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Saturday, October 17, 2026

10/17 Links: The problem with Israel’s hasbara is what it refuses to say; Shai Davidai exposes universities’ deep-rooted antisemitism; Netanyahu warns of 'campaign to smear Israel' after European diplomats attacked in WB

From Ian:

'Now is not a time to tremble': Casey Babb's Moral Case for Zionism
Babb's new book argues Zionism is not the colonialist or racist caricature commonly presented by its critics, but a Jewish national-liberation movement
No part of this book is me pontificating about Zionism or how to live a Jewish life or a Zionist life. In fact, as I mention in the book, the recommendations I make in the book are for me, too.

That said, one of the ideas I raise is to remember that the Jewish people and our allies have never been stronger, never in history, and that now is not a time to tremble. There’s a distinction between fear that sharpens your attention, which I think is what we need now, and fear that paralyzes action, and the second kind is the enemy of Jewish life in virtually every era.

There’s no need for us to retreat inwards. We need to really remember who we are, embrace our story, and all that comes with it, and muster up a new level of chutzpah and courage, because that’s what it’s going to take to get through this. We cannot allow ourselves to fall victim to the gaslighting and the moral inversion that has characterized not just Jewish life, but most of our society the last number of years.

People need to know who they are, know the story that they’re part of, and know that they aren’t alone. Another thing, is to do Zionist things. Help people in your community. Start living a more Zionist life. There’s a temptation to orient ideas and day-to-day living around opposition and defensiveness. I understand that, but we can’t allow that to shape who we become. That’s no way to live. We have to say yes to things like Shabbat. We have to say yes to the Hebrew language. We have to say yes to Israeli culture, have the full fullest expression of what living a Zionist life actually means – a genuine abundance of meaning, of connection, of beauty, of purpose, of pride, and of exhilaration.

How is your book different from Alan Dershowitz’s “The Case for Israel”?

OK, so that was published 25 years ago and much has changed since then. Too much. Dershowitz’s is principally a prosecutorial defence of Israel against historical, legal, and political accusations. It is legalistic and forensic.

I make a more affirmative moral, historical, and civilizational argument for Zionism itself. I speak of dignity, belonging, return, liberation, tikkun olam, democratic pluralism, Jewish historical continuity. He speaks of legal context, double standards, anti-Israel demonization. I’m not refuting charges against Israel; I’m building a case for Zionism as a morally serious, positive ideal – one of the most morally inspiring stories and ideas in all of history.

I think there’s a lot to be said about keeping Zionism alive and modernizing it and renewing it. If Dershowitz’s book asks, “Why is Israel not what its detractors say it is?” mine asks, “What valuable moral ideas are its detractors failing to see?”
'American Intellectual Antisemitism': Shai Davidai exposes universities’ deep-rooted antisemitism
In 1919, my grandmother applied for admission to Barnard College of Columbia University. The notoriously antisemitic dean at the time, Virginia Gildersleeve, told her she would not be notified of her acceptance until after the start of freshman year, in an attempt to encourage her to choose a different school. My grandmother stood her ground and entered the graduating class of ’23 only a few days late.

In ousted Columbia Prof. Shai Davidai’s exposé, American Intellectual Antisemitism, I learned that Gildersleeve, who supported Nazi Germany’s expulsion of Jews from academia, was taking her cue from the higher-ups at Columbia.

“After Jewish enrollment reached 40% of the incoming class of 1919… the university implemented a series of exclusionary policies explicitly designed to curb the presence of Jews on campus,” he writes.

Jew-hatred is nothing new in the Ivy League. It just takes on new forms.

“American Intellectual Antisemitism” is the term Davidai coined for what he defines as “a modern and insidious form of Jew-hatred that cloaks itself in progressive jargon and academic rhetoric,” using the “language of social justice” to disguise bigotry as intellectual virtue, and constitutes “a direct assault on Western liberal values.”

Davidai became known throughout the world after he posted a long letter on social media on October 18, 2023, in reaction to vile and violent post-October 7 events – and top-tier American university leaders’ shocking support, or at least lack of condemnation, of those pro-terror, anti-Jewish incidents.

'We cannot protect your child[ren]'

“I want this message to get to every parent who sent their kids to Columbia University, entrusted their kids and their children’s safety with us. I want this message to get to every parent in America who sent their kids to New York University, to Harvard, to Stanford, to Berkeley, and I want you to know one thing: We cannot protect your child[ren],” he wrote, calling Columbia University President Minouche Shafik “a coward.”

Over the following year, he organized rallies, appeared on prime-time television, and testified before Congress.

Davidai paid dearly for his ongoing peaceful activism on behalf of beleaguered Jewish students, organized with “a small but dedicated group of Jewish students, postdocs, faculty, staff, and alumni.” He and his family received death threats, and he was barred from teaching his award-winning business course. He was derided by detractors as a “genocidal maniac,” “a hate-mongering charlatan,” and an “extremely dangerous” professor.

A year after the Hamas-led massacres in Israel, when Davidai’s video of the unchecked disruption of a campus memorial service for October 7 victims garnered over a million views in a few hours, Columbia’s administration suspended him – not the perpetrators – from campus.

“The decision’s timing told me everything I needed to know about Columbia’s priorities,” he writes.

Blending a firsthand account with broader analysis, his book exposes the radical politics, ideological indoctrination, institutional indifference, leadership failures, and moral unraveling of American academia.

The timing of the book’s release coincides with the beginning of another school year. “Across the nation, more than 1.5 million new students are stepping into lecture halls for the first time, joining student organizations, and attending campus events where the dogmas of American Intellectual Antisemitism are paraded as moral virtue,” he writes.
Mother referred to Prevent for ‘over-identifying with Israel’
When Holly Passmore heard a knock at her front door at about 11am on July 4 last year, she assumed it was an Amazon delivery.

Instead, the 44-year-old mother-of-two from County Durham found two plain-clothes police officers on her doorstep wanting to know why she had recently visited Israel.

“They said it was a safeguarding matter,” recalled Ms Passmore, who cares for her nine-year-old son, Rex, who has severe autism, while studying for a master’s degree.

She assumed they were concerned she had taken her son into a war zone.

“I said, ‘Well, my son didn’t go to Israel. He stayed here with my mum and my daughter, who’s 20’,” she recalled. But the female officer replied: “No this is about you – because you may be at risk of manipulation.”

The officers from Durham Constabulary were investigating an anonymous referral to Prevent, the Government’s counter-extremism programme.

Ms Passmore suspected her support for Israel had prompted the referral. It was only months later, when she obtained police records through a subject access request, that her suspicions were confirmed.

