“Paramount blasted the actor’s usage of the words “genocide” and “apartheid” in connection with the business transaction as peddling in antisemitism”

Posted on September 1, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

VARIETY
Mark Ruffalo Defended by Joaquin Phoenix, Hannah Einbinder and More Than 180 Jewish Figures After Paramount Accuses Him of Using ‘Antisemitic Tropes’
Alex Ritman
September 1, 2026

More than 180 Jewish figures from the entertainment industry and beyond have signed a letter in support of Mark Ruffalo over what it asserts is a “smear campaign” against the actor. Among those supporting the letter — which claims that Ruffalo has been the subject of “spurious charges of antisemitism” — are Joaquin Phoenix, Jonathan Glazer, Joel Coen, Todd Haynes, Ilana Glazer, Hannah Einbinder, James Schamus, Emma Seligman, Tony Kushner, Jane Schoenbrun and Wallace Shawn. The letter comes following a heated week in which Ruffalo has been at the center of a growing confrontation regarding the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger. In a social media post on Aug. 21, the Marvel star attacked the deal over its potential consequences for Hollywood, but also accused the Ellison family of being complicit in the “genocide” against Palestinians, which he said “was built on an apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle.” READ MORE

JNS Mark Ruffalo embroiled in antisemitism row with Paramount over Israel “We are, as always, troubled when antisemitic tropes are invoked in purported service of a business dispute,” the film production company said as the feud went viral.

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“It is common for city zoning enforcement to address traffic, parking, and noise, but those were not factors in Grand’s case because Orthodox Jews do not drive on the Sabbath”

Posted on August 31, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

NATIONAL REVIEW
When Jewish Prayer at Home Becomes a Municipal Offense
Edward Blum & Rabbi Cary Kozberg
August 31, 2026

University Heights, Ohio, is a highly educated, affluent suburb of Cleveland with a significant population of Orthodox Jews. In January 2021, one of its residents, Daniel Grand, invited fellow Jews to come to his home for Sabbath prayer. For this action, the city sent him a cease-and-desist letter, which was followed by police cruisers patrolling his street to enforce the order. The pressure on Grand did not stop there. The mayor encouraged Grand’s neighbors to watch his house for signs that Jews were gathering inside. City officials demanded architectural drawings of his home, issued property citations, withheld his certificate of occupancy, and, at times, refused to collect his trash. A neighbor set up surveillance cameras aimed at his house. READ MORE

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Said differently: Democrat Jews should support the antisemitic, anti-Israel Democrat, not that right wing pro-Israel Republican

Posted on August 31, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

JEWISH INSIDER
Michigan AG Nessel tells Jewish Democrats to put ‘needs of world’ ahead of ‘our own survival’
Matthew Kessel
August 31, 2026

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Jewish Democrat, encouraged Jewish voters on Sunday to put aside concerns about their safety “in exchange for the opportunity to save the rest of humanity,” in a stark reference to the choices facing Jewish Democrats in the closely contested Senate election this November. “We have a moral imperative to place the needs of the world above even our own self-interest and, yes, even our own survival,” Nessel told attendees in her remarks at the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus’ annual “Summer Simcha” gathering, where she was honored, according to reports confirmed by Jewish Insider. READ MORE

FREE PRESS Can Anyone Beat Abdul El-Sayed? The Democratic establishment tried and failed to stop him in Michigan’s Senate primary. Will Republicans fare any better?

