Waltz: US will back Israeli action if Hamas breaks ceasefire
(JNS) — Incoming U.S. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz said on Wednesday that the Trump administration will support renewed Israeli military action against Hamas in Gaza if the terrorist group violates the terms of the ceasefire.
“We’ve made it very clear to the Israelis, and I want the people of Israel to hear me on this — if they need to go back in, we’re with them. If Hamas doesn’t live up to the terms of this agreement, we are with them,” the Republican representative from Florida’s 6th District, whom President-elect Donald Trump tapped for the NSA role in November, told Fox News anchor Bret Baier.
“Hamas is not going to continue as a military entity and it certainly is not going to govern Gaza,” Waltz stressed.
Waltz said that he understands the concerns about the Palestinian terrorists released from prison as part of the agreement, but that “at the end of the day those hostages have been down there in those tunnels getting raped, abused, in horrific conditions. They have been there longer than the 1979 hostages, in much more horrific conditions,” referring to the Iran hostage crisis.
He said that 25 of the 33 hostages on the list to be released in the first stage of the deal are alive.
Recognizing ‘Palestine’ would create Hamas terror state, Israeli FM says in response to Blinken
(JNS) — Granting the Palestinians statehood in the wake of the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, would amount to the creation of a “Hamas state,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar charged on Wednesday, speaking hours after his U.S. counterpart endorsed the recognition of “Palestine.”
“In the current situation, establishing a Palestinian state will surely be a Hamas state,” Israel’s top diplomat told an Italian reporter who asked about U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s remarks during a joint press briefing with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani in Rome.
Sa’ar added that “there is a reason why the Palestinian Authority didn’t make elections since 2005.”
“A Hamas state will not only not solve the conflict, but will deteriorate security, peace and stability of the region,” continued the diplomat. For the Palestinian Authority to become a possible peace partner, Ramallah must stop its practice of rewarding terrorists, Sa’ar said.
In what could be his final speech on the job, Blinken on Tuesday stated that Jerusalem “must embrace a time-bound, conditions-based path toward forming an independent Palestinian state.”
Torres calls out New York governor for failing to address Jew-hatred in state
(JNS) — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is failing to acknowledge the rise of antisemitism in the state, according to Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY).
“Antisemitic hate crimes have risen to historic highs in New York,” Torres wrote on social media, noting that his search for the word “antisemitism” in the Democratic governor’s transcript of her upcoming State of the State turned up nothing.
“Not one mention of ‘antisemitism’ in a 140-page document. Not one mention of ‘antisemitism’ in an hour-long speech,” he wrote. “The scandal is not that Kathy Hochul is failing to combat antisemitism. The scandal is that she is not even trying.”
The ADL reported that antisemitic hate crimes increased by 110% overall in New York in 2023, reaching 1,218 total incidents — the highest number ever recorded by ADL in the state and the second-highest number recorded in any state across the country last year.
Hamilton College adds Jewish studies minor amid rising ‘ignorance’ about Jews, Israel on campuses
(JNS) — Hamilton College, a highly ranked, nearly 215-year-old private liberal arts school in Clinton, N.Y., announced on Monday that it has a new minor in Jewish studies.
Heidi Ravven, a Jewish studies professor who joined the faculty in 1983, “had long considered developing a Jewish studies program and believes now is the right moment given the war in the Middle East and tensions throughout the world,” the college stated.
Ravven told JNS that the new minor fulfills an “urgent” need, driven by “the rise in antisemitism worldwide and in the United States, and especially the appalling ignorance about Jews, Judaism and the State of Israel that we have seen played out on college campuses.”
“Student enthusiasm has been high and Jewish studies courses enthusiastically welcomed, and enrollments off the charts,” she told JNS.
The minor requires five courses, including courses on ancient Jewish wisdom, Jewish folklore, and modern Middle Eastern history.
Per Hillel International, 170 of Hamilton’s students (8.3%) are Jewish.
Jewish Voice for Peace agrees to pay $677,634 to settle charges it sought loan illegally
(JNS) — Jewish Voice for Peace agreed to pay $677,634 — twice the $338,817 it obtained under the Paycheck Protection Act Program — to settle allegations that it received the loan, which was forgiven, fraudulently.
The anti-Israel nonprofit would have been required to repay three times the loan amount, $1,016,451, as well as “lost interest, along with civil penalties for each false certification made in the loan application and forgiveness application,” if it was found guilty of fraud, per the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.
The forgivable loan was part of the March 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, which “authorized billions of dollars in forgivable loans to small businesses and other entities, including non-profit organizations, struggling to pay employees and other business expenses,” according to the Justice Department.
The program wasn’t open to those that “primarily engaged in political or lobbying activities,” and when Jewish Voice for Peace applied for the loan, it certified that it was not an “entity that is organized for research or for engaging in advocacy in areas such as public policy or political strategy or otherwise describes itself as a think tank in any public document,” per the department.
