Netanyahu to hostage families in DC: ‘Strong pressure’ on Hamas will lead to captives’ release
Intro
Conditions for a ceasefire deal are "maturing" as Hamas begins to crack, said the Israeli premier.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met on Monday in Washington with the families of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, telling them that military pressure on the terrorist group was creating the conditions for their return.
The meeting, which included Netanyahu's wife Sara, took place on the day that the couple arrived in Washington, where the premier will address a joint session of Congress on Wednesday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a meeting in Washington with the families of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, July 22, 2024. Credit: Prime Minister's Spokeswoman.
"We are determined to return everyone. The conditions to bring them back are ripe, for the simple reason that we are putting very strong pressure on Hamas. We are seeing a certain change, and I think this change will continue to grow. We intend to do it—this is a war objective," said Netanyahu according to his office.
Twenty-three relatives of hostages, including 12 of U.S. citizens being held in Gaza, were at the meeting. Freed hostage Noa Argamani and her father Yaakov were also present, as were two soldiers who fought in Gaza in the current war against Hamas. Relatives who lost loved ones fighting in Gaza were also there.
Of the 120 hostages remaining in the Strip, 116 were abducted during the Oct. 7 Hamas-led massacre (the other four were captured earlier). The figure includes both living and deceased men, women and children.
The Israel Defense Forces on Monday confirmed the deaths of two Israeli hostages in Hamas captivity in Gaza. Alexander Dancyg, 76, was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz, while Yagev Buchshtab, 35, was taken from Kibbutz Nirim. Both were captured during Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with the families of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza in Washington on July 22, 2024. Photo by Amos Ben Gershon/GPO.
"This is an important visit that will give us an opportunity to bring to the representatives of the American people the importance of their support for the efforts we are making, together with them, to bring about the release of all the abductees—both the living and the dead," Netanyahu said during Monday's meeting, adding that he had been informed of the two hostage deaths.
The prime minister is expected to meet with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris separately during his Washington trip. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will likely be in attendance during the Biden meeting. Netanyahu is also reportedly seeking to meet with former president Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for the White House.
Netanyahu stressed that any ceasefire agreement with Hamas must not come at the expense of victory against the terrorist group.
"I am in no way ready to give up the victory over Hamas. If we give it up, we are in danger against the entire evil axis of Iran," the premier said.
"Regarding the deal—the conditions are maturing, without a doubt. This is a good sign, and the other sign is that we also see a break in the spirit of the enemy beginning. I believe if we stick with it we can get a deal. I say in advance that this is a process, unfortunately it is not all at once, there will be stages—but I believe that we can advance the deal and leave the levers in our hands to bring about the release of the others. This is the direction we are going."
Israeli delegation to depart for hostage talks on Thursday
An Israeli delegation is scheduled to set off on Thursday for ceasefire negotiations with Hamas, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office announced on Sunday night.
“Today, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held an in-depth discussion on the hostage issue together with the negotiation team and senior security officials,” according to the PMO statement.
The announcement did not specify where the talks would be held; previous negotiation rounds have been held in Doha and Cairo.
In a separate statement on Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant commended Netanyahu for the decision to resume the talks.
“As a result of our military achievements during this war, the conditions have been created, and a limited window of opportunity has opened to establish a framework for the release of the hostages,” said Gallant. “The defense establishment backs you in your mission to bring about a deal.”
Netanyahu has publicly stressed that “in every scenario,” Israel will continue to control southern Gaza’s Rafah Crossing and Philadelphi Corridor, the 8.7-mile-long border area between the Strip and Egypt.
The premier’s red lines include the ability to resume fighting in Gaza until all war goals have been met; an end to arms smuggling from Egypt; no return of “thousands” of Hamas terrorists to the enclave’s north; and maximizing the number of living hostages released.
The Israel Defense Forces this week killed Muhammad Uthayn, commander of Hamas’s Daraj Tuffah Battalion, the military said Friday, as ground troops continued advancing in the Gaza Strip in "Operation Gideon’s Chariots."
Uthayn infiltrated Israel during the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre and subsequently carried out attacks against IDF soldiers throughout the ongoing war.
His death further degrades the battalion’s capabilities and reduces its ability to target Israeli troops in the area, according to the military.
