Husband. Father. Chassidic Jew. Nurse practitioner. Healthcare researcher. Bagpiper. Member of the #JewishResistance.
Joined February 2011
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Thank you @DanRather. This is a moment for Jewish solidarity with Black voices, and the use of our privilege to protect Black protesters. It was our honor and duty to arrange it. @ker_a_velt #tahaluchaforsocialjustice
Especially for anyone who lived in New York 30 years ago, this is remarkable. It is to know hope and to have faith in the generations who will lead us into the future. Https://www.washingtonpost.c…
Ephraim retweeted
Jewish Democrats are hopeful today that with U.S. funding to Israel ending and AIPAC politically diminished and no longer funding candidates, the hatred will stop.
Here in Canada we have no AIPAC equivalent, and our funding to Israel is insignificant.
The hatred is worse.
Ephraim retweeted
So if Eisenkot's coalition doesn't join with Arab parties, they're racist?
One of the Arab parties is extremely anti-LGBTQ+. They refuse to condemn Hamas.
When you judge a party by what you see as its "race," instead of its stances, who is the racist one?
Ephraim retweeted
Jews leaving the Democratic Party are reacting not to criticism of Israel but to being told that our rights are subordinate. And maybe we’re acting like that because we have a lot of evidence that in the Democratic Party, today, the civil rights of Jews do not matter.
There was an immediate tension between the “free speech” rights of anti-Israel protesters and the civil rights of Jews, and choices needed to be made. And at every point the Denocratic Party prioritized the free speech rights of the protesters over the civil rights of Jews.
Democrats could have said that they were uncomfortable with the carnage in Gaza but really Jewish students at Columbia had nothing to do with all this and these college protests were getting out of hand and btw why were so many foreign students involved? But instead Democrats made the explicitly choice to frame the issue as one of free speech, and if that came at the cost of the civil rights of Jewish students, well, that was very unfortunate but there was nothing to be done.
Democrats could have said that they agreed that the situation in the West Bank was very bad but you cannot protest outside of a synagogue no matter how vehemently you disagree with what’s going on inside that synagogue, because that violates the civil rights of Jewish people. But instead it became a referendum of the free speech rights of the protesters, with no thought to the rights of the people trying to access their house of worship.
We’re leaving because we’re constantly being told that our rights do not matter. And if there’s one thing Jews have learned over the past 2000 years, it’s how to know when it’s time to leave.
Ephraim retweeted
This is like using your Juneteenth statement to talk about how much the Confederate South suffered, during the “War of Northern Aggression.”
It would be better to say nothing at all.
Ephraim retweeted
Hi Mehdi – good of you to unblock me on Twitter a month ago after blocking me 2 years ago for I don’t know what reason. If you recall, soon after dozens of my family members were killed in Gaza in Israeli airstrikes, I messaged you and asked for your help in elevating my voice and telling their story, but you ignored me completely. I see you’ve been talking to Peter Beinart, and I had wanted to respect that he reached out to me privately 2 days ago, but since he’s spilling the beans, I’ll take the liberty of telling you what I told him. I fail to understand why an anti-Zionist Jew, and in your case, an Indian-British man, see yourselves as the most suited arbiters or facilitators for such conversations.
I don't get the point of having a debate with other Palestinians with someone like yourself being a moderator. Why can’t you speak with me, and you’re welcome to speak with any of the others on your own time? I told your producer that I don’t want a debate, but rather a discussion and conversation, one that is elastic and doesn’t necessitate a “winner” and “loser,” but creates an opportunity for mutual learning and exploration. It seems that this has never been your interest, and your whole shtick is trying to ambush, dogpile, and play your clever, manipulative gymnastics to make a point, not make a difference.
The points of view that most of your supremely “representative” Palestinians guys want to yell and scream at me are staples in the "pro-Palestine" industrial complex, so ubiquitously stated and repeated as part of a stale and useless diet for all to feast on. Though I speak for myself, my perspectives are rarely heard even though they are so prevalent among so many Gazans, the majority of whom are singularly focused on Hamas and blame it for their misery, both contemporarily and historically. Therefore, I'm not interested in talking to your pals - what I would be interested in is having a 1-on-1 conversation with you about the New York Times article and other topics that we can raise relevant to Gaza’s conditions and pathway forward.
