What began as a diplomatic endeavor two years ago came full circle on Tuesday when Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Gilad Erdan touched down in Abu Dhabi with a group of diplomats representing 14 countries around the globe, Jewish Insider’s Melissa Weiss reports. The ambassadors were part of the latest cohort of diplomats traveling with Erdan to the Middle East. As Israel’s envoy in Turtle Bay, Erdan has made it his personal mission to bring colleagues to the Jewish state. The addition of the United Arab Emirates, he explained, was a natural extension of the Abraham Accords, signed two years ago, which normalized relations between Israel, the UAE, Bahrain and, months later, Morocco and Sudan. UAE Ambassador to the U.N. Lana Nusseibeh organized the UAE portion of the trip.

VIP meeting: In Abu Dhabi, the group sat with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed in a meeting that lasted more than an hour, several participants told JI. Sheikh Mohamed, Erdan said, “explained about his vision and why he believed that Jews, Muslims and Christians can not only live together, but also pray together…it was inspiring.” The meetings with Emirati leaders were “one of those instances where the reality might exceed the dream of what you know really is achievable,” Eric Goldstein, the CEO of UJA-Federation of New York, told JI. UJA funded the Israel portion of the trip; the UAE covered the costs for the ambassadors’ Emirati visit.

Packed itinerary: The delegation is in Israel until Tuesday, where the traditional touring sites — Yad Vashem, Masada, the Peres Center for Peace — are on the itinerary, along with some less-traditional sessions. The group met on Sunday with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu. “Our schedule has been jam-packed and we’ve had some really, really good meetings,” Amb. Robert Wood, the U.S. alternate representative for special political affairs at the U.N., told JI. “It’s just been a great trip.”

Long game: The U.N. remains a controversial body for its outsized focus on Israel. On Friday, Israeli Arab lawmaker Ayman Odeh, previously the head of the now-disbanded Joint Arab List, broke with tradition and met with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. While the trip’s backers aren’t expecting the experience to alter countries’ voting patterns, they believe the experience, in Goldstein’s words, is “vital” in the long term. “Many of these ambassadors are very close to their heads of state,” Goldstein explained. “Many of them, or at least some of them, will become heads of state. So this is not only about changing U.N. votes now. It’s really more over a period, what are the consequences of these kinds of experiences?” 

Read the full story here.

Bonus: Israel and the UAE ratified a comprehensive economic partnership agreement over the weekend.

Lahav Harkov, The Jerusalem Post’s senior contributing editor and diplomatic correspondent, is as prominent of a figure on Twitter as she is within Israel’s political journalism scene. Harkov, who moved to Israel at the age of 17, is the Post’s point person for all things relating to Israeli foreign policy and its revolving door of prime ministers. She also co-hosts The Jerusalem Post’s own podcast: “The Yaakov and Lahav Show,” alongside Editor-in-chief Yaakov Katz. On this week’s episode of Jewish Insider’s “Limited Liability Podcast,” Lahav joins co-hosts Rich Goldberg and Jarrod Bernstein for a conversation about the U.S.-Israel relationship and potential policy changes under Netanyahu.

On the accomplishments and shortcomings of the Bennett/Lapid era: “I think Bennett and Lapid were not the same, for starters, but I think overall they tried to do something admirable, which is that they tried to do something that would unite Israelis and tried to pursue policies that wouldn’t be too divisive. And they failed, partly because of their own failures and partly because of how sort of, maybe ‘rabid’ is not a nice word, but the opposition was really just… wouldn’t cut them slack for one day, even when they were doing things that this government would support if it was coming up in their time.”

On Israel’s stance on the war in Ukraine: “There was a debate in the U.S. that I felt, in a lot of ways, it was not realistic. People were acting as though Israel is the U.S. and has the kind of money the U.S. has, the size and power the U.S. has…the one thing people kept talking about is Iron Dome, right? Like Israel has 10 Iron Domes, and when there’s rockets coming in from Gaza, they’re moved all around the country, they don’t stay in one place, they’re moved in order to cover the spots that they think are going to be trouble spots. Ukraine is 11 times bigger than Israel — you think if Israel gave up a couple of Iron Domes that would really be significantly helpful to them?”

On whether new countries will be added to the Abraham Accords under Netanyahu: “I think it’d be great if we could have relations with more Arab and Muslim countries — I do think that U.S. buy-in and U.S. encouragement is very important to making that happen, and I don’t think the Biden administration is opposed, but I just think that it’s not their priority…And so Biden, we saw him sort of talk about it, encourage it in Indonesia, for example, and Indonesia is definitely an option, a possible country that may normalize relations with Israel and there’s stuff going on there, there’s business relationships, anyway…So maybe Indonesia could happen without a greater U.S. buy-in, but the Saudis, I just don’t see it.” 

Read more and listen to the podcast here.

Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) is a longtime Methodist, having joined the church in the mid-1980s before marrying his wife. But in his decade in Washington, Portman has been a prominent voice for Ohio’s Jewish community, whose leaders are mourning the retirement from Congress of an ally and friend, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Trusted ally: In his two terms in the Senate, Portman has promoted policies to combat the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, worked to expand the Nonprofit Security Grant Program and been a vocal supporter of Israel and the Abraham Accords. “We’re losing someone in the Senate who we really relied on,” Jason Wuliger, a former member of the board of trustees of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland, told Jewish Insider. “He was more than just our senator, he was our friend. And he knew our issues well because he took the time to learn them to really make himself a part of our community over many years.”

Feeling’s mutual: Portman praised the Ohio Jewish Communities umbrella organization in a statement to JI as “an important partner to me” and “a critical voice on public policy issues.” “I have been proud to work with the Jewish community throughout my years in public service and am particularly proud of our work combatting antisemitism and increasing funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which is benefiting nonprofits and religious institutions of all faiths,” Portman continued. “None of this could have been achieved without OJC’s efforts.”

Israel ally: Howie Beigelman, executive director of OJC, said he had “lost count” of how much legislation Portman, working frequently in partnership with Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), had introduced to support Israel. “From that perspective,” Beigelman said, “the community feels there’s no better friend in Congress for Israel than Rob Portman.”

Reflections: In remarks at a farewell event earlier this month, Portman addressed the Tree of Life Shooting in Pittsburgh. The senator visited the Youngstown Jewish Community Center, not far from the Ohio-Pennsylvania border, shortly after the 2018 attack. “As he started to tell the story, he was talking about getting a full appreciation of what the threats really were to our community and how we then had to live moving forward,” Bonnie Deutsch Burdman, the executive director of community relations/government affairs for the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation, recounted. “And he started to get choked up… He said that that visit to our JCC that morning had a very profound impact on him. It made him fully appreciate and understand what the threats were, and how important it was for the federal government to get engaged in helping to protect vulnerable nonprofits.”

Read the full story here.

In shimmering gold headscarves, embroidered capes and floor-length leather coats, fashion models from more than 25 brands will take to the catwalk this week at the Saudi capital’s swank Al-Faisaliah Hotel, Rebecca Ann Proctor reports for The Circuit from Riyadh.

Always on trend: The event, which opens Thursday, is the first time that the Modest Fashion Show, a growing biannual display of couture designed for Muslim women, will be staged in Riyadh, where black robes, veils and hijab head coverings are more familiar apparel. The three-day lineup of designers, held previously in cities such as Dubai, Jakarta and London, is aimed at a growing Islamic market around the world that is estimated to be worth more than $300 billion. “For us, modest fashion is not a trend,” Ozlem Sahin Ertas, CEO of the Istanbul, Turkey-based Modest Fashion Weeks organization, told The Circuit. “It was always big but it had no global platform for us to come together and speak out through our fashion. We believe in democratizing fashion, making it more inclusive and diverse.”

Cultural commonalities: Modest fashion shows are also popular with Orthodox Jewish women, taking place regularly in Jerusalem and New York. The burkini, a bathing suit designed in Australia for Muslim women that covers the head and whole body, has developed a market among Jewish consumers. On the other hand, the swimwear has been banned by several municipalities in France for what they’ve called excessive religious separatism. “Modest fashion is not related to any religious or cultural background,” Ertas said. “We want to showcase its strong cultural diversity, elegance and variety of options.”

Hotspot Dubai: Revenue from the fashion industry in Dubai is projected to reach $4.6 billion this year, according to Statista, an 11 percent increase from 2021, driven by customers in China, Japan, South Korea, India and Indonesia. The great purchasing power of Gulf customers alongside a flood of international residents to Dubai since after the COVID 19 pandemic anchors the industry. “Dubai used to be a place where brands would come, make some quick money and leave,” said Lori Rhodes, founder of Red Letter MENA, a marketing and communications consulting firm specializing in retail and fashion. “The growth of the luxury market here made the fashion much more relevant and gave an opportunity for homegrown brands to take advantage of selling to consumers all over the world from here,” she told The Circuit.

Read more here and subscribe to the Weekly Circuit newsletter here.