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Wednesday, November 04, 2026

11/04 Links Pt2: Study Finds Americans More Ambivalent About Violence Against Pro-Israel Jews; Sbarro bombing terrorist Ahlam Tamimi served with US lawsuit via X

From Ian:

Study Finds Americans More Ambivalent About Violence Against Pro-Israel Jews
A new study published in PNAS Nexus found that Americans shown attacks against Jews through victims’ support for Israel were significantly less likely to oppose the violence than those shown attacks through victims’ Jewish religious identity. In a preregistered, nationally representative survey of 2,000 U.S. adults, opposition fell by 8.5 percentage points when victims were described through expressions of Zionism rather than religious faith. The shift did not significantly increase support for the attacks. Instead, more respondents moved into an ambivalent position.

The study, by Princeton University researchers Rafaela Dancygier and Jonathan Mummolo and Dartmouth College professor Sean Westwood, also examined news coverage of U.S. anti-Jewish hate crimes after October 7, 2023. The researchers found that more than one in five headlines in their sample introduced Israel, Palestine, Gaza or another nationalist or geopolitical dimension.

Opposition Fell When Support for Israel Was Emphasized
The researchers conducted two experiments testing whether descriptions of an attack changed public reaction. In the religious condition, respondents were told about Jews attacked while entering a synagogue or because they wore a kippah. In the nationalist condition, they were told about Jews attacked for carrying an Israeli flag or saying Israel should exist as a homeland for the Jewish people.

The first experiment, conducted in December 2024 with 2,507 respondents, found an 8.17-point difference in opposition between the two treatments. Opposition stood at 86.1% under the religious condition and 77.9% under the nationalist condition, while ambivalence increased from 11.1% to 18.8%. Support remained essentially unchanged. After a multiple-comparisons correction, however, the first study’s results fell just short of conventional statistical significance.

The researchers then replicated the experiment in March 2025 with a preregistered YouGov survey of 2,000 U.S. adults. Opposition to attacks on Jews stood at 91.8% under the religious treatment and 83.3% under the nationalist treatment, an 8.5-point difference. Ambivalence rose from 5.3% to 16.4%, while the difference in outright support was not statistically significant.

One in Five Headlines Used a Nationalist Frame
The researchers separately analyzed news coverage of religious hate crimes reported between October 7, 2023 and the end of 2024. FBI data included in the study recorded 2,888 anti-Jewish incidents during that period, compared with 348 anti-Muslim incidents and 32 anti-Hindu incidents. Anti-Jewish incidents accounted for 71.9% of the single-bias religious hate crimes in the dataset.

Their media sample contained 2,048 articles covering 628 distinct anti-Jewish incidents. Among headlines about those attacks, 63.3% used only a religious frame, 10.7% used only a nationalist frame and another 11.2% combined both.

The researchers used OpenAI’s GPT-5.4 to classify headlines into nationalist, religious, both or neither categories, with human validation of the classifications. The study does not claim journalists deliberately used nationalist framing to minimize antisemitism. Its media analysis documents how attacks were presented, while the randomized experiments tested how those presentations can affect public attitudes.

Capital Jewish Museum Killings Illustrate the Divide
The study used the May 2025 killings of Israeli Embassy employees Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington as a case study. According to a Justice Department superseding indictment, alleged gunman Elias Rodriguez called out “Free Palestine” during the shooting. Prosecutors allege that after entering the museum he said, “I did it for Palestine. I did it for Gaza.”

Crucially, the researchers emphasized that there was no evidence Rodriguez knew Milgrim and Lischinsky worked for the Israeli Embassy or had selected them because of that affiliation. The paper states that he therefore could simply have been seeking to harm people he believed were Jewish. Milgrim was Jewish, while Lischinsky was not.

That distinction is central to the study’s framing analysis. The victims’ Israeli government employment gave news outlets a factual basis to describe them through an Israeli or geopolitical lens, even though the researchers found no evidence that their Embassy affiliation was known to the attacker when he targeted them.
Rise Of Antisemitism Since October 7: An Exclusive Interview with Eitan Chitayat
Eitan Chitayat is the founder of the international Natie Branding Agency, a branding and storytelling agency based in Tel Aviv. With nearly three decades of experience, he has worked with leading global brands, nonprofits, and cultural organizations, including Google, Apple, Facebook, and YouTube. He is also the creator of I’m That Jew, a Jewish storytelling and advocacy project whose content on Jewish identity, Israel, and antisemitism has reached around 400 million views across social media since October 7. What motivated you to create I’m That Jew, and what did you hope to achieve through the project?

I’ve told the story before, but it’s particularly timely because of what’s going on in France right now. Back in the day, if you remember the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo, Islamists and jihadi terrorists stormed the satirical magazine. They murdered French satirical journalists and staff. They also killed a few Jewish shoppers at a kosher supermarket in Paris. For people who remember, it was very, very shocking. It was a massacre.

Immediately afterwards, I reached out to a good friend of mine to see how she was doing. She’s Jewish; she was living in Paris, France. And she told me her now father-in-law and brother-in-law had visited that kosher supermarket just that morning. The conversation evolved into how scared she was of saying that she was Jewish. In fact, at the time, and this is not the case anymore, she hadn’t told anyone she was Jewish or that she had been to Israel.

So, as I expressed in my TEDx talk a few years later, that night I sat down and I wrote I’m That Jew. It started off being kind of like a letter to her. But it wasn’t specifically to her, I realized; rather, it was a response to what she had told me. It then very quickly became something that I was saying to myself, and then something I was saying to all of the Jewish people, reminding us who we are.

A lot of people have said the message of I’m That Jew is about antisemitism, or fighting antisemitism. And I think one of the best ways to fight antisemitism, which is foundational, is to not just be proud to be Jewish, but to be openly proud.

The message is that we need to be who we are, and being who we are means literally being who we are ‘openly’. Which is not easy, I know. But that was the inspiration. It was actually a letter to strengthen our identity and to remind us that we know who we are. We’re misunderstood, so we need to just keep being who we are and showing ourselves and the world who we actually are.

It’s so many different individual traits that make up the collective. We’re not a stereotype of one, two, or three things; we’re billions of things. And that’s what I wanted to say. We certainly don’t need to be afraid because the world’s messed up. I’m That Jew.

That was tremendously moving. How would you describe the landscape of antisemitism in America since October 7, 2023?

It’s allowed. I think that’s the big change.

People who have been following me know I’ve been a public Jewish advocate for around 20 years; I have my own small business, but I advocate for myself and my family and us all because I think it’s really important. I’ve been in this space observing what’s being written and said for a very long time. When I wrote I’m That Jew, for example, it was in response to a world event that affected the personal.

But there were other things that I’d expressed beforehand. Before October 7th, antisemitism wasn’t exactly underground, but it wasn’t as common, because there were some guardrails. And what we’ve seen since October 7th is that the guardrails have completely come off, and it’s allowed. You can’t say anything racist about Black people, and rightly so. You shouldn’t be misogynist. You shouldn’t be hating on gay people, or trans people, or Asian people.

But there’s an exception with the Jews, and there always has been.
Sbarro bombing terrorist Ahlam Tamimi served with US lawsuit via X
Ahlam Tamimi, the terrorist responsible for the Sbarro bombing in Jerusalem in 2001, was served with legal papers on X/Twitter on Tuesday in a case brought by the National Jewish Advocacy Center on behalf of the estate of Malka “Malki” Roth, according to the organization’s Rabbi Dr. Mark Goldfeder.

The US District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that Arnold and Frimet Roth, the parents of 15-year-old Malka Roth, could serve Tamimi with legal papers through social media on X/Twitter, because Tamimi continues to reside in Jordan at an unknown address.

Arnold Roth, speaking for the Roth family, said: “This lawsuit places Tamimi under legal pressure in an American court for the first time. We hope the case will also draw public attention to the fact that the US criminal prosecution has remained stalled for more than a decade.

“It’s incomprehensible and deeply troubling to us that in all these years, no US official has explained to us, as Malki’s family or to the public, how it is that Tamimi continues to enjoy a free life in Jordan, a US partner country. Justice for Malki and the other Sbarro victims, already thwarted for years, demands answers and accountability. We hope this lawsuit is only the beginning.”

After efforts to locate Tamimi’s address proved unsuccessful, the plaintiffs were instructed to contact Jordan-based media outlet Etar, where she works as a columnist, email Jordanian attorney Mustafa Nasrallah, who represented Tamimi in her fight against extradition, and publish the summons online.

The court determined that these combined steps could be “reasonably calculated” to ensure Tamimi received notice of the summons.

Tamimi is wanted for her role as an accomplice in the August 9, 2001, suicide bombing at the Sbarro restaurant in downtown Jerusalem, which killed 15 people, including seven children and a pregnant woman.

Tamimi, who was then a university student and part-time journalist, scouted the location and escorted the bomber to the restaurant before leaving the scene.


Trump aid bombshell could set off scramble to reprioritize upcoming arms buys
Without the US aid, Israel will still seek to purchase American weapons by making up for the difference with taxpayer funds. The Air Force relies almost entirely on US-built platforms, including F-15, F-16, and F-35 fighter jets, along with KC-46 refuelers and other aircraft.

That may require cuts elsewhere and a rethink of its priorities. Some procurement deals could be delayed or stretched over a longer period, while others could be scrapped altogether if the money cannot be found.

It could also turn to cheaper alternatives where they exist, including for various missiles and bombs it currently buys from the US.

Israel has already increasingly shifted to local production for some munitions. Israeli concerns over how much it can rely on supplies continuing to come from the US were sharpened during the war in Gaza, when former president Joe Biden’s administration delayed some weapons transfers and balked altogether on sending 2,000-pound bombs.

Meanwhile, the loss of $500 million in annual funding for air defenses would likely affect the joint Israeli-American development of new technology aimed at swatting threats out of the sky, which is heavily reliant on the funds.

Alongside the budgetary implications, the abrupt end of US military aid to Israel could also signal a shift in relations between the countries. Trump on Tuesday tried to qualify the announcement by stressing that Israel has been a good ally, saying the aid cut-off was supported by Jerusalem.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly spoken out about ending US military assistance to Israel. But he has talked about doing so gradually over the next decade — not all at once, as Trump has declared.

In June, representatives from Israel’s Defense Ministry and the Trump administration formally launched talks on the next defense framework, which the ministry said would “gradually transition from aid to a completely reciprocal partnership.”

