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Wednesday, July 15, 2026

07/14 Links Pt2: The Road to Forty-Four Percent; Melanie Phillips: Why liberalism cannot defend Britain; The unfathomable darkness of the Church of England

From Ian:

The Road to Forty-Four Percent By Abe Greenwald
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To move beyond terrorism, he had to reframe the terrorist threat as a minor nuisance or a thing of the past. He did both. Obama insisted that ISIS was just the jihadist “jayvee team” and could be dispatched with a few drones. Never mind all the talk about radical Shiites—it was time to offer Iran our “open hand.” As for the multiple terrorist threats that Israel faced, they were best dealt with by creating a little “daylight” between the U.S. and the Jewish state.

And that was that. It was as if the War on Terror was a bad dream. And so we would spend more than a decade wiping from our minds all concern about Islamist ideology and jihad.

Toward the end of this period, Donald Trump entered politics and commandeered the national consciousness. To the extent that anyone thought about terrorism anymore, it was to point out that the real terrorist threat came from white racists in Trumpland.

By the time Hamas massacred 1,200 people on October 7, 2023, the attacks of 9/11 were multiple epochs beyond us. Those long-ago media students of Islam and terrorism were now students of Trump and Covid. And those are the ones who hadn’t been replaced by a generation that wasn’t even alive during the War on Terror.

In the West, that younger generation had been shaped by a grab-bag of leftist ideology to despise America and Israel and support the enemies of both. After October 7, all consideration of Islamic radicalism would be refracted through the prism of Israel. The millenarian bloodlust of jihadists was excised entirely and replaced with a story about genocidal Zionists.

Protests made up of mostly non-Muslim Westerners would go on to march and chant in support of Islamic terrorists. And in doing so, they would normalize Jew-hatred and justify jihad and make the West safe for Muslims to declare their affection for Hamas.

For those punks and fools of the West, the path to virtue wasn’t found in distinguishing between Islam and Islamism. Their virtuous mantras sought to collapse that distinction. And far from feeling good about their country, they urged the Muslim minority—and everyone else—to share in their hatred of it.
Democrats split ahead of vote whether to cut $3.3 billion in U.S. aid to Israel
The Congressional Progressive Caucus broke with House Democratic leadership on Tuesday in the latest example of support for Israel dividing the Democratic Party.

Hours after House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) sent a letter to colleagues saying that he would oppose an amendment to end $3.3 billion in U.S. aid to Israel, Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), chair of the Progressive Caucus, sent a competing letter urging House Democrats to reject the aid to Israel.

“The Democratic Party needs a new approach to Israel and Palestine,” Casar wrote. “The American people are crying out for an end to U.S. tax dollars subsidizing Israel’s military.”

“After the Israeli government has killed more than 70,000 people in Gaza and helped lead the United States into a destabilizing, deadly war with Iran, we are called to act,” he stated.

The House is expected to vote later this week on an amendment from Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) to strip funding for Israel from the 2027 national security and State Department appropriations bill.

Massie lost his primary in May, in an election that focused in large part on his opposition to U.S. aid to Israel. He has used much of his remaining time in the House to pursue anti-Israel measures, including calling to re-investigate the 1967 Israeli attack on the USS Liberty and amendments to strip out Israel-related provisions from annual appropriations bills.

The Jewish state receives about $3.8 billion annually in U.S. aid, including $3.3 billion in foreign military funding to purchase arms and $500 million for cooperative missile defense programs.

Massie’s proposal to end most of that aid, which also includes some spending on humanitarian programs, has further divided a Democratic caucus in which support for Israel has become a major fault line and cost several incumbents their seats in primary challenges from the anti-Israel left.

In his letter on Tuesday morning opposing the Massie amendment, Jeffries acknowledged the difficult political calculus that many Democrats face and called for a “major reset” of U.S.-Israel relations.

“There are good faith reasons that will result in members voting in a variety of different ways with respect to the amendment,” Jeffries wrote. “Moving forward, it is my strongly held view that for the good of Israel and the Palestinian people, American policy in the Middle East must change.”
EXCLUSIVE: Two New Law Firms Threaten New York Times With Shareholder Suit Over Gaza ‘Rape’ Story and Softball ‘Investigation’ of Platner, Accuse Times of ‘Pushing False Narratives’
A growing coalition of law firms representing a New York Times Company shareholder is demanding the publisher turn over its "books and records" for an investigation "into whether the company's board has abdicated its basic oversight duties" following a string of controversial Times reports that sought to discredit Israel or support anti-Israel Democratic politicians such as Graham Platner, according to a demand letter obtained exclusively by the Washington Free Beacon.

