Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, December 15, 2025

12/15 Links Pt1: Holocaust survivors and children among the 15 murdered; The Road to Bondi Beach; Bondi Beach Is What ‘Globalize the Intifada’ Looks Like; Bondi Beach hero told cousin 'I'm going to die'

From Ian:

Bret Stephens: Bondi Beach Is What ‘Globalize the Intifada’ Looks Like

Sadly for Australia, foreign actors alone aren’t the problem. Last year, Jillian Segal, the government’s special envoy to combat antisemitism, warned that “antisemitic behavior is not only present on many campuses, but is an embedded part of the culture.” In the wake of Hamas’s attack of Oct. 7, Greens legislator Jenny Leong went on a rant accusing “the tentacles” of the “Jewish lobby and the Zionist lobby” of “infiltrating into every single aspect of what is ethnic community groups.” Jewish homes, neighborhoods and a day care center have been targeted by vandals and arsonists. At least one of the alleged shooters in Sunday’s attack was known to authorities, “but not in an immediate threat perspective,” according to a top Australian intelligence official.

I heard an earful of alarm from Jewish communal leaders when I last visited Australia in June 2024, but nothing seemed to change. On Sunday, the Australian Jewish Association posted a message to Facebook: “How many times did we warn the government? We never felt once that they listened.”

They are probably listening now. But the problem for the Albanese government, which in September recognized a Palestinian state and has been outspoken in its condemnation of Israeli actions in Gaza, is that the moral line between the routine demonization of Israel and attacks on Jews who are presumed to support Israel isn’t necessarily clear. On Sunday, Albanese said that “the evil that was unleashed at Bondi Beach today is beyond comprehension.” In fact, it’s entirely comprehensible. For fanatics who have been led to believe that the Jewish state is the apotheosis of evil, killing Jews represents a twisted notion of justice. Even when the victims are unarmed civilians. Even when they are celebrating an ancient, joyful holiday.

There’s a larger lesson here that goes far beyond Australia.

Though we’ll probably learn more in the weeks ahead about the mind-set of Sunday’s killers, it’s reasonable to surmise that what they thought they were doing was “globalizing the intifada.” That is, they were taking to heart slogans like “resistance is justified,” and “by any means necessary,” which have become ubiquitous at anti-Israel rallies the world over. For many of those who chant those lines, they may seem like abstractions and metaphors, a political attitude in favor of Palestinian freedom rather than a call to kill their presumptive oppressors.

But there are always literalists — and it’s the literalists who usually believe their ideas should have real-world consequences. On Sunday, those consequences were written in Jewish blood. History tells us that it won’t be the last time.

The People of Forever Are Not Afraid

We’ll mourn the dead, we’ll comfort the afflicted, we’ll carry on. It’s been millennia now; we’ve gotten good at it. And we’ll continue to grow stronger because we draw our courage and our resolve from that ancient covenant that charges us, always and forever, to spread God’s light and love to a benighted, blood-soaked world. Our great prophet Micah captured the mission statement perfectly long ago: “They shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the Lord of Hosts hath spoken it.”

And yet, in each generation, some clearly fail to get the memo, believing instead that it’s possible to make them—us, the Jews, and with us, the entire world—afraid by means of brute force. How does that work out? A brief history lesson tells the story.

Rome, the former empire that showed us no mercy, is now a sweaty, smoggy city depending on tourist dollars to survive.

Spain, birthplace of the Inquisition, has let in some 600,000 migrants a year since 2022 and now faces the highest unemployment rate on the continent.

England, having been the first to expel the Jews in 1290, now arrests people for making true statements on social media while turning a blind eye to the mass rape of its own daughters by gangs of vicious migrants slowly devouring the country.

France, Germany, Canada, Australia—it’s the same story everywhere you look. A West too weak to define, let alone defend, its own values, and hordes of marauders settling in and reshaping the culture in their violent, hateful image.

So don’t worry about us. Worry about Sydney, Toronto, Paris, and the other former capitals of culture and innovation that are now drowned by waves of angry savages cheering on murder and sowing chaos and violence. Worry about the kind folks in Germany who let in hundreds of thousands of Muslims in the name of multicultural benevolence, only to be told that they may no longer enjoy their Christmas markets because their new neighbors may feel inclined to blow them up, shoot them up, or ram them with cars. Worry about the politicians who continue to take suicidal symbolic steps, like recognizing “Palestine” or prattling on about “Islamophobia,” even as they drain their nations of their freedoms and securities.

Almost immediately after the shooting in Sydney, some on social media took to sharing the famous photograph of a menorah in a window in Kiel, Germany, in 1931, with the Nazi flag hanging from the facade of the party’s regional headquarters across the street. The photo is indeed worth a thousand words: Hanukkah has never been a holiday of passive faith. It commemorates a moment when Jews refused to surrender their identity to those who demanded conformity. Hanukkah teaches that Jewish survival is not rooted in denial of danger, but in the courage to affirm who we are anyway.

Nearly a century later, we still light menorahs with joy and conviction, whereas the Nazi flag and those who believed in it are all gone. Nearly a century later, the Jewish state leads the way in everything from innovation to birthrates to happiness, while the birthplace of Goethe and Schiller finds its fertility in free fall, its politics in turmoil, and its future darkened by violent invaders who despise its culture and show it no fealty or gratitude.

Today’s Nazis will soon meet a similarly grim ending, their green-red-white-and-black flag tossed to the same dustbin of history as the swastika. Let the savages ululate their blood libels as they always have. Let them accuse the Jews of whatever they want. The people of forever aren’t afraid.

JPost Editorial: Bondi attack exposes Australia’s failure to confront rising antisemitism

Coordinated, ideologically driven violence
Even more disturbing was what lay behind some of these attacks. Australian intelligence has concluded that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was behind at least two antisemitic arson attacks on Jewish sites in Melbourne and Sydney, prompting Canberra to expel Iranian diplomats, suspend its embassy operations in Tehran, and move toward designating the IRGC as a terrorist organization. This is not spontaneous hatred. It is coordinated, ideologically driven violence.

At the same time, the Mossad warned Australian authorities of the risk of an antisemitic terrorist attack against the Jewish community. A Post staff report, citing Israeli and Australian media, revealed that the Mossad sent messages about possible threats, even as the local police commissioner insisted there had been no specific intelligence before the Bondi Beach massacre.

That gap, if confirmed, points to a devastating breakdown between the warning system and the political and policing response.

The human cost is already visible. We reported that Arsen Ostrovsky, a Post contributor and pro-Israel human-rights lawyer, was among those wounded at Bondi Beach.

Just two weeks earlier, Ostrovsky had warned of “an alarming surge in Jew-hatred since October 7, including the defilement of Australian landmarks being hijacked as platforms for intimidation.” His wounds at a Hanukkah celebration are a brutal illustration of how quickly rhetoric turns into bullets.

Australia’s experience is part of a broader and troubling global pattern. Across Western democracies, antisemitism has surged alongside a wider resurgence of ideological extremism. Jewish communities are often the first targets, but history shows they are never the last.