The timing of Trump’s announcement, on the morning of midterm elections, was a reflection of how toxic the issue of aid to Israel has become for both Democrats and Republicans.

Many of those who won congressional seats in the vote are ascendant Israel critics who support halting or conditioning arms sales to the Jewish state, meaning the spigot was likely closing soon with or without Trump’s announcement.

Whether Trump follows through on cutting the aid immediately, or the transition happens somewhat more gradually, Israelis already dealing with ballooning defense costs seem to have little choice but to make peace with US military aid becoming a thing of the past sooner rather than later.

That means officials will have to quickly reassess current and future military procurement deals they had expected to finance with US funding through 2028.

The question now isn’t whether the aid is still coming, but what acquisitions Israel can afford to pay for itself by belt-tightening elsewhere, and what weapons it thinks it can survive without.
Sohlberg hands election results to Herzog, says casting doubt poses ‘real danger’ to democracy
President Isaac Herzog received the official election results from Central Elections Committee chairman Justice Noam Sohlberg on Wednesday, ahead of consultations with party representatives on whom they recommend to form the next government.

"I will now begin the process of consultations on tasking a member of Knesset with forming the government," Herzog said after receiving the results, ahead of discussions at the President's Residence set to take place in the afternoon.

By law, the president is required to consult the Knesset factions before deciding who receives the task of forming a government.

The CEC approved the election results given to Herzog on Wednesday morning, after finding no evidence of compromised election integrity. The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) has been investigating suspicions of foreign entities, such as Qatar and Turkey, allegedly funneling money into Israel to influence voting in Arab communities.

Sohlberg said that after presenting Herzog with the results, in recent days, there have been voices seeking to cast doubt on the election results and that this poses a "real danger" to democracy.

“We presented the suspicions to the Central Elections Committee. At this stage, they remain suspicions only."

"These suspicions in no way cast doubt on the voting of Arab society. A high voter turnout is a welcome thing," Solberg added.

Herzog warns against impatience in investigation
Herzog said regarding the investigation that "patience is needed" and that the investigation will be carried out "professionally, in cooperation among all the bodies on the special investigative team, and I trust these processes."

"Tension between the Shin Bet and the legal system has existed in Israel before, and it will exist again. It is a tension built into a democratic state," he added.

Herzog also warned that Arab society in Israel "must not be smeared."

"Beware of generalizations. I hold Arab society in Israel in great respect. I value its contribution to the country in every area of life, and its desire to integrate. This is something to be welcomed."

"I condemn the coarseness and racist expressions that we have heard recently. There is no place for them toward any community in Israel," Herzog added.


‘Ad Kan’ probe alleges some 200,000 Israeli votes tainted
“Voters didn’t even go behind the voting booth. They got their ballot slip outside, walked up to the election committee, received an envelope, and put the slip right in. Someone takes a photo of them from outside, since phones aren’t allowed inside. So he stands 10 centimeters behind them, just past the doorway. Four hundred shekels, 500 shekels—whatever their budget is. Just like that, done.”

This is how Avihai Shorshan, CEO of Ad Kan, an Israeli nonprofit known for its undercover investigations of left-wing and Palestinian organizations, describes what he claims took place at polling stations in the Arab sector on Election Day for the 26th Knesset.

The allegations come as questions about possible election irregularities and foreign interference have drawn public attention since the Oct. 27 vote.

On Election Day, three suspects were arrested in the Negev after police searches uncovered envelopes containing cash and Ra’am ballot slips. Four additional suspects were arrested later that week.

By Tuesday, six of the seven had been released from police custody, although some remained under house arrest. The seventh suspect remained in custody pending a Wednesday hearing. The suspects have denied wrongdoing, with attorneys for some saying the money was intended for charitable purposes.

Meanwhile, Central Elections Committee Chairman and Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg asked Shin Bet director David Zini to examine information regarding possible improper interference in the election through foreign funding from entities acting against Israeli interests. Police have said there is no connection between the two cases.

Threats were made
Shorshan, whose organization has spent the past decade conducting investigations into left-wing and Palestinian groups, says the first reports came on Election Day itself from salaried polling-station officials.

“I’m an election observer at a certain polling station. I saw envelopes of cash. I saw fuel vouchers being handed out outside. Something smells fishy to me,” he quotes one as saying.

According to Shorshan, “After three such instances, a red light went off for us—that this wasn’t an isolated incident.”

Since then, he says, “hundreds of personal testimonies have accumulated, where someone comes forward and says, ‘My name is so-and-so, my ID number is such-and-such, and I served in such-and-such a role at this specific polling station.’”

“These aren’t rumors. It’s not like I just gathered posts from Facebook,” he added.

However, Shorshan declined to give an exact number and stressed that the investigation is still underway.

“This is research currently taking place,” he said. “If you had asked me to investigate something like this on a normal day, I’d tell you, ‘Let’s talk in four months.’ Here, we’re 72 hours in, including the weekend.”

According to Shorshan, the alleged method was consistent.
Former Joint List leader Ayman Odeh suspected of receiving foreign funds in Shin Bet election probe
Former Joint List leader Ayman Odeh is among the Arab party Knesset members suspected of receiving hundreds of thousands of shekels in foreign funding amid the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) investigation into alleged election interference, a Joint List spokesperson confirmed to The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.

Odeh subsequently released a statement arguing that the investigation was politically motivated.

"The historic voter turnout among Arab citizens drove Netanyahu and the fascists out of their minds, and their fear of losing power is causing them to fire in every direction," he stated.

“It is clear to everyone that this is political persecution, which will soon turn into an inflated balloon that will burst right in their faces. As we approach the date of the Knesset’s swearing-in and the end of Netanyahu’s rule, you will see more and more spins and lies."

“The most important thing now is to continue acting responsibly, resolutely, and consistently to fundamentally replace this government," Odeh added.

Statement comes as Likud challenges legitimacy of election results
The statement came amid an escalating political dispute over Arab voters’ role in the election outcome. Likud has challenged the legitimacy of the results, while the Shin Bet has sought to question senior Arab political figures.

The Joint List has accused Netanyahu and Shin Bet chief David Zini of treating Arab electoral participation and representation as a security threat.

Zini reportedly sought to also question Ra’am chairman Mansour Abbas, Ta’al chairman Ahmad Tibi and Balad chairman Sami Abu Shehadeh under caution as suspects.

The Central Elections Committee on Wednesday approved results giving Netanyahu’s coalition parties 53 seats, the opposition bloc 48, and the Arab parties 19. Neither of the two competing blocs secured the 61 seats needed for a Knesset majority.

Earlier on Wednesday, the committee said its review had found no irregularities or findings indicating that election integrity had been compromised or that the results would change. It said corrections had been made where necessary, based on voting records and materials.


Gaza's Population Grew Last Year and There Wasn't a Famine, Hamas's Own Figures Show, Debunking Claims That Most Gaza Deaths are Women and Children
The most recent mortality figures in Gaza show that the population grew by more than 1 percent last year, faster than in most of the world, and that a major hunger crisis failed to ever materialize. The data—supplied by Hamas's own Ministry of Health—undercut claims by the United Nations and other anti-Israel groups that the Gaza war is a "genocide" that has led to a deadly famine, according to an analysis of the figures.

The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, the Australian Jewish community's premier public affairs organization, determined in a recent analysis based on the data that Gaza's population increased by 1.2 percent in 2025, a steep rise for a populace supposedly facing a genocide by Israel. Moreover, the number of nonviolent deaths in Gaza that year, meaning those unrelated to direct conflict, was less than in 2022, a year before Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, terror spree ignited the war.

The figures "absolutely rule out" the U.N.-affiliated Integrated Food Security Phase Classification's headline-grabbing claim in 2025 that major areas of Gaza were facing a "worst-case scenario of famine." The Washington Free Beacon exclusively reported at the time that the IPC used a less reliable reporting metric before declaring famine, and the newly released figures offer further proof that Gaza was never on the precipice of a humanitarian crisis in which thousands would perish.

"The most notable element of the recent all-cause mortality report for 2025 in Gaza … is the lack of the term 'genocide' anywhere in the report, and the fact that the numbers contained in it seem to completely contradict claims by the United Nations-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification in August 2025 that, at that time, major parts of Gaza were experiencing category 5 'famine' conditions," the Jewish Affairs Council concluded.

The Health Ministry figures also dispel another widely disseminated claim by Israel's enemies that women and children accounted for 70 percent of casualties in Gaza, an unverified statistic that has been used to peddle conspiracy theories that Israel intentionally targets civilians. In fact, "as is the norm in warfare, most casualties are military-aged males," the study found.

While the Jewish Affairs Council notes that data from the Hamas-controlled ministry are historically unreliable and often skewed, the organization argues "that claims about genocide, famine and casualty breakdowns that are contradicted by what even Hamas claims about such casualties should immediately be viewed as exposing the individual or organisation making the claim as either extreme or cavalier about accuracy."

The Hamas ministry reported 24,650 total deaths in 2025, of which 18,085—or 73.4 percent—were men. Females accounted for just 6,565 deaths, or 26.6 percent. Around 18,870 people were killed violently, such as in battle, suggesting that 76.6 percent of those killed were likely battlefield combatants. Similarly, the figures show that 17,286, or 70.1 percent, were killed through "direct targeting" by Israel. Just 5,780 were classified as "non-violent" deaths or "indirect deaths," again suggesting that Israel is not wantonly killing the civilian population.


‘Incredible’ Jewish support ahead of anti-Israel bicycle boycott ride, Philly Jewish eatery owner says, ‘we won’t cower’
Yehuda Sichel, who owns the restaurant Huda in Philadelphia, has been getting “incredible” support from the Jewish community after anti-Israel groups said that they would hold a boycott bicycle ride past his restaurant on Sunday, on the eve of the anniversary of Kristallnacht, he told JNS.

Those who support Huda and other targeted Jewish-owned restaurants are organizing a community food crawl, for which residents are invited to gather at Huda, which is located near Rittenhouse Square in Center City, at 11:30 a.m. on Nov. 8.

The square, which William Penn planned in the late 17th century, is where the “boycott ride” is slated to occur at that same time.

“Instead of a boycott, let’s show up for our local Jewish-owned businesses,” an ad promoting the crawl states. It also lists stops at K’Far Café and Mac Mart, along with Dizengoff, Goldie and Schlesinger’s. (Goldie, a falafel restaurant, is kosher.)

