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Friday, November 13, 2026

11/13 Links Pt2: MLK would have wanted a strong Israel; Trump says US antisemitism at levels ‘like Germany in 1938’; The nauseating hypocrisy of Greta Thunberg; Deradicalizing Gaza is possible but will take decades

From Ian:

The 'Israel controls America' myth has a long history - and an antisemitic foundation
Run the test anywhere else. In 1950, North Korea threatened South Korea’s existence and America’s only indirectly. Harry S. Truman sent troops, and nearly 37,000 Americans died. No one accused Syngman Rhee of controlling the White House.

In 1990, Kuwait’s exiled rulers bankrolled a public relations campaign through Hill & Knowlton. It put a teenage girl before a congressional caucus with a story about Iraqi soldiers tearing babies from incubators. She turned out to be the Kuwaiti ambassador’s daughter, and the story collapsed. That was a foreign government trying to manipulate Congress toward war, on the record. Kuwait never became a “puppet master.” It got a liberation and a thank-you.

Today, American planners openly debate fighting China over Taiwan. The island’s survival matters far more to Taipei than to Topeka or Peoria. No one claims Taiwan controls Congress.

So here is the rule of every alliance in modern American history. The senior, more powerful partner leads. The junior partner follows, lobbies, flatters, and sometimes tries to manipulate, and gets called a client, a beneficiary, or a poodle. Blair was the poodle. Rhee was the client. Kuwait was the beneficiary.

Israel is the only exception. Only with the Jewish state does the far smaller and weaker partner become the “master” and the superpower become the “dog.” No fact explains that reversal. Israel’s population is less than 3% of America’s, and its economy is about 2% the size of America’s. Its air force flies American jets, and its arsenal relies heavily on American munitions. The only thing that can turn the weaker ally into the hidden hand is the belief that Jews wield secret, outsized power over governments.

That belief has a name. The IHRA definition of antisemitism lists it explicitly: the myth of Jews collectively controlling governments. The people repeating “Israel’s war” would never apply the same standard to Britain, Kuwait, South Korea, or Taiwan. Take away the double standard and their argument has nothing left.

Their argument also erases America’s own grievance. Iran made itself America’s enemy without Israel. It held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. Its Hezbollah proxy killed 241 American service members in Beirut in 1983. The State Department attributes over 600 American troop deaths in Iraq to Iranian-backed militias. Iranian agents plotted to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington in 2011, and American prosecutors have charged IRGC operatives in plots against John Bolton and President Donald Trump.

“Death to America” was never a translation error. America had its own reasons to fight, written in its own soldiers’ blood.

And Israel has done what no “puppet master” would. For 75 years, from 1948 through October 2023, it fought every war without a single American combat soldier beside it.

Americans are free to argue that this war was a mistake, badly managed, or too costly. Those are real debates. “Israel made us do it” is not one of them. It is Henry Ford’s newspaper and Lindbergh’s speech, reprinted for a new audience with a podcast microphone. The “poodle” never holds the leash. Anyone who insists this one does isn’t describing Israel. He’s describing what he believes about “the Jews.”
Trump says US antisemitism at levels ‘like Germany in 1938’
US President Donald Trump said Thursday that antisemitism in the United States was at levels “like Germany in 1938,” at the beginning of the Holocaust.

The president was asked by conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt about the recent rise in antisemitism in the US and what his administration was doing to combat it.

“I’m amazed to see it,” Trump said. “This is like Germany in 1938 or whatever. It’s, like, crazy what’s going on. When you look at the attacks on people, the racial attacks and the attacks, they’re, I guess, 57 percent on Jewish people, and you wouldn’t believe it.”

FBI statistics show that Jews were targeted in 63% of all religion-based hate crimes in the United States last year, down from 70% in 2024.

Trump spoke days after the 88th anniversary of Kristallnacht, or the “Night of Broken Glass,” the Nazi pogrom of 1938 widely seen as a turning point in the persecution of Jews and a prelude to the Holocaust. By then, Jews had already been stripped of their citizenship and subjected to severe restrictions, boycotts and discrimination by Adolf Hitler’s regime.

On the eve of the anniversary, pro-Palestinian activists in Philadelphia held a bicycle ride promoting a boycott of Jewish-owned businesses they accused of complicity in Israeli military actions. Jewish groups in the city called the event blatantly antisemitic, citing both its timing and its focus on Jewish-owned businesses. Organizers said the timing was coincidental.
Brendan O'Neill: The nauseating hypocrisy of Greta Thunberg
Those silly kids. Don’t they know that blubbing over polar bears is so 2019? The Current Thing is hating Israel. The ‘evil’ that now keeps pampered eco-saints like Greta awake at night is not global warming – it’s the Jewish State. The diminutive doom-mongerer long ago switched her narcissistic dread from CO2 to Zionism, trading her yellow rain mac for a designer keffiyeh, and her caterwauling about climate for the headier thrill of screaming blue murder about Israel. Get with the programme, children: the Jewish nation is now the demon that stalks the fever dreams of the young and self-righteous.

Thunberg hasn’t entirely ditched the eco-apocalypse nonsense. She still warbles about rising seas and stolen childhoods every now and then. She might no longer have spasms of infantile fury, howling ‘How dare you!’ at politicians who loved being told off by a smug teen, but she still does the green schtik. She’s currently at COP 31 in Turkey, wanging on about how the planet is being ‘killed’. How interesting that she boycotts Israel but is happy to hang out in a state that mercilessly persecutes the Kurds.

