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‘Pod Save America’ Staff Revolt Over Israel-Hamas War
Pod Save America hosts on tour. Photo: Screenshot
Crooked Media, the liberal media company that runs the popular “Pod Save America” podcast, is facing an internal staff revolt over the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
Staffers at “Pod Save America,” arguably one of the most influential media platforms among Democrats, are lashing out at the show’s hosts — former US President Barack Obama staffers Jon Favreau, Tommy Vietor, Jon Lovett, and Dan Pfeiffer — for taking tempered stances on the war in Gaza, according to Bloomberg. The staffers, who are typically much younger and progressive than the hosts, have become incensed at the show’s alleged lack of sympathy for the plight of Palestinian civilians in Gaza or anti-Israel protesters in the United States.
“The war in Gaza in particular pitted employees against each other and their bosses. Some people said the hosts weren’t empathetic enough toward Palestinian suffering, or understanding of pro-Palestine protesters,” Bloomberg reported.
To express their support for the Palestinian cause, staffers have reportedly started sharing news reports by anti-Israel outlets in the company’s Slack channel. They have also placed watermelon emojis next to their Slack usernames — a symbol that activists have used on social media to indicate their support for the pro-Palestinian movement. Some Crooked Media employees have even reportedly started wearing the keffiyeh — a traditional Palestinian head covering — around the office.
Staff members have urged Crooked Media to hold an office-wide conference to address the internal fracture over the Israel-Hamas war, according to reports. Crooked Media denied these requests, instead encouraging employees to discuss the topic individually during office hours with the company’s founders.
Moreover, the company’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war has reportedly sparked conflict between staff members, causing some employees to depart the company.
Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported, one producer was discussing anti-Israel protests on university campuses, and someone else overheard the conversation and thought the producer had uttered a slur. “The incident was reported to human resources, which investigated the claim and cleared the producer of any wrongdoing, though the producer later quit rather than endure the highly-charged workplace culture,” according to the report.
The ongoing Israel-Hamas war has somewhat divided the American political left. Polling suggests that commanding majorities of liberals support a “ceasefire” between Israel and the Hamas terrorist group. A majority of US Democrats also believe the unsubstantiated notion that Israel is committing a “genocide” in Gaza, according to a poll conducted by Zeteo and Data for Progress that was released in May. Democrats also now indicate more “sympathy” for Palestinians than Israelis, according to recent polling from Quinnipiac University.
In response to a shifting sentiment among liberal voters, Democratic leadership has changed their posture toward Israel. Roughly half of House and Senate Democrats skipped Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to the US Congress last month, with many making clear they were boycotting the event in protest of Israel’s prosecution of the war in Gaza. Some argued the Israeli prime minister was meddling in US politics or using the speech to boost his own position at home, taking shots at the Israeli premier over social media. Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, also skipped Netanyahu’s address to attend a sorority convention.
The post ‘Pod Save America’ Staff Revolt Over Israel-Hamas War first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Says Eight Arrested for Suspected Links to Israel’s Mossad Spy Agency
The Mossad recruitment ad. Photo: Screenshot.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday they had arrested eight people suspected of trying to transmit the coordinates of sensitive sites and details about senior military figures to Israel’s Mossad, Iranian state media reported.
They are accused of having provided the information to the Mossad spy agency during Israel’s air war on Iran in June, when it attacked Iranian nuclear facilities and killed top military commanders as well as civilians in the worst blow to the Islamic Republic since the 1980s war with Iraq.
Iran retaliated with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites, infrastructure and cities. The United States entered the war on June 22 with strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
A Guards statement alleged that the suspects had received specialized training from Mossad via online platforms. It said they were apprehended in northeastern Iran before carrying out their plans, and that materials for making launchers, bombs, explosives and booby traps had been seized.
State media reported earlier this month that Iranian police had arrested as many as 21,000 “suspects” during the 12-day war with Israel, though they did not say what these people had been suspected of doing.
Security forces conducted a campaign of widespread arrests and also stepped up their street presence during the brief war that ended in a US-brokered ceasefire.
Iran has executed at least eight people in recent months, including nuclear scientist Rouzbeh Vadi, hanged on August 9 for passing information to Israel about another scientist killed in Israeli airstrikes.
Human rights groups say Iran uses espionage charges and fast-tracked executions as tools for broader political repression.
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Body of Idan Shtivi, Murdered on Oct. 7, Retrieved from Gaza in Special IDF Operation
Idan Shtivi. Photo: Courtesy of the family
i24 News – The body of Idan Shtivi, a 28-year-old murdered by Palestinian jihadists at the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, was recovered in a joint operation by the IDF and Shin Bet in central Gaza, it was cleared for publication on Saturday.
Shtivi’s remains were returned to Israel alongside the body of Ilan Weiss, another hostage killed during the October 7 massacre.
“Idan Shtivi was abducted from the Tel Gama area and brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists after acting to rescue and evacuate others from the Nova music festival on October 7th, 2023. He was 28 years old at the time of his death,” read an IDF press release.
“Following an identification process conducted at the National Center for Forensic Medicine, along with the Israel Police and the Military Rabbinate, the Hostages and Missing Persons Headquarters notified his family.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Shviti “was a gifted student of sustainability and governance, and a courageous individual” who acted heroically on October 7, helping others flee.
“He was killed in the process and his body was abducted to Gaza by Hamas. My wife and I send our heartfelt condolences to the Shtivi family. So far, 207 hostages have been returned, 148 of them alive. We will continue to act tirelessly and decisively to bring back all our hostages—living and deceased.”
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Woman Stabbed at Ottawa Grocery Store in Latest Antisemitic Attack
A social media post by the alleged attacker, Joseph Rooke of Cornwall, Ontario. Photo: Screenshot via i24
i24 News – The stabbing of a Jewish woman at an Ottawa grocery by a man with a long history of antisemitic posts on social media, the latest antisemitic hate crime in Canada, sparked outrage and prompted condemnation from officials including the prime minister.
Both the victim and the attacker are in their 70s. The woman is reportedly in serious condition.
The suspect was identified as Joseph Rooke, who has authored a series of lengthy rambling screeds on social media, ranting against Israel and Jews.
“Judaism is the world’s oldest cult,” he writes in one post, going on to say “over time jews have become insidious in governments, businesses, media conglomerates, and educational institutions in order to do what they do better than anyone else. Jews are the world’s masters of propaganda, gaslighting, demonization, demagoguery, and outright lying. Using their collective wealth they have become masters of reprisal.”
“I am under no obligation whatsoever, legal, moral, or otherwise, to like jews and I do not. If that means I meet the jewish definition of an anti-semite, so be it.”
Canada has seen a steep spike in antisemitic attacks over the past two years, including a recent incident in Montreal where a Hasidic Jew was beaten in front on his children.
After Prime Minister Mark Carney condemned the incident, many, including former Israel’s ambassador the US Michael Oren, pointed out that Carney’s rhetoric and policies contribute to the increasing insecurity of Canada’s Jewish community through uncritical embrace of outrageous and easily disprovable allegations that Israel and its supporters were guilty of the worst crimes against humanity.