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No, New York libraries aren’t closing because of funding for Israel
(New York Jewish Week) — For months, a subset of New Yorkers has railed against reductions to the city’s public library budget, which has already forced some of them to close on Sundays.
This week, a few denizens of social media said they found a culprit for the cuts: Israel.
“New York Public Library now closed on Sundays because of $36.2M in budget cuts,” the posts say. “But NYC taxpayers sent $118,929,729 to Israel to commit genocide?”
The posts have spread far and wide in recent days. On Monday, a left-wing Twitter account posted that text, garnering more than 3 million views. The following day, a pro-Palestinian instagram account with nearly 100,000 followers reposted the message.
Is aid for Israel to blame for the library closures? In a word, no.
The anti-Israel flyers include a link to a webpage for the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit, which details the nearly $4 billion in federal aid sent to Israel annually. The roughly $119 million figure ostensibly represents the share of that aid paid from New Yorkers’ federal taxes.
But while New Yorkers pay federal, state and local taxes, the city’s public libraries are mostly funded by the New York City budget, in addition to private donations.
The city’s largest public library systems do receive some federal funding. But the social media posts are conflating two separate budgets: The library cuts they referred to were in the city budget enacted by City Council and the mayor. The federal budget, which includes aid to Israel, is separate and controlled by Congress and the president.
The city budget cuts came in November, proposed by Mayor Eric Adams. The New York Public Library said libraries would be ending service on Sundays as a result, beginning in mid-December, in the three boroughs where it operates. (Only eight of the New York Public Library’s 92 locations offered Sunday hours before the cuts.) It also said it would cut spending on materials and proograms. Adams announced this week that there would be no further cuts in next year’s budget.
Pro-Palestinian activists have previously tied society’s woes to Israel and targeted New York institutions with only tenuous connections to the Jewish state.
At a rally on the front steps of the New York Public Library’s main branch in November, a week ahead of the Sunday closures announcement, speakers blamed Israel for homelessness in New York City, among other problems. At that rally, activists also plastered stickers around the library blaming “Zionist donors” for meddling in universities.
In 2022, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York blamed aid to Israel for healthcare problems in the United States, drawing charges of antisemitism from Israel advocates.
On Monday, pro-Palestinian protesters targeted the Memorial Sloan Kettering cancer hospital in Manhattan for accepting a donation from billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin. Griffin has spoken out against Harvard University students who blamed Israel for the Oct. 7 massacre of Israelis. The demonstrators said the hospital was “complicit” in “supporting genocide.”
Israel is usually the largest recipient of U.S. foreign military funding, although Ukraine received more aid following Russia’s 2022 invasion.
Foreign aid to Israel amounts to a minuscule amount of the total U.S. budget. Before the Gaza war, the United States provided Israel with $3.8 billion annually in aid for its military and missile defense. In 2022, the federal government spent $6.13 trillion.
The libraries have been damaged in connection with the Gaza war, however. After pro-Palestinian protesters defaced the library’s iconic main branch in November, the library said repairs would cost $75,000.
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The post No, New York libraries aren’t closing because of funding for Israel appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Germany’s Halt to Arms Exports to Israel Is Response to Gaza Expansion Plans, Chancellor Says
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz attends a cabinet meeting at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Aug. 6, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Liesa Johannssen
Germany’s decision to curb arms exports to Israel comes in response to Israel’s plan to expand its operations in the Gaza Strip, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Sunday in an interview with public broadcaster ARD.
“We cannot deliver weapons into a conflict that is now being pursued exclusively by military means,” Merz said. “We want to help diplomatically, and we are doing so.”
The worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza and Israel’s plans to expand military control over the enclave have pushed Germany to take this historically fraught step.
The chancellor said in the interview that the expansion of Israel’s operations in Gaza could claim hundreds of thousands of civilian lives and would require the evacuation of the entire city of Gaza.
“Where are these people supposed to go?” Merz said. “We can’t do that, we won’t do that, and I will not do that.”
Nevertheless, the principles of Germany’s Israel policy remain unchanged, the chancellor said.
“Germany has stood firmly by Israel’s side for 80 years. That will not change,” Merz said.
Germany is Israel’s second-biggest weapons supplier after the US and has long been one of its staunchest supporters, principally because of its historical guilt for the Nazi Holocaust – a policy known as the “Staatsraison.”
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Newsom Calls Trump’s $1 Billion UCLA Settlement Offer Extortion, Says California Won’t Bow
California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks at a press conference, accompanied by members of the Texas Democratic legislators, at the governor’s mansion in Sacramento, California, U.S., August 8, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
California Governor Gavin Newsom said on Saturday that a $1 billion settlement offer by President Donald Trump’s administration for UCLA amounted to political extortion to which the state will not bow.
The University of California says it is reviewing a $1 billion settlement offer by the Trump administration for UCLA after the government froze hundreds of millions of dollars in funding over pro-Palestinian protests.
UCLA, which is part of the University of California system, said this week the government froze $584 million in funding. Trump has threatened to cut federal funds for universities over anti-Israel student protests.
“Donald Trump has weaponized the DOJ (Department of Justice) to kneecap America’s #1 public university system — freezing medical & science funding until @UCLA pays his $1 billion ransom,” the office of Newsom, a Democrat, said in a post.
“California won’t bow to Trump’s disgusting political extortion,” it added.
“This isn’t about protecting Jewish students – it’s a billion-dollar political shakedown from the pay-to-play president.”
The government alleges universities, including UCLA, allowed antisemitism during the protests and in doing so violated Jewish and Israeli students’ civil rights. The White House had no immediate comment beyond the offer.
Experts have raised free speech and academic freedom concerns over the Republican president’s threats. The University of California says paying such a large settlement would “completely devastate” the institution.
Large demonstrations took place at UCLA last year. Last week, UCLA agreed to pay over $6 million to settle a lawsuit by some students and a professor who alleged antisemitism. It was also sued this year over a 2024 violent mob attack on pro-Palestinian protesters.
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Trump Nominates State Dept Spokeswoman Bruce as US Deputy Representative to UN
FILE PHOTO: U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce speaks during her first press briefing at the State Department in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 6, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
President Donald Trump said on Saturday he was nominating State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce as the next US deputy representative to the United Nations.
Bruce has been the State Department spokesperson since Trump took office in January.
In a post on social media in which Trump announced her nomination, the president said she did a “fantastic job” as State Department spokesperson. Bruce will need to be confirmed for the role by the US Senate, where Trump’s Republican Party holds a majority.
During press briefings, she has defended the Trump administration’s foreign policy decisions ranging from an immigration crackdown and visa revocations to US responses to Russia’s war in Ukraine and Israel’s war in Gaza, including a widely condemned armed private aid operation in the Palestinian territory.
Bruce was previously a political contributor and commentator on Fox News for over 20 years.
She has also authored books like “Fear Itself: Exposing the Left’s Mind-Killing Agenda” that criticized liberals and left-leaning viewpoints.
In a post after Trump’s announcement, Bruce thanked him and suggested that the role was a “few weeks” away. Neither Trump nor Bruce mentioned an exact timeline in their online posts.
“Now I’m blessed that in the next few weeks my commitment to advancing America First leadership and values continues on the global stage in this new post,” Bruce wrote on X.
Trump has picked former White House national security adviser Mike Waltz to be his U.N. envoy. Waltz’s Senate confirmation for that role, wherein he will be Bruce’s boss, is still due.
Waltz was Trump’s national security adviser until he was ousted on May 1 after he was caught up in a March scandal involving a Signal chat among top Trump national security aides on military strikes in Yemen. Trump then nominated Waltz as his U.N. ambassador.