Tuesday, July 14, 2026

07/13 Links Pt2: Human rights groups ‘tolerating terrorism against Israel’; The people who know nothing know everything; "He's a Lying Liar." Haviv SLAMS Ro Khanna's Political Stunt in Israel

From Ian:

Human rights groups ‘tolerating terrorism against Israel’
Human rights groups are tolerating terrorism against Israel, the UK’s independent reviewer of terror legislation has said.

Jonathan Hall KC said Left-wing activists regarded violence towards supporters of Israel as a “kind of exemption” because their brains had been “scrambled by Gaza”.

He said that many civil liberty NGOs had abandoned their “traditional” focus on “domestic issues” and instead become “sucked in” to an obsession with the Palestinian struggle.

Speaking at an event at Parliament, he said that some human rights groups had “lost this really precious neutrality and ability to be consistent” on the subject of Israel.

Mr Hall said: “I’ll be able to tell you from my own experience, I barely have any engagement with these sorts of groups. You’d think that Amnesty UK would be right in the forefront of saying: ‘There is an amendment to this legislation, what should we do?’ No, they’re involved in really defending one particular sort of protest.

“And I think that it’s an example of something that we’ve seen with the Palestine Action group response, where people on the whole get their brains scrambled by Gaza.

“So they tolerate behaviour, very violent behaviour, which they would say, if it was being done by the extreme Right or an Islamist group, ‘yes, of course that would amount to terrorism’. But they seem to regard it as a kind of exemption.”

Earlier this year, six Palestine Action activists were cleared of committing aggravated burglary after a break-in at the UK headquarters of an Israeli-owned arms company.

The six activists were found not guilty over allegations that they had used or threatened unlawful violence.

They had used an old prison van to ram-raid an Elbit Systems factory in Bristol in the early hours of Aug 6, 2024, and attacked police officers with sledgehammers, according to Avon and Somerset Police.

They “genuinely believed” their demonstration at the factory would help the Palestinian cause in Gaza, the court heard.

Mr Hall urged humanitarian groups to “pull themselves back from the brink and remember what they really are there to do”.

He said he had spoken to senior executives at British NGOs who are “worried about the direction of travel” but are being “pushed” in that direction by younger members of staff.
Lee Smith: The Culture of Loserdom
The United States saved Egypt from a humiliating defeat in 1956, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered French, British, and Israeli forces to evacuate the Suez Canal, which they’d easily taken from Egyptian forces. But not even Nasser’s Soviet patrons could save him in 1967, when Israel destroyed Egypt’s air force on the ground, seized Sinai, and remade the Middle East in six days. His successor Anwar Sadat lost the 1973 war when Ariel Sharon nearly encircled Cairo and only Henry Kissinger’s intervention stopped him.

And then Sadat turned it around, briefly. He won a Nobel prize for making peace with Israel, got back the Sinai—and then terrorists killed him for it. The country’s only other Nobel prize winner, novelist Naguib Mahfouz, was stabbed in the throat on a Cairo street for writing a book that Egyptian terrorists didn’t like. In other words, Egypt cannot abide winning. And thus, naturally, Egypt renewed the contracts of Hossam Hassan and his twin Ibrahim, thereby rewarding the coach responsible for one of the most spectacular chokes in sports history and consequently one of the most repulsive displays of sporting conduct.

People, nations, aren’t supposed to lose like Egypt does, by embracing loserdom as a collective gestalt deployed to blame others for the failures that are only their own. Perhaps the most crucial job of any parent, and coach, is to teach their children how to lose gracefully and what to learn from it so that they may reap victory in the future. Sports is part of that tuition—even the best teams lose sometimes. You can do everything right, execute every play perfectly, but the other side, the other athlete, is simply better. Or you were better, but the calls went against you, or the weather was bad, and that’s just the way it goes.

But if you wanted to breed psychopaths, if you wanted to build a mummy army fed on a strict diet of resentment, you’d tell them nothing is their fault because every outcome is controlled by a mysterious force: colonialism, or Zionism, or voodoo, etc. And then, when things went against them—and things always go against those whose minds and souls are cut to fit the jagged-edged pattern of paranoia—they’d erupt in fits of predictably maniacal rage.

It’s the instrumentalization of those pathological furies that drives the politics of the Middle East. For instance, because of Egypt’s will to lose, Washington pays Cairo $2 billion a year not to send the millions of young men who blame the Jews for everything, from Mossad dolphins to soccer defeats, to their death in another war with Israel. It’s the same throughout the Muslim Middle East, which is why from Iran to Gaza, the Palestinian cause—the global standard of loserdom—is celebrated like victory.

And now the third-world migrants who have overrun Europe’s shores have brought the same culture to the continent. After Morocco’s loss to France, for instance, North African immigrants surrounded an Amsterdam hotel believed to be hosting Israelis and shouted threats, holding them responsible for the loss. And here, in the United States? It’s not a good sign that the man elected to run America’s greatest city can’t tell winning from losing and gives evidence he thinks like the third-world mobs drenched in resentment, that Egypt was robbed.
The people who know nothing know everything
I knew the evening was in trouble when the hostess described the table as “a safe space for difficult conversations.”

