RSS
Iran’s Assassination Plots Against Jews Persist Despite the West’s Leniency on Regime
Workers work to convert the Eiffel Tower Stadium from the beach volleyball venue to the Paralympic blind football venue for the coming Paris 2024 Paralympic Games on Aug. 18, 2024. Photo: Reuters
The French police recently charged a French-Algerian dual citizen and his partner for allegedly conspiring to assassinate Israelis and Jews in Paris, Munich, and Berlin — all at the behest of Iran.
Iran’s efforts to murder Jews overseas demonstrates how the regime in Tehran has intensified its support for terrorism and assassination plots in the West, despite outreach and economic concessions by the United States and Europe.
The French General Directorate for Internal Security claimed on September 8 that Iran had planned to assassinate some seven individuals across Europe as part of a plot to “strike targeted civilians” to “create insecurity for the opposition” to Tehran’s regime “from within the Jewish/Israeli community.”
The plot aimed to intimidate the Islamic Republic’s opponents, in order to dissuade them from engaging in activism against the clerical dictatorship.
The Islamic Republic has long cultivated and exploited connections to criminal networks, which are behind a recent wave of violent plots targeting Jewish communities and Iranian dissidents across Europe and the United States.
The networks include the Hells Angels biker gang in Germany, the Eastern European criminal organization known as the Organization, and the Swedish Foxtrot and Rumba organized crime networks.
Troublingly, while the regime’s assassinations — often implemented covertly by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Ministry of Intelligence (MOI) — date to the Islamic Republic’s founding in 1979, recent years have seen a marked escalation of the theocracy’s efforts.
The Israeli Mossad recently reported that Iran has facilitated a string of terror attacks on Israeli embassies across Europe by capitalizing on the global antisemitic wave after the Hamas terror attacks of October 7. The Mossad stated that Tehran was behind a grenade attack against Israel’s embassy in Belgium in May 2024. Similarly, Swedish intelligence confirmed in May 2024 that Iran had orchestrated the foiled bombing attack against the Israeli embassy in Stockholm earlier this year.
Despite the Islamic Republic’s claims of differentiating between Jews and Zionists, the regime’s foreign plots have consistently targeted Jewish communities independent from Israel.
For instance, Germany concluded that Tehran had plotted the attempted arson attack on a synagogue in Dusseldorf in 2022.
Iranian dissidents, anti-regime activists, and journalists have also fallen victim to Tehran’s transnational attacks. Most notably, in 2018, a Belgium court convicted the Vienna-based Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi for a plot to bomb the annual convention of the National Council of Resistance of Iran. Belgian authorities said that Assadi was an Iranian intelligence officer operating under diplomatic cover, carrying out orders from the MOI.
Tehran’s reach has even extended to the United States, evidenced by foiled plots to assassinate and kidnap the New York-based Masih Alinejad — an Iranian-American dissident and journalist who was the target of a thwarted kidnapping attempt by Iranian intelligence services in 2021.
In 2023, the US Department of Justice charged three men with ties to Iran and to an Eastern European criminal network who were plotting to assassinate Alinejad in her New York home in 2022.
Iran also facilitated the failed 2022 assassination attempt in New York against Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses, a novel that had prompted Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to issue a fatwa in 1989 calling for his death. The US District Court in Buffalo claimed that the perpetrator, who stabbed Rushdie multiple times, provided “material support and resources” to the Tehran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah between September 2020 and the day of the attack.
The European Union should respond to these attacks by designating the IRGC as a terrorist entity, like the United States did in 2019.
Furthermore, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France should reinstate UN sanctions on Iran by triggering the snapback process in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorsed the 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
In a letter dated April 10, 2023, some 130 members of the US House of Representatives urged the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, to designate the IRGC as a terrorist entity. A month earlier, 12 members of the US Senate sent a letter with the same message to Borrell. At long last, he needs to listen to them.
Until then, the United States must maintain this pressure to ensure that Washington and Europe pose a unified stance against Tehran’s malign ambitions. At the same time, Washington should reimpose maximum economic pressure on Iran in order to send the regime a message that it will pay a significant price for its violence. After decades of assassinations, whether completed or attempted, there is no more time to waste.
Janatan Sayeh is a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies focused on Iranian domestic affairs and the Islamic Republic’s regional malign influence. Follow him on X @JanatanSayeh.
