An elite Pennsylvania liberal arts college agreed to sweeping changes after a lawsuit said the school allowed its campus to become a hotbed for radicalism, with open glorification of the terrorist group Hamas and antisemitic harassment by students.
Haverford College has <a href="https://www.haverford.edu/institutional-diversity-equity-and-access/combating-antisemitism">settled</a> with a group of Jewish students who sued the school in federal court in 2024. The students accused administrators of failing to protect them from discrimination and harassment because they were Jewish. 
The lawsuit detailed a campus environment where Hamas-supporting rhetoric became increasingly intertwined with hostility toward Jewish students. Masked protesters disrupted events, activists favorably shared images of Hamas paragliders during the October 7 attack, and a professor called for support for the “Palestinian resistance” just days after the attack.
Under the agreement, Haverford will explicitly state that Jewish, Israeli, and Zionist students are welcome on campus and that discrimination and harassment targeting them violates college policy and can result in disciplinary action. 
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<div id="attachment_1155951" style="width: 624px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1155951" class="size-large wp-image-1155951" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Screenshot-2026-08-12-at-10.32.16-AM-614x576.png" alt="" width="614" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Screenshot-2026-08-12-at-10.32.16-AM-614x576.png 614w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Screenshot-2026-08-12-at-10.32.16-AM-300x282.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Screenshot-2026-08-12-at-10.32.16-AM.png 654w" sizes=" (max-width: 614px) 100vw, 614px" />(The Deborah Project)</div>
The settlement also requires Haverford to establish a new Civil Rights Director to handle antisemitism complaints, create an Antisemitism Committee, require annual antisemitism training for students and employees, and provide equal security for events sponsored by Jewish, Israeli, or Zionist groups. It will require masked individuals to identify themselves to campus officials when circumstances warrant it.
The students were represented by The Deborah Project, a nonprofit legal organization that represents Jewish students and faculty facing antisemitism in education.
According to the lawsuit, Jewish students faced hostility in classrooms, student forums, campus events, and even extracurricular activities, while administrators repeatedly failed to intervene or treated complaints as matters for students to resolve themselves. The campus environment became so hostile that administrators were warned that Jewish students felt physically threatened as Hamas-supporting rhetoric continued. 
During an encampment in April 2024, one Jewish student wrote to the Haverford President Wendy Raymond that protesters were using bullhorns to chant from the Hamas Charter and accuse Israel of genocide. 
“As a Jew I experience this conduct exactly as these people intend for me to experience it: as grossly demeaning, insulting and, most important, physically threatening. Glorying in Hamas’s conduct, and insisting that Israel do nothing to stop Hamas from doing it again, can’t be anything other than a threat to Jews,” the student wrote.
The lawsuit says one image circulated among Haverford students immediately after October 7 that featured a paraglider alongside the words “Stand with Palestinian resistance.” Hamas terrorists had used paragliders to infiltrate Israel for its massacre of Israeli civilians.
The complaint says the image was circulated as part of a series of posts that Jewish students viewed as celebrating or justifying the Hamas attack. 
Haverford math professor Tarik Aougab also came under scrutiny for his social media activity following the attack.
According to the lawsuit, Aougab publicly praised the October 7 atrocities on October 11, calling for “unequivocal and firm support for the Palestinian resistance” and reposting a message stating that defenders of Hamas’ attack “should never have to apologize for celebrating the scenes of an imprisoned people breaking free from their chains.”
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<div id="attachment_1155945" style="width: 457px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1155945" class="size-large wp-image-1155945" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Screenshot-2026-08-11-at-2.44.24-PM-447x576.png" alt="" width="447" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Screenshot-2026-08-11-at-2.44.24-PM-447x576.png 447w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Screenshot-2026-08-11-at-2.44.24-PM-233x300.png 233w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Screenshot-2026-08-11-at-2.44.24-PM-768x990.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Screenshot-2026-08-11-at-2.44.24-PM.png 776w" sizes=" (max-width: 447px) 100vw, 447px" />(The Deborah Project)</div>
Aougab later attacked Haverford students who supported Israel, calling them “racist genocidaires,” and announced that he would not provide recommendations for students seeking to study in Israel, according to the complaint. 
When Jewish students asked Raymond about Aougab reposting a photograph of a bulldozer breaking through the barrier between Gaza and Israel at the beginning of the Hamas attack, the lawsuit says Raymond responded that the post “could be perceived in many ways.”
When pressed on how she perceived it, Raymond said she “heard people breaking free from their chains.” She also allegedly described some of the Gazans who crossed into Israel through the destroyed fence on October 7 as “peaceful.” 
In spring 2024, Haverford hired Christopher R. Rogers as a visiting professor, despite him also publicly praising Hamas’ attack. Rogers reposted a tweet on October 7 featuring bulldozers breaking into Israel with the caption “beautiful sights to wake up to this morning.” He himself posted, “It’s an all day shout out to Chester love and Palestinian self-determination” during the attack. 
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<div id="attachment_1155947" style="width: 993px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1155947" class="size-large wp-image-1155947" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Gdq68smXUAAd29p-983x576.jpeg" alt="" width="983" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Gdq68smXUAAd29p-983x576.jpeg 983w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Gdq68smXUAAd29p-300x176.jpeg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Gdq68smXUAAd29p-768x450.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Gdq68smXUAAd29p.jpeg 1160w" sizes=" (max-width: 983px) 100vw, 983px" />(The Deborah Project)</div>
Rogers is wearing a keffiyeh in his official photograph on the <a href="https://www.haverford.edu/users/crrogers">Haverford website</a>.
The plaintiffs said that, to their knowledge, Haverford did not investigate or discipline professors over their social media posts supporting October 7. By contrast, they point out that Jewish-Israeli professor Barak Mendelsohn was investigated after criticizing a ceasefire petition and writing that its supporters appeared to ignore the “massacre, beheading, mutilation, and burning” of Israeli civilians by Hamas, before calling some of the petition’s supporters “Hamas apologists.” He posted that Haverford had a “Jewish problem,” that its student body was “led by Hamas apologists,” and that he would not send a Jewish student there.
The investigation found that Mendelsohn had not engaged in “discrimination or harassment,” but concluded that his conduct was “inconsistent with the College’s expectations of its faculty.”
The lawsuit also describes a September 30, 2024, antisemitism event featuring the Anti-Defamation League that was disrupted by masked protesters.
An alumna who witnessed the demonstration told Raymond that protesters gathered outside the event while shouting threatening slogans, carrying signs reading “No Zionists on campus,” and “shouting their support for the terrorist groups Hezbollah and Hamas.” Most of the demonstrators had their faces covered with masks, according to the alumna.
The protesters shouted “from Gaza to Lebanon Israel must be gone,” “Stand up fight back,” and “by whatever means necessary&#8221; and banged on pots and shouted through a megaphone to disrupt the presentation. 
The lawsuit says university president Raymond was physically present and witnessed the disruption but did not intervene or issue a statement after the event.
Raymond was later pressed about the incident during a May 7, 2025, congressional hearing. Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) asked what would happen if a student walked across Haverford’s campus holding a sign reading “No Blacks on campus.” 
Raymond said there would be “no room for discrimination,” prompting Fine to point out that students had held a “No Zionists on campus” sign at the September 30, 2024, protest where Raymond was present, without consequence.
“But there is room!” Fine told her. “Because at your campus, in front of you at a protest, students held up a sign saying ‘No Zionists on campus.’” 
During Haverford’s spring 2024 anti-Israel encampment, which protesters declared a “Liberated Zone,” posters were present quoting Hamas to advocate for the destruction of the Jewish state, as well as chants of “long live the Intifadah,” according to the lawsuit.
The protesters occupied the center of campus for at least three days and blocked access to Founders’ Hall — a central building on campus. Students who did not express support for the protesters’ goals were allegedly shouted at and insulted. 
Haverford also directed Jewish students to the student-run Honor Council to address complaints of antisemitism and harassment, despite allegations that some Honor Council members themselves allegedly participated in the attacks on Jewish students.
The lawsuit alleges that the Honor Code divided students into “marginalized” and “privileged” groups, resulting in different standards of treatment based on those labels. Anti-Israel students allegedly used that framework to portray Jews committed to Israel as inherently “privileged” and to bully or silence them.
In announcing the settlement, Raymond acknowledged that members of the Haverford community committed to Israel as the Jewish homeland had been “deeply hurt” by events following October 7.
“That constitutes a failure on our part,” Raymond said. “We commit ourselves to doing better going forward.”
The settlement has nevertheless drawn criticism from the Philadelphia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which <a href="https://pa.cair.com/pressrelease/haverford-zionism/">argued</a> that Haverford went too far by treating Zionism as a protected identity.
“Jewish students deserve protection from antisemitism, harassment, and discrimination. Palestinian students deserve those same protections,” said Dr. Ahmet Tekelioglu, executive director of CAIR-Philadelphia. “But no political ideology should be placed beyond criticism at an institution whose mission is supposed to center intellectual inquiry and the pursuit of truth.”
Tekelioglu argued that protecting Jewish students does not mean shielding Zionism from criticism.
“Protecting Jewish people is not the same as protecting Zionism from criticism,” he said. “A student’s Jewish identity is not a political ideology, and criticism of Zionism or advocacy for Palestinian rights should not be presumed to constitute hostility toward Jewish people.”
Texas and Florida moved to designate CAIR as a terrorist organization in 2025 under state law, but these designations are currently frozen or delayed due to active federal lawsuits.

Pro-Palestinians Protesters Urge USC To Divest From Israel

Liberal University Gives In After Student Lawsuit Said Campus Became Hamas Hotbed

antisemitism

Hamas

Israel

October 7

Pennsylvania

Randy Fine

A Senate hearing on Wednesday presented evidence that a Muslim Brotherhood-connected network in the United States is built to support Hamas and expand influence through American institutions. 
The “Hidden in Plain Sight: Confronting the Muslim Brotherhood Network in America” <a href="https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/committee-activity/hearings/hidden-in-plain-sight-confronting-the-muslim-brotherhood-network-in-america-08-05-2026?_cb=1785962582513">hearing</a>, led by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), focused on how the network was constructed and the threats it poses to the United States. The network continues to operate with overlapping leadership, shared ideology, and sustained reach into education, politics, and nonprofit advocacy.
At the center of the hearing was the 2008 Holy Land Foundation case, which remains the largest terrorism financing prosecution in American history. In 2008, the Holy Land Foundation, then the largest Muslim charity in the United States, and five of its leaders were convicted on 108 counts of providing material support to Hamas, money laundering, and tax fraud. Sentences reached 65 years.
At the time, prosecutors said the trial exposed a broader network of organizations operating inside the country. That structure included the Islamic Society of North America, the North American Islamic Trust, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
A 1991 document known as the Explanatory Memorandum, recovered by the FBI in 2004 in Annandale, Virginia, described the Brotherhood’s work in North America as “a grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and &#8216;sabotaging&#8217; its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers.” The document instructed adherents to master coalition building and to work with existing Islamic organizations.
CAIR was founded in 1994 by individuals who participated in a 1993 Philadelphia meeting of Palestine Committee leaders that the FBI recorded. At that meeting, participants discussed supporting Hamas while infiltrating American universities, media, and politics. 
They spoke of shaping school curricula so that children would not “grow up surrendering to the idea of peace with Jews.” Nihad Awad, who took part in the meeting, remains CAIR’s executive director. Witnesses said CAIR was created in significant part to defend and protect other elements of the Hamas support network.
Lara Burns, the retired FBI special agent who led the Holy Land Foundation investigation, told the subcommittee that CAIR was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2008 case and has never formally disavowed the Holy Land Foundation. Asked whether evidence from that prosecution would still place CAIR on a list of organizations warranting further investigation, she answered, “It would.” She added that the underlying conspiracy still exists and the threat is growing.
After the Islamic Association for Palestine was driven into bankruptcy through civil liability for supporting terrorism, its leadership reappeared in other groups. Osama Abu Irshaid, who had worked for both the Islamic Association for Palestine and the United Association for Studies and Research, later became a leader of American Muslims for Palestine.
During the hearing, Cruz mentioned that Abdul El-Sayed, who won Michigan’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate on Tuesday, has family ties to this network. El-Sayed&#8217;s father-in-law previously served as president of CAIR Michigan and sat on the founders committee of the Islamic Society of North America.
Kyle Shideler, a counterterrorism analyst, told lawmakers that CAIR’s creation and bylaws received explicit approval from Muslim Brotherhood leadership in Egypt. Documents from the Holy Land Foundation case showed that, at one time, one in every four American mosques was under the influence of the Hamas-linked North American Islamic Trust. 
Arielle Klepach, a former federal prosecutor, said that CAIR New Jersey distributed a curriculum on 9/11 to nearly 30 public school districts that framed the attacks as a predictable consequence of U.S. foreign policy. 
Cruz then referenced troubling statements made by CAIR officials after the October 7, 2023, attacks. Awad declared he was “happy to see people breaking the siege,” and on the day of the massacre, the executive director of CAIR’s San Francisco chapter posted, “We are witnessing decolonization” and later referred to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh as a martyr.
CAIR California’s CEO Hussam Ayloush said, “Israel should be attacked.” He also noted that CAIR and related groups assisted the broader network as it coordinated legal support and strategic guidance for the campus encampments and riots that spread to more than 100 campuses across the country.
Witnesses described the campus activity as the product of an organized network that has spent decades building influence inside American universities.
Burns confirmed that CAIR personnel appeared during the 2004 FBI search of a senior operative’s home in Virginia and attempted to obstruct the seizure of documents that formed a major archive of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas support network.
Cruz closed by stating that the network’s institutional presence through nonprofits, taxpayer funded grants, campus organizing, and legal advocacy requires accountability “no matter how many tax exemptions, charitable registrations, or civil rights letterheads they hide behind.”
He called on the Justice Department, the Treasury Department, and the FBI to act on the evidence presented.
Written questions for the record are due by August 12, with answers to written inquiries expected by August 26.

