Friday, September 11, 2026

09/11 Links Pt2: Israel celebrates first Rosh Hashanah in three years without hostages in Gaza; New boycott of West Bank Jews is based on lies; Hamas planned Berlin-Vienna attacks for Oct. 7 anniversary

From Ian:

Israel celebrates first Rosh Hashanah in three years without hostages in Gaza
Israeli Jews ushered in Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, at sunset on Friday, the first in three years without any hostages in Gaza or major fighting in the Strip or elsewhere, though conflicts on several fronts remain on a low boil, and the military was on alert in case of escalation in the war with Iran.

“Last Rosh Hashanah eve, we asked for a better year to come. But before any other requests, there was one simple, clear request above all: that all of our hostages would come home,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a video published to his personal X account.

It was shortly after the Jewish New Year in 2025 that the US-brokered ceasefire deal secured the return home of the last 20 living hostages whom the Hamas terror group abducted in its October 7, 2023, invasion of Israel, and held captive in the Strip.

Netanyahu, with uplifting music in the background, surveyed Israel’s military accomplishments over the last year, declaring: “Do you know another nation that fights on seven fronts and wins on all of them?” – though the claim was sure to come under scrutiny, as Israel has not secured the promised “total victory” on its major fronts in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.

Netanyahu’s boast also comes as Israel heads into an election next month, with the prime minister’s role in the failures of October 7 a key issue.

On Thursday, it was reported that Israel was preparing to counter the possibility of Iranian ballistic missile fire, as the Islamic Republic’s persistent attacks against Jordan and the success of the US economic blockade against Iran were both seen to point toward a potential escalation.

However, there was no concrete warning or specific plot uncovered ahead of the holiday.
Bruce Pearl: New boycott of West Bank Jews is based on lies
Much of the reporting relies on a United Nations database treated as a running scoreboard of settler crimes.

A 2025 study by Israeli security expert Gabi Siboni compared the UN’s count of roughly 1,800 settler-related incidents with Israeli law enforcement’s numbers for the same period.

Police opened 967 investigations; 61 led to indictments.

The Kohelet Policy Forum, examining an earlier version of the UN data, found it included confrontations with Israeli security forces and events involving no violence at all.

We saw the same rush to judgment last year when Jews were accused of torching a 5th-century church in the Christian village of Taybeh.

There was a fire nearby, but the church wasn’t touched. Israeli investigators found no damage, while video showed young Jewish men from a neighboring farm running toward the flames with firefighting equipment.

The fire was real, but the story built on top of it wasn’t.

So, yes, condemn violence and hooliganism. Arrest the perpetrators. Prosecute them.

But don’t turn the crimes of a few into an indictment of hundreds of thousands of Jews while treating vastly more numerous Palestinian attacks against those Jews as background noise.

False narratives have consequences.

Britain says its new policy isn’t a boycott of Israel, only of Jews and businesses in Judea and Samaria. So Jews can live and do business in certain places but not in others.

We’ve seen that in the past. That’s called a ghetto.

Florida Rep. Randy Fine has already warned that British companies complying with such a boycott could themselves face exclusion under Florida’s anti-boycott law.

Other states and the federal government should follow suit.

Europe has a long and ugly history of deciding where Jews may live and with whom people may do business.

Before Britain and its neighbors head down that road again, they ought to check both their own history and their facts.

American lawmakers ought to make them.
Hamas planned Berlin-Vienna attacks for Oct. 7 anniversary, indictment shows
Hamas planned coordinated terrorist attacks in Berlin and Vienna to mark the second anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, according to a 214-page indictment filed by Germany’s federal prosecutor.

The attacks were to take place simultaneously or in close succession around Oct. 7, 2025, targeting Israeli and Jewish interests in the two European capitals, according to the indictment, obtained by WELT, which — like POLITICO — is part of the Axel Springer Global Network.

The plot was supported by an international weapons-procurement network that moved pistols, an automatic rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition through Denmark, Germany and Austria.

