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Australia Cancels International Ice Hockey Tournament, Media Says Over Israel Safety Threat
Australia’s ice hockey federation said on Tuesday it had canceled a planned international qualifying tournament due to safety concerns, with local media reporting the decision was linked to the participation of the Israeli national team.
Multiple local media outlets cited an internal email from Ice Hockey Australia (IHA) to the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) saying it could not hold the tournament due to safety and security concerns over Israel’s attendance.
IHA said in a statement it had decided to cancel the event, due to take place in Melbourne in April, after consultation with local police and the participating venues.
The statement did not mention Israel, with the body saying it could not comment on “global issues outside the sport.”
“The decision was primarily made to ensure the safety and security of athletes, volunteers, spectators, and other participants,” the statement said.
“IHA does not shy away from making this decision with safety at the forefront.”
The IIHF did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The cancellation follows a spate of antisemitic attacks in recent months, including graffiti daubed on a car in Sydney on Monday.
Last month Australia launched an antisemitism task force following an arson attack at a synagogue in Melbourne which police said was probably terrorism.
Australia has seen an increase in antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents since Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023 and Israel launched its war on Gaza. Some Jewish organizations have said the government has not taken sufficient action in response.
Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday the cancellation of the tournament was “unfortunate,” but that the government had taken sufficient action to protect Jewish people in Australia.
“This is a decision made by Ice Hockey Australia,” he said in an interview on Channel Nine.
“We’re addressing in every single way possible these issues because we understand that [antisemitism] is very hurtful for the Jewish community.”
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Jewish Voice for Peace’s ‘Extremist’ Anti-Israel Agenda, Terror Group Ties Highlighted in Report
A pro-Israel nonprofit has published a new bombshell booklet detailing the inner workings and funding of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), a controversial and prominent anti-Zionist group that has helped organize widespread demonstrations against the Jewish state during the war in Gaza.
StandWithUs (SWU), an organization which promotes a mission of “supporting Israel and fighting antisemitism,” released the report examining how the far-left JVP — which defended the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s invasion of southern Israel last Oct. 7 — “promotes antisemitic conspiracy theories” and even partners with terrorist organizations to achieve its “primary goal” of “dismantling the State of Israel.”
According to the report, JVP weaponizes the plight of Palestinians to advance an “extremist” agenda which promotes the destruction of Israel and whitewashes terrorism, receiving money from organizations that have ties to Middle Eastern countries such as Iran.
“JVP and its allies slander and dehumanize Israelis as privileged, powerful, and racist white European colonizers,” the report says. “They promote dangerous conspiracy theories tying Israelis to injustices against various communities” around the world.
The booklet points out that JVP pushes a misleading history of Jewish presence in the Middle East, ignoring that Jews “faced systemic discrimination at best and brutal violence at worst under Muslim and Arab rule, until almost all of them fled or were expelled in the 20th century.” SWU also notes that JVP has routinely labeled Jews as “racist” for expressing fear about the prospect of living as minorities in Israel.
“JVP simply refuses to acknowledge that most Jews genuinely see efforts to eliminate the world’s only Jewish state as a form of hate,” the report reads.
In addition, the report alleges that JVP advances “antisemitic conspiracy theories,” such as the notion that American police are trained by Israeli forces. This narrative suggests that Israel exacerbates alleged police brutality in the United States through training law enforcement to brutalize black people. Prominent anti-Israel pundits such as Marc Lamont Hill and Linda Sarsour have cited this misleading information in various public statements.
StandWithUs also alleges that JVP harbors deep connections and support for international terrorist groups, highlighting JVP’s record of support for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), an internationally designated terrorist organization with the stated goal of dismantling Israel and replacing it with a Palestinian state.
“JVP has campaigned in support of PFLP terrorists, hosted PFLP members at events, and partnered with groups that openly support PFLP and other terrorist organizations,” the report reads.
In addition, the report states that JVP has collaborated with anti-Israel entities such as Samidoun, which identifies itself as a “Palestinian prisoner solidarity network, to hold rallies. Samidoun described Hamas’s Oct. 7 atrocities in Israel as “a brave and heroic operation.” The United States and Canada each imposed sanctions on Samidoun in October, labeling the organization a “sham charity” and accusing it of fundraising for terrorist groups such as PFLP. The US Treasury Department said that PFLP “uses Samidoun to maintain fundraising operations in both Europe and North America.”
“Organizations like Samidoun masquerade as charitable actors that claim to provide humanitarian support to those in need, yet in reality divert funds for much-needed assistance to support terrorist groups,” Bradley Smith, the US Treasury Department’s acting under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement at the time.
The SWU report also says that JVP has ties to “extremist” anti-Israel groups such as Within Our Lifetime (WOL) and the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM). Leadership for these groups have repeatedly expressed support for violence against Israel and terrorist groups. JVP has worked alongside these groups to hold anti-Israel demonstrations and marches.
According to the new report, JVP has received substantial financial assistance from organizations tied to Lebanon and Iran. For example, the Maximum Difference Foundation, which has been accused of maintaining ties with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), an internationally designated terrorist organization, donated $65,000 to JVP.
JVP has also received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, which according to SWU has funded other anti-Israel organizations, including Palestinian organizations linked with the PFLP.
The report additionally noted that JVP received $200,000 from The Quitiplas Foundation, which has allegedly donated to other organizations connected to Samidoun.
“JVP’s harmful rhetoric and alliances make it clear they are not a voice for peace,” StandWithUs CEO Roz Rothstein said in a statement accompanying the report’s release. “This organization fuels hate and shields extremists from accountability while doing nothing to bring about peaceful coexistence.”
“To help fight rising antisemitism, the public, media, and leaders across our society must finally recognize JVP’s dangerous agenda and reject it,” she said.
The Algemeiner has previously reported that JVP argued in a recently resurfaced 2021 booklet that Jews should not write Hebrew liturgy because hearing the language would be “deeply traumatizing” to Palestinians.
In June, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) filed a complaint with the US Federal Election Commission accusing JVP’s political fundraising arm of misrepresenting its spending and receiving unlawful donations from corporate entities, citing “discrepancies” in the organization’s income and expense reports.
The post Jewish Voice for Peace’s ‘Extremist’ Anti-Israel Agenda, Terror Group Ties Highlighted in Report first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Suffered Over 18,000 Terror Attacks in 2024, New Government Report Says
Israel endured over 18,000 terrorist attacks last year in which nearly 150 people were killed as the Jewish state faced an onslaught of terrorism from seven fronts in the Middle East, according to a new Israeli government report.
The National Public Diplomacy Directorate in the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office on Thursday released its annual “Summary Report on Terrorism Against Israel” for 2024. The report gathers information and data from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Israel Police, the Israeli Security Agency (ISA), and the emergency and rescue authorities.
In total, there were 18,665 terrorist attacks in Israel last year in which 134 people were murdered and another 1,277 were injured. A summary of the report noted that Israel “was attacked from seven fronts: Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, Iraq, Yemen, and from within Israel.”
The report listed each attack as a single incident. For example, an incident in which several explosive devices were used was tallied as one attack.
The bulk of the incidents in 2024 were rockets fired at the Jewish state from terrorists in Gaza and Lebanon. Indeed, 15,400 rockets were launched from Lebanon and crossed into Israel, and approximately 700 rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip and crossed into Israel. Such “high-trajectory fire,” according to the report, resulted in 55 deaths and 699 injured people.
Hamas and allied Palestinian terrorist groups in Gaza, such as Islamic Jihad, fired several rockets into Israel last year as the IDF was waging its military campaign in the enclave. However, rocket fire from Gaza diminished in comparison to the last quarter of 2023, as Israel increasingly decimated Hamas’s weapons stockpiles and military capabilities. The report did not seem to count misfired rockets directed at Israel that fell prematurely in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah relentlessly pummeled northern Israeli communities with rockets, missiles, and drones almost daily throughout most of 2024, until a ceasefire agreement was reached in late November. The barrages forced roughly 80,000 Israelis to evacuate the country’s north.
The fighting to Israel’s south in Gaza and to its north in Lebanon was prompted by Hamas’s brutal invasion of the Jewish state on Oct. 7, 2023, which launched the war in Gaza and led Hezbollah to begin attacking in solidarity with Hamas.
Both Hamas and Hezbollah are backed by Iran, which has long provided the Islamist terrorist groups with weapons, funding, and training.
Beyond rockets, 399 hostile unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) crossed into Israeli territory last year and caused significant damage, according to the report.
The rocket fire and UAVs together killed 71 people, 14 of whom were children, and injured 892 others. In addition, they caused 610 fires, which burned 92,417 acres of land belonging to the Nature and Parks Authority and more than 42,749 acres of agricultural land. Hundreds of acres of crops were burned in northern Israel as well.
The Houthis in Yemen were responsible for many of the projectiles fired at Israel from places other than Gaza and Lebanon, with the Iran-backed terrorist group joining its Islamist allies in attacking Israel following the outbreak of the conflict with Hamas.
About 1,900 other terrorist attacks were perpetrated against Israel in 2024, including stone throwing, Molotov cocktails, vehicle rammings, shootings, stabbings, assaults, explosive devices, and throwing objects.
The most common type of attack was stone throwing, with 1,248 incidents, followed by throwing objects, arson, and tire burning (162), throwing Molotov cocktails (140), shootings (132), explosive devices (89), stabbings (41), assaults (29), and vehicle rammings (26).
The shooting attacks last year resulted in 41 murders — including 13 hostages who were murdered in Hamas captivity with their bodies returned to Israel — and 108 injuries.
July 2024 had the highest number of non-rocket or UAV terrorist incidents with 191 attacks.
However, October had the greatest number of rockets fired at Israel, with more than 6,900 launches. It was also the most violent month, in which 37 people were murdered and 394 injured.
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Gaza 70-Degree ‘Cold’ Chills Media Curiosity as New York Times Depicts Israel as Baby Killer
The “cold” temperatures in Gaza have been a staple of New York Times and other news coverage — and of anti-Israel activism in the US — in recent weeks. But just how cold is it, actually, in Gaza?
“At Least 5 Babies Are Dead From Cold as Winter Grips Gaza,” was a Dec. 31, 2024 headline in the New York Times. “Dead From Cold” was something of a euphemism, as the real baby-killers, the Times made clear with echoes of classical libels against Jews, were the “Israeli military’s bombardment and attacks.”
Toward the end of the article came a mention of “more heavy rain expected in the coming days, and lows in the mid-40s Fahrenheit.”
The Times doubled down on this with a follow-up piece in its Jan. 2, 2024 edition headlined, “No Respite for Gazans as the War Grinds On.”
“Over the past few days, Gazans have endured chilly winter rainstorms; Gazan officials say some infants have died from the cold,” the article said, with no mention of any temperature readings.
Such claims were widespread. “Born at war, dying in the cold,” was an NBC News headline. “Babies are dying in the cold,” said a Washington Post article published on Jan. 6, about “at least seven infants in Gaza who have died in the cold in recent weeks, according to relatives, doctors, and the enclave’s Health Ministry.” The Post, too, made clear who the real baby-killers were — the Jews — referring to :ongoing Israeli restrictions on aid convoys.”
So, how cold has it been in Gaza? According to TimeAndDate.com, which seems reasonably reliable, the coldest it got in Gaza City for the entire month of December 2024 was 45 degrees Fahrenheit. On Dec. 25 the temperature hit 70 degrees. According to Google, the weather in Rafah, Gaza on Jan. 7, 2025 was sunny with a high of 69, a low of 51, and zero precipitation. Not exactly the Yukon permafrost.
Any infant’s death is tragic. It is indeed possible to die of hypothermia in wet conditions in the 40s, especially without adequate shelter and clothing. Yet it’s also possible to survive in even lower temperatures, even without a fire.
You wouldn’t know it from the press coverage, but infants also do die for reasons other than cold or Israeli bombardment. In New York City in 2021, 400 infants died before their first birthday, for causes including respiratory distress, infections, cardiovascular disorders, sudden infant death syndrome, and congenital malformations. The Times has paid those New York City deaths less attention than the ones in Gaza, perhaps because they don’t provide as ready an opportunity to vilify the Jewish state.
The “Gazan officials” the Times mentions are part of a Hamas power structure dedicated to defaming Israel. Those officials use information as warfare against the Jewish state they are dedicated to destroy. The Gaza doctors are largely the same. Any claims coming out of Gaza deserve to be treated with a substantial dose of skepticism. They often reflect not so much the reality on the ground but the propaganda agenda of what remains of the Hamas terror organization.
Time and time again, the most extreme claims coming out of Gaza have proven false. There was the New York Times claim that Israel had bombed a hospital. The Times published an editors’ note after it had accompanied the original claim with a photograph of a different demolished building, and after it turned out that the damage to the hospital site was caused by a misfired Palestinian rocket meant for the Jewish state, not an Israeli air strike targeting terrorists in Gaza.
There was also the New York Times claim that Israel was starving Gazan children to death, which left out the UN statistics showing Gazans about as well fed as children in India, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.
Now the Times and the rest of the media crowd are claiming that Gazan children are freezing to death in a place that enjoys 70-degree sunshine during the day and 40-50 degree lows at night.
For sure, I’d rather be here in the US than there in Gaza. I don’t doubt that some young Gazan children are genuinely miserable. There are also Israelis who are miserable because they are in bomb shelters hiding from Iranian-supplied rockets and missiles, and because their family members are kidnapped or serving on reserve duty.
The best way to improve the lot of innocent Gazans would be for Hamas and Islamic Jihad to immediately put down their arms, surrender, and release to freedom the hostages who were kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023.
The coldest things of all in Gaza are the hearts of the Hamas terrorists. That is a fact that the international press, in its newfound fascination with the not-actually-that-frosty Gaza weather, seems intimidated by, and also a fact that the press is all too frequently unwilling to share directly with readers.
Ira Stoll was managing editor of The Forward and North American editor of The Jerusalem Post. His media critique, a regular Algemeiner feature, can be found here.
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