Libby Fairhurst ☮️ 🇮🇱 🇺🇦 ⚖️

Liberal Jewish Southern grandmother. Retired higher-ed news writer, covered arts/sciences. Pro-democracy. Just say Hell NO! to fascists/terrorists/extremists!

[Amjad Taha أمجد طه @amjadt25]

To Trump: In the Middle East, loyalty is currency. If you abandon your closest friend halfway through a fight and cut deals behind their back while leaving them exposed, don't expect anyone to trust your guarantees again. You told the world, "The U.S. and Israel carried out an operation against Iran," then walked away and left your ally standing alone.

In the Middle East, we don't judge friends by speeches; we judge them by who stays when the missiles fly. A person who abandons an ally halfway and cuts deals behind their back is not someone you call in a crisis.
You will say it's about American interests. Fine. But others also have interests, and they have memories. You can call it "America's interests." We call it something else: leaving your friends in the storm.

Before asking, "Why don't they defend themselves?" remember that countries like Israel did and are still doing so alone.

And also remember that the UAE defended itself, struck back forcefully, and banned the Muslim Brotherhood. Many of your countries in the West did neither.

The lesson is simple. If you can leave your closest friend exposed today, why should anyone trust your promises tomorrow? Maybe it's time for the Middle East to start thinking about alternatives.

And yes, when Iran strikes again, don't assume the Middle East will dial Washington. People don't call someone who might leak information to Turkey or cut a deal with Tehran while their friends are still under fire.

[Scarlett Grace @ScarlettGrace92]

“We understand the atrocities that have happened. I support them because they're like our own people.”

The indigenous people of Canada stand with the indigenous people of Israel. 🪶 🇮🇱

[Roy K. Altman @RoyKAltman]

There’s no doubt that Israel’s war in Gaza was not genocide. It is the least likely urban conflict in modern history to meet the standard legal definition of genocide.

And you don't have to take my word for it. Take the word of the High Level Military Group, the HLMG, which is a collection of all the of high level officers and generals from almost all the Western democracies in the world, not just the United States. These people aren't Jews. They have no connection with Israel. They're just generals in militaries around the world.

They wrote a report and a brief to the International Criminal Court, the ICC, saying that Israel’s civilian warning system is completely unlike anything any other country has ever been willing to do for the civilian population of an enemy in wartime. Under this system, Israel tells the civilian population of Gaza exactly where it will be striking the next day and then provides humanitarian corridors for them to leave those zones. They also say it is something our own democracies would never be able to do, because our civilian populations would never stomach endangering the lives of our own soldiers by warning the enemy where our sons and daughters will be.

Israel's unprecedented efforts to protect the lives of civilians in Gaza has taken a very heavy toll on the IDF. Over 800 Israelis have been killed in Gaza precisely because they warned the civilian population to get out of harm's way.

[Kemi Badenoch @KemiBadenoch]

You may not agree with me, but you will always know where you stand with me.

Today in Billericay, a heckler tried to shout me down as I spoke about the normalisation of hatred towards Jews. I did not back down, because it needs to be said. British Jews are being targeted and too many people are pretending this is the same experience of other minorities. This lady implied Muslims are being similarly targeted. This is simply not true.

Let's be honest about what is happening. Certain groups (in particular but not solely Islamic Extremists) are creating a climate of fear and intimidation that is normalising Jew hatred. I will never stand for that. Governments have spent too long hand-wringing, making excuses and hoping it would go away. It is time to call this what it is: a national emergency in our attitude, our urgency and our response.

I will always engage with people who disagree with me. That is politics. But there is a difference between argument and intimidation. Shouting does not make a bad case good. It's done to silence others. And it certainly does not change the truth.

The truth is that British Jews have been made to feel less safe in their own country. Our country. They are being singled out, threatened and harassed in ways that should shame everyone in public life. If we do not stand up now and stop this rise in antisemitism, then why bother saying "Never Again" at Holocaust Memorial Day? Because this is how it starts.

I am not prepared to play along with the pretence that this is normal, or manageable, or just another example of tension between groups. It really is not. It is targeted hatred and it is getting worse.

