Israeli diplomat defends army after soldiers fired warning shots near diplomats visiting Jenin
'There was no actual danger,' Assaf Moran, deputy chief of mission of the Israeli embassy in France, said in an interview with The Associated Press. 'It also was proven by the debriefing that the soldiers only shot a warning in the air in order for the delegation to step away, but there was not actual danger to the diplomats on the ground.'
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Fox News
5 minutes ago
- Fox News
Netanyahu official drops bombshell: 'Decision has been made' on Gaza's future
Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst shares the latest from the middle east as Israel's Security Cabinet is set to discuss next steps in the nearly two-year-old war with the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip on 'Special Report.'
Fox News
27 minutes ago
- Fox News
Global intifada movement rocked by #MeToo allegations against Jewish anti-Israel actor and accused grifter
The global intifada movement, dedicated to destroying the state of Israel, is splintering publicly for the first time, as a fiery Palestinian-American activist who made her name leading New York City protests is accusing a Jewish American actor and self-professed ally of the movement of being a sexual predator and "grifting off of a genocide." In a nine-point allegation published on the X social media platform Friday, Nerdeen Kiswani calls Jacob Berger a "failed OnlyFans creator" who rebranded as a "Palestine supporter." "Since then, he's taken sponsorship deals, asked for donations nonstop and monetized every angle of his supposed activism," Kiswani alleged. Kiswani, whose protests shut down Manhattan's Grand Central Station and have polarized neighborhoods, accused Berger of harassing female fellow activists. "He sexually harasses and fetishizes Arab women, according to multiple reports,": she said. "Several women have described feeling unsafe around him, especially in activist spaces." Neither Kiswani nor Berger responded to requests for comment, but Berger published a video response to Kiswani in which he denied her claims. He said "some heavy allegations have been leveled against me" and called the charges as a "personal vendetta" that arose after he did an interview with a podcast host critical of Kiswani. In a reverse Uno move straight out of a Muslim soap opera, Berger, he accused Kiswani of causing "baseless fitna." Fitna is an Arabic word that means civil war and carries with it serious negative subtext among ideologues bound to a collective identity of one "ummah," or Muslim community. The allegations are particularly awkward because, since the brutal Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of Israel by Hamas, Berger has become a virtual rock star in the anti-Israel scene, publishing selfies with activist luminaries, including socialist politician Cornel West, political scientist Norman Finkelstein, previously-detained protest leader Mamoud Khalil, Hollywood actor Rami Malek and rapper Macklemore. In June, former Democratic New York U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman interrupted his own reelection rally, railing against Israel and Republicans, to give Berger a shoutout and handslap. "Jacob Berger's the man…He's a brilliant artist, brilliant human! Jacob, thank you for being here. Appreciate you," Bowman said as Berger beamed for the camera. Last month, popular Egyptian comedian Bassem Youssef, now living in the U.S., recorded a video, "Hey, Jacob BURGER! … I'm a big fan. I love you, man." Days later, in an Instagram Live video, Michigan Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib gushed over Berger, as he stood on the "Freedom Flotilla," sailing toward Gaza. "Thank you, Jacob!" Tlaib said, leaning into the camera to throw him kisses. None of these activist luminaries have issued a public statement on Kiswani's claims. Apologizing for his "white privilege" and "Jewish privilege" as an Ashkenazi Jew with ancestral roots in the former Soviet Union, Berger has crisscrossed the globe from the Bronx to Cairo, and he now draws two million followers on TikTok and one million followers on Instagram, publishing dozens of viral selfie sizzle reels, wearing a trademark look of a kefiyyeh and baseball cap at protests and, other times, bare-chested in bed. The clash offers a window into the murky dynamics of the anti-Israel movement, which has branded itself as moral and virtuous, calling for a "resistance" to "genocide." While it welcomed Berger, he had previously been known for creating a library of social media content that critics say "fetishizes" not only Arab women but also cleavage-popping Hispanic, Black and Asian women. In late February 2022, Berger had a very different business model. A former mental health and substance abuse counselor with a master's degree in social work from Columbia University, according to an official bio, Berger had switched careers to become an actor. That month, he launched a new business on the OnlyFans platform for sexually-charged video content, promoting himself as "The Instagram Cop." He dressed in a New York Police Department uniform while performing sexual capers around town with buxom women, usually earning less than 100,000 views on TikTok. "You have a right to remain silent!" OnlyFans wrote, announcing Berger's new offering. "Prepare for a barrel of laughs…" After Oct. 7, 2023, the Columbia University graduate made a sudden pivot. A week later, he posted an earnest video on Instagram, speaking to the camera in a NASA t-shirt, decrying the "genocide of the Palestinian people," calling Israel an "apartheid state" and ending with a chant, "Free Palestine!" By the end of the month, wearing a white New York Yankees baseball cap without a keffiyeh, he joined a slow-moving protest in Washington, D.C., led by a group, Jewish Voice for Peace, aligned with Kiswani, heading from Union Station to the back of the U.S. Capitol. The crowd chanted "Ceasefire now," as protest paparazzi took their images to post later on social media accounts in the emerging global intifada movement. The next month, Berger posted a selfie video from another protest Kiswani led on the Williamsburg Bridge, between Brooklyn and Manhattan. Wearing a "Bronx Native" baseball cap, protesting Israel's military response to the attacks, he chanted along with demonstrators: "Free, free Palestine." "He centers himself in everything," Kiswani alleges. "Even when talking to Palestinians and on livestreams, it's 'me me me,' how he suffers, how he is censored, how he gave up fame, while [he is] literally grifting off of a genocide." All along, Berger has been blatant about his sexual content, posting videos with scantily-clad women from his first days of anti-Israel protesting. As he joined the post-Oct. 7 protests and befriended Kiswani, he still had fresh on his social media feed a video he'd posted of a woman in a bra and thong underwear, with the caption, "When she likes it rough." In another video he had on his public feed, he squeezed a Black woman's buttocks, visible under lace hose and thong underwear, with the caption, "When cops stop you for being thick." After joining the protests, he stayed on script with his sexual content, showing two busty women spilling out of their bras, cavorting with each other behind the caption: "When wifey won't share her girlfriend with you." He earned 52,666 likes. By late November 2023, Berger wrapped a black-and-white checkered keffiyeh, the symbol of the global intifada, over his shoulders, under a Pittsburgh Pirates beanie and marched near Kiswani and a banner that read, "BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY." That post garnered 2.6 million views. "Ten toes down for 🍉," he wrote, using the watermelon emoji that's become a symbol for Palestine, its red, black and green colors matching the colors of the Palestinian flag. Days later, in a show of force against support for Israel, he marched to the Christmas tree lights at Rockefeller Center in midtown Manhattan with Kiswani, who gave her activist group the name "Within Our Lifetime," seeking to claim Israel as the nation of "Palestine" within a generation. She established the group as an offshoot of the New York City chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, known for its virulent anti-semitism. Over the years, Kiswani has chanted, "We want to see Israel fall within our lifetime," telling protestors: "We need allies who are gonna help us achieve a victory, not allies who are gonna tell us to be nonviolent." She has said, "No Zionists are welcome in our city," and she has declared, "We don't want two states. We want '48," meaning the land in 1948 before Israel was created. Her organization's website now hosts a "rally toolkit," with a "roadmap for how your organization or coalition can put on a successful rally and build the movement for Palestine from wherever you are." It offers a "rally checklist," with "chants, logistics, outreach, materials, assigned roles, security recommendations, follow up, playlist," with three "Palestinian resistance songs." The "donate" button currently doesn't work. Kiswani didn't publicly challenge Berber over the next two-and-a-half years, as he embedded himself deeper in the anti-Israel protest movement with often-cringey content about chasing "Habibti," or Arab women, and declaring, "Asian Women Are Thick Now♥️," "It's a handful of videos out of hundreds," Berger says, in his video response to the allegations against him. "I'm an entertainer, comedian and a streamer. I say funny things. Her trying to haram police my content and my live stream style is just insane and out of line." Kiswani now faces her own backlash. A self-described "Arab alphamale" supporter of Berger says, "Nerdeen is good at being a dictator," "acting retarded," running a "useless organization," storming Grand Central Station "like idiots" and making Palestinians "look stupid." By August 2024, Berger journeyed to Egypt to raise funds for "orphans and single moms from Gaza," displaced by the war. Kiswani alleges: "He reportedly made videos with Palestinian children on a 'field trip,' asking people to donate for these 'orphans' without consent from their families. When they found out and asked him to take it down, he blocked them." Berger denies the charges and says: "But this is, unfortunately, a very ugly side of the humanitarian world that we, as people that work in this field, try to keep to ourselves, because it's so messed up that if you know these kind of details, it could affect people's trust in donating to Palestinian causes, period." "Jacob Berger's the man…He's a brilliant artist, brilliant human! Jacob, thank you for being here. Appreciate you." - Former Democratic New York U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman introducing Berger at a rally Meanwhile, he kept posting his racy videos. In September 2024, in Dearborn, Mich., at ArabCon, he filmed a skit promoting a dating app, Olive, throwing a keffiyeh over his shoulders as he chased attractive Arab women, with the caption, "How to find that perfect Habibti😍," and asked the question, "Y'all wanna go free Palestine together?" By October 2024, Berger moved to live in Cairo. Kiswani accuses him of "getting a free apartment, not paying for anything, and living comfortably while volunteers around him were actually working." He denies the charges as "so laughable." The next month, Berger shared a supposed message from a follower: "As beautiful Muslim women, I feel we should give anti-zionist Jewish guys a shot. I feel like it isn't Haram," or Islamically illegal, "if he rides with Muslims" By the end of the year, Berger posted a skit of himself hitting on a dark-haired woman in torn jeans, her midriff bare under a jean jacket, tube top and caption that read, "How to get a womans [sic] attention in an Egyptian club." Months later, in the spring of 2025, Kiswani flashed a wide smile and "V" for victory with her fingers, in a video with Berger from an anti-Israel protest, both draped in kefiyyehs. Now, Kiswani says, "If you've felt uneasy about him, you're not alone…This isn't cancel culture. It's protecting the movement from exploiters. If your solidarity is self-promotion, it's actually extraction." A few months ago, in early May, wearing a Yankees cap, Berger stood somber-faced next to climate activist Greta Thunberg, promoting a "Freedom Flotilla" to "break this siege" in Gaza. In mid-June, he celebrated Iranian air strikes against Israel. By mid-July, now aboard a new sailing of the "Freedom Flotilla," he debated TV host Piers Morgan over the alleged "kidnapping" of Thurnberg by Israeli officials, who had detained and released her as she sailed off the shores of Israel. Last week, as he returned from his own aborted mission of the "Freedom Flotilla," with "GAZA" across his military green t-shirt and a kefiyyeh over his shoulders, activists lined a lobby in the arrivals lounge at JFK. International Airport, yelling, "Jacob! Jacob!" as he exchanged high-fives with them. "Protests in the street are not enough," he told a cameraman. "One day we will see Falasteen free, Inshallah," invoking the Arabic term used by Muslims for "God willing." "Inshallah," the cameraman responded. Within days, Kiswani leveled her accusations against Berger as a grifter and sexual predator, and a detractor accused him of helping the cause of Zionism, or belief in the state of Israel, labeling him "a Zio in Kefiyeah [sic]."
Yahoo
32 minutes ago
- Yahoo
France and Saudis vow to keep up momentum for 'two-state solution' to Israel-Palestinian conflict
UN Two State Solution UNITED NATIONS (AP) — After decades of inaction and frozen negotiations, the issue of an independent Palestinian state living in peace with Israel returned to the spotlight at a high-level U.N. conference — and France and Saudi Arabia, which spearheaded the effort, are determined to keep up the momentum. But hurdles for a two-state solution that would see Israel living side-by-side with an independent Palestine are very high. War in Gaza — a crucial part of a hoped-for Palestinian state — drags on with escalating violence in the West Bank, the other main component. And Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing government vehemently oppose an independent Palestinian state, which the Israeli leader says would be a reward for terrorism after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attacks against his country. Nonetheless, after eight decades of conflict between Israel and Palestinians, pressure is growing for a two-state solution, as last week's high-level U.N. conference co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia demonstrated — even if it was boycotted by Israel and its close ally, the United States. The conference illustrated that many believe a political solution is possible The French U.N. ambassador, Jerome Bonnafont, conceded in an Associated Press interview that without a Gaza ceasefire and massive humanitarian aid for over 2 million Palestinians sliding toward famine, 'it will be extremely difficult to move forward to define a new way of administering Gaza as part of Palestine' – and he said these are priority issues. But the conference demonstrated that a majority of the U.N.'s 193 member nations are 'convinced that there is a possibility of a political solution," he said, and that is "what its follow-up will continue to promote.' About 160 of the U.N.'s 193 member nations participated, 125 spoke in support of a two-state solution (forcing the meeting into an unexpected third day), and between 40 and 50 were represented by a government minister. An independent state of Palestine is recognized by over 145 countries, and the meeting sparked new pledges of recognition by three of the seven members of the powerful Group of Seven — France, United Kingdom and Canada — as well as Malta. A statement by seven others, including Australia, New Zealand, Finland and Portugal, expressed 'positive consideration' of following suit. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot and Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farham are determined not to let the spotlight fade. They are planning 'an event' during the annual gathering of world leaders at the General Assembly, which starts Sept. 23, when the new pledges are expected to be officially announced. The conference was notable for being co-chaired by an Arab and Western nation, and for setting up eight working groups with diverse chairs to make proposals on key issues for a two state solution — security for Israel and an independent Palestine, political reforms, legal problems, humanitarian assistance, economic development and Gaza reconstruction, to name some. The result was a seven-page 'New York Declaration.' The French and Saudi foreign ministers sent the declaration, with a lengthy annex of recommendations from the working groups, to all 193 U.N. members and asked them to endorse it by early September, before the world leaders' gathering. The declaration, which also was endorsed by the European Union and Arab League, urges Israel to commit to a Palestinian state, and urges further recognitions as 'an essential and indispensable component of the achievement of the two-state solution.' The declaration contains some stronger language For the first time, the Arab League's 22 member nations condemned 'the attacks committed by Hamas against civilians' in southern Israel on Oct. 7, and agree that 'Hamas must end its rule in Gaza and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority.' It sets out a plan to then move to an independent, demilitarized Palestine, including deployment of a U.N. Security Council-mandated 'temporary international stabilization mission' supported by the Palestinian Authority. It would protect civilians, help build support for a Palestinian state and its security forces, and provide 'security guarantees for Palestine and Israel.' Richard Gowan, the International Crisis Group's U.N. director, gave French President Emmanuel Macron credit 'for raising the level of ambition for the conference,' and helping make it 'more symbolically significant than many diplomats expected.' The meeting gave weighty states including France, Britain and Canada the opportunity 'to signal their discontent with Israeli policy,' he said, and it gave Palestinians seeking a peaceful road to statehood 'some political ammunition." Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who hosted a Hamas delegation in Istanbul last week to discuss Gaza's humanitarian crisis and stalled ceasefire talks, noted growing global support for the Palestinians and a Palestinian state — and Israel's increasing isolation. Bonnafont, the French ambassador, had messages for Israel's opponents and Israelis seeking more territory. 'We say to those who are hostile to Israel, the way to peace is certainly not to deny the right of existence to Israel. This is the way to perpetual war,' Bonnafont said. 'And the real way to defend the Palestinians is to give them a state, and the only way to give them a state is a two-state solution — and we have demonstrated concretely that this solution exists and is feasible.' 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