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UN-Run Schools in Jerusalem Teaching Pro-Terror Curriculum to Kids, so Israel Is Shutting Them Down
JERUSALEM, Israel – Israel is following through on its pledge to close United Nations schools for Palestinian children, as Israel seems to be left standing alone against the Houthis. Meanwhile, a new survey shows half of Gazans approve of the Hamas terror attack on October 7th, 2023.
Israel’s crackdown on the United Nations Relief & Works Agency (UNRWA) working in the Jewish nation now includes shutting six schools in mostly Arab eastern Jerusalem. Students and teachers arrived on Thursday to find the schools locked up for the foreseeable future.
“When I hugged the teachers goodbye, I started crying because I didn’t know which school I’d go to, where I would continue learning,” said student Layan Ramadan Nataheh from the Shufat Basic Girls School.
UNRWA runs much of the education system for Palestinian children, but many in Israel say it’s teaching the kids to be anti-Israel and pro-terrorist.
David Bedein, who heads the Center for Near East Policy Research, has been exposing the Palestinian curriculum and UNRWA summer camps for decades. In an earlier interview, he showed a page from a textbook UNRWA uses featuring a female terrorist.
Pointing to a photo, he explained, “This is Dalal Mughrabi, who murdered 36 Jews in a terror attack in 1978, and she’s glorified in this book, and there’s a whole curriculum for her run by UNRWA.”
Bedein noted that the curriculum is teaching children to murder Jews and has three main points. “One: the delegitimization of Israel’s existence and the Jews’ very presence in the country; two: demonization of both Jews and Israelis; and three: the absence of any call for peace,” he said.
Israel Warns Houthis
Since the Trump administration made a separate peace with the Houthis earlier this week, Israel finds itself standing alone against the Yemen-based terror group. Israel’s Defense Minister, Israel Katz, warned the Houthis against an attack.
Katz cautioned, “The Houthis will absorb heavy blows from Israel if they continue firing at us.”
This week, the Israeli military destroyed much of the Houthis’ main port and nearly all of the airport in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital.
Katz also threatened Iran, which arms and funds the Houthis, saying, “You are directly responsible. What we did to Hezbollah in Beirut, Hamas in Gaza, Assad in Damascus, and the Houthis in Yemen, will also be done to you in Tehran.”
Polls Show Palestinians Still Pro-Terror
Pollsters recently furnished some startling new numbers from Palestinians. Of those who live in Gaza, half of them – more than a million – believe Hamas did the correct thing in launching its October 7th, 2023, massacre inside Israel.
On the question of disarming Hamas, 85 percent of Palestinians in Judea and Samaria, and 64 percent in Gaza, oppose disarming the terror group.
If elections were held today, 43 percent of Palestinians would vote for Hamas and just 28 percent would vote for the Western-backed Palestinian Authority.
Huckabee on Humanitarian Efforts
In Jerusalem on Friday morning, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee announced a new U.S.-led plan to distribute humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. Huckabee laid out two criteria.
“The first is that food be distributed efficiently, but also that it’s distributed safely inside Gaza to the people who desperately need it. The other factor, and this is an important one, (is) that all of this be done in a way so that Hamas is not able to get their hands on it.”
Huckabee blamed Hamas for stealing aid intended for the people and for the lack of aid to Gazans.
“We are here today with a crisis – not because of Israel,” he said. “We are here today because of Hamas. They’ve initiated the crisis. They have prolonged the crisis, and they have exacerbated the crisis.”
Huckabee says the plan involves a partnership of governments, NGOs, and charitable organizations from around the world.
Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun Faces Diplomatic Test In Saudi Arabia Over Antisemitic PLO Textbooks Funded By Riyadh
Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, President Trump’s newly appointed Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, is poised for a high-stakes diplomatic test during the President’s upcoming visit to Saudi Arabia. At issue is Saudi Arabia’s longstanding financial support for Palestinian Authority (PA) textbooks that systematically delegitimize Israel, demonize Jews, and glorify violent struggle over peace.
Saudi-Funded Antisemitism in Palestinian Classrooms
For over two decades, Saudi Arabia has helped finance PA educational materials that violate UNESCO standards and international law. According to extensive monitoring by research agencies, three core tenets define these textbooks:
- Delegitimization of Israel: Textbooks deny Jewish historical ties to the land, erase Israel from maps, and dismiss Jewish holy sites like the Temple Mount as fabrications.
- Demonization of Jews: Israeli policies are equated with Nazism, while Jews are portrayed as inherently oppressive and violent.
- Advocacy for Violent Struggle: Peace with Israel is rejected in favor of “resistance,” framed as a religious duty. Martyrdom and armed struggle are glorified, with terror attacks against Israelis justified as legitimate.
The European Parliament recently froze funding to the PA over these textbooks, citing “antisemitic references, incitement to violence, and glorification of terrorism.” A 2025 resolution explicitly tied EU financial aid to curriculum reforms, which the PA has thus far ignored.
Kaploun’s Challenge: Balancing Diplomacy and Accountability
Rabbi Kaploun, a Chabad-linked advocate known for his focus on Middle Eastern terrorism and campus antisemitism, now faces the delicate task of addressing Saudi complicity in perpetuating hate. His nomination emphasized combating antisemitism linked to “terrorist sympathizers” and campus radicalization. However, Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally, remains a major funder of the PA’s education system, which the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) calls an “incubator for terror.”
The Oslo Accords, designed to foster Israeli-Palestinian peace, have failed in part due to PA policies that radicalize youth through education. Textbooks funded by Saudi and EU donors teach that “jihad and martyrdom” are obligations to “liberate” Jerusalem, while omitting Israel’s existence.
Saudi Reforms: Partial Progress, Persistent Problems
While Saudi Arabia has made limited reforms to its curriculum, removing some antisemitic tropes and recognizing “East Jerusalem” as Palestine’s capital, its funding of PA materials remains unchecked. IMPACT-se, a watchdog group, notes that Saudi textbooks still omit Israel from maps and frame Zionism as expansionist.
The Stakes for U.S. Policy
Kaploun’s ability to navigate this issue will test the Trump administration’s commitment to its antisemitism agenda. The envoy has previously likened U.S. Jews to “1930s Germany” and emphasized combating radical Islamist extremism. Yet confronting Saudi Arabia, a strategic partner, risks complicating diplomatic ties.
With the EU already taking action, pressure mounts on the U.S. to demand accountability. As Kaploun accompanies Trump to Riyadh, advocates urge him to leverage U.S. influence to end Saudi funding for hate education, a critical step toward dismantling the ideological roots of antisemitism and terrorism.
With Trump headed to Saudi Arabia, a review of Saudi policy is in order
Abbas hails ‘courageous’ Riyadh for pressing Palestinian State
Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday thanked Saudi Arabia for contradicting U.S. President Donald Trump’s claim that Riyadh was not conditioning normalization with Israel on the establishment of a Palestinian state… Abbas hailed the “courageous and honorable Saudi positions, in addition to the great support provided by the kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the Palestinian people,
https://www.jns.org/abbas-hails-courageous-riyadh-for-pressing-palestinian-state/
Egypt, Saudi Arabia back two-state solution, reject Palestinian displacement
State Information Service – Egypt- Monday ، 21 April 2025 Egypt and Saudi Arabia, in a joint statement issued by their Committee for Follow-up and Political Consultations, affirmed the importance of the two-state solution and categorically rejected all attempts to displace Palestinians from Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, whether temporarily or permanently, forced or voluntary…They also expressed support for the Arab-Islamic plan and Cairo’s upcoming ministerial conference for the early recovery and reconstruction of Gaza.
Saudi Arabia firmly rejects Israeli move for Gaza incursion – demands Palestinian with East Jerusalem as Capital
Saudi Gazette – May 07, 2025 – The Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed Saudi Arabia’s categorical rejection of the Israeli occupation authorities’ announcement regarding their incursion into and control of the Gaza Strip and Palestinian territories…. The ministry reiterated Saudi Arabia’s unwavering support for the Palestinian cause, in line with international legitimacy, the Arab Peace Initiative, and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, with east Jerusalem as its capital.
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Saudi Arabia condemns Israeli plan to expand Gaza offensive – To Prevent Israeli victory over Hamas
Alarabiya News – May 6, 2025 – Saudi Arabia on Wednesday expressed its “categorical rejection” of Israel’s plan to expand its offensive in the Gaza Strip, and called for violations of international law to end.
Saudi Arabia Reiterates Support for a Palestinian State
New York Times – By Qasim Nauman Feb. 4, 2025 – Saudi Arabia reaffirmed its support for an independent Palestinian state on Tuesday and said establishing diplomatic ties with Israel would depend on the creation of such a state, hours after President Trump proposed permanently moving all Palestinians out of Gaza and making it a U.S. territory.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/04/us/politics/saudi-arabia-palestine-trump-gaza.html
Why Saudi Arabia insists on a Palestinian State
Arab News – February 09, 2025 – September 2024, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman addressed the opening of the ninth session of the Shoura Council, stating unequivocally: … Arab News – February 09, 2025 – “the Kingdom will not cease its tireless work toward the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital,” and underscored that “the Kingdom will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without that.”
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2589617
Exclusive: Trump poised to offer Saudi Arabia over $100 billion arms package, sources say April 25, 20251:53 PM GMT+3
WASHINGTON/RIYADH, April 24 (Reuters) – The United States is poised to offer Saudi Arabia an arms package worth well over $100 billion, six sources with direct knowledge of the issue told Reuters, saying the proposal was being lined up for announcement during U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to the kingdom in May.
The Daily Star – May 8 2025 – Trump poised to offer Saudi Arabia over $100b arms package: sources
The United States is poised to offer Saudi Arabia an arms package worth well over $100 billion, six sources with direct knowledge of the issue told Reuters, saying the proposal was being lined up for announcement during US President Donald Trump’s visit to the kingdom in May.