Gaza protest in Jordan

The Link Between Hamas And The Muslim Brotherhood In America? Here’s The Evidence

CAIR

Islamic Jihad

Muslim Brotherhood

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Ted Cruz

Bar Asraf, a 30-year-old resident of the Israeli Sha&#8217;arei Tikva settlement, was found dead after he shot himself at the grave of his girlfriend Liron Barda, who was murdered by Hamas terrorists at the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, The Jerusalem Post <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-904382">reported</a> on Monday.
Barda, who worked as the bar manager at the festival, stayed and gave first aid to the wounded during Hamas&#8217; attack despite pleas from friends and family for her to run. Asraf&#8217;s sister Lihi said the family was celebrating her other brother&#8217;s wedding just before Asraf was found dead. 
&#8220;We were at my brothers wedding. He apparently started to feel lonely. You could not tell. He was always happy and laughing,&#8221; Lihi said. &#8220;At the groom&#8217;s celebration there was dancing and a Shabbat reception with a singer. It was magical. We were at the peak of the family&#8217;s life.&#8221;
&#8220;He was actually coping well but he had a moment of madness being alone while seeing everyone with their families,&#8221; Lihi added. &#8220;People need to know what <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/nova-festival">Nova</a> did to people. On that day [October 7] he started driving toward Re&#8217;im to save her until he realized there was no one left to save and they turned him back halfway.&#8221;
After Asraf left the gathering, Lihi thought he had gone to be alone to think as he often did. After two hours passed, the family began to search, first checking a few places before going to Barda&#8217;s grave. &#8220;He loved talking there and being with her,&#8221; Lihi said.
&#8220;I walked over and suddenly I saw him lying next to Liron&#8217;s grave. I said to him, &#8216;Bar, get up, what are you doing again,&#8217; and then I realized he was covered in blood. I stepped on a gun beside him. I screamed. I could not function. My father started CPR. I knew it was the end. He was cold. &#8230; He died in the place he wanted to be most with the woman he wanted to be with most.&#8221;
Their mother, Bracha, called her son &#8220;a special boy&#8221; and described Barda and Asraf as &#8220;soulmates since childhood.&#8221;
&#8220;There were three nerve-wracking days when we did not know what happened to her at Nova. He stayed at my house and did not leave my side from morning until evening sitting with her entire family,&#8221; Bracha said. &#8220;He stayed in touch with them ever since, brought her mother bouquets of flowers and got a tattoo of her. A little while ago I saw him looking sad and asked what was wrong. He said, &#8216;Mom, I am sad. It is hard for me without Liron. I miss her. There is no one who can replace her, no one to cheer me up.&#8217; We felt he was struggling deeply without her.&#8221;
Shiran Maor of SafeHeart, which supports survivors of the October 7 festivals and their families, said, &#8220;Our hearts break over this devastating tragedy. We share in the family&#8217;s deep grief and stand with everyone who knew and loved him.&#8221;
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a free hotline for individuals in crisis or distress or for those looking to help someone else. It is available 24/7 by dialing 988.

TOPSHOT-ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN-CONFLICT

Man Kills Himself At Grave Of Girlfriend Murdered By Hamas

Death

Nova festival

Hamas terrorists were quietly building a sprawling European terror network for years — stockpiling guns, scouting targets, and even filming a martyrdom-style video — as they plotted a massacre on the continent to mirror the horrific October 7 attack on Israel, according to a bombshell investigation released last week.
The chilling scheme, <a href="https://www.nzz.ch/international/die-hamas-nimmt-den-westen-ins-visier-und-plante-wohl-einen-zweiten-7-oktober-in-europa-ld.10014753">uncovered</a> through a joint probe by European intelligence agencies and reported by Swiss outlet Neue Zürcher Zeitung, spanned at least seven countries: Greece, Cyprus, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Poland, and Britain. The terror group eyed the second anniversary of its 2023 rampage, October 7, 2025, as a possible attack date, according to the report.
The plot first cracked open in early June, when a 37-year-old Egyptian man of Palestinian descent was busted on the Greek island of Crete. Cops raiding his apartment found bomb-making chemicals, and investigators say he&#8217;d been coordinating with two Cyprus-based Palestinians on a plan to blow up an Israeli cruise ship. The sting was fittingly code-named &#8220;Odin.&#8221;
But the real nerve center of the operation, authorities say, was Germany. Since last fall, federal prosecutors have ordered the arrest of nine suspected Hamas operatives across the country, accused of targeting Jewish and Israeli institutions. Investigators recovered a pre-recorded propaganda video claiming responsibility for attacks that never came to pass.
German officials say Hamas had turned the country into a weapons pipeline, smuggling at least 13 handguns, an assault rifle and more than 900 rounds of ammo through Denmark, Berlin, and Vienna. It wasn&#8217;t the first bust, as four Hamas members were already convicted in Berlin earlier this year for stashing weapons caches across Europe.
The network&#8217;s roots go back even further. Federal investigators say a Hamas cell was ordered from Lebanon back in 2019 to start hiding weapons across Europe, with caches later dug up in Bulgaria and Denmark. More were feared buried along the German-Polish border. Suspects were finally <a href="https://lab.imedd.org/en/hamas-weapons-in-bulgaria/">caught</a> after guards noticed them repeatedly crossing that border toting shovels, apparently hunting for their own buried arsenal. Arrests came in December 2023.
By the spring of 2023, prosecutors say, the same cell was ordered to haul the weapons into Germany and prep strikes on Jewish, Israeli, or American sites. Those sites included the Israeli embassy in Berlin, the U.S. airbase in Ramstein, and Berlin&#8217;s Tempelhofer Feld park.
Investigators say the whole operation was run out of Lebanon, with Berlin cell members spotted at the funeral of slain Hamas military commander Khalil al-Kharaz.
Hamas has <a href="https://www.counterextremism.com/roundup/eye-extremism-july-20-2026?utm_source=chatgpt.com">denied</a> any role in the alleged plot, insisting its fight is limited to Israel. But terror expert Hans-Jakob Schindler called that claim hard to swallow, warning a weakened Hamas may increasingly look to strike outside the Middle East for maximum shock value.

