After President Donald Trump wrapped up a signing ceremony inaugurating his new Board of Peace in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, several of its highest-profile members hustled to a private lunch where they spoke hopefully about the future of the Abraham Accords.

Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. Princess Reema Bandar Al Saud and Israeli President Isaac Herzog both shared optimistic remarks about the region’s future, according to one guest. Also in the room were Bahraini Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa and Khaldoon Al Mubarak, the CEO and managing director of the Mubadala Investment Company, an Emirati sovereign wealth fund.

Hamas must demilitarize before Gaza can undergo redevelopment, President Donald Trump’s informal advisor Jared Kushner said on Thursday on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, as he presented the administration’s plan to disarm the terrorist group and rebuild Gaza.

Kushner was building off of earlier remarks by President Donald Trump at the founding ceremony for his Board of Peace. “We are committed to Gaza being fully demilitarized, properly governed and properly rebuilt. … We’re going to be very successful in Gaza; it’s going to be a great thing to watch,” Trump said at the ceremony.

President Donald Trump hosted a signing ceremony on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday for the founding members of the Board of Peace, his newly formed organization dedicated to world peace and security.

“We’re going to have peace in the world, and boy, wouldn’t that be a great legacy for all of us,” Trump said in his speech launching the board.

A university professor who resigned from her position following a Title VI antisemitism investigation, and another who organized large-scale anti-Israel demonstrations, are among several controversial speakers scheduled to speak at an event on Friday hosted by the University of Washington. 

The day-long conference, called “The World as Palestine: On Advocacy, Activism, and Justice,” is organized by the Middle Eastern Studies department and is scheduled to be held in the university’s student union building. 

Days after assuming office, Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger is facing scrutiny from Jewish leaders over her decision to appoint Jim Moran, a former congressman representing northern Virginia now working as a lobbyist for clients including Qatar, to the George Mason University board of visitors, despite his extensive record of using antisemitic tropes and hostility to Israel. 

The appointment, which Spanberger announced on Saturday hours after she had been sworn into office, came as part of a broader leadership shake-up of the state’s three public universities — as the Democratic governor seeks to assert her influence in the wake of a Republican administration whose university board oversight she had criticized during the campaign as politically meddlesome.

Rep. Julia Letlow (R-LA), who announced a primary challenge to Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) this week, was part of a 2023 junket trip to Qatar funded by a pro-Doha business group. 

She was joined by Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), who is mounting a Senate bid in Texas, on the Qatar trip. 

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he hopes no military action will be needed in Iran, but stopped short of ruling it out as the U.S. continues to move military assets to the Middle East.

“We hope there’s not going to be further [military] action,” Trump said during an interview with CNBC on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, while alluding to the fact that it still might be a possibility given Tehran’s conduct in suppressing nationwide demonstrations. “But you know, [the regime is] shooting people indiscriminately in the streets.”

Two prominent business leaders were spotted this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, wearing the blue square pins popularized by Robert Kraft’s foundation that have become a symbol in the fight against antisemitism. 

“We are deeply grateful to World Economic Forum Co-Chairman Larry Fink and Bank of America President and CEO Brian Moynihan for wearing the blue square during events in Davos. Their visibility, and their decision to champion this cause on a global stage, sends a powerful message that standing up to antisemitism and hate of all kinds matters in every corner of the world and with every audience,” Adam Katz, president of the Blue Square Alliance Against Hate, told Jewish Insider. The anti-hate group rebranded in October from its previous name, the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism.