Netanyahu Came to Town for Mamdani
Most of the UN walked out. The prime minister spent his speech on New York's mayor.
Canadian police call the Belleville synagogue shooting an anti-Jewish hate crime. Police Chief Murray Rodd said Sean Ward, a former Canadian soldier, came to Sons of Jacob Synagogue during Yom Kippur services with explosives and plenty of ammunition, had surveilled the grounds beforehand, and was recorded shouting anti-Jewish rhetoric. "This was a deliberate attack directed at members of the Jewish community during one of the holiest observances," Rodd said. Constables Jeff Smith and Michael McCurdy kept him out of the building. Ward died of his wounds; Smith is in critical but improving condition. 1
Israel's election committee bars two Arab parties and clears Ben-Gvir's. The Central Election Committee disqualified the Joint List and Ra'am ahead of the Oct. 27 vote, then rejected petitions against Otzma Yehudit and Religious Zionism-Zehut. The Supreme Court has overturned most such disqualifications over the past two decades. 2 The backstory →
Senate Democrats want sanctions over a settlement project. Chris Coons and 18 co-sponsors introduced a bill to sanction anyone who builds, finances, or invests in E1, the 3,401-unit settlement project east of Jerusalem that would effectively cut the West Bank in two. It has dim prospects in a Republican Congress. 3
Netanyahu's speech was about New York
Benjamin Netanyahu took the UN General Assembly podium Thursday, and most of the room walked out as he started. The UAE, an Abraham Accords signatory, stayed in its seats. Supporters chanted "Am Yisrael Chai." 456
He spent a good share of the speech on one American mayor, calling Zohran Mamdani "an antisemitic mayor" whose policies leave New York's Jews feeling unsafe, and answering his genocide charge: "Israel didn't commit genocide. Israel prevented genocide. And that's exactly what Mr. Mamdani's Hamas buddies would have done to us." He brought up Mamdani's wife liking posts that celebrated Oct. 7. "You can't silence me," he said. 467
On the West Bank he said roughly 150 young Israelis were behind the settler attacks and told critics, "We can't stand settler violence. You don't know what you're talking about." 6 He also went after Qatar, which he accused of funding American universities to "brainwash young minds," and called Turkey's Erdogan a "tyrant." 5
Mamdani answered that Netanyahu had repeated "baseless lies meant to sanitize his genocide of Palestinians," and posted video of an olive tree planting at Gracie Mansion with Palestinian families from Gaza. 7
Israelis vote in about a month, and polling shows neither bloc near the 61 seats it needs. 5 Our read: this was a campaign speech, and New York's mayor made a convenient opponent. Mamdani's genocide charge is false, and the Jews of his own city hear it every time he repeats it. A prime minister turning the UN podium into a fight with City Hall doesn't make those New Yorkers any safer.
The Season 3 trailer for Netflix's Nobody Wants This is out, and Joanne is in conversion class. Sarah Silverman plays Rabbi Eden, the teacher. Andrew Rannells and Keyla Monterroso Mejia play classmates; Rannells's Sebastien has opinions about her relationship with Noah. Bina is busy trying to shape Joanne into a proper rebbetzin. Noah is job hunting. Sasha and Esther have split, and Sasha is back out dating in a new Kangol hat, which the trailer treats as character development. Other guest stars include Erin Foster and Sadie Sandler. It drops Oct. 22. 8
Accepting Chabad's Lamplighter Award, Ted Cruz told the room that "young evangelicals are turning systematically against Israel" while older pastors sleep through it. He put the share of young people on the right "listening to this poison" at one-third to one-half. 9
We think he's right, and we wish he'd used names. Fellow honoree Jeff Miller of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council did: "Whether antisemitism comes from Hasan Piker or Tucker Carlson, we must call it for what it is." Miller also said "the delivery system is social media." 9 If he's right about that, and we think he is, waking up pastors won't reach the kids Cruz is worried about. Naming the hosts those kids already listen to might, and on the right that list starts with Carlson.
In December, UC Berkeley settled with Israeli dance scholar Yael Nativ, admitted wrongdoing, and promised to invite her back to teach. In February, Chancellor Rich Lyons apologized to her on Zoom. By September, still no offer. 10
Department chair SanSan Kwan had managed to disinvite her in a single WhatsApp message in 2023: "My dept cannot host you for a class next fall. Things are very hot right now." Re-inviting her has taken more than nine months. The university's spokesman called it "internal miscommunication" and promised the offer "no later than the week of September 28." Nativ says Berkeley's emails come so rarely that each one is a surprise. 10
Hero: John Banville. The Irish novelist was set to headline Cultur Alh, a festival at the University of Granada. When the festival dropped Jewish-Argentinian novelist Ariana Harwicz, who has called boycotts of Israeli artists "antisemitic," Banville withdrew. More than 350 writers and cultural figures, including Fernando Savater and former French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, signed a petition behind her. He gave up a headline slot over a writer he wasn't obligated to defend. 11
Villain: The Cultur Alh festival. Organizers canceled Harwicz's Sept. 26 talk after complaints from campus activists about her views on Israel. The University Network for Palestine says it asked for a rethink but made no threats: "We criticize public stances, not identities." The University of Granada has distanced itself from the call. A novelist longlisted for the 2018 Man Booker International Prize got dropped from a literary festival for opposing boycotts of other artists. 11
Send this to the one who'll argue about it at Shabbat dinner.
Shabbat shalom.