Lone actors, radicalized networks, and transnational ideologies do not respect borders, and they thrive where political leadership hesitates to name the problem clearly or act decisively.

Australian authorities have taken steps in response: arrests, investigations, new databases, and task forces. Yet the overall response has too often felt reactive, fragmented, and cautious. Security cannot be reduced to policing after the fact. It requires political clarity, legal frameworks that recognize modern threats, and sustained coordination between intelligence services, law enforcement, and vulnerable communities.

Standing with Australia’s Jewish community is not a matter of symbolism or special pleading. It is a test of whether the state can protect a minority when it is under sustained attack, and whether it understands that doing so strengthens democracy for everyone. Jewish Australians should not have to choose between visibility and safety, or between practicing their faith and trusting their government.

If Australia fails to act decisively now, not just for Jews but for all communities, it will not be because the threat was unforeseeable. The Post’s own reporting throughout the past two years has chronicled the warning signs. Those warnings were ignored, and responsibility was deferred. That is a failure no democracy can afford.

Antisemitism report, November 22, 1923

From the Jewish Press, Omaha, NE, November 22, 1923 front page.

Jews protested Boston honoring an antisemitic, murderous Polish general - and the mainstream Boston Transcript newspaper responded by saying the "ungrateful" Jews should be deported:

A pre-Nazi pogrom against the Jews of Berlin:

Jews were also attacked for being against Bible lessons in public schools.

And the Jewish establishment decried antisemitism.

Things don't look that much different today.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

The murderous Chanukah attack at Bondi Beach should not have happened.

That statement is not merely moral. It is philosophical.

One of the dominant assumptions of modern Western thought is that history is moving, more or less inevitably, toward justice, tolerance, and moral enlightenment. Under that framework, acts of naked antisemitic violence are predicted to be fading into irrelevance. They are relics of a less educated, less inclusive, less enlightened past. When they occur at all, they are assumed to be marginal, residual, or explicable as temporary aberrations.

Bondi Beach is therefore not just a tragedy. It is a refutation of a specific belief: that history itself is doing the moral work for us.

This belief has become accepted as fact in the Western world. And that is dangerous.

Secular Teleology

Teleology is the belief that history has an inherent direction and an endpoint: that events are not merely unfolding, but unfolding toward something. In religious traditions, that “something” is redemption, salvation, or divine judgment. In modern secular thought, God is removed, but the structure remains.

Beginning in the Enlightenment, a range of philosophers secularized this idea. History was no longer guided by divine will but by impersonal forces: reason, science, economic laws, technological development, or moral awakening. The destination remained moral improvement; only the engine changed.

This secular teleology appears in multiple modern forms. In Marxism, history inevitably culminates in a classless society. With scientific or technocratic optimism, knowledge and innovation will dissolve moral conflict. Progressivism says social norms converge toward justice over time. Decolonial and liberation frameworks claim historical forces guarantee emancipation.

What these systems share is not policy content, but structure: history is treated as a moral agent, and the future as a validator of truth.

What is striking about secular teleology is not that it hopes for progress, but that it asserts inevitability. There is no historical law demonstrating that societies must become more just. There is no empirical data showing that hatred naturally declines with education (recent studies show the opposite.) We have no scientific principle proving or even suggesting that moral norms converge over time rather than fracture, mutate, or regress.

None of this is to deny that many things are better today than in the past. Local improvements exist. Institutional reforms can work. But inevitability is a faith claim, not a finding. It is asserted, not demonstrated. Once inevitability is assumed, evidence no longer tests the theory; it is absorbed by it.

Despite its lack of necessity, secular teleology has become ambient in modern Western thinking.

We speak casually about “the right side of history.” We assume that moral disagreement is generational rather than substantive. We expect that today’s taboos will expand tomorrow, and that yesterday’s hatreds cannot seriously return. We have inherited a narrative - in education, in media, in political speech - that simply has no factual basis.

It is a narrative about how time works. And time doesn't really care about inevitable social justice.

Backlash: The Non-Falsifiable Escape Hatch

Every dogma must contend with counterexamples. Secular teleology does so through the concept of backlash.

Backlash is presented as an explanation for regression: when hatred or violence increases, it is framed not as evidence against progress, but as proof that progress is succeeding and provoking resistance.

This logic allows even extreme historical regressions, including Nazi Germany, to be interpreted not as refutations, but as temporary backlashes against inevitable progress. This idea can even explain how the most modern, industrialized, culturally mature nation can choose genocide as its most important task. It is not viewed as a refutation but an inevitable temporary backlash against inevitable progress.

When a theory claims to explain all evidence and counter-evidence as proof, the theory becomes non-falsifiable. If bigotry declines, progress is working - and if bigotry increases, backlash also proves progress is working.

No possible outcome can count as disproof. At this point, secular teleology quietly shifts its theory of truth.

It pretends to embrace scientific thinking, but instead of correspondence theory used by science, it relies on coherence theory: only accepting new facts can be fitted into the existing narrative.

This is why regression is reinterpreted rather than confronted, and why warning signs are treated as misreadings rather than data.

Teleological Secularism as Religion Without God

Once history itself is sacralized, secular teleologies take on all the functional features of religion. They have an eschatology (“the arc of history”). a moral hierarchy (progressive vs. regressive), a theodicy (backlash), heresy (questioning inevitability), and even clerisy (authorized moral interpreters like academia.)

God is absent, but destiny remains. Redemption is promised, but vigilance is dismissed.

This causes major problems. A worldview that assumes history will take care of injustice becomes complacent in the face of threats that do not obey its narrative.

If hatred is supposed to be disappearing, early warnings are dismissed. If violence is assumed to be regressive noise, preparedness feels unnecessary. If time is the moral engine, human responsibility diminishes.

This is not merely mistaken. It is dangerous.

Antisemitism as the Persistent Falsifier

Every teleological system eventually encounters a fact it cannot absorb. For secular teleology, that fact is antisemitism.

By its own logic, Jew-hatred should be declining steadily. Instead, it resurges repeatedly, often in morally confident societies, often clothed in the dominant ethical language of the era.

This is not new. Antisemitism has previously appeared as historical analysis, scientific racism, economic justice and anti-imperialism. Each time, it presented itself as progressive, enlightened, and necessary. Each time, it was treated as history moving forward.

This is a cycle, not an arc.

Modern secular dogma resolves the problem by redefining antisemitism as anti-Zionism and then recasting it as a progressive force rather than a regressive one.

If antisemitism can be reframed as resistance, liberation, or historical necessity, then the theory survives. Jews - not so much.

The language gives this away: “right side of history,” “inevitability,” “everyone knows a Palestinian state is necessary,” “justice will prevail.”

These are not political arguments. They are teleological claims.

Groups like Bend the Arc are especially revealing. They explicitly invoke the moral arc of history as an authority that overrides Jewish historical memory and Jewish ethical vigilance. In doing so, they abandon Judaism's historically grounded skepticism of inevitability in favor of a secular redemption narrative that has repeatedly turned against Jews.

