Friday, July 31, 2026

07/30 Links Pt2: The tragic Israel wedge; The Islamists’ Long March; Israel is real, Unlike Palestine; Israel reports all-time high of $169 billion in 2025 exports

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: The tragic Israel wedge
Some liberal Jews still refuse to acknowledge this. The rise in Jew-hatred, they say, has been caused by the policies of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the extremist members of his coalition.

Many British Jews, under siege from the largest rise in Jew-hatred in the world last year, similarly blame Israel for their plight.

Seeking scapegoats to avoid the reality that’s staring them in the face, such myopic Jews ignore the steady rise in Jew-hatred that’s occurred over the past several decades in lockstep with the radicalization of the left and the increasing dominance of “Palestinian” propaganda.

The most agonized Jews, however, are those liberal progressives who had the ground on which they stand knocked away from underneath them by the atrocities of the Hamas-led onslaught against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Unable to deny that their own side had sanitized and supported the Palestinian Arabs, who revealed themselves on that terrible day to be depraved and psychopathic savages, they still cling to many of the delusional lies and distortions of the progressive mindset that cast Israel as the villain of the region.

Now, however, they are being presented with a choice they can’t ignore. To be accepted as New Yorkers, Jews are being expected to denounce Israel and renounce Zionism.

Buchdahl got the point. She told Mamdani: “You continue to divide Jews into those whose politics you deem acceptable and Zionists whom you cast beyond the pale.”

America is now following down a very hard road trodden by British Jews for more than two decades.

Even while Israelis were being blown to kingdom come in the Second Intifada, the Israel Defense Forces were being called “Nazis” in Britain for trying to destroy the terrorist infrastructure in the “West Bank.” And British Jews were accordingly presented with an ultimatum: If you don’t denounce Israel, then you aren’t to be considered fully British.

Today, the Israel wedge is also being used to marginalize Jews in New York by splitting them off from mainstream society. But it’s also splitting progressive Jews down the middle. An anguished debate is now taking place among them about the relationship between Zionism and Judaism.
The Islamists’ Long March By Abe Greenwald
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What virtually no one expected was for Islamists to exploit American freedoms (and the Constitution’s qualifications clauses) simply to work their way up the political ladder. Many warned of “creeping Sharia” in those days, but none warned of creeping democracy. I don’t even think the Islamists themselves believed that was a plausible way forward in the first decade of this century.

Here’s what changed: We won the War on Terror.

Critics of that war used to say that you couldn’t wage war on a tactic. But that’s exactly what the U.S. did—and with great success. We rolled back terrorist plots, deposed terror-supporting regimes, killed jihadist leaders, and fortified our country in countless ways. For a quarter of a century, there hasn’t been another jihadist attack on America anywhere near the scale of 9/11. We deprived the Islamists of what had been their most effective weapon. But while the U.S. had successfully guarded the backdoor, they walked through the main entrance.

To paraphrase Clausewitz, terrorism is the continuation of politics by other means. But for radical Muslims targeting the U.S., it became a dead end. So they turned to politics properly understood. This required a multipronged approach including stepped-up foreign investment in American academia, coordination with international NGOs and well-funded activist networks, and a flood-the-zone social media blitz promoting anti-American and anti-Israel propaganda. Taken together, these created the favorable conditions for an Islamist presence in the American public square and a viable shot at electoral politics. The American left bought it all and was happy to throw down that ladder for the Islamists to climb. And so the effort commandeered multiple movements and institutions and yielded both electable candidates and their constituents.

Everything was in place by October 7, 2023. From that day to this one, the left’s operators would corral anti-Israel animus, put it in the service of one Islamist candidate after another, and charge the voting booths. Instead of waging deadly attacks on government buildings, Islamists are now seeking (and attaining) positions inside them.
Israel: The World's Heroic Scapegoat
Israel is continually falsely accused -- often by countries committing enormous war crimes -- of being a "settler-colonialist" nation, of practicing apartheid, and of genocide against Palestinians. It is excoriated in the United Nations, in European parliaments, by the international media, and by so-called human rights groups. None of the allegations against it are true. They cannot even be substantiated with facts or evidence. Not that this matters much to those determined to express their Jew-hate, even if under the guise of "social justice" or other fatuous constructs.

It was betrayed even before the start by Britain, which, at the 1921 Cairo Conference, divided the territory of the Mandate for Palestine in two: 22% for the Jews and 78% for the Hashemite kingdom of King Abdullah (now Jordan).

According to Jonathan Tobin, "[Vance] warned them that they had no recourse but to accept whatever Trump did..." It is a blessing that we have all had a chance to see who he is now, along with his disastrous Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding with Iran, rather than just before a possible run for president in 2028.

Israel is a sovereign nation, entitled to defend its borders and people without permission from anyone.

Yesterday, Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, DC. It will be interesting to see what these two undauntable leaders are cooking up.

In its short history, Israel has shown itself to be beyond heroic in defending civilization and the West. Netanyahu has duly earned the title "the Churchill of the Middle East." Israel's cowardly detractors, some of whom refused even to let the US use their airbases for strikes against Iran, whose ballistic missiles threaten them, should take the back seat they deserve and pipe down. It is time for the disparagement to stop.


