Shirin Herzog

Politicians have a habit of referring to their spouses — and in a world where most politicians are men, that’s usually their wives — as their “better halves.” And while Shirin Herzog is eager to engage in diplomacy alongside her husband, the new Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog, she intends to do so on her own terms and with her own skills, with a title that is much longer than spouse. “We are two individual players in a united team,” Herzog told Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch in a recent interview at a Washington hotel. “I’m here to support my husband, but I haven’t given up my career, [with] the full support and encouragement of my husband.”

Way more: “She’s what an ambassador’s spouse is all about, being in their own right an accomplished person. I think that’s very important,” U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides told JI. “One of the reasons you get credibility in these jobs is in your own right. She’s a business person. She understands the Israeli politics. She understands the corporate world. She understands how to get things done. I’m sure she’d be a gracious host, but she’s way more than that.”

Backstory: Born and raised near Tel Aviv, Herzog served as a commissioned officer in Israel’s version of the Navy SEALs. After studying law at Hebrew University, she accepted a job at the law firm Goldfarb Seligman, eventually becoming its first female partner. (She signed her partnership agreement while out on maternity leave.) She still works at the firm, where she focuses on mergers and acquisitions.

Climate conscious: Throughout her career, Herzog has at times worked with companies that focus on the environment, including Netafim, the first major drip-irrigation company in Israel. Herzog hopes to bring a focus on climate change to her work in Washington. “Research shows that climate change is a crisis throughout the world, but our region is going to be hit very, very hard,” she said. “You need to get ready to tackle it. And we should join hands in finding a solution with our neighbors and with everybody else.”

Sea breeze: Herzog said there are two activities that, more than anything else, make her happy. One of them is not an activity Americans can expect to see Shirin take up in a diplomatic capacity, unless they catch her on “diplomatic travel” to the beach: windsurfing. “I grew up rowing and windsurfing,” she said. As a child who lived on the coast, “I was mostly in the sea. But I was a hard-working student.”

Singing along: The other passion of Herzog’s has already made its way into her diplomacy. “I told you the two things that make me happy. The second is singing,” said Herzog, who led “Hatikvah” at the embassy’s Hanukkah party in December, soon after she and her husband arrived in November. She said she plans to host a number of evenings this year for singing, “shira be’tzibur we say in Hebrew, singalong. We used to do those evenings in our home in Tel Aviv, and I’d like to bring them here. It makes me very happy to sing.” Her husband is also a music fan — he plays the flute — but “he would say that as far as singing, our average is good,” Herzog said, laughing.

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Suddenly, it seems, Rep. Jamaal Bowman’s (D-NY) road to reelection has gotten rockier. Last month, the freshman congressman drew condemnation from Jewish leaders when, in an unexpected reversal,  he pulled his support for bipartisan legislation aimed at expanding the Abraham Accords. Now, as he begins his campaign for another term in New York’s redrawn 16th District, Bowman is facing a growing number of primary challengers who are eager to cast his decision not only as misguided but indicative of a broader resistance to compromise that is out of sync with voter sentiment, reports Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel.

Shots fired: “It’s basically saying, ‘If you don’t agree with me 100%, then you’re on the other side and I don’t talk to you,” Manuel Casanova, a former political strategist and sales manager in New Rochelle who entered the race last October, told JI. Vedat Gashi, a real estate attorney and Westchester County legislator in Yorktown who filed with the Federal Election Commission just a few weeks ago, also took issue with Bowman’s about-face. “It feels more like an appeasement of, I think, the most extreme elements,” he said, “than it does the best interest of this country and our national security.”

Fluid field: Gashi, 43, and Casanova, 50 — both of whom lean moderate — are so far the only publicly declared challengers competing in the June primary. But the field remains fluid, and at least one other candidate is expected to jump in. Michael Gerald, a senior pastor at Shiloh Church in Tuckahoe who serves as deputy commissioner at the Westchester County Department of Correction, has already begun gathering petitions in the district and is expected to file as soon as this week, according to a well-placed source familiar with the campaign who spoke with JI on Wednesday.

Eye on Israel: The two candidates described themselves as strong supporters of Israel and say they are in favor of continued U.S. security assistance for the Jewish state. Gashi and Casanova told JI they would have voted in favor of supplemental funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system, as Bowman did last September. Both challengers rejected the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel, suggesting that the movement — which Bowman also says he opposes — is at times antisemitic.

‘Take my word’: Bowman’s opponents emphasized that his reversal last month was one issue they would work to ensure voters do not soon forget. “He supported and, all of a sudden, did he just discover these elements of the bill now?” Gashi said. “Presumably, he would have been aware of them at some point earlier.” Casanova drew a somewhat more pointed distinction. “The biggest difference between Jamaal and me,” he told JI, “is that you can take my word to the bank.”

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Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) and Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD)

A bipartisan group of senators is soliciting signatures on a letter calling on the State Department to work to end the U.N. Human Rights Council’s permanent Commission of Inquiry investigating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Take charge: The legislators, led by Sens. Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Rob Portman (R-OH), called on Secretary of State Tony Blinken to lead “a multinational effort in the Council and in the UN” against the COI, which was created in May 2021 in the wake of the conflict between Israel and terrorist groups in Gaza.

Quotable: “The COI is the latest endeavor by UNHRC to demonize the only Jewish state and is likely to further fuel antisemitism worldwide,” the senators wrote. “Therefore, we urge you to act upon the Administration’s commitment to defend Israel from discriminatory treatment at the Human Rights Council and throughout the UN system. We also urge the U.S. to firmly raise its voice and concerns during the current UNHRC session, the first meeting in several years in which the United States will be a member of the council.”

At issue: The letter notes that the COI’s mandate gives investigators broad authority to examine any time period and any location inside Israel or the Palestinian territories, and does not acknowledge the May 2021 rocket attacks against Israel or Israel’s right to self-defense. It describes “this one-sided approach” as “consistent with UNHRC’s continuing bias against Israel and the disproportionate use of resources in an ongoing campaign to disparage, discredit and denounce Israel.”

John Hancock: The current signatories to the letter are Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Gary Peters (D-MI) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV), and it has the support of AIPAC.

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Bonus: During a press conference on Wednesday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-IN) introduced a resolution urging International Criminal Court member states to petition the court to investigate Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Pressed on the U.S.’s non-membership in the ICC, Graham added, “This court doesn’t make sense when it comes to America or Israel. It makes perfect sense when it comes to places where there is no rule of law.”

Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY)

Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) will reintroduce legislation on Thursday aimed at combating the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement targeting Israel, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. The legislation is backed by 46 cosponsors, including House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Michael McCaul (R-TX).

Blocked: The legislation prohibits participation in boycotts or requests for boycotts of “a country which is friendly to the United States” enforced by foreign governments or international organizations.

No help: It also amends existing law to bar U.S. persons and companies and the federal and state governments from providing information to foreign governments and international organizations that assists boycotts of friendly countries. In this vein, the legislation labels the U.N. Human Rights Council’s creation of a database of companies doing business in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights as an act of BDS. The legislation also specifically refers to the European Union.

Quotable: “Too many, even in the halls of Congress, have emboldened antisemitic and anti-Israel rhetoric by accepting the BDS movement,” Zeldin, who is running for governor of New York, said in a statement. “This legislation not only reinforces congressional opposition to the BDS movement, but protects American companies from being forced to provide information to international organizations that peddle this hate-filled movement, and holds those who attempt to violate that protection accountable.”

History: Zeldin has been working on the bill’s reintroduction since at least last September. Similar legislation was originally introduced in 2018 by Sens. Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Rob Portman (R-OH), picking up 58 Senate cosponsors — 42 Republicans, 15 Democrats and one Independent — and 292 House cosponsors — 216 Republicans and 76 Democrats. Zeldin introduced it again in 2020, picking up 63 Republican cosponsors and one Democrat. In 2020, it languished in committee and never saw further consideration.

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