LAS VEGAS — Ron Dermer, Israel’s former strategic affairs minister and close advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, praised Vice President JD Vance on Monday ahead of Vance’s closed-door appearance at the Republican Jewish Committee’s national convention on Monday evening.

Dermer, speaking at the RJC conference, praised the group for inviting Vance, and urged RJC members to give him a “warm welcome” — something that at least some in the crowd may not have been inclined to do.

Dermer said that Vance had played a “critical role” in the 12-day War against Iran in June 2025, “and particularly the first day, where that element of surprise was so critical to our success. And I will be forever grateful for the role that he played at that critical moment,” he said.

The former Israeli official praised Vance as “one of the smartest people that I had met in the Senate.” He said that he first became acquainted with Vance when he was running for Senate, and that they had a lengthy discussion in Jerusalem about the U.S.-Israel relationship and how it serves U.S. interests.

“I had no problem with somebody saying, ‘Why is it in our interest?’” Dermer said. “I had no problem making that [case]. And throughout his tenure, when I worked with him as vice president, he was always focused on that.”

Dermer described the Israeli and American governments as largely aligned on key issues, including Iran, Lebanon and Gaza, a situation he praised, even as he acknowledged some differences on issues including Turkey, Qatar and Syria.

He also urged the United States to respond with military strikes to any Iranian efforts to target U.S. assets, Gulf states or Israel. And he said that, whether privately or publicly, the U.S. should seek to ensure that the Iranian regime falls before President Donald Trump leaves office.

Dermer urged supporters of Israel to give the Trump administration “some space to continue to exhaust all the possibilities of demilitarizing Gaza, disarming Hamas, without having to force the IDF in to finish the job.”

But he said that Israel would carry out those goals militarily if diplomacy is not successful and that Hamas will not be allowed to remain in Gaza.

Morris Katz, a close advisor to Graham Platner who stood by the embattled Maine Democrat until the final days of his Senate race, is now adopting a more contrite tone as he looks back on what went wrong in the campaign, one of the most closely watched in the country this year. 

“The tattoo should have been enough,” Katz said in an interview on “The Ezra Klein Show” from The New York Times. He was referring to Platner’s tattoo of a Totenkopf, a symbol associated with the Nazi regime’s elite — and brutal — SS unit. Platner denied knowing what the tattoo, a version of a skull and crossbones, represented, though an ex-girlfriend has maintained that he told her and others that he knew what it was. Katz said her account should’ve been taken more seriously when she shared it. 

“The tattoo should have been enough.”

 Morris Katz, a top advisor to Graham Platner, now says in a New York Times interview that the Totenkopf tattoo, and other scandals, should have been disqualifiers for the former Maine Senate candidate.

Read more: https://t.co/sUBnaS3wyX pic.twitter.com/xBK0RTK3MK

— Jewish Insider (@jewishinsider) July 24, 2026

Katz also referenced scores of old social media posts from Platner, a veteran and oyster farmer who was dogged from the start of the Democratic primary by a series of past posts and remarks invoking slurs, promoting violence and making light of sexual assault. “In hindsight, knowing what we know now, the Reddit posts alone probably should have been enough,” he added.

Throughout a steady drip-drip-drip of new revelations, which grew to include allegations that he was sending sexually explicit messages to women other than his wife and that he had a history of being manipulative and intimidating toward ex-girlfriends, Platner emerged with a similar message to voters: that he had changed, and was a better person now. A rape allegation ultimately ended his campaign. 

“I think both things can be true: that we need different kinds of candidates running outside of the political arena,” Katz told Klein, “and that it’s the United States Senate, and candidacies should be held to an incredibly high standard.”

The 27-year-old Katz, who played a pivotal role in the election of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, was part of Platner’s campaign even before it began. He helped to recruit the candidate and had reportedly told people he wanted to see Platner run for president in 2028. Platner regularly drew large crowds, even as more reports about his background emerged, and won the Democratic nomination after his top competitor, Maine Gov. Janet Mills, dropped out.

Katz has emerged relatively unscathed from the chaos in Maine. Mamdani and Micah Lasher, the Democratic nominee for an Upper West Side-area congressional district, have both said recently they would continue to work with Katz. 

In the interview with Klein, the consultant said he would continue to fight establishment politics in the Democratic Party but that he had erred in his continued support of Platner. 