PALESTINIAN-ISRAEL-CONFLICT-PROTEST

Bombshell Probe Reveals Hamas Planned Another October 7-Style Massacre

Europe

Another stabbing. Another headline. Another round of thoughts and prayers followed by absolutely nothing changing.
The day before this attack, a friend of mine had his front door kicked in. His wife was home with their baby when the attacker got inside and tackled her to the ground — both of them on the floor. My friend was able to get to her in time, fight the attacker off, and get his wife and baby out safely. It could have ended very differently. It didn&#8217;t, because he was there and he was ready.
These stories aren&#8217;t rare anymore. They&#8217;re routine. And every time one happens, the same question follows: what if someone there had been armed? The answer is simple. It would have changed everything.
I grew up in California, and firearms were part of my life from an early age. My family ran a nonprofit helping families with food, clothing, and furniture — the kind of work that puts you face to face with people at their most vulnerable. It also put a target on us. Before I turned 18, my family endured 14 attempted break-ins and two attempted murders. That reshaped how I saw the world. I got serious about firearms training, earned my National Rifle Association instructor certifications, and kept building from there. Then came the Chabad of Poway shooting. Watching an attack unfold in a synagogue — a place that&#8217;s supposed to be safe — prompted me to take action. I started teaching publicly, and it grew into a full training operation. Today I run &#8220;The Tactical Rabbi,&#8221; a firearms and security training brand with a YouTube channel that&#8217;s crossed 35 million views and a growing presence on Instagram, where I break down concealed carry, active-shooter response, and security preparedness for anyone wanting to learn.
I&#8217;ve spent years watching regular people — parents, business owners, synagogue members — try to navigate the maze of legal protections. In New York, that maze is a nightmare and for many, hard to work through.
New York is technically a &#8220;shall issue&#8221; state now, post-Bruen (the June 2022 Supreme Court decision in New York State Rifle &amp; Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen recognizing a constitutional right to carry a handgun outside the home for self-defense). On paper, the Supreme Court forced the state&#8217;s hand. In practice, New York found a new way to make the right to self-defense functionally unreachable for most people. To get a carry license, an applicant has to complete 16 hours of classroom instruction, plus two hours of live-fire training, submit four character references, sit for an in-person interview, and pass a background process that, in my experience, takes an average of six months — and commonly can stretch past a year.
An attorney once put it to me this way, and I haven&#8217;t heard it said better: if New York actually cared about safety, the ratio would be flipped — sixteen hours of live-fire and safe-handling training, two hours of legal seminar. Instead, it&#8217;s the opposite. The overwhelming majority of mandated time isn&#8217;t spent teaching people to operate a firearm safely. It&#8217;s spent walking them through everything they&#8217;re not allowed to do. That&#8217;s not a safety program. That&#8217;s a liability shield with a permit slip attached. And that&#8217;s before you factor in the cost — training, fingerprinting, application fees, lost work hours — which adds up to something far beyond a minor inconvenience. For someone working full-time or living on a tight income, six months to a year of cost and paperwork isn&#8217;t a deterrent. It&#8217;s often a hard stop.
Even after someone clears every hurdle and gets approved, New York&#8217;s list of &#8220;sensitive locations&#8221; strips the license of most of its value. Subways. Times Square. Public transit. The exact places where violent crime is most concentrated and where the value of self-defense is most needed are off limits. The state hands you a license in one hand and takes back the protection with the other. To be clear, I don&#8217;t think every requirement is worthless. A seminar on the legal use of force has real value. Live-fire training has real value. The problem isn&#8217;t that New York asks people to be trained and responsible. The problem is how it&#8217;s built — layered, slow, and expensive in a way that has far more to do with discouraging applicants than preparing them.
New Jersey&#8217;s process, by comparison, is a two-hour seminar plus a 50-round live-fire qualification across three to 15 yards. That&#8217;s it. It&#8217;s faster, cheaper, and — frankly — makes more sense as an actual proficiency test than New York&#8217;s process. Approval times run dramatically shorter than New York&#8217;s. I still don&#8217;t think New Jersey&#8217;s system is where it should be, constitutionally. But if I had to choose between the two states as they stand today, it isn&#8217;t close. Meanwhile, most of the country has moved toward constitutional carry — which is closer to how the Second Amendment was actually written and intended to function. More states should be moving in that direction, not away from it.
People will say these hurdles exist because lawmakers want gun ownership to stay rare. That misses the bigger picture. The Second Amendment wasn&#8217;t written to manage a hobby. It was written as a check against tyranny and, just as importantly, as a guarantee that every individual has the right to defend themselves and the people they love. That right doesn&#8217;t mean much if the state can regulate it into practical non-existence while still calling it &#8220;shall issue.&#8221;
And there&#8217;s a second half to this problem that doesn&#8217;t get talked about enough: the revolving-door approach to repeat offenders in cities like New York. When people with long, documented histories of arrests face little to no real consequence, you remove any incentive for a would-be attacker to hesitate. Deterrence works both ways — an armed, trained citizen is one form of deterrence; real consequences for violent behavior are another. Weaken both at the same time, and you shouldn&#8217;t be surprised when incidents like stabbings and other violent crimes keep happening.
I’m constantly asked where to start, and I always come back to the same comparison: learning to drive. The first time you get behind the wheel, it&#8217;s intimidating — you don&#8217;t know what you&#8217;re doing, and that uncertainty is real. But with the right instructor, proper training, and time behind the wheel, that discomfort turns into competence. A firearm is no different. It&#8217;s a tool. Treated seriously, trained on properly, and understood clearly, it becomes something you can rely on rather than fear. That&#8217;s the piece so many of these processes get backward. They spend their energy trying to make people afraid of the tool instead of competent with it. Fix that, and you fix most of what&#8217;s actually wrong with the system.
There are many fantastic resources and firearms instructors across the country — people who know the laws and people who follow everything Second Amendment-related. For example, if you are worried about owning or bringing a firearm into your home, Yehuda Remer, also known as The Pew Pew Jew, has a series of children’s books that talk about gun safety and living with firearms in your home. He also has a history of the Second Amendment so you and your child can learn about its importance and why we have it. He is a Second Amendment activist living in Texas who educates children and parents about those rights. His work and advocacy span the better part of 15 years, during which he has called for everyone to arm themselves, especially Jews. Since October 7, his voice has been an important wake-up call for Jews around the country to pick up a firearm, train, and survive.
If any of this resonates — if you&#8217;ve been sitting on the fence about getting trained, getting licensed, or just learning how to think about your own safety — don&#8217;t wait for the next headline to decide for you. Reach out. Find me on YouTube and Instagram as The Tactical Rabbi, or drop me a line at <a href="mailto:info@thetacticalrabbi.com">info@thetacticalrabbi.com</a>. I’m happy to help point you in the right direction.
Or you can reach out to The Pew Pew Jew at <a href="http://www.thepewpewjew.com/">www.thepewpewjew.com</a> or email him at thepewpewjew@gmail.com.
***
Rabbi Raziel Cohen is a firearms instructor and security consultant known as &#8220;The Tactical Rabbi.&#8221; His YouTube channel has surpassed 35 million views, and he shares ongoing training content on Instagram.
Yehuda Remer is an award-winning Second Amendment advocate who has published 10 books and has appeared on media outlets including Fox News, ABC News, and other publications.

