Friday, July 17, 2026

07/16 Links Pt2: Australian antisemitism 'passed point of no return; How Amnesty International lost its way; Jew hatred is back in the pulpit at the Church of England

From Ian:

Australian antisemitism 'passed point of no return,' Jewish leader tells 'Post' after emigrating
Australian antisemitism “has passed the point of no return,” former president of the Australian Jewish Association, Dr. David Adler, told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. Adler recently relocated to Israel, citing the surge in antisemitism in Australia.

While the family only arrived on July 9, Adler told the Post that aliyah has been in “preparation for a long, long period of time.”

“We’ve seen a general deterioration in Australia for a long time,” he told the Post. “Australia has essentially outsourced its manufacturing. Its defense capacity is down. National identity is being lost. Education standards are down. There is a crazy socialist activism, left-wing activism. Those things have been building gradually. But no doubt October 7 unleashed a level of antisemitism and anti-Israel extremism that I didn’t think could occur in Australia.”

“On October 8, there were some leaders of the Muslim community and some Muslim groups in Australia celebrating on the streets. On October 9, we had the riots in front of the Opera House.”

What Adler found the most shocking was that the authorities “failed to act” after these incidents.

Australia passed point of no return, 'all downhill'
“There was not a single arrest from the riots at the Opera House, despite a number of laws being broken. And that area, I know from security experts, is covered by high-definition CCTV. However, the authorities chose not to act and instead warned the Jewish community not to go there,” he explained.

Since then, Adler said it’s “been all downhill.” He said he has lost track of the number of threats made against him, including death threats.

This led him to arrive at the viewpoint that the trends in Australia “have passed the point of no return.”

“The tipping point has been reached and passed. And even though there’s a Royal Commission running at the moment, and it’s doing a good job in exposing some of the accounts and evidence of antisemitism, I do not have confidence in efficient action being taken to deal with it.”

Adler told the Post that anti-Jewish violence is predominantly coming from Islamic extremism, but that “Australia has taken nowhere near enough action” to combat this. “It should do things like expel the hate preachers, deport the hate preachers, close down mosques that are teaching extremist and radical views, and in fact has done some things in the opposite.”

“The whole antisemitic, anti-Israel extremism is on a level that no one forecast.”
Nicole Lampert: How Amnesty International lost its way
There was a lot of internal discussion about how to retain and attract progressive donors, many of whom were critics of Israel, Malekar adds. “I clearly recall that sections in Western Europe and the USA saying we were losing ground and membership because we were behind others in progressive circles who were criticising Israel.”

“Until then, Amnesty had held to its core values of judging things on international and humanitarian laws, but slowly I saw how the line was being blurred as the work became more politicised and standards went down.

“The organisation became more and more led by political ideologies such as theories around colonialism and seeing everything through the lens of the victim vs the oppressor. Younger people were joining from universities who were imbued with these political theories in which Israel is only ever viewed as an oppressor.”

In 2021, Amnesty became a champion of the politically charged Black Lives Matter campaign, a source of further controversy. Tim Gudgion, a former Amnesty member, says he resigned his membership at this point, regarding its involvement as “very, inappropriately, political”.

Then, the following year, an Amnesty report claimed there was apartheid across Israel and the occupied territories. It caused huge anger in Israel.

“Even if you agree the occupied territories are using a form of apartheid, none of us would accept that it is the same in the state of Israel,” says Malekar, who is one of a number of whistleblowers featured in a report by the campaign group, EiGHT, on alleged double standards by human rights organisations in their approach to Jews and Israel. “And we tried to argue that in making these two territories one land, they were actually joining hands with the most Right-wing Israeli politicians who want to annex the occupied territories.”

The head office in London didn’t appreciate the Israeli branch’s pushback, she says. “These are people who are very committed, and it surprises them if someone would dare to question them.”

And what happens when the perceived oppressor becomes the victim, as it did on October 7, 2023?

Malekar recalls an exchange of emails between head office and other department heads as she hid in bomb shelters not knowing how bad the war was going to get. “One of the things I remember from that horrible night was communicating with London as they considered how to phrase their condemnation. They could never just say, ‘this is wrong’. Not even for one minute. There were discussions over how to frame the narrative.”
Must Durham’s miners be forced to celebrate Palestine?
The Durham Miners’ Gala – ‘the big meeting’, as locals still call it – took place last week. Once, every coalfield had its gala. Now Durham’s is the last great survivor. But survival is not the same as relevance.

In recent years, the question hanging over the ‘big meeting’ has become harder to avoid: what is it for, and who does it now belong to? That question became sharper still after County Durham, long impregnable Labour country, turned into something much closer to a Reform UK stronghold in last year’s local elections.

The gala itself remains organised around a politics that belongs to another century. It is caught between three worlds: the culture of the old industrial working class, the socialist politics of the 20th century and the activist liberalism of the contemporary left. Add to that the visible support for Reform among the families and descendants of Durham colliers, and the contradiction becomes impossible to ignore. The big meeting can no longer pretend that these tensions are merely background noise.

Over the past few years, the Gala has become less a living expression of working-class politics and more a stage for the narrow concerns of the Corbynista activist class. A clip from this year’s event made the point brutally. The ‘Palestine Bloc’ – around 30 (mostly white) activists carrying Palestine flags and wearing the keffiyeh uniform of the modern protester – moved through Durham behind a few dancers in traditional Palestinian dress. They shouted ‘free, free Palestine’. Some in the crowd clapped. Others booed. John Cleese posted a video of it on X, with the observation that it would not be out of place in a Monty Python sketch. He’s right.

This wasn’t the first time the gala has embarrassed itself. The flashpoint last year was the invitation to Husam Zomlot, the Palestinian ambassador to the UK. It seems that every year the gala is dragged into another controversy because the activist left insists on making it speak the language of identity politics and middle-class luxury beliefs. As a result, the working class has been turned into a costume, a backdrop, a set of banners and brass bands to lend moral weight to causes that often have little to do with the people whose history is being borrowed.


Anti-Semitism Royal Commission: Universities accused of letting hate flourish
Universities have been accused of letting hate run unfettered on their campuses, as a royal commission into anti-Semitism continues to hear from the tertiary education sector.

The Australia Israel and Jewish Affairs Council says university leadership allowed anti-Semitism to flourish almost unchecked.

“The harrowing testimony of Jewish students and staff, together with the evidence of several university vice chancellors, has laid bare systematic failures of university leadership,” the council said in a statement.

“These hearings should be a watershed moment. Australian universities should finally accept responsibility and accountability for their failures and commit to the meaningful reforms.”

The statement comes as university officials grapple with how academic freedom and the right to protest were allowed amid the increasing tensions of the war in Gaza. Mark Butler won’t rule out further action after two died from methanol poisoning in Laos.Mark Butler won’t rule out further action after two died from methanol poisoning in Laos.

Friday is the final day during which universities will be under the royal commission’s microscope in a long-running conversation about the difference between anti-Semitism and legitimate criticism of the Israeli government.

Witnesses will include Monash University’s David Slucki, who will build on the evidence given by vice chancellor Sharon Pickering on Tuesday.

Monash took a stricter route than most universities in cracking down on pro-Palestine encampments. Several external protesters were expelled from campus and chants were banned. Witnesses have described how students performed Nazi salutes and hurled slurs at Jewish students as part of a Royal Commission probe into anti-Semitism at Australian universities.Witnesses have described how students performed Nazi salutes and hurled slurs at Jewish students as part of a Royal Commission probe into anti-Semitism at Australian universities.

“I don’t think I had sufficiently appreciated before how thinly buried anti-Semitism was in our society, and how quickly it was unleashed,” Professor Pickering told the commission.

“Jewish students (were) feeling that they were being held individually responsible for the acts of the state of Israel, in one version or another.”
Jewish Advocacy Group Blasts Australian Higher Education Establishment Over Antisemitism Revelations
Australian Jewish advocacy groups have condemned the country’s universities after Jewish students, staff, and vice-chancellors delivered damning testimony this week to the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, describing how campus leaders allowed anti-Israel activism and antisemitism to go largely unchecked, particularly after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.

“The harrowing testimony of Jewish students and staff, together with the evidence of several university vice-chancellors, has laid bare systematic failures of university leadership that allowed antisemitism to flourish almost unchecked on campus, especially after the October 7th attacks by Hamas,” the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Royal Commission, led by former High Court Justice Virginia Bell, is holding a week of hearings in Melbourne, from July 13 to 17, focused on antisemitism at Australian universities. It has heard from Jewish students and academics about their experiences, as well as from vice-chancellors of institutions including the universities of Sydney, Melbourne, and New South Wales, over their handling of campus protests.

University of Sydney Vice-Chancellor Mark Scott appeared before the commission on Wednesday and apologized to Jewish students and staff for the university’s handling of a pro-Palestinian encampment that occupied its Camperdown campus between April and June 2024. Scott told the inquiry he had “learnt just how menacing and threatening many found the encampments.”

The council also criticized universities’ inaction over the encampments and the presence on some campuses of Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamist group that Australia listed as a prohibited hate group in early 2026 following the Bondi Beach attack. “Evidence regarding inaction over the extremist pro-Palestinian encampments and the presence of the now proscribed hate group Hizb ut-Tahrir on some campuses raises serious questions about the judgement and leadership shown at those universities at a time when Jewish students and staff were pleading for protection,” AIJAC said.

The group said the hearings should mark a turning point for the sector. “These hearings should be a watershed moment,” it said. “Australian universities should finally accept responsibility and accountability for their failures and commit to the meaningful reforms … necessary to restore the safety, confidence and trust of Jewish students and staff.”


I gathered the data on Jewish fiction publishing. The trends are alarming.
In early 2023, I wrote a novel that was Jewish in every possible way. The lovers called each other “ahuvati” and “neshama sheli” — Hebrew for my love and my soul. There were scenes in Tel Aviv, family histories shaped by the Holocaust, a climax involving cancellation by left-wing antisemites, and an overall tone of aching sadness.

I was already a successful nonfiction author with two books that had sold more than 150,000 copies. I had a track record and a substantial online platform, And my new book garnered substantial interest. When I began querying fiction agents in early 2024, I received 20 requests for the full manuscript and four offers of representation in just six weeks.

But there were warning signs. One non-Jewish agent told me that my Jewish social media presence might make the book impossible to sell. “At least your characters aren’t Zionists,” she said. (My characters were obviously Zionists.) A Jewish agent gave me painful but pragmatic advice. She told me that I should probably remove all Jewish content in the book that didn’t directly drive the plot. Most painfully, she suggested that I change the name of a character named Yael. “It’s one of my favorite names,” she said. “But it’s Israeli.”

I signed with an agent who assured me that no such changes were necessary, and the novel went out to publishers.

It did not sell.

There are countless reasons a book may not be published. Taste is subjective. Editors carefully build their lists. Nobody is owed a book deal. And it remains entirely possible that my novel wasn’t as good as the agents thought it was.

But after I shared my experience online, Jewish writers began telling me stories that sounded unnervingly familiar. Authors whose expected book deals vanished. Writers whose agents could “no longer champion” their careers. Books that were bought for six figures before Oct. 7 but barely promoted afterward. Israeli agents with stacks of manuscripts that American publishers would not even consider.

For Jewish authors, perhaps the most visceral gut punch was a viral spreadsheet titled “Is your fav author a zionist???” It was a list of Jewish fiction authors, color-coded by how Zionist they were perceived to be, with a column detailing their purported transgression. The spreadsheet itself was eventually taken down, but the message sent to the industry was clear: If you work with Jewish authors, it will cost you.

