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Friday, August 14, 2026

08/13 Links Pt2: Melanie Phillips: Gaslighting on steroids; James Murdoch Throws DEI Spin at Israel Controversy; Marco Rubio Is Right—the ICC Is Dangerously Flawed

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: Gaslighting on steroids
Since Zionism is framed as racist, destructive and positively demonic, all Jews are now held to be positively demonic. The result is Jews across Europe and elsewhere in the West being abused, insulted, screamed at, spat at, threatened with murder and physically attacked.

This gaslighting on steroids has produced an alarming response among some American Jews. Instead of fighting back, they are deliberately avoiding any reference to Zionism.

A poll taken last February by the Jewish Federations of North America found that only 37% of American Jews describe themselves as Zionists, even though 88% said Israel had the right to exist as a Jewish, democratic state. The study said respondents were either unclear about what Zionism was or else they thought it implied blanket support for Israeli government policies and actions with which they disagreed.

Some badly gaslighted American Jews are now even saying that the words “Zionism” and “Zionists” should no longer be used. The existence of Israel, they say, means these terms are outdated; and since they’re now associated with racism and killing, they should be junked.

This is a catastrophically wrong conclusion. Words matter. They shape the way people see the world. When the United Nations passed its infamous 1995 resolution declaring “Zionism is racism,” it lit the fires of Jew-hatred across the world. Language has been hijacked to turn words into weapons to destroy Israel and the Jews.

Zionism has been cast as an evil doctrine to detach Israel from Judaism. But the land of Israel is an essential part of Judaism. That’s why anti-Zionism is an existential attack on Judaism itself.

“Genocide” is another word that’s been hijacked as a weapon for Israel’s destruction. To deal with the patent absurdity of describing as a “genocide” Israel’s totally justified war of self-defense, in which it has gone to unprecedented lengths to avoid killing civilians as far as possible, Israel’s foes have changed the meaning of the word.

According to them, genocide now means merely killing any Palestinian Arabs, or—even more imbecilically—just destroying Gaza’s buildings.

Jews should absolutely not be aiding the intended dismemberment of Judaism by helping remove “Zionism” from the lexicon and from the world.

Jews should be asserting that the land of Israel is inseparable from Judaism, that the Palestinian Arabs are ethnic cleansers and that Zionism was the greatest anti-colonialist liberation movement of the 20th century.

The proper response to a malevolent narrative of lies is not to shuffle away for cover. It is to get up off your knees and fight back with pride.
James Murdoch Throws DEI Spin at Israel Controversy
Days after an eruption of condemnations over an issue of New York magazine that repeatedly and falsely accused Israel of genocide and that describes the Jewish state as "the land mass currently called Israel," the magazine’s leadership has finally offered up a wan response.

It’s not exactly an apology, and it’s not exactly "we stand by our story," either.

Instead, the statement from New York magazine's editorial leadership—no names, please—to the Washington Free Beacon dodges the journalistic accuracy and integrity issues involved, along with the antisemitism. Instead, it serves up a salad of lefty buzzwords.

"Our latest cover story is an exploration of a New York subculture that is making its presence felt, both culturally and politically, in new ways over the last few years. As with other communities forged by common experiences of conflict, there is an irreducible political dimension to any coverage of this subject," the statement says. "We have endeavored to capture the tensions and live debates that exist within these communities, including how they relate to Israel. We are aware of the wide range of responses to the piece, including critiques from some in the Jewish community. We take these comments seriously, and, as always, we welcome and acknowledge good faith discussion and criticism about our journalism."

The reference to the "cover story" and "the piece" obscures the fact that it was not just a single article that is fueling outrage, but two articles. One is by Zaina Arafat, an adjunct assistant professor at Barnard College and a featured faculty member at the unaccredited, for-profit "School" of the New York Times. A second article, focused on food, is by Madeline Leung Coleman, whose social media indicates support for the unlawful Gaza encampment at Columbia, which culminated in the storming and occupation of a campus building, and its demand for divestment from Israel. That article matter-of-factly accuses Israel of genocide.

James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems company took control of New York on July 8, and New York’s "Habibi City" cover is being interpreted as a signal of his plans for what the press release announcing the transaction described as "the beginning of a new chapter." Murdoch is not pushing back on that idea.