Also this week, the Israeli Air Force killed Raed Khaled Hasan Jabayin, a senior Islamic Jihad terrorist who served a prison sentence in Israel from 2006 to 2015.
In recent years, and throughout the ongoing war, Jabayin was involved in transferring funds for the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization, with the aim of facilitating and carrying out attacks in Judea and Samaria.
According to the IDF, Jabayin played a key role in financing terrorist activity in the region, including arming operatives and planning attacks targeting Israeli civilians and soldiers.
Earlier on Friday, the IDF announced the killing of Barhoum Shahin, head of the Western Gaza District for Hamas’s General Security Apparatus, and Asham Tzartzur, who led the terrorist group’s Government Emergency Committee in eastern Gaza.
Both men played key roles in Hamas’s internal security and governance efforts, including supporting the terrorist group’s “military” wing and enforcing its rule through repression and violence against Gaza’s civilian population.
The IDF said it also killed Faraj al-‘Aoul, the head of Hamas’s legal bureau and a member of its legislative council.
Israeli military operations across the coastal enclave are ongoing as part of “Gideon’s Chariots,” a campaign with the stated goal of dismantling Hamas’s remaining military capabilities, taking control of key areas in the Strip and securing the release of the 50 captives.
https://youtu.be/hPSSxSpEaZw
Troops from the Nahal Infantry Brigade, operating under the command of the 162nd Division, this week identified a terrorist cell armed with a rocket-propelled grenade near Israeli positions in the Daraj Tuffah area of northern Gaza. An IAF craft, guided by soldiers on the ground, conducted a precision airstrike that eliminated the threat.
In a separate operation, IDF ground forces, in coordination with Yahalom special forces combat engineers, uncovered and dismantled a tunnel approximately 800 meters (875 yards) long and 18 meters (20 yards) deep.
The military said troops have destroyed weapons caches, observation posts and terrorist infrastructure, including a facility where Hamas operatives were hiding.
https://youtu.be/d3mTriYfPPY
A majority of Israelis want the Gaza Strip to remain under Israeli military rule after the war ends, according to a survey published by the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs (JCFA) this week.
The poll, conducted by Menachem Lazar of Lazar Research at the beginning of July, found that 52% support an Israeli takeover of Gaza with a temporary military administration—if all hostages are first released. Only 4% believe Hamas should remain in power, whether politically or militarily.
The Israeli Air Force intercepted a ballistic missile launched by Houthi terrorists in Yemen on Friday night, the military said.
The attack triggered air-raid sirens across central Israel, including in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and parts of Judea and Samaria, sending millions of civilians rushing to bomb shelters during Shabbat.
There were no reports of injuries or damage.
On Wednesday, Israeli air defense systems shot down another projectile fired from Houthi-controlled territory, this time heading toward southern Israel near the Dead Sea and Negev regions.
A day earlier, the IDF intercepted a drone launched from Yemen.
The Iranian-backed Houthis have in recent weeks escalated attacks on Israel, including a direct hit near Ben-Gurion International Airport on May 4.
In response, IAF fighter jets earlier this month carried out a series of strikes targeting Houthi infrastructure in Yemen—including facilities at the ports of Al Hudaydah, Ras Isa, and Salif, as well as a power plant. The operation involved approximately 20 aircraft and the deployment of more than 50 munitions.
Jerusalem has conducted several rounds of strikes against the Houthis, including an operation in May called “Golden Jewel” targeting the airport in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa.
After Yoav Segev was attacked on Harvard University’s campus in October 2023, shortly after the Oct. 7 attacks, the university further victimized him, according to a new lawsuit which the Jewish student filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
“Harvard did everything it could to defend, protect and reward the assailants; to impede the criminal investigation; and to prevent Mr. Segev from obtaining administrative relief from the university,” per the complaint, which National Review obtained.
“After Oct. 7, 2023, antisemitism exploded on Harvard’s campus,” Mark Pinkert, partner at Holtzman Vogel, who is representing Segev, told JNS. “Amidst the chaos and protests, Yoav Segev was violently assaulted by student-employees, simply because he is Jewish.”
Segev is “pursuing justice against Harvard not only for failing to protect him and other Jewish students but for defending and rewarding antisemitism,” the attorney told JNS. “This type of treatment would be unimaginable for other minorities at Harvard, except Jews.”
