hamas. But you can see how meaningless those words are from the fact they take up all of eleven seconds in a three minute and 19 second video. No, this is about Israel. More specifically, it’s about showing Labour MPs – and those Muslim voters they and Burnham are scared witless are deserting the party – that under him, Britain is going to have a very different stance on Israel.

That new stance begins with an apology: “Labour’s initial response to the treatment of Gaza caused huge hurt. We got it wrong and I am sorry for that.” He told the Guardian that Labour’s initial response to Israel’s military action in Gaza, “didn’t get it right” and the party needs to “do better” under his leadership.

For the people Burnham is pandering too, it’s not the scale of Israel’s response to October 7 that is unacceptable, it’s the fact of an Israeli response at all.

Many senior military leaders, such as British General Sir John McColl, have said that Israel is doing far more than other Western armies manage to limit civilian casualties. Hamas embeds itself in civilian areas precisely so that there will be civilian casualties when the IDF takes action (even though the IDF notifies civilians in advance of operations where possible, to give them time to leave). When Burnham and his ilk turn on Israel as a result, they do Hamas’ bidding.

For the activists, any response by Israel to the October 7 massacre is illegitimate because Israel is illegitimate. This is not new. Decades ago, when Israel introduced roadblocks and built its defensive wall in response to a wave of suicide bombings, even these absolutely non-lethal measures to prevent terror attacks were attacked by the Andy Burnhams of the time as “collective punishment” of the Palestinians.

Let’s remember what Burnham is apologising for. Under Starmer, the British government’s relations with Israel have been toxic – and were made deliberately so by Britain. Starmer restored funding to terrorist-harbouring Unrwa, he halted the UK’s objections to the ICC’s arrest warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, he banned some arms exports, blocked IDF soldiers from a training college in the UK – and he rewarded Hamas for October 7 by recognising Palestine.

This is what Burnham is apologising for because it’s not enough.
Board of Deputies and JLC respond to Andy Burnham’s Gaza comments
The Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership Council have conveyed “significant concerns” to Andy Burnham’s team over comments made by the presumptive next Prime Minister in which he spoke about the need to do more “to pressure the Israeli government” and mooted the possibility of sanctions on West Bank settlements.

In a video published yesterday, the former Mayor of Manchester, whose by-election victory in Makerfield last month returned him to the House of Commons, said that “I know many people feel that at the start of Israel’s military action in Gaza, my party didn’t get it right, and I am sorry about that. We need to do better.

“Yes, we have taken some important steps. These include recognising the Palestinian state, placing sanctions on Israel ministers and imposing waves of sanctions on violent settlers and the organisations that support them., I also fully support the restrictions on arms licenses, to make sure that no British bombs or bullets can be used by the IDF in Gaza or in the West Bank. But let’s be honest; the UK was too slow to call for a ceasefire, and we must now do more to strengthen our approach.”

Burnham repeated his condemnation of the 7 October terror attack by Hamas, as well as criticising “the increase in appalling antisemitic attacks here in the UK, and those who seek to divide our communities by targeting Jewish people”, specifically citing the Heaton Park Synagogue terror attack in Manchester. However, he went on to say that “Israel continues to violate the ceasefire agreement, killing innocent Palestinians. We’re seeing a surge in settler violence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the continued expansion of illegal settlements, displacing Palestinian communities. And Netanyahu’s government is clearly attempting to make a two-state solution impossible. That’s why we need to do more, which includes looking at further sanctions, both on those involved in the violence in Gaza, but also looking at measures to ban trade in goods with illegal settlements.”

Burnham’s statement did not mention the continued operation of Hamas in Gaza, or terrorist activity in the West Bank.


Will Israel really let a notorious social media influencer visit the country?
Braden Eric Peters, dubbed online as ‘Clavicular’ is an American internet personality, capturing the ears of millions of people every day on social media. He is best known for spreading the term ‘looksmaxxing’ – an online campaign aimed at mocking those who don’t go to the ends of the earth to improve their physical looks. Sounds like a guy you’d want your kids to grow-up idolising, right? Not.

Well, this individual is embarking on a trip to the Jewish state to “kiss the wall”, as he so cheaply says. This term is now widely used to diminish one of our holiest sites, degrade our worship to just a ‘wall’ and to stoke conspiracy theories about the power of “kissing the wall” – usually through posting pictures showing American Presidents or celebrities visiting the site. Just imagine if a non-Muslim disparages Mecca, or a non-Christian speaks so narrowly of the Holy Sepulchre? There would be outrage, and justifiably so. However, when a social-media influencer mocks a tradition at one of Judaism’s holiest sites, there is silence.

