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TOP TALKER: “Dina Powell to be named Trump’s deputy national security adviser” by Tara Palmeri and Ben White: “In her new role, [Dina] Powell is expected to work closely with national security adviser H.R. McMaster and focus on long-term issues. She is also expected to help lead an interagency policy process working with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, CIA Director Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary James Mattis… Powell will also continue to work with Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner on economic initiatives, but the NSC role is expected to take up much of her time.” [Politico; CNN] 

“General McMaster has also asked Nadia Schadlow to join his staff as a deputy assistant to the president for national security strategy. Ms. Schadlow served as a senior officer at the Smith Richardson Foundation and is the author of a recent book that examined 15 cases in which the United States Army intervened abroad, and the service’s role in political and economic reconstruction. She will be tasked with drafting the United States national security strategy, a comprehensive statement of the administration’s foreign policy and defense goals, which is issued by the White House.” [NYTimes]

Tevi Troy tells us: “I know Dina Powell since we both worked for the House Republican Leadership in the 1990s. We later reunited at the Bush White House, where she worked in presidential personnel, rising to be the head of that office. In that role, she was responsible for recruiting top talent to the Bush administration. I frequently fed her and her team ideas for people to fill top policy slots, and they were receptive to and solicitous of input from the policy team. The office she led had an appreciation for that famed mantra from the Reagan administration, “personnel is policy.” She later worked at Goldman Sachs, where we continued to stay in touch. Her current role is incredibly important: she’s one of only two current Assistants to the President — the highest White House staff rank — to have previously held that role (Joe Hagin is the other one). As such, she brings invaluable experience to the White House staff.”

ADL’s Jonathan Greenblatt emails us: “Dina is a consummate professional whose intelligence and foresight I came to appreciate when she was an executive at Goldman Sachs leading their work on impact investing. I am certain that the Administration will benefit from her sharp mind and political smarts.”

Sen. Tom Cotton tweets: “With years of experience in Cong, WH, State, & business, Dina Powell is outstanding choice for deputy NSA” [Twitter]

COUNTERVIEW: A prominent Jewish leader tells us… “It was bad enough with the appointment of Sahar Nowrouzzadeh, who is a complete sellout that led the fight for Obama on the Iran deal, and Michael Ratney. This [Dina Powell appointment] is the worst. She was responsible for the money that was supposed to go to Iranian dissidents and she gave it to NIAC (National Iranian American Council), which is one of the worst of the worst groups. The Deputy NSA is not a minor position. What’s the point of having an election if all these people are staying on or joining the Administration?”

ICYMI: “Iran deal architect is now running Tehran policy at the State Department” by Jordan Schachtel: “Sahar Nowrouzzadeh, the Iran director for former President Obama’s National Security Council (NSC), has burrowed into the government under President Trump. She’s now in charge of Iran and the Persian Gulf region on the policy planning staff at the State Department. To make matters worse, Nowrouzzadeh is a former employee of the National Iranian-American Council (NIAC), a non-profit that is accused of being a lobbying group for the Iranian regime.” [ConservativeReview]

FROM AN ’05 PROFILE OF POWELL: “Administration officials say that Ms. Powell, who has already made several highly public trips as a voice of the White House in the Middle East, will be persuasive. “The purpose is not necessarily to convince people that our policy is right,” said Adam Ereli, the State Department’s deputy spokesman, who appears regularly speaking in Arabic on Arab television, including on Al Jazeera. “But if you do the job right, at least they’re not going to think that you hate Muslims and you’re a nation controlled by the Jews. It’s dispelling the myths and attenuating the suspicions and debunking the conspiracies. If you speak to them in a language they understand, with a cultural relevance, that can save a lot of effort. That’s why somebody like Dina can be so powerful.” [NYTimes]

When Powell left State for Goldman Sachs, Sec. Condoleeza Rice told the Washington Post: “I’m really sorry to lose her. She is fantastic,” Rice said in an interview. “She had so many ideas. There are people who have ideas but can’t execute them. She really executed them.” Rice pointed especially to Powell’s creation of public-private partnerships, which brought corporations together with the government to assist other countries, such as in Lebanon. The U.S.-Lebanon partnership, formed after the Israeli-Hezbollah war last summer that stirred anger against the United States, is led by a group of corporate executives who traveled to Lebanon with Powell to promote initiatives to create jobs and rebuild homes.”

