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In implied jab at Trump, evangelical pro-Israel leader John Hagee blasts antisemitism and racism among Republicans
(JTA) — Pastor John Hagee, the influential pro-Israel evangelical leader, blasted Republicans for trafficking in “thinly veiled racism” and a “contagious viral strain of anti-American, anti-Christian, and antisemitic politics.”
Hagee, the founder of Christians United for Israel, has long been associated with the pro-Israel right and has praised and endorsed a series of Republican presidential candidates, including Donald Trump. He gave a benediction at the opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem in 2018, and the following year, five Trump administration officials — including Vice President Mike Pence — spoke at CUFI’s annual conference.
But this year, Hagee distanced himself from Trump, delivering a prayer at the launch of Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign. And on Monday, the eve of the Republican primary in New Hampshire, he published an op-ed in the Christian Post containing implied jabs at Trump, whom he did not mention by name.
“Multiple would-be Republican standard bearers consistently appeal to the worst in their audience by trafficking in thinly veiled racism while cynically trampling on our Constitution,” he wrote. “Likewise, faith is not ornamental, and the Word of God is not a political prop.”
He continued, “It is far from unprecedented for people to be led astray by those promising an unrealistic view of a nostalgic past, but when this nostalgia is rooted in insult, racism and antisemitism, it is fundamentally un-American and most assuredly evil.”
Hagee has long aimed his rhetorical fire at Democrats, and the piece also criticizes that party at length, including President Joe Biden. “Socialists and authoritarians are on the precipice of taking over both of America’s political parties” Hagee wrote. He added, “I fundamentally disagree with most mainstream Democratic policies.”
But even when naming Biden, who Hagee said “failed to save his party from the perils of socialism,” Hagee took a veiled swipe at Trump and his baseless claims that the 2020 election was rigged: “President Biden was duly elected,” Hagee wrote.
Trump and his allies have championed the rioters who sought to overturn Biden’s 2021 election, and Trump has recently said immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of the country, language that resembles phrases in “Mein Kampf,” by Adolf Hitler. At a rally in December, Trump denied plagiarizing Hitler and said he had never read the book.
Haley, the former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador, is the last remaining serious challenger to Trump in the primary and has staked her campaign on a strong showing in New Hampshire. She has drawn support from establishment Jewish Republicans who want to see an alternative to Trump and favor her interventionist foreign policy and robust embrace of Israel. Haley spoke last year at CUFI’s annual Washington conference.
In his piece, Hagee singled out the GOP in his home state for condoning antisemitism by rejecting a ban on associating with Nazi sympathizers and Holocaust deniers. Referring to that rejection, Hagee wrote, “To add insult to injury, the vote on this resolution was taken in secret, effectively reserving the party’s right to collaborate with Nazis.”
CUFI is one of the biggest and most influential right-wing pro-Israel lobbies on the federal and state level. It has led efforts to pass state laws targeting the movement to boycott Israel, and on the federal level was one of the first groups to lobby for the successful effort to link funding Palestinian institutions to cutting off payments for families of terrorists.
In addition to leading CUFI, Hagee is the founder of Cornerstone Church and of Hagee Ministries, a charitable organization that directs millions of dollars to Israeli charities, including some in West Bank settlements.
Hagee endorsed the late Republican Sen. John McCain in the 2008 presidential election but withdrew his endorsement when some of his past remarks drew scrutiny, including comments suggesting Adolf Hitler was fulfilling the words of the Bible, and a reference to the Catholic Church as “the great whore” — remarks for which he later apologized. He has also made anti-Muslim statements.
His statements havre continued to spark controversy. A contingent of dovish pro-Israel groups objected to his having a speaking role at the massive pro-Israel Washington rally in November, in part because of his incendiary rhetoric about LGBTQ people.
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The post In implied jab at Trump, evangelical pro-Israel leader John Hagee blasts antisemitism and racism among Republicans appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
The post Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
The post Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
The post US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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