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Rutgers Must Protect Jewish Students From Antisemitic Referenda
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, is awash in a wave of antisemitic rhetoric and actions. This moment, with Jewish and Israeli students facing unprecedented harassment and challenges, is a dangerous time indeed for the university to proceed with two referenda demonizing Israel. The measures were placed by the Rutgers University Student Assembly on the upcoming Spring 2024 Assembly elections ballot. The administration must step in now and cancel the BDS referendum to protect these students.
On October 7, 2023, the Jewish community faced its largest massacre in a single day since the Holocaust, as Hamas terrorists butchered more than 1,200 innocent people, including over 300 young people at a music festival, raping and mutilating many of the victims, and taking over 240 hostages, over 130 of whom are believed to remain in Gaza. In the months since, Israel has fought to prevent future atrocities, and rescue these hostages, who, according to both released hostages and the United Nations, are experiencing ongoing sexual assault.
What a strange time for Rutgers students to be forced to vote on two referenda delegitimizing Israel, one demanding that the university end its investments in any firms that do business with Israel, and the other insisting that Rutgers terminate its longstanding partnership with Tel Aviv University.
We know that anti-Israel campaigns contribute to a rise in antisemitism on campus, and that anti-Israel activists have raised the climate of antisemitism in the United States to its highest level since before World War II.
At Rutgers specifically, the situation is stark. Between October 7 and February 15, Rutgers Hillel noted 49 individual instances of antisemitism on campus. When Rutgers’ president wrote a letter expressing sorrow at the horrific deaths of the 1,200 civilians in Israel on October 7 — just two days after the nightmare, on October 9 — he was attacked by a group of anti-Israel Rutgers faculty members for sympathizing with Israelis without mentioning Palestinians. In one instance, a student wearing a kippah — a Jewish religious head covering — in the student center was greeted with chants of “Murderer, murderer.”
Rutgers was already forced to suspend the radical organization Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which called Hamas’ massacre of Jews “justified,” and was found to have exhibited “disruptive or disorderly conduct,” disrupted “classes, a program, meals, and students studying[,]” and sparked “allegations of vandalism.” Little wonder, then, that students are taking their cues from extremists on the faculty who hold seminars with genocidal content, referring to Israel as a form of “white nationalism,” and calling for it to be destroyed as a country.
The Rutgers administration should take its cues from other universities that have boldly and appropriately stepped in to ensure that their schools are not hijacked by anti-Israel radicals, who make Jewish students feel so unsafe on campus that they are uncomfortable even wearing religious, Hebrew language, or other Jewish-identifying clothing.
Earlier this month, Ohio State University acted to block an Israel-targeting referendum placed on their ballot, after the Ohio attorney general advised the school that divesting from Israel would violate state law. Also, this month, Vanderbilt University’s administration blocked an attempt to add anti-Israel language to the student government’s constitution. Similarly, in December, the University of Michigan stopped a referendum that would have delegitimized and called for divestment from Israel.
A New Jersey law, passed overwhelmingly in 2016, calls for state pension funds to be divested from any company involved in the boycott of the State of Israel, and the state has invoked this legislation against offenders as significant as Unilever and Danske Bank.
New Jersey public policy is clearly against the aims of the BDS movement, which calls for the utter derecognition and dismantling of the State of Israel. Recognizing the climate of harassment Jewish and Israeli students face on campus, Rutgers must act now to remove the two antisemitic referendums from the ballot.
Hen Mazzig runs the Tel Aviv Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to combating online antisemitism. He has been named one of the top 50 LGBTQ+ influencers.
The post Rutgers Must Protect Jewish Students From Antisemitic Referenda first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Trump Open to Meeting Iran’s Leaders, Sees Chance of Nuclear Deal
US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters at the White House in Washington, DC, US, April 23, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
US President Donald Trump this week said he is open to meeting Iran’s supreme leader or president and that he thinks the two countries will strike a new deal on Tehran’s disputed nuclear program.
However, Trump, who in 2018 pulled the US out of a now moribund nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, repeated a threat of military action against Iran unless a new pact is swiftly reached to prevent it developing nuclear weapons.
Trump, in an April 22 interview with Time magazine published on Friday, said “I think we’re going to make a deal with Iran” following indirect US-Iranian talks last week in which the side agreed to draw up a framework for a potential deal.
The Republican US president, speaking separately to reporters at the White House on Friday, reiterated his positive prognosis, saying: “Iran, I think, is going very well. We’ll see what happens.”
A US official said the discussions yielded “very good progress.”
Asked by Time whether he was open to meeting Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, an anti-Western hardliner who has the last say on all major state policies, or President Masoud Pezeshkian, Trump replied: “Sure.”
Expert-level talks are set to resume on Saturday in Oman, which has acted as intermediary between the longtime adversaries, with a third round of high-level nuclear discussions planned for the same day.
Israel, a close US ally and Iran’s major Middle East foe, has described the Islamic Republic’s escalating uranium enrichment program – a potential pathway to nuclear bombs – as an “existential threat.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for a complete dismantling of Iran’s nuclear capabilities, saying partial measures will not suffice to ensure Israel’s security.
Asked in the interview if he was concerned Netanyahu might drag the United States into a war with Iran, Trump said: “No.”
‘I’LL BE LEADING THE PACK’
However, when asked if the US would join a war against Iran should Israel take action, he responded: “I may go in very willingly if we can’t get a deal. If we don’t make a deal, I’ll be leading the pack.”
In March, Iran responded to a letter from Trump in which he urged it to negotiate a new deal by stating it would not engage in direct talks under maximum pressure and military threats but was open to indirect negotiations, as in the past.
