Israel
Thom Yorke is speaking out for the first time about a confrontation with an audience member at one of his gigs in Australia last year that the Radiohead singer said left him emotionally distraught. In a lengthy Instagram post on Friday morning (May 30), Yorke described his feelings about “some guy shouting at me from the dark last year” as he was preparing to sing the final song at his solo show in Melbourne.
After a man in the audience shouted comments about “Israeli genocide in Gaza” during the gig at the Sidney Meyer Music Bowl in October, Yorke stopped the show and challenged the person to come on stage and say it to his face before walking off in seeming disgust. In his Instagram post, Yorke said that moment didn’t really seem like the best one to “discuss the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.”
Afterwards, however, Yorke wrote that he “remained in shock that my supposed silence was somehow taken as complicity,” adding that he “struggled to find an adequate way to respond to this and to carry on with the rest of the shows on the tour. That silence, my attempt to show respect for all those who are suffering and those who have died, and to not trivialize it in a few words, has allowed other opportunistic groups to use intimidation and defamation to fill in the blanks, and I regret giving them this chance.”
While Yorke didn’t specify which comments he was referring to, he said not formally responding to the vitriol has “had a heavy toll on my mental health.”
The remainder of the eight-page post is a pointed broadside against Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom Yorke called out the last time Radiohead played in Israel, in July 2017. At that time, he wrote, “We’ve played in Israel for over 20 years through a succession of governments, some more liberal than others. As we have in America. We don’t endorse [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu any more than Trump, but we still play in America.”
The singer wrote on Instagram that he hoped that anyone who has ever listened to his or his band’s music, read the lyrics or seen their artwork would clearly understand that he could not “possibly support any form of extremism or dehumanization of others. All I see in a lifetime’s worth of work with my fellow musicians and artists is a pushing against such things, trying to create work that goes beyond what it means to be controlled, coerced, threatened, to suffer, to be intimidated .. and instead to encourage critical thinking beyond borders.”
If his message was not clear, Yorke made his feelings about Israel’s longest-serving PM even more so in the statement. “I think Netanyahu and his crew of extremists are totally out of control and need to be stopped,” he wrote. “And that the international community should put all the pressure it can on them to cease. Their excuse of self-defence has long since worn thin and has been replaced by a transparent desire to take control of Gaza and the West Band permanently.”
Netanyahu has overseen a nearly two-year war on Hamas in the wake of the extremist group’s attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, during which raiders killed nearly 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals and took 250 hostages. In the ensuing battles, Israeli forces have mercilessly pounded Gaza with bombs that have destroyed much of the region’s infrastructure, killing more than 53,000, according to Palestinian health officials. The daily attacks have also led to a humanitarian crisis and what experts warn is a potentially devastating famine due to the Netanyahu administration’s refusal to let sufficient food aid into the decimated region.
Yorke lambasted what he called Netanyahu’s “ultra-nationalist” administration, claiming that Harvard-educated Netanyahu and his hard-right peers have hidden behind a “terrified & grieving people and used them to deflect any criticism, using that fear and grief to further their ultra-nationalist agenda with terrible consequences, as we see now with the horrific blockage of aid to Gaza.”
Israel has begun allowing more food aid into Gaza in recent days, though the new distribution mechanism backed by the U.S. and Netanyahu has resulted in chaotic scenes in which tens of thousands of Palestinians reportedly on the verge of famine swarmed the sites to grab bags of food and flour. As talks for another temporary cease fire are under way, Israel has continued its daily bombing of Gaza, even as it has ordered serially displaced Palestinians to move to an area near the coast as the military attempts to empty out large areas where it says Hamas fighters remain.
“While our lives tick along as normal these endless thousands of innocent human souls are still being expelled from the earth… for what?” Yorke asked, pivoting to the issue of why the “unquestioning Free Palestine refrain” has not resulted in the return of what are believe to be the 58 remaining hostages. He also asked why Hamas undertook the “horrific” acts of Oct. 7, speculating that the militant group is choosing to “hide behind the suffering of its people, in an equally cynical fashion for their own purposes.”
Yorke ended by lashing out at “social media witch hunts” aimed at pressuring artists to make statements, efforts he said do little except exacerbate tensions, cause fear and over-simplify the situation. “This kind of deliberate polarization does not serve our fellow human beings and perpetuates a constant ‘us and them’ mentality,” Yorke wrote. “It destroys hope and maintains a sense of isolation, the very things that extremists use to maintain their position.”
