Speaking before the House Foreign Affairs Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee, Prof. Eugene Kontorovich, senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, contended that, under widely applied principles of international law, Israel has a strong sovereign claim to Judea and Samaria, the Biblical lands historically known as the central highlands north and south of Jerusalem.
Kontorovich cited specifically uti possidetis juris, which states that newly-formed states should inherit the administrative boundaries that existed at the moment they gained independence.
He noted that the term “West Bank” was introduced only after Jordan conquered and annexed the area in 1950; prior to that, the region was simply part of the British (League of Nations) Mandate for Palestine — given its name by the Romans in vengeance for their war against the Jews, by naming it after the Jews’ ancient enemy, the Philistines — which included all of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza.
According to Kontorovich, when the Mandate ended in 1948 and Israel declared independence, it inherited the borders of the last highest-level administrative unit. Therefore, he contended that Israel’s borders initially extended to the entirety of what was called Mandatory Palestine, because no separate administrative subdivision existed for Judea, Samaria, or Gaza.
Kontorovich emphasized that the doctrine of uti possidetis juris has been applied consistently worldwide — in Latin America, Africa, the post-Soviet space, and the Balkans — often producing borders that include minorities or groups with competing historical or demographic claims. He cited examples such as Crimea and Nagorno-Karabakh to argue that actual control or demographic ties do not override inherited administrative borders. Thus, he maintains that Jordan’s 1948–67 occupation of Judea and Samaria, which he described as unlawful and accompanied by the expulsion of Jews, did not alter Israel’s underlying sovereign rights. Israel’s 1967 capture of the territory, he argued, therefore did not constitute the occupation of foreign land. Kontorovich concluded that while international law does not mandate a Palestinian state or 1949 armistice lines as borders, Israel remains free to negotiate and cede territory if it chooses.
Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) presented a historical-political narrative emphasizing repeated Arab rejection of partition. He noted that when Britain withdrew in 1948, a Jewish state (Israel) and an Arab state (Jordan) effectively emerged, but Arab actors sought to eliminate Israel, fueling the ongoing conflict. Fine stated that the distinct Palestinian national identity arose later to justify a third state and criticized expectations that Israel relinquish territory gained in defensive wars, contrasting this with American and broader historical practice. He cited Israel’s 2005 disengagement from Gaza as an example of territorial concessions leading to intensified violence. Turning to Judea and Samaria, he stressed the area’s deep Jewish historical significance and highlighted security concerns, while dispelling the idea of Israeli “apartheid,” as he pointed out:
<blockquote>
We hear about the apartheid state of Israel, and it is partly true. There is apartheid in Israel. I want to tell you, as I was driving through Judea and Samaria, a sign that I saw &#8230; basically said, “In this area, Jews may not enter.” &#8230; And the sign literally says, in English, in Hebrew, and in Arabic, Jews may not go here. I&#8217;m not aware of anywhere that is controlled by Israel where they say Arabs cannot go, where they say Christians cannot go.
</blockquote>
In December of 2024, Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) introduced a bill in the Senate to require all official U.S. documents and materials to use the historically accurate term “Judea and Samaria” instead of the “West Bank.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Referring to Judea and Samaria as the ‘West Bank’ is a slap in the face to historical truth. 
It’s time to call this region by its rightful name and stop playing into anti-Israel propaganda.<a href="https://t.co/tYwYMZkGMJ">https://t.co/tYwYMZkGMJ</a>
&mdash; Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenTomCotton/status/1864694801217487019?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 5, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The bill, titled the “Retiring the Egregious Confusion Over the Genuine Name of Israel’s Zone of Influence by Necessitating Government-use of Judea and Samaria (RECOGNIZING Judea and Samaria) Act,” matched legislation in the House <a href="https://tenney.house.gov/media/press-releases/congresswoman-tenney-introduces-legislation-recognize-rightful-name-judea-and">sponsored</a> by Reps. Claudia Tenney (R-NY),  Randy Weber (R-TX), and Anthony D’Esposito (R-NY).
“The Jewish people’s legal and historic rights to Judea and Samaria goes back thousands of years. The U.S. should stop using the politically charged term West Bank to refer to the biblical heartland of Israel,” Cotton stated.
“The Israeli people have an undeniable and indisputable historical and legal claim over Judea and Samaria, and at this critical moment in history, the United States must reaffirm this,”  Tenney echoed. “This bill reaffirms Israel&#8217;s rightful claim to its territory. I remain committed to defending the integrity of the Jewish state and fully supporting Israel&#8217;s sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.”
The bill states that the U.S. government should “refer to the land annexed by Israel from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day War by its historical names of ‘Judea and Samaria,’ with the land south of Jerusalem being considered ‘Judea’ and the land north of Jerusalem being considered ‘Samaria.’”
The great historian Flavius Josephus <a href="https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/ancient/josephus-wara.asp">wrote</a>, “Now as to the country of Samaria, it lies between Judea and Galilee.”
As for Judea, Josephus explained, “In the limits of Samaria and Judea lies the village Anuath, which is also named Borceos. This is the northern boundary of Judea. The southern parts of Judea, if they be measured lengthways, are bounded by a Village adjoining to the confines of Arabia; the Jews that dwell there call it Jordan. However, its breadth is extended from the river Jordan to Joppa.”
Josephus also explained how Jerusalem was central in Judea, writing, “The city Jerusalem is situated in the very middle; on which account some have, with sagacity enough, called that city the Navel of the country. Nor indeed is Judea destitute of such delights as come from the sea, since its maritime places extend as far as Ptolemais: it was parted into eleven portions, of which the royal city Jerusalem was the supreme, and presided over all the neighboring country, as the head does over the body.”
Virtually all of the events in the Old Testament occurred in Judea and Samaria; Hebron is considered the burial place of the Biblical patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and where King David was crowned; Shiloh was where the Tabernacle rested for roughly 370 years; Joseph, who became the Egyptian pharaoh’s right-hand man, is buried in Shechem; Elon Moreh is where the Bible says God promised the Land of Israel to Abraham; and David fought Goliath in the Valley of Elah. These are just some of the Jewish biblical connections to Judea and Samaria.

