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International Olympic Committee Examines Israeli Medalist Peter Paltchik for IDF Support

Paris 2024 Olympics – Judo – Men -100 kg Victory Ceremony – Champ-de-Mars Arena, Paris, France – August 01, 2024. Bronze medallist Peter Paltchik of Israel celebrates on the podium. Photo: REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is examining the controversy surrounding a social media post uploaded by Israeli judoka and Olympic medalist Peter Paltchik that showed support for Israel attacking Hamas terrorists, the Swiss newspaper Le Matin reported on Sunday.

Paltchik won the bronze medal in the men’s under-100kg category at the Olympic Games in Paris on Thursday. The 32-year-old was also one of Israel’s flag bearers during the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics.

After the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack in Israel, the Ukrainian-born athlete shared on social media a photo of several Israeli missiles that were signed with messages, including one that compared Hamas to the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist organization and also said “Ippon,” which is the highest score achievable in judo and automatically ends a match. Paltchik wrote in the caption of the photo, “From me to you with pleasure #HamasisISIS #IsraelAtWar.” The photo was later deleted but still upset many Hamas supporters and anti-Israel activists. It was even mentioned by the president of the Palestinian National Olympic Committee. Paltchik also praised Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers in a pre-Olympics interview shared by StandWithUs.

The IOC told Le Matin it is “in contact” with the Israeli Olympic Committee about the “sensitive issue,” but did not comment on possible sanctions that Paltchik could face.

Yael Arad, a former judoka and Olympic medalist who is now the president of Israel’s Olympic Committee, defended Paltchik and his since-deleted social media post, saying about the rockets in the photo: “It’s not against a country. It’s not against a people, it’s against a terrorist organization.” Arad also said that Paltchik did not write any of the messages shown on the rockets in the photograph.

IOC Communications Director Mark Adams was asked at the IOC daily briefing on Aug. 2 about Paltchik’s behavior and in his reply, he reminded National Olympic Committees to follow Olympic guidelines, Le Matin reported. “We will wait and see what happens,” Adams added, when asked about possible repercussions for Paltchik.

Paltchik’s bronze medal win on Thursday was his second Olympic medal, following a team bronze medal win in the Tokyo Olympics. His coach is Oren Smadga, whose son was killed in combat in June while fighting with the IDF in Gaza.

The post International Olympic Committee Examines Israeli Medalist Peter Paltchik for IDF Support first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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CBS’ Margaret Brennan Said ‘Free Speech’ Enabled the Holocaust; She Has No Idea What She’s Talking About

People with Israeli flags attend the International March of the Living at the former Auschwitz Nazi German death camp, in Brzezinka near Oswiecim, Poland, May 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki

It was bad enough when Whoopi Goldberg of The View infamously said the Holocaust was not about race. On Sunday, Margaret Brennan of CBS’ Face The Nation interviewed Secretary of State Marco Rubio. During the interview, Brennan said, “free speech was weaponized to conduct a genocide” in Nazi Germany.

Was it freedom of the press when Nazis shut down the Munich Post, which for a decade had been warning against Hitler and covered the suspicious death of his niece? What about all of Hitler’s critics and enemies — why would they have to flee if there was free speech?

What an actual dictator does is close down free speech to maintain groupthink. Brennan embarrassed herself using the buzzword of “weaponizing” without understanding its meaning, or the fact that it was a lack of freedom of the press that was weaponized to help Hitler conduct a genocide.

In March 1933, Hitler passed the Enabling Act and, in his speech, said that “the entire educational system, the theatre, the cinema, literature, the Press and the wireless, all these very things will be used as a means to this end and valued accordingly. They must all serve for the maintenance of the eternal values present in the essential character of the people.”

So now that we established as of 1933 there was no freedom of the press, how could Brennan claim a “weaponization” of free press caused a genocide? Perhaps, she has no idea of what she is talking about, and she should make an on-air apology if she has not already.

I would not expect that she or Goldberg would have read a book called Mein Kampf. But Hitler wrote: “Again and again our Jewish press has known how to concentrate special hatred on England, and many a good German simpleton has fallen into the Jewish snare with the greatest willingness, drooled about ‘strengthening’ German sea power, protested against the rape of our colonies, recommended their reconquest, and thus helped furnish the material which the Jewish scoundrel could pass on to his fellow Jews in England for practical propogandist use.”

