Articles written by Ron Kampeas
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Biden says Gershkovich's detention will 'cost' Russia
WASHINGTON (JTA) - President Joe Biden said the United States would continue to "impose costs" on Russia for its imprisonment of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested one...
Joseph Lieberman, first Jew on a major presidential ticket, dies at 82
(JTA) – Joseph Lieberman, a longtime senator from Connecticut who as Al Gore's running mate in 2000 became the first Jewish member of a major presidential ticket, died Wednesday. He was 82. A s...
AIPAC director to retire
WASHINGTON (JTA) - Howard Kohr, the CEO who has led the powerhouse American Israel Public Affairs Committee since 1996, is set to retire by the end of this year. Under Kohr's leadership, AIPAC has...
Sen. Jeff Merkley invokes Easter to condemn 'Netanyahu's indiscriminate bombing of Gaza,' drawing condemnation
WASHINGTON (JTA) — A range of Jewish and pro-Israel figures, including Israel’s antisemitism envoy, accused Sen. Jeff Merkley of advancing a “blood libel” for linking Easter to what he called Israel’s “indiscriminate bombing” of Gaza. Merkley, an O...
Tens of thousands participate in global Shema prayer on behalf of Israeli hostages
(JTA) - Tens of thousands of Jews around the world joined in a collective recitation of the Shema prayer on Thursday that was broadcast from Jerusalem's Western Wall to support the more than 130...
Most Jewish Americans support Israel's war against Hamas, and how it's fought
WASHINGTON (JTA) — An overwhelming majority of U.S. Jews say Israel’s reasons for launching a war against Hamas are justified, and a substantial majority approve of how Israel is conducting the war. The Pew Research Center study published Thu...
Kamala Harris calls for 6-week 'immediate ceasefire' in Gaza and places onus on Israel to deliver aid
(JTA) — Vice President Kamala Harris called for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza and placed most of the onus on Israel for a shortfall in humanitarian aid entering the enclave. The call for a cessation of fighting was not actually a change in the U...
Joe Biden is pressing Congress to send $14B to Israel - what is the emergency aid for?
WASHINGTON, D.C. (JTA) — For months, President Joe Biden has asked for — and Congress has debated — sending wartime foreign aid to Israel as it battles Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The bill currently on the table, passed in a bipartisan vote by the S...
'Uncommitted' campaign protesting Biden's Israel support nets 100,000+ votes in Michigan primary
(JTA) — A campaign to protest President Joe Biden’s support of Israel by voting “Uncommitted” in the Michigan Democratic presidential primary declared victory on Tuesday night, as returns showed the movement garnering more than 10 percent of the vot...
'An incredibly volatile time': From Iran to Yemen
WASHINGTON (JTA) — A conflict that started on a tiny perimeter of land on Oct. 7 is, less than four months later, reverberating throughout the region, from Lebanon in the north to Morocco in the w...
More countries cut funding to UNRWA over allegations of involvement with Oct. 7 attack
WASHINGTON (JTA) — A growing number of countries has suspended funding to the main United Nations agency aiding Palestinians in the wake of allegations that a number of its staffers were involved in Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre in Israel. The U.N. Rel...
15 Jewish House Democrats blast Netanyahu for rejecting two-state solution
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Fifteen Jewish Democrats, including some pro-Israel stalwarts, slammed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after he rejected the idea of creating an independent Palestinian state after the Israel-Hamas war. “We strongly disag...
DeSantis: Israel may need to remove Palestinians from Gaza if it faces a 'second Holocaust'
(JTA) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said that if Israel were faced with a “second Holocaust,” he could understand why it would remove Palestinian civilians from the Gaza Strip. The statement came hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netan...
Gabriel Attal says his Jewish ancestry has shaped him
(JTA) — France’s newest prime minister is getting attention for the two firsts he brings to the job: Gabriel Attal, at 34, is the country’s youngest ever prime minister, and its first to be openly gay. He says another facet of his identity also...
Americans for Peace Now becomes first US Zionist group to call for an end to the Gaza war
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Americans for Peace Now, a left-wing pro-Israel organization, is calling for an end to the Israel-Hamas war, the first American Zionist group to do so after more than three months of fighting. “Continuing this devastating war pos...
Biden administration, Reform Jewish leader slam Smotrich and Ben Gvir for calling for Palestinians' removal from Gaza
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Biden administration condemned calls by two Israeli government ministers for Palestinians to be removed from the Gaza Strip. Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the president of the Union for Reform Judaism, also condemned the call. The c...
What you need to know about Dean Phillips, the Jewish congressman running for president
(JTA) — Dean Phillips is running for president. And he wants to talk. Talking runs in the Jewish Minnesota congressman’s family — his grandmother is Dear Abby. And he’s friends with Ilhan Omar, d...
House calls on MIT, Harvard presidents to resign over campus antisemitism, with 125 Democrats voting against
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The U.S. House of Representatives called on the presidents of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to resign after they declined to say clearly in a congressional hearing that their schools would take a...
A poll shows Palestinians overwhelmingly support Oct. 7. What does that mean?
(JTA) — When a recent survey showed that nearly three-quarters of Palestinians supported Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, Israeli officials and commentators cited it to justify their country’s war in Gaza, which aims to depose the terror group. “Pale...
House passes resolution equating antisemitism with anti-Zionism, despite many abstentions
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The U.S. House of Representatives approved a nonbinding resolution saying that anti-Zionism is antisemitism, with support from all but one Republican and a substantial minority of Democrats. The resolution was introduced by the t...
Families of American hostages meet with Biden in person for the first time
WASHINGTON (JTA) - Wearing black T-shirts bearing the photos of their captive loved ones, families of American hostages held by Hamas met face-to-face with President Joe Biden for the first time,...
Stark images of murder and torture in Israel leave US senators in tears and silence
WASHINGTON (JTA) — If there’s a trait that unites the 100 members of the U.S. Senate, it is volubility: These folks, who invented the filibuster, know how to talk. It was remarkable to see them then exiting a screening room on Tuesday in the bow...
GOP candidates spar in debate over whether to send US troops to Gaza
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Candidates sparred over whether to send U.S. troops to Gaza and Vivek Ramaswamy endorsed a conspiracy theory that has inspired antisemitic violence at the Republican primary debate last night. The debate was held at the U...
10 Israelis, including teen with her dog, and 2 Thais freed from Gaza as ceasefire goes into overtime
(JTA) — Hamas released another 10 Israeli hostages, nine women and a 17-year-old girl, on the first day of a two-day extension of a ceasefire, one the Biden Administration hopes to further extend as it seeks to expand humanitarian relief for P...
A weekend of hostage releases from Gaza
This is a developing story. Friday - First 13 Israeli and 10 foreign hostages released (JTA) - Hamas released 13 Israeli hostages into Egypt on Friday, Nov. 24, a sign that the four-day ceasefire...