Vox, which was also part of the James Murdoch deal, on August 10 published an article calling for a U.S. embargo on arms to Israel. "The Democratic Party’s burgeoning support for restricting aid and arms transfers to Israel is well-founded," the article said. "Supplying Israel with money and weapons is contrary to both America’s moral obligations and security interests. It is wrong to subsidize or provision any foreign military’s assaults on human rights. And doing so undermines global respect for both the United States and the concept of international law." The article didn’t explain how it would be in the U.S. "moral" or "security" interest to allow its ally to be overrun by Islamist terrorists, rapists, and murderers, or to turn to alternative arms suppliers such as China or Russia instead of the U.S.

The New York magazine statement that it welcomes "good faith discussion and criticism" also is a not-so-subtle attempt to shift the question from the accuracy and integrity of the magazine’s journalism—which the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt, called "a blatant, disgusting double standard"—to the intentions of the magazine’s critics.

For the assignment to cover Middle Eastern food in New York City, James Murdoch hired a reporter, Coleman, who signed an October 26, 2023 "Statement of Solidarity with the Palestinian People" that claimed "Israel’s war against Gaza is an attempt to conduct genocide against the Palestinian people." The statement said, "We come together as writers, journalists, academics, artists, and other culture workers to express our solidarity with the people of Palestine. We stand with their anticolonial struggle for freedom and for self-determination, and with their right to resist occupation." Never mind the "good faith" of the critics, where is the good faith of an editor or an owner who makes such an assignment or publishes the false accusations of genocide it produces?
Simon & Schuster Doubles Down on Notorious Writer Who Calls Jews 'Ghouls,' Will Publish Her New Novel: Writer Taunts Angry 'Zionists' Who Oppose Her Deal
Simon & Schuster's partnership with a notorious antisemite who regularly calls Jews "roaches," "demons," and "ghouls" is deeper than previously reported.

Susan Abulhawa—who has projected the medieval bile for years on her X account—announced in a defiant video that the publishing giant would put out her new forthcoming novel. Simon & Schuster has already faced significant controversy and been condemned by the Anti-Defamation League for its decision to reprint two of Abulhawa's past novels through its Atria imprint.

"The Zionists have missed or don't know, but Simon & Schuster will also be publishing my new novel," Abulhawa said.

"My upcoming novel, The Sun Still Kisses Me, is not yet listed, because its release isn't until next year, but I'll post more about it soon," the author promised.

In a brief video announcing the project, Abulhawa also took aim at Jewish writers and editors who have spoken out against the collaboration—including Washington Free Beacon editor in chief Eliana Johnson and Commentary editor and Free Beacon contributor John Podhoretz—laying digitally altered video of them over foreboding music.

"Zionists are really mad," Abulhawa deadpanned.

Abulhawa promised in the video to donate all funds from the preorders of her books to the Palestinian Youth Movement. The movement "organizes events with the U.S. designated terrorist entity Samidoun" and, according to the Israeli government, has "close ties" with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, also a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization, Sen. Tom Cotton's (R., Ark.) office reported.

Abulhawa's track record of attacking Jews ("Jews" specifically, not just "Zionists") stretches back years and is in plain sight.

"We live in the time of jewish supremacist demons," Abulhawa said in a September 2025 post on X, adding that Jews were a "cultureless, rootless human aberration."

That same month, she blasted another critic as a "lying Jewish supremacist cockroach" and attacked "dual loyalty zionists," citing former Supreme Court justice Louis Brandeis as an example.


Holocaust survivor volunteers at Sydney Jewish Museum to inform students about evils of hatred
For decades, the voices of Holocaust survivors have fostered vital conversations about antisemitic atrocities.

One of those survivors is Mark Spigelman, a retired surgeon, professor and medical archaeologist, who volunteers at the Sydney Jewish Museum.

"When the students ask to hear my stories, I explain to them that I don't have that many memories of events, I have nightmares of events," he said.

A story of survival
Born in Poland in 1940, Mr Spigelman was taught to open his blue eyes, smile, never cry, and to only speak German.

He was also taught that in public, he was to appear as a girl.

"The Jewish faith requires that all baby boys be circumcised, so when the Germans were hunting for Jews, the first thing they would do was pull down the pants of young boys," he said.