Israel is real Unlike Palestine
Israel is real like no other nation is real, not only with millennia of vividly documented history, but with a sacred national story that went global and has lost none of its symbolic power (just ask Jordan Peterson): slavery in Egypt, the Passover and the Exodus, Moses and the commandments, Babylon and back again – a spiritual epic unrivalled in the annals of humanity which continues to shape the human soul. For in the words of the second Joshua (as in Yeshua, as in Jesus – the one you can’t exhume), ‘Salvation is from the Jews’.

Palestine is the least real nation on the planet, a notion wrapped in an anachronism inside an ideology: a name and a place that perished with its Philistine namesakes 2,600 years ago when the Assyrians obliterated the towns around Gaza. Since then, the name of Israel’s foe has been wielded by enemies of the Jews, from Imperial Rome to Islamist Ramallah.

First in 135 AD, when Emperor Hadrian crushed a Jewish revolt and culturally cleansed the province of Judea by renaming it for their ancient enemy, Palestine. After Rome fell, the contemptuous place name largely faded from history; for example, there is no mention of Palestine in the entire Koran, dating to the 7th century – an awkward fact for Palestinian erasers of Israel. Hadrian’s anti-Semitic descriptor lay in the dust for seventeen centuries until Arab nationalists picked it up in the 1890s for the purpose of resisting Zionism.

Their newly fashionable label persisted under the 1920 ‘British Mandate for Palestine’ and so did the resistance: five Arab states waged war on Israel in 1948 after the United Nation’s partition of Palestine into a Jewish homeland to the west and an Arab homeland to the east.

Had the earlier British Mandate partition been embraced, there would have been a two-state solution in place for a century now, since Jordan was to be the new Arab Palestine.

Instead, the world’s oldest hatred rages, the world’s one indispensable nation resists, and the notion of Palestine remains little more than an Islamo-Marxist plot. A plot where our Prime Minster and his western Sydney MPs feel right at home.
Senior US official pressured Oct. 7 victims to drop restitution case, lawsuit says
A senior US government official has pressured the families of victims of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, terror invasion to drop a lawsuit against a prominent Palestinian-American businessman who is accused of allowing the terror group to use his properties, according to a court filing last month.

The businessman, Bashar Masri, denies all allegations of wrongdoing.

The claim was made in an amended complaint filed in the case last month. The amended complaint did not indicate that any of the plaintiffs had dropped the case.

The lawsuit, filed last year, argued that Hamas deceived Israel ahead of the invasion by feigning an interest in developing Gaza, and claimed that Masri and his companies were “an integral part of that grand deception.”

“They owned and operated flagship properties in Gaza that they knowingly and deliberately integrated into Hamas’s terrorist infrastructure and that were crucial elements in Hamas’s attack plan on October 7,” the lawsuit said.

The plaintiffs were around 200 American victims of the October 7 attack and their family members, including the families of slain hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin and Itay Chen, Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the US, whose son was killed in Gaza in November 2023, and prominent Israeli entrepreneur Eyal Waldman, whose daughter was killed on October 7.

Waldman used to be a close friend of Masri’s, with the pair’s friendship seen as a model in Israeli-Palestinian bridgebuilding. But Waldman now holds Masri partially responsible for his daughter’s death and has pledged to “ruin him.”

The lawsuit did not say that Masri knew about the October 7 attack, and admitted that some of his development projects appeared to be legitimate, but it did claim that he was aware that Hamas was using his properties for military purposes.

Some of the projects were used to build and hide Hamas tunnels, store rockets, host Hamas leaders, train Hamas operatives and produce electricity for Hamas tunnels, the case claimed.

Masri had contracts with the US government and often corresponded with US government officials about his development projects, an amended complaint in the lawsuit said.

The amended complaint filed last month said that Masri used those connections in an attempt to dissuade the plaintiffs from the lawsuit.
Palestinians ask US Supreme Court to halt $656m payment pending restitution case appeal
Palestinian authorities asked the US Supreme Court on Thursday to halt for now a $656 million judgment in a long-running lawsuit filed by Americans killed or wounded in attacks in Israel.

The emergency appeal comes after a lower court reinstated the damages in the wake of a Supreme Court decision that followed more than two decades of litigation.

The Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority said in court documents that paying the hefty judgment now would “destabilize critical government services Petitioners provide in the West Bank, injure innocent citizens, and jeopardize regional security.”

They asked the justices to pause payment as they appeal the reinstatement of the verdict. Ramallah has been warning about the impending collapse of the Palestinian economy amid mounting Israeli restrictions.

The lawsuit was filed by victims of attacks in Jerusalem in the early 2000s that killed 33 people and wounded hundreds more. Families brought their lawsuit under the Anti-Terrorism Act, a law aimed at opening US courts to victims of international terror attacks.

A federal court in New York tossed the original verdict on appeal and continued to rule in favor of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority as Congress revised the law to allow suits to go forward. In 2025, the Supreme Court sided with the families and revived the lawsuits.

The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to reinstate the verdict in March. Attorneys for the plaintiffs said at the time that the families were pleased and relieved by the decision, saying it would allow “justice to be done.”
Heritage Foundation under fire over new allegations of antisemitic culture
Nine months after the Heritage Foundation came under fire for defending Tucker Carlson’s friendly interview with a neo-Nazi, the conservative think tank is facing fresh scrutiny over accusations that it has enabled an extreme culture in which new hires feel free to question the Holocaust and to engage in historically revisionist debates about World War II, with no apparent internal policing from leadership.

