Taxpayer Money Flows to Vicious Anti-Israel Nonprofit
Plus, Ohio’s largest county funds black-only medical program that experts say is illegal
The Arab American Association of New York, led until 2017 by the notorious anti-Semitic activist Linda Sarsour, has sponsored violent anti-Israel protests in New York City and backed anti-Israel bills from Zohran Mamdani. It has also received millions in taxpayer funding, our Alana Goodman reports.
The group has raked in more than $3.3 million from the city and $854,000 from the state since 2017, the final year of Sarsour’s leadership, public records show. The details are murky: $60,000 of the city funding came from the Department of Small Business Services, but the rest was not attributed to any particular agency, the watchdog group OpenTheBooks found. Sarsour, of course, was too noxious even for the Women’s March, which tossed her overboard in 2019 thanks in part to her fondness for Louis Farrakhan and his Nation of Islam.
The Arab American Association says it works to help Muslim immigrants assimilate, but its bread and butter is anti-Israel activism, like lobbying for a Mamdani-sponsored state assembly bill that would have prevented New York nonprofits from working with Israelis in the West Bank. We asked Mayor-elect Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul, who endorsed Mamdani to lead the Big Apple, whether they planned to give more taxpayer money to the group going forward but didn’t hear back.
Ohio’s largest county is adopting a bold strategy to counter the Supreme Court’s ban on affirmative action: ignoring it altogether. Franklin County’s Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, our Aaron Sibarium and Jessica Schwalb report, has poured more than $600,000 into a race-based medical program since 2023, the year the High Court issued the ban. The initiative offers special classes, labs, and research opportunities for middle and high school students looking to enter the field—but only if they “identify as African American or Black.”
Sounds kind of illegal. “If there is a state or local government that is funding a program that is racially exclusive, that is a straightforward 14th Amendment problem,” the executive director of the American Civil Rights Project, Dan Morenoff, told the Free Beacon.
“The program illustrates the tenacity of racial preferences even one year into the Trump administration, which has launched a scorched-earth campaign against unlawful DEI programs,” Sibarium and Schwalb write. “Some institutions have responded to the crackdown by substituting terms like ‘disadvantaged’ for explicit racial criteria.” Points for boldness, though, the Ohio program says explicitly that it excludes non-minorities.
Hamas says just 171 aid trucks are entering Gaza each day, a figure that left-wing sites like Drop Site News are citing to argue that Israel is violating the U.S.-brokered ceasefire. Figures provided by the international body running aid operations, the U.S.-led Civil-Military Coordination Center, tell a different story.
They show that the United States and Israel are in fact moving an average of 674 trucks through Gaza each day, delivering more than 15,000 loads of commercial goods and medicine since the ceasefire began on Oct. 10. Those goods include eggs, which are now on the shelves in Gaza for the first time since February. The supply of clean drinking water, meanwhile, increased 130 percent last month, and Gazans received 143,000 medical consultations and 900 emergency surgeries in the ceasefire’s first 20 days, according to the aid coordination center.
“The discrepancy between U.S. statistics and those Hamas has produced suggests the terror group is attempting to undermine the ceasefire,” our Adam Kredo writes. Here’s how one U.S. official who works on Middle East issues put it: “Hamas continues to spread lies through false stats to paint a false picture of starvation to undermine the ceasefire and peace efforts. Sadly, many in the media remain useful idiots by publishing these Hamas talking points.”
READ MORE: ‘Fake News’: US Confirms Aid Is Flowing Into Gaza, Contradicting Hamas Propaganda
Elsewhere:
Mugged by reality: Zohran Mamdani pledged to bring fast and free buses to New York City. Just one little wrinkle: Gov. Kathy Hochul controls the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and she doesn’t support the policy: “I cannot set forth a plan right now that takes money out of a system that relies on the fares of the buses and the subways,” Hochul told reporters at a conference in Puerto Rico.
Forget buses, Mamdani can’t even deliver free booze: His election night party at the swanky Brooklyn Paramount featured $15 beers and $22 cocktails. Surely party leaders drank for free.
Mamdani reportedly discouraged one of his far-left allies, New York City councilman Chi Ossé, from launching a primary challenge against Hakeem Jeffries in an attempt to curry favor with the House minority leader. It didn’t work, according to the New York Post, which reported that Ossé “is preparing to challenge” the House minority leader.
Preachers for porn stars: James Talarico, the Texas Democrat running for Senate who doubles as a seminarian, “follows several adult film performers, escorts, and OnlyFans models on Instagram,” per Alex Thompson of Axios.
Jimmy Kimmel’s wife, who is also his head writer and executive producer, said she emailed her family members before last year’s election to urge them to vote for Kamala Harris—and then cut them off when they declined. “I’ve sent many emails to my family, like right before the election, saying, ‘I’m begging you. Here’s the 10 reasons not to vote for this guy. Please don’t.’ And I either got ignored by 90% of them or got truly insane response from a few,” she told the We Can Do Hard Things podcast.
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Oh G-d I won't be able to eat lunch after reading this..
I mean that in a good way. It's just the blindness of Americans just turns my stomach like bad Taco Bell and Tijuana tap water. I'm just wondering when America is going to freaking wake up.