RSS
Israeli soldier Amichai Oster, son of former JTA writer and editor, is killed in Gaza
(JTA) — Amichai Oster, 24, an Israeli-American touring the United States after his service in an Israeli combat unit, was observing Shabbat and Shemini Atzeret at a Salt Lake City Chabad when Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7.
“Of all the terrified faces on the morning of October 7th, I remember Amichai’s anguished features distinctly,” Chabad’s Rabbi Avremi Zippel recalled in an Instagram post. “He needed to go back.”
Oster received an official draft notice while in Salt Lake City and returned to Israel to join the army’s 7020 reserve battalion. On Monday, Oster, a sergeant in the reserves and the son of a former writer and editor for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, died fighting in the northern Gaza Strip, killed by an explosive device that also injured two other soldiers.
“Amichai did indeed rush here to fight for his country and for all of us,” his mother, Marcy Oster, said at his funeral Tuesday. “He was here doing exactly what he wanted to be doing. He died doing what he came home to do.”
Marcy Oster, who wrote breaking news stories for JTA for more than a decade, and her husband Howard, deputy director of the internal medicine division at Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital, moved to Israel from Cleveland when Amichai was 1. The family lives in the West Bank settlement of Karnei Shomron, in a neighborhood Marcy once described as “overwhelmingly American.”
“Marcy always spoke, and sometimes wrote, so proudly and movingly about her five children and the lives she and her family had made in Israel,” said Ami Eden, CEO of 70 Faces Media, JTA’s parent company. “Through her work managing JTA’s news briefs, she helped our readers feel connected to Jewish communities worldwide. Amichai’s death is a tragic example — and a deeply personal one for all of us at 70 Faces Media who worked with Marcy — of the way hearts are breaking in Israel and around the world since Oct. 7.”
Friends and family described Amichai as soft-spoken, charming, ever-smiling and eager to volunteer for those needing his help, including people with special needs.
After his initial army service he spent time traveling in Asia and the United States, a rite of passage for many Israelis post-army. On the road he would frequently sleep in an old Ford Crown Victoria that he bought in Florida. He was slightly embarrassed by the police equipment it retained, including a riot-busting bumper, recalled Ron Kampeas, JTA’s Washington bureau chief, who hosted Oster at his Northern Virginia home last year. Oster also described stopping in a Virginia forest on the fast day of Tisha B’av. His prayers were interrupted by a rattlesnake, a video of which he was proud to share with friends and acquaintances.
“He was interested in everything. If he was curious about something, he searched the internet and read everything he could,” his mother, currently news editor at Ynetnews, recalled in her eulogy. His interests included “music, art, science, photography, animals, plants [and] decorating cakes. He loved his travels both far and near and he loved this land, all of it.” He planned to complete the Israel National Trail, a 683-mile route that traverses the country from north to south. After the war, he also planned to return to the United States and continue his travels, she said, before starting university.
In addition to his parents, Oster is survived by three sisters, Sarah, Emunah and Tova, and a younger brother, Jonathan, a soldier who is serving in southern Israel.
According to the IDF, 175 Israeli soldiers have been killed in combat during the army’s operations in Gaza following the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7.
Among those eulogizing Oster was Igal Lahav, head of the Karnei Shomron Council. “When we speak of incredible, Zionist and value-driven youth who would leave everything behind and rush into the fire to defend the country, we are talking about young people like Amichai,” Lahav wrote on Facebook.
In an essay she wrote on the 10th anniversary of their decision to move to Israel, Marcy Oster wrote that “we knew Israel would be the best place to raise our Jewish children, where they would learn about their Jewish past, participate in their Jewish present and prepare for their Jewish future, and where we would have a front-row seat to Jewish history.”
At Amichai’s funeral, she spoke about a conversation with her oldest son when he was home on a recent two-day leave from Gaza.