Former Heritage employees, who had been part of a mass staff exodus stoked by its president’s refusal to disavow Carlson for hosting the neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes on his podcast last October, told The New York Times Magazine in a newly published investigation that they encountered troubling debates during their time at the organization over issues like “whether the Holocaust happened or not” and “who was the bad guy and who were the good guys” in the war against Hitler.

Andrew Hale, a trade policy analyst at Heritage who left in January to join a rival think tank launched by former Vice President Mike Pence, recalled that prior to departing he had found new hires were fixated on antisemitic conspiracy theories about the Holocaust and Israel of the sort popularized by Fuentes, Carlson and Candace Owens, the extreme-right podcast host.

Hale confirmed to Jewish Insider in an interview on Wednesday that new, particularly younger, staffers at Heritage “openly said things which were antisemitic, whether they realized it or not,” crediting their views to an obsession with far-right social media channels.

“The Heritage Foundation had an opportunity to combat antisemitism and misogyny but instead they chose to hire people with these views,” Hale argued, while claiming that the think tank’s “original goals have been subverted under the current leadership” and is now “a force for antisemitism and misogyny.”
Boy George pulls out of stage show over Israel stoush
Boy George has withdrawn from his scheduled appearance in Jesus Christ Superstar over pro-Israel controversy.

The Culture Club singer, 65, had been due to play King Herod in August as part of the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice rock opera, in which the role is shared by a number of guest performers.

But his withdrawal from the project was announced by his manager Paul Kemsley on Thursday at the London Palladium just days before he was due to begin performances, with his management confirming the decision follows controversy surrounding his recently released pro-Israel song, We Will Dance Again.

The development comes after the release of We Will Dance Again, a song addressing the October 7 Hamas attacks and the war in Gaza, which has prompted criticism online.

Kemsley said on Instagram: "After careful consideration, I have decided, in my capacity as Boy George's manager, that he will no longer be appearing in Jesus Christ Superstar at the London Palladium.

"The decision has been made with the utmost respect for the producers, the creative team and the entire company. We are grateful for the professionalism and understanding they have shown throughout and sincerely wish everyone involved every success with the production."

Kemsley apologised to those who had bought tickets to see Boy George perform.


Boy George defies anti-Israel mob with ‘humanity over hatred’ message
News24 host Chris Kenny praises Boy George for releasing a pro-Israel song, declaring the singer is “just so right” for pushing back against “lies against Israel”.

“Let me show you an inspiring example of principle over fashion, of humanity over hatred, and it comes from what some might see as an unlikely source,” Mr Kenny said.

“You know him as Boy George, the androgynous British performer with the beautiful voice who came to fame fronting Culture Club in the 1980s. He experienced success and fame, then went through hard times with drugs and charges.

“Now he's committed his views to music, releasing a new song on social media, a song that is strong on facts and humanity, and pushes back against the zeitgeist of lies against Israel.

“Now Boy George is right. He is just so right, singing just what the world needs to hear. It should not take bravery to behave like a human.”


Batya Ungar-Sargon Explains the Political Shift No One Saw Coming
American Jews are facing an unprecedented crisis of antisemitism but according to JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin, that’s just part of the problem. What’s also wrong is that the majority of American Jews who identify as politically liberal, don’t seem to understand that continuing to support a party and a movement that spreads blood libels about them and defines them as “white” oppressors is, at best, self-sabotage and, at worst, suicidal.

He’s joined in this week’s episode of Think Twice by journalist Batya Ungar-Sargon, author of the new book, The Jews and the Left. Ungar-Sargon argues that a principal reason why Jewish liberals were unprepared for the post-Oct. 7 surge of antisemitism and seemingly unwilling to draw conclusions about it is that they fundamentally misunderstand their place in America. From the beginning of the American republic, Jews have always been equal partners and not a tolerated and discriminated-against minority.

In her book, she makes the case that American exceptionalism is real and that the belief that Jews were, like racial minorities, among the oppressed, is wrong. Jews found themselves on the political left in the mid-20th century because Democrats supported the rights of labor, civil rights, and were associated with the war against the Nazis. But in the 21st century, the Democrats are no longer, she says, the party of the working class, but rather of the credentialed elites. What’s worse, the woke hijacking of the party has led to a situation where the reigning orthodoxy on the left puts Jews and Israel in the intersectional cross-hairs. That is why after the atrocities of Oct. 7, 2023, the American left which now dominates the Democrats took sides against Israel and was ready to tolerate and even encourage Jew-hatred.

Ungar-Sargon believes that the response to this crisis on the part of liberal Jewish organizations that make up the Jewish establishment is not merely inadequate; it’s wrongheaded since it counsels Jewish students to “shelter in place” and not resist the antisemitic mobs. She also believes the continuing refusal of Jewish liberals to join forces with the majority of Americans—largely on the right—who oppose the Jew-haters on both the left and the right. Jews must, she believes, “get off their knees and fight.”


“I’m Exposing EVERYONE!” Egyptian Dissident Has Dark Warning For Islamic World
She fled Egypt after October 7. Now she's helping shape the fight against the ideology that forced her into exile. Dalia Ziada joins Fleur Hassan-Nahoum from the CUFI Summit in Washington to discuss her remarkable journey from being targeted by the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt to advising policymakers in the United States on the growing threat of radical Islamism. She explains how anti-Israel activism, antisemitism and anti-Western movements are interconnected, why Israel has become the frontline defender of liberal democracy and how the balance of power in the Middle East is shifting after the war with Iran. Dalia also offers a rare insider's perspective on Saudi Arabia, the Gulf states, Iran's future and why she believes Israel is emerging as the region's indispensable strategic power. If you want to understand where the Middle East is heading and why the battle is about far more than Israel alone this is a conversation you won't want to miss.


Court backflips on alleged anti-Israel vid
Video evidence once deemed inadmissable has been reinstated as two nurses accused of making hateful statements towards Israeli patents near trial.

Sarah Abu Lebdeh, 27, and Ahmad Rashad Nadir, 28, drew online ire after a video of the duo was leaked last February by an Israeli activist.

Police alleged Ms Abu Lebdeh and Mr Nadir, in the video, threatened violence against Israeli patients at Bankstown Hospital, in Sydney’s west, where the pair worked as nurses.

The pair were charged with using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend, with Ms Abu Lebdeh also charged with threatening violence to a group.

Both have pleaded not guilty to all charges.

In June, a NSW court ruled the video was inadmissable and would be excluded from trial as it was taken without consent.

The video was a recorded snippet from an online chatroom.

“Ultimately, I have come to the firm view that all the video evidence must be excluded from each of the trials of the applicants,” Judge Michael McHugh said at the ruling.

“(Evidence obtained illegally should only be allowed if) the desirability of admission outweighs the undesirability of admitting evidence that has been obtained in such a way or ways.”

In NSW, it is illegal to record a “private conversation” or activity without the consent of the parties involved. The crime carries a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment if convicted.

Following Judge McHugh’s ruling, the Commonwealth Department of Public Prosecutions appealed the decision to exclude the evidence.

On Friday, the NSW Supreme Court set aside Judge McHugh’s decision, instead ruling the “unedited audio visual” evidence was admissible and can be used at trial.


Anti-Israel activist launches bid to unseat pro-Israel Maryland congressman
Anti-Israel activist and writer Osama (“Sam”) Husseini has formed an exploratory committee for a congressional campaign challenging Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.) in Maryland’s 4th Congressional District.

“I hope to make a decision soon,” Husseini, a Palestinian-Jordanian-American, wrote in announcing the committee’s formation. He secured the Green Party’s nomination for the race earlier this month.

Husseini serves as senior analyst and communications director for the Institute for Public Accuracy, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit that promotes progressive voices as expert sources for journalists. He previously worked with the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

In January 2025, Husseini was forcibly removed from the U.S. State Department briefing room during then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s final press conference after repeatedly interrupting Blinken’s remarks and questioning U.S. policy toward Israel and the war in Gaza. As security officers escorted him out, Husseini shouted, “Criminal! Why aren’t you in The Hague?” in reference to the International Criminal Court, which is based in The Hague, Netherlands.

Husseini has referred to Ivey, a two-term congressman, as “AIPAC Ivey,” writing that the congressman “loves going to imperial Israel” and criticizing his support for U.S. military aid to Israel, which Husseini claims furthers the “continuation of Israel’s genocidal campaign.”


‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ star Patricia Heaton backs calls to ban Mayor Zohran Mamdani from 9/11 anniversary in NYC
Actress Patricia Heaton, who was in New York City during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, joined families of the victims in calling for Mayor Zohran Mamdani to be banned from the 25th anniversary at Ground Zero.

The “Everybody Loves Raymond” star, 68, backed the petition organized by families of 9/11 victims, which has amassed almost 45,000 signatures as of Wednesday, to her more than 500,000 followers on X.

“Keep it going New Yorkers,” the conservative actress applauded on Monday, while reposting the Change.org petition link.

Heaton’s post included a screenshot of a comment left on the petition by a family member who lost their brother in the terror attacks.

“I am incensed that a terrorist excuser is now Mayor, and outspoken sympathizer for terrorist perpetrators,” the comment said.

“He is disqualified from attending the 9/11 remembrance ceremony and ought to be barred.”


Abbott readmitted to the Labour Party after antisemitism row suspension
Diane Abbott has been readmitted to the Labour Party following an internal investigation, the veteran MP has said.

It follows an independent investigation into Abbott’s suspension from the the party after she defended comments claiming Jewish people do not experience racism but “prejudice”.

The one year long probe has now concluded and recommended she be readmitted to the party, Jewish News has learned.

The 72-year-old Labour veteran and MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington was suspended for the second time in July last year after saying she did not regret remarks in which she claimed Jewish people do not experience racism but are instead subjected to “prejudice”.

The investigation, which was outsourced following changes to Labour’s disciplinary procedures recommended by the equalities watchdog the EHRC, who handed its findings to Labour’s chief whip.

It is understood the investigation suggested Abbott should be readmitted to the party, but that she should receive a formal warning and be warned not to repeat offensive remarks.


Football antisemitism reports soar 43% as Maccabi GB calls for stronger action
Antisemitism reports in football have risen by 43 percent to a record high, prompting Maccabi GB to call for stronger action to protect Jewish players, supporters and staff.

