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Across Europe, Australia, and the West, Another Front Has Been Opened in the War Against Jews
Illustrative: Supporters of Hamas gather for a rally in Melbourne, Australia. Photo: Reuters/Joel Carrett
On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched its latest part of a genocidal war on Israel, terrorizing, massacring, and raping innocent civilians. This attack was part of a broader war, as terror groups like Hezbollah, the Houthis, and militias in Iraq and Syria target the Jewish State — all coordinated by the chief terror architect, Iran. Including the Iranian-funded terror gangs in the West Bank, Israel is now fighting on seven different fronts against enemies committed to its destruction.
But there is an eighth front too — one that extends far beyond the Middle East.
In Amsterdam, Jewish and Israeli soccer fans were violently targeted and attacked in what can only be described as a pogrom.
One day before the anniversary of Kristallnacht, Nazi Germany’s mass pogrom in 1938, in Amsterdam — the same city where Anne Frank hid from Nazi persecution — Jews had to once again hide from mobs seeking to harm them.
This is not normal or acceptable.
While some tried to falsely argue this riot — and so many others like it — are about opposition to Israel, that’s not true. Attacks outside synagogues, and against any Jew — before their view on Israel is even known — proves this targets our religion, not any country or state.
Antisemitism has been on the rise for decades. The October 7 massacre was not fueled primarily by political grievances, but by deep primal hatred — the same hatred driving antisemitism globally today.
Antisemitism is known as the “oldest hatred,” because at any given time in history, Jews have been targeted either for their religion, culture, ethnicity, or beliefs.
Today, this hatred is often expressed by attacking “Zionism”, the belief in Jewish self-determination in their ancestral homeland, Israel. (A homeland that was needed, because people tried to kill Jews everywhere else they have ever lived.)
This hatred of Jews spans the political spectrum. Extremists from the far-left to the far-right, who otherwise oppose each other, unite in their disdain for Jews. For example, white supremacist David Duke has voiced support for anti-Israel protests, citing a shared hatred of “Jewish supremacism.”
This has been made worse by the trend toward weak leadership and moral confusion prevalent in Western democracies, which fails to distinguish between aggressors and their victims.
France, the UK, and Canada have initiated limited arms embargoes on Israel, claiming concern about supposed violations of international humanitarian law. Yet 17% of all France’s arms exports go to Qatar — an actual human rights violator and key sponsor of Hamas.
Meanwhile, the Australian government often claims that it is a steadfast friend of Israel, yet its actions belie that description. It continues to reverse longstanding bipartisan positions by voting in favor of biased and one-sided anti-Israel resolutions at the United Nations.
Today, Australia ahistorically labels Gaza, eastern Jerusalem, and the West Bank as “Occupied Palestinian territory,” signaling to the Palestinians that negotiations aren’t necessary and everything they want is theirs by right without any need to compromise.
Australia even doubled its funding to UNRWA, despite UNRWA’s long history of spreading antisemitic propaganda and incitement to violence through its schools, and UNRWA employees’ direct involvement in the October 7 atrocities.
Australia says that Israel must listen to the international community. Yet it was that same international community that facilitated much of the funding that let Hamas turn Gaza into a giant terror base. The international community also allowed Hezbollah to build up a massive rocket arsenal in violation of UN Security Council resolution 1701, meant to both disarm Hezbollah and keep it well away from Israel’s border.
The current Australian government is suddenly obsessed with trying to force a two-state solution right now, as if this is currently feasible with Hamas controlling Gaza and the corrupt Palestinian Authority having lost control of many of the cities of the West Bank. The message of this obsession is to reward Hamas’ terrorism on October 7, and encourage the Palestinian leadership to continue the rejectionism with which it has met every two-state peace offer Israel has ever made.
The Australian government’s calls on Israel for restraint and ceasefires, as if Israel initiated the October 7 conflict, while demanding comparatively little of Hamas, help fuel the “eighth front” war against the Jews.
When Jews are afraid to walk their own streets, when Jewish students are unable to go to university campuses, when Jews are abused in the streets of Townsville and cars are defaced in Sydney, it is a sign that the social cohesion that Australia likes to boast about has been eroded.
Israel is not above criticism, and criticizing its policies is perfectly legitimate, as it would be to criticize any country. However, such critics cross a line when they apply a double standard to Israel to which no other country is subjected, all while ignoring the unique security challenges it faces.
Western leaders who fail to clearly support democratic partners like Israel embolden those who wish to destroy all of us, and their weakness in confronting domestic manifestations of antisemitism makes Jewish communities worldwide vulnerable to hatred and violence.
Long after the guns fall silent along the seven fronts on which Israel is fighting, the eighth front will continue to rage, fueled by weak leadership that lacks both the wisdom to tell the difference between right and wrong, and the courage to confront the world’s oldest hatred.
