“What is unusual about the brief is its unusually high cross-state participation, indicating a strong belief in the perceived national importance of the case”

Posted on January 11, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

JPOST
Half of US states file brief against AMP, NSJP for providing material support to Hamas on October 7
Mathilda Heller
January 8, 2025

A coalition of 25 US states filed a legal brief (amici curiae) against American Muslims for Palestine and National Students for Justice in Palestine over their role in providing material support to Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023. Amici curiae, or “friends of the court,” are non-parties to a lawsuit who are permitted to provide information to assist in the legal proceedings, usually through filing an amici brief. This brief has been filed in support of a group of survivors of Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attack, family members of those murdered by Hamas, civilians under fire from Hamas’s ongoing terrorism, and individuals displaced by Hamas’s ongoing terrorism. READ MORE

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Politics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

“When asked about antisemitism on the right, Vance has insisted that figures like Tucker Carlson are unfairly maligned and that the Republican “big tent” does not have an antisemitism problem”

Posted on January 10, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

COMMENTARY
The Palestine Firsters
Eli Lake
January 2026

…The cease-fire that [Ben] Rhodes wishes Biden had tacitly accepted would have allowed the terrorists to keep the hostages they stole and would have made sure the Middle East remained in the status quo condition of October 2023. Had Biden successfully pressured Israel to end the war in early 2024, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah would still be alive in Lebanon today. Yahya and Mohammed Sinwar, respectively the mastermind of October 7 and his brother, would still be running Hamas. Iran would still be enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels. Bashar al-Assad would still be ruling Syria. Nasrallah, Iran, and Sinwar all had American blood on their hands. Their violent ends served America’s interests and brought justice for those Americans they murdered. The devastation of Iran and the exiling of Assad from Syria were also just acts against American enemies. But Rhodes seems to assess the Gaza war by counting the costs incurred by the side that started it. He believes that Hamas should have been rewarded instead, or at least not forced to pay any permanent penalty for its act of evil. READ MORE

ALGEMEINER From Kanye, to Nick Fuentes and Megyn Kelly: Why J.D. Vance’s Silence Matters Now Vance’s ties to [Tucker]Carlson are not incidental. Carlson is not merely adjacent to Vance’s politics; he is a close ally, and Vance even employs Carlson’s son. Carlson’s reach — tens of millions of people each week across podcasts, clips, and social platforms — is enormous. That influence now includes the normalization of figures and ideas that were once considered politically radioactive. That is the context in which Vance’s silence must be judged. A growing cohort of influential right-wing pundits has adopted a conspiratorial style long associated with antisemitic politics. With Candace Owens as a notable exception, most avoid naming “the Jews” directly, relying instead on euphemisms — “globalists,” shadowy elites, cultural engineers, disloyal insiders. The vocabulary is coded; the architecture is unmistakable.  

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

NJ Killing IHRA; “Murphy and other Democrats were reportedly concerned that support for the legislation would fuel primary campaigns against incumbents”

Posted on January 9, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

JEWISH INSIDER
Gov. Phil Murphy killed New Jersey antisemitism legislation, sources say
Marc Rod
January 9, 2026

A high-profile New Jersey bill adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism is not expected to pass in the current New Jersey Assembly session, four sources familiar with the situation told Jewish Insider. Two sources familiar with the legislation said that Gov. Phil Murphy opposed the legislation and was a key obstacle to its passage…The bill would have instructed law enforcement to take the IHRA definition into account when determining if violations of state or federal anti-bias law have occurred or whether criminal acts were motivated by antisemitism, and to use it for training public officials and responding to antisemitic incidents. READ MORE

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

“The Exodus story was a model of providential liberation and deliverance for Americans rebelling against Britain’s pharaonic royalty”

Posted on January 9, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

WALL STREET JOURNAL
‘Jewish Roots of American Liberty’Review: A Hebraic Revolution
Rick Richman
December 22, 2025

…The Hebrew Bible maintained an unrivaled authority in early America, says Daniel L.Dreisbach of American University. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries the Bible was the country’s “most accessible, authoritative, and venerated book.” Mr.Dreisbach notes the powerful importance of the Exodus story of providential liberation and deliverance as the model for Americans’ rebellion against Britain’s pharaonic royalty. It was an idea reflected in Lincoln’s description, as he assumed office in 1861, of Americans as an “almost chosen people.” The Exodus wasn’t the only rebellion story that resonated with early Americans. Rabbi Halpern writes that the Book of Esther “has a special place in American history”: In the decade preceding the Revolution, newspapers and preachers cited theJewish queen’s defiance of her king as support for America’s own struggle for freedom. Samson’s self-sacrifice in defeating his Philistine enemies was used by Samuel Adams and others to illustrate the “zeal” of the Sons of Liberty. READ MORE

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Leave a comment

“Communications networks go dark right after start of Tehran protests urged on by exiled crown prince; protesters chant ‘death to the dictator’ and ‘death to the Islamic Republic’”

Posted on January 8, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
Internet, phone lines cut across Iran as thousands rally in Tehran; death toll at 45
January 8, 2026

Thousands of people in Iran’s capital shouted from their homes and rallied in the street Thursday night after a call by the country’s exiled crown prince for a mass demonstration, witnesses said, a new escalation in the protests that have spread nationwide across the Islamic Republic. Internet access and telephone lines in Iran cut out immediately after the protests began. The protest represented the first test of whether the Iranian public could be swayed by Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, whose fatally ill father fled Iran just before the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. Demonstrations have included cries in support of the Shah, something that could bring a death sentence in the past but now underlines the anger fueling the protests that began over Iran’s ailing economy. READ MORE

ARUTZ SHEVA Iranian Crown Prince thanks Trump, slams regime for Internet blackout Reza Pahlavi condemns Iran for cutting communications amid mass protests and thanks President Trump for warning Tehran, urging world leaders to help restore access and support demonstrators.

I24NEWS ‘Netanyahu is most popular figure in Iran,’ says Iranian protester as unrest continues As Iran faces its most intense wave of protests since 2022, a surprising phenomenon is emerging on the streets: open admiration for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and appeals to Israel for help in challenging the Islamic Republic. “Benjamin Netanyahu is today the most popular political figure in Iran,” a Tehran resident and regime opponent told Israeli public radio KAN Reshet Bet this week, speaking under a pseudonym for security reasons.

JPOST Iran’s Khamenei has escape plan to flee to Moscow if regime falls amid protests The supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, reportedly has an “escape plan” that involves fleeing to Russia if the current nationwide protests continue to intensify, British newspaper The Times reported on Sunday. The plan, called “Plan B” by the British report, would include 86-year-old Khamenei and 20 close people, including family and aides. It will also involve a way of taking his vast asset network, which, according to a 2013 Reuters investigation cited by The Times, is valued at about $95 billion…

ISRAEL HAYOM Iranian’s leadership reportedly seeking French visas as regime ‘trembling’ In interview with Le Figaro, reporter Emmanuel Razavi claims the ayatollahs have grown concerned over the “true revolution”, and some senior officials have already begun laying the groundwork by exploring an exit route to France.

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Politics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

“Hamas isn’t hiding its brutality. The hospitals of Al-Shifa, Al-Aqsa and Nasser are not simply medical centers. Hamas has repurposed Gaza’s main hospitals as interrogation sites, cages, gulags for perceived ‘dissidents'”

Posted on January 8, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

GATESTONE
Trump’s Slow, Faltering ‘Peace’ Plan Enabling Hamas to Torture and Murder Palestinians
Khaled Abu Toameh
January 8, 2026

While the US and other countries are talking about the need to move to the second phase of President Donald J. Trump’s 20-point peace plan, the Iran-backed Hamas terror group is continuing to reassert its control over parts of the Gaza Strip that are no longer under Israeli control. Hamas, in addition to rearming and regrouping, has stepped up its crackdown on Palestinians suspected of “collaboration” with Israel. Hamas’s goal is to intimidate and deter the residents of the Gaza Strip and remind them that the terror group has no plans to end its rule or lay down its weapons. As far as Hamas is concerned, any Palestinian who believes in Israel’s right to exist and opposes terrorism is a traitor who should be punished by death. READ MORE

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Politics | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

“Without Israeli experience, technology, and collaboration, the U.S. will be less safe”

Posted on January 8, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

FREE PRESS
The U.S. Needs Israeli Innovation for Our Defense
Michael Doran
December 23, 2025

…For decades, the U.S.–Israel partnership has delivered significant returns: providing the United States with world-leading defense innovation and access to intelligence from across the Middle East. President Donald Trump’s Golden Dome is the latest—and most consequential—expression of that same partnership. Announced by executive order at the end of January, Trump’s signature homeland defense initiative is a layered architecture designed to protect the American heartland from ballistic missiles, hypersonic weapons, cruise missiles, and emerging aerial threats. Golden Dome is not a theoretical exercise. Its purpose is to ensure American survivability under attack. In building such a system, the United States is drawing directly on Israeli technology, Israeli expertise, and Israeli combat experience. Israel contributes to the Golden Dome in three decisive ways. READ MORE

