Tuesday, October 27, 2026

10/27 Links Pt2: Yes, We Have No Bananas But please don’t blame the Jews; How UK Sanctions on Israel Ignore the Oslo Accords; As Paris lectures Israel, riots leave its Jews fearing for their safety

From Ian:

David Frum: Yes, We Have No Bananas But please don’t blame the Jews.
Do supporters of Israel have to deny the false accusation? Okay, here goes. U.S. military aid to Israel is set at $3.8 billion a year from 2019 to 2028—about one-20th of 1 percent of the total federal budget. In 2024, Congress approved a $95 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel, and other allies—of which, nearly two-thirds went to Ukraine, about $15 billion went to Israel, and about $9 billion was directed to humanitarian relief, including assistance for Gazan civilians displaced by the war that Hamas started. (The rest went to Taiwan and other allies in the Indo-Pacific region.)

Almost all U.S. assistance to Israel takes the form of credits that Israel can use only to buy American-made equipment. This assistance provides at least two direct and immediate benefits to Americans. First, it buys the United States access to Israeli military technology. By partly underwriting the development of Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system, the U.S. has gained the use of battle-tested systems that also protect American lives. Second, this assistance lowers the per-unit cost of U.S. systems. The United States buys up to 48 F-35 fighters a year. Israel has bought 75 and is considering an estimated 25 more. Foreign orders allow U.S. arms manufacturers to improve their economies of scale. At a time when other NATO allies are canceling their orders of American equipment because they no longer fully trust the U.S. as an ally or supplier, Israeli orders enhance the efficiency of American defense production.

Meanwhile, all U.S. aid to Israel amounts to a fraction of what Israel’s critics wish to spend domestically. Despite the implications of that El-Sayed ad: Americans spend $1.1 trillion a year on groceries. Canceling aid to Israel would deliver the equivalent of about 30 hours of that spending. Per Mamdani’s complaint that Israel is to blame for bad housing in New York City: The city’s housing authority estimates its backlog of deferred maintenance at almost $80 billion, or about 20 years’ worth of U.S. assistance to Israel at present levels. Expanding Medicare to cover all American citizens would cost perhaps more than $32 trillion in additional federal spending over the first decade. Covering even one month of this plan would take 70 years’ worth of aid to Israel.

By blaming the Jewish state for the price of bananas in Michigan, the super-PAC ad calls to mind political tricks older and more disturbing than the one attributed to Johnson. In 1899, Karl Lueger, the mayor of Vienna and one of the most notorious anti-Semites of the 19th century, gave a speech blaming the Habsburg empire’s economic troubles on its Jews. “Here in our Austrian fatherland the situation is such that the Jews have seized a degree of influence which exceeds their number and importance,” he argued. “And in this respect the Jews operate a terrorism of a kind that could hardly be worse. For us, in Austria, it is a matter of liberating Christian people from the hegemony of Jewry.”

As with the rising cost of living in the U.S., the problem Lueger was concerned with was real. His voter base of artisans and craftspeople was coming under immense pressure from factory competition. There was not much Lueger could do about his voters’ distress. But he could point them toward a politically useful target. Now, with a modest update of Lueger’s language, an outside PAC’s closing argument in one of the most watched Senate races of 2026 blames a familiar “they/them.”
How UK Sanctions on Israel Ignore the Oslo Accords
The announcement by British Foreign Minister Ed Miliband that the UK government intends to impose sanctions on products manufactured by Israeli businesses in Judea and Samaria reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. The stated justification for the sanctions is the claim that Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria constitute a major obstacle to achieving a "two-state solution."

Yet the UK Foreign Minister appears to be totally ignorant of the fact that neither the Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinian leadership, nor any other international determination, contain any commitment to a "two-state solution." Instead, the parties committed to negotiating an agreement on the "permanent status" of the territory that could ostensibly lead to one, two or three states, or any other agreed solution. But neither the UK nor any other authority has the right to impose any solution on the parties.

In light of the UK's misguided fixation with the "two-state solution," one may ask why the UK has never imposed sanctions on Palestinians who have repeatedly rejected the "two-state solution" and openly engaged in advocating, financing and supporting terror? Why did the UK not impose sanctions on Yasser Arafat for rejecting the peace deal brokered by U.S. President Clinton in 2000, or on Mahmoud Abbas for rejecting the 2008 peace deal offered by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert?

