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Who needs a Reichstag fire when you can just pretend Portland’s burning?
Here in Portland, this supposed city of darkness, happy kids splash around in a fountain next to the sparkling Willamette River, senior citizens practice tai chi in a park, bald eagles and ospreys soar past office building windows, chefs and bakers win national awards, world-class jazz musicians draw locals into clubs, and hiking trails course through the largest urban forest in the country, with glacier-draped Mount Hood as a backdrop.
It’s hardly the hellscape depicted by Donald Trump. What the city is, however, is a primary target in Trump’s scheming to militarize American cities — at least progressive ones like Portland, my home for the past 25 years.
Demonstrations have continued outside an ICE facility in Portland since the summer. The protests have been small, overall peaceful, occasionally tense, but often cheery — such as the time when a group of elderly Portlanders sang “This Land Is Your Land.” But Trump is using the protests as an excuse to launch what local officials and residents fear could be a major military intervention in the city, turning Portland, in essence, into a domestic battleground.
Trump is employing a playbook that’s eerily similar to ones that have been used by despots, including Adolf Hitler, who consolidated his control over Germany by deploying Sturmabteilung shock troops to spread fear across the populace.
Trump has effectively weaponized ICE as his own personal police force, and is using it to bait protestors into clashes and create a pretext for exerting military-style control over cities led by Democrats. From the very beginning of Trump’s second term, federal agents’ pursuit of undocumented immigrants has been marked by the spread of fear and terror. Trump says ICE’s heavy-handed tactics are necessary to fulfill his promise that undocumented immigrants “will not be tolerated.” But the scale and spectacle of ICE actions suggest another motive: to manufacture war-like images that justify crackdowns on leftists, whom Trump routinely portrays as domestic terrorists.
So far, no ICE raid has been more chilling than its assault last week on a five-story apartment building in Chicago. In the dead of night, armed federal agents rappelled from Black Hawk helicopters onto the roof. Others stormed the building from the ground, kicking down doors, throwing flash-bang grenades, and zip-tying screaming children and elderly residents. The target of the raid was a Venezuelan gang. But Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said many of those who were arrested were U.S. citizens with no criminal record — which has been disputed by the Trump administration.
Two weeks earlier, a pastor praying outside a Chicago ICE processing center was struck in the head by a pepper ball fired from a roof and then sprayed with tear gas as he lay on the ground. He has since sued ICE, alleging violations of religious freedom and free speech.
After weeks of threats, Trump has federalized 300 Illinois National Guard troops and ordered hundreds more to deploy from Texas — using protests against immigrant detention as a pretext for putting soldiers on the streets. The move defies the spirit of the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, which bars the use of federal military forces to enforce civilian law without explicit congressional authorization.
At a press conference, Pritzker voiced angry defiance toward what he called “Trump’s invasion.”
“The state of Illinois is going to use every lever at our disposal to resist this power grab and get (Homeland Security Secretary Kristi) Noem’s thugs the hell out of Chicago,” Pritzker said.
Portland might well be next.
Over the weekend, a federal judge in Oregon, appointed by Trump in 2019, issued two rulings temporarily blocking his attempts to deploy National Guard troops to Portland. In a blistering decision Saturday, U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut wrote that Trump’s claims of a “war zone” were “simply untethered to the facts.” She added: “This is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law.”
When Trump tried to circumvent her ruling by ordering California National Guard troops into Oregon, Immergut blocked that maneuver too, writing: “The executive cannot invoke emergency powers based on manufactured chaos.”
Trump responded by claiming that “Portland is on fire,” and threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act, which legal experts note would effectively amount to imposing martial law.
Trump’s description of the situation in Portland is grossly exaggerated, and intentionally so. The protests have occurred in a very small area around the ICE detention center. There have been clashes involving pepper spray, but no ongoing battles. The scene is actually more like an episode of the TV show Portlandia. During Kristi Noem’s visit to the facility on Tuesday she was mocked by activists wearing inflatable animal costumes, including a dinosaur, a raccoon and a chicken. An activist in a giant toad costume has become a social media sensation, especially after an ICE agent shot pepper spray into the air vent on the costume’s back side. Another image making the social media rounds shows protestors using donuts dangling from fishing poles to taunt ICE agents — “ICE fishing,” as they call it.
