Weekly roundup of world briefs

Ebon Moss-Bachrach in ‘The Bear’ wins Emmy for Best Supporting Actor

(JNS)  — The performance of Ebon Moss-Bachrach as divorced father Richie in the TV series “The Bear” has so far collected the two top entertainment awards of the year.

On Monday, Moss-Bachrach, who is 46 and Jewish, received an Emmy for Best Supporting Actor in a comedy-drama series, repeating his victory at the Golden Globes on Jan. 7. On the program streamed by Disney+, Moss-Bachrach portrays a chef who takes over his brother’s Chicago sandwich restaurant. The show tied with HBO’s Fox News-inspired “Succession” drama, each winning six awards.

Two other shows with dominant Jewish themes also received nominations but did not win.

“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” received two nominations and “Fleishman Is in Trouble” earned five. Former “Harry Potter” star Daniel Radcliffe also competed in Best Lead Actor in a limited series for his performance in “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” as the iconic, Grammy-winning parody musician, losing to Steven Yeun in Netflix’s “Beef.”

On the red carpet outside the program, “The Crown” actor Khalid Abdalla flashed a “Never Again” written on his palm and called for a ceasefire in Gaza, later stating on social media: “Mourn the dead and fight like hell for the living … Because all lives are sacred.”

Israel eliminates senior terrorist in Balata camp

(JNS) — Israel eliminated a top terrorist and members of his cell in a precision airstrike near Nablus (Shechem) in central Samaria overnight Tuesday, thus thwarting an “imminent, large-scale” attack, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

Amed Abdullah Abu-Shalal headed terrorist infrastructure in the Balata camp, where he was killed in a joint IDF and Israel Security Agency operation.

The Balata camp is a “significant hub for terrorist activities in Judea and Samaria,” according to the IDF.

Abdullah masterminded many terrorist attacks against Israelis, including a shooting attack in Jerusalem‘s Shimon HaTzadik neighborhood last April that wounded two residents. He was also directly involved in a bombing attack against IDF soldiers last October.

Furthermore, “under Abdullah’s leadership, the Balata camp’s terrorist infrastructure received financial support and guidance from Iranian sources collaborating with terrorist headquarters in both the Gaza Strip and abroad,” according to the IDF and ISA.

An inspection of the vehicle following the airstrike that eliminated the terrorist cell revealed several weapons.

Senate shoots down Bernie Sanders’ ‘slanderous’ anti-Israel resolution

By David Isaac

(JNS) — The U.S. Senate rejected a resolution threatening to block all American security aid to Israel. The resolution, forced to the floor by Sen. Bernie Sanders, (I-Vt.), was voted down 72-11.

The resolution rejected on Tuesday would have required the U.S. State Department to produce a report within 30 days on whether Israel’s war effort complies with human rights law and international accords. 

It tapped into a law that allows Congress to demand such a report from the State Department. If the resolution had passed, and a report not been provided within 30 days, aid to Israel would have been automatically cut off.

The American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) praised the vote against the “slanderous and dangerous anti-Israel resolution.”

“We know Sanders and his allies will continue to try to undermine the U.S.-Israel relationship and isolate the Jewish state,” AIPAC said in a statement. “As Sanders said tonight on the Senate floor, ‘This will not be the end. … It is just the beginning.’”

AIPAC called for Congress to pass the $14.3 billion security aid package for Israel requested by President Joe Biden. “This aid is vital. With Israel under fire from virtually every front, we must ensure the Jewish state has the resources it needs to win this war and protect its families,” the group said.

On the Senate floor, Sanders claimed Israel’s attacks on terrorists were “largely indiscriminate.” 

“This is a very modest, common-sense proposal, and frankly, hard for me to understand why anyone would oppose it,” he said. 

“This is a tragedy in which we, the United States of America, are complicit,” he added. “Much of what is happening, much of the bombardment and the other actions we are seeing now is happening right now with U.S. arms and equipment.”

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) spoke against the resolution. 

Cardin said the reporting law “was never intended to be used against an ally during a war.”

Last month, on CBS News‘ “Face the Nation,” Sanders referred to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “right-wing extremist government” and the “horrific damage to human life” in the Gaza Strip.

“It is a humanitarian disaster, and the United States has got to put all of the pressure that it can to tell Netanyahu to stop this disastrous military approach,” he said.

Former Hamas captive Gilad Shalit meets hostages’ families

(JNS) — Gilad Shalit, who was held hostage for over five years by Hamas in Gaza, recently met with the families of Israelis kidnapped during the terror group’s Oct. 7 massacre, Israeli media reported on Monday.

