Two ancient Jewish practices are increasingly being challenged in modern Britain and Europe: kosher slaughter and the circumcision of baby boys. Both can appear troubling to outsiders. Both raise legitimate questions about animal welfare, bodily autonomy and religious freedom. And both have a long history of becoming political battlegrounds over whether Jews can continue to live according to their traditions in European society. The debate over kosher slaughter has become entangled with a much larger argument about halal meat, Islam and immigration. Yet kosher production represents a tiny proportion of British slaughter, while vast amounts of halal meat enters the general food supply every day. When politicians demand bans on religious slaughter, are they really arguing about animal welfare, or about the religious communities themselves? Circumcision presents an equally difficult collision between ancient faith and modern values. Brit Milah remains fundamental to Jewish identity even among many Jews who are otherwise not particularly observant. But should parents have the right permanently to alter the body of an eight-day-old child for religious reasons? Shimon Cohen, director of Shechita UK and an advocate for religious freedom at the Conference of European Rabbis, joins me for a frank discussion about two practices at the heart of Jewish life – and why defending them requires answering the difficult questions rather than avoiding them. If you value my work, please donate: https://jonathansacerdoti.com/support/ 👁‍🗨 Watch if you want to understand why kosher slaughter and circumcision have become political battlegrounds – and what banning them would mean for Jewish life in Britain and Europe. 💬 We Discuss: 🔪 What actually happens during kosher slaughter – and whether stunning really is more humane 🐄 Why mechanical stunning was never about animal welfare 🧪 The scientific argument over how quickly an animal loses consciousness during shechita 🇨🇭 The disturbing history of European bans on kosher slaughter ☪️ Why the explosion of halal meat has dragged Jewish practices into a much wider political fight 🥩 The difference between kosher, stunned halal and non-stunned halal meat 🏫 Are you unknowingly eating halal meat in restaurants, schools and other institutions? 🏷️ Does food labelling may make more sense than banning religious slaughter? 👶 What actually happens during brit milah and why circumcision remains so important to Jewish identity ⚖️ Where parental rights, bodily autonomy and freedom of religion collide 🩺 Why a mohel does not necessarily need to be a doctor – and how the practice is regulated 🚫 Why male circumcision and FGM are fundamentally different practices 🇬🇧 Whether ancient religious traditions can survive increasingly secular Western attitudes ✡️ What restrictions on kosher slaughter and circumcision would ultimately mean for Jewish life in Europe 🔔 Subscribe for more serious and unflinching conversations about Britain, Israel, Judaism, Islam, religious freedom and the defence of Western democratic values. 📲 Follow Jonathan On X: https://x.com/jonsac On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonathansacerdoti/ On Substack: https://jonsac.substack.com 👇 Comment below — should a modern Western society protect ancient religious practices such as kosher slaughter and circumcision even when some people find them uncomfortable or objectionable? #JonathanSacerdoti #Kosher #Shechita #Halal #Circumcision #BritMilah #Judaism #ReligiousFreedom #JewishLife #Britain #Islam #AnimalWelfare #FreeSpeech #WesternValues #RupertLowe #RestoreBritain

The vast demonstrations that filled Britain’s streets after 7 October 2023 have shaped politics, policing, Jewish life and public debate for nearly three years. Their scale gave them authority. Their repetition gave their slogans extraordinary reach. Their organisational structure deserves the same scrutiny routinely applied to every other force seeking to influence British public life. Behind the crowds sits an infrastructure of campaign groups, funding networks, organisers, political activists and international connections. Questions about who pays for that infrastructure, who coordinates it and what regulation applies to it go directly to the integrity of democratic politics. Anne Herzberg of NGO Monitor joins me to discuss the organisation’s investigation into the movement behind Britain’s major anti Israel demonstrations. Please donate to support these important conversations: https://jonathansacerdoti.com/support/ 👁‍🗨 Watch if you want to understand how protest movements acquire power, money and influence/ 💬 We Discuss: 💷 How organisations hide the source of money behind Britain’s mass demonstrations 🪧 Why supposedly spontaneous mobilisation looks identical all around the world 🏛️ Charity money, tax payer money, and highly political campaigning 🌍 American foundations and international activist platforms funding British protests 🧩 How leadership overlaps across multiple organisations 🧒 Targeting young people through activist training, universities and social media ☪️ The Muslim Brotherhood and other extremist actors challenging democratic life 🇮🇷 How demonstrations centred on Gaza can absorb wider ideological causes ⚖️ Gaps in the Charity Commission, Companies House rules and Foreign Influence Registration Scheme 🇬🇧 Does Britain need stronger institutions capable of examining ideological extremism? 