In January this year, Clavicular was involved in an incident at a club in Miami alongside a group of some of the world’s most notorious online hate personalities. This included Nick Fuentes, Sneako and Myron Gaines – all notorious for their major online followings and regular antisemitic statements. They were filmed singing along to “Heil Hitler,” a Kanye West song that uses Nazi imagery: perfectly epitomising how dangerous these individuals are.

As a 20 year-old Jewish person, watching the footage from the Miami incident involving Clavicular and others was deeply unsettling – not because a single song or moment can reveal everything about someone’s beliefs, but because of the wider context surrounding it. The people present mattered. This was not simply a random group of friends making an off-colour joke; it involved figures who have built large online audiences while repeatedly engaging with openly antisemitic and extremist rhetoric. It highlighted the alarming direction of travel of our generation.

Clavicular’s platform reflects a microcosm of the broader global infection that is antisemitism and its normalization. From weekly pro-Palestine protests to a parade of different governments attacking Israel at every opportunity – major institutions are now infested with antisemitic libels. Not only are influencers at the beating heart of spreading Jewish conspiracies, but they proudly champion it and are proud. It sometimes feels like Israel has lost the social media war so many times since 7 October, it may as well throw in the towel. It’s tempting to ponder whether, given the world is consumed with lies about Jews in general and Israel in particular, why should we appease them?
‘Jews to the gas’ chants and police officer injured after Morocco World Cup exit
Antisemitic slogans including “Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas” were chanted by a crowd in The Hague after Morocco’s World Cup quarter-final defeat to France, while separate post-match disorder in central London left a Metropolitan Police officer in hospital and four people under arrest.

Videos circulating on social media showed a crowd gathered in the Dutch city’s Schilderswijk district following France’s 2-0 victory on Thursday evening. People could be heard chanting “All Jews are gay” and “Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas” while Palestinian flags were waved.

Local reports said community volunteers initially attempted to disperse the crowd before Dutch police arrived in large numbers, bringing the unrest to an end less than an hour after the match.

Claims circulating on social media that the crowd had gathered outside accommodation used by Israeli tourists could not be substantiated. Footage from the scene appeared to show demonstrators outside a health clinic rather than a hotel or guesthouse.

There is no suggestion that the events in the Netherlands were connected to a separate disorder in London, beyond both taking place after the same World Cup match.

In London, Metropolitan Police officers were called to Edgware Road after crowds gathered and blocked traffic following the final whistle.

The force said the situation “escalated with the group throwing bottles and setting off fireworks.”

One police officer was taken to hospital with head injuries after being struck by what officers believe was a glass bottle.

Four people were arrested on suspicion of violent disorder. No other injuries were reported.


Australian academics sign open letter calling on Dan David winner to return 'genocidal' prize
Professor Matthew Champion, the Australian academic who won the Dan David Prize earlier this month, rejected calls from dozens of academics to boycott the prize due to its links to Israel.

More than 100 academics, including activist Randa Abdel-Fattah and National Museum chair Clare Wright, signed an open letter calling on University of Melbourne associate Professor Matthew Champion to rescind his acceptance of the largest history prize in the world, The Australian reported.

The open letter reportedly said that keeping the award would contribute to "the ongoing normalization of the genocide and scholasticide in Palestine." Scholasticide is a term coined by Palestinian scholar Karma Nabulsi in 2009, meaning the systematic destruction of a society's education system.

Champion was one of nine scholars awarded the 300,000 USD prize this year for his research into how medieval societies experienced, perceived and structured time.

The prize was founded by Dan David, a survivor of Nazi and Communist persecution in Romania.

On the Dan David Foundation's website, it explains that "he was persecuted for his Zionism and arrested by the Communist regime. Years later, his contribution would be recognized by the Israeli government with the 'Lochamei Hamedina' medal, awarded to those who fought for the establishment of the state."

Champion's colleagues signed an open letter condemning the prize
Champion was the first academic from the University of Melbourne to win the prize, which the university's Faculty of Arts dean called "the highest possible recognition for scholars studying the human past."

His success was not celebrated by all of his fellow academics, as more than 30 of his colleagues and over 100 Australian academics condemned his acceptance of the prize, which they accused of "normalizing the colonial occupation of Palestine, and Israel's apartheid regime, "The Australian reported.
UKLFI: Charity Commission Asked to Investigate Trustee Over Social Media Activity
UKLFI’s complaints relate to social media posts shared by Mr Irfan Siddik Malik, who holds senior positions in three Hackney charities responsible for distributing grants and providing housing and support to local residents. These charities are required to operate fairly and without discrimination for the benefit of the community.

Mr Malik is Chair of the directors of Hackney Endowed Trustee Ltd and the sole trustee of Hackney Joint Estate Charity. The charity holds property originally donated to the local Church of England in the 16th century to provide an income for distribution to needy people. Any profits from running the estates are now donated to Hackney charities including West Hackney Parochial Charity, where Mr Malik is vice-chair of trustees. This was formed from the amalgamation of 32 ancient individual charities, to benefit the residents of the ecclesiastical parish of West Hackney. The first legacy was left by Thomas Heron in 1603, the year Queen Elizabeth I died. Mr Malik is also a trustee of The West Hackney Almshouse Charity.

Mr Malik’s posts have included the following:
Comparing the war in Gaza to the Holocaust: An image of an IDF guard outside Gaza telling a German guard outside Auschwitz, “History repeats itself eh?”
Blaming the Israelis for 7th October: “The IDF killed many Israelis on October 7th” and “Israel Faked it all. Hamas Evidence has been exposed as CGI and Israel is freaking out”
Blood libel: “Some people go to Africa to shoot game. British Israelis go to Gaza to shoot kids” and an image of a man painting blood on a door post with the caption “Passover ..because Lamb’s blood helps God kill the right kids” and Irfan Malik comments “Now their God uses US bombs.”
Accusing Israel of controlling other governments: An image of a large dog with a Star of David on its collar saying “Good Boy” while it takes a tiny American person for a walk, indicating that Israel tells the USA what to do.
An image of Trump and Kamala Harris kneeling in front of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister
An image showing a hand marked with an Israeli flag pulling the strings to control some smaller hands marked with a USA flag, which in turn pull strings to control tiny soldiers each with flags from the UK, Canada, France, Germany and Ukraine.
Images which blame Israel for the spread of antisemitism
A poster saying “It’s humanity vs Israel” implying that Israel is singularly inhumane.

UKLFI argues that Mr Malik’s posts engage multiple examples within the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism, including Holocaust inversion, blood libels, conspiracy theories about Jewish power and comparisons between contemporary Israeli policy and Nazi Germany.
Report: Universities with more foreign-worker visas saw ‘significantly more’ anti-Israel protests
Cities with higher concentrations of foreign workers at U.S. universities saw “significantly more” anti-Israel campus protests, according to a report released on Wednesday by the Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies.

The report, authored by Jay P. Greene, a senior fellow at the institute who studies antisemitism in higher education, analyzed 2,331 protests related to Israel, Gaza and U.S. policy in 831 cities and towns between Oct. 7, 2023, and Dec. 31, 2024. It compared those demonstrations with the number of H-1B visas, which allow employers to hire nonimmigrant foreign workers, approved for colleges and universities in 2023.

“These campus protests weren’t only anti-Israel,” Greene told JNS. “They were anti-capitalism, anti-American, anti-Western. They had a range of radical agendas present in the protests.”

According to the report, jurisdictions with 1 to 49 H-1B approvals for universities averaged one protest during the study period. The average rose steadily as visa approvals increased.

The dataset showed that 50 to 99 visas corresponded to 9.5 protests, 100 to 149 visas corresponded to 12.5 protests, 150 to 199 visas corresponded to 26.2 protests, 200 to 299 visas corresponded to 35.7 protests and at least 300 visas corresponded to 67.3 protests.

Greene cautioned that while the findings establish a “strong” correlation to anti-Israel protests, they do not prove causation.

“It’s possible that some of the causation goes in the opposite direction, which is that there are places that are inclined toward radical policies and would be more likely to have radical protests, and those are the places that are more eager to have and recruit foreigners,” he said. “I suspect it goes in both directions.”


Gaza’s dissidents: crushed by Hamas at home, dismissed by activists abroad
Every time I joined a demonstration against Hamas inside the Gaza Strip, I thought this might be the beginning of the end of its rule.

I was young. I had big dreams. I believed that if enough Palestinians stood together and said no to corruption, repression, and armed rule over our lives, the world would hear us. Instead, Hamas answered us with bullets, arrests, torture, intimidation, and public defamation. And many of those abroad who claimed to stand with Palestine answered us with suspicion.

“You are doing Hasbara.” “You are not a real Palestinian.” “You are serving Israel.”

This is the tragedy of Palestinians who oppose Hamas: we are crushed by Hamas at home, then dismissed by Western activists abroad.

Since the summer of 2007, when Hamas seized control of Gaza by force of arms, popular opposition to its rule has never disappeared. But every peaceful attempt at change has collided with systematic repression. On November 12, 2007, tens of thousands of Fatah supporters and other Palestinian national forces gathered in al-Katiba Square to commemorate the late president Yasser Arafat and reject the coup. Hamas confronted them with live fire. Nine people were killed and more than 150 were wounded.

That day established a bloody equation. Whenever a popular movement emerged, Hamas responded with excessive force, arbitrary detention, and the moral assassination of branding opponents as “spies”. I experienced this myself in March 2019 when I helped launch the “We Want to Live” movement with a group of unemployed young people suffering under Hamas’s discriminatory policies on jobs and public services. As a lawyer and human rights defender, I believed the movement’s civic and legal character should have opened the door to dialogue.

Instead, Hamas opened interrogation centres belonging to its military wing, the Qassam sites, to investigate protesters. When the detention centres became overcrowded, schools and educational institutions were turned into detention and interrogation centres for thousands. My own brother was arrested and held as a hostage to pressure me to surrender myself. Eventually, that pressure worked.

Hamas also used its media machine and social media tools to smear me and many other activists as collaborators and spies. This was not random. It came from a doctrine that sees anyone who is not with Hamas as a spy against it. The result was a double fear in society: fear of physical punishment moral assassination.

After October 7, Gaza was pushed into an unprecedented catastrophe and into forced silence under the weight of Hamas’s losing gamble. Many people in Gaza were angry about the operation and the practices that accompanied it, which violated the ethics of the Palestinian national struggle and the international laws meant to protect civilians, women, and children. But people imposed silence on themselves because they already knew of Hamas’s violence.


Polish nationalists protest commemoration of Nazi-era Polish massacre of Jews
Poland’s Jewish community, political leaders and ordinary citizens on Friday commemorated a massacre of hundreds of Jews killed by their Polish neighbors 85 years ago, as far-right activists protested nearby, denying Polish guilt.

There was heavy police presence at the site of the 1941 Jedwabne massacre — a former barn in which local Polish farmers locked up around 300 Jews, including women and children, before setting it on fire.

Right next to the ceremony, about 1,000 people attended demonstrations and a Catholic mass organized by far-right parties, who refuse to acknowledge the responsibility of Polish villagers for the killings.

Several participants in the commemoration were draped in Israeli and EU flags, as they paid their respects at a monument erected in 2001 to mark the site of the pogrom.

Chief Rabbi of Poland Michael Schudrich called for unity as demonstrations carried on outdoors, inviting participants in the ceremony to read out together the names and occupations of Jews murdered in Jedwabne.

An official investigation confirmed in 2003 that the massacre had been carried out by Poles from Jedwabne, rather than by Nazi German occupiers.

This stood in contrast to long-held historical narratives in Poland, and ultra-nationalist groups continue to challenge the investigation’s findings.

They argue that exhumations of the victims — halted in 2001 for religious reasons at the request of the Jewish community — must be resumed.

“As long as we do not know the truth, there will be divisions,” Elzbieta Rybarska, carrying a Polish flag, told AFP.

“If someone were not afraid of the truth, the exhumation would have been carried out long ago,” Rybarska, carrying a Polish flag, added.

Among the organizers of the protest was the far-right Confederation of the Polish Crown party, whose leader is Grzegorz Braun.

He once caused a scandal by using a fire extinguisher on a menorah, a ceremonial candleholder, to interrupt a Jewish religious ceremony in the Polish parliament.


8 indicted for US White House cage fight plot last month targeting Trump, Netanyahu
A US federal grand jury on Thursday indicted eight defendants who plotted an attack against a White House event last month targeting Israel-linked politicians, US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The plot targeted a mixed martial arts event held on the White House lawn that Netanyahu did not actually attend. The primary targets were members of Congress who had received funding from the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC.

The alleged conspirators planned to dispatch small, explosive-laden drones that would detonate over the event, forcing an evacuation.

Attackers armed with rifles, stationed near an evacuation point, would shoot their victims as they fled the UFC event, according to the plan described by federal prosecutors.

The defendants were named as Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez of Nebraska, Daniel Eskridge and Jordan Rincker of Missouri, William Falkner of Washington, Tycen Proper of Ohio, Chandler Scaggs of West Virginia, and Michael Thomas and Bryan Roa of California. They range in age from 19 to 32.

They were charged with two conspiracies — conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, and conspiracy to commit murder on federal government territory and to murder a federal government official. They face up to life in prison.

The indictment said that the conspirators had intended to murder Netanyahu, Trump, US Vice President JD Vance and other “high value targets.”
US man who targeted Jews and tried to join ISIS is sentenced to 15 years
A man from Maryland who targeted Jews and was charged with supporting ISIS was sentenced to 15 years in prison in a federal court on Wednesday.

Michael Sam Teekaye, Jr., 22, was sentenced for attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.

Teekaye pleaded guilty to the charges in January after sharing his plans with an undercover agent in 2023, according to the Department of Justice.

Teekaye told the agent that he wanted to travel to Africa to join ISIS as a fighter, had engaged with a Somali ISIS terrorist, and had arranged a visa and flight tickets.

He told the agent that his “Plan B” was to attack Jews and Israel supporters in the US.

He said he had researched organizations in his area that supported Israel and was considering how to “gun down key members or anyone involved.”

In a text message exchange with an undercover officer, Teekaye said he wanted to target “any place or higher-up person that supports Israel.”

The agent asked if he meant “Jews or Israeli supporters,” and Teekaye said “both.”

Teekaye bought ammunition and trained at a shooting range in Maryland, and attempted to buy an assault rifle, but was denied because he was on probation.

He posted images of himself at a shooting range on social media, along with a quote from an Islamic hadith about preparing for violence.

In a message to an undercover agent, Teekaye sent a photo of himself wearing a black mask and holding a machete, and wrote, “Victory of [martyrdom]… either you do it here or over there or both.”

The agent asked Teekaye if he was sure he wanted to join ISIS, to which he said, “They are the only group that has the most true and sincere intentions.”

FBI agents arrested Teekaye at the Baltimore airport in October after he checked in for a flight to Istanbul.
Houston man arrested for antisemitic death threat against surveillance camera company
Jordan Nicholas Hadley, of Houston, was arrested on Thursday for allegedly making an interstate antisemitic threat directed at Flock Safety, an Atlanta-based company that provides surveillance technology used by communities and law enforcement agencies nationwide.

Hadley allegedly left a voicemail in the company’s inbox in which he stated, “Yeah, I wanna know who allowed you to record us. You’re a bunch of Jewish f*gg*ts who are breaking the Constitution. Film me and see what f*****g happens. I’ll find you and I’ll f*****g kill you.”

According to an FBI affidavit, investigators obtained a grand jury subpoena for Verizon records that identified Hadley as the owner of the phone number used to place the call. The records also showed an outgoing call from Hadley’s number to Flock Safety on the same date the threatening voicemail was left.

Flock Safety cameras are used by organizations including the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, which has invested in security upgrades for Jewish institutions across the region.

Hadley was scheduled to appear on Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard W. Bennett in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.


Israeli-American Orthodox Jew signs professional baseball contract
Israeli-American baseball player Zev Moore signed a professional contract this week with the Trenton Thunder of Major League Baseball’s Draft League.

According to Moore’s publicist, he became the second practicing Orthodox Jew to play professional baseball, while also becoming the second player raised in Israel to sign a contract allowing him to compete at that level.

The 25-year-old outfielder will join the Thunder from July through early September, adding another chapter to a baseball career that has taken him from New Jersey to Israel, through a successful college career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and now to the professional ranks.

Moore and his family moved from New Jersey to Israel when he was a child. He grew up playing baseball in a local Israeli league before joining the Israeli national team. After serving three years in the Israel Defense Forces, he continued to compete internationally through Israel’s national baseball program.

Moore told JNS he is very excited about the milestone, saying this has been part of his dream of playing professional baseball since he was four years old.

He said it was fitting that he was signed by the Thunder and recalled that, as a child growing up in New Jersey, he would attend its games in Trenton.

Moore repeatedly stressed that he felt privileged to be in the position of playing professional baseball as an Israeli, an Orthodox Jew and a graduate of MIT, a Division III institution, where no athletic scholarships are given.

“Most of my development took place as part of the Israeli baseball community,” he said. “I feel very much like I’m representing my country, my faith and my school.”


