"They may have driven through the crosswalk when someone was in the crosswalk, which is a crosswalk violation," Sgt. Det. John Boyle told JNS.

Boyle added that police are still investigating for "bias indicators." The driver reportedly accelerated while driving toward the Jewish couple.

"With the Jewish holidays coming up, people are always going to be on edge," he said. "I don't want people to be in fear."

The incident occurred shortly after 7:20 p.m. on Aug. 14, as a husband and wife crossed at Washington Street and Euston Road on their way to Congregation Kadimah-Toras Moshe, an Orthodox synagogue in Brighton.

The driver allegedly shouted "f**k Israel."

Surveillance footage showed what appeared to be a green metallic Audi A-series sedan with distinctive stickers on its rear bumper, according to an incident report. The driver was listed as an unidentified male.

The couple declined medical evaluations at the scene, and synagogue staff provided investigators with still images from surveillance footage.

No injuries were reported.

“I’ve been here for eight months, and I’ve seen people make unauthorized electrical connections, running cables from one building to another and using makeshift outlets. It’s not professionally installed. The electric company didn’t do it for them,” a police spokesperson told The Press Service of Israel.

An investigation by the security agencies officially determined that the fire that broke out on Feb. 17, 2026, at a sheep pen in the area of as-Samu, was caused by an electrical malfunction. Fire investigators from the Fire and Rescue Authority and forensic investigators determined that an electrical fault ignited the tarpaulin sheets used to cover the sheep pen, and the fire quickly spread into the structure. As a result, about 75 sheep inside the pen died.

In that case, too, Palestinian sources claimed that the fire had been deliberately set by Israeli "settlers," as part of what they described as a “price tag” attack. However, the professional investigation completely ruled out criminal or nationalist motives and determined that the fire originated from an electrical malfunction.

The sheep pen investigation also raised suspicions of an attempt to obstruct the inquiry. The owners of the pen initially claimed that the site was not connected to the electrical grid at all, but police investigators discovered that the main power cable had been deliberately disconnected shortly after the fire broke out, potentially compromising the findings of the investigation.

On Thursday, the Judea and Samaria District Police said that investigators found no traces of an accelerant at the scene of the fire in the village of Beit Amra.

The findings contradict an account given by Bassam al-Nawaj, a resident of the building, who told Palestinian Authority-run WAFA news agency that five masked and armed Israelis burned the home after smashing a window and throwing a flammable substance inside.

Police officers from the Hebron Station, together with a Judea and Samaria District forensic investigator and a Judea and Samaria Fire and Rescue fire investigator, examined the site after entering the area under Israel Defense Forces protection.

“We received the initial report at around 6:30 or 7 a.m. We sent a team of investigators, including a forensic investigator and a fire investigator from the Fire and Rescue Service. The fire investigator and the police forensic investigator examined the site and determined that the fire was caused by an electrical short circuit,” Shimon Cohen, spokesperson for the Israel Police Judea Region, told The Press Service of Israel.

“They identified the source of the short circuit and the point where the fire started. They also found no traces of any accelerant at the scene,” Cohen added. “If someone had thrown a Molotov cocktail, there would normally be traces of an accelerant, whether from the bottle itself or from whatever was used to start the fire. There was nothing of the sort.”

Investigators also identified what they determined was the likely source of the electrical fault.

Police said there was no security footage available to independently establish who was present at the building when the fire began.

“People can make all kinds of claims, but ultimately, we have to rely on the factual findings at the scene,” Cohen said.

The document, released on Wednesday, examined primary and general elections across the United States through Aug. 12 that involved candidates whom a local, state or national DSA chapter endorsed or recommended. The report noted that some chapters give a recommendation, meaning “general support without full alignment,” and acknowledged that chapters have different endorsement criteria.

The study did not include candidates who align themselves with democratic socialism but haven’t yet been backed by a DSA chapter.

There were 99 DSA-backed candidates in local races, 33 of whom won, 34 lost and 31 were listed as “no primary,” meaning that they didn’t appear on the primary ballot. One race remains outstanding.

Of 104 DSA-backed candidates in state legislative races, 66 won, 24 lost, 10 were in the “no primary” category and four remain outstanding.

There were 64 DSA-backed candidates in congressional races, 19 of whom won, 42 lost, one was in the “no primary” category and two races remain outstanding. Among 15 statewide races, five won and 10 lost.

The majority of these candidates were in areas with “a history of Democratic strength,” with 90 in California and 21 in New York, according to the report.

“As a state or district becomes more competitive, fewer DSA-endorsed candidates run, and fewer win,” the report stated.

It noted that only 10 DSA-backed candidates won in congressional districts that the Cook Partisan Voting Index reported as having a Democratic lean of less than 10 points.

Overall, “the scarcity of candidates and their lack of strong success rates overall make this look more like a skirmish than a war” in terms of the DSA’s standing in the Democratic Party, according to the report.

However, the “high-profile” DSA wins serve as a “warning to the rest of the party,” the report stated.

“They signal that unhappiness with the Democratic establishment and, in the post-Biden world, opposition to elderly officeholders can be leveraged by young, charismatic DSA candidates and reflect an impatience with party leadership that transcends ideology,” it added.

With 95% of votes counted in California's 14th Congressional District, Wahab had 51,610 votes (53.1%) to 45,598 votes (46.9%) for Hernandez.

Wahab has accused Israel of “genocide.” Hernandez has said that “Israel had the right to defend itself” after Oct. 7 but that “the destruction in Gaza has gone too far.” Super PACS tied to AIPAC spent more than $4.4 million in the race opposing Wahab and supporting Hernandez, according to federal data.

Jared Sclar, a Democratic consultant in San Diego who consulted on Hernandez’s 2020 campaign for Alameda County Board of Supervisors, told JNS that “the headline is that AIPAC spent millions and lost."

"The more useful story is that the money moved this race about 20 points and still came up short,” Sclar said.

“Wahab won the June special primary by 26. She is winning this runoff by about six," he said. "An independent expenditure program that closes 20 points in six weeks is not a failure. It is one of the more effective independent expenditure efforts you will see this cycle."

“It just started too far behind to finish the job,” he said.

Sclar said that the two candidates will run against each other again in November for the full term.

“The November electorate will be two to three times the size of a sleepy August special," he said. "Hernandez now has proof of concept, a donor network and 20 points of momentum.”

“Wahab has a narrow win in a low-turnout special and a scar," he said. "That is a genuinely competitive rematch, which nobody would have said in June, though the incumbency advantage for Wahab now isn’t nothing.”

Sclar thinks that Wahab’s “closing argument” against AIPAC spending, which included “publishing a list of AIPAC-linked donors to her opponent,” won’t work in the general election.

“Turning individual donors into targets invites exactly the response AIPAC gave, that it stigmatizes Jewish donors, and it puts a candidate in the position of defending a tactic rather than making a case,” he told JNS. “In a larger November electorate, that is a harder argument to sustain.”

Dan Schnur, a political science lecturer at Pepperdine University, the University of Southern California and the University of California, Berkeley, told JNS that “winning is always better than losing, but AIPAC deserves credit for turning what would have been a landslide into a real nail-biter.”

“Make no mistake. They came up short, but they sent a strong message to other anti-Israel candidates and their supporters that even in an era of Mamdani, AOC and DSA," he told JNS, of the Democratic Socialists of America.

"Candidates like Wahab are still going to be in for a fight,” he said.

Tali Klima, spokeswoman for Bay Area Jewish Coalition-Action, told JNS that “we are concerned by Wahab’s election and the trend toward far-left or DSA-affiliated candidates who use antisemitic tropes to get elected.

“In this case, Wahab’s campaign increasingly singled out AIPAC to increase voter turnout by stoking fears of Jewish government control,” Klima said. “This has become a popular dog whistle that endangers Jewish constituents and cements hatred against us.”

She added that “we’re afraid that anti-Jewish conspiracies will be used by opportunistic politicians, interest groups and powerful PACs to promote Wahab’s campaign from now through November, fueling additional antisemitic incidents in the area."

“We call on Wahab to reject any attempts to leverage her campaign to stoke anti-Jewish sentiment in the Bay Area and divide her constituency,” Klima said.

The attacker, Larry Montes, burst in, calling the congregation “fake Jews,” striking a 63-year-old woman in the face and headbutting a security guard. He raised no alarms on his way in. Despite the frightening intrusion, prayer services continued as an act of defiance. Like an eerie foreshadowing, Rabbi Angela Buchdahl had warned weeks earlier that political rhetoric was creating “the climate in which threats and violence flourish.”

New York City Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who grew up in the congregation and was married there, stated that “a place of worship should never be a crime scene.”

Buchdahl’s warning had been directed at New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whose “rhetoric that demonizes Jews and the Jewish state” she condemned, while citing multiple prior threats against her congregation.

American synagogues maintain a level of security that places of worship for other faiths rarely need—and it was still not enough. Protection stops at the door, leaving Jews exposed the moment they step onto the sidewalk. Solutions that can restore a sense of safety require politicians, law enforcement and non-Jewish neighbors to treat an attack on Jews as an attack on America itself.

Deadly attacks increase security costs

Security preparations at synagogues, schools and other Jewish community centers are now standard, often carried out by people who never signed up for the job. Clergy rehearse active shooter scenarios, volunteers guard doors and preschoolers practice lockdown drills.

The deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history pushed communities to increase their security. The Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh had no armed guard at its doors when a white supremacist murdered 11 Jewish worshippers in October 2018. A year later, a gunman murdered Lori Gilbert-Kaye, 60, inside Chabad of Poway, Calif., before congregant Oscar Stewart charged him and he was apprehended by law enforcement.

The Hamas-led massacre of 1,200 people and kidnapping of 251 others in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, unleashed an unprecedented wave of antisemitic violence in the United States and around the world. This past March, an Islamist terrorist drove his pickup truck filled with explosives into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Mich., stopping only feet from the Early Childhood Center, where more than 100 young children were inside. The security director led an FBI active-shooter training for the synagogue’s staff months earlier, information that helped save lives that day.

The Jewish Federations of North America puts the cost of community security protection at $765 million a year, warning that it means “fewer resources for education, camps and essential programs.” A Teach Coalition report found that Jewish day schools are spending 84% more on security currently than before Oct. 7, akin to “an antisemitism tax.” Synagogues are preparing perimeter plans and hiring guards now for the High Holidays, which begin at sundown on Sep. 11, the 25th anniversary of the worst attack on U.S. soil, resulting in the collapse of the World Trade Center and deaths of nearly 3,000 people.

Attackers target Jews where they’re most vulnerable

FBI data shows that most anti-Jewish hate crimes are committed outside Jewish institutions—on city streets, at schools and in private homes. Nationally, Jews are targeted in 64% of religious-based hate crimes, despite only being about 2% of America’s population. Beyond the perimeter, what often marks a Jew as a target is visibility: a kippah, a Star of David or Hebrew being spoken.

Moshe Grunhaus had just finished afternoon prayers at the Jewish Center on Manhattan’s Upper West Side on July 23 when an assailant shouting Allahu Akbar (“God is great”) stabbed a screwdriver into his chest. Grunhaus, who was wearing a kippah, pulled it out himself. Four blocks away, the attacker stabbed a 57-year-old Asian man in the back.

A Hadassah survey of Jewish women found 52% had hidden their Jewish identity out of fear. “I am afraid to wear my Jewish Star necklace and chai ring out in public,” one respondent said. “I only wear it to the synagogue, Hadassah and other Jewish events.”

Faith groups are answering threats together

A response to the violence and intimidation is already underway in state legislatures, federal court and among neighbors; however, more is needed.

After tense protests outside Manhattan’s Park East Synagogue in May, Jewish New Yorkers didn't wait for a second incident. Leaders pressed their legislature to enact a 50-foot buffer zone around houses of worship, community centers and religious schools of all faiths, making it a misdemeanor to intimidate individuals entering them.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul stated that these kinds of demonstrations are “harassment, not free expression.” Since Mamdani declined to sign a similar bill protecting houses of worship, the New York City Council overrode him with a veto-proof majority.

The California legislature is also pursuing safe worship zones and a measure expanding state security grants to cover events held away from a congregation’s building, written after anti-Israel protests at Wilshire Boulevard Temple and Adas Torah in Los Angeles.

The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act makes it a federal crime to obstruct religious worship, but for three decades, it was used almost exclusively in abortion clinic cases. That changed when the StandWithUs Center for Legal Justice, supported by the U.S. Department of Justice, sued the organizers of the mob that blocked Jews from entering Adas Torah. Assistant U.S. Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said that the “pioneering application of the FACE Act to defend Jewish synagogues” is now the model for protecting churches.

Neighbors have stepped up their support as well. After the terror attack at Temple Israel in Michigan, the Shenandoah Country Club opened its doors. Temple Israel said the Catholic organization founded by the Chaldean Iraqi American Association of Michigan “welcomed us, fed us, and sheltered our staff, teachers, children and parents.”

On Capitol Hill, more than 100 Jewish organizations across the ideological spectrum are backing a six-point security policy plan asking national politicians to raise the Nonprofit Security Grant Program to $1 billion annually. Current funding falls far short of that and a bipartisan group of lawmakers recently raised concerns.

The day after her congregation was attacked, Buchdahl described the city she wants: “One in which people of all faiths, classes and colors feel belonging.” Religious freedom is one of the most cherished American values.

Points to consider:

1. Armed guards have become a prerequisite for Jews to worship safely.

Joined by other faith groups, a coalition of Jewish organizations is pressing Congress to pass the Pray Safe Act, which would create a centralized resource hub to provide security guidance for houses of worship. Jewish Federations of North America CEO Eric Fingerhut told Congress that exercising the First Amendment right to worship now “depends on comprehensive, even extraordinary, security precautions.” That is not a description of a grant program; it is an admission that prayer itself now requires a security plan. In Europe, many synagogues require armed soldiers—a sight American Jews hope never becomes their reality.

2. Being visibly Jewish in public carries real risk.

A Star of David deserves to be worn as proudly as a cross or any other religious symbol, but for many Jews, the anxiety starts before leaving home. Jews also weigh whether to wear a kippah or cover it with a baseball cap or to speak Hebrew in public—considerations that would be unimaginable for most Americans walking out their door.

3. Violence aimed at Jews does not stop with Jews.

The man who stabbed Moshe Grunhaus outside his Upper West Side synagogue in July also stabbed an Asian man. Two teenage gunmen who murdered three men at a San Diego mosque earlier this year carried a racist manifesto that also targeted Jews. An attacker who hates Jews rarely stops at just them. Anyone who ignores an attack on Jews should not assume that they are safe from the next one.

4. Federal security funding for all religions falls far short of needs.

A coalition of faith groups wrote to congressional leaders warning of an “unprecedented and escalating threat environment facing religious communities” and requesting up to $1 billion annually for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program. Congress appropriated $300 million for 2026, and the House Appropriations Committee has proposed $315 million for 2027—a third of the request, two years running. A funding request that keeps getting shortchanged is not a budget dispute; it is an unheeded warning.

5. Jews respond to danger with defiance.

Central Synagogue’s Rabbi Buchdahl said her sanctuary has filled to the balconies every Friday night since Oct. 7. She is moved to tears by it “because I know it takes a lot of courage sometimes to do that, to just show up.” Union for Reform Judaism president Rabbi Rick Jacobs answered the Central Synagogue attack the same way: “We will not answer fear by retreating behind locked doors.” Every filled sanctuary is not simply attendance; it is an answer of defiance in the face of continuing attacks.

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Well, he has appeared happily in public alongside Hasan Piker (who has shared antisemitic sentiments and support for terrorism), and he answered a reporter’s question, “Do you think [Israel is] just as evil as Hamas?” with a “Yes.”

At an event that El-Sayed held shortly after the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Feb. 28—the first day of the joint U.S.-Israeli war on Iran—the candidate told his staff that he wasn’t going to comment on the death of the mullah, who was responsible for the murder of thousands of Iranian citizens.

He shared his feeling that the dictator’s demise had resulted in “a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad.”

And the day after the recent election, he called Israel “bloodthirsty.”

But even more disturbing than El-Sayed’s hobnobbing with an antisemite or harsh judgment of Israel’s actions in Gaza is his refusal to acknowledge that Israel even has a right to exist.

Asked if it does, he responded: “I often struggle with the question that people ask in this particular scenario, because what they now ask is, ‘Do you believe in the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state,’ which, to me, forces the question of a definition of what a Jewish state means.”

“I need folks,” he continued, “who want to ask me that question [to explain] what it is that they mean by that, and how that is consistent with any form of liberal values that we say we believe in here in the United States.”

It’s a reasonable ask. And there is a reasonable answer.

Israel defined itself as a Jewish state when it declared its independence in May 1948; the following year, it was formally admitted as an official member nation of the United Nations.

The “Jewish” in Israel’s self-definition meant that it would be a homeland for any Jewish person who wishes to become a citizen. That is the legacy of the fact that persecuted Jews were turned away from numerous countries during the Holocaust. Part of Israel’s raison d’être was to offer sanctuary to any future threatened Jews.

Anyone, though—no matter his or her race, religion or ethnicity—can also become an Israeli citizen through a normative naturalization process or by marrying an Israeli citizen. Entirely consistent with “liberal values.”

Israel’s Jewish identity does inform its laws and culture. Its workday calendar respects the Jewish Sabbath and holidays; in Jerusalem and other large Israeli cities, an almost tangible calm descends each Friday as the Jewish Sabbath arrives. Retail stores are generally not permitted to open during the Jewish Sabbath. But that is akin to the “blue laws” that exist in parts of the United States.

The fact that the country’s official language is Hebrew also telegraphs its Jewishness. But Arabic and English are also widely spoken, and official street signs are in all three languages.

Kosher food is served at government functions and in the military. But non-kosher food is widely sold and available to anyone who wants it.

And, obviously, the majority of Israelis are Jewish, and so that, too, reflects the state’s connection to the Jewish faith.

There is an official state rabbinate, but its purview is limited to things like personal religious status, marriage, divorce and burial. And the very same religious autonomy and authority are granted to Christian and Muslim communities in the state. Ten distinct Christian denominations (including Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Armenian) run independent church courts. The Israeli government pays the salaries of selected Muslim imams and provides operational budgets for major non-Jewish houses of worship.

The Israeli Ministry of Education funds the country’s school system, including both secular and religious schools: Jewish, Muslim and Christian. Universal healthcare in Israel is accessible to all Israeli citizens, regardless of religion.

Likewise, national insurance benefits and pensions. Muslims and Christians in Israel enjoy the same equal employment rights and legal protection against workplace discrimination provided to Jews. Muslims and Christians work across diverse sectors—healthcare, high-tech, education and law—often alongside Jewish co-workers. All in keeping with “liberal values.”

There is, in fact, unfettered freedom of religion in the country – for all citizens. Including for Jews, some 45% of whom self-identify as “secular.” They are able to violate Jewish religious laws without legal repercussions.

In very religious neighborhoods, modest dress is expected, out of the local social norm and respect for the local population—just as a modest dress code is in place for all visitors entering Vatican museums and the Sistine Chapel. But in the end, there are no legal restrictions on dress anywhere in Israel. Because Israel hews to “liberal values.”

Israel maintains the institutions, too, of a liberal democracy, including regular and competitive elections, a free press and an independent judiciary. Arab citizens of Israel—Muslims and Christians alike—have the right to vote, run for office, and serve in the Knesset and as judges, even on the country’s highest court. As they have indeed done.

All that should hopefully satisfy El-Sayed’s concern about the “Jewish state.” He may wish, however, to ask what countries whose constitutions explicitly name Islam as the state religion are like.

Countries like Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates. And Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brunei, Malaysia, Maldives and Pakistan. Not to mention Mauritania and Djibouti.

Curiously, El-Sayed has not, at least publicly, expressed any angst about any of those nations’ religious identities, which actually do inform their often onerous laws. Many, if not all of them are openly rejective of “liberal values.”

Only Israel’s Jewish identity seems to trouble him.

And so that is why El-Sayed’s designation as the Democratic candidate for a Senate seat rightly concerns those who appreciate Israel and care about her security.

Originally published in “Ami Magazine.”

“The United States will not relent in targeting Iran’s financial support networks, including those enabling Hezbollah to threaten peace, undermine the sovereignty of the Lebanese state and endanger the security of our regional allies,” wrote Tommy Pigott, spokesman for the State Department.

The official said that Hezbollah, which has long been sanctioned as a foreign terrorist organization, is being re-designated “an Iranian proxy, not a stand-alone operation as implied by the previous designation.”

The action on Thursday “builds on years of U.S. designations that have repeatedly documented the operational, financial and logistical integration” between Hezbollah and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, which is Iran’s elite military wing specializing in unconventional warfare, foreign intelligence and management of Iran's network of terrorist proxies throughout the Middle East.

Thursday’s determination “formally recognizes” Hezbollah’s activities “as an extension of the IRGC-QF” and “not a Lebanese resistance movement.”

Jointly, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned 10 people, who it said take part in a network that helps move hundreds of millions of dollars of sanctions-evading cash transfers between the Quds Force and Hezbollah, using commercial flights between Lebanon, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Iran.

“The investigation and disruption of this network are the result of close coordination and collaboration with our Turkish partners,” Pigott wrote.

The State Department official said that Hezbollah has “twice dragged Lebanon into devastating wars, subordinating the country’s interests to Tehran’s regional agenda and leaving the Lebanese people to bear the consequences.” He called the terror group “the obstacle to Lebanon’s sovereignty, stability and economic recovery.”

The United States, Israel and Lebanon have developed a trilateral framework to help restore Lebanese sovereignty to the southern part of the country, which Hezbollah has long used to launch attacks on Israel.

