Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

08/03 Links Pt2: Ceuta and the dangerous insanity of anti-Zionism; Simon & Schuster Gives Book Deal to Palestinian Writer Who Calls Jews ‘Demons’; Motherland Blues; Engineering Hate

2026-08-04T02:11:58.643-04:00

From Ian:

Brendan O'Neill: Ceuta and the dangerous insanity of anti-Zionism

From the left, the Palestinian-American writer Susan Abulhawa said the rushing of Ceuta was ‘completely engineered’ by Israel and its allies. Their dastardly aim? To ‘re-educate’ Spain and force it to ‘fall back in line with Western imperial objectives’. Rich-boy keffiyeh clown Hasan Piker echoed this drivel, titillating his Ivy League followers by saying Israel and America ‘got the Moroccan government to send, like, 40,000 people into Spanish administered territory’. It was ‘classic Israel’, he said: a ‘shameless’ effort to destabilise a critical nation.

That there is no proof whatsoever that someone in the Jewish State phoned up Morocco and said ‘Unleash the migrants’ matters not one jot to the Israel haters. Indeed, conspiracy theorists are positively allergic to facts. Badger them for proof that the Jews engineered the Ceuta crisis, or coolly explain to them how Building 7 fell on 9/11, and they’ll say you’ve been ‘got at’. Evidence itself is suspect in the loony bin of anti-West conspiracism. They just scream ‘Israel launched an Islamic invasion of Spain!’ – as Alex Jones did – and hope that the loudness of their claims will drown out the insanity of them.

In Spain itself, lefty influencer Ana Alcalde – also known as ‘Gaza Barbie’ after she sailed to Gaza on one of those dumb flotillas – said Ceuta was part of a ‘plan’ to ‘take down’ the government of Pedro Sánchez. Even a Spanish official – transport minister Óscar Puente Santiago – hinted that the long fingers of the Jewish State were wrapping round the neck of Spain. ‘Well, things are starting to get pretty clear’, he said in response to an Israeli official’s tweet about Spain’s ‘colonial enclaves’ in North Africa. His tweet was interpreted by many as support for ‘the growing conspiracy theory’ that Israel ‘helped orchestrate the large-scale migrant incursion’.

This Jew-blaming that spread through the digital highways faster than the Moroccan men barged into Ceuta captures how unhinged and lethal anti-Zionism has become. It confirmed that it is the undisputed heir to classical Jew hatred. Jews were once accused of inflicting plague, poison and social mayhem on Europe. Now the Jewish nation is accused of inflicting ‘swarms’ of migrants on Europe. These conspiracy theories might be separated by centuries, but they share two striking things in common. First, a glaring lack of proof, the wilful sacrifice of reasoned thought at the altar of a neo-religious conviction that despicable ‘foreign’ elements are masterminding our moral downfall. And secondly, the Jews. It’s them again. The Jewish people brought plague to Europe, now the Jewish nation is bringing ‘plagues’ of foreigners. Different millennium, same vile racism.

The Ceuta conspiracy theory also shines a light on the double bigotry of the woke ideology. In the woke universe, a demented animus for the world’s only Jewish state sits comfortably alongside a cloying, patrician pity for Muslims. The Jews are seen as the sinister authors of every earthly wrong, and Muslims as the hapless victims of those wrongs. So in the Ceuta theory, we see the Jewish nation re-imagined as demonically powerful and we see the wholesale stripping of Moroccan Muslims of any agency whatsoever. They become mere tools, instructed on how to act by the wily Jewish State. The neo-racialists of the credentialled classes see the world as being inhabited by devils and children, the former requiring their performative fury, the latter their aristocratic sympathy. Muslims are dehumanised too under the rule of the hyper-racialists.

Anti-Zionism has become the suffocating religion of the cultural establishment. Every social ill – from war to broken borders to the rise of the far right – is giddily traced back to Israel. Not only does this hang yet more target signs around the necks of Jews, it also obscures the truth about Europe’s social problems. It is our own governments’ suicidal abandonment of the ideal of national sovereignty that has caused the migrant crisis, not the hand-rubbing plotting of the Jews of the Holy Land. Like their forebears in the pitchfork Middle Ages, anti-Zionists prefer to live in a house of lies than to confront the truth of their world, and themselves.

Motherland Blues

Yet the Ukraine war was already eroding the logic behind that restraint. By the summer of 2022, after failing to achieve a rapid victory and expending large quantities of precision-guided weaponry, Moscow had turned to Tehran for attack drones. Russian officials visited an Iranian airfield twice to inspect weapons-capable systems; deliveries followed, and Iranian-designed Shaheds soon became a central component of Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure. Iran, one of the powers Russia had previously attempted to balance in Syria, was becoming an increasingly important supplier to the Russian war effort.

At roughly the same time, Moscow began withdrawing or repositioning some personnel and equipment from Syria to meet the demands of the Ukraine front. In August 2022, satellite imagery indicated that Russia had removed an S-300 air-defense battery from Syria and shipped it toward the Black Sea, apparently to reinforce defenses closer to the Ukrainian theater. Russia did not abandon its principal Syrian bases, but reports of withdrawals and repositioning suggested that Iran and Hezbollah were seeking to fill some of the resulting gaps. The contradiction was becoming difficult to ignore: Israel was preserving its accommodation with Moscow partly because Russia could restrain Iran in Syria, even as Russia’s battlefield failures made it more dependent on Iranian weapons and less capable of performing that restraining role.

The community most exposed by this ambiguity was not in Jerusalem. When the invasion began, Russia’s core Jewish community still numbered roughly 155,000 people, along with a much larger population estimated at around 600,000 eligible for Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return. Three days after the invasion, Boruch Gorin, a senior spokesman for Russia’s Chabad-affiliated Federation of Jewish Communities, wrote bluntly on Facebook, “Stop the war!” On March 2, Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar—nicknamed “Putin’s Rabbi,” given their close relationship—issued his own carefully worded appeal to “stop this madness to prevent future deaths.” Their statements were striking because Putin had spent two decades cultivating a tacit compact with Chabad: After 70 years in which the Soviet state had repressed religious life and sharply constrained Jewish practice, the Kremlin supported the rebuilding of Jewish institutions, while Chabad’s leaders generally avoided confronting the government.

By the summer of 2022, Moscow was pressuring the institutions connecting Russian Jews to Israel. Russia’s Justice Ministry asked a Moscow court to dissolve the Russian branch of the Jewish Agency, the organization responsible for facilitating aliyah. The case was formally framed around alleged violations of Russian privacy law, but it unfolded amid deteriorating relations with Israel and a growing exodus of Russian citizens. By July, nearly 20,000 immigrants had arrived in Israel from Russia since the invasion began, with similar numbers arriving from Ukraine. Then Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid initially warned that closing the agency would be “a grave event” with consequences for bilateral relations, then softened his language, emphasizing Israel’s readiness for dialogue while “maintaining the important relations between the countries.”

The same community Putin had long presented as evidence of his tolerance could now serve as leverage against Israel. In October, Alexei Pavlov, an assistant secretary of Russia’s Security Council, described Chabad as a supremacist cult in the state-owned newspaper Argumenty i Fakty. Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev subsequently apologized, saying the remarks were erroneous, and stressed that they did not represent the council’s official position. Even so, the episode alarmed Russian Jewish leaders: Former Moscow chief rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt urged Jews who were able to leave Russia to do so, while Boruch Gorin warned that official antisemitism would mean “the end of a Jewish presence in Russia.”

Putin’s own rhetoric was shifting as well. At the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in June 2023, he defended Russia’s absurd claim that it was fighting to “denazify” Ukraine by turning directly to Zelenskyy’s Jewish identity. “I have a lot of Jewish friends,” Putin said. “They say that Zelenskyy is not Jewish, that he is a disgrace to the Jewish people.” Putin, who had spent two decades presenting himself as a protector of Russian Jews and a guardian of Holocaust memory, was now claiming the authority to distinguish authentic Jews from shameful ones and conscripting Jewish suffering into the ideological justification for his war.

After Oct. 7, the deterioration became even harder to disguise. Moscow blamed the conflict’s eruption largely on the failure of American policy and intensified its criticism of Israel’s campaign in Gaza, while Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the bombardment violated international law and risked producing a catastrophe lasting decades. Less than three weeks after the massacre, Russia hosted a Hamas delegation led by senior official Moussa Abu Marzouk in Moscow, prompting an angry Israeli protest that the Kremlin was sending “a message legitimizing terrorism against Israelis.”

Days later, an antisemitic mob stormed the airport in Russia’s Makhachkala, Dagestan, searching for rumored Jewish and Israeli passengers arriving on a flight from Tel Aviv. Hundreds of men overran the terminal and runway, inspecting vehicles and demanding to see passengers’ documents. Putin condemned the violence only indirectly, blaming Ukrainian agents acting on behalf of Western intelligence services, without presenting evidence, rather than confronting the antisemitism animating the riot. The Kremlin did not organize the mob, and Russian authorities later prosecuted participants; by July 2025, Russian courts had sentenced 135 people in connection with the riot. But the episode exposed how quickly official anti-Western and anti-Israeli narratives could merge with older hatreds inside Russia itself.

By then, well over 40,000 Russian citizens eligible under the Law of Return had immigrated to Israel. Those who remained belonged to a community Moscow and Jerusalem had spent two decades treating as a strategic asset: evidence of Putin’s professed tolerance, and an electoral and demographic constituency in Israel.

However, the rupture did not happen. Israel preserved its access to Russia, while Moscow stopped short of severing relations with Jerusalem. But beneath that continuity, the arrangement was decaying. Russia was becoming more dependent on Iran, less capable of regulating Syria, more willing to pressure Jewish institutions, and increasingly prepared to align itself diplomatically and rhetorically against Israel. The relationship survived Ukraine and Oct. 7. The strategic logic that had sustained it did not.

Engineering Hate

REVIEW: 'Unsafe At MIT: A Chronicle of a Campus War on the Jews' by Yossi Sheffi

Yossi Sheffi is the author of this intensely disturbing book about the experience of American and Israeli Jews on campus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the aftermath of the October 7 massacre. Sheffi holds an endowed chair in engineering systems at MIT and is a member of the faculty in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, and the Operations Research Center. He is a leading expert in supply chain management and the author of nine books in his areas of professional expertise. He has been a member of the MIT faculty for almost 50 years.

Sheffi's 10th book is also the first of its kind. Sheffi commissioned an unnamed journalist to interview dozens of American and Israeli Jewish undergraduate and graduate students, postdocs, and faculty about their experience on campus following October 7. Based on those interviews, the text of the book consists largely of a chronological narrative of the 2023-24 school year recounting their experience.

As the introduction puts it, "This is the story of what it felt like to those whose lives and studies were turned upside down." Like Ken Kesey's fictional One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Unsafe at MIT takes us inside the asylum at MIT.

Sheffi's narrative demonstrates that the anti-Israel and antisemitic inmates ran the asylum. By contrast with One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest's Nurse Ratched, MIT president Sally Kornbluth proved herself to be a spineless weasel. Kornbluth's betrayal of the applicable rules governing student protest on campus is one of the book's most powerful motifs. Unlike her counterparts at Columbia and Harvard, Kornbluth nevertheless kept her job.

Sheffi himself is an Israeli immigrant to the United States. He was born in Mandatory Palestine. He emigrated to the United States from Jerusalem in 1975 to pursue his graduate studies at MIT. Many of the students and postdocs interviewed are Israelis with a background of service in the Israel Defense Forces. Sheffi does not make a point of it, but MIT appears to be unusual in this respect. The pain of these students permeates the book.

MIT is a magnet for those seeking the development of technical expertise that has made Israel a multidimensional powerhouse. October 7 hit these students hard. MIT provides a window onto the wave of hatred of Jews and the Jewish state that manifested itself on elite campuses following the massacre. It should be noted that the students whose experience forms the core of this story are mostly identified only by first names or pseudonymous first names.

Simon & Schuster Gives Book Deal to Palestinian Writer Who Calls Jews ‘Ghouls,’ ‘Cockroaches’ and ‘Demons’: Publisher Praises Her ‘Lyrical’ Books

A disgraced Palestinian author who has openly celebrated the murder of Jews and Christians has received a coveted book deal from Simon & Schuster, the prestigious New York City publishing house, the Washington Free Beacon can report.

Susan Abulhawa, who has attacked "Jewish Supremacist Vampires" and called Hamas's Oct. 7 massacre "a spectacular moment," has reached an agreement for Atria Books, a Simon & Schuster imprint, to republish two of her novels in September.

Jessica Laino, a spokeswoman for Simon & Schuster, sent a press release in July to the Free Beacon trumpeting the news and praising Abulhawa's "signature lyrical voice" and "nuanced characters."

Laino said Atria would rerelease Abulhawa's past novels Mornings in Jenin and The Blue Between Sky and Water on Sept. 29, 2026.

Atria is a prestigious imprint that has published bestselling authors such as Colleen Hoover, Brad Thor, Janet Evanovich, and Philippa Gregory.

Abulhawa first came to wide public attention months after the Free Beacon revealed that Rama Duwaji, the N-word-slinging, Oct. 7-celebrating wife of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, had provided illustrations for an essay published in the Abulhawa book Every Moment Is a Life.

The essay was published in February in Everything Is Political—an offshoot of self-described "environmental & social justice nonprofit organization" Slow Factory.

Abulhawa's record of posting explosive content denigrating Jews and celebrating violence was evident long before the Duwaji collaboration.

In one December 2025 post on X, Abulhawa wrote that Israelis are "rootless, soulless ghouls" and in September of that year called Israel a "cultureless, rootless human aberration in the form of a manufactured 'nation,'" adding that "we live in the time of jewish supremacist demons."

Also in September, Abulhawa described a pro-Israel commentator as a "lying Jewish supremacist cockroach" and bemoaned "Dual loyalty zionists."

Abulhawa described Israelis as "demonic parasite[s]" in a November post in which she said "Israel must be dismantled if humanity is going to have any chance at a moral future" and in another post said "we will have our revenge someday" against the "sons of satan."

The torrent of hate even led Mamdani—a long-documented opposer of Israel—to condemn his wife's erstwhile collaborator.