Yet the striking thing about St Greta’s pontificating at COP is how tired and even pantomime it sounds. It feels like she’s going through the motions, singing the old songs for the titillation of fiftysomething Guardianistas. The end of the world just isn’t where it’s at anymore. The end of Israel, on the other hand, the scrubbing from the map of that most demonic entity – now that will get the luxury-belief mob frothing with righteous ecstasy. Over the past three years, virtually all of them, in creepy sync, shifted from weeping over End Times to fuming over the Jewish nation.

Thunberg is now far more likely to be spotted on a boat of seafaring narcissists heading for Gaza than she is outside a parliamentary building yapping about eco-doom. She used to yelp ‘Stop oil’ – now she cries ‘Crush Zionism’. These people once wanted to keep fossil fuels buried – now they want to bury Jewish nationhood, which is all that Zionism means. She isn’t alone. If you’ve ever wondered why the ponces of Just Stop Oil and Insulate Britain (remember them?!) are no longer making life miserable for working-class motorists, it’s because they, too, have switched their privileged ire to Israel. They, too, have converted from the bourgeois cult of climate rapture to the bourgeois cult of Israelophobia.

Look at Palestine Action (RIP). Many of those time-rich bozos who cut the fences of Israeli-owned business while shrieking about Zionism in cut-glass accents came from the privileged green movement. Like Greta, the Moan of Arc of greenism, they aren’t actually wedded to a particular cause – they’re just addicted to apocalypse. They crave the cheap thrill of standing up to some monstrous, planet-consuming bogeyman. Last week it was industry, this week it’s Israel. Their mercenary opportunism would be funny if it wasn’t for the fact that their new religion of Ziophobia – ‘Crush Zionism!’ – has created huge hardship for world Jewry.

We really do need a reckoning with the eco-hysteria of the past 10 years. These people told us humanity was doomed. They said billions would die. In 2018 Greta said ‘all of humanity’ will be wiped out if we don’t ‘stop using fossil fuels’ within five years. Five years later, she casually deleted that Nostradamus-lite bollocks. So intense was the doom and dread pumped into public life that kids started to suffer from eco-anxiety. Yet now they’ve all moved on. Now they’re all in the Med saying ‘Israel is evil’. Now it’s mainly Gaza these white saviours want to rescue from the monstrous forces of capitalism, imperialism, Zionism, yada yada. To stoke global fear and then shrug it off is irresponsible in the extreme. What’s more, given their End Times blather was clearly bullshit, why should we believe a word they say about Israel?


Hollywood’s Privileged Jews
Indeed, these Hollywood Jews appear to believe that the antisemites are somehow their friends. That they are, in some bizarre manner, Jewish. This would appear to be the only possible interpretation of the signatories’ claim that Ruffalo’s rant constitutes “the very essence of Jewish ethical duty.” In effect, they claim, to be an antisemite is to become a Jew, and what threat can possibly emanate from such solidarity? In the bubble of privilege, this idea can be entertained and embraced. For the rest of us, it can only be a very bitter joke. In that sense, the Jews of privilege’s function is a familiar one: facilitating the erasure of other Jews.

None of the signatories sum this up better than Hannah Einbinder, who has turned herself into an advocate for a kind of “neo-Bundism,” a resurrection of a non-Zionist socialist movement that was exterminated in the Holocaust. Ignoring the verdict of history is not Einbinder’s only sin, however. She has also sought to amputate Jewish identity itself by splitting it permanently from Israel, saying, “I feel like it is my obligation as a Jewish person to distinguish Jews from the State of Israel because our religion and our culture is such an important and long-standing, basically, institution that is really separate to [sic] this sort of ethnonationalist state.”

The Jews of privilege have always denied the reality of Jewish peoplehood and seek to reduce Judaism to religion, culture, or “Jewish ethical duty.” But here it has special resonance, because it is key to the signatories’ defense of antisemitism and their role as collaborators in Jewish effacement. Whether they like it or not, to reject Israel is not just to reject a state. It is to reject the messianic and redemptive forces that lie at the heart of Judaism itself. It makes a desert and calls it Judaism.

To be sure, none of this poses any danger to the Ellisons. They have gotten their merger, and they have the resources and the will to fight back effectively—as shown by their representatives’ defiance. The real victim is the Jewish community more broadly. By weaponizing their privilege against their brethren, the signatories of the above letter aid and abet an ongoing antisemitic campaign that threatens to marginalize and ghettoize the community they belong to, whether they like it or not.

Ironically, the most immediate victims of this are their fellow Jewish creatives. By now, it is or should be well known that Jews who do not do as the signatories did are being systematically pushed out of creative spaces in industries like publishing, academia, and, yes, the movies. The industry built by Jews is beginning to spew them out, as the European cinematic establishment of old once did to its German-Jewish founders.

Worse still, given their privilege, and the success and fame it brings, the signatories could likely do a great deal of good were they not determined to act as enforcers against other Jews. They could, and some of them have in the past, make films about the Jewish experience. They could promote Jewish self-respect and Jewish resistance to antisemitism and anti-Zionism. They could perpetuate the memory of what Israel suffered on Oct. 7 and what Jews worldwide suffered in its aftermath. Rather than do so, however, the signatories have engaged in not only the persecution of their community, but also its cultural marginalization. Perhaps they secretly fear that marginalization and lack the courage to risk their long-gestating careers to resist it. Or perhaps they simply don’t care. In the end, the result is the same.

This is worse than an issue of marginalization. It is, in its way, a kind of cultural annihilation. It seeks not only to push Jewish culture out of the American mainstream but also to completely erase it, to act as if it does not exist and never has, and to maintain that only the culture of the Jews of privilege—to the extent they have one—is legitimate.

All of this amounts to a betrayal of a great legacy, one left above all to this particular group of Jews of privilege. In betraying their community from the heights of cinema, they betray Hollywood itself and the non-privileged Jews who founded it. The very Jews who, in the grand sweep of history, handed the signatories their success and thus their privilege.

In its own way, however, the climax of this drama bears witness to the destruction of its protagonists, because in the signatories’ letter, we hear the words of a decadent, enervated, and decayed aristocracy that, if only by demographic collapse, is passing into history. The only question is how much damage they can do before they dissolve completely into the vast non-Jewish world. Sadly, history indicates that the damage could be great.

The kingdom of dreams the non-privileged Jews built is one of the greatest cultural products of American civilization, and its Jews of privilege would throw it away—for nothing. They demand, moreover, that the rest of us do the same.

We must refuse the poisoned gift they offer.
Ben Shapiro Explains Why Civilization Is Cracking | Hang Out with Sean Hannity
The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro joins Hang Out with Sean Hannity to break down the seismic political shifts under President Trump, the alarming rise of global antisemitism, and what the 2028 presidential landscape looks like. From admitting where he got Trump wrong to exposing the radical path of the modern left and the brutal reality of living with full-time security, Ben holds nothing back in this powerful, unfiltered conversation.

In this episode, Sean and Ben dive deep into institutional decay, the fight for American values, meritocracy, and Ben's brand new anti-communist feature film, Confession.

00:00 - Why Ben Shapiro Was Wrong About Donald Trump
05:15 - The Left's Radical Overreach and 2026 Midterms
09:40 - The Danger of Fake Affordability Bills and Data Center Backlash
14:50 - Why Ben Shuts Off His Phone Every Single Shabbat
19:10 - The Rise of Antisemitism and the Death of Civilization
26:10 - Living With Full-Time Security and the Price of Public Safety
36:45 - 2028 Presidential Race
47:05 - The Conservative Movement and Defending Principles
55:20 - Inside "Confession": Ben Shapiro’s New Film


Call me Back: The Fight Over America’s Universities - with Josh Gruenbaum
The battle over antisemitism and the future of American higher education is far from over. Dan sits down with Josh Gruenbaum, a former Trump administration official who helped lead the federal effort to confront campus antisemitism, to discuss how the administration used federal funding to pressure universities into being more accountable and being a safer community for all of its students.

Gruenbaum is currently Managing Director at Valor Equity Partners on the investment team and a senior advisor to the Board of Peace.


Hugh Hewitt: “The Cauldron” by S. Sebag Montefiore is one of the best books of the year and probably the decade

The Times of Israel: Dr. Benjamin Chavis: MLK would have wanted a strong Israel
Welcome to The Times of Israel's Lazar Focus. Each Friday, join host and diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe.

The African-American and Jewish communities were once allies in the civil rights struggle in the US.

Julius Rosenwald, the Jewish businessman and head of retailing giant Sears, Roebuck, with Booker T. Washington to help fund nearly 5,000 schools for Black children across the Jim Crow South.

Jews made up a significant percentage -- by some estimates the majority -- of non-Blacks marching in the South and organizing voter drives.

Many leading rabbis, including Abraham Joshua Heschel and Joachim Prinz, marched with Dr. Martin Luther King.

Dr. King was planning to bring hundreds of Black pastors and community leaders to Israel in 1967, but that historic visit was derailed by the Six-Day War. He was planning to lead the mission in 1968, but was tragically cut down by an assassin's bullet in Memphis before he could.

Five hundred African-American and African pastors visited Israel this week to fulfill MLK's vision, and to work on rebuilding the Black-Jewish alliance, which has frayed in recent decades, characterized as often as not by mutual suspicion and ignorance.

Rev. Dr. Benjamin Chavis began working with Dr. King at the age of 14 in North Carolina. He rose to prominence in the civil rights movement, and was wrongly convicted for a 34 year sentence for fighting for racial desegregation.

After having his conviction overturned, Chavis became head of the NAACP and the Million Man March.

Chavis, who has been active in fighting antisemitism and anti-Zionism, said that the downturn in Jewish-Black ties was the result of the deaths of the leaders who brought the communities together in the 1960s.

He stressed that there would not have been an effective civil rights movement without the support of the Jewish community, and that is one of the reasons the two communities must work on the relationship.

"Blacks and Jews are stronger together than separate and apart," said Chavis. "I think Blacks have to speak out more against antisemitism. I think Jews have to speak out more against racism against Blacks and other communities of color."

If Dr. King was alive, he said, he would say the key to a democratic Middle East is a strong Israel, not a weak Israel.


Van Hollen says he will challenge Schumer for majority leader
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said on Thursday that he would challenge Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) in the race to be senate majority leader when the Democrats take over the upper chamber in January.

Van Hollen, who has become one of the leading critics of Israel in the Democratic Party, said that the body needs “new leadership” in his bid to replace Schumer, who has been the top Democrat in the Senate for nearly a decade.

“In this election, Americans called on us to unrig an economy rigged against working people and fueled by political corruption,” Van Hollen stated. “This isn’t about any one person. It’s about answering that call.”

Van Hollen’s leadership challenge may appeal to Democrats on the party’s left flank, where progressives have long accused Schumer of having insufficient zeal in opposing U.S. President Donald Trump and of stymieing their preferred political agenda.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who caucuses with the Democrats, and Democratic senators-elect Abdul El-Sayed, of Michigan, and Peggy Flanagan, of Minnesota, have said that they will back Van Hollen.

El-Sayed cited Van Hollen’s positions on Gaza as one reason for his support.

“When he chose to go to the Rafah Crossing, that was a real risk,” El-Sayed told PBS News Hour on Thursday. “He’s shown his willingness to take those risks.”

Van Hollen travelled to the Rafah Crossing, the primary entry point for aid into Gaza, in 2024 and in 2025.

In a statement after his 2024 trip, he said that “Israel has every right to eliminate the military threat of Hamas” but also demanded a “humanitarian cessation of hostilities” to address the “unacceptably high levels of civilian casualties.”

Since then, he has become one of the leading critics of Israel in the Senate, backing legislation to block arms sales to the Jewish state and leading the effort to strip out provisions for U.S.-Israel defense cooperation from the annual defense authorization bill.

After his 2025 visit to the Middle East, Van Hollen released a report titled “The Netanyahu government is implementing a plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza of Palestinians” and subtitled “America is complicit” and “the world must stop it.”

Schumer claimed on Thursday that he has enough votes to defeat any challenge for majority leader.

Some of those backers pointed to his role in securing at least 55 Senate seats for Democrats in the midterm elections.


El-Sayed’s antisemitic lies
In February 2024, while Israel was fighting a war against Hamas, one of the terrorist group’s leaders, Ismail Haniyeh, saw his infant niece hospitalized in Israel for urgent medical care.

This was not an isolated incident. Over the years, several of Haniyeh’s family members received treatment in Israeli hospitals, including his granddaughter Amal in 2013. Even Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, the architect of the Oct. 7 massacre, owed his life to Israeli surgeons who removed a brain tumor during his imprisonment.

Hamas leaders fully understood that Israeli hospitals save lives regardless of religion, ethnicity or nationality.

Yet in a Nov. 5 interview on MS NOW, Michigan senator-elect Dr. Abdul El-Sayed once again pushed the narrative that Israel deliberately targets and kills Palestinian children. He went on to repeat these same falsehoods on CNN.

Haniyeh was not alone. Over the years, thousands of children from Gaza have been treated in Israeli medical centers. To ignore this reality by accusing Israel of indiscriminate cruelty and to keep repeating the lie of the deliberate murder of Palestinian children by Israel is not just misleading but a blatant falsehood.

In the same interview, as he often has, El-Sayed branded Israel an “apartheid state.”

Consider how Israel actually functions: In its parliamentary democracy, the president assigns the mandate to form a government based on recommendations from Knesset members. Following recent elections, coalition negotiations featured recommendations from Arab-Israeli parties, including the Joint List and Ra’am.

Yes, Mr. El-Sayed: In the Israel you label an “apartheid state,” Arab citizens vote, hold office and serve as key powerbrokers in the Knesset.

On election night, MKs from the Joint List were seen singing “Biladi, Biladi”—the Palestinian national anthem—at their campaign headquarters. Some Arab MKs have even expressed support for Hamas, attempting to frame it as a charity organization. Yet, they remain active, voting members of the Israeli parliament.

Arab citizens in Israel serve not only in the Knesset, but also as judges, prosecutors and high-ranking police officers. While military service is not mandatory for Arab citizens, those who wish to serve in the IDF can do so. Justice George Karra, an Arab jurist, served on the Supreme Court of Israel from 2017 to 2022.

Calling such a society an “apartheid state” is not a legitimate critique. It is a deliberate lie.
El-Sayed won 50% of Jewish vote but underperformed compared to other Democrats, poll finds
A poll released on Friday found that Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed received around half of the Jewish vote, underperforming other Democrats in the US midterms.

El-Sayed won the race earlier this month — the first Muslim elected to the US Senate — as part of the Democrats’ crushing nationwide performance against Republicans.

His candidacy roiled Michigan’s Jews due to his initial equivocation about an attempted terrorist attack on a synagogue near Detroit, his anti-Zionism and hostility toward Israel, and his partnership with the incendiary anti-Israel streamer Hasan Piker, among other issues.

Most American Jews are Democrats, and his race had been seen as crucial to the party winning control of the Senate, putting many Jewish voters in a bind.

The poll, by The Jewish Majority research group, found that 50 percent of Jewish voters backed El-Sayed, 43% voted for Republican Mike Rogers, 4% left the Senate race blank and 3% chose another candidate.

By comparison, in Michigan’s gubernatorial race, Democratic candidate Jocelyn Benson won 69% of the Jewish vote, outpacing El-Sayed by 19 percentage points, according to the survey.

For respondents who self-identified as Democrats or Democratic-leaning, 93% supported Benson and 70% El-Sayed, a 23-point gap.