So my message is simple. Not here. Not in Britain. And not on our watch. We need to stop the hand-wringing and start doing the right thing. That means standing with British Jews openly, unapologetically and without fear.

[Yossi BenYakar @YossiBenYakar]

Top British attorney Natasha Hausdorff stunned the audience by completely destroying the Palestinian narrative about the conflict. The truth the world refuses to accept:

Palestine never existed as a sovereign Arab state.
The British Mandate of Palestine was a British territory taken from the defeated Ottoman Empire after 1917. Jews lived continuously in the Holy Land for centuries — long before modern Zionism. They were the majority in Jerusalem under Ottoman rule. Jews legally bought desert land (including the area that became Tel Aviv) and turned it into thriving cities and kibbutzim. Not a single Arab was displaced by these purchases.

The Arabs rejected the 1947 UN partition plan and launched war to destroy the newborn Jewish state. They lost. During that war, Arab armies ordered local Arabs to flee so they could “push the Jews into the sea.” Many did exactly that.

Israel has never committed genocide. It has fought for survival against repeated attempts to commit genocide against the Jewish people. Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran’s regime are the real obstacles to peace in the Middle East.

The historical facts are clear. The propaganda is not.

Share this. The truth needs to be heard.

[Elder of Ziyon 🇮🇱 @elderofziyon]

"Nakba" didn't originally mean what Palestinians claims it means.

The word “nakba” was coined in 1948 by Constantin Zureiq in his pamphlet “The Meaning of Nakba,”  but he didn’t describe it the way it is used today. His description of the events of 1948 were centered around the mistakes of the Arabs rather than the actions of the Jews.

He wrote, “When the battle broke out, our public diplomacy began to speak of our imaginary victories, to put the Arab public to sleep and talk of the ability to overcome and win easily – until the Nakba happened…We must admit our mistakes…and recognize the extent of our responsibility for the disaster that is our lot.”

Other quotes from the pamphlet include, “Seven Arab countries declare war on Zionism in Palestine….Seven countries go to war to abolish the partition and to defeat Zionism, and quickly leave the battle after losing much of the land of Palestine – and even the part that was given to the Arabs in the Partition Plan.”

“When the battle broke out,” Zureiq wrote, “our public diplomacy began to speak of our imaginary victories, to put the Arab public to sleep and talk of the ability to overcome and win easily – until the nakba happened.”

“Zionism is deeply implanted in Western life, while we are far from it…They live in the present and look to the future, while we are drugged-up dreaming of a magnificent past,” he continued.

Crucially, Zureiq emphasized,  “We must admit our mistakes…and recognize the extent of our responsibility for the disaster that is our lot.”

The Nakba isn't a catastrophe inflicted by the Jews on Palestinians. It is a catastrophe done by the Arabs to their fellow Arabs. The coiner of the word knew that.

Everything since then is gaslighting.

[Simone Rodan-Benzaquen @srodan]

There is a claim that keeps circulating, presented as sophisticated analysis: antisemitic violence is caused by Israel’s actions. If Israel behaved differently, Jewish communities around the world would somehow be safer. This argument is not analysis. It is a moral inversion. And it collapses the moment you apply it consistently.
When China imprisons Uyghurs, does anyone warn Muslim communities in Paris to expect attacks? When Russia invaded Ukraine, did anyone tell Russian restaurants to brace for violence? No. Never. The causal chain between a government’s actions and violence against a diaspora is only ever constructed for Jews. Every other minority is extended the basic moral courtesy of being treated as individuals rather than proxies.
Now look at what the data actually shows. The SPCJ, which tracks antisemitic incidents in France in coordination with the Interior Ministry, has documented a consistent and damning pattern: it is antisemitic violence that inspires more antisemitic violence, not Israeli policy. After Mohamed Merah murdered Jewish children at point-blank range at the Ozar Hatorah school in Toulouse in 2012, antisemitic acts surged by 200%. There was no Gaza operation. No Israeli military action. The massacre of Jews in France produced more attacks on Jews in France.
The same logic held after the Hypercacher attack in January 2015: antisemitic acts increased by nearly 300%. Massacres of Jews do not shock antisemites into restraint. They embolden them. They signal impunity. They normalize hatred. And everyone in a position of responsibility knows it.
Which brings us to October 7. From the day of the Hamas attack, antisemitic acts in France increased by over 1,000%. A daily average of approximately 25 antisemitic acts was recorded in the 30 days that followed, reaching nearly 40 on some days. In the three months after the attack, the number of antisemitic acts equaled those recorded over the previous three years combined.
And here is another detail that makes the “Israel causes antisemitism” argument impossible to sustain: the spike began on October 7 itself, the very day of the attack. Israel had not yet responded. Not a single soldier had entered Gaza. Interior Minister Darmanin sent an urgent message to prefects that same day asking them to immediately reinforce protection of Jewish community sites. Synagogues. Schools. Community centers. By October 10, 10,000 police officers had been deployed to protect 500 Jewish sites across the country.
Before any Israeli response existed, the French government already knew that Jewish communities needed protecting. Not because of what Israel was about to do. Because of what had just been done to Jews.
Antisemitic violence has one cause. Antisemitism.