A police intelligence report seen by The Telegraph reveals that the referral said she “over-identified with the conflict between Israel and Palestine” and was “supportive of Israel to the point that she has travelled to Israel”.

It also described her as having “MH” – meaning mental health – issues and being “vulnerable to negative influence”.

“Nobody would describe me as vulnerable,” said Ms Passmore, who combines caring for her son Rex with studying for a master’s degree in Holocaust studies at the University of Haifa.

Ms Passmore said that, while she has health concerns, including severe endometriosis and adenomyosis, and has been diagnosed with ADHD and autism, she has no mental health issues.

“I think they knew I’m not vulnerable but they wanted to monitor me because I was advocating for Israel,” she told The Telegraph.

“When they came to the door they didn’t discuss my health. They only asked about Israel.”

The police intelligence report Ms Passmore obtained under data protection laws acknowledged that there “is no CT [counter-terror] concern with an individual being supportive of Israel as a democracy and it would not be a CT concern for a person to travel there”.


Gil Hoffman on Israel's failure on the media front
Three years after Hamas’s October 7 attack, Israel is still fighting a war it was never prepared for, one in which the weapons are not missiles or tanks but headlines, social media posts, and the narratives that shape how the world sees the Jewish state.

For Gil Hoffman, a veteran political analyst who has spent much of his career examining how Israel is portrayed abroad, this battle is not simply a public relations issue, but a strategic threat that the country’s leadership has repeatedly failed to recognize.

Hoffman covered politics for The Jerusalem Post for nearly a quarter century, before taking over as executive director and executive editor of HonestReporting to “lead the fight for Israel on the media battlefield.”

He spoke with the Post this week in the wake of the publication of his new book, The Blood Libel Machine, which argues that the spread of anti-Israel narratives and the surge in global antisemitism were not simply spontaneous responses to the war, but the result of a premeditated information campaign that had been in the works for decades.

On October 7, 2023, that media battlefield took on a new urgency. As Hamas terrorists crossed into southern Israel, the images and accounts of the massacre spread quickly around the world.

Israel failed on a major front: The media landscape
Hoffman saw that Israel had been caught off guard in two distinct but interconnected arenas. In his book, he describes October 7 as not only a military and intelligence failure, but also a failure on the media front.

Three years on, he said, Israel still fundamentally misunderstands how to communicate with the world.

Israel’s failure to prepare for the media battlefield

“Hamas planned this war in order to impact public opinion around the world,” he said. “Their goal was not Nova, which they did not know about; it was New York, and Israel played into their hands. They wanted Israel to respond with what they could call disproportionate force, no matter what it would be, and return the Palestinian issue to the international agenda.”

Israel not having a plan on this front, just like it didn’t have a plan on the military front, has harmed the Jewish state “tremendously,” Hoffman added.

“Every day since October 7 has become easier on the military battlefield. Every day since October 7 has gotten progressively harder on the media one.”

The contrast is central to his book. Israel has devoted enormous resources to its military prowess, but Hoffman argues that successive governments have treated public diplomacy as a secondary concern, despite its potential influence on both domestic security and the security of Jewish communities abroad.

According to Hoffman, the problem begins at the highest levels of government.

“They did not realize they need to be taking into account how the decision they’re about to make in Gaza, in Iran, against Hezbollah, how these decisions are going to impact the Jews in Golders Green and in New York. They did not take it into account whatsoever.”

Another strategic failure Hoffman identified is Israel’s tendency to remain on the defensive rather than challenge the credibility and motivations of those shaping the international narrative.

Much of Israel’s media strategy, if there is one, has focused on rebutting misinformation, disputing facts and figures, and pointing out flaws in logic.

Hoffman said Israel needs to be much more on the offensive.

In his book, he lays out four necessary strategies he believes must work together: offensive and defensive messaging, both within the context of the conflict and beyond it.
The problem with Israel’s hasbara is what it refuses to say
David Ben-Gurion’s famous adage about the Messianic era when the lion will lie down with the lamb (as per Isaiah) is appropriate. “That will be great,” said Ben-Gurion, “as long as Israel is the lion!”

Supporters of Israel cannot be shy about Israeli military prowess. They must articulate the reasons why Israel must be the “lion” and use crushing force to destroy enemies and defend its homeland.

In my mind, this is a vital turnabout in Israeli public diplomacy and global pro-Israel activism. No apologetics or apprehension about Israeli power will improve Israel’s standing.

On the contrary, one can convey a deep sense of sincerity by clarifying Israeli red lines and owning up to Israel’s unavoidably hard-hitting defense posture.

People are forced to respect that, even if they do not contribute to Israel’s spectacular charity.

THE THIRD and hardest theme necessary in Israeli policy and public diplomacy is reintroducing realism and truth-telling into the global dynamic.

This means more than basic restatement of the Jewish people’s profound historic and national rights in Jerusalem and in the misnamed “occupied territories.”

It means more than clearly and constantly articulated outrage about genocidal anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish sentiment; and more than unabashed enunciation of Israel’s determination to decisively beat all enemies.

It means more than stopping to appeal for global sympathy because we were massacred by Hamas, and more than combating modern blood libels like the genocide and war crime charges with aggressive counter-facts and lawsuits.

It means explaining why the two-state concept is suspended and why the Palestinians do not deserve nor can be trusted with their own state – if they ever did or could.

It means demanding that the world dial back from the now evidently dangerous, impossible-to-implement, “everybody-knows-what-must-be” paradigm that imagined two democratic states living side by side peacefully after maximal Israeli withdrawals.

Israel will not yield to a stale formula based on wild Palestinian demands alongside minimal regard for Israeli security needs and national-historic claims; a discredited formula involving the uprooting of settlements, withdrawals from most of Judea and Samaria, and a division of Jerusalem.

Iranian-backed jihadism and Hamas-inspired rejectionism have thoroughly infected the Palestinian national movement and made such proposals passé.

There are no “demilitarization parameters,” “governance reforms,” and “deradicalization programs” (really, denazification curriculums) that are remotely realistic regarding Palestinians in this generation.

Perhaps under long-term Israeli sovereignty and military control, and only then, might Palestinians be freed from the venomous doctrines and ruinous theologies that have overtaken their society and politics.

Then they might find solace and solutions in cooperation with Israel.

Of course, it is politically incorrect to say these things bluntly. But it is the rock-bottom mandatory basis for authentic Israeli policy and public diplomacy with any chance of succeeding.

Israel cannot deflect boycotts and scuttle sanctions by fudging its defense policy and pussyfooting around with its diplomatic messaging.

