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Continued operations on Islamic Republic of Iran, proxies , May 4 2026+ - sources: Pt II (view source)
Revision as of 22:34, September 18, 2026
, September 18→Part 3
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Israel Is Fighting Tomorrow’s War with Yesterday’s Tools.
Israel Can Present Impressive Military Achievements While Upholding the Purity of Arms, Yet at the Same Time Watch Its Room for Maneuver Steadily Shrink.
September 13, 2026.
Zvi Hauser. Israel Hayom
Israel is losing its standing on the international stage because it continues to rely on military achievements alone, while the battle over consciousness and influence has become the new decisive front. Establishing a national influence apparatus could strengthen Israel's value in the eyes of its allies and make it vital to them in the future.
[https://www.meforum.org/mef-online/israel-is-fighting-tomorrows-war-with-yesterdays-tools MEForum]
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Jewish students returned to campus at Wilfrid Laurier University after celebrating Rosh Hashanah to find their mezuzahs smashed and torn down.
Sep 14, 2026.
[https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-908569 JPost]
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UKMTO: Ship hit by ‘unknown projectile’ in Strait of Hormuz.
UKMTO: Ship hit by ‘unknown projectile’ in Strait of Hormuz.
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How to “Other” an Israeli.
First discriminate, then the silent treatment.
Jewish Review of Books.
Sep 16, 2026
By Malcolm M. Feeley.
Last spring, UC Berkeley formally acknowledged the stream of antisemitic incidents on campus after October 7, 2023, which had resulted in the disruption of scheduled lectures and meetings, harassment of students and faculty, assaults, injuries, and property damage—not to speak of a pervasive atmosphere of menacing groupthink. This acknowledgement was part of a legal agreement that settled a suit by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and Jewish Americans for Fairness in Education. Berkeley also paid $1,000,000 to the Brandeis Center, listed programs the university had established or promised to establish, and the website it would update.
[https://jewishreviewofbooks.substack.com/p/how-to-other-an-israeli JewishReviewOfBooks]
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Nazis Were Organizing in New York. So Were the Jews.
In 1934, 45,000 people filled Yankee Stadium to help Germany’s Jews. Ninety-two years later, their program tells us how.
Melissa Brodsky. Sep 16, 2026
[https://melissabrodsky.substack.com/p/nazis-were-organizing-in-new-york on Substack]
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Three-quarters of religion-based hate crimes in Hawaii last year targeted Jews, who are less than 1% of the state.
Rabbi Itchel Krasnjansky of Chabad in Hawaii told JNS that “we don’t experience really any antisemitism, besides for the pro-Palestinian crap that goes on here, like everywhere else.”
Jessica Russak-Hoffman, Menachem Wecker.
Sep. 16, 2026.
[https://www.jns.org/news/u-s-news/three-quarters-of-religion-based-hate-crimes-in-hawaii-last-year-targeted-jews-who-are-less-than-1-of-the-state JNS]
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Germany plans tougher measures against Islamist terror after Berlin CSD attack · September 16, 2026.
The German government unveiled a ten-point plan to combat Islamic terrorism after the July attack on Berlin's Christopher Street Day parade, where one woman was killed and 31 people injured.
[https://www-br-de.translate.goog/nachrichten/deutschland-welt/so-will-die-bundesregierung-islamistischen-terror-bekaempfen,VVOlnGh?_x_tr_sl=de&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp&_x_tr_hist=true br-de]
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How Propaganda Uses Emotion to Teach You What Not to See.
The Case of Jadallah Jihad Jadallah and How Narrative Framing Works.
GlobalDisconnect.
Sep 16, 2026.
There is something profoundly revealing about the way the story of Jadallah Jihad Jadallah has been told.
A Palestinian boy from the al-Far’a refugee camp was shot by Israeli forces on November 16, 2025. Al-Far’a is in the northern West Bank, near Tubas. This was not a story from Gaza or Hamas. The details surrounding Jadallah’s death came instead from the West Bank, from his own community, and from Fatah, the movement led by Mahmoud Abbas.
The death itself is not disputed. He was shot, and forty-five minutes later, he died. What is revealing is everything that followed and has been left out. His case provides a clear example of how narrative framing is created and how effective emotional propaganda works.
Propaganda does not always require fabricating an event. Sometimes the more powerful technique is to take a real event, select the facts that support a particular emotional response, place those facts in a carefully constructed sequence and narrative, and leave other relevant facts out. The audience is then given a story that may contain real images, real people and real events, while being guided toward a particular conclusion that contradict the very evidence right in front of their eyes.
