Monday, October 26, 2026

10/25 Links: The ‘homicidal empathy’ of the Islamo-left; There is always an idiot in the room; Nas Daily: Anti-Zionism is antisemitism

From Ian:

Welcome to the era of champagne jihadism
Forget champagne socialism, we are now in the era of champagne jihadism.

The GQ poster boy of this movement is multimillionaire Hasan Piker, who has proclaimed that America deserved 9/11, that his favourite flag is Hezbollah’s and that he would ‘vote for Hamas over Israel’. Awkwardly, if he lived under Hamas, he wouldn’t be able to vote for anyone.

Champagne jihadis needn’t actually believe in God, let alone Islam. They simply need an unshakeable conviction that the West (aka the Great Satan) is the root of all evil, and that anyone fighting it must therefore be on the side of good, no matter their methods.

You can find champagne jihadis speaking from positions of privilege throughout the West. They can be found cosplaying holy war by cheering on the ‘Glorious Martyrs’ of 7 October from the comfortable surrounds of £10,000-a-year Glasgow University, where they’re probably studying queer theory – sadly not on the syllabus at schools in Gaza. Or they can be seen in New York shouting ‘long live Hamas’ during a vigil organised by Israelis for Peace to remember the Israelis and Palestinians killed since 7 October.

More recently, as rioters destroyed French businesses and historic buildings, the champagne jihadis were seen bravely manning the barricades of their verified social-media accounts. ‘Capitalism doesn’t need your grief’, commented actress and sometime Dior model Christina Ricci beneath a post lamenting the looting of a Dior store in Paris. The champagne jihadi is, in fact, the ultimate capitalist, capable of commodifying absolutely anything, including the destruction of capitalism itself. No doubt Ricci’s next Dior campaign will feature her throwing a Dior J’adore Molotov cocktail at a cop car in a $710 DIO(R)EVOLUTION t-shirt.

But the rioters are not destroying capitalism – one Bangladeshi phone shop at a time – for the love of la patrie. They’re doing it for Palestine, the flag of which has largely replaced the tricolore during the riots. I support a free Palestine, but I’m not sure how destroying a North African man’s shop in the French capital helps achieve that. Whether it’s the suffering of ordinary Gazans under Hamas or the destruction of an immigrant’s livelihood in Paris, the revolution demands sacrifice. Preferably someone else’s.
Julie Burchill: The ‘homicidal empathy’ of the Islamo-left
The concept of ‘suicidal empathy’ is having a moment right now. Coined by Gad Saad in his book, Suicidal Empathy: Dying to be Kind, it’s defined by Wikipedia as ‘a purported phenomenon in which excessive, misdirected and pathological forms of empathy are destructive for the party that exhibits them’. We see it in Western countries, whose leaders tell their shivering populations that they’re not allowed to have cheap fossil fuels because of the polar bears. We see it in young liberal women, who would have a fit if a white man whistled at them, but bend over backwards to make men from rabidly misogynistic cultures welcome in their countries – and this despite the fact that we certainly don’t need to import sex offenders when we have enough of the homegrown kind.

In extreme cases of this lunacy, we see alleged feminists voluntarily donning the hijab – the living shroud that so many brave Muslim-born women have been tortured and killed for trying to cast off. There was a shocking example of this in 2017 when Sweden’s self-proclaimed ‘first feminist government in the world’ donned hijabs and chadors on a trade visit to Tehran, in order to make themselves fit to be seen by the righteous Muslims of the Islamic Republic. They did this shortly after promising to promote a ‘gender-equality perspective’ internationally and adopt a ‘feminist foreign policy’, while ignoring the appeal by the Persian women’s rights activist Masih Alinejad, who had specifically asked European female politicians to defy the hijab demands when visiting Iran. Also in 2017 there was the Washington ‘Women’s March’, which involved the grotesque spectacle of many non-Muslim women voluntarily hijabing-up.

We certainly see a massive dose of suicidal empathy among the Islamo-left, from Queers for Palestine – often mocked as Turkeys for Christmas – to Owen Jones. Jones probably thinks that he’s so unique that he could sprout wings and fly if he got thrown off a Gazan roof by the local gay-haters. Do these fools honestly believe that the facts about Hamas hating homosexuals are Israeli propaganda? Or are they so bound up in The Wonder Of Me, so convinced of their exceptionalism, that they are as deluded as that strange girl on TikTok, who mused on how she would be treated if taken hostage by Hamas: ‘They would probably comfort me, make sure I had medical attention, make sure I was doing okay…’

The message is loud, clear and strikingly ignorant. Other women / gays / infidels may get raped and / or murdered, but those big angry men would see me as special. We assume that such people are simply thick, or perhaps suffering from extreme narcissistic exceptionalism. A lot of them are mad at their parents and are acting up or acting out. Is it performative social masochism, in which liberal young white folk seek to outdo each other as if in some silly and sinister sport?
David Collier: There is always an idiot in the room
Brichto says he cares about every life. Yet when Jewish people gathered to discuss the hatred threatening theirs, he promoted a film demonising Israel, mocked those who had not seen it, and questioned their concern for others.

He could have listened. Instead, he made himself out to be morally superior to the others in the room.

This from a man who has campaigned with Zack Polanski, whose Green Party has now declared that ‘Zionism is Racism’.

And having watched Naza myself, my suggestion to those in the room would be: don’t bother.

Watch October 7 footage instead. That will tell you far more about the Jewish position in today’s world and the need for a strong and secure homeland.

In the meantime, Jewish families do not have to pass Adam Brichto’s test before their fears deserve to be heard.

Perhaps Brichto should spend less time mocking those who think differently from him and more time watching October 7 footage himself.

Maybe it would make him a little less of an idiot.


Israeli-Arab influencer behind ‘Nas Daily’: Anti-Zionism is antisemitism
Israeli-Arab social media entrepreneur Nuseir Yassin, 34, told a conference about combatting antisemitism last week he believes "anti-Zionism is a form of antisemitism" and stressed his commitment to overturning "misguided hate" against Jews. Yassin, a Muslim from the Galilee town of Arraba who graduated from Harvard University in 2014, boasts 68 million followers across numerous social networks.

"The success of Israel and the Jewish people is also my success as an Israeli citizen," he noted. He views Zionism as "the most vanilla thing in the world - a group of people wanting a place to live," and has concluded that Israel's detractors "just really don't like Jews."

Yassin recalled that he grew up labeling himself Arab-Israeli. After the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, he started listing Israeli first. "A lot of Israeli culture is inside me. I never agree with people. I'm always disagreeable. That's Israeli. I speak up."

"We should all be 'Free Palestine' - but from what? We disagree on the solution, not on the problem. We don't want suffering. Nobody wants suffering. I'm a free-Palestine-from-Hamas guy. Just 'Free Palestine' is not an answer. I'm free-Palestine-from-extremism."

"The Israel-Palestine conflict is not a big deal when you compare it to everything else that's happening on planet Earth. The only thing that makes it a big deal is that we, as Palestinians, have the perfect enemy - the most hated type of enemy - which is the Jews."


Caroline Glick: Europe Tried To Crush Israel With Sanctions, Now Karma Is Coming Back!

Amb. Friedman: “Trump And Netanyahu Aren't Finished With Iran... Here's What's Next”
Former U.S. Ambassador David Friedman predicts more American-Israeli military action against Iran and warns that Israel may have just two years to make decisions that could reshape the Middle East for generations.

In this exclusive JNS interview, Friedman sits down with JNS CEO Alex Traiman to explain what President Trump's dramatic endorsement of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reveals about their relationship and why he believes Iran's regime is heading toward collapse. Friedman discusses the future of the Abraham Accords, the possibility of Saudi normalization with Israel and why he believes the next Israeli government should pursue sovereignty over Judea and Samaria rather than Palestinian statehood. He also challenges international reporting on settler violence, warns of growing anti-Israel sentiment in American politics and universities and explains why a future U.S. administration could take a dramatically different approach toward Israel. With Israel's elections approaching and Trump's remaining time in office running out, Friedman argues that a historic opportunity may be slipping away. Can Trump and Netanyahu reshape the Middle East before the political window closes?


Alan Dershowitz: American Jews Face a Political Breakup They Never Imagined
American Jews have been among the most ardent and loyal supporters of the Democratic Party for over a century. But as, JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin notes, as the party’s intersectional left wing base embraced hatred for Israel and even antisemitism in recent years, the argument for a shift in political loyalties is now being made by some who were closely identified with the Democrats.

One such person is famed legal analyst and retired Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz, who joins Tobin on this week’s episode of Think Twice. A prolific author, Dershowitz has written a new book titled, Why I Quit the Dems And So Should You! The confessions of a reluctant Republican. In it, the 63rd book he has published in his career, Dershowitz, 88, documents the reasons why he left the Democrats after 70 years as an ardent and involved supporter of the party and many of its candidates.


Financial Times report on Arab-Israelis: A conclusion in search of evidence
Financial Times (FT) report on Arab citizens of Israel in the context of the upcoming elections (“Arab Israeli voters aim to eject Netanyahu,” Oct. 18) is as predictable as it is dishonest.

It’s predictable as anyone familiar with the FT’s reporting would understand that their stories demand that Arab-Israelis be portrayed as merely victims of the Jewish government – a dynamic that’s continually present in their coverage of Israeli-Palestinian issues as well.

It’s dishonest in that the article, by their Jerusalem correspondent James Shotter, didn’t seek open-source information that would have provided readers with a more accurate picture of the relationship between Arab and Jewish Israelis. It also framed individual opinions about discrimination against Arabs as indisputable facts.

The skewed framing begins in the first sentence, when Shotter writes that “Under Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government, Israel’s Palestinian minority has endured a surge in violent crime and a ferocious clampdown on dissent.”

First, as CAMERA documented previously, the overwhelming majority of Arab citizens of the state don’t identify as “Palestinian.” Rather, strong pluralities choose, instead, “Arab,” “Arab-Israeli,” or just “Israeli.” This is a serious deception by the FT, as that word choice serves to falsely conflate citizens of Israel who are ethnically Arab with Palestinian Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza.

