World
Israeli President Herzog highlights antisemitism in UN speech as new report shows shocking trend
As the world marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp on Monday, the world’s oldest hatred is again on the rise.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog addressed the United Nations in honor of the solemn anniversary on Monday, saying the “moral beacon” of the U.N. had “been eroded time and again.”
Speaking to a packed General Assembly Hall, he asked, “How is it possible that international institutions, established as an anti-Nazi alliance, allow murderous antisemitic views to flourish unhindered, in the shadow of the greatest massacre of Jews since World War II? How is it possible that those institutions that were established in the wake of the greatest genocide in history – the Holocaust – distort the definition of ‘genocide’ in favor of one and only goal: attacking the State of Israel and the Jewish people; while embracing the despicable phenomenon of ‘reversing the Holocaust.’”
GLOBAL RISE IN ANTISEMITISM LEAVES JEWISH COMMUNITY ISOLATED, RABBI SAYS WORLD AT ‘A TIPPING POINT’
Israeli President Isaac Herzog speaks during the Holocaust memorial ceremony at the United Nations in New York on Jan. 27, 2025. (Lev Radin/Sipa USA/Sipa via AP Images)
Herzog added that “antisemitism, barbarism, cruelty, and racism” thrive at the U.N. because “too many of the nations represented here – do not confront them, do not unanimously condemn them, and do not fight against them.”
A recent report released by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) found in its latest Global 100 survey that 46% of the world’s 2.2 billion adults “harbor deeply entrenched antisemitic attitudes,” a number “more than double” what the ADL recorded through the survey in 2014.
The ADL survey reflects the percentage of adults queried who “answered ‘definitely true’ or ‘probably true’ to six or more of the 11 negative stereotypes about Jews that were tested.” Responses ranged from 5% in Sweden and 8% in Norway, Canada, and the Netherlands, to 97% in Kuwait, the West Bank and Gaza.
Seventy-six percent of respondents in the Middle East and Africa, 51% in Asia, and 49% in Eastern Europe were found to agree with most antisemitic tropes surveyed. Though the respondents living in the Americas (24%), Western Europe (17%) and Oceania (20%) expressed less agreement with antisemitic statements, countries in these regions have seen tremendous incidents of violent antisemitism since Oct. 7, 2023.
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Antisemitic hate on display at an anti-Israel protest in London. (Campaign Against Antisemitism on X)
In response to growing problems in the U.S., some in the American Jewish community have begun looking for safety outside the country. Israel’s Ministry of Immigration and Absorption, according to media reporting, said 3,340 Americans had immigrated to Israel as of September 2024. This represents a more than 30% increase from the 2,479 Americans who immigrated to Israel in 2023.
Nuri Katz, founder of Apex Capital Partners, has helped clients procure citizenship through investment for 32 years. Over the last five years, Katz told Fox News Digital that his Jewish client base expanded due to record levels of antisemitism inside the U.S. “American Jews are scared of being stuck and not being able to leave, just like many of their forefathers were stuck in Europe after the beginning of World War II,” he explained.
Katz said a popular choice among his Jewish clients is citizenship through investment in small Caribbean countries like St. Kitts and Antigua.
Though a long-awaited ceasefire and partial hostage exchange between Israel and Hamas is underway, the state of antisemitism around the world could be difficult to rein in.
A Jewish man was shot in the shoulder in Chicago in an antisemitic hate crime. (Fox 32 Chicago)
Rabbi Moshe Hauer, executive vice president of Orthodox Union, told Fox News Digital, “It will certainly take time for the world to get the distortions of the past year and a half out of their mind.” He emphasized that “the Jewish people, the Israeli government, the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces, have been waiting for the day when they can stop the fight, when they can start just building everybody’s future in a positive way, and being able to go back to working on providing the world with solutions to problems. And we’re very, very eager to get back to that.”
In the meantime, “elevated security costs are everywhere in the Jewish community,” Hauer said, explaining that some refer to the expense as “the antisemitism tax.” As a congregational rabbi in the 1990s, Hauer said, “Security in the synagogue meant the last person out should turn the button on the lock.” Today, he said, “Security committees are the most active committees in most synagogues.”