[https://globaldisconnect.substack.com/p/how-propaganda-uses-emotion-to-teach GlobalDiscomnect]
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These 8 news outlets relied on terror group for casualty figures when reporting on Israel-Hamas war: study.
By Courtney Greenberg. Published Sep 17, 2026.
Major media outlets, including The New York Times, The Guardian and Associated Press, relied on casualty figures from the Gaza Ministry of Health, run by terrorist organization Hamas, when reporting on the Israel-Hamas war, according to a new study.
The findings showed a dependence on aggregate numbers from Hamas, limited citation of data on terrorist deaths and “disproportionate doubt directed at different sources,” writes author Tatiana Glezer, from independent research group Fifty Global.
“Together, these patterns support a narrative in which total casualty figures are treated as civilian losses.”
The study, _Selective Sources, Scrutiny, and the Absence of Standards in Military Conflict Coverage_, was published on Sept. 15, in the peer-reviewed journal _Digital Hate Review_.
Researchers found that journalists cited numbers from the ministry in 100 per cent of the publications reviewed in the study, whereas only three per cent of all articles reviewed cited Israeli data.
The Israel-Hamas war was triggered by an attack by Hamas terrorists, who killed 1,200 people in Israel and took 251 hostages on Oct. 7, 2023. Although the Israeli military began withdrawing troops from Gaza as part of a peace deal in 2025, there is still violence and unrest in the region.
The study focuses on 1,378 articles published from March to June 2024 by eight English-language outlets: CNN, BBC, The New York Times, The Guardian, The Washington Post, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Reuters and Associated Press.
During that time period, there were still living hostages in Gaza.
The study found that like the Gaza Ministry of Health, the outlets did not distinguish between terrorist and civilian deaths in their reporting. Articles rarely included data from Israeli sources.
“Estimates indicating a high proportion of civilian deaths may contribute to reframing a conflict from war to genocide,” according to the study. “In this sense, quantitative representations of harm are not neutral; they carry interpretive consequences that shape both public discourse and institutional judgment.”
The study suggests that a more comprehensive understanding of deaths during the war could be reached by including both primary sources: the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which provides estimates of terrorist casualties, and the Gaza Ministry of Health, which does not.
The IDF said in 2024 that they classify terrorists as individuals who were killed while holding weapons, but did not provide further details, the study said.
Through its analysis, the study concluded that the Gaza health ministry “became the primary source of statistical information about the war casualties.” Neither the ministry nor the IDF offer data specific to civilian casualties.
The study also looked at which outlets mentioned that the ministry’s figures do not distinguish between civilians and terrorists.
Associated Press and The Washington Post noted the limitation in around 40 per cent of articles, whereas, on the lower end of the spectrum, the BBC and Reuters rarely did (about 1 to 2 per cent of articles).
“Overall, this essential disclaimer about the composition of the casualties appeared in only about 15 per cent of all analyzed publications,” the study said.
The outlet that most frequently mentioned the ministry’s affiliation with Hamas was the BBC, in about 95 per cent of its articles. Conversely, the connection was made in about 5 per cent of CNN articles, and in 2 per cent of articles by The New York Times and The Washington Post.
Reporting without providing a fuller picture of where the data comes from can lead to one side being viewed as victims and the other side as “criminal or genocidal,” especially in the online discourse.
“These simplified narratives may, in turn, contribute to the spread of hate speech, conspiracy claims, and the amplification of antisemitic or anti-Muslim sentiment,” the study said.
The study calls for “clearer professional standards and greater transparency in reporting conflict-related data.”
Articles for the study were selected by a search using the keyword “Gaza.” Researchers manually extracted statements about casualties and used a coding system to categorize them. No artificial intelligence was used for those tasks.
[https://nationalpost.com/news/world/israel-middle-east/news-outlets-hamas-casualty-reporting-war-study NationalPost]
[https://archive.is/Wwyql]
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Iran struggles to reroute trade as US blockade disrupts supply lines.
Tehran has turned to overland routes to move goods after the U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, but border delays and rising costs are hampering the effort, The Wall Street Journal reported.
David Isaac.
Sep. 17, 2026
[https://www.jns.org/news/world/iran-struggles-to-reroute-trade-as-u-s-blockade-disrupts-supply-lines JNS]
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Natasha Hausdorff discusses NAZA "documentary" allegations about IDF in Gaza.
