Israel not conducting genocide, not guilty of apartheid, new academic study shows - Alex Carson

 

by Alex Carson

A new academic study examines apartheid, genocide and settler colonialism accusations against Israel, concluding the first two are not established and the third is an inadequate classification.

 

People take part in the National March for Palestine - hands off Gaza, a pro-Palestinian protest calling for the government to "end the genocide and stop arming Israel", in London, Britain, January 31, 2026.

(photo credit: REUTERS/Jack Taylor)

 

A new academic study published last Thursday examines legal and historical evaluations of charges labeling Israel as an apartheid state, a settler-colonial project, or guilty of genocide, concluding that “apartheid and genocide are not established and that settler colonialism is an inadequate classification, including in the settings where each accusation is strongest.”

Authored by Philippe Karpe, a Senior Researcher and International Expert at CIRAD, and Gunther Jikeli, an Associate Professor at the Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism at Indiana University Bloomington, the paper was published on SSRN.

Study acknowledges that 'racism' persists in Israeli society

The authors examine the legal definitions governing apartheid under the 1973 Apartheid Convention and the Rome Statute. According to the study, while “racism and substantial disparities persist” within Israel’s citizenship regime inside the Green Line, Arab citizens participate in national elections, litigate in courts, and serve in the Knesset.

The authors state that applying the apartheid label here “equates ethnonational inequality with a system of legally enforced racial segregation and political exclusion that does not exist there.”

Israeli soldiers clash with Palestinians as they hold Friday prayers during a protest against Israeli settlement expansion and land confiscation near Bethlehem in the West Bank, July 3, 2026. (credit: WISAM HASHLAMOUN/FLASH90)

Regarding the West Bank, the authors note that prolonged occupation, settlements, and unequal administrative arrangements present “the strongest case” for the accusation. However, the study states that the evidence does not establish the required purpose or intent to maintain “systematic racial domination and oppression.”

The authors point out that the West Bank’s administrative divisions originate from the negotiated Oslo Accords, noting that “Palestinian non-citizenship and Palestinian Authority jurisdiction supply a national-territorial explanation for part of the legal differentiation.” Furthermore, the study notes that Gaza’s distinct internal governance and subsequent military actions “must still be distinguished analytically from an institutionalized racial regime.”

Turning to settler-colonialism, the authors evaluate the framework across pre-state settlement, the 1947 to 1949 displacement, and the post-1967 West Bank settlement enterprise.

While acknowledging that the framework illuminates aspects of land acquisition and settlement expansion, the authors argue it fails to account for “Zionism’s national and refugee character, Jewish historical attachment, or the absence of a conventional or functionally equivalent metropole.”

The study notes that, even within the West Bank, “divergent territorial strategies and negotiations over withdrawal complicate the claim of a continuous project of permanent incorporation.”

Additionally, the study notes that the survival and incorporation of approximately 160,000 Arab residents who remained inside Israel after the 1948 war “complicate the claim that state formation was conceived and executed as a preexisting comprehensive program of Indigenous removal.”

On the accusation of genocide, the study evaluates conditions in Gaza against Article II of the Genocide Convention, focusing on provisions concerning the deliberate infliction of conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction and measures intended to prevent births.

Analyzing data from the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, the authors note that the dataset records “at least 1,341,904 tons of food associated with 63,191 truckloads on land and maritime routes,” which “weaken the inference that deprivation resulted from a food-entry policy calculated to bring about the population’s physical destruction.”

While addressing the March to May 2025 suspension of aid, the authors state that “the suspension by itself [does not] establish a purpose of physically destroying the population,” noting that the broader record supports “a competing inference that the restrictions served military or operational purposes.”

Examining the destruction of the Al-Basma IVF clinic, the study notes that the UN Commission of Inquiry found that the strike used “a large caliber projectile, most probably a shell fired from an Israeli security forces tank” and relied on “the precision of the strike,” but the authors argue that “intent to destroy a clinic or reproductive material is not by itself intent to prevent births so as to contribute to the physical or biological destruction of the protected group.”

The researchers focused on legal and historical precision

The authors also analyze how these three accusations function collectively in public discourse, arguing that “expansive definitions and selective evidence allow the three accusations to reinforce one another, shift the burden of proof, and erode the distinctions they are meant to capture.” When presented in their totalizing forms, the authors write that they function “less as descriptions of specific wrongdoing than as instruments for stigmatizing and delegitimizing Israel as such.”

Karpe and Jikeli told The Jerusalem Post: “Our argument is fundamentally about legal and historical precision, but also about the way these accusations are increasingly combined in public discourse and what this combination does to the way Israel and the conflict are understood. Apartheid and genocide are not simply descriptions of particular conduct; they are legal classifications with specific elements, including requirements concerning purpose or intent.

“Settler colonialism is a different, historical-comparative framework. We, therefore, examine each accusation on its own terms, rather than allowing the three labels to reinforce one another.”

The authors added: “Applying the relevant legal and historical criteria, our conclusion is that the evidence does not establish apartheid or genocide, while settler colonialism does not provide an adequate overall classification of Zionism and Israel. But the article is also concerned with what happens when these categories are detached from their limiting criteria and presented as mutually reinforcing descriptions. They can then cease to distinguish particular conduct, periods, and legal questions and instead, become part of a broader, totalizing account.”

