Monday, October 12, 2026

10/11 Links: Israel Is Clear-Eyed, Not Traumatized by Oct. 7; The lone wolf illusion: Alone in action, not in ideology; 2,000-year-old Hasmonean aqueduct section uncovered in Jerusalem

From Ian:

Israel Is Clear-Eyed, Not Traumatized by Oct. 7
The third anniversary of Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on Israel was filled with agonizing and loving remembrances of the many civilians slain by Hamas in their bedrooms and the soldiers killed combating the jihadist Palestinian stormtroopers ever since. But through it all, the overwhelming sentiment I heard was patriotism, resilience, and defiance, not defeat.

Much of the media coverage described Israel as traumatized by the massacre and exhausted by three years of war. This infuriates me because it is an erroneous, even nefarious, reading of the Israeli mood. It is a wicked and insulting take on Israel's national psyche. The reality is that Israelis are neither crushed nor dispirited. Instead, they are appropriately angry and motivated to win against all enemies.

All Israelis across the political spectrum are proud of the brave reservists who threw themselves into battle against Hamas, and the selfless volunteers who mobilized to strengthen their families, tend to the wounded, orphaned, and dispossessed, till the fields, and manage the home front. No one in this noble cohort is drained, defeated, or paralyzed by trauma.

On the global front, Israelis are furious at the hostility and hypocrisy of the Western world, which has largely turned its back on Israel. Classic antisemitic stereotypes have saturated Western media. The deranged demonization of Jews has once again been renamed as morality itself.

Israelis are angry at the politically malign accounts of their just, successful wars against Iran and its Hamas and Hizbullah proxy armies; at the raw antisemitism becoming mainstream discourse; and at the corrosive ideologies such as radical Islam that seek to undermine Western societies while destroying Israel. Israelis will resist all this. Israel intends to hunt down its enemies, not be hounded by them or hemmed in by fickle allies.
One in five Israelis ‘still struggling to function’ since Oct. 7 – new study
One in five Israelis continues to report severe impairment in daily functioning due to mental health since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, according to a study released Sunday, with women particularly affected.

The study was conducted by the National Mental Health Barometer, an ongoing project sponsored by Clalit Health Services’ Research Institute, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, and Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute in Jerusalem.

The findings, based on a nationally representative sample of Israel’s population and updated through May 2026, show that while most of the population is recovering, a significant number of people continue to experience psychological distress.

Women reported higher levels of mental health-related functional impairment than men, three years after Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel, killed 1,200 people, and kidnapped 251 people into Gaza.

In the three years since, Israel has also been in a constant state of war, with combat in Gaza and Lebanon seeing thousands of Israelis evacuated from their homes near the borders. There have also been two rounds of fighting with Iran,, which targeted most of the country with missiles.

“The findings show that alongside a steady increase in the proportion of people receiving mental health treatment, psychological distress is becoming chronic for a significant part of the population and is accompanied by deep functional impairment,” Prof. Ran Balicer, deputy director general and head of the innovation division at Clalit Health Services, said in a statement.

Unprecedented level of exposure
The study found an extraordinary level of exposure to significant trauma according to international standards.

Approximately 15% of all respondents described themselves as being at the highest level of personal exposure, meaning they were personally present at the events of October 7, 2023, or closely knew someone who was injured or killed during the subsequent fighting.

The researchers describe this as a dramatic and unprecedented level of exposure compared with other national trauma events worldwide. In comparison, following the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, approximately 4% of the population experienced direct exposure.

“The data once again demonstrate just how unprecedented October 7 was globally in terms of the scale of the population’s exposure to trauma, both directly and indirectly through exposure to disturbing videos and media content,” Balicer said. “This helps explain the findings regarding the intensity of the national trauma and its lasting effects.”
How Israel Views Gaza, One Year after the Ceasefire
The Trump plan for Gaza, launched last year, explicitly laid out Israel's goals: releasing all the hostages (which was implemented), disarming Hamas, removing it from power, and ensuring that Gaza could no longer be used as a platform for threatening Israel.

The plan offered a mostly political path to realizing these elusive goals, without enforcement on the ground. Yet Israel does not believe this approach will work with a violent Islamist actor like Hamas. It has therefore kept constant physical pressure on Hamas, conditioning any reconstruction on the group's disarmament.

Israel has continuously targeted senior terrorists and military infrastructure in the area under Hamas control, with quiet American consent, disrupting Hamas efforts to reassert governance and recover some of its military capabilities.

For Israel, disarming Hamas and other terrorist organizations in Gaza is the most important task. Israel insists that demilitarization be inclusive, comprehensive, verifiable, and permanent. Israel insists that until a full, verifiable disarmament process is completed, the IDF will conduct no further redeployments.

Despite the current environment of skepticism, Hamas has been significantly weakened militarily, financially, and politically. According to recent polls, Palestinian public support for the group and the "armed struggle" it represents has declined significantly.


Third anniversary, October 7
The left loves to fetishise so-called ‘lived experiences’. The idea is that there is something unique that ‘normal’ people can never comprehend if you have the ‘lived experience’ of being, for instance, gay, or transgender, black or whatever. But the opposite is never considered: what if your ‘lived experience’ is attending a mosque five times a day in Mogadishu and having it drummed into you since birth that certain other people are vermin who deserve to die? How healthy is it for a society to import large numbers of people who may have been immersed in such a ‘lived experience’? And why do we imagine that just because our ‘lived experience’ is one of tolerating other lifestyles, the same holds true for everyone else? At what point is social cohesion severely damaged if those we allow to come to our shores have no desire to be ‘socially cohesive’ themselves?

