The great news and the awful news coming from Philadelphia

First, the great news. An attempted boycott of Philly's Jewish restaurants backfired spectacularly, as hundreds of people attended in solidarity:

Hundreds of people gathered on Sunday to support Jewish and Israeli-owned restaurants in Philadelphia’s Center City that were being targeted by a “boycott ride” bicycle protest because of their support for Israel.

Large crowds of pro-Israel supporters waved Israeli flags, held signs condemning antisemitism, and waited on long lines to buy from the six pro-Israel restaurants in Rittenhouse Square, including Goldie, K’far Café, and Dizengoff. Some of them had verbal confrontations with the anti-Israel cyclists, and because of the massive crowds blocking their path, some bikers were forced to hold their bikes instead of riding them, as seen in footage shared on social media.

The Philadelphia Police Department said three people were arrested at the demonstration on Sunday, and no property damage was reported, according to CNN.

The goal of the “Boycott Ride” was to push pro-Zionist restaurants out of town and organizers held the bicycle protest on the eve of the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the infamous Nazi pogrom. A flyer for the bike protest said, “No business for Zionists! These Zionist establishments must go! Not in our city!”

Many of the cyclists tried to conceal their identity with masks, helmets, and sunglasses, and several of them waved Palestinian flags and wore keffiyehs. The protest was organized by the self-proclaimed “anti-fascist, anti-Zionist” social cycling group Philly Bike On Your Left.

When they're not willing to let their identities be known, that's very telling, and proves they have no confidence in themselves.

Ahead of Sunday’s protest, the nonprofit organization JewBelong put up billboards across Philadelphia that urged locals to “boycott the boycott ride” of Jewish-owned businesses and show up to support the establishments.

“Running over Jewish businesses isn’t a peace plan,” the billboards said.

The “Boycott Ride” was condemned by city and state leaders, Jewish groups, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. The museum said in a social media post that “antisemites chose that anniversary [of Kristallnacht] to terrorize Philadelphia’s Jewish community” and that “this blatant act of Jew hatred needs to be universally condemned, and we applaud the many who have.”

Baseball legend and Pennsylvania native Reggie Jackson also denounced the bicycle protest in a post on X, while comparing their actions to racism he experienced in the 1960s.

“It is heartbreaking to see antisemitism in my hometown,” he wrote. “I wish I could be there to stand with those protesting HATE. I am asking elected officials and other leaders in Philadelphia: Where are the clear statements condemning antisemitism? When hateful language is excused or repeated, it can make hostility seem acceptable and deepen fear and division. Leaders should speak plainly and consistently: antisemitism and hate have no place in our communities. What the hell? We have to speak up.”

It was a whole big business day for the restaurants, and I hugely thank all citizens who came to counter the monsters who, you can be certain, are as anti-American as they're anti-Israel, and it wouldn't be shocking if the left-wing movement turned out to be hostile to 911 Families too, much like Zohran Mamdani, who's bound to be said left-wing movement's idol. Such scum don't belong in Philly. I hope the restaurant customers will continue to buy at the same restaurants for as long as possible, because if they have breaded schnitzel there, that's something well worth the price of admission.

But with that told, here's the awful news. A Gaza-born resident of Philly is running for Congress against John Fetterman:

Anti-Israel activist and writer Ahmed Moor announced Monday that he is running for the US Senate in Pennsylvania in 2028, launching a challenge to Democratic Sen. John Fetterman, one of Israel's most outspoken supporters in Congress.

Fetterman has not yet announced whether he intends to seek reelection, but Moor has become the first candidate to enter the race for his seat.

Born in Gaza and raised in Philadelphia, Moor has contributed to left-wing, anti-Israel publications including Electronic Intifada and Mondoweiss. He said his campaign would focus on efforts to “end the war in Iran" and demand “accountability for genocide."

It's clear he's a supporter of totalitarianism, and if he's elected to Congress that'll be an additional disaster, much like the recent midterm election was. Moor doesn't belong in Philly any more than the creepy bikers do, and would do well to leave. Perhaps he should go to New York, Michigan or Minnesota if that's what he thinks. And even then, it's very bad the USA's now filled with creeps like Moor.

The mission of Charles Jacobs

Dr. Charles Jacobs was interviewed about his mission to help victims of Islamofascism worldwide:

Jihadists may point to Jews and Israeli as being among their foremost enemies, but they are far from the only ones in their crosshairs. Across the globe, Druze, Christians, Alawites, Yazidis, Kurds, and other Muslim communities have also faced persecution at the hands of radical jihadist movements.

It is this shared experience of persecution that Dr. Charles Jacobs believes creates a natural alliance between the Jewish people and minority groups worldwide.

While sections of the Western left-wing movements have increasingly cast Jews as oppressors and booted them from the “victim bench,” those with a real understanding of the dangers of jihadism have not abandoned that partnership.

For communities that have experienced radical Islamism firsthand, the jihadist threat is not an abstract political debate.

They understand that the so-called Red-Green alliance between Islamists and elements of the far Left is often united less by shared values than by a common opposition to the West, Jacobs told The Jerusalem Post. They also believe that those who stand with Islamists may find themselves among its next victims. [...]

In 1994, he co-founded the American Anti-Slavery Group, which sought to combat chattel slavery and human rights abuses in Sudan. The organization’s grassroots advocacy helped build the political momentum that ultimately contributed to South Sudan’s independence.

His commitment to the cause was not merely academic. While still only in his early 20s, Jacobs traveled illegally into Sudan alongside a rabbi on a mission to secure the freedom of enslaved people in time for Passover, the Jewish festival commemorating the Israelites’ exodus from slavery in Egypt.

“What else should Jews do on Passover but that, right?” he quipped.

A good mission, but there's one part I believe could be called into question:

Aware of the accusations of Islamophobia that could be leveled against him and the IFC, Jacobs stressed that the organization supports Muslim victims of jihadist violence just as strongly as it does any other persecuted community.

Its membership groups include anti-Taliban fighters, anti-Houthi fighters, and Somaliland organizations.

He argued that those who invoke Islamophobia to shut down criticism of Islamist movements, including organizations affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, have often remained conspicuously silent when Muslims themselves are murdered by the very groups they seek to defend.

The question to be raised regarding Muslims who're victim of their own ideology is whether Jacobs' movement wants to convince them why they should leave it, and not succumb to fear of reprisals if they perform apostasy. If practice of the Religion of Peace isn't ceased, how do they expect to stop the problem, any more than communist influence?

I appreciate Jacobs' movement. But it should be made clear that any failure to make an unambiguous case regarding Islam doesn't solve the problem at all. I hope he realizes that.

Actor Russell Brand imprisoned for decade on sexual assault charges

Looks like Britain's film industry has a bad apple now paying for his crimes, and since he also performed in Hollywood, that's another sex offender who's now paying a price:

Russell Brand was jailed for 10 years and six months Monday after being found guilty of rape and three counts of sexual assault at Southwark Crown Court in London.

The onetime darling of Hollywood and UK leftist elites will be eligible for parole after seven years.

In mitigation before sentencing, Brand’s lawyer said his client was “a fundamentally different person today,” the BBC reports.

Ah, so he was a political celebrity as well? In that case, he's similar to Harvey Weinstein, who was a Democrat donor himself. Brand can now languish in prison for some time, and while it's good that his career is over, it's a shame there's bound to be plenty of films and TV programs he's now tainted with his offenses.

Michigan governor-elect appoints Nation of Islam member for staff

In another terrible example that was surely to be expected at this point from a Democrat, the newly elected Democrat govenor of Michigan's appointed a bad apple to her staff:

Michigan Governor-elect Jocelyn Benson has appointed a Nation of Islam leader who has repeatedly promoted antisemitic rhetoric and defended the group’s controversial leader, Louis Farrakhan, to serve on her gubernatorial transition team — months after an antisemitism coalition removed him from an advisory panel over those same affiliations.

Benson, a Democrat who defeated Republican Rep. John James in Tuesday’s gubernatorial election, selected Benton Harbor Mayor Marcus Muhammad to serve on her 15-member transition council. The team also includes Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin, Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield, and several other prominent Michigan Democrats.