Karpe and Jikeli emphasized, “Our broader concern is, therefore, not to replace one narrative with another, but to examine the claims being made, the evidence on which they rest, and the way these claims interact in contemporary discourse. Analytical clarity – distinguishing legal findings from historical interpretation, and both from moral or political judgment – is essential if the complex realities at issue are to be understood rather than reduced to competing labels.”

Read more about Philippe Karpe and Gunther Jikeli's study here:
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=7501120 

https://three-accusations-israel.netlify.app/en/ 

Alex Carson

Source: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-910003

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Fauci diary reveals alarm that U.S. had aerosolized Ebola virus: ‘Never should have been done’ - Steven Richards and John Solomon

 

by Steven Richards and John Solomon

Newly released memos reveal Dr. Anthony Fauci’s private alarm over Army biodefense experiments with Ebola and their results, which he worried would erode public trust in vaccines. His concern predated the COVID lockdown by almost four years. Ebola is not only deadly, but reports show a death rate 50 times that of COVID.

 

Dr. Anthony Fauci privately sounded the alarm when he learned the U.S. Army had conducted an experiment a decade ago that aerosolized the lethal Ebola virus, which is not normally transmitted by air, and then shared the results publicly amid an ongoing outbreak in Africa, according to diary entries obtained by Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul. 

The then-top scientist at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease was particularly concerned in 2016 that the Army medical research arm's experiment seemed to show that exposure to aerosolized Ebola caused more damaging effects in subjects that had been vaccinated. This was almost four years before he championed shutting down the U.S. economy and social life over the COVID-19 virus outbreak.

Fauci wrote he believed such research should be kept secret, preferably classified, so that it didn’t undermine public confidence in vaccination in the African countries suffering an outbreak of the virus. 

“What idiots those guys at USAMRIID [U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases] are,” Fauci wrote in a March 2016 diary entry. “This should have been a classified experiment that never should have been done in the first place.”

He added, “Now I have to speak with the NSC [National Security Council] from the SKIF [sic] tomorrow to pick up the doo-doo and explain why this is an irrelevant experiment.” Fauci was likely referring to a "SCIF" which is a room designed to prevent leaked electronic communications. 

The entry is the latest evidence to chronicle how widespread dangerous U.S. research on viruses has become, following revelations earlier this year from the Director of National Intelligence that the U.S. has funded scores of pathogen labs across the globe, including in war zones.

President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order mostly banning gain-of-function research that enhances viruses to make them more deadly to humans.

Paul told Just the News he believed the new diary entries reveal an effort by the federal government to hide dangerous research rather than stop it.

“These records show NIAID was funding risky research with the Defense Department, and when the results turned problematic, Dr. Fauci argued they should have been classified," Paul said."The email he sent demanding answers went to his longtime special assistant, who has since declined to answer the Committee's questions.

"Americans deserve to know what kind of risky research their taxpayer dollars are funding. It is clear additional oversight is needed into what Dr. Fauci's institute was paying for long before COVID," he added. "This is exactly why Congress should pass the Risky Research Review Act. Under my bill, an independent board of outside scientists would have to review research like this before a single taxpayer dollar went out the door.“

At the time of the Ebola experiment, the United States was planning to deploy vaccines to West Africa to address the ongoing Ebola outbreaks there. Fauci noted that African officials from Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone were “going batshit” because they were concerned the U.S. would deploy ineffective vaccines in their countries. 

Fauci’s diary and communications were obtained by Paul as part of his committee’s ongoing investigation into COVID-19 origins, dangerous viral research and alleged cover-ups. The latest memos, which the senator plans to release on Monday, were shared with Just the News. 

You can read the latest release below: 

2026.09.28_FINAL_SRP EBOLA DOC RELEASE.pdf

The inescapable irony of Fauci: “If someone does not tell me the truth and I find out they did not, then they are gone.”

Days after he found out that NIAID had funded the aerosol studies, Fauci emailed a subordinate, demanding all information about his agency’s collaboration with the Army medical researchers, and threatened to fire anyone who was not forthcoming. 

“I have to meet with the NSC people later this AM. And so, please, please make sure that you or the people from whom you get this information tell me the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Do not tell me what you think I want to hear or hold back what you think will upset me. No one will get hurt if they made a mistake, but then they told me the truth,” Fauci wrote. “If someone does not tell me the truth and I find out they did not, then they are gone.”

Paul summoned Fauci to testify before his committee, but the retired top doc refused to answer most questions by invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Paul's panel referred Fauci to the Justice Department for possible prosecution for contempt of Congress. Fauci was granted a pardon by President Biden, leading some constitutional experts to insist that Fauci does not have the right to invoke the Fifth Amendment.

More evidence of document destruction appears

The latest batch of Fauci diary entries and communications come as Paul says his committee is continuing to uncover fresh evidence of government-document destruction and more extensive gain-of-function research that enhances the human lethality of viruses. 

Using aerosolized viruses to test infection pathways, which is what government researchers were doing with the Ebola virus back in 2016, is not considered a form of gain-of-function research by scientists. Gain-of-function research specifically requires researchers to conduct genetic alterations to the underlying virus.

The newly released memos, which include diary entries and internal emails, show that Fauci was particularly worried about how the researchers’ findings, that test animals vaccinated against the Ebola virus experienced greater levels of inflammation compared to those that were unvaccinated when exposed, may impact public confidence in vaccines. 

“During the course of those experiments, the DOD noticed that the animals that were vaccinated had more inflammation in the long [sic] then [sic] those who were unvaccinated even though almost all the aerosol-challenged [sic] animals died,” Fauci wrote in a later entry. “The current experiments were done to find out if this was a real phenomenon and if it was relevant. Again, I believe all of this is important for bio-defense, but has little to do with naturally emerging Ebola outbreaks. Nonetheless, the idea that the vaccine can do harm is now causing people a great deal of concern.” 

The emails show that NIAID funded the aerosol studies at the Army’s laboratory and helped design the Ebola study. “The study was conducted at the Army's infectious disease institute at Fort Detrick under a NIAID task order, comparing four vaccines in groups of four monkeys exposed to aerosolized Ebola -- an engineered exposure that drove the virus deep into the lung in a way natural infection would not,” the Senate committee said in a fact-sheet attached to the new memos. 

A share of blame goes to Dept. of Defense and NIAID

The memos also show that NIAID researchers never considered that the research should be classified until Fauci was informed of the results of the experiment and raised the alarm. As Fauci blamed “the foolish DOD people” for circulating the data within the government and U.S. embassies, he told his colleagues that the research should be classified because they “could indicate a vulnerability.” However, the records show that NIAID and Army researchers never considered that such research would require classification. In fact, the researchers said that some results had already been shared with vaccine manufacturers. 

The chain of emails exchanged during the Ebola research saga also appears to contain a reference to federal coronavirus research, which has piqued the committee’s interest. “In the interim, however, we will continue to make plans to initiate the CoV study as soon as the lights turn green,” wrote NIAID scientist Peter Jahrling. 

It is unclear whether “CoV” means coronavirus. At the time, scientists were interested in studying the coronavirus family after the outbreak in 2012 of MERS-CoV, which causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. Later that same year, North Carolina-based scientists announced their research showed such coronaviruses are lurking in Chinese bats and could jump to humans. 

Fauci's culture of secrecy, still supported by Congressional Dems

Fauci’s diary has landed the ex-health official in hot water. During his time as the leading government health official during the COVID-19 pandemic, Fauci kept a meticulous record of his meetings, phone calls, and other day-to-day activities. Last month, the committee released memos showing he privately believed that the death rate of COVID-19 was much lower than he told Congress just one month later, Just the News previously reported. 

Paul said he has found more evidence of the culture of secrecy inside Fauci's inner circle, including possible destruction of documents mentioned by his then-assistant. Government emails are generally required to be preserved under the Federal Records Act. It is for this reason that Paul sought to secure legal immunity for the long-time aide who wanted to blow the whistle on that culture. Federal law allows congressional committees to seek such a court order, but only by a two-thirds majority vote of the committee. Because the panel voted 8-7 along party lines, the Democrats effectively sunk the resolution. 

Paul declined to identify the aide, but previously said she expressed concern about testifying without legal immunity. The senator previously subpoenaed the assistant to appear before the committee for a closed-door meeting, but she invoked her 5th Amendment rights and declined to answer the committee's questions. 

Steven Richards and John Solomon

Source: https://justthenews.com/index%2ephp/government/congress/fauci-alarmed-over-us-army-ebola-tests-funded-his-own-agency-diary-entries-and

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Trump quietly slashes nearly $1 billion in federal cash for illegals and wokester foreign aid grants - Monica Showalter

 

by Monica Showalter

What we voted for. 

Using a rarely used recission power, President Trump quietly slashed nearly $1 billion in federal spending to subsidize illegal immigrants and to finance overseas global warming, DEI, and trans foreign aid programs this past Friday.

According to the White House:

President Trump is committed to utilizing all possible tools to cut wasteful and harmful government spending that does not benefit American citizens. Last year, President Trump took the historic step of utilizing long-neglected Presidential authorities provided to him under the Impoundment Control Act to deploy the first “pocket rescission” in 50 years. This year, he is continuing his commitment to the American taxpayer by utilizing a pocket rescission for another nearly $1 billion of the most harmful government spending.

What were your tax dollars being wasted on?

Taxpayer-Funded HHS Services for Non-Citizens ($567 million): These funds previously went to pro-illegal immigration programs and Non-Governmental Organizations that provided services to refugees, asylees, and other non-citizens and put unaccompanied children in harm’s way. Thanks to President Trump’s successful border policies, the illegal alien invasion is over and there are fewer people crossing our border than ever before. President Trump’s border policies are not only making Americans safer – they are saving Americans money. Accordingly, the excess funds in this account are being rescinded. 

... and ...

Debt Relief to Foreign Countries that Fund Climate Change Policies ($9 million): The Department of Treasury’s Tropical Forest and Coral Reef Conservation Act (TFCCA) Program propagates America Last climate alarmism by funding debt forgiveness to foreign countries in exchange for making climate change-related domestic investments. This program would deny U.S. taxpayers from being fully reimbursed for debt financing, and this wasteful spending provides zero direct benefit to Americans.

... and ...

 

Ed Funding for Woke International Education ($70 million): These programs provide grants and fellowships to support institutions bringing foreign students and faculty to the United States to study or teach language, conduct research, and provide professional and curriculum development. These programs have deviated from their core mission and instead support wasteful and divisive projects, including doctoral dissertations on queer and trans community building in foreign countries.

... and ...

 

HUD Counseling Support for NGOs that Peddle DEI and Discriminate Based on Race ($56 million): This HUD programs funds NGOs that ostensibly provide housing counseling, but the program has not shown reduced delinquencies for counseled homebuyers and instead focuses on grantees with DEI-centric discriminatory agendas. 

The list is long and I wish I could paste in more, so click on the link to see just how many of these NGOs are getting deservedly defunded -- La Raza (now UnidosUS), Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service Inc., Immigrants Rising, Housing Action Illinois, Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, Instituto del Progreso Latino,  and a really gross one, Endeavors, Inc. as well as the DoJ's woke 'Community Relations Services' which produces videos for law enforcement about how to kowtow to trans people on their radar, presumably criminals.

Global warming projects, free stuff for illegals, legal advise for legals about how to defy the Trump administration and U.S. law, DEI promotion abroad, trans promotion projects and minority-only aid programs here are all hitting the chopping block.

Democrats, of course, are howling and calling it illegal. It's not surprising. How many of these NGOs take that federal aid money and re-route some of it into  Democrat pockets, as campaign kickbacks? 

And how many of these programs are vectors for fraud. We can already tell by many of them on the list that they produce nothing of value for Americans. It's likely that some produce nothing at all but cars, furs and vacations for big-dollar-salaried NGO leaders.

And with illegals forming caravans now and preparing to flood in again if Democrats retake the House and Senate, defunding the NGOs seems now like a necessary move to discourage illegal migrant surges. If there's no federal money waiting for them, and NGOs have to pay for these migrants out of their own resources, (which they won't) then far fewer illegal border crossers are going to surge on in.

Why should the federal government be funding that sort of thing, particularly with a president who was elected by the people because he opposes it? He rightly rescinded a lot of this stuff last year and this year, he's rescinded even more.

It should be better known, shouted from the rooftops if necessary, that this is one of the success stories of the Trump administration. Trump not only cut wasteful and cross-purposes federal funding (e.g., financing illegals to come here, using law enforcement to arrest them, and financing NGOs to battle the feds enforcing the law), he found a way to cut federal spending, given that Congress is incapable of doing that and the federal debt and deficit are dangerously high. 

All I can say is: This is what I voted for. 

Monica Showalter

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/09/trump-quietly-slashes-nearly-1-billion-in-federal-cash-for-illegals-and-wokester-foreign-aid-grants/

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Trump Education Department finalizes revised Title IX rules - Ben Whedon

 

by Ben Whedon

The final is set for formal publication on Tuesday and comes in the wake of a court decision striking down Biden-era rules that beefed up protections for transgender individuals.

The Department of Education on Monday finalized its repeal of a Biden-era Title IX rule reforming sexual misconduct investigations on campus.

The move restores Trump's first-term rule and expands the protections a student accused of misconduct has in disciplinary proceedings, notably guaranteeing the right to call witnesses, have representation, and appear in a hearing, Politico reported.

“It just gives clarification to students, teachers, schools, parents — everyone now knows what the rule is and how everyone is going to abide by it,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon told Fox News over the weekend.

The final is set for formal publication on Tuesday and comes in the wake of a court decision striking down Biden-era rules that beefed up protections for transgender individuals.

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent for Just the News. Follow him on X.

Source: https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/education/trump-education-department-finalizes-revised-title-ix-rules

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Ron Johnson holds roundtable on COVID-19 hospital practices - Ben Whedon

 

by Ben Whedon

The panelists, for their part, recounted their experiences with mistreatment and other issues at hospitals during the pandemic.

 

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., on Monday held a roundtable with patients, doctors, families, and nurses about their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The senator's office billed the event as the "first event devoted entirely to what happened inside hospitals." The panelists, for their part, recounted their experiences with mistreatment and other issues at hospitals during the pandemic.

Since the end of the pandemic, Johnson has been one of the leading voices for accountability and transparency with respect to both the pandemic's origins and the nation's response.

Johnson live-streamed the roundtable on Monday afternoon. You can watch the event by clicking here. 

Ben Whedon

Source: https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/health/ron-johnson-holds-roundtable-covid-19-hospital-practices

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House Republicans demand testimony on alleged ActBlue donations cover up - Ben Whedon

 

by Ben Whedon

Machen previously provided the committees with a briefing to corroborate testimony from ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones and later authored a "white paper" on the subject.

 

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, House Committee on Administration Chairman Bryan Steil, R-WI, and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman James Comer, R-KY, on Monday demanded that WilmerHale partner Ronald Machen sit for a transcribed interview to answer questions about alleged misconduct by Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue.

Machen previously provided the committees with a briefing to corroborate testimony from ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones and later authored a "white paper" on the subject. But the trio of House Republicans stated in their letter to Machen that his statements appear to contradict records in their possession.

2026-09-28-jdj-bs-jc-to-machen-re-ti-request.pdf

"Your review appears to be nothing more than an after-the-fact sugarcoating of ActBlue’s misconduct and Ms. Wallace-Jones’s misrepresentations to the House Administration Committee," they wrote.

The letter went on to outline the points of Machen's letters that they say contradict information the committees have uncovered in their investigations. ActBlue stands accused of illegally accepting foreign donations and has denied wrongdoing.

The trio then asked Machen to schedule an interview by Oct. 12.

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent for Just the News. Follow him on X.

Source: https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/house-republicans-demand-testimony-alleged-actblue-donations-cover

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One year later: Antifa terror designations yields convictions, global crackdown - Sarah Roerick-Fitch

 

by Sarah Roerick-Fitch

The designation was put into motion less than a week after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, which raised concerns about rising left-wing violence in the U.S.

 

(The Center Square) -

Tuesday marks one year since President Donald Trump designated Antifa a domestic terror organization, paving the way for convictions and a global crackdown on the militant leftist group.

The designation was put into motion less than a week after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, which raised concerns about rising left-wing violence in the U.S.

The Center Square – present for a public safety announcement in the Oval Office on a late Monday afternoon Sept. 22, 2025 – asked the president if he was considering designating Antifa a domestic terror organization.

Trump responded, telling The Center Square that he was “100%” on board with designating Antifa a domestic terror organization following a rise in left-wing violence.

“I would do that 100% and others also, by the way, but Antifa is terrible,” said Trump. “These aren't protests. These are crimes. What they're doing, where they're throwing bricks at cars of the of ICE and border patrol.”

The administration said the move to target Antifa would allow the government to go after funding sources, with the president saying they are “looking at the funders of these groups.”

The Center Square previously reported that a foundation funded by billionaire George Soros has given $80 million to groups tied to “extremist violence,” including Antifa.

In designating it as a domestic terror group, the White House has described Antifa as a “militarist, anarchist enterprise that explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States Government, law enforcement authorities, and our system of law.” The designation added that Antifa uses “illegal means” to carry out “violence and terrorism nationwide” to achieve its goals.

The White House cited “coordinate efforts” to “obstruct” federal law enforcement, specifically immigration enforcement operations through “organized riots” and “violent assaults,” including doxing, which has led to many immigration officials masking their faces as protection.

The group, with a strong foothold in the Pacific Northwest, has a global reach, eventually leading to Secretary of State Marco Rubio designating several arms of the group in Europe as foreign terror organizations after The Center Square asked the president a few weeks later if he would expand the terror designation to include foreign ties.

The U.S. State Department officially designated four foreign Antifa groups as foreign terrorist organizations last November, nearly two months after Trump designated Antifa a domestic terror organization.

The designations paved the way for the State Department to target individuals or groups by cutting off or freezing their access to global financial systems to curb potential attacks.

The State Department identified four European-based organizations, which either claimed or have been accused of carrying out a series of violent attacks in a handful of countries.

The State Department indicated that there could be more organizations designated as the Trump administration continues to “identify and disrupt Antifa’s terror networks across the world.”

The foreign designations are essential in “denying them access to the U.S. financial system and resources,” which can aid in attacks.

In a historical first, nine individuals were convicted by a federal jury on domestic terrorism charges connected to Antifa in March.

The group was accused of being a part of the North Texas Antifa Cell, and was found guilty of rioting, using weapons and explosives, providing material support to terrorists, obstruction, and attempted murder, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas announced.

The group was convicted of the attempted murder of an Alvarado, Texas, police officer and correctional officers at the Prairieland ICE Detention Center occurring on July 4, 2025.

One Antifa member was sentenced to 100 years in prison following a guilty verdict in a plot to target an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Texas. Several others also received lengthy prison sentences for the same attack.

Benjamin Song, who was identified as the group’s leader, received the harshest punishment of 100 years in prison. Maricela Rueda was sentenced to 70 years in prison; Savanna Batten, Zachary Evetts, Autumn Hill, Meagan Morris, and Elizabeth Soto received 50-year prison sentences; and Daniel Rolando Sanchez-Estrada received 30 years.

In July, Rubio convened a ministerial at the State Department comprising representatives from over 60 countries.

The secretary warned against the growing threat of left-wing violence against Western civilization, noting that the threat is getting worse.

“You are here because this is real and it is getting worse, and it can no longer be denied, and it can no longer be ignored because it’s time to crush this evil forever,” Rubio told the international coalition.

The secretary tried to debunk critics' dismissive claims that the threat is not real or is inflated by conservatives.

“The simple fact is, none of this that I’ve described is new. Far left political terrorism is not a recent day modern novelty,” Rubio said. “It’s not a fiction manufactured by conservative politicians for most of the modern era. It was in fact the dominant form of political violence.”

Rubio broke down the pipeline between Antifa in the U.S. and Europe, characterizing it as a dark, underground network.

“Antifa militants and their comrades travel from across Europe and to the Americas to participate in each other’s attacks, to funnel propaganda and training, materials and target information through shared encrypted channels, moving through underground networks of safe houses, and finance and sustain their operations through transnational funds,” the secretary added.

He went on to connect “hostile nations,” like Iran and Cuba, working with Antifa, claiming they “share their mission” to destroy the West.

As part of the Trump administration’s commitment to fight the scourge of political violence, Rubio vowed to “dismantle” the terror networks “brick by brick.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also took part in the summit, focusing on targeting the financial network funding the movement.

“We are examining where tax-exempt status has been exploited, where charitable entities have become financial conduits for foreign influence, and how those entrusted with stewardship of these organizations have instead enabled violence,” said Bessent.

Most recently, the State Department imposed sanctions on an Italian leftist group, known as Autistici/Inventai, also known as the A/I Collective, which was accused of digitally supporting Antifa groups, including Rose City Antifa out of Portland, Ore.

The groups used the technology to “organize and incite violent and criminal acts, domestically, including an attack on Customs and Border Patrol helicopters,” according to the State Department. 

Sarah Roerick-Fitch

Source: https://justthenews.com/nation/states/center-square/one-year-later-antifa-terror-designations-yields-convictions-global

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The Winds of War Blow Through a Desolate Continent - Stephen Soukup

 

by Stephen Soukup

It’s not unfair to ask, what duty do ordinary people owe to a country and a culture that loathe themselves?

 

 

In the years before the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the descent of much of Europe into “the Great War,” most of the ideologues on the Left assumed that such a war was an impossibility. The workers of the world, they believed, would no longer go to war against one another. Their class solidarity was too strong, far stronger than their national allegiance and their fidelity to artificial borders and superficial ethnic differences. Engels, for one, thought the old ways had been thoroughly demystified and discredited. The “new man”—the Communist man—was better than the old man, more organized and less aggressive toward his own kind. Darwin, Engels insisted, had described “a struggle for existence” that applied to the animal kingdom, not to the expected Communist society. In 1912, the Manifesto of the Extraordinary International Socialist Congress (of the Second International) in Basel put it this way:

It would be insanity for the governments not to realize that the very idea of the monstros­ity of a world war would inevitably call forth the indignation and the revolt of the working class. The proletarians consider it a crime to fire at each other for the profits of the capitalists, the ambi­tions of dynasties, or the greater glory of secret diplomatic treaties.

Needless to say, the Leftists were wrong, and the working men of Europe spent four years destroying one another, along with the last vestiges of the pre-modern world. When at last they laid down their arms on November 11, 1918, everything that existed before had been washed away with the blood and the sweat and the grime, and all that remained was despair and disorder.

There are three principal explanations for the Leftists’ miscalculation and the workers’ unwillingness to throw off their chains and unite with one another, each of which carries some merit. The first, simplest, and most obvious explanation is that Marxism is sheer crackpottery, the inane ramblings of a cantankerous, self-absorbed fool who never actually met a “worker of the world,” save Helena Demuth, the maid he knocked up.

The second, related explanation is the one that Marx himself feared and so spent much of his time and energy trying desperately to undermine. Max Stirner (i.e., Johann Kaspar Schmidt) argued that the Communist new world order would never materialize because man, at heart, is driven by his own self-interest, his own comfort, his “ego.” Why, Stirner asked, would the workers of the world throw off the chains of the old order, only to be shackled by the chains of the new order? Why would they agree to abandon and destroy the old faith, the old religion, only to be made slaves to the new faith, to the new rules, imposed upon them from above, just like the old rules? Stirner expected not the Communist utopia, but the indulgence of the self.

The third explanation was the one embraced by the postwar Communist “Reformers”—Antonio Gramsci, György Lukács, the Frankfurt School, etc.—which is also probably the best-known explanation and, as such, the most commonly understood and accepted. In short, the workers failed to unite and turn against their bourgeois masters because they suffered from a false consciousness. All their lives, they had been indoctrinated—carefully, consistently, imperceptibly—with the values, beliefs, and prejudices of the existing order, the “way things are.” The tools by which this indoctrination was accomplished were the institutions of society, the arbiters and merchants of cultural norms, starting with Christianity. The Church, the schools, the media, the family, entertainment—all the institutions of cultural transmission—were complicit in creating and perpetuating the false consciousness that mollified workers and made them unwilling to rise in rebellion.

Given this, the century since the Reformers crafted their explanation/excuse has been characterized by an effort to take over those institutions of cultural transmission, what the German Marxist student activist Rudi Dutschke later called “the long march through the institutions.”

This long march has, by almost every account, been remarkably successful—or at least it’s been successful in altering the culture as well as the consciousness of the average “worker” in Europe and the United States. One hundred years of Cultural Marxism has, as the Reformers expected, undermined the old verities and the old order. Today, all of the cultural institutions (save, perhaps, one) have been captured by leftist ideologues and are used specifically to inculcate the masses with the ideology of revolution.

As I have noted in these pages before, the long march has been successful at changing the culture but far less successful at turning that change into revolution, and for that we should all be grateful. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that Cultural Marxism hasn’t had an impact. Indeed, if anything, its biggest impact was to reveal that Marx was right to fear Stirner’s forecast and to worry that man’s ego would forestall his participation in anything that would disrupt his comfort and his self-absorption.

The nihilism of the post-World War I era, the rise of “mass man,” the splintering of the Left into Soviet and fascist camps, and the hatred, death, and destruction of World War II were all signs of Stirner’s prescience, but they were also partly attributable to the aftershocks of World War I. Today’s nihilism, today’s collapse into egoism, by contrast, has no such immediate precursor. Rather, it is the result of man’s nature, unleashed upon a world with no governing order, no definitive moral authority to check his selfishness and to keep him forward-looking, focused on a larger, teleological purpose. Its only antecedent is the long march that finally destroyed the old ways.

As a result, man today is liberated from his chains but has little interest in shackling himself to anything else—especially that which might cause him even the slightest inconvenience. This is especially the case in Europe, where the irony is profound.

Recently, BBC News ran a story asking if the UK—and Europe, by extension—is “psychologically ready” for war. Drawing in part on the World War I precedent, the story warns that Europeans are not prepared for war, that they have grown accustomed to life without war, and that, like their ancestors a century ago, they will be ill-equipped and overwhelmed by war should it arise:

Europeans, and especially Western Europe’s leadership elites, have succumbed to a decades-long “crisis of disbelief,” argues Andrew Michta, a Polish-born American academic who is professor of strategic studies at the Hamilton School, University of Florida.

He argues that the UK, in common with many European nations, has very low levels of psychological preparedness, and that authorities are not being candid about the looming threats.

“The Germans have totally disarmed during the last 30 years. The UK is also largely disarmed and, most importantly, mentally. There is no readiness for what’s happening because the policy elites are not addressing their publics in a way that would honestly state the gravity of the situation,” Michta says.

Michta is right, of course, but it’s even worse than that. About the same time as the BBC ran its story, Jacob Rees-Mogg, a conservative politician, businessman, and social commentator, posted a video to social media calling for Britons—and all Europeans, by extension—to re-embrace the idea of “duty,” the belief that they owe their nation, its institutions, and their countrymen a certain deference, a willingness to give and sacrifice on their behalf. He said that this was especially true as the proverbial winds of war begin to blow across the continent again. He cited the Roman Empire and noted that its collapse was preceded by its citizens’ abandonment of their duty to defend and protect their homeland. That’s all well and good, of course, and Rees-Mogg makes a fair point. Nevertheless, what he is asking is utterly absurd.

Rees-Mogg may, technically, be on the political Right, but that’s largely irrelevant. He’s hardly alone in telling Europeans to prepare to defend themselves. French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz have told their nations much the same. Preparation for tough times has been a theme across the continent of late. More to the point, the European and British “Right” is far from conservative these days. Whatever Rees-Mogg’s personal preferences, his party has been complicit, likely since Thatcher left office, in the destruction of British traditionalism.

All things considered, it’s not unfair to ask: What duty do ordinary people owe to a country and a culture that loathe themselves? How could anyone expect any Briton to give up his life—much less his creature comforts—for God and country, when his leaders, his teachers, his professors, his news presenters, his favorite actors and singers, everyone in his life with any authority has spent the last several decades telling him that God is dead and that his country is a nasty, terrible, oppressive, privilege-fueled menace to all that is good and decent? Why would any Briton—or any Frenchman, or any German, or any Spaniard—fight and die for his country, for his culture? Their cultures are despotic and unjust, or so they have been told all their lives. So what if the Russians want to take over Poland and Estonia? What’s that have to do with us? Why should we care? We should be so lucky. Maybe our energy bills would go down.

A century-plus later, the European Left has come full circle. In 1914, it expected the workers of the world to unite and to throw off the chains of their nationalist oppressors. Today, it and the rest of the European ruling class expect the “workers” to fight and die for them and their prerogatives. They expect sacrifice and “duty” and psychological preparation for war to defend a land, a people, and a culture they have insisted is unworthy of defense. The Left sought to change the culture. It did so. And only now is it realizing that the people, freed from the chains of the old order, are not less egoistic, but more.

If war comes again to Europe, the Left will be disappointed. Again. 

Stephen Soukup

Source: https://amgreatness.com/2026/09/28/the-winds-of-war-blow-through-a-desolate-continent/

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‘Incredible value’ meeting with diplomats on sidelines of UNGA, Jewish groups say - Mike Wagenheim

 

by Mike Wagenheim

Some foreign delegations “really understand how antisemitism is threatening their own countries,” Marina Rosenberg, of the ADL, told JNS.

 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the United Nations in New York City, Sept. 24, 2026. Credit: Arie Leib Abrams/Flash90.

 

Marina Rosenberg, senior vice president for international affairs at the Anti-Defamation League, had good things to say about the German government just before she went into a meeting with German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul on the sideline of the United Nations General Assembly last week.

“That’s one of the governments that fully understand the importance of keeping things as separate as possible but also understand the interconnection between anti-Israel bias and antisemitism, and they’re doing everything possible, including within the European Union, to fight anti-Zionism,” she told JNS.

With other countries, like Spain, Norway and the Netherlands, many of which the ADL had met, the nonprofit has had “a much more difficult conversation, trying to explain to them how their policies vis-a-vis the government of Israel can be completely legitimate,” she said.

“They’re influencing, if they want to or not, the political discourse, the social discourse, vis-a-vis Jews and Israelis in their own countries and beyond and fitting into the antisemitic extremism in those countries,” Rosenberg told JNS. “Some of them understand it but feel that they are under political pressure to keep going and taking actions against Israel.”

Efforts worldwide to undermine support for Israel “are real,” Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, told JNS.

“It’s important for us to fight back against those efforts by being here, by seeing both our friends to bolster their leadership and standing with Israel and to confront the challenges with countries who are taking actions that don’t advance the relationship with their partner but that put division between them and Israel,” Deutch said.

Countries that understand Israel’s importance as a democracy and a regional player “need to to stand up,” the AJC leader told JNS. “The response in so many of these meetings is that we both leave with a bigger commitment to doing the work we do on behalf of Israel.”

Evan Bernstein, the new CEO of B’nai B’rith International, was taking part in his first diplomatic blitz in Turtle Bay.

He told JNS that he’s been talking a lot about the “horseshoe effect,” wherein the antisemitic far left and far right come together to push an anti-Jewish agenda, even as they are otherwise ideologically and politically separated. It’s especially prominent in Europe, according to the B’nai B’rith leader.

“That is something that a lot of the European leaders were not necessarily thinking about. A lot of leaders look at it either from the right or the left,” Bernstein told JNS. “They’re not understanding it’s necessarily both, and it plays into their ability to create plans to combat antisemitism in their countries.”

B’nai B’rith and others are asking world leaders to make sure that they are “understanding where that antisemitism is coming from and where is the uncomfortability coming from within their Jewish communities,” Bernstein said.

He told JNS that Jewish groups, who know the issues deeply, have to go back to the basics when they explain things to the leaders.

“I think it’s a challenge, because a lot of us make assumptions that a lot of these diplomats actually know more than they really do, and I think for us, it’s really an opportunity to re-educate and to have an open dialogue,” Bernstein said. “It’s nice when a diplomat says, ‘Tell us your opinion on this. I don’t know enough.’”

Rosenberg, of the ADL and a former ambassador, told JNS that it’s unclear when diplomats are interested in substance or mere lip service.

“Some countries are really just saying what one would expect—that they’re taking note and of course, antisemitism is a serious problem. But others really understand how antisemitism is threatening their own countries, their own democratic values and how it’s being used in the United Nations for promoting a political agenda,” she said.

Some countries come into meetings with Jewish groups with a set agenda, and some are amid national elections, making a more robust conversation more difficult.

“I do think that they’re interested and they’ve asked a lot of good questions, and I think they’ve used their time very well,” Bernstein said. “I think we were prepped really well to go into conversations.”

He noted the “incredible value” of just being in the room.

“If you talk to my grandparents from the ’30s, they would never have imagined that Jews would have time to sit in front of the president of Poland, or the foreign minister of Germany or senior officials from countries all over the world, and talk about being Jewish, talk about Israel, talk about antisemitism,” Bernstein said.

“It’s something that we take for granted in this generation, but not only a generation ago, we did not have that opportunity, and we have to really hold on to that and keep taking advantage of it,” he told JNS.

Mike Wagenheim

Source: https://www.jns.org/news/u-s-news/incredible-value-meeting-with-diplomats-on-sidelines-of-unga-jewish-groups-say

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Israelis in Austria denied service for being Jews, Israel embassy calls it 'concerning' - report - Jerusalem Post Staff

 

by Jerusalem Post Staff

"Because we are Jewish, that's exactly what he told us," Lidan H., one of the Israelis affected, told the Austrian newspaper Krone.

 

Ilustrative picture from the town of Bad Hofgastein.

(photo credit: SHUTTERSTOCK)

 

An Israeli family was denied service at a restaurant in Bad Hofgastein, a town in Austria located in the Gastein Valley of Salzburg, because they were Jewish, Austrian newspaper Krone reported on Sunday.

According to the statements made by Lidan H. (who didn't share his identity to preserve anonymity), he and his family approached the restaurant in the Austrian town after a day visiting the country's highest mountain.

The owner, who is reportedly Muslim, asked the family where they were from and told them that they would not be able to buy anything from him once they revealed that they were Jews. "Because we are Jewish, that's exactly what he told us," H. told the newspaper.

The report further mentions that H. decided not to confront the seller, and instead complained about the situation to the district administration, which said that it had "initiated administrative penalty proceedings."

The newspaper reached the snack bar vendor, who said that the allegations were "all nonsense," and declined to further comment on the situation.

Bad Hofgastein. Ilustrative. (credit: SHUTTERSTOCK)

Elie Rosen, head of the Jewish community in Austria, told Krone that the antisemitism situation in the country was getting worse every day. “There are more and more isolated incidents,” Rosen said.

“I can no longer listen to these platitudes about antisemitism and how terrible it all is. Now we need more than regretful and empty words," he added, complaining about the lack of response by the Austrian government to the situation.

Israel deeply concerned about the reports

"We are deeply concerned about reports that an Israeli family in Salzburg was denied food because of their identity. Discrimination against Israelis, Jewish women, and Jewish men is unacceptable," said the Israeli embassy in Austria in a Twitter/X post.

"According to reports, there have already been incidents with the same operator in the past. If clarification, warnings, and statements do not have an effect, concrete measures must follow," they added.

"These incidents cannot be viewed entirely in isolation from a climate in which antisemitism is increasingly normalized and false accusations against Israel are all too often left unchallenged. Families and children bear the consequences," Israel's Ambassador to Austria, David Roet, added. 

Jerusalem Post Staff

Source: https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-910007

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