Although the current talks have been indirect and mediated by Oman, US and Iranian officials did speak face-to-face briefly following the first round on April 12.
The last known face-to-face negotiations between the two countries took place under former US President Barack Obama during diplomacy that led to the 2015 nuclear accord.
Western powers accuse Iran of harboring a clandestine agenda to develop nuclear weapons capability by enriching uranium to a high level of fissile purity, above what they say is justifiable for a civilian atomic energy program.
Tehran says its nuclear program is wholly peaceful. The 2015 deal temporarily curbed its uranium enrichment activity in exchange for relief from international sanctions, but Iran resumed and accelerated enrichment after the Trump walkout in 2018.
The post Trump Open to Meeting Iran’s Leaders, Sees Chance of Nuclear Deal first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Trump Poised to Offer Saudi Arabia Over $100 Billion Arms Package, Sources Say
US President Donald speaking in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, DC on March 3, 2025. Photo: Leah Millis via Reuters Connect
The United States is poised to offer Saudi Arabia an arms package worth well over $100 billion, six sources with direct knowledge of the issue told Reuters, saying the proposal was being lined up for announcement during US President Donald Trump‘s visit to the kingdom in May.
The offered package comes after the administration of former President Joe Biden unsuccessfully tried to finalize a defense pact with Riyadh as part of a broad deal that envisioned Saudi Arabia normalizing ties with Israel.
The Biden proposal offered access to more advanced US weaponry in return for halting Chinese arms purchases and restricting Beijing’s investment in the country. Reuters could not establish if the Trump administration’s proposal includes similar requirements.
The White House and Saudi government communications office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A US Defense official said: “Our defense relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is stronger than ever under President Trump‘s leadership. Maintaining our security cooperation remains an important component of this partnership and we will continue to work with Saudi Arabia to address their defense needs.”
In his first term, Trump celebrated weapons sales to Saudi Arabia as good for US jobs.
Lockheed Martin Corp could supply a range of advanced weapons systems including C-130 transport aircraft, two of the sources said. One source said Lockheed would also supply missiles and radars.
RTX Corp, formerly known as Raytheon Technologies, is also expected to play a significant role in the package, which will include supplies from other major US defense contractors such as Boeing Co, Northrop Grumman Corp and General Atomics, said four of the sources.
All the sources declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.
RTX, Northrop and General Atomics declined to comment. Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Lockheed Martin spokesperson said foreign military sales are government-to-government transactions. Questions about sales to foreign governments are best addressed by the US government.
Reuters could not immediately establish how many of the deals on offer were new. Many have been in the works for some time, two of the sources said. For example, the kingdom first requested information about General Atomics’ drones in 2018, they said. Over the past 12 months, a deal for $20 billion of General Atomics’ MQ-9B SeaGuardian-style drones and other aircraft came into focus, according to one of the sources.
Several executives from defense companies are considering traveling to the region as a part of the delegation, three of the sources said.
The US has long supplied Saudi Arabia with weapons. In 2017, Trump proposed approximately $110 billion of sales to the kingdom.
As of 2018, only $14.5 billion of sales had been initiated and Congress began to question the deals in light of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
In 2021, under Biden, Congress imposed a ban on sales of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia over the Khashoggi killing and to pressure the kingdom to wind down its Yemen war, which had inflicted heavy civilian casualties.
Under US law, major international weapons deals must be reviewed by members of Congress before they are finalized.
The Biden administration began to soften its stance on Saudi Arabia in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine impacted global oil supplies. The ban on offensive weapons sales was lifted in 2024, as Washington worked more closely with Riyadh in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack to devise a plan for post-war Gaza.
A potential deal for Lockheed’s F-35 jets, which the kingdom has been reportedly interested in for years, is expected to be discussed, three of the sources said, while downplaying the chances for an F-35 deal being signed during the trip.
The United States guarantees that its close ally Israel receives more advanced American weapons than Arab states, giving it what is labeled a “Qualitative Military Edge” (QME) over its neighbors.
Israel has now owned F-35s for nine years, building multiple squadrons.
The post Trump Poised to Offer Saudi Arabia Over $100 Billion Arms Package, Sources Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Summons Dutch Envoy to Protest Assassination Attempts Claim
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi looks on before a meeting with Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, in Tehran, Iran, Aug. 26, 2024. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
The Iranian foreign ministry summoned the Dutch ambassador to Tehran on Friday, the official IRNA news agency reported, a day after the Netherlands called in Iran‘s envoy over suspicions that Iran was behind two assassination attempts.
An Iranian foreign ministry official described the Dutch accusation as “laughable” and based on “suspicions or assumptions,” according to IRNA.
“It is regrettable that the Dutch diplomatic apparatus acts so easily on speculations injected by its security bodies and the Zionist regime [Israel], and even summons the Iranian ambassador over such an absurd fabrication,” the official, Alireza Yousefi, was quoted as saying.
The Netherlands summoned Iran‘s ambassador after the Dutch intelligence agency, known as the AIVD, said in its annual report published on Thursday that it was likely Iran was behind two assassination attempts in the Netherlands and Spain.
Two men were arrested in June 2024 in the Dutch town of Haarlem after an assassination attempt on an Iranian residing in the country, the report said.
One of the suspects was also believed to have been behind the failed assassination attempt on Spanish politician and Iran critic Alejo Vidal-Quadras in Madrid in November 2023, it said.
The post Iran Summons Dutch Envoy to Protest Assassination Attempts Claim first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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