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Bob Vylan Reschedules UK Gigs Amid ‘Political Pressure’ After ‘Death to the IDF,’ Other ‘Antisemitic’ Comments
Bob Vylan music duo performance at Glastonbury Festival (Source: FLIKR)
The British punk rap duo Bob Vylan announced on Thursday the rescheduling of two shows in Manchester and Leeds in the United Kingdom “due to political pressure” from government officials, Members of Parliament, and Jewish groups.
The concerts were scheduled to be the first of their “We Won’t Go Quietly” UK and Ireland tour. The London-based band was set to perform at the O2 Academy in Leeds on Nov. 4 and the following night at Manchester Academy, which is located on the campus of the University of Manchester. The shows in Manchester and Leeds will now take place on Feb. 5 and 7, respectively. Tickets purchased for the original dates will be valid for the rescheduled shows.
Bob Vylan shared on Instagram an updated tour poster, featuring the new dates, and wrote in the caption that the “political pressure” to move the shows stemmed from “the likes of Bridget Phillipson and groups in the Northwest of England.” Phillipson is the UK ‘s education secretary and minister for women and equalities. During a guest appearance earlier this month on a BBC morning talk show, Phillipson was asked if she thinks Manchester Academy should cancel Bob Vylan’s concert on Nov. 5 because of some of the band’s controversial and offensive comments.
The duo’s lead singer, Pascal Robinson-Foster, led chants of “death, death to the IDF,” referring to the Israel Defense Forces,” and “Free, free Palestine,” during Bob Vylan’s Glastonbury set in June, which was broadcast live on the BBC. Robinson-Foster, who goes by the stage name Bobby Vylan, has led chants of “death to the IDF” at other concerts as well following Glastonbury. He talked about the chant during a podcast interview on Tuesday, saying he is “not regretful of it at all” and that he “would do it again tomorrow, [and] twice on Sundays.”
Phillipson said she was “deeply, deeply troubled” by Bob Vylan’s past comments and believes the punk rap duo’s remarks on stage could cause “fear and intimidation.” She added that universities, like the University of Manchester, “have powers to take action to prevent harassment and intimidation.”
During a September concert in Amsterdam, Robinson-Foster called for violence against Zionists while calling conservative activist and pro-Israel advocate Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot the prior week in Utah, “an absolute piece of s–t of a human being.”
“F–k the fascists, f–k the Zionists, get out there and fight there, get out there and meet them in the streets, get out there and let them know that you do not f–king stand by them, you understand me?” the singer shouted.
A separate Bob Vylan concert in the Netherlands was canceled because of the singer’s remarks about Kirk and Phillipson told the British LBC radio station recently that the comments about Zionists are “chilling,” as well as “absolutely disgusting and shameful.”
Manchester Academy is operated by the University of Manchester Students’ Union. In a released statement on Thursday, the student group said the decision to postpone the Nov. 5 concert until February was made following conversations with promoters and Bob Vylan’s management.
“The Manchester performance has been the subject of deep and understandable public scrutiny, given it’s during a difficult time for our city, following the horrific terror attack on the Heaton Park Synagogue,” the student union said, referring to the deadly attack that took place on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. It added that Manchester Academy is still committed “to providing space for creative and cultural expression” and that freedom of artistic expression “is a cornerstone of a democratic society, and it must be protected.”
“Music and culture have always been spaces where protest, dialogue, and difference can exist safely and respectfully,” the statement read in conclusion. “Everyone is and always has been welcome in our spaces. We support thousands of students and the Manchester community from every background each year to find their voice and place.”
The Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester (JRC) sent a letter, supported by 10 members of Parliament, to Manchester Academy demanding that the venue cancel the punk-rap show, and made the same request in statements shared online. JRC explained that Bob Vylan has “repeatedly engaged in rhetoric that crosses the line from legitimate political discourse into antisemitism and incitement,” and said the venue must “cancel the performance and commit to clear policies to ensure that it will not legitimize prejudice under the guise of freedom of speech.”
