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Israeli UFC fighter Natan Levy beats up online troll who supports Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes
(JTA) — As only the third Israeli to compete in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, or UFC, Natan Levy is not afraid to showcase his Jewish identity in and out of the ring.
He gave himself the chance to do just that as he invited a follower of white supremacist provocateur Nick Fuentes to a fight that was filmed and posted to YouTube on Thursday.
Levy and the man, identified only as Ben, had dueled on Twitter before doing so in person.
“I’ll drive to Vegas any day of the week to spar you on behalf of Nicholas J. Fuentes and America First,” Ben wrote to Levy, referencing Fuentes’ online show where he regularly espouses antisemitic rhetoric and Holocaust denial.
Levy accepted Ben’s challenge, even offering to pay for his gas. (Last year, Levy had issued a similar warning to rapper Kanye West after he praised Hitler, telling him, “if you’ve got a problem with me or my people, come see me, bro.”)
In the video, Levy is shown greeting Ben at a mixed martial arts dojo in Las Vegas. Levy wears a shirt with his “Jew-Jitsu” nickname.
Ben explains to Levy that Fuentes is a leader of the “America First” movement, which he describes as “a political movement based on furthering Christian values in the United States.” He says he was just “messing around” online and claims he is “not a hateful person.”
When Levy points out that Fuentes is a Holocaust denier, Ben says that Fuentes is merely a “revisionist.” And when Levy asks Ben how many Jews were killed in the Nazi genocide, Ben said, “I wouldn’t know that off the top of my head… they say six million.”
“He’s just a kid, probably a dumb kid,” Levy said to the camera before they step into the ring. “I’m not gonna hurt him too bad, but a lesson has to be taught here about trolling. Education is painful sometimes.”
They fight for two rounds, with Levy pinning Ben both times. At the end of the second bout, Ben can be heard saying “I’m sorry.”
After the fighting is over, Levy and Ben stood outside the ring, arms around each other, as Ben looks into the camera and says, “Six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust.” Levy corrects his verb choice, interjecting with “murdered,” before adding “F–k Nick Fuentes!”
Ben admitted he “needs to be more well-researched,” while Levy offered a warning: “This one wasn’t that painful. The next one will be twice as painful.”
The video then ends by showing Shimon Smotritsky, an Israeli mixed martial arts fighter, heading into the ring with another man, identified as Cee-Jay, who said he’s “not defending Nick Fuentes, I’m defending my friend’s honor.” Their fight doesn’t last long, but it ends in bloody fashion.
“Don’t talk sh–t about Jews, baby,” Smotritsky says with a wink.
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The post Israeli UFC fighter Natan Levy beats up online troll who supports Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Iran Says Eight Arrested for Suspected Links to Israel’s Mossad Spy Agency
The Mossad recruitment ad. Photo: Screenshot.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday they had arrested eight people suspected of trying to transmit the coordinates of sensitive sites and details about senior military figures to Israel’s Mossad, Iranian state media reported.
They are accused of having provided the information to the Mossad spy agency during Israel’s air war on Iran in June, when it attacked Iranian nuclear facilities and killed top military commanders as well as civilians in the worst blow to the Islamic Republic since the 1980s war with Iraq.
Iran retaliated with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites, infrastructure and cities. The United States entered the war on June 22 with strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
A Guards statement alleged that the suspects had received specialized training from Mossad via online platforms. It said they were apprehended in northeastern Iran before carrying out their plans, and that materials for making launchers, bombs, explosives and booby traps had been seized.
State media reported earlier this month that Iranian police had arrested as many as 21,000 “suspects” during the 12-day war with Israel, though they did not say what these people had been suspected of doing.
Security forces conducted a campaign of widespread arrests and also stepped up their street presence during the brief war that ended in a US-brokered ceasefire.
Iran has executed at least eight people in recent months, including nuclear scientist Rouzbeh Vadi, hanged on August 9 for passing information to Israel about another scientist killed in Israeli airstrikes.
Human rights groups say Iran uses espionage charges and fast-tracked executions as tools for broader political repression.
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Body of Idan Shtivi, Murdered on Oct. 7, Retrieved from Gaza in Special IDF Operation
Idan Shtivi. Photo: Courtesy of the family
i24 News – The body of Idan Shtivi, a 28-year-old murdered by Palestinian jihadists at the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, was recovered in a joint operation by the IDF and Shin Bet in central Gaza, it was cleared for publication on Saturday.
Shtivi’s remains were returned to Israel alongside the body of Ilan Weiss, another hostage killed during the October 7 massacre.
“Idan Shtivi was abducted from the Tel Gama area and brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists after acting to rescue and evacuate others from the Nova music festival on October 7th, 2023. He was 28 years old at the time of his death,” read an IDF press release.
“Following an identification process conducted at the National Center for Forensic Medicine, along with the Israel Police and the Military Rabbinate, the Hostages and Missing Persons Headquarters notified his family.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Shviti “was a gifted student of sustainability and governance, and a courageous individual” who acted heroically on October 7, helping others flee.
“He was killed in the process and his body was abducted to Gaza by Hamas. My wife and I send our heartfelt condolences to the Shtivi family. So far, 207 hostages have been returned, 148 of them alive. We will continue to act tirelessly and decisively to bring back all our hostages—living and deceased.”
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Woman Stabbed at Ottawa Grocery Store in Latest Antisemitic Attack
A social media post by the alleged attacker, Joseph Rooke of Cornwall, Ontario. Photo: Screenshot via i24
i24 News – The stabbing of a Jewish woman at an Ottawa grocery by a man with a long history of antisemitic posts on social media, the latest antisemitic hate crime in Canada, sparked outrage and prompted condemnation from officials including the prime minister.
Both the victim and the attacker are in their 70s. The woman is reportedly in serious condition.
The suspect was identified as Joseph Rooke, who has authored a series of lengthy rambling screeds on social media, ranting against Israel and Jews.
“Judaism is the world’s oldest cult,” he writes in one post, going on to say “over time jews have become insidious in governments, businesses, media conglomerates, and educational institutions in order to do what they do better than anyone else. Jews are the world’s masters of propaganda, gaslighting, demonization, demagoguery, and outright lying. Using their collective wealth they have become masters of reprisal.”
“I am under no obligation whatsoever, legal, moral, or otherwise, to like jews and I do not. If that means I meet the jewish definition of an anti-semite, so be it.”
Canada has seen a steep spike in antisemitic attacks over the past two years, including a recent incident in Montreal where a Hasidic Jew was beaten in front on his children.
After Prime Minister Mark Carney condemned the incident, many, including former Israel’s ambassador the US Michael Oren, pointed out that Carney’s rhetoric and policies contribute to the increasing insecurity of Canada’s Jewish community through uncritical embrace of outrageous and easily disprovable allegations that Israel and its supporters were guilty of the worst crimes against humanity.