Portland wears its progressivism on its sleeve, which does not always work in the city’s favor. During the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests downtown, city officials faced accusations of being too lenient on leftist agitators. Riots during those protests, coupled with COVID, led to the closure of numerous downtown stores. Leftists who relish confrontation with right-wing counter-protesters have posed another challenge. During one protest in late August 2020, Trump supporters rode their pickup trucks into downtown Portland and picked a fight with leftist demonstrators. That night, a right-wing counter-protester was shot and killed by a self-described anti-fascist activist, who was later tracked down and fatally shot by federal agents in neighboring Washington state. Before fleeing, the shooter said he was defending himself.
Even before Trump, Portland has had a rocky relationship with federal authority. The city was the site of massive protests against President George W. Bush’s 2003 invasion of Iraq. In 2019, Portland became the second U.S. city — after San Francisco — to withdraw its police officers from the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, citing concerns over civil liberties and lack of transparency. In the 1990s, staffers for the first President Bush dubbed Portland “Little Beirut” in response to raucous anti-war protests that greeted his visits.
During his visit to Quantico Marine Base, Trump told top military commanders, “We should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military.” He singled out Chicago, Portland, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. For now, Portland’s resistance may resemble a surreal episode of protest theater—complete with inflatable dinosaurs and the viral “anti-fascist” frog. But there will be no cause for chuckling if the city becomes a proving ground for martial law, with federal troops rehearsing the suppression of dissent.
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Jewish freelance journalist Emily Wilder is detained as Israeli military intercepts Gaza aid flotilla

(JTA) — Jewish freelance journalist Emily Wilder, reporting for Jewish Currents, a progressive Jewish publication, was detained by the Israeli military on Monday while covering an aid flotilla bound for Gaza.
Wilder set sail from Italy last week aboard The Conscious, one of dozens of boats that aimed to reach Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid to the besieged enclave.
But that effort was cut short when Wilder, along with the other journalists and aid workers on her voyage, was intercepted by the Israeli military and detained. The military has intercepted, detained and deported activists sailing to Gaza multiple times in recent weeks.
Jewish Currents has been staunchly against the war in Gaza, calling Israel’s campaign there a genocide and advocating for the Palestinian cause. In an email to subscribers, publisher Daniel May said the publication sent Wilder on a flotilla because of the value of the reporting she could produce.
“Jewish Currents commissioned Emily’s reporting because we know that Israel’s unprecedented restrictions on journalists have facilitated the war crimes perpetrated in Gaza,” May wrote. “We also know that the flotillas are an important story in themselves.”
Wilder was a member of Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine, both anti-Zionist groups, as a student at Stanford University, from which she graduated in 2020. The next year, she was fired from the Associated Press in 2021 due to her social media posts about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Since then, according to her LinkedIn, she has worked as a freelancer and a human rights researcher.
Wilder was also documenting the voyage on her Instagram account, which has not posted an update since she and her crew were detained.
“Today, the @gazafreedomflotilla’s Conscience sets sail from the boot of Italy, with hopes of bringing ~70 media and medical workers across the Mediterranean to Gaza’s shores amid Israel’s blockade on international press and killing of doctors and journalists,” wrote Wilder last week in a post.
Israel’s foreign ministry blasted the flotilla participants in a post on X Tuesday.
“Another futile attempt to breach the legal naval blockade and enter a combat zone ended in nothing,” the post read. “The vessels and the passengers are transferred to an Israeli port. All the passengers are safe and in good health. The passengers are expected to be deported promptly.’
In the email, May directed readers to sign a Change.org petition calling for her release and to urge the California native’s representatives, including Democratic Sens. Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla, to advocate for her.
Last week, dozens of other boats that were part of the Global Sumud Flotilla were also intercepted, and hundreds of participants were detained and later deported, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg who alleged that she had been “kidnapped and tortured” by the Israeli military. (Another flotilla effort including Thunberg was intercepted by the Israeli military in June.)
“My office has now confirmed that a second flotilla carrying vital humanitarian aid … has been intercepted, and nearly 145 passengers and crew detained,” wrote California Democratic Rep. Jimmy Comez in a statement. “Among the detained is my constituent Emily Wilder, a member of the press, who was reporting on the flotilla’s attempt to bring humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.”
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Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square is transformed by cautious optimism — and gratitude for Trump

(JTA) — TEL AVIV — The mood at Tel Aviv’s upscale Gindi Fashion Mall was divided between anticipation and disbelief on Thursday afternoon, in the wake of news of a hostage deal that could end the Gaza war and bring the remaining hostages home.
At a kiosk across from a Chanel boutique, fruit vendor Amit Bonen said she had learned not to trust good news too quickly. “I have optimism, but it’s filled to the brim with pessimism,” she said. “I won’t believe anything until I see it with my own eyes.”