Further, Shotter fails to provide any evidence to back up his claim that there has been a “ferocious clampdown on dissent” targeting Arab-Israelis under the current government. While he cites unnamed “human rights activists” stating that “scores of Arab Israelis were arrested, harassed, lost their jobs or faced disciplinary proceedings over statements and social media posts,” it’s likely that the “human rights activists” are affiliated with Adalah – a radical NGO whose director rejects Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.

Further, as even Adalah has conceded, many of those arrested, or who faced professional disciplinary action, involved their expressions of support for Hamas after the Oct. 7 massacre. It’s of course illegal in the UK to express support for proscribed terrorist groups as well, undermining Shotter’s implicit suggestion that such prohibitions are anti-democratic crackdowns on “dissent”.


Revealed: BBC’s £400k payout after anti-Semitism claims
The BBC has agreed a £400,000 payout to a Jewish documentary-maker who says she was the victim of anti-Semitism and was bullied out of the broadcaster.

Lucie Kon, whose work for the BBC won awards including an Oscar and an Emmy, says she was victimised in the wake of the Oct 7 terrorist attacks in Israel by colleagues who said Zionists such as her were “evil”.

Ms Kon, who has family in Israel, claims she was told that “if you want to call Hamas terrorists then you have to call Israel terrorists, too” and that she should “think about what drove Hamas to do what they did”.

When she made a formal complaint about her treatment, the BBC told Ms Kon to stay at home for months, sidelined her and eventually put her out of work.

She instigated unfair dismissal proceedings against the BBC, which agreed to pay her substantial compensation – partly funded by the licence fee – without any admission of liability. It has refused to apologise or admit she was a victim of anti-Semitism.

The BBC has been dogged by allegations of anti-Semitism for years, which intensified after the Oct 7, 2023 attacks. Last year Tim Davie resigned as director-general over allegations of bias, including anti-Semitism, which The Telegraph exposed.

Ms Kon has told his successor, Matt Brittin, who has promised anti-Semitism will not be tolerated, that other Jewish colleagues are still being bullied and abused.

She is the first person known to have been given a settlement by the BBC after alleging anti-Semitic behaviour among colleagues.


Left-wing violence
The sick fantasy of the Albanese Labor government is that there is some vast far-right network out there in the shadows stirring up all sorts of malign schemes. Indeed, the ‘far right’, the ‘neo-Nazis’ and the ‘white supremacists’ appear to warrant far more attention from the Albanese government – certainly in press conferences and interviews – than do, for example, radical Islamist hate preachers and their ilk. But the simple fact is that the violence and political trouble-making that this country has seen in recent years is almost entirely of the left, be it of the communist, socialist, anarchist or Islamist persuasion.

This is especially disturbing because the same causes that appear to motivate much of the violence we are seeing are simply the more extreme versions of the causes and ideologies that an entire generation of young Australians have been indoctrinated into. It was only a few years ago we saw on the evening news hysterical young Aussie school kids screaming and weeping bitter tears about climate change. Nowadays, that rage and passion has been diverted directly into hatred of Pauline Hanson, which is a disgrace, and support for Hamas – sorry, we mean the pro-Palestinian movement. (It’s telling how these days very few politicians, activists or commentators can be bothered to draw any distinction between the two. Long gone are the days of the automatic disavowal of Hamas terrorism).

All of this is not to say the far right are innocent babes; there are some truly sickening views out there, with far-right antisemitism being among the worst.

But it is in the hard left of Australian politics that we see the seeds of the sort of insurrection and violent anarchy that is bedevilling France, Italy, Belgium and, inevitably, parts of the United Kingdom. We see the ubiquitous Palestinian flags at virtually any leftist march. This is now the universal banner of anarchy and mayhem. We see the angry, hysterical young faces distorted with rage screeching from the podiums, frequently young women. We see the convergence of the Palestinian cause with the so-called ‘First Nations’ cause, with the flags of both now virtually interchangeable. (There will be parts of Australia where the Palestinian flag will be far more prevalent than the Australian flag this coming 26 January, we suspect.)

This week, independent federal MP Helen Haines suffered the most appalling injuries in an horrific event and has now tragically lost both her legs. A man has been charged and although the motivations that led to the incident are unknown at this stage, there has been much public angst about violence and modern politics.

On top of which came the shock news that a recent ‘dirt file’ directed against Helen Haines apparently came from the office of the Prime Minister himself.

Mr Albanese has given no adequate explanation for this, and is disgustingly bluffing his way through, with meaningless and evasive answers. But the fish rots from the head, and the lack of any serious morality-based political leadership from this government has a lot to answer for.
The warning of history from the Iranian nation to Europe
History has repeatedly shown that extremist ideologies, even when they appear to be in conflict with one another, may converge in their efforts to destroy a political or social order. Modern Iranian history is one of the most significant examples of this reality, an experience that deserves renewed attention today amid the rise of extremism and security concerns across Europe.

Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, the Aryamehr, warned decades ago of what he called the ‘unholy alliance of the Red and Black Reaction’: the alignment of Marxist forces and revolutionary Islamist movements which, despite their apparent ideological differences, came together in opposition to Iran’s national and popular system of government at the time. The Shah believed that this alignment could lead the country towards a devastating future, a warning whose accuracy has been demonstrated to the world over time.