Further concerts as part of the “We Won’t Go Quietly” tour are scheduled in Glasgow, London, Bristol, Dublin, and Birmingham throughout November and into early December. Bob Vylan said on Thursday that all of those shows will continue “as planned,” with the Bristol and Dublin shows being sold out. The “last few tickets” are on sale for the London gig.
Bob Vylan is also scheduled to perform on Dec. 2 in Brussels, but the European Jewish Congress is calling for the cancellation of the gig because “the event risks providing a platform for rhetoric that incites violence and fuels a surge of hostility toward Jewish communities.”
“We call on the concert organizers and Belgian authorities to review the decision to host this act,” the EJC said on Thursday in a statement shared on X. “The safety and dignity of Jewish individuals and all attendees must be safeguarded. There is no place in Europe for ‘art’ that glorifies violence.”
Several British MPs as well as BBC Director-General Tim Davie condemned Bob Vylan’s “Death to the IDF” comments following the band’s Glastonbury set. Because of the Glastonbury incident, Bob Vylan had their US visas revoked, ahead of scheduled shows in October, and are currently under criminal investigation in the UK. The duo was also dropped from Manchester’s Radar festival in July.
Bob Vylan has defended the Glastonbury “Death to the IDF” comments several times. Robinson-Foster explained once that he was calling for the “dismantling of a violent military machine” and insisted in a social media post last month “there is nothing antisemitic or criminal about anything I said at Glastonbury.” During a recent guest appearance on a podcast hosted by Louis Theroux, the singer revealed that BBC staff members cheered the duo when they got off the stage at Glastonbury and described the set as “fantastic.”
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New Cooking Show Competition ‘The Great Bubby Cook-Off’ Celebrates Jewish Food, Family Recipes
The four contestants on “The Great Bubby Cook-Off.” Photo: Manischewitz
An original cooking show competition that celebrates Jewish home cooking and family recipes premiered Friday on Kosher.com.
The four finalists on “The Great Bubby Cook-Off,” presented by the famous Jewish food brand Manischewitz, include a “bubby” from Delray Beach, Florida, and another from Manhattan, New York, and two contestants from Flushing, New York, and West Hartford, Connecticut, who were competing with “bubby-inspired recipes.”
The contestants were selected to compete on the show following a nationwide casting call. Home cooks submitted videos of themselves preparing their favorite Jewish dishes, including family recipes passed down through generations and personal twists on classic dishes. After online voting that was open to the public, four finalists were chosen to advance to a live cook-off in New York City in November.
The winner, to be revealed exclusively on the show, will be crowned “Bubby 2025” and receive a $5,000 cash prize, a featured appearance on the Manischewitz Food Truck as it tours the New York City area, and other prizes. The show is hosted by chef and cookbook author Naomi Nachman.
“‘The Great Bubby Cook-Off’ celebrates exactly what Kosher.com is all about — honoring tradition while inspiring a new generation of home cooks,” said Goldy Guttman, director of Kosher.com, in a released statement. “These bubby recipes carry stories, memories, and culture, and bringing them to life on screen allows us to share the heart of Jewish home cooking with audiences everywhere.”
“‘The Great Bubby Cook-Off’ is about so much more than cooking,” added Shani Seidman, chief marketing officer of Manischewitz. “It’s about honoring the women who shaped our traditions, our tables, and our memories — and celebrating the dishes that bring families together.”
More episodes of “The Great Bubby Cook-Off” will be announced throughout 2026. The show is free to watch, and an additional episode is under consideration that will include a behind-the-scenes look into the competition and judging, according to Manischewitz.
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UNRWA vs. UNHCR: How the UN Created a Permanent Refugee Class
Palestinians pass by the gate of an UNRWA-run school in Nablus in the West Bank. Photo: Reuters/Abed Omar Qusini.
For more than 70 years, the United Nations has administered two refugee systems operating under the same flag but guided by fundamentally different moral compasses. One system exists to end refugeehood. The other exists to preserve it.
The contrast between the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is not a technical footnote in international policy. It is one of the central reasons the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains frozen in place.
The events of October 7 brutally exposed what many have warned about for decades: UNRWA is no longer a humanitarian agency in any meaningful sense. It is a political instrument that has helped entrench radicalization, prolong suffering, and ultimately enable war.