Federal prosecutors said last year that they had arrested men linked to the Palestinian militant group who were suspected of planning attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets in Germany. The indictment, which has not been made public, reveals that Vienna was also an intended target — and that the attacks in the two capitals were to be coordinated. The principal targets included Israeli diplomats, Jewish community centers and pro-Israel demonstrations.

Seven men have been charged in connection with the plot and remain in pretrial detention, according to the indictment. One of the accused was working as a confidential informant for Germany’s domestic intelligence agency. The files show that the informant continued reporting to his intelligence handler while allegedly failing to disclose the full extent of his own involvement in obtaining ammunition for the group.

The indictment portrays the plot as part of a broader shift in Hamas’ operations in Europe. Intelligence assessments cited in the filing say plans existed even before the Oct. 7, 2023 attack to establish and train operational cells on the continent, using Turkey as a base and directing attacks remotely from abroad.


David Collier: Hey Mohsen: You Asked to Be Judged by Your Words and Actions
Hey Mohsen,

I’ll be honest. I almost wrote this as an article directed at the American public, titled “Hey America – You’re Being Played!” But in the end, I realised that if I am going to speak plainly, it is better to address you directly. So here it is:

My starting point would be this, Mohsen: if you really want to convince people that Mohsen Mahdawi is not an antisemite, it was probably not advisable to jump straight into an antisemitic conspiracy rabbit hole on social media when our research exposed your extremism. Instead of owning up to it, or even denying it (which would be a little silly as we have all the receipts), you actually chose to claim that “Israeli Mossad” broke into your Facebook:


Do you realise how stupid that looks, Mohsen? I am pretty certain that even for some of your staunchest supporters, that was a head-in-hands moment. Every sane person on the planet knows the Israeli Mossad did not do a thing. Nobody “broke into your Facebook,” and nothing was “fabricated.”

Get out of your antisemitic rabbit hole, and let me explain it to you.

Last April, a couple of independent Jewish journalists decided to test your back-story and found that things did not add up.

Take, for example, the story you tell about your uncle visiting you by the grave of your “best friend,” who you claim had recently been shot. We checked the chronology. Your uncle died in September 2001. The only child from your camp who was killed during the Second Intifada died in 2002 (more on that in a moment). Unless your uncle Thaer was a ghost, that creates a rather impossible scenario.

Why would you lie? Who knows. Perhaps you wanted people to feel sorry for you. Maybe it was an attempt to create legitimacy. Whatever the reason, that story – which you have repeated hundreds of times – simply never happened the way you tell it.

So it got us thinking. What else were you telling people that was not true?

It did not take long to discover that the only child in your camp who was killed died from gas inhalation – not a bullet. Which meant your entire redemption story – of seeing your best friend shot in the chest by an Israeli soldier and holding his blood-soaked body in your arms – had collapsed before our eyes in a matter of minutes.

But enough of that for now.


Boy George: Friends I helped and supported turned on me because I stood by Jews
More importantly and most shocking is that many of these anti-Israel people have zero political instincts. They only care because it has become fashionable to care.

I would go as far to say that they are the biggest and most hideous cowardly fakes to walk this earth. Why are people who support their Jewish friends being called to account while these fakes, like Ed Sheeran, Jade and countless others get to pretend to care about a situation they could not comprehend even if they really tried.

I support anyone calling for peace. That is what we should all be doing. How can Israel be an apartheid state when Arabs and Christians live there peacefully and are part of the political system?

As for Ed Miliband, clearly we know why he never became Prime Minister and Andy Burnham won't be getting my vote.

In life there are people who see what's going on and others who just blindly follow the trends. Remember. Fashions change.

Yes. I do mean you!


UKLFI: Natasha Hausdorff says Britain’s Israel Trade Ban Is “Discrimination Against Jews”
Britain’s confrontation with Israel has dramatically escalated after Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced plans to ban goods from Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria, restrict services connected with those communities and prohibit the advertising of property there.

Miliband has also declared it the British Government’s official position that Israel’s presence in the territories is unlawful and accused Israelis of carrying out “ethnic cleansing”.

In this UKLFI Charitable Trust interview, international lawyer Natasha Hausdorff challenges the factual and legal basis of those claims and examines what Britain’s new policy could mean for Israel, the UK and their wider relationship.

Hausdorff argues that the Government has misrepresented the significance of the ICJ’s 2024 advisory opinion and asks whether measures supposedly introduced in defence of international law could themselves conflict with Britain’s obligations under international trade agreements.

She also examines Israel’s swift response, including the closure of the British Consulate in Jerusalem and the removal of Britain from areas of regional involvement, and argues that the UK Government has reduced rather than increased British influence.

The discussion considers warnings that US anti-boycott laws could create serious problems for British and American businesses, the importance of Israeli intelligence, security and pharmaceutical cooperation to Britain, and the potential impact of the measures on Palestinians employed by Israeli businesses.

Hausdorff concludes by addressing whether the measures discriminate against Jews and why she believes Britain is applying standards to Israel that it does not apply to other territorial disputes.


UKLFI: Natasha Hausdorff & Peter Caldwell discuss obsession with Israel, misinformation and signalling vice
Natasha Hausdorff and Peter Caldwell discuss obsession with Israel, misinformation, financing of Hamas via UNRWA, genocide inversion, false famine allegations, exaggeration of crimes by a tiny minority of Israelis, concealment of more frequent crimes by Arabs, and signalling vice.

TalkTV on 10 September 2026.

Natasha Hausdorff is a barrister and Legal Director of UKLFI Charitable Trust.


UKLFI: Hamas & Iran applaud Miliband. Natasha Hausdorff discusses what this means on LBC.
On the 25th anniversary of the atrocities of 9 11th, Hamas applauds the statement of UK Foreign Minister, Ed Miliband. Natasha Hausdorff discusses what it means with Nick Ferrari on LBC.

Natasha is an English barrister, international lawyer and legal director of UKLFI Charitable Trust.




Jonathan Sacerdoti: Why is Britain obsessed with a two state plan which cannot work? Israeli terrorism victim speaks out
As Britain introduces sanctions on Israel, Rabbi Leo Dee asks if British taxpayers should be funding the families of terrorists who murdered British citizens? And when Britain threatens sanctions against Jews living in the West Bank, who will actually suffer – Israeli settlers, Palestinian workers, or Britain itself?

Rabbi Leo Dee’s wife Lucy and daughters Maia and Rina were murdered by Hamas terrorists in 2023. He speaks to Jonathan Sacerdoti about how that tragedy thrust him into public life, his confrontation with the British Foreign Office and the extraordinary paradox he discovered: while his own family was ineligible for British compensation, UK money was helping to support the families of Palestinian terrorists.

Dee, a British-born rabbi and former private-equity investor who lives in Efrat, challenges the conventional account of Israeli settlements, Palestinian violence and the two-state solution. He describes his relationships with Palestinian neighbours and workers, explains why he calls himself a “resettler” in Judea and Samaria, and proposes an alternative peace plan based on autonomous Palestinian city-states protected by Israel.

This wide-ranging discussion also examines Edward Miliband’s proposed sanctions, accusations of settler violence, Britain’s increasingly hostile climate for Jews and Israel’s growing economic and technological strength. Dee argues that Israel can no longer be treated as a dependent nation: its cyber security, defence systems, water technology and rapidly expanding start-up economy have made it increasingly difficult for other countries to boycott.

💬 We Discuss:
🇬🇧 How the British Foreign Office responded to the murder of three British-Israeli women
💷 Why British money may support the families of Palestinian terrorists
⚖️ The compensation denied to British victims of terrorism abroad
🏠 What it means to live as a Jewish “settler” in Judea and Samaria
📖 Why Rabbi Dee describes himself as a “resettler”
🤝 Everyday coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians in Efrat
🇵🇸 Why the Palestinians repeatedly rejected one-state and two-state proposals
🏙️ Rabbi Dee’s alternative plan for autonomous Palestinian city-states
🗺️ The controversy surrounding Israel’s E1 development plans
🪨 How Israeli settlements are built around existing Palestinian towns and farmland
📰 Claims of “settler terrorism” and the international media’s focus on Israel
🛡️ Whether Israel is doing enough to prosecute violence by Jewish extremists
✡️ Antisemitism in Britain and the possible decline of British Jewish life
🚀 Why Israel’s start-up economy may emerge stronger from war