If the Times does not produce the materials by July 21, a lawsuit will be filed in the New York County Supreme Court, according to a letter sent Tuesday by a coalition of lawyers representing the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR), a nonpartisan think-tank and beneficial Times shareholder. It is the second time that lawyers from the National Jewish Advocacy Center (NJAC)—and now several other firms who recently joined the effort—have demanded access to the news organization's internal data and communications, accusing it of rampant anti-Israel bias and advocacy on behalf of prominent anti-Israel Democratic politicians like Platner—who withdrew in disgrace last week from Maine's Senate race—as well as New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani.

The stockholders, the letter says, aim "to investigate whether the [Times] Board is engaging in any form of oversight to ensure that the New York Times remains a news reporting agency worth anything to its stockholders, rather than becoming viewed by the public as a simple propaganda arm that selects its articles and reporting in a way that ignores truth in favor of pushing false narratives."

The prospective lawsuit could provide a new avenue for accountability at the Times, which has been largely dismissive of a rash of criticism over recent reporting on Israel and how it handled its investigation of Platner's alleged sexual misconduct. The paper has offered competing and often contradictory defenses for these articles, leading the shareholders to question if the Times board is flatly "ignoring company quality and compliance policies" that are meant to produce neutral, fact-based journalism. The inclusion of two new prominent law firms—Grant & Eisenhofer and Schall, Brown & Schwartz—on NJAC's campaign suggests that the Times may face difficulty dismissing their fresh concerns, which extend past mere anti-Israel bias to now encompass velvet-gloved reporting on two high-profile, anti-Israel Democrats.

"A Board doing its job does not watch its company get caught, publicly and repeatedly, publishing material that violates the company's own written standards, and say nothing," the letter states. "The violations themselves are for the newsroom to answer; the Board's attention to those violations, or its ignorance of them, is what NCPPR seeks to inspect." To do so, lawyers are demanding the Times hand over scores of internal records related to its reporting on Israel and Platner, including any private discussions the Times board may have engaged in about the coverage.

NJAC's initial May 29 letter came on the heels of a lurid and outlandish report, now widely discredited, from Times columnist Nicholas Kristof that accused Israel of raping two Palestinian "journalists" in separate incidents with a carrot and a dog. The NJAC raised concerns about the quality of the board's oversight prior to the publication of the column, which relied heavily on a Hamas-linked organization for the dog rape allegation, according to multiple reports, including in the Free Beacon.


Melanie Phillips: The unfathomable darkness of the Church of England
The letter also called for an end to the “occupation” and a “viable two-state solution”, saying the archbishops feared for “the long-term future of the indigenous Christian Palestinian presence in the Holy Land that stretches back to the time when our Lord walked this land”.

What?? Jesus was a Jew who lived in Judea. There were no Christians at that time. There were no “Palestinians”. The claim that there was an “indigenous Christian Palestinian presence in the Holy Land” at the time of Jesus is a breathtaking lie.

Remarkably, in a previous pastoral letter written in 2024 by Archbishop Naoum with Mulally’s predecessor as Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, the two men made exactly the same claim that they feared for “the long-term future of the indigenous Christian Palestinian presence in the Holy Land that stretches back to the time when our Lord walked this land”.

The identical wording is a giveaway. The lie that Palestinian Christians were indigenous to the land, and that Jesus was one of them, is a propaganda line that has been pushed by Palestinian Arab Christians for decades.

The Church of England has itself been pushing this lie for years. Hence the same boilerplate wording. Lambeth Palace just cut and paste. The only thing that’s changed is the identity of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The point is that Mulally’s nonsensical statements have to be viewed in a sinister context that’s almost entirely passed under the radar in Britain.

This is that for decades the church has fully embraced the exterminatory Palestinian Arab narrative against Israel and Zionism. Far worse, this narrative has kick-started the ancient Christian heresy of “replacement theology” or “supersessionism”, the murderous doctrine that lay behind the church’s persecution of the Jews in the Middle Ages.

That doctrine went underground after the Holocaust but has now appallingly been revived through being fused with the Palestinian cause.

Some principled Anglicans are horrified by all this. A few have been speaking out against the document. Dr Ian Paul, Associate Minister at St Nic’s, Nottingham, bravely spoke out at Synod and in this article here; another former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, also spoke against it; and Giles Fraser, vicar of Kew in London (who has an Israeli wife and two Jewish children), wrote here that the Synod debate was a “disgrace” and that the document was “by any reasonable reading a clear and blatant piece of antisemitism, voted on by the Bishops thus: 25 yes, 0 no, 5 abstentions”.

I wrote about this whole issue in 2014 in an article in Commentary magazine. Although the article is extremely long, I am reproducing it below because it remains no less relevant today; and it’s so important that people understand the enormity of what has happened to the Church of England and its significance for wider society.

In post-religious Britain, people assume that the church is irrelevant. It is not. Even among those who are resolutely secular, the assumption remains that priests of the church are a moral lodestar representing integrity, truth and conscience. So when they speak about Israel, people believe them. This has had a devastating effect, because for decades the church has been promulgating incendiary calumnies against Israel with a theological underpinning that casts the Jews as the party of the devil. Its importance in helping create today’s insane levels of Jew-hatred should not be underestimated.

Shockingly, the church has allied itself with evil.
Jonathan Sacerdoti: Why liberalism cannot defend Britain: Melanie Phillips on the West’s “suicide note”
Can a Jew still be fully British when support for Israel is treated as evidence of disloyalty? Melanie Phillips tells Jonathan Sacerdoti why she shifted her centre of gravity from London to Jerusalem, how Britain’s cultural institutions turned against her, and why she believes the crisis facing Jews is inseparable from the wider collapse of Western confidence.

Britain still inspires her deep affection. But beneath that attachment are harder questions. Has liberal tolerance become a refusal to defend civilisation? Can the West recover its Christian and biblical foundations without reviving its historic hostility towards Jews? Has anti-Zionism become a new loyalty test? Is Donald Trump’s faith in dealmaking blinding him to the nature of Iran and Hamas — and can anyone still break through a culture in which feelings have replaced objective truth?

In this wide-ranging conversation, Jonathan Sacerdoti speaks with Orwell Prize-winning journalist and author Melanie Phillips about abandoning the Guardian worldview, finding a fuller Jewish identity in Israel, her criticism of the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Trump’s handling of Iran and Gaza, and her practical advice for Jews confronted with accusations about Israel.

๐ŸŽ™️ We Discuss:
๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง Why Jewish acceptance in Britain became conditional
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ฑ How Israel made her a 'more complete Jew'
๐Ÿ’” Melanie's increasingly unrequited love for Britain
๐ŸŒ Why she believes Israel and the West are ultimately defending the same civilisation
⚖️ Liberalism’s “suicide note”
✝️ The Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Israel, Islamism and Christian history
๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Why Donald Trump’s belief in deals may prevent him from understanding Iran, Hamas and ideological enemies
⚠️ How an American retreat could embolden Russia, China, North Korea and the Islamist world
๐Ÿ“ฐ The Guardian article Melanie wrote despite knowing its underlying story was untrue
๐Ÿง  How the left transformed political disagreement into a struggle between moral goodness and evil
๐Ÿ—ฃ️ Why conventional arguments defending Israel often fail
✡️ Why she remains optimistic, and why Jews must continue speaking even when they feel isolated or exhausted


Nicole Lampert: Why Is the Church of England Debating Antisemitic Propaganda?
Four years ago, the Church of England apologized for 800 years of Christian antisemitism, marking the 1222 Synod of Oxford, which imposed new taxes on English Jews, compelled them to wear identifying badges, and banned them from most jobs. On July 12, the Church's General Synod debated one of the most appalling pieces of contemporary antisemitic propaganda in modern Christian history.

Titled "A Moment of Truth: Faith in a Time of Genocide," the report seems to defend the terror group Hamas, saying their Oct. 7 massacre of 2023 was "born out of decades of injustice, oppression and displacement since the Nakba of 1948." It uncritically refers to the "genocidal war on Gaza," and adds: "This genocide has been carried out by Israel after decades of apartheid, settler colonialism, political repression." The Synod will vote on whether or not to make the document one that it will use going forward.

The document describes Palestinians as the "indigenous people of the land" and criticizes the Abraham Accords that normalized relations between Israel and several Arab states. It is little wonder that the Jewish Board of Deputies has claimed the document "risks real harm to Jews in the UK through its dissemination," while Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said it was "little more than political activism dressed up as theology."

He added: "It is truly shocking that a document which purports to speak in the name of truth contains so much falsehood - using extreme rhetoric to challenge the very concept of a Jewish state, and to oppose existing peace agreements in the region." If the Synod endorses the document, the Church will be guilty not only of antisemitism in its most modern form, but also of the greatest betrayal of Britain's Jews in centuries.
Anglican Parliament Endorses Libelous Palestinian Manifesto Denying Israel’s Legitimacy
Four years after the Church of England apologized for centuries of Jew-hatred, its parliament has approved a Palestinian manifesto that condemns Israel as a Jewish supremacist state and defends Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre as the inevitable consequence of Israeli occupation.