Aware that even the staggering evidence I was amassing remained anecdotal, I wanted to find a way to track the impact of what was happening more empirically.

I turned to Publishers Marketplace, the leading industry database where many book deals are announced, and reviewed fiction deals for books by Jewish authors that publicly signaled Jewish or Israeli content. What I found was grim. Between 2023 and 2024, there was a 76% decline in fiction deal announcements to large presses that mentioned Jews, Judaism or Israel. The numbers improved somewhat in 2025, but they did not recover. Compared with 2023, announced sales of Jewish books were still down 47% at large presses.

And the early 2026 numbers are worse: Looking at what has been announced so far this year and annualizing the comparison, fiction deals mentioning Jewish content are down 82% at large presses compared with 2023.
Colombia’s new government will open an embassy in Jerusalem
Colombia’s incoming foreign minister has told his Israeli counterpart that the South American country will open an embassy in Jerusalem, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said Wednesday, making good on President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella’s election pledge.

The move comes amid a right-wing wave sweeping across Latin America that is reshaping alliances with the United States and Israel.

Israel and Colombia have agreed to fully restore diplomatic and economic relations next month with the inauguration of the new government, reversing a two-year freeze initiated by outgoing left-wing president Gustavo Petro over the war in Gaza.

The agreement follows a meeting in Washington between Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and Colombia’s Foreign Minister-designate Omar Bula Escobar.

Colombia’s historic relations with Israel nosedived after Petro severed diplomatic ties with Israel in 2024 over the Gaza war triggered by the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack, and expelled Israeli diplomats from the South American country.

De la Espriella, a 47-year-old lawyer and political outsider nicknamed “El Tigre,” or “The Tiger,” who was elected last month with the backing of conservative and evangelical groups, pledged during the election campaign to open an embassy in Jerusalem and renew a strategic alliance with Israel.

He will be inaugurated on August 7.
Malaysian PM vows to deport Israelis found in country amid probe into int’l tech community
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Wednesday that any Israeli found in the country would be deported “immediately,” as authorities investigated allegations that Israeli citizens had joined a fledgling international tech community in the Muslim-majority nation.

“If we find any Israeli, we will deport them immediately because we do not recognize Israel,” Ibrahim told the English-language Free Malaysia Today outlet.

Malaysia, a Muslim-majority country with sizable Buddhist and Christian minorities, does not have diplomatic relations with Jerusalem. Hamas’s “military wing” is known to operate in Malaysia.

Ibrahim said Israeli passport holders “will be deported if the allegations are proven true.” He added that “all relevant agencies are already conducting investigations.”

The premier was responding to reports that Israeli citizens with dual nationality had joined Network School, a community of “digital nomads” in Forest City, near the Singapore border.

Founded in 2024 by U.S. tech investor Balaji Srinivasan, Network School describes itself as a residential community for “techno-optimists,” charging $1,500 per month for accommodation, meals and shared facilities, including a gym.

The head of Malaysia’s Immigration Department told the New Straits Times on Thursday that the department continued to investigate the possible presence of Israelis in Forest City.

“So far, we have not found any evidence to verify the allegations regarding the presence of Israelis in the Network School program,” Datuk Zakaria Shaaban said. “Preliminary checks found that all those inspected possessed valid immigration documents based on current records.”
UK is no longer a friend of Israel – and under Burnham, we may become a foe
There is no doubt that the government’s approach has helped fan the flames of antisemitism here in Britain. The government has failed to learn that it will never appease the mob. It is still condemned by the vicious antisemites taking over our streets as being insufficiently hostile to Israel.

This week, though, the government is leaving with a reminder of a different approach. As was announced on Monday, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp has been designated as a terrorist organisation under the State Threats Act. This is not the same as full proscription. It treats the IRGC as a state actor as opposed to a hybrid “that combines hostile state activity with asymmetric warfare and the promotion of a violent Islamist extremist and antisemitic ideology” as Kasra Aarabi has identified.

Nevertheless, as one of a handful of politicians to have been proscribed by the IRGC, I do take a certain satisfaction in seeing the government take this step, even if it is only a small one, even if it is insufficient.

It certainly doesn’t compare to the conviction and courage shown by Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader. As Kemi told our annual business lunch in June: “Israel’s fight against Islamist terrorism is not Israel’s fight alone. It is part of a wider struggle.”

And it certainly doesn’t change the fact that as Starmer leaves office, he leaves an indelible stain on our foreign policy. The UK can no longer be considered a friend of Israel. We are at best an irrelevance. And with Andy Burnham pledging to double down, we may find ourselves becoming a foe.
Burnham’s embrace of Palestine is as pointless as it is cynical
There is a contradiction at the heart of Andy Burnham’s extraordinary rise to the leadership of our country.

The former Manchester mayor’s impressive victory in the Makerfield by-election convinced many Labour MPs that here was a champion who could take the fight to Reform UK and win. It even convinced the sitting premier to accept his own tenure was over – itself an extraordinary event.

But as Burnham prepares to kiss hands with the King on Monday, he is aware that there is another demographic to which his MPs desperately want him to make a fresh appeal: UK Muslim voters.

The conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza has fragmented parts of the country in an unprecedented fashion, with Muslims, students and Left-wing activists taking regularly to the streets to protest against Israel. Meanwhile, local election results suggest Labour can no longer take the votes of the Muslim community for granted. At the 2024 general election, five previously safe Labour seats in Muslim areas fell to pro-Gaza independents.

Never fear, Andy is here! One of his very first substantive policy announcements was made in a video released last week in which he promised tougher sanctions on Israel and its politicians, and particularly on settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. He duly covered all the talking points that UK politicians feel they must when they’re talking about Israel: “two-state solution”, anti-Semitism, October 7, “war crimes” and recognition of a Palestinian state.

And he accepted that “too often”, Labour’s response (by which he means Keir Starmer’s) had “not been good enough”.

We’ve already seen how successful this fresh appeal to the electorate will be. The Greens, in their own video response, criticised Burnham’s refusal to use the term “genocide” to describe Israel’s actions in Gaza. His preferred phrase, “There’s increasing evidence that war crimes appear to have been committed”, will simply not cut it. And they expressed the usual outrage at Burnham’s failure to promise a complete arms embargo. And the thing is, they’re right. In a way.

All of this is a fool’s errand, and someone in Burnham’s team should have pointed this out to him. To try to triangulate the issue of Israel and Palestine in a way that many difficult policies were addressed by the last Labour government, the one that Burnham served in, is a pointless and probably damaging exercise. Those whose entire identities are now defined by the conflict in Gaza, including many influential Muslim “community leaders”, will never be persuaded by such subtleties.
Jonathan Sacerdoti: Andy Burnham’s cowardly Gaza position
Andy Burnham says political leaders must take clear positions quickly. He has certainly found time to take one on Gaza. First came the pre-recorded apology for Labour’s response to the war. Then came yesterday’s conversation with Gary Lineker, released through Lineker’s production company, in which Burnham again presented himself as the man prepared to say what his party supposedly previously lacked the courage to say.

His choice of interlocutor tells us almost as much as the answers. Lineker, a former footballer and presenter whose interventions on Israel have hardly established him as a searching authority on Middle Eastern affairs, left the BBC after sharing a post about Zionism illustrated with the image of a rat, imagery with an obvious and repellent history. His apology was rejected by leading Jewish representatives as belated and inadequate. Burnham nevertheless decided that this was the setting in which to discuss Gaza, international law and Britain’s future policy towards Israel.

Burnham could spend almost seven weeks in Downing Street without facing MPs, Prime Minister’s Questions or an Urgent Question. Against that background, an agreeable exchange with Lineker looks weak and calculating.

Burnham’s weird Gaza statement video last week deserved interrogation. He accused Israel of violating the ceasefire, expanding the territory it controls and allowing too little aid into Gaza. He spoke of increasing evidence that war crimes may have been committed. He backed further sanctions and restrictions on trade. He apologised for Labour’s supposedly inadequate initial response, meaning its response in the immediate aftermath of the massacre of 7 October.

But what of the Palestinians? He barely mentioned them, beyond painting them as helpless, without agency, almost child-like. Yet Hamas has repeatedly violated the ceasefire terms with attacks and also by refusing to disarm – a key commitment it agreed to in order to achieve the ceasefire. The savage Palestinian attempts to expand their territory on October 7th were apparently not worth describing in those terms.
Gary Lineker helps Andy Burnham sell a one-sided anti-Israel narrative

Jew hatred is back in the pulpit at the Church of England
Selective Outrage
The General Synod has debated divestment from companies linked to Israel. It has promoted activist programmes focused on Israel. Bishops have demanded sanctions and the suspension of trade agreements. Now it has elevated a document calling for Israel’s isolation, boycott and political dismantling.

Meanwhile, Christians are being persecuted for their faith, killed and driven from their homes across large parts of the Muslim world. Islamic terrorist organisations slaughter Christians in Nigeria. Christian converts are imprisoned in Iran. Pakistan’s blasphemy laws are used to terrorise Christians and other religious minorities. Ancient Christian communities in Iraq, Syria, Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East and Africa have been devastated. Churches are bombed. Congregations are massacred. Priests are murdered.

What does The Church of England do? It offers prayer and expressions of concern. It issues the odd public statement and declarations of solidarity. It passes empty motions condemning Christian persecution. But there is nothing tangible. It does not act in any meaningful manner on behalf of its coreligionist brothers and sisters in their hour of need.

Against Israel, it campaigns. It calls for boycotts and divestment. Its bishops demand sanctions and trade embargoes. Its Synod promotes activist programmes and now votes to embrace engagement with a document calling for Israel’s isolation, punishment and ultimate dismantling as a Jewish state.

This is the height of hypocrisy, disingenuity an cowardice. In short, it’s a disgrace.

The Church’s sensitivity is also highly selective at home.

It rightly defends Muslims against hatred and supports Christian-Muslim dialogue. But that instinctive respect disappears when British Jews explain that a document attacks their history, identity and national rights.

Muslim sensitivities are treated as a matter of social responsibility. Jewish concerns are treated as obstacles to Palestinian solidarity. That is not principled interfaith engagement.

Repentance Without Consequence
The Church’s 2022 apology was supposed to mark a rejection of the Christian belief that the Church had the right to define Judaism for Jews. Apparently, that contrition had an expiry date.

Kairos II defines Jewish history as colonialism. It defines Zionism as racism. It defines Jewish sovereignty as supremacy. It instructs churches which Jews are worthy of dialogue and which should be boycotted.

The Church of England will condemn antisemitism in principle while legitimising and embracing it in practice.

It has not forgotten its history. It is simply more concerned with its future.

A declining institution desperate for relevance, it appears to believe its salvation lies in the modern, socially acceptable version of the oldest hatred, for which it apologised just four years ago.

No matter, the Church of England is finding its way back to Jew hatred. And, with no small irony, it believes that this time it is on the right side of history.

One wonders when the next apology will be forthcoming.
An open letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury: do not sort us according to our relationship to Zionism
What Synod did in York was to resolve to hear four documents produced by Palestinian Christians, the most recent being Kairos II; to encourage the Church of England at all levels to engage with them; to instruct Church investors to review their policies against the ICJ advisory opinion and report back every three years; and to ask His Majesty's Government to act. Among the bishops, 25 voted in favour and none against.