“Despite rising tensions with Iran over its nuclear program, Powell also resurrected people-to-people exchanges with the Islamic Republic, bringing Iranian medical doctors to the United States and sending a U.S. wrestling team to Iran. “She restarted exchanges with Iran in ways that I thought not possible,” Rice said.” [WashPost]

“Tillerson looks to global effort on Iran as model for North Korea” by Elise Labott and Nicole Gaouette: “He will explore with regional powers the creation of a broader international campaign similar to the Obama administration’s global approach on the nuclear deal with Iran, according to administration officials… While bringing in multiple players to rein in a rogue regime can make it harder for a country such as Iran or North Korea to find partners to work with and thereby contribute to an agreement’s success, it also can make deal-making more difficult and less responsive to unilateral steps. The administration’s dislike of the Iran deal raises questions about how Tillerson would adopt this approach to the Trump era.” [CNN] 

MUST READ: “Nine Reasons Jewish Organizations should Issue fewer Public Statements” by David Bernstein and Abby Porth: “In our current hyped up political environment, we could do little else than write and issue statements. Is this what our organizations were founded to do? Is writing and issuing statements why our constituents invest in us? Does issuing a statement achieve the actual outcomes our donors want our organizations to achieve? There are many ways of advancing the issues our organizations care about… We must ask: Will issuing a statement move the needle? Or, would we more likely affect the change we’d like to see by meeting with public officials, mobilizing our community to do e-advocacy, putting a call into a member of Congress, or developing a briefing paper for decision makers?”  [EJP]

JI INTERVIEW — Representative Jacky Rosen (D-NV) discussed her background as President of the Reform Synagogue Ner Tamid in Nevada and how it helped her during the transition to Capitol Hill in an interview with JI’s Aaron Magid. “I was the immediate past president of the largest Synagogue in Nevada Congregation Ner Tamid and through my 20 plus years of volunteering not just in Jewish philanthropy but philanthropy all around southern Nevada, serving Nevada and serving people was really important to me,” said Rosen. “When you are the head of any philanthropy organization, what you learn is empathy, how to listen and be responsive to people’s needs. What you realize when you volunteer or work in the philanthropy world is that people aren’t just numbers they are families with real needs and real issues and you need to make your judgments with kindness and thoughtfulness in order to serve those needs.”

Rosen on the U.S.-Israel relationship: “I was proud to be a cosponsor of House Resolution 11. It was my first floor speech. I was very proud to come out against that abstention because of course an abstention is really a vote because you just let happen whatever happened. We need to, as America, support a two state solution. We have to be the best facilitators we can because ultimately they have to live with it… Israel – our strongest ally – needs our support and needs our wisdom… So I’m hoping that the current Administration stands by that longstanding policy and we can help bring people to the table.” Read the full interview here [JewishInsider] 

JASON GREENBLATT IN THE MIDDLE EAST: “Jordan’s king meets with Trump adviser on Mideast peace push” by The Associated Press: “The U.S. Embassy in Jordan says Abdullah told envoy Jason Greenblatt on Wednesday that he would “do everything possible” to help end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the basis of a two-state solution.” [AP] • US Middle East envoy meets with Judea and Samaria leaders [INN] 

“In week of Middle East talks, Trump envoy avoids disruption” by Luke Baker: “Social media commentators were quick to point out that Greenblatt, an Orthodox Jew, had shown a notable degree of religious flexibility during his visit that may reflect a desire to be open and diplomatic: he has not worn his kippa, a skull cap worn by religious Jewish men, all week… U.S. officials indicated that Greenblatt… would report back directly to the president on his trip, rather than to Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.” [Reuters]

INTERVIEW — Aaron David Miller shared his thoughts about Greenblatt’s Israel visit in a phone interview with Jacob Kornbluh: “The real issue is not the man or woman in the middle – between the Israelis and the Palestinians. It’s not important whether it’s Greenblatt or Kushner or John Kerry or whomever. The central problem is that the Israelis and Palestinian leaders are not willing or able to make the kind of decisions required to sustain a meaningful peace process that could actually – even if it’s done in phases – create the basis for the least worst outcome, which is two states. And until they own the process with a vision and a set of tactics that are aligned with one another, we are talking here about – at best – managing the problem.”

On Trump’s ME policy: “I would say that this administration is doing a couple of things that are better than the previous administration. 1) I think they are smart in avoiding, publicly, boxing in the Israelis on settlements. 2) They are smart in wanting to engage the Arab world. 3) They are smart in not focusing on a process trying to deal with the core issues. All of that strikes me as learning something from the mistakes of the Obama administration.”

“But here is the key question: have they also learned that if they really do want to resolve this problem then at some point nothing is going to substitute for an Israeli-Palestinian negotiation to deal with the core issues? You cannot use the bottom-up approach or the top-down approach with the Arabs to somehow get around the central issue. Because the central problem is still that neither Abbas nor Bibi are prepared to take the kind of steps required to change the environment, even over time, and then engage on the issues so that a third party could somehow find a way to bridge the gaps.

