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Media Continues to Fan the Flames of Progressive ‘Squad’s’ Antisemitism
US Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) raises her fist as US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) addresses a pro-Hamas demonstration in Washington, DC. Photo: Reuters/Allison Bailey
When it comes to Representative Cori Bush (D-MO), the mainstream media is once again beginning to shift the focus from domestic issues to Israel and the Jewish community for the upcoming Democratic primary race between Bush and St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell.
The race follows in the footsteps of last month’s New York Democratic primary between Jamaal Bowman and George Latimer, in which the media placed a heavy focus on Israel and “big money,” when voters were mostly concerned with local and domestic issues. The Jewish community felt unsafe and disturbed by Bowman’s apparent antisemitism. But in the end, it was non-Jewish voters — and domestic issues — that lost him the race.
However, this lesson has apparently not been learned by both Bush and the media. Most American voters prioritize on domestic issues at the ballot box. As a matter of fact, Emerson College Polling, The Hill, and Nexstar Missouri conducted a poll which revealed that Missouri voters prioritize the economy (34.3%), abortion access (12.3%), and immigration (10.3%) as top three issues. Israel-Hamas did not even fall within the nine categories recorded in the poll.
Since Bowman’s June loss, Bush has played it safe on her social media. That is, until last week:
“The flames of war being fanned by this Israeli government only continue to wreak havoc and bring needless suffering; if we allow this election to be bought & Bush’s opponent to take office, he will do nothing to stop the violence.”
More from @ProJoSTLhttps://t.co/XadLAeXekW
— Cori Bush (@CoriBush) July 16, 2024
Immediately after the Israel-Hamas war started on October 7, Bush and other congresspeople voted against a resolution that supported Israel and condemned Hamas. Prior, she called for the United States to end aid to Israel.
It is important to note that Bush has not been well-liked by the St. Jewish community. She’s made comments that some consider antisemitic and definitively anti-Israel, and that only got worse after October 7. One of the most vivid examples is her tweet via her Congressional X (formerly Twitter) account on October 30:
We can’t be silent about Israel’s ethnic cleansing campaign.
Babies, dead.
Pregnant women, dead.
Elderly, dead.
Generations of families, dead.
Millions of people in Gaza with nowhere to go being slaughtered.
The U.S. must stop funding these atrocities against Palestinians. https://t.co/IlhoZvDD3P
— Congresswoman Cori Bush (@RepCori) October 30, 2023
In November, the Jewish community of St. Louis put out a joint-statement condemning Bush’s comments regarding Israel supposedly attempting to ethnically cleanse Palestinians in Gaza:
To accuse Israel of ethnic cleansing as it seeks to defend itself and locate hundreds of hostages still held captive in Gaza — taken only because they were assumed to be Jews — is sickening … Her statement not only fails to advance peace, but it incites anger and the potential of further violence toward the Jewish community.
Bush also has a history of being associated with people like BDS activists Naveen Ayesh and Linda Sarsour.
Ayesh has been caught and exposed by both Canary Mission and then Congress of supporting terror groups like Palestinian Islamic Jihad. She also hosted more than one fundraising event for Bush over the years.
In an interview with NPR’s Jason Rosenbaum on Monday, headlined “Bush says her Gaza cease-fire push is resonating with Missouri’s 1st District voters,” about half (and the first half no less) of the discussion was about Bush’s Israel-Gaza position. The article prioritized the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Jewish voters ahead of all other policies and issues.
A focus on Bush’s Israel stance, along with her slams on pro-Israel “republican mega-money,” may sound juicy, but it can be seen as despicable. Rosenbaum even admitted that most people in the district “don’t vote based on Israel.”
The National Desk article already brings in Bowman by the third paragraph, as it introduces the Israel-Hamas War and Trump “mega-donors” to the piece. They did this just to insert Bush’s reaction to Bowman’s loss, blaming “extremists” and claiming that groups like AIPAC tried to “buy votes.”
No other issues were mentioned in the entire article.
Media attempts to absolve Bush of previous libelous accusations of Israel carrying out an ethnic cleansing among others is manipulative, while she continues to insist in interviews that her actions and statements promote safety for both Israelis and Palestinians. She has various tweets which say otherwise.
As the media continues to perpetuate this narrative of Israel being the main issue, here is our message: Don’t fan the flames of antisemitism, especially during a wave of rising antisemitic attacks.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
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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.
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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.
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