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CAIR Leader Celebrates Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis

Zahra Billoo, the executive director of CAIR’s San Francisco branch. Photo: REUTERS/Rebecca Cook
Zahra Billoo, the longtime executive director of the San Francisco chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), used the news of former US President Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis as an opportunity to warn the former commander-in-chief of the eternal punishment tied to his administration’s support for the Jewish state during the conflict in Gaza.
“There is no amount of cancer treatment that can protect President Joe Biden from the prayers of the oppressed and ultimately God’s wrath. Say, Ameen,” Billoo wrote on Facebook on Sunday, the same day Biden’s personal office announced he was diagnosed last week with an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer.
A commenter responded “Trump first” to Billoo’s post, referring to incumbent US President Donald Trump.
Billoo answered that “his time will come too.”
Other vocal far-left, anti-Israel activists expressed similar sentiments about Biden following his cancer diagnosis, notably Black Lives Matter activist Shaun King (“I hope his final days are painful”) and former Washington Post tech writer Taylor Lorenz, who said she hoped that the grandfather of seven “rots in hell and rests in piss.”
Billoo has long attracted attention for her regular radical rhetoric and antisemitic sentiments.
In 2021 at an American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) meeting, she said “we need to pay attention to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). We need to pay attention to the Jewish Federation … the Zionist synagogues … Hillel chapters on our campuses.”
She told those in attendance that those advocating for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “are your enemies,” and that “there are organizations and infrastructures out there who are working to harm you. Make no mistake of it. They would sell you down the line if they could. And they very often do behind your back. I mean, the Zionist organizations, I mean the foreign policy organizations who say, they’re not Zionists, but want a two-state solution.”
Billoo has made her anti-Israel animus blunt. At a previous AMP meeting in 2018 she said,”I am not going to legitimize a country that I don’t believe has a right to exist.”
In July 2024, Billoo mourned the death of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, writing, “‘Never say that those martyred in the cause of Allah are dead — in fact, they are alive! But you do not perceive it.’ Tonight, we mourn Ismail himself but know his martyrdom is not in vain. From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
The phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is a popular slogan among anti-Israel activists that has been widely interpreted as a call for the destruction of the Jewish state, which is located between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
In July 2017, Billoo told audiences at a conference of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) that “I definitely don’t agree with the brother that’s willing to participate in any Department of Homeland Security program, and don’t agree with elected officials or with Muslims who want to go on Zionist-funded trips to apartheid Israel and say that that’s going to build interfaith relationships.”
In November 2014, Billoo seemingly justified Islamist terrorism against Israel, arguing that “blaming Hamas for firing rockets at [Apartheid] Israel is like blaming a woman for punching her rapist.”
Billoo has offered more recent pro-Hamas commentary too.
In February, the CAIR executive reposted a statement from anti-Israel journalist CJ Werleman, proclaiming that “Hamas deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for keeping Israeli prisoners safe from indiscriminate Israeli carpet bombing, which destroyed +90% of all buildings and slaughtered +100,000 people.”
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) responded, writing on X that “The Executive Director of CAIR’s San Francisco Chapter has been caught retweeting the outrageous statement that Hamas ‘deserves a Nobel Peace Price.’ Never mind that Hamas murdered, maimed, mutilated, raped, and tortured thousands of Jews. Never mind that Hamas has left hostages starved and emaciated after holding them captive for nearly 500 days. If the Anti-Israel movement were a country, useful idiocy would be its leading export.”
Nihad Awad, co-founder and longstanding executive director of CAIR, garnered widespread condemnation for his comments following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks across southern Israel. “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,” he stated.
The ADL says that “some of CAIR’s leaders, such as Nihad Awad, CAIR’s executive director, were previously involved in a now-defunct organization that openly supported Hamas and, according to the US government, functioned as its ‘propaganda apparatus.’” CAIR has responded 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.’”
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New Poll: Majority of NYC Voters ‘Less Likely’ to Support Mamdani Over His Refusal to Condemn ‘Globalize the Intifada’

Zohran Mamdani. Photo: Ron Adar / SOPA Images via Reuters Connect
In a warning sign for the campaign of Democratic nominee for mayor of New York Zohran Mamdani, a majority of city voters in a new poll say the candidate’s hardline anti-Israel stance makes them less likely to vote for him.
In the survey of likely city voters conducted by American Pulse, 52.5 percent said Mamdani’s refusal to condemn the slogan “globalize the intifada” coupled with his backing of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement made them less likely to vote for him in November. Just 31% of city voters polled were more likely to support him because of these positions.
At the same time, a significant share of young New York City voters support Mamdani’s anti-Israel positioning, a striking sign of shifting generational views on Israel and the Palestinian cause.
Nearly half of voters aged 18 to 44 (46 percent) said the State Assembly member’s backing for BDS and “refusal to condemn the phrase ‘globalize the intifada’” made them more likely to support him.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist from Queens, has been under fire for defending “globalize the intifada,” a slogan many Jewish groups associate with incitement to violence against Israel and Jews. While critics argue it glorifies terrorism, supporters claim it’s a call for international solidarity with oppressed peoples, especially Palestinians. Mamdani has also voiced support for BDS, a movement widely condemned by mainstream Jewish organizations as antisemitic for singling out Israel.
The generational divide exposed by the poll comes amid a broader political realignment. Younger progressives across the country are increasingly critical of Israeli policies, especially in the wake of the Gaza war, and more receptive to Palestinian activism. But to many Jewish leaders, Mamdani’s rising support is alarming.
Rabbi David Wolpe, visiting scholar at Harvard University, condemned the phrase with a sarcastic analogy.
“‘Globalize the intifada’ is just a political slogan,” he said. “Like ‘The cockroaches must be exterminated’ was just a housing authority slogan in Rwanda.”
Jewish organizations have reported a surge in antisemitic incidents in New York and across the U.S. since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war last fall. The blending of anti-Zionist slogans with calls for “intifada,” historically linked to violent uprisings, has deepened fears among Jewish communities that traditional red lines are being crossed.
Whether this emerging coalition reshapes New York politics remains to be seen. However, the poll indicates that among younger voters, views that were once considered fringe are quickly moving into the mainstream.
The post New Poll: Majority of NYC Voters ‘Less Likely’ to Support Mamdani Over His Refusal to Condemn ‘Globalize the Intifada’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Report: Jews Targeted at June’s Pride Month Events

A Jewish gay pride flag. Photo: Twitter.
The research division of the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) released a report on Wednesday detailing incidents of hate against Jews which took place last month during demonstrations in celebration of LGBTQ rights and identity.
Incidents reported by the group include:
- At a Pride march in Wales, the activists Cymru Queers for Palestine chose to block the path and show a sign that said “Profiting from genocide,” an attempt to link the event’s sponsors — such as Amazon — to the war in Gaza.
- A Dublin Pride march saw the participation of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which labeled Israel a “genocidal entity.”
- In Toronto at a late June Pride march, demonstrators again attacked organizers with a sign declaring, “Pride partners with genocide.”
CAM also identified a recurring narrative deployed against Israel by some far-left activists: so-called “pinkwashing,” a term which the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) movement calls “an Israeli government propaganda strategy that cynically exploits LGBTQIA+ rights to project a progressive image while concealing Israel’s occupation and apartheid policies oppressing Palestinians.”
The report notes that at a Washington DC Pride event in early June Medea Benjamin, cofounder of activist group Code Pink and a regular of anti-war protests, wore a pair of goofy, oversized sunglasses and a shirt in her signature pink with the phrase “you can’t pinkwash genocide.”
Other incidents CAM recorded showed the injection of anti-Israel sentiment into Pride events.
A musical group canceled a performance at an interfaith service in Brooklyn, claiming the hosting synagogue had a “public alignment with pro-Israel political positions.” In San Francisco before the yearly Trans March, a Palestine group said in its announcement of its participation, “Stop the war on Iran and the genocide of Palestine, stop the war on immigrants and attacks on trans people.”
CAM notes that this “queers for Palestine” sentiment is not new, pointing to a 2017 event wherein “organizers of the Chicago Dyke March infamously removed participants who were waving a Pride flag adorned with a Star of David on the grounds that the symbol ‘made people feel unsafe.’”
In February, the Israel Defense Forces shared with the New York Post documents it had recovered demonstrating that Hamas had tortured and executed members it suspected of homosexuality and other moral offenses in conflict with Islamist ideology.
Amit Benjamin, who is gay and a first sergeant major in the IDF, said during a visit to New York City for Pride month that “All the ‘queers for Gaza’ need to open their eyes. Hamas kills gays … kills lesbians … queers cannot exist in Gaza.”
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IAEA pulls inspectors from Iran as standoff over access drags on

IAEA chief Rafael Grossi at the agency’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria, June 23, 2025. REUTERS/Elisabeth Mandl/File Photo
The UN nuclear watchdog said on Friday it had pulled its last remaining inspectors from Iran as a standoff over their return to the country’s nuclear facilities bombed by the United States and Israel deepens.
Israel launched its first military strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites in a 12-day war with the Islamic Republic three weeks ago. The International Atomic Energy Agency’s inspectors have not been able to inspect Iran’s facilities since then, even though IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has said that is his top priority.
Iran’s parliament has now passed a law to suspend cooperation with the IAEA until the safety of its nuclear facilities can be guaranteed. While the IAEA says Iran has not yet formally informed it of any suspension, it is unclear when the agency’s inspectors will be able to return to Iran.
“An IAEA team of inspectors today safely departed from Iran to return to the Agency headquarters in Vienna, after staying in Tehran throughout the recent military conflict,” the IAEA said on X.
Diplomats said the number of IAEA inspectors in Iran was reduced to a handful after the June 13 start of the war. Some have also expressed concern about the inspectors’ safety since the end of the conflict, given fierce criticism of the agency by Iranian officials and Iranian media.
Iran has accused the agency of effectively paving the way for the bombings by issuing a damning report on May 31 that led to a resolution by the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors declaring Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations.
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has said he stands by the report. He has denied it provided diplomatic cover for military action.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Thursday Iran remained committed to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
“[Grossi] reiterated the crucial importance of the IAEA discussing with Iran modalities for resuming its indispensable monitoring and verification activities in Iran as soon as possible,” the IAEA said.
The US and Israeli military strikes either destroyed or badly damaged Iran’s three uranium enrichment sites. But it was less clear what has happened to much of Iran’s nine tonnes of enriched uranium, especially the more than 400 kg enriched to up to 60% purity, a short step from weapons grade.
That is enough, if enriched further, for nine nuclear weapons, according to an IAEA yardstick. Iran says its aims are entirely peaceful, but Western powers say there is no civil justification for enriching to such a high level, and the IAEA says no country has done so without developing the atom bomb.
As a party to the NPT, Iran must account for its enriched uranium, which normally is closely monitored by the IAEA, the body that enforces the NPT and verifies countries’ declarations. But the bombing of Iran’s facilities has now muddied the waters.
“We cannot afford that … the inspection regime is interrupted,” Grossi told a press conference in Vienna last week.
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