In his interview with Newsweek on November 3, 1977, the Shah addressed the connection between religious extremists and communist revolutionaries. He spoke of a phenomenon he referred to as ‘Islamic Marxism’. A few months later, in an interview with German journalists on April 24, 1978, he again spoke of the unholy alliance of the Black Reaction and the Red Revolution, warning that these forces, despite their different motivations, could align against Iran’s path of progress.

The 1979 uprising, and the destruction and killing of the Iranian people that followed, opened a tragic chapter in Iran’s history. The political alliances and cooperation of that period were more complex than to allow all participating groups to be treated as one, but the reality remains that many ostensibly secular, leftist and religious forces united in opposition to the national Pahlavi government. Following the revolution, the Islamic Republic seized power from the leftist groups and the Mojahedin. A significant number of the forces that had participated in the revolution were later subjected to political repression and elimination.

Now, decades later, Reza Shah II, the exiled Shah of the Iranian nation, is once again drawing attention to this historical experience.

In his speech at the National Conservatism Conference in Washington in July 2024, he invoked the concept of the ‘unholy alliance of the Red and Black’ in the context of Iran’s experience. The central message of this comparison is that when forces with different objectives unite on the basis of a common opposition to a political system, without considering the consequences for the future, they may produce outcomes that none of the original partners can control.
Autotrans:
In 1980, following the antisemitic attack on Rue Copernic, Raymond Barre declared: "This odious attack [...] intended to strike the Israelites who were heading to the synagogue; it struck innocent French people who were crossing Rue Copernic." Today, Emmanuel Macron reminds us of this sinister distinction.


Ex-Mossad Chief Reveals How Israel Protected Its Agents in Iran
Former Mossad chief David Barnea revealed Thursday that the Mossad deliberately released an official video showing its operatives conducting missions inside Iran on the opening morning of Israel's June 2025 military campaign against Iranian nuclear and military targets.

We wanted "to protect the agents who were there. We wanted to make sure they arrested so many people in Iran that they wouldn't be able to separate the wheat from the chaff and would eventually release everyone. Incidentally, that is exactly what happened."

"When you arrest 21,000 people, even if you've caught an agent or two, eventually you have to release them because everyone's story will be the same: I was walking down the street, I was driving a car, they arrested me. And in the end, they released everyone."

Barnea also said some of those arrested or executed in Iran had never been associated with the Mossad. "Just unfortunate people whom they decided were our agents, but who never worked for the Mossad."
CENTCOM chief flies over Strait of Hormuz during Middle East visit, affirms waterway clear of mines
US Central Command (CENTCOM) Adm. Brad Cooper visited the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday as part of the US effort to allow shipment movement and crude oil exports through the contentious waterway.

Cooper observed the ongoing operations while flying in a US Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter over the strait.

"We continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with our Gulf partners and the shipping industry," said Cooper during the visit. "This visit underscores our strong commitment to continued freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz."

Cooper affirmed that the Strait of Hormuz is "free and clear of Iranian sea mines," thanking the US service members who supported and took part in the mission.

"We remain intensely focused on keeping commercial traffic flowing as we work with our teammates in the US interagency, Gulf Cooperation Council, and shipping industry," he said.


Tehran Is a Different Beast Now
The new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, witnessed his father, wife, and other close family members die in the same airstrike that wounded him. The U.S. and Israel now must deal with surviving Iranian leaders who experienced similar trauma and loss in early strikes. Its devastating attacks altered Tehran’s mindset: Iranian behavior won't return to prewar expectations.

The U.S.-led attack was end-of-days fodder for true believers inside the upper echelons of the Islamic Republic, who listened to years of paranoid predictions about just such an apocalyptic attack at weekly Friday prayers. The surviving members of Iran's inner circle are now acting based on an altered set of strategic principles.

U.S.-Israeli decapitation strikes shifted Iran's political center of gravity towards the military hardliners who are responsible for fighting the war and who favor more aggressive tactics. While Western observers hope that internal regime fissures will ease America's dilemma, a shared bunker mentality during the current crisis almost certainly will keep their tactical disagreements from being too meaningful for U.S. policy.

Iran's actions in the past seven months reflect a sober reassessment that there is little to gain by playing it safe: Its only chance to survive is an aggressive posture that imposes enough cost that the U.S. and its regional partners can no longer easily threaten the Islamic Republic's existence - even if that brinksmanship brings the regime's own survival to the edge.

The unprecedented decapitation strikes on Iran's leadership have likely persuaded its surviving members that they are "dead men walking." The regime-change rhetoric from hawks in the U.S. and Israel has convinced Tehran that its enemies will never stop trying to "finish the job."

If the U.S. ends the conflict with the Islamic Republic left standing, Tehran's hardline leaders will be intent on rebuilding Iran's strength. Iran will not only rely on its ability to control regional waterways. Iran will widen, harden, and advance its missile and drone program - though it will probably take years for Iran to fully rebuild its arsenal.

Iran will regrow its regional proxy forces that Israel weakened in recent years. Tehran also likely will determine that it is time to become the nuclear-armed Iran that its enemies so deeply fear.


Iraq believes Israel may have struck militia weapons supplied by Iran
Iraq believes that Israel was behind recent strikes on two sites where Iran-backed militias had stockpiled “Chinese-made shoulder-fired air defense systems” sourced from Tehran, sources told London-based Arabic international newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat on Saturday.

