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Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Under Fire for Pushing Antisemitic Conspiracy Theories

Pentagon deputy press secretary Kingsley Wilson in September 2024, when she was working at the Center for Renewing America. Photo: Screenshot
The new deputy press secretary for the US Department of Defense has come under heavy fire for peddling antisemitic conspiracy theories on social media.
In August 2024, Kinsley Wilson lambasted the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) for commemorating the death of hate-mob victim Leo Frank, arguing that Frank raped a teenager and attempted to pin the crime on a black man.
“Leo Frank raped & murdered a 13-year-old girl. He also tried to frame a Black man for his crime. The ADL turned off the comments because they want to gaslight you,” Wilson posted on X/Twitter.
Leo Frank raped & murdered a 13-year-old girl.
He also tried to frame a Black man for his crime.
The ADL turned off the comments because they want to gaslight you. https://t.co/u9Gn3wsb3D
— Kingsley Wilson (@KingsleyCortes) August 17, 2024
Frank, a Jewish factory manager, was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death by hanging for the rumored rape and the murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan in Atlanta in 1913. Phagan was found dead in the basement of the factory in which Frank worked.
The 31-year-old’s sentence was later commuted to life in prison. However, an armed mob, infuriated by the decision to downgrade the sentence, abducted Frank from his jail cell and lynched him.
Frank was officially pardoned in 1986, and historians largely believe that he was wrongly convicted. Historians also believe that Frank’s trial and subsequent conviction were colored by antisemitism. During his court proceedings, thousands of spectators gathered and bellowed chants such as “hang the Jew.”
Many high-profile public figures have used Frank’s personal story to advance anti-Jewish tropes. For example, Candace Owens, a podcaster with an extensive history of antisemitic commentary, falsely claimed that Frank’s family believed in pedophilia and incest “as the sacramental rites and they would commit these acts, things that would normally be termed blood libel were actually happening.” Far-right social media personality Keith Woods also asserted that Frank was guilty, questioning why jurors in the Jim Crow-era south would elect to “lynch a wealthy and connected businessman?”
Wilson has also come under fire for a series of insensitive social media posts following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel.
On Oct. 12, 2023, in reference to the Israeli babies killed by Hamas during the onslaught, Wilson wrote “The images of the babies murdered by Hamas are horrific. I wish images of aborted babies evoked a similar global outcry.”
Five days later, Wilson suggested that the US distance itself from the Jewish state, writing that America should not “get involved in foreign ethnic conflicts.” There was no serious debate at the time, or since, about US troops fighting in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
However, Wilson also expressed opposition to the US even providing support to Israel. In October 2024, Wilson lambasted the White House for giving aid to Israel, saying that the war between the Jewish state and Hamas is “none of our business.”
The newly minted Pentagon official has also previously complained about the US providing assistance to help Israel thwart direct Iranian missile attacks, asking why the US military is “defending Israel [and] Ukraine’s border but not our own.” She also bemoaned the Biden administration’s decision to “spend $95 billion on border defense for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan,” an apparent reference to a bipartisan foreign aid package passed by the US Congress last year, while not allocating money to complete the construction of a wall on the US-Mexico border.
Wilson has also posted support for the antisemitic “great replacement theory” — which posits that Jewish people are systemically importing masses of minorities into Western countries to erase white people. Wilson wrote that the conspiracy theory is a “regime-approved plan of action” to “displace citizens [and] alter our electorate.”
“The Great Replacement isn’t a right-wing conspiracy theory … it’s reality” Wilson wrote.
Wilson’s comments have sparked backlash from both Democratic and Republican US lawmakers. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told Politico that Wilson’s remarks were “completely off-script” with President Donald Trump’s foreign policy agenda.
“I’m not gonna tell them who to hire, but I do know that Trump doesn’t believe any of the things she’s talking about, and I’ll leave it up to them to determine if they think she’s the right spokesperson,” Graham said.
Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) repudiated Wilson’s online commentary as “horrible.”
“Sometimes people think they’re anonymous when they’re on social media, that they can comment or post on whatever may be their attitude at the time, and then they later regret it,” she added.
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) issued a statement calling on Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to fire Wilson over her commentary.
“Doing a basic search through her social media history, it is clear that her record is a minefield of antisemitic rhetoric, white nationalist conspiracies,” Torres wrote.
The post Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Under Fire for Pushing Antisemitic Conspiracy Theories first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War

Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests

A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.