Nothing good has ever followed such words.

A safe space for difficult conversations is usually a space in which everyone is free to express precisely the same opinion, provided they do so using slightly different therapeutic vocabulary. Disagreement is welcome in the way vegetarians are welcome at a barbecue: theoretically, warmly, and without any intention of accommodating them.

The dinner was being held in an immaculate apartment overlooking the city. The furniture was Scandinavian, the lighting was flattering, and the books had been arranged not alphabetically but morally. Edward Said sat beside Frantz Fanon. Judith Butler leaned against a large volume on decolonising architecture. There were several books about Israel, none by Israelis, historians, military analysts, Arabic speakers, Hebrew speakers, or anyone who had recently burdened themselves with the region’s chronology.

The apartment belonged to Oliver and Beatrice, who had invited 12 people for what they called “an evening of food, friendship and necessary conversation.”

I had been included, I later realised, as the necessary conversation; the one in need of “education.”

Beatrice greeted me at the door with the expression of a person welcoming a recently rehabilitated extremist.

“We’re so glad you came,” she said, touching my arm. “We were worried you might feel uncomfortable.”

“I’ve been to family weddings,” I replied. “I’ll survive.”

The other guests had already assembled around a huge island bench. They held champagne flutes and spoke in low, solemn tones about suffering in places they would never visit.

There was Julian, an international lawyer who specialised in commercial leases but had recently developed strong views on the laws of armed conflict. Nadia worked in branding and referred to herself as a storyteller. Marcus was a documentary producer whose documentaries had never been produced. Eleanor taught postcolonial literature and had perfected the academic art of converting adjectives into accusations. Simon was in finance and considered himself politically courageous because he had once criticised capitalism at Davos.

There was also Theo, a surgeon, who knew nothing about Israel but knew it with clinical confidence.

I was introduced around the room.

“This is our pro-Israel friend,” Beatrice announced.
When celebrity ignorance gets a stage
You can criticize Israeli settlement policy in Judea and Samaria. Plenty of Israelis do, loudly, in a free press, which is more than can be said for any of its neighbors. That is a real debate, and I welcome it.

But a nation that has voluntarily relinquished more territory than it currently holds is a strange poster child for expansionism. Name another country in history that won defensive wars and then handed the land back just for a signature on a peace treaty.

I’ll wait.

That’s the thing about Casablanca’s Oxford speech: It is the statement of a man who has never had to know anything, explaining to a room full of university students who the Jews really are. He got the biography of his subject wrong because he never learned it. He got the map wrong because he never looked at it. Although he does note that some of his closest friends are Jewish.

The danger isn’t that a rock singer holds uninformed opinions and mumbles through them to an audience who knows even less. Everyone is entitled to those. The danger is the machinery around him: the host who says “100% agree” without a beat, the comment sections calling it brave, the prestigious institutions handing Casablancas a lectern, the total absence of anyone in the room asking a single factual question.

When ignorance gets a stage, applause and an Oxford invitation, while the people it targets get stabbed on a London street, we are not having a policy debate. We are watching a line move.

So, I’ll say it again: Say something. You don’t need a position on settlements to notice that the facts here are wrong and that the target, once again, is the Jews.


Getting to the heart of the Ro Khanna incident
Contrary to original IDF reports, the IDF soldiers did not really actively try to move the settlers out of the area, as they viewed them as having helped them and the police locate a suspicious car.

As far as the soldiers were concerned, they were babysitting the suspicious car temporarily until the police showed up to handle the situation.

However, since it in the end was not even a closed zone, the soldiers had no right to keep Khanna until police arrived.

Moreover, at one point, Nadav Weiman, who was with Khanna, approached the soldiers and informed them that Khanna was with the entourage and that the entourage had spoken to the police headquarters, which had said the soldiers should let Khanna leave.

Not only did the soldiers not let Khanna leave, but one of them asked Weiman whether he was an official in Breaking the Silence (he is), as if ready to punish Khanna to get back at Weiman for being a member of a group many in the IDF dislike.

The soldiers said they would wait for a police official to show up physically before letting Khanna go.

This part of the standoff went on for either 20 or 40 minutes, depending on which side you ask.

Eventually, a police official arrived, and minutes earlier, the settlers had run from the scene, as if to signal they understood they should not have been there.

The IDF has said it identified at least one settler, who was an IDF officer off duty and is "clarifying" with him regarding his role - something which sounds like a small censure, but not major disciplinary actions.

What the soldiers could have done, once they heard a senior US official was there, was to call the police headquarters themselves if they did not believe Weiman, instead of making Khanna wait until a police official arrived.

Or they could have just let them go, given that Khanna was a senior US official and, other than driving into an area that might have been questionable, appeared to pose no threat.

Going forward, Israel would need to ensure that settler vigilantes cannot detain third parties outside of their specific village security zone, and to prosecute settlers who take the law into their own hands, well-intentioned or not. Also, IDF soldiers would need to be ready to treat US officials and other Western diplomats as the VIPs that they are, not leaving them sitting and detained for an hour out of a failure to understand the situation.