This is not a new error. It is an old one with modern language.

History Is Not a Straight Line

History did not begin in 1948 or October 7. It did not begin with colonial theory or modern nationalism. It stretches back thousands of years, and Jews have been unwillingly centered in its false redemptions more times than most societies can remember.

That is why Jews recognize false teleology quickly. It isn't cynicism; it is lived experience.

Bondi Beach did not violate history. It violated a false story we told ourselves about history.

When we believe that history will inevitably solve our problems, we lose all agency. We lose vigilance. And we lose the ability to analyze and protect ourselves against entire classes of very real dangers.

Judaism never taught that history improves automatically. It teaches responsibility, today, for all of us, to guard against the constant possibility of regression. It recognizes hate clothed in the garb of justice.

Secular teleology promises moral comfort. It reassures us that time itself is on our side.

Bondi Beach reminds us that it is not. Antisemitism is not fading - it is accelerating.

Progress is possible and historic improvement is real. But inevitability is a lie, and a costly one. When societies outsource moral responsibility to history, they stop seeing danger until it arrives fully formed.

Antisemitism has always been the warning sign. The question is whether we will finally treat it as such.

History does not bend. History doesn't even care.

That is our job.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

Iranian media calls Bondi Beach an Israeli false flag operation

Iranian state media is suggesting that Israel killed the Chanukah party attendees.

Mehr News uses one of Iranian media's favorite methods, interviewing an "expert" to say what they want people to think:

In an interview with Mehr News Agency, Ali Reza Kabiri, an expert on West Asian affairs, believes that studying historical patterns and the performance of Israeli security agencies can provide a clearer understanding of the motives behind this incident and its potential consequences. The following is the text of the interview:

How likely is it that the attack on Jewish religious services in Sydney was orchestrated by Israel itself?

To assess the likelihood of Israeli involvement in the attack on the Jewish religious festival in Sydney, it is essential to examine the documented history of its intelligence operations. Israel is among the few international actors with an official record of conducting security and intelligence operations on the territory of third countries, and these operations have been exposed or subsequently confirmed in several instances. ...

Given the hatred of Zionists and Israel in global public opinion, can this operation be interpreted as a kind of "distortion operation" carried out by the Israeli security services?

Given the widespread anti-Zionist sentiment and hostility towards Israeli policies in global public opinion, this incident, in particular, can be seen as a form of deliberate distortion. Israel has long used the "security of Jews worldwide" as a political and media tool. After every wave of widespread criticism against the regime, the media's focus intensifies significantly on "anti-Semitism, Jewish insecurity, and the need to support Israel." For example, after the 2014 Gaza War and the resulting increase in human rights pressures, Israel and its affiliated institutions launched a broad campaign about "the rise in attacks on Jews in Europe," aiming to shift the victimhood narrative from Palestinians to Jews.

In this context, the shooting at a Jewish religious ceremony in Sydney serves precisely the same psychological and media function: to create emotional shock, regain sympathy in Western public opinion, and alleviate political pressure on Israel. This pattern is not accidental; it is part of a well-known narrative warfare doctrine in which Israel has extensive experience. Therefore, considering Israel a victim in this incident is not merely a weak assumption, but an analysis based on a recurring pattern of behavior.

....
In conclusion, when this historical evidence is combined with political logic, operational history, and Israel's pressing need to shift global public opinion, the analysis of Israeli security services' involvement in the Sydney incident becomes more credible. From a media and psychological perspective, this incident can be fully understood within the context of a strategy to portray Israel as a victim and reconstruct its image, consistent with well-known patterns from the past.

The only political group I've ever seen sacrificing their own people for propaganda advantage in recent years is, of course, Hamas.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

12/14 Links: The Bondi barbarians; The night Australia died; Father-and-son terrorists gunned down Jewish Australians at Bondi beach, young girl among 16 dead

From Ian:

The Bondi barbarians

Australia, like so many other Western nations, has become a cauldron of anti-Semitism since Hamas’s genocidal rampage into Israel on 7 October 2023. The most lethal assault on Jews since the Holocaust sparked not solidarity, but hate marches and a spike in anti-Semitic violence. Melbourne’s Adass Israel synagogue was hit by an arson attack last December. A kosher deli in Bondi was set ablaze in October.

Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese has pointed the finger at Iran for waging this prior campaign of attacks, via a ‘layer cake’ of intermediaries. We wait to learn who was behind the barbarism in Bondi today, and what sick ideology they gunned people down in the name of. Although I dare say we know enough to hazard a guess.

But in Australia, as in Britain, the surge in anti-Semitism cannot be explained away as nefarious actors stirring hatred from afar. The new Jew hatred, expressed through a maniacal hatred of Israel, has exploded under Albanese’s watch – all but encouraged by his (and Starmer’s) decision to ‘recognise’ Palestine, effectively rewarding the 7 October pogromists for their efforts.

Thus, places Jews once fled to no longer feel so safe. The Adass Israel synagogue, torched last year, was built by Holocaust survivors. Arsen Ostrovsky, a human-rights lawyer who survived the 7 October attacks, moved to Australia two weeks ago to fight anti-Semitism in the country. He was injured at Bondi. ‘I never thought I would see this in Australia’, he told Channel 9, his bandaged face smeared with blood. No wonder so many Jews are moving to Israel.

If Jews aren’t safe in Bondi or Manchester, if they cannot attend a Hanukkah celebration or synagogue on Yom Kippur without their mind beginning to turn to the worst, then we can no longer claim to be enlightened nations. Leaders have looked the other way as a sulphurous Jew hatred has bubbled up from below, welcomed in through porous borders, fomented by multiculturalism, propagandised in the streets by Islamists, and enthusiastically embraced by woke useful idiots.

The Bondi pogrom showed us the worst of humanity – barbarians who hate Jews, hate freedom, hate life. But it also showed us the best. The woman who took a bullet for a three-year-old girl she didn’t even know. There’s the mighty Ahmed al Ahmed, the fruitshop owner who snuck up on and disarmed one of the killers. He saved countless lives, before taking two bullets himself. Beautiful, incredible heroism. Sadly, we’re going to need a lot more of it if we are to defeat this evil in our midst.

Brendan O'Neill: Like the heroes of Bondi, we should all be tackling anti-Semites

We live in a ‘walk-on-by’ society. Ours is an era in which the active citizen has been ruthlessly decommissioned by the deathless technocrats who rule over us. They don’t even trust us to raise our kids properly, far less overpower the armed haters of humanity. The end result is that too many people look the other way when tyranny strikes – or worse, stand and film it. One thinks of the crowd that gathered round the Islamist killers of Lee Rigby, faithfully filming their deranged ranting. How much better for humanity it would have been if the crowd had forcefully subdued those hysterics and taken their cleavers.

Bravery finds a way, though. The human instinct to help is not so easily crushed. One thinks of the men who hurled beer glasses and chairs at the three radical Islamists who went on a stabbing spree in London Bridge in 2017. Or Ignacio Echeverría, the Spanish national who used his skateboard to beat one of those London Bridge terrorists (sadly, he was subsequently killed). And now Ahmed al Ahmed, the fortysomething conqueror of a modern-day Nazi.