Armenia’s Jews hope Israeli recognition of Ottoman genocide will jumpstart bilateral ties
Last Friday night, 13 mostly Russian-speaking Jews and three Arab Muslims gathered under a cherry tree next to the popular Common Grounds coffee shop in Yerevan — capital of the world’s oldest Christian country — to welcome Shabbat.

Samson Karapetyan — the son of an Armenian Christian father and a Jewish mother from Azerbaijan — recited the Hebrew blessing for wine over a glass of Georgian Palavani kosher merlot. Karapetyan, 29, stood at the head of a table piled high with hummus, falafel, pita, stuffed grape leaves, babaganoush and other Middle Eastern delicacies supplied by a local Lebanese caterer.

Then everyone, including the three invited Arabs, joined in a spirited rendition of “Lecha Dodi” — with printed transliterations in English for those not familiar with the traditional Jewish melody.

“I’m so glad we have a community here,” said Ekaterina Goldschmidt, 32, a tattooed landscape architect who showed up to the Shabbat dinner with Teya, her little black Kokoni dog.

The dinner was organized by Yerevan Jewish Home, a social network formed by Russian-born journalist and blogger Nathaniel Trubkin in the wake of Vladimir Putin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. That ongoing war spurred a large exodus from both countries and brought as many as 2,000 Jews to Armenia — boosting the ex-Soviet republic’s tiny Jewish population tenfold and injecting new blood into what had been a stagnant, dwindling community of mostly pensioners.

The explosion of Jewish life came against the backdrop of frosty ties between Armenia and Israel, the country that absorbed the most Ukrainian and Russian Jewish emigres since the war’s start. The chill has been a consequence of Armenia’s close relations with neighboring Iran as well as Israel’s unwillingness to offend Turkey by naming as a genocide the Ottoman massacre of 1.5 million Armenians during World War I.

Another key obstacle has been resentment over Israel’s extensive weapons sales to neighboring Azerbaijan, with which Armenia has fought several border wars in the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Those obstacles may be falling away. Last year in Washington, predominantly Muslim Azerbaijan and mostly Christian Armenia signed a peace treaty at the urging of US President Donald Trump — garnering praise from Jewish leaders in both countries.
Hidden story of Libya’s Jews brought to London in powerful documentary premiere
The story of Libya’s long-forgotten Jewish community was brought to London audiences this week as a new documentary exploring persecution, survival and exile received its UK premiere.

Le Cose Non Dette (Things left Unsaid), directed by Italian-Libyan filmmaker Hamos Guetta, was screened at JW3 on Tuesday in an event organised by Harif, the UK Association of Jews from the Middle East and North Africa.

Founded in 2005, Harif works to preserve the history and heritage of Jewish communities from across the Middle East and North Africa, campaigns for recognition of Jewish refugees from Arab countries and raises awareness of communities that have largely disappeared from the region.

The 81-minute film follows the experiences of Libyan Jews under Colonel Muammar Gaddafi through the testimony of survivors and their families, focusing on engineer Giulio Hassan and his wife Jasmine, whose lives were torn apart by imprisonment, persecution and eventual exile.

Speaking after the screening, Guetta explained that his own childhood memories of Libya inspired a lifelong search to understand the community’s history.

Reflecting on leaving Libya as a child and rebuilding life in Italy, he said: “We want to build our roots again.”

He told the audience that incomplete memories of his early years had driven him to document the stories of fellow Libyan Jews before they disappeared.

“One interview with Giulio, I did casually,” he said. “I met him in Rome… I began the point that there is a story, and I built it.”

Guetta said the film aimed not only to document individual experiences but also to help audiences understand the wider history of a community that lived in Libya for more than 2,000 years.





Buy EoZ's books  on Amazon!

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

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

    

 

 



AddToAny

Printfriendly

EoZTV Podcast

Podcast URL

Subscribe in podnovaSubscribe with FeedlyAdd to netvibes
addtomyyahoo4Subscribe with SubToMe

search eoz

comments

Speaking

Speaking

translate

E-Book

For $18 donation








Sample Text

EoZ's Most Popular Posts in recent years

Search2

Hasbys!

Hasbys!

2019 Nobel Peace Prize nominee

Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون



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

Donate!

Donate to fight for Israel!

Monthly subscription:
Payment options


One time donation:

Follow EoZ on Twitter!

Interesting Blogs

Show All

Blog Archive

Copyright © Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News | Powered by Blogger
Blogger Templates