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Rustin, Sowell and Renewing Black-Jewish Relations
Bayard Rustin (left) and Dr. Eugene Reed. Photo: Wiki Commons.
JNS.org – In the aftermath of Hamas’s barbaric Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel and the Jewish people, Jewish Americans were dismayed by the response from those they considered allies. Years spent suppressing any mention of Israel turned to despair as progressive organizations, including the Black Lives Matter movement, justified and even celebrated the Hamas massacre.
Thankfully, media exposure has recently been given to two black Americans whose work provides an opportunity for reviving relations between the Jewish and black communities.
Last month, Netflix began streaming the movie “Rustin,” which depicts the life of pivotal civil rights activist Bayard Rustin. Rustin, who died in 1987 and was openly gay, felt deeply connected to Jewish Americans and never shied away from supporting Israel, even when threatened by the rising popularity of Black separatists.
Earlier this year, famed economist and intellectual Thomas Sowell, who has spent decades rejecting the toxicity of progressive policies, released his new book Social Justice Fallacies. Born into poverty in 1930s North Carolina, Sowell revealed the deceptions embedded in the social justice crusade, a phenomenon that has captured the attention and directed the politics of America’s “enlightened” elite class.
“Rustin,” produced by Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company, does not mention Rustin’s advocacy on behalf of Israel in any detail, even though he and A. Phillip Randolph founded the Black Americans to Support Israel Committee (BASIC) in 1975. The establishment of BASIC was a response to black nationalists’ alignment with Yasser Arafat and his terrorist PLO, which was gaining legitimacy in international circles.
In 1975, Rustin spearheaded the placement of a full-page ad in The New York Times, signed by some 200 black supporters, that defended Israel against its growing chorus of detractors. That 45 years later, over 600 Jewish groups would sign on to a Times ad endorsing the Black Lives Matter movement, whose original platform openly maligned Israel, highlights how much things have changed.
Rustin’s defense of Israel, which he visited in 1969 and 1982, gained renewed urgency in 1979 after the black U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Andrew Young resigned from his post following his meeting with a PLO representative. Rustin, responding to claims that American Jews had accelerated Young’s departure, publicly denounced black leaders in a powerful Times article for “striking back against Israel and the American Jewish community for their supposed involvement in engineering Mr. Young’s ouster.”
Years before BLM’s Chicago chapter publicized an image of a paraglider to express its support for terrorism, Rustin’s efforts portended the struggle that would emerge in full decades later.
Sowell’s solidarity with Israel builds on Rustin’s legacy. In Social Justice Fallacies, Sowell notes that danger lies not with citizens possessing different beliefs. Instead, he argues, what is dangerous “is the extent to which such beliefs prevail without being subjected to tests of either facts or logic.”
The fervency with which many progressives have embraced an antisemitic ideology steeped in genocidal delusions proves Sowell’s thesis. The timing of Social Justice Fallacies, released weeks before thousands of terrorist sympathizers took to the streets in Western capitals, makes his claim even more compelling.
Throughout history, people in critical positions have taken courageous stands that shaped the trajectory of American society. Famed conservative intellectual William F. Buckley Jr. used his perch as the founder of National Review to divorce conservatives from the antisemitism fostered by right-wingers like Buckley’s colleague Joseph Sobran and Republican politician Pat Buchanan. Buckley’s groundbreaking book In Search of Antisemitism denounced and marginalized the Jew-haters in the Republican camp.
The late Democratic Senator and Ambassador to the U.N. Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s powerful 1975 address to the General Assembly condemning the body’s “Zionism is Racism” resolution was a high point in America’s longstanding policy of safeguarding Israel at the U.N. This policy held until former President Barack Obama broke with Moynihan’s legacy in 2016. In a parting shot at Israel, the outgoing president helped pass anti-Israel Security Council Resolution 2334. That Moynihan’s death in 2003 arrived as Democrats increasingly distanced themselves from Israel suggests that his moral clarity has been abandoned by today’s progressive activists.
America’s children should be encouraged to read Sowell and learn from Rustin’s life. For their part, Jewish liberals must stop supporting groups hostile to them and Israel. Instead, they should empower leaders like Dumisani Washington, founder and CEO of the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel, who has been aptly described as the Martin Luther King, Jr. of our time.
