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Los Angeles Has Failed Its Jewish Residents
Anti-Israel demonstrators outside the Adas Torah synagogue in the heavily-Jewish Pico-Robertson area of Los Angeles, June 23, 2024. Photo: Screenshot
Over the past few days, my hometown of Los Angeles has been gripped by a wave of antisemitic unrest that shows no sign of stopping. In the Pico-Robertson neighborhood, one of the city’s most Jewish areas, pro-Palestinian demonstrators showed up to the Adas Torah Synagogue to protest an Israeli real estate event.
The so-called “activists” circulated threats on social media before arriving, urging people to come show synagogue congregants that “Our land is not for sale” and that “racist settlers are not welcome in Los Angeles.”
Unsurprisingly, the demonstration swiftly descended into chaos and violence, with videos showing the protestors blocking entrances to the synagogue, chasing down Jews, holding signs like “Nazi Israel,” and chanting “There is only one solution, intifada revolution.”
Verbal confrontations between Jews trying to enter the house of worship and the mob of protestors quickly erupted into violence, with footage from the scene showing demonstrators throwing punches, kicking, and using the handles of their signs as weapons. Only one pro-Palestinian activist was arrested — for holding a spiked flag.
A viral image from the unrest showed an Israel supporter with a bloodied face. Another Israel supporter told Ynet News that a demonstrator punched him in the face and knocked him to the ground, where he was kicked and “hit many times on my head.” A woman was beaten in the streets.
Angry masked men prowling the streets looking for Jews. This is LA in 2024. pic.twitter.com/8BYYf64eFq
— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) June 24, 2024
This unrest is only the latest example of a disturbing recent trend, in which pro-Palestinian demonstrators target Jewish spaces under the guise of “activism,” terrorizing houses of worship, university Hillels, and Jewish community organizations while claiming that there is nothing antisemitic about their campaign of intimidation. Such despicable behavior has been going on for months — including in Los Angeles, where only a month ago, UCLA was home to some of the most blatant instances of virulent campus antisemitism, with videos emerging nearly every day of their student encampment, where masked pro-Palestinian students blocked Jewish students from entering public campus spaces.
Last year, two visibly Jewish men were shot in Los Angeles — and targeted for death because of their religion.
This pattern has undoubtedly been facilitated by the permissiveness of city and university officials, who have allowed an antisemitic climate to fester without taking decisive measures to combat the rising temperature of hostility.
In Los Angeles, city officials have repeatedly shrugged off the obvious antisemitic threat — including at the Adas Torah event. The synagogues’ rabbi told The New York Times that the city clearly did not send enough LAPD officers, and reports showed that it took hours for the police to receive orders to intervene and separate the protestors, despite their initial vague presence at the scene.
The inadequacy of this response is particularly galling because it is not the first time the city has seen protests at such conferences, which have been going on since March and attracting significant crowds of pro-Palestinian demonstrators each time. The city’s inability to properly allocate resources to keep its Jewish residents safe, despite an obvious track record of intimidation and unrest, shows that Jewish safety is simply not a priority at all for the city’s leaders.
On top of that, while the police are still investigating two reported incidents of battery, no arrests were made besides the spiked flag. This, too, speaks to a pattern of leniency for antisemitic threats and violence. Despite the months of unrest at UCLA, during which Jewish students were subjected to verbal and physical harassment, it took an extreme escalation into a night of violent clashes before the police made a single arrest.
The city’s message to its Jewish residents is clear: we take every crime against a minority seriously, except the ones that are committed against you.
Los Angeles city officials downplayed, mishandled, and failed to prosecute the violence at Adas Torah, and they will continue to make these mistakes unless they are held accountable for the myriad ways they have let down the Jewish residents of this city.
Sheila Nazarian is a Los Angeles physician and star of the Emmy-nominated Netflix series Skin Decision: Before and After. Follower her on Instagram (drsheilanazarian) — and on X.
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James Carville Accuses Jewish Donors of Using Antisemitism to Abandon Democrats: ‘Just Want Their F—king Tax Cut’
James Carville speaks on the “Politics War Room” podcast. Photo: Screenshot
James Carville, a prominent political commentator and campaign strategist for the Democratic Party, this week accused “wealthy Jewish” donors of using campus antisemitism as an excuse not to give money to Democrats, claiming what they really want are a “f—king tax cut” from Republicans.
On his “Politics War Room” podcast, Carville told co-host Al Hunt that some wealthy Jewish donors are citing examples of antisemitism on university campuses amid the Gaza war as reasons to stop donating to the Democratic Party.
