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Friday, August 28, 2026

08/27 Links Pt2: Melanie Phillips: Britain’s moral depravity; The Nexus of the Ruffalo Problem; Bondi Beach unveils mural in memory of Chanukah terrorist attack victims

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: Britain’s moral depravity
Israel is entitled, in law and in any moral universe, to determine its own borders against an enemy that’s determined to destroy it.

It’s outrageous to single out Israel alone for this kind of imperious and punitive treatment. No such campaign is waged against, say, Turkey for having invaded Cyprus and divided the island from the Greeks by Turkish occupation.

It’s even more outrageous since the United Kingdom is principally responsible for the whole rotten history of the never-ending Middle East conflict.

That’s because, when it was the Mandatory power in pre-Israel Palestine, Britain tore up international law. It went back on its binding undertaking to settle the Jews alone in the land of Israel and instead tried to divide the land by offering much or most of it to the Arabs.

This was an early “two-state solution,” minted by perfidious Britain as a reward to the Arabs for their genocidal aggression in attempting to exterminate the legitimate homeland of the Jewish people. Rewarding terror merely incentivizes yet more of it; and Britain has been pursuing that very same strategy ever since then, repeated now yet again by the Burnham government.

Britain is behaving as if it’s still the colonial master, treating Israel with utter contempt by instructing it to shred its lawful inheritance and expose its people to genocidal assault—and then punishing it for refusing to bow the knee.

British officials have warned, however, that since settlement goods would be almost impossible to distinguish from other Israeli goods, this would inevitably morph into a full-blown boycott of Israel.

Since Burnham and Miliband are playing into a hysterical left-wing narrative of demonic Israel that has consumed not only much of their party but most of progressive opinion, that’s unlikely to trouble them.

Nonetheless, they’re making a very grave mistake because they have overlooked a crucial point.

Britain is highly dependent on Israel for its own security. The United Kingdom has emasculated itself so that it no longer possesses armed forces that can defend the country. From Israel, it gets both priceless intelligence—vital for defending its people against Islamist attack—and cutting-edge military technology.

Yet it is proposing to boycott its key military and security ally at a time when the moth-eaten British lion is facing unprecedented, mounting and immediate threats from Russia and Iran.

Israel might now suggest politely that since the United Kingdom apparently hates the Jewish state so much, it surely won’t want to benefit any further from Israeli intelligence or arms supplies, which will accordingly be drastically curtailed.

What Israel should also say is that Britain’s precious “two-state solution” is profoundly immoral. People who wage a 100-year campaign of mass murder to prevent and then exterminate a legitimate country, while turning down repeated offers of a state of their own because they want to murder yet more of those people and destroy that country, and who indoctrinate their own children to do so in perpetuity, deserve absolutely nothing.

Those like the British government, who have spent the past century rewarding such a program and are now punishing its intended victims, can be described in two words: morally depraved.
Masar Badil was sanctioned for Terrorist Ties — Here Are the Branches Operating in The US
The Masar Badil Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path, a branch of the terrorist organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), was sanctioned on Wednesday by the US Treasury for terrorism ties, but he organization still maintains a web of smaller groups within the United States.

The US Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Masar Badil and executive committee members Zaid Abdulnasser and Rawa Alsagheer due to the organization’s inextricable links with Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network. Samidoun was jointly sanctioned by Canada and the US in October 2024 for being “owned, controlled, or directed” by the Foreign Terrorist Organization PFLP.

“The organizations share fundraising mechanisms as well as senior leaders and members of their respective Executive Committees,” read the US Treasury statement. Masar Badil and Samidoun Overlapping Leadership

In addition to being executives of Masar Badil, Abdulnasser was the Samidoun Germany coordinator and Alsagheer the Samidoun Brazil coordinator. They joined other Samidoun and Masar Badil officers already being sanctioned by OFAC. Samidoun Europe and Masar Badil executive Mohammad Khatib and Samidoun Madrid coordinator, Masar Badil executive, and Alkarama Palestinian Women’s Mobilization co-founder Jaldia Abubakra had been sanctioned on May 19. It had been noted in the May Treasury press release that Abubakra had “played a key role in establishing a Samidoun partner organization in 2021,” perhaps already hinting then that OFAC was reviewing Masar Badil.

Khatib had in the past been described by Palestinian news outlets as a PFLP operative and spokesman. The PFLP and Palestinian outlets similarly described a chief officer of the Samidoun network, Khaled Barakat, as a leader of the Marxist-Leninist terrorist group. Barakat once publicly represented Samidoun as its leader in statements and petitions, but since the founding of Masar Badil was presented only as that newer group’s head, creating some degree of ambiguity about the relationship between the two groups. His wife, Charlotte Kates, serves as the Samidoun international coordinator. According to a July 19 Institute for the Critical Study of the Society lecture, Kates is also a co-founder of Samidoun and deputy secretary-general of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. The Canadian citizen reportedly relocated to Lebanon — She faced legal challenges in the wake of her calls of “long live October 7” and support for terrorism in April 2024.

Unlike other major Samidoun network officers, Kates is not sanctioned. Masar Badil is also not the limit of the Samidoun network, but rather the handle for an umbrella of organizations that continue to operate in North America.

In a deleted July Instagram post in preparation for a November conference in Toronto, the organization confirmed that Tariq El-Tahrir Youth and Student Network, Nidal, Students United for Palestinian Equality and Return at the University of Washington (SUPER UW), Al-Ahrar Palestinian Prisoner Support, and Basel Al Araj Committee were part of Masar Badil North America.
CAIR Removes 9/11 Curriculum Listing Bin Laden’s Manifesto, Following Jewish Onliner Exposé
The Council on American-Islamic Relations quietly revised the September 11th section of its national 2026-2027 back-to-school guide one day after Jewish Onliner published an investigation into the organization’s recommended classroom materials.

The original guide directed educators, administrators and school boards to a CAIR-New Jersey curriculum that listed Osama bin Laden’s “Letter to America” among its high school resources. By August 26, CAIR had removed its endorsement of and link to the curriculum and added a note claiming that an earlier version “did not go through proper vetting.” Yet CAIR National had promoted the same curriculum in its 2025–26 back-to-school guide.

CAIR did not publicly announce the change, identify who failed to vet the material or say whether Jewish Onliner’s reporting prompted the revision. The recommended curriculum, as featured in CAIR’s 2025-2026 national back to school guide. Credit: CAIR

CAIR Quietly Removes Its Endorsement of 9/11 Curriculum
Jewish Onliner published its investigation on August 25 after reviewing CAIR’s newly released nationwide guide and the materials to which it directed American schools.

The original 9/11 section told readers that CAIR-New Jersey and Teaching While Muslim had developed a “comprehensive” curriculum for elementary, middle and high school classrooms. It said the resource included recommended texts, videos, discussion questions and teaching strategies.

The section concluded:
“Access the curriculum at cair-nj.org/911curriculum and share this resource with educators, administrators, and local school boards.”

This was more than a passing reference. CAIR National explicitly instructed readers to access the curriculum and circulate it among educators, administrators and local school boards.

By August 26, the paragraph and hyperlink had been removed from the online guide. The revised version retains the heading “25th Anniversary of 9/11 and Tools for Classrooms,” but no longer names CAIR-New Jersey, Teaching While Muslim or their curriculum.

The replacement text states:
“Comprehensive lesson plans would address the 9/11 attack itself, the victims and families impacted, and the aftermath of the attack, such as the war in Afghanistan, changes in national security, and the rise in hate crimes and discrimination against American Muslim and perceived-Muslim communities.”


A new documentary finds orchestrating hands behind online hate after October 7
Among a spate of new films exposing different aspects of the October 7 Hamas onslaught, the investigative documentary “The Campaign,” looks not at the massacre itself, but at the orchestrated social media campaign in its wake that the film alleges has fueled global antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment worldwide.

The 93-minute documentary, directed by Kari Hollend and Cristina Bishai and narrated by Canadian lawyer and author Warren Kinsella, was screened on August 19 during the recent National Library’s Docu.Text film festival.

The film, subtitled “Disinformation in a Time of War,” was made in tandem with Kinsella’s latest book, “The Hidden Hand,” and weaves in-depth interviews with media, political, and diplomatic experts together with Kinsella and Hollend’s reportage in the region to describe the Hamas propaganda campaign in the immediate aftermath of the October 7, 2023, attack.

It’s a hefty piece of investigative reporting, and it also serves as Kinsella and Hollend’s way of showing the dramatic shifts in public opinion emanating from Canada, where they both live.

In early 2024, Hollend met Kinsella, a writer, lawyer, and political consultant who was writing a book about the Hamas disinformation campaign at the time.

Kinsella wanted a documentary to accompany his writing, which digs into the anti-Israel messaging machine and explored how Canada became ground zero for the global propaganda campaign.

Hollend, a Jewish Torontonian who has worked in film production for the last 20 years, was reeling from the shifts she was experiencing in her community as opinion turned against Israel for waging war against the Hamas terror group in Gaza after October 7.

“I was in shock at what I was seeing with so many people in my world,” said Hollend. “There was so much hatred without any empathy; there was no balance. They had nothing to say about October 7, and this kept growing.”

Hollend found that being Jewish meant being left out of the equation. After decades of supporting minority rights, she discovered she was now the minority, but without a voice that could be heard.

“I felt very gaslit,” she said.

“The Campaign” opens with a brief, personal look at Kinsella, a Catholic by birth, who shares a story from his youth as a Canadian punk rocker that brought him into a brief conflict with neo-Nazis, to show his lifelong distaste for campaigns of hatred.

From there, the film expands, showing what happened on October 7 with the Hamas invasion of Israel’s south and the immediate, intensive anti-Israel social media campaign that followed.


Bondi Beach unveils mural in memory of Chanukah terrorist attack victims
A new mural has been unveiled on the Bondi Beach sea wall, memorialising the victims of last December's terrorist attack.

A total of 15 people were killed when Naveed Akram and his father, Sajid, opened fire during a Chabad Chanukah party on December 14.

The mural, which consists of people holding hands and forming the shape of a menorah, was painted by artists Mia Lazarus and Jenna Caspary, and commissioned by Sydney’s Waverly Council.

Lazarus told Australian Jewish news outlet J Wire: “I live around Bondi, and it’s always been a relatively happy, normal place.

“After what happened, every time I’ve gone to Bondi, it just feels... heavier.”

She said the purpose of the artwork is to bring light and joy back into the area. “Any single person who walked past [the new mural] stopped for a second, had a smile on their face, even if they didn’t know [what a menorah is],” she said.

“We wanted it to be for everyone.”

Caspary added: “It’s nice for people who were affected to see that and say, ‘okay, we’re remembered’, or ‘we matter’... we just really wanted to bring light back.”

The mural is filled with drawings illustrating both the beach and the victims, including a bee in memory of ten-year-old Matilda Bee Brittan, the youngest victim of the attack.


Deluded Western activists must stop shouting over actual Palestinians like me
He has the word “Zionist” screamed at him. He is branded a genocide supporter. He is called a traitor.

When Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib goes to talk at university campuses, sometimes he doesn’t even get as far as opening his mouth. As a result of protests from “pro-Palestinians”, several colleges have simply cancelled his talks, citing the threat of “security interruptions”.

Yet Alkhatib is a Palestinian from Gaza who has lost 33 members of his immediate and extended family in the war. He was once groomed by Hamas, but he has no love for the keffiyeh-sporting, resistance-spouting “pro-Palestine” movement – members of which, he says, know little about Gaza itself.

“There is this huge gap between the many people in the Gaza Strip who have experienced the consequences of Hamas’s terrorism, violence and jihadism, and the resistance narrative being pushed,” says Alkhatib, 36.

He says the “pro-Palestinian” movement advocates “resistance”, but uses the Palestinians not as an actual people, but as a cypher for their radicalism. He sighs at “pro-Palestinian” activists, such as Greta Thunberg and Sally Rooney. Earlier this year, Rooney declared that by “standing in solidarity with Palestine, we are learning to fight for light on earth”. None of them truly understand what is going on, he says.

“Those in the West, whether they are Muslims or so-called ‘allies’ who are still cheering on the resistance narrative, at best seek to sideline Hamas and pretend that it is not a significant contributor to the situation. At worst, this has led to a horrendous, unprecedented normalisation of Hamas, an Islamo-fascist, jihadi organisation that, ironically, had been losing an immense amount of legitimacy and support in Gaza well before October 7.”

Alkhatib has written a short book called Hamas and Its Two Million Hostages. He sees Hamas not as the victors who have managed so well to turn the world against the Israelis, but as a terror group that holds its own people hostage. He says that those who claim to speak for Palestinians have simply made things more dangerous for them – and more dangerous for his family.

“You have Westerners in the UK, in North America, in Western Europe, in Australia and New Zealand, acknowledging Hamas as an expression of organic resistance. It is resistance porn,” he says. “Somehow, October 7 became about 77 years of Israeli occupation and dispossession, not about a horrendous decision [made] by a small number of jihadis in Gaza tunnels.” He adds that Hamas has “dragged its people along for a suicidal adventure”.
The Brink: The Arab Case for Israel with Hussain Abdul-Hussain
In this episode of The Brink, Jake is joined by Hussain Abdul-Hussain, author of The Arab Case for Israel, for a fascinating conversation about Israel, the Arab world, and why he believes peace requires a fundamental change in the way the Middle East thinks about politics, identity, and prosperity.

Growing up between Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and Hezbollah-dominated Baalbek, Hussain absorbed the politics of Arab nationalism, sectarianism, and hostility towards Israel. He explains how moving to Beirut, encountering different religious communities, and eventually teaching himself Hebrew by listening to Israeli radio transformed his understanding of the Jewish state.

Hussain argues that much of the Arab world has prioritised land, honour, and historical grievance over economic prosperity and individual liberty. Drawing on the UAE and the Abraham Accords, he makes the case for a different model: abandoning permanent conflict with Israel, raising living standards, and allowing political reform to emerge gradually rather than through revolution.

The conversation also explores the decline of Christian and Jewish minorities across the Middle East, Hezbollah’s grip on Lebanon, the prospects for Arab-Israeli normalisation, and why Hussain believes many ordinary Arabs may be considerably more open to peace than their governments and political movements suggest.

Chapters
00:00 From Hezbollah Sympathiser To Supporting Israel
02:43 The Arab Case For Israel
04:17 Why Hussein Changed His Mind
09:13 Prosperity, Palestine & National Pride
21:46 Minorities In The Muslim World
28:33 Growing Up Around Hezbollah
35:53 How Beirut Changed Everything
38:01 Discovering The Real Israel
42:52 Why Hussein Broke With The Left
47:15 Can The Arab World Really Change?


Major Hollywood Talent Agency Stands Behind Marvel Star Mark Ruffalo After His Unhinged, ‘Antisemitic’ Rant
United Talent Agency, one of Hollywood's largest talent agencies, is apparently standing behind Mark Ruffalo after the Avengers franchise star's latest antisemitic outburst, a stark departure from how the firm handled similar controversies involving two female actors.

Ruffalo, best known for playing the Hulk in Disney's Marvel movies, stoked controversy this week after he criticized Paramount Skydance's planned purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery. Ruffalo, on Instagram, referred to Paramount owner David Ellison and his father, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, as "oligarchs" and "inhuman forces." He asserted that Oracle has provided "profoundly scary technologies" to Israel, and that it will also merge into "one of the largest media conglomerates in the world" via Paramount.

He also denounced an Israeli-American Paramount board member, former Oracle CEO Safra Catz, saying she "revels in what we now have come to see as a genocide, which was built on an apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle."

Last year, Ruffalo reposted a tweet that claimed "Jewish troops will be looking for Muslims" in its fight against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

Ruffalo's connecting the Paramount-WBD merger—the source of enormous tension in the contracting entertainment industry—to conspiracy theories about Israel elicited a sharp rebuke from Paramount. In an extraordinary response for a major studio, Paramount, which is now controlled by the Ellisons, accused the actor of spreading "antisemitic tropes," an allegation he vehemently denied, issuing a strident rebuttal on X that argued he should be able to criticize Israel without being called an antisemite.

Creative Community for Peace, a coalition of "prominent members of the entertainment community" who aim to "counter the rise of antisemitism," accused Ruffalo of engaging in "antisemitic messaging" and asserted that "nobody in Hollywood should platform" Ruffalo until he retracts his latest remarks.

But UTA seems to be standing behind Ruffalo. The agency declined to comment to Page Six Hollywood about Creative Community for Peace's calls to deplatform Ruffalo, the gossip sheet reported.

In contrast, UTA kicked actresses Susan Sarandon and Kate Beckinsale to the curb in November 2023 over their criticism of Israel. The agency dropped Sarandon, the star of Thelma & Louise, after she said at an anti-Israel rally that Jews who were fearful amid a rise in antisemitism were "getting a taste" of what it was like to be Muslim in the United States.
Mark Ruffalo’s antisemitism has become Rob Bonta’s problem
None of this would be Rob Bonta’s concern if Ruffalo were just another actor with a phone, but he is not.

In February, when Ruffalo demanded action against the merger, the attorney general answered him publicly, from his official X account, by name: “Mark, I hear you. I’m in conversation with my AG colleagues about Paramount/Warner Bros. As the epicenter of the entertainment industry, California has a special interest in protecting competition.”

In May, the New York Times reported, Bonta met at a semi-private session arranged by Norm Eisen’s Democracy Defenders Fund, where Ruffalo pressed him to sue. In July, he sued. Ruffalo is the case’s celebrity face, recruited by the attorney general personally.

On its face, the lawsuit is a conventional case about market concentration in film distribution, brought by a dozen states, and it was filed six weeks before Ruffalo discovered that antitrust law is a branch of anti-Zionism.

But a public official who courts a spokesman owns what the spokesman says next. And an attorney general who answered “Mark, I hear you” while Mark talked about market shares cannot pretend to be out of earshot now that Mark is talking about Jews.

Paramount, at least, got a meeting with Bonta, even if it was canceled. California’s Jewish parents, shocked at the antisemitism in classrooms and on public college campuses, have spent years asking the state of California to hear them.

Little happened beyond acknowledgement letters until the Brandeis Center and StandWithUs, a pro-Israel group, finally sued the state, though not Bonta himself, in February. Nobody answered those parents by name.

Whose grievances become an attorney general’s priority, and whose require litigation merely to be heard?

One sentence would be a decent start on the answer, and as of this writing the attorney general has not said it: “The state’s case rests on market structure and nothing else; ‘genocide’ and ‘apartheid’ are not merger analysis, and California disavows them; and antisemitism has no place here.” He has said the last part before, to a Palo Alto audience in 2022; but political momentum within his party has shifted since Oct. 7, 2023, and it is not clear where he stands.

It would cost Bonta nothing but a news cycle of Ruffalo’s disappointment to speak out against the actor’s absurd, antisemitic conspiracy theories.

On Monday morning, the National Jewish Advocacy Center filed California Public Records Act requests for the attorney general’s communications about this merger, so Californians can see exactly what he heard, from whom, and when.

Bonta has responded, telling The Ankler that our action is “completely meritless and silly.”

It’s anything but.

Bonta once told Ruffalo, “Mark, I hear you.” Bonta should hear the concerns of the Jewish community, too. If and when the talks with Paramount resume, Bonta should walk back in with a case that is about nothing but the merger.
The Nexus of the Ruffalo Problem
The Nexus Project has finally answered the question that has trailed it since its founding: What is its definition of antisemitism actually for? Apparently, it is for acquittals.

Let me offer some background for readers who have better things to follow than definitional politics. The Nexus Document is the antisemitism definition preferred by critics of the mainstream IHRA working definition, drafted by scholars who worry that IHRA sweeps too much criticism of Israel into the category of Jew-hatred. Nexus protects “even contentious, strident, or harsh criticism of Israel for its policies and actions.” Its champions present it as the careful alternative, the one that knows where the line really is. Fine. A definition written by the defense bar is still a definition, and this week its authors were handed a test case that any first-year student could grade.

Mark Ruffalo, celebrity opponent of Paramount’s $110 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery, shared a video of Safra Catz, Oracle’s Israeli-born Jewish executive, and wrote, “Look how she revels in what we now have come to see as a genocide, which was built on an apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle.” He explained that “this is the company that Larry Ellison is using to fund his son David’s Warner Bros acquisition,” called Ellison a “classic Oligarch,” and warned that Oracle’s technologies “will most likely be merged into one of the largest media conglomerates in the world and one day used on you.” Paramount called that what it is: antisemitic tropes invoked in service of a business dispute.

Then the Nexus Project weighed in. “Claiming Mark Ruffalo is antisemitic is misguided,” it announced. “He expressed his opinion about a corporation’s actions and investments, not an executive’s religion. Whether you agree with him or not, he did not cross the line into antisemitic speech.”

To be clear, if Ruffalo had written that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, Nexus would shield him, and under its own terms that would be a defensible application. But that is not what he wrote, because Israel is not a party to this merger. The Gaza material was imported into a domestic business dispute for one purpose: to indict the Jews in the deal.


West Midlands Police scandal must not be repeated, warn Jewish leaders as officers face gross misconduct claims
Jewish leaders have called for assurances that the failures surrounding the ban of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans will not be repeated, after the police watchdog announced misconduct investigations into senior West Midlands Police officers.

Former Chief Constable Craig Guildford is being investigated for gross misconduct by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).

It is alleged that he failed to ensure due diligence was carried out on an inaccurate intelligence briefing used in the decision to ban the Israeli fans from Aston Villa’s Europa League match.

Three other police officers and a staff member are also facing probes for potential misconduct.

David Toube, general counsel of the Jewish Leadership Council (JLC), welcomed the IOPC investigation but warned the affair had severely damaged Jewish confidence in the police.

Toube said: “The decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans rather than address the real threat of violence that they faced sent a clear message to the Jewish community that we could not be protected by the police from the rising tide of antisemitism.

“The subsequent actions of senior officers in West Midlands Police to use false information to blame the Tel Aviv fans did great damage to the Jewish community's trust in the police.

“The IOPC investigation must establish how a decision with such far-reaching consequences came to be made, and why the safeguards that should have prevented it did not work. The Jewish community is entitled to know how such an outcome was allowed to unfold, and to be assured that it will not be repeated.”

Phil Rosenberg, president of the Board of Deputies, also said the investigation should ensure the failures were not repeated.

“The IOPC’s announcement reinforces the grave concerns we raised from the outset. Inaccurate and unsubstantiated information appears to have supported a predetermined decision, profoundly damaging the Jewish community’s confidence in West Midlands police.

“While due process must be respected, we welcome this investigation and trust that important lessons be learned, accountability ensured, and that these failures will never be repeated.”

Political figures have also criticised the police handling of the match.

Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy MP said “If the IOPC finds Guildford guilty, he should repay his publicly-funded payout.”
WSJ Editorial: Long-Proposed Building in the Jerusalem Suburbs Isn't the Death of Peace
The Europeans are always on the lookout for opportunities to bash Israel. Their latest is called E1, a small area of land just east of crowded Jerusalem, where Israel has long wanted to build to connect to a nearby suburb. Plans approved in 2025 are now moving forward with construction tenders.

The UK, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway and Canada published a statement last week warning of "serious breaches of international law." Developing the E1 area, they warned, "will undermine the prospect of the two-state solution by driving a wedge through the West Bank and harming the contiguity of the Palestinian Territories."

Under any realistic peace plan, E1 would remain part of Israel. That was the case in the maps presented at Camp David and Taba in 2000-01 when, to Bill Clinton's lament, the Palestinians turned down Israel's offer of full statehood. As for "contiguity," have the Europeans looked at a map? Palestinians could easily bypass the tiny area - fewer than five square miles - by traveling a little east. Israel has long offered to build a bypass road for this purpose, with no harm done to the contiguity.

Per the Oslo Accords, E1 is part of the West Bank's Area C, under full Israeli administration. The Europeans prefer to forget that, issuing threats and loudly objecting to each local zoning decision, as they do nowhere else. For peace, it is far better for Israelis to develop suburbs such as E1, in nearby areas legitimately needed for strategic depth.
Van Hollen, Kaine, Sanders to introduce resolution on ‘violent Israeli settlers’
Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) announced their intention on Thursday to introduce a resolution demanding that the State Department report on “violent Israeli settlers” in Judea and Samaria.

Kaine said that the “Israeli government’s lack of response to this violence” was “unacceptable” and threatened “the long-term safety and security of the entire region.”

“The violence committed by Israeli settlers in the West Bank is reaching an unprecedented level, and as a result more and more Americans and Palestinians are being killed and injured,” Kaine stated.

“Friends need to listen to each other, and my colleagues and I have repeatedly urged Israeli leaders to take firmer action to curtail illegal settlements in the West Bank, prosecute violent settlers and protect Palestinian residents as well as American citizens living in or visiting the West Bank,” he stated.

The text of the resolution, which would require the secretary of state to submit a report to Congress about Israel’s human rights practices and information about nine U.S. citizens killed in Judea and Samaria since 2022, includes a lengthy preamble accusing Israel of human rights abuses.

“The lack of effective investigation and accountability, and the public and political support for violent settlers by ministers and members of Knesset, demonstrate that, in practice, settler violence is state-backed,” the resolution says, quoting a report from a coalition of Israeli human rights groups.

Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) joined the trio as co-sponsors of the resolution.

The resolution comes a day after Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) led 45 of the 47 Democrats in the Senate in a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urging him to curb “fatal violence by settlers.”
‘Incessant, disproportionate': Slovenia defends blocking EU statement on Israel’s E1 project
Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša on Thursday defended a decision by his government that reportedly led to the softening of the European Union’s reaction this week to Israel’s plans to build homes in E1, an area in Judea east of Jerusalem and within the municipal boundary of Ma’ale Adumim.

“In truth, we have merely extricated Slovenia from the vicious cycle of losing credibility through the incessant, disproportionate condemnations of Israel for every move it makes,” Janša wrote on X about a report by the EUobserver news site. The report said that E.U. officials had intended to issue a condemnation “on behalf of the European Union and its 27 member states” on Aug. 23, but that Slovenia declined to go along with the intended condemnation. The E.U. then published a condemnation by Kaja Kallas, the E.U. high representative for foreign affairs, that stopped short of stating that her position was on behalf of all of the bloc’s member states.

Unusually, Janša added a scathing criticism of what he described as an excessive focus by the E.U. on Israel, and foreign policy failures.

“While the Brussels bureaucracy remains silent on the extermination of entire Christian villages in Nigeria, the massacres of their own people by Hamas in Gaza, the massacres in Iran, or the increasingly frequent surges of antisemitism in Europe, it reacts to every announcement by Israel about some village’s establishment,” Janša wrote. “Double standards have brought the so-called foreign policy of the E.U. to near irrelevance. Whereas the president of the U.S. can prompt changes in energy prices with a single word, the E.U.'s empty foreign policy messages change or resolve nothing.”

In June, Slovenia’s new government, under Janša, scrapped the previous administration’s sanctions against Israel, including on the import of arms, products from Judea and Samaria, and on visits by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Slovenia’s former prime minister, Robert Golob of the left-wing Freedom Movement, was among the most hostile leaders to Israel in the European Union. His government imposed a ban on importing goods made by Israelis from Judea and Samaria, said it would endorse South Africa’s genocide lawsuit against Israel at the International Court of Justice, and said it would comply with the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Netanyahu.
UK Prime Minister's Attacks on Israel Are Dangerously Naive
In one of his first major foreign policy initiatives, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham is planning to impose a ban on trade with Israeli communities in the West Bank, the type of empty gesture politics normally reserved for university campuses.

The only constituency likely to applaud such a move would be those who believe our national interest is best served by supporting Islamist death cults such as Hamas and Hizbullah. Does Burnham genuinely believe the UK would benefit from indulging in a gratuitous attack on a key Middle East ally like Israel?

Apart from the fact that Burnham's plan to sanction such trade is unworkable - it is virtually impossible to identify goods and produce emanating specifically from these communities - it is hard to imagine a less opportune moment for Britain to pick a fight with Israel.

As if the Iranian attack on a UK power station was not sufficient proof of Tehran's hostile intent, Iran has been accused of plotting assassinations in the UK against dissidents, journalists and Jewish communities. The regime has also paid criminal gangs to target government buildings and threatened to attack British bases used by U.S. forces.

Iran's violent response in the Gulf, where it has repeatedly attacked the national infrastructure of Gulf states that have no involvement in the U.S. war against the ayatollahs, shows just how indiscriminate the ayatollahs can be.

It would be helpful if the UK had access to Israel's considerable intelligence on Iran's military capabilities and extensive terror network. But it is unlikely there will be much intelligence-sharing as long as Burnham feels this is a good moment to pick a pointless fight with Israel.

If Iran increases its attacks against UK interests, whether they involve more cyber hacks or major terror attacks on British soil, Britain will need all the allies it can muster. As far as Iran is concerned, there is no better ally than Israel, which is why British intelligence officials have spent the past decade developing close intelligence-sharing ties with Mossad to monitor Iran's nuclear and terrorist activities.


Stumping in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed and Jamie Raskin dodge queries on Hasan Piker, Israel
As Michigan US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed made campaign stops with a prominent Jewish congressional leader on Wednesday, there was one subject that neither he nor his Democratic allies onstage were interested in discussing.

“Don’t any reporter ask me again about Hasan Piker,” Michigan US Rep. Debbie Dingell told the crowd at an Ann Arbor, Michigan, town hall, to cheers. “It’s not what November is about.”

Dingell’s crack was the only reference to the popular left-wing streamer — whose incendiary rhetoric has spurred accusations of antisemitism — during the pair of El-Sayed rallies that day. Piker recently commented, “If Jews in America keep putting this idea out there that they are singularly invested in Israel, eventually someone’s going to come around and take action… against American Jews.”

His remarks prompted uproar from several corners of Democratic leadership and pushback from El-Sayed, who distanced himself from Piker’s remarks in a statement prior to his latest rallies. Despite this, El-Sayed’s new Jewish campaign surrogate, US Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, avoided the topic altogether.

That reluctance to talk about Piker on the campaign trail Wednesday extended to the candidate himself. El-Sayed didn’t mention Piker, nor Israel, once in either of his campaign stops with Raskin, except when asked directly by reporters.

The former county health official campaigned with Piker during the primary — including at one stop at the University of Michigan a stone’s throw away from Wednesday’s event — as the two made opposition to Israel a central issue of his candidacy. But at a press conference following his Ann Arbor event, El-Sayed described Piker as “a streamer in California,” adding that the media was putting too much focus on his most prominent supporter.

“I’m less interested in going to the tabloid version of our politics where we cover this as who’s in, who’s out, who’s up, who’s down, who’s talking to who,” El-Sayed said. “I’m a lot more interested in talking to the people in the state who had a bum deal because of Donald Trump and the politics that [El-Sayed’s GOP opponent] Mike Rogers has been the epitome of for a very long time.”
Jewish Insider EIC talks the impact of Hasan Piker on every Democrat candidate everywhere

How big is the Democrats' "Piker Problem"? Eliana joined Hugh to discuss



Chicago alderman went ‘Jew-hunting’ when he blamed AIPAC for releasing divorce records, lawsuit alleges
Byron Sigcho-Lopez, a Chicago alderman who represents parts of the neighborhood of Pilsen, went “Jew-hunting” when he said that AIPAC was at fault for releasing his divorce records. And in fact, the Jewish lawyer whom he blamed had no ties to the pro-Israel lobby, according to a lawsuit filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County.

In Chicago, members of the City Council are called aldermen. Sigcho-Lopez, who represents the city’s 25th ward, spent “incredible” amounts of the family’s money on prostitutes and pornography, his former wife alleges in records of the 2011 divorce proceedings, which JNS viewed.

The records became public after the Coalition Opposing Governmental Secrecy petitioned an Illinois court to unseal the documents.

Adam Florek, who represented the coalition with Edward “Coach” Weinhaus, told JNS that the coalition sought the records because Sigcho-Lopez is an elected official and has pursued higher office.

“Sigcho-Lopez is putting his character at issue in a lot of his promotional materials,” Florek said. “He points to his good works in the community, his status as a family man and his kids appear in a lot of promotional materials.”

“These speak to his character, and I think the voting public has a right to evaluate all aspects,” he told JNS.

Sigcho-Lopez denies the allegations and has blamed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee for releasing the records.


Report: Nearly three-quarters of Jewish teachers’ union members self-censor over anti-Jewish, anti-Israel hostility
Nearly three-quarters of Jewish members of teachers’ unions say they have censored themselves in union spaces because of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel hostilities, according to a new Anti-Defamation League report.

The report, released on Thursday, is based on a survey of 307 Jewish teachers’ union members in 24 states, as well as focus groups. Respondents were primarily current and retired K-12 teachers.

Among those surveyed, 73.6% reported feeling they had to censor themselves in teachers’ union spaces due to hostility against Jews, Zionists and Israel, and 47.6% said they had curbed their involvement in some union activities due to the hostility.

“Teachers’ unions were built on the promise of solidarity, fairness and dignity for every worker,” Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and national director of the ADL, stated.

“This report makes clear that this promise is being broken for Jewish educators across the country,” he said. “What we found is not the work of a few bad actors. It is a structural and cultural failure.”

The report found that 53.4% of respondents said their unions had inconsistently enforced anti-harassment policies in cases involving Jews or Zionists over the past year. Nearly 52% said they had witnessed instances in which the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks of Oct. 7 were whitewashed or denied, while 43.7% said their unions had provided platforms to speakers who justified violence against Jews or Israel.

More than a third of respondents, 36.5%, said they had been accused of being “baby killers,” “genocide supporters” or “colonizers.” Another 36.8% said they had encountered union members justifying Hamas’s actions, while 27.8% said they had encountered comparisons between Jews or Zionists and Nazis.

The report also found that 73.3% of respondents strongly or somewhat agreed that their unions’ statements about the war in Gaza were problematic because they failed to condemn the Oct. 7 attacks or Hamas. Sixty-eight percent said calls within their unions to sever ties with mainstream Jewish organizations were problematic.

Among Jewish union members who considered the treatment of Jews, Zionists or Israel in their unions problematic and reported their concerns to leadership, 69.1% said they were “not at all satisfied” with the response.
Trump admin should probe Northwestern U over Qatar contract, Brandeis Center says
The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law is urging the U.S. Department of Justice to probe Northwestern University over the highly ranked private school’s $737 million contract with Qatar.

The center’s letter, which was sent to the department on Friday, stated that the university’s contract with the Qatar Foundation, which the Gulf state controls, violates the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA. (JNS sought comment from the university.)

The letter noted that Michael Schill, the university’s then-president, revealed to the House Education and Workforce Committee in an August 2025 interview that the university’s agreement with the Qatar Foundation had stipulations limiting speech not just on the university’s Qatar campus but in the United States as well.

The agreement states that the university “shall be subject to the applicable laws and regulations of the State of Qatar, and shall respect the cultural, religious and social customs of the State of Qatar,” per the center.

Two weeks after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks against Israel, Qatar Foundation staffers sent emails to the dean of the university’s Qatar campus with talking points about “diplomatic role and mediation efforts in Palestine/Gaza and Afghanistan—along with reactions from international politicians,” according to the center.

Citing a March report from the House Education and Workforce Committee, the center noted that the foundation held a meeting with deans from various U.S. universities, including Northwestern, where the foundation told the private school that “any communications received, or proposed to be sent to government entities” should be sent to the foundation first.

One of the other examples cited in the center’s letter includes the university’s Qatar campus hosting an event shortly after Oct. 7 featuring a professor who “glorifies Hamas” speaking on a university-sponsored panel titled “Hamas and the Framing of Terrorism.”

“These activities are simply the presentation of speakers, documents or talking points deemed acceptable to Qatar to promote Qatar’s point of view in the United States,” the letter stated. “Further, universities that coordinate talking points with foreign principals or that use their official logos and websites to promulgate foreign public relations material are within the scope of those sections.”


The New York Times Can’t See Itself
In the hit TV series The Office, Michael Scott frequently berates Dwight for lacking self-awareness, completely blind to the fact that the rest of the office views Michael the exact same way.

In “How a False Nuclear Claim About Iran Ricocheted from India to Washington,” (Aug. 16, 2026), The New York Times thoroughly scrutinized how a single unverified claim traveled from an anonymous social media post to hyper-partisan influencers, to earning mainstream news coverage and more. The article chronicled how the claim appeared on Israeli accounts, then on an Israeli television station, then into Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s own remarks, and how it was repeated by Ambassador Mike Waltz, Senator Rick Scott and reported by Fox News.

For those who have been critical of The New York Times and its coverage of Israel, some of the language in the article was jaw-droppingly accurate about the paper itself:
“The claim’s spread showed how easily viral disinformation can twist the public debate over matters as serious as war and peace.”
A disinformation and propaganda tracker “described the spread of the claim as a textbook case of narrative laundering, a tactic that propagandists use to seed and then shuffle falsehoods through enough sources to make them seem authentic.”
The co-founder of an Israeli fact-checking organization explained the nuclear claim quote “gained credibility every time an outlet or a politician repeated it.”

In other words, The Times is Michael Scott.

In the article, the authors clearly identified how narrative confirmation was prioritized over verification, how the claim was institutionally laundered, and the effect of the radical asymmetry in how little of the original audience sees the correction.

But The Times has done this very thing. Multiple times. In fact, on Thursday The Times was just ordered to pay one of its victims $9.25 million after relying on a single anonymous source to falsely accuse him of being at the scene of a murder.

How can The Times not see the same fault in itself?
CNN Allows NGO Guest to Erase Hamas From Gaza
Zain Asher’s Aug. 10, 2026, interview on CNN with Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) Communications Adviser Shaina Low demonstrated a total failure of journalistic scrutiny.

Throughout the segment, both anchor and guest completely erased Hamas’s ironclad rule over the Gaza Strip, producing a one-sided narrative more at home on the Qatari state-run outlet Al Jazeera than on an independent news network.

Crossing the line from journalism to non-profit advocacy, CNN actively platformed and promoted the NRC’s fundraising efforts, with Asher explicitly thanking Low for all “the work” NRC is “doing on the ground there in Gaza.” The NRC, according to its website, provides humanitarian assistance to displaced around the world.

Considering NRC’s spot within the top ten most well-funded international NGOs with a nearly billion-dollar annual income, Asher should have held power accountable rather than help line the organization’s pockets.

Low’s refusal to acknowledge Hamas’s role in the crisis raises serious doubts about whether the NRC is upholding its own stated pledge to impartiality, independence, and neutrality. Gaza’s Children

The erasure of Gaza’s terror infrastructure began with the first question when Asher brought up the suffering of children in Gaza. Low, the NRC representative, blamed Israel exclusively for all children killed in Gaza since the war began while lamenting their lack of sufficient aid or education.

CNN allowed this framing to stand without any cross-examination. The slain children claimed as Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Hamas child soldiers were entirely absent from the conversation. As were the weapons the IDF found in schools, the antisemitic and pro-terror indoctrination documented in school textbooks, and the Hamas and PIJ summer training camps that teach Gaza’s youth how to fight from as early as age 14. Hamas-linked social media accounts published a video in mid-August 2026 glorifying a child soldier. Israeli reservist Michael Starr described in a Dec. 5, 2024, article seeing a boy as young as 14 serving as a Hamas military lookout.

Recruiting children under the age of 15 as soldiers is a war crime according to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Furthermore, The Israeli military itself has documented Palestinian terrorist organizations’ use of children for intelligence gathering and transporting munitions.


Apple to pay $150,000 to settle federal discrimination suit over Jewish employee’s Shabbat observance
Apple will pay $150,000 to settle a federal religious-discrimination lawsuit involving a Jewish employee who alleged the company refused to accommodate his observance of the Sabbath, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced on Thursday.

According to the lawsuit, the employee, who was based at an Apple store in Reston, Va., requested a schedule that would allow him to be off from Friday evening through Saturday evening to observe Shabbat. Apple rejected the request after adopting a new policy requiring weekend work, the federal agency stated.

The EEOC also alleged that the store manager who denied the accommodation later fired the employee in January 2024 because of his religion and in retaliation for complaints about the manager’s disparaging comments about his faith and the denial of his accommodation request.

“Accommodating an employee’s religious beliefs is not optional,” Debra Lawrence, the EEOC’s Philadelphia regional attorney, stated. “It is an obligation mandated by federal law in the absence of an undue hardship.”

The agency sued Apple under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on religion and requires employers to reasonably accommodate sincerely held religious beliefs and practices unless doing so would impose an undue hardship. The law also prohibits retaliation against employees who complain about religious discrimination.

