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Speaking to Congress, Herzog laments growing divides in US-Israel relationship

WASHINGTON (JTA) — In his speech to a joint session of Congress, Israeli President Isaac Herzog made sure to repeatedly laud the warm ties between the United States and Israel. And he got the response Israeli leaders have traditionally received from U.S. lawmakers, earning at least 16 bipartisan standing ovations.

But one of his biggest applause lines also alluded to the tension that surrounded his 41-minute speech and that has weighed on the alliance he has come to Washington, D.C. to safeguard.

“Criticism of Israel must not cross the line into negation of the State of Israel’s right to exist,” Herzog said to cheers. “Questioning the Jewish people’s right to self-determination is not legitimate diplomacy, it is antisemitism.”

It was undoubtedly a reference to comments earlier this week by Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat from Washington state who chairs the party’s powerful Progressive Caucus. She told pro-Palestinian protesters at a progressive event that she understood Israel is a “racist state” — a remark she later walked back, saying she was criticizing the policies of Israel’s government, which includes senior far-right partners.

Jayapal’s statement was just one piece of the troubled atmosphere that has accompanied Herzog’s visit this week. A number of progressive lawmakers boycotted his speech, and in Israel, ongoing protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s effort to weaken the judiciary have grown fiercer.

That planned judicial overhaul — a key portion of which may pass into law soon — is one reason why President Joe Biden waited until this week to invite Netanyahu to meet him in the U.S. Israel’s minister for Diaspora affairs, meanwhile, recently accused Biden of colluding with the opposition to foment the protests.

So while there were cheers, laughter and mutual expressions of support during Herzog’s address, there was also melancholy — a recognition that change was inevitable and, for proponents of the U.S.-Israel alliance, not necessarily for the better.

“I am well aware that our world is changing,” Herzog said. “A new generation of Israelis and Americans are assuming leadership roles. A generation that was not privy to the hardship of Israel’s formative years. A generation that is less engaged in the roots that connect our peoples. A generation that, perhaps, takes for granted the U.S.-Israel relationship.”

Israel and its traditional defenders in the United States are wary of what appears to be growing skepticism of the country on the American left. For the first time this year, Democrats were more likely to sympathize with Palestinians than with Israelis, a Gallup poll showed.

To that effect, Jayapal’s statement raised alarm among pro-Israel members of Congress. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee pushed lawmakers to quickly draft and pass a resolution on Tuesday saying that “the State of Israel is not a racist or apartheid state; Congress rejects all forms of antisemitism and xenophobia; and the United States will always be a staunch partner and supporter of Israel.”

It passed 412-9, demonstrating that the powerhouse lobby can still garner massive pro-Israel majorities. But the resolution was notably initiated by Republicans, and they were the majority of its sponsors. On Wednesday, six House Democrats associated with the progressive “Squad” boycotted Herzog’s speech.

Bernie Sanders, the Jewish senator from Vermont who is the informal leader of the progressive movement, also did not attend. He did not state that he was boycotting the speech but criticized the Israeli government in a statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

“It is no great secret that I strongly oppose the policies of Israel’s right wing, anti-Palestinian government,” he said in the statement. “We provide them with $3.8 billion in aid. We have a right to demand they respect human rights.”

Herzog also aimed to reassure his audience that the fight over the proposed judicial overhaul would not spell the end of Israel’s democracy — though he said the raucous and often acrimonious debate has been “painful, and deeply unnerving, because it highlights the cracks within the whole.”

“I have great confidence in Israeli democracy,” he went on. “Although we are working through sore issues, just like you, I know our democracy is strong and resilient. Israel has democracy in its DNA.”

In remarks to the Israeli press yesterday, Herzog also doubled down on the strength of the U.S.-Israel relationship.

“It’s not like the relationship between the United States and countries that are very important to it,” he said. “This is a relationship with deep family elements, with mutual concern about what happens in the United States and of course in Israel.”

Herzog also got bipartisan applause for emphasizing points that Biden does not necessarily agree with, opposing any agreement with Iran that does not cut off its path to a nuclear weapon, and principally blaming the Palestinians for the decade-long impasse in substantial peace talks.

