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Robert Kraft Foundation Has Message for Anti-Israel Campus Demonstrators With NBA Playoffs TV Ad: ‘Don’t Bring Hate’
Robert Kraft. Photo: New England Patriots/Wikimedia Commons
An advertisement purchased by Robert Kraft’s Foundation to Combat Antisemitism (FCAS) that aired on Tuesday night during an NBA playoff game urged students protesting the Israel-Hamas war on college and university campuses across the US to leave antisemitism out of their demonstrations.
“Scream until you’re red in the face. But don’t scream at the Jewish kid walking to class,” stated the 30-second ad that aired during the NBA game between the Boston Celtics and the Cleveland Cavaliers. “Threaten to change history, but don’t threaten your Jewish neighbor. Draw a line in the sand, but don’t draw a swastika. Because bringing more hate to anyone brings more hate to everyone.”
The ad also featured photos from various anti-Israel protests that began after the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel. Images shown in the video included burnt Israeli flags and banners held by protesters that read “Hitler should have killed the Jews” and “stuff some into the oven,” a reference to the gas chambers used at Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust. The video ended with the message “Don’t bring hate to the protests” and displayed the blue square emoji that is the icon for the foundation’s StandUpToJewishHate campaign.
Kraft, the Jewish owner of the New England Patriots, started the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism in 2019. FCAS purchased a Super Bowl ad and an ad that aired during the Academy Awards this year to also highlight the rise in antisemitism.
Kraft was a graduate of Columbia University and a major donor to the New York school until April, when he announced that he would pull his funding over the treatment of Jewish students and faculty at the campus during pro-Hamas protests.
Kraft penned an op-ed for the New York Post in April in which he expressed profound disappointment for the situation taking place at Columbia and how Jewish students are being targeted by anti-Israel student protesters. “The Columbia I loved is no longer a place I know,” he said.
Kraft also wrote an open letter recently in which he condemned antisemitism taking place at universities and colleges across the US, and criticized faculty at those schools for not doing more to protect their Jewish student body. He also said people on campus who intimate and attack their Jewish peers need to be held accountable and “cannot be pardoned for what they have done.”
“The leadership and faculty of so many of our leading educational institutions have failed their students,” he wrote. “Shouting vile, hate filled labels at students while hiding behind masks is not free speech — it is cowardice. Instead of colleges and universities teaching the core principles of free speech and debate our country was founded on, they are emboldening hate that is tearing their campuses, and our youth apart.”
He concluded by saying: “I encourage our nation’s university leaders to act with courage and wisdom so that knowledge, not hate, is what is being produced on our nation’s campuses.” The open letter was also published as a full-page ad in several newspapers.
Watch the latest ad by the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism below.
The post Robert Kraft Foundation Has Message for Anti-Israel Campus Demonstrators With NBA Playoffs TV Ad: ‘Don’t Bring Hate’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Putin Speaks to Trump, Condemns Israel’s Strikes on Iran, Kremlin Says
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian meet in Moscow, Russia, Jan. 17, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina
Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke to US President Donald Trump for 50 minutes on Saturday, condemning the Israeli military operation against Iran and expressing concern about the risks of escalation, the Kremlin said.
“Vladimir Putin condemned Israel’s military operation against Iran and expressed serious concern about a possible escalation of the conflict, which would have unpredictable consequences for the entire situation in the Middle East,” Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters.
Trump, for his part, described events in the Middle East as “very alarming,” according to Ushakov. But the two leaders said they do not rule out a return to the negotiating track on Iran’s nuclear program, Ushakov said.
On Ukraine, Putin told the US leader that Russia was ready to continue negotiations with the Ukrainians after June 22, according to state news agency RIA.
Trump reiterated his interest in a speedy resolution to the conflict, the Kremlin aide said.
Putin also congratulated Trump on his 79th birthday.
The post Putin Speaks to Trump, Condemns Israel’s Strikes on Iran, Kremlin Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Sunday’s US-Iran Nuclear Talks Cancelled, Oman Says
FILE PHOTO: Oman’s Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr bin Hamad bin Hamood Albusaidi attends a meeting with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, Russia July 11, 2023. Photo: Natalia Kolesnikova/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
The latest round of US-Iran nuclear talks scheduled for Sunday in Muscat will not take place, Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said on X on Saturday. Oman has been mediating the talks.
Albusaidi’s statement came a day after Israel launched a sweeping air offensive against Iran, killing commanders and scientists and bombing nuclear sites in a stated bid to stop it building an atomic weapon.
A senior official of US President Donald Trump’s administration, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed Sunday’s talks had been cancelled.
Washington, however, remained committed to the negotiations and hoped “the Iranians will come to the table soon,” the official said.
The post Sunday’s US-Iran Nuclear Talks Cancelled, Oman Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Says Talks with US ‘Meaningless’ After Israel Attack, But Yet to Decide on Attending
USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, Sept. 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
Iran said the dialogue with the US over Tehran’s nuclear program is “meaningless” after Israel’s biggest-ever military strike against its longstanding enemy, but said it is yet to decide on whether to attend planned talks on Sunday.
“The other side (the US) acted in a way that makes dialogue meaningless. You cannot claim to negotiate and at the same time divide work by allowing the Zionist regime (Israel) to target Iran’s territory,” state media on Saturday quoted foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei as saying.
“It is still unclear what decision we will make on Sunday in this regard,” Baghaei was quoted as saying.
He said Israel “succeeded in influencing” the diplomatic process and the Israeli attack would not have happened without Washington’s permission, accusing Washington of supporting the attack.
Iran earlier accused the US of being complicit in Israel’s attacks, but Washington denied the allegation and told Tehran at the United Nations Security Council that it would be “wise” to negotiate over its nuclear program.
The sixth round of US-Iran nuclear talks was set to be held on Sunday in Muscat, but it was unclear whether it would go ahead after the Israeli strikes.
Iran denies that its uranium enrichment program is for anything other than civilian purposes, rejecting Israeli allegations that it is secretly developing nuclear weapons.
US President Donald Trump told Reuters that he and his team had known the Israeli attacks were coming but they still saw room for an accord.
The post Iran Says Talks with US ‘Meaningless’ After Israel Attack, But Yet to Decide on Attending first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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