Just a third of Americans say [that] they now support Israel’s actions in Gaza, and almost all of them are Republicans, a new poll finds.

The poll by Gallup is the latest in a series by the polling firm about U.S. attitudes about the war. Early on, in November 2023, it found that half of Americans approved of the actions Israel was taking in Gaza, and fewer disapproved. (Some said [that] they did not know.) By last June, more Americans disapproved than approved, Gallup found, but there was still 42% approval.

Now, after more than a year later, the proportion of Americans who say [that] they approve of Israel’s war in Gaza has fallen to 32%, according to the poll. Among Democrats, who started out at 36% approval, the proportion has fallen to just 8%.

The proportion of Republicans who approve of Israel’s actions in Gaza is at the same level today — 71% — as it was in November 2023, Gallup found. The gap was the largest partisan divide on the issue that the poll has ever found.

The poll was conducted July 7–21, starting when […] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Washington, D.C., and continuing during a period when concerns about a humanitarian crisis in Gaza were simmering but had not reached their current level. The results add to mounting signs […] that Israel is losing the support [that] it has long enjoyed among Democrats.

The poll also found both a plummeting approval rating for Netanyahu and sharp disapproval for Israel’s military actions in Iran among Democrats.

Remember last week, when a bunch of ICE Agents, CBP, and National Guard mounted a heavily armed ground assault on…a public park in Los Angeles? It turns out, despite ICE claiming there was a high threat level at the park, the grotesque show of force mostly encountered bewildered park goers, having already scared away children playing there.

The Trump Administration staged the whole thing as a show of force, bringing along camera crews to record the scene. They were hoping to strike fear, but instead they became a laughingstock. Internal documents turned over to investigative journalist Ken Klippenstein reveal both the overblown hysteria of the threat assessment, as well as the consensus of National Guard participants that the whole thing was a farce.

(Taken from an email sent to me by Never Again Action.)

Sustaining fatal injuries that occurred while fleeing from ICE, Jaime Alanis, a Camarillo, CA farmworker, was killed this past weekend at a raid at a central CA cannabis farm. His is at least the 13th ICE-related death in 2025, and the first known one to happen as a result of the raids that have been going on in southern California since ICE and the National Guard began their military occupation of Los Angeles.

While we probably have to wait for the dust to settle more to get the full story on the Camarillo and Carpenteria raids, we do know that these operations caused fear, chaos and death. We know that Jaime Alanis was attempting to hide from immigration agents before he decided to flee. And we know that he fell 30 feet off of a greenhouse roof not long after calling his wife in Mexico to tell her ICE agents were at the farm.

We mourn the death of Jaime Alanis and the thirteen other people who have died in ICE custody in 2025. We will never stop dreaming of justice and possibility and a better future for every immigrant on Turtle Island.

(Taken from an email sent to me by Never Again Action.)

Democracy Now! interviews Florida Congressmember Maxwell Frost and Miami Herald reporter Claire Healy about the wildly inhumane prison-like conditions at the immigrant internment camp recently opened in the Everglades.

Frost, who was part of a congressional delegation to tour the facility, reports “these people are being caged,” 32 people per cage with three toilets—though often the toilets don’t work. The private contractors staffing the facility, which Frost characterizes as part of a situation where “people are getting rich off the internment of immigrants in the Everglades,” prevented Frost from talking to any of the people being held there, and have been doing their best to prevent detainees from getting in touch with their lawyers or family members.

Frost described his experience: “[I was]… hearing from hundreds of people, ‘Help me! Help me!’ — one guy was yelling, ‘Call my family! Tell my wife I’m OK!’ He started yelling a phone number. I couldn’t necessarily make it out because it was too loud.”

Frost said, “I saw myself in those cages. It was a lot of people my age that look like me. And when I was walking out of the facility — and I don’t like to call it the name that they’ve given it. They’re doing it to make light of it and sell merch. I’m not going to be part of that. As I was walking out, though, it hit me that I’m one of — you know, I’m the first Afro-Cubano in Congress. I’m walking out of there, thinking to myself, ‘I’m going to be one of the only people that looks like me, that is Latino, that will walk into this facility and walk out on my own accord.’”