‘Don’t be a have-a-go hero’, we’re so often told. It’s advice we should resolutely ignore. Having a go is precisely what more of us should be doing. And not only in the heat of an all-out act of Jewphobic barbarism, but in everyday life, too. After all, the violent loathing that shook Sydney today did not emerge in a vacuum. This neo-fascist animus for the Jewish homeland and the Jewish people has been stewing for years. If more of us had ‘had a go’ earlier, perhaps we could have seen off, or at least tamed, this gravest menace in Western society.

Don’t wait until it turns violent. ‘Have a go’ now. If you see someone carrying a placard calling Jews Nazis, get in their face. If you see a keffiyeh mob outside a synagogue, confront them. If you see a frothing Islamist or leftist harassing a Jew in public, put yourself between the scumbag and his victim. Don’t run, hide and tell – stand, fight and tell them to fuck off. Enough is enough. Get out there.

Jeremy Leibler: Bondi Beach Hanukkah shooting is an attack on Australia itself

While the Jewish community gathered in Sydney to mark the first night of Hanukkah, our community was subjected to a horrific act of violence.

This is a day of profound grief. Members of our community have been murdered. Others have been seriously wounded. Families are shattered. A sacred moment of light has been turned into darkness.

We are working urgently with authorities as further details are confirmed. Our focus right now is on the victims, their families, and the safety of the community.

An attack on Australia
Let me be clear. An attack on Jews celebrating their faith is an attack on Australia itself. It is an assault on our values, our social cohesion, and the basic right of people to gather without fear.

This did not occur in a vacuum. For years, antisemitic incitement, vilification, and intimidation have been allowed to grow unchecked. When hatred is normalized, violence follows. Tonight, that warning has become reality.

We mourn those who have lost their lives. We pray for the wounded and for the families waiting in anguish. And we stand united, determined that terror and hatred will not drive Jews from public life in this country.

Australia must respond with moral clarity, decisive leadership, and action. Anything less would be a betrayal of those we lost tonight.

The writer is the president of the Zionist Federation of Australia.

Bondi Beach Hanukkah shooting has shattered Australia's illusion of immunity

The shock from this latest attack has reverberated not only through the Jewish community but across Australian society at large. For years, there was a comforting illusion that Australia was immune to antisemitism. Even now, it remains difficult for the general public – and especially for government leaders – to internalize that this reality has fundamentally changed. In recent months, despite the sharp rise in antisemitic incidents and violence against Jews, the Jewish community has repeatedly been reassured by authorities: “Everything will be fine. You are safe and protected.” And yet, here we are – facing a terror attack of a kind Australia has never seen before, carried out brazenly and without fear.

Lately, many people ask me, "What changed?" How did we get here?

How we got here: What changed with antisemitism in Australia?
For decades, Israel enjoyed broad bipartisan support from Australian governments, support that also extended a protective umbrella over the Jewish community. But in recent elections, a shift occurred. The current government adopted a seemingly “balanced” approach – placing Israel and the Palestinians on the same moral plane and drawing an artificial distinction between Judaism and Zionism. This is not an anti-Jewish government. But the rhetorical and policy shift created a dangerous vacuum – one quickly filled by extremist voices who suddenly felt legitimized to act openly.

Antisemitism in Australia – and globally – is now at levels not seen since before the Holocaust. The Australian government must recognize this reality and respond decisively. If it does not, we will, tragically, face more attacks like the one in Sydney.

Australian leaders must move from words to action. They must fight antisemitism proactively – not merely attempt, and fail, to reactively protect Jewish communities after the damage is done. This fight must take every form necessary: education, legislation, enforcement, public diplomacy, and clear moral leadership. This is the moment for real, courageous action. Without it, Jews will no longer be able to live in safety – not in Australia, and not anywhere that continues to deny the gravity of this threat.

A portable missile meant to SAVE lives - from Israel, of course

Here is a promotional video for Point Blank, a a hand-launched electro-optical guided missile by Israel Aircraft Industries.

Notice that this lethal weapon is designed as much to save innocent civilian lives as it is meant to eliminate hostile forces.

If the soldier sees that there are civilians in the area, the Point Blank can be sent back without exploding. The camera on the unit ensures that only the necessary target is hit.

This is not the type of weapon that Russia, China, North Korea of Iran would even consider developing. Only a country that cares about civilian lives in difficult environments would spend the time and money to develop a system like this.

Which is a complete rebuttal of the entire anti-Israel propaganda canon.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

For years, "anti-Zionists" have claimed, repeatedly, that they are not antisemitic.

The claim was always false. Their rhetoric mimics classic antisemitism ("Zionists control the media," "Zionist-occupied government") and the underlying core of their argument is to separate Jewish peoplehood from Judaism as a religion, which is antisemitic at its very core.

Yet their denials are accepted by the media and politicians who want to ensure that the "progressives" are seen as espousing legitimate political positions and not hate.

What we have seen since is not criticism of Israeli policy, but the mainstreaming of antisemitism under the banner of "anti-Zionism." Zionism is no longer treated as a debatable ideology, but as an inherently criminal identity. Everything “Zionist” is reframed as genocidal by definition. This is not political speech; it is the moral authorization of violence.

There is no movement calling for the physical removal of people who sympathize with China, Saudi Arabia, Russia, or North Korea. There is a growing movement insisting that “Zionists” must be excluded from public spaces – and that demand has become mainstream.

Chants such as “Globalize the Intifada” and “Resistance by Any Means Necessary” are not metaphorical. Historically, intifada means the targeting of civilians. Claims that these slogans are non-violent are fig leaves meant to evade legal consequences, not honest descriptions of intent.

As this rhetoric escalated, the targets expanded.

Anti-Zionist activists moved deliberately from Israeli diplomatic sites to Jewish institutions. Synagogues became targets, justified after the fact by endlessly mutating rationalizations: the synagogue hosted a “Zionist” event; the synagogue itself is “Zionist”; the synagogue failed to condemn Israel as genocidal. The pattern is unmistakable. Jews are being targeted, with “Zionism” serving as the excuse.

The antisemites receive these messages loud and clear. And they act on them.

Before today's horrendous massacre in Bondi Beach, murdering a Chabad rabbi and at least eleven others gathered to celebrate Chanukah, the increasing attacks on Jews in Australia under the guise of anti-Zionism was undeniable. The Executive Council of Australian Jewry's annual report on antisemitism from 2024-2025 makes this crystal clear:

Graffiti of “Hitler on top Allah hu [Akbar],” “Free Palestine,” “Fuck Israel Jew dogs”, “Jew Dogs” and a dozen Nazi swastikas, all in red and black paint, on brick walls of synagogue, Allawah, Sydney (10 Jan. 2025).