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“The ‘Achilles’ Shield’ agreement, a series of deals creating a counterweight to growing cooperation among Turkey, Egypt and other regional powers. Athens gains an answer to the threat posed by its archrival Erdogan, while Jerusalem gains major economic and diplomatic benefits”

Posted on August 31, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

ISRAEL HAYOM
Facing a ‘Muslim NATO’: Israel’s biggest-ever defense deal reshapes the Mediterranean
Aharon Lapidot
August 30, 2026

Barring any last-minute surprises, Israel and Greece are set to sign a historic defense agreement Monday that amounts to nothing less than a geostrategic earthquake. The two countries will sign what is expected to be the largest Israeli defense export deal in the country’s history: the €3.1 billion ($3.6 billion) Achilles’ Shield project, approved in Greece about a month ago. Greece is moving away from its aging Russian and European systems and entrusting the defense of its skies, from Athens to the popular tourist islands of the Aegean Sea, to three advanced Israeli missile-defense systems. Anyone following today’s threat map understands that this is more than a military procurement deal. It represents a reassessment of the regional balance of power. The diplomatic and strategic significance of the agreement extends far beyond the Mediterranean. In recent years, a Sunni alliance has been taking shape among Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, seeking to set the tone in both the Middle East and the Mediterranean basin. READ MORE

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Florek told JNS that he thinks that Sigcho-Lopez attributed the record release to AIPAC because “it’s an easy scapegoat to conjure up some bogeyman, who is responsible for your political ills.””

Posted on August 30, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
Chicago alderman went ‘Jew-hunting’ when he blamed AIPAC for releasing divorce records, lawsuit alleges
Rebecca Szlechter
August 27, 2026

Byron Sigcho-Lopez, a Chicago alderman who represents parts of the neighborhood of Pilsen, went “Jew-hunting” when he said that AIPAC was at fault for releasing his divorce records. And in fact, the Jewish lawyer whom he blamed had no ties to the pro-Israel lobby, according to a lawsuit filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County...Sigcho-Lopez, who represents the city’s 25th ward, spent “incredible” amounts of the family’s money on prostitutes and pornography, his former wife alleges in records of the 2011 divorce proceedings, which JNS viewed…Sigcho-Lopez denies the allegations and has blamed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee for releasing the records. READ MORE

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A year after his assassination, tolerance of political violence remains especially high among progressives

Posted on August 28, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

THE CODDLING MOVIE
Charlie Kirk and the Left’s Lionization of Political Violence
Ryan Self
September 2, 2026

Nearly a year has passed since the assasination of Charlie Kirk, so progressive provocateur Hasan Piker figured the time was right to sing a song that mocks the conservative activist’s death. Performing to a rapt audience and wearing his Chairman Mao-inspired jacket, the streamer led the crowd in gleefully laughing about Kirk’s death and his Christian faith. While many in the room joined Piker’s chorus of hate, a growing chorus celebrating violence has grown louder well outside Piker’s events. In June of last year, Luigi: The Musical opened to sold-out crowds. In the musical, Luigi Mangione, who assassinated the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, is turned into a folk hero. A man who killed a husband and father because of his occupation is treated to love ballads. These are just some examples among many of the rot that is taking place in our culture. Whether it’s the case of Charlie Kirk, multiple assassination attempts on Trump, or the reactions to October 7, for many political violence has become something to cheer rather than condemn. READ MORE

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Trump’s Turkey envoy: We were ‘a step away’ from military confrontation between Turkey and Israel

Posted on August 27, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

MIDDLE EAST FORUM
The Empty Runway: What a war with Turkey would look like, and how to hold Syria’s sky without fighting one
Gregg Roman
August 23, 2026

At dawn on Tuesday, Israeli aircraft put eight strikes into the runway and storage sheds of Abu al-Duhur, a mothballed Syrian airbase in Idlib about 70 kilometers from the Turkish border. Nobody died. The base has not operated as a working military airfield in over a decade. That is the point: Israel was not bombing an army. It was bombing a possibility. The possibility had visited the day before. Syrian officials told the Associated Press that a Turkish delegation had toured the base on Monday to review rehabilitation work and left hours before the bombs arrived, the first confirmed Turkish presence at the site. Jerusalem confirmed the strike and said Syria was on the verge of breaching an agreed security status quo by letting Turkish troops deploy there. Ankara denied any delegation was at the base before or during the strike, called the raid a violation of Syrian sovereignty, and accused Israel of expansionist politics timed to an election. Damascus said the Turkish visits were ordinary military contact and that no Turkish base is planned. Carry all of it; the gap between those tellings is exactly where wars are born. READ MORE

