New York, July 31 - Media furor surrounding the denim attire and the absolute gazongas on an actress who modeled for a prominent fashion label in a campaign launched last week has focused on the alleged white supremacist coding of the imagery - an attractive blonde in jeans and a matching top - instead of what online experts contend is its true function: to render Americans so obsessed with the model's ample bosom that they fail to notice the creeping, sinister takeover of America by Jewish interests.
Renowned users on social media platforms such as X struggled over the last week to maintain awareness that Sydney Sweeney's boobs are a Mossad plot, even as those users found themselves drowned out by apoplectic progressives insisting her ample jugs and low-melanin hair signal racism on the part of American Eagle Outfitters, the company whose ads now feature Ms. Sweeney.
The loudest Mossad-aware voices in social media expressed frustration with these developments. "Just when we thought we were getting somewhere with the 'Gaza is starving' narrative," complained Nick Fuentes, "the Mossad comes in with hooters. And people eat it up! Who needs hooters? I mean, I love cans! I'm not gay. I'm not!"
Pro-Palestine figures sounded a similar note. "This is must be an attempt to distract the American public from the atrocities in Gaza," charged Alonso Gurmedi. "Why, just today, the occupation forces killed another eight hundred thousand Palestinian children! Did I say eight hundred thousand? I meant eight hundred million. And yet the Western brains focus only on the ta-tas. Leave it to the Mossad to know exactly how to exploit your weaknesses."
"That rack, though," he conceded.
Activists fear that any forty-eight-hour period in which Palestinian victimhood is not front-page and leading-item news is a failure, explained media analyst Tim Walz. "Personally, I don't get the appeal of the campaign," he noted. "Not my thing. A woman of color, or of size, you know, maybe that wouldn't have been as tone-deaf. Or perhaps a man! Yes. A man. Anyway, what were we talking about? Right. Those poor Palestinians! We can't let the world's attention focus on anything else! Not even sweater puppies. Ooh! Puppies!"
"Silly me, getting distracted. Free Palestine!"
Israeli officials declined to comment on the veracity of the accusations. They did, however, refer a reporter to a trove of resources containing images of IDF women in tight uniforms and in various combat and non-combat poses.
More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since May while trying to get food in the Gaza Strip, mostly near aid sites run by an American contractor, the U.N. human rights office said Tuesday.
Of the 1,054 people killed while trying to get food since late May, 766 were killed while heading to sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, according to the U.N. human rights office. The others were killed when gunfire erupted around U.N. convoys or aid sites.
Thameen al-Kheetan, a spokesperson for the U.N. rights office, says its figures come from "multiple reliable sources on the ground," including medics, humanitarian and human rights organizations. He said the numbers were still being verified according to the office's strict methodology.
All the OCHA reports I have seen are very careful not to directly blame Israel for deaths, so I wanted to find the original statement. It comes from a UN News article on July 22:
[T]he UN human rights office, OHCHR, announced on Tuesday that more than 1,000 Palestinians have now been killed by the Israeli military while trying to get food in the Strip since the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) started operating on 27 May.
“As of 21 July, we have recorded 1,054 people killed in Gaza while trying to get food,” said OHCHR spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan. “766 of them were killed in the vicinity of GHF sites and 288 near UN and other humanitarian organizations’ aid convoys.”
Mr. Al-Kheetan noted that the finding came from “multiple reliable sources on the ground, including medical teams, humanitarian and human rights organizations. It is still being verified in line with our strict methodology.”
Al Kheetan did not say the were killed b y the IDF. He was as careful in his statement as OCHA normally is. But UN News assumed that they were all killed by Israel in its reporting.
UN News articles are not official UN statements, they are news articles filtered through the reporters employed by the UN. AP took the UN News article and didn't distinguish between what OCHA said and what the reporter added.
According to the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza, between 16 and 23 July, 646 Palestinians were killed, and 3,438 were injured. Between 7 October 2023 and 23 July 2025, the MoH in Gaza reported that at least 59,219 Palestinians were killed, and 143,045 Palestinians were injured. This includes 8,363 people killed and 31,004 injured since the re-escalation of hostilities on 18 March 2025, according to MoH. The MoH further noted that the number of casualties among people trying to access food supplies has increased to 1,060 fatalities and more than 7,207 injuries since 27 May 2025.
It properly attributes the casualty numbers to the MoH and it carefully does not directly blame Israel.
The UN News reporter editorialized by assuming both the casualty figures are accurate and that there are no other possible reasons for the civilian deaths than Israel. The AP reporter did not distinguish between the actual OCHA statement and the UN News editorializing.
At least 48 Palestinians were killed and dozens were wounded Wednesday while waiting for food at a crossing in the Gaza Strip, according to a hospital that received the casualties.
The IDF said on Thursday that a preliminary probe found no wrongdoing or IDF-related casualties in the incident, but confirmed soldiers opened non-lethal fire as a crowd control measure. Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City said the dead and wounded were among crowds massed at Zikim Crossing, the main entry point for humanitarian aid to northern Gaza.
"The forces fired dispersal shots in the area, not at the gathering, in response to a perceived threat," the IDF's statement read. "Initial investigation shows that no casualties were reported as a result of IDF fire; the details of the incident are still being investigated."
