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Tuesday, October 27, 2026

10/26 Links Pt2: Sir Simon Schama: A howl against rising global antisemitism; Amanpour’s journalistic legacy at ‘CNN’: Neither truthful nor neutral; The BBC is anti-Jewish. Who can be in any doubt?

From Ian:

Liel Leibovitz: Abdul El-Sayed ad is vile, unapologetically Nazi drivel blaming Jews for everything bad
If you’ve ever shopped at a normal American supermarket, you’ve probably heard normal Americans having the following normal American conversation:

Normal American 1: Should we buy some bananas?

Normal American 2: We can’t afford bananas, because all of our money goes to help Israel commit genocide against innocent children in Gaza.

What’s that you say? No actual American talks like that, because Americans aren’t brainwashed zombies who believe everything is or should be about Palestine?

Nor are they antisemites who think Jews control American politics with their dirty money?

Tell that to Cenk Uygur.

Having recently been denied entry to the United Kingdom — even the pro-Palestinian Brits found his Jew-hatred excessive — the media gadfly turned to what he does best: defaming a certain Semitic minority.

Over the weekend, he released a new ad for Michigan Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed, in which two Americans who look like they were cast by the Tucker Carlson fan club are moping around their local grocery store and complaining they can’t afford anything — from proper healthcare to a dozen eggs for their kids — because the federal government funnels so much of their cash to Israel.

Get that, Michigan voters? The Jews are to blame for all of society’s ills.

The Jews are our misfortune.

It’s such vile, unapologetically Nazi drivel that it’s tempting to laugh it all off, especially as the bloated buffoon who produced this bit of schlock is best known for such moral nadirs as his warm interview with David Duke and his denial of the Armenian genocide.

But Uygur’s ad strikes a deeper chord.

It reminds Jewish Democrats that no matter how hard they try to fit in, their party now truly and deeply hates them.

It’s a timely reminder, too, for Jewish Michiganders.
NYPost Editorial: Ilhan Omar hurls the ‘genocide’ charge at Israel — but it belongs much closer to home
Rep. Ilhan Omar’s apparent lies about her family and finances are bad enough, but nothing is as outrageous as the way she slanders Israel with the “genocide” libel when her own father in all likelihood took part in Somali dictator Siad Barre’s real genocide.

Omar in her memoir calls her father Nur Omar Mohamed an “educator,” yet it looks like the only educating he did was teaching Barre’s enemies lessons in brutality as a colonel in the Somali Army in the 1980s.

The Barre regime committed horrific atrocities against the Isaaq clan, killing at least 200,000 and displacing another 900,000 in a massive ethnic cleansing.

The United Nations, Human Rights Watch, the International Crisis Group and virtually every other authority agrees that the campaign against the Isaaq was genocidal in intent and in practice: Government forces strafed fleeing civilians, planted land mines at wells and systematically raped girls and women.

There can be little doubt that Omar’s dad was involved in the genocide. As historian and Oxford University doctoral researcher Mohamed Haji Ingiriis told The Post, “Nur Said was a military officer who was loyal to the regime until the end. He was part and parcel of those who caused and created the mayhem they ‘fled’ to live comfortably in the United States.”

Nur Said and his family escaped Somalia as “refugees” following the collapse of Barre’s dictatorship, gaining asylum in the United States in 1995 — improperly, it seems, as war criminals are not entitled to refugee protections.

Omar has long been blatantly antisemitic, with comments like “Israel has hypnotized the world” and saying Jews bought control of US policy because “It’s all about the Benjamins, baby.”

But with her own family’s bloody history, it takes real chutzpah to join in the “genocide” slurs, e.g. by insisting Jewish students at Columbia University are “pro-genocide” and routinely condemning Israel’s supposed “genocidal” campaign against Palestinians.

Omar’s scandals include messy finances and a possibly fraudulent marriage as well as serious questions about the legitimacy of her citizenship, but this hypocrisy takes the cake.
UK antisemitism watchdog GnasherJew exposes 40 antisemitic healthcare workers in NHS
An investigative resource published on the UK watchdog GnasherJew website has exposed approximately 40 medical professionals across the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) who have used their public social media platforms to disseminate antisemitic rhetoric, propagate conspiracy theories, and celebrate violence against civilians.

GnasherJew is a team of Jewish online investigators who identify, expose, and report on antisemitism, Holocaust denial, and extremism. The watchdog group's page of Antisemitic Healthcare Professionals states, “Over recent years, we have exposed doctors, healthcare providers, and other medical professionals for posting antisemitic content on social media, supporting terrorism, and discriminating against Jewish people.”

The dossiers listed on the page detail extensive online activity by practicing doctors, consultants, surgeons, and therapists.

Among the cases documented on the page is Dr. Mazin Fageir, a senior trauma and orthopedic surgeon at the Royal Free Hospital in London.

GnasherJew’s compiled dossier on him included screenshots of his X/Twitter posts showing that he shared a cartoon depicting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wearing an armband with a Star of David and pushing a coffin draped in a Palestinian flag into an Auschwitz concentration camp oven beneath the phrase "ARBEIT MACHT FREI," which translates from German to “work sets you free” and was the sign on the gate at the front of the camp.

Dr. Fageir praises Hamas rocket fire on Israeli homes
In another post from May 2021, during Israel’s war in Gaza known as Operation Guardian of the Walls, Dr. Fageir replied to a post reporting a rocket striking a civilian home in Givatayim, saying, “May you live under rocket fire forever, amen,” and adding that Israeli citizens would be “wiped out one day.”

The page also includes a dossier on Dr. Nizar Ali Mhani, an NHS consultant orthodontist and Cardiff University honorary clinical lecturer.

In the aftermath of the October 7 attacks, Dr. Mhani posted material comparing the actions of Hamas to the Jewish fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, writing, “Would anyone have the audacity or idiocy to ever suggest that the brave Jews who resisted the Warsaw Ghetto genocide used civilians as human shields because they used bunkers and tunnels?”

Another case involves Dr. Asaad Nemer Shamallakh, an anesthetist practicing within the Swansea Bay University Health Board.

Following the outbreak of the war, Dr. Shamallakh published a Facebook post on October 8, 2023, mourning family members, including his uncle and multiple children and women, who he wrote were killed in a missile strike. Writing, “Yes, the Zionist succeeded in gouging out our eyes with them, but he ignited fire and a hell in our souls that will not calm down until we are victorious, take revenge and regain our freedom and our homeland,” he added that after initial grief, “infants, girls and women from the Shamallakh family were the victims of the pigs today... and then you ask why we hate them and fight them with our nails and teeth? Yes, tears fell profusely, and hearts were broken, but we soon returned to the battlefield.”

In another October 8, 2023 post, set against a red background, Dr. Shamallakh wrote: “I swear that the battles of Badr, Uhud and Khandaq, militarily speaking, are a drop in the ocean of the Palestinian battle now. You are the Companions of the Prophet.”


The Times of Israel: A Mandatory Listen - Sir Simon Schama: A howl against rising global antisemitism
Welcome to "A Mandatory Listen," a new weekly podcast in which The Times of Israel deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan asks the big questions facing Israel and the Jewish people.

For this sixth episode in the new series, we speak with historian Sir Simon Schama, who recently published a lengthy essay titled "Jew-Hatred: The Latest Edition."

In this cry from the heart, the professor of art history and history at Columbia University gives a broad-strokes history of antisemitism and delves into reasons why it is rising globally.

The award-winning author and cultural essayist for The New Yorker, who has written and presented more than 30 documentaries on topics including the Holocaust, brings forth recent examples from his own life in which Jews have experienced a new form of hatred, which he wryly labels "its latest edition."

In this free-flowing conversation, we learn about the haters' misperceptions and how bias is being transmitted virally today.


Abdul El-Sayed Gets Cozy With Hamas-Loving Editor Who Wants Jews Sent ‘Back to Poland’: Candidate Urged To ‘Soothe’ His Arab Supporters
Abdul El-Sayed sought to "soothe" anti-Israel voters in Dearborn during a roundtable discussion this week with local activist Osama Siblani, who has called Hamas and Hezbollah "freedom fighters" and called for Israeli Jews to be sent "back to Poland."

The left-wing Democrat sat for an interview with editors and publishers from different small publications at the Dearborn offices of Siblani's newspaper, the Arab American News. In his questions, Siblani urged El-Sayed to "say something right now to soothe" people in Dearborn, an apparent reference to growing frustration among the city's majority Arab population over what they see as El-Sayed's moderation on the Israel issue and his overtures to black voters, who have a history of friction with Arabs.

"Some of them are not very happy, as you know," Siblani said of Dearborn residents to El-Sayed.

"There is no perfect candidate," said El-Sayed, who campaigned with Harris last month in an effort to reach black voters. In his appeal to the unhappy Dearborn residents, El-Sayed pledged to invest taxpayer money in Michigan "rather than send it abroad to kill or maim people who might be related to you in the south of Lebanon or in Gaza or in the West Bank."

El-Sayed made no mention of Hamas's attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which the Gaza-based terrorist group killed 1,200 Israelis. Israel has also been fighting Hezbollah, which is based in southern Lebanon, the ancestral homeland of many Dearborn residents.

It's the latest example of El-Sayed catering to residents of Dearborn, which has been dubbed the "Jihad Capital of America" because of the high concentration of pro-Hamas residents and religious leaders in the Detroit suburb.

In February, El-Sayed said in a private campaign strategy call that he did not want to comment on the assassination of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei because "there are a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad," the Washington Free Beacon reported.

In March, Dearborn Heights resident Ayman Ghazali attacked a nearby synagogue in retaliation for an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon that killed his two brothers, both members of Hezbollah, and a niece and nephew. El-Sayed drew heavy scrutiny after the attack for stating that "hurt people hurt people."

Siblani, who has supported El-Sayed for years, is an unapologetic supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah.

Siblani's brother Ghassan was a security chief for Lebanon's Hezbollah-aligned Amal party in the 1980s. Siblani has called the terrorist groups "freedom fighters" in numerous interviews over the years. At a rally in Dearborn last year, Siblani praised Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as a "hero" and urged that Israeli Jews be sent "back to Poland."


Dan Goldman: El-Sayed needs to demand antisemitic ad be taken down, or he’s ‘full of s***’
Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), who co-chairs the House antisemitism task force, said Monday afternoon that Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed needs to more forcefully condemn an antisemitic ad being run by an outside group promoting his campaign or “he’s full of s***.”

The exchange relates to an ad shared last week by far-left commentator Cenk Uygur that blames Israel for grocery prices in the United States and promotes El-Sayed’s campaign, which has been roundly condemned as antisemitic. The ad was produced by a super PAC run by Uygur, not by El-Sayed’s campaign.

Goldman, who lost a primary earlier this year that hinged in large part on his stance on Israel, said El-Sayed needs to explicitly disavow the ad’s message.

“If @AbdulElSayed truly means what he says about treating the Jewish community as he would treat his own children, then he would immediately condemn this dangerous ad as outrageously antisemitic and demand that it be taken down,” Goldman said on X. “If not, then he’s full of s***.”

El-Sayed’s campaign had distanced itself from the ad on Monday, without explicitly addressing its content. “This ad is not affiliated in any way with the Abdul for Senate campaign,” El-Sayed spokesperson Roxie Richner said in an emailed statement. “Abdul is focused on pushing back against Trump’s agenda that is raising prices for Michiganders. No one speaks for Abdul but himself and his campaign.”

Reached for clarification by Jewish Insider about whether he had seen the El-Sayed campaign statement ahead of his own X post, Goldman affirmed that he had. “I am aware of it and find it wholly lacking.”
Pro-Abdul El-Sayed ad sparks fury with false claim Israel to blame for high egg, banana prices despite no spikes since Iran war began
A shocking new ad supporting Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed blames Israel for rising grocery prices, triggering allegations of antisemitism.

The spot shows a couple in a grocery store grumbling over the prices of eggs and bananas — and claiming that US aid to Israel is the reason they can’t afford the staples.

“Honey, you’re going to have to put those eggs back,” the woman says. “They like eggs, but we have to set that $7 aside for killing Palestinians.”

“Don’t we give Israel $4 billion a year anyway?” the man asks.

“Yeah, and now we’re giving them another $26 billion,” she explains. “It’s like $161 per person. Apparently it’s costing us a lot of money to drop bombs on Gaza.”

The spot was released by Rebellion PAC, created by “The Young Turks” co-founder Cenk Uygur, and blames the war in Iran for high gas prices before accusing Rogers of being too supportive of Israel.

“Mike Rogers is for they/them,” a narrator says in reference to Israel, twisting a famous pro-Trump ad from the 2024 election cycle. “Abdul El-Sayed is for you.”

Gas prices are at $4.29 a gallon on average nationally, according to the latest data from the American Automobile Association, up $1.24 from this time last year.

A dozen eggs costs about $2.27 on average, while bananas are averaging $0.66 per gram, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics — respectively 30 cents lower and the same price compared to January, before the US and Israel went to war against Iran.

The ad has triggered an outcry across the political spectrum, led by the Anti-Defamation League.

“You want to know what desperate looks like?” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt wrote on X Sunday. “Blaming the price of bananas on Israel. Consider this PAC ad just another example of scapegoating the Jewish state. At least we can thank them for a case study in antisemitism.”
Hasan Piker's Uncle Behind Michigan Senate Ad Blaming Israel for Egg Prices: 'Case Study in Antisemitism'
Cenk Uygur, the uncle of anti-American streamer and Abdul El-Sayed campaign surrogate Hasan Piker, is behind an ad supporting El-Sayed in the Michigan Senate race that blames Israel for high grocery prices in the United States and accuses El-Sayed's Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, of dual loyalties. One Jewish leader denounced the spot as a "case study in antisemitism."

Rebellion PAC, an outside group that says it's "united in the fight against a rigged system," released the 90-second ad this weekend in collaboration with Uygur's media company The Young Turks. It depicts a couple in a grocery store linking the price of eggs and bananas in the United States to Israel and the war on Iran. "We have to set that $7 aside for killing Palestinians," the woman says as her husband picks up a carton of eggs. The ad closes with photos of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other leaders of the Jewish state as a narrator says, "Mike Rogers is for they/them, Abdul El-Sayed is for you," mimicking an ad Republicans ran against Kamala Harris in 2024 that highlighted her support for taxpayer-funded transgender surgeries.

The ad also notes that Israel has a universal health care system. "We're paying for that, too, probably," the woman featured in the ad says without any basis in fact. Israel levies a progressive health insurance tax on citizens. The system is also covered by general government tax revenues.

Uygur is featured on Rebellion PAC's website, where he outlines "The 6 policies of the Populist Plank" in a video posted to The Young Turks' YouTube page. He is also a partner at Rad Ads, the firm that produced the grocery store spot. Uygur touted it on social media over the weekend, writing that "we have to suffer here at home, so Israel can get all its wars." He went on to solicit donations for Rebellion PAC to "help us run this ad more in Michigan." The PAC paid $3,000 to The Young Turks on October 19 for "social media advertising," according to campaign filings.

The ad prompted condemnations from Jewish leaders. Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt called it "desperate" and "a case study in antisemitism." Former president Barack Obama's ambassador to Israel, Daniel Shapiro, also addressed the ad in a tweet, writing that it's "entirely possible to oppose aid to Israel … without promoting the fiction that such aid, or Israel itself, is responsible for what Americans pay for their groceries."

Rebellion PAC's cofounder, former Democratic congressional candidate Brianna Wu, blasted the "awful" ad and said, "I've not worked with Rebellion for years. I would have quit as executive director rather than produce this." El-Sayed's primary opponent, congresswoman Haley Stevens, joined the pile-on hours later, writing, "This type of fearmongering about Israel is wrong. It is not a winning strategy for any state. It does nothing to help Michigan Democrats win up and down the ballot in eight days."

The ad marks the latest instance of El-Sayed's far-left supporters sparking controversy and inflaming Jewish Americans.


Abdul El-Sayed Mansplains Journalism
Abdul El-Sayed exudes a volatile combination of "toxic masculinity" and "small-dog energy" on the campaign trail, especially when fielding questions from the press. The Michigan Democrat, who claims to be 5-foot-9 in basketball shoes, is trying to become one of the shortest men to serve in the U.S. Senate since the advent of modern nutrition.

When questioned, El-Sayed has a tendency to yap incessantly while lecturing journalists—mostly the female ones—on how to do their jobs. This is sometimes referred to as mansplaining and is generally regarded as obnoxious. El-Sayed is particularly sensitive to questions about his familial ties to terrorist organizations such as the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as his many relationships with individuals who support terrorism. He has repeatedly suggested that reporters who ask those questions are racist and un-American.

Some would argue that El-Sayed's relentless bullying of hardworking journalists is an assault on the First Amendment that threatens to erode the foundations of our cherished democracy. Alas, it is consistent with the sentiment expressed in a letter the candidate signed in 2012 urging Egypt's then-newly-elected president, Mohamed Morsi, and the Muslim Brotherhood to "purge the media … as quickly as possible."

"No, no, no, no, no. Let me just stop there," El-Sayed recently interrupted Fox News anchor Bret Baier midway through a question about the Muslim Brotherhood. "You are asking this question to raise a question about whether or not I have dual loyalty. … Be a journalist."

Earlier this month, El-Sayed challenged the intelligence of a female journalist, Audrey Fahlberg of the Free Press, when she asked about his reluctance to comment on the death of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei because "there are a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad." The candidate, who has not publicly denied using steroids to enhance his compact frame, struggled to control his rage while berating Fahlberg. "Ask smart questions, I'll answer smart questions," he sneered.

Some context: El-Sayed has also denounced journalists for asking "dumb" questions about whether Israel or Iran is bigger threat to the United States. He has consistently refused to provide an answer.




CAIR Connecticut urges Greenwich schools to stop using Jewish camp over its Israel ties
Greenwich Public Schools in Connecticut said it would proceed with a planned fall trip for sixth graders at a Jewish camp in Massachusetts as planned this week, despite pressure from a Muslim advocacy organization over the camp’s Israeli symbols and Israel-related programming.

CAIR Connecticut, the state chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, objected to the trip, saying that programming at Eisner Camp in Great Barrington “incorporates connections to Israel,” the chapter’s board chair Farhan Memon wrote in a letter to Greenwich Superintendent of Schools Toni Jones dated October 13.

The four-day Greenwich Schools field trip was organized by the Outdoor Classroom project, which works with seven locations in New England, including Eisner. Four of the camps are affiliated with Christian organizations, and two have no religious affiliation. With its clients, Outdoor Classroom coordinates nature-related learning programs for kids.

Memon wrote that some parents in Greenwich had viewed a video and photos of previous school events at Eisner and “identified Israeli flags and yellow ribbons prominently displayed in spaces used during school visits.”

“At the very least, spaces used by Greenwich students on any school trip should be free of national and political displays,” Memon wrote.

Eisner director Paul Isserles said in a statement shared with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency: “We welcome Outdoor Classroom to use our camp facilities. Throughout the year many outside organizations rent our facilities for various programs. URJ Eisner Camp is proud to have an Israeli flag displayed for our camp programs.”

When it comes to visiting groups, “Frankly, we are not regularly asked to do anything to remove those symbols or to cover them,” said Union for Reform Judaism president Rabbi Rick Jacobs in a telephone interview with JTA. “Because to be honest, we wouldn’t.”


Mahmoud Khalil headed back to Columbia for book tour, outraging Jewish alumni: ‘Appalled’
Anti-Israel rabble-rouser and former Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil is returning to campus after being freed from ICE custody — sparking outrage from Jewish groups.

Khalil is appearing on the Ivy League’s campus Tuesday evening to promote his new memoir, “No Land to Stand On,” which documents the 104 days he spent in a federal lockup when he was arrested after participating in the Manhattan school’s explosive 2024 anti-Israel protests.

“A revelatory and powerful testament of protest, courage, and imprisonment in America’s deportation regime,” says a flyer for the event, which is hosted by Columbia’s Center for Palestine Studies and the Simon and June Li Center for Global Journalism.

It’s not the first time the 31-year-old has returned to campus since his arrest — he notably returned a day after he was freed from custody in June 2025 — but campus Jewish groups were nevertheless outraged that a school group had invited him back again.

“We are appalled that, after the enormous reputational damage Khalil’s behavior inflicted on the University, the Journalism school would stoop to inviting him back to campus,” said Columbia University Jewish Alumni Association president Ari Shrage.

“At a time when Columbia should be working to restore public trust and rebuild its reputation, this decision suggests that the University has learned nothing,” he told The Post.

That reputational damage was no small detail — Khalil served as a negotiator for the virulent anti-Israel demonstrators who took over the campus from 2023-2024, and tried to convince the school to divest all its investments from Israel.

Those protests resulted in the Trump administration yanking $400 million in funding from the school for failing to protect students from antisemitism, before Columbia backed down and ceded to the president’s demands to help prevent similar demonstrations in the future.


Berkeley district erred saying anti-Israel materials at school-sponsored event weren’t biased, California says
The Berkeley Unified School District, which has about 9,400 students in 20 schools, erred when it found that anti-Israel materials at a school-sponsored event were not discriminatory, the California Department of Education said last week.

The materials were at a Palestinian stall at the Asian American Pacific Islander Night Market in May at Willard Middle School in Berkeley, Calif., according to the department’s ruling, which JNS viewed.

Scott Roark, public information officer for the department, confirmed the ruling to JNS.

The market had student-run stalls representing Asian countries and cultures. The Palestinian one had a map describing a “settlement” as “illegal under international law” and “violent land grabs by Israeli citizens who harass, steal and kill at will, fully backed by the Israeli government,” the department said.

It also “included information for emergency aid for Gaza and depictions of individuals resisting military forces,” the state said.

A spokesman for the House Education and Workforce Committee told JNS that the department’s ruling “raises serious concerns that are consistent with the committee’s findings about antisemitism in Berkeley Unified School District.”

“The district’s initial dismissal of the complaint makes this incident particularly troubling,” the House panel spokesman said. “School leaders have a responsibility to protect Jewish students from discrimination and address these concerns when they arise.”

The committee released a report on Wednesday about Jew-hatred in the district. Bay Area Jewish groups told JNS that the committee’s findings were in line with issues that the community has raised for years.
Trustee of anti-racism charity behind stream of antisemitic Facebook posts
Background information
Lee Wicks, listed as Trustee and Treasurer of the Furness Multi-Cultural Community Forum (FMCF), has shared Facebook posts containing antisemitic caricatures, conspiracy theories about Jewish control and a meme portraying a religious Jew as approving the rape and murder of children.

The posts stand in stark contrast to the organisation’s stated mission. FMCF describes itself as “Supporting people, challenging racism and celebrating diversity since 2003,” and lists Lee Wicks as Trustee & Treasurer on its official website. Its commitment to challenging racism raises an obvious question: how is that mission compatible with a trustee circulating material that demonises Jews?

The posts
Seventeen screenshots show material ranging from Holocaust comparisons and claims of Jewish control to language and imagery associated with white-supremacist antisemitism. The most direct examples target Jewish people and religious identity, not the decisions of an Israeli government.

Holocaust inversion
Several posts compare Israel with Nazi Germany:
21 September 2026: A post falsely claiming that a video showed “Israel using machine guns from a tank to shoot prisoners in a Concentration Camp,” directly comparing Israel’s actions to the sniper execution scene in Schindler’s List.
13 April 2026: An image of a concentration camp prisoner with the text: “Only two states in history have ever designated the death penalty for just one particular race. One was in 1933 in Germany. Israel just became the second.”
5 June 2026: A Mr Bean meme labelling “1940s Germany” and “Israel 2026” side by side.

The comparison of Israel to Nazi Germany is a textbook example of Holocaust inversion, recognised internationally as a form of antisemitic discourse.

October 7 denial and minimisation
5 August 2026: A meme asserting that those killed on 7 October “were killed by Hellfire missiles, artillery shells, tank ordinance, and Apache attack helicopters,” things the meme claims “Hamas doesn’t have, but Israel DOES!” This recycles the conspiracy theory that the atrocities of 7 October 2023 were fabricated or self-inflicted, contradicting the extensive documentation by Israeli and international investigators.


Amanpour’s journalistic legacy at ‘CNN’: Neither truthful nor neutral
“Be truthful, not neutral” is the adage Christiane Amanpour adopted as her journalistic philosophy while reporting on the Bosnian War in the 1990s for CNN.

After working at the network for 43 years, Amanpour announced on Oct. 19 that she will be leaving the network in June 2027.

Known for glamorously jetting into the latest conflict zones, Amanpour has become a household name, even appearing in the cult classic “Gilmore Girls” as protagonist Rory Gilmore’s career idol. Amanpour’s legacy will largely be remembered for bringing the human cost of war to American living rooms, having covered the first Gulf War, Bosnia and the Rwandan genocide, as well as conflicts between the Russians and Ukrainians, and the Israelis and Palestinians.

While her style of advocacy journalism, which she frames as a devotion to “truth,” has earned her 10 Emmys, four Peabody Awards, two Polk Awards and many more accolades, she has faced criticism over the years for taking sides in various conflicts.

The New York Times’ Stephen Kinzer said it best in an October 1994 headline: “Where there’s war, there’s Amanpour.”

His article featured several network insiders, one of whom he quoted anonymously as saying, “She was sitting in Belgrade when that marketplace massacre happened, and she went on the air to say that the Serbs had probably done it. There was no way she could have known that. She was assuming an omniscience which no journalist has.”

CAMERA’s documentation of Amanpour over the course of several decades has revealed her bias against Israelis, and affinity for the Jewish state’s adversaries.

Amanpour’s coverage has been rife with double standards and misplaced blame for Israelis, falsehoods and Holocaust inversion. Throughout her coverage, she brought boxing gloves when interviewing Israeli officials and kid gloves when interviewing Palestinian or Iranian ones. When covering Gaza, she and her guests lay the blame for Palestinian suffering entirely on Israel, ignoring Hamas’s reign of terror over its own civilians.

Her rose-colored glasses were apparent in her recent interview with Hamas official Bassem Naim in August, when he claimed that the terrorist group was “totally committed to the phase one [of the Gaza ceasefire] plan,” that they “never violated the plan” and that they have “done more than expected … regarding implementing the plan.”

She didn’t question these sweeping statements, despite the Israeli military warning of Hamas’s efforts to rebuild and the terrorist group’s foot-dragging when it came to returning the remains of the slain hostages.

Amanpour has allowed her guests to accuse Israel of apartheid and genocide without providing evidence and without rebuttal from her.

