Eye on Extremism: May 18, 2026
Top Stories
Reuters: ISIS second-in-command Abu-Bilal al-Minuki killed by US and Nigerian forces, presidents say
Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, the second in command of ISIS globally, has been killed in an operation conducted by U.S. and Nigerian forces in the northeast of the African country, U.S. President Donald Trump and his counterpart in Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, said. Trump announced the strike in a Truth Social post late on Friday in the UnitedStates, with Tinubu on Saturday describing it as a "significant example of effective collaboration in the fight against terrorism".
Axios: Jewish lawmakers face an explosion of antisemitism
Antisemitism is so resurgent in U.S. politics that some of the worst hate speech you've ever heard has become a part of day-to-day life for Jewish politicians.
CEP Mentions
Wall Street Journal: U.S., Nigerian Forces Kill Top Islamic State Leader
“Africa is the most important area of operations for Islamic State,” said Hans-Jakob Schindler, the former coordinator of the U.N. Security Council’s panel on Islamic State and al Qaeda. But Nigeria is a particular focus because it involves violence against Christians that resonates with Trump’s political base, Schindler said.
Deutschlandfunk: The question of repatriation from abroad remains unresolved.
Sofia Koller talks about German IS affiliates remaining detained abroad in Syria and Iraq.
The National: How a neo-Nazi fight club is increasingly targeting young Scots
Alexander Ritzmann, a researcher with international organisation The Counter Extremism Project, has recently written a report detailing how Active Club chapters are ramping up efforts to recruit young people.
Analysis
The arrest by US authorities of an alleged Iraqi commander of an Iranian-backed militia group now accused of responsibility for 18 terrorist attacks in the UK, Europe and Canada since the beginning of the Iran war is an astonishing development – yet not the least bit surprising.
United States
CNN: Congressman shares voicemails with antisemitic threats
Jewish member of Congress Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) joined CNN's Sara Sidner to share antisemitic voicemails of death threats he says have been coming into his office and to talk about the impact it's having on him and his family.
Several masked demonstrators carried Hamas flags at an anti-Israel protest in Manhattan on Friday, while a Hezbollah flag waved above the crowd, hours after federal authorities charged an alleged Kataib Hezbollah operative of plotting attacks on Jewish community centers and a Manhattan synagogue.
CBS News: Around 100 antisemitic pamphlets found in Berkley; investigation underway
Officials in Berkley, Michigan, are investigating after around 100 pamphlets with antisemitic content were found in the area on Saturday, according to the city's Department of Public Safety.
Jewish Insider: Jewish leaders blast Mamdani’s ‘one-sided and dishonest’ Nakba video
Shortly before the start of Shabbat on Friday — and days ahead of a Shavuot event at Gracie Mansion — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani posted a video for “Nakba Day” that sparked a wave of outrage among Jewish leaders for its failure to acknowledge crucial facts surrounding the birth of the State of Israel.
New York state Assemblymember Claire Valdez, a far-left Democrat now campaigning to fill an open House seat covering parts of Brooklyn and Queens, sat for a friendly interview released on Friday with a Twitch streamer who was once suspended from the platform for calling Jews a “demonic ethnicity.”
Harvard Magazine: Harvard Holds a Symposium on Antisemitism and Universities
“I was raised with two stories about Harvard, both of which I believe to be true,” said Porter University Professor Noah Feldman on Thursday morning, at the start of an all-day symposium on antisemitism and universities at Harvard’s Rubenstein Treehouse conference center in Allston. One, Feldman explained, was that Harvard was a place where antisemitism had “played a meaningful role,” including during former President A. Lawrence Lowell’s efforts in the 1920s to limit the number of Jews on campus.
Canada
Jerusalem Post: October 7 Massacre conference to be held in Toronto by branch of banned terror group
A pro-October 7 massacre conference is set to be held in Toronto in November, according to the Masar Badil Movement Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement Instagram account, hosted by a branch of an organization banned by Canada for being a terrorist group’s front.
France
New York Times: A French Soccer Star Faces Off Against a Surging Foe: The Far Right
Kylian Mbappé, the French soccer superstar, has never made a secret of his distaste for the far right. His latest warnings about its rise in France, a month before he is set to lead the men’s national team in the World Cup, have thrust him back into the treacherous scrum of sports and politics.
Politico: Edouard Philippe tilts right to combat far right in French presidential race
Former French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe believes it’s France’s mainstream conservative voters who will propel him to the presidency in a showdown with the far right next year. Philippe, a one-time ally of centrist President Emmanuel Macron, held onto his job as mayor of the gritty Normandy port city of Le Havre in a tight municipal election in March, when he defeated a strong challenge from the Communists.
Germany
JTA: German court allows anti-Israel encampment in Hamburg park where Nazis deported Jews
Activists in Hamburg are commemorating the displacement of Palestinians this week in a park where Jews were deported during World War II, following a legal fight that ended in their favor. A German court allowed the “Bridges of Resistance” encampment to be set up from May 9 until Saturday in Moorweide, a public park where, according to the Hamburg Memorials Foundation, the Nazis rounded up more than 1,000 local Jews for deportation to the Łódź ghetto in October 1941.