Signaling support for UK sanctions, Olmert decries ‘ethnic cleansing’ in West Bank
Former prime minister Ehud Olmert on Thursday signaled support for Britain’s decision to sanction all dealings with settlements in the West Bank, where he denounced the extremist settlers and their backers as a “group of murderous criminal terrorists” seeking to ethnically cleanse Palestinians.

Speaking with Radio 103FM, Olmert doubled down on his assessment that there was “a violent and criminal effort to ethnically cleanse territories in the West Bank” taking place, which British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband quoted when announcing the decision this week.

“What is happening in [the West Bank] is no less than attempted ethnic cleansing by a group of murderous criminal terrorists who systemically act on a near-daily basis to harm, steal, destroy, burn and kill Palestinians who live there, as part of an effort to expel them from their places of residence in the hope of it leading the State of Israel to be able to annex the territories,” Olmert said.

According to Olmert, the violence is carried out by “hundreds of people who receive support from thousands within the system,” with the perpetrators frequently receiving “active assistance” from the army, law enforcement and government ministers.

Olmert charged that “of course” ultranationalist ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich “symbolize this brutal policy, probably more than anyone else, but others share in it.” He also accused Israeli security forces of acting discriminately, citing Defense Minister Israel Katz’s decision to stop signing off on administrative detention orders against Jews, which allows Israeli authorities to hold a suspect without charge.

The former prime minister warned that due to Israel’s policies in the West Bank, where the military is sovereign, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir could be exposed to an international arrest warrant.

“They see everything but do nothing because they represent policies that in practice support these terrible things,” Olmert said, referring to senior military commanders. “It’s tough for the chief of staff, but at some point… he will unjustly become a target for the International Criminal Court in The Hague, because formally he’s the sovereign on the ground.”


Inside the lion’s den: Israel is quietly regaining respect at the UN, Danny Danon tells 'Post'
When Danny Danon returned to New York two years ago for his second stint as Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, he described the organization as a far more ferocious lion’s den than the one he had left four years earlier.

Danon borrowed the image from the title of his 2022 memoir, In the Lion’s Den, itself a nod to his biblical namesake, Daniel. But the UN he reentered after October 7 bore little resemblance even to the inhospitable institution in which he served from 2015 to 2020 – a period that, from the vantage point of the Gaza war, looked almost like a diplomatic golden age.

The atmosphere Danon returned to in 2024 was extraordinarily hostile. Israel’s enemies were highly motivated, its allies exhausted, and ambassadors who had once met him regularly reluctant to be seen with him publicly.

Two years later, the lions have not exactly become lambs. Yet Danon, in an interview with The Jerusalem Post ahead of this month’s UN General Assembly gathering, sounded a surprising note: Things are getting better.

“When I came back after October 7, I was shocked by the level of hostility and the hatred – the isolation,” he said. “I think now the situation is improving.”

Improving is, of course, a relative term at the UN when it comes to Israel. The automatic majorities have not disappeared, nor have traditional friends necessarily returned to their former positions. Canada and Australia, whose diplomats he worked closely with during his first term, remain, in his understated words, “problematic.” Britain – as it proved this week with its boycott of settlement products and accusations of “ethnic cleansing” – has moved in the wrong direction.


IDF rejects testimonies in Israeli-made documentary about AI-powered killing in Gaza
The Israeli military said Friday it “categorically rejects” allegations made in a new documentary by Israeli filmmakers about Israel’s AI-powered mass killing of civilians in Gaza, which received a 25-minute ovation at its premiere in Venice the day before.

The Israeli-made film “NAZA” uses conversations with 24 different Israeli military or intelligence whistleblowers who spoke on condition that their identities be protected, with interviewees describing how they felt like they worked in a killing “factory” or a lethal video game.

The 80-minute documentary comes from Oscar-winning Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, with Abraham telling AFP the goal was to “hear in as much detail as possible, how the systems of killing in Gaza looked like, how they operated.”

“NAZA” draws its name from a Hebrew acronym meaning collateral damage.

The Israeli military on Friday criticized the use of anonymous testimonies in the film, saying the identities of the whistleblowers “cannot be verified,” including whether they served in the military or in what capacity.

“The excerpts cited include claims regarding national and military strategy that are clearly beyond the knowledge of junior-level soldiers,” it added in a statement. Palestinians inspect the Abu Salim Mosque a day after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike, in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, August 25, 2026. (AP/Abdel Kareem Hana)

In the documentary, the men and women featured in “NAZA,” speaking on the nighttime rooftops of Tel Aviv with their voices and faces digitally altered, detail an AI-powered system known as “Lavender” that was allegedly used to identify people to be targeted.

“Lavender” reportedly uses data from the mass surveillance of Gaza, where the entire telecommunications network is monitored by Israel, to identify targets based on their phone calls, movements and interactions.


Albany County Dems disavow Young Democrats’ Gaza ‘genocide’ claim
The Albany County Democratic Committee distanced itself from a statement in which the Albany County Young Democrats accused Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza and called for an end to U.S. military aid to Israel.

The executive board of the Young Democrats said on Sept. 3 that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government “committed a genocide in Gaza and gross violations of international law against the Palestinian people.”

The group said that it stood “firmly in solidarity with young Democrats across America in fighting for the Palestinian people” and opposed what it said is the “genocide in Gaza” and “occupation of the West Bank.”

Some groups and governments refer to Judea and Samaria as the “West Bank.”

The Young Democrats also said that giving the Jewish state a “blank check” in billions of dollars in U.S. military aid “has to stop.” The group did not mention the Oct. 7 attacks—the bloodiest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust.

The statement drew criticism from other New York Democrats, including Jay Jacobs, chair of the state party, who said that accusing Israel of “genocide,” as the group had, made it an “outlier” in the party.

Some members of Congress, including members of the so-called “Squad,” have made that accusation, as have some senators.

Jake Crawford, chairman of the Albany County Democratic Committee, stated that the county party “did not issue and strongly opposes” the Young Democrats’ statement. The group is “not currently chartered by the Albany County Democratic Committee and has no affiliation with us.”

“We believe in the politics of addition, not subtraction, and we will not be a party to discrimination against, or scapegoating of any group, period,” Crawford stated.


Board questions church event for children by groups with members who support Palestine Action
The Board of Deputies and London Jewish Forum have written to a church in Croydon questioning why it is being used for an event aimed at young children hosted by groups who have had members arrested for their support for a proscribed terrorist organisation.

St John the Evangelist Church in Croydon, which describes itself as “offering a welcoming space for spiritual growth and connection, is hosting “Palestine at the Palace” tomorrow, a “kids culture day” organised by the Crystal Palace Friends of Palestine and the Croydon Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

The letter, addressed to the Canon of the Church, comes from Judith Prinsley, Vice Chair of Security, Resilience, and Cohesion (SRC) Division at the Board of Deputies, and Amanda Bowman Co-Chair of the London Jewish Forum.

“Prominent members of both the Crystal Palace Friends of Palestine and Croydon Palestine Solidarity Campaign have previously been arrested under the Terrorism Act for expressing support for the group Palestine Action”, the letter says.

“This group was described by Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr in her court ruling in June 2026 as a group that ‘overtly promotes unlawful violence amounting to terrorism’. Additionally, the Rt Hon Steve Reed MP made a police complaint following a protest outside his home involving two activists from these groups. They were subsequently questioned by police, but no further action was taken.

“These are campaigning organisations with strongly partisan positions on the conflict in the Middle East. We do not believe that organisations with this record are appropriate parties to educate children about such a complex and sensitive conflict, particularly in a church setting intended to serve the wider community.”