It was unclear which specific type of system the report referred to. One source told the newspaper that “the armed group that identified this location for storing air defense systems believed it was extremely difficult to access or detect…the suspected attack occurred shortly after the shipments arrived at the two storage sites.”

The report, which said the strikes occurred last week, did not provide evidence for the claims and noted that parts of the claims could not be confirmed.

Asharq Al-Awsat added that the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), an umbrella group that contains numerous Iranian-backed militias and is also an Iraqi government paramilitary force, had said one of their bases suffered an explosion on October 17.

However, the PMF claimed at the time that this was an accident, and Iraq’s government vowed to investigate. The explosion had affected a stockpile of obsolete ammunition inside one of their headquarters in Baghdad's East Canal, injuring five people, according to Asharq Al-Awsat.
Behind the scenes on how IDF got its biggest ‘hasbara’ win of the war
It was the early evening of October 17, 2023, Israel time, and then IDF Chief Spokesman Daniel Hagari was on the way to make a daily statement about the state of the then 10-day-old war.

A female officer whispered to him that there were reports of a mass death incident at an attack on a hospital.

Hamas had fired a barrage of rockets at 6:15 p.m., Palestinian Islamic Jihad had fired its own barrage of around 10 rockets around 7:00 p., and shortly after that barrage there were reports of an explosion at the al-Ahli Hospital.

No reporters asked Hagari any questions about the incident because the reports were still fresh, which was good because no one within Israel's military or government apparatuses had a clue at that point of whether Israel was responsible or not.

Hamas claimed around 500 Palestinian civilians had been killed, and the news spread like wildfire across the planet from Al Jazeera to the BBC to The New York Times, and on to other secondary sites taking their information from those major outlets.

The IDF Spokesperson's Office went into high gear trying to connect the dots between videos and imagery of the alleged incident coming out from open sources compared to any inside special intelligence Israel might have.

There were several calls between senior IDF spokesperson's office officials and senior air force officials to ascertain what had really happened and to quickly decide how to probe the situation.

Top air force officials did not initially know about the incident.

Within a few hours, the initial reports and the beginnings of second-round reports started to present the incident as a more solid fact.
Palestinian Terrorism Is Ignored in the West Bank
Today, West Bank violence is under the media microscope, but only if it goes one way: Israeli on Palestinian. Last Friday's attack by some Israelis was an international news story, but Monday's attack by some Palestinians didn't make it out of the pro-Israel bubble. Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, a Knesset candidate and former deputy mayor of Jerusalem, was on a group tour of the West Bank near the Arab town of Turmus Ayya on Monday when Palestinians attacked her moving car. A rock, easily big enough to kill, shattered the car window. It's on video.

From January through August, the Israel Security Agency (ISA) recorded 270 such stonings a month, part of what it classifies as "minor" terror attacks by Palestinians. Palestinian terror in the West Bank in July 2026 included 273 stonings, 35 arsons or burning-tire attacks, 15 firebombs, four stabbings, and three pipe bombs. The numbers are staggering.

It used to be even worse. The 2026 Palestinian terror numbers in the West Bank are down 30% from 2024. But good luck finding any of this in the UN database. Palestinians threw 9,178 firebombs between 2017 and 2023; the UN reported 21. The ISA recorded 1,468 Palestinian explosive devices; the UN reported two.

While it barely pays attention to Palestinian violence, the same UN will record anything and everything as Israeli violence against Palestinians. Its database of such violence includes Israeli road work, school trips to archaeological sites, mere Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount, and even Palestinians harmed while carrying out terrorist attacks. Most of the press seems to regard "Palestinian Attacks Israeli" as ordinary behavior, not a newsworthy headline.


Two German suspects arrested after being seen photographing entrance to Damon Prison
The Haifa Magistrate's Court extended the detention of the two German nationals arrested on suspicion of photographing security facilities and security-related activities near Damon Prison by 24 hours on Sunday evening.

Their hearing was held behind closed doors.

The two were arrested on Saturday night after being spotted near the entrance to the facility and photographing it with their cellphones, prompting the dispatch of additional prison officers, who approached the two men and conducted an initial inspection.

An examination of their cellphones revealed the images, raising further suspicions about why they were at the location and why the took the photos.

Following the discovery, the case was handed over to Israel Police, which launched an investigation into the circumstances of the incident.

At this stage, the purpose of the photographs remains unclear, as does whether the incident involved security-related activity or whether the photographs were taken for another reason.

Damon Prison is a security facility where security prisoners and detainees, including female prisoners and minors, are held.

Recently, a special wing was established at the facility for dozens of defendants and detainees involved in espionage cases in recent years.


CIA contractor accused of leaking US reports on Israel to journalist girlfriend who published them
A classified U.S. intelligence assessment warning that Israel could descend into civil conflict, claims that Israeli officials pressed the Trump administration to assassinate a senior Iranian leader, and a secret report detailing efforts to secure American military support beyond Donald Trump's presidency are among the revelations at the center of a major intelligence leak scandal in Washington.

On Friday, the FBI arrested a CIA contractor suspected of passing classified information to his journalist girlfriend, whose reporting included five stories based on sensitive intelligence, three of them directly concerning Israel.