An anonymous source in the defense establishment added that "during the gathering, gunshots were heard from within the crowd, and internal friction among Gazans within the gathering. This is in addition to several cases of being run over by aid trucks."
This is not the first time we have seen reports of gunfire within crowds. The idea that a professional army trained not to fire on civilians would kill 48 in a single incident is not reasonable. It is possible that some of the warning shots could have killed one or two accidentally, but 48 is only possible with direct orders to shoot at the crowd, and not only would no IDF commander make such an order, but the soldiers themselves would refuse it - and run to the media to whistle-blow it if they were given such an order without imminent risk to themselves.
But would Hamas put people in the crowds to shoot or stab them and cause chaos that would benefit them by delegitimizing Israel securing aid shipments? Yes, they would, and they have.
The relentless anti-Israel propaganda is based on a combination of ignorance of how a professional army works, willingness to believe and spread anti-Israel propaganda, and old fashioned antisemitism in assuming that Jews are shifty liars. But multiply these factors by thousands of NGO workers and reporters and politicians and the truth is the first casualty.
The UN Office for Project Services has a dashboard of aid to Gaza to different NGOs which shows that the vast majority of aid to Gaza - 85% -gets intercepted between the time it is collected at the crossing points and the time it gets to the people.
85%.
When you look at the details, you see that over 89% of the food meant for the World Food Programme gets intercepted before reaching its destination, and 78.5% of the food meant for the World Central Kitchen never arrives.
UNOPS says that the aid is intercepted "either peacefully by hungry people or forcefully by armed actors, during transit in Gaza."
Even worse, UNOPS admits that of all the food shipped to Gaza, 31% never gets picked up at the border to begin with.
So out of 40,012 tons of food aid sent to Gaza for the UN between May 19 and today, only 4,111 tons got distributed - which is only 10% of the aid.
For months, while the UN blamed Israel for starving Gazans, it knew and tracked day by day the number of trucks that arrived in Gaza, the number that were stolen and the number that reached their destinations - and did not bother to tell the world these facts, instead blaming Israel for the Gazans not getting enough food.
How much of this stolen food goes to Hamas? We have no idea. But it is a fair bet that Hamas gets more food aid than Gazans themselves do.
Not only is this a scandal on gross problems in aid distribution. It is a scandal that the UN knows all of this information and chooses not to tell the world that lots of food is indeed entering Gaza even during the supposedly Israeli restrictions and only 10% reaches their intended destination.
The World Food Programme and World Central Kitchen and UNICEF knows how little of the food they bring in reaches their destination - but not one of their many press conferences mentioned this fact.
This also indicates that as chaotic the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation mechanism has been - endlessly dissected by the media - the UN-run system for bringing food into Gaza is far worse in getting food into the hands of those who need it.
The sheer ridiculousness of Arab antisemitism is something to behold.
This week, a famous Egyptian actor named Lotfy Labib died at the age of 77. He had played hundreds of roles over his career.
But in his obituary, they only wanted to talk about one of them:
Lotfy Labib was one of the most prominent figures in Egyptian drama and cinema, leaving a clear artistic imprint over many years through a variety of roles beloved by the public and associated with them. His most notable role was in the national epic series "Raafat Al-Hagan."
In a previous TV interview with journalist Amr El-Leithy, the late actor spoke about the reason for his name's absence from the series' credits, explaining that he played a small role as a Jewish character who had lived in Egypt before the migration, but he wasn't comfortable with the role.
Lotfy Labib confirmed, saying: “Mr. Yahya Al-Alami told me, ‘You are with me and you played the role of one of the Jews who were in Egypt before the migration.’ I told him, ‘I am not happy and I wish you would not write my name in the credits.’ Therefore, my name is not in the credits at all.”
Here's the interview where he says he did not want to be associated with playing a Jew.
Note that he doesn't say it was an Israeli character, but an Egyptian Jew. And the TV series aired starting in 1988, well after Israel's peace treaty with Egypt.
But don't call them antisemitic. They only hate Israel. That's what we hear all the time when they are speaking in English, so it must be true.
Mohammed’s isn’t the only recent case of babies afflicted with terrible illnesses being exploited to promote a false narrative that Israel is intentionally starving Gazan children. Cogat, the Israeli military unit that coordinates humanitarian aid in the Palestinian territories, tweeted Monday about a viral photo of a different child, Osama al-Raqab. Like Mohammed, Osama looked emaciated, and critics claimed that he too was starving due to Israel’s actions. These critics include Dr. Muneer Alboursh, director of the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health, who tweeted that Israel was trying to “mislead public opinion by claiming that he was suffering from other illnesses, not hunger” and that “what is happening is not propaganda, but a real famine.”
Yet according to Cogat—and previously confirmed by the boy’s mother to the Associated Press—Osama actually suffers from cystic fibrosis. On June 12, Israel coordinated his evacuation to Italy, along with his mother and brother, so he could receive medical treatment. “Tragic images rightfully stir strong emotions,” the Cogat post said. “But when they’re misused to fuel hatred and lies, they do more harm than good.”
That harm was clear to me in Gaza, where I stood surrounded by nearly 600 trucks worth of food, water and diapers, all ready to be delivered. The U.N. refused to do the job, saying it couldn’t operate safely with Israeli protection. Instead it asked that security be provided by the “Gaza Blue Police”—a euphemism for Hamas’s internal security forces. This is the same group the U.N. has repeatedly accused of stealing aid, including in October 2023, only weeks after the Hamas-led massacre.
In addition to rejecting IDF protection, the U.N. has declined to cooperate with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, despite its backing by the U.S. The result is that food meant for children like Mohammed is left to rot. Put simply, the U.N. would rather work with Hamas than the Israelis or the Americans.
Since Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has coordinated and facilitated the entry into Gaza of more than 1.86 million tons of humanitarian assistance, more than 78% of which has been food. The population of Gaza is about 2.1 million. The only comparable effort in modern history is the Berlin Airlift of 1948-49, during which the Allies delivered 2.3 million tons of supplies to 2.5 million West Berliners over 15 months. Even then, the aid was going to an allied population. “There is no historical precedent for a military providing the level of direct aid to an enemy population that Israel has provided to Gaza,” writes John Spencer of the Modern War Institute at West Point.
But these facts rarely break through the noise. Instead, the world sees a photo of a suffering child, assumes what news editors want them to assume, and then shares it without asking questions. The context is stripped away. There is real suffering in Gaza. But when that suffering is exploited for propaganda, and when humanitarian systems are paralyzed by politics and ideology, it is the most vulnerable—like young Mohammed al-Mutawaaq—who pay the price.
The Desperation of Jew-Haters By Abe Greenwald
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It is their desperation that gives the liars away and reveals the full sweep of their Jew-hatred. The very fact that the New York Times and other major news outlets are taking sick kids and claiming them as victims of a Jewish starvation plot is precisely what confirms that there is no starvation plot.
Think about how eager the Times must be to obtain a legitimate image of a single Gazan who’s been irrefutably starved by Israel. If there were one such image available on the planet, the paper would pay any amount to any party to have it. It would literally be the easiest image in the world to get universally broadcast. This is how we know none exists.
So the Times et al., in their desperate hatred of Israel, committed an unprecedented breach of journalistic ethics. Having no legitimate photograph of starved Gazans, they decided to use photographs of children with wasting and deforming diseases and write about them as if they were being starved by Israel.
If such a transgression were committed in service of any cause other than the demonization of the Jewish state, those responsible would be fired and never work in journalism again. But when media organizations are exposed for lying about Israel, they just tweak the lie and move on.
The Times was busted for misrepresenting a sick child as a starvation victim, so it issued the following statement about the boy in question: “We have since learned new information, including from the hospital that treated him and his medical records, and have updated our story to add context about his pre-existing health problems. This additional detail gives readers a greater understanding of his situation.”
The paper doesn’t identify the “pre-existing health problem” because it would probably explain the boy’s seemingly malnourished condition without any need to bring fake starvation into the story. So the Times is continuing to lie by omission.
Before October 7, 2023, staged and misleading images of supposedly suffering Gazans were commonplace on “pro-Palestinian” social media and in some Middle Eastern news organizations. What we used to laugh off as “Pallywood” is now just the news.
We must now wonder what further schemes the West’s desperate Jew-haters will import next.
The Times knows this principle. In its own handbook the paper states that “we must be forthright and timely in acknowledging our errors.” Timely the paper was; forthright it was not. Hiding the fix on a niche corporate account suggests an internal calculation that public contrition can be performed in half-measures without harming brand prestige. Readers are expected to accept that a buried note absolves the original sin, yet most will never encounter the update and therefore will never adjust their understanding of the story.
Why does this matter? Because modern conflicts are fought as fiercely on the battlefield of public opinion as on any physical front. Images and captions shape policy debates, affect humanitarian fund-raising, and influence diplomatic negotiations. One photo of an apparently starving child can become a moral cudgel yielding headlines, sound-bites and even votes in international forums. When that image is later revealed to be only half the story, the damage is already entrenched.
Critics of Western media often accuse legacy outlets of carrying innate biases against Israel. I prefer to judge case by case, yet the Times handed its detractors a gift. By omitting critical medical context in the first place and then opting for a low-profile correction, the newspaper reinforced suspicions that it privileges narratives of Israeli culpability and is reluctant to broadcast any fact that complicates that frame. At minimum it signalled that accuracy can take second place to virality.
The lesson is stark. In the age of instant amplification any news organization that wishes to retain public trust must match the scale of its corrections to the scale of its initial reach. That means posting revisions on every platform where the original appeared, pinning them prominently, and explaining in clear language how the mistake occurred. Anything less looks like damage control instead of accountability.
The New York Times insists that truth matters. I agree. Truth, however, does not merely require acknowledgement; it demands amplification equal to the falsehood it replaces. Until the paper is willing to raise its voice for corrections as loudly as it does for dramatic headlines, its credibility will remain under justified scrutiny.
Voices from within the mainstream Jewish world have similarly been important in getting this message across.
UK Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis noted that Starmer’s plan treats Israel more harshly than it does Hamas: “So many in the Jewish community are viewing this as a profound betrayal of Israel’s quest to live free of terror on its borders. And as is often the case, when the Jewish state appears more vulnerable, extremists at home and abroad are emboldened, and Jewish people are more vulnerable as a result.”