"I think that that rhetoric is patently unacceptable. I think it's reprehensible," Mamdani said of Abulhawa at a March 13 press conference, when asked about his wife's artistic collaboration with the writer (Mamdani claims Duwaji didn't know about the postings).

Abulhawa's hate-filled rants have continued even after Simon & Schuster announced the book deal. In a July 31 post on X Abulhawa declared the Holocaust had "lost its meaning" and that "the whole world is sick of hearing about it."

"These clowns invoke that genocide with every perceived slight," Abulhawa complained. "There is an extreme overrepresentation of Jews in every branch of government, media, and culture."

Susan Abulhawa has attacked “Jewish Supremacist Vampires” and called Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre “a spectacular moment.”

That does not appear to be an impediment for Atria Books, a Simon & Schuster imprint that reached an agreement with Abulhawa to republish two of her novels in… pic.twitter.com/5DrHdf8E5A
— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) August 3, 2026

She has also bemoaned “Dual loyalty zionists” and said, “Israel must be dismantled if humanity is going to have any chance at a moral future.” pic.twitter.com/5C0VJhrb26
— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) August 3, 2026

2/
Yeah, we're really not feeling the concern. pic.twitter.com/TDgtExV3AH
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 3, 2026

Tomorrow, the Royal Commission will examine the protest at the Sydney Opera House on October 9, 2023.

Interestingly, they chose not to call AJA for that block even though we could shed light on an important aspect.

It was AJA who first obtained and released the footage of the… pic.twitter.com/msDbSdnvPH
— Australian Jewish Association (@AustralianJA) August 3, 2026

They treat our tax money with such disrespect

"Creative Australia did not attempt to recoup a grant from controversial author Matt Chun, even though he has been under police investigation for his newsletter attacking victims of the Bondi mass shooting, it was revealed."

Do you… pic.twitter.com/QTrjKQvRVa
— Australian Jewish Association (@AustralianJA) August 3, 2026

That didn't take long.

The memorial has been vandalised.

Because this is the reality for Jews in this country. pic.twitter.com/bY85tNmRsL
— Australian Jewish Association (@AustralianJA) August 3, 2026

This week the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion is going to hear about protests & policing. So it's worth reminiscing on Palestinian protests in Australia since October 9th 2023. Nasser Mashni leads this one with his mission to "make Palestine palatable." pic.twitter.com/I1xuajbrVw
— Hava Mendelle (@havamendelle) August 3, 2026

Ben Shapiro: This INSANE Clip Shows The True THREAT Of Islam

Oxford Union holds a debate over whether Islam is a threat to the West… and advocates for Islam proceed to own themselves; the horseshoe Right, led by Tucker Carlson, prepares for a third party launch; and Sophie Cunningham is so hated by the WNBA that she’s called for fouls when someone elbows her in the face.

2/ Here he explains “Islamic Foreign Policy”, in which “the Zionists have to go”, by which he means “those people who have designs in the Muslim world and want to take resources and want to attack and kill Muslims and occupy Muslim land, as they have done in Israel and occupied… pic.twitter.com/uZK0XOlB92
— Jonathan Sacerdoti (@jonsac) August 3, 2026

4/ Perhaps most shocking for me is how Abdullah al-Andalusi, who debated against me in Oxford, explains the Islamic punishment of chopping off a thief’s hands. He says it has been portrayed as barbaric, but “people don’t understand the conditions” which he lays out. So for those… pic.twitter.com/x9urHzEp7y
— Jonathan Sacerdoti (@jonsac) August 3, 2026

6/ A 2015 report in The Independent says that “for almost two years” he was employed at Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, which has statutory responsibility for the inspection of the police forces of England and Wales. The report quotes an HMIC spokesman saying he “was…
— Jonathan Sacerdoti (@jonsac) August 3, 2026

Since Zohran Mamdani took office as Mayor of New York City, there has been a troubling rise in hate crimes targeting Jews across the city.

This is not just our opinion. The NYPD’s own statistics show a sharp increase in antisemitic hate crimes since January 2026.@NYCMayor… pic.twitter.com/CHug5HSqjj
— Danny Danon 🇮🇱 דני דנון (@dannydanon) August 3, 2026

Call me Back: Is Abdul El-Sayed Bigger Than Mamdani? - with Mark Halperin

Why could the upcoming Michigan Democratic Senate primary signal a seismic shift about the Democratic party and U.S. policy on Israel? As Michigan Democrats prepare to choose a nominee for the U.S. Senate, Dan Senor sits down with political journalist Mark Halperin to discuss why this race has become a flashpoint in the debate over Israel, progressive politics, and the future of the Democratic Party. They examine why progressives are demonizing Israel and AIPAC, the role of The New York Times and other media in shifting the debate, and why Abdul El‑Sayed’s campaign may have implications that extend to the 2028 presidential election.

In this episode:
1. Why the Michigan Senate primary matters more than ever
2. How Israel became the defining issue in this race
3. Surprising changes inside the Democratic coalition
4. How the New York Times and social media impacts the narrative
5. Who is Abdul El‑Sayed and what’s behind his success
6. Why El-Sayed could be more influential than Mayor Mamdani
7. Implications of an El-Sayed victory for 2028 Democratic politics

This Michigan Imam and big El-Sayed backer:

Pro-
✔️ Hamas
✔️ Hezbollah
✔️ Iran

This explains why they were both “sad” after we incinerated Khamenei. pic.twitter.com/RI8DIlHvcy
— U.S. Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) August 3, 2026

CAIR is working "in ways that you see and ways that you don't"

Abdul El-Sayed has deep ties to the Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) and has helped fundraise for them for years.

Is El-Sayed a Democrat, or merely running to advance CAIR’s agenda? pic.twitter.com/m1T8NyOj19
— Canary Mission (@canarymission) August 2, 2026

Extremist Michigan Imam Who Hosted El-Sayed Urges Followers To Turn Out To Vote and 'Deal the Zionist a Blow,' Frames Primary as Epic Fight Against 'Puppet' of Israel

Michigan imam Hassan Qazwini forcefully urged his congregants to turn out in force for Abdul El-Sayed on Tuesday, casting the Democratic Senate primary as an epic battle between a "clean" candidate and a "Zionist candidate" involved in a "plot being schemed by the pro-Israeli lobby."

Qazwini—the head of the Islamic Institute of America who has been accused by socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) of "spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories"—encouraged congregants in sermons on July 24 and July 31 to support El-Sayed over primary opponent Haley Stevens. His sermons are part of an 11th-hour push on behalf of El-Sayed that makes clear the imam views Israel as the central issue in the Senate race.

The support is mutual. El-Sayed headlined the grand opening of the Islamic Institute of America on June 6, offering "hearty congratulations" to Qazwini and praising his "incredible masjid," a 67,000-square-foot facility that features five golden domes.

In a July 24 sermon, Qazwini called Stevens, a pro-Israel moderate, a "puppet" of Israel and invoked tropes about Jewish influence and money, while framing a vote for El-Sayed as both a "moral responsibility" and a "religious duty."

"Israel cares about its own interest and the money, the cash the U.S. pays it, because Israel and the pro-Israeli lobby, all they see in America … is a cash cow," said Qazwini, whose father was appointed to Iran's judiciary by Iran's first supreme leader, Ayatollah Khomeini.

"Beware of the plot being schemed by the pro-Israeli lobby for you. They don't care about you, Michiganders. All they care about [is] their own interest," Qazwini went on. Qazwini, who formally endorsed El-Sayed last week, also urged worshippers to view their votes as a "huge and powerful weapon" to strike back at "Zionists."

Michigan Shiite Scholar Mohammed Qazwini: It Is Mandatory to Support Brother Abdul El-Sayed; Every Muslim Man and Woman Has an Obligation to Elect Him Because He Is a Muslim and Will Support Muslim Issues in This Country pic.twitter.com/dCwezhuu3V
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) August 3, 2026

Dearborn Heights Shiite Scholar Hassan Qazwini Ahead of Senate Primary Elections: Voting Is a Religious Duty – You Have a Powerful Weapon, Don't Fail to Use It; Israel and Its Lobby Treat America as a Cash Cow; Michiganders Should Beware of AIPAC's Plots Against Them pic.twitter.com/8sOoPAtpA8
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) August 3, 2026

AIPAC draws attention in Michigan Senate primary, but voters say it is not top issue

Working as a morning producer for Detroit’s Local 4 television station, Noelle Gray has had a front-row seat to the flood of political advertising in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary.

Amid the barrage, one thing stood out to her: how much money AIPAC was pouring into the race between US Rep. Haley Stevens, a pro-Israel moderate, and former county health official Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive and staunch Israel critic.

“It concerns me a little bit because it makes me a little leery of foreign interests being infiltrated into the state of Michigan,” said Gray, 27, who on Sunday stopped by her polling place in the Detroit suburb of Oak Park to vote early. “I want to support somebody who is for the state of Michigan. I love Michigan. Born and raised here my entire life, and it worries me on corporate and international interests. Are you really focused on Michiganders?”

Ultimately, Gray said, spending by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s affiliated super PAC did not drive her vote. She voted for El-Sayed because of her concerns about data centers and immigration enforcement under ICE.

“I would hope putting someone in the position of our Senate will represent our interests, keep us safe, but also protect the people who are here,” Gray said of her decision.

The lobby has become nearly impossible to miss in the race. AIPAC’s super PAC has spent over $30 million to support Stevens’ campaign, toppling its previous records in a bid to prevent one of its most vocal Democratic critics from reaching the Senate.

El-Sayed, who is currently leading Stevens by as much as 16 points in recent polling, has made opposition to the group a defining feature of his campaign, inveighing against AIPAC in the debates ahead of Tuesday’s primary and in his attack ads against Stevens. “AIPAC is perfectly fine with either Congresswoman Stevens or Mike Rogers,” El-Sayed wrote in a post on X earlier this month, referring to the Republican Senate nominee. “If either of them win, Israel wins.”

Polling in Michigan suggests widespread opposition to AIPAC among Democratic voters. A survey conducted earlier this month of 500 likely Michigan Democratic primary voters on behalf of Detroit News/WDIV-TV found that 49% have an unfavorable opinion of AIPAC, while 12% view AIPAC favorably, and 39% were neutral. An April poll conducted by Data for Progress for Zeteo and Drop Site News, both of which frequently criticize Israel, found that 64% of likely Democratic primary voters said they are less likely to support a Senate candidate who receives AIPAC donations.

Josh Pasek, a professor of communication and media and political science at the University of Michigan, said that he did not think the “bulk of voters” in the state were voting primarily based on issues concerning Israel and AIPAC.

“I think most people care a whole lot more about substantive issues,” Pasek said. He added, however, that the issue was particularly important for Jewish and Muslim voters, the populations of which he said were “sizeable” in the state. Michigan is home to more than 240,000 Muslims and roughly 129,000 Jews.

These "comedians" had a bake sale for AIPAC to show their support for Abdul El-Sayed.

This was after they went viral for harassing workers at a UPS store.

The most ridiculous part isn't that Michiganders genuinely just bought cupcakes from them to support their stated cause.… pic.twitter.com/jVGCPCI6xV
— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) August 3, 2026

Melat Kiros backtracks from conciliatory tone on Israel, antisemitism after far-left backlash

Far-left Colorado congressional candidate Melat Kiros backtracked on Sunday from her conciliatory tone in a PBS interview on the need for progressives to formulate a policy on Israel that does not engage in antisemitism.

Appearing on “Firing Line with Margaret Hoover” on Saturday morning, Kiros, who ousted incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) in a Denver-area district in June, said her “greatest concern right now is that the State of Israel is losing support all across the political spectrum” and that progressives are “leaving a vacuum” for far-right commentators like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens to fill by “pretending to care about Palestinian safety when really it’s just masking their overt hatred for Jewish people.”

“If we are not presenting our vision of what we believe in with our democratic values — that extends not to the Palestinian people but to the Israeli people and the Jewish people — you know, that land has a distinctly Jewish character, a distinctly Christian character, a distinctly Muslim character,” she said. “We, I think, are doing a disservice to the people of that region by not offering our progressive vision in a way that isn’t immediately swatted down as, you know, bigoted or antisemitism.”

Kiros’ comments marked a short-lived departure from her stances on the campaign trail, where she had been vocally critical of Israel and was criticized for refusing to deem the 2025 firebombing attack on a march raising awareness for Israeli hostages in Boulder as antisemitic. Her candidacy came after she was fired from the law firm Sidley Austin in 2023 for writing a public letter denouncing the hundreds of law firms that signed a petition calling on law schools to do a better job addressing antisemitism on their campuses, a letter she said wrongly conflated criticism of Israel with antisemitism.

The 29-year-old doctoral student, who was backed by the Democratic Socialists of America in her campaign, quickly reversed course after the interview aired. Responding on Sunday to criticism on X from Al Jazeera producer Sana Saeed, Kiros said she “fumbled this line, plain and simple.”

“To be clear, my foreign policy priority is ending Israel’s occupation, apartheid, and genocide in Palestine. I also reject the notion that anti-Zionism is antisemitism, and it’s important that we distinguish the two in order to combat actual antisemitism,” she continued.

Remember when Mamdani refused to attend the Israel Day Parade because of his "views on the Israeli government."

Well today, Zohran attended the Ecuadorian parade in NYC.

So let’s take a quick look at Ecuador’s human rights record.

To start, Ecuador’s own Truth Commission… pic.twitter.com/1jiegUZ2qt
— Yehuda Teitelbaum (@chalavyishmael) August 3, 2026

She also tagged AIPAC Tracker in a campaign post.

That account has called evidence of Hamas sexual violence “rape propaganda."

One of its founders has described herself as a Marxist and lives in Germany while working to influence American politics. pic.twitter.com/1C4aXv31Nt
— Yehuda Teitelbaum (@chalavyishmael) August 3, 2026

Mirah Wood, co-chair of DSA’s Middle East and Africa subcommittee, describes Hamas terrorists as loving and tender men who hand flowers to children.

Her own tenderness consists of telling Jews they come from “the most inbred population on earth.”

Her account is now private. https://t.co/8YRhTSCIbW pic.twitter.com/68s99RNnhZ
— Yehuda Teitelbaum (@chalavyishmael) August 3, 2026

Congressional candidate Oliver Larkin is "over the moon" to be endorsed by DSA. Here he is rubbing shoulders with DSA leader Cliff Connolly, a man who glorifies Hamas, openly defends the October 7 massacre, and thinks the U.S. is the world's "Great Satan."

Larkin, are these the… pic.twitter.com/k5lxEQMFoH
— Canary Mission (@canarymission) August 3, 2026

Tucker Carlson and guest Darryl Cooper claim that backlash against Islam is a recent op pushed by Jews (such as @LauraLoomer): "One of the grossest things that has come out, in just the last couple of years, really since Gaza."

This is a claim Carlson has been pushing for quite… pic.twitter.com/mDhkmppPPc
— Nathan Livingstone (MilkBarTV) (@TheMilkBarTV) August 4, 2026

Palestinist @_ZachFoster argues it can't be that Palestinists burned down the montreal restaurant because they would prefer to do it while Jews are inside.

Palestinists don't even get how poisonously-depraved they are. https://t.co/OOKvw5a5aa
— Yossi Gestetner (@YossiGestetner) August 3, 2026

NYPost Editorial: No blame-Israel conspiracy theory is too dumb for Hasan Piker & Co.

Proving again that there’s nothing — nothing! — they can’t blame on the Jews, lefties are claiming the bum-rush of 50,000 people across the Morocco/Spanish border was an Israeli plot.

Top DSA influencer and 9/11 enthusiast Hasan Piker, between campaign stops for socialist insurgents in Democratic primaries, told his Twitch audience: “Israel and America got the Moroccan government to send like 40,000 people into Spanish administered territory.”

Why and how did Israel manage that, Hasan? “I dunno, man,” he explained with his usual insight. “It’s not my damn fault.”

But it’s not just the puerile podcaster pushing this poppycock: Kenneth Roth, the longtime head of Human Rights Watch, thinks he knows Israel’s motive for supposedly tricking 50,000 Moroccans into climbing barbed-wire fences to invade Ceuta.

Spain, Roth explains, “controls both sides” of the Strait of Gibraltar and could “potentially block Israeli access to the Atlantic,” just as Iran blocked the Strait of Hormuz — so it makes sense that Jerusalem wants its nominal ally Morocco in charge of Gibraltar-adjacent Ceuta.

Yet Spain doesn’t “control both sides” of that strait; Britain owns Gibraltar.

And Tehran “closed” the Strait of Hormuz as a Hail Mary response to intense US-Israeli bombing; the idea that Madrid would risk the world’s wrath by closing an international waterway out of pique over Gaza is laughable.

Other marble-minded antisemites, including Young Turks host Ana Kasparian and actor Javier Bardem, also pushed the conspiracy theory.

Of course, this follows recent claims that the Jewish state was behind everything from Charlie Kirk’s assassination to Egypt’s loss in the World Cup Round of 16 to the implosion of Graham Platner’s candidacy in Maine.

Spain’s migration crisis in Ceuta became the latest excuse to blame Israel.

What was presented as geopolitical analysis relied on the antisemitic “hidden hand” trope, and was broadcast in different languages and across the political spectrum.#Spain #Ceuta #Israel pic.twitter.com/7h9qp3dti5
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 3, 2026

1/7
Why did tens of thousands of Moroccans suddenly cross into Ceuta?

Why were pro-Israel voices discussing Spain’s African enclaves – and was Spain being “punished”?

Was Israel behind it?

Here's the real story. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/sNhsDEDBlO
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 3, 2026

3/7
Spain’s double standard becomes even clearer when you understand Ceuta’s unusual status.

Ceuta and Melilla are Spanish-controlled cities on the North African mainland. Morocco claims both, while Spain insists they are integral parts of its territory.

They are also the…
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 3, 2026

5/7
Spain eventually backed down.

In 2022, after months of pressure from Rabat, Madrid abruptly endorsed Morocco’s Western Sahara autonomy proposal as the “most serious, credible and realistic” basis for resolving the dispute.

Spain stopped short of formally recognizing…
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 3, 2026

7/7
What evidence shows Israel organized, financed or coordinated the Ceuta crossing?

None.

The crisis grew out of Spain’s own border and migration policies: a Supreme Court ruling, trafficking networks and Madrid’s dependence on Morocco to enforce the border.

Spain helped…
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 3, 2026

What is going on? Algeria isn't exactly friends with Morocco. It's "hard to believe" that Islamic countries that hate each other would ever collude to invade the West!

Not to mention, we were told none of the "minors" who "entered" Ceuta would ever reach Europe, and that "most… https://t.co/u82yl64MCd
— Leslie Kajomovitz (@kikas6652) August 3, 2026

The March (1990 film)

The March is a 1990 British drama film directed by David Wheatley that was originally aired by BBC1 for "One World Week". The plot concerns a charismatic Muslim leader from Sudan who leads 250,000 Africans on a 3,000-mile march towards Europe with the slogan "We are poor because you are rich."[2]

The owner of the Palestinian cafe Shakeshuka in London spread the lie that “dark forces” of Israel and US were behind the Ceuta crisis. Pedro Sanchez said it was human traffickers exploiting a legal ruling in Spain. These conspiracies create hate against Jews. pic.twitter.com/LUA4ZKEZEJ
— Heidi Bachram (@HeidiBachram) August 3, 2026

Here’s him hugging Holocaust denier Sarah Wilkinson and that’s not the only horrible person he’s embraced. Shakeshuka is a den of hate. https://t.co/Nwqu3e7UiY
— Heidi Bachram (@HeidiBachram) August 3, 2026

Post any outrageous lie (the more egregious, the better) about Israel and what it did or does. Sprinkle some gore details you invented right in your head to attract more attention, and here you go - online antisemitic mob will bring you thousands of likes for your monetization https://t.co/jC7oOHdPLh pic.twitter.com/vbUUpy3BVi
— Michael Elgort (@just_whatever) August 3, 2026

No discernible shift among progressive LGBT activists, groups on Islamist threat after Berlin attack, experts say

In June, participants at a Pride event in San Francisco told Scott Wiener, a Jewish California Democratic state senator, that he has “been terrible on Gaza” and that he “stopped being queer the moment you started supporting Israel.” They did so even though the politician, who is gay, has accused Israel of committing “genocide.”

Weeks later, an Islamist attacker killed a woman and injured 29 people at a Berlin Pride event. Officials have identified the attacker as Abdul Ballout, a German citizen of Lebanese descent who officials say tried to join ISIS and published terror propaganda on social media. Police shot and killed Ballout.

Experts told JNS there doesn’t seem to be a shift since the attack in the ways that progressive LGBT activists and groups view the threat of Islamism.

“Maybe individuals, but publicly not at all,” Deborah Lipstadt, a former U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat Jew-hatred and current Dorot professor of modern Jewish history and Holocaust studies at Emory University, told JNS.

“There’s long been what scholars call and analysts call a ‘red-green alliance,’ an alliance between the Muslim world (green) and the far-left (red) world,” she said.

“They agree on nothing,” she told JNS. “Think about it. Feminism, type of government, economy. But the one thing on which they march in lockstep is Jew-hatred” and “hostility and opposition to Israel as a Jewish state.”

“It’s an absurd coalition but a very dangerous one,” she said. “It reeks with self-righteousness and a sense of shared victimhood.”

JNS asked Lipstadt what it would take for there to be a shift. She said that she thinks back to how both “Islamist jihadists” and the “Iranian liberal left” welcomed Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s return to Iran in 1979.

“They were sure that with the arrival of the ayatollah, in fact he promised them as such, there would be freedom and liberty the way there wasn’t under the shah,” she told JNS. “Look who they’re murdering on the streets now. Look who they’re hanging.”

“At the very, very most generous, I would say the naivete of the LGBTQ community is astounding,” Lipstadt said.

Exclusive: British antisemitic influencer who blamed Israel for Berlin Pride attack exposed as convicted attempted robber

A British antisemitic influencer with over half a million followers was convicted of attempted robbery and sentenced to nearly two years behind bars, the JC can reveal.

The JC has identified Josh Kent-Smith, 28, from Basildon, Essex, as the man behind The Saviour account.

Operating under his online pseudonym, Kent-Smith has travelled to strictly-Orthodox neighbourhoods to question visibly Jewish people about Israel and Jeffrey Epstein, and has claimed Israel was behind acts of Islamist terrorism, including last week's car-ramming attack at Berlin Pride.

But, in 2019, before becoming an online content creator, he pleaded guilty to an attempted robbery and was sentenced to one year and nine months in prison.

In a post from 2024, Kent-Smith stated that, around the time he got out of prison, he began learning “the truth about what’s going on in this world”.

“I realised my enemy was not on my doorstep, but my enemy was the global Zionist elites that tax us into oblivion and start endless wars and commit genocides on the world stage.”

Using the Saviour alias, he began to gain significant traction online following the October 7 terror attack, with most of his content focusing on the Gaza War and featuring him expressing his fervently anti-Israel views and promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories.

In recent months, he has taken to visiting Stamford Hill and Golders Green to ask visibly Jewish people their thoughts on “Israel, Palestine… and the Epstein regime”. In one video, he purchased and wore a kippah in an attempt to go “undercover as a Jew”. Those who expressed anti-Zionist views were described by him as “good Jews”.

He has also appeared to justify the October 7 atrocities on multiple occasions.

On October 8, 2023 – the day after the massacre – Kent-Smith referred to its perpetrators as “the resistance”, said those killed were “settlers”, and the day itself marked “a significant milestone in Palestinian resistance history”. He has also later claimed that “half the people that died on October 7 were actually killed by [Israel]” through what is known as the “Hannibal directive”.

Rancid antizionist ‘The Saviour’ went into Golders Green for the THIRD TIME to harass Jews and got chased out. He found boys saying “Am Yisrael Chai” intimidating. Poor Saviour. pic.twitter.com/zG51qAjNKS
— Heidi Bachram (@HeidiBachram) August 2, 2026

2/ "one life-saving action at a time." pic.twitter.com/q5UswZBjxF
— Subversive Force (@SubversiveForce) August 3, 2026

4/ Fellow Barclays 5 convicted criminal Mohammed Malik had some more fun with The Met last week. https://t.co/OWSXA7uMz2
— Subversive Force (@SubversiveForce) August 3, 2026

I’ve had enough of your hypocrisy and ignorance, @gretathunberg.

Why are you obsessed with Europe’s colonial past and slavery but not Arabs’ colonial present and modern day slavery?

Who are you to speak of “consequences” when your politics have completely destroyed Sweden? pic.twitter.com/xzM1qFpGPS
— Luai Ahmed (@JustLuai) August 2, 2026

I find it bizarre that Hamas attack a music festival and slaughter loads of young people who are just there to have a good time, and other music festivals are like, "Omg wow, Hamas, 😍 how wonderful, we love you." https://t.co/HViqyTpPYL
— Leo Kearse - see me on tour! Links in bio (@LeoKearse) August 3, 2026

Very selective picking of quotes from Bernadette McAlliskey. Further, the assertion that Kneecap treat this subject with ‘seriousness’ is simply outrageous. It is a grotesque insult to our intelligence. https://t.co/TDKCb29Zzs pic.twitter.com/brWuQQx4F4
— Rachel Moiselle (@RachelMoiselle) August 3, 2026

Apparently “Zionists” control the British police.

These people inhabit a fantasy world that used to be the preserve of the far-right pic.twitter.com/tRKrF8QfZw
— Alex Hearn (@hearnimator) August 3, 2026

‘Sexy terrorist’ flotilla woman has had her encampment taken down in Barcelona already. She’s upset because her Netanyahu dartboard was in danger of being confiscated. Such pointless drama. pic.twitter.com/Hp8CF4oQaw
— Heidi Bachram (@HeidiBachram) August 3, 2026

Pro-Pal in Japan follows a “Zionist” Dad with his young son around the streets who are just trying to walk away from him. He tells them to say Free Palestine and even chases them into a shop. These ppl are UNHINGED. pic.twitter.com/XtlTT2vIu2
— Heidi Bachram (@HeidiBachram) August 3, 2026

The first ever Arab festival in the UK happened in London at the weekend and they played this shoe throwing game at the faces of people. Netanyahu was of course the primary target. Not a great advert for culture. pic.twitter.com/kTKxMNibxc
— Heidi Bachram (@HeidiBachram) August 3, 2026

Nashville Bookstore Cancels Book Launch of Jewish Author Behind ‘White. Blonde. Jew’ After Anti-Zionist Social Media Campaign

A newly opened independent bookstore in Nashville, Tennessee, has cancelled a book launch event with “White. Blonde. Jew” author, photographer and activist Alyssa Rosenheck scheduled for later this month after facing backlash on social media from anti-Zionist activists.

“As a proud Jewish author who values free speech and who strongly believes in the power of words to change hearts and minds – and as someone who has always supported independent booksellers – I’m saddened and deeply disappointed at the state of affairs that led to my cancellation,” the Nashville-based author, who is a founding member of Artists Against Antisemitism, said in a social media post. “This entire episode raises important questions about whether our society truly values the First Amendment, freedom of speech, and the ability of authors to express controversial or unpopular views without being cancelled for them.”

“White. Blonde. Jew” is a call to reject extremism and defend intellectual freedom, while exploring topics such as antisemitism and efforts to combat it through truth, historical context, and moral clarity. The book highlights Rosenheck’s trips to Israel and the Gaza region following the deadly Hamas-led terrorist attack on Oct. 7, 2023, and her meetings with politicians, combat heroes, former hostages and families impacted by the war.

“White. Blonde. Jew” is scheduled to be released on Aug. 18 and Bell Bird Books, located in the Wedgewood Village neighborhood, was set to host Rosenheck on Aug. 20 for a book launch event. However, shortly after being announced, the event received social media backlash by critics who accused the bookstore and Rosenheck of promoting Zionism and called on the establishment to boycott the Jewish author and Israel advocate.

Rosenheck said in an Instagram post on Friday that Bell Bird Books told her days earlier it felt it could no longer promote her or her upcoming Nashville book launch. The bookstore then cancelled her book launch at the establishment, removed the event announcement from its Instagram page and deleted all publicity about the book launch, without issuing a statement about the cancellation and why, according to Rosenheck. The author explained that being “proudly Jewish,” and condemning antisemitism and extremism, “shouldn’t be controversial – they should be openly and freely discussed.”

“When bookstores cancel authors under pressure from activists, they are silencing speech and making a mockery of the First Amendment. Worse, they are rejecting the American tradition of giving writers the freedom to discuss and defend their opinions in the public square,” she added. “Jewish authors should have the freedom to participate in the marketplace of ideas without organized pressure campaigns seeking to silence us, and institutions and businesses should have the courage to stand up to public pressure. No business that pretends to give a voice to all points of view should kowtow to the bigots who would silence an author because of her religion or her strongly held beliefs.”

Rosenheck concluded by saying that a new venue in Nashville for her book launch, and potentially a new date, will be announced soon. All ticket holders for the original event at Bell Bird Books will be refunded. “I look forward to gathering with those who lead with curiosity and who believe ideas should be met with discussion,” she said. “I remain committed to this conversation, and it is far from over.”

A Statement Regarding the Cancellation of My Nashville Book Launch: On Sunday, July 26, Bell Bird Books communicated it no longer felt it could continue promoting either me or my upcoming Nashville book launch for White. Blonde. Jew.

Two days later on July 28th, the bookstore… pic.twitter.com/QitfVmhSIK
— Alyssa Rosenheck (@AlyssaRosenheck) July 31, 2026

I would like the opportunity to address the "security concerns" Bell Bird Books has cited after capitulating to an online pressure campaign and canceling my book launch, because the security excuse does not align with what actually occurred.

On July 23, I personally retained a… pic.twitter.com/bJNrnzChtU
— Alyssa Rosenheck (@AlyssaRosenheck) August 3, 2026

This is crazy.
Apparently question marks are signs of white colonial Jewish colonialism.
Or something? https://t.co/rGG2QP6azE
— Nicole Lampert (@nicolelampert) August 3, 2026

President Paxson, Who Made Brown an Ivy Bright Spot, Says She Will Leave

Christina Paxson, who led Brown University to new strengths while many of her Ivy League peers were forced to resign under pressure, announced she is stepping down voluntarily at the end of this academic year.

When Paxson took over as president of Brown University in July 2012, the campus had a reputation for left-leaning activism. It still does. Yet while Vanderbilt’s Daniel Diermeier, Yeshiva University’s Ari Berman, and even Dartmouth’s Sian Beilock have grabbed more headlines for challenging campus conformism, Paxson has in a more understated way accumulated her own reputation among sophisticated observers for having steered Brown in the direction of intellectual rigor, open inquiry, and civil discourse. She was doing this years before the backlash to the post-October 7, 2023, pro-Hamas paroxysms on college campus that exposed the rot and added urgency to the drive for viewpoint diversity.

Among her accomplishments:
— She brought Air Force and Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps programs back to Brown in 2016 through partnerships with Holy Cross and the Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
— She managed to win faculty support in 2022 for establishing a Center for Philosophy, Politics and Economics, overcoming initial opposition from faculty concerned about funding from Charles Koch and the center’s libertarian tilt.
— She was an ally and participant in efforts to build a thriving Jewish community at Brown. In 2017, she spoke at an event marking the expansion of the Providence eruv, a legal boundary that allows Orthodox Jews to carry objects or to push strollers—actions otherwise prohibited—on shabbat. In November 2022, she announced kosher dining coming to Brown’s largest dining hall. During her presidency, the Jewish undergraduate population at Brown has soared, in marked contrast to other Ivy League institutions, where it has dwindled.

Children filmed chanting, ‘We will crush Zionism’ at Peak District summer school

A youth group has posted footage on social media showing scenes from its summer school, where over 100 young attendees were filmed chanting in Arabic: “We will crush Zionism” and “Young people, rise up, our revolution is an Arab revolution.”

The four-day event was held by the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) at the YHA Edale Activity Centre in the Peak District.

Instagram footage shows a woman leading a group of mainly young girls, along with several boys, in the inflammatory chants.

In a separate Instagram post, PYM Britain shared photos from an event in North Kensington, West London — a community football tournament for children, with participation from local schools and community groups.

A photograph from the tournament shows five children from behind, and notably, two are wearing shirts numbered 7 and 10 — a clear reference to the October 7, 2023.

Another photo from the event shows a male organiser presenting medals while wearing a shirt emblazoned with the number 40 and the slogan “The future is decolonial.”

Photos and videos from both the summer school and the recent football tournament in London have raised concerns that young people in Britain are being indoctrinated into hardline anti-Zionist positions.

There are also fears that youth are being encouraged to celebrate terrorist ideology under the guise of supporting the Palestinian cause.

Rachel Dawson was terminated from her DEI position at the U of Michigan after making antisemitic remarks.

She sued for discrimination.
And lost. https://t.co/vD5yxTVLRU pic.twitter.com/kzwvM1kvYz
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) August 3, 2026

Connecticut - Stephanie Lockhart is named in a lawsuit alleging antisemitism, left her position as principal at a top 10 district, and started a new one paying upwards of $175k annually in the inner city. https://t.co/rKfSJw04OL pic.twitter.com/jgVwsdROY5
— WATCH StopAntisemitism (@WATCH_K12) August 4, 2026

Meet Sophie Stringer. Sophie was caught posting on X a GIF of a child being harmed after he says his favorite country is Israel.

Sophie needs to be kept away from children.

According to LinkedIn, Sophie also manages social media for Rhizome Comedy. https://t.co/66N2E83wxH pic.twitter.com/ZZf0SptYj2
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) August 4, 2026

The official French 🇫🇷 public transportation app has made it impossible for Israeli phone numbers to register.

Read that again. A public transportation rider with an Israeli phone number can't use France's public transportation app, while visitors from every other country can.… pic.twitter.com/xMBTQOApSr
— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) August 3, 2026

Palestinianism has a miraculous power of turning wine into water. pic.twitter.com/cgl4FaIEOi
— Joo (@JoosyJew) August 3, 2026

Jake Wallis Simons: The BBC has finally upheld a complaint – astonishingly, it’s for alleged pro-Israel bias

So the BBC has upheld a complaint! That’s the good news. The bad news, however, is that it declared that it had been wrong to interview a former chair of Labour Friends of Israel without informing audiences of his links to the country.

In other words, our national broadcaster seems to suspect itself of being in league with a plot to hide a pro-Israel bias from audiences. When you are pointing the finger at yourself as part of an Israelophobic conspiracy theory, that takes the insanity to a whole new level.

The case involves Lord Walney, a former Labour MP who became a crossbench peer in 2020. He appeared on the BBC to discuss Palestine Action in his capacity as the government’s former independent adviser on political violence and disruption.

His expertise on the matter is extensive. His excellent “Protecting our Democracy from Coercion” report, produced for the Conservative government, made a number of powerful recommendations about combating violent protest and disruption, from Just Stop Oil to the Gaza marches. (The new Labour government put it in the bin.)

When I interviewed him on my podcast, The Brink, the peer described how a sensible solution for repressing Palestine Action was contained in his mothballed report

“One of my recommendations,” he said, “was that we could have a new bar for, effectively, for prescription below the terrorist threshold. This is a criminal protest organisation… You wouldn’t call them terrorists. You wouldn’t have an up to 12-year criminal penalty.

“You’d hopefully avoid some of this debate, and with Palestine action, you could have stopped them on that five-year journey before they reached the process where they were finally proscribed.”

The genius of this new category, which would ban the group without equating it with Islamic State, was so obvious that it was quite astonishing that it was disregarded by the Government in favour of the cack-handed approach we have seen.

Why on Earth did the government ignore Lord Walney’s eminently sensible recommendations? According to a report in the Times last October, the government reviewed his role as “anti-extremism” tsar “months after he warned that far-left groups were trying to undermine UK laws”.

In other words, his hugely illuminating report, the result of years of hard work – which covered all types of extremism, not just the hard-Left – was dismissed by the Labour government because he had fallen out of favour with the Left.

Which brings us back to the BBC. As the JC reported last year, during the Gaza war, Auntie’s internal complaints unit rejected every appeal against the BBC Arabic service submitted by US-based pro-Israel media watchdog, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (Camera), which lodged more than 100 complaints.

By contrast, when it comes to Lord Walney’s supposed connections to Israel – which, on the face of it, look eminently innocent and reasonable (what on Earth is wrong with Labour Friends of Israel?) – the broadcaster throws up its hands and blames itself for being part of the Zionist lobby, or something.

On a positive note, I suppose it shows that the BBC does have some capacity for admitting wrongdoing. The only problem is that it has quite the logjam of failures to address, and top of the list should be its bias against all things Israel. One day, perhaps. One day.

A Week of Jeremy Bowen: Analysis or Opinion?

Jeremy Bowen is the BBC International Editor. He’s an extremely well-respected journalist with an immense amount of experience, having covered conflict, mainly in the Middle East, for most of his long and impressive career. His position, and his status as a household name among those who routinely turn to the BBC for news, mean that his voice carries exceptional weight.

The flagship BBC news programmes turn to Bowen for his analysis of developments in the Middle East, to demystify and explain events in a complex region that most audiences have little background on. When Bowen speaks, millions of people listen. That makes him a load bearing beam in the BBC architecture of impartiality and accuracy. Unfortunately for the licence fee payer, that beam might have some cracks.

Looking at three appearances across BBC TV and radio between July 17 and July 25, we can examine how Bowen blurs the lines between analysis and opinion within his own ideological framework, and how that clashes with the necessary constraints on BBC reporting, as opposed to a newspaper column or op-ed.

We all exist within our own cultural bubble. Our interpretations of events are filtered through our own pre-existing beliefs and outlook. As Bowen himself argued in 2006:
“We all come from somewhere; we all have a prism through which we see the world; we all have an education, and views and experiences. It’s a false objective to be objective.”

Unfortunately, at the BBC, objectivity is in the job description, and this requires an awareness of one’s own biases and cultural backdrop. This week, despite making this very point himself twenty years ago, Bowen inadvertently showed us the cultural sphere in which his opinions ferment. On Radio 4’s Today program on July 17 Bowen used as a source what he called an:
extensive and impressive piece of reporting in the Guardian

The reporting in question is actually more of an opinion piece, full of speculation and possibilities, some of which have already been proved wrong in the two weeks since it was published, and the paper itself holds a well-established anti-Israel position. The Guardian may be loved and respected among the British liberal middle class, but it could hardly be accused of impartiality. In a second telling slip, on July 25 as evidence for the claim that the Israeli Government is trying to seize more territory in the West Bank, Bowen referred to Haaretz as:
“the leading Israeli newspaper”

Haaretz is a niche left-wing outlet which by their own figures only has 6.1% readership share. It seems likely that even they would be surprised to hear themselves described as “the leading Israeli newspaper”.

Bowen’s choices of source and how he elevates them with language like “impressive” and “leading” show us far more about where his own biases lie than they do about the conflict. When we use an appeal to authority we show who we believe holds authority. For Bowen, that is deeply and openly partisan newspapers. This shows us that he is failing to separate his own world view and politics from his reporting, despite his own words:
“You have got to be aware of what your own prejudices and principles are and put them to one side in a box.”

One key area of that worldview appears to be related to Palestinian agency, or the lack thereof. Bowen’s reporting does not seem to be able to grasp the concept of Palestinians as adults with agency and responsibility over their actions and decisions.

Reminder: On 10/7, Palestinians sought out and murdered the Israelis, who spent decades driving Gazans to Israeli hospitals for treatment. https://t.co/JqYawCBcPd
— Solly & Yossi (@Ok_Solly) August 3, 2026

Lebanon arrests former Palestinian envoy to face PA graft charges

Lebanese authorities arrested the former Palestinian ambassador to Beirut on Monday ahead of his extradition to face corruption charges back home, a Lebanese judicial official told AFP.

Lebanon’s public prosecutor “issued an arrest warrant for former Palestinian ambassador Ashraf Dabbour on Monday after questioning him,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

The official added that the judiciary “transferred the file to the government to inform the Palestinian Authority that Dabbour is detained in Lebanon, and requested that his judicial file be sent to Lebanon… in preparation for handing him over” to the PA.

Dabbour, ambassador to Beirut from 2012 to 2025, was previously arrested upon arriving at the country’s airport in April at the request of the PA, over charges of corruption and embezzlement of funds during his tenure in Lebanon.

He was then placed under a travel ban.

In a video posted on his Facebook page in May, Dabbour denied the accusations, saying they aimed to tarnish his reputation.

In an April Facebook post, Dabbour accused Yasser Abbas, the son of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, of “exploiting his control over the security services and his influence within the authority to use them to settle his personal scores… by pursuing me with arrest warrants from one place to another.”

The Palestinian Authority has vowed to undergo a series of radical reforms after US President Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace outline laid out a plan under which the PA would take control of the Strip after undergoing an unspecified “reform program.”

Within the pockets of the West Bank that it administers, the PA is notorious for corruption. Critics say the system lined the pockets of elites with tax proceeds and international aid, while funneling much of what was left to a massive security apparatus trained to crack down on dissent at the behest of its patrons.

Jews targeted in 70% of all NYC hate crimes in July — NYPD

Jews were targeted in 70% of all hate crimes in New York City in July, as the number of hate crimes against Jews and other groups continued to increase since New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani took office at the start of the year.

Since January 1, 2026, when Mamdani took office, overall hate crimes are up 9.4% compared to the same period last year — from 329 last year to 360 this year.

Confirmed anti-Jewish hate crimes have increased 8.5% this year, with 205 so far this year compared to 189 over the same period last year.

Jews were targeted in 57% of all hate crimes in the city so far this year, the NYPD says. Jews make up around 10% of the city’s population.

Hate crimes against Asians, Black people, and White people are down this year, while incidents against Hispanic people, Muslims, and crimes motivated by sexual orientation and gender have increased.

Last month, Jews were targeted in 23 confirmed hate crimes, or 70% of the total of 33 incidents in the city, a higher proportion than usual. The figure is 53% higher than in July 2025.

“The work to uproot antisemitism out of this city is one that will continue until we see hate crimes come to an end in the city,” Mamdani says at a press conference.

“I remain deeply concerned and very troubled by the unacceptable spike in all hate crimes, particularly driven by those targeting Jewish New Yorkers,” City Council Speaker Julie Menin says in a statement.

SCOOP: Washington state human rights panelist, who resigned over Jew-hatred remark, didn’t disclose in application his son works for the governor

When Luc fils Jasmin applied to join the Washington State Human Rights Commission, an official state panel, he failed to disclose that his son, Luc Jasmin III, was eastern Washington outreach representative to the state’s governor, according to a copy of his Jan. 27, 2023, application, which JNS obtained.

The governor is responsible for appointing and removing commissioners.

The younger Jasmin, who still works in that state position for which he draws a salary, is running to represent the second position of the state’s third district in the state House—a race in which Gov. Bob Ferguson has endorsed him.

JNS reported that the elder Jasmin said at a meeting of the state panel that “it seems like the Jewish people keep on crying and crying and crying and crying—always crying over the antisemitism.” He later apologized exclusively to JNS and resigned.

When JNS initially sought comment from the elder Jasmin about his antisemitic remarks, his son, the state House hopeful, returned the call to speak on behalf of his father. At the time, Luc Jasmin III told JNS that his father “applied just like everyone else.” In the course of the conversation, the younger Jasmin told JNS that he couldn’t say if Hamas is a terror organization. “I don’t think it’s fair to me to label any group, because I’m not in it,” he said.

Natalie Poulson, the younger Jasmin’s Republican opponent, called his refusal to label Hamas a terror group “discrediting.”

The younger Jasmin raised more than $83,000 for his campaign and has spent about $81,000, according to his disclosure forms. His campaign, which he has self-funded in part and to which his father has donated, owes $7,945 to WinPower Strategies, a political consultancy that names Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) as a client.

The primary is scheduled for Aug. 4. The top two candidates, regardless of affiliation, will face off in the general election.

In the January 2023 application that JNS obtained, the elder Jasmin listed his son as one of his professional references, but didn’t note that it was his son or that his son worked for the governor. He listed his son as program coordinator for the Carl Maxey Center, a nonprofit in Spokane, Wash., and left a line about his “relationship” to the reference blank. He described a relationship to the three other references he provided.

Justice Department sues Montgomery County, in Maryland, for banning firearms in synagogues

The U.S. Justice Department sued Montgomery County, Md., on Monday, asking a federal court to block the enforcement of new restrictions on carrying firearms in and around synagogues.

The lawsuit follows a Justice Department warning on Friday that the county should refrain from enforcing the ordinance against religious congregants or face a legal challenge.

Jacob Huebert, an attorney for the Silver Spring Jewish Center, which is suing the county, told JNS that the synagogue is “pleased that the Justice Department is joining us in the fight against this unconstitutional ban.”

Expedited Bill 23-26, signed on July 27, prohibits firearms in or within 100 yards of houses of worship, parks, schools, libraries and other “places of public assembly,” exempting law-enforcement officers and hired security guards.

The Justice Department said the ordinance’s “prohibitions effectively prevent carrying of firearms throughout much of the county without a legitimate purpose.”

The government stated in court filings that “as a practical matter, the enormous scope of the Exclusion Zone makes it almost impossible for a citizen to walk through town to shop, to dine or engage in any other common activity of daily life without likely entering the Exclusion Zone multiple times in a single trip, and thereby, becoming a criminal.”

The prohibited locations encompass “at least 10,000 parcels comprising over 7,900 acres,” or more than 26% of the county, before accounting for the buffer zones, according to the filing.

“The ban on firearms in places of worship, where the place of worship welcomes firearms, places a uniquely unsupportable burden on the right to bear arms,” the Justice Department stated in the filing. “If there is any place where people are entitled to feel safe and to defend themselves, it is at a place of worship.”

Israeli soccer star Turgeman scores goal amid Montreal crowd’s chants of ‘Death to Israel’

In the face of chants of “Death to Israel,” Israeli striker Dor Turgeman responded with a goal last night in a Major League Soccer match between his New England Revolution and CF Montréal that ended in a 2-2 draw.

Throughout the match at Montreal’s Stade Saputo, a section of fans targeted the 22-year-old star with anti-Israel slurs, according to reports. But Turgeman delivered his response on the pitch in the 36th minute, with a goal that doubled New England’s early lead to 2-0.

Turgeman then celebrated directly in front of the opposing team’s fans with his arms outstretched. That escalated tensions on the field.

As fans threw cups and bottles on the field, Montréal goalkeeper Sebastian Breza confronted and shoved Turgeman to the ground, drawing a yellow card.

Turgeman, raised in Ashdod, signed with the New England Revolution last year after winning two Israeli Premier League titles with Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Opposing goalie more upset Israeli scorer showed up the fanbase more than he let up the goal pic.twitter.com/IpEaIFCNy1
— Jake Donnelly (@RedWhiteBlueJew) August 2, 2026

🇮🇱 ISRAELI STAR SILENCES HATE WITH A GOAL

Israeli striker Dor Turgeman answered chants of “Death to Israel” from sections of the crowd at CF Montréal’s Stade Saputo the best way possible—by scoring for the New England Revolution. He then celebrated in front of the home… pic.twitter.com/W21KaCxw8W
— Mossad Commentary (@MOSSADil) August 2, 2026

Statement from the New England Revolution pic.twitter.com/ylItbbwrkz
— New England Revolution (@NERevolution) August 3, 2026

Visa to buy Israeli cyber firm for $2.4 billion to fight AI-driven scams

Credit-card giant Visa Inc. has agreed to buy Israeli online fraud and financial crime detection provider BioCatch for $2.4 billion to bolster its cybersecurity tools and protect consumers and institutions from the growing threat of AI-driven account takeovers and scams.

Visa said it is acquiring BioCatch from London-based private equity firm Permira and other investors. As part of the deal, the Israeli pioneer in the field of behavioral biometrics will become part of Visa, but will continue to operate with the same team. The transaction is expected to close by the end of Visa’s fiscal second quarter of 2027, pending customary regulatory approvals and conditions.

“Account takeovers and scams cost the global economy over $1 trillion annually and AI is enabling these attacks at unprecedented scale,” said Andrew Torre, Visa president of value-added services. “BioCatch will help our clients stop fraud before it reaches the point of payment.”

Over the past five years, Visa has invested more than $13 billion in technology and infrastructure to safeguard its payments ecosystem and reduce fraud rates.

“The reality is, as a society and industry, we are not winning this fight,” said BioCatch CEO Gadi Mazor. “By every metric, the bad actors (increasingly and primarily organized crime) perpetrating fraud, scams, and financial crime continue to enjoy greater returns, explosive growth, and a wealth of new tools to help them scale, innovate, and hone their attacks.”

“Banks and markets deploying BioCatch represent the one exception to this trend,” Mazor asserted.

Airline staff honoured for ensuring friend of rabbi killed in Bondi massacre got to his funeral on time

American Airlines has been given an award for making sure a childhood friend of the London-born rabbi killed in the Bondi Beach massacre could get to his funeral in Sydney on time.

Distraught passenger Eli Rutman was certain to miss his connection at Los Angeles when his initial flight from Miami was delayed by two hours.

He was on his way to the funeral of Rabbi Eli Schlanger, one of 15 people killed in the December 2025 terrorist attack.

But after discovering why he was travelling, the airline’s employees worked across multiple departments to overcome the delay, held back the Sydney flight for him, and beat scheduling complications and ticketing issues so he could make it.

The carrier has now received a medal from the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation (AJCF).

The award recognises what the foundation described as an “extraordinary act of compassion and moral leadership”.

Managers at Los Angeles International Airport secured approval to delay the Sydney flight’s departure, despite the operational pressure to maintain an on-time schedule for long-haul international flights.

The airline also arranged for Rutman’s domestic flight to arrive at a gate just two gates from the Sydney departure in LA, moved him to a seat near the front of the aircraft so he could disembark first, and escorted him directly to his onward flight.

When efforts to transfer his existing ticket from the original carrier proved unsuccessful, American Airlines waived the fare altogether and flew him to Sydney free of charge.

The Sydney service ultimately departed just 46 minutes behind schedule.

Israel's national anthem rang out at the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, as Israeli athletes proudly took the podium.

Making the moment even more meaningful, Israeli Ambassador to the UAE Yossi Shelley presented the medals to the Israeli… pic.twitter.com/AusgIZPrzZ
— StandWithUs (@StandWithUs) August 3, 2026

History made for Israeli lacrosse 🥍🥉🇮🇱

Israel’s women’s national team won bronze at the World Lacrosse Championship in Japan, earning the country's first ever medal at the tournament 👏

A remarkable achievement and another proud milestone for Israeli sport. Congratulations to… pic.twitter.com/O7DJNqvEGF
— Israel ישראל (@Israel) August 3, 2026

This morning Boy George has been banned from Bandcamp where his song fighting Jew hatred was available for download.

Last week, my friend Alyssa Rosenheck had her book launch cancelled because her book is about fighting Jew hate.

Did you hear about the kosher restaurant that…
— Eve Barlow (@Eve_Barlow) August 3, 2026

Sue Clowes designed these shirts as, apparently, she and Boy George liked the Hebrew alphabet. A mistranslation of Culture Club to 'Tarbut Agadah' (Legend Culture) makes it even better, in my opinion.

Get them back on the shelves and I'll take one. https://t.co/LGvfztclRI pic.twitter.com/rbWl0xSpsB
— Joo (@JoosyJew) August 3, 2026

Oh, AI, how I love you! 🤣

This is epic (NSFW language). pic.twitter.com/HvBerZpsH0
— Hillel Fuld (@HilzFuld) August 3, 2026

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

Reclaiming the Covenant on America's 250th (May 2026)

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

08/03 Links Pt1: How a UN study shatters the Gaza starvation narrative; The Warning Netanyahu Got Before the War; B'Tselem report ‘demonizes Israel by rebranding terrorists as minors’

2026-08-04T01:29:39.381-04:00

From Ian:

Does Israel want peace?

While Israel never lost the hope of peace, it understood that it would not come about merely through slogans, chants, campfires, or peace symbols.

Among Israel’s neighbours, rallies all too often called for the murder of Jews and the destruction of the Jewish state. Survivors of Nazism, jihadism, and communism knew such words could become reality. They had seen it before.

Israelis, therefore, had no appetite for the catastrophic illusions that led Neville Chamberlain, the British prime minister, to declare after Munich in 1938: “I believe it is peace for our time…” Genuine peace partners

Nor were Israelis ready to risk being sacrificed on the altar of geopolitical expediency, otherwise known as appeasement, as happened so shamefully to Czechoslovakia.

Israelis needed no sanctimonious lectures from afar about the virtues of peace. They understood those virtues better than most. What they needed were genuine peace partners.

Anwar Sadat had once been a bitter foe of Israel and had sympathies for Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Yet he came to understand that Egypt’s future prosperity depended on making peace rather than pursuing Israel’s destruction.

It worked. Paired with Menachem Begin, Israel’s first Right-of-centre prime minister, and with the help of the United States, they achieved the seemingly impossible in 1979 – peace.

To get there, Begin agreed to a full withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula, three times the size of Israel itself, and from the strategic depth it represented.

It worked again in 1994, this time with Jordan, while Yitzhak Rabin was Israel’s leader. As with Sadat, King Hussein convinced Israel he was sincere about peace, understood Israel’s security concerns in a country the size of Wales, and grieved for the loss of innocent lives – Arab and Israeli alike. Another peace treaty, more Israeli concessions, and no Israeli second thoughts.

A third breakthrough came in 2020, when Israel had to choose between partial annexation of disputed West Bank territory and a normalisation agreement with the United Arab Emirates. The Right-of-centre Israeli government chose the latter.

The decision has paid dividends ever since. In addition, there was the unilateral Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, which could have led to peaceful coexistence, but instead was seized by Hamas to create a new launching pad for its war to the death with the Jewish state.

Anyone visiting Israel and speaking with people going about their daily lives would be hard-pressed to find an Israeli who welcomes decades of army reserve duty, rejoices as their children enter life-and-death military service, looks forward to 3am dashes to bomb shelters while carrying toddlers or helping elderly relatives, or relaxes on a bus while wondering whether a nearby package contains groceries or nail bombs.

Of course, the big question is whether peace with the Palestinians is possible. Hopefully, one day it will be. It requires, though, not just a territorial negotiation, but something bigger.

Can the Palestinians convincingly accept that Israel, whatever its final borders, is there to stay, that Jews are indigenous to the region, and that living alongside Israel, not replacing it, must be the outcome?

Neither the late Yasser Arafat nor Mahmoud Abbas, by their actions, has shown the courage and sincerity of Anwar Sadat or King Hussein. Will the next Palestinian leader? Only time will tell.

Meanwhile, Israel continues to pray fervently for peace, while never forgetting that it lives in a part of the world where, as Shimon Peres, the late Israeli president and Nobel laureate, liked to remind visitors: “In the Middle East, either you’re at the dinner table or you’re on the dinner menu.”

Nadav Eyal: Exclusive: The Warning Netanyahu Got Before the War

An in-depth look at Roaring Lion — the war aim Israel never made public, the intelligence assessment that failure could push Iran toward the bomb, and what the Mossad told the Kurds

It is impossible to think about Israel’s plan to bring down the Islamic Republic without first thinking about its sheer presumption. Grinding a regime down over years — sanctions, influence operations, the slow seeding of fear and confusion — is one thing. Recruiting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former Iranian president and Holocaust denier, as an asset and installing him in power is another. So is launching a full-scale Kurdish invasion. This is the kind of project superpowers fail at. Israel tried it, and poured an enormous effort into the attempt.

Over the past weeks, The New York Times and Haaretz have published a great deal about that effort. What follows adds to the record on the most ambitious regional objective Israel has ever pursued: regime change in a country of roughly 100 million people, a regional power — attempted in wartime, and in coordination with the only superpower, the United States.

In the presentation the Mossad gave the Israeli cabinet on the eve of the operation, regime change was projected to take “one to three years.” That was a reasonable hedge; the Islamic Revolution did not happen in a day either. The ministers heard a different tune. “We understood,” one of them told me, “that we were going for regime change in a fast, sweeping move — killing the current leader, a Kurdish invasion, Ahmadinejad as our agent, protesters in the streets.”

