Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, February 23, 2026

The one-sided "experts" and anonymous sources of the @NYTimes

Iran Could Direct Proxies to Attack U.S. Targets Abroad, Officials Warn
Security officials are monitoring increasingly worrisome signs as President Trump considers another military campaign against Iran.

U.S. and other Western security officials say they are monitoring increasingly worrisome signs that Iran could direct proxies to conduct retaliatory terrorist attacks against American targets in Europe and the Middle East if President Trump orders large-scale strikes against Iran.

The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential intelligence assessments, say they have not yet detected any specific plots in the works. But they say heightened “chatter” — spy jargon for electronic intercepts of terrorists’ communications — indicates some level of attack planning and coordination.

Threats abound. There is concern among intelligence and counterterrorism officials that Tehran could enlist the Houthis in Yemen to resume attacks on Western shipping in the Red Sea. There is also concern in Europe that Hezbollah sleeper cells or even Al Qaeda or its affiliates could be ordered to attack American bases or embassies. One senior U.S. official said that government analysts were tracking “a lot” of activity and planning but that it was unclear what could trigger an attack.

“Iran can work through proxies to conduct terrorist attacks that will raise costs for any U.S. military campaign,” said Colin P. Clarke, the executive director of the Soufan Center, an intelligence and consulting firm in New York.

What, specifically, are the threats?

The anonymous sources, while described as senior officials, offer no concrete intelligence beyond "heightened chatter" - a term that routinely appears in counterterrorism reporting during any period of tensions. Terrorist networks discuss targets constantly; spikes in intercepts are expected whenever headlines feature American military posturing, inflammatory statements, or regional crises. Yet the article presents this as a novel, worrisome development tied specifically to potential strikes, without historical calibration or acknowledgment that such "chatter" is a background constant rather than a unique harbinger of Iran-directed retaliation.

That being said, there is nothing wrong with this specific article. It is appropriately restrained, it frames the potential repercussions as things that "could happen."

But as always, the question isn't what is being reported, but what isn't.

There were similar articles and expert warnings last June when the US was weighing whether to support Israel's attacks on Iranian nuclear infrastructure.

Like this:

“It is never too late not to start a war,” said Rosemary Kelanic, the director of the Middle East program at Defense Priorities, a think tank that advocates a restrained foreign policy. Ms. Kelanic acknowledged that Israel’s strike had given Iran an incentive to potentially develop a nuclear weapon. But she added that the incentive would “multiply dramatically if the United States joins the war.” “Once you get involved, man, it’s really hard to step back,” she said. “You are just going to go all in.”

Or this:

“Subcontracting the Fordo job would put the United States in Iran’s sights,” Daniel C. Kurtzer, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, and Steven N. Simon, a veteran of the National Security Council, wrote in Foreign Affairs on Wednesday. “Iran would almost certainly retaliate by killing American civilians. That, in turn, would compel the United States to reciprocate.”

“Soon enough,” they continued, “the only targets left for Washington to hit would be the Iranian regime’s leaders, and the United States would again go into the regime-change business — a business in which exceedingly few Americans want to be involved any longer.”

Has the NYT ever looked back on the track record of their experts to see if their predictions were accurate? Because in my experience, they rarely are.

Beyond that - do they ever quote experts who hold that there are greater benefits to military action than costs? Strikingly missing from all these articles is even the hint that attacking Iran would help its protesters. Or that it could weaken the Russia/China/North Korea axis. Or that it could hurt worldwide terrorist networks? Or hurt the Houthis in their reign of terror in Yemen? Or damage the the Shiite militias in Iraq? Or weaken Hezbollah, allowing Lebanon to rule its own country again?

And what, exactly, is the downside of wanting regime change? It is often not successful, to be sure, but if the Iranian people want to topple the regime - which they do - evening the playing field by attacking the IRGC ability to murder civilians would and should be a welcome development among those who claim to care about human rights. It wouldn't be the US installing a new regime, it would be the Iranian people.

Isn't that a good thing?

One may be tempted to think that the US military knows what it is doing a lot better than "experts" who do not have access to its capabilities and intelligence, as seen by the Maduro capture. To make sure you don't think so, the NYT has two nearly identical headlines three weeks apart to disavow you of thinking of that analogy.

I do not think the Trump administration has successfully described its strategy on Iran, and that is a problem. It is their job to tell the American people what its policy is, at least to the extent that it does not compromise strategy.

But any objective media source should look at both sides of the story as well, and it should evaluate its use of "experts" and anonymous sources and framing to ensure that its coverage is fair. When article after article only describes risks, without mentioning benefits or even how the US could counter the risks, moves from journalism to advocacy.

It might not violate the NYT's own journalistic standards. Each individual article in isolation is defensible. But it sure violates any trust that readers have that they are being told the entire story.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

02/22 Links: Trump's Board of Peace Must Deradicalize Gaza; Bondi hero: ‘I just ran to stop him killing innocent people’; Mike Huckabee handles Tucker Carlson’s ‘Gish Gallop’ with grace

From Ian:

Trump's Board of Peace Must Deradicalize Gaza

President Trump convened his Board of Peace on Thursday, announcing new commitments to fund Gaza's reconstruction and provide troops for a Gaza stabilization force. But so far, everyone's avoided an essential question: How will future generations of Palestinian children be raised and educated - and will they again be indoctrinated with radical hatred of Jews and Israel? If so, then the president's vision of Gaza as a "deradicalized, terror-free zone that does not pose a threat to its neighbors" will remain a pipe dream.

Many of the Hamas terrorists who stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, were raised on a steady diet of hatred. As children, they watched a Hamas-produced TV show hosted by a Mickey Mouse knockoff named Farfour, who preached jihad and urged the killing of Jews. Surrounded by smiling children, Farfour vowed to "liberate Jerusalem from the criminal Zionists," repeatedly exhorting: "Kill! Kill! Kill!" A talking bee named Nahoul ranted about "the filth of the criminal Jews." That reality helps explain why hundreds of Gaza civilians joined the rampage on Oct. 7, and many more celebrated in the streets.

The urgent question now is whether the machinery of radicalization that produced Hamas will finally be dismantled. If it is not, a return to war is inevitable. As long as Hamas remains embedded in Gaza's institutions, Palestinian children will continue to be indoctrinated to hate and kill Jews - in schools, on screens and at home. If Trump wants peace in Gaza to endure, he should establish a Deradicalization Commission through the Board of Peace, charged with dismantling the entire infrastructure of hate.

Pierre Rehov: Erdogan's Sunni Noose: Turkey's Bid to Encircle Israel

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has launched an ambitious diplomatic offensive aimed at unifying the Sunni world under Ankara's leadership. The objective is not merely reconciliation with former rivals. It is the construction of a Sunni diplomatic and strategic "wall," or "noose," around Israel, replacing the Iranian "Shi'ite crescent" with a new configuration of Sunni power.

The Turkish-Saudi reconciliation is particularly significant. Following years of tension after the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, Ankara and Riyadh have now moved decisively toward strategic cooperation.

Turkish and Saudi officials increasingly frame Israel as a destabilizing actor in these theaters. The emerging partnership is not merely economic; it reflects coordinated positioning against perceived external threats, with Israel explicitly cited.

