RSS
White House to brief Jewish Congress members as it seeks funding for antisemitism strategy
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Top White House officials are meeting with a bipartisan slate of Jewish members of Congress Wednesday as the administration presses for funding for key components of its strategy to combat antisemitism, including efforts on college campuses.
Douglas Emhoff, the Jewish Second Gentleman, who is spearheading implementation of the strategy, will join Neera Tanden, President Joe Biden’s top domestic policy adviser, and Liz Sherwood-Randall, his top homeland security adviser, in a meeting Wednesday with 15-20 Jewish lawmakers from the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate, a White House official told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
These officials and others have been routinely briefing Jewish communal leaders on the implementation of the strategy, which Biden unveiled in May and accelerated in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, which launched the war between Israel and the terror group in Gaza. The most recent briefing was on Monday, when many Jewish leaders were in town to attend the White House Hanukkah party.
At the meeting Wednesday, the White House will bring up at least two components of the strategy that require congressional funding that administration insiders have accused Republicans of obstructing in Congress.
“Following the update, they will engage in a discussion about how Congress and the Administration can work together to counter the scourge of antisemitism,” said the official in an email.
One of the issues on the agenda, the official confirmed, is funding for the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, which handles complaints of bias at federally funded college campuses. Jewish and pro-Israel groups have filed a series of federal complaints alleging that university administrations have not done enough to counter antisemitism on their campuses. Since Oct. 7, the civil rights office has enhanced its efforts to field and address the complaints.
House Republicans have for months sought cuts to the office as they wrestle with the White House to bring down federal spending.
Liberal groups that see the office as a necessary tool to combat bias and discrimination on campuses have pushed back, and their case gained traction in the swirl of antisemitism controversies on campuses since Oct. 7, with Biden administration officials arguing that the office needed to increase its staff to handle the number of complaints.
“Another way to address the scourge of antisemitism on college campuses is to sufficiently fund OCR and the Department of Ed,” Amy Spitalnick, the CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, a national public policy group, said in an interview earlier this week.
“And there have been efforts by Republican elected officials and others to cut funding for OCR at a time when its work is crucial,” said Spitalnick, who is among the Jewish leaders who have consulted with the administration on its antisemitism strategy.
Another White House funding request related to the antisemitism strategy is $200 million in extra funds for nonprofit security grants, which help religious institutions harden themselves against potential attackers. That amount would be added to the $360 million currently appropriated for the program. The White House official said that this too would be on the agenda on Wednesday.
That request is part of a $106 billion emergency funding request that includes more than $14 billion in assistance for Israel as it fights with Hamas and more than $61 billion in assistance for Ukraine as it repels Russia’s invasion. The Republican-led House passed the Israel component, conditioning it on cuts to funding for the Internal Revenue Service, a condition the Senate’s Democratic majority says is unacceptable. Republicans also want intensified restrictions on the Mexico border before they even consider the rest of the package.
There are 24 Jewish Democrats and two Jewish Republicans in the House, and eight Jewish Democrats in the Senate. The two Jewish Republicans, Max Miller of Ohio and David Kustoff of Tennessee, may be key bridges to the House Republican leadership. Miller, notably, told Jewish Insider recently that he was furious with Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana, a Republican, for attaching conditions to the Israel funding.
At the meeting with the members of Congress, the White House official said, the Biden team will review its achievements in implementing its antisemitism strategy, including consolidating Education Department protections for victims of religious bigotry; training on identifying antisemitism and Islamophobia across a number of executive agencies; providing training on anti-religious bigotry to students in the agriculture and health sectors; and updating and distributing an FBI hate crimes threat response guide.
—
The post White House to brief Jewish Congress members as it seeks funding for antisemitism strategy appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
RSS
Palestinian Authority Condemns Hamas for Murdering Gazans Seeking Food
Palestinians collect aid supplies from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Hatem Khaled
According to the Palestinian Authority (PA), Hamas is systematically murdering Gazan residents attempting to access food supplies under the false pretext of “collaboration” with American aid distribution centers.
The descriptions of the murders, including the names of the murdered and of their relatives who reported their deaths, appeared in the PA’s official daily. It described harrowing accounts from Gazan families who condemn Hamas for operating “death squads” targeting civilians:
There are many reports that have begun to arrive from the Gaza Strip about killings by Hamas of many of the residents walking the roads in search of a sack of flour, under the pretext that they are collaborating with the American aid centers for food distribution! Not only do the reports reveal this, but there are also letters and statements from families whose sons have been reached by the treacherous hand of Hamas.