Questions about the durability of the two countries’ bond have become sharper as Biden has urged Netanyahu to slow the pace of the judicial overhaul effort in order to reach a broad consensus across Israeli society. This week, Biden invited Thomas Friedman, the New York Times columnist, to the Oval Office to deliver a warning about how the judicial legislation could harm U.S.-Israel ties — a signal that Biden believes he did not get through to Netanyahu on a recent phone call between the two leaders.

“Finding consensus on controversial areas of policy means taking the time you need,” Biden told Friedman. “For significant changes, that’s essential. So my recommendation to Israeli leaders is not to rush. I believe the best outcome is to continue to seek the broadest possible consensus here.”

Herzog has also focused his efforts on negotiations over the court reform, and has urged Israelis to take Biden’s critique seriously. He met with Biden on Tuesday and was set to meet later on Wednesday with Vice President Kamala Harris. They are expected to announce a joint U.S.-Israel five-year initiative to advance climate-friendly agriculture research and techniques.

“Israel is very important to the world, it’s very important to the region, it’s very important to the United States, and that must also be a consideration to our brothers and sisters in Israel,” he told the Israeli media.

One of his guests at the speech, whom he recognized, was Susannah Heschel, the daughter of the late Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who marched with Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights era. The elder Heschel is emblematic of a liberal American Jewish sensibility that has often clashed with Netanyahu’s outlook.

In one of the rare lines that got more applause from Democrats than from Republicans, Herzog attempted to show that a pluralist sensibility was present in Israel, too.

“Our democracy is also late Friday afternoon,” he said, “when the sound of the muezzin calling to prayer blends with the siren announcing the Sabbath in Jerusalem, while one of the largest and most impressive LGBTQ Pride Parades in the world is going on in Tel Aviv.”

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The post Speaking to Congress, Herzog laments growing divides in US-Israel relationship appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

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The BBC Documentary That Paints Every Israeli as an Extremist

The Jewish community of Beit El in Judea and Samaria. Photo: Yaakov via Wikimedia Commons.

Louis Theroux first visited the West Bank in 2011 to film a documentary titled Louis and the Ultra-Zionists, part of his long-running series for the BBC. Back then, he at least seemed to possess a trace of journalistic curiosity. Even the title signaled a degree of editorial caution — framing his subjects as a small, ideological fringe rather than representative of Israeli society as a whole.

At the time, Theroux made an effort to clarify that he was profiling a narrow segment of Israelis. He showed legally purchased Jewish homes (sold by Arab landowners, no less) and acknowledged the regular — and at times deadly — terror attacks faced by Israeli civilians living in the area, often requiring military protection. There was condescension, certainly. But there was also context.

Fast-forward to 2024, and the curiosity is gone — though the bemused, slightly smug expression remains. His new BBC documentary, Louis and the Settlers, drops even the soft qualifiers. No “ultra.” No nuance. Just “settlers.” And with that, Theroux makes it clear: half a million Israelis living in the West Bank are one and the same — extremists who, we’re told, want every last Palestinian removed from the land.

This time, the documentary doesn’t begin with questions. It begins with conclusions. And Theroux uses a brief, unrepresentative snapshot of life in the West Bank to draw sweeping indictments of the entire Israeli state.

The message is unmistakable: Israel is the problem. Settlers are the villains. And Palestinians are passive, blameless victims of a colonial project.

Within the opening minutes, Theroux plants his ideological flag. He refers to the West Bank as “Palestinian territory” and describes every Israeli community within it as illegal under international law — a sharp departure from his more qualified approach 14 years earlier.

And while his personal views seep in throughout the film, they become crystal clear during one exchange at a checkpoint, where an Israeli soldier casually refers to their location as “Israel.” Theroux shoots back: “We’re not in Israel, are we?”

And just like that, the BBC and Louis Theroux have redrawn Israel’s borders. No Knesset debate needed.

Erasing History to Blame the Massacre

The timing of this return trip is no accident. The film comes in the shadow of the October 7 Hamas massacres — the day 1,200 Israelis were slaughtered, families were burned alive in their homes, and children were dragged into Gaza. And yet, Theroux barely mentions it.

The few passing references to October 7 serve not to inform the audience — but to imply that Israel may be exploiting its own dead to justify further expansion. It’s not an investigation. It’s an accusation. And it allows him to skip over thousands of years of Jewish history in order to frame the current war in Gaza as a convenient cover story for Israeli “aggression.”