The survey found that 67% of respondents identified as Democrat or leaned Democrat.

The pollsters asked respondents about their votes in the 2024 elections in Michigan, finding that El-Sayed underperformed the Democratic candidates who ran in those races.

In 2024, 75% of the respondents said they had voted for the Democratic Senate candidate, Elissa Slotkin, and 21% for Rogers.

For the 2024 presidential election, 69% voted for Democrat Kamala Harris, and 28% for Republican Donald Trump. People embrace as law enforcement escort families away from the Temple Israel synagogue, in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan, March 12, 2026. (AP/Paul Sancya)

In March, a terrorist attempted to attack Temple Israel, a prominent congregation in West Bloomfield, near Detroit. After the attack, in reference to the terrorist, El-Sayed said, “Hurt people hurt people.” He later apologized “if my statement caused pain.”
Hasan Piker defends comparing Jewish voters to KKK in New York Times interview
Antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker defended his comparison of Jewish voters in suburban Detroit to Ku Klux Klan members during a contentious interview with New York Times columnist Ezra Klein published Friday, where he also stood by his attack of Zionism as a fascist and racist ideology.

“I think that there is no difference between a KKK member and what I’m describing in my personal experience,” Piker said, when pressed by Klein about his remarks last month comparing efforts to canvas Jewish voters in West Bloomfield, Mich., for then-Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed to campaigning for a Black candidate in a KKK neighborhood.

Piker said he had been referring specifically to voters displaying signs supporting El-Sayed’s Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, and whom he believed were hostile to criticism of Israel. He argued that his comparison reflected what he viewed as racism among pro-Israel voters.

When Klein raised that some voters may have been driven by their concerns about security after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, Piker said, “Of course, there are security concerns. I mean, the Nazis made a false security-concern argument, as well. They didn’t say: Oh, we’re going to go out and kill Jewish people because we’re evil. They said: Jewish people are evil, the organized Jewry is in control of the banks but also the labor unions. They’re doing socialism. They’re disrupting the German folk and their good nature.”



“We don’t have to believe the security concerns. And my argument is: I don’t believe in the security concerns that justify the continued support to Israel in its current belligerent form. I don’t agree with that,” he continued.

Piker continued to defend the underlying characterization of Zionism: “I do believe that Zionism is fascist,” he said, also calling it “racist” and an “exterminationist ideology.”

He also reiterated his arguments that the Oct. 7 attacks “almost became an inevitability” due to Israel’s actions in Gaza. “It’s an act of desperation from their perspective, but they recognized that there was no other solution,” he said.


Bushwhacked: Ex-Squad Rep Cori Bush, Now a Foreign Agent, Says Israel Revoked Her Visa Ahead of 'Fact Finding' Mission to West Bank
Former "Squad" member Cori Bush, now a foreign agent hired to lead anti-Israel propaganda tours in the West Bank, has been blocked from entering the Jewish state, she announced in a Friday video filmed from the airport.

"My visa is now revoked," Bush said. "I tried to go through the TSA checkpoint and they were having problems letting me through, and the person asked me for my visa, I pulled up my visa, my visa to Israel is revoked."

Bush attributed the move to her criticism of Israel and work in the West Bank.

"If people talking about what you're doing in the West Bank is a problem, then the problem is you're doing wrong in the West Bank," she said.

Bush did not mention that she was traveling to Israel as a foreign agent representing a well-orchestrated PR campaign to document tensions between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank.

Bush recently registered with the Department of Justice as a foreign agent for the International Federation for Rights and Development (IFRD), a Brussels-based NGO led by Palestinian filmmaker Gamaal El Attar, the Washington Free Beacon reported. According to her contract, the IFRD will pay Bush and her former House campaign manager $25,000 through January for a project to "coordinate fact-finding delegations" of "prominent Democratic Party figures and influential political leaders" to the West Bank to elevate "the narratives of Palestinian farmers and residents with settlers in the West Bank and other occupied territories."

There is reason to doubt that Bush would provide an unbiased assessment of the settler issue. Bush, who has faced scrutiny during her House tenure for fundraising with an activist who said she wanted to burn Israelis alive, issued thinly veiled threats against pro-Israel groups like AIPAC following her loss in the 2024 Democratic primary.


UK warns London mosque charity over anti-Jewish sermons
The government body in charge of registered charities in England and Wales on Thursday said it had issued a warning last month to an Islamic charity in London tied to antisemitic sermons.

The Charity Commission’s Oct. 20 warning to the Lewisham Islamic Centre will be in force for a year, the commission said in a statement. It does no entail any sanctions but, if deemed to have been ignored, the warning could lead to imitations and even a seizure by the government.

The warning was “connected, but not limited to, two sermons hosted by the charity that ‘included content that was inflammatory, divisive and not in the charity’s best interests,’” the commission’s statement said, quoting from its audit of the charity following complaints.

A resident imam of the centre, which features a mosque, spoke last year about “suffering at the hands of the oppressors and the Zionists” after the Hamas-led massacres in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Sky News reported.

In August 2024, another one of the Centre’s imams, Ashraf Dabous, alleged that Zionists were manipulating participants in Britain’s Southport riots, The Times of London reported.

In April 2024, the centre hosted American preacher Tom Facchine, who reportedly claimed Zionists controlled British schools and hospitals, The Jewish Chronicle reported. The Charity Commission did not say which sermons triggered the audit.