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, June 23, 2025]
Specific cases include:
The Shahin family from Deir Al-Balah reported the death of their son, Siraj Al-Din Hisham Shahin, due to “treacherous shooting” by Hamas.
The Al-Hilu family reported that five sons were murdered by Hamas. [emphasis added]
Hiba Al-Misshal, sister of victim Osama Al-Misshal, wrote the most detailed description:
[There is] a letter from the sister of murder victim Osama Al-Misshal, Hiba Al-Misshal, who revealed that a group of Hamas members bearing the name Arrow Unit stopped the bus her brother was traveling on together with other young men, while they were on their way to one of the food distribution centers.
They took them off the bus, bound them, and shot them, after falsely accusing them of “collaboration,” and they continued to chase them while they were wounded, up to the entrance of Nasser Hospital, where they shot them again and prevented the doctors and staff from treating them, and incited the people to beat them with sticks and pipes, amid painful silence around.
…This led to the killing of her brother and other young men who were on the bus! In her letter, Hiba [Al-Misshal] demands “justice for her brother and for every innocent young man who was unjustly murdered.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, June 19, 2025]
The article explains that Hamas named the death squads the “Arrow Unit,” to make people think that it is not Hamas but a vigilante group. But according to the PA, Hamas is monopolizing aid distribution through a black market, and killing anyone who bypasses their system.
In its current crisis today, Hamas has no way out but to establish death squads against anyone who stands in the way of its plunder and tries to obtain a sack of flour, outside of its control and its black market.
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, June 19, 2025]
Even though the article was intended to expose Hamas, the PA could not help but add an accusation that Israel is also somehow responsible. Significantly, the accusations against Israel, which have been proven to be false in the past, come with no names, no evidence, and no eyewitnesses:
What allows this situation today, which is packed with death and destruction, is the Israeli occupation that has made the roads to food full of dangers…
The one who creates this hated reality today is not Israel alone, but Hamas in a similar manner, and it is a partner to it in this work of death. It pursues the hungry with death squads, which it called “the arrow” in order to tell those who go on the road in search of food that is not obtained through [Hamas] that they will be their prey through the “Arrow Unit.” This is the hated situation – and this is Hamas with the ‘arrow’ unit – the hunters of those seeking food.
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, June 19, 2025]
The author is the Founder and Director of Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article first appeared.
The post Palestinian Authority Condemns Hamas for Murdering Gazans Seeking Food first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Is CNN Sharing Iranian Propaganda Instead of Proper Journalism?
CNN logo. Photo: Josh Hallett / Flickr
Has CNN been keeping its audience properly informed? Over the past week, the network has published at least two video pieces focusing on the sentiments of regular Iranian civilians over the Israeli and American attacks on the Islamic regime’s nuclear, military, and political installations.
However, under scrutiny, both pieces appear to parrot narratives put out by the regime’s officials rather than properly representing the nuanced views of those Iranians on the ground.
Fred Pleitgen Interviews Iranians on the Streets of Tehran
On June 22, the day after the US bombed three Iranian nuclear facilities, CNN journalist Fred Pleitgen (who claims to be the first Western journalist to enter Iran since the conflict started) took to the streets of Tehran to find out what Iranian civilians were feeling in the wake of the American attack.
What followed was a litany of pro-regime vitriol, with bystanders calling for a “strong response” to the American strikes, claiming that President Trump had no basis to attack Iran, and that Iran had done nothing wrong.
One interviewee even sounded like an official regime mouthpiece, stating that “I support the Supreme Leader with my life. I approve of him, really, because he’s moving forward for the sake of our land.”
There is no doubt that many Iranians are angry at the US for its attack on the nuclear facilities. However, there is also no doubt that Pleitgen chose to only present one public sentiment to his audience and create the false impression that it is the sentiment shared by a cross-section of Iranians.
A Western journalist would need the official permission of the authorities to report from Iran. Was Pleitgen given free rein to interview anyone on the street, or was he directed by officials to only interview those who tow the regime’s line?
And how would Iranian interviewees react? Given the regime’s efforts to crack down on any dissent, often using brutal measures, if any ordinary Iranian even dared to publicly state any criticism of the Islamic Republic?
It’s incredibly unlikely — but CNN won’t be transparent about the conditions that Pleitgen is working under, as well as the inability of critical voices to make themselves freely heard.
Since this latest conflict began on June 13, some other news outlets (like The Washington Post and ABC News Australia) have managed to present the diversity of views among Iran’s civilian population in a nuanced way, including those who are opposed to the attacks on Iranian soil and those who are cautiously optimistic about how this could affect the future of Iran.
By failing to interview anyone with opposing views (or to even mention that such views exist), Pleitgen has not filed a piece of journalism as much as a piece of regime-approved propaganda.
Erin Burnett Spreads Questionable Message
A few days before Fred Pleitgen took to the streets of Tehran, anchor Erin Burnett shared a video and message allegedly shared with her by an Iranian filmmaker named Pouria Nouri.
The video showed explosions in Tehran, while the message expressed the fears associated with living under bombing, while also conveying that Iranians have never been so united in “solidarity” in the face of Israeli attacks.
The message concluded, “As an Iranian citizen, I call on the world’s media not to close their eyes to the evident truth and to the initiator of this unjust war, the Israeli regime, and to pay attention to the plight of the Iranian people now caught in the midst of war. People who deserve a normal, peaceful life. Yet, their lives have now been thrown into chaos.”
Burnett found this message so powerful that she shared a part of it on her June 18 broadcast and read it in full on her TikTok page, describing it and the accompanying video as “incredible.”
Maybe a little too incredible.
No sooner had Burnett shared this supposed message from an Iranian civilian on her social media pages, than people began to cast doubt on its veracity.
On her X (formerly Twitter) page, many people pointed out that the message suspiciously echoed propaganda put out by the Islamic regime.
One analyst pointed out on TikTok that the message and video were likely spread by a regime plant since it echoes official state propaganda and it is illegal for regular Iranians to make contact with foreign media organizations. For someone to openly share something with CNN under their name, they would have to know that they are immune from punishment.
The fight against Iranian belligerence is being fought on land, in the air, and in the court of public opinion.
For CNN to pass off regime-approved talking points as genuine public sentiments expressed by the average Iranian civilian — while not balancing this with competing voice — is not only bad journalistic practice, but also assists the Islamic Republic’s propaganda efforts on the international stage.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post Is CNN Sharing Iranian Propaganda Instead of Proper Journalism? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Brooklyn Nets Select Israeli Basketball Players Ben Saraf, Danny Wolf in NBA Draft
The opening tip between the Brooklyn Nets and Washington Wizards, at Barclays Center, in Brooklyn, New York, Dec. 13, 2020. Photo: Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect
In a landmark night for Israeli basketball, Ben Saraf and Danny Wolf were selected in the first round of the 2025 NBA Draft by the Brooklyn Nets, marking the first time two Israeli players have been drafted in the same year.
Saraf, a 19-year-old guard known for his explosive athleticism and creative playmaking, was taken with the 26th pick. A standout with Maccabi Rishon LeZion and a rising star on Israel’s youth national teams, Saraf gained international attention with his electrifying scoring and commanding court presence.
With the 27th pick, the Nets selected 7-foot center Danny Wolf out of the University of Michigan. Wolf, who holds dual US-Israeli citizenship and represented Israel at the U-20 level, brings a versatile skill set, including sharp passing, perimeter shooting, and a strong feel for the game. After his name was called, Wolf grew emotional in an on-air interview, crediting his family for helping him reach the moment.
“I have the two greatest brothers in the world; I have an unbelievable sister who I love,” Wolf said. “They all helped me get to where I am today, and they’re going to help me get to where I am going to go in this league.”
The historic double-pick adds to the growing wave of Israeli presence on the NBA stage, led by Portland Trail Blazers forward Deni Avdija, who just completed a breakout 2024–25 season. After being traded to Portland last summer, Avdija thrived as a starter, averaging 16.9 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 3.8 assists. In March alone, he posted 23.4 points, 9.8 rebounds, and 5.2 assists per game, including two triple-doubles.
“I don’t think I’ve played like this before … I knew I had it in me. But I’m not really thinking about it. I’m just playing. I’m just free,” Avdija told reporters in March
With Saraf and Wolf joining Avdija, Israel’s basketball pipeline has reached unprecedented visibility. Israeli President Isaac Herzog called the moment “a national celebration for sports and youth,” and Israeli sports commentators widely hailed the night as “historic.”
Both Saraf and Wolf are expected to suit up for the Nets’ Summer League team in July. As the two rookies begin their NBA journey, they join a growing generation of Israeli athletes proving that their game belongs on basketball’s biggest stage.
The post Brooklyn Nets Select Israeli Basketball Players Ben Saraf, Danny Wolf in NBA Draft first appeared on Algemeiner.com.