At the same time, the Miami Herald has published a list of what they believe to be the names of all the people being held at the facility, because ICE and the [bourgeois] state have refused to do so.

(Taken from an email sent to me by Never Again Action.)

In a climate of terror, local organizers are working to defend their communities against escalating ICE raids. As one witness to a recent neighborhood raid explained: “Masked men are taking our neighbors. It shakes me up in a way because my maternal uncle was a Holocaust survivor. The idea of sticking up for the people around you—it’s just really important.”

Baltimore is a “welcoming city,” which means [that] city police do not assist with raids, though a confusing array of federal agencies, including ICE, the FBI, and HSI (Homeland Security Investigations) have been observed apprehending people. The Baltimore City Council recently voted to allot $2 million for immigrant services and legal defense.

Baltimore is one of many cities where people are expressing their opposition to the cruel and unnecessary policies of the current administration. The work ranges from holding rallies, to showing up to witness and oppose deportations, to pressuring electeds to support immigrants, to mutual aid funds set up to help the families of those deported.

In a grim time, this is how we defend our collective humanity.

(Taken from an email sent to me by Never Again Action.)

Here is a comment that I read regarding the explicitly anti-Zionist Jewish subcommunity /r/JewsOfConscience:

Why would you ask those Cosplayers that question and not one of the several general Jewish subs?

At first I glossed over it — it’s typical bullshit, really — but as I was poring over the anti-Zionist Jewish organizations known to me (Jewish Currents, Jewish Voice for Labour, Independent Jewish Voices Canada, South African Jews for a Free Palestine, Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, Never Again Action, Jewish Voice for Peace, Jewschool, American Council for Judaism, & Neturei Karta), I thought back to that comment, and an unusual thought crossed my mind: what if every single one of those organizations had nobody but gentile members?

Let’s pretend for a moment that every single one of these Jewish critics of Zionism — Katie Halper, Tony Greenstein, Peter Beinart, Rabbi Brant, Ilan Pappé, Nora Barrows-Friedman, Matt Lieb, Daniel Maté, Dr. Gabor Maté, Stephen Kapos, Norman Finkelstein, you name them — let’s take this cliché to its logical conclusion and imagine for a minute that all of these hundreds of thousands of people are lying about being Jewish. All of them. Without exception.

What is it that all of these people are getting by repeatedly lying about being Jewish…? Is the answer that they’re lying in hopes that nobody will accuse them of antisemitism…? So, they’re discussing Palestinians’ suffering, sharing news from reporters and Nakba survivors, saying ‘not in our name’, talking about Judaism, talking about Jewish history, talking about Palestinian history, holding or attending Jewish anti-Zionist events, maybe wearing Jewish fashion like kippahs, donating to Palestinian aid groups, rejecting pro-Zionist businesses, putting their positions in Synagogues or universities on the line, publishing their names for Palestinian causes, and sometimes suffering physical violence — these ‘cosplayers’ are going through all of this trouble and they are pretending to be Jewish mostly or entirely because they want to avoid an accusation of antisemitism?

Or maybe that is not one of their biggest preoccupations. Maybe they are all pretending to be Jewish because they feel like that gives their opinions, their writings, their discussions, their signatures, their protests, their donations, and the rest of their activism a degree of ‘authority’ that should impress others. Yet to that I can only state my question explicitly: why are they caring about Palestinians at all…? Because they have nothing better to do…? Would it not be easier to simply ignore the situation in Palestine completely?

And perhaps the most interesting implication in all of this: this international, loosely connected network of secret gentiles are portraying Jews in the best possible light by behaving as caring, humanitarian, antiapartheid peace activists… whereas ‘real’ Jews oppose a ceasefire, support the forced separation between Palestinians and others, and prevent aid from reaching them… I’ll let you draw your own conclusions from that one.

An American charity that has raised hundreds of millions of dollars by promising to meet the emergency needs of Israeli soldiers after the war in Gaza broke out is now facing internal turmoil over allegations of financial mismanagement, cronyism, and a toxic workplace culture.

The crisis at Friends of the Israel Defense Forces centers on the group’s chairman, Morey Levovitz, who is accused of consolidating power, awarding contracts to associates without oversight, and authorizing lavish spending that some insiders say betrays donors’ trust.

The accusations were made public last week in an article published by Ynet, a major Israeli news outlet, which cited a report from an internal investigation commissioned by the group’s board earlier this year.

Following Ynet’s coverage, the FIDF acknowledged the existence of the report, an 18-page document written by a team of two board members and a longtime attorney to the group, and said it is preparing a response.

“When we were made aware of the allegations, FIDF immediately began an internal investigation,” the group said in a statement it released to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “We take these matters extremely seriously. Our board and leadership team are actively evaluating and addressing the concerns raised and taking appropriate steps to respond swiftly and responsibly.”

The group has hired a law firm and a public relations company to deal with the crisis, according to an internal email sent to employees on Monday by the executive committee of the FIDF board.

“Our Executive Committee had already engaged a law firm that specializes in not-for-profits to look into ways to reinforce our policies and procedures internally,” reads the email, which was obtained by JTA.“We also hired a public relations firm to help us navigate our communications with the situation for our donors, employees and the media.”

Founded in 1981 and headquartered in New York City, FIDF is a large Jewish charity that raises funds for the benefit of Israeli soldiers. The group has 25 chapters across the country and hundreds of employees and volunteers.

Its fundraising events have drawn major celebrities, including retired boxer Mike Tyson, Hollywood star Ashton Kutcher and musical artist Pharrell Williams. The donor pool has featured some of the most prominent billionaire philanthropists in the country: the Adelson family, Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus, Oracle founder Larry Ellison and entertainment mogul Haim Saban, who sits on the group’s board.

The group saw an unprecedented windfall after launching an emergency fundraising campaign in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

The total raised for 2023 was about $280 million, according to FIDF’s audited financial statements. That amount is almost triple the $100 million FIDF anticipated raising at the start of that year, according to an internal budget document obtained by JTA.

Already one of the top fundraising organizations among American Jewish institutions, FIDF likely collected more money in support of Israel after Oct. 7 than any other individual charity. The only campaign known to have raised more is that of the entire Jewish federation system, which raised $850 million across dozens of organizations representing 400 Jewish communities across North America.

The extraordinary increase in donations to FIDF reflected a widespread desire among American Jews to show support after the Israeli military lost hundreds of soldiers on Oct. 7, with hundreds more casualties in subsequent fighting during an ongoing war that has demanded an almost unprecedented mobilization of the military’s reserves.

“I’m one of the many rabbis who firmly believe in what FIDF does, and I make sure my congregants know about their work — we try to do whatever we can to support them,” Joshua Kalev, who leads a Southern California congregation and has longstanding ties to FIDF, told JTA last year.

Several of Kalev’s congregants have children serving in the Israeli military as lone soldiers, who receive support from FIDF because they don’t have family in Israel like typical troops.

That program is one of several longstanding FIDF initiatives supporting soldiers off the battlefield. The organization’s emergency campaign has helped pay for medical equipment, toiletries and clothing, the rebuilding of a military base that was damaged by Hamas, and treatment for PTSD from combat. The group’s year-end report for 2024 says it has transferred $101 million to Israel in emergency funding while committing a total of $250 million over a multi-year period.

Alongside the surge in support, the FIDF also attracted criticism over its public messaging and its spending.

Last year, Arnie Draiman, a consultant who vets charities for donors looking to support Israel-related causes, looked into the FIDF on behalf of a client.