On the issue of Israeli citizens constructing homes, the UK Foreign Secretary appears to be ignorant of the terms of the Oslo Accords, which allow Israel to build in the part of the territory it administers (Area C), just as the Palestinian Authority builds in Areas A and B under its jurisdiction. The accords contain no provision preventing planning, zoning, and construction by the parties in areas under their respective jurisdiction.

Countries that supported the Oslo Accords are now adopting policies, at the behest of the Palestinian leadership, that fundamentally undermine the accords. Invalidating the accords could mean invalidating the Palestinian Authority itself.
How Anti-Zionism Harms Palestinians
Moderate Palestinians know that you cannot build a Palestinian state by destroying its Jewish neighbor.

The only viable path to long-term self-determination is a political process that recognizes the legitimacy and permanence of a Jewish state.

The refusal of anti-Zionist Palestinian leaders to accept offers of statehood from 1937 onwards has condemned the Palestinian people to decades of war, insecurity, poverty and statelessness.

The BDS movement has also been disastrous for Palestinians. By calling for Israel's destruction, its advocates signal to the Palestinians that they should abandon all attempts at coexistence with their Israeli neighbors because their state will soon disappear.

This fuels impossible dreams. Naturally, Israel's refusal to bend in the face of such rejectionism only further embitters Palestinians committed to BDS strategy.

Before Oct. 7, 163,000 Palestinians were employed in Israel and in Judea and Samaria. Their income accounted for 20% of Palestinian GDP, injecting $4 billion into the economy.

The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics noted that 22.5% of employed Palestinians in Judea and Samaria worked in Israel or in Israeli communities in 2022.

After Oct. 7, Israel suspended all work permits. While some have been reinstated, more than 100,000 jobs for Palestinians have been lost.


Pain endures 2,922 days after Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, Gov. Shapiro says
Eight years later, to the day, since the mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh on Oct. 27, 2018, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish, called on Americans to remember the “deadliest act of antisemitism in American history.”

“It’s been 2,922 days since the attack, but the pain still lingers in our commonwealth,” Shapiro stated. “Today, we offer prayers of comfort to those touched by this violence.”

“Let today be a moment for action, remembrance and resolve to combat antisemitism in all forms,” he wrote in a statement that also named all 11 of the victims.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), who in previous years has released joint statements with Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.), stated that the victims were “brutally murdered in a vile, antisemitic attack.” He also named the 11 victims.

Fetterman was one of more than a dozen members of Congress to issue statements on social media about the anniversary of the attack.

Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), who lost his primary, stated in his post about the anniversary that “sadly, Jewish institutions—including synagogues—must now spend $1 billion to provide the necessary security so a mass shooting like the one at Tree of Life doesn’t happen again.”

“Today, we remember the 11 innocent lives tragically stolen in the Tree of Life synagogue shooting,” stated Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), a former House speaker. “We commit ourselves to confronting the rising tide of antisemitism, rejecting hatred and ensuring every American is safe to worship in peace.”


Poisonous Lies about Zionism
The precisely engineered stone paving of the Pilgrimage Road in the Old City of Jerusalem, built 2,200 years ago, has recently been restored and the road opened to the public. Roman legionnaires ran amok here in 70CE, burning the shops and houses and slaughtering the Jewish rebels.

The road is proof that Zionism is not a "settler-colonial" ideology. In truth, the Jewish connection to Israel reaches back millennia to the time of Abraham. Jewish kings and dynasties exercised centuries of intermittent sovereignty from the Davidic era, around 3,000 years ago.

The father of modern Zionism, Theodor Herzl, argued that deep-rooted antisemitism meant the Jews had no future in Europe. He was correct, as later events proved. Modern Zionism was one of many modern anti-colonial movements pressuring the creaking Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires to grant freedom to their subject peoples. Palestinian leaders at the time - unlike their counterparts nowadays - acknowledged the historic Jewish connection to the Holy Land.

In November 1947, the UN passed Resolution 181. It proposed dividing Palestine, then under British rule, into independent Jewish and Arab states. The Zionist leadership accepted it. The Palestinians did not. The secretary-general of the Arab League declared that a Jewish state would lead to "a war of extermination and momentous massacre." In May 1948, five Arab armies invaded. There was no war of extermination. Instead Israel, fighting for its life, won.