Take Hebron, for example. Theroux tells viewers that “in 1968, the year after [the West Bank] was occupied by Israel, a community of Jewish settlers moved in illegally. They now number some 700.” He fails to mention that in 1895 — decades before the modern state of Israel existed — Hebron had a Jewish population of 1,429.

Jews have lived in Hebron since antiquity — it’s where, according to Jewish tradition, Abraham purchased the Cave of the Patriarchs. Modern records date the community back centuries, despite discrimination under Ottoman rule and bans on Jewish prayer at holy sites. In 1929, Arab rioters carried out a massacre, wiping out Hebron’s Jewish population. Dozens were murdered; the rest were expelled. Under Jordanian rule from 1948 to 1967, Jews were banned from the city entirely. When they returned after the Six-Day War — not as colonists, but as a displaced community coming home — Theroux picks up the story there and calls it “illegal.”

On the Six-Day War itself, Theroux offers no context. No mention of the Arab armies preparing to destroy Israel. No mention of Israel’s preemptive strike against an existential threat.

According to The Settlers, Israel simply “occupied” — full stop.

Palestinian Terrorism? Not Even a Footnote.

Theroux visits Evyatar, a small Jewish community near the Palestinian town of Beita, and uses it as a stand-in for the entire West Bank. Beita is depicted as a symbol of peaceful resistance: a proud, ancient Palestinian village standing firm against violent settlers backed by IDF soldiers.

It’s a neat story. Too neat. Because missing from the story are years of organized, violent riots from Beita — complete with Molotov cocktails, burning Stars of David, and Nazi swastikas. All carefully omitted to preserve the narrative: Palestinians peaceful, settlers aggressive. Facts that don’t fit? Left on the cutting room floor.

Meanwhile, Israeli nationalism is treated as something sinister and unsettling — a moral aberration to be examined. The notion that Jews might want sovereignty or security is met with thinly veiled suspicion. Yet Hamas’ goal of a Jew-free Palestine, explicitly laid out in its charter, is never mentioned. Nor is the Palestinian Authority’s “pay-for-slay” policy, which literally incentivizes terrorism by rewarding those who murder Israelis — including women and children.

These aren’t fringe details. They’re central to understanding the region. And Theroux knows it. He just doesn’t care.

The BBC’s Complicity

That The Settlers aired on the BBC — a publicly funded broadcaster once seen as a gold standard of global journalism — says plenty. Not just about Louis Theroux’s agenda, but about the institutional direction of the BBC itself. This wasn’t a rogue filmmaker sneaking bias past the editors. This was bias built into the foundation — signed off, packaged, and broadcast under the banner of credibility.

There is, of course, no problem with scrutinizing Israeli policy, and no issue with questioning the settlement enterprise or highlighting the tensions in the West Bank. But journalism — real journalism — demands context. It demands precision. It demands at least a passing familiarity with the full scope of the story.

Theroux offers none of that. He arrives with a predetermined script and casts his roles accordingly: Hero. Villain. Victim. Oppressor. And when reality refuses to cooperate? It’s left out.

Louis Theroux didn’t return to Israel to understand it. He returned to flatten it. To reduce its complexity to a morality play — and to ensure everyone knows the antagonist is.

The Settlers isn’t a documentary. It’s a hit piece. And the BBC handed him the camera — then applauded the performance.

The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.

The post The BBC Documentary That Paints Every Israeli as an Extremist first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Indian Army Kills Islamist Terrorist Linked to 2002 Murder of Jewish-American Journalist Daniel Pearl

Jewish-American Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by Islamist terrorists in Pakistan in 2002. Photo: Screenshot

The Indian government announced on Thursday that its military forces had killed “Pakistan’s most wanted terrorist,” who was connected to the 2002 murder of Jewish-American Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl.

On Wednesday, India launched “Operation Sindoor,” which the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) claims is targeted at dismantling “terrorist infrastructure” in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

The operation came after Pakistani terrorists killed 26 Hindu tourists in Kashmir last month amid escalating tensions between the two countries.

In a post on X, the BJP confirmed that during this week’s operation, the Indian army killed Islamist terrorist Abdul Rauf Azhar, who was involved in numerous terrorism plots, including the 1999 hijacking of an Indian Airlines flight, the 2001 terror attack on the Indian Parliament, and the 2016 Pathankot Air Force base attack.