🔔 Subscribe for more serious and unflinching conversations about Britain, Israel, extremism, institutional power and the defence of Western democratic values. 📲 Follow Jonathan On X: https://x.com/jonsac On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonathansacerdoti/ On Substack: https://jonsac.substack.com 👇 Comment below — should organisations seeking to mobilise hundreds of thousands of people on Britain’s streets be required to disclose clearly who funds them, who controls them and what foreign interests stand behind them? #AnneHertzberg #JonathanSacerdoti #NGOMonitor #Israel #Britain #Antisemitism #ForeignInfluence #MuslimBrotherhood #FreeSpeech #WesternValues #freepalestine #hatemarches

Israel has become one of the most formidable developers of advanced defence systems in the world, despite its tiny size and population. Now, as calls to boycott its arms industry grow louder across Europe, Yuval Steinitz — Chairman of Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and former Israeli Minister of Finance, Energy and Intelligence, as well as an early chartered member of Peace Now in th 1980s — tells Jonathan Sacerdoti how Iron Dome, David's Sling and the revolutionary Iron Beam laser have defended the country against more than 40,000 missiles and rockets in three years, and why he believes those pushing to disarm Israel are handing its enemies exactly what they want. As Britain reluctantly accepts its new Prime Minister, Steinitz responds to Andy Burnham's proposed arms restrictions on Israel, argues that singling out the Jewish state for boycott while ignoring China, Russia or Saudi Arabia is indefensible, and points out that British fighter jets and air defense systems already depend on Israeli technology developed by Rafael. In this wide-ranging conversation, Jonathan Sacerdoti speaks with Yuval Steinitz about the hypocrisy behind BDS, the $2 laser rewriting the rules of warfare, Israel's rise past Britain, France and Germany in GDP per capita, the legacy of David Ben-Gurion, and what a defenceless Israel would mean for 8 million Jews. Donate to support these conversations, at https://jonathansacerdoti.com/donate 🛡️ Watch if you want to understand why disarming Israel would not bring peace, but risk a new Holocaust in the Middle East. 🎯 We Discuss: 🚀 How Israel intercepted over 40,000 missiles and rockets in three years 🇬🇧 Why Britain's new Prime Minister made Israel his first target ⚖️ The hypocrisy Steinitz sees in boycotting Israel but not China, Russia or Saudi Arabia 💡 The $2 laser beam that could end the era of missile warfare 🇫🇷 How France's arms embargo backfired and forced Israel to build its own defence industry 📈 How Israel's GDP per capita overtook Britain, France and Germany 🏭 The secret history of Ben-Gurion founding Rafael in 1948 🛰️ Why Britain's own fighter jets already rely on Israeli-developed technology 💀 Steinitz's warning: what a defenceless Israel would mean for 8 million Jews 🕊️ Why he still believes peace with the Palestinians remains possible 🔔 Subscribe for more serious and unflinching conversations about Israel, defence, Western politics and the forces shaping the Middle East. 👤 Follow Jonathan On X: https://x.com/jonsac On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonathansacerdoti/ On Substack: https://jonsac.substack.com 💬 Comment below — can the West keep criticising Israel's right to defend itself while relying on the very technology that defends it? #IronDome #IronBeam #Israel #IDF #IsraelDefense #BDS #JonathanSacerdoti #MiddleEast #IsraelNews #WesternCivilisation

Can a Jew still be fully British when support for Israel is treated as evidence of disloyalty? Melanie Phillips tells Jonathan Sacerdoti why she shifted her centre of gravity from London to Jerusalem, how Britain’s cultural institutions turned against her, and why she believes the crisis facing Jews is inseparable from the wider collapse of Western confidence. Britain still inspires her deep affection. But beneath that attachment are harder questions. Has liberal tolerance become a refusal to defend civilisation? Can the West recover its Christian and biblical foundations without reviving its historic hostility towards Jews? Has anti-Zionism become a new loyalty test? Is Donald Trump’s faith in dealmaking blinding him to the nature of Iran and Hamas — and can anyone still break through a culture in which feelings have replaced objective truth? In this wide-ranging conversation, Jonathan Sacerdoti speaks with Orwell Prize-winning journalist and author Melanie Phillips about abandoning the Guardian worldview, finding a fuller Jewish identity in Israel, her criticism of the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Trump’s handling of Iran and Gaza, and her practical advice for Jews confronted with accusations about Israel. Donate to support these conversations, at https://jonathansacerdoti.com/donate 👁️‍🗨️ Watch if you want to understand why Melanie Phillips believes the struggle over Israel, Jewish identity and antisemitism is part of a much larger battle for Britain and Western civilisation. 