Palestinian Rivals Hamas and Fatah Agree to Form Government
Associated Press – 07/23/202 – Palestinian factions and bitter foes Hamas and Fatah signed a declaration in China vowing to form a unity government to govern the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip following the end of the Israel-Hamas war. The agreement announced in Beijing on Tuesday, which also included 12 smaller Palestinian parties, could start the thawing of relations and potential reconciliation of the two heavyweights of Palestinian politics who have long been at odds over the governance of the Palestinian territories.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/07/23/palestinian-rivals-hamas-fatah-form-government-00170810
Israel–Saudi Arabia relations – Wikipedia
The State of Israel and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have never had formal diplomatic relations. In 1947, Saudi Arabia voted against the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, and currently does not recognize Israeli sovereignty. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel%E2%80%93Saudi_Arabia_relations
Saudi Arabia donates $40 million to UN agency for Palestinians
Le Monde with AFP – March 20, 2024 – Saudi Arabia announced Wednesday it will donate $40 million to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, which has faced massive funding cuts and calls for its abolition spearheaded by Israel. The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief) said the funds would support UNRWA’s “humanitarian relief efforts in the Gaza Strip,” where the Israel-Hamas war has raged for more than five months.
Saudi Arabia Pledges to Send Funding for Palestinians
NYT – 2024/09/30 – Saudi Arabia has pledged to send financial aid to the struggling Palestinian Authority, reversing a decision made during the Trump administration to slash funding to the governing body that administers some areas in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The promise of a cash infusion won’t resolve the authority’s financial woes, but it reflects the improved relationship between Saudi Arabia and Palestinian leaders
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/30/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-palestine-financial-aid.html
Saudi Arabia condemns Israeli closure orders for UNRWA schools in East Jerusalem
ARAB NEWS – April 11, 2025 – RIYADH: Saudi Arabia on Friday strongly condemned Israel’s closure orders against six schools in East Jerusalem operated by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
The Kingdom’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the move a blatant violation of international norms and a threat to humanitarian work.
The ministry said it “condemns in the strongest terms” the Israeli decision and reiterated the Kingdom’s categorical rejection of what it described as “continued intransigence and systematic targeting” of UNRWA by the Israeli occupation authorities.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2596717/saudi-arabia
Qatar, Saudi Arabia Denounce Israeli Closure Of UNRWA Schools In Jerusalem
IMEMC NEWS – Apr 12, 2025 – The State of Qatar and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have criticized Israel’s decision to shut down six schools operated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in East Jerusalem. This action, which strips children of access to education, was described by Qatar as yet another violation in the series of ongoing Israeli practices targeting Palestinians in occupied territories.
https://imemc.org/article/qatar-saudi-atabis-denounce-israeli-closure-of-unrwa-schools-in-jerusalem/
Saudi Arabia hails Australia’s Jerusalem decision
MEM – October 20, 2022 – Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry welcomed on Wednesday the move by Australia to reverse its decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Quds Press has reported. The ministry expressed its hope to see joint efforts by the international community to find a just solution for the Palestinian cause.
The government in Riyadh pointed out that such a solution should fulfil the hopes of the Palestinian people and be based on the creation of an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital, as stipulated by international resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative. “The Kingdom is supportive of the Palestinians and their choices,” the ministry confirmed.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20221020-saudi-arabia-hails-australias-jerusalem-decision/
Israel bars Saudi Arabia from opening physical mission in Jerusalem
MEE – 13 August 2023 – Saudi Arabia’s new ‘consul-general in Jerusalem’ position is seen as an endorsement of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital
Israel ruled out on Sunday any eventual physical mission in Jerusalem for the first Saudi envoy to the Palestinians, even as they cast his appointment as endorsement of their goal of a state that would include part of the city as its capital. Saudi Ambassador to Jordan Nayef al-Sudairi on Saturday expanded his credentials to include non-resident envoy to the Palestinians. A social media post by his embassy said “consul-general in Jerusalem”
Saudi Arabia condemns Israel’s approval of new settlements in occupied West Bank
MEM – March 7, 2024 – Saudi Arabia condemned on Wednesday Israel’s approval of new settlements in the occupied West Bank. The foreign ministry in Riyadh said that it rejected the decision to build 3,500 new settlement units in the occupied Palestinian territory.
The ministry added that the Kingdom also condemns such efforts to try to Judaise large parts of the West Bank, including Jerusalem.
Jared Kushner defends his equity firm getting $2 billion from Saudis after he left White House
CBS NEWS – February 14, 2024 – New York — Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s former White House adviser and his son-in-law, defended on Tuesday his business dealings after leaving government with the Saudi crown prince who was implicated in the 2018 killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. Kushner worked on a wide range of issues and policies in the Trump administration, including Middle East peace efforts, and developed a relationship with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin
Kushner worked on a wide range of issues and policies in the Trump administration, including Middle East peace efforts, and developed a relationship with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has overseen social and economic reforms but also a far-reaching crackdown on dissent in the kingdom.
