Wednesday, July 29, 2026

07/28 Links Pt2: Saving the West from the Evils of Hamas; A 'Respected' Medical Journal's War Against Doctors; Why is the left in denial about Islamist homophobia?

From Ian:

Fighting the New Antisemitism
Shaikh sees a need to “inoculate” students from elementary school age against falsehoods by teaching basic facts about the Jewish people and Israel. He and Michaelis visit high schools as guest speakers, and Shaikh has helped build “a trauma-informed, culturally educated” chatbot designed to screen for potential behavioral threats, such as whether an individual is an extremist risk and might need to be referred to Parents for Peace.

There are fundamentals to consider, too. As Michaelis understands it, teachers are allowed “to intentionally radicalize students,” and “teachers’ unions are rabidly antisemitic.” Schoep recognizes the left-wing emphasis on “oppression” as “the exact same rhetoric I once weaponized as a neo-Nazi leader and what fuels extreme far-right ideology.” The fixation on “whiteness, blackness, brownness” and “divisive terms like ‘white privilege’” only serves to “create racism” and “radicalize entire generations.” This worldview also turns adherents against Jews and Israel, while being divorced from the realities of Jewish identity, history, and diversity.

At the college level, Jeffery observes, undergraduates “taught to hate their own ancestors, history, culture and the overall idea of Western civilization” will also hate Jews and Israel, “because the Jewish people helped build the West.” Without serious change, “it’s not the external enemy the U.S. will be fighting 50 years from now” but “the internal one.”

Universities have spent the past several decades “teaching a frame in which the West is the permanent aggressor, and any non-Western grievance is sacred,” Burmawi says. “Holocaust skepticism and ‘Israel is genocidal’” follow from that. The solution is “teaching why the West produced human rights, individual dignity, limited government, the abolition of slavery, and . . . the Judeo-Christian root” of those ideas. “A generation that knows what built their freedom is far harder to recruit into burning it down.”

Lobell echoes these points: “People who hate Israel and the Jews typically hate America, too.” In her view, there’s a “silent majority” that recoils from radicalism, and politicians should remember that.

Noting that “you can’t fight what you can’t define,” Hafeez urges adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism at the state and federal levels. Further, there must be a “bipartisan realization” in Washington “that those who come to America to live and study must accept our values of a diverse and pluralistic society” and leave Jew-hatred behind.

Al-Aqidi says public officials must resist “Islamist groups . . . insisting that every law or government statement addressing antisemitism also includes Islamophobia.” That “false equivalence . . . shifts attention away from anti-Jewish hatred” and allows political Islamists to “recast themselves as the primary victims.”

Burmawi makes the most compelling case for what’s needed to counter the growing danger of antisemitism and anti-Zionism:
The instinct I see in much of the American Jewish establishment, to fight this by pleading for tolerance, is a losing strategy. It misreads the enemy entirely. You cannot tolerance-seminar your way out of a theological conviction or a critical theory catechism. Reasonableness reads as weakness to people who’ve been taught your existence is the problem. . . . Stop apologizing, and stop asking for permission. The single most persuasive thing the Jewish community can do for other Americans is to model the confidence I call “re-Zionization.” Israel is, right now, the most compelling argument in the world that a nation can be unashamed of its own survival, can name its enemy, can refuse the endless-grievance trap, and still be moral. Most Americans, especially young ones, aren’t antisemitic, they’re demoralized. They’ve been taught that any civilization defending itself is “supremacist.” When they see Jews who won’t accept that framing, who say plainly “our existence is not up for debate,” it gives them permission to defend their own civilization too. Jeffery likewise urges the Jewish community to stop taking “a very apologetic view towards Israel. . . . If someone wants a Jewish person to condemn Israel to be socially accepted, then that’s wrong, and it must not only be rejected but also confronted.” Efforts to educate non-Jews about Israel’s centrality to “Jewish identity” must continue, along with increasing engagement with “non-Jewish allies, who are already battling the lion in its own den.”

Combating antisemitism and anti-Zionism in American society isn’t a favor to Jews. Such efforts are part and parcel of preserving Western civilization. The problems underlying the turn against American Jews and Israel are multifaceted, so there’s no single solution. But clearly, given the recent polling, a rethink is necessary. And the first step must be winning back younger generations of Americans.
Saving the West from the Evils of Hamas
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani released an official video that repeated his false narrative that a "genocide" had been committed.

In Mamdani's world, it is Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu that brought on devastation in Gaza, not Hamas.

Listening to Mamdani, you might think it was Netanyahu that started that war on Oct. 7. You might be led to believe that it was Netanyahu who savagely murdered 1,200 in Israel that day.

Or that it was Netanyahu who fired rockets at Israel, built tunnels with aid money, and used his own citizens as human shields in orchestrating the war against Israel.

Why do people continue to reject overwhelming evidence that Israel has been defending itself against brutal terrorists, when it appears clear and compelling?

One reason is psychological "cognitive dissonance" when facts conflict with deeply held beliefs. Protecting one's identity and staying aligned with one's family and community usually overwhelmingly trumps the truth.

We are in a perfect storm when it comes to the rejection of the truth.

For years we were fed with new ideological frameworks that include newly created concepts like "Islamophobia" but have left out antisemitism almost entirely, despite the fact that statistics show that the Jewish community is the most targeted group for racism and discrimination.

It's going to take generations to overcome the distortion and denial that has taken place since Oct. 7.
Gerald M. Steinberg: A 'Respected' Medical Journal's War Against Doctors
[T]he pro-Hamas lobby is circulating a mass petition calling for the expulsion of the Israeli Medical Association from the World Medical Association.

The petition – which blames the Israeli doctors for alleged bias and omits any mention of Hamas' war crimes – was amplified in June by once-respected UK medical journal The Lancet, clearly crossing the line between professional medical publication and blatant propaganda.

Far from providing medical evidence or reflecting professional ethics, the petition, as echoed by The Lancet, recycles political slogans and ancient blood libels, accusing Israel of "genocide" and the destruction of Gaza's health system. Of course, there is no mention of the overwhelming evidence of Hamas's systematic militarization of hospitals and other civilian medical facilities – all actual war crimes.

In promoting this campaign, The Lancet copied the accusations of fringe activist NGOs including the People's Health Movement (PHM), Doctors for Gaza (Artsen voor Gaza), and the "Health Advisory Council" of the so-called Jewish Voice for Peace. Even a cursory review makes clear that the petition touted by this ostensible medical journal is not remotely about medical ethics.

By parroting these NGOs and violating fundamental requirements for a scientific journal, The Lancet does not make even a minimal attempt to examine their credibility and embrace of terror.

Unsurprisingly, this isn't the first time journal editor Richard Horton has used The Lancet to publish anti-Israel propaganda. From 2001 to 2014, a majority of the publication's output regarding Israeli and Palestinian issues – 58.3% of its 264 items – took the form of political commentary rather than medical research.

The Lancet dismisses any mention of Hamas' responsibility for Gaza's medical plight as mere Israeli claims, despite extensive documentation.

Additionally, neither this medical journal nor the NGOs leading the petition have ever asked any other civilian medical associations to condemn their home states' military operations. The list includes Russia, China, Iran, Turkey, Sudan, and other actual violators of human rights and international law.

With Horton and The Lancet again at the forefront of a hate directed at Israeli doctors, and under the thin facade of scientific publishing, an effective response is necessary that will get the attention of the journal's Dutch publisher, Elsevier.


Antisemitic Content Nearly Seven Times More Likely to Go Viral in Instagram’s ‘Clip Economy,’ New CAM Study Finds
Antisemitic content is nearly seven times more likely to appear among an Instagram clip account’s most-viewed videos than other content, according to a new report published by the Antisemitism Research Center (ARC) by CAM on Tuesday.

Antisemitic videos made up just 4.7% of all content the ARC sampled for the study — 92 of 1,960 videos. But they accounted for 32% of each account’s fifteen most-viewed videos (24 of 75), making them 6.8 times more likely to appear among an account’s top-performing videos.

Instagram’s “clip economy” revolves around users extracting short moments from livestreams and reposting them as standalone videos across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts. Most clips are harmless and consist of fans sharing highlights and reactions from creators they already follow. But the same low barriers that make clipping so popular also facilitate the amplification of antisemitic content at scale.

The ARC analyzed 1,960 of 2,800 videos posted across five Instagram clip accounts that redistribute material from major streamers, including Sneako, Myron Gaines, and Adin Ross. The sampling window ran from June 14 to July 14, 2026, and only videos above 5,000 views were included to focus on content that reached a meaningful audience.