The student was taking video on his phone on Harvard’s campus in 2023 during an anti-Israel “die in,” when protesters told him to leave. Segev said he had a right to be there and remained. Per the complaint, he was then surrounded by people wearing keffiyehs, who grabbed him “violently.”
The suit alleges that after Segev filed a complaint with the university, Harvard told him it couldn’t discipline the attackers, since Segev wanted to remain unnamed. Harvard conducted a “sham” investigation in January 2024 but declined to share the results with Segev, per the complaint.
The suit further alleges that Segev had sought to join lawsuits against Harvard anonymously but that Harvard publicized information that made it easy for people to identify him and the Harvard Crimson, a student paper, published an article naming him as part of a suit.
It also charges that Harvard rewarded two student employees who were involved in the October 2023 incident, with one receiving a paid Harvard Law Review fellowship and the other graduating from Harvard Divinity School as class marshal.
Harvard’s actions, and lack of response to antisemitism, continue to “severely impact” Segev’s “health, mental wellbeing and sense of security,” per the suit.
Jason Newton, director of media relations and communications at Harvard, told JNS that the school “remains committed to combating antisemitism and enforcing our anti-harassment and anti-discrimination rules and policies at all times.”
“Harvard has acted with deep concern for supporting our Jewish and Israeli students and will defend the university against these claims,” he said.
The U.S. Agency for International Development, U.S. State Department and other federal agencies under the Biden administration failed to prevent nonprofits from using more than $900 million in taxpayer funds to oppose Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and to support terror groups, according to the House Judiciary Committee.
On Thursday, the committee released a memo based on 380 documents it received in a probe of six nonprofits: Blue White Future, Movement for Quality Government in Israel, PEF Israel Endowment Funds, Jewish Communal Fund, Middle East Peace Dialogue Network and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.
According to the House panel, PEF Israel Endowment Funds sent more than $884 million “to groups involved in anti-democracy protests in Israel,” and Jewish Communal Fund allocated more than $42.8 million to groups that fund an organizer of anti-judicial reform.
Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors “likely” used parts of $20 million in federal grants to fund protests against Netanyahu in Israel, and the Middle East Peace Dialogue Network “may” be violating its nonprofit status due to its funding of “anti-democracy protests in Israel,” according to the House committee.
The panel added that “the Biden-Harris administration provided U.S. government funding to terrorist-linked NGOs.”
“Flow of Federal Funds, 2021-2024” (Chart). Source: House Judiciary Committee.
According to the memo, federal funds flowed to Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, which funded PEF Israel Endowment Funds, which in turn distributed monies to Blue White Future, which the House committee describes as a “radical anti-Netanyahu organization.”
“The committee’s oversight shows that Blue White Future, a key player in the anti-Netanyahu protests, may have been a downstream recipient of U.S. grant funding,” the memo states.
The House panel noted that “the fungibility of money—the ability to easily replace one set of funds with another set of funds of equal value—suggests that PEF donations may have included funding that originated with the U.S. government.”
“More broadly, when an NGO receives government funding for a project, it can use the money previously earmarked for that project on something else which it would have otherwise not been able to fund,” it states.
Among the memo’s claims of support for terrorism is at least $900,000 having gone to Bayader Association for Environment and Development, which the document says is connected with Hamas, since 2016. “Most recently, USAID issued a grant to Bayader on Oct. 1, 2023, just six days before the Hamas terrorist attacks against the Israeli people,” it states.
The Republican Jewish Coalition called the memo’s findings “outrageous” and said “the Biden-Harris administration transferred nearly a billion dollars to left-wing NGOs in Israel with the goal of undermining the democratically elected government.”
The committee said that its investigations are ongoing.
Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Rudy Yakym (R-Ind.) introduced a bipartisan resolution on Thursday condemning the use of the phrase “globalize the intifada.” The resolution clarifies this as a “call to violence against Israeli and Jewish people across the world,” and urges national, state and local leaders to ban it.
“There should be no ambiguity—‘globalize the intifada’ is hate speech, plain and simple,” said Gottheimer. “‘The intifada’ refers to a horrific wave of terror attacks that killed thousands of Jews. Globalizing it is a direct call for violence against Jews, and it must be condemned.”
He added that “words like these incite violence, fuel hate and put Jewish families at risk. At a time when antisemitic violence is at record highs, we must stand united to condemn this antisemitic hate speech and take meaningful action to combat rising Jew-hatred.”
