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Saturday, July 18, 2026

07/18 Links: Is Israel Actually More Isolated Than Ever?; How Trump Can Avoid the Vietnam Trap; What Ro Khanna, Tucker Carlson, and Rahm Emanuel have in common

From Ian:

Richard Goldberg: Is Israel Actually More Isolated Than Ever?
Why do conservatives break against Emanuel’s claim of Israel being isolated?

Many of these conservative leaders have a lived experience under pro-Islamist, Marxist rule, which informs a world outlook that embraces a technologically innovative, culturally vibrant, and terrorist-fighting democracy like Israel. These leaders see Israel for what it is: a strategic asset. And when they come to power, strengthening bilateral relations with Israel is a Day 1 action item.

Here in the United States, support for Israel is an investment in helping secure another American century – one defined by winning the AI arms race, unlocking quantum computing, controlling the periodic table and mastering advanced energy solutions.

That Israel is a democracy with shared Judeo-Christian values whose fight against terrorism and unmatched intelligence service saves countless American lives remains true – but that is only the foundation of the relationship. The future primes more. Israel is a technological juggernaut that can help us preserve another American century is tomorrow’s promise. It is why, as America’s National Defense Strategy notes, Israel is a model ally.

It’s also why Israel’s position within non-traditional multilateral frameworks continues to strengthen. The Abraham Accords have expanded to include Kazakhstan, a Muslim-majority country. Turkey’s rise alongside U.S.-brokered peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan is bringing Yerevan and Baku closer to Israel. Greece and Cyprus are doubling down on their Eastern Mediterranean strategic partnership with Israel, too.

It might be a surprise for people to learn that Venezuela – just a few months ago the headquarters for Iran in the Western Hemisphere with no relations with Israel for a generation – welcomed Israeli aid into Caracas after last month’s devastating earthquake.

So, when Rahm Emanuel declares Israel more isolated than ever, why is it that we instinctively nod our heads and think it’s true? There are indeed alternate universes where it certainly feels true: the dystopian United Nations; the cadre of click-bait podcasters feeding a Marxist-Islamist-Nazi medley of talking points to young people with no living attachment to World War II and no memory of September 11; and the media coverage of Emanuel’s own party, which now openly embraces communists, terrorist sympathizers, and people with Nazi tattoos.

The socialist ascendancy within the Democratic Party is a very real phenomenon that threatens American support for Israel. An Islamist ascendancy in Western Europe is very real, too, with negative effects on relations with a Jewish state.

But from the Western Hemisphere to Europe to the Middle East to India, Israel is not as isolated as you think.
How Trump Can Avoid the Vietnam Trap
So far, this stage of the conflict with Iran has not gone as Trump had hoped. As he told Fox News, at the beginning of the year he thought regime change was possible. Much of the senior Iranian leadership died in the early stages of the air campaign, but the regime survived their passing. The blockade and continued bombardment inflicted significant damage to the Iranian economy and military, but Iran's closure of the Strait roiled global oil markets. Trump eventually settled for a lopsided MOU.

Thankfully, the setback with Iran is nowhere near as costly as in Vietnam. Fifty-thousand Americans lost their lives in Southeast Asia due to hostile action, whereas the number of American casualties in this conflict is far lower. This stage of the conflict with Iran has only gone on months, rather than years of ground fighting in Vietnam, and the effects of the war on the public have been much less grave.

But another defeat would nonetheless damage the country and Trump's presidency. Americans do not like to give important concessions to a weaker foe, especially one that is obviously bent on our destruction.

The Iranians appear to have determined that they have more to gain by reigniting the war than by continuing to negotiate. They are trying to block the Strait again and relaunching attacks on the Gulf Arabs and U.S. bases in the region. The Houthis in Yemen are also threatening to disrupt shipping in the Red Sea, the other route Saudi oil can take to reach Asia.

Trump has decided "the only way you can negotiate with these people is through strength." He described a series of increasingly painful strikes on Iranian infrastructure that will occur "unless they get to the table and negotiate." Those strikes are now underway, and the U.S. military is once again blockading Iran.

