Latest / Antisemitism Watch / Antisemitism Watch - August 26, 2026, 09 PM Eastern

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Antisemitism Watch - August 26, 2026, 09 PM Eastern · Antisemitism Watch

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: You're listening to Antisemitism Watch. I'm Rachel Adler. We begin
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  Speaker 1: with deeply concerning allegations of plotted attacks. An alleged commander
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  Speaker 1: for the Iraqi terrorist group Qatib Hezbollah, identified as Mohammed al-Sadi,
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  Speaker 1: has demanded prisoner-of-war status in a court filing. His lawyers
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  Speaker 1: argue that his alleged service to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,
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  Speaker 1: through its proxy group, means he should be afforded protection
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  Speaker 1: under the Third Geneva Convention. Al-Sadi is accused of plotting
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  Speaker 1: to bomb synagogues in the United States and carrying out
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  Speaker 1: terrorist attacks in Europe. According to the court filing reviewed
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  Speaker 1: by JNS, his defence contends he should be treated as
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  Speaker 1: a prisoner of war rather than a common criminal, given
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  Speaker 1: the ongoing international armed conflict in the Middle East. Moving
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  Speaker 1: to direct threats, authorities in Ireland have arrested a man
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  Speaker 1: in his 60s for allegedly threatening a Jewish woman with death,
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  Speaker 1: reportedly saying he would put a bullet in her head.
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  Speaker 1: This incident is being noted as part of a rise
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  Speaker 1: in anti-Semitic threats and remarks made against tourists in Ireland
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  Speaker 1: this summer, according to reporting from the Irish Times. In Israel,
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  Speaker 1: authorities are investigating a hate crime after a window was
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  Speaker 1: broken at a reform synagogue in Ramat Hasharon on Sunday.
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  Speaker 1: Congregation Darche Nome reported that a paving stone was used
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  Speaker 1: to smash the window, dismissing the idea that it was accidental.
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  Speaker 1: This follows a similar incident less than two weeks prior
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  Speaker 1: at a Reform synagogue in Jerusalem, where vandals smashed a
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  Speaker 1: window and damaged property. The mayor of Ramat Hasharan has
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  Speaker 1: condemned the attack and called for a thorough police investigation,
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  Speaker 1: stating the city is committed to pluralism and tolerance. In Yorktown,
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  Speaker 1: New York, hateful symbols including a swastika were discovered and
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  Speaker 1: subsequently removed from the Atomic War Veterans Memorial Bridge. Town
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  Speaker 1: Supervisor Ed Latchterman condemned the vandalism, stating that such acts
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  Speaker 1: of hate have no place in the community. The case
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  Speaker 1: was referred to New York State Police, but authorities indicated
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  Speaker 1: a low chance of identifying a suspect due to the
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  Speaker 1: unknown time frame and lack of surveillance cameras. Town crews
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  Speaker 1: removed the symbols promptly. In politics and media, a significant
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  Speaker 1: controversy involves donors to Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed. Reporting
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  Speaker 1: indicates that several individuals contributing thousands to El-Sayed's campaign have
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  Speaker 1: also funded Dan Bilzerian, described as a Hitler-praising and Jew-hating
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  Speaker 1: congressional candidate. A key overlapping donor, Ibrahim Awad, has posted
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  Speaker 1: remarks equating Zionism to Nazism. Both El-Sayed and Bilzerian share
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  Speaker 1: strong opposition to AIPAC and Israel, but their donor overlap
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  Speaker 1: suggests El-Sayed's rhetoric appeals to donors who also support hateful content.