UKLFI Charitable Trust.
Sep 17, 2026
A new documentary about Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza has made serious allegations about how the IDF selects targets and assesses potential civilian casualties.
NAZA relies heavily on testimony from 24 anonymous Israeli military and intelligence personnel to portray a system in which large numbers of civilian deaths were knowingly accepted and artificial intelligence allegedly played a significant role in identifying targets. The IDF has strongly rejected that portrayal.
UKLFI Charitable Trust has not seen the documentary itself. This interview is based on published reports about its contents, the film’s trailer and a clip that has circulated publicly.
In this interview, UKLFI Charitable Trust Legal Director Natasha Hausdorff examines the allegations against the legal framework governing armed conflict.
She explains the principle of proportionality and why anticipating potential civilian casualties does not, in itself, make an attack unlawful. Hausdorff argues that assessing expected civilian harm before a strike is an essential part of complying with the law of armed conflict, rather than evidence of an intention to harm.
The discussion also examines one of the documentary’s most striking reported allegations: that an IDF attack was approved in which as many as 500 civilians could be killed to eliminate a single Hamas target. The IDF has described that claim as “completely false”. Hausdorff discusses both the evidential problems surrounding the allegation and the legal question it raises: international humanitarian law does not prescribe a fixed numerical ceiling for civilian casualties. Proportionality requires expected civilian harm to be assessed against the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated in the particular attack.
Hausdorff also addresses claims concerning the IDF’s use of artificial intelligence, including systems such as Lavender and Habsora. She discusses the IDF’s stated position that technological systems assist intelligence analysis but do not make decisions to attack, which remain decisions for human personnel. The IDF’s published account says each strike requires an individual assessment of anticipated military advantage and expected civilian harm.
The interview considers how much evidential weight can be placed on anonymous testimony when the identities, roles, access and first-hand knowledge of sources cannot independently be examined; the distinction between allegations concerning individual incidents and evidence of a systematic IDF policy; the legal significance of Hamas operating within a densely populated civilian environment; and allegations that Israel is being judged by standards not applied to other Western militaries.
Hausdorff concludes that the material described publicly does not establish the systematic policy alleged by the filmmakers. She also stresses that this doesn't mean every individual strike during the war was lawful and that specific allegations with identifiable dates and locations should be investigated.
References
Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, Article 51 - Protection of the Civilian Population https://ihl-databases....
Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court [https://www.icc-cpi.in...]
IDF Targeting Methods During the First Weeks of the Hamas-Israel War https://www.idf.il/en/...
The IDF's Use of Data Technologies in Intelligence Processing https://www.idf.il/en/...
International Court of Justice: Judgment of 26/2/2007 in Bosnia and Herzegovina v Serbia and Montenegro https://www.icj-cij.or...
About Natasha Hausdorff
Natasha Hausdorff is an international lawyer specialising in international law, foreign affairs & national security. She is Legal Director of UKLFI Charitable Trust and a sought-after commentator on the law of armed conflict, the International Criminal Court and international humanitarian law. She has addressed governments, legislators, international organisations and media audiences around the world on legal issues relating to Israel and international law.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c6IneL1NEQ YouTube]
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Fighting Terror.
230+ Terror Suspects Arrested in Two Months
Nahal Brigade forces have detained hundreds of wanted individuals and confiscated more than 100 weapons across Judea and Samaria in ongoing counter-terror operations.
Eliana Fleming
Sep 17, 2026
[https://www.jfeed.com/news-israel/tlioxt JFeed]
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Despite Ongoing Conflict.
U.S. Grants Iran UN Visas – With Conditions
The State Department announced it will issue entry visas to senior Iranian officials, including President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, for next week's UN General Assembly in New York. But the delegation will face strict movement restrictions.
Sep 17, 2026
[https://www.jfeed.com/latest-news/u-s-to-grant-visas-to-iranian-officials-for-un-assembly-with-one-catch-52049 JFeed]
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Ireland says it plans to boycott Eurovision next year due to Israel’s involvement.
Sep 17, 2026
[https://www.jns.org/live/breaking-news#000001a0-b03f-d361-a5f5-f2bfc2fa0000 JNS]
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‘Much appreciation’ to Israel for killing Hamas terrorist who abducted Omer Neutra, GOP NY gubernatorial candidate says.
Sep 17, 2026
Bruce Blakeman, the Jewish executive of Nassau County, N.Y., thanked Israel and its military for “bringing justice to the Hamas terrorist that abducted the body of New Yorker Omer Neutra, who was killed on Oct. 7.”
