Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Prime Minister's Office announced on Sunday.

The call was focused on "regional developments, including releasing the hostages and the resumption of fighting in the Gaza Strip," according to a brief readout published by Netanyahu's office on Sunday evening.

Washington's top diplomat was said to have expressed to Netanyahu the Trump administration's "unwavering support for Israel and its policy."

On March 15, Rubio slammed as "nuts" the terms being demanded by Hamas in hostage-ceasefire negotiations with Israel, while insisting the Trump administration remains committed to freeing the remaining 59 captives still held by the Palestinian terrorist organization in Gaza.

"We care about all the hostages. We want all the hostages released … But we’re also talking about bodies. And these trades that are being made, they’re ridiculous trades—400 people for three. These are nuts," Rubio said at a press conference following the G7 Foreign Ministers Meeting.

"The whole world should continue to say that what Hamas has done is outrageous, it's ridiculous, it's sick, it's disgusting … We're just dealing with some savages. That's it. These are bad people, terrible people, and we need to treat them as such," added Rubio.

U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff sought to extend the Gaza ceasefire through the Passover and Ramadan periods, during which time Hamas would release 11 living hostages and half of the bodies it still holds. Jerusalem endorsed Witkoff's proposed outline; Hamas did not.

Early on March 18, the IDF launched fresh "extensive" strikes against Hamas terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip. The renewed Israeli military campaign has been officially named "Operation Strength and Sword."

Washington "fully supports" Israel's decision to resume its war against Hamas, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday.

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In a recent pronouncement, the Iranian foreign minister re-emphasized the Islamic regime’s mandate for the Palestinians to continue their “resistance” against Israel. 

The term “resistance” is used to sound like a noble pursuit, but in this context, it has long been a euphemism for something far more sinister: Terrorism.

What Palestinian leaders, like Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, refer to as resistance is, in reality, a call for violence and bloodshed targeting civilians. The devastating effects of such venom are observable as each call for resistance translates directly into murderous acts of hatred.

Statements such as “resistance in all forms, by all means,” are not calls for peaceful protests or diplomatic efforts. They are calls for assaults, stabbings, hostage-takings and rocket launchings, plain and simple. The message is clear, the only option is to fight Israel by all means, no matter the consequences for innocent people on all sides. It is a rallying cry for those who claim free-speech protections to morph their civil disobedience into physical attacks, assaults and unfettered violence.

Let’s be clear: Resistance that targets civilians is terrorism. Calls for a “holy war” against Israel tacitly endorse the murder of innocents. When Palestinian and radical Islamic leaders glorify attacks like Oct. 7 claiming them to be justifiable resistance, they are applauding, incentivizing and instigating each act of terror. And when leaders who are supposed to represent their people in pursuit of peace use their platforms to advocate for violence, they make peace impossible.

This rhetoric of violence is not confined to the Middle East. On college campuses and in communities across America and throughout the world, we increasingly hear the chant: “When people are occupied, resistance is justified.” While this phrase might sound like a defense of oppressed peoples, its meaning becomes aborted and hijacked when we examine how it’s being used. The “resistance” in this chant is not a call for peaceful protest or civil disobedience—it promotes, attempts to justify and encourages further violent actions endorsed by the Palestinian and radical Islamic leaders who are determined to destroy Israel, America’s only democratic ally in the Middle East, often referred to as “Little Satan.” When these slogans are shouted in support of groups that engage in terror, such as Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis in their targeting of Israeli civilians and state infrastructure, Jewish students know that they themselves are being targeted and threatened, which is part of the intended purposes of the haters.

The resistance mantra is cloaked in the language of human rights advocacy, while it ignores the reality of the violence being perpetrated in its name. When resistance means the murder of innocent civilians—whether in Hebron, Tel Aviv or at a music festival—it is no longer about freedom; it’s about terror. The moral justification implied by “resistance” is rendered meaningless when it involves bombings, rocket attacks, rape and the abduction of civilians. These are not acts of a people striving for liberation—they are crimes against humanity and specifically against Jewish human rights.

The Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks are a grim illustration of this. More than 1,200 people, including civilians, were brutally murdered. Entire families were wiped out, and children were left orphaned. Yet, in the aftermath, when we hear student groups making statements such as “we support liberation by any means necessary, including armed resistance,” it must be understood that those groups are justifying the murder of innocent people, the beheading of children and the rape and torture of civilians.

As such, the normalization of terrorism through the lens of resistance must be rejected at every level. True liberation movements, like those of Mahatma Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr., rejected violence as a tool. They understood that meaningful, lasting change comes through peace, dialogue and nonviolence.

By contrast, when Hamas supporters justify resistance in the form of terror, they are rejecting peace in favor of war, and setting the stage to blame Israel for the suffering of both Palestinians and Israelis that Hamas causes. As young people across America chant slogans of justified resistance, they unwittingly lend moral support to Hamas, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, and its use of terrorism as its method of choice.

It is essential to confront this dangerous narrative head-on. Resistance that involves murdering civilians is not justified—it’s terrorism, and it should be condemned and fully rejected by all. There can be no moral equivalence between the struggle for rights and the slaughter of innocents.

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U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, in an in-depth interview with Tucker Carlson on Friday, said addressing the Iranian nuclear threat and solving the Gaza conflict are the starting points to bringing stability to the region and expanding the Abraham Accords.

"How do we deal with Iran? That's the biggie," Witkoff said on "The Tucker Carlson Show," a streaming podcast hosted by the conservative political commentator.

The first issue in tackling the Iranian threat is to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons, Witkoff said. Otherwise, the Islamic Republic will turn into the North Korea of the Middle East.

"North Korea, where they are, has outsized influence as a very small nation. We can never allow someone to have a nuclear weapon and have outsized influence [in the Persian Gulf region]," he said.

Second is to deal with Iran's "proxy armies," Witkoff said, noting that Israel has already shown that those proxies, specifically Hamas and Hezbollah, don't constitute the existential threat that had been previously thought.

Witkoff credited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for "decapitating" Hezbollah and Hamas. "We would not be as effective in what we're doing ... if Bibi did not get [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah out of the picture in Lebanon. ... If he did not do what he did with Hamas. He's decapitated Hamas. Hamas is nowhere close to the terrorist organization that they were beforehand," he said.

"That Islamist Crescent that everybody thought was going to be effective—it's been largely eliminated. So he's done an exceptional job with that," Witkoff said.

He acknowledged that that Houthis in Yemen, who continue to disrupt maritime traffic and fire missiles into Israel, remain a problem, but only in the short term.

A diplomatic solution is "definitely" possible regarding Iran, he said, praising U.S. President Donald Trump's outreach to the Islamic Republic earlier this month.

On March 7, Trump revealed to the Fox Business Network said he had sent a letter to Tehran the previous day. "I said I hope you're going to negotiate, because it's going to be a lot better for Iran," Trump said. "Because if we have to go in militarily, it's going to be a terrible thing—for them." 

On March 21, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said American threats "will get them nowhere." 

However, on March 20, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said that Iran would consider the "opportunities" in the letter.

'Military action to stop a war’

"I think the president has acknowledged that he's open to an opportunity to clean it all up with Iran," Witkoff said. "I think he wants to deal with Iran with respect. He wants to build trust with them if it's possible.

"The president is a president who doesn't want to go to war. And he'll use military action to stop a war. That's when he actually wants to use military action in this particular case. Hopefully it won't be necessary," said Witkoff.

Gaza is another piece of the puzzle for calming the situation in the Middle East. "We're going to need a very good plan on Gaza. It's going to begin with that," he said.

Out of the question was a solution that leave Hamas in the Gaza Strip. That is "unacceptable," he said. "We just can't have an October 7 ever again. October 7 was what 9/11 was in the United States.