Beyond systemic editorial bias, CAMERA has documented numerous instances where Amanpour was neither neutral nor truthful when it came to Israelis, Palestinians and Iran.

Perhaps her most well-known mishap was in an April 10, 2023 broadcast, in which she fallaciously labeled the drive-by terrorist murder of two sisters and their mother—Lucy Dee, the wife of Rabbi Leo Deo, and daughters Maia, 20, and Rina, 16—a “shootout,” implying the family members were fighting back when they were killed. It took her over a month to clarify on air that she had “misspoke[n]” when she called the attack a “shootout” instead of a “shooting.”

Just two months before, Amanpour appeared to fabricate poll results to falsely suggest that “the Palestinian side” wanted “a peaceful, two-state solution to co-exist with” Israelis despite recent polls of Palestinians showing low support for a two-state solution. A December 2022 poll by the Ramallah-based organization Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research even showed that a majority (55%) supported the return to an armed intifada, for example.

During Israel’s first war with Iran in June 2025, CNN had to correct Amanpour’s claim that an Iranian ballistic missile struck “near a hospital” in Beersheva since the missile had actually crashed directly into the Soroka Medical Center, destroying its surgical ward.


How Much Will the BBC Pay Out to Avoid Admitting Antisemitism?
Back in 2012, the BBC incurred nearly £330,000 in legal costs to prevent the publication of its 2004 Balen Report on its coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. That report has never been made public.

You can now add another £400,000 (approx. $534,000) to the BBC’s ledger. Because that’s what it has paid out to award-winning documentary filmmaker Lucie Kon for wrongful dismissal. But no surprise that part of that agreement involved not admitting fault or apologizing over Kon’s claims that she was subjected to antisemitic bullying in the workplace in the aftermath of the October 7 massacre.

As usual, the BBC has reverted to its default setting when it comes to Israel and Jews: avoid apologizing or admitting fault at all costs.

Well done to Lucie Kon for apparently avoiding a non-disclosure agreement and bringing her experience to the public’s attention.
Jonathan Sacerdoti: The BBC is anti-Jewish. Who can be in any doubt?
In recent months, the BBC had to get rid of its Director General and its head of News, and how now had to pay out £400,000 to a 22 year-long employee who made documentaries there. All at least partly because of its anti-Jewish, anti-Israel lies and falsehoods. It had a senior reporter broadcast fake news about a Palestinian rocket attack on a hospital in Gaza and obstinately say he didn't regret it when he was shown to be wrong, and made a documentary which secretly starred the son of a Hamas minister whose family it paid with money from the license fee.


BEHIND THE GUARDIAN’S ‘MORAL TEAR’: AN OLD THREAD IN THE TAPESTRY OF ANTISEMITISM
On October 10, The Guardian published a video interview with Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor as part of its ‘Radical Thinking’ series. The pair discussed their new book, End Times Fascism, a socio-political commentary on what they perceive to be a new far-right apocalyptic alliance of “end time fascists.”

These so-called new age “supremacist” survivalists, according to Klein and Taylor, are far from impregnable. They have no vision of a shared future, and all they offer is a remix of a bygone past: the nihilistic, sadistic pleasures of domination.

In the case of Israel, the interview devolves into conspiratorial territory, trading in genocide libels and age-old antisemitic canards, as it posits Israel as the paradigmatic example of an “ethnonationalist end-timer,” a nation-state that, in their view, is turning Gaza into a purified bunker of mass deportation, border fortification and resource-stockpiling, bunkered against a dehumanised “Other.”

If ‘Radical Thinking’ is merely a new mantle draped over an old hatred, then one must admit the thinking is not radical at all; it is simply anti-Israel and anti-Jewish animus, repackaged with The Guardian’s editorial seal of approval.

From the outset, Klein invokes her Jewish identity to frame her virulent Jewish opposition to the existence of the State of Israel [09:20]:

As someone who has been involved in the Jewish wing of the Palestine Solidarity Movement, I am very involved in Jewish Voice for Peace, which organised protests recently, when Netanyahu was speaking at the UN, and was part of getting a bunch of very high-profile people arrested. They do not like JVP.

Whilst it is politically expedient for Klein to publicly endorse Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP), thereby subsuming her antizionist views within an established organisation, this cannot confer a legitimacy that her marginal, unrepresentative position does not afford her.

As CAMERA UK has previously identified, it is a common tactic amongst self-described antizionist Jews to invoke their Jewish credentials to legitimise their opposition to Israel. Yet it belies a simple truth: 90 per cent of British and American Jews support Israel’s continued existence as a Jewish and democratic state, while 89 per cent of British and 72 per cent of American Jews consider antizionism as a form of antisemitism.

For groups such as the JVP, the International Jewish Antizionist Network (IJAN) and the Orthodox sect Neturei Karta, Jewish identity is not consonant with Israel but is affirmed by opposition. In so doing, they acquiesce in the image which their enemies seek to project of them, often by allying themselves with those who incite harm against Jews, be it terrorists or antisemites more generally.


Australian billionaire Packer paid $1.25m to law firm defending Netanyahu – report
A company controlled by Australian billionaire James Packer transferred some $1.25 million over the past two years to the Tel Aviv law firm whose senior lawyer leads Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s defense in his ongoing corruption trial, according to an investigation published Monday.

The Sydney Morning Herald said in its report that it had not established that Netanyahu benefited from the payments to Hadad Roth Shenhar & Co., which represents him in three cases being heard at the Jerusalem District Court.