On July 13, 2026, the General Synod of the Church of England voted for a motion seeking to endorse the Kairos II manifesto, but, in a linguistic amendment, said it would “hear” rather than “receive” the contentious document titled, A Moment of Truth: Faith in a Time of Genocide.

Published in November 2025 by the Christian Palestinian advocacy group Kairos Palestine, Kairos II condemns Jewish self-determination as “settler colonialism” and the Israeli State as an “apartheid system built on Jewish supremacy” as codified in “Israel’s racist Nation-State Law.”

The manifesto labels the Balfour Declaration a “historic injustice.” It vilifies Christian Zionism as a “theology of racism, colonialism, and ethnic supremacy” that “calls on a tribal, racist god of war and ethnic cleansing,” claiming that Christian support for Israel “has produced apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocide of indigenous people.”

The 14-page document mentions Hamas only once, in a paragraph justifying the October 7 massacre as “itself born out of decades of injustice, oppression and displacement since the Nakba of 1948, and more than sixteen years of an immoral, suffocating blockade on Gaza.”

Despite strong objections from a few Synod members, the motion won the vote of 25 bishops, 115 clergy, and 113 laity. Twenty clerics and 27 laity voted against. Five bishops, 30 clergy and 35 laity abstained. No bishop voted against the motion.

Jewish leaders protested the motion before the Synod. Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis urged the Synod to reject Kairos II, arguing that it “presents a one-sided account of a complex conflict, downplays the historical experiences and legitimate concerns of Jewish people, and offers little more than political activism dressed up as theology.”

“It is truly shocking that a document which purports to speak in the name of truth contains so much falsehood—using extreme rhetoric to challenge the very concept of a Jewish state, and to oppose existing peace agreements in the region,” Mirvis warned.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews excoriated Kairos II’s “toxic narrative about Jews.” The manifesto’s “central libel that Zionism is a settler-colonial movement built on ‘Jewish supremacy’ and with genocidal intent is so false and destructive that the only responsible action is to reject it,” the board stressed, noting that the claim is “a libel against Jews everywhere.”

Anticipating the debate, Anglican biblical scholar Ian Paul cautioned on his blog against accepting Kairos II, noting how Palestinian Christians have been “deeply involved” in “violent terrorism” as part of their rejection of Israel.

During the debate, Paul asked why the Synod had singled out Israel for condemnation, yet never once debated the persecution of Kurds, Yazidis, Uyghurs, Yemenis, Nigerian Christians, or the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Arab nations. “I wonder what we will say when the last Jew leaves Britain because they know that we will not speak up for them,” he said.
Ian Paul: The Church of England and Israel/Palestine
So why has the General Synod, and bishops in the Church of England, got this so badly wrong? Why did we not seek to listen to the other side before making our decisions?

I honestly believe that, in this debate, we have been conned and manipulated. A highly political document was presented to us as merely an exercise in listening, and too few people understood what they were reading in order to challenge this claim.

But, to be duped, you have to be vulnerable. And many, especially in the leadership, are terrified of being accused of ‘to listening’ to those who feel abused and oppressed. Despite one bishop, Philip North, speaking against the motion, and another, Michael Ipgrave, expressing concerns, not a single one voted against the motion—terrified of being accused of ‘not listening to your brethren who are suffering.’

As far as I can see, that means that the whole House of Bishops is complicit in the deep offence to the Jewish community, and to supporting a position which will make peace even harder to achieve (insofar as the view of the C of E has any impact).

But there are two deeper problems. One is that so many in Synod are in the grip of affective individualism, in which someone’s feelings trump all other reflective engagement, and critical theory, in which all differences are reduced to simplistic power dynamics.

And General Synod is simply not competent to make judgements in such complex, highly politicised, and deeply divisive situations. But then again, why should they be? Why are we even discussing such political situations at all? Our role is governance in the Church—but too often we are driven into making statements of virtue about things we do not properly understand.

The damage is done, and it will take many years and much effort to undo it.


Ask Haviv Anything: 131: Why Christians are disappearing from the Middle East, with Amb. George Deek
Israel’s first special envoy to the Christian world, Ambassador George Deek, joins Haviv for a sweeping conversation about Christians in Israel, Palestinian Christians, the disappearance of ancient Christian communities across the Middle East, and the strange new alliance targeting Israel from both the far left and far right. Drawing on his own family’s extraordinary journey from Palestinian refugees to full participation in Israeli society, Deek offers a powerful argument for responsibility over victimhood -- and for building a future rather than remaining imprisoned by the past.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Ambassador George Deke and his background
05:48 George shares his family history and personal journey
11:43 The creation of Israel's position as envoy to the Christian world
16:22 The significance of Israel's relationship with the Christian community
19:16 The history and role of Arab Christians in the Middle East
30:01 The rise of Arab nationalism and political Islam
37:09 The decline of Christian communities in the Middle East
48:00 The growth and thriving of Christians in Israel
55:01 The campaign against Israel based on false narratives
01:00:01 The strategic importance of Israel's relationship with the Christian world
01:18:44 The importance of responsibility and hope for the future
01:30:58 Closing remarks and ambassador George Deke's message


