Popular Front for the Liberation From Hamas: Israel has long called for a revolt against Hamas in Gaza, and its renewed military campaign in the strip appears to have triggered the largest one since Oct. 7.
The eruption of protests against Hamas and the weakening of the terror group’s control over the strip is a win for the Jewish state, the Free Beacon‘s Andrew Tobin writes. Still, it’s “too soon to say if the protests would contribute to Israel’s war aims: the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza and Hamas’s removal from power.”
Israeli national security analysts who spoke to Tobin offered differing assessments on what happens next. Former senior Israeli government officials Kobi Michael and Yossi Kuperwasser argued that the protests could pressure Hamas to avoid further unrest by agreeing to a temporary hostage-ceasefire deal. Former senior Israeli military intelligence officer Michael Milshtein wasn’t so sure—for him, “Hamas is not deterred by the people” and “will not hesitate to drown Gaza with blood” should its leaders sense “an existential threat to the movement.”
READ MORE: What the Anti-Hamas Protests in Gaza Mean for Israel
Democracy dies in darkness: The Soros-backed Tides Center is a major cog in the left’s dark money machine. It’s also the recipient of nearly $18 million in taxpayer funds from Gavin Newsom’s California, according to state spending records reviewed by our Susannah Luthi.
Those records show that various Golden State agencies, ranging from health departments to workplace regulators, have sent payments to the Tides Center since Newsom became governor in 2019. But they don’t show where the cash has gone from there. The Tides Center acts as a political middle man, taking in hundreds of millions of dollars every year and doling it out to other organizations, mostly left-wing activist groups. As a result, when taxpayer funds flow to the nonprofit, their final destination is obscured.
“It’s possible the Tides Center sent the funding to well-qualified, non-partisan organizations, or perhaps the left-wing group kept the funding in-house,” writes Luthi. “But without additional transparency, it’s impossible to say without answers from the Tides Center or the government, which has largely been slow to respond, if at all. One agency called the Free Beacon after ignoring inquiries sent over the course of a week—then abruptly hung up as the reporter explained the story. Several agencies did provide information upon request, revealing that state funding went to one group dedicated to ‘health equity’ and another focused on ‘environmental justice.'”
Remember this story as Gavin Newsom pivots to the center ahead of 2028.
READ MORE: Newsom’s California Has Sent Nearly $18 Million in Taxpayer Funds to Soros-Backed Tides Center
Following in Harvard’s footsteps: When Harvard faced funding threats from the Trump administration, it turned to Ballard Partners, the GOP lobbying firm whose alumnae include White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and AG Pam Bondi. Ditto PBS.
Ballard is lobbying for PBS on “advocacy related to funding/DOGE,” it revealed in a disclosure filed Tuesday. The move comes as both Trump and Republicans on the Hill threaten to defund the outlet, which relies on the American taxpayer more than its fellow public broadcaster NPR—federal funds made up 15 percent of PBS’s $373 million budget last year.
Ballard’s clients have had mixed success in their dealings with the White House so far. One of its clients in academia, the University of Michigan, has thus far avoided sanctions.
But Ballard’s lobbying did not prevent the administration from launching a review of $9 billion in Harvard grants, and Trump seems determined to take down PBS.
“REPUBLICANS MUST DEFUND AND TOTALLY ASSOCIATE THEMSELVES FROM NPR & PBS, THE RADICAL LEFT ‘MONSTERS’ THAT SO BADLY HURT OUR COUNTRY!” he posted Tuesday afternoon.
READ MORE: PBS Hires Trump-Linked Lobbying Firm Amid GOP Threats To Scrap Budget
Away from the Beacon:
- After her ouster from MSNBC, Joy Reid began asking herself, “What do I want to do? What am I good at? What can I do to contribute to the world?” For now, the New York Times writes, “she has landed on writing about democracy to an audience of about 118,000” on Substack.
- Sign of the times: After Pam Bondi announced she wants to seek the death penalty for UnitedHealthcare CEO killer Luigi Mangione, Politico‘s Playbook newsletter framed the move as “HOW TRUMP LOSES GEN Z.”
- The Yale Law School scholar who moonlights as a member of sanctioned terror financier Samidoun, Helyeh Doutaghi, said Yale fired her “based on unproven allegations”—then defended Samidoun and her affiliation with it. “I categorically reject the criminalization of political organizing in the face of repression—including that directed at Samidoun,” she wrote.
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