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US Sen. Tina Smith Defends Decision to Vote Against Israel Aid
US Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN). Photo: Reuters Connect
US Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) defended her recent vote to block US military aid to Israel, describing the Jewish state’s military operations against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza as “antithetical” to American values.
In an interview with anti-Israel news host Mehdi Hasan published over the weekend, Smith said that her vote in November to impose a partial arms embargo on Israel “was an opportunity to stand up for our values.” She argued that the United States should not be “complicit” in the actions of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, adding that Israel’s conduct during the ongoing war in Gaza is “antithetical” to American values and possibly in violation of US policy regarding use of military arms.
“I think it was [a] bad decision for people not to vote as I did,” Smith said.
In November, Smith was among the 17 Democratic senators who voted in favor of legislation spearheaded by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to implement a partial arms embargo on Israel. The legislation, S.J.Res.111, was a measure to ban the sale of tank cartridges to Israel, was defeated by a margin of 79 to 18. Other anti-Israel resolutions sponsored by Sanders, S.J. Res. 113 and S.J. Res. 115, which targeted sales of mortar rounds and precision-guided bombs, were rejected on the Senate floor by similar margins.
Hasan then lamented the supposed “pervasive anti-Palestinian racism” within American society, pointing out that US President Donald Trump has chided Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) as being “a Palestinian.” Smith lambasted Trump’s insult to Schumer as “a disgusting thing to say,” before Hasan slammed former US President Joe Biden for “questioning the Palestinian death toll” and seeming “indifferent” to the mounting casualties in Gaza as a result of the Israel-Hamas war.
Researchers have shown that casualty figures published by Gaza’s Hamas-run health authorities have been inflated to defame Israel.
Hasan then asked Smith if she believed anti-Palestinian animus motivated the arrest of Columbia University campus agitator Mahmoud Khalil, who led riotous protests against Israel last academic year. The senator agreed, claiming that “at the very least, we should be able to come around the idea that everybody deserves due process in this country.” Smith then suggested that the Trump administration has utilized “authoritarian” tactics to demonize Palestinians and that “we have to stand up to that.”
Zeteo, the network founded by Hasan that published the interview, has positioned itself as a major source of anti-Israel content creation. Hasan, the network’s main host, has declared the ongoing war in Gaza a “genocide” and repeatedly pressured US lawmakers to implement an arms embargo against the Jewish state. Hosts on Zeteo have also downplayed Hamas’s attacks against Israel, oftentimes referring to the terrorist group as a “resistance.”
Moreover, Zeteo’s high production value and elaborate sets have raised questions surrounding its funding sources, with critics alleging it has received money from Qatar. In response, Hasan has denied receiving “any money from foreign governments or foreign citizens,” adding that “every investor in Z is an American citizen [who] has nothing to do with Qatar.”
The post US Sen. Tina Smith Defends Decision to Vote Against Israel Aid first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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‘With or Without Russia’s Help’: Iran Pledges to Block South Caucasus Route Opened Up By Peace Deal
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.
i24 News – Iran will block the establishment of a US-backed transit corridor in the South Caucasus region with or without Moscow’s help, a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader was quoted as saying on Saturday by the Iran International website, one day after the historic peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
“Mr. Trump thinks the Caucasus is a piece of real estate he can lease for 99 years,” Ali Akbar Velayati said of the so-called Zangezur corridor, the establishment of which is stipulated in the peace deal unveiled on Friday by US President Donald Trump. The White House said the transit route would facilitate greater exports of energy and other resources.
“This passage will not become a gateway for Trump’s mercenaries — it will become their graveyard,” the Khamenei advisor added.
Baku and Yerevan have been at loggerheads since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous Azerbaijani region mostly populated by ethnic Armenians, broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia. Azerbaijan took back full control of the region in 2023, prompting or forcing almost all of the territory’s 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia.
Yet that painful history was put to the side on Friday at the White House, as Trump oversaw a signing ceremony, flanked by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
The peace deal with Azerbaijan—a pro-Western ally of Israel—is expected to pull Armenia out of the Russian and Iranian sphere of influence and could transform the South Caucasus, an energy-producing region neighboring Russia, Europe, Turkey and Iran.
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UK Police Arrest 150 at Protest for Banned Palestine Action Group
People holding signs sit during a rally organised by Defend Our Juries, challenging the British government’s proscription of “Palestine Action” under anti-terrorism laws, in Parliament Square, in London, Britain, August 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Jaimi Joy
London’s Metropolitan Police said on Saturday it had arrested 150 people at a protest against Britain’s decision to ban the group Palestine Action, adding it was making further arrests.
Officers made arrests after crowds, waving placards expressing support for the group, gathered in Parliament Square, the force said on X.
Protesters, some wearing black and white Palestinian scarves, chanted “shame on you” and “hands off Gaza,” and held signs such as “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action,” video taken by Reuters at the scene showed.
In July, British lawmakers banned Palestine Action under anti-terrorism legislation after some of its members broke into a Royal Air Force base and damaged planes in protest against Britain’s support for Israel.
The ban makes it a crime to be a member of the group, carrying a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
The co-founder of Palestine Action, Huda Ammori, last week won a bid to bring a legal challenge against the ban.
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‘No Leniency’: Iran Announces Arrest of 20 ‘Zionist Agents’
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi addresses a special session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, June 20, 2025. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
i24 News – Iranian authorities have in recent months arrested 20 people charged with being “Israeli Mossad operatives,” the judiciary said, adding that the Islamic regime will mete out the harshest punishments.
“The judiciary will show no leniency toward spies and agents of the Zionist regime, and with firm rulings, will make an example of them all,” spokesperson Asghar Jahangiri told Iranian media. However, it is understood that an unspecified number of detainees were released, apparently after the charges against them could not be substantiated.
The Islamic Republic was left reeling by a devastating 12-day war with Israel earlier in the summer that left a significant proportion of its military arsenal in ruins and dealt a serious setback to its uranium enrichment program. The fallout included an uptick in executions of Iranians convicted of spying for Israel, with at least eight death sentences carried out in recent months. Hit with international sanctions, the country is in dire economic straights, with frequent energy outages and skyrocketing unemployment.
In recent weeks Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi affirmed that Tehran cannot give up on its nuclear enrichment program even as it was severely damaged during the war.
“It is stopped because, yes, damages are serious and severe. But obviously we cannot give up of enrichment because it is an achievement of our own scientists. And now, more than that, it is a question of national pride,” the official told Fox News.