Turkey and Egypt have now signed a $350 million military framework agreement covering joint weapons production, intelligence sharing, and military exercises. Turkish air defense systems and munitions are slated for delivery, and bilateral trade is projected to reach $15 billion.

As the guardian of the Suez Canal and a dominant actor in North Africa, Egypt provides logistical leverage capable of influencing maritime routes critical to Israel's economy.

On February 9, 2026, the foreign ministers of Turkey, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates issued a joint communiqué condemning what they called "Israeli expansionist policies in occupied territories" and calling for Islamic unity.

Some analysts describe an emerging "Sunni axis," or noose, influenced by Muslim Brotherhood ideology; backed by Turkish military power, financed by Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and designed, by expanding into Gaza, to encircle and finish off Israel.

The UAE, under the impressive leadership of Sheikh Mohamed ben Zayed al Nahyan, pursues a technocratic, anti-political Islam agenda that diverges sharply from Erdogan's ideological sympathies.... Still, the coalition's ultimate aim, apart from the UAE, unmistakably seems to be "containing" Israel.

Recently, Saudi media have featured openly anti-Israel and antisemitic headlines not seen in years. The kingdom appears to be totally aligning itself with anti-Israel countries such as Qatar and Turkey, while "tensions with the UAE explode."

Egypt, Israel's chilly peace partner since 1979, has reportedly expanded military infrastructure in the Sinai Peninsula in ways that should, under the supposed peace treaty, raise serious questions.

Turkish and Egyptian intelligence services are reportedly coordinating efforts to counter rival influences and restrict Israel's strategic access.

Israeli analysts increasingly describe it as the replacement of Iran's Shiite axis with a Sunni bloc influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood.

The coalition presents itself as promoting regional peace. Yet "peace" may translate into the vaporization of Israel, especially should a future Israeli government prove more pliable.

Erdogan's participation in "stabilization" efforts would significantly expand Turkish influence within the emerging Sunni crescent. Ankara's well-documented support for Muslim Brotherhood networks — which are Hamas's patrons, ideologically and financially – should raise obvious concerns.

Netanyahu's insistence that Israel determine which international actors, if any, operate in Gaza, serves multiple strategic purposes. It prevents Turkish entrenchment in Gaza, maintains Israeli control over post-war arrangements, and signals to Washington that Israel views Turkish expansionism as a long-term threat transcending personal or political relationships.

Whatever the obstacles, Erdogan's direction seems clear: a militarily and economically anchored Sunni alignment to constrict Israel's strategic space.

Ruthie Blum: Mike Huckabee handles Tucker Carlson’s ‘Gish Gallop’ with grace

By anchoring the exchange in Islamist conduct, Huckabee stripped the argument to its essentials. For instance, asked by Carlson what it cost the United States to “move the fleet off Iran into the Persian Gulf,” the ambassador replied, “A lot less than it would to bury a lot of Americans if [the ayatollahs] ever got a long-range ballistic missile. A lot less.”

He also pointed out that if Carlson cares so much about America, he should be concerned that Iran’s proxies are already “deeply embedded” in the Western Hemisphere.

This back-and-forth was among many fronts in the rhetorical battlefield of Carlson’s crazed conspiracy-theory arena, however. It might even have been the sanest section of the Q&A.

The looniest was his casting of aspersions on the authenticity of Netanyahu’s Jewish roots, since the prime minister’s family hails from Eastern Europe, and his sneering suggestion that Israelis might need DNA tests to prove their biblical connection to the land.

Other jibes were just as jaw-dropping, beginning with his impugning of a brief meeting Huckabee had with Jonathan Pollard after the death of the latter’s wife; declaring that Jeffrey Epstein was known to be connected with the Mossad (adding a lie about Israeli President Isaac Herzog having been a guest on the pedophile’s island—for which he later apologized but may still be sued); citing fabricated statistics about Israel’s persecution of Christians; and besmirching Israel Defense Forces behavior in Gaza. Oh, and insisting that Israel provide free abortions courtesy of U.S. aid.

It’s no wonder, then, that Carlson, who’s built a following among Israel-bashing antisemites, remains a groyper favorite.

It has to be said, though, that Huckabee knew what he was in for with Carlson. The pair had been sparring publicly on social media, which led to Huckabee’s challenging his former Fox News colleague to “come talk to me, instead of about me.”

Because of Huckabee’s naturally cheerful demeanor and impeccable manners, the interview concluded on a cordial note, with his extending an invitation to Carlson to return to Israel and attend his church. It was a magnanimous gesture, to be sure.

But the rest of us would prefer that Tucker Carlson never darken our doorstep—or VIP lounge—again.

Jordan: Mossad Used Drones To Bypass Booby Traps, Stole Holy Grail (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.
Check out their Facebook and Substack pages.

Amman, February 19 – Jordanian authorities have formally accused Israeli intelligence of orchestrating a high-tech theft of the Holy Grail from the ancient temple in Petra, using unmanned aerial vehicles to circumvent the site's legendary booby traps without setting foot on the ground. The operation, if confirmed, would represent a profound desecration of one of history's most spiritually guarded relics, rendering centuries-old divine safeguards irrelevant through remote-controlled robotics.

The temple's defenses — three trials devised by the Knights Templar to test humility, knowledge, and faith — were famously navigated in 1938 by American archaeologist Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr., who documented the perils extensively. Jordanian officials now claim a Mossad team, operating under the codename "Eagle," deployed a swarm of compact, AI-guided drones from a hidden vantage point near the Siq entrance, allowing complete avoidance of personal risk or moral reckoning.

"The Zionists have turned sacred trials into child's play with their flying machines," declared Jordanian Minister of Antiquities Khalid al-Fayez at an emergency briefing. "These traps were crafted to humble the arrogant, enlighten the ignorant, and reward the faithful. A drone possesses none of these qualities — yet it simply flies past them all. We condemn this profane bypass and demand the Grail's immediate repatriation."

According to seismic logs and Bedouin reports, the first trial, the "Breath of God," features massive circular blades that decapitate the proud unless the entrant kneels in penitence. A lightweight reconnaissance drone hovered above the mechanism's activation zone, its propellers undisturbed by the wind gusts or cobwebs that signal the trap. "The system demands humility from a human body," noted temple expert Dr. Sallah Mohammed Faisel el-Kahir, whose family aided Jones decades ago. "A machine has no neck to lose, no pride to check. It just proceeds."

The second challenge, the "Word of God," requires stepping only on floor tiles spelling "Jehovah" in Latin; incorrect tiles collapse into a lethal abyss. Drones, bearing no weight, flew directly over the entire tiled corridor without triggering pressure plates or structural failure. Onboard cameras and LiDAR mapped the safe path incidentally, but the mechanism, tuned to human footsteps, remained dormant. "They didn't solve the puzzle," al-Fayez lamented. "They ignored it. Faith is irrelevant when nothing touches the ground. Such sacrilege, however ingenious, is par for the Zionist course."

The final trial, the "Leap of Faith," presents an apparent chasm bridged only by an invisible path visible to the truly believing. A propeller-equipped retrieval drone crossed the void effortlessly, its sensors confirming solidity below while disregarding optical illusions or spiritual conviction. In the Grail chamber, where false cups promise instant death to the unworthy, the drone employed spectral imaging—cross-referenced with declassified excerpts from Jones's 1938 journal—to isolate the authentic simple chalice. A precision magnetic arm retrieved it without the catastrophic aging that claimed a Nazi in the original incursion. The drone dodged the single lunge that the aged knight guarding the hoard could muster, and absconded.

Analysts at the Ravenwood Institute warn that Mossad's possession of the Grail could confer strategic advantages in medical longevity programs or morale operations. "This isn't relic hunting; it's asset acquisition without the heroism," said senior fellow Dr. Marcus Brody III. "Drones democratize the divine—anyone with a controller can claim immortality, no penance required."

Israeli officials rejected the allegations as "recycled fantasy," insisting Jordan prioritize site conservation over conspiracy theories. Jordan has nevertheless petitioned UNESCO and the UN Security Council for intervention, framing the incident as an assault on humanity's shared spiritual heritage. "If soulless machines can seize what tests the soul," al-Fayez asked, "what protections remain against the next theft?"

Further rumors claim the operatives etched a tiny Star of David into the chamber wall, detectable only under blacklight, as a final indignity.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

The "Palestinian Children's Welfare Fund" announced a $5,000 donation for the beginning of Ramadan to feed Gazans.

Here's what the announcement says:

Many thanks to you all for your donations that enabled us to make this much needed donation at a critical time. Paul Larudee and Judith Bello of PCWF and FPM are US representatives of the Lebanon-based Global Gathering to Support the Choice of Resistance, based in Beirut, Lebanon, under the leadership of Secretary General Dr. Yehia Ghaddar, with branches in 80 countries. Those countries that are able have supported the community of our brother Mohammed Madi, the Gaza representative of the Global Gathering, and have donated many tens of thousands of dollars...

"Global Gathering to Support the Choice of Resistance" doesn't sound like its primary activity is to feed children. It sounds more like it prefers to murder them - as long as they are Jews in Israel.

Sure enough, the organization is a pro-Hezbollah, pro-Assad, pro-Iran, pro-Houthi group that cares little about children, at least according to its website, which is filled with praise for Iran and condemnations of Israel and the US.

Its Arabic name is “The Arab and Islamic Union Supporting the Resistance Option.” IDC-Herzliya wrote a paper about it in 2021, identifying it as "an international pro-Iranian platform to leverage the resistance axis against the US, Israel and their allies." It has tight connections with Hezbollah and Shiite militias in Iraq and Yemen, as well as with other terrorist organizations such as Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

In summation, it is evident that al-Tajammu serves as an international platform to spread the ideas of resistance to the US, Israel, KSA, Bahrain and other pro-western regimes who are perceived as threatening the Iranian interests. It seems that Hezbollah uses it to disseminate propaganda, raise funds and recruit activists. Far worse is the fact that the international community does not pay attention to this network’s existence and its terrorist organizations members, even though some of its members operate in countries where Hezbollah has been designated as a terrorist organization (e.g. Germany).

Donations to the PCWF are tax deductible in the US. It goes through another organization, the Association For Investment In Popular Action Committees, which shares the same address - that of Paul Larudee, a founder of the Free Gaza Movement and the Northern California branch of the International Solidarity Movement.

The Form 990 for the Association For Investment In Popular Action Committees shows some interesting things. 2024 was a banner year - it quadrupled its income through donations, from $236,000 to $946,000.

It lists its top donor as "RESTRICTED". That seems to be the main different between previous years and 2024, which indicates that some wealthy American gave over a half million dollars to this pro-"Axis of Resistance" organization which is openly aligned with groups wanting to destroy America.

While Larudee himself takes a salary of only $27,500, the organization paid $125,000 to "American Content Creation," which happens to share the same residential address as Larudee, the PCWF and the AFIIPAC.

Other organizations at this address - which are all tax deductible under this umbrella - include the pro-Assad Free Syria Movement and the North America Nakba Tour. In fact, Larudee is a veritable machine in churning out causes to convince you to give to and get a tax deduction:

Free Palestine Movement

Global Movement to Gaza – US

Good Shepherd Collective

Haiti Solidarity Project

NakbaTour

One State Assembly

Palestine Children’s Welfare Fund (Under construction)

Resumen Latinoamericano

Serena Shim Award

Sovereignty Support Movement

Taxpayers Against Genocide

The Grayzone

Perhaps the IRS would be interested in the links between this 501(c)(3) tax deductible organization and Iran and Hezbollah, which Larudee openly supports himself.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

02/21 Links: Emerging Sunni coalition is a strategic threat to Israel; Huckabee calmly, brilliantly confronts Carlson’s barrage of anti-Israel, anti-Christian lies; Jeremy Bowen’s bias is visible from space

From Ian:

Far Left protest planned against Buchenwald Memorial on Liberation Day

A planned far-left protest against the Buchenwald concentration camp memorial on the anniversary of its liberation has sparked outrage across Germany, with officials denouncing the move as an affront to the memory of Holocaust victims.

According to a report in the German Bild, citing Switzerland's Neue Zürcher Zeitung, radical organizations are calling for demonstrations on April 11, the day the camp was liberated in 1945. The groups accuse the memorial's management of "spreading Israeli propaganda" and of not being "hostile enough toward Israel."

The protest is being organized under the slogan "Keffiyehs in Buchenwald." Among those involved are the student wing of Germany's Left Party (Die Linke), the anti-Israel group Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East and the German Communist Party (DKP).

In statements published by the organizers, the Buchenwald memorial site is accused of promoting "historical revisionism and genocide denial" and of serving as a vehicle for advancing an alleged "Israeli narrative."

The controversy follows an incident last year in which a woman seeking to stage a protest at the site while wearing a keffiyeh, a scarf widely associated with Palestinian nationalism, was denied entry. A German court later upheld the decision. The protest organizers claim the memorial's management is effectively criminalizing pro-Palestinian activists.

According to the report, one of the leading activists behind the campaign belongs to a communist organization that previously expressed public support for the October 7 massacre carried out by Hamas. In a statement issued after the attack, the group described it as a "legitimate uprising by all means necessary."

The remarks triggered widespread public anger in Germany, particularly given Buchenwald's central place in the country's culture of remembrance. Tens of thousands of Jews were murdered at the camp during the Holocaust, making it one of the most significant symbols of Nazi atrocities.

Felix Klein, the German government's commissioner for combating antisemitism, sharply condemned the initiative, calling it "a new low in the reversal of roles between victim and perpetrator." He described the planned demonstration as "a frontal assault on the dignity of commemoration and on the memory of the victims of the Holocaust."

Daniel Finkelstein: Britain is still our country as well – and we will not be driven out

I understand those people who wish to make aliyah. I respect that decision and understand the emotional pull. But as a move to enhance family safety? I don’t think so.

Until the last five years I might have answered “America” if considering a safe refuge for Jews. But now? I note only that the worst antisemitic abuse I receive originates in that country. And that every extreme trend is worse and more violent there. It seems like a society constantly on the edge.

And nowhere else in Europe is it tempting, either. Or the Middle East. Or Africa for that matter. Jews are a small minority in almost every country we live in and that is inevitably perilous. But I don’t think we are finished here unless someone has a better idea, and I don’t think someone does have a better idea.

But I do have a more positive reason for believing in the future for Jews in Britain. It has become harder for Jews everywhere, we all feel less safe, but a sense of proportion is required. This remains one of the greatest times to be alive as a Jew, and Britain is one of the greatest places.

When I read the story of both sets of my grandparents before they were engulfed by the disasters of the 1930s and 1940s, I could see the warning signs. Absolutely I could. The growth of open antisemitism, the slow rise of violence, the breakdown of taboos. All the things we worry about now did indeed precede the catastrophe.

Yet the difference in extent is as striking as the similarly in nature. The extent of violence and hatred was of an entirely different scale. And Germany, in particular, was a much more unstable country. British democracy and rule of law certainly has its challenges but remains, by comparison, vastly stronger.

When I wrote recently in The Times about my experience of antisemitic abuse I was flooded with kind messages from readers. We certainly have enemies but we also have many allies. There are millions of decent people in Britain who realise that their own safety and liberty is bound up in ours.

Besides, over hundreds of years we have built our own culture and community in this country. It’s not something to give up lightly. I don’t think complacency is warranted. Sadly, it is not warranted at all. But a little defiance is. This is certainly still the place for me.

Jeremy Bowen’s bias is visible from space

It will be of little surprise that Bowen has consistently misrepresented, downplayed or even tried to excuse, Hamas’s use of Palestinian civilians as human shields. Against Israel, Hamas has little choice but ‘to leverage the things that they can leverage in terms of trying to get an edge’, Bowen said in a 2023 podcast episode. In 2014, he claimed to have seen ‘no evidence during my week in Gaza of Israel’s accusation that Hamas uses Palestinians as human shields’. This is despite extensively documented evidence to the contrary, showing that Hamas launches rockets from civilian areas and commandeers civilian infrastructure for military ends, including hospitals and schools.

In fact, you can find examples of Bowen’s bias as far back as 2009, when the BBC Trust found him in breach of impartiality guidelines for a 2007 BBC News article on the 40th anniversary of the Arab-Israeli Six-Day War.

According to monitoring by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA), Bowen has spent decades perfecting a narrative of Israeli aggression while airbrushing the extent of the threats Israel faces. He has repeatedly platformed voices that dehumanise Israelis while failing to challenge the anti-Semitic ideology that drives Hamas. That isn’t journalism: it’s a curated perspective that treats Jewish security concerns with a shrug of indifference.

The BBC is the most popular news source in the UK, reaching a staggering 94 per cent of adults. When its most senior editors trade in skewed narratives, they shape political discourse, social attitudes and the temperature of national debate. And the price of this is borne by British Jews.

Since 7 October 2023, the UK has endured record levels of anti-Semitic incidents. This has included a lethal terror attack and several foiled terror plots. When coverage of serious conflicts consistently falls short, it exacerbates real-world harms for a minority community already under pressure. The BBC’s tendency to amplify unverified Hamas claims – such as wrongly blaming the infamous al-Ahli hospital blast on Israel without evidence, or quoting Hamas casualty figures without qualification – has fuelled hostility towards Jewish communities.

Perhaps most breathtaking is the arrogance with which Bowen continues to showcase his bias with total impunity. The BBC’s internal accountability mechanisms are essentially a closed loop. The broadcaster is, quite literally, marking its own homework. Apologies and corrections are only issued long after the damage has been done and without significant consequences for repeated breaches.

This brings us to the government’s BBC Charter Review, which is exploring the BBC’s governance, public obligations and funding before a new 10-year charter is granted. The way the BBC works now, where senior figures like Bowen are immune to external scrutiny, is a betrayal of public trust. We need a fundamental reset of the BBC’s culture, including tying the renewal of the charter to demonstrable improvements in impartiality and accuracy.

We ought to remember that the BBC belongs to the public – not to the egos of its editors and correspondents.

02/20 Links Pt2: Reduced to one word – Jew; The Man Setting Fire to the GOP; Israelis called occupiers and ‘human fragments’ on BBC; A pro-Israel bookshelf

From Ian:

Alex Hearn: Reduced to one word – Jew

Comedian. Radio host. Actor. Presenter. Jew.

Only the last one mattered to Thomas Abdullah Bourne. He erased the individual identity and achievements of Matt Lucas until all he saw was a Jew. And Bourne decided that a Jew needed to be publicly humiliated.

There are no exceptions for racists. In the Soviet era, even leading Jewish communists were executed on charges of Zionism after show trials.

Bourne proudly uploaded his video of a Jewish man being harassed for no other reason than his Jewishness. After the backlash, he deleted it along with his account, but the damage was done. Targeting a popular public figure in this way had shown the hateful face of antizionism to the public.

Matt Lucas wasn’t alone. Last week, a Holocaust survivor and other visitors were called “child killers” and harassed by people in Madrid’s Reina Sofía museum because they were visibly Jewish. Instead of receiving assistance, a senior official instructed staff to remove them, saying others were “disturbed” by their presence. The Reina Sofía is considered one of the world’s leading cultural institutions.

Across the west in 2026 Jews are being excluded from museums, harassed on public transport and confronted on the street. And now, incredibly, antizionists could be coming to your home.

In cities including Brighton, Bristol, London and Sheffield, people are going door to door checking whether residents accept their “truth” about Israel – like racist Jehovah’s witnesses. They want people to sign pledges boycotting the world’s only Jewish state. The door-knockers compile lists of those who don’t pass their purity test. What will they do with this information?

Footage from Sheffield appears to show one door-knocker physically attacking a woman who confronted him. When an ideology becomes part of your identity, criticism feels like a personal attack. The door-knockers in Brighton were filmed having a rally by Sky News, with one speaker revealing what appears to be the campaigners’ ultimate goal: to harm Israel “until it shrivels and dies”.

This is the aim of antizionism – the destruction of Israel and the Jews who live there. Some hide behind the fantasy that Israel would be replaced by another democracy, but the Middle East isn’t known for democracy, particularly when it comes to Palestinian leaders. We know what would happen to half the world's Jews in this scenario. October 7, 2023 showed us, when Hamas attempted to implement it.

NGO Monitor: A Growing Threat in Sweden: Samidoun’s Network and Terror Affiliations

Samidoun, a terror-linked and terror-supporting NGO, is active and expanding its presence in Sweden, raising the spectre of incitement, public unrest, and violence.

Designated as a terrorist entity by Israel in 2021, by Germany in 2023, and jointly by the US and Canada in 2024, Samidoun is closely linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) – an EU-designated terrorist organization. Samidoun also promotes other EU-designated groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah and openly advocates for Palestinians’ “natural right to armed resistance,” underscoring the NGO’s ideological commitment to violence.

Terror Designations
In February 2021, Israel designated the NGO, identifying it as “play[ing] a leading and significant role in the PFLP’s anti-Israel propaganda efforts, fundraising, and recruiting activists,” and serving as a “front for the PFLP abroad.”
In 2020, Germany expelled Samidoun head Khaled Barakat, and imposed a four-year entry ban; his appeal was rejected, citing PFLP links and “support for a terrorist organization.” As a result of the ban, Barakat was denied entry into the EU in 2022.
In November 2023, Germany banned Samidoun for violating its Basic Law (Article 9(2)) and its Associations Act; namely, it “impairs and endangers the peaceful coexistence of Germans and foreigners,” “advocates and calls for the use of violence as a means of enforcing political interests,” and “supports associations that initiate, advocate and threaten attacks against people or property.”
In October 2024, the US and Canada issued joint statements listing Samidoun as a terrorist entity. The US described it as a “sham charity that serves as an international fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization” and designated Samidoun head Khaled Barakat, “a member of the PFLP’s leadership” who played a “critical role[] in external fundraising for the PFLP.”
The Dutch Parliament passed a resolution in the same month calling on the government to designate Samidoun as a terror organization.

Samidoun’s Operational Presence in Sweden
Samidoun maintains chapters in Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö, which organize and participate in demonstrations and protests across Sweden, including events in Stockholm (Sergels Torg), Gothenburg (Brunnsparken, Centralstation, Gazaplatsen, Gustaf Adolfs Torg), Eskilstuna (Smortorget, Cityhustorget), Ostersund (Badhusparkens scen), and Vasteras (Stora Torget, Sigmatorget).

Support for Terrorist Organizations and Violence
On November 23, 2025, Samidoun Gothenburg co-organized a demonstration in “support of the resistance,” using promotional materials that featured members of terrorist organizations, including Hamas and the PFLP. The demonstration was followed by a joint event commemorating Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, the Muslim Brotherhood figure who is the namesake of Hamas’s military wing. The gathering honored “the legacy of his resistance.”

Promotional image for the November 23, 2025, Samidoun Gothenburg demonstration
On October 12, 2025, following the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, a Samidoun Gothenburg member gave a speech at a demonstration, stating, “The united armed resistance, led by the al-Qassam Brigades [Hamas’ military wing] and backed by a determined people, has stood strong through all this and forced the occupation to an agreement. The ceasefire is a statement of strength for the Palestinian resistance, and it is worth rejoicing over!”
On July 6, 2025, as Iran launched daily ballistic missile attacks on Israeli cities, a Samidoun Gothenburg member gave a speech at a demonstration stating, “I feel hope as the rockets fall over Tel Aviv.” He concluded his speech by calling out, “Death to Israel! Death to the USA! Glory to the martyrs! Long live the resistance! Long live Palestine!”
On November 29, 2024, a Samidoun Gothenburg member participated in a “cultural evening for Palestine” arranged by the cultural association Solens Port, claiming “PFLP, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, the organizations that are building the armed resistance are not terrorists, they are our comrades, they are our heroes.”

PEN America gets captured: organization accepts Palestine as a member and rejects Israel; Jewish chief executive resigns after accusations of being a “Zionist” and not signing on to Israel’s “genocide”

Every day, it seems, another group gets ideologically captured, valorizing Palestine (or Hamas) and demonizing Israel. This is dispiriting for Jews, but the latest such capture—of the free-expression literary group PEN America—is especially depressing.

The decline of PEN American was first evidenced to me when, in 2015, it decided to give a “freedom of expression” award to the magazine Charlie Hebdo, many of whose writers (and a few others) were killed in an attack by al-Qaeda, presumably for making fun of Islam and Muhammad. The award was formally called the “PEN/Toni and James C. Goodale Freedom of Expression Courage Award”, and was to be conferred with other awards at a literary gala banquet.

But six PEN members refused to be “table hosts” at the banquet, and then 139 other members (now 242) signed a letter taking issue with the award. Why? Because although Charlie Hebdo is well known to be an “equal opportunity offender,” whose metier is mocking everyone, including politicians and religions, those PEN members said that it was a no-no to mock Islam because its adherents were “already marginalized, embattled, and victimized.”

South Africa pulls out of Venice Biennale after minister pans artist’s focus on Gaza

South Africa will not participate in this year’s Venice Biennale following a dispute between its culture ministry and the artist it had selected, whose planned installation focused on Gaza.

Gabrielle Goliath, a South African artist selected to represent the country at the international culture exhibition, had planned to showcase a performance piece titled “Elegy” that would include a memorial for the Palestinian poet Hiba Abu Nada, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in 2023.

Goliath’s selection to represent South Africa at the biennale by Art Periodic, a nonprofit that was running the pavilion on behalf of the country, quickly drew the scorn of Gayton McKenzie, the South African culture minister, who called her work “highly divisive.”

While South Africa has long been among the most vocal critics of Israel, and diplomatic ties between the countries have frayed over the course of the war in Gaza, McKenzie has stood out for his staunch support of the Jewish state.

In January, McKenzie terminated the agreement with Art Periodic, writing in a letter that he would instead feature art in Venice that gave “a positive message” about South Africa, according to the New York Times.

02/20 Links Pt1: Media’s Belated Truth-Telling on Gaza; Why Israel Does Not Want America’s Military Aid Money Anymore; Inside Al Jazeera’s Style Guide; Guterres and the gutless United Nations

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Media’s Belated Truth-Telling on Gaza

From the Now It Can Be Told files come a couple more revelations about Gaza worthy of attention.

The BBC reports what has been true for over two years: Hamas is bleeding Gazans dry while violently cracking down on, as one Gazan described it, “people with opinions.”

The BBC has recently been embroiled in numerous ethics scandals around its reporting on the conflict. This report is an indication of what it might have looked like had the Beeb reported honestly and ethically for a single day during the war.

“At markets across Gaza,” BBC reports, “stallholders describe regular police patrols—and a renewed iron grip on official fees and taxes.” The market sellers can’t really afford what Hamas is demanding. “Should I pay them, or feed my children?” one asks.

As the piece explains, “food and some other basic goods are flowing into Gaza more freely. The few key traders with a license to bring them in from Israel say Hamas have reimposed strict control over taxing the imports. One trader, who agreed to share details anonymously, told us force was used against those who refused to pay.”

Same old story—Israel is letting in goods and food, and Hamas is taking it out of the mouths and pocketbooks of Gazan civilians and disappearing those who put up any resistance. The preceding sentence has never not been true since Hamas took control of the enclave close to two decades ago. If you want Gazans to be able to eat and earn a livelihood, you’ve got to remove Hamas. Because its policies are the same whether it’s peacetime or wartime: there is no such thing, in fact, as peacetime Hamas.

Interestingly, one trader told the BBC “that traders used a code-word for Hamas when discussing tax payments, so that Israel wouldn’t learn that money was being siphoned off to the group.”

Even Hamas’s victims have been helping the terror group cover up its crimes. What that means is simple: Hamas has, all along, been siphoning off a much larger share of goods and food and money than anyone claimed. If anything, the Israelis understated the extent of the problem.

In fact, it’s going to be difficult for anyone on the outside to get the full picture: “Hamas now has a database of all the traders who import goods into the Gaza Strip,” activist Mohammed Diab told the Beeb. “The trader pays in cash, not through bank transfers, so that the flow of funds cannot be traced. It is gradually restoring the system that was in place in the past, but away from the spotlight so it can’t be monitored.”

The longer it takes to disarm Hamas, the longer Palestinians will be immiserated and oppressed. It’s really that simple. And there’s nothing Israel can do to change that unless the world asks it to go in and disarm Hamas itself.

Inside Al Jazeera’s Style Guide, Which Forbids Reporters From Calling ISIS a ‘Terrorist’ Organization

Al Jazeera prohibits its staff from referring to al Qaeda, ISIS, and Boko Haram as "terrorist," "Islamist," or "extremist" groups, instead requiring reporters to use "neutral terms" like "fighters" and "armed groups," according to a copy of the outlet’s style guide obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

The guide was labeled "2023-2024 Edition" but appears to have been updated to reference more recent events like President Donald Trump's renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America (the outlet tells reporters to use the former). The guide’s treatment of terrorist organizations is one example of how the Qatari state media outlet, which did not respond to a request for comment, presents radical Islam to the world.