“I think that there are a lot of people who have made mistakes or said controversial things who we want to win the support of, who we need to earn the trust of. But I also think I was wrong,” Katz said in the interview. “There are a lot of incredible people who are not part of the political arena, a lot of incredible working-class Americans across the country, who don’t have those problematic Reddit posts or who don’t have a problematic tattoo or don’t have quite the level of controversy in their past.” 

Katz acknowledged that a more thorough vetting process may have found further evidence of Platner’s past social media posts, but insisted that any campaign vetting would not have found evidence of the rape allegation. 

“Essentially, there was the inclination that there were problematic posts on Reddit, not the full degree of what later came out,” Katz said. “An even more robust process would have found more of the specific Reddit comments and, potentially, the tattoo. But again, a standard vetting process probably doesn’t uncover most of the things that came after.”

Klein read to Katz one of Platner’s 2013 Reddit posts, which placed blame for sexual assault on women who drink too much. 

“I think it should have been a red line,” Katz said. He argued that people should “not be exiled from society and day-to-day life if they’ve changed or are putting in the work to change.” But, Katz added, “that doesn’t mean that they’re entitled to a role in elected office.” 

Ellie Cohanim, who served as deputy special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism in President Donald Trump’s first term, recently joined his administration as a senior policy advisor to U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz, Waltz announced on Tuesday.

Cohanim was born in Tehran and left Iran as a child in 1979, following the Islamic Revolution. She came with her family to New York. 

“Ellie’s story is the American story,” Waltz said in a statement. “Her family fled persecution in Iran, built a life in New York, and she has spent her career looking for ways to serve America, fighting for freedom, standing with the persecuted, and calling out antisemitism wherever it hides. That is exactly the kind of conviction and courage we need at the United Nations.” 

Cohanim regularly appears on Fox News as a booster of Trump’s foreign policy, and the announcement of her hiring described her as an advocate of “America First foreign policy.” 

Cohanim served as co-chair of the National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, a group created in 2023 to help the Heritage Foundation draft a conservative framework to combat antisemitism. 

Last fall, the task force disaffiliated from Heritage after its president, Kevin Roberts, came to the defense of Tucker Carlson following the far-right podcaster’s interview with neo-Nazi provocateur Nick Fuentes. Since then, Cohanim and her co-chairs have been outspoken about antisemitism on the political right.  

A former Democratic Socialists of America organizer has been a top advisor to independent Nebraska Senate candidate Dan Osborn and Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner.

Daniel Moraff was a longtime DSA member, including acting as a local and national DSA organizer and leader in the mid-to-late 2010s, though he said his membership lapsed in 2019 because his local chapter became too focused on internal matters. He argued in a now-deleted 2017 article that the best way for socialists to gain political power and achieve elective office would be by running in Democratic primaries.

He subsequently recruited now-Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA), among the farthest-left and most anti-Israel members of the House, to run for the Pennsylvania Statehouse, and served as her campaign manager.

Moraff reportedly helped recruit Osborn into the Nebraska Senate race in 2024 and has continued to serve as a consultant for Osborn. Campaign disclosures show that Osborn’s wife, Megan Osborn, has received compensation from Moraff’s firm for work on her husband’s current Senate campaign.

Osborn has cultivated an image as a heterodox populist, seeking to appeal to moderate and Republican voters, by adopting center-right views on border security and government spending while maintaining progressive views on abortion rights and unions. 

Osborn was also recently endorsed by the anti-Israel group A New Policy. 

“Daniel Moraff has advised candidates across the country who seek to give the working class a voice in our politics. The fact those candidates have diverse backgrounds and beliefs is not a story,” an Osborn spokesperson said in a statement to Jewish Insider.

Amid a reshuffle of Platner’s campaign — he shed staff as revelations emerged about his tattoo of a Nazi symbol and extreme prior social media posts — Moraff reportedly served as Platner’s de-facto campaign manager.

Platner’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment, nor did Moraff personally.

In addition to his DSA ties, as a Brown University student in 2012, Moraff was an undergraduate representative on an advisory committee on investment practices, responsible for “dialogue” with Brown Students for Justice in Palestine over its push for Brown to divest from Israeli-linked companies.

