Friday, September 04, 2026

09/04 Links Pt1: Organisations urged to unite against antizionism; Spy boss reflects on repeated warnings before Bondi terror attack as antisemitism became ‘normalised’; Obama 'Team of Geniuses' Literally Knows Nothing

From Ian:

Organisations urged to unite against antizionism
Two of the world’s leading thinkers and writers on antizionism spoke to a packed house on Friday, August 14 in Sydney.

Visiting US academic Dr Naya Lekht, Founder of Stop Antizionism joined Movement Against Antizionism Australia (MAAZ AU) executive director Joshua Dabelstein for a panel discussion titled “United Against Antizionism” with the Zionist Council of NSW and facilitated by host and moderator Andrew Klein.

The speakers presented the history of antizionism through Soviet propaganda and pseudo-academia from the 1960s onwards. Lekht was born in the former Soviet Union and grew up hearing her parents’ stories of antizionism permeating schools, universities, workplaces, and the media. Alongside her parents’ experiences, she also carries the legacy of her grandfather, a Holocaust survivor whose younger brother was burned alive in a synagogue in Poland, and whose older brother was shot in a ghetto.

Dabelstein spoke of university indoctrination, and the allure of antizionist rhetoric, emphasising that, despite presenting as hate, that all bigotry considers itself a social justice initiative. While classically antisemitic race-based targeting of Jews has been rendered socially unacceptable for decades, the pair argued that antizionism is not only socially permissible, but fashionable. Antizionism now launders classically antisemitic tropes—tropes considered impermissible prior to the explosion of antizionism after October 7. This makes it crucial to diagnose and treat antizionism as the vehicle for today’s anti-Jewish hate.

Lekht and Dabelstein’s primary, shared contention is that antizionism stigmatises Jews worldwide through a “moral” instinct that operates distinctly to prior centuries’ religion-based or ethnicity-based anti-Jewish sentiments. Merely saying “antizionism is antisemitic” is a failed strategy, and is often contradicted by statements like, “antizionism can cross over into antisemitism.”

Their work demonstrates that antizionism’s obsession is not with Israel’s actions, but with its perceived uniquely illegitimate and evil existence. This obsession casts all who may be connected to the Jewish state as party to its malevolence. It is not a “mask” for antisemitism, and it is mutually exclusive with “political criticism”.

The speakers instructed that anti-Jewish libels and conspiracies are institutionalised through our highest intellectual and moral authorities every century. Today, the “Zionist” is seen to embody genocide, apartheid, colonialism, and infanticide.

They invited the Jewish community and organisations to prioritise further education and action on antizionism.
Ambassadors to UN in Geneva tour Oct. 7 sites in Israel
A group of ambassadors to the United Nations in Switzerland visited Israel this week on a tour of listening diplomacy intended to shore up support for Jerusalem among envoys to the world body.

Israel has long regarded the United Nations bodies based in Geneva as heavily and systematically biased against it.

The six-member delegation organized by the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem included three African ambassadors, from Ethiopia, the Gambia and Zambia, highlighting Israel’s diplomatic outreach on the continent, and envoys from Fiji, Mongolia and Panama.

“Seeing is believing,” Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva Daniel Meron, who is hosting the delegation, told JNS on Wednesday. “Our goal is to get them to be more understanding and attentive to Israel.”

The visiting ambassadors said that the five-day trip, which took them to the sites of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel as well as to tech centers, was an eye-opener.

“We have an opportunity to listen to the Israeli side that we are often not privy to,” said Professor Muhammadou M. O. Kah, the Gambian ambassador. “We gained more insight into the complexity of what is going on.”

Kah, who previously visited the Jewish state while serving as the president of the University of The Gambia in the West African Muslim country, said that he was struck on his current visit by the interaction of Jews, Muslims and Christians in Jerusalem after praying at the Al-Aqsa mosque, an image he said which was typically not projected out to the world.

“I return more convinced than ever that dialogue matters and that security and dignity for Israelis and Palestinians are inseparable goals,” he said.

A similar group of European ambassadors to the U.N. in Geneva visited Israel last year.