The Trump coalition will be demoralized if this new round of fighting keeps the price of oil high enough to hurt Republicans in the midterms and results in even worse terms than the MOU. But Iran can only take so much damage before its economy collapses and the mullahs face severe internal threats to their rule.

Trump can accelerate that process. Rather than bombing the Iranians into accepting American concessions, he should bomb them into offering new ones of their own.
Lee Smith: JD Vance’s Big Crashout
Blaming Jews for his failure is also evidence of a more organic problem with Vance: namely, his character. It’s a bad sign when elected officials evade responsibility for their own mistakes when the point of the job is to take on responsibility for the well-being of others—in his case, 350 million others.

NFL coaches and players typically spend Mondays reviewing footage of the weekend’s game to ensure they don’t make the same mistakes next Sunday. The VP should watch the game reel: What did you, JD, get wrong about the MOU? Well, maybe I shouldn’t have laid into all the Trump supporters who criticized my Iran deal, and probably I should have kept my validators from threatening American Jews by saying that if they didn’t like my moderate stance on Israel, wait till they got a dose of “real antisemitism.”

Then there’s my choice of outside mediators, like Asim Munir, the Pakistani field marshal. I talk a lot about how our interests diverge from Israel’s, but the same military Munir leads hid Osama bin Laden for five years. Maybe Pakistan’s interests don’t always sync with America’s? Was I wrong to take policy guidance from Trita Parsi, the Iranian-born think-tank expert whose work, said a U.S. district court judge, was “not inconsistent with the idea that he was first and foremost an advocate for the regime”? Maybe the whole idea of trying to make a deal with Iran was wrongheaded. After all, the people who most vocally supported my efforts had worked for Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and those guys have been trying to put the boss in jail for a decade.

Vance blames others for his blunders because that’s the emotional content of his 2028 presidential campaign: grievance and self-pity. He has to keep performing it for the young middle-class white men he hopes to attract, based on the theory that America has been waiting for a political movement for white kids who believe the country betrayed them because they had to settle for their safety school. In truth, it’s going to be hard to convince enough of the young white men at, for instance, Ole Miss—where Vance famously boasted that “this president isn’t controlled by Israel”—that they have it worse off than their fathers and grandfathers when they’re at a famous school with an SEC football team and a 97% acceptance rate where three-quarters of the student body is white and most of them are girls, which gives the boys a big and eager dating pool.

Shouldn’t someone tell Vance that privileged grievance is a losing message and that to win the imaginations of young white guys, he should draw from his biography? Hey, fellas, time to bear down, as I did. Go to school, work hard, there are lots of fantastic opportunities out there for smart, ambitious guys, especially now with the rise of artificial intelligence. It truly is a brave, new world! Don’t be a resentful loser. Respect women, meet a nice girl, start a family. And don’t smoke dope. My first book is about what substance abuse does to families. That’s why I won’t go on Rogan anymore—he’s a good guy, but a pothead. I don’t want any of you guys thinking he’s a role model, so I’m not going back on that show until he dumps his bong.

In the end, of course, all this is on the president. He can sideline Vance, who has been undermining him from day one on Iran and other matters, but he hasn’t. The fact is that it’s not just Trump’s problem but also a problem for 77 million other Americans who went out to the polls for him, and now time is running out. If he can’t get the job done, which includes disciplining his number two, odds are ever increasing that in two and a half years, millions of illegal aliens will be gathered at our southern border, waiting for the next far-left Democrat to be sworn in.


What Ro Khanna, Tucker Carlson, and Rahm Emanuel have in common
If you’re wondering what a Democratic congressman, who happens to be a Woke sympathizer, could possibly have in common with the once conservative talk show host Tucker Carlson, both seemingly came to visit Israel for the sole purpose of bashing her.

Khanna, who arrived a little over a week ago, made the miscalculation of traveling to the areas of Judea and Samaria without IDF coordination, a protocol which, if planned, would have prevented a confrontation with the area’s residents who detained the American congressman and his escort.

Outraged by what happened, Khanna went straight to the press, blasting the event and using it to smear the IDF, who were called in while the congressman’s minibus was stopped by armed residents.

