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Ceasefire ends Israel-Gaza conflict after five days of fighting
(JTA) — Fighting between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza ended after five days, as a ceasefire took effect and appeared to hold late Saturday night.
Over the course of the fighting, 33 Palestinians were killed in Gaza, including civilians and combatants. Two civilians were killed in Israel — a woman in the central Israeli city of Rehovot and a Gaza resident who was working in a town on the Israeli side of the border.
Islamic Jihad shot more than 1,000 rockets at Israel during the conflict; many that were aimed at populated areas were intercepted by Israel’s missile defense systems, and some fell short in Gaza. Israel conducted hundreds of airstrikes in Gaza, killing six Islamic Jihad leaders.
This round of fighting began on Tuesday as Israel assassinated senior leaders of Islamic Jihad, which is designated by the United States and European Union as a terror group. Those assassinations followed a day of heavy conflict between the two sides one week earlier, after a senior member of Islamic Jihad died of a hunger strike in Israeli prison. Tuesday’s airstrikes also came after far-right figures in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition pushed for a harsher response to the Gaza rockets.
Egypt mediated Saturday’s ceasefire, and a statement from Netanyahu’s office “thanked Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and expressed the appreciation of the State of Israel for Egypt’s intensive efforts to secure a ceasefire.” The statement added that Israel would refrain from further airstrikes as long as rocket attacks from Gaza ceased.
Unlike previous rounds of conflict between Israel and militants in Gaza, Hamas, the group that controls the coastal strip and is likewise designated as a terror group by the United States and EU, appeared to remain on the sidelines. Israel and Hamas have fought several times in recent decades, with their deadliest conflict taking place in the 2014 Gaza War.
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‘Gas the Jews’: UK Doctor Who ‘Satirically’ Wrote Antisemitic Online Posts Allowed to Continue Practicing
Dr Martin Whyte, a former executive member of the British Medical Association. Photo: Screenshot
A British doctor who posted “gas the Jews” and other antisemitic comments on social media will still be able to see patients after the United Kingdom’s top medical regulatory body found that he did not possess bigoted beliefs and that his conduct “falls just short of that which would be considered serious enough to pose a risk to public protection.”
The outcome will likely further fuel widespread concerns over a wave of recent allegations of antisemitism in the UK health-care system that has left Jewish patients fearing for their wellbeing.
Two tweets in particular written by Dr. Martin Whyte, a pediatrician and former executive member of the British Medical Association (BMA), were brought to the attention of the General Medical Council (GMC).
On April 18, 2018, Whyte posted, “Me: It’s important to represent Judaism and Jewish people fairly and respectfully in art. Also me: Jew banker goblins.” Then, on Oct. 27, 2018, he posted, “Hahaha zeig heil hahaha gas the jews hahaha just kidding but have you seen these youtube videos about the holohoax, they’re pretty convincing imo…[sic].”
The latter posting came on the same day as the mass murder of 11 Jews at the Tree of Life – Or L’Simcha Congregation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a crime for which Robert Bowers now sits convicted and awaiting execution.
Whyte explained his actions to the GMC, claiming that the remarks were intended satirically and in response to “a prominent figure on the political far right” who “was well-known at the time for having made a widely circulated YouTube video in which he claimed to have trained a dog to respond with ‘a Nazi salute’ in response to the words ‘Zeig Heil’ and ‘gas the Jews.’”
Whyte stated that it was “possible that a reader without any knowledge of [his] personal views might misunderstand the meaning of what [he] had written.”
The investigatory committee assessed that Whyte “is a doctor in good standing and the committee have seen multiple positive references from professional colleagues and the extensive evidence of his reflection in relation to the allegations. It recognizes that the tweets reported in the press represent a tiny proportion of his online activity and that they were posted seven years ago. In the light of this, and the personal and professional impact upon him of the media attention and the subsequent investigation, the committee regards repetition to be unlikely.”
A spokesperson for the GMC explained that “we carried out a full and thorough investigation into Dr. Martin Whyte’s social media posts. After hearing the evidence, an investigation committee found his posts were grossly offensive. They decided a formal warning was necessary to uphold confidence in the profession, which will appear on the doctor’s online record for two years and must be disclosed to any potential new employers. A warning is formal, significant disciplinary action on a doctor’s registration.”