Your College of Bishops adopted the IHRA working definition of antisemitism in 2018, including all of its examples, without qualification or exemption. Those were the words they chose. One of the examples of modern antisemitism that IHRA cites is claiming that the existence of the State of Israel is a racist endeavour. That is not a clever catch or a strained reading. Kairos II makes exactly that proposition, in nearly the same words, and not one of your bishops voted against hearing it.

But it wasn't 3.3 that made me put the document down.

At 3.12, the authors of Kairos II "call on the churches of the world to distinguish between dialogue with Jews and dialogue with Zionism – indeed, to boycott dialogue with Zionist voices that have supported and continue to support occupation, apartheid and the genocide of the Palestinian people. Instead, we call upon the churches to stand with and amplify prophetic Jewish voices that call for justice and truth."

Genocide is a terrible, revolting, accusation, against the people whose experience defined the term. It deserves being used as a finding, not as an adjective, and the court investigating that question has said expressly that it has not made any finding at all. In May it set a timetable under which the written pleadings do not close until 2029, three years after your Synod settled the matter in an afternoon. What might be called arrogance in one setting requires a new vocabulary in connection with a people whose population is yet to recover after the Holocaust.

Nevertheless, boycotting only those Zionists who have been sentenced by Kairos and the Synod as supportive of occupation, genocide and apartheid reads like a limit. Read against the rest of the document, it isn't one. Kairos II dates the injustice to the Balfour Declaration; it calls Israel a settler-colonial entity; it treats apartheid not as something Israel supposedly does but as something Israel is; and it rejects the idea that there is a conflict at all. On those definitions, a Jew who simply thinks the country should exist inevitably becomes a Zionist who supports "occupation, apartheid and the genocide of the Palestinian people". The clause has the grammar of a limit and the reach of a description, and what it describes, or, to be more precise, mischaracterises, is nearly everyone in my synagogue.


HonestReporting: There Is Nowhere Else: Brig. Gen. Amir Avivi on Israel After October 7
Six months before the worst day in Israel's modern history, one man wrote a report with a boiling frog on the cover that warned Israel was sleepwalking toward catastrophe. Almost no one listened.

Brigadier General (Ret.) Amir Avivi spent thirty years in the IDF during which he was deputy commander of the Gaza division, then chief of staff to the defense minister, before founding Israel's Defense and Security Forum.

In this conversation he explains how he saw October 7 coming, why he knew within four hours that Israel would win the war, and why he believes the strategy that kept Israel safe for decades has finally run out of road.

In this episode:
• Why Israel quietly copied America's Cold War "containment" doctrine — and what made it collapse
• The forty-five-mile problem: why Avivi says Israel cannot survive without the high ground
• Why "absolute security control" starts with values and will, not weapons
• His blunt verdict on Jewish life abroad — "the Diaspora is over" — and the future he says replaces it

Whether you agree with him or not, Avivi is one of the sharpest strategic minds in Israel today, and he does not soften a single edge.

Chapters
00:00 — Introduction
02:52 — The boiling frog analogy
05:43 — Why only Hamas attacked on October 7
11:52 — Israel copied America's Cold War strategy
26:41 — A country you can cross in a lunch break
31:40 — Security starts with the spirit, not the arsenal
42:23 — The withdrawals that taught him everything
51:46 — "The Diaspora is over"
58:00 — "You cannot be respected if you don't respect yourself"


Call me Back Podcast: Can we break the Israeli-Palestinian paralysis? - with Tal Becker
Can Israel break the paralysis over the Palestinian question without risking its own security?

Israelis and Palestinians have been stuck for years, with no practical or diplomatic progress and little confidence that anything can change. Tal Becker argues that while the obstacles are real, accepting paralysis carries its own costs for Israel's security, regional relationships, international standing, and national moral identity. He lays out what he believes the next Israeli government can realistically do to start moving forward without ignoring the lessons and trauma of October 7.

In this episode:
Why Israelis and Palestinians are stuck in a cycle of paralysis
What a Palestinian state is supposed to solve
The urgent imperatives of why change must happen soon
Can regional normalization still move forward?
Five priorities for Israel's next government
The role of Arab states regarding the Palestinians
What concrete step should Israeli leaders take next?


The Brink: The Myths of Gaza and The End of Bibi
In this episode of The Brink, Andrew and Jake are joined by Israeli author and former Knesset member Einat Wilf for a wide-ranging conversation on the future of Israel, the ideology driving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the country's political future after Benjamin Netanyahu.

Wilf argues that the conflict has never fundamentally been about settlements, borders, or occupation, but about the refusal to accept the existence of a sovereign Jewish state. She explains why the events of October 7th reinforced this belief, examines the role of UNRWA and the so-called "right of return", and discusses whether genuine peace is possible without a fundamental shift in Palestinian political culture.

The conversation also explores Israel's rapidly changing political landscape ahead of the next election. We discuss Benjamin Netanyahu's legacy, the candidates hoping to replace him, the growing debate over military service and the ultra-Orthodox community, and why Wilf believes Israel must stop delaying difficult decisions and begin addressing its deepest structural challenges.

Finally, we examine the changing relationship between Israel and the United States, the battle over global public opinion, and why Wilf believes the war for international legitimacy has become just as important as the military conflict itself.

A fascinating discussion about Zionism, Israeli politics, and the future of one of the world's most consequential democracies.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction
04:15 The Ideology Behind Hamas
08:08 Are There Palestinian Moderates?
16:18 Is Peace Still Possible?
20:50 Israeli Extremism & The Current Government
26:19 Why Anat Wilf Changed Her Mind
32:00 Inside Israel’s Next Election
37:10 Will Netanyahu Survive?
42:56 Trump, America & Israel’s Future
48:19 Is The Netanyahu Era Coming To An End?




travelingisrael.com: From World Cup Riots to Grooming Gangs: It's the Same Problem
When did political correctness become more important than protecting young women and girls? In this video, I break down the shocking statistics and official reports that reveal a deep cultural crisis in the West - and challenge the deafening silence of modern feminism.




