Uncategorized
NYC mayoral candidates clash over Jewish safety — again — on debate stage
This piece first ran as part of The Countdown, our daily newsletter rounding up all the developments in the New York City mayor’s race. Sign up here to get it in your inbox. There are 12 days to the election.
The final debate
-
Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa teamed up against Zohran Mamdani several times during the final general election debate last night.
-
They accused him of being unready to combat antisemitism and too inexperienced to govern, and both jeered at him for dodging questions about housing measures that will be on the ballot.
-
Mamdani promised to be a mayor “who doesn’t just protect Jewish New Yorkers, but also celebrates and cherishes them.” He said that in addition to increasing funding for hate crime prevention programs and boosting synagogue security, he would implement a school curriculum that teaches students “about the beauty and breadth of the Jewish experience.” (Such a curriculum became available to schools this year.)
-
Cuomo retorted, “You’re the savior of the Jewish people? You won’t denounce ‘globalize the intifada,’ which means ‘kill Jews.’” (Mamdani declined to condemn the protest slogan during the primary, but since repeatedly said he would discourage the term and acknowledged that it incited fear among some Jews.)
-
Cuomo also referenced an open letter released Wednesday from rabbis across the country, who said that a Mamdani victory would threaten “the safety and dignity of Jews in every city.” Over 800 rabbis have now signed the letter.
-
Sliwa also butted in to say that his sons were among the Jewish New Yorkers unconvinced by Mamdani’s promise to fight antisemitism. “Let me speak on behalf of my two sons,” said Sliwa. “When they’ve heard some of the statements you’ve made, like in support of global jihad — and I hear some people out there saying that ‘Jews, their time is due,’ which means the same thing — they’re frightened, they’re scared.”
-
Mamdani clarified that he had “never, not once, spoken in support of global jihad.” He said the incorrect attribution of that stance to him was related to “the fact that I am the first Muslim candidate to be on the precipice of winning this election.”
Mamdani commits to keeping Tisch
-
It’s official: Mamdani says he wants to keep NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch in her role if he is elected.
-
Tisch, a billionaire heiress from a prominent Jewish family, has won praise from the rank and file as well as politicians of both parties, though some progressives have called to remove her.
-
The move signals Mamdani’s continued push to broaden his support among moderates, business leaders and other New Yorkers who are skeptical about his past stances against the police. It could also reassure some Jewish voters of their safety under his mayoralty.
-
Tisch’s allies previously indicated that she would like to remain commissioner regardless of the election’s outcome, according to The New York Times. Her spokesperson said, “It is not appropriate for the police commissioner to be directly involved or to seem to be involved in electoral politics.”
-
As Mamdani’s police commissioner, Tisch may be confronted with his pledge to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if the Israeli leader comes to New York City. Tisch has not commented on the plan, and Mamdani has not answered whether he thinks she would allow it.
-
Tisch’s family members have donated $950,000 to an anti-Mamdani PAC in the general election, according to records shared by Politico’s Jeff Coltin.
Prominent Jews rally against Mamdani
-
A series of open letters and statements from prominent Jews have targeted Mamdani in recent days.
-
The anti-Mamdani letter signed by hundreds of rabbis, which Cuomo cited during the debate, reinforced recent statements by New York City rabbis Elliot Cosgrove and Ammiel Hirsch. Rabbi Joshua Davidson, who leads New York’s Emanu-El congregation where former Mayor Michael Bloomberg is a member, also released a video raising concern about Mamdani’s Israel views.
-
Outside of clergy, Andres Spokoiny, CEO of the Jewish Funders Network, appealed to liberal Jews to reject Mamdani in a public letter published in the Times of Israel. He argued that “Trump and Mamdani belong to the same populist revolt against liberal democracy, even if they approach it from opposite poles.”
-
And in The New York Times, journalist Bret Stephens penned an op-ed titled “Why Mamdani frightens Jews like me,” calling the frontrunner “a longtime anti-Zionist of a peculiarly obsessed sort.”
Mamdani’s Yiddish appeal
-
Mamdani wrote his own letter to Hasidic voters in Yiddish, published in the city’s weekly Yiddish-language newspapers this week.
-
He said that he hoped Jews had a “happy, beautiful and relaxing holiday season” before addressing his plan for public safety, affordability, childcare and combating antisemitism, according to translations by Rabbi Abby Stein, a progressive activist and Mamdani supporter.
-
Mamdani also referenced his meetings with Hasidic leaders in Williamsburg on Sukkot. “I have had the honor myself to meet with members of the Orthodox Jewish community. I still have a lot to learn, but this was a wonderful introduction to an important and valued part of what makes New York so amazing,” he said.
