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Thursday, August 20, 2026

08/19 Links Pt2: The Plague of ‘and Genocide Studies’; Democrats Take Aim at the Civil Rights Act; Thomas Friedman is wrong again, this time about AIPAC

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: The Plague of ‘and Genocide Studies’
Segal and his supporters appear to be arguing that it’s a violation of academic freedom for Segal’s superiors to delete something Segal wrote for the website. I don’t know whether Segal is right about that, but I do know that his written words ought to be an embarrassment to the university that hired him.

First of all, when Segal says “according to official figures,” he means Hamas. But also, he goes further than Hamas is actually willing to go in its own statistical presentations. The important point is that what Segal writes isn’t true, and isn’t even arguably true.

To defend himself, Segal “points to a vote by the International Association of Genocide Scholars last year in which the group declared that ‘Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide’ detailed in the United Nations Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.”

But that organization was revealed to be a joke, and its “voters” included a large number of internet trolls who realized you could just pay for “membership” and pretend to be a genocide scholar in good standing.

That is, Segal points to a known scam to claim that scholars agree with him.

But the wider point is the counterproductivity of the industry of “Holocaust and genocide scholars.” The Holocaust was a unique event, and it should be studied as such. Universities don’t enhance anybody’s education by diluting the Holocaust. And Jewish organizations should stop universalizing the Holocaust by adding “and genocide” to their own institutions and programs. In fact, where possible they should remove those terms.

The purpose of Holocaust education is education. The purpose of the work being done by Raz Segal, Briahna Joy Gray and the Democratic Socialists of America is the opposite of education. Let’s help society stop confusing the two.
Seth Mandel: Democrats Take Aim at the Civil Rights Act
Like clockwork, Jamie Raskin, the Maryland congressman and ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, took the baton handed to him by Van Erem and promised retribution for Trump officials. He called the anti-Semitism investigations a “frame-up operation” and threatened to push changes to the Civil Rights Act itself.

Raskin’s promised lawfare against federal employees involved in strengthening the enforcement of civil-rights law is no doubt the goal of complaints like those voiced by Van Erem. Raskin, further, is the perfect receptacle for these complaints. His Jewishness provides cover for Democrats who are, as Raskin presumably is, intent on dismantling federal protections for Jews and insulating the Democratic Party from accountability for its exploding anti-Semitism.

Raskin is also a co-sponsor of legislation that would enforce a partial arms embargo against Israel. He has fought anti-Semitism-related legislation and has been critical of Israel’s response to the October 7 massacre since the beginning of the Hamas-instigated war.

Raskin also demanded testimony from Harmeet Dhillon, the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for civil rights, alleging that it was a “a distinct possibility” that Dhillon “deliberately orchestrated a scheme to attack universities, their faculties, and their administrators for political purposes while defrauding the American people and the courts.”

If the Democrats, as expected, win control of the House in the midterms, they are vowing to use this power to make government officials pay, and pay dearly, for daring to investigate universities’ discrimination against Jewish students. In the past, this would have struck most observers as a bizarre choice of priorities. In 2026, it’s what the public has come to expect from Raskin and company.
Thomas Friedman is wrong again, this time about AIPAC
For as long as I have been writing about the Middle East, Thomas L. Friedman has been one of my favorite foils.

I don’t mean that personally. Friedman is an accomplished journalist, a gifted writer and the possessor of perhaps the most influential foreign-policy column in America. The problem is that when it comes to Israel and the Middle East, he has been spectacularly, repeatedly and confidently wrong.

More remarkably, being wrong never seems to alter the prescription.

Now he has turned his attention once again to AIPAC.

Writing in The New York Times about Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan, Friedman advised him that he can remain true to his pro-Palestinian views, appeal to Jewish voters and still “stick it to AIPAC.”

That phrase deserves more attention than Friedman probably intended.

AIPAC is fair game for criticism. So is every political organization in America. Its spending can be questioned. Its endorsements can be questioned. Its political strategy can be questioned.

But “stick it to AIPAC” is not a policy argument. It reflects an increasingly fashionable idea that there is something distasteful, or even illegitimate, about Americans organizing politically in support of Israel.

Friedman should know better. And this is not his first trip down this road.

In 2011, Friedman notoriously wrote that the standing ovations Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received in Congress had been “bought and paid for by the Israel lobby.” Two years later, he suggested that lawmakers would do what the Israel lobby wanted because they needed Jewish votes and campaign contributions.

The implication is difficult to miss.

When environmental organizations spend millions trying to influence elections, that is democracy. When organized labor does it, that is democracy. When gun-control or gun-rights organizations do it, that is democracy. When Arab-American and Muslim-American organizations lobby Congress on Middle East policy, that is democracy.

But when Americans who support Israel organize, contribute money, lobby Congress and vote according to their beliefs, Friedman repeatedly treats their influence as something requiring special suspicion.

Why?


Testimony as a target: how witnesses at the antisemitism royal commission are being abused online
Commissioner Virginia Bell has sought to address this targeting of witnesses directly.

Opening a hearing in May, she reported a dramatic increase in online hate messages after witnesses gave evidence. She said the material displayed an “undiluted level of hatred and bigotry”, confirmed the commission was recording it, and disclosed that one matter had been referred to the Australian Federal Police.