The suspect, Ian A. Brinksman, 42, of Washington, D.C., held a Top Secret security clearance with access to highly sensitive intelligence. Prosecutors allege that for months he exploited his access to U.S. intelligence systems to examine classified reports unrelated to his duties and pass information to his romantic partner, who operated an independent news publication on Substack. Investigators linked his access to sensitive documents with telephone conversations between the couple and the publication dates of articles allegedly containing information from those reports.

American authorities have not publicly identified the journalist, referred to in the FBI affidavit as "Individual 1," or disclosed the subjects of the classified reports. However, documents obtained by ynet indicate that she is American journalist Aída Chávez, founder of the independent investigative publication Capital & Empire. Chávez previously worked for The Hill, contributed to The Washington Post and served as a congressional correspondent for The Intercept and Washington correspondent for The Nation. Five articles published on her website match the dates identified in the FBI affidavit, while a passage from a September fundraising appeal appears almost word for word in the document. Chávez has not been charged with any offense in connection with the investigation.

Israel's alleged assassination request and fears of civil war
One of the most significant articles appeared on May 28, under the headline "EXCLUSIVE: Israel Privately Pressing U.S. to Kill Iran's Lead Negotiator and Launch New Strikes." Chávez reported that Israeli officials had urged the Trump administration to assassinate Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran's parliament and a central figure in negotiations between Tehran and Washington. According to the report, Israel sought to persuade the Americans to abandon negotiations and resume attacks on Iran's oil infrastructure, believing further economic damage could trigger widespread protests and potentially bring down the Iranian regime.

Chávez said her reporting drew on a classified intelligence assessment circulated within the U.S. intelligence community and conversations with officials familiar with its contents. The FBI affidavit states that Brinksman accessed a classified report on May 26 and called his girlfriend three times that day. Two days later, she published an article that investigators say contained information from the same report.

Another article, published on July 29, described a U.S. intelligence assessment concerning Israel's efforts to preserve its strategic relationship with Washington as American public support for Israel weakened. According to Chávez, Israeli officials were seeking to embed their country more deeply within the American military, intelligence and defense industries, making it more difficult for future administrations to reduce cooperation. The reported strategy included discussions about a possible permanent U.S. military base in Israel, expanded joint weapons development and stronger ties with influential American technology executives. Investigators said Brinksman accessed a Top Secret document on July 28, spoke with his girlfriend several times that day and that an article containing information from the document appeared the following day.

The third Israel-related article, published on October 5 in cooperation with Drop Site News, concerned a reported CIA assessment titled "Fracture From Within." According to two American sources cited in the article, the assessment was prepared in August by the CIA's Red Cell, a unit tasked with challenging conventional intelligence assumptions and examining alternative scenarios. It warned that Israel's political crisis, disputes over military conscription for ultra-Orthodox Jewish men, economic pressure, social divisions and the psychological consequences of prolonged warfare could combine to produce severe internal conflict or even institutional breakdown ahead of the October 27 election.


Board of Deputies declares Green Party a racist organisation after decisive vote
The Board of Deputies has overwhelmingly passed a motion declaring that the Green Party of England and Wales has adopted an antisemitic platform and, as a result, become a racist party.

The motion, carried by a decisive 118-1 vote, further stated that the Board will now treat the Greens in the same way it treats other racist parties.

This resolution was adopted at the Board’s October plenary meeting, following the Green Party’s recent decision at its annual conference to adopt a policy branding Zionism as racism.

Board of Deputies President Phil Rosenberg commented: “Today, representatives of Jewish communities across Britain have delivered a clear verdict. By adopting an antisemitic platform, the Green Party of England and Wales has become a racist party. We will treat it accordingly.

“No political party has the right to tell Jews that a central part of our identity—rooted in thousands of years of history, faith, and peoplehood—is racist. The Green Party’s policy brands much of our community, including our synagogues and communal organisations, with that slur. It gives prejudice against Jews a political licence.

“The Green Party’s leadership must now take responsibility for reversing this policy and confronting the antisemitism it has legitimised. We recognise and commend those within the party who opposed it, including Jewish members whose warnings were disregarded. They deserve to be heard and supported.

“We call on democratic parties and wider civil society to apply the same standards to anti-Jewish racism that they would to any other form of racism.”

The motion described the Greens’ call for a “single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine” as meaning “the erasure of the State of Israel in its entirety”.

It called on other parties to repudiate political alliances with the Greens “unless in the case of local government the Green Party local leadership have given assurances of their rejection of the antisemitic platform and their support for overturning it”.

The Board would “deem any political party which breaks that firewall in any way to be enabling racism,” it said.
Why is a charity founded to protect London's ailing bridges instead squandering millions on trans rights, asylum seekers and a group allegedly linked to Hamas?
The City Bridge Foundation actually has just one overarching trustee, namely the City of London Corporation which, in turn, appoints the board members who appoint the committee that doles out all the money.

For years, the Left have painted the City as the ultimate bastion of pinstriped capitalist fat-cattery.

Yet it would appear a new mindset has slowly permeated the Square Mile, raising the intriguing question: has the City gone woke? How else to explain that a City charity, which had been diligently maintaining a safe route over the Thames since the days of Dick Whittington, just handed £1.2 million to an organisation with alleged links to terrorist outfit Hamas?