Philly police say no anti-Israel protesters reported assailed; group claims that’s why it nixed new ride
A Philadelphia Police Department spokeswoman told JNS that none of the anti-Israel protesters who took part in a Nov. 8 bicycle ride filed a report about being assaulted at the event, which targeted Israeli- and Jewish-owned restaurants in the country’s sixth-largest city.

The anti-Israel cycling club called Philly Bike On Your Left canceled a “ride of return” that had been scheduled to take place in the city on Nov. 15. It claimed that counter-protesters assaulted participants during its prior event.

“No riders reported being assaulted, spat on or harmed,” the police spokeswoman told JNS.

She said that counter-protesters—supporters of the six targeted eateries who turned out in much larger numbers last Sunday—tried to block the anti-Israel ride when it began at Rittenhouse Square in downtown Philadelphia. “Police cleared a path and urged both groups to keep disagreements verbal, not physical,” the police spokeswoman told JNS.

Philly Bike On Your Left, the group that was to host the latest event on Nov. 15, said cyclists were “spat on, groped and sexually assaulted” last Sunday and that “tacks were thrown at riders.”

“Flags, signs and banners were snatched,” the group stated on social media. “Several people were slapped, kicked and swatted at, called racial slurs and received death threats against them and their families.”

The Pennsylvania governor and Philadelphia mayor were among many elected officials to call the Nov. 8 gathering antisemitic. The cycling group said that it was critical of Israel, but not of Jews themselves.


Chris Rabb Refuses To Condemn Antisemitic Boycott in His District; Attacks ‘Awful Things’ from Counterprotesters
Socialist congressman-elect Chris Rabb (D., Pa.) declined in an interview Wednesday to condemn the recent antisemitic "Bicycle Boycott" protest targeting Jewish businesses in his Philadelphia district. Instead, Rabb singled out "awful things" said by counterprotesters and emphasized the free speech rights of bicycle protesters.

He added dismissively that some people were "triggered by the timing of the bike ride," which occurred on the eve of the anniversary of Kristallnacht.

Rabb has faced intense criticism from Jewish leaders this week for failing to comment on the protests, in which organizers targeted several Jewish businesses in the City of Brotherly Love to "show these zionist business owners that we see them for the disgusting humans they are." Gov. Josh Shapiro (D.) called the protest an attempt to "intimidate and drive Jewish businesses out of our communities." Mayor Cherelle Parker (D.) called a protest that singled out Jews "unacceptable." The son of late Sen. Arlen Specter (D.), who was Jewish, called Rabb a "sack of shit" for staying silent on the matter.

Rabb finally addressed the protests in an interview with CBS News's Major Garrett, though his responses are unlikely to comfort his critics.

Asked "how comfortable" he was with protests against Jewish businesses, Rabb's initial response was to defend the rights of the anti-Israel organizers.

"First things first, I respect everyone's right to the First Amendment, freedom of assembly, freedom of speech," said Rabb, who called for the need to "find common cause" on the Israeli-Palestinian issue.

Then he directly criticized Jews and their allies upset over the protest.

"I heard some awful things in some of the videos from counterprotesters," said Rabb, who did not elaborate.

Nor did Rabb condemn the timing of the protest, which occurred on the eve of the 88th anniversary of Kristallnacht, in which Nazis attacked Jewish businesses and synagogues throughout Germany and Austria, and rounded up Jewish men to send to concentration camps. He instead acknowledged, dismissively, that some people were "triggered" by the timing of the protest.


Uproar as George Mason's Lifelong Learning Program Offers Class on 'Palestinians' Resistance' Taught by 'Victim' of Israel's 'Genocide'
The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, a nationwide adult education program founded by a major supporter of Jewish and Israeli causes, will offer a course next semester at its George Mason University branch on Israel's "genocide" in Gaza and the "Palestinians' resistance" to the "new colonists," according to course materials obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. The course will be taught by Palestinian-American activist Haitham Arafat, who sailed on Greta Thunberg's notorious Global Sumud Flotilla that has been linked to Hamas.

The Osher Institute, or OLLI, is a premier provider of adult learning programs that was founded in 2001 by Jewish philanthropist Bernard Osher, a strong supporter of Israel. OLLI can be found at around 120 colleges across the country, including George Mason. Osher also maintains a Jewish Philanthropies Foundation that has given prolifically to pro-Israel causes, such as the Birthright Israel tours, Jewish community centers, and Jewish federations.

Though OLLI is deeply rooted in the Jewish community, its programs have taken a sharp turn toward anti-Israel activism. The latest example of its evolution, the upcoming course at George Mason, "The History of Palestine," signals how the anti-Israel fervor at colleges and universities has drifted into traditionally less political adult education programs.

The board of George Mason's Osher branch will hold a special executive session on Friday to discuss the "History of Palestine" course after it received complaints from several Osher members, according to an email from executive director Lisa Mariam that was viewed by the Free Beacon. Mariam said that the "instructor was recruited by one of our members" and that the board will likely add "a special sensitive topic label on this class in the online catalog."

The course description published by OLLI does little to hide its view of the Israel-Palestinian matter.

"This course will survey modern Palestine from the late 1890s to the present. We will look at the beginnings of Zionism, what happened to those living in Palestine when new colonists arrived, what conditions led to the Palestinians' resistance, and what forms that resistance took," the description reads. "We will also examine what life is like for Palestinians today."