The letter goes on to ask: “given the public positions and campaigning activity of the groups involved, we would like to understand how you assessed their suitability to run activities for children in your church, and how you judged their involvement to be compatible with the Church’s commitment to peace and community cohesion.


Churchill statue ‘vandal’ tells court he is proud of pro-Palestine protest
Olax Outis, who is also known as Caspar San Giorgi, climbed on to the statue in Parliament Square, central London, wearing a red boiler suit emblazoned with the words “I support Palestine Action”.

He is accused of causing more than £7,000 of damage by using red spray paint to cover the statue with phrases including “Stop the Genocide” and “Free Palestine”, describing Churchill as a “Zionist war criminal”, and calling for former prime minister Sir Keir Starmer to stand trial for war crimes.

Giving evidence, San Giorgi, 39, said he did not consider his actions to be either criminal or have caused damage to the statue and its plinth.

He told Southwark Crown Court: “I don’t really care about the financials involved – it’s a non-issue for me. It was never my intention to cause much financial damage or anything.

“It was about a message to Parliament which I have delivered.”

Representing himself in court, San Giorgi told jurors: “Whether you convict me or not is not too much of a concern for me.

“Whether I get acquitted, deported, imprisoned for years, I can be proud of having spoken about injustice and I have accounted for my actions.

“I will accept your judgment.”

The court has heard San Giorgi went to Parliament Square just before 4am on February 27, carrying cans of spray paint and a ladder to climb the plinth.

He removed his coat to reveal a red boiler suit with the words “I support Palestine Action” on the back, and “set about defacing the statue – spraying… the words Free Palestine and red triangles on the front, and Never Again Is Now on the rear,” said prosecutor Peter Ratliff.


Most Middle East scholars say U.S. academia has lost its way since 9/11, survey finds
A new survey of 470 Middle East scholars finds that nearly three-quarters believe American academia is less equipped to pursue truth than it was at the time of the 9/11 attacks, while two-thirds lack confidence that their students understand the attacks and say American academia has provided cover for ideologies, regimes or groups hostile to the United States.

The findings, released this week by the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa ahead of the 25th anniversary of 9/11, reflect what ASMEA’s executive director, Asaf Romirowsky, described as a broader failure by American universities to maintain objectivity and intellectual rigor in the quarter century since the attacks.

“American universities have allowed their Middle East scholars to abandon any pretense of objectivity, exchanging the free and unfettered pursuit of ideas for an increasingly dogmatic worldview that praises and supports not America but its deadliest opponents and their murderous ideologies,” Romirowsky told Jewish Insider.

The survey, conducted Aug. 6-28, found that 71% of respondents believe American academia is either “much worse equipped” or “somewhat worse equipped” today than it was 25 years ago to pursue truth-seeking as its central mission.

Romirowsky said the findings were particularly notable because they cut across different types of institutions and levels of seniority, “from public and private universities alike, from junior faculty to professors emeritus.”

The survey also asked scholars about their students’ understanding of 9/11. Sixty-six percent either strongly or somewhat disagreed with the statement that they were confident their current students had a firm understanding of the events leading up to the attacks and could correctly identify the core reasons for the attack and its perpetrators.

For Romirowsky, the findings are particularly concerning given the role Middle East scholars were expected to play in helping Americans and policymakers understand the region after 9/11.
Jewish billionaire resumes $100 million Harvard gift after campus Jew-hatred concerns
Stuart Zimmer, a Jewish billionaire investor, agreed in June to resume funding a $100 million gift to Harvard University that he had paused after Oct. 7, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

Zimmer and his wife, Jennifer Zimmer, pledged the gift in 2018. But after the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Zimmer, 57, became “appalled” by Harvard’s response to the attacks and “troubled” by what he viewed as the ensuing rise in antisemitism on campus, according to the outlet.

He also expressed concern about the rise of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and reports of a decline in the number of Jewish undergraduates at Harvard. One of his daughters was a Harvard student at the time, the newspaper reported.

Harvard President Alan Garber, who is Jewish, had been “courting” Zimmer for about two years when the two met during Harvard’s reunion festivities in June, the Journal reported. The meeting led to an agreement for Zimmer to resume funding the gift.

As part of the arrangement, Harvard announced that its Science Center would be renamed Zimmer Hall in honor of Zimmer’s late father, Alan Zimmer, a neuroradiologist whose work helped advance the development and use of computer axial tomography and magnetic resonance imaging in the United States. The gift will also expand kosher dining options on campus, including at Eliot House after its renovation.

Zimmer also received assurances that Harvard would continue recruiting at Jewish day schools “to the extent it could in the post-affirmative action legal landscape,” the Journal reported.
Brandeis Center urges Qatar to provide ‘complete public accounting’ of campus funding
The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law wrote to Qatari Ambassador to the U.S. Sheikh Meshal bin Hamad al-Thani on Wednesday amid a back-and-forth online, urging the Qatari Embassy to release a full public accounting of its funding to U.S. colleges and universities.

“There is a straightforward way for the Government of Qatar to demonstrate that public accounts of its activities are inaccurate or misleading: full disclosure,” Brandeis Center CEO Kenneth Marcus said in a letter to Al-Thani. “We therefore respectfully ask Qatar to provide a complete public accounting, to the people and the Congress of the United States, of the funding and other financial support that its government, the Qatar Foundation, and other Qatari governmental or government-controlled entities have provided to U.S. colleges and universities.”

Marcus urged that such a disclosure “should identify the recipients and amounts, disclose the agreements governing the funds, and explain what Qatar expected or received in return for its largesse. This should include any financial, academic, or other benefits, as well as any role in university governance, faculty or administrative appointments, academic programs, curriculum, research, public communications, or the operation of overseas campuses.”

Marcus argued that a public disclosure would “serve Qatar’s stated interest in correcting purported misinformation” and allow Congress, the administration, schools and the public to assess the relationships based on firsthand information.

“Qatar has described its support for U.S. higher education as beneficial to both countries,” Marcus said. “If that is so, complete transparency should strengthen Qatar’s position. If particular public allegations are false, the documents will demonstrate that fact.”


Fauda hits No.1 on Netflix in Lebanon and reaches top ten in several Arab countries
Israeli television drama Fauda has become the most-watched show on Netflix in Lebanon and broken into the platform’s top ten in several other Arab and Muslim countries, despite its latest season centred on the Hamas-led October 7 attacks.

The fifth season of the hit series climbed to number one in Lebanon just two days after its international release on Netflix on September 8, according to streaming rankings compiled by FlixPatrol.

Elsewhere in the region, it ranks sixth in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, eighth in Bahrain and Qatar, ninth in Egypt, and tenth in Turkey, Morocco and Oman.

The show, which follows an elite Israeli undercover counter-terrorism unit, has also broken into Netflix’s top ten in dozens of countries worldwide.

The success is particularly striking given the subject matter of the new season, which is the first to have been made since the October 7 attacks.

The series includes a two-part flashback depicting the Hamas assault, accompanied by a viewer warning because of the nature of the scenes.

Season five follows Doron Kavillio, played by co-creator Lior Raz, as he struggles with trauma following October 7 and becomes embroiled in a revenge mission that develops into a dangerous undercover operation in Marseille.

Co-creator Avi Issacharoff has said the new season seeks to explore questions about revenge and the cycle of violence following October 7.

“Is the revenge worth it? Is continuing this very endless cycle of bloodshed [worth it]?” he told Netflix ahead of the international launch.


Rachel Rabin, sister of slain PM Yitzhak Rabin and prominent Kibbutz educator, dies at 101
Rachel Rabin Yaakov, the sister of slain prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and founding member and secretary of Kibbutz Manara, on Israel’s northern edge, died on Friday at age 101.

Rabin was among the pioneers of Kibbutz Manara along the border with Lebanon in 1943, where she remained a resident until she was forced to leave following the outbreak of fighting with Lebanon after the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel.

President Isaac Herzog paid tribute to Rabin, saying, “I was saddened to hear of her passing, at the ripe old age; dear Rachel Rabin Yaakov, whose long and impressive life journey was a model of education and public service.”

She was born in Tel Aviv in 1925 to Nehemiah Rabin and Rosa Cohen. Her father worked for the Israel Electric Corporation and her mother, known as “Red Rosa,” worked at a Loan and Savings Bank and was a prominent activist who held senior positions in the Haganah, the paramilitary organization during the British Mandate period, as well as the Histadrut, Labor Federation and in the education system.

In an interview in 2015 with the English-language podcast Israel Story, Rabin recalled her childhood, saying, “Our parents were always very busy, so we​ were alone a lot of the time. And somehow Yitzhak always felt that he was responsible for me. That he needed to take care of me. To protect me. And that’s how I felt. Till his last day, really, I felt he was protecting me, even from afar.”

Her mother died when Rabin was 12.

She took a very different path from her brother Yitzhak, who would become prime minister twice, from 1974 to 1977 and later in 1992 until his assassination in 1995. While he became a soldier in the Palmach — the pre-state defense force and precursor to the IDF — and fought in the War of Independence in 1948, Rachel Rabin went on to establish a kibbutz with a group from the Noar Haoved Vehalomed youth movement in 1943.

Rabin spoke about being a kibbutz pioneer in an extensive interview in the Davar publication in 2021, saying of Manara: “I’ve been here since day one, January 1943. It was a mountain of ice and rocks, with chill that penetrated to the bone. We lived in tents.”


President Isaac Herzog: The sound of the shofar brings us together in reflection, pride, and renewed commitment to each other
Sisters and brothers, from the President's Residence in Jerusalem, I wish the Jewish people around the world a Shana Tovah, a very happy New Year.

The defining sound of Rosh Hashanah is the shofar, capturing the full spectrum of emotions we feel on the High Holidays. It is a call our people have sounded for generations, asking for forgiveness and to be written and inscribed in the Book of Life. It is, as our tradition teaches us, a call back to ourselves, urging us to refocus our lives and our goals.

Most poignantly, the piercing cry of the shofar carries pain: the pain of those we have lost, those who defended our only Jewish state, those who are victims of terror within our borders, and those who are victims of the tide of antisemitism around the world. Dear sisters and brothers, this is the feeling we share in our hearts and souls, wherever we live.

Yet the long, majestic notes of the shofar carry three further calls, answers to that anguish. The first is pride. The shofar proclaims: we are here, we are strong, we are Jews, and we are Israelis, and we are very proud. I see that pride in Jewish communities around the world, wherever I go, and in the many who visit us here in Jerusalem.

I am especially inspired by the young Jews I meet, whose sense of responsibility and love for our people is our greatest answer to the hatred of our enemies. It is reflected, too, in the millions of friends that Israel and the Jewish people have all around the world, in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and far beyond.

Second, more than a show of pride, the shofar is also a stirring call to action. It is a call to keep making the world a better place, embracing tikkun olam, especially during these very difficult times. It is a call to tackle the biggest challenges facing our people's future. This is what Voice of the People, the initiative and council I founded, representing all parts of Israel and the Jewish world, is focused on, with a new cohort beginning this autumn.

And finally, the shofar calls us to listen: not just to it, but to each other, and in doing so, to respect one another. For Israelis, as we debate our country's future ahead of next month's elections, and for Jews in the diaspora watching closely, this is a call we must all heed.

So, sisters and brothers, the sound of the shofar transcends language, time, and place. It brings our people, our great Jewish family, together on Rosh Hashanah for a moment of reflection, pride, and renewed commitment to our faith, to each other, and to the world.

The great Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, of blessed memory, once said that the shofar reminds us of our ultimate destination, telling us how far we still have to go. The Jewish people and the State of Israel have always known our destination and the journey we are on. As we move into the new year, may we all continue this journey together, and may we all be inscribed in the Book of Life for a year of blessing, harmony, and peace.

Leshanah tovah tikatevu v'techatemu. Shanah tovah, v'am Yisrael chai.





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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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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.

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