"That is why I spent most of the war years dressed as a girl." Spigelman dressed as a girl on the left, with an older man, and younger boy on the right in a black and white photo.

Mr Spigelman (left) dressed as a girl, next to his grandfather Jacob and cousin, both of whom died in Auschwitz months later. (Supplied)

Inspired by their grandchildren's curiosity to understand more about Mr Spigelman's childhood, his wife Rachel wrote a book for young readers to introduce them to the Holocaust.

In the book, Mr Spigelman references a memory where he and his mother were confronted by German officers. He recounted his mother saying to him in that moment: "Just smile and open your blue eyes, my little girl."

When Mr Spigelman and his parents were liberated on January 27, 1945, they had been hiding on a farm very close to Auschwitz.

"My crazy family thought that was safer than being far away from the camp, because they thought the Germans would never search a farm so close, because no Jew would be so stupid as to hide there. But my parents were right."

When Mr Spigelman went to school in Poland for the first time soon after his family's liberation, he was told he could "play". He had no idea what that meant.

"I spent four years of my life not talking to anyone … I hardly came across another child, because we were hiding."
Call me Back Podcast: Is there a Final Solution to the Jewish question? - with Dara Horn
Why has antisemitism endured and how can Jews effectively combat it?

Dan is joined by author Dara Horn to discuss her new book, The Final Solution to the Jewish Question: A Love Story for the Living. Five years after her book People Love Dead Jews diagnosed how society relates to Jewish suffering, Horn now addresses what can be done about it. She explains how AI is systematically targeting Jews, why traditional efforts to fight antisemitism are failing and outlines an approach to find a solution that could finally change everything.

Explore Dara Horn’s new Tell Institute to combat antisemitism.

Pre-order your copy of Dara’s book, The Final Solution to the Jewish Question: A Love Story for the Living

In this episode:
Why Horn chose the provocative title “The Final Solution to the Jewish Question?”
Re-casting antisemitism not as bigotry but as “the big lie”
What Holocaust education gets wrong
How Nazism and Soviet anti-Zionism lives on
How is anti-Jewish propaganda poisoning AI?
The dangerous bargain behind America’s Jewish “Golden Age”
What young disaffected Jews are missing and how that can change
What is her solution to antisemitism?


Marco Rubio Is Right—the ICC Is Dangerously Flawed
Amid the ongoing churn of the on-again, off-again U.S. war with Iran last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a different—and surprising—foreign policy objective: dismantling the International Criminal Court (ICC). His initiative envisions a “whole of government” effort to “systematically disable the ICC’s ability to operate, target American servicemen or officials, or otherwise threaten American sovereignty,” the State Department officially announced on July 13.

The goal is undeniably ambitious. It’s also understandable, given the persistent concerns about the ICC. For years, U.S. policymakers on both sides of the political aisle have worried over the potential exposure of servicemen and officials to politicized prosecution—and the inevitable chilling effect this could have on American foreign policy.

Of course, the United States isn’t a signatory to the Rome Statute, the court’s foundational document, and so isn’t bound by its terms. But many of the countries where U.S. forces are deployed in significant numbers—including Japan, South Korea, and Italy—are signatories. The enduring concern has been that fast-moving politics and shifting international priorities could leave deployed American servicemen and servicewomen at the mercy of “transnational justice” meted out by the court.

All this had already made the court a significant priority for the Trump administration. In February 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order sanctioning the court over its politicized behavior, and over the past year the U.S. government has progressively sanctioned key personnel as well. Now it is trying something more ambitious: dismantling the ICC altogether. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks with the media before departing from Bahrain international airport on June 25, 2026.

The outcry has been predictable. Defenders of the ICC (and critics of the administration more broadly) argue that the court represents an indispensable mechanism for advancing international justice and ensuring accountability among global leaders. However, their case rests on the assumption that the ICC functions as an impartial arbiter, and the evidence suggests otherwise.

The problems start with the selective application of the court’s mandate. The ICC’s founding statute lays out that it is responsible for addressing "the most serious crimes of international concern," such as genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression (that is, “the use of armed force by a State against the sovereignty, integrity or independence of another State”). In principle, egregious cases of state abuse—like China's extensive persecution of its Uyghur minority—fall squarely within this definition.