Germany's intelligence service refers to the image of a watermelon slice as one of the identifying symbols of secular pro-Palestinian antisemitism and extremism. This appears as part of a new webpage on the website for Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (the BfV) called 'Secular pro-Palestinian extremism.'
Italy
Reuters: Modena car-ramming suspect not linked to terror groups, Italian minister says
A man who drove a car into a crowd in the northern Italian city of Modena on Saturday, injuring eight people, four of them seriously, appears to have no links to any terrorist groups, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said in a newspaper interview on Monday.
Spain
Spain’s conservative People’s party (PP) won Sunday’s Andalucían regional election, but lost its absolute majority, leaving it dependent on the support or abstention of the far-right Vox party to form a new government.
A YOUNG Islamic convert described by police as ‘obsessed with jihadist terrorism and filled with hatred towards Spain’ has been arrested in Tarifa, Cadiz. The suspect was detained on Monday morning by officers from the Policia Nacional following an investigation into his alleged links to ISIS ideology and extremist propaganda.
United Kingdom
Times of Israel: Nova exhibit banner in London taken down over police’s fear of attacks
Organizers of an upcoming London exhibition on Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre at the Nova music festival took down the exhibition’s main banner after a police request due to fear that the location could be targeted by terror attacks or extremist protests.
Times of Israel: ‘You’re going to get beheaded one by one, you dirty Jews,’ London man threatens
British police said Friday they were investigating after a video circulated online showed a man in London threatening to behead Jews “one by one.” The man, who is accompanied by a group of others in the neighborhood of Tower Hamlets, yelled several anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian slogans before saying, “The Jews, you’re going to get beheaded one by one, you dirty Jews.”
The Times: Nazi salutes and swastikas: Jewish pupils ‘routinely bullied’ at school
Such abuse is routinely experienced by Jewish pupils, according to a report by Parents Against Antisemitism, a group formed to highlight the issue. PAA has compiled more than 100 accounts of anti-Jewish hatred and sent its dossier to the government’s independent review on antisemitism in schools and colleges.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators descended on central London on Saturday for a rally organized by far-right activist Tommy Robinson, with supporters framing the event as a protest against the erosion of British identity.
The Guardian: Tommy Robinson’s ‘far-right Glastonbury’: a distinctly lower energy affair
Smaller and lacking in high-profile speakers, this year’s rally included white nationalists, families with children, and people saying they felt ‘silenced.’
Afghanistan
Afghanistan International: Gold Mine Tensions Escalate As Taliban Arrest Commanders’ Relatives
Local sources in Badakhshan tell Afghanistan International that the Taliban have detained several individuals, including relatives of a number of the group's ethnic Tajik commanders, amid an ongoing dispute over gold.
Afghanistan International: Taliban Minister Meets Shia Figures, Says All Sects Are Respected
Abdul Latif Mansoor, Taliban minister for rural rehabilitation and development, says the Taliban respects all sects, amid growing reports of pressure on Shia citizens and the detention and mistreatment of Shia clerics. The remarks came after widespread reactions to reports that Taliban morality police humiliated and assaulted a Shia cleric.
Gaza Strip/West Bank
Times of Israel: IDF confirms Hamas Gaza chief Izz al-Din al-Haddad killed in airstrike
The Israel Defense Forces on Saturday confirmed killing Hamas military chief Izz al-Din al-Haddad, the terror group’s leader in Gaza, in a “precise strike” on Gaza City in the Strip’s north the previous day.
Israel said that it had targeted Izz al-Din al-Haddad, the Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip and the head of the terror group’s military wing, in an airstrike in Gaza City on Friday. While there was no immediate confirmation that he was killed, news of the strike prompted a joyous response from several of the hostages he had personally held and many hailed the apparent death of the last of the major architects of the October 7, 2023, massacre.
While the Palestinian Authority sometimes coordinates with Israel in counterterrorism operations, the Palestinian leadership body has continued to promote violent rhetoric and fund terrorist organizations, according to a report published by the US State Department presented to Congress this week.
Iran
Jerusalem Post: Islamic regime’s extremism being imported to Europe, Kosar Eftekhari warns ‘Post’
Being a woman in Iran means beginning an endless struggle from the very moment you are born,” Kosar Eftekhari told The Jerusalem Post late on Sunday night. Eftekhari felt that “endless struggle” from the moment she was forced to wear the chador (Islamic covering) at only eight years old until she left Iran after being shot in the eye by the regime’s security forces for protesting the brutal murder of 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian girl Mahsa Amini.
Israel
Three apparent Hezbollah drones identified over an area of southern Lebanon where troops are deployed were intercepted a short while ago, the IDF says.
The death penalty law for West Bank Palestinians convicted of deadly acts of terrorism came into effect Sunday night, after the commander of the IDF Central Command, Maj. Gen Avi Bluth, signed the military order necessary to enact the measure in the territory.
