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Tuesday, August 25, 2026

08/24 Links Pt2: El-Sayed avoids naming Piker as he tries to distance himself from antisemitic remarks; The NYTs Is Weaponizing Islamophobia; Altalena shipwreck located after 78 years

From Ian:

Brendan O'Neill: Gazaholics like Gary Lineker are a menace to reason
Are we going to talk about this? About the fact that Gary Lineker, footballer turned podcast impresario, for years one of the highest-paid talking heads at the BBC, is sharing a post from a group that said the Islamist butcher of ISIS had been a ‘kind, gentle’ soul? Worse, a post containing flagrant Holocaust inversion, where the Jewish homeland is grossly reimagined as the moral heir to Nazism? No? We’re just going to let it slide?

It is a testament to the virulence of Israelophobia, to its almost total conquest of the bourgeois mind, that stuff like this barely makes a ripple these days. There was a time when if a well-known public figure had hyped a CAGE post and platformed the noxious idea that the Jewish State is Nazi-like, people would have said: ‘Oh, what’s going on here?’ Not anymore. So thoroughly has polite society been colonised by bug-eyed anti-Israel animus that Lineker’s antics provoke no emotional response at all. Except perhaps haughty nods of approval.

Lineker has form. He parted ways with the BBC last year over what the press rather politely called ‘an anti-Semitism controversy’ – he had reposted a delirious rant about Zionism that was illustrated with a rat. Zionists as vermin? Classy. And then these people have the nerve to call others Nazis, despite their own giddy rehashing or reposting of the Nazi-era notion that Jews are the rodents of humanity.

Equating Zionism to Nazism is not clever political critique – it is raw, unadulterated bigotry. As the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance says in its working definition of anti-Semitism, it is racist to ‘[draw] comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis’. Howard Jacobson said it best. There are untold wars from history that the Israel-Hamas War could be compared with, he said. The reason they compare it with the Holocaust is because their lowlife aim is ‘to wound Jews… to punish them with their own grief’. It’s Jew-shaming masquerading as pacifism.

Lineker sums up the commenting class’s pathological loss of moral proportion. The way these people talk, you’d think Israel’s pursuit of the Islamofascists of Hamas was the worst war of modernity, a ‘crime’ as racist and insane as the Nazis’. Yet Lineker himself is pals with a bloke – Alastair Campbell – whose political fabulism helped to launch a war in Iraq that on every moral metric was worse than what’s happened in the Middle East these past three years. I wonder if Lineker has ever called Al a rat-like killer of kids who’s not dissimilar to Hitler?

Lineker’s descent from dull but knowledgeable sports fella into the Zio-rat guy is proof that Israelophobia turns your mind to mush. The spotty kid who watches hours of Tate has nothing on these Boomers and geriatric millennials who brainlessly lap up every hyper-edited, context-free clip from Gaza as hard proof that Israel is a monstrous entity. This is real online radicalisation: the frying of a million middle-class brains by algorithmic bigotry and the moral pornography of war.

We are witnessing the great cognitive collapse of the Western liberal elite. A media establishment that once prided itself on scepticism and intellectual rigour now acts like an army of mind-wiped converts to a digital cult. Lineker and the rest of the Israel-wary class are not leading a moral awakening – they’re the latest victims of an internet ecosystem that rewards superficial emotionalism and punishes nuance. We need a Gazaholics Anonymous, stat.
Mamdani silent on calls for antisemitic Brooklyn pol’s resignation
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani refused on Monday to answer questions about a Brooklyn Democratic leader who promoted Henry Ford’s The International Jew and blamed a property dispute on “Zionists.”

Following an unrelated event in Queens, the mayor refused to answer on three separate occasions when Jewish Insider pressed him about Carmella Charrington, elected in June to the unpaid but important role of Democratic district leader. As first reported by JI, Charrington shared an Instagram video last fall boosting the notorious pamphlet series by the founder of the Ford Motor Company, a clip that blamed Jewish people for a range of societal maladies from slavery to the proliferation of alcohol and drugs.

Charrington first rose to prominence over a dispute over control of her family home, describing herself as a victim of deed theft, while New York State Attorney General Letitia James’ office found that the battle over her brownstone in Bedford-Stuyvesant was simply a complicated dispute over the estate of her Alzheimer’s-stricken father. Charrington has attacked the Jewish investors involved as “Zionists” and suggested some link between her situation and Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank.

After publication, Mamdani’s team reached out with a statement addressing Charrington’s attacks on the property investors.

“Suggesting that an alleged deed theft in Brooklyn is part of a global conspiracy involving Jewish people is blatant, reprehensible antisemitism,” the statement said. “Trafficking in these dangerous antisemitic tropes is vile and inexcusable.”

However, the administration did not answer a follow-up question about whether the mayor believed Charrington should step aside from her district leader role.

JI’s reporting on Charrington’s antisemitic posts prompted condemnations from James and from New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin, though neither has called for her to step aside from her district leader position.

Meanwhile Democrats aligned with Brooklyn Democratic Party boss Rodneyse Bichotte — whom Charrington and her slate aim to remove — have demanded Charrington’s resignation.
Mamdani Hired Staffer for His Friend's Campaign Who Was Later Arrested for 'Terroristic Threat' Against Teenage 'Lexus-Driving, Israel-Loving Zionists'
Zohran Mamdani hired a campaign staffer who was later arrested for making a "terroristic threat" against Jewish students, the Washington Free Beacon can reveal. Mamdani made the hire in 2018, when he was running the failed State Senate campaign of the now-disgraced journalist and Mamdani hagiographer Ross Barkan.

The staffer hired by Mamdani, Iman Abdul, was arrested in August 2025 after posting a Google Maps screenshot of the location of Leon M. Goldstein High School for the Sciences in Manhattan Beach.

"If anyone needs a public school in NYC to attack for whatever reason … Lexus driving Israhell [sic] loving Zionisits [sic] all attend here," she added in a caption to the now-deleted post.

The public school is in a Brooklyn neighborhood with a large Jewish population. The school is 63 percent students of color, and 66 percent of the student body are "economically disadvantaged," according to city records. There are also multiple Jewish schools in the area that serve high school students.

Abdul, who went on to work as a youth organizer for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.), was promptly arrested by the NYPD and charged with making a "terroristic threat," acting in a manner injurious to a child, aggravated harassment, and making a threat of mass harm, the New York Post reported at the time.

She pleaded guilty earlier this month to aggravated harassment as a hate crime, a felony. She was given a sweetheart deal by Brooklyn's far-left district attorney, Eric Gonzalez (D.), which allowed her to avoid jail time. In exchange for completing 20 counseling sessions, the charges would be knocked down to a misdemeanor, Post รผber-sleuth Susan B. Edelman reported on her Substack.

What quietly went unreported, however, was that Abdul was a paid canvasser for Barkan's unsuccessful 2018 campaign for New York State Senate in Brooklyn—earning $540 between July and August of that year from Team Barkan, state campaign finance records show.
‘Felt like a lynch mob,’ mom of 4-year-old says of NYC-funded festival, in which performer accuses Israel of ‘war crimes’
A Brooklyn Jewish mom expected an entertaining outing when she took her 4-year-old to a recent puppet festival. Instead, she found herself and her son listening to a recitation of Israel’s “war crimes” and keffiyah-clad performers taking part in a Gaza flotilla during a show billed as being about the quirks of living in New York City.

The performances were part of International Puppet Fringe Festival NYC, which is partially funded by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and New York State Council on the Arts, and took place in lower Manhattan from Aug. 12 to 16.

“They started with relatable New York skits, like about the pizza rat,” the mom, who declined to be named “because of the current environment,” told JNS, of a viral video of a rat dragging a discarded slice of pizza in a city subway station.

Another skit was about the perils of parking on New York City streets. “Performers had a cardboard car and showed the parallel parking shuffle,” when street cleaning rules require drivers to move their cars from one side of residential streets to the other, the mom said.

During the city-themed parts, the mom, who came to the United States from the former Soviet Union as a 7-year-old, told JNS that she “and the audience were one.”

“Everyone liked it,” she said.

After about 15 minutes, “a woman came in with a piece of paper and began reading a litany of accusations against Israel, and people began chanting ‘shame, shame,’” she told JNS.

Soon after that, eight performers grouped as a flotilla of ships bound for Gaza, the mother said.

“It felt like a lynch mob,” she told JNS. (JNS sought comment from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.)

“You feel naked, because you realize all these people knew who I was,” she said, since she didn’t join in the chant. “If I was by myself I would have just made an exit, but I was with my family and had a bunch of belongings.”

The experience was “pretty nauseating” for the mom.

“I’m an immigrant from the former Soviet Union, so antisemitism is why I’m here in the first place,” she told JNS. “To see it out in full effect in the daylight is awful.”


Ask Haviv Anything: 141: Why Western ideas crash and burn in the Middle East, with Simon Sebag Montefiore
Why does the West misunderstand the Middle East? Best-selling historian Simon Sebag Montefiore returns to the pod to discuss The Cauldron, his sweeping new history of the region, from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the birth of its modern states to oil, Islamism, revolution and the Arab Spring.

The book is a kind of prehistory of present-day Western stumbling in the Middle East. Western powers repeatedly arrive with grand political theories — imperialism, nationalism, socialism, liberal democracy — only to watch them change beyond recognition or collapse on contact with the region’s deeper identities, loyalties and social contracts. It is a conversation about the states that endured, the ones that failed, and why the Middle East remains so intensely debated in the West — and so poorly understood.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction: Why the Middle East's History Matters Today
01:46 Simon Sibag Montifiore's Background and Motivation for the Book
04:02 The Origins of Middle Eastern States and Their Success
06:51 The Significance of Ibn Saud's Rise in 1902
09:02 The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and Its Aftermath
11:55 The Family Dynasties: Saud, Hashemite, and Others
15:06 Promises and Betrayals During WWI and Their Impact
19:50 The Creation of Modern Turkey and Ataturk's Role
25:09 The Impact of Oil Discovery in the 20th Century
29:49 World War II, Fascist Alliances, and Regional Backlash
35:08 The British Empire's Retreat and Its Consequences
39:54 The Partition of Palestine and Its Repercussions
45:02 The Role of Religion and Identity in State Formation
49:47 The Arab Spring: More Than a Democratic Movement
54:57 The Lasting Impact of Historical Snares and Ambushes
01:00:12 The Power of the Middle East in Western Imagination
01:04:05 Why Understanding History Is Crucial for the Future


‘We were intensively indoctrinated’: Syrian-born activist reveals how she was taught to hate Jews
Syrian-born activist Rawan Osman reveals how she was taught to hate Jews growing up before moving to Europe and discovering what she says was the truth about Israel and the Palestinians.

“I grew up hating the Jews because I learned that they are our enemies,” Ms Osman told News24 host Chris Kenny.

“We grew up with this narrative that Israel has expansionist ambitions, that the Palestinians are the oppressed, helpless people.

“Later in life I’m lucky enough to have moved to Europe where my eyes were opened to the truth.

“We were intensively indoctrinated and suddenly it became so obvious to me, everything we were told was lies.”


Call me Back: ISRAEL VOTES: Why the Mizrahi-Ashkenazi Divide Still Shapes Israeli Politics
How will current issues or past discrimination against Mizrahi Israelis influence this election?

Dan and sociologist Mijal Bitton discuss the history, identity, and political narratives of Mizrahi Jews—whose families came to Israel from across the Middle East and North Africa—and how those narratives continue to shape Israeli politics. They unpack the factors of historical discrimination by an Ashkenazi elite, questions of economic opportunity, dignity and belonging of the Mizrahi community, and the Mizrahi devotion to maintaining the Jewish character of the state of Israel.

In this episode:
-Historical roots of the Mizrahi and Ashkenazi divide
-Cultural and religious differences in their countries of origin
-Do Mizrahis still resent how they were treated by Ashkenazis during immigration?
-Israelis political realignment in 1977 and Mizrahi powerful support for Likud
-The rise of Mizrahi political movements like Shas
-How Mizrahi voters think about the “deep state” in Israel
-Contemporary Mizrahi identity and integration into Israeli society and politics




travelingisrael.com: Harry Jaggard went to Israel (95% Great Guy, 7% Racist)
Good intentions meet heavy double standards: A deep-dive analysis into ‪@harryjaggardtravel‬ Jaggard’s journey through Israel. From the freedom of speech in Jerusalem to the glaring gaps in how both sides are questioned, here is what his videos really reveal about modern travel journalism.


Peta Credlin urges government to extend antisemitism Royal Commission
News24 host Peta Credlin claims the intended 11-month-long antisemitism royal commission must be extended to ensure a thorough investigation is completed.

“Beyond the politicians who, on that day of tragedy, were in charge, I want to hear from Australia’s Islamic leaders,” Ms Credlin said.

“We should not need to call for the royal commission to be extended; it should already have happened.”


Sharma slams ASIO for failing to act on early antisemitism warning signs
Liberal Senator Dave Sharma rips into the Bondi Royal Commission and calls out ASIO for its lack of urgency in targeting the rise of antisemitism.