UNHCR, established in 1950, was designed with a clear mission: provide temporary protection and pursue durable solutions. Its success is measured by how many refugees stop being refugees.
Over the decades, UNHCR has helped tens of millions of people rebuild their lives; Europeans after World War II, Vietnamese people, Balkan refugees, Rwandans, Syrians, Afghans, and most recently Ukrainians. Resettlement, integration, and naturalization are not failures under UNHCR’s framework; they are the goal.
UNRWA, created a year earlier for a single refugee population, operates on the opposite logic. Its mandate does not aim to resolve refugeehood but to maintain it indefinitely.
Palestinians are the only group in the world whose refugee status is automatically inherited, generation after generation, regardless of citizenship, residence, or living conditions.
The numbers tell the story. Roughly 700,000 Arabs were displaced during the 1948 war launched by Arab states against the newly declared State of Israel. Today, UNRWA claims nearly six million Palestinian refugees. Refugee populations are supposed to shrink as lives stabilize. This one grows exponentially. That is not humanitarian failure, it is institutional design.
This design has consequences. When refugeehood becomes an inherited political identity rather than a temporary legal status, grievance replaces hope. Dependency replaces empowerment. Conflict becomes a resource to be managed rather than a tragedy to be ended.
UNRWA’s budget, influence, and relevance depend on the persistence of the conflict. Peace would render it obsolete. Integration would reduce its scope. Resolution would end its mandate.
Nowhere is this more evident than in education. UNRWA operates hundreds of schools, shaping the worldview of generations of Palestinian children. Education should be a bridge to coexistence.
Instead, repeated investigations and reports have documented curricula that erase Israel from maps, glorify “martyrdom,” deny Jewish historical ties to the land, and frame violence as both justified and inevitable. Antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theories have surfaced again and again. This is not accidental oversight. It is tolerated, minimized, and excused as “context.”
The moral collapse of this system was laid bare after October 7. In the aftermath of Hamas’ massacre of Israeli civilians, evidence emerged that UNRWA employees were directly involved in the attack. Others were found to have celebrated the killings. Weapons were discovered in or near UNRWA facilities. Terror tunnels were uncovered beneath UNRWA schools. Hostages were reportedly hidden or moved through civilian areas linked to UNRWA infrastructure. This was not infiltration from the outside. It was contamination from within.
If UNHCR staff had participated in mass murder or aided a terrorist organization, the agency would have been dismantled immediately. Yet UNRWA survived on explanations, damage control, and the insistence that the problem lay with a few individuals rather than a compromised system. That argument no longer holds.
The tragedy is that Palestinians themselves have paid the highest price for this failure. UNRWA did not prepare Gazans for self-governance or peace. Hamas prepared Palestinians for war, and UNRWA looked away.
October 7 was not an aberration. It was the inevitable result of a system that monetized suffering and normalized extremism for decades.
The solution is not complicated, but it requires moral clarity. Palestinians deserve the same humanitarian standards applied to every other refugee population on earth. That means ending UNRWA’s exceptional status and transferring responsibility to UNHCR. It means redefining refugeehood as a temporary condition, not a hereditary identity. It means de-radicalizing education, dismantling terror infrastructure, and replacing grievance with opportunity.
One world cannot operate two refugee systems and still claim moral credibility. One system resolves crises. The other perpetuates them.
If the international community truly cares about peace, dignity, and human rights, both Israeli and Palestinian, it must finally acknowledge that UNRWA is part of the problem, not the solution.
Sabine Sterk is CEO of the foundation, “Time To Stand Up For Israel.”
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The Houthis Aren’t Done — Are We?
Smoke rises in the sky following US-led airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen, Feb. 25, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Adel Al Khader
The US Navy spent over $1 billion and suffered an additional $100 million in equipment losses and damages during Operation Rough Rider, countering the Houthi threat in the Red Sea. Yet Iran’s Yemeni proxy remains heavily armed and prepared to resume its attacks.
