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Tuesday, August 11, 2026

08/10 Links Pt2: Foreign money is flooding US politics — but AIPAC’s is American; Ireland’s fog of prejudice; Selective Outrage: The WSJ Distorts the Reality of Christians in Israel

From Ian:

Bethany Mandel: Foreign money is flooding US politics — but AIPAC’s is American
If Americans are actually concerned about foreign money influencing American politics and policy, there is plenty to investigate. And unlike AIPAC, much of it is actually foreign.

Americans for Public Trust has just launched a new database, FollowForeignMoney.org, attempting to track the enormous sums flowing from foreign sources into American nonprofit groups and advocacy organizations. At launch, APT says it has identified more than $5 billion in spending across more than 500 groups, documented in more than 12,000 records.

The scale is remarkable, but so is the loophole that makes much of it possible. Federal law prohibits foreign entities from contributing to candidates, political committees, and super PACs, or participating in a campaign’s decision-making process. But elections are hardly the only way to influence American politics, and there are far fewer restrictions on foreign money once it moves outside the narrow confines of electoral activity.

Foreign dollars can finance nonpartisan get-out-the-vote campaigns, voter registration, issue advertising, and various policy and lobbying efforts, all of which can help shape the political environment in which Americans eventually cast their ballots. As APT explains, the line between regulated electoral activity, where foreign money is prohibited, and unregulated issue activity, where it is typically permitted, is “nearly indistinguishable to the average American.”

For some perspective, AIPAC, which again is funded by American donors, spent $29 million in 2022, $46 million in 2024, and $67 million in 2026, much of it in Democratic primaries. Those are substantial sums, and Americans are perfectly entitled to debate whether they like AIPAC’s political priorities, its tactics, or the candidates it supports.

But there is something deeply unserious about treating money donated by Americans to an American organization advocating an issue they care about as a sinister form of foreign influence, while billions of dollars originating overseas can flow into American organizations seeking to shape our laws, institutions, and political culture with comparatively little scrutiny.

In a conversation with the Washington Examiner, Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of Americans for Public Trust, explained what her organization found when it began following the money.

“Foreign money is flowing through the nonprofit sector to implement an extremist climate agenda and bankroll radical left-wing causes and policies,” Sutherland said, including organizations supporting political causes such as radical ballot measures. “And it’s all propped up by foreign money.”

The database allows users to trace that money through the complicated network of foundations, nonprofit groups, and advocacy organizations through which it often travels. An organization spending millions of dollars trying to change public opinion, influence legislation, register voters, or pass a ballot measure is participating in American political life, whether its name ever appears on a candidate’s campaign-finance report.

Congress was beginning to take notice of the problem even before APT released its database. At a hearing this year, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) focused on how nonprofit organizations can exploit gaps in American law to bring foreign money into domestic political and policy fights.

Smith later put the problem plainly: “Tax-exempt status … exists to support legitimate charitable and educational work that strengthens our communities, not to serve as cover for foreign propaganda, election interference, or activities that undermine our national interest.”

There is a legitimate debate to be had about how far Congress should go in restricting foreign donations to American nonprofits, particularly because any new law would have to avoid inadvertently ensnaring legitimate charitable, educational, or religious organizations that receive support from abroad. But it is difficult to have that debate honestly when our political and media class applies the label “foreign influence” so selectively.

AIPAC’s donors are Americans exercising the same right every other American has to pool their money around an issue they consider important and support or oppose candidates accordingly. The fact that the issue is Israel does not transform those Americans into agents of Israel any more than Cuban Americans advocating policy toward Cuba or Ukrainian Americans lobbying for aid to Ukraine become agents of foreign governments.

That is what made Axelrod’s calculation so revealing. He was not simply complaining about the amount AIPAC spent, or making the familiar argument that there is too much money sloshing around American politics. He described an organization funded by Americans as “essentially an agent” of a foreign government because those Americans are politically engaged on behalf of the Jewish state.

My husband, Seth Mandel, identified the more disturbing implication in Commentary after watching the exchange. “Why would Axelrod, who has worked so hard to position himself as a moderate in temperament and a card-carrying member of the mainstream, go on CNN and slap American Jews across the face?” he asked.

“And that’s when I realized it. Axelrod is positioning himself in the party’s mainstream. Accusing AIPAC of being a foreign agent isn’t relegated to the fever swamps anymore. And Axelrod, a very smart observer of Democratic Party politics, saw El-Sayed’s victory over Stevens as confirmation that this is what the party is now. And that might be the most dispiriting part of it all.”

That observation makes the timing of APT’s database particularly useful because it offers a remarkably simple test of what this debate is actually about. If Axelrod and others are genuinely alarmed by foreign money influencing American politics, they have just been handed a database documenting more than $5 billion of it, spread across thousands of records and hundreds of organizations. There is enough there to keep journalists, lawmakers, and cable-news panels occupied for quite some time examining whether American law adequately protects our political system from money originating overseas.

Yet that wasn’t the money Axelrod was talking about on CNN. The $30 million that concerned him was raised and spent by Americans, and calling it foreign required treating the political interests of those Americans as somehow foreign themselves.

AIPAC’s supporters are not just Jews; they include evangelical Christians and millions of other Americans who believe, for religious, moral, or strategic reasons, that the United States should maintain a strong relationship with Israel. Americans organize politically around all sorts of foreign-policy questions, and we generally understand that doing so is an expression of their American political rights rather than evidence that they are acting on behalf of another government.

Something peculiar happens, however, when the country in question is Israel and a substantial number of the Americans doing the organizing are Jews.
Ireland’s fog of prejudice
It is striking that at a time when the Torah just commanded us to learn how to see, we are also confronted with examples of what happens when prejudice prevents people from seeing clearly.

Ireland has a long and painful history of living under British rule. The memory of oppression, struggle for national self-determination and resistance to a powerful empire is deeply embedded in the Irish consciousness.

Logically, that history should create a natural sympathy for the Jewish people and for Israel.

The Jewish people, too, have experienced centuries of foreign domination, persecution and exile. Israel has emerged from a history in which Jews were repeatedly denied security, sovereignty and the ability to determine their own destiny. Israel itself was also governed under the British Mandate before its independence in 1948.

One might therefore expect Ireland, of all countries, to understand the complexity of a people seeking security and self-determination after generations of suffering. Yet sometimes, history teaches the opposite lesson. People can remember their own oppression while becoming blind or indifferent to the experiences of others.

Last week exposed a particularly striking example in the debate over Israeli technology in Ireland.

Elbit Systems, an Israeli defense company, has developed a sophisticated aviation navigation technology that helps aircraft operate and land safely in difficult weather conditions, including conditions of poor visibility. This navigation system has become a near standard on military and state jets in countries across the world.

Ireland, a country famously familiar with fog, should be especially capable of appreciating the value of technology that helps pilots navigate safely when they cannot rely on their eyes alone.

And yet, headlines were made last week when it was reported that the Irish government refused to install this advanced landing system in official state aircraft—the Irish “Air Force One”—due to its Israeli origin. The twisted irony is so difficult to miss. A nation accustomed to physical fog is allowing the ideological fog that clouds its moral vision to imperil the safety of its leaders.

This is not just a hypothetical risk. In 2011, an airplane attempting to land in Cork, Ireland, crashed in dense fog after three failed attempts to land, killing a relative of the Irish president and five other people.

When a technology that can improve aviation is judged not according to what it does, but according to the nationality of the people who developed it, something has gone seriously wrong.
Made in India: Inside the India-Israel weapons alliance Amnesty wants dismantled
AMNESTY IS asking New Delhi to go considerably further than imposing additional checks on exports.

It called for an immediate halt to arms transfers to Israel and a comprehensive embargo covering weapons, components, technologies, technical assistance and training. It also recommended that Indian companies terminate business relationships, including joint research and development, with Elbit Systems, Rafael and Israel Aerospace Industries.

“Israeli systems currently form the technological backbone of India’s security architecture along its sensitive borders with China and Pakistan,” Birvadker told the Post, on what possible consequences implementation would have for India’s own military.

“Companies like Elbit, Rafael, and IAI are not standard import suppliers,” she said. “They are India’s premier partners in building a domestic defense industry.”

Birvadker went further, arguing that severing the relationship could set back India’s objective of technological self-reliance “by decades.”

“India would once again find itself dependent on other global powers, a resurgence of defense colonialism,” Bivadker stated. “Who benefits from such an outcome?” The legal argument: The controversy lies in what is not publicly visible

Amnesty’s challenge is also directed at India’s export-control system itself.

India is not a party to the Arms Trade Treaty, although it is a party to the Geneva Conventions and Genocide Convention. Amnesty argues that those existing obligations are sufficient to require India to halt transfers where there is a clear risk that weapons could contribute to serious violations.

Indian arms exports are not unregulated. Military and dual-use goods are controlled through the SCOMET system and require authorization from the Directorate General of Foreign Trade. Applications are reviewed through an inter-ministerial process involving the foreign, defense, and home ministries, and official guidelines require consideration of the end user, declared end use, chain of transmission, and whether an export could conflict with Indian national security or foreign policy.

The controversy, according to Amnesty, lies in what is not publicly visible.

The inter-ministerial deliberations are confidential, leaving no public record showing whether international humanitarian law or India’s treaty obligations were specifically assessed when licenses for exports to Israel were approved.

Amnesty filed a Right to Information request seeking details of specific export licenses and any human rights assessments undertaken by the government, but said it had received no reply before publication.

Birvadker’s position is that New Delhi should resist external pressure rather than allow NGOs to determine its strategic relationships.

“New Delhi must categorically reject the pressure to suspend defense exports, fiercely guarding its principle of strategic autonomy and its sovereign right to conduct relations in alignment with its national interests,” she said.

“Yielding to Amnesty’s demands would severely undermine India’s credibility as a reliable defense partner on the global stage,” she told the Post.

India’s concept of strategic autonomy predates the Israel controversy. It was visible, for example, when New Delhi resisted Western pressure over Russian oil purchases following the invasion of Ukraine, prioritizing energy security and its freedom to maintain relationships across competing geopolitical blocs.

The relationship with Israel increasingly fits into that same model. India remains a major purchaser of Israeli technology while becoming a supplier in its own right. Israeli companies gain an enormous manufacturing base and access to Indian industry; India acquires technology, domestic production and exposure to global defense markets. The greater the integration, the harder it becomes to describe the partnership simply as one country selling weapons to another.

That is another revealing aspect of Amnesty’s report. Its authors see the hundreds of thousands of Indian-made components flowing to Israeli companies as evidence that the relationship should be curtailed. Birvadker cites the same supply chains as evidence that the relationship has become strategically indispensable.

The argument over Gaza will remain bitter and unresolved, particularly when the charge of genocide is treated as settled despite the substantial legal arguments against it. The industrial shift beneath that debate, however, is already taking shape.

India is no longer merely buying Israeli weapons. Increasingly, some of Israel’s weapons begin their journey in India.


State Dept official ‘failed to do his homework’ before working with terror-tied charity, senior US official says
A senior Trump administration official told JNS that he is concerned about the U.S. State Department’s decision to work with a charity with ties to terrorism, after the department denied to JNS that the organization in question, World Vision, which is based in the United Kingdom, has troubling associations.

JNS reported that Foggy Bottom was working with World Vision as part of what it called a “historic” $2 billion distribution of global health foreign assistance. It made the announcement despite an Israeli court convicting World Vision’s Gaza operations manager of funneling up to $50 million to Hamas in 2022.

