Stefanik ‘has guts to say the truth,’ Miriam Adelson says at ZOA gala

Abby Notkin

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) speaks at the 2025 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Md., Feb. 22, 2025. Credit: Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons.

A few days after Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) announced her entry into the gubernatorial race against New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, the pro-Israel congresswoman received extensive praise from billionaire philanthropist and physician Dr. Miriam Adelson at a Zionist Organization of America gala in Manhattan.

“When I heard you talking to the heads of the universities, I said to myself, ‘She has the guts to say the truth,’” Adelson told Stefanik on Sunday, as she introduced the congresswoman, whom the ZOA awarded its Maccabee Warrior Award for Leadership.

Adelson’s late husband, Sheldon Adelson, “used to say, ‘Stand up for what you believe in even if you stand up alone,’ and you showed us and all the world courage,” she told Stefanik. “You had the courage to do it, and you stood up for what you believe in, and it was fantastic. You are a great leader.”

Stefanik, who has been one of the leading voices on the House Education and Workforce Committee probing colleges and universities over their responses to Jew-hatred on campus, showed “courage to stand up for the Jewish people, Israel and the free world,” said Adelson, who said, “I hope to visit you in the office of New York governor next year after the election.”

In her remarks to an audience of about 500, Stefanik said that she is “proud to be one of the foremost champions of the Jewish people in the United States Congress, ensuring Israel’s right to defend herself, and fiercely opposing efforts by some of my colleagues to undermine it.”

“I have stood shoulder to shoulder with the American Jewish community and the people of Israel through war, terror and tragedy,” she said. “But a few years ago, I realized that there was another front in this battle—a battlefield we were losing, and one much closer to home: university campuses where we saw a scourge of antisemitism after Hamas’s terrorist attacks on Oct. 7.”

Stefanik told attendees that she will never forget putting a “simple” moral question to the Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of Pennsylvania presidents.

“‘Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate your university’s code of conduct?’” she said. “I expected them to say ‘yes.’ But one after another after another said, ‘It depends on the context.’ And the world heard. Let me be clear. It does not depend on the context.”

The congresswoman said that she is running for governor because New York “is not just a city and state in crisis. It is the epicenter of the battle for the very Western values that have shaped America. The fight for democracy, for capitalism, for the dignity of work, for the belief that through effort and perseverance anyone can achieve the American Dream.”

New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is “a raging antisemite, defund the police, tax-hiking communist,” who “openly traffics in sympathy for those who chant ‘globalize the untifada,’ who refuses to condemn the glorification of terror, who has said he would arrest Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, whose family history and political ideology is steeped in sympathy for suicide bombers and terrorists,” Stefanik said.

“At the very moment that New Yorkers were looking for strength and moral clarity, our weak Gov. Kathy Hochul, the worst governor in America, showed weakness and endorsed the jihadist for mayor,” Stefanik said. “She propelled him to this office putting every Jewish New Yorker at risk.”

Morton Klein, national president of the ZOA, said at the event that “there has been a generalization and mainstreaming of bigotry against Jews.”

“Bigotry has been disguised as principle, hatred is baptized as virtuous and the ZOA will fight these dangerous lies with no appeasement and no dilution,” he said. “Total war against hatred.”

Klein told JNS that the “most important goal of this event is to explain the lies propagated against the Jewish people.”

“This war is not about economics or a state. They were offered a Palestinian state four times in the past 20 years but refused,” he said. “This war is about killing and hating Jews, and this is what we want people to know about and fight against.”

The event, which also drew Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon and Leo Terrell, chair of the U.S. Justice Department task force on Jew-hatred, began with a solemn memorial for Charlie Kirk, who was slated to be honored at the gala before a gunman killed him on Sept. 10.

“When I asked him to speak, he was overwhelmed with gratitude,” Klein told JNS, of Kirk. “He was such a great supporter of Israel and never turned against it, as people are saying.” (Some prominent conservatives, who peddle conspiracy theories, have said that Kirk wasn’t a Zionist.)

“It was a terrible loss for the world and the Jewish people when he was brutally murdered by that terrible human being,” Klein said. He told JNS that he and Kirk were close and traveled in Israel together.