It was also gratifying to see the response from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the umbrella organization for U.S. Jewish groups. After Emmanuel Macron made his Palestine announcement, his foreign minister reached out to the Conference to offer to meet with them in New York about it.
Again, this was after Macron went public.
“We are disappointed that our organizations were invited to discuss a policy that appears to already have been finalized rather than being consulted beforehand as partners committed to sustainable peace,” the Conference and six of its member organizations—the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, B’nai B’rith International, UJA-Federation of New York and the World Jewish Congress—said in a statement. For good measure, they added that France’s move “not only emboldens extremists, but risks the security of the Jewish people around the globe.”
Their refusal to meet with the French minister sends an important message, as do the reactions around the Jewish world. I’ll let Conference of Presidents head William Daroff, who gave a statement to eJewishPhilanthropy, have the last word and hope his point comes through loud and clear:
“The decision here by these organizations acting jointly and unanimously, I believe, is indicative of a new wind that has been blowing since Oct. 7, where Jewish organizations are not fighting amongst themselves, not elbowing each other, but are working more in concert and focus together on the best interest of American Jewry. And so I’m proud that we’ve come together, all the organizations that were invited, to say, ‘Non, merci.’”
Standing at the Gaza side of Kerem Shalom, surrounded by mountains of aid left idle, the contrast could not be clearer. While Israel was facilitating aid, the UN had effectively abandoned the children and people of Gaza.
Where is the outrage?
Where are all the human rights champions, the activists and NGOs who scream ‘famine’ and ‘starvation’, while blindly condemning Israel? Why are they not demanding the UN do its job, collect the aid and distribute to those who need it so urgently?
The truth is, too many in the international community would rather weaponize hunger to vilify Israel than take real steps to help Gazans.
It’s about keeping Israel as the forever scapegoat and undermining the U.S.-led Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a game changer, which has at last bypassed Hamas, to deliver aid directly to the people of Gaza.
This isn’t just negligence. It’s moral bankruptcy. And it’s putting Palestinian lives, including children, at dire risk. It is simply unforgivable, that baby formula is going to waste, while the UN is engaging in petty politics.
If the world truly wants to help the people of Gaza, then stop lying about Israel. Stop peddling Hamas propaganda. And start holding the real culprits, Hamas and the UN, accountable.
But as long as the world continues to defame Israel, the one party actually trying to help, with baseless accusations of starvation, while enabling those who weaponize suffering, then the people of Gaza will continue to pay the price, not because of Israeli policy, but because of international cowardice.
I went to Kerem Shalom to see the truth for myself.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed partial annexation of the Gaza Strip as a potential course of action if hostage deal talks fail, during a Monday small cabinet meeting – an Israeli source confirmed to The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.
“It was raised as a serious matter and was debated,” the source said.
This comes after a source told the Post on Monday that Israel will have “no choice” but to expand its military operation in some capacity if hostage talks stall.
In addition, IDF sources confirmed to the Post that senior military officials were kept out of the meetings and were not consulted.
The IDF Spokesperson’s Office added that it would not comment on internal cabinet discussions.
The Post contacted multiple sources within the Justice Ministry with authority related to the issue, but has not received a response.
According to an Israeli source, the prime minister is currently waiting for two things: the possibility that Hamas may still show flexibility in the hostage negotiations and the upcoming meetings in Washington – where Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi are expected to hold talks with senior Trump administration officials about the war in Gaza.
The official added that he expects the security cabinet to convene this week to further discuss the situation.
The Washington Post reported that it could not pay its fighters or pay “death benefits” to families of slain terrorists. It was in ceasefire talks. A week later, Israel has been forced to create a “humanitarian pause,” that is a ceasefire, with Hamas giving up nothing in exchange.
How did we get from there to here? This is another story of advocacy masquerading as journalism.
On July 20, The Jerusalem Post reported, “Israel, the U.S., Qatar and Egypt are still waiting for Hamas’s response to the proposed hostage and ceasefire deal presented by mediators last week.” A source reportedly told N12 news that “Hamas’s foot-dragging, even if it believes it serves its interests, may ultimately work against it.”
And according to The Washington Post report, “Hamas is facing its worst financial and administrative crisis in its four-decade history, facing stiff challenges in mustering the resources it would need to continue to fight Israel and rule Gaza.”
The article made clear, according to multiple sources in Gaza, that the seizure of humanitarian aid had been a key source of revenue for the terror group. As laid out in the piece: “Hamas profited ‘especially off the aid that had cost them nothing but whose prices they hike up,’ said a contractor who has worked at Gaza’s border crossings during the war.
“Over nearly two years, he said, he saw Hamas routinely collect 20,000 shekels (about $6,000) from local merchants, threatening to confiscate their trucks if they did not pay. He recalled that civil servants for the Hamas-led government said several times that they would kill him or call him a collaborator with Israel if he did not cooperate with their demands to divert aid. He said he refused. But he added that he knew at least two aid truck drivers who he said were killed by Hamas for refusing to pay.”