In practice, however, the court depends on state cooperation. Its mandate is therefore enforceable only against countries that are unable or unwilling to resist. So as a practical matter, the ICC has turned a blind eye to some of the world’s worst offenders in favor of other, easier targets. In the process, the ICC has become an institution of selective justice.

The court’s performance, moreover, doesn’t justify its far-reaching authority. After more than two decades in operation, the ICC has achieved fewer than 15 convictions, several of which were subsequently overturned or reduced on appeal. And throughout much of its history, the overwhelming majority of individuals indicted by the court were African, opening the court up to charges of neocolonialism from countries on the continent. For an institution designed to embody universal justice, that constitutes a deeply problematic record.


South Carolina Senator Darline Graham ‘doubles down’ on support for Israel, her office says
Sen. Darline Graham (R-S.C.), whom South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster appointed to replace her late brother, Lindsey Graham, said on Thursday that she is backing measures that continue her brother’s longstanding support for the Jewish state.

“I stand with Israel,” Graham stated. “These bills will help solidify the critical relationship between our two countries.”

“I truly believe we have a moral and religious duty to stand with the Jewish people and the nation of Israel to guard against those who seek to destroy them,” she stated.

The measures include the U.S.-Israel FUTURES Act, which would support joint research while advancing shared defense priorities, and the Jewish American Security Act, which would provide the U.S. Department of Education with “supplemental tools to combat rising antisemitism in academic institutions and on campuses across the country, and helps secure Jewish communities and places of worship.”

Graham also backed the Enhanced Iran Sanctions Act of 2025, which would expand U.S. sanctions “on foreign individuals facilitating the sale or transportation of Iranian oil,” and the Iran Human Rights, Internet Freedom, and Accountability Act of 2026, which would increase funding to ensure internet access for the Iranian people.

Graham will face Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) in a Republican primary runoff for the Senate on Aug. 25, since neither received at least 50% of the vote in the Aug. 11 primary.
Atlanta Jewish Times publisher accuses Ossoff of ‘lying’ about Israel support
The publisher of the Atlanta Jewish Times penned an open letter to Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) on Wednesday pressing the senator over his repeated votes to block U.S. military sales to Israel, accusing Ossoff of failing to support Israel and of misrepresenting his positions to his Jewish constituents.

“I apologize for being blunt, but please, stop lying to me and your constituents. I hear you claim, over and over again, that you support Israel — that your support is ‘ironclad,’” Michael Morris wrote in the letter. “It is not. You vote against Israel on the Senate floor in Washington, then come home to Georgia and make this untruthful claim.”

The open letter is the latest expression of frustration with the Jewish first-term senator, who is up for reelection in November, from prominent leaders in Georgia’s Jewish community. Others have told Jewish Insider they feel that they have no good options in November’s midterm, between Ossoff, whose stances on Israel have frustrated them, and Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA), whose rhetoric and ties to antisemitic and far-right figures have raised alarms.

“Your antagonism toward Israel has remained steadfast,” Morris wrote to Ossoff, highlighting his repeated votes for measures led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to cut off weapons sales to Israel. “Your vote continues to demonstrate a lack of support for the Jewish state.”

Ossoff’s Senate campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Morris said in the open letter that Ossoff’s support for Israel is only reliable on nonbinding rhetorical measures supporting Israel’s right to defend itself or condemning Hamas.

“But when a bill offers Israel tangible strategic support — munitions, rifles, bombs, military and financial assistance — your record is abysmal, and you throw Israel under the bus,” Morris said. “You are with Israel on the votes that cost you nothing, and against it on the votes that actually matter. All that heartfelt sympathy is smoke and mirrors.”

He said that supporting measures to stop arms sales to Israel is not consistent with a pro-Israel stance.
Jayapal seems to advise student groups to invite antisemite Hasan Piker after University of Washington nixes official event with him
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who has often accused Israel of “genocide,” appears to think that antisemitic podcaster Hasan Piker should get a chance to speak at the University of Washington, after the public university canceled an event with him scheduled for January.

“I encourage student groups who want to hear from Mr. Piker to work with the university to ensure that they can proceed,” she stated. “As a member of the Judiciary Committee, I have been absolutely clear that free speech is a constitutional right that we must all stand up and protect.”

