Washington
Adams slams Washington Post story on business leaders Gaza protest pressure as anti-Semitic
In the wake of a published Washington Post report claiming business leaders privately pushed Mayor Adams to crack down on pro-Palestinian college protests, the mayor Monday called the story “antisemitic” while not explicitly denying he met with the powerful execs.
“I think that article was antisemitic in its core,” Adams said on Fox5’s Good Day New York of the report from last week. “That some article is saying some clandestine group came together to pressure us, it’s a lie. It did not happen.”
While objecting to the story, the mayor did not address whether he held a private Zoom meeting on April 26 with the prominent business leaders, who reportedly pressed him to send police to disperse the protests at Columbia University. The meeting was not listed on the mayor’s public schedule.
The Post reported that during the call, participants discussed political donations to Adams and continued pressure on Columbia to summon the NYPD. The paper said it reviewed thousands of WhatsApp chat messages and verified the information with some members of the group.
“We meet with all groups throughout this city, of different breakdowns and ethnicities,” Adams said. “That is who I am, and I am going to continue to do so.”
Barry Williams for New York Daily News
NYPD officers stand post after other NYPD officers cleared pro-Palestinian protesters off the lawn of Columbia University Thursday April 18, 2024 in Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams for New York Daily News)
The call purportedly was held after students at Columbia set up a new Gaza solidarity encampment after the NYPD dismantled the original tent city.
As the pro-Palestinian encampments spread at Columbia and other universities across the city, concerns about escalating antisemitic rhetoric and actions were growing. Columbia began offering online classes as some Jewish students felt unsafe going to campus, and Jewish campus leaders warned of a hostile environment.
On campus, college officials and student protesters advocating for divestment from Israel were in the midst of negotiations. The day after the call, Columbia President Minouche Shafik vowed not to call the NYPD again, claiming that police intervention would only inflame an already tense situation.
But a few days later, the calculus changed when a group of mostly students at Columbia and its affiliate institutions, such as Barnard College and Union Theological Seminary, took over a storied academic building for campus protests, Hamilton Hall. On April 30, Columbia officials summoned the NYPD to reclaim the building and clear the new tent demonstration.
In response to a Daily News inquiry, a rep for the Post said the paper regularly covers people with power and wealth working to influence public opinion and policy. They pointed to several other examples, including how a Catholic group spent millions on app data that tracked gay priests and conservative doctors influenced abortion and transgender rights.
Adams’ comments echoed Deputy Mayor Fabien Levy’s statement in the original article that “the insinuation that Jewish donors secretly plotted to influence government operations is an all too familiar antisemitic trope.”
The prominent business leaders and financiers had been communicating in a WhatsApp chat since mid-October titled “Israel Current Events,” according to The Post. Some chat participants attended private briefings with top Israeli officials including former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and centrist war cabinet member Benny Gantz, while others helped screen footage of Hamas’ Oct. 7 atrocities in New York, the report said.
Getty
Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman. (Getty)
The group had reached about 100 members — including more than a dozen who appear on Forbes’s annual list of billionaires and prominent executives such as hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, a prominent critic of colleges’ responses to the Israel-Hamas war, and Joshua Kushner, founder of Thrive Capital and brother to Jared Kushner, former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law.
Members Kind snack company founder Daniel Lubetzky, hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb and billionaire Len Blavatnik reportedly participated in the April 26 call.
Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images
Hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb. (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)
Adams on Fox5 also reiterated that he only deployed NYPD on the Columbia and City College campuses after the schools’ leaders asked for police assistance. Since the raids, Adams and top NYPD brass have alleged the student protesters were goaded by “outside agitators” with no ties to the local colleges.
“We waited, as we were supposed to, to get calls from the college presidents to tell us when to come in,” he said.
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Joshua Kushner, founder of Thrive Capital and brother to Jared Kushner. (Getty)
The Columbia chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, which helped organize many of the demonstrations on campus, said in a statement on social media that members of the group were “the real outside agitators,” who have no affiliation with Columbia but encouraged the NYPD be used on protesters.
With Chris Sommerfeldt
WASHINGTON COUNTY, Ore. (KPTV) – The Washington County Sheriff’s Office released video of deputies using a drone to track down a man wanted for damaging a car.
On Saturday, May 30, a 911 caller reported a man damaging a car outside their home on Southwest 179th Avenue in Aloha. The sheriff’s office said it was reported the suspect, 21-year-old Santos Paulino Castro-Ramirez, was punching the car.
Deputies used a drone to follow the suspect as he ran toward Southwest Barcelona Lane. The sheriff’s office said Castro-Ramirez then entered a white SUV that did not belong to him on SW Barcelona.