Israelis wait for released hostage Avinatan Or to arrives to

Professor Tells Congress Why Judea and Samaria Rightfully Belong To Israel

Eugene Kontorovich

international law

Israel

Judea and Samaria

There is a particular kind of tragedy that unfolds when good intentions are fed the wrong script. Hollywood has seen it before — the irresistible pull of a neatly packaged narrative, a morality play that casts a prisoner as a prophet and a conflict as a parable. But the global chorus of <a href="https://www.christianpost.com/news/over-200-celebrities-demand-release-of-convicted-terrorist.html">actors</a>, writers, and <a href="https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-879707">musicians</a> who recently called for the release of Marwan Barghouti walked into something far more complicated: a story crafted not to inform, but to activate.
More than <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/over-200-cultural-figures-call-for-release-of-palestinian-terror-convict-marwan-barghouti/">200 cultural figures</a> were presented with an emotionally charged narrative: Barghouti as the Palestinian Mandela — a heroic symbol of liberation, a political detainee whose freedom could heal a broken land. It was a narrative engineered with precision. It invoked apartheid, redemption, and the irresistible idea of the righteous prisoner held unjustly by a cruel state.
But the story they <a href="https://freemarwan.org/public-figures/">signed their names</a> to didn’t just omit context. It omitted the dead.
Marwan Barghouti is not in prison for his ideology. He is serving five life sentences plus 40 years after being convicted in 2004 for his role in attacks that killed five civilians and attempted to kill others. These are not points of political contention; they are matters of public record.
His victims had names.
Father Georgios Tsibouktzakis, a Greek Orthodox monk, was shot dead in 2001 while driving near St. George’s Monastery — a man who devoted his life to prayer and his final years to quiet service.
Yoela Chen, 45, was murdered at a gas station near Giv’at Ze’ev.
Eli Dahan, 53, Yosef Habi, 52, and Police Officer Salim Barakat, 33, were gunned down in the March 2002 attack at Tel Aviv’s Seafood Market restaurant — civilians and a Druze Israeli officer, none of whom had any political role in anything at all.
Their lives were not symbols. They were the texture of ordinary days: errands run, meals shared, shifts finished, families waiting at home. They remain absent at every holiday table, every birthday, every unspoken conversation that grief continues on their behalf.
And yet — in the celebrity campaign to free Barghouti, these names vanish. Their faces are unimagined. Their humanity is eclipsed by the seductive narrative of the “freedom fighter.”
This selective empathy is not an oversight. It is the fingerprint of the modern anti-zionist narrative machine, a hate movement that excels at converting geopolitical complexity into emotionally consumable scripts. It packages the conflict into a digestible drama: one side oppressed, the other villainous; one man heroic, the other side faceless. It knows whom it is speaking to — the artists, the idealists, the storytellers who respond instinctively to the visual of a lone prisoner against the world.
This is why the comparison to Mandela was seeded into the campaign from the start.
<div id="attachment_1012859" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1012859" class="size-large wp-image-1012859" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-2118348628-864x576.jpg" alt="ROME, ITALY - MARCH 30: Protesters carry a banner calling for freedom for Marwan Barghouti as they attend a demonstration, in solidarity with the Palestinian people, against Israel’s Gaza bombardment and to call for a ceasefire on March 30, 2024 in Rome, Italy. The demonstration dedicated to &quot;Earth Day&quot; is organized by the Palestinian Students Movement, the Palestinian Arab Democratic Union (UDAP), the Association of Palestinians in Italy and the Coordination of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. (Photo by Simona Granati - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-2118348628-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-2118348628-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-2118348628-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-2118348628.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Simona Granati &#8211; Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images</div>
But Mandela’s greatness was forged in restraint — his refusal to condone violence against civilians, his devotion to reconciliation, his commitment to building a multiracial democracy. Barghouti’s record is not that. His ascent through Tanzim, and his association in analyses with the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, places him in the lineage of armed factions that targeted civilians during the Second Intifada. His conviction for the murders of Father Georgios, Yoela, Eli, Yosef, and Officer Barakat stands unchallenged in the legal record.
To equate him with Mandela is not inspiration. It is historical malpractice.
None of this diminishes Palestinian suffering under Hamas. The Palestinian people deserve dignity, freedom, safety, functioning governance, and leaders who place their communities’ well-being over factional theatrics. They deserve institutions instead of militias, opportunity instead of stagnation, a future shaped by education, reform, and civil society rather than martyrdom posters, hate, and funerals.
But elevating Barghouti as the vessel of that hope does not help Palestinians. It keeps them chained to the very political culture that has failed them for decades — a culture where leaders rise not through governing, but through “resistance” defined as violence; not through building, but through spectacle.
There is nothing progressive about resurrecting an old militant as the future of a nation.
What Palestinians need — what every people need — is leadership rooted in accountability, anti-corruption, institution-building, economic development, and the protection of civilians. They need a government that values life more than symbolism and the living more than the dead.
And yet the world’s cultural elite were persuaded to throw their moral authority behind a man convicted of killing civilians, because the narrative they received was engineered to bypass scrutiny and appeal directly to empathy.
Empathy is not the problem.
The manipulation of empathy is.
The selective framing that presents Barghouti as a moral beacon while erasing his victims is a hallmark of a hate movement masquerading as justice work.
Modern anti-zionism often conflates political advocacy with emotional coercion — telling Western audiences that compassion requires elevating those who commit violence, while portraying any demand for accountability as oppression.
But true solidarity does not require abandoning truth. And true justice does not require erasing the names of the dead.
The celebrity signatories were right about one thing: the region needs renewal. Palestinians desperately need political transformation. But that transformation will not come from releasing a man whose legacy contains the deaths of innocents. It will come from amplifying those working — often quietly, often without fanfare — to build civil society, strengthen institutions, combat corruption, and create genuine pathways to prosperity, liberty, and safety.
If the world’s storytellers want to stand on the right side of history, they must first stand on the right side of facts. And the facts demand this: the path to peace is not paved by celebrating those who shed blood. It is paved by elevating those who choose life.
If the signatories truly seek justice, the path forward is simple: reconsider and retract your support for Barghouti’s release, and commit to vetting future campaigns that appeal to your empathy while obscuring violence. Direct your influence instead toward the real peace-builders — the Palestinian reformers, journalists, educators, and civic leaders fighting corruption and constructing a future rooted in dignity, agency, and safety. Honor all victims of political violence, Israeli and Palestinian alike, whose lives deserve remembrance rather than erasure. And finally, resist the seduction of myth-making — the heroic scripts that feel righteous but flatten truth. Your voices carry weight; let them be used in service of the living, the grieving, and those who are building a future rather than those who helped destroy it.
* * *
Elicia Brand is the founder and president of <a href="https://armyofparents.org/">Army of Parents</a> in Loudoun County, VA.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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The Belfast International Wall

What Celebrities Got Wrong About Marwan Barghouti – He’s No Palestinian Mandela

What Celebrities Got Wrong About Marwan Barghouti – He's No Palestinian Mandela

Anti-Semitism

Hamas

Middle East

Nelson Mandela

Opinion

Palestinian

Zionism

Dutch activists who signed on to the so-called Global Sumud Flotilla — a Gaza “aid” mission that managed to launch with little more than a symbolic stash of supplies — are now <a href="https://www.jns.org/flotilla-activists-refuse-dutch-repatriation-bill-say-they-shouldnt-have-to-pay-amid-gaza-genocide">fuming</a> that their own government dared to charge them for the trip home after Israel detained and deported them.
The activists, who framed their effort as resistance against “genocide,” insist they “risk[ed] their lives,” were “kidnapped,” and therefore shouldn’t have to pay for the flights arranged by their own embassy.
The Dutch Foreign Ministry says it made a “rare exception” in booking their tickets and made clear from the start that, like every other citizen who receives consular assistance, they’d have to reimburse the costs. One activist, Roos Ykema, was billed €526 (approximately $610) for a flight routed through Madrid, which she says she won’t pay because she was “forcibly deported” by Israel. Invoices show that several activists told Dutch officials they wanted to go home “as soon as possible.”
They weren’t alone. Nineteen Swiss participants have also refused to pay, appealing bills ranging from 300 to 1,047 Swiss francs ($375-$1300) for prison visits, interventions with Israeli authorities, and travel home.
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Meanwhile, the flotilla itself — marketed as a brave civilian push to “break the siege” on Gaza — collapsed under the weight of its own contradictions. Israeli naval forces intercepted 50 boats in early October, many owned or financed by what Israeli officials <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ships-in-greta-thunbergs-flotilla-secretly-owned-by-hamas-israel-says?utm_source=chatgpt.com">say</a> is a Hamas front company. Documents recovered in Gaza tie senior flotilla organizers directly to the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad, a group Israel designated a terrorist organization in 2021 for acting as Hamas’s de facto foreign operations arm.
Among those organizers: figures overseeing Hamas-linked sectors in Europe, including a UK-based operator responsible for recruiting flotilla crews and a Spain-based executive running Cyber Neptune, the company controlling dozens of boats in Greta Thunberg’s flotilla, Israel’s foreign ministry stated bluntly: “These ships are secretly owned by Hamas.”
Despite the flotilla carrying less aid than a single truck — while more than 1,200 trucks a week have entered Gaza through approved crossings — activists rejected proposals from Italy and Israel to deliver their cargo safely. Israel said the refusal revealed the flotilla’s real purpose: not relief, but provocation.
Thunberg herself was intercepted in June, filmed reacting for cameras, and was later accused of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/what-a-mythomaniac-greta-thunberg-fakes-being-handcuffed-after-being-deported-from-israel?utm_source=chatgpt.com">mimicking being handcuffed </a>— a pattern critics note mirrors earlier staged detentions. The IDF described the voyage as a “selfie flotilla,” noting that passengers were given water and sandwiches before being returned home.
Israel’s stance remains unchanged: the naval blockade is legal, and attempts to breach it — especially aboard Hamas-owned boats — will be stopped.

Detained Flotilla activists return to Netherlands via Madrid

Pro-Palestinian Activists Outraged Over Paying Travel Costs After Israel Busts Hamas-Tied Operation

Flotilla

Greta Thunberg

Social Issues

The Netherlands

World

A new <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/12/08/us-news/f-grades-handed-to-14-colleges-in-antisemitism-report-card-as-jewish-students-forced-to-hide-identities/">report</a> by the civil rights watchdog StopAntisemitism finds that antisemitism has become widespread and deeply entrenched across American college campuses, with many Jewish students reporting fear, harassment, and inadequate institutional protection.
Based on a survey and incident data from 90 colleges, the group’s annual “report cards” show that 39% of Jewish students have concealed their identities on campus, while 62% say they have been directly blamed for Israel’s actions in Gaza. Fifty-eight percent report experiencing antisemitism personally, and nearly two-thirds feel unwelcome in parts of campus amid escalating anti-Israel protests.
Fourteen colleges received failing grades, including Columbia University, the New School, Harvard, Yale, Brown, Penn, MIT, Northwestern, and UC Berkeley. According to the report, these institutions allowed a “pervasive” and sometimes violent environment to develop, one marked by harassment, property vandalism, hateful communications, and protest disruptions. Columbia and the New School were specifically cited for federal findings of “deliberate indifference” toward Jewish students. StopAntisemitism founder Liora Rez argued that the worst-performing schools have become “ground zero” for antisemitism in higher education.
Some institutions improved. Cornell rose from an F to a C for more responsive administrative action, while Vassar increased from a D to a B. Fifteen schools earned A ratings — including Baylor, Clemson, Elon, and Colorado State — highlighted as examples of campuses that consistently enforce standards and act proactively against antisemitism.
The fallout has extended to federal intervention. In July, the Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/columbia-university-retreats-as-trump-scores-historic-220m-settlement" target="_blank" rel="noopener">administration reached a high-profile settlement </a>with Columbia, requiring the school to pay $200 million to the federal government and $20 million to Jewish employees, in exchange for lifting freezes on federal funding and ending several investigations. Columbia also agreed to eliminate race-based DEI initiatives, ensure merit-based admissions and hiring, provide compliance data, and take steps to better support Jewish students. University leadership emphasized that while they disputed wrongdoing, they recognized the need to address harmful incidents.
Harvard likewise <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-admin-finds-harvard-discriminated-against-jewish-students-threatens-funding">faced</a> a federal civil rights finding in June. A letter from the Department of Health and Human Services concluded that Harvard violated Title VI by failing to stop discrimination, threats, and physical intimidation against Jewish and Israeli students. Investigators cited assaults, hate imagery, rule-breaking demonstrations, and lenient discipline of offenders. The administration warned Harvard could lose federal funding without swift reforms. Harvard disputed the findings but acknowledged antisemitism as a serious problem and said it was committed to improving campus safety and inclusion.
Overall, only 62% of surveyed Jewish students would recommend their schools to other Jews. StopAntisemitism urged universities nationwide to emulate the highly rated institutions by condemning antisemitism unequivocally, enforcing clear policies, and ensuring transparent investigations into hate-based incidents.

Pro-Palestinian-Student-Protests-at-Columbia-University

Almost 40% Of Jewish Students Have Hidden Their Identity On Campus: Report

antisemitism

Education

U.S.