“The outpouring of support from the Jewish community has been incredible, and we’re truly grateful,” Sichel told JNS. “People have been showing up to support our businesses, and we look forward to welcoming everyone Sunday.”

“We won’t cower,” he said. “We’ll show up strong with pride and solidarity and keep the focus on peaceful support.”

It is “deeply personal” for Sichel, the grandson of Holocaust survivors, to see Jewish businesses targeted on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, he told JNS.

“I’m proud to be Jewish and supportive of Israel,” he said. “Neither should make my business a target.”

Marti Lieberman, who owns Mac Mart, told JNS that the “negativity, aggression and anger have been overshadowed by an unbelievable amount of love and support for our small business and the others included on the flier.”

“We’ve been inundated with emails, calls and direct messages,” Lieberman said.
Celebrity Traitors gave licence fee cash to charity accused of being ‘hostile environment for Jews’
It was a series full of lies and deception. But as Celebrity Traitors reached its conclusion last Friday, the BBC One mega-hit, which had kept millions of viewers hooked over four weeks, struck a more wholesome tone when it revealed that a prize pot of £83,000 was being donated to two charities.

Half of the money – funded by the BBC licence fee – was going to the Refugee Council, the chosen charity of joint-winner Romesh Ranganathan, and half was being given to Choose Love, another refugee charity and the choice of Sebastian “Bash” Croft.

The organisations were, unsurprisingly, delighted, and said the money would help to “provide vital frontline services to [people] in search of safety” and “quite literally change and save lives”.

But The Telegraph can reveal that Choose Love is at the centre of a bitter anti-Semitism row. A senior Jewish staff member left the charity after claiming it had become hostile to Jews in the wake of the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas. An independent investigation carried out by a KC did not uphold the allegations, but a whistleblower told The Telegraph that some Jewish employees, donors and other supporters of the charity felt increasingly uncomfortable with the pro-Palestinian sentiments expressed by the charity.

Choose Love refers to the situation in Gaza as “genocide” – a disputed claim – and has urged the Government to end military cooperation with Israel.

The allegations raise questions about the BBC’s vetting procedures, and why it allowed licence-fee payers’ money to go to an organisation which has taken a divisive position on the situation in the Middle East. Vetting is conducted by Studio Lambert, the production company that makes Celebrity Traitors, but the final list of charities is then signed off by the corporation. The BBC has faced its own accusations of anti-Semitism, with Jewish staff claiming that managers “gaslit” them when they complained.

Croft, an ambassador and former volunteer for Choose Love, praised the charity in the show’s finale, which was watched by 11.6 million people. The 24-year-old actor said: “The money will be going to refugees and displaced people, but predominantly queer refugees and displaced people. They are just the best organisation.”

However, one whistleblower, a former child refugee who has worked closely with Choose Love and asked not to be named, said: “After October 7, a lot changed with that charity and a lot of the Jewish people working in it or with it were forced out, or felt they had to leave, as far as I could see.

“I got to know the Jewish people who worked there, as they care a lot about refugees, as many of them come from families who were refugees. But, suddenly, there were people associated with the charity excusing October 7 and pushing pro-Palestine stuff, and I think that’s when some of the problems started.”
Express Service: California AG Mysteriously Reinstates Deadbeat Charity Controlled by Code Pink Activist Medea Benjamin, Despite Missing $54 Million
California's progressive attorney general, Rob Bonta, quietly reinstated privileged charitable status to Arc of Justice, the serially tax-delinquent "charity" used by Code Pink benefactress Medea Benjamin to dole out millions to far-left activist groups, the Washington Free Beacon can reveal.

The charity's reinstatement came just 13 days after it first requested the action, which was estimated to take up to nine months, "despite a record showing years of delinquent filings, missing audits, a revoked state tax exemption, and unanswered questions" about more than $54 million in assets, according to a new investigation by the watchdog group Intelligent Advocacy Network shared exclusively with the Free Beacon.

California's Franchise Tax Board first revoked Arc of Justice's tax-exempt status in April 2024, after the charity stopped filing and paying any required penalties, the Free Beacon exclusively reported earlier this year. This left a sizable cloud of mystery around the foundation's $54.6 million in total assets, which still remain unaccounted for. Benjamin's charity also did not file a federal tax return in fiscal years 2021, 2023, 2024, and 2025—and reinstatement on the state level requires a petition that includes complete copies of the IRS Form 990-PF for each delinquent year. But Bonta's Registry of Charities and Fundraisers pushed through Arc of Justice's reinstatement in less than two weeks "without demanding a full accounting of what happened to its money during the period when it was suspended and later revoked," IAN found.

Bonta's preferential treatment of Benjamin's charity is even more remarkable given that one day before his registry approved reinstatement, "the Franchise Tax Board certified that Arc of Justice was not in good standing and was not tax-exempt in California," according to documents provided by IAN to the Free Beacon. While the Franchise Tax Board had informed Arc of Justice "that its application for reinstatement would take about nine months to process," Bonta's registry "did not wait for that process." Rather, it "reinstated Arc of Justice, even though the Registry's own rules provide for automatic suspension when a charity's Franchise Tax Board exemption has been revoked."

Bonta's office did not respond to multiple Free Beacon requests for comment on the decision. Bonta, who won a second full term in Tuesday's midterm elections, is also locked in a high-profile showdown with the Trump administration over efforts to stop non-citizens from voting. The attorney general has sought to position himself as one of the president's top legal foes.