He dug up the FIDF’s tax returns and asked the group for additional information, just as he has done for hundreds of charities in the past. Draiman didn’t like the view from under the hood. He questioned why the organization was sitting on large reserves while asking donors to give more.

“Here is an example of a nonprofit holding so much money they don’t know what to do with it,” he wrote in a note summarizing his thoughts. “They just hold on to it for the proverbial rainy day … despite the fact that the hurricane is outside. Will your money be used at all? Who knows. Will it sit somewhere for years? Probably.”

When he asked the FIDF for an explanation, he was told the money had been earmarked by donors and couldn’t be used for emergency needs.

“It boggles my mind that the FIDF has that amount of money and then says, ‘We can’t touch it.’ But did you ask the donor if you couldn’t touch it? There’s a war going on,” Draiman told JTA at the time.

Michael Pycher, a former FIDF supporter, became so disillusioned with the group that he eventually decided to denounce it in a widely shared post on Instagram.

“There were and continue to be tens of thousands of Israeli soldiers begging American families for basic supplies during a critical time of need, while FIDF takes advantage of a generous and panicked Jewish population, raising hundreds of millions of dollars for itself,” he posted last April. “Disgraceful and pathetic.”

Perhaps the most persistent and vocal critic of FIDF has been Daniel Mael, a New York–based entrepreneur who runs Unit 11741, an informal initiative to provide Israeli soldiers with donated helmets and other combat gear.

Mael is part of a global grassroots effort that has donated hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of protective equipment and battlefield supplies to individual soldiers, aiming to address persistent shortages. The military officially denies that shortages exist and prohibits soldiers from receiving such donations, but in practice, commanders have often either participated in unauthorized fundraising themselves or turned a blind eye to it.

Because FIDF is an official partner of the Israeli military, it cannot — and does not — donate combat gear, focusing instead on off-battlefield support that the military says is needed. The group was not always diligent about following military directives. In 2010, the army instructed FIDF to stop bringing donors into contact with soldiers without permission. A 2016 report from Israel’s state comptroller found that FIDF ignored the order and continued the practice in violation of military directives.

Mael and other critics charge that FIDF is not transparent when it says it is providing for the soldiers’ most urgent needs while soldiers continue soliciting money online for helmets because their army-issued ones are decades old and damaged. Critics also say that as the FIDF toes the military line that there are no shortages, it also disparages alternative grassroots donation drives, making donors wary of contributing.

“I’m not even asking FIDF to take responsibility for fixing the equipment crisis, though it’s telling that they avoid it,” Mael told JTA, summarizing his views. “I’m simply asking them to stop gaslighting soldiers and the public. Soldiers, widows, and orphans deserve an organization that supports them honestly, without spin, deception, or self-serving narratives.”

Mael has aired his complaints against FIDF through YouTube videos and a Substack blog. He sprang into action after Ynet revealed last week that the organization had completed an internal investigation uncovering allegations of mismanagement. While the report did not address concerns about FIDF’s ballooning cash reserves or its policy against donating protective gear, Mael cited it as further evidence of the “moral failure” he has long denounced.

“How FIDF raised a fortune, hoarded it, and handed out flip-flops during Israel’s darkest hour,” reads the subhead to a recent blog post by Mael.

Writing in a punchy, muckraking style, he built a following within the FIDF, leading insiders to provide him with a steady stream of leaked correspondence involving board members and donors.

In internal emails, FIDF has cited the growing drumbeat of concern in commissioning an investigation earlier this year, and acknowledged that its staff is reading the coverage of the crisis by news outlets and blogs.

The report that came out of the investigation paints a picture of an organization gripped by dysfunction and centralized control, according to Ynet. At the center of the turmoil is Levovitz, the board chairman, who is accused of sidelining senior executives, bypassing internal controls, and treating the charity as his personal domain.