Terrell attended the ZOA gala wearing a bright red hat, as he often does, with the name of Hadar Goldin, whose remains Israel liberated recently from Gaza after some 11 years. (Terrell received the ZOA’s Robert Kasowitz Defender of Jewish Civil Rights Award.)

“Jewish Americans should have the same rights as all Americans. When they attend schools, they will not be discriminated against,” the Justice Department official told the audience.

“I am sick and tired of the ‘Jewish tax,’ the additional cost of security for Jews to go to school, work and synagogues,” Terrell said.

Terrell told the audience that he made the red hat at the request of Goldin’s mother, that the injustice to her son never be forgotten, as Hamas terrorists denied the family a proper burial. The U.S. official said that he has worn the hat ever since, but now that Goldin’s remains had been recovered, he said he could finally remove the cap.

Leiter, who received the Adelson Defender of Israel Award, told attendees that the most important defense of the Jewish state that he shares with people is that he represents “a people indigenous to the State of Israel.”

It would be absurd for the natives of any other country to be asked to defend their right to exist, he told the audience, so Jews ought to explain that their rights stem from Israel being their homeland.

New York conservative talk-radio show host Sid Rosenberg told JNS at the event that “even though it seems like the war is over in Israel and the Middle East, with antisemitism at home in New York, we must continue to fight.” 

Bat-Tzion Atik and Judah Troodler, co-presidents of the Yeshiva University Political Action Club, attended the event.

“We’re here to show our support for students across America who are feeling this hate,” Troodler told JNS. “We’re all in this together.”

Atik added that as Jewish students, it’s “especially important to show up and thank those, such as congresswoman Stefanik, who are standing by us.”

At the event, ZOA also announced a new Women’s Leadership Division, which Susan Good and Rhonda Small will co-chair.

 “Our women’s division mission is clear—to uphold Israel’s sovereignty, to strengthen Jewish philanthropy, to advance education and social good and to stand united and fearless in a fight against antisemitism,” Good told attendees. 

Arab-American Rights Group’s New Legal Director Says Jews Fake Hate Crimes, Control America — Then Deletes Posts

Dion J. Pierre

American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) legal director Jenin Younes. Photo: Screenshot

The new legal director of one of the largest and most influential Arab-American rights advocacy groups in the US recently promoted classic antisemitic tropes on social media, claiming that American society is under “Zionist control” and that Jews routinely “fake” hate crimes against them.

Jenin Younes, who in September was hired by the American‑Arab Anti‑Discrimination Committee (ADC) to be its national legal director, made the explosive claims on X last week.

“There may be inadequate evidence to be certain in this specific instance, but the fact is it is a very common occurrence that Jewish people fake these hate crimes,” Younes said, responding to someone else’s post.

In another post, Younes replied to a tweet which claimed that Jews control the media, education system, entertainment indsutry, and government.

The ADC’s legal director responded, “100 percent. It’s dawning on me recently how insane it is I just accept that I’m subservient to them.”

Both social media posts have since been deleted. The ADC did not respond to a request for comment for this story on why the posts were erased and whether the organization agrees with and stands by her comments.

Younes’s posts came a few days after her organization filed a federal lawsuit targeting a California law which aims to combat antisemitism in K-12 schools.

Earlier this month, she led a lawsuit challenging the state over a civil rights bill which requires government officials to establish a new Office for Civil Rights for monitoring antisemitism in public schools, establish an Antisemitism Prevention Coordinator, set parameters within which the Israeli-Palestinian conflict may be equitably discussed, and potentially bar antisemitic materials from reaching the classroom.

State lawmakers introduced the measure, also known as Assembly Bill (AB) 715, in the California legislature followed year-on-year increases in incidents of K-12 antisemitism, including vandalism and assault, which surged 135 percent in 2023, fueled by Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel. Among the ensuing spike in incidents, a Jewish girl was beaten with a stick and teased with jokes about Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

In a statement announcing its lawsuit, the ADC argued that Arabs are victims of discrimination and that fighting antisemitic harassment in accordance with the new law undermines First Amendment protections of speech unfettered by governmental interference. Furthermore, the ADC argued that the law amounts to a hijacking of American policy by Israel, an argument advanced by neo-Nazis, including Nicholas Fuentes, and commentators who promote their views such as Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens — both of whom claim that proliferating antisemitism is an exercise of free speech.

