Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley

Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley teased a potential run for the White House in 2024 in a speech on Monday at a gathering hosted by Christians United for Israel just outside of Washington, D.C., Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Trial balloon: Speaking about the possibility of a new Iran deal at the group’s annual summit, Haley, the Republican former governor of South Carolina, said, with a grin and a wink, “If this president signs any sort of deal, I’ll make you a promise, the next president will shred it on her first day in office” (formatting from a pre-delivery copy of Haley’s speech obtained by JI).

Strong response: Haley’s comments were met with loud cheers and a standing ovation from an audience of more than 1,000. “Just saying, sometimes it takes a woman,” she quipped following the applause, deviating from the prepared remarks.

Watch the moment here.

Tough talk: Haley opined that she did not think President Joe Biden’s trip to the Middle East last week “went well” and accused the president of being insufficiently willing to use force against Iran to prevent the regime from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Biden said during his trip to the Middle East last week that military force would be a “last resort.” In lieu of a deal, Haley said, “If it ever looks like Iran is close to getting a nuclear weapon, we must act, swiftly and decisively,” and, “At a minimum, we should give Israel everything it needs to defend itself and destroy Iran’s nuclear program.”

Read more here.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR)

In remarks at the Christians United for Israel summit on Monday, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) previewed plans to introduce federal anti-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions legislation,Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Contractor contacts: The legislation, as described by Cotton, would prevent the military from contracting with any companies that engage in boycotts of Israel, a similar mechanism utilized in many state-level anti-BDS laws. The legislation, if passed, would mark a major step forward in efforts to translate state-level anti-BDS initiatives into federal law.

Lower chamber: Earlier this month, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) introduced an amendment to the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act that would have required a Defense Department report on whether any Defense Department contractor “participates in or supports any organized effort or organization that, based on a belief that Israel is oppressing Palestinians, promotes a boycott of, removal of investments from or economic sanctions against Israel or any person or entity in Israel.” That amendment, co-sponsored by Reps. Dan Meuser (R-PA), Elaine Luria (D-VA), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), David Trone (D-MD) and Tom Suozzi (D-NY), was blocked from House floor consideration last week by a party-line vote in the House Rules Committee.

Go further: Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), who also addressed the CUFI summit, expressed her opposition to U.S. reentry into the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, arguing that any new agreement needs to carry more weight than its predecessor. “The future agreement needs to be stronger than the JCPOA,” she said, referring to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. “We need to be sure that we have rigorous inspections, we need to put a limit on the centrifuges, we need to remove those sunset clauses because we can never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”

At odds: In separate remarks at the summit, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) claimed that the Biden administration is seeking to reestablish a diplomatic mission to the Palestinians in Jerusalem to “undermine Israel.” Cruz said, “The entire purpose of that is not to give consular services to the Palestinians, you can do that in Ramallah. The purpose of putting it in Jerusalem is for one reason and one reason only, and that is to elevate Palestinian claims of sovereignty to the city of Jerusalem.”

Read more here.

Jason Greenblatt

Opining about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a cottage industry in Washington, D.C. There are analysts galore, academics, former peace negotiators, think tankers — many appearing as talking heads on TV and writing sharp op-eds on how to resolve the intractable conflict. And then there was Jason Greenblatt, fresh from the Trump Organization’s legal team and with no prior political experience recruited by former President Donald Trump to help bring peace to the Middle East. Now, the ultimate outsider, who served for almost three years as Trump’s Middle East peace envoy, has gotten the last word over Beltway experts in the form of a new memoir, which hits bookstores today. Unlike other Trump memoirs packed with lurid details about a sometimes chaotic administration, In the Path of Abraham: How Donald Trump Made Peace in the Middle East — and How to Stop Joe Biden from Unmaking It describes a level-headed policy process and skips juicy anecdotes for a reasoned explanation of Trump’s decisions, Jewish Insider’s Jacob Miller reports.

Outside in: Arriving in Washington without prior experience in politics or diplomacy, Greenblatt, who now serves on the Republican Jewish Coalition’s board of directors and runs an Israeli crypto investment fund, fit into the “outsider” mold embraced by Trump during his campaign. “I don’t make any secret about me being an outsider,” said Greenblatt, 56, who described his “sincerity” and “devotion to the cause” as qualifying characteristics for picking up the Middle East portfolio. In the book, Greenblatt criticizes the “Washington consensus” with which Trump broke on much of his Middle East policy, explaining that Beltway insiders have failed to resolve the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “I don’t think there is an Israeli-Palestinian expert,” he said.

People perspective: Greenblatt steers clear of making disparaging claims about his colleagues in the Trump administration and his counterparts in Israel, saving his criticism for Palestinian leaders, such as peace negotiator Saeb Erekat, who died in 2020 (“a master propagandist whose volatile temper could flare with an ill-perceived word or phrase”), and Obama administration officials such as former CIA Director John Brennan, whose reaction to the embassy move Greenblatt compared to the response of the ayatollah of Iran.

Deal of the century: The crowning achievements of Trump’s Middle East policy — the Abraham Accords, which opened up relations with Israel and several Arab countries — concluded after Greenblatt left the administration in October 2019, but Greenblatt catalogs the decisions that led to the historic deals. The Abraham Accords, he suggested, were made possible by “shifting forces in the Middle East” in addition to decisions made by the Trump administration. Critical to the Accords’ success was the decision to pursue “parallel tracks” of diplomacy with the Palestinians and with Arab countries, so that Israeli-Arab reconciliation was linked to but not contingent on a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “We were still going to pursue peace and see where it led,” after the Palestinians had left the negotiating table, Greenblatt explained.

Read more here.