The Senate Finance Committee probed World Vision in 2019 and found that the Christian charity transferred $125,000 to Islamic Relief Agency, which the U.S. Treasury Department sanctions for terror ties, in 2014 as a sub-grantee for a U.S. Agency for International Development-backed humanitarian project in Sudan. The Senate panel called World Vision’s vetting procedures “borderline negligent.”

A senior Trump administration official close to the White House Office of Management and Budget told JNS that the State Department working with World Vision is a concern and that the one to blame is Jeremy Lewin, acting U.S. undersecretary of state for foreign assistance, humanitarian affairs and religious freedom since July 2025.

“Similar to his obsession in funding communist U.N. agencies, Jeremy Lewin failed to do his homework, yet again,” the senior U.S. official told JNS. “World Vision is severely compromised by ties to Islamist terrorists and a radical left-wing climate change agenda. Why is he funding them?”

Lewin’s planned move to the White House in the summer to serve as deputy assistant to the president and senior director for Western Hemisphere affairs at the National Security Council has been delayed. The delay, reportedly, owes to criticism from conservative activist Laura Loomer.

A State Department spokesman told JNS that “any implication that the Trump administration is permitting the diversion of U.S. foreign assistance to organizations with ties to terrorism is baseless.”

“No administration has held Hamas and other radical Islamist terrorist organizations more accountable than the Trump administration,” the spokesman said.
Code Pink Founder Medea Benjamin's Radical ‘Charity’ Ordered To Cease Operations, as US Ups Pressure on Charity’s Shadowy Benefactor, Neville Roy Singham
Arc of Justice—the California-based charity established by Code Pink cofounder Medea Benjamin to dole out millions to Code Pink and other far left activist groups—was recently ordered by the state's attorney general to cease all operations after failing to file taxes for three consecutive years and account for more than $51 million in assets that still remain a mystery, according to documents reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.

Since California first revoked the foundation's charitable registration 18 months ago and ordered it to provide a full accounting of $51,445,599 in outstanding assets it held as of 2023, "no public document establishes what has happened to the money, where it is held, or whether any of it has moved," according to an investigation by the Intelligent Advocacy Network (IAN) watchdog group that was shared exclusively with the Free Beacon. California's punitive measures are particularly noteworthy given that they were issued under liberal Attorney General Rob Bonta, who has aligned himself with the Democratic Party's far-left progressive wing.

The silence from Arc of Justice raises unanswered questions about a foundation that has long served as the financial backbone for a network of radical advocacy groups tied to Benjamin and her Code Pink cofounder, Jodie Evans. Evans is married to Neville Roy Singham, a Maoist American tech mogul who funds far-left causes from his base in Shanghai and who's currently the subject of a Justice Department criminal probe.

Code Pink, which has had up to a quarter of its operations funded by Singham, is one of the left's most visible agitators, sending its supporters to disrupt high-profile congressional proceedings where they accuse Israel of "genocide." Code Pink, which brims with anti-American sentiment, is also notorious for backing dictators, strongmen, and authoritarian regimes—meeting with Cuban communist officials in Havana, cooperating with Hamas, defending Nicolás Maduro, and explaining away Chinese atrocities against the Uyghurs.

Singham is reportedly under federal investigation for breaching federal law by funneling millions through his nonprofit groups to Chinese entities and then lying about it on tax forms, and the shadowy benefactor's dark money operation is under pressure, according to Sam Lyman, a former senior adviser to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

"For years, Neville Singham and his associates have been playing financial shell games across a series of U.S.-based nonprofits," said Lyman, who now serves as head of research at the Bitcoin Policy Institute. "The goal is to fund extremist causes that undermine American sovereignty by using the 501(c)(3) legal structure as a shield. But the scheme is starting to unravel, and Medea Benjamin's Arc of Justice is the latest example."

The California Attorney General's Registry of Charities and Fundraisers first revoked Arc of Justice's registration in January 2025, barring it from spending any assets without approval from the attorney general. In June of this year, the California oversight agency went even further, according to a previously unpublished document obtained by IAN and shared with the Free Beacon. The June 19 warning letter, issued by the California Department of Justice, directly orders Arc of Justice to cease "any activity in California for which registration is required ... including holding or soliciting assets for charitable purposes."

"A revoked registrant is prohibited from distributing or expending charitable assets without prior written approval from the Attorney General," the letter makes clear. "Members of the board of directors or any person directly involved in distributing or expending charitable assets may be held personally liable for assets improperly expended."

The foundation's dire tax situation was revealed further on Aug. 3, when the California Franchise Tax Board confirmed that Arc of Justice "is not in good standing" with regulators and is no longer certified as tax-exempt, according to a copy of that document reviewed by the Free Beacon. The California Secretary of State's online system also declares Arc of Justice's status as "suspended."


Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand's Misguided Condemnation of Israel
The recent statement by Global Affairs Canada condemning "the ongoing violence in the West Bank" and exhorting against "the expansion of Israeli settlements" appears to be both misinformed and misguided. Violence of any kind directed against Arab or Jewish residents cannot be condoned, and must be punished in accordance with the law. This is a clear societal norm in any civilized society.

However, in specifically condemning violence in the West Bank, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand appears to forget, or chooses to ignore, the ongoing, near-daily acts of Palestinian terror carried out against Israeli citizens. In so doing, she is in effect turning a blind eye to such terror, and sanctioning it.

Regrettably, Minister Anand appears to be characterizing instances of violence committed by marginal and irresponsible groups of youth as if it is the officially sanctioned policy of the Israeli government. There exists no Israeli policy encouraging or sanctioning violence against Arabs. Such violence is clearly illegal and, as in any normal society, law enforcement bodies are required to act against it.

To dub this "settler violence" would appear to be contrived and malicious. The absurdity of such a negative buzz phrase directed only against Israel is particularly blatant when one compares this with the violence and hooliganism seen around the world, including the violence and hate seen at political marches and demonstrations on campuses and on major thoroughfares throughout Canada.