All of this could have been avoided had Khanna communicated with Israeli officials, letting them know of his intention to visit an area that is already inflamed by much conflict.

But, perhaps, that was the objective – a surprise visit that would have alerted hyper-sensitive, overly zealous residents, using them as the perfect photo-op to shore up his already biased opinions of Israel.

While Khanna may not have realized what such an uncoordinated visit would ignite – his Israeli escort, Nadav Weiman, should have. That’s because Weiman is the executive director of the activist group “Breaking the Silence,” dedicated to placing Israel in a bad light by publishing distorted versions of malcontented IDF soldiers who have turned against the military.

What better publicity could they have asked for? Khanna got his “ugly Israel” moment, while Weiman, likewise, scored some points for his team. All this is reminiscent of Tucker Carlson’s February visit when, rather than travel to meet with US Ambassador Mike Huckabee for a formal interview, he instead chose to conduct it from Ben-Gurion Airport after Carlson’s anticipated VIP military escort was refused. Wasn’t he important enough for that? (sarcasm intended)

Turning it into an exaggerated critique, claiming that he and a staff member had been excessively detained, as well as having their passports confiscated, the happy, smiling photos taken of Tucker with airport workers belied his incriminating account. Nonetheless, Carlson got his own moment of notoriety at the cost of Israel bashing.

A third visit, which took place just a few days ago, also bears the same coincidental earmarks of ill-will by presidential hopeful Rahm Emanuel, who, according to The Jerusalem Post, “signaled in advance that he was coming to Israel to sharply criticize the Israeli government.”

What is clear is that if you want ammunition to use against the Jewish state, just pay a visit. You’re bound to find something odious, and if not, just make it up as you go along, embellishing a deliberate mishap which is useful to someone who wants to further their political or social media aspirations.

In Khanna’s case, it didn’t take but a day before discrepancies began to emerge, punching holes in his very unobjective account.
Colombia and Slovenia recognized a Palestinian state. Now they’re moving embassies to Jlem
Colombia, the world’s second most populous Spanish-speaking nation after Mexico, has little in common with landlocked Slovenia, the second-smallest of the six republics that once comprised Yugoslavia.

But when it comes to their stance on Israel, the parallels are hard to ignore.

Within one month of each other, leftist, pro-Palestine governments in both countries were voted out of office and replaced by right-wing leaders who vowed not only to restore full diplomatic relations with Israel but also to inaugurate embassies in Jerusalem.

In fact, Colombia’s next foreign minister, Omar Bola Escobar, promised exactly that on Wednesday during a meeting in Washington, DC, with his Israeli counterpart, Gideon Saar. That followed a declaration by President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella that Colombia would establish relations “like never before” with Israel once he takes the oath of office on August 7.

In June 2024, the parliament of Slovenia — an Alpine republic of 2.1 million — voted to recognize a Palestinian state only a week after Spain, Ireland and Norway had done the same thing. But half a year later, it went further. Slovenian public broadcaster RTV, citing the ongoing war in Gaza, became the first in Europe to demand Israel’s exclusion from the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest.

Then last year, Slovenia, under former prime minister Robert Golob, banned all imports from Jewish settlements in the West Bank as well as all weapons trade with Israel — the first member of the European Union to do so. And this past June, RTV not only boycotted Eurovision altogether but aired films about Palestine instead.

That anti-Israel campaign made life uncomfortable for the country’s 100 or so Jews, said Robert Waltl, president of the Ljubljana-based Liberal Jewish Community of Slovenia. Slovenia’s Prime Minister Janez Jansa arrives to attend the EU-Western Balkans summit in Tivat, Montenegro, June 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Risto Bozovic)

But on May 22, Janez Jansa — leader of the Slovenian Democratic Party and an admirer of US President Donald Trump — formed a winning coalition with other right-wing parties following the country’s parliamentary elections, clearing the way for Jansa to replace Golob as prime minister.