"There is nothing stylish or factual about this unholy text, which has a higher spin rate than any Major League power pitcher," said one media insider who has seen the document. "It simply confirms what many right-thinking people have always known: Al Jazeera exists only to parrot narratives that have been carefully crafted by the Hamas propaganda machine."

Below is a compilation of exact quotes from the guide followed by examples of its rules being used in Al Jazeera articles.

TERRORISM/TERRORISTS
We do not use these terms unless attributed.

ISRAEL
It is the state of Israel, not the Jewish state. However, we can refer to the Jewish state when the subject is the religious composition of Israel. Do not use Jewish state as a synonym for Israel. Do not use ‘Jerusalem’ as a synonym for the government of Israel, as one might use ‘Washington’ to imply the U.S. government. With regard to whether we use pro-Israel or pro-Israeli government…care needs to be taken to use the longer but more accurate phrase: ‘pro-Israeli government’. Israeli peace activists will tell you they are ‘pro-Israel’, but ‘anti-Israeli government’. When Israeli politicians address the public, make an effort to find out who they are addressing and report it as is.

EAST JERUSALEM
The term ‘occupied’ should be used wherever it’s necessary.

"Israel to advance plans for 9,000 units in occupied East Jerusalem," Dec. 17, 2025: "Israeli authorities are expected to advance plans to build 9,000 new housing units in an illegal settlement on the site of the abandoned Qalandiya airport in occupied East Jerusalem, in another attempt to cut off Palestinian lands from each other and block any possibility of a contiguous Palestinian state ever emerging."

WEST JERUSALEM
Do not say ‘occupied’. And never refer to it as the capital of Israel.

"Netanyahu finally announces October 7 inquiry: Why are Israelis furious?" Dec. 20, 2025: "The ministerial team tasked with determining the scope of the inquiry is to meet in West Jerusalem on Monday, coincidentally the same day that Netanyahu is scheduled to give testimony in his long-running corruption trial in Tel Aviv."

INCURSION
This is the word we use when Israeli settlers, politicians, religious figures or nationalist groups go into Al Aqsa Mosque compound. Don’t call it a ‘visit’.

"UN says Israel is stoking ‘ethnic cleansing’ fears in Gaza, West Bank," Feb. 19, 2026: "In Jerusalem, Ramadan has brought further restrictions at Al-Aqsa Mosque. The mosque’s imam, Sheikh Akrama Sabri, said Israeli authorities are ‘imposing a reality by force’ by limiting worshippers while allowing extremist Jewish incursions into the compound."

ISRAELI SETTLEMENTS
Should be called illegal on first reference. Settlements are residential areas built by Israelis in the occupied territories. They are illegal under international law: this is the UN Security Council’s position - although Israel rejects this. All settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are considered illegal under international law. There are no ‘legal’ settlements.

"Israeli minister approves gun licences for 18 illegal West Bank settlements," Jan. 22, 2026: "Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has approved the issuance of gun licences to Israelis in 18 additional illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, as the right-wing government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushes to expand illegal outposts that undermine prospects for a two-state solution."

ISRAELI ARMY
Do not call it Israeli Defence Forces or IDF. Also avoid ‘security forces’.

"Israeli army sniper in Chile accused of Gaza war crimes could face justice," Feb. 18, 2026: "A Chilean court is considering a criminal complaint against a former Israeli army sniper who served in Gaza during Israel’s more than two-year-long genocide on the coastal enclave and the Palestinian people."

ISRAEL MILITARY DEATHS
We take a robust approach to censorship of our reporting by the Israeli military. Each case should be considered individually, but our first instinct should be to report the facts. The deaths in combat of Israeli soldiers are of high news value. If we are confident of the facts we should report them, even if the Israeli Army has asked us to wait for its permission. The Israeli Army says it routinely asks us to delay reporting deaths so it can first inform victims’ relatives. This is not a good enough reason for us to withhold news from our audience – provided we do not name the victim. This policy may provoke a reaction from the Israeli side. If it does, we will reassess it.

Josh Hammer: The Saudi Mask Slips

What the heck is going on here—and most important, what does it all mean for the United States and our very real interests in the Middle East?

First, the much-desired goal of Riyadh joining Abu Dhabi and Manama in the Abraham Accords circle of peace with Jerusalem is, at least for the time being, totally unachievable. A friend of mine who had been involved in the first Trump administration’s Abraham Accords diplomacy efforts once told me that, by the end of the first Trump term, a deal to bring Riyadh into the accords was “on the five-yard line.” This same official believed that, if Trump had been re-elected for a second term beginning in January 2021, Saudi Arabia would have joined the accords within a few months. Now, five years later, the notion of Israel normalizing relations with the state custodian of Islam’s holy sites is, sadly, a pipe dream.

Second, it seems that Riyadh’s recent shift in posturing is motivated less by a sincere ideological cottoning to Islamism—the Brotherhood remains officially banned throughout the kingdom, for example—and motivated more by MBS’s unseemly personal petulance and immaturity. It’s worth remembering that MBS, a nepo baby if there ever were one, has behaved like a spoiled child before. He initiated a high-profile mass arrest of prominent Saudi elites at the Riyadh Ritz-Carlton in November 2017. In October 2018, Islamist “journalist” Jamal Khashoggi was butchered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul; a CIA report the following month concluded that MBS had ordered the hit. Whatever one might say (and I have nothing nice to say about Khashoggi), these incidents were unnecessarily provocative—perhaps even gratuitous.

It seems that MBS is now up to his old tricks. By all accounts, MBS has come to loathe Mohamed bin Zayed, rule of Abu Dhabi and president of the UAE. I’ve heard speculation that MBS now harbors an even deeper hatred of MBZ, and by extension the entire UAE, than he held for Qatar and its ruling House of Thani during the 2017-2021 GCC crisis. Given that the UAE under MBZ has been perhaps the most moderate of all the oil-rich Sunni Gulf states in its general approach to Islam and the most publicly embracing of Israel of all the Abraham Accords’ Arab signees, there is no clear reason why MBS has adopted such a hostile posture—given his years of anti-Islamist crackdowns and purges—other than pure pettiness and jealousy.

It’s juvenile—blatantly, insanely, and disgustingly so. But as Riyadh cozies up to Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s strongman Islamist regime in Ankara, Ahmed al-Sharaa’s al Qaeda-lite regime in Damascus, and sides against Israel and the UAE on Somaliland’s push for national autonomy, MBS’s spoiled outbursts nonetheless have real consequences for the region.

pic.twitter.com/EwpF9q046R
Unbelievably evil: The notorious Hamas propaganda agent in Australia's parliament supported banning Israeli Jews who fought Hamas from entering Australia, but wants to welcome ISIS jihadists who enslaved non-Muslim girls and committed genocide against…
— Liza Rosen (@LizaRosen0000) February 19, 2026

Islamists firebombed a synagogue in Melbourne.

ABC News calls the firebombed synagogue a “mosque”pic.twitter.com/wxQfDRJmWA
— Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@DrewPavlou) February 20, 2026

The New York Times ran a remarkable front-page story this week about Dr. David Hasan, a Palestinian American neurosurgeon from Durham, North Carolina, who has built a growing network of free schools in Gaza called Academies of Hope. Nine thousand children — war orphans and displaced youngsters — are now attending classes in tent campuses across southern Gaza, receiving hot meals, medical care, and something extraordinary: a curriculum purged of antisemitism and hate.