Cuomo’s AI ad backlash
-
Cuomo’s campaign has released a spate of AI-generated ads, with the latest sparking fierce backlash for racist stereotypes before it was taken down.
-
The ad depicted “criminals for Zohran,” including a Black man wearing a keffiyeh and face mask while shoplifting and another man standing in front of Palestinian flags and setting an American flag alight, saying, “For unlawful abiding citizens like us, globalize the intifada.”
-
Shannon Watts, a gun violence prevention activist who founded Moms Demand Action, was among those quick to blast the ad. “This is so gross and full of racist stereotypes, including a Black man dressed like a pimp trafficking a car full of white women. Cuomo needs to be thrown in the ash heap of history,” Watts said on X.
—
The post NYC mayoral candidates clash over Jewish safety — again — on debate stage appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Uncategorized
Ilhan Omar Poses for Photo With Swedish MP Wearing Garment Depicting Erasure of Israel
US Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) speaks at a press conference with activists calling for a ceasefire in Gaza in front of the Capitol in Washington, DC, Dec. 14, 2023. Photo: Annabelle Gordon / CNP/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
US Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MI) has come under fire after being spotted posing for a photo with Malcolm Jallow, a virulently anti-Israel member of the Swedish parliament.
The picture, which was posted on Jallow’s Instagram page on Sunday, showed the controversial Swedish politician posing alongside Omar and anti-Israel political pundit Medhi Hasan. Jallow draped a stole around his shoulders depicting the complete erasure of the state of Israel and its replacement by a Palestinian state.
“Spending these days with so many inspiring leaders from around the world — including two of the most inspiring and courageous voices of our time, Congresswoman @ilhanmn Omar and international journalist @mehdirhasan — has been like reigniting an inner flame. I feel recharged with energy, hope, and determination,” Jallow wrote on Instagram.
Jallow has an extensive history of attacking Israel and promoting antisemitic conspiracy tropes. For example, he has “liked” a comment on social media that accused Jewish organizations of participating in freemasonry, fueling a false conspiracy theory that claims a secret coalition of Jews and Freemasons is working to control the world.
The Gambian-born lawmaker also lambasted Sweden for its supposed complicitly in a “genocide” in Gaza and stated in another social media post that Europe “betrayed” the Palestinian enclave by “financing the bombs” and “legitimizing the apartheid & the occupation.” He further appeared to threaten Swedish civilians who support Israel, writing, “To every ordinary citizen who waved the flag of the oppressor & laughed while Gaza burned, We will not forget you. We know your names. We save your statements. We screenshot your posts.”
He also seemed to threaten legal action against Swedish citizens who publicly demonstrate support for Israel’s defensive military operations against Hanas.
“And one day, whether in courtrooms of law or the court of history, In this life or the hereafter, you will be held to account,” Jallow posted. “That is not a threat. That is a promise to the people of Gaza.”
“Why is the Swedish government complicit in Israel’s acts of genocide against the Palestinian people?” he added on Instagram.
Jallow has also criticized Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson for taking certain measures to combat antisemitism, arguing that such actions endanger the country’s Muslim population.
“The Swedish Prime Minister’s statement that antisemitism holds a ‘special status’ and is worse than anti-Muslim propaganda is deeply problematic and dangerous. It not only diminishes the severity of hatred against Muslims but also normalizes the growing Islamophobia in Sweden,” Jallow wrote in an official statement last year.
“Ranking hate and prioritizing one group’s suffering over another is not only ignorant and offensive — it undermines our collective struggle against all forms of intolerance and discrimination,” he continued.
Sweden has reported a notable increase in antisemitic incidents since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, prompting alarm within both the Jewish community and governmental bodies.
According to a report released by the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (BRA) last year, hate crimes motivated by antisemitism in the country surged in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 atrocities, amid the ensuing war in Gaza. The BRA found that police registered 110 complaints between the Hamas invasion and Dec. 31 in 2023, compared to just 24 incidents the prior year.
While Jews constitute a small fraction of Sweden’s population, they have represented a disproportionately high share of religious-hate-crime victims. In 2020, for example, antisemitic incidents made up about 27 percent of all religion-based hate crimes documented by police despite Jews making up only 0.1 percent of the population, according to the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention.
Omar for years has been one of the most vocal critics of Israel in the US Congress, calling on Washington to impose an arms embargo on the Jewish state.
Uncategorized
Groundbreaking analysis of Hitler’s DNA shows no Jewish ancestry — but finds a genetic disorder
Adolf Hitler had a sexual disorder that made it more likely for him to have a micro-penis, according to the first-ever analysis of his DNA. He also did not have the Jewish ancestors that some have claimed he had.
The analysis is being revealed in detail in “Hitler’s DNA: Blueprint of a Dictator,” a new documentary premiering Saturday night in the United Kingdom. The documentary looks at the researchers who decided to tackle the genetic makeup of one of history’s greatest villains, as well as what they learned — and cannot learn — from his DNA.
They found that he had Kallman syndrome, a genetic disorder characterized by incomplete puberty, according to an exclusive report published Wednesday in the Times of London. They also found that he had genes making him more likely to have autism, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, though they cautioned that the DNA alone is not sufficient to deliver a diagnosis.
Among those quoted in the documentary is the prominent British Jewish psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen (father of actor Sacha). “Behavior is never 100% genetic,” he said in the Times report. “Associating Hitler’s extreme cruelty with people with these diagnoses risks stigmatizing them, especially when the vast majority of people with these diagnoses are neither violent nor cruel, and many are the opposite.”
The analysis, conducted by a team led by a prominent British geneticist, is more definitive on the subject of Hitler’s possible Jewish ancestry. Rumors about such a background were prevalent during Hitler’s rise: In one notable example, a newspaper aligned with the Austrian chancellor who the following year would be assassinated by Nazis in 1933 challenged German authorities to disprove his Jewish ties.
And the rumors have endured: In 2022, Russia’s foreign minister repeated the claim that Hitler had Jewish ancestry to rebuff criticism that Russia’s justification for invading Ukraine, that it needed to be “denazified,” was undermined by the fact that Ukraine’s president is Jewish.
But while previous analyses of the DNA of Hitler’s relatives suggested that he may have had some genetic links to groups that he sought to destroy, including Jews, the new analysis, on Hitler’s own DNA, shows only Austrian German ancestry.
The analysis is based on a swatch of fabric stained with blood that a U.S. soldier cut from the couch upon which Hitler shot himself. The researchers were able to confirm without a doubt that the blood came from Hitler by comparing the DNA found in it to DNA previously confirmed to have come from one of his relatives.
—
The post Groundbreaking analysis of Hitler’s DNA shows no Jewish ancestry — but finds a genetic disorder appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Uncategorized
German Authorities Arrest Another Suspected Hamas Operative Amid Growing Terror Threat to Jews in Europe
Supporters of Hamas gather in Berlin. Photo: Reuters/M. Golejewski
As concern mounts over a potential surge in Hamas-linked attacks in Europe, German authorities have arrested another suspected member of the Palestinian terrorist group accused of acquiring firearms and ammunition to target Jewish communities.
On Tuesday, local police arrested Lebanese-born Borhan El-K, a suspected Hamas operative, after he crossed into Germany from the Czech Republic — part of an ongoing probe into the Islamist group’s network and operations across the continent.
The German federal prosecutor’s office confirmed the suspect obtained an automatic rifle, eight Glock pistols, and more than 600 rounds of ammunition in the country before handing the weapons to Wael FM, another suspected member of the terrorist group, in Berlin.
Local law enforcement arrested Lebanese-born Wael FM last month, along with two other German citizens, Adeb Al G and Ahmad I.
Prosecutors believe the three men acted as foreign operatives for Hamas and procured firearms and ammunition intended for attacks on Israeli and Jewish institutions in Germany.
Hamas, long supported by the Iranian regime as well as Qatar and Turkey, is designated as a terrorist organization by the European Union and several other Western countries, including the United States.
Earlier this month, Mohammed A, another alleged member of the Palestinian terrorist group, was arrested in London at the request of German police. He is accused of taking five handguns and ammunition from Abed Al G before moving them to Vienna for storage.
Last week, Vienna authorities uncovered a hidden arsenal linked to Hamas, reportedly intended for “potential terrorist attacks in Europe” targeting Jewish communities.
The Austrian government confirmed that the Directorate for State Security and Intelligence Service (DSN) has been conducting an internationally coordinated investigation into a global terrorist network with ties to the Islamist group.
During the investigation, Austrian authorities uncovered evidence suggesting that this group had brought weapons into the country for potential terrorist attacks in Europe.
For its part, Hamas issued a statement denying any connection to the criminal network, calling the allegations of its involvement “baseless.”
However, experts have warned that Hamas has expanded its terrorist operations beyond the Middle East, exploiting a well-established network of weapons caches, criminal alliances, and covert infrastructure quietly built across Europe over the years.
Last month, West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center released a study detailing how Hamas leaders in Lebanon have been directing operatives to establish “foreign operator” cells across Europe, collaborating with organized crime networks to acquire weapons and target Jewish communities abroad.
In February, four Hamas members suspected of plotting attacks on Jewish institutions in Europe went on trial in Berlin, in what prosecutors described as the first court case against terrorists of the Islamist group in Germany.
