By Donald H. Harrison in San Diego
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INTERNATIONAL
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters that the alleged shooters in the Bondi Beach massacre, Sajid Akram and his son Naveed, had traveled to the southern Philippines earlier this year where the ISIS terrorist organization has a strong presence. Sajid was killed by police during the Dec. 14 Chanukah massacre. Naveed, wounded and emerging from a two-day coma, was interviewed in the hospital by police and formally charged with 15 counts of murder. CORRECTION: Sajeed, a Muslim, was a native of India, not Pakistan as was previously reported.
The Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) reported on Wednesday that it and the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism sent a team that arrived in Sydney on Tuesday that included “Israeli experts in trauma response, mass-casualty events, and community recovery, with extensive experience supporting communities following extreme incidents and in developing long-term resilience strategies. Members include Prof. Moshe Farchi, a world-renowned trauma expert and developer of the Six Cs Model for Psychological First Aid; Ayelet Shmuel, Director of the International Resilience Center in Sderot; along with additional specialists from the International Center for Functional Resilience, the Israel Trauma Coalition, and One Family. Led by Sara Ribner-Grabin, The Jewish Agency’s representative in Australia and New Zealand, the delegation is working closely with local Jewish leadership and emergency authorities to assess immediate needs and coordinate professional responses.
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog in a telephone call on Wednesday with Pope Leo XIV discussed the “alarming rise in global antisemitism, including the devastating terror attack against the Jewish community in Sydney, and the urgent need to combat all forms of this hatred.” Herzog also said he extended best wishes for the upcoming Christmas holiday, according to Haaretz.
In the wake of the Bondi Beach massacre, New York’s Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani visited the Ohel, the burial place of Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson and his predecessor as leader of the Chabad movement, Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, his father-in-law. According to Chabad, the site draws a million visitors per year, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports.
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U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) and Democratic Sens. Adam Schiff of California, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, and Jacky Rosen of Nevada are pressing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to release the video of a second strike on a suspected drug-running boat Sept. 2 that killed two survivors of the first strike. Schumer said “If they (Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio) can’t be transparent on this, how can you trust their transparency on all the other issues swirling about in the Caribbean. Every Senator is entitled to see it.” Schiff commented: “I think the American people should see this video and all members of Congress should have that opportunity. I certainly want it for myself.” Blumenthal said to the press, “I think they would be shocked, sickened, even ashamed by this second video. And there is no justification for withholding this second video when the other videos have already been shown.” Rosen said “Every person in this country needs to at least be sure that every member of Congress sees this video. It is up to us [Congress] to declare war. It is up to us to see that they’re withholding this video, #1 is particularly distressing; #2 why do they release some videos and not this video?”
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NATIONAL
U.S. President Donald Trump, speaking at a White House menorah lighting ceremony on Tuesday, said Congress is becoming antisemitic and that Israel and the “Jewish lobby” exert less influence than previously. Newspaper publisher, hotel and Dallas Mavericks owner Miriam Adelson, the widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, offered $250 million to fund a campaign for Trump to serve a third term, which legal scholars say is prohibited by the U.S. Constitution. On the other hand, attorney Alan Dershowitz says a way may be found.
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Shira Gvili was the featured speaker at a Hanukkah party sponsored by Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Florida). Shira is the sister of Ran Gvili, whose body has yet to be returned to Israel by Hamas. About her brother, who died in the massacre of Oct. 7, 2023, Shira said “Ran is not only my hero, he is our hero. For everyone lighting a candle tonight, may the glow of the menorah [brighten] the darkened moments. May the glow of the menorah’s light bring Ran home tonight,” Jewish Insider reported.
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Congresswoman Laura Friedman (D-California), who represents the Hollywood area, contrasted President Donald Trump with the late Rob Reiner. Friedman, a former film and television producer, told CalMatters that Trump has a “unique ability to divide Americans and make people angry.” Reiner, on the other hand used humor to “bring us together … and do it in a way that was somehow gentle and loving at the same time.”
Alleged murderer Nick Reiner hired attorney Alan Jackson to represent him. The pair made a brief court appearance on Wednesday, waiving Reiner’s right to a speedy arraignment on charges he stabbed to death his father, actor and director Rob Reiner and photographer mother Michele Singer Reiner. The arraignment was postponed until January 7th. Meanwhile Nick’s siblings, Jake Reiner and Romy Reiner, issued this statement: “We are grateful for the outpouring of condolences, kindness, and support we have received not only from family and friends but people from all walks of life. We now ask for respect and privacy, for speculation to be tempered with compassion and humanity, and for our parents to be remembered for the incredible lives they lived and the love they gave.”
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Madison Mounty, the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s government relations director, called on Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani and the New York Police Department to deal seriously with the antisemitic harassment of Chabad students on their way home from a Chanukah celebration. She said: “When hatred surfaces here, it is not just an affront to Jews but a threat to the city’s promise of belonging. Solidarity means more than words: it means refusing to let the old script play out again.”
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U.S. Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-California, has introduced the IVF for Military Families Act. She said in a press release that fertility treatments for military families had been included in this year’s National Defense Authorization Act but then House Speaker Mike Johnson removed the IVF provision — “a disgrace and complete betrayal of military families and service members who just want to build a family.”
STATE & LOCAL
There was a follow-up ceremony this week on a memorandum of understanding signed by Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin and Mexico’s Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources to fix the problem of Tijuana’s sewage overflowing into southern San Diego County once and for all. As reported in Wednesday’s San Diego Union-Tribune, Mexico will construct a sediment basin in Madero Canyon (aka Smuggler’s Gulch); the state of Baja California will construct the Tecolote-La Gloria Wastewater Plant; and a binational working group will assess the feasibility of expanding the capacity of the San Antonio de Los Buenos Wastewater Treatment Plant from 18.26 million gallons per day to 43.7 million gallons.
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The San Diego City Council approved by 7-1 votes community update plans for the San Diego State College Area and the Clairemont area envisioning a build out of thousands more housing units over a 30-year time period. Coincidentally, the two Jewish members of the 9-member City Council – Sean Elo-Rivera and Jennifer Campbell – represent the College area and Clairemont area respectively. Both Councilmembers voted in the majority. Elo-Rivera responded to College area residents who said the area lacks sufficient infrastructure now, much less with the planned development. He said he would work with Mayor Todd Gloria to solve that problem. He added: “It is just so unlikely to have a full community agree on the specifics of any plan.” Campbell said the “uniqueness of Clairemont,” under this plan, will be unspoiled by the called-for new construction.
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Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World