The Anti-Defamation League reported a sharp rise in antisemitism during 2024, including a 21% increase in assaults on Jewish people. The resolution cites the ADL’s report as well as other recent instances of antisemitism, including the June 1 firebombing in Boulder, Colo., which injured eight and led to the death of an elderly woman, and the deadly May 21 shooting of two young Israeli embassy workers outside a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C.
“There are no two sides about the meaning of this slogan,” said Yakym. “Condemning it should be common sense, but some would rather play politics than tell the truth. The violence and hatred directed at Jewish and Israeli people is reprehensible. No one, especially in America, should have to live in fear for their safety, or even their life, because of their religion or ethnicity.”
New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has drawn a significant backlash for stating that the phrase is a legitimate expression of Palestinian rights, later defending it by claiming that the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum used the word “intifada” to describe those Jews fighting for their lives in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in the spring of 1943.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed its $832 billion defense appropriations bill with hundreds of millions of dollars for Israeli missile defense, largely along party lines, on Friday, with 216 Republicans and five Democrats voting for it, and 206 Democrats and three Republicans voting against it.
The annual Department of Defense spending bill includes $500 million for “Israeli cooperative programs,” which is divided between Israel’s various tiers of missile defense, including Iron Dome for intercepting short-range rocket and mortar attacks and Arrow for ballistic missiles.
AIPAC stated that joint U.S. and Israeli missile-defense cooperation “saves countless lives and enhances U.S. capabilities,” and Arrow, David’s Sling and Iron Dome were “essential” for Israel to defend itself against the Iranian regime.
“Israel is on the front lines of the fight against common enemies,” AIPAC stated. “This vote sends a strong message that America stands with our ally and rejects extremist efforts to undermine our strategic interests in the region.”
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) stated that his bipartisan amendment “to boost cooperation between the United States and our key ally, Israel, in developing technology to counter ‘killer drones’” passed as part of the bill.
“Last month, Israel faced more than 1,000 killer drones launched by Iran—the same drones that have been launched at American troops in the region,” the Jewish congressman said. “Iran is the parent company of terror, and Iranian-backed terror groups continue to target innocent American and Israeli civilians, which is why we must take concrete action to counter their deadly drone capabilities.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) introduced a slew of amendments on Thursday to strip out funding for foreign militaries, including Israel and Jordan and to bar any funds from being sent to Ukraine.
“Tonight all of my amendments to cut $1.6 billion of foreign aid out of our defense budget failed, because both Republicans and Democrats refuse to stop sending your hard-earned tax dollars to foreign countries,” Greene wrote.
“We are $37 trillion in debt and Congress will never ever fix it, because they will never ever stop the insane out-of-control spending that drives inflation up and makes your life unaffordable,” she said.
Just five other members of Congress voted to remove the Israel funding: Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Al Green (D-Texas), Summer Lee (D-Pa.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.).
Pro-Israel groups welcomed the defeat of Greene’s amendment about Israel on Friday.
Boris Zilberman, senior director of Christians United for Israel Action Fund, stated that Greene’s “effort is nothing more than attention-seeking behavior from a fringe bigot, whose hatred for Israel and the Jewish people trumps all else.”
“She is certainly not representing her Christian Zionist constituents, President Trump or the American people by these desperate acts,” Zilberman said. “The bottom line is that Rep. Greene’s efforts, like so much of her congressional career, have failed fantastically.”
AIPAC called the amendment “reckless” and said that the 422-6 vote to defeat the measure “sends a clear bipartisan message about America’s support for our democratic ally.”
The 2026 fiscal year defense bill keeps the Pentagon budget flat with what lawmakers appropriated in 2025.
The Senate Appropriations Committee has yet to release its version of the annual defense spending bill. When passed, the Senate version will have to be reconciled with the House legislation before final passage and then the president’s signature.
Israel studies departments at U.S. colleges and universities are “on the brink of collapse within the university context” and in danger of “becoming administratively homeless,” according to new research from the Jewish People Policy Institute, an Israeli think tank.
The decline of Israel studies is “the canary in the coal mine of what’s happening in higher education” and is “adjacent to the debates on campus antisemitism” and the “ideological capture of the university,” the University of Haifa historian Sara Hirschhorn, author of the report, told JNS.