"If Israel thinks they're going to have a problem in Gaza because Hamas is going to be there long-term, this is never going to end," he said.

Negotiating with Hamas was possible. "They're not ideologically intractable," he said. While Hamas's leadership will send "young kids" in suicide vests to die, they don't want to die themselves. Once you understand that they want to live, then you can to talk to them "in a more effective way," he said.

Current talks may bring an end to the current round of Israeli airstrikes to reach a solution through dialogue, Witkoff said.

While he said that Israel's resumption of bombing was "unfortunate," it was necessary as Hamas had stopped responding to diplomatic proposals.

At the Arab Summit convened in Cairo on March 4, the U.S. presented a bridge proposal to a peace deal. The reaction by Hamas was "completely inappropriate," he said. "I warned everybody that this was going to result in some sort of military action."

Plan to relocate Gazans

Witkoff defended Trump's plan to relocate Gazans to other countries. "I think it's really important that when you're making these decisions, that you level-set the facts," he said, pointing out that the conditions in the Strip are too dangerous to live in.

"How do we put people back in a battle zone where there are munitions all over the field? Or where there are these latent conditions so that a kid can fall into a hole and go 40, 50, 60 feet down, and you'd never know that he was there," he said.

"Who would do such a thing? If we had buildings and those conditions in New York, there would be yellow tape all around it and no one would be allowed in," Witkoff said, estimating it would take 15 to 20 years to rebuild Gaza.

He shared the president's view that past policy prescriptions for Gaza hadn't worked, perpetuating a cycle of war, rebuilding and more war. It didn't make "any sense," Witkoff said. "The president began to say, 'Maybe we need to think about it in a different way.'"

The president's plan has borne fruit, leading to "lively discussion" about how to fix the Gaza issue, with the Egyptians and the Saudis putting together their plans. Witkoff anticipated the plan for Gaza will be much clearer in the next six-to-12 months.

Once stability in Gaza is achieved, the Abraham Accords could move forward. Trump wants more countries joining the Accords, first signed between Israel and several Arab states in 2020. The administration is in expected to announce several new participants in the peace effort, Witkoff said, though he didn't name the countries. He listed Lebanon, Syria and Saudi Arabia as possibilities further down the road.

Witkoff expressed support for the Qataris, who have acted as mediators in the Israel-Hamas negotiations.

"In the case of the Qataris, they're criticized for not being well-motivated. It's preposterous. They are well-motivated. They're good, decent people," Witkoff said. "Sheikh Mohammed [bin Abdulrahman Al Thani], the prime minister of Qatar, is a good man. ... He's a special guy."

Qatar wants to be recognized as a "peacemaker," it wants stability, and it wants a peace deal with the U.S., he said, describing the Gulf state's motives.

The peace deal Qatar seeks isn't just about security, but also about finance. "What it's really about is the United States providing a security wrapper so that they [countries such as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates] are all financeable. ... You can't borrow money in those countries," he said.

"J.P. Morgan, if they are the hypothetical bank, has to underwrite war risk. They have to underwrite: Will the Houthis fire a hypersonic missile and destroy that A.I. data center that you just bought for $200 billion? That's a real problem," Witkoff said.

That's why Qatar seeks stability, he said. "And they don't get enough credit for that motivation."

Witkoff acknowledged that he had received criticism for his position regarding the Qataris. "I was attacked as being a pro-Qatari sympathizer," he noted.

https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1903207340696014945

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Members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition on Sunday slammed opposition leader Yair Lapid's call to shut down the economy during wartime if the government defies a High Court injunction against a Cabinet decision to fire Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar.

“Yair Lapid should be ashamed. In my opinion, his deterioration in the polls is bringing him to a political behavior that is endangering the State of Israel," Likud Party lawmaker Tally Gotliv told JNS on Sunday.

The threat from Lapid, who chairs the Yesh Atid Party, of a tax revolt undermines the Jewish state's resilience during wartime while failing to "take into account the consequences for the country," said Gotliv.

"Lapid is the lowest kind of politician there is in that he is concerned with his political survival in a way that betrays all of his values," she added.

Speaking at an anti-government rally in Tel Aviv on Saturday, Lapid said that if Netanyahu's coalition "decides not to obey the court’s ruling, it will turn itself that day, that moment, into a criminal government.

"The economy needs to strike, the Knesset needs to strike, courts need to strike, local authorities need to strike, not only the universities need to strike, but also the schools," urged Lapid, who added, "If we can organize a tax revolt, we will organize a tax revolt."

The remarks came after some ministers vowed to defy the court's temporary injunction preventing Bar's dismissal despite the Cabinet's unanimous decision on Thursday to fire him.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich insisted, "Supreme Court judges will not run the war or decide its commanders. Period."

The court on Sunday scheduled a hearing to hear petitions against the sacking on April 8.

During the same rally on Saturday, Yair Golan, chairman of the opposition The Democrats party, went one step further by appearing to call for a coup.

“A government in Israel that refuses to obey the High Court of Justice’s ruling is illegal and dangerous,” Golan said. "A government that refuses to obey the law is a dangerous government that must be stopped. It must be overthrown!”

Likud Party MK Moshe Passal told JNS on Sunday he was "very concerned about the violent discourse and slogans such as 'Bibi [Netanyahu] must die,' 'Bibi is a traitor' and 'Government of blood,' and assertions that there will soon be a dictatorship [or] civil war."

"In a democracy, people are allowed to demonstrate. This is the essence of democracy. I am glad that Yair Lapid expressed a reservation and said it is forbidden to refuse to serve in the IDF, and that he understands that what was done before Oct. 7 was wrong," Passal continued, in reference to past refusals to serve in the IDF in protest of Netanyahu's judicial reform program.

The Likud lawmaker concluded, "We must remember that in the end, debates and decisions in democracies are decided at the ballot box, not by violence. Everyone should remember this."

Religious Zionism Party MK Simcha Rothman told JNS on Sunday that "those people who talk and shout about democracy have no clue what it is. In a democracy, the head of the Shin Bet has to be under the control of elected officials,” he said.

“The people who say that Oct. 7 was the biggest disaster stand behind the head of the Shin Bet, under whose watch this happened. It shows they don’t care about responsibility or any other issue, they only care about their political agenda,” he added.

Netanyahu said on Friday that he has the authority to dismiss Bar, while insisting that the heated debate over the issue will not deteriorate into civil war.

"There will be no war between brothers! The State of Israel is a state of law, and according to the law, the government of Israel decides who will be the head of the Shin Bet," the premier wrote on X.

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A 16-year-old boy of Palestinian descent was arrested on Saturday for allegedly assaulting a rabbi in front of the rabbi’s son in Orléans, about 75 miles southwest of Paris.

The alleged assault, in which the suspect was said to have savagely bit the victim, prompted condemnations from French President Emmanuel Macron and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar.

The suspect bit Rabbi Arié Engelberg on the shoulder after accosting him and beating him on the street at around 1 p.m., the Le Parisien news site reported. The rabbi was lightly wounded, including on the cheek. The assailant left the scene after the attack but police arrested the suspect at 9:45 p.m.

The rabbi had complained to police about the assault. The suspect does not have a criminal record, Le Parisien reported.

Ariel Godman, president of the FSJU (United Jewish Welfare Fund), said the alleged assailant had approached the rabbi with a cell phone, appearing to film him on Shabbat. Many Orthodox Jews object to being filmed or photographed on the Jewish day of rest. The rabbi asked the suspect to stop, leading to the assault, Godman told the France 3 television channel.

The teenager in custody is facing charges of "deliberate violence committed because of the victim's real or supposed affiliation with a religion," Emmanuelle Bochenek-Puren, the prosecutor of the Orléans area, told Le Parisien.