Packer later denied that the payments had funded Netanyahu’s legal defense. In a statement issued through Hadad Roth Shenhar, he said, “The claim that I paid even a single cent toward the legal defense of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is false,” adding that anyone making such a claim “exposes themselves to legal action.”

Haddad stated on Monday that his firm represents companies controlled by Packer “on matters that have no connection whatsoever” to Netanyahu’s trial.

According to the newspaper report, monthly payments of $50,000 began on September 23, 2024, moving from a Citibank account belonging to Packer’s Consolidated Press International to Hadad Roth Shenhar’s account at Israel’s Mizrahi Tefahot bank. The transfers continued for two years, and totaled at least $1.25 million.

A source familiar with Packer’s financial affairs told the newspaper that the firm was being paid for work performed for Packer, including finding potential business deals in Israel, and that the arrangement had nothing to do with Netanyahu’s trial. The newspaper said that after asking for evidence of such work or deals, it had not received supporting material from Packer or his company.

The payments draw particular scrutiny because Packer himself features prominently in Case 1000, one of the three cases against Netanyahu. According to the indictment, Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan introduced Packer to Netanyahu in 2013, and between 2014 and 2016 Packer lavished Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, with cigars and champagne worth NIS 229,000 ($61,000). Netanyahu is charged with fraud and breach of trust in the case and denies wrongdoing.

Packer has not been accused of wrongdoing in the case. Australian Federal Police questioned him on behalf of Israeli investigators in 2017 as a witness. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that he cooperated fully.

The question of outside financing for Netanyahu’s legal defense had previously drawn scrutiny. A state permits panel rejected attempts by Netanyahu to obtain substantial financial assistance from wealthy associates, saying it was inappropriate for benefactors to finance his defense in a criminal case centered in part on allegations that he received gifts from wealthy businessmen. The panel also previously ordered Netanyahu to return money he had received from his cousin Nathan Milikowsky for legal expenses.

An unnamed source aware of Packer’s payments told the Sydney Morning Herald that the transfers should be investigated to determine whether any of the money had directly or indirectly provided Netanyahu with an undisclosed benefit. The newspaper repeatedly stressed that it had found no evidence establishing that this had occurred.

Asked by the Australian newspaper about the payments, a Netanyahu spokesperson responded: “I couldn’t give a monkey’s about your questions. We are very busy. We have an election on right now.”


Man who stormed into Jewish wedding on ‘hate spree’ given a community order
A man who stormed into a Jewish wedding reception on a “hate spree” and shouted abuse at guests has been given a community order.

Joseph Nixon, 43, had returned to Liverpool’s Adelphi Hotel in the early hours of September 15 last year when he confronted Jack Surpree, who had been best man at the wedding, Liverpool Magistrates’ Court heard on Monday.

Louise Coe, prosecuting, said Surpree left his brother’s wedding reception, in a function room of the hotel, with his teenage sister at about 12.45am and was in the reception area when he was approached by Nixon and another man.

Nixon, of Armagh, Northern Ireland, was said to have asked him whether he supported Palestine and then, after Surpree ignored him, whether he supported Israel.

The court heard Surpree then “clearly” heard him say: “You Jewish bastards.”

In a statement, Surpree said he went to take his phone out of his jacket pocket and saw the man’s facial expression change, which made him “fear he was going to become violent” towards him and his sister.

He said the two men then entered the function room where he could hear “aggressive” shouts of “Jews are murderers” and “you guys are killing babies”.

The incident was said to have lasted seven to eight minutes before Nixon was arrested.

In a victim impact statement read to the court, Surpree said: “I remember feeling shocked. I had never been the victim of hate before that day.”
Maniac who stabbed rabbi with syringe in NYC claims mistaken ID, as prosecutors say she spared Muslim from similar fate
The lawyer for the maniac who allegedly stabbed a rabbi and another Jewish man in two separate attacks just minutes apart in Midtown Manhattan claimed Sunday that her arrest was a case of mistaken identity.

Anna Mochalova faces several charges for the two attacks on Wednesday – including a terrifying instance where she stalked and jabbed a 26-year-old rabbi with a syringe, according to a complaint by the Manhattan DA’s office as hate crimes.

Mochalova targeted a man wearing a yarmulke two blocks just minutes after she allegedly stabbed the young rabbi, prosecutors said in Manhattan Criminal Court.

Mochalova bumped into the man several times, causing a stinging sensation in his right arm, prosecutors alleged – before chillingly telling the man “run away from here. I have a gun. I’m going to shoot you,” according to authorities.

Prosecutors said the madwoman then turned to a third man, who was spared from her harassment because he told her he was Muslim.

“The conduct in these incidents is scary and concerning and the defendant faces serious charges as a result,” Assistant District Attorney Emily Hong said in court.

“She selected both of her targets because she believed them to be Jewish,” the prosecutor said.

But Mochalova’s lawyer Lila Carpenter told the court that the alleged attacker had no prior arrests and is gainfully employed, arguing that “there may be an ID issue” by cops for her client.

“These allegations are concerning. Whether they’re my client’s is a different story,” Carpenter told Judge Linda Capitti.

The judge set bail at $50,000, citing the seriousness of the allegations as well as surveillance video of the alleged attacks.

Yitty, 31, a coordinator with the Manhattan Shomrim, told The Post via video call that the Jewish community is “happy” with the court’s decision.
Jewish man beaten in Berlin in suspected antisemitic attack
An unidentified suspect assaulted a 60-year-old Jewish man in a Berlin park on Saturday, the city’s police department said on Sunday, describing the incident as a suspected antisemitic attack.