Global Affairs' statement that Israel's settlements are "illegal under international law and undermine prospects for peace, security and stability" is no less ill-advised. Customary international law enables an administering authority, in governing territory it holds, to use and benefit from land that is not privately owned, as long as it refrains from altering the status of the land, pending the negotiation of a peaceful settlement of the dispute.

The Oslo Accords between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel, which established a special legal regime applicable to the West Bank, overriding any other legal framework, accorded to both sides the power to conduct zoning, planning and construction projects in the areas under their respective control and administration, pending the outcome of negotiations between the parties on the permanent status of the territories.

To claim that communities that were legitimately established and comport with Palestinian-Israeli agreements are illegal and "undermine prospects for peace, security and stability" would appear to indicate a lack of knowledge on the part of those advising Global Affairs Canada in general, and Minister Anand in particular. As the former ambassador of Israel to Canada, it is distressing to see how the relationship between our two countries has deteriorated.
U.S., Canadian Healthcare Failing to Address Rising Antisemitism since Oct. 7
A new study reveals an international resurgence in antisemitism in healthcare education and practice since Oct. 7, 2023, prominently affecting the U.S., UK, Canada, and Australia.

A recent survey revealed that 88% of Jewish medical students and physicians in the U.S. have reported experiencing antisemitism since Oct. 7, 2023, compared to 40% before that date.

In a 2024 survey of Jewish healthcare professionals in the UK, 95% reported an increase in antisemitism in their daily lives since Oct. 7, and 73% reported experiencing at least one antisemitic incident.

In Canada, a review of 1,000 Canadian Jewish medical professionals and students found that only 1% felt antisemitism was a severe problem in the medical field before Oct. 7, compared to 98% after.
Bernie Sanders urges Democrats to ban ‘corrupt’ AIPAC spending in primaries
US Senator Bernie Sanders has urged Democratic leaders to ban super PAC spending in primaries, focusing on the efforts of pro-Israel lobbyists to influence a crucial Michigan Senate race.

Sanders, in an open letter on Sunday, called on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin to end a “corrupt system” of super PAC funding.

His main target was the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which spent $32 million in an unsuccessful bid to tank the Democratic primary campaign of Abdul El-Sayed, a critic of Israel, for a Michigan Senate seat. El-Sayed last week defeated Rep. Haley Stevens, a pro-Israel moderate.

Sanders cited reports that the pro-Israel lobby is now weighing another surge of funds to buoy Mike Rogers, the Republican nominee who will face El-Sayed in what is expected to be a tight general election in November.

“It is absurd that they spend tens of millions of dollars to try to determine who the Democratic nominee is and, if they fail, then proceed to support the Republican candidate in the general election,” said Sanders. He added that corporate PACs, including “crypto, AI and other online betting special interests,” have spent a record $517 million this election cycle.

Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont who frequently caucuses with Democrats, has long pushed for a constitutional amendment to undo the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which allowed corporations to spend unlimited money on elections. He said in his letter that Democratic leaders did “not have to wait” for that, urging the party to immediately “prohibit super PACs from participating in its primaries.”

“Millions of Democrats are AIPAC members who are proud to help elect principled Democrats,” AIPAC said Monday in its response to Sanders.

“This letter isn’t about democracy or campaign finance — that’s why he doesn’t name the billionaire super PACs that back him,” the group said on X. “Sanders just wants to blacklist Americans who disagree with him.”

Sanders acknowledged in an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday that Democrats would be severely disadvantaged if they forewent PAC spending in general elections, but said the party should “take charge of what takes place within their own primaries right now.”
The Piker Diversion By Abe Greenwald
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El-Sayed isn’t, after all, like Barack Obama, and his relationship to Piker is not akin to Obama’s relationship with Jeremiah Wright. Piker and El-Sayed are contemporaries, rising through the ranks of the same revolutionary movement. Piker isn’t anywhere near the outermost fringe of El-Sayed’s political and social circle. In fact, El-Sayed is much closer to jihadist terror organizations than Piker is. So why are we talking about Piker?

It’s El-Sayed whose campaign has taken in hundreds of thousands of dollars from dozens of donors connected to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2007 case against the Hamas-supporting Holy Land Foundation. It’s El-Sayed’s father-in-law, Tayeb Jukaku, who was once the president of CAIR Michigan, is a founding member of the Islamic Society of North America—where he sat on a founders’ committee with Muslim Brotherhood members—and is the number-one donor to the super PAC supporting El-Sayed’s campaign.

And it’s El-Sayed who explained away the Hezbollah-inspired terrorist attack on a Michigan synagogue and Jewish day school as an expression of the terrorist’s pain—noting that “hurt people,” in turn, “hurt people.”

It would have been nice if Kristen Welker had asked him for his comments on any of that. But what we’re hearing about, more and more, are his thoughts on Hasan Piker. And making Piker out as the bad apple that’s spoiling the socialist-Islamist crop disguises the fact that they are all—not just El-Sayed—rotten. What’s more, it’s a great deal for the candidate and the designated bad influence. Piker is thrilled to have the attention diverted his way. His brand is ugliness. Every mention he gets means more audience, more interviews, more puff pieces, more money, and more influence.

I noted last week that attacking radical anti-American candidates, no matter how much they deserve it, isn’t as effective as we’d imagine. But when you do go after the radical, you should at least make sure that he’s the one who feels the impact.
NYC first lady Rama Duwaji traveling to Syria, Lebanon — with taxpayer-funded NYPD security detail
Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s wife Rama Duwaji is heading to Syria and Lebanon next month – and she’s bringing along cops assigned to the First Couple’s taxpayer-funded NYPD detail, The Post has learned.

Duwaji will be jetting to the Middle East for a trip beginning Sept. 20 to the countries on the State Department’s “Do Not Travel” list for Americans because of dangerous conditions, a source said.

The source familiar with the security detail said the first lady, who’s been described by the mayor as a “private person,” requested NYPD security – after traveling overseas last month without police protection.

Duwaji, a 29-year-old Syrian-American artist, has ties to the region and refers to herself as a “Syrian Illustrator” on her website. Her parents are Syrian Muslims originally from Damascus.

Mamdani’s office confirmed the trip and that an NYPD security detail will accompany the mayor’s wife.

“Upon the strong recommendation of the NYPD, the First Lady’s security detail will be joining her when she travels to visit family in Syria and Lebanon,” said mayoral spokesperson Dora Pekec.

The mayor’s office offered no further comment on the trip’s details or whether the purpose was solely to visit family.

The source with knowledge of the trip told The Post, “It’s not official business. It’s not doing anything for the city.”

One pro-Israel Jewish advocate opposed sending members of the NYPD to Syria and Lebanon, arguing the officers, not the Israel-bashing Duwaji, will be targets.

“We’re putting the police officers in danger. They will be viewed as the bad guys. These are war zones,” said Dov Hikind, founder of Americans Against Antisemitism and a former Brooklyn Assemblyman.

“Duwaji doesn’t need security. She will get a hero’s welcome and be protected by Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis,” Hikind said, referring to Islamic terrorists and militants.

“Duwaji will be fine.”
Michigan Jewish leaders urge Democratic Party to protect Jewish delegates at convention
Michigan rabbis and other Jewish figures delivered a petition to the head of the state’s Democratic Party Monday urging him to “ensure the safety” of all Jewish delegates at the state party’s upcoming convention, underscoring anxieties about growing antisemitism in the state’s blue coalition.

The petition, whose total signatories numbered around 200, comes days after Michigan Attorney-General Dana Nessel, who is Jewish, announced she would not be attending the Aug. 29 convention out of fear of being targeted for harassment.

“We believe you need to make it clear, publicly, that anyone who chases, screams at, or otherwise harasses Jews at your convention will be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” reads the petition, delivered to Curtis Hertel, Jr., the state party chair.

Citing Nessel’s comments, the letter continues, “If Jews, including the highest-ranking Jewish state official in Michigan, are intimidated into staying away from your convention, it will not stop there.”

El-Sayed not mentioned by name in the letter
Among the clergy who signed the letter at press time are five rabbis who actively lead congregations in the state, representing Reform, Conservative and Humanistic denominations.

Those include Amy Bigman of Congregation Shaarey Zedek in East Lansing; Aaron Starr of Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield, a Detroit suburb; Nadav Caine of Beth Israel Congregation in Ann Arbor; Natalie Shribman of Temple Kol Ami in West Bloomfield; and Jeffrey Falick of the Congregation for Humanistic Judaism of Metro Detroit, in Farmington Hills.

The vast majority of signatories hailed from outside the state, including Rafael Medoff, director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, who organized and delivered the petition to Hertel; Rabbi Etan Tokayer, president of the Rabbinical Council of America, an Orthodox rabbinical network; Jewish historian and Zionist commentator Gil Troy; and several other rabbis and Jewish academics across the country.

The letter did not mention Abdul El-Sayed, the party’s newly minted US Senate nominee in Michigan. But the state’s Jewish Democrats have been on edge with El-Sayed’s rhetoric on both Israel and local matters of Jewish safety, including what they believe was his equivocal response to the Temple Israel attack in March in West Bloomfield.

No rabbis affiliated with Temple Israel had signed the Hertel petition as of press time.


Co-chair of Democratic Socialists of America defends rallying for Hamas
The co-chair of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) has defended rallying in support of Hamas and disputed Israel’s right to self defense during a recent interview.

Megan Romer, the United States’ national co-chair of the DSA, told The New Yorker in an interview published Friday that she “probably would have” joined an anti-Israel rally in New York City the day after the October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion of Israel, had she lived in the city.

“One day after the slaughter of 1,200 people and taking of over 200 hostages, you would have come and rallied behind Hamas?” New Yorker editor David Remnick asked Romer.

“I think that October 7th was largely inevitable. If you put people in an open-air concentration camp and you deprive them of rights, of dignity, of food, of the ability to live in safety, you have to expect that they are going to not take that for that long,” she said.

At the October 8, 2023, rallies in New York City, anti-Zionist protesters chanted in support of Hamas killings, mocked and threatened Jewish counter-demonstrators, celebrated the taking of Israeli hostages, and called for the destruction of Israel.

Romer is one of two co-chairs of the national DSA, making her a central figure in the ascendant far-left movement, which has made anti-Zionist activism central to its politics.

The DSA is the home base of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and candidates from the movement have won a string of Congressional primaries in recent months.


Greens admit they are powerless to implement Israel pension fund divestment pledge
A Green councillor and chair of a pensions committee has admitted that the party is powerless to implement its pre-election promise to divest from funds allegedly linked to Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza, despite previous commitments.

In a message to local voters, Councillor Fin Fitzgerald, chair of Haringey Council’s pensions committee, revealed he had discovered that central government had “effectively banned councils” from implementing exclusion lists, calling it a “huge blow” to the autonomy of local authorities over their own pension fund policies.

Fitzgerald further explained that no local borough in London can control its own investment strategy, as all are part of a wider pool that implements a unified approach on behalf of the capital’s councils.

The Green councillor, who—along with colleagues—committed to divesting from firms that “normalise Israel’s violations of international law, including through the council divesting pensions and any other funds it administers” as part of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign’s pre-election candidate pledge, has now admitted to meeting with colleagues to discuss “how we can operate in this structure.”

“There are definitely challenges,” added Fitzgerald. “The biggest thing to understand is that central government has set about taking away the power of local authorities to control their own investment policy implementation.”

The chair of the Haringey Pensions Committee and Board, Green Councillor Fin Fitzgerald.

