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Huge pro-Israel summit in Texas canceled over threats

Huge pro-Israel summit in Texas canceled over threats

New York Post14 hours ago

A massive pro-Israel conference in Texas has been canceled over 'threats from violent Jihadists' — even after changing venues over security concerns, organizers said.
The Israel Summit, scheduled for next Monday through Wednesday in Dallas, switched locations due to 'indirect and direct threats made by American, pro-Hamas, Jihadist groups, who issued calls to 'target' the Israel Summit,' the organizers said in a statement.
But anti-Israel activists outed the new venue and planned to protest the event, according to Luke Hilton from the Israel Guys, which was co-hosting the event.
'This is America in 2025,' former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, who was one of the slated speakers for the event, wrote on X.
AFP via Getty Images
'Honestly, it feels like it's no longer safe for Jews and Christians who support Israel to publicly,' he said.
He said law enforcement uncovered other threats on the dark web to 'target' the event — which was set to host some 1,000 attendees.
'After the two Israeli embassy staffers were murdered in Washington, DC, two weeks ago and then last week people were firebombed in Colorado, to me and to all the rest of us on our team, the word 'targeting' — that's a call to violence,' Hilton said.
The three-day summit is run by pro-Israel Christian organizations and was expected to feature former US officials, members of the Israeli government and survivors of Hamas' Oct. 7 terror attack.
Ten days before the Israel Summit was set to kick off, Dallas authorities said the threat level had been elevated, said Josiah Hilton, also of Israel Guys, according to Jewish New Syndicate.
That forced the event's organizers to come up with 'a mandatory security plan with a substantial budget estimated in the hundreds of thousands of dollars,' leaving them to find a new location.
They then found a 'new and significantly safer location just north of Dallas' with 'top-tier private security, with additional support from local law enforcement and coordination with the Texas governor's office.'
But ultimately they had to cancel after the Palestinian Youth Movement Dallas outed the new spot as 'an isolated compound owned by staunch Israel ally evangelical televangelist Kenneth Copeland' under the campaign 'Texas un-welcomes the genocide summit.'
'This is America in 2025,' former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, who was one of the slated speakers for the event, wrote on X.
He added: 'Law enforcement was completely cooperative but the threats were of a nature that required cancellation. When @POTUS says we need to take our country back, this is a good example of what he means!'

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I'm a Florida teacher. My passion to teach could be in violation of the law.
I'm a Florida teacher. My passion to teach could be in violation of the law.

USA Today

time31 minutes ago

  • USA Today

I'm a Florida teacher. My passion to teach could be in violation of the law.

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Divisions deepen in wealthy, liberal Boulder after antisemitic attack
Divisions deepen in wealthy, liberal Boulder after antisemitic attack

USA Today

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  • USA Today

Divisions deepen in wealthy, liberal Boulder after antisemitic attack

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She saw a man dressed like a landscaper ‒ odd, she thought, since it was a Sunday ‒ and thought it would be best to just keep walking, as she had done so many times before when counter-protesters screamed and yelled. There had never been physical violence against the group, but there were insults, jeers, accusations that the marchers themselves support genocide. Turnquist and others who have marched said they often felt unsafe. "We ignore the people who are against us," said Turnquist, who is Jewish. "We can't let Boulder tell us what to do. We can't let university students tell us we can't do stuff like this, because that's what they do. Week after week, people are yelling at us all the time, saying we are causing genocide. We're not causing genocide. We were attacked and we are fighting to get our hostages back." 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Soliman's attack didn't happen in a vacuum Rovner, from the University of Denver, said pro-Palestinian college protests helped lay the groundwork for increased violence, in part because many students don't truly appreciate what it means to repeat and thus desensitize the meaning of chants like "globalize the intifada" and declarations that Palestine should run "from the river to the sea." Says the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs: "Calls to 'globalize the intifada' are not calls for civil disobedience, general strikes, or negotiations. They are calls for the murder of Israelis and Jews around the world and must be taken seriously by governments and law enforcement agencies." Like CU-Boulder, the University of Denver was home to an encampment of pro-Palestinian protesters last year, and Rovner said there were repeated confrontations between the protesters and Jewish students walking to class. Rovner has a close friend who often participated in the Boulder walks. "These are precisely the kinds of things that cause terrorist groups to pick up weapons to attack people," Rovner said. "When you heighten the rhetoric of hatred and demonize one country and claim to only be opposing an ideology, you are almost inevitably going to see action based on that rhetoric." Jewish scholars and community leaders say the attack on Boulder was frustratingly predictable given the sharp rise in antisemitism sparked by the war in Gaza, with escalating rhetoric, protests and demonstrations nationwide, particularly on college campus and college towns. In response to those warnings, President Donald Trump specifically targeted pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses, launching investigations into 40 campuses that his administration has accused of not doing enough to protect the Jewish community from participants. Security and extremism experts say a significant factor in driving violence is that many protesters draw no distinction between someone who is Jewish and someone who supports Israel's attacks on Hamas in Gaza, which is home to about 2.1 million Palestinians. In April, a man firebombed Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro's house hours after a Passover celebration, telling police he targeted Shapiro over "what he wants to do to the Palestinian people." And on May 22, a man shot and killed a young couple outside the Lillian & Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. "Free Palestine," the man shouted. "I did it for Gaza," he later told investigators. "These attacks and many more in recent months ‒ on campus, at Jewish institutions and this time at a peaceful gathering here in Boulder ‒ have targeted people whose only 'offense' is that they are Jewish. Or someone thought they were Jewish. 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It is the result of increasingly normalized hate, dehumanizing rhetoric, and silence in the face of rising antisemitism. But we will not be deterred," Rachel Amaru, the founder of Boulder Run For Their Lives said at a June 4 rally for the victims. "We invite everyone to join us, not just with your feet, but with open hearts and minds. Choose humanity over hate, curiosity over judgment, and learning over condemnation." The day after the attack, Turnquist returned to the scene of the attack to lay flowers and display a small Israeli flag on behalf of her injured friends. Still shaken by the attack just 24 hours earlier, she visibly shook as she recounted her efforts to help the victims. "I woke up this morning and didn't want to get out of bed. I didn't want to get out of bed and didn't want to talk to my friends who were calling me. But this is when we have to get up and stand up, and we have to push back," Turnquist said. And she promised to be back walking every Sunday until all the hostages are home.

Israel says its military has retrieved body of Thai hostage from Gaza
Israel says its military has retrieved body of Thai hostage from Gaza

Yahoo

time35 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Israel says its military has retrieved body of Thai hostage from Gaza

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