As part of that pact, Israel and Lebanon are coordinating on so-called "pilot zones," and Hezbollah, either voluntarily or by force, is to exit designated areas and relocate further north.

At the same time, the Lebanese Armed Forces will take over and Israeli forces will withdraw.

State Department officials have expressed optimism about the trajectory of ongoing talks between Israel and Lebanon to implement the agreement.

"If men don’t understand 'don’t rape women,' why the hell is the UK letting them in at all?" said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

The Home Office booklet, titled, "Understanding behaviours and expectations in the UK," notes that British laws and customs may differ from those in asylum seekers' countries of origin.

"In the UK, men and women have equal rights," it states, adding that women may work, study, travel and choose whom to marry without permission from a male relative.

The booklet also addresses domestic abuse, coercive control and sexual offenses. "Consent means both people freely agree to sex or sexual contact," it states, adding that consent is required within marriage and may be withdrawn at any time.

Asylum seekers are instructed not to harass people in public, make sexual comments, follow someone, block someone's path or "verbally abuse someone because of their gender, religion or how they look."

The booklet comes after British lawmakers released a Rape Gang Inquiry Report in June, which found that the "root cause" of groups of young men organizing to sexually abuse women and girls is "immigration."

"This sort of thing goes on anywhere that either welcomes mass migration from Muslim countries or contains a long-established Muslim population," the report states. "There is a consistent pattern of sexual violence directed against non-Muslim minorities in settings where Muslims form the majority."

According to the Muslim Council of Britain's May 2026 data, there are "4 million Muslims in the United Kingdom, forming 6% of the population." Of those, 3.8 million live in England, with just over half born in the U.K. The Refugee Council states that 93,525 people applied for asylum in the U.K. in January-March 2026.

Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) said, "I have a bright idea. If it has to be explained to somebody that rape is bad, you probably shouldn't bring that person to your country in the first place."

According to information released by the Israel Defense Forces and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), Hamas’s internal security and military intelligence services are conducting interrogations on the second floor of the hospital’s outpatient clinic.

The statement said Hamas is exploiting the hospital “as a center of power regardless of its medical function, for the purpose of interrogations, torture and extortion.”

Nasser Hospital remains “a central military facility for the Hamas terrorist organization in the southern Gaza Strip,” with Hamas operatives, including masked members, maintaining a presence in various parts of the complex, the agencies said.

Hamas’s presence exposes patients and medical staff to its activities, creating fear and interfering with the hospital’s civilian functions, they added.

According to the statement, another building currently used for interrogations had previously housed hospital offices, a cafeteria and later a house of prayer.

The Israeli agencies have previously cited Hamas "military" activity at the hospital compound. In May 2025, Israel struck terrorists in a command-and-control center located inside the hospital compound. Ismail Barhoum, a member of the Hamas politburo and the terrorist group’s financial chief, was killed in a separate strike on the compound that year.

Eighty-five percent of Gaza’s hospitals have been used by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad for terrorism, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

As reported by The Press Service of Israel in 2023, Hamas made extensive use of the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, the Strip’s largest medical center. Hamas fired rockets from its compound, hid hostages inside the hospital, tortured collaborators and dug tunnel shafts.

Other Palestinians told Israeli interrogators Hamas deeply embedded itself in the Palestinian Red Crescent Society to use hospitals and clinics as a base for attacks.

The Clark University psychology department is among the first programs participating in the initiative, which will work with institutions that train future psychologists, social workers and counselors. Through partnerships with administrators, counseling center staff and program leaders, the initiative will integrate contemporary antisemitism education into programs that prepare future mental health professionals. By combining Project Shema's expertise in antisemitism education with the Ruderman Family Foundation's work in mental health, the partnership aims to help institutions better understand the mental health impacts of antisemitism across the campus community, strengthen cultural competency and better support Jewish students.

The partnership comes amid a sustained rise in antisemitic incidents on college campuses throughout the United States. A 2026 study from Brandeis University found that nearly half (47%) of Jewish college students surveyed had experienced some form of prejudice on campus because of their Jewish identity, while 37% felt their campus was hostile to Jews. The study drew on a national sample representing more than 300 colleges and universities. Against this backdrop, the partnership seeks to help colleges and universities better recognize contemporary forms of antisemitism and understand the mental health impacts of antisemitism across the campus community.

"Antisemitism doesn't just affect Jewish students' sense of belonging. It can have a profound impact on their mental health and well-being," said Jay Ruderman, president of the Ruderman Family Foundation. "Addressing that impact requires collaboration, education and a commitment to building more inclusive campus communities. This partnership brings together unique expertise to help colleges better support Jewish students and foster environments where every student feels safe, included and understood."

Through the initiative, Project Shema is working with participating colleges to deliver educational programming tailored to the institutions and programs that prepare future mental health professionals. The training incorporates mental health content developed in collaboration with Miri Bar-Halpern, Ph.D., along with additional educational resources institutions can use to reinforce it. Together, the organizations will integrate mental health expertise into Project Shema's contemporary antisemitism training, helping colleges strengthen cultural competency, better understand the mental-health impacts of antisemitism and foster more inclusive campus environments.

"Jewish students are navigating complex identities and forms of harm that are often misunderstood, particularly in conversations around Israel and Palestine," said Kara A. Wilson, chief strategy officer at Project Shema. "This partnership will equip future mental health professionals and the learning institutions that prepare them to recognize antisemitism with greater nuance and respond with care. Ultimately, it’s about fostering learning environments where Jewish students can fully engage and thrive without having to flatten or defend their identities."

Central to the initiative is Project Shema's research-based approach to contemporary antisemitism education. Through facilitated dialogue and educational programming, the organization helps participants better understand Jewish identity, recognize anti-Jewish bias, challenge harmful narratives and develop the skills needed to foster Jewish inclusion within pluralistic institutions and communities.

That expertise will be paired with the Ruderman Family Foundation's work to end the stigma associated with mental health, including identifying gaps in mental health resources and programming within high school and higher education communities. Together with the Foundation's work within the American Jewish community, the organizations bring expertise to an initiative at the intersection of mental health, antisemitism and Jewish inclusion.

Damascus chose to disregard the warning, continuing instead to pursue Iranian weapons shipments moving along the so-called “land bridge” from Iran through Iraq to the Lebanese border, while actively working to disrupt Hezbollah’s logistics network inside Syrian territory. Syrian security forces intercepted a major Iranian arms shipment at the Al-Tanf crossing on the Iraqi border, concealed inside an oil tanker bound for the Banias refinery and destined for Hezbollah in Lebanon. A separate shipment of Grad rockets, long-range missiles and advanced drones, smuggled across the same Iraqi corridor from stockpiles held by Iranian-backed militias, was also seized.

This anti-Iranian, and by extension anti-Hezbollah, posture reflects a broader Syrian orientation that has hardened as regional hostilities have escalated. From its earliest days, the interim government in Damascus pursued a deliberate policy of distancing itself from Tehran, prompting Iran’s threat as an attempt to deter Syria from lending active support to the U.S.–Israeli campaign against Hezbollah. Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem floated a reconciliation proposal, essentially urging both sides to “let bygones be bygones,” but Damascus declined to take the bait. Instead, Syria deployed more than four divisions, including former fighters who had taken part in the campaign against Bashar Assad, along its border with Lebanon, targeting areas long used as smuggling routes for weapons, fighters and narcotics.

Tensions deepened further once Tehran recognized that Damascus was openly backing Lebanese state efforts to disarm Hezbollah while simultaneously conducting sweeps against Iranian-backed supply lines along the border. It remains far from clear, however, that Iran would actually strike inside Syria, or what threshold would trigger such a decision. Still, in a regional environment where strategic logic often gives way to improvisation, Iran has targeted several of its neighbors, including sites inside Jordan, suggesting that an operation against Syria cannot be ruled out.

A fragile state in the making

Damascus, for its part, is far from passive. Under the interim government of President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the geopolitical landscape surrounding Syria has come to revolve around several interlocking dynamics, chief among them the Israeli-Syrian effort to manage border security, sovereignty and regional proxy threats. Central issues include halting the transit of Iranian arms to Hezbollah, establishing a demilitarized buffer zone in southern Syria, and addressing the deep Israeli military incursions and airstrikes conducted across Syrian territory since Assad’s fall. Despite persistent tensions on the ground, Syria, Israel and the United States signed the Syria-Israel Joint Communication Mechanism Agreement in Paris in January 2026, establishing a “Joint Fusion Mechanism” to coordinate intelligence, prevent military miscalculation, and manage border friction. A comprehensive peace and security treaty, however, remains stalled over conflicting demands regarding the Golan buffer zone.

Yet the new Syrian regime remains far from consolidated. The unity Damascus projects to the outside world conceals a military structure still built from former factions, regional commanders and armed groups whose loyalties were forged during the civil war and have not automatically transferred to a unified national command. The 62nd Division, commanded by Mohammed al-Jassem, known as Abu Amsha, and built around the former Turkish-backed Sultan Suleiman Shah formation, exemplifies this structural weakness. Reports of friction and even outright insubordination among commanders of such formations should be read as a meaningful warning sign, even where individual claims are difficult to verify independently. The core issue is that the new Syrian army has yet to become a genuinely homogeneous national institution; Damascus still has to demonstrate that it can impose an undisputed chain of command over powerful field commanders who retain their own fighters, local networks and foreign patrons.

This internal fragility is compounded by the unresolved sectarian question. The bloody confrontations involving the Druze in Sweida, alongside the massacres and retaliatory violence targeting the Alawite community, have shown that Assad’s fall did not automatically produce a stable or inclusive political order. Government forces, affiliated armed groups, tribal formations and local militias have all been implicated in serious abuses. The scale of the violence, and the limited accountability that has followed, raises legitimate questions about the capacity and the willingness of the new authorities to protect minorities and discipline the armed formations acting in their name. Washington and European governments have condemned some of these episodes, but their broader policy has remained focused on stabilizing and reintegrating Damascus. In practice, the West appears willing to tolerate a great deal to prevent Syria from collapsing again and to keep it out of Iran’s orbit.

This Western tolerance is particularly striking in the economic sphere. The United States and Europe moved swiftly to remove or suspend much of the sanctions architecture that had isolated Syria, opening the door to reconstruction, investment and diplomatic normalization, well before the new regime had built a track record of political inclusion, minority protection or full accountability for abuses committed during the transition. Damascus offered assurances and benefited from its break with Iran, but the sanctions relief it received arguably outweighed the concessions it delivered in return. Ahmed al-Sharaa thus secured one of the most valuable instruments of international legitimacy and economic recovery at a relatively early stage of the transition.

The Turkish question

Closely related to both of these dynamics, Turkey has emerged as Damascus’s primary security partner. Under formal defense and advisory agreements, Ankara is actively training and restructuring the Syrian national army: the Turkish Armed Forces are providing commando training, establishing military academies and helping integrate Syrian forces, including the absorption of SDF-administered, Kurdish-held areas west of the Euphrates into state control.