These issues have been worsened by the refusal of the Albanese government to admit, let alone to confront, them. On what planet, in a post-October 7 world, would you think it a great idea to suddenly grant over 3,000 visas to Gazans? Certainly not in the world inhabited by virtually every other nation on Earth.

Angus Taylor and the Coalition are to be praised for their new immigration policy. It basically supplants John Howard’s ‘We will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come’ with ‘We will decide what sort of values come into this country and the circumstances from where they come’. Journalists were quick to try and pin Mr Taylor down by getting him to nominate those specific countries or cultures which would be on the new Coalition exclusion list, but for obvious political reasons he didn’t bite. But this is the litmus test, and it will make or break the Coalition. Like Donald Trump, and like One Nation, the Coalition will at some point, either before or after the next election, need to clarify precisely what values they have in mind and stick a label, and even possibly a country-of-origin label, onto them for us all to see.

No matter how much the left-wing media here and abroad attempt to disguise the reality of the nightmare in France, and indeed in much of Europe, the public have already made up their minds. Islamic values are too often incompatible with Western democratic norms. The New Seekers approach was that people from alien cultures would be so enamoured of Western freedoms, female equality, diversity of opinion, and so on, that they would automatically cast off their affiliation to the more authoritarian and oppressive cultural norms they grew up with. A sip of Western democracy would prove as tantalising and as addictive as a sip of Coca-Cola.

The massacre of 7 October shows the world just how far certain ideologies and, arguably, cultures, are prepared to go to satisfy their grievances and their bloodlust. Australians can choose to ignore the warning signs, including the horrific Bondi slayings, as having nothing to do with them. The more idiotic of the left and the far right will blame the Jews or Israeli politics. But every right-thinking, honest and fair dinkum Australian of whatever race, religion, heritage or ethnic background knows full well that just because someone is knocking on the door, we are not necessarily obliged to let ‘em in.
Israeli combat medicine slashes IDF deaths after Oct 7, draws US military interest
An IDF medical specialist told Fox News that during "the Second Lebanon War [in 2006], it took 15-20 minutes for advanced life support to reach a casualty. Now, advanced life support can reach a casualty immediately or within four minutes."

The placement of "medical personnel on the battlefield, including a doctor in every company, allows the IDF to make critical decisions early on during the care process."

The IDF has implemented a sophisticated system for providing blood to injured soldiers. First-responders carry blood on their backs in coolers to control hemorrhaging, a method that "saved significant numbers" of injured soldiers.

An advanced system of data collection "transmits the data over technical networks so that every provider can see patient data."

According to IDF data, the mortality rate during the 2006 war against Hizbullah was 15% in contrast to 7.1% during 2023.

The U.S. Army and the IDF have been cooperating on battlefield medicine for years. In April 2026, the U.S. military released a 78-page report, "Israeli Defense Force Medical Lessons Learned," explaining the pressing need to absorb Israel's advances since the start of the war in 2023.
Hamas Is Fighting to Survive in Gaza
Three years after the Oct. 7 attack, Israel controls 63% of Gaza. The IDF is systematically demilitarizing territory east of the Yellow Line, which marks the boundary of Israeli military control in Gaza, in an effort to limit Hamas's ability to rebuild its strength. Hamas previously buried rocket components and weapons east of the Yellow Line, intending to retrieve them if Israel withdrew.

The clearance of aboveground infrastructure in this area is now largely complete. Residential buildings containing terrorist infrastructure or weapons stockpiles were demolished. Underground infrastructure was discovered beneath some of the buildings, while others had been rigged with explosives, used by terrorists as hideouts or fortified positions.

The clearing of underground infrastructure is still underway. Security forces are using specialized equipment to locate additional tunnels deep beneath the surface. Operations are also underway to destroy tunnels connecting different parts of Gaza, either through controlled explosions or by filling them with concrete.

Hamas is believed to possess only a few hundred rockets, compared with thousands before the war. Hamas faces a shortage of weapons, including small arms, and its ability to rebuild its manufacturing capabilities is limited, despite its continuing smuggling efforts.

Although Hamas continues recruiting terrorists, including teenagers aged 16 and 17, the training they receive is relatively rudimentary. Hamas spent a year and a half training each member of its Nukhba force. Documents seized in Gaza revealed that basic training for Hamas recruits during the war lasted just one week.

Israeli assessments suggest that the cumulative impact of targeted killings of senior Hamas figures is undermining Hamas's ability to intimidate Gaza's population and maintain control. Evidence of this can be seen in raids conducted by Gaza-based, anti-Hamas militias into territory west of the Yellow Line.

Hamas is appointing replacements for its eliminated commanders. However, Israeli officials believe that internal disputes and power struggles will emerge over succession. The first and second successors may be accepted without controversy, but by the time the organization reaches its seventh replacement, that individual could face a struggle to establish his authority.
‘NAZA’ viciously misrepresents Israel’s military
Jews around the world have faced elevated levels of antisemitic violence, harassment and discrimination ever since Hamas invaded Israel, slaughtered 1,200 people and kidnapped another 251 people on Oct. 7.

Incendiary and false claims in films like “NAZA” risk further fanning the flames of hatred.

More broadly, the point-by-point responses from the IDF and others to the film’s central claims raise many doubts about its credibility: Israel has never used AI to select targets to strike without human input, according to the IDF. “Lavender,” which is referenced in film as a targeting system, is actually an intelligence database. In addition, IDF directives explicitly prohibit intentionally attacking civilians.

The misinformation in “NAZA” was likely inevitable and intentional, considering that the filmmakers reportedly never reached out to the IDF to verify, corroborate or even respond to their allegations. The filmmakers ignored a standard journalistic practice of fairness.

As is often the case in these situations, some are giving the film added weight because its directors are Jewish and Israeli. While many Israel haters will use these individuals as tokens to advance anti-Israel and antisemitic agendas, the identity of the filmmakers does not determine whether “NAZA” is credible or not.

What matters most is the mounting evidence that this film systematically misleads the public.

We are in an era where freedom of expression, especially in the arts, has been severely compromised not just for Israelis, but also for Jews worldwide, unless they abide by litmus tests from anti-Zionist extremists and repeat lies about the Jewish state.

In this context, Jews, Israelis and allies who are concerned about record levels of antisemitism have begun protesting screenings of “NAZA” around the world. These opposing voices deserve to be heard at the Mill Valley Film Festival and beyond.
Netanyahu demands investigation into 'NAZA' doc participants
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded on Sunday that the justice system prosecute the people who participated in the NAZA documentary for severe information security offenses, criminal defamation, and damage to Israel's diplomatic and security interests.

According to a letter released by the Prime Minister’s Office, the prime minister asked the IDF Chief of Staff, Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) Director David Zini, and Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara to launch a comprehensive investigation into the participants of the documentary.

"The film spins a false, misleading, and biased narrative that defames the State of Israel and the IDF globally and severely damages Israel's standing,” Netanyahu said at the beginning of the letter.

Israeli directors release documentary discrediting NAZA

Three Israeli creators have released a documentary designed to directly counter and discredit NAZA, the controversial, Venice Film Festival award-winning film that alleges systematic Israeli military misconduct in Gaza.

The counter-project, titled NAZA: The Real Story, dropped with English subtitles in an effort to immediately shape the global narrative.

Directed by Roy Danino, Hagai Gutman, and Ariel Orbuch, the documentary positions itself as an explicit rebuttal of the original film’s anonymous whistleblower claims.

The creators of NAZA, The True Story received certificates of appreciation from National Public Diplomacy Directorate head Tzipi Hotovely on Thursday, the Prime Minister's Office announced.

According to the PMO, NAZA, The True Story "features testimonies from soldiers, refutes the blood libels against IDF soldiers and commanders, thereby defending our soldiers and the State of Israel."
To the Belcourt and Every Theater Screening NAZA
The Belcourt theatre has belonged to this city for a century. It hosts the Nashville Jewish Film Festival, and Jewish Nashvillians are among its most loyal members and donors. I write as a neighbor, alarmed by its decision to screen NAZA on Sunday, October 11, followed by a one-sided conversation.

I have seen NAZA in full. I screened it last week at the Hamptons International Film Festival. What concerns me is not simply that the Belcourt has chosen to show this film. It is that the theatre is biasing how Nashville encounters its claims while refusing to provide the evidence, or include the expertise, that an honest conversation requires.

NAZA rests entirely on 24 anonymous Israeli intelligence officers and soldiers, most of them young, filmed in the dark on Tel Aviv rooftops with their faces reduced to outlines. Their names, ranks, units and roles are known only to the filmmakers. No viewer, critic, investigative journalist or independent expert can corroborate a word of it, and the Israel Defense Forces has answered the film in a ten-page rebuttal that calls it “distorted, misleading and disingenuous.”

The film’s central move is to misconstrue the term it takes for its title. “Naza” is Hebrew military shorthand for collateral damage: the estimate of incidental civilian harm that the law of armed conflict requires every professional military, the United States’ included, to make before a strike. That estimate exists to restrain force. NAZA presents it as a license to kill civilians. A film that recasts a legal safeguard as proof of criminal intent, on the word of witnesses no one may question, is not journalism. It is not a documentary. It is propaganda.

It is also historical inversion. The Belcourt’s own listing promotes NAZA with a review that sets it beside Claude Lanzmann’s SHOAH, so that the memory of the Jewish people’s destruction becomes an indictment of the Jewish state. The theatre has scheduled this four days after the third anniversary of October 7. I have seen what this film does to an audience. It is a weapon. It uses emotion to divorce its audience from the realities and devastations of war. The film also reverses victim and offender, a tactic I call political DARVO (examined further in my book). When the film ended, a woman seated behind me walked out of the theater and met me with such disdain that she came close to spitting on me. Screened without balance, NAZA will not open a conversation in Nashville. It will perpetuate a false narrative and escalate divisions that Jewish families here already live with every day.

What troubles me most is the conversation the Belcourt has arranged around the film. The screening on Sunday, October 11, was followed by a discussion with Jacob Sprang, billed as a humanitarian aid worker “who spent the past 18 months in Gaza,” led by Nashville Scene staff writer Eli Motycka. When leaders within our community asked that the discussion include a moderate voice or one with military expertise in the laws of war, the Belcourt refused.

Given his record, Mr. Motycka was not an unbiased choice. On December 8, 2023, two months after October 7, he used his X account to honor Refaat Alareer, the Islamic University of Gaza professor who told the BBC on the day of the massacre that it was “legitimate and moral” and likened it to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Motycka’s coverage of this war in Nashville has centered on the pro-Palestinian protests at Vanderbilt: protests that incited harassment of Jewish students and staff and turned violent at Kirkland Hall, where three students were charged with assault after forcing their way inside. In the coverage I reviewed, I found no reporting on the hostages and none on what this war, and the antisemitism that followed it, has meant for the local Jewish community.


The lone wolf illusion: Alone in action, not in ideology
The foiled hijacking of the flydubai flight gave Israelis a temporary dose of national pride as a potential disaster was miraculously averted by the quick action of civilians.

But beneath that sense of relief lies the sobering message that terrorism is never far away, and that the next threat may not always be easy to recognize.

As if to reassure the public, media outlets have been reporting that the hijacker/co-pilot was a “lone wolf,” as though that revelation would make the public feel safer.

But what does “lone wolf” actually mean?

Presumably, that he was not sent, financed, trained, or given logistical support by a known terrorist organization or state.

And why should that be reassuring? Ostensibly because it means that no recognized terrorist actors were directly involved in this attack, and thus one can naively believe that they are curtailing their activities.

“Lone wolf” might mean that he acted truly independently. For example, he had recently lost his job or been spurned by his girlfriend and decided to commit suicide in a grandiose fashion.

Or perhaps he was psychotic and acted uncontrollably because of his condition.

In such cases, he could indeed be viewed as a lone wolf, with no connection to an established terrorist infrastructure or broader ideology. More importantly, such an attack could reasonably be an isolated incident with no portent of future attacks.

But that is not what “lone wolf” means here. In this case, “lone wolf” indicates that the planning and execution of the attack were carried out without outside assistance.

Yet, it is reported that the attacker, Hamam al-Hammami, attended radical mosques, was influenced by extremist imams, was taught that jihad was his path to salvation, came to believe that Jews and Israel should be eradicated, and ultimately acted on those messages.
REVEALED: Melbourne Islamic centre’s shocking posts exposed amid links to alleged flight hijacker following Labor grants
News24.com.au has uncovered a series of highly inflammatory statements by the Melbourne Islamic centre linked to the pilot accused of attempting a 9/11-style attack on Israel, after the Albanese government gave the organisation more than $68,000 in taxpayer-funded grants.

The MyCentre group was named by the UAE Attorney-General as a place where Hamam al-Hammami, an Omani national accused of attempting to hijack a passenger plane and crash it into an Israeli airport, became acquainted with individuals while studying in Melbourne in 2017.

Posts on the IISNA MyCentre social media page include attacks on Jewish figures and Australian politicians, declarations about Muslims regaining power and calls for Christians and Jews to convert to Islam.

The posts include an image depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a butcher chopping up a baby, captioned: “whoever supports this evil man is evil”.

There was another post declaring: “This is what happens when Muslims were in power. We will get those days back by the will of Allah”.

My Centre also posted an image of One Nation leader Pauline Hanson captioned: “perfect match racist arrogance evil and a big nose”.

In a post featuring Josh Frydenberg's News24 documentary about antisemitism, MyCentre captioned it: “We are fighting terrorist Zionists you idiot”.

The group also posted an image mocking Israel for playing the “award for best actor for playing the victim”, accompanied by the caption: “May Allah the almighty curse the terrorist Zionists and their supporters”.

It also declared that Australian Muslims "need to be involved in the political systems so they can benefit Muslims and non Muslims and clarify what Islam is”, citing Muslim mayors in the United Kingdom and boasting that all schools now served only halal meat.

There was another post calling for “Christians and jews to accept Islam”.

The revelations raise questions about the Albanese government’s decision to provide public funding to the organisation, which has been named in allegations made by UAE authorities investigating the alleged aviation plot.

News24.com.au does not sugges MyCentre was involved in the alleged plot, that Mr al-Hammami was radicalised at the centre.


Israeli forces demolish home of Netanel Shukrun’s killer
The Israel Defense Forces last week demolished the home of the terrorist who murdered Israeli civilian Netanel Shukrun near Neveh Tzuf in the Binyamin region on Sept. 20.

IDF troops, including members of the special operations engineering Yahalom Unit, together with Judea and Samaria Border Police officers from the Binyamin Brigade, carried out the demolition in the area of the Palestinian village of Biddu northwest of Jerusalem on Wednesday, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said.

Israeli forces also demolished monuments that incite terrorism and glorify terrorists throughout Judea and Samaria, the military said.

In addition, IDF, Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet), Judea and Samaria Border Police and the Judea and Samaria District Police forces carried out joint raids on terrorist targets with a special focus on wanted individuals who incite terrorism.

Dozens of these suspects have expressed support for the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in the northwestern Negev, the IDF said.

Palestinians affiliated with Hamas were also apprehended, as well as individuals engaged in transferring funds for terrorist causes.

Overall, Israeli forces combed through more than 600 sites and confiscated military gear and incitement materials, according to the military.

“Security forces will continue to take the initiative and conduct offensive operations to thwart terrorism throughout Judea and Samaria, and will work to bring to justice every terrorist who seeks to harm Israeli civilians and security forces,” the army stated.

Demolishing homes of terrorists is a legal procedure that traces back to the British Mandate’s regulations of 1945. The policy was revived by the Jewish state following the First and Second Intifadas in the late 80s and the early 2000s, respectively, as a counterterrorism deterrence measure.


The Spectator: Britain must ‘come down like a ton of bricks’ on Islamist extremism – Nick Timothy | Quite right!
Michael Gove is joined by shadow justice secretary Nick Timothy, live at Conservative party conference in Birmingham, to discuss prisons, policing and the fight against Islamist extremism.

Nick reflects on swapping life as a Downing Street adviser for the Commons and makes the case that prison works, before turning to the Tories’ plan for 50,000 new prison places. Britain, he argues, must ‘come down like a ton of bricks’ on extremists – but why did 14 years of Conservative government fail to draw that line?

Plus: West Midlands Police’s ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, the Trafalgar Square iftar, and why Nick changed his mind on legalising cannabis.




Abdul El-Sayed’s Family Has ‘Long Been’ in Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, Senate Candidate’s Sister Said in Unearthed Social Media Posts
Abdul El-Sayed said on Meet the Press on Sunday that neither he nor any of his family members have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group that spawned Hamas. But the far-left Senate candidate’s half-sister has suggested otherwise, boasting on social media that her family "has long been" Muslim Brotherhood and that some have been "jailed" over their membership in the group.

Eman Abdelhadi, an assistant professor at the University of Chicago, wrote openly about her family’s ties to the Muslim Brotherhood in social media posts in 2012 and 2013, the Washington Free Beacon found.

"My family has long been MB," Abedlhadi wrote on June 24, 2012, days after Egypt elected Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi as president. "I have had family jailed for being a part of it," she wrote on July 3, 2013. "Praying for all my family that supports the #MB in Egypt. Lie low, stay safe" she said.

Abdelhadi’s Egyptian family is seemingly the same as El-Sayed’s. Their mother, Fatten Elkomy, emigrated from Egypt in the late 1970s and married El-Sayed’s father. After they divorced, Elkomy married Abdelhadi’s father, who was Palestinian.

Those revelations seemingly contradict El-Sayed’s assurances in an interview on Meet the Press that neither he nor his family have connections to the Brotherhood, which was formed in Egypt in 1928 and spawned Hamas in Gaza in the 1980s.

"You don’t have any ties, and your family doesn’t?" asked Kristen Welker.

"No," El-Sayed said twice.

El-Sayed’s familial ties to the Muslim Brotherhood run through his mother, Elkomy, who at one point worked for the Islamic American Relief Agency, which was sanctioned for funding al-Qaeda. The Treasury Department named the group a specially designated terrorist organization in 2004 for providing financial and logistical support to terrorist groups including al-Qaeda and Hamas. Court documents filed by U.S. officials named Elkomy more than a dozen times in connection with the cash transfers.

Elkomy divorced El-Sayed’s father in the mid-1980s, after El-Sayed was born, and gave birth to Abdelhadi—who has a different father—five years later.

Abdelhadi lived with their mother, while El-Sayed lived with his father, an engineering professor at Eastern Michigan University. According to Abdelhadi, their mother adhered strictly to her Arab roots.

"She insisted on never speaking to us in English or responding if we spoke to her in it," Abdelhadi wrote on X.

El-Sayed, who has twice claimed to have "dual citizenship" in Egypt, has faced growing questions about his views on the Muslim Brotherhood, Iran, and other adversaries.

"He's so close to the people who are supporting the Muslim Brotherhood," Republican candidate Mike Rogers said during last week’s Senate debate. El-Sayed’s father-in-law, Tayeb Jukaku, is on the board of the Islamic Society of North America, known as the public face of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States. The group was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the landmark 2007 terror financing trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development.

El-Sayed also expressed support for the Muslim Brotherhood after Morsi’s 2012 election. He signed an open letter that year with other Egyptian-American leaders that called on the Muslim Brotherhood to "purge the media and police."


UK activist group launches ‘Some people are Zionist! Get over it!’ campaign
A group of mainly non-Jewish activists challenging British antisemitism by standing with Israel launched a new campaign next to the Winston Churchill statue in Parliament Square on Saturday, called “Some people are Zionist! Get over it!”

Mark Birbeck, founder and director of Our Fight, told The Jerusalem Post that the group launched the campaign in response to the Green Party conference’s vote on October 4, by 1,022 votes to 813, to pass a motion declaring “Zionism is racism.”

During the Parliament Square launch event on Saturday, activists wore branded T-shirts displaying the campaign slogan and held signs reading “PROUD ZIO,” utilizing a term that originated as a derogatory slur for Zionists. They also carried Israeli and British flags.

Explaining the motivation behind the initiative, Our Fight activist Kurpa Patel stated to GB News, “We’re here to stand as proud Zionists, after the Green Party adopted their motion saying ‘Zionism is racism.’ We’re saying: some people are Zionist. Get over it.”

Birbeck also spoke with GB News, stating, “There are many people who support the right of Israel to exist, and that’s all Zionism is: the right of Jews to have a homeland. In response to the hysteria we’ve been seeing around the country for the last year or two, anti-Israel hysteria, we’re saying get over it. Israel’s not going anywhere.”

Birbeck told the Post that Our Fight plans to repeat the photo opportunity next month. “We’ll be asking people to come and show their support for Israel next to Churchill’s statue again,” Birbeck said.
'I'm not Jewish, I'm a Zionist': Viral trend surges on X as hundreds join in, 'Post' analysis finds
A social media trend in which non-Jewish users publicly declare themselves non-Jewish Zionists has spread rapidly across X, with a Jerusalem Post exclusive analysis identifying more than 600 matching posts from nearly 550 accounts over the course of just over a week.

The posts follow a recognizable formula: "I'm not Jewish. I'm [nationality, religion or identity]. And I am a Zionist."

The Post wrote a code to analyze X and ascertain where the trend started and who is amplifying it. This analysis uncovered 613 posts published between October 4 and October 11, with relatively little activity during the first several days before the trend accelerated sharply on October 9.

The dataset contained just three matching posts from October 4, followed by 13 on October 5, 10 on October 6, 22 on October 7, and 26 on October 8.

That number then jumped to 131 on October 9, roughly five times the number captured the previous day. Another 270 matching posts were published on October 10, followed by 138 captured on October 11 as of the time the data was collected.

In total, 539 of the 613 posts analyzed, or approximately 88%, were published from October 9 onward.

From scattered declarations to a viral formula
Declarations of support for Zionism by non-Jewish users predate the current trend, and the earliest posts located by the Post do not yet display the standardized format that has now become more widespread.

Among posts found on October 4 were broader declarations such as, "I'm not Jewish, but I am a Zionist."

By October 5, however, users had begun inserting their national identity into the declaration. One early example read, "I'm not Jewish. I am Irish, and I am a Zionist."

An October 6 post similarly stated, "I'm English, I'm not Jewish, but I am a Zionist."

By October 7, the three-part structure began appearing more frequently, including variations identifying the poster as American, Canadian or Iranian before declaring support for Zionism.

One example posted by Dutch writer Bart Schut on October 11 read, "I'm not Jewish. I'm a Dutch atheist. And I am a Zionist."

The Post's dataset included posts referencing a wide range of national identities, including Iranian, American, Canadian, German, Finnish, Irish, Italian, New Zealander, English, Polish, Australian, British, Dutch, Czech, Japanese, Portuguese and Nigerian, among others.


Some users went further, combining national and religious identities. References to Christians, Catholics, atheists, Muslims, Hindus and agnostics all appeared in the posts analyzed.
‘Deranged’: Pro-Palestine marches bringing together ‘strangest elements’ in West
Spiked Online Editor Tom Slater says pro-Palestine marches are bringing together some of the strangest elements in Western societies.


Protesters in Toronto: ‘We will honor all our martyrs’ after 3 years of Gaza war
Hundreds of protesters marched through Toronto’s downtown core via Yonge Street Saturday afternoon, chanting in support of Palestinians as they marked three years since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel, and the war in the Gaza Strip that it triggered.

“We will honor all our martyrs, all our children, sons and daughters!” and “In my lifetime I will see Palestinians living free!” the crowd yelled in unison.

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs expressed concern regarding the weekend’s protests.

“Canada’s Integrated Threat Assessment Centre has warned about the consequences of turning a blind eye: when targeting of the Jewish community becomes frequent and normalized, it can push susceptible individuals toward violence. Events praising the ‘resistance’ responsible for the October 7 atrocities as communities gather to mourn the murdered demands moral clarity from civic leaders about what is acceptable in our society.”

Separated by metal barricades and police officers, a much smaller group of counterprotesters waving Israeli and Iranian flags stood at the southern end of Sankofa Square, where the demonstrators gathered before the march to mark the third anniversary of the war in Gaza.

The Hamas-led invaders killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 as hostages to Gaza. Pro-Israel demonstrators display support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Toronto, October 10, 2026. (Emma Paidra/JTA)

Trailing behind a white Ford F-150 equipped with speakers, protesters at one point shouted, “Overthrow the Epstein class,” a slogan referring to disgraced Jewish financier Jeffrey Epstein to decry the global elite and call for the ultra-wealthy to be stripped of power. Tensions briefly flared when a man wearing a Turning Point Canada sweatshirt confronted a group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

Otherwise, the protest was largely peaceful. Toronto police said that one individual was arrested at the demonstration after being recognized by officers as someone wanted in connection with an unrelated incident.

The protest was part of a broader international wave of demonstrations, with the Israeli Ministry for Diaspora Affairs counting 17 protests in Canada planned for Saturday through Wednesday, including in Montreal and Ottawa.


A Wikipedia editor helped keep the site pro-Palestinian. Wikimedia must investigate
For years, critics and researchers, including myself, have warned that Wikipedia’s coverage of Israel and the Palestinians is shaped by organized political activity.

On October 5, an editor on English Wikipedia gave that warning extraordinary new force. During a discussion about JDiala’s appeal against an editing ban in the Israel-Palestine topic area, the user wrote: “I can honestly say that a good 10-15% of the active accounts since 7 October 2023 have either been my own sockpuppets or other users I have personally and intimately coordinated extensively externally (on sources like Discord) with to ensure the project has a pro-Palestine bias.”

This admission describes using multiple accounts and off-site coordination to shape the political balance of an encyclopedia with a global readership. It echoes the warning I presented at the United Nations in 2024: anti-Israel bias on Wikipedia poses a strategic threat.