According to Ynet’s coverage, Levovitz assumed effective day-to-day control of the charity, marginalizing FIDF’s CEO Steve Weil and frequently declaring to staff, “I run the show.” The report reportedly details how contracts were allegedly steered toward individuals and companies with personal or professional ties to Levovitz, including a travel contract awarded without competitive bidding to Ortra, an Israeli company that has organized FIDF donor delegations.

The report also described a pattern of lavish spending by Levovitz himself, including nearly $53,000 in personal reimbursements for high-end travel and lodging — expenses that board members later said may have violated the group’s own financial policies, Ynet reported.

Tensions have spilled into FIDF’s regional chapters. In San Francisco, one of the most generous donor communities, the local chapter froze its contributions after its director was dismissed without explanation. The report described the move as a strategic failure that risked alienating donors and undermining regional morale, according to Ynet’s coverage.

Also alarming to longtime supporters was the departure of the group’s legal counsel, Stephen Rubin, who resigned after being excluded from internal deliberations, Ynet reported. Rubin had been with the organization for over four decades. His absence, the report warned, left the board vulnerable to legal lapses and weakened institutional oversight.

Employees interviewed during the investigation described a workplace marked by fear, dysfunction and unclear leadership, according to Ynet. Some told the committee they were hesitant to speak up internally for fear of retaliation. Staff turnover had accelerated, and morale was reportedly low across multiple departments.

At least some donors have called for Levovitz’s resignation or ouster, but the board has yet to convene since the leak of the report.

For Mael, even though the report doesn’t address his main criticism and changes have yet to be made, the current scrutiny of the organization is a welcome development.

“FIDF has admitted to the world that its house is not entirely in order,” he recently wrote. “Now comes the harder task: cleaning it up.”

With any luck, somebody from Hamas will offer the FIDF a medal for its services. I know that I would.

Explaining why celebrating capitalism, colonialism and imperialism on the 4th of July is not in the interest of working and oppressed people, a coalition of a dozen local organizations held a noontime rally at City Hall on July 4. Speakers spoke with fire in their hearts. They called for Mumia Abu-Jamal’s release after 43 years of unjust incarceration; for a free Palestine and an end to genocide; for the U.S. out of the Philippines and Korea; for unity with migrant workers — no deportations; and for solidarity with the first strike by city workers in 40 years.

Organizing groups and endorsers included Mobilization4Mumia, Anakbayan Philly, Philly Educators for Palestine, Community Action Relief Project, the SOL Collective, Workers World Party, Philly Socialists, Philadelphia Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression and International Jewish Labor Bund.

Led by a colorful banner that said “Let the Dragons Fly — Reject Amerikan Empire — All Power to the Anti-Colonial Struggle!,” the demonstrators marched in the streets to where a rally of striking American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council 33 workers was about to start.

[…]

Over 100 people rallied at Philadelphia’s Malcolm X Park to “Free Mumia” on July 5, forty-three years after he was sentenced to death on July 3, 1982.

The event was endorsed by Philly Peace Park, Workers World Party, Philly Democratic Socialists of America, Black Lives Matter Philly, BLM Boston, Montco4Palestine, Mobilization4Mumia, Philly Palestine Coalition, Freedom Socialist Party, Philadelphia Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, Ubuntu Freedom and Black Alliance for Peace. Speakers included YahNé Ndgo, Gabe Bryant, Pam Africa, Musa Bey, Ramona Africa and Varvara Lazaridis.

Behind a yellow banner that read “Mumia’s struggle is about Justice for all of us” in black and red lettering, participants marched down 52nd Street to the Lucien E. Blackwell West Philadelphia Regional Library, where AFSCME DC 33 workers were holding down strike picketing. Strikers and Mumia supporters together chanted and sang “Solidarity Forever” for ten minutes in support of the workers struggle for justice before the march for justice for all political prisoners continued back to Malcolm X Park.

Incarcerated for a crime he didn’t commit, Mumia, now 71 years old, is still behind bars at SCI Mahanoy in Pennsylvania. One of the most well-known prisoners in the world, the struggle to release Mumia continues to this day.