Azhar’s involvement in the 1999 hijacking led to the release of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British-born al-Qaeda member with close ties to Pakistan’s intelligence services, who later was involved in the kidnapping and subsequent murder of 38-year-old Pearl, who was covering the war on terror as a journalist when he was abducted.

In a statement on X, Pearl’s father, Judea, addressed initial reports regarding Azhar’s death and his connection to his son’s murder.

“I want to clarify: Azhar was a Pakistani extremist and leader of the terrorist organization Jaish-e-Mohammed. While his group was not directly involved in the plot to abduct Danny, it was indirectly responsible. Azhar orchestrated the hijacking that led to the release of Omar Sheikh — the man who lured Danny into captivity,” he said.

In 2002, the Jewish-American journalist was abducted and killed by a group of Islamist terrorists connected to Azhar’s militant network, which had ties to al-Qaeda and Jaish-e-Mohammed, a terror group aiming to separate Kashmir from India and incorporate it into Pakistan.

On Jan. 27, 2002, an email was sent to several Pakistani and US media organizations, which included several photos, stating that Pearl was being held in “inhumane” conditions to protest the US treatment of Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners in Cuba. Photo: Screenshot

Originally stationed in New Delhi as the South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, Pearl later moved to Pakistan to investigate terrorism following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City.

After kidnapping Pearl at a restaurant in Karachi, southern Pakistan, the Islamist terrorists, who identified themselves as the National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty, accused him of being an Israeli spy and sent the United States a list of demands for his release.

However, Washington did not meet their demands, and Pearl was ultimately executed after being held captive for five weeks.

His wife, Mariane Pearl, gave birth to a baby boy, Adam D. Pearl, in Paris later that year. On the Daniel Pearl Foundation website, she said, “Adam’s birth rekindles the joy, love, and humanity that Danny radiated wherever he went.”

The post Indian Army Kills Islamist Terrorist Linked to 2002 Murder of Jewish-American Journalist Daniel Pearl first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Jewish Jewelry Shop Owners Brutally Assaulted in Tunisia Days Before Annual Pilgrimage

A Jewish jewelry shop owner in Djerba, Tunisia, was brutally attacked by a man wielding a machete. Photo: Screenshot

A Jewish jewelry shop owner in Djerba, Tunisia, was brutally attacked by a man wielding a machete just days before the Tunisian island was set to host its annual Jewish pilgrimage, which is expected to draw thousands of visitors.

On Wednesday morning, two Jewish men — owners of a jewelry shop in the center of the island, located off Tunisia’s southeast coast — were physically assaulted by a man carrying a large knife.

Although the attack was halted when one of them screamed — alerting members of the local Jewish community who subdued the assailant — one of them was left severely injured.

According to local media reports, the attacker had surveyed the island the day before, visiting several stores to identify those owned by Jews. Local police arrested him shortly following the assault.

After the attack, one of the owners was admitted to the hospital with severe injuries. The 50-year-old Jewish man had his fingers severed during the assault and underwent surgery to reattach them.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar condemned the attack and expressed his wishes for a swift recovery to the victims.

“This attack comes two years after the previous deadly assault that claimed Jewish lives and the lives of security personnel during the Lag BaOmer celebration,” the top Israeli diplomat wrote in a post on X.

“I call on the Tunisian authorities to take all necessary measures to protect the Jewish community,” Saar continued.

Djerba is home to the majority of Tunisia’s Jewish community, numbering about 2,000 people, and is also where the renowned El Ghriba Synagogue, one of North Africa’s oldest synagogues, is located.

The attack comes just a week before Jewish pilgrims are expected to arrive on the island for the Lag B’Omer holiday, when thousands gather annually for three days of festivities. The annual pilgrimage to El Ghriba Synagogue, scheduled for May 15 and 16 this year, draws visitors from around the world.

The synagogue has been targeted in multiple terrorist attacks over the years, including in 1985, 2002, and 2023.

Two years ago, a shooting at the synagogue claimed the lives of two Jewish cousins and three police officers. Aviel Hadad, a 30-year-old Israeli goldsmith, and Ben Hadad, a 42-year-old Frenchman who had traveled to join the festivities, were among the victims.

The post Jewish Jewelry Shop Owners Brutally Assaulted in Tunisia Days Before Annual Pilgrimage first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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