This is important not only as a matter of competence, but to avoid falling into the trap of future visitors who may seek to set up Israeli soldiers for a fall so as to embarrass Israel in the global sphere.
Honest Reporting: Detained in Israel? Ro Khanna’s Inconsistent Claims the Media Never Questioned
The International Reporting that Followed
The day following the incident, Congressman Khanna gave an interview to Reuters, which was published on Saturday.

The New York Times first reported the story that same day, following Congressman Khanna’s post on X. He has shared his story of supposed “detention” on NBC’s Meet the Press, and international outlets have made the incident front-page news.

But none of this reporting asks:
How or why did Khanna end up in a Closed Military Zone?
Why did he refuse Israeli coordination for a trip through such security-sensitive territory?

More than that, the IDF and police statements that contradict much of Congressman Khanna’s account are added as an afterthought, rather than critically examining the gaping holes in his story.

And if Congressman Khanna wanted to understand the “story of what is happening in the West Bank,” to do so without meeting with any Israeli officials to explain the security situation only points to the desire to tell a specific story. His lack of interest in meeting with any Israelis – including former hostages and survivors of October 7 – only points to this further.

Somewhere between Congressman Khanna’s encounter with Israeli forces on Wednesday and his interviews since, the story became about “settler violence” and the supposed mistreatment of an American congressman – something all evidence contradicts. It was a cheap political point that traded the Congressman’s short visit for a few days of headlines.
Ask Haviv Anything: "He's a Lying Liar." Haviv SLAMS Ro Khanna's Political Stunt in Israel
Representative Ro Khanna's recent visit to the West Bank ignited a political firestorm after he alleged that Israeli settlers detained his delegation while Israeli security forces stood by. But did events unfold the way they were initially described?

Journalist Haviv Rettig Gur joins Rafaela Siewert to examine the facts of the incident, the competing narratives that emerged online, and what the controversy reveals about the growing role of Israel in American politics. Their conversation explores the incentives driving political messaging, the information war surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and why debates over Israel have become increasingly central to the future of the Democratic Party.


Honest Reporting: An Open Letter to Congressman Ro Khanna
Dear Congressman Khanna,
We saw you recently visited Israel. We are usually thrilled when a member of the United States Congress takes the time and effort to visit the region and better understand it. We’ve found that with more knowledge about Israel and its neighbors, open-minded people become more pro-Israel.

While you claim your visit was for “fact-finding,” we all know this was really a trip dedicated to something else entirely – generating as much anti-Israel propaganda as possible. We understand: you have higher political ambitions, and you’re just playing the political game.

While on your propaganda gathering tour, you claim you were detained in the West Bank by assault rifle-toting “settlers.’’ While we doubt you truly have any idea where the individuals live, it seems all Israelis can be dehumanized under the rubric of “settler” for the right audience.

However, we now know this incident occurred at a closed military zone. The military declares zones closed to prevent danger to life and limb, for Israelis, Palestinians, and yes, even for visitors looking to score cheap political points at Israel’s expense.

Your guide was well known to the IDF for repeatedly trying to enter the same zone and cause problems. So, this wasn’t a wrong turn or simply trying to learn more about the complexities of the region. It was a designed provocation, calculated to generate clicks and outrage. You knew exactly where you were and what you were doing.

Knowingly attempting to breach a closed military zone shows a shocking lack of concern for the safety of IDF soldiers, yourself, and your own staff. What would happen if an extreme anti-American member of Knesset tried to enter a closed U.S. military zone to get some clickbait for their base? Would they just be waived through? Would you be outraged when they were stopped by the U.S. Army?


How the Democratic Party in America lost its way on Israel, Jews
What’s most striking is how silent most Democrats have been in the face of these changes. Poll after poll shows that the vast majority of rank-and-file Democrats do not share the extreme positions of the loudest activists.

Most are uncomfortable with the rhetoric of hate, the calls for Israel’s destruction, the demonization of Jews who dare to speak up. And yet, silence prevails. It’s easier to look away than to confront the painful truth: the party you grew up with, the party you loved, is no longer the same.

Why do so many choose to stay quiet? Part of it is denial. It’s hard to admit that something as fundamental as political identity might be in question.

Part of it is a fear of being labeled, ostracized, or being accused of disloyalty. But there’s also a sense of helplessness. The machinery of the party now seems geared toward those with the loudest voices, not the broadest consensus.

This is not a call for American Jews to abandon the Democratic Party. It is important for American Jews to stand up to this shift both for their own sake as well as Israel. Political coalitions are always in flux, and history shows that change is possible. But silence has a cost. When good people say nothing, extremists take over.

Many Democrats are anguished by what’s happening. They are not anti-Israel, nor are they anti-Jewish.

They are uncomfortable, confused, and unsure of what to do. To them, we say: speak up. Write to your representatives. Push local party organizations to stand for the values you believe in. Demand that your leaders draw a clear distinction between legitimate criticism of Israeli policies and the kind of rhetoric that endangers Jews here and abroad.

