RSS
Outgoing US Rep. Jamaal Bowman Blames ‘Pro-Israel’ District for Primary Race Loss
US Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) speaks during the National Action Network National Convention in New York City, US, April 7, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
In one of his final interviews before exiting the US Congress, Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) suggested that his constituents’ pro-Israel beliefs doomed his failed reelection campaign.
“My district is a super pro-Israel district,” Bowman told Spectrum News in an interview published on Friday. “The minute I called for a ceasefire [in Gaza], that was the last straw with many in the district. And I say ‘last straw’ because I beat Eliot Engel; it was a target on my back from that community since then.”
Bowman defeated Engel, a Jewish Democrat and supporter of the US-Israel alliance who had served in Congress for over two decades, in the 2020 election.
Since then, Bowman has been one of the most strident opponents of Israel in Congress, especially in the year following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel last Oct. 7. Amid the ensuing war in Gaza, he has not only accused Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza repeatedly but also labeled the Jewish state as a “white supremacist” entity and an “apartheid state.” He sparked outrage after dismissing reports of Hamas’s rampant sexual assault against the Israeli people during the Oct. 7 rampage as “propaganda.”
In a last-ditch effort to salvage his floundering campaign, Bowman attempted to curry favor with left-wing progressives by calling for an end to all military aid to Israel. The congressman also apologized for his previous votes to replenish Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system and vowed to oppose all support for the Jewish state.
Despite his efforts, Bowman lost his Democratic primary election in June to Westchester County executive George Latimer by a staggering margin of 58 percent to 41 percent.
In contrast to Bowman, Latimer attempted to woo residents of the affluent, heavily Jewish Westchester County community by positioning himself as an ally of Israel. Furthermore, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the foremost pro-Israel lobbying group in the United States, assisted Latimer in the primary, unleashing an eye-popping $14.5 million torrent of cash to benefit his campaign.
In the months following his loss, Bowman has repeatedly criticized AIPAC, whose mission is to foster bipartisan support for the US-Israel relationship, for involving itself in the primary battle, condemning the organization as a “Zionist regime” operated by “racist Republicans.”
In addition to his anti-Israel stance, Bowman also came under fire after pulling a fire alarm in the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, DC. Bowman initially claimed that he pulled the alarm due to suffering a panic attack. However, video later surfaced showing the lawmaker calmly walking up to the alarm, removing emergency signs, and pulling the lever. The incident reportedly embarrassed and infuriated many of his district’s constituents. The House of Representatives subsequently voted to censure Bowman.
“I wish I didn’t pull that damn fire alarm,” Bowman told Spectrum News.
The post Outgoing US Rep. Jamaal Bowman Blames ‘Pro-Israel’ District for Primary Race Loss first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Kurdish-led SDF Say Five Members Killed During Attack by Islamic State in Syria
Islamic State slogans painted along the walls of the tunnel was used by Islamic State militants as an underground training camp in the hillside overlooking Mosul, Iraq, March 4, 2017. Photo: via Reuters Connect.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said on Sunday that five of its members had been killed during an attack by Islamic State militants on a checkpoint in eastern Syria’s Deir el-Zor on July 31.
The SDF was the main fighting force allied to the United States in Syria during fighting that defeated Islamic State in 2019 after the group declared a caliphate across swathes of Syria and Iraq.
The Islamic State has been trying to stage a comeback in the Middle East, the West and Asia. Deir el-Zor city was captured by Islamic State in 2014, but the Syrian army retook it in 2017.
RSS
Armed Groups Attack Security Force Personnel in Syria’s Sweida, Killing One, State TV Reports
People ride a motorcycle past a burned-out military vehicle, following deadly clashes between Druze fighters, Sunni Bedouin tribes, and government forces, in Syria’s predominantly Druze city of Sweida, Syria, July 25, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Armed groups attacked personnel from Syria’s internal security forces in Sweida, killing one member and wounding others, and fired shells at several villages in the violence-hit southern province, state-run Ekhbariya TV reported on Sunday.
The report cited a security source as saying the armed groups had violated the ceasefire agreed in the predominantly Druze region, where factional bloodshed killed hundreds of people last month.
Violence in Sweida erupted on July 13 between tribal fighters and Druze factions. Government forces were sent to quell the fighting, but the bloodshed worsened, and Israel carried out strikes on Syrian troops in the name of the Druze.
The Druze are a minority offshoot of Islam with followers in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Sweida province is predominantly Druze but is also home to Sunni tribes, and the communities have had long-standing tensions over land and other resources.
A US-brokered truce ended the fighting, which had raged in Sweida city and surrounding towns for nearly a week. Syria said it would investigate the clashes, setting up a committee to investigate the attacks.
The Sweida bloodshed last month was a major test for interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, after a wave of sectarian violence in March that killed hundreds of Alawite citizens in the coastal region.
RSS
Netanyahu Urges Red Cross to Aid Gaza Hostages
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference, in Jerusalem, May 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/Pool
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he spoke with the International Red Cross’s regional head, Julien Lerisson, and requested his involvement in providing food and medical care to hostages held in Gaza.