“I told them that I felt responsible for the fact that he was fighting in a war and he didn’t make the decision to come on aliyah — that we made it for him,” she said. “He thought about it for a moment and replied, ‘Ima, what makes you think that if you never made aliyah that I would not have come here to fight for our country?’”
—
The post Israeli soldier Amichai Oster, son of former JTA writer and editor, is killed in Gaza appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
RSS
New Poll: Majority of NYC Voters ‘Less Likely’ to Support Mamdani Over His Refusal to Condemn ‘Globalize the Intifada’
Zohran Mamdani. Photo: Ron Adar / SOPA Images via Reuters Connect
In a warning sign for the campaign of Democratic nominee for mayor of New York Zohran Mamdani, a majority of city voters in a new poll say the candidate’s hardline anti-Israel stance makes them less likely to vote for him.
In the survey of likely city voters conducted by American Pulse, 52.5 percent said Mamdani’s refusal to condemn the slogan “globalize the intifada” coupled with his backing of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement made them less likely to vote for him in November. Just 31% of city voters polled were more likely to support him because of these positions.
At the same time, a significant share of young New York City voters support Mamdani’s anti-Israel positioning, a striking sign of shifting generational views on Israel and the Palestinian cause.
Nearly half of voters aged 18 to 44 (46 percent) said the State Assembly member’s backing for BDS and “refusal to condemn the phrase ‘globalize the intifada’” made them more likely to support him.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist from Queens, has been under fire for defending “globalize the intifada,” a slogan many Jewish groups associate with incitement to violence against Israel and Jews. While critics argue it glorifies terrorism, supporters claim it’s a call for international solidarity with oppressed peoples, especially Palestinians. Mamdani has also voiced support for BDS, a movement widely condemned by mainstream Jewish organizations as antisemitic for singling out Israel.
The generational divide exposed by the poll comes amid a broader political realignment. Younger progressives across the country are increasingly critical of Israeli policies, especially in the wake of the Gaza war, and more receptive to Palestinian activism. But to many Jewish leaders, Mamdani’s rising support is alarming.
Rabbi David Wolpe, visiting scholar at Harvard University, condemned the phrase with a sarcastic analogy.
“‘Globalize the intifada’ is just a political slogan,” he said. “Like ‘The cockroaches must be exterminated’ was just a housing authority slogan in Rwanda.”
Jewish organizations have reported a surge in antisemitic incidents in New York and across the U.S. since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war last fall. The blending of anti-Zionist slogans with calls for “intifada,” historically linked to violent uprisings, has deepened fears among Jewish communities that traditional red lines are being crossed.
Whether this emerging coalition reshapes New York politics remains to be seen. However, the poll indicates that among younger voters, views that were once considered fringe are quickly moving into the mainstream.
The post New Poll: Majority of NYC Voters ‘Less Likely’ to Support Mamdani Over His Refusal to Condemn ‘Globalize the Intifada’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Report: Jews Targeted at June’s Pride Month Events
A Jewish gay pride flag. Photo: Twitter.
The research division of the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) released a report on Wednesday detailing incidents of hate against Jews which took place last month during demonstrations in celebration of LGBTQ rights and identity.
Incidents reported by the group include:
- At a Pride march in Wales, the activists Cymru Queers for Palestine chose to block the path and show a sign that said “Profiting from genocide,” an attempt to link the event’s sponsors — such as Amazon — to the war in Gaza.
- A Dublin Pride march saw the participation of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which labeled Israel a “genocidal entity.”
- In Toronto at a late June Pride march, demonstrators again attacked organizers with a sign declaring, “Pride partners with genocide.”
CAM also identified a recurring narrative deployed against Israel by some far-left activists: so-called “pinkwashing,” a term which the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) movement calls “an Israeli government propaganda strategy that cynically exploits LGBTQIA+ rights to project a progressive image while concealing Israel’s occupation and apartheid policies oppressing Palestinians.”
The report notes that at a Washington DC Pride event in early June Medea Benjamin, cofounder of activist group Code Pink and a regular of anti-war protests, wore a pair of goofy, oversized sunglasses and a shirt in her signature pink with the phrase “you can’t pinkwash genocide.”
Other incidents CAM recorded showed the injection of anti-Israel sentiment into Pride events.
A musical group canceled a performance at an interfaith service in Brooklyn, claiming the hosting synagogue had a “public alignment with pro-Israel political positions.” In San Francisco before the yearly Trans March, a Palestine group said in its announcement of its participation, “Stop the war on Iran and the genocide of Palestine, stop the war on immigrants and attacks on trans people.”
CAM notes that this “queers for Palestine” sentiment is not new, pointing to a 2017 event wherein “organizers of the Chicago Dyke March infamously removed participants who were waving a Pride flag adorned with a Star of David on the grounds that the symbol ‘made people feel unsafe.’”
In February, the Israel Defense Forces shared with the New York Post documents it had recovered demonstrating that Hamas had tortured and executed members it suspected of homosexuality and other moral offenses in conflict with Islamist ideology.
Amit Benjamin, who is gay and a first sergeant major in the IDF, said during a visit to New York City for Pride month that “All the ‘queers for Gaza’ need to open their eyes. Hamas kills gays … kills lesbians … queers cannot exist in Gaza.”
The post Report: Jews Targeted at June’s Pride Month Events first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
IAEA pulls inspectors from Iran as standoff over access drags on
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi at the agency’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria, June 23, 2025. REUTERS/Elisabeth Mandl/File Photo
The UN nuclear watchdog said on Friday it had pulled its last remaining inspectors from Iran as a standoff over their return to the country’s nuclear facilities bombed by the United States and Israel deepens.
Israel launched its first military strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites in a 12-day war with the Islamic Republic three weeks ago. The International Atomic Energy Agency’s inspectors have not been able to inspect Iran’s facilities since then, even though IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has said that is his top priority.
Iran’s parliament has now passed a law to suspend cooperation with the IAEA until the safety of its nuclear facilities can be guaranteed. While the IAEA says Iran has not yet formally informed it of any suspension, it is unclear when the agency’s inspectors will be able to return to Iran.
“An IAEA team of inspectors today safely departed from Iran to return to the Agency headquarters in Vienna, after staying in Tehran throughout the recent military conflict,” the IAEA said on X.
Diplomats said the number of IAEA inspectors in Iran was reduced to a handful after the June 13 start of the war. Some have also expressed concern about the inspectors’ safety since the end of the conflict, given fierce criticism of the agency by Iranian officials and Iranian media.
Iran has accused the agency of effectively paving the way for the bombings by issuing a damning report on May 31 that led to a resolution by the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors declaring Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations.
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has said he stands by the report. He has denied it provided diplomatic cover for military action.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Thursday Iran remained committed to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
“[Grossi] reiterated the crucial importance of the IAEA discussing with Iran modalities for resuming its indispensable monitoring and verification activities in Iran as soon as possible,” the IAEA said.
The US and Israeli military strikes either destroyed or badly damaged Iran’s three uranium enrichment sites. But it was less clear what has happened to much of Iran’s nine tonnes of enriched uranium, especially the more than 400 kg enriched to up to 60% purity, a short step from weapons grade.
That is enough, if enriched further, for nine nuclear weapons, according to an IAEA yardstick. Iran says its aims are entirely peaceful, but Western powers say there is no civil justification for enriching to such a high level, and the IAEA says no country has done so without developing the atom bomb.
As a party to the NPT, Iran must account for its enriched uranium, which normally is closely monitored by the IAEA, the body that enforces the NPT and verifies countries’ declarations. But the bombing of Iran’s facilities has now muddied the waters.
“We cannot afford that … the inspection regime is interrupted,” Grossi told a press conference in Vienna last week.
The post IAEA pulls inspectors from Iran as standoff over access drags on first appeared on Algemeiner.com.