But Fitzgerald’s admission has infuriated former Labour activists and council leaders, who accuse him of simply repeating what has long been known about pension fund policies.


Anti-Israel activists break into US defense firm’s UK office
Police in Scotland arrested two people in Aberdeen on Sunday during the second break-in this summer into the local offices of a U.S.-based defense firm that works with Israel. Separately, a Dutch lawmaker was filmed at an anti-Israel event in the Netherlands next to a poster reading “Go Hamas.”

A group that calls itself “People against Genocide” posted about its activists breaking into the Ultra Intelligence & Communications in the Aberdeen area because it works with Israel’s Elbit Systems on at least one defense project, the Jordanian news site Roya News reported.

The anti-Israel group said its activists had broken into another U.K. facility of Ultra Intelligence & Communications last month, damaging satellite equipment worth $4 million. The group claimed the equipment was intended for Israel. Ultra Intelligence & Communications did not reply by press time to a query by JNS about the extent of the damage in those break-ins.

The British government last year outlawed the anti-Israel group Palestine Action, declaring it a terrorist organization, following repeated attacks on facilities belonging or tied to Israel. The ban has been the subject of several legal appeals but has been maintained.

In the Netherlands, a member of the provincial parliament of Utrecht was seen at a protest last week standing next to a sign that read “Go Hamas,” a local journalist reported.


Selective Outrage: The WSJ Distorts the Reality of Christians in Israel
Throughout the past decade, the Christian community across the Middle East has been targeted by hatred, terrorism, and overall persecution. This has resulted in a massive decrease in the Christian population throughout the Middle East, which today constitutes 3% of the region’s population, compared to constituting around 14% in 1900.

In Israel, the opposite trend is seen. In 2025, Christians in Israel accounted for 1.9% of the country’s population, and the population had increased by 0.7% from 2023 to 2024.

Yet when it comes to the international media, stories of Christian hatred in Israel are more frequently the aspects of the Christian experience that makes it to the front page.

The Wall Street Journal’s “Spitting Attacks Show Rise of Anti-Christian Hate in Israel” exemplifies exactly this obsessive attempt to portray Israel as purposefully targeting the Christian population.

Margherita Stancati’s piece portrays a dark version of Israel, where incidents of anti-Christian hate “are becoming routine in Jerusalem.” Specifically, these acts are perpetrated by young Jewish Israelis spitting on Christians. When these incidents occur, as they unfortunately do, they are outright condemned by the vast majority of Israelis as well as the government. When caught, the perpetrators are arrested, and the offenses are prosecuted.

Portraying small extreme fringes of any society as being representative of the society at large is misleading and not an accidental oversight when writing an article on the Christian experience in Israel. More than 200,000 Christians from all walks of life live in Israel with full rights and access to the same services, institutions, and protections as any other group in Israel. It is for this very reason that the Christian population trend in Israel is the exact opposite of the trend seen in the rest of the Middle East.

Among the Christians living in Israel is U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee. If The Wall Street Journal was looking for a story that would resonate with American Christians, why selectively exclude one of the country’s most vocal and influential Christian supporters of Israel, if not to reinforce a predetermined and false conclusion about Christian life in Israel?

It is abundantly apparent that Israel continues to invest in protecting minorities, both within the country and, more broadly, throughout the Middle East. With the intention to further strengthen ties between Israel and the global Christian community, the Israeli government appointed its first-ever special envoy to the Christian world in April 2026.

This is in direct contrast to the treatment of Christians throughout the rest of the region. Even in the West Bank in areas under Palestinian Authority control, the same trends of Christian persecution are seen. In Bethlehem, for instance, the Christian population has declined from 86% in 1950 to 10% today, as a result of Islamic extremism and persecution.
What The AP’s Gaza Photo Gallery Left Outside the Frame
On August 1, the Associated Press published a gallery under the headline, “Photos show the scene after the latest Israeli strikes in Gaza.”

The gallery was republished by other media outlets, including The Independent.

All twelve photographs were taken by Abdel Kareem Hana, one of AP’s established photographers in Gaza. They showed Palestinians searching damaged buildings in al-Maghazi, residents inspecting destruction in Deir al-Balah and Nuseirat, children among rubble, a woman walking through a damaged area and families recovering possessions.

While the images documented genuine aftermath, they lacked the basic operational context required to explain the strikes. Individual captions repeatedly described only the “scene of an Israeli airstrike.” There were no Hamas operatives, weapons or military targets visible in the sequence, and virtually nothing explaining what Israel said it had been attacking.

Presented in isolation, the gallery leaves readers with an overwhelmingly civilian account: damaged buildings, children, families and rubble, with almost none of the contemporaneously reported information explaining why those locations were being struck.

Parallel reporting supplied some of that missing context.

What Israel Said It Was Targeting
Reuters reported on August 1 that the Israeli military said an apartment strike in Deir al-Balah targeted two commanders from Hamas’ elite Nukhba force. Other strikes in Gaza City and Jabalia, the IDF said, targeted military operatives.

A separate Reuters report provided particularly relevant context for the Deir al-Balah imagery. It reported that Israel said it had struck Hamas operatives and a weapons storage site near al-Aqsa Hospital. Witnesses quoted by Reuters said an evacuation warning had been issued before the strike.

The IDF also identified Hamas commanders and operatives targeted during this broader operational period. They included Salem Jamal Abd al-Rahman Abu Labad, whom Israel identified as a Nukhba cell commander who participated in the October 7 attacks; Muhammad Abd al-Nasser Muhammad Khatib, described as a commander in Hamas’ Maghazi Battalion; and Abdallah Adnan Taha Abu al-Tayf, identified as a Nukhba operative who infiltrated Israel on October 7 and subsequently continued operating against Israeli troops. Jalal Sobieh was separately identified as a commander in Hamas’ Daraj-Tuffah Battalion.