The Association of Israel Studies, founded in 1985, lists six U.S. schools with Israel studies centers, two with professorships and chairs of Israel studies, two with Israel studies institutes, and two with institutes that encompass both Israel and Jewish studies. The association lists another seven with centers or programs in Judaic and Jewish studies, and five with joint programs, centers or institutes of Israel and Jewish studies.
Israel studies chairs were first established in 1992, “at an unresolved juncture in the development of Israel studies to respond to the campus climate and donor initiative, more than the readiness of the discipline itself to move into a new stage of maturity,” according to the report.
From 2004 to 2012, the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise aimed to “make smaller interventions on a larger number of campuses” by funding visiting professorships and fellowships, instead of costlier endowed positions, the report stated.
“Unfortunately, it is not an exaggeration to suggest that the field of Israel studies is on the brink of collapse within the university context,” per the report.
“Despite the fact that the field is well-funded, has attracted the interest of both the scholarly and lay community, and could be a constructive intervention in campus debates at this moment of crisis,” it stated, it is “incompatible with a campus climate since Oct. 7 that is increasingly anti-Zionist, pro-BDS and even cheers Hamas.”
Hirschhorn told JNS that “much of the change began before Oct. 7, but certainly after Oct. 7 with encampments on campus, with protesters storming into classes on Israel studies, with a really hostile climate to using the word ‘Israel’ and ‘Zionism’ as if it’s taboo or a dirty word.”
“It’s obvious that Israel studies is confronting a real crisis,” she said.
For the report, Hirschhorn interviewed professors from “comparative, small fields,” such as Greek studies, to “understand the similarities and differences” between them and Israel studies. She also pored over publicly available documents about Israel studies.
She found that Israel studies programs and departments are undergoing a “drift toward post-Zionism and critical scholarship,” which the report attributes in part to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives excluding Jews and Zionists and funding from foreign countries, like Qatar, that sponsor terror.
The report warns that the field’s “identity crisis” stems from a lack of “effort to standardize vocabulary or methodology,” which has meant that “researchers are talking past each other, with much being lost in translation of technical jargon.” The identity crisis makes it hard for Israel studies scholars to “respond with one voice,” according to the report.
Hirschhorn told JNS that there are no teaching plans for Israel studies professors to address a subject about which “people have very passionate feelings, where there’s hostility, where students have really entrenched heritage or religious or other backgrounds.”
Csaba Nikolenyi, a political science professor at Concordia University, where he directs the Azrieli Institute of Israel Studies, and vice president of the Association for Israel Studies, told JNS that the field—which includes multiple disciplines, such as Arabic studies, sociology and political science—is “robust” and “remains strong.”
Attendees of the 35th Annual Conference of the Association for Israel Studies, held at Kinneret College in northern Israel, June 2019. Credit: Erez Biton Photography.
The association’s 2024 conference in Prague had record attendance, Nikolenyi told JNS.
“The more Israel is in the news, the more there is a desire to understand this very, very complex politics,” he said.
‘Constantly developing’
Alexander Kaye directs Brandeis University’s Schusterman Center for Israel Studies and holds the chair of Israel studies at the school, and is an associate professor in its Near Eastern and Judaic studies department. He previously served as the Israel studies chair at Ohio State University.
“The field of Israel studies is thriving, despite the stiff challenges it admittedly faces,” Kaye told JNS.
“I am clear about what Israel studies is for—to help people understand Israel better, in all of its fascinating and complicated details,” he said. “So it is a great strength of the field that it includes so many kinds of experts, trained in different disciplines.”
Israel studies scholars are penning more books and articles about the Jewish state than ever before and are “reaching wide audiences on campuses and among the public at large, of people who want to have a deeper and more constructive understanding of Israel,” he said.
Kaye also thinks that the field is “constantly developing,” citing the two-year-old Brandeis Institute for Advanced Israel Studies, which he said “is the first of its kind and marks a new phase in the maturation of Israel studies.”
“This Institute convenes scholars from around the world to work together on a specific annual theme and produces cutting-edge research that is conveyed to students and the wider public through conferences, podcasts, and published books and articles,” he said.