“Omer was an American from Nassau County, and his murder struck close to home for all of us,” Blakeman stated.
]https://www.jns.org/live/breaking-news#000001a0-afa9-d2c2-adbc-afef45940000 JNS]
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NY state rep calls on police to protect Netanyahu during his UN visit.
Sep 17, 2026
[https://www.jns.org/live/breaking-news#000001a0-afa9-d511-a1bb-ffb9029b0000 JNS]
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Sending a Message to Erdoğan
Israel-Greece Naval Drill Amid Turkey Spat
Two Israeli missile boats and two Greek naval vessels participated in the exercise, which included emergency scenarios and threat identification drills in the maritime domain
Eliana Fleming
Sep 17, 2026
[https://www.jfeed.com/latest-news/israel-and-greece-hold-joint-naval-exercise-amid-turkey-tensions-52046 JFeed]
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The Ultimate Betrayal
Vance Tried to Help Clinton Beat Trump
Vanity Fair investigation reveals JD Vance reached out to Clinton campaign officials in 2016 offering strategic advice to defeat Trump. I hate Hillary, but I hate Trump more, he reportedly said at the time.
Eliana Fleming.
Sep 17, 2026
[https://www.jfeed.com/news-world/tlinvi JFeed]
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Hen Mazzig
@HenMazzig
In Milan 🇮🇹, a 51-year-old rabbi was attacked by 3 men while waiting for a bus.
According to Milan’s Jewish community, they identified him as Jewish by his clothing.
They allegedly surrounded him, cursed him, kicked and punched him, knocked him and his hat to the ground, and spat at him. 1 suspect has been arrested.
Antisemitism is not just words. It’s not just a few bad apples. Jews are being beaten in the streets
Sep 17, 2026.
[https://x.com/HenMazzig/status/2100653569607159887 on X]
Milan rabbi attacked by three men while waiting for bus, police arrest one suspect.
By Yoav Etiel, Jerusalem Post, September 17, 2026.
A 60-year-old rabbi from Milan’s Jewish community was assaulted by three young men while waiting for a bus near the city’s Jewish quarter on Tuesday, according to the Jewish community.
A 20-year-old Tunisian man was arrested on suspicion of “religiously motivated violence,” while two other young men are suspected of involvement in the attack.
According to a statement from the Jewish Community of Milan, the three identified the rabbi as Jewish because of his clothing, surrounded him, cursed him, kicked him, and punched him. The community’s president, Walker Meghnagi, described the incident as “violence unlike anything we have seen.”
Meghnagi said the assailants removed the rabbi’s hat, threw it to the ground, stepped on it and spat toward him.
The rabbi managed to photograph the suspects as they fled…
[https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-908919 JPost]
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US sanctions Iranian financier's crypto exchange, says it processes Hormuz payments.
September 17, 2026.
[https://www.jpost.com/international/article-909009 JPost]
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Shin Bet chief Zini: We will hunt down every Hamas member involved in October 7, across the globe.
September 17, 2026.
[https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-908958 JPost]
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Terror-Loving Palestinian Reporters’ Group Is Behind Notorious List of ‘Journalists’ Slain in Gaza: Group Manipulates Western Orgs ‘To Pass Off Terrorists as Journalists’.
The embattled Committee to Protect Journalists relies heavily on the group for its much-disputed list of journalists killed in Gaza.
Adam Kredo.
September 17, 2026.
...The group, known as the Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate (PJS), is led by a "pro-terrorist official" who has glorified "individual terrorists with blood on their hands" and advocated on behalf of imprisoned jihadists. The PJS is a Ramallah-based media union that cites "struggle against the occupation" as one of its core missions and has played an outsized role in seeding spurious claims that Israel is "silencing the press through killing." Two of the world's most prominent journalist advocacy groups—the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)—have relied heavily on PJS's research to build their widely cited lists of "journalists" killed in Gaza.
[https://freebeacon.com/media/terror-loving-palestinian-reporters-group-is-behind-notorious-list-of-journalists-slain-in-gaza-group-manipulates-western-orgs-to-pass-off-terrorists-as-journalist/ FreeBeacon]
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Arms Export Security.
US State Department Approves Landmark F 35 Fighter Jet Package For Saudi Arabia.
The US State Department approved a potential Foreign Military Sale to Saudi Arabia involving 48 F 35 stealth fighter jets valued at 24.3 billion dollars, moving the transaction to Congressional review despite intelligence assessments regarding potential Chinese espionage risks.
