International

The diplomatic isolation of Israel during the war in Gaza following the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre will go down in history as a moral failure and a defeat of humanity, says French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy. “The absence of support for Israel will be considered by future historians as a moment of huge disgrace for the West,” Lévy commented  in an interview in Tel Aviv.

Qatar Foundation International, the US member of the Doha-based nonprofit foundation headed by the Qatari royal family, told partners this week that it is “winding down its operations,” according to a screenshot of an email circulated on social media.

Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney announced on June 1 a new government body to combat racism, saying its first priority would be tackling anti-Semitism. Carney addressed Canada’s surge in anti-Semitic hate crimes during a speech at Holy Blossom Synagogue, Toronto’s oldest Jewish congregation. He said the government had to “start with clearly admitting that Canada’s civic compact is failing Jewish Canadians.”

Babka and Krantz, a Jewish bakery owned by Polish and Israeli immigrants has shut its doors, citing a combination of economic pressure and anti-Semitic harassment.

The system of UN special rapporteurs, whom the UN considers independent “experts” and whom it is loath to criticize, is “completely broken,” according to Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch. UN Watch released a 104-page report, titled “From Watchdogs to Idealogues,” in which it details the ways that 13 of the 59 special rapporteurs have politicized their work and subverted the cause for human rights. The rapporteurs, whom the UN Human Rights Council selects, are supposed to monitor and report neutrally on human rights issues globally.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has joined France and a chorus of Israelis and Jews in denouncing Israel’snational security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, for posting a video that showed Ben-Gvir taunting detained activists from a Gaza-bound aid flotilla that had been intercepted by the Israeli navy.

King Charles III on May 14 visited Golders Green, the London neighborhood where a suspected jihadist stabbed two Jews last month, on a solidarity visit with the Jewish community following a wave of attacks on its members.

Days before the massacre at the Chanukah event at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, the region’s Jewish security organization asked the police to send officers to Chanukah events.

A concert to raise money for the victims of the shooting attack on a Chanukah party on Sydney’s Bondi Beach has been canceled after the Greek choir that was to take part voted not to sing with a Jewish choir.

Until this week, Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, was allies with Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu and adversaries with Elly Schlein, Italy’s opposition leader. Now, Prime Minister Meloni is at odds with Trump and Netanyahu and getting a boost from Schlein, a liberal whose father is an American Jew.