JEWISH HIGH SCHOOLERS FIGHT HATE WITH COMMUNITY SUPPORT, FACE NARROWING PROSPECTS FOR COLLEGIATE FUTURE
The United Nations building in New York City, Sept. 19, 2023. (Julia Bonavita for Fox News Digital)
The cost is “way more than the significant dollars” spent on security, Hauer said. “The cost is that the energy and the resources which faith communities should be investing in strengthening family and strengthening community… is being diverted” to turn “communal Jewish homes into fortresses.”
As a note of “good news,” Hauer said the hate emanating from “mass protests has, thank God, improved,” adding, “And that speaks to the better nature of the masses of both leaders and responsible people in this country, as well as the citizens.”
“We are hopeful,” he said, explaining that America has “a sometimes too-silent majority that despises the acts of hate which are being committed against anybody.” Hauer also added that the country “has to correct itself.”
With only some of the remaining hostages slated to be released at present, the time for relief has yet to arrive.
Hauer called on a dichotomous mixture of hope and dismay in a press release about long-awaited hostage transfers. “We rejoice with the hostages who are being released, and we weep with those remaining in the hands of Hamas,” Hauer said.
“We are grateful that the new administration worked with the old to bring the necessary pressure to bear on Hamas, but we are incensed that the world has allowed this to go on for so long. We are grateful to President Trump for moving quickly to bring freedom to many, but we will not forget for even a moment the many who remain. There should still be hell to pay,” Hauer said.
Not even the professionals inside the New York Knicks press conference room could contain themselves as the clock neared 1 a.m. Thursday morning. Some clapped when Knicks head coach Mike Brown hailed reserve guard Jose Alvarado’s performance—8 points, 2 rebounds and 3 assists, all in the fourth quarter—during the largest comeback in NBA Finals history, which put the Knicks one win away from their first title since 1973.
“I know a lot of you guys can’t (clap) because you’re in the media, and you have to stay neutral,” Brown said, before doing something he wasn’t supposed to do. “I’m going to f—king clap for Jose,” he said. “Sorry, mom.”
It was that kind of night. None of this—erasing a 29-point deficit, these Knicks being one game away from hoisting the Larry O’Brien trophy—was supposed to happen.
A few yards from the pressers, some of the world’s biggest celebrities partied in the bowels of Madison Square Garden, denying gentle requests to climb into the private cars waiting to whisk them away.
Other fans, still in disbelief, had gone from second-guessing why they’d spent thousands of dollars to see their team get blown out in the NBA Finals to wondering how they got away with such a bargain to see Knicks’ history. They belted Knicks in five! down the escalators, slowly leaving the building before massing outside, where scores of police officers sought to maintain order. Or maybe to re-establish it, after what transpired inside MSG during the second half of Game 4.
As the press conferences continued, players consistently reminded writers that there was still one more game to win. But if New York completes its Finals quest, Wednesday’s game will go down in the city’s sports lore.
New York is used to playing the role of top dog. Ensconced in midtown, with their multi-thousand-dollar tickets and A-list supporters, playing in “The World’s Most Famous Arena,” the Knicks are worth $9.85 billion, the third-most valuable team in the NBA. Its billionaire owner James Dolan shared a box with President Donald Trump on Monday night.
In the last few decades, the Knicks have more often represented flash than fight. But this team—assembled via free agency, trades and second-round picks, led by a coach on his fourth stop—has bucked that stereotype. Trailing by 27 at half, they were used to being down and doubted. They chipped away at their deficit, holding the Spurs to 30 second-half points as the gap narrowed and narrowed. Fans in the packed arena, famous or not, remained engaged throughout. Their thunderous yells surely contributed to Spurs star Victor Wembanyama clanking two late free throws with the Knicks down one.
In the waning moments, Jalen Brunson missed a three-pointer to take the lead, but OG Anunoby glided to the hoop in time to get just enough of his hand on the ball to direct it basket-ward.
Brown called Anunoby’s game-winning tip-in with 1.2 seconds left “the most iconic shot in the history of New York basketball.” Images of that two-finger tap feel destined to adorn childhood bedrooms, subway cars and billboards for decades. One is already on a trading card, with a nickname to boot.
“Right hand of God,” Karl-Anthony Towns dubbed the play. A piece of the net will be inserted into one of Topps’ cards. The ball and OG’s jersey will likely be museum pieces, if not auction-house items, one day. Mike Breen’s triple “It’s good!” call on ESPN is certain to play over and over and over again.
