Guinness World Records has notified an Israeli nonprofit that it is refusing to review any new submissions from both Israel and the Palestinian territories, according to a Channel 12 report.
The revelation came after Matnat Chaim, an organization renowned for facilitating altruistic kidney donations, reached out to Guinness about a massive event it is preparing in Jerusalem. The group is working on assembling 2,000 kidney donors in a single location — a spectacle it hoped would earn recognition in the next edition of the record book.
What the organization expected to be a routine inquiry instead turned into a disappointment. As Channel 12 reported, officials at Guinness explained that they are currently declining entries from Israel as well as from Gaza and the West Bank, meaning the charity’s planned photo of the historic gathering would not even be considered.
Rachel Heber, who heads Matnat Chaim, expressed deep frustration over the decision. She told Channel 12, “Israel is leading the whole world in this wonderful revolution of mutual responsibility in altruistic kidney donations. The fact that Guinness refuses to include the Israeli achievement that astonished the entire medical world is unacceptable.”
{Matzav.com}Hillary Clinton used her appearance at the Yisroel Hayom Conference in New York to deliver a stark warning about Israel’s deteriorating image among young Americans. In her conversation with journalist Yoav Limor, she lamented, “Israel has the worst PR of any group I have ever known. The story that needed to be told is not being told effectively, and I think it is only getting worse now.”
Clinton explained that while teaching at Columbia University after October 7, she saw firsthand how students were absorbing wildly skewed narratives about the attacks. She said, “We saw an almost organized effort to turn what happened into something unrecognizable. We began to understand that our students smart, educated, young where are they getting their information? From social media, especially TikTok.” She cautioned that such unfiltered consumption of manipulated content is a threat to democratic discourse, “whether in Israel or in the United States.”
She argued that the problem transcends party alignment and stems instead from a generational shift in how people — particularly the young — consume information. Clinton pointed to extremist voices on the right as proof that this isn’t a partisan phenomenon, saying, “When you hear Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes speak, they are part of the right. This isn’t Democrats versus Republicans; it is a generational issue.” And she underscored the scale of the challenge: “More than 50% of young people in America get their news from social media. They see short videos, some of them completely fabricated, and that is where they get their information.”
To demonstrate how this online ecosystem shapes political outcomes, she referenced the rise of New York legislator Zohran Mamdani. “He was a social media candidate that is exactly my point. Young people were the engine, from every background and every ethnic origin, who connected to him. The social media campaign was extremely effective,” she said.
Still, Clinton indicated that Israel is not without opportunities. She pointed to the durability of the Abraham Accords as proof that regional cooperation remains viable. “When the Abraham Accords were signed, I publicly supported them immediately. Even after October 7, you did not see the signatories abandoning them and that is proof that there are more optimistic scenarios for Israel in the region,” she said, adding that “it is critical to keep Iran on the back foot and stop chasing a nuclear deal.”
Clinton concluded with a direct appeal to Israeli leadership to revamp its global messaging strategy. “You must engage in the narrative. You must do a better job telling Israel’s story not only looking inward, but outward, and especially toward the younger generation,” she insisted. She also urged more dialogue-focused gatherings, reflecting, “I hope there will be more events like this one bringing people together and engaging in dialogue. It is important not to dismiss anyone before we have a chance for a conversation.”
{Matzav.com}
The Trump administration will not allow Zohran Mamdani, the mayor-elect of New York City, to neglect Jews in the city, according to Leo Terrell, chair of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism.
“If this mayor turns his back on the Jewish American community, President Trump will take decisive action and the weight of the Department of Justice will be in New York City,” Terrell told JNS. “I can guarantee you of that.”
U.S. President Trump held a civil press conference with Mamdani, who has said he would have Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu arrested if the premier comes to the city, after the two met in the Oval Office. The president called the meeting “very productive” and joked about the mayor-elect considering him a fascist.
Terrell told JNS that there is an “ongoing investigation” about a chaotic, antisemitic protest outside a Nefesh B’Nefesh event at Park East Synagogue in Manhattan last month.
“We don’t trust the city of New York to do the right thing,” he said.
Terrell told JNS that he doesn’t think Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, will pursue charges against protesters who blocked the synagogue’s front entrance, barring congregants from safely accessing the building.
The Trump administration “will not allow Jewish Americans to be denied their right to practice their religion,” Terrell said.
The Justice Department official said that time will tell whether Mamdani, whose press secretary responded to the protest by stating that synagogues shouldn’t host events that violate international law, will change his behavior once he becomes mayor.
“I don’t think there is any prior indication that Mamdani is going to protect Jewish Americans,” he told JNS.
Terrell told JNS that Northwestern University’s $75 million settlement with the Trump administration over a probe that included alleged Jew-hatred was the result of a “full frontal attack” to eradicate antisemitism on campus.
“We’re expanding our efforts to K-12,” he said.
Some schools have been turning to courts to challenge the Trump administration’s efforts to freeze grant money and to push punishing settlements. Terrell said Trump has a high rate of success in the U.S. Supreme Court, even as some lower-level court decisions have gone against the administration.
“I can guarantee you that President Trump is going to pursue every avenue legally, and if it takes going to the Supreme Court, he will do it,” Terrell said. “That’s why these universities, before they get to the Supreme Court, many of them will try to resolve these cases.”
If anything, the Trump administration isn’t sufficiently aggressive, according to Terrell.
“These universities have been used to indoctrinate hate, and now they’re targeting K-12, and what I feel is that if there’s going to be a settlement, let’s make sure there’s safeguards in place where kids, students, faculty members and anyone of the Jewish religion are not to be intimidated or harassed,” he said.
The Trump administration began pursuing cases against Ivy League schools and large university systems, such as the University of California, to “provide a deterrent effect,” but it is well aware of problems at smaller and lesser-known schools.
“This phone never stops ringing, because there are problems all over,” Terrell said.
He added that his task force is working on a “50-state rapid response, to make sure we go where the problem is and not ignore any state, any city,”
“I will submit to you that a lot of local mayors, prosecutors, law enforcement agencies, they don’t even know how to address antisemitic behavior,” he said. “They don’t record it properly in their criminal reports.”
The task force, which Terrell said aims to set up “policies and doctrine” for the Justice Department but isn’t involved in litigation, is trying to codify policies on Jew-hatred so they will have a longer shelf-life than the executive orders the president signs. The panel is also meeting with members of Congress to discuss its projects.
“We want to make sure legislation is in place, to make sure not just Jewish Americans, but all Americans are protected in their protected class status and religious freedom,” he said. JNS
{Matzav.com}
President Donald Trump used an early morning post on Tuesday to urge Republican governors nationwide to shift their states toward paper-only voting, praising Texas counties that have already moved in that direction. “Great news! Dallas County, Texas, just went to all PAPER BALLOTS,” he wrote on Truth Social. “Many others are following suit! More accurate, totally secure with watermark paper, FASTER, and only 9% of the cost. All Republican Governors should mandatorily do this. Save Money and Freedom. Lead the Democrats out of their corrupt ways! President DJT.”
His comments come as Texas Republicans mount a broader effort to overhaul how primary elections are conducted. Because state law gives political parties control over their own primaries, GOP officials in several counties are attempting to move away from machine tabulation and instead count ballots by hand during next March’s elections.
The push has already taken hold in multiple parts of Texas. GOP leaders in Dallas, Hays, Eastland, and Gillespie counties have already adopted paper-only, hand-counting plans for the upcoming primary. Orange County Republicans approved a similar shift this past summer, signaling that the movement has been gaining momentum among local party activists.
While primary elections are generally managed by county election departments on behalf of both parties, some Republican officials are now opting to run their own precinct-level voting operations and discard scanning equipment on Election Day.
The Texas Tribune reports that election officials in Collin, Williamson, and Bastrop counties have begun modifying their systems and procedures as part of their compliance with a Trump executive order issued in March. That order sought to sharply curtail the use of voting machines that rely on barcodes or QR codes to expedite tabulation of paper ballots.
Across the country, many states already use paper ballots as the foundation of their election systems, whether hand-marked or produced through ballot-marking devices. But those ballots are typically fed into optical scanners, a method the National Conference of State Legislatures notes is still considered paper-based—though not strictly “paper-only”—because the actual counting is automated rather than manual.
{Matzav.com}