Dr. Hasan deserves enormous praise. He went to Gaza on medical missions when most of the world was arguing about the conflict from the comfort of their living rooms. He watched a ten-year-old girl take charge of her younger siblings after their parents were killed. And rather than turn away, he built something. He raised money — largely from Jewish donors — hired teachers over WhatsApp, coordinated with Israeli authorities, and replaced lessons glorifying killers with lessons about tolerance, coexistence, and conflict resolution. A math problem that once compared the number of "martyrs" in the first and second intifadas now asks about soccer match attendance. A reading that praised Dalal Mughrabi — who led the 1978 coastal road massacre that killed 38 Israelis, 13 of them children — has been replaced with a reading about a pioneering Palestinian educator. An Islamic studies lesson about Jews trying to kill the Prophet has been replaced with one about the Prophet's expressions of respect for Jews.

The children love it. "No drones or bombs," one 12-year-old told the Times. "The best thing is sitting at a desk and seeing the teacher and the board, and holding a pencil again."

This raises an obvious question: why is this so rare?

The Palestinian Authority's curriculum — the one taught in both the West Bank and Gaza — has been criticized for decades by Israel, the United States, and the European Union for inculcating hatred and antisemitism. That criticism has been thoroughly documented and is not seriously disputed. Yet in all that time, with billions of dollars in international aid flowing to Palestinian educational institutions, no one — not the PA, not UNRWA, not Qatar, not the EU — has made systematic hate-removal a condition or even a priority. Dr. Hasan, a private individual with no background in humanitarian work, did it anyway, and the PA's education ministry reportedly threatened him for doing so without permission.

Think about that: the official custodians of Palestinian education threatened a man for teaching children not to hate.

Which brings us to the social media reaction. Some Gazans have questioned whether Dr. Hasan is "overly aligned with Israel" — because he works with Israeli donors, coordinates with Israeli authorities, and has stripped anti-Jewish content from the curriculum. Others, described as embittered by Hamas, have pushed back and said teaching tolerance is better than teaching children to sacrifice themselves.

Notice what the objectors are actually objecting to. It isn't the food. It isn't the medical care. It isn't the fact that children are learning to read and write again. The complaint is that Jewish people are funding the schools and that hatred of Jews has been removed from the lessons. In other words: the mere participation of Jews in a humanitarian project is treated as a form of contamination. The removal of antisemitism from a classroom is treated as ideological subversion.

This tells you something important about the cultural environment in which these children are being raised — an environment so saturated with the premise that Jews are the enemy that any Jewish generosity is automatically suspect. It also tells you something about what "peace building" is actually up against. Dr. Hasan isn't just building tent classrooms; he's fighting an entire ecosystem of dehumanization that has been deliberately cultivated and institutionally maintained for decades.

That is precisely why what he is doing matters so much — and why the question of its rarity should be answered honestly. It is rare because powerful institutions — the PA, Hamas, the UN, and their international funders — have not wanted it. The hate in the curriculum was not an accident or an oversight. It was a policy. Dr. Hasan's schools prove that it was never a necessity.

Most of all, this is a damning indictment of UNRWA. A man managed to build a network of schools in months, with thousands of students and vetted teachers, that don't teach hate. UNRWA has spent decades arguing that such a thing is impossible in Gaza and that the lessons of hate they teach - which violate UN standards - are necessary (or they deny it.)

Dr. David Hasan's schools prove that all the excuses that justify antisemitism in Gaza are nonsense.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

A newer kind of philosophical antisemitism comes from Egypt

I have been arguing for nearly a year now that the common denominator of antisemitism - left, right, Arab, Christian or whatever - comes from Jews not fitting inside the paradigms of each group's philosophies. Jews, or Judaism, or Israel are particularistic when philosophies demand universalism, victims who became victors which makes binary frameworks break, or simply a people who survived when other philosophies predicted they cannot last. Philosophers prize cohesiveness in their theories, and Jews often prove the thinking is incoherent. Rather than update their frameworks to explain Jews, philosophies would rather get rid of the Jews to keep their frameworks intact.

But there is another response that can be made in response to those pesky Jews: create a cohesive philosophy whose entire purpose is to demonize Jews.

This is what Abdul Wahab al-Messiri has done.

The brilliant Hussein Aboubakr Mansour traces the ideology of al-Messiri as described in his eight volume Encyclopedia of Jews, Judaism, and Zionism, and what emerges is not crude prejudice but a fully systematized metaphysical indictment. Messiri did not stumble into antisemitism. He built it.

Critical Theory provides a particularly fertile environment for this dynamic, not because it is inherently antisemitic but because of its structure. Its central move is unmasking. It claims surface appearances conceal hidden domination and institutions encode power. The moral hero exposes the concealed logic beneath the visible order. Once this becomes the default intellectual posture, anomalies do not falsify the framework; they intensify the search for deeper concealment.

If applied to Jews, this sounds a lot like the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, doesn't it?

Messiri takes the crude antisemitism of 19th century Eastern Europe and makes it compatible with the most trendy philosophical theories. Drawing on Karl Mannheim’s sociology of knowledge, the Frankfurt School’s critique of instrumental reason, and Heideggerian and existential critiques of modernity, he relocates the source of Western domination from abstract rationality to Judaism itself. The hidden structure that Critical Theory sought to expose becomes Jewish metaphysics. Zionism becomes the distilled expression of modernity’s will to dominate. The Jewish narrative of chosenness is recast as the original civilizational pathology from which Western imperialism, capitalism, liberalism and even Nazism supposedly flow.

This is not medieval demonology in religious language. It is medieval demonology translated into the vocabulary of twentieth-century critical philosophy.

The result is a philosophy in which antisemitism is not an emotional reflex but the organizing principle. Jews do not merely fail to fit the paradigm. They explain why the paradigm is necessary. They occupy the structural position of hidden power more elegantly than any other candidate, precisely because antisemitic tradition has prepared that slot for a thousand years. Critical Theory’s emphasis on concealed domination and antisemitism’s emphasis on clandestine Jewish influence converge with remarkable ease.

Before reading this article, I had thought that this encyclopedia was just an encyclopedia. It is often reviewed and referenced in Arabic news media and op-eds. I didn't realize there was an entire philosophical framework behind it.

Messiri’s influence matters. His encyclopedia is widely cited in Arab intellectual circles and has shaped this generation of educated discourse. He provides a coherent architecture in which hostility to Israel and Judaism is not simply political but metaphysical. In his system, opposing Zionism is an act of universal emancipation. Violence becomes resistance against the Logos of domination. The Palestinian cause becomes a transcendent symbol around which history itself is morally organized.

So far, I see little evidence that Messiri's philosophy has been accepted in Western universities. It is still relatively new. When he is studied it is usually in Middle Eastern Studied departments. But the fact that it is coherent means there is little in the way of "progressive" scholars to start adopting it - it is a socially acceptable philosophy to justify Jew hatred, and something like that will not remain isolated for long.

When that happens, the antisemitic Right might be in the forefront of its mainstreaming, since it is already close to their conspiracy theories about Jews.