Winston Marshall: The Untold History Of Fascism - James Lindsay
In this episode of The Winston Marshall Show, I sit down with author and political commentator James Lindsay to explore what fascism really is, why it's so widely misunderstood, and whether elements of it are re-emerging in the modern West. We discuss Mussolini, Hitler, the CCP, stakeholder capitalism, the World Economic Forum, DEI, and the political misuse of the word "fascist."

Chapters
00:00 Trailers
01:56 Mussolini & The Origins Of Fascism
10:45 Was Fascism Socialist?
14:42 Italian Fascism vs Nazism
20:00 Why Some Jews Supported Early Fascism
22:16 Was Hitler Really A Fascist?
30:00 Nazi Germany & National Socialism
41:40 Why Everyone Gets Called A Fascist
45:39 Is China A Fascist State?
55:42 Does Fascism Exist In The West Today?


Elie Wiesel's son rejects Rahm Emanuel's 'pariah' verdict on Israel
Elisha Wiesel was seven when he pointed at the photograph above his father's typewriter, a black-and-white house in Sighet, Romania, and asked why he had no grandparents.

He read Night at eleven and mostly went back to baseball. What broke it open came at twenty-one, retracing his father's steps through Sighet, Auschwitz, and Paris, watching Elie Wiesel hear people who weren't there, "almost as though he had a radio in his head that nobody else could hear."

Two things hit at once: pride in a man he had spent his teenage years mistaking for a victim, and fury at the aunt he never had, his father's murdered little sister, the one who was supposed to spoil him.

Wiesel won't speak for the dead: "There are very few privileges to being dead. One of them is we shouldn't put words in the mouths of the dead." What he will do is describe what he watched for ten thousand hours, a man who fought antisemitism by living Jewish values in public, and who, when his teenage son demanded he choose between humanist and Jew, said: "You're asking me to split something smaller than the atom."

The son's fight is uglier and narrower. He called it a war over language, argues the word "genocide" is being hollowed out, says Holocaust museums have a duty to say so, and has sharp words for Rahm Emanuel's recent Tel Aviv speech and for a UN that once cut his Holocaust Remembrance Day remarks from seven minutes to three when it learned he'd mention the Uyghurs.

The surprise is how much of it is about joy. Raised at a table where suffering did the talking, he has deliberately given his own kids the other half, the singing, the learning. He describes 3,500 years of Jewish history like gravity: for years it pressed down on him, then it moved above him and began to lift.
Elie Wiesel's son rejects Rahm Emanuel's 'pariah' verdict on Israel
Ten years after Elie Wiesel's death, his son answers the American politician who told Israel it has become a pariah.

Elisha Wiesel, chairman of the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, former Goldman Sachs executive, and the only child of the Nobel laureate, sat down with Lara Sukster Mosheyof at Yad Vashem, hours before delivering a speech built as a point-by-point refutation of Rahm Emanuel's July 8 address at Tel Aviv University. Emanuel, a likely 2028 Democratic candidate, warned Israelis they "cannot fight indefinitely against a world that has stopped believing you have the right to fight." Wiesel's answer is blunt: "Mr. Emanuel is embarrassed by Israel. He is proud of that embarrassment. He should be ashamed." For Wiesel, the premise itself is the problem — his father's moral vision, he argues, held that no Jewish right to live was ever conditional on the world's approval.

The conversation ranges far beyond the political moment. Wiesel describes the black-and-white photograph of Sighet that hung above his father's typewriter, asking as a boy why he had no grandparents. He describes the trip he took at 21 to Auschwitz, Sighet and Paris, when his resentment of a father he had seen as "weak" turned into grief for an aunt he never met, and rage at what a small family the Nazis had left him. He explains why he refuses to say what his father would think today ("there are very few privileges to being dead"), and why he believes the fight over the word "genocide" is a war Holocaust museums are uniquely obligated to enter. It is a rare interview that moves between the intimate and the geopolitical without flattening either.