Israeli statements also said precautions used during targeted operations included aerial surveillance and precision munitions intended to reduce civilian harm.

Not every named operative can be matched from the available evidence to a specific building appearing in Hana’s photographs. The point is narrower: substantial military context existed alongside the civilian aftermath reporting, including Israel’s identification of Hamas targets and Reuters’ reporting of an advance warning before a Deir al-Balah strike.


Mapping antisemitism, a website helps Jewish jet-setters avoid turbulence
Shay Yaish left his tech job a year ago, with plans to strike out on his own with a new startup. Frustrated with his inability to come up with an idea for his venture, he told his wife he needed a vacation to help him think. And that’s when it hit him.

“With all the antisemitism around the world, we started searching for safe places for Israelis to visit,” he said. “And then I thought: Why isn’t there a website online where I can find this information easily?”

That idea led Yaish to create Safe for Jews, a Hebrew and English website that uses artificial intelligence, government travel advisories, and community reports to rate the relative safety of countries and cities for Jewish travelers.

Hundreds of people now look at the site every day for help deciding where to vacation, he said.

Traveling while Jewish, especially identifiably so, has always been fraught in certain parts of the world. A rise in global antisemitism in the wake of the October 7, 2023, attacks and international anger over Israel’s response in Gaza have seemingly shrunk the number of places Jews from Israel or abroad can reasonably expect to feel safe from antisemitic attacks or harassment.

Many travelers now think twice before traveling to parts of the world where anti-Jewish and anti-Israel sentiment is especially high, or at least make sure to hide any external symbols that could mark them as Jewish.

“When I first created this site, I thought that anti-Israel hatred would be trendy for a bit,” Yaish said. “I wouldn’t have imagined it would still be like this today.” Countries in green are currently marked ‘safe’ for travel on safeforjews.com (Screenshot)

Yaish, 34, was born in Tiberias and now lives in Pardes Hanna. He described himself as a “developer at heart” who has been coding since he was 16 years old.

He developed Safe for Jews with the help of AI tools, and uses AI to update the site with news about antisemitic incidents. It also draws from Israel’s official travel advisories for different countries — which are not always based on antisemitic attitudes or threats against Jews — as well as reports submitted by the site’s users, to generate a travel advisory and summary of relevant information for travelers.

“It’s not just ‘is this country safe?’ but ‘what’s happening in the specific region I’m planning to visit, and what kind of incidents have been reported there recently?'” Yaish said.

Everything is compiled automatically using AI, Yaish said, although he checks the output every few days to make sure the information looks correct. Because it relies on AI and reports scraped from the web, its advisories are not always up to date or based on rigorous research.
Seattle mayor pledges more security for Jews during High Holidays, discusses Jew-hatred for first time since assuming office
The Seattle Police Department will work with local Jewish communities to ensure their safety during the High Holidays amid surging anti-Jewish violence nationwide, Katie Wilson, mayor of Seattle, told JNS.

“Seattle has no place for antisemitism or hatred of any kind,” the mayor, who identifies as socialist, told JNS.

“I know Seattle’s Jewish community is acutely aware of a rise in antisemitism and is feeling anxiety and concern,” Wilson said. “I believe every Seattle resident needs to be able to participate fully in civic life without fear, and my office welcomes dialogue with the Jewish community for sharing what they need to improve safety.”

Wilson’s comment to JNS appears to be the first time she has addressed Jew-hatred in the city publicly since she became mayor in January.

Rosh Hashanah begins this year on Sept. 11 at night and lasts two days. Yom Kippur, which lasts a day, begins on Sept. 20.

Wilson, who has said that Israel is guilty of “genocide,” asked for Shon Barnes to resign as Seattle police chief in July after a shooting at Seattle Center, a campus with five museums, the Space Needle and a professional hockey arena. At the time, the mayor said that she will engage community stakeholders as she searches for a new police chief.

“As they do each year around the High Holidays, the Seattle Police Department will work closely with Jewish institutions and community leaders to help ensure people can gather safely,” the mayor told JNS.

The department “has two Jewish community liaisons and a dedicated hate crime detective who maintain strong relationships with the community throughout the year, and the department typically increases patrols around synagogues and other Jewish institutions during the High Holidays,” Wilson told JNS.

In December, video footage circulated of the mayor apparently saying at an American Muslim Advancement Council event that she would talk with her team about ending the police department’s relationship with Israeli law enforcement partners.

There are no active or scheduled plans to train with Israeli law enforcement listed on the Seattle Police Department website.

“Folks may have misconstrued an international visit 10 or 12 years ago with some sort of ongoing training, which, to my knowledge, does not exist,” Jonah Spangenthal-Lee, a spokesman for the mayor, told JNS.
Jews almost eight times likelier than Muslims and Arabs to be targets of hate crimes in Seattle area since 2023
Since 2023, the year in which the Oct. 7 attacks took place, Seattle has recorded 384 hate crimes, 35 of which (9.1%) have targeted Jews. Jews make up about 1% of those who live in the Seattle metro area, according to the Pew Research Center’s 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study.

Although Muslims make up twice that number, 2% of the Seattle area, Arabs and Muslims were targets of nine hate crimes, or 2.3% of the total, since 2023, according to official Seattle Police Department data.

That means that a Jew in the Seattle area was about 7.78 times likelier to be a target of a hate crime since 2023 than an Arab or a Muslim was, according to city data, which is current as of Jan. 31. (JNS asked the city for data since January.)

“The numbers are absolutely alarming, but alarm doesn’t help,” Randy Kessler, executive director of StandWithUs Northwest, told JNS.

“We need to be active in standing up for our right to live openly and proudly as Jews,” Kessler said. “That means speaking up, taking action and demanding fair treatment.”

Jews also have to report incidents, file complaints and work with political and nonprofit leaders “and occasionally taking legal action,” according to Kessler.