i24NEWS Trump’s envoy to i24NEWS: We were ‘a step away’ from military confrontation between Turkey and Israel  The US Ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, who also serves as President Donald Trump’s envoy to Syria, told i24NEWS on Wednesday that the Israeli airstrike on the Abu al-Duhur military airbase in Syria “carried a real risk of rapidly escalating to a direct military confrontation between Israel and Turkey, as well as with Syria.” “The Turkish forces did not know that Israeli aircraft were on their way to this specific Syrian base, nor did they know what their objective was. Therefore, they might have decided to scramble their own fighter jets, believing they themselves were under attack,” Barrack said in an interview with i24NEWS. He added, “Yesterday’s events were serious and worrying. However, we are relieved that no lives were lost and that the situation did not escalate.”

FDD Syria-Israel Talks Will Face a Turkish Test Syria and Israel are back at the negotiating table after a seven-month pause in talks over a potential security agreement. On August 23, Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani met with Mossad Director Roman Gofman in Jordan. The meeting, held under U.S. mediation, was aimed at defusing tensions following Israel’s August 18 strike on the Abu Duhur Air Base in northwestern Syria. The strike reportedly followed Israeli intelligence indicating that Turkey was seeking to deploy troops and radar systems at the base. Israeli concerns about Turkish entrenchment in Syria have been clear since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December 2024, given Ankara’s support for Hamas and its increasingly hostile rhetoric toward Israel.

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“My former boss, Bernie Sanders, and the broader left-wing activist infrastructure that surrounds him, are actively fueling antisemitism in this country”

Posted on August 27, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

FREE PRESS
I Worked for Bernie Sanders. The Democratic Party Is Turning Against the Jews.
Joel Rubin
August 21, 2026

…The reason I was hired [by Bernie Sanders] was clear to me. The campaign understood that Jews—who have long voted overwhelmingly for Democrats—were an important constituency for Sanders, and they worried that anti-Zionist voices in his coalition would jeopardize his Jewish support. But very quickly after joining, I realized there had been a profound misunderstanding on the part of the campaign team: Many of the activists trying to get Sanders elected—and who the campaign depended on—were not looking for a candidate who supported Israel’s existence. That I did was a letdown for them, but one that they had to swallow. At the time, I assumed these were outliers—a vocal fringe the campaign would eventually outgrow. But I was wrong. They were a sign of where the campaign, and the Democratic Party as a whole, was rapidly heading: toward a status quo in which the price of belonging to the party is to explicitly distance yourself from Israel, denounce the mainstream Jewish institutions that support the Jewish state, and accept the premise that Zionism itself is incompatible with progressive politics. READ MORE

JEWISH INSIDER Van Hollen, Kaine, Sanders plan to force vote on Israeli policy in West Bank Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and eight Democratic colleagues plan to force a vote in the Senate in the coming weeks to require the State Department to produce a report for Congress on violence by settlers and Israeli forces in the West Bank, including killings and detentions of Americans. If the resolution were to pass — which is unlikely — and the State Department were to fail to produce the report within 30 days, most U.S. security assistance to Israel would be cut off. After such a report was delivered, any senator would also be able to force a vote on cutting off aid to Israel.