Around the hearing room, the physical protection of attendees is tangible: police presence and strict security protocols exist.

But simultaneously online, more than a thousand documented antisemitic posts have produced little to no action from social media platforms. More than 1,100 have been referred to the Australian Federal Police.

Of 150 live posts reported to one platform after an early hearing block, five were removed, with three more taken down after Dor identified them in public oral evidence, and a further three removed in the following weeks.

A post reading “JEW KISS ASS KILL ALL JEWS” was twice assessed as compliant with that platform’s community standards. It is still there. Royal commissions in the digital age

Section 6M of the Royal Commissions Act makes it an offence for any person to use, cause or inflict, any violence, punishment, damage, loss, or disadvantage to a person because they have given evidence to a royal commission. The maximum penalty is one year’s imprisonment.

How it applies to conduct dispersed across a thousand primarily anonymous accounts, on platforms that decline to act on reports, has not been worked out. This legislation needs to be adapted to the digital age.

Remarkably, despite strong reservations, no witness appears to have withdrawn. It is unclear how many did not submit for this reason, though there are likely to be many.

On its own terms, the intimidation has failed, and Commissioner Bell’s final report is due in December.

What cannot be counted is who reads all this and quietly declines to come forward. Evidence an inquiry never hears leaves no trace in its transcript. It also will not record who is profiting from this abuse, be it for political or financial gain.


Marcia Langton tells royal commission of racial abuse over support for Jewish Australians
Prominent academic and advocate for Indigenous Australians Marcia Langton says she has been subjected to abuse and labelled a "zio" by members of the pro-Palestinian movement.

Dr Langton appeared before the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion on Wednesday to discuss the role of education in tackling all forms of racism and hate, including antisemitism.

She said she had been subjected to racism and abuse because of her support for Jewish Australians.

"Labelling me as a zio … I'm therefore made voiceless in the debate.

"Because as much as I might be horrified and oppose what's happening in Gaza … the foul treatment of Jewish Australians cannot be justified by saying that Israel is doing this in Gaza." Childcare fostering social cohesion

The commission also heard from a Jewish Australian woman working to foster social cohesion in her childcare centre, which has about 70 per cent non-Jewish families on its books.

Known as AEA, the woman said the centre introduces children to Jewish culture by creating sensory experiences influenced by tradition.

She said the aim of this was to celebrate difference, while also highlighting the values and experiences children of different cultures share with their friends.

"There is no intention for a non-Jewish child to adopt that practice … but what it is is connecting on those shared values," she said.

For example, AEA said each Friday children participate in challah baking, with the loaves of bread taken home to be shared with family.

"This is a very distinct tradition … but the values underneath that is something we all share. That idea of sharing food with family," she said.

AEA said work was underway to develop a pilot program based on the centre's model.


Tayeh guilty over ‘All Zionists are terrorists’ chant
Pro-Palestinian activist Hash Tayeh, the former owner of the Burgertory restaurant chain, has been found guilty of using insulting words in public over his chant of “all Zionists are terrorists”, after the constitutional challenge that had stalled the verdict failed.

The court is now hearing argument on the penalty to be imposed.

Menachem Vorchheimer, the Jewish community activist who has pursued a series of proceedings over the chant, confirmed the decision to The AJN by phone from the courtroom during a short recess on Wednesday.

The finding closes a question that had been left open since June, when the court found that the phrase, chanted at a rally on 30 March 2025, was insulting within the meaning of the Summary Offences Act 1966, and that Tayeh had said the words intentionally.

In the ordinary course a finding of guilt would have followed at once. It did not, because Tayeh had signalled he would argue that punishing the chant would breach the implied freedom of political communication, a constitutional limit on laws that restrict political debate rather than a general right to free speech.

With that argument now rejected, the finding of guilt has been entered.

The 30 March 2025 chant was one of five counts police brought against Tayeh following complaints over statements at pro-Palestinian rallies in Melbourne’s CBD. He was acquitted of four charges arising from an earlier rally, after the court found it had not been proven beyond reasonable doubt that he held the necessary criminal intent on those occasions, though the language was found to be offensive on all five.

The criminal finding is separate from a civil ruling in February, when the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal found that Tayeh’s leading of the chant at a rally on 23 March 2025 breached the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2001 and amounted to racial and religious vilification of Jewish people.

Vorchheimer, who brought that civil case, had predicted the constitutional challenge would fail. After the June finding he said the case drew “a distinction between protesting about a foreign conflict and using language that dehumanises a segment of the population, the Jewish people, by virtue of their Jewish identity”.


Ask Haviv Anything: 139: Dara Horn’s final solution to the Jewish question
Dr. Dara Horn didn't want to write this book. She wanted to write more acclaimed novels. But after she published her bestselling essay collection People Love Dead Jews, readers kept cornering her with their own horror stories of antisemitism and one unfair question: can you help? She became the antisemitism Lorax.

So she wrote the answer, and gave it the humdrum, unprovocative title: The Final Solution to the Jewish Question. It’s out September 1.