New figures published by anti-discrimination charity Kick It Out show 93 reports of antisemitism were made during the 2025/26 season – the highest number since records began. Reports of antisemitism in grassroots football also reached a record level.

Across the game, Kick It Out received 1,744 reports of discrimination during the season, a 25 percent increase on the previous year.

Responding to the figures, Maccabi GB chief executive Ashley Lerner said the rise showed why tackling antisemitism must remain a priority across football.

“Every incident of discrimination and every report received is a matter of deep concern. Antisemitism, racism, Islamophobia, homophobia, sexism, ableism and every other form of prejudice have no place in football or wider sport. They must be challenged consistently and eradicated from the game.

“The 43 percent rise in reports of antisemitism is particularly alarming and demonstrates why sustained education is essential. Antisemitism is not always properly recognised or understood, and people must be given the knowledge and confidence to identify it, challenge it and report it when it occurs.”

Lerner highlighted Maccabi GB’s Tackling Antisemitism in Sport programme, launched in partnership with Lord Mann and the Office of HM Government’s Independent Adviser on Antisemitism, as part of the charity’s work to improve understanding of antisemitism across the game.
Rat post was ‘self-harming’ and ‘gave people a chance to have a pop at me’, says Gary Lineker
Gary Lineker has said he was “annoyed” at himself for sharing a post about Zionism that included an image of a rat last year because it gave people the "chance to have a pop” at him.

The former footballer and Match of the Day presenter had reposted a social media post titled “Zionism explained in less than 2 mins” in May 2025, alongside an image of the rodent.

At the time, Jewish staff at the BBC were reportedly “disgusted” by his repost, for which he subsequently apologised. “I would never knowingly share anything antisemitic. It goes against everything I believe in,” he said.

The Board of Deputies rejected the apology as “empty and belated,” and said Lineker’s “use of social media has been unacceptable for too long”.


Met Police warns of arrests at protest supporting terror org Palestine Action
People planning to attend an upcoming protest backing the anti-Israel group Palestine Action could be arrested for expressing support for the group, the Metropolitan Police Service in London warned on Wednesday.

The United Kingdom government proscribed Palestine Action as a terrorist organization in June 2025, and the Court of Appeal upheld the proscription in July 2026.

Police stated that the activist group Defend Our Juries plans to hold a protest on Thursday in support of Palestine Action outside Westminster Magistrates’ Court, where proceedings had been scheduled for those accused of expressing support for the group before being postponed.


Hackney mayor sorry for ‘staggeringly insensitive’ 7 October consultation deadline
Hackney Mayor Zoë Garbett has apologised after setting 7 October as the deadline for the Israeli city of Haifa to respond to plans to end its 58-year twinning agreement with the London borough.

In a second letter sent to Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav on Thursday, Garbett extended the consultation deadline to 14 October, admitting that selecting the anniversary of the Hamas attacks had been “a deeply regretful oversight”.

The move follows widespread criticism from Jewish organisations after Garbett’s original letter, sent a day after Hackney Council voted in principle to end the twinning arrangement, asked Haifa to submit its views “by 7 October 2026”.

Jewish News has made a Freedom Of Information request to the council to view all emails, Whatsapp messages an other electronic communication between council workers related to the decision to select 7 October as the deadline date.

In her latest letter, first obtained by the Hackney Citizen, Garbett wrote: “I am aware that 7 October marks the anniversary of the horrific Hamas terrorist attacks, a day that carries profound grief and distress for many.


Woman charged after eggs allegedly thrown at pro-Israel protesters outside Hackney Town Hall
A 65-year-old woman has been charged after eggs were allegedly thrown at pro-Israel protesters outside Hackney Town Hall during a demonstration over plans to end the borough’s twinning agreement with the Israeli city of Haifa.

In a statement, the Metropolitan Police said: “At around 18:45hrs on Tuesday, 28 July, officers in attendance at a protest outside Hackney Town Hall on Mare Street, E8, arrested a 65-year-old woman on suspicion of assault and an offence under Section 5 of the Public Order Act. It followed reports that eggs had been thrown at a number of individuals.”

The force said that on Wednesday, Chiara Lauvergnac, 65, of Harrowgate Road, Hackney, was charged with three counts of assault by beating and one count of using threatening and abusive words and behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm and distress.

She has been bailed to appear at Thames Magistrates’ Court on 27 August.

The incident happened outside Hackney Town Hall after councillors voted to begin the formal process of ending the borough’s 58-year twinning agreement with the Israeli city of Haifa.

Members of the anti-antisemitism campaign group Our Fight had gathered to oppose the Green-led council’s decision, while pro-Palestinian demonstrators also assembled outside the meeting.


Canada just 'one intelligence failure away from a mass casualty event' after a deadly year for Jews: report
Antisemitic attacks have reached their deadliest level in more than thirty years, according to an annual report on antisemitism in major Jewish diaspora regions around the world.

In 2025, a combined twenty people were murdered in antisemitic attacks: in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. A record number — since the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association, when 84 people were killed.