Tsegab Kebebew Daka, the Ethiopian ambassador on the current trip, is vice president of the Human Rights Council, which Israel has frequently denounced for double standards and an obsession with targeting the Jewish state.
Tony Blair blasts ‘fabricated’ Middle East Eye allegation that he requested removal of word ‘Palestine’ from Arab school books
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has vigorously rebutted claims he asked the Palestinian Authority (PA) to remove the name “Palestine” from school books or replace it with another term.

Blair described the allegation by Britain's former ambassador to the UN Sir Jeremy Greenstock, made during a podcast for digital news platform Middle East Eye, as “a complete fabrication”.

In an interview with MEE editor in chief David Hearst, the former diplomat claimed Blair made the request when he was sent to negotiate with the PA on behalf of the President Trump’s Board of Peace.

Greenstock, ambassador to the UN between 1998 and 2003 – during Blair’s term as PM from 1997 to 2007 – said he had received the information from a “ministerial level” source.

He told Hearst: "He (Blair) recently, I understand, was asked by the Board of Peace to go to Ramallah and ask to remove from the Palestinian curriculum any mention of the word ‘Palestine’ if they were to be treated by the Board of Peace as capable of coming to an agreement with Israel to end the current conflict that had stemmed from 7 October onwards.

"President Mahmoud Abbas said he would do no such thing.”

Blair is a member of the Board of Peace’s Gaza Executive Board and joined US envoy Jared Kushner for talks with Israel's Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu about a ceasefire deal in Gaza last month.


Rabbi Steven Abraham: Utter Ignorance
People who know astonishingly little about Jewish history have become remarkably comfortable explaining antisemitism to Jews.

I am a rabbi.

I have spent my adult life studying Jewish texts, teaching Jewish history, sitting with Jewish families, standing beside graves, speaking from a pulpit, teaching children what it means to inherit this strange and stubborn covenant.

And over the past several years, I have found myself repeatedly instructed about antisemitism by people who could not define some of its most elementary historical forms.

We are told which expressions of antisemitism count.

We are told which ones do not.

We are told when Jewish fear is reasonable and when it is hysterical.

We are told when opposition to Zionism has crossed a line and, more frequently, that the line Jews believe they see does not actually exist.

We are told that certain rhetoric has nothing to do with centuries of anti-Jewish imagery.

And increasingly I find myself wondering:

Based on what knowledge?

What exactly have these people studied?

What history have they read?

What Jewish memory are they drawing upon?

Because if you do not know what a blood libel is, perhaps you should exhibit just a little humility before telling Jews what antisemitism is.

The blood libel is not complicated.

It is the accusation that Jews murder non Jews, historically most often Christian children, and use their blood for Jewish religious purposes, especially in connection with Passover.

That accusation followed Jews across Europe for centuries.

Children disappeared. Jews were blamed.

Bodies were discovered. Jews were blamed.

Passover approached. Jews were suspected.

People were imprisoned, tortured, expelled, and murdered because Christian societies convinced themselves that Jews required Christian blood.
Alert: Obama 'Team of Geniuses' Literally Knows Nothing
Back in the day, Barack Obama and his closest aides were often hailed—by fawning journalists and other Democrats—as the pinnacle of human intellect. They were a bona fide "team of geniuses" brimming with "talents" and "education," meritocracy at its finest. George Stephanopoulos, the former Democratic spokesman turned mainstream news anchor, called it the most impressive combination of "star power and brain power" ever assembled in his lifetime.

Even lesser aides got swept up in the hype. They bagged celebrity girlfriends (and boyfriends), and went on to launch a multimillion-dollar media empire. The Obama bros became the Pod Save America bros.

Alas, a recent incident on this week's podcast suggests that proximity to Obama does not make one a genius. We must consider the possibility that, in the words of Ben "Hamas" Rhodes, the Obama foreign-policy guru, these people "literally know nothing." (He was talking about journalists, but really, what's the difference?)

Here's what happened: the Pod Jons (Favreau and Lovett) couldn't wait to make fun of J.D. Vance for botching the definition of "blood libel" at a conference of Jewish Republicans. What an idiot, they scoffed. How dumb do you have to be to get that wrong? As dumb as the Pod Bros, apparently.

