Eye on Extremism: June 3, 2026
Top Stories
Ceasefires have been announced, often to great fanfare, in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran. So why is there still so much fighting? In just the last few weeks, Israeli forces have captured more territory in Gaza and killed two top Hamas militants there, as well as more than a dozen other people. In Lebanon, Israeli troops captured a Crusader fortress over the weekend in their deepest incursion in 26 years, as Hezbollah kept up rocket fire into northern Israel.
Jewish Insider: Gottheimer: Emirati officials alarmed by rising antisemitism in U.S.
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) revealed on Tuesday that senior Emirati leaders expressed concern to him about rising antisemitism in the United States during his trip to the United Arab Emirates last week. Gottheimer made the comments while appearing alongside Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) at the American Jewish Committee’s Global Forum in Washington, where the two delivered remarks to the crowd about their work combating antisemitism.
CEP Mentions
Iran expert Hans-Jakob Schindler says, “As long as the oppressive apparatus within Iran is still loyal and functioning the regime can just about keep power - but only through the absolute repression of its own people.”
NTV: Shipping companies make demands regarding agreements in the Iran war
Iran expert Hans-Jakob Schindler speaks on the situation concerning the war against Iran.
Analysis
Iran International: Lebanon becomes a test of Trump's Iran diplomacy
By suspending talks with Washington over Israel's campaign in Lebanon, Tehran has raised the stakes of postwar diplomacy and posed a critical question: is it successfully increasing its leverage, or overplaying its hand? President Donald Trump announced Monday that Israel and Hezbollah had agreed to halt attacks following a flurry of calls with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and intermediaries linked to the Iranian-backed group.
United States
Reuters: US sanctions Iran's largest crypto exchange over IRGC links
The United States announced sanctions on Iran’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange on Tuesday, accusing it of enabling the Iranian government and blacklisted state institutions to circumvent Western sanctions.
USA Today: Exclusive leaked documents expose growing white supremacist group
One of the nation’s largest white supremacist groups is rapidly expanding, adding hundreds of members across 49 states in the past two years. Internal documents leaked to USA TODAY show a coordinated recruitment push fueled by step-by-step manuals and a network of fight clubs where members meet and sign up new recruits.
The Guardian: Pentagon appoints convicted January 6 rioter to sensitive counter-terrorism role
The Pentagon has appointed a rioter convicted for his role in 6 January, 2021 insurrection to a sensitive national security role dealing with counterterrorism, overriding insiders’ concerns about his past record.
Fox News: AOC-backed Democrat with past ties to al Qaeda-linked group wins NJ House primary
A pro-Palestinian plastic surgeon in New Jersey who testified as a witness in a major terrorism case on behalf of a convicted Islamic cleric won election in the New Jersey primary.
Iran International: Alleged mastermind of London attacks met Khamenei before war, indictment says
An Iraqi-Iranian man indicted over nearly 20 attacks and attempted attacks in Europe and the United States told FBI agents he met Ali Khamenei in Iran three days before the war began and the supreme leader was killed, according to US court documents.
When Columbia University reached a settlement with the Trump administration last year, the deal included a $21m fund to compensate Jewish employees for an allegedly hostile work environment due to heated protests against Israel’s war in Gaza.
Boulder firebomb terrorist Mohamed Sabry Soliman and the murder of an Israeli hostage advocate were praised by a Colorado anti-Israel student group on the anniversary of the attack. Boulder Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Leeds group Direct Confrontation Media published a now-deleted statement of solidarity with Soliman on Monday, who threw two Molotov cocktails at participants of a Run for Your Lives rally for the release of October 7 Massacre hostages in 2025, burning 29 people and inflicting fatal wounds on 82-year-old Karen Diamond.
Canada
In response to rising antisemitism in Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a new racism advisory board on Monday and tasked it with assessing antisemitism in the country.
The chief of cardiac surgery at the Jewish General Hospital has tendered his resignation and plans to move to Atlanta in September, citing rising antisemitism in Montreal and worsening problems with the province’s health-care system, The Gazette can reveal.
