Wednesday, September 30, 2026

09/29 Links Pt2: How jihad learned to speak the West’s language; Mamdani announces campaign against antisemitism, doesn’t mention connection to anti-Zionism; Florida designates CAIR as domestic terror group

From Ian:

How jihad learned to speak the West’s language
In 1991, an internal memorandum of the Muslim Brotherhood in North America, later entered as evidence in a US federal trial, described the movement’s work on the continent as “a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within.”

Not a bomb. Not a rifle. Jihad, waged from within, through the institutions of the very society it targets.

Almost nobody in the West has heard that sentence. What the West hears are other words: freedom, justice, liberation, resistance, human rights. Words it knows, loves, and has built its moral identity around. The question it rarely asks is who supplied those words, and to what end.

A mind does not check where a word came from. It checks whether the word fits.

Consider a young man marching on an American campus, or through London, Paris, or Berlin, calling for the liberation of Palestine. He does not believe that he is calling for jihad. He is thinking about oppression, colonialism, and his duty to stand with the weak. He is running his own value system.

Scrutiny is triggered by foreign content, not by familiar content. A phrase that matches what a person already believes is absorbed without inspection. The most efficient way to transmit foreign content is therefore to wrap it in the familiar.

No need to say jihad. Resistance will do. No need to speak of victory. Liberation will do. No need to explain the day after. Decolonization will do.

An effective slogan does not transmit a message. It produces commitment without requiring comprehension.

Ask him which river and which sea, and very often he cannot answer – not because he is concealing anything, but because he genuinely does not know. He fills the gap with the concepts he does believe in: freedom, equality, an end to oppression.

That moment exposes the mechanism. A man who chants a sentence whose content he does not truly understand has not adopted a position. He has acquired belonging. Once he fills it with his own meaning, the sentence becomes his, and he will defend it as though he had written it.

Anyone confronting him with facts is no longer arguing with whoever drafted the line. He is colliding with the values of the man shouting it.
Florida designates CAIR as domestic terror group
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, and the Florida Cabinet voted to designate the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Muslim Brotherhood and more than 90 other organizations as terror groups on Tuesday.

In a more-than-400-page agenda document for the vote, the state alleged that “there is substantial evidence that CAIR is engaging in terrorist activity” and accused the group of having connections to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, including as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2008 Holyland Foundation terrorism financing trial.

In the same vote, Florida applied foreign terrorist designations to groups already listed by the State Department as terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda, the Houthis and the Continuity Irish Republican Army.

CAIR bills itself as “America’s largest Muslim civil liberties organization” and notes on its website that it has never been charged with a crime.DeSantis signed an executive order in December designating CAIR as a foreign terrorist organization, which a federal judge blocked in March.

In July, DeSantis signed a bill granting him and the state Cabinet new powers to designate groups as terrorist organizations and recommended that CAIR, the Muslim Brotherhood and the other groups designated on Tuesday be the first to be so sanctioned.

The bill, which DeSantis has described as an “anti-Sharia law” measure, allows the state to legally dissolve groups designated as terrorists and creates criminal penalties for those that fail to do so. It also allows for the expulsion of any students in the Florida university system who promote the groups and bars the groups from certain other state funding, including contracts.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which represented CAIR in its lawsuit against DeSantis’s executive order, is also suing the state to stop the implementation of the terrorism designation law.

“Gov. DeSantis’s use of Florida’s dangerous new ‘terrorism’ designation regime against CAIR and its Florida chapter is baseless and unconstitutional,” Hina Shamsi, director of ACLU’s national security project, stated on Tuesday.

“There are simply no legitimate grounds to brand our clients with a reviled label, impose crippling criminal penalties and force them to shut their doors in Florida,” Shamsi said.
Why ‘Washington Post’ columnist Shadi Hamid excuses Hamas, demonizes Israel, Jews
When Gaza-born activist Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib penned a devastating op-ed in The New York Times on September 4 decrying Hamas’s destructive role in the Gaza Strip, Washington Post columnist Shadi Hamid was incensed (“For Gaza to Recover, Hamas Must Be Expelled”).

Hamid invented on X/Twitter that “pro-Israel hardliners” support Alkhatib because he “justifies the killing of Palestinians as unfortunate fact or a necessary evil.” Hamid’s assault against Alkhatib is a gross distortion of Alkhatib’s vision for a bright future for the people of Gaza.

“A Palestinian miracle on the Mediterranean is within reach if Gaza rejects Islamism, Jihadism, Hamas, and stale nationalist notions, all of which have left it devastated,” Alkhatib wrote, laying out the path forward for the fruitful development of the coastal territory.

But a thriving future in which the Gaza residents can pursue peaceful lives free from the ruinous rule of Hamas is apparently not Hamid’s shared vision. Since the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre, Hamid’s columns and social media posts have rationalized Hamas, demonized Israel, and marginalized Jews politically.

On October 31, 2023, Hamid published a column in The Washington Post explaining that Hamas isn’t evil. The essay – written three weeks after Hamas launched a cross-border raid and murdered 1,200 people and abducted 250 others – exonerated murder, abduction, and rape carried out in the name of Palestinian “resistance.”

Noting that Palestinians had become convinced “that nonviolence doesn’t work,” Hamid argued that Hamas’s violence was a legitimate expression of Palestinian frustration.

But in what world does frustration justify mass murder?

Moreover, in his essay, Hamid ignored the inconvenient history of Palestinian leaders Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas rejecting peace deals. He left out Hamas’s ideology, codified in the organization’s charter, which advocates killing Jews.

He was silent on the inculcation of hate in Palestinian schools. And he also ignored Hamas’s hijacking of international aid to raise an army, dig tunnels, and build a rocket arsenal.

By ignoring the threat that Hamas posed to Israel, Hamid was free to accuse Israel of using excessive violence and committing war crimes in its war against Hamas. Over the course of a year and a half, Hamid argued his case, often using discredited information that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza.


EYLON: Israel Electioncast: Crocodiles, Guns & Ben-Gvir: Yishai Fleisher (Otzma Yehudit) on Israel Electioncast
Can a crocodile-filled prison moat deter terrorism—and how will acting like a crazy man boost Israel's image?

Otzma Yehudit’s Yishai Fleisher joins Eylon Levy ahead of the first Israeli election after the October 7 massacre. His choices: deterrence, Aliyah and international legitimacy. Eylon’s fourth: law and order.

Fleisher defends wider gun licensing, tougher prisons and a ministry to encourage Gazans to emigrate. He proposes Hebrew classes to encourage Jewish immigration, while arguing to review whether Reform converts should even be eligible to make Israel their home. Eylon presses him on Ben-Gvir’s hangman’s-noose imagery, Israel’s reputation and policing vigilante violence in Judea and Samaria.

The Israel Electioncast is for English-speaking Israelis and international viewers who want to understand what Israelis are really arguing about before the critical October 27 elections.


PM blames ‘small number’ of West Bank rioters as mass settler attack draws wide condemnation
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday condemned the massive overnight attack and riot by Jewish extremists in the West Bank, calling for the perpetrators to be persecuted “to the fullest extent of the law,” while downplaying the attack as being perpetrated by a “small number” of people.

More than 100 Israeli settlers took part in the attack on the West Bank village of Jalud, near Nablus, preventing Israeli forces from enabling a displaced Palestinian family to return to their home. The army said the attackers were “blocking roads, setting tires on fire, and throwing stones at security forces,” injuring three Border Police officers and causing widespread property damage in Jalud. Three suspects had been arrested as of Tuesday afternoon.

Though security forces said the number of extremists involved in the attack exceeded 100, Netanyahu placed blame on a “small number of rioters,” which he said “does not represent the law-abiding settler community in Judea and Samaria,” referring to the West Bank.

“They do it a grave injustice and interfere with our forces as they carry out their mission,” he said.

Netanyahu has regularly downplayed settler violence as a marginal concern, claiming that nearly all incidents are the work of a few hundred wayward youths, despite attacks taking place on a near-daily basis and occurring in hundreds of villages and towns across the West Bank.

“I stand behind the IDF and Border Police personnel who are working to thwart terrorism and protect security,” he continued, “and I call on law enforcement authorities to prosecute the rioters to the fullest extent of the law.”

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar also condemned the attack on Jalud, calling it “grave and abhorrent.”

“Anyone who commits these criminal offenses and assaults Border Police fighters and IDF soldiers, and even harms them, are criminals who must be dealt with to the fullest extent of the law,” Sa’ar wrote on X. “They harm our values. They harm Jewish settlement. They harm Israel.”
US Senate blocks measure demanding report on rising violence in West Bank
US Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked a bid to require US President Donald Trump's administration to report to Congress on increasing violence in the West Bank, including the deaths of American citizens.

The procedural vote was the latest sign of friction between US Democrats and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government over Israel's treatment of Palestinians and of Republicans' continuing strong support for his coalition.

The Senate voted 47 to 51 to block the resolution. The vote was largely along party lines, with every Republican voting no except for Rand Paul of Kentucky and every Democrat except John Fetterman of Pennsylvania in favor.

The resolution would have required the State Department to report to Congress on the killing of US citizens by Israeli settlers or Israeli security forces in the West Bank and to assess the human rights situation.

Violence by Jewish settlers against Palestinians in the territory has risen sharply this ⁠year.

Resolution could have led to restricted aid
While the resolution would not have cut aid to Israel, the largest cumulative recipient of US foreign assistance since World War Two, a failure by the administration to deliver the report could have triggered restrictions on aid.

Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the measure's lead sponsor, had argued that it was "long past time" to examine human rights in the West Bank, including the deaths of nine Americans since 2022.

"It is our responsibility to ensure recipients of US taxpayer dollars act in line with our laws and our values," he said in a statement, referring to Israel.

Republicans accused Democrats of seeking to score political points as Israel is under threat, seven months after US and Israeli forces launched airstrikes that began an ongoing conflict with Iran.

"I urge my colleagues to vote no on this resolution so we can stand with our ally Israel as they beat back the scourge of Iranian-backed terrorism," Montana Republican Senator Steve Daines said in a speech.
travelingisrael.com: I Met the Most DEMONIZED People on Earth (Israeli SETTLERS)
You’ve probably seen a thousand reports about Israeli settlements, but you haven't seen anything like this. In this video, we dive into the untold story: the history of the very first settlement, a unique community integrating people with special needs, and a grassroots initiative helping local Israeli businesses reach the world.


Call me Back Podcast: Is the Iran-Sanctions Playbook Coming for Israel? - with Mark Dubowitz
Could the financial warfare playbook built to isolate Iran be turned against Israel?

Twenty-four hours after Prime Minister Netanyahu addressed the UN, the organization expanded its settlement-business blacklist to more than 200 companies. It’s not a sanctions regime, but could it be the beginning of something much bigger? Dan sits down with Mark Dubowitz of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, who helped build the architecture used to isolate Iran, to discuss whether the same playbook could be used against Israel, how quickly targeted measures can escalate, and what Israel can do to stop it.

𝗜𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗲:
How anti-Israel sentiment could turn into financial pressure
Are sanctions against Israel already beginning?
How one designation can scare banks and investors
Would replacing Netanyahu reverse the momentum?
Can Israel’s economic strength protect it from sanctions?
How deeper U.S.-Israel ties, and cultural integration, could prevent financial isolation


GOP lawmakers criticize European sanctions against Israeli settlements
Republican lawmakers are speaking up against recent moves by European countries to impose new sanctions and trade restrictions on Israeli settlements in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.

The latest restrictions took effect in the Netherlands on Sept. 22, when the country began barring goods obtained or produced wholly or partly in Israeli settlements from entering the country, including products carried by private travelers. Violations can carry a maximum sentence of six years in prison. Israel has since revoked the diplomatic status of Dutch diplomats serving in Ramallah.

On Sept. 9, the United Kingdom announced that it would ban imports produced in Israeli settlements in the West Bank and impose sanctions on companies and individuals involved in settlement construction, financing and related services, while also prohibiting the advertising of settlement properties and goods. France, Canada and other European countries have also committed to — or have already implemented — restrictions involving goods from Israeli settlements, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) told Jewish Insider he was “disappointed” by the European measures and argued that Israel should be receiving greater support from those governments.

“First off, I’m disappointed. We ought to be supporting the only democracy in the Middle East, somebody that is part of making sure Europe is safe because Iran doesn’t have a nuclear weapon,” Scott said. “I think they ought to be thanking Israel rather than targeting them.”

Asked whether the Trump administration should respond to the European measures, Scott said he believes the White House is already working to address them.

“I think they are, they’re working hard,” he said.


U2’s Bono compares Ben Gvir to Nazi SS chief Himmler over his comments on Gaza
Irish singer-songwriter and U2 frontman Bono compared Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir to SS chief Heinrich Himmler in an interview with Rolling Stone published Monday, drawing a sharp rebuke from the far-right politician.

In the interview, Bono discussed a new song, described by Rolling Stone as: “Bono’s elliptical take on the thousands of years that led up to Gaza, with an empathetic look at the history of the Jewish people, all narrated simultaneously by the biblical David and the statue Michelangelo made of him.”

“It’s an attempt to try and grasp what’s going on in a world where we never needed the moral force of Judaism more than now,” Bono said, while repudiating the “unholy offense” of the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, massacre on Israel.

Bono added, however, that he was horrified by the far-right Otzma Yehudit leader Ben Gvir’s comments on Gazans — specifically a comment in which the minister said that “there are people there who are not worthy of life” — and compared Ben Gvir to Himmler.

Ben Gvir made that remark last month while speaking on a podcast, where he advocated for killing “30 to 40” people in the Gaza Strip each night, apparently referring to terror operatives, though he did not specify so.

“Not just those who pose an immediate threat. No, there are people there who are not worthy of life,” he elaborated. “They shouldn’t live. They’re not even people.” National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, leader of Otzma Yehudit, arrives for a hearing at the Central Elections Committee at the Knesset in Jerusalem, September 23, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

“As a person who has stood by Israel,” Bono said, “and standing by Israel — as I stand with the Palestinian people, by the way, that they have a Palestine — there’s all this semantic back and forth over genocide, and it’s a legal term, and the ICC and the ICJ will rule on it eventually.”