Fetterman warns he would leave Democratic Party if it turns its back on Israel
Maverick Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) has said he has “no plans” to leave the Democratic Party, but he warned on Wednesday that if Democrats completely turn their backs on U.S. support for Israel, that would cross a red line that could push him out of the party.

“If our party ever becomes — and just makes it official — the anti-Israel party, that’s when I would leave because that’s been a moral clarity for me,” he said during an interview at the Hill Nation Summit in Washington.

Fetterman said he “can’t understand why the Democratic Party” — which shares an array of values with Israel as an important democracy in the Middle East — would turn against a long-standing ally.

The Pennsylvania Democrat says he has a major “concern” over the trajectory of many Democrats who have become increasingly critical of U.S. aid for Israel amid growing pressure from the party’s progressive base.

“My long-term concern has been with the Democratic Party, as I am a member of that, is that our party is going to back away and turn their back to Israel,” he said.

Fetterman cited Democratic support for an amendment sponsored by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) to cut off $3.3 billion in annual security assistance to Israel and the success of progressive candidates who are harshly critical of Israel in Democratic primaries.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) and House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (Mass.), the No. 1 and No. 2 ranking House Democrats, split over Massie’s amendment, with Jeffries opposing it and Clark supporting it.

Fetterman said Clark’s support for the amendment reflects a trend in the broader party.

“You look at the kinds of individuals that are winning our recent primaries,” he said. “It’s becoming more anti-, anti-Israel and hostile to people” who are pro-Israel.

He criticized fellow Democrats who “are trying to ingratiate ourselves with that segment of the base of our voters are intensely, intensely anti-Israel.”

Fetterman acknowledged he has been approached by Republicans about leaving the Democratic Party but declined to divulge “private conversations.”

The senator expressed concern over progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s strong performance in polls in the Michigan Senate Democratic primary. He warned that Democrats will have to pour millions of additional dollars into the battleground state to be competitive in November if he is the nominee.


Democratic Socialists of America platform backs Palestinian ‘right to resist’
The far-left Democratic Socialists of America movement launched a “national program” this week that backs the Palestinian “right to resist,” and calls for drastic changes to US governance.

The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is the home base of leftists like New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

The movement has won a string of election victories in recent weeks, upsetting incumbents in New York and Colorado.

The DSA announced on Tuesday its national program, called “Workers Deserve More,” calling the outline the movement’s “political vision.”

The program demands the Palestinian “right of return,” which calls for every Palestinian refugee and their descendants, now numbering in the millions, to move into Israeli territory.

Critics say the right of return has no legal basis, is not granted to any other refugee group, and would effectively end Israel’s existence as a Jewish-majority state.

The DSA’s program also recognizes the Palestinian “right to resist military occupation” and the “right to self-determination in a free Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital.”

“End all military and economic aid to Israel. Prosecute US and Israeli leaders responsible for the genocide in Gaza,” the manifesto says.

There is no other recognition of Israel in the document.


Georgia GOP Silent Amid Revelations About Senate Nominee’s White Nationalist Son-in-Law
GOP Senate hopeful Rep. Mike Collins’ flirtations with antisemitism now extend beyond his social media posts, past several of his former staffers and strategists, and reach directly into his immediate family, according to a new report from CNN K-File published Thursday morning. But while state and national Democratic elected officials and organizations have vehemently condemned Collins following the report, which exposed the congressman’s son-in-law as a white supremacist and neo-Nazi influencer, the Georgia Republican Party and its leaders have so far remained silent.

Collins’ son-in-law David Alan Scheer II repeatedly made overt white supremacist statements, posted antisemitic ideology on social media, and said, “There’s nothing wrong with White Nationalism,” in a YouTube comment, according to CNN.

And Scheer isn’t some far-removed family member with whom Collins doesn’t interact. The report highlighted the white supremacist’s presence on Collins’ campaign website and social media, and even found that Scheer is registered to vote at a home Collins owns and which is next to the congressman’s own house.

Per CNN, Scheer on a podcast last November advocated for “clearing our land of other people” to restore America’s white population. He has repeatedly claimed Jewish people were responsible for a number of things he views as negative, from gun control to the LGBTQ movement. He said on a podcast that “Israel and Zionist Jews” were responsible for policies that “undermine the White Christian nature of America,” and disparaged Black and Indian people. At least one antisemitic infographic Scheer posted was created by his wife, Collins’ daughter, Scheer said.

“My wife made a consolidated version of all the proof jews control our government through finance,” Scheer wrote.

Collins’ son-in-law also produced advertisements for the congressman’s trucking company.

“Rep. Collins’ lifelong support for Israel is unquestionable and backed by his consistent record in Congress of standing up for Israel and her people,” a spokesperson for Collins told CNN in a statement.

Neither the Georgia Republican Party, members of its leadership, or the National Republican Senatorial Committee immediately responded to TPM requests for comment. None of the organizations have acknowledged the report on social media or on their websites as of the time of publishing.
Revealed: Senior UK defence adviser’s meetings with ‘terrorist-supporting’ Palestinian politician
Pro-Israel campaigners have raised questions over the decision by Britain’s senior defence adviser on the Middle East to have two meetings with a Palestinian politician accused of supporting alleged terrorists.

Vice Admiral Edward Ahlgren had two meetings earlier this year with Ramallah governor Laila Ghannam who, between their two encounters, boasted of having had the “honour” of presenting the doctoral thesis of Yasser Abu Bakr, convicted in an Israeli court of a terror attack in Netanya in 2002.

Ghannam has also been accused of having met Mohammad Dalaisha, described as one of the main planners of the shooting attack at the Halamish junction in 2005 in which two children were seriously wounded.

Ahlgren and Ghannam first met in January for what was described as an “update and briefing on the security situation in the region”.

