The Times of Israel is liveblogging Friday’s events as they happen.
US House panel demands Columbia University turn over disciplinary records for anti-Israel protesters
The US House Committee on Education and the Workforce denounces Columbia for its handling of anti-Israel protesters and demands the university turn over disciplinary records for the activists.
The 6-page letter addressed to the university leadership says that the university promised students, faculty and Congress that it would address campus antisemitism, but has failed to do so.
“Columbia’s continued failure to address the pervasive antisemitism that persists on campus is untenable, particularly given that the university receives billions in federal funding,” the letter says.
The letter cites campus disturbances last year, such as protesters’’ takeover of a campus building in the spring, and incidents this semester including the disruption of an Israeli professor’s class.
The committee accuses Columbia of failing to properly discipline those responsible, creating a “hostile environment for members of Columbia’s Jewish communities.”
The letter demands Columbia turn over disciplinary records by the end of this month for 11 different protest incidents that took place between April and January.
The House committee has grilled the heads of Columbia and other top universities over anti-Israel activism for more than a year. The Trump administration has put further pressure on universities since taking office.
Columbia has repeatedly condemned protest activities that violate campus rules in recent weeks, and disciplined some students, including for the disruption of the Israeli professor’s class.
Meeting Modi, Trump names Israel as a waypoint on proposed US-India trade route
Continuing a push from his predecessor Joe Biden, US President Donald Trump says he and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi “agreed to work together to help build one of the greatest trade routes in all of the history.”
“It will run from India to Israel to Italy and onward to the US, connecting our partners, roads, railways and undersea cables,” Trump says while meeting Modi at the White House.
In 2023, Biden and Modi announced plans for a transportation corridor that would link India to the European Union via Middle Eastern countries, including Israel.
Hamas forced surveillance troops to watch torture videos of male hostages, says mother
The female surveillance soldiers recently freed from Gaza were forced by Hamas to watch videos of male hostages being tortured, according to one of their mothers.
Speaking with Channel 12 news alongside three other mothers of the surveillance troops, Shira Albag quotes her daughter Liri as saying “I got out of the hell that we went through there, but the men, the soldiers, are going through worse than us.'”
“The terrorists also made a point to show them videos and share with them all sorts of things that they [the male hostages] were going through there, that they starved… all sorts of things that are really tough,” Shira Albag says. “Even today when they’re here, we don’t know everything exactly that they went through.”
In a portion of the interview aired Wednesday, the mother of released soldier hostage Daniella Gilboa detailed how Hamas forced her daughter to fake her death for a propaganda it filmed while she was in captivity, leading to rumors she had been killed.
Trump says US will sell F-35 stealth fighter jets to India
WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump says that the United States will sell F-35 fighter jets to India, which would join the elite club of countries with the state-of-the-art stealth planes.
“Starting this year, we’ll be increasing military sales to India by many billions of dollars. We’re also paving the way to ultimately provide India with the F-35 stealth fighters,” Trump tells a joint news conference with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The advanced fighter jet is considered a key get for India, which has tightened its defense ties with the US over the last several years, including new port agreements and technology sharing. But the F-35 had not been on the list, in part due to India’s heavy use of Russian-made weapons systems.
The Joint Strike Fighter program is the United States’ most expensive weapon system. The Government Accountability Office has estimated the program will ultimately cost taxpayers $1.7 trillion total. There are eight development international partners in the F-35 program, and the US has signed letters of foreign military sales with 12 additional overseas customers, including Israel, South Korea and Singapore.
The F-35 has also been a target of Elon Musk. In a November “X” post admiring drone swarms, Musk said, “Meanwhile, some idiots are still building manned fighter jets like the F-35.”