ARC researchers classified each sampled video as antisemitic or not before comparing each account’s overall output with its fifteen highest-performing videos.

“For years, we’ve understood online antisemitism through coordinated campaigns and bad actors,” said ARC Research Associate Oliver Marks, author of the study. “However, our new research suggests that model is no longer sufficient on its own. A growing share of antisemitic content isn’t the product of genuine belief, but rather a byproduct of an attention economy that rewards whatever performs. When antisemitic content reliably farms engagement, people become inclined to post it, not because they believe it, but simply because it works.”

Key Findings
The 92 antisemitic videos identified drew a combined 38,935,663 views, an average of 423,000 per video, despite making up less than 5% of the whole sample.

The report noted three essential features of the “clip economy” that help explain this pattern:

First, clipping dramatically lowers the barrier to participation. Anyone can redistribute existing content without producing original material, appearing on camera, or developing advanced editing skills.

Second, backlash and platform enforcement often focus on the original creator rather than the account reposting the clip.

Finally, because the views expressed belong to the person being clipped, not the account sharing the video, redistributing antisemitic content requires no ideological commitment from the clipper.

“Antisemitic content is produced and reproduced because it performs well — the accounts themselves often exhibit no ideological signatures, thus rendering conventional detection and disruption methods largely ineffective,” the report said. “Therefore, in an ecosystem where clicks are currency, antisemitism has become a reliable investment.”
Dov Forman: Burnham has decided to throw British Jews under the bus
I want to be fair about one thing. In the aftermath of the Heaton Park Synagogue attack, Burnham did what a leader of Greater Manchester is supposed to do: he showed up, said the right words, and stood with the community he represents. I don’t doubt his sincerity in that moment. But I am tired of watching politicians collect praise from our community and organisations for doing the baseline of their job. Nobody should thank a mayor for visiting the scene of a terrorist attack in his own city, because that is simply what the job requires. The real test of whether a leader takes British Jews seriously is not what he says the week after a synagogue is attacked. It is what he does in the months in between, when there are no cameras and no political cost attached to getting it right. On that test, this government is failing before it has properly begun.

Because that is what this actually is. Labour has run the numbers and decided that British Jews are a small enough community to be sacrificed for a much larger, and to them far more electorally valuable, section of the electorate. We are being thrown under the bus so this government can keep faith with voters it rates more highly than us. That is not a metaphor I use loosely: it will lead, eventually, to Jews being pushed under buses in a far less figurative sense, as the antisemites already marching through our cities take a government that treats their worldview as reasonable for the green light it is. Labour should also understand that this calculation is not just shameful. It is stupid. Movements built on escalating demands do not reward partial compliance; they punish it for not being enough. Keir Starmer discovered that when recognising “Palestinian statehood” didn’t save his premiership. Burnham’s capitulation will cost this government exactly what it costs us, and it will not save him either.

Which is what makes the individual cases sting more, not less. Wes Streeting spent years as one of the most reliable voices in Parliament on Holocaust education. He knew my great-grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, and for years was a genuine and vocal opponent of antisemitism, long before this war made such positions politically expensive. Watching him now calculate that his own political survival depends on distancing himself from Israel and the Jewish community tells you something larger: not just where he and his party believe the votes have gone, but that neither of them is prepared to go anywhere near the distance actually required to fix the predicament our community now finds itself in.

And lastly, there is Ed Miliband. From the moment he was appointed Foreign Secretary, his Jewishness was folded into how the role was framed, so that his own judgements start to read as establishing the Jewish position on this war, when in reality he speaks only for himself, and does so as a communal outsider. Under Corbyn, while Ian Austin, Louise Ellman, John Mann and Luciana Berger paid a real price for confronting antisemitism in their own party, Miliband said nothing from the backbenches. He is entitled to hold whatever view he likes. He is not entitled to have it stand in for ours.

There is a strategic case here too and it’s worth making plainly because this government doesn’t seem to have grasped it. Britain supplies less than one per cent of Israel’s defence imports, while, as Rafael Advanced Defence Systems’ chairman Yuval Steinitz told the Spectator, Israeli technology already runs through the British armed forces: the Watchkeeper drone derives from Elbit’s Hermes 450, the Army’s Jaguar patrol vehicles are IAI-designed, Rafael’s Litening pods equip the RAF’s Typhoons, and David’s Sling defends Nato allies in Europe. Restricting arms to Israel while Iran and its proxies remain fully armed does not produce balance. It disarms one side of a war and leaves the other’s supply lines untouched. Steinitz’s own description of what that policy risks was blunt: it “paves the way for the destruction of Israel”.

None of this requires pretending Israel’s conduct in this war has been flawless, because no war fought by any army in history has been flawless, including Britain’s own. What it does require is noticing that this government’s outrage runs in exactly one direction. It has never once demanded that Hamas disarm or stop hijacking the aid meant for its own people, even as the evidence for all three sits in the same UN reports Burnham selectively quotes from. It has plenty to say about Israeli conduct and nothing at all to say about Hamas’s. The government has made a choice to spend its entire supply of moral seriousness on one side of a war it can’t be bothered to properly understand.

British Jews have seen this film before. It rarely starts with a single dramatic betrayal. It starts with small, deniable steps, each one easy to justify on its own terms, until the pattern is undeniable and the damage is done. Andy Burnham is only a week into the job. There is still time for him to prove this pattern wrong. Nothing he has done so far suggests he intends to.
NHS doctors call in lawyers to oppose IHRA definition of antisemitism
Activist doctors have enlisted lawyers to warn NHS trusts against adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, claiming that the measure meant to protect Jewish staff and patients would discriminate against critics of Israel.

Arguing that calls for the “dissolution” of Israel should not be treated as antisemitic, lawyers warned hospitals that adopting IHRA could leave hospitals vulnerable to breaking other rights laws.

The intervention comes after the government's independent adviser on antisemitism, Lord Mann, recommended all NHS trusts adopt the IHRA working definition in his review of antisemitism in the health service.

A widely adopted international definition of antisemitism, the IHRA framework includes examples of contemporary antisemitism including comparing Israeli policy with that of the Nazis or holding Jews collectively responsible for the actions of the State of Israel.

The government adopted IHRA in 2016, while NHS England endorsed it last year after ministers ordered action following a surge in antisemitism.

The JC revealed last month that the British Medical Association (BMA) voted to drop IHRA across the NHS.

Now lawyers acting for activist group Health Workers 4 Palestine (HW4P), which is frequently seen at anti-Israel rallies, have written to NHS organisations warning that adopting IHRA without additional guidance could breach the Equality Act 2010 and Human Rights Act 1998 by interfering with freedom of expression and discriminating against pro-Palestine staff.

The legal advice, prepared by barristers at Matrix Chambers and Blackstone Chambers, states that “the IHRA working definition will lead to unlawful censorship of speech by healthcare workers which is supportive of the Palestinian people and critical of Israel.”

Citing the David Miller employment tribunal, which ruled that the University of Bristol wrongfully dismissed the former academic over his antizionist views, the advice argues that there is a possible “binding precedent” that antizionist belief can amount to "a protected characteristic for the purpose of anti-discrimination law” - if the ruling in favour of the former academic is upheld after appeal.

The advice claims that opposition to Israel as a Jewish state is not, by itself, antisemitic.

It continues that “it will not be antisemitic” for a person to “challenge the moral legitimacy of its creation or continued existence as a state,” arguing that "It will only be antisemitic for a person to criticise Israel, or to challenge its right to exist, if they are motivated in doing so by hatred or prejudice toward Jews as Jews".

It claims that criticism of Israel, "including calls for its dissolution", may be motivated by "an honest and good-faith assessment" that Israel is committing "serious violations of international law... including the crime of genocide”.
Kingpin behind Australian tobacco war and Jewish synagogue firebombings is sentenced to life behind bars in Iraq
A former Melbourne underworld figure has been sentenced to life behind bars in Iraq.

Kazem 'Kaz' Hamad, also known as Kadhim Malik Hamad Rabah al-Hajami, was deported to Iraq in 2023.

He was accused of being one of the key orchestrators of the Melbourne tobacco wars, tied to infamous firebombings around the city in an attempt to dominate the billion dollar illicit market.

Iraq's National Center for International Judicial Cooperation (NCIJC) this week found Hamad guilty of importing drugs into Iraq and Australia.

He was handed a life sentence by the Karkh Criminal Court in Baghdad.