Please stop this elitist and horrifically pompous attitude that you, Peter Beinart, and countless others display as if you are the “truth tellers” when it comes to Israel and Palestine or as if you can proclaim who is a real or authentic Palestinian. Palestinians and their views/opinions are so deeply divided between Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, inside Israel, Arab & Muslim countries, and the Western world. The few Palestinians that you and Beinart love to salivate over are ultimately an irrelevant drop in the ocean.
If you want to kill a civilization, Mehdi, keep suppressing opposition and dissent like you’re doing – seemingly to gather likes and shares on social media. I hope you’ll change course.
Hi Ahmed, if you're such a representative and authentic voice of Gaza, why have you repeatedly turned down opportunities to debate your views, and your op-ed, on camera, with multiple other Palestinian activists and journalists from Gaza, including Christian Palestinians who hate Hamas? What are you afraid of?
(I think we all know...)
Ephraim retweeted
Dear @AOC
Enough. The NDAA does not merge any part of our military with the IDF. A defense cooperation statute is not a threat to sovereignty, and a provision that survived committees and a floor fight is not a threat to democracy just because you don't like it.
Let me explain:
Ephraim retweeted
Israeli news reported something tonight that almost no one is covering in English:
Iranian authorities recently arrested several members of Iran’s Jewish community. Their offense? Criticizing the Iranian regime.
5 Jews are now sitting in Iranian prisons on various charges. And the country working behind the scenes to free them, according to sources involved in the effort, is Qatar.
This comes days after Iran released Dena Karari, an American held since December 2024. President Trump thanked Tehran for the gesture. Behind that release, and now behind the effort to free these Iranian Jews, sits Qatar.
Every release is a billboard that reads “Doha delivers.” But remember: Qatar isn’t doing any of it out of love for Jews.
It is positioning itself, the country that funded Hamas, as the only mediator America can trust in the region.
Ephraim retweeted
To all Western media, including pro-Palestine outlets: right now, thousands of Palestinian civilians are taking part in massive anti-Hamas protests across the Gaza Strip.
Stand with them. Carry their voices. Don't abandon them.
Ephraim retweeted
Brad Lander is not a Kapo. He's not even a bad person. In fact, he's trying to be a good Jew.
The problem is that he was robbed of an authentic Jewish education. He was raised to believe bagels, Seinfeld, chinese food on the 25th and liberalism are the sum total of Jewishness.
He wants to be a good person. He wants to be a good Jew. He wants to make his bubbe and zayde proud. I can guarantee you that he's not sitting around thinking 'How can I betray my people? How can I work against Jews, Torah, and Judaism?' He genuinely is trying to live up to his perception of what being a Jew and Jewishness means.
The issue is he was robbed of most of the tools that would have helped him do these things the Jewish way.
Don't blame Brad Lander. Blame the American Jewish establishment who decided that funding museums, galas, and Upper East Side cultural events was good enough to ensure Jewish continuity instead of trying to give each and every Jewish child a Jewish education.
He's a symptom, not the disease.
Ephraim retweeted
As a liberal progressive, I would be fine with the party moving left if these wins were about Medicare for all, reproductive rights, universal childcare, taxing billionaires, and creating affordable housing, But they weren’t.
.@NYCMayor shares embrace with an emotional @EmilyAssembly, while the crowd chants “Free Free Palestine”
Ephraim retweeted
A growing number of Gaza’s so‑called “journalists” (quite a few of whom are in fact militants with extensive evidence tying them to armed groups), “activists,” and online humanitarians are finally revealing the extent of their fraudulent work and corrupt narratives. As Gazans grow fed up with Hamas and push for the June 26 protests demanding an end to its rule, these same personalities are now inciting against ordinary Palestinians who want change.
The very people who had cameras ready for every Israeli strike, who filled Western feeds with dramatic footage and fiery commentary, are now silent at best – and at worst, demonizing and inciting against the fellow Gazans they once claimed to champion. The “pro‑Palestine” movement in the West, which uncritically elevated these figures as authentic voices, is watching its heroes parrot Hamas’s talking points: branding promoters of the protests as spies, collaborators, traitors, and agents of chaos.
For years, these Gaza‑based “influencers” pushed the “resistance” narrative to Western audiences because that’s what was in demand, while refusing to acknowledge Hamas’s abuses: aid theft, beatings, shootings, thuggery, hiding in hospitals, fighting from civilian areas. They said nothing against the terror group even as Gazans themselves took immense risks to speak out. Meanwhile, many of these same personalities leveraged the suffering of their own people to build brands, raise millions, launch businesses, steal donations, and in some cases leave Gaza for new lives abroad – all while opposing that very option for other Gazans to supposedly prevent ethnic cleansing.