The tangled web surrounding Arc of Justice and its finances leaves many unanswered questions about a foundation that has served as the financial backbone for a network of radical advocacy groups tied to Benjamin and her Code Pink cofounder, Jodie Evans. Evans is married to Neville Roy Singham, a Maoist American tech mogul who funds far-left causes from his base in Shanghai and who is currently the subject of a Justice Department criminal probe.

Arc of Justice had not filed with California's Registry of Charities and Fundraisers since 2018. Documents from that year and 2019 still "remain absent from the public file," according to IAN. The organization's 2021 federal tax return, which covers $17.3 million in revenue and $10.8 million in contributions, also "still does not appear in the IRS's public filing records."


House of Lords passes Motion of Regret relating to government sanctions regime, citing Israel
The House of Lords has narrowly voted to pass a motion of regret relating to the government’s sanctions policy – the first such vote since Andy Burnham became Prime Minister – with a wide variety of Peers expressing concerns that the new powers appeared to be singularly aimed at Israel.

Led by Lord Leigh of Hurley, who proposed the motion of regret, a cross-party group of Peers identified a wide variety of problems linked to the Foreign Secretary’s recent announcement of sanctions on the West Bank, which the government has yet to provide any answers to.

Opening the debate on behalf of the government, Lord Wood of Anfield, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Europe, Eastern Europe, International Security and Growth, described sanctions as “a powerful lever we have to advance our foreign policy goals in the face of action that breaks the law and is unacceptable” describing how when such sanctions are imposed, “we do it to send a clear message far beyond those we target, of the values that the UK will stand up for.” He described the “Global Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Sanctions Regime” as being “particularly vital for this”, saying that “the expanded regime addresses a broader range of human rights abuses and violations, by adding the right to security of liberty and person, and also gives the government the power to respond with sanctions where aid has been deliberately prevented from reaching civilian populations.”

Responding as the Peer who proposed the motion of regret, Lord Leigh said that “Sanctions, precisely targeted and founded on clear evidence, are a legitimate instrument of British foreign policy, and they have my support. But these regulations do not meet that test. They seem to many to be there to satisfy local domestic political objectives of the foreign secretary and his government.

“This is a major change in British foreign policy, made without consultation, made without an impact assessment and without a vote in either house, Parliament is being asked to approve powers already in use. That is not scrutiny; it is ratification.”

Lord Leigh noted that the Foreign Secretary’s statements in the House of Commons made it clear that Israel and the West Bank were the primary targets of the updated sanctions regime.

Contrary to promises made by the government about the regulations being targeted, the Conservative Peer noted that they were in fact wide ranging and could apply to someone even associated with someone involved, saying such sanctions were “not a scalpel; that’s a net. And the government know it.”


Birmingham Council votes to pursue Israel-linked divestment despite Jewish groups’ warnings
Birmingham City Council has voted to explore withdrawing investments linked to Israel, despite warnings from Jewish organisations that the move could fuel antisemitism and breach the law.

Councillors backed the proposal on Tuesday, calling for a six-month review of the council’s financial investments and those held by the West Midlands Pension Fund.

The motion, brought by independent councillor Nosheen Khalid, who is part of the council’s ruling coalition, could pave the way for the authority to cut financial ties with companies linked to Israel.

According to the BBC, some people in the council chamber cheered as the motion was passed.

Khalid, the council’s cabinet member for health and social care, told the meeting that “where money goes, responsibility follows”, arguing that the council should examine its investments on human rights grounds.

The decision comes amid growing tensions over Israel within Birmingham’s political leadership, following the Green Party’s adoption of a policy declaring Zionism a form of racism.

Three Labour MPs, including Jess Phillips, recently urged Liberal Democrat council leader Roger Harmer to end his coalition with the Greens unless its councillors publicly rejected the policy.

Harmer has said he personally disagrees with the Greens’ position but remains committed to the power-sharing agreement.

Jewish organisations had urged the council not to proceed with the divestment proposals.

The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) described the move as “morally reprehensible”, warning that it risked worsening hostility towards Jewish residents.


25 arrested outside Supreme Court as Palestine Action ban battle begins
Twenty-seven protesters have been arrested outside the Supreme Court as judges began hearing a legal challenge to the government’s ban on Palestine Action.

The arrests took place on Wednesday morning as supporters of the group gathered outside the UK’s highest court, where its co-founder Huda Ammori is seeking to overturn its designation as a terrorist organisation.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed to Jewish News that all 27 people were arrested on suspicion of expressing support for a proscribed organisation.

Protesters hold placards supporting Palestine Action outside the Supreme Court as judges hear an appeal against the group’s ban. Credit: X/Harriet Williamson

The hearing comes after the Community Security Trust (CST) and Jewish Leadership Council (JLC) warned that removing the ban could put Jewish communities at further risk.

In a written submission to the court, Adam Wagner KC, representing both organisations, argued that British Jews were “especially vulnerable to Palestine Action’s violent activities”, pointing to attacks on Jewish charities and Jewish-owned businesses.

He warned that overturning the ban would “re-arm and revitalise a sinister and dangerous movement” and could act as a “green-light” for those responsible for “violent antisemitism more broadly”.

