“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran,” Joe Kent wrote in his resignation letter, which he addressed to President Donald Trump and shared on social media. “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”

 Kent continued, “Early in this administration, high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation campaign that wholly undermined your America First platform and sowed pro-war sentiments to encourage a war with Iran.” 

 He also accused Israel of having also drawn the United States into the Iraq War in the 2000s and said he had lost his wife, who died in a 2019 suicide bombing in Syria linked to ISIS, “in a war manufactured by Israel.”

 Kent, who has past connections to the far-right influencer Nick Fuentes, is the first senior Trump official to resign over the war. His words reflect a deepening and conspiratorial anti-Israel sentiment on the right, where the two-week old U.S.-Israel war on Iran is fracturing Trump’s MAGA coalition.

 “Joe Kent is an American hero, patriot and veteran,” the far-right personality Candace Owens wrote on X. Buckley Carlson, Tucker Carlson’s son who works for Vice President JD Vance, also tweeted that Kent was an “American hero.” 

 Trump, however, said he was glad Kent had resigned, while a White House spokeswoman said there were “many false claims” in Kent’s letter. 

 And Jewish leaders across the political spectrum condemned the letter, with some saying that even principled opposition to the Iran war could not justify its antisemitic tropes.

 Polls show that most Americans oppose the war, which has sparked a global fuel crisis and appears to threaten the economy more broadly. And some of Kent’s allegations appeared to echo what even some senior Trump administration officials have suggested: that Israeli officials manipulated Trump into believing both that Iran was a present danger to the United States, and that there was a swift path to victory.

 But he went further, saying that the dynamic reflected “the same tactic the Israelis used to draw us into the disastrous Iraq war that cost our nation the lives of thousands of our best men and women.” And he blamed Israel for a personal tragedy, too.

 A former U.S. Representative from Washington state, Kent was nominated by Trump to be the counterterrorism center’s director last year. Kent was previously a Libertarian and a Democrat before shifting his party to the GOP in 2021 and backing Trump.

 Kent is also a U.S. Army Green Beret and combat veteran who fought in the Iraq War, including in the Battle of Fallujah. He has credited the catalyst for his backing of Trump and belated opposition to the War on Terror to the death of his wife Shannon Smith, a military cryptologist, in a 2019 suicide bombing in the northern Syrian city of Manbij. 

 At the time, the bombing was connected to the first Trump administration’s campaign against ISIS. But in Kent’s telling now, the ISIS fight, too, could be chalked up to Israeli misinformation. 

 “As a veteran who deployed to combat 11 times and as a Gold Star husband who lost my beloved wife Shannon in a war manufactured by Israel, I cannot support sending the next generation off to fight and die in a war that serves no benefit to the American people nor justifies the cost of American lives,” Kent wrote in his letter.

 To veteran Middle East policy experts, Kent’s framing of Israel as the secret manipulators of recent global conflicts are a blend of nonsensical and dangerous.

 “It strips away any sense of agency on the part of the United States, all of these charges,” Aaron David Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and former State Department negotiator on Arab-Israeli relations, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “And it reposits that agency in the form of a clever, willful Israeli prime minister who somehow manipulates America into going to war.”

 Miller said that Trump was capable of entering a disastrous war on his own, “wanting to make history” by ending America’s decades-long tensions with Iran and assassinating its leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “Netanyahu may be affecting the timetable of the war, but not the war itself,” he theorized.

 Kent’s allegations about Israel having “manufactured” the Iraq War and the Syrian civil war, Miller said, had no basis in fact.  “As to Iraq, there was a little event called 9/11,” he said. “Syrian civil war, I have no idea what he’s talking about.” The framing, he said, reminded him of decades of hearing from various partners in his line of work that the U.S. Congress was “Israeli-occupied territory.”

 In his letter, Kent does not blame Trump for the war, instead urging the president to rethink his approach.

 “I pray that you will reflect on what we are doing in Iran, and who we are doing it for,” he concludes his letter. “The time for bold action is now. You can reverse course and chart a new path for our nation, or you can allow us to slip further toward decline and chaos. You hold the cards.”

 The White House rejected Kent’s claims. “As President Trump has clearly and explicitly stated, he had strong and compelling evidence that Iran was going to attack the United States first,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote in a statement.

 Leavitt added that Trump “ultimately made the determination” to strike Iran in “a joint attack with Israel,” and called the charge that Israel manipulated the president “absurd.”

 Asked about Kent directly at the White House, Trump said, “I always thought he was a nice guy but I always thought he was weak on security.”

 He added, “It’s a good thing that he’s out because he said Iran was not a threat. Every country recognized what a threat Iran was.”

 But Kent was celebrated for resigning by figures on both the left and right, with the loudest voices coming from the fringe.

 In addition to Buckley Carlson and Owens, who called the war “Bibi’s Red Heifer War,” other avatars of the far-right praised Kent. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the former congresswoman, called him “a GREAT AMERICAN HERO.”

 Some more liberal and centrist voices were also approving of Kent, without referencing his antisemitism. 

 “I didn’t support Kent’s nomination. Yet I’m glad he is willing to acknowledge the truth – there was NO imminent threat to the United States, and this war was a terrible idea,” Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, a Democrat and vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, wrote on X.

 “Have talked a lot of shit about Joe Kent over the years (deserved) and can’t speak to all of his motivations here but I gotta say its pretty refreshing to see that someone in the administration has a red line on something,” Tim Miller, an analyst on the liberal-leaning MS Now network and an editor of the anti-Trump publication The Bulwark, wrote on X.

 Meanwhile, both Trump allies — including far-right Jewish influencer Laura Loomer — and Jewish liberals and conservatives denounced Kent.

 “Good riddance,” tweeted GOP Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska. “Iran has murdered more than a thousand Americans. Their EFP land mines were the deadliest in Iraq. Anti-Semitism is an evil I detest, and we surely don’t want it in our government.” 

 Jewish Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer, of New Jersey, also denounced Kent, writing, “Kent’s reduction of Iran to ‘Israel’s fault’ isn’t leadership, it’s bigoted deflection.”

 “Of course, Kent’s own post announcing his resignation is riddled with antisemitic tropes under the guise of blaming Israel,” Amy Spitalnick, head of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, wrote on X. “You can vehemently criticize the Israeli government & oppose the war without engaging in dangerous conspiratorial tropes.”

 “You can resign and ostensibly make it about Iran, but scapegoating Israel and its ‘powerful American lobby’ for Trump’s decision to go to war puts Jews in danger,” Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, wrote on X. 

 A statement from Brian Romick, head of Democratic Majority for Israel, similarly called Kent’s letter “deeply antisemitic” and added, “It is deeply alarming that a man holding one of the most sensitive national security positions in the United States government harbors these antisemitic views.” Romick also said Trump “made the decision to use military force against Iran.”

 “There is no place in public service for traffickers of antisemitic tropes such as Mr. Kent,” the Combat Antisemitism Movement, which has supported war with Iran, said in a statement. “For generations to come, the world will be a safer place as a direct result of the decisive military actions that have been taken by the U.S. and Israel.”

 Prior to his confirmation as national counterterrorism director, Kent served for a time as acting chief of staff to U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. In that role, he was included in the 2025 “Signalgate” group chats in which highly sensitive planning of bombings in Yemen were mistakenly sent to a journalist. 

 Kent has also had past associations with Fuentes, whom he admitted to calling in 2022 to discuss electoral strategy for his House bid that year — though he disavowed Fuentes. Kent’s wife, Heather Kaiser, has contributed
to The Grayzone, a site founded by anti-Zionist Jewish writer Max Blumenthal.

 Kent has also spread conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and defended Jan. 6 rioters. While running for congress in 2022, Kent also talked to pro-Israel lobbyists AIPAC for support, according to a policy paper shared by a Jewish Insider reporter. 

 In that paper, Kent states, “The United States and Israel share common enemies in the Middle East, from terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah to the totalitarian government of Iran,” later adding that he would “bolster the coalition that stands in opposition to Iran.” 

 Kent concluded, “Further, I will introduce legislation to strip the most vile antisemites in Congress from their committee assignments.”

