In January, Malik Faisal Akram, a 44-year-old British citizen, took four people hostage at a Colleyville, Texas synagogue in a 12-hour standoff that ended in his death. The FBI originally did not link the attack to an anti-Semitic motive but they were proven wrong. The suspect did carry out the siege because of his animus towards Jews.
Police in Israel illegally used Pegasus spyware, including on the phones of Benjamin Netanyahu’s son and others, prompting a high-level investigation and upending Netanyahu’s corruption trial.In February, Russia began its war against Ukraine. President Biden said that Moscow had flagrantly violated international law. “We still believe that Russia is poised to go much further and launch a massive military attack against Ukraine,” Biden saidIn March, negotiations to revive the Iran nuclear deal took place in Vienna, Austria. Biden’s appointed negotiators asked Russia to do their bidding at the arms talks and security analysts agreed that this move “put the fox in charge of the hen house.”In April, a gunman in a gas mask and a construction vest set off a smoke canister on a rush-hour subway train in Brooklyn and shot at least 10 people. The suspect, Frank R. James, 62 was ultimately apprehended after a lengthy police manhunt.Elon Musk reached an agreement to buy Twitter for roughly $44 billion, promising a more lenient touch to policing content on the social media platform where he promotes his interests, and opines on a wide range of issues to more than 83 million followers.In May, Russia used advanced S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to target Israeli jets carrying out airstrikes in Syria, marking a major departure from a previous policy of essentially allowing the Israeli Air Force free reign to operate in the areaIn June, history was made as Israel and the United Arab Emirates signed a free trade agreement, which just happens to be the first of its kind that Israel has concluded with an Arab country. The pact was signed in Dubai by Israel’s Minister of Economy and Industry Orna Barbivai and the UAE after months of negotiations.Also in June, the agenda of the The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 election protest at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, DC revealed that their intent was to criminally indict former President Trump, despite lacking key evidenceIn July, it was reported that an increasing number of sharks were being spotted in the waters off Long Island, and a number of swimmers had been attacked. Two lifeguards suffered bites and a third person was bitten in by a shark within two weeksIn August, it was reported that the U.S. drone strike that killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri on the balcony of a Kabul safe house intensified global scrutiny of Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers and further undermined their efforts to secure international recognitionThe Justice Department rebuffed efforts to make public the affidavit supporting the search warrant for former President Donald Trump’s estate in Florida, saying the investigation “implicates highly classified material”In September, NY Times reporters Eliza Shapiro & Brian Rosenthal erroneously claimed that NY yeshivos leave students ill equipped to find jobs and excel in society due to a poor secular educational curriculum.On October, anti-government demonstrations erupted in several locations across Iran as the most sustained protests in years against a deeply entrenched theocracy entered their fourth week. Marchers twirled headscarves in repudiation of coercive religious dress codesAlso in October, violent crime continued to soar in New York City and it was reported that murders in the city’s subway system since 2020 have skyrocketed to the highest annual levels in 25 years.In December, it was reported that a surge of anti-Jewish vitriol was stoking fears that public figures like Kanye West and Kyrie Irving are normalizing Jew hatred and ramping up the risk of violence in a country already experiencing a significant escalation in anti-Semitism.