The danger of anti-Israel bias on Wikipedia
The stakes reach far beyond the platform. Wikipedia influences public understanding of Jewish history and Israel, and its content circulates through search engines and artificial intelligence systems. A distorted account can spread from an edited page into the information people encounter every day, fueling antisemitism and hate speech in the short term. Over time, it can undermine recognition of Israel’s right to exist and distort Western society’s understanding of history.

The circumstances surrounding this admission are telling. JDiala’s account dates to 2013. The user had been barred from editing in the Arab-Israeli conflict topic area since June 2024. On October 4, JDiala asked the community to lift the restriction, writing about having learned to work with editors who held disagreeing views.

Editors responding to the appeal cited a record that included repeated additions of Jewish identity to biographical articles, which they said gave Jewishness prominence beyond its relevance to the subjects. They pointed to edits concerning journalist Ashley Rindsberg and contrasted them with JDiala’s view, in a discussion about Jesus, that Jesus’s Jewish identity should occupy a less prominent place in the article’s opening.

Editors also raised older remarks in which JDiala described claims about antisemitism as “Jewish supremacism” and referred to a “Jewish victimhood complex.” One cited the user’s claim that Leo Frank was guilty. Others pointed to JDiala’s defense of Subhas Chandra Bose, who collaborated with Nazi Germany; JDiala presented that alliance as a tactical step in the struggle against British rule.

The discussion exposed the practical consequences of Wikipedia’s reliance on good faith and open editing. JDiala wrote that the “Jews are committing an ongoing genocide,” assigning collective responsibility to Jews for Israel’s actions. The user then told the community about plans to create a new account that could not be identified, adding that this had been done several times before.

Ten minutes later, JDiala described sockpuppets and extensive coordination with other users as part of an effort to keep Wikipedia pro-Palestinian. The community imposed a site ban early on October 6.
Canada’s recognition of Palestinian state under fire after PA delays election
In light of the Palestinian Authority’s postponement of elections to 2027, Israel’s Ambassador to Canada Iddo Moed criticized on Saturday night Ottawa for recognizing a Palestinian state a year ago.

The recognition came in exchange for P.A. chief Mahmoud Abbas’s “commitments—a list of 30-years long broken promises,” the envoy tweeted.

Once again postponing elections is just one more undelivered reform by the P.A., such as ending its “pay-for-slay” program, which provides stipends to Palestinians imprisoned in Israel for terror attacks, and to the families of slain terrorists, Moed said.

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) called on the government of Prime Minister Mark Carney to hold the P.A. accountable, pointing out the double standard of taking punitive measures against Israel while absolving Ramallah of accountability.

The nonprofit representing Jewish Federations across Canada labeled the Canadian policy “dangerous,” adding that criticizing Israel in Canada “has been exploited to fuel antisemitism, violence and even acts of terror.”

CIJA demanded to know what Ottawa’s approach is achieving.

“Canadians need to know what concrete steps their government will now take to hold the P.A. accountable and ensure its policies produce meaningful progress toward peace,” the organization said.

Abbas on Saturday issued a decree calling for presidential and legislative elections on Sept. 11, 2027, while revoking his previous decree that had scheduled a legislative election for Nov. 28, 2026, the official WAFA news agency reported.

The move “comes amid continued Israeli military attacks, settlement expansion, colonist violence and repeated Israeli incursions across the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem,” the report said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Saturday night described Abbas as a “corrupt dictator” who has “once again deceived the international community.

“His attempt to drag Israel into this, falsely claiming that Israel imposed obstacles to holding elections, is yet another ridiculous lie designed to evade responsibility and accountability,” he added.


Colombia to open embassy in Jerusalem on Wednesday
Colombia will inaugurate an embassy in Jerusalem on Wednesday, making it the 10th country to establish a diplomatic mission in Israel’s capital.

The move is part of a major foreign policy reversal by Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella, who took office two months ago and moved to restore bilateral ties with Israel after the previous administration severed them.

It also comes amid a right-wing wave in Latin America that is driving a diplomatic shift toward better relations with the United States and Israel.

Colombian Foreign Minister Omar Bula will travel to Israel for the ceremony.

Israel and Colombia restored diplomatic and economic relations in August following the inauguration of the new Colombian government, reversing a two-year freeze initiated by former President Gustavo Petro over the war against Hamas in Gaza.

The South American nation also became the second country after the United States to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

Nine countries currently have embassies in Israel’s capital: the United States, Fiji, Guatemala, Honduras, Kosovo, Naoero (Nauru), Papua New Guinea, Paraguay and Somaliland.

All the other nations that have diplomatic relations with Israel maintain their embassies in Tel Aviv or its suburbs.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to move the American embassy to Jerusalem during his first term set the stage for other countries to follow suit.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is expected to be the next country to move its embassy to Jerusalem.

Argentine President Javier Milei and Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, the front-runner in the Brazilian presidential race, have both pledged to move their countries’ embassies to Israel’s capital.
Boy George: ‘I was horrified by people who said October 7 never happened’
At a time when much of the international entertainment industry has kept Israel at a safe distance since October 7, Boy George stands out. The British pop icon has never been particularly interested in following the crowd, especially when that crowd grows loud and insistent. Four decades after becoming one of the most recognizable faces in music, he is once again refusing to conform. George has spoken publicly in support of Israel and the Jewish people, clashed with figures in the music industry, lost friendships, parted ways with his record label manager and faced criticism over a song commemorating the victims of the Nova music festival massacre. He has also seen a London theater role disappear and become embroiled in a dispute with the American music platform Bandcamp. This is not a young singer navigating his first controversy. In the 1980s, Boy George was a cultural phenomenon whose clothes, makeup and public appearances could dominate conversations around the world long before social media existed.

When social media filled with denial, distortion and misinformation surrounding the October 7 massacre, George did more than publish a message of solidarity. He wrote "We Will Dance Again," a tribute to those murdered at the Nova festival. When Israeli producers Guy Besser and Shai Mor Yosef of Live Nation Israel invited him to perform in the country, he did not hesitate. His first concert, scheduled for November 4 at Menora Mivtachim Arena in Tel Aviv, sold out. Organizers subsequently announced a second performance on November 7, titled "We Will Dance Again," dedicated to the victims of the Nova massacre. The event is also intended to support future awareness initiatives and organizations assisting survivors and preserving the victims' memory.

For George, the connection to Nova is deeply personal. "When I walked into the Nova exhibition in London, it was a real shock," he says. "This is my world. The tents, the shoes, the phones. I've been DJing at raves like that for many years, so I felt an enormous connection to that space." DJing is no secondary occupation for George. He has spent years performing at clubs and raves, immersed in a culture where people come together to dance until sunrise. At the Nova exhibition, he encountered the familiar objects of that world, transformed into evidence of a massacre.

"I spoke to survivors, met the parents of Jake Marlowe, who was murdered, and met May Hayat, who survived. I told her, 'I want to write a song.' I went home and started writing. When I finished and listened to it, I felt tears welling up. If something you've written can affect you that way, you know it can affect other people too." Not everyone responded positively. "Obviously, there were people who hated it. But many of my Jewish friends told me I had said something they couldn't say themselves. Sometimes, when you're a little outside something, you see it from a different angle."

George remembers waking up on October 7, 2023, to the images emerging from Israel. "The experience was very traumatic for me. Afterward, I was horrified by the reaction of people saying it hadn't happened. Visiting the Nova exhibition reinforced everything I was feeling. I walked along the wall and looked at all the people who had been murdered. All those beautiful people, so much joy on their faces." He pauses before considering what his upcoming visit might feel like. "I don't know how I'm going to feel when I arrive in Israel. I think it's going to be a very powerful experience."


2,000-year-old Hasmonean aqueduct section uncovered in Jerusalem
A 300-meter section of Jerusalem’s 2,000-year-old Lower Aqueduct has been uncovered near Kibbutz Ramat Rachel, offering new evidence of how ancient engineers supplied water to the city and how later generations maintained and adapted the system over centuries.

The Israel Antiquities Authority announced the discovery ahead of construction of a new neighborhood in southern Jerusalem. The excavations were funded by the Israel Land Authority. The aqueduct carried water from Solomon’s Pools, south of Bethlehem, to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.

“The Lower Aqueduct was an impressive engineering project, probably built in the time of the Hasmonean kings to supply water to Jerusalem,” said excavation directors Benyamin Storchan and Gil Freid.

The Hasmoneans ruled Judea from the second century BCE into the first century BCE, when Jerusalem was a major political and religious center. Supplying the growing city with reliable water required careful planning and considerable engineering skill.

The aqueduct stretched approximately 21 kilometers from Solomon’s Pools to Jerusalem. It relied entirely on gravity, with engineers maintaining a gradual descent across the hilly terrain. The channel dropped just one meter in elevation per kilometer, allowing water to flow without pumps or other mechanical equipment.

The system also included access points that enabled workers to clear blockages and maintain the flow of water.

“The system was so well planned that it remained in intermittent use until about 100 years ago,” Storchan and Freid said.

The newly uncovered section also shows how the aqueduct was modified over time. Originally, water flowed through a built channel lined with plaster. During the Ottoman period, approximately 500 years ago, ceramic pipes were installed inside the original channel. Workers also plastered the aqueduct’s exterior and pressed small stones into the wet surface, creating a distinctive finish.

The modifications provide evidence of continued investment in the water system across successive periods of Jerusalem’s history, as people adapted the infrastructure to changing needs and technologies.

Amit Re’em, the IAA’s Jerusalem District Archaeologist, described the aqueduct as “an engineering marvel.”

“Even today, with all our modern technology, building such a system would require extensive planning and effort,” Re’em said. “The thought that about 2,000 years ago they managed to bring water to Jerusalem this way is astonishing.”

Planners intend to incorporate the aqueduct into the main entrance of the new neighborhood and make the remains accessible to the public.








 




AddToAny

Printfriendly

EoZTV Podcast

Podcast URL

Subscribe in podnovaSubscribe with FeedlyAdd to netvibes
addtomyyahoo4Subscribe with SubToMe

search eoz

comments

Speaking

Speaking

translate

E-Book

For $18 donation








Sample Text

EoZ's Most Popular Posts in recent years

Search2

Hasbys!

Hasbys!

2019 Nobel Peace Prize nominee

Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون



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

Donate!

Donate to fight for Israel!

Monthly subscription:
Payment options


One time donation:

Follow EoZ on Twitter!

Interesting Blogs

Show All

Blog Archive

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