 He hit and injured the congregation’s security director,
Danny Phillips, with his car as he plowed through the synagogue’s doors and drove down a hallway. But he didn’t manage to harm anyone else after he was shot by members of Temple Israel’s armed security team.

 And because the rest of the staff knew exactly how to respond to an active shooter threat.

 “We always worry that you can plan and plan and plan and practice and practice, and it won’t matter, because it will be something else, but it feels like a miracle that everything worked the way it was supposed to, that our team was so incredibly brave, local law enforcement’s been amazing, and that everybody’s OK,” Rabbi Jen Lader of Temple Israel says.

 Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard and West Bloomfield County Police Chief Dale Young immediately praised the security response in the wake of the attack.

 Bouchard noted that the security team had “neutralized the threat” before police officers arrived.

 “I am deeply proud of the response, not only from the security that was on site, but also of all the police officers and the firefighters that are here right now, we train on active shooter events a lot,” Young said during a press conference outside the synagogue. “I think that training certainly helped to mitigate what happened here today.”

 Indeed, it was a situation that Jewish institutions across the United States have trained for, as antisemitism and threats of violence have ticked up in recent years, especially following the 2018 synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh that killed 11 Jews during Shabbat services. The rabbi of a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, credited security training with enabling him to respond when a man took him and three congregants hostage in 2022.

 “Everybody flees danger, and our team went straight toward it, and they were the ones who neutralized the terrorist and saved everybody,” says Lader. “And our teachers followed, you know, to the absolute letter, our active shooter training and lockdown procedures, and saved every kid.”

 Beyond the synagogue’s full-time director of security, Lader says Temple Israel also has a full team of armed security guards on the premises at all times as well as a remote security system that is able to secure different areas of the building during threats.

 In late January, FBI agents also visited Temple Israel to train clergy and staff about how to respond to an active shooter.

 Michael Masters, the national director and CEO of the Secure Community Network, an organization that coordinates security for Jewish institutions nationwide, including in Tidewater, says that the outcomes of the attack reflected the preparedness of Temple Israel.

 “Investing in security is an investment, it’s a down payment on the Jewish future,” says Masters. “The community that made up the synagogue, the larger Detroit Jewish community, has been making that investment for years and years, and today, that investment paid off and lives [were] saved.”

 Among the security measures that Masters says his organization recommended were “bollards or fences or natural obstructions” to the building, controlling access to the facility through reinforced doors or windows and having a security presence.

 “What we hope this reaffirms is that security needs to be an ongoing investment in order to allow Jewish life, faith-based life, to thrive,” says Masters. “And very much that investment can result, and did result, in Jewish lives being saved, and so we all need to recognize that and commit ourselves as members of the community at every level to be a part of making that investment at whatever level we can.”

 In the wake of the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington D.C. in June, the synagogue hosted a town hall on hate crimes and extremism.

 Among the speakers at the town hall was Noah Arbit, a lifelong congregant of Temple Israel who represents West Bloomfield in the Michigan House of Representatives. Arbit said in an interview that after he first learned of the attack while working on the state house floor, he immediately began to cry and raced down to his home synagogue.

 “I campaigned on taking on hate crimes,” said Arbit. “To be working on these issues, and then to see it come home to roost in my own community, in my own synagogue, in my hometown that I represent is, frankly, just like my worst nightmare.”

 While Arbit praised the response by security and law enforcement as the attack unfolded, he said he was “outraged and enraged and deeply pained that it was necessary in the first place.”

 “Jewish communities across the country and world have watched, you know, for the past decade, as our institutions have congealed into fortresses,” he said. “We are now forced to live behind, basically, you know, militarized, institutionally securitized institutions, and what a shame that is. It’s not just a shame, It’s unfathomable, it’s unforgivable.”

 For Rabbi Mark Miller of Temple Beth El, another Reform synagogue a 20-minute drive away in Bloomfield Hills, the attack on Temple Israel served as a stark reminder of why security infrastructure was essential for Jewish institutions.

 “This is one of those moments when, for years and years, we have bemoaned that we have to put so much time and energy into security for our institutions,” says Miller. “And this is one of those days that reminds us that we don’t have a choice.”