Offered numerous opportunities for peace and statehood, the Palestinians have refused every one. Instead they - and Hamas - have been rewarded by Western countries with recognition of a ghost state that does not exist.
France in flames: As Paris lectures Israel, riots leave its Jews fearing for their safety
Macron has forgotten that the presidency is more than a title, a palace and a flag. The images coming from France are a political humiliation for the president and the French leadership.

Anyone seeking to embody European leadership must explain why citizens in his own country are forced to pray that the next protest will pass over their businesses.

Israel remembers French moralizing all too well. On the eve of the Six Day War, France imposed an arms embargo and withheld Mirage aircraft ordered by Israel. Fifty Mirage 5 jets ordered in 1966 were never delivered under the agreement and instead entered French service.

From an Israeli perspective, this was a betrayal of trust by a major supplier at a moment of danger. Behind the lofty language of balance and responsibility stood a decision demonstrating how friendship can become conditional on diplomatic convenience.

France does not enter this debate with clean hands.

In Algeria, France operated a system that enabled torture and disappearances, as Macron himself acknowledged in the case of Maurice Audin. In Paris in October 1961, police killed dozens of Algerian demonstrators, including victims who were thrown into the Seine and drowned.

The colonial stain and hypocrisy did not end in Algeria. In Madagascar, France brutally suppressed the 1947 uprising, killing thousands. President Francois Hollande later acknowledged the brutal repression and its victims.

Behind the slogan of a civilizing mission stood a reality in which demands for independence were answered with military force. The liberty France presented as a universal value ended when people under French rule sought to exercise it themselves.

It is difficult to imagine a sharper contradiction between declaration and action: liberty for the ruling nation and subjugation for the people it ruled.

The depth of that betrayal was also exposed in Senegal. In December 1944, French forces opened fire on African soldiers at the Thiaroye military camp after those men had served France and demanded the pay owed to them.

Men who had risked their lives for France discovered that their service did not guarantee equal treatment. Macron recognized the incident as a massacre in 2024, 80 years after it occurred.

That recognition was important, but the delay remains painful. It took decades to call the killing by its proper name. This was not only colonial brutality. It was also state-sanctioned ingratitude.

The philosopher and author Maarten Boudry published a powerful monologue on X/Twitter about the riots in Europe:

“Before long, we will all know what it feels like to be Jewish. In France, they already know. This will be the punishment we deserve for abandoning the Jews, ignoring their warnings, turning against them, and even marching alongside their oppressors.

“For three years, you useful idiots marched with Palestinian flags, wore keffiyehs, screamed ‘From the river to the sea,’ and recognized a fictitious Palestinian state as a reward for the Hamas massacre of Oct. 7. You boycotted the world’s only Jewish state, defamed the Jewish people’s right to self-determination, and spread the blood libel of ‘genocide in Gaza.’

“Did you think that if you fed the crocodile enough Jewish flesh, it would eventually be satisfied? All you did was strengthen the monster and further stimulate its appetite.

“The Palestinian flag has become a flag of victory, proudly raised among the ruins of historic buildings that were looted and vandalized. It is a symbol of hatred toward our culture and everything it represents. It never ends with the Jews.”

France is paying, and will continue to pay, the price of its arrogance. Human rights were presented as a noble promise but were repeatedly subordinated to the interests of those in power.

There is now a simple demand of France’s leaders. Before presenting yourselves as judges of the world, acknowledge your own responsibility. Open the archives and give the victims a place more dignified than a footnote in a ceremonial speech.

Even if France eventually withdraws its support for the forces of evil represented by Palestinian terrorists who murdered, raped, mutilated, and abducted approximately 1,500 innocent Israeli and foreign civilians, history will not forget.


BBC bias exposed: Producer gets £400k payout after anti-Jewish abuse
On Monday’s episode of The Daily T, Tim Stanley and Jacob Rees-Mogg are joined by Lucie Kon, an award-winning Jewish documentary-maker who received a £400,000 payout from the BBC over claims she was the victim of anti-Semitism and was bullied out of the broadcaster.