Over the past two years, the Houthis continued to fire their extensive stockpile of Iranian missiles and drones at Israel and maritime targets despite repeated US and Israeli airstrikes against them. As the Houthi threat to regional security and Red Sea trade persists, the United States can work with Israel to prepare for any potential future operations if the Houthis resume attacks by expediting the sale of necessary military equipment to Israeli forces, and collaborating with Israel to improve intelligence on critical Houthi targets to neutralize.
Protecting global freedom of navigation through international waterways, safeguarding maritime trade, and supporting Israel’s security remain core US interests. Yet, the Iranian-armed and funded Houthi terrorist group has compromised these interests over the past two years by firing hundreds of drones and missiles at both Israel and ships transiting the Red Sea.
The Houthis’ violent assault on US Navy and commercial shipping assets in the region prompted several rounds of US airstrikes, including Operation Rough Rider, which resulted in US forces carrying out over 1,100 strikes against the group’s infrastructure in early 2025. However, since the May 6 agreement between the Houthis and the US — which bans Houthi attacks against American ships but does not prohibit targeting other commercial vessels or Israel — the terrorist group has fired over 150 projectiles at Israel and ships transiting the Red Sea, including several that injured Israeli civilians and sunk two commercial vessels.
While these attacks prompted retaliatory Israeli strikes on the terror group, including one operation that killed several Houthi senior leaders in August, the Iranian proxy remained undeterred and fired nearly 50 projectiles in September alone.
The current pause in Houthi attacks is not the time to rest; instead, the United States and Israel should strengthen their readiness for future operations against the enduring threat that the well-armed Houthis pose to regional stability, security, and maritime trade. With Iran continuing to strengthen its proxy during this pause by funneling it more weapons to replace those it has fired or lost, the United States should work with Israel to prevent this arms proliferation and prepare for any potential offensive operations against the Houthis if they resume their regional assault.
To start, US and Israeli forces should take advantage of the current ceasefire to refine their intelligence gathering and counter-terror strategies, particularly by establishing a comprehensive list of Houthi targets in case of resumed attacks. Before the Houthis began firing at ships and targeting Israel, countering their activities was not a priority for the US or Israeli militaries and intelligence agencies. The limited effectiveness of these airstrikes further exposed this lack of focus. The Houthis’ persistent ability to launch attacks throughout the war, coupled with Iran’s ongoing proliferation of advanced weaponry, underscores critical intelligence gaps that both the United States and Israel must address to anticipate and effectively prepare for future military operations.
For example, Israel’s operations in the fall of 2024 against Hezbollah, and Operation Rising Lion against Iran’s nuclear and military targets, vividly illustrated a military campaign’s effectiveness when leadership prioritizes planning and intelligence preparation during peacetime. Unlike the situations in Gaza or against the Houthis, Israel spent years meticulously preparing for large-scale operations in Lebanon and Iran, and this preparation enabled it to achieve rapid and decisive results. To position US and Israeli forces for similar levels of success, it remains crucial for both to collaborate on acquiring intelligence for targets while the Yemen front remains quiet.
With Israeli aircraft needing to fly thousands of miles to conduct strikes in Yemen — even further than the distance to Iran — the United States would improve Israeli operations in both countries by expediting the delivery of KC-46 aerial refueling aircraft to Israel. These advanced aircraft have better range, refueling capacity, and defensive capabilities than Israel’s current fleet of over 50-year-old Ram tankers, based on Boeing 707s. Israel is currently set to receive the first of four KC-46 aircraft it has purchased by the end of 2026 and requested two more in August, but expediting the sale and delivery of these refuelers would position Israel’s forces to sooner carry out more effective counter-terror operations if the Houthis resume attacks. In addition, the United States should begin training Israeli pilots immediately on how to operate these aircraft, ensuring they are ready to carry out any future missions in Yemen once the new refuelers arrive.
The United States and Israel must remain vigilant, despite the relative calm. With the Houthis still a capable threat to regional stability, now is the time to prepare for any future conflict with Iran’s Yemeni proxy.
VADM Michael J. Connor, USN (ret.) is Former Commander of United States Submarine Forces and a participant in the Jewish Institute for National Security of America’s (JINSA) 2018 Generals and Admirals Program.
Sarah Havdala is a Policy Analyst at JINSA.