Universities

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the second phase of a U.S. plan to end the war in Gaza was close, but cautioned several key issues still needed to be resolved, including whether a multinational security force would be deployed.
Netanyahu, speaking to reporters alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Jerusalem, said that he would hold important discussions with U.S. President Donald Trump at the end of the month on how to ensure the plan&#8217;s second phase was achieved.
The prime minister&#8217;s office in November said that Trump had invited Netanyahu to the White House &#8220;in the near future,&#8221; although a date for the visit has not yet been made public.
Netanyahu said that he would discuss with Trump how to bring an end to Hamas rule in Gaza. A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is entering its second month, although both sides have repeatedly accused each other of violating the truce agreement.
Netanyahu said that it was important to ensure Hamas not only upholds the ceasefire but also follows through on &#8220;their commitment&#8221; to the plan to disarm and for Gaza to be demilitarized.
Israel retained control of 53% of Gaza under the first phase of Trump&#8217;s plan, which involved the release of hostages held by militants in Gaza and of Palestinians detained by Israel. The final hostage remains to be handed over are those of an Israeli police officer killed on October 7, 2023 fighting Gazan militants who had invaded Israel.
&#8220;We&#8217;ll get him out,&#8221; Netanyahu said.
Since the ceasefire started in October, the militant group has reestablished itself in the rest of Gaza.
According to the plan, Israel is to pull back further in the second phase as a transitional authority is established in Gaza and a multinational security force is deployed, Hamas is disarmed, and reconstruction begins.
A multinational coordination centre has been established in Israel, but there are no deadlines in the plan and officials involved say that efforts to advance it have stalled.
&#8220;What will be the timeline? What are the forces that are coming in? Will we have international forces? If not, what are the alternatives? These are all topics that are being discussed,&#8221; Netanyahu said, describing them as central issues.
Merz said that Germany was willing to help rebuild Gaza but would wait for Netanyahu&#8217;s meeting with Trump, and for clarity on what Washington was prepared to do, before Berlin decides what it would contribute but that phase two &#8220;must come now&#8221;.
Israel has repeatedly carried out air strikes since the ceasefire came into effect that it says are fending off attacks or destroying militant infrastructure. Gaza&#8217;s health ministry says 373 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire started. Three Israeli soldiers have been killed by militants.
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Netanyahu said that he would also discuss with Trump &#8220;opportunities for peace&#8221;, an apparent reference to U.S. efforts for Israel to establish formal ties with Arab and Muslim states.
&#8220;We believe there&#8217;s a path to advance a broader peace with the Arab states, and a path also to establish a workable peace with our Palestinian neighbours,&#8221; Netanyahu said, asserting Israel would always insist on security control of the West Bank.
Trump has said he promised Muslim leaders that Israel would not annex the occupied West Bank, where Netanyahu&#8217;s government is backing the development of Jewish settlements.
The &#8220;question of political annexation&#8221; of the West Bank remains a subject of discussion, Netanyahu said.
(Reporting by Alexander Cornwell and Andreas Rinke, additional reporting by Steven Scheer and Christoph Steitz; Editing by Louise Heavens and Philippa Fletcher)

Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu Meets With Trump At The White House

Phase Two Of Gaza Plan: Trump, Netanyahu Prep For Next Steps

Benjamin Netanyahu

Donald Trump

Gaza

Global Politics

Roughly 200 celebrities, including Sting, Paul Simon, Richard Branson, Margaret Atwood, Mark Ruffalo, and Ian McKellen, issued an open letter for Israel to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/03/leading-cultural-figures-call-for-release-jailed-palestinian-leader-marwan-barghouti">release</a> the convicted murderer and terrorist Marwan Barghouti, who reportedly served as the leader and commander of the Al-Aqsa Brigades that murdered over 1,000 Israelis during the Second Intifada.
The statement reads: “We express our grave concern at the continuing imprisonment of Marwan Barghouti, his violent mistreatment and denial of legal rights whilst imprisoned. We call upon the United Nations and the governments of the world to actively seek the release of Marwan Barghouti from Israeli prison.”
Barghouti, 66, was convicted on five counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison in 2004. Barghouti was found responsible for a June 2001 attack in which a Greek monk was murdered, a January 2002 terror attack on a gas station, a March 2002 attack at Tel Aviv’s Seafood Market restaurant, where three people were murdered, and a car bomb attack in Jerusalem.
In 2017, The New York Times was harshly criticized by many people, including Yair Lapid, former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren, and former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro, for publishing an op-ed by Barghouti while failing to inform readers that he had been convicted of five counts of murder and was implicated in four other terror attacks.
“He was the leader of the second intifada before his arrest in 2002,” Jamestown <a href="https://jamestown.org/marwan-barghouti-will-palestinian-prisoner-pursue-an-agreement-with-israel/">reported</a> of Barghouti.
Israeli Brigadier-General Yossi Kuperwasser <a href="https://jcfa.org/who-is-marwan-barghouti/">wrote</a>:
<blockquote>
Barghouti was the leader and commander of the Al-Aqsa Brigades, the key terror component of Fatah that carried out many terror attacks throughout the Second Intifada. He was also the leader of the umbrella organization of the Islamic and national forces, which oversaw the entire range of terror activity during those years, and served as coordinator between the different organizations. &#8230; Documents captured by the IDF in “Operation Defensive Shield” (April 2002) shed light on Barghouti’s involvement in commanding the terror efforts under Arafat. In those documents, Barghouti asks Arafat to authorize payments to several lists of Fatah terrorists, while he himself was approached by local commanders who asked him to authorize payments to terrorists from their units.
</blockquote>
According to <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20070703195937/http://212.150.54.123/casualties_project/stats_page.cfm">data</a>, during the Second Intifada, 764 of the 1,010 Israelis murdered in attacks from September 2000 – 2005 were civilians.
Just between May 2001 and May 2002, prior to the bombing at Hebrew University, there were these massacres: five Israelis murdered by a suicide bomber at the HaSharon Mall in May 2001; 21 Israelis murdered by a suicide bomber at the Dolphinarium Discotheque in June 2001; 15 Israelis murdered by a suicide bomber at Sbarro’s Pizza in August 2001, including six children and a 31-year-old woman who was the only child of her parents and was five months pregnant; 11 Israelis murdered in a bus bombing on Ben Yehuda Street in Jerusalem on December 1, 2001; 15 more Israelis murdered the very next day in a Haifa suicide bombing; 11 more Israelis murdered in a bus attack 10 days later in Immanuel; six Israelis murdered in an attack at a bat-mitzvah in January 2002; 11 more Jews killed in an attack on a yeshiva in March 2002, including a five-month-old child; 11 Jews murdered in a bombing at Café Moment in March 2002; 30 Israelis killed as they celebrated Passover in Netanya on March 27, 2002; 16 Israelis murdered in a suicide bombing four days later at the Matza restaurant, and 16 Israelis murdered in Rishon LeZion in May 2002.