The Washington Post also quoted sources explaining that the reason Hamas wanted a return to the old methods of aid distribution, before the creation of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, was that it needed that revenue. In other words, at this point, Hamas was over a barrel. Based on that article, it certainly seemed that if Hamas could be prevented from resuming aid theft, the group would not be able to hang on for much longer.
But the very same day that The Washington Post report appeared, 28 world leaders stepped in to put pressure—not on the side that started the war with a brutal and savage attack and that continues, nearly two years later, to hold hostages, but on Israel. These countries made a statement saying the war in Gaza “must end now.” And the following day, July 22, Hamas rejected the ceasefire proposal that was on the table, adding new demands, including that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation cease operations.
At this point, the international media stepped up, as if in concert, with a cacophony of headlines and photographs on starvation in the Gaza Strip, designed to put pressure on Israel to give Hamas exactly what it wanted—the ability to live another day.
Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.
Imagine you’re a
14-year-old girl, still floating from the final night of Jewish sleepaway camp.
You barely slept—you were too busy singing camp songs, exchanging weepy hugs,
and saying heartfelt goodbyes. Still, you managed to pack your duffel bag, lug it through security, and board the flight home from Valencia
to Paris with your fellow campers.
You’re tired, but your
heart is full. Someone calls out “Lilmod!”—the beginning of a silly chant your
bunk invented—and without even thinking, you shout back: “Mashiach!”
And that’s when everything
changes.
Because two Hebrew words
were spoken, airline staff suddenly see you and your friends not as teenagers
but as Jews and as it turns out, they really, really hate Jews. Things get
ugly. Flight attendants are yelling. Spanish police are called. And you and
your friends are forced off the plane, grabbed by the arms, manhandled. Your
phone is confiscated. All your camp videos—all your selfies—deleted.” Your camp director, a young woman trying to
protect her campers, is beaten, handcuffed, and bloodied in front of your eyes.
All because two Hebrew
words were spoken aloud on a plane.
“She still had bloody
marks, red, bright red, on her wrists, because of the handcuffs. It was
horrible… It’s the worst experience of my whole life.”
— one of the campers, in a viral video explaining the incident.
Jewish Childhood Interrupted
The 44 children from Camp
Kineret, ages 10 to 15, had done nothing wrong. Vueling Airlines claimed they
were “disruptive” and tampered with emergency equipment—but provided no proof.
Meanwhile, a passenger on the flight who had no connection to the camp said the
kids were “calm.” The real crime? Hebrew words. Kippahs. A visible Jewish
identity.
In the aftermath,
Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli reported that airline staff
shouted, “Israel is a terrorist state!” Spain’s Transport Minister referred to
the children as “Israeli brats.”
They were not Israeli.
They were French. And they were Children.
"Hide Who You Are"
Another video—less viral
but just as haunting—shows a young male counselor on a bus speaking to Jewish
campers before they reach the airport. He speaks with authority, but you can
tell he’s scared too: “Take off your kippahs. Hide your tzitzit. Pack away your
Stars of David and anything else Jewish.”
“Don’t give these
antisemites a reason to kick us off the plane,” he pleads.
One small voice responds:
“I have a kippah in my bag… What do I do?”
That shouldn’t sit right with anyone. But it
did—and it will again. Because it always does.
What Does Antisemitism Do to a Child?
We know what antisemitism
looks like: smashed windows, spray-painted swastikas, or the battered
body of a handcuffed Jewish camp director left bleeding on the enclosed walkway
leading from the plane to the terminal.
But what about the damage
you can’t see?
According to a 2024 Stanford University study, nearly half of Jewish teens in the U.S. reported high stress or fear linked to antisemitism in the wake of October 7. Many said they’d stopped wearing Jewish symbols in public. Some avoided speaking Hebrew. A few even considered changing their last names—just to feel safe.
In the UK, a national survey found that 23% of Jewish schoolchildren had experienced antisemitism either at school or on their commute. These weren’t one-off slurs—they included physical threats, vandalism, and group harassment.
In Australia, researchers interviewed Jewish children who said they’d been called “dirty Jews,” been excluded from class projects, or watched teachers ignore antisemitic jokes. Nearly every single child interviewed had a story.
The research is clear: antisemitism doesn’t just affect Jewish children emotionally—it shapes how they see themselves, how safely they move through the world, and how much of their identity they’re willing to show.
Imagine being that young
and afraid that your last name is “too Jewish.”
It’s Not Only France
The French campers aren’t
alone.
In Staten Island, a seventh-grade Jewish boy walked into school just two weeks after the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. A group of students surrounded him. They pushed him to the ground, kicked him in the leg and the face, and shouted, “F*** Israel.” No teachers intervened. No one asked what happened. He never went back to that school.
In London, a bus full of Jewish schoolchildren from the Jewish Free School was ambushed by a gang of ten teens. The attackers hurled large rocks at the vehicle while screaming “F*** Israel.” The younger kids screamed in terror. No one came to help. No arrests were made.
In Rome, an eight-year-old Jewish boy wearing a yarmulke went shopping with his mother. An Egyptian asylum seeker spotted his kippah and attacked him. When the shopkeeper tried to intervene, the man stabbed him in the face with a shard of broken glass. The boy survived. The storekeeper was left disfigured.
In Milan, a six-year-old French Jewish boy, his twelve-year-old brother, and their father were surrounded at a rest stop by twenty men. The mob targeted them for wearing kippahs. They stomped on the father, kicked him in the stomach and legs, and screamed “Free Palestine.” When police finally arrived, they didn’t arrest the attackers. Instead, they told the injured father to “tell Netanyahu to stop bombing Gaza.”
Physically assaulting Jews in Italy! A father and his six year old son, both wearing yarmulkes, were shouted at "free Palestine" and "murderers, go home!" in a restaurant in the Milan area. pic.twitter.com/dQ1hJY2HCj
These are not isolated
events. This is a wave. A sickness. A shadow falling on Jewish childhood.
One moment, you’re proud
of who you are—your Hebrew, your songs, your symbols. The next, an adult tells
you to hide that Jewish star necklace under your shirt, to tuck away your tzitzit,
and pray no one sees you.
And the worst part?
They do notice.
You’re a child. But to
them, the religion you were born into is reason enough to hate you.
Because They Were Jewish
This was no misunderstanding. It was not a noisy group of children on a plane. It wasn’t even a schoolyard squabble.
It was plain old antisemitism—ugly, familiar, and completely unbothered by the fact that it was aimed at children.
But the kids will remember. They’ll remember the bruises, the shouting, the violence— and the silence of the bystanders who watched it happen.
And they’ll remember that the reason no one seemed to care… was because they were Jewish.
The Children Remember
One of the French campers ended her now-famous video by saying it was “the worst experience of my whole life.”
But she’s wrong.
The worst part will come later—when she realizes that even after being humiliated, even after her director bled on the airport floor, even after she hid her identity and was still thrown off the plane…
The world looked away. Because once you see Jews as less than human—and more like vermin, as Hitler did—their age doesn’t matter. Even a baby cockroach, after all, is still a cockroach. And cockroaches grow up.
And if that’s how you see them—what difference does it make if they’re six, or sixteen, or sixty?
They can’t see Jewish children as children. Only as the next wave of Jews.
And once you see them that way, you don’t have to feel bad when they bleed.
So they’ll remember.
And they’ll grow up knowing what it means to be hated for simply being Jewish.
But they’ll also grow up knowing what it means to belong—to one another, to something older than hate, and stronger.
Not all of them will hold on to it. Many will walk away.
But some won’t.
And that will be enough to keep us going.
The more I work on the AskHillel ethical framework, the better it gets.
After my last essay on how rights are a subset of values, I was wondering if we can better define the relationship between values and obligations.
How are moral obligations determined?
This seemingly simple question has long troubled philosophers, leading to often unsatisfying answers. Some traditions emphasize universal duties owed to all humanity, regardless of relationship or circumstance. Others narrow the scope of responsibility to only those within immediate proximity or with whom a direct contract exists. Both extremes, however, fail to capture the nuanced, dynamic reality of human moral life, leaving individuals and institutions having no guidance when confronted with complex ethical demands.
The AskHillel framework offers a precise and comprehensive answer to this enduring dilemma through a newly articulated ethical formula: Capacity + Proximity + Covenant = Obligation. This formula says that moral duties are not static nor universally uniform, but rather emerge from a dynamic interplay of three core conditions. It refines and extends AskHillel's foundational principles of Areivut (mutual responsibility) and Lo Ta'amod al Dam Re'echa (do not stand idly by), providing a robust mechanism for assigning duties that is both rigorous and realistic.
We've already discussed relational proximity as the concentric circles of responsibility that everyone has - first to themselves, then their families, their community, their nation and then the world. This provides a way to prioritize one's responsibilities, when many universalistic ethical systems imply that all people must be treated equally. They all deserve respect and their lives all have infinite value, but from the individual perspective, those closest get priority. This is instinctively true and in fact how most people act.
Functional capacity is another factor that is obvious once you say it out loud, but is rarely mentioned in moral philosophy. This says that moral duties increase not only with relational proximity but also with an individual's or entity's unique ability, resources, knowledge, power, or positional authority. This is a concept deeply embedded in Jewish thought, where gifts and strengths are understood as responsibilities. Here are some examples of how this plays out:
Individual Level: A doctor has a moral obligation to render aid in an emergency that a non-medical bystander does not, precisely because of their specialized knowledge and skill. A person with significant wealth holds a greater duty to provide tzedakah (righteous giving) to the needy, as their resources grant them a unique capacity to alleviate suffering. A scholar or leader has a heightened responsibility to guide and teach, due to their knowledge and influence.
Organizational Level: A corporation with unique technological capabilities (e.g., in AI or pharmaceuticals) has a greater obligation to ensure the ethical development and responsible deployment of those technologies, given their disproportionate impact. An organization with vast financial resources bears a heavier duty to ensure ethical supply chains and fair labor practices throughout its operations.
National Level: A nation possessing advanced scientific knowledge (e.g., in pandemic response or climate solutions) has a greater obligation to share that expertise for global benefit. A militarily powerful nation bears a heavier burden to contribute to global stability and prevent atrocities, in line with the principle of Lo Ta'amod al Dam Re'echa on an international scale, given its unique ability to intervene or deter.
This corrects our previous idea that responsibility is solely a matter of relationship. Power, knowledge, and ability are not merely privileges but come with commensurate moral burdens, regardless of direct personal connection.
But just as crucially as the responsibilities are the guardrails to make sure that limited resources are used wisely. That's where covenantal integrity comes into play.
Covenantal integrity ensures that obligations, while serious, are never absolute or self-destructive. An obligation is binding only if its fulfillment does not violate the core moral duties of the individual, organization, or nation, or undermine the very values that define its derech (path).
Self-Preservation: An individual is not obligated to sacrifice their own life to save a stranger if there is no reasonable chance of success, as Pikuach Nefesh (saving a life) applies to oneself as well. This principle ensures that the duty to others does not negate the fundamental duty to one's own existence and well-being.
National Dignity/Security: A nation is not obligated to intervene in every global crisis if doing so would fundamentally destabilize its own internal justice, national security, or the well-being of its citizens. The pursuit of external good must be balanced with the preservation of the nation's own covenantal responsibilities and the welfare of its people.
Internal Coherence: A company is not obligated to pursue a course of action that would cause its collapse, if that collapse would lead to greater harm (e.g., mass unemployment, loss of vital services), provided its pursuit of profit is bounded by higher-tier values. This acknowledges the value of organizational sustainability as a prerequisite for fulfilling its broader ethical and societal roles.
Covenantal integrity introduces a critical layer of moral realism and sustainability, preventing the framework from falling into the trap of demanding unlimited, self-sacrificing, or ultimately unsustainable duties.
This comprehensive ethical formula—Capacity + Proximity + Covenant = Obligation—provides a powerful tool for navigating the moral complexities of today. It elegantly resolves the tension between rights and duties by showing how "rights" are values that generate specific obligations depending on these three conditions.
It corrects the "libertarian error" of limiting duty to only direct consent or immediate proximity, by integrating the impact of capacity. It simultaneously refutes the "utopian/progressive error" of assuming boundless, undifferentiated duties for everyone, by introducing the necessary boundary of covenantal integrity.
It also leads to clarity in action. When faced with a moral dilemma, AskHillel doesn't just ask "What are the values at stake?" but also "Who is proximate? Who has the capacity to act? And what are the inviolable core duties that must be preserved?" This leads to precise, traceable, and fair assignments of responsibility.
Finally, this formula fosters a more mature form of moral agency. It empowers individuals and institutions to understand not just what is right in principle, but what is theirs to do in practice, given their unique position in the moral ecosystem.
This ethical formula, based in Jewish ethics, offers a robust, dynamic, and realistic framework. It transforms the perplexing question of "where do obligations come from?" into a structured, auditable process, providing a clear path for individuals, organizations, and nations to act with integrity, purpose, and genuine responsibility.
Amid the blatant crimes currently being committed by the Zionist enemy and the war of extermination and starvation it is perpetrating in Gaza, Zionists are living in complete isolation among the nations of the world, both East and West....
A clear example of this widespread rejection is what happened this week to two Jewish artists whose performances at the Edinburgh Festival 2025 in Scotland were canceled two weeks before the event. Perhaps the phrase "No Jews Allowed" is the best advice for any Western gathering or public festival, as public outrage against the Zionist entity grows day by day as its army continues its presence on Arab land.
What inspires hope in the existence of some humanity among certain Western peoples, such as in Scotland and Ireland, is the reason given by festival organizers for expelling these two Zionists: the actors had previously performed a "solidarity gesture" for the Zionist army. The two Zionist actors protested, claiming their performances were not political but merely addressed the theme of motherhood with a Jewish cultural flavor! Another performance in a different venue in Scotland was also canceled for the same reason, out of fear of public anger, which would not tolerate the presence of an actor who supports the Zionist entity on social media.
The claims of "anti-Semitism" that the ambassador once loudly proclaimed no longer serve to improve the image of this rejected entity. The media now faces clear facts: the Palestinians will not cease resisting this cancerous entity, sent by Europe to Arab land, despite having no connection to the land or the people who inhabit it.
No matter how much "anti-Zionists" insist they aren't antisemitic, everyone knows the truth. The justifications for modern antisemitism will soon reach any Jew who prays several times a day for the rebuilding of Jerusalem, any Jew who attends a synagogue with an Israeli flag, any Jew who ever visited Israel, any Jew who has relatives in Israel, any Jew who speaks out against Palestinian terrorism.
The hate is becoming normalized at astonishing speeds.
Jewish comedians have had their Edinburgh Fringe shows cancelled because of staff “safety concerns”, it has been claimed.
Rachel Creeger and Philip Simon were booked to perform at the Whistlebinkies venue during the festival.
Ms Creeger was set to perform her show Ultimate Jewish Mother, while Mr Simon was due to host a Jew-O-Rama of Jewish comedic talents.
However, the acts claimed they were informed that their gigs would be cancelled after bar staff at the venue expressed fears of feeling “unsafe”.
The information and news since then is much worse.
First of all the "safety" concern was not the initial complaint. The original notice that they had been canceled was based on a lie:
‘They initially said that they believed we’d held a vigil for an IDF soldier, a fallen soldier, which is a thing that just hadn’t ever happened in either of our shows,’ [Creeger] said. ‘The shows are not political; we’re not political performers, and the IDF is not a relevant subject in either show.
Organisers ‘later withdrew [that allegation] and said they understood that that didn’t actually happen’, and previously told the Jewish comics that their bar was a ‘safe space’ for them.
‘So it came as something of a shock to suddenly be told last Friday that we were no longer welcome on the site.’
After that, the venue claimed that last year there was both anti-Israel and Zionist graffiti on site surrounding the shows, which they brought no proof for (and the Zionist graffiti seems suspect to me.)
A Jewish comedian has been cancelled by an Edinburgh Fringe venue after attending a vigil for victims of the Oct 7 attacks.
Philip Simon was barred from the Banshee Labyrinth pub because of alleged “rhetoric and symbology” linked to Israel.
One reason cited by the venue for cancelling his show, Shall I Compere Thee in a Funny Way?, was his attendance at a vigil held for people killed in the 2023 Hamas terror attacks.
In a message to Simon, Banshee Labyrinth said: “Our management had a duty of care to our customers and staff members to review the political statements and opinions expressed by the performer.
“We feel it is inappropriate for us to provide a platform for performers whose views and actions align with the rhetoric and symbology of groups associated with humanitarian violations.”
And what were those offensive posts?
Banshee Labyrinth told The Telegraph that it arrived at its decision after scouring Simon’s social media pages.
It said: “We routinely screen bands and performers for affiliations to, and statements that advocate for, discriminatory groups.
The alleged concerns identified by Banshee Labyrinth include Simon sharing pictures from a vigil commemorating 100 days since the attack on Israel; a message on his X account saying that it was powerful to “stand strong against terror”; and a post warning that Oct 7 rape victims were being forgotten.
Several others messages that the venue objected to were variations on calls to “bring home the hostages”, while others made fun of Greta Thunberg’s short-lived effort to travel by flotilla to Gaza.
Opposing a murderous, rapist terror group and supporting its victims is politically incorrect in today's England.
There has been no shortage of controversial acts at Fringe that brought protests. In 2023, for example, a comedian whose views on transgender issues made the staff of a club uncomfortable and forced a cancellation - but then the club reversed its position, admitting the decision was "unfair and constituted unlawful discrimination " against the performer.
There were drag shows that brought protests and required extra security, but the performers were allowed to perform and were protected.
But in one way, the worst part of this story is in what didn't happen.
The festival has over 3,000 acts at over 250 venues. But there are hundreds of other bars and clubs in the area, many of which have back rooms or other spaces that could accommodate a performer, a sound system and a small audience.
While it is obvious that the Whistlebinkies and Banshee Labyrinth were making up reasons after the fact to justify their exclusion of proud Jewish comedians, no other venues have stepped up to make a statement against antisemitism and for free speech.
If a Black performer had been canceled for obviously racist reasons, no matter how late the date or how difficult the logistics, clubs would have fought for the privilege of hosting that comedian.
Let's face it. The crowd and venues at Edinburgh might swear up and down that they hate antisemitism and love free speech, but not one of them chose to act on those principles.
This was the (top part of) front page of the New York Times on July 25 featuring what appears to be a starving, emaciated Gaza child.
I just went through the front pages of the New York Times for the past 365 days. Not once has it positioned a photo in this extraordinary way.
Usually the NYT will feature a photo that is four columns wide, and that photo is always wider than it is tall (landscape). For example, here is the front page from yesterday, illustrating the mass shooting in Manhattan.
Once every couple of months it has a feature photo that is five columns wide, also in landscape orientation.
The largest photo of the past year was for Trump's inauguration, and this one was unusual in that it was in a portrait orientation, not landscape.
But I could not find a single example of a four column photo in portrait orientation on the right side of the page, where the top story headline normally is.
Also I could not find any other photos that featured a suffering child above the fold on the front page over the year. No starving children in Somalia or Sudan where hundreds die every day.
The editors made a decision that this single picture was perhaps the most important photo of the year, placing it where even casual reader would subconsciously recognize that this is a huge story.
Yesterday, the NYT published an editor's note about the child in that picture at the bottom of the online article:
Editors’ Note: July 29, 2025
This article has been updated to include information about Mohammed Zakaria al-Mutawaq, a child in Gaza suffering from severe malnutrition. After publication of the article, The Times learned from his doctor that Mohammed also had pre-existing health problems.
This photo, featured and highlighted in a way that is rarely seen in the newspaper, was misrepresented as if it is the way Gaza is. And now they add an "oops!" - not an apology, not a retraction, but a small note saying, "You know that huge photo that we shoved in your faces? Well, it had a slight problem. But no worries - our anti-Israel propaganda was fully successful. Mission accomplished. This note that practically no one will see lets us claim that we are responsible journalists."
Here's the editor's note in context of the entire online article - the small red box on the bottom.
The New York Times checked all the boxes of published journalistic ethics. Yet when you look at the entire story, you see that the entire episode from photo placement, to photo size, to lack of awareness that nearly all similar photos over the past year were of previously sick children, to the note that is not a correction and non-apology, is a far cry from ethical.
This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.
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Thursday, July 31, 2025
Elder of Ziyon
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