Todd Settergren of Setterarms gun shop, handles pistols inside his display case on Friday Jan. 13, 2017, in Walnut Creek, Ca. Settergren says California gun laws have gone too far and he welcomes the chance that the federal government under the Trump admi

New York Doesn’t Want You Armed, The Bureaucracy Proves It

Chabad of Poway

Concealed Carry

DW Opinion

Gun Rights

Inc. v. Bruen

National Rifle Association (NRA)

New Jersey

New York

New York State Rifle &amp; Pistol Association

Second Amendment

The hall of the United Nations Human Rights Council fell into an uneasy silence earlier this week as a small woman walked to the microphone and prepared to do something the world&#8217;s most powerful human rights body had failed to do: bear witness.
Ilana Gritzewsky, a survivor of Hamas&#8217; October 7 massacre, stood before Reem Alsalem — the U.N.&#8217;s own special rapporteur on violence against women, who is Jordanian — and refused to be erased.
What followed was one of the most searing moments in recent U.N. history, not because of what the diplomat said in response.
Because of what she didn&#8217;t say.
Gritzewsky recounted the morning terrorists stormed her kibbutz — the murders, the burning, the kidnapping. She described being touched, beaten, and sexually abused until she lost consciousness, waking half-naked with seven Hamas fighters standing over her. She described the broken hip, the broken jaw, the scarred soul she carried home from captivity. She spoke of how the wail of an air raid siren or the thunder of an Iranian rocket still hurls her back into that darkness.
&#8220;In captivity, Jewish women were raped, abused, and humiliated. And you, special rapporteur, you choose silence and denial. You say there was no evidence of sexual violence on October 7th,&#8221; she told Alsalem directly. &#8220;I&#8217;m standing here today, not as a report, not as a statistic. I am a woman who survived. I am the living proof of sexual violence by Hamas.&#8221;
Then she asked the question that hung over the chamber like smoke: &#8220;When I, another Israeli woman, begged not to be raped — why were you silent? Please look at me. Do you believe us now? Will you apologize?&#8221;
Alsalem sat silent after Gritzewsky&#8217;s testimony. She did not apologize.
She smirked.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
This is the UN. Look at the face of the UN special rapporteur who is meant to stand up for women but has refused, again and again, to speak up for Israeli women. Look at her face when a former hostage challenges her. <a href="https://t.co/whThRNG92u">pic.twitter.com/whThRNG92u</a>
&mdash; Nicole Lampert (@nicolelampert) <a href="https://x.com/nicolelampert/status/2069691978707513797?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 24, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The confrontation laid bare a record that is nothing short of a scandal. As U.N. Watch <a href="https://unwatch.org/analysis-of-reem-alsalems-violence-against-mothers-report-omissions-distortions-and-double-standards/">noted</a>, Alsalem publicly declared last November that &#8220;no independent investigation found that rape took place on October 7&#8221; — a claim directly contradicted by a U.N. report issued months earlier that found reasonable grounds to believe Hamas committed sexual violence during the attack, with an even higher evidentiary threshold met for assaults on hostages held in captivity. As recently as April 2026, she was still dismissing survivor testimony as &#8220;misinformation&#8221; deployed to &#8220;justify genocide against Palestinians.&#8221;
Her June 2026 report to the Human Rights Council, titled &#8220;Violence against Mothers,&#8221; completed the picture. It accused Israel of reproductive violence and genocide, cited a single article from an openly anti-Israel outlet, and lamented that U.S. and Israeli action against Iran might undermine Tehran&#8217;s record on women&#8217;s rights — a position that drew immediate ridicule from prominent Iranian women&#8217;s rights activist Masih Alinejad, who had publicly celebrated those same strikes. The report made no mention of Hamas. It said nothing of Israeli mothers murdered in front of their children, nothing of hostage families psychologically tortured for over two years, nothing of the deliberate phenomenon so systematic it has been given its own name: kinocide.
Ilana Gritzewsky offered Reem Alsalem a simple human choice on June 23: look at her, and reckon with what she represents.
The special rapporteur looked away.

Ilana Gritzewsky, former hostage by Hamas speaks during

Watch U.N. Official’s Sickening Reaction To Oct. 7 Survivor

United Nations

In Kibbutz Be’eri, the air inside a child’s bedroom was still. Behind a small bed, a doll lay where it had fallen. The wall above it was scarred with bullet holes and blood stains.
The scene needed no explanation. An Israeli girl had hidden behind her bed as Hamas terrorists rampaged through her home, clutching her doll in the dark and hoping to survive. However, she was found and murdered for nothing more than existing.
<div id="attachment_1097271" style="width: 394px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1097271" class="size-full wp-image-1097271" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Miyares1.jpg" alt="" width="384" height="512" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Miyares1.jpg 384w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Miyares1-225x300.jpg 225w" sizes=" (max-width: 384px) 100vw, 384px" />Credit: Jason Miyares</div>
As the father of three teenage daughters, this room left an indelible impact on me during a post-October 7th visit to Israel, and I worry about what it means that the world has largely moved on already.
The October 7th massacre revealed how quickly some will rationalize evil when the victims are Jewish. The same hatred that fuels barbaric terror against Jewish civilians in Israel does not stay contained. It spreads, adapts, and rebrands itself globally with new slogans and justifications.
<div id="attachment_1097273" style="width: 522px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1097273" class="size-full wp-image-1097273" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Miyares2.jpg" alt="" width="512" height="384" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Miyares2.jpg 512w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Miyares2-300x225.jpg 300w" sizes=" (max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px" />Credit: Jason Miyares</div>
Here in the United States, antisemitism has reemerged across the political spectrum in recent years. On the far left, it is generally dressed up in ideological language, presenting hostility toward Jews as moral or political virtue, and often merges into the legitimization of Islamist aims.
On the far right, it has evolved too, from old nationalist branding into a foreign-amplified “groyper” rhetoric targeted at young men who feel alienated, rootless, and eager for a cause.
To comprehend why antisemitism keeps returning, one must realize what it offers — a shortcut around reason. Once hate hardens into a kind of faith, words lose their meaning, and arguments no longer need to make sense.
In the aftermath of October 7th, antisemitism moved from the margins to the mainstream. In Virginia, Jewish students were prevented from walking on sidewalks at the University of Virginia. Outside agitators tried to occupy the Virginia Commonwealth University campus. At George Mason, antisemitic threats led to law enforcement intervention.
After returning home from my trip to Israel, the first image I saw on TV at the airport was of American students waving Hamas flags and chanting pro-terror slogans.
Virginia had a duty to act, and we did so quickly. Our efforts were rooted in an understanding that the fight against contemporary antisemitism requires a multi-faceted strategy, spanning policy, law enforcement, and education, with a focus on concrete steps to prevent violence before it occurs.
We prioritized training for law enforcement. Hundreds of Virginia State Police officers have participated in antisemitism awareness seminars, facilitated by the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), where they learned to identify and counter extremist threats, resulting in real-world outcomes that have made Virginia’s communities safer.
We focused on maintaining order on college campuses. To do so, we met with the general counsels of every public higher education institution in Virginia to help them navigate First Amendment questions while ensuring schools had increased security and resources. Working with law enforcement agencies and university leaders, we proactively prepared for the unrest seen in other states before it arrived in the Commonwealth.
We ensured families and students understood their rights, providing clear guidance on how to report and file formal complaints when antisemitic discrimination occurs. For elementary, middle, and high schools, the Task Force developed a new curriculum module about Jewish religion, culture, and history to counter distorted narratives about the Jewish people that frequently circulate among students.
In 2025, we became involved in a case where three young Jewish siblings were expelled from their school after their parents complained about antisemitic harassment one child suffered at school. The eventual settlement saw the school agree to implement a new nondiscrimination policy, including adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism.
Important action was taken against support for foreign terrorist organizations when we initiated a criminal investigation into potential violations of state charitable fundraising laws by Hamas-linked Americans for Muslims in Palestine (AMP).
I was also proud to participate in Virginia’s first-ever state-level summit against antisemitism, organized by CAM in June 2024.
Reflecting on my term as attorney general, I remember that child’s room in Be’eri and the abandoned doll. It strengthens my resolve to refuse the world’s excuses and insist on better.
As Virginians and as Americans, we should be clear-eyed about what antisemitism is, honest about how it proliferates, and unafraid to counter it wherever it appears. That is what this moment in history calls for.
***
Jason S. Miyares served as Attorney General of Virginia (2022-2026) and is now a member of the U.S. Advisory Board of the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM).