On May 21, 2025, a gunman killed two young employees of Israel’s U.S. embassy outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. The next month, an 82-year-old woman was killed in Boulder, Colo., when Molotov cocktails were thrown at a group of people demonstrating in support of Israeli hostages. Two people were killed in an attack on a synagogue in Manchester, U.K., on Oct. 2, during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. On Dec. 14, two gunmen killed 15 people at a Hanukkah event at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia.

While no Canadians were killed in antisemitic attacks last year, Jews were targeted in 71 per cent of religious hate crimes in the country, according to recent data from Statistics Canada.

“Canada remains one intelligence failure away from a mass casualty event, and that is something the Jewish community is keenly aware” of, said the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, in the Canadian portion of the 52-page report that was published on Wednesday. It was the second annual report from the J7 Large Communities’ Task Force Against Antisemitism, representing the seven largest Jewish diaspora countries: Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the U.K. and U.S.

“We are grateful to our police and security agencies for disrupting at least four ISIS-inspired terror plots since October 7, 2023. But it should not take a Bondi Beach on Canadian soil before leaders at every level respond with the urgency this threat demands,” CIJA CEO Noah Shack told National Post.


Migrants breach border from Morocco into Spain’s Ceuta enclave in mass crossing
Migrants broke through the fences into Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta from Morocco on Thursday after overwhelming police at the city's breakwater, Spain's Guardia Civil said.

Video footage showed hundreds of migrants swimming over from the Moroccan side using inflatable inner tubes and other flotation devices, and others breaking through a gate in the fence and running into the city.

Nine corpses were found on Thursday, local authorities said, adding to a toll of 60 migrants who have died attempting to cross into Ceuta in recent months.

The scene was reminiscent of the crossing that occurred in May 2021, when some 10,000 people from Morocco and sub-Saharan Africa, many of them minors, entered the enclave of 85,000 people in days.

A Guardia Civil spokesperson said the migrants were "massively entering from the sea" through the Tarajal breakwater, but could not provide any estimates for the numbers.

State television TVE reported that 2,000 to 3,000 people had crossed. Reuters was not immediately able to confirm that report.

The White House on Thursday linked the migration crisis in Ceuta to policies pursued by the Spanish government, after thousands of people crossed irregularly from Morocco into Spanish territory through the border breakwater.

“President Trump has long warned Europe about the consequences of continuing to implement far-left globalist policies, such as enabling mass migration. Spain and other countries that have embraced this destructive philosophy should reverse course immediately or risk their own disappearance,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in an email.

Many local shops were shuttered. Enrique Serrano, who runs a women's clothing store in central Ceuta, told Reuters business owners were organizing themselves to protect their property and families in case of possible disturbances as they believed police resources would be insufficient.

"I'm not opening this afternoon because the situation is extremely tense ... The first thing I have to do is protect my business and my family," he said, adding that when the fence was breached after midnight, hundreds of migrants rushed through in a matter of minutes.

Ceuta, together with Melilla, another Spanish autonomous city located in North Africa, represents the European Union's only land border with Africa. Both cities periodically experience surges in attempted crossings by migrants seeking to reach Europe.


UK Anti-Zionist Jewish group pickets to remove charity status of JNF outside Charity Commission
The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network’s UK chapter and allied activist groups gathered for a picket outside the Charity Commission building in London on Wednesday to demand that the regulatory body investigate, sanction, or strip the charitable status of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) UK and other Jewish organizations that they accuse of funding initiatives, land acquisition, and development projects in the West Bank.

During speeches delivered outside the government complex and in social media posts promoting the picket, organizers and participants criticized the Charity Commission for what they termed “systemic inaction,” accusing the regulatory body of having “repeatedly refused to investigate or sanction charities supporting illegal displacement and foreign military initiatives.”

Speakers pointed directly to the JNF’s historic role and modern activities, highlighting what banners described as “land ownership metrics and financial remittance directed toward unauthorized development in the West Bank.”

The picket also drew connections to recent local community events that the picket organizers claimed in promotional social media materials and speeches have “facilitated transactions involving disputed territories.”

Specifically, activists targeted a “Great Israeli Real Estate” event previously hosted at Edgware United Synagogue in June. The event is an annual exhibition of real estate properties being sold in Israel, including in the West Bank.

Organizers argued in online statements and demonstration speeches during the picket that venues hosting such property showcases act as “platforms for selling land across historic areas and illegal settlements.”

Throughout the demonstration, speakers accused UK authorities of “enabling displacement and regional conflict” through passive regulatory oversight.

Police secure London protest as activists condemn JNF UK
Police and security maintained a perimeter outside the building as activists chanted slogans including “Stop arming apartheid” and displayed banners condemning what they termed “state-sponsored violence and institutional complicity.”

A spokesperson for JNF UK told The Jerusalem Post in a statement, “JNF UK will not be distracted or deterred by those who seek to stop us from carrying out our important charitable work.
Moment pro-Palestine activist firebombs McDonald's, Starbucks and BBC offices as she faces prison for violent anti-Israel campaign in town
A pro-Palestine activist firebombed a McDonald's, two Starbucks and a BBC office in an anti-Israel crime wave.

Martha Goddard, 51, was convicted this week of constructing homemade incendiary devices which she triggered with lit sparklers before attacking the string of premises in Norwich, Norfolk.

At the scene of her crimes Goddard left behind anti-Israel posters in protest of the treatment of Palestinians in Gaza by Israeli forces, which police used to trace her via fingerprints left on them.