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“The move by Rogers’ team angered AIPAC officials, who had spent more than $30 million to try to defeat El-Sayed in the Democratic primary and prepared to spend millions more to help elect Rogers, according to people familiar with the conversations”

Posted on August 26, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

AXIOS
Mike Rogers-AIPAC rupture roils Michigan Senate race
Alex Isenstadt
August 22, 2026

Allies of Mike Rogers, Michigan’s GOP nominee for the U.S. Senate, have asked AIPAC not to advertise on his behalf, triggering a rupture with the powerful but polarizing pro-Israel group. Rogers spoke with AIPAC chair Michael Tuchin in Los Angeles last week. The next day, AIPAC shelved an already-cut video ad targeting Rogers’ Democratic rival, outspoken Israel critic Abdul El-Sayed. The extraordinary tension underscores how far AIPAC’s political standing has fallen amid voters’ anger over the war in Gaza. Even Rogers — a staunchly pro-Israel Republican — fears the group’s public support could be a liability in the Nov. 3 election. READ MORE

FREE BEACON El-Sayed Campaign Gets a $175,000 Boost From CAIR, Whose Leader Was ‘Happy’ About Oct. 7, After Alleging Primary Opponent’s AIPAC Support Constituted ‘Foreign’ Intervention in Election The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the anti-Israel group whose leader said he was “happy” about October 7, is quietly funding left-wing Democrat Abdul El-Sayed’s Senate bid in Michigan. That financial support comes after El-Sayed made demonization of the pro-Israel American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) a central pillar of his primary campaign against Michigan congresswoman Haley Stevens, maligning the American group’s support as foreign meddling in the election. 

JEWISH INSIDER Michigan Jewish Dems circulate letter endorsing Republican Mike Rogers for Senate The signatories say they ‘fear the far-left and anti-Jewish elements in the Democratic party would become dominant’ if Abdul El-Sayed is elected

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“The terror group can never be trusted to lay down arms, renounce violent jihad, and accept a settlement that abides Israel’s existence as a Jewish state”

Posted on August 26, 2026 by ArchitectGuy

NATIONAL REVIEW
The Folly of Negotiating with Hamas
Andrews C. McCarthy
August 22, 2026

…The White House doesn’t see conflicts of interest because it fancies Trump (he of the multiple bankruptcies) as a boffo business dealmaker, and sees business — commerce — as transcendent. To repeat what I’ve opined before, President Trump not only fails to grasp the sharia supremacist ideology of the Iranian regime, Hamas, the Taliban, et al.; even as he sits in messes of his own making due specifically to cluelessness about how our enemies’ ideology dictates their actions, he doesn’t see the point of trying to understand them. He is biddable, and he calculates that his counterparties are, too. An ideological contest — the West’s principles against Islamist principles — is outside his framework. It’s just another deal, and our enemies’ anti-American, antisemitic, and anti-Western stances are dismissed as so much puffery until we finally arrive at a price to close what can be sold to the public as a spectacular deal. READ MORE

JPOST Jared Kushner is the latest victim of the Oslo Syndrome In his 2005 book, The Oslo Syndrome: Delusions of a People Under Siege Kenneth Levin coined the phrase “The Oslo Syndrome” to describe the relentless, irrational pursuit of peace at all costs by the Israeli public and its political leadership that began with the 1993 Oslo Accords. The name references The Stockholm Syndrome, a better-known Scandinavian ailment that manifests when a captive develops an emotional bond with their captor…The [Oslo Syndrome] bug has not gone away, and no vaccine has been found. New victims keep showing up, oblivious to their affliction and ready to forge peace. The latest patient appears to be none other than Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law. Kushner’s official government title is “United States Special Envoy for Peace Missions.” Never has a patient embraced his affliction so wholeheartedly and energetically.

TABLET MAG Elliott Abrams: Talking to Terrorists The Trump administration’s policy of meeting with terrorist leaders does more than legitimize their aims and tactics. It also establishes a ruinous precedent for future administrations that find deeper sympathies with organizations that murder Western civilians while proclaiming, “Death to America.” Even in their most appeasement-minded moments, the Carter, Obama, and Biden administrations accepted the formal premise that some actors’ behavior and goals place them beyond the pale of polite diplomacy. Now, that seal of isolation on the planet’s worst actors and their repulsive ideologies has been broken.

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