It is all thanks to a bunch of far-sighted medieval monks and merchants that the entity then known as Bridge House Estates was founded in the 12th century with the purpose of traversing the river.

They started with a new London Bridge, built in stone to replace the old wooden one, and charged a toll.

They reinvested those tolls so efficiently they went on to build two more, Blackfriars and Tower Bridges – and now manage two more, Southwark and the Millennium (formerly 'Wobbly') Bridge. And with so much money at their disposal after nearly eight centuries of careful stewardship, the City elders took a big decision in 1995.

They decided they could branch out from the boring, day-to-day civil engineering stuff and start donating some of the spare cash to good causes.

Since when, as the rebranded City Bridge Foundation, they have quietly given away £840 million to hundreds of charities, some very deserving, some less so, some overtly political and some with no obvious connection to the City.

Last week, The Times revealed that two cheques amounting to a whopping £1.2 million had been handed to an organisation called the Muslim Charities Forum. Its treasurer just happens to be chief executive of another foundation, Al-Khair, which is alleged to have connections to Hamas. The Charity Commission has opened a statutory inquiry into Al-Khair after one of its associates was arrested in the UK and charged by the US with allegedly providing 'material support' to Hamas.

No one is suggesting the City Bridge Foundation had any idea of a possible Hamas link. However, it all adds to the impression of an organisation with more money than it knows what to do with.

As well as appointing its own poet in residence, for example, it pays each one of its 29 staff more than £60,000 a year.
British Islamic preacher accused of celebrating terrorists and radicalising followers sets up 'religious training camp' in Thailand
A London-born radical Shia preacher accused of celebrating terrorists has set up a physical and religious training camp in Thailand to teach ‘Islamic spiritual psychology’, the Daily Mail can reveal.

Sayed Hussain Makke has allegedly mourned members of Hezbollah, the proscribed Lebanese terror organisation – including a British friend who died fighting for it – and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The Brunel University graduate had his visa to visit Australia revoked last year after he allegedly extolled Hassan Nasrallah, a Hezbollah leader killed in an Israeli air strike, as one of the world’s ‘greatest freedom fighters’.

Leading the organisation for three decades until his death at 64, Nasrallah was responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent lives around the world, as he transformed Hezbollah into the political and military force it is today.

The militia, banned as a terrorist organisation in the UK, US and other countries, played a crucial role in propping up Bashar al-Assad’s bloody regime in Syria, and it provides training and guidance to other Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Yemen as well as Hamas in Gaza.

Makke once shared a tribute to Mohamed Balbaaki, a British friend who died while fighting for Hezbollah. He is seen crouching next to a shrine of Balbaaki, who is wearing Hezbollah uniform, with the caption: 'I miss you forever.'

Having previously run ‘Spiritual Warrior’ training camps in the Peak District in England, Makke is hosting a retreat in Thailand in December for men ‘who no longer know how to be men’.

The six-day programme, running from December 1-6, is advertised as a ‘retreat in nature filled with workshops, training, reflection, and brotherhood’.
Montreal man sues city after being arrested while holding Israeli flag
A Montreal man arrested while holding an Israeli flag at a cycling race is suing the city and four police officers, alleging excessive force and a fabricated account of his conduct, CTV News reported on Friday.

Daniel Bercovici, 47, seeks $86,301 in compensatory and punitive damages over his arrest at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal on Sept. 14, 2025.

His lawsuit says he attended peacefully to support the Israel-Premier Tech team. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators were protesting its participation.

Officers confronted him without provocation, took him to the ground, unlawfully searched him and arrested him, the suit alleges. Demonstrators allegedly tried to strike him with flagpoles as he was escorted away.

Bercovici was charged with obstructing a peace officer three days later. According to the lawsuit, a prosecutor reviewed defense video evidence and injury photographs on July 9, 2026, then withdrew the charge on July 28, expressly citing the video.

The suit, filed in late August, alleges officers accused him of taunts, insults, aggressively brandishing his flag and ignoring warnings and orders. It claims their account was written from memory hours afterward, without notes of the arrest.

None of the allegations has been proven in court. CTV said the video shows officers escorting a man holding an Israeli flag away from protesters, but not his arrest.

“I went to a cycling race to support an Israeli team. I should have been able to do that peacefully and safely,” Bercovici told the outlet.
Italian police arrest pro-Palestinian activist suspected of fueling nationwide riots
Italian police arrested a 30-year-old pro-Palestinian activist on Saturday. The suspect allegedly organized the stormy protests across the country and incited violence and terrorism during the demonstrations. According to Italian media, the suspect was known to the country's domestic intelligence service after founding an organization that spread propaganda identified with Hamas. The arrest came as thousands of young people took to the streets in many Italian cities and clashed with police. Protests have also continued in France, where clashes were recorded in several cities, and in Barcelona, where hundreds of young people rioted and looted stores.

The suspect, Yousef Sihar, is an Italian citizen of Moroccan descent. According to Italy's Interior Ministry, Sihar created the chat group that gave rise to the October 17 Movement and also wrote its manifesto. The movement takes its name from the date of the previous Saturday, when the protest in France spiraled out of control.