Protest Against Anti Semitism and NSJP Conference At UCLA

Fighting On The Frontlines Of Antisemitism

Special Reporting

“I Miss My Old Life,” says the headline of this week’s New York Magazine cover, written by pro-Hamas activist Mahmoud Khalil, who, as of this writing, still walks around free on the streets of New York. “One year after my abduction by ICE,” the subhead goes, “I still watch my back every day.”
Let’s be clear: ICE did not abduct Mahmoud Kahlil. They detained him because, according to a memo prepared by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, he was organizing &#8220;antisemitic protests and disruptive activities” at Columbia University, where he was a graduate student. They argued that his continued presence in the United States was detrimental to national security.
Then the courts found the charges baseless. Unlike hundreds of thousands of other people who ICE has detained during the second Trump administration, the government let Kahlil go. Now he’s free to continue his activism. Apparently, as Tom Wolfe used to, he also writes cover stories for New York Magazine, which has gone from exposing “Radical Chic” to embodying its essence.
Well, I, too, miss my old life. I miss a life where hang-gliding terrorists didn’t massacre hundreds of beautiful Israeli youth at a music festival. And I miss a life where, rather than decrying the massacre, millions of people all over the world didn’t take to the streets in support of the terrorists, but instead took to the streets accusing their victims of “genocide.” That was a better life.
I miss a life where people didn’t stab or otherwise attack Jews in Chasidic neighborhoods in London, Los Angeles, and New York. Or a life where men didn’t drive cars into pedestrians or stab a security guard at a synagogue during Yom Kippur in Manchester. A gunman shot two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, D.C., last summer. An attacker stabbed a man at the Holocaust memorial in Berlin. Someone doused a Jewish couple’s apartment in Paris with gasoline because there was a mezuzah on the door and lit it on fire. Swastikas and the word &#8220;Hitler&#8221; were painted on the Jewish cemetery in Vienna, and someone set a fire in the ceremonial hall. I miss a life where that stuff didn’t happen.
You know what else I miss? A life when Jewish students could go to college and not have to worry about being Jewish. Since October 7, masked men attacked two students demonstrating in support of Israel at DePaul University, someone set a Jewish student’s door on fire at Drexel University, someone smeared swastikas made of feces on the residence hall of a University of California, San Diego bathroom, and the office of a Jewish regent at the University of Michigan was specifically targeted and vandalized with pro-Palestinian graffiti.
A large group of protesters surrounded a Jewish-owned falafel shop in Philadelphia, accusing the owners of “genocide.” Someone defaced the Wiener Holocaust Library in London with graffiti. How about the firebombing of Jewish protesters in Boulder, the West Bloomfield, Michigan, synagogue attack, or, most horribly of all, the Bondi Beach Massacre in Sydney? I sure miss my life before all that happened.
Also, I miss a life where the president of Colombia didn’t call Israelis “Nazis,” and where U.S. Representative Rashida Tlaib didn’t unapologetically use the phrase “from the river to the sea” in public statements. It was better, I think, when the mayor of New York City didn’t accuse the Israeli government of “apartheid” and when his wife didn’t provide illustrations for a book edited by a Palestinian-American author who’s described Zionists as &#8220;parasitic filth.” I miss a life that didn’t platform Hasan Piker, and where Jewish writers didn’t sign open letters condemning Israel while remaining silent about an unprecedented wave of attacks on their own people, or feature Susan Sarandon saying that American Jews are “getting a taste of what it feels like to be Muslim in this country.”  
Most of all, I miss a life where people who want me and everyone like me dead didn&#8217;t receive glowing, sentimental press coverage in the mainstream press. But I realize it’s a big ask — because that life is gone.
***
Neal Pollack is the author of 12 semi-bestselling books of fiction and nonfiction and is a three-time Jeopardy! champion.

Demonstration Held In Times Square In Support Of Detained Columbia University Graduate Student Mahmoud Khalil