Graffiti and firebombing of two vehicles, silver Mercedes graffitied with “FUCK JEWS”, Honda graffitied with “FUCK ISRAEL”, both set alight, and house doused with red paint, at former home of prominent Jewish leader, Dover Heights, Sydney (17 Jan. 2025).

Arson when flammable liquid doused on synagogue door and set alight while 20 people, including children, were inside for a Shabbat meal, Friday evening, Melbourne (4 July 2025).

Targeting of Professor Steven Prawer, Jewish academic and physics professor, and who wears a kippah, by about 20 anti-Israel protesters, most of whom were masked, some wearing keffiyahs, who broke into and occupied his office, started to damage his personal items and refused to leave for hours, meanwhile Chanted “Stephen Prawer, you can’t hide. You’re guilty of genocide,” did graffiti, put up posters and stickers in his office and refused to leave for hours.

Verbal abuse of 16 religious Jewish boys, aged 17 and 18, by several people including a woman in a burqa who threw her ice-cream at them and called them “Baby Killers!”, and a group of about 20 youths who screamed at them “Hitler should have gassed you all” whilst doing the Nazi salute, while walking to the beach, St Kilda Melbourne (3 Oct. 2024 – Rosh Hashanah).

Man pushed a Jewish male off his bike by shoving his shoulder, while yelling "Fucking Jews", "Free Palestine" and "You kikes" at the group of Jews near a synagogue, Melbourne (20 March 2025).

Anti-Israel protester threw an item at a Jewish man as he attempted to enter the venue holding a Jewish religious event, while other protesters sought to intimidate him by coming within 15 cm of his face, shouting that he was a “baby killer” and he should be ashamed of himself and that all Zionists are terrorists, Wickham Hotel, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane (31 May 2025).

The attack at a Chanukah party today was not a singular event. It was part of a continuum. The trajectory was predicted and warned about in Australia for years.

The anti-Zionists, including the ostensibly Jewish ones, have blood on their hands. So do the media and the politicians who strenuously try to separate "anti-Zionism" and antisemitism, drawing a line that never existed.

In 2023 there was an anti-Israel demonstration outside the Sydney Opera House where some people thought they heard a chant of "Gas the Jews." Such a public call would be illegal under Australian law. Police investigated and determined that the phrase was "Where's the Jews?"

That kind of threat against Jews is considered legal.

The calls to "Globalize the Intifada" and "By Any Means Necessary" are exactly as offensive, exactly as disgusting and exactly as inciteful as "Gas the Jews." There is no difference. Yet the tolerance of the "pro-Palestinian" phrases is exactly what leads to the horrific events of today in Bondi Beach.

It is long past time for the media and political class to confront reality: these protests are not about peace, human rights, or justice. They function as permission structures, inciting people to attack Jews while cloaking themselves in moral language.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

Death toll climbs to TEN in Bondi Beach terror attack and a home-made BOMB is uncovered by cops after two gunmen opened fire on innocent beachgoers during Jewish festival

UPDATING Death toll climbs to TEN in Bondi Beach terror attack and a home-made BOMB is uncovered by cops after two gunmen opened fire on innocent beachgoers during Jewish festival

Ten people, including children, are dead after two gunmen armed with rifles opened fire at Bondi Beach where a Jewish holiday celebration was unfolding on Sunday afternoon.

Witnesses said two men stepped out of a vehicle on Campbell Parade, near Bondi Pavilion, and opened fire about 6.40pm on Sunday with footage showing blast after blast on the tourist strip. Some witnesses report more than 30 shots.

Video and photos taken by a Daily Mail photographer show a gunman opening fire from an elevated bridge using a large rifle.

One gunman has been shot dead. The second shooter is in critical condition.

A festival, Chanukah by the Sea, advertised as a night of family fun, was taking place, with children attending the event when the gunmen opened fire.

Up to 25 injured people, including two police officers, have been taken to various hospitals in Sydney.

Daily Mail Live feed

What we know
Two gunmen opened fire at Bondi Beach about 6.40pm on Sunday
At least 10 people have been killed, including a police officer
At least 12 more have been injured, including one child
One gunman has been shot dead
A second gunman has been shot, arrested and is in custody, being treated by emergency services. He is in a critical condition
An IED left in Bondi has been confirmed by police.
Police believe the attack was targeted
The intended target is understood to be a Chanukah event at Bondi Beach
Police sources believe the attack may have been planned for months
NSW Police and AFP are responding, with a large emergency operation underway
Multiple victims have been taken to St Vincent’s Hospital, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and St George Hospital
The beach was busy at the time, with Christmas markets and evening swimmers present
Eyewitnesses reported panic, at least 30 gunshots and people fleeing
Families sheltered in nearby homes as the incident unfolded

Avi Yemini: EXCLUSIVE: Bondi TERROR ATTACK survivor relives HORRIFIC ordeal

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WARNING: Confronting content Bondi beach casualties

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Two Shooters

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SYDNEY MASSACRE:
Drone footage showing the Jihadists being eliminated

🇦🇺 BONDI SHOOTING

This is North Bondi, many families with young children frequent this end of the Beach because of the grassy area & rock pool

Only someone driven by pure hateful evil would do this

pic.twitter.com/ks7s3Bueua
— Katherine Deves Morgan 🇦🇺🚺 (@deves_katherine) December 14, 2025

🇦🇺 BONDI SHOOTING

Give this man a medal

Thank god for men who risk their own lives without hesitation to save others

pic.twitter.com/ePtmsqPSJZ
— Katherine Deves Morgan 🇦🇺🚺 (@deves_katherine) December 14, 2025

ONE OF THE ALLEGED SHOOTERS pic.twitter.com/8PhJaNFRf0
— Australian Jewish Association (@AustralianJA) December 14, 2025

🇦🇺 BONDI SHOOTING

Terrorists reportedly dead pic.twitter.com/LMbqW5Bc9H
— Katherine Deves Morgan 🇦🇺🚺 (@deves_katherine) December 14, 2025

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Man appears to stomp on a suspected terrorist.

How many times did we warn the Government? We never felt once that they listened.

Tragic but no surprise.

Restricted Video
Among the many victims of the attack in Australia, Arsen Ostrovsky was also injured,

, a social media influencer, chairman of the Israel-Australia Jewish Council, and until recently served as chairman of the International Legal Forum. Ostrovsky was injured in the head and according to him, he is fine. "Those bastards won't win," he wrote to me. Wishing him a full recovery.

Statement from Australian Jewish Association CEO Robert Gregory:

"What happened tonight is a tragedy but entirely foreseeable.

The Albanese government was warned so many times but failed to take adequate actions to protect the Jewish community.

Tonight, many Jews are…
— Australian Jewish Association (@AustralianJA) December 14, 2025

DOESN'T EVEN MENTION THAT IT WAS A JEWISH EVENT

What a shameful disgrace!

PM Albanese avoids even mentioning that it was the Jewish community targetted and Jews shot. pic.twitter.com/ZOC0MGwlSZ
— Australian Jewish Association (@AustralianJA) December 14, 2025

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

From YNet:

A new study has found that about 60 percent of the people described as journalists or media workers who were killed during the war in the Gaza Strip were Hamas operatives or members of other terror groups.

