RSS
Pro-Palestinian protesters target Philadelphia falafel shop owned by Jewish celebrity chef Michael Solomonov
(JTA) — Elected officials and Jewish groups are decrying a rally by pro-Palestinian activists in Philadelphia that targeted a restaurant founded by the Israeli-American celebrity chef Michael Solomonov.
“Goldie, Goldie, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide,” a crowd of dozens of people chanted outside the Rittenhouse Square outpost of Goldie, Solomonov’s kosher falafel chain. Video circulating on social media of the protest, organized by the Philly Palestine Coalition to call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, shows protesters crowding the restaurant shortly after 5 p.m. Sunday.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish, called the genocide chant “a blatant act of antisemitism — not a peaceful protest.” He said he had reached out to Solomonov, with whom he had previously filmed an Instagram video baking challah together ahead of Rosh Hashanah, to provide support.
Protestors in Philadelphia stand outside of a Jewish & Israeli owned falafel restaurant
“Goldie, Goldie you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide” pic.twitter.com/yF7hQwev66
— Jordan (@thatJVG) December 3, 2023
“A restaurant was targeted and mobbed because its owner is Jewish and Israeli,” Shapiro wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “This hate and bigotry is reminiscent of a dark time in history.”
A spokesperson for Solomonov’s restaurant group, CookNSolo, declined to comment.
The Philly Palestine Coalition protest also called for an end to U.S. military aid to Israel. The group previously drew charges of antisemitism after it called for a boycott of “Zionist” restaurants in Philadelphia in response to the Israel-Hamas war, distributing a list of targets that were owned by Jewish or Israeli restauranteurs.
“Targeting businesses solely because of their Israeli and Jewish ownership is blatant antisemitism and only further contributes to the alarming levels of hate against Jews nationwide,” two top executives at the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia said at the time.
Others sounded similar notes on Sunday night. Philadelphia Congressman Brendan Boyle posted, “I can’t believe I even have to say this but targeting businesses simply because they’re Jewish owned is despicable.” The Anti-Defamation League posted that “targeting businesses solely based on their Israeli or Jewish ownership is blatant antisemitism.”
Even some Jewish ceasefire advocates criticized the decision to target Goldie. Peter Beinart, one of the most outspoken Jewish critics of Israel’s actions, called the chant “idiotic and dangerous.”
Since the start of the Israel-Hamas was nearly two months ago, a range of Jewish locations across the country have been targeted by protesters and vandals — from synagogues to campus buildings to restaurants. The demonstration surrounding Goldie struck a particular chord because of Solomonov’s biography and his stated belief that food can help transcend cultural and political divides.
Solomonov was born in Israel and raised in Pittsburgh, then returned to Israel to kick off his culinary career, which he has parlayed into network of restaurants in Philadelphia and New York City all riffing on Israeli cuisine. He has said that he decided to focus on Jewish and Israeli food after his brother David was killed while serving in the Israeli army in 2003.
Michael Solomonov works the oven at his restaurant Zahav in Philadelphia, July 14, 2015. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Five days after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, Solomonov announced that his four Philadelphia restaurants would be donating all of that day’s profits to United Hatzalah, an emergency medical organization in Israel; the group ultimately said it donated $100,000 to the organization.
The war has also tested Solomonov’s commitment to bridging across cultures. In recent years, he has spoken repeatedly about his close friendship with Reem Kassis, a Palestinian cookbook author also based in Philadelphia. But in early November, the New York Times reported that the two hadn’t spoken since the war began.
The protest at Goldie came one day after Solomonov joined dozens of other food industry professionals in a Shabbat brunch potluck hosted by the Jewish Food Society in New York in response to rising antisemitism.
—
The post Pro-Palestinian protesters target Philadelphia falafel shop owned by Jewish celebrity chef Michael Solomonov appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
RSS
‘Totally Obliterated’: US Bombs Iran’s Nuclear Sites, Trump Declares Operation a Success
US President Donald Trump delivers an address to the nation alongside US Vice President JD Vance, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the White House in Washington, DC, US, June 21, 2025, following US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria/Pool
The United States launched a large-scale military strike against Iran early Saturday, destroying key nuclear enrichment facilities, including the heavily fortified Fordow site.
US President Donald Trump said in a public address that the operation had “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capabilities and urged Tehran to “make peace,” warning that any future aggression would be met with even greater force.
The multi-pronged strike combined stealth B‑2 Spirit bombers deploying bunker-buster bombs with Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from submarines. Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan — all central to the Iranian nuclear program — were targeted in a coordinated assault. US military officials said the campaign neutralized Iran’s main enrichment operations.
Trump praised Israel’s role in coordinating the response and hailed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a key partner, saying the two leaders worked “as a team like perhaps no team has ever worked before.” Netanyahu, for his part, called the American action “unmatched” and said it signaled a shift toward restoring regional stability.
Iran’s foreign ministry condemned the operation as a breach of sovereignty and international law, vowing to respond with force. Hours after the strike, Iran retaliated by unleashing a salvo of roughly 30 ballistic and hypersonic missiles toward central Israel. Several missiles hit urban centers including Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, Haifa, and surrounding areas, causing injuries to at least 25 civilians and extensive property damage. Israel closed its airspace and instructed residents in key regions to only venture out for essential activities. In response, Israeli jets struck military targets in Iran, including missile launch sites and rocket depots.
