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Amazon Deletes Promo Video of Executive Wearing Necklace Featuring Palestinian Flag Over Israel
Ruba Borno speaks at AWS re:Invent 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, Nov. 30, 2022. Photo: Noah Berger/AWS/Handout via REUTERS
Amazon pulled a promotional video this week in which one of its senior vice presidents was wearing a necklace with a pendant in the shape of the map of Israel but with the Palestinian flag imposed on top.
Dr. Ruba Borno is the vice president of global specialists and partner organizations for Amazon Web Services (AWS) and was hired by the company in November 2021. She wore the controversial necklace in a promotional clip for the upcoming AWS re:Invent conference in Las Vegas.
“The violence and loss of life happening every day in the Middle East is tragic, and at Amazon, our hearts and thoughts are with any person or community that’s affected,” an Amazon spokesperson told Fox Business. “Our leadership remains in regular contact with our teams based in the region to offer our support. The video shot was not meant to be a political statement, but we’ve taken down the video and will repost a new one in the coming days.”
Borno has not responded to Amazon’s decision to delete the video.
According to the electrical and computer engineering department at the University of Michigan, Borno’s alma mater, the Amazon executive is a “Palestinian refugee who fled Kuwait during the first Gulf War with her family in 1990. Forced to abandon all their possessions and savings, her family was given just three days to evacuate to the United States, leaving behind everything they knew.”
The necklace worn by Borno in the recently deleted Amazon video sparked outrage on social media. Users criticized Amazon, vowed to cancel their Amazon Prime subscriptions and called for Borno to be fired. Some also noted that Alexander Trufanov, an employee of the Amazon subsidiary in Israel, was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz by Hamas-led terrorists during their deadly rampage across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and is among the 101 hostages still held captive in the Gaza Strip.
Amazon has yet to comment on Trufanov’s kidnapping, but two days after the Oct. 7 terrorist attack last year, Amazon CEO Andy Jassey addressed the massacre.
“The attacks against civilians in Israel are shocking and painful to watch,” he wrote in a post on X. “I have been in touch with our teammates there to make sure we do everything we can to help support their family’s and their safety, and to assist however we can in this very difficult time. We’re also in close contact with our humanitarian relief partners on the ground and will be supporting their efforts. Hoping that peace arrives as soon as possible.”
Borno and her family fled Kuwait when former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein invaded the country in 1990 and came to the US as refugees granted political asylum.
“I’m Palestinian, my family’s Palestinian, and we were stateless, because Palestinians weren’t granted citizenship,” Borno said on the “No Turning Back” podcast with the McChrystal Group, a global advisory services firm. “And when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, he decreed that those [harboring] American citizens could be shot on sight. One of my sisters was born in the United States, so the US embassy called my parents and said, ‘You’ve got three days to decide if you want to evacuate and move to the United States.’”
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JD Vance Says US at War with Iran’s Nuclear Program, not Iran

US Vice President JD Vance delivers remarks at the Wilshire Federal Building in Los Angeles, California, U.S., June 20, 2025. Phone: REUTERS/Daniel Cole/File Photo
Vice President JD Vance said on Sunday the US was not at war with Iran but at war with its nuclear program, adding the program had been pushed back by a very long time due to American strikes ordered by President Donald Trump.
Trump said he had “obliterated” Iran’s main nuclear sites in strikes overnight with massive bunker-busting bombs, joining Israel’s assault against its Middle East rival in a significant new escalation of conflict in the region.
“We’re not at war with Iran. We’re at war with Iran’s nuclear program,” Vance said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press with Kristen Welker” show
“I think that we have really pushed their program back by a very long time. I think that it’s going to be many, many years before the Iranians are going to be able to develop a nuclear weapon.”
Vance accused Iran of not negotiating in good faith, which he said served as a catalyst for US strikes. The US had been in diplomatic talks with Iran about Tehran’s nuclear program.
Tehran vowed to defend itself while UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “gravely alarmed” by the US bombing of Iranian nuclear sites.
“We don’t want a regime change,” Vance added. “We do not want to protract this… We want to end the nuclear program, and then we want to talk to the Iranians about a long-term settlement here.”
Vance said Trump made the final decision to strike Iran right before the strikes took place and that Washington has received some “indirect” messages from Tehran since the strikes.
Vance said the US “had no interest in boots on the ground.”
Trump said on Friday he was going to decide in the next two weeks about direct US involvement in the Israel-Iran war which began with Israel’s attacks on Iran on June 13. The war has raised alarm in a region already on edge since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza in October 2023.
US ally Israel is the only country in the Middle East widely believed to have nuclear weapons and says it struck Iran to prevent Tehran from developing its own nuclear weapons.
Many Democratic US lawmakers said Trump’s actions were unconstitutional and that it was the US Congress that had the power to declare war on foreign countries.
Vance responded to that criticism by saying Trump had “clear authority to act to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.”
The post JD Vance Says US at War with Iran’s Nuclear Program, not Iran first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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‘Totally Obliterated’: US Bombs Iran’s Nuclear Sites, Trump Declares Operation a Success