Dara joins the podcast to talk about why antisemitism isn't a bigotry but a lie told by people who want power ("Jews are destroying what you value the most"); how a 1940s American Jewish strategy to be seen as a religion rather than a people left today's Jews defenseless; why American Holocaust education "eliminates pattern recognition" and outsources everything else people should learn about Jews -- about living Jews, not just dead ones -- to TikTok; and why "Zionism is genocide" is a KGB slogan older than most of the people chanting it.

Plus: Harvard, Durban, data-poisoning the AI, Muslim allies with the Hebrew הנני tattooed on their forearms, and why Dara thinks this is the Jewish people's Queen Esther moment.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Dara Horn's Background
03:59 The Pervasiveness of Anti-Semitism Before October 7
07:00 Institutionalization of Anti-Semitism Post-October 7
10:50 Understanding Anti-Semitism as a Political Lie
14:54 Jewish Civilization as a Countercultural Movement
19:57 The Historical Roots of Anti-Semitism in Civilizational Narratives
25:05 American Jewish Strategies Post-WWII and Their Limitations
29:47 The Role of Anti-Zionism and Global Propaganda
34:46 The Organized Campaigns and Their Modern Manifestations
39:54 How to Disrupt the Lie and Educate the Public
44:52 The Power of Storytelling and Active Resistance
49:51 The Opportunity for a Jewish Awakening
59:56 Practical Steps for American Jews Today
01:09:53 The Queen Esther Moment and Call for Courage
01:11:04 Conclusion: Embracing Jewish Identity and Resistance


UKLFI: From Sinai to The Hague
This is a recording of a UKLFI Charitable Trust webinar: "From Sinai to The Hague: the Biblical Roots of International Law and its Quarrel with Jewish Statehood" with Rabbi Daniel Rowe and Natasha Hausdorff. It took place on Monday 17 August 2026.

Since the Roman period, the Jewish people have often been castigated and persecuted for adhering to values that did not accord with the universal norms of the time. Many of those Jewish values have since become foundational principles of international law. The 1625 Treatise of Hugo Grotius on the Law of War and Peace, generally regarded as a seminal work in the development of modern international law, was replete with references to the Jewish Bible.

Yet the Jewish collective is once more being demonised for allegedly violating today’s international law. Will the Jewish people be vindicated again?


Aviva Klompas: The Future of Christian Support for Israel – with Ambassador Mike Huckabee
Christian support for Israel has been a significant force in American politics for decades. But the evangelical community is changing, and younger Christians are not necessarily adopting the same attitudes toward Israel as previous generations.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee joins host Aviva Klompas to discuss what has historically driven Christian support for Israel and why that support may be changing. They explore the role of faith, shared values, and strategic interests; generational divides among evangelicals; and the growing influence of isolationism on the American right.

As a new generation of Christians forms its own views of Israel, Ambassador Huckabee reflects on what is changing, what has endured, and what will determine the future of one of Israel's most important sources of support in the United States.


SCOOP: Georgia Dems to remove anti-Israel former DNC vice chair David Hogg as featured speaker at upcoming gala
The Gwinnett County Democratic Party in the Atlanta area decided to replace David Hogg, a former Democratic National Committee vice chair, as its featured speaker at an upcoming annual fundraising gala, according to Esther Panitch, a Georgia state representative and the only Jewish member of the state legislature.

The gala is slated to take place on Rosh Hashanah, according to the lawmaker.

“I reached out last week and they responded yesterday, saying they had decided to change the speaker, and that next year they’ll try to be more accommodating to different groups,” Panitch told JNS. “They have a lot of groups to juggle.”

“I am grateful to the Gwinnett Democratic Party chair for realizing that David Hogg is too divisive a speaker to bring it to Gwinnett County,” she said. “I didn’t ask for it but I’m grateful it happened.”

Hogg, 26, attacks Israel and AIPAC frequently on social media and has accused the Jewish state of “genocide.” He was to speak at the chapter’s Bluetopia 2026 fundraising event, which will be held in Duluth, Ga., on Sept. 12.

Since stepping down as DNC vice chair, Hogg founded Leaders We Deserve, which supports progressive candidates seeking to unseat Democrats.

The group endorsed New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York state Senate candidate Aber Kawas, who defended a terrorist who pleaded guilty to plotting to bomb New York City synagogues.

As of press time on Wednesday, the chapter’s official event website still lists Hogg as the featured speaker. (JNS sought comment from the group.)
Lone Jewish member of Georgia state legislature tells CAIR to disinvite antisemitic speakers from gala
Esther Panitch, a Democratic Georgia state representative and the lone Jewish member of the state’s legislature, is calling on the Council on American-Islamic Relations of Georgia to “change their minds” about featuring antisemitic speakers at its upcoming gala in September.

Listed speakers include political commentators Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur and Zahra Billoo, executive director of CAIR in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 10th anniversary gala is slated for Sept. 12 at an undisclosed site.

“CAIR-GA’s Sept. 12 keynote, who wrote, ‘The goyim are waking the f**k up,’ was told exactly what it meant by her own side, and she refused to apologize,” Panitch wrote on social media, of a post of Kasparian’s in February.

Fourteen hours after posting it, Kasparian wrote on social media, “I do not regret this comment. I don’t apologize.”

She defended her post by calling Israel “evil” and “genocidal” and saying that “they’re about to drag us into another war, and all we hear from Israelis and their brain-dead supporters is ‘antisemite’ if you disagree with Israel’s agenda.”

Panitch told JNS that CAIR-GA is done “pretending they don’t hate Jews.”

“This is actual straight-out, Nazi-level ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ kind of antisemitism,” she told JNS. “They’re doing it, and they can’t say they didn’t know.”

“They’ve dropped the mask at this point,” the lawmaker said. “They don’t want Israel to exist. They don’t want Jews to exist.”
Abdul El-Sayed's Secret Bookshelf Features Works From World Trade Center Bombing 'Unindicted Co-Conspirator' and Radical Islamic Scholars
A bookshelf in Abdul El-Sayed's living room—which he sought to conceal from a documentary film crew in 2018—contained works by an unindicted co-conspirator of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, a member of an Islamic group that sought to establish a Sharia-governed state, and a Muslim cleric whose writings have influenced al Qaeda and other major terrorist groups.

The living room bookshelf came into frame as El-Sayed—now the Michigan Democratic Senate nominee—showed off his wedding pictures during a scene in How to Fix a Primary, a documentary about his failed 2018 gubernatorial bid. During the scene, El-Sayed was filmed pointing to his bookshelf as he asked the filmmakers to "not get these things in the shot" because he wanted to "keep the shot secular." But the filmmakers ultimately provided a close-up shot of the bookshelf, which contained a copy of the Quran and about three dozen texts analyzing various aspects of the Muslim faith, several by Islamic extremists.

That includes Dream Interpretation According to the Qur'an, by Dr. Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips, a Jamaican-born Islamic scholar named by the United States as an unindicted co-conspirator of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Philips now resides in Qatar after being deported or banned from several nations in the Western world during the late 2000s and early 2010s, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, and Denmark, over his extremist views, according to the Counter Extremism Project. Philips has defended the bravery of suicide bombers, touted AIDS as proof that "homosexuality is evil and dangerous," advocated that young girls are fit for marriage the moment they begin menstruating (which for some girls can begin as young as eight years old), and argued that husbands are permitted to beat their wives so long as the thrashing is "light" and the man's intention "is not to inflict pain but to bring the wife back to her senses and re-establish authority."

The collection of books on El-Sayed's bookshelf reflects his scholarly interest in Islam, including in the darker corners of Muslim theology. Though he is openly running as a Muslim man, El-Sayed has sought to distance himself from Islamic extremism, including from beliefs he expressed before he went into politics. For example, El-Sayed declared to the New York Times in 2009 his sacred obligation to follow Sharia law in all aspects of his life, but later denied ever saying he lived a "Sharia-compliant" life when asked about that statement during his 2018 campaign, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
Michigan Jewish Dems circulate letter endorsing Republican Mike Rogers for Senate
Jewish leaders in Michigan are circulating an open letter urging Jewish Democrats and independents in the battleground state to sign their names in support of former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) as he faces Abdul El-Sayed, the far-left Democratic nominee for Senate whose hostile positions on Israel have alarmed many Jewish voters.

The letter, which was obtained by Jewish Insider on Wednesday and has not yet been publicized, is led by Eric Bronstein, a Detroit businessman, among others identifying as Democrats and independents.

It came to light after a fundraiser for Rogers on Tuesday night hosted by three prominent Jewish Democratic bundlers in Michigan who are likewise alarmed by El-Sayed’s candidacy. The growing efforts among Jewish Democrats to rally support for Rogers in the key Senate race illustrate the degree to which El-Sayed has alienated a sizable and politically active swing voting bloc in what is expected to be a close election.

“We know it is unusual for many Jewish voters to support a Republican candidate for senate and we understand the implications,” Bronstein wrote in a recent email courting Jewish signatories that was also reviewed by JI. “Our fellow Jewish voters need to see their friends and neighbors — including you — willing to take a stand in this specific, crucial race.”

Bronstein did not immediately return a request for comment on Wednesday.

The open letter, which the authors intend to share online once it has gained “a significant initial group of signers,” emphasizes that many signatories “have been fiercely supportive of Democratic candidates and principles.”

“All of us have felt threatened and alienated by the politics and allies embraced by Abdul El-Sayed,” the letter continues, “which has included demonization of Jews, equivocation on terrorism, exclusion of Jewish Americans from public life, and expression of implacable hatred of the world’s only Jewish nation.”


Trounced in Florida GOP primary, antisemitic candidates believe ‘victory’ is still near
Five days before Florida’s Republican primary, congressional candidate Dan Bilzerian posted a campaign video that depicted his Jewish opponent with horns, called him “Shylock” and praised Adolf Hitler.

In the governor’s race, Republican candidate James Fishback openly courted the young, online far right, interviewed with antisemitic podcasters and has used the antisemitic term “goyslop” in addition to racist rhetoric against his Black opponent. He is a staunch opponent and vocal critic of Israel, as is Bilzerian.

Both of them lost their races on Tuesday by wide margins. Both of them also won more than 10% of the vote. Bilzerian got 19%

In a year when antisemitism has been at the center of American political discourse, the results in Florida send a mixed message: On one hand, they represent a ringing defeat for the movement known as “Groyperism,” a shorthand for the online, antisemitic far-right movement led by, and focused on, young men. Both candidates drew lots of attention online and in the press, but it didn’t translate into actual votes.

More broadly, their defeats are the clearest example yet that while large swathes of America’s electorate have soured on Israel — and anti-Israel candidates are winning elections — classical, blatant antisemitism is still considered out of bounds. A Democrat who spouted antisemitic rhetoric lost in Texas earlier this year, and now two Republicans have lost in Florida.

On the other hand, the results aren’t totally reassuring for opponents of antisemitism. After all, “Pro-Hitler candidate loses election” is hardly a novel achievement in American politics. Neo-Nazis have lost many elections in American history — but Bilzerian got almost one-fifth of the vote.

And neither of these candidates is going away. Following the election, Fishback is celebrating his performance, claiming he exceeded expectations. Bilzerian is claiming without evidence that votes were stolen from him. Both are sure to continue building their followings online, where Fishback has almost 500,000 followers on Instagram, and Bilzerian has more than 28 million. His antisemitic campaign ad was viewed more than 1.5 million times.

In an era when most Republicans under 50 dislike Israel, and signs abound of the growth of antisemitism among young people, Fishback and Bilzerian’s fight isn’t over.

“I don’t think that we conservatives can think the threat from the Jew-haters and racists of the far right has gone away,” Rod Dreher, a conservative writer and author of the forthcoming book “Weimar America,” told The Times of Israel in an email.

“Moreover, they have the wind at their back in terms of benefiting from the shocking rise of anti-Semitism among Generation Z,” he added later. “Conservatives like me, who support Israel, aren’t going to have to worry about them in this election cycle, and maybe not in 2028 either. But the threat is coming.”


Hasan Piker’s Wingman Brother Is Space Engineer With Security Clearances Who’s Worked on Air Force One and Nuclear ‘Doomsday Plane’ for Boeing
Hasan Piker's younger brother is an aerospace engineer with security clearances who spent years working on U.S. military projects for Boeing, projects that include Air Force One and the top-secret "doomsday plane" designed for nuclear war.

Murat Piker, an engineer who spent more than a decade at Boeing, regularly appears on his older brother's controversial social media channel and has also accompanied him to events. Hasan has emerged as a national lightning rod in the 2026 midterm elections, serving as an increasingly controversial surrogate for Democratic candidates like Abdul El-Sayed and Francesca Hong.

Hasan has also declared that "America deserved 9/11," bragged about his support for Hamas, spoken in favor of Iran's right to defend itself, and blamed Iran's "death to America" and "Great Satan" rhetoric on the United States "messing around in the Middle East." He's also said that the reaction to the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson "was not so negative" because Thompson "was engaging in a tremendous amount of social murder" in his capacity as a health insurance executive.

Murat worked as a full time employee at Boeing for more than a decade, departing of his own volition earlier this year, the Washington Free Beacon has learned. It is not clear where he is working now. "My background includes significant experience at Boeing Defense & Space, where I led mechanical design and integration for next-generation satellite structures, managed high-pressure anomaly investigations, and defined structural interfaces across subsystems," Murat notes on his LinkedIn page, which says he worked at Boeing on "Space Vehicle Structures Design."

"I hold a Master's in Aerospace Engineering from UCLA and possess active Security Clearances," his bio adds. Like his big brother, he did his undergraduate studies at Rutgers in New Jersey.

Murat and Hasan Piker were born in New Jersey, but did their primary and secondary schooling in Turkey, something an earlier LinkedIn profile for Murat once noted, but no longer does.

Murat's work on Air Force One was buried in an unctuous profile of Hasan in Rolling Stone, published on Aug. 9, 2026, for which the writer interviewed Hasan and Murat together, apparently at Hasan's $3.3 million home in Los Angeles. The interview refers to Murat's "old job as an aerospace engineer at Boeing" (according to his LinkedIn, which is not updated, he was a full-time employee at Boeing in September 2023, and likely worked there for a significant amount of time thereafter).
Chicago DSA asks City Council candidates to support anti-Israel boycotts, co-govern with group
The Chicago chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America is asking candidates seeking its endorsement in the 2027 City Council elections whether they would support legislation advancing the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel and whether they would agree to “co-govern” with the group.

The questionnaire, dated June 29, was sent to candidates seeking the chapter’s endorsement ahead of the Feb. 23, 2027, municipal election, when Chicago voters will elect a mayor, city clerk, city treasurer and alderpersons in all 50 wards.

Joe Sabag, an attorney who helped draft anti-BDS legislation, told JNS that municipal boycott measures are largely “toothless.”

“It’s mostly symbolic,” he said. “They don’t really benefit from any net practical effect that they seem to think that they’re achieving.”

Sabag said BDS activists seek to get young legislators “locked into positions early on in their careers.”

The questionnaire states that “one of Chicago DSA’s priorities is maintaining a model of co-governance with our elected officials.” It asks candidates whether they consider themselves “anti-Zionist” and whether they “support boycott, divestment and sanctions, and its potential application on the municipal level.”

Chicago DSA’s current political platform explicitly calls for solidarity with the Palestinian movement and support for the BDS campaign.

In 2015, Illinois became the first state to enact legislation restricting public pension investments in companies that boycott Israel. The law established a state board to identify companies that boycott Israel and requires state retirement systems to divest from certain restricted companies.
Brooklyn Democratic leader who promoted infamous antisemitic tract rips ‘Zionists’ in new video
A Brooklyn Democratic politician and housing activist with a history of pushing century-old antisemitic conspiracy theories blamed the property dispute that launched her to prominence on “Zionists” in a recent interview with an Egyptian social media personality.

The comments came from Carmella Charrington, who was elected in June to the unpaid but important role of Democratic district leader, a position that helps pick the party’s influential chairperson and judicial nominees — and who last fall shared on Instagram a video promoting Henry Ford’s notorious 1920s pamphlet series The International Jew.

Charrington gained fame amid a legal fight for control of her family’s brownstone home in the fast-gentrifying Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, which she has labeled a case of deed theft but which New York state Attorney General Letitia James’ office determined was simply an inheritance dispute.

Sitting down with Egyptian podcaster Rahma Zein, Charrington raged against the Jewish investors who had acquired the building and suggested a vague but insidious link to the Jewish state.

“They’re Zionists that basically did this. Same thing that they’re doing in the West Bank, it’s the same thing. There’s a connection,” the politician said, name-dropping Joseph and Elliot Ambalo and Daniel Gazal, who acquired stakes in the property from a conservator for Charrington’s elderly father. “But they are connected, the same people that’s doing it in the West Bank. I didn’t believe it at first. I just was like, who? Like, they’re like, it’s the people in Brooklyn, not just anything like in the U.S. It’s the connection straight to Brooklyn. And then they’re so bold, they come here and do it and show it.”

Charrington did not say what the exact “connection” was in the interview, which Zein posted last week to her Instagram and YouTube channels, and did not respond to calls and text messages for this story. Publicly posted biographies indicate that Gazal was born in Israel, but that the Ambalo brothers are natives of New York.
Election expert who claimed ‘antisemitism crisis’ was ‘invented by Zionist lobby’ elected to Green Party council responsible for ‘party wellbeing and strategy’
An election expert who has previously suggested that the crisis of antisemitism in the UK was a “moral panic” that had been “invented by the Zionist lobby” has been elected to the Green Party’s governing council.

Eleanora Ní Chualáin confirmed via her Stats for Lefties platform, a polling analysis site that correctly predicted the result of February's Gorton and Denton by-election, that she had been elected as the “female rep” for the East Anglia region on the Green Party Council (GPC).

Per the party’s website, the GPC “works alongside the Executive and other national GPEW [Green Party of England and Wales] party committees” and has “responsibilities over areas such as the culture and wellbeing of the party, its governance, party policy, our political direction, and political strategy”.

However, Ní Chualáin, who is transgender and originally from Ireland, has previously downplayed allegations of antisemitism against Green members.

Back in May, she accused Caroline Lucas of “capitulating” after the former Green MP shared a post condemning antisemitism.

“Thank god we slung your faction out of the leadership. Your boy [former party leader] Adrian [Ramsey] would currently be on his knees begging the Board of Deputies for forgiveness. Instead, we got Zack [Polanski],” she told Lucas.

Following online criticism, she added: “The ‘antisemitism crisis’ is an entirely constructed moral panic, invented by the Zionist lobby and their servile allies in Downing Street and the rabid dogs of the press.

“Its sole objective is to crush any materially significant movement that challenges ‘Israel’. It's a scam.

“Anyway, victory to the Iranian nation, free Palestine from imperial colonisers, and abolish Israel.”

Meanwhile, in a statement announcing her election, she pledged to “defend freedom of speech regarding Israel, support members when they're attacked and smeared by the feral Zionist press, and ensure all our members follow the same rules”.


Greenstein ‘issued rallying cry’ to invite support for Hamas, trial told
The activist Tony Greenstein issued a “rallying cry” to invite support for banned terrorist group Hamas on the day Israel was attacked, prosecutors have said.

Greenstein, 72, of Brighton, is on trial at Kingston Crown Court charged with one count of inviting support for a proscribed organisation.

The charge is in relation to three posts on his X account on October 7 2023, the day of the Hamas-led attack on Israel which triggered more than two years of war in Gaza.

Hamas is proscribed as a terror group in the UK under the Terrorism Act 2000.

On Tuesday, the court heard that in the three posts, Greenstein wrote the line: “Please share. Full support for the Gaza ghetto uprising.”

Jurors were told that the posts had links to a blog, which included the line: “The time to fight is now. Whatever criticisms one can make of Hamas, we should congratulate them on this well planned and audacious attack on the Zionist enemy.”

Opening the case, prosecutor Kate Temple-Mabe said that Greenstein is a “prolific activist and campaigner” who “opposes the state of Israel and supports the liberation of Palestine”.

She went on: “There are a great many people who oppose the state of Israel, believe that the Israelis unlawfully occupy Palestine, and that Palestine should be liberated, and who publicly express those views.

“There are a great many people, also, who think that what has been happening in Gaza since October 7 2023 is horrific and unacceptable, and who wish to publicly express their opposition to it. None of that is a crime.

“The law does, however, make it a crime specifically to invite support for the organisation Hamas, because Hamas is a proscribed organisation under the Terrorism Act.

“In that sense, the law treats support for Hamas differently from support for the Palestinian people or cause more broadly.”

