Uncategorized
Far-right Israeli minister finds enemy in JDC, the mainstream American Jewish aid group
(JTA) — An American Jewish group that has provided aid to Jewish communities in crisis for more than a century has become the target of one of Israel’s newly empowered far-right ministers.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, who serves as national security minister, said on Wednesday that he was shutting down a program dedicated to reducing violence in Arab Israeli towns. His reason: The program is operated by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, which he called a “leftist organization.”
“JDC is a nonpolitical organization and has been so since our founding in 1914,” Michael Geller, a spokesperson for JDC, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Ben-Gvir’s characterization baffled many across the Jewish communal world who know the JDC as a nonpartisan group with an extensive track record of providing humanitarian aid to Jews in distress.
To them, Ben-Gvir’s criticism of the group is the latest sign that the rupture of political norms in Israel extends beyond the judicial reforms advanced by the government, which have drawn unprecedented protests.
“To call the JDC a left-wing organization is a joke. It is not political in any way,” said Amnon Be’eri-Sulitzeanu, co-CEO of the Abraham Initiatives, a nonprofit that works toward an “equal and shared society” for Jewish and Arab Israelis.
Be’eri-Sulitzeanu, who is Jewish, said he anticipated changes by the right-wing government, which was inaugurated in December. But he was surprised by Ben-Gvir’s announcement.
“I could expect revisiting collaboration with organizations that are branded as civil rights or human rights or Israeli-Palestinian organizations,” he added. “But the JDC — it’s very strange.”
Founded in 1914 by the American Jewish banker Jacob Schiff to aid Jews living in Palestine, the “Joint” has distributed billions of dollars in assistance across 70 countries — including, over the last year, to 43,000 Ukrainian Jews amid the war there. It played a central role in aiding Holocaust survivors following World War II, as well as in the resettlement of Jews from the former Soviet Union.
Among its biggest sources of support are Jewish federations, the nonpartisan umbrella charities found in nearly every major North American Jewish community.
“JDC is an apolitical organization that has worked with every government since the establishment of the State of Israel, providing critical services to the elderly, youth-at-risk, people with disabilities and other underserved populations across all sectors, including Haredim and Arab-Israelis,” the Jewish Federations of North America said in a statement. “JDC’s activities are a living and breathing example of the Jewish values of tikkun olam and tzedakah that guide Jewish Federations’ work every day,” Hebrew phrases that connote the Jewish imperative to repair the world, as well as charity.
JDC staff packing matzahs and haggadahs for online seders in Odessa, Ukraine, April 7, 2022. (JDC)
In Israel, the group funds and operates efforts to help needy populations — including immigrants, the elderly, people with disabilities and people living in poverty. Those efforts often involve working with the government, which in 2007 gave the JDC Israel’s most prestigious prize for its work. This year, according to a spokesman, the group is spending $129 million on Israel initiatives.
The JDC’s government-funded programs include the anti-violence effort that Ben-Gvir is targeting. It was made possible last year due to nearly $1 billion in funding to curb crime in Arab communities by the previous governing coalition, which was centrist. The allocation followed lobbying by Arab and civil society organizations, including the Abraham Initiatives, which is now monitoring how the money is being used as well as its impact.
Arab citizens of Israel make up 84% of crime victims despite comprising just 20% of the population, according to government data released last year that showed a sharp rise in the proportion of Arab Israelis who had experienced violent crime.
Many in Arab communities have called for heightened law enforcement and have charged Israeli police with making inadequate efforts to keep their communities safe. This week, commenting on the shooting death of an Arab Israeli woman, Arab Israeli opposition lawmaker Ahmad Tibi accused Ben-Gvir of being “occupied with other matters,” such as clashes with the attorney general and police officials in Tel Aviv. “Maybe the time has come for senior officials to demonstrate responsibility when it comes to crime organizations and weapons running rampant,” Tibi said.