The Jons tried to correct Vance, but quickly discovered they didn't know what blood libel meant either. Favreau had to look it up on the internet (or ask AI) to end the embarrassment for everyone involved.

We're all getting dumber these days, but it's always helpful to be reminded that even the "smart" people aren't that smart—just insufferably smug. Especially the so-called experts.


ASIO boss reflects on repeated warnings before Bondi terror attack as antisemitism became ‘normalised’
Spy chief Mike Burgess has expressed frustration and regret that his repeated warnings about antisemitism posing the country’s deadliest threat were underestimated by those in leadership positions prior to the Bondi terror attack.

In his first sit-down interview since the massacre, conducted for the book “Bondi Terror”, the ASIO Director-General reveals moments of “deep regret” but insists others in society should have heeded his public warnings about the urgency of the antisemitism threat confronting the nation.

Instead, he said antisemitic behaviour became “normalised” and that this “increased the permission for politically motivated violence”.

In the exclusive interview, Mr Burgess also admits that in his quiet moments he looks back at the Bondi terror attack and the explosion in antisemitism after October 7 and wonders what more he could have done.

“I was concerned about the trajectory of our threat environment, and I made that known publicly,” he said.

“Of course, it is a matter of deep regret. Could I have done more? Perhaps yes, I could have shouted stronger, but in the end, I would suggest security is a shared responsibility in society, and others actually had to take up that call, either challenge me for more details or take action.

“As much as I’m critical of this, there is the benefit of hindsight, and then there’s the handicap of hindsight.

“You’ve got to be careful of both in this process.”

Mr Burgess’ strong view is that the antisemitism that first erupted at the Opera House rally went largely unchallenged and became normalised because it was not properly addressed by either law enforcement or political and community leaders.

“I was concerned about this and concerned about behaviours being normalised,” he said.

“Those behaviours being normalised raised the temperature, which increased the permission for politically motivated violence and, sadly, we saw that: from threatening, intimidating behaviour through to direct targeting of people, businesses and places of worship, through to killings of Jewish Australians.”

In his interview, Mr Burgess said that Australia must learn one of history’s darkest lessons — that good people are capable of doing bad things — invoking the experience of Nazi Germany in the 1930s as he reflected on the country’s failure to confront rising antisemitism.

“Generally, people are good. Very few people are evil. Very few people want to kill others,” he said.

“But sadly, the weight of history tells you that even good people can be drawn into bad things, and then they just accept it.


Trump says US may hit Iran's Pickaxe Mountain soon, new oil pipelines may replace Hormuz
US President Donald Trump told reporters on Friday that the United States may hit Iran's Pickaxe Mountain very soon.

Pickaxe Mountain, located ​near Iran's heavily damaged Natanz uranium enrichment facility, is ​a heavily fortified site that hosts two deeply buried tunnel complexes.

Trump credited the US's space technology and the US Space Force as the reason the US has comprehensive intelligence on movement around Pickaxe Mountain.

"We're leading in space. We know everybody that's moving at Pickaxe, we know everybody that's moving everywhere, all over Iran, and if anything goes bad, we hit them. We hit them hard," Trump said.

Trump also downplayed the situation, saying he called it a "military conflict," instead of a war.

"It's small potatoes for us. It's not a big thing," Trump said.
US said drafting postwar plan to create alliance against Iran, expand Abraham Accords
US President Donald Trump’s administration is crafting a post-Iran war strategy to build a regional alignment of US allies to contain Iran, while also expanding the Abraham Accords, the Axios news site reported on Friday.

The report said that in private conversations, Trump has told people that he’s working on “something much bigger” in the Middle East after the war with Iran.

The plan is still in its initial stages of being formed, and the administration doesn’t plan to implement it until after the October 27 Israeli election and November 3 US midterms, Axios said, citing two US officials and two other sources with knowledge of the matter.

“They are cooking it, but it is not yet cooked,” a source told Axios, adding that it was expected to take another few weeks to finalize the proposal.

Framed as a postwar strategy, the plan ostensibly will require an end to the conflict with Iran, which the US has struggled to achieve on its terms after launching the war with Israel over six months ago.

The plan would see the formation of a regional alliance, with the US serving as a guarantor, a US official told Axios, without elaborating on what that would mean. It would also see a regional effort to implement the Board of Peace’s Hamas disarmament plan in Gaza, which has stalled amid opposition from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

The plan envisions a security agreement between Israel and Syria and further implementation of the US-brokered framework agreement between Israel and Lebanon, the report also said.

Both will likely require Israel to withdraw from buffer zones it has established in Syria and Lebanon.
US Treasury sanctions Turkish bank, two subsidiaries
The US Treasury Department said on Friday it imposed new Iran-related sanctions on a small Turkish investment bank and two subsidiaries as part of the Trump administration's effort to increase economic pressure on Iran.

The entities targeted are Instanbul-based investment bank Golden Global Yatirim Bankasi Anonim Sirketi, asset manager Golden Global Portfoy Yonetimi Anonim Sirketi, and asset leasing company Golden Global Varlik Kiralama Anonim Sirketi, according to the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control.

The sanctions put all three entities on the Treasury's OFAC Specially Designated Nationals list, cutting them off from the dollar-based financial system.

The Treasury Department also issued a general license to allow the wind-down of transactions with the sanctioned entities.

In an interview with news outlet America's Voice News, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the latest action "is code for you are out of business."

"And we will probably sanction another bank next week, and we are telling the financial system bad actors: 'We know who you are, you know who you are, it's over, and our allies are helping with this," he said.

Golden Global Yatrim Bankasi is the 35th-largest bank in Turkey by total assets, according to database TheBanks.EU, with total assets of 25,024.68 million Turkish lira ($516.63 million) in 2025.

The bank did not immediately respond to a request for comment.


IDF busts terror cell plotting attacks, detains wanted suspects in Samaria ops
Israel Defense Forces soldiers on Friday completed a counterterrorism operation in the Qabatiya area in northern Samaria, apprehending five terrorists who were part of a cell planning an attack on civilians and security forces, the military said.

The operation was based on intelligence from the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet).

During searches of the suspects’ homes, the soldiers located and confiscated an M16 rifle and additional military equipment that had been concealed by the cell.

The soldiers apprehended the terrorists less than 10 minutes after arriving at the suspected locations. They were transferred to security forces for further questioning.

Earlier on Friday, the IDF said that more than 10 wanted suspects had been arrested during a 48-hour brigade-level counterterrorism operation in the Nablus area of central Samaria.

During the operation, troops searched hundreds of sites and questioned dozens of suspects.

The soldiers also dismantled more than 30 weapons-production machines and confiscated firearms, handguns and ammunition.

“IDF soldiers will continue to operate proactively and offensively to thwart terrorism throughout Judea and Samaria, in order to safeguard the security of residents in the area and Israeli civilians,” the military said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday commended security personnel for the two-day operation.

“I commend our forces on a successful operation in Samaria in which they destroyed dozens of lathes for weapons manufacturing, seized dozens of weapons, and arrested individuals wanted for involvement in terrorism,” said Netanyahu.

“Our activity to thwart terrorism continues with full force in Judea and Samaria, Gaza, Lebanon, and every place where our enemies attempt to threaten the State of Israel,” he added.


Red Cross hands four more civilians detained by Israel in security zone to Lebanon
The International Committee of the Red Cross said Friday it had facilitated the transfer to Lebanon of the four remaining detainees set to be released by Israel, a day after the first man was handed over.

Israel announced on Thursday that it would release the five civilians, amid the two countries’ US-brokered peace talks and after Beirut’s recent assistance in locating the remains of Lebanese Jews killed by Shiite terrorists in the 1980s.

The detainees had been taken into custody in areas of southern Lebanon under the control of the Israel Defense Forces; however, after interrogations, each of the five was determined to be a civilian, unconnected to terror activity.

It was determined that “there is no reason to keep holding them in Israel,” the Prime Minister’s Office said on Thursday.

The four freed on Friday were two Lebanese and two Syrian nationals, a Lebanese official who requested anonymity told AFP. The statement from Netanyahu’s office on Thursday had referred to all five as “Lebanese civilians.”

On Friday, three ICRC vehicles were seen arriving from Israeli-controlled parts of southern Lebanon at the Lebanese army checkpoint in Al-Amiriya, which marks the start of the territory controlled by Beirut.

