U.S. government report concludes USAID agency did not abide by terrorism vetting procedures in grants to Palestinians.
In a new report issued Monday, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) concluded that the government’s multi-billion dollar international aid agency did not abide by anti-terrorism requirements in the provision of assistance to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
In its report, the GAO stated that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) had “ensured that the awards it funded directly went to individuals and organizations that were checked for links to terrorism” over a four year period covering 2015-19.
Apr 4, 2021
eBay founder Pierre Omidyar’s charitable foundation helps fund radical professors, some of whom push anti-Semitic, anti-Israel, and anti-American agendas.
By Yakir Benzion, United With Israel
A new report by a watchdog group exposed the family foundation of billionaire eBay founder Pierre Omidyar for funding professors who push anti-Semitic, anti-American and anti-Israel agendas, the Middle East Forum (MEF) reported last week.
The Forum’s Campus Watch investigated Omidyar’s private foundation, the Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute, which awards fellowships and scholarships to many American and foreign universities.
The report, “Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute: The Omidyar Empire’s Misadventures in Academe,” discovered that some of the money is funding professors who are not just highly politicized, but who push anti-American and anti-Israel agendas at universities across the globe.
Apr 1, 2021
According to a recent study, nearly two-thirds of U.S. Jews have experienced or witnessed an anti-Semitic incident in the past five years.
While it’s no secret that anti-Semitism has been on the rise in recent years, a recent poll’s findings are particularly disturbing.
An Anti-Defamation League (ADL) study found that that 63% of respondents had either experienced or heard anti-Semitic comments and 59% said they felt less safe in the U.S. now than a decade ago.
Hen Mazzig, Senior Fellow at the Tel Aviv Institute, breaks down the numbers and explains what contributed to these concerning statistics.
By Yakir Benzion, United With Israel
The U.S. State Department this week released its annual reports on human rights around the world, with Israel one of the nearly 200 countries and territories reviewed.
Most of us simply ignore the reports as just another stack of boring government documents, but they are the most popular item on the State Department’s website, accessed by over one million people each year.
The truth of the matter is that the reports influence U.S. foreign policy, and that is a very important issue for Israel.
“The U.S. Congress passed a law over 40 years ago requiring the secretary of state to prepare these reports and transmit them to the Congress each year,” the State Department notes. “Lawmakers take the information into account in drafting legislation, approving foreign aid, and making other policy decisions.”
By TPS
A new Coronavirus (COVID-19) variant has been discovered in Israel, the Health Ministry announced Tuesday.
The ministry’s Central Laboratory for Viruses published a study mapping the COVID-19 strains that exist in Israel since the outbreak of the pandemic in March 2020 until January.
An Israeli variant was listed among the various mutations. The strain is uncommon and has no clinical or epidemiological significance, is not related to or causes widespread infection, severe morbidity, or has an effect on vaccine efficacy.
The Israeli variant appeared in samples from July but is disappearing and the evidence for it is dwindling.