Writing about a second meeting on June 24 on her official Facebook page, Ghannam said: “The sheep of Britain and the international community have demanded clear and practical attitudes towards [...] crimes committed under the cover and support of the Israeli political level”.

She framed the British request as a sign of “the state of integration between the occupation army and the colonial gangs”, and called for “practical attitudes to stop the crimes of occupation against our people”.

Described as a psychologist, Ghannam, 51, has been the governor of Ramallah and Al-Bireh in the West Bank since 2014 and is the only woman to hold such a senior role in the Palestinian territories.

On June 3, she attended an event celebrating an academic book written by Abu Bakr, who was convicted over the 2002 Netanya attack in which two Israelis were killed, including a nine-month-old baby girl.


American businessman and husband of Code Pink founder under investigation for foreign agent, tax violations
American businessman Neville Roy Singham, husband of Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans, is under criminal investigation by a federal grand jury over potential violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act and federal tax laws, according to CBS News.

A grand jury in the Southern District of New York is examining whether Singham unlawfully funneled money through nonprofits he controls and made false statements on required IRS filings for those organizations, according to people familiar with the investigation cited by CBS. The probe reportedly began as a FARA investigation before expanding into possible tax violations.

He has not been charged with a crime.

Singham founded the IT consulting firm Thoughtworks and amassed a fortune after selling it for about $785 million in 2017. He later relocated his operations to Shanghai and has since financed a global network of nonprofits and think tanks.

Previous reporting by The New York Times and The Free Press, cited by CBS, alleged that Singham routed hundreds of millions of dollars through shell companies and other opaque entities while promoting pro-Beijing messaging. Those reports said his donations at one point covered as much as 25% of Code Pink’s operating budget. The anti-Israel activist group, which had previously criticized China’s human-rights record, later defended Beijing against allegations that it committed genocide against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.

Code Pink has become one of the most vocal anti-Israel activist groups in the United States. The organization describes itself as “a feminist grassroots organization working to end U.S. wars and militarism.” Israel barred members of the organization from entering the country in 2018 over its support for the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.


The Intifada at MIT
Yossi Sheffi, a professor of engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for 48 years, has produced a report on campus-based antisemitism after Oct. 7 - Unsafe at MIT.

The report reminds us that the anti-Israel campus protests didn't arise in response to the war in Gaza but to Hamas terrorists' murdering, maiming, raping and abducting thousands of Israeli civilians.

The agitators didn't demand a return to Israel's borders in 1967 or a "two-state solution" but the Jewish state's eradication.

Sheffi interviewed scores of Jewish and Israeli students who said many of their peers, professors and advisers turned into adversaries.

He relates stories of students blocked from campus thoroughfares, targeted by name as "Zionists" in online forums, and taunted and screamed at. Meanwhile, the administration caved in to the demands of the protesters.

If any other minority had been treated as Jews and Israelis were on America's campuses two years ago, we would have seen National Guardsmen patrolling their quads.

Again and again in Sheffi's narrative, Jewish and Israeli students, many of them politically liberal, recalled their mistake in assuming they could reason with their keffiyeh-sporting peers.

One student recounts: "A lot of people looked like they were in a trance. It almost looked like a cult."

Sheffi's book describes a great American institution avidly betraying its principles.


Irvine vice mayor resigns from Rotary leadership over new club president’s alleged Jew-hatred
James Mai, vice mayor of Irvine, Calif., had been involved in the Rotary Club of Orange County L.A. for about five years, including some two years as vice chair of its fundraising foundation. He told JNS that he saw it as a “great organization” that helps the community, including sewing blankets for cancer patients.

But he resigned from both the club and the foundation after the club installed Farrah Khan, a former Irvine mayor, as its president despite concerns that Mai and Jewish groups raised about her social media posts.

“I’m the vice mayor of a city, and I’m an elected official. I represent all sorts of people,” he told JNS. “I don’t want to be involved in a group that is being led by someone who’s saying antisemitic things.”

Khan has always been kind to him personally, but she has also “made some comments that were very hostile and I believe to be antisemitic,” he said. (JNS sought comment from Khan, the club and Rotary International.)

In a June 22 letter, the Jewish Community Action Network, Israeli-American Council and Jewish Federation of Orange County urged the club not to install Khan as president, alleging that she had spread antisemitic blood libels on social media.

The groups said that Khan shared an Al Jazeera article alleging that Israel bombed a girls’ school in Iran and wrote that the “sick pedophiles/cannibals are doing what they do best.”

Khan also claimed that “handcuffed babies were found in a mass grave” and blamed Israel for the alleged atrocity, per the letter.

Mai told JNS that he urged Rotary leadership to reconsider its decision.

“It’s the same thing if you asked me to be led by someone who openly hates black people or hates Asian people or a member of the KKK,” he said. “I’m not OK being part of that group.”
Texas man indicted for threatening to blow up White House, ‘kill some billionaire Jews’
A federal grand jury indicted Peter James Bloomfield, of Iola, Texas, for allegedly making threats, including blowing up the White House and killing “some billionaire Jews,” the U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday.

The 35-year-old faces up to five years in prison and up to $750,000 in fines on all three counts.

Per the indictment, he also threatened, including in a comment section on a Fox News broadcast of a U.S. Senate hearing, to kill U.S. President Donald Trump, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk and FBI and CIA agents.

The Justice Department previously said that the man also threatened Zionists and others.

Federal agents found more than 20 guns and a “significant” amount of ammunition in his home when they executed a search warrant, the Justice Department said.
Israelis attacked by group in Montenegro's Budva, one suffers broken jaw, victim says
A group of Israelis was attacked by a group of several young men in Budva, Montenegro, on Saturday, one of the victims told Israeli public broadcaster KAN News on Thursday.

"More than 10 young men cursed at us, kicked us, and threw chairs at us," the Israeli said.

One of the other victims suffered a broken jaw, they added.

