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Following Pushback, John Cusack Deletes BlueSky Posting Linking Jeffrey Epstein with Jews and Israel
Then-US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks after a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Prague, Czech Republic, May 31, 2024. Photo: Peter David Josek/Pool via REUTERS
An actor known for a string of successful romantic comedies more than 20 years ago has again emphasized his antipathy toward the Jewish state with a meme he posted on the BlueSky social media network depicting a four-degrees connection between former US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Israel’s espionage agency, and the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Entertainment journalism site Deadline captured a screenshot of the since-deleted image shared by John Cusack, which includes a photo of Blinken linked to his stepfather Samuel Pisar, who is in turn tied to Robert Maxwell (labeled as a Mossad agent), the father of Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted Epstein accomplice who received a 20-year prison sentence on June 28, 2022.
The image’s creator chose to label each individual with a blue Star of David ripped from the Israeli flag.
Speculation that Ghislaine and Epstein may have worked as secret Israeli intelligence operatives has long circulated online in fringe circles of both the right and left.
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones uploaded a video on Monday in which he reacted to the release of a Department of Justice memo that asserted that no “client list” or broader blackmail conspiracy existed linked to Epstein, claims which have inspired skepticism from both President Donald Trump’s steadfast supporters and cutting critics.
The Jones video was captioned: “The DOJ is running cover for the CIA and Mossad. NO ONE IS BUYING THIS!! Next the DOJ will say ‘Actually, Jeffrey Epstein never even existed.’ This is over the top sickening.”
Jones said in the video, “the left, they’re all complicit. They’re openly promoting pedophilia. We know they’re pure evil. And they’ll think it’s all funny, ‘Oh, look, Alex is sad. MAGA’s tearing [itself] apart.’”
On X, Cusack reposted a Monday post from account “Margaret Kimberly” who uses handle @ Freedomrideblog and wrote: “Jeffrey Epstein trafficked young women in order to compromise powerful men on behalf of Israel. So no, you’ll never get the details.”
Cusack’s support for such sentiments mirrors a previous incident from June 17, 2019 when the star of “High Fidelity” and “Grosse Pointe Blank” posted another meme drawn from online neo-Nazis before soon deleting it after protests.
The image showed a giant hand with a Star of David pressing down on a group of tiny people alongside a quote misattributed to Voltaire which reads, “To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” The statement’s true source is neo-Nazi Kevin Strom, a former actor and convicted sex offender who pleaded guilty on Jan. 14, 2008 to possessing child pornography, receiving a sentence of 23 months imprisonment.
Cusack shared the meme along with a sentiment popularized by the classic 1976 film “All the President’s Men,” urging that others should “follow the money.” The frequent critic of the Jewish state would later apologize for his promotion of the image.
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and national director of the Anti-Defamation League released a statement the next day. “John Cusack’s retweet of an anti-Semitic meme, which has been widely used online by anti-Semites from across the ideological spectrum, shows how easy it is for hatred to go viral in seconds,” he said. “Whether or not you blame it on bots, people are accountable for what they communicate both online & offline. Anti-Semitism and bigotry are unacceptable no matter what point a person is trying to make. This speaks to the larger issue of anti-Semitism becoming normalized in the discussion around Israel, which cannot continue.”
Watchdog group StopAntisemitism awarded Cusack with its “Antisemite of the Week” distinction in January 2024, pointing to the actor-activist’s denial of the widespread, systemic sexual violence inflicted against Israeli women and men during the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attacks on Southern Israel.
On June 27, Cusack further elucidated his stance on X, posting, “Iran will surely rush to get a nuclear weapon- and they should get one – it’s the only way to deter US and Israel from bombing every country in Middle East.”
On Monday, Cusack shared a link to his Substack account, where he has yet to publish an article but has begun resharing and posting content on the platform’s Notes social media platform in a style comparable to his X writings. His first post after months of inactivity featured an image advocating the abolition of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.
While once a box office fixture, often appearing in multiple films across genres each year from the mid-1980s through the late-2010s, the 59-year-old Cusack has been less visible over the last five years, appearing in the 2020 TV show “Utopia,” the 2022 crime thriller “Pursuit,” and the 2024 historical drama “Decoded,” as well as two 2025 features, comedic mystery “Detective Chinatown 1900” and the thriller “Fog of War.”
The post Following Pushback, John Cusack Deletes BlueSky Posting Linking Jeffrey Epstein with Jews and Israel 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.