Kon said she had been victimised after the Oct 7 terrorist attacks by colleagues who said Zionists such as her were “evil”.

The BBC was also accused of adjusting her credit on several works, including Mr Nobody against Putin, for which she won an Oscar, with Kon saying: “My name was hidden in the middle of the credits.” As part of the  non-financial remedies in the settlement, the BBC will give her name more prominence in the credits.

The BBC was also accused of adjusting her credit on several works, including Mr Nobody against Putin, for which she won an Oscar, with Kon saying: “My name was hidden in the middle of the credits.” As part of the  non-financial remedies in the settlement, the BBC will give her name more prominence in the credits.

CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Introduction & £400,000 BBC Settlement
02:14 - Defining Zionism Among Colleagues
04:04 - October 7 Reactions in the Newsroom
07:06 - Downing Street Vigil & Language Controversies
09:10 - Forming the BBC Jewish Staff Group
10:44 - Impartiality & Accusations of Bias
13:12 - Double Standards in Documentary Production
15:18 - Antisemitism & DEI Culture
19:29 - Groupthink Inside the BBC
20:50 - The Grievance Process & Retaliation
22:46 - Redundancy & Emmy Nominations
25:42 - BBC's Official Statement & Legal Settlement
28:07 - Impact on Health & Final Reflections


spiked: ‘The BBC is terrified of its activist staff’ | BBC veteran speaks out on bias woke and anti-Semitism
Phil Craig – filmmaker, TV producer and host of the Scandal Mongers podcast – joins spiked’s Fraser Myers to discuss the BBC’s crisis of impartiality, how it got the Gaza war so wrong, and whether public-service broadcasting can ever work in the age of the culture war.

00:00 Introduction
00:31 Why has Phil lost faith in the BBC?
01:04 'I still believe in public service broadcasting'
01:23 The rise of open hatred of Jews
02:08 A 'frenzy' stress-testing Britain's institutions
02:16 A demoralised BBC leadership
02:38 Fran Unsworth and the 'tail wagging the dog'
03:02 The Gaza hospital blast and the BBC's response
03:51 Phil's 'heartstring-tugging' documentaries complaint
04:10 'I'm a little torn': Phil's love for the BBC
04:29 Why do all the mistakes go in the same direction?
05:02 Propaganda, war crimes and Gaza
05:27 The October 7 documentary and the press officers
06:27 Hannah Barnes and the Tavistock scandal
07:38 The BBC culture Phil grew up in
08:29 Has journalism become activism?
08:56 What the ABC in Australia teaches us
10:16 The Sydney march and the Bondi shooting
11:28 Where did this culture come from?
11:57 Is there antisemitism at the BBC?
12:27 When the unacceptable becomes 'cool'
14:00 Kneecap and the Irish media class
14:42 Can the BBC win back public trust?
15:40 Why Phil blames Rishi Sunak and the Met
16:21 How to fix the BBC


Ben Shapiro: Hollywood Actually Pushed Back on the 'Genocide' Smear — for Once
A civil war broke out on the set of 'Nobody Wants This' over Israel. Adam Brody called it 'genocide.' His castmates pushed back.


NOBODY Destroyed Dave Smith Better Than Konstantin Just Did!

Abdul El-Sayed Criticized US Drone Killing of 9/11 Mastermind al-Zawahiri as ‘Troubling’ and ‘a Fig Leaf’
Abdul E-Sayed wrote that it was "troubling" that the United States killed the al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri—who is widely considered the mastermind of 9/11—in a 2022 targeted drone strike. Killing al-Zawahiri was "a fig leaf" to cover up the disastrous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, El-Sayed wrote in 2022.

In the piece, "Projecting Strength Abroad Isn't Simply About Killing Terrorists. It's About Standing Up to Despots, Too," which was published in the New Republic on Aug. 5, 2022, El-Sayed spoke out against the CIA drone strike that successfully took out al-Zawahiri, a fellow Egyptian who'd joined the Muslim Brotherhood as a teenager and ultimately rose to lead al Qaeda.

"President Biden is using the strike to bolster his approval here at home. It is troubling to watch yet another American president flog 'War on Terror' themes to resurrect a laggard term," El-Sayed sniffed in the article.

El-Sayed went on to accuse Biden of launching the attack on al-Zawahiri—who'd been on the FBI's 10 most wanted terrorist list for almost 21 years—as a way to arrest sliding approval numbers stemming from the disastrous United States withdrawal from Afghanistan.

"This strike," he went on, "offers the Biden administration a fig leaf, demonstrating that even in Taliban hands, Afghanistan is not off-limits for direct action against terrorist targets," El-Sayed wrote, adding that Biden did it in order to "project strength" for Democrats heading into the midterm elections that year.

Though he spent most of his career in the shadow of Osama bin Laden, al-Zawahiri is widely credited as the organizational mastermind behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania.

"He was deeply involved in the planning of 9/11, one of the most responsible for the attacks that murdered 2,977 people on American soil," President Biden said in a statement after the strike.

Scholars of Islamic extremism say it was al-Zawahiri who came up with the intellectual rationale for al Qaeda striking American targets and was behind not just 9/11, but also a series of deadly attacks on Americans overseas in the years leading up to 2001.


Meet the LA Actress in Cenk Uygur's Antisemitic Michigan Ad: A 'Free Palestine' Activist Who Called To Ban Gas in Buildings
The "mom" featured in a controversial Michigan Senate ad struggling to pay for eggs—and blaming the war in Gaza—is a Los Angeles-based actress who boasted of shutting down "a big intersection in Hollywood" as part of an anti-Israel protest and submitted public testimony calling on California to ban natural gas in new buildings, a Washington Free Beacon review found.

The actress, Kael Lalonde, describes herself as an "Artist, raised by Artists" who tells "stories through film, poetry, painting, mixed media and even jewelry making." She says her work "is a manifestation of the belief in the use of Art as a means for holistic healing and trauma transmutation." Lalonde is the founder of Free Will Films, a Los Angeles-based "Independent Production Company" that touts its work producing social media ads for the Redondo Beach steakhouse Pacific Standard Prime. She is also the star of Eyes Within You, an independent short film following a woman who "chooses to take care of her dying Mother at home and in facing her greatest fears finds herself as an Artist in the process."

Lalonde's best-known work, however, is almost certainly her role in Cenk Uygur's ad supporting the left-wing Michigan Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed. It depicts a couple in a grocery store who link the price of eggs and bananas in the United States to Israel and its fight against Hamas in Gaza. "We have to set that $7 aside for killing Palestinians," Lalonde says as her actor husband picks up a carton of eggs. The ad goes on to accuse El-Sayed's Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, of dual loyalties.

Anti-Israel activism is nothing new for Lalonde, who boasted of attending a "Ceasefire Now" protest in November 2023—just weeks after Hamas's Oct. 7 terror attack—that saw activists shut down Hollywood Boulevard. "Tears fell hard as did the rain," Lalonde wrote in a June 2024 Instagram post featuring video footage from the protest. "We shut down a big intersection in Hollywood and I stayed standing for hours longer than I should have because of my pain." A year later, in August 2025, she called on her followers to participate in a "Global Strike for Gaza" by making "no purchases of any kind on Thursdays." Lalonde's post accused Israel of "moving to ethnically cleanse Gaza City."

Lalonde has also engaged in activism that is not aligned with the affordability message presented in Uygur's ad. In June 2021, she signed a letter organized by the left-wing environmental group Sierra Club California calling on California's energy commission to "end its reliance on dangerous and dirty fossil gas" by banning the use of natural gas in new buildings. The policy would lead to higher energy bills due to the higher cost of electricity compared with natural gas, according to the National Association of Home Builders. The Michigan House passed a bill in 2025 to prevent local governments from banning natural gas in new buildings, though the measure stalled in the Democrat-controlled state Senate.


Former Haley Stevens campaign chair and prominent Democratic fundraiser says he plans to vote for Rogers
David Kramer, a prominent Michigan Democratic fundraiser who served as the chair of Rep. Haley Stevens’ (D-MI) Senate campaign, told Jewish Insider on Monday in an interview and written statement that, despite reservations, he plans to support Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers in next week’s Michigan Senate election.

Kramer, who also previously served as finance chair of Sen. Elissa Slotkin’s (D-MI) Senate campaign, said he had been wrestling with whether to vote for Rogers or leave the Senate race on his ballot blank, but that Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed’s recent rhetoric provided a final push.

“As we get closer and closer to the general [election], it’s become clearer to me that Abdul is certainly not moderating at all, and I think really becoming more extreme and more dangerous and less responsive to the Jewish community,” Kramer told JI, while emphasizing that he remains a “proud Democrat” working to elect other Democrats on the ballot next week.

He said that he ultimately felt that it was more impactful to vote for Rogers than to leave the Senate race blank, and to publicize his decision to do so.

“I have lots of issues with Mike Rogers, and I’m not even willing to use words like ‘support,’” Kramer said. “But I’ve made peace with voting for him because I do think that he at least does care about Jews being safe and participating in public life, and he seems to know the difference between an enemy of ours in Iran and an ally of ours [in Israel].”

Kramer said that El-Sayed’s recent comments arguing that Israel is not a friend or ally of the United States and is instead a threat to it, in his view, went beyond even the candidate’s previous rhetoric and were a “bridge too far.”

But he characterized it as the culmination of a consistent pattern of “this blood libel of ‘the Jews are to blame for everything’” from El-Sayed’s campaign.


Revealed: The middle class 'wokerati' designer who grew up in a £1.5million London home behind the campaign to bring down Gail's
There was a time when Gail's was famed simply for its artisanal sourdough bread, cinnamon buns and speciality coffee – not to mention its signature pistachio, lemon and rose cakes.

In recent times, however, the bakery chain has become infamous as the target of increasingly angry backlash and protests.

These began with residents living near proposed new stores standing up for small independent traders and against the gentrification Gail's was perceived to bring.

But the company, with its Jewish roots, also quickly became the focus of activists, with opposition escalating into anti-Israeli protests leading to acts of wanton vandalism.

This is despite campaigners against anti-Semitism insisting 'the association of the bakery with Jews, Israel and rapacious capitalism' is a 'classic trope'.

The opening of Gail's latest branch, in Brixton, south-west London, was met by the erection of billboards claiming the firm's arrival embodied 'the current wave of what can only be described as late-stage gentrification' in the area.

Then came the ones featuring loaves of bread strapped to bombs. They urge locals to 'avoid Gail's' warning of 'a rising threat' while linking the firm to the 'genocidal state of Israel'.

Now the Daily Mail can reveal one of the men behind the campaign is a 'wokerati' graphic designer who hails from a wealthy upper middle-class family with historic links to the British establishment.

But Marlo Swann McNair Plowden, 28, appears to have cast aside his privileged roots to reinvent himself as a Left-wing activist.

After earning a first-class degree at Manchester Metropolitan University, Marlo set out on a mission to use his graphic skills to persuade others to align with his political stance.

One description of his work explains: 'For Marlo, art and design serve as tools for examining the use of language, both visual and written, and its pivotal role in shaping belief systems.

'When used effectively, they become essential in influencing collective action in today's society.'

Describing himself as an illustrator 'for positive social change', the activist – who likes to be known simply as Marlo – has been behind previous London-wide anti-Israeli protests he calls 'infographic guerilla campaigns'.

He has attended pro-Palestinian marches and was photographed standing in front of a Workers Revolutionary Party and Young Socialists banner at one protest, which called for a 'general strike' to stop government support for Israel.


New York Times Falsifies Netanyahu Quote, Alleges He Is Anti-Islam
The New York Times appears to have fabricated a quote it attributed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In Roger Cohen’s Oct. 27 article, “Two Visions, Two Israels, One Nation in the Balance” the paper of record wrote:
Mr. Netanyahu, who seemed doomed after the Oct. 7 attack, has revived his fortunes through the assassinations of the leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, as he has stood with the global far right in the name of what he calls a “civilizational alliance against Islam.”

CAMERA was unable to find such a quote attributable to Prime Minister Netanyahu – in English or in Hebrew.

The Times, like anyone, is free to analyze or critique Israel’s and Netanyahu’s policies and actual words. It is not, however, permitted to invent false quotes which suggest the democratically elected leader of a sovereign nation has declared an alliance against a religion practiced by one quarter of the world’s population (approximately two billion people), which is also practiced by approximately 20% of Israeli citizens.

Such inaccurate coverage of Israel by The Times has often carried serious consequences. After its botched coverage falsely attributed an explosion at al-Ahli Hospital to an Israeli airstrike (it was actually hit by a Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket), violent riots spread throughout the Arab world and diplomatic initiatives aimed at addressing the conflict were scuttled. It even scuttled one effort to protect Gazan civilians during the war.

There is no question the Prime Minister has made statements – forceful ones – decrying radical Islam and Islamist extremists or militants. In February 2026, Netanyahu described alliances against the “radical Shia axis” and “emerging radical Sunni axis.” In the months after the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks in Israel, he proclaimed there was a war between civilization and barbarism – not Islam. More than a decade ago, Netanyahu made clear in his 2014 speech to the United Nations that what he was talking about was “not Islam, but rather, “radical Islam.”


Irishman who threatened to shoot Jewish tourist in France given suspended prison sentence
An Irishman who threatened to shoot a Jewish woman during a confrontation in a French supermarket has been given a six-month suspended prison sentence after being convicted of antisemitic death threats and attempting to justify crimes against humanity.

Patrick O’Brien, 60, was sentenced by a court in Avignon on Friday after admitting making the threats against an Australian tourist in August.

The woman, whose father survived the Holocaust and whose relatives were murdered at Auschwitz, was shopping with her husband when the encounter took place.

O’Brien was filmed threatening to “put a bullet” in her head and was also accused of saying: “I’m sorry Hitler didn’t finish the job.”

The confrontation began on 11 August at a hypermarket in Le Pontet, near Avignon, when the couple struck up a friendly conversation with O’Brien about the husband’s France football shirt.

The discussion turned to Ireland’s position on Israel before becoming heated.

Avignon prosecutor Stéphanie Aouine said O’Brien became aggressive and made antisemitic remarks. When the woman began filming him, he walked away before threatening to kill her if the couple did not leave him alone.

Police later identified O’Brien, originally from Dublin but now living in France, using CCTV footage.

A search of his home uncovered electronic devices containing further racist material, including a statement about wanting to “get rid of trash from the third world”, the court heard.

O’Brien admitted his actions and expressed regret, telling investigators he had lost his temper during the argument.

Aouine said: “He admitted to the facts while putting them in context – he stated that he regretted his remarks, explaining that he had let anger get the better of him.”

During the proceedings, O’Brien also cited health problems and described himself as a “committed humanist” opposed to violence.

The court ordered him to pay €500 in compensation to each victim, as well as €300 each to Jewish organisations CHAR and B’nai B’rith.

Judges rejected a prosecution request to ban him from France for three years.

The sentence drew criticism from CHAR, the Campaign against Hate, Antisemitism and Racism, which welcomed the conviction but argued that the punishment was too lenient.



Detroit area neighborhood again hit with antisemitic fliers
The Berkley Police Department, in the Detroit area, plans to increase patrols after residents reported that antisemitic fliers were left on lawns and sidewalks.

The Michigan city stated that it “was notified that fliers with antisemitic language were distributed to lawns, sidewalks and front aprons.”

Multiple Jewish institutions, including the new J-Detroit Woodward Campus and the Yad Ezra Kosher Food Pantry, are in the area.

“While no threat of violence was received, the department is increasing patrols in the area to ensure our community’s safety,” the city said. “Our focus at this time is on protecting everyone’s constitutional rights and enforcing local ordinances and state laws.”

“The city of Berkley stands firmly against antisemitism and hate in all forms,” it added.

Dropping fliers on private property violates city ordinances, including improper distribution of fliers, littering and trespassing.


Despite three years of war, Israel’s economy is growing faster than those of world’s richest nations
Israel has been involved in a multi-front war since the treacherous Hamas attack of 7 October, 2023. Conflict can have a devastating impact on national economies, as the Russian people have learned to their cost in the years since 2022, and Iran has discovered the coordinated US-Israel assaults on nuclear facilities and infrastructure.

Israel too has suffered. The frequent mobilisation of reservists has placed huge strains on the labour market. The state already suffers from poor participation in the workforce among the Charedi population and underemployment among Arab Israelis, particularly women.

The constant missile and drone bombardment on Israel’s cities and constant sirens have caused huge stress to family life. Some 150,000 Israelis, some of them talented tech and AI engineers, have left the country over the last three years, although the pace of outflow has dipped this year.