The Democratic Party did not become inhospitable to Jews overnight. It happened bit by bit, meeting by meeting, platform by platform, as too many people looked away. The only way back is to refuse to look away any longer.
The Democratic Party’s war on Jews
The Democratic Party is increasingly being shaped by a movement that does not merely oppose a policy or a prime minister. It treats the Jewish state itself as a moral stain.

It treats Zionism, the belief that Jews, like every other people, have a right to national self-determination, as presumptively racist. It treats Jews who refuse to disown Israel as political obstacles to be overcome.

That movement is no longer whispering from the margins.

It is winning primaries.

It is setting activist priorities.

It is forcing congressional Democrats into private meetings where lawmakers openly acknowledge the pressure to support measures they believe are reckless.

On June 30, House Democrats debated a proposal to bar funds from going to Israel. One lawmaker told Axios, in reference to the measure: “We know it’s crap, but…” The unfinished sentence says everything.

The issue is no longer whether Democrats agree with Israel on every decision.

The issue is whether Democratic leaders are still willing to say that Israel has a right to exist without treating that statement as a political liability.

For generations, American Jews believed the Democratic Party understood something fundamental: minorities should not have to justify their fear before it is taken seriously.

The party taught America that prejudice does not become acceptable because it is fashionable. It taught America that hatred does not become harmless because it is popular. It taught America that silence in the face of bigotry is not neutrality. It is permission.

Yet when antisemitism appears in progressive spaces, those principles suddenly seem negotiable.
Abdul El-Sayed calls Israel a ‘rogue state’
Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan running in the race’s far-left lane, on Sunday described Israel as a “rogue state” that has committed genocide and apartheid. El-Sayed made the comments in an interview with Manu Raju on CNN’s “Inside Politics Sunday.”

Asked whether he thought the Israeli government should be considered by the U.S. to be a foreign terrorist organization, El-Sayed answered, “It’s certainly a rogue state.”

“I mean, they did a genocide,” he continued. “What about doing a genocide is not evil in your book? At baseline they do apartheid.”

El-Sayed’s comments come as Michigan’s heated Democratic Senate primary enters its final stretch. He is facing off in the Aug. 4 primary against Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) — a moderate lawmaker who has been supported by AIPAC and pro-Israel donors.

Last week, El-Sayed told CNN that he did not believe that a Democratic politician’s support for Israel could be about anything other than money. Earlier in the race, El-Sayed said he struggled to answer questions about whether he believed Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state and that he believed the Israeli government was just as “evil” as Hamas.


The patronizing gospel according to Rahm Emanuel
During an appearance last week at Tel Aviv University, Rahm Emanuel, who served as former President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, declared that America’s alliance with Israel “cannot survive as it has been.” He warned that Israel is approaching a “dead end,” condemned the pursuit of Greater Israel and urged Israelis to abandon policies that, in his view, threaten their future.

Like so many before him, Emanuel delivered his rebuke on July 8 wrapped in the protective mantle of his Jewish identity, presenting himself not as a detached critic but as a concerned member of the family speaking uncomfortable truths.

What makes his performance objectionable is not the criticism, but the breathtaking arrogance behind it.

Emanuel arrived from the comfort of American life to superciliously lecture the citizens of a sovereign nation about the risks they should accept, the territory they should surrender and the security doctrines they should abandon, knowing that he will bear none of the consequences should his advice prove as catastrophically wrong as that of his predecessors.

Emanuel did not invent this role. He merely stepped into a well-established tradition. For decades, figures like New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) have periodically appointed themselves wise interpreters of Israel’s “real” interests.

The names change, but the script rarely does. It always opens with an affirmation of affection, proceeds through assurances of unique moral authority derived from Jewish identity and concludes with the claim that Israelis must yield to international expectations because the alternative is isolation.

Those who live safely in Washington, D.C., New York or Chicago tend to assert superior judgment to others whose children patrol Israel’s borders, whose neighborhoods absorb rocket fire, and whose sons and daughters are summoned to reserve duty. Emanuel and his ilk confuse access to television studios, editorial pages and Senate chambers with insight into existential security concerns. But elite consensus is not strategic reality.
Former Obama CoS Rahm Emanuel joined Hugh to discuss the speech he gave at Tel Aviv University

Mamdani should be 'Tehran's mayor,' Jews who voted for him are 'idiots,' says Dershowitz
Jews who voted for NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani are "idiot[s]" for embracing a candidate who runs "contrary to their own identity," Jewish Harvard law professor and attorney Alan Dershowitz said on Wednesday during an appearance on former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani's show.

“That's your city! That's your city, Mayor,” Dershowitz said to Giuliani. “The same city electing Rudy Giuliani and Mamdani to the same office. It is absurd. I mean, Mamdani should be the mayor of Tehran,” said Dershowitz.

Dershowitz continued, saying, “My people, the idiot Jews, in New York, who live on the Upper West Side, who live in Park Slope, who voted for Mamdani- remind me of the 7,000 Jews who voted for Hitler.”

“Seven thousand Jews formed a party in 1932 and voted for Hitler, thinking he would be good for the economy.” Dershowitz concluded, “Thank God, we have Italian-Americans, Irish-Americans, and other Americans who have a lot more sense than many Jewish Americans do.”

Giuliani interjected briefly, saying, “There are a lot of very strong Jews on this issue.”
Radical GOP governor hopeful got cash from backers of far-left Dems
James Fishback, the GOP candidate for Florida governor whom critics call “openly racist” and “openly antisemitic,” ostensibly sits at the opposite end of the political spectrum from the likes of Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan.

But the far-right and far-left politicians share more than just an aversion to Israel — they also overlap in donors, Jewish Insider has found.

As a candidate, Fishback has embraced and celebrated neo-Nazi podcaster Nick Fuentes’ “groyper” movement, propagated the “white genocide” and “great replacement” conspiracy theories, told a Black Floridian they should be lynched and repeatedly taunted Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) — his rival to replace Gov. Ron DeSantis — over his race. The radical right candidate has also called the Western Wall “stupid,” referred to fast food as “goyslop,” promised Tucker Carlson he would dump the Sunshine State’s holdings in Israeli bonds, blamed the Iran war on AIPAC and released an ad vowing that no one would be “convicted of antisemitism” for criticizing the Jewish state under his leadership.

But his campaign has proven a magnet for donors to progressive candidates, who have poured tens of thousands of dollars into a PAC supporting his election.

Among the 27 donors to give the maximum $3,000 contribution to Fishback’s bid for Tallahassee is New York-based philanthropist and financier Amed Khan. A longtime associate of the Clinton family and contributor to former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, as well as to the Democratic National Committee, Khan’s public commentary and political giving has pivoted leftward since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel.

Besides maxing out to Fishback, this cycle the investment banker and Quincy Institute board member has kicked $7,000 to former Maine Senate nominee Graham Platner, the progressive Democrat whose tirades against “oligarchs” and “the establishment” — not to mention his rhetoric on Israel — made him a favorite of the online left before a rape allegation derailed his campaign. In March, Khan donated the maximum $5,000 to Peace, Accountability, and Leadership PAC, an arm of the Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project, a dark money nonprofit dedicated to advancing pro-Palestinian narratives and candidates.


Character over clicks: Clavicular is a symptom, not the disease
This weekend wasn't just a failure of judgment by a handful of creators. It exposed a bigger problem: we need higher standards.

Not every audience is worth winning at any cost. Not every collaboration is strategic simply because it reaches millions of people. Israel should absolutely engage critics. We should have uncomfortable conversations. We should be willing to sit across the table from people who disagree with us.

But engagement is not endorsement. Trying to change someone's mind is not the same as handing them legitimacy, and strategy should never become an excuse for abandoning our values. As creators, whether we asked for it or not, we're ambassadors. Every collaboration, every photo, every video tells the world something about who we are and what we stand for. That comes with an ethical responsibility.

For nearly three years, we've asked the world to believe Israeli women. To take antisemitism seriously. To understand that values matter. Those values can't just be talking points we deploy when it's convenient. They have to be the standard we hold ourselves to, too.

I've always believed that loving Israel doesn't mean pretending we're perfect. It means believing we're capable of better. It means calling each other in, holding each other accountable, and building the kind of community we'd actually be proud to represent. Because at the end of the day, our credibility isn't built by who takes a selfie with us. It's built by what we're willing to say no to.

Let's build a creator community rooted in integrity instead of insecurity. One that values character over clicks, principles over proximity, and impact over influence.

That's the community I want to be part of.

And I know I'm not the only one.


'Talk about the good I'm doing': Clavicular leaves interview after asked about antisemitic incident
Braden Eric Peters, known online as Clavicular, left a Monday interview midway after being pressed by Channel 13's Bar Shem-Ur about his recent antisemitic incidents, which involved being kicked out of a club in January alongside the white supremacist Nick Fuentes for singing Ye’s “Heil Hitler.”

The American content creator was speaking about how he was "having a great time in Tel Aviv" when Shem-Ur asked him if he "came here to apologize."

Clavicular then explained that he and his team came to Israel to "explore Tel Aviv, and kind of show that it is a really fun city, because there are a lot of misconceptions about it."

"When you look up online for Mikonos, Ibiza, or frequently summer spots for Europeans, you see tourists things like clubs and great things in the city to do. But when you look at Israel, obviously it's stuff about war, when in reality it's a really fun city," he said.

"Came to show everyone that this is the reality of Tel Aviv," he added. He was then asked if he knew about the online comments about his visit and what Israelis thought about him coming to the country, to which he answered, "Everyone is talking about what we are doing that is good, so for you to start the interview in a negative manner doesn't really make sense."

Clavicular: 'Why don't you talk about how much I do for this country'
After being pressed about the antisemitic incidents that were reported back in January, he asked, "Why don't you talk about how much I have done for this country's reputation? Because it's in outer shambles."

"You go on TikTok, on any social media page, the amount of propaganda and misconceptions is what's doing the real damage, not anything I've done. We are here, trying to set everything straight, even if I don't have to be in Israel," he added.

"This is the most ridiculous thing ever. I just woke up, and I don't want to be talking to someone who is going to be rude. Because I'm here to do good things," he said, claiming that Shem-Ur had to ask about the "good things he is doing so that there is no bad PR."