MIDEAST-PALESTINIAN-REFUGEES

200 Celebrities Call For Release Of Palestinian Terror Chief Who Helped Lead Second Intifada

Marwan Barghouti

terrorist

The first time I met Cory Pesaturo, he had just hijacked the stage at a wedding in Boston with an accordion strapped to his chest. Little did I know he would do the impossible: make me a fan of the accordion.
Cory is — and I’m not exaggerating — the world’s best accordion player. He’s won the accordion World Championship three times. He holds the Guinness World Record for playing the accordion for the longest continuous time. He brings his accordion with him <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DPY132wkTkt/?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">everywhere</a>, and can play just about anything, including the <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CknQsS8uqcW/?hl=en&amp;img_index=4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accordion tracks</a> in the feature film “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.”
Most recently, he took his talents to Saudi Arabia, which is now <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-officially-designates-saudi-arabia-a-major-ally-of-united-states?author=Tim+Pearce&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Trump+Officially+Designates+Saudi+Arabia+A+%E2%80%98Major%E2%80%99+Ally+Of+United+States" target="_blank" rel="noopener">officially</a> a “major ally” of the United States. The Saudi Arabia he presents is much different from the Saudi Arabia most Americans probably imagine. — Brent Scher
***
Earlier this month, I arrived in Saudi Arabia for my second visit to a country which has always seemed like a forbidden land to the West. I’d been invited again as a guest star to play accordion in the “Riyadh Season” concert series — this time with Egypt’s biggest singing sensation, Angham.
What struck me, on both trips, was how aggressively the Saudis are betting on capitalism.
Everywhere you go, the top Western brands are visible: Dunkin’ Donuts, Texas Roadhouse, Bath &amp; Body Works, Chuck E. Cheese, and yes, Randy’s Donuts, with the giant donut on the roof are there for you in Riyadh. There is even a Disney castle and theme park.
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On every corner there seem to be concerts, tourist attractions, and massive development projects. The music you hear playing through the speakers of high-end locations? Jazz, Lady Gaga, or Burt Bacharach. The style of filming for major concerts?  Straight out of CBS’s Grammys playbook.
Could a country truly hate America if this is what I was seeing?
When I first traveled to Saudi Arabia two years ago, I didn’t even tell my father. You can’t lie to an Italian mother, of course, but my father? If he had known I was flying to a country he associated with the worst terror attack in American history, he would have tied me to my bed. Many of my friends felt the same, judging by their reactions when I returned: “Saudi Arabia? Are you insane? Are you trying to get arrested or killed?”
But over the past decade, the Kingdom, under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has charted a different course. One built on peace, prosperity, and a surprisingly familiar engine: Western-style capitalism.
It is true that in Saudi Arabia, you have no real rights against the state — no First Amendment protections, no guarantee of a fair trial, a mandatory dress code, and laws that make smoking pot or ordering a margarita about as plausible as Cardi B performing Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto on the accordion — a stunt I once pulled to win a national title.
Yet, regardless of this different universe of ideas from the United States, I wasn’t afraid.
The free market being unleashed in Saudi Arabia, even if still in a more state-run manner, is the greatest modern example of how a country thought to be an untrustworthy foe can turn into an important ally.
What struck me most, though, was that while I was in Saudi Arabia, a Muslim socialist won the mayor’s seat in the financial capital of the world, New York City. Three different Saudis during the trip (including a Syrian security worker at the venue who had fled Bashar al-Assad&#8217;s regime) asked me some version of the same question: “What on earth are you Americans doing electing Mamdani? He’s crazy.” This, again, from inside the very center of Islam. And even they aren’t at all sold on the politics that Zohran Mamdani represents.
My insight is anecdotal, but the friendships I’ve formed in Saudi Arabia reveal a people not so different from my own friends back home. They want peace. They want prosperity. They want their families to be happy. They want to travel. They want to have fun.
I asked them everything — about Israel, Islamic extremism, terrorism, drinking, drugs, dating, hating their boss, weekend plans, and which video games keep them up until 4:00 a.m.
Watching a group of young men in Riyadh blast pop music at 1:30 a.m. as they inched through a Dunkin’ Donuts drive-through, talking about girls and killing time, looked the same as you’d see in America. Different faiths, different cultures, same very human scene.
A handful of companies profit from global conflict. But 99.9% of businesses in a free-market economy — from Nike and Coca-Cola to Apple and Tesla — depend on global stability and rising disposable income. Peace is profitable.
In just a decade, Saudi Arabia has gone from a place many Americans fear to visit to a place I can’t recommend enough to go see. If that’s the result of “greedy capitalism,” then count me in.
Cory Pesaturo is a three-time World Champion accordionist and Guinness World Record holder who has performed on six continents and at the White House four times. In addition to giving five TEDx Talks, he is also active in the motorsports world, bringing his signature blend of innovation and artistry to audiences around the globe.
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President Trump Makes First Middle East Trip Of His Second Term

Is Saudi Arabian Capitalism Bringing Peace To The Middle East?

Capitalism

Islam

Saudi Arabia

New York City’s Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has apparently discovered a new doctrine in municipal leadership: when a mob <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pro-palestinian-protesters-block-manhattan-synagogue-hurl-threats-anti-jewish-slurs?author=Hank+Berrien&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=2&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Pro-Palestinian+Protesters+Block+Manhattan+Synagogue%2C+Hurl+Threats%2C+Anti-Jewish+Slurs">surrounds a synagogue</a>, blocks Jews from entering, screams “Death to the IDF,” “Globalize the Intifada,” and unloads every antisemitic slur in the book — the real issue isn’t the mob. No, according to Mamdani, the real problem is the synagogue’s “violation of international law.”
Welcome to the Mamdani School of Moral Inversion.
Park East Synagogue — led by 95-year-old Holocaust survivor Rabbi Arthur Schneier — hosted a perfectly legal informational event run by Nefesh B’Nefesh, which helps Jews immigrate to Israel. For this crime, a mob of pro-Palestinian activists declared themselves judge, jury, and street-corner executioners, braying about intifada while hurling obscenities at Jews trying to enter a house of worship.
But Mamdani’s press secretary issued <a href="https://jewishinsider.com/2025/11/mamdani-park-east-synagogue-protest/?utm">this statement</a> from the mayor-elect: “The Mayor-elect has discouraged the language used at last night’s protest and will continue to do so. He believes every New Yorker should be free to enter a house of worship without intimidation, and that these sacred spaces should not be used to promote activities in violation of international law.”
When pressed, his office explained that the “international law” being violated is — wait for it — helping Jews move to Israel, which they said amounts to promoting “settlement activity beyond the Green Line.”
So a 95-year-old Holocaust survivor hosts an informational evening, a mob surrounds his synagogue screaming for intifada, and Mamdani’s instinct is not to condemn the mob but to reach for his imaginary pocket Constitution of the International Criminal Court and imply that the synagogue had it coming.
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This is moral absurdity dressed up in pseudo-legal jargon. Mamdani has somehow weaponized “international law” as a rhetorical air freshener to cover the stench of refusing to forthrightly condemn a crowd that literally blocked Jews from a synagogue while shouting violent slogans.
But hey, he “discourages” the language.
Meanwhile, real leaders had no trouble saying what anyone with functional eyesight saw. Mayor Eric Adams called the mob “sick and warped.”
Mamdani’s response signals exactly what New Yorkers can expect: when antisemitism erupts, he’ll open his international law textbook, clear his throat, and explain why the Jews need to examine their role in being targeted.