The singer said he understands the push to “do something” when confronted with such suffering and loss, but cautioned against thinking that reposting “one or two line messages,” especially ones condemning others, is the answer. “It is shouting from the darkness,” he said. “It is not looking people in the eye when you speak. It is making dangerous assumptions. It is not debate and it is not critical thinking.”
Admittedly short on answers and aware that his note is unlikely to satisfy those looking to “target myself or those i work with,” Yorke ended by offering hope that his letter will allow him to join the many millions of others “praying for this suffering, isolation and death to stop.”
See Yorke’s full statement below.
The dull, distant thud of munitions falling in Gaza is the only sound you hear in the parking lot in Re’im in southern Israel. It’s a world away from the thumping, joyous EDM beats that filled this same site more than two years ago as 3,000 ravers gathered under the stars for an all-night Nova Music Festival.The site is now a memorial to the 364 people killed by Hamas militants on Oct 7, 2023, eerily silent on a recent mid-May morning as friends, family and visitors quietly wandered among the hundreds of tributes to the slain attendees of the music festival. In addition to the scores killed and assaulted that day, 44 others were taken hostage in what became the deadliest attack in modern Israeli history.
The joyous rave kicked off the night before the shocking early morning raid by the al-Qassam Brigades that resulted in the killing of nearly 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals and kidnapping of more than 250. What was meant to be a celebration of the Jewish holiday of Shemini Atzeret — a time to stop and reflect, pray for rain and gather with friends and family — is now a heart-wrenching shrine to vibrant lives cut short.
“Daniel Goffman, 24 years old when he passed away. A child with a huge heart, endless generosity, and optimism, always willing to help and sacrifice himself for a friend,” reads one tribute featuring the image of a smiling young man giving a thumbs up. “He went to the Nova music festival with his partner, Daniela Petrenko, may she rest in peace, to celebrate the start of a new life, but they never returned.”
Among those attending the festival was Israel’s 2025 Eurovision Song Contest runner-up Yuval Raphael, who still bears shrapnel in her body from the attack. She has recalled hiding in a bomb shelter packed with 50 other people as Hamas gunmen repeatedly shot into the shelter and lobbed grenades. She survived after making a panicked call to her father, who counseled her to play dead and be quiet, a tactic that allowed her to be among the 11 people in the shelter who survived the onslaught.
In the middle of the sea of stories of lives cut short featuring tokens of memorial ranging from a charred DJ deck to a ghostly white statue mirrored on the ground by a hollow dirt reflection, is a massive star made up vibrant reproductions of the nation’s official flower, the red anemone (Kalanit). The flowers bloom at the festival site every February and the deeply symbolic gesture is a nod to the spilled blood of the victims, as well as a sign of resilience and hope. The official memorial funded by the non-profit Jewish National Fund has quickly become the JNF’s most-visited site, attracting nearly 7,000 visitors a day.
Visiting family for a wedding in Tel Aviv, I admittedly was not able to get a perspective on the dire situation in the Gaza Strip as Israel’s government continues to hammer the area with daily assaults in a conflict that has killed more than 53,000 people in the territory to date, according to Palestinian health authorities.
But what I did observe that day was a sea of moving tributes to dance music fans who gathered in the desert for an all-night celebration of renewal that turned into an early morning nightmare of automatic weapons fire and brutal assaults by Hamas militants who crashed through the border during the shocking surprise attack.
Just down the road was a kind of car graveyard, framed by five-story piles of charred, rusted vehicles attendees attempted to flee in that were destroyed in the attack. Scattered among the trashed cars with memorials to the victims were shot-up trucks driven by the marauders, some with large gun mounts in the bed.
Like the Nova memorial, the eerie site full of crushed and burnt cars and piles of mangled motorcycles features placards with QR codes that lead to the fuller stories of the victims. At the center is a destroyed car spilling over with a long trail of the red anemone sculptures. Atop the vehicle is a metal sculpture with the Hebrew word “V Ahavat,” which translates into “and love,” a common expression of affection.