According to La Repubblica, Sihar was located at a friend's apartment in Milan and taken in for questioning shortly before the time the movement was supposed to announce the protest locations. Cyber police had tracked him for several days together with the counterterrorism unit, and Meta gave investigators the IP address of the movement's Instagram page. That evening, the Milan prosecutor's office ordered his arrest. ANSA reported that he is suspected of incitement to commit offenses under aggravated circumstances with terrorist aims, and of organized violence at the protests. His wife is also suspected of the same offenses but was not arrested.

Sihar was also known to Italy's domestic intelligence service. The service flagged him as early as 2024, after he founded an organization called Rising Dawn. According to the report, the group spread propaganda identified with Hamas and with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in Muslim communities across Europe.

Sihar studied communications and political science at the University of Milan, and his thesis examined Islamist movements in Morocco. While a student, he headed the university's Muslim students' association. In 2024, he completed an internship at the international research institute ISPI, which hurried to clarify on Saturday that he has not worked with it since. He has also written in the past for the Il Fatto Quotidiano website about Tunisia, the Palestinians and the war in Iran.

According to ANSA, Sihar is a longtime pro-Palestinian activist. On October 7, 2023, he responded to a tweet by Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, who had expressed support for Israel, with the words "Allahu Akbar." On his profile, he wrote, "We will not stop fighting until we recover every inch of our land." In posts he published around pro-Palestinian demonstrations, he added, "We will not surrender, we will win or die."


Woman charged in stabbing of Jewish man in Manhattan’s Diamond District
A 32-year-old Brooklyn woman has been arrested following the stabbing of a Jewish man in Manhattan’s Diamond District, an NYPD spokesperson told JNS during a phone inquiry on Sunday.

Anna Mochalova was arrested at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, within the confines of the Midtown North Precinct, the spokesperson said. She was charged with eight counts of assault, eight counts of menacing, two counts of aggravated harassment and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon.

The spokesperson did not specify whether any charges included hate-crime enhancements. Police previously told JNS that the stabbing was being investigated as a potential hate crime.

Officers responded at about 7:50 p.m. on Wednesday to a report of a stabbing in front of 15 West 47th Street, according to a subsequent NYPD email to JNS on Sunday. An assailant approached a 26-year-old man and stabbed him in the back with an “unknown sharp object,” police said. The victim was taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition.

Surveillance footage viewed by JNS appeared to show the attacker approaching the visibly Jewish victim from behind, stabbing him and fleeing.

In the email, police also detailed an assault reported at about 5:50 p.m. Wednesday at West 45th Street and Avenue of the Americas. A 37-year-old man reported that an individual deliberately collided with him. When he confronted the individual, he was struck on the forearm with a sharp object, causing a laceration.

He declined medical attention. The NYPD Hate Crime Task Force is investigating both incidents.

Manhattan Shomrim announced on Saturday evening that a suspect wanted in connection with two assaults in Midtown on Wednesday was in custody, CrownHeights.info reported. The Jewish volunteer safety patrol credited cooperation with the NYPD Hate Crime Task Force, Shomrim groups in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood and Queens, and tips from the public.

CrownHeights.info identified the victim as Yosef, a 26-year-old Chabad rabbinical student from Crown Heights, and reported that he returned to the Diamond District the following day to help Jewish merchants and workers put on tefillin.

Jewish New Yorkers were the targets of 245 of the city’s 463 confirmed hate crimes in the first nine months of 2026, or 53%, according to NYPD figures released on Oct. 6 and previously reported by JNS. Anti-Jewish hate crimes rose 1.2% compared with the same period in 2025, even as major crime citywide fell 6.6%.


IDF veteran completes Hawaii Ironman race three years after losing leg in Gaza combat
Three years after being injured and losing his right leg while in Gaza, IDF veteran Boris Baruch Shtonda completed the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii on October 10.

Shtonda competed in the long-distance triathlon consisting of a 3.8-kilometer swim, a 180-kilometer bike ride, and a full marathon in a division for athletes with disabilities while wearing a custom-fitted specialized running prosthetic.

Shtonda lost his right leg while serving in the IDF’s Duvdevan as a reservist after Hamas’s October 7 massacre. A month after being deployed, he was severely wounded by an explosive device in the northern Gaza city of Beit Hanoun.

He underwent multiple surgeries before his leg was amputated above the knee and made athletic challenges a central goal for his recovery.

Since starting his recovery, Shtonda climbed Mount Kilimanjaro twice, swam across the Sea of Galilee, and finished a half Ironman race in Spain before deciding to train for the Hawaii Ironman.

Shtonda completed the race after a year and a half of training and support from Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF). Shtonda dedicates Ironman achievement to wounded soldiers in rehabilitation

Shtonda dedicated his race to wounded soldiers and others undergoing rehabilitation, encouraging them to draw on their inner strength, believe in themselves, and become their own heroes.

“I want to share a message with all wounded soldiers and anyone going through a rehabilitation process: you are your own compass,” Shtonda said. “Sometimes, we have to be our own heroes and pull ourselves out of the predicaments we find ourselves in. Keep the faith, and always–always–believe in yourselves.”





 




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