'The convict is considered one of the most wanted individuals by Iraqi and international judiciaries,' the NCIJC said.

'He is responsible for importing large quantities of narcotics into Iraq and Australia, smuggling heroin, and is linked to transnational organised crime gangs involved in drug trafficking, money laundering, murder, kidnapping, extortion, and organised violence.'

A statement from Iraqi authorities in January described Hamad as 'one of the most dangerous wanted men in the world'.

It alleged he was responsible for 'importing large quantities of drugs into Iraq and Australia' including heroin smuggling.

Iraqi authorities also accused him of involvement 'with the most prominent organised crime gangs in Australia' that were linked to 'shootings, murders, kidnappings, violent assaults, extortion, and drug imports.'

Hamad has also been linked to the 2024 firebombings of Adass Israel Synagogue of Melbourne and Lewis' Continental Kitchen, a kosher cafe in Sydney's Bondi.

Along with his cousin, Ahmed Al Hamza, he struck a deal with parts of the Iranian government to allow them to run the 313 gang from the Middle East.

The syndicate has been linked to more than 200 firebombings and a nationwide illicit tobacco smuggling network.
Australian Jewish groups urge community to write 'Jewish' on 2026 census despite no option box
Australian Jewish groups are campaigning for community members to write “Judaism” under the religious options on the 2026 Census of Population and Housing on August 11, as there is no dedicated box for it.

Since the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) introduced a tick-a-box option with seven religious choices in the 1991 census, there has never actually been a box for Judaism. This is said to be because Judaism is a smaller statistical demographic in Australia (representing roughly 0.4% of the population).

The explicit tick-boxes on the 2026 form are: No religion, Catholic, Anglican, Islam, Hinduism, Uniting Church, Buddhism, Presbyterian, Greek Orthodox, and Baptist.

Jews can tick the “Other” box, and are being asked to add “Jewish” or “Judaism” in order to ensure the Australian government has accurate data on community numbers.

Daniel Aghion KC, president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, released a message asking all members to insert the word “Jewish” or “Judaism” as the answer for each Jewish member of a household.


Brendan O’Neill: We should politicise the Berlin Pride attack
It feels as though our moral overlords fear us more than van-ramming, knife-wielding Islamists. Of course they condemn the atrocity, though, strikingly, they’ll only call it ‘extremist’ rather than ‘Islamist’. Well, we wouldn’t want to stir up the ‘Islamophobic’ urgings of the oiks. With eye-swivelling speed, that becomes their key focus: not crushing the Islamist pox but policing the anti-Islamist fury of the public.

We all know what they mean when they say, ‘don’t politicise this tragedy’. They mean don’t raise any awkward questions about the catastrophic failures of integration. Or about Europe’s broken borders, over which thousands of men with regressive beliefs pour every week. Or about the existential incompatibility of certain strains of Islam in societies where Jews enjoy equality, women are free and homosexuality is not a crime.

‘Don’t be divisive’ is a demand for self-censorship masquerading as a plea for social peace. It is the slippery demonisation of people’s entirely legitimatise concerns about Islamic radicalism, and the fact that a not insignificant number of young Muslims sympathise with it.

And ironically, it’s divisive. It seeks to divide the ‘good’ people who have madly made their peace with the Islamist menace from us ‘bad’ people who feel pure, cold rage when our fellow citizens are massacred by homophobic, misogynistic, anti-Semitic brutes.

Everyone with eyes in their head can see that it is only Islamist attacks that are followed by stiff diktats against ‘politicisation’. When it’s a far-right attack, ‘politicisation’ is not only permitted, it is actively encouraged.

We all know that had the homophobic atrocity in Berlin been carried out by a white far-right skinhead, there would not have been one utterance about the dangers of ‘exploitation’. On the contrary, the left would be on the streets, social media would be awash with fury about fascism, and the Berlin Pride people would have been raging rather than coy.

But when the fascist violence is of the Islamic variety, we all have to pipe down. When the Nazi-like intolerance of homosexuality or Jewish freedom comes from a Koran-basher, you must check your anger and watch your words. To ringfence Islamism like this, to implicitly protect it from the righteous anger of commonsense citizens, is worse than stupid – it is suicidal. It emboldens Islamist extremism by weakening the public opposition to it.

I am increasingly of the opinion that we need more division, not less. We need to make clear that there is a chasm-like moral divide in our society. Between freedom-lovers on one side and Islamists and their apologists on the other. Between those who value Western civilisation and others who either hate it or are suicidally cavalier about it. We shouldn’t shy away from these divides.
Berlin Pride attack: why is the left in denial about Islamist homophobia?
spiked’s Germany correspondent, Sabine Beppler-Spahl, joins Fraser Myers to discuss how Abdul Ballout slipped through the cracks, Germany’s refusal to confront Islamist extremism and why gays are turning to the AfD.

0:00 – Introduction: the Berlin Pride Parade attack
0:56 – What we know about the attack and the perpetrator
3:49 – Germany's political reaction
6:32 – A pattern of denial: Germany's Islamist terror problem
10:10 – Are more attacks inevitable?
12:34 – Islamism's influence on German public life
15:00 – Closing thoughts


Julie Bindel: It's time the LGBT activists obsessed with Palestine took off their keffiyehs and faced down an Islamist ideology that wants them dead
So it might seem odd that huge numbers of 'LGBT' campaigners have in recent years become bizarrely obsessed with Islam. On the same day as Ballout's murderous rampage in Berlin, I attended a 'trans rights' rally in Trafalgar Square as a reporter, where thousands of activists had gathered.

Amid the cries of 'Death to Terfs' (women like me who believe biological sex is real) and calls to ‘behead’ Queen Camilla and feminist Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling (after the two posed for a picture), I saw thousands upon thousands of keffiyehs.

The tasselled black-and-white scarf, once the emblem of terrorists such as the late Palestinian Liberation Organisation leader Yasser Arafat, is now worn, like a trendy pashmina, to signal one’s Left-wing politics. (The keffiyeh is now so ubiquitous on Pride marches that it wouldn’t surprise me if its motif ended up being added to the increasingly unwieldy rainbow flag.)

At this ugly and intolerant demo, I caught sight of ‘Sarah Jane Baker’, a trans-identified male and self-defined ‘anti-capitalist’. Baker is Britain’s longest serving trans prisoner, currently out of jail on licence for the attempted murder of another inmate.

Following various medical treatments, this individual now has breasts, and had chosen to expose them on the march to display a slogan, scrawled in red felt-tip pen: 'Free Gaza'.

Well, that just sums it up, doesn't it? You don’t have to think too hard to imagine what some 'freed Gazans' would do to a person like Sarah Jane Baker if they ever got hold of them.

Inside the Green Party, it’s much the same thing. The leader, populist rabble-rouser Zack Polanski, is openly gay and has danced at (yet another) 'anti far-Right' rally in Trafalgar Square alongside a man wearing leather chaps, and not much else.

Yet in a near-perfect illustration of the bizarre alliance between the far-Left and political Islam, the Greens' deputy leader, Mothin Ali, is a strict Muslim who wears traditional Islamic garb, as well the keffiyeh, and whose wife is covered from head to foot in a niqab.

Finally there's 'Queers for Palestine', the surprisingly large movement of far-Left activists – not all of whom are gay – who support what they see as another ‘oppressed’ minority. As others have pointed out, 'Queers for Palestine' might as well be a sister group for 'Turkeys for Christmas'.

But this isn’t a joke any more. Last weekend’s atrocity in Berlin should be the moment the 'LGBTQ' lobby, and the wider Left, recognise their true enemy: radical Islam, and the issues the West now faces having imported millions of people from distant lands who – to put it mildly – hold different opinions on sexual liberalism.

Instead, many of these same campaigners are actively allying themselves with radical Islam, in many cases blaming a phantom 'far-Right' for the mounting dangers they face.


Brendan O'Neill: Boy George’s pro-Israel song is as punk as it gets
So now we know the most dangerous thing a pop star can do: stand up for Jews. You used to have to snort a binbag of cocaine or say the queen ‘ain’t no human being’ to rattle the moral majority. Now you just have to say that the rape and murder of Jewish people is a bad thing and anyone who supports it is a brainwashed twat. Just ask Boy George.

The old Culture Club star has been branded ‘nauseating’, ‘depraved’, ‘repellent’ and a ‘nasty little freak’ for saying he doesn’t hate Jews. Seriously. He’s released a song called ‘We Will Dance Again’, which has the haunting refrain: ‘If you’re ever confused, I stand with the Jews.’ The digital mob has gone nuts. ‘Zio lover!’, they’re crying, in the same demented cadence that Nazis once barked: ‘Jew lover!’