The entire nation is laser-focused on returning the remaining hostages in Gaza — believed to number 58 men and women, half of whom are believed to be alive — with the two Nova memorials similarly plastered with stickers and banners honoring the captured and demanding their return. From the Ben Gurion airport arrival area to restaurant walls and roadside memorials, the stickers and posters bearing the faces of the captives are inescapable in the country now, along with massive banners reading “Bring Them Home.”
Just like the Nova site, the stickers and banners are daily testimonies to a grievous wound that feels impossible to ever heal from. But they are also a reminder of the vibrant stories of the lives that were lost and, hopefully, of those hostages who may yet return.
Check out a gallery of photos from the Nova site below.
Image Credit: Gil Kaufman
More than 5,000 people visit the Nova Memorial site every day, where they can wander among personalized tributes to the 364 killed by Hamas raiders on Oct. 7.
Image Credit: Gil Kaufman
Each tribute features lovingly written profiles of the Nova attendees’ lives, along with tokens memorializing them and clay recreations of the red anemone flowers that bloom in the area each February.
Image Credit: Gil Kaufman
In an adjacent grove, the families of the victims planted saplings in memory of their loved ones on the Jewish holiday of Tu BiShvat last year, an annual arbor day-like celebration of trees.
Image Credit: Gil Kaufman
The outside walls of a bomb shelter on the Nova site graffittied with the names of some of the dead and the acronymn “Hashem Ylkom Damo,” which translates to “May God avenge his/her blood” and a phrase reading “to win my brother.”
Image Credit: Gil Kaufman
One of the bomb shelters on site at Nova where attendees fled during the attack. A guide said Hamas raiders repeatedly attempted to throw grenades into the packed concrete bunker during their assault.
Image Credit: Gil Kaufman
A close-up of one of the cars destroyed during the raid, one of hundreds on display in a grim shrine just down the road from the Nova Festival site.
Image Credit: Gil Kaufman
The memorial for attendee Shani Gabay, entitled “Shani Gabay’s Black Saturday,” feauturing a time-coded countdown of her attempt to escape, with links to photos and videos. It relates how the 25-year-old tried to run away from the assult and was declared missing for 17 days, until her body was discovered accidentally buried with another victim.
Image Credit: Gil Kaufman
A memorial to an Israeli soccer player featuring scarves from the victim’s favorite football teams, including Maccabi Petah Tikva, Hapoel Tel Aviv, Beitar Jerusalem and Israel’s beloved Maccabi Tel Aviv FC. The collection of white stones are in keeping with a Jewish tradition of mourning, in which visitors leave a rock to mark a visit to a grave site.
Image Credit: Gil Kaufman
A ghostly memorial to attendee Ziv Pepe Shapira, in which a tree has been planted in the middle of the “reflection” of a human torso on the ground.
Image Credit: Gil Kaufman
The burnt remnants of a metal sign reading “Nova Tribe of Light” lies amid a pile of wreckage near the memorial for beloved trance DJ Matan “Kido” Elmalem (aka “DJ Kido”), 42, who played festivals all over the world. He was spinning an early-morning set on Oct. 7 as Hamas raiders descended on the festival.
Image Credit: Gil Kaufman
An enormous garden of clay anemone flower sculptures — including charred black versions at the center — spreads on the Nova memorial site. Anemones are the official flower of Israel and they bloom near the festival site every Feburary. A tribute to the blood of the victims as well as a sign of resilence and hope.
In light of the controversy surrounding Kehlani‘s recently canceled performance at Cornell University, SummerStage has now pulled the plug on the singer’s scheduled performance in Central Park, under advisement from New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ office.
On Monday (May 5), the festival announced that its Pride With Kehlani benefit show — which had been slated for June 26 as part of the city’s annual summer concert series — would no longer be part of this year’s programming. “We have been notified by the Mayor’s Office that they have concerns for security and safety issues,” reads a statement on SummerStage’s Instagram. “Those concerns are due to the controversy surrounding Cornell University’s decision to cancel Kehlani’s concert at the University, as well as security demands in Central Park and throughout the City for other Pride events during that same period.
“We strongly and emphatically believe in artistic expression of all kinds,” the post continues. “However, the safety and security of our guests and artists is of the utmost importance … While artists may choose to express their opinions, their views may not necessarily be representative of the festival.”
At press time, Pride With Kehlani is still listed on Central Park’s online SummerStage schedule.
The move to cancel comes just over a week after Cornell announced that it had rescinded its invitation for Kehlani to headline this year’s Slope Day, the school’s annual event for students celebrating the last day of classes. In an email from university President Michael I. Kotlikoff obtained by The New York Times, he wrote that the decision had been made after learning that the “Gangsta” singer had “espoused antisemitic, anti-Israel sentiments in performances, videos and on social media.”
Shortly afterward, Kehlani posted a video clarifying “for the millionth time, that I am not antisemitic nor anti-Jew.”
“I am anti-genocide, I am anti- the actions of the Israeli government, I am anti- an extermination of an entire people, I am anti- the bombing of innocent children, men, women — that’s what I’m anti,” they continued at the time.
In response to the SummerStage cancellation, Kehlani reposted the festival’s statement on Instagram Stories and wrote “lol.” The musician also snapped a selfie and revealed, “I just found that one out on instagram by the way.”
“I’m so deeply grounded in my purpose, my mission, my art, my contribution,” the “After Hours” artist added in another post on Stories. “Back to this album. See you this weekend LA!”
Kehlani has been vocal in their pro-Palestine stance throughout Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas, which began immediately after the terrorist group killed 1,200 people and kidnapped more than 250 others at the Nova Music Festival on Oct. 7, 2023. Since then, more than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to CNN, which cites the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
In their 2024 “Next 2 U” visual, Kehlani wore kaffiyehs and featured dancers waving Palestinian flags. Before that, they were one of several musicians who signed the 2023 Artists Against Apartheid letter.
See the SummerStage statement below.
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A new report by two witnesses sheds more light on an incident in late March where Israeli soldiers reportedly attacked rescue workers in Gaza. Saeed al-Bardawil, a doctor, and Red Crescent volunteer paramedic Munther Abed were detained by the Israeli Defense Forces earlier. Abed said that he was captured while surviving an assault on his ambulance, which killed the other members of his crew, and al-Bardawil was captured while venturing out to go fishing with his son.
The two men alleged that the soldiers attacked another ambulance and fire truck in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, claiming the workers were members of the Hamas organization. The vehicles and crew were sent out to investigate what happened to Abed’s ambulance, which had their headlights and emergency signals on when attacked. “I wasn’t blindfolded — I saw everything clearly,” Dr. al-Bardawil said to the New York Times. “The medics got out to inspect the damaged ambulance. That’s when the soldiers opened heavy fire.”The United Nations would find a mass grave containing 15 rescue workers – eight from the Palestine Red Crescent Society, one from the United Nations, and from Gaza’s Civil Defense – along with their half-crushed vehicles in a separate grave, leading them to accuse the Israeli Defense Forces of targeting the workers “one by one.” The IDF would deny the claims until a seven-minute video retrieved from the phone of one of the victims showed the moments leading up to soldiers confronting the medics and opening fire. An official would then backtrack in a statement, saying: “What we understand currently is the person who gives the initial account is mistaken. We’re trying to understand why.”Abed described the attack on his ambulance, and how he was confronted by Israeli soldiers who told him to strip naked and kneel. “You’re a terrorist — why are you here?” he recalled a soldier shouting at him. He then detailed how when he asked about his colleagues, another soldier told him in Arabic that “those terrorists” had been taken to hell by God. He and Dr. al-Bardawil would be released after telling others to evacuate.
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Israel and Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire deal that would end over a year’s worth of conflict in the Gaza region this coming weekend.
On Wednesday (Jan. 15), President Joe Biden, accompanied by Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, announced that Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire deal. The truce is set to put an end to 15 months of hellish bombing and fighting in the Gaza Strip, which has killed thousands in the region and reshaped the scope of the Middle East. The deal is contingent upon Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu receiving the approval of the terms from his full Cabinet and security Cabinet. Representatives for Hamas have agreed to the terms. The news was met with jubilation in Gaza. “Praise God, this tragedy is over,” Gaza City resident Mohammad Fares said when interviewed. “We’re all overcome with joy.”
The ceasefire deal, which is set to go into effect Sunday (Jan. 19), has three proposed phases beginning with a six-week period where Hamas is expected to release 33 of the 96 remaining hostages it captured after its attack in Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023. At least 34 hostages from the 250 who were taken have been confirmed or believed to have been killed. Israel is expected to release Palestinian hostages for every hostage returned in addition to allowing scores of humanitarian aid into the Gaza region. State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said a “massive infusion of trucks” is expected to enter once the ceasefire begins. The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen said that Europe would send $123 million in aid to support those displaced. Palestinians displaced from northern Gaza during the bombing will be allowed to return to the area.
Negotiations for the terms of the second phase are set to take place on the 16th day of the first phase of the ceasefire, with the U.S., Qatar, and Egypt continuing to serve as mediators. On Thursday, Prime Minister Netanyahu stated that Hamas added “last-minute updates” to the deal, which amounted to reneging on the original terms. Hamas has denied any changes. Observers note that Netanyahu’s stance may be to maintain his fragile coalition, including far-right parties who want to keep fighting Hamas. In the interim, Israel has continued to conduct airstrikes on the region, with the Gaza Health Ministry claiming that over 80 lives were lost in the last 24 hours.
Billionaire hedge funder and Universal Music Group board member Bill Ackman called for UMG to move its stock listing and legal headquarters to the United States from Amsterdam after violent attacks on Israeli soccer fans overnight in the Dutch capital. Amsterdam’s Mayor Femke Halsema said fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv were attacked and “pelted with […]
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Ta-Nehisi Coates has attracted controversy and discussion given his decades as a reporter and writer who tackles themes as carefully as one can without pulling punches when necessary. In a recent appearance on CBS News’ morning program, Ta-Nehisi Coates engaged in what appeared to be an intense debate with co-host Tony Dokoupil regarding a segment in his book that touches on the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict.
Ta-Nehisi Coates was on CBS Mornings to discuss his newest book, The Message, a trio of essays regarding the writer’s visits to Senegal, South Carolina, and the Israel-Gaza region and draws some significant parallels to the idea of what it means to belong.
Tony Dokoupil, who seemingly angled to dominate the segment with his questioning, went on the offensive by framing Coates’ book as something you would in the backpack of an anti-Israeli extremist. It should be noted that Dokoupil’s ex-wife and his two older children are living in Israel currently and he is currently married to Katy Tur, who is of Jewish descent.
Coates gamely took on the challenge of attempting to explain himself in the face of Dokoupil’s critiques of his work.
“You write a book that delegitimizes the pillars of Israel. It seems like an effort to topple the whole building of it,” Dokoupil said. “So I come back to the question, and it’s what I struggled with throughout this book, what is it that so particularly offends you about the existence of a Jewish state that is a Jewish safe place and not any of the other states out there?”
Coates answered, “There’s nothing that offends me about a Jewish state. I am offended by the idea of states built on ethnocracy, no matter where they are. I would not want a state where any group of people lay down their citizenship rights based on ethnicity. The country of Israel is a state in which half the population exist on one tier of citizenship and everybody else that’s ruled by Israelis exist on another tier, including Palestinian Israeli citizens. The only people that exist on that first tier are Israeli Jews. Why do we support that? Why is that okay? I’m the child of Jim Crow. I’m the child of people that were born into a country where that was exactly the case, of American apartheid.”
It didn’t appear that any stance Ta-Nehisi Coates took satisfied the curiosities Tony Dokoupil and co-hosts Gayle King and Nate Burleson remained oddly quiet during the segment. The moment has caused a stir online and probably deserves far more nuance than we have the space to examine here. That said, a larger discussion should arise from this considering both gentlemen had points to make but couldn’t be exhaustive in their explanations.
Keep scrolling to see reactions below.
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Macklemore is no stranger to using his massive platform to throw his support behind causes that are important to him. In a recent benefit concert in support of the residents of Palestine, Macklemore uttered a strong “F*ck America” statement during his set.
As reported by Rolling Stone India, Macklemore was performing in his home state of Washington over the weekend. The “Thrift Shop” star dropped the pro-Palestinian track “Hind’s Hall” earlier this year in celebration of the students who led protests at Columbia University in New York that took over Hamilton Hall to honor the life and legacy of Hind Rajab, an elementary school-aged girl who was killed during the Israel-Hamas conflict that still rages today.
In a sequel track, “Hind’s Hall 2,” Macklemore doubled down on the anti-Israel stance with a song that was created to benefit UNRWA USA, an organization established to help Palestinian refugees.
During his set in Seattle over the weekend, the artist born Benjamin Hammond Haggerty rocked the Palestine Will Live Forever benefit concert in Kent, Wash. and a journalist by the name of Cam Higby captured the moment in question. The video has since made its rounds on social media with many equating the rapper’s stances as anti-semitic and anti-American, with harsh critique following.