🎙️ We Discuss: 🇬🇧 Why Jewish acceptance in Britain became conditional 🇮🇱 How Israel made her a 'more complete Jew' 💔 Melanie's increasingly unrequited love for Britain 🌍 Why she believes Israel and the West are ultimately defending the same civilisation ⚖️ Liberalism’s “suicide note” ✝️ The Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Israel, Islamism and Christian history 🇺🇸 Why Donald Trump’s belief in deals may prevent him from understanding Iran, Hamas and ideological enemies ⚠️ How an American retreat could embolden Russia, China, North Korea and the Islamist world 📰 The Guardian article Melanie wrote despite knowing its underlying story was untrue 🧠 How the left transformed political disagreement into a struggle between moral goodness and evil 🗣️ Why conventional arguments defending Israel often fail ✡️ Why she remains optimistic, and why Jews must continue speaking even when they feel isolated or exhausted 🔔 Subscribe for more serious and unflinching conversations about Israel, British politics, antisemitism, Western civilisation, religion and the forces reshaping Jewish life. 📲 Follow Jonathan On X: https://x.com/jonsac On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonathansacerdoti/ On Substack: https://jonsac.substack.com 💬 Comment below — can Britain recover its culture and confidence without making Jewish life even less secure, or has the old relationship already broken down? #MelaniePhillips #JonathanSacerdoti #BritishJews #Antisemitism #Israel #Zionism #Britain #WesternCivilisation #DonaldTrump #Iran #Hamas #Christianity #JewishLife #IsraelNews

Natasha Hausdorff tells Jonathan Sacerdoti that international law — the very system the West built to protect itself — has been turned into a weapon against Western civilisation, and that what is being done to Israel today will be done to Britain and America tomorrow. Behind the headlines about war crimes, genocide and starvation lies a harder story. What happens when the courts meant to deliver justice become political tools? When UN reports launder terrorist propaganda as established fact? When the photographs that moved the world turn out not to show what we were told they showed? And if "what starts with the Jews doesn't end with the Jews," what does the weaponisation of international law mean for every law-abiding nation that still fights by the rules? In this conversation, Jonathan Sacerdoti speaks with Natasha Hausdorff — barrister, international law expert and founder of the Centre for International Rule of Law — about how the laws of war are being inverted, why the ICC and ICJ have lost their credibility, how NGOs like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch built cases on Hamas sources they never verified, why the "State of Palestine" fails the basic legal test for statehood, and why the West's silence in the face of this abuse may be the most dangerous signal of all. Donate to support these conversations, at https://jonathansacerdoti.com/donate 👁️‍🗨️ Watch if you want to understand how international law — from the ICC to the UN Human Rights Council — is being turned against Israel and the West, and why the outcome affects every nation that still plays by the rules. 🎙️ We Discuss: ⚖️ Why Natasha Hausdorff founded the Centre for International Rule of Law — and what "the weaponisation of international law" actually means 🏛️ How rule-of-law nations treat law as a limit on power, while despots treat it as a tool to wield power 🔴 Why the ICC and ICJ increasingly look like political bodies rather than independent courts 📄 How the latest UN Commission of Inquiry "launders" terrorist propaganda into an official report on the targeting of children 🗂️ Why Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch relied on Gaza "local authorities" — while admitting they had no one on the ground 🔍 "Projection": how Israel's accusers are guilty of exactly what they accuse Israel of 🧾 Why the "State of Palestine" fails the Montevideo test for statehood — and how the ICC invented its own jurisdiction 🍽️ The starvation narrative: why over 3,000 calories per person per day were entering Gaza — and why up to 90% of aid was diverted by Hamas 🚸 The truth behind the "starving children" photographs — and the well-fed relatives cropped out of frame 🎓 How the international legal academy silences anyone who won't "drink the Kool-Aid" on Israel 🚧 Why Egypt sealed the border at Rafah — and how the international community became complicit in Palestinian suffering 🎖️ How a senior British general was attacked by his own colleagues for reporting honestly what he saw in Gaza 🌍 Why "what starts with the Jews doesn't end with the Jews" — and how lawfare will one day be turned on Britain and the US 🔔 Subscribe for more serious and unflinching conversations about international law, Israel, the Middle East, antisemitism, and the forces reshaping the West. 📲 Follow Jonathan On X: https://x.com/jonsac On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonathansacerdoti/ On Substack: https://jonsac.substack.com Filmed at ARC 2026 ARC’s new book: The Age of Reconstruction - Johnny Patterson, ARC Chief Ideas Officer https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1916948510 💬 Comment below — has international law become a shield for the world's worst actors and a weapon against the nations that actually respect it? And if Israel is the test case, who's next? #NatashaHausdorff #JonathanSacerdoti #InternationalLaw #Israel #Lawfare #ICC #ICJ #Gaza #Hamas #Genocide #UN #AmnestyInternational #HumanRightsWatch #MiddleEast #RuleOfLaw #WesternCivilisation

