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CAIR Blasts Trump as the ‘New Biden’ for Continued Support of Israel Amid Gaza War
CAIR officials give press conference on the Israel-Hamas war. Photo: Kyle Mazza / SOPA Images/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an organization that advocates on behalf of Muslim Americans, has repudiated US President Donald Trump as “the new Joe Biden” because of his strident support of Israel’s military operations against Hamas in Gaza.
CAIR, which has been embroiled in controversy for years over alleged ties to terrorist groups, lamented the number of casualties in Gaza as a result of the war there. The organization lambasted Trump for backing Israel’s so-called “genocide” and called on the US president to withdraw all material support for the Jewish state.
“As the minimum death toll in [Gaza] crosses 50,000, the Israeli government is completely out of control because Donald Trump is the new Joe Biden: a president who supports genocide and puts Israel first in violation of federal law and disregard for the wishes of the American people,” CAIR said in a statement on Sunday. “President Trump must force [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu to permanently stop his self-serving genocide and accept the comprehensive ceasefire deal that that frees all captives. If President Trump wishes to be remembered as a peacemaker and not Netanyahu’s poodle, he must act before the death toll crosses 100,000.”
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry claims that over 50,000 Palestinians have been killed from Israeli operations in the embattled enclave, although the ministry does not distinguish between terrorist combatants and civilians. Moreover, researchers have shown that casualty figures published by Gaza’s Hamas-run health authorities have been inflated to defame Israel.
During his campaign for president, Trump vowed to unwaveringly support Israel’s defensive military operations against Hamas, criticizing then-President Joe Biden for supposedly buckling to progressive pressure to distance himself from the Jewish state. In February, the White House approved the delivery of a shipment of heavy bombs to Israel that were withheld by the Biden administration over concerns about civilian casualties in Gaza. Trump has also expressed less public criticism of Israel’s military operations in Gaza, urging the Jewish state to “finish the job” against the Hamas terrorist group.
In the 17 months following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel, CAIR has repeatedly lambasted Israel’s military efforts, accusing the Jewish state of committing “genocide” and
ethnic cleansing.”
In December, the controversial Islamic group said the Jewish state was guilty of “ethnic cleansing” in Syria following the recent collapse of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad’s regime, despite the limited nature of Israel’s military operations in the neighboring country.
Then last month, CAIR accused Israel of “moving the genocide from Gaza to the occupied West Bank,” where Israeli forces launched a counterterrorism effort coined “Operation Iron Wall.”
In the months following Trump’s return to the White House, CAIR has accused the US federal government of practicing discrimination against Arab Americans and Muslim Americans. The group decried the Trump administration’s attempts to punish American universities for allegedly not doing enough to combat campus antisemitism, accusing the White House of promoting “unconstitutional” censorship and Islamophobia. The organization also decried the administration’s attempt to deport non-Americans students who participate in pro-Hamas rallies as “anti-Palestinian.”
CAIR has a long history of stepping into controversy. In the 2000s, the organization was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing case. Politico noted in 2010 that “US District Court Judge Jorge Solis found that the government presented ‘ample evidence to establish the association’” of CAIR with Hamas.
According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), “some of CAIR’s current leadership had early connections with organizations that are or were affiliated with Hamas.” CAIR has disputed the accuracy of the ADL’s claim and asserted that it “unequivocally condemn[s] all acts of terrorism, whether carried out by al-Qa’ida, the Real IRA, FARC, Hamas, ETA, or any other group designated by the US Department of State as a ‘Foreign Terrorist Organization.’”
CAIR leaders have also found themselves embroiled in further controversy since Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
The head of CAIR, for example, said he was “happy” to witness Hamas’s rampage of rape, murder, and kidnapping of Israelis in what was the largest single-day slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust.
“The people of Gaza only decided to break the siege — the walls of the concentration camp — on Oct. 7,” CAIR co-founder and executive director Nihad Awad said in a speech during the American Muslims for Palestine convention in Chicago last November. “And yes, I was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land, and walk free into their land, which they were not allowed to walk in.”
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Israel Orders Military to Stop Gaza-Bound Yacht Carrying Greta Thunberg
FILE PHOTO: Activist Greta Thunberg sits aboard the aid ship Madleen, which left the Italian port of Catania on June 1 to travel to Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid, in this picture released on June 2, 2025 on social media. Photo: Freedom Flotilla Coalition/via REUTERS/File Photo
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz told the military on Sunday to stop a charity boat carrying activists including Sweden’s Greta Thunberg who are planning to defy an Israeli blockade and reach Gaza.