[Rawan Osman روان عثمان @RawaneOsmane]

The same world that has long applied double standards against Israel now accuses Israel of “double standards” after passing a death penalty law targeting Palestinian terrorists, arguing it should equally apply to Israelis.

But this framing collapses fundamentally different phenomena into a false equivalence.

Palestinian terrorism is not a series of isolated acts. It is embedded, to varying degrees, in a political and social ecosystem where violence against Israeli civilians is justified, incentivized, and often openly glorified—from stipends to attackers or their families to praise in media and education. Schools, media outlets, and political factions have elevated perpetrators as role models, embedding their narratives into collective memory. This creates not only justification for violence, but a pipeline that normalizes and reproduces it across generations.

Settler violence, by contrast, exists on the margins of Israeli society. It is neither state policy nor socially mainstream. It is widely condemned across large segments of the public, including by political leaders, security officials, and civil society. Israeli institutions investigate, prosecute, and debate these acts.

This does not make settler violence acceptable. But it does make the comparison fundamentally flawed.

When one form of violence is systemically reinforced and the other is institutionally challenged, treating them as equivalent is distortion.

And asking Israel to respond symmetrically to asymmetrical realities only deepens that distortion.

Calls for “moral restraint” have too often translated into strategic blindness. Israel has released convicted terrorists under pressure and political deals—figures like Sinwar among them—only to see them return to orchestrate or inspire catastrophic violence, dragging the region into wars that claimed the lives of Israelis and Palestinians alike.

The world is not in a position to lecture Israel.

Not while it applies double standards.
Not while it repeatedly fails to protect Jews.
Not while it has no viable solution to terrorism, Palestinian or otherwise.

#DeathPenalty #israel #palestine

[Rawan Osman روان عثمان @RawaneOsmane]

I lost count. This might be my 20th visit to Israel since October 7.

Not to Lebanon, where I grew up, where an economy survives on the support of visitors.
Not to crumbling Damascus, the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, which offered me nothing but harassment and a birthplace on my passport.
But to Israel, during the worst war since its establishment.

Because I am a traitor.

I betrayed my friends and family, my educators, and the mainstream in Lebanon, Syria, across the Arab and Muslim worlds, in Europe, and in America.

Unlike the masses who have never set foot in Israel, I know that Israelis are not monsters. They do not seek war, nor do they wage it to conquer land. The accusations of genocide, the blood libels, the conspiracy theories—they are not rooted in reality. They are born of ignorance, and too often, of something darker.

At best, hostile opinions stem from a profound misunderstanding: of this war, of the history of this conflict, of political Islam and its ambitions, of Judaism, and certainly of Zionism.

But how could the average person not be confused?

A relentless campaign of misinformation defames Israel while elevating the Palestinian narrative into a simplistic story of pure victimhood. It is emotionally compelling. It is easy. It requires no deeper inquiry.

And so the question is never asked:

What happens the day after?

Would a Palestinian state focus on building a thriving society, contributing to the region and to the world?
Or would it continue a war against Israel?