Nothing less frank will reflect reality; nothing less audacious will ring true; nothing less bold will hold.
Jake Wallis Simons: If Netanyahu is defeated this month, the Israel-haters won’t let up one bit
Moreover, as Israel uses a proportional representation system, and many centrists refuse to join Netanyahu, he has drawn his majority from the extremes; his coalition partners include ultra-Orthodox parties who insist on exemption from conscription and a handful of extremist firebrands, principally Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.

In Israeli politics, the main questions are settled. After October 7, and given the persistent support for terrorism even within the more moderate Palestinian Authority – which persists, for example, in paying cash incentives to convicted terrorists, funded by public money propped up by international aid donations – nobody serious believes that a Palestinian state is viable for generations.

Similarly, nobody serious is about to argue that Israel should put a dampener on its military campaign against the Iranian-backed terrorists that menace its very existence, whether from Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria or Yemen. With their children traumatised by constant dashes to bomb shelters, they don’t have the luxury of Ed Miliband-style finger-wagging, however many blue-haired students and Islamists march in London, Paris or Berlin.

Which returns me to my theory. What difference would it make to the outside world if Netanyahu’s career came crashing to a close on October 27? The two-state solution would remain elusive, despite the impotent zealot of King Charles Street; military action would, sadly enough, have to continue. Sure, the country may be less shackled to theocratic fanatics who seek to drag it into dark places. But nobody in the West cares about that, which is to say, they don’t care about the wellbeing of Israel at all.

No, what they care about is expressing the oldest hatred in acceptable language. From the Spanish Inquisition to the Holocaust, anti-Semitism has always posed as a species of social justice, with bigotry packaged as concern to curb the malign Jewish influence on the world.

People claim to hate Zionism, not Jews. The more sophisticated claim to hate Netanyahu and his “far-Right government”, not Israel. But the truth could not be clearer: the Jewish state is loathed not for what it does, but for what it is. That will remain the case whomever wins this election, which is why nobody cares about it.
Democrats say Netanyahu is the problem - but their opposition to Israel runs deeper
A large and growing part of the Democratic base has left that settlement. For many activists, the objection is Israel; it is Zionism; it is the idea that a Jewish state should exist in any form. Encampments after October 7, 2023, made the demand public. Chants rejected a Jewish state “between the river and the sea.” Organizations that began with a cabinet ended with a country. The prime minister’s name remained useful. The country has become the target.

Surveys have tracked the same movement for years among younger Democrats, whose sympathy for Israel has fallen well below the levels their parents reported. Party leaders know the numbers. They also know that saying them aloud costs a coalition that still includes pro-Israel voters, Jewish communities, and members of Congress who will not abandon the alliance. Silence about the shift, paired with volume about Netanyahu, has been the working compromise.

So the Netanyahu frame continues and postpones the admission. Support that remains intact only until the loudest faction demands something more extreme is support on a timer. The faction has grown more maximalist with each cycle.

Conditional language about occupation gave way to language about an illegitimate state. Calls for a ceasefire gave way, in some quarters, to calls for the end of the state conducting the war. Each step was described as a response to the current government. Each step survived the news cycle and hardened into doctrine.

The choice will come. A party either grounds its support for Israel in principle, in the legitimacy of Jewish self-determination and in the reality of a democratic ally under attack, or it ties that support to the mood of a wing that has turned uncompromising. There is no stable third position in which leaders condemn a prime minister forever and never answer the people who condemn the country. Coalitions can delay a reckoning; they cannot cancel one.

Netanyahu will not be prime minister forever. Israeli politics has removed him before and can remove him again.

His departure will not retire the argument; it will end the postponement. A successor will still lead a Jewish state. That state will still control territory won in wars it did not start, still face groups sworn to its destruction, and still elect governments that American activists dislike. The adjectives will transfer. They already moved from earlier prime ministers to this one, with barely a pause for the difference between their records.

On that day, Democrats will have to answer a plain question. Were they drawing a line around one man, or were they moving, quietly and for years, toward a break with the alliance itself?

The voters who treated Netanyahu as a convenient objection will still be in the coalition. The voters who want the alliance intact will still be there, too. Neither group will accept the old double message once the named obstacle is gone. A new prime minister cannot do the work a party declined to do with its own base.

The Jewish state will remain after this prime minister, as it remained after the ones before him. American leaders who spent the Netanyahu years treating him as the whole issue will then have to say what they actually support.

The delay is the policy. The day Netanyahu leaves office, the policy expires. What remains is the argument they have been postponing, and it will be harder to hide.
Arab states see hawks ruling Israel no matter who wins vote, but still sense room for change
Much is at stake for Israel in the upcoming elections. Three years of war on seven fronts have sharpened concern among the country’s 10 million citizens over how the next government will shape foreign and domestic policies.

But Israelis are not the only ones closely monitoring the outcome of the first election since the Hamas-led invasion and massacre on October 7, 2023.

Across the Gulf and among Israel’s immediate neighbors, Arab capitals are assessing whether the 26th Knesset could usher in a new chapter in Israeli leadership and policy or keep in place those currently in power, and what either outcome will mean for Israel and the wider region.

But while many Arab states may find new Israeli leadership — less associated with the post-October 7 military campaigns — easier to work with, few expect any plausible successor government to fundamentally redirect Israel’s foreign policy, according to experts and current and former officials familiar with regional thinking.

Regional leaders expect the right-wing to center-left camps best positioned to unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to remain hawkish on Iran, opposed to Palestinian statehood, and committed to the far more aggressive security posture Israel has adopted since October 7.

Where Arab capitals do see room for change is in policies seen as less central to that security doctrine — including Gaza’s rehabilitation, Jewish violence in the West Bank, Syria’s stability, Temple Mount activity, and greater sensitivity to regional concerns.

Even limited adjustments on these issues could significantly change how Israel is viewed in the Arab world, should the next government decide they are worth prioritizing.

“The consequences of these elections for the region extend to as many fronts as Israel is involved in,” an Arab diplomatic official told The Times of Israel.
Western leaders back a two-state solution, but do Palestinians even want one?
What is missed by those leaders, who are clearly attempting to inflate their own goodness, is the vast reservoir of hatred and contempt, welling up inside of the individuals who have been part of a centuries-long experiment of indoctrination, from cradle to grave.

The toxic and lethal education they received, both at home, in school, and at their mosques, did the trick, painting Jews as demons who must be eradicated at all costs. Losing one’s life for the sake of diminishing their numbers is the greatest sacrifice that can be made.

Consequently, it’s no wonder that such a society, dedicated to the end of another one, cannot build anything productive or contribute to others through its own achievements and accomplishments.