“I have been communicating my concerns about the cancellation of the Hasan Piker event directly to the university, and they have informed me that they are doing an internal review to ensure this never happens again,” she stated. (JNS sought comment from the school and the congresswoman.)

Jayapal, who endorsed Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan who campaigned with Piker, spoke differently about hate speech in 2019.

“Hate speech is not ‘free speech.’ It is harmful and threatening,” she stated at the time, when the topic was racist posts on social media rather than Jew-hatred. “Facebook has the power to take down hateful groups, like ‘I’m 10-15,’ and should.”

Mari Leavitt, a Democratic state representative, told JNS that “free speech and bringing in speakers on various topics, even when controversial or abhorrent to some, is central to teaching students critical thinking on various viewpoints and are an important part of learning.”

The university “used extremely poor judgment” by inviting Piker, Leavitt told JNS.

The public school also made a mistake by not including mention of Piker’s “dangerous rhetoric” in the initial event announcement, according to the state lawmaker.

Leavitt said she spoke with a university representative after the original event was announced to express her concerns.

“I was surprised and dismayed it was a department’s official pick, as opposed to a student organization,” she told JNS.


The Nazi drag queen
“Did you hear about the Nazi drag queen?” a friend asked me a few days after Cincinnati Pride.

For the past year, I have written about antisemitism and anti-Zionism in Cincinnati because I grew tired of the silence. Since October 7, Cincinnati has had its share of incidents: banners stretched across the interstate, a desecrated Jewish cemetery, Hillel students trapped inside a campus building, a Jewish man assaulted after removing antisemitic graffiti and more. Each new incident generated a few uncomfortable conversations before fading away. Cincinnati is not New York, people told themselves. True antisemitism does not happen here.

That denial had already shaped Cincinnati Pride’s relationship with the Jewish community. In 2024, an anti-Zionist pressure campaign culminated in the resignation of Pride’s Jewish board members after being harassed and doxxed. Despite extensive discussions with the Board about the matter, Jewish participants were ultimately advised to march from an undisclosed location and refrain from wearing visible Jewish symbols.

This year appeared different. After months of difficult conversations, the Mayerson JCC bus returned, draped in rainbow flags. Off stepped rabbis, retirees, parents and teenagers wearing rainbow kippot, Pride shirts and Star of David necklaces. It felt as though two difficult years had finally led somewhere. Drag performer Judith Iscariot appearing as “Schutzstaffel Sam” at Cincinnati Pride (Screen capture of video provided by author)

Then Cincinnati Pride featured drag artist Judith Iscariot as “Schutzstaffel Sam” – a deliberate reference to the Schutzstaffel (SS), who operated the concentration camp system and much of the Nazi regime’s Holocaust. Iscariot fused Uncle Sam with Third Reich iconography: a stars-and-stripes suit, Reich-style cap, swastika armband and gold boots. She later said the character represented the “American Reich.”

For more than 20 minutes, Schutzstaffel Sam marched through the parade repeatedly performing the Sieg Heil with a pointed finger. On the main stage, protesters carried signs reading “Zionism Has No Place at Pride,” “Guardians of Pedophiles” and “One Day This Country Will Wake Up to His Obituary.” Schutzstaffel Sam then raised a gold pistol and fired into Lady Liberty’s head. As Liberty collapsed, Iscariot twerked over her body, stomped on it and ended with another Nazi salute.


Antisemitism among College Faculty and in Classrooms
Across multiple campuses and disciplines, there is a discernible trend in which discourse surrounding Israel, Zionism and Jewish identity is framed in ways that go beyond critical inquiry and, in some cases, veer into rhetoric that can reasonably be understood as antisemitic.

These dynamics operate in individual classroom interactions as well as broader institutional choices about curriculum and programming.

Academic freedom cannot serve as a shield for the repeated presentation of one-sided or exclusionary narratives that delegitimize or demonize a particular people or identity.

When critiques of Israel are advanced that erase Jewish historical ties, apply double standards or invoke tropes that echo longstanding antisemitic themes, the result is the normalization of bias within academic spaces.
The Faculty Factor: Inside the Networks Driving Anti-Israel and Anti-Zionist Activism on Campus
Across U.S. university and college campuses, an organized segment of faculty groups, unions, and networks has emerged as a significant force driving belligerent anti-Israel rhetoric and activity.

In a 2025 ADL/AEN survey of 209 Jewish-identifying faculty, nearly 3/4 reported observing anti-Jewish activity originating from other faculty, staff, or administrators.

These faculty and staff networks seek to influence university policy, curricula, institutional ties, and public discourse.

Their members organize and actively participate in anti-Israel protests, some of which have crossed into antisemitism through the use of classic antisemitic tropes, the targeting of Jewish organizations and individuals, and open hostility toward Jewish students and colleagues.
Kassy Akiva: Liberal University Gives In After Student Lawsuit Said Campus Became Hamas Hotbed
An elite Pennsylvania liberal arts college agreed to sweeping changes after a lawsuit said the school allowed its campus to become a hotbed for radicalism, with open glorification of the terrorist group Hamas and antisemitic harassment by students.

Haverford College has settled with a group of Jewish students who sued the school in federal court in 2024. The students accused administrators of failing to protect them from discrimination and harassment because they were Jewish.

The lawsuit detailed a campus environment where Hamas-supporting rhetoric became increasingly intertwined with hostility toward Jewish students. Masked protesters disrupted events, activists favorably shared images of Hamas paragliders during the October 7 attack, and a professor called for support for the “Palestinian resistance” just days after the attack.

Under the agreement, Haverford will explicitly state that Jewish, Israeli, and Zionist students are welcome on campus and that discrimination and harassment targeting them violates college policy and can result in disciplinary action.

The settlement also requires Haverford to establish a new Civil Rights Director to handle antisemitism complaints, create an Antisemitism Committee, require annual antisemitism training for students and employees, and provide equal security for events sponsored by Jewish, Israeli, or Zionist groups. It will require masked individuals to identify themselves to campus officials when circumstances warrant it.

The students were represented by The Deborah Project, a nonprofit legal organization that represents Jewish students and faculty facing antisemitism in education.

According to the lawsuit, Jewish students faced hostility in classrooms, student forums, campus events, and even extracurricular activities, while administrators repeatedly failed to intervene or treated complaints as matters for students to resolve themselves. The campus environment became so hostile that administrators were warned that Jewish students felt physically threatened as Hamas-supporting rhetoric continued.

During an encampment in April 2024, one Jewish student wrote to the Haverford President Wendy Raymond that protesters were using bullhorns to chant from the Hamas Charter and accuse Israel of genocide.

“As a Jew I experience this conduct exactly as these people intend for me to experience it: as grossly demeaning, insulting and, most important, physically threatening. Glorying in Hamas’s conduct, and insisting that Israel do nothing to stop Hamas from doing it again, can’t be anything other than a threat to Jews,” the student wrote.

The lawsuit says one image circulated among Haverford students immediately after October 7 that featured a paraglider alongside the words “Stand with Palestinian resistance.” Hamas terrorists had used paragliders to infiltrate Israel for its massacre of Israeli civilians.
Federal judge dismisses Trump admin’s lawsuit alleging Harvard violated Jewish, Israeli students’ rights
A federal judge dismissed the U.S. Department of Justice’s lawsuit against Harvard University on Thursday, ruling that the government had not shown an ongoing violation of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act involving Jewish and Israeli students.

Richard Stearns, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, said the lawsuit, filed in March, relied primarily on incidents from the 2023-24 academic year. Only three of the incidents cited occurred afterwards, in March 2025, he wrote.

“Without diminishing any concern arising from these occurrences, the court finds them, singly and collectively, to be too isolated and episodic to support a plausible inference that any institutionalized noncompliance with Title VI persists at Harvard to this day,” he wrote.

Stearns also said federal law requires the government to first notify an institution of its failure to comply with Title VI and determine that voluntary compliance cannot be obtained before taking enforcement action. The administration issued such notice to Harvard on June 30, 2025, per the judge.

Stearns wrote that the lawsuit is “devoid of any factual allegations plausibly establishing that any events that might be construed as evidence of noncompliance occurred after June 30, 2025.”

Shabbos Kestenbaum, a PragerU commentator and former Harvard student who sued the university over alleged antisemitism and later reached a settlement, told JNS that Stearns “previously ruled in our case that ‘Harvard failed its Jewish students.’”

“This dismissal represents a technicality, and I look forward to the Trump administration either appealing or embarking on the appropriate administrative funding termination process,” Kestenbaum said.

Kenneth L. Marcus, chairman and CEO of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, stated that the ruling “would make it significantly more challenging for the Justice Department to win future civil rights cases, not just those involving antisemitism, by effectively raising the legal standard for enforcement.”

“Normally, when an administrative agency finds an institution out of compliance under Title VI, it is required to give that recipient a chance to fix the problem,” he said. “This ruling, if broadly adopted by the courts, would add an unprecedented higher bar: the government now has to prove not only that the institution refused to resolve the issue at hand in an agreement with the government but also that additional subsequent violations occurred.”

“This is a significant and troubling departure from how civil rights enforcement has long worked, and it should concern anyone who cares about accountability on antisemitism or any other form of discrimination,” Marcus said.


Stalker who sent antisemitic abuse and Holocaust references to judge detained in hospital
A Jewish stalker who waged vendettas against two of Britain’s leading judges – including sending antisemitic abuse to one of them, who is not Jewish – has been detained in hospital indefinitely.

Richard Kendal, 62, turned up at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in a bid to confront Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring, to whom he had sent a stream of emails which included threats of assassination and murder, antisemitic slurs and references to the Holocaust.

Kendal also suggested he would “release the hounds” on Sir Andrew McFarlane, former president of the Family Division at the Royal Courts of Justice.

Kingston Crown Court heard that Kendal suffers from psychosis and a delusional disorder, and harbours “deep suspicions of a judicial conspiracy” stemming from a bitter divorce battle in 2009.

By 2021 Kendal had sent abusive letters to around 50 judges and issued personal threats to Sir Andrew, and went on to persistently target Judge Goldspring and his legal adviser Elizabeth Hardy.

In March this year, Kendal, from Wandsworth, south London, was deemed unfit to stand trial due to his health issues, and a jury then heard evidence and concluded he had been responsible for racially aggravated stalking of Judge Goldspring, stalking against Sir Andrew and Ms Hardy, and breaching a High Court order aimed at protecting his ex-wife Ruth Garner.

The court heard that Kendal’s actions had left Ms Hardy and the judges fearing for their personal safety, with Judge Goldspring worried that he would be targeted as he left court or at his family home.

On Tuesday, Judge Marcus Tregilgas-Davey ordered that Kendal be detained indefinitely in a hospital for mental health treatment to protect the public.

He said Kendal “remains fixated with the idea that authority figures are engaged in a conspiracy” against him.
Mein Kampf found on prominent display at new London Arabic bookshop
Multiple Arabic-language copies of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf have been found prominently displayed at a new bookshop in central London.

The books were spotted at Aafaq Bookstore on Edgware Road by Elliot Keck, Conservative councillor for Hyde Park, when he visited the shop on Wednesday evening.

Photographs shared by Keck show several copies of Hitler’s manifesto laid out together on one of the shop’s main display tables.

Keck told Jewish News: “It makes me sick to my stomach to find copies of Mein Kampf being proudly displayed in a new bookshop in my ward.

“Let’s be clear – these are not being sold as academic reference pieces. They appear to have been published by the bookshop or its owner itself and are being displayed on one of the main display tables.

“While the council likely doesn’t have any powers to crack down on this, from my perspective this hideous little business is not welcome, and I very much hope to see it fail.” Aafaq Bookstore on Edgware Road in central London.

A Community Security Trust (CST) spokesperson told Jewish News: “No London Arabic bookshop should be publishing and promoting Mein Kampf, the most infamous antisemitic text of the Holocaust era.”

A Jewish Leadership Council (JLC) spokesperson said: “For an Arabic bookshop to be publishing and selling copies of Mein Kampf in the centre of London is utterly horrifying and highlights the major problem of Islamist extremism within parts of British society. In a climate of rising and ever more violent antisemitism, there must be stronger action to tackle the extremist ideologies that fuel it.”

Board of Deputies president Phil Rosenberg said the organisation was investigating alongside other communal groups.

Writing on X, he said: “The absolute state of this. If a minority community bookstore is promoting – without clear refutation – one of history’s most notorious racist texts, which prefigured the industrial mass-murder of 6 million Jews, Roma, gay men, disabled people and others, it would be totally unconscionable.

“We are investigating along with our communal partners.”


Anthropic reportedly in talks to buy Israeli-founded AI startup at $6B valuation
Founded only three years ago, Israeli artificial intelligence startup Decart is reportedly in talks to be acquired by American AI giant and Claude chatbot developer Anthropic for as much as $6 billion.

The talks — which have not been finalized and could still fall through — were first reported by Bloomberg. If the deal comes to fruition, it would mark Anthropic’s first acquisition in Israel, and its largest to date. Started by a group of former OpenAI researchers in 2021, Anthropic is the developer of so-called large language models or LLMs, the advanced AI technology behind conversational chatbots such as Claude AI or ChatGPT.

Anthropic did not respond to a request for comment, and Decart declined to do so. Meanwhile, Elon Musk dismissed a report by Israeli financial daily Calcalist that SpaceX was in talks to buy Decart. Previously, US chip giant Nvidia was reportedly vying to purchase the Israeli AI startup.

Decart was founded in late 2023 by 27-year-old Dean Leitersdorf and Moshe Shalev, who connected during their military service in Israel’s military intelligence unit 8200.

Decart has built a software platform to train massive, real-time generative AI models across Nvidia, Amazon and Google processors. The platform is designed to optimize the utility of chips needed for training and running AI models. The technology cuts the computing cost of training AI models by helping chips work more efficiently, according to the startup.

Advanced AI systems are trained using huge amounts of data which require both ultra-fast computing performance and massive memory.

The addition of Decart’s technology could help Anthropic handle increasing demand for its AI tools such as Claude, according to the Bloomberg report. AI companies Anthropic and OpenAI have both committed to spending billions of dollars on data centers equipped with expensive chips to meet their soaring computing needs to build and run advanced AI systems.

Decart is also building generative AI foundation models that vow to turn human imagination into video on the screen without the need for extensive coding. The advanced AI system, which aims to simulate the physical world, lets users edit and navigate live video feeds during streaming or recording, using text prompts to change colors, outfits, scene environment, or remove objects.


Israel sends 80-person rescue delegation to earthquake-hit Colombia
The Israeli aid delegation to Colombia, dubbed the "Alliance of Friends," took off Thursday night to assist in the aftermath of the country's devastating earthquake, the Home Front Command announced in a statement.

With representatives from the IDF, the Ministry of Defense, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the 80-person delegation took off from the Nevatim Airbase and will "immediately begin a rescue and assistance mission" upon its arrival.

According to Home Front Command's Maj.-Gen. Shai Klapper, the main goal of the expedition is to provide immediate life-saving assistance through mapping destruction sites.

The delegation, headed by the commander of the Home Front Command's National Rescue and Rescue Unit, Brig.-General (res.) Yossi Pinto, includes both regular duty soldiers and reservists.

On Wednesday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said an aid delegation would be sent to Colombia, after Colombia's President Abelardo de la Espriella requested Israel do so.

Israel has sent aid delegations to unfriendly countries
De la Espriella was inagurated only four days before the earthquake, replacing the decidely anti-Israel Gustavo Petro. De la Espriella's new administration was expected to renew relations between the countries. In its first week, it pledged to move the Colombian embassy to Jerusalem, and recognized the Golan Heights as Israeli territory.

Despite Colombia's de la Espriella's warm approach, Israel has regularly dispatched rescue teams to countries after natural disasters, regardless of diplomatic relations.

After Venezuela's twin earthquakes in June, in which over 6,000 people were killed, Israel sent a delegation to Venezuela. At the time, Israel and Venezuela hadn't had official relations since Nicolas Maduro severed ties in 2009.

The delegation, also headed by Pinto, led to the eventual reintroduction of consular relations between the countries, with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Felix Plasencia specifically stating Israel's emergency efforts as the reason for the move

“Both governments recognize the importance of the relationship between the State of Israel and the Jewish community in Venezuela, which constitutes an important historic bridge of friendship between the two countries,” Venezuela’s and Israel's governments said in a joint statement.





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