Walter Russell Mead

For a remote country with a relatively small — but growing — economy, Israel engenders surprisingly sharp feelings in America’s national discourse. In a new book, foreign policy analyst Walter Russell Mead offers a comprehensive narrative about American support for Israel throughout history while assessing how Americans view Israel today, Jewish Insider’s Jacob Miller reports. Mead’s latest book, The Arc of a Covenant: The United States, Israel, and the Fate of the Jewish People, joins a growing bookshelf of literature about the connection between the two nations. Yet unlike other books, Mead does not focus only on policy, Jewish attitudes or recent history; his goal is to dispel common myths about American support for Israel by chronicling Americans’ attitudes about Zionism — and later about the State of Israel — going back more than a century.

Correct the narrative: The impetus for Mead’s book came during the George W. Bush administration, when the Wall Street Journal columnist became disgruntled with Bush critics insinuating that Jewish interests were running foreign policy and that “the neoconservatives were part of a Jewish cabal.” Mead told Jewish Insider in an interview on Tuesday that “It’s insanity to blame a president who[m] the majority of Jews voted against and the majority of Jewish giving went against, and say he’s carrying out the Jewish pro-Israel agenda because of the financial power of Jews.”

Hate watch: In the book, Mead also examines the “cyclical” history of American antisemitism, which was prominent during the Civil War, and then began rising again during the 1880s, peaking during World War II, and has again witnessed a revival over the past several years. “At moments of national crisis, you do get these expressions of antisemitism,” he explained.

Mideast moves: President Joe Biden’s trip to the Middle East this week, according to Mead, is a “reversal of Biden’s earlier Middle East policy.” Breaking from the president’s earlier approach, which focused on holding Saudi Arabia accountable for its human rights abuses and unsuccessfully cajoling Iran into compliance with the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, Biden is now reengaging America’s Middle East allies, in part in the hopes of driving down energy prices, which have soared in recent months. “His big problem is that the price of energy is killing him in the polls, and second to that, the plan with Iran does not appear to be working,” Mead explained.

Read the full interview here.

The plenary session of Iraq’s new parliament held on January 09, 2022 in Baghdad, Iraq.

In a letter sent to President Joe Biden on Tuesday ahead of his trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia, which begins tomorrow in Jerusalem, a bipartisan group of 24 House and Senate lawmakers urged the president to make clear U.S. opposition to Iraq’s recently passed law outlawing relations with Israel during his visit, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Quotable: “Iraq is an important and valued security partner. Nevertheless, this law jeopardizes freedom of expression, promotes an environment of antisemitism, and could deter other states that have yet to normalize relations with Israel,” the letter reads. “As you embark on travel to the Middle East later this month, we respectfully encourage you to raise Iraq’s anti-normalization law during your visits with foreign leaders and make clear the United States’ resolute condemnation.”

On the list: The letter was led in the Senate by Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Joni Ernst (R-IA), and in the House by Reps. Brad Schneider (D-IL) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA). Signatories include Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Tim Scott (R-SC) and Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Reps. David Trone (D-MD), Ann Wagner (R-MO), Kathy Manning (D-NC), Don Bacon (R-NE), Steve Cohen (D-TN), Lisa McClain (R-MI), Kathleen Rice (D-NY), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Jake Auchincloss (D-MA), Marionette Miller-Meeks (R-IA), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Jackie Walorski (R-IN), Ritchie Torres (D-NY) and Stephanie Murphy (D-FL).

Pushing ahead: In addition to condemning the Iraqi law, the letter lauds the Abraham Accords and the “boundless” possibilities for the future. The lawmakers write that they “support [Biden’s] efforts during your trip to strengthen the existing Abraham Accords agreements and expand the agreements to additional countries. We appreciate your continued support of efforts that advance peace in the Middle East and hope you will place continued normalization of relations with Israel at the forefront of your agenda this month.”

Read the full story here.