Kaye added that Israel studies professors are reaching “large numbers” of students in China, India and elsewhere, well beyond the United States and Europe. The Brandeis Center recently hosted scholars from the United States, the United Arab Emirates, France, India, Bulgaria, Morocco, Germany, China, Cameroon and Brazil. “They have all come to us to learn how to teach better about Israel at their home institutions,” he said.
“Alumni of this program include 415 professors from 290 institutions across 36 countries to teach about Israel within their academic disciplines,” he said. “They have taught over 2,100 courses, reaching nearly 36,000 students worldwide.”
No centralized body
Lauren Strauss, a senior professorial lecturer at American University and director of its undergraduate Jewish studies program, told JNS that it is too early to say if Israel studies programs are shrinking, “but it’s well known that humanities programs in general have been facing financial and enrollment challenges across academia.”
“So any ‘shrinkage’ in these programs has to be put in the context of the general climate,” Strauss said.
The new report “somewhat overstates the current situation as a ‘crisis,’” Strauss told JNS, though it “amasses considerable evidence from press reports, personal anecdotes and some published data.”
Her largest criticism of the report is what she says is its suggestion that there should be a central body overseeing what Israel studies centers teach. Professional organizations maintain syllabi “banks,” and scholars share knowledge in journals.
“But the idea that there could be any generally accepted syllabus and course readings in the larger academic community is either laughable, if you know how professors feel about creating their own syllabi, or sinister, if you look at the extent of attempted control over course content in states like Florida,” Strauss said.
The new report states that Israel studies must “completely overhaul” its teaching. “First and foremost, it must define and implement a more centralized curriculum in Israel studies, criterion for what constitutes ‘academic rigor’ and coherent metrics of learning success for implementation on the local university level,” per the report.
Strauss calls that suggestion of a centralized body “somewhat shocking.”
Alan and Amy Meltzer. Credit: Meltzer Schwartzberg Center for Israel Studies, American University.
But the American University professor agrees with the report that Israel studies “is increasingly isolated, both its faculty and our courses and its public-facing programs,” and that “internal divisions in the field have been growing for a while.”
“I also strongly believe that universities could and should be doing more to advocate for these programs from a simple perspective of safety—including devoting funding to our physical protection,” Strauss told JNS. “We have seen too many tragic events already this year in the United States to argue that this is unnecessary or that it is solely the responsibility of the Jewish or Israel-focused community to provide and pay for their own professional security.”
Strauss thinks that despite many challenges, Israel studies will “certainly continue to exist in some form in the United States, even if some of the collegiate stand-alone programs and centers are at risk.”
And Israel and Jewish studies, as well as the study of antisemitism, “will remain an area of avid interest in the American Jewish community for the foreseeable future,” she told JNS.
“But there is a bright line between academic inquiry and falsifying information, between open protest and harassment or threats of harm, and those lines need to be maintained,” she said.
Israel studies and Jewish studies are “beset by a wave of politically-motivated, bad faith attacks that challenge the state’s very existence and the right of its citizens, and often of Jews around the world, to live as equals with other societies,” Strauss said. “But the reasons for the possible decline, or at least changes, in Israel studies programs are much more complicated than simple anti-Israelism or antisemitism.”
Donor misalignment
Hirschhorn told JNS that there are “major tensions” between Israel studies donors and schools, because Israel studies programs aren’t necessarily hiring pro-Israel professors.
The report notes that Becky Benaroya, a Jewish philanthropist in Seattle, rescinded a $5 million donation to the University of Washington’s Israel studies program in 2022 because the department’s then-chair signed a petition accusing Israel of settler colonialism and Jewish supremacy, among other things. The report noted that other university monies went to the Israel studies program, and the professor in question was promoted after the scandal.
Nikolenyi, vice president of the Association for Israel Studies, told JNS that the association would have intervened if that incident had been reported to it.
The report also states that Israel studies programs are “on the path to becoming administratively homeless in academia,” as it says that Jewish studies programs are becoming more anti-Zionist and Middle East studies programs are increasingly accepting foreign funding from states that are anti-Israel.
“It has certainly led to the alienation of Israel studies from within Middle East studies or adjacent ethnic studies fields, because they’re kind of very different narratives,” Hirschhorn told JNS. Universities may reach the point that “Israel studies may go out of business while Palestine studies will thrive,” she added.
Hirschhorn told JNS that the report’s recommendations encourage Israel studies as a field to “try to think about how to reform yourself internally to make yourself more equipped to face these external challenges.”
