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Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Host Rally for Jamaal Bowman as He Ramps Up Anti-Israel Attacks
US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) are seen before a press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on March 21, 2024. Photo: Craig Hudson/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
Key anti-Israel lawmakers in the US Congress are set to headline a rally to support the reelection bid of Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) as the embattled congressman intensifies his verbal attacks on the Jewish state.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) will take the stage with Bowman on Saturday at St. Mary’s Park in the Bronx, New York. Sanders will also support Bowman at a rally on Friday at Maceachron Park in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.
“Jamaal’s race will set the tone for progressive races across the country,” a sign-up form for the rally reads. “We’re going up against special interests who are using NY-16 [New York’s 16th Congressional District] as a test to see if they can win across the country. Our movement is strong, and we won’t let them win.”
The rallies mark the latest attempt by Bowman to rescue his flailing campaign. In a series of recent polls, Bowman has trailed his challenger in the Democratic primary, Westchester County executive George Latimer, by double digits.
Ocasio-Cortez, one of the most prominent critics of Israel in Congress, has expressed great anxiety over the state of Bowman’s struggling campaign.
“I cannot think of a single race that better exemplifies the battle, frankly for our democracy, between everyday people choosing their representation and big money coming in and choosing it for them,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a recent interview.
The prominent Democrat has previously denied that Israel is a democracy and accused the Jewish state of perpetrating “apartheid” and “genocide.”
Sanders, a progressive Jewish lawmaker who has launched similar accusations and accused Israel of inflicting “famine” on Palestinians, claimed that Bowman’s floundering reelection prospects are the result of an orchestrated attack by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the foremost pro-Israel lobbying organization in the US.
“Right-wing Super PACs like AIPAC are targeting Jamaal Bowman because he fights for the values of working class people in his district, whether it’s affordable housing, childcare and pre-K, public schools, or climate justice,” Sanders wrote on X/Twitter last month.
AIPAC’s stated mission is to seek to strengthen bipartisan support for the US-Israel relationship.
Bowman has also repeatedly attacked AIPAC, even accusing it of “racism,” along with some of the other most vocal critics of Israel in Congress.
Progressives fear that a loss for Bowman would diminish their leverage over the Democratic Party on key issues, including the Israel-Hamas war. Left-wing lawmakers believe that removing Bowman from office will embolden moderate forces to pull the Democrats to the political center.
Although Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders have criticized Israel’s military campaign against the Palestinian terror group Hamas in Gaza, Bowman has arguably issued the sharpest condemnations of Israel in recent months.
Bowman dismissed widely reported and corroborated claims of sexual assault of Israeli women by Hamas terrorists as “propaganda,” before walking back those comments earlier this year amid widespread scrutiny.
The congressman also hosted a fundraiser last month with Nihad Awad, who said in November that he was “happy” to witness Hamas’ rampage across southern Israel on Oct. 7, when the Palestinian terror group invaded the Jewish state from neighboring Gaza, murdered 1,200 people, and kidnapped over 250 others as hostages. The massacre launched the ongoing war in Gaza, where Israel has been waging a military campaign aimed at dismantling Hamas and freeing the hostages.
In an interview with left-wing pundit Olayemi Olurin earlier this month, Bowman argued that support for the Jewish state is rooted in “white supremacy” and “white nationalism.” He also suggested that Israel is responsible for the Oct. 7 atrocities, claiming that Israel’s alleged oppressive treatment of Palestinians might have spurred Hamas, which rules Gaza, to lash out.
The post Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Host Rally for Jamaal Bowman as He Ramps Up Anti-Israel Attacks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.