Bonus: The House will begin debate today on the National Defense Authorization Act. Amendments under consideration would condemn Iran’s human rights violations, condemn Iran’s lack of cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency and express Congress’ commitment to preventing a nuclear-armed Iran, express support for the U.S.-Israel relationship, express support for the Egypt-Israel peace treaty and require reports on the Iran arms embargo, Iranian arms proliferation efforts and the regime’s use of digital surveillance and internet censorship. The House Rules Committee rejected along party lines proposed amendments that would have required a report on whether any Defense Department contractors participate in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and expressed that it is U.S. policy to seek the abolition of the United Nations commission investigating Israel and combat anti-Israel bias on the Human Rights Council.

Jared Moskowitz, Florida’s director of emergency management, gestures during a news conference Sunday, April 4, 2021, at the Manatee County Emergency Management office in Palmetto, Fla.

Some Republicans serving in Congress have embraced antisemitic ideology, Jared Moskowitz, a leading candidate in the race to replace Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL) in his South Florida congressional seat, warned on Monday in an event with local Jewish Democrats, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod Reports.

In his own words: “The Republican Party has embraced this level of white supremacy. And so at the end of the day, it’s no longer where Democrats and Republicans can come together and fight antisemitism because antisemites have breached the door and are now in the Republican Party and serving in Congress,” Moskowitz said at a Broward County Democratic Jewish Caucus Candidate Forum. “We’ve got some anti-Zionists on our side. But it’s nowhere near what’s going on with Republicans.”

In the field: Moskowitz, currently a Broward County commissioner and a former state legislator and former director of emergency management for the state, faces former Florida Anti-Defamation League Director Hava Holzhauer and Ft. Lauderdale Deputy Mayor Ben Sorensen in the Democratic primary in Florida’s 23rd Congressional District.

Shots fired: Sorenson, who recently questioned Moskowitz’s Democratic credentials, spotlighted his service under Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, saying, “Jared has been working for Ron DeSantis for years and rolled out many of his policies, and that’s not what we need as a Democrat leading us in Congress.” Moskowitz defended his record, pointing to his work assisting the Jewish community during the COVID-19 pandemic, and also shot back at Sorensen. “By the way, when Ben Sorensen needed help in Ft. Lauderdale, you know who he called? Jared Moskowitz,” he said. “Ben, I still have the text messages and emails.”

Next steps: All three candidates also voiced support for President Joe Biden’s reengagement with Saudi Arabia during his trip to the Middle East this week. Holzhauer argued that Saudi Arabia’s record of human rights violations should not prevent the U.S. from working with the oil-rich kingdom. “It’s difficult because we have imperfect partners — we’re imperfect, by the way as well, as the U.S. — but we have imperfect partners that violate human rights, and it’s difficult for us to think about bringing them in,” she said. “But I’d rather be smart than right all the time, which means I’ll take some if I can’t have it all.”

Read more here.

Since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February, the Israeli humanitarian group IsraAID has sent $30 million worth of medical and humanitarian aid to the embattled nation from a coordination center in Romania, while also operating shelters for Ukrainian refugees in Moldova. Now, the organization is starting a rapid expansion of work inside the borders of Ukraine itself, focusing on mental health access, aid distribution and bringing clean water to the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, reports Lev Gringauz for eJewishPhilanthropy.

Staying focused: Those initiatives have grown out of a concern that Ukrainians in the country are being left behind by aid efforts. “The challenges and the humanitarian needs inside Ukraine are so big and are just getting bigger,” IsraAID CEO Yotam Polizer told eJP. “And unfortunately, the world’s attention is shifting away.” 

Government partnership: When IsraAid first contacted the Ukrainian government in early June to coordinate its new aid efforts, it was a natural fit: Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska has been making Ukrainian access to mental health care a national priority. Partnering with Zelenska’s national mental health initiative, IsraAID will send teams of Israeli trauma specialists to Ukraine for several weeks at a time, while also stationing 10 to 15 aid workers in the country full-time. There, they’ll train Ukrainian health care professionals in ways to help children and injured soldiers.

Read the full story here.