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Mike Huckabee Says Hamas Should Have ‘No Future in Gaza’ During Confirmation Hearing for Israel Ambassador

Mike Huckabee looks on as Donald Trump reacts during a campaign event at the Drexelbrook Catering and Event Center, in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, US, Oct. 29, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Mike Huckabee vowed to help ensure the complete eradication of Hamas in Gaza during his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday to become the next US ambassador to Israel, lambasting the Palestinian terrorist group for carrying out its Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of the Jewish state.

Huckabee, an evangelical Christian, said that if he is confirmed, “Hamas will have no future in Gaza.” He went on to say that the terrorist group massacred Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, 2023, “​​in a way that was most physically painful and in a way that was most personally humiliating.” The former governor of Arkansas called for “accountability for what was done to Jewish people” during the largest single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. 

In addition, Huckabee praised US President Donald Trump’s “historic” brokering of the Abraham Accords during his first term in office from 2017-2021. He indicated that he would help build upon them, arguing that the normalization agreements between Israel and Arab countries provide the Middle East with “hope” for a more peaceful future. 

During Trump’s first term in office, his administration also recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a strategic region on Israel’s northern border previously controlled by Syria, and moved the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, recognizing the city as the Jewish state’s capital.

Huckabee heaped praise on Israel, saying that he feels “grateful” for the opportunity to serve as the US ambassador to the Jewish state. He recounted the “approximately 100” trips that he has taken to Israel over the course of his life, adding that the Jewish state has left a profound “impact” upon him. Huckabee stressed the importance of appointing a strong ambassador to Israel, stressing the urgency of freeing the remaining hostages in Gaza and defeating Hamas. 

Huckabee’s opening statement was intermittently interrupted by protesters, who accused him of attempting to use his Christian faith to launder Israel’s reputation and justify a so-called “ethnic cleansing” and “genocide” in Gaza. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) repudiated one of the agitators as a “Code Pink lunatic” and accused the far-left activist organization of being “funded by communist China.”

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), a vocal critic of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, pressed Huckabee about his views on Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Israel potentially annexing the territory. Huckabee evaded the question, stating that it would be inappropriate to weigh in on potential policy proposals by Israeli officials. 

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) asked Huckabee to explain the significance of the US-Israel relationship. In response, Huckabee warned that Iran, which US intelligence agencies have long called the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism, perceives the destruction of Israel as the first step to the ultimate dismantling of the United States.

“Israel is the appetizer, and [the United States] is the entree,” Huckabee said, adding that Iran wishes to acquire a nuclear weapon to destroy Israel as part of its eventual goal of toppling Western civilization. 

“This is not just about Israel. It is about us, and if we don’t stand with them, they stand alone. And if they fall alone, we fall next,” Huckabee said.

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), pressed Huckabee on whether he believes the Trump administration’s alleged “pivot to Russia” has made US allies, including Israel, hesitant to share sensitive intelligence information. Booker pointed out that during the first Trump administration in 2017, Trump “shared intelligence about an Islamic State threat with specifics that came from a spy embedded in the terrorist group on behalf of Israel.” The senator said that Trump’s leak “placed that person’s life at risk and cut off Israel from his intel.” Huckabee responded that if confirmed he would “work diligently” to ensure that sensitive information is handled “with integrity.”

Huckabee has long been a stalwart ally of the Jewish state. He has repudiated the anti-Israel protests that erupted in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel and criticized former US President Joe Biden for sympathizing with the protesters during his speech at the 2024 Democratic National Convention (DNC). The former governor also lambasted the anti-Israel encampments at elite universities, stating that there should be “outrage” over the targeting and mistreatment of Jewish college students. 

Huckabee has defended Israel’s right to build settlements in the West Bank, acknowledging the Jewish people’s ties to the land dating back to the ancient world.

“There is no such thing as the West Bank — it’s Judea and Samaria,” Huckabee has said, referring to the biblical names for the area preferred by Israel. “There is no such thing as settlements — they’re communities, they’re neighborhoods, they’re cities. There is no such thing as an occupation.”

The post Mike Huckabee Says Hamas Should Have ‘No Future in Gaza’ During Confirmation Hearing for Israel Ambassador first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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German Court Overturns Ban on Annual ‘Quds Day’ March in Frankfurt Despite Authorities’ Antisemitism Concerns

Quds Day march in Hannover, Germany in 2024. Photo: Screenshot

A demonstration calling for Israel’s destruction will be allowed to take place in the German city of Frankfurt this weekend after an administrative court overturned the city’s ban on the rally, which had been put in place due to expected displays of antisemitism.

The Frankfurt Administrative Court on Friday ruled that the ban on the march, which was scheduled to take place on Saturday, was unlawful.

German authorities on Thursday had banned the annual “Quds Day” rally in Frankfurt, citing public safety concerns and its antisemitic symbolism, local media reported.

