Majority of US voters say Washington should stay out of Iran, Quinnipiac poll suggests
(JNS) — Seven in 10 U.S. voters, including a majority of Republicans, say the United States should not take military action against Iran despite the regime’s ongoing attacks on peaceful protesters.
U.S. President Donald Trump has told the demonstrators to “keep protesting,” and that “help is on its way,” but respondents in a Quinnipiac University poll released on Jan. 14 said Washington should stay out of it.
By 70% to 18%, voters opposed military action against Iran, even as reports say the Iranian regime has killed as many as 12,000 protesters. That includes 80% of independents, 79% of Democrats and 53% of Republicans, per the poll.
In addition, by 70% to 24%, voters said the U.S. president should first get congressional approval before attacking another country. That included 95% of Democrats and 78% of independents. Republicans disagreed, by 54% to 34%.
“Talk of the U.S. military potentially intervening in Iran’s internal chaos gets a vigorous thumbs down, while voters signal congressional approval should be a backstop against military involvement in any foreign crisis,” Quinnipiac polling analyst Tim Malloy stated.
Overall, 56% disapproved of the way Trump was handling foreign policy, with 41% approving, and 53% disapproved of his job as commander in chief of the U.S. military, with 43% in support.
Tulsa’s Jewish community pushes back on Oklahoma Jewish charter school proposal
(JTA) — Leaders of Tulsa’s Jewish community are publicly pushing back against a proposal to open a publicly funded Jewish charter school in Oklahoma, saying the plan was developed without meaningful local input and could destabilize existing Jewish institutions.
In a joint statement released this week, senior figures from Tulsa’s synagogues, Jewish day school and community organizations said they opposed efforts by an outside group to create what would become the only religious school in the country entirely funded by taxpayers — an arrangement whose constitutionality is contested.
“We are deeply concerned that an external Jewish organization would pursue such an initiative in Oklahoma without first engaging in meaningful consultation with the established Oklahoma Jewish community,” the statement said. “To bypass community consultation in favor of an externally driven initiative is a serious error.”
The statement was signed by leaders from across Tulsa’s Jewish community, including the executive director of the Mizel Jewish Community Day School, rabbis from two Tulsa synagogues, and the head of Jewish Tulsa, the local federation.
The response follows an application by the National Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School Foundation to open a statewide online charter school that would combine Oklahoma academic standards with daily Jewish religious instruction.
House passes State Department funding bill with Israel aid
(JNS) — The U.S. House of Representatives passed the State Department’s annual funding bill on Jan. 14 with billions of dollars in security aid to Israel.
The funding package, which also includes appropriations for the U.S. Treasury Department, executive office of the president, the District of Columbia and other foreign aid, provides Israel with $3.3 billion under the foreign military financing program.
It passed on a bipartisan basis 341 to 79.
Along with the $500 million given to Israel as part of the U.S. defense budget for anti-missile programs, the funding meets the agreement that Israel and the United States signed in 2016 to provide Israel with $3.8 billion in military aid each fiscal year until 2028.
U.S. military funding to Israel has long been controversial among Israel’s critics. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said recently that he would like to end U.S. foreign assistance to the Jewish state.
“I want to taper off military aid within the next 10 years,” he told the Economist. “We very deeply appreciate the military aid that America has given us over the years but here too, we’ve come of age.”
“We’ve developed incredible capacities, and our economy, which will soon reach — certainly within a decade, it’ll reach about $1 trillion,” he said. “It’s not a huge economy. It’s not a small economy.”
Boston University’s annual ‘Jewish Left’ conference to feature anti-Israel groups
(JNS) — An annual conference hosted by Boston University, billed as a space to “explore the Jewish left’s values, institutions and impact,” will feature workshops led by anti-Israel groups Rabbis for Ceasefire and IfNotNow.
The “Conference on the Jewish Left,” scheduled for Feb. 12, will also feature American journalist Peter Beinart as its keynote speaker. Beinart, who is Jewish, apologized in November for making a “serious mistake” by speaking at Tel Aviv University, calling the move “a failure of judgment.”
The event speakers also include Fadi Quran, who has “expressed support for terrorists, promoted incitement and demonized Israel on social media,” according to antisemitism watchdog group Canary Mission.
Rabbi Elchana Poupko, host of “The Jewish World” podcast, called the event “a viciously anti-Zionist conference under the guise of ‘the Jewish left.’”
“David Ben Gurion was a member of the Jewish left. Golda Meir was a member of the Jewish left. Yitzchak Rabin was a member of the Jewish left,” he wrote. “They were all staunch Zionists.”
Event sponsors include the Krupp Family Foundation. George Krupp, the foundation’s co-founder, signed on to a 2024 letter to then-U.S. President Joe Biden conveying “concern” with the Biden administration’s “unconditional support” for Israel’s war in Gaza.
Rubble of Pasadena synagogue destroyed in wildfire is vandalized with anti-Zionist graffiti
(JTA) — The remains of a synagogue in southern California destroyed in last January’s Eaton wildfire were vandalized over the weekend with anti-Zionist messages.
The rabbi of the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center and the Anti-Defamation League decried the vandalism as antisemitic.
“The vandalism of the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center is antisemitism — full stop,” ADL Los Angeles senior regional director David Englin said in a statement. “This was a deliberate act of hate meant to intimidate a Jewish community already rebuilding after last year’s fire, and it comes at a time when antisemitism is already at unprecedented levels in California and nationwide. Targeting a synagogue is simply unacceptable and represents an attack on our entire community.”
Photographs of the graffiti showed that it was scrawled in black spray paint on an exterior wall fence and read “RIP Renee” followed by other obscene slurs.
The first words appeared to be a likely reference to Renee Good, the 37-year-old Minneapolis resident shot by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