Following a 12-day trial at Woolwich Crown Court, Goddard was convicted of five counts of causing criminal damage and two counts of making an explosive substance.

She was cleared of attempting to cause explosions and of attacking the Tacolneston transmitting station in south Norfolk.

Since her convictions, it has emerged that Goddard, described as 'weird' but 'not threatening' by neighbours, was largely left alone by residents of her quiet Norwich street.

They told how she was often seen at the local river practising martial arts with a samurai sword, something neighbours claimed 'frightened' local children.

But none could seemingly have predicted Goddard's five-month campaign last year which saw her set off homemade devices made with thermite, a pyrotechnic compound that burns at extremely high temperatures.
Trial of Irish pro-Palestine activist in Germany not a show trial – Merz
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has denied that the trial of an Irish Palestine protester is a show trial and stressed that Germany’s judiciary is independent.

Mr Merz was asked about the case ahead of a meeting in Dublin with Irish premier Micheál Martin.

The visit is part of Ireland’s six-month presidency of the Council of the EU.

Daniel Tatlow Devally, 32, from Dublin, is one of five people on trial in Germany charged with criminal damage against Elbit Systems, a firm that supplies weapons systems to the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF).

A cross-party delegation of Irish politicians attended a hearing in his trial in Stuttgart last week, where they raised concerns about the “incredibly harsh” conditions he was being kept in and the legal process – in particular that no recording or transcription of the trial is being kept.

Both an opposition and a government politician, TDs Richard Boyd Barrett and Barry Ward respectively, have compared it to a “show trial”.

At a press conference at Farmleigh House in Dublin on Tuesday, Mr Merz was asked about the accusations of a “show trial”.

“I want to comment on that very simply, to say we have a judicial process in Germany, consular assistance is being provided,” he said.

“The accused are being provided with a legal defence team and I have absolutely no doubt that regardless of any nationality, judicial processes in Germany are conducted according to internationally valid standards.

“There is no doubt about that.

“The German justice system is independent and is also obliged to follow legal standards, and there is no doubt that cases are handled according to those standards in Germany, regardless of the nationality of the accused.”


Lebanon boycott campaign targets 'Spider-Man' over Israeli producer Avi Arad
A Lebanese campaign to boycott supporters of Israel is calling on audiences to shun the new film “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” because of the involvement of Israeli-American producer Avi Arad.

The campaign was highlighted Thursday by the Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, which reported growing opposition to the film’s screening in the country over Arad’s support for Israel.

Arad is listed by Sony Pictures as one of the producers of the film, which is scheduled for international theatrical release on July 31. “Boycott ‘Spider-Man,’” the Lebanese boycott campaign wrote on Facebook ahead of the film’s scheduled July 30 release in Lebanon.

“As the new film in the series prepares to open in Lebanese theaters, we must ask ourselves: Do we want to support a production involving individuals who have publicly expressed political support for Israel?”

The post described Arad as “a key producer in the Spider-Man film series since 2002” and an American producer of Israeli origin who had repeatedly voiced support for Israel. “Based on our position opposing the normalization of the occupation or its policies, and our refusal to support anyone who backs it, we call for a boycott of the film,” the campaign said.

It also urged the public not to support the movie financially by purchasing tickets or contributing to paid viewings.

Al-Akhbar cited a strongly worded letter Arad published in 2024 criticizing U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer after the Democratic lawmaker condemned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and called for elections in Israel.

According to the Lebanese newspaper, Arad accused Schumer of betraying Israel, rejected criticism of Netanyahu and defended the Israeli prime minister during the war.

The boycott campaign said it was confronting continued efforts to advance normalization through “soft” cultural and professional channels.
US court dismisses free speech challenge to California’s school antisemitism law
A California law to prevent antisemitism in schools will be enforced after a federal judge dismissed a challenge from teachers and students who said it violated free speech.

US District Judge Noël Wise on Tuesday ruled against a lawsuit opposing Assembly Bill 715, which went into effect in January. The new law introduces measures to curb the “widespread surge in antisemitic discrimination, harassment and bullying” faced by “Jewish and Israeli American pupils across California.”

As part of the law, California is establishing an Office of Civil Rights with a new statewide antisemitism prevention coordinator for public schools, who has not yet been appointed. The law mandates teachers to provide “factually accurate” instruction rather than “advocacy, personal opinion, bias, or partisanship.” It requires local educational agencies to take action if they find that instruction or school-sponsored materials are discriminatory.

A group of teachers, students and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee filed a challenge in November. They said the law was unconstitutionally vague, chilled speech in the classroom about Palestinians, and discriminated against Palestinian, Arab and Muslim students and perspectives.

Wise said it was too soon to consider these claims, given the uncertainties still surrounding the new Office of Civil Rights, its leadership and how it will define and respond to antisemitism. She also said that teachers and students did not provide sufficient evidence of infringements on free speech, and teachers could not claim speech rights on the job.
Student union at Columbia University drops Israel divestment demand
The student worker union at Columbia University on Tuesday gave up on its demand that the university divest from Israel, in a defeat for the protest movement that rocked the Ivy League campus after the start of the war in Gaza.

Student Workers of Columbia-United Auto Workers has been negotiating a contract with the university since last year.