According to Macklemore’s Facebook page regarding the benefit concert, proceeds from the event at Seward Park Amphitheater will be spread among several other organizations in support of Palestinian refugees.
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The Los Angeles exhibition dedicated to the October 7 attack at Israel‘s Nova Music Festival recently became the setting for a vigil, in the wake of the news that several of the hostages taken from the festival had been slain.
The vigil happened Sept. 1, with hundreds of people arriving to the exhibition in the wake of the news that six hostages — five of whom were captured at the music festival — had been killed by Hamas. Bodies of the victims were found in an underground tunnel in Rafah, near Gaza’s southern border with Egypt.
The event, which saw a large crowd waiting outside as the space hit capacity, included musical performances, prayer and speeches, with at least one Nova Music Festival attendee on hand.
“Some of them were taken from the music festival and for me, I see their pictures up there but I know that it might have been me,” Danielle Gelbaum, who survived the Nova attack, told CBS News Los Angeles. “My face could have been up there.”
HYBE-America CEO Scooter Braun, a partner in the exhibition, spoke at the L.A. vigil, saying, as the L.A. Times first reported, that the exhibition itself “has nothing to do with politics. You won’t see any flags here. It is strictly about the music festival and what took place there. To allow people to see this could’ve been Coachella, this could’ve been Stagecoach.”
“For all six of them, I’m sorry that we weren’t loud enough,” Braun continued. “And I’m really grateful that you’re here today, and I don’t think that promise that we made to them stops today; I think it just begins.”
Located in Los Angeles’ Culver City neighborhood, the memorial opened last month in a 50,000-square-foot warehouse. The installation includes remains salvaged from the festival grounds, including scorched cars, bullet-riddled bathroom stalls and personal belongings all left behind. The space also includes photos of all the hostages taken on October 7, along with a healing tent and a lighthouse with the declaration, “We will dance again.”
The exhibition, The Nova Music Festival Exhibition: October 7th 06:29AM, first premiered in Tel Aviv for 10 weeks then opened in New York City this past April. The Nova founders include Omri Sassi, Yoni Feingold, Ofir Amir and Yagil Rimoni, and the United States partners for the exhibition include Braun, Joe Teplow and Josh Kadden.
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Donald Trump finds himself under more scrutiny after a report suggested that the former president allegedly contacted Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu to halt ceasefire talks with Hamas. The reason is that the Trump campaign believes a successful ceasefire deal would boost Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz’s campaign hopes.
In a clip from PBS NewsHour shared by Parsons School of Design professor David Carroll, veteran broadcast journalist Judy Woodruff shared that she saw reporting that pointed to Donald Trump contacting Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off on bringing a ceasefire with Hamas to fruition.
“The reporting is that former President Trump is on the phone with the prime minister of Israel urging him not to cut a deal right now because it’s believed that would help the Harris campaign,” Woodruff is heard saying in the video below.
Among several negative marks that President Joe Biden’s administration has suffered in the eyes of voters is what is seen as a blind support of Israel in its battle with Hamas with many believing the administration is funding a genocide. Under President Biden’s orders, Secretary of State Antony Blinken just completed his ninth visit to the Gaza region where the Israel-Hamas conflict continues to unfold and was once again unable to garner a truce.
If the reports that Trump reached out to Israeli leadership regarding the ceasefire deal, it would be considered by some to be a violation of the Logan Act.
The Logan Act, established in 1799, is a law that states, “Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.”
During the Trump-Pence administration’s time in the White House, Trump accused former Secretary of State John Kerry of violating the Logan Act for reportedly having talks with Iran, and in 2015, Democrats and others charged Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas with violating the Logan Act after he enacted a coalition of Congress members to oppose President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran. Further, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack accused Donald Trump of violating the act when the convicted felon and former reality television star encouraged Russian hackers to go after Hillary Clinton’s email account during the 2015 presidential campaign.
Carroll added in his string of replies on X where Woodruff may have gotten the information regarding contact between Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu by sharing a report from Reuters that says Axios was the first to mention the talks between the pair earlier this month and confirmed via sources. However, Netanyahu’s office says that the discussion with Trump regarding the ceasefire never happened as reported by Axios.
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