“AB 715’s intent and effect is classroom censorship. It — probably intentionally — does not feign the conduct it targets, then points schools to federal guidance that blurs legitimate criticism of a foreign state with bigotry,” Younes said in a press release announcing the action. “That combination guarantees arbitrary punishment of educators, chills valuable classroom instruction and discussion, and deprives students of the vigorous debate the Constitution protects.”

Since joining the ADC, Younes has garnered media coverage from prominent legacy media outlets such as The Washington Post, which described her in a lengthy feature published in September as always in search of “new allies” due to her traveling across the political spectrum to promote vaccine skepticism and anti-Zionism.

Just months ago, she compared Bari Weiss, founder of The Free Press and the newly minted editor in chief of CBS News, to Nazi party official and propagandist Joseph Goebbels. Younes stood by her comparison after receiving significant backlash.

Others, including Asaf Romirowsky, executive director of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME), told The Algemeiner that Younes is one among many figures pantomiming intellectual seriousness as they degrade public debate with demagoguery, conspiracy mongering, and hate regarding Israel and the prevalence of antisemitism.

“In today’s world of infotainment, facts matter even less,” he said. “In particular, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has turned into a theater for the land of make believe where Palestinians are the evergreen victims and Israelis are the victimizers. This fallacious binary view of the conflict has been amplified by historic antisemitic tropes of Jews controlling media and governments, taking a page out of the antisemitic Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”

He added, “Further, social media has become ripe with such rhetoric as illustrated by the ADC’s legal director Jenin Younes projecting her own biases and falsehoods in an attempt to create a predetermined outcome detached from reality, something we just witnessed at the BBC that manufactured and ignored facts in its reporting.”

Multiple BBC leaders resigned this past weekend after a leaked memo revealed that Britain’s public broadcaster misleadingly edited a speech by US President Donald Trump to make it appear that he had directly called for violence on Jan. 6, 2021, when a crowd of his supporters breached the US Capitol. The internal report also showed that the BBC’s story selection and editing largely omitted pieces criticizing Hamas or highlighting the suffering of Israelis amid the war in Gaza.

“Ani zaskoczona, ani zachwycona – Nie jestem gotowa się poddać”

Phyllis Chesler

Wiedziałam – wszyscy wiedzieliśmy – że Mamdani, symbol Wschodzącego Islamu, symbol antysyjonistycznej nienawiści wobec Żydów, wygra. Czasy się zmieniły. Nasz nowy burmistrz reprezentuje teraz przyszłość dżihadu. Pomimo absurdalnych obietnic kampanijnych dotyczących „darmowych rzeczy”, „reprezentuje” islamizm bardziej niż stalinizm.

Jak zauważa mój kolega Roger Simon, Mamdani może być najwierniejszym spadkobiercą Bin Ladena. Na łamach National Review Philip Klein zastanawia się, czy administracja Mamdaniego po prostu odwróci wzrok, gdy na kampusach i ulicach będą odbywać się antyizraelskie zamieszki; gdy widoczni Żydzi (i inni bezbronni cywile) będą atakowani w miejscach kultu? Jedna z moich znajomych zastanawiała się, czy jeszcze kiedykolwiek poczuje się bezpieczna w pociągu, biorąc pod uwagę stanowisko burmistrza Mamdaniego, prokuratora Bragga i legislatury stanu Nowy Jork w sprawie zniesienia kaucji pieniężnych, rezygnacji z aresztów i ograniczenia liczby policjantów. Czy to jeszcze bardziej ośmieli obłąkanych, agresywnych i bezdomnych mężczyzn (czasem również kobiety), by traktować metro jak schronisko – zagrażając wszystkim?

Wczoraj wieczorem, długo zanim ogłoszono wyniki wyborów na burmistrza Nowego Jorku, wyłączyłam wiadomości i puściłam sobie coś lekkiego do obejrzenia. Ale dziś rano, gdy wstałam, moje ciało przepełniał żal. Moje śmiertelne ciało było obolałe.

Nigdy nie wolno nam przestać mówić prawdy o dżihadzie i o islamskim apartheidzie płciowym i religijnym. Nie wszyscy muzułmanie to dżihadyści, ale wszyscy dżihadyści są muzułmanami. Otaczają Izrael z każdej strony i są w trakcie sprowadzania Europy z powrotem do VII wieku.

