Uncategorized
Can We Ignore the Antisemitism in the Palestinian National Movement?
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and US President Donald Trump (not pictured) hold a bilateral meeting at Trump Turnberry golf course in Turnberry, Scotland, Britain, July 28, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently offered a formulation now familiar across Western democracies: you can support the cause of a Palestinian state without being antisemitic.
Millions do that. He does that. And yet — he acknowledged — the marches claiming to support that cause are saturated with antisemitic banners and rhetoric, leaving the Jewish community in England, in his words, “frightened and intimidated.”
At the level of abstract moral philosophy, the statement is unobjectionable. Of course, one can imagine support for Palestinian Arab self-determination free of antisemitism. But politics does not take place in one’s imagination. It takes place in movements, incentives, slogans, and consequences. And it is precisely here that this formulation collapses, due to multiple failures.
The first failure is treating “support for a Palestinian state” as a free-floating moral posture rather than as a real-world political movement with a long, traceable history.
Politics is not judged by what a cause could look like under ideal conditions. It is judged by how it actually operates over time. Movements reveal their moral character not through mission statements, but through what they tolerate, excuse, and normalize when mobilized in public.
When antisemitic imagery, chants, and conspiratorial claims appear often and predictably — across countries, languages, and decades — the issue is no longer a handful of bad actors. It is structural. At that point, the question is unavoidable: is the antisemitism a bug, or is it a feature?
A movement that repeatedly fails to police its own boundaries — and instead often embraces, recycles, and mainstreams some of the most virulent Jew-hatred in modern history — cannot plausibly claim moral neutrality.
The second flaw is the elevation of professed intent over outcome. Responsibility does not attach only to what one claims to believe. It attaches to what one knowingly enables.
One could reasonably argue that between World Wars I and II, Germany had been stripped of dignity and economic viability by the Treaty of Versailles. Taken alone, that argument was not antisemitic. But once grievance politics in Germany repeatedly trafficked in antisemitic conspiracy theories, racial mythologies, and eliminationist rhetoric, one had to look at what German nationalism actually stood for.
Good intentions did not negate predictable outcomes. They never do.
The Record Cannot Be Wished Away
The antisemitism embedded in the modern anti-Israel/pro-Palestinian movement is not new, marginal, or accidental. Its founding political leadership included figures who openly allied with Nazi Germany during the Second World War, broadcasting antisemitic propaganda and helping recruit Muslim units for the Waffen-SS. Its charter documents and early manifestos drew directly from European antisemitic conspiracy literature.
In later decades, its most influential organizations repeatedly framed the conflict not as a territorial dispute but as a cosmic struggle against Jews — invoking blood libels, tropes about global Jewish control, and Holocaust denial or inversion.
In recent years, these themes have not receded; they have intensified. Claims that Jews harvest organs, fabricate atrocities, control governments and media, or uniquely lack the right to national self-determination are not fringe slogans for the “Pro-Palestinian” movement. They are voiced by prominent activists, academics, and movement leaders — and then laundered through the language of “anti-Zionism” for supposed respectability.
This is not a historical footnote. It is the consistent pattern.
Which brings us to the question formulations like Starmer’s carefully avoid, but which any serious analysis must confront: If the cause is just, why does it so consistently require antisemitic language and behavior to sustain mass mobilization?
No other modern national cause routinely relies on Holocaust inversion, blood-libel-adjacent imagery, or claims of venal global Jewish control to generate energy and cohesion. No other liberation movement so frequently denies the very peoplehood of one particular nation while insisting on universal moral legitimacy for all others.
This is not accidental or incidental. It is diagnostic.
When the same antisemitic tropes surface wherever Israel is discussed — across groups or cultures that share little else — the burden of proof shifts. The problem is no longer a fringe prone to excess or “just some extremists.” It is the movement’s underlying moral architecture.
The appeal of Starmer’s statement lies in its reassurance. It allows leaders to affirm concern for Jewish safety rhetorically while continuing to validate a movement that, in practice, repeatedly produces hate, intimidation, vandalism, exclusion, and violence directed at Jews.
We have seen this pattern before. Elites once spoke warmly of revolutionary justice while dismissing the guillotine as excess. They spoke of class liberation while ignoring gulags. Each time, abstraction functioned as moral anesthesia — allowing respectable people to look away from what was happening in plain sight.
Yes — one can imagine supporting Palestinian statehood without antisemitism. But politics cannot be judged only by what one can imagine. It is judged by what one enables, excuses, and refuses to confront once patterns become unmistakable.
A politics that hides behind abstraction while ignoring outcomes and reality is not principled. It is indulgent. And history has been relentlessly unforgiving to indulgence masquerading as moral seriousness.
Micha Danzig is a current attorney, former IDF soldier & NYPD police officer. He currently writes for numerous publications on matters related to Israel, antisemitism & Jewish identity & is the immediate past President of StandWithUs in San Diego and a national board member of Herut.
Uncategorized
Netanyahu: ‘Our Forces Are Striking the Heart of Tehran With Increasing Strength’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu participates in the state memorial ceremony for the fallen of the Iron Swords War on Mount Herzl, in Jerusalem, Oct. 16, 2025. Photo: Alex Kolomoisky/Pool via REUTERS
i24 News – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that Israeli forces had “eliminated the dictator Ali Khamenei” along with dozens of senior officials of Iran’s regime during a statement delivered from the roof of the Kirya, Israel’s defense headquarters.
“Yesterday, we eliminated the dictator Khamenei. Along with him, dozens of senior officials from the oppressive regime were eliminated,” Netanyahu said after a meeting with the Minister of Defense, the Chief of Staff, and the Director of Mossad. He added that he had issued instructions to continue the offensive.