Domestically, Trump’s decision exposed sharp political divisions in Washington. Republican hawks applauded the move as decisive, while isolationists and some constitutional conservatives questioned the legality of bypassing Congress, demanding oversight before further military escalation. Meanwhile, the United Nations and key US allies, including Britain and France, urged caution and a swift return to diplomatic solutions.
Iranian state media reported that most nuclear material was evacuated from Fordow ahead of the strike, the Reuters news agency reported. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear watchdog, said it detected no spike in off-site radiation.
According to Arab sources cited in The Wall Street Journal, the United States sent messages via regional intermediaries to reassure Tehran that the strike was a one-off and not part of a campaign to topple the regime. A senior US official confirmed that the administration clarified it had no intention of pursuing regime change and that the door remained open to renewed negotiations.
US Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA), co-sponsors of a bipartisan resolution to block unauthorized military action in Iran, criticized Trump’s strike as unconstitutional. Massie called the move illegal, while Khanna urged Congress to immediately vote on their Iran War Powers Resolution “to prevent America from being dragged into another endless Middle East war.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), meanwhile, called for Trump’s ouster, claiming it violated the US Constitution and as such was an impeachable offense.
“The president’s disastrous decision to bomb Iran without authorization is a grave violation of the Constitution and Congressional War Powers. He has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations. It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment,” she said.
Arsen Ostrovsky, a leading human rights lawyer and CEO of the International Legal Forum, rejected the criticism. He said Trump was acting well within his powers under Article II of the Constitution, which grants the president authority as commander-in-chief to protect national security.
“This is not without precedent,” Ostrovsky told The Algemeiner, pointing to former President Barack Obama’s operation to kill Osama bin Laden and former President Joe Biden’s airstrikes on Iranian proxies in Syria.
“Trump did not need the authorization of Congress in order to initiate a military strike,” he said, adding that the action was also supported by the War Powers Resolution of 1973 and Article 51 of the UN Charter, which affirms a nation’s right to self-defense.
Ostrovsky also defended the legality of Israel’s involvement, saying its campaign was not a sudden act of aggression but a response to a protracted armed conflict initiated by Iran.
“Faced with an existential and imminent threat from a nuclear Iran, the Jewish state had no choice but to act before it was too late,” he said. He described the strikes as “lawful, necessary, and proportionate under the Laws of Armed Conflict against a genocidal regime that had vowed to destroy the world’s only Jewish state and stood on the cusp of acquiring the means to do so, had Israel not acted.”
“In striking Iran’s nuclear weapons program, Israel and the United States made the world a safer place. They did it not only in their own defense, but in defense of the free world,” he concluded.
The post ‘Totally Obliterated’: US Bombs Iran’s Nuclear Sites, Trump Declares Operation a Success first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Israeli Strike on Tehran Kills Bodyguard of Slain Hezbollah Chief
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi lays a wreath as he visits the burial site of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, on the outskirts of Beirut, Lebanon, June 3, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
A member of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah was killed in an Israeli air strike on Tehran alongside a member of an Iran-aligned Iraqi armed group, a senior Lebanese security source told Reuters and the Iraqi group said on Saturday.
The source identified the Hezbollah member as Abu Ali Khalil, who had served as a bodyguard for Hezbollah’s slain chief Hassan Nasrallah. The source said Khalil had been on a religious pilgrimage to Iraq when he met up with a member of the Kataeb Sayyed Al-Shuhada group.
They traveled together to Tehran and were both killed in an Israeli strike there, along with Khalil’s son, the senior security source said. Hezbollah has not joined in Iran’s air strikes against Israel from Lebanon.
Kataeb Sayyed Al-Shuhada published a statement confirming that both the head of its security unit and Khalil had been killed in an Israeli strike.
Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli aerial attack on Beirut’s southern suburbs in September.
Israel and Iran have been trading strikes for nine consecutive days since Israel launched attacks on Iran, saying Tehran was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons. Iran has said it does not seek nuclear weapons.
The post Israeli Strike on Tehran Kills Bodyguard of Slain Hezbollah Chief first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Hamas Financial Officer and Commander Eliminated by IDF in the Gaza Strip
Israeli soldiers operate during a ground operation in the southern Gaza Strip, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, July 3, 2024. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS
i24 News – The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), in cooperation with the General Security Service (Shin Bet), announced on Friday the killing of Ibrahim Abu Shamala, a senior financial official in Hamas’ military wing.
The operation took place on June 17th in the central Gaza Strip.
Abu Shamala held several key positions, including financial officer for Hamas’ military wing and assistant to Marwan Issa, the deputy commander of Hamas’ military wing until his elimination in March 2024.
He was responsible for managing all the financial resources of Hamas’ military wing in Gaza, overseeing the planning and execution of the group’s war budget. This involved handling and smuggling millions of dollars into the Gaza Strip to fund Hamas’ military operations.
The post Hamas Financial Officer and Commander Eliminated by IDF in the Gaza Strip first appeared on Algemeiner.com.