After Kushner left the White House, he started a private equity firm that received a reported $2 billion investment from the sovereign wealth fund controlled by Prince Mohammed, drawing scrutiny from Democrats.
Misleading headline from Israel about UNRWA closure
News that UNRWA has been expelled from UNRWA
Sgt. Yishai Urbach was married 2 months before he fell in Gaza
Sergeant Yishai Elyakim Urbach, a 20-year-old combat engineer from Zichron Ya’akov, was killed in action yesterday (Thursday) during a military operation in Gaza.
He had married his wife, Yuval, just two months ago, before returning to Gaza with his battalion to continue fighting as part of Operation Might and Sword
Urbach served in the 605th Battalion of the 188th Armored Brigade and was a student at the Golan Hesder Yeshiva. The Association of Hesder Yeshivas mourned his loss, stating, “We deeply mourn the fall of Sergeant Yishai Elyakim Urbach, a combat engineer in the 605th Battalion, a student at the Golan Hesder Yeshiva, who fell in the necessary war. On behalf of the heads of the Hesder yeshivas, all rabbis, and students, we embrace the family, the rabbis of the yeshiva, its students, and graduates, and pray for a decisive victory of our heroic soldiers over our despicable and cruel enemies. May his soul be bound in the bundle of life.”
The IDF has notified his family, and funeral arrangements are pending.
During the incident in which Sergeant Yishai Elyakim Urbach fell, a soldier in the 605th Combat Engineering Battalion of the 188th Brigade was severely injured. Another soldier was moderately injured.
Danger signals flashing
Recent developments are triggering danger signals for Israel and Diaspora Jewish communities alike.
Concerted air attacks by the US Air Force against Houthi terrorists in Yemen do not seem to have made any impression. One wonders how effective the American campaign actually might be given the almost daily missile launches against Israel in recent days.
Based on past failures in Vietnam and Afghanistan, how long will this bombing of Houthi infrastructure continue before the US throws up its hands and ceases its efforts? In the past few hours, Trump has announced a cessation of the bombing campaign because he claims that the Houthis have promised to stop targeting US shipping and have “given up.” They have not, however, promised to cease firing missiles at Israel, which means that the Americans have once again left the job half finished.
Already, isolationist voices in the Republican Party are talking about a cessation of overseas involvement. The same goes for Iran’s sprint to nuclear blackmail status. Talk of deals and understandings, which are really code words for appeasement and lack of resolve, now abounds.
The lessons of history, whereby tyrants and dictator bullies were undeterred by futile negotiations and spurious agreements, are ignored. Instead of a determined effort to defang the Mullahs of Tehran, the US, UK and the EU prefer a soft option of believing Iranian deceit and deception. Everyone knows that the Houthis are being supported by Iran, yet this inconvenient fact is swept under the Persian carpet.
This week, a missile managed to impact near Ben Gurion airport, thankfully with no serious fatalities or major damage. This blatant act of war has generated a harsh response, which in turn will bring the hypocritical wrath of the UN down upon Israel. “Disproportionate force” will again be the theme song of the international choir as it passes more condemnatory resolutions.
The time is rapidly approaching, if indeed it has not already arrived, when the charades being choreographed by the democracies will have to be replaced by meaningful actions. If we do not want to face another North Korea-type fiasco, then action must replace duplicitous diplomacy.
Our hostages are still held captive in Gaza, and the world has lost interest. How much longer can this scandalous situation be allowed to continue?
Yom Ha’Atzmaut (Independence Day) this year was celebrated in the midst of conflagrations lit by Arab arsonists. It was a coordinated campaign of deliberate destruction. This inconvenient fact was generally glossed over by the general international media. If they had been true purveyors of the truth, they would have reported the incitement that accompanied the forest fires.
Hamas posted: “burn whatever you can of groves, forests and settler homes. Youth of the West Bank, youth of Jerusalem and those inside Israel, set their cars ablaze. Let us make their night a burning day. We will not give in and will not give up until we burn every piece of stolen land.”
The Telegram Channel, Jenin News, wrote: “burn forests close to the raped lands. The Zionist entity is burning. This is an opportunity for you to increase the fires, youth of Jerusalem and the occupied interior, raise your spirits and make up your mind, their settlements, set them ablaze.”
It is important to note that, as far as these arson inciters are concerned, all of Israel is an “occupied settlement” and therefore the message conveyed is to set the whole country alight.
A few countries offered firefighting aid, but not a single UN member condemned the calls to light more fires. This should ring loud warning signals. The lessons are clear. Those causing arson and those urging on the arsonists are precisely the same people whom the international community wants to reward with Palestine recognition. If this is the face of peace, democracy and security touted by all and sundry, then we can look forward to a dark future.
