
Ohio man accused of burning 100 books on Black, Jewish, LGBTQ history
The Beachwood Police Department said the man checked out the books in April, days after he went to the Beachwood library branch on Shaker Boulevard and got a library card, NBC affiliate WKYC of Cleveland reported.
He allegedly told the librarian that his son was a member of the LGBTQ community and that he was trying to learn more about it, the news station reported.
The library was informed that the man had posted a photo showing a car trunk full of books on the site, Gab.com, according to WKYC. The books had Cuyahoga County Public Library stickers on them. The library was later informed that the man posted a video that appeared to show him burning all of the books he checked out.
The books cost around $1,700, the news station reported.
The Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism described Gab as "an online hub for extremist and conspiratorial content" that it mostly used by "conspiracy theorists, white nationalists, neo-Nazis, members of militias and influential figures among the alt right."
The Beachwood library directed NBC News to the Cuyahoga County Public Library, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
Interfaith Group Against Hate, a coalition led by Jewish, Muslim, and Christian congregations, quickly condemned the man's actions and said it wants to collect 1,000 "new books lifting up Black, Jewish, and LGBTQ+ voices," Congregation Mishkan Or said in a Facebook post Monday.
'Whoever perpetuated the idea that you can burn us out of Cleveland, deport us out of Cleveland and deny our ideas and oppress us and frighten us to the corner…they picked the wrong community!' Rabbi Robert Nosanchuk from Mishkan Or said in a statement.
'And that community will continue to respond with love. Let's use this moment to instead of standing in fear, to stand against this oppressive act, and deepen our convictions to learn about each other's faith, race, culture and values,' he continued.
"We want to take this act of hate and turn it into a powerful symbol of unity, solidarity and love," Rev. Ryan Wallace of Fairmount Presbyterian Church said.
Sen. Kent Smith, a Democrat, said the man's actions "cannot be tolerated."
"I condemn this act, not only because it is a crime against our institutions and community, but also because it is fundamentally un-American," Smith said in a statement. "This act of violence is not just a crime against the public catalog of literature that was destroyed, but also is a violation of the marketplace of ideas that is a bedrock principle of American life."
It's not clear if the man faces charges. Police said the incident is most likely a civil matter, and the local prosecutor would determine if charges are warranted, according to WKYC. Police said the library wanted the incident documented and that the books are not yet overdue, the news station reported. The man will receive a bill once they are overdue, and the bill will be sent to collections if it is not paid.
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Telegraph
2 hours ago
- Telegraph
Council finally cuts ties with Pride group founded by paedophile
A county council has finally cut all ties with a Pride group, four years after whistleblowers raised serious concerns about its paedophile founder. Surrey council's chief executive has withdrawn funding from the controversial Pride in Surrey group, and has barred staff from attending September's Pride event in an official capacity. In 2021, the council was accused of ignoring whistleblowers who raised safeguarding concerns against Pride in Surrey, to which it had given tens of thousands of pounds. The organisation was co-founded by Stephen Ireland, who was found guilty in March of raping an 'extremely vulnerable' 12-year-old boy. He was jailed for 24 years in June. Earlier this month, The Telegraph disclosed that concerns about Ireland, including that he had appointed himself as the organisation's head of safeguarding, had been passed to the council years ago. Ireland set up Pride in Surrey in 2018, and the county council has given it funding of more than £140,000 since 2020, including £24,275 for the year 2024/25. Two whistleblowers told The Telegraph that their concerns were ignored by Joanna Killian, then chief executive of the council. Now Terence Herbert, her successor, has written to staff to say the council took action after concerns were raised that the group is not 'truly representative' of the whole LGBT community. Council 'still committed to LGBTQ+ people' 'While we continue to wholeheartedly support the LGBTQ+ community in Surrey, there have been concerns raised about Pride in Surrey as an organisation,' he said. 'At this time, we do not believe Pride in Surrey to be truly representative of the whole LGBTQ+ community. 'Therefore, Surrey county council will not be attending or funding Surrey Pride. 'I will be writing to Pride in Surrey to make them aware of this decision, and I will make any necessary arrangements to cancel any commitments to attend Pride this September. 'This decision does not change our ongoing commitment to LGBTQ+ people, and we firmly believe everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. 