“And the other thing is, even if Bibi could reach an agreement with Naftali Bennett and even if the U.S. and the Israelis could hammer out some understanding on where to build in the settlements and what to do about East Jerusalem. Even if you could do all that, you still then have to take those understandings and make them functional by selling them to the Arabs and the Palestinians.” Read the full interview here [JewishInsider] 

“If Trump Makes Peace, Israeli Leftists Will Abandon American Jewish Liberals” by Chemi Shalev: “If Donald Trump starts to take peacemaking seriously, the Israeli right will turn on him in a jiffy but the Israeli left will start to see his positive sides…. If he presents an American peace deal and tells the sides to take it or leave it, peace supporters will start kvelling over Ivanka and Jared… Israeli leftists could start complaining about overwrought American liberals getting all worked up about a few bomb threats and desecrated cemeteries.” [Haaretz] 

ON THE HILL — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced yesterday that he would co-sponsor the bipartisan anti-BDS bill, introduced by Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Joe Manchin (D-WV), that would protect states who choose to divest themselves from businesses who boycott Israel. The bill now has 31 cosponsors and has been referred to the Senate’s Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee.

Jewish Insider asked Schumer if he would back David Friedman, President Trump’s nominee for US Ambassador to Israel. The New York Senator lawmaker responded, “I’m waiting until I see him” and declined to comment further. [JewishInsider]

“GOP senators ask Tillerson to probe US funding of Soros groups abroad” by Adam Shaw: “A letter sent Tuesday asked for a probe into how U.S. funds are being used by agencies such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to back left-wing political groups in other countries. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, one of the co-signers, even said foreign officials and political leaders have come to him with “reports of U.S. activity in their respective countries.” … The letter to Tillerson also was signed by Sens. James Inhofe, R-Okla.; Thom Tillis, R-N.C.; David Perdue, R-Ga.; Ted Cruz, R-Texas; and Bill Cassidy, R-La.” [FoxNews]  

WHAT GLASSNER IS UP TO — “Trump rallies: Campaign-funded, for a reason” by Jeremy Diamond and Jeff Zeleny: “Michael Glassner, the Trump campaign’s executive director, said the move will allow Trump to rely on the campaign’s “very effective method of promoting his appearances and filling these venues.” It also means the campaign use campaign dollars to advertise the events and sell campaign merchandise — think “Make America Great Again” hats — to all the eager supporters who attend, Glassner said… Glassner said the rallies were simply about sticking with what’s worked. “These rallies were a major source of energy that drove the entire campaign from the day he announced onward to a degree that had never been done before,” said Glassner… “If you have the capacity to do that then why wouldn’t you,” he said.” [CNN]

“Wherever Trump goes, his gang of aides stays close by” by Annie Karni and Josh Dawsey: “I can book a meeting with Reince, Jared and Bannon,” vented one consultant who has had business in the White House, “and only one of them will show up because everyone is chasing a meeting with the president.” [Politico]

PROFILE: “From Hebrew school to halls of power: Stephen Miller’s unlikely journey” by Eitan Arom: “Even in Hebrew school at Beth Shir Shalom, Miller was something of a budding provocateur, according to a classmate who asked not to be named… Miller seemed to enjoy getting a rise out of people, the classmate recalled. “He was not very concerned with being well liked,” he said. Another Hebrew school classmate, Sophie Goldstein, said classes encouraged debate — an area where Miller thrived — over Torah tractates and other aspects of the religion. Once, Goldstein said, the class of about seven or eight kids was discussing how to deal fairly with the sole remaining slice of a pizza pie, when Miller decided to end the debate. “We’re all talking and talking about it. In the middle of this discussion, Stephen slaps his open hand down on the middle of the slice of pizza,” she recalled. “And of course nobody would touch this pizza slice after he put his greasy 13-year-old paw on it.” [JewishJournal]

“Nazi-Allied Group Claims Top Trump Aide Sebastian Gorka As Sworn Member” by Lili Bayer and Larry Cohler-Esses: “Sebastian Gorka, President Trump’s top counter-terrorism adviser, is a formal member of a Hungarian far-right group that is listed by the U.S. State Department as having been ‘under the direction of the Nazi Government of Germany’ during World War II, leaders of the organization have told the Forward. The elite order, known as the Vitézi Rend, was established as a loyalist group by Admiral Miklos Horthy, who ruled Hungary as a staunch nationalist from 1920 to October 1944.” [Forward]