Begin with a distinction
Again and again this has been described as “a Mossad operation.” The Mossad — Israel’s foreign intelligence service — was without question the animating force, the planner, the one pushing. But this was an operation of the State of Israel, ordered by its cabinet. It grew out of a conviction that had taken root at the political level and was then imposed on the security establishment: there would be no solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis, and no end to the friction with Iran, without a change of regime in Tehran. The 12-day war of June 2025 had created an opening, and Donald Trump was in the White House. Israel had to try, because the window might close. The cost of inaction, even weighed against the risk of failure, was higher than the cost of action.

Those words were said explicitly by Benjamin Netanyahu to the American president. The doctrine is his.

None of this is interpretation. The war aims of Operation Roaring Lion were never officially published. After conversations with a double-digit number of sources, military and political, the central objective can be reconstructed:
To deeply degrade or remove the threats Iran poses to Israel by creating the military conditions for a change of regime in Iran. Those may not be the exact words. But “creating the conditions for regime change” was the bottom line.

The phrasing was a compromise, negotiated in part with the IDF. From the first moment, the army said it did not know how to produce regime change on its own. For the General Staff, the main effort was strategic damage to Iran — the erosion of capability over time. Support for the Mossad was, as the army understood it, a secondary effort.

Why “creating the conditions” rather than “toppling the regime”? One defense official offered me a guess: the IDF knew this was a complicated objective, possibly an impossible one. It did not want to be dragged into a war with an aim so absolute that it could run forever — far past the number of interceptors in Israel’s magazines.

And yet the cabinet voted for an objective that was, in practice, an attempt at regime change. An objective that large — Megalomanic, some would say — dictates the allocation of resources and carries severe regional consequences. Put another way: the nuclear program and the ballistic missiles mattered, but they were not the holy grail, and they were not the message of the new war that followed. Where Rising Lion, the June 2025 campaign, prioritized the nuclear project — and did in fact halt enrichment — Roaring Lion was meant to be the war that ended all wars. With Iran, at least.

Andrew Fox: Hamas’s ‘disarmament’ deal is not what it seems

Western powers continue to misunderstand Hamas. They treat it as a stack of rifles with a political office attached. But it’s far more than an armed force. It ruled Gaza for almost two decades and infested its civil machinery. It shaped schooling through the education bureaucracy. The health sector operated under its government, while Hamas-run courts enforced its authority. Municipal employees and emergency committees kept its presence visible when formal ministries broke down. Collecting the weapons of Hamas and other factions removes an immediate threat of armed force, but it leaves Hamas’s human infrastructure in place.

The proposed handover to the National Committee exposes the danger. Hamas has sought to carry over 40,000 civil servants and security personnel into the new technocratic order. Roughly 10,000 belong to the Hamas-run police. A new nameplate on a ministry changes little if the same officials control salaries and local permits, with loyal policemen on the streets. Hamas can surrender the administrative title while retaining its governance networks.

Hamas’s behaviour during the ‘ceasefire’ does not bode well for the Board of Peace plan. Hamas gunmen reappeared as Israeli forces withdrew last year, crushing local rivals. The movement then resumed enforcing order with extreme brutality. Its remaining bureaucracy collected revenue and paid loyalists. Israel now says Hamas continues to recruit and rebuild. Every month of quiet exposes the superficial appearance of calm, even as renewed Hamas coercion demands another violent confrontation.

Verification of Hamas’s surrendering of weapons is going to be nigh-on impossible. No audited inventory exists for an arsenal dispersed across ruins and private buildings. Inspectors must prove the absence of hidden rifles and explosives across a dense urban landscape designed to frustrate surveillance. Hamas can hand over expendable weapons and reveal tunnels Israel already knows about, while continuing to conceal those Israel is unaware of. The commanders who remember how to rebuild can remain underground or melt into civilian employment. A weapons store controlled by a fragile administration remains a future armoury.

Hamas’s leaders are unusually candid about their objectives. Political bureau member Bassem Naim said the agreement preserved ‘our strategic project’. He praised the ‘Al-Aqsa Flood’, Hamas’s codename for the 7 October pogrom, and called for other arenas to advance the ‘liberation’ project.

The Board of Peace’s roadmap therefore offers Hamas an opportunity. Surrender enough metal to secure Israeli withdrawal, then protect the organisation embedded within Gaza’s new administration. Rearmament can wait until scrutiny fades. The weapons left inside Gaza will be waiting, too.

Lee Smith: The President of PEACE

So, if Trump can’t win the war, or won’t, he can win a peace by pocketing Hamas’ nonconcessions to pad his résumé as a dealmaker—indeed, a “PRESIDENT OF PEACE,” as U.N. Ambassador Mike Waltz described the commander in chief now determined, like the loser presidents who preceded him, to waste American time, prestige, and money on “a credible political path that achieves self-determination and Statehood” for a Palestinian terror enclave.

The Hamas deal, like the administration’s arrangement with Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon and Trump’s repeated and unrealized threats against Iran, is evidence that the president is in danger of losing the plot, if he hasn’t already.

The White House includes the cease-fires between Israel and Hamas and between Israel and Iran as two of the eight peace deals Trump has arranged since taking office. Some of those deals are holding up, like the one between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and some aren’t, like the agreement struck between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. But none of that really matters to most Americans, nor should it. We go to the polls every four years to vote not for the candidate most likely to win cease-fires for foreigners, but rather for the one who will advance our prosperity by imposing our peace.

Rome imposed its peace on rivals, and on those who might someday cause trouble, to bring wealth and glory to Rome. Caesar Augustus turned Rome from brick to marble, but the architecture of the Pax Romana was made of steel and blood. They make a desert and call it peace, said one victim of Rome’s devastations to serve Roman interests. Our version of peace has been much gentler, but the purpose of the 80-year Pax Americana is the same: to make things better for Americans, regardless of what that might mean for foreigners.

Trump seemed to grasp this most fundamental concept of statesmanship more clearly than his most recent predecessors, from Bill Clinton through Joe Biden. He seemed to understand what peace, outside of the clichés promoted at beauty pageants, really means. “Peace through strength” is how he formulated the true nature of peace, or the only kind of peace that can matter to Americans: America’s peace.

One of the pillars of the postwar order is the Strait of Hormuz, through which the free flow of oil stabilizes international energy markets. Of late, administration validators have argued that the strait is becoming less strategically important with the construction of Saudi and UAE pipelines that bypass the strait and reach the Red Sea directly. But as those who can read a map or even a newspaper understand, the Red Sea is also vulnerable to Iran via its Red Sea proxy, the Houthis.

The strait is still crucial to America and its allies. And losing it to Iran would mean a strategic defeat for the United States, one significantly more consequential than losing in Iraq and Afghanistan. But White House messaging tells adversaries and allies alike that the Pax Americana is a broken reed. Sure, the Americans once protected the strait against a nuclear superpower—for decades—but under Trump, America’s patrimony is up for grabs.

Leaks from Trump officials that plans to take the Strait by force are complicated by the lack of interceptors tell American adversaries little about our stockpiles they haven’t already counted. Rather, they indicate that, since a massively funded military has many other ways to ensure victory against an obscurantist third-world regime like Iran’s, the president is looking for excuses to fail to win. When the administration publicly frets over the possible targeting of desalination plants in the Arab Gulf states, it is indicating that it doesn’t truly understand the stakes and sacrifices involved in stopping Iran’s nuclear weapons program. And when Trump reasons, as he did in a Truth Social post Saturday, that he is once again walking back his plans to strike Iran for “the future benefit of the WORLD and, likewise, the survival of a successful and prosperous Iran,” he is saying that America’s peace, now and for future generations, is not his priority.

Trump can’t say how these ghoulish puppet shows with Iran and its proxies augment America’s wealth and glory because they don’t. Rather, they make America complicit with monsters. They put us in the same room as Hamas, whose cruelty, Trump said less than a year ago, “struck to the core of humanity itself.” He vowed then that America stands with Israel under the motto “Never again,” but now he’s leaning on a wartime ally to play along with phony deals he’s struck with Hamas and Hezbollah that deter Israel while shielding the terrorists on its borders. These aren’t the acts of a president of peace, never mind a commander in chief who understands the nature of America’s peace and the character of our adversaries who want to break it.

How a United Nations study shatters the Gaza starvation narrative

Anewly released UN-led nutrition survey of Gaza's children completely shatters the narrative promoted by advocacy organisations that continue to claim that its population – and children, in particular – is being deliberately starved. Equally important, it also deals a final blow to the highly controversial "famine" designation issued one year ago by the Famine Review Committee of the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system.

The survey, carried out under the coordination of the Nutrition Cluster – the UNICEF-led body that runs Gaza’s nutrition-surveillance system – measured the children’s weight, height and mid-upper-arm circumference. The data were then used to calculate the weight-for-height z-score, or WHZ – the standard indicator used by the World Health Organisation and other bodies to compare levels of acute malnutrition across populations and over time.

Contrary to the prevailing narrative, the survey found that acute malnutrition measured by WHZ ranged from merely 0.2 to 0.8 per cent across Gaza’s regions. For comparison, Gaza’s pre-war rate was 0.8 per cent – an already relatively low rate comparable to those seen in developed countries and well below those reported in nearby countries such as Egypt (2.9 per cent) or Jordan (2.0 per cent). In other words, the measured level of acute malnutrition is not only well below critical levels – it is exceptionally low by both regional and even Western standards.

The new findings don’t just completely debunk the latest iteration of the relentless narrative claiming Israel isn’t allowing enough food into Gaza – they also undermine the key argument used to justify the original famine declaration, which advocacy groups still cite as their evidentiary anchor.

To formally declare a Phase 5 "Famine", as the IPC did in August 2025, one required key condition is that at least 30 per cent of children under the age of five show acute malnutrition as measured by WHZ. Since WHZ data were not available for Gaza when famine was declared last year, the IPC relied instead on the more readily available mid-upper-arm circumference (MUAC) measurement. It further argued, on the basis of earlier global comparisons between the two indicators, that WHZ generally identifies roughly twice as many cases of acute malnutrition as MUAC, and hence that a much lower MUAC prevalence of 15 per cent could supposedly be treated as equivalent to the 30 per cent WHZ famine threshold.

As I wrote at the time in the Jewish Chronicle, this assumption was questionable even before any new data came out. The approximately 2-to-1 relationship between the two indicators invoked by the IPC was derived largely from comparisons involving countries in Africa, where WHZ frequently produces substantially higher malnutrition estimates than MUAC. However, evidence from the Middle East suggested that this relationship did not generally hold in the region. Moreover, some limited earlier data from Gaza itself indicated that it might actually be reversed there, with MUAC rates higher than WHZ rates rather than lower. In other words, there was no justification for treating a 15 per cent MUAC figure as “equivalent” to the 30 per cent WHZ famine threshold.

The new Nutrition Cluster survey now supplies the conclusive local comparison between the two malnutrition indicators and shows that the IPC’s central assumption was indeed wrong: WHZ rates in Gaza are not twice the MUAC rates – in fact, in this survey, they are consistently lower than MUAC rates in every area measured.

The 2-to-1 ratio on which the IPC relied to justify its controversial 15 per cent “famine” threshold simply does not hold. And once that assumption collapses, so does the statistical basis for concluding that Gaza had crossed the catastrophic malnutrition threshold – a claim that was key to the August 2025 famine classification.

When Everything is Genocide: How the American Public Has Diluted the Meaning of the Term

Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war following Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack, accusations that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza have become increasingly common in political discourse, media coverage, and international institutions. Although the legal definition of genocide requires proof of a specific intent to destroy a protected national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, public debate increasingly appears to apply the term more broadly to armed conflicts involving large-scale civilian casualties.

A nationally representative sample of American adults evaluated whether the term genocide applied to Israel's military campaign in Gaza, the Holocaust, the treatment of Native Americans, the Allied bombing of Germany during World War II, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Vietnam War, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and Islamist violence against Black Christians in Africa.

The findings indicate that many respondents apply the term genocide well beyond its accepted legal meaning. While the Holocaust remained the clearest and most universally recognized example of genocide, substantial numbers of respondents also characterized numerous military campaigns involving large-scale civilian casualties as genocide, including conflicts in which the U.S. was a participant.

Younger respondents and those identifying as Democrats were significantly more likely than older respondents and Republicans to characterize both Israel's actions and other military conflicts as genocide. These differences extended beyond attitudes toward Israel, suggesting broader generational and political differences in how the concept itself is understood.

The findings suggest that the public meaning of genocide has undergone a process of conceptual expansion that effectively downgrades its legal and historical distinctiveness. Increasingly, the term appears to function as a general expression of moral condemnation for wars involving extensive civilian casualties rather than as the legally defined crime requiring proof of specific intent. We can more accurately term this process of conceptual expansion as "conceptual dilution": a situation in which a concept with a precise legal or professional definition expands within public discourse to encompass situations not included in its original meaning. This is what appears to have happened with the term genocide.

US Supreme Court won’t halt $655 million judgment against Palestinians over terror attacks

US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor declines to halt $655.5 million in damages that Palestinian authorities were ordered to pay plaintiffs in a US civil lawsuit concerning terror attacks that killed and injured Americans in Israel from 2002 to 2004, during the Second Initifada.

Sotomayor denied a request by the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization to put on hold the judgment while they appeal a lower court’s decision to revive the case years after it had been dismissed.

The lawsuit was brought on behalf of Americans killed or injured in shooting and bombing attacks in the Jerusalem area.

The Supreme Court last year upheld a federal law that allowed claims like those brought by the plaintiffs in the case.

Sotomayor does not explain her decision and does not refer the case to the entire court. Sotomayor handles emergency matters for cases arising from New York and certain other states.

The Manhattan-based 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the judgment in March following the Supreme Court’s 9-0 decision in June 2025 to uphold the 2019 law, called the Promoting Security and Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act.

The Palestinian organizations said that enforcing the judgment in the case will cause severe financial harm and destabilize government services in the West Bank, where the PA is already cash-strapped, harming people who live there and jeopardizing regional security.

They said in a written filing that the plaintiffs intend to seek payment from indirect Palestinian tax revenue collected by Israel, a key source of funding for Palestinian government operations. Security, sanitation and school services in the West Bank “are hanging by a thread,” they wrote.