The field “doesn’t know where it’s going and that’s the big problem,” she said. “It doesn’t really know what it is, where it’s going, what its priorities are, what its relationship should be with other administrative units—like other departments—the bureaucracy of the university, it doesn’t know how to fit in itself.”
Even if the report’s recommendations are adopted, “there are such overwhelming challenges on a university campus that are so hostile to the field of Israel studies that there might not be a future for the discipline on an academic college campus going forward,” she added.
Nikolenyi, whose office was “badly vandalized,” told JNS that there have been problems since Oct. 7, including boycotts of Israeli speakers on campus.
“Those are very important challenges in their local specificities, and when our members bring that up within the association, we try to support our members in whatever shape or form we can,” he said.
Hirschhorn told JNS that she doesn’t intend “to write Israel studies’s obituary.”
“I’m trying to write its future,” she said. “People are moving very quickly from the college campus to all of our major institutions of power and knowledge in our society, and the miseducation or undereducation or lack of education that a whole generation of people have been getting on college campuses is going to have dividends down the road in the real world.”
The United States continues to cling to the fiction that countries like Qatar, Turkey and others in the region are “strategic partners,” despite overwhelming evidence that these states are undermining U.S. interests, funding extremists and destabilizing the Middle East. The illusion of friendship has not only clouded American judgment but has actively endangered the lives of our allies and our own troops.
It’s long past time to end this charade.
Washington calls Qatar a partner, but in truth, it is the world’s most duplicitous actor. Washington maintains a sprawling military presence at Al Udeid Air Base, using it as a launchpad for operations across the region. In return, Qatar bankrolls Hamas, hosts the Taliban and gives airtime to anti-Western rhetoric on its state-funded Al-Jazeera network. No serious foreign-policy analyst can deny this: The very country that houses American warplanes also houses America’s enemies.
Qatar’s role as Hamas’s top benefactor is not speculative; it is well-documented. In the aftermath of the Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Qatar’s long-standing support for the group was thrown into the global spotlight. Rather than face sanctions, Doha continues to be treated as a mediator, despite its obvious bias and complicity. Why are we entrusting a Hamas patron with negotiating ceasefires? That’s not diplomacy. It’s delusion.
Turkey, another so-called ally, has increasingly adopted an Islamist, anti-Western posture under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. A NATO member in name only, Turkey has purchased weapons from Russia, harassed American allies like the Kurds and allowed jihadist elements to operate on or through its soil.
Ankara’s support for Hamas and hostility against Jerusalem is part of a broader pivot toward authoritarian Islamism. Turkey shelters Muslim Brotherhood members, hosts admitted terror supporter Sami Al-Arian, amplifies antisemitic conspiracies and positions itself as a champion of causes diametrically opposed to Western democratic values. If this is friendship, what does enmity look like?
Even more baffling is the U.S. willingness to treat the new regime in Syria, now led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, as if it is a credible partner in regional “stability.” Although al-Sharaa came to power after leading the offensive that ousted Bashar Assad, his leadership of the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham raises grave concerns about sectarian extremism and intolerance.
In recent days, Syrian forces under his command have launched assaults on the Druze community in southern Syria, prompting Israel to intervene militarily in their defense. Israeli airstrikes against Syrian military positions were reportedly carried out to protect the embattled Druze, highlighting Jerusalem’s willingness to act unilaterally when minorities are threatened.
Meanwhile, American forces remain in Syria under rules of engagement so restrictive they cannot meaningfully respond to evolving threats, inviting further instability and bloodshed.
There is a broader strategic failure here: the assumption that engagement, economic ties or shared military interests are enough to tame ideological adversaries. This “frenemy” doctrine has failed repeatedly. It assumes that transactional partnerships will produce long-term alignment with U.S. goals. In reality, these arrangements have funded extremism, rewarded bad behavior and alienated our real allies, in particular, Israel.
We have misread the game board. Qatar is not a neutral broker. Turkey is not a Western democracy. Syria is not a stabilizing force. These regimes exploit the West’s desire for dialogue and diplomacy while funding our enemies and weakening our alliances.
The United States must stop mistaking geography for loyalty. Just because our bases are on their soil doesn’t mean their interests align with ours. We must:
Condition military and financial cooperation on measurable action against terrorist groups.