Her colleague, Rinat, nodded in agreement. “You can’t trust those terrorists,” she said. “Who knows what trick they have up their sleeve?”
But Or, en route to a cosplay event, dismissed the caution. “Why not celebrate?” he said. “The hostages will come home. They’ll leave people in Gaza alone. What’s not to love?”
A few blocks away, Hostages Square looked transformed. For nearly two years it had been a gathering place for families of hostages and their supporters and for vigils marked by grief. On Thursday it was filled with songs that had become the soundtrack of wartime resilience — “Am Yisrael Chai,” “Machshavot Tovot,” “Ve’od Yoter Tov.” Impromptu circles of dance formed. American flags fluttered beside effigies of Donald Trump and handmade posters thanking the American president, who helped broker the agreement. Children leaned over folding tables, coloring “welcome home” notes for returning hostages.
Ariel Vinter, from Jerusalem, led the crowd in singing. The past two years had strengthened her faith, she said, which she leaned on to cope with the loss of her cousins, Ofir Tzarfati check sp and Tchelet Fishbein, who were killed on Oct. 7 at the Nova festival and Be’eri, respectively.
“I haven’t digested what happened to them. I don’t think I ever will,” she said. “But I know the families will only be able to heal when Eviatar and Guy are back,” referring to Evyatar David and Guy Gilboa Dalal, who were with Tzarfati when he was killed and who were taken hostage to Gaza.
Michel Illouz, whose son Guy was abducted from the Nova festival and later confirmed killed in Gaza, harbored no doubts about the news.
“I 100% know we are ending this war,” he said. “Everyone must understand that the only option is by peace and not war. For the Israeli side and Palestinian side.”
He would only find peace, he said, once he saw his son’s body. “I want to touch him. I want to make this closure.”
He added: “From this trauma, from this holocaust, we will have a great future for all our nation,” he added.
“We would never be here right now without him,” referring to Trump.
Nearby, well-wishers lined up to embrace relatives of the hostages. A woman who asked to hug Meirav Gonen, mother of freed hostage Romi Gonen, told her, “All along you were the source of strength for all of us to fight for you.”
Afterward, she told JTA: “They’re so strong. Why shouldn’t we be? It’s a matter of hours now. Nothing else matters. We can finally return to life.”
Gonen said the families were united by a shared determination. “Of course we’re holding our breath,” she said. “But this time it’s different. Everyone is together on this. You can feel it. Everything is aligned for this to happen.”
Her daughter’s release during a January ceasefire had not ended her own sense of obligation for the hostages.
“It’s a hole that hasn’t been filled,” she said. Like others, she credited Trump: “We couldn’t have done this without him.”
Among those taking part in the celebrations was Anat, a founding member of Bo’u, a volunteer movement formed in late 2024 to push for a hostage-release deal.
“For the first time, I feel I can breathe,” she said. “But it was all down to us — the Israeli people. We made Trump understand that most Israelis wanted the war to end — that our values, unlike the government’s, are about responsibility to one another. We were all partners in bringing them home.”
Some people came to the square for the first time. Doron Katz, who was freed from captivity with her daughters in the first hostage deal in November 2023, said she had stayed away until now. “It was too hard before,” she said. “But now, seeing people smiling and dancing — it’s very moving.”
Nechamit, who traveled from Netanya with nine friends, called it “a historic day.” Her friend, Ariella, described the atmosphere simply as “celebratory.”
“We’re ready to give Trump the Nobel Peace Prize for this,” she said.
Nearby, Tova Gohar waved a giant American flag. She said she came to “thank Trump for forcing Israel and the Arab countries into signing the deal. He’s a businessman, he knows how to do deals.”
Activists planned to sustain activities in the square in the coming days, as Israeli lawmakers sign off on the deal and the public awaits the hostages’ return. Prayers will be held in the square on Shabbat, and the public is invited to bring their Friday night dinners to create a communal experience.
Fourteen-year-old Noam Salame, from Karnei Shomron, said he was thinking about what the hostages would experience when they returned.
“I’m just imagining Bar Kupershtein seeing his father speak for the first time,” he said. Bar’s father, Tal, was left unable to speak after a stroke five years ago and has since regained his voice — a recovery he said came from determination to bring his son home, after Bar was abducted from the Nova festival.
“And of Ziv and Gali Berman watching Maccabi Tel Aviv’s ascent in the [Euroleague],” he added, referring to the 27-year-old twins, both avid soccer fans, who were kidnapped by Hamas from Kibbutz Kfar Aza.
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Jewish groups welcome ceasefire plan as a step toward a ‘lasting regional peace’

(JTA) — Jewish organizations across the ideological spectrum offered cautious optimism following the announcement of the first phase of a Gaza peace agreement, expressing profound relief at the planned return of hostages living and dead and tentative hopes that the plan might lead toward lasting regional peace.
As for what such a last peace might look like, only groups that have consistently advocated for a two-state solution offered a specific vision, putting their hopes in a solution that is implicit in the Trump administration’s 20-point peace plan, but which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects adamantly.
Nearly all the organizations noted that the war began with Hamas’s deadly attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and urged “vigilance” that Hamas would uphold its side of any agreement.
“This development represents a hopeful step toward resolving the conflict, securing the release of all hostages, and establishing the conditions for lasting peace and security in the region,” read a statement by Betsy Berns Korn and William C. Daroff, the chair and CEO, respectively, of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. “This moment demands unity, resolve, and the moral clarity to ensure that peace and security endure and every hostage returns home.”
Federations similarly welcomed the deal for its humanitarian implications, with the Jewish Federations of North America saying “our prayers are answered — not completely, for the pain of loss remains — but with the long-awaited promise of healing, renewal, and hope.”
Groups also thanked the Trump administration for brokering the deal. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee said in its statement that it “applauds President Trump and his negotiating team for this tremendous achievement and for working together with Israel to broker this peace plan.”
AIPAC also framed the last two years as an affirmation of the “enduring partnership between the United States and our ally Israel,” despite cracks that showed during the Biden administration and to a lesser extent under Trump.
A lobbying group that tends to reflect the policies of the sitting Israeli government, AIPAC also spoke in brief of what some are calling “the day after,” saying that the peace deal “creates a tremendous opportunity to forge a better future for Israelis, Palestinians, and people across the Middle East.”
J Street — the advocacy group often described as the progressive counterpart to AIPAC — did not mention the two-state solution in a statement by its president, Jeremy Ben-Ami. But Ben-Ami did urge the parties to take steps toward realizing the “full US-backed 20-point plan — one that ensures Israel’s security, ends Hamas’s reign of terror, delivers a massive surge of humanitarian aid and sets the region on a path toward a comprehensive and permanent peace.”
In the 19th point of its 20-point plan, the White House suggested without making any pledges that “the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood, which we recognise as the aspiration of the Palestinian people.” And while a number of key European allies recently recognized a Palestinian state, the idea has been effectively stalled and faces formidable obstacles on the ground, including strong opposition by both the current Israeli government and key segments of the Israeli and Palestinian publics.
Other groups were more explicit in reiterating the two-state solution. The Israel Policy Forum, founded to advance the idea of two states, said it hoped the agreement might pave the way for “rekindled Israel-Arab diplomacy, a reformed Palestinian Authority with new, empowered, and legitimate leadership, an eventual expansion of the Abraham Accords that advances Israel’s integration in the Middle East, and the pursuit of a viable political horizon to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on two states.”
The Reform movement, in a statement signed by the leaders of its rabbinical, congregational and seminary arms, also hoped the ceasefire would create the conditions for renewing a solution which the statement acknowledged “feels remote at this point.” Nevertheless, according to the statement, “a two-state solution in some configuration must remain the worthy, long-term goal for Israelis and Palestinians as they contemplate a future with safety, dignity, and hope for all.”
Further to the left, Jewish groups welcomed the return of the hostages but also reiterated their criticism of Israel’s prosecution of a war whose death toll, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry, surpassed 67,000.
Partners for Progressive Israel called the agreement “a victory for the hostage families in Israel and their supporters” as well as “the many international bodies who have sought to hold Hamas and this Israeli government accountable for the war crimes perpetrated in the last two years.”
While few right-leaning groups commented on the deal in the hours after its announcement, which also coincided with the end of the first two days of Sukkot, Religious Zionists of America-Mizrachi welcomed the news, calling it “a potentially hopeful step toward restoring calm and securing the release of Israeli hostages.”
RZA-Mizrachi’s president, Steven M. Flatow, whose daughter Alisa Flatow was killed in a suicide bombing near a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip in 1995, also warned that “Hamas’s word is worth little.” He cautioned that any plan’s success “depends entirely on whether Hamas and its supporters can be trusted to abide by their commitments—a lesson history teaches us to approach with clear eyes.”
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