“Oct 7 2023”

In March 2008, revelations surfaced of past anti-American and antisemitic rhetoric by Barack Obama’s longtime pastor and friend Rev. Jeremiah Wright, including Wright’s accusation that the U.S.’s own terrorism helped motivate al-Qaida’s 9/11 attack. Knowing his political credibility depended on it, Obama abruptly severed ties with Wright. Post-inauguration, Wright blamed “them Jews” for Obama’s continuing frostiness.

Seventeen years on, Zohran Mamdani, newly-elected Democratic contender for New York’s upcoming mayoralty race, appears to have (correctly) calculated that public allyship with an imam who lionizes Hamas, reviles Jews and Christians, and encourages anti-American pedagogy would not be a political liability in America’s most Jewish city.

The charity regulator has issued an Islamic charity with an official warning and banned one of its trustees after he was accused of encouraging violence against Jews after the Oct 7 Hamas attack.

Harun Abdur Rashid Holmes, a leading figure with Nottingham Islam Information Point (NIIP), has been barred from acting as a charity trustee for three years after delivering a sermon in which he stated that Muslims would kill Jews until they “hide behind a rock”.

The idea of a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians has never seemed more futile than in the months since Oct. 7, 2023. But maybe that opens the door to a new way of achieving peace.

“We want cooperation with Israel,” says Sheikh Wadee’ al-Jaabari, also known as Abu Sanad, from his ceremonial tent in Hebron, the West Bank’s largest city located south of Jerusalem. “We want coexistence.” The leader of Hebron’s most influential clan has said such things before, as did his father. But this time is different. Sheikh Jaabari and four other leading Hebron sheikhs have signed a letter pledging peace and full recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. Their plan is for Hebron to break out of the Palestinian Authority, establish an emirate of its own, and join the Abraham Accords.

From JPost – ‘Post’ just met with top Hebron Sheikh who wants to pull out of PA

The South Hebron Hills seem ancient and as unchanging as ever, but massive change may be in the wind.

In the aftermath of the Wall Street Journal’s blockbuster disclosure early Sunday morning that half a dozen major Palestinian sheikhs from the Hebron area, all led by Sheikh Wadee’ al-Jaabari (also known as Abu Sanad), are ready to break off from the Palestinian Authority and sign a new Abraham Accords-style deal with Israel as the “Emirates of Hebron,” The Jerusalem Post can now disclose having recently met with Jabari at his ceremonial tent.

Lots going on in the comments, caution being first among equals.

BREAKING: “The Emirate of Hebron shall recognize the State of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people,” write five Hebron sheikhs, backed by 16 more.

This unveils a peace initiative they’ve been working on with Israel’s Nir Barkat since February, meeting at his home. pic.twitter.com/h4bdpb1APP

— Elliot Kaufman (@ElliotKaufman6) July 6, 2025

Related?

A widespread internet blackout hit Iran on Saturday night, disrupting global access for millions once more, the first such shutdown since mass outages across the country during the conflict with Israel. https://t.co/zRatvVyygW

— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) July 6, 2025

h/t Patti Jo

Australia’s prime minister has promised to take strong action following an apparent arson attack on a synagogue in Melbourne.

Police are looking for a man who poured liquid on the synagogue’s front door before setting it on fire on Friday night. Some 20 people having dinner inside at the time were evacuated without any injuries.

Police are also trying to determine if the incident is linked to an attack against a Jewish-owned restaurant in the city on the same night.

Great to see Melbourne’s “anti-fascists” out last night destroying a restaurant, harassing diners and totally not being fascists…

And listen to them all calling each other “comrade”. Such losers. pic.twitter.com/R7OFMz3Y6I

— Daniel (@VoteLewko) July 4, 2025

We’re witnessing the first global intifada led by “peace activists”.
A hateful mob in Melbourne, Australia, stormed an Israeli-owned restaurant while shouting the murderous ”death to the IDF” chant. Later, a synagogue was torched while Jewish families were inside. pic.twitter.com/MY47DWPzrD

— Elad Simchayoff (@Elad_Si) July 5, 2025

Armed US contractors at one of Gaza’s new aid distribution hubs appeared to fire at Palestinians before celebrating, leaked footage has suggested.

Video seems to have shown machine gun fire in the vicinity of civilians seeking aid, with an American voice shouting: “I think you got one.”

Another voice adds: “Hell, yeah, boy!”

"Hell yeah, boy!"

US contractors in Gaza cheer after deliberately opening fire on aid-seeking Palestinians.

Source: AP pic.twitter.com/7mG0Wxxoky

— The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) July 3, 2025

Not sure this proves anything. We’ll see.

According to a recent report, the Trump administration is floating the idea of having four Arab states administer the Gaza Strip as part of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Iran-backed Palestinian terror group Hamas. On June 26, the Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom reported:

“Gaza hostilities will conclude within two weeks, ending conditions will encompass four Arab nations (including Egypt and the United Arab Emirates) to administer the Gaza Strip, replacing the murderous Hamas terrorist organization.”

Although the newspaper did not name the two other Arab countries that would take part in administering the Gaza Strip, there is speculation in the Arab world that one of them is Qatar, which has expressed readiness to help rebuild Gaza after the Hamas-Israel war ends.

Montreal Liberal MP Anthony Housefather is calling on the Canadian government to bar the British rap duo Bob Vylan from Canada after the group led the crowd in a chant of death to the Israeli military at the Glastonbury Festival in the United Kingdom over the weekend.

On Monday, the U.S. State Department said that it had “revoked the U.S. visas” of the band members who performed at the festival in southwest England on Saturday, ahead of several American tour dates in October and November. “Foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country,” Christopher Landau, the deputy secretary of state wrote on X.

Performative BS from an LPC member. They’ve lost the US Leg with many more dates than are scheduled for Canada. I doubt they’ll bother as it just isn’t economically viable.

As a lifelong student and educator, I’ve been in academia and the arts for the last quarter-century. I was a witness to the first Israeli Apartheid Weeks at York University in the early 2000s. I’ve followed, and fought, the anti-Israel obsession of CUPE 3903 (York University’s contract faculty union), including introducing a motion to stop them from manipulating their platform to promote non-labour issues on campus. It didn’t take.

Trump acts, our Pols allow messes like this to fester.

Last year the BBC won a Bafta for its Glastonbury coverage. This year it’s being attacked for it. Or, to be more precise, for one hour of it, two at the most, if you count Kneecap’s set, which followed Bob Vylan’s on the West Holts stage on Saturday afternoon.

I had arrived early to cover the Belfast rap trio’s performance, aware that the prime minister had said it shouldn’t go ahead, that the festival organisers had stood firm against political pressure, that one of the band’s members is on bail on a terror charge, which he denies, and that the BBC had announced that morning it wouldn’t stream the show live.

I have to admit, I hadn’t heard of Bob Vylan. But I don’t imagine many others had either. Of the millions who tuned in to the BBC’s coverage over the weekend, the live streamers of the Bob Vylan set would have likely been a tiny proportion.

How long until an anti-Zionist crowd turns on even “Jews for Palestine” types?

A British rock band have had their American visas revoked, meaning they can no longer tour in the US, after they shouted ‘death to the IDF’ at a festival on Saturday.

Bob Vylan led the sick chant at Glastonbury, the UK’s biggest music festival, as crowds waved Palestine flags and joined the call for the deaths of Israeli soldiers.

There is or was a Canadian leg to this tour I wonder if they’ll bother.

Bob Vylan at Glastonbury got the crowd to chant “death, death to the IDF”.

Adding “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. Inshallah” at the end.

Completely unacceptable. Underneath the inclusivity facade, Glastonbury has become a hate fest. pic.twitter.com/URaMarlPJe

— Chris Rose (@ArchRose90) June 28, 2025

If you can’t see it now, you never will. The sight of tens of thousands of people at Glastonbury yesterday joining in a spirited chant of ‘Death, death to the IDF’ was the sight of us officially becoming a very different country, I fear. One in which anti-Israel hysteria has so flawlessly rehabilitated Jew hatred that it has become unthinking, conformist, almost mundane. Something that Home Counties idiots can jive to before adjusting their hot pants and heading off to catch Charli XCX. Something that is broadcast by the BBC into millions of homes. The banality of the new anti-Semitism.

BBC director : "Cut Kneecap, show someone else, use anyone."

BBC editor : "That Vylan guy?"

BBC director : "Anyone!"

Bob Vylan : [crowd chanting] "Death, Death to the IDF, Death Death to the IDF"

pic.twitter.com/7g8zQot15G

— Julian Sayarer (@JulianSayarer) June 28, 2025