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  Speaker 1: Bilzerian himself has utilized overtly anti-Semitic campaign ads. Further political
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  Speaker 1: backlash surrounds far-left streamer Hassan Piker. Prominent Democrats, including House
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  Speaker 1: Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Representative Josh Gotthamer, have condemned
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  Speaker 1: Piker for suggesting that American Jews could face violence if
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  Speaker 1: they are perceived as too invested in Israel. Gotthamer has
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  Speaker 1: called for a congressional vote to condemn Piker, stating his
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  Speaker 1: remarks are right out of the Nazi playbook. While Piker
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  Speaker 1: clarified that anti-Zionism is not antisemitism, his comments have drawn
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  Speaker 1: widespread criticism from across the political spectrum. Separately, actress Jane
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  Speaker 1: Fonda has defended actor Mark Ruffalo after he faced accusations
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  Speaker 1: of antisemitism. Ruffalo had criticized a proposed media merger, and
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  Speaker 1: Paramount responded by stating they were troubled when antisemitic tropes
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  Speaker 1: were invoked. Ruffalo denied the accusations, asserting his criticism targeted
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  Speaker 1: business actions and not Jewish people. Fonda, through the Committee
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  Speaker 1: for the First Amendment, called the accusation a smear, intended
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  Speaker 1: to distract from concerns about media consolidation and to silence
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  Speaker 1: political speech. An article in Hellgate, reviewing transcripts from a
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  Speaker 1: New York Times interview, suggests the Times repeatedly pressed Governor
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  Speaker 1: Kathy Hochul on Mayor Zorin, Mamdani's potential contributions to anti-Semitism,
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  Speaker 1: and their differing views on Israel. The review implies Mamdani's
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  Speaker 1: anti-Israel rhetoric may be fueling rising anti-Semitism, a concern he
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  Speaker 1: had reportedly shared with the mayor. Online, controversy has also
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  Speaker 1: emerged around the family of Republican U.S. Senate nominee Mike Collins.
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  Speaker 1: His son-in-law, David Alan Shear-Ayeye, has posted white nationalist and
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  Speaker 1: anti-Semitic content to a large social media following, including praise
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  Speaker 1: for Adolf Hitler. This emerged weeks after Collins secured his
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  Speaker 1: party's nomination. Also online, Dolly Parton's Wikipedia page was vandalized
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  Speaker 1: with a Nazi swastika and antisemitic slurs, including Jew lover,
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  Speaker 1: within hours of her death. The edits, which also referenced
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  Speaker 1: Adam Lanza, were quickly reversed by Wikipedia editors. The campaign
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  Speaker 1: against antisemitism called the edits utterly despicable. On the campus front,
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  Speaker 1: administrators at Townsend Harris High School in Queens, New York,
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  Speaker 1: engaged the Council on American Islamic Relations, or CAIR, to
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  Speaker 1: train students and staff on responding to antisemitism. This occurred
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  Speaker 1: after Jewish students experienced a wave of bigotry following October 7th.
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  Speaker 1: CAIR has been described as an anti-Zionist group labeled a
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  Speaker 1: terrorist organization by two U.S. states. In Missouri, a new
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  Speaker 1: law targeting antisemitism in schools is raising concerns about potential
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  Speaker 1: conflicts with First Amendment rights. In Australia, a Royal Commission
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  Speaker 1: into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion established after the Bondi terrorist attack,
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  Speaker 1: has concluded its public hearings. Over 300 witnesses testified, highlighting
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  Speaker 1: the significant breadth and intensity of hostility faced by Jews
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  Speaker 1: since October 7, with testimonies detailing intimidation in schools, universities,
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  Speaker 1: and public service. An interim report noted that NSW police
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  Speaker 1: appeared not to have completed a comprehensive risk assessment for
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  Speaker 1: a high-risk Jewish festival prior to the attack. and recommendations
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  Speaker 1: have been made regarding counterterrorism coordination. In a policy shift,
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  Speaker 1: Mayor Zoran Mamdani, on his first day in office, reportedly
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  Speaker 1: scrapped the office to combat antisemitism's previous use of the
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  Speaker 1: International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, or IHRA, working definition. Finally, a
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  Speaker 1: review of Omar Bartov's 2026 book, Israel, What Went Wrong?,
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  Speaker 1: highlights the author's arguments. Bartov, a professor of Holocaust and
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  Speaker 1: Genocide Studies, contends that Zionism transformed into ethnonationalism, leading to
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  Speaker 1: Palestinian exclusion and domination. The review notes Bartov describes both
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  Speaker 1: the Holocaust and the Nakba as nationalist efforts to eliminate
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  Speaker 1: unwanted populations to secure an ethnonationalist state. Bartov also argued
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  Speaker 1: that Israeli actions in Gaza by June 2024 had met
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  Speaker 1: the legal criteria for an accusation of genocide. I'm Rachel Adler,
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  Speaker 1: thank you for joining me on Antisemitism Watch. This report
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  Speaker 1: was generated with AI assistance and may contain inaccuracies. Please
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  Speaker 1: verify important details with primary sources.