I began my philosophical project in order to dismantle antisemitism by identifying the broken assumptions that generate it. What Mansour’s essay reveals is a different challenge. There exists an intellectual tradition in which antisemitism is not a byproduct of philosophical incoherence but its deliberate center. Instead of eliminating Jews to preserve a theory, Messiri reconstructed theory to eliminate Jews conceptually. He did not defend a fragile paradigm against anomaly. He designed a paradigm in which the anomaly becomes the ultimate explanation.

If antisemitism can arise from philosophical systems that cannot tolerate Jewish particularity, it can also arise from systems that define Jewish particularity as the concealed engine of evil. The first problem is rigidity. The second is design. Both demand response, but they are not the same adversary.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

02/19 Links Pt2: Tucker Carlson's detention claim shattered by viral video; Bari Weiss’ Daniel Pearl Memorial Lecture canceled; Why I acquired the whiteprint of the Auschwitz-Birkenau crematoria

From Ian:

Noah Rothman: The Revolt of the Revolting

Review of 'The Revolutionists' by Jason Burke
Ilich Ramírez Sánchez was jubilant upon his return to London in 1971. When the Venezuelan national’s parents had last seen their son, he and his brother had just secured positions to study at Moscow’s Patrice Lumumba Peoples’ Friendship University—the front from which so much Soviet-sponsored radicalism and militancy was cultivated, refined, and exported. But that had been years earlier. On arrival, Ramírez was chided by a family friend for failing to tell his worried family where he’d been, but the reason for his prolonged absence was simple. “I’ve been in the Middle East,” he confessed, “learning how to kill Jews.”

That certainly explained the low profile. Ramírez embarked on that project under an assumed name, “Carlos,” to which the appellation “the Jackal” would soon be indelibly appended. Although he was perhaps the most famous revolutionary left-wing terrorist and assassin of his generation, Carlos actually had serious competition for the title. He would, however, make an outsize contribution to the bloodshed that bathed the decade to follow.

Although they talked a good game about proletarian solidarity and compassionate self-sacrifice, the violence that the Jackal and his terrorist allies dispensed was more often an outgrowth of narcissistic self-reverence that masqueraded as altruism. The Revolutionists: The Story of the Extremists Who Hijacked the 1970s, by the British author and journalist Jason Burke, tells Carlos’s story and those of many others like him.

Burke’s rich narrative distills a violent decade to its intellectual concentrate. He chronicles the international Marxist left’s turn from socialist ardor toward nationalism and Islamism. It was a transformation that occurred in tandem with Israel’s progression from a fledgling state into a regional power. The Communist East and its fellow travelers turned on Israel as it evolved from an incipient socialist experiment into a Western-oriented capitalist democracy—one that had had the temerity twice to defeat the coalition of Arab nations in whose success Moscow had ill-advisedly invested substantial sums. The international left’s bitterness did not die when the Warsaw Pact pivoted late in the Cold War from confrontation to accommodation with the West, leading the global Marxist vanguard to throw their chips in with the Islamist radicals still in the fight.

It’s only proper, then, that Burke’s story begins not with the rash of civilian-aircraft hijackings that closed out the turbulent 1960s and set the stage for the violence to come, but in 1948, with the Jewish state’s founding. The birth of Israel was accompanied by the rise of a particular radicalism in the region influenced by “Marxist ideology,” one of the earliest expressions of which was George Habash’s Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, founded in 1967.

Seth Mandel: The Problem With ‘Epstein Class’

Back in 2017, during the heady days of the Trump-Russia “collusion” accusations, the release of the Steele Dossier supercharged the story. A former British spy had been very clearly duped by the Russians into putting together a file of colorful and compromising tales about Trump. The main effect this had was to turn the American political discourse into a conspiracist circus.

And when that happens, it’s only a matter of time before the sleuthing public finds a way to make it about the Jews.

Sure enough, in April 2017 Politico ran one of the wackiest articles about Jews to appear in a mainstream publication in years. Under the headline “The Happy-Go-Lucky Jewish Group That Connects Trump and Putin,” the article intimated that Chabad-Lubavitch institutions were the link between Trump and Putin’s oligarchs. The piece never establishes this, of course, because it’s nonsense. But it conjured a false picture that many people, eager to get Trump on collusion, bought into.

It is an iron rule that conspiracy theories find their ways to Jews if left to fester in the public’s imagination. So while the dossier’s intent had nothing to do with Jews, the irresponsible collation of rumors inevitably ended up there.

So it is with the Jeffrey Epstein files. Led by the bipartisan duo of Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie, Congress forced open the files relating to the well-connected financier who was convicted of sex offenses. Epstein has been the subject of endless but groundless speculation by conspiracy theorists that he was working for Israel.

The Times of London provided a perfect example of the type of conspiracy mongering enabled by the mass release of the Epstein files. “Was Epstein a Mossad agent? New files deepen mystery over Israel links,” the headline promised. Several paragraphs into the story we get this: “An FBI report from the Los Angeles field office written in October 2020 said the bureau’s source had become ‘convinced that Epstein was a co-opted Mossad agent.’”

So now the reader has imbibed this rumor along with terms like “FBI report” and descriptions of certain messages as Department of Justice documents. Which they are—technically. But the “source” is a Holocaust denier and all-around disgraced kook—the report protects his identity, but it is not a secret. Still, the Times gets to play games by painting them as official documents coming from the feds.

Nicole Lampert: The pro-Gaza luvvies are engaged in their nastiest purity spiral yet

Towards the end of China’s Cultural Revolution, those who had dared to indulge in wrongthink were forced to wear signs around their necks detailing their alleged crimes and dragged into public stadiums. They were tortured and some of them were even the victims of ritualistic cannibalism.

Though not as extreme as the gruesomely violent aspects of the Cultural Revolution, some of the intolerance that characterised that movement can now be found in response to Israel. This week, 80 actors and directors, including Javier Bardem (a keffiyeh-clad poppinjay), Tilda Swinton, Brian Cox and Mike Leigh, denounced the Berlin Film Festival in Variety magazine because its organisers dared to say that not everyone has to express an opinion on Gaza.

They are furious that the Berlinale’s mild-mannered German jury president, Wim Wenders, voiced his belief that filmmakers should stay out of politics. “We have to do the work of people and not the work of politicians,” he said when asked repeatedly about Gaza. In 2026, this counts as bravery.

But the furore was immediate, with Indian novelist Arundhati Roy storming out of the festival, which was due to present a 1989 film she wrote. She described Wenders’ comments as “unconscionable”.

Then came the letter, which had the frankly breathtaking audacity to compare the Berlinale’s stance with that of Germany in the 1930s, because the previous year it had tried to stem the anti-Semitic impulses of too many righteously insane filmmakers who wanted to denounce the Israeli state for daring to defend itself.

What is more, the letter did not just have the usual lie that the war in Gaza is a “genocide”, but the kind of claim that only people who spend too much time in the land of make-believe could come up with – that Palestinians had been “evaporated” by the IDF.

These puffed-up self-righteous celebrities, who have forgotten we only want to see them crying on film and wearing nice clothes on the red carpet, are becoming dangerous with their anti-Zionist conspiracies.

While we may not be quite at cannibalism in this new attempted cultural revolution, in which everyone should bow down to the victimhood of the Palestinians, I fear we are getting ever closer.