Deputies arrested Castro-Ramirez. He was booked into the Washington County Jail for first-degree burglary and attempt to commit a crime – second-degree theft.
Copyright 2026 KPTV-KPDX. All rights reserved.
Beirut, Lebanon – On Tuesday, representatives from Lebanon and Israel met at the US Department of State in Washington, DC – the first session of a two-day round of negotiations that Lebanese negotiators hope will end an invasion of their country.
The negotiations, which started at 9am local time (13:00 GMT), come as Israel’s invasion of Lebanon pushes deeper than at any point since the year 2000 and as Hezbollah and Israel continue to trade attacks. Israel has killed 3,468 people in Lebanon since March 2, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health.
With the war raging on, what do Lebanon and Israel have to discuss and will the talks lead to an end of the Israeli assault?
Here’s everything you need to know.
What will Israel and Lebanon discuss?
Similar to past meetings, the two sides are ostensibly looking to come to some kind of deal following fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, with strong doubts it will be achieved.
Lebanon’s government is still pushing for a total ceasefire. However, as talks started, Israel was striking various parts of southern Lebanon. Lebanon is also trying to get Israel to withdraw from Lebanese territory in the south, so that more than 1.2 million displaced people can return home, and so the state can resume finding a way to disarm Hezbollah and rebuild areas devastated by Israeli attacks.
Israel is meanwhile looking to get assurances that Lebanon will disarm Hezbollah, a prospect analysts say Israel knows is complicated by the continuation of its military operations and occupation of swaths of southern Lebanon. Instead, Israel appears to be trying to fuel sectarian tensions inside Lebanon, leading to chaos and internal strife.
What has happened so far?
An initial meeting took place in April between Israel and Lebanon’s ambassadors to the United States. A second round took place in May with a larger delegation on both sides.
On Friday, a meeting took place with Lebanese and Israeli military representatives, while Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese group, is not involved in the meetings.
Israel claimed the two sides found common ground in that they both wanted to see Hezbollah disarmed. Some Israeli officials suggested there may soon be trade agreements and an exchange of tourists between the two countries. Lebanon, however, said it preferred to find a deal closer to the 1949 armistice agreement between the two countries.
In the last meeting, Beirut reportedly outlined the damage done by Israeli attacks since the 2024 ceasefire agreement and presented detailed maps showing homes destroyed or razed by Israel.
Is there a chance for a ceasefire?
That remains to be seen, but for now, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country’s military would continue attacking Lebanon.
On Monday, Netanyahu announced that attacks on Beirut’s southern suburbs would resume, despite a ceasefire. Apart from two targeted attacks, Israel has not struck the suburbs, known as Dahiyeh, since April.
Iran, which has attempted to include Lebanon in a wider ceasefire between themselves, on one side, and Israel and the US on the other, then intervened by threatening to attack northern Israel.
US President Donald Trump reportedly intervened to stop Israel’s attacks. He announced another ceasefire, after his previous announcement of one between Israel and Lebanon on April 16, after claiming he had gotten the approval of Netanyahu and spoken to Hezbollah.
“There will be no troops going to Beirut, and any troops that are on their way have already been turned back,” Trump announced on his social media platform, Truth Social.
But attacks from Israel and Hezbollah are continuing.
How do Lebanese people feel about the talks?
Not everyone is on the same page.
Some Lebanese support the talks and say they are the only option the state, which has little leverage, has. Among those who believe direct talks are the best way forward are Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.
“There is no option other than negotiation,” Aoun said in a statement on Tuesday.
Others, however, oppose direct talks. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and his allies, Hezbollah, have said indirect talks are preferred and that negotiations cannot be conducted while attacks are ongoing.
How are Iran and the US connected?
Israel and the US attacked Iran on February 28, killing the country’s longtime leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran is Hezbollah’s primary benefactor, and two days after Khamenei’s assassination, Hezbollah fired six rockets towards Israel on 2 March.
Hezbollah’s response brought a huge response from Israel, who have crossed the Litani River – the supposed buzzer zone in southern Lebanon it had created – towards the Zahrani River.
Despite a 2024 ceasefire, Israel had never stopped attacking Lebanon, while Hezbollah had only responded once in December 2024.
Iran has attempted to include Lebanon in the ceasefire deal it has with the United States and Israel, who say this theatre is not part of the agreement.
Although Trump has now announced a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel twice, the invasion of southern Lebanon continues.
Are there other actors involved?
Gulf states have also intervened. Saudi Arabia has been working behind the scenes to get Lebanon’s leadership – Aoun, Salam and Berri – on the same page. Meanwhile, analysts say Saudi Arabia and Qatar engaged the Trump administration to stop an escalation in Lebanon.
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11
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This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Washington editor. You can send feedback using this form.
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