Chapters
00:00 – Wiesel on the Israel–diaspora split
01:56 – Growing up the son of the world's most famous survivor
04:57 – Auschwitz at 21: seeing his father's murdered sister, and the aunt he never had
13:41 – "Zionism is racism," 1975: what Elie Wiesel wrote, and why his son says it's back
20:35 – A war over language: genocide, the UN, and the duty of Holocaust museums
26:57 – Answering Rahm Emanuel: "The world's decree was never the measure of a Jew's right to live"


Call me Back Podcast: Tough Love or Tough Luck? - with Rahm Emanuel
What will it take to save the U.S.-Israel alliance?

Dan is joined by Rahm Emanuel, a Democratic party powerhouse who was a former Chicago mayor, White House Chief of Staff, and U.S. Ambassador to Japan. Dan challenges Emanuel on ideas from the speech he delivered in Tel Aviv that ignited debate across Israel and the United States. Emanuel argues that Israel's current course is putting the U.S.-Israel alliance at risk, while Dan presses him on whether October 7 fundamentally changed the assumptions behind his vision for Israel's future. They discuss Israel’s security, Palestinian statehood, the future of a more hostile Democratic Party, and whether Emanuel's message is ultimately an act of tough love or tough luck for Israel.

In this episode:
Rahm Emanuel remembers Senator Lindsey Graham
How October 7 changed Israel’s security doctrine
Rahm Emanuel’s 23-state solution for Israel and the Arab states
Is its isolation becoming a security threat for Israel?
How Emanuel would reshape the U.S.-Israel alliance
Are calls for “From the River to the Sea” and Greater Israel equivalent?
Emanuel’s response to fears antisemitism reshaping the Democratic Party
Is Emanuel really advocating tough love or tough luck for Israel?




Abdul El-Sayed’s Father-in-Law, a Top Donor to an El-Sayed Super PAC, Is Among Top Leaders of Muslim Brotherhood Organization Linked to Terror Funding
Abdul El-Sayed's father-in-law, a top donor to a super PAC supporting the left-wing Michigan Senate hopeful, is among the top leaders of an Islamic organization identified by the federal government as a public facing group for the Muslim Brotherhood, a Washington Free Beacon review found. As part of his role with the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), which the federal government linked to the financing of Hamas, Tayeb Jukaku contributes at least $5,000 to the organization annually.

Jukaku has served on the 20-member founding committee of ISNA since at least 2007, according to the organization's magazine, Islamic Horizons, and has been a member of the group for a "long time, cannot recall [when I joined]," according to Jukaku's online bio. Federal prosecutors identified the organization as an unindicted co-conspirator in the landmark 2007 terrorist financing case USA v. Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, which culminated in the conviction of the foundation's founders for funneling $12 million to Hamas. They also identified the ISNA as one of eight entities "who are and/or were members of the US Muslim Brotherhood."

The Holy Land Foundation trial began in 2007 as Jukaku served on ISNA's founding committee, and he and other committee members are required to contribute at least $5,000 annually to the organization in addition to "the 'Founders Legacy Fund,'" according to the group.

Lorenzo Vidino, the director of the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, said ISNA "was historically, no question, an organization created … by the Muslim Brotherhood and fellow travelers from the Indian subcontinent as basically the Islamist organization in America." He noted that Tayeb was involved with the group "when they were putting out some really nasty stuff."

"To be on the founding committee, this is the elders of the organization," Vidino told the Free Beacon.

Jukaku also served as president of the Council on American-Islamic Relations's (CAIR) Michigan chapter from 2005 to 2010, according to the group's IRS disclosures. CAIR was also named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trial and included on a list of groups "who are and/or were members of the US Muslim Brotherhood's Palestine Committee and/or its organizations," a similar but separate distinction from the ISNA's Muslim Brotherhood affiliation. Jukaku remains on CAIR Michigan's board of directors.

Vidino said it was "unsurprising" that Tayeb is also involved with CAIR. "This is kind of the pattern," he told the Free Beacon. "To some degree, it's a good old boys network. And so, if you're on the board committee in ISNA, chances are you also belong to your local CAIR branch. Chances are you sit on the board of another charity that is part of the network. That's kind of how it works."


Mahmoud Khalil files suit alleging Trump admin, advocacy groups conspired to deport anti-Israel activists
Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University graduate student facing deportation over his anti-Israel activism, filed a federal lawsuit on Tuesday accusing the Trump administration, the Heritage Foundation, Canary Mission and Betar of conspiring to target him and other pro-Palestinian activists for arrest, detention and deportation.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York under the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, alleges that administration officials and the three organizations coordinated to “single out Mr. Khalil and other non-citizen Palestinians and their supporters for arrest, detention and deportation, as punishment for their support of Palestinian rights.”

“The Trump administration acted well within its statutory and constitutional authority with respect to Khalil, as it does with any alien who advocates for violence, glorifies and supports terrorists, harasses Jews and damages property,” a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security told JNS. “We would encourage him to use the CBP Home app and self-deport now before he is arrested, deported and never given a chance to return.”