Deradicalizing Gaza is possible but will take decades, counterterrorism expert says
Deradicalizing Gaza could take decades following the October 7 war, new Reichman University International Institute for Counter Terrorism (ICT) Assaf Moghadam told The Jerusalem Post in a recent interview.

“We always have to entertain that some measure of hope is possible. Otherwise we can simply despair in light of the challenges. I tend to think human beings are inherently good, that the potential is there,” he said.

On the other hand, he said, “It is extremely difficult to do so [have hope] in a situation when so many social forces and environmental forces, and so many interests are working toward radicalizing, supporting and abetting the radicalizing of Gazans.

“Deradicalization has to remain an aspiration. I continue to think it is possible. I have to realize something is very difficult to undertake. It is a long-term project of 20 to 40 years and only if we are able to undermine those who have an active interest in radicalization,” he noted.

Why will Gaza deradicalization take a generation?
Further, Moghadam stated, “We cannot just deradicalize an individual. We need to undermine individuals, undermine states, and institutional ideologies relentlessly.

“People who are unborn who are growing up when Gaza is being rebuilt,” implying the current October 7 generation of Gazans is lost to the cause of deradicalization.


Syria Is Indoctrinating a New Generation of Terrorists
If al-Sharaa, a former arch-terrorist, had truly "distanced" himself from terrorism, you would think that grooming Syrian children for jihad (holy war) and martyrdom would not be at the top of his list. Yet, this appears to be exactly what is happening in Syrian schools....

"From the earliest grades, martyrdom is introduced as having a spiritually exalted status, while jihad is framed as both a moral and military duty tied to defending religion, the homeland, holy places, and the Islamic nation (ummah)." — From "The New Syria: Education Under al-Sharaa: Review of Syria's National School Curriculum, 2025–2026," authored by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), August 2026.

"A Grade 8 Arabic Language textbook incites students to take up the fight against Israel for the Golan Heights, encouraging them to view sacrificing their own lives to reclaim this land as a noble and heroic act." — From "The New Syria: Education Under al-Sharaa: Review of Syria's National School Curriculum, 2025–2026."

In grade 10, students are taught that "joy remained incomplete as long as there remained even one piece of Arab land defiled by the filth of Zionist occupation." The students are furthermore taught, again through poems, to glorify violence and death in the name of "Palestine".

Overall, the textbooks present a civilizational hierarchy with Islam reigning supreme over Christianity and Judaism, which must both submit to Islam.

What does the Trump Administration think al-Shaara is doing? Does indoctrinating children with terrorism and jihad indicate, just perhaps, building the Islamic state that al-Shaara has fought for his entire terrorist career?

By having taken Syria off the list of state sponsors of terrorism and lifting sanctions, the US will sadly succeed in one thing only: The emergence of yet another radical, jihadist state.

The Trump Administration would be wise to put Syria right back on it.
New York woman accused of antisemitic stabbings is indicted for federal hate crimes
A New York woman accused of two antisemitic stabbings last month was indicted for hate crimes, according to a Friday court filing.

Anna Mochalova allegedly stabbed two identifiably Jewish men in Manhattan in separate incidents on October 21.

Investigators said they believed Mochalova had stabbed the man with a needle, but have not recovered the weapon. It was unclear if there were any substances inside the needle.

A federal grand jury charged Mochalova with two federal hate crime acts, one for each of the alleged victims, court filings showed. The charges were for willfully causing bodily injury to someone because of their race, color, religion or origin, with each charge carrying a maximum punishment of 10 years in prison.

Mochalova, who was arrested for a transit violation in Brooklyn and was then connected to the stabbing incidents, is scheduled for an arraignment on Tuesday.

The Brooklyn resident in her 30s has previously been charged with hate crimes and other offenses in a local court. Federal authorities sometimes pick up more serious hate crime cases.

She pleaded not guilty to the local charges and is being held in detention.
Who are the three Israelis among those being considered to succeed Jensen Huang as NVIDIA CEO?
Following Jensen Huang's resignation as NVIDIA's chief executive officer, the board of directors is reportedly considering three Israelis to lead the chip manufacturer.

According to Calcalist, Michael Kagan, NVIDIA's chief technology officer (CTO), and Johny Srouji, Apple's chief hardware officer, are two of the Israelis the company's board is considering.

Additionally, Ynet reported that Eyal Waldman, Mellanox's founder and former CEO, is also among the people being considered to lead the chipmaker giant, which is set to face several hiccups following Huang's resignation.

Both Kagan and Waldman were co-founders of Mellanox, an Israeli networking company that NVIDIA acquired in 2020 for some $7 billion, with Waldman having CEO experience that might give him the edge over his former partner.

In contrast, Kagan has the edge of having worked at NVIDIA and helped develop technology for the chipmaker over the last several years, and he also has contacts inside the company he acquired during his time as CTO.

Finally, Calcalist remarked that Srouji's edge is mainly his experience developing Apple's silicon strategy, which allowed the iPhone maker to develop its own chips for its various products. The main reason against Srouji's appointment as NVIDIA's CEO is the fact that he was promoted to Apple's chief hardware officer a little more than half a year ago, in April 2026.


Ondas bets big on Israel with $1b. investment over past year
Ondas has invested $1 billion in Israel, Dr. Judith Hocherman-Frommer, CTO and chief engineer of Ondas Autonomous Systems, announced at the UVID DroneTech 2026 conference at Expo Tel Aviv.

“Investment in Israel is becoming mission critical,” she said, adding that the US-based company has acquired 27 defense-tech companies over the past 18 months, the majority being Israeli companies. The others are from the United States or Europe.

"We do not only acquire companies; we invest in each one to maximize its capabilities and create opportunities for collaboration among them to solve operational challenges in real time,” she added.

The acquisitions are part of Ondas’ broader push to build a vertically integrated defense technology company spanning the development, manufacturing, and deployment of autonomous systems. Its portfolio includes autonomous drones, counter-UAS systems, robotic ground platforms, unmanned aircraft, and systems for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions.

The company’s motto, she said, is “Bots before boots,” with autonomous systems leading and clearing the way ahead of the warfighter.

According to Hocherman-Frommer, threats are evolving at a pace not seen before, within months rather than years, and therefore require fast, practical responses as well as strong integration between Israel's operational innovation and global manufacturing and deployment infrastructures.

The modern battlefield is creating “a democratization of low-cost threats at massive scale, asymmetric warfare, and a constant learning race that demands flexibility and rapid adaptation. At the same time, these realities are colliding with multi-year development cycles and legacy architectures on the ground."

In response, the defense industry needs to change its operating model, as “the response to rapidly evolving threats can no longer rely on development programs that take years to complete, nor on expensive, standalone missiles designed to counter swarms of low-cost drones."

Instead, "There must be a shift toward developing simpler and faster systems, manufacturing large quantities at high quality and affordable cost, and advancing toward autonomy, where systems operate independently while human operators provide high-level oversight."

“Speed is the new strategic advantage,” she stressed.
Rock legend Steven Van Zandt’s new gig: Holocaust education
Steven Van Zandt is worried about the Jews. “There is that pre-Holocaust vibe,” the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency recently about what he sees on social media, where he is a prolific user.

“They spread lies around year after year after year, and if you say something often enough, people start to believe it.

“And that’s what happened that led to the Holocaust in the first place, and that’s what’s going on now.”

Exploring Jewish culture, resilience through music
For a man equally beloved for his longtime work with Bruce Springsteen in the E Street Band and his role as Silvio on HBO’s “The Sopranos,” such a detour might seem unusual.

But Van Zandt is looking to make his own mark in the world of Holocaust education, via his education initiative TeachRock, which since 2013 has provided K-12 lesson plans on a range of subjects built around popular music.

Titled “Jewish Heritage and the Holocaust: Exploring an Enduring Culture Through Music,” the initiative’s four-day lesson plan, launched this week, includes the onset of antisemitism in prewar Europe, survivor testimony, and Jewish values.

Anchoring the lessons are rock songs from the likes of KISS, the half-Jewish glam metal band, beloved Jewish folk singer Leonard Cohen, and contemporary New York pop band Lawrence, which is fronted by two Jewish siblings.

It’s a departure from the somber tone of most Holocaust education programs, a space that the Jewish community has heavily invested in despite mounting questions about the effectiveness of such lessons in curbing antisemitism.

Other contemporary Holocaust learning initiatives have employed video games, artificial intelligence and similarly novel approaches as educators struggle to adapt to a near future without living survivors to share their testimonies.

Highlighting positive Jewish influence in pop culture
For Van Zandt, the lessons aren’t just teaching about the Holocaust, but also about highlighting positive Jewish influence in the world of popular culture. He rattled off a list of Jewish artists he admires, including Bob Dylan and the pop songwriting team Lieber and Stoller.

“I have a lot of gratitude for what they have contributed to my life, just in terms of enjoyment,” he said. “Show business doesn’t exist without the Jewish contributions.”


Gal Gadot chokes up at gala while lamenting rapidly spreading antisemitism
Israeli actress Gal Gadot became emotional while speaking this week about the rapid spread of antisemitism.

Her remarks came while addressing a Simon Wiesenthal Center event in Beverly Hills on Wednesday.

Gadot was telling the audience how Ynon Kreiz, co-chief executive officer of the American entertainment company Skydance who was honored with the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s humanitarian award, delivered his baby daughter in a car pulled over on a busy London street.

Her tone then grew somber.

“I’m frightened by how quickly hatred of Jews is spreading, and how openly it is expressed and accepted,” Gadot said, with tears in her eyes.

“If people get used to hearing and seeing hatred and looking the other way, then where does it end?” she added. “Our history gives us every reason to take that question seriously.”

The “Wonder Woman” star’s remarks came amid growing concerns over antisemitism since the October 7, 2023, onslaught in southern Israel by the Hamas terror group triggered the subsequent Gaza war.

Kreiz, an Israeli media executive, also addressed antisemitism in his acceptance speech. He said disagreements with Israeli government policy must not be used to justify hatred of Jews and that the relationship between the United States and Israel “must remain unshakable.”

He also talked about his family’s escape from Nazi persecution, saying that his mother was a baby when she and her older sister hid in a closet during a Nazi raid in Vienna, according to the Kan public broadcaster. The family fled that night, finding refuge in Scotland.

Former hostage Noa Argamani, who was abducted by Hamas terrorists from the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, and rescued by Israeli forces in June 2024, was among those attending the ceremony.



 

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