These are the fraudulent “heroes” so many believed without question. Whether or not the June 26th protests are successful is irrelevant – pay close attention to those who support Gazans’ freedom from Hamas and those who oppose it.
Ephraim retweeted
At long last, the UN Human Rights Council has formally acknowledged that Hamas in Gaza carried out executions, torture, improperly used medical facilities for terror purposes, and engaged in violent abuses against women and children after October 7. The report captures only a fraction of what actually occurred, in part because documenting these crimes is extraordinarily difficult and because Gazans fear retaliation if they report anything to the UN or other investigators. The findings on Hamas were buried beneath a long section on Israeli settler abuses in the West Bank, but even so, this marks a significant shift for an international body that has long struggled to speak plainly about Hamas’s brutality in Gaza.
Most importantly, the report acknowledges but barely scratches the surface of how extensively Hamas has weaponized Gaza’s medical infrastructure, embedding fighters in hospitals, using patients as shields, and turning civilian facilities into operational hubs. The UN even notes that Doctors Without Borders evacuated non-essential staff from Nasser Hospital because Hamas was interfering with the hospital’s operations.
When I shared this information, including testimonies from Gazans who documented Hamas’s fascistic behavior inside hospitals, and photos of fighters emerging from Nasser Hospital after the ceasefire, the online “pro-Palestine” chorus had nothing to offer except accusations of Zionist collaboration, accusations of betrayal, and personal insults. This UN report is an indictment not only of Hamas, a violent extremist terror organization responsible for immense suffering, but also of every activist, journalist, and academic who chose to look away. It shows that Hamas’s crimes were so egregious, so undeniable, that even a slow, hesitant, and often ineffectual body like the UNHRC could no longer pretend not to see them.
Shame on anyone who still defends Hamas or ever believed its violence constituted “resistance” on behalf of the Palestinian people.
Ephraim retweeted
“Key Nazi officials”
Hasan Piker accidentally destroyed his own depraved argument that Hamas’s October 7th massacre was comparable to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
In Warsaw, Jewish rebels targeted the Nazi soldiers who were liquidating the ghetto and sending its inhabitants to extermination camps.
The Nazis indiscriminately targeted the Jewish civilians, including women and children.
If anything, Hamas, who on October 7th went from house to house murdering and raping innocent Jews, closely paralleled the actions of the Nazis.
He’s so close to getting it…
Ephraim retweeted
You can disagree with AIPAC and the policies it supports or oppose the presence of money in politics completely. But claiming that American officials who receive support from an American organization composed of Americans citizens are "bought and paid for by Benjamin Netanyahu" invokes classic antisemitic rhetoric.
Such accusations call up the age-old dual loyalty trope that casts Jewish Americans as more loyal to Israel than their own country. This hateful undermines their civic credibility and marginalizes their voices in public life.
Ephraim retweeted
Given Mayor Mamdani's contribution to the revisionist history that has replaced serious discussion of the Nakba - the catastrophe in which 700,000 Palestinian Arabs became refugees - here's a mini history lesson on how that catastrophe unfolded. A 🧵
Ephraim retweeted
I have largely remained silent in public since January 1 because I believe criticism should be constructive and focused. But this post about the Nakba is deeply disturbing, not only because of its one sided and dishonest characterization of history, but also because it attempts to delegitimize Israel as a state even before 1967.
You cannot have it both ways. You cannot argue that the “settlements”, which began after 1967 following Israel’s victory in a war against neighboring states, are the root cause of the conflict, condemn them relentlessly, and justify marches through Jewish neighborhoods in New York over so called “illegal” land sales in the West Bank, while simultaneously condemning the very founding of the State of Israel itself through a one sided narrative built on distortion and falsehoods.
It is also worth noting that while thousands of Arabs lived within Israel between 1948 and 1967, Jews were expelled from areas captured by invading Arab armies from neighboring countries. Those expelled included Jews whose families had legally owned and purchased land for hundreds of years.
Take, for example, the Tzemach synagogue in Jerusalem. In 1847, more than a hundred years earlier, followers of Chabad Lubavitch established and purchased the synagogue in Jerusalem’s Old City. During the 1948 war, the Old City fell under Jordanian control. The Jewish population was expelled, and Jews were denied access to Jerusalem, including the Tzemach Tzedek synagogue.
I really do not want to get too deep into the history because that is not my main point here. There can be disagreements and different perspectives about what happened and to whom, but the focus should be on achieving a long term peace in Israel and the region.
The tweet’s one sided narrative deepens division instead of advancing peace, coexistence, and understanding, and it should never have been posted by the mayor of New York City.
Today marks Nakba Day, an annual day of remembrance to commemorate the expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians between 1947 and 1949 during the creation of the State of Israel and the year that followed.
Inea is a New Yorker and a Nakba survivor. She shared her story with us — one of home, tradition and memory over generations.
Ephraim retweeted
I'm a middle eastern historian. My own family were made refugees. And this is my honest view of the Nakba (“catastrophe”) - the displacement of around 700,000 Palestinian Arabs during the 1947–49 war surrounding the creation of Israel.
A thread. 🧵
Ephraim retweeted
Much has been written about @NickKristof's latest NYT opinion column over the past 24 hours, most of it focusing on the specific claims and their sourcing, but what I think deserves most attention is something broader: how this kind of journalism, whatever its intentions, ultimately makes accountability harder to achieve rather than easier, and harms the very people it claims to champion.
The principle that Israeli abuses should be investigated and condemned is not in dispute, and nobody serious is arguing otherwise. Israel is not above scrutiny, and in fact it operates under more intense international scrutiny than almost any country on earth, routinely held to standards applied nowhere else.
The problem here is something different entirely: the complete collapse of evidentiary standards the moment Israel is the subject.
This piece reads less like rigorous reporting and more like a catalogue of hearsay, unverifiable allegations, and activist claims stitched together into a sweeping moral indictment. Its sourcing leans heavily on Euro Med Human Rights Monitor, an organisation repeatedly criticised over extremist ties, disinformation, and deeply questionable methodology, yet treated throughout as a credible authority while its leadership openly engages in pro Hamas propaganda on X.
Worse, the same ecosystem of activists and self appointed “experts” that amplifies Euro Med’s claims online increasingly feeds narratives into more established organisations and media outlets, laundering deeply contested allegations into the appearance of institutional credibility.
The most severe claims are anonymous, uncorroborated, and presented in the emotional register of established fact rather than allegation, despite lacking meaningful evidentiary backing. Yet Kristof largely adopts them without serious scrutiny, publishing the piece in the Opinion section because even the already diminished evidentiary standards often applied to reporting on the Israeli Palestinian conflict would likely not suffice for it to pass as straight news reporting.
This approach doesn't strengthen accountability, it actively destroys it. When every allegation is immediately inflated into systematic rape and "standard operating procedure" before any serious verification, genuine investigation becomes harder rather than easier.
Real abuses, if they occurred, get buried beneath maximalist narratives so extreme that large portions of the public simply stop trusting any of it, and the people who actually suffered pay that price.
It also alienates the vast majority of Israelis and Jews worldwide, including the many who are perfectly capable of criticising Israeli policy and supporting investigations into misconduct, but who understandably recoil when accusations begin resembling modernised blood libels dressed up as human rights reporting. The framing matters enormously, and so does proportionality, and so does evidence.
Nor does any of this serve Palestinians. Atrocity inflation entrenches both sides deeper into defensive tribalism, and every dubious claim amplified by a prestigious outlet makes legitimate criticism easier to dismiss when it actually matters.
The timing compounds everything. On a day when documented reporting on Hamas sexual violence was again circulating, the NYT chose to run an opinion column built substantially on unverifiable anonymous testimony asserting that Israelis are conducting systemic rape campaigns, not as a rigorously evidenced investigative report but as an opinion piece with the imprimatur of the paper of record.
Kristof is not a naive bystander in any of this. In 2014 he used the full credibility of the NYT to repeatedly platform Somaly Mam, a Cambodian anti-trafficking activist whose harrowing personal story he championed across multiple columns, until it emerged that her backstory was substantially fabricated and he was forced to issue a public correction. When challenged this time around on his sourcing, corroboration, and methodology, he defaulted to bad faith engagement on social media rather than addressing the underlying concerns seriously.
It is the same pattern, playing out again in a different context. Real journalism requires skepticism, corroboration, and restraint applied consistently regardless of the subject, and when those standards disappear the moment Israel is involved, what remains is not human rights reporting but narrative activism wearing a journalist's costume that does far more harm than good to everyone it claims to serve.