The assailant punched the man, knocking him to the ground, after confirming he was Jewish, according to a Berlin Police statement. The victim suffered minor injuries to his face.

The incident, which happened on Gleditsch St. in the Berlin district of Schoenberg, began with the suspect offering the victim beer, according to the statement. Upon hearing that the man was Jewish, the suspect began cursing him, threw a can of beer at him, which missed, and poured some beer on him before assaulting him and fleeing the scene. According to Der Spiegel, the suspect hit the man several times before fleeing.

“The State Security Division of the Berlin State Criminal Police Office has taken over the investigation into suspected aggravated assault with an antisemitic motive,” Berlin Police said.

Last month, a woman wearing a Star of David pendant was allegedly stabbed after being accosted by two unidentified men in central Berlin at around 2:30 a.m., according to a police statement about that case.

The Berlin-based Federal Association of Departments for Research and Information on Antisemitism recorded 8,725 antisemitic incidents in Germany last year, constituting a slight increase over 2024. The 2022 tally stood at 2,480 incidents.


Palantir CEO says Israel is the "minor exception" in AI race dominated by U.S. and China
Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir Technologies, believes the global race in artificial intelligence has only two serious contenders, with Israel as a partial exception.

“With a minor exception in Israel, they’re the only relevant countries,” Karp said of the United States and China in a conversation with Leon Kalvaria, Citigroup’s global chairman of banking. Palantir posted the video on October 23.

The remark was brief and came without further explanation, but it fits a pattern of Karp treating Israel as a special case. The wider conversation touched on Palantir’s security work, the political risks of AI-driven wealth concentration and his view that Europe will have to buy its AI technology from one of the two dominant powers.

Karp said the competition is increasingly about controlling the entire technology stack, from chips and the software that runs on them to the systems connecting corporate data with AI models, the applications built on top and the infrastructure needed to deploy them without surrendering intellectual property.

“That’s all currently in the Western America and/or in China,” he said. “And everybody who’s not is actually some weird derivative. It doesn’t really count. They can’t compete.”

Karp estimated that the United States has a lead of about six months. He said China’s strengths, including running models with less computing power, offering lower prices and using distillation, a technique for training smaller models on the outputs of larger ones, would remain significant.

“Our advantage is creativity. Their advantage is scale,” he said.

His assessment of Europe was more blunt. The continent, he said, “is going to have to buy one of those products,” a prospect he described as regrettable.
Intel to acquire Israeli quantum startup Classiq for $2.3 billion
The first major exit for Israel’s quantum industry: Classiq, a developer of operating systems for quantum computers, is being acquired by Intel for $2.3 billion in a combination of cash and stock. The deal would make Classiq the most expensive quantum company acquisition to date, by a significant margin. The previous record was set last year, when IonQ acquired Oxford Ionics for $1 billion.

The transaction also marks a major acquisition for Intel, which paid approximately $1 billion for Israeli mobility company Moovit six years ago and $2 billion for Habana Labs a year earlier. Intel has made other acquisitions since then, including the Israeli company Granulate, but those deals were valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Intel has not acquired another Israeli company since the Granulate deal in 2022.

For Israelis accustomed to multibillion-dollar exits in cybersecurity, $2.3 billion might not seem particularly large. In quantum computing, however, it represents a landmark deal. Despite the excitement surrounding the field, quantum computers have yet to achieve widespread practical commercial use. There are currently only 117 quantum computers worldwide, and they remain prohibitively expensive and largely inaccessible.

Quantum computing has shown promise for decades, and the field has recorded several significant breakthroughs over the past two years. Yet it has not experienced its own “ChatGPT moment,” a breakthrough that would bring the technology into widespread use.

Despite its small size, Israel is considered one of the world’s five leading countries in quantum computing, both in the number of companies operating in the field and in the volume of private investment. Intel’s acquisition of Classiq for more than $2 billion could draw greater investor attention to Israel and provide another catalyst for the development of its quantum industry.

The deal recalls Intel’s acquisition of Mobileye, the autonomous-driving company founded by Amnon Shashua, a decade ago. That transaction helped trigger a wave of investment in Israeli companies in the sector. The hope is that Classiq’s exit will have a similar effect, with even better long-term results for the industry.
Legendary Jewish actor Walter Koenig, 'Star Trek's' plucky Chekov, dies at 90
Walter Koenig, who brought humor and grit to the role of starship navigator Pavel Chekov on the classic 1960s sci-fi TV series "Star Trek" and seven subsequent feature films, has died at the age of 90.

"My heart is heavy. Walter Koenig, our Ensign Pavel Chekov, passed away early today," George Takei, who starred alongside Koenig in the show and was a long-time friend, wrote on Facebook on Monday. Koenig died at his home in Los Angeles, the AP reported, citing his talent agent.

"Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry picked Koenig, who had played only a few prior roles on television, when he decided to add a Russian character to the crew of the fictional Starship Enterprise. The introduction of a Russian officer who worked harmoniously with a racially and culturally diverse crew came amid the real-world Cold War tensions of the era.

"We were stating tacitly that peoples of all races and creeds, nationalities could not only co-exist but care for each other deeply, and in doing so we were heralding a future that was very optimistic," Koenig once told a BBC interviewer.

While Koenig was the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, he used an inauthentic Russian accent that was sometimes played for laughs.





 


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