“The concerns that caused Podhoretz to change his views more than a half century ago were basically the same as those that led his allies today to lament the resurgence of anti-Semitism and hostility to Israel after the October 7”

Posted on December 26, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

CITY JOURNAL
Norman Podhoretz: the Undeceived
James Piereson
December 30, 2025

… Podhoretz was widely known for his transition in the late 1960s from radicalism to conservatism, in defiance of views widely and vehemently held by those who then dominated New York’s intellectual scene. In rejecting his youthful views and, much worse, turning himself into a conservative, Podhoretz became an outcast among his former friends, as he chronicled in Ex Friends, one of his later books. But by turning in those credentials, he won a larger following not only among Jews but also among many Americans who were not Jewish and had never stepped foot in Manhattan but looked to him, and to Commentary, the magazine he edited, for guidance in cutting through the fashionable left-wing views that they encountered in schools, Hollywood movies, and television news programs. It was a response that he did not expect but certainly welcomed. READ MORE

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“Despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s denials, Iran will be the central issue in his upcoming meeting with US President Donald Trump”

Posted on December 23, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

ISRAEL HAYOM (by agreement with JNS)
Iran core issue in Trump-Netanyahu meeting despite denials
Danny Zaken
December 23, 2025

…A second major topic on the agenda is Gaza and the transition to the next Phase. The Americans have been unable to assemble a multinational force due to countries’ refusal to deploy troops while Hamas remains armed. As a result, Washington is turning its attention to the civilian track. The expectation is that following the meeting or meetings, an announcement will be made on the launch of a reconstruction process through the establishment of a new governing civilian body, largely composed of Palestinians who previously worked for the Palestinian Authority. Israel Hayom has reported that lists of some of the candidates expected to assume civilian authority have been transferred to Israel for security vetting, to ensure they are not affiliated with Hamas.” READ MORE

ALGEMEINER Israeli Defense Minister Says Military to Maintain Presence in Gaza but No Plans to Resettle Enclave Israel’s defense minister on Tuesday said that the Israeli military will maintain a long-term presence in Gaza for security reasons but denied any intention to resettle the Palestinian enclave. Israel Katz, speaking at a settlement in the West Bank, said the military would never leave all of Gaza and planned to station a type of unit – Nahal – that has historically played a role in establishing Israeli communities, including settlements. After some Israeli media reported the comment as a plan to resettle Gaza, where Israel dismantled settlements in 2005, Katz issued a statement saying, “The government has no intention of establishing settlements in the Gaza Strip.”

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“The future of Israeli diplomacy will be shaped not only by alliances or declarations, but by technologies so essential that they bind nations together in ways traditional diplomacy cannot”

Posted on December 22, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

JPOST
Israeli technology has become the country’s most powerful diplomatic asset
Hilla Haddad Chmelnik
December 23, 2025

…Over the past two years, Israeli innovation has evolved from a competitive advantage into a form of diplomatic gravity. Nowhere is this shift clearer than in the domain of air defense. What began as battlefield innovation has become a strategic asset influencing policy decisions in Europe, the Gulf, and Asia. Israel’s air-defense systems have demonstrated effectiveness under real threat, encouraging governments to preserve stable channels with Jerusalem, even during moments of political friction. Air defense is not the entire story, but it is the clearest demonstration of how technological leadership can shape international behavior. READ MORE

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“Jerusalem traded energy for leverage, tying Cairo to its fuel supplies while securing strategic calm despite ongoing violations in Sinai”

Posted on December 22, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
The real purpose of Israel’s gas deal with Egypt
Ariel Kahana
December 20, 2025

The signing of the massive natural gas deal with Egypt goes far beyond its $34 billion price tag. One of the main reasons for the agreement’s delay was Egypt’s problematic approach to Israel on political and security issues. According to information gathered in recent years, Egypt has deployed forces in Sinai far beyond what is permitted under the security annex of the 1979 peace treaty. It has also built tunnels deep in the peninsula for storing weapons and has suspiciously extended runways at airfields…Israeli officials believe that once gas deliveries begin, this will serve as leverage to deter Cairo from violating the peace treaty. READ MORE

WALL STREET JOURNAL Amit Segal: Selling F-35s to Turkey Could Lead to War Turkey embodies everything it accuses Israel of being. Psychologists call it “projection”: When President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accuses Israel of encroaching on its neighbors’ territory in an attempt to establish “Greater Israel,” he’s mirroring his own desire to revive the Ottoman Empire, which once ruled those same regions. When he claims that Israel has “set its sights on” Turkey, he ignores his own prayers to Allah asking for Israel’s destruction. While claiming that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians, he denies the genocide his country committed against the Armenians. When he accuses Israel of attempting to turn the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem into a Jewish temple, he ignores that he turned the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul from a church into a mosque over international protests.

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“At AmericaFest, Shapiro went after Carlson for hosting Fuentes — whom he called “a Hitler apologist, Nazi-loving, anti-American piece of refuse””

Posted on December 21, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

JPOST
Ben Shapiro deserves support for calling out right-wing antisemitism at Turning Point USA
Steven Burg
December 24, 2025

This past weekend at Turning Point USA, Ben Shapiro took the stage and did what too few have been willing to do: he told the truth and drew a line in the sand against antisemitism in the conservative movement. His courage matters, and we all need to pay attention. Shapiro didn’t mince words. He called out Nick Fuentes as exactly what he is, a pro-Hitler racist whose venom extends far beyond Jews to include women – including the vice president’s wife – Black Americans, Asian Americans, and countless others. He confronted the troubling reality that figures like Tucker Carlson have given Fuentes a platform, attempting to mainstream his toxic ideology. He challenged Carlson’s increasingly anti-Israel rhetoric and Candace Owens’ transformation from someone who built her career with support from Israeli venture capitalists to a voice that demonizes the Jewish people. READ MORE

YOUTUBE Ben Shapiro TPUSA Speech: Truth Over Cowardice and Grifting Ben Shapiro warned Thursday night on the stage of Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest that the future of the conservative movement depends on a commitment to truth, arguing that grifters and frauds are putting both conservatism and the country at risk.

NY POST Megyn Kelly blasts Ben Shapiro, Bari Weiss, claims ‘they are making antisemites’ Megyn Kelly blasted Ben Shapiro for what she called his “betrayal” after he publicly singled her out at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest — then turned her fire on Bari Weiss for amplifying his speech as the conservative movement’s internal feud spilled onto the main stage. Kelly told Vanity Fair that Shapiro’s onstage broadside left her “flabbergasted” and accused Shapiro and Weiss of fueling antisemitism by trying to shut down criticism of Israel. “They are making antisemites,” the former Fox News primetime host said in the article published Monday.

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Have you heard the one about three guys (one of whom is the Son of Hamas) who go into a tunnel?

Posted on December 21, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

YISHAI FLEISHER
Under the real location of the Second Temple; What we found is astonishing
December 21, 2025

Holiday Special in secret locked areas under the Temple Mount with Knesset Member Ohad Tal, Mosab Hassan Yousef (Author, Activist AKA The Green Prince, “Son of Hamas” and me. Mosab says “The evidence is overwhelming and … this is the only way to experience truth.” You’ll learn things you never knew. Exclusive new video filmed on location by Joshua Fleisher and Shlomo Weprin. Click here to view

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VDH: The prime minister of Australia “talks as if guns were animate and murdered Jews without the aid of radical Islamic killers”

Posted on December 21, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

FREE PRESS
Jews Are Being Sent Back Into Hiding
David Wolpe and Deborah Lipstadt
December 15, 2025

…For decades, when American Jews traveled in a foreign country and wanted to visit a synagogue, they knew that they had to call ahead, confirm their attendance, and bring proper identification with them. If they were unsure how to find the location of the synagogue, locals would offer two prompts: “Look for men in baseball caps and suits, and follow them.” The baseball caps concealed the kippah underneath. Then, informants might add: “And if that does not avail, look up and down the street for the police cars and gendarmes with their carbines. That’s the synagogue.” That used to be the case on other continents. Now, the same instructions apply to the United States. Every synagogue has security, many featuring metal detectors and armed guards. So that people can gather and pray. In America. READ MORE

NEW YORK POST Victor Davis Hanson: We know the reasons for violence against Jews — but refuse to say them aloud  Jews celebrating Hanukkah were just slaughtered by Muslim gunmen on an Australian beach, in an imitation of the Oct. 7 massacres. An inert Europe is canceling Christmas celebrations out of fear of threats of violence from Muslim minorities. In the West, when an Islamist shoots a Jew, politicians often offer two bizarre remedies: gun control or a task force to tackle Islamophobia. Yet, our political class rarely offers data on the overwhelming preponderance of targeting Jews rather than Muslims, much less the vast disparity in Jewish-on-Muslim versus Muslim-on-Jewish violence. To catalog all the recent violence against Jews in the Western world would fill a book.

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“VP Vance says all are welcome on the right, including figures who promote conspiracy theories”

Posted on December 21, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

JTA
Vance declines to draw a line against rising influence of antisemitic figures in Republican party
Grace Gilson
December 24, 2025

In the latest round of conservative infighting over the mainstreaming of antisemitic figures within the GOP, Vice President JD Vance has once again declined to draw a red line. At the center of the controversy that has roiled the Republican Party is Nick Fuentes, the antisemitic and white nationalist livestreamer who set off a firestorm after he voiced his disdain for “these Zionist Jews” in a friendly interview with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson in October…Earlier this month, Vance also dismissed claims that antisemitism is surging within the Republican Party and said that the “the single most significant thing you could do to eliminate anti-semitism” was lowering immigration to the United States. READ MORE

FREE PRESS Eli Lake:Vance Wants Open Borders in the MAGA Coalition Vance has aligned himself with the side that wants to keep the MAGA tent as wide as possible. And that means he is on Team Tucker Carlson. On the other side of the party’s civil war are conservatives like Newsweek senior editor Josh Hammer, Fox News host Mark Levin, and Shapiro. Shapiro’s speech denounced those inside the MAGA coalition who were too afraid to call out conspiracy theory hokum, lest they offend their very-online audiences. In short, Shapiro is asking the MAGA coalition to enforce its own borders and keep out the kooks, conspiracy theorists, and antisemites.