Palestine Action was banned under terrorism legislation in 2025, making it a criminal offence to belong to or express support for the organisation.

More than 3,000 people have been arrested since the ban was introduced, the court heard.


Academic boycotts target sector most supportive of Palestinian rights, Israeli professors warn
The orchestrated campaign to cut off Israeli academia, led by universities and scholarly bodies in Europe and South America, and by some in the UK, is targeting one of the most pro-Palestinian sectors within the Jewish state, leading professors have warned.

Dozens of universities in countries such as Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Ireland have joined with institutions in Brazil and other Latin nations to cut links with Israeli academia, amid claims that it is complicit in the Israeli government’s actions towards Palestinians.

While the UK lags behind some of its European counterparts, there are growing signs of increasing pressure on university chiefs by pro-Palestine activists to cancel existing courses over alleged links with Israel, its military, and its government.

Speaking to Jewish News this week, Professor of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem described a “highly organised and well-funded campaign” against Israeli academia, characterised by a range of measures targeting all universities.

These actions include suspending student exchange and joint research programs, and selectively excluding Israeli researchers from international collaborations, especially in European Union-funded projects.

“We are witnessing a dramatic drop in Israel’s success rate in European research grant competitions, from being among the highest in Europe to less than five percent,” he said.

Shani, an inaugural Accelerator Fellow at the Ethics in AI Institute at the University of Oxford, further described symbolic exclusions, such as Israeli faculty being invited to conferences but denied the right to display their university affiliation.

“These measures have serious professional, reputational, and financial consequences for Israeli academia,” he cautioned, underscoring the profound effects on the nation’s academic standing and future prospects.

Paradoxically, Shani argues that academia and culture are targeted despite being the most sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.

He reasoned that those who campaigned for boycotts were happy for this fact to be largely overlooked.
German textbooks strong on Holocaust, uneven on Israel, report finds
Textbooks used in Germany’s most populous state provide detailed coverage of Judaism and the Holocaust but sometimes give uneven attention to Israeli and Palestinian perspectives, according to a report released on Tuesday by IMPACT-se.

The study examined history, political education and religious education textbooks used in secondary schools in North Rhine-Westphalia.

The research institute praised the books for presenting Judaism as integral to contemporary German society, explicitly rejecting collective Jewish responsibility for Jesus’ crucifixion and examining the historical roots of Christian antisemitism.

Their Holocaust coverage addresses the murder of approximately six million Jews, Jewish resistance, societal complicity and Germany’s postwar reckoning, according to the report.

However, the study found that coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict sometimes creates misleading equivalencies between Israeli and Palestinian actors while giving insufficient attention to Israeli security concerns.

One textbook pairs images of Israeli military control in Judea and Samaria and a Hamas terrorist under the heading “Mutual threats and violence,” without explicitly identifying Hamas as a terrorist organization, according to IMPACT-se.

In their treatment of 1948, textbooks present both Israeli and Palestinian narratives and acknowledge the invasion of Israel by five Arab states. However, the report found that Palestinian displacement receives greater attention than Arab rejection of partition and the subsequent invasion, while the parallel displacement of Jews from Arab and Muslim countries is omitted.

A separate UNESCO study previously found gaps in European textbooks’ coverage of contemporary antisemitism, including in Germany.

“German textbooks do an excellent job of confronting the horrors of the Holocaust and the country’s antisemitic past,” said IMPACT-se CEO Marcus Sheff. “But this commitment to historical accuracy must also extend to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”


To save the BBC, their institutional anti-Israel bias must be investigated
The BBC is not having a good week. The corporation, which has been batting away allegation after allegation of anti-Israel bias for years, appears to be risking its reputation and potentially its future on a position which could, many argue, amount to institutional antisemitism. Or is it institutional anti-Zionism? Or are they just biased against Israel but not opposed to its existence per se? The fact is, it does not matter which it is. None is acceptable.

Impartiality is not just important to the BBC; impartiality is the BBC. Its royal charter states that it exists to “provide impartial news and information to help people understand and engage with the world around them: the BBC should provide duly accurate and impartial news, current affairs and factual programming to build people’s understanding of all parts of the United Kingdom and of the wider world.”

In the last week alone, five major scandals have hit the headlines regarding the BBC’s treatment of Jews and Israel. Filmmaker Lucie Kon was paid a £400,000 settlement in a case where she alleged antisemitism, bullying, and unfair dismissal due to being Jewish at the BBC. Kon reports that when an attempt was made to set up a Jewish staff group at the BBC, one diversity and inclusion officer said that there was no need for one because “Jews run the media.”

Former BBC Panorama producer Phil Craig said the BBC had been taken over by a new radical generation “wagging the dog” and that the result was less rigor and less commitment to the guidelines. He said: “It needs an investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission – not to damage the BBC further, but to save it from this generation of cowardly managers who have so little instinct for its culture and values.”

Former head of TV Danny Cohen wrote in the Telegraph: “In the last three years I have been contacted by a number of Jewish people working for the BBC who have experienced both racist abuse and an everyday drumbeat of bias when it comes to reporting on the Gaza war. In these cases, they fear that speaking out will only end one way: the end of their BBC careers.”

