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Mark Pocan Rips AIPAC as ‘Dark Money’ Group, Claims Netanyahu Plotting to ‘Destroy Gaza’
US Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) speaking at a press conference at the US Capitol. Photo: Michael Brochstein/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
US Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) slammed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, intensifying the rhetoric of some lawmakers in Washington, DC against the Jewish state and its American supporters.
“The hypocrisy of [AIPAC]. Netanyahu refuses to support the ceasefire/return of hostage plan, as his real plan is to destroy Gaza,” Pocan posted on X/Twitter. “Yet they claim Hamas missing a meeting as supposed failure. Both should support the plan. Just dark money [AIPAC] supports Netanyahu, not Israel.”
The stated mission of AIPAC, the foremost pro-Israel lobbying group in the US, is to seek bipartisan support to strengthen the US-Israel relationship.
Pocan’s comment came in response to an earlier post by AIPAC in which the organization criticized him alongside other progressive US lawmakers — Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Summer Lee (D-PA), and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), as well as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) — for remaining silent about Hamas’ refusal to participate in a final round of negotiations brokered by the US, Qatar, and Egypt aimed at reaching a ceasefire in Gaza.
“Total silence from the ‘Ceasefire Now’ squad. Where’d you go, [Ocasio-Cortez], [Pocan ], [Sanders], [Lee], [andPressley]?” AIPAC posted. “Their silence speaks volumes. It was never about a ceasefire, only about demonizing Israel.”
Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that runs Gaza, announced on Sunday that it would not attend the ceasefire and hostage negotiations, demanding that the talks be based on previously discussed conditions. Israel immediately accepted last week’s invitation by the US, Egypt, and Qatar to attend the meeting, which is to take place in either Cairo or Doha on Thursday. Organizers hope the meeting will help end the 10-month war sparked by Hamas’ invasion of southern Israel on Oct. 7.
AIPAC further criticized Pocan on X/Twitter, accusing him of repeating “tired lies” against Israel. The organization blasted the progressive lawmaker for refusing to assign blame to Hamas for refusing to negotiate with Israel.
“More of the same tired lies and deflection from [Pocan] who will say just about anything to avoid unequivocally calling out Hamas. Why is it so hard for him and the ‘Ceasefire Now’ Squad to single out Hamas for refusing to join the US-backed talks?” AIPAC wrote.
Monday was not the first time that Pocan leveled harsh condemnations at AIPAC. He has called on the pro-Israel group to condemn Netanyahu for committing a “genocide” and suggested the organization wants the Israel-Hamas war to continue for fundraising purposes.
In the months following Hamas’ Oct. 7 slaughter of roughly 1,200 people throughout southern Israel, Pocan has positioned himself as a strong critic of the Jewish state. He has condemned Israel’s defensive military operations in the Gaza Strip, accusing the Jewish state of causing “devastation” and engaging in “indiscriminate killing.” Pocan has also voted against sending additional offensive arms shipments to Israel, claiming that the Jewish state has inflicted unjustifiable atrocities “upon innocent civilians in Gaza.”
Mediators are still planning to hold ceasefire discussions despite Hamas’ expected absence.
An Israeli official told Axios that the terrorist group’s refusal to attend the next round of negotiations is “a tactical move ahead of a possible attack by Iran and Hezbollah and in an attempt to get better terms for the deal.”
Iran and its chief terror proxy Lebanese Hezbollah are expected to launch some kind of attack on Israel in the coming days as revenge for the killings of top Hamas and Hezbollah leaders.
Netanyahu’s office confirmed that the Jewish state plans on sending mediators to the Aug. 15 ceasefire talks in either Doha or Cairo.
“Pursuant to the proposal by the US and the mediators, Israel will — on Aug. 15 — send the negotiations team to a place to be determined in order to finalize the details of the implementation of the framework agreement,” the Israeli premier’s office said in a statement.
The post Mark Pocan Rips AIPAC as ‘Dark Money’ Group, Claims Netanyahu Plotting to ‘Destroy Gaza’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Fake Plan to Attack Australia Synagogue Fabricated by Organized Crime, Police Say
Car in New South Wales, Australia graffitied with antisemitic message. Photo: Screenshot
A fake plan to attack on a Sydney synagogue using a caravan of explosives was fabricated by an organized crime network in order to divert police resources, Australian police said on Monday.
Authorities in January found explosives in a caravan, or trailer, that could have created a blast wave of 40 meters (130 feet), along with the address of a Sydney synagogue.
But police on Monday said the discovery was part of a “criminal con job,” with the ease with which the caravan was found along with the lack of a detonator suggesting there was never any intent to attack Jewish targets.
“The caravan was never going to cause a mass casualty event but instead was concocted by criminals who wanted to cause fear for personal benefit,” Krissy Barrett, the Australian Federal Police‘s Deputy Commissioner for National Security, told a news conference.
“Almost immediately, experienced investigators … believed that the caravan was part of a fabricated terrorism plot – essentially a criminal con job.”
Police are yet to make any arrests in relation to the planning of the fabricated plot but have gone public with the information in order to provide comfort to the Jewish community in Sydney, Dave Hudson, New South Wales Police Deputy Commissioner, told the news conference.
“It was about causing chaos within the community, causing threat, causing angst, diverting police resources away from their day jobs, to have them focus on matters that would allow them to get up to or engage in other criminal activity,” Hudson said.
Police are investigating a suspect involved in an organized crime network, he added.
Australia has suffered a spate of antisemitic attacks in recent months, with homes, schools, synagogues, and vehicles targeted by vandalism and arson, drawing the ire of the country’s traditional ally Israel.
The post Fake Plan to Attack Australia Synagogue Fabricated by Organized Crime, Police Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Urging UN Agencies, Aid Groups to Replace UNRWA in Gaza, Envoy Says
A truck, marked with United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) logo, crosses into Egypt from Gaza, at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, during a temporary truce between Hamas and Israel, in Rafah, Egypt, Nov. 27, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
Israel is actively encouraging UN agencies and other aid groups to take over the work of the UN Palestinian relief agency (UNRWA) in Gaza, Israel‘s ambassador said on Monday, after banning the agency on Israeli territory in January.
“We, the State of Israel, are working to find substitute to the act, to the work of UNRWA inside Gaza,” Daniel Meron, Israel‘s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, told reporters.
He declined to give specifics but said Israel was “encouraging the UN agencies and NGOs to take over each one in its own field that they specialize in.”
The Israeli government and research organizations have publicized findings showing numerous UNRWA-employed staff, including teachers and school principals, are active Hamas members, some of whom were directly involved in the Palestinian terrorist group’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, while many others openly celebrated it.
The post Israel Urging UN Agencies, Aid Groups to Replace UNRWA in Gaza, Envoy Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Man Who Scaled London’s ‘Big Ben’ Clock Tower With Palestinian Flag Appears in Court
A man with a Palestinian flag sits on the Elizabeth Tower, commonly known as Big Ben, next to Houses of Parliament, in London, Britain, March 8, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Hannah McKay
A man who climbed part way up the “Big Ben” clock tower at London’s Palace of Westminster early on Saturday and stayed there all day as part of a pro-Palestinian protest appeared in court on Monday.
Clutching a Palestinian flag, Daniel Day, 29, scaled 25 meters (82 feet) up the building, officially known as the Elizabeth Tower, at about 7:20 am on Saturday, remaining there for 16 hours until agreeing to come down, his lawyer and prosecutors told London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
He was subsequently charged by police with climbing and remaining on the tower which created “a risk or caused serious harm to the public,” and also trespassing on a protected site.
Prosecutors said Day’s actions had led to serious disruption in that area of central London with roads closed and buses diverted, and the cancellation of parliamentary tours had cost 25,000 pounds ($32,300).
Day’s lawyer said he would plead not guilty to the first charge, saying his action was designed to spread awareness regarding the situation in Gaza and Britain’s response to it.
The second charge of trespass requires the authorization of the attorney general, and so the case was adjourned until March 17 for a decision to be made.
Day, from a seaside town in eastern England, was remanded in custody, with his supporters clapping and shouting “Hero” and “Free Palestine” as he was led away.
Lindsay Hoyle, the speaker of parliament’s House of Commons, which is also located in the Palace of Westminster, said he had asked for a review of the incident.
($1 = 0.7745 pounds)
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