OMG!, Thursday morning’s New York Post blared. Meanwhile more than 40 commemorative physical tickets handed out to attendees on Wednesday were bought on eBay by 10 a.m. Thursday. The cheapest ticket for a potential Game 6 on the secondary market now? It’s more than $12,000.
History sells.
The Knicks had already been credited with bringing New Yorkers together. Trump and Mayor Zohran Mamdani cheered for the same side in Game 3. Taylor Swift, sitting in a packed celebrity row, shared the same euphoria being projected on brownstones across NYC’s five boroughs and beamed from its street-corner Wi-Fi terminals. For the time being, the fighting between the Knicks and the city over watch parties has been forgotten.
“If there’s one thing Knicks fans don’t need permission for, it’s showing up for our team wherever we may be,” Mamdani posted on X earlier in the day after a watch party outside the team’s venue was scrapped.
When the final buzzer sounded, and the players, celebrities, crowds and city streets seemingly rose in unison, palms aloft, “You could just feel the abundance of joy,” Towns said.
By 2 a.m., with ears still ringing, fans were finally making their way home. It was pitch black on Gotham’s quieter streets. It felt more like dawn.
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JERUSALEM: The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) convened an emergency summit this week amid growing concern over the global rise in antisemitism following the Hamas-led Oct. 7 massacre in 2023.
The three-day conference in the Israeli capital comes at a time when social media influencers are consistently pushing antisemitic hate to their millions of followers.
“Attacking the Jews means attacking the very roots of one’s own faith. It means fighting against the people who gave us the Bible. Jesus was Jewish,” ICEJ President Dr. Jürgen Bühler told Fox News Digital.
CANADA’S CARNEY PLEDGES ACTION ON ANTISEMITISM AMID BACKLASH OVER NEW ANTI-HATE COUNCIL MEMBERS
Christian leaders attend the ICEJ’s emergency summit on antisemitism on Wednesday, June 10th, 2026 at the Vert hotel in Jerusalem, Israel. (Amelie Botbol for Fox News Digital)
“If you don’t fight antisemitism, you are sawing off the branch you sit on. For the church to survive, we need to connect to our roots, fighting antisemitism needs to be at the forefront of every pastor and every leader around the world,” he added.
One of the central themes of the conference is Replacement Theology, a doctrine that holds the Church has replaced the Jewish people in God’s plan.
“The Bible is full of God’s eternal plan which includes the Jewish people. Paul’s statement in Romans 11 that ‘the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable’ relates to Israel. This is a doctrine that goes contrary to what the New and Old Testament are teaching and that’s why we need to have this conference,” Bühler said.
“One cannot deny the Jewishness of the Bible. The most frequent word in the Bible is the name of God and the second most used name is Israel. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, he died in Jerusalem, resurrected in Jerusalem, rose to heaven from Jerusalem and he is coming back to Jerusalem. If you read the Bible it is so easy to see the connection to Israel,” he added.
HUCKABEE CONDEMNS EFFORTS TO ERASE JEWISH HISTORY TO THE HOLY LAND AS ‘ABSURD’
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee places a note in the Western Wall as Holy Week and Passover come to a close. (@USAmbIsrael/X)
Israel’s newly appointed Special Envoy to the Christian world, George Deek, addressed the meeting on Wednesday, while Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee are scheduled to attend the summit’s closing event on Thursday at the foreign ministry as keynote speakers.
In a recorded message broadcast at the summit, Israeli President Isaac Herzog thanked Christian leaders for mobilizing against antisemitism.
“We are witnessing a very disturbing surge of antisemitism all over the world. This is a major challenge for humanity. This is the age-old, perhaps the oldest plague in humanity, and we have to stand up together — thought leaders and religious leaders — and say, ‘No more,’ and teach people about the sources of this evil and how to counter antisemitism,” Herzog said.
“I believe that countering antisemitism requires a combination of three major elements: law enforcement, adjudication and education,” he said.
Vice President JD Vance, left, and Israeli President Isaac Herzog shake hands during a meeting at the presidential residence, in Jerusalem, on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025. (Leo Correa/AP)
“You, dear leaders, have a huge capability of fighting back, and I bless you. Truly, I bless you as the president of Israel for coming here and fighting back, for coming here and discussing how to fight back,” Herzog concluded.
Dr. Andrew J. Nolte, who launched Regent University’s Israel Institute in 2024, said students often repeat antisemitic claims, including the accusation that Jews killed Jesus.
“The answer from a Christian theological perspective is that we all killed Jesus, he died for our sins. There is a theological understanding of the guilt we bear for Jesus’s blood,” Nolte told Fox News Digital.
ISRAEL LOOKING FOR ‘SOLUTIONS’ TO OPEN CHRISTIAN SITES AFTER BARRING CHURCH LEADER ON PALM SUNDAY DUE TO WAR
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre dates back to the fourth century. (Archivio Università di Roma Sapienza)
While Israel has faced recent criticism over treatment of Christians – mostly at the hands of a few extremists – the country is seen as a beacon of freedom of religion in the Middle East.
According to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, as of December 2025, Israel’s Christian population stood at approximately 184,200 people, representing 1.9% of the country’s total population. The community grew by 0.7% over the previous year.
Arab Christians account for 78.7% of Israel’s Christian population and comprise 6.8% of the country’s overall Arab population.
Most Arab Christians reside in northern Israel. Among non-Arab Christians, 42% live in the Tel Aviv and Central districts, compared to 33.9% in the Northern and Haifa districts.
Christian pilgrims carrying wooden crosses walk through Jerusalem’s Old City towards the Holy Sepulcre church during the Orthodox Good Friday procession on May 3, 2024. (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images)
Nolte said that Christians in Israel hold prominent positions, noting that the provost of the University of Haifa is a Maronite Christian and that Christian communities in the country report relatively high income levels. He also said that, in most cases involving civil rights and religious freedom brought by Christians in Israel, the outcomes have been decided in their favor.
“If you are comparing Israel to any Muslim country in the Middle East, the status of Christians is much higher. As a Christian, you are better off here than anywhere else in the region,” he added.
CHRISTOPHER RUFO: THE POLITICAL RIGHT AND THE ANTISEMITIC INFLUENCER PROBLEM
Israeli Christians in Nazareth hold a Christmas parade on Dec. 24, 2025. (Eitan Elhadez-Barak/TPS-IL)
Christopher Kuehl, founder of Present Witness and co-host of the One New Man podcast, emphasized that biblical illiteracy among younger generations is fueling confusion about Israel.
He opened his remarks at the conference by citing a recent U.S. study on Gen Z’s alignment with biblical teachings and how closely their worldview corresponds with scripture, noting that only about 5% demonstrated strong adherence.
“Israel gets thrown into that ignorance, that biblical ignorance. Social media is what teaches children and Gen Z; they spend eight hours a day on it and go to church once a week for 20 minutes. How does one create a message in 20 minutes that will overcome spending eight hours on social media every day?” Kuehl told Fox News Digital.
FAITH UNDER FIRE: NETANYAHU CALLS OUT EFFORTS TO DIVIDE CHRISTIANS AND ISRAEL IN US
One Israeli pastor says one of the biggest challenges facing Israel’s Christian community is a low birth rate. Jesus King Church in Nazareth, Israel. (Photo: Pastor Saleem Shalash)
Pastor Matthew Earls joined the summit as part of Eagles’ Wings Ministries’ Israel Christian Nexus program, which focuses on young Christian leaders and gives them the opportunity to experience Israel early in their careers and build a well-rounded perspective.
“We want to teach biblical truth so that the church does not look completely different in the next generation,” Earls told Fox News Digital. “The greater mission is one of solidarity with the people of Israel, and of equipping people with talking points in the hope that dialogue can take place and lead to greater understanding, or at least mutual respect for one another’s positions,” he said.
Sacha Roytman, CEO of the Combat Antisemitism Movement, told Fox News Digital that Christians and Jews face many of the same challenges in defending their faith, history, and future, adding that those who reject Jews and Zionism also reject the Christian worldview because the two are aligned.
Orthodox Christians carry wooden crosses along the Via Dolorosa (Way of Suffering) in the Old City of Jerusalem during the Orthodox Good Friday procession before Holy Saturday. (Saeed Qaq/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
“I’m here to share this message with Christian leaders who go back to their communities empowered with more knowledge, more energy, and different tools to fight this battle,” Roytman said.
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As part of its research, CAM has examined how social media algorithms amplify antisemitic content and conspiracy theories. “We discovered that the algorithms are trained to deliver engaging content that upsets people and keeps them hooked. Often, it is anti-establishment content and conspiracy theories that fuel antisemitism,” Roytman said.
More than 200 theologians, pastors and ministry leaders from over 30 countries are attending in person, alongside approximately 3,000 online participants.
United States President Donald Trump has said the US will be hitting Iran “very hard tonight”, adding the military will be “taking Kharg Island” and other Iranian “oil infrastructure points in the not too distant future”.
The threats, made in a Truth Social post on Thursday, come after the US and Iran traded two days of strikes, threatening to derail ongoing negotiations for a lasting ceasefire.
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While the statements indicate US willingness to return to a full-scale war, Trump has repeatedly alternated between bellicose threats and diplomatic overtures in recent weeks.
For example, he pledged that “a whole civilisation will die” just hours before a pause in fighting was agreed to, beginning on April 8.
“The United States will be hitting Iran (Whose Navy, Air Force, Radar, Anti Aircraft, and all other forms of Defense, together with most of its offensive capability, are GONE!), VERY HARD TONIGHT,” Trump wrote on Thursday.
“At some point in the not too distant future, we will be taking Kharg Island, and other oil infrastructure points, and assume total control of their Oil and Gas Markets,” Trump wrote, before referencing the US military action against Venezuela.
That included the abduction of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. Maduro’s replacement, Delcy Rodriguez, has overseen an opening of the country’s state-controlled oil industry to foreign investors, under heavy US pressure.
Kharg Island, known as the “Forbidden Island” due to its strict military control, processes 90 percent of Iran’s crude exports.
In a subsequent interview with Fox News, Trump said taking Kharg Island has always been his “preference”.
“I don’t know that America has the stomach for it, to be honest,” he added, saying he was still averse to deploying boots on the ground in Iran.
Trump’s statements came shortly after Iran’s foreign ministry said the latest round of US strikes rendered the ongoing pause in fighting “practically meaningless”.
Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, described the latest US attacks on Iran as “a widespread and utter nullification of the ceasefire”.
Recent US strikes have targeted the port city of Bandar Abbas, Qeshm Island, and the southern towns of Sirik, Minab and Karaj west of Tehran, according to Iranian media.
Iran, meanwhile, has attacked US bases in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan. Trump has also accused Iran of downing a US helicopter in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday.
Following the latest round of US strikes, Iran announced the full closure of the strait, the arterial waterway that has emerged as Tehran’s key point of leverage in the conflict.
US officials have for weeks been signalling that a deal is close, but have offered few specifics on impasses over the future of Iran’s nuclear programme, future control of the Strait of Hormuz, or the release of frozen Iranian funds.
Analysts have said the Trump administration is constrained by the political imperative of reaching a deal with better terms than the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which saw Tehran curtail its nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.
Trump unilaterally withdrew from the agreement in 2018 and has, since taking office last year, twice struck Iran amid ongoing talks on its nuclear programme.
On Thursday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent vowed that any damage Iran “inflicts on our allies in the Gulf will be paid for with funds extracted” from Iran’s frozen assets, which are estimated to total about $100bn globally.
Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett said Trump appears to be using military pressure and inflammatory language to try to push Iran towards a deal.
“So what’s clear is that the US president is continuing with this Truth Social post to mix public threats with what he believes is still possible, and that is diplomacy at the barrel of a gun,” Halkett said.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Abas Aslani, a senior research fellow at the Centre for Middle East Strategic Studies, said the Trump administration “wants to escalate in order to create leverage at the negotiating table to pressure Tehran to make concessions that they did not in the past”.
Tehran, meanwhile, is concerned with “restoring deterrence against additional attacks on the country”.
“And for Iran, this is also important because the previous response to the US attack was not enough to ensure that they will not attack Iran again,” Aslani said. “That is why they might be escalating to de-escalate [the situation].”
On Thursday, US CENTCOM also announced that the military had disabled three oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman amid its ongoing blockade of Iranian ports.
India has called on the US to cease attacks on Thursday, saying three Indian crew members were killed in one US strike on a vessel.
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