This Turkish dimension deserves particular attention from Israel. Ankara’s role goes well beyond political sponsorship: Turkey has become deeply involved in training, advising and rebuilding the Syrian armed forces, and Turkish officials have openly discussed supplying the new army with weapons and military assistance. There has also been discussion of an additional Turkish military deployment, potentially including the use of Syrian bases or the stationing of air and air-defense assets. Such a development would fundamentally alter the strategic equation, placing the armed forces of a powerful regional state much closer to Israel’s borders and sharply constraining Israel’s freedom of action over Syrian airspace and territory.

Preventing Syria from becoming a Turkish forward military position should therefore be a central Israeli objective. Turkey is not Iran and should not be treated as such by default, but neither should Israel assume that Turkish and Israeli strategic interests in Syria will remain aligned indefinitely. Ankara’s growing influence over the Syrian army, combined with its political relationship with al-Sharaa, could eventually allow Turkey to shape the military balance across southern and central Syria. Israel should therefore insist that any emerging security arrangement with Damascus include clear limits on foreign military deployments, particularly Turkish combat aircraft, air-defense systems and permanent bases that could constrain Israeli operational freedom.

Russia steps back

Damascus and Moscow reached an agreement in August 2026 to formally restructure Russia’s long-standing military presence in the country. Under the deal, Russia is relinquishing sole military control, and Khmeimim Air Base and the Tartus naval facility, including its commercial berths, are being converted into joint Syrian-Russian training centers and civilian-managed infrastructure.

Israel’s positions and US pressure

Israel, for its part, continues to hold positions inside Syrian territory following the collapse of the Assad regime, arguing that these deployments are necessary to keep hostile forces away from its border and to preserve a security buffer in an exceptionally unstable environment. Maintaining this position diplomatically, however, is likely to become increasingly difficult. Washington has already pressed Israel to begin redeploying from Syrian territory, while Damascus and other international actors continue to demand a return to the arrangements that preceded Assad’s fall. Growing American and European pressure on Israel to withdraw, as negotiations with Damascus advance, should therefore be expected. Israel should not surrender strategically valuable positions in exchange for promises alone; any withdrawal should instead be tied to enforceable security arrangements: demilitarization, protection of the Druze population in southern Syria, prevention of hostile deployments, and credible guarantees regarding foreign military forces.

The American and Saudi role

The American administration functions as the central diplomatic mediator, facilitating the Syria-Israel talks, and as the anchor of counter-ISIS security efforts. Saudi Arabia is coordinating political and economic backing, helping pull Damascus out of Iran’s orbit while offering a financial bridge for Syrian recovery. President Donald Trump appointed Tom Barrack, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey, as special presidential envoy for Syria and Iraq. In this dual role, Barrack oversees U.S. diplomatic engagement in Damascus and Baghdad, coordinating border security, economic alignment, and the dismantling of Iranian militia networks. He is deeply involved in day-to-day policymaking and, in effect, holds many of the cards shaping Syria’s geopolitical positioning amid the broader transformation now underway across the Middle East.

The bottom line for Israel

Syria thus presents Israel with both an opportunity and a risk. On one hand, the removal of the Assad regime from Iran’s axis, the interdiction of Iranian weapons routes, and Damascus’s willingness to confront Hezbollah’s logistics network could all help forge a regional balance against Tehran. If sustained, Syria’s separation from Iran could sever one of Hezbollah’s most important strategic lifelines and make rebuilding the organization’s military capabilities far more difficult. This is a development Israel has every reason to encourage.

On the other hand, Israel should not mistake a temporary convergence of interests for a durable strategic alliance. The al-Sharaa regime remains internally fragile, its army is still being assembled from competing armed formations, sectarian tensions remain unresolved, and Turkey is rapidly expanding its military and political footprint. Israel should therefore monitor developments closely and avoid extending concessions to Damascus in exchange for declarations of moderation alone; every Israeli concession should be matched by a concrete, verifiable Syrian commitment. Above all, Israel should make clear that replacing Iranian military influence with a significant Turkish military presence is not an acceptable strategic outcome. The objective should be a stable Syria that blocks Iran and Hezbollah, respects its minority communities, and does not become the forward military platform of another regional power.

Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch, rabbi of the Western Wall and the holy sites, led prayers for the safety of IDF soldiers and security personnel. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar also attended.

Selichot are Jewish penitential prayers and poems recited in the period leading up to the High Holidays and on fast days, seeking divine forgiveness and mercy.

Kupershtein, who was abducted by Hamas from the Supernova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023, spent 738 days in captivity before being released in October 2025.

Berger, an IDF surveillance soldier stationed along the Gaza border, was abducted from the Nahal Oz military post on Oct. 7, and held by Hamas for 482 days before being released in January 2025.

Lord Stuart Polak, a Conservative member of the House of Lords, told JNS on Tuesday that Netanyahu’s remarks followed a long decline in relations that means the “U.K. is no longer a friend of Israel—and under Prime Minister Andy Burnham, we may become a foe.”

Israel, he added, “hasn’t changed its position in relation to Britain. It’s Britain that’s decided to believe everything that’s being spouted about so-called genocides, and, as a result, the relationship has soured.”

Polak, who is Jewish, is a former member of the House of Lords’ E.U. Security and Justice Sub-Committee.

Samuel Hayek, the chairman of JNF UK, a major Zionist charity in Britain, said Netanyahu’s formulation was “a phrase that many Britons use about their country.

“It was said during an election campaign [in Israel], and as such, sure, it’s not helpful for promoting bilateral ties with the U.K. But has it hurt ties in any way? Has it changed anybody’s mind, here or there, after the Labour-led degradation of ties? I really don’t think so,” Hayek told JNS.

Steve Winston, managing director of the National Jewish Assembly, a U.K.-based organization dedicated to promoting Jewish life and supporting Israel, said that "Netanyahu’s comment will certainly not have been received well in Whitehall,” where "it seems that, regardless of policy etc, any Israeli leader will always come under fire."

Still, Winston said, Netanyahu’s provocative statement reflected a desire to hit back at Britain only after relations had deteriorated to the point that they had become a shadow of their former self.

A fresh diplomatic row on Thursday illustrated that deterioration.

British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband declared that “Britain will not stand back and accept the destruction of the two-state solution” after Israel published tenders for construction in the E1 corridor east of Jerusalem.

Miliband said the impact of “settler violence and terrorism” had been “catastrophic” for Palestinian communities and vowed that Britain would introduce additional measures against Israeli government policies.

His Israeli counterpart, Gideon Sa’ar, rejected the remarks as “patronizing,” adding that Jews have the right to live throughout the Land of Israel, “just as the British have the right to live in London and throughout the United Kingdom.”

The exchange was the latest in a series of confrontations that began under the Conservative government and accelerated after Labour came to power.

The deterioration began immediately after Oct. 7, 2023, when the Conservatives were still governing under then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Winston said. He cited calls driven by the opposition, which Labour then led, for the government to demand that Israel refrain from pursuing its campaign against Hamas in Gaza.

Relations deteriorated further after Labour’s Keir Starmer replaced Sunak as prime minister in 2024. Starmer succeeded former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, a radical, anti-Israel left-winger who had been accused of fanning the flames of antisemitism in the U.K.

For the following two years, the Labour government repeatedly clashed publicly with Israel, Polak said. He attributed this policy partly to Britain’s changing political landscape and to efforts to appeal to new demographics amid large-scale Muslim immigration.

Starmer’s government also used increasingly forceful language about Israel, including a July 29, 2025, call for it to “stop the slaughter” in Gaza. The phrase echoed rhetoric used by anti-Israel protesters who had gathered by the thousands in London to demonstrate against the Jewish state.

In September 2025, Britain recognized a Palestinian state, alongside Australia and Canada. France also recognized one that year. The decision followed Britain’s suspension of roughly 30 arms-export licenses covering equipment deemed potentially usable in Israel’s military operations against Hamas in Gaza.

“When Britain recognized a Palestinian state while hostages remained in Gaza, rewarding terrorism, that was the decisive watershed moment,” Winston said.

Another nadir came in June 2025, when Britain sanctioned Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, imposing travel bans and asset freezes over what it described as repeated incitement of violence against Palestinians.

Winston characterized the sanctions differently. Britain had long opposed Israeli settlement in Judea and Samaria, he said, but its decision to target senior elected Israeli officials over policies that did not directly concern the U.K. amounted to a diplomatic intervention that “made constructive dialogue very difficult.”

Despite the diplomatic deterioration and the partial suspension of arms-export licenses, commercial relations remained comparatively resilient.

Bilateral trade in goods remained steady at approximately $4 billion annually, according to Israeli government data. Divided roughly evenly between imports and exports, that commerce made the U.K. Israel’s eighth-largest individual trading partner in 2025, two places ahead of India.

An additional $2 billion in services was exchanged between Israel and the U.K. that year.

Although trade remained robust, Polak and Winston argued that the diplomatic deterioration was increasingly reflected in British institutions and society.

For months, British police did not intervene as calls to “globalize the intifada” echoed through the streets of London, Manchester and elsewhere, Winston noted. Protesters were allowed to demonstrate against Israel outside synagogues.

A separate controversy erupted in Birmingham after Israeli soccer fans were barred from a 2025 match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Aston Villa. An independent review subsequently found that West Midlands Police had exaggerated the threat posed by the Israeli fans, relied on inaccurate information and failed to adequately consider the risks facing them.

The BBC, which has long faced allegations of promoting anti-Israel narratives, broadcast thousands of people at the Glastonbury music festival chanting “Death to the IDF” at the encouragement of Pascal Robinson-Foster, a rapper from the duo Bob Vylan.

Robinson-Foster also encouraged his listeners “not to give up your dreams,” even if they were now “working for Zionists,” as he said he had done earlier in his career.

The institutional controversies unfolded against the backdrop of a sharp rise in antisemitic violence and hate speech in Britain.

On Oct. 2, 2025, a jihadist attacked a synagogue in Manchester, killing two people.

The Community Security Trust, British Jewry’s antisemitism watchdog, recorded 1,662 antisemitic incidents in 2022. That figure rose to 4,298 in 2023, followed by 3,556 incidents in 2024 and 3,700 in 2025.

As the climate darkened toward Israel and “Zionists”—a term many British Jews interpret as an antisemitic euphemism for Jews—Netanyahu and others warned that the growth of antisemitism was linked to British government policies.

“They were accused of weaponizing antisemitism,” Winston said. “Yet many British Jews and others knew otherwise.”

The situation has caused some British Jews to question the future of their communities in the U.K. and, in some cases, to leave.

Last year, 872 Britons immigrated to Israel—a 40-year high, according to The Jewish Chronicle. In 2021 and 2022, Israel received 572 and 681 newcomers from the U.K., respectively.

“We have been concerned about what’s happening in the U.K. for quite a few years now,” Jeremy Jacobs, a former chief executive of the United Synagogue, told JNS in a May interview about his aliyah.

The United Synagogue supports 56 Orthodox synagogues in Britain.