Muhammad announced his appointment in a Facebook post, saying that the transition team would help prepare Benson’s policy priorities before she takes office. “With a Democratic trifecta, the opportunity to deliver resources and opportunities are increased,” he wrote.

But Muhammad’s appointment comes despite a record of statements and associations that have drawn condemnation from Jewish organizations. He is a “student minister” in the Nation of Islam and a self-described disciple of Farrakhan — who has made a number of troubling antisemitic remarks, including comparing Jews to “termites” and calling Adolf Hitler “a great man.”

The Combat Antisemitism Movement, a coalition of approximately 700 organizations, removed Muhammad from its inaugural mayoral advisory committee over the summer after the Washington Free Beacon reported on his Nation of Islam ties and his support for Farrakhan.

Nevertheless, that they'd associate with somebody like him in the first place is still most despicable and irresponsible. Now, as a result of all that, Michigan's paying a price, as are the Jewish and Black communities.

Being religious doesn't mean a woman can't dress as she wants

In this interview, a woman who was once part of the Haredi community talks about her life as a supermarket employee, and a social media user:

Today, at 20, after completing national service in a kindergarten for children with special needs, Elmalich is a social media star with nearly a million followers across platforms. She describes herself as "religious in every way except for how I dress."

She grew up in a deeply religious household in Netivot, in an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood. Her mother teaches at a religious girls' high school, while her father teaches at a yeshiva, a Jewish religious school. She is the seventh of nine children.

Her family maintained a very strict set of boundaries, yet the outside world began discovering her long before her family was ready for it. For a long time, she led a double life: At home, she tried to respect the rules, while online she presented a very different image, one that gave little indication of her religious upbringing.

"I was always a rebellious child," she says. "It didn't start with clothing, but with boundaries that felt suffocating." As a child, her rebellion began with the smallest acts of defiance. "On Saturdays, they'd tell me to come back from reciting Psalms at four, and I'd come home at five."

‘I lied so I could go to Bnei Akiva’

In seventh grade, at a religious school in Netivot, her difficulties intensified. "Every morning, the rabbi would stand at the school gate and check the length of our skirts. If he didn't approve, he'd send me home to change. Sometimes I'd leave and never come back to school that day. I wasn't a good student, and he would humiliate me in front of everyone. One teacher told me, 'Do you really expect to amount to anything if you carry on like this?' It made me hate religion. What are you saying? That I'm worthless if I don't dress modestly?"

Which is absolutely not true. How you dress isn't what determines your value, it's your respect for innocent people that does.

Her parents forbade her from attending Bnei Akiva, a religious Zionist youth movement, because boys participated in its activities. They would only allow her to join a girls-only youth group. "I would lie and go to Bnei Akiva," she says. At the time, she had almost no interaction with boys, so even an ordinary encounter could frighten her. "When boys spoke to me, I felt like I was doing something wrong. I was waiting to be punished. I'd think, what's going to happen now? Am I going to fall? To this day, I still have those feelings of guilt. That guilt weighs very heavily on me."

Forbidding the sexes to interact with each other is some of the worst hysteria to come about in any part of the religious world, and has to stop.

Only when she transferred at 15 to the religious girls' high school where her mother teaches did things begin to feel different. There, too, she was judged by her academic performance and clothing, but at least she was not humiliated in front of the entire class, and there were discussions about values. "When people see you as a human being, it feels different," she says. "It made me start over with religion, to begin reciting the morning blessings again after I'd been avoiding them." She completed 12 years of schooling but did not earn a full high school matriculation certificate. "I didn't feel I was doing my best academically. I would take Ritalin to help me succeed, and it simply didn't work."

During her time at the religious school, she did something she had dreamed of for years: She wore pants. "I'd see secular girls wearing pants and think how much I wanted to be like them, and then feel guilty for even thinking it. They seemed free to me, without problems. When a friend gave me a pair of pants and I went out wearing them for the first time, I felt so happy."

It's quite alright. Though when she wears dresses, she should consider styles like the strapless party outfit, and probably has. At the end:

Do you have any red lines when it comes to work?

"You can see that I don't dress modestly, and nobody can say a word to me about my clothing. That's what pushed me away from religion. If I have a boyfriend who has a problem with the way I dress, then bye. But I won't advertise underwear. Not long ago, I received an offer to fly abroad for an underwear campaign. I've never been abroad, I didn't even have a passport, so even though traveling overseas is a dream of mine, I turned it down. Those are my values."

Maybe she should reconsider. In any event, it's just a shame she has to make use of TikTok, even though they're ostensibly no longer under Chinese ownership. There are some alternatives around, and it'd be recommended she try those instead. For now, let us be clear. Not dressing "modestly" is not antithetical to Judaism, Orthodox or otherwise, and it's about time the point be made clearer, especially to the Haredis themselves. This kind of hysteria cannot go on, and if they really want to differentiate from other religions, that's why it's vital to start thinking more about all this.

Vance continues to be a worry

As though it weren't bad enough that Israel suffered a dreadful election result, as did the USA, vice president J.D Vance continues to give signs he wants to take a negative path on Israel:

Vance’s wording — “change our relationship with Israel” — was awfully interesting, because it’s a suspiciously open-ended phrase: Moving closer to Israel would also be a change, yet somehow, I doubt that’s what Vance intended.

Fox News’ politics editor, Katelyn Caralle, also doubts it. She wrote, “A source familiar with post-election schedules said the Vice President’s X post today was made after a White House meeting on aligning messaging following Tuesday’s Republican bloodbath. Instead, [Vance] took control of his own response. One Trump official described Vance’s post as a rallying cry to the “new right” — a coalition of Republicans that align with Trump’s “America First” movement but believe the president is too aligned with Israel on foreign policy.”

JD Vance’s 2028 strategy is clear: He’s not looking to inherit Donald Trump’s MAGA movement. That’s why he’s not even trying to reunite it.

He’s building a brand-new movement — the “new right” — and it’s significantly closer to Tucker Carlson’s worldview than to Ted Cruz's or Ron DeSantis's.

And to date, Vance won't distance himself from Carlson. If this is how Vance is going to act, it's doubtful he wants to save Europe from Islam's encroachment, if at all. If he is planning to run for the nomination in 2028, that's very bad, especially if he wins it.

Update: Ari Fleischer and Brit Hume had a good response to Vance:

Republicans who supported the strikes are now criticizing the ceasefire. Ari Fleischer, who called the decision to attack “the right decision,” answered Vance: “The problem was not the Iran War. It was the ceasefire.” He said Vance had negotiated a truce that failed and left Americans facing higher prices with troops still deployed. Brit Hume said Vance had been “hornswoggled by the Iranians into a deal they would never live up to, and didn’t.” [...]

The polling argument needs scrutiny, too. Vance says an unnamed pollster asked former Trump voters what would bring them back: ending the war, addressing living costs, putting America first, and changing the relationship with Israel.

That last item in particular has a longer history than Wednesday’s post. Since June, Vance has repeatedly pointed at Israel when defending his Iran diplomacy. In July, for example, he told Joe Rogan that “certain people within the Israeli government” were behind “a literal foreign influence campaign” to “tank the very deal that I was pursuing.” On Wednesday, “change our relationship to Israel” became the fourth thing Trump voters supposedly want, on the word of a pollster he has not identified.

That pandering has an audience. Vance’s good friend Tucker Carlson has consistently cast the war as serving Israel’s interests while praising the VP. In a post viewed 95 million times in the campaign’s final days, he wrote that Netanyahu “needs this war” and praised Vance as one of two men in the administration arguing for a deal. Marjorie Taylor Greene replied to Vance’s post: “You should have listened to me and Tucker.”

Vance certainly appears to be courting that crowd, with an asset a vice president controls: his account of who is to blame. Not everyone in that crowd wants him, either. Nick Fuentes told his followers to vote for Democrats to punish Republicans and said on election night that the party must be rebuilt “with the groypers” and that “it cannot involve Trump, Vance.”

Hmm, wasn't Fuentes the same man disgraced columnists like Michelle Malkin ran around with once? Well he sure has shown his true colors alright. No wonder such a fiasco took place this month.

A sad loss for conservatives in the USA midterm elections

Somehow, this isn't shocking the Republicans would lose plenty and the Democrats would end up winning plenty this year. Which includes, perhaps more unshockingly, the victory of Muslim socialist Abdul el-Sayed in Michigan:

Democrat Abdul El-Sayed will defeat Republican Mike Rogers in Michigan’s closely watched U.S. Senate race Tuesday, projects Decision Desk.

The candidates competed for an open seat after Democrat Sen. Gary Peters announced last year he would not run for reelection.

El-Sayed, a Michigan native who will become the first Muslim member of the U.S. Senate, earned an M.D. from Columbia University and a doctorate in public health at Oxford as a Rhodes scholar, though he did not pursue residency and therefore is not licensed to practice medicine. Rogers and other Republicans raised this history when refusing to refer to him as a doctor. He previously led the Detroit Health Department and the Wayne County Department of Health, Human, and Veterans Services.

It's chilling to think of all the non-Muslims in Michigan who likely voted for this man. Mark Levin also brought this up:

The fact that a few million people voted for El-Sayed, despite his ties to terror-aligned groups, and actual such groups, Hasan Piker, and with full Democrat Party support, is truly shocking. If this doesn't alarm the rest of the country, beyond the borders of Michigan, we have a very serious problem. This illustrates a cultural malady that has metastasized due to a number of failures of our ruling class at all levels -- including immigration, academia, local-government zoning, etc. Most of all, the Democrat Party wants to turn our country into France.

— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) November 4, 2026

That's one of the worst things about this election disaster. And what if it turns out bad "conservatives" like John Daniel Davidson also secretly voted for the Democrats? (Update: here's somebody at his Federalist site even quoting Vance uncritically.) Why won't it be the least bit shocking if that turns out to be the case?

As Pamela Geller notes, JD Vance has just made things worse by blaming relations with Israel on what occurred, and won't take responsibility for any influence he had in holding back firm attacks on Iran. Here's somebody commenting on how bad Vance is:

⭕️ All day long, we've been saying that JD Vance undermined Trump and threw him under the bus to appease the woke right, the very movement he wants to lead. The Woke Right rushed to defend him, and even Trump's own son broke ranks with his father to defend Vance. Now, with the latest Fox News report, our concerns appear to be vindicated. Vance is reportedly positioning himself to lead the disaffected New Right, even if that means breaking with Trump's foreign policy. Vance needs to resign immediately. He is a disgrace, a liar, and a major political liability to Trump's presidency. Instead of standing behind the president, he appears more interested in advancing his own political ambitions at Trump's expense. Absolutely astonishing. Somehow, it's always someone from Trump's own inner circle who ends up betraying him.

— Raylan Givens (@JewishWarrior13) November 5, 2026

If Vance is going to run for POTUS in the next 2 years, it'll be awful. But what's really chilling to ponder is whether a majority of Republicans will actually vote to nominate him the official candidate after what he's done? He's betrayed Trump, and now, he's lending himself to furthering the nightmares to come.

Update: and wouldn't you know it, the aforementioned Davidson wasted no time blaming Trump almost entirely for the election failure, right down to the following:

This was a war that no Trump voters were asking for in 2024. In fact they were promised the opposite: no new Mideast wars. That, and mass deportations were the two things voters wanted from a second Trump term. He betrayed them on both counts, launching the Iran war and doing too little on mass deportations. And the result is that voters, clearly perceiving the betrayal, have rejected Republicans everywhere.

Predictably, he ignores previous data indicating there were Americans who supported the war. He also ignores that Trump has gotten some 2 million illegals deported. All Davidson's doing, as a result, is suppressing info to serve his ignorant agendas. This is why truly, I want nothing to do with the Federalist anymore.

Update 2: Amil Imani's asking if the election was robbed, particularly in states like Texas. It's a valid argument, because how does a whole community just suddenly turn against their values overnight?