“I hear this all the time. You’ve got to try and raise money from really wealthy Jewish fundraisers. And they say, look, James, I’m a Democrat, but I can’t be a part of a party because of what happened at Columbia [University in New York City],” Carville said.
Columbia has become a hotbed of pro-Hamas activism since the Palestinian terrorist group’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel.
“What the f—k did the Democrats have to do with what happened in Columbia, by the way?” Carville continued. “But you know, because they have some students at Columbia generally made an ass of themselves, well, I can’t do that, but I can be for a party that everybody endorses the Alternative for Deutschland (referring to the far-right AfD party in Germany).”
Carville then argued that these wealthy donors just want tax cuts from Republicans.
“My instinct is, and they tell me that, they look me right in the eye,” he said. “No, you just want your f—ucking tax cut.”
The longtime political strategist stressed that his comments are not aimed at “most Jewish people” but doubled down on his comment regarding tax cuts.
“That doesn’t apply to most people, most Jewish people see right through that, but the ones that don’t see through it, they just don’t really, at the end of the day, they just want their f—king tax cut. And you can see it every day.”
James Carville launches into an unhinged rant, accusing wealthy Jewish donors of not wanting to give him money for the Democrat Party at fundraisers over rampant college campus anti-Semitism. Carville claims Jews will vote for Nazis just to “get their f-cking tax cuts.” pic.twitter.com/gM5EYHWlaQ
— Bad Hombre (@joma_gc) June 5, 2025
Carville’s comments prompted immediate backlash online, with critics accusing the political commentator of parroting antisemitic narratives regarding Jewish people and money.
Carville, the lead strategist in Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 presidential campaign, has repeatedly condemned the Democratic Party for alienating working-class Americans by advancing culturally progressive values. The progressive wing of the Democratic Party has generally been much more critical of Israel since Hamas’s invasion, in many cases championing the anti-Israel demonstrations on college campuses.
This is not the first time that Carville’s comments have angered many within the Jewish community. In August 2024, Carville he drew outrage after he said that the American supports Israel over Palestinians because they are “whiter.” Roughly half of Israeli Jews are Mizrahi — Jews who can trace their ethnic origins to the Middle East and North Africa.
Some pro-Israel supporters have argued that a rift has grown between the Democratic Party and Israel in the 19 months following the Hamas-led massacre of 1,200 people and abduction of 251 hostages throughout the southern region of the Jewish state.
Since the conflcit began, Democratic lawmakers have become increasingly critical of Israel’s approach to the Gaza war. Although Democrats have repeatedly reiterated that Israel has a right to “defend itself,” many have raised concerns over the Jewish state’s conduct in the war in Gaza, reportedly exerting private pressure on former US President Joe Biden to adopt a more adversarial stance against Israel and display more public sympathy for the Palestinians. In November, 17 Democratic senators voted to impose a partial arms embargo on Israel, sparking outrage among supporters of the Jewish state.
The post James Carville Accuses Jewish Donors of Using Antisemitism to Abandon Democrats: ‘Just Want Their F—king Tax Cut’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria to Give UN Watchdog Inspectors Access to Suspected Former Nuclear Sites as New Regime Seeks Sanctions Relief
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi speaks to the media, in Tehran, Iran, April 17, 2025. Photo: Iranian Atomic Organization/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Syria’s new government has agreed to provide the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) — the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog — with immediate access to former nuclear sites, signaling a move to restore international trust as it hopes to have international sanctions lifted.
On Wednesday, IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi told the Associated Press that Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa has shown a “very positive disposition to talk to us and allow us to carry out the activities we need to.”
After meeting with Sharaa in Damascus, he expressed hope that the inspection process would be completed within the coming months.
The IAEA’s goal is “to bring total clarity over certain activities that took place in the past that were, in the judgment of the agency, probably related to nuclear weapons,” Grossi said.
He also noted that Syria’s new leadership is “committed to opening up to the world, to international cooperation.”
Last year, the IAEA conducted inspections at several sites of interest in Damascus while former President Bashar al-Assad was still in power.
Under Assad’s rule, the country was believed to have operated a secret nuclear program, which included an undeclared nuclear reactor built by North Korea in Deir el-Zour province, in eastern Syria — a fact that was revealed after Israel destroyed the facility in a 2007 airstrike.
Since the collapse of Assad’s regime in December, the IAEA has been looking to regain access to sites associated with the country’s nuclear program.