The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), a British charity, had initially submitted the complaint about Whyte’s tweets and responded to the GMC’s decision.
“Every week there is some new outrage from the medical regulatory system,” CAA posted on X. “Is there any level of racism against Jewish people that the GMC would consider worthy of actual disciplinary action? If so, we have yet to see it. Antisemitism is at record highs in our society, and regulators are totally asleep at the wheel. Another spectacular failure by the medical regulator.”
In October, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer unveiled a new plan to address what he described as “just too many examples, clear examples, of antisemitism that have not been dealt with adequately or effectively” in the country’s National Health Service (NHS).
One notable case drawing attention involved Dr. Rahmeh Aladwan, a trainee trauma and orthopedic surgeon, who police arrested on Oct. 21, charging her with four offenses related to malicious communications and inciting racial hatred.
Aladwan’s arrest followed the GMC clearing her to continue treating patients. She had made antisemitic social media claims such as labeling the Royal Free Hospital in London “a Jewish supremacy cesspit” and asserting that “over 90% of the world’s Jews are genocidal.”
Aladwan wrote on April 29 that “I will never condemn the 7th of October,” referring to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.
“I fail to see how medics using such language with impunity doesn’t undermine confidence in the medical profession. I have no confidence in our regulation system,” Wes Streeting, the UK secretary of state for health and social care, wrote in response to Aladwan’s remarks.
The Algemeiner has reported regularly on the surge of reports of antisemitism in UK medical settings.
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Texas man charged with making antisemitic death threats to Jewish conservative pundits
A Texas man was arrested last week in Florida after he allegedly launched a volley of antisemitic death threats against several prominent conservative activists.
Nicholas Lyn Ray, 28, of Spring, Texas, allegedly made his threats between Oct. 8 and Oct. 10 on an X account named “@zionistarescum,” according to an arrest affidavit.
His alleged victims included far-right Jewish conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer and conservative Jewish political commentators Joshua Benjamin Hammer and Karol Markowicz. A fourth victim, Seth Dillon, is the Christian CEO of a conservative satire site The Babylon Bee, according to an arrest affidavit.
The @zionistsarescum account was created in September 2025 and the first posts visible on it after Ray’s arrest respond to the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the Turning Point USA founder whose killing spurred conspiracy theories about Israeli involvement. Several posts advanced that theory, while others amplify the white supremacist influencer Nick Fuentes, who had feuded with Kirk.
In a message allegedly directed at Dillon, according to the affidavit, Ray accused him of “conspiring with Israel about Charlie Kirk,” the Turning Point USA founder who was murdered in September, adding that “these receipts are going to be perfect for display when you get hung bitch.”
The affidavit also describes a threat that Ray allegedly directed toward Markowicz, who was born in the former Soviet Union. Ray allegedly wrote, “Russian genocide jew whose family escaped prosecution in American you deserve to be hung.”
In another threat directed towards Loomer, Ray allegedly wrote, “why you asking this question as if you aren’t gonna soon find out Mossad agent? you gonna get hung from the capitol baby.”
Ray also allegedly referred to Hammer as a “F—t Israeli spy” and threatened to “hang you at the capitol and take turns beating you with a pinata bat,” according to the affidavit.
While the threats appeared to have been deleted from Ray’s X account, his most recent post dated Oct. 15 read, “When Israel is purged it will be biblical.” On Oct. 9, he referred to Loomer as a “f—ing kyk” and wrote “Israel are the biggest lying Satanist pedophiles on the planet.”
An investigation into Ray was launched by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement on Oct. 12 after agents were alerted to his alleged posts.
Ray is currently facing four counts each of making a written or electronic threat to commit a mass shooting or act of terrorism, extortion or threatening another person and using a two-way communication device to facilitate a felony, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s office.
According to another court document, Ray indicated to law enforcement that he had been “watching youtube when he became interested in anti-Israel content” prior to allegedly making the threats.
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Cornell University Secures Deal With Trump Administration, Restoring $250 Million in Federal Funds
Cornell University students walk on campus, November 2023. Photo: USA TODAY NETWORK via Reuters Connect
The Trump administration restored $250 million in federal funds it confiscated from Cornell University earlier this year, following the New York-based institution’s agreeing to pay a $60 million settlement, half of which will be spent on agricultural research.