Shalit, 37, was captured by Hamas in a 2006 cross-border attack and released in 2011 in exchange for over 1,000 Palestinian security prisoners, including Yahya Sinwar, who would go on to become the terror group’s commander in Gaza and a key mastermind of the Oct. 7 attack.

The controversial prisoner exchange, which was approved by Israel following years of public protests, was the largest in Israel’s history.

Shalit, who reached out to relatives of those abducted on Oct. 7, expressed his support for the families and told them that their loved ones would be able to survive and recover, despite the difficulties, Channel 12 news reported.

According to the report, Shalit, who has kept a low profile following his release and has since gotten married, told the group that their loved ones could return and live full, happy lives.

PM must decide on 7 issues for ongoing conduct of war

(JNS) — Minister-without-Portfolio Benny Gantz, a member of the War Cabinet, recently presented Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the National Security Council with a list of seven issues he demanded be clarified for the continuation of the war. 

According to Gantz, Netanyahu has refrained from making decisions on the issues for political reasons, Channel 12 reported on Tuesday.

Among the issues demanding decision, according to Gantz, are: 

• The handling of the Philadelphi Corridor and Rafah crossing along the Gaza border with Egypt (Netanyahu has signaled that Israel will need to control it); 

• The return of residents of communities located close to the Gaza Strip to their homes (Israel previously said some residents could return on Feb. 4, and on Tuesday, Netanyahu promised that Israel would rebuild the towns and kibbutzim in the area); 

• The return of residents of communities located close to the Lebanon border, who have been evacuated due to the Hezbollah threat; and 

• Issues related to the “day after” Hamas in Gaza such as the distribution of humanitarian aid and the management of civilian life through an international coalition or other mechanism.

The Prime Minister’s Office said, “We responded to Minister Gantz’s request by saying that Prime Minister Netanyahu does not intend to change the goals of the war or compromise on less than total victory. 

“The goals of the war are well known to Minister Gantz and all the members of the Cabinet, chief among them the elimination of Hamas, the release of our hostages and the promise that Gaza will never pose a threat to Israel,” it added.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu does not intend to compromise on these goals and insists that they be fully achieved,” the Prime Minister’s Office said.

Susan Sarandon still an antisemite

(JNS) — On Jan. 15, many noted somberly that it was the 100th day that Hamas terrorists were holding hostages in Gaza. Academy Award-winning actress Susan Sarandon — no stranger to antisemitic comments — had a different message in mind that day.

“Don’t let anyone tell you it started on Oct. 7, 2023,” Sarandon posted on social media to more than 870,000 followers. She listed 21 “massacres” that she appeared to blame on Jews, from 1937 to 2021, and the “Gaza genocide 2023,” which she called “still ongoing.”

It wasn’t immediately clear what some of the listed items meant, including Jerusalem “massacres” in 1937, 1947 and 1967.

In December, the 77-year-old actress said that Jews “are getting a taste of what it feels like to be Muslim” in the war against Hamas. She later said her “phrasing was a terrible mistake, as it implies until recently Jews have been strangers to persecution when the opposite is true.”

More recently, she supported South Africa’s accusation of genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Ohio State, Temple U, others under Title VI investigation

(JNS) — The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights announced on Tuesday that it is investigating alleged Title VI violations of four schools and a district.

University of Minnesota-Twin Cities (Minneapolis, Minn.), Muhlenberg College (Allentown, Pa.), The Ohio State University (Columbus, Ohio) and Temple University (Philadelphia, Pa.) are under investigation, as is the Oakland Unified School District (Calif.).

The 99 open investigations related to Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prevents “discrimination involving shared ancestry.”

Ohio State was characterized as an antisemitic “hostpost,” one of the worst 25 percent of schools for Jew-hatred, in a December report.

“We are aware of the Department of Education complaint and intend on fully complying, providing the department with robust information on how we are supporting our community through these challenging times,” Temple University stated.

Citing Jew-hatred, Jewish families seek transfers out of Oakland school district

By Jessamyn Dodd

(JNS) — On Jan. 16, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights announced a Title VI investigation of alleged “discrimination involving shared ancestry” at the Oakland Unified School District, which consists of about 34,000 students and nearly 2,300 teachers at 80 schools in Oakland, Calif.

The department doesn’t specify the nature of the discrimination. But a few days prior, J. The Jewish News of Northern California reported that at least 30 Jewish families had transfer requests approved between October and Dec. 19 to leave the Oakland Unified School District “specifically due to issues related to the Israel-Hamas war,” according to John Sasaki, the district’s communications director.

