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I’m Not Jewish, But Supporting Israel Matters to Me
Schaeffer Hall, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa. Photo: Flickr.
My mother always taught me to “be a leader, not a follower.” Throughout my life, I’ve watched people blindly follow senseless trends, and nowhere is this more apparent than on college campuses — where ideas, both good and bad, take root and spread.
Before college, my exposure to Jewish history and culture was limited to small but meaningful moments: studying and singing Oseh Shalom in choir, visiting the Holocaust Museum and hearing from a survivor, or staying up past my bedtime to read a biography of Anne Frank.
Despite these glimpses, I had never actually met a Jewish person until I arrived on campus.
Universities are one of the major front lines for the battleground of ideas and this became extremely apparent after the anti-Israel protests were started in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 atrocities.
It was there that I saw firsthand how misinformation about Israel distorts history, fuels antisemitism, and turns ignorance into hostility.
After observing the ambivalence — if not outright hostility — that many people on my campus showed towards the Israeli victims, I decided to host a Vigil for Israel on October 17, 2023. It featured prayers, a candlelit moment of silence, and chalk messages across campus advocating for fellow Hawkeyes to stand with Israel.
Within 24 hours, our vigil was defaced. Individuals crossed out our Israel flags, replaced the word Israel with “Palestine,” and washed away our messages.
Since then, whenever I’ve attended so-called pro-Palestinian “peace” rallies, I’ve been confronted by individuals who told me I wasn’t welcome and singled me out simply for being there.
Recently, in March I saw a student wearing a hoodie that said in Arabic, “If you come back, we will crush it and blow up your entire army.”
The previous summer, while covering a rally, I captured video of a woman denying the rape of Israeli women and openly declaring her support for Hamas.
While she was free to do so, it’s hard not to see a connection between this level of discourse and hearing stories about Jewish students being followed and harassed by would-be thugs sporting pro-Jihad sweatshirts.
These incidents aren’t isolated. I was asked to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Free Speech and Antisemitism on November 8, 2023, after continuing to witness how free speech was only protected for some students and not others on college campuses.
During this testimony and the national news interviews that followed, I heard firsthand from students at Cornell and other universities who have faced blatant antisemitic harassment, enabled by misinformation that has justified Hamas and demonized Israel.
Last December, I shared how the situations on campus aren’t getting better when I testified at Congressman Greg Murphy (R-NC)’s Annual Free Speech Roundtable,
My experience, and the experiences of my peers seems to be the norm. I was the president of the Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) student group at the University of Iowa, and chapter members from across the country have faced similar situations.
At Saint Louis University, in September 2024, two YAF students were disciplined for including a pre-approved banner in a 9/11 memorial that expressed solidarity between the US and Israel against radical Islamic terrorism after an anti-Israel student complained that part of the banner was leaning up against a building.
An activism initiative that Young Americans for Freedom has begun is the Stand for Israel Memorial each October. To remember the one year anniversary of October 7, chapters at the following schools attempted to participate in the project which, involves displaying Israeli flags to remember the hostages, but were met with challenges on campus:
At Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, administrators prohibited a YAF chapter from displaying Israeli flags to commemorate victims of Hamas’ October 7 attack. This has led to a Civil Rights complaint being filed by Young America’s Foundation in February 2025.
At the University of Georgia, officials delayed approval for a memorial display and later used bike racks to shield Israeli flags from extremist student backlash.
At Michigan’s Waterford Kettering High School, administrators refused to recognize a YAF chapter and barred students from displaying Israeli flags in remembrance.
At my school, the University of Iowa, in October 2024, pro-Hamas students vandalized a banner for our pro-Israel speaker, shouting slogans calling for the destruction of Israel.
Fighting unrestrained anti-Israel lies and bullying is important — not just for Jewish students, but to anyone who values free expression, academic freedom, and genuine inclusion on campus.
As someone who believes in diversity of thought, speaking out against this unfair abuse of free speech is essential to protecting those values. This fight will only be won when people of all backgrounds — especially the non-Jewish majority — step up, take ownership, and demand not just support for Israel, which is both justified and necessary, but also the fundamental right of every student to feel safe and free to speak their mind.
Jasmyn Jordan is a 2024-2025 CAMERA Fellow and senior honors presidential scholar at the University of Iowa, double majoring in Political Science and International Relations, with a minor in Journalism.
The post I’m Not Jewish, But Supporting Israel Matters to Me first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
The post Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
The post US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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