The post Iran’s Assassination Plots Against Jews Persist Despite the West’s Leniency on Regime first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
French Officials Replant Olive Trees to Honor Murdered Jew Ilan Halimi After Vandalized Memorial
A crowd gathers at the Jardin Ilan Halimi in Paris on Feb. 14, 2021, to commemorate the 15th anniversary of Halimi’s kidnapping and murder. Photo: Reuters/Xose Bouzas/Hans Lucas
More than a month and a half after the olive tree planted to honor Ilan Halimi was vandalized and cut down, French authorities are continuing efforts to replant olive trees in memory of the young Jewish man who was brutally tortured to death in 2006.
On Tuesday, local officials unveiled a commemorative plaque in the garden of Paris City Hall and planted a new tree to honor Halimi’s memory.
“This tree is a symbol of life,” said Ariel Weil, mayor of Paris Centre. “Next year will mark the tragic 20th anniversary of Ilan Halimi’s murder.”
“At the time, he was barely a young man. At 23, full of passion and the energy of youth, he pursued the promise of love — but met a tragic death instead,” Weil continued. “With this tree, however, it is Ilan Halimi’s life that is being planted in our garden.”
Last week, the southern French town of Pollestres also planted a new olive tree in honor of Halimi, calling it “a symbol of peace and remembrance” and a stand against hatred and antisemitism.
“We aim to promote values against barbarism, racism, and antisemitism, and I must say that right now, there is a climate of hatred between communities,” said Jean-Charles Moriconi, the town’s mayor.
“I believe that to unite everyone, we need gestures like this — proof that when something is torn down or destroyed, it will be replanted,” he continued.
Last month, French authorities planted the first olive tree in Saint-Ouen, a northern suburb of Paris in the Île-de-France region, two weeks after Halimi’s previous memorial was vandalized.
Hervé Chevreau, mayor of the northern Paris suburb Épinay, announced that several olive trees will be replanted in Halimi’s memory, praising “a remarkable outpouring of solidarity” reflected in the donations.
Yonathan Arfi, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF) — the main representative body of French Jews — praised these gestures as a powerful symbol of “the deep roots of the Jewish people in the [French Republic], and in the history of France,” saying that “no one will be able to uproot them.”
Halimi was abducted, held captive, and tortured in January 2006 by a gang of about 20 people in a low-income housing estate in the Paris suburb of Bagneux.
Three weeks later, he was found in Essonne, south of Paris, naked, gagged, and handcuffed, with clear signs of torture and burns. The 23-year-old died on the way to the hospital.
In 2011, an olive tree was planted in Halimi’s memory. In August, the memorial was found felled — probably with a chainsaw — in Epinay-sur-Seine.
Halimi’s memory has faced attacks before, with two other trees planted in his honor vandalized in 2019 in Essonne.
Shortly after this latest attack, two 19-year-old Tunisian twin brothers, undocumented and with prior convictions for theft and violence, were arrested for allegedly vandalizing and cutting down Halimi’s memorial.
Both brothers appeared in criminal court and were remanded in custody pending their trial, scheduled for Oct. 22.
They will face trial on charges of “aggravated destruction of property” and “desecration of a monument dedicated to the memory of the dead on the basis of race, ethnicity, nationality, or religion,” offenses that, according to prosecutors, carry a sentence of up to two years in prison.
RSS
Israel Diverts Gaza Flotilla Ships, Says ‘Greta Thunberg Safe’
Sailing boats, part of the Global Sumud Flotilla aiming to reach Gaza and break Israel’s naval blockade, sail off Koufonisi islet, Greece, Sept. 26, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Stefanos Rapanis
Several vessels of the international flotilla heading to Gaza have been stopped and their passengers are being transferred to an Israeli port, the Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
Greta Thunberg, the Swedish climate campaigner, and her friends are “safe and healthy,” the foreign ministry said in a post on X alongside a video that appeared to show Thunberg and several masked and armed Israeli military personnel.
The flotilla’s organizers said that Israeli military personnel intercepted and boarded the ships, which aim to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza — the Palestinian enclave that has been ruled by the terrorist group Hamas for nearly two decades — and deliver some aid there.
Some 20 vessels were seen approaching the flotilla earlier on Wednesday night, multiple people on board said, as passengers put on life vests and braced for a takeover.
“Multiple vessels … were illegally intercepted and boarded by Israeli Occupation Forces in international waters,” the organizers said in a statement. “We are diligently working to account for all participants and crew.”