US President Donald Trump delivers an address to the nation alongside US Vice President JD Vance, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the White House in Washington, DC, US, June 21, 2025, following US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria/Pool
The United States launched a large-scale military strike against Iran early Saturday, destroying key nuclear enrichment facilities, including the heavily fortified Fordow site.
US President Donald Trump said in a public address that the operation had “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capabilities and urged Tehran to “make peace,” warning that any future aggression would be met with even greater force.
The multi-pronged strike combined stealth B‑2 Spirit bombers deploying bunker-buster bombs with Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from submarines. Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan — all central to the Iranian nuclear program — were targeted in a coordinated assault. US military officials said the campaign neutralized Iran’s main enrichment operations.
Trump praised Israel’s role in coordinating the response and hailed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a key partner, saying the two leaders worked “as a team like perhaps no team has ever worked before.” Netanyahu, for his part, called the American action “unmatched” and said it signaled a shift toward restoring regional stability.
Iran’s foreign ministry condemned the operation as a breach of sovereignty and international law, vowing to respond with force. Hours after the strike, Iran retaliated by unleashing a salvo of roughly 30 ballistic and hypersonic missiles toward central Israel. Several missiles hit urban centers including Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, Haifa, and surrounding areas, causing injuries to at least 25 civilians and extensive property damage. Israel closed its airspace and instructed residents in key regions to only venture out for essential activities. In response, Israeli jets struck military targets in Iran, including missile launch sites and rocket depots.
Domestically, Trump’s decision exposed sharp political divisions in Washington. Republican hawks applauded the move as decisive, while isolationists and some constitutional conservatives questioned the legality of bypassing Congress, demanding oversight before further military escalation. Meanwhile, the United Nations and key US allies, including Britain and France, urged caution and a swift return to diplomatic solutions.
Iranian state media reported that most nuclear material was evacuated from Fordow ahead of the strike, the Reuters news agency reported. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear watchdog, said it detected no spike in off-site radiation.
According to Arab sources cited in The Wall Street Journal, the United States sent messages via regional intermediaries to reassure Tehran that the strike was a one-off and not part of a campaign to topple the regime. A senior US official confirmed that the administration clarified it had no intention of pursuing regime change and that the door remained open to renewed negotiations.
US Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA), co-sponsors of a bipartisan resolution to block unauthorized military action in Iran, criticized Trump’s strike as unconstitutional. Massie called the move illegal, while Khanna urged Congress to immediately vote on their Iran War Powers Resolution “to prevent America from being dragged into another endless Middle East war.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), meanwhile, called for Trump’s ouster, claiming it violated the US Constitution and as such was an impeachable offense.
“The president’s disastrous decision to bomb Iran without authorization is a grave violation of the Constitution and Congressional War Powers. He has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations. It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment,” she said.
Arsen Ostrovsky, a leading human rights lawyer and CEO of the International Legal Forum, rejected the criticism. He said Trump was acting well within his powers under Article II of the Constitution, which grants the president authority as commander-in-chief to protect national security.
“This is not without precedent,” Ostrovsky told The Algemeiner, pointing to former President Barack Obama’s operation to kill Osama bin Laden and former President Joe Biden’s airstrikes on Iranian proxies in Syria.
“Trump did not need the authorization of Congress in order to initiate a military strike,” he said, adding that the action was also supported by the War Powers Resolution of 1973 and Article 51 of the UN Charter, which affirms a nation’s right to self-defense.
Ostrovsky also defended the legality of Israel’s involvement, saying its campaign was not a sudden act of aggression but a response to a protracted armed conflict initiated by Iran.
“Faced with an existential and imminent threat from a nuclear Iran, the Jewish state had no choice but to act before it was too late,” he said. He described the strikes as “lawful, necessary, and proportionate under the Laws of Armed Conflict against a genocidal regime that had vowed to destroy the world’s only Jewish state and stood on the cusp of acquiring the means to do so, had Israel not acted.”
“In striking Iran’s nuclear weapons program, Israel and the United States made the world a safer place. They did it not only in their own defense, but in defense of the free world,” he concluded.
The post ‘Totally Obliterated’: US Bombs Iran’s Nuclear Sites, Trump Declares Operation a Success first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israeli Strike on Tehran Kills Bodyguard of Slain Hezbollah Chief

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi lays a wreath as he visits the burial site of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, on the outskirts of Beirut, Lebanon, June 3, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
A member of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah was killed in an Israeli air strike on Tehran alongside a member of an Iran-aligned Iraqi armed group, a senior Lebanese security source told Reuters and the Iraqi group said on Saturday.
The source identified the Hezbollah member as Abu Ali Khalil, who had served as a bodyguard for Hezbollah’s slain chief Hassan Nasrallah. The source said Khalil had been on a religious pilgrimage to Iraq when he met up with a member of the Kataeb Sayyed Al-Shuhada group.
They traveled together to Tehran and were both killed in an Israeli strike there, along with Khalil’s son, the senior security source said. Hezbollah has not joined in Iran’s air strikes against Israel from Lebanon.
Kataeb Sayyed Al-Shuhada published a statement confirming that both the head of its security unit and Khalil had been killed in an Israeli strike.
Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli aerial attack on Beirut’s southern suburbs in September.
Israel and Iran have been trading strikes for nine consecutive days since Israel launched attacks on Iran, saying Tehran was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons. Iran has said it does not seek nuclear weapons.
The post Israeli Strike on Tehran Kills Bodyguard of Slain Hezbollah Chief first appeared on Algemeiner.com.