Britain has been infiltrated, the Muslim Brotherhood's quiet takeover is already underway, and the West is listening to the wrong Muslims. *** Donate to support these conversations, at https://jonathansacerdoti.com/donate *** Rauda Altenaiji and Ahmed Sharif Al Ameri are part of a new wave of Emirati voices speaking out, proudly and publicly, in defence of the Abraham Accords and the world's only Jewish state. They feel safer walking through Dubai at 4am than London at 8pm, and their leadership has stopped sending students to British universities for fear they'll be radicalised. But beneath the warning are harder questions. The UAE enforces its famous tolerance through some of the world's harshest laws — including execution. Is that a model the West could ever, or should ever, follow? Is their picture of coexistence too perfect to be true? And when two polished young influencers appear defending Israel and the Accords, who exactly is behind them — and why? In this conversation, recorded live at the ARC 2026 conference, Jonathan Sacerdoti speaks with Rauda Altenaiji and Ahmed Sharif Al Ameri — Emirati commentators and social-media political voices — about the Abraham Accords, Islamist extremism in Britain, the Muslim Brotherhood, antisemitism, migrant workers' rights, the death penalty, and why they believe London is losing its identity while the Gulf thrives. Filmed at ARC 2026 ARC’s new book: The Age of Reconstruction - Johnny Patterson, ARC Chief Ideas Officer https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1916948510 👁️‍🗨️ Watch if you want to understand how two Emiratis see Britain's extremism problem — and why they believe the West is listening to the wrong Muslims. 🎙️ We Discuss: 🔴 Why two Emiratis publicly defend Israel and the Abraham Accords — and what it cost them 🕌 The Muslim Brotherhood "invasion" of the West, and why they say it now works through PR, not conquest 🇬🇧 Why the UAE will no longer send its students to study in the UK ⚖️ How the UAE treats antisemitism as terrorism — and the one case that ended in execution 🏙️ Why they'd walk through Dubai at 4am but not London after 8pm 👷 The truth about the UAE: the uncomfortable questions on migrant workers, labour laws and 87.9% of the population 💀 Tolerance enforced by the death penalty — model or warning? 📖 The idea of a "civilisational jihad" 🎓 How a Muslim woman was branded Islamophobic by a white British university professor 🤔 "Is this engineered?" — answering the suspicion that these influencers came from nowhere 🌍 How to spread coexistence to the rest of the Arab world 🔔 Subscribe for more serious and unflinching conversations about the Middle East, Israel, the Gulf, Islamism, and the forces reshaping the West. 📲 Follow Jonathan On X: https://x.com/jonsac On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonathansacerdoti/ On Substack: https://jonsac.substack.com ARC Conference: On X: https://x.com/arc_conference On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRUdudcEw4Uenxz-MAG7rGA On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arc_conference/ 💬 Comment below — is the UAE's model of enforced tolerance something the West should learn from, or the very thing it should fear? #UAE #JonathanSacerdoti #AbrahamAccords #Israel #MuslimBrotherhood #Islamism #MiddleEast #Dubai #Emirati #Antisemitism #London #WesternCivilisation #ARC2026 #IsraelUAE #FreeSpeech

Is Trump's deal with Iran worse than Obama's JCPOA? Dan Schueftan tells Jonathan Sacerdoti how it emboldens every Iranian proxy from Hezbollah to the Houthis, and leaves Israel in one of the most precarious positions in its history. Both sides are claiming victory. But beneath those claims are harder questions. Has Iran been given a free pass to rearm? Has Israel lost the cover it needed to act? What does this mean for the Gulf states, for Lebanon, for the Iranian people desperate to be rid of their regime — and for the West's credibility as a civilisation willing to defend itself? In this conversation, Jonathan Sacerdoti speaks with Dr. Dan Schueftan — strategic analyst and former director of the National Security Studies Center at the University of Haifa — about what the Trump-Iran deal actually contains, why a president who built his identity on winning may have handed Iran a historic victory, what Israel can still do alone, and why the West's retreat from confrontation is the most dangerous signal it can send. Donate to support these conversations, at https://jonathansacerdoti.com/donate 👁️‍🗨️ Watch if you want to understand what the Trump-Iran nuclear deal really means for Israel, for the Middle East, and for any country that still believes in the willingness to fight for its interests. 🎙️ We Discuss: 🔴 Why Dan Schueftan calls this deal a capitulation worse than Obama's — and what Iran actually received 🇮🇷 How Iran keeps uranium enrichment, faces no limits on ballistic missiles, and its proxies remain intact 🇮🇱 What Israel can do now — alone, without the American cover it depended on 🔫 Why Hamas and Hezbollah will never disarm — and why that was never a realistic goal with or without the US 🌍 How the Gulf states, Lebanon's non-Hezbollah population, and Iran's own people were also abandoned by this deal 📉 Why Trump — a man who defines himself entirely by winning and losing — may not yet grasp what he gave away ⚔️ The 1930s parallel: how Western unwillingness to fight emboldened Hitler, and what today's retreat signals to today's barbarians 🏛️ Why Western democracy can no longer produce leaders like Churchill or FDR — and what that means for civilisation 🇮🇱 Why Israel's combination of open society and willingness to fight makes it unique in the Western world — and uniquely resented 💡 Dan's "smart optimism": why things will get worse, but Israel will grow stronger faster than things deteriorate 🔔 Subscribe for more serious and unflinching conversations about the Middle East, Israel, Iran, US foreign policy, and the forces reshaping the West. 📲 Follow Jonathan On X: https://x.com/jonsac On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonathansacerdoti/ On Substack: https://jonsac.substack.com 💬 Comment below — is there something going on in this deal that Trump knows and we don't, or has the self-proclaimed master dealmaker just made the worst deal of his career? #DanSchueftan #JonathanSacerdoti #Iran #TrumpIranDeal #Israel #MiddleEast #Hamas #Hezbollah #NuclearDeal #IranNuclear #Netanyahu #USForeignPolicy #IsraelIran #MiddleEastNews #WesternCivilisation

Connie Shaw went on LBC at 8am to defend free speech on Islam — and was publicly called a racist before the interview ended. She had already been suspended from her university radio committee and faced potential expulsion for writing about trans ideology on campus. She used to be woke herself. Across universities, newsrooms, and public platforms in Britain, a pattern keeps repeating: point to Islamic extremism, question trans ideology, or defend Western identity — and the response is not debate but accusation. The labels shift from episode to episode — racist, transphobic, far right — but the mechanism is identical. Name the person, not the argument. Make the cost of speaking visible to everyone watching. This is how honest conversations are removed from public life. In this conversation, Jonathan Sacerdoti speaks with Connie Shaw — external affairs officer at the Free Speech Union and commentator — about Islamism, trans ideology in academia, the grooming gangs cover-up, the state of British universities, Israel, and what free speech actually means in a society where some speech is already a coded call to violence. At stake is the ability of any citizen to say plainly what they can see. Donate to support these conversations, at https://jonathansacerdoti.com/donate 🧑‍💻 Watch if you want to understand how ideological pressure shapes young people at school and university — and why those who break from it face organised attempts to silence them. 🗣 We Discuss: 🎙 Why Connie was accused of racism on LBC for defending free speech on Islamic public prayer in Trafalgar Square 🏫 How trans ideology embedded itself inside academia — and what happened when Connie wrote about it 📖 Why some students believe that even reading the opposing argument is an act of moral transgression 🕌 Why criticism of Islamism keeps being reframed as racism — and who benefits from that confusion 👮 How a self-described former school snitch and feminist society chair woke up to what she had been part of 🇮🇱 What Connie found when she visited Israel, and why many people who hold strong opinions still don't know what happened on October 7th ✝️ Why an atheist can still believe Christianity is essential to Western civilisation 🗺 Whether free speech can survive in a society where some communities use language as a coded call to violence ⚖️ What role figures like Tommy Robinson actually play in British political life — and whether that role is ultimately helpful or harmful 👶 Why declining birth rates and the breakdown of relationships between young men and women may be the most underreported civilisational crisis of our time 📺 Subscribe for more serious and unflinching conversations about free speech, Islam, trans ideology, Israel, antisemitism, and the culture wars reshaping the West. 🔔 Follow Jonathan On X: https://x.com/jonsac On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonathansacerdoti/ On Substack: https://jonsac.substack.com 💬 Comment below — is there a point at which protecting free speech becomes a form of civilisational self-harm, and if so, who gets to draw that line? #ConnieShaw #JonathanSacerdoti #FreeSpeech #Islamism #TransDebate #WomensRights #GenderCritical #Islam #IslamicExtremism #Universities #GroomingGangs #Israel #October7 #CancelCulture #WesternCivilisation #TERF