When asked further about the online comments, he first said he didn't understand Hebrew and then added that he didn't have time to check everything with a translation tool. "I'm here for a good thing, and you are trying to drag me to the mud and damage my reputation. This interview is over," he added before leaving the interview.


Netanyahu adviser filmed speaking with antisemitic influencer in Tel Aviv nightclub
A senior adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was filmed talking to an antisemitic American far-right streamer at a Tel Aviv nightclub overnight Saturday-Sunday.

Channel 13 news reported Braden Peters, better known by his social media handle Clavicular, was seen talking to Netanyahu adviser Topaz Luk at Tel Aviv’s Shalvata beach bar and nightclub. There has been speculation that the premier may make an appearance on Clavicular’s channel.

In response, Luk told the network: “I met him at an event by coincidence. He said sorry for his antisemitic remark.”

Separately, Channel 12 reported that Peters was thrown out of Loullie beach club earlier Saturday after allegedly trying to provoke patrons and refusing to stop filming.

According to Loullie, Peters “arrived at the venue with another man and entered like all other customers. As soon as they came in, the person accompanying him turned on a camera with a light and began confronting customers and provoking people at the venue. At that point, the venue’s security officer asked him to stop and turn off the camera. When he refused, it was decided to remove him from the premises.”

Peters is a popular misogynistic “looksmaxxing” influencer who promotes extreme appearance-enhancement practices, such as facial “bonesmashing,” a pseudoscientific technique that involves striking the face with a hammer in an attempt to alter bone structure.
IDF reprimands TikTok admin for appearing on Clavicular’s stream, demotes her to cook
The IDF soldier who was seen on controversial influencer Clavicular’s stream was formally reprimanded by the IDF and has been removed from her position and demoted to a cook, N12 reported on Monday.

Braden Peters, better known as Clavicular, is a prominent “looksmaxxing” influencer who has made several public antisemitic comments, including appearing alongside the white supremacist Nick Fuentes singing Ye’s “Heil Hitler.”

During his visit to Tel Aviv, which has drawn condemnation from many Israelis calling for his removal, Peters was seen streaming alongside Shira Braun, an IDF soldier in the Spokesperson's Unit.

Braun appeared on several of Peters’s broadcasts, and he made several moves to touch or kiss her on camera, even commenting that he would take her to a hotel room. Braun reportedly showed Clavicular the military's official TikTok on her phone

In turn, Braun shared a post on her since-deleted Instagram where she taught the influencer an acro-yoga move, which was seen by nearly half a million users before being removed.

Most importantly, she showed Peters the IDF's official TikTok page on her phone, leading to her reported removal from the unit.

Peters claimed that Braun was “the IDF’s social media manager,” but there is no one person who holds the title.
UKLFI: Charity Commission holds £800,000 from aid charity linked to Hamas concerns
We Care Foundation, a registered charity, is the subject of a statutory inquiry into its trustees’ decision-making and payments. Its bank accounts were frozen by the regulator in May 2024.

UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) raised further concerns with the Commission in January 2025 after discovering that We Care had funded Qawafil Al-Khair Association, a Gaza-based organisation described as a “Hamas institution”. The Charity Commission told UKLFI the following month that the allegations would be considered as part of its inquiry.

Figures published by the Official Custodian show that it received £819,494.20 on behalf of the charity during 2025–26. After £18,737.76 was paid to an interim manager appointed in July 2025, a total of £800,756.44 remained in the Custodian’s hands as of March 31 this year.

Qawafil was designated a terrorist organisation by Israel’s defence minister in December 2024 under the country’s anti-terrorism legislation.

The organisation was headed by Mansour Rayan and Ali Al-Mughrabi, both of whom had served prison sentences in Israel for terrorist offences before being released in the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange.

Rayan was convicted of murdering Israeli civilian Yoram Sakuri in 1994 and wounding his wife.

Following the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, he reportedly praised the attackers and shared footage of Israeli hostages being assaulted and paraded through Gaza.

Al-Mughrabi was linked to a Hamas cell responsible for several attacks, including the 2002 suicide bombing at Jerusalem’s Moment Café, in which 11 people were killed and dozens injured.

He was reported to have transferred funds, obtained vehicles for attacks and photographed suicide bombers. He was killed by the Israel Defense Forces in Khan Younis in January 2025.


EU foreign ministers discuss possible Judea and Samaria trade ban
European Union foreign ministers will discuss a possible ban on import of goods produced in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, the bloc’s foreign policy chief said on Monday.

“Everybody agrees that the situation in the West Bank is really intolerable,” E.U. High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas told reporters at the start of a meeting in Brussels, AFP reported. (The European Union refers to Judea and Samaria as the “West Bank.”)

“What is happening in the West Bank is actually making it more and more impossible that the two-state solution ever can come into effect,” the foreign policy chief continued.

“There have been a lot of asks and requests from the member states regarding the ban of the trade with illegal settlements,” Kallas said. “Let’s see if these options that have been provided now will have a stronger push from member states.”

The European Commission, the E.U.'s executive arm, last week circulated a paper outlining three options to restrict trade with Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, Euronews reported.