In a striking about-face, Janza immediately announced that Slovenia would cancel its previous recognition of Palestine and move its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. That would make it the first country in the 27-member EU to take that step (though not the first country in Europe: Kosovo already has an embassy in Jerusalem).
Turkey and Qatar: The face of the Muslim Brotherhood’s murderous ideology
Despite disagreements on certain issues, Qatar and Iran share the world’s largest offshore natural gas field and maintain channels of cooperation. Turkey, meanwhile, continues to maintain diplomatic and economic relations with Iran, even during periods of heightened regional tension.

Erdogan’s relationship with Trump also deserves scrutiny. Ankara fully understands the importance of its relationship with Washington and the value of Incirlik Air Base to the United States.

Qatar, for its part, has invested enormous effort over the years in cultivating its relationships with successive American administrations. Media reports have described valuable gifts and extraordinary gestures directed toward American public figures.

Security and ethics officials should examine these matters with complete transparency and in accordance with American legal and security standards.

In democratic countries, scrutiny and transparency are not expressions of hostility. They are signs of institutional strength.

Israel cannot afford to focus only on its borders. It must understand that the real struggle is also taking place in the battle for public opinion.

Money, media, academia, diplomacy, and international influence are now integral parts of the modern battlefield. Faced with a long-term strategy based on soft power, Israel needs a national strategy of its own.

It must combine public diplomacy, research, traditional diplomacy, partnerships with the democratic world, and an uncompromising campaign against terrorism and those who finance it.

The time has come for the West to stop judging countries in the region only by the investments they make or the economic assets they control.

The truly important questions are what values these countries promote, which forces they strengthen, and whether they contribute to regional stability or undermine it. Every country, without exception, must be judged by that standard.
Two US service members killed, one missing in action after Iran strikes base in Jordan
Two US service members were killed in action, one is missing in action, and four were injured during Iranian strikes on Friday in Jordan, United States Central Command (CENTCOM) announced in a Saturday statement.

"On July 17, two US service members in Jordan were killed in action as US Central Command (CENTCOM) and partner forces defended against Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks," the statement said. "Additionally, one service member is currently missing in action."

The four injured service members were evacuated to Jordanian hospitals and have since been discharged, the statement added.

"Other personnel who were evaluated for minor injuries have returned to duty," the statement said.

CENTCOM is withholding further information, including the identities of the service members killed in action, until 24 hours after their next of kin have been identified.

Hegseth: US soldiers killed in action 'stiffens our resolve'
"Godspeed, heroes. Their sacrifice only stiffens our resolve," US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote on X/Twitter.

Iran targeted sites in Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, and the UAE over the weekend. Notably, the IRGC targeted a site in Bahrain where US combat aircraft were gathered at Sheikh Isa Air Base and an intelligence data center, Iranian media said.

The IRGC also destroyed at least two US fighter aircraft and three other aircraft during a missile and drone attack early on Saturday on the US base in Al Azraq, Jordan, according to Iranian state TV.
Furious Trump defends war, launches revenge attacks on Iran after Islamic Republic kills 2 American service members
President Trump defended the war with Iran as the US launched retaliatory strikes on Tehran for the deaths of two American service members in a call with The Post on Saturday, saying the troops made the ultimate sacrifice to prevent the regime from obtaining a nuclear weapon — and warned the region could descend into wider conflict if Tehran isn’t stopped.

Speaking about an hour into the latest US bombing campaign, Trump called the deaths “a shame” but argued the mission remains critical.

“They did it because they don’t want to see Iran have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said of the troops. “… And it just shows you how bad [the Iranians] are.”

Two service members were killed, one is missing, and at least four were injured during an attack on Muwawffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan on Friday.

When asked whether he planned to contact the families of the two service members, Trump responded without hesitation.

“Of course I will. I always do. Yeah.”

The US military at 6 p.m. on Saturday launched a new wave of airstrikes against Tehran and were reportedly rushing warplanes to the Middle East.

The airstrikes were designed to further degrade the regime’s ability to “threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz,” US Central Command said in a statement.

CENTCOM also said the attacks on Tehran were intended to swiftly punish Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Earlier Saturday, Trump told NewsNation that he “couldn’t care less” that Iran announced they had exited the Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries, adding that the troops died “in service to their country.”

Following that, the Pentagon deployed additional warplanes toward the Gulf region, according to the Wall Street Journal.

F-16s are being sent from Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany, and stealth fighter jets, US F-35s, are flying to the region from a US Air Base in Britain, the outlet reported.

Additional refueling planes had already been sent to the region in recent days.

The president also defended the war after several Democratic members of Congress made statements blaming him for the troops’ deaths.

“Have you ever asked how many people died in Vietnam? Have you ever asked how many people died in Afghanistan in one day? In one day — run by Sleepy Joe Biden,” Trump said.

“This is two wars we’re talking about: Venezuela and this. And it’s a shame, but in this case, they died because they don’t want to see Iran have a nuclear weapon and they don’t want to see the Middle East blown up.”


CENTCOM launches new wave of strikes on Iran after death of US soldiers
The United States launched a new wave of strikes against Iran on Saturday night, Central Command (CENTCOM) announced on X/Twitter, making the eighth consecutive night of attacks.

"The strikes are designed to further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and swiftly punish Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces who launched attacks against American service members in Jordan last night," CENTCOM wrote.

Iranian media reported that the US military had targeted an area near the city of Hajiabad.

Explosions were also heard near Bandar Abbas and Qeshm Island, Iranian news outlet IRNA reported.

Earlier, CENTCOM had announced that two US service members were killed in action, one is missing in action, and four were injured during Iranian strikes on Friday in Jordan.

Wounded soldiers sent to Jordanian hospitals, CENTCOM says
The four injured service members were evacuated to Jordanian hospitals and have since been discharged, the statement added.

"Other personnel who were evaluated for minor injuries have returned to duty," the statement said.

CENTCOM is withholding further information, including the identities of the service members killed in action, until 24 hours after their next of kin have been identified.
US sends dozens of refueling aircraft to Israel as attacks across Mideast intensify
The U.S. is sending dozens of refueling planes to Israel ahead of a possible expansion of military operations against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

In coordination with the Israel Defense Forces, the U.S. has decided to reinforce the “existing fleet of aerial refueling aircraft stationed in Israel with additional refueling aircraft,” an IDF official told JNS on Saturday.

The move is a part of a U.S. adjustment to its “force posture in the region,” the official continued.

The refueling aircraft will land at Israeli Air Force bases to “minimize disruptions to civilian air traffic,” as well as due to “operational and logistical considerations.

“The preparations at the Israeli Air Force bases were made possible through advance planning conducted jointly by the IDF and the U.S. The IDF is making every effort to facilitate the deployment of U.S. forces in Israel while safeguarding the State of Israel’s international civil aviation needs,” the official added.

U.S. President Donald Trump is weighing a massive offensive in Iran, after tit-for-tat strikes that have reemerged in the region in light of disputes regarding the free and safe transit of commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, Axios reported.

Among the targets being considered are Iranian infrastructure facilities such as power plants and additional strikes on Tehran’s nuclear sites, the report continued.


Israeli Air Force strikes Hezbollah cell in southeastern Lebanon
The Israeli Air Force on Saturday targeted a Hezbollah terrorist cell that had been operating drones and taking cover near the Security Zone established by the Israel Defense Forces in Southern Lebanon, the IDF said.

The cell was first identified by Israeli troops operating in the area of Tebnit, northwest of Israel’s Galilee Panhandle, the army said.

In response, the IAF carried out searches for the terrorists and opened fire to remove the threat posed to the IDF soldiers operating nearby, the military noted.

“The terrorists’ actions constitute a violation of the ceasefire understandings. The IDF will continue to operate to remove threats to IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians,” the military added.

Meanwhile, Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun took off for Washington on Saturday morning at the invitation of U.S. President Donald Trump, the Lebanese Presidency announced in an Arabic language post on X.

Aoun is slated to participate in a White House summit aimed at advancing the 14-point Israel-Lebanon Trilateral Framework Agreement that the two countries signed on June 26.

According to the framework, the Lebanese Armed Forces are expected to deploy in areas where Israeli troops withdraw.