“The attack on Rabbi Arié Engelberg in Orléans shocks us all,” Marcon wrote on X. “I offer him, his son, and all our fellow citizens of the Jewish faith my full support and that of the nation. Antisemitism is poisonous. We will not give in to silence or inaction.”

Sa’ar wrote about the incident: “The resurgence of antisemitism in France and across Europe is not only alarming—it is a wake-up call to European governments, leaders and civil society.”

In 2024, the Service for the Protection of the Jewish Community in France (SPCJ) recorded 1,570 antisemitic acts in the country, a 6.3% decrease from 2023. That year, SPCJ documented an increase of 284% in antisemitic hate crimes over the previous year. About three-quarters of the 2023 incidents happened in that year’s final quarter.

Similar statistics were documented across Western Europe and beyond, where Muslims targeted Jews in connection with Oct. 7, 2023. On that day, thousands of Hamas-led terrorists murdered some 1,200 people in Israel and abducted another 251 to Gaza, plunging the region into war amid an explosion of antisemitic sentiment worldwide.

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Israel's Cabinet voted unanimously on Sunday to back a motion of "no confidence" against Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara, setting in motion the process of her dismissal.

The attorney-general is now set to appear before the public committee for appointments and dismissals, which will submit a recommendation to the government ahead of a final vote on Baharav-Miara's removal.

Baharav-Miara did not attend the Cabinet session where ministers discussed the 800-page file detailing the government's complaints.

Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin told fellow ministers during the meeting that the fact she had chosen not to attend was a sign of her "absolute disrespect for the government," Channel 12 reported.

It also proved "that she has no answers to the claims against her," according to the Hebrew-language broadcaster.

In Israel, the attorney general does not work for the prime minister, as opposed to in the U.S., where the AG is an agent of the executive branch. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other ministers have often clashed with Baharav-Miara, who was appointed in 2022 by the "government of change" led by then-Premier Naftali Bennett.

There are only four grounds that justify the dismissal of the attorney general, with one of them being ongoing and essential disagreements between the government and the AG that prevent effective cooperation—which is the justification cited in Sunday's no-confidence motion.

"There is no way to restore the trust—the legal adviser must do what any person of integrity would do and resign immediately," Levin said in his first public statement following Sunday afternoon's Cabinet vote.

Baharav-Miara's "continued tenure amid the current situation severely damages the government's ability to implement its policy, harms the citizens of Israel and undermines the standing of the institution of the legal adviser to the government," he said, using her official title.

The statement said the justice minister would soon approach the public committee headed by former Israeli Supreme Court President Asher Grunis "for consultation regarding the termination of her tenure."

Israeli law stipulates that while an affirmative recommendation by the committee is not required, the attorney general has the right to a hearing before the committee and government representatives.

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National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir implored the Israel Defense Forces on Sunday to attack Hamas's food warehouses and cut off electrical power to bring about the release of the 59 hostages held in Gaza.

"Otzma Yehudit stood by its principles ..., the prime minister understood I was right," Ben-Gvir told the Kan Reshet Bet public radio channel on Sunday, in one of his first interviews since returning to his position in Israel's coalition government on Wednesday evening.

Ben-Gvir and fellow Otzma Yehudit Party ministers resigned from the government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Jan. 21 in protest of the ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas in Gaza.

On March 18, hours after the truce collapsed and Jerusalem resumed military operations in the Strip, Otzma Yehudit reached an agreement with Netanyahu's ruling Likud Party to return to the government and their previously-held ministerial positions.

"These captives are my brothers," Ben-Gvir said of his opposition to a resumption of negotiations with Hamas to free the 59 hostages. "I want them to be released no less than you."

Instead of resuming talks, Netanyahu should order the Air Force to hit Hamas's five-month supply of accumulated aid, he said.

"I say to the prime minister: Let's bomb the food reserves in Gaza, let's bomb all the power lines in Gaza. Why are there lights in Gaza? There must not be a single light. Stop the electricity," said Ben-Gvir.

He noted that "even when the Israeli government—unfortunately, and contrary to my opinion, I was the only one who opposed it—brought them tons and tons of humanitarian aid," the hostages that returned under the auspices of the last deal revealed that they did not eat.

"They didn't give them food; they left them in the dark," said Ben-Gvir.

The Israeli government announced on March 2 that it had suspended all aid to Gaza after the Hamas terrorist group rejected the ceasefire extension proposed by U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. Jerusalem has also said it would stop supplying electricity to the Strip.

Israel believes that enough food, water, fuel and medical supplies entered Gaza during the truce to last some five months.

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Israel's Cabinet voted on Saturday night to recognize 13 neighborhoods of existing Judea and Samaria towns as separate communities, allowing for their expansion and development as independent localities.

Saturday's decision recognizes 13 new villages throughout Judea and Samaria's Binyamin, Samaria, Gush Etzion, Megilot and Jordan Valley regional councils, numbering thousands of residents.

The move, which was widely welcomed by Judea and Samaria leaders, was led by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also manages the Defense Ministry's civilian administration in Judea and Samaria.

"We continue, with God's help, to lead a revolution of normalization and regulation in the settlement," Smotrich declared. "Instead of hiding and apologizing, we raise the flag, build and settle. This is another important step on the way to actual sovereignty in Judea and Samaria."

The minister continued, "Until now, these communities were formally considered part of their 'mother' communities, sometimes for decades, causing many difficulties in their daily operations. Recognizing each of them as independent communities in practice is an important step that will greatly assist in their advancement and development."

The Yesha Council, which represents the approximate 500,000 Jewish Israeli residents of Judea and Samaria, hailed Saturday's Cabinet move as "another step in the crucial measures taken by the government to undo the Oslo [Accords] disaster and normalize life in these areas."

"It is time for the State of Israel to take responsibility for the more than half a million Israeli citizens living under military rule and declare sovereignty," Yesha Council chairman Israel Ganz said.

Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan said: "This recognition will enable rapid development, improved services for residents, and strengthened communities in Samaria and all of Judea and Samaria.

"For years, we have been working to advance this initiative, understanding that the independence of these communities is essential for their development and for strengthening settlement as a whole," Dagan said.

As of Jan. 1, 2025, 529,704 Israelis live in Judea and Samaria, amounting to approximately 5.28% of the population of the Jewish state.

Nearly 70% of Israeli citizens want Israel to extend full legal sovereignty over the area, according to a poll conducted on Jan. 29.

Fifty-eight percent of Israeli Jews believe that communities in Judea and Samaria contribute to the security of the country, according to a poll the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) published on March 11.

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In a recent article on the arrest of the pro-terror husband of a Hamas-affiliated student at Georgetown, Politico sounded less like a news agency and more like a public relations firm. The article, “Trump is seeking to deport another academic who is legally in the country, lawsuit says,” by Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein, omits crucial context to portray the prospective deportee and his Hamas-affiliated wife sympathetically.

Unfortunately for Politico, that omitted context came from research produced by CAMERA. While the legal proceedings have only begun and remain under seal, we can already identify false claims in Politico’s story.

Here’s the background. In a February 13 article at National Review, CAMERA exposed that Georgetown University graduate student Mapheze Ahmad Yousef Saleh was directly affiliated with the specially designated terrorist organization Hamas. Not only was her father a senior Hamas official, but Saleh herself had worked directly for the terrorist organization. CAMERA’s research meticulously documented the evidence, providing screenshots and linking to articles written by Saleh acknowledging her role in Hamas’s “Committee to Break the Siege in Gaza.” CAMERA also documented Saleh’s deplorable views, including celebrating the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre of Israeli civilians and mocking those taken hostage by the terrorist organization.

Unsurprisingly, it turned out that her husband Badar Khan Suri held similarly deplorable views. Disturbingly, Suri also held an academic role at Georgetown’s Alwaleed Center for Christian and Muslim Understanding, known for its extremist faculty members. Now Suri, an Indian national, has been arrested and is facing deportation proceedings.

So how do Politico’s Cheney and Gerstein ignore these details?

It begins with the lede, in which Suri is allowed to claim that he “is being punished because of the suspected views of his wife....”

Strike one. The views of Saleh are not “suspected,” but public. For example, her social media profiles were replete with glowing tributes to senior terrorists such as Mohammed Deif—considered the mastermind of the Oct. 7 massacre—as well as Ismail Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar and many others.

But more importantly, it’s not just the views of Saleh. Suri himself is openly pro-Hamas. In fact, multiple public images from Saleh and Suri’s wedding show the couple holding up the same picture: an image of Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat kissing the forehead of Ahmed Yassin, the founder of Hamas.

Worse, there are even images of Suri alongside former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in a celebratory gesture.

Suri’s meeting with Haniyeh was a part of an organized “caravan” from India to Gaza, which included the president of the IHH (Insani Yardim Vakfi), which is part of the “Union of the Good” that was designated by the United States as “an organization created by Hamas leadership to transfer funds to the terrorist organization.” Notably, the “convoy” also met with members of the Iranian regime, including regime hardliners such as Ayatollah Javadi Amoli and Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi.

Cheney and Gerstein leave unchallenged a claim by Suri’s lawyer that he is being punished “because the government suspects that he and his wife oppose U.S. foreign policy toward Israel.”

Strike two. It’s not mere suspicion, and it’s not simply opposition to U.S. foreign policy. As CAMERA documented, Saleh believes that “America is the plague.” Moreover, Saleh has not merely voiced support for Hamas—a terrorist organization that is currently holding American citizens hostage—she worked for it. That is not a question of views or expression, but of federal law, which prohibits the provision of material support to a specially designated terrorist organization such as Hamas.

Then comes strike three. Cheney and Gerstein leave unchallenged another egregious claim of Suri’s lawyers, writing: “The petition says the couple has ‘long been doxxed and smeared’ on anonymously run, far-right websites due to their support for Palestinian rights.”

If Cheney and Gerstein did their basic journalistic due diligence and researched the story, they would have found both CAMERA and the Middle East Forum’s research. The authors are entitled to their opinion regarding political orientations of either organization or the news agencies (National Review and JNS) that published their research, but to suggest any of them are “anonymously run” is an egregious lie. The articles by both CAMERA and Middle East Forum are carefully researched and evidence-based, and the authors are clearly identified in both articles.

Moreover, the Politico article fails to acknowledge that the research exposing Suri and Saleh has nothing to do with their “support for Palestinian rights,” but rather their support for unlawful and horrific acts of violence. The authors falsely conflate the two. Glorifying Hamas’s massacre of civilians or its holding hostage hundreds of civilians is not supporting Palestinian rights. 

For good measure, let’s consider strike four, too. The article states: “The petition also says that Suri’s wife, Mapheze Saleh, has been alleged to have ‘ties with Hamas’ and once worked for Al Jazeera.”

Among those who have “alleged” Saleh’s “ties with Hamas” is Saleh herself, who has openly written about her work for Hamas in Arabic-language outlets. And Saleh didn’t just work for Al Jazeera, a Qatar-controlled propaganda agency—she worked for the Qatari embassy in New Delhi.

Why did Politico fail to challenge these egregiously misleading and false claims made by Suri and his lawyers? Politico is not a public relations agency. It claims to be “the most robust news operation ... which informs the most influential audience in the world with insight, edge, and authority.”

But instead of providing “nonpartisan impactful information,” Politico provided its “influential audience” with propaganda. It merely gave a platform for one side’s lawyers in a contentious case, failing to alert its audience to substantial amounts of evidence contradicting almost everything those one-sided advocates were claiming. This simply isn’t journalism.

Originally published by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis.

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