Prime Minister Mark Carney stood before Jewish leaders on Monday night and said Canada is failing its Jewish community, while announcing a new federal advisory council on antisemitism and hate.
Five people were arrested and charged on Sunday with promotion and incitement of hatred for displaying or distributing antisemitic signs at a March protest in a Toronto Jewish neighborhood, the Toronto Police Service announced on Monday, almost a month after another man had been arrested for his involvement in the same incident.
CBC: Waterdown Islamic School bus vandalized, damaged with hateful graffiti
A school bus used by an Islamic school in Hamilton's Waterdown area was targeted in an act of vandalism that included hateful graffiti, slashed bus seats and a damaged dashboard, according to a representative from the school. A worker went to check the bus on Sunday night and discovered the damage, said a statement on behalf of the school.
European Union
Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister accused the European Union of weaponizing a "socially acceptable mask" of anti-Zionism to target Israel— after it sanctioned Israeli civil society groups that oppose a Palestinian state. It also sanctioned several individuals. "We are witnessing a deeply troubling trend where traditional antisemitism has simply put on a new, socially acceptable mask: anti-Zionism," Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel told Fox News Digital. "Where prejudice once targeted the individual Jew, it is now directed at the collective Jewish state and our fundamental right to live in our ancestral homeland. But make no mistake, the political targeting of Israel always bleeds into an assault on Jewish life itself," Haskel added.
United Kingdom
A Norwegian teenager travelled to Britain to carry out a murder in return for money, having been recruited by a Swedish organised crime group used by the Iranian government, British prosecutors told a London court on Wednesday.
An arsonist allegedly set fire to a predominantly Jewish apartment building in north London’s Golders Green neighborhood early Tuesday morning, in what is believed to be the latest in a string of incidents targeting the city’s Jewish community.
Jerusalem Post: British anti-Israel groups call to screen IDF veterans at UK border
British anti-Israel organizations launched a petition and campaign to investigate IDF veterans with British citizenship and screen them at the border, according to the Declassified UK website.
West Bridgford Wire: Hundreds of far-right linked stickers removed across West Bridgford
Hundreds of stickers linked to a far-right extremist network have been removed after appearing across West Bridgford. Rushcliffe Borough Council said it acted after reports from local ward councillors and residents about stickers placed in public areas. The stickers were reported to be linked to Active Club England, described by Rushcliffe MP James Naish as “a far-right extremist network”.
Middle East
United Nations Assistant Secretary-General Martha Pobee told an emergency meeting of the Security Council on Monday that Israel’s push into Lebanon violates Lebanon’s territorial integrity and the 2006 council resolution requiring Israel to withdraw south of the UN-drawn border with Lebanon.
Gaza Strip/West Bank
Times of Israel: Police arrest settler teen suspected of clubbing dog during West Bank raid
Police on Wednesday arrested a teenage boy suspected of repeatedly clubbing a guard dog during a settler raid on the Palestinian village of Atara, near Ramallah, last month.
Iran
Jerusalem Post: Iran's Quds Force chief Qaani warns US, Israel against escalation in Gaza, Lebanon
The mysterious leader of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force has issued a new warning to the US and Israel. According to Iran’s IRNA state media, Brigadier-General Esmaeil Qaani “has warned the United States and Israel against further military escalation in Gaza and Lebanon, saying that new fronts could open and maritime traffic in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait could mirror the situation in the Strait of Hormuz.”
Iraq
Two of Iraq’s most powerful Iran-backed militias said on Tuesday they would begin handing in their weapons to the authorities, a major step in the new government’s effort to rein in militias that have long operated on their own even though they were nominally under state command.
The New Region: PMF kills suspected ISIS leader in Nineveh province
Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) on Wednesday announced killing an alleged leader of the Islamic State (ISIS) and two other members of the group in Nineveh. On Wednesday, a force within the PMF’s Nineveh Operations Command killed “a prominent leader of the remnants of the ISIS terrorist group, one of three terrorists killed earlier by the force in the Baaj desert,” according to a statement.