Zohran Mamdani

A Mob Targets Jews — And Mamdani Targets The Synagogue

Pro-Palestinian

Synagogue

Iran is confronting an escalating environmental crisis so severe that President Masoud Pezeshkian has announced the country must <a href="https://www.iranintl.com/en/202511209098">move its capital,</a> declaring that the regime “no longer has a choice.”
Tehran, once the political and demographic heart of Iran, is now overwhelmed by water depletion, collapsing land, and infrastructural strain. Pezeshkian warned that parts of the capital are sinking by up to 30 centimeters a year, calling it a “catastrophe” driven by decades of mismanagement, overbuilding in upstream regions, and disrupted downstream flows. With water resources no longer matching demand, he argued that continued population or construction growth in Tehran is impossible and that remaining in place means “signing our own destruction.”
The Iranian regime is studying relocation to the Makran coast, despite the area’s underdevelopment, security concerns, and financial burden — costs so immense that previous efforts since the 1979 revolution have repeatedly stalled. Nevertheless, Pezeshkian said Iran has reached the point where relocation has become “an obligation.”
This dramatic moment stands in stark contrast to Israel’s successful campaign to overcome its own longstanding water scarcity, transforming from a drought-prone nation into a global leader in water security. Israel built a national system anchored in large-scale reverse-osmosis desalination plants, which now provide most of the country’s drinking water. The country also recycles nearly 90% of its wastewater — the highest rate in the world —largely supporting agriculture and preserving natural freshwater sources. Israeli-developed drip irrigation technology allows precise water delivery and enables high crop yields even in arid zones, while a centralized national water grid efficiently moves water to where it is needed, stabilizing supplies in dry years.
Israel’s technological capabilities were on full display in 2025, when it launched an <a href="https://x.com/InbarCohen13/status/1990408176290701356">unprecedented project</a> to pump desalinated Mediterranean seawater into the Sea of Galilee, restoring the stressed lake’s water levels and even reviving dried-out streams such as the Tsalmon. This initiative not only protects one of Israel’s most important freshwater reservoirs but also illustrates the country’s ability to reverse ecological decline through engineering and long-term planning.
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Against this backdrop, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last July extended an extraordinary public offer directly to the Iranian people. Citing Iran’s severe drought — affecting 96% of the country — and warnings that up to 50 million Iranians could ultimately be displaced, Netanyahu said Iranians were victims of a regime that had squandered and mismanaged vital resources. He highlighted Israel’s breakthroughs in desalination, wastewater recycling, and agricultural efficiency, offering to share these methods by launching a Farsi-language website that would teach Iranians how to recycle water and preserve crops. Netanyahu framed the offer as humanitarian rather than political: “The Iranian regime shouts ‘Death to Israel.’ In response, Israel shouts, ‘Life to the Iranian people.’”
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The Islamic Republic 🇮🇷 has led Iran to the worst water shortage crisis in its history.
As prime minister <a href="https://twitter.com/netanyahu?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@netanyahu</a> said, Israel 🇮🇱 is one of the world leaders in water desalination, and is willing to share its technology for the benefit of Iranians 👇 <a href="https://t.co/6R5pX5N4e9">pic.twitter.com/6R5pX5N4e9</a>
&mdash; Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid) <a href="https://twitter.com/DrEliDavid/status/1949224206849495442?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 26, 2025</a></blockquote>
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As Iran contemplates relocating its capital to escape a deepening ecological disaster, Israel demonstrates how strategic planning, innovation, and responsible governance can transform water scarcity into long-term resilience — and even offer help to a nation in crisis.

Rain prayer held in Tehran, which has suffered its worst drought in 60 years

Iranian Regime Faces Water-Driven Capital Relocation As Israel Showcases Water-Conquering Innovation

Drinking Water

Iran

CNN data guru Harry Enten said on Wednesday that President Donald Trump was blowing his competition out of the water — both Republicans and Democrats — when it came to his approval rating with regard to foreign policy.
Enten spoke with CNN anchor John Berman about the latest numbers, which show Trump, nearly ten months into his second term, has a 43% approval rating on his foreign policy positions. Berman asked for context, wondering how Trump stacked up against past presidents in their respective second terms.
WATCH:
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Trump&#8217;s foreign approval rating is up like a rocket compared to term 1.
He has the highest foreign policy approval rating at this point in his term 2 of any 21st century president.
Big reason why: Israel-Hamas conflict. E.g. His net approval is 40 pts higher than Biden&#8217;s was. <a href="https://t.co/8rzNjCphEJ">pic.twitter.com/8rzNjCphEJ</a>
— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) <a href="https://twitter.com/ForecasterEnten/status/1991165239224656200?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;This is one of the areas in which Donald Trump is performing significantly better than he was in term one,&#8221; Enten explained, noting that during his first term in the White House, Trump&#8217;s approval rating on foreign policy had been significantly lower at 35%. &#8220;Up like a rocket, we&#8217;re talking about 43% now, that&#8217;s an eight-point rise. On the net approval rating, that&#8217;s a double-digit rise.&#8221;
Berman noted that it was almost expected for presidents in their second terms to pivot to foreign policy and do whatever they can to cement their legacies before leaving office — and he asked Enten how Trump stacked up in that regard.
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Enten showed a graphic comparing Trump to the two other 21st-century presidents who served two terms — George W. Bush and Barack Obama — who had foreign policy approval ratings of 36% and 37% respectively, at the same point in their second terms.
&#8220;This is something I think Donald Trump really likes to look at because the bottom line is this presidents like to build their legacies off of foreign policy, and at this particular point the American people like much more of what Donald Trump’s doing on foreign policy than either of the two other twenty-first century presidents who serve at least — or served two terms,&#8221; Enten explained.
Berman asked whether Trump&#8217;s high marks on that particular issue had anything to do with how he&#8217;d responded to the war between Israel and the Hamas terrorists controlling Gaza, and Enten said it had likely been a major factor.
&#8220;The American people liked what Trump was able to do between the Israelis and Hamas,&#8221; he said — and pointed to Trump&#8217;s net approval on the Israel-Hamas conflict (+3) compared to former President Joe Biden&#8217;s (-37). &#8220;Joe Biden was 37 points below water by the end of his presidency.&#8221;