According to Netanyahu, Israeli forces are “now striking at the heart of Tehran with increasing intensity,” a campaign he said will “increase further in the days to come.”
The Prime Minister also acknowledged the toll of the conflict on Israel, calling recent days “painful” and offering condolences to the families of victims in Tel Aviv and Beit Shemesh, while wishing a speedy recovery to those injured.
Netanyahu emphasized that the operation mobilizes “the full power of the Israel Defense Forces, like never before,” in order to “guarantee our existence and our future.” He also highlighted US support, noting “the assistance of my friend, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, and of the American military.”
“This combination of forces allows us to do what I have hoped to accomplish for 40 years: strike the terrorist regime right in the face,” Netanyahu concluded. “I promised it — and we will keep our word.”
Uncategorized
Trump Says Iran Military Operations Are ‘Ahead of Schedule,’ CNBC Reports
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Secretary of State Marco Rubio during military operations in Iran, at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. February 28, 2026. The White House/Social Media/Handout via REUTERS
US President Donald Trump told CNBC on Sunday that US military operations against Iran are “ahead of schedule.”
Uncategorized
Iranian Missile Strike on Beit Shemesh in Israel Kills 9
Emergency personnel work at the site of an Iranian strike, after Iran launched missile barrages following attacks by the US and Israel on Saturday, in Beit Shemesh, Israel, March 1, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
An Iranian missile strike hit the Israeli city of Beit Shemesh on Sunday, killing nine people and wounding dozens, in what authorities described as a direct impact on a public bomb shelter.
A ballistic missile leveled the bomb shelter, leaving a large crater in its wake. Most, if not all, of those killed had been taking cover inside the shelter when it hit, Jerusalem Police Deputy Commissioner Avshalom Peled said at the impact scene.
Those in critical condition were airlifted to Shaare Zedek Medical Center, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.
At least 20 people were still missing late on Sunday afternoon local time.
As you read this, an Iranian missile has just struck a residential neighborhood in Beit Shemesh, Israel, only 30 kilometers/about 18 miles from Jerusalem.
Nine people are dead.
More than 20 are wounded, including children. A
public shelter collapsed from the direct hit. An… pic.twitter.com/mEVDlPEqgf
— Ella Kenan (@EllaTravelsLove) March 1, 2026
Several buildings surrounding the shelter in Beit Shemesh, which is west of Jerusalem, were also damaged in the attack, with two collapsing entirely. A synagogue was also destroyed.
Emergency crews from Magen David Adom, ZAKA, and United Hatzalah joined fire and rescue units at the site, combing damaged buildings and debris for possible survivors. Many people were trapped under rubble or inside apartments, first responders said.
The Iranian Regime directly fired missiles toward the civilian neighborhood of Beit Shemesh, killing innocent civilians.
The Iranian regime purposely targets civilian targets while we precisely target terror targets. This is who we’re operating against—a regime who uses… pic.twitter.com/9W8Fp4T2tH
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) March 1, 2026
Chaim Wingarten, deputy director of operations at rescue organization ZAKA, described the scenes as “very difficult.”
“When I arrived, it was a huge chaos, with wounded people everywhere,” he said.
The strike was part of a larger volley that triggered air-raid sirens across the country. A man in his fifties was wounded by shrapnel elsewhere in central Israel.
IDF foreign media spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani charged Iran with deliberately firing at civilians. “We know this is their strategy,” he said, adding that Israel would do “everything in our power to remove these capabilities from this bloodthirsty terrorist regime.”
The Beit Shemesh hit marked the highest single-incident death toll inside Israel since the confrontation with Iran began a day earlier. The previous peak came during the 12-day war in June 2025, when a missile slammed into an apartment block in Bat Yam and killed nine people.
The Beit Shemesh strike came a day after US and Israeli forces struck a compound in Tehran killing senior Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose death was later announced on Iranian state television.
In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Trump said 48 Iranian leaders were killed in the strikes. “Nobody can believe the success we’re having; 48 leaders are gone in one shot. And it’s moving along rapidly,” he said.
Separately, the American president told CNBC that the US operation was “ahead of schedule.”
Thousands of Iranians braved the strikes and took to the streets to celebrate Khamenei’s death on Saturday evening. Many people stood on balconies and at windows chanting “freedom, freedom,” The New York Times reported. People in the Iranian city of Shiraz were “abandoning their cars for an impromptu dance party, whistling, cheering, clapping, and screaming with joy. In many videos, celebrants joined together in a cheer that is typically reserved for weddings, symbolizing pure joy,” the report said.
GeoConfirmed Iran.
People chanting – Celebrations through the Foolad Shahr area in Isfahan with joy and jubilation over the killing of Khamenei.
Rough location – 32.48169, 51.39167
F9JR+MMF Fuladshahr, Isfahan Province, IranGeoLocated by @Mitch_Ulrich
Geolocation:… https://t.co/iv9TlSPPfS
— GeoConfirmed (@GeoConfirmed) February 28, 2026
Can you hear the joy in his voice?
“I am dreaming, hello world!” pic.twitter.com/ICq77zBerv— William Mehrvarz (@WilliamMehrvarz) March 1, 2026
Iran retaliated by firing repeated waves of missiles and drones, with launches aimed not only at Israel but also at US bases in the Middle East, including Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain. Iran on Sunday morning also launched two missiles at Cyprus, where thousands of British military personnel are stationed, which fell short.
Later in the afternoon, the US acknowledged its first losses with US Central Command, saying three American service members were killed and five were seriously wounded during the operations in Iran.