Under a two-year consent decree, Apple will pay the former employee $80,000 in back pay and $70,000 in compensatory damages. The company also agreed to update its religious-observance policy and provide written explanations when it denies accommodation requests.
Manor Solomon targeted in anti-Israel video filmed outside West Ham training ground
An Israeli football player signed by West Ham United has been targeted by a video filmed outside the club’s training ground, in which a masked figure vows to “continue to raise out voice until he’s out of the club”.

Manor Solomon joined the East London club earlier this month after being signed from Tottenham Hotspur.

The video, posted on Instagram by the Tower Hamlets Palestine Solidarity Network, features an individual standing outside the Romford training venue, showing Palestinian flags having been placed on street lights leading to the facility. The group posted the video with the caption “Kick Out Baby Killer, Manor Solomon, from West Ham United!”

In the video, the masked man, whose voice has also been disguised by a synthesiser, says that “we have West Ham fans amongst us, we have season ticket holders amongst us…we do not agree with the signing of Manor Solomon and we will continue to raise our voice until he’s out of our club”.

The video also references Solomon’s IDF service. Solomon completed his mandatory military service in 2019, and did not serve in a combat role.

Solomon, 27, joined West Ham United earlier this month, after being signed from Tottenham Hotspur. Announcing the signing, West Ham said that the Israeli international “was identified as a key attacking target by Director of Player Recruitment Nils Koppen and Head Coach Nuno Espírito Santo.” The club said that Solomon had been given the Number 10, and that he was “looking forward to pulling on a Claret and Blue shirt and helping the Club get back to the Premier League.” Solomon scored on his debut for the club in a 2-2 draw against Burnley.


California could become first US state to list ‘Jewish’ as ethnicity
California could become the first state in the US to consider “Jewish” an ethnic and racial identity, rather than just a religious affiliation.

A groundbreaking bill, which was recently approved by the State Senate and is awaiting a vote in the Assembly, would expand California’s legal definition of ethnicity “to include Jewish identity” in demographic data collection. In other words, state agency forms would need to include a “Jewish” category in questions that allow for voluntary disclosures of ethnicity or race.

If the bill, SB 1387, goes on to become law, this requirement would also apply to public entities ranging from public schools to unemployment offices to prisons. But the clock is ticking, as Monday, August 31, is the final day of the year that California lawmakers can pass legislation. The governor then has until September 30 to sign bills into law or veto them.

The ethnicity legislation has been a priority among many Jewish groups across the Gold Rush state, who believe that Jewish peoplehood should be tied to far more than just religion — and that the law should reflect this unique relationship.

“When state law misrepresents us and puts us in this box of just a religion, there are a number of implications,” said David Bocarsly, CEO of Jewish California, an umbrella coalition for dozens of organizations that sponsored the bill.

“As antisemitism continues to rise, part of that can be attributed to misinformation and misunderstanding,” Bocarsly added.

Proponents of the SB 1387 bill achieved a critical milestone two weeks ago when the State Assembly’s Appropriations Committee passed it to the Assembly floor, where a vote has yet to occur. If the Assembly approves the legislation, it then must return to the State Senate for a “concurrence” vote on amendments before heading to the governor’s desk.
IsraAID deploys emergency team to Nepal after deadly floods, landslides
Israel's humanitarian aid agency, IsraAID, announced on Thursday that it is deploying an emergency response team to Nepal to assist with disaster relief efforts following recent flooding and landslides in the region.

According to the agency's statement, the team is scheduled to arrive in Nepal on Thursday. Their initial mission will focus on urgent relief distributions and providing mental health support and protection for the affected communities.

IsraAID CEO Yotam Polizer expressed his concern for the region, stating, “We are devastated to see the scenes unfolding in Nepal, as entire communities have been destroyed by flash flooding and landslides. Our thoughts are with everyone affected. We will do everything we can to bring urgent support where it is needed most.”

Joining IsraAID in Israeli-based delegations to the region is NATAN Worldwide Disaster Relief, who also announced they were dispatching an emergency team to the affected area.

"NATAN volunteers - medical and mental health professionals who leave their daily routines at a moment's notice - are arriving in Nepal to provide medical and psychosocial care to survivors and to strengthen local healthcare systems. Precisely at a community's moment of crisis, we are there to extend a hand, stand behind them, and walk alongside them on the path toward recovery.” said Gil Reines, Chair of NATAN’s Executive Board.

Search, rescue for missing Israeli tourist
Harel Insurance Company has also announced that it is sending a search and rescue team to Nepal after receiving a report about a missing Israeli policyholder in a remote mountainous area affected by flooding.

The Harel team, which consists of approximately eight Israeli rescuers, is scheduled to depart for Nepal on Thursday. They will work to locate the missing policyholder and search for a group of travelers he was hiking with in the Rasuwa region, near the border crossing between Nepal and China.


Erin Molan: 8-Year-Old Hostage Who Witnessed His Dad & Sister Murdered BREAKS His Silence
Tal Goldstein-Almog was just eight years old on October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists broke into his family’s home in Kfar Aza.

Tal says they shot his father, Nadav, killed his older sister, Yam, and then kidnapped him, his mother and his siblings and took them into Gaza.

He was held hostage for 50 days.

Now 11 years old, Tal sits down with Erin Molan to tell his story in his own words — what he remembers from the morning of October 7, watching terrorists enter his community, the moment they reached his home, witnessing the deaths of his father and sister, being driven into Gaza, surviving Hamas captivity with his family and finally seeing Israeli soldiers when he returned home.

Tal also remembers the father he lost: an athlete, a great cook and the dad who helped him with basketball. He talks about his big sister Yam, how much he still misses them, how the experience changed him and what he hopes for his future.

And at the end of the interview, Tal shares a powerful message about survival, Israel, Hamas and what happened to his family on October 7.

This is Tal’s story, told by Tal.

A special thank you to the IDF Widows & Orphans Organization, which supports Tal and so many other children and families who have lost loved ones.

The organization provides emotional, social, educational and financial support while creating opportunities for children like Tal to connect, heal and simply be kids again.





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Reclaiming the Covenant on America's 250th (May 2026)

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

    

 

 

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