 Miller’s synagogue had a recent security crisis of its own, when a man drove through its parking lot in December 2022 and shouted antisemitic threats as parents walked their preschoolers into the building. The assailant, Hassan Chokr, was sentenced to 34 months in prison in September for illegally possessing multiple firearms inside a gun store after leaving the synagogue.

 “It’s a terrifying day, obviously for a lot of people, especially for parents with their kids at not only Temple Israel but at ours and other temples and Jewish institutions,” Miller says.

 Lader says that among her congregants, two competing sentiments had jumped out: Those who “never, in a million years, in our heart of hearts, thought it was ever going to happen to us” and others who “knew it was only a matter of time before it knocked on our door.”

 But another feeling was even stronger, she says.

 “I think the overarching sentiment, and the one that I want to make sure gets out there, is our absolute gratitude to our internal teams, our amazing staff, local law enforcement and our teachers for really, like, a building full of absolute heroes, who were able to keep us safe,” Lader says.

 The most recent threat came Thursday, March 12 when an armed assailant rammed his vehicle into a large synagogue in suburban Detroit, where trained security forces shot at him and he was killed before he could injure anyone.

 The closure stems from a political standoff over immigration enforcement: Senate Democrats are refusing to fund DHS unless the bill includes new oversight and limits on ICE operations, while Republicans and the Trump administration insist on passing funding without those changes. The dispute intensified after the killings of U.S. citizens during recent immigration operations.

 Applications for the federal Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which helps synagogues, schools, and community centers pay for security guards, cameras, reinforced doors and other protections were due Feb. 1. But because the program is administered through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a component of DHS, the ongoing shutdown has frozen the process before applications could be reviewed. An effort to end the shutdown failed in the Senate on March 12. (As of press time, the shutdown continues)

 That means organizations that spent months preparing proposals are now waiting indefinitely to learn whether they will receive funding, at a time of rising anxiety and threats.

 The grant program has become a cornerstone of security planning for Jewish institutions across the United States, especially in the wake of sometimes deadly attacks. Demand for the grants has surged in recent years as antisemitic incidents have climbed and security costs have soared.

 According to data from the Anti-Defamation League, antisemitic incidents in the United States have reached historic highs in recent years, with Jewish institutions frequently targeted with threats, vandalism and harassment. Community leaders say the uncertainty surrounding the grants is arriving at precisely the wrong moment.

 The NSGP is designed to distribute hundreds of millions of dollars annually to nonprofits considered at high risk of attack. Organizations submit detailed applications outlining their vulnerabilities and the security improvements they hope to fund, which FEMA then reviews and awards through state agencies.

 But during a federal shutdown, most DHS personnel responsible for reviewing those applications are furloughed. As a result, the process has effectively stalled.

 For many nonprofits, the delay creates practical and financial uncertainty. Security upgrades such as surveillance systems, bollards, access-control systems, and trained guards often depend on the grants, and institutions typically plan their budgets around the expectation of federal support.

 Jewish communal security groups say the program has been one of the most successful federal efforts to help protect religious institutions. Michael Masters, CEO of the Secure Community Network, a Jewish security nonprofit, says Jewish organizations rely on federal funding to cover essential security needs, saying that it was “a challenge” that DHS was currently not processing security grant applications.

 “There’s no other faith-based community in the United States that needs to spend $760 million a year, at a minimum, on security that we do,” Masters says. “That’s a reality of the threat environment that we have to adapt to, that we have adapted to.”

 Stephen Spencer Pittman was charged on Monday, Jan. 12 with maliciously damaging or destroying a building by means of fire or an explosive, according to an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Mississippi.

 The blaze, which tore through the Beth Israel Congregation, the only synagogue in Jackson, Mississippi, early in the morning on Jan. 10, destroyed two of the synagogue’s Torahs as well as its library and offices. Several other Torahs belonging to the congregation were damaged, though no injuries were reported.

 The Reform synagogue serves as the religious and communal center for the city’s small Jewish population.

 No congregants or first responders were injured in the fire, and investigators quickly ruled out accidental causes. The department’s arson investigation division, working with the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Joint Terrorism Task Force, determined the blaze was deliberately set. 

 During an interview with the FBI and local law enforcement, Pittman confessed that he had set fire to the synagogue, which he referred to as a “synagogue of Satan,” according to the affidavit.

 According to social media accounts that appeared to belong to Pittman, he is originally from Madison, Mississippi, and is a baseball player at Coahoma Community College. (A student athlete profile for Pittman has since been deleted from the school’s athletics page.)

 An X account that appeared to belong to Pittman featured a link to a website that promotes “Scripture-backed fitness” as well as a Bible quote that read, “In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.”

 Pittman told the FBI that he had stopped at a gas station on his way to the synagogue to purchase the gas used in the fire, removed his license plates, broken a window in the building with an ax to gain entry, and used a torch lighter to start the fire. The FBI discovered a cell phone and hand torch believed to belong to Pittman at the scene.

 Zach Shemper, the president of Beth Israel Congregation, told CNN that he had been told by law enforcement that “the perpetrator had been posting antisemitic comments on social media.”

 On Saturday, Jan. 10, Pittman’s father reported his son’s alleged arson to police after his son texted him photos of the building along with messages including, “There’s a furnace in the back,” “Btw my plate is off,” “Hoodie is on,” and “And they have the best cameras.”

 After Pittman’s father pleaded with him to return home, Pittman replied that he was due for “a home run” and “I did my research.” The following morning, Pittman allegedly laughed as he told his father about the arson attack and said, “he finally got them,” according to the affidavit.

 Surveillance footage obtained by the FBI from within the synagogue showed the suspect appearing to pour the contents of a gas container on its floor before setting the building ablaze, according to the affidavit.

 Prior to the affidavit’s publication, several Jewish leaders and politicians were quick to label the arson attack as antisemitic.

 “A historic synagogue was burned. Sacred Torahs destroyed. We are thankful no one was injured, but this wasn’t random vandalism — it was a deliberate, targeted attack on the Jewish community,” wrote Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, in a post on X Sunday, Jan. 11. “An attack on any synagogue is an attack on all Jews. We will not be intimidated. We will not be silent.”

 Deborah Lipstadt, the U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism under President Joe Biden, wrote in a post on X that the incident was a “major tragedy,” adding, “But it’s more than that. It’s an arson attack and another step in the globalization of the intifada.”

 Other politicians and Jewish leaders who labeled the attack as antisemitic included New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, former NYC mayor Eric Adams, New York Jewish Sen. Chuck Schumer, Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott, and Israeli Ambassador to the United Nation Danny Danon.

“Acts of antisemitism, racism, and religious hatred are attacks on Jackson as a whole and will be treated as acts of terror against residents’ safety and freedom to worship,” Jackson Mayor John Horhn said, condemning the fire and pledging support for the synagogue and the broader community. 

 Beth Israel history reflects both resilience and vulnerability. Organized in 1860, it is one of the oldest Jewish institutions in Mississippi. In 1967, members of the Ku Klux Klan bombed the synagogue in retaliation for civil-rights advocacy of the rabbi at the time, Perry Nussbaum, damaging the office and library but causing no injuries. That bombing and later intimidation efforts, including an attack on Nussbaum’s home, remain a defining chapter in the congregation’s history. 

 “We are devastated but ready to rebuild, and we are so appreciative of the outreach from the community,” said Michele Schipper, CEO of the Institute of Southern Jewish Life and past president of Beth Israel. The Institute, whose offices are in the same building, said local Christian and interfaith partners have reached out to offer support. 

 Services have been suspended indefinitely, and leaders say the congregation will work with local partners to find temporary space for worship and community events.

If convicted, Pittman faces five to 20 years in federal prison.

Major Jewish groups urge synagogues to seek federal security grants despite Trump’s terms

JTA Staff
(JTA) — Six major Jewish organizations that have pushed to expand federal funding for synagogue security are urging Jewish institutions to apply again for the grants despite any concerns about the Trump administration and its terms for grantees.

In an unusual joint statement, the groups say they are confident that receiving funds from the Nonprofit Security Grant Program will not require compromising religious values.