Meanwhile, in Canada, Great Britain and Australia, potentially ominous developments have unfolded that have the possibility of souring relations with Israel even further and negatively impacting local Jewish communities.
In England, local council elections and a by-election in one parliamentary constituency produced earth-shattering results for the two main parties. Candidates from the Reform Party trounced Labour and Conservative nominees in what is being described as a mass protest vote. In addition, a once safe Tory constituency also fell to the Reform Party candidate.
The aftershocks of these results should flag warning signals for Britain’s Jewish Community.
The leader of the Conservative Party could be on shaky ground and who knows what her possible replacement’s policies on Israel might be.
There are already rumblings in the Labour Party, and without a doubt, the extreme left plus disgruntled Corbyn supporters are waiting to topple Starmer. If this happens a return to full blown anti Israel policies is guaranteed.
With Islam now the second-largest religion in the UK, electoral considerations are increasingly relevant. The omens do not look good given the increased toxicity of anti-Jewish/Zionist/Israel sermons in m osques as recently revealed by UK Talk TV.
Canada held a general election where the Conservatives had been projected to defeat the ruling Liberal Party. The former ran on a pro-Israel platform with pledges to combat Jew hate. The latter are paid-up members of the “two fake solution” and weak on action against incitement against Jews.
Thanks to the anti-Canadian rhetoric of President Trump, the voters preferred to stick with what they know and thus re-elected the ruling party. Once again, this result does not augur well for Canadian–Israel relations. Instead of a Prime Minister who supports Israel’s war against terror, there will be more condemnations of the corrupt UN and joining together with Macron of France in propping up Abbas.
As in the UK and Australia, Canadian Jews will find that the continual drip feed of negative rhetoric against Israel produces more waves of hate activities.
This past week’s third electoral earthquake saw the spectacular defeat of the Australian Coalition Parties, which only a short time ago had been poised to oust the ruling Labour Government.
Domestic policies and considerations were at the core of the campaign and basically these factors determined the outcome. Lurking, however, in the background for Jews was a rather stark contrast involving Israel in particular and incitement of hate in general.
It is true, as Jewish leadership spokespersons reiterate, that until fairly recently, there has been a bipartisan agreement when it comes to Australia’s policies concerning Israel. Past Coalition and Labour policies were more or less in alignment when it came to the question of Israel’s legitimacy and efforts to defend itself from terrorist acts. Voting at the UN followed a predictable pattern whereby Australia usually voted with the moral minority and refused to be associated with knee jerk Zionist hating member nations.
This all changed once the Albanese/Wong Government came into power. Adhering to a well-worn leftist script, for the first time ever, Australia joined the immoral majority and voted more often than not to condemn and sanction the Jewish State. Talk of recognising a fake Palestine is now official policy, accompanied by strictures concerning Israel’s alleged moral failings.
The fallout from all this display of double standards has been a record increase in Jew hate graffiti, attacks both physical and verbal and even arson of synagogues. Perceived weak responses by authorities, law enforcement laxity and a knee-jerk requirement to equate Islamophobia with Judeophobia all contribute to an increasing sense of anxiety. The answer of political parties to this is throwing millions of dollars to affected communities. While this may pay for cameras and added security in schools and Synagogues it does not address the fundamental problem.
The stage is set for a troubling three years now that Labour has been swept back into power with an absolute majority in the lower House of Parliament and possibly a reliance on virulent anti-Israel Greens in the Senate.
It is more than likely that rhetoric and resolutions condemning Israel will ramp up. Voting at the UN and other corrupt bodies will follow a familiar pattern. With all restraints now gone, the chorus of criticisms from Canberra will increase. Recognition of “Palestine” is bound to follow, and more money will be squandered on UNRWA and similar terror-controlled groups.
The spinoff will be increased anti-Jewish outbreaks in what was once a safe and welcoming country for Jews.
Danger signals are increasingly flashing red.
Ignoring and denying these warning signs are failed strategies.
Trump Criminal Enterprises, Inc.
I am amused when MAGAs brag that Congress is being paid to do nothing while Trump signs Executive Orders without their support, thereby doing everything for free. But what they miss is that the presidential salary of $400,000 is chump change compared to the $16 billion Trump and Co. have already received from Islamic dictators.
The Trump Organization, owned and managed by Donald and Erik Trump, struck a $5.5 billion deal this week to build a resort in Qatar. That is despite the obvious conflict of interest of a president shaping U.S. policy for personal financial gain.
This deal brought the known Islamic funding of the president, his private business, and his family to $16 billion and rapidly growing – and that’s only what has been disclosed. That is ever so slightly more than the $220,000 Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi paid Billy Beer founder, Billy Carter, or the $20 million Bush and Obama received from the Saudis for their contributions to the Kingdom.
“We are incredibly proud to expand the Trump brand into Qatar through this exceptional collaboration with Qatari Diar and Dar Global,” a spokesperson for the family business said.