Tak, by zachować „obiektywizm”, muszę też powiedzieć, że ceny w Nowym Jorku wzrosły w alarmującym tempie; że większość ludzi nie może tu żyć godnie, chyba że są bardzo bogaci; że biedni pracujący i żyjący w ubóstwie funkcjonują w rzeczywistości tak trudnej, że trudno ją znieść bez narkotyków, alkoholu, działalności przestępczej – lub bez wspólnot religijnych skupionych wokół Boga. Partia Rodzin Pracujących, z listy której Mamdani głosował na samego siebie, to sekta, rozgrywająca długoterminowy plan. Znam kilku prawdziwych wyznawców, którzy kiedyś próbowali mnie nawrócić. Być może ich cele są wzniosłe (tak im się wydaje), ale ich środki są niebezpieczne, a skutki jeszcze groźniejsze (Stalin, Mao, Castro).

Jak „postępowy” może być Mamdani, skoro obiecał zalegalizować to, co nazywa „pracą seksualną”? Jak bardzo może być „prokobiecy”, skoro wiadomo, że „seks” to nie praca; to najgłębsza forma przemocy wobec kobiet, zyskowna tylko dla ich sutenerów. Kobiety mają krótkie „daty przydatności” i żadnych planów emerytalnych. Czy Mamdani rzeczywiście zamierza finansować darmowe autobusy na plecach kobiecości? Czy zaleci swojej rodzinie – swoim kobietom – by zajęły się tą niszczącą duszę działalnością? Kobiety są wciągane w prostytucję przez chciwych złoczyńców, ale też przez biedę. Czy Mamdani nie zalicza ich do biednych pracujących, których gloryfikował w swoim zwycięskim przemówieniu?

Jestem tylko studentką Tory, nie uczoną – a jednak… za każdym razem pojawia się coś na czasie, coś „przypadkowego”, co rzuca mocne światło na obecną rzeczywistość.

Wczoraj uczestniczyłam w shiurze, podczas zajęć poświęconych Traktatowi Moed Katan, który dotyczy tzw. pomniejszych świąt. Rabin Skydell skupił się na prawach żałoby.

Tak, jestem w żałobie. Wielu z nas jest. Nie tylko z powodu potencjalnej utraty naszego miasta, ale z powodu utraty standardów, merytokracji, przyzwoitości i wszelkiego szacunku dla tradycji. Z powodu utraty klasycznej, niewoke’owej edukacji. Z powodu utraty nawet pozorów, że zło można gdziekolwiek i kiedykolwiek wyeliminować. Prawdziwe ludobójstwo, prawdziwe prześladowania trwają (Sudan, Nigeria, Ukraina – by wspomnieć tylko kilka stref wojennych, które łatwo przychodzą mi na myśl) – a jednak to Izrael jest z niewiarygodną łatwością obwiniany za zbrodnie, których nie popełnił. Jeśli chodzi o rzeź chrześcijan w Nigerii – cóż, jeśli nie da się o nią oskarżyć Izraela ani Żydów, światowe media i ONZ niespecjalnie się tym przejmują.

Ale tym, co uderzyło mnie na zajęciach z Tory, było to, że nawet żałobnik, pogrążony w smutku, nadal ma obowiązki wobec wspólnoty. Dobro ogółu przewyższa nawet obowiązki żałobnika. (Mogłabym wiele powiedzieć o tym w kontekście sytuacji zakładników w Izraelu, ale na razie moją rolą jest milczenie).

Dlatego, rozumiejąc, że mam obowiązki, zmusiłam się do napisania tego tekstu – na wypadek, gdyby pomógł innym, którzy czują się tak jak ja, by mogli zrozumieć, że nie są sami. I by przypomnieć nam wszystkim, że nic, żadna porażka ani przeszkoda, nie może ani nie powinna zatrzymać pracy ludzi mówiących prawdę, dysydentów, prawdziwych niepokornych. Musimy się zjednoczyć i kontynuować pracę demaskowania kłamstw i przechodzenia do ofensywy.