Sanction regimes and individuals who fund or harbor extremists.
Rebuild strategic alliances with trustworthy partners, especially Israel and moderate Arab states that have embraced normalization and peace.
Pull back from failed engagement strategies that assume these hostile actors can be “managed” through diplomacy alone.
The war on terror has always required moral clarity. Today, that clarity demands acknowledging that we are feeding the enemy—militarily, financially and diplomatically—while pretending we are feeding friends.
It’s not just a strategic error. It’s a betrayal of American values, allies and the cause of peace.
New York City officials from departments as varied as sanitation and small-business services gathered at City Hall in Lower Manhattan on Thursday for the inaugural meeting of New York’s interagency task force on antisemitism, an initiative of the Office to Combat Antisemitism. It was created in May under Executive Order 51.
Randy Mastro, the deputy mayor of the city, addressed a diverse group of agency representatives to underscore the urgency of their mission. (JNS was among the few outlets invited to observe the meeting.)
“This year, over 60% of hate crimes in our city are against Jews,” he told the group of city officials. “I never thought I would live in the greatest city in the world—with the largest Jewish population of any city in the world—and see this level of antisemitism. It’s wrong, it’s intolerable, and we have to do something about it.”
“Unfortunately, we haven’t always been a perfect vessel, but nothing short of perfection will do,” he said at the meeting. “We need zero tolerance, and so the work you’re going to do here today—the coordination with each and every one of your agencies and policies—is critical to the success of this initiative.”
Moshe Davis, executive director of the Mayor's Office to Combat Antisemitism, speaking at the first Interagency Antisemitism Task Force meeting at City Hall in New York City on July 17, 2025. Credit: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office.
Moshe Davis, executive director of the new mayoral office to combat antisemitism, told JNS that the task force meeting was convened to advance the implementation of Executive Order 52, which adopted the IHRA definition of antisemitism in June.
“One of the topics we discussed in our meeting was: How can you create policy? How can you create agencies to be proactive and not just reactive,” he said. “This definition helps us do that—we’re not looking to police speech, and we’re not telling people what they should think or how they should think. But we do want our city employees not to be racist, and we want them to be addressing the needs and interests of the Jewish community.”
Davis told JNS that addressing Jew-hatred means engaging city agencies across the board, including some that might not typically be associated with fighting antisemitism.
“We have core partners who are part of the executive order, like the NYPD Hate Crime Task Force, the Human Rights Commission and Community Affairs, but then there are also other agencies that interact with the Jewish community every day,” he said. “Take the Parks Department, for instance—about 4% of hate crimes are happening in parks. Parks can respond directly by removing vandalism, like swastikas, right away, and they can also implement educational initiatives or partner with other agencies to take proactive measures.”
Arrests, prosecution, education
The interagency task force meeting also discussed crime-related hotspots in the city, including the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Crown Heights, Williamsburg and Midwood, in addition to the Upper East Side in Manhattan, all of which have sizable Jewish populations.
“These neighborhoods have seen rising hate crimes of all kinds, and as a result, we need to focus more on these specific communities, especially since they have significant Jewish populations,” Davis told JNS. “It’s essential to take a city-wide approach to address everything that’s happening. In Crown Heights, for example, we’ve seen protests targeting synagogues, as well as incidents where people are being assaulted on the street.”
He said that “these situations require arrests, follow-up prosecution and proactive education initiatives.”
Randy Mastro, the deputy mayor of New York City, at the first Interagency Antisemitism Task Force meeting at City Hall, N.Y., on July 17, 2025. Credit: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office.
Davis told JNS that city agencies are motivated to confront the rise of Jew-hatred directly, with many expressing a desire to be part of the solution.
“People are saying, ‘This is a real problem in our city, and we want to help fix it. We’re in,’” he said. “Every city representative in the meeting said, ‘Give me the marching orders.’”
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement on Thursday that antisemitism is a “pervasive ugly disease that has sadly infiltrated so many sectors of our city, but we will never allow that to stand unanswered under our administration.”
He stated, “We continue to tackle this crisis head-on by rooting out hateful rhetoric and ensuring it has no place in even the most remote corners of our city government. From schools to sanitation to police, our administration will never allow antisemitism, or any other form of hate, to persist.”
Adams added that “we will continue to build a future in which every New Yorker can live without any fear of hatred.”