In addition to Saudi Arabian partner, Dar Global, the planned resort north of the Qatari capital of Doha will be developed by a Qatari company called Qatari Diar, which is owned by the Qatari government, a.k.a., the Emir of Qatar Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. As for Dar Global, it is owned by Dar Al Arkan Real Estate Development, founded and owned by the Saudi royal family, with institutional investors like Vanguard, BlackRock, UBS, Northern Trust, State Street, and Teachers Annuity Association, collectively controlling 10% of the company.
After U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he would be visiting Qatar during his upcoming Middle East Trip, many wondered why he chose to stop at the Islamic country most closely identified with funding Hamas and the anti-Israel agenda and protests on college campuses, all while ignoring American allies such as Israel, even Egypt or Turkey. But now we know. It’s just business.
Ironically, or more accurately, hypocritically, illegally, and immorally, the deal in Qatar was announced while the president was going after Qatari funding of Ivy League universities in the United States, which encouraged antisemitism and anti-Israel protests to take place on their campuses after the Hamas massacre of October 7 and the ensuing war.
It wasn’t the first or the last of its kind. It follows many other deals made before Trump was sworn in, including one for a golf resort in Vietnam late last year with a firm with ties to the Communist Party. Trump’s son-in-law, business partner, and White House political negotiator, Jered Kushner received $2,000,000,000.00 directly from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman through his Sovereign Wealth Fund known as the PIF, despite having no experience in private equity investing. And he received the transfer of this $2 billion dollars within six months of leaving the White House. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, who serves as the chairman of the Public Investment Fund, and is its owner, personally intervened to approve the investment and overruled a panel of advisors who called the sum “unsatisfactory in all aspects.”
Kushner developed a close relationship with MBS while he served as a White House advisor during Trump’s presidency, helping to approve a $110 billion weapons sale to the kingdom after it faced public backlash for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi – which the Department of National Intelligence later reported was directed by the crown prince. But Kushner and Trump took care of that little problem for MBS, denying the evidence and then raising MBS’s worldwide profile and esteem.
Around the same time, the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia also invested $1 billion in Liberty Strategic Capital, the private equity firm set up by former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin after Trump left office. Thereafter, Trump’s Middle East Envoy, Steve Witkoff, received a $623 million investment to bail him out of the failed purchase and management of the Park Lane Hotel in New York City. It was funded by the Qatar Investment Authority, the fiefdom’s sovereign wealth fund, a month before the Qatari’s Hamas terrorist group invaded Israel.
Showing his appreciation, in his first official act, Witkoff demanded to see Netanyahu on the Sabbath and told the Israeli Prime Minister that Trump expected Israel to capitulate to the ceasefire on his and the Qatari terms. The concerns the PM had previously told Trump were “life-and-death issues for Israel’s survival” were “no longer of any concern to the president,” Witkoff noted. Then right on cue, Hamas sponsor and advocate, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani, credited Witkoff in a speech announcing the deal, albeit one usurped by Trump’s earlier proclamation that an “EPIC” ceasefire had been reached.
But there is more because, after winning a second term, Trump received funding in excess of $3.5 billion for a soaring Trump Tower in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, of which Trump is superfluous other than the influence acquired. There is another Trump Tower and resort in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia where the Trump grand edifice will be gilded in glittering gold. The Trump branded Oman project is valued at $4 billion. And they are all being managed and constructed by Dar Global – meaning that Trump isn’t the builder, management company, or financier, just the beneficiary of the funds and prestige.
If that was not already overly gluttonous, this week, the Trump Organization announced the launch of the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Dubai, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. During the planning phase, Donald Trump stated, “When I look at potential sites for real estate investment, I concentrate on location, location, location – and this is the best location not only in Dubai but the whole of the Middle East.”
And of course, there is no correlation, but in addition to landing Air Force One in Saudi Arabia to visit with MBS, Trump is flying off to his new BFF and business partner, in Doha, Qatar for a meeting with the Emir Sheikh Tamim al-Thani. Then on May 15, the Trump dollar train will arrive in Abu Dhabi to meet Emirati dictator Mohammed Bin Zayed (MBZ).
“Following the remarkable success of Trump International Oman, as well as our most recent ventures in Dubai and Jeddah, we are thrilled to announce two additional projects in Riyadh,” Eric Trump, the president’s son who oversees the company’s real estate interests, said. The Dubai Tower of Narcissism, called, “The Trump,” will cost over $1 billion and feature affordable housing with $20 million dollar apartments “inspired by Trump’s Trump Tower gold-plated residence in NYC, with Bitcoin listed as an acceptable form of payment.
It is flagrant, deplorable, criminal, and likely impeachable. And I would not care if not for the fact that Trump plans to give the heart of Israel to Saudi’s Crown Prince as part of his “Deal of the Millennia.”
