News Digest — 1/28/25
Trump doubles down on proposal to move Gazans; insists Egypt and Jordan will agree
US President Donald Trump dug in his heels Monday over a controversial suggestion that large numbers of Gazans take refuge in Egypt and Jordan, shrugging off wall-to-wall opposition to the proposal from Arab leaders.
Fresh off calls with Egyptian counterpart Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi and Jordan’s King Abdullah, Trump insisted both leaders would take in Palestinians from the war-ravaged territory and said the issue would be discussed with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when the two meet sometime soon, amid speculation in Israel that Trump’s gambit was being coordinated with Jerusalem.
The US president on Saturday floated the idea to “clean out” Gaza after more than 15 months of war between Israel and Hamas had reduced the Palestinian territory to what he called a “demolition site.”
Asked about those comments, Trump told reporters on Air Force One Monday evening he would “like to get them living in an area where they can live without disruption and revolution and violence so much.”
“When you look at the Gaza Strip, it’s been hell for so many years,” Trump said. “There have been various civilizations on that strip. It didn’t start here. It started thousands of years before, and there’s always been violence associated with it. You could get people living in areas that are a lot safer and maybe a lot better and maybe a lot more comfortable.”
Both Egypt and Jordan have come out strongly against Trump’s idea, saying that Palestinians should be allowed to remain in Gaza and underlining concerns that Palestinians who decamp for safety may never be allowed to return. Members of Israel’s far right have called since the start of the war for reestablishing Israeli settlements there and have advocated for the “voluntary migration” of Palestinians from the enclave.
Trump had been expected to bring up the issue during a call with Sissi Sunday. Asked how the Egyptian leader received the idea, Trump said Sissi’s “response [was] that he’d like to see peace in the Middle East.”
“I’d like to see peace in the Middle East,” Trump added.
Pressed further, Trump insisted that both the Egyptian and Jordanian leaders would come around.
“I’d love to do that,” he said. “I wish [Sissi] would take some. We helped them a lot, and I’m sure he’d help us. He’s a friend of mine. He’s in… a rough neighborhood. But I think he would do it, and I think the king of Jordan would do it too,” Trump added.
New Zealand activists open hotline to ‘track down’ visiting IDF soldiers
New Zealand anti-Israel activists opened a hotline to track down IDF soldiers and reservists visiting the country, Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA) announced last Wednesday, causing outrage this week among politicians and Jewish community groups.
Activists can call a phone number if they come across Israeli soldiers or reservists holidaying in the country, according to a Wednesday PSNA newsletter.
Antisemitism is at a record high. We’re keeping our eyes on it >>
“Israeli soldiers should not enjoy rest and recreation from genocide in New Zealand,” PSNA said in the newsletter. “We need your help to track them down so we can let them know they are not welcome here.”
PSNA National Chair John Minto said on Facebook Wednesday that the “genocide hotline” was part of holding Israel and a supposedly complicit New Zealand government to account for “the most horrendous war crimes on the 21st century.”
The announcement hotline was met by enthused supporters, Minto said on social media on Tuesday, asserting that it would save Palestinian lives by sending a message to Israel that the western world does not accept its alleged war crimes. The PSNA leader said that the outrage and accusations of antisemitism from detractors was expected and rejected the framing.
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters denounced the hotline as “extreme totalitarian behavior.”
“John Minto’s call to identify people from Israel holidaying in New Zealand via a ‘dob them in hotline’ is an outrageous show of fascism, racism, and encouragement of violence and vigilantism,” Peters warned on social media Tuesday.
ACT Party MP Simon Court accused Minto and his followers of “undisguised antisemitic behavior” that could create a “real-life version of the Hunger Games movies,” referring to the film and book series in which characters hunt each other down in a contest to the death.
“Military service is compulsory for Israeli citizens. This means any Israeli holidaying, visiting family, or doing business in New Zealand could be targeted by John Minto’s hateful campaign,” Court said in a Tuesday press release. “This is not normal political activism, it is intimidation targeted toward Jewish visitors. It mirrors the worst instincts of humanity and should be condemned by parties across Parliament.”
ACT called on the New Zealand parliament to condemn the hotline.
Trump uses Holocaust Remembrance Day statement to celebrate establishment of Israel
President Donald Trump called for an “end to antisemitism” Monday night, while celebrating the establishment of the state of Israel in a statement issued marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
In his statement, released Monday night, the president called the Holocaust, and specifically the genocide at Auschwitz-Birkenau, “one of the darkest chapters in human history.”
Trump lamented the persistence of antisemitism around the globe, and called for its eradication in the U.S.
“The poison of anti-Semitism still courses through the veins of cowards in dark corners of the world. So today, we renew our promise that anti-Semitism has no place in a civilized society, no place in our foreign policy, and no place in the United States of America.”
In a nod to historical Jewish claims to the Land of Israel, the president not only reasserted America’s “bonds of friendship with the State of Israel,” but also hailed the creation of the modern State of Israel in 1948 as the ‘refounding’ of the Jewish national home.
“In the years since the liberation of Auschwitz on this day eight decades ago, the grave offenses that took place during the Holocaust and the cries of the Jewish people have echoed throughout the halls of history,” Trump said.
“In the wake of the oppression, persecution, and injustice committed at Auschwitz and elsewhere in Europe, the Jewish people gallantly persevered to re-found their homeland in the modern State of Israel — our mighty friend. To this day, the Jewish people proudly represent the peak of human tenacity and the pinnacle of human triumph.”
Holocaust survivors: 80 years after Auschwitz liberation, it’s ‘the same antisemitism’
OSWIECIM, Poland — Just 80 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, “we are seeing precisely the same antisemitism that led to the Holocaust,” Auschwitz survivor Marian Turski said, at a commemoration ceremony Monday at the former Nazi death camp.
Turski, along with other survivors, spoke from the podium at the annual event about rising levels of anti-Jewish rhetoric and violence across the globe.
There have always been conflicts between neighbors, but when hate speech escalates out of control, “it always ends in bloodshed,” he said.
Some 3,000 people, including world leaders and dignitaries, attended the International Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony, marking the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps by the Russian Red Army on January 27, 1945.
More than one million Jews from across Europe were murdered at the death camp during the Holocaust, along with 100,000 other victims.
Speakers stressed the importance of educating future generations about the Holocaust, particularly at a time when the number of survivors who can tell their stories is dwindling. Only 50 survivors attended this ceremony, compared to 300 a decade ago, and it is likely that very few, if any, of them will be alive for the 90th anniversary in a decade.
“Today, we all have an obligation not only to remember, but also to teach that hatred only begets more hatred, killing more killing,” said Tova Friedman, another survivor who spoke at the event.
Friedman, who was just 6 years old when she was liberated from Auschwitz, said she vividly remembered wondering if she was the only Jewish child left in the world as she heard the cries of parents weeping as her friends were killed.
“I thought that it was normal, that if you’re a Jewish child, you have to die,” she said.
Speaking to The Times of Israel at a reception a day before the event, Friedman said she feared that the memory of the Holocaust would be cheapened once there were no more survivors left to share their message.
“I’m worried that once we’re not here, the Poles are either going to close Auschwitz or make it very commercial,” said Friedman.
A report from Tel Aviv University noted a rising trend in Holocaust museums in the Muslim world, including significant sites in Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates. “These museums are a small amount of light, but this small amount is very important,” said Professor Uriya Shavit, head of the university’s Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry.
The Auschwitz Museum and Memorial organization that runs the concentration camp site said it was visited by more than 1.8 million people in 2024, 10 percent more than in 2023 but still below pre-pandemic levels. Content posted on the museum’s social media channels was viewed over 750 million times over the past year, it noted in a report published earlier this month.
Israeli female astronaut will go to space with NASA, minister announces
Israel has reached an agreement with the United States Space Agency to include the first Israeli female astronaut in a future space mission, Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Gila Gamliel, announced Monday morning at the annual Ramon Conference in Tel Aviv.
“We received approval from NASA to send the first Israeli female astronaut into space,” the minister said. She added that the Israeli Space Agency has begun screening candidates for the position.
The minister did not say when the Israeli woman is scheduled to join NASA activities and in what framework she will fly into space. Gamliel added that her ministry is promoting the development of the space sector, and that the Israeli space market has the potential to reach an annual turnover of 15 million shekels by mid-century.
President Isaac Herzog, who is in New York for his speech at the United Nations on the occasion of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, sent a recorded greeting in which he said: “We are currently living in an exciting period in space exploration, in which humanity is discovering new ways to utilize space technologies. Not only to explore the stars, but also to promote global health, stability and prosperity on Earth.”
Herzog added: “Israel, despite being a small country, stands at the global forefront of the space field and serves as a significant factor in leading international space programs. We are already promoting cooperation with countries that have signed the Abraham Accords, and I am confident that in the near future we will see additional cooperation, which will contribute to both Israel and the international space community. Our leadership in advancing innovation in the field is extremely important to Israel’s security, economic and scientific future and should be given top priority.”
Gamliel visited NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston in September. She said during the visit that “supporting the training of the first Israeli female astronaut in NASA’s prestigious program will not only advance the field of space exploration, but will also constitute a significant investment in the future of Israeli science and technology. This milestone will serve as an inspiration for future generations and emphasize the importance of gender equality in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.”
During her visit to Houston, she spoke about the first Israeli astronaut, who was killed in the Columbia space shuttle disaster in 2003. “This training will continue the legacy of the late Ilan Ramon. Now, more than ever, it is essential to foster growth engines for the Israeli economy and society,” she said.