JEWISH INSIDER JD Vance links youth antisemitism to immigration, demographics of Gen Z He blamed the increase in antisemitism on immigration and the demographic makeup of younger Americans. “‘We imported a lot of people with ethnic grievances prior generations didn’t have. We celebrated this as the fruits of multiculturalism. Now we’re super surprised that the people we imported with ethnic grievances still have those ethnic grievances,’” Vance wrote, arguing that “the most significant single thing you could do to eliminate anti-semitism and any other kind of ethnic hatred is to support our efforts to lower immigration and promote assimilation.”

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“On Hanukkah night, amid terror and confusion, the true story was written by Jews who ran toward danger to protect one another”

Posted on December 20, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

TABLET MAG
The Maccabees of Bondi Beach
Nicole Wizman
December 21, 2025

…In the hours and days that followed, one story quickly rose above the rest. Footage circulating online showed a heroic bystander, later identified as Ahmed al-Ahmed, rushing toward one of the attackers and wrestling a gun out of the terrorist’s hands. As the footage spread rapidly across social media and news broadcasts, it soon came to dominate the public conversation, increasingly framing the attack as a story of Muslim-Jewish reconciliation rather than an act of antisemitic violence, with Ahmed al-Ahmed becoming the central figure through which the massacre was understood. This reframing allows Australia to look away from its deeper failures that made the attack possible. It also obscures another critical fact: that there were many Jews at the event who also behaved with unbelievable heroism and bravery, whose names have been largely absent from the narrative. READ MORE

NEW YORK POST Muslim Bondi Beach hero who disarmed terrorist branded a ‘traitor’ in Arab media for saving Jewish lives The heroic Syrian-Australian man who disarmed one of the terrorists firing at a crowd of Hanukkah revelers at Australia’s Bondi Beach has been slammed as a traitor by many Palestinian commenters for saving Jewish lives, according to a new report. After the West Bank-based Ramallah News outlet shared a story about the life-saving actions taken by Ahmed al Ahmed, 43, many of the outlet’s readers trashed the Muslim hero and prayed that he would not recover from his serious injuries, according to an analysis by the Israeli-based Palestinian Media Watch (PMW).

JPOST Gefen Bitton, Israeli who tried to stop Bondi Beach shooter, in coma in critical condition Israeli national Gefen Bitton, who ran towards the Bondi Beach shooters to try and stop them, has been hospitalized and is in a coma, the Sydney Morning Herald reported on Saturday. Bitton was seriously wounded while trying to assist and stop the attackers. The man in his 30s works as a garage door installer. Although he had initially managed to escape the danger, he chose to return to the scene upon realising what was happening.

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“Australia has long tolerated the proponents of such mayhem and silenced those who raise the alarm”

Posted on December 20, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

CITY JOURNAL
The Massacre at Bondi Beach Was Inevitable
Douglas Murray
December 16, 2025

…Just this past June, Australia barred an Israeli called Hillel Fuld from coming into the country. Fuld is a pro-Israel activist whose brother Ari Fuld was stabbed to death by a jihadist terrorist in 2018. Ari Fuld was a hero in his life and in his final moments when, taking on the terrorist, he saved many more lives. But the Australian authorities were persuaded that the brother of the slain Ari could cause a risk to “health, safety or good order” in Australia. And so, he was barred from entry. It is worth digesting that for a moment. A man whose brother was killed by a terrorist should not enter Australia because he could potentially alert people to the threat of Islamist terrorism. Which could in itself cause public disorder. READ MORE

FUTURE OF JEWISH When Jews start packing suitcases, everyone should be concerned. There is a statistic so chilling, so historically resonant, that it should dominate every front page, every political speech, every national conversation in Britain….According to new polling by the Campaign Against Antisemitism, 61 per cent of British Jews have considered leaving the UK. Last year it was 50 per cent. This year, 51 per cent say they no longer believe they have a long-term future in this country…“History teaches us one clear truth: When Jews begin eyeing their suitcases, the whole of society is already in deep trouble. Because whatever corrodes the safety of Jews corrodes the nation that houses them”

YESHIVA WORLD ‘Duty to Kill Jews’: Men Convicted in ISIS-Inspired Plot to Unleash Mass Shooting on Jews in Manchester Two men who plotted a mass-casualty gun attack aimed at British Jews—an assault police say could have become the deadliest terrorist atrocity in UK history—have been found guilty after their plan was dismantled by an undercover operative…The court heard that Walid Saadaoui harbored a “visceral dislike” of Jewish people and was determined to carry out a large-scale shooting at a Jewish gathering, deliberately seeking out firearms and ammunition because lesser weapons were, in his words, “not good enough.”

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