Because when you are obsessed with destruction, the thought of rising to greatness is completely counterproductive and immaterial to the goal of finally doing away with an avowed enemy. It’s the reason that their youth will never live to inherit the realization of their dream, if that were possible.

Everything is secondary to eliminating the evil in their backyard, and that is the tragedy completely missed by world leaders who have spent decades trying to fit a round peg into a square hole.

So, if you think about it, the thing that is standing in the way of “peace in our time between Jews and Arabs” is the personal need of those in power to appear virtuous, magnanimous, and the ones who possess the highest moral standards.

By forcing the rest of us to cling to a losing prospect, precious time is wasted, young lives are snuffed out, and nothing moves forward. It is the ultimate prolonging of conflict, almost deliberately designed to remain the world’s thorn in the side, as useless and feigned efforts are expended to resolve the mother of all unescapable quagmires.

Don’t even bother asking the question of why they can’t see this for what it is, because they clearly are deeply invested in playing the game of who can appear the most civilized and principled exemplary figures, each vying for that top honor.

Yet, they are outed by the continuing conflict, which will only result in more bloodshed. And, sadly, there’s absolutely no honor in that!
European diplomats attacked amid settler raids on West Bank olive harvest
European diplomats were among those attacked by Israeli settlers in the West Bank on Saturday, as extremists carried out raids on Palestinian towns and opened fire at olive harvesters across the territory.

According to Palestinian media, three Palestinians were wounded in separate attacks throughout the day in the West Bank. Additionally, some 20 Palestinian-owned sheep reportedly were stabbed to death by settlers during a raid on a farm.

The incidents came amid heightened tensions across the West Bank during the annual olive harvest, a period that has frequently seen an increase in the already near-daily occurrence of extremist settler attacks on Palestinians.

In one incident Saturday, vehicles belonging to diplomats from France, Belgium, and Poland were attacked by Jewish Israelis in the village of Taybeh during a diplomatic visit to the olive harvest in the area.

According to video footage, one of the diplomatic vehicles was pelted with stones, and its window was smashed.

It was unclear from the footage if the individual was injured.

Army Radio reported that, according to testimonies, seven masked settlers arrived at the area on ATVs, surrounded the diplomatic vehicle, demanded identification documents, and smashed the window of a vehicle belonging to the Belgian consulate.

The Israel Defense Forces later condemned the “severe” attack.

“The IDF strongly condemns the severe act of violence that took place in the area of Taybeh, during which diplomatic representatives were attacked by Israeli rioters,” the military said.

“The consulate’s visit was not coordinated with the IDF,” the military added, while saying that “such coordination is important to prevent incidents of this kind.” Israeli forces fire tear gas at Palestinian farmers, preventing them from continuing the olive harvest as they attempt to cross an iron gate erected by the Israeli army in the village of Salem, east of Nablus in the West Bank, October 17, 2026. (Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90)

The army said police officers were entering the area with IDF escort to collect evidence and take testimonies for an investigation, which the Israel Police earlier announced after being sent video of the attack.

“Upon receiving the footage, police opened an investigation, and the Foreign Ministry was also notified to locate the victims, collect testimony, and identify the suspects so they can be brought to justice,” police said.

The police added that they “condemn violence of any kind and will pursue these investigations to ensure that all those involved in these incidents are brought to justice.”

A preliminary IDF probe found no troops were present at the scene at the time of the attack.
Netanyahu warns of 'campaign to smear Israel' after European diplomats attacked in West Bank
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the incident in the West Bank, where a group of European diplomats claimed to have been attacked by Jewish settler extremists on Saturday, saying that "serious accusations require serious evidence."

"We urge caution before drawing conclusions from today's reports that European diplomats were attacked by masked Israelis in Judea and Samaria. Any violence against diplomats is unacceptable. The more serious the accusation, the greater the demand for compelling evidence," the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement.

The statement by Netanyahu also claimed that the reports come amid a "coordinated campaign to smear Israel and the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria during the annual olive harvest, relying on sensational headlines before the full facts emerge."

"We may see further allegations in the coming days. By the time the evidence is fully examined, the reputational damage from premature conclusions may already be done," the statement continued, adding that the PMO has "called on the public and responsible journalists to demand verifiable evidence, reject hearsay, and refuse to turn unproven allegations into a collective indictment of the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria."

Eisenkot calls incident part of 'Jewish terrorism'
Former IDF chief of staff and head of the Yashar party Gadi Eisenkot said on Saturday that the settler extremists who attacked a group of diplomats are "Jewish terrorists" and blamed the government for the violence wave in the West Bank.

"What is happening in the West Bank is Jewish terror under the auspices of the government," Eisenkot said in an X/Twitter post. "Once again, within a single day, groups of violent lawbreakers attack foreign citizens -- and this time, diplomats and official officeholders."

"A handful of criminals is burning up the last shreds of legitimacy left to the State of Israel, endangering security forces, and harming the settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria and national security," Eisenkot added. "No one in the leadership will be able to claim that they weren't woken up in time and that they weren't warned."

Ofer Winter, head of the People of Israel party, also condemned the attack. "The violence displayed by a handful of extremists in Judea and Samaria against diplomats is grave and deserves total condemnation. This violent fringe does not represent the residents of the West Bank," he said.

"Everyone who supports the settlement movement must condemn this violent fringe and take firm action against it," he added.
Amid outrage, Netanyahu claims no ‘compelling evidence’ settlers attacked European diplomats
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed on Saturday night there was a lack of “compelling evidence” surrounding a violent settler attack on European diplomats in the West Bank earlier in the day, appearing to suggest the incident was part of a “coordinated smear campaign.”

Vehicles belonging to diplomats from France, Belgium, and Poland were attacked in the Taybeh area by masked settlers, with footage showing one of the vehicles was pelted with stones and had its window smashed. According to testimonies, seven masked settlers surrounded the diplomatic vehicle and demanded identification documents before attacking the car.

Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said that the Belgian consul general, French and Polish diplomats, and a French mayor were among those attacked, while a Belgian vehicle was damaged.

The Haaretz daily reported that an IDF operations room had received reports about threats by extremist settlers and distress calls from activists in the West Bank as early as 1 p.m., but nothing was done with this information, and the Civil Administration and troops on the ground were only informed about the attack around 3 p.m., after it was over.

One activist who accompanied local Palestinians was said to have sent the army a video and an exact location, accompanied by the message: “At least seven masked settlers armed with clubs. Come quickly, very scary. They stole bags of olives from Palestinians.”

The report said the military had opened a special probe to examine the chain of events and why nothing was done in real time to prevent the violence.

Despite the images from the attack, which took place less than a day after settlers violently assaulted and injured Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine, Netanyahu issued a lengthy statement referring to the “alleged attack on European diplomats” and said it was too early to draw conclusions about what occurred. (Netanyahu has also cast doubt on the specifics of the attack on Levine.)

“We urge caution before drawing conclusions from today’s reports that European diplomats were attacked by masked Israelis in Judea and Samaria,” read the statement published by the Prime Minister’s Office, which referred to the West Bank by its biblical name. “Any violence against diplomats is unacceptable. The more serious the accusation, the greater the demand for compelling evidence.”

The statement laid out a series of details about the incident — alleging that the diplomats “entered a sensitive area with a history of confrontations without prior coordination with the IDF”; that the delegation included Communist French Mayor Bernard Baudoux, a vocal advocate for Palestinians; that footage shows masked individuals approaching a diplomatic vehicle, while other images show a broken window and someone — Baudoux — lying on the ground.

“These images alone do not establish the complete sequence of events or individual responsibility,” said Netanyahu’s office. “Those circumstances remain under investigation.”

Netanyahu’s office stressed that Israeli police were investigating “to establish the facts and identify those responsible.”

The prime minister also suggested the incident could be part of a “coordinated campaign to smear Israel and the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria during the annual olive harvest.”


'Mother of all bombs': Potential US strike plans for Iran include largest non-nuclear weapon
The United States military has developed strike plans against Iran that include using the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB), colloquially known as the "mother of all bombs," one of the largest non-nuclear weapons in the US arsenal, CNN reported on Thursday.

According to CNN, multiple US officials said that the plans called for the MOAB to be used against Iranian energy infrastructure and nuclear sites, including Pickaxe Mountain.

Another source said that the phrasing used in the plan was that the attack would come “prior to US retrograde in CENTCOM AOR (area of responsibility),” meaning that the US might strike Iran and then immediately pull its forces out of the region.

Several of US President Donald Trump's advisors have also told CNN that, despite Trump's claims that he would not take further action against Iran before the US midterms, it remains unclear whether he will change his mind before Election Day.

The potential deployment of the 21,000-pound bomb would mark a significant escalation in the conflict, although officials familiar with military planning discussions told CNN that questions remain over its effectiveness in achieving Washington's strategic objectives.


IDF says it killed 4 Hamas operatives, including Oct. 7 terrorist, in latest Gaza strikes
Four Hamas operatives, including a terrorist who invaded Israel during the October 7 onslaught, were killed in recent strikes in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military announced Saturday.

A strike on Thursday killed Mahmoud Khaled Mohammed Madhoun, identified by the IDF as a member of Hamas’s elite Nukhba Force who took part in anti-tank missile attacks on troops during the war, the Israel Defense Forces said.

Separate strikes on Friday killed Ubaida Suhail Hamad Murtaja, a Hamas sniper operative, and Adham Khalil Mohammed Marouf, a Hamas terrorist who according to the IDF invaded Israel on October 7, 2023.

The IDF said that another strike on Saturday in the Strip’s south killed Hamas operative Abd al-Jawad Juda.

The four operatives were recently involved in advancing attacks on troops and Israeli civilians, and attempting to restore Hamas’s capabilities, “in systematic violation of the ceasefire,” the military added.

Saturday’s announcement came a day after the army said two other Hamas operatives in Gaza were killed in recent strikes.

The IDF identified Maher Walid Omar al-Husseini, the commander of a Nukhba Force cell in Hamas’s military wing who invaded Israel on October 7, and Mohammed Mohammed Abd al-Khalek Hala, a Hamas weapons production officer, as the two operatives killed.


The fatal blind spot of the isolationist right
At this week’s National Conservatism Conference in Jerusalem, an ideological faction that prides itself on realism delivered a lecture steeped in pure fantasy.

Taking to the podium, Matthew Peterson, president of the Claremont Institute’s Center for the American Way of Life, offered the Israeli audience a warning disguised as counsel. “Opposing endless wars is not hatred of Israel,” he said. “The future of the American-Israeli relationship is not going to look like it did in the past, nor should it.”

This rhetoric has become a familiar catechism among a subset of the American right. Echoing across conference panels and isolationist podcasts, the argument holds that America must turn inward, shed foreign commitments and stop getting dragged into Middle Eastern quagmires.

Supporting Israel’s existential battles, we are told, is an expensive relic of neoconservative dogma. It means entanglement in “endless wars” that serve foreign countries while depleting American blood and treasure.

One would hope that the head of an institute dedicated to preserving the “American Way of Life” would grasp what actually threatens it.

To call the civilizational confrontation with Iran an “endless war” for Israel is a catastrophic failure of geopolitical awareness and strategic imagination based on a fundamental misunderstanding of American interests.

The foundational flaw of Peterson’s argument and the broader isolationist argument is the false claim that U.S.-Israel strategic cooperation is an act of American philanthropic indulgence. This narrative presumes that America is the beleaguered benefactor constantly bailing out a needy client state.

But in this war with Iran, Israel has done far more to save America than America has ever had to do to save Israel.

For decades, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been open about its goals. It views Israel as the “Little Satan”—merely an initial obstacle—and the United States as the “Great Satan,” the ultimate target. Indeed, Iran has been at war with America since the current Islamic regime took power.

Thus, Iran’s revolutionaries seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah, bombed the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in April 1983 and, six months later, a Marine barracks, killing 241 American servicemen.

Iran stood behind the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing that killed 19 U.S. airmen in Saudi Arabia. The Pentagon has assessed that Iranian-backed militias killed at least 603 American troops in Iraq. In 2011, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) plotted to kill the Saudi ambassador to the United States in a Washington restaurant.
‘Marty Army’: Online forum ran by Nevada GOP House candidate is filled with Nazi-talk, slurs
Long before running for Congress, Marty O’Donnell was an award-winning music composer for the popular “Halo” video game franchise.

His work drew legions of fans to an online forum, which the Nevada Republican has tried to turn into a galvanizing force as he tries to unseat a Democrat in a Las Vegas area district that could help decide House control. O’Donnell has served as the group’s de facto leader, referring to himself as its “benevolent dictator” while tapping its members for campaign cash and harnessing their enthusiasm in his bid. The campaign held a two-day event for forum members this month at a casino that included a video game tournament, panel discussions and speeches.

There is another side, however, to what is known as “The Marty Army.”

An Associated Press review of thousands of posts made on the forum between 2022 and 2026 found racial slurs, minimizations of Nazi Germany and defenses of white nationalist conspiracy theories.

“It wasn’t a couple of crazies. The popular sentiment was, ‘Yes, slavery should be legal,’” said Deacon Dameron, a former group member who said O’Donnell banned him for calling another user a “dork.”

Many views espoused in the forum, which is controlled by O’Donnell and his handpicked moderators, are at odds with some of the values articulated by the candidate and his campaign. For example, O’Donnell has staunchly defended Israel and condemned bigotry.

In a statement, campaign spokesman Keith Schipper said O’Donnell “has zero tolerance for hate” in his forum. Since becoming aware of the issue in the spring, the campaign “dedicated a staffer to monitor” and “remove people that spew racist and antisemitic vitriol,” Schipper said. “Unfortunately, some posts have been missed over the years.”

Schipper said nearly 200 users have been banned “because of hateful rhetoric, including many of the people flagged by the Associated Press. Marty’s support of Israel is unequivocal and, as seen in various interviews and online posts, he will not tolerate the rise of antisemitism in our country. Marty will continue to fight bigotry, misinformation, and hate toward Israel because it is the right and moral thing to do.”
Abdul El-Sayed Fundraised Alongside School Principal Who Resigned for Defending ‘Intifada’ as T-Shirt Slogan and Gaza Flotilla Activist Who Has Described Thanksgiving as ‘National Day of Mourning’
Abdul El-Sayed fundraised earlier this month alongside a former New York City public school principal who resigned for defending the use of the term "intifada" as a t-shirt slogan, and, over the summer, with a Muslim activist who led the Gaza flotilla movement and who has described Thanksgiving as a "national day of mourning."

An invitation from the Abdul for Michigan Victory Fund to the $3,500-a-head Manhattan fundraiser held on Oct. 5 shows that, among others, the event was hosted by Dr. Debbie Almontaser, who resigned her position as principal of the first New York City public school devoted to the study of Arabic language and culture in 2007 after defending the use of the term "intifada" as an appropriate slogan to emblazon a t-shirt.

Almontaser jumped into the fray to defend a t-shirt produced by a separate organization, Arab Women Active in Arts & Media, that read "Intifada NYC."

"The word basically means ‘shaking off,’" Almontaser told the New York Post at the time. "That is the root word if you look it up in Arabic," adding, "I think it’s pretty much an opportunity for girls to express that they are part of New York City society and shaking off oppression." Following a complaint filed by Almontaser, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission subsequently found the New York City Department of Education guilty of bias when it forced her resignation, though the decision was nonbinding.

Politico reported on the Oct. 5 fundraiser, which New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani attended, but omitted any mention of the controversy surrounding Almontaser.

The El-Sayed campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Earlier in the summer, on July 11, El-Sayed attended a fundraiser in Chesterfield, Mich., hosted by the Palestinian activist Huwaida Araf, the co-founder of the Free Gaza movement, which launched several "sea voyages" to challenge what she describes as Israel’s "illegal blockade."

On social media, Araf has referred to Thanksiging as a "national day of mourning" and to former president Joe Biden as "Genocide Joe." As recently as August, Araf has called for the "criminal prosecution" of U.S. leaders by the International Criminal Court for "crimes against humanity and participation in genocide," though it is not clear to which leaders she was referring.


Pro-Palestine Action post by wife of aide to British PM doesn’t warrant probe — cops
London’s Metropolitan Police said on Saturday that a social media post by the wife of the British prime minister’s national security adviser backing banned activist group Palestine Action did not merit a criminal investigation.

Journalist and author Sarah Helm, who is married to Jonathan Powell, Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s national security adviser, posted on X Thursday, “God help us authors who support Palestine and Palestine Action,” an activist group banned as a terrorist organization by the UK government last year under Burnham’s predecessor, Keir Starmer.

Helm was commenting after publisher Faber said this week that its Irish author Sally Rooney cannot sell her books in the UK because of her support for Palestine Action, which it is now illegal in the UK to support or finance.

In response, a Metropolitan Police spokesperson said the post was “being assessed to determine whether any further police investigation may be required.”

In an update on Saturday, a spokesperson for the capital’s police force said specialist officers had looked at the post and ruled it “did not meet the criminal threshold” and “no further police action will be taken.”


Green behind party's 'Zionism is racism' motion is 'Vegan Doctor' being probed by medical regulator over support for 'death to IDF' chants
A GP under investigation after making anti-Israel social media posts is among those behind the Green Party’s controversial ‘Zionism is racism’ motion, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Rebecca Jones, elected as a party councillor in May in Lewisham, south-east London, is one of 745 ‘supporters’ of the policy, proposed by Green member Lubna Speitan.

The motion was passed by 1,022 votes, with 813 against, at the party’s annual conference earlier this month, making it party policy.

It defines Zionism as an ideology supporting ‘an ethnonationalist Jewish state’, and backs ‘a single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine’, including modern-day Israel.

Dr Jones, also known as ‘The Vegan Doctor’, who signed the motion, is facing disciplinary proceedings over social media posts, including one saying, ‘Burn Zionism to the ground’, with an image of a burning Israeli flag.

The GP has also called Bob Vylan, the punk duo who caused widespread controversy after chanting ‘death to the IDF’ at Glastonbury Festival last year, her ‘new favourite band’.

Dr Jones described a reading of the supposed last will and testament of former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, a chief architect of the October 7 attacks on Israel, as ‘so beautiful’.

The General Medical Council, which she has told her nearly 20,000 followers is trying to ‘censor and silence doctors’, opened the fitness to practise investigation in June.

‘It was because I speak up against genocide and apartheid in Palestine,’ Dr Jones wrote.

When approached for comment, she told the Mail: ‘Anti-Zionist views constitute a protected philosophical belief under the Equality Act 2010... Zionism can legitimately be viewed as inherently racist, imperialist and colonial. Supporting Palestinian liberation is both moral and just.’


Israeli chess players say they’ve been barred from world championship in Malaysia
Israelis who registered for next month’s World Amateur Chess Championships in Malaysia, which bars the entry of Israeli citizens, are not on the final list of competitors despite a pledge from the sport’s governing body to facilitate their participation, one of the two players said Saturday.

The player, Lior Aizenberg, said he was omitted from the November 4-13 competition in Klang, Malaysia, even though he signed up with a foreign passport.

“The Malaysian authorities are simply unwilling to allow Israelis to represent Israel at a World Championship. As far as they are concerned, Israel does not exist,” said Aizenberg, a pro-Israel activist who also runs the Chess4All club in Savyon. “After 78 years of statehood, and especially following October 7, we as Israelis cannot allow such a situation to stand.”

Nationality-based exclusion of competitors is opposed to the guidelines of the tournament’s organizer, world chess governing body FIDE, Aizenberg said on Facebook, calling it a “disgrace” that the organization had let Malaysia host the competition.

A separate statement from Aizenberg said that given the omission of the Israeli players, the “world” should be removed from the tournament’s name.

The statement called on organizers to move the competition to another country, noting that the International Paralympic Committee in 2019 barred Malaysia from hosting a Paralympic swimming championship because of the Muslim country’s ban on Israeli athletes.
In Pittsburgh, campus antisemitism report’s authors neglected to speak with Jewish students
Can a college campus accurately assess its antisemitism problem without talking to Jews?

That’s the question facing the University of Pittsburgh, where an internal working group on campus antisemitism recently published a report that did not include, and did not appear to solicit, the perspectives of the school’s estimated 1,400 Jewish students, or any other members of the campus Jewish community beyond the group itself.

The July report by Pitt’s working group on campus antisemitism, which is made up of Jews, has divided the campus, drawing criticism from the left for what they perceive as recommendations that would limit speech, and from within the campus Jewish community for not adequately consulting with Jewish students and faculty. Before it was even published, one author of the report said her home was targeted after she was named to join the working group.

Addressing campus antisemitism after Oct. 7
The report has also resurfaced questions about the most effective methods for universities to address antisemitism for Jewish students three years on from the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks that prompted so much uproar across campuses.

The report’s omission of any research on its Jewish community was by design, the working group’s chair recently told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

“Our charge from the chancellor and provost was not to provide data as part of our report,” Katherine Blee, a sociologist and the faculty chair of the Pitt working group, said in an interview.

Instead, she said, the recommendations came out of discussions between the group members, whom she characterized as “a very diverse group with a very diverse set of opinions, which is representative of the university.”

The school immediately agreed to take action on the group’s recommendations, which include strengthening its Title VI civil rights law compliance; giving “clear guidance” on free speech and protest policies; reviewing its bias training; and committing to new “Dialogue and Discourse” programming to facilitate constructive conversations around Jews and Israel.

The issue of antisemitism at Pitt became particularly urgent after two Jewish students wearing kippahs were wounded in a violent off-campus attack in 2024 in an incident that preceded the announcement of the working group. The perpetrator, who wore a keffiyeh and had no apparent university affiliation, attacked the students with a bottle as they were on their way to a Hillel Shabbat dinner.
Haverford professor accused of sending antisemitic threats to a colleague is detained until trial
A Haverford College professor accused of cyberstalking and issuing antisemitic threats to a colleague will be held in custody until his trial, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

Guangtian Ha, an assistant professor of religion, was arrested last week following an FBI investigation. Prosecutors said he used several anonymous accounts on X to send hateful, antisemitic messages to his colleague off and on from October 2025 until May. Prosecutors allege Ha’s posts also exposed his colleague’s home address, infant child’s name, and pictures of the home’s exterior.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Carissimi said Tuesday Ha had demonstrated a “persistent obsession” with terrorizing the victims, and his online activity could not be effectively monitored if he were released before trial.

The spouse and children of the colleague, who has not been named publicly, fled their home, which is in the same neighborhood as Ha’s. Ha sent more than 50 messages across the various accounts, at times threatening the colleague specifically and at others threatening Jewish people more broadly, invoking Adolf Hitler, the Holocaust, and the Oct. 7 attacks, according to court documents.

Ha pleaded not guilty to the charges Tuesday.

Despite the allegations, roughly a dozen Haverford professors across departments, friends, and Ha’s family came to show their support at the hearing. They said the hateful messages did not represent the man they knew. Ha has no prior criminal record, his attorney Susan Lin said, and has a wife and young child. He came to the United States in 2007.

“Nobody here is going to defend the content of these posts,” Lin said in court, before identifying Ha’s supporters and inviting two to testify to Ha’s character, arguing he should not be in custody while awaiting trial.

“I’ve always known [Ha] as someone who is very justice oriented” and who cared for students and marginalized people, said Ahmet Tekelioglu, the executive director of CAIR-Philadelphia, a civil rights advocacy group focused on Islamic civil liberties and fighting hate speech, in a court testimony on behalf of Ha.

“He’s a great human being. I’ve learned a lot from him,” David Harrington Watt, a professor of Quaker studies at Haverford, told the court. Watt, who is Christian but teaches courses on antisemitism, said it was “painful” to read details about the messages Ha allegedly sent, calling them “tragic” and “inexplicable.”


NYC teacher posts antisemitic meme of Lionel Messi
Her goal is hate.

A New York City public schools teacher has been posting antisemitic memes on social media, including grotesque caricatures of Argentina soccer star Lionel Messi that echo Nazi propaganda depicting Jews as greedy and scheming.



Park Slope Collegiate math teacher Maysa Jarara posted an image July 19 on Facebook under the name Maysa, showing a crying, groveling Messi with a super-sized nose, wearing a yarmulke as he rubs his hands together.

“The look on his face is priceless,” Jarara captioned the photo, which resembles a despicable antisemitic internet meme called “The Happy Merchant.”

Messi, who visited Israel as part of a “peace tour” in 2013, was the subject of antisemitic conspiracy theories during the World Cup, claiming that Jews control Fédération Internationale de Football Association, soccer’s regulatory body, and have worked behind the scenes to benefit his career, according to online antisemitism watchdog nonprofit Cyberwell.

“Jarara has crossed a major line by trafficking in classic antisemitic tropes that cast Jews as greedy and scheming,” United Jewish Teachers President Moshe Spern said.

The Brooklyn math teacher also regularly reposts messages denigrating Israel, including one featuring the Israeli flag covered in blood.

On the three-year anniversary of Hamas’ barbaric Oct. 7, 2023 attacks, which killed over 1,200 Israelis, Jarara posted an illustration to Instagram of a keffiyeh-clad man dancing with a woman in a hijab in front of a burning pile. “And we love life and we can live it in a way,” reads the caption.

“This is deeply disturbing. We have a teacher who is entrusted with educating children publicly sharing inflammatory, biased, and historically misleading posts about Israel and the Jewish people,” New York City Public Schools Alliance President Karen Feldman said.


Former prisoner who defended Hamas employed by BBC
A former prisoner who has accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and defended Hamas terrorism is now employed by the BBC to advise on the use of AI in its news output.

Algerian-born Hicham Yezza, the principal data scientist at the BBC’s Responsible AI division, was jailed in 2009 for falsely claiming he had leave to remain in the UK. After avoiding deportation at the end of his prison sentence, he set up the pro-Palestinian Ceasefire magazine.

Before he worked for the BBC, he used social media to call Israel an “apartheid regime ... built on stolen land” and to describe Hamas terrorism as “resistance”.

The BBC said Mr Yezza had not worked for the magazine since it employed him and had not breached its social media policies during the time he had been employed.

The corporation has faced scrutiny of its coverage of the war in Gaza and about the views of employees involved in its news output.

According to his profile on LinkedIn, Mr Yezza’s job is to “help guide and shape how the BBC approaches and applies responsible AI use across the organisation”.

He adds: “A major ongoing focus of my work will be guiding cross-industry research into how AI assistants represent news content, with the aim of developing independent benchmarks for AI performance in public service media.”

The BBC requires staff to be professionally impartial, particularly if they are involved in news coverage.

The Telegraph has highlighted several cases of employees who have aired extreme views on social media, particularly about Israel.

Mr Yezza was arrested in 2008 for possessing an al-Qaeda terrorist training manual, but was later released without charge after explaining he had been helping a friend with academic research on militant Islam. He was immediately rearrested and charged with immigration offences after overstaying his visa by more than five years.

In 2009 he was convicted of “securing avoidance of enforcement action via deceptive means” by lying in a 2007 immigration interview, and sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment.

He said his passport containing his visa stamp had been stolen, but officers found it at a flat he used as a postal address, with a visa that had expired in 2003.

The judge at his sentencing noted his “deliberate, extended manipulation of the system for immigration control” and said his conduct had involved “deliberate and serious deceit”.

During a campaign against being deported, he was supported by Moazzam Begg, the former Guantánamo Bay detainee, whose passport has been revoked three times because of security concerns.


Los Angeles man allegedly planned “mass incident” at Jewish preschool, had Molotov cocktail materials
Steven Carlos Duenas, 51, of the Los Angeles area, allegedly planned to carry out a “mass incident” at a Jewish preschool, and when he was arrested on Oct. 2, federal agents found “combination of parts designed and intended to make a Molotov cocktail,” prosecutors said, the New York Post reported.

Duenas referred to the Houthis, a U.S.-designated terror group, as his “homies” on social media and said he loves them and posted that “not enough synagogues have been burned down,” the Post reported. (JNS sought comment from the FBI.)

The Federal Bureau of Prisons lists a Steven Carlos Duenas, 51, incarcerated at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles. He is described as a white man.

“Duenas appeared in court shortly after his arrest, shackled and dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, tears streaming down his face,” the Post reported. “At one point the judge asked whether he wanted to postpone the proceedings until he could regain his composure. Duenas said he was ready to continue.”

“As he left the bail hearing, he mouthed the words ‘I love you’ to his Mom, Maria Duenas, who was sitting in the gallery and was handcuffed alongside her son when the FBI raided the residence they share at 4:30 a.m.,” the Post reported.

“He was sweet, kind, he went to a good school, he was always smiling,” the mom told the Post. “I made sure he dressed well, he attended mass and was an altar boy.”
Hebrew U to rename Mt. Scopus campus for John Paulson after record $250M donation
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem has received its largest donation ever, with the school on Saturday night announcing a massive $250 million gift from American investor and philanthropist John Paulson.

In recognition, Hebrew University will rename its Mount Scopus campus the Alina and John Paulson Campus.

The gift builds on the Paulson Family Foundation’s previous support for the university, which includes prior donations totalling $46 million. Those have supported Hebrew University’s engineering and computer science infrastructure, including the Paulson Bar-El Building for Computer Science & Engineering and the John Paulson Building for Electrical Engineering on the Edmond J. Safra Campus.

The latest donation will support the development of a faculty of engineering, the expansion of the university’s medical and biomedical research, trauma and post-trauma recovery initiatives, as well as the establishment of a think tank focused on translating academic expertise into public impact, the university said in a statement.

Paulson said the donation was intended to strengthen the university’s academics and demonstrate international solidarity with Israel.

“Israel, a country of only 10 million people, has astounded the world with its scientific and technological prowess,” Paulson said in a statement. “As Israel’s leading university, Hebrew University has provided top-tier higher education to generations of students.”

He noted that the university has registered more than 10,750 patents and earned major international distinctions, including 10 Nobel Prizes, two Turing Awards and a Fields Medal.

“This gift will ensure that Hebrew University has the resources to meet the high demand for advanced education well into the future,” he said.

Paulson also described the contribution as a statement of support for Israel at a time of continuing security challenges.

“If there was ever a time to step up and support the country and its institutions, this would be it,” he said.

The gift comes as the university, which was cofounded by Albert Einstein and formally opened in 1925, looks to expand in its second century of existence. The school has campuses at Mount Scopus, Givat Ram and Ein Kerem in Jerusalem, as well as satellite campuses in Rehovot, Beit Dagan, and Eilat. It is generally considered the best university in Israel and ranked 89th globally in the 2026 Shanghai Ranking of the top schools in the world.

For its 100-year anniversary, Hebrew University raised $1 billion over a seven-year campaign, it recently said. Other top donors include Steven Lavin’s Sheba Foundation, the Mandel Foundation, the Saul Brandman Foundation, and the Edmond de Rothschild Foundation.


Flydubai captain recalls struggle to open cockpit door during attempted terror attack
The captain of a flydubai flight whose co-pilot attacked him with an axe in a bid to bring down the plane said one thought kept running through his head as the harrowing ordeal unfolded: “You can’t die like this.”

Indian pilot Smit Machchhar recounted the “traumatic” experience to Sky News Arabia in his first interview since the incident late last month in which he, passengers and other crew members were credited with averting disaster on the Tel Aviv-bound flight, which was carrying more than 170 crew members and passengers, most of them Israeli.

With his head and one hand bandaged and glasses perched on his nose, Machchhar spoke from his hospital bed in the UAE.

“My vision was restricted to a few inches,” said the pilot, describing the effect of being struck in the back of the head with an emergency axe by his co-pilot, Omani national Hamam al-Hammami, who had positioned himself behind Machchhar’s seat.

At first thinking that a part of the airplane’s ceiling had come loose, he then received several more blows and was wounded in the hand as he tried to shield himself.

Machchhar recalled struggling to open the cockpit door so another pilot who was traveling on board could get inside.

“So I was screaming his name and I was trying, because the switch that was very close to me to open the door, I was trying to just get help in,” he said.

“But I remember being able to open the door,” he went on, only for it to shut again.

“And at that point, I felt all the blood, you know, everything rushing down, my energy, everything, I was just, I was barely staying in consciousness.”

“Soon after that, that was the time when I heard the engine sounds going down. And then immediately after that I felt the aircraft going into a dive.”

According to findings released by the Emirati attorney general, Machchhar’s 29-year-old co-pilot had planned to use the plane to carry out a suicide attack on the passenger terminal at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, inspired by the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York.

He claimed to have acted alone, something investigators are still working to verify.





 


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