RSS
Trump Says Schumer Has ‘Become a Proud Member of Hamas,’ Slams Top Democrats for Israel Stance
US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) holds a press conference in the US Capitol in Washington, DC, April 23, 2024. Photo: Annabelle Gordon / CNP/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
Former US President Donald Trump attacked Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (NY) record on Israel at a rally on Wednesday night, claiming the lawmaker has “become a Palestinian” and a “proud member of Hamas.”
While speaking to an audience in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Trump criticized Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish US elected official, for allegedly distancing himself from Israel and refusing to shake the hand of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his visit to the United States last week.
“Chuck Schumer refused to shake the Israeli prime minister’s hand. Chuck Schumer has become a Palestinian. Yes, yes, can you believe it? He’s become a proud member of Hamas,” said Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential nominee.
In response, Schumer said in a statement: “The lower [Trump] drops in polls, the more unhinged he becomes.”
Schumer has issued withering criticism toward Netanyahu in the months following the Palestinian terror group Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel. The lawmaker called for new elections in Israel to replace Netanyahu during a March 14 speech on the Senate floor, a nearly unprecedented statement by such a high ranking US official calling on the people of a close democratic ally to replace its leadership.
Specifically, Schumer accused Netanyahu of aligning himself with “extremists” and condemned his approach to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
“It has become clear to me the Netanyahu coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel after Oct. 7,” Schumer said, noting the date when Hamas terrorists invaded the Jewish state from Gaza and started the conflict.
In response, Netanyahu called Schumer’s remarks “totally inappropriate.”
“It’s inappropriate to go to a sister democracy and try to replace the elected leadership there. That’s something the Israeli public does on its own,” Netanyahu said on CNN.
Schumer also claimed that the Israeli premier “lost his way” and warned that Israel risks becoming an international “pariah” due to its military campaign targeting Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
Despite his comments, Schumer ultimately signed onto the formal congressional invitation for Netanyahu to address a joint session of the US Congress last week.
During Wednesday’s campaign rally, Trump also took aim at Rep. House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the former speaker of the House. Trump lambasted Pelosi for condemning Netanyahu’s congressional address as “by far the worst presentation of any foreign dignitary invited and honored with the privilege of addressing the Congress of the United States.”
“Nancy Pelosi, likewise, denounced the speech in shameful terms,” Trump said.
Earlier this year, Pelosi joined several House Democrats in co-signing a letter urging US President Joe Biden to cease arms shipments to Israel, accusing the Jewish state of recklessly endangering civilian lives in Gaza. Pelosi refused to attend Netanyahu’s speech and publicly repudiated the bipartisan invite to the Israeli leader as “wrong.”
Beyond Schumer and Pelosi, Trump vowed to help the Jewish state with the ongoing war against Hamas, which rules Gaza. Touting his personal relationships with “all the players” involved in the conflict, Trump stressed that he will help Israel achieve “peace through strength.”
The former president also chided current US Vice President and presumptive 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris for skipping Netanyahu’s address in favor of attending the convention for a historically black sorority.
“You saw that instead of sending a clear signal that the United States will never abandon an ally, a very important one,” Trump said. “Kamala chose to politicize the moment to grand stand, making a show of refusing to attend. You know where she was? She went to a sorority party. Could you believe it? Even though it was her duty as president of the Senate to be there? It was her duty to be there. Her Democrat allies fell in line.”
Although the White House claimed that Harris’ absence was the result of a scheduling conflict, critics have speculated that Harris made a calculated decision not to attend Netanyahu’s address. Facing pressure from far-left progressives to turn against Israel, several prominent Democrats have become increasingly critical of the Jewish state, calling to condition Washington’s military aid to Israel and even suggesting the Jewish state is committing genocide during its defensive military operations in Gaza.
Top Biden administration officials, including Harris, have expressed “ironclad” support for Israel’s security but rebuked the Jewish state for its war effort in Hamas-ruled Gaza, citing the humanitarian situation there and number of civilian casualties.
Roughly half of House and Senate Democrats skipped Netanyahu’s speech, with many making clear they were boycotting the event in protest of Israel’s prosecution of the war in Gaza. Some argued the Israeli prime minister was meddling in US politics or using the speech to boost his own position at home, taking shots at the Israeli premier over social media.
The post Trump Says Schumer Has ‘Become a Proud Member of Hamas,’ Slams Top Democrats for Israel Stance first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
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.
RSS
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.
RSS
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.