Link do oryginału: https://substack.com/home/post/p-178103134
Phyllis Newsletter, 5 listopada 2025

Phyllis Chesler – Emerytowana profesor psychologii, znana amerykańska feministka, autorka wielu książek, w tym An American Bride in Kabul i A Politically Incorrect Feminist. 

BBC uses journalist who called for ‘Jews to be burned like Hitler did’… again

Patrick Sawer

Samer Elzaenen wrote on Facebook in July 2022: ‘When things go awry for us, shoot the Jews, it fixes everything’

A journalist who called for Jews to be burned “as Hitler did” has been used by the BBC as an expert commentator on the Gaza conflict.

Samer Elzaenen, who has appeared on the BBC’s Arabic channel more than a dozen times since the conflict erupted following the Oct 7 Hamas attacks, was quoted extensively as he accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon against Palestinians.

After being contacted by The Telegraph, the BBC admitted that Mr Elzaenen should not have been used as an expert contributor.

It comes after The Telegraph revealed in April that Mr Elzaenen, 33, had been used to help report on the situation in Gaza, despite previously having issued a stream of social media posts that singled out Jews for condemnation and even appeared to call for violence against them.

In a Facebook post in July 2022, he stated: “When things go awry for us, shoot the Jews, it fixes everything.”

Mr Elzaenen has also appeared to call for a repeat of the Holocaust, stating on Facebook in May 2011: “My message to the Zionist Jews: We are going to take our land back, we love death for Allah’s sake the same way you love life. We shall burn you as Hitler did, but this time we won’t have a single one of you left.”

In response to the revelations, the BBC said at the time that it was “not aware” of Mr Elzaenen’s social media activity prior to him appearing on air, adding: “We are absolutely clear that there is no place for anti-Semitism on our services.”

But it can now be revealed that Mr Elzaenen was used again by the BBC despite concerns about his comments having been raised. This time he was cited as an eyewitness by Suzanna Goussous, a BBC Arabic reporter, to describe the hunger in Gaza, under the headline “Starvation as a ‘weapon of war’: What does it mean and when was it used in history?”

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Samer Elzaenen was quoted in a BBC Arabic report on hunger in Gaza Credit: Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu

In her report for BBC Arabic in July, Goussous quoted him at length, saying: “Journalist Samer Elzaenen tells me from Khan Yunis: ‘The situation is unbearable; the scenes of stampedes are harsher than the scenes of bombing. Women, children and the elderly risk their lives in a daily struggle for survival. Every time aid trucks enter, dozens of martyrs and injured are recorded, especially in the areas designated as distribution centres.’”

Goussous goes on to say: “He [Elzaenen] adds that this is a systematic, rather than random, policy, which brings to mind historical massacres where starvation was linked to the goals of ‘genocide and takeover’.”

Mr Elzaenen’s social media output over the past decade has included endorsements of more than 30 separate attacks against Jewish civilians in Israel. He has called the actions “blessed” and “heroic”, described the perpetrators as “heroes” and “martyrs” who “ascended” to “heaven” and appeared to express joy at the victims’ deaths.

Commenting on a February 2023 attack in which a Palestinian terrorist killed two boys, aged eight and six, and a 20-year-old man after ramming his car into a bus stop in Jerusalem, Mr Elzaenen said the victims “will soon go to hell”.

The Palestinian journalist has also repeatedly described the Hamas terrorists who carried out the Oct 7 attacks as “resistance fighters”.

BBC sources emphasised that Mr Elzaenen is not a member of staff.

But the broadcaster’s use of him as a freelance contributor has been condemned by media watchers, who accused BBC Arabic, which is part of the BBC World Service, of anti-Israel bias.

The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (Camera) – which unearthed the social media posts – claims that it is indicative of BBC Arabic’s willingness to use contributors who fail to deliver objective and balanced broadcasting.

‘Deeply alarming’

A Camera UK spokesman told The Telegraph: “Anyone who uses social media to repeatedly glorify violence against Israel’s Jewish civilians forfeits any claim to be an impartial observer of Israel-related affairs.

“When residents of Gaza embrace such hatred, they cannot be taken seriously as credible eyewitnesses – still less as ‘journalists’ entrusted to mediate reality for international audiences.

“The fact that the BBC knew of Elzaenen’s record yet chose to use him anyway is deeply alarming, and speaks volumes about the corporation’s own judgment and credibility.”

BBC Arabic’s output is set to form part of a thematic review of the corporation’s Middle East coverage by an independent expert.

Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative Party leader, called earlier this year for “wholesale reform” of BBC Arabic after a report by Camera accused it of “appalling anti-Semitism and anti-Israel bias”.

‘Fomenting extremism’

In a letter to Tim Davie, the BBC’s director-general, Mrs Badenoch said: “BBC Arabic is intended to provide high-quality, trusted news for the ­hundreds of millions of people who speak Arabic. It should uphold the highest standards of public-service broadcasting.

“Instead, it seems that the World Service may be fomenting ­extremism and misleading audiences – while funded by the taxpayer and ­licence fees. This is simply unacceptable and must stop.”

Responding to questions from The Telegraph about his attitude to Jews, Mr Elzaenen said: “The posts you referred to date back to around 2011 and were quotations rather than personal statements. They were merely social media posts and do not reflect or represent my professional journalism. After reviewing them, I removed those posts entirely.

“Throughout my career, my journalism has always been conducted with full professionalism. Every report I produced for the BBC was broadcast exactly as it was, without distortion, fabrication or alteration.”

He added: “If I were not a professional journalist, and given that these statements date back to 2011, the BBC would not have hired me years later. If there had ever been any sign of unprofessionalism on my part, I would not have been employed by such a respected institution.”

A BBC spokesman said: “There is no place for anti-Semitism on our services. We strongly condemn the hateful views expressed by this individual in 2011. Although he is not a BBC journalist, and quoting him does not mean we endorse his views, we should not have used him in this way.”

Additional reporting by Izzy Pearl

US Sanctions Official Says Time Is Right to Cut Iran’s Hezbollah Funding

Reuters and Algemeiner Staff

FILE PHOTO: John K. Hurley, U.S. President Trump’s nominee for Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Crimes at Department of the Treasury, attends a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 10, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt/File Photo

The United States seeks to take advantage of a “moment” in Lebanon in which it can cut Iranian funding to Hezbollah and press the group to disarm, the US Treasury Department’s top sanctions official said.

In a late Friday interview, John Hurley, the undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said Iran has managed to funnel about $1 billion to Hezbollah this year despite a raft of Western sanctions that have battered its economy.

The US has adopted a “maximum pressure” campaign on Tehran meant to curb its uranium enrichment and regional influence, including in Lebanon where Iran-backed Hezbollah is also weakened after Israel shattered its military power in a 2023-24 war.

Late last week Washington sanctioned two individuals accused using money exchanges to help fund Hezbollah, which is deemed a terrorist group by several Western governments and Gulf states.

“There’s a moment in Lebanon now. If we could get Hezbollah to disarm, the Lebanese people could get their country back,” Hurley said.

“The key to that is to drive out the Iranian influence and control that starts with all the money that they are pumping into Hezbollah,” he told Reuters in Istanbul as part of a tour of Turkey, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and Israel meant to raise pressure on Iran.

IRANIAN ECONOMY HIT BY SNAPBACK U.N. SANCTIONS

Tehran has leaned on closer ties with China, Russia and regional states including the UAE since September, when talks to curb its disputed nuclear activity and missile program broke down, prompting the reinstatement of United Nations sanctions.

Western powers accuse Iran of secretly developing nuclear weapons capability. Tehran, whose economy now risks hyperinflation and a severe recession, says its nuclear program is wholly for civilian power purposes.

US ally Israel says Hezbollah is trying to rebuild its capabilities and on Thursday carried out heavy airstrikes in southern Lebanon despite a ceasefire deal agreed a year ago.

Lebanon’s government has committed to disarming all non-state groups, including Hezbollah, which was founded in 1982 by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, spearheaded the Iran-backed “Axis of Resistance,” and opened fire on Israel declaring solidarity with Palestinians when war began in Gaza in 2023.

While the group, which is also a political force in Beirut, has not obstructed Lebanese troops confiscating its caches in the country’s south, it has rejected disarming in full.

Hurley, in his first trip to the Middle East since taking office under President Donald Trump’s administration, has pressed the case against Iran in meetings with government officials, bankers and private sector executives.

“Even with everything Iran has been through, even with the economy not in great shape, they’re still pumping a lot of money to their terrorist proxies,” he said.