“I just felt that there wasn’t a path forward for Jewish families, because I had reached out to OUSD and asked them to have a conversation about how they were going to keep Jewish families feeling safe and included,” a parent named Rebecca told CBS News Bay Area.

“When there were lesson plans that were being taught that said, ‘Draw the Zionist bully,’ or ‘I for Intifada, J is for Jesus.’ And to me, it felt like—honestly—we were being targeted and singled out and alienated,” she added in the interview.

A catalyst for the exodus of Jewish families, reportedly, was a “teach-in” of the Oakland Education Association, a teachers union, that drew dozens of teachers. The union encouraged using pro-Palestinian lesson plans about the war in Gaza, including a coloring book for elementary-school students that states: “A group of bullies called Zionists wanted our land, so they stole it by force and hurt many people.”

The parents reportedly felt it was important to transfer their children out of the school district mid-year, despite the inconvenience, to protect their kids. Some were reportedly unable to do so, as other districts were at capacity.

JNS contacted the Oakland Unified School District for a statement but did not receive a response by publication time.

Hamas man wanted to sell IDF soldier’s head for $10,000

By David Isaac

(JNS) — A Hamas terrorist admitted to Israeli interrogators that he tried to sell the decapitated head of an IDF soldier for $10,000. That soldier was the son of David Tahar of Jerusalem.

His son, Sgt. Adir Tahar, 19, died on the day of the Hamas invasion on Oct. 7 while defending an IDF post on the border of the Gaza Strip.

David Tahar would end up burying his son twice—first without the head and the second time after the head was recovered following a two-and-a-half-month effort.

The father described the head’s recovery as a “miracle.” 

Before Tahar buried his son the first time, he insisted, over the objections of the army, on seeing the body. When he opened the coffin, he saw that the head was missing. 

The body was identified through DNA tests, his son’s dog tags and some items that were in his uniform’s pockets, he explained to Channel 14.

After the funeral, Tahar went on a mission to find out what happened to the head. Where had it gone?

The breakthrough came when investigators of the Israeli Security Agency, also known as Shabak or the Shin Bet, interrogated two Hamas terrorists who had been captured. One of them admitted to trying to sell the head for $10,000.

Tahar said that to call them barbarians is a “compliment” compared to what they really are. 

The information obtained by the Shin Bet started in motion a search by a select IDF unit backed up by an armored brigade. They located Adir’s head in a freezer in an ice cream shop in Gaza City. It was in a bag that also contained tennis balls and terrorist documents.

Adir, who served in the elite Golani Infantry Brigade’s 13th Battalion, fought bravely on Oct. 7. Though outnumbered, he and 18 comrades fought off hundreds of terrorists for more than an hour, killing an untold number.

Terrorists fired an anti-tank missile at Adir and also three grenades. “His body was filled with shrapnel,” his father said. After that, they decapitated him.

Adir was well-liked by fellow soldiers and officers alike, an unusual thing, an officer told his father. “It’s hard to be loved both by the soldiers and by the officers. Adir was like that,” the officer said.

To keep Adir’s memory alive, his father is setting up a center to help at-risk children from turning to a life of crime. “It was Adir’s way—to bring together and help those who were less fortunate,” he said.

Banner hung in Iran: ‘We stand with Israel’

(JNS) — A banner reading, “We stand with Israel” and expressing support for an Iranian dissident activist who recently visited the Jewish state was hung in Tehran on Wednesday, the London-based Persian-language Iran International television station reports.

The extraordinary show of support, which was unfurled on a bridge in the Iranian capital at nighttime, comes as the Middle East is engulfed in violence promoted by the Islamic Republic and amid mounting concerns of a regional war.

The large white banner with red writing read: “We stand with Israel and “Vahid is our voice,” referring to Vahid Beheshti, who addressed lawmakers at the Knesset during a visit to Israel earlier this month.

Beheshti told the Knesset’s Israel Victory Caucus, “Soon you will have to deal with the elephant in the room, which is the Iranian government, and you should not be afraid of attacking Iranian bases in Iran. This is the only language they understand. 

“The good news is that you have an army of 80 million Iranians who are thirsty for freedom and democracy, who since 2009 have been trying to overthrow the government but have not yet succeeded because of the barbaric violence of the Iranian regime. If you support the Iranian people, you will see how they will lower the head of the octopus and we will all experience peace,” Beheshti continued.

He said the Iranian regime is at its weakest point since it seized power in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

“Help us overthrow the government, try to imagine what the Middle East would look like without the Iranian government, just imagine,” Beheshti said.

Earlier this month, Israeli Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel told JNS that Iran is the underlying cause of the war with Hamas in Gaza and the other conflicts in the region.