Operated by the pro-Palestinian Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), the British-flagged Madleen yacht set sail from Sicily on June 6 and is currently off the Egyptian coast, heading slowly towards the Gaza Strip, which is besieged by Israel.
“I instructed the IDF to act so that the Madleen .. does not reach Gaza,” Katz said in a statement.
“To the antisemitic Greta and her Hamas-propaganda-spouting friends, I say clearly: You’d better turn back, because you will not reach Gaza.”
Climate activist Thunberg said she joined the Madleen crew to “challenge Israel’s illegal siege and escalating war crimes” in Gaza and highlight the urgent need for humanitarian aid. She has rejected previous Israeli accusations of antisemitism.
Israel went to war with Hamas in October 2023 after the Islamist terrorists launched a surprise attack on southern Israel, killing more 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to the enclave.
Katz said the blockade was essential to Israel’s national security as it seeks to eliminate Hamas.
“The State of Israel will not allow anyone to break the naval blockade on Gaza, whose primary purpose is to prevent the transfer of weapons to Hamas,” he said.
The Madleen is carrying a symbolic quantity of aid, including rice and baby formula, the FFC has said.
FFC press officer Hay Sha Wiya said on Sunday the boat was currently some 160 nautical miles (296 km) from Gaza. “We are preparing for the possibility of interception,” she said.
Besides Thunberg, there are 11 other crew members aboard, including Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament.
Israeli media have reported that the military plans to intercept the yacht before it reaches Gaza and escort it to the Israeli port of Ashdod. The crew would then be deported.
In 2010, Israeli commandos killed 10 people when they boarded a Turkish ship, the Mavi Marmara, that was leading a small flotilla towards Gaza.
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Caitlin Jenner to Participate in Tel Aviv Pride Parade for 1st time
Caitlyn Jenner speaking at the 2018 Champions of Jewish Values International Awards Gala. Photo: Screenshot.
i24 News – Caitlyn Jenner, the former Olympic champion and leading figure in the transgender community, will participate in the Tel Aviv Pride Parade for the first time, scheduled for June 13.
The Israeli Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Tourism, as well as the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality, will host her for three days during the city’s Pride events. The program for the media personality, who has over 15 million followers on social media, includes a press conference before the festivities. Jenner will also explore the country’s tourist attractions with a visit to Jerusalem.
This visit is part of a broader diplomatic strategy, including international journalists who will tour the country, meet with representatives of the gay community, and attend various events, hosted by the Tourism Ministry. Six delegations of LGBTQ+ influencers from around the world are expected this year by the Foreign Ministry. These groups, composed of representatives from civil society, the media, academia, and digital influencers, will visit community organizations in Jerusalem, Beersheba, Haifa, and Tel Aviv.
Authorities are presenting this initiative as a demonstration that “the Jewish state remains the only democracy in the Middle East where everyone is accepted, regardless of religion, race, or gender.” Tel Aviv is described as “a symbol of openness and acceptance of others.” The influence of Jenner, an award-winning cultural and television icon, transcends American political divides, reaching both liberal and conservative audiences.
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Body of Mohammed Sinwar Recovered from Gaza, Taken to Israel
A screengrab shows according to the Israeli Army, Hamas Gaza chief Mohammed Sinwar, taken from a handout video, released Dec/ 17, 2023. Photo: Israeli Army/Handout via REUTERS
i24 News – During excavations carried out recently in the area of the European Hospital in Khan Yunis, several bodies were found – i24NEWS learned on Sunday that one belonged to late Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar, which is now being held in Israel.
On Saturday night, the Israel Defense Forces published documentation from the underground space located under the European Hospital in Khan Yunis. The tunnels include a command and control complex from which the fighting was conducted by senior Hamas commanders. During the scans, several additional bodies of terrorists were found.
About three weeks ago, Israel heavily shelled the hospital area, targeting the underground space below it, where the terrorist organization’s headquarters was located. In recent days, Israeli forces have been operating in the area, with an emphasis on underground tunnels, and have located the body. The IDF’s recovery of Sinwar’s body contradicts a previous report, according to which Hamas recovered his body from the tunnel under the European Hospital in Khan Yunis, and buried it in a tunnel in the Deir al-Balah area.
Sinwar was one of the senior and veteran figures in Hamas’ military wing, and took a significant part in the planning and execution of the murderous massacre on October 7, 2023, in which he served as head of the operations headquarters. After the assassination of military commander Mohammed Deif, Sinwar was appointed by his brother, late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, to the position. He was an influential and central factor in the organization’s decision-making, promoting Hamas’s effort to rehabilitate after IDF operations.
Now, Israel possesses the bodies of both Sinwar brothers, with much of the Hamas leadership eliminated in the more than 600 days since the war began.
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