Mainstreaming Antisemitism Has Robbed The Life Of American Jews

Mahmoud Kahlil

Last week, my home state of Michigan witnessed something truly terrifying: a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/police-respond-to-reports-of-active-shooter-as-michigan-synagogue-goes-up-in-smoke">terrorist attack</a> at a house of worship. The attacker drove a vehicle filled with explosives into a synagogue in West Bloomfield, a suburb of Detroit, just a few hours outside of my district.
Thankfully, on-site security personnel quickly intervened — stopping the terrorist and preventing any injury to the innocent children or staff inside. I am grateful to these guardians for responding quickly to safeguard those innocent lives, and I pray for the recovery of those injured in stopping this despicable attack.
This attack, however, isn’t an isolated incident. It is part of a broader and deeply troubling rise in antisemitism that has spread across our country since the October 7, 2023 massacre in Israel.
Nowhere is that rise more evident than on our college campuses.
Students have been whipped into an activist frenzy targeting Israel and the Jewish people.
Rather than stamping out the antisemitic fervor, faculty are fanning the flames. Many campus leaders seem completely unwilling to do anything about it.
<div id="attachment_1062451" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1062451" class="size-large wp-image-1062451" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2154554442-864x576.jpg" alt="TOPSHOT - Pro-Palestinian protesters, some wearing cap and gown, hold signs and chant at a rally in front of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on May 28, 2024. (Photo by Joseph Prezioso / AFP) (Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2154554442-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2154554442-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2154554442-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2154554442.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images</div>
On campuses across the nation — regardless of size or location — student groups are organizing to harass and intimidate Jewish students. Groups like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) are the ringleaders, often with the backing of similar faculty organizations.
At Columbia University, antisemitic demonstrators stormed a library, disrupted students, and chanted slogans like “from the river to the sea.” Eden Yadegar, my guest to President Trump’s Joint Address to Congress last year, described it as “disrupting one of the most basic functions of the university.”
All too often, this chaos leads to violence. The House Committee on Education and Workforce — of which I am the <a href="https://edworkforce.house.gov/">chairman</a> — heard from Michael Kaminsky, a student at DePaul University and a first-generation American who was assaulted by masked attackers for his efforts to promote dialogue about Israel and the Jewish faith. He was left with a fractured wrist, and his friend was knocked unconscious.
This is not what college should be. Students should be focused on learning and growing — not fearing harassment or assault because of their identities.
These actions are not happening in a vacuum. They are being encouraged — sometimes openly — by faculty.
At Haverford College, Tarik Aougab — a member of Haverford Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FSJP) — labeled pro-Israel students as “racist genocidaires” while praising the October 7 attacks as “a historic moment.”
At the University of California, Berkeley, a professor posted that he “could have been one of those who broke the siege.”
At MIT, former linguistics professor Michel DeGraff accused a student of having a Zionist “mind infection.”
<div id="attachment_1062465" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1062465" class="size-large wp-image-1062465" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2205276310-864x576.jpg" alt="Michel DeGraff a former professor of linguistics and now faculty at large of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) attends a protest at city hall in Cambridge, Massachusetts on December 9, 2024. The protest calls for the city to intervene and take action against MIT for its role in the Israeli and Palestinian conflict and for MIT to loose its non profit status. (Photo by Joseph Prezioso / AFP) (Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2205276310-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2205276310-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2205276310-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2205276310.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images</div>
This kind of rhetoric has consequences.
Let’s be clear: for many Jewish Americans, Israel is central to their identity. When students are targeted under the guise of “anti-Zionism,” the line between activism and antisemitism is not just crossed — it’s erased.
And yet, too many university leaders have failed to meet this moment.
Time and again, university presidents have come before this Committee and refused to take responsibility. They hedge, they equivocate, and they fail to enforce even their own rules.
The result is what we see today: antisemitism that is spreading, intensifying, and, in some cases, turning violent.
My Committee has released a report documenting just how serious this problem has become.
The findings are clear: weak leadership, radical faculty, and emboldened student groups have created an environment where antisemitism festers — and Jewish students are paying the price.
This cannot continue.
* * *
Tim Walberg represents Michigan’s 5th Congressional District and is serving his ninth term in the U.S. House of Representatives. He currently chairs the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Protesters Gather Outside Pro-Palestinian Activist Mahmoud Khalil’s Court Conference In New York

The Profs Aren’t Alright: How Radical Faculty Fuel The Rise Of Campus Antisemitism

The Profs Aren't Alright: How Radical Faculty Fuel The Rise Of Campus Antisemitism

American Universities

College

Columbia University

Education

Jews

Protestors

Radical Islam

U.S. House of Representatives

Far-left New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is suddenly drawing a bright line between politics and home life — insisting his wife isn’t a public figure even though she’s appeared in glossy magazine spreads and splashy media profiles that introduced the city to its newest political power couple.
The mayor made the claim Friday after fresh backlash erupted over reports that his wife, Syrian-American artist Rama Duwaji, used her Instagram account to “like” posts celebrating the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel.
When asked about the controversy, Mamdani attempted to shut down the line of questioning by framing his spouse as a private citizen.
“My wife is the love of my life, and she’s also a private person who has held no formal position on my campaign or in my City Hall,” Mamdani said.
He added that as mayor, he believes it’s his job — not hers — to answer political questions.
The explanation has drawn skepticism because Duwaji has hardly remained out of the spotlight.
In December, she appeared on the digital cover of New York Magazine’s The Cut, posing for photos and discussing life alongside the rising leftist politician. She has also been featured in coverage by The New York Times, which spotlighted her artwork and personal style during Mamdani’s early months in office.
In that same magazine profile, Duwaji acknowledged that Mamdani’s political ascent had thrust her into the public eye.
“I realized that it was not just his thing but our thing,” she said while reflecting on the sudden media attention surrounding their relationship.
The renewed scrutiny stems from a report detailing several social media posts Duwaji reportedly liked in the hours following the October 7 attack.
The posts included images and messages framing the Hamas assault — which killed roughly 1,200 people in Israel — as a form of “resistance.” One of the posts she liked described the breach of Israel’s border barrier as “breaking the walls of apartheid.”
Other posts reportedly showed militants celebrating inside captured Israeli military vehicles during the attack.
The revelations have revived scrutiny of Mamdani’s own rhetoric surrounding the conflict.
In the immediate aftermath of the October 7 attack, Mamdani — who was serving as a New York state assemblyman at the time — issued a statement mourning those killed while also criticizing Israeli policies and warning that the situation would lead to more violence.
Two years later, marking the anniversary of the attack, Mamdani again blasted Israel’s war in Gaza, accusing the country of committing “genocide” and citing casualty figures from the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
The episode has only intensified scrutiny around the mayor and his inner circle — especially as critics point out that someone featured in glossy magazine profiles doesn’t usually get to retreat behind the label of “private citizen” once controversy erupts.

Zohran Mamdani Sworn In As New York City’s New Mayor

Mamdani Makes Excuse For Wife Oct. 7 ‘Likes’ — But Paper Trail Doesn’t Add Up

mamdani

Politics

New York mayor Zohran Mamdani’s wife, Syrian-American artist Rama Duwaji, used her personal Instagram account to &#8220;like&#8221; multiple posts that actively cheered on the barbaric Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023.
The revelation from <a href="https://jewishinsider.com/2026/03/zohran-mamdani-wife-rama-duwaji-social-media-oct-7/">Jewish Insider</a> pulls back the curtain on the &#8220;moderate&#8221; facade Mamdani has carefully constructed. While the Mayor now claims to unequivocally condemn Hamas, his wife was busy clicking &#8220;heart&#8221; buttons on images of the very bulldozers used to breach the Israeli border and terrorists parading in captured IDF vehicles. One post liked by Duwaji, shared by an organization called &#8220;The Slow Factory,&#8221; framed the slaughter of 1,200 people as merely &#8220;breaking the walls of apartheid.&#8221;
The timing is particularly damning. While Mamdani — then a state assemblyman — was publicly criticizing a pro-Hamas rally in Times Square for &#8220;making light&#8221; of the massacre, his then-girlfriend was apparently at home digital-cheering for the organizers. Duwaji reportedly liked posts from the &#8220;People’s Forum&#8221;—part of a network linked to Maoist mogul Neville &#8220;Roy&#8221; Singham — which featured the genocidal chant &#8220;from the river to the sea&#8221; and declared that the Oct. 7 atrocities were a &#8220;human right.&#8221;
When pressed for comment, Duwaji went silent. The Mayor’s office, meanwhile, retreated into a practiced defensive shell, issuing a canned statement reiterating Mamdani’s &#8220;consistent&#8221; condemnation of Hamas. They notably refused to address whether the Mayor shares a dinner table with someone who views the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust as a moment of &#8220;collective liberation.&#8221;
Immediately following the October 7 Hamas massacre of 1200 Israelis, Mamdani (then a state assemblyman) issued a <a href="https://x.com/ZohranKMamdani/status/1711093032907321525">statement</a> that essentially targeted Israel: “I mourn the hundreds of people killed across Israel and Palestine in the last 36 hours. Netanyahu&#8217;s declaration of war, the Israeli government&#8217;s decision to cut electricity to Gaza, and Knesset members calling for another Nakba will undoubtedly lead to more violence and suffering in the days and weeks to come. The path toward a just and lasting peace can only begin by ending the occupation and dismantling apartheid.”
On the second anniversary of the October 7 massacre, Mamdani posted a <a href="https://x.com/ZohranKMamdani/status/1975550702056538512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1975550702056538512%7Ctwgr%5Edbbd33728c1d8ba6d046fbf0f9d856ec85c0efff%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailywire.com%2Fnews%2Fmamdani-blasted-for-october-7-post-he-stands-with-jews-only-when-they-are-dead">statement</a> to his X account. He condemned Israel for perpetrating “genocide” in Gaza, citing fatality numbers from the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, writing, “In the aftermath of that day, Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Israeli government launched a genocidal war.” He called Israel’s action “war crimes” and attacked the Trump administration, continuing, “Our government has been complicit through it all. This must end. The occupation and apartheid must end. Peace must be pursued through diplomacy, not war crimes, and our government must act to end these atrocities and hold those responsible to account.”