Trump Just Beat The Last Three Presidents On One Key Issue

Barack Obama

George W. Bush

Harry Enten

Joe Biden

Media

Politics

Polls

WASHINGTON—Alexis Wilkins is a conservative country music artist whose boyfriend, Kash Patel, is the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. When the two began dating three years ago, they became a kind of conservative celebrity couple. But Wilkins never imagined that she would soon star in the internet&#8217;s pet conspiracy theory — one that would drown her and her family in a deluge of threats.
&#8220;I&#8217;ve been in the political sphere for a second,&#8221; she explained in a phone interview with The Daily Wire. &#8220;You get crazy things from the left, you&#8217;re kind of used to it if you&#8217;re speaking up about things that you believe in or talking positively about America. I kind of thought that [direction] would be where this would continue, just maybe more dramatic, but what&#8217;s happened is&#8230;the internet has just become a place where you can just say whatever you want and affect people&#8217;s lives, and it really reverberates.
Internet users and commentators have accused 27-year-old Wilkins of being an Israeli spy, a &#8220;honeypot&#8221; Mossad agent, assigned to manipulate her 45-year-old boyfriend as he leads the FBI. Wilkins, who is Christian, has repeatedly denied the claims, which she calls absurd.
&#8220;There&#8217;s security issues, there&#8217;s safety issues, the death threats are graphic, and, there are a lot of them,&#8221; she added. &#8220;You have to think about your house getting swatted, you deal with stuff where people are trying to harm you. That is the intent, and that&#8217;s been very real, very quickly for me in the last couple of months.&#8221; 
Their relationship, ages, and personal lives have been scrutinized publicly, as has Patel&#8217;s use of the FBI director&#8217;s plane for personal trips to see Wilkins (as FBI director, Patel cannot fly commercial and must use the plane for legitimate and needed purposes, but his <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/kash-patel-jet-tracker-fbi-director-alexis-wilkins-10980941">recent trip to Nashville</a> drew heavy criticism).
A source close to the couple told The Daily Wire that Patel &#8220;knew Alexis was the one as soon as he met her,&#8221; and that she recently moved in with him in Washington, D.C., but spends time in Nashville with her family. They will likely be engaged and married soon, that source shared.
In the meantime, the country music artist is grappling with the consequences of viral internet rumors.
An FBI spokesperson confirmed to The Daily Wire that Wilkins has received &#8220;hundreds of credible threats.&#8221; Wilkins now has a security detail, that spokesperson confirmed, based on security assessments of credible threats conducted due to her connection with Patel.
One concern, based on some of the threats, is that Wilkins might be kidnapped.
&#8220;She&#8217;s not getting threatened to be kidnapped by cartels because they think she&#8217;s cute,&#8221; a source close to Wilkins shared. &#8220;It&#8217;s because she&#8217;s a good hostage candidate.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_1001607" style="width: 471px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kash-patels-girlfriend-alexis-wilkins-details-violent-threats-spurred-by-internet-theories/signal-2025-11-17-104407_002" rel="attachment wp-att-1001607"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1001607" class="wp-image-1001607 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/signal-2025-11-17-104407_002-461x576.jpeg" alt="Photo courtesy of Alexis Wilkins." width="461" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/signal-2025-11-17-104407_002-461x576.jpeg 461w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/signal-2025-11-17-104407_002-240x300.jpeg 240w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/signal-2025-11-17-104407_002-768x960.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/signal-2025-11-17-104407_002-1229x1536.jpeg 1229w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/signal-2025-11-17-104407_002.jpeg 1440w" sizes=" (max-width: 461px) 100vw, 461px" /></a>Photo courtesy of Alexis Wilkins.</div>
Wilkins receives threatening messages almost daily on social media. The Daily Wire reviewed a number of these messages and posts, showing individuals fantasizing about killing her, graphically describing acts of sexual violence, promising to kill her within specific time frames, posting her address, phone number, and those of Patel and her parents online, and more.
&#8220;I don&#8217;t feel very comfortable going in public,&#8221; she shared, asked how this affects her daily life. &#8220;I don&#8217;t leave my house a lot.&#8221;
Less explicit but still threatening rhetoric is also publicly visible on Wilkins&#8217; social media posts as well. For example, one commenter posted on an Instagram post of Wilkins and Patel at his swearing in: &#8220;I hope these two don&#8217;t plan on going out in public. Or having a public speaking event in an amphitheater.&#8221;
&#8220;People know what to say,&#8221; she said, discussing the messages she shared with The Daily Wire. &#8220;These are not just hyperbolic threats, these are credible threats that [mention] things about you going in public together, things about you doing a public speaking engagement, things about you doing a concert outside&#8230;They want you to stop living your life. They want you to be afraid.&#8221;
About two weeks ago, Wilkins shared, her parents&#8217; home was swatted. This means that someone called in a false emergency at their home with the goal of prompting a massive law enforcement response. Swatting is particularly dangerous since victims may find themselves in violent or dangerous situations, depending how they respond to the law enforcement presence, since a SWAT team <a href="https://www.thefederalcriminalattorneys.com/swatting-crime">might be responding to what has been described</a> to them as an imminent threat, a bomb situation, or domestic violence.
Wilkins and her family now have to talk through security protocols that have never occurred to them, planning out how to respond when, for example, someone calls the house demanding to know if Wilkins herself is present — a sign that a swatting may be imminent.
&#8220;Swatting doesn&#8217;t only affect your house, you have to realize that people are also looking for your family, especially when it&#8217;s an allegation that is so untrue&#8230;you&#8217;re getting called a spy, so people are digging into your history, people are trying to find your parents, people are calling people that you&#8217;ve known,&#8221; Wilkins said. &#8220;Colleagues of mine have received calls asking for information about my family, some of them unaware of how to respond and will give a name or give my mom&#8217;s maiden name or give things that are helpful in order to find us.&#8221;
&#8220;So it hasn&#8217;t just been me,&#8221; she said. &#8220;It&#8217;s been my family as well.&#8221;
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Wilkins has continued to attend speaking or singing engagements with organizations like Turning Point USA and the Young America&#8217;s Foundation. She is suing a number of political influencers and commentators for suggesting she is an agent of Israeli intelligence. And she says she is determined not to cower but to stand up for herself, arguing that &#8220;bullies respond to strength.&#8221;
&#8220;I&#8217;m so happy to support the person that I love, but I&#8217;m not the director of the FBI,&#8221; Wilkins said. &#8220;I&#8217;m here to support, and my parents are also&#8230;but ultimately, this is not something that they signed up for, and I think people forget that when they&#8217;re digging for what they think is the truth, they&#8217;re doing it in a way that is not helpful, and it&#8217;s very dangerous.&#8221;
Reflecting on the death of Charlie Kirk, who she knew through her work with TPUSA — at whose events she often sings the national anthem — Wilkins pointed out how massively important Kirk&#8217;s faith was to him, and how he talked about how he wanted to be remembered for his faith.
She is very proud of her own Christian faith. Yet now, she is &#8220;being called something that I&#8217;m not, a spy for another country, essentially accusing me of treason, which is horrific enough, but I&#8217;m a Christian.&#8221;
&#8220;I grew up Armenian. My family&#8217;s Armenian,&#8221; she explained. &#8220;I grew up Christian and I&#8217;m very proud of that.&#8221;
&#8220;His legacy of his faith and the things that he represented, I think that it obviously is a huge void that we all feel now, because of who he was personally and who he was in the movement,&#8221; she reflected, sharing how the day after Kirk&#8217;s assassination, she had to come to terms with the fact that Patel would be speaking at an outdoor event, and she could do nothing but wait to hear that he was ok.
&#8220;It&#8217;s that horrible feeling,&#8221; she said. &#8220;How radicalized do people become? Is this a chain of events? There&#8217;s no way to make yourself feel better about it.&#8221;
She has considered ignoring much of the criticism and threats. But, she says, she wants to be a &#8220;role model for people who are being attacked, for even just their views, no matter what side they are on.&#8221;
&#8220;I think that everyone should have the right to say what they want to say,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I love the Constitution. I love the First Amendment in this country.&#8221;
And asked what she would tell the internet folk who are posting about her, she responded: &#8220;If it feels fun behind your keyboard to hate someone, your heart is probably in the wrong place and you also probably have some details wrong.&#8221;
&#8220;Before you run with what sounds like the most fun, horrifying and cliquey conspiracy theory, there&#8217;s probably a more common sense result, a more common sense answer.&#8221;