IAF kills another Hamas terrorist who held hostages in Gaza
Israel on Thursday killed a Hamas terrorist who took part in holding Israelis captive after their abduction during the Gazan invasion of the northwestern Negev on Oct. 7, 2023.

Anas Mahmoud Ahmed Hamdan was killed in a airstrike in the Khan Yunis area, the Israel Defense Forces and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) said in a joint statement on Saturday.

Hamdan, a Hamas company commander, was also responsible for the propaganda activities of Hamas’s Khan Yunis Brigade, the statement continued.

Additionally, he has served as a close aide to senior commanders in Hamas’s “military wing,” including Mohammed Deif and Rafaa Salameh, the IDF and Shin Bet continued.

During the war, Hamdan was also responsible for documenting the hostages during Hamas’s staged release ceremonies, and before the war, he was involved in the captivity of Avera Mengistu—an Israeli citizen with a history of mental illness who entered Gaza on his own accord in 2015 and was freed in February 2025.

“Recently, Hamdan trained Hamas terrorists and worked to advance terrorist attacks against IDF troops and Israeli civilians. The terrorist posed a threat to IDF troops operating in the Gaza Strip and was eliminated in a precise aerial strike,” the IDF stated.

Hamdan joins a growing list of slain Gazan terrorists who took part in the Oct. 7 massacre.

On Thursday night, the IDF announced that it had eliminated a Hamas platoon commander who infiltrated Israeli territory during the Gazan invasion.

Nihad Arouq, a platoon commander in Hamas’s Shati Battalion, was killed earlier on Thursday in the northern Gaza Strip, it said.


New York hosted the world's war criminals for 80 years. Mamdani only noticed the Jew
Every September, the motorcades roll into Turtle Bay.

For one week, Manhattan hosts the largest annual gathering of accused war criminals on Earth. They arrive on diplomatic passports, sweep past the barricades on First Avenue, address the world from the green marble rostrum, and fly home.

New York has watched this procession for decades without a single mayor proposing to interrupt it. Until now.

Zohran Mamdani told The New York Times this past week that Benjamin Netanyahu “belongs in the Hague,” and said his administration is in “active conversation” with the city’s law department about ordering the NYPD to arrest the prime minister of Israel when he arrives for the UN General Assembly.

Fine. Let’s take the mayor at his word. If his principle is that New York City should enforce international criminal law against visiting heads of state, he owes the public the rest of his list. Right now it has one name on it.

Mamdani’s selective approach to ICC arrest warrants
Where was this principle in September 2023, when the late Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi addressed the General Assembly? Raisi sat on the death commission that sent thousands of Iranian political prisoners to the gallows in 1988. He was under US sanctions for it. He got his visa, gave his speech, and flew home. I do not remember any New York politician suggesting the NYPD meet him at the airport.

Where is it for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who comes to New York every autumn while human rights groups document what his forces and their proxies have done to Kurds in northern Syria? Where was it for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,

Raisi’s predecessor as Iran’s president, who used the UN podium year after year to deny the Holocaust while his regime armed the murderers of Israelis and Americans?

And where is Russian President Vladimir Putin on the mayor’s list? Putin carries an arrest warrant from the same court Mamdani invokes, over the abduction of Ukrainian children.

Sudan’s longtime president Omar al-Bashir spent a decade under ICC warrants that included genocide, a charge Netanyahu does not face, and in 2013 he requested a visa to attend the General Assembly. New York’s political class did not demand his arrest. It barely noticed him.


Mamdani won’t stop Netanyahu from speaking at UN General Assembly, Danon says
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon said on Saturday that threats by New York City’s Mayor Zohran Mamdani to possibly order the arrest of Israel’s prime minister will not dissuade Benjamin Netanyahu from speaking “proudly” at the U.N. General Assembly’s annual General Debate in the Big Apple in September.

“Zohran Mamdani has failed at managing New York, and instead of fulfilling his role as mayor and fighting the rising wave of antisemitism in his city, he chooses to engage in incitement and generate headlines through attacks against the State of Israel,” Danon tweeted in Hebrew.