Israel
Israel and Lebanon were set to hold a fresh round of talks on Tuesday, as Hezbollah continued to target Israeli troops in Lebanon and fresh IDF strikes were reported, despite indications from US President Donald Trump that Washington had brokered a truce between Israel and the Iran-backed terror group.
The IDF killed a Hamas terrorist on Monday who participated in the kidnappings of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eliya Cohen, Alon Ohel, and Or Levy during the October 7 massacre.
AFP: Israel army says intercepts 2 projectiles, 'hostile aircraft' from Lebanon
The Israeli military said it intercepted two projectiles that crossed into Israeli territory from Lebanon on Wednesday, after earlier announcing the interception of a "hostile aircraft" that had also crossed into Israel. "Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in the area of Misgav Am, the Israeli Air Force intercepted two projectiles that crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory," the military said, referring to a community on the northern border.
Lebanon
The United Nations chief has proposed three options to help end the decades-old conflict between Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah militants and Israel when the 8,100-member U.N. peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon ends on Dec. 31.
Naharnet: Lebanese official says phased ceasefire expected from today's talks
A Lebanese official confirmed to Al-Jazeera on Wednesday that Lebanese-Israsli discussions in the Washington round of negotiations are progressing well and that there is "U.S. understanding of the Lebanese approach." The source added that the Lebanese delegation is pushing for a comprehensive solution that addresses both the Israeli withdrawal and the extension of state authority in parallel.
Naharnet: Israel orders Tyre Christian neighborhood to expel Hezbollah or face evacuation
Israel warned overnight the Christian neighborhoods in the coastal city of Tyre that Hezbollah members are among them. Many Lebanese Shiite Muslims fled to those areas in recent days because they were spared from the aerial bombardment along the Mediterranean coast.
Nigeria
Reuters: Nigerian court sentences four to death over 2022 Owo Catholic church attack
A Nigerian court has sentenced four men to death by hanging after convicting them over a 2022 attack on a Catholic church in Owo, in southwestern Ondo state, that killed dozens, a judge said on Wednesday. The ruling will be seen as a test of Nigeria’s ability to successfully prosecute terrorism cases, as the country grapples with insurgencies and widespread insecurity.
Australia
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Neo-Nazi leader Thomas Sewell covertly broadcasting hate on Instagram from Melbourne acreage
Neo-Nazi leader and convicted criminal Thomas Sewell is covertly broadcasting hateful views on Instagram weeks after his organisation the National Socialist Network (NSN) was formally listed as a hate group by the government.
New Daily: Neo-Nazi sledged as ‘scum’ in fiery court confrontation
A routine court appearance has turned into an explosive exit for a prominent white nationalist as he walked through a crowd of pro-Palestine protesters. Joel Davis, 31, managed a wry grin as he was confronted by incensed protesters on his way out of Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court on Wednesday.
The Age: Rich mates, secret mansions: Australia’s millionaire Nazi-backers revealed
Wealthy backers are helping Australia’s neo-Nazis plot their next move into politics from a secret multi-million dollar compound. We tracked it down - along with Thomas Sewell’s rich mates.
AAP: Man in Nazi shirt said he's 'better than Bondi fellow'
A man who turned up outside the Royal Commission into Anti-Semitism and Social Cohesion wearing a T-shirt with Nazi imagery allegedly justified it as better than the Bondi terrorist attack. Ian Minus, 68, pleaded guilty in Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court on Wednesday to knowingly displaying a Nazi symbol without a reasonable excuse when he wore a shirt with a swastika to where Jewish witnesses were giving evidence in the royal commission. The offence carries a maximum penalty of 12 months in prison or an $11,000 fine.
Sydney Morning Herald: Neo-Nazi accused of booing during ANZAC Day dawn service fronts court
A neo-Nazi has made an apology in court after booing during the Welcome to Country at an Anzac Day dawn service.
Muslim Network TV: Ex-adviser sees echoes of 2017 in Australia’s current Islamophobia debate
The recent debate surrounding Australia’s Islamophobia envoy struck a deeply personal chord with one former multicultural policy adviser, who says the frustrations expressed by Muslim communities echoed concerns he had encountered nearly a decade earlier.
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