According to the complaint, the Heritage Foundation’s Project Esther served as the blueprint for the alleged effort, with Canary Mission and Betar identifying activists for the administration to target. The suit alleges the groups publicly labeled those activists as terrorists or antisemites and warned they faced arrest and deportation before federal authorities detained or sought to remove them.

“This lawsuit is about far more than what was done to me. It is about a coordinated, ongoing plot to punish, silence and intimidate everyone who dares to dissent and speak out for Palestinian liberation,” Khalil stated. “We will hold them accountable.”


Ami’s House: Everyone is WRONG About Clavicular
We are back from two sold-out shows in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and a country that is alive, thriving, and inspiring in spite of everything it's been through. But while I was there, so was Clavicular. And now everyone has takes on takes on takes.

Ami's position: don't shame him. Not because he endorses the behavior, the Miami club Heil Hitler moment was awful, the look-maxing lifestyle is shallow, and none of it is a model for young men. But purely practically: Clavicular has a massive audience. Those are real people who can see a different side of Israel than they've been fed. If a 35-year-old version of him shows up at an anti-Semitism conference in 10 years and attributes his change of heart to this trip, that same crowd shaming him right now would give him a standing ovation. So which approach actually moves the needle?

Ami also breaks down why pro-Israel is becoming the new edgy for Gen Z, why Yossi Farrow's tefillin-on-everyone strategy is basically the Chabad approach, and the difference between an ideological neo-Nazi and a 20-year-old provocateur who plays offensive songs to get a reaction.

Plus impressions: Jordan Peterson on Trump and the Iran reversal. Tucker Carlson interviewing Satan. Alex Jones on Clavicular testing the frogs in the Mediterranean. Jake Shields. Yossi Farrow wrapping tefillin on Norman Finkelstein. And "Normal Finkelstein", the man who just has regular beliefs.

Breakdown:
0:00 Welcome back — Ami just returned from Israel
1:30 Two sold-out shows: Jerusalem & Tel Aviv
3:00 Israel is alive and thriving — perspective from the ground
4:30 Clavicular arrives in Israel — and the internet explodes
6:00 Disclaimers: what I actually know about Clavicular
8:00 The Miami club Heil Hitler moment — what does it mean?
10:00 Why does any of this even matter? One reason: the audience
12:30 The naming & shaming crowd vs. the open doors crowd
15:00 Everyone loves a redemption arc — nobody likes watching the process
18:30 Thought experiment: 35-year-old Clavicular at an anti-Semitism conference
22:00 I've met reformed neo-Nazis. Things start somewhere.
24:30 The third option: don't celebrate, don't shame — just let him see it
27:00 Yossi Farrow: tefillin on everyone — the Chabad approach
29:00 The AmFest kid who went to Israel and didn't tell his friends
31:00 Tel Aviv: Jews are a mixed bag and everyone is inexplicably hot
33:00 Pro-Israel IS the new edgy — Ami predicted this
35:30 Jordan Peterson impression: Trump, Tucker & the Iran reversal
38:00 Tucker Carlson interviews Satan
40:00 Alex Jones: Clavicular is testing the frogs in the Mediterranean
42:00 Jake Shields impression
43:30 Yossi Farrow wraps tefillin on Norman Finkelstein
45:30 "Normal Finkelstein", the man who just has regular beliefs
47:00 Final thoughts: zoom out, consider consequences, consider the opportunity
49:00 Israel show clips coming, stay tuned!




Concerns raised over ‘hateful’ Montreal jazz fest performance
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) said it met with organizers of the Montreal International Jazz Festival following complaints over a performance by Palestinian artist Saint Levant that included a “hateful” song.

In a statement posted on Tuesday, CIJA said festival leadership affirmed the event “must remain a gathering place where everyone, regardless of their background or community, can feel welcome,” and that “hatred toward anyone has no place.”

CIJA said it will continue engaging with organizers to ensure the festival and other cultural spaces remain “safe, respectful, and free from hate.”

The meeting followed earlier complaints citing video footage of a performance in which Saint Levant incorporated elements of a politically charged song associated with anti-Israel sentiment. The song, titled “Ana Bakrah Israel” (“I Hate Israel”), by the late Egyptian singer Shaaban Abdel Rahim, was originally released in 2000 during the second Palestinian intifada that resulted in thousands of Israelis killed and wounded in terrorist attacks.


EU launches nearly $1 billion Gaza recovery fund, ties aid to Hamas disarmament and PA reforms
The European Union launched a nearly $1 billion initiative on Monday to support Gaza’s early recovery after the Israel-Hamas war, combining new and previously pledged funding from more than a dozen countries and international financial institutions.

Dubravka ล uica, European commissioner for the Mediterranean, announced the “Team Gaza Initiative” at a meeting of the Palestine Donor Group in Brussels. It will finance debris removal, water and sanitation projects, healthcare restoration and other essential services.

Funding is backed by Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the European Commission, the World Bank and the European Investment Bank. Australia and Canada are expected to join.

“We now need the conditions on the ground that will allow the support to reach the people in Gaza,” ล uica said.

ล uica added that Israel has agreed to move forward with two major projects involving waste and water management following her recent meetings with Israeli officials in Jerusalem.

Donors “want to start with so-called early recovery, and it is very important to show that we are willing to do it,” ล uica said. “But to do that, we need disarmament of Hamas in order to start proper recovery.”


Czech Republic in talks for Israeli air defense systems, foreign minister says
Czechia is in talks with Israeli firms to buy a number of air-defense systems, Czech Foreign Minister Petr Macinka said on Tuesday.

During a press conference with Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, Macinka said the Czechs were looking at the Spyder, Arrow, and other defense systems.

“Regarding the Spyder, yes, we are discussing. We’re discussing air-defense systems with Israel because these systems are technologically on top,” Macinka said when asked about buying Israeli defense systems.

He said he wants to make his country’s stance on Israel clear, vowing that Prague would continue strengthening political and economic cooperation between the two nations.

During the conference, Sa’ar expressed his gratitude for Czechia’s friendship and allyship, thanking them for “not allowing the European Union to be turned into a tool for promoting anti-Israeli policies.”

Sa'ar thanks Czech Republic for friendship, allyship
He emphasized Israel’s importance as an ally for Europe, highlighting Israeli innovation in the fields of defense and security in the face of growing anti-Israel sentiment.

“Israel is becoming an increasingly significant country in the defense of Europe itself, and Europe benefits from its activities in the field of security,” Sa’ar said.
UK police say former minister Widdecombe's murder was a targeted attack
British counter-terrorism police said on Tuesday that former government minister Ann Widdecombe, who was found murdered at her home last week, was clearly targeted, adding that officers were still working to establish the motive.

"It is clear that this was a targeted attack. We are still working to understand the extent of any planning or preparation and the motivation that sits behind that attack," Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, head of Britain's counter terrorism policing, told reporters.

Taylor declined to comment on the attacker's motive, saying: "It is a complex investigation. It would be wrong for me to try and ascribe either an ideology (to the attacker) or what that motivation might be at this stage."

Local police arrested a white British man late on Saturday on suspicion of her murder. Counter-terrorism officers, who took over the investigation on Monday, have since rearrested him on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.

Taylor said the terrorism investigation was running in parallel to the investigation into Widdecombe's murder.

Widdecombe, 78, who was a prominent member of Nigel Farage's populist Reform UK, was found dead at her home in rural southwest England last Thursday with what police described as "serious injuries." She stood down from parliament in 2010.


Amb. Mike Huckabee: Lindsey Graham: The senator who lived the American Dream and loved Israel
Some people are just hard to like. You see them coming, and you hope you can avoid them. Sen. Lindsey Graham was not that person.

The opposite was true of Graham. Being around him was like being around a true friend, and that’s exactly what he was to me for over 20 years.

I last communicated with Graham just a few days before I received the message on Sunday morning that he had died. It took me a while to process that message. He was always so full of life that somehow the word “death” and Graham didn’t belong in the same sentence.

For those who don’t know, Graham grew up in the same kind of Southern poverty I did, but he faced some very tough challenges beyond just lack of money. His parents owned a bar and pool hall, and Graham worked cleaning it up after closing hours.

Within 15 months, both his parents died. Graham was 21 and left with the responsibility of either taking care of his little sister or standing by as she was declared an orphan and put into a foster home. He enlisted in the United States Air Force so he would have a paycheck and be able to support her, and legally adopted her to keep her from being put in foster care.

He could have complained and whined as to how unfair life was. He didn’t. He worked – hard. He took care of his little sister as she grew up and watched her find her own success.

Graham completed college and law school, became an officer in the air force, where he served in the reserves for 33 years, and completed his military service as a colonel. He was elected to the US House of Representatives and then to the US Senate.

He went from cleaning a bar to becoming one of the most respected and effective senators on Capitol Hill. He didn’t talk about the American Dream – he lived it and demonstrated it.

He loved Israel. He loved Israel because he loved America and understood that the partnership between the US and Israel was an incredible benefit to both nations and to freedom. He often said that Israel’s enemies are America’s enemies. He was right.





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)

    

 

 

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