It said that its communications were jammed before boarding began, which interfered with cameras that were providing live streams from various boats and communications between vessels.
The Global Sumud Flotilla, which consists of more than 40 civilian boats carrying about 500 parliamentarians, lawyers, and activists including Thunberg, is trying to break Israel‘s blockade despite repeated warnings from Israel to turn back.
It is about 70 nautical miles off the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, inside a zone that Israel is policing to stop any boats approaching.
A live video feed from one of the boats in the flotilla showed passengers in life vests sitting on deck.
It is not clear how many of the boats had been intercepted or stopped. Some passengers said their vessels continued to advance.
Organizers remained defiant, saying in the statement that the flotilla “will continue undeterred.”
The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment about intercepting the vessels.
Its foreign ministry earlier said the navy had warned the flotilla it was approaching an active combat zone and violating a lawful blockade, and asked them to change course.
The ministry said that it reiterated the offer to transfer any aid peacefully through safe channels to Gaza.
TRYING TO BREAK THE BLOCKADE
The flotilla is the latest sea-borne attempt to break Israel‘s blockade of Gaza.
The flotilla had been hoping to arrive in Gaza on Thursday morning if it was not intercepted.
This was the second time the flotilla was approached on Wednesday. Before dawn, the mission’s organizers said two Israeli “warships” had approached fast and encircled two of the flotilla’s boats. All navigation and communication devices went down in what one organizer on board described as a “cyber attack.”
A video post on the flotilla’s Instagram page showed the silhouette of what appeared to be a military vessel with a gun turret near the civilian boats.
Reuters confirmed that the video was filmed from the flotilla, but could not confirm the identity of the other vessel in the video or when the video was taken.
Last week members of the flotilla claimed the mission was attacked by drones, which reportedly dropped stun grenades and itching powder on the vessels, causing damage but no injuries.
Israel did not comment on that attack, but has said it will use any means to prevent the boats from reaching Gaza, arguing that its naval blockade is legal as it battles Hamas terrorists in the coastal enclave.
Italy and Spain deployed naval ships to help with any rescue or humanitarian needs but stopped following the flotilla once it got within 150 nautical miles (278 km) of Gaza for safety reasons. Turkish drones have also followed the boats.
Italy and Greece on Wednesday jointly called on Israel not to hurt the activists aboard and called on the flotilla to hand over its aid to the Catholic Church for indirect delivery to Gaza – a plea the flotilla has previously rejected.
Israeli officials have repeatedly denounced the mission as a stunt.
“This systematic refusal [to hand over the aid] demonstrates that the objective is not humanitarian, but provocative. They are not seeking to help, they are seeking an incident,” Jonathan Peled, the Israeli ambassador to Italy, said in a post on X.
PAST ATTEMPTS TO DELIVER AID
Israel has imposed a naval blockade on Gaza since Hamas took control of the coastal enclave in 2007 and there have been several previous attempts by activists to deliver aid by sea.
In 2010, nine activists were killed after Israeli soldiers boarded a flotilla of six ships manned by 700 pro-Palestinian activists from 50 countries.
In June this year, Israeli naval forces detained Thunberg and 11 crew members from a small ship organized by a pro-Palestinian group called the Freedom Flotilla Coalition as they approached Gaza.
RSS
FBI Cuts Ties With Anti-Defamation League, FBI Director Says
FBI Director Kash Patel attends the signing of an executive order by US President Donald Trump on a deal that would divest TikTok’s US operations from ByteDance from its Chinese owner ByteDance, at the White House in Washington, DC, US, Sept. 25, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
The FBI said on Wednesday it had cut ties with the Anti-Defamation League, a prominent Jewish group that tracks antisemitism, after Republicans criticized the group for including slain activist Charlie Kirk’s organization in a glossary on extremism.
In a social media post, FBI Director Kash Patel said the bureau “won’t partner with political fronts masquerading as watchdogs.”
The ADL did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It was not immediately clear what sort of ties the FBI had with the ADL.
Patel’s announcement followed criticism of the ADL by right-wing activists and leaders, including billionaire Elon Musk, over its inclusion of Kirk’s Turning Point USA in a “Glossary of Extremism and Hate” on its website. Kirk was assassinated on a college campus in September.
After that criticism, the ADL removed the entire glossary from its website. The glossary had said that Turning Point USA had a history of “bigoted statements,” a charge the group rejects.