The committee, with Moraff as a signatory, said in a letter to Brown’s president that “the documented abuses of Palestinian citizens by the Israeli Defense Force in the Occupied Territories are deeply troubling” and “Israel is indisputably engaged in ongoing systemic abuses of human rights and violations of international law, as documented by the United Nations Human Rights Council and the International Court of Justice.”

The committee said that Brown University may be invested “in firms whose products and services are being used to commit human rights violations in Palestine” and recommended further discussions over divestment.

Majed al-Ansari, a Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman and advisor to the prime minister, praised Palestinian suicide bombings and rocket attacks on Israeli civilian centers in social media and blog posts prior to taking up his post in 2022.

Al-Ansari is one of the Qatari government’s most public faces, hosting regular press briefings and giving interviews about the Gulf state, including to Israeli media. 

In May 2021, when Palestinian Islamic Jihad launched 130 rockets at Israel, Al-Ansari posted his support on X, saying that “Palestine emerges to remind this nation of its glory and the greatness of its message.” Al-Ansari added the hashtag #Tel_Aviv_is_burning to his post.

During the ensuing 11 days of fighting between Israel and Palestinian terrorists in Gaza and the West Bank, and rioting by Israeli Arabs in mixed Jewish-Arab cities in Israel, Al-Ansari posted: “Jerusalem, the interior [of Israel], the West Bank, Gaza … rise with one voice against the occupier. This unity is what terrifies the enemy the most. Oh Allah, unite their word and guide their aim.” 

The posts were resurfaced by analyst Eitan Fischberger.

Al-Ansari also maintained a blog, which he linked to on his verified X account. 

In one blog post, Al-Ansari praised the Second Intifada — the 2000-2005 Palestinian terror campaign — against the “Zionist enemy” and its “martyrdom operations,” a euphemism for terrorist attacks. He credited the intifada with leading Israel to pull out of Gaza in 2005. 

In an overview of Palestinian terrorism against Israelis in recent decades, Al-Ansari argued that “the Israeli military losses were great, but the most important loss was Tel Aviv’s loss of a large part of its narrative and story of its victimhood in the West, following the spread of images of the brutal aggression throughout the world.” 

Al-Ansari encouraged “a celebration of the continued march toward victory in the conflict,” praising what he described as the Palestinians’ advancement from “resistance with stones and bare chests [to] the launching of 3,000 rockets in ten days toward the entity’s [Israel’s] cities.” 

In another blog post, in which Al-Ansari wrote about the Israeli Arab riots in May 2021, which included burning down Jewish-owned businesses and a synagogue, he falsely claimed that “the occupation forces were forced to withdraw” from Lod — a central Israeli city in which Ben Gurion Airport continued to operate normally and most neighborhoods continued to function peacefully. 

The blog and X posts were written when Al-Ansari was the head of the Qatar International Academy for Security Studies. The blog was deleted after Jewish Insider sent a request for comment about the matter to the Qatari Embassy, which the embassy did not respond to.

In earlier posts on an unverified Facebook account under Al-Ansari’s name, the Qatari spokesman repeatedly called President Donald Trump a racist.

In 2015, during Trump’s first presidential campaign, Al-Ansari wrote, “We call on the board of directors of Qatar Airways to cut ties with Trump and his racist empire.” Also that year, he lamented that the head of Qatar Airways “brags about his friendship with this racist.” 

Ibrar Nadeem, a Muslim affairs advisor to New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli, bragged that he wasn’t taking money from Jews at a campaign event last weekend organized by a group called Muslims 4 Jack.

Ciattarelli, the Republican nominee, appeared alongside Nadeem on Saturday evening at the event, held in Piscataway, N.J, where he called Nadeem one of his closest advisors. At the event, Nadeem alleged some Muslims in his community had accused him of “taking money from Jews” to support Ciattarelli, which he pointedly denied. 

An invitation to the event, which described the gathering as a “community dinner honoring” the GOP gubernatorial hopeful, listed Nadeem’s official title as “executive director” of “New Jersey – Muslim relations.” 

“Every time I got tired, people from my community — when I was blamed that — somebody said ‘You are taking money from Jews.’ I said, ‘I check my bank account every day, brother, it is not there,’” Nadeem told the crowd, after also having made remarks against same-sex marriage.   

Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), the state’s Democratic nominee for governor, criticized Ciattarelli in a social media post on Monday for not condemning Nadeem’s comments at the event.

“This blatant antisemitism is coming from a member of Jack’s inner circle. Jack could have condemned it but instead sang his praises. Absolutely disgraceful,” Sherrill wrote. 

Reached for comment, a spokesperson for Ciattarelli’s campaign referred Jewish Insider to a post by Ciattarelli on X explaining Nadeem’s remarks and attacking Sherrill for her refusal to weigh in on the New York City mayoral race against Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani.

“Do you ever get tired of lying @MikieSherrill? You know I support same sex marriage,” Ciattarelli wrote on X on Monday night. “You also know the full clip of Dr. Nadeem’s remarks are clear: He was talking about the grief he gets from some BECAUSE of my unwavering support for the Jewish community and Israel and his own efforts to build bridges between Muslim and non-Muslim communities.”

Nadeem defended his support of Ciattarelli’s candidacy during his remarks on Saturday, arguing that an embrace of his campaign could ensure that the Muslim community could have “a seat at the table” if he were elected. 

“We want to have a seat at the table. We want to be in those rooms where decisions will be made. I do not necessarily mean me,” Nadeem explained, adding that he planned to collect resumes from some attendees in the room to recommend for positions in Ciattarelli’s potential administration. Nadeem also noted that he “wants to have a ban on same-sex marriage” in New Jersey. 

In remarks delivered shortly after Nadeem’s speech, Ciattarelli embraced the local Arab leader as a close confidante without condemning his comments about Jews.

“Dr. Ibrar Nadeem: Just once, I wish you would say what’s exactly on your mind,” Ciattarelli said, prompting laughter from the crowd. The gubernatorial nominee went on to call for a round of applause for Nadeem to thank him for his political engagement. 

“I am the first [Republican] gubernatorial candidate in history that has a Muslim as part of his inner circle of advisors, and that advisor is Dr. Ibrar Nadeem,” he later added. 

Ciattarelli then detailed how he and Nadeem, whom he described as a “very, very impressive man,” were first introduced in February. “He said to me, eight months ago, ‘I am going to help you be the next governor of New Jersey,’ and that man hasn’t let me down one day since that very day,” Ciattarelli said of Nadeem.

Ciattarelli posted about the event on Sunday, writing on Instagram alongside several photos that featured Nadeem that it was “great to be in Piscataway last night for a Meet & Greet with members of New Jersey’s thriving Muslim community. Our state is built on respect for all faiths and traditions, and I remain committed to being a Governor for every New Jerseyan — ensuring every voice is heard and every family feels welcome.”

Matt Duss, a foreign policy advisor to Sen. Bernie Sanders, discussed the 2020 frontrunner’s views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and relations with Israel during the Quincy Institute leadership forum, held in conjunction with Foreign Policy, in Washington, D.C. on Thursday.

Vocal and critical: “Senator Sanders has been clear about the principles that he supports and the goal and it’s a goal that is shared by — I think — a clear majority of Americans,” Duss said. “I think he’s been willing to be more critical of [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu in particular, as he has been more vocal and critical about right-wing nationalists around the world, recognizing that is a global trend that is very problematic for those of us who support human rights and democracy. At the end of the day, the Israeli government is full of professionals who understand Israel’s security needs. There are longstanding relationships at various levels between the U.S. and Israel. And we don’t think we’ll have a problem moving forward in trying — trying at least — and probably finding very quickly some common ground.”

Jerusalem reaction: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted on Wednesday to Sanders’s constant attacks against him, most recently calling him a “reactionary racist” during Tuesday night’s debate in South Carolina. “What I think about this matter is that he is definitely wrong,” Netanyahu said during an interview with Army Radio. “No question about it.” Netanyahu pointed out that the reason he withstood pressure from the Obama administration for eight years was because he was able to influence U.S. public opinion, “and if we will be pressured into doing dangerous things, I will know how to oppose that — and I am not afraid of a showdown.” 

Bonus: Jeremy Burton, head of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, tells Washington Post reporter Michelle Boorstein that the common theme he’s hearing is anxiety among American Jews about having a Jewish nominee or president, whether the person is Bernie Sanders or Michael Bloomberg. “At the end of the day, Jews know antisemitism is part of the DNA of Western civilization,” he explained.