'We will continue to work with other representative organisations across the county to champion the rights of protected groups, and we continue to be a strong advocate of the LGBTQ+ staff network who we are engaging with fully on this issue.' Kate Barker, the chief executive of the charity LGB Alliance, said: 'Surrey council has made the right decision. 'Pride in Surrey has shown complete disregard for safeguarding even after its founder's despicable crimes were exposed.' Ireland's trial was told the 42-year-old arranged for the 12-year-old boy, referred to as Child A, to meet him at his flat after messaging on dating app Grindr. The boy told police they had sex in the flat, smoked a bong, which was later found to have contained methamphetamine, and that pornography was played on a laptop. Judge Patricia Lees told Ireland he 'took advantage' of a vulnerable child. He was convicted of one count of rape, three counts of causing a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, sexual assault, conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child, and arranging commission of a child sex offence. Earlier this month, Marion Harding, a former volunteer with Pride in Surrey, told The Telegraph she contacted Ms Killian in 2021 to raise safeguarding concerns about the organisation. She said she and her wife Cathy, who also volunteered, were concerned Ireland had appointed himself head of safeguarding – a role that, according to guidance for voluntary bodies, should 'not be the most senior person in the organisation'. He also had sole responsibility for the group's 'helpline' for young people – meaning he had direct access to vulnerable children. Volunteers were also concerned that Ireland appeared to be in a polyamorous relationship involving a young man, and that social media posts by Pride in Surrey celebrated 'fetishes' – some involving young people – while Ireland was in charge. In a letter to Ms Killian, Ms Harding, 62, also pointed out Ireland was in a relationship with a young man 'who is barely 18', in what amounted to an 'abuse of power from a person in a position of trust, and could cause the wrong message to go out to young, vulnerable gay people'. The chief executive replied to say an investigation would take place, but nothing happened. Until earlier this year, Surrey Police listed Pride in Surrey on its website as a 'partner agency' that 'can also offer information, advice, and support' on LGBT issues, in addition to the force's LGBT liaison officers.

The National
4 hours ago
- The National
David Pratt: Israel's expansionism is the clear and present danger
Ever since the founding of the Jewish state, Israel has repeatedly presented to the world that its military actions have been motivated primarily by 'existential' need. That much was evident again during a speech in February when Israeli defence minister Israel Katz told how he had asked the country's military commanders what the main lesson was from the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023. 'They said we will no longer allow radical organisations to exist near Israel's borders, whether in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria or near the settlements. And that is now our policy,' Katz's speech went on to recount the military chiefs as saying. But the truth of the matter is that this has always been Israel's policy, and at the heart of such a military doctrine lies the belief that territorial depth offers lasting security. Or, to put this another way, security through expansionism has forever been a core tenet of the Israeli military playbook. That said, rarely though has the country and its government been as determinedly expansionist as it is today. Writing recently in the Financial Times (FT), the Saudi author and commentator Ali Shihabi described Israel's current pursuit of more territory as one 'cloaked in the language of security and religious entitlement'. By 'entitlement', Shihabi is of course referring to the biblical idea of a 'Greater Israel' that many of the religious zealots and right-wingers that comprise Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu's coalition government envisage in Gaza, the Occupied West Bank and beyond. Whether Netanyahu himself is fully aligned with his cabinet over ambitions for a 'Greater Israel' remains open to conjecture, but what's in no doubt is that Israel is now pushing back its borders like never before. In Gaza this past week, reports of an intensification in the demolition of buildings underscores what many observers see as Israel's long-term plan to move the Palestinian population out and fully control Gaza's post-war space. In the occupied West Bank, meanwhile, Israel's illegal settlement expansion and annexing of territory goes on apace. Further afield, the past week also saw Israel doubling down militarily on both Syria and Lebanon. In Syria, Israel continues to take territorial advantage of the country's political fragility in the wake of the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad's regime. For months, the Israeli military have been assimilating the Druze residents of the Golan Heights, venturing territorially far beyond the line where their predecessors stopped during the conquest of this mountainous plateau that Israel has occupied since 1967. Since the ousting of Assad last December, Israel has struck Syria hundreds of times and invaded and occupied about 155 square miles of its territory. Last Wednesday, Israel launched air strikes on Syria's capital, Damascus. It also hit Syrian government forces in the south in an operation it says was aimed at protecting the Druze minority group caught up in clashes with Bedouin tribes in Syria's southern province of Sweida close to the Israeli border. But Netanyahu's claim that Israel is simply giving the Druze – one million of whom are spread across the region, including in Israel – a helping hand simply doesn't wash with many Middle East analysts. 'It's pure opportunism,' Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli ambassador and consul general in New York, told Al Jazeera. 'Of course, it's nice to pretend that we're helping our friends the Druze, in the same way as we never helped our other friends, the Kurds,' he said, referring to another regional ethnic group. Pinkas is not alone in his assessment that Israel doesn't want to see a unified Syria with a strong central government controlled by Ahmed al-Sharaa's fledgling presidency. Like other observers, Pinkas maintains that Netanyahu would far rather see 'a weak central government dealing with areas controlled by the Kurds (in the north) and the Druze and Bedouin in the south. 'Basically, if Syria remains un-unified, Israel can do what it wants in its south,' he added, underlining yet again the perceived importance of territorial depth offering lasting security. Few doubt that the sectarian violence that has gripped Syria's Sweida province these past days has underscored the country's fragility and presented Shaara with his most significant crisis yet. For his part, Netanyahu reiterated that Israel will continue to use military means to enforce its two red lines in Syria – the demilitarisation of the area south of Damascus, near Israel's border, and the protection of the country's Druze minority there. The most extremist members of Netanyahu's government meanwhile continue to make clear that Israel's intention is to go much further. Only a few months ago, Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich declared that Israel would not stop fighting until Syria was partitioned and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians had been expelled from Gaza into third countries. 'With God's help and the valour of your comrades-in-arms who continue to fight even now, we will end this campaign when Syria is dismantled, Hezbollah is severely beaten, Iran is stripped of its nuclear threat, Gaza is cleansed of Hamas and hundreds of thousands of Gazans are on their way out of it to other countries,' Smotrich declared during a pre-Memorial Day speech in the West Bank. According to the Times of Israel, Smotrich's comment about dividing Syria came just days after US Republican congressman Marlin Stutzman told the newspaper that Sharaa had expressed 'openness' to normalising relations with Jerusalem and cautioned against efforts to divide the country. 'The first (concern) – which I felt was most important to him – was that Israel may have a plan to divide up the nation of Syria into ... multiple parts. That was something that he was very opposed to,' Stutzman recalled. The plan, again according to the Times of Israel, appeared to be a reference to the lobbying Israel has reportedly been doing in Washington for the US to buck Sharaa's fledgling government in favour of establishing a decentralised series of autonomous ethnic regions, with the southern one bordering Israel being demilitarised. Going by last week's flare-up between Israel and Syria, that issue of partitioning Syria and creating a demilitarised southern area appears to be still on the cards as far as Netanyahu is concerned. This weekend, relations took a slightly more positive turn however after hostilities between the two sides were quelled on Friday by the announcement of a ceasefire. Israeli officials confirmed that 'due to the ongoing instability,' they had agreed to allow Syrian forces limited access to the Sweida area over the next few days. But even with this ceasefire in place, the situation remains incredibly volatile, and Shaara could now in effect be forced to either cede ambitions to reassert state control over southern Syria, undermining his attempts to unify the country, or risk an even greater confrontation with Israel. Israel's laying down of territorial markers in Syria is just the latest example of what some analysts say is a policy of pushing a dangerous expansionism in the region. With the Israeli air force bombing Beirut and the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, as well as the Syrian capital Damascus from which its infantry troops are now stationed a mere 40 minutes away, never has Israel engaged in such prolonged conflict on so many battlefronts. All this too before taking into consideration its recent onslaught on targets across Iran. With every day that passes, Netanyahu, it seems. raises the stakes even further while increasingly disregarding the occasional overtures from Washington to rein in Israel's military actions as was the case in Syria last week. To get a fuller picture of the scale and intensity of Israel's expansionist strategy right now, it's worth considering recent mapping compiled by the independent non-profit think tank the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED). According to a recent analysis of its data, it shows that between October 7, 2023 – the date of the Hamas attack on Israel – and just before Israel attacked Iran on June 13, 2025, Israel carried out nearly 35,000 recorded attacks across five countries: the occupied Palestinian territory, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iran. These attacks include air and drone strikes, shelling and missile attacks, remote explosives and property destruction. The majority of attacks have been on Palestinian territory with at least 18,235 recorded incidents, followed by Lebanon (15,520), Syria (616), Iran (58) and Yemen (39). Detailing ACLED's research, the broadcaster Al Jazeera noted that while the bulk of Israel's attacks have concentrated on nearby Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Lebanon, its military operations have also reached far beyond its immediate borders. Over the past six months, Israeli forces have launched more than 200 air, drone or artillery attacks across Syria, averaging an assault roughly every three to four days, according to ACLED. Meanwhile, reports last week confirmed that Israel has stepped up the demolition of buildings across Gaza with entire towns and suburbs levelled in the past few weeks. Heavy machinery has played a central role in this destruction, operated both by soldiers and civilians, reports indicate. Civilians operating heavy machinery in [[Gaza]] can earn as much as $9000 per month, according to reports in TheMarker, a Hebrew-language daily business newspaper. According to TheMarker, a trained heavy equipment operator can earn approximately 1200 shekels (£270) per day, drawn from the 5000 shekels (£1118) the Israeli Ministry of Defence pays daily to the equipment's owner. 'At first I did it for the money. Then for revenge. The work there is very hard and unpleasant. The army doesn't operate smartly, it just wants to destroy as much as possible and doesn't care about anything,' one heavy equipment operator told TheMarker. Gaza's demolitions – many of them buildings that have already been destroyed or damaged by Israel's military onslaught – are seen by observers as part of a longer post-war plan to control, contain or disperse what remains of Gaza's civilian Palestinian population and prepare the way for the territory's use for settlement expansion and commercial use. In the occupied West Bank, Israel is applying many of the tactics used in its war on Gaza to seize and control territory there. According to an analysis by the British research group Forensic Architecture, Israel has used building demolitions, armoured bulldozers and air strikes to establish a permanent military presence in areas such as Jenin, Nur Shams and Tulkarem refugee camps. Satellite imagery shows widespread destruction, with entire neighbourhoods flattened and roads reconfigured to facilitate troop movements and surveillance. The United Nations estimates that these operations have displaced at least 40,000 Palestinians. As Israel's expansionist strategy intensifies, many regional observers say it is simply fuelling chaos and stoking up a future widening regional conflict. Martin Gak is an Argentinian Jewish journalist based in Germany who is of the view that Israel's territorial ambitions are 'much bigger than the theological design of greater Israel'. In a recent interview, Gak drew parallels with the way Israel is now operating in the Middle East using tactics similar to those of Russia. He said: 'If you look at Gaza, if you look at what happened in southern Lebanon, the images should be very reminiscent of Grozny in the second Chechen war ... so, I think that what we're seeing is a Russian playbook of complete destruction,' Gak told Turkish media. Other regional observers like Shihabi, in the FT, recently posed the question as to what Israel truly gains from this relentless push to expand its borders. 'The cost is staggering: deepening international isolation, increasing threats to the global Jewish community, psychological trauma within a constantly targeted Israeli society and the further destabilisation of an already volatile region,' Shihabi concluded. Like other Middle East watchers, Shihabi is firmly of the view that more territory is not the answer to Israel's security problems and that 'the future is being held hostage by zealots who value conquest over coexistence'. While it might have been initially framed as an 'incursion' to eradicate Hamas and rescue the nearly 250 hostages seized on October 7, Israel's Gaza 'operation' has since moved into an entirely new and much wider military realm. It's one too for which it has been given virtual carte blanche by the US and Western countries to prosecute. Until that stops, Israel's dangerous expansionist ambitions will almost certainly continue to fuel an escalation in conflict across the Middle East. The days of framing such a military strategy as being driven by 'existential need' have gone. Israel, as many rightfully argue, is the real regional threat now.


Spectator
9 hours ago
- Spectator
The painful truth about Christian anti-Semitism
When I walked past a group of shouting protestors holding placards announcing, 'Christians for Palestine,' I couldn't resist: 'If Christians hadn't treated Jews so appallingly for so many centuries there wouldn't have been a need for Israel,' I said politely. 'Do you genuinely think that one-sided polemics are appropriate,' I asked There was a pause for self-righteous reflection, before one of the group responded: 'Typical! A Zionist playing the antisemitic card.' The truth is that this Anglican priest with three Jewish grandparents wasn't playing any card at all. I was trying to point out some of the inconsistencies and denial inherent in Christian opposition to Israel, which increasingly goes far beyond criticism of the situation in Gaza. Israel may now be close to 50 per cent Mizrahi (Jews from the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia) but its foundation was overwhelmingly Ashkenazi and European. In other words, Jews who had lived in Christendom. Some were ideological Zionists but most were fleeing horrendous persecution. Even with the former, it's impossible to fully separate a philosophical Zionism from the context of pogrom, expulsion, blood libel, and slaughter. A slaughter that was often at its most manic during Easter. Early in its history, the church had removed the Jewish Jesus from the Christian narrative – the Jew as Christ became the Jew as Christ-killer. St. John Chrysostom in the 4th-century is arguably the most infamous of the church fathers in this regard but he's far from unique. He championed the concept of Jewish deicide, described synagogues as pagan temples and worse than brothels, and compared Jews to demons. His supporters argue that this was part of a conflict between two rival groups and not antisemitism as we know it, but reality cries out to be heard. Even if that argument were true, and it's an impossible stretch, the man's writings such as Adversus Judaeos – Against the Jews – did much to shape subsequent attitudes and prejudice. There were hopes that the Reformation would improve the situation, and to an extent it did. But as early as 1537, Martin Luther worked to have the Jews expelled from Saxony and six years later, he published The Jews and Their Lies, in which he called for Jewish schools, homes, and synagogues to be destroyed. The Jews, he said, were, 'base, whoring people, that is, no people of God, and their boast of lineage, circumcision, and law must be accounted as filth.' For those who dismiss this as mere history, Martin Sasse, the Bishop of the Evangelical Church of Thuringia, supported Kristallnacht in 1938 and distributed a pamphlet entitled Martin Luther on the Jews: Away with Them! By the 19th-century there was a belief among some in the Jewish world that Christian antisemitism was on the decline. The more assimilated the Jews were, they assumed, the more they would be accepted. Theodor Herzl, raised in a secular, German-speaking family in Austria-Hungary, shared this optimism as a young man. It didn't last. He witnessed the horrendous treatment of French army officer Alfred Dreyfus, with the French Catholic church playing a leading role. It was clear to Herzl that patriotism, loyalty, and integration were insufficient, and only a Jewish state could guarantee dignity and protection. His portrait now hangs in the Speaker's chamber of the Israel parliament, where he's honoured as the founder of modern Zionism. Less than forty years after Herzl's death came the Holocaust. Nazism was philosophically pagan and anti-Christian but its anti-Jewish racism was accepted, or ignored, in much of occupied Christian Europe. Righteous Gentiles are remembered not because they were so numerous but so few. There were of course courageous Christians who defended their Jewish fellow citizens but one of the open wounds of modern Christian history is how little was done. A climate of the outsider, the lesser, the God murderer had been created over a thousand years, one that varied in intensity but was seldom completely absent. Much has changed since then, with the development of Christian Zionism (not always helpful) and a post-Holocaust theology that emphasises the Jewish nature of Jesus, his family and followers (always helpful). But along with this is replacement theology, a belief that the church has superseded the Jews as God's chosen. It has worrying implications and has gained popularity among anti-Zionists. As for Jesus being a Palestinian, this is just fashionable propaganda. The word Palestine had been used by the Greeks but Jesus was a Judean, a Jew, and the crucifixion and resurrection took place in Judea. It was the Romans in the 2nd century who changed the region's name to Syria Palaestina following a Jewish revolt and the expulsion of the Jews from their homeland. The medieval world continued the attempt to expunge Jesus' Jewishness and some modern leftists have followed suit in the name of what they regard as justice and anti-colonialism. Christians need to come to terms with their own history and filter criticism of the Jewish state through a sense of informed ownership and responsibility – and never accuse someone of 'playing the antisemitism card.' It's just not the Christian thing to do.