The union had included sweeping demands, including that the university divest from companies in violation of “international law,” a measure targeted at Israel.

The demands led to a stalemate with the university and pressure on the student union from its parent organization, the United Auto Workers, to rein in its activist activity.

The student union dropped a contract article that had demanded divestment on Tuesday, The Columbia Spectator reported.

The move marked a major concession from the union, which had made anti-Israel activism a priority — as have other student unions and student governments in the US.

A union leader confirmed the dropped demand to The Columbia Spectator, acknowledging that the group had to “face the realities.”

The union says it represents more than 3,000 undergraduate and graduate student workers at Columbia.


Cornell denounces student’s viral antisemitic remarks, but won’t bar him from campus
Cornell University is condemning viral antisemitic remarks made by an undergraduate student who appeared on “Piers Morgan Uncensored” earlier this week, but the school’s president says no further action is planned against the student.

During his appearance, the student, Austin Franco, defended his statement in June that he did not want to work with Jews, saying that he did not like most of the Jews he had met. The remark was made in a private message that the company that received it publicized.

“As a university built on the solid foundations of our nation’s democratic freedoms, Cornell has an obligation to fiercely defend freedom of speech — even when we find that speech abhorrent,” Cornell’s president, Michael Kotlikoff, said in a statement issued late Wednesday, shortly after the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reached out to the school for comment on Franco.

“The student’s public comments invoked hateful generalizations and uninformed tropes with a long, ugly history of harm,” Kotlikoff said, adding that “antisemitism generally” is “detestable, ignorant, and fully at odds with the values of the Cornell community.”

Kotlikoff, who is Jewish, did not mention Franco by name in his statement, citing federal privacy law, nor did he specify which of Franco’s comments about Jews the school found objectionable.

His comments once again place Cornell on the front line in tensions over antisemitism at colleges and universities. The school reached a $60 million settlement with the Trump administration last year to resolve antisemitism claims and regain $250 million in funding that had been frozen over campus unrest in the wake of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

Cornell was one of the earliest schools to face antisemitism allegations after October 7, 2023, when a professor spoke at a pro-Palestinian rally and said he had been “exhilarated” by the Hamas-led attack against southern Israel, in which more than 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.

But the latest incident involving Franco had little to do with the subsequent war in Gaza until Tuesday, when the student told Morgan on his YouTube show that he objected to Jews in part because of Israel, which he deemed “a genocidal country.”


Global adoptions of IHRA Jew-hatred definition surged 97% in 2025, report finds
Sixty-seven entities worldwide adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism in 2025, a 97.1% increase from the 34 adoptions recorded the previous year, according to a new report from the Combat Antisemitism Movement.

The report, released on Tuesday, stated that 1,331 governments, municipalities, universities and organizations had adopted the definition as of Dec. 31, 2025.

“The continued momentum driving IHRA adoptions is fueled by a growing recognition of the definition, and its 11 contemporary examples, as the global gold standard for understanding how antisemitism manifests in today’s world,” Barney Breen-Portnoy, CAM’s editor-in-chief, told JNS.

Among the entities that adopted the definition last year were Ireland, Costa Rica, Harvard University, Columbia University, Yale University, Mount Laurel, N.J., and Chula Vista, Calif., according to the report.

Twenty-five municipalities worldwide adopted the definition in 2025, including 14 in the United States. Thirty-three educational institutions also adopted the framework, compared with one (Ben-Gurion University) in 2024, according to CAM.

The report recommended that entities that have adopted the definition move toward formally codifying and implementing it. It also called on advocates to focus on encouraging the 18 remaining U.S. states that have not adopted the definition to do so.
Justice Department threatens to sue Maryland county over synagogue gun ban
The U.S. Department of Justice told Montgomery County, Md., that it will sue if the county enforces a new ordinance that would bar volunteers and congregants from carrying firearms in or near synagogues.

The demand comes the same day that the Silver Spring Jewish Center, an Orthodox synagogue, sued the county, asking the court to block the ordinance.

“It’s great to see the Justice Department standing up for constitutional rights,” Jacob Huebert, an attorney for the synagogue, told JNS. “We’ll be happy to fight alongside them to end Montgomery County’s indefensible disarmament of religious people.”

R. Jonah Geissler, deputy assistant attorney general at the Justice Department, sent a letter on Thursday to Marc Elrich, the county executive who signed the ordinance on Monday, and to the county attorney, police chief and sheriff.

“History teaches us that houses of worship are vulnerable to armed attacks and congregants are particularly in need of the ability to defend themselves,” the letter states. “By disarming religious congregants during worship, Montgomery County infringes on such congregants’ ability to defend against such attacks.”

Geissler wrote that if the recipients do not confirm in writing by noon on Friday that they will not enforce the ordinance in places of worship, “we will file a lawsuit without further notice.”


Israel reports all-time high of $169 billion in 2025 exports
Israel’s exports reached a record $169 billion in 2025, the country’s Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday.

The official Israeli government X account highlighted the all-time high as a reflection of the economy’s “strength, resilience and global competitiveness.”

Earlier reports indicated the milestone was based on annual figures from the Foreign Trade Administration submitted to Economy and Industry Minister Nir Barkat.

The total surpassed both the ministry’s conservative forecast of $165 billion and the previous record of just over $166 billion set in 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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