We should celebrate those whose contributions elevate, rather than destroy, America’s social fabric. Leaders like Rustin and thinkers like Sowell can inspire a renewed and robust relationship between Jewish and black Americans.
The post Rustin, Sowell and Renewing Black-Jewish Relations first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Says No Interim Hostage Deal Possible Without Work Toward Permanent Ceasefire
Explosions send smoke into the air in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, July 17, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
The spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing said on Friday that while the Palestinian terrorist group favors reaching an interim truce in the Gaza war, if such an agreement is not reached in current negotiations it could revert to insisting on a full package deal to end the conflict.
Hamas has previously offered to release all the hostages held in Gaza and conclude a permanent ceasefire agreement, and Israel has refused, Abu Ubaida added in a televised speech.
Arab mediators Qatar and Egypt, backed by the United States, have hosted more than 10 days of talks on a US-backed proposal for a 60-day truce in the war.
Israeli officials were not immediately available for comment on the eve of the Jewish Sabbath.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on a call he had with Pope Leo on Friday that Israel‘s efforts to secure a hostage release deal and 60-day ceasefire “have so far not been reciprocated by Hamas.”
As part of the potential deal, 10 hostages held in Gaza would be returned along with the bodies of 18 others, spread out over 60 days. In exchange, Israel would release a number of detained Palestinians.
“If the enemy remains obstinate and evades this round as it has done every time before, we cannot guarantee a return to partial deals or the proposal of the 10 captives,” said Abu Ubaida.
Disputes remain over maps of Israeli army withdrawals, aid delivery mechanisms into Gaza, and guarantees that any eventual truce would lead to ending the war, said two Hamas officials who spoke to Reuters on Friday.
The officials said the talks have not reached a breakthrough on the issues under discussion.
Hamas says any agreement must lead to ending the war, while Netanyahu says the war will only end once Hamas is disarmed and its leaders expelled from Gaza.
Almost 1,650 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed as a result of the conflict, including 1,200 killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israel, according to Israeli tallies. Over 250 hostages were kidnapped during Hamas’s Oct. 7 onslaught.
Israel responded with an ongoing military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in neighboring Gaza.
The post Hamas Says No Interim Hostage Deal Possible Without Work Toward Permanent Ceasefire first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel
People hold images of the victims of the 1994 bombing attack on the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) community center, marking the 30th anniversary of the attack, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Irina Dambrauskas
Iran on Friday marked the 31st anniversary of the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) Jewish community center in Buenos Aires by slamming Argentina for what it called “baseless” accusations over Tehran’s alleged role in the terrorist attack and accusing Israel of politicizing the atrocity to influence the investigation and judicial process.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on the anniversary of Argentina’s deadliest terrorist attack, which killed 85 people and wounded more than 300.
“While completely rejecting the accusations against Iranian citizens, the Islamic Republic of Iran condemns attempts by certain Argentine factions to pressure the judiciary into issuing baseless charges and politically motivated rulings,” the statement read.
“Reaffirming that the charges against its citizens are unfounded, the Islamic Republic of Iran insists on restoring their reputation and calls for an end to this staged legal proceeding,” it continued.
Last month, a federal judge in Argentina ordered the trial in absentia of 10 Iranian and Lebanese nationals suspected of orchestrating the attack in Buenos Aires.
The ten suspects set to stand trial include former Iranian and Lebanese ministers and diplomats, all of whom are subject to international arrest warrants issued by Argentina for their alleged roles in the terrorist attack.
In its statement on Friday, Iran also accused Israel of influencing the investigation to advance a political campaign against the Islamist regime in Tehran, claiming the case has been used to serve Israeli interests and hinder efforts to uncover the truth.
“From the outset, elements and entities linked to the Zionist regime [Israel] exploited this suspicious explosion, pushing the investigation down a false and misleading path, among whose consequences was to disrupt the long‑standing relations between the people of Iran and Argentina,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said.
“Clear, undeniable evidence now shows the Zionist regime and its affiliates exerting influence on the Argentine judiciary to frame Iranian nationals,” the statement continued.
In April, lead prosecutor Sebastián Basso — who took over the case after the 2015 murder of his predecessor, Alberto Nisman — requested that federal Judge Daniel Rafecas issue national and international arrest warrants for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over his alleged involvement in the attack.
Since 2006, Argentine authorities have sought the arrest of eight Iranians — including former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who died in 2017 — yet more than three decades after the deadly bombing, all suspects remain still at large.
In a post on X, the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations (DAIA), the country’s Jewish umbrella organization, released a statement commemorating the 31st anniversary of the bombing.
“It was a brutal attack on Argentina, its democracy, and its rule of law,” the group said. “At DAIA, we continue to demand truth and justice — because impunity is painful, and memory is a commitment to both the present and the future.”
31 años del atentado a la AMIA – DAIA. 31 años sin justicia.
El 18 de julio de 1994, un atentado terrorista dejó 85 personas muertas y más de 300 heridas. Fue un ataque brutal contra la Argentina, su democracia y su Estado de derecho.
Desde la DAIA, seguimos exigiendo verdad y… pic.twitter.com/kV2ReGNTIk
— DAIA (@DAIAArgentina) July 18, 2025
Despite Argentina’s longstanding belief that Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah terrorist group carried out the devastating attack at Iran’s request, the 1994 bombing has never been claimed or officially solved.
Meanwhile, Tehran has consistently denied any involvement and refused to arrest or extradite any suspects.
To this day, the decades-long investigation into the terrorist attack has been plagued by allegations of witness tampering, evidence manipulation, cover-ups, and annulled trials.
In 2006, former prosecutor Nisman formally charged Iran for orchestrating the attack and Hezbollah for carrying it out.
Nine years later, he accused former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner — currently under house arrest on corruption charges — of attempting to cover up the crime and block efforts to extradite the suspects behind the AMIA atrocity in return for Iranian oil.
Nisman was killed later that year, and to this day, both his case and murder remain unresolved and under ongoing investigation.
The alleged cover-up was reportedly formalized through the memorandum of understanding signed in 2013 between Kirchner’s government and Iranian authorities, with the stated goal of cooperating to investigate the AMIA bombing.
The post Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Jordan Reveals Muslim Brotherhood Operating Vast Illegal Funding Network Tied to Gaza Donations, Political Campaigns
Murad Adailah, the head of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood, attends an interview with Reuters in Amman, Jordan, Sept. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Jehad Shelbak
The Muslim Brotherhood, one of the Arab world’s oldest and most influential Islamist movements, has been implicated in a wide-ranging network of illegal financial activities in Jordan and abroad, according to a new investigative report.
Investigations conducted by Jordanian authorities — along with evidence gathered from seized materials — revealed that the Muslim Brotherhood raised tens of millions of Jordanian dinars through various illegal activities, the Jordan news agency (Petra) reported this week.
With operations intensifying over the past eight years, the report showed that the group’s complex financial network was funded through various sources, including illegal donations, profits from investments in Jordan and abroad, and monthly fees paid by members inside and outside the country.
The report also indicated that the Muslim Brotherhood has taken advantage of the war in Gaza to raise donations illegally.
Out of all donations meant for Gaza, the group provided no information on where the funds came from, how much was collected, or how they were distributed, and failed to work with any international or relief organizations to manage the transfers properly.
Rather, the investigations revealed that the Islamist network used illicit financial mechanisms to transfer funds abroad.
According to Jordanian authorities, the group gathered more than JD 30 million (around $42 million) over recent years.
With funds transferred to several Arab, regional, and foreign countries, part of the money was allegedly used to finance domestic political campaigns in 2024, as well as illegal activities and cells.
In April, Jordan outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s most vocal opposition group, and confiscated its assets after members of the Islamist movement were found to be linked to a sabotage plot.
The movement’s political arm in Jordan, the Islamic Action Front, became the largest political grouping in parliament after elections last September, although most seats are still held by supporters of the government.
Opponents of the group, which is banned in most Arab countries, label it a terrorist organization. However, the movement claims it renounced violence decades ago and now promotes its Islamist agenda through peaceful means.
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