Israel’s national soccer team head coach Ran Ben Shimon. Photo: Reuters

The coach of Israel’s national soccer team was physically assaulted by a pro-Palestinian activist who also shouted “Free Palestine” at him in Athens, Greece, last week before a match between Hapoel Be’er Sheva and their Greek rivals AEK Athens, Israel’s Channel 12 reported. 

Hours before the UEFA Conference League qualifier on July 24 at the OPAP Arena, Ran Ben Shimon and assistance coach Gal Cohen were walking in the streets of Athens, speaking in Hebrew, when a young man approached them and began shouting “Free Palestine.” When the coaches ignored the pedestrian, the man ran toward them and pushed Ben Shimon, before others got involved and removed the assailant from the scene, according to Channel 12. 

“The ugly incident in Athens was handled quickly and efficiently, and I can only regret the ignorance and impudence of that person,” Ben Shimon told the Israeli news outlet. “I doubt if he recognized us as the national team’s coaches at all, and in my opinion, the reason for this is that we are Israelis who spoke Hebrew. I am proud to represent my country everywhere; this certainly will not deter us in the future.”

“We found ourselves in an unpleasant and dangerous situation, because we realized that this young man was not alone and any reaction we had could escalate,” added Cohen. “We got into a taxi and continued to the field.”

During Thursday’s match, anti-Israel soccer fans throughout the stadium loudly chanted “F–k you Israel. Viva [Free] Palestine,” as seen in multiple videos from the scene that were later shared on social media. AEK Athens fans also raised numerous Palestinian flags in the stadium.

AEK Athens won the match 1-0 and will compete against Hapoel Be’er Sheva again this Thursday in another UEFA Conference League qualifier, set to take place at Nagyerdei Stadion in Debrecen, Hungary.

Last week’s assault came amid a wave of recent attacks against Israelis and anti-Israel demonstrations across Greece.

Officials said on Saturday that an Israeli tourist was injured and lost a part of his ear in an alleged antisemitic attack by a group of Syrian migrants at the Bolivar Beach near Athens, Ynet reported. According to the victim, a man approached a group of Israelis and began filming them while shouting “Free Palestine,” “Damn Israel,”, and “I am Hamas,” referring to the Palestinian terrorist group in Gaza.

After the man reportedly threw sand at the group of Israelis, the victim pushed him away. Security personnel at the beach got involved and removed the attacker from the scene, but he returned an hour later and attempted to assault the victim’s wife. When the Israeli man tried to protect her, the attacker bit of a part of his ear. The Israeli tourist was hospitalized for his injury.

“The attacker is under arrest, and we are in contact with the victim and Greek authorities,” said Israel’s Foreign Ministry in a statement cited by Ynet.

On Monday, pro-Palestinian protesters attempted to block an Israeli cruise ship from docking on the Greek island of Rhodes.

Earlier this year, two Israeli citizens were stabbed in a shopping center in Athens after the attackers reportedly heard them speaking Hebrew.

The post Israel’s National Soccer Coach Attacked in Athens Before Soccer Fans Chant ‘F–K Israel, Free Palestine’ at Match first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Illustrative: People waving Nazi swastika flags argue with conservatives during a protest outside the Tampa Convention Center, where Turning Point USA’s (TPUSA) Student Action Summit (SAS) was being held, in Tampa, Florida, US July 23, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Marco Bello

A federal judge in New York has sentenced a man from Oregon to five years in person, following a conviction for conspiring to make threats and conveying false information about explosives in relation to a series of threatening calls to Jewish hospitals and care centers.

The US Justice Department announced last week that US District Judge Ramon Reyes, Jr. issued the sentence for Domagoj Patkovic, 31, who terrorized patients and medical workers with hoax bomb threat phone calls to historically Jewish health-care centers in New York City and on Long Island.

“The defendant endangered patients and diverted precious law enforcement resources to advance his hateful agenda against people of the Jewish faith,” said Joseph Nocella, Jr., US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. “His actions fed a rising tide of antisemitism in America.”

Patkovic’s spree of antisemitic, anonymous phone calls began as early as May 2021 and included accomplices. They made violent threats against Jewish hospitals, including threatening attacks with bombs and warning that he had placed C-4 in the building. Patkovic made at least six calls to hospitals and also one against law enforcement, livestreaming his actions to friends on the Discord messaging platform. One of the threats resulted in a partial evacuation and lockdown of a Long Island hospital.

During the threatening calls, Patkovic said Jews are “gonna go skyrocket up into the sky for Allah.” He also told a 911 operator, “I just called the hospital requesting my f–king million dollars or I’m going to blow this [slur]NEO f—ling b—ch to the sky.”

Patkovic, who lives in Portland, Oregon, confessed to his actions, including performing a “Sieg Heil” salute in a video from an unrelated incident. He pleaded guilty on Feb. 19, having faced as much as 155 years’ imprisonment.

John Durham, then the US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said at the time that “as he admitted today, the defendant intentionally targeted Jewish hospitals and care centers in our district with bomb threats. In doing so, he needlessly endangered patients and staff and diverted critical law enforcement resources from their core mission of keeping our community safe.”

Nocella added last week that “our office will continue to prosecute dangerous bomb threats and swatting schemes to the fullest extent of the law, especially those motivated by hate, and those targeting vulnerable communities in hospitals and care centers.”

Christopher Raia, Assistant Director in Charge for the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s New York Field Office, said that Patkovic “will spend significant time in prison for his targeting of Jewish hospitals across the New York metro area with hoax bomb threats.”

He added, “These hoax threats, motivated by Patkovic’s insidious antisemitic views, wasted law enforcement resources and put innocent lives at risk. The FBI will continue to bring to justice individuals who utilize swatting and false bomb threats to cause panic and unrest in our communities.”

Antisemites have used similar “swatting” style attacks claiming the planting of bombs at Jewish buildings.

Over the weekend of December 16-18, 2023, for example, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) documented more than 400 hoax bomb threat attacks — a record — against Jewish organizations, including 93 in California, 62 in Arizona, 15 in Connecticut, five in Colorado, and four in Washington state. Investigators believed that overseas actors coordinated the crime.

“At this time, based on similar language and specific email tradecraft used, it appears the perpetrators of these threats are connected. Additionally, these threats appear to be originating from outside of the United States,” Assistant FBI Director Cathy Milhoan said. “To date, none of these email threats have involved any actual explosive devices or credible risk of harm to congregants.”

David Procopio, Massachusetts’ state police communications director, described approximately 30 threats against synagogues in his state. “We did not respond to all of them, but our Bomb Squad did respond to several and conducted sweeps of the facilities,” he said at the time. “Many were handled on the local level by local police and firefighters. All are believed to have been hoaxes; no explosives or hazards were located at any site.”

The ADL noted earlier incidents of fake bomb threats driven by online antisemites in August 2023.

“For the fourth weekend in a row, ADL has worked with law enforcement and community partners to mitigate the disruption to Jewish prayer services posed by a group of online trolls who swat and call in fake bomb threats targeting synagogues,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said at the time. “The trolls use highly antisemitic language in these calls and appear to have targeted at least 26 synagogues and two ADL offices in 12 states over this time period. They appear to be targeting synagogues that livestream their services.”

The post New York Judge Sentences Neo-Nazi to 5 Years for Livestreaming Bomb Threats Against Jewish Hospitals first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

US Ambassador to Turkey and US special envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack meets with Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, in Beirut, Lebanon July 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

Washington is ramping up pressure on Beirut to swiftly issue a formal cabinet decision committing to disarm Hezbollah before talks can resume on a halt to Israel’s military operations in Lebanon, five sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Without a public commitment from Lebanese ministers, the US will no longer dispatch US envoy Thomas Barrack to Beirut for negotiations with Lebanese officials, or pressure Israel either to stop airstrikes or pull its troops from south Lebanon, according to the sources, who include two Lebanese officials, two diplomats, and a Lebanese source familiar with the matter.

The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Washington and Beirut have been in talks for nearly six weeks on a US roadmap to fully disarm the Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah, which also operates as a Lebanese political party, in exchange for Israel to end its strikes and withdraw its troops from five points in southern Lebanon.

The original proposal included a condition that Lebanon‘s government pass a cabinet decision pledging to disarm Hezbollah.

Hezbollah has publicly refused to hand over its arsenal in full, but the group has privately weighed scaling it back.

The Islamist group, designated a terrorist organization by the US and much of the West, has also told Lebanese officials that Israel must take the first step by withdrawing its troops and stopping drone strikes on Hezbollah fighters and arms depots.

Hezbollah‘s main ally, Lebanese speaker of parliament Nabih Berri, asked the US to ensure that Israel halt its strikes as a first step, in order to fully implement the ceasefire agreed last year that ended months of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel, according to four of the sources.

Israel rejected Berri’s proposal late last week, the four sources said. There was no immediate response from the Israeli prime minister’s office to questions from Reuters on the issue.

The US then began insisting that a cabinet vote take place imminently, all the sources said.

“The US is saying there’s no more Barrack, no more papers back and forth – the council of ministers should take a decision and then we can keep discussing. They cannot wait any longer,” the Lebanese source said.

The source and the Lebanese officials said Prime Minister Nawaf Salam would seek to hold a session in the coming days. Barrack met Salam in Beirut last week and said Washington cannot “compel” Israel to do anything.

In a post on X after his visit, Barrack said that “as long as Hezbollah retains arms, words will not suffice. The government and Hizballah need to fully commit and act now in order to not consign the Lebanese people to the stumbling status quo.”

All the sources said that Lebanon‘s rulers fear that a failure to issue a clear commitment to disarm Hezbollah could trigger escalated Israeli strikes, including on Beirut.

The post US Pressures Lebanon to Issue Cabinet Decision to Disarm Hezbollah Before Talks Continue first appeared on Algemeiner.com.