Nevertheless, Netanyahu will “stand before the world to clearly proclaim Israel’s truth and its uncompromising right to defend its citizens.”

“And if someone needs to be arrested—it’s Mayor Zohran Mamdani,” the diplomat added.

In an interview with The New York Times published earlier on Saturday, Mamdani again said he was floating the idea of arresting Israel’s prime minister if he steps foot in New York City.

“I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in the Hague,” the mayor said, referring to an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for Netanyahu in the wake of the war against Hamas in Gaza.

“He’s a war criminal who has been charged [sic] by the International Criminal Court. And what you will find is that is an opinion that is held by many, purely because of what his actions have wrought over these last many years,” he continued.


ADL and JCPA reactions to US teachers union exposes divide on how to fight antisemitism
Two leading Jewish civil rights groups stepped up after Jewish teachers reported antisemitic harassment last year at the National Education Association’s annual convention, only to devolve into disagreement ahead of this year’s convention.

The unusual public dispute between the Jewish Council of Public Affairs and the Anti-Defamation League brought to the fore a simmering tension over how to fight antisemitism within schools and unions. Should Jewish groups promote collaboration with the institutions on solutions — or prioritize confronting them over their failings?

Two days before the assembly earlier this month, the JCPA and the NEA’s Jewish Affairs Caucus heralded new rules and policies developed in collaboration with union leaders to “ensure the safety of Jewish members and educators at the [Representative Assembly] without undermining the union’s vital commitment to free speech and democracy.”

A day before the assembly, the ADL, which had worked with caucus members over the past year, told Jewish Insider in an unusual line of attack that it was “extremely frustrated about a so-called ‘agreement’ with JCPA that was reached without all NEA JAC leadership and delegates at the table.”

It also took aim at union leaders: “NEA’s inconsistent enforcement of its own protections has sent an unmistakable message: Jewish educators are not a priority. That must change now.”

Amy Spitalnick, the CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, responded to the ADL’s criticism in an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

“When you can’t criticize substance, you find reasons to criticize process,” Spitalnick said in an interview. “In this case, we’re both very proud of the substance and the process, and the results underscore that.”


Lost Holocaust music, nearly erased by Stalin, goes on tour in Asia
In the midst of the Holocaust, a child sang a song about his mother’s death in the Bershad ghetto, a pocket of current-day Ukraine that was occupied by Romania and Nazi Germany. In the song, the child watches strangers come and pray for his mother, and other strangers carry her away to be buried, but none pay attention to him.

This story was discovered in a trove of 263 songs collected by Moisei Beregovsky, a Soviet Jewish ethnomusicologist who recorded Yiddish music from Jews in Ukraine just after they were liberated from the Romanian occupation in 1944.

The music rescued from the Holocaust was nearly lost in Joseph Stalin’s crackdown on Yiddish culture. Beregovsky was arrested in the Soviet Union in 1950, accused of “Jewish nationalism” and sent to a gulag for six years. The music was confiscated, and Beregovsky died in 1961. Only in the 1990s did librarians discover his collection in the basement of Ukraine’s Vernadsky National Library in Kyiv.

Now, the song about a mother’s death is one of 15 in “Yiddish Glory: The Silenced Songs of World War II,” an album released in April by Six Degrees Records. It was compiled by Anna Shternshis, a professor of Yiddish and Jewish studies at the University of Toronto, together with 17 musicians.

Shternshis took the album on tour in May to perform concerts across Asia, with stops in Seoul, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Beijing. The music project is complemented by a new book she published in June, “Postwar Life, Hopes, and Fears,” the latest in a series about the history of Soviet Jews published by New York University Press.

At first, Shternshis believed the song now titled “Dear Mama” gave an account of daily life in the Bershad ghetto, where more than 8,000 people died of hunger and disease. But the more she patched together testimonies and memoirs, the more she recognized a series of untruths.

Funerals were scarcely allowed in occupied Bershad, and public prayers for the dead were virtually impossible, said Shternshis. She realized that this song was fiction — an imagination of a dignified death.