Boy George has committed the cardinal sin in the eyes of the keffiyeh cult – he’s mentioned 7 October. Doesn’t he know that to the wild-eyed Jew erasers of the bourgeois left, 7 October 2023 is the day Israel’s ‘genocide’ started, not the day that a 6,000-strong army of Islamofascists invaded the Jewish State by air, sea and land to slaughter more Jews in one day than anyone else had since the Nazis? Quick, someone reprogramme him.

‘You never mention October 7’, he sings to his fellow creatives who mistake hating Israel for virtue. ‘Young girls raped against trees / Murdered brutally / For the crime of dancing’, he sings of the carnival of fascist violence that Hamas brought to the Nova music festival. In fact, far from condemning that Nazi-like savagery, musicians giddily wrapped themselves in the flag under which it was carried out, he says. ‘Musicians holding flags, mouthing like sheep / Propaganda fuelled by the internet, feels so weak.’

He’s not wrong, is he? For many of us, it was a grim moral awakening to see Western festivalgoers wear like a holy shroud the flag that was the last thing Israeli music-lovers saw before they were butchered by racists. It felt like treason against the Jews, against humanity in fact. Boy George knows who the real genocidal maniacs in the Middle East are: Hamas. Of course the Israelis went to war with that army of anti-Semites, he sings, because they know those nutters ‘want to kill every last one of us’.


HonestReporting: The Most Important Story on Earth? Matti Friedman on the Media's Israel Obsession
Matti Friedman spent five years (2006–2011) as a reporter and editor inside the Associated Press's Jerusalem bureau — the biggest international bureau of the world's biggest news organization. In this conversation with Ben Chertoff, he explains what he saw from the inside: an AP operation with more reporters covering Israel than China or all of sub-Saharan Africa, a far-reaching 2008 Israeli peace offer that reporters were ordered not to publish, and the moment the AP began quietly conforming to Hamas censorship... without ever telling its readers.

Friedman, author of the landmark 2014 essay "An Insider's Guide to the Most Important Story on Earth" and five books, argues that the collapse of trust in media wasn't done to the press. It was a choice: reporters who view themselves as activists, and who approach every story with the wrong question: Who does it benefit?

0:00 Cold Open & Introduction
2:21 Inside the AP's Biggest Foreign Bureau
6:06 Why the AP Sets the Story for Everyone Else
8:03 The Olmert Peace Offer the AP Buried
11:48 Catch and Kill, and the Herd Instinct
15:03 More Reporters in Israel Than in China or Africa
17:26 The Morality Play: Fitting Real Events to a Script
19:50 Hamas Censorship and the Detail He Was Told to Cut
24:17 The Two Kinds of Reporters in Gaza
28:34 When Journalists Became Activists
31:30 The 215 Graves That Were Never There
38:12 Who Actually Decides? Fact-Checkers as Enforcement
41:27 How the Collapse of the Business Model Made It Worse
45:14 Why "Israeli-Palestinian Conflict" Is the Wrong Frame
49:23 Gazalogy: The New Genre of Books About Gaza
55:14 Why Jew-Hate is a Mirror of the Antisemite
58:10 What He'd Change If He Ran the Bureau
1:03:34 Who's Still Doing It Right
1:04:42 Out of the Sky: The Parachutists Who Went Back
1:06:55 Closing Thoughts & Outro


Victor Davis Hanson: Mamdani's ICC Pledge Exposes a Double Standard on Israel
Zohran Mamdani says he'd enforce the International Criminal Court's warrant against Benjamin Netanyahu in New York—but Victor Davis Hanson argues the plan is legally impossible and politically revealing.

From the ICC's authority to the U.N.'s role and the Left's treatment of Israel, this conversation examines what Hanson sees as glaring double standards.

“I thought he wouldn't be so stupid to admit that he's an absolute anti-Semite and hates Israel.”




In Packed Synagogue, a Democrat Scrambles to Defend Vote Against Arms for Israel
Auchincloss acknowledged that support for Israel among Democrats is "getting shaky," but insisted that he himself still supports a qualitative military edge for Israel and American diplomatic backing for the Jewish state. He said he supports the Abraham Accords. He tried to downplay the significance of his vote on the grounds that even Prime Minister Netanyahu has said he wants to eliminate U.S. military aid to Israel when the ten-year memorandum of understanding reached with President Obama expires. He said he doesn’t favor an embargo on U.S. arms sales to Israel, but in the context of the war, he wanted to say, "we’re not paying for it, the American taxpayer."

The flaws in the logic came out in the question and answer session. Auchincloss told Michael Segal, a member of the congregation, that he supported continued aid to Jordan.

One audience member announced "We feel abandoned. What do you say to the liberal Jews who are feeling lost?" Auchincloss told them to get involved in state and local politics, not just federal contests.

To a Newton-born U.S.-Israel dual citizen who said Auchincloss’s vote made her less safe, the congressman bristled: "I’m a United States member of Congress," implying that she was somehow suggesting he should put Israel first. "I want our ally Israel to be able to defend itself. Defend itself."

One audience member asked how Auchincloss proposed instead to deal with Iran and its nuclear threat. He did not answer. No one at all mentioned the pro-democracy protesters—30,000? 50,000?—murdered by the Iranian regime. No one asked what message the rest of the world, from Tehran to Taiwan, might draw from the suggestion that America would abandon Jerusalem.

One of the most telling moments in the evening came when the former vice chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Party, Tom Mountain, rose after Auchincloss’s initial remarks and attempted to offer a Republican response. He was ejected by a trio of security guards.

Not that long ago, if a Massachusetts Democratic member of Congress in a heavily Jewish district threw Israel under the bus, he might expect a public rebuke from a Republican politician such as Governor Mitt Romney or Governor Charlie Baker or Senator Scott Brown. Yet Massachusetts has become functionally a one-party state.

Instead of Republican-Democratic political competition, the main political action now consists of liberals versus progressives, the descendants of the Michael Dukakis-Ted Kennedy-Paul Tsongas Democratic Party against the radical teachers union communist-Hamasniks-Zohran Mamdani types. The moderates see a primary threat from the left as a much bigger danger than a challenge from a Republican. Everyone remembers Ayanna Pressley defeating Rep. Michael Capuano in a 2018 Democratic primary. Some of it is race- and gender-driven but a lot of it is ideological.

It took years after Vietnam for the Democrats to embrace the use of military force in Bosnia and Kosovo. Even then, during the Clinton years, the action against Al Qaeda was perfunctory enough that it was insufficient to avert the September 11, 2001 attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center.

Auchincloss offered up the analysis that the Iranian revolution "rests on the idea of martyrdom … They want to die." Better them than us. Observing the approach of congressional Democrats toward U.S. national security policy, you can see why Ayatollah Auchincloss is so perceptive about at least that particular dynamic.
Prominent Holocaust museum challenges Mamdani with offer in response to claims about 'genocide' in Gaza
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is yet to publicly respond to an invitation from a prominent Holocaust museum to visit in order to "truly understand" what "genocide looks like" as he faces criticism from the Jewish community for repeatedly using that label to describe the situation in Gaza.

"You keep using the word ‘genocide’ when talking about Israel," Jeff Miller, chair of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, posted on X on Friday, inviting Mamdani to visit the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.

"If you truly want to understand what genocide looks like, as Chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, I would be happy to personally arrange a tour of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for you."

Miller was responding to a post from the UJA-Federation of New York expressing grief over a pair of recent stabbings in New York City carried out by an attacker who allegedly yelled "Allahu Akbar" during the attacks. Authorities say one of the victims is Jewish, and the attack is being investigated as a hate crime.

Miller’s post went on to say that "words matter especially from elected leaders" and that "rhetoric that demonizes Israel and the Jewish state has consequences."

"I hope you are simply ignoring the impact of your words and not purposely trying to normalize antisemitism," Miller wrote. "My invitation is sincere. Come to the Museum. Learn what genocide actually means."

Fox News Digital reached out to Mamdani’s office multiple times inquiring whether the mayor intends to take Miller up on his offer but did not receive a response.
Mamdani ed-panel appointee accused Congress of ‘weaponizing’ Jew-hatred claims
One of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s appointees to the panel overseeing the nation’s largest public-school system signed a 2025 letter denying there was a “rampant crisis of antisemitism” on college campuses and accusing Congress of weaponizing Jew-hatred to advance a “far-right authoritarian attack on higher education.”

Madeline (“Maddy”) Fox is one of 13 members Mamdani appointed on Tuesday to the Panel for Educational Policy, which votes on major New York City public-school policies, contracts and regulations.

The panel is scheduled to hold its first meeting of the 2026-27 school year on Wednesday.

An associate professor of children and youth studies and sociology at Brooklyn College and a consortial faculty member in urban education at the CUNY Graduate Center, Fox was among the signatories of a July 2025 letter titled “Urgent Message from CUNY, Berkeley and Georgetown Jewish Faculty.”

The letter was published as the leaders of the City University of New York, Georgetown University and the University of California, Berkeley testified before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce during a hearing titled “Antisemitism in Higher Education: Examining the Role of Faculty, Funding and Ideology.”

“We write to affirm that there is no rampant crisis of antisemitism on our campuses, despite prolonged attempts by the current administration to persuade the public that there is one,” the open letter states.

It describes widespread scrutiny of campus antisemitism as “a campaign of repression and censorship” and “an Islamophobic and racist campaign against political dissent.”
Yehuda Teitelbaum: Mamdani’s Two-Tier Justice
When Zohran Mamdani announced the 18 people who would advise him on judicial appointments, City Hall said the committee reflected New York City. That would be a strange claim under any circumstances given that the committee apparently does not include a single Jew, but it becomes even harder to defend in a city with close to a million Jewish residents and one of the largest concentrations of Jewish lawyers, judges and legal professionals anywhere in the world.

Four Jewish legal organizations wrote to Mamdani objecting to the omission, and his office did not identify a Jewish member they had somehow overlooked. Instead, his spokesman pointed out that Mamdani had appointed Jewish judges elsewhere, which does nothing to answer the actual question of how a committee created to help shape the city’s judiciary could be described as representative of New York while excluding Jews entirely.

The explanation becomes even more insulting when you look at what happened to retired Justice John Leventhal, who had been recommended for the committee by New York’s chief judge. Leventhal served for 13 years on the Appellate Division, had already spent three years on the committee under Eric Adams and had the kind of experience that would normally make his appointment unremarkable.

But Mamdani rejected him, and the administration eventually said the reason was that Leventhal’s firm had represented Ghislaine Maxwell on appeal.

That excuse would be difficult to take seriously coming from any administration that claims to respect due process, but it is especially absurd coming from Mamdani’s administration because his own chief counsel, Ramzi Kassem, spent his career representing men accused of terrorism and other severe national security offenses. Kassem served as lead defense counsel for Ahmed al Darbi, an actual Al Qaeda member who pleaded guilty to charges connected to the bombing of the French oil tanker Limburg, an attack that killed a crew member and injured others.

Kassem’s work representing al Darbi was never treated as a stain on his career. It was presented as proof of his commitment to civil rights, due process and the principle that even the most hated defendant is entitled to legal representation, and that is exactly how it should have been treated because al Darbi was entitled to a lawyer and Kassem was entitled to represent him without being held personally responsible for his client’s crimes.

The problem is that the same principle suddenly disappears when the client is Ghislaine Maxwell.

Leventhal did not participate in Maxwell’s crimes, defend what she did or ask anyone to sympathize with her. His firm represented her during an appeal involving legal questions about her conviction, which is ordinary legal work in a system that is supposed to provide process even to people who are widely and justifiably despised.

Representing an Al Qaeda terrorist is celebrated as principled advocacy, or at the very least held up as an example of how our justice system is supposed to function, while representing a white woman accused of horrific crimes is apparently enough to get a respected former judge rejected from a judicial advisory committee. There is no serious legal principle that explains why one representation reflects honor and the other reflects moral contamination, but there is a very obvious ideological distinction running through the way this political movement talks about crime, punishment and responsibility.

Progressive criminal justice politics has trained people to evaluate a defendant according to where he sits in a hierarchy of power. When the defendant belongs to a group viewed as marginalized, the discussion immediately expands beyond the crime itself and turns toward discrimination, poverty, policing, immigration, trauma, American foreign policy and the failures of the system that supposedly produced him.


Stevens defends pro-Israel record as El-Sayed attacks AIPAC spending in Michigan Senate debate
Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) defended her support for Israel and her relationship with Michigan’s Jewish community during a Democratic U.S. Senate debate, as progressive challenger Abdul El-Sayed repeatedly accused pro-Israel groups of trying to buy influence and push the United States into “stupid wars.”

El-Sayed, a physician and former Wayne County health director, is challenging Stevens, a four-term congresswoman, for the Democratic nomination to succeed retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.). The winner will face former Rep. Mike Rogers, the leading Republican candidate, in a race viewed as important to both parties’ hopes of controlling the Senate.

The candidates clashed repeatedly over outside spending in the race. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee-affiliated super PAC, the United Democracy Project, has spent roughly $30 million supporting Stevens, its largest investment in a single race, according to reporting by the media-tracking firm AdImpact. Five additional super PACs that do not disclose their donors have collectively spent another $29.4 million on her behalf.

“When you’re bought off by DTE and Blue Cross and Big Pharma and Big Tech and AIPAC, don’t be surprised that there’s a quid pro quo that comes with that,” El-Sayed said during the televised debate hosted by Fox 2 Detroit. “That money doesn’t just fall off trees.”

El-Sayed argued the spending demonstrated that Stevens was beholden to pro-Israel donors, pointing to her vote against legislation that would have blocked additional U.S. aid to Israel.

“Just last week, our friend here voted to send $3.3 billion of your tax dollars to a foreign government,” El-Sayed said. “That is the pro quo that comes with the quid of $30 million spent by AIPAC.”

Stevens rejected the accusation, saying her views are based on her own convictions and noting that she supports a “two-state solution.”

“Absolutely not,” she said when asked whether outside spending would influence her decisions in the Senate. “I have been very clear, consistent and transparent.”

“I want to see long-term peace,” she added. “I want to see a two-state solution. I believe in a two-state solution.”
Abdul El-Sayed Headlined Luxury Fundraising Cruises for Islamic Charity Linked to Muslim Brotherhood
Left-wing Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed headlined a series of luxury yacht fundraisers for an Islamic nonprofit organization linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, a Washington Free Beacon review found. One of the events—which took place on "one of New York Harbor's most impressive private charter yachts"—featured a speaker who has urged Muslims to "stand with" Hamas and Hezbollah and stop "condemning antisemitism and condemning terrorism."

El-Sayed headlined four Islamic Relief USA (IRUSA) "Cruise for a Cause" events in Washington, D.C., Miami, Chicago, and New York City between March 23 and April 6, 2019, promotional flyers posted to social media show. The New York City soirée took place aboard the Nautical Empress, a "tri-level yacht" that hosts "high-end corporate event[s]" and features "space for up to 600 guests, full-service bars, elegant dining areas, and an open-air rooftop deck."

"Cruising past landmarks like the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Manhattan skyline, this tri-level yacht offers the perfect blend of luxury and iconic scenery," the boat's booking company boasts. "Make your next occasion a standout moment aboard one of New York Harbor's most impressive private charter yachts."

El-Sayed promoted the $100-a-head events on his Facebook page, writing that he was "proud to be joining Islamic Relief USA" for a "cruise" to "celebrate and help support their work." He spoke at the New York City and Washington, D.C., cruises alongside the Dearborn-based activist Amer Zahr, who expressed solidarity with Hamas and Hezbollah during a 2017 rally, telling residents of Dearborn, Mich., "whether it's called Hamas, whether it's called Hezbollah, we stand with everybody who stands against the Israeli occupation." Four years later, in a social media video, Zahr took aim at "all the activists and leaders out there that are condemning antisemitism and condemning terrorism right now," saying, "Stop it! Stop! You are not helping."

Former IRUSA East Coast operations manager Yousef Abdallah also promoted the New York City fundraiser on Facebook, writing, "Come enjoy a good company on a heated boat." In a since-deleted 2014 Facebook post, Abdallah said then-New Jersey governor Chris Christie (R.) "kneels down on his knees before the jewish lords and says 'I am sorry.' Only money makes stuff like this happen. … Muslims should remember this very well."

El-Sayed's participation in the cruises raises fresh questions about his ties to extremists as he faces off against Democratic congresswoman Haley Stevens in Michigan's August 4 primary.