Other initiatives have aimed to tackle the violence in ways that go beyond policing. The program that Ben-Gvir said he is shutting down is one of them. Called Stop the Bleeding, it involves multiple government ministries as well as local community groups and education efforts and has operated in seven cities with large Arab populations, including a Bedouin town and Lod, a city with significant Arab organized crime networks that also has a large Jewish population.
Be’eri-Sulitzeanu said the program was already starting to bear fruit and had contributed to a slowdown in a multi-year rise in murders. Canceling the program, he said, reflects the current government’s general approach to tackling Israel’s problems.
“It’s not about collaboration. It’s not about hearing the concerns and pain and hopes and needs of the Arab community,” he said. “It’s about doing everything unilaterally, and really without a lot of care for the lives of those people. I think that’s what we are watching.”
MK Ahmad Tibi attends a meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, Dec. 6, 2022. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
A year ago, around the time when the previous government awarded the Stop the Bleeding contract to the JDC, Bezalel Smotrich, a key Ben-Gvir ally who was then an opposition lawmaker and now serves alongside Ben-Gvir as finance minister, proposed that Israel create a “command center” of “all of the relevant entities” that provide humanitarian assistance to Ukrainian Jewish refugees. Included on his list, alongside the Israeli Foreign Ministry and Red Cross: the JDC.
The JDC is not the first mainstream group to be targeted by far-right members of Israel’s new right-wing government, whose signature legislative effort aims to sap the power and independence of the country’s judiciary. That legislation has given rise to a sweeping protest movement and to grave warnings about Israel’s future from a broad range of public figures — including elder statesmen, foreign governments and religious leaders.
Avi Maoz, the leader of the anti-LGBTQ Noam Party who briefly held a leadership role in Israel’s Education Ministry, compiled a list of American and British groups that he believes are trying to impose their liberal values on Israeli schoolchildren. “We must protect our people and our state from the infiltration of the alien bodies that arrive from foreign countries, foreign bodies, foreign foundations,” Maoz once said. Maoz has since resigned from that role, saying that he did not think he was being sufficiently empowered to fulfill his goals by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
But Be’eri-Sulitzeanu said he remains concerned about civil-society programs, especially those falling under the purview of far-right ministers including Ben-Gvir or those funded by American Jews, whom some on the right perceive as universally liberal.
People who are paying attention to local governance in Israel expect further tensions around initiatives that do not match Ben-Gvir’s attitudes about harsh policing. Ben-Gvir wants officers to have the right to shoot Arabs who throw stones, has called for a crackdown on anti-government protesters and is increasingly clashing with police officials who believe his orders could jeopardize public safety. Multiple former police commissioners have called for his dismissal.
“Ben-Gvir has his own political agenda and he has his own ax to grind, and at the moment, I think he’s not keen on developing services of the Arab population, either in security or juvenile delinquency or education,” said Amos Avgar, who worked for the JDC in Israel, Russia and the United States for 30 years until 2010, including as chief programming officer.
Avgar emphasized that the JDC has always studiously avoided political activity. “If there’s one thing that the JDC is not, it is not political,” he said. “It always shied [away] from anything that had the smell of politics and never dealt with any project by political agenda.”
It’s unclear how quickly Ben-Gvir’s announcement, made during a government meeting and first reported by Israel’s public broadcaster, will ultimately translate into changes. Geller, the JDC spokesman, said the organization had learned about the criticism only from the media, not from Ben-Gvir’s office. Later, amid an outcry, Ben-Gvir’s office said the funding decision had followed a review of contracts that revealed missing documentation from the JDC, a charge that the JDC denied.
Amnon-Sulitzeanu said he didn’t have high hopes for the program’s future.
“I think the first [characterization] is unfortunately going to be the correct one — that he is actually intending to stop it, which is very unfortunate because it is among the more serious programs that are willing to deal with this catastrophe,” he said. “And it shows again that the current minister is not so much interested in saving lives of Arab citizens.”
—
The post Far-right Israeli minister finds enemy in JDC, the mainstream American Jewish aid group appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Uncategorized
Tucker Carlson on Israeli TV: US, Israel Are ‘Not Democracies,’ Israel ‘Most Violent Country in the World’
Tucker Carlson speaks on first day of AmericaFest 2025 at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona, Dec. 18, 2025. Photo: Charles-McClintock Wilson/ZUMA Press Wire via Reuters Connect
Far-right podcaster Tucker Carlson came under fire after appearing on prime-time Israeli television and accusing both Israel and the US of betraying democracy, calling Israel “probably the most violent country in the world” and saying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had dragged President Donald Trump into the war with Iran.
In an interview with Channel 13 anchor and senior political analyst Udi Segal aired on Tuesday night, Carlson also repeated his claim that Israel’s actions in Gaza amounted to “genocide,” while saying the wording mattered less than what he described as the killing of civilians. The country had “definitely lost its morality,” he said.
When Segal pushed back, Carlson responded, “Israel has murdered all these children, thousands of children in Gaza. But the real criminal is me because I describe that as genocide. OK, it’s not genocide. It’s killing innocents. It’s wrong. You can call it genocide or ethnic cleansing. You can call it a crime, a sin, an atrocity. I don’t really care.”
Israel treats “Arabs like animals or sub-humans,” he added, not mentioning that Arabs, who comprise about 20 percent of Israel’s population, hold full political and civil rights and regularly serve at the highest levels of the government.
“That is not an attack on Jews,” Carlson continued. “Israel does not represent all Jews, despite its claims. It does not. That is factually incorrect, and you know it.”
The vast majority of Jews globally support Israel’s right to exist, with polls consistently showing that roughly 70% to 90% of Jewish adults feel an emotional attachment to the country and believe it has a right to exist as a Jewish state. A recent Washington Post survey found that 76% of American Jews believe Israel’s existence is vital for Jewish survival.
The full, exclusive interview: @TuckerCarlson speaks with @usegal on Israel’s @newsisrael13
– What’s behind his retreat from supporting Trump?
– Responding to antisemitism claims (and why did he host Nick Fuentes?)
– The war in Iran & Gaza
– Does he think Israel is trying to… pic.twitter.com/tnFcxJmYYC— Yosef Yisrael (@yosefyisrael25) May 19, 2026
Carlson said he believed both the US and Israel were failing their own citizens.
“I would like a democracy in the United States like I’d like one in Israel. Israel is not a democracy; the United States apparently is not a democracy either. Our government keeps doing things that people don’t want, so that’s not democracy; it’s the opposite of democracy.”
“Of course, Israel is not a democracy in any sense. There are millions of people who live under Israeli control who cannot vote,” he told Segal. “These places which Israel has controlled since 1967 have people living in them who have no control over the government that controls their lives, which is true, it’s not a democracy.”
Israel “is probably the most violent country in the world,” he said.
When Segal said Israel was acting in self-defense, Carlson responded that “no country has boasted more about killing its political opponents than Israel.”
“Israel makes a public relations campaign out of boasting about killing its opponents.”
Carlson also accused Trump of yielding to Netanyahu over Iran.
“Why did Trump let a nation of 9 million people drag a nation of 350 million people into a war that would change its future, and that is bad for the United States?”
“It’s wrong that I’m paying for Israel’s actions,” he said. “There’s no reason the United States should be sending any money at all to Israel and particularly not to its military.”
The Israeli prime minister pushed the US president, he said, “who turned out to be far weaker than I understood, into a war that hurts the United States.”
The White House issued a statement to Israel’s Channel 13 on Wednesday saying Carlson “is a low-IQ person who spreads fake news for cheap publicity.”
“Long before he was elected, President Trump has been consistent in his belief that Iran can never be allowed to possess a nuclear weapon,” the statement said. “Israel has always been a great ally to the United States, especially through Operations Midnight Hammer and Epic Fury that obliterated Iran’s nuclear facilities and destroyed their defense industrial base. President Trump took bold, decisive action to protect the American people — something presidents have talked about for 47 years, but only this president has had the courage to address.”
Carlson’s appearance came after a lightning trip to Israel in February for an interview with US Ambassador Mike Huckabee, part of an escalating feud in which Carlson has increasingly singled out evangelical Christian Zionists as a political target. The visit drew further criticism after Carlson used it to amplify a series of conspiracy claims, saying he was mistreated by Israeli authorities, while never actually leaving Ben-Gurion International Airport.
Commentators on social media pointed out that Carlson’s posting “Greetings from Israel” from an airport logistics zone, then flying out, does not amount to visiting the country in any ordinary sense.
Carlson’s brief trip to Israel contrasts with his interview of Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2024, when he spent multiple days in Russia praising the country on video and infamously marveling at the use of locks on shopping carts — a common feature in Europe.
The podcaster’s visit to Israel also differed from his trip to Doha in December, when he interviewed Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani and revealed his plans to purchase a home in the country. Qatar has been a long-time backer of the Muslim Brotherhood, including its Palestinian offshoot Hamas, an internationally designated terrorist group.
Carlson has ramped up his anti-Israel content over the last year, according to a study released in December by the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI), which tracked the prominent far-right podcaster’s disproportionate emphasis on attacking the Jewish state in 2025.
In September, for example, the podcaster appeared to blame the Jewish people for the crucifixion of Jesus and suggested Israel was behind the assassination of American conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Uncategorized
Slain Security Guard of California Mosque Engaged Gunmen in Shootout, Hailed as Hero
A man places a candle on the ground as he pays his respects in front of the Islamic Center of San Diego after the vigil in a park, the day after a fatal shooting incident, in San Diego, California, US, May 19, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Daniel Cole
The security guard slain at the Islamic Center of San Diego was hailed on Tuesday as a fallen hero who sacrificed his life to keep 140 school children inside the mosque safe by engaging two gunmen in a shootout that deterred the teenage suspects and helped thwart their attack.
Authorities also disclosed that the 17- and 18-year-old assailants, who took their own lives shortly after Monday’s shooting, were believed to have met online and were apparently “radicalized” in hate-related ideology on the internet.
Late on Tuesday, CNN reported that it had obtained and reviewed graphic video purported to be footage of the mosque shooting recorded and livestreamed by the two suspects, including a final clip that appears to show one of the gunmen shooting his companion and then himself.
A day after the gun violence, police, FBI, and other officials held a news conference focused on the three victims, all men affiliated with the mosque, who were slain in the attack and credited with putting themselves in harm’s way to save others.
The security guard, Amin Abdullah, 51, also known to friends as Brian Climax, immediately recognized the two youths as a threat and opened fire on them as they ran past him outside the mosque, according to San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl. The suspects then paused to return fire, Wahl said.
Abdullah wound up fatally shot in the parking lot, along with two other men who distracted the suspects after they stormed into the building, drawing their attention through a window, thus luring the two teens back outside, Wahl said.
TWO MEN LURED GUNMEN OUTSIDE
The two other victims, mosque elder Mansour Kaziha, 78, and Uber driver Nadir Awad, 57, a neighbor whose wife worked as a teacher at the school there, were cornered and shot to death in the parking lot by the gunmen when they re-emerged.
In the midst of the confrontation, it was Abdullah who transmitted the radio call that activated a security lockdown, which Wahl said also prevented further bloodshed there.
The gunfight and the security alert gave others in the building time to take shelter behind locked doors, Wahl said, while Kaziha and Awad coaxed the suspects out of the building. Kaziha also was the first person to call 911 emergency before he was shot, police said.
Minutes before officers from around California‘s second-most-populous city converged on the mosque, the two suspects fled by car. They were found dead in their vehicle a short time later several blocks away, apparently from self-inflicted gunshot wounds, police said.
Wahl singled out Abdullah for special praise of his “heroic action,” adding that at first, “I had no idea how heroic those actions were.”
“His actions, without a doubt, delayed, distracted, and ultimately deterred those two individuals from gaining access to the greater areas of the mosque where as many as 140 kids were within 15 feet of these suspects,” Wahl said.
Taha Hassane, the imam and director of the Islamic Center, called all three of the victims “our martyrs and our heroes.”
Addressing a separate news conference at a local park, the security guard‘s daughter, Hawaa Abdullah, offered prayers and paid a tearful tribute to her father as a man who doted on his family and was so dedicated to his job that he would not break for meals when he was on duty.
She called on people of all faiths to honor him by coming together and being kind. “He stood against any form of hate,” she said.
PURPORTED LIVESTREAMED VIDEO OF SHOOTING
Police and FBI have said that they are investigating the attack as a hate crime but have declined to offer details about a possible motive.
“What I can say is [the suspects] definitely had a broad hatred towards a lot of folks,” FBI special agent Mark Remily told reporters.
Although authorities have not officially named the two suspects, the gunmen have been identified as Caleb Vasquez, 18, and Cain Clark, 17, a Department of Justice official told Reuters.
Remily said one of the gunmen left behind a manifesto, but he declined to characterize it in detail.
CNN reported that a 75-page manifesto from the gunmen citing racist, Islamophobic and antisemitic ideology, as well as “incel” culture, was under scrutiny by investigators.
The cable network said it had obtained a copy of the document from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, which studies extremism, along with a video the two gunmen appeared to have recorded during their attack and posted to the internet in real time.
Summarizing the video in writing according to an AI-generated description of the footage, CNN said White supremacist symbols were visible on the two attackers’ guns and clothing as they are seen moving through the Islamic Center, with one firing a rifle before they walk back outside, fire a pistol, and then appear to stand over someone lying in a pool of blood.
CNN said it geolocated the final moment of the video to the neighborhood where police found two teens dead from gunshot wounds inside the getaway car. The footage ends with the driver stopping the vehicle, then appearing to shoot his passenger before shooting himself, according to the network.
A copy of a video that appears to match CNN’s written summary began circulating online on Tuesday.
Uncategorized
Israel Takes Step Toward Snap Election as Knesset Votes to Dissolve
Israeli politicians react following a vote to dissolve the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, before the end of its term, at the Knesset, in Jerusalem, May 20, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
Israel moved closer on Wednesday to a snap election after lawmakers gave an initial nod to dissolve parliament, with opinion polls showing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would lose the first national vote since the 2023 Hamas attacks.
Lawmakers voted almost unanimously for an early ballot in a preliminary reading of a bill to disband the 120-seat Knesset. If it receives final approval, a process that could take weeks, Israel could hold an election several weeks ahead of an Oct. 27 deadline.
Netanyahu’s own coalition submitted the bill to dissolve parliament after an ultra-Orthodox faction traditionally close to the Israeli leader accused him of failing to deliver on a promise to pass a law exempting their community from mandatory military service.
NETANYAHU BEHIND IN POLLS
Some 110 members of parliament voted in favor of the bill to dissolve, with no opponents or abstentions. It now heads to committee where an election date is agreed, before going back to the Knesset for final approval.
The vote comes at a pivotal time for Netanyahu, Israel‘s longest-serving prime minister who leads the most right-wing government in his country’s history.
Israel has been at war with Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Iran, fronts that remain volatile and could have an impact on the election.
Netanyahu still faces a long-running corruption trial. Israel‘s President Isaac Herzog is mediating talks to broker a plea deal in the case, which could see the 76-year-old Netanyahu retiring from politics as part of the deal.
Netanyahu’s health could also be an issue. He recently disclosed that he was successfully treated for prostate cancer and in 2023 he was fitted with a pacemaker.
Since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, polls have consistently shown Netanyahu’s governing coalition falling far short of a parliamentary majority.
However, there is also a chance that opposition parties will fail to form a coalition, leaving Netanyahu at the head of an interim government until the political stalemate is broken.