AFP: Hezbollah says it struck military target in northern Israel
Hezbollah said Saturday it struck a military target in northern Israel, as the fragile ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel has not stopped fighting in the war that began on March 2.
Lebanon
Reuters: Israel, Hezbollah war persists despite truce extension; Lebanon's death toll nears 3,000
Israel carried out airstrikes in southern Lebanon on Monday, Lebanese security sources and the state news agency said, while Hezbollah announced new attacks on Israeli forces, continuing the war in Lebanon despite the extension of a U.S.-backed truce. Reignited by the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, hostilities between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel have rumbled on since U.S. President Donald Trump first announced a ceasefire on April 16, with fighting mostly contained to southern Lebanon.
Naharnet: Security agreement reportedly in the works: What does it include?
A security agreement that is in the works will include "timetables for disarming all illegal militias, starting with Hezbollah and extending to the smallest Palestinian faction," a Lebanese government source said.
AFP: Hezbollah fired 200 projectiles over the weekend at Israel
Hezbollah fired around 200 projectiles at Israel and its troops over the weekend, an Israeli military official said. "Over the weekend, Hezbollah launched approximately 200 projectiles toward the State of Israel and IDF troops, in a clear and ongoing violation of the ceasefire understandings," the official said, in a statement to AFP.
Naharnet: Israeli strikes kill 7 as Hezbollah MP condemns 'dead-end' talks
Israeli strikes killed seven people in Lebanon on Sunday, including an Islamic Jihad commander, Lebanese authorities and state media said, despite a fragile ceasefire as Hezbollah called U.S.-brokered talks a "dead end".
Times of Israel: 4 IDF troops wounded, one severely, by roadside bomb in south Lebanon
A roadside bomb hit four Israel Defense Forces soldiers overnight in south Lebanon, leaving one of them in serious condition, the military said Sunday. An officer was also moderately hurt in the overnight blast, while another officer and a soldier each sustained light injuries, the military said, adding that all four troops were taken to a hospital for treatment.
Times of Israel: IDF infantry platoon commander killed by Hezbollah drone in southern Lebanon
An IDF officer was killed in a Hezbollah explosive drone attack in southern Lebanon on Friday, the military announced Saturday evening, as limited fighting continued with the Iran-backed terror group despite a newly extended ceasefire.
Jerusalem Post: IDF kills Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander in targeted strike in Lebanon
The IDF killed Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander Wael Mahmoud Abd al-Halim in a targeted strike in Lebanon on Sunday night, the military announced on Monday.
The Lebanese government filed a sharply worded complaint with the United Nations arguing that the Islamic Republic of Iran has abused diplomatic immunity by refusing to recall its ambassador after Beirut demanded his expulsion and to stop alleged terrorist activities on its soil, according to a recently surfaced letter from late April.
Africa
Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, ISIS’s shadow commander in West Africa, was killed May 16 using what an extremism analyst describes as one of the hardest forms of intelligence to detect, after decades being shielded by "deep local networks" across the region.
Nigeria
Reuters: After killing top commander, US sustains attacks on Islamic State in Nigeria
The U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) and the Nigerian military said on Monday they had carried out additional airstrikes against Islamic State targets in northeastern Nigeria on Sunday, as joint operations against militant groups intensify. The operations in the Lake Chad zone underscore Washington's readiness to tackle militants directly in Africa, which is now the focus ofthe group's global operations.
Reuters: Gunmen kill 10 in attack on farming settlements in Nigeria's northwest, residents say
Gunmen killed at least 10 people, including women and children, in an attack on a rural community in Nigeria’s northwestern Katsina State on Sunday during which they also burned down homes and looted livestock, residents said. Nigeria's northwest has seen a surge in attacks by armed groups locally referred to as bandits, who raid villages, kill or kidnap residents, and burn homes, often targeting rural communities with limited security presence.
Reuters: Islamist attack on Nigerian military school kills 17 police trainees
At least 17 police officers were killed in Nigeria’s northeast Yobe state after suspected Islamist militants attacked a specialised military school that also trains police officers, the national police spokesman said late on Saturday. Nigeria has been battling an Islamist insurgency in its northeast for over 18 years.
Australia
The Guardian: Neo-Nazi group challenges hate ban by arguing law ‘operates as a doorway to tyranny’
A neo-Nazi group, which is aiming to start a political party and was last week banned as a hate group, has launched legal action against the commonwealth that will test the constitutional validity of the prohibition.
Jerusalem Post: First hearings for Australia commission end after Jews share stories of antisemitism
The first block of hearings for the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion ended on Friday, after Jewish residents shared their experiences with antisemitism in the country.
Technology
Ynet: Report: AI videos and memes turn antisemitism into viral content for kids
AI-generated antisemitic content has surged across social media during a 13-month period marked by the rapid spread of AI image, video and audio generators, says a new CyberWell report published Monday.
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