In addition to conducting inspections, Grossi said the agency is prepared to provide Syria’s new government with equipment for nuclear medicine and to help rebuild the country’s radiotherapy and oncology infrastructure.
“And the president has expressed to me that he’s interested in exploring, in the future, nuclear energy as well,” Grossi said.
Last month, US President Donald Trump announced the lifting of sanctions on Syria — a major policy shift that aligns with the European Union’s efforts to support the country’s recovery and political transition.
As Sharaa focuses on rebuilding Syria after years of conflict, the lifting of Western sanctions that isolated the country from the global financial system is expected to boost its weakened economy by paving the way for greater humanitarian aid, foreign investment, and international trade.
Earlier this year, Sharaa became Syria’s transitional president after leading the rebel campaign that ousted Assad, whose Iran-backed rule had strained ties with the Arab world during the nearly 14-year Syrian war.
The offensive that led to the fall of the Assad regime was spearheaded by Sharaa’s Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, a former al-Qaeda affiliate.
Since then, Sharaa has repeatedly pledged to unify Syria’s armed forces and restore stability after years of civil war. However, the new government continues to face major hurdles in convincing the international community of its commitment to peace.
Incidents of sectarian violence — including the mass killing of pro-Assad Alawites in March — have deepened fears among minority groups about the rise of Islamist factions and drawn condemnation from global powers currently engaged in discussions on sanctions relief and humanitarian aid.
The post Syria to Give UN Watchdog Inspectors Access to Suspected Former Nuclear Sites as New Regime Seeks Sanctions Relief first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Barcelona’s Primavera Sound Music Festival Showcases Tunnel Installation That Simulates Gaza Bombings
An outside view of the “Unsilence Gaza” installation at the 2025 Primavera Sound music festival. Photo: Screenshot
A reproduction of a tunnel that simulates the sound of bombings in the Gaza Strip is being showcased this year at Barcelona’s annual Primavera Sound music festival, which opened on Wednesday.
The unique installation, titled “Unsilence Gaza,” allows visitors to walk through a dark tunnel-like path where they hear noises of explosions as well as dramatic, ominous music. At the end of the tunnel, there is a wall with a message that says in English, Spanish, and Catalan: “Silence isn’t the opposite of the sound of bombs, it allows them to happen.” The outside of the installation features the message: “When everything blows up, don’t hide in the silence.”
The installation makes no mention of the Gaza-based Hamas terrorist organization that started the ongoing war with Israel after it orchestrated the deadly, mass terror attack across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
UNSILENCE GAZA #PrimaveraSound2025 Instalación de 15 metros de túnel que simula el ruido de un bombardeo a Gaza en el festival de #primaverasound de #barcelona pic.twitter.com/L7XnpF06u1
— Barcelona.lives (@BarcelonaLives) June 4, 2025
The installation was designed by Palestinian sound engineer Oussama Rima and is located by the main entrance of the annual music festival, held at the Parc del Fòrum. T-shirts and sweatshirts with the words “Unsilence Gaza” are also being sold at the festival and proceeds from the sales will be donated to the Palestinian Medical Relief Society to support emergency medical aid.
The Primavera Sound Foundation said on its website that the installation aims to remind people about the power of sound and how, especially in Gaza, it is associated with pain, fear, “torture and trauma.”
“We have normalized seeing war, but not listening to it,” the foundation said. “We live in a world saturated with violent images. Hypervisibility has anaesthetised us: we see, but we do not react. Sound, on the other hand, can still move us. At Primavera Sound, sound is emotion, connection, pleasure. But sound can also be the opposite: it can become a weapon. With this installation, we want to remind you that in Gaza and other parts of the world, sound is pain. It is fear. It is torture and trauma.”
In its statement, the foundation made no mention of Hamas or Israel. Instead, it talked about “genocide,” increased military spending, “warmongering rhetoric and attempts to criminalize and silence voices that defend peace.” The installation was conceptualized by the non-profit organizations Casa Nostra, Casa Vostra and the International Institute for Nonviolent Action (NOVACT), with support from the Primavera Sound Foundation.
More than 150 artists will perform at the Primavera Sound music festival this year including Sabrina Carpenter, Charli XCX, Troye Sivan, Chappell Roan, FKA Twigs, HAIM, Fontaines D.C., IDLES and Magdalena Bay.
The post Barcelona’s Primavera Sound Music Festival Showcases Tunnel Installation That Simulates Gaza Bombings first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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