RSS
Bomb Threats in the Naked City
An NYPD car on patrol. Photo: Reuters / Lucas Jackson.
JNS.org – It’s the email no parent wants to receive: “Emergency Building Evacuations” read the subject line. “This morning, we were made aware of a threat to our school buildings.” My son texted me the missing detail: “We are in lockdown right now because there was a bomb threat.” For once, his phone served a positive purpose.
A couple of hours later, after a thorough search by the NYPD, kids returned to their classes, though many parents had picked up their children by then. It’s a private school and roughly half the kids are Jewish. It’s also one block south of a huge mosque. Rightfully, the parents were terrified. The school has security, but nothing like what synagogues and Jewish community centers have.
Many of us lived through 9/11. Many of us lived close enough to the Twin Towers to endure the black smoke and endless helicopters for weeks. But very soon after the planes hit, the city began to unify. Most importantly, the local, state and federal governments took control of the situation. We soon felt safe.
Precisely the opposite has happened since Oct. 7, beginning with the riot in Times Square on Oct. 8, days before Israel began to respond. Pro-Hamas riots occur daily—up at Columbia University, down at Washington Square Park, in the subways, on the bridges, and in the streets.
But most egregious for many New Yorkers is what happened in December and then again last week: Pro-jihad “disrupters” took over the World Trade Center, first outside the building and then inside. It was both symbolic and “normalizing.” Any strong political leader would have condemned it, as well as all the other riots. But Mayor Eric Adams, who has repeatedly said he “stands with the Jewish people,” said nothing.
Five months after 9/11, I felt completely safe. Five months after Oct. 7 I am trying hard not to be terrified. Many of us have begun to call New York by a new name: Jihad City.
At the same time that a bomb could have blown up my son’s school, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) thought it was a good idea to lambaste the Israeli government before Congress and then tweet: “NYC will receive a fresh $106M from feds to reimbursement for migrant costs.” That no doubt made every NYC parent feel so much safer.
To say that the Democratic Party is clueless right now is an epic understatement. And it is precisely its embrace of terrorism, both here and in the Middle East, that led to a recent poll showing that Jewish New Yorkers prefer former President Donald Trump to President Joe Biden by 9%. An astonishing shift—but anyone who lives here completely understands why.
For decades we’ve been told that the increased violence during Ramadan stemmed from hunger. It never made sense—I personally have never felt a desire to blow up a building during Yom Kippur—but this was the prevailing explanation.
The Yom Kippur War of 1973 occurred during Ramadan. Only this year is the truth about it beginning to emerge. “Egyptian and Syrian soldiers were given an exemption from fasting because they were engaged in the religious duty of killing infidels,” wrote David M. Weinberg in The Jerusalem Post. The connection between violence and Ramadan goes back to the beginning of Islam, when, during that month, Muhammad won brutal victories over his enemies.
Needless to say, students in NYC schools will be taught none of this. And while there’s no question that the city handled 9/11 better than it handled Oct. 7, perhaps a grave mistake was made in not taking a deeper look into what is being taught in mosques globally.
Meanwhile, parents in NYC were just given another reason to not trust the Democratic Party, though the growing Candace Owens contingent on the right continues its bizarre embrace of jihad.
There’s no question that Europe is doing a better job controlling their pro-Hamas mobs than we are. At what point will U.S. elected officials have a “come to sanity” moment and begin to take this growing threat to not just Jews but to Western civilization seriously? Is it really going to take a school being blown up during Ramadan? Right now, all we hear is pro-Hamas virtue-signaling—or silence.
Originally published by Jewish Journal.
The post Bomb Threats in the Naked City first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
RSS
Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
RSS
Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.