The council’s legal service told member states the measures could be adopted as a trade instrument, requiring the support of at least 15 countries representing 65% of the E.U.'s population under qualified majority voting, rather than the unanimity required for foreign policy decisions.

Backing from countries such as Italy could give supporters enough votes to clear that threshold.
Irish festival bans anyone who has served in the Israeli army from attending
An Irish music festival has said current and former members of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) will not be allowed to attend after an online backlash over the planned attendance of a former Israeli soldier.

Rewild festival, a one-day music, arts and wellness festival held in woodland near the Gap of Dunloe in County Kerry, issued the statement ahead of the weekend’s festival after campaigners criticised organisers over the expected attendance of Yonatan Prigozin, who, according to Irish outlet Aontacht Media, previously served in the IDF.

In a statement shared on social media, organisers said they had become aware that a former member of what they described as “the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF)” was planning to attend as a paying guest.

The statement said: “Rewild stands in solidarity with the Palestinian people and is committed to fostering a safe, welcoming and inclusive space for our community.

“In line with these values, current or former members of the IOF are not welcome at Rewild and will not be permitted to participate in the festival, and that was made clear.”

The announcement came after campaigners criticised the festival on social media over Mr Prigozin’s planned attendance. One activist account urged artists and vendors to withdraw unless organisers revoked access for “any current or ex IOF soldiers”, while Aontacht Media later reported that several artists subsequently pulled out.

Aontacht Media also reported that messages from an organiser’s WhatsApp group appeared to show festival staff initially defending the attendee’s presence before later reversing their position.

According to the publication, one organiser wrote: “Yes, he is welcome,” while another reportedly told a concerned attendee: “If you are uncomfortable with that, you are free not to attend.”
The NEU must end its association with opponents of the Bell antisemitism review
The NEU’s association with the International Solidarity Network and Parents for Palestine speaks to a larger problem. When addressing contentious political issues, teachers are required to observe impartiality, present competing views fairly and avoid treating opinions as facts. Yet the union’s disproportionate attention to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict outside the classroom has raised legitimate questions about what happens inside it, and about the wider culture in which those standards of impartiality are expected to be upheld.

The NEU leadership has made anti-Israel activism a prominent part of the union’s public identity, passing motions branding Israel an apartheid state and accusing it of genocide.

None of this should prejudge the conduct of individual teachers but it does underline why schools must be especially careful to maintain impartiality and ensure that Jewish pupils and staff can have confidence that antisemitism will be recognised and taken seriously.

Schools must be places where children learn how to disagree without hatred. They cannot become arenas in which adult political obsessions are imported into the classroom and visited upon impressionable children.

The Bell review is not an attack on free speech but a test of whether Britain’s education system can still recognise anti-Jewish racism when it appears, and whether those charged with educating the next generation have the moral clarity to confront it.
Teachers’ union convention will consider multiple anti-Israel resolutions
Delegates at the American Federation of Teachers’ 89th national convention will consider a series of resolutions targeting Israel when they gather in Washington, D.C., at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center starting July 16.

The teachers’ union, headed by Randi Weingarten, will vote on a 204-page proposed AFT constitution, viewed by JNS, which includes a resolution submitted by the executive council of the union that demands “an end to Israel’s bombing and invasion of Lebanon” and calls on “the United States and Israel to end the use of military force against Iran.”

A separate resolution, submitted by the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, calls for “an end to the United States’ and Israel’s wars against Iran and Lebanon now” and “the withdrawal of all Israeli troops from Lebanon.”

Another proposal, from United Teachers Los Angeles, seeks to allocate $50,000 to UNICEF’s Gaza relief program and launch a campaign encouraging AFT members to contribute.

Delegates will also consider a resolution titled “No Endorsement for Genocide Enablers,” which alleges that Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute genocide and calls for withholding endorsements from elected officials who support military aid to Israel.

A resolution submitted by the California Federation of Teachers commits the AFT to building an “alliance of teachers unions and public sector unions to advocate for the creation of a multinational donor safety net to ensure that teachers in the West Bank and Gaza, at all levels, elementary to higher education, can be paid their due wages.”

The convention agenda notes that inclusion in the proposed document “is not an endorsement and does not mean that it will be adopted to the convention or debated on the floor of the convention.”
‘It’ll Be Violent’: Chicago Teachers Union Hosts Israel-Hating Communist Convention Where Radicals Call for Sabotaging US Ports, Backing Iran
The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) hosted a Marxist, virulently anti-Israel conference last weekend which openly celebrated terrorism, introduced fledgling activists to "the growing BDS movement," and called on its members to support Iran’s "axis of resistance" and prepare for violence against the United States and Israel.

"We are all here to toughen our knuckles," Ryan Delaney, chair of communications for Jacksonville Palestine Solidarity Network, told attendees at the conclusion of events Saturday.

"I hope that everybody leaves here ready to fight when they get home," he told roughly 200 cheering attendees.

Sara Flounders, a member of the Secretariat of the Marxist-Leninist Workers World Party, thundered to the crowd that "the enemy is at home. … Change doesn't ask for permission. It'll be violent. It'll be stormy. It'll be unpredictable."