Perhaps Brennan could educate herself by watching a film or play about Sophie Scholl and the White Rose members. Scholl and her compatriots were executed for handing out pamphlets that called for resistance. They declared Hitler was a liar. She was 21 when she was executed. Strange, I don’t see any students today being executed for free speech.

Such reports on national news networks assume that the general public has little knowledge of the Holocaust, which is sadly true. If anyone is weaponizing anything, it is Brennan using scare tactics to try to compare modern day political figures to Hitler, which is a tough comparison to make considering no American leaders have advocated for Jews to be eliminated, whereas Hitler used that terminology and hatred from the very beginning.

Be skeptical any time you hear the phrase “weaponized.” Many podcasts and anti-Israel speakers have tried to ignore antisemitism by saying it is being “weaponized” by Jews. You may also hear that Jews “weaponized” the Holocaust to create the state of Israel.

If Jews, after seeing the horrible genocide, understood the need for a Jewish state — and the countries of the United Nations voted for establishment of Israel due to the savagery of the Holocaust — that is called understanding the consequences of events. It is not called weaponization.

The author is a writer based in New York.

The post CBS’ Margaret Brennan Said ‘Free Speech’ Enabled the Holocaust; She Has No Idea What She’s Talking About first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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UCLA Student Newspaper Protects Oct. 7 Supporters, and Attacks Jews

A mock Israeli checkpoint set up during a past ‘Israeli Apartheid Week’ at the University of California at Los Angeles campus. Photo: AMCHA Initiative.

At UCLA, a troubling pattern has emerged: individuals engaged in antisemitic discrimination are being recast as victims, while those targeted are portrayed as villains for speaking out.

Nowhere is this clearer than in the case of a staff member who resigned amid allegations that she actively excluded Jewish students from hiring decisions. Rather than holding her accountable or looking seriously into the accusations, UCLA’s student paper — the Daily Bruin — portrayed her as a martyr, while ignoring her actions regarding the Jewish community.

To compound the issue, the Daily Bruin’s coverage of a protest outside the home of UC Regent Jay Sures — where activists threatened him and vandalized his property — was presented with misleading context, making the demonstrators appear justified.

Undergraduate Students Association Council Cultural Affairs Commissioner Alicia Verugo stepped down from her job, after she was accused of directing her office to exclude Jewish students from employment. She claims she only resigned out of fear for her personal safety. Here are the facts, according to the Daily Bruin:

In a copy of the petition, which [Bella] Brannon provided to the Daily Bruin, Brannon accused Verdugo of directing their staff to not hire “Zionist” applicants to the commission. She cited screenshots that she said a member of Verdugo’s office provided to her.

“Lots of Zionists are applying,” Verdugo allegedly said in a message appended to the petition. “Please do your research when you look at applicants and I will also share a doc of no hire list during retreat.”

Verdugo justified Hamas’ atrocities on October 7, saying it was an “unprecedented” and “historic” moment. Furthermore, she did so in a publicly recorded event just days after the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

Yet, in the Daily Bruin’s coverage, these damning details were omitted. Instead, the article emphasized her support for UCLA’s BIPOC community, whitewashing her actions and shifting the focus away from her discrimination.

The section of the article reporting on her plan to use a member of the extremist anti-Israel group, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), as a defense witness is even more problematic. The journalists identify JVP as merely “critical of Israel.” That would be like describing the KKK as a group “critical of minorities” in a story about them using their nonexistent moral authority to defend a segregationist.

Instead of presenting the facts of what Verdugo had done, the Daily Bruin framed her as a victim of political pressure, allowing her to escape accountability.

This misleading portrayal is dangerous. It reinforces the insidious trend where Jewish students raising concerns about discrimination are smeared as aggressors, exacerbating campus hostility toward Jews and Israel at UCLA.

The contrast is glaring when compared to the Daily Bruin’s reporting on the harassment of UC Regent Jay Sures. Protesters accused Sures of being a “genocide enabler,” vandalized his property with red handprints — a symbol with deep ties to historical antisemitic violence — and ominously threatened him.