According to the city’s assembly authority, the decision was based on the “high probability” that the gathering “would serve as an openly visible symbol of antisemitism related to Israel” and that public safety would be immediately at risk.

Sponsored by the Iranian regime, the annual Quds Day commemorations event is held in Tehran and several other cities, where Iran and its allies organize marches in support of the Palestinians and call for Israel’s annihilation.

“The end of Ramadan is actually a celebration of inner contemplation and also of hope,” Josef Schuster, the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said in a statement, as reported by German media. “It is almost tragic that Muslim fanatics – incited by Iran – repeatedly use this occasion to propagate hatred against Israel and Jews.”

He called on Muslim groups to “actively position themselves against this abuse of their faith,” adding, “Everyone knows what to expect from Al-Quds marches. They should be banned.”

Iran is the chief international backer of Hamas, providing the Palestinian terrorist group with weapons, funding, and training. According to media reports based on documents seized by the Israeli military in Gaza last year, Iran had been informed about Hamas’s plan to invade and perpetrate a massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, months in advance.

Since 2015, demonstrations have been held on the streets of Frankfurt every year during the last weekend of Ramadan, marking the so-called “Al-Quds [Arabic name for Jerusalem] Day.” The event was introduced by Iran’s then-nascent Islamist regime in 1979 as the “Day of the Liberation of the Holy City of Jerusalem from Zionist Occupation.”

Frankfurt’s Public Order office said that between 500 and 1,000 people were expected to participate in the events this weekend.

Since last year, the official slogan of the event has been “Stop the War” — referring to the Gaza war, which began after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel, during which Palestinian terrorists murdered 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 hostages.

Frankfurt’s mayor, Nargess Eskandari-Grünberg, criticized the event last year as a “propaganda day for the [Iranian] regime,” stating that demonstrations with “clearly antisemitic slogans” and the display of images of terrorists should be banned.

During the rally last year, participants chanted slogans such as “Israel, child killer” and “Germany finances, Israel bombs.”

“Demonstrations that deny a state’s right to exist and call for its destruction cannot be peaceful,” Frankfurt’s Commissioner of Public Order, Annette Rinn, said in a statement. “Therefore, the decision to officially ban this year’s Al-Quds Day in Frankfurt is the only appropriate action.”

Rinn later said she accepted the court’s decision to overturn the ban, adding, “Our goal is now to ensure an orderly course of the assembly through appropriate conditions, especially with regard to possible counter-demonstrations.”

In 2021, Berlin became the first jurisdiction in Germany to allow the prohibition of gatherings promoting hate speech. It is one of eight federal states that have adopted this measure.

In recent years, “Al-Quds” demonstrations in the German capital have been canceled.

Ulrike Becker, director of research at the Berlin Middle East Freedom Forum, has called for a general ban on “this celebration of antisemitism.”

“It is a mistake to allow demonstrations that call for the destruction of Israel on the streets of Germany, whether in Frankfurt, Berlin, or anywhere else,” Becker said.

It is not “a peaceful protest,” but rather “a call for the destruction of the Jewish state,” a demand that “cannot be protected by the right to freedom of expression or the right to protest,” Becker added.

She also said the event is “not a legitimate expression of opinion” but “an instrument of the Islamist regime [of Iran] to spread hatred and hostile imagery.”

The post German Court Overturns Ban on Annual ‘Quds Day’ March in Frankfurt Despite Authorities’ Antisemitism Concerns first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Harvard University Pauses West Bank Program With Birzeit University

Demonstrators take part in an “Emergency Rally: Stand With Palestinians Under Siege in Gaza,” amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, Oct. 14, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Harvard University has paused a partnership with a higher education institution located in the West Bank, an area administered by Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority (PA).

According to a report by The Harvard Crimson, Birzeit University will not, among other things, receive Harvard’s co-sponsorship of a “Palestine Medical Course” held on its campus due to “safety concerns of having Harvard students study in the West Bank.” This is the second change to the arrangement with Birzeit, as the course had already been transplanted to Amman, the capital city of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel.

The Crimson added that the decision to put the Harvard-Birzeit partnership into abeyance followed from an internal investigation of Harvard’s François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights (FXB), the institution directly affiliated with Birzeit. It is not clear what ultimately caused Harvard to discontinue the arrangement, but it is a move for which prominent members of the Harvard community and federal lawmakers have clamored before, The Crimson noted.

“There are some issues that should be complicated. Why can’t Harvard immediately dissolve its partnership with Birzeit University?” former Harvard president Larry Summers wrote on the X social media platform in July 2024. His post came on the heels of a letter in which over two dozen Republican members of Congress said that Harvard’s partnership with Birzeit was “extremely concerning” given alleged pro-Hamas sentiment expressed by the school’s student government.

“The university also has had a policy of barring Israeli Jews from campus. Shockingly, following the Oct. 7 attack, Birzeit University posted, ‘Glory for martyrs, recovery for wounded ones, and freedom for the captives.’ This type of behavior stands in direct opposition to the values Harvard claims to uphold,” the lawmakers wrote, led by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), a rising star in the GOP whose nomination for United Nations Ambassador was pulled by President Donald Trump to protect his party’s majority in Congress.

Harvard University has rejected accusations that it harbors antisemites and supporters of jihadist terrorists since its students cheered Hamas’s Oct. 7 atrocities in southern Israel, in which the terrorist group murdered, sexually assaulted, and abducted Israeli civilians.

Over the next year and a half, the university saw its students and faculty quote terrorists, share antisemitic cartoons, and illegally occupy sections of campus they refused to surrender unless Harvard initiated a boycott of Israel. The new Trump administration has placed the school in its crosshairs even as it takes steps to downsize, and potentially shutter, the government agency charged with investigating it.

Earlier this month, the Department of Education added Harvard University to a list of colleges and universities it will investigate for possible civil rights violations stemming from their alleged failure to address campus antisemitism. In announcing the action, Education Secretary Linda McMahon said, “Jewish students studying on elite campuses continue to fear for their safety amid the relentless antisemitic eruptions that have severely disrupted campus life for more than a year.”

Meanwhile, Harvard has recently taken steps to allay concerns that it welcomes pro-Hamas extremists. It recently fired a librarian whom someone filmed ripping posters of the Bibas children, two babies murdered in captivity by Hamas, off a kiosk in Harvard Yard. Following the incident, which became a viral sensation on social media, Harvard diversity and inclusion officer Sherri A. Charleston denounced the perpetrator’s behavior as “hateful” and a violation of “the university and community values that unite us.”

In January, Harvard settled an antisemitism lawsuit it had initially fought to discredit, and in so doing pledged to “strengthen our policies, systems, and operations to combat antisemitism and all forms of hate.”

Per the agreement, Harvard will apply the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism to its non-discrimination and anti-bullying policies (NDAB), recognize the centrality of Zionism to Jewish identity, and explicitly state that targeting and individual on the basis of their Zionism constitutes a violation of school rules.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post Harvard University Pauses West Bank Program With Birzeit University first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Elise Stefanik to Remain in US Congress as Trump Withdraws UN Ambassador Nomination to Hold Narrow GOP Majority

United Nations Ambassador-designate Elise Stefanik spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Feb. 22, 2025. Photo: Zach D Roberts/NurPhoto via Reuters Connect

US Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) will remain in Congress after President Donald Trump withdrew her nomination to become the next ambassador to the UN amid growing concerns over the Republicans’ narrow majority in the House of Representatives.

Trump announced on social media on Thursday that Stefanik would rejoin the House leadership team, citing a need to “maintain every Republican seat in Congress” to help the president advance “historic tax cuts, great jobs, record economic growth, a secure border, energy dominance, [and] peace through strength.”

On Thursday night, a visibly disappointed Stefanik emphasized the importance of being a “team player” and vowed to continue fighting on behalf of Trump’s legislative agenda. 

“I have been proud to be a team player. The president knows that. He and I had multiple conversations today, and we are committed to delivering results on behalf of the American people. And as always, I’m committed to delivering results on behalf of my constituents,” Stefanik said on Fox News. 

Stefanik added that she is excited to resume “sharing my voice as I always have, being one of the top fighters and top allies on behalf of President Trump and behalf of the American people, and on behalf of my district.”

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY), who holds authority over special elections within the Empire State, had also indicated that she would push back the special election date as long as possible in an attempt to stymie Trump’s political agenda. The New York Republican Party had struggled to settle on a singular candidate around whom to coalesce for the special election to replace Stefanik if she were confirmed as ambassador.

“The reality is … Democrats, as we see in New York State, it is totally corrupt,” Stefanik said. “Kathy Hochul started threatening to move the ball on the election date. You see a highly, highly politicized radical left trying to do everything they can to defeat the president. And this is about stepping up as a team. And I am doing that as a leader to ensure that we can take hold of this mandate and deliver these historic results.”

Republicans are also facing the prospect of closer-than-expected special elections in the upcoming week. According to a recent poll, Florida Republican state Sen. Randy Fine holds a narrow 48-44 percentage point lead over Democratic opponent Josh Weil in a district Trump dominated by 30 points in 2024. A potential loss in the Florida special election would further diminish the Republican House majority, leaving the party with less flexibility for deflections within the lower chamber of Congress. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Thursday defended Trump’s decision to yank Stefanik’s nomination, arguing that “it is well known Republicans have a razor-thin House majority.” He added that Stefanik remaining in the House of Representatives will bolster the GOP by letting the party “keep one of the toughest, most resolute members of our Conference in place to help drive forward President Trump’s America First policies.”

The post Elise Stefanik to Remain in US Congress as Trump Withdraws UN Ambassador Nomination to Hold Narrow GOP Majority first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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