(Israel has rejected accusations of genocide in Gaza as baseless, and has dismissed the legal proceedings against it at the United Nations’ International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court as biased and lacking jurisdiction.)

“But here’s a guy, a minister in the government,” Bono continued, “and he’s not being locked up… and this guy Netanyahu says, ‘Well, I need him to keep my majority.’”

Bono added: “So many of the people that have expanded my mind, changed my consciousness, made me laugh, broken my heart with their songs, lifted my spirits, are Jewish. And this guy’s putting their religion in the shade… It’s just outrageous.”

He urged Israel “to fix the situation. They have to put what happened at the Nakba right, by making some compromise that some of these people don’t wanna make, and do the just thing. Justice is at the heart of Judaism.” (Nakba is the Arabic term for the “catastrophe” surrounding the 1948 establishment of Israel and displacement of Palestinians amid the war launched against the nascent state by its Arab neighbors.)

In response, Ben Gvir blasted Bono, writing on X: “There is no limit to the hypocrisy of the world’s supporters of terrorism. Bono did not compare the Hamas murderers to Himmler – only those who defend the Jews from the next massacre.”

“I have news for him: the Jews are done apologizing for their right to live. We can do without your sympathy for dead Jews; we prefer to remain alive and face your criticism,” he said.

“If you truly care about the residents of Gaza, help them leave for Ireland. They are begging to emigrate from Gaza. They will have a wonderful future in Ireland,” he added.
Ireland Won a Game of Football 3-0. It Lost Everything Else
Ireland beat Israel 3–0 on Sunday night. Three goals, three points, a result to celebrate, but if the victory feels like vindication for what happened around the match, Ireland has lost by a greater score than it realises. Ireland can keep the three points; it must also own the ugliness it brought into the “Beautiful Game.” Victory did not excuse the conduct, it exposed how comfortable Irish society has become with demonising Israelis and calling it conscience.

This was not one player making an ill-judged gesture. It began with the manager, continued through the Football Association of Ireland, played out across the team and found an ugly echo among fans online. It was nearly three years of Irish hostility towards Israel compressed into ninety minutes, a country so certain of its own moral authority that it could no longer see the people standing in front of it.

Before the game, Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrímsson declared: “We’re not playing with genocide, we’re playing against genocide.”

In talking about a football match against Israelis, he took the name of the greatest crime in human history and attached it to the players his team was about to face. He did so knowing what that word means to Jews, and knowing that less than three years ago they were murdered, raped and taken hostage in the deadliest attack on our people since the Holocaust.

Hallgrímsson made a fool of himself. Worse, he gave his players and the Irish fans a moral script. Israel was not an opponent to be beaten but an evil to be confronted, a statement that has led to the justification of violence and even the murder of Jews here in the UK and across the world.

As Israel’s national anthem played, Irish players bowed their heads, Hallgrímsson stood with his back to the pitch, the teams did not shake hands, Irish captain Dara O’Shea did not exchange pennants with Israel captain Manor Solomon. Ireland then played the match, took the points and celebrated the win. They found the strength of character to share a football pitch with Israelis when victory was at stake, but could not bring themselves to acknowledge them as fellow footballers, even, it would appear, as fellow human beings.

Then came the black armbands. FAI chief executive David Courell said they were worn “in recognition of all lives lost in the Gaza conflict”. Set against the manager’s words and the team’s conduct, this was not mourning for the Jews murdered on 7 October or for Israelis killed since. It was a political statement directed at Israel while its players stood on the other side of the pitch.

After scoring Ireland’s third goal, Jack Moylan removed his armband, kissed it, raised it and kissed the Ireland badge. A symbol supposedly recognising all lives lost had become a prop in a celebration against Israel. Moylan’s gesture confirmed what the FAI’s carefully worded statement had always hoped it would say to the world.


Commentary Podcast: Mahmoudy Blues
Contributing Editor Eli Lake is back to discuss his review of Mahmoud Khalil's new book and debate whether the efforts to deport him were unwise. Plus, the Trump administration moves to block EV adoption and reinstate Title IX rules that were revoked under Biden, how America can right the ship on education, the strange polling numbers in Ohio, and John recommends season 2 of Mobland.


Mamdani announces campaign against antisemitism, doesn’t mention connection to anti-Zionism
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday announced his long-awaited plan to combat antisemitism, promising educational programs, public messaging and funding for Jewish institutions.

The plan did not define antisemitism or address its connection to anti-Zionism, though, sidestepping central issues in the mainstream Jewish community’s fraught relationship with City Hall.

Mamdani announced the plan in a video statement posted to social media and detailed the Strategy to Combat Antisemitism in a 33-page report released by his office.

Jews make up around 10% of the city’s population and are targeted in half of all confirmed hate crimes in the city, according to NYPD data.

Mamdani said that he has been meeting with Jewish New Yorkers for the past year.

“Time and again I’ve heard the same thing: antisemitism is real and it is growing,” he said. “This is not only unacceptable, it’s something we all have an obligation to change and City Hall will lead the way.”

Mamdani scrapped the previous administration’s endorsement of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism on his first day in office.

The definition describes some forms of Israel criticism as discriminatory, while stating that criticizing Israel the way other countries are censured is legitimate.

The mayor’s report acknowledged several antisemitism definitions, while stating that the city can “combat antisemitism effectively without needing to adopt a definition.”

Mamdani’s plan focuses on education and hate crime prevention and places the fight against antisemitism in the context of a larger struggle against hatred.

“One form of hatred cannot be combatted in a vacuum. Antisemitism can, and must, be addressed hand in hand with all other forms of hatred,” the document said.

Mamdani pledged a $26 million increase in hate crime prevention funding, which he has announced befor, calling it an 800% increase over last year.

Mamdani’s plan also committed $6.4 million in funding in Partners Against the Hate grants, aimed at broader hate crime prevention, and $26 million for the Office to Prevent Hate Crimes, which deals with discrimination against all groups.
US Jewish leaders slam new Mamdani plan to fight Jew-hatred
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is drawing widespread criticism from Jewish leaders and Israeli officials for a new City Hall “whole-of-government” plan to tackle Jew-hatred.

The UJA-Federation of New York, Jewish Community Relations Council-NY, American Jewish Committee New York and New York Board of Rabbis stated jointly that “any effort to confront antisemitism in New York City must fully address the realities Jewish New Yorkers face today.”

The group allowed that Mamdani’s plan has “a number of positive elements, including some increased security funding for Jewish institutions and expanding proven programs.” But the plan “fails to address a central issue that the mayor himself has perpetuated: rhetoric that demonizes and delegitimizes Israel inevitably leads to the targeting of Jewish New Yorkers,” the groups said.

“Those who truly seek to address antisemitism must unequivocally reject such rhetoric and help ensure that Jewish New Yorkers are never made to feel suspect, excluded or unsafe in their own city,” the groups said.

Ofir Akunis, Israeli consul general in New York, stated that “money can’t buy values.”

“Until you recognize that your language against the Jewish state, which you don’t recognize as the homeland of the Jewish people, is the fundamental reason for the rise of antisemitism in New York City, it will continue to increase,” the Israeli envoy told the mayor.

“Truly combating antisemitism requires readopting the IHRA working definition of Antisemitism, which you overturned as the first decision of your administration on day one,” Akunis stated.

“To truly fight antisemitism would be to call for your supporters to stop shouting ‘from the river to the sea’ and ‘globalize the intifada,’ have them condemn the Oct. 7 massacre and instead of supporting Hamas, declare that they are a terror organization,” he added.

The mayor’s new plan will not work as long as Mamdani accuses the Jewish state of “genocide” and says that the Israeli prime minister ought to be arrested, according to Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, senior rabbi of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, a Reform congregation on Manhattan’s Upper West Side with about 850 member families.

Hirsch told JNS that “fundamentally, the report is such a disappointment and frankly unworthy of the mayor and administration.”

“Because it omits the central driver of antisemitism which is anti-Israel hostility,” the strategy “of course omits the mayor’s own role in adding to that,” the rabbi said.


Poll: 27 Percent of Muslim Americans Blame Israel, Zionists for 9/11
A new survey released on Sep. 27 by the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs (JCFA) found that 27% of Muslim American respondents said Zionists or Israel had been responsible for the 9/11 attacks.

19% expressed the belief that the U.S. government or the CIA had carried out the attacks.

62% of non-Muslim respondents identified al-Qaeda as responsible for 9/11, compared with 24% of Muslim American respondents.
Sen Kirsten Gillibrand Dons a Hijab at Bronx Mosque, Alongside Cleric Who Praises Hamas and Osama Bin Laden’s Mentor, in Under-the–Radar Visit
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand wore a hijab during a visit last week to a Bronx mosque where the powerful New York Democrat sat alongside a cleric who once celebrated Hamas for "causing so much trouble for the Jews" and has hailed Osama bin Laden's spiritual mentor.

Gillibrand, who chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, appeared at the Bronx Muslim Center, located in New York City's "Little Yemen," on Sept. 21, according to photos posted by the center's outreach director. The photos show Gillibrand wearing a pink headscarf and seated next to Hamud Alsilwi, a Yemeni cleric who has led the Bronx Muslim Center since 1998. A banner soliciting donations for the center's new 32,000-square-foot mosque is seen in the photos that prominently featured the senator.

The Bronx mosque is a branch of the Muslim American Society, which federal prosecutors have described as an "overt arm" of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States.

Alsilwi has praised Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and hailed Sheikh Abdul Majeed al-Zindani, an influential Islamic scholar designated as a terrorist over his ties to bin Laden.

"The Muslim Brotherhood came to power in Palestine, and they harmed no one except the Jews and Israel," Alsilwi wrote in October 2016, according to an English translation of his post.

In social media posts in January 2016, Alsilwi praised Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin—who was killed in an Israeli airstrike after being linked to multiple murders—for "causing so much trouble for the Jews in Palestine," the Middle East Forum reported in 2024, after Rep. Ritchie Torres (D., N.Y.) secured $1 million in earmarks for the Bronx Muslim Center.

Alsilwi mourned al-Zindani after his death in April 2024, posting numerous photos and videos of the cleric, referring to him as an "eminent scholar" and praying, "O God, grant him spacious gardens in Paradise."

The U.S. government designated al-Zindani a terrorist in 2004 over his position as spiritual adviser to bin Laden and for allegedly recruiting al Qaeda members and aiding "the purchase of weapons on behalf of al-Qaeda and other terrorists."

Gillibrand has not promoted her Bronx mosque visit on social media or her Senate website, though she posted footage from other events she attended the same day in East Harlem and the Bronx. Those photos show Gillibrand wearing the same suit as the one at the Bronx Muslim Center, sans hijab.
'Long Live Yahya Al-Sinwar': Brooklyn’s Park Slope Food Coop Slapped With Discrimination Suit for Rampant Antisemitism, Crushing Dissent Over Israel Boycott
The Park Slope Food Coop in Brooklyn was slapped with a lawsuit on Tuesday that alleged an antisemitic intimidation campaign by its leadership to silence Jews who objected to its boycott of Israeli food, according to a copy of the lawsuit first obtained exclusively by the Washington Free Beacon.

The members-only food cooperative—an institution in left-wing Park Slope—voted in late May to boycott all Israeli goods, capping a pitched battle by co-op's anti-Israel "Members for Palestine" to see Jewish foods stripped from the shelves. Feuding at the co-op over whether to stock Israeli goods has simmered for many years—dating back at least to a contretemps over Sabra hummus in 2009—but anti-Israel sentiment hardened after Oct .7

Tuesday's lawsuit—filed by the National Jewish Advocacy Center on behalf of five Jewish co-op members—maintains the co-op's leadership wrongly altered longstanding practices to facilitate the boycott's passage and that Jewish members who spoke out against the process were met with antisemitic harassment.

"The Boycott's proponents," the lawsuit reveals through text messages and other communications, "repeatedly singled out 'Zionists,' Jewish Members, and persons with ties to Israel for criticism and exclusion." A secure chat on the encrypted messaging app Signal, for instance, included calls by the "Members for Palestine," or M4P, to oppose "the co-op Zionists" and push for "the demolition of the zionist entity's invincibility." The suit was filed in the state's Kings County Supreme Court and requests "declaratory, injunctive, equitable, and monetary relief" of at least $150,000 for both the harassment campaign and unjust changes to the co-op's voting process.

The lawsuit carries national implications as anti-Israel activists work on the state and local level to introduce Israel boycotts into many facets of the economy and daily life. The Park Slope Food Coop—which delivers to its membership a literal feast of organic meat and produce direct from area farms, along with gourmet options such as 100 varieties of cheese—generated $63.17 million in revenue this past year. It's at the heart—or the stomach—of the "Commie Corridor" of Brooklyn neighborhoods that fueled winning campaigns by far-left candidates such as New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani and Democratic and socialist congressional candidates such as Brad Lander and Claire Valdez. The current boycott itself has been percolating for years, driven primarily by M4P, and its passage earlier this year was celebrated across anti-Israel spaces online and in the Western media.

The M4P Signal chat was active as far back as 2024, with members discussing tactics to intimidate co-op members, take over leadership posts, and strongarm the co-op into altering its longstanding voting processes to ensure the boycott motion passed. In one June 2025 message included in the lawsuit, M4P members referred to then-co-op general manager Joe Holtz as "a rabid Zionist" and as "Genocide Joe."

Other messages "included calls for discipline or censure of Members who opposed the campaign's tactics" to formalize the Israel boycott and, in other cases, bizarrely offered praise for Yahya Sinwar, the late Hamas leader who orchestrated the Oct. 7 terror attacks.

"Long live Yahya Al-Sinwar," wrote activist Damien Neva to the Signal group in November 2024, as M4P members were planning strategies to push the Israel boycott through the co-op. "At least one other participant reacted with approval. Immediately before praising Sinwar, Neva messaged, 'that lot does not have the votes to block our campaign,'" the lawsuit reveals.


Troy Jackson: ‘Unfortunate’ that Jewish Mainers reject ‘genocide’ label for Gaza war
Maine Democratic Senate candidate Troy Jackson called it “unfortunate” that Jewish residents of Maine reject the labeling of the war in Gaza as a genocide in an interview with Portland’s NBC News affiliate released Tuesday.

“It’s unfortunate that there are people here in Maine that don’t like to use that term only because they’re Jewish and what that means to them, with the Holocaust,” Jackson said. “[Israel’s war in Gaza] fits that description and it is. It’s [an] unbelievable thing that’s happened there that people that are innocent are being murdered, and it is a genocide.”

Pressed on Hamas’ role in starting the war and killing innocent Israeli civilians, Jackson acknowledged, “You could argue the same thing for Hamas too.” He added: “There’s people that are wrong on both sides of this issue. But in the end, senseless murders, horrific murders are happening to both sides, and that has to stop.”

Jackson said that the war in Gaza is the foreign policy issue he hears about the most from voters and is the most significant foreign policy challenge for the United States, beyond even the war in Iran.

During the interview, he repeatedly affirmed his view that the U.S. should not continue to send “blank checks” to the Israeli government, describing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “war criminal.” At one point, he said he did not want to continue sending “money” to Israel.
Michigan House declares October 2026 Combating Antisemitism Month as Jewish Democrats press El-Sayed
The Michigan House of Representatives has declared October 2026 as Combating Antisemitism Month, citing a rise in antisemitic incidents and several attacks against Jewish communities and institutions.

House Resolution 361, sponsored by Democratic state representative Noah Arbit, was adopted on Sept. 23. The resolution defines antisemitism as including “the singular denial of Jewish self-determination,” as well as conspiracy theories, discrimination, harassment, vandalism, violence, terrorism and distortion of Jewish history and the Holocaust.

Speaking on the floor of the state House in support of the resolution, Arbit, who is Jewish, said that antisemitism is the “world’s oldest hatred,” citing author Dara Horn’s theories on the nature and history of Jew-hatred.

“I’m a Zionist. I have been all my life,” he said. “Now I am told by people I once considered friends and ideological allies that my Zionism, embracing my heritage, my faith, my history, makes me a traitor to human rights, a traitor to progressivism, to liberalism.”

“When Zionism itself is distorted as an inherently evil ideology, because the vast majority of the world’s 15 million Jews are Zionists, it becomes all too easy for anti-Zionism to become a justification for any and all forms of social, economic and political exclusion of Jews,” Arbit said. “Even worse, the logical leap to justifying violence against Israelis and all Jews becomes so tiny as to be invisible.”

The resolution cites the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh on Oct. 27, 2018, and the Yom Kippur War, which began with a surprise attack on Israel by Egypt and Syria on Oct. 6, 1973. It also cites Anti-Defamation League data recording 156 antisemitic incidents in Michigan in 2025.

The resolution also highlights the March 12 attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Mich., where an assailant rammed a vehicle into the synagogue and opened fire while more than 100 children and more than 30 teachers and staff members were inside the early childhood center. The FBI later determined that the attack was a Hezbollah-inspired act of terrorism targeting the Jewish community.
More Michigan Jews pressure El-Sayed on Israel as Democrats rally behind him
The activists at the Zoom event who supported Abdul El-Sayed knew they faced an uphill climb in persuading fellow Jewish Democrats to overcome concerns about the Michigan Senate candidate and vote for their party’s nominee despite his strong disapproval of Israel.

Two progressive Jews, former Biden administration appointee Sam Bagenstos and Detroit Jews for Justice co-founder Hayley Sakwa, made the Jewish case for the candidate to a sometimes skeptical, sometimes combative crowd of around 30 people on Sunday night.

Sakwa and Bagenstos urged voters to prioritize the chance to put a check on the larger Trump agenda — including heavy immigration crackdowns and the rightward tilt of the federal judiciary — given that the Michigan seat could help determine who controls the legislative chamber.

But their appeal wasn’t enough for several of the people on the call, who less than two days later would sign on to the “Nonnegotiables” petition. Spearheaded by a group of Michigan Jewish clergy, the open letter calls for El-Sayed to moderate his views on Israel and affirm more vocal support for Jews in politics as a condition for earning their votes.

The 17 new names to the petition, shared with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency ahead of their release on Tuesday morning, include state Rep. Noah Arbit, the founder of the Michigan Jewish Democratic Caucus.

Arbit recently gave a speech denouncing antisemitism on the floor of the Michigan House and has been publicly critical of El-Sayed; after progressive Jews recently hosted the candidate for a Rosh Hashanah dinner at their house, the representative accused them of “tokenism.” (Arbit declined to comment to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.)

Other new names on the list include an elected University of Michigan regent and prominent local attorney, as well as several board members of the Jewish Democratic caucus, which itself is not endorsing a candidate in the race.

Concerns raised on the Sunday night Zoom call included El-Sayed’s opposition to funding for Israel’s defensive Iron Dome system and his earlier campaigning with anti-Israel streamer Hasan Piker, whom he has since distanced himself from. Some said they were worried he could open a door to a more hostile Democratic Party for Jews.
Jewish letter in support of El-Sayed includes numerous fringe figures
A recent open letter from Jewish Michiganders expressing support for Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed includes a series of figures with fringe or extremist views and backgrounds alongside several prominent members of the Jewish community.

El-Sayed’s campaign promoted the letter, which includes more than 800 total signatories, as a show of force for the candidate as he works to court Jewish voters as the general election nears. Meanwhile, other prominent leaders in the Jewish community have said they are not ready to vote for El-Sayed without changes in his stances on Israel or they plan to support his Republican opponent, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI).

The fringe figures on the letter also highlight the campaign’s ongoing struggles in appealing to mainstream Jews in Michigan — further highlighted by a recent video released by El-Sayed for Rosh Hashanah that featured two women connected to the anti-Israel group Jewish Voice for Peace. State Rep. Noah Arbit, who founded the Michigan Jewish Democratic Caucus, condemned the video as “tokenism.”

At the same time, the letter’s signatories include prominent members of the Jewish community such as former Rep. Sander Levin (D-MI), former Rep. Andy Levin (D-MI), attorney general nominee Eli Savit and Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus Chair Decky Alexander. The letter states that the signatories are not all in lockstep — that some are enthusiastic supporters of El-Sayed while others are more reluctant and harbor concerns about his policy on Israel and language employed by his allies.

Perhaps the most widely discussed signatory on the list has been Liano Sharon, a progressive activist and Michigan Democratic Party officer facing disciplinary action from the state party for suggesting that Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) — whom he previously described as a “neo-Nazi” — should face a Nuremberg-style trial and potentially “the gallows” for her support for Israel, though he also said he does not support the death penalty.

In an email to Jewish Insider, he affirmed that he does consider her a neo-Nazi “based purely on her conduct supporting Nazi-like atrocities like apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocide” but emphasized that he does not “support the death penalty even for neo-Nazis” and that he would “advocate commutation” for Stevens and others who could be “convicted and sentenced to death.”

“Reichstag legislators were sentenced to the gallows at Nuremberg for similar legislative support for Nazi atrocities as Stevens gave to Zionist atrocities,” Sharon said in a separate email exchange he released publicly. “Why should our legislators be treated differently if the investigation concludes they committed neo-Nazi atrocities?”

Sharon told JI that he is being wrongly punished by the Michigan Democratic Party and called on it to take down a post accusing him of harassing Stevens.
Imam Linked to Abdul El-Sayed Called Zionists ‘Cockroaches of History’
An imam at a mosque attended by Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed described Zionists as the "cockroaches of history" and claimed the main religious duty of American Muslims is to fight them with "every single mode that is within your reach as a citizen of this country."

Imran Salha, the imam at the Islamic Center of Detroit (ICD), said Muslims "have two roles here in America: To teach about Allah and frustrate the Zionists. Frustrate the Zionists with every single mode that is within your reach as a citizen of this country."

"Every single time you go to a protest and you make the Zionists uncomfortable, you are rewarding Allah. They are the cockroaches of history, and we are the liberators," Salha said in a 2024 sermon translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

He added that "Every single time you go on Fox News and you yell at that Zionist, Allah is rewarding you."

News of Salha's comments comes as El-Sayed has faced scrutiny for his attendance at the Muslim Community Association of Ann Arbor, where the imam gave a eulogy praising the late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh as a "righteous man" and a "martyr," the Washington Free Beacon first reported.

It also comes as Jewish Democratic voters have increasingly expressed concern about El-Sayed's candidacy.

During a recent series of focus groups conducted by the Sentinel Action Fund, a conservative super PAC, several Michigan Jewish voters reportedly "expressed that this would be the first time they vote Republican," referring to El-Sayed's GOP opponent Mike Rogers.

"I never in my wildest dreams would have thought I'd consider [voting Republican], but it's leaning towards that because I really don't like [Abdul El-Sayed] at all," one Michigan Jewish voter told the focus group, according to a memo shared with the Free Beacon.

El-Sayed often attends services at the Muslim Community Association of Ann Arbor and, while traveling the state, at the ICD, a source familiar with the situation told the Free Beacon. El-Sayed has also spoken at multiple events at the ICD—including in 2017 and 2018—and attended a political meeting at the mosque in 2019, according to reports.

Salha has a history of extremist remarks, according to social media posts and speeches reviewed by the Free Beacon.


Jonathan Sacerdoti: Britain’s upside-down approach to Islamism, Iran, and Israel is putting us all in danger
Then came our Foreign Secretary. He actually began his conference speech yesterday by invoking the attempted attack at RAF Fairford and declaring that Britain would “always stand up for our security against those who would do us harm”. Yet when he reached the Middle East, the concrete action he announced was directed entirely at Israel. He blamed the suffering of those in Gaza only on Israel, insisting it was inflicted by the Netanyahu government – “a stain on the conscience of the world”. He accused “settler terrorists” of ethnic cleansing, invoked evidence of Israeli war crimes and told those who had protested Labour’s previous Israel-related policy: “We hear you. You were right.”

When were they right? On October 7, 2023, when they first applied to hold an anti-Israel protest? When they intimidated Parliament, prompting the then-Speaker to express concerns for the safety of MPs engaged in a vote? When they vandalised the statue of Churchill, smashed up Jewish-owned businesses, or shattered a police officer’s spine? When their leaders were convicted of breaching conditions imposed under the Public Order Act during one of their constant protests? When they called for an intifada? When they shouted support for Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists? When they formed an intimidating mob outside a synagogue? They were right, were they?

Britain, he announced again, will ban imports from Israeli settlements and disrupt British finance, construction and services connected to them. And yes, he condemned Hamas’s October 7 massacre as “murderous” and promised to oppose those seeking Israel’s destruction. But there was no corresponding sanction, financial measure or new penalty announced against Hamas, the Palestinian Authority or any Palestinian institution, even as they continue to preach hatred of Jews or pay terrorists and their families for carrying out murderous attacks. In fact, he recently promised them £88 million of our money, with not a single qualifying action required on their part. Nothing.

So, in a speech that opened with terrorists allegedly targeting a British military base, our Foreign Secretary’s new programme of Middle Eastern punitive action was aimed at the democratic Western ally fighting Islamist terrorist organisations and Iranian proxies, not at any of those organisations or their sponsors.

It no longer matters why Labour is doing all this – whether it is to try to win back the West-hating, Jew-hating, Islamist or extreme-left portion of the electorate, or out of a genuinely misguided belief in these punitive and unconstructive policies – the damage to Britain is extreme, whatever the motivation. And the Conservatives weren’t exactly blameless when in office, either. Hamas terrorists, foreign extremists, those with immoral sexual cultural norms, subjugators of women or homosexuals – they’ve all been flocking to our green and pleasant land for years.

So forgive me if I sound like a broken record. It’s just that it’s getting harder and harder to bear. Not just for me. Not just for Jews. All of this harms Britain. It endangers us all. None of it makes sense. Yet it is only the start. We all know exactly where this is leading.


The Brink: Burnham’s Labour is Palestine First
In this episode of The Brink, Andrew and Jake react to the Labour Party conference and what it reveals about the direction of the government. They discuss Labour’s increasingly hostile approach to Israel, Ed Miliband’s sanctions policy, Shabana Mahmood’s immigration plans and the potential consequences for Britain’s national security. The conversation also turns to defence, political extremism and whether Britain’s political class is putting party interests ahead of the country.

Chapters
00:00 Labour’s Middle East Problem
02:52 Starmer, Palestine & The Labour Left
05:45 Labour Friends Of Israel vs Palestine
06:11 Is Labour Risking Britain’s National Security?
09:59 Miliband’s Message To Pro-Palestine Activists
14:30 Qatar & Labour’s Double Standards
15:47 Are Sanctions The Start Of A Financial War On Israel?
21:44 Shabana Mahmood’s New Migration Policy
27:41 Is There A Better Way To Handle Asylum?
30:58 Angela Rayner, Protest & Political Double Standards




Antisemitism on UK campuses continued to rise last year, watchdog says
Antisemitic incidents at British universities rose 14 percent in the 2025/26 academic year, remaining far above pre-October 7 levels and prompting warnings that universities must do more to protect Jewish students and staff.

The Community Security Trust, a nonprofit that monitors antisemitism and provides security for British Jews, recorded 95 university-related antisemitic incidents in 2025/26, up from 83 the previous year.

The 178 incidents recorded across the two academic years were fewer than the 272 reported in 2023/24, immediately after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, but the latest annual figure was still 79% higher than the 53 incidents recorded in 2022/23, the last academic year before the attack.

“Figures have fallen from their post October 7, 2023, peak but are still far higher than before that dreadful day,” CST Chief Executive Mark Gardner said in a statement.

CST recorded 149 incidents of abusive behavior, accounting for 84% of the total. The report also documented two incidents of extreme violence in 2024/25 — the first such university-related incidents ever recorded by CST — as well as six assaults, eight cases of damage or desecration, 10 threats and three incidents involving mass-produced antisemitic literature. Five of the damage and desecration cases occurred in student accommodation.

Students were the largest identifiable perpetrator group, responsible for 61 incidents, while university staff were responsible for 16 and student societies or representatives for 28. Jewish students were the most common victims, accounting for 63% of incidents where the victim was known.

“It is particularly troubling that a growing proportion of the anti-Jewish actions involve university staff, who carry authority and make victims feel especially vulnerable,” Gardner said. “Universities have a duty to ensure that Jewish students and staff can study, work and participate on campus the same as anyone else.”