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Kash Patel’s Girlfriend Alexis Wilkins Details Violent Threats Spurred By Internet Theories

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Reem Alsalem, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, was harshly criticized after posting a statement on X that implied no one from Hamas raped any women on October 7, 2023, during their barbaric massacre against the Israeli people.
Alsalem was born in Cairo, Egypt, but now identifies as Jordanian.
“No Palestinian applauded rape in Gaza. No independent investigation found that rape took place on the 7th of October,” she stated.
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No Palestinian applauded rape in Gaza. No independent investigation found that rape took place on the 7th of October.
&mdash; Reem Alsalem UNSR Violence Against Women and Girls (@UNSRVAW) <a href="https://twitter.com/UNSRVAW/status/1989315118358745148?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 14, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, fired back:
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Any UN representative who denies Hamas rape must be removed from their post. Period. It is a stain on the UN’s reputation that Reem Alsalem, the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and Girls, denies the sexual violence that took place on October 7. This is a moral disgrace, an insult to the victims and their families, and a violation of every basic international standard. Israel will not allow Hamas&#8217; horrific crimes to be whitewashed. Antonio Guterres, your silence is complicity.
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Any UN representative who denies Hamas rape must be removed from their post. Period. It is a stain on the UN’s reputation that Reem Alsalem, the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and Girls, denies the sexual violence that took place on October 7. 
This is a moral… <a href="https://t.co/LIpmZtqZqr">https://t.co/LIpmZtqZqr</a>
&mdash; Danny Danon 🇮🇱 דני דנון (@dannydanon) <a href="https://twitter.com/dannydanon/status/1989822608666218805?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 15, 2025</a></blockquote>
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A father and son from Gaza <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13451089/The-father-son-Hamas-rapists-Terrorists-going-house-house-carrying-sex-attacks-murder-One-screamed-cried-father-raped-did-cousin-did-father-killed-her.html">openly admitted</a> they raped and murdered Israeli women on October 7. The father admitted raping a woman, adding, “She was screaming, she was crying, I did what I did, I raped her. &#8216;I threatened her with my gun to take her clothes off, I remember she was wearing jean shorts, that&#8217;s about it. I don&#8217;t know what happened to her, I was there for fifteen minutes and then I left.”
But his son Abdallah said his father had killed the woman: “My father raped her, then I did and then my cousin did and then we left but my father killed the woman after we finished raping her. &#8230; Before this woman, we had raped another girl as well, I killed two people, I raped two people, and I broke into five houses.”
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On October 7th, Hamas didn&#39;t just murder, kidnap, and burn civilians. They raped.
​This is the chilling confession from a captured Hamas terrorist: &quot;She was afraid of me and said, &#39;Help me.&#39; The devil took over me. I laid her down, started undressing her, and did what I did (I… <a href="https://t.co/Z7tKwItBf7">pic.twitter.com/Z7tKwItBf7</a>
&mdash; Yossi BenYakar (@YossiBenYakar) <a href="https://twitter.com/YossiBenYakar/status/1978928818174775735?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 16, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Reem Alsalem is saying that she is being &quot;deliberately misrepresented&quot; after people became angry that she made the claim that &quot;No independent investigation found that rape took place on the 7th of October.&quot;
If you are wondering if the link she included somehow proves that she… <a href="https://t.co/WR9kAz8qFR">pic.twitter.com/WR9kAz8qFR</a>
&mdash; Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) <a href="https://twitter.com/HenMazzig/status/1989755511504281659?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 15, 2025</a></blockquote>
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UN Special Rapporteur slash Hamas propagandist Reem Alsalem continues to deny Israelis were raped on October 7.
The <a href="https://twitter.com/UN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@UN</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/nytimes?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@nytimes</a>, not to mention many Israeli investigations, have confirmed Hamas used sexual violence as a weapon during the 10/7 massacre. <a href="https://t.co/AIb8HIWF5X">https://t.co/AIb8HIWF5X</a> <a href="https://t.co/lrhqP3T3uO">pic.twitter.com/lrhqP3T3uO</a>
&mdash; Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) <a href="https://twitter.com/IsraelWarRoom/status/1989860497793954254?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 16, 2025</a></blockquote>
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In March 2024, a mission team led by the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten found that there was substantial evidence to conclude that victims, as well as hostages and survivors of October 7, were sexually <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-784636">abused and raped</a> by Hamas terrorists.
Two weeks before the UN report, the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel (ARCCI) issued their report, which <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-790204">stated</a> of the multiple rapes, “In most of these incidents, victims first subjected to rape were then killed, and at least two incidents relate to the rape of women’s corpses.”
“<a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-790390">Last year in March</a>, Alsalem also denied knowing Israel had been a victim of repeated missile attacks by Hamas and Hezbollah as the terrorist groups launched air barrages on civilian communities across Israel,” the Jerusalem Post <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-873910">noted</a>.
As far back as December 2023, the Lieber Institute at West Point stated, “The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/04/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-sexual-violence-un.html">New York Times</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/05/un-hears-accounts-of-sexual-violence-during-7-october-attacks-by-hamas">The Guardian</a>, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/sexual-assault-hamas-oct-7-attack-rape-bb06b950bb6794affb8d468cd283bc51">AP News</a>, and <a href="https://www.phr.org.il/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/5771_Sexual_Violence_paper_Eng-final.pdf">Physicians for Human Rights Israel</a> all mention instances of rape and gang rape in their reports relating to October 7. Other reported acts of sexual violence from these sources include forced nudity, sexual mutilation, and gunshots in the sexual organs and breasts of women.”

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UN Special Rapporteur On Violence Against Women And Girls Denies Hamas Raped Women On October 7

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