Many have family and friends who have decided to take a ‘time out’ from Israel: with an intention to return. One of my own cousins was drawn to Austin, Texas by a well-paid Dell tech job. He, his wife and her wider family have established a successful bakery and patisserie enterprise in the north of the city.

Reading some of the media coverage, one might think that Israel, so highly regarded for its R&D, tech and cyber defence infrastructure before the Gaza conflict, might be suffering from economic and trade isolation. At the peak of Israel’s campaign in Gaza, there were frequent reports of America’s ‘Magnificent Seven’ tech giants pulling out of Tel Aviv. Andy Burnham’s government, under pressure from backbenchers and pro-Palestinian sympathisers, has moved towards an embargo on goods and services generated in West Bank settlements.

Such disruption and hostility could have had a devastating impact on Israel’s economic condition. Quite the contrary. Despite the high fiscal costs and economic mayhem of running a wartime nation, the country’s economy is showing tremendous resilience. In most countries, elections are won and lost on ‘bread and butter’ issues. Bill Clinton’s famous phrase ‘it’s the economy, stupid’ still resonates among politicians some 34 years after it carried him to the White House. The impact on Israel’s October 27 elections, largely debated in strategic terms, is a known unknown.

Every year the Washington-based International Monetary Fund (IMF), the independent arbiter of a nation’s economic fortunes, conducts an annual inspection required under the articles of IMF membership. The inspection team confers with the finance ministry, prime minister’s office, central bank and independent forecasters and banks.

The Netanyahu government and Israel emerged from this summer’s opening of the books relatively unscarred. The forecast for the nation’s output was downgraded from a healthy 4.8 percent to 3.5 percent. Using a favourite measure of the post-2024 British Labour governments, that means Israel, for all its difficulties, is growing faster than all the richest G7 countries (including the United States).

Israel doesn’t entirely receive a clean bill of health. The IMF warns that disarray in jobs and production caused by constant conflict in the Middle East will pose medium-term problems. The country faces labour supply difficulties caused by frequent military mobilisations and reduced availability of non-Israeli workers – Palestinians and those from further afield.

In common with most of the Western democracies, it also faces the cost of living problem. Energy prices are set globally, and Israel suffers from interruptions of supplies through the Gulf of Hormuz and the highly volatile global oil price. Similarly, it faces elevated costs due to supply shortages of things such as fertilisers, some foods and manufactured goods. As might be expected, there are budgetary problems. The Fund recommends the government find ways of raising new revenues.
Business Secretary wants UK to replicate Israeli innovation as he hails Jewish entrepreneurs
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has said he wants to see the UK replicate the innovation coming out of Israel as he hailed the contribution of Jewish entrepreneurs to some of Britain’s best-known brands.

Speaking to Jewish News at the landmark Lancaster House Conference on antisemitism, Reynolds described Israel as “renowned for its innovation and the strength of its own tech sector”.

He said: “There are lots of times I’ve been with start-ups or scale-ups in the UK and, either through the people working for them or through the talent or the collaborations they’ve got, there is that UK–Israel relationship.

“I think Israel is admired in the UK for its tech sector. There’s a lot of synergy between the British and Israeli economies in that regard.”

He added that some of the businesses and innovation he admired or had seen coming out of Israel were something he “would like to see replicated to a great degree in the UK.”

The Lancaster House Conference brought together senior leaders, community figures and policymakers to discuss strengthening Jewish life and tackling antisemitism across the UK.

It was hosted by Lord Mann, the government’s independent adviser on antisemitism, and his office, and jointly sponsored by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

Angela Rayner, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, and Lisa Nandy, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, were also among the speakers.

During his keynote speech, Reynolds paid tribute to the contribution of Jewish entrepreneurs and business leaders to the British economy.

He said some of the nation’s most iconic business names had connections to Jewish families, citing Tesco, Shell, River Island and Marks & Spencer.

Asked by Jewish News what he would say to the next generation of Jewish businesspeople questioning whether they had a future in Britain because of the hostility they faced, Reynolds said he understood how distressing their experiences were.

“We’re absolutely determined to show people who feel that way that there is a future for them here,” he said.



 



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Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون



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

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