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Politics | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Families of Bondi Beach massacre: “We need to know why clear warning signs were ignored, how antisemitic hatred and Islamic extremism were allowed to dangerously grow unchecked, and what changes must be made”

Posted on January 7, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

COMMENTARY
The Question of Jewish Armed Self-Defense
Seth Mandel
January 6, 2026

In the wake of the Bondi Beach massacre, Hugh Hewitt asked me during a segment on his show whether I thought Jews should arm themselves. I responded that Jews in America are indeed, in increasing numbers, following Vladimir Jabotinsky’s exhortation to “learn to shoot,” though in Australia that choice is foreclosed by the country’s famously restrictive firearm regulations. The freedom to make that choice is what’s most important, because it is a sign of a political system that values individual rights and requires a degree of humility on the part of the state. Australia’s national government, currently led by the cold, feckless Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, exudes neither humility nor a respect for individual citizens. The result is not just atrocities like Bondi Beach but the flagrant mishandling of its aftermath and the robotic adherence to the status quo that produced the tragedy in the first place. READ MORE

DAILY MAIL Anthony Albanese is slammed as disturbing detail emerges in resurfaced footage of PM at a pro-Palestine rally Anthony Albanese has been slammed over old footage of him attending a pro-Palestinian protest while flags belonging to terror groups were being waved near him. Grainy footage, which first resurfaced two years ago, showed the future Prime Minister condemning the actions of the Israeli military during a protest at Martin Place in Sydney’s CBD back in 2000. It showed him standing in the crowd, where a Hezbollah flag was seen being waved metres away. He also addressed attendees with a megaphone to condemn Israel’s actions. 

YOUTUBE Image surfaces of Anthony Albanese meeting with late Palestinian president Yasser Arafat “Sources who knew Albanese at the time told me he was starry-eyed and fawning at the prospect of meeting Yasser Arafat,” she said.  “As I mentioned, the group did not meet with the then Israeli Prime Minister or Israeli President – at the time, Albanese was an activist for the Palestinian cause.” 

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

“If Mamdani’s bigotry and obsessive hate of Israel don’t seem to bother most New Yorkers and even many Jews, then it illustrates how prejudice has become mainstreamed”

Posted on January 7, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
What normalizing antisemitism looks like
Jonathan Tobin
January 8, 2026

What does it look like when you normalize antisemitism rather than making it something that only exists on the margins of society? In the more than two years since the Hamas-led Palestinian attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, American Jews have seen hatred directed against them steadily portrayed as not just a reasonable argument but the work of idealists who oppose a mythical “genocide” perpetrated by “white” oppressors and their supporters. We are now at the point where the views of those who feel that one Jewish state on the planet is one too many—while encouraging terrorism and even contemplating the genocide of Israelis—are considered acceptable public discourse. And many non-Jews and even a sizable minority of Jews in New York City think anyone aware of this should just stop complaining about it. That’s the only conclusion to be drawn from a new poll of New Yorkers that fully demonstrates that Jews are officially being marginalized while antisemites have moved into the mainstream. READ MORE

ALGEMEINER When Standards Disappear: What the Mamdani Reversals Reveal About Jewish Political Vulnerability When New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani took office, he pledged to “protect our Jewish neighbors.” Within hours of taking power and very deliberately, he reversed two policies that many Jewish New Yorkers had reasonably understood as core safeguards: New York City’s adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, and restrictions barring city officials from participating in boycotts or divestment campaigns against Israel.

Posted in Israel & Middle East | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

“ADL will have to give up on its previous tactics of forming useless alliances and adopting counterproductive universalist causes that, at best, gain the Jews nothing”

Posted on January 7, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

NO DELUSIONS, NO DESPAIR
The ADL must transform
Benjamin Kerstein
January 7, 2025

…So, the question is: What will the ADL do now? A very large number of Jews are asking this question. Indeed, they ask me this question all the time, particularly since the publication of my book on Jewish self-defense. Beneath the question lies a seething anger: Where is the ADL? they ask. Why aren’t they protecting us? Why aren’t they fighting? Why aren’t they there for us? Where are they? These are all reasonable queries. After all, in the end, the ADL has one job, which is to protect American Jews from antisemitism. In this task, it has manifestly failed. The evidence is everywhere. The antisemitic Islamist-progressive Red-Green Alliance is rising to the heights of national politics. An open antisemite has been elected mayor of New York. “Protesters” still hold their antisemitic hate rallies on a regular basis, including outside synagogues. Jews continue to be harassed and assaulted. Several murders of both Jews and non-Jews have been committed by progressive and Muslim antisemites. READ MORE

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment