Mideast War blowback

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A man attempted to set fire to a centuries-old historic synagogue in East Melbourne on Friday, Australian authorities confirmed. The incident occurred only shortly before an Israeli restaurant in the city was attacked.

At the time of the attempted arson attack, 20 people were inside the synagogue but did not suffer injuries as a result of the incident, according to Victoria Police. Firefighters attended the scene within minutes and extinguished the blaze on the Synagogue’s front door, the Victoria fire department said.

A man is understood to have poured flammable liquid on the front door around 8 p.m. local time.

Protesters attack an Israeli-owned restaurant[b]
The arson attack followed heightened tensions and protests across the city hours earlier over the perceived excessive security at protests, the New York Times reported.
Some 20 protesters were recorded yelling “Death to the IDF” at the Israeli-owned Miznon restaurant. A recording shared by the Daily Mail Australia revealed chairs, food, and glassware being thrown at the venue.

They came in with their drums and their mic and stuff saying Miznon is not welcome here,” a diner told the Herald Sun. “Then they started getting aggressive, throwing tomatoes, chairs, and glasses. They caused lots of damage to the businesses down here.”
One protester from the restaurant incident was reportedly arrested and received a summons.

“Several other protesters were spoken to by police and had their identities clarified for the purpose of follow-up investigation,” a police spokeswoman told [i]Daily Mail Australia. “Victoria Police continued to support the rights of Victorians to protest peacefully, but will not tolerate the kind of anti-social and violent behavior that was witnessed this evening.

Members of the National Education Association (NEA), the nation's largest teachers' union, have voted to sever ties with the civil rights group Anti-Defamation League (ADL) over the war in Gaza.

Why it matters: The member-backed measure calls for the union to no longer use ADL material on antisemitism and Holocaust education, nor will it promote other ADL statistics or programs.

Driving the news: The proposal was adopted by NEA delegates at the 2025 Representative Assembly this week in Portland, Oregon.

However, because it was determined to be a "sanction item," it is an automatic referral to the NEA Executive Committee, an NEA spokesperson, Staci Maiers, told Axios.
"Therefore, the official action on (proposal) is adopted and referred to committee," Maiers said.

Zoom in: According to the proposal text, "NEA will not use, endorse, or publicize any materials from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), such as its curricular materials or its statistics."

In addition, "NEA will not participate in ADL programs or publicize ADL professional development offerings," the measure read.

Context: The ADL has provided public schools with materials about the Holocaust, anti-hate training and antisemitism for four decades.

It also provides an annual report on antisemitism in the U.S., which can also be shared in schools.

Caveat: If the NEA Executive Committee adopts the ADL ban, schools can still use ADL material.

Yes, but: It sets up potential future showdowns with local NEA unions and school districts if the war in Gaza continues.

Between the lines: It is the latest episode of historic liberal-leaning groups and unions at odds over the war in Gaza, support for Israel and interpretations of antisemitism.

Earlier this year, a union representing over 30,000 faculty and staff at the City University of New York (CUNY) passed a resolution to divest its union funds from Israeli companies and government bonds.

Last year, the San Francisco Unified School District held mandatory antisemitism training for staff at four high schools, prompting the teachers' union, United Educators of San Francisco, to state that it would support any educator who chose to opt out of the mandatory training.

What we're watching: The NEA Executive Committee will have a final say on the measure.
How it votes could give a preview of boiling tensions between Democratic-leaning unions and some Jewish voters, who are largely Democrats, ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

Columbia University has agreed to pay $200m (£147m) to President Donald Trump's administration over accusations it failed to protect its Jewish students.

The settlement, which will be paid to the federal government over three years, was announced in a statement by the university and confirmed by the president on social media.

In exchange, the government has agreed to return some of the $400m in federal grants it froze or terminated in March.

Columbia was the first school targeted by the administration for its alleged failures to curb antisemitism amid last year's Israel-Gaza war protests on its New York City campus. It had already agreed to a set of demands from the White House in March.

The deal with Columbia University is "a seismic shift in our nation's fight" to hold universities accountable, Education Secretary Linda McMahon said.

Claire Shipman, Columbia's acting president, said in a statement: "This agreement marks an important step forward after a period of sustained federal scrutiny and institutional uncertainty."

Trump posted on Truth Social platform on Wednesday: "Columbia has also committed to ending their ridiculous DEI policies, admitting students based ONLY on MERIT, and protecting the Civil Liberties of their students on campus.

"Numerous other Higher Education Institutions that have hurt so many, and been so unfair and unjust, and have wrongly spent federal money, much of it from our government, are upcoming."

The university said the settlement was not an admission of wrongdoing.

"This agreement marks an important step forward after a period of sustained federal scrutiny and institutional uncertainty," Shipman said.

"The settlement was carefully crafted to protect the values that define us and allow our essential research partnership with the federal government to get back on track."

She added that the terms of the agreement would safeguard the school's independence.

Columbia University announced on Tuesday that it is disciplining more than 70 students over anti-Israel protests that took over Butler Library on the New York City campus earlier this year and during Alumni Weekend last spring.

Most of the disciplined students received two-year suspensions or expulsions in the first punishments meted out by the university's Provost's Office.

The punishment stemmed from violations that occurred in May, when students took over the Butler Library during a pro-Palestinian protest, and from an illegal encampment students established on campus during Alumni Weekend in the spring of 2024, according to the university.

"The speed with which our updated UJB system has offered an equitable resolution to the community and students involved is a testament to the hard work of this institution to improve its processes," the university said in its statement.

Following the Butler Library protest, which the university said affected hundreds of students attempting to study, the school launched an investigation, banned participating individuals from affiliated institutions and non-affiliates from campus, and placed Columbia participants on interim suspension.

"The University Judicial Board held hearings, in which respondents had an opportunity to be heard and make their case, and then determined findings and issued sanctions approximately 10 weeks following the incident," according to the university's statement.

Columbia also agreed to ban masks on campus, one of the Trump administration's key demands, saying in the memo, "Public safety has determined that face masks or face coverings are not allowed for the purpose of concealing one's identity in the commission of violations of University policies or state, municipal, or federal laws."

News outlets around the world have given front-page prominence in recent days to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, with graphic images and urgent headlines highlighting severe hunger and conditions in the Strip.

On Wednesday, the U.K.'s Daily Express, a staunchly right-wing tabloid, featured a front page with the image of a starving one-year-old boy from Gaza with the headline: "For Pity's Sake, Stop This Now: The suffering of little Muhammad clinging on to life in Gaza hell shames us all."

The Express is known for its support of the Conservative Party, Euroscepticism, and generally pro-Israel stance – especially after October 7. The paper's Head of News, Callum Jones, shared the cover on X accompanied by a stark message: "The brutal suffering in Gaza must end," he wrote. "The shocking image shows Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq, one, who weighs the same as a three-month-old baby due to the humanitarian crisis following the continued blocking of basic aid to civilians by Israel."

Reactions to the cover were mixed. Some praised the tabloid for "finally" acknowledging Gaza's humanitarian crisis, while others saw it as a sign of how dire the situation has become. Independent correspondent Richard Hall noted of The Daily Express, "That it has devoted its front page to the starvation of Gaza is a sign of how dire the situation has become – and how impossible it is to ignore."

Others were more critical. "It's no doubt a good thing to see this categorical, raw Daily Express front page," journalist Hamza Yusuf wrote on X. "But when it mattered most, it manufactured consent for the very horrors it is now condemning."

Left-leaning outlets in the U.K., which have spent months trying to draw attention to the crisis, also featured Gaza on their front page. The Morning Star, a socialist daily, demanded, "Stop Starving Gaza," and The Daily Mirror, a Labour-aligned tabloid, ran the headline "End This Horror Now."

Globally, from The Guardian and The Times in London to El País in Spain and The National in the UAE, outlets gave prominence to Gaza – often accompanied by graphic images of the crisis. On Wednesday, the UN reported that the rate of child malnutrition has risen, as reports of starvation in the Strip worsen, with over 20 deaths from starvation or malnutrition since Monday alone.

The Washington Post led with "Mass Starvation Stalks Gaza," and a photo of a woman holding her skeletal toddler. The Financial Times featured a grieving mother holding her malnourished infant. El País showed a child's outstretched hand holding a crust of bread under the headline, "Hunger in Gaza sparks global outcry to stop the war." India's Economic Times ran a rare front-page editorial calling Israel's actions "genocidal," paired with a photo of empty pots lined up outside a damaged building.

In the U.S., The New York Times ran a digital front-page story titled "Severe Hunger Grips Gaza." It included a searing video of a crush of Palestinians crowding for food as two small children, bowls in hand, cried for help.

While many of these outlets lean left, others – like The Washington Post and FT – have at times drawn criticism for echoing Israeli narratives, making their explicit coverage and imagery particularly noteworthy.

In the U.S., even the staunchly pro-Israel, right-wing Fox News appeared to break with its usual narrative, running a story headlined "News agency says its Gaza journalists suffering health woes as union warns they will die without intervention," detailing AFP freelancers' reports of dizziness, hunger, and collapse.

The wave of coverage was accompanied by a rare joint call by four major global news outlets urging Israel to allow adequate food supplies into the Strip. "We are desperately concerned for our journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families," said a joint statement by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, Reuters and the BBC.

More than 200 students at Cheltenham High School in suburban Philadelphia have petitioned for the school's alumni hall of fame to eject Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who graduated from the school in 1967.

Officers of the school's alumni association are meeting with school district officials on Friday to consider the petition, according to a report in The New York Times, which said the association's secretary privately said the group was inclined "to keep Netanyahu up, but maybe with an update in his biography."

Netanyahu was inducted into the hall of fame in 1999, during his first term as Prime Minister.

The petition, submitted last month by roughly 15 percent of students, cited Netanyahu's criminal indictment and arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court accusing him of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, the newspaper reported.

“When students see these alumni on the wall of fame as we walk past every day, we understand that these are people we should look up to, and we strive to be like them one day," two of the students wrote when they submitted the petition last month, according to The New York Times.

They added, "As such, we feel it is not right for him to continue to be recognized in our school."

Netanyahu lived in Cheltenham twice, from 1956 to 1958 when he was in elementary school, and from 1963 to 1967 when he was in high school, while his father taught at a local Jewish studies institute.

At Cheltenham High, he participated in soccer, debate, and chess clubs, and reportedly skipped his graduation ceremony to return to Israel and enlist in the Israel Defense Forces.

Stanford University has suspended a student “co-op house” on its campus for discriminating against Jewish students by labeling them as “Zionists” and requesting that they leave the house.

The investigation into the co-op house, called Kairos, began last spring after multiple reports were filed alleging that Jewish students participating in an unnamed extracurricular activity were “asked to leave the house and told that, among other things, the presence of ‘Zionists’ in the group was making residents of the house uncomfortable,” Stanford said in a statement

Following an investigation, the school’s Title VI office found that the unnamed extracurricular project had “nothing to do with the Middle East and that none of the students present had shared their political beliefs,” according to the school.

As a result, the school found that the students involved were “targeted based on their perceived Jewish identity” — a pattern that Jewish students have reported on campuses across the country during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza that has triggered widespread protests against Israel.

“It is simply not acceptable that Jewish students would be excluded from a university space, or asked to explain their political beliefs to remain in that space,” Stanford’s statement said

The now-suspended co-op house, which was established in 1988, is one of several other Stanford-owned and student-managed residences on the campus, many of which host programming that is open to non-members. Prior to the suspension, the theme of Kairos was “BIPOC solidarity and/or arts appreciation,” according to the Stanford website.

It has hosted events for the campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, according to posts on Instagram, and last year required those applying to join to commit to several values, including advocating for a “Free Palestine” and the “Landback” movement to restore land to Indigenous peoples.

The suspension follows a separate series of complaints filed against the co-op during the previous school year about “students being required to make disparaging statements about Israel before being allowed to enter a party at the house,” according to the statement.

The school said that while steps had been taken to address the complaints against the house that year, in light of the severity of the recent incident of antisemitic discrimination, “the university has determined that stronger remedial steps are now needed.”

The co-op will now operate under university management and oversight during the suspension period, which will last at least a year, according to the university.

An Illinois man who was sentenced to 53 years in prison for the murder of a young Palestinian American boy in a 2023 hate crime that shocked the nation has died in prison, authorities said Saturday.

Joseph Czuba, 73, died on Thursday while serving his sentence, the Will County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. Officials did not release his cause of death.

In February, Czuba was convicted of first-degree murder, attempted murder, aggravated battery and hate crimes for fatally stabbing 6-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi and injuring the boy’s mother just days after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel and the launch of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

Authorities said Czuba targeted the boy’s family “due to them being Muslim and the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and the Israelis.” The mother and son were living in a room rented in Czuba’s home in Plainfield Township, a suburb of Chicago.

Czuba was sentenced 53 years in prison for killing Wadee and attacking Shaheen, after pleading not guilty.

Shaheen, who moved to the U.S. from the West Bank as a teenager nearly 15 years ago, testified that in the days before the stabbings, Czuba told her “your people” are killing Jewish people. Czuba also demanded that she and her son move out of his home, she said.