An additional victim fainted due to the severity of the beatings received, the Israeli told KAN.

Earlier this month, a group of Israeli tourists visiting Plav, a town in northern Montenegro, was harassed by a pair of locals, according to an N12 report.

'Taking a break from genocide?'
In a video filmed by the man attacking the group, the couple can be heard saying, "Taking a break from genocide? You shouldn't be out traveling, stay in the place you call Israel."

Following the tourists' attempts to halt the confrontation, the couple continued, "I know your mother who kills children," calling them "baby killers" who have committed "genocide."
‘Israeli doctors cured my 130-a-day painkiller addiction in 20 minutes’
Israel’s Rambam Health Care Campus has used revolutionary new technology to cure a man with a severe painkiller addiction.

Previously taking over 130 pills a day, the patient, named ‘H’ for confidentiality, experienced a significant drop in cravings after receiving a breakthrough new therapy.

H, a man in his 40s, suffered a neck injury a few years ago and was prescribed opioid painkillers to cope with its effects.

Over time as pain reduced and H got back to regular life, he developed an addiction to the medication.


Ben Freeman: We Are the Luckiest Jews Who Have Ever Lived
For three years we have watched Jew-hatred erupt on campus, online, inside political movements, and among people we once called friends. Institutions we helped build, funded, and sat on the boards of have turned away from us and showed us exactly what they were made of. But we should recognize that these betrayals provide us with information.

Something in these institutions changed over the last decade: Principle was traded for donor comfort, standards for slogans, scrutiny for the easier feeling of being on the right side of a hashtag. Thank God they threw us overboard. It may have been the only way for us to have avoided going down with them.

For years, many of us worked to earn a permanent berth - a faculty appointment, a board seat, a spot at the table - on the theory that enough usefulness would eventually purchase real belonging. Losing our place on board returned us to a vessel we already owned, one we had spent 2,000 years building in exile and then, against every reasonable expectation, actually finished building in our own land.

No earlier generation of Jews had a country of their own to run to. We are the first generation who already have somewhere of our own to go. That is the shape of our fortune: not that no one throws Jews overboard anymore. That when they do, there is a shore now, and there wasn't one then.

Most Jews alive today have never known a world without Israel, never known a world in which Jewish self-determination existed only in prayers, songs, and distant hope. Jew-hatred has shaped our history, but it does not define our civilization. The Jewish story is a record of what we built, preserved, and carried forward in spite of what others have done to us.
Sidestepping boycotts, Avi Nesher’s Oct. 7 film gets a little closer to the Oscars
Director Avi Nesher’s latest film, “Our Loves,” is his chance to tell the story of the country on October 7, 2023, as Israelis began to grasp the tragic magnitude of the unfolding Hamas-led invasion.

It’s also his opportunity to share Israel’s trauma with the world during a time when Israeli filmmakers are struggling with global cultural boycotts.

“I think the quality of Israeli movies will win out; this country has so many talented actors, directors and filmmakers,” said Nesher during a panel on Monday at the Jerusalem Film Festival, likening the Israeli film industry to the local tech industry before it became a global powerhouse.

“The boycott is a sad part of life, but we have to deal with it somehow,” he said.

There’s a lot of hope pinned on “Our Loves” as a contender for the Ophir Award in September, which would then make the movie Israel’s nominee for the Academy Awards. The film opens in Israeli theaters on September 3.

The film’s producers also sat in on the panel at the Jerusalem Cinematheque, which hosts the annual film festival.

The panelists discussed how they navigated the boycotts, citing “Our Loves” as an example of a film that was able to secure additional backing from entertainment giants Fox and Access Entertainment at a time when foreign funding has been difficult to come by and festivals have been unwelcoming to Israeli entries.

Speaking by Zoom, Access Entertainment president and former BBC Television director Danny Cohen said he believes the film has a genuine chance at the Oscars.
A giant inflatable synagogue is floating above the Venice Lagoon this summer
In a win for Jewish visibility, a 12-metre-tall inflatable sculpture of a synagogue has set sail above the Venice Lagoon.

Five hundred years ago synagogues were banned from being seen in Venice. Jews had to practice covertly, concealing their houses of worship inside existing, unassuming buildings, so to see one rising out and proud above the city is a matter of deep and emotive pride. However, for artist Anna Kamyshan the fact her synagogue must float for lack of any permanent land to stand on is the most important aspect of her installation, a reminder of the centuries when Jews had no nation of their own in which to build their synagogues.

“Of course artists want their work to be visible,” she says, “but my main intention was for it not to be rooted, because as Jews we are always moving, being everywhere but nowhere at the same time.”

Nabatele, as the shtetl-style shul, modelled on the hundreds of wooden synagogues which once stood across the whole of rural eastern Europe, is also a reminder to its creator of a long search for her own sense of belonging. Growing up Russian-speaking in Ukraine, working in Moscow and Graz as well as Kyiv, she came to London when war broke out but is also partly based in New York. And that’s just the geography of her life; the most profound impact on her identity was learning at the age of 11 that she had Jewish heritage.

“It was massive for me at the time, but I really started to engage with Judaism when I started working on the vision for a Holocaust memorial centre for Babyn Yar ravine,” says the London-based artist and architect, whose own Jewish family were murdered by the Nazis in another such ravine, Drobitsky Yar outside Kharkiv.

“The event was so traumatic for my grandfather, who escaped, that he never talked about it until my father came back from a trip to Israel raving about the country,” says Kamyshan, who gets her surname from the former Dmitri Zilberberg, who changed it to an amorphous, non-Jewish-sounding name to save his life.

But her father’s exuberance about Israel, which he had visited only by chance for work – “He loved it so much he wanted our whole family to move there,” says Kamyshan – broke Dmitri’s decades of silence about his past. “Only then did my grandfather share the stories of his past and tell us we were Jewish.”





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Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون



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

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