This week, Catholic bishops made the unusual move of signing onto an interfaith letter criticizing the budget bill that narrowly passed the Senate on Tuesday. Their affirmation of the letter took place in addition to a more cautious letter from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that cited Pope Leo’s admonition to “promote and protect the common good” and faulted the budget for punishing the most vulnerable in society.

The interfaith letter goes further, warning that the proposed budget provides vast resources to target immigrant communities and separate families. Further, with the current administration’s explicit disregard for “sensitive locations” like churches, schools, and hospitals, it is very likely that the régime of dragnet raids and detentions will target faith communities that provide sanctuary and resources to immigrants.

Reverend William Barber teaches us that a budget is always a moral document. The current régime constantly broadcasts its cruelty and immorality. We salute the vital work of faith-based communities in supporting our immigrant neighbors.

(Taken from an email sent to me by Never Again Action.)

[Content warning: article and embedded videos include strong descriptions of violence, sexual assault, self-injury]

Thoroughly researched and disturbing, this Wired article reviews hundreds of 911 calls placed from immigration detention centers run by GEO Group and CoreCivic, our nation’s two largest private prison companies and providers of immigration detention. As the article makes clear, “immigration detention” is just prison by another name, but for people whose only “crime” was coming to the U.S. in search of stability and safety.

The two private prison companies talk a good game about fulfilling their legal obligations to provide adequate shelter and medical care, but the 911 calls reviewed by Wired tell a different story. Medical emergencies of various kinds, some allegedly caused by facility staff, are either actively downplayed or even dismissed, in some cases while the emergency is heard to play out in the background. Perhaps most disturbing is the high likelihood that 911 calls represent a small percentage of the actual emergencies and abuse that happen at these facilities.

These disturbing phone calls are supplemented by multiply-corroborated reports from detainees, their families, their legal representatives, and advocates who describe overcrowded facilities, lack of basic medical care, terrible (sometimes inedible) food, and more. Most of these reports come from several months ago, before the latest round of pressure from the DHS to push the number of detainees even higher.

Remember: the cruelty is the point.

(Taken from an email sent to me by Never Again Action. Emphasis original.)

The supreme court majority continues to defy both precedent and rule of law in order to reflect the whims of the current régime. This time around, they’ve twisted law and logic to allow breathing room for Trump’s executive order restricting birthright citizenship. While their latest ruling does not enshrine the EO into law, it makes the order harder to challenge comprehensively. Knowing this was likely to happen, the ACLU immediately filed a nationwide, class-action lawsuit challenging the EO, because class-action suits remain one of the last avenues to comprehensively challenge a heinous order like this.

Karla McKanders, director of the ACLU Legal Defense Fund’s Thurgood Marshall Institute, said “The Trump administration’s executive order is an unlawful attempt to entrench racial hierarchies and establish a second class of citizens in the United States. We will continue working to ensure that birthright citizenship — a right granted by the U.S. Constitution — is protected, and that families are not torn apart because of this executive order.”

This news comes on the heels of the racist backlash around Zohran Mamdani winning the democratic primary of the NYC mayoral election. While right wing influencers and GOP politicians traded racist and islamophobic epithets online about Mamdani’s upbringing, the President jumped into the fray earlier this week by threatening to revoke Mamdani’s citizenship because of his support for Palestinian rights and his promise that if he was elected mayor, he would do everything in his power to stop ICE from terrorizing the people of New York City.

(Taken from an email sent to me by Never Again Action.)

The fasting veterans had gathered every day for 40 days from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. across from the United Nations headquarters in New York City and in front of the U.S. Mission to the U.N. They were able to reach out to thousands of U.N. employees and visitors during that time with two demands: Deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza under U.N. authority and embargo U.S. arms to Israel.

Speakers at the press conference included veterans of the U.S. Army and Marine Corps who had fought in Vietnam or Iraq as well as a recent graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy.