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Antisemitism Watch - August 31, 2026, 09 AM Eastern · Antisemitism Watch

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to Antisemitism Watch. I'm Rachel Adler. Today, we
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  Speaker 1: begin with concerning ties in Michigan's Senate race, where candidate
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  Speaker 1: Abdul El-Sayed shares dozens of donors with a former Republican
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  Speaker 1: congressional candidate whose campaign featured explicit antisemitic attacks. According to
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  Speaker 1: a review by Fox News Digital of Federal Election Commission filings,
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  Speaker 1: these shared donors contributed over $ 61, 000 to their respective campaigns.
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  Speaker 1: The former candidate, Dan Bilzerian, lost his primary bid, but
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  Speaker 1: not before his campaign included antisemitic remarks against Republican U.S.
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  Speaker 1: Representative Randy Fine. Bilzerian's campaign ran an AI-generated ad calling
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  Speaker 1: Fine a fat Jew and, in response to Fox News Digital,
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  Speaker 1: stated that Jewish supremacy is the greatest threat to the
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  Speaker 1: world today. Among the shared donors is Georgia attorney Ibrahim Awad,
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  Speaker 1: who has been quoted accusing Israel of committing a holocaust
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  Speaker 1: in Gaza, that he claims may be worse than the
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  Speaker 1: World War II Holocaust. Reporting also indicates Awad described Zionism
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  Speaker 1: as a poisonous sin and rooted in Jewish supremacy. Awad
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  Speaker 1: contributed over $ 12, 000 to a committee supporting Bilzerian and $ 7, 000
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  Speaker 1: to El-Sayed's campaign. El-Sayed himself has also faced criticism for
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  Speaker 1: associations with social media influencer, Hassan Piker, who has made
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  Speaker 1: controversial statements regarding Hamas and Israel As reported by Fox
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  Speaker 1: News Digital, we turn now to the enduring legacy of
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  Speaker 1: international forums that have attempted to reframe antisemitism. Reporting highlights
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  Speaker 1: the 2001 World Conference Against Racism, or WCAR, in Durban,
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  Speaker 1: South Africa, as a critical moment where the idea of
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  Speaker 1: excusing Jew hatred as political expression, particularly anti-Zionism, was globalised.
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  Speaker 1: Accounts from the time describe the parallel NGO forum being hijacked,
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  Speaker 1: transforming a universal anti-racism gathering into an effort to remove
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  Speaker 1: antisemitism from the agenda. Jewish participants reported harassment, circulation of
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  Speaker 1: the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and posters that
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  Speaker 1: equated Israel with Nazi Germany, deliberately blurring criticism of Israeli
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  Speaker 1: government policy with hostility toward Jews. This, according to reporting,
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  Speaker 1: created a disturbing innovation where conduct condemned against other minorities
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  Speaker 1: was tolerated when directed at Jews, reframing Jewish self-determination as
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  Speaker 1: suspect and antisemitism as merely a political complaint. Erwin Kotler,
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  Speaker 1: then Canada's justice minister, warned against what he termed the
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  Speaker 1: partitioning of prejudice, stating that human rights lose their authority
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  Speaker 1: when applied conditionally. In a separate development, author Richard Flanagan
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  Speaker 1: is reportedly accused of minimizing antisemitism and attacking the Israel lobby.
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  Speaker 1: He is said to have claimed antisemitism envoy Gillian Segal
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  Speaker 1: made grotesque demands to control every aspect of Australian public life,
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  Speaker 1: and ransacked arts. Meanwhile, Vice President J.D. Vance is scheduled
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  Speaker 1: to address the Republican-Jewish Coalition's annual leadership summit. Vance has
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  Speaker 1: recently made sceptical comments toward Israel, diverging from the RJC's
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  Speaker 1: staunch support. For instance, in June, he suggested that Donald
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  Speaker 1: Trump is the only head of state in the entire
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  Speaker 1: world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at
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  Speaker 1: this moment in time. Later, he told podcaster Joe Rogan
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  Speaker 1: that some in the Israeli government are manipulating and trying
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  Speaker 1: to change American public opinion to keep the war going indefinitely.
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  Speaker 1: While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly discussed these comments
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  Speaker 1: with Vance, and Vance has framed his dissent as part
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  Speaker 1: of frank conversations with allies, his remarks have drawn concern
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  Speaker 1: among some Jewish Republicans, according to reporting. On the campus front,
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  Speaker 1: a UCLA computer science doctoral student is suing the University
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  Speaker 1: of California. Dylan Kupsch is seeking to reverse a two-quarter
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  Speaker 1: suspension and obtain a master's degree withheld for over 600 days.
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  Speaker 1: His lawsuit, filed in Lowe's Angels Superior Court, centers on
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  Speaker 1: the 2024 pro-Palestinian protests and alleges viewpoint discrimination and due
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  Speaker 1: process violations, including a lack of meaningful notice of charges.
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  Speaker 1: Kupch faced multiple campus citations between August 2024 and June
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  Speaker 1: 2025 for actions during demonstrations. According to an excerpt of
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  Speaker 1: the suit published by the LA Times, UCLA police urged
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  Speaker 1: university action against Kupch, describing him as a known organizer
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  Speaker 1: and public face of Students for Justice in Palestine. The
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  Speaker 1: university issued an interim suspension in June 2025 while his
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  Speaker 1: disciplinary process proceeded. Regarding institutional responses, A May 2024 report
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  Speaker 1: from the Australian Federal Police's Counter-Terror and Special Investigations Command
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  Speaker 1: was noted as not having been subject to testimony from
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  Speaker 1: a relevant whistleblower before the Antisemitism Royal Commission, according to reporting. Finally,
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  Speaker 1: in positive developments, reporting illustrates the importance of cooperation and
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  Speaker 1: key relationships in combating antisemitism, noting instances where multiple offices
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  Speaker 1: worked to press law enforcement on behalf of individuals. I'm
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  Speaker 1: Rachel Adler, thank you for listening to Antisemitism Watch. This
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  Speaker 1: report was generated with AI assistance and may contain inaccuracies.
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  Speaker 1: Please verify important details with primary sources.