The Israeli government sanctioned IRUSA's parent organization, Islamic Relief Worldwide, in 2014 over alleged support for Hamas. In 2024, the House Ways & Means Committee opened an investigation into both organizations' finances, noting that IRUSA supplies nearly one-third of Islamic Relief Worldwide's annual revenues, which it allegedly funnels to Hamas. In 2018, the House Oversight Committee dubbed IRUSA a "prime example" of the influence that the Muslim Brotherhood, a fundamentalist Islamist sect that formed Hamas in Gaza in 1988, has in the United States.

Though IRUSA has denied funding terrorist groups, its leaders' antisemitic rhetoric has fueled concerns about its extremism.
Abdul El-Sayed Discloses Rental Property in Dubai—and Outstanding Debt to Luxury Developer Behind ‘Resort-Style’ Community With ‘White Sandy Beaches’ in ‘New Dubai’
Left-wing Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who is running as a crusader for the working class, owns a rental property in Dubai, according to his latest financial disclosure. While the property's exact location is unknown, the disclosure provides a clue, listing an outstanding debt of as much as $100,000 to the luxury developer behind a "resort-style" community located in "the heart of New Dubai," complete with a "stunning lagoon and white sandy beaches."

El-Sayed released the disclosure on Monday afternoon, shortly before the final debate against his primary opponent, congresswoman Haley Stevens, who had criticized El-Sayed for requesting an extension allowing him to delay the disclosure until after the Aug. 4 election. El-Sayed said he did so because his "wife and her family own property abroad," making the disclosure "complicated" to complete.

Indeed, the disclosure lists "Rental Property 3," a "Single Family Home" in "Dubai, U.A.E.," adding to El-Sayed's rental properties in Ann Arbor, Mich. and Bangalore, India, which he disclosed in 2025. It also lists a liability of between $50,000 and $100,000 to a Dubai-based company, Majid Al Futtaim Tilal Al Ghaf Phase A LLC.

A subsidiary of the Emirati real estate conglomerate Majid Al Futtaim Holdings, the company was registered in 2018 to launch Tilal Al Ghaf, a gated community "nestled in the heart of new Dubai, with a stunning lagoon and white sandy beaches" that offers "luxury resort-style living with a fresh urban feeling," according to its promotional page. The community is separated into distinct "neighbourhoods" that include different types of homes, from "duplex townhouses" and "top-tier twin villas" to "bespoke mansions," including some that sit on a man-made island that provides private access to a lagoon the size of 18 football fields that runs throughout the community.


SCOOP: Anti-Israel Washington state human-rights commissioner appears to have term renewed
Han Tran, who has accused Israel of “genocide,” appears to have been renewed for another term on the Washington State Human Rights Commission, an official state panel.

Tran, whose term ran from June 2022 to June 2026 according to the commission website, was recorded participating in a July 23 commission meeting in a video that the state panel uploaded to YouTube on Monday.

The commissioner, who also serves as a member of the Northshore School Board, wrote in September 2025, while she was on the commission, that “it feels strange to speak about the Jewish Holocaust while Palestinians are being starved by Israel, bombed and denied the right to return home.” She added that “if the sins of the past were not left unresolved, we would not carry the debt owed to evil today.”

“Antisemitism was being instrumentalized to justify the slaughter of Palestinians,” Tran wrote. “Hurt people can hurt people.” She also accused Zionists of conflating “Israel, Zionism, Jews and Judaism as a shield to justify the ongoing displacement of Palestinians and military actions in Lebanon, Syria and Yemen.”

Tran also wrote that the phrase “‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ requires context,” and that, “in practice, achieving a Jewish-majority state required apartheid and occupation.”

On April 17, 2025, the commission adopted an antisemitism resolution, which Tran championed, that condemned Jew-hatred but stated that “criticism of Israeli policies, opposition to Zionism or advocacy for Palestinian human rights do not inherently constitute antisemitism.”

Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson is charged with appointing commissioners. (JNS sought comment from Tran, the governor’s office and the commission.)

Travis Couture, a Republican state representative, told JNS that “the Human Rights Commission exists to fight discrimination, not perpetuate it.”

“If the governor reappointed someone whose public statements undermine the commission’s impartiality or mission, he owes Washingtonians an explanation,” Couture said. “Antisemitism may be popular with socialists, but it doesn’t not belong in Washington state.”

Randy Kessler, executive director of StandWithUs Northwest, told JNS that the governor does not understand the connections between Jews and Israel.
Fierce backlash as Green-led Hackney Council votes to end Haifa twinning
Hackney’s Green-led council has voted to begin the controversial process of ending its decades-long twinning agreement with the Israeli city of Haifa, despite furious opposition from Labour and Conservative groups.

The decision, which some councillors condemned as “divisive” and “performative,” will see the council move, in principle, towards formally terminating the 1968 twinning agreement and all municipal ties with Haifa.

The de-twinning process has now begun BEFORE an equalities impact assessment has happened – and will include a period of engagement with interested parties.

With the Greens’ large majority, the proposal was always set pass at Tuesday evening’s meeting of full council.

The Mayor of Hackney will now write formally to the Mayor of Haifa to seek the municipality’s views on the proposal to terminate the twinning partnership.

Conservative Cllr Simche Steinberger sharply criticised the process when he addressed the chamber, saying: “To be quite frank, the only winner of all of this is going to be Haifa.

“To be honest, if I was Haifa, I’d be ashamed to twin with Hackney in such a current situation. It’s a disgrace, and it’s not asked for… You’ve not spoken to any of the six Jewish councillors about it. Nothing at all, nothing whatsoever.”


Toronto pro-Palestinian protesters march near Jewish care facility after kosher bakery shooting
A larger-than-usual crowd of pro-Palestinian activists gathered for the weekly demonstration on Sunday at the Bathurst Street and Sheppard Avenue West intersection in Toronto, resulting in heated verbal clashes, traffic disruptions, and heavy police intervention.

The demonstration unfolded after gunfire struck just hours earlier at a Jewish-owned bakery chain situated approximately 3.5 kilometers from the protest site. Both the bakery and the protest site sit within a corridor heavily populated by Jewish residents, synagogues, and local businesses.

During the demonstrations, pro-Palestinian activists participated in an impromptu march along Sheppard Avenue West that was halted by police managing the crowds outside local commercial office spaces and Baycrest, a Jewish senior care facility. Independent documentarians and commentators filming the scene captured local residents and passing bystanders expressing deep concern on camera, arguing that staging intense protests directly outside a senior care facility and healthcare infrastructure in a heavily Jewish neighborhood targeted vulnerable community members rather than serving a legitimate political destination.

Independent documentarian Caryma Sa'd shared footage on social media showing workers in scrubs gesturing their disapproval as protesters passed the nursing care facility, as well as police instructing demonstrators supporting Israel and opposing the Islamic Republic of Iran to stay on opposite sidewalks.

Protesters chanted: 'Death, death to the IDF'
Social media footage captured a participant wearing a t-shirt bearing text that read “FCK IDF” and “DEATH DEATH TO THE IDF!” worn by another. An activist named Daniela Bonamico led the chant "from the sea to the river Palestine will live forever" across police barriers.

Activists and counter-protesters displayed various flags, including Palestinian, Israeli, Iranian (both Islamic Republic and Lion and Sun), Lebanese, and Canadian flags, along with signs reading "Free Palestine, Stop the Genocide."

Toronto Police Service officers managed the crowds behind temporary metal barricades, enforcing restrictions tracing back to previous municipal police directives prohibiting protests from spilling into quiet residential pockets around Bathurst and Sheppard due to heightened community safety concerns


How Disproportionate Coverage Shapes the “Settler” Narrative in the West Bank
Every week, major news outlets worldwide publish stories around the purportedly most tense area of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the West Bank, also known as Judea and Samaria.

From international coverage alone, a glaringly lopsided picture is painted. One in which Jewish civilians living, or even merely visiting, anywhere in the West Bank are vigilantes, acting with impunity and attacking Palestinians.

There is already a misleading narrative about “settler violence,” one built on casualty statistics that blur terrorists with civilians. But a deeper issue has now become apparent, whereby “settler violence” itself has become a permanent framework through which stories about and from the West Bank are told, independent of actual trends and attempts to curb the violence.

Coverage of Attacks
There is no doubt that there are violent attacks, conducted by both Jewish Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank. But the extent to which the attacks are covered and used to build a broader narrative tells a larger story about how journalists selectively choose what to report on.

HonestReporting.ai Labs ran an analysis on 77 outlets with coverage of “settler violence” or “settler attacks” in the West Bank between January 1, 2026 and July 20, 2026. The same search was then done for the inverse of attacks – Palestinian terrorism on Israelis in the same window.

