Mideast War and the 2024 election

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President Joe Biden’s approval rating has declined to the lowest level of his presidency — 40% — as strong majorities of all voters disapprove of his handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll.

What’s more, the poll finds Biden behind former President Donald Trump for the first time in a hypothetical general-election matchup, although the deficit is well within the poll’s margin of error for a contest that’s still more than 11 months away.

The erosion for Biden is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza, and among voters ages 18 to 34, with a whopping 70% of them disapproving of Biden’s handling of the war.

Joe Biden is at a uniquely low point in his presidency, and a significant part of this, especially within the Biden coalition, is due to how Americans are viewing his foreign policy actions,” said Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates, who conducted this survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies.

McInturff said he can’t recall another time when foreign affairs not involving U.S. troops transformed the American political landscape.

“This poll is a stunner, and it’s stunning because of the impact the Israel-Hamas war is having on Biden,” he said.

But Horwitt cautioned that Biden can bring these disaffected Democrats and younger voters back into the fold. “These are people who have a proven track record in voting for Biden and Democrats,” he said.

And, he added, there’s plenty of time — and more potential political surprises to come — between now and Election Day 2024, which could see the political landscape transform again.

According to the poll, 40% of registered voters approve of Biden’s job performance, while 57% disapprove, representing Biden’s all-time low in approval (and all-time high in disapproval) in the poll since becoming president.

Sixty-two percent now disapprove of Biden’s handling of foreign policy
In another low for the president, just 33% of all voters approve of Biden’s handling of foreign policy, which is down 8 points from September.

That compares with 62% of voters, including 30% of Democrats, who say they disapprove of the president’s handling of foreign policy.

Democrats are divided over the Israel-Hamas war
The poll finds a plurality of American voters, 47%, believing that Israel is defending its interests in the war, and that its military actions in Gaza are justified.

By comparison, 30% think that Israel’s military actions have gone too far and are not justified. Another 21% say they don’t know enough to have an opinion.

Yet among Democratic voters, 51% believe Israel has gone too far, versus 27% who say Israel’s military actions are justified.

And while a majority of all voters (55%) support the United States providing military aid to Israel, almost half of Democrats (49%) say they oppose this aid.

Trump narrowly leads Biden for first time
All of this is shaping a general election that’s still some 350 days away. Biden trails Donald Trump for the first time in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup in the NBC News poll, though the deficit falls well within the survey’s margin of error.

Trump gets support from 46% of registered voters, while Biden gets 44%.

In September, the two men were tied (at 46% each). And in June, Biden was narrowly ahead of Trump by 4 points (49% to 45%). While Biden’s support has changed throughout the year, albeit within the poll’s margin of error, Trump’s has barely budged.

Since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out last month, Muslim and Arab American voters in key swing states have suggested they will never back President Joe Biden again, while the president’s support among younger voters appears to be taking a hit. There has even been a movement to leave the top of the ballot blank in 2024 as a protest against the president, whom they see as being too uncritical in his backing of the Israeli government as casualties mount in Gaza.

In turn, Republicans see an opportunity to take advantage of new divisions among elected Democrats, left-wing activists and core Democratic constituencies — but not by making direct appeals to voters who want to see Biden soften his stance.

That’s “because they’re so far-left on this issue,” one national GOP strategist told NBC News. “And Republicans, I just don’t even see how you could possibly maintain your pro-Israel stance while appealing to them. We could do as much as we could to throw some gas on the flames. But if their issue with Biden is they think he’s too close, I don’t see how Republicans can circle all the way around.”

While cautioning that there is still ample time before the presidential election, Republicans see this issue as one that can benefit them in the near and long term. Multiple Republicans said they hope to be able to target moderate Jewish voters who have traditionally supported Democrats but may now be feeling dismayed by anti-Israel protests. Already, Republicans are hitting vulnerable Democratic senators on Israel.

And, as a second national Republican strategist said, the party does see room to target Muslim American voters who hold more socially conservative views and are upset with Biden’s handling of the war.

And, as a second national Republican strategist said, the party does see room to target Muslim American voters who hold more socially conservative views and are upset with Biden’s handling of the war.

There’s an angle for us to make inroads with Jewish voters who are disaffected by what they see,” this person said, adding: “And then there’s also an opportunity with Muslim voters to some extent, not on the issue of Israel, because we’re never going to stand with them on the Palestine issue, but there is an opportunity on some of these social issues where they’re socially conservative.”

This person echoed other Republicans who spoke with NBC News in saying they saw far greater risk in putting any distance between the party and Israel than any potential electoral benefits they could reap.

As to whether there is any risk in the GOP hugging Israel too tightly, this person gave a simple response: “No.”

The impact could be felt particularly in a state like Michigan, where some Muslim and Arab Americans said they won’t back Biden next time around. Biden won Michigan — with an estimated Muslim population of 240,000 — by 150,000 votes in 2020.

Nada Al-Hanooti, the executive director of Emgage Michigan, a group focused on political outreach to Muslim Americans, previously told NBC News that Biden “cannot win without the Muslim vote, point blank.”

Curt Anderson, a national Republican strategist, laughed at that idea and said Biden faces a much more substantial risk by aligning with the pro-Palestinian protesters and alienating moderates.

“I hope they believe that,” said Anderson, who has previously worked on GOP efforts in Michigan, adding he does not believe there are enough of those voters to make a dent. “It’s just not real. It’s an imagination.”

“If they feel a need to cater to those people, which they will feel that need because it’s the most hardened activist, liberal, whacked-out base of people, any catering they do to them is going to hurt them in the middle,” he added. “And that I’m 100% for.”

Several candidates vowed to deport foreign students who joined protests and espoused views they saw as pro-Hamas. So too did Trump

But even as the war overseas causes political turmoil in the U.S., the first Republican strategist said they ultimately believe that a year from now, “everyone kind of comes home to their respective bases — unless this is going to be a permanent shift.”

“Biden, I think, has played it pretty well so far,” this person said. “I don’t think he stands to lose anything from the middle. The only question is how big is this faction on his left who he might lose.