Every action of President Trump reflects the will of those pulling his strings. This includes: 1) Appointing Witkoff Middle East Envoy, 2) Forcing Israel to capitulate to Qatar’s and Hamas’ terms on the previous cease fire and hostage exchange for Hamas terrorists, 3) The promise of Saudi and Qatari Resorts in Gaza, 4) The construction of Emerald Cities for Fakestinians in the Sinai and Jordan (but not Saudi Arabia), 5) Conducting a charade of ceasefire negotiations to end the Ukrainian proxy war with Russia in Saudi Arabia without even inviting Russian or Ukrainian representatives, 6) Preventing Israel from destroying Iran’s nuclear bomb facilities and then spilling the story to the NYT, 7) Negotiating a meaningless deal with Iran after the uranium has already been enriched and bypassing Israel, 8) Firing National Security Adviser Mike Waltz because he supported Israel’s right to defend itself from Iranian annihilation, 9) Telling Israel to bomb the Houthis and then forming a truce with them that expressly excluded Israel, 10) Renaming the Persian Gulf the Arabian Gulf, 11) Announcing that the first presidential trip will be to visit his investors, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE, and exclude Israel, 12) Announcing that Israel has frustrated Trump by continuing the war he claimed he would end, such that Israel is being excluded from the American – Islamic Deal of the Millennia, and 13) After complaining that the Gazans are suffering, Trump stated that he is going to feed those who are committed to the obliteration of Israel as part of the greatest deal that has ever been done.
Of course, this could all be a colossal coincidence at an unrelated price tag of $16 large, very, very large. Or, America and Israel, you have just been sold out to the highest and most diabolical bidders.
The Gaza Famine Myth
“Gaza Is Starving,” a headline in The New Yorker declared in early January 2024, pushing a harrowing narrative that took hold during the first six months of the war. In March, The Washington Post asked: “Is Gaza Heading Into Famine?” A headline in the Post the next day answered: “Israel’s War on Hamas Brings Famine to Gaza.”
In April 2024, Samantha Power, director of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for the Biden administration, became the first senior U.S. official to declare that famine in Gaza had begun. She cited a report published by an independent, United Nations–affiliated monitoring system, called the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Global Initiative (IPC).
First developed in 2004 with backing from the UN, the IPC has become the global gold standard for food security analysis. Using a data-driven, evidence-based, five-phase scale that ticks up as food supplies run low, the IPC is designed to shield the humanitarian goal of having enough to eat from the political pressures of war. Today, a famine is declared only when the IPC’s data about a region shows that at least 20 percent of households have run out of food, at least 30 percent of children are acutely malnourished, and two people out of every 10,000 are dying each day from starvation.
In 20 years, just four famines have been confirmed by the IPC: Somalia in 2011, South Sudan in 2017 and 2020, and Sudan in 2024. A confirmed famine in Gaza, as Power told Congress was happening, would have been a historic catastrophe and the first to occur outside continental Africa. Power’s statement bolstered claims that Israel was using starvation as a weapon of war, and that the U.S. government was therefore complicit in an alleged war crime.
But there were serious problems with Power’s sensational testimony. Foremost among them: The IPC never declared a famine in Gaza. The report she cited was a projection of possible outcomes, not a conclusive finding. The next month, USAID issued its own analysis alleging that famine was underway, an indictment so serious that it required confirmation from an independent board of global experts known as the Famine Review Committee (FRC).
The FRC, which functions as the IPC’s final authority and quality control check, rebuked the USAID analysis, calling its conclusions insupportable. The failures were stunning.
Private sector food deliveries, such as trucks contracted to commercial warehouses, were left out of the agency’s estimates of the total food supply in north Gaza. As a result, as much as 82 percent of the “daily kilocalorie requirement” in northern Gaza last April wasn’t counted. In the same month, USAID’s famine monitor also left out 940 metric tons (2 million pounds) of flour, sugar, salt, and yeast donated by the UN to bakeries in north Gaza, enough to make about 1,400 metric tons (3 million pounds) of bread.
Famine—like genocide, fascist, and dictator—is a word susceptible to rhetorical abuse that can dilute and even invert its meaning.
When asked about erasing the bakery donations, USAID’s internal famine-monitoring network justified the decision on the grounds that bread from those bakeries had been sold rather than given away for free.
It was never in doubt that the Israel-Hamas war brought immense human suffering to Gaza, including from food shortages. But USAID depicted a world that had little in common with reality.
North Gaza actually had 10 times more food last April than USAID had claimed. These findings should have been big news. As aid shipments increased, a famine had been averted.
But a troubling thing happened to the FRC report: Its conclusions were ignored or went unnoticed by news organizations—and other UN officials made it sound like nothing had changed.
Food insecurity is not the only gauge of the war’s toll that now looks shakier than it did at first. Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry recently deleted at least 3,400 deaths, including more than 1,000 children, from its lists of civilians killed by Israeli air strikes, according to nonprofit news watchdog HonestReporting.
The health ministry’s own statistics chief said some of the reported deaths had actually been from natural causes, or were people found to be in prison or missing. Yet the Hamas-run health ministry remains a go-to news source, despite significant errors found in its casualty reports by independent monitors.