Eliana Fleming.
Sep 18, 2026 00:14
[https://www.jfeed.com/latest-news/us-state-department-approves-landmark-f-35-fighter-jet-package-for-saudi-arabia-52056 JFeed]
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NGO B’Tselem report presents baseless claims of Israel dismantling Palestinian life in West Bank
September 18, 2026 00:00
[https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-908992 JPost]
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US conducted 'tremendous terror,' worse than al-Qaeda, Hasan Piker says in Axios interview.
Piker, who has over 3 million followers and is one of the most popular streamers on Twitch, came under renewed attention due to his participation in campaigning for the Abdul El-Sayed.
September 18, 2026 02:07
[https://www.jpost.com/international/article-909011 JPost]
Far-left streamer Hasan Piker says US commits ‘pound for pound’ more terrorism than Al Qaeda.
By Samuel Chamberlain.
Published Sep. 17, 2026.
Far-left streamer Hasan Piker argued in an interview published Thursday that the US military has committed more terrorism than Al Qaeda, the Islamist network behind the 9/11 attacks.
“Pound for pound as far as the number of deaths, yes,” Piker, a prominent surrogate for Michigan Democratic US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, told “The Axios Show” after being challenged over a recent comment describing America as “the top dog in terrorism.
[https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/SEPTEMBER18.P1_LCF.jpg?resize=1200,1324&quality=80&strip=all]
[https://nypost.com/2026/09/17/us-news/far-left-streamer-hasan-piker-says-us-commits-pound-for-pound-more-terrorism-than-al-qaeda/ NYPost]
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October 7 survivor to UN chief: Hamas planning the next massacre.
Tzav 9's Yael Savarigo hits back at UN Secretary-General António Guterres: 'We demand UN stop supporting terrorist organizations, focus on disarming Hamas.'
Israel National News
Sep 18, 2026, 10:23 AM
[https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/433360 INN]
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(Arab-)
Israeli accused of contacting Hamas, Iranian intelligence
Tamra resident repeatedly contacted Hamas, later established ties with Iranian intelligence before being arrested, Shin Bet, Israel Police reveal.
Uzi Baruch.
Published: Sep 18, 2026, 9:21 AM (GMT+3)
[https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/433355 INN]
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IDF goes on heightened alert for Yom Kippur
Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir orders reinforcements across all fronts, with armed aircraft, missile ships and additional forces placed on standby.
Uzi Baruch.
Published: Sep 18, 2026, 11:18 AM (GMT+3)
[https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/433361 INN]
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Yeshiva student killed in Hadera ramming.
Amichai Attia, a 12th-grade student from Samaria, named as teen victim killed in ramming by Arab driver; police say incident was criminal, not terrorism.
Israel National News.
Sep 18, 2026, 9:02 AM (GMT+3)
[https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/433356 INN]
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Robert Kraft was right about Macklemore, the explanation was all wrong - opinion.
We should stop defending ourselves against the accusation and start challenging the accusation itself.
By David Zalik. September 18, 2026.
The problem was not Robert Kraft’s decision. The problem is how we explain it.
We removed the messenger from the stage without confronting the lie he was spreading. We focused on Macklemore–his rhetoric, his history, the hurt his words cause–when the far greater threat is the message itself. And in doing so, we inadvertently helped create precisely the narrative Macklemore and his defenders wanted.
Now the story practically writes itself: Macklemore dared to “speak truth to power.” He said what others supposedly do not want Americans to hear, and for his courage, a Jewish billionaire and other venue owners took away his microphone. Macklemore becomes the martyr. His cancellation becomes evidence of his righteousness. And Jews assume precisely the role his rhetoric already assigns us: morally compromised and willing to use our influence to suppress anyone brave enough to expose an uncomfortable truth.
We should stop defending ourselves against the accusation and start challenging the accusation itself.
Macklemore did not belong on that stage because he was using it to spread hateful lies about the Jewish state. He was telling an audience that the world’s only Jewish state is committing “genocide” and practicing “apartheid,” presenting those accusations not as arguments to defend, but as settled truths.
That is not the same as supporting Palestinians or criticizing Israel. Macklemore remains free to say what he believes. But freedom of speech does not entitle anyone to someone else’s microphone, particularly an entertainment stage before thousands who bought tickets for a concert rather than to hear a political polemic.
There is also a bitter irony in the outrage over Macklemore being “canceled.” Where was this defense of artistic freedom when American Jewish musician Matisyahu had concerts canceled after activists targeted venues over his support for Israel, creating security and staffing concerns? Macklemore did not lose his place because of his identity. He lost that stage because of what he chose to do with it.
The accusations coming from more than Macklemore.
And this is much bigger than Macklemore. He did not invent these accusations. He is simply their latest celebrity messenger.
“Genocide.” “Apartheid.” “Ethnic cleansing.” “War criminal.” We hear these charges on college campuses, across social media, in newsrooms, entertainment, politics, and our institutions. Repeated often enough, they enter our discourse not as extraordinary accusations requiring proof, but as established facts requiring allegiance.
That is where the Jewish community has missed something fundamental. We have become very good at identifying antisemitism and condemning those who traffic in it. We have been far less willing to confront the lies that make the antisemitism possible.
Dara Horn has articulated something essential about antisemitism: it does not operate simply as hatred or intolerance toward Jews. It operates through a recurring lie–that Jews are responsible for destroying whatever a society holds most dear.
That distinction changes the prescription. If we treat antisemitism primarily as intolerance, we answer it with tolerance: more education, dialogue, and opportunities to understand Jews. Those things have value. But you cannot cure a lie by teaching people to become more tolerant of the people being lied about. You have to challenge the lie.
And we must confront the genocide lie more boldly. Israel is not committing genocide. The accusation is false and outrageous.
Genocide is not a synonym for a terrible war, a high civilian death toll, or even violations of the laws of war. It is a specific crime requiring intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group as such. Intent is not incidental to the definition. It is essential.
Israel’s conduct matters too. John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at West Point’s Modern War Institute, has argued after studying the Gaza campaign that Israel has implemented more measures to prevent civilian harm than any military he has studied. That does not mean every Israeli decision was correct or every strike justified. But warnings, evacuations, and extensive civilian-harm precautions are evidence that must be confronted before accusing a country of intending to destroy a people.
The genocide accusation is a modern blood libel.
The original blood libel accused Jews of deliberately murdering Christian children. Its power came from transforming hatred into righteousness. Those who believed it did not imagine themselves persecuting innocent Jews. They imagined themselves protecting innocent children from evil.
The moral vocabulary changes. The mechanism remains hauntingly familiar. Today, someone can accuse the Jewish state of deliberately destroying a people and still sincerely insist–as Macklemore has–that he has nothing against Jews. He may genuinely believe he is standing against evil. That is precisely what makes the libel so dangerous.
Concern for Palestinian human rights, advocacy for Palestinians and criticism of Israel are not antisemitic. Palestinian suffering is real. Innocent civilians have died, and where individuals commit crimes, they should be held accountable.
But none of that establishes genocide. And compassion does not demand self-flagellation or self-erasure.
Jews should not have to accept the lie that Israel is committing genocide to prove that we care about Palestinian lives. We should not have to sever our connection to Israel to establish our moral credibility or repeat a blood libel against the Jewish state to demonstrate our decency.
Yet that is increasingly the moral test imposed upon us.
Accept that the world’s only Jewish state is committing one of humanity’s gravest crimes, and you can remain among the righteous. Challenge that premise, defend Israel against the charge, or refuse to distance yourself from the Jewish state, and suddenly your disagreement becomes complicity–and your connection to Israel becomes evidence against you.
That is not incidental to the antisemitism. It is how the antisemitism works.
Some argue that Netanyahu’s government or particular Israeli policies have made defending Israel more difficult. But difficulty does not turn an accusation into a fact. We do not have to support Netanyahu or defend every Israeli action. And distancing ourselves from Israel will not make American Jews safer; it only reinforces the dangerous fiction that Jewish safety depends on Jewish behavior.
We can defend Palestinian humanity without surrendering our own. We should not disavow Israel to demonstrate our decency or accept collective guilt for a crime Israel did not commit.
The answer to a blood libel is not to prove that Jews are good people. It is to expose the blood libel as a lie.
Robert Kraft is a hero for standing up. Now it is our job to stand with him–and fight the lies.
[https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-909016 JPost]
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Dave Portnoy backs Robert Kraft after Macklemore ban: 110 percent.
Barstool founder Dave Portnoy strongly backs Robert Kraft’s decision to ban Macklemore, criticizing the rapper’s politics and antisemitic history.
Israel National News.
Published: Sep 18, 2026, 6:58 AM (GMT+3)
[...]