“What happened after Oct. 7 only confirmed to us that leaving was the right decision,” Jacobs said.

Polak said he understood that sentiment but argued that the situation remained reversible, depending on what information was prioritized in the media and elsewhere.

“I do wonder whether there is a future here for my kids and grandkids. Of course, while they’re here, I’ll be here. If they go elsewhere, so will I,” he said.

“I’m very proud to be British. But I’m also very proud to be Jewish. We live a good life here. But some would argue that the writing’s on the wall. So that’s difficult.”

Ultimately, Polak said, “if you could get the right information across, and if the great people of Britain could be made to understand certain things, then, yeah, of course things could be changed.”

Hayek is more pessimistic.

“British Jews have no future—or, in any case, no significant future—in the U.K.,” he said.

Hayek attributed that outlook to demographic change resulting from a low birthrate among native Britons and the arrival of millions of immigrants, many of them Muslim.

“U.K.-Israeli relations have ebbed and flowed, including in 1973, when the U.K. imposed an arms embargo,” he said. “But Britain is not the same Britain anymore. Millions of Muslims mean different politics. This is the direction. There will be no reversal. It will only get worse for bilateral ties with Israel and for British Jews.”

The weeklong trip, sponsored by the Israeli Ministry of Tourism, comes as the number of visitors from the United States began to pick up this summer, just ahead of next month’s much-anticipated return to Tel Aviv by two major US legacy carriers.

“People do want to come; it’s just the fear factor of ‘Oh my God, it’s the Middle East,’” said Sima Pagash, a Los Angeles travel agent at Destinations and Adventures. “Being here for the first time, it’s been an eye-opener: I felt it’s like anywhere else.”

Her message to clients who thought she was crazy to come to Israel: “Stop worrying about the what-ifs and enjoy life.”

“I felt safer walking on the streets of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv than driving in my car in Atlanta,” said Henriette Ostrzega, a travel designer with Amara Voyages. “From what we see in the media in the U.S. or Europe, it’s always bad all the time or a focus on isolated incidents. This is not the reality you see on the ground.”

“There is a reticence and fear of coming to Israel in the travel industry even though everyone is eager to come,” said Richard Liverance, marketing director for the Israeli Ministry of Tourism in Los Angeles. “They are just waiting for the right time for things to settle down.”

About 200,000 American tourists visited Israel in the first seven months of the year, compared with some 230,000 during the same period last year, according to ministry figures. The 12% drop is attributed to the war with Iran, which began on Feb. 28.

With a tenuous ceasefire now in place, tourism from the United States was up 15% in July compared with the same month last year, with Americans making up one-third of all tourists entering Israel last month.

“As a Jewish American, life in the U.S. has become scary with every day another antisemitic incident and a lot of us asking where are we going to go,” said Dana Rasof of Exclusive Travel Partners in the Chicago suburb of Deerfield, who was last in Israel a quarter-century ago.

“Coming here has been an unbelievable feeling to be surrounded by your own people. It’s funny that some American Jews are more comfortable celebrating a bar or bat mitzvah celebration in Europe with all the incidents there.”

“As an American Catholic with Mexican roots, I grew up idolizing Jerusalem as the Holy Land where Jesus walked,” said Karina Nava, a travel agent with Exclusive Travel Partners in Los Angeles, who said most of her clients were scared or uncertain about making the journey. “It was so nice to see the mesh of Jews, Christians and Muslims in day-to-day life in Jerusalem. I felt super peaceful, including walking the streets at night.”

“It’s just been an eye-opener,” concurred Kim Shankland of Integrity Destination in Colorado Springs, who said she was struck by the friendliness of the people during her visit. “Every aspect of this visit just blows your mind away.”

Among them was Lt. Col. (res.) Almog S., 41, who was wounded in the thigh while commanding troops in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza. Despite his injury, Almog declined evacuation, fearing that the sight of a wounded commander could undermine his soldiers’ morale, and continued directing his forces for hours.

After his reserve duty ended, however, Almog faced what he described as another battle: coping with the psychological impact of combat.

The trip was organized by Belev Echad, a New York-based nonprofit that supports Israeli soldiers wounded in action through respite programs, rehabilitation and emotional assistance.

The delegation’s first stop was Cape Town, where members of the local Jewish community hosted the soldiers.

“Considering the intense political sensitivities and hostility in South Africa surrounding Israel, we had to keep all activities strictly under the radar,” said Rabbi Pinchas Hecht, who helped organize the visit with the Marais Road Synagogue community. “We marketed the events exclusively within the local Jewish community, creating intimate, incredibly powerful engagements.”

The soldiers joined local residents for a run, attended synagogue services and shared their experiences with community members.

“It was an absolute honor to host these very special people. I think the soldiers deeply appreciated the opportunity to connect and see firsthand that—despite what the news says about South Africa—our community is immensely supportive and forever grateful to those who risk their lives” for Israel and the Jewish people, Hecht said.

The delegation then headed to the Drakensberg mountain range for four days without cellphones. The soldiers hiked about 15 kilometers (9 miles) a day, carrying 30-kilogram (66-pound) rucksacks and reaching elevations approaching 3,000 meters (9,800 feet) in freezing winter conditions.

“Up there, where the air is thin and the screens go dark, the noise of war and trauma fades away,” said Belev Echad founder Rabbi Uriel Vigler.

“When you take ten men who have sacrificed so much, put 30-kilogram bags on their backs, and lead them up the highest peaks in South Africa, they stop surviving as isolated individuals. They are forced to lean on one another,” Vigler’s wife, Shevy, added.

The journey ended in Johannesburg, where the soldiers were hosted by the Sydenham Synagogue and met with about 150 congregants at a Shabbat dinner.

“We made sure to spoil them, to thank them, and to give them experiences where they were pampered and loved,” Sydenham’s Rabbi Yehuda Stern said. “But we were inspired by them, by their heroism, by their courage, by what they’ve done.”

"David Hogg remains a guest speaker for Bluetopia 2026 and is scheduled to speak at the gala," the chapter stated on Facebook.

It shared an updated flier that replaced Hogg's photo with a photo of gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms, a former mayor of Atlanta. "We represent one of the most diverse counties in our state, and we believe that diversity of experiences, perspectives and viewpoints strengthens our organization and our democratic process," it states.

"Except in extraordinary circumstances, GCDP does not make decisions about inviting or disinviting speakers based solely on their public statements or differing viewpoints," the group added. "Our goal is to provide an open forum where our members and the public can engage with leaders and public figures representing a range of perspectives within the Democratic Party."

The party's statements appeared to contradict the implications of an email that Curt Thompson, its chair, wrote to Esther Panitch, the only Jewish member of the Georgia state legislature, on Tuesday. JNS viewed that email.

The party chair was responding to a question from the state representative about whether the gala could be moved from its scheduled date on Rosh Hashanah, so that Jews could attend.

"While we cannot move the event, we are still fully committed to inclusivity," the party chair wrote. "As part of that process, we are adjusting our speaker lineup and replacing David Hogg as our principal speaker."

"While we recognize his voice and work engaging younger voters are valued by many, his recent remarks do not align with the spirit of a fundraiser intended to unite our broad coalition of candidates, communities and ultimately voters across Gwinnett," Thompson wrote to Panitch. "We are pleased that our gubernatorial nominee and former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance-Bottoms will deliver our keynote address."

Panitch did not ask Thompson to replace or remove Hogg. Her email to Thompson, which JNS also saw, focused only on rescheduling the Sept. 12 date.

"My letter did not mention any speaker," Panitch wrote on Facebook. "I asked about the date."

The party also stated on Thursday that members of the press should contact it "for confirmation or clarification regarding our events and programming."

JNS sought comment from the party on Wednesday, before publishing the first piece, and on Thursday.

Kathleen Waterman-Marshall, a New York State Supreme Court justice, dismissed the case on Aug. 13, finding that Abdou’s complaint failed to establish a defamation claim. The lawsuit, filed in August 2024, also alleged discrimination and a hostile work environment.

Abdou sued after Shafik testified before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce in April 2024 about antisemitism at Columbia. During questioning by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), Shafik was asked about Abdou, who had posted on social media days after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led terrorist attacks in Israel that he was “with Hamas and Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.”

“I share with you your repugnance at those remarks,” Shafik told Stefanik, adding that faculty members whose remarks crossed the line into antisemitism would face consequences. She also said Abdou “will never teach at Columbia again.”

Abdou, who taught at Columbia during the spring 2024 semester, argued that Shafik’s testimony defamed him and damaged his career.

Waterman-Marshall rejected the claim, noting that Abdou’s lawsuit alleged Shafik had called him antisemitic but “does not actually point to a single instance” in which she did so. The judge further found that Shafik’s statements were opinions based on Abdou’s specific social-media posts, the substance of which he did not dispute.

“While the court takes seriously claims that a party’s career has been negatively impacted, Professor Abdou’s complaint, even as supplemented, does not state a cause of action for defamation,” Waterman-Marshall wrote. “The House Committee hearing transcript makes clear that Dr. Shafik’s opinion statements were in response to Professor Abdou’s specific social media posts highlighted by Congressperson Stefanik, the content of which Professor Abdou did not dispute.”

The development comes after the union terminated Gordillo from its electrical-construction apprenticeship program "after ghosting his employer for months," according to the New York Post.

Local 3 stated on Wednesday that Gordillo enrolled in its construction apprenticeship program and became a union member. But after determining that he had been absent from required work and classes for an extended period, the trustees of the Joint Apprentice Training Committee fired him from the program in March.

The union’s action follows scrutiny of Gordillo’s personal finances. The 38-year-old socialist leader lives in a roughly $1.5 million Brooklyn townhouse his parents purchased and renovated through a family-owned LLC, according to the Post. His social media account, @unionGustavo, continues to identify him as a “union electrician.”

Gordillo has been a prominent critic of Israel. In April, he said the NYC-DSA was “heartened” by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-N.Y.) decision to oppose all U.S. military aid to Israel, including defensive systems such as the Iron Dome. He said the chapter supported her position and had been working to persuade her on the issue.

NYC-DSA has also described the war in Gaza as a “genocide,” a characterization Gordillo has echoed in his public activism.

As leading rabbis of the Zionist Rabbinic Coalition, an independent network of more than 2,000 North American rabbis spanning all denominational movements, we are deeply concerned about this contradiction. T’ruah says that it is “committed to the State of Israel’s (Medinat Yisrael’s) future as a Jewish and democratic state side by side with Palestine.” We welcome that declaration. But an organization is ultimately defined by its choices and actions, not its mission statement.

The decisions T’ruah has made in recent months are concerning, and they are not isolated lapses in judgment. They reflect a broader pattern that is becoming impossible to reconcile with the group’s stated identity.

As rabbis, we recognize that political disagreement within the Jewish community is both legitimate and necessary. Indeed, criticizing an Israeli government, opposing particular policies and advocating for Palestinian rights do not make a person or organization anti-Zionist. However, a rabbinic organization that claims a place within the Zionist community has a responsibility to distinguish such criticism from efforts to discredit Jewish national self-determination itself.

In recent months, T’ruah and its leadership have repeatedly elevated anti-Zionist figures and rhetoric.

T’ruah CEO Rabbi Jill Jacobs supported the effort to prevent Israeli President Isaac Herzog from addressing the Jewish Theological Seminary’s commencement in May, calling him “not an appropriate speaker” for the institution which ordains conservative rabbis. Her position treated the presence of Israel’s president, who plays a largely ceremonial and non-political role in the government, at a flagship American Jewish seminary as beyond acceptable communal bounds.

And yet, T’ruah gave New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the country’s most prominent elected opponent of Israel’s existence as a Jewish state, a featured speaking role at its annual gala in June and publicized his participation without acknowledging his longstanding hostility toward the Jewish state, including calling for Israel’s prime minister to be arrested for war crimes.

As Rabbis David-Seth Kirshner, Erez Sherman and Neil Zuckerman observed: “There is something profoundly revealing about a moral framework that seeks to deny a platform to the president of the Jewish state while enthusiastically offering one to a politician openly hostile to its existence.”

At the same gala, T’ruah presented its Raphael Lemkin Human Rights Award to Gili Getz, who has publicly accused Israel of genocide and apartheid. Giving an award named for the jurist who coined the term “genocide” to someone who directs that accusation against the Jewish state represents a particularly disturbing degradation of moral and historical standards.

T’ruah also recently hired a national rabbinic organizer who describes herself as committed to doikayt, a favored term of Jewish anti-Zionists, and who, as recently as this past June, was the face of a Jewish Voice for Peace social-media campaign.

T’ruah’s tendency to showcase anti-Zionist voices did not begin this year. While Israel’s war against Hamas was still underway, it hired a rabbinical student organizer who had previously described her own position on Israel unequivocally: “Integral to my Jewishness is the activism I do with Jewish Voice for Peace, and my stance as anti-Zionist.”

She helped organize a “stop the genocide” rally less than two weeks after the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

T’ruah also operates a joint project with Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, an organization that says it works most closely on “Israel-Palestine” with JVP and IfNotNow, describes itself as “proudly anti-nationalist” and grounds its work “as an alternative to Zionism.” This ongoing institutional partnership provides further reason to question how T’ruah defines its own Zionist commitments.

Taken together, these decisions reveal a consistent pattern. T’ruah opposes platforms for representatives of the Jewish state while providing such platforms, honors, employment and partnerships to people and organizations that oppose Zionism itself.

Engagement is not the same as endorsement. Jewish organizations should speak with political leaders and activists with whom they disagree. But prominently featuring someone on an organization’s most celebratory stage, honoring that person, hiring activists to shape the next generation of rabbis or maintaining formal partnerships confers legitimacy. When those choices recur, a platform is no longer neutral. It becomes an expression of that organization’s values.

This is not a demand for ideological conformity. Zionism encompasses profound disagreement over governments, borders, war, occupation, religion and Palestinian rights. The question is whether Jewish national self-determination and Israel’s continued existence as a Jewish state remain core values T’ruah is prepared to defend.

We call on the organization and its leaders to answer that question plainly and to bring its actions into line with its professed commitments: reaffirm unequivocally the Jewish people’s right to national self-determination; stop elevating activists and political leaders who seek to eliminate Israel as a Jewish state; and restore a meaningful distinction between criticism of Israel and repudiation of Zionism.

Human-rights advocacy and Zionism are not opposing commitments. A Zionist rabbinic organization should be capable of defending both. Increasingly, the actions of T’ruah actions suggest that it is unwilling to do so.

And so we ask, T’ruah: Are you still a Zionist organization?

PPG Development, founded and led by Ari Pearl, purchased the 1,029-acre property in Liberty, N.Y., for $14.75 million in June 2025. The company said the redevelopment will combine hospitality, golf, equestrian facilities, wellness, dining, recreation and luxury residences.

The plans call for restoring Grossinger’s Big G golf course and adding a second golf course, a 100-room hotel, about 175 private residences, a polo and equestrian center, restaurants, a spa and wellness facilities, a sports complex and other recreational amenities "within one thoughtfully planned destination," the firm stated.

PPG stated that Grossinger's is "being reimagined as a premier year-round resort and residential community in the heart of the Catskills."

The original Grossinger’s was a landmark of the Borscht Belt, the network of Jewish resorts that flourished in the Catskills during the 20th century. The Grossinger family began taking in visitors around 1914 and purchased the larger property that became the resort in 1919. The resort eventually became one of the region's most prominent Jewish vacation destinations before closing in 1986.

Elaine Grossinger Etess, a third-generation member of the family who helped run the resort with her brother, Paul, after their mother’s death in 1972, died in January at 98.

Grossinger’s is widely cited as an inspiration for the 1987 film “Dirty Dancing,” although the movie was filmed in Virginia and North Carolina.

The resort’s history was also chronicled in the documentary “We Met at Grossinger’s,” directed by Paula Eiselt, which explores Grossinger’s and the broader history of the Jewish Catskills. The film premiered at DOC NYC in 2025.

Speaking on the front lawn of a house in Detroit, the Republican former congressman pitched the launch of “Democrats for Mike Rogers.”

“The Democrat voters who feel their nominee doesn’t represent them in their values, all hope is not lost,” Rogers said. “I’m not asking you to be a Republican. I’m asking you for the opportunity to earn your trust.”

El-Sayed, the former health director of Detroit and Wayne County, Mich., won a narrow victory in his Aug. 4 primary against Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) after a bitter election in which El-Sayed made his opposition to Israel and pro-Israel groups a centerpiece of his campaign. Stevens accused him of Jew-hatred.

Despite pre-election polls suggesting that El-Sayed had a double-digit lead in the race, he defeated Stevens by just one percent of the vote, and with only 48.5% of votes cast.

At the event with Rogers on Thursday, Rabbi Asher Lopatin, director of community relations at the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor, said that he usually votes for Democrats, but El-Sayed had “shown contempt for the Jewish community.”

“Sadly, Abdul El-Sayed has shown only contempt for Jews as a people, and called my people bloodthirsty,” Lopatin said. “Abdul El-Sayed is completely unfit to represent any piece of Michigan, any community—the Jewish community, the African American community, the Chaldean or even Arab-Americans.”

Lopatin pointed to El-Sayed’s comments after an attack on a Detroit-area synagogue in March, in which he said that Israel had to be condemned for killing the brother of the attacker, who was a commander in Hezbollah.

The rabbi also slammed El-Sayed for his campaign events with the left-wing, anti-Israel influencer Hasan Piker.

“He’s never disavowed Hassan’s antisemitism, a man who has called Orthodox Jews like me ‘inbred,’” Lopatin said.

In an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press on Aug. 9, El-Sayed disavowed Piker’s claim that “America deserved 9/11,” but has previously dismissed questions about Piker’s views as a “gotcha game.”

Another of Rogers’ surrogates, Chelsea Rebeck, a tax attorney from West Bloomfield, Mich., wore necklaces with a Star of David and an outline of the State of Israel, and said that she was voting for the Republican after being a “lifelong Democrat.”

The Michigan Senate race is one of the key elections that could determine which party controls the upper chamber in 2027. Cook Political Report rates the election as a toss-up, the only such race with a seat currently held by a Democrat.

JNS asked Jewish leaders in the city whether they thought that the mayor, who has been widely accused of fanning the flames of Jew-hatred, ought to have canceled his vacation to stand with Jewish New Yorkers after the attack at the synagogue and less than a month after a visibly Jewish man was stabbed near an Upper West Side synagogue by a man who, witnesses say, yelled “Allahu akbar.”

Anti-Jewish hate crimes surged in New York City by 182% in Mamdani’s first month in office, compared to January 2025. It has since dropped somewhat, but Jews remain very disproportionately targeted in the city.

Rabbi Etan Tokayer, of the Kingsway Jewish Center, an Orthodox congregation in Brooklyn, and president of the Rabbinical Council of America, told JNS that Mamdani going upstate for a week could be a good thing.

“Perhaps, a week away from this bully’s pulpit is the kindest gesture he can muster,” Tokayer told JNS.

“Everyone, even a mayor of the greatest city, deserves some rest and rejuvenation,” the rabbi said. “The real problem with Mayor Mamdani is his reckless use of incendiary language, his wanton disregard for the safety of the city’s Jewish residents and his shameless abdication of any semblance of responsibility.”

Inna Vernikov, a Jewish member of the New York City Council and a vocal critic of the mayor’s, told JNS that Mamdani should not have stayed in the city to make a stronger show of solidarity with Jewish New Yorkers.

“I think he should permanently stay far away from New York City, from politics and the Jewish community,” she said.

Rabbi Yaakov Menken, founding executive vice president of the Coalition for Jewish Values, told JNS that the question is not if Mamdani should be taking a weeklong vacation, but “how soon he will retire or be retired.”

“Hateful violence starts from hateful incitement, and he has been inciting violence against our community since long before he took office,” he said.

A week ago, U.S. President Donald Trump said he was calling off the biggest military attack since World War II because a deal with Iran was imminent. Now he’s announced “economic D-Day,” with Iran being subjected to “economic warfare and isolation on an unprecedented scale,” and that any country providing any kind of lifeline “will itself face TREMENDOUS economic consequences.”

An economic blockade is indeed a ferocious strategy of war. But it’s nevertheless a desperate move to end the current impasse, which is due to Trump’s obsessive belief in the art of the deal.

This rests on a naivety which presents a fundamental problem when dealing with the Middle East and Islamic world.

Deal-making relies on self-interest. This, however, just doesn’t apply when dealing with apocalyptic and messianic religious fanatics who believe they are doing the work of God himself in destroying Israel and America.

It means not only that Trump fails to grasp the implacable nature of the Shi’ite Iranian regime, and the fact that it views any negotiation merely as an opportunity to regroup and re-weaponize while playing the Americans for suckers. It also means a failure to understand the significance of Iran’s vital strategic allies, the Sunni Islamists of the Muslim Brotherhood who sit on a continuum that encompasses al-Qaeda and ISIS.

And that means a failure to grasp the Brotherhood’s strategy for conquering America and the West for Islam, to which the destruction of Israel and the achievement of regional power over the wider Middle East are key steps.

The United States is therefore making a fundamental strategic error going far beyond Iran by embracing those it should be neutralizing.

Earlier this week, Israeli forces conducted an airstrike deep inside northwestern Syria, which reportedly cratered a Syrian airbase.

The reason was Israel’s deep alarm that Turkey intended to establish a military presence at that base. This would have posed a threat to Israel’s vital command of the skies over Syria, which is essential to the defense of northern Israel.

For the Jewish state, both Turkey and Syria are enemies that have now formed a potentially deadly alliance. Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was instrumental in Syria’s president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, coming to power by defeating the forces of former longtime president Bashar Assad.

Now Erdoğan is nudging al-Sharaa, a former member of both al-Qaeda and ISIS, into increasing hostility toward Israel.

At first, al-Sharaa was exploring the possibility of accepting Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights in return for aid and diplomatic respectability. But now, Syria is demanding that Israel vacate the Golan Heights, which are vital for northern Israel’s protection.

And this week, Syrian army soldiers were filmed outside the historic Damascus Citadel chanting: “I am coming for you, Jew … I will make your blood flow in rivers.”

Turkey continues to provide Hamas with financial support and safe haven for its terrorist leaders. Erdoğan also routinely employs anti-Israel rhetoric. In June, he accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of “following the path of Hitler,” while Turkey’s interior minister called for the “liberation of Jerusalem.”

The Islamist Erdoğan is a threat not just to Israel but to the West. He wants to assume leadership of the Islamic world through a restored Ottoman empire that substitutes jihadi fundamentalism for the relative secularism of the original.

As the Iranian regime totters, Erdoğan is aiming to replace it as the regional power. With bases already in Qatar, Somalia and northern Iraq, Turkey is steadily replacing the Shi’ite Iranian axis of jihadi conquest by a Sunni Muslim Brotherhood axis of jihadi conquest.

Trump, however, reportedly regards Erdoğan as a friend. One of his weaknesses is that he loves strongman leaders.

So he seems not to fear the alliance between Erdoğan and al-Sharaa because he admires the Syrian ex-jihadi as “tough” and believes his claim to be a reformed character. But the idea that a man who was an al-Qaeda and ISIS fanatic now disavows his divine calling to slaughter Jews, Americans and other infidels was always laughable.

The United States is exhibiting the same naivety or worse over Hamas. It’s absolutely jaw-dropping that Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior aide, met Hamas leaders last weekend in Cairo. His aim was to break the impasse caused by a row between Israel and Hamas over the Board of Peace initiative for a permanent agreement in Gaza.

Once again, American officials have failed to grasp that Islamist terrorists will lie shamelessly and sign ceasefires just to break them.

Instead of understanding that no deal would be worth the paper it was written on, Kushner was sent to Cairo to grovel to a bunch of psychopathic mass murderers. He thus legitimized these enemies of civilization, humiliating America and signaling to Hamas that they have Washington precisely where they want it.

The impasse arose because Hamas is refusing to honor the agreement signed by Israel last October in which the terrorist group would disarm before Israel started to withdraw from Gaza.

But the Board of Peace itself had moved the goalposts over this sequencing when Nickolay Mladenov, a senior board official, said Israeli withdrawal “must move in lockstep” with Palestinian disarmament (from which the board later retreated under Israeli protest).

Its own Gaza Roadmap, published at the start of this month, would not lead to disarmament and the end of Hamas rule. On the contrary, according to an analysis published by MEMRI, it would enable Hamas to retain military capabilities, ensuring that its political infrastructure would survive.

Worse still, by stating that its aim is a credible pathway towards Palestinian self-determination and statehood, the Roadmap cements the appalling message that the Hamas-led attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 created a political opening for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Not surprisingly, Hamas sees this as a great achievement, reinforcing its belief that the slaughter of Oct. 7 was a huge step towards the destruction of Israel.

Such duplicity by the Board of Peace is hardly surprising. Since its members include those foes of civilization Qatar and Turkey, alongside two-faced false friends such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia, it should more properly be known as the Board of Appeasement.

Meanwhile, the Israelis have sent the White House a list of violations by Hamas. They say the terror group continues to retain and smuggle weapons; rebuild its military infrastructure, recruitment and training; continue with armed activity and intelligence gathering; and prepare and use explosive devices against Israeli troops. This report documented 14 Hamas violations within a single 24-hour period—the overwhelming majority of which were classified as developing threats to Israeli forces.

Not only is the Board of Peace preventing Israel from destroying Hamas and thus ensuring that it can never again pose an Oct. 7-style threat to the Jewish state. It is also negating the crucial task of setting back the Islamist threat to the West.

Although Hamas has been sponsored by Iran, it’s the armed wing of the Muslim Brotherhood. Total defeat of Hamas in Gaza would be a shattering blow to the Brotherhood and its activities throughout the world.

The Brotherhood is the link between Turkey, Syria, Qatar and Hamas. Qatar has been bankrolling American institutions and individuals to insulate it against recognition of its anti-West agenda. Turkey has its thumb on the immigration spigot into Europe, which has already destabilized it and threatens even more social and cultural mayhem.

And the Brotherhood, whose strategy for conquering America through mass immigration and democratic entryism was revealed at the Holy Land terror-financing trial in 2007-08, is enmeshed in an extensive network of mosques and Islamic charities and other institutions throughout America, Britain and Europe.

The war in the Middle East is not distinct from the war of conquest against the West, which is one unified project involving Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood. The United States is currently fighting the former without grasping what it’s up against, and not fighting the latter at all.

America needs to wise up, urgently.

Jessica Bowie, 35, allegedly pledged allegiance to ISIS, conducted surveillance of the Capitol and purchased materials to build an explosive device.

She was arrested on Wednesday after accepting an inert bomb and firearm from an FBI source "posing as an ISIS facilitator," per the complaint. She told the confidential source that she would like to target the Capitol, "but ideally in a way I could get away with and hop on a plane after."

Bowie converted to Islam about five years ago and adopted the name Aisha Saif. She described herself as an "Islamic State supporter" and mentioned jihad while discussing the attack, the Justice Department said.

"I want to destroy as much of the building as possible and kill all the senators while they are meeting," Bowie allegedly told the FBI source.

According to the complaint, Bowie photographed the Capitol, identified a potential entrance and bought nails, electrical tape, a battery and acetone. Prosecutors said that she intended to conceal a bomb in a food delivery bag and hoped to flee to Syria.

The complaint also alleges that Bowie sought a gun to confront police during the attack, and hoped to kill at least half of the 200 people she believed would be inside the building.

After her arrest, Bowie told agents that "material support is up to 20 years in prison" and that "I already Googled it before. I know I’m going to jail," the Justice Department said.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul thanked law enforcement and said that "earlier this year, amid a rise in political violence and threats against public officials, we took steps to strengthen security at the State Capitol and across state government."

She added that there is no immediate threat.

U.S. President Donald Trump may have instigated the disagreement when he posted a map on Tuesday that labeled the Strait of Hormuz as “new U.S. territory.”

The following day, Iranian Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf published an uncaptioned photo of himself sitting in front of a map with “Persian Gulf” displayed prominently in English and Farsi over his shoulder.

pic.twitter.com/nfPfY1L9Y7

— محمدباقر قالیباف | MB Ghalibaf (@mb_ghalibaf) August 19, 2026

The speaker of Iraq’s Council of Representatives, Haibat al-Halbousi, then posted an edited image of himself in a similar pose with “Arabian Gulf” superimposed in Arabic over the waterway.

#الخليج_العربي pic.twitter.com/K5VyYudX6Y

— هيبت الحلبوسي (@HaibetHalbousi) August 20, 2026

The two speakers met in Iraq earlier in the week to discuss Iraqi oil exports, which have been hampered by the ongoing war between the United States and Iran. Al-Halbousi is a member of the Progress Party, a Sunni bloc that opposes the Iranian-backed parties in Iraq.

“Persian Gulf” has been the most common nomenclature to describe the Middle Eastern body of water, which is technically a sea of the Indian Ocean, for centuries.

Many Arab countries began to prefer using the term “Arabian Gulf” after the rise of Arab independence movements in the early 20th century.

Trump told reporters in the Oval Office in May 2025 that he was considering using the Arab convention ahead of a trip to Saudi Arabia.

Iran’s consulate in Najaf responded to al-Halbousi’s post with photos from an Iraqi government geographical guide from 1936 that labeled the body as the “Persian Gulf.”

The Islamic Republic’s consulate in Hyderabad, India, attempted to more directly mock al-Halbousi.

“Every masterpiece of art has its ridiculous echo,” it wrote.

The department alleges that the “courier network” operates between Lebanon, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Iran to move cash outside the formal financial system, allowing Hezbollah to obtain foreign currency and evade sanctions.

Treasury identified Turkish businessman Yunus Alper Yilmaz as the network’s manager. It said he uses certain Turkey-based exchange houses as “fronts for his business dealings” and provides front companies and bank accounts for money transfers linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force.

The department said couriers collect cash from the exchange houses and covertly transport it on commercial flights, including to Lebanon, where Hezbollah is based.

The other individuals sanctioned are Halil Ibrahim Kacmaz, Onder Dede, Vasfi Akyuz, Mehmet Akyuz, Mehmet Acur, Feyyad Karasalih, Masoud Mousafar, Gulay Kaya Savci and Emrah Ayaz, according to Treasury.

Treasury also redesignated Hezbollah under a counterterrorism executive order, citing the group’s relationship with the IRGC-Quds Force and its role in directing Hezbollah’s activities.

Under a settlement filed in New York County Supreme Court on Aug. 18, CUNY will provide reports identifying holdings registered in its name for its long-term combined investment portfolio at the end of each fiscal year since January 2020. The records will include descriptions and fair-market values.

The university also will disclose purchase orders dating to July 1, 2023, involving 30 companies named in the original records request. They include Boeing, General Electric, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Caterpillar, Barclays, Chevron, RE/MAX, Ahava and SodaStream.

CUNY had rejected the request for investment records in 2024, citing New York’s trade-secret exemption. The university argued that releasing the records could expose information obtained from outside investment managers, reveal investment strategies and hamper its ability to recruit managers, potentially reducing investment returns. A state judge ruled in August 2025 that CUNY could not withhold the records on those grounds.

CUNY agreed to provide the records within 15 days. It also will drop its appeal of the 2025 ruling and pay $20,000 in legal fees to the New York Civil Liberties Union, which represented Sarah Southey, a CUNY School of Law student and member of CUNY Law Students for Justice in Palestine.

Southey filed the original FOIL request in March 2024 on behalf of CUNY Law SJP and CUNY for Palestine. The groups have sought disclosure of CUNY’s investments as part of a campaign to persuade the university to divest from companies they contend are connected to Israel.

The anti-Israel group celebrated the settlement on Aug. 19, stating, “This victory marks the beginning of a new chapter in our divestment campaign.”

“We demand that CUNY divest,” the group said.

“If you are not here, you allow the enemies to take over,” Danon told JNS in a wide ranging interview in Turtle Bay on Wednesday. “That’s very important. I see it myself. If I do not come to the room, they will continue to promote hate.”

The Israeli envoy spoke to JNS in the East Lounge, also known as the “Qatari Lounge,” less than an hour before he addressed the U.N. Security Council, where he pressed for changes to the process for convening “emergency” meetings.

He told JNS that such meetings have become a political tool that are used disproportionately against the Jewish state.

Despite his criticism of the organization, Danon told JNS that Israel has allies in Turtle Bay and that the Jewish state has to show up if it expects supporters to do the same.

“Our allies—and we have allies—they will not fight for us if we are not fighting for ourselves,” he said. “If they will see that I’m not there and I’m not fighting, they will not do it for us.”

Behind the scenes, the United Nations is different from what many would expect, Danon said.

“People know it’s a hostile place,” he said. “And it is. But it’s important to say that you have a quiet aspect of the U.N., and behind the scenes, despite the hundreds of debates and resolutions against us, I have seen in the last two years a lot of appreciation for what we are doing.”

Danon has heard other diplomats express appreciation for Israel’s “boldness to stand up,” in particular after the September 2024 pager attack targeting Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon.

“They will not be with us publicly,” Danon told JNS. “Usually when they will speak, they will focus on criticizing us on the humanitarian situation in Gaza and call for a ceasefire.”

“But when I have private conversations, like we have here and in the lounge, they appreciate the strength of Israel, appreciate the position we take,” he said. “For me, it’s a good sign.”

‘We are not alone’

As the High Holidays approach, Danon told JNS that the coming weeks should not be defined only by fear and anxiety but also by what Israel has survived and accomplished over the past year.

“We always speak about the problems and the threats,” he said. “But if we see what we achieved, I think we should be very proud of what we achieved in the last year.”

Though the wars in Gaza and Lebanon are “not over,” Danon said that he is confident that Hamas will one day be disarmed, despite widespread skepticism.

“It will happen,” he said. “We will not finish. We will not allow anything to happen in Gaza before the disarmament of Hamas.”

“It’s not easy, because people want to move on,” he said. “But we cannot move on, because we understand if we allow Hamas to stay, what happened on Oct. 7 will happen again. The question is only when, not if.”

He also urged Jews to remember that Israel is not as isolated as it can sometimes appear.

“Understand we are not alone,” Danon said. “We do have friends. Colombia was very hostile to us. Chile, Bolivia—they’re becoming very friendly with us.”

“This is a place for optimism also at the beginning of this new year,” he said.

‘It’s an agenda’

Danon’s second tenure at the United Nations has been markedly different from his first, he told JNS. He returned to the post after Oct. 7 at the request of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Since then, we are at war,” he said.

The stakes are higher this time around. “Usually in diplomacy, you also deal a lot with soft diplomacy,” Danon told JNS. “You do culture, events, building bridges. But when I came back now, it was like, we had to push back against antisemitism, against the hate.”

The job can be frustrating. “You come for a debate and you sit for four hours and almost everyone will speak against you,” he said. “It’s not easy.”

That antagonism comes from both member states and the United Nations itself, according to Danon. He acknowledged that the motivations behind accusations against Israel can vary and accused António Guterres, U.N. secretary-general, of being driven by an “agenda.”

“He never visited Israel since Oct. 7,” Danon said. “He came before, but not after, and he tried always to equate Israel with Hamas.”

“I think with him, it’s an agenda,” the Israeli envoy said of the U.N. secretary-general. “I exposed it, and I fight back against it.”

As discussions over the selection of the next secretary-general took place a few rooms away, Danon told JNS that he has “high expectations” for whoever takes over.

“We are not against the U.N.,” he said. “I believe we have to build the U.N. I don’t think we should leave the U.N. with the U.S. On the contrary, I think we have to be more involved. We have to reform the U.N.”

“That’s why we expect a secretary-general who will have the leadership skills to take this organization to the right place, to clean up a lot of officials who should go home, and bring professionals who are not biased,” he said.

The fight against Jew-hatred and the demonization of the Jewish state is not confined to U.N. headquarters, Danon told JNS.

‘He’s smiling’

Danon is increasingly concerned about the rhetoric of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has called for Netanyahu’s arrest if he comes to New York City for the U.N. General Assembly in September.

He also worries about the growing prominence of “radical” candidates, who “use Israel as a platform.”

Candidates once debated issues such as gun control, abortion and immigration, according to Danon. “Now they pick on Israel, which for us, it’s a bad sign,” he said. “I think both parties should make sure that those voices are not becoming stronger and that the mainstream is leading the parties and not the extremes.”

Mamdani is “not yelling. He’s not threatening. He’s smiling,” Danon told JNS. “But at the same time, he’s promoting hate against Jews, against Israelis, and we have seen the outcome.”

The mayor “has lawyers” and knew better than to publicly suggest that he could arrest Netanyahu, Danon told JNS.

“Still, he put it out there, and we saw what happened,” he said. “Jews were attacked hours after.”

When Netanyahu arrives in New York City on Sept. 24, Jewish New Yorkers concerned about possible protests should “stand tall,” according to Danon.

Since Oct. 7, “the genie is out of the box. It’s not coming back,” he told JNS. “But I tell my friends and colleagues to be strong, to stand up against antisemitism, and I’m sure we will overcome it.”

“But you will not do it by running away from it,” he said. “It’s by confronting and fighting back.”

Thanks to Goldfeder and NJAC, a federal court has ruled that attacking a Jew for wearing an Israeli flag is direct evidence of racial discrimination. The “it’s just anti-Zionism, not antisemitism” defense was raised, fully briefed and rejected.

The case of Sumrall v. Ali was brought after pro-Israel activist Kimmara Sumrall was assaulted at a demonstration in Washington, D.C., while she was wearing an Israeli flag tied around her neck as a cape. The defendant approached from behind, yanked the flag hard enough to choke her and was later sued. Representing Sumrall, NJAC pressed claims under the Reconstruction-era civil rights statute known as Section 1981.

U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden denied a motion to dismiss. The court found that “the Star of David—emblazoned upon the Israeli flag—symbolizes the Jewish race” and that “battery, particularly involving a racial symbol, is strong evidence of racial discrimination.”

The judge called it “quite a stretch” to treat yanking a flag from a Jewish person’s neck as mere objection to Israeli policies, adding that battery is not a legitimate form of protest and the defendant had no reason to believe Sumrall was an Israeli government official. As such, the incident was an intentional attack on a Jewish person displaying a symbol of her heritage.

This was not mere abstract legal theory. It was a concrete rejection of the most common contemporary evasion used to justify violence and discrimination against Jews: that such things are merely anti-Zionist, not antisemitic. Every future defendant who reaches for that excuse will now confront McFadden’s opinion.

The ruling also clarified that Section 1981’s protections against private racial violence apply to attacks on Jews wearing Jewish symbols, expanding the legal toolbox available to Jewish victims. It is the kind of precedent that changes things.

NJAC, of which Goldfeder is CEO and director, was essential to this precedent-setting victory.

NJAC has grown rapidly since its founding—particularly after the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023—into a high-impact strategic litigation and advocacy organization. Its docket has included Antiterrorism Act cases against entities accused of facilitating or benefiting from Hamas-related activity, FACE Act actions against those who blocked synagogue access; discrimination suits against universities and employers; challenges to bans on Jewish or Zionist participants in professional and recreational settings; and coordinated amicus and legislative work.

Settlements, denials of motions to dismiss, religious-accommodation victories and deterrence effects have followed.

NJAC also runs the nation’s first Antisemitism Law Clinic at Touro University and, through the Touro Antisemitism Institute, sponsors a teaching fellowship that equips professors across disciplines to develop and teach rigorous courses on antisemitism on their own campuses.

Goldfeder holds two rabbinic and two judicial ordinations. As an Orthodox Jew, he draws on classical sources, including medieval responsa, when crafting modern legal arguments and preparing testimony. He has testified before House committees on campus antisemitism and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

During one such appearance, when a witness described Zionism as merely an abstract idea that could not be a basis for discrimination, Goldfeder responded by pulling out a rock from Mount Zion. He explained that Jews are called Jews because they are from Judea and Zionists called Zionists because they are from Zion, the place where King David established his capital thousands of years ago.

The right to Jewish self-determination in the ancestral Jewish homeland, Goldfeder argued, flows from a concrete historical reality. Treating it as mere politics or an optional belief is inaccurate and a form of discrimination forbidden under civil rights law.

The same man who studies Talmud and Jewish law applies their disciplined creativity to federal courtrooms and hearing rooms. He also builds educational pipelines for future lawyers and professors and seeks out systemic tools to protect Jewish civil rights. This results in both isolated wins and an expanding architecture of protection.

That expanding architecture is the mark of a genuine powerhouse. At a time when many sense a shortage of bold and effective Jewish leadership, Goldfeder and NJAC have gotten results through methods that are rigorously legal, deeply rooted in Jewish sources and unapologetically public. That is rare. It is also exactly what our moment demands.

The Jewish flag ruling is the latest and clearest demonstration of this. It shows what happens when such methods confront real-world violence and how fashionable excuses for antisemitic violence can be overcome with far-reaching consequences.

Kushner and other visiting Americans didn't press a Palestinian state, but the prime minister made it "abundantly clear that he is 100% firm on this," the senior Israeli official told JNS.

The Israeli prime minister made the statement during a discussion about Israel's red lines.

Netanyahu "made it incredibly clear that this was something that he is against, and the vast majority of Israelis are against," the Israeli official told JNS. "I think the other side heard the message very well."

The discussions come as implementation of Trump’s 20-point plan remains stalled over the issue of Hamas’s disarmament. The Jewish state has maintained that the terror group must disarm fully before Israeli forces withdraw and large-scale reconstruction can begin.

Kushner traveled to Israel to meet Netanyahu with members of the Board of Peace, the group Trump created to oversee Gaza’s post-war administration, after Netanyahu publicly rejected a 15-point plan agreed to between the board and Hamas.

In late July, Trump touted the 15-point “road map,” which called for Hamas to be disarmed gradually while Israel withdrew from Gaza in a parallel and phased fashion, as a breakthrough.

Netanyahu rejected the idea categorically on Aug. 9. “I want to be clear here,” the prime minister said at a cabinet meeting. “Israel is ruling out the 15-point document.”

During the four-hour meeting on Monday at Netanyahu’s office, the sides appeared to iron out their differences.

“We will not allow Gaza to be rebuilt until demilitarization occurs,” Kushner told Fox News on Monday. He added that no one wants to send money to a conflict zone “if it’s just going to be taken over by terrorists and blown up again.”

“We’re also not going to restrict Israel’s right to defend itself if there are any imminent threats,” Kushner said.

Netanyahu supported Trump’s 20-point plan to end the Gaza war during a joint press conference at the White House on Sept. 29, 2025.

The plan included a “credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood” once the Palestinian Authority completed a reform program.

Among the reforms was an end to the authority’s pay-for-slay program, which rewards terrorists and their families with stipends.

In a Sept. 30 video statement after the meeting, Netanyahu said that he “absolutely” did not agree to the formation of a Palestinian state.

“One thing we did say, ‘We’re absolutely against a Palestinian state,’” Netanyahu said at the time. “Trump said he understood.”

The prime minister has repeatedly expressed his opposition to a Palestinian state. “Our opposition to a Palestinian state on any territory west of the Jordan River exists, is firm and has not changed in the slightest,” he said at a cabinet meeting in November 2025.

“I have been pushing back against these attempts for decades, doing so against external pressure as well as internal pressure,” Netanyahu said at the time. “So I don’t need encouragement, tweets or lectures from anyone.”