The convoy was escorted by two Lebanese army vehicles to the southern city of Tyre, where the released individuals were to undergo medical examinations and be questioned by the military.

The Red Cross said Friday that it “continues its dialogue with the Israeli authorities” regarding remaining Lebanese detainees, stressing that its role is “purely humanitarian.”
IDF strikes Hezbollah targets in Lebanon after Israeli soldiers intercept drone attack
The IDF struck Hezbollah targets in Lebanon after the terrorist organization launched a drone towards Israeli soldiers, the military said on Friday.

According to the IDF, the soldiers shot down the drone after it was spotted approaching them earlier on Friday.

No IDF soldiers were injured in the attack, which was described by the military as a "blatant violation" of the ceasefire agreement.

The military noted that the soldiers were in the IDF's security zone in southern Lebanon when the drone attack occurred.

Katz: Hezbollah cleared from Ali al-Taher ridge tunnels
The strikes follow an announcement by Defense Minister Israel Katz earlier on Friday that the IDF had cleared Lebanon's Ali al-Taher ridge tunnels of Hezbollah terrorists.

"The mission was completed, and the tunnels were cleared of terrorists," said Katz at the time, with an IDF statement on the operation noting that several terrorists embedded in the tunnels were killed, while others fled.

On Thursday, Iran warned the United States that it would respond forcefully to any Israeli attack on the Ali al-Taher ridge complex, which provides a strategic vantage point due to its position overlooking a wide area.

Also on Thursday, Katz warned that any Iranian attack on Israel would free the IDF "from any restrictions," Walla reported.

“We will destroy all national, military, and civilian infrastructure in Iran, including energy infrastructure,” Katz threatened during a speech to Defense Ministry employees. “We will return Iran to the Stone Age.”


IDF says it killed a Hamas commander who led Oct. 7 assault on border post
The Israel Defense Forces announced Friday that a Hamas commander who led the invasion of the Israeli military’s Sufa post on the Gaza border on October 7, 2023, as well as held hostages in captivity, was killed in an airstrike this week.

The IDF strike on Wednesday in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis killed Mohammad Mahmoud Marshad al-Qadi, a company commander in Hamas’s elite Nukhba Force, according to the military.

During the October 7 onslaught, al-Qadi led the raid on the Sufa army post, the IDF said, and that during the war he held hostages in the Rafah area.

The military added that al-Qadi had recently been leading training of Hamas terrorists to restore the terror group’s capabilities, and advancing attacks on troops and Israeli civilians “in a systematic violation of the ceasefire.”

“The terrorist was eliminated to remove the threat he posed,” the IDF said.

Despite the ongoing ceasefire, the military has pushed ahead with a campaign to kill every Gaza terrorist who was involved in the October 7 massacre.

While Israel has acknowledged the campaign and vowed it would continue until the last of those involved are dead, the military has frequently justified the killings in terms of ceasefire violations.

Also on Friday, Israeli forces operating in an area of northern Gaza under military control came under fire, according to the IDF, which called the attack “a brazen violation of the ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas.

No troops were injured by the gunfire, which the army says it responded to by “attacking in the area.”


Commentary Podcast: Met His Match
Today, we begin by considering the significance of Israel's destruction of Hezbollah's tunnels in southern Lebanon before moving on to the dismantling of Anna Wintour's John Galliano Met Gala. When a public figure makes an anti-Semitic remark, who is supposed to reach out to whom, and how? Give a listen.





Buy EoZ's books  on Amazon!

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)

    

 

 



AddToAny

Printfriendly

EoZTV Podcast

Podcast URL

Subscribe in podnovaSubscribe with FeedlyAdd to netvibes
addtomyyahoo4Subscribe with SubToMe

search eoz

comments

Speaking

Speaking

translate

E-Book

For $18 donation








Sample Text

EoZ's Most Popular Posts in recent years

Search2

Hasbys!

Hasbys!

2019 Nobel Peace Prize nominee

Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون



This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

Donate!

Donate to fight for Israel!

Monthly subscription:
Payment options


One time donation:

Follow EoZ on Twitter!

Interesting Blogs

Show All

Blog Archive

Copyright © Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News | Powered by Blogger
Blogger Templates