Portnoy further pointed to Macklemore’s previous controversy involving antisemitic imagery. "Bob Kraft, I am sure, did what I did when I saw this, he researched Macklemore," Portnoy said. "It didn't take long to learn that Macklemore has a pretty shady past. He already, at a prior concert, dressed in wildly antisemitic tropes."
He was referring to Macklemore’s 2014 performance in Seattle, where the rapper appeared in a dark suit while wearing a fake beard and prosthetic nose. The appearance drew criticism for invoking antisemitic caricatures of Jews...
[https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/433352 INN]
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Protesters tear down PLO flag in Amsterdam
Crowd erupts in cheers as pro-Israel demonstrators pull massive PLO flag from building overlooking Amsterdam’s Dam Square.
Israel National News.
Sep 18, 2026, 10:49 AM (GMT+3)
[https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/433363 INN]
Netherlands: Thousands participated in a rally in support of Israel organized by Christian organizations that love Israel yesterday at Dam Square in Amsterdam. (September 18, 2026)
[https://abualiexpress.com/en/2026/09/ Abualiexpress]
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Dutch cinema drops Oct. 7 screening of ‘NAZA’
But Filmhuis Lumen in Delft will still show the film, which portrays Israeli soldiers as war criminals, on two other dates.
Canaan Lidor.
(Sept. 18, 2026 / JNS) A Dutch movie theater had scheduled an Oct. 7 screening of “NAZA,” a documentary widely seen as anti-Israel, but appeared to have removed it from its online schedule amid an outcry on Thursday.
Filmhuis Lumen in Delft, near Rotterdam, this week initially scheduled screenings of “NAZA” on Oct. 4, Oct. 7 and Oct. 11, making it one of the first theaters in the world to screen the film following its premiere last week at the Venice International Film Festival. The film won the festival’s Special Jury Prize.
The theater then dropped the Oct. 7 screening of the film, which alleges that Israel systematically targeted Palestinian civilians during the war against Hamas in Gaza. Israeli officials and others have dismissed the film as a mendacious instrument of anti-Israel propaganda. The change followed criticism online, including on Lumen’s Facebook page, over the Oct. 7 screening.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned “NAZA” as an “intolerable” and “terrible” film that “slanders IDF soldiers” and portrays Israeli soldiers as war criminals. The film was co-directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor and named for the Hebrew military acronym for “collateral damage.”
Filmhuis Lumen did not reply by press time to a JNS query about what led to its decision to drop the Oct. 7 screening, which would have fallen on the third anniversary of Hamas’s massacres. Hamas terrorists and other Gazans killed about 1,200 people on Oct. 7, 2023, among other atrocities.
Oded Nir, a member of the Consulting Board of the Israel Defense and Security Forum, also known as Habithonistim, condemned the decision to screen the film on that date and said it was indicative of indifference in Western Europe to Israeli casualties.
Nir, an Israeli musician who lived in the Netherlands for 19 years before returning to Israel last year, told JNS that Delft was “a quiet and picturesque place. And as Ze’ev Jabotinsky wrote in ‘Shir Betar’: ‘Quiet is squalid, an abandonment of blood and soul.’” Jabotinsky was a right-wing Zionist leader who founded the Betar youth movement in Riga in 1923.
Lumen has previously screened anti-Israel films, including “No Other Land,” “The Voice of Hind Rajab” and “Palestine 36.” It did not advertise screenings of recent films that represent the mainstream Israeli narrative, such as “We Will Dance Again,” “Screams Before Silence,” “One Day in October” or “Of Dogs and Men.”
https://www.jns.org/news/world/dutch-cinema-drops-oct-7-screening-of-naza
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WSJ report:
Kraft told Sheeran Macklemore’s Gaza claims were hate speech.
Robert Kraft told Ed Sheeran that Macklemore’s claims about Israel and Gaza were hate speech in a 40-minute call, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Israel National News
Sep 18, 2026, 8:18 PM
[https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/433378 INN]
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Iran is rapidly rebuilding a fortified facility at the Parchin military complex near Tehran that has been linked to past nuclear weapons research, according to new satellite imagery analyzed by the Institute for Science and International Security.
Satellite images from Sept. 13 show extensive reconstruction at the Taleghan 2 facility, including a large tarp covering the damaged underground structure to conceal work from satellite and aerial surveillance, the Washington-based research institute said on Thursday.
Construction equipment, including cranes, bulldozers, dump trucks and concrete mixers, was visible at the site, while new concrete reinforcement appeared intended to provide additional protection against airstrikes, according to the analysis.
Taleghan 2 was destroyed in an Israeli strike in October 2024 and subsequently rebuilt and hardened before being struck again in March. The institute assessed after the second attack that the facility’s internal structure had likely been destroyed.
[https://www.jns.org/live/breaking-news#000001a0-b3da-dea2-a5aa-bbdf2e260000 JNS]
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Germany: Afghan national arrested over suspected arson attack on synagogue.
German police arrest 37-year-old Afghan national suspected of setting fire to a synagogue in Wuppertal.
Israel National News.
Published: Sep 18, 2026, 5:53 AM (GMT+3)
[https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/433349 INN]
Arsonist targets German synagogue ahead of Yom Kippur.
Sep 18, 2026.
An arson attack targeted the Bergische Synagogue in Wuppertal, Germany, days before Yom Kippur, the European Jewish Congress said on Friday.
At about 2 p.m. local time on Thursday, a man threw several bags filled with flammable liquid at a side entrance to the synagogue in North Rhine-Westphalia state and set them alight before fleeing, according to the EJC.
[https://www.jns.org/live/breaking-news#000001a0-b423-d627-a5b8-f72b83610000 JNS]
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Huckabee: International media may be Israel’s ‘toughest enemy’.
Sep 18, 2026.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Friday accused the international media of pervasive bias against Israel, citing an analysis of millions of news articles.
“Read the meticulously documented analysis of the bias of news coverage of Israel ... and you will find that the int’l media may be Israel’s toughest enemy!” Huckabee wrote on X.
He was referring to “Center of Attention,” published on Aug. 27 by Jeremy Musighi, a technology entrepreneur and investor who researches media coverage of Israel, and who said he analyzed 14.7 million news articles in 65 languages, as well as cable news airtime and data from X.
“Every news story follows a predictable decay function—it peaks, then is soon forgotten,” Musighi wrote. “That is, every story except one: Israel.”
Musighi said his analysis found unusually persistent media attention on Israel, describing the results as “staggering.”
[https://www.jns.org/live/breaking-news#000001a0-b42c-d1ac-abbf-b53d24b20000 JNS]
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El-Sayed Gushed Over ‘Hilarious’ Antisemitic Comedian and Conspiracy Theorist Who’s Mehdi Hasan’s ‘Good Friend’: Zeteo Contributor Depicted Jews as Deceitful Redheads.
Bassem Youssef calls 9/11 ‘the biggest false flag operation’ by Israel.
Chuck Ross.
September 18, 2026
[https://freebeacon.com/democrats/el-sayed-gushed-over-hilarious-antisemitic-comedian-and-conspiracy-theorist-whos-mehdi-hasans-good-friend-zeteo-contributor-depicted-jews-as-dece/ FreeBeacon]
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Hundreds of Jewish residents protest outside of NYC Mayor Mamdani's home.
Jewish protesters gather outside NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani's home after a spike in antisemitism in the city over the Summer.
Idan Kweller, Yoav Etiel. September 18, 2026.
Hundreds of Jewish community leaders and residents are currently protesting outside of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's home to demonstrate their support for Israel and bring attention to rising antisemitism in the city.
The event was prompted by an increase in attacks on Jews this summer, which included a stabbing near a synagogue on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and a disruption of services at the Great Refrom Synagogue in August.
[https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/article-909068 JPost]
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Open letter to US President Donald Trump: Carpe diem - opinion.
You have made clear that America must win the artificial intelligence race. I agree. But another question must stand beside it: How does America win without all of us ultimately losing?
Jeffrey Kahn. September 18, 2026.
[https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-908938 JPost]
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Serious Security Indictment.
Israeli Arab Arrested for Hamas Contact
Sultan Abu al-Hija reached out multiple times to Hamas's military wing and attempted to establish contact with Iranian intelligence operatives before his arrest.
Eliana Fleming
Sep 18, 2026.
[https://www.jfeed.com/crime-and-justice/tlkb86 JFeed]
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Live Updates: Yemen conflict displaces 112,000 as Qatar, UN agree to ship 1.3 million liters of fuel to Gaza.
Sharaa secretly building up Syrian military • Ex-Fatah official says he passed on Oct. 7 warning to Israel • Iraq lifts civilian restrictions in its western airspace.
Sep 18, 2026.
[https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/2026-09-18/live-updates-909020 JPost]
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