Meanwhile, the BBC was forced to admit it made a mistake platforming influencer Bushra Shaikh, who called Jews who move to Israel “lying scumbags” and said that Israel was a greater threat to the West than Iran, while almost simultaneously platforming academic Andreas Malm, who praised October 7 as an “act of liberation.”
Townsville man charged after a police investigation uncovered 23,000 images of antisemitic material
Police have uncovered more than 23,000 videos and photographs allegedly linked to prohibited and antisemitic symbols during a Townsville property search.

A 36-year-old man is due to face court after a counter-terrorism investigation into the alleged distribution of prohibited and antisemitic symbols online.

The Jensen man was arrested on November 2, almost two months after Queensland Police searched a property on Annaville Road.

Detectives from the Queensland Police Service's Counter-Terrorism Investigations Group executed a search warrant at the address on September 7.

During the search, officers located an electronic device containing more than 9,000 videos and 14,000 photographs allegedly linked to the distribution of prohibited and antisemitic symbols on social media.

The investigation resulted in the man being charged with two offences.

They include possessing or controlling violent extremist material obtained or accessed using a carriage service, and using a carriage service for violent extremist material.


Baghdad opens Jewish museum dedicated to a people legally shut out of it
Families of Iraqi Jews forced to flee the country are expressing cynicism at the opening of Baghdad’s first Jewish museum, the only one in the country, based out of the city’s restored Shamash Jewish School, originally founded in 1928.

Showcasing religious artifacts, memorabilia, official documents and old school records belonging to families and students who lived in Baghdad, as well as personal belongings such as family photographs, traditional clothing and household utensils from Iraq’s once-thriving Jewish community, the museum on Al-Rashid Street welcomed more than 1,000 visitors on its first day, 22 October, the majority of whom were not Jewish.

By 1939, the former school had 900 students but the government confiscated the property in the 1970s and converted it into a public school. A court ruling returned it to the community in 1992.

Tracing its history back 2,600 years, the Jewish community in Iraq was once one of the largest in the Middle East, numbering more than 130,000 people in the 1940s.

But today, only a handful of Jewish residents remain, most of them in the Kurdistan region, and between four and six Jews in Baghdad. Less than 50 synagogues and Jewish sites remain in Iraq, most of them in Baghdad and Hilla, the capital of Babylon Province, to which large numbers of Jews were forcibly taken in what became known as the Babylonian Captivity in the sixth century BCE.
Israeli surgeons complete robotic lung transplant without fully opening chest, spreading ribs
Surgeons at Clalit-Beilinson Hospital successfully performed a robotic-assisted lung transplant without needing to fully open the chest, as is done in conventional transplants.

In a conventional lung transplant, surgeons cut through the chest bone, fully open the chest cavity, and spread the ribs to gain access to the lungs. This can cause severe postoperative pain, shallow breathing, and difficulty clearing lung secretions.

These complications increase infection risks and contribute to a lengthy and challenging recovery period.

The new, robotic method requires only small incisions in the chest to allow robotic technology to connect the transplanted lung to the patient's blood vessels and airways.

The procedure, which requires extensive advance preparation and specialized training for dozens of medical professionals involved, has only been performed about 20 times worldwide since the first was carried out in Spain three years ago.

"Robotic lung transplantation represents a turning point for lung transplantation in Israel. After decades of relying on the traditional approach, which involved significant pain and numerous complications, we have succeeded in bringing a genuine revolution to Israel," Director of the Thoracic Surgery Department at Clalit-Beilinson Hospital, Dr. Yury Peysakhovich, said.

According to Peysakhovich, robotic lung transplantation could become the accepted standard of care within five years.
Boy George offers friendship and 80s hits to appreciative Tel Aviv audience
Boy George brought friendship, sequins and his beloved hits from the 1980s to his first of two shows in Tel Aviv on Wednesday night.

“Shalom! I’m very happy to be here tonight,” George said as he took the stage in Israel for the first time since 2017.

A crowd of around 10,000 people filled Tel Aviv’s Menora Mivtachim Arena. Fans were of all ages, but skewed to those old enough to remember George’s heyday in the early 1980s as the lead singer of the English new wave band Culture Club.

For just over two hours, George and his band of five musicians performed a mix of old Culture Club hits, along with covers of Prince, David Bowie and Rolling Stones songs as well as his latest.

He also performed his latest song, “We Will Dance Again” about the survivors of the Nova music festival massacre during Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught.

Israeli singer Ivri Lider joined George on stage to sing “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me,” from Culture Club’s 1983 album, “Colour By Numbers.”

During the show, George commented on the last-minute nature of putting the concert together, noting that the media reports about his difficulty finding musicians willing to perform with him in Israel were a lie.

“There was no band shortage,” said George. “I’ve been here many times; I’m not a scaredy cat.”

George, who has faced widespread condemnation and boycotts for his outspoken support for Israel since the outbreak of the Gaza war, was brought to Israel as a solo act by promoter Live Nation.

He still performs regularly in England and Europe with two of the original fellow Culture Club members, Roy Hay and Mikey Craig, although percussionist Jon Moss left the band five years ago.

George had previously described how he faced threats, professional isolation and accusations of fascism over his support for Israel.

During his visit to Israel, which has included meeting President Isaac Herzog, a stop at the Western Wall and a trip to the Nova memorial site in the Negev, he has repeatedly mentioned his many Jewish friends and his opposition to racism and social criticism.



 

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