The plaintiffs, in winning the judgment in New York federal court in 2015, alleged that the Palestinian entities were responsible for the incidents from 2002 to 2004.

TRAGIC: Francesca Albanese loses again in U.S. District Court. Pending appeal, the U.S. sanctions she calls “devastating” remain in force. Court denied motion by her husband to quash injunction — and granted the U.S. government's request to stay all proceedings pending appeal. https://t.co/Fsa1HsGTF4 pic.twitter.com/t5p1bBNBM5
— UN Watch (@UNWatch) August 3, 2026

.@FranceskAlbs Seems like perhaps you celebrated your “personal vindication” a little too soon.
⚖️: https://t.co/k6cOI6Xo0a https://t.co/Tr8gZZwrWp
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) August 3, 2026

Anyways, for no reason at all, this seems relevant. https://t.co/bwCcupB2ot pic.twitter.com/5rGYUZfBI3
— 𝔼𝕝𝕝𝕚𝕠𝕥 𝕄𝕒𝕝𝕚𝕟 (@ElliotMalin) August 3, 2026

A "Palestinian refugee" is suing Israel because UNRWA can no longer provide services after Israel's legislation prohibited its operations in Israel.

As the plaintiff's lawyer stated, any UN agency could provide those services. @Mike_Wagenheim asked the UN for its position.… https://t.co/LD5zNd6Y4L pic.twitter.com/jRrWzjqVwd
— Leslie Kajomovitz (@kikas6652) August 3, 2026

I would like to thank Farhan for summarizing so clearly how the UN has always ignored Turkey's invasion and occupation of Cyprus. Sorry, I meant the occupation by the "Greek Cypriots," according to the unnamable (Turkey, like the bird 🦃, not "Türkiye").

An interesting meeting… https://t.co/tDA8iWYVbb pic.twitter.com/oikBnO0rXm
— Leslie Kajomovitz (@kikas6652) August 3, 2026

Chair of Georgetown University health center's anti-racism commission—co-sponsored by the Lancet medical journal—declares her candidacy for radical party in South Africa as its leader again incites to kill white farmers. ⬇️ We urge @Georgetown & @TheLancet: Fire this racist now. https://t.co/UpQ8hwd5CS pic.twitter.com/zyUT6W1uWE
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) August 3, 2026

Erdogan's Courtship of President Trump

Trump's remarks were seen as a rebuke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is — quite rightly — opposed to F-35 sales to Turkey on the grounds that it could ultimately prove a direct threat to Israel's security, as well as to Cyprus and Greece, which Erdogan has repeatedly threatened.

Turkey was suspended from the multinational F-35 program during Trump's first term in 2019, after acquiring Russia's S-400 air defence system. The purchase of the S-400 also prompted US sanctions against Turkey's defence industry, imposed in 2020.

Although Turkey tested the S-400 following its delivery and has not returned it to Russia, the Turkish government claims that the system is in storage and has hinted that it could possibly be moved to another country for safekeeping. What could possibly go wrong?

Trump has even praised Erdogan for the role he has played in Syria, where his support for Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, an Islamist former al-Qaeda terrorist now presenting himself to the world as a "moderate," was crucial to Sharaa's overthrowing the Assad regime in December 2024.

Meanwhile the terrorists who make up Sharaa's regime have reportedly "gotten their hands on a modern military" and have been persecuting Christians, Alawites, Kurds and Druze.

Trump's willingness to engage with Erdogan overlooks numerous troubling issues which, far from indicating that Ankara can be treated as a reliable ally of Washington, show that, under Erdogan's leadership, Turkey's policy is generally aimed at undermining American efforts to bring peace to the region.

While the US, together with a number of key regional allies such as Jordan, has worked hard to persuade Hamas's terrorist leadership to disarm (a key demand in Trump's 20-point peace plan to end the Gaza war), Erdogan and his Islamist allies in Qatar have tried to dissuade Hamas from disarming.

The Trump administration's goals of disarming Hamas completely and ending its involvement in Gaza have, in fact, been constantly undermined by Erdogan. He has supported numerous counter-proposals, such as the suggestions that Hamas give up its weapons to the Palestinian Authority (PA) or that the weapons be transferred to some kind of "secure storage" under supposed oversight.

Both proposals, which have been rejected by Israel, were seemingly designed with the aim of preserving Hamas' rule in Gaza.

Reports that "Turkey was prepared to provide Iran with aerial military support if Kurdish militias had invaded the country during the Israeli-US war on Iran" have laid bare the extent of Erdogan's unmistakable double dealing on the Iran issue.

Trump might believe that Erdogan could prove to be a useful ally in terms of helping to achieve the Trump administration's objectives in the Middle East and beyond. The reality, however, is that, in terms of his overall attitude towards the US and its objectives in the region, the Turkish leader deserves to be treated more as an enemy than an ally.

Turkey accuses Netanyahu of undermining Gaza peace efforts

Turkey on Sunday accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government of having no intention of achieving peace with the Palestinians, following Israel's latest military strikes in the Gaza Strip.

In a statement published by the Turkish Foreign Ministry, Ankara said the latest attacks demonstrated that the Israeli government was continuing policies that undermine efforts to reach a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

"Netanyahu's sole objective is to displace Palestinians from their homeland and prevent the establishment of peace and stability in the region," the ministry said.

The ministry further alleged that Netanyahu continues to take steps that weaken the region's fragile balance and obstruct mediation initiatives led by several countries, particularly the US.

"It has become imperative for the international community to adopt a more determined, consistent and robust stance against Netanyahu's expansionist and militarist approach, which seeks to turn the entire Middle East into a zone of conflict," the statement said.

Calling on countries that support "peace and stability in Palestine and across the wider Middle East," the ministry urged the international community to act with a shared sense of responsibility and uphold international law and humanitarian values.

Trump accuses Iran of being ‘unbelievably duplicitous’ over peace talks denial

Donald Trump has accused Iran of being “unbelievably duplicitous” in denying talks aimed at ending the conflict were being held.

The US president said Tehran had “begged” for negotiations and whether they admitted it or not discussions were taking place to reach “a solution” to the current stand-off.

He also dismissed Iran’s claims to control the strategic Strait of Hormuz waterway as “their usual blather”.

The president made the comments on his Truth Social platform after he said on Sunday he had halted US forces from carrying out “the biggest attack since World War II” to allow for further diplomatic efforts.

He said talks would be held with Iran on Monday, but this was subsequently denied by Tehran.

In response, Mr Trump posted: “Iranian Leadership is unbelievably duplicitous!

“They ask for a meeting, some would say ‘beg’, talks begin, with more scheduled in the immediate future, and they say, openly and proudly, that they’re not having any discussions, that nothing is being talked about, and they’re only dealing with ‘Oman’.

“They then go on to give their usual blather in saying, the Strait of Hormuz will be operated powerfully by them, when it is already completely controlled by the United States Navy and our ‘Blockade’ or, as some say, ‘The United States Wall of Steel!’

“Nothing gets through to Iran, unless we want it to, and nothing will get through, unless a Deal, or Total Surrender, is accomplished.

“Whether Iran wants to admit it or not, we are, in fact, talking of a solution to a problem that they have caused, for decades.”

The president’s latest broadside comes after he said on Sunday the emerging deal would include reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital oil and gas supply route, and would tackle concerns over Iran’s disputed nuclear plans.

Only the day before, Mr Trump said he was “losing faith” in talks with Iran and warned the US military “will be hitting them very hard”.

pic.twitter.com/ZhBAhWXjpP
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) August 3, 2026

CC: Congressional Democrats and their War Powers Resolutions giving Iran this belief.

This is bad. https://t.co/rL2UZB4kMM
— 𝔼𝕝𝕝𝕚𝕠𝕥 𝕄𝕒𝕝𝕚𝕟 (@ElliotMalin) August 3, 2026

US CENTCOM appears to have dropped 900kg bomb on civilian house in southern Iran - report

The US military struck Qeshm Island in southern Iran with a large-scale bomb on Thursday night that allegedly hit a family home, according to a New York Times report on Friday.

Iranian officials claimed that the strike had hit a family home, killing a couple and their two-year-old son. The other two children survived the strike, the officials added.

A NYT analysis of videos and satellite imagery found that the weapon used was likely to be a 2,000-pound (roughly 900kg) bomb, one of the largest conventional bombs used by the US military.

Weapons experts examined the size of the crater and munitions fragments found on Qeshm Island after the strike, and determined that the Mark-84 bomb may have been used. The NYT added that the strike's location and timing were consistent with when and where US forces were operating.

A US official told The Jerusalem Post that the scale of the US strikes on Iran on Thursday was "about twice the size of the previous night," adding that the strikes were "wide, extensive, and impactful."

U.S. forces continue to strictly enforce the U.S. blockade against Iran. As of Aug. 3, CENTCOM has redirected 44 commercial vessels, disabled 2, and boarded 2. pic.twitter.com/dTu90UVAcH
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) August 3, 2026

Iran hangs two accused of spying for Israel as wartime executions ramp up

Iran on Monday executed two men convicted of spying for Israel, the judiciary said, the latest in a wave of hangings over alleged espionage.

Since the start of the war with Israel and the United States in February, Tehran has ramped up executions, with many of the convicts accused of spying for Israeli intelligence.

“Omid Behzad and Pouria Safvat were hanged this morning for transmitting the coordinates of sensitive military and security sites to Mossad agents,” said Mizan, the media outlet for Iran’s judiciary, referring to Israel’s foreign intelligence service.

It did not specify when the pair were arrested or when they went on trial, but said they were convicted of “espionage and collaboration with the Zionist regime.”

“They helped the intelligence services achieve their objectives by providing them with information on military and security centers during the war,” Mizan added.

One of the executed individuals was accused of passing coordinates to the administrator of a Telegram channel that the IRGC charges was linked to Israel’s Mossad spy agency, according to Mizan.

The second person, described by Mizan as “one of [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s soldiers,” was said to have sent information to the Mossad as well as to Iran International, a leading news outlet for dissidents in exile that Tehran accuses of also being an intelligence front.

Iranian Geopolitical Analyst Mohammad Marandi: If the U.S. Escalates, There "Won't Be a Kuwait"; Oman Must Accept Iranian Terms over the Strait of Hormuz or Let Iran Control It Alone pic.twitter.com/EYiFZ7rUPC
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) August 3, 2026

Herzog: Hamas must disarm before next phase of Trump’s Gaza plan

The Hamas terrorist group must be fully disarmed before the second phase of U.S. President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan can commence, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said on Monday.

“I see a lot of positive elements in the efforts of the Board of Peace, under the auspices of President Trump and his leadership,” Herzog said as he received the diplomatic credentials of several ambassadors.

The Israeli head of state said the plan’s implementation would depend on “the clear caveat and undertaking that Hamas must be disarmed,” adding, “I hope Hamas will be disarmed fully.”

This, he continued, “is clearly the basis of moving forward to the next phase by bringing in the government of technocrats,” referring to the U.S.-backed National Committee for the Administration of Gaza.

“The efforts of the Americans, the Board of Peace, President Trump, and CEO of the Board of Peace Nickolay Mladenov can bring a certain vision of hope, also to the people of Gaza and to the people of Israel,” said Herzog.

“I sincerely hope and pray that we will find ways to move forward with our Palestinian neighbors on all fronts, to have a dialogue with our Palestinian neighbors,” he added.

Israel has conveyed “comments and concerns” to the White House after U.S. President Donald Trump last week announced an agreement to implement Hamas’s disarmament under the peace plan, an Israeli official told JNS on Monday.

Doron Spielman, a spokesman for the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, told JNS that “the version that has been made public does not reflect Israel’s positions.”

“Over the past eight months, according to Israeli intelligence, Hamas has used the ceasefire to rearm, recruit thousands of additional terrorists, rebuild its military infrastructure, and prepare for further Oct. 7-style massacres,” he said, in reference to the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of 1,200 people in the Jewish state.

The Peace Council stated in an official announcement:

"Israel and the Peace Council share the same ultimate objective for Gaza: the complete disarmament of the Strip and the transition to civilian governance."

"The IDF's full withdrawal to beyond the Green Line will take place…
— Amit Segal (@AmitSegal) August 3, 2026

Important statement from the Board of Peace clarifies a key point that has often been misunderstood: the proposed decommissioning is not limited to Hamas's heavy weapons, but also includes the arms it has long used to intimidate fellow Gazans - and, of course, those used on… https://t.co/efAuAFRan7
— David Makovsky (@DavidMakovsky) August 3, 2026

The Great Gaza Scam; Just Listen to Hamas: What you’re seeing in this video is the plain truth, even though it’s coming from slain Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh. I was directly involved in one of the efforts he’s indirectly referring to. This is a confession from a jihadist… pic.twitter.com/DxGHEHAgTq
— Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib (@afalkhatib) August 3, 2026

Hamas Representative in Iran Khaled Qaddoumi: Hamas Will Never Lay Down Its Weapons; We Must Seize the Historic, Golden Opportunity to Eradicate This Cancerous Growth; Israel Is the Root Cause of All Instability Throughout the World pic.twitter.com/RUOlMp8Rh3
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) August 3, 2026

IDF kills PIJ commander involved in Oct. 7, holding Rom Braslavski hostage

The IDF has killed a Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist, Mahmoud Fatair, a commander in the PIJ's Central Gaza Brigade who infiltrated Israel on October 7 and took part in holding Rom Braslavski hostage, the military confirmed on Monday.

According to the statement, the IDF conducted strikes in the Deir al-Balah area in Gaza over the weekend, targeting and killing Fatair.

More recently, the Fatair had reportedly attempted to advance terror attacks against IDF troops and Israeli civilians.

In November 2023, as part of the sixth phase of the hostage release agreement, Fatair was documented wearing the Islamic Jihad uniform while participating in the hostage handover ceremony of numerous hostages, including Amit Shani, Ofir Engel, Moran Stela Yanai, Itay Regev, Liam Or-Nassar, Raz Ben Ami, Rantin Phaiboon, Gong Sae Lao, Seekena Jakkapan, and Saegkaew Charoemchai.

Braslavski responds to Fatair’s killing
Following the IDF’s announcement, Braslavski posted a video to his X/Twitter account in response to the news of Fatair’s killing.

Speaking in Arabic, Braslavski addressed living Hamas and PIJ terrorists who participated in the October 7th attacks and the Gaza hostage crisis.

"The IDF has killed another one who destroyed my soul.” Braslavski said.

“You did whatever you wanted, but now you are dying one after the other – and there will be none of you left," He added.

“The people of Israel live.”

A Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist who invaded Israel during the October 7, 2023, onslaught and held Rom Braslavski in captivity was killed in an airstrike over the weekend, the IDF announces.

The strike in central Gaza's Deir al-Balah killed Mahmoud Fatair, a member of… pic.twitter.com/BJHedfHWJc
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) August 3, 2026

🇮🇱 CAPTIVITY SURVIVOR REACTS TO TERRORIST’S ELIMINATION

Captivity survivor and Israel advocate @RomBraslavski responded to the elimination of his former captor, Mahmoud Fatair:

“With G-d’s help, every one of you, everyone who worked for the Islamic Jihad, Hamas, and every… https://t.co/I7mLPu4Ynd pic.twitter.com/36HQrf3bl4
— Mossad Commentary (@MOSSADil) August 3, 2026

🔴ELIMINATED: Adnan Taha Abu al-Tayf, a Nukhba commander in Hamas' military wing who infiltrated Israel during the October 7 Massacre.

In an additional strike in the Shati area, the IDF eliminated Jalal Tsubeih, a commander in the Daraj Tuffah Battalion of Hamas’ military wing.…
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) August 3, 2026

New IAM investigation claims B'Tselem report ‘demonizes Israel by rebranding terrorists as minors’

The Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem published a report in late June 2026 titled Unshielded Childhood, which cataloged and analyzed the deaths of 54 Palestinian minors killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank during 2025. The report immediately circulated widely through global media outlets, framing the fatalities as an unprovoked pattern of systemic state violence.

However, a meticulous, case-by-case counter-investigation conducted over 100 hours by Joseph Cohen and the Israel Advocacy Movement (IAM) “reveals that the report fundamentally distorts reality by rebranding active combatants and terrorists as innocent children.”

IAM’s investigation relied on four rigorous data points to verify the true identity and circumstances of each casualty: official shaheed (“martyr”) posters published by militant groups; real-time Telegram communications between militants and locals; open-source news footage; and official statements or records from the Israeli military and police.

While B’Tselem’s June 2026 publication categorized roughly 60% of the deceased as uninvolved or undetermined, the counteranalysis uncovered a vastly different statistical breakdown for 2025. Around 20% of individuals in B'Tselem dataset tied to terrorist orgs.

According to the findings, at least 20% of the individuals included in B’Tselem’s dataset were militants, many of whom belonged to the terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), while terror groups Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) issued martyr posters claiming the remaining individuals as affiliated with them.

Furthermore, according to the report, approximately 78% were actively participating in hostilities against Israeli security forces or civilians, such as gunfights, car rammings, and hurling improvised explosive devices, firebombs, or heavy concrete blocks.

The investigation demonstrated that 63% of the casualties were aged 15 or older, and only two were female.

The IAM investigation pointed to several examples to challenge B’Tselem’s findings.

In the case of Rida Bani Odeh, B’Tselem highlighted the 17-year-old by providing a sentimental quote describing him as an “innocent boy with a tender heart who had all the beautiful qualities.”

The IAM report, on the other hand, emphasized his status as a prominent PIJ member by providing a martyr picture of him holding a gun distributed by the PIJ. Bani Odeh was killed alongside other armed operatives during a firefight.

I Debunked The Biggest Lie Told About Israel Last Year

Main points:
- Trends in both the overall death toll and the post-ceasefire period specifically remain consistent: Adult men and older teenage boys make up an increasingly disproportionate share of deaths relative to their population proportion. They make up an even higher…
— Gabriel Epstein (@GabrielEpsteinX) August 3, 2026

The demographics demonstrate a much higher share of adult men (18-64) and older teenage boys in the death toll relative to their share of the population (the light gray bars on the chart at left) and a much lower share of women and children. The share of men and older teenage… pic.twitter.com/JPnwrxxQHC
— Gabriel Epstein (@GabrielEpsteinX) August 3, 2026

The remaining areas of uncertainty—the number of unrecovered and uncounted deaths and the number of missing persons who are deceased—also do not support claims of a severe undercount. Estimates of the number of unrecovered bodies stand at around 8,000, according to Gaza’s Civil… pic.twitter.com/h0H58XqnKa
— Gabriel Epstein (@GabrielEpsteinX) August 3, 2026

I’ve written before about why I’m skeptical of using broad demographic arguments to try and estimate the number of combatants killed, and I remain so. Simply assuming that surplus deaths of military-aged men (in other words, however many more men were killed than women in a…
— Gabriel Epstein (@GabrielEpsteinX) August 3, 2026

Was Amir Hossam Fayez Abu Nasser really an innocent Gazan “farmer” targeted by Israel in Deir Al-Balah on Aug 29, 2025 as widely "reported" ?

No, he was a combatant lauded by Gazans (ID 409262409, Age 22). The other men killed will likely be outed soon, I would bet on it. pic.twitter.com/u3H3bYZMr2
— Aizenberg (@Aizenberg55) August 3, 2026

They are literally honoring Nazi war criminals. pic.twitter.com/m2ZJnFSAal
— Rabbi Poupko (@RabbiPoupko) August 3, 2026

BILLBOARD IN GAZA HONORS KHAMENEI

A large banner displayed in Gaza City’s Rimal neighborhood commemorates the second anniversary of Ismail Haniyeh’s death, featuring Iran’s former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei alongside the former Hamas leader.

The message describes Khamenei as… pic.twitter.com/aHQmgFa6rm
— Mossad Commentary (@MOSSADil) August 3, 2026

John Anderson: How China Is Using Iran | Michael Doran

Geopolitical expert Michael Doran argues that Middle East stability depends on the U.S. winning its long war with Iran. He warns the “rabid dog” regime remains a paused but persistent danger.

Doran also unpacks how China is using the Middle East as a laboratory to test how America defends against missiles and drones before any move on Taiwan. He warns that anti-ship ballistic missiles supplied to Iran and the Houthis exist for one purpose: sinking American aircraft carriers.

Michael Doran is a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute and director of its Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East. A former George W. Bush administration National Security Council director, he is the author of Ike's Gamble and a leading voice on Iran, Israel and U.S. strategy.

0:00 – Introduction
1:33 – Can the US actually win its war with Iran?
3:27 – The "rabid dog" regime and Iran's nuclear programme
6:58 – October 7 and the failure of the Obama–Biden strategy
9:05 – Eisenhower, Suez and the roots of US Middle East policy
10:34 – The religion behind America's distancing from Israel
15:32 – The West's naivety and self-loathing
24:53 – The 1930s, Churchill and the crisis of leadership
27:28 – Energy policy and the breakdown of trust
30:37 – China, Xi and the missile revolution
34:14 – The nightmare scenario Trump disrupted
37:54 – The Middle East as China's laboratory
41:38 – China's weaknesses and the new face of warfare
48:05 – Energy, military power and the Western alliance
55:28 – Anti-Semitism, the money trail and the war for the West

Commentary Podcast: Tehran TACO

Jewish Insider's Josh Kraushaar joins us on this busy news Monday to discuss Trump's latest walkback of an attack on Iranian infrastructure, the collapse of the Reflecting Pool vandalism prosecution, the worrisome midterm poll numbers and the rise of increasingly radical left wing candidates, and another global wave of antisemitic incidents. Plus, John recommends City of Angels at the Ogunquit Playhouse in Ogunquit, Maine.

Gen. Jack Keane just dropped a truth bomb this morning on FOX:

Our intelligence services know the Pakistani and Qatari mediators “are compromised because they favor Iran at the expense of the United States.” They have misled the Trump administration about Tehran’s real… pic.twitter.com/fGuDOo7V4n
— Gerald Posner (@geraldposner) August 3, 2026

Keep your $3.8 billion in US aid

The American left has discovered a number: $3.8 billion.

They repeat it with the solemnity of a catechism. The United States gives Israel $3.8 billion a year, they say, and therefore Israel’s military is an American project, Israel is an American dependency, and every Israeli military action is something Americans are personally paying for.

The argument is not merely tendentious. It is numerically illiterate.

Under the current US-Israel memorandum of understanding, Washington provides Israel with approximately $3.3 billion annually in Foreign Military Financing and another $500 million for cooperative missile-defense programs. The agreement covers 2019 through 2028 and totals $38 billion over 10 years. Much of the military financing must be spent on American defense products, meaning that a substantial portion of the money returns to US defense manufacturers.

That is a serious commitment. Americans are entitled to debate it. But describing it as though the United States pays for Israel’s military is a childish distortion.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Israel’s military expenditure reached approximately $46.5 billion in 2024. Later reporting based on SIPRI data placed 2025 Israeli military spending at approximately $48.3 billion. Israel’s Knesset approved a record 2026 defense budget of roughly $45 billion in March 2026, amid the war with Iran.

Against those figures, the American contribution is not “Israel’s military budget.” It is one component of a much larger Israeli defense effort – roughly eight percent of Israel’s spending in each of the past three years, 2024 through 2026.

Israel is not a passive recipient waiting for Washington to purchase its security. It devotes an extraordinary share of its own national resources to defense. Israelis serve in the military, pay taxes, endure reserve duty, fund domestic defense industries, absorb the economic consequences of war, and send their children into combat. Israel also develops and exports military technology of enormous value to other countries.

The pro-Palestine lobby has swayed the Guardian to the point of endorsing Ian Lustik’s time-traveling fantasy of undoing the State of Israel.
We will probably carry on regardless. https://t.co/N4ADzLXrmn
— Fania Oz-Salzberger 🇮🇱🕊️🟣 פניה עוז-זלצברגר (@faniaoz) August 2, 2026

This is what Israel looked like under a US weapons embrago and $0 of US military 🪖 aid.

Stop threatening Israel with a good time.

Aid to Israel benefits the United States and curbs Israel's response.

Anti-semites fantasizing that stopping us aid to Israel will make Israel… pic.twitter.com/x3tDmokjd0
— Rabbi Poupko (@RabbiPoupko) August 3, 2026

And Fenway Park is older than Ireland.

What’s your point?

That that’s only the MODERN country of Ireland that was founded in 1922?

That Ireland has a long history and heritage that predates its modern iteration?

Like how Israel’s Prime Minister and President can trace their… https://t.co/ZF5Elj3d0Y pic.twitter.com/rAfoNfEvz9
— Jake Donnelly (@RedWhiteBlueJew) August 3, 2026

On January 27, 2002, I narrowly avoided being caught in the blast when the first female Palestinian suicide bomber detonated herself in the center of Jerusalem, barely 150 meters from where I was.

She entered Jerusalem in a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance.

So when @SkyNews…
— Simon Plosker (@SimonPlosker) August 3, 2026

I detest Hamas are given this massive platform but Ghazi Hamad denying that they targeted civilians on October 7 is a LIE for the world to see. They went into our family’s home and kidnapped and murdered. It was deliberate and planned. Hamas are LIARS. pic.twitter.com/uLfXbFU1Kw
— Heidi Bachram (@HeidiBachram) August 4, 2026

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

Reclaiming the Covenant on America's 250th (May 2026)

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

The International Union of Muslim Scholars wants more scholarship on Jews and Israel — as long as it is antisemitic

2026-08-03T07:39:37.334-04:00

Ahmed Raissouni, a former president of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, just published an essay complaining that pro-Palestinian scholarship is too thin. He wants Muslim academics to build a real, long-term body of work on Jewish history, Zionism, and Hebrew and Torah scholarship, comparable to what Western universities produce.

In the Orwellian world of the IUMS, "scholarship" means "cherry picking or fabricating facts to reach antisemitic conclusions."

Raissouni, who effusively praised October 7, names the models of the researchers he wants to see more of.

The first is Roger Garaudy, the French philosopher whom Raissouni credits with "the study and refutation of the founding religious myths and legends of Zionist theories." He calls on scholars to continue "along the path Garaudy began." Garaudy was convicted in France in 1998 for Holocaust denial, for a book arguing that the Holocaust death toll and the gas chambers were largely invented to serve Israeli political interests. This is the ideal researcher to the Muslim scholars represented by IUMS.

The second model is Abdelwahab Elmessiri, praised for having "disturbed Israel and Zionism more than the Arab armies surrounding it." Elmessiri's life's work was an eight-volume Encyclopedia of the Jews, Judaism, and Zionism arguing that Jewish peoplehood itself is a fiction rather than a genuine identity — treating the existence of the Jews as a phenomenon to be explained away rather than a people to be studied.

Raissouni then turns to Morocco. He writes that Moroccan academic history has spent decades "falsifying" the record to inflate the role Jews played in the country's development, and that the professors doing this work are funded by "poisoned Zionist grants," some of them acting as brokers who bring in the money themselves. The Jews being studied, he says, are not really contributors to Moroccan history at all — "in reality they consider themselves an infiltrated Israeli mission serving the Kingdom of Solomon." Yes, the Jews are so crafty that they sent their people to Morocco in Roman times, before Islam, just so they can pretend to be part of Morocco's history. It takes a special kind of scholarship to come up with this conclusion, and that is exactly what Raissouni and IUMS want to see more of.

Raissouni also wants to tackle scholarship on antisemitism, which he calls "a sword hanging over politicians, thinkers, historians, human rights advocates, and judges." Obviously antisemitism doesn't really exist. Just as obviously, this article isn't Exhibit A.

He also asserts, without a single source, that "perhaps a third of Americans, a third of Europeans, and certainly tens of millions" of people are driven by fabricated Torah and Talmudic myths. Well, duh.

The thing is, as I read this, that the concept of perverting research to reach a predetermined conclusion is not a Muslim innovation. What he demands in the Muslim world is happening, today, among thousands of Western academics in captured fields like Middle East history, social justice, gender studies, art history and dozens of other fields; openly advocating a political position and twisting facts to reach the end goal. Muslims don't need more people who understand Hebrew; they can just read the papers being published constantly by Western universities.

The only innovation Raissouni brings is that he is unusually candid about naming his goal and his heroes in advance.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

Reclaiming the Covenant on America's 250th (May 2026)

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)