“One of the biggest traumas that people had in the Bershad ghetto was that no one would notice the death,” Shternshis told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “So the song that did talk about the lack of empathy, but also talked about the funeral, was actually a fantasy that all these things would happen — a prayer, a grave.”

This is Shternshis’ second “Yiddish Glory” album aiming to resurrect music from witnesses of the Holocaust in the Soviet Union. Her first album in 2018, titled “Yiddish Glory: The Lost Songs of World War II,” was nominated for a Grammy.


Israel is winning the World Cup of public diplomacy by aiding earthquake-hit Venezuela
Despite there being no official diplomatic ties between Israel and Venezuela, interim president Delcy Rodriguez praised the Israeli delegation saving lives in Venezuela following its devastating June 24 earthquake and asked Sa’ar to extend the humanitarian mission. She shunned outrageous calls to reject aid from Israel that came from antisemitic organizations.

Bar Tal said the delegation had received great press everywhere in Latin America. Skeptical, I asked his office for proof, and they sent back many examples, including one with 1.2 million views and others with 230,000, 144,000, and 110,000.

A report on Colombian Channel NTN24 called the delegation one of the most trained and sophisticated in the world. The channel’s anchors praised Israel’s engineers and noted that Israel even used drones with artificial intelligence.

An anchor pointed out that the war in Gaza gave Israel experience and technology in finding hostages in tunnels that were being employed to help find people under the rubble in Venezuela. Another anchor noted that the previous regime in Venezuela used very strong language in condemning Israel, but the delegation came regardless.

Israel’s Ambassador-designate to Mexico Yoed Magen, one of the heads of the delegation, explained to the channel that not having diplomatic relations with Venezuela made it challenging, but that Israel still felt obligated to contribute its knowledge and technology.

“Since Israel is a country that always contributes to humanitarian issues, we couldn’t miss it,” Magen said. “Wherever there is a disaster, wherever there is a humanitarian crisis, Israel will be present.”

Those are exactly the values of Abraham that Israel wants the world to see.


Argentinian President Milei meets former hostage Iair Horn at memorial cermeony for AMIA attack
Argentinian President Javier Milei met former hostage Iair Horn at a ceremony marking 32 years since a deadly terror attack on the AMIA Jewish community building in Buenos Aires, Maariv reported on Saturday.

Israeli Ambassador to Argentina Eyal Sela informed Milei of Horn's presence at the Friday ceremony shortly after the president arrived. Sela then brought them together for a brief exchange before the event began, Argentinian news source AJN reported.

Horn is an Israeli with Argentinian citizenship who was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz to Gaza alongside his younger brother, Eitan Horn, on October 7. Iair Horn was held for 498 days before being released, while Hamas kept his brother in captivity for 737 days.

The meeting between Milei and Horn was especially relevant given the event that marked the anniversary of a suicide bombing that killed 85 and injured 300 in 1994. The attack targeted the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA), which was a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires.

The ceremony used the slogan "Today we cannot lose our memory," and began with a siren at 9:53 a.m. - the exact time the attack took place decades ago.



Investigation into the AMIA terror attack remains at an impasse
AMIA President Osvaldo Armosa condemned the standstill in the investigation into the terror attack at the event, saying the case is still "stuck, dormant, or buried in a drawer," even after 32 years, Maariv reported.

He went on to praise Milei's government and its support for Israel, underscoring the firm stance they maintain against Iran, the IRGC, and terrorist organizations.

Many other foreign leaders attended the ceremony, including the Secretary General of the Presidency, Karina Milei; Supreme Court ministers from Paraguay and Uruguay; Chilean deputies; and representatives of the US Anti-Defamation League.

Argentina's Ambassador to Israel Shimon Axel Wahnish spoke at a similar AMIA commemoration event in Jerusalem on Thursday, calling out the 1994 bombing as part of a chain of international terrorism as opposed to an isolated incident.

“For 32 years, I’ve been hearing that it was an attack against the Jewish community, against Argentina as a whole. But, even if both claims are true, I like to think of it as a wider attack against humanity as a whole,” said Wahnish at the ceremony held in the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem.





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