The statement does not name any particular concerns but comes shortly after some synagogues and Jewish groups said they would not apply this year because of terms requiring grantees to support federal immigration enforcement at a time when the Trump administration is mounting a major campaign against immigrants.

“While we are aware that questions have arisen on the part of certain religious institutions regarding the current year’s program criteria, our organizations strongly urge all eligible institutions to apply for this critical resource,” the major organizations said in their statement. “We are in regular contact with government officials who have affirmed their continued commitment to protecting the safety of all faith-based institutions and the values they hold.”

The statement was issued Tuesday, September 2 by Jewish Federations of North America, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the Anti-Defamation League, and three groups that focus solely on Jewish security issues: the Secure Community Network, Community Security Initiative NY, and Community Security Service.

This year, $274 million is on the table

In meetings with Congress, leaders advanced a six-point security policy plan to secure the Jewish community:

• Increase the Nonprofit Security Grant Program to $1 billion annually.
• Provide federal support for security personnel costs that Jewish communities are forced to bear.
• Expand FBI resources to fight the domestic and global war on terror.
• Provide federal assistance to local law enforcement to protect Jewish institutions.
• Regulate social media hate speech and incitement of violence.
• Enforce and prosecute existing hate crime legislation.

“Our message is simple and united: Support for Israel is not negotiable, Jewish safety in America is not optional, and the silence in the face of antisemitic incitement–whether it comes from Iran’s Ayatollahs or American campuses–is unacceptable,” said William Daroff, president and CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. “Support for Israel’s security is not a partisan issue. It is a moral imperative, a strategic interest and a Jewish responsibility.”

Israel’s Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter delivered a strong message to the group, as the United States prepares to meet with Iran: “The basis of any agreement pursued with Iran has to be: there is no more attempt to annihilate the Jewish state, the Jewish people.

“The Middle East has the potential to change, and we’re going to continue to move towards an Abraham Accords 2.0. There’s no reason why we can’t have a Middle East, which is calm, quiet, cooperative, normalized and peaceful.”

The day’s mission, however, focused on security. With that in mind, UJFT’s Levin says, “We were and are unified in our message that our security is non-negotiable.”

After a gunman murdered two people outside a Jewish museum, a wide range of major Jewish groups has asked the federal government to sharply increase its funding for religious institutions’ security to $1 billion.

The request is one of several made by the coalition in the wake of the attack outside the Capital Jewish Museum on Wednesday, May 21, when a shooter killed two employees of the Israeli embassy. In the wake of the shooting, Jewish security analysts are assessing what went wrong, and how such attacks can be prevented in the future.

One piece of that prevention, says the Jewish groups’ statement, is more government funding. “The apparently targeted attack on individuals attending an event at a Jewish museum and hosted by a Jewish organization represents an elevation in the threat level to the Jewish community, broadly, at a time of already heightened threats and issues,” the statement says, adding that the threat “requires governmental action commensurate with the level of danger.”

The statement was signed by groups representing the Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform movements, as well as organizations including the Jewish Federations of North America, the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the Zionist Organization of America, the National Council of Jewish Women, Hillel International, and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. The lead signatory was the American Jewish Committee, which hosted the event at the museum.

They call for an increase to $1 billion for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which funds security for religious institutions and has historically funded a broad range of synagogues, Jewish community centers and Jewish day schools.
There are annual negotiations over the size of the NSGP allocation, which was less than $300 million in 2024, and which was frozen for a time this year amid the Trump administration’s cuts to the federal government.

Jewish New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader, in 2023 proposed an increase to $1 billion. The statement also calls for the government to “dedicate funding to meet the urgent need for additional security personnel at Jewish institutions,” as well as for increased police funding. The statement said the attack was “the direct consequence of rising antisemitic incitement in places such as college campuses, city council meetings, and social media that has normalized hate and emboldened those who wish to do harm.”

It called for more government emphasis on fighting hate crimes and monitoring domestic terrorism. It also called on the government
to hold “social media, gaming, messaging, and other online platforms accountable for amplification of antisemitic hate, glorification of terrorism, extremism, disinformation, and incitement.”

In recent years, social media platforms including Facebook and X, which is owned by senior Trump administration official Elon Musk, have loosened their restrictions on hate speech.