Israel’s non-resident ambassador to the Republic of Chad, Ben Bourgel, presents his credentials to Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Déby in May.

When Israel’s non-resident ambassador to the Republic of Chad, Ben Bourgel, presented his credentials to President Mahamat Idriss Déby in May, the biggest surprise was that it all felt very normal. “When I went to present my letter of credence, the presidency did exactly the same for me as it would do for any ambassador presenting his credentials,” Bourgal, who is Israel’s resident ambassador to Senegal and, as well as Chad, non-resident to the Gambia, Cape Verde, Guinea and Guinea Bissau, told Jewish Insider’s Ruth Marks Eglash in an interview. The meeting, Bourgel explained, marked “a new era” for Israel and the landlocked central African nation, after 50 years of no formal diplomatic relations. In 1972, facing pressure from Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Chad severed ties with Israel.

Key to stability: Bordering Libya as well as Sudan, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, Nigeria, and Niger, and with a population of some 16 million, Bourgel told JI that Chad was a “very important partner” for Israel. “It’s a key to stability and security in the region and that’s the way it is perceived by all international partners based there. Europe, the U.S. — they all see Chad as a constructive partner,” said Bourgel, who previously served as the political coordinator of Israel’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York.

Africa policy: For Israel, warming ties with one of the African continent’s largest countries is part of a two-fold strategy, explained Bourgel. “First, we are widening the circle of peace,” said the envoy, explaining that the creation of such relations had an impact on other nearby countries. “The second is Israel’s efforts to go back to Africa, which was initiated a few years ago.” Yonatan Freeman, an international relations expert at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, told JI that the renewed diplomatic relationship with Chad was the first tangible result of this African policy. In addition, he said, the diplomatic process with Chad, a Muslim-majority country, had opened doors to the Arab world, maybe even paving the way for the 2020 Abraham Accords that Israel signed with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, and to normalizing ties with Sudan and Morocco in the same year.

Saving lives: With encouragement from the Chadian leadership, the warming of formal relations with Israel has already filtered down to benefit ordinary people. In July, for the first time, Israeli humanitarian aid organizations Israel Flying Aid and Save a Child’s Heart, together with MASHAV, the Israeli Embassy in Chad and the Menomadin Foundation, facilitated the airlift to Israel of three Chadian children in desperate need of heart operations.

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Blake Masters speaking with attendees at the “Rally to Protect Our Elections” hosted by Turning Point Action at Arizona Federal Theatre in Phoenix, Arizona.

Blake Masters, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Arizona, has claimed he is unfamiliar with the controversial founder of a social media platform for extremists who endorsed his campaign last month. In late July, Masters earned a nod of approval from Andrew Torba, the chief executive of Gab, a far-right Twitter alternative that is widely viewed as a hotbed of white nationalist sentiment. While Masters rejected the endorsement a few days later and insisted he had “never heard of” Torba, the incendiary social media entrepreneur has since countered that Masters’ claim is a “flat-out lie.” Masters’ campaign has continued to stand by his original remarks — as advisor Katie Miller affirmed in a statement on Tuesday to the Arizona Republic. “Blake interacts with tens of thousands of people on Twitter spaces — the sentiment remains that he doesn’t know Torba and rejects his support,” she said. It would not be unreasonable, however, to expect that Masters might remember his nearly three-minute exchange with the founder of Gab during a live Twitter conversation in January — a recording of which was obtained by Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel on Tuesday. 

Playback: Their discussion was focused largely on content moderation and censorship, even as Torba introduced himself to Masters with an unsubtle nudge to join his platform, which is regarded as something of a repository for extremists banned from other platforms. “My question for Blake is, Blake, when are you getting on Gab?” Torba, who seemed eager to plug his company to a possible future senator, asked after entering the Twitter Spaces discussion, which was hosted by Adam Korzeniewski, a former Trump administration official and political consultant. Masters chuckled. “I’ll check it out. I’m definitely not, I mean, I’ve never used it. I’m definitely not anti — I think I’m on Gettr,” he said, referring to a right-wing social media network founded by a former aide to former President Donald Trump.

Tech talk: “I have a question for you, because I agree with you that, like, Apple and I guess the other one would be the Google Play store or whatever, they shouldn’t be allowed to discriminate against a company,” said Masters, who has established himself as a vocal critic of Big Tech as a Senate candidate. “I’m curious,” he continued, “presumably you’re not banned from the app store, right?” Torba bemoaned that Gab’s “entire developer account is banned from Apple,” adding that he is “not even allowed to make submissions to the app store.” Following a brief technical back-and-forth about how Gab functions independently from the mainstream app stores, Masters appeared to express sympathy for Torba’s challenges at the helm of the social networking site. “I hadn’t realized it was that bad,” Masters said. “That’s obviously super messed up. I don’t think Apple should be allowed to do that.”

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Andy Beshear, governor of Kentucky, speaks onstage during the 2022 Concordia Lexington Summit on April 08, 2022, in Lexington, Kentucky.

When Air Force One touched down in Kentucky on Monday in the wake of deadly flooding, he was greeted by Andy Beshear, Kentucky’s Democratic governor, who since late 2019 has held power in this deeply conservative state. “Sometimes we call the president the comforter-in-chief,” said Rabbi Shlomo Litvin, the director of Chabad of the Bluegrass in Lexington. “[Beshear] has had a great deal of success tying into that role.” Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch talked to Kentucky political experts and Jewish leaders about Beshear, who has surprised political observers with positive approval ratings well into his first term. 

Got lucky: Beshear was elected governor in 2019 by a thin margin, defeating Republican incumbent Gov. Matt Bevin by just over 5,000 votes. “He was very lucky in that he ran against a governor who was highly unpopular,” said Al Cross, director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues at the University of Kentucky and a longtime political commentator. “He was also lucky that he was the son of a former governor [Steve Beshear] who was elected to two consecutive terms and left popular.” 

Draft Andy: A handful of Beshear super-fans hope the governor, whose supporters started calling him “Uncle Andy” during the COVID-19 pandemic, will run for higher office. His name has appeared on some long-shot lists of possible 2024 Democratic presidential candidates, but political observers caution that such a move is unlikely — and Beshear said last year that he would not consider running for the nation’s highest office in the next election. Beshear has also tried to maintain some distance from national Democrats. “He ran on typical moderate to mainstream Democratic values,” said Cross. “The national Democrats have dug themselves a hole in the state by becoming too much about identity politics and social issues,” which, Cross added, Beshear has “done a fairly good job” of avoiding. 

No place for hate: Beshear has also dealt with a number of high-profile antisemitic incidents in Kentucky. “Each time, [Beshear] had to be the figure speaking out,” said Litvin. In 2020, a report revealed that a training presentation used by the Kentucky State Police quoted Adolf Hitler at length in a section urging officers to use violence. Beshear called it “absolutely unacceptable.” Later that year, at a menorah lighting hosted by Litvin in Lexington, a person driving an SUV shouted antisemitic slurs and ran over the leg of an individual who stepped in to stop him. This year, several Republican legislators invoked Jewish stereotypes in official proceedings. By early 2021, Beshear had worked with Jewish leaders in the state to adopt a resolution condemning antisemitism and adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism. “We appreciate the fact that he really has been quick to condemn acts of antisemitism, recognizing that antisemitism has no place in the Commonwealth, and that he stands with Jewish community,” said Melanie Maron Pell, chief field operations officer at the American Jewish Committee and a longtime Louisville resident.  

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