USAID’s Famine Early Warning Systems Network was suspended in January when the Trump administration moved to close USAID and fold it into the State Department.
There were many hints that the headlines about famine in Gaza last year weren’t quite right. On social media in March 2024, one food importer showcased a tractor trailer full of frozen chicken, and a chef in Rafah advertised his plates of chicken and rice. One Gaza City restaurant showed off its racks of stuffed rotisserie chickens about two weeks after Power’s testimony.
Journalists can peruse a social media archive of life in Gaza compiled by Jacqui Peleg, an Israeli-British citizen who speaks Arabic and has been scraping YouTube, Telegram, TikTok, and other sites since 2018.
Posting on X under the name Imshin, Peleg has gained nearly 80,000 followers who are curious about the conflict’s complexities and skeptical of media narratives. After watching Gazans posting their new BMWs and Mercedes-Benzes on Instagram for years, the opening of an upscale car dealership in August 2023 didn’t surprise her. “I just watch Gazans talk to each other,” she told me. “I’m not a journalist. I’m just watching and sharing.”
Last June, the FRC’s panel of independent experts released a follow-up report reaffirming famine was a serious risk in Gaza but saying that “available evidence does not indicate that famine is currently occurring.”
That same week, Reuters ran an elaborately produced feature which, along with ghoulish cartoon simulations of a dying child, strongly implied that a famine was underway in Gaza. An erroneous CNN headline said: “Children Are Dying of Starvation in Their Parents’ Arms as Famine Spreads Through Gaza.”
Clear messages from the UN last summer might have helped. Instead, 11 independent UN officials, led by Michael Fakhri, the special rapporteur on the right to food, said in July that an “intentional and targeted starvation campaign” by Israel “has resulted in famine across all of Gaza.” The denunciation was covered around the world. Fakhri couldn’t be reached by The Free Press.
In August 2024, the FRC confirmed that an actual famine was killing people in Sudan. Famine persisted in five regions of Sudan and was expected to spread to five more by this May, the report found. It barely made the news.
To help make sense of all this, I talked to Nicholas Haan, who designed the food-insecurity classification system that became the IPC. Haan serves as a volunteer on the FRC, was one of the authors of the report that rebuked the USAID analysis, and is the lead technical adviser in a UN effort to replicate the IPC in areas such as health, hygiene, and shelter.
Famine—like genocide, fascist, and dictator—is a word susceptible to rhetorical abuse that can dilute and even invert its meaning. “My goal was to take famine from being a rhetorical word and make it a technical term,” Haan told me. When the IPC uses the word famine now, “we mean famine.”
IPC owes its success during the past two decades to the fact that it works. And because it works, nefarious governments and armed groups have tried to sabotage it. Reuters reported last year that when the ruling junta in Myanmar detained several food researchers, the IPC was forced to remove its reports about the country from the internet. In Yemen, Houthi forces hijacked the IPC process in 2023 to exaggerate food shortages and compel aid shipments that were then stolen by the Iranian-backed militia.
“Political actors, for their own reasons, will manipulate information. It’s a truism,” Haan told me. The best response, he said, is for the IPC to uphold its standards and the clarity of its messaging. “The most important, powerful, and necessary tool to achieve this is truth. When you give up truth, you’ve given up all moral standing to end suffering.” He wouldn’t comment on the famine declaration by Fakhri and the other UN officials.
Since the ceasefire in Gaza collapsed and Israel resumed its offensive, the UN’s undersecretary for humanitarian affairs has apologized to Gazans for being “unable to move the international community to prevent this injustice.” Over the weekend, the UN refused to accept a U.S.-Israeli plan to deliver aid directly to civilians. On Tuesday, a senior Hamas official accused Israel of waging a “hunger war.”
The famine storyline in Gaza is like the proverbial bell that cannot be unrung. In September, ProPublica inaccurately said, “The UN has declared a famine in parts of Gaza.” When I asked if the reporter who wrote the article had read the FRC’s reports from last summer, a ProPublica spokesperson said it stands by the reporting, citing statements by UN officials who aren’t part of the IPC process and an FRC follow-up report in November. But that report, like the others before it, warned of “a strong likelihood” of famine, not that famine had begun.
The New Yorker has published roughly 20 interviews that referred to famine or starvation in Gaza—and three that addressed the IPC system and the FRC’s authoritative role. In all that reporting, The New Yorker never mentioned the FRC’s rejection of USAID’s analysis or its no-famine verdict.
As Haan and his FRC colleagues wrote about USAID’s slippery numbers last year, “High uncertainty is compounded through several layers of assumptions.” So many unthinkable tragedies have occurred since Hamas’s massacre on October 7, 2023, but a famine in Gaza isn’t one of them.
Michael Ames is an investigative journalist and co-author of American Cipher: Bowe Bergdahl and the U.S. Tragedy in Afghanistan. He is writing a book about former Fugees rapper Pras Michel.
