Israel’s influential minister of strategic affairs, Ron Dermer, resigned from his post on Tuesday, three years after assuming the role.

“This government will be defined both by the attack on October 7th and by the prosecution of the two-year, seven-front, war that followed,” Dermer, widely regarded as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s closest advisor, wrote in his resignation letter.

Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed sidestepped a question about Israel’s right to exist during an interview with the anti-Israel media outlet Zeteo last week.

Zeteo founder Mehdi Hasan asked El-Sayed how he would respond if and when he faces questions on the campaign trail about whether he supports Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. El-Sayed initially responded by calling the question hypocritical and again dodged when pressed.

With a week since the off-year gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia, a clear dynamic is emerging: President Donald Trump’s gains with nontraditional GOP voters — especially working-class Black and Hispanic voters and Gen Zers — are not translating into support for the Republican Party this year. 

If Republicans are unable to recreate the Trump 2024 coalition without Trump on the ballot, they will face serious political disadvantages for the midterms and beyond. 

Long before the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks, parents — especially Jewish parents — wondered and at times struggled with how to speak to their children about antisemitism.

In the midst of the antisemitism that exploded in the wake of the attack on southern Israel and continued to rise through the ensuing war between Israel and Hamas, journalists Bianna Golodryga and Yonit Levi found themselves navigating that challenge — and found no help to guide them.

In the wake of a global rise in antisemitism not seen in generations, World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder told some 250 attendees at the organization’s annual gala dinner on Monday that the “only” solutions are “creating more Jewish schools” and “taking the high ground in public relations.” 

“The entire education system — K-12 to college — must be retaught. Laws must be passed that will focus on no racism, no antisemitism and no anti-Western civilization being taught,” said Lauder. “It’s [also] time we fight back with stronger PR to tell the truth about [antisemitism and Israel]. If Israel doesn’t want to do this, we in the Diaspora will help.

Senators offered a positive readout from a dinner meeting with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa on Sunday evening prior to al-Sharaa’s Monday summit at the White House with President Donald Trump.

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) told Jewish Insider that al-Sharaa was “very charismatic” and “had a very open conversation” about his “checkered past” with senators. “I found it to be straightforward. I thought his answers were what we needed to hear, but I think he honestly believed it too,” Mullin said of the dinner. 

Israeli diplomats and experts have expressed concern as the U.S. seeks a two-year United Nations Security Council mandate for an international stabilization force in Gaza.

The force is part of President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan to end the war in Gaza, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to in September. However, the broad plan did not provide details on most of its points and did not mention a U.N. mandate.

President Donald Trump indicated that he expects Syria to join the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State during his meeting with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa on Monday at the White House. 

“Yes, you can expect an announcement on Syria,” Trump said to reporters in the Oval Office. “We want to see Syria become a country that’s very successful. And I think this leader can do it. I really do.”