Right-wing political commentator Candace Owens speaks during an event held by national conservative political movement ‘Turning Point’, in Detroit, Michigan, US, June, 14, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Rebecca Cook

Political commentator Candace Owens criticized the satirical news outlet The Babylon Bee on her podcast on Monday, referring to it as the “Zionist Bee” and “Babylonian Talmudic Bee,” after it made a joke about Owens’ fixation on Jews and Israel.

“Candace Owens Horrified to Learn Christmas Was Started by Birth of a Jew,” a headline from The Babylon Bee read in the days leading up to Christmas. 

Seth Dillon, the owner of The Babylon Bee, wrote on X/Twitter that “the joke is that Candace is obsessed with Jews. It’s funny because it’s true; it’s been true for a long time.”

He continued, “It would be strange if we never joked about it. Then she proved it was true by getting mad and saying we attack Christians and never make fun of Jews because we have a secret agenda that she wants to expose — conspiratorial nonsense that made the whole thing funnier.”

Owens, a far-right provocateur and media personality, responded on X/Twitter, arguing that Dillon was acting in bad faith. “You and I do not have a personal relationship. We *had* a personal relationship when I stuck my neck out for you when your ‘friends’ attempted to stage a hostile takeover of your company,” she wrote. “We fast forward to this year and when my world seemingly came crashing down and my family was fighting, you didn’t even hesitate — you piled on.”

Owens then addressed the joke on her show as well, saying it has become obvious that the satirical news site has become like the “Zionist Bee” or the “Babylonian Talmudic Bee.”

“It’s just very obvious they are worshipping Israel,” Owens continued. “That they base their jokes on people who don’t worship Israel and [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu.”

After parting ways with The Daily Wire, a politically conservative media company, last year amid controversy over her comments regarding Jews and Israel, Owens has made those subjects top priorities in her new show.

In late July, for example, Owens said that the Star of David originated from an evil, child-sacrificing, pagan deity and has only become associated with Judaism within the past few hundred years.

In a June episode, Owens argued that “it seems like our country [the US] is being held hostage by Israel.” She lamented, “I’m going to get in so much trouble for that. I don’t care.”

In the same episode, Owens claimed US Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) was “wading into some dangerous waters” when, during an interview with host Tucker Carlson, he spoke about how effective the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is at lobbying members of Congress and suggested the group should have to register as a foreign agent that is acting on behalf of Israel.

The reason it was dangerous, Owens said, was because “we know there was once a president that wanted to make AIPAC register, and he ended up shot … so Thomas Massie better be careful.”

Owens was referencing the fact that President John F. Kennedy wanted the American Zionist Council, a lobby group, to register as a foreign agent.

However, there is no evidence the group had anything to do with Kennedy’s assassination.

Weeks later, Owens promoted a series of talking points downplaying the atrocities of the Holocaust and said experiments by Nazi doctor Joseph Mengele performed on Jews during World War II sounded “like bizarre propaganda.”

The post Candace Owens Attacks the ‘Babylonian Talmudic Bee’ for Making Joke About Her Fixation on Jews, Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Funeral of Youssef Ziadna, who was killed in Hamas captivity in Gaza, in Rahat, Israel on Jan. 9, 2025. Photo: Taken by author

Hundreds of mourners gathered on Friday in the Israeli Bedouin city of Rahat to lay to rest Hamza Ziadna, whose body was returned by the military after being killed in Hamas captivity in Gaza, a day after the funeral of his father, Youssef Ziadna, who was also killed in captivity. The city declared four days of mourning following the confirmation of his death.

Hamza Ziadna, 22, was abducted with his father Youssef, 53, and two of his siblings during the Palestinian terror group Hamas’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed his death on Friday, nearly two days after the death of Youssef was announced. Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz on Thursday sent his “deep condolences to the Ziadna family upon the discovery of the bodies of Youssef and Hamza, who were kidnapped by Hamas murderers on Oct. 7 and were rescued in a heroic operation by our heroic soldiers.”

Crowds at Thursday’s funeral expressed frustration at the prolonged wait for clarity regarding Hamza’s fate. According to Youssef Ziadna, who shares the same name as his deceased relative, the family was distraught that the elder Ziadna was named on a list for release in a ceasefire deal with Hamas. The hostage list he referred to, first published by the Asharq al Awsat newspaper, contains 34 names, but Israel later denied that it had received such a list from Hamas.

“We were told by the army that Hamza was also killed, but his body has not been recovered. At the funeral, [Ziadna’s] children ran around shouting, ‘how can it be? Our father’s name was on the list of captives; he’s supposed to come home.’ Now, that hope is gone,” Ziadna told The Algemeiner.

“The family is angry that the government isn’t making a deal to free the captives,” he said. “Unfortunately, two days [after seeing the list], we received the heartbreaking news — for the whole family, for the entire city, for the world — that they were murdered, and this was their fate.”

“It’s so very sad for the entire family. We’re all in shock,” he added.

Funeral of Youssef Ziadna, who was killed in Hamas captivity in Gaza, in Rahat, Israel on Jan. 9, 2025. Photo: Taken by author

Hamza Ziadna’s remains were released on Friday to the Rahat community for burial from the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute in Tel Aviv, after undergoing an autopsy.

Rahat’s mayor declared a city-wide period of mourning, during which businesses, schools, and municipal services will halt in solidarity with the Ziadna family.

Ninety-nine hostages are still held by Hamas in Gaza, with efforts at negotiating a temporary ceasefire deal ongoing. US President Joe Biden said on Thursday that “real progress” was being made in the negotiations, but that Hamas was the main factor preventing it from happening.

“Hamas is the one getting in the way of that exchange right now, but I think we may be able to get that done. We need to get it done,” he told reporters.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his condolences to the Ziadna family and reiterated his government’s commitment to securing the return of all captives, both living and deceased.

Two of Ziadna’s other children — Bilal, 18, and Aisha, 17 — who were kidnapped while working in the cowshed at Kibbutz Holit near the Gaza border, were released in a deal at the end of November 2023 after more than 50 days in captivity.

“I hope that all the captives, whether alive or not, will return. We don’t need to keep receiving news every week about one or two captives coming back to us in coffins,” Ziadna told The Algemeiner. “I hope there will be peace, quiet, and tranquility for the whole world. Enough already with all this suffering for these innocent souls.”

Funeral of Youssef Ziadna, who was killed in Hamas captivity in Gaza, in Rahat, Israel on Jan. 9, 2025. Photo: Taken by author

A total of six Arab Muslim Bedouin citizens of Israel were kidnapped to Gaza by Hamas last Oct. 7. Apart from the four members of the Ziadna family, Fouad al-Talalka, 22, and Qaid Farhan al-Qadi 53, from the Bedouin Israeli community of Houra, were kidnapped from kibbutz Magen. Qadi was brought back to Israel from a tunnel in southern Gaza following a rescue mission by the IDF in August.

The post Israeli Bedouin City Declares Four Days of Mourning as Hundreds Gather for Funeral of Second Hostage Killed in Gaza Captivity first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

US President Joe Biden meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, July 25, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz

JNS.org – For months, President Joe Biden’s detractors predicted that he would deliver a last-minute betrayal of Israel, akin to President Barack Obama’s infamous abstention on a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements in 2016. When the “surprise” came, it was not the one critics anticipated. Rather than silence them, however, their outrage was fueled by the unexpected admissions of his secretary of state.

First, we were told Biden would pull an Obama immediately after the election in November. Instead, he defied expectations with a reverse Obama, vetoing a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza over its failure to condemn Hamas and demand the immediate release of the hostages as a condition for ending the fighting. Moreover, Biden approved the sale of more than $680 million in weapons to Israel.

Not to worry, we could expect the surprise to come before the end of the year. Alas, December came and went without an “Obama.”

Unfazed, Biden bashers assured us that he would act against Israel in January before he leaves office. They were right about him having a surprise; it was just not what they had expected.

Instead of some hostile act, he approved an $8 billion weapons sale. That is in addition to the extraordinary $14.1 billion and $20 billion packages he approved earlier. Remember all the whining about Washington withholding 2,000-pound bombs? The new package includes guidance kits designed to be fitted to those bombs, which presumably means Israel will be getting them, albeit later than when it wanted them.

Still, the administration’s generosity has been dismissed because these weapons won’t be delivered immediately, ignoring their critical role in securing Israel’s future offensive and defensive capabilities.

What has made the arms transfers even more extraordinary is that Biden approved them over the objections within his U.S. State Department and the Democratic Party’s progressive wing that wanted to cut aid and turn Biden against Israel.

However, a surprise in January echoed what Biden’s opponents warned about—though not in the way they imagined.

In a New York Times interview, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a startling revelation: the administration’s policies undermined Israel’s war effort. This was no mea culpa, as the title of the interview indicated that Blinken believed he and Biden “made the right calls.”

In an acknowledgment of what analysts have said for more than a year, Blinken confessed that the impediment to a hostage deal was U.S. policy: “Whenever there has been public daylight between the United States and Israel, and the perception that pressure was growing on Israel, we’ve seen it: Hamas has pulled back from agreeing to a ceasefire and the release of hostages.”

Knowing this, the administration still did not change its policy of condemning Israeli policies, giving Hamas hope that Biden would force Israel to accept the terrorists’ demands. This is the problem virtually every president has failed to understand; that is, one-sided pressure on Israel only emboldens the enemies of peace.

The bigger surprise came in Blinken’s disclosure of the administration’s original sin that set the worst outcomes of the war in motion. He said he flew to Israel five days after Oct. 7 in advance of the president’s planned trip to Jerusalem to show American solidarity with Israel. “I told the prime minister,” Blinken said. “I’m going to call the president and tell him not to come if you don’t allow this [humanitarian] assistance to start flowing.”

This threat forced Israel to abandon its initial strategy. It was under no legal obligation to provide humanitarian supplies. The government wanted to impose a siege on Gaza—a legitimate military tactic aimed at isolating Hamas while minimizing casualties among Israeli soldiers. This decision had catastrophic consequences:

Hamas Survival: Aid meant for civilians was stolen by Hamas, providing a lifeline that has prolonged its operations.

Hostage Crisis: By easing the siege and creating “daylight” between Washington and Jerusalem, the administration gave Hamas confidence to hold hostages longer, resulting in the deaths of dozens, including Americans.

Humanitarian Crisis: Biden forced civilians to remain in a conflict zone instead of evacuating them outside Gaza, where they would have had easy access to assistance. This allowed Hamas to use them as human shields, leading to thousands of unnecessary deaths.

Global Condemnation: Israel bore the blame for the worsening conditions in Gaza, with the United States contributing to the outcry by repeatedly criticizing Israel for failing to mitigate the problem it created.

Internal Divisions: Prolonging the hostage crisis deepened divisions within Israel. The administration also made no secret of its desire to see Netanyahu toppled.

Micromanaging the War: By pressuring Israel not to launch a ground operation in Gaza immediately and to delay its move into Rafah, withholding or slow-rolling weapons systems, and dictating what Israel could target in Lebanon and Iran, the administration prolonged the war.

For many Jews, these policy choices—driven by the same Obama-era advisers who previously undermined the State of Israel—outweigh the unprecedented arms sales, unwavering vetoes at the United Nations and critical deployment of American forces to protect Israel from external threats.

As the January surprises reveal, the legacy of Biden’s Israel policy is a paradox: extraordinary support coupled with avoidable missteps that exacerbated the war’s toll.

The post The January Surprise first appeared on Algemeiner.com.