RSS
Top Democrats Make Unprecedented Statements Against Israel, Signaling Party Shift
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) chats with Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in the House of Representatives ahead of US President Joe Biden’s third State of the Union address in the US Capitol in Washington, DC, March 7, 2024. Photo: Shawn Thew/Pool via REUTERS
A growing number of prominent, mainstream US Democrats have made recent statements calling to condition Washington’s military aid to Israel and even suggesting the Jewish state is committing genocide, indicating a potentially larger shift within the party against one of America’s closest allies.
Prior to the Hamas terrorist group’s massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7 and the ensuing war in Gaza, members of a small group of vocal, young, far-left progressives were the only members of Congress consistently calling for conditions on aid to Israel and accusing it of egregious crimes.
Over the past few weeks, however, many more mainstream figures have joined the choir as Israel’s war on Hamas reached its six-month mark.
Last week, while speaking at the Islamic Center of Boston, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) was asked if she believed Israel was committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza, the neighboring enclave ruled by Hamas. She responded, “If you want to do it as an application of law, I believe that they’ll [the International Court of Justice will] find that it is genocide, and they have ample evidence to do so.”
The senator added, “For me, it is far more important to say what Israel is doing is wrong.”
Warren appeared to somewhat walk back her response after it went viral. Her office said in a statement that she was commenting “on the ongoing legal process at the International Court of Justice, not sharing her views on whether genocide is occurring in Gaza.”
The statement referred to ongoing efforts to argue before the International Court of Justice at The Hague that Israel’s defensive war against Hamas in Gaza constituted a “genocide.” South Africa failed in its bid earlier this year to make such a case.
Israel launched its military campaign following Hamas’ Oct. 7 invasion, saying its objectives were to free the hostages seized by the terrorists and to incapacitate Hamas, which murdered over 1,200 people and committed mass atrocities during the onslaught, to the point that it could no longer pose a serious threat to the Israeli people.
Nonetheless, US President Joe Biden last week called for an “immediate ceasefire” and threatened to pull back support for Israel due to the humanitarian situation in Gaza. Biden’s warning came after his administration abstained from a UN Security Council resolution that de-linked a ceasefire from the release of hostages — Israel has said any truce must include the freeing of those still held captive.
This week, Biden suggested in an interview that he supports a unilateral Israeli 6-8-week ceasefire, seemingly implying it should be done even if it would leave all the hostages in Gaza. The White House had to clarify that was not what he actually meant, and that he was reiterating support for both the hostages and ceasefire negotiations.
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) said in an interview with The Algemeiner that he felt “the president has been fundamentally supportive of Israel,” but also noted he worried that “a number of the statements that have been made have gone too far and undermine Israel” in its war.
Biden expressed strong support for Israel in the weeks following the Oct. 7 massacre and his administration has sent significant amounts of munitions to the Israeli military since the start of the war. According to Torres, however, the messaging from Biden and many other Democrats in recent weeks could benefit Hamas.
“Hamas knows that it cannot defeat Israel militarily. It can only defeat Israel diplomatically and geopolitically,” he explained. “And when you have members of Congress falsely accuse Israel of genocide, or targeting civilians, or assassinating aid workers, or using starvation as a weapon of war, or indiscriminate bombing … you are playing into the hands of Hamas.”
Last week, more than 30 House Democrats, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), sent a letter to Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken reading, “We strongly urge you to reconsider your recent decision to authorize the transfer of a new arms package to Israel, and to withhold this and any future offensive arms transfers until a full investigation into the airstrike [which accidentally killed World Central Kitchen aid workers] is completed.”
The letter continued: “We also urge you to withhold these transfers if Israel fails to sufficiently mitigate harm to innocent civilians in Gaza, including aid workers, and if it fails to facilitate — or arbitrarily denies or restricts — the transport and delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza.”
Since Biden’s warning last week, Israel increased what were already significant amounts of aid entering Gaza.
Following the letter, Pelosi tried to clarify her stance in an interview on MSNBC, saying she was “not a fan of having conditions on aid to Israel.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said on Tuesday that he would not approve a large arms transfer to Israel until he has more information about how the Jewish state would use the weapons.
“I’m waiting for assurances,” Meeks told CNN. “I want to make sure that I know the types of weapons and what the weapons would be utilized for.”
In a separate interview on CNN, Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) — a top Biden ally and longtime supporter of Israel — said “I think we’re at that point” when asked about conditioning aid to Israel.
“If Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister, were to order the [Israel Defense Force] into Rafah at scale, if they were to drop 1,000-pound bombs and send in a battalion to go after Hamas and make no provision for civilians or for humanitarian aid, then I would vote to condition aid to Israel,” he said.
Rafah is Hamas’s last stronghold in Gaza. The United States has been pressuring Israel not to move forward with a full-scale military operation in the southern Gazan city, where Israel says the Palestinian terrorist group still has four battalions. Israeli officials have said they must operate in Rafah but are discussing with US counterparts how best to target Hamas there.
The recent flurry of criticisms of Israel came after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who is Jewish, told the Senate last month that Netanyahu’s government “no longer fits the needs of Israel” — a striking comment against a democratic ally at a time of war.
Amid heightened criticism from key Democrats and rising tensions between Washington and Jerusalem, some observers are warning that support for the Jewish state must remain bipartisan.
“Keeping support for Israel bipartisan is critical,” the group Democratic Majority for Israel told The Algemeiner. “History tells us there will be times when both of the two parties are in charge, and we need two pro-Israel parties. Right now, most Democratic leaders are pro-Israel, and we need to work very hard to ensure it remains that way.”
Torres concurred, noting that “there is no US-Israel relationship without bipartisanship.”
When asked about what appears to be an increasingly mainstream shift among Democrats against Israel, Torres argued that conditioning aid among Democrats is still a “minority position.”
However, he added that the increasingly frequent statements pressuring Israel to implement a ceasefire — when it has previously agreed to parameters for one and Hamas has rejected every deal over the past few months — could have the effect of helping the terrorist group in its war effort.
“International pressure is the only hope that Hamas has for achieving victory in the war,” Torres said.
The post Top Democrats Make Unprecedented Statements Against Israel, Signaling Party Shift first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
The post Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
The post Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
The post US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login