Yet, instead of condemning the harassment, the Daily Bruin’s article dedicated its final section to listing Sures’ affiliations with pro-Israel organizations, concluding with an uncritical quote from Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) attacking him.

The implication? That such harassment was, if not justified, at least understandable.

When a Jewish leader and his family are threatened, the Daily Bruin frames the narrative as an “underdog vs. powerful figure.” But when a student leader is caught discriminating against Jewish students and justifying the massacre of civilians, the paper downplays the charges and shifts focus to her supposed victimization.

This blatant discrepancy exposes a disturbing editorial bias: Jewish students who fight back against discrimination are ignored — or worse, smeared — as part of an imagined Zionist effort to silence free speech. Meanwhile, anti-Israel activists who face legitimate consequences for their actions receive glowing, sympathetic coverage; their ethical breaches are reframed as minor inconveniences imposed by an all-powerful Jewish establishment.

Thousands of UCLA students and alumni will now likely believe these politicized narratives. Fortunately, the university itself has demonstrated more professionalism, suspending both SJP and its graduate counterpart for their disgraceful treatment of Sures, his family, and his neighbors.

The Daily Bruin has a responsibility to correct the record. True journalism demands fairness, not selective storytelling that whitewashes antisemitism under the guise of political nuance. If the paper values integrity, it must fully acknowledge the scope of both controversies — and ensure future reporting treats discrimination with the seriousness it deserves, no matter the target.

Bias and distortion must no longer mislead the UCLA community. Journalism should illuminate the truth.

Seth B. Mendel is the West Coast Campus Advisor for the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA)

The post UCLA Student Newspaper Protects Oct. 7 Supporters, and Attacks Jews first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Palestinian Authority Gives Even More Money to Released Terrorist Millionaires

M-16 shirt glorifying Palestinian terrorism. Photo: Palestinian Media Watch.

According to Palestinian Authority (PA) Government Decision No. 15 of 2013, released terrorists are given a release grant that can be as high as $25,000.

The amount depends on the time each terrorist spent in Israeli prison — meaning, the worse the crime and the longer the sentence, the higher the grant.

The picture below shows a smiling released Palestinian terrorist posing with his check from Mahmoud Abbas.

The text on the envelope reads: “A grant from President Mahmoud Abbas

[PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs, Facebook page, Jan. 30, 2025]

Some of the worst recently released terrorists were expelled to Egypt. It was at a ceremony there that the prisoners posed for pictures showing off the additional money they were given by Abbas.

The PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs made sure to publish the pictures on its Facebook page to let Palestinians know that terrorists are so important that they continue receiving money even after leaving prison. In total, the PA is paying out an additional $5,352,500 to the released terrorists.

This terror reward is in addition to the monthly rewards the PA pays prisoners while in jail.

Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) recently exposed that at least 316 terrorist prisoners released in the ongoing exchange deal between Israel and Hamas leave prison as millionaires (in shekels). This wealth has been generously provided to them as “Pay-for-Slay” by the PA for their terror against Israelis. The 734 terrorists being released in the first part of the deal have received at least 506,385,600 shekels ($142,353,110).

PMW reported last year that since 2019, the PA has not had enough money to pay its civil servants and has been paying them only between 50%-80% each month.

Paying out millions now to released terrorists, including hundreds of murderers, again shows the importance that the PA places on terror.

Last week, PA leader Mahmoud Abbas issued an ambiguous presidential decree changing the way terrorists in prison are paid. Terrorist prisoners and families of terrorist “Martyrs” will continue to receive monthly payments but within a different framework. PMW will be reporting more as details come to light.

Posted text: “During the meeting with the released prisoners today [Jan. 30, 2025,] in Egypt and the distribution of [release] grants from His Honor [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas, in the presence of the [PLO] Commission of Prisoners’ [Affairs], the Palestinian [PA-funded] Prisoners’ Club, and the embassy of the State of Palestine in Egypt.” [emphasis added]

[PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs, Facebook page, Jan. 30, 2025]

The author is the Founder and Executive Director of Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article first appeared. 

The post Palestinian Authority Gives Even More Money to Released Terrorist Millionaires first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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