History does not leave much room for doubt.

Every attempt at compromise has been met by rejection or violence. And yet, the pressure is always placed on Israel—to concede, to risk, to appease.

Why?

To satisfy crowds who chant slogans they barely understand?
To align with a cause that thrives not on building, but on perpetuating conflict?

Real genocides unfold across the world and are met with indifference. Millions of Kurds still seek a state. Others fight for self-determination without commanding global obsession.

The difference is not the cause.

The difference is the JEW.

The particular fixation on Israel cannot be separated from a much older story—one of projection, distortion, and hatred uniquely reserved for Jews.

I consider myself privileged.

Privileged to have seen through the lies I was taught—the lies you are told.
Privileged to have encountered the reality of a people who built, defended, and sustained a state against relentless hostility.

As a seeker of truth, I was met with warmth, love, and respect.

I have come to admire Israel and the Jewish people to such a degree that the noise—the accusations, the mob, the cowardice—has become irrelevant.

Yes, I am a traitor.

A traitor to narratives built on falsehood.
A traitor to expectations that demand loyalty to lies.
A traitor to a cause that demands endless sacrifice and conformity.
A traitor to a cause to which I owe nothing. On the contrary, it owes me.

I believe not what I was told, but what I see.

I choose truth over belonging because I am free.

If that makes me a traitor, so be it.

I stand, firmly and proudly, with Israel.

Am Yisrael Chai.

#Israel #palestine #October7

[Sarah Adams @sarahadams]

Raped corpses, and we had dumb college students marching for this terrorist group

[Anshul Saxena @AskAnshul]

United Nations (UN) report states that Hamas committed sexual violence, including rape, gang rape, and sexualized torture of women during the terror attacks on 7th October 2023 in Israel.

Hamas terrorists also raped corpses (dead bodies).

[Tommy Vietor @TVietor08]

Truly shocking for the Secretary of Defense to trade fucking stocks and (attempt to) profit off of a war he helped start. Firing this drunk idiot is the bare minimum. @PeteHegseth should be prosecuted.

[Zineb Riboua @zriboua]

This is one of the best pieces I’ve read on the current media/NGO ideological landscape in the United States and how Israel fits into it.

By the inimitable @Jacob__Siegel

https://t.co/cEI16cvNXo

[Jacob Siegel @Jacob__Siegel]

Values create order in the world. The supreme value of anti-Zionism established a new epistemology, which means a new procedure for determining what is true. It was extremely simple. Anything that appeared to hurt Israel was true, even if it was a deranged libel, while anything that appeared to help Israel had to be presumptively treated as false and expunged from the record of official knowledge.
https://t.co/PdjRoh7Zcu

[Miles Taylor @MilesTaylorUSA]

So is anyone from the FBI going to ask the president about the allegation that he raped a 13-year-old girl?

[Bill Madden @maddenifico]

Ted Lieu saying out loud what the entire world knows: "The Epstein files are being blocked because they show Trump raped children."

[Mike Levin @MikeLevin]

This story cannot keep flying under the radar.

A ProPublica investigation uncovered hundreds of millions of dollars in financial ties between Trump officials and the industries they are supposed to regulate.

That is not just a conflict of interest. It is corruption, plain and simple.

This is the most corrupt administration in American history, by far.
https://t.co/X4WtU8a7Xq

[Julia Ioffe @juliaioffe]

I learned a long time ago that there’s nothing that will bore people in Washington more than pointing out hypocrisy, but I still think it’s important to point out.

[Rep. Melanie Stansbury @Rep_Stansbury]

Why did federal prosecutors ask New Mexico to drop its investigation into Zorro Ranch in 2019? And why are these files not in the file release by the DOJ under the Epstein Files Transparency Act?

[Jonathan Weisman @jonathanweisman]

In 2019, the State of New Mexico launched an investigation of Jeffrey Epstein’s Zorro Ranch, then the Trump 1 Justice Department demanded the state stop and turn it over to the feds. The probe then fizzled. Awesome reporting from @ReisThebault https://t.co/CGQeZh3olo via @NYTimes