‘Greens have learnt absolutely nothing’: Paterson launches attack against McKim
Shadow Defence Minister James Paterson reacts to Greens Senator Nick McKim’s claims that he had been “captured by Zionist interests”.


Liel Leibovitz: Mark Ruffalo hulks out with hate with antisemitic rant on Paramount-Warner Bros. merger
‘Classic oligarch’
Let Ellison have too much power, Ruffalo continued, and disaster will ensue.

“Larry Ellison will own most of ‘Para Bros,’ ” he thundered.

“Larry is a classic Oligarch. They are crushing workers and consolidating the wealth of the world for their own power and concentrated dominance.”

Hear that, boys and girls? “They” are crushing the poor, noble workers because “They” control all the money and all the power in the world.

This rant sounded much better in the original German.

Paramount soon fired back.

“We are, as always, troubled when antisemitic tropes are invoked in purported service of a business dispute,” a company representative said in response.

“Words like ‘genocide’ and ‘apartheid,’ applied to a corporate transaction, aren’t just wrong — they’re a bridge too far, and they cheapen the very real suffering those words are meant to describe.”

But tell that to Ruffalo, and the actor — who made a career as the thinking girl’s on-screen sweet and sensitive love interest — claims to be “appalled.”

Ruffalo responded that some of his best friends are Jewish, and argued that anyone who accuses him of antisemitism is being dishonest.

All he did, Ruffalo argued, was choose to speak of a Hollywood merger by bringing up the world’s sole Jewish state and accuse one Jewish billionaire of using his benighted technology and ill-gotten wealth to “crush” the rest of us.

How could anyone interpret such words as being even remotely bigoted?

Marvel at history
Such dazzling dishonesty, cloaked in cloying virtue-signaling, would’ve been almost comically repugnant coming from anyone.

But they’re particularly rich coming from Ruffalo.

After decades of languishing largely in indie dramas, the actor had his big break after being cast as Dr. Bruce Banner, a k a The Incredible Hulk, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies.

Marvel, you may recall, was made famous by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, two first-generation American Jews who created their superheroes as a response to a world too ready to discount or ignore Jewish suffering.

Kirby in particular was an ardent Zionist and a big fan of Israel.

It doesn’t take too much imagination to see the character he created, the Hulk, as the parable of the weak Jew suddenly made strong enough to stand up to his persecutors.

That the man who made his fame and fortune playing the Hulk on screen is now one of the loudest, most mindless antisemites is a plot twist worthy of a comic book.

But if the decades-long ascendance of Marvel teaches us anything, it’s that our timeless heroes stand strong long after rubes like Ruffalo fade from memory.
Jewish leaders speak out against actor Mark Ruffalo’s ‘antisemitic’ attack against Ellison family
On Monday, Rabbi Noah Farkas, president and CEO of Jewish Federation Los Angeles — which serves the epicenter of the entertainment industry — said Ruffalo’s “unhinged rant, which combined Jewish wealth, media control, secret technology and sinister global power, is not legitimate criticism. It draws on recognizable antisemitic tropes with a long and dangerous history.”

Farkas called on California Attorney General Rob Bonta — who told Ruffalo in February “Mark, I hear you,” regarding earlier criticism of the deal and said the state has a “special interest in protecting competition” — to clarify his comments. On Sunday night, Bonta canceled planned settlement talks with Paramount after accusing the company of acting in bad faith by misrepresenting details from an earlier meeting.

“We agree that California has a special obligation to protect Hollywood, but not only from anticompetitive conduct. It must also protect the people who power this industry from antisemitism and every form of hate,” Farkas said.

“Bonta has done the right thing on some issues, but his record with Jewish Californians remains mixed. In some important moments, he has failed to stand up with the clarity and urgency our community deserved. This is why it is so important that Bonta clarify what ‘Mark, I hear you’ means. Hearing legitimate antitrust concerns cannot mean excusing rhetoric that invokes age-old tropes about Jewish wealth, media control and sinister power.”

Several other Jewish leaders condemned Ruffalo over the weekend, stating that his comments repeat old antisemitic tropes and could put Jewish people in danger. Since the Oct. 7 attacks and ensuing war in Gaza, Ruffalo, a four-time Oscar nominated actor, has frequently pushed accusations of Israeli-led “genocide,” “apartheid” and “famine” to his millions of followers.

“Oppose the Paramount merger on the merits, find arguments grounded in facts, and draw on what you know about the industry without engaging in antisemitic rhetoric,” Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, wrote on X.

“Introducing the Jewish state out of the blue when it’s entirely unrelated, making baseless claims about Israel, and then trying to avoid accountability by essentially claiming that ‘some of my best friends are Jewish’ is gaslighting 101,” Greenblatt wrote, asserting that Ruffalo’s words “continue to put Jewish communities around the world at risk while antisemitic incidents are far too common.”

Simon Wiesenthal Center CEO Jim Berk said, “Invoking Israel in an issue where it is completely irrelevant is a textbook case of obsession and demonization.”

Ari Ingel, executive director of Creative Community for Peace, said Ruffalo’s statements “echo some of the oldest antisemitic conspiracy theories in history, depicting Jews as a wealthy and sinister elite who accumulate control over media, money and power, then use that control against society.”
Leading Palestinian Activist Dismisses Mark Ruffalo Remarks on Gaza and Paramount: ‘Virtue-Signaling’
It was a coincidence that I found myself talking to one of the leading advocates for Palestinian rights in Gaza this weekend, Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib.

Alkhatib is a senior fellow at the think tank The Atlantic Council in Washington D.C. and has a new book out called “Hamas and its Two Million Hostages,” which argues for ending Hamas rule in Gaza and empowering Palestinians to have agency in their own land. I was interested in learning about the book and he agreed to meet via Zoom.

But over the previous two days, a controversy had broken out over remarks made by progressive activist and actor Mark Ruffalo regarding Gaza and Paramount’s proposed merger with Warner Bros. Discovery.

Ruffalo came under intense fire from Paramount itself — and by Sunday, four leading Jewish organizations — for tying the merger to the Ellison family and what he called Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza “which was built on an apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle.”

Both Paramount and the Jewish groups, including the Anti-Defamation League, called his remarks “antisemitic.” Ruffalo shot back on social media that their criticism was “appalling and fundamentally dishonest.”

I could not resist asking Alkhatib his opinion. He did not take a beat before shooting back.

“It’s mixing topics that do not need to be mixed,” he said. “It’s using the Palestinian issue as a cudgel that has little to nothing to do with a foreign policy subject. And it is meant to invoke a classic scare tactic – [that] of the omnipresent rich Jews who are in control of every aspect of society.

“It’s bullshit to say Oracle is enabling genocide,” he went on. “There’s an abundance of capabilities that the US, NATO and foreign countries, the UAE, the Saudis, the Qataris, the Turks [use] – they contract with all of them.

He went on: “I might not like the consolidation of the studios. It may be fair for some to push back on the consolidation of the media – that’s an entirely valid argument on its own. But to connect it to Gaza, and to proclaim that Larry and David Ellison are uniquely guilty of empowering Israel and enabling its activities against Palestinians and therefore this consolidation with Paramount is inherently evil – is clearly a manipulative effort by Mr. Ruffalo.”


Super PAC Linked to Hamas-Friendly CAIR Takes Credit for Helping Elect Abdul El-Sayed and 'Building a Movement' in US Mosques
The super PAC of the lobbying arm of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the pro-Hamas advocacy group, is taking credit for helping Abdul El-Sayed win his Michigan Democratic Senate primary race and said the victory shows "we're building a movement in Masjids" (or mosques) across the country.

The Unity & Justice Fund, a super PAC controlled and funded by CAIR's lobbying arm, CAIR Action, said in a fundraising email over the weekend that it helped "mobilize tens of thousands of Muslim and Middle Eastern voters to turn out" for El-Sayed, who defeated pro-Israel Democrat Haley Stevens by one point in the August 4 primary.

"The Unity & Justice Fund helped elect Zohran Mamdani, Dr. Adam Hamawy, and now Abdul El-Sayed. We're doing more than just securing electoral wins across the country; we're building a movement in Masjids and communities across the country," said Unity & Justice Fund, which claimed to have "knock[ed] on more than 30,000 doors of Muslim voters."

As of August 24, the fund appears to have removed the phrase "a movement in Masjids" from the fundraising email and to have changed "Muslim voters" to "Muslim and Middle Eastern voters."

According to campaign disclosures, the Unity & Justice PAC, which is about two years old, contributed $175,000 last month to Fighting for Michigan PAC, the largest outside group supporting El-Sayed. And the Unity & Justice Fund paid $40,267 to a consulting firm owned by the chief of staff to the mayor of Dearborn Heights, Mich., for "canvassing" services in support of El-Sayed, records show.

Unity & Justice Fund is seeking to raise an additional $1.5 million ahead of the November midterms.

The super PAC's support for El-Sayed could further alienate moderate Democrats as well as Jewish Michiganders who are concerned about El-Sayed's links to anti-Israel and pro-Hamas activists, devotion to Sharia law, and intellectual interest in some of the most extreme corners of Islam. It also undercuts El-Sayed's primary campaign attacks on AIPAC, a pro-Israel group that heavily backed Stevens.
AIPAC-Obsessed El-Sayed Speaks At Event By Pakistan Association Of America
Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who regularly rails against Israeli influence on American elections, had no issue speaking at a conference aimed at influencing the politics of a foreign country over the weekend.

Surrounded by Pakistani flags, El-Sayed spoke at the Pakistan Association of America in Metro Detroit on Sunday, celebrating the 79th anniversary of Pakistani independence and calling for an end to military rule in the South Asian country, The Detroit Free Press reported. He also compared the fight for democracy in Pakistan to his party’s efforts against President Donald Trump.

“I’m so honored to be here with you today to celebrate Pakistani independence, but I do want to speak specifically to this moment right now because the only reason I could be running for office is because I was born in these United States of America because of an accident of history,” El-Sayed said.

“Democracy is a precious thing. It is a beautiful thing,” El-Sayed added. “And it operates on a knife’s edge, and we see that in these United States right now under a president who threatens the very ideals of democracy itself.”

El-Sayed went on to condemn the current regime in Pakistan that has jailed its political opponents, including the former prime minister. The Democratic candidate, who routinely bashes the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) activities in U.S. elections, did not hesitate to push for major reforms in Pakistan while speaking at the Pakistan Association of America gathering.
Jeffries blasts Piker’s claims that American Jews are inciting antisemitic violence
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) issued a strong rejection of antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker’s comments last week that Jewish supporters of Israel are inciting antisemitic violence against themselves, though he did not name Piker personally.

“The malicious claim that American Jews are inviting violence against themselves is dangerous and antisemitic,” Jeffries wrote on X on Monday. “There is zero justification for threats against the safety of our Jewish brothers and sisters at a moment of rising hate. We will fight the cancer of antisemitism with the fierce urgency of now.”

The comments mark the most prominent denunciation of Piker from a Democratic leader thus far, following criticisms of the streamer from other Democratic lawmakers and moves by some who have affiliated or campaigned with Piker to distance themselves from his comments.

Jeffries’ statement was notably more direct and tougher than the response of Abdul El-Sayed, the Michigan Democratic Senate nominee who campaigned with Piker in the closing week of the primary. El-Sayed earlier on Monday put out a statement distancing himself from the streamer without addressing the substance of Piker’s antisemitic remarks.
El-Sayed avoids naming Piker as he tries to distance himself from antisemitic remarks
Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed distanced himself, to a degree, from antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker, who has been a prominent surrogate of his campaign, after Piker attacked Democratic state Sen. Jeremy Moss and argued that Jews are inciting antisemitic violence against themselves by supporting Israel.

But, in the statement — posted on X under the heading, “My statement on Hasan Piker’s comments regarding Jeremy Moss” — El-Sayed didn’t name Piker or Moss, and didn’t directly address Piker’s comments.

“I believe all Americans deserve the right to advocate what they believe without fear of violence,” El-Sayed said. “This is particularly true for communities that have been intimidated for their beliefs in the past.”

Amid ongoing attacks on him for his association with Piker, El-Sayed also insisted that “nobody speaks for this campaign besides me and my campaign spokespeople.”

He went on to downplay Piker as “a Twitch streamer” who will not define the race or his own campaign. He did not say whether his or his campaign’s relationship with Piker will change going forward.

“My commitment to Jewish safety is the same as my commitment to the safety of my own daughters,” El-Sayed added. “Antisemitism is a scourge and we need to address it in all its forms. And I stand against any rhetoric that puts the community at risk.”

Despite the title of the statement addressing Moss, the statement itself did not directly address El-Sayed’s fellow Michigan Democrat or Moss’ allegations that opponents are spreading fabricated audio of him promoting antisemitic tropes.

Republican nominee former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) blasted El-Sayed’s comments as insufficient.

“Hasan Piker’s call for violence against the Jewish Community, specifically against Jeremy Moss, must be condemned by every single Michigan Democrat. But Conman Abdul El-Sayed doesn’t have the guts to disavow his running mate,” Rogers said. “Abdul’s attempt at distancing himself from this violent and hateful rhetoric now that he and Hasan won the primary is the epitome of what a conman does — says one thing when it serves him and another when it doesn’t.”

Rogers added, “His rhetoric is causing fear in Michigan communities, is unAmerican, and makes him unfit to represent our state.”


Lawmakers condemn Hasan Piker’s remarks targeting American Jews
Lawmakers condemned remarks by left-wing, anti-Israel influencer Hasan Piker that suggested American Jews could face violence because they support Israel, as Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate nominee in Michigan, sought to distance his campaign from the streamer.

During a recent Twitch stream, Piker discussed Michigan state senator Jeremy Moss, a Jewish Democrat who won the Democratic primary for an open U.S. House seat in Michigan’s 11th Congressional District. Piker displayed a photo of Moss and said, “If Jews in America keep putting this idea out there that they are singularly invested in Israel, eventually someone is gonna come around and take action not against Israel, mind you, but against American Jews.”

In a statement on Monday, Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-Mich.), vice chair of the Democratic Women’s Caucus, wrote that Piker’s “call for violence against American Jews, and directly naming a Michigan official (and future Congressional colleague) Jeremy Moss are unacceptable. Full stop.”

“Piker is a hack who thrives on hate, shock and awe because he lacks substance,” she stated. “It’s dangerous for everyone. We should all be calling out this disgusting rhetoric so it loses its grip on our politics once and for all.”

Piker responded, calling Scholten “an Israel 1st congresswoman” and claimed that anti-Zionism is a “90/10 issue.”

A July Pew Research Center survey found that 65% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents had a favorable view of the Israeli people, compared with 43% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents. The partisan divide was wider over the Israeli government: 51% of Republicans viewed it favorably, compared with 16% of Democrats.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) stated that “the only one inciting violence against American Jews is Piker and his rhetoric.”

“For the future of our party, Democrats have to call out his hate and condemn these dangerous views,” he said. “Anyone campaigning with him is part of the problem.”


Rep. Hillary Scholten blasts Piker over threatening comments against pro-Israel Jews
Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-MI) on Monday condemned antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker for comments suggesting that Jews supporting Israel are inviting violence against themselves, and for targeting Democratic Michigan state Sen. Jeremy Moss by name.

Moss last week condemned individuals circulating an unsourced and undated audio clip claiming to depict him expressing his fealty to Israel, which Moss has said is fabricated. During a stream last week, while making those comments about antisemitism, Piker displayed posts about and images of Moss from the antisemitic account TrackAIPAC, including an excerpt from the allegedly fabricated audio clip.

“Hasan Piker’s calls for violence against American Jews, and directly naming a Michigan elected official (and future Congressional colleague) Jeremy Moss are unacceptable. Full stop,” Scholten said on X. “Piker is a hack who thrives on hate, shock and awe because he lacks substance. It’s dangerous for everyone. We should all be calling out this disgusting rhetoric so it loses its grip on our politics once and for all. It has no place in Michigan, and no place in our country.”

Scholten had previously criticized Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed for campaigning with Piker, and said, prior to the primary, that she would not commit to voting for El-Sayed in the general election.

Scholten is one of several elected leaders who has condemned Piker’s comments — though most of the controversial streamer’s allies and supporters have been quiet so far.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), who has previously appeared on Piker’s show and said he was “proud” to do so, rejected the streamer’s comments about pro-Israel American Jews in a statement to Jewish Insider on Monday.

“Antisemitism is a centuries-old, ugly bigotry. It must be condemned unequivocally. Jews are not the cause of it. Neither are people who support Israel. Antisemites are to blame. That’s it,” Khanna said.

“The only one inciting violence against American Jews is Piker and his rhetoric,” Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) said on Sunday. “For the future of our party, Democrats have to call out his hate and condemn these dangerous views. Anyone campaigning with him is part of the problem.”


Jury finds former Lib Dem mayor posted antisemitic tweets likely to stir up racial hatred
A former Liberal Democrat mayor posted antisemitic messages about Jews likely to stir up racial hatred, a jury has found.

Pat Marsh, 78, who served as mayor of Harrogate and spent more than three decades in local politics, was the subject of a trial of facts at York Crown Court after being deemed physically and mentally unfit to enter a plea or give evidence because she has dementia.

Jurors concluded on Friday that Marsh had posted or distributed written material online which was likely to stir up racial hatred.

The court heard that one post from her X account read: “I hope you Jews feel proud of yourselves. Remember what happened to you during the Second World War. Why would you do the same?”

Another, posted in February 2024 and seen 875 times, said: “The whole world is silent. The Jews will pay for that.”

Marsh also referred to Jews as a “so-called religious group who are evil” and “a disgrace to the world” who “will pay”, the court heard.

Following the jury’s finding, Judge Sean Morris, the Recorder of York, gave Marsh an absolute discharge, saying it was the “only option” because of her current health.

A trial of facts does not result in a guilty or not guilty verdict. Instead, jurors are asked to decide whether a defendant who is unfit to stand trial carried out the acts alleged against them.


Greens accused of ‘banning’ antisemitism charity from conference
The Green Party has been accused of “effectively banning” an antisemitism charity from holding an event at its annual conference after organisers expressed fears it could be used to attack the party’s record.

The Antisemitism Policy Trust had been working with the pollsters More in Common on a fringe event looking at how the growing party could tackle anti-Jewish racism.

But The Times understands the event was refused a place in the official fringe programme and a later suggestion to hold it at another venue with an advert in the conference guide was also rejected.

Greens for Palestine, a campaign group involving Green members, has urged activists to back a motion that would make “Zionism is racism” party policy and commit the Greens to supporting a single Palestinian state with equal rights for all in place of Israel.

The Greens have faced persistent antisemitism allegations after the unearthing of comments made by election candidates and members. Zack Polanski, the party’s leader, who is Jewish, said this year that the Green Party was tackling antisemitism in its ranks and said: “Antisemitism is completely unwelcome in the Green Party, as it is in society.”

However, at an online event hosted by Greens for Palestine on August 4 to promote the motion, speakers questioned whether secular Jews were really Jewish, called for Hamas to be removed from Britain’s list of proscribed terrorist organisations and said Israel “has no right to exist”.


Legal expert slams ‘leniency’ of 30-day sentence for anti-Israel protesters who blocked Golden Gate Bridge traffic
The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office is at fault for the “leniency” of the 30-day jail sentence for seven anti-Israel protesters, who blocked traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco in April 2024, Mark Goldfeder, director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, told JNS.

Teresa Caffese, a judge in the Superior Court of San Francisco County, “gave each defendant 30 days in county jail, six months of probation, fines and restitution,” Goldfeder said. “The prosecution had asked for 16 days, calculated as four hours of blocked bridge multiplied by four guilty counts—a formula with a certain accountant’s charm but no deterrent force whatsoever.”

JNS sought comment from the district attorney’s office.

The seven protesters were part of a group of 26 arrested in April 2024 after blocking traffic on the bridge for four hours that morning. The sentence, handed down on Friday, includes four days’ credit for time served, and half of the sentence can be conducted via a San Francisco Sheriff’s Office work release program.

“Consider the full arc. Twenty-six people were charged for shutting down one of the most critical arteries in the country. Nineteen had their cases dismissed or diverted before trial,” Goldfeder told JNS. “When the jury hung on the felony conspiracy count, the DA declined to retry it, reasoning in part that a conviction was unlikely to achieve meaningful change.”

“If a different cause had chained itself with lockboxes across the Golden Gate for four hours, keeping patients from appointments and healthcare workers from patients, does anyone really believe the felony gets dismissed as not worth the resources?” he said.

“The false imprisonment convictions matter. Juries almost never convict protesters of trapping people, and prosecutors nationwide now have a template,” he told JNS. “But look at what the verdict is worth in practice. Half the 30 days can be served through the sheriff’s work program. The sentence is stayed pending appeal, and the all-in cost runs about $2,300 per defendant.”

“The groups planning the next blockade can book that as an operating expense,” he said.
Zionists ‘rape, kill, eat children’: Toronto pro-Palestine protester invokes antisemitic tropes
A protest speaker said that Zionists rape, kill, and eat children, and he invoked other conspiracy theories at a demonstration in the Jewish neighborhood of Bathurst Street and Sheppard Avenue West in Toronto yesterday.

Video footage of the speech was shared on social media by the X/Twitter account Leviathan, identifying it as taking place at a pro-Palestine protest that took place yesterday.

Leviathan is an X account dedicated, in its words, to naming “Jihadists, Antisemites, Anarchists & other threats. Using OSINT [open-source intelligence] to notify for Public Interest” in Canada.

According to the account, the speaker is a Toronto-based university instructor and faculty lecturer named Abbas Hamze.
Swiss police probe ‘death to Zionism’ rally in Basel
Police in Switzerland are investigating a call online for an unauthorized protest rally in Basel on the 129th anniversary of the 1st Zionist Congress, which Theodor Herzl organized and presided over.

The call, which features the slogan “death to Zionism,” appeared on social media earlier this week, but the organizers of the event, scheduled for Aug. 29, have not been identified, Jonathan Kreutner, general secretary of the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities (SIG), told JNS on Monday.

Police in Basel, who require protests to apply for approval at least 14 days in advance, have been alerted to the development, he said.

According to online banners advertising the event under the headline “Free Palestine – Death to Zionism,” the event will take place at 2 p.m. on Aug. 29, a Saturday, at Theaterplatz, a square adjacent to the Music Hall of Basel’s Stadtcasino, where the 1st Zionist Congress opened on Aug. 29.

“It’s serious and the authorities are alert,” said Kreutner.

Basel’s Theaterplatz is a broad public square at the center of Basel’s cultural district. It’s located less than a mile away from the Old City and serves as a meeting place and venue for public gatherings, performances and demonstrations.

Congress participants established the Zionist Organization during the event, which was later renamed the World Zionist Organization, and elected Theodor Herzl, a Budapest-born journalist turned Zionist activist, as the congress’s president.

The Zionist Organization was an important element of the scaffolding that facilitated the creation and survival of the State of Israel. Herzl famously wrote in his journal about the event: “At Basel I founded the Jewish State.”


Jewish musician appeals ruling on concert canceled over his ‘Zionist views’
Jewish musician Mikey Pauker is appealing a federal court ruling that dismissed his discrimination lawsuit after a California retreat center canceled his scheduled Chanukah concert after community members raised concerns about his support for Israel.

Pauker’s attorneys filed their opening brief in the appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Aug. 14, arguing that the district court erred in finding that Harbin Hot Springs could not be held liable for responding to discriminatory customer complaints.

Stanford Law School’s Religious Liberty Clinic and the National Jewish Advocacy Center are representing Pauker in the appeal. The center announced the appeal on Aug. 21.

Matthew Mainen, litigation counsel at the National Jewish Advocacy Center, told JNS that “Mikey needs to demonstrate three things: Zionism is part of his Jewish identity, the cancellation campaign against him was anti-Jewish and businesses cannot cater to such customer bigotry.”

“The lower court already agreed with us on the first two but not the last,” he said. “We anticipate the appellate court correcting this error.”

Pauker told JNS that “for many Jews, Zionism is inseparable from our Judaism, ancestry, peoplehood and our religious and historical relationship to the Land of Israel.”

“Discriminating against a Jewish person because of that deeply held relationship should not be dismissed simply by labeling it ‘political,’” he said. “I hope this case helps establish stronger protections for Jewish Americans and encourages more Jewish musicians, artists and other creatives who experience discrimination to stand up for their rights.”
Montreal mayor rejects calls to make foreign policy a city matter ahead of council vote on anti-Israel proposal
Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada on Monday rejected the idea that the city should set foreign policy as the city council prepared to vote on a motion to suspend institutional ties with Israel.

“The role of city council is not to dictate foreign policy,” Martinez Ferrada said at a press conference ahead of the scheduled vote. “That is the role of the government of Canada.”

The motion, introduced by the opposition Projet Montrรฉal on June 4, was originally scheduled for a June 15 council meeting. Martinez Ferrada later removed it from the agenda, pushing the vote to Aug. 24.

The proposal calls on Montreal to recognize and denounce what it describes as an “apartheid regime” in Palestine and “genocide” there, while expressing solidarity with Palestinians and other civilian victims of the conflict. It also calls for suspending institutional ties with Israel’s current government, its institutions and municipalities, including by no longer inviting Israeli representatives to official events at city hall until Israel meets conditions outlined in the motion.

B’nai Brith Canada urged the council to reject what it called a “divisive, one-sided motion,” warning that the proposal could exacerbate tensions between communities.

“There is a documented correlation between conflict in the Middle East and increases in antisemitism,” the group said in an open letter, citing its annual audits of antisemitic incidents.
University of Washington proposes student code of conduct changes amid destructive anti-Israel protests
The University of Washington has proposed revisions to its student conduct code amid concerns about its response to campus antisemitism and anti-Israel encampments.

The university filed the proposed rules with the Washington State Register on July 20 and plans to adopt them on Sept. 9 before fall classes begin, according to The Daily, a student publication. Faculty and students may submit written comments through Aug. 25, when the university also will hold a public hearing in Seattle, according to the state filing.

Among the proposed changes, staff members and outside contractors would be eligible to serve as appeal officers, a role currently reserved for faculty and students. Appeals also could be decided by a single officer rather than a panel.

The proposed code would allow the university to discipline students who remain in a building or on university property after a university official or law enforcement officer orders them to leave. Students could also be disciplined for prohibited conduct committed by others in their presence if they chose to remain after being ordered to leave.

The university also would be permitted to consider whether a student concealed his or her identity “for the purpose of evading or escaping discovery, recognition or identification while engaging in prohibited conduct” when determining an appropriate sanction.

The revisions come after the 2024 anti-Israel encampment on UW’s campus and the May 2025 occupation of the university’s Interdisciplinary Engineering Building. Thirty-three people were arrested in connection with the building occupation, and prosecutors later filed criminal trespass charges against all 33. The incident caused nearly $1 million in damage, including damage to laboratory equipment, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.


The New York Times Is Weaponizing Islamophobia
Anti-Jewish hate crimes outnumber anti-Muslim hate crimes about seven to one, according to FBI crime statistics. Yet the New York Times is offering its readers a different view of the relative seriousness of the issues. The newspaper—which the Israeli government says "consistently demonizes and delegitimizes the Jewish State and publishes false blood libels against the State of Israel"—has escalated its coverage of supposed anti-Muslim bias to the point that, by some measures and at some times, the volume exceeds or roughly equals Times coverage of anti-Jewish bias.

Critics accuse the Trump administration and supporters of Israel of "weaponizing antisemitism," a frequently groundless charge that is shorthand for the assertion that the antisemitism complaint is being used to silence criticism of Israel and also as a pretext for an authoritarian crackdown. Yet some of the Times coverage seems to engage in—to borrow a phrase—weaponizing Islamophobia, using the hate label in an attempt to silence criticism of Islamist extremism, of Muslim-dominated countries, or of support for terrorism.

Among the recent New York Times headlines and articles that exemplify or approach this pattern are:
— An August 10 article by Zolan Kanno-Youngs headlined, "Trump Stokes Islamophobia by Calling Democratic Candidates ‘Jihadists.’" That article reported, "President Trump on Monday described Democratic candidates in the midterm elections as ‘jihadists,’ adding to Islamophobic statements recently made by Republican elected officials." It went on, "in the past few months, anti-Muslim rhetoric has become increasingly normalized in the ranks of the G.O.P., particularly after the election victories of prominent Muslim politicians, including Zohran Mamdani in the New York City mayoral race and Dr. Abdul El-Sayed in the Michigan Senate primary last week. Mr. Trump has declined to condemn such rhetoric, and, as was the case on Monday, has leaned into it." It seems heavyhanded for the Times to describe Trump’s rhetoric as Islamophobic when the president is accurately pointing out that some of the Democratic candidates are aligned with Islamist terrorist groups and their goals.

— A front-page article featuring the bylines of four Times reporters, purporting to describe "Islamophobia’s Rise in Texas." This one is actually funny, because it takes the position that Muslims should have totally maximal free exercise rights under the First Amendment without being at all self-aware of the fact that when Times readers or Democratic politicians try to prevent Christians or Orthodox Jews from doing these things, the Times doesn’t describe those people as anti-religious bigots. "State leaders, including Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton, have since opened investigations into Muslim institutions across Texas. They’ve sought to block the real estate development and investigate religious divorce counseling. Mr. Abbott threatened to take state funding from Texas airports that provide ritual washing stations for Muslim travelers, ordered the cancellation of a private water park party celebrating a Muslim holiday and labeled the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a national civil rights group, as a terrorist group — a step that even the Trump administration has so far not taken. (Florida followed Texas in applying the same label to CAIR.)" Rather than skeptically investigate CAIR or its positions, the Times just describes it as a civil rights group. The Times cheerled government investigations into Jewish schools in New York, but when Republican politicians investigate Muslim institutions, it’s "Islamphobia." When Democrats try to force Catholics to cover birth control in health insurance plans or use antifraud laws to crack down on crisis pregnancy centers, the Times doesn’t write about the rise of anti-Catholic bias. It’s a total double standard, where Muslims are the one religious group that the Times apparently thinks should be beyond the reach of government oversight.
EFE's Post-Oct. 7 Coverage_ Terror Groups as Bit Players With Outsized Credibility in Spanish News Agency
In March 2025, the Spain’s state-owned EFE news agency contextualized a report regarding Houthi attacks against Israel, stating that:
The Iran-backed insurgent movement has launched hundreds of attacks against Israel … since the outbreak of the war in the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, in response to the slaughter of Palestinians by the Jewish state.

Notably, the war did not break out in the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7; it began in southern Israel as thousands of Hamas terrorists and unaffiliated civilians invaded the Jewish state, inflicting mass atrocities including murder, rape, kidnapping and mutilations.

In July 2025, in another dispatch regarding Houthi attacks, EFE similarly erased Hamas’ Oct. 7 atrocities:
Since Benjamin Netanyahu’s government launched its invasion against the devastated Gaza Strip in October 2023, more than 59,000 Gazans have died, the majority women and children, and more than 142,000 people have been injured — many with lifelong injuries and amputations — according to Palestinian authorities.

Both articles datelined in Sana’a, Yemen serve as clear examples of the Spanish agency’s common practice appearing in its coverage of Israel. Whether framing information or offering background context, there is a consistent tendency to adopt the figures, vocabulary, narratives and accounts provided by Hamas or anti-Israel groups.

Furthermore, EFE treated Hamas-supplied death tolls as true, and depicted all casualties as defenseless civilians, while ignoring Israeli data. The tendentious vocabulary justifying Houthi attacks on Ben Gurion Airport— “the slaughter of Palestinians by the Jewish state” — is a crude example of a practice that is often more subtle, yet equally biased.

As the primary Spanish-language news agency and a Spanish state-owned enterprise, EFE’s dispatches are syndicated daily by hundreds of newspapers, radio stations, and television outlets across Spain and Latin America. Its framing choices do not remain confined to a single newsroom; they proliferate, shaping how millions of people perceive one of the most complex and polarized conflicts in the world.

The examples appearing in this analysis are illustrative of standard practice. Analyzing dozens of wire dispatches published by EFE on the Middle East since Oct. 7, 2023, reveals a consistent set of recurring patterns in sourcing, framing, terminology, and victim hierarchy that ultimately shape a specific, biased narrative of the conflict.


Dominican Republic adopting IHRA working definition of Jew-hatred
The Dominican Republic said on Monday night that it is adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of Jew-hatred, JNS has learned.

Vรญctor Bisonรณ, the country’s foreign minister, made the announcement, which makes it the seventh Latin American state to do so.

Argentina holds the sole IHRA full member status in Latin America. Six other Latin American countries have previously adopted the IHRA definition: Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama and Uruguay.

The Latin American and Caribbean Parliament, a consultative assembly made up of national parliamentarians that represents 23 countries, has also adopted the definition.

The IHRA definition provides guidance for recognizing when criticism crosses the line into Jew-hatred by applying double standards, denying the Jewish people’s right to self-determination or using classic antisemitic tropes.

Estimates vary of the number of Jews living in the Dominican Republic from 100 to 3,000. The country holds a unique place in Jewish history as the first sovereign country that offered to accept mass Jewish immigration prior to and during the Holocaust.

It was the only country in the 1940s that offered asylum to a significant number of Jewish refugees, stating it would accept up to 100,000. The great majority never made it.

The country’s agriculture industry has deep Jewish ties, with kibbutzniks in then British Mandatory Palestine brought on to help the Dominican town of Sosรบa. The country’s biggest producer of milk and cheese was founded by Holocaust refugees.

There are only two synagogues in the country—neither with a permanent rabbi. A Jewish cemetery, charity and mikveh still operate there, along with several Jewish organizations.
NYPD commissioner pledges support for Jewish New Yorkers after synagogue attack
New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch attended Shabbat services at Central Synagogue on Friday following an alleged hate-motivated attack that disrupted the Manhattan congregation’s service, telling attendees that Jewish New Yorkers should not have to accept fear as the price of practicing their faith.

Tisch, who grew up attending Central Synagogue, addressed the congregation on Aug. 21, one week after Larry Montes, 46, of the Bronx, allegedly disrupted a Friday-night Shabbat service attended by approximately 375 people and assaulted a congregant and a security guard.

“What happened here is unacceptable anywhere in this city,” Tisch said. “No New Yorker should be assaulted or threatened because of who they are or how they worship.”

“A hate crime such as this is a message written in violence,” she added.

According to a federal criminal complaint, Montes allegedly stood up during the Aug. 14 service, shouted and knocked over two ceremonial candlesticks before security personnel escorted him from the sanctuary. He allegedly struck a 63-year-old female congregant in the face and then spat on and headbutted a 65-year-old security guard.

Montes was charged federally on Aug. 18 with two counts of committing hate crimes and one count of damaging religious property resulting in bodily injury. He also faces state hate-crime charges related to the incident.

Tisch said the impact of a hate crime extends beyond the person directly attacked.

“The physical wound is inflicted upon one person, but the fear is intended for an entire community,” Tisch said. “It is meant to tell everyone who shares the victim’s identity that they do not belong, that they are vulnerable, that they should be afraid.”
NYPD releases footage of suspects in two hate crime attacks on synagogues
The New York City Police Department released video footage on Monday of two suspects in hate crime attacks on Queens synagogues on July 16.

The NYPD asked the public to help identify the two, who are suspected of throwing bags of motor oil at two Orthodox synagogues, Young Israel of Jamaica Estates and Young Israel of Holliswood.

The suspects in the video are wanted “in connection with two hate crime criminal mischief incidents,” the department said. Attackers damaged property at both synagogues, the NYPD said.

The video footage is from the incident at Young Israel of Jamaica Estates.

Rabbi Moshe Taub, of Young Israel of Holliswood, previously told JNS that the community would continue to worship and to be “proud Americans.”

“We are also aware that until our city’s mayor shows the same passion in visiting the victims of crimes as he does its perpetrators, at Rikers, his words seem hollow to us and uninspiring to his denizens,” he told JNS, of city Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

The rabbi also told JNS that his synagogue had been vandalized with feces.

Adam Orlow, president of Young Israel of Jamaica Estates, previously told JNS that “while this incident is disturbing, it will not intimidate us or change who we are.”


Altalena conclusively located after 78 years
The remains of a ship which was attacked on the orders of Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurion in 1948 – a decision which risked igniting a civil war in the fledgling state – have been reached at the bottom of the sea after 78 years, with the country’s Heritage Minister describing the find as “a defining moment for our national memory”.

The Atalena, which was towed out to sea and sunk in 1949, was located via sonar approximately 20 kilometres off Israel’s coast, at a depth of 503 metres, the Heritage Ministry said. Although the Israeli government is understood to have known the exact whereabouts of the wreck since 2012, concerted efforts began last year to conclusively identify the ship. Amichai Eliyahu, the Heritage Minister, described having worked on this project “out of a deep-seated mission to reveal the historical truth and make the story of the ship’s heroes accessible to future generations.”

The language of Eliyahu’s statement lays bare the complexities of what is known in Israel as The Altalena Affair: one of the most notorious confrontations in the history of the State of Israel. In June 1948, approximately a month after the declaration of the State of Israel, the Altalena, having sailed from France, reached the coast of the newly independent country, having brought more than 900 recruits, as well as a large quantity of arms intended to help the Irgun, also known as Etzel – one of the paramilitary groups formed prior to the establishment of the state.

Although an agreement had been reached earlier that month to incorporate the Irgun into the newly formed IDF, there was still a great deal of distrust between the Irgun and the provisional government, which was largely made up of members of what had been the much larger paramilitary group in the British mandate, the Haganah. While the passengers on the ship disembarked and a significant quantity of the weaponry was brought ashore, there was suspicion within the provisional government that Menachem Begin, the leader of Etzel, was planning to set up a military power base of his own – maybe even as a prelude to a coup. Subsequently, an ultimatum was sent by Ben Gurion to Begin, who stalled for time. An impasse between the IDF and Irgun led to shots being fired, with both IDF and Irgun soldiers killed and wounded. Subsequently, the Altalena would run aground on Tel Aviv beach, with the IDF conducting a full-fledged military operation to capture the ship. The risk of civil war only abated when Menachem Begin specifically instructed Irgun members not to retaliate.

For the first 30 years of Israel’s existence, the government of Israel was led by Ben Gurion and his successors, forming left-wing coalitions. At that point, however, Menachem Begin became Prime Minister – since then, the balance of political power has shifted, with right wing coalitions mostly winning elections, with a variety of political figures seeking to cast themselves as the successors to Begin’s legacy, despite the fact that Begin was an implacable opponent of the ideals espoused by Meir Kahane, the forerunner of today’s far right parties in Israel.





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