Memo to Democrats: It’s not Nancy Jacobson who’s disrupting President Joe Biden’s speeches most every time he appears in public and it’s also not Nancy Jacobson floating Robert F. Kennedy Jr. $15 million to help him get on general election ballots.

I don’t write this to downplay the threat that Jacobson’s group, No Labels, poses to Biden’s reelection. A center-right candidate able to secure ballot access could claim thousands of voters Biden needs, namely those Americans who grudgingly voted for him to oust Donald Trump in 2020 and are dreading doing so once more.

Yet the collective Democratic fixation on No Labels increasingly looks misplaced — or at least disproportionate given how the 2024 political landscape is taking shape.

Jacobson seems to chase most every name that bubbles up in the news cycle ( just ask them). Yet she’ll be hard pressed to find the sort of well-known figure she needs to be viable because they want either to retain future prospects in their own party (Nikki Haley) or they don’t want to don the scarlet T in their future obituaries for having enabled Trump’s return. (Most every anti-Trump Republican plus Joe Manchin.)

Meanwhile, how many more polls do there have to be of Kennedy near double-digit votes in swing states before he’s taken seriously? And: how many Biden speeches must be shouted down until Democrats realize that a hot war in Gaza this fall may mean 30,000 fewer votes apiece in Madison, Dearborn and Ann Arbor and therefore the presidency?

It’s the left that presents the most acute peril to the president.

If Kennedy claims the Libertarian Party line, which he’s warming to, Jill Stein is the Green Party nominee and Cornel West gets on any battleground state ballots, they would combine to drain far more votes from Biden than from Trump. You wouldn’t think Democrats need much reminding of this scenario, given how many in their professional ranks lived through two campaigns, 2000 and 2016, in which they lost the electoral vote in part because of leftist spoilers.

But it’s also because Democrats are still catching up to the possibility of their coalition unraveling over Israel’s offensive in Gaza. Are the well-organized hecklers bird-dogging Biden at nearly every speech going to turn to a candidate who once proposed a Muslim ban? Of course not. Yet this White House race, like the last two, is bound to be won on the margins, and Biden is at risk of losing critical younger and left-wing voters to third-party candidates or apathy.

People don’t understand how few votes [the third-party candidates] would need to take away,” said Lis Smith, the hard-charging Democratic operative who has recently signed on with the DNC, in part to grab voters by the lapels about the threat at hand. “It’s the whole election.”
Few in the administration sense the danger more than Vice President Kamala Harris. From holiday parties to a dinner at her residence last month for a group of prominent Black men, Harris has been telling sympathetic Democrats outside the White House that she recognizes the political challenge posed by Biden’s unwavering public support for Israel, I’m told by officials familiar with her comments at the events. Harris told people she’s making the case privately for the administration to show more empathy for the plight of innocent Gazans, an internal push that my colleague Eugene Daniels reported in December.

The vice president, too, has been heckled by pro-Palestinian protesters. And it’s no coincidence that her abortion rights tour has not yet taken her to activist-filled college towns such as, well, Ann Arbor and Madison that would otherwise be obvious stops to motivate core Democrats. (Even going to comparatively conservative San Jose this week, however, didn’t spare her from protesters.)

Biden himself is a different case. Like everyone in the administration and any Democrat with a pulse, he’s deeply suspicious of Benjamin Netanyahu, and privately has called the Israeli prime minister a “bad f*****g guy,” according to people who’ve talked to the president.

Biden aides have clearly absorbed the blowback they got from even friendly Democratic lawmakers for making no mention of Palestinian suffering in official statements they issued marking 100 days since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

Indeed, it’s hard to overstate how contemptuous even staunchly pro-Israel Democratic lawmakers have become of Netanyahu.

One House Democrat told me of a dinner last month with about eight other colleagues, a cross-section of the caucus ideologically and generationally. “It was unanimous that this Israel-Gaza war needed to end now and that Biden needed to stand up to Bibi,” this lawmaker told me, before offering his own view.

“This is a disaster politically,” said this House Democrat, who rarely criticizes Israel. “The base is really pissed — and it’s not just the leftists. I have never seen such a depth of anguish as I’ve seen over this Gaza issue. Bibi is toxic among many Democratic voters and Biden must distance himself from him — yesterday.”

Jumping off the page: A recent YouGov poll found 50 percent of self-described Biden voters called Israel’s attacks on Gaza “a genocide.”

Part of the president’s challenge, particularly with younger Democrats deriving their news almost entirely from social media, is they don’t hear of Biden pushing Netanyahu behind the scenes.

“You create political challenges for yourself when your public and private messaging aren’t aligned,” said Tommy Vietor, a former Obama White House aide who now co-hosts Pod Save America and praised Biden for his efforts to free hostages and establish a cease-fire. “People don’t see Joe Biden chewing out Bibi on the phone.”

The White House, in a reflection of their public confidence (hubris?) regarding the politics of Biden’s positioning on Israel, arranged a call with Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.).

Fetterman, who has delighted in trolling left-wing critics by resolutely standing with Israel since Oct. 7, told me young voters should consider the implications of enabling a candidate who would likely give Netanyahu even more of a free hand.

“If you sit this out, or throw your vote away, you now are effectively empowering Bibi, and you’re definitely going to be empowering Trump,” he said.

And, Fetterman added, don’t forget the lessons of Hillary Clinton: “I said the same thing in 2016 to voters, I said: ‘Hey, you know what, you don’t like Clinton, you know what f**k around and find out what Trump is going to be about and, hey guess what, how’d you like it?’”

There is a hate-the-sin-love-the-sinner element to Biden’s approach to Israel that some in Gen Z can’t fully grasp. His politics are that of a Cold War Democrat, and a Northeastern one at that. Support for Israel is part of his liberal DNA, no matter the prime minister. Jewish voters, Irish ones, Italian, too — that’s the coalition. It’s a matter of principle, sure, but also domestic politics. But they’ve not heard of the “Three Is” on TikTok.

For now, Biden is hoping his spy chief, William Burns, can negotiate a cease-fire-for-hostages deal that would bring a two-month peace to Gaza.

If that agreement can be struck, then look for Biden to use the moment to make a public appeal, aimed at American voters and Middle Easterners alike, for a broader framework for the region. It would effectively be Biden’s attempt at a geopolitical grand bargain, combining a path toward a two-state solution with a new U.S.-Saudi Arabia security arrangement and normalization of ties between the Saudis and Israelis.

Such a moonshot would pay enormous political dividends. Yet Biden’s campaign can’t count on it — they must begin restoring the president’s standing on the left now.

There are gentle ways to do that — Biden’s actions on Thursday — and more aggressive steps.

The latter will, I’m told, include a multi-pronged offensive against Kennedy, Stein and West, some of which will come from the campaign and some from outside entities.

“We can set this up very directly: it’s us versus them — and us is just voting for us, and them means voting for a third-party or Trump,” as one Biden official put it to me.

In the short term, that means seizing on any chance to complicate the ballot access of the third-party candidates and attempting to discredit their motives or at least highlight the less savory aspects of their character.

They probably shouldn’t wait much longer.

I got a taste of what’s brewing at a conference this week convened by the University of Southern California’s Center for the Political Future. It was a mostly decorous forum in the chandeliered Town & Gown Club, where a portrait of Pat Nixon still hangs prominently.

Then a student took the microphone and confronted longtime Biden adviser John Anzalone with a question. Well, it was more of a statement.

Michigan voters, the student warned, are “not going to vote for Genocide Joe.

They can hate Biden for supporting Israel all that they want...if the alternative is to vote for Trump ...who is more fanatically pro Israel than Biden or any other POTUS of the 21st century ...then what difference would it make?

You cant vote against Biden...and you cant abstain from voting ...because either is effectively a vote for Trump...who would be worse on the issue of Gaza than Biden.

Republican US presidential nominee Donald Trump told a group of Jewish party donors in New Jersey on Sunday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told him in their recent meeting that Jews vote for the Democratic Party from “habit,” then repeated his assertion that “Democrats hate Israel.”

The former US president said that during their meeting in Florida on Friday, he asked Netanyahu why “people that are Jewish” vote for the Democratic party and that the premier answered: “It’s a habit, it’s almost a habit. They are used to voting for Democrats.”

“The Democrats hate Israel,” Trump then said, apparently no longer quoting Netanyahu.

The comments come a day after Trump said that Jews who support presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris or the Democratic Party should “have their head examined,” after the US vice president’s “terrible and insulting” meeting with Netanyahu last week and her absence from the prime minister’s speech to Congress.

The word “insulting” was put in quotation marks. It was unclear who Trump was quoting.

Trump also wrote on his social media platform that Harris’s “ineptness” would “greatly prolong” the war in Gaza and prevent the release of the hostages Hamas is holding there.

Trump has a history of accusing Jewish Democrats of betraying their religion and Israel.

Netanyahu met with Trump in Florida last week for discussions that appeared to be part of Netanyahu’s reported bid to mend fences with the Republican candidate.

Netanyahu met separately with Harris and Biden at the White House on. After meeting the prime minister, Harris said she would “not be silent” over Palestinian civilians’ suffering in Gaza.

Her speech drew an Israeli allegation that Harris’s highlighting the “dire humanitarian crisis” in the Strip and the need to “end the war” there could toughen Hamas’s stance in negotiations to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages held by the terror group.

Harris also branded Hamas a “brutal” terror organization that triggered the ongoing war with its October 7 onslaught, and noting that it included “horrific acts of sexual violence.” The US vice president additionally made a point of reading out the names of all eight American-Israel hostages still held captive by Hamas.

After meeting Netanyahu on Friday, Trump wrote that Harris is part of the administration “that embarrassed us in AFGHANISTAN” and was now “telling Israel not to fight any longer with Hamas.”

Trump said Harris had “refused to preside over Congress during [Netanyahu’s] speech, which is an obligation of the [vice president].”

“Rarely has such a thing happened,” wrote Trump.

The US vice president, who is president of the US Senate, traditionally sits at the chamber’s rostrum during foreign leaders’ addresses. Citing a scheduling conflict, Harris declined to do so at Netanyahu’s speech to Congress on Wednesday, which was also boycotted by nearly 70 Democratic lawmakers.

“Any Jewish person who votes for Kamala, or a Democrat, should immediately have their head examined. Likewise Catholics, who are being persecuted by this Administration, should not be voting for radical left Kamala,” Trump wrote.

Later on Friday, Trump claimed at a religious convention in southern Florida that Harris, whose husband and stepchildren are Jewish, had skipped Netanyahu’s Wednesday address due to antisemitism.

She doesn’t like Jewish people. She doesn’t like Israel,” said Trump. “That’s the way it is, and that’s the way it’s always going to be. She’s not going to change.”

The remark — coupled with his claim that Harris “is totally against the Jewish people” in North Carolina on Wednesday — marked an escalation in Trump’s incendiary rhetoric, days after his campaign said an attempt on his life had given him a focus on unity.

In an effort at damage control, Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign reaffirmed her support for Israel Thursday after initial reports of her meeting with pro-Palestinian leaders before a rally in Detroit suggested that she expressed an openness to an arms embargo for Israel.

A campaign source told The Jerusalem Post that Harris “did not express openness to an arms embargo.”

In a post on X, Harris’s National Security Adviser Phil Gordon said Harris has been clear and will always ensure Israel can defend itself against Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups.

“She does not support an arms embargo on Israel,” Gordon wrote. “She will continue to work to protect civilians in Gaza and to uphold international humanitarian law.”

According to a statement from a campaign spokesperson, Harris has “prioritized engaging with Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian community members and others regarding the war in Gaza” since October 7.

’Kamala open to an embargo'
The spokesperson said in Wednesday night’s meeting with Uncommitted National Movement’s leaders Laya Elabed and Abbas Alawieh, Harris “reaffirmed that her campaign will continue to engage with those communities.”

“The vice president is focused on securing the ceasefire and hostage deal currently on the table,” according to the campaign spokesperson. “As she has said, it is time for this war to end in a way where: Israel is secure, hostages are released, the suffering of Palestinian civilians ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, freedom, and self-determination.”

The Uncommitted National Movement had said late on Wednesday that Harris, the 2024 Democratic presidential candidate, “shared her sympathies and expressed an openness to a meeting with Uncommitted leaders to discuss an arms embargo” during the interaction while campaigning in Detroit, according to a campaign aid.

Alawieh said on Thursday that both he and Elabed specifically asked for a meeting to discuss the demand for an arms embargo on Israel, “and in both cases, Vice President Harris expressed an openness to following up.”

He said he was very encouraged by his engagements with Harris’ office and “we’re hopeful that continued discussions will continue to be fruitful.”

In a reminder of how divisive the issue has been for Democrats, a group of pro-Palestinian protesters briefly interrupted Harris’ speech in Detroit on Wednesday, chanting, “Kamala, Kamala, you can’t hide, we won’t vote for genocide.”

She paused for a moment, saying she believed in democracy and the importance of every voice, and then added, “But I am speaking now.” When the chants continued, she repeated, “You know what? If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that. Otherwise, I’m speaking.”

The long-awaited announcement of Kamala Harris’ Vice President choice took place in a festive rally in Philadelphia last night.

While Harris and Walz received the warmth and applause of the audience in the packed arena, the star of the evening was no doubt Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who energized the crowd in his warm-up speech.

As of last Friday, Democrat party insiders, journalists and politicians were in tandem in their view that Harris is picking Shapiro as her Vice President candidate. The popular mayor of Philadelphia, Cherelle Parker, even seems to have leaked the news on Friday, posting a video on X about Shapiro as Harris running mate a few days too soon - that video was reportedly only meant to go out on Monday.

But Shapiro was not picked, and some amongst the journalists and the crowd in the rally questioned what happened in the last few days that landed Shapiro the warm-up speaker spot, and Waltz the Vice President candidacy?

Many say it was Shapiro’s pro-Israel stance and being Jewish. Some speculated that intense pressure was put on the Harris campaign over the weekend to drop Shapiro, summarized by the slogan, “choose Josh, lose Michigan.”

However, Shapiro’s positions on Israel are not much different from Walz’s and other Democrat politicians, which places more and more focus on him being Jewish.

The aftermath of October 7th underscored that whether they like it or not, Jews are increasingly defined through Israel.

“This is not a time for a Jewish person on the ticket”, a prominent Democratic politician told me privately, while others echoed similar sentiments: Having a Jewish Vice President candidate is just not palatable in the current environment.

Here lies the irony of history:
When Biden was choosing a running mate four years ago in the summer of 2020, racial protests around America broke out in response to the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. Top Vice President contented Amy Klobuchar called Biden to urge him not to pick herself, but a woman of color as his running mate, reflecting the public and media sentiment of the time. He did - and four years later, that woman, Kamala Harris, was the one choosing her own running-mate.

If the speculations are true, than just as Harris was chosen for being a woman of color, Shapiro was not chosen for being Jewish.

This is something the Republicans captured. A short while before the Harris rally, Republican Vice President candidate JD Vance held his own event, a short distance away in Philadelphia, saying openly, what some in the crowd suggested in hints: "I genuinely feel bad that for days maybe even weeks the guy actually had to run away from his Jewish heritage because of what the Democrats are saying about him,” Vance told journalists. “I think that's scandalous and disgraceful. it's insulting to Americans whatever background you're from.”

In his speech at the rally, Shapiro perhaps responded to Vance when he proclaimed: "I lean on my family, and I rely on my faith”. He wanted to share some Jewish teachings, prefacing “I don’t want to preach”, but was interrupted with the loud chants of the crowd: “Preach! Preach!”

United States Vice President Kamala Harris paused during a campaign rally in Arizona on Friday to directly address hecklers who interrupted her for the second time this week with chants about the Gaza war, and reiterated her call for a ceasefire and the release of hostages held by terror groups since October 7.

“Hold on a second,” she said at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, waiting for the crowd to quiet down. “We are all in here together… because we love our country. We’re here to fight for our democracy, which includes respecting the voices that I think that we are hearing from.”

“Let me just speak to that for a moment and then I’m gonna get back to the business at hand. So let me say, I have been clear. Now is the time to get a ceasefire deal and get the hostage deal done. Now is the time,” she said emphatically.

Harris added that she and US President Joe Biden are “working around the clock every day to get that ceasefire deal done and bring the hostages home,” to cheering and applause from the rally audience.

After millions in funding from pro-Israel donors helped bring about the defeat of two members of the “Squad,” the far-left contingent of Democrats, some activists said the third target was clear.

“Yes, the removal of Ilhan Omar from Congress IS possible,” read a Wednesday social media post about the Minnesota Democratic congresswoman from the account StopAntisemitism. The post featured Omar’s photo alongside those of the two members of the Squad, Reps. Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush, ousted in primaries this year. “Will this be the trifecta we’re all waiting for?”

The answer to that question is no, say the leading pro-Israel PACs. While pro-Israel activists may feel that the time is ripe for a third Squad defeat, pro-Israel money has not lined up in large amounts behind Omar’s opponent, Don Samuels, and they do not expect her to lose in her primary on this coming Tuesday.

That may feel counterintuitive. Omar, the Minnesota Democratic congresswoman, is seen as a villain by many Israel supporters, and two years ago, Samuels came within two percentage points of unseating her. But a pro-Israel strategist pointed to polls and the course of the race this year to argue that hopes of defeating Omar are unrealistic.

“He’s a great pro-Israel guy and she’s terrible, but she’s doing a real campaign and has for a long time,” said the strategist, who asked not to be named in order to insulate the Samuels campaign from any damage. “We did not see it as a race in which we could make a difference.”

Patrick Dorton, a spokesman for the United Democracy Project, a political action committee affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee that poured millions into the Bowman and Bush primaries, confirmed that the PAC was not involved in Omar’s race, but would not elaborate. AIPAC PAC, which is also associated with the lobby, and Democratic Majority for Israel, another pro-Israel PAC involved in targeting Bowman and Bush, likewise would not explain why they were ignoring Samuels this time around.

In 2022, pro-Israel givers rued not noticing earlier how well Samuels was doing. UDP dumped $350,000 in the race in its last few days. But it was not enough to get Samuels over the line, a regret pro-Israel fund-raisers continue to nurture.

“No one knew it until it was too late,” the strategist said.

But the pro-Israel strategist said the elements that favored Samuels in 2022 — and that pro-Israel donors noticed too late — were simply not in place this time.

For one, Samuels is trailing Omar substantially in the polls. In Bowman’s and Bush’s races, the numbers were in pro-Israel groups’ favor: Bowman had consistently trailed challenger George Latimer in polls, while Wesley Bell, who beat Bush, ran a close race before pulling ahead. Omar’s campaign, by contrast, says she’s beating Samuels by 25 percentage points.

In addition, in 2022, Omar was substantially outraising Samuels — but not spending the money. Joelle Stangler, Omar’s campaign manager, told Mother Jones this week that the campaign recognized it “took our foot off the gas” in 2022 — in other words, it was overconfident of a win.

Additionally, Omar in 2022 was the face of advocacy for far-reaching reforms to policing, and Samuels became the face of the effort to increase police funding. That brought favorable attention to Samuels in the wake of the protests and riots that ripped through the state after a Minneapolis policeman murdered George Floyd. Voters were drawn to the polls in part to reject a police reform ballot initiative identified with Omar, which ended up failing.

Memories of the riots have faded, said the pro-Israel strategist, and no longer taint Omar.

Omar has also lowered her profile somewhat among Squad members as an outspoken critic of Israel. Her campaign page highlights her calls for an immediate ceasefire to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza — but emphasizes that she immediately condemned the October 7 Hamas massacres that launched the war. And while she has voted against emergency defense assistance for Israel, she does not tout that vote on her campaign page.

Like other Squad members, she absented herself in protest from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech last month to Congress. But she also gave one of the tickets allotted to her to a family member of an Israeli held hostage by Hamas. Zahiro Shahar Mor, whose uncle is Abraham Munder, stood up wearing a T-shirt calling on Netanyahu to make a deal to release the hostages and was arrested, earning Omar’s praise.

Samuels’ campaign page calls for a two-state solution and the release of hostages held in Gaza, and says Hamas has a “fundamentalist ideology” and “can no longer be responsible for civil control of the Gaza Strip.” He also accuses Omar of consorting with antisemites, as he did during their 2022 face-off.

And in the weeks after October 7, he made that issue a theme, accusing her of “frightening” Minnesota’s Jews.

But his campaign page also makes moves toward criticism of Israel, saying it “should curtail the spread of settlements and empower a government that sees political opportunity in peace instead of conflict.” And recently, he seems less eager to bring up the Israel-Palestinian conflict as it has intensified.

“Over time, the conflict of Israel in Palestine has become so frightening that everybody agrees it is too extreme and I do, too,” he told The Minnesota Post this week.

In a speech about antisemitism, Donald Trump said Jews are facing a climate akin to the run-up to the Holocaust due to the actions of anti-Israel forces — and placed the blame squarely on his opponent while omitting any mention of antisemitism from the far right.

“What’s going on now is exactly what was going on before the Holocaust,” Trump said in the speech Thursday evening at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, attended by some of his most prominent Jewish supporters. “Instead of aggressively confronting these venomous antisemites in her party, Kamala Harris has maneuvered for their support.”

The speech came as Trump, by his own admission, is trying to “define” Harris, the vice president and his Democratic opponent, as she is beginning to lead him in the polls nationally and in swing states. And it served as a rejoinder to years of accusations that Trump accepts support from far-right figures in his party and by his own conduct evokes the run-up to Hitler seizing power — a charge leveled at him in his last campaign by Jewish Democrats.

In his speech, Trump repeated several of his most frequent claims, including a review of his actions on Israel as president — such as withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal and recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital — and complaints that most Jews in the United States vote for Democrats.

He also repeated his claim that Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel wouldn’t have happened had he been president. He pledged to give Israel the resources it needs to win the war — though he added, multiple times, that he believes few Israeli hostages remain alive.

And he promised to put university presidents “on notice” over campus antisemitism, as well as to withdraw federal funding and accreditation from campuses where antisemitism is allowed to fester.

“The toxic poison of antisemitism now courses through the veins of [the] radical Democrat Party,” he said. “We’re here tonight because we believe that this vicious outbreak of militant antisemitism is very militant, must be given no quarter, no safe harbor, no place in a civilized society. We must reject it in our schools, reject it in our foreign policy, reject it in our immigration system and reject it at the ballot box this November.”

Also Thursday, the Trump campaign launched a formal Jewish outreach, “Jewish Voices for Trump,” listing his pro-Israel accomplishments and endorsements from Jewish Republicans, some of whom have worked for him.

“He will ensure that Israel and the Jewish people have a secure homeland, and finally finish our war on terror,” the dedicated website says. “By re-affirming our support for President Trump, Jewish voices across the country are working to deliver President Trump a second term and put a stop to radical antisemitism.”

Backing Donald Trump
Among the endorsers were Trump’s former ambassador to Israel, David Friedman. “Campuses have exploded with antisemitic protests, and Iran-backed proxies represent an existential threat to the State of Israel, all because of the failed policies of the Harris-Biden administration,” Friedman said in a release.

The speech also included a moment, early on, in which Trump denigrated the appearance of decorated military veterans while praising Miriam Adelson, the Republican megadonor who introduced him at the event and has pledged up to $90 million to his reelection. Mentioning that he gave her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Trump said that Adelson looked better than some of the wounded veterans who received the Congressional Medal of Honor.

“Everyone [who] gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, the soldiers, they’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets or they’re dead,” he said. “She gets it and she’s the healthy beautiful woman.”

He made several unsubstantiated claims throughout the speech, including that Harris had considered imposing an arms embargo on Israel (pro-Palestinian activists said she was open to meeting to discuss an embargo. but her campaign said she opposed one) and that she wanted to rush out of her meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (they met for 40 minutes). He also alluded to his false claims that he won the 2020 election, noting that he got more votes in 2020 than in 2016.

He also mispronounced Harris’ first name and said he would not recognize her if she were referenced by her last name. “I really don’t call her Harris because nobody knows who Harris is,” he said. “You say to people ‘Harris,’ who the hell is Harris?”

He accused the Biden administration of “betray[ing]” Israel and said he would provide it his full support.

“I will give Israel the support that it needs to win, but I do want them to win fast, wouldn’t it be nice if they could win fast?” he said. “And we have to let them win fast. We will restore civility and peace to the Middle East.”

But he was pessimistic that many hostages remain alive. “I think you’re gonna have very few people left. A lot of people that they think are alive are not going to be alive,” he said.
The event did not touch on antisemitic violence on the far right, which the FBI and Anti-Defamation League say continues to proliferate and poses a grave threat.

Trump also praised Hungarian leader Viktor Orban, who has drawn accusations of antisemitism from Hungarian Jews, as “a very strong person.”

Students are barely back on campus, but pro-Palestinian protests have already returned, putting a divisive issue back in the spotlight that Democrats had hoped the nomination of Vice President Kamala Harris might allow them to move beyond it.

While few expect this fall’s protests to match the size or ferocity of last spring’s, when tent encampments roiled campuses and several university presidents lost their jobs amid criticism of their handling of the demonstrations, the new round of protests will come just as Democrats try to organize college campuses to mobilize voters for the November election.

“This isn’t going away. We’re not going away. Young people and their pursuit of justice and equity everywhere is not going away,” said Rania Batrice, a Palestinian-American Democratic strategist.

University administrators spent much of the summer break planning for potential fall protests, with many campuses imposing new policies to crack down and head off potential disruptions.

The University of California and California State University system has imposed a “zero tolerance” policy against camping, obscuring faces with masks, and blocking pathways. The University of Pennsylvania has banned demonstrations in classrooms, offices, residences and many other public areas on campus.

Yale is hiring an administrator for a new position tasked with managing and de-escalating protests. The University of South Florida now requires registration and prior approval for not only protests, but any planned event involving signs, tents or amplified sound.

And Columbia University — the epicenter of the national debate over campus protests, which led its former president to resign last month — has limited access and stepped up security, with students now required to show identification to enter campus grounds and a fence and private security guarding the quad that protesters occupied in May.

Critics, including the American Association of University Professors, say these new policies “discourage or shut down freedom of expression” in order to “appease politicians" who called for a crackdown, putting campuses once again at the center for bitter free speech debates.

The spring protests, and universities’ handling of them, became a major national controversy and frequent target of conservative media and Republican lawmakers, who argued the scenes of chaos on campuses showed the weakness of progressive institutions and Democratic officials in the face of radical lawbreaking

Still, despite the new restrictions, when classes began Tuesday at Columbia, pro-Palestinian protesters made themselves heard and someone splashed blood-red paint on a landmark campus statue.

Harris may want to punt on the issue of American weapons being used by Netanyahu to harm civilians, but with student protests returning, she can’t avoid it,” said Waleed Shahid, a Democratic strategist who worked with the uncommitted delegates to last month’s Democratic National Convention.

Students are barely back on campus, but pro-Palestinian protests have already returned, putting a divisive issue back in the spotlight that Democrats had hoped the nomination of Vice President Kamala Harris might allow them to move beyond it.

While few expect this fall’s protests to match the size or ferocity of last spring’s, when tent encampments roiled campuses and several university presidents lost their jobs amid criticism of their handling of the demonstrations, the new round of protests will come just as Democrats try to organize college campuses to mobilize voters for the November election.

“This isn’t going away. We’re not going away. Young people and their pursuit of justice and equity everywhere is not going away,” said Rania Batrice, a Palestinian-American Democratic strategist.

University administrators spent much of the summer break planning for potential fall protests, with many campuses imposing new policies to crack down and head off potential disruptions.

The University of California and California State University system has imposed a “zero tolerance” policy against camping, obscuring faces with masks, and blocking pathways. The University of Pennsylvania has banned demonstrations in classrooms, offices, residences and many other public areas on campus.

Yale is hiring an administrator for a new position tasked with managing and de-escalating protests. The University of South Florida now requires registration and prior approval for not only protests, but any planned event involving signs, tents or amplified sound.

And Columbia University — the epicenter of the national debate over campus protests, which led its former president to resign last month — has limited access and stepped up security, with students now required to show identification to enter campus grounds and a fence and private security guarding the quad that protesters occupied in May.

Critics, including the American Association of University Professors, say these new policies “discourage or shut down freedom of expression” in order to “appease politicians" who called for a crackdown, putting campuses once again at the center for bitter free speech debates.

The spring protests, and universities’ handling of them, became a major national controversy and frequent target of conservative media and Republican lawmakers, who argued the scenes of chaos on campuses showed the weakness of progressive institutions and Democratic officials in the face of radical lawbreaking

Still, despite the new restrictions, when classes began Tuesday at Columbia, pro-Palestinian protesters made themselves heard and someone splashed blood-red paint on a landmark campus statue.

Campuses across the country have seen an uptick in protests as students return, with an umbrella organization for campus pro-Palestinian groups calling for a national day of action on Sept. 12.

“Harris may want to punt on the issue of American weapons being used by Netanyahu to harm civilians, but with student protests returning, she can’t avoid it,” said Waleed Shahid, a Democratic strategist who worked with the uncommitted delegates to last month’s Democratic National Convention.

The delegates, who were elected as a protest of President Joe Biden’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza, pleaded for a speaking slot at the convention but were rebuffed. After a brief sit-in outside the convention hall, the Uncommitted delegates returned and politely listened to Harris’ acceptance speech without disruption.

Harris’ campaign and other Democrats had hoped that anti-climax would be the end of an issue that has roiled the Democratic coalition since Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack. Harris' campaign declined to comment.

“Youth anger over the use of U.S. weapons could dominate the headlines and fracture the Democratic coalition,” argued Shahid.

Student activists also spent the last few months preparing for the fall semester, attending a “summer school” with veteran activists and promising to return to campus with new tactics to get around restrictions.

“We will seize control of our institutions, campus by campus, until Palestine is free,” reads a recent letter signed by dozens of campus chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine.

A new NBC News Stay Tuned/Survey Monkey poll of Gen Z voters found that half support Harris, while 34% support former President Donald Trump, 6% support someone else and 10% say they likely will not vote.

Most Gen Z voters were focused on other issues, with just 8% picking Israel as their top priority, suggesting the protesters are a small, but vocal minority of their classmates.

And while much of the protest activity has taken place on elite campuses in liberal states, it is also playing out in campuses in politically important battlegrounds like Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin and North Carolina.

Nowhere has that been more evident than in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan, a state with a large Arab and Muslim population and one that Harris likely needs to win in November.

Four demonstrators were arrested last week during a pro-Palestinian “die-in” protest aimed at disrupting Festifall, a major annual campus event.

Pro-Palestinian students essentially took over the student government in elections last spring on a promise to shut it down, making good on that pledge by withholding all funds to student groups. They say they will not distribute the money, raised from students through fees until the university promises to divest from companies making money from Israel’s war in Gaza (the administration has stepped in to temporarily fund the groups).

Adam Lacasse, the co-chair of the University of Michigan College Democrats and president of the group's statewide chapter, said protests are quieter and Democratic enthusiasm higher than last spring when some students were uncomfortable vocally supporting Biden or fear of being singled out by pro-Palestinian students.

“I still think it’s a very prominent issue and a lot of students still really care about it. But I don’t think the enthusiasm around it is like it was around in the spring,” he said. “I feel a lot more comfortable wearing a College Dems shirt while walking around campus now.”

Students are now enthusiastic about Harris in a way few ever were about Biden, Lacasse said, adding that he thinks the vice president or her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, would be warmly received if she visited campus — mostly.

“There would certainly be protests,” he said. “Any large event on campus this fall, there are going to be protests, but especially if one of them visited. Still, I still think it would be more beneficial than harmful."

Chants of “fight, fight, fight” echoed with the applause welcoming former President Donald Trump to the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual summit in Las Vegas on Thursday.

He has been a fixture at the gathering for the past eight years, but this year, the Republican candidate for president appeared via satellite because a court appearance in New York prevented him from attending.

Delegates waved signs, including “Kamala... oy vey!” and “We are Jews for Trump.”

Trump began his remarks by paying tribute to Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was murdered by Hamas terrorists.

“As we speak today, we’re all devastated by the horrific death of our fellow American, Hersh Goldberg, and this is so sad to even say Hersh Goldberg-Polin,” he said. “I’ve been watching the parents. I’ve been watching everybody talking about it for so long, and it’s just so sad to see the five other innocent hostages slaughtered late last week at the hands of Hamas.”

Hersh Goldberg-Polin
Hersh was a brother, a son, and an American citizen, Trump said.

After being held captive for nearly a year following the “monstrous October 7 attack on Israel,” Hersh was “barbarically executed with a bullet to the back of his head,” he said.

“To Hersh’s family and everyone touched by these atrocities, we pray that God will grant you comfort, healing, and peace, and as for the evil savages responsible for these murders, may they never know peace or comfort ever again,” he added.

Trump reiterated his opinion that any Jewish supporters of President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris should have their heads examined.

“They’re not going to win because they can’t win, because we wouldn’t have a country any longer, and then Israel would not have an ally,” he said.

Trump said the October 7 attack on Israel would never have happened if he were president, nor would Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have taken place.

America will never survive if Harris and Walz are in, he said.

“This November, you must get Jewish people, or people that love Israel, you must get them to vote for Republicans; you must get them to vote for Trump,” Trump said. “And if you don’t, you’re not going to have a country. I tell you, I’ve been very good at predicting things. You will not have a country. This is a radical-left Marxist that we have running. You will not have a country.”

If Harris wins, terrorists will wage an “unceasing war to drive Jews out of the holy land,” he said.

“And you know it, and we’ve had a great relationship with Israel, but I can say honestly that we got 25% of the vote,” Trump said. “We got 26% after four years, after I did more for Israel than any other president, by far, and this year, we’re probably around the 50% mark.

“But I only ask you, who are the 50% of Jewish people that are voting for these people that hate Israel and don’t like the Jewish people? Why are they? Why are they voting?”

Harris will “totally abandon Israel,” he said, adding that “you’re going to be abandoned if she becomes president.”

“And I think you have to explain that to your people, because they don’t know it,” Trump said. “They have no idea what they’re getting into. You’re not going to have an Israel if she becomes president. Israel will no longer exist.”

"We can't allow what's happened in Gaza to happen," Kamala Harris's Vice Presidential running mate Tim Walz told WCMU radio in Michigan in an interview on Thursday.

Asked by the interviewer how a Harris-Walz administration would handle the Israel-Hamas war, and whether it would break from the Biden administration, Walz said that October 7 was a "horrific act of violence against the people of Israel" and reiterated statements by Harris that Israel has the right to defend itself.

However, he added that "we can't allow what's happened in Gaza to happen. The Palestinian people have every right to life and liberty themselves."

Walz then advocated for a two-state solution, and added that he wanted to push "the Netanyahu government to start moving in that direction."

Speaking on the pro-Palestine protests in Michigan recently, including at the university, Walz said he thought "those folks who are speaking out loudly are speaking out for all the right reasons. It's a humanitarian crisis. It can't stand the way it is."

"Getting a ceasefire with the return of the hostages and then moving towards a sustainable two-state solution is the only way forward."

Republican White House hopeful Donald Trump says he believes Israel should strike Iran’s nuclear facilities in response to the Islamic Republic’s recent missile barrage.

The former president, speaking at a campaign event in North Carolina, refers to a question posed to Democratic President Joe Biden this week about the possibility of Israel targeting Iran’s nuclear program.

“They asked him, what do you think about Iran, would you hit Iran? And he goes, ‘As long as they don’t hit the nuclear stuff.’ That’s the thing you want to hit, right?” Trump tells a town hall style event in Fayetteville, near a major US military base.

“I think he’s got that one wrong,” Trump says, in response to a participant’s question about the issue. “Isn’t that what you’re supposed to hit? I mean, it’s the biggest risk we have, nuclear weapons.

“When they asked him that question, the answer should have been, hit the nuclear first, and worry about the rest later,” Trump adds.

Donald Trump visited the gravesite of the Chabad Hasidic movement’s late leader on Monday to mark the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

The former president’s visit to the Queens grave of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, known as the Rebbe, was thick with ritual and symbolism. And he came to the site, known as the Ohel, with an entourage of prominent supporters, a Holocaust survivor and the family of a hostage held by Hamas in Gaza.

The visit was not a campaign stop in Trump’s bid to retake the White House but served as a gesture to a constituency — Orthodox Jews — that is expected to support him in next month’s election. Last month Trump was scheduled to visit a kosher restaurant in Williamsburg, home to another Hasidic movement, and drew significant excitement, but the trip was called off amid the unexpected death of the restaurant owner.

Trump did not speak publicly at the Ohel but was received warmly by the small crowd that greeted him. The site is usually open 24 hours a day and, according to Chabad, has hundreds of thousands of visitors per year, but it was restricted and under heavy security on Monday during Trump’s stop there.

“It’s gonna work out, we’re gonna make it work out, we’ve gotta get that guy back, right?” Trump said at one point during the visit. He appeared to be referring to Edan Alexander, an American-Israeli held hostage for a year in Gaza whose parents and brother accompanied Trump on the visit. Later, Trump took a photo with an Israeli hostage poster.

Standing alongside the grave next to Chabad representatives, Trump engaged in a series of traditional Jewish mourning practices. He donned a kippah, read a chapter of Psalms that is quoted in the daily Jewish penitential prayer, placed a note on the grave and then laid a small stone on the headstone. He also lit a yahrzeit memorial candle, something President Joe Biden also did in commemoration of Oct. 7.

Police barricades closed off streets for several blocks around the site. At the entrance to the site, Secret Service agents searched bags and scanned visitors with a metal detector. Other agents were visible standing on the rooftop of a structure on the cemetery, and a helicopter buzzed overhead. The crowd dispersed after Ohel security announced that Trump would not use the building’s regular entrance.

Politicians across parties from the United States and Israel have visited Schneerson’s resting place in the Old Montefiore Cemetery — including Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner, who advised Trump when he was in office. Later on Monday Trump planned to hold a remembrance event alongside Jewish community leaders at his hotel in Miami, his campaign said.

US politicians on both sides of the aisle issued statements marking the anniversary of the 7 October attacks, with Kamala Harris paying tribute to the victims and calling, in their honor, to “never lose sight of the dream of peace, dignity, and security for all”.

Outside the vice-presidential residence, Harris, accompanied by her husband, spoke of the nearly 1,200 people, including 46 Americans, killed in Israel one year ago.

She mentioned a singer from Missouri who died shielding her son from bullets, an academic and peace activist who studied in Seattle, and a dancer from California who was killed at the Nova music festival.

Harris expressed a commitment to “always ensure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself” and named each of the seven American hostages still held in Gaza, including four still believed to be alive.

“We must uphold the commitment to repair the world, an idea that has been passed on throughout generations of the Jewish people and across many faiths,” she added. “To that end we must work to relieve the immense suffering of innocent Palestinians in Gaza who have experienced so much pain and loss over the year.”

US politicians on both sides of the aisle issued statements marking the anniversary of the 7 October attacks, with Kamala Harris paying tribute to the victims and calling, in their honor, to “never lose sight of the dream of peace, dignity, and security for all”.

Outside the vice-presidential residence, Harris, accompanied by her husband, spoke of the nearly 1,200 people, including 46 Americans, killed in Israel one year ago.

She mentioned a singer from Missouri who died shielding her son from bullets, an academic and peace activist who studied in Seattle, and a dancer from California who was killed at the Nova music festival.

Harris expressed a commitment to “always ensure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself” and named each of the seven American hostages still held in Gaza, including four still believed to be alive.

“We must uphold the commitment to repair the world, an idea that has been passed on throughout generations of the Jewish people and across many faiths,” she added. “To that end we must work to relieve the immense suffering of innocent Palestinians in Gaza who have experienced so much pain and loss over the year.”

The Republican vice-presidential candidate, JD Vance, also spoke out on Monday, using the occasion as an opportunity to attack Biden and Harris. Speaking at a pro-Israel rally in Washington DC organized by the Christian group the Philos Project, he called the attacks of 7 October “the worst terrorist attack since 9/11” and an attack not only on Israel and Jewish people but “on Americans”.

“It is disgraceful that we have an American president and vice-president who haven’t done a thing,” he said. “Vice-President Harris, our message is: ‘Bring them home.’ Use your authority to help bring them home.”

Vance then criticized what he described as the “pro-Hamas” protests happening across the country on Monday and the students that he said are “supporting Islamic radicals, destroying property, and threatening Jewish students and professors”.

The moment went down during a campaign stop Thursday at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, when a pro-Hamas UWM student began yelling out while the Democratic presidential nominee was speaking, video of the exchange showed.

“I am so invested in you all, in every way,” Harris can be heard saying as the interruption began.

“And in genocide right?” the heckler said.

“Billions of dollars in genocide. Billions of dollars in genocide.”

Someone off-camera can be heard whispering “shut up,” but the outburst continued.

“I’m speaking right now,” Harris said before launching into her now well-worn response to similar interruptions.

“I know what you’re speaking of. I want the ceasefire. I want the war to end. And I respect your right to speak but I am speaking right now.”

“But what about the genocide? What about the genocide though?” the protestor, wearing a keffiyeh, yelled.

The man was then escorted out of the hall while yelling, “19,000 children are dead, and you won’t call it a genocide.”

In the silence that followed his exit, Harris turned back to the audience.

“Listen, what he’s talking about, it’s real. It’s real. That’s not the subject that I came to discuss today, but it’s real and I respect his voice,” Harris said.

The vice president has never previously suggested that Israel’s defensive war in Gaza amounts to a genocide of Palestinian people.

The behind-closed-doors event at the school’s Lubar Entrepreneurship Center was closed to journalists, but video of the moment was posted online. Harris’ motorcade was also met with pro-Hamas protesters when she arrived on campus, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

The heckler appears to have been affiliated with the group UW-Milwaukee Popular University for Palestine Coalition, which posted a first person account of the confrontation to their Instagram page Friday.

Harris’ family has also been public about their sympathies.

Both Harris’ stepdaughter Ella Emhoff and niece Meena Harris, have raised cash for the Palestinian cause.

Ella Emhoff’s activism has including soliciting funds for the nonprofit UNRWA, which the United States cut funding to over their complicity in the Oct. 7 attacks.