Justin Amler is a policy analyst at the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC).
The post Across Europe, Australia, and the West, Another Front Has Been Opened in the War Against Jews first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s Sharaa Says Talks With Israel Could Yield Results ‘In Coming Days’
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks at the opening ceremony of the 62nd Damascus International Fair, the first edition held since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, in Damascus, Syria, Aug. 27, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Wednesday that ongoing negotiations with Israel to reach a security pact could lead to results “in the coming days.”
He told reporters in Damascus the security pact was a “necessity” and that it would need to respect Syria’s airspace and territorial unity and be monitored by the United Nations.
Syria and Israel are in talks to reach an agreement that Damascus hopes will secure a halt to Israeli airstrikes and the withdrawal of Israeli troops who have pushed into southern Syria.
Reuters reported this week that Washington was pressuring Syria to reach a deal before world leaders gather next week for the UN General Assembly in New York.
But Sharaa, in a briefing with journalists including Reuters ahead of his expected trip to New York to attend the meeting, denied the US was putting any pressure on Syria and said instead that it was playing a mediating role.
He said Israel had carried out more than 1,000 strikes on Syria and conducted more than 400 ground incursions since Dec. 8, when the rebel offensive he led toppled former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
Sharaa said Israel’s actions were contradicting the stated American policy of a stable and unified Syria, which he said was “very dangerous.”
He said Damascus was seeking a deal similar to a 1974 disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria that created a demilitarized zone between the two countries.
He said Syria sought the withdrawal of Israeli troops but that Israel wanted to remain at strategic locations it seized after Dec. 8, including Mount Hermon. Israeli ministers have publicly said Israel intends to keep control of the sites.
He said if the security pact succeeds, other agreements could be reached. He did not provide details, but said a peace agreement or normalization deal like the US-mediated Abraham Accords, under which several Muslim-majority countries agreed to normalize diplomatic ties with Israel, was not currently on the table.
He also said it was too early to discuss the fate of the Golan Heights because it was “a big deal.”
Reuters reported this week that Israel had ruled out handing back the zone, which Donald Trump unilaterally recognized as Israeli during his first term as US president.
“It’s a difficult case – you have negotiations between a Damascene and a Jew,” Sharaa told reporters, smiling.
SECURITY PACT DERAILED IN JULY
Sharaa also said Syria and Israel had been just “four to five days” away from reaching the basis of a security pact in July, but that developments in the southern province of Sweida had derailed those discussions.
Syrian troops were deployed to Sweida in July to quell fighting between Druze armed factions and Bedouin fighters. But the violence worsened, with Syrian forces accused of execution-style killings and Israel striking southern Syria, the defense ministry in Damascus and near the presidential palace.
Sharaa on Wednesday described the strikes near the presidential palace as “not a message, but a declaration of war,” and said Syria had still refrained from responding militarily to preserve the negotiations.
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Anti-Israel Activists Gear Up to ‘Flood’ UN General Assembly
US Capitol Police and NYPD officers clash with anti-Israel demonstrators, on the day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC, July 24, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
Anti-Israel groups are planning a wave of raucous protests in New York City during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) over the next several days, prompting concerns that the demonstrations could descend into antisemitic rhetoric and intimidation.
A coalition of anti-Israel activists is organizing the protests in and around UN headquarters to coincide with speeches from Middle Eastern leaders and appearances by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The demonstrations are expected to draw large crowds and feature prominent pro-Palestinian voices, some of whom have been criticized for trafficking in antisemitic tropes, in addition to calling for the destruction of Israe.
Organizers of the demonstrations have promoted the coordinated events on social media as an opportunity to pressure world leaders to hold Israel accountable for its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, with some messaging framed in sharply hostile terms.
On Sunday, for example, activists shouted at Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon.
“Zionism is terrorism. All you guys are terrorists committing ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza and Palestine. Shame on you, Zionist animals,” they shouted.
BREAKING: PRO-PALESTINE PROTESTORS CONFRONT “ISRAELI” AMBASSADOR DANNY DANON AT THE UNITED NATIONS
1/5 pic.twitter.com/4G1VYEMGzV
— Within Our Lifetime (@WOLPalestine) September 14, 2025
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), warned on its website that the scale and tone of the planned demonstrations risk crossing the line from political protest into hate speech, arguing that anti-Israel activists are attempting to hijack the UN gathering to spread antisemitism and delegitimize the Jewish state’s right to exist.
Outside the UN last week, masked protesters belonging to the activist group INDECLINE kicked a realistic replica of Netanyahu’s decapitated head as though it were a soccer ball.