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, Cornell was cut off from significant taxpayer funds after the government determined that it declined to prevent or respond to egregious incidents of antisemitic discrimination and had enacted over many decades educational policies, such as racial preferences, which undermine merit. Following the move, Cornell received “more than 75 stop work orders” from the government. Later, the university cleaved its budget, telling the public in an announcement of the measure that “urgent action is necessary, both to reduce costs immediately and to correct our course over time.”
Friday’s settlement delivers respite and an offramp from further draconian fiscal measures which would have upended university operations.
According to the US Justice Department, the settlement calls for Cornell’s sharing admissions data with the government to prove that it is not practicing racial preferences in admissions and “invest $30 million through 2028 in research programs on agriculture, farming, and related studies.”
The latter provision noticeably expires in 2028, the year in which the US will hold its next presidential election.
“The Trump administration has secured another transformative commitment from an Ivy League institution to end divisive DEI policies,” US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement, referring to so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. “Thanks to this deal with Cornell and the ongoing work of the US departments of Justice, Education, and Health and Human Servies], US universities are refocusing their attention on merit, rigor, and truth seeking — not ideology. These reforms are a huge win in the fight to restore excellence to American higher education and make our schools the greatest in the world.”
Cornell University has seen a series of disturbing antisemitic incidents since the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre perpetrated by Hamas across southern Israel.
Three weeks after the atrocities which ravaged Israeli communities, now-former student Patrick Dai threatened to commit heinous crimes against members of the school’s Jewish community, including mass murder and rape. He was later sentenced to 21 months in federal prison.
Cornell students also occupied an administrative building and held a “mock trial” in which they convicted then-school president Martha Pollack of complicity in “apartheid” and “genocide against Palestinian civilians.” Meanwhile, history professor Russell Rickford called Hamas’s barbarity on Oct. 7 “exhilarating” and “energizing” at a pro-Palestinian rally held on campus.
Cornell University and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) sparred all of last academic year, with SJP pushing the limits of what constitutes appropriate conduct on campus. In September, school officials suspended over a dozen SJP-affiliated students who disrupted a career fair, an action which saw them “physically” breach the area by “[pushing] police out of the way.” In February, the university amnestied some of the protesters, granting them “alternate resolutions” which terminated their suspensions, according to The Cornell Daily Sun.
The university took center stage in another campus antisemitism outrage in October, as its student newspaper published an anti-Zionist opinion piece which promoted Holocaust inversion by melding a Nazi symbol with the Star of David.
The article, titled “Thousand & One Eyes for an Eye” and written by indigenous studies professor Karim-Aly Assam, argued that Israel’s military strategy for the Gaza war against Hamas prioritized revenge for the Oct. 7 massacre over security “under the pretext of obtaining justice.” The article further accused Israeli officials of describing Palestinians as “animals” to justify “ruthless destruction and killing” — a distortion of former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s describing the Hamas fighters who murdered, raped, and maimed women, children, and men on Oct. 7 “human animals” two days after the atrocities transpired.
Assam’s article implied an equivalence of Israel’s military objective to eradicate Hamas from Gaza with the Nazi genocide of Jews across Europe during World War II, a trope which anti-Israel activists and antisemites traffic to foster negative public opinion against Israel’s efforts to secure its borders and quell jihadist activity in the Palestinian territories.
The tactic — Holocaust inversion — is one part of a triad of Holocaust-skepticism, the other two components of which are “denial” and “distortion” — used to defame Jews and deny that they are and have been victims of hatred. Once reserved to neo-Nazi media, Holocaust inversion, experts say, is being increasingly embraced by other more mainstream segments of society.
“As a result of securing this groundbreaking settlement between the United States and Cornell, applicants and students will receive fair and equal treatment as required by our civil rights laws, and American farmers will have expanded opportunity for agricultural development and productivity,” US Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement. “The Cornell agreement exhibits this administration’s deep commitment to vigilantly enforce our federal civil rights laws on college campuses, and ensure that American universities manage taxpayer dollars responsibly.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