A deal to end USA military aid to Israel

Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump made a deal to stop USA army aid to Israel by the end of the year:

President Donald Trump said he has made a deal with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that will see the U.S. "cut off" military aid to Israel this year because Republicans "suffer the slings" from Democratic candidates over the issue.

"Bibi Netanyahu and I have made a deal that – we give Israel $4 billion a year – and we made a deal months ago that we're stopping, and ... they're fine with it because, you know, they’ve become a very successful country. They don’t need it, and we won't be paying any more," the president said in an interview on Fox News. "So it's just a wasted thing because we've already agreed that by the end of this year, we won't be paying Israel."

Trump did not provide specifics on the forms of military aid that will end, nor how it will be ended.

It's okay, since Israel's government had decided earlier to manufacture some of their own weapons for defense, rather than rely almost entirely upon the USA military's own output. And who knows, there could be an advantage in all this, so provided Israel can develop its own weapons, this is no big deal at all.

Does the Vatican consider Islam an acceptable successor?

Robert Spencer points to how the Italian Catholic management appears to be promoting Islam as acceptable, right down to how they're claiming the Koran is the "word of God":

Vatican News, which describes itself as “the news portal of the Holy See,” ran the story in Italian: “Countering the walls of prejudice: CEI and PISAI present ‘Fact Sheets for Understanding Islam.’” CEI is the Italian Bishops’ Conference, and PISAI is the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies. So what we have here is the spectacle of the Vatican and the Italian bishops taking it upon themselves to teach the world about Islam. Don’t hold your breath waiting for al-Azhar to issue fact sheets for understanding Christianity, and that’s likely just as well. The Holy See’s Islam material looks to be as biased, misleading, and inaccurate as anything one can imagine coming out of al-Azhar about any non-Islamic Faith. [...]

Secure in his righteousness, Zuppi continued: “Ignorance should have no place in our schools, yet, unfortunately, it often ends up setting the agenda. As a result, people feel entitled to pass judgment on others without truly knowing them. These fact sheets on Islam, created jointly by Catholics and Muslims, therefore serve as a powerful antidote to both violence and ignorance.”

Violence? Who is committing the violence here? Only Muslims, not Catholics. Yet the fact sheets don’t seem to spend any time telling Muslims not to be violent. Instead, “the eleven fact sheets go beyond common stereotypes.” That’s a relief! “The material begins with ‘What is Islam?’ and ‘A Brief History of Islam,’ covering faith and theology, the Quran as the revealed word of God, the emulation of the prophetic model, and acts of worship (‘ibāda’).”

Wait a minute. The Qur’an as “the revealed word of God”? Surely they’re teaching young Catholics that Muslims believe the Qur’an to be the revealed word of God, not that the book itself is actually the revealed word of God? That seems likely, but nowadays the spirit of ecumenical openness has become so all-pervasive that one cannot be sure without further clarification from the Vatican or the Italian bishops, and that was not forthcoming. Would anyone really be surprised if far-left, pro-mass migration bishops and other high Catholic Church officials endorsed the Qur’an as the “revealed word of God”?

After all, there is one notable precedent. Back in September 2014, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who at that time was Archbishop Emeritus of Washington and had not yet been disgraced, appeared to have converted to Islam, beginning an address with the Qur’anic salutation “In the name of God, the Merciful and Compassionate,” and asserting that “Catholic social teaching is based on the dignity of the human person… [and] as you study the holy Koran, as you study Islam, basically, this is what Muhammad the prophet, peace be upon him, has been teaching.”

If anything, this reminds me of when another writer at Front Page said the Catholic bishops council today would be opposed to developing a movie based on Betty Mahmoody's terrifying experiences in Iran, and if the information obtained this time says anything, one can only wonder if the Vatican considers the Religion of Peace a worthy successor/replacement for what they practice now?.Also note how no verses from the Koran/Hadith are quoted here, and that should make clear something's horrifyingly wrong with the picture.

It's clear the Vatican lost their way, and aren't qualified to comment on serious issues at all.