US President Donald Trump meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, US, April 7, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt

The White House on Monday canceled a joint press conference planned for the afternoon with US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was in Washington, DC, to discuss a range of issues including the Trump administration’s new global tariff offensive.

There was no explanation for the surprise decision to nix the press conference moments before Netanyahu’s arrival. However, the two leaders took questions in the Oval Office from a smaller group of reporters.

During their second in-person meeting since Trump’s inauguration in January, Trump and Netanyahu discussed Iran’s nuclear program and the new US tariffs placed on the Jewish state, among other issues.

“We’re having direct talks with Iran” beginning on Saturday,” Trump said in the Oval Office while meeting with Netanyahu.

“We have a very big meeting, and we’ll see what can happen,” Trump said, adding that Iran is “going to be in great danger” if the direct talks don’t go well.

Trump recently threatened to bomb Iran if the regime does not agree to a deal to curb its nuclear program, which the US and Israel believe is ultimately meant to build nuclear weapons. Iran claims its nuclear activities are meant for peaceful, civilian purposes.

However, the primary topic of conversation on Monday was Trump’s newly unveiled tariff policy.

“I can tell you that I said to the president, a very simple thing — we will eliminate the trade deficit with the United States,” Netanyahu said. “We intend to do it very quickly. We think it’s the right thing to do. And we’re also going to eliminate trade barriers.”

The US announced last week that it will impose 17 percent tariffs on goods imported from Israel under a major new trade initiative that Trump announced. As part of Trump’s sweeping set of tariffs, the US will impose a 10 percent baseline tariff on all imports to the US and higher duties on some countries with which it has larger trade deficits.

Washington decided on the 17-percent figure for Israel because it is half of the 33 percent tariffs that the White House says the Jewish state has put in place for some American products. Israel and the United States — the Jewish state’s largest trading partner — completed $34 billion in bilateral trade in 2024. Of that, over $22 billion came from exports from Israel to the US, including diamonds, medications, and electronic devices.

While unveiling the slate of new tariffs on international trade partners, the White House cited a “lack of reciprocity in our bilateral trade relationships” that is “indicated by large and persistent annual US goods trade deficits.”

Trump’s announcement came one day after Israel removed all tariffs on US goods. Israeli officials had hoped that dropping the tariffs would prevent the White House from placing its own tariffs on the Jewish state. Jerusalem will reportedly launch efforts to convince the Trump administration to reverse its decision.

The short-notice meeting between Trump and Netanyahu appears to be part of such an effort.

While leaving Hungary on Sunday, Netanyahu revealed that he will be “the first international leader, the first foreign leader” to hold a discussion with Trump regarding the tariffs and that the planned meeting is reflective of “the special personal relationship and the special bond between the United States and Israel, which is so vital at this time.”

“I believe this reflects the special personal relationship and the special bond between the United States and Israel, which is so vital at this time,” Netanyahu said. 

Following his arrival on Sunday, Netanyahu met with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the two masterminds behind the massive tariff plan that has plunged stock markets throughout the world. Trump’s proposed 17 percent tax on Israeli imports sparked frustrations within the Jewish state, with critics arguing that the proposal has the potential to destabilize the country’s economy.

In a post on X/Twitter, Netanyahu’s office said the prime minister’s meeting with Lutnick and Greer was “warm, friendly, and productive.”

The post Trump, Netanyahu Meet in DC, Talk Tariffs and Iran as White House Cancels Press Conference first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Pro-Hamas Columbia University students march in front of pro-Israel demonstrators on Oct. 7, 2024, the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel. Photo: Roy De La Cruz via Reuters Connect

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has issued revised grades for over a dozen colleges and universities that received low marks in the organization’s recent 2025 Campus Antisemitism Report Card, which was released last month.

The “report card” listed grades based on two criteria — “what’s happening on campus” and “university policies and responsive action.” In total, the ADL assessed 135 colleges and universities across the US, only eight of which — Elon University, Vanderbilt University, University of Alabama, Florida International University, University of Miami, City University of New York’s (CUNY) Brooklyn College, CUNY Queens College, and Brandeis University — merited an “A” grade.

On Friday, the ADL announced that more “A” grades are warranted due to several universities — Arizona State University, Purdue University, and the University of Georgia — enacting fresh policies for addressing antisemitism after learning they had not been judged as positively as they had hoped. Purdue University, the ADL noted, was upgraded from a “B” to an “A” after creating a “standing committee” on Jewish life and offering “expanded” educational programming on antisemitism. It also “re-affirmed” its low opinion of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, vowing never to adopt it.

The University of Georgia was equally responsive following the report’s release, forming an “advisory council on antisemitism” and sharing with the ADL previously unknown information about efforts to combat and raise awareness of anti-Jewish discrimination. Arizona State University also earned its revised grade by alerting the ADL of programming it holds to foster civil discourse and a balanced understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“The consultations ADL has engaged in with universities and colleges are part of our commitment to fostering safer and more inclusive environments for Jewish students and all members of the campus community,” ADL vice president of advocacy Shira Goodman, who also leads the Ronald Birnbaum Center to Combat Antisemitism in Education (CCAE), said in a press release. “Addressing antisemitism on campuses across the United States is one of our top priorities, and the willingness of many schools to engage with us after the release of our report card shows this is a priority for them as well. We hope this continues and that more schools will continue to engage, take action, and see their climate improve.”

Other schools saw their grades lifted from barely passing to average, with the University of Houston, University of Boston, and Stanford University going from a “D” to a “C.” The of Minnesota, which had been given an “F,” now holds a “D.”

“It is encouraging to see that a significant number of schools have decided to take action right after we released the 2025 Report Card a few weeks ago to improve the campus experience for Jewish students,” ADL chief executive office Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. “These important steps and policies send a clear message that antisemitism will not be tolerated on campus. We now urge consistent enforcement of the new polices and recommendations to ensure meaningful impact.”

As previously reported by The Algemeiner, the Ivy League received the poorest marks in the 2025 Campus Antisemitism Report Card.

No Ivy League institution — save Dartmouth College, which notched a “B” grade — earned better than a “C,” a mark given to Brown University, Cornell University, Harvard University, and the University of Pennsylvania. Princeton University, Yale University, and Columbia University rated lowest, scoring “D” grades.

Harvard’s receiving a “C” came amid a period described by observers as a low point in its history. The institution, America’s oldest and arguably most prestigious, had recently settled a merged lawsuit in which two groups accused it of refusing to discipline an allegedly antisemitic professor and other perpetrators of anti-Jewish discrimination, hate speech, and harassment. For months, the university’s legal counsel strove to dismiss the complainant’s charges, arguing that they lacked legal standing. Meanwhile, its highly reputed Law School saw its student government issue a defamatory resolution which accused Israel of genocide; its students quoted terrorists during an “Apartheid Week” event held in April; and dozens of its students and faculty participated in an illegal pro-Hamas encampment attended by members of a group that had shared an antisemitic cartoon.

Now, the Trump administration is reviewing $9 billion worth of federal grants and contracts awarded to Harvard University, jeopardizing a substantial source of the school’s income over its alleged failure to quell antisemitic and pro-Hamas activity on campus.

Princeton University’s partnerships with the federal government have been suspended as well, and $400 million of taxpayer funds due to be paid out to Columbia University were nixed as, the federal government said, “a response to their continued failure to end the persistent harassment of Jewish students.”

Brown University’s federal funding may soon be canceled soon, according to a report which said that its alleged failure to mount a satisfactory response to the campus antisemitism crisis, as well as its embrace of the diversity, equity, and, inclusion (DEI) movement — perceived by many across the political spectrum as an assault on merit-based upward mobility and causing incidents of anti-White and anti-Asian discrimination — prompted the pending action.

“US colleges and universities benefit from enormous public investments funded by US taxpayers,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in March. “That support is a privilege, and it is contingent on scrupulous adherence to federal antidiscrimination laws.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post ADL Issues Revised ‘Campus Antisemitism Report Card’ Grades first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

On March 21, 2025, in Washington, DC, a group of George Washington University students protest the school for not divesting their investments and allowing US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and local law enforcement on their campus. Photo: Andrew Thomas via Reuters Connect

George Washington University must address the campus antisemitism crisis before soliciting donations from community members who feel that more is needed to stem the tide of anti-Jewish hatred sweeping across the Washington, DC-based school, a concerned parent and co-founder of the advocacy group GWU Jewish Pulse wrote to the school in a blistering letter shared with The Algemeiner on Monday.

On April 3, the university held its fifth “Giving Day” campaign, through which it raised over $2 million from 3,500 parents who were implored to support “GW faculty and its cutting edge research.” The 24-hour event featured “matches & challenges,” with some parents agreeing to write checks totaling as much as $100,000 or to match donations when certain criteria were met. It was a resounding success, according to the university.

“We are blown away by your commitment to providing a world-class education to our students,” said a mass email sent on Friday. “Your passion and dedication on Giving Day and throughout the year strengthen every aspect of the student experience, from academic programs and athletic teams and student support resources.”

“Giving Day” may have scored GW a cash windfall, but it was offensive to GWU Jewish Pulse co-founder Lea Wolf. Writing to university president Ellen M. Granberg, she accused Granberg of being derelict in her duty to protect Jewish students from pro-Hamas extremists among the student body and faculty.

“Before asking parents and alumni to contribute financially, perhaps it is time to confront the environment the university has actively cultivated — and what, if any, meaningful measures have been offered to Jewish students amid rising hostility, blatant hatred, and a stream of empty institutional platitudes,” said the letter, which will be released to the public later this week. “For many families, George Washington University has indeed been transformational — but due to the intense and painful realization that GW is tolerant of Hamas propaganda and is willing to sacrifice its Jewish community in pursuit of financial gain, shielding liability, and a dangerous political agenda.”

Wolf went on to enumerate a litany of antisemitic incidents that occurred on GW’s campus since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel — from Jewish students being “demonized” to their being “subjected to predatory faculty practices.” She also accused GW of obstructing investigations of antisemitism, issuing “evasive” statements which falsely implied it was committed to addressing antisemitism and launching “sham” investigations of people who reported experiencing antisemitism.

“The administration’s political games and refusal to lead in moments of rising terrorism speaks volumes,” Wolf continued. “When leaders fail to name antisemitism as a form of misconduct or treat Jewish concerns as politically inconvenient, that silence becomes complicity.”

As previously reported by The Algemeiner, George Washington University has become a hub of extreme anti-Zionist activity that school officials have struggled to quell. A major source of the troubling conduct is Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which recently escalated its behavior by issuing an ominous warning to a professor who was involved in crafting a proposal to relocate Palestinians in Gaza.

“This notice is to inform you that you are hereby evicted from the premises of the George Washington University,” SJP wrote in a missive it taped to the office door of international affairs professor Joseph Pelzman, who first shared the resettlement plan with Trump’s presidential campaign in July 2024, according to an account of events he described to the podcast “America, Baby!” the following month.

Denouncing Pelzman as the “architect of genocide,” SJP added, “Pelzman’s tenure is only one pernicious symptom of the bloodthirsty Zionism permeating our campus … The proprietors of this eviction notice demand your immediate removal.”

SJP’s threat to Pelzman, an accomplished academic who has focused heavily on the Middle East region, came as the group served probation for breaking a slew of school rules during the 2023-2024 academic year — a term which saw it heap abuse on school officials, visitors to campus representing former US President Joe Biden’s administration, and African Americans. Earlier this year, SJP held a “teach-in” that commemorated the First Intifada, an outbreak of Palestinian terrorism which began in Dec. 1987 and, lasting for nearly six years, claimed the lives of scores of Israelis.

The group is currently suspended, according to The GW Hatchet, as the university has decided it is “a threat to the stability and continuance of normal university functions.”

GW faculty have also proved problematic. In 2023, former psychology professor Lara Sheehi was accused of verbally abusing and discriminating against her Jewish graduate students.

As recounted by a civil rights complaint filed by StandWithUs, Sheehi expressed contempt for Jews when, on the first day of term in Aug. 2022, she asked every student to share information about their backgrounds and cultures. Replying to a student who revealed that she was Israeli, Sheehi said, “It’s not your fault you were born in Israel.” Jewish students said they made several attempts to persuade the university to correct Sheehi’s behavior or arrange an alternative option for fulfilling the requirements of her course. Each time, StandWithUs alleged, administrators said nothing could be done.

Later, the complaint added, Sheehi spread rumors that her Jewish students were “combative” racists and filed misconduct charges against them. One student told The Algemeiner at the time that she never learned what university policies Sheehi accused her and her classmates of violating.

In Monday’s letter, Lea Wolf complained that these issues, and more, remain uncorrected.

“Giving is a two-way relationship,” she concluded. “Trust is earned, not assumed. If you want the Jewish community to give, then demonstrate genuine leadership and meaningful accountability to restore the integrity and mission of this educational institution. Honor the values and principles this institution claims to uphold — through decisive action, honest words, and the courage to lead when it matters most.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post Advocacy Group Blasts George Washington University Over Fundraising Drive Amid Antisemitism Crisis first appeared on Algemeiner.com.