Category: Israel
Iran’s Supreme Leader Prepared To Flee to Moscow if Regime Loses Control
Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei has prepared an escape plan to flee Tehran and seek refuge in Moscow if unrest inside the country spirals beyond the regime’s control, according to an intelligence report shared with the Times of London.
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Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs accuses NYC Mayor Mamdani of anti-Semitism after his first day in office
Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani of anti-Semitism over moves the freshly inaugurated mayor made during his first day in office Thursday.
The New York Times said Mamdani canceled two executive orders by his predecessor — former Mayor Eric Adams — that had barred city agencies from boycotting Israel and defined some criticism of Israel as anti-Semitic.
‘Singling out Israel for sanctions is not the way to make Jewish New Yorkers feel included and safe, and will undermine any words to that effect.’
“On his very first day as @NYCMayor, Mamdani shows his true face: He scraps the IHRA definition of antisemitism and lifts restrictions on boycotting Israel,” the Foreign Ministry wrote on X. “This isn’t leadership. It’s antisemitic gasoline on an open fire.”
The Times called the statement from Israel’s Foreign Ministry “an extraordinary accusation of anti-Jewish animosity.”
Israel’s consul general in New York, Ofir Akunis, added that Mamdani’s decision posed “an immediate threat to the safety of Jewish communities in New York City and could lead to an increase in violent anti-Semitic attacks throughout the city,” according to the paper.
The Times said New York City is home to the largest Jewish population outside of Israel.
More from the paper:
Mr. Mamdani has been a strong critic of Israel and its treatment of the Palestinians throughout his public life, and the Israeli government has denounced him before. As recently as October, it described him as someone who “excuses terror and normalizes antisemitism” and said he “stands with Jews only when they are dead.”
The two Israel-related executive orders revoked on Thursday were among a dozen orders issued by Mr. Mamdani’s predecessor, Eric Adams, that were canceled or amended by the new mayor on his first day in office. A spokeswoman for Mr. Mamdani had no immediate comment but said that the mayor expected to address Israel’s comments at an unrelated news conference in Brooklyn on Friday afternoon.
On Friday, a coalition of major Jewish organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and the UJA Federation of New York, issued a joint statement opposing the cancellation of the executive orders.
The statement indicated Mamdani had “reversed two significant protections against antisemitism” and expressed particular alarm over the revocation of Adams’ ban on city agencies boycotting Israel, the Times said, adding that Adams signed that executive order just last month.
“Singling out Israel for sanctions is not the way to make Jewish New Yorkers feel included and safe, and will undermine any words to that effect,” the statement said, according to the paper.
The other Adams order Mamdani canceled was a definition of anti-Semitism from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance and included 11 examples intended to illustrate anti-Jewish bigotry — seven of which include or relate in some way to criticism of Israel, the Times said.
Mamdani’s views on Israel have been controversial, to say the least. The Times said the new mayor has criticized the Jewish state “in ways that were once seen as unthinkable for an elected official in New York.”
For instance, the paper said Mamdani has called Israel an apartheid state and has supported accusations that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza. Mamdani also has supported the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel — and he even wants the New York Police Department to enforce an arrest warrant against the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Times added.
But the ride into office hasn’t been completely smooth for Mamdani, either. Last month, one of his appointees was forced to resign after the Anti-Defamation League brought to light anti-Semitic social media posts.
RELATED: ‘Money hungry Jews’: Mamdani appointee abruptly quits after her anti-Semitic online posts resurface
Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP via Getty Images
The New York Post noted other officials who criticized Mamdani’s moves.
Bruce Blakeman, executive for Nassau County and a Republican gubernatorial candidate, said in a statement that “Mayor Mamdani wasted no time showing New Yorkers exactly who he is,” the Post reported. “His very first executive action as mayor was not to address crime, public safety, or quality of life — it was to repeal protections for Jewish people. At a moment of exploding anti-Semitism, Mamdani sent a message that Jewish concerns are negotiable and Jewish safety is optional. It’s indefensible.”
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) posted on X that “Zohran is officially the face of the Democrat Party,” the Post added.
Brooklyn Republican Councilwoman Inna Vernikov urged Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York to stand up to Mamdani, the Post said: “@GovKathyHochul can fix this with the stroke of a pen! Will she stand up to Mamdani or will she cower to avoid a Mamdani primary? The Jewish community is watching!”
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Netanyahu Shares What Must Happen Before Gaza Can Have Future Government
‘I think Hamas understands it’
While Lebanon Dithers, Israel Continues to Degrade Hezbollah
Lebanese efforts to disarm Hezbollah continue at a glacial pace. Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam stated that the first phase…
Left-Wing Mayor Faces Calls To Resign for Saying Bondi Beach Terror Attack Was ‘False Flag’
Richmond, Calif., mayor Eduardo Martinez is facing calls to resign after reposting anti-Semitic social media content that labeled Australia’s Bondi Beach mass shooting an Israeli “false flag” operation and blamed Israel for rising anti-Semitism.
The post Left-Wing Mayor Faces Calls To Resign for Saying Bondi Beach Terror Attack Was ‘False Flag’ appeared first on .
‘No Alternative’ to the IDF: Israel Privately Presses Trump To Give International Troops Deadline To Disarm Hamas
JERUSALEM—Israel’s government is privately pressing President Donald Trump’s administration to set a deadline for international troops to disarm Hamas in the Gaza Strip, according to three Israeli officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The post ‘No Alternative’ to the IDF: Israel Privately Presses Trump To Give International Troops Deadline To Disarm Hamas appeared first on .
This Christmas season, Middle East Christians are under threat
Last December, my country finally threw off the chains of a hated, despotic regime. For many Syrians, it was a moment filled with hope — the belief that decades of repression had given way to a chance for renewal. Yet by March 2025, that hope had begun to fade. Parts of the country slipped into chaos. Videos circulated on social media and WhatsApp showing armed Islamist militias attacking civilian Christians, Druze, and anyone they branded as “infidels.”
Homes were burned. Entire families were killed. The first wave of violence was expanding and closing in on Christian communities of Suwayda in southern Syria, where many of my family members live.
While Israel has faced a campaign of withering international criticism, American Catholics and evangelicals are hearing very little about the plight of Christians from Egypt to Iran.
Then the killing stopped. It wasn’t widely publicized, but Israel — Syria’s southern neighbor — stepped in to prevent a massacre. Decisive military action stopped the slaughter of men, women, and children — our own relatives — in Suwayda.
For Arab Christians who have lived through so much war and persecution, it was a moment of relief but also a reminder of how little the world seems to care. When Christians are murdered in the Middle East, it rarely makes headlines.
As we come into the Christmas season and a new year, Christians are vanishing under Islamist violence and official repression.
In Lebanon, Hezbollah’s control and Iranian power have sent the Christian population into a tailspin. In Iraq, the number of Christians has dwindled to just over 100,000 faithful from over one million barely a decade ago. Even in small pockets of Christian life, supposed “safe havens” like Ain Kawa in Erbil, Iraq, Christians survive only because local authorities offer protection. From Sudan to Syria, ancient Christian communities have collapsed in just a generation.
The cradle of Christianity, with few exceptions, has become a region where believers cannot worship or gather without threats to our lives. Intervention from Israel helped prevent a massacre of Christian communities in Suwayda. But the world needs to pay attention to protect the Christians of the Arab world.
Western interest in the Middle East has mostly focused on Hamas’ brutal attacks on Israel in 2023 and Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza. While Israel has faced a campaign of withering international criticism, American Catholics and evangelicals are hearing very little about the plight of Christians from Egypt to Iran. Legacy media ignores them. TikTok algorithms suppress them.
It is perverse that right now — with Christian communities across the Middle East facing extinction — prominent voices like Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes are ostracizing Christian Zionism as “a heresy.” In fact, Israel is the best friend Christians in the Middle East can hope to have. Alone in the region, Israel hosts a growing Christian population; alone in the region, Israel has intervened time and again to save Christian communities from eradication.
RELATED: The real question isn’t war or peace — it’s which century we choose
Photo by AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP via Getty Images
Our brethren in Syria and across the Middle East need our help this year more than ever before. Where churches are destroyed and believers persecuted, American Christians must pay attention, pray, and speak out.
More than that — contra Carlson — let us reach beyond our community. We can and must bring together a coalition of conscience in defense of persecuted minorities abroad, including human rights NGOs, brave anti-Islamist Muslims, and friendly governments in the region.
As Christmas approaches, the Christians of the Arab world are desperately calling for our help. This season, let us answer them.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.
The Foreign Policy Winners and Losers of 2025
The first year of the second Donald Trump presidential term has been a carnival of outrages and delights. Historians will struggle to make sense of the whirlwind of activity around the Oval Office, but some big events are already clear. The year has had some big winners, including:
The post The Foreign Policy Winners and Losers of 2025 appeared first on .
Chanukah Is Relevant for Everyone — but Not in the Way You Might Think
Of all the holidays on the Jewish calendar, Chanukah, which began last Sunday evening, has always been one of my…
Norman Podhoretz, a Grateful American
It is one of my favorite stories, told in Norman Podhoretz’s 2000 book My Love Affair with America—a tale for which I told my friend Norman, who died this week at the age of 95, I am eternally grateful, as it features so often in my sermons:
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