The report found that 83% of incidents contained political, religious or ideological elements, while 62% referenced Israel, Gaza, Hamas, the October 7 attack, or the Middle East conflict alongside anti-Jewish language, motivation or targeting. Criticism of Israel or Zionism is not inherently antisemitic, CST noted.
Sounds of silence: Texas Dems decline to speak out against Piker before his UT event
Antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker is scheduled to speak at a University of Texas campus event on Wednesday. Despite the event’s backing from the student Democratic Party group on campus, most Texas Democrats running for office in the historically conservative state have been silent when it comes to speaking out against the far-left influencer.

Texas is one of the most prized political battlegrounds in the fight for control of Congress, hosting a hotly contested governor’s race, a neck-and-neck Senate race and four House races rated by the Cook Political Report as highly competitive. All of the close races are taking place in conservative-leaning constituencies, where candidates are typically incentivized to distance themselves from extremists or ideologues.

So far, among Texas Democrats, only Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) has spoken out against Piker, saying that leaders shouldn’t remain silent “when someone has a history of hateful comments about Jewish Americans, 9/11, and Hamas terrorism.” Cuellar, a leading moderate Democrat, is running for reelection in a redrawn district that President Donald Trump carried by a double-digit margin.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin condemned Piker in an interview with Fox News this month: “Let me just say that I think it’s absolutely disgusting and deplorable the things that Hasan Piker has said, right? But he does not represent the Democratic Party, and he certainly doesn’t represent the viewpoints of almost every one of our candidates and our elected officials.” But aside from Cuellar, none of the other Texas Democrats on the ballot have volunteered the same criticism.

While the DNC generally supports all Democratic entities, the University of Texas’ party chapter is an independent organization and the DNC has no oversight or authority over their events.

Republicans, led by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, have spoken out against the event, but it hasn’t become a significant issue on the campaign trail. University leaders have also remained silent, declining interview requests from Jewish Insider and Axios to talk about the upcoming event.
Montgomery County, Md., rabbis accuse school district of failing to address antisemitism surge
More than 40 rabbis and cantors in Montgomery County, Md., warned in a letter Monday that public school leaders have failed to address a rising tide of antisemitism in local classrooms, urging officials to implement new teacher training and stricter social media rules.

In the letter, addressed to Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Thomas Taylor, the clergy — representing dozens of Montgomery County synagogues across denominations — wrote that they are “alarmed that the lack of a meaningful response by MCPS has led to an increase in the normalization of antisemitic attitudes, language and behaviors in our schools.” They called on the district to incorporate specific antisemitism training previously suggested by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, including implementing teacher training specific to antisemitism and enforcing consequences for hateful social media posts.

The letter was organized by the JCRC after rabbis expressed concern following an antisemitism town hall that Taylor held at Temple Beth Ami in Rockville last spring, the organization told Jewish Insider.

Incidents in recent months, according to the JCRC, include inflammatory anti-Israel messaging at Olney Elementary School’s cultural night; “Heil Hitler” gestures and speech occurring at middle school events; and “physical threats and harassment directed toward Jewish students at multiple schools.”

In May, the JCRC called out the uniquely high rate of antisemitic incidents in the school district, which is just outside of Washington, D.C.


Dem, GOP senators demand answers from Meta on Jew-hating bot networks
The co-chairs of the bipartisan Senate task force on combating antisemitism demanded answers from the parent company of Facebook and Instagram on Tuesday about what it is doing to stop foreign bot networks from promulgating Jew-hatred.

Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) wrote to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, asking the company to take new steps and be more transparent about antisemitism on its social networks.

“We cannot continue to play catch up as foreign agents and extremists abuse American social media platforms to spread hate and sow discord on American soil and across the globe,” the senators wrote.

“While we commend Meta for the existing verification processes and integrity policies in place, more can and must be done to prevent malicious actors from exploiting Meta’s policies to spread harmful content online,” they wrote. The duo asks Zuckerberg six questions about what Meta is doing in response to online Jew-hatred given that the company’s current transparency reports do not appear to track “antisemitism” within the broader category of “hateful conduct.”

Many of those questions focus on the role played by bot networks originating outside the United States that operate “at scale” to “amplify antisemitic narratives.”

“Given the current record-breaking incidents of Jew-hatred, which Americans from across faith groups say they see mostly online, more comprehensive reforms are needed to safeguard users and to limit the proliferation of antisemitic content,” the senators wrote.

They recommend that Facebook and Instagram label user accounts with their country of origin as an “impactful step toward combatting foreign-based influence networks.”
Inside New York magazine’s anti-Israel shift — and the Jewish staffers left behind
In the years since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, New York magazine, once known for embodying the wry sophistication of the urban center left, has emerged as a key platform for anti-Israel content, a uniquely hostile ideological shift that is exposing raw feelings on a topic editorial leaders have struggled to meaningfully address publicly and behind the scenes.

Late last month, for instance, the magazine ran a letter confirming its editors had decided to use the term genocide to describe Israel’s actions in Gaza, citing an “extensive review of genocide scholarship and interviews with multiple experts in the field of genocide studies” this past fall. The letter had come in response to widespread backlash over New York’s recent controversial cover issue celebrating the city’s burgeoning Middle Eastern cultural scene, which had stoked accusations of erasing Jews from its narrative.

Predating the institutional review, however, the magazine’s editorial director, Gazelle Emami, had signed a public statement a few weeks after Hamas’ terror attacks calling Israel’s war in Gaza “an attempt to conduct genocide against the Palestinian people.” Emami had also solicited a polarizing Oct. 16, 2023, essay, “Explanations Are Not Excuses,” by the author and activist Sarah Schulman, who called the violence the “consequence of consistent, unending brutality — paid for by the United States in billions of dollars in aid to Israel per year.”

That story was flagged by members of a Jewish employee resource group at Vox Media, which was the magazine’s parent company until its acquisition last month by the media scion James Murdoch, in an internal memo shared with editorial leaders alleging several instances of bias against Israel in the wake of Oct. 7.

One person familiar with New York’s internal dynamics told Jewish Insider that Emami, who took on her role in October 2023, according to LinkedIn, is among the “key instigators” driving the magazine’s increasingly antagonistic reporting and commentary on Israel. Emami and Mariam Aldahi, the managing editor, wrote an introductory note to the mid-August cover issue saying that the scene “was born out of the pain of the genocide in Gaza.”

The person familiar with the situation, who was granted anonymity to avoid professional reprisal, added that “some Jewish writers were very upset” about the cover issue and “complained internally,” the latest instance in which Jewish employees have aired their objections to the magazine’s coverage.

The scrutiny underscores how New York has been navigating long-simmering internal tensions over its coverage of Israel and handling of concerns raised by some Jewish staffers, according to people familiar with the matter. Former Jewish staffers say they faced an inhospitable work culture after the Oct. 7 attacks and struggled to find support from company leadership — even after an antisemitism training that drew pushback from some employees.

“It was not a healthy work environment,” one former Jewish staffer who left after Oct. 7 told JI recently on condition of anonymity.

The magazine’s top editor, David Haskell, who took the reins in 2019 and whose side vocations include whiskey and ceramic art, has faced skepticism from some observers who question if he is acquiescing to deputies who are aggressively committed to pushing an anti-Israel narrative.

Haskell is “very conflict-averse,” according to a former staffer. “He seems open to conversations on how to improve the coverage,” but it is “unclear if he has the fortitude to go against his staff,” the former staffer told JI.

More than a month after the cover issue was published, the fallout has prompted ongoing damage control within the magazine, which saw some longtime readers cancel their subscriptions “in protest of material they found antisemitic,” the letter from editors acknowledged.
NJ man gets almost six years for threats to kill US officials, Supreme Court judges and making demands of Catholics, Jews
Louis Geri, 42, of Vineland, N.J., was sentenced to 70 months—more than five years and eight months—in federal prison for threatening to detonate more than 100 homemade bombs at a Mass at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington regularly attended by U.S. officials and Supreme Court justices.

Geri pleaded guilty in March to extortion and possessing unregistered explosives in connection with his threat to bomb the annual Red Mass on Oct. 4, 2025.

Prosecutors had sought an 87-month prison term. He will also have three years of supervised release when he gets out of jail.

“Threatening to detonate explosive devices at a house of worship during an important historic religious service, known as the Red Mass, is an attack on our community and on the fundamental right to worship freely,” stated Jeanine Ferris Pirro, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.

Geri “chose to terrorize a sacred space, St. Matthew’s Cathedral, and endanger officers and parishioners, thereby preventing Supreme Court justices from attending an annual religious event,” she stated. “Seventy months in federal prison reflects the seriousness of his conduct and our commitment to protecting every community from extremist threats and violence.”

On Oct. 4, 2025, Geri set up a tent on the church steps and built more than 100 bombs. He also carried a nine-page list of demands, including requests for hundreds of thousands of dollars, accommodations at the Mayflower Hotel and a flight to Japan, as well as demands directed at Catholic and Jewish leaders, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

The Red Mass was scheduled for the following morning.
Connecticut man sentenced to over seven-and-a-half years for trying to support ISIS
Ahmad Khalil Elshazly, 29, of West Haven, Conn., was sentenced to 92 months in prison—more than seven-and-a-half years—for trying to support the Islamic State, a U.S.-designated terror organization also known as ISIS, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Monday.

“There is no higher priority than the security of our nation and its citizens,” stated David X. Sullivan, U.S. attorney for the District of Connecticut. “My office and our law enforcement partners will continue to tenaciously work to investigate, apprehend and bring to justice anyone who threatens us.”

After his term, Elshazly, who has been in jail since he was arrested on Dec. 15, 2019, will be under supervised release for the rest of his life, the department said.

The prior day, he paid $500 to an undercover agent, whom he believed to work with ISIS. He thought the person would smuggle him out of the United States to Turkey and introduce him to an ISIS terrorist who would help him get to Syria. Officers arrested him in Stonington, Conn., before he boarded a boat, the Justice Department said.

In the 15 months prior to his arrest, Elshazly swore allegiance to ISIS and posted “hundreds” of pro-ISIS messages on an instant-messaging platform, per court documents.

He pleaded guilty on Nov. 30, 2022, to conspiring to support a terror group. “While detained, Elshazly has had numerous disciplinary infractions,” the Justice Department said. “In August 2025, officers searched his cell and found a handwritten plan for a coordinated uprising at the detention facility, complete with diagrams of the housing unit, instructions for breaching secured areas and tactics for confronting the correctional emergency response team.”

The Justice Department sought 15 years for Elshazly, whose attorneys said that “treating Mr. Elshazly with compassion will show those who practice the Muslim faith that the United States is not the enemy of Islam that the radical Islamists claim the U.S. to be.”
Florida man whose Nazi flag was confiscated at Kia Center event sues city of Orlando
A Florida man whose Nazi flag was confiscated by staff at the Kia Center in Orlando, Fla., during an Aug. 29 combat-sports event has sued the city, alleging that the city-owned venue violated his First Amendment rights by allowing some political expression while suppressing his.

Jay Brown filed an amended complaint on Monday in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, alleging that a Kia Center usher grabbed a swastika flag from his hands and that staff threatened to remove him if he continued displaying it. According to the complaint, Brown was escorted to a coat-check area, where staff took and held the flag.

The Duel Arena event featured a heavyweight kickboxing match between Israeli-American Jewish fighter Ben Azoulay and Paul Nicholas Miller, who is known online as “Gypsy Crusader” and has a history of racist and antisemitic online content. Miller defeated Azoulay by split decision.

Brown alleges that the usher called the flag “hateful” and told him he should be “ashamed” of displaying it. He also claims venue staff allowed other patrons to display large Black Lives Matter flags at the same event.

“The First Amendment protects nearly all speech,” Anthony Sabatini, an attorney for Brown, told JNS.

Brown’s lawsuit accuses the city of viewpoint discrimination and seeks compensatory and nominal damages, as well as an order barring the city from enforcing restrictions on political expression based on its content or viewpoint.

In a Sept. 2 statement, Orlando Venues and the city condemned hate speech, antisemitism and racism, while saying that as operators of public venues, they are bound by the First Amendment and cannot deny access based on political ideology or viewpoint.

The Kia Center’s published policies prohibit signs larger than 11 by 17 inches and signs containing “indecent or derogatory comments/images” or political statements. The rules also allow security personnel to inspect items and prohibit anything deemed inappropriate for crowd safety.
House arrest sentence for antisemitic posts prompts calls for hate-crime prosecution units in Canada
Jewish groups in Canada are calling on provincial governments to establish specialized hate-crime prosecution units after a Saskatoon man received an 18-month conditional sentence for publicly inciting hatred against Jews.

Brandon Taylor Moore, 45, was sentenced on Monday in Saskatchewan Provincial Court after pleading guilty in June to public incitement of hatred against an identifiable group. He will serve the sentence under house arrest followed by probation and counseling rather than in prison.

Moore was arrested in December 2025 after the Saskatoon Police Service investigated complaints about antisemitic posts on his X account. At the time, he was also charged with unsafe storage of a firearm. Prosecutors later added charges of willfully promoting hatred and willfully promoting antisemitism by condoning, denying or downplaying the Holocaust. Those charges are expected to be stayed under the plea agreement.

At his June plea hearing, Moore acknowledged that his posts were likely to lead to a breach of the peace and that he was reckless in that regard, according to an agreed statement of facts read in court. Prosecutor David Piche said Moore had about 180,000 followers on X and had made numerous statements about Jews, including calls for their removal or exclusion from society. The posts were not alleged to have resulted in violence or physical harm.

During sentencing, Moore argued that his statements would have been protected by free-speech laws in the United States and said his posts were motivated by Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. Among the posts cited in reports on the case was one blaming Jews for open borders and another asking whether Jews’ belief that Jesus “is boiling in human excrement in hell” constitutes hate speech.
State Department postpones memorial for US Oct. 7 victims, no new date set
The State Department postponed a memorial for the American victims of Oct. 7, which was scheduled for Sept. 30, JNS has learned.

The department hadn’t announced the event officially, but multiple sources in the department and with knowledge of its plans confirmed that it was set, as JNS reported exclusively.

The decision to postpone appeared to have been made on Tuesday morning. The reason was unclear. (JNS sought comment from the State Department.)

This is a developing story.





 




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