Flounders praised attendees as "a really militant, determined group."

The conference, where activists went so far as to discuss how to shut down a major U.S. port to force out an Israeli company, was the second annual gathering of Anti-War Action Network (AWAN), an agglomeration of dozens of local activist groups around the country united by their hatred of Israel and mission to obstruct American "imperialism."

The Washington Free Beacon purchased a ticket online and was able to seamlessly mingle with attendees for two days without incident.


Macron: Dreyfus affair reminds us that ‘antisemitism is the enemy of the Republic’
French President Emmanuel Macron marked on Sunday the first national day commemorating the recognition of Alfred Dreyfus’s innocence, saying in French that “Dreyfusism reminds us that antisemitism—whatever its roots or supposed explanations—is the enemy of the Republic.”

Dreyfus was a Jewish officer wrongly accused of being a German spy. His conviction in 1894 led to a social outcry, followed by new evidence that eventually paved the way for his exoneration.

In the ceremony in Paris on Sunday, 120 years to the day after France’s highest court of appeals cleared his name, Macron described the ruling proclaiming Dreyfus’s innocence as “a triumph of justice after years of struggle and the slow unveiling of the truth,” according to a translation by French newspaper Le Monde.

“Today, for the first time, we are gathered for a national day of commemoration, which I wished to establish on our calendar from now on,” Macron continued, referring to a resolution advanced unanimously at the French National Assembly in the summer of 2025.

Macron said that the antisemitic affair was a “particular form of contradiction and confrontation unique” to the French people, but which ultimately ended with the “victory of the republican spirit over reactionary forces.”

He further listed the French figures, the “Dreyfusards,” who stood by the Jewish officer and fought to clear his name, among them head of France’s counter-espionage, Lt. Col. Picquart, French authors Emile Zola, Anatole France and Marcel Proust, statesman Georges Clemenceau and others.

“We know that the old demons of antisemitism have never completely disappeared from our country. We know this because antisemitic acts, far from fading away, have continued to target people simply because of what they are,” the French president continued.


San Jose State graduate student charged in antisemitic bomb-hoax threats
A San Jose State University graduate student was arrested on a federal charge of allegedly making bomb threats targeting Jews and others on campus.

Ziheng “Tony” Fang, 30, of San Jose, Calif., made an initial appearance in federal court after being charged with false information and hoaxes. Prosecutors allege that on Nov. 5, 2025, he posted a message warning of a mass bombing and displaying multiple Nazi swastikas in a men’s bathroom at the public school.

Authorities said that a second message found at the same time referred to killing Jews, Muslims and Mexicans and used a derogatory word for East Asians, and referred to a “mass bombing” on Nov. 11 or 12. The defendant also posted or shared materials that were “anti-ICE, pro-immigration, anti-MAGA and pro-Palestine views,” according to a criminal complaint filed on July 9 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Campus police officers documented more than 20 similar threatening messages, which began in October. 2024.

Investigators allege that Fang’s fingerprint was recovered from of the Nov. 5 notices, that his campus key card records placed him in buildings before incidents requiring card access and that surveillance footage showed him entering or leaving restroom areas before several messages were discovered.
FBI investigating possible hate crime after Indiana home displaying US, Israeli flags set on fire
The Jewish community in central Indiana held a rally on Sunday after a home in Zionsville bearing Israeli and American flags was set on fire.

The Zionsville Fire Department responded to a fire at the home, a former antique shop on South Main Street, on July 10. It was unoccupied at the time of the fire.

Zionsville Mayor John Stehr said during a Friday press conference that investigators believe someone set fire to an Israeli flag that was hanging from the home.

The fire, which the FBI is investigating as a possible hate crime, caused more than $150,000 in damage, according to the fire department.

Community members gathered outside the former antique shop on Sunday, waving Israeli and American flags.

“The founding fathers founded a country where we have the ability to resolve differences among each other,” said David Schiller, who organized the rally. “We don’t do it by firebombing homes.”

Sen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) stated that “antisemitism will not be tolerated. Not in Zionsville. Not in Indiana. Not anywhere.”

“Thank you to the federal, state and local officials working to bring the perpetrators of this despicable arson attack to justice,” Banks said.

Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, who is from Indiana, shared photos of the building before and after the fire, calling the alleged arson “absolutely despicable.”
South Australia Jewish leaders condemn antisemitic Adelaide attack
The Jewish Community Council of South Australia has condemned the antisemitic vandalism of a home in Adelaide, after messages and symbols were spray-painted on a property in Camden Park in the city’s western suburbs on Saturday.

Council president Annetay Henderson-Sapir described the attack as “shocking” and “un-Australian,” saying the community would not be intimated, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported.

The homeowner, Rosti Sverdlov, said he would leave the graffiti visible to highlight the targeting of his family. “All neighbors, all friends offer me help to clean up the fence, but clean up the fence not my way now; if I clean up, I cover up,” he said.



South Australia Police are trying to identify two suspects seen on CCTV arriving in a dark-colored sedan, according to ABC.

Acting Premier Kyam Maher said the act had no place in the state, noting that the use of Nazi symbols is a criminal offense.





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