US activist group plays soccer with Bibi’s mock decapitated HEAD right outside NYC UN HQ
Peep shot at 00:40
Footage posted by INDECLINE collective just as UN General Assembly about to kick off
‘Following the game, ball was donated to Palestinian Genocide Museum’ pic.twitter.com/TQ84sgZhKr
— RT (@RT_com) September 9, 2025
Within Our Lifetime (WOL), a radical anti-Israel activist group, has vowed to “flood” the UNGA on behalf of the pro-Palestine movement.
WOL, one of the most prolific anti-Israel activist groups, came under immense fire after it organized a protest against an exhibition to honor the victims of the Oct. 7 massacre at the Nova Music Festival in southern Israel. During the event, the group chanted “resistance is justified when people are occupied!” and “Israel, go to hell!”
“We will be there to confront them with the truth: Their silence and inaction enable genocide. The world cannot continue as if Gaza does not exist,” WOL said of its planned demonstrations in New York. “This is the time to make our voices impossible to ignore. Come to New York by any means necessary, to stand, to march, to demand the UN act and end the siege.”
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), two other anti-Israel organizations that have helped organize widespread demonstrations against the Jewish state during the war in Gaza, also announced they are planning a march from Times Square to the UN headquarters on Friday.
“The time is now for each and every UN member state to uphold their duty under international law: sanction Israel and end the genocide,” the groups said in a statement.
JVP, an organization that purports to fight for “Palestinian liberation,” has positioned itself as a staunch adversary of the Jewish state. The group argued in a 2021 booklet that Jews should not write Hebrew liturgy because hearing the language would be “deeply traumatizing” to Palestinians. JVP has repeatedly defended the Oct. 7 massacre of roughly 1,200 people in southern Israel by Hamas as a justified “resistance.” Chapters of the organization have urged other self-described “progressives” to throw their support behind Hamas and other terrorist groups against Israel
Similarly, PYM, another radical anti-Israel group, has repeatedly defended terrorism and violence against the Jewish state. PYM has organized many anti-Israel protests in the two years following the Oct. 7 attacks in the Jewish state. Recently, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) called for a federal investigation into the organization after Aisha Nizar, one of the group’s leaders, urged supporters to sabotage the US supply chain for the F-35 fighter jet, one of the most advanced US military assets and a critical component of Israel’s defense.
The UN General Assembly has historically been a flashpoint for heated debate over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Previous gatherings have seen dueling demonstrations outside the Manhattan venue, with pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups both seeking to influence the international spotlight.
While warning about the demonstrations, CAM noted it recently launched a new mobile app, Report It, that allows users worldwide to quickly and securely report antisemitic incidents in real time.
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Nina Davidson Presses Universities to Back Words With Action as Jewish Students Return to Campus Amid Antisemitism Crisis
Nina Davidson on The Algemeiner’s ‘J100’ podcast. Photo: Screenshot
Philanthropist Nina Davidson, who served on the board of Barnard College, has called on universities to pair tough rhetoric on combatting antisemitism with enforcement as Jewish students returned to campuses for the new academic year.
“Years ago, The Algemeiner had published a list ranking the most antisemitic colleges in the country. And number one was Columbia,” Davidson recalled on a recent episode of The Algemeiner‘s “J100” podcast. “As a board member and as someone who was representing the institution, it really upset me … At the board meeting, I brought it up and I said, ‘What are we going to do about this?’”
Host David Cohen, chief executive officer of The Algemeiner, explained he had revisited Davidson’s remarks while she was being honored for her work at The Algemeiner‘s 8th annual J100 gala, held in October 2021, noting their continued relevance.
“It could have been the same speech in 2025,” he said, underscoring how longstanding concerns about campus antisemitism, while having intensified in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, are not new.
Davidson argued that universities already possess the tools to protect students – codes of conduct, time-place-manner rules, and consequences for threats or targeted harassment – but too often fail to apply them evenly. “Statements are not enough,” she said, arguing that institutions need to enforce their rules and set a precedent that there will be consequences for individuals who refuse to follow them.
She also said that stakeholders – alumni, parents, and donors – are reassessing their relationships with schools that, in their view, have not safeguarded Jewish students. While supportive of open debate, Davidson distinguished between protest and intimidation, calling for leadership that protects expression while ensuring campus safety.
The episode surveyed specific pressure points that administrators will face this fall: repeat anti-Israel encampments, disruptions of Jewish programming, and the challenge of distinguishing political speech from conduct that violates university rules. “Unless schools draw those lines now,” Davidson warned, “they’ll be scrambling once the next crisis hits.”
Cohen closed by framing the discussion as a test of institutional credibility, asking whether universities will “turn policy into protection” in real time. Davidson agreed, pointing to students who “need to know the rules aren’t just on paper.”
The full conversation is available on The Algemeiner’s “J100” podcast.