During the period examined, international outlets published 984 stories about “settler violence” in the West Bank. Over the same timeframe, the audit identified just nine genuine articles covering Palestinian attacks on Israelis in the West Bank, resulting in a 109:1 coverage disparity. Such a disparity inevitably shapes public understanding of the conflict, creating the impression that violence is coming only from one direction.

The coverage of “settler violence” in the West Bank nearly tripled from 71 stories in January to 235 in June, when coverage peaked. During the Israel-Iran war in March 2026, coverage saw its first peak, with 187 stories.

At the same time as the coverage increased in March, the Israeli government quietly began to curb violence by Jewish civilians in the West Bank. The result was that by mid-July, violence had decreased 25% in comparison to March. Yet despite the analysis being tracked only through July 20, the coverage was greater than in March, driven in large part due to Congressman Ro Khanna’s inconsistent claims that he was “detained” by “Israeli settlers” alongside the IDF.

The peaks thus are not a reflection of violence itself, further demonstrating how a narrative can dominate the news cycle, independent of facts.

Reality vs Coverage
Violence, by any perpetrator, should be condemned and reported proportionately. When journalists only focus on one side of the story, reality starts to slip away.

According to a report by Rescuers Without Borders (Hatzalah Judea and Samaria), since January 2026, through July 16, 2026, 140 Jewish civilians were injured in the West Bank region and one person was killed. In total, 441 incidents, including arson, stone throwing, and physical assault, were recorded. Shortly after the publication of the report, another two Israelis were murdered on July 24, and several other incidents of violence against Israelis were recorded.

These acts of violence seldom make it to the front page of the international media, distorting the reality and the real threat of terrorism coming from the West Bank.
Finalizing the PA’s Prisoner and “Martyr” Payments Reform
The prisoner and “martyr” payments reform is mired in disputes over both definitions and facts. The U.S. has the opportunity to resolve these by:
Accepting the PA’s standing offer to audit the reformed program, but also demanding that the audit’s scope be much broader (as IPF has previously suggested) to decisively confirm that the old program is over and not being continued by other means, whether through the PNEEI or some other workaround
Coordinating the terms and expectations of such an audit with Israel beforehand in an attempt to bring the American, Israeli, and PA definitions of the scope of the prisoner and “martyr” payments program—whether civil service jobs or pensions awarded under the old system count as “pay-to-slay” today, the eligibility of recipients of the old program who also qualify for the new need-based program, etc.—into alignment.

Such an approach could have secondary benefits, even if it does not result in full U.S.-Israeli alignment. A full PA budget audit would provide much-needed transparency on PA spending, something long demanded by Palestinian civil governance watchdogs which would also assist in broader anti-corruption efforts. Moreover, narrowing the scope of the dispute between Israel and the PA could have immediate benefits. The U.S. needs to fully verify a set of conditions under Taylor Force, including the end of the prisoner and “martyr” payments program, to remove the legal prohibition on several forms of funding to the PA.There is no guarantee that Congress would reappropriate aid even if these conditions were satisfied. Israel’s Freeze Law, on the other hand, withholds the PA’s clearance revenues in direct proportion to what Israel assesses the PA spent on the prisoner and “martyr” payment program in the previous year. Even in the negative scenario where a U.S. audit reveals that most, but not all, payments under the old system have stopped, Israeli reductions based on the Freeze Law would also drop significantly and more money would be transferred to the PA.

Resolving the status of the prisoner and “martyr” payments reform is a key step to restoring critical funding streams to the PA and reducing the multifaceted fiscal and economic crisis in the West Bank. That aligns with the Trump administration’s interest in stabilizing the Israeli-Palestinian arena so the U.S. can advance its plans for Gaza, maintain its campaign against Iran, and redouble efforts at regional integration. The alternative is to continue a confused and muddy public debate while the PA stagnates and the fate of a program both the U.S. and Israel invested significant effort in ending remains unclear. This would be a missed opportunity for mutually beneficial progress for the U.S., Israel, and Palestinians alike.
Former Navy SEAL, motivated by Jew-hatred, sentenced to 16 months for plan to bomb police in California
Gregory Vandenberg, a former U.S. Navy SEAL who was found to be motivated by Jew-hatred, was sentenced to 16 months in jail for planning to throw bombs at law enforcement securing protests in California, the U.S. Justice Department said.

The 49-year-old won’t be eligible for parole, since it is the federal system, the department said. He will have a year of supervised release after the prison term, it added.

Vandenberg was going from El Paso, Texas, to San Diego, Calif., on June 12, 2025 to attend a “No Kings Day” protest planned for June 14. In New Mexico, he bought “six large mortar fireworks, which are designed to shoot high into the air and explode, and 72 M-150 firecrackers, which are designed to sound like gunfire,” per court documents. He told a staff member at the store that he “intended to throw fireworks at police officers at the upcoming protests,” the Justice Department said. “He asked detailed questions about the amount of gunpowder in the fireworks, their explosive impact and their ability to harm others. He also discussed taping multiple fireworks together to increase their explosive force.”

He told the clerk that he cared only about the ability of the fireworks to explore and harm police, not the color or display.

Staff at the store, who were worried, took down his license plate and called police, according to the Justice Department.

Federal agents arrested him, as he slept in his car, at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz.

In Vandenberg’s car, officers found the fireworks he bought and “clothing displaying antisemitic, anti-Israel and extremist imagery, including a shirt bearing the al-Qaeda flag and another calling for the destruction of Judea.”
LA synagogue sues three anti-Israel groups for disrupting December event
Wilshire Boulevard Temple, a Reform congregation in the Koreatown neighborhood of Los Angeles and the city’s oldest synagogue, sued three anti-Israel organizations earlier in the month alleging that they coordinated disrupting a Dec. 3 event at the synagogue.

The disruption was part of what the July 10 complaint described as a “carefully conceived and coordinated attack on Jewish Angelenos and others.”

The synagogue told JNS that “demonstrators blocked access to the temple, threatened guests and damaged property.”

“The temple’s participation in this lawsuit reflects our ongoing commitment to maintaining a campus that is safe, welcoming and vibrant for all who come here to worship, learn, seek support and serve the greater community,” it said.

The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and the firm Covington and Burling filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on behalf of the synagogue and the Louis D. Brandeis Center Coalition to Combat Antisemitism, a separate entity that includes two attendees of the December event.

Four people are named as defendants in the suit, and 40 others are listed as unnamed defendants.

“Defendants agreed, conspired and coordinated on their plan to disrupt the symposium, including by unlawfully obstructing entrances to the temple, by intimidating symposium attendees, the temple’s community members and coalition members, by staggered disruption of the symposium and by destruction of the temple’s property,” the suit stated.
Twelve Torah scrolls stolen from Paris synagogue in suspected antisemitic burglary
Twelve Torah scrolls have been stolen from a synagogue near Paris in what Jewish leaders and local officials believe was a targeted antisemitic attack.

The burglary took place overnight on Sunday at the Grand Synagogue of Levallois, in the north-western suburbs of the French capital. Police have launched an investigation after two intruders allegedly broke into the building and escaped with the scrolls.

Rabbi Chalom Lellouche discovered the theft on Monday morning as he arrived to prepare for a bar mitzvah celebration. He alerted the Jewish Community Protection Service (SPCJ), which searched the synagogue before contacting police.

The investigation remains ongoing, and no arrests have been announced.

Levallois mayor Agnès Pottier-Dumas condemned the theft, saying the choice of what had been taken pointed to an antisemitic motive.

“It was with shock and anger that I learned this morning that the Jewish community of Levallois had been struck at what is most sacred and precious to it,” she said.

She added: “Whatever the motives of those who committed this sacrilegious act, which has profoundly shaken the Jewish community to its core, the antisemitic nature of this despicable crime must be denounced.”

The mayor noted that the thieves appeared to have deliberately taken only Torah scrolls while leaving behind other items of greater financial value.

“We also hope that these sacred scrolls, whose value is beyond measure, can be recovered. And for those who believe, we stand united in prayer with the Jewish community, wounded by this heinous act,” she said.
Israelis say they were attacked by anti-Israel mob who stormed their hotel in Crete
Israeli tourists said they were violently attacked near and inside their hotel on the Greek island of Crete early Sunday morning by assailants armed with sharp objects and rifles who shouted “Fuck Israel” and “Free Palestine,” leading them to fear for their lives.

The group of young Israelis was walking home from a party in the coastal town of Malia while singing in Hebrew at around 4 a.m., when the attackers began shouting the slogans at them, according to report by Israel’s National Center for Combating Antisemitism and channels 12 and 13.

“We yelled back at them, and there was an argument. We then got closer to the hotel, and suddenly we saw a bigger group arrive and that they had called more people over for backup,” Raz, 17, told Channel 12.

“They began to jump us and throw glass bottles. One of them got close to me and tried to break a bottle on my head, but luckily my friend stopped him,” he said.

The attackers pursued them into the hotel compound, armed with air rifles and sharp objects, where they began to search for Israeli and Jewish guests, the National Center statement said.

One Israeli suffered a head injury from being shot with an air gun, according to the statement.

The Israeli tourists locked themselves in their rooms, and “several youths reportedly sent distress and farewell messages to their families in Israel during the incident,” the statement read, adding that hotel staff tried to protect guests until police arrived.

“They had fire in their eyes,” Raz said. “There was only one guard at the entrance to the hotel, who couldn’t deal with them, and they just entered the hotel grounds and started looking for us, knocking on the rooms. There were other guys outside who threw glass bottles and fired air guns.”

Raz said it took a long time before authorities arrived to disperse the assailants.


Man with hammer arrested after entering Jewish camp in NYC, bumping child who was hospitalized with ‘minor lacerations to the head’
The New York City Police Department told JNS that officers arrested a man who entered a camp at the Jewish Institute of Queens in New York City with a hammer on Tuesday, and that it is investigating the incident as bias-related.

“A male chased a female into the location,” the NYPD told JNS. “He started acting erratic inside for a little bit, lays down and then when he’s running out of the location after that, that’s when he bumps the child.”

The 8-year-old received “minor lacerations to the head” and was hospitalized after hitting the fence, according to the department.

The NYPD told JNS that it is still investigating the motive.

The camp, Ohr Avner Day Camp, stated that the man “appeared to be mentally unwell” and entered the front yard of the campus “where campers were playing under the supervision of our staff.”

“The individual lay down on the ground and asked for a drink of water,” the camp stated. “Our staff immediately approached him in an effort to help, while ensuring that campers remained supervised and safe.”

The camp stated that the man “attempted to enter the building” and “in doing so, he pushed his way through several children.”

A staff member noticed that the man had a hammer, according to the camp. It called the incident “completely random” and said that there is no indication that the camp was targeted.


Cyera to acquire Israeli AI startup Oasis Security in $1 billion deal
Israeli-founded data security unicorn Cyera announced on Tuesday that it has agreed to buy local cybersecurity startup Oasis Security in a deal valued at $1 billion.

Cyera said the acquisition will bolster its data security platform by integrating data protection with Oasis’s technology for managing and securing non-human identities, as companies rapidly integrate artificial intelligence agents and autonomous tools into existing software systems and workflows, which increases data leakage and other risks.

Founded in 2022 by Danny Brickman, CEO, and Amit Zimerman, CPO, both veterans of Unit 81 — the Israel Defense Force Intelligence Corps’ Technological Unit that supplies cutting-edge technologies to the security establishment — Oasis was created to build a software platform for managing and securing machine identities.

The platform helps companies discover, manage and control access to their systems from non-human accounts, such as AI agents, as non-human identities will soon outnumber human users, the startup said.

Backed by large venture capital funds Accel, Cyberstarts, Sequoia Capital and Craft Ventures, Oasis has raised more than $195 million in funds to date.

“From day one, we recognized that non-human identities would become one of the key security challenges of the AI ​​era,” said Brickman. “While Cyera redefined data security, we redefined identity governance for the AI ​​age.”

Businesses adopt agentic AI or virtual AI agents into their work processes that act similarly to smart assistants, using reasoning to make real-time decisions and complete complex tasks, such as collating and analyzing vast amounts of data, but with minimal human input.

As part of day-to-day workflows, autonomous AI agents execute commands, modify files and access sensitive company data often without governance, oversight, or identity management. The number of non-human identities among Fortune 500 companies has surged by 480 percent in the last six months alone, Cyera said.

“The old security model was built for humans, not machines, and AI agents are breaking whatever access controls are left,” said Cyera founder Yotam Segev. “The AI ​​era is transforming how organizations protect their data as AI agents are arriving faster than teams can govern them.”

Cyera was founded in 2021 by Segev, CEO, and Tamar Bar-Ilan, CTO, who met during their Israeli army service, during which they built and ran the cloud security division for the IDF’s unit 8200.
Israeli hospital becomes first outside the US to partner with OpenAI on health tech
Israel’s largest hospital has become the first outside the United States to partner with one of the world’s foremost AI companies, giving it access to healthcare technology specifically designed to help doctors planning treatments.

As reported by Calcalist, Sheba Medical Centre in Ramat Gan has signed a deal with OpenAI, which will give the hospital’s doctors access to the tech company’s cutting edge AI healthcare models. Specialists will be able to provide information about specific cases and receive advice which takes into account a wide range of medical literature, journal studies and citations, designed to enable them to make the most effective decisions for the benefit of their patients.

Open AI for Healthcare and ChatGPT Health were both launched in January, and are currently only available at a small number of American hospitals.

The deal was signed between Sheba’s innovation arm, ARC, and OpenAI’s head of health, Nate Gross, according to Calcalist. ARC was set up in 2019 by Sheba to advance the hospital’s digital medical innovation, and was specifically designed to work with tech start-ups in a healthcare setting.

Prof. Eyal Zimlichman, Chief Innovation and AI Officer at Sheba and founder and director of ARC, said: “We are not just implementing AI in medicine but building a fully AI-powered hospital, and providing secure access to the world’s most advanced AI is a decisive step in that transformation.

“Physicians, nurses, and researchers at Sheba will now have a powerful clinical reasoning tool at their fingertips, one that surfaces the best available evidence in seconds, reduces administrative burden and burnout, and frees clinicians to focus on what matters most: their patients.”

OpenAI described how “we are excited to collaborate with Sheba to make advanced AI capabilities available to doctors, researchers, and healthcare professionals. The healthcare system is one of the fields where artificial intelligence can have the greatest impact.”

Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs described how, thanks to the deal, “Israeli doctors and researchers will help shape the next generation of AI-powered healthcare.

“The future of AI in medicine is being shaped in Israel.”


‘He loved Israel’: Lindsey Graham eulogized by Trump and other dignitaries at DC funeral
US President Donald Trump eulogized Republican Senator Lindsey Graham on Tuesday as a fixture of national politics and unflinching foreign policy hawk, as the leaders of Israel and Ukraine joined Washington’s most powerful at his funeral.

Earlier in the day, lawmakers paid tribute at the Capitol Rotunda, remembering one of the last prominent Republicans to advocate for muscular US military power abroad as gregarious, funny and persuasive.

“He was extremely hawkish — he never saw a war that he didn’t like,” Trump said. “Nothing of significance happened anywhere in the world without Lindsey Graham having a view on it.”

Graham denounced Trump early in his political career before becoming a staunch supporter, and Trump mourned his fellow Republican as both a favorite golfing buddy and an essential confidant in navigating partisan politics in Washington.

Graham, a South Carolina Republican who died suddenly from a heart ailment on July 11 at age 71, regularly called for an interventionist US role on the world stage. He strongly backed both Israel and Ukraine, and both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky traveled to Washington to pay tribute on Tuesday.

Fox News’ Sean Hannity, in his remarks, said Graham would have been moved that both Netanyahu and Zelensky made the long journeys to attend.

“He [Graham] loved you, he loved the State of Israel, he loved the people of Israel,” Hannity said, addressing Netanyahu. “Under your leadership, Israel has been one of America’s most consistent and loyal allies. He was never shy to say it, to the day he passed.”

“Just as President Trump has been Israel’s strongest friend in the history of the White House… Lindsey was that friend to Israel in the United States Senate,” added Hannity.


travelingisrael.com: How to Plan the Perfect Israel Trip (The 50-25-25 Blueprint)
Planning a trip to Israel and don’t know where to start? Licensed Israeli tour guides Oren and Sagi break down everything you need to know to design a stress-free, deeply personal journey.

Whether you’re planning a family Bar Mitzvah tour, a Christian pilgrimage, or your first trip to the Holy Land, this video covers:

The 50-25-25 Itinerary Formula: How to divide your time between Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and the Galilee or Negev Desert.

Off-the-Beaten-Path Experiences: Tel Aviv street art and market tours, Golan Heights geopolitics jeep tours, Druze hospitality, and Negev sand-skiing.

Nighttime Jerusalem: Exploring ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods and late-night visits to the Western Wall.





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

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

    

 

 



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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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