Ms Temple-Mabe said that although Greenstein did not mention Hamas by name in his X posts, his “reference to support for the ‘Gaza ghetto uprising’ – in that specific context, on that specific date – can only have meant support for Hamas”.

She added: “Mr Greenstein specifically expressed ‘full support’ for the actions of Hamas. He invited others to like and share his post.


ADL-AEN report details higher ed unions being hijacked by anti-Israel activists
Dysfunctional union governance is leaving some Jewish faculty and graduate students marginalized and unrepresented by the labor organizations meant to advocate for them, a report released Wednesday by the Academic Engagement Network and the Anti-Defamation League documents.

The report, “A Crisis of Representation: Antisemitism and Inclusion in Higher Education Unions,” highlights how activist factions have used low-turnout union elections to push anti-Israel positions without broad member buy-in — often at the expense of Jewish members who say they have faced targeted attacks.

One union member interviewed for the report said, “I no longer feel that the national organization can represent me equally … Union leadership has not addressed antisemitism with any seriousness or clarity.”

Another said they resigned after “the climate in my union local was quickly becoming toxic for Jewish members. … I, myself, was labelled a ‘Zionist’ and ousted from a leadership position.”

The report comes following efforts by several major academic groups to change their bylaws to back academic boycotts of Israel in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks and ensuing Gaza war. The American Association of University Professors led this shift in 2024; Since then, the organization hosted a webinar on “scholasticide in Palestine,” while requests from Jewish organizations to include differing perspectives in its programming allegedly went unanswered.

Several graduate student unions have similarly adopted positions hostile to Israel. The report highlights Cornell Graduate Students United, which adopted a statement in 2025 endorsing a boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions and affirming Palestinians’ “unequivocal human right to resist oppression by any means necessary,” a statement that many Jewish people see as a call to violence.

The report warns that this trend pulls unions away from their historical orienting goals such as wages and member trust. It recommends steps for union members, leadership and university administrators to improve governance, transparency and member diversity.
NY judge says Columbia University did not discriminate against pro-Hamas professor
A New York City judge on Monday dismissed a case that a pro-Hamas professor filed against Columbia University, saying the university, its president and a pro-Israel professor had not discriminated against the instructor by condemning his rhetoric.

Mohamed Abdou was a visiting professor at Columbia in the spring term of 2024. His employment term ended in May 2024 and was not renewed.

Abdou had previously made pro-terror statements, saying days after the October 2023 Hamas invasion of Israel, “I’m with Hamas and Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.”

US Rep. Elise Stefanik questioned former Columbia University president Minouche Shafik about the comments during a Congressional hearing.

Shafik said she shared Stefanik’s “repugnance” with the remarks and that Abdou would never work at the university again.

Abdou filed a lawsuit against Shafik and the university in August 2024, alleging that Shafik’s comments and issues on campus constituted defamation, discrimination based on his national origin and a hostile work environment.

Abdou identified in his lawsuit as a North African-Egyptian Muslim.

The defendants filed a motion to dismiss the complaint later that year, and in Monday’s court filing, the judge, Kathleen Waterman-Marshall, granted the dismissal.

Abdou had claimed that Shafik had falsely labeled him an “antisemite” in her Congressional testimony, but the judge said Shafik did not actually make such a statement.

Shafik had made truthful statements about Abdou’s employment or stated opinions, which did not constitute defamation, the judge said.
Pennsylvania Department of Education reviewing all materials after complaint about antisemitism definition
Erin James, press secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Education, told JNS that the department is “reviewing all other materials” after removing an educational equity and inclusion guide—developed prior to Gov. Josh Shapiro taking office—that contained the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism.

James told JNS that the department “has heard from concerned individuals over the past several days about the definition of antisemitism included in the document and we take those concerns seriously.”

Parents in the state told Jewish advocacy group StopAntisemitism that the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism had been replaced in the guide with the Jerusalem Declaration, which states that “as it relates to Israel/Palestine, not all views or actions against Israel, such as supporting justice for Palestinians or opposing Zionism as a form of nationalism, are, on the face of it, antisemitic.”

“We have removed it from our website and are reviewing all other materials,” James said. “All Pennsylvania students deserve to feel safe at school and learn in environments where their rights, identities and differences are respected.”

Though the document was dated 2023, and Shapiro took office in January 2023, James told JNS that the guide was developed under former governor Tom Wolf’s administration.


Once censored, a Nazi commander’s death-row confession is now out in English
Jurgen Stroop, the Nazi commander who led the killing of more than 50,000 Jews, was sitting in a cell in Warsaw awaiting his own execution.

Before he met the gallows, Stroop described in unrepentant detail his ascent as a Nazi, his destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto and his daily prosecution of mass murder. He gave his account to Kazimierz Moczarski, the journalist, Polish resistance leader and veteran of the Warsaw Uprising who shared Stroop’s cell in Mokotów Prison for 255 days in 1949.

Though he is now remembered as a hero for fighting the Nazi occupation, Moczarski was villainized by Poland’s postwar Communist regime, which viewed his resistance group as a threat to their monopoly on power. His unlikely imprisonment alongside a former Nazi officer he’d once tried to assassinate gave Moczarski the chance to document Stroop’s confessions in an influential book, “Conversations with an Executioner.”

This book, despite being censored for years by the Polish government, proved revelatory about Stroop, the rise of Nazism and the psychology of genocide. After decades of being translated into over 15 languages and adapted for the stage and screen, “Conversations with an Executioner” was published Tuesday for the first time in a complete English translation by Steerforth, an imprint of Pushkin Press.

The book’s champions say it’s about time.

“On the one hand, this book is a central historical source for this really important event in the modern history of the world,” Sean Gasper Bye, the book’s English translator, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “And at the same time, it’s one that has continually struggled to get fully into publication.”
Hochul warns of Holocaust restitution scam targeting survivors
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a consumer alert after an entity calling itself the “Jewish Holocaust Claims Center” solicited Holocaust survivors and their families to submit claims for compensation, prompting state officials to warn of a potential scam.

The New York State Department of Financial Services stated that it could not verify the group’s identity, services or legitimacy and referred the matter to law enforcement. The department also reported the group’s website to its hosting provider, which subsequently removed it.

The department also said it referred the matter to the inspectors general of New York, New Jersey and the U.S. Postal Service.

“Scamming and stealing from Holocaust survivors and their families is the lowest of the lows,” Hochul said, pledging to ensure survivors receive the assistance and assets to which they are entitled.

Kaitlin Asrow, acting superintendent of the department, urged survivors and their families to independently verify unsolicited offers before providing personal or financial information.
Argentinian judge who called Jews ‘rats and vipers’ dismissed
An Argentinian judicial body removed a federal judge from office on Tuesday following a series of antisemitic messages and hostile posts targeting both the Jewish community and Israel, including calling Jews “rats and vipers.”

The decision by the Council of the Magistracy to dismiss Alfredo Lopez over poor performance and gross misconduct was the first time in the country’s history that a judge was stripped of office over anti-Jewish hate speech.

The court reviewed over a dozen social media posts where the judge displayed systematic hostility toward the Jewish community and Israel, and concluded that they breached judicial impartiality.

The former judge had also accused Argentinian Jews of not being truly Argentine, employing a classic antisemitic trope.

Argentina’s Jewish community is the largest in Latin America, with an estimated 170,000 members, most of whom reside in the capital.


Pioneering Israeli brain cancer treatment stopped tumours growing in US tests
A pioneering new treatment developed in Israel for the most common type of brain cancer stopped tumours growing in patients who were tested in the US, study results have revealed.

The procedure aims to treat glioblastoma – an incurable, malignant form of brain tumour which carries a life expectancy of around one year, even with chemotherapy.

The treatment is called Alpha DaRT and it was developed by Hadassah University Medical Center in Ein Kerem, Jerusalem, in collaboration with the Sharett Institute of Oncology and medical company Alpha TAU.

The procedure sends highly efficient alpha radiation particles to the effected site in the patient’s brain from two different angles, maximising accuracy.

Current treatment for glioblastoma includes chemotherapy and radiotherapy, but even with these methods, the majority of patients see the cancer quickly return.

Findings from a US study, named REGAIN, on the new technology, which was conducted alongside the Israeli work, found that in all three patients it was tested on, Alpha DaRT was able to control their tumours.

Two of the three showed no evidence of regrowth after treatment.

Professor Aron Popovtzer, director of the Sharett Institute of Oncology, told the Jerusalem Post: “Patients with recurrent disease currently have very limited treatment options. Therefore, any innovative technology that can be tested in a controlled clinical study is of great importance.

“A combination of research, clinical experience, and multidisciplinary collaboration is the only way to advance new treatments for these patients.”


A love story that survived October 7: Former hostage Eliya Cohen and Ziv Aboud are married
Ten months after their emotional engagement, former hostage Eliya Cohen and his partner of the past decade, Ziv Aboud, were married Wednesday evening in front of 1,000 guests at Ronit Farm.

The couple was escorted to the wedding canopy by Israeli star Amir Benayoun, who performed his classic song “Nitzachta Iti Hakol” — “You Won Everything With Me” — taking on especially emotional meaning on this night.

Cohen was abducted to Gaza from the “shelter of death,” while Aboud survived by hiding. In February 2025, after 505 days in Hamas captivity, he was returned to Israel.

In an interview with Laisha magazine in February 2024, Abud recalled how they met: “We both belonged to Israel’s trance music communities and knew each other from the various forums. When I was 19, I responded to one of his stories and then sent him a message on Instagram. I was actually the one who made the first move. Then he invited me to his army beret march ceremony, and I came.”

She also described how, after Cohen was abducted, she discovered that he had been planning to propose to her: “His mother told me he had bought a ring — and told everyone except me. He wanted to surprise me.”

She walked down the aisle to Amir Benayoun singing his classic song 'You Won Everything With Me'
On October 7, the couple arrived at the Nova music festival with Ziv’s nephew, Amit Ben Avida, and his girlfriend, Karin Schwarzman. The four took shelter in a roadside shelter on Route 232, next to the bus stop opposite Kibbutz Re’im.

Amit and Karin were among the 16 people murdered in the shelter, where 27 Nova festivalgoers had fled for safety. Ziv was among seven survivors, while Eliya was abducted alongside Or Levy, Alon Ohel and the late Hersh Goldberg-Polin.





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