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Wednesday, September 09, 2026

09/08 Links Pt2: Terrorism’s Western Welcome; UN Sought to ‘Cover-Up’ UNRWA Staff’s Role in Oct 7 Attack; Portuguese artists pull out of Jerry Seinfeld-headlined festival

From Ian:

Terrorism’s Western Welcome By Abe Greenwald
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A quarter-century ago, in September of 2001, the chief aim of jihadist terrorism in the West was to horrify free populations and intimidate their leaders into submitting to Islamist demands. Coercion was the blunt logic behind terrorism for decades, if not centuries. But over the past three years, jihadists have been furnished with a very different incentive to draw blood. Among a segment of the free world, terrorism no longer primarily horrifies but thrills and inspires. Acts of murderous violence, therefore, have also become a means of gaining support for jihad in certain enclaves in the West.

In America, terrorism now has the additional power to seduce. This is the single most dangerous development of the 21st century.

Terrorism has long been used as a rallying cry or recruitment tool in the Muslim world and in countries with no tradition of individual liberty or classical liberal thought. That it increasingly functions the same way in the West is the clearest sign that those traditions are in extremis among much of Gen Z and the entire activist class.

Within one day of Hamas’s October 7 massacre, organizations including National Students for Justice in Palestine, Black Lives Matter Chicago, Detroit IfNotNow, and others began not only rallying behind Hamas but incorporating the group’s imagery into their own promotional materials. They slapped the Hamas paraglider on their pamphlets, social media accounts, and protest posters. Supporters of jihad gathered at once in a slew of American cities, including New York, wrapped in keffiyehs and chanting genocidal slogans.

Were they horrified? Frightened? No, not this crowd. In the words of Cornell University associate professor Russell Rickford, October 7 “was exhilarating, it was energizing.” Naturally, this craze went on to overtake campus after campus, where terrorist slogans and imagery were as ubiquitous as tie-dyes at Woodstock.

“Globalize the intifada,” a blatant call to mass murder, became a staple of the public square.
Funding plummets for US nonprofit that funnels donations to anti-Israel groups
A US nonprofit that had served as a financial hub for leading anti-Israel activist groups has seen its funding plummet after a series of lawsuits and pressure from the federal government, according to tax filings posted last month.

The Westchester People’s Action Coalition Foundation, known as Wespac, is a low-profile, progressive nonprofit in Westchester County, north of New York City.

Wespac’s stated mission is to support “work toward peace, justice, and a sustainable environment.”

The group, founded in 1974, had served as a financial linchpin for some of the most prominent anti-Israel groups in the US, including National Students for Justice in Palestine, Within Our Lifetime and the Palestinian Youth Movement.

Wespac had handled donations to the groups through an arrangement called a fiscal sponsorship, in which a nonprofit collects donations on behalf of other groups that do not have nonprofit status themselves.

Its revenue had surged in recent years — from $139,901 in 2019-2020 to nearly $4 million in 2023-2024, including a spike after the start of the Gaza war, according to tax filings.

A majority of Wespac’s spending appeared to be for other groups. Its previous tax filing showed that its own expenses were $142,539, while reporting grants of over $1.7 million, including for “custodial responsibility for funds granted to various organizations.”

The group has only one paid employee who has a salary of $62,500.

Extremist anti-Israel activism after Hamas’s October 2023 invasion of Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza put a spotlight on Wespac’s involvement in the protest movement.

Motley crew of extremism
Groups affiliated with Wespac hailed the Hamas attack, hosted events that supported terror groups, and targeted cancer patients, museums, memorials, transportation hubs and holiday events.

Following disruptive protests by its affiliates, Wespac was sued in at least five courts across the US.

Republican members of Congress also put heavy pressure on Wespac, demanding investigations by the IRS and the New York attorney general’s office, alleging support for terrorism.

Federal law prohibits tax-exempt organizations from supporting terrorism.
Portuguese artists pull out of Jerry Seinfeld-headlined festival
Several Portuguese artists have dropped out of a comedy festival in Lisbon headlined by Jerry Seinfeld, citing their support for Palestinians and implying opposition to Seinfeld’s support for Israel.

At least six acts over recent days have canceled their appearances at the MEO Commedia a La Carte Fest, a new international comedy festival in the Portuguese capital. The event from Oct. 29 to Nov. 1 has advertised that it will host Seinfeld’s first live appearance in Portugal.

Though none of the artists who withdrew mentioned Seinfeld by name, some hinted at a boycott against his pro-Israel views. The Jewish comedian has become one of Hollywood’s most prominent advocates for Israel since October 2023.

Actress and comedian Inês Aires Pereira announced on Instagram on Saturday that “one of the names” featured at the festival “persistently defends ideas and acts that I consider indefensible,” adding, “We cannot relativize or normalize a genocide.”

The comedy duo Cebola Mol posted a graphic of themselves with a watermelon, widely recognized as a symbol of solidarity with Palestinians. “We will celebrate justice, freedom and joy with you on another occasion,” they said on Instagram.

The festival announced on Friday that performances by the groups Tributo Pop and Conjunto Cuca Monga were also canceled, but did not provide reasons. Two other acts, comedian Pedro Tochas and visual artist Vhils, shared their cancellations on Instagram without further details.

Seinfeld breaks decades of political avoidance
Seinfeld has aligned himself with Israel during its current conflict in Gaza, following decades of largely avoiding commenting on political issues. He visited Israel in December 2023 to meet with the families of hostages seized by Hamas on Oct. 7 of that year. Since then, he has attracted attention for a series of dismissive remarks toward pro-Palestinian advocates.

During an appearance last year at Duke University, Seinfeld compared pro-Palestinian activists with the Ku Klux Klan, saying, “The Klan is actually a little better here because they can come right out and say, ‘We don’t like Blacks, we don’t like Jews.’ OK, that’s honest.”

Representatives of Seinfeld and producers of the MEO Commedia a La Carte Fest did not immediately respond to requests for comment.


Israel, Palestine and the Middle East’s dark secrets | Simon Sebag Montefiore and Brendan O’Neill
Simon Sebag Montefiore – historian and author of The Cauldron: The Making of the Modern Middle East – is the latest guest on The Brendan O’Neill Show. Simon and Brendan discuss the historical rulers, revolutionaries and empires that are still shaping the Middle East, the past and present genocides and massacres we don’t talk about, and why Israel is not to blame for the region’s instability.

0:00 – Welcome: Simon Sebag Montefiore on The Cauldron
0:41 – Why write a 130-year history of the whole Middle East now
1:33 – Is this book a "hand grenade" in today's debate?
3:28 – Dispelling the "white settler colonialist" myth
9:42 – Turkey and Israel: two states born the same way
11:40 – India/Pakistan: the other parallel to Israel's creation
14:01 – The UN's catastrophic 1947 Partition Plan
16:26 – Israel's melting pot: Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews
18:24 – The myth of Ottoman "tolerance"
20:11 – Genocide and the fall of the Ottoman Empire
25:04 – Atatürk, the Levant mandates, and new nations
28:19 – 1948: "nowhere else to go"
30:50 – Ben-Gurion's panic and the desperate fight for survival
33:13 – Egypt, Jordan, and the invention of "the West Bank"
35:35 – The peace plans that could have avoided war
37:51 – Why history matters: progressivism as a "cult"
40:41 – Iran, Sudan, and the atrocities activists ignore
44:53 – Closing thoughts


Melanie Phillips Issues URGENT Warning: Western Civilization Is DYING
On this episode of Shoulder to Shoulder, Rabbi Pesach Wolicki and Pastor Doug Reed sit down with Melanie Phillips, British journalist, author, and columnist for The Times of London, for a conversation about the decline of the West, the rise of Islamism and antisemitism, and why Israel may hold the key to understanding the civilizational crisis facing the Western world.


Honest Reporting: How Did 9/11 Become Israel's Fault? Jim Meigs & Michael Shermer on Conspiracists' New Target
Twenty-five years after 9/11, the conspiracy theories are back — and they have a new villain.

In 2005, Popular Mechanics did what almost no newsroom would: it took the 9/11 truther claims seriously enough to test them one by one, and published what it found. The magazine's editor-in-chief, James B. Meigs, spent the next twenty years being accused of running the cover-up.

Today the same claims are circulating again, with one substitution. "The government did it" has become "Israel did it."

Ben Chertoff is joined by Meigs and by Michael Shermer — founder of Skeptic magazine, longtime Scientific American columnist, and author of Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational, Denying History, and Truth: What It Is, How to Find It, Why It Matters — for a long conversation about how the substitution happened and why it works.

They get into the machinery: proportionality bias, the idea that a huge event must have a huge cause. Anomaly hunting, and why a handful of loose threads feels more persuasive than a mountain of settled evidence. The Gish Gallop, and why a claim you can make in one sentence takes three thousand words to refute. And the part that should trouble everyone — how claims that originated with professional antisemites and Holocaust deniers ended up circulating among people who consider themselves liberal, progressive and open-minded.

Also: what happened to Tucker Carlson, why thermite and Building 7 will not die, how the goalposts moved from MIHOP to LIHOP, why the newest version routes everything through the Mossad, and what you actually say to a family member who believes this.

CHAPTERS
0:00 Cold Open & Introduction
3:52 What happened to Tucker Carlson
8:26 Thermite, Building 7, and the evidence that wasn't
11:57 Anomaly hunting
13:10 Proportionality bias and the Gish Gallop
16:10 The river they don't want you to see
18:08 Extraordinary claims, extraordinary evidence
23:09 The New York Times ad that started it
27:07 The Holocaust-denial playbook
29:19 When the left recycled antisemitic sources
32:25 Same techniques, different target
33:08 MIHOP, LIHOP, and moving the goalposts
41:03 The Mossad, Charlie Kirk, and Epstein
48:02 Fact-checking in the age of AI
1:05:09 When moral intuition beats evidence
1:14:18 How to talk to your family about this
1:27:07 What we understand now that we didn't


HonestReporting: "Israel Killed More Journalists Than Any Other Country" — Why That Number Is Wrong
You have heard the line: Israel has killed more journalists than any other country in the world. It comes, almost always, from one place — the Committee to Protect Journalists, the most-cited press freedom organization in the world.

This panel is the breakdown of how that number was built, and why it does not hold.

On June 25, the Committee to Protect Journalists announced it was reviewing its own database of journalists killed since October 7. The reason was not an outside investigation. It was that Hamas and Islamic Jihad had begun publishing obituaries for their own fighters — and some of those fighters were already on CPJ's list.

CPJ has since removed eight people for taking part in hostilities, and another seven for not meeting its own definition of a journalist. The review cost the organization a board member: Nika Soon-Shiong, publisher of Drop Site News, was ousted as the audit went forward.

The International Federation of Journalists quietly dropped eight terrorism-linked names from its own list and has still offered no explanation for why.

HonestReporting's research goes further than CPJ has been willing to: over half of the people on CPJ's October 7 War database are operatives or carry a documented affiliation with a terrorist organization.

Erin Molan moderates: how a press freedom organization ended up naming Israel the single greatest threat to journalists in the world, how so many combatants got counted as press, what it costs real journalists when the label is handed out this cheaply — and why almost no newsroom that ran the original story has gone back to correct it.

PANEL
• Salo Aizenberg — author and researcher; board member, HonestReporting
• Leslie Kajomovitz — 20+ years in international news
• Gabriel Epstein — Senior Policy Associate, Israel Policy Forum • Moderated by Erin Molan, journalist and broadcaster

CHAPTERS
0:00 Cold Open & Introduction
1:46 The CPJ Files
4:09 What the June 25 review quietly removed
5:51 Meet the panel
8:54 No mainstream outlet found this
12:00 Why this endangers real journalists
17:51 Who these people actually are
22:28 Hamas believed, Israel "unverified"
26:58 The three illusions
31:34 "Let the independent journalists in"
33:04 What happens to your family
36:53 Who is the CPJ?
39:04 What due diligence would have caught
42:48 A dangerous assignment, at home
45:36 The one thing to take away


EXCLUSIVE: UN Sought to ‘Cover-Up’ UNRWA Staff’s Role in Oct 7 Attack and Ties to Hamas by Undermining Internal Probe, US Watchdog Finds
The U.N. internal investigation into whether its own staff at the embattled United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) participated in Hamas's Oct. 7 massacre was hamstrung and ineffective from day one, according to an independent U.S. review of the U.N. probe, congressional communications, and Western diplomats who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon. The shoddy probe ultimately enabled the United Nations to claim that in 9 of the 19 cases under review, the evidence was "insufficient to support" staff involvement in the terror spree, a finding meant to exonerate the agency and discredit Israeli intelligence.

The U.S. probe, laid out in a previously unpublished December 2025 report by the U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID) independent inspector general, found that the U.N. officials placed such tight restrictions on their probe—set an impossibly high burden of proof—that the findings were ultimately useless. The American conclusions about the U.N. probe are privately leading Western donor countries to "reconsider future financial commitments" to UNRWA, which has come under increasing pressure to clean house after the USAID inspector general discovered more than 100 staffers served as Hamas combatants or participated in Oct. 7, according to one diplomat who spoke to the Free Beacon.

The "major deficiencies" in the U.N. internal probe—outlined in a report Congress requested from the USAID inspector general, a statutorily independent law enforcement entity separate from the largely defunct USAID—have also led powerful Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) to formally demand the United Nations explain what many observers increasingly see as a "cover-up."

The U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) originally investigated 19 UNRWA employees in 2024 and produced a report that concluded the evidence against nine of those individuals was "insufficient" to prove they participated in Oct. 7. The Free Beacon first exposed the findings of that "confidential" investigation in November 2025 and revealed that OIOS dismissed key Israeli intelligence, including intercepted audio recordings and cell phone data, that connected those UNRWA staffers to Hamas.

The USAID inspector general performed its own private review of the OIOS probe around the same time and reached an even more damning conclusion: that the United Nations set an impossibly high standard to determine Oct. 7 participation and then used that benchmark to dismiss the allegations against UNRWA staffers with provable ties to Hamas's military operations, according to a copy of the findings provided exclusively to the Free Beacon by Grassley's office.

"What's well known here in New York is that the U.N. OIOS' investigation was a complete cover-up," said one Western diplomat briefed on the findings. "They ignored the obvious, glaring linkages between UNRWA staff and Hamas. Their report gave the [U.N.] Secretary General cover to hide behind a so-called investigation and hope the world would move right along."

The USAID inspector general's review identified several "major deficiencies" with the OIOS probe, including its decision to wholly ignore whether any of the UNRWA staffers in question were card-carrying Hamas members. Rather, OIOS employed a narrow scope in which it only investigated direct participation in the Oct. 7 attacks. This self-imposed limitation actually made it more difficult to identify UNRWA staff who joined in Oct. 7 since the U.N cast aside credible intelligence that UNRWA staff moonlighted as Hamas operatives.
Arsen Ostrovsky: Penny Wong must stand up against United Nations’ Durban Strategy
For Australia, this presents a clear choice, with a strong bipartisan precedent. Australia has twice recognised that participation in the Durban process would be incompatible with its commitment to combating anti-Semitism and promoting genuine racial equality.

In 2011, the Labor government under prime minister Julia Gillard withdrew from the 10th anniversary Durban commemoration because of concerns over its treatment of Israel and anti-Semitism. A decade later, the Coalition government under prime minister Scott Morrison reached the same conclusion, withdrawing from the 20th anniversary commemoration in 2021. Australia was among 38 countries that refused to participate.

There is therefore something unusually valuable here: a bipartisan Australian principle. Successive governments of both political persuasions have recognised that when the Durban process becomes a vehicle for anti-Semitism and the singling out of Israel, Australia should not lend it legitimacy. There is no compelling reason for that principle to be abandoned in 2026. If anything, the case for maintaining it is stronger than ever.

That is particularly true given where Australia finds itself today, having just completed the public hearings of the Royal Commission on Anti-Semitism and Social Cohesion.

For months, Australians have heard testimony about how anti-Semitism has become normalised, how dehumanising rhetoric, including against Zionism, can translate into intimidation and violence, and how institutions must respond to this prejudice in all its manifestations, before it becomes entrenched.

Against that backdrop, Australia cannot credibly confront anti-Semitism at home while lending its diplomatic legitimacy abroad to a process with such a documented history of anti-Semitism and Holocaust distortion. The message to Australian Jews would be deeply contradictory: that Jew-hatred is unacceptable when expressed on our streets, campuses or in our institutions, but somehow tolerable when repackaged in the language of international human rights abroad.

That is not a position Australia should adopt.

Our Government and Foreign Minister Penny Wong should therefore ensure that Australia does not lend its presence or diplomatic credibility to the UN’s upcoming 25th anniversary celebration of a Durban legacy so deeply tainted by anti-Semitism and Holocaust distortion, and so at odds with the Australian values of equality, tolerance and commitment to combating racism and discrimination.

Australia has twice before said no to Durban. Twenty-five years after the original conference, it should do so again and help consign its shameful legacy to the dustbin of history.


The Airman Iran Hunted for Two Days Speaks on 60 Minutes
The American airman who spent two days alone in the mountains of Iran after his fighter jet was shot down in April will give his first public account of the ordeal this weekend, in an interview that also brings together the senior commanders who ran the operation to bring him out.

CBS said Tuesday that Norah O'Donnell interviewed the officer for the season premiere of 60 Minutes, airing Sunday, September 13. He is identified only by his mission call sign, Dude 44 Bravo. The colonel describes ejecting from the aircraft, the injuries he sustained, how he evaded Iranian forces on the ground, and what he said to the commandos who finally reached him. O'Donnell also interviewed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, and Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of US Central Command who served as operational commander of the war with Iran.

The aircraft was an F-15E Strike Eagle, shot down over southwestern Iran on Friday, April 3, the first crewed American warplane lost over the country in more than five weeks of fighting. Trump said afterward that it had been hit by a shoulder-fired heat-seeking missile. Days earlier, he had said publicly that American and Israeli operations had left Iran without functioning anti-aircraft equipment or radar.

Both crew members ejected and came down in different places. The pilot, call sign Dude 44 Alpha, was recovered by an HH-60W helicopter on Friday afternoon. Caine later told reporters the aircraft came under fire from what he described as everyone in Iran with a small arms weapon, and that a trailing helicopter took several hits, leaving a crew member with a minor injury.

The weapon systems officer was still on the ground. He hiked to a crevice high in the mountains and activated an emergency beacon. The Revolutionary Guard searched the area around the crash site, and Iranian officials publicly offered a reward of 60,000 dollars to locals who found him. Search parties formed in nearby villages. According to reporting in the New York Times at the time, American aircraft bombed convoys that moved toward where he was hiding.

He was reached in the early hours of Sunday, April 5, roughly 48 hours after the shootdown. Trump said the operation involved more than 170 American aircraft and around 200 troops, with assistance from the CIA. Special operations units including SEAL Team 6 and the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment took part, working from a temporary forward site established inside Iran.


IRGC confirms Iran attacked Jordanian US military base, two US vessels, eight tankers in Gulf
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed on Wednesday it attacked two US vessels and eight oil tankers in the Gulf in response to what it called a US attack on five Iranian tankers, Iranian state media reported, citing a statement from the group.

The group said it attacked 10 ships attempting to cross what it described as a "prohibited and unsafe" area of the Strait of Hormuz.

Earlier on Wednesday, the IRGC confirmed in a statement on Iranian media that it had attacked a US base in the eastern Jordanian city of Al Azraq with ballistic missiles in retaliation for earlier US attacks on Iranian oil tankers.

This came following reports of missiles being launched from 12 different cities across Iran in the heaviest barrage since the end of Operation Roaring Lion, Army Radio reported late Tuesday night, citing Iranian media.

At least 35 missiles were launched towards Jordan, according to Israeli news outlets, activating sirens in the country's US military base.

Jordan's state news agency, citing armed forces, reported that 20 ballistic missiles had been launched from Iranian territory, 18 of which were destroyed by Jordanian air defense systems.

Two missiles fell in unpopulated areas, and there were no casualties, the news agency cited Jordan's military as saying.


Houthi attack on Saudi oil facilities wounds 73, some operations halted
Operations at some energy facilities in Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, were halted on Tuesday following attacks by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis that wounded more than 70 people, Saudi authorities said.

Fires erupted at the sites, and several people were injured as firefighting and other emergency teams rushed to the scenes to contain the blazes and assess the damage, the Saudi energy ministry said.

“The concerned authorities are dealing with the repercussions of the attacks,” the ministry added.

“The needed measures will be taken to ensure the safety of the facilities and workers and the continuation of work according to the approved operational plans.”

The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said in an earlier statement that at least 73 people were injured in Houthi attacks on the southern cities of Abha, Khamis Mushait, Jazan and Najran.

The coalition vowed to respond firmly to the latest outbreak of hostilities, saying the latest escalation on the de facto OPEC leader was “dangerous.”

“The coalition will take all necessary operational measures to deter this terrorist militia and resolutely confronts its hostile approach,” Royal Saudi Air Force Colonel Turki al-Malki said in a statement on X.
PMO denies that UAE warned Netanyahu about October 7 as Abu Dhabi refuses to comment
The Prime Minister’s Office on Tuesday strongly denied the Haaretz report, which alleged that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was warned by the United Arab Emirates about Hamas's October 7 attack, writing that the "press reports are false."

"No warning was given to the Prime Minister from the United Arab Emirates before October 7th. If there was any relevant information, it was passed through intelligence channels between the two countries," the PMO stated.

The UAE Foreign Ministry also published a statement on the report, saying it refuses to comment on "speculation" about whether the two countries spoke. Notably, however, the UAE did not confirm or deny the Haaretz report.

"UAE and Israeli government entities have maintained open and direct lines of communication since the inception of the relationship more than five years ago. When necessary, all relevant intelligence has been and continues to be communicated between the relevant entities."

UAE officials also indicated that, from their perspective, it is not their role to issue a denial in response to every media report published in Israel. The message conveyed was that the UAE does not interfere in Israeli elections and will not serve as the government’s “public relations office.”


Israeli lawyer faces ethics complaint over expert opinion used to target IDF reservist in UK
A British-Israeli IDF soldier who was subjected to legal proceedings in the UK has filed a complaint with the Israel Bar Association’s Tel Aviv District Ethics Committee, asking it to investigate an Israeli lawyer who provided the prosecution’s expert opinion.

As The Jerusalem Post has previously reported, the UK organization the International Center of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) attempted to bring a private prosecution against a dual British-Israeli citizen (called Soldier A) who served in a reserve IDF unit after October 7, 2023.

The ICJP made the application for the summons of Soldier A on November 6, 2025, with the aim that he be charged under Section 4 of the Foreign Enlistment Act 1870.

Judge Paul Goldspring of Westminster Magistrates’ Court ultimately ruled on April 8, 2026, that ICJP’s application was “fundamentally misconceived in law,” as the FEA does not apply to dual nationals.

He also deemed ICJP’s antics “egregious” and “inexcusable” and ordered ICJP to pay costs to Soldier A.

Pomeranz provides Expert Witness Report to prosecution
In order to build the prosecution, ICJP reached out to Israeli attorney Michal Pomeranz to provide an Expert Witness Report, which she did on Oct 18, 2025, in her capacity as a member of the Israeli Bar.

Pomeranz was asked to provide testimony about the IDF, specifically to what extent those who agree to engage in service with the IDF can be inferred to have “enlisted in the [Israeli] military,” and whether the IDF (and therefore Israel) can be considered to be “at war.”

In the expert report, Pomeranz acknowledged that the ICJP intended to initiate a private prosecution for at least nine named British citizens who are known to have traveled to Israel to participate in reserve duties since 7 October 2023. As such, by providing the report, she was essentially aiding the prosecution in this attempt.


Shin Bet says it foiled ‘significant’ terror network in West Bank, Jerusalem
More than 30 Palestinians were recently detained over their membership in a “significant and extensive” terror network based in the West Bank and Jerusalem area, the Shin Bet security service announced on Tuesday.

The network had been planning “attacks against Jews and security forces,” the Shin Bet said in a joint statement with the military and police.

Five Jerusalem residents who were members of the network were charged with “serious” security offenses, including “managing a terror organization, active membership in a terror organization, conspiracy and preparation to commit an act of terror involving murder under aggravated circumstances, weapons and property offenses for terror purposes, recruiting and attempting to recruit members to a terror organization,” and other offenses, the statement read.

Indictments against some of the West Bank Palestinians involved in the network were expected to be filed by army prosecutors in the coming days, while the investigation of others was still ongoing.

Two of the Jerusalemites, Sabih Abu Sabih and Rashid Rishk, were members of the Shabab al-Aqsa group, which is affiliated with Hamas, according to the security agency. Abu Sabih is the son of Mesbah Abu Sabih, who carried out a deadly shooting spree that killed two Israelis in Jerusalem in October 2016, and Rishk was released in January 2025 as part of a hostage deal with Hamas.

The other three Jerusalemites charged in the case were named as Muhammad Abu Sabih, Muhammad Azmi Bakri and Ahmad Azmi Bakri.
Ibrahim Mahamid: The “Murdered Journalist” Behind a Much Bigger Story
One of the most effective propaganda techniques is not inventing facts, but stripping them of context. Reduced real events to emotionally charged stories of “innocent Palestinian victims” and “Israeli perpetrators.” But what is omitted matters more than what is reported. A media worker becomes a “journalist killed by Israel.” A teenager becomes an “innocent Palestinian child.” An arrested Palestinian becomes an “innocent civilian detained by Israel.” The circumstances, evidence and reasons surrounding each event are pushed aside, leaving a narrative of “Israeli violence.”

On June 25, 2026, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) announced that it would conduct a full review of its database after Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) published dozens of obituaries identifying individuals listed by CPJ as journalists as combatants. CPJ said the review would be completed by the end of July. More than two months later, that review has yet to be released. Meanwhile, an examination of CPJ’s own list reveals that at least 91%, 193 individuals, have documented ties to terrorist organizations, including at least 100 identified combatants and five individuals identified as terrorists who participated in the October 7 invasion of Israel.

In Gaza, this pattern has become widely reported, but the narrative is not confined to Gaza. It extends into the West Bank as well. The case of Ibrahim Mahamid and his family in Tulkarm is particularly revealing because several of these narratives occurring within the same family. Ibrahim Muhammad Ali Mahamid, a 59-year-old journalist from the Nur Shams refugee camp near Tulkarem. Mahamid worked as a presenter and cameraman for Al-Salam TV, Al-Shaab TV and other local television channels.

On February 29, 2024, Palestinian authorities announced that Ibrahim Mahamid had died from wounds sustained five months earlier during an Israeli military operation in Nur Shams. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) included him in its list of journalists died from his wounds five months after “being injured by Israeli fire.” That is the story reported. But it is not the whole story.

Mahamid’s son, Taha Ibrahim Mohammad Mahameed, was killed in the same Nur Shams operation on October 19, 2023. Much of the international reporting presented Taha as an “innocent 15-year-old Palestinian boy murdered by Israeli forces.” There is, however, an important piece of evidence that received no attention. Hamas itself claimed Taha. A Hamas mourning announcement located by CAMERA described Taha as its “martyred hero” and confirmed he died in Nur Shams, east of Tulkarem, during the “confrontations” of the Al-Aqsa Flood campaign.

His father Ibrahim Mahamid was shot while trying to retrieve Taha. Ibrahim Mahamid wasn’t shot while covering the confrontation, or in an official journalistic capacity. According to reporting, Mahamid went toward his son after Taha had been shot and attempted to pull him to safety. He was then struck by Israeli gunfire in the abdomen and back.

The location is significant: Nur Shams refugee camp, on the eastern side of Tulkarem in the northern West Bank. This was not Gaza. It was the West Bank, during an Israeli counterterrorism operation in a refugee camp where Palestinian armed groups were actively operating. In the same camp, Israeli forces later uncovered an explosives laboratory containing dozens of improvised explosive devices, explosives materials, more than 30 weapons, and improvised rockets, evidence of the extensive terrorist infrastructure operating in Nur Shams.

The Mahamid family story does not end with Taha. Public Palestinian records document other sons engaged in terrorism. One of Ibrahim Mahamid sons, Ishaq Ibrahim Muhammad Ali Mahamid, was arrested by Israeli forces in June 2019. Palestinian prisoner sources report that an Israeli military court ultimately sentenced him to 22 months in prison; he was released in March 2021 after serving the sentence. Ishaq was subsequently arrested again in September 2023. Details of his 2023 arrest provides conflicting accounts, while some reports claim he was arrested in a check point, others claim he was arrested in his home.
A Woman Is Not Automatically an “Innocent Civilian”: Hamas’ Mu’in al-Arabeed’s Wife “Took Up Arms”
When reports emerged that Israel had captured Mu’in al-Arabeed on September 1st, 2026, a senior Hamas official in Gaza, much of the attention focused on the operation itself. But another part of the story deserves attention. According to Palestinian accounts, when Israeli special forces arrived to arrest al-Arabeed, his wife, Samah al-Khalidi, did not simply remain inside the house. Reports say she “took up arms” and joined the fighting in an attempt to prevent her husband’s arrest.

Al-Arabeed was arrested on September 1, 2026, in Gaza City in an operation involving Israeli special forces and the Shin Bet. It was reported that he was Hamas’s internal-security chief and that the operation was connected to his alleged role in concealing and transporting Israeli hostages taken during the October 7 attack.

But Arabic reporting provides additional details. According to Al Jazeera Arabic, al-Arabeed had returned to a rented family home in the al-Katiba area of western Gaza City while his family prepared for his son’s wedding. A local witness described a gun battle at the house. Al-Arabeed was wounded but continued firing until he ran out of ammunition before being captured alive. His 47-year-old wife, Samah al-Khalidi, then took up a weapon and engaged with Israeli force, attempting to provide cover for her husband. The report describes her as fighting alongside her husband. Two of her sons were also seriously wounded while also taking part of the confrontation.

Samah al-Khalidi’s case matters because it illustrates a recurring problem in reporting on Palestinian casualties: the assumption that a woman who is killed must have been an innocent female civilian. While most women killed in war are civilians, being female does not always establish civilian status. But her case should raise a broader question: How many women killed during this war have been directly involved in the conflict? The answer should not be ideological. It should be factual and legal.

International humanitarian law does not define civilian status by sex. The relevant question is what the person was doing and, where applicable, whether the person was a member of an organized armed group with a continuous combat function. Civilians lose protection from direct attack for such time as they directly participate in hostilities. A woman carrying ammunition to a firing position can participate directly in hostilities. A woman transmitting tactical information for a specific attack can participate directly in hostilities. A woman firing a weapon at opposing forces obviously can.

The point is not that every woman killed in Gaza was a fighter. The point is that “woman” does not mean “civilian.”


How Did the Soccer Ball Become the Story?
What do you see first?

Probably not the destroyed building. Not the rubble. Not even the overturned furniture.

The soccer ball.

AFP photographer Mahmoud Zayyat has placed it prominently in the foreground, transforming what might otherwise be another photograph of a destroyed building into something much more evocative.

A soccer ball suggests normality. Children. Families. A home. Life interrupted.

There is nothing inherently wrong with photographing it. And there is no evidence that the ball was placed there for the camera.

But photography is about choices. Of all the debris left after the strike, this is the frame that was made and distributed.

There is also some important context.

The Israeli military warned residents before the strike and ordered the evacuation of the targeted building and its surroundings. Even AFP’s caption accompanying the photograph acknowledges that the strike “followed a warning from the Israeli military.”

The IDF said it was targeting Hezbollah infrastructure.

Yet none of that is visible in the photograph.


The Brink: Dover Protests, Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuentes and Britain's Right – Daniel Finkelstein
In this episode of The Brink, Andrew and Jake are joined by Lord Daniel Finkelstein for a wide-ranging conversation about the rise of populism, the far right, and the growing threat of political extremism across Britain, Europe, and the United States.

Drawing on his own family's experience of Nazism and Stalinism, Finkelstein reflects on his confrontation with Nick Fuentes and the extraordinary antisemitic abuse that followed. He examines Tucker Carlson's role in bringing once-fringe ideas towards the mainstream, and why attacks on the historical understanding of the Second World War and the Holocaust have become increasingly important to parts of the American right.

Turning to Europe, the conversation explores the dramatic rise of Germany's AfD and the role immigration has played in fuelling populist politics. Finkelstein argues that mass migration was a serious political mistake and that governments must regain control, while warning that demonising people who are already British citizens risks making integration harder and pushing politics towards ethno-nationalism.

The discussion also turns to Reform UK, Restore, and the battle over the future of the British right. Finkelstein explains why he believes Nigel Farage has historically drawn an important line against the far right, criticises Matt Goodwin's rhetoric on migrants, and delivers a damning assessment of Robert Jenrick's defence of Reform activists after violence at the party's conference.

Finally, they examine the growing tolerance of political violence on both the left and right, the appeal of Vladimir Putin to populist movements, and whether Britain's frustration with immigration, bureaucracy, and political institutions could drive the country further towards the extremes.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction
02:46 Confronting Nick Fuentes
07:44 Tucker Carlson & The New Right
15:51 The Rise Of Europe’s Populist Right
21:15 The Failure Of Mass Immigration
24:39 Matt Goodwin’s “Goat Herders” Comments
27:00 Immigration, Protest & Vigilantism
33:03 AfD, Reform & The Far Right
36:22 Farage, Reform & Ethno-Nationalism
39:29 Robert Jenrick & Political Violence




‘Israel Should Be Attacked’: UCLA To Host 9/11 Symposium Featuring Terror Apologists
On the 25th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the University of California, Los Angeles, will host a symposium with speakers who have described counterterrorism as "racist," called for Israel to be attacked, and glorified the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

The symposium, "25 Years After 9/11: Reimagining Freedom, Justice, and Security," will also include multiple professors who have called for abolishing the police and a defense attorney for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.

"Counterterrorism serves as a kind of racist gravy train," one panelist, Yale Law School's Aslı Ü. Bâli, argued in a 2020 essay. "Without addressing the revenue streams tied to counterterrorism at home and abroad, there can be no meaningful way to defund the police."

Beginning on Sept. 10, the two-day event will feature avowed supporters of political violence on a day meant to commemorate the victims of it. The opening panel, which invites "participants to imagine futures beyond … militarization," will include the executive director of California's chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Hussam Ayloush, who in November 2023 said that "Israel should be attacked" and compared the Jewish state to Nazi Germany. Another panel will include the University of Minnesota's Amna Akbar, who described Luigi Mangione's murder of Brian Thompson as a "spectacular act of protest."

"Calls to 'Free Luigi' on the streets and inside jails express solidarity not just with one man, but against the catastrophic realities of capitalism, where necessities like health care, food, and housing are financialized commodities that few can truly afford," Akbar wrote in a January 2025 essay. "This is the system UnitedHealthcare stands for and profits from. This is the system that Mangione (allegedly) took aim at."

Another speaker, UC Irvine's Melanie Partow, serves on the defense team for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The symposium does not feature any current or former prosecutor of the Guantanamo Bay detainees who planned and perpetrated the 9/11 attacks.
Michigan rabbis issue ‘nonnegotiable’ demands for El-Sayed, state Democrats to earn their votes
Liberal Michigan rabbis and other Jewish leaders are calling on the Democratic Party to agree to a list of “nonnegotiable” principles about Jewish safety and Israel as the party’s US Senate candidate in the state, Abdul El-Sayed, seeks to make inroads with Jewish voters.

The campaign, backed by a progressive Zionist group, comes as a different subset of Michigan Jewish leaders are urging their community to reject El-Sayed outright and instead vote for his Republican opponent, former US representative Mike Rogers.

“I think he has the potential to be an amazing, visionary leader in the state of Michigan and in this country,” Rabbi Josh Whinston, who heads the Reform Temple Beth Emeth in Ann Arbor and has met privately with El-Sayed, said Monday about the Democratic candidate during a press conference. “But his vision needs to be more inclusive.”

Whinston was one of more than a dozen Jewish clergy who signed “Nonnegotiable Michigan,” the open letter. It does not directly address El-Sayed by name but outlines five principles its signers say “leaders who want our votes” must demonstrate.

The letter lists five “nonnegotiables”:
“Jewish safety — including for Zionist Jews — in Michigan and across America”;
“Our right to define our own Jewish identities”;
“Jewish sovereignty in Israel”;
“Welcoming our full participation in American political life”; and
“An affirmative vision for a better future in the Middle East.”

The “Nonegotiable” campaign is backed by Zioness Action Fund, a registered 501(c)4 associated with the advocacy group Zioness, which bills itself as “Unabashedly progressive. Unapologetically Zionist.” Past Zioness actions have put pressure on progressive spaces to become more welcoming of Zionism as the progressive movement has sharply turned against Israel.

The initial signatories number 16, most of whom are Reform and Conservative rabbis and cantors serving congregations in the state. The initiative was spearheaded by Whinston and Rabbi Aaron Starr, of the Conservative Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield, a Detroit suburb. Starr is also president of the Michigan Board of Rabbis.
‘America Is Going Down’: Imam's Extremist Video Rant Is Played Before El-Sayed's Speech at Notorious Islamic Convention
Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed's speech at a controversial Islamic convention in Detroit this weekend was sandwiched between a video montage featuring a firebrand imam declaring that "America is going down" and a speech from another cleric who said members of Congress who voted for an antisemitism bill were "guilty of treason."

The embarrassing spectacle on Saturday underscored the awkwardness of El-Sayed participating in a conference featuring a rogues' gallery of Islamic extremists including 9/11 truthers and a Holocaust-denier.

The Islamic Society of North America kicked off day two of its annual confab on Saturday with a montage of clips from various convention speakers, including imam Siraj Wahhaj, an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

"I am ashamed of what America has become," Wahhaj says in the undated clip. "Look at the newspaper every day, how America is going down."



The montage also showed a clip of El-Sayed lamenting his experiences in the wake of the 9/11 attacks as a "kid with a funny name and an olive complexion." And it ended with a graphic that included an infamous photo of El-Sayed fist-bumping Hasan Piker, the left-wing influencer who declared that "America deserved 9/11."

El-Sayed delivered his scheduled remarks minutes later and gave a standard campaign stump speech that focused on cost-of-living issues, as well as his experiences as a Muslim in America.

"Muslim Americans, they want to tell us that we don't belong. They want to tell us that this country's not ours, that because of our names or how we pray that we are somehow less than," said El-Sayed.

He was followed by Zaid Shakir, a prominent New Jersey cleric, and Cenk Uygur, the host of The Young Turks.

Shakir, who once asserted that "Zionist forces" were behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, railed against the U.S. government over its support for Jews and Israel, singling out a congressional vote to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of "anti-Semitism."

"When the United States Congress passes laws on behalf of a genocidal, rapacious, nefarious foreign country to deny us the freedom of speech … that is a domestic enemy of the Constitution of the United States," Shakir declared. "And as such, they are guilty of treason."

El-Sayed appeared at the convention, held six days before the 25th anniversary of 9/11, despite calls to drop out over its links to 9/11 conspiracy theorists and Holocaust deniers.

"Abdul — stop platforming 9/11 and Holocaust deniers and withdraw from this conference immediately," Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers said on Friday, citing Washington Free Beacon reports about the convention. Yasir Qadhi, a Texas-based imam who spoke on several panels at the convention, has called the Holocaust a "hoax."
‘Against Human Nature’: Abdul El-Sayed’s Imam Rails Against Homosexuality and Jews Teaching Islam, Tells Muslims It’s An ‘Obligation’ to Vote for El-Sayed in November to ‘Change the Society’
The imam at the mosque that Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed frequently attends has railed against homosexuality, arguing that it is "against human nature," and complained that all too often, Jews are teaching Islam in American universities, introducing "confusion" and "suspicion" to young minds.

Abdelhamid Algizawi serves as the imam at the Muslim Community Association of Ann Arbor, the mosque where El-Sayed frequently prays. Three days after El-Sayed eked out a one-point victory over Haley Stevens in the Democratic primary, on August 7, Algizawi described the win as a "very big victory for the Muslims, Hamdillah, and for the Ummah, and for the Islamic nation."

"Right now, the community has to change their minds, this is an obligation," Algizawi said in a video captured by the Middle East Media Research Institute. "When we have a Muslim Senator or a Muslim, you know, in office, any office or any post for the Muslim, this can work for goodness, this can change the society." He said it is incumbent on Muslims to cast their ballots for El-Sayed in November and recounted with dismay last month that his own daughter said she wouldn’t vote for a Muslim "running for Senate" because "he’s working against women."

Unlike Jews and some Christians, most Muslims do not formally join a mosque in order to attend prayer services there, and many pray at several different mosques. But El-Sayed typically prays at the MCA of Ann Arbor, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.

Algizawi’s sermons are littered with inflammatory remarks about gays and homosexuality, bemoaning its prevalence in America and arguing that it is incumbent upon Muslims to reject it because "it cannot bring stability to life" and "people cannot give children from this relationship. You understand?"

"Here in America—in America, there is, you know, it became a fashion these days: homosexuality and LGBTQ and something like that becomes a fashion everywhere. And even this has reached the Muslim community, and people ask what the [sic] Islamic stand on that … Islam as a religion refuse," Algizawi said in 2022 remarks at a Sacramento-area Islamic center. "Why? Because there is purposes for marriage … This relationship cannot bring stability to your life … We are looking for children when we get married. People cannot give children from this relationship. You understand?"

He continued: "So this is against human nature, by the way. Also, Muslims cannot compromise their religion. We cannot say: ‘Hey, because I am a Muslim, I'm American, we are living in America, we have…’ No, we cannot compromise our religion."


Pink calls out Macklemore over pro-Palestine stunt at concert as rapper breaks silence amid calls for him to be axed from Ed Sheeran's tour
Pink weighed in on Macklemore's recent controversy, amid calls from fans for the rapper to be removed from Ed Sheeran's tour over his pro-Palestine remarks on stage.

The 43-year-old musician was the opening act for Sheeran's Loop tour on Friday and Saturday at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, where he voiced support for Palestinians and criticized Israel.

Pink, 47, reposted an Instagram Story from StopAntisemitism this weekend, which slammed Macklemore's performance and demanded an apology to the concertgoers.

'Awful - Jewish fans bought tickets to see Ed Sheeran sing last night in NJ, not to be ambushed by Macklemore's anti-Israel propaganda,' the caption on the original post read.

'Instead, Macklemore walked onstage in a keffiyeh, shouted “Free Palestine,” accused Israel of a false “genocide,” and turned a mainstream event into a political nightmare against the Jewish state. Concert goers are owed apologies and refunds.'

In response, Macklemore appeared to double down on his comments on Monday, as he posted a clip of his speech from MetLife with the caption, 'Wanting all humans to be treated equal should never be controversial.'
Eve Barlow: Being Jewish is Punk
For what feels like eons, the Jewish people have despaired that there are too few Jews with real and massive influence who have risen to the occasion for our people. For a moment, Pink has. No doubt, she is experiencing waves of vile hatred. I would not tell her to ignore the hate, nor the inevitable betrayals by people she’d never imagine would walk. It’s unlike anything we have ever seen before in our lifetimes. I would tell her, however, that her people are right behind her. An entire people who have a proud nation; a nation that deserves to survive.

I would tell her that when Queen Esther went to the King of Persia (approximately 483 BC) to warn him about Haman’s plot to kill all the Jews, she did not know if she would make it out alive. Persian law stated that anyone who entered the inner court uninvited by the King would be put to death. But Queen Esther answered the call, not knowing what awaited her afterwards. Not knowing what price she would have to pay. “If I perish, I perish,” she said. We are currently in that unknown. We don’t know what happens when we make the choice to speak, but there is no other choice.

I too had the choice once upon a time. I remember a non-Jewish singer in a “queer” band I used to write about texting me, after she told me that Zionism was racism, and she disagreed with everything I said: “You still have a choice”. What kind of a choice? A choice to deny my own humanity? A choice to swallow my heritage? A choice to diminish my soul? What choice? And for what? To continue to perform friendship with people who measured their purity against my very existence? I guess had I chosen differently my life would be as I once dreamed it. I’d still be building it with my favorite person. I’d probably be on my third book. I’d still be writing for New York Magazine and the Guardian. I’d be side of stage at Glastonbury watching bands I’d written about for over a decade finally headline. I’d be on cloud fucking nine. But I made a choice.

I chose to lead. I chose to keep the Jewish story going. I chose to defy our erasure. I chose to fight the people and the ideas that sought to silence me. My choice had consequences, but the consequences of not choosing that are infinitely worse. For a start: the culture, as we knew it, and as I wrote about it, fell off the very last edge, and is presently drowning at the bottom of a very deep and dark ocean of conspiratorial insanity.

Being Jewish is punk, and it’s always been punk. We are the counterculture. I’ve argued for years that Jews are inherently swimming against the tide. We have spent thousands of years withstanding conversion, expulsion, etc. We value discussion and deep critical thought. We are not a binary people. In many ways, this desire to expel Jews from public life correlates with a desire to shut down discussion; to banish any debate about fixed ideals. It is being pursued by propagandists of movements that rely upon total eradication of questions or debates. Ergo, no Jews allowed.

I know some progressives read this newsletter. Let me ask you: what purpose is your purity currently serving? And are you aware of who the “puritans” were historically? Do you know that puritanical thought led to the Salem witch trials? If their ghosts could speak… If most Jews aren’t allowed to be in the conversation then how do you know what’s true about us? Whose “lived experience” are you hearing? “But Eve, Zionism is racism.” What if I tell you it’s not. What if I tell you it could have prevented six million dead in the Holocaust. Once you get rid of all us Jews, how will your masters measure your purity?

Why can’t Jews be fully Jewish and still be considered good?

Pink chose the right thing. She chose truth. She chose to expose hate. She chose to shine a light in the dark. Ultimately, she chose freedom and she chose life. Silence is a choice. Conformity is a choice. Speaking is a choice. Jewish survival has always depended on people choosing to continue.

I’ve just noticed, it’s Pink’s birthday today.

In Hebrew we say: עד מאה ועשרים. It means - may you live until 120.
Boy George brands Paloma Faith 'as political as a soggy tuna sandwich' as he takes aim at former The Voice co-star and 'spineless' Ed Sheeran over Macklemore Free Palestine row
Boy George has weighed in on Macklemore's 'Free Palestine' row, calling out 'spineless' Ed Sheeran and criticising Paloma Faith for voicing her support for the rapper.

Macklemore is facing a boycott petition to remove him from Sheeran's tour after he called out 'Free Palestine' onstage over the weekend.

The 43-year-old rapper was the opening act for Sheeran's Loop tour on Friday and Saturday at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey and made his political message during his show.

Sheeran, 35, is yet to comment on the incident, but Paloma Faith, 45, has reposted a clip of Macklemore's on stage message, adding the caption: 'My hero.'

Boy George, 65, who starred with Faith as a judge on The Voice ten years ago, has criticised Macklemore and his celebrity supporters on X.

'On the subject of @macklemore it's important to note that slogans such as 'Free Palestine' offer the appearance of moral courage without requiring much political knowledge', George, who in July released a pro-Israel reggae song, wrote on Monday.

'@edsheeran clearly has no spine and as for @Palomafaith and her stupid virtuous squealing of delight about Mackle-bore when she is about as political as a soggy tuna sandwich. The whole thing makes me queasy.'


Macklemore accused of blatant hypocrisy after anti-Israel tirade — as secrets about his home revealed
The rapper, famous for bragging about “popping tags” on his famed “Thrift Shop” tune, is living on stolen native lands after he hijacked the spotlight at an Ed Sheeran concert with an anti-Israel rant.

Macklemore, whose real name is Benjamin Hammond Haggerty, proudly called to “Free Palestine” and accused Israel of committing genocide at a New Jersey Meadowlands show last week.

“I wanted to stand up here on stages across America and say two words that are near and dear to my heart: Free Palestine,” the Grammy-winning rapper said as he wore a keffiyeh draped over his shoulders.

While he made the statements, his multimillion-dollar Seattle abode sat on stolen Native American land.

Haggerty owns a three-bedroom, 2.25-bathroom home in Seattle’s North Capitol Hill neighborhood and has lived there for more than a decade.

The North Capitol Hill neighborhood, like the rest of Seattle, is part of historic ancestral lands of native people.

“We acknowledge that the city of Seattle and its greenspaces are on stolen Coast Salish land, specifically the ancestral land of the Duwamish, Suquamish, Stillaguamish, and Muckleshoot People,” a land acknowledgement from the Green Seattle Partnership says.

“We recognize the stewardship of Seattle’s greenspaces by the Coast Salish people since time immemorial, the disruption of this work by colonization, and now endeavor to continue this work,” it added.

The artist has acknowledged his role in owning a home on stolen land. He’s also known for doing land acknowledgements before his concerts.

“I’m from Seattle, Washington, occupied Duwamish territory,” he said in a May 2024 LANDBACK FOR THE PEOPLE podcast episode.

The artist spouted an anti-Israel sentiment during his recent show with Sheeran in New Jersey, and the Israeli-American Council started a petition Sunday calling for Sheeran to drop the “Thrift Shop” singer from the remainder of his tour, accusing the rapper of spreading antisemitic propaganda.

The rapper also performed his song, “Hind’s Hall,” a reference to the pro-Palestine protests at the Columbia University campus, while images from Gaza were played on giant screens.


Call for US rapper to be banned from Australia
There are calls for Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke to ban American rapper Brother Ali from Australia over concerns his lyrics “justify” terrorism and could incite violence.




‘Fauda’ composer channels October 7 trauma into new season’s searing soundtrack
From its storyline to its searing soundtrack, season five of “Fauda” is indelibly shaped by the October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught on southern Israel.

The music, composed by Gilad Benamram and featuring vocalist Marina Maximilian, reflects the past three traumatic years, with track names such as “Like a Dream,” “Pray,” “Dance Again,” “Ten Seven,” “I Will Wait for You” and “Never Forget.”

The new season, which premiered worldwide on Netflix on Tuesday, was rewritten by creators Avi Issacharoff and Lior Raz after the massacre and ensuing war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Inevitably, it was influenced by what the writers, cast and crew experienced.

Later episodes were based directly on the events of October 7, 2023, during which thousands of Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel and slaughtered some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and kidnapped 251 to the Gaza Strip.

Benamram, who has scored all five seasons of “Fauda,” told The Times of Israel that he was aware that he was composing the new music in a world irrevocably shaped by the massacre.

“I already knew what I was writing for; I was on set, and we were writing specifically about the trauma, the anger, the sadness, all of those feelings that began on that day through the present,” said Benamram, who has also scored other shows, including 2022’s “Suspicion” for Apple TV+.

The current season premiered in Israel on the Yes network on May 18 and was the most-watched in the network’s history.

Actor Idan Amedi, who appeared in the show’s second, third and fourth seasons, and was slated to appear in the original version of Season 5, was seriously injured in an explosion while serving in the Combat Engineering Corps reserves in Gaza in January 2024.

Amedi has recovered, but doesn’t appear in the new season.

A longtime “Fauda” crew member, Matan Meir, was killed by a blast from a booby-trapped tunnel shaft next to a mosque in Beit Hanoun, in the northern Gaza Strip, in December 2023, while serving in the IDF reserves.

The season’s first episode was dedicated to Meir.

Most of the revised run is set two years after October 7, dealing with life after the trauma and shock of the Hamas attack.


Call me Back Podcast: The Ascendent Journey of The High Holidays - with Rachel Goldberg-Polin
What if Yom Kippur isn’t the peak of the Jewish holiday season, but the beginning of something more joyful?

The Jewish holidays of Tishrei take us on a journey from judgement and reflection to vulnerability, gratitude and ultimately joy. Dan and Rachel Goldberg-Polin continue their annual exploration of the Jewish calendar and look at what Sukkot and Simchat Torah teach us about what really matters. They also reflect on what it means to hold onto that joy when Simchat Torah is now forever intertwined with October 7.

In this episode:
Rosh Hashanah and the call to reflection
Yom Kippur and the work of teshuva
Why do Sukkot and Simchat Torah get overlooked?
What the sukkah teaches us about what really matters
Why Sukkot is the “time of our happiness”
From Shemini Atzeret to the joy of Simchat Torah
Holding joy and grief together after October 7





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)

    

 

 

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