The Seattle Police Department reports three kinds of hate-related incidents. “Hate crimes,” which it previously called “malicious harassment,” involve attackers motivated by beliefs about the victim’s faith, or other protected categories.

“Bias element” crimes involve hateful remarks about a protected group that seem a secondary motivation in the crime, and “biased incidents” don’t involve crimes but are hate speech about a protected group that is protected under the First Amendment, per the department.
Israeli soccer star Anan Khalaili said set to sign with England’s Crystal Palace
Israeli soccer player Anan Khalaili is set to sign with Crystal Palace Football Club, marking an impressive move from the Belgian Pro League to the popular English Premier League, according to multiple reports on Sunday.

Khalaili, 21, a winger who currently plays for Union SG, is on the verge of signing a contract with Palace, his representatives told the Walla news site, a month after his expected move to the Italian team Inter Milan fell through after he failed his medical exam.

Reports said Crystal Palace would pay 28 million euros ($32.5 million) for the Haifa-born star who has made 16 appearances for the Israeli national team. The deal would make him the most expensive Israeli player ever.

It would also make him the only Israeli currently playing in the Premier League, which is considered the world’s richest and strongest league.

Palace won their first-ever European trophy at the UEFA Conference League this year, and will also play in the Europa League next season.

Khalaili played for Israeli Premier League team Maccabi Haifa from 2014-2023, and was on loan at Neve Yosef from 2019-2020. He then played for second-division team Hapoel Hadera from 2022-2024 before signing on to the Belgian Pro League team.

Meanwhile, Israeli player Manor Solomon was set to move from the Premier League to the lower English Football League Championship with a transfer to newly relegated West Ham United from Tottenham Hotspur, according to The Athletic.
Birthright Israel launches project to build gardens for Druze town two years after Hezbollah strike
Two years after a Hezbollah terrorist attack killed 12 children in the Druze community of Majdal Shams, the Birthright Israel Foundation announced the construction of eight therapeutic gardens in the area.

The gardens will be built in four local educational institutions, with approximately 1,000 volunteers from the Birthright Israel Volunteer Program expected to take part.

"On October 8, 2023, we accepted the Jews and Israelis as our home. Now, the Jews finally accepted us," Dolan Abu Saleh, Head of the Majdal Shams Municipality, told volunteers arriving in mid-July to work on the first of the gardens.

"Every volunteer we send strengthens the bond between world Jewry and Israel," Elias Saratovsky, President and CEO of Birthright Israel Foundation, stated.

"Majdal Shams shows what that looks like on the ground, and we are grateful to the The David and Meredith Kaplan Foundation for making this project possible. We want to bring tens of thousands more volunteers over the next few years."

Majdal Shams hosts memorial ceremony for victims of Lebanon rocket
In late July, a memorial ceremony was held in Majdal Shams to commemorate the 12 victims of the rocket fired at the village from Lebanon on July 27, 2024.

In addition to the 12 boys and girls aged 10 to 16, who were killed, 34 others were wounded as a result of the strike.
travelingisrael.com: Are the Samaritans the true Israelites?
Are the Samaritans the original guardians of the ancient Hebrew Torah? Join us on Mount Gerizim as we uncover biblical history, ancient Passover sacrifices, unique purity laws, and how Jews, Christians, and Samaritans intersect on one extraordinary mountain in Israel.




Holocaust heroes documentary wins best short film prize at US festival
A documentary co-produced by Jewish News that follows a journey across Europe to meet some of the last living people who rescued Jews during the Holocaust has won a major film festival award in California.

Directed by Oscar and Emmy-winning filmmaker Vanessa Roth, The Righteous Road Trip was named Best Documentary Short at the Burbank International Film Festival.

The 40-minute film follows British-Israeli humanitarian Jonny Daniels and his dog Tyson as they travel more than 3,000 kilometres through Poland, Slovakia and Hungary in a van filled with Christmas trees and gifts for the rescuers, many of whom are now in their nineties or over 100.

Their journey takes them to meet some of the last surviving Righteous Among the Nations – non-Jews recognised for risking their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.

Fewer than 65 of those honoured are believed to still be alive.

Reacting to the award, Roth said: “We are deeply touched and honoured by the Burbank International Film Festival Award for Best Documentary Short. Thank you to the judges and audiences for recognising the film in this way, and especially for giving the stories of the Righteous Among Nations this moment of celebration and honour for their acts of unparalleled moral courage.

“This award means so much to our team, and we can’t wait to keep sharing this special film with audiences around the world!”

Jewish News co-publisher Justin Cohen conceived the film and is among the film’s producers and creators alongside Daniels and Holocaust educator Stephen D. Smith.

The award comes less than two months after the documentary had its world premiere at the Dances With Films festival in Hollywood in June.
7 October film gets Toronto festival premiere amid boycott pressure on Israeli cinema
A new Israeli film telling the story of the 7 October massacre is set to receive its international premiere at one of North America’s biggest film festivals amid growing boycott pressure on Israeli cinema.

Our Loves, directed by veteran Israeli filmmaker Avi Nesher, has been selected for the Centrepiece programme at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

The drama follows a group of characters whose lives cross during the Hamas-led attacks of 7 October 2023, when around 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.

Its selection comes as Israeli filmmakers and performers face increasing calls for cultural boycotts over the war in Gaza.

Speaking at a panel during the recent Jerusalem Film Festival, Nesher described the boycott of Israeli cinema as “a sad part of life” which must be dealt with “somehow”.

The film has also secured backing from major entertainment companies Fox and Access Entertainment at a difficult time for Israel’s film industry.

Its Toronto premiere comes ahead of Israel’s Ophir Awards, where Our Loves has been put forward in 12 categories, including best feature, director, screenplay and cinematography.

A win for best feature could put the film on the path to becoming Israel’s submission for the Academy Awards.





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