The research, published Thursday morning by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, examined the identities of 266 Palestinians who were labeled as journalists or media workers and died in the fighting. At least 157 of them were operatives or individuals affiliated with terror organizations.

According to the findings, 104 of those described as journalists or media workers were Hamas members, including at least 47 who were part of the terror group or served as military operatives. Another 45 were operatives or affiliated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad, including at least 18 identified as members or military operatives. Two were identified as operatives of Fatah’s military wing, two belonged to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, one to the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and one to the Popular Resistance Committees.

The report has not yet been translated into English but it includes data on every single supposed journalist killed, their affiliations and the circumstances of their deaths.

Not once has the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Reporters Without Borders (RSF), or the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemned Hamas or other Palestinian terror groups for militarizing journalists. On the contrary, even when the IDF showed evidence, those groups did not accept the proof.

Well, here's proof, with details about each one. I don't expect any of the journalist members of these organizations to publish anything about this.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

12/13 Links: IDF slays top Hamas commander who helped plan Oct. 7 massacre; Dr. Einat Wilf: 'We lied to ourselves about the Palestinians'; 2 US troops, civilian interpreter killed in attack by member of Syrian security forces

From Ian:

Dr. Einat Wilf: 'We lied to ourselves about the Palestinians'

Dr. Einat Wilf, a former Labor MK who says she underwent a political awakening, explains in a recent interview with Maariv why she views Mahmoud Abbas as an adversary and why she is forming a new party, Oz, to advance a program that ties peace to Arab and Palestinian acceptance of Zionism.

Wilf says her focus is to confront the “right of return” and UNRWA’s role in perpetuating conflict, arguing that state services should prioritize those who serve the state.

Wilf frames her platform around three points: peace based on Arab and Palestinian acceptance of Zionism, state services for those who serve the state, and a shift from a diasporic mindset to sovereign governance.

‘After October 7, these issues are at the core’
About a year ago, Wilf was invited to a filmed interview about Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinians. The former Labor MK and left-wing figure, who experienced a political awakening, tried to explain why she sees Mahmoud Abbas as an enemy.

“I spoke about his commitment to the Palestinian ethos that believes in the right of return and fights against the existence of a Jewish state for the Jewish people,” she recalls. “It was a long interview, and when I finished, studio staff, from the lighting tech to the director, came up to me and said, this is what we want to vote for. Why is there no one in Israeli politics who represents your ideas?”

Playing the dangerous boycott game

As Commentary’s Seth Mandel wrote: “How should we judge the countries that stomped out of Eurovision over Israel’s participation? Harshly. A singing competition is not a diplomatic convention. Would you leave a karaoke bar because there was an Israeli Jew there? Will these folks boycott all establishments that serve Israeli Jews?

“Aside from emitting a faint segregationist stink, these Europeans are politicizing every cell in their bodies in an attempt to enforce those same artistic limits on everyone else. If rare apolitical music gatherings are impossible, it has a stunting effect on the industry and on the minds and temperaments of the people participating in their own dumbing down.”

As many have noted, it’s not just the Eurovision Song Contest. There are ongoing boycotts of Israel in sports, academia, the literary world, and cultural events (ostensibly more cultured than Eurovision.)

Guinness World Records could hold its own world record in being tone-deaf. As a spokesperson confirmed in a statement to The Jerusalem Post’s Mathilda Heller last week: “We truly do believe in record-breaking for everyone, everywhere, but unfortunately, in the current climate, we are not generally processing record applications from the Palestinian Territories or Israel, or where either is given as the attempt location, with the exception of those done in cooperation with a UN humanitarian aid relief agency.”

In case you were in any doubt, the UN relief agency clause means that Palestinians can still participate. It’s only the Jews – well, Israelis of any religion–who have been canceled.

The gaslighting of the Jewish state was revealed when the non-profit organization Matnat Chaim (The Gift of Life), which encourages altruistic kidney donations, contacted Guinness World Records regarding its planned record-breaking event scheduled to bring 2,000 Israeli kidney donors together next month for a photo in Jerusalem. Of all things to boycott!

A look at the GWR site shows some of the strange feats it has recognized, including, for example, this “brilliantly bonkers food record”: “Largest serving of chicken wings... To celebrate their 50th anniversary, Big Green Egg didn’t just throw a party – they grilled up a record! They cooked a mouth-watering 297.5 kg. (655 lb. 12.8 oz.) of chicken wings. That’s as heavy as 3 baby elephants!”

I find the comparison of thousands of devoured chicken wings to baby elephants more bizarre than bonkers, but that’s besides the point. As a vegetarian, I find the whole event in poor taste, but that’s not my beef. What do you think is healthier, educational, and life-affirming: grossly overeating chicken wings or encouraging people to donate a kidney to someone they don’t know?

As it happens, Israel is considered by some to be the highest global consumer of poultry per capita, but I’ll save my pride for the fact that Israelis, thanks largely to Matnat Chaim, lead the way in altruistic kidney donations.

Notably, Guinness World Records began its ban on Israel in November 2023, not after the October 7 Hamas invasion and mega-atrocity in which 1,200 were murdered and 251 abducted; it blocked Israel when the Jewish state began to fight back.

One thing is clear from the UN plenum, the Eurovision stage, and Guinness World Records: Israel is constantly being judged by a different standard. It’s a win for antisemitism and hatred, and a massive loss for the world.

The patheticness of Nick Fuentes

What we need is a reckoning with identity politics. Fuentes hardly speaks for a whole generation of disaffected young men, but he has been lent some fertile ground at the edges. Generation Z were force-fed woke grievance politics, and chastised if they dissented. They were told group identity is great, with the exception of white group identity. Young men were told men weren’t shit. The hysterical overuse of ‘far right’ and ‘racist’, in turn, insulated a portion of young people from these forms of censure. No wonder some grifting upstarts have managed to make hay out of this.

We also need to go on the offensive against this particular faction of right identitarians. That means pushing back on their racial essentialism and BS statistics. (Piers, bless him, didn’t make the best fist of the latter, leading to a painful digression about per-capita crime rates.) But it also means pointing out how pathetic – as well as bigoted – all of it is. Just as the wokesters blame all of their problems on white supremacy, and the Jews, the new racist right blames all of their problems on anti-whiteness, and the Jews. It’s a dumb racialisation of deeper material and cultural problems, and an embrace of babyish victimhood to boot.

As for the misogyny, I for one am shocked that someone who has never so much as touched a woman seems to hate them so much. The best part of the interview was when Morgan straight up asked Fuentes if he is a virgin. (Reader, he is.) Personally, I’d have been tempted to open with that. We can and should talk about how #MeToo or victim feminism or the explosion of online pornography has poisoned relations between the sexes. But the self-pitying rage of the sexless young man is a story as old as time.

Perhaps the barmiest claim made about Fuentes is that he is the next stage of the populist revolt – a take that serves to both flatter his ego and vindicate the fever dreams of the anti-populist set. Apparently, when a multiracial coalition rebelled against the undemocratic elites at the ballot box, when parents showed up at school boards to stop critical race theory and gender ideology being preached to their children, when ordinary Americans expressed their horror at Big Tech firms silencing speech at the behest of the government, what they were really hankering for was to be ruled by a ‘Catholic Taliban’, to use Fuentes’s phrase – for someone in power to tell them what to do, put women back in their box and divide up society by race, only in a more vintage, reactionary fashion. Democracy, freedom of speech, genuine equality – these are the popular causes of our time. Nick Fuentes is only a clownish mirror image of everything that Americans have been rebelling against.

12/12 Links Pt2: The humanitarian front against Israel; The Fake “Johns Hopkins Genetic Study” Meme; Call me Back Podcast: Israel's President, Isaac Herzog

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: The humanitarian front against Israel

So why has Amnesty, which has done so much to poison the West against Israel with a sustained and malevolent campaign of lies designed to destroy it, suddenly lurched toward at least some acknowledgment of the truth?

Perhaps it feels the hot breath on its neck of the Trump administration, which is now threatening to take condign action against those who have assisted the Palestinian Arab terrorist armies in their war of extermination against Israel.

Officials in the administration have reportedly held advanced discussions on hitting the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine “Refugees” (UNWRA) with terrorism-related sanctions. Both Israel and the Trump administration have accused UNWRA of links with Hamas, allegations the agency has vigorously disputed.

Washington halted funding in January 2024 after Israel accused about a dozen UNRWA staff of taking part in the Oct. 7 attack. Israel has also accused UNRWA of taking and guarding hostages, as well as consistently glorifying terrorism in its schools, and teaching its children to hate and murder Jews.

However, the use of humanitarian institutions to launder the war of extermination against Israel goes much further. An NGO Monitor report that was recently released has revealed—from scores of internal Hamas documents—the astonishing extent of the terrorist group’s infiltration and exploitation of international NGOs’ operations in Gaza.

The organizations involved include Catholic Relief Services, funded by Ireland, the United States and the United Nations; the International Medical Corps funded by the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States and the United Nations; and Medical Aid for Palestinians, whose funders include UNICEF, the World Health Organization and the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

According to the report, the evidence confirms that these NGOs in Gaza do not operate independently or neutrally. They are instead embedded in an institutionalized framework of coercion, intimidation and surveillance that serves Hamas’s terror objectives.

All NGOs operating in Gaza, it says, are required to adhere to strict Hamas security protocols, which include regular engagement with the terror group’s Ministry of Interior and National Security and other ministries.

Local Gazan “guarantors,” approved by Hamas, serve as the point of contact between Hamas and the NGOs. At least 10 such “guarantors” were Hamas members or supporters, or employed by Hamas-affiliated authorities.

‘Expelled From the Community of Which We Were a Part Only Yesterday’ Jean Améry on the Dilemma for Left-Wing Jewish Intellectuals, Sartre’s Freedom of Choice and the Commitment to Israel

What happened on 7 October 2023, and what has been happening since then, have surpassed the Jew-hatred of the 1960s and 70s. Hamas and their supporters invaded Israeli territory, raped, mutilated and slaughtered Israelis and proudly filmed themselves doing so. 1,200 people were murdered in a bestial manner, almost 5,000 were injured in one day alone, and 251 people, mostly Israelis but also foreign nationals whose only ‘crime’ was to be in the Jewish state, were taken hostage into Gaza.

Immediately afterwards, leftist groups throughout the Western world gathered in solidarity not with the victims but with the murderers.[38] Feminist activists either ignored the rapes or treated them as ‘resistance.’[39] The tendency among prominent Holocaust, genocide, and memory scholars to delegitimise Israel by drawing unfounded parallels between the extermination of European Jewry and Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians – already apparent well before 7 October – has intensified over the past two years.[40]

The accusation that Israel is committing genocide is an old classic in the repertoire of anti-Israel protesters. Since 2023, however, this blood libel has made its way into mainstream arts, academia, and politics across the West. It has nothing to do with the facts on the ground, but rather with the own psychological needs of anti-Zionists – we might recall Sartre, Adorno, and Horkheimer. In Germany, the popular chant ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ was supplemented by the rallying call, ‘Palestine will set us free.’ The redemptive dimension of today’s anti-Israel activism could not be sounded more clearly. ‘Palestine’ has become the new saviour or – in leftist terms – the new revolutionary subject after the proletariat and the Third World failed to deliver on the hopes invested in them.

A truly humane future, once the aspiration of the left – certainly the left Améry considered himself a part of – appears to have been abandoned long ago. The future that today’s leftist activists on the barricades are striving for as ‘liberation’ will not bring about actual redemption of mankind, but a whole different kind of suffering compared to today – suffering reminiscent of the worst horrors humanity had descended into in the 20th century.

When the Germans and their auxiliaries sought to purify the world from misery, the logic of self-preservation, the basis of all rational thought, turned into the logic of extermination: murder for the sake of murder. As a result of its enactment, the Holocaust remains unprecedented to this day. And yet, another descent into barbarism is not banished in the future as long as the conditions that enabled it prevail.

The only practical objection to the world after Auschwitz and the possible repetition of antisemitic extermination today is the Jewish state. Not international law, not human rights declarations, and not – as in present-day Germany’s case – a questionable raison d’état. The fact that antisemitism is intertwined with society at large, or in Adorno’s and Horkheimer’s words ‘anti-semitism and totality have always been profoundly connected,’[41] removes everyone, Jews and non-Jews, from freedom of choice when it comes to the necessity of Israel.

However, Jews feel the ‘crushing pressure’[42] already today. When some side with antisemites and rationalise antisemitic attacks, this phenomenon is often described as ‘Jewish self-hate.’ But such a perception falls short. Because it is based on a displacement: It suggests that the reason for this behaviour lies within the Jew, when in fact it originates outside, in the pressure of antisemitic society.[43] Jews who turn against Jewish self-determination embody, paradoxically, both resistance against and identification with their persecutor. Resistance, because they try to avert the hate against them, identification because they take on their enemies’ gaze. In the attempt to gain self-empowerment, they overlook that antisemitism is not related to what its objects actually do or not do. The security promised by this identification is in fact no security at all. Non-Jews do not experience this pressure. They make their decision – and this crucial difference is all too easily missed – without duress.

Améry’s disconcerting insight is that ultimately no one who cares about a future in which freedom of choice is possible has any true choice today. This is the uncomfortable imposition which cannot be dispelled by omitting Améry’s essay from posthumously published books.

The Fake “Johns Hopkins Genetic Study” Meme

The meme is a fabrication, loosely based on a 2012 study by Dr. Eran Elhaik. In this study, he suggests that a significant number of Ashkenazi Jews are descended from the Khazars—a diverse group of Turkic peoples from the Caucasus region who allegedly converted to Judaism.

This theory is known as the Khazarian Hypothesis and has been discredited as junk science by the academic community.

Elhaik’s study was methodologically flawed from the beginning. There is no Khazar DNA to compare with Ashkenazi Jews, as the Khazars have no living descendants. Elhaik’s use of modern Georgian and Armenian populations as proxies for ancient Khazars has been rejected by leading scientists, who have published indisputable evidence in numerous journals, including the prestigious journal Science.

In addition to the lack of genetic links to the Khazars, the theory is further weakened by the absence of linguistic connections. If Ashkenazi Jews were truly descendants of the Khazars, they would have spoken a Turkic language, not Yiddish, which is a Judeo-Germanic language.

The meme takes the erroneous results of Elhaik’s study even further. The paper was published in the Genome Biology and Evolution journal, not at Johns Hopkins, and it only focused on the DNA of European Jews, not Israelis, as confirmed by the author. Additionally, the figure of 97% does not appear anywhere in Elhaik’s research. Numerous studies on Ashkenazi DNA have been conducted, and while none have proven a link to the Khazars, the overwhelming majority of genetic studies have confirmed that Ashkenazi Jews are genetically linked to the Levant.

12/12 Links Pt1: The Danger Isn’t That the Cease-fire Will Collapse, But That It Will Become Permanent; UNRWA is beyond repair, so it's time to move on

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: The Danger Isn’t That the Cease-fire Will Collapse, But That It Will Become Permanent

The collective armies of Gaza understand that they can stretch out this phase of the process by stalling on the return of the final hostage’s body. That is why Israel is considering moving on to the second phase anyway—not because its leaders don’t care about the remains of Ran Gvili but because waiting for Hamas to trigger the second stage will itself incentivize Hamas to hold on to the body in perpetuity.

Refusing to advance to the second stage without the last hostage remains would be a significant strategic error on Israel’s part. For now, Hamas is waiting to see if it can bait Israel into exactly this error.

The pressure should be on Hamas of course, but also on the Arab states that have signed on to back the fulfillment of this deal. And on Europe, too, for that matter. Any time Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron move from pretending to care about Palestinians to actually caring about Palestinians, it will be welcome.

No one, except perhaps Hamas, wants this state of affairs to remain permanent.

At least that’s what they say. Let’s remember that after the Six-Day War, Israel was prepared to trade back the territories but the Arab states said, famously: no peace with Israel, no recognition of it, no negotiations with it.

Why were they so adamant? Because although they had lost the war against Israel, the Arab states received a consolation prize: The Palestinians were someone else’s problem now. Egypt was glad to be rid of Gaza and Jordan gave up its claims on the West Bank in the 1980s. The Palestinian Arabs could once again be used by the Arab world to weaken Israel with a permanent insurgency, unless by some miracle the Palestinians pulled themselves together enough for statehood.

The Arab states—and the wider Muslim world—are not exactly champing at the bit to contribute to the Gaza stabilization force that would be needed if Hamas were to be disarmed and replaced. Do they want Palestinian life rebuilt and the Palestinians given a chance to be free of Hamas’s totalitarian terror? Because from a certain angle, it’s starting to look as if maybe those Arab states would rather Gaza be split into an indefinite Israeli military occupation and a Hamas-controlled enclave. Perhaps the Arab world is not yet ready to contemplate the end of its conflict with Israel.

JPost Editorial: The West refuses to call out Hamas's blatant manipulation of public opinion

The Palestinian refugee crisis? Israel’s fault – never mind that it was Arab leaders who rejected partition and then launched a war to destroy the Jewish state.

Hunger in Gaza? Not because Hamas brutally attacked Israel and triggered a war. Not because it hides infant formula to inflame a crisis. Instead, blame defaults to Israel, the cruel party in a narrative shaped long before this war began.

For centuries, people were conditioned to believe in Jewish cruelty – the grotesque libels of killing children and using their blood for matzot. Old habits die hard. The vocabulary changes, but the instinct remains: Accuse the Jews first, believe the worst about them, and then investigate later, if at all.

Once in a long while, however, someone from within Arab society, such as Alkhatib, who has lost 31 family members in Gaza since the October 7 massacre, dares to speak up.

He exposed a truth many in the West find inconvenient: Hamas manipulates public opinion while showing utter indifference to the suffering of its own people. If that suffering helps advance its ultimate goal of Israel’s disappearance – and if Western “useful idiots” assist along the way – then so be it.

One final point deserves attention. Alkhatib said the hidden baby formula was stored in warehouses belonging to the Gaza Ministry of Health, the same ministry whose casualty figures are treated as indisputable fact by much of the international media. If that ministry conceals life-saving supplies to manufacture famine, why should anyone unquestioningly trust its numbers or its claims?

The answer should be obvious. The tragedy is that, for many, it still isn’t.

UNRWA is beyond repair, so it's time to move on

Moving from axing UNRWA to a constructive post-Gaza-war framework, the “international community” must focus on rebuilding Palestinian society – free from rank corruption, destructive indoctrination, coddling of terrorism, and the overall moral rot that for too long has contaminated international politics relating to Palestinians.

First and foremost, this means elimination of refugee status for all Palestinians living in Gaza, Judea, and Samaria. “Refugee camps” must be transformed into regular neighborhoods or towns, and their residents redefined as, well, local residents – not refugees.

Second is that meaningful curriculum overhauls should be undertaken in Palestinian educational institutions from kindergarten through university, eliminating antisemitic and anti-Israel materials, and the adoption of population-wide deradicalization initiatives.

Third is that action toward total demilitarization of Palestinian areas should be taken (excepting lightly armed police forces), as envisioned and promised in the Oslo Accords 30 years ago – but never pursued seriously.

Alas, Israel has little confidence in the ability of anybody to swiftly rebuild Palestinian society or “reform” Palestinian government, unless the Palestinians themselves wish to do so.

Throwing more aid money at the Palestinians certainly won’t help, just as it has not done the trick over the past thirty years since the Oslo Accords were signed.

Despite tens of billions of dollars and euros invested in the Palestinian Authority by the “international community,” there is no democracy, no rule of law, no transparency, no sustainability, no investment in economic stability, and no peace education in the PA. Not a single refugee has been resettled. Not one hospital has been built in the West Bank: only one sewage treatment plant.

But there is plenty of nepotism and corruption, “pay-for-slay” handouts (meaning the incentivizing and rewarding of terrorism against Israel), violent propagandizing against Israel (including support for Hamas’s October 7 invasion and massacres), and diplomatic assault on Israel in every possible international forum.

As for Western “security assistance” to the PA, this has produced mixed results, at best. The authority does not effectively control key terrorist nodes in the West Bank, and its security personnel have repeatedly participated in or facilitated terror attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers. PA security personnel account for 12% of all Palestinian terrorists held by Israel.

In short, the overall return on Western investment in Palestinian maturity and independence is abysmal. Real reform of Palestinian government and society is going to be a long, arduous process and must involve penalty and penance, not just reward and recognition.

Which is why it is asinine of France, Britain, Canada, and others to resurrect illusions of imminent Palestinian statehood. Regrettably, their gambit is a recipe for devastating disappointment and protracted conflict.