NYC Mayor Mamdani Holds News Conference

Mamdani Claims To Condemn Hamas — His Wife’s Instagram ‘Likes’ Say Otherwise

Mamdani’s Wife ‘Liked’ Posts Cheering Oct. 7 Hamas Massacre

Massacre

Zohran Mamdani

WASHINGTON — First Lady Melania Trump will meet with freed American-Israeli hostage Keith Siegel and his wife, Aviva Siegel, on Wednesday at the White House.
The first lady will have a private, sit-down conversation with the Siegels in the White House&#8217;s Blue Room, where they will discuss how Hamas forcibly took the Siegels from their home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7, 2023, and held them hostage — Aviva Siegel for 51 days, and Keith Siegel for 484 days.
Aviva Siegel was released during the first hostage deal in November 2023. Hamas released her husband on February 1, 2025, during a ceasefire that was brokered by President Donald Trump before he even took office, following his wife&#8217;s meetings with both the president and first lady.
One of these meetings was included in the first lady&#8217;s new film, &#8220;Melania,&#8221; showing Melania Trump and Aviva Siegel sharing an emotional moment in Manhattan as they discuss the plight of Siegel&#8217;s husband. Melania Trump hugs Siegel as she weeps into her shoulder, and the first lady promises to pray for Keith Siegel, who was still in Hamas captivity at the time.
One of the final title cards in &#8220;Melania&#8221; states that the first lady &#8220;played a key role in securing the release of Keith Siegel after 484 days as a hostage in Gaza, just 12 days after the inauguration.&#8221;
&#8220;I will always use my influence and power to fight for those in need,&#8221; the first lady says in the documentary film.
Keith Siegel, 66, is a dual Israel-U.S. citizen who moved from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to Israel in 1980. He is a father of four and a grandfather of five. He is an occupational therapist by trade and reportedly learned Arabic to communicate with the Gazans who worked in his kibbutz prior to Gazan civilians and Hamas massacring his neighbors.
<div id="attachment_1038181" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/melania-trump-to-meet-with-hamas-hostage-she-helped-bring-home/palestinian-israel-conflict-hostage" rel="attachment wp-att-1038181"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1038181" class="wp-image-1038181 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2196440906-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2196440906-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2196440906-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2196440906-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2196440906.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></a>Hamas fighters escort American-Israeli hostage Keith Siegel on a stage before handing him over to a Red Cross team in Gaza City on February 1, 2025, as part of the fourth hostage-prisoner exchange.  (Photo by OMAR AL-QATTAA/AFP via Getty Images)</div>
He is a vegetarian with a particular love for classic American breakfast pancakes, a rarity in Israel. After his release, a Keith Siegel’s Pancake House <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-847923">pop-up opened</a> in Tel Aviv, selling the same pancakes his family had made him known for while they campaigned for his freedom. During that time, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum compiled a cookbook featuring his pancake recipe, which he made for his family every Saturday morning.
His daughter later said she received hundreds of photos each weekend from people around Israel cooking her father’s pancakes. The proceeds from the pancake house went to helping the family get back on their feet.
Siegel opened up about the horrific conditions of his captivity last year in an interview with Lesley Stahl, claiming he witnessed Hamas terrorists sexually assaulting female hostages in front of him.
“I witnessed a young woman who was being tortured by the terrorists. I mean literal, you know, torture, not just in the figurative sense,” he said. “I saw sexual assault with female hostages.”
He was initially held with his wife, but following her release, Siegel said conditions became worse, and he was often beaten and starved.
In the interview, Siegel quickly put interviewer Lesley Stahl in her place after she asked if Hamas actually starved Siegel, or if the terrorists simply didn’t have food themselves.
“No, I think they starved me and they — they would often eat in front of me and not offer me food,” Siegel said.
Siegel also said that Hamas shaved all the men’s heads and genitals as a way to humiliate them.
“I think they thought it was maybe, it amused them or, you know, humiliating. I felt humiliated,” Siegel said.
<div id="attachment_1038183" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/melania-trump-to-meet-with-hamas-hostage-she-helped-bring-home/palestinian-israel-conflict-gaza-hostage" rel="attachment wp-att-1038183"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1038183" class="wp-image-1038183 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2196449012-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2196449012-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2196449012-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2196449012-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2196449012.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></a>Hamas secures an area before handing over an Israeli-American hostage to a Red Cross team in Gaza City on February 1, 2025. (Photo by OMAR AL-QATTAA/AFP via Getty Images)</div>
Siegel was kept in a suffocating tunnel 33 feet underground and says he was given very little food and water.
Siegel’s ribs were reportedly broken when he was taken captive, and his condition deteriorated so badly that former hostage Emily Damari said she offered to switch places with him so he could be released sooner, <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-839135">The Jerusalem Post reported</a>.
Hamas also used him for propaganda. He appeared in an April 2024 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obQ7vpgWHiU">video</a> speaking Hebrew and looking frail before beginning to cry.
Due to being a hostage, he was unable to say goodbye to his mother, Gladys, who passed away in December 2024 in North Carolina. The family chose to shield her from the news of her son’s captivity before she died, according to the American Jewish Committee.
Two weeks after he was released, Siegel recorded a video message praising Trump for helping secure his freedom.
&#8220;President Trump, you are the reason I am home alive,&#8221; he said. &#8220;You are the reason I was reunited with my beloved wife, four children, and five grandchildren. Thank you for your continued fight against terror and for your bold leadership that has brought me and many others back home to our families, to safety and to security.&#8221;
Siegel, his wife, and other hostages met with Trump in the Oval Office in March 2025, where they <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-844850">thanked him</a> for their freedom.

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