Ernst called Qatar ‘a partner nation who has been working so heavily on securing peace and stability in the Middle East’ in reference to Israel’s strike in Doha
AJC/Martin H. Simon
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) speaks at AJC's Abraham Accords 5th Anniversary Commemoration on Capitol Hill in Washington on Sept. 10, 2025.
Add JewishInsider on GoogleSen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) said that she came away with optimism for the future of Syria from a meeting with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa last month, while adding that she remains skeptical and emphasizing the need to “trust but verify.”
“This is an opportunity right now. Whereas before, we have been on opposing forces, now is the time when we can come together for the prosperity of the region and stability in Syria,” Ernst said at an American Jewish Committee event on Wednesday in Washington. “Yes, I’m skeptical, but I am optimistic.”
Ernst, a vocal supporter of Israel, joined a statement shortly after that meeting condemning Israel for carrying out strikes against Syrian government targets.
Ernst said that she’d had a striking exchange with al-Sharaa over their shared time in combat in Iraq — Ernst as a U.S. service member and al-Sharaa as a member of Al-Qaida.
“I told him I, as well, served in Iraq. He was kind of taken aback by that, but then we laughed,” Ernst said.
She said that she will give the new Syrian government the “benefit of the doubt, as long as they are earning that benefit.” But, she continued, “The minute things start going south, we no longer support and we made that very clear to the president while we were on that visit.”
She said that the best way to ensure that Syria turns toward the West and to prevent encroachment by Iran, Russia, China and Turkey is to maintain a presence and influence with Syria’s leadership.
Ernst — who has been among the most strident critics of Qatar in the Senate and argued on multiple occasions that it is not doing enough to pressure Hamas to free the hostages — offered a cautious response to the Israeli strike on Hamas leaders in Doha.
“We understand that Israel is in a place where they have said Hamas will be destroyed, end of story. We support them on that effort,” Ernst said. “The problem is when you are striking a partner nation who has been working so heavily on securing peace and stability in the Middle East, and that country on this particular strike happened to be Qatar, so the president was disappointed in that. I did not feel that it furthered our relationship” with Qatar.
She emphasized that, though Qatar is hosting Hamas leadership, it also hosts the largest U.S. Air Force base in the Middle East.
Addressing isolationist voices on both political sides, the retiring Ernst emphasized that relationships globally matter, and that the U.S. must maintain them.
“If you don’t have a seat at the table, you are not able to shape and influence the outcome,” Ernst said. “So it is very important that the United States remain engaged around the globe. Now I would also say presence is power.”
Strikes come as Damascus, Jerusalem held U.S.-backed negotiations, but Israeli Druze doubt Syrian President al-Sharaa is ‘capable or wants’ to stop violence against minorities
Ilia Yefimovich/picture alliance via Getty Images
Israeli Druze cross the border near Majdal Shams in a show of support for the Druze community in Hader on the Syrian side on July 16, 2025.
Israel struck the Syrian Defense Ministry’s headquarters in Damascus on Wednesday in response to violence against the country’s Druze minority, a week after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke in the White House of the “opportunity for stability, security and eventually peace” with Syria.
The strikes came after clashes between Druze and Bedouin groups that began on Sunday, leaving as many as 250 dead over four days in Sweida, some 25 miles from the border with Israel and in the area of Syria that Israel seeks to have demilitarized.
Syrian government forces entered the fray on Tuesday, saying they aimed to stop the fighting and bring about a ceasefire, which they said they had reached on Wednesday. Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly the head of the Syrian branch of Al Qaida, seeks to disarm Druze and other militias and have them integrate under the new government.
Israeli Druze called for Israel to intervene from the outset of the violence on Sunday, saying that their Syrian counterparts were being massacred, raped and tortured by forces aligned with al-Sharaa. In Israel, videos and images circulated of Druze religious figures’ mustaches being forcibly shaved off by men in military fatigues.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday afternoon that Washington has “engaged all the parties involved in the clashes in Syria. We have agreed on specific steps that will bring this troubling and horrifying situation to an end tonight. This will require all parties to deliver on the commitments they have made and this is what we fully expect them to do.”
An Israeli official said that the U.S. had been in talks to stop the violence in Syria since Monday.
Reda Mansour, a Middle Eastern Studies professor at Reichman University, former Israeli ambassador to Brazil and a member of Israel’s Druze community, told Jewish Insider that “there is not really one Syrian army; it’s different armed groups that do what they think. It will take time until everyone is convinced to hold their fire.”
Mansour expressed hope that the Israeli strikes convinced al-Sharaa to “stop the rampage.”
The former ambassador compared the violence against the Druze in Syria to the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and said that the Druze in Syria had not faced such violence since the 1925 rebellion against the French Mandate.
“In the rebellion against the French, it was mostly between soldiers,” Mansour said. “This ISIS and Al Qaida-style attack is a massacre, rape, burning of holy sites, torture of the elderly and religious leaders.”
Mansour also said the community has not had electricity in three days and is running out of food and medical supplies, after attacks on the city’s hospital and its medical staff.
Syrian Druze “are in distress and they are asking [Israel] for help all of the time,” Mansour said, and argued that “al-Sharaa wants to get rid of the Druze.”
“If he wanted to stop the attack, it wouldn’t have happened,” Mansour said. “His people said they are coming to Sweida to defend the Druze from the Bedouin, and then they conquered Druze villages. The people murdering and torturing the elderly are wearing his military’s uniforms.”
On Tuesday, dozens of Israeli Druze men began crossing into Syria, breaching a border fence near the town of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights.
Netanyahu called on the Israeli Druze to remain in Israel: “You could be murdered, you could be taken hostage, and you are impeding the efforts of the IDF,” he said.
Yet, on Wednesday, the number of Israeli Druze in Syria rose to at least 1,000. The IDF also used tear gas and other crowd control methods to stop Syrian Druze from crossing into Israel.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir said that Israel is “acting with determination to prevent hostile elements from establishing a presence beyond the border, to protect the citizens of the State of Israel, and to prevent the harming of Druze civilians … We will not allow southern Syria to become a terror stronghold.”
Zamir called on Druze Israelis to “uphold the law and preserve your lives. We are committed to you and your security and are doing everything possible to support you. I have ordered a further reinforcement of intelligence and strike capabilities in order to increase the pace of strikes and halt the assaults against the Druze in Syria as needed.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, who has held a hard line on al-Sharaa since the fall of the Assad regime last year, called on the new Syrian government “to come to its senses and to restore order,” lest it lose control of the country and risk the economic engagement it has sought with the West.
Sa’ar called on the international community to speak out against the violence against minorities in Syria, asking rhetorically, “What else needs to happen? What are they still waiting for?”
“We are seeing a recurring phenomenon of persecution of minorities to the point of murder and pogroms in Syria,” Sa’ar said in a briefing to reporters on Wednesday. “Sometimes it is the regime’s forces. Sometimes it is Jihadist militias that are the basis of the regime. And usually, it is both.”
Sa’ar pointed to violence against the Syrian Alawite community, the burning and bombing of churches in recent weeks and repeated waves of violence against Druze in Syria.
The foreign minister said that Israel will act to keep regime forces out of southern Syria and protect its border, and to protect the Druze minority.
Sa’ar also took aim at Western leaders looking to engage with al-Sharaa. “This is not a democratically elected regime,” he said. “Because sometimes, when I am in political meetings [with foreign counterparts], people talk to me about the ‘transition.’ This is not an elected regime at all. This is a regime that … took control by force.”
Sa’ar later spoke to his counterparts in the EU, Germany and Greece, pointing out that the EU set the protection of minority rights as a condition for lifting sanctions on Syria. Sa’ar said there is a “consistent pattern of exploiting these riots [against minorities] for the regime’s interests.” He also called the Syrian government’s claim that there would be an independent investigation of the events a “farce,” noting that al-Sharaa made a similar statement about the massacre of Alawites in March, and no results have materialized.
However, IDF Lt.-Col. (res.) Sarit Zehavi, founder and president of the Alma Research and Education Center focusing on the security of Israel’s northern border, argued to JI that “Israel really had no choice.”
“It had to send a sharp and clear message of defense to the Druze in Syria because it committed to defending them, because the Druze in Israel are real partners,” she said.
In addition, Zehavi said that “whoever doesn’t protect minorities in Syria, especially those on the border [with Israel], will end up being attacked by the same jihadis.”
That being said, Zehavi doubted that the strike on the Syrian Defense Ministry would be effective and said that Israel should focus on targets that are relevant specifically to stopping the attacks on Syrian Druze.
Michael Doran, director of the Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East at the Hudson Institute, questioned whether Israel was certain al-Sharaa was behind the violence in Sweida. Doran wrote that he is not convinced that al-Sharaa “traveled to Baku and met with Israelis there, [and] then chose to provoke a conflict with [Israel] over the Druze,” referring to a meeting between Syrian and Israeli officials over the weekend.
“A policy that holds al-Sharaa responsible for forces he doesn’t control won’t strengthen him—it will weaken him,” Doran wrote on X. “In practice, it becomes a tacit, perhaps unwitting, vote for a disintegrated Syria. But a disintegrated Syria serves Iran more than it serves Israel. And it won’t help with Turkey either.”
Last week, Netanyahu praised President Donald Trump in the White House for having “opened up a channel” with the Syrian regime for negotiations. Talks were underway, with Israeli representatives reportedly meeting with al-Sharaa in the UAE and Azerbaijan last week, for a non-aggression pact between the countries, though not for normalization.
An Israeli official speaking about the future of Israel-Syria talks on condition of anonymity said on Wednesday that Israeli “policy is not based on illusions, but on reality. We want security first.”
Recently, Israel was willing to engage more with the regime in Syria because “things stabilized a bit,” the official said, “but we are not deluding ourselves. They are talking nicely … but there is a difference between what they say and what they do. As their neighbors, we cannot ignore what they do. We send messages [to Western countries] that reflect these things.”
Mansour, who is an expert on modern Syrian history, was skeptical that negotiations between Israel and Syria can be fruitful, saying, “There is not much hope for a political culture that will create stability … There is an inability of the Sunnis, the majority, to understand and accept that there are many minorities, over 30% of the population.”
The former ambassador said that regime-affiliated forces have been harassing minorities on a daily basis. “They enter Christian areas and call on loudspeakers to convert to Islam,” he said. “They check couples to see if they’re married and if not they harass them. There is daily pressure on the Druze, Christians, Alawites and Kurds, and it cannot continue. When they are threatened, they will react.”
Al-Sharaa, Mansour said, “does not look like he’s capable or wants to change it. He wears a suit and tie, but he was in Al Qaida from age 16 … He hinted he’s willing to let Israel keep the Golan Heights and that he wants peace, but on the ground the signs are not encouraging. He speaks nicely, but on the ground he wants to get rid of the Druze — and if he succeeds, he’ll attack the Kurds next.”
“The problem,” Mansour lamented, “is that the Americans believed his show.”
Zehavi said that Israel is likely to return to talks but will be better informed about where the al-Sharaa regime is headed after recent events.
“The first question is whether [al-Sharaa] controls his forces so they won’t massacre minorities, whether he really controls Syria,” she said.
This week also clarified Israel’s red lines for al-Sharaa, she said: “It’s clear why it is important for southern Syria to be demilitarized. You cannot mix Druze and jihadi militias.”
Israel used Syrian airspace for its strikes on Iran last month, and the two countries are discussing a non-aggression pact that would lead to a return to pre-2025 borders
Rami Alsayed/NurPhoto via Getty Images
The President of the Syrian Arab Republic, Ahmad Al-Sharaa, delivers a speech at the People's Palace during the swearing-in ceremony of the new government, in Damascus, Syria, on March 29, 2025.
The goodwill gestures toward Israel from Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa began modestly.
In a surprise move that came only months after he and his Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group toppled the brutal regime of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president — “a jihadi in a suit,” as Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar called him over past ties to Al-Qaida — gave Israel Syria’s archive of documents relating to captured Israeli spy Eli Cohen, who was captured and executed in Syria in 1965, and the remains of soldier Zvi Feldman, who was killed in battle in 1982.
Then, al-Sharaa pressured the terrorist groups Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine to disarm, leading some of the groups’ leaders to flee the country.
And when Israel sent its bombers streaking toward Iran’s nuclear sites last month, Syria did not intervene with or publicly oppose Israel’s use of its airspace.
Taken together, these steps and others are leading to a warming of relations between Israel and its northern neighbor, a reality that seemed almost unthinkable just a few months ago. While officials and analysts are stopping short of calling the rapprochement peace talks, there is a new optimism — albeit cautious — following the strikes.
While at the White House on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke positively about an “opportunity for stability, security and eventually peace” with Syria. He said that prospect stems from “the fact that [President Trump] has opened up a channel … and the change of security situation brought about by the collapse of the Assad regime.”
Last week, Sa’ar said in a press conference that Israel “would like to have all our neighbors … in the camp of normalization and peace in the region. That includes Syria, as much as it includes Saudi Arabia … It is too early to prejudge what will happen in the future. We have certain security needs and interests, which we must take into account.”
A senior official in Netanyahu’s delegation to Washington emphasized this week that talk of peace between Israel and Syria is premature, saying that “agreements with Lebanon and Syria are not a matter of the short term, but they’re possible.”
“There are a lot of challenges,” the official said. “It would be irresponsible to talk about Syria entering the Abraham Accords or normalization at this time. We aren’t there.”
Still, the official said that opportunities opened up after the successful Israeli and American strikes on Iran, among them an agreement with Syria.
One way the 12-day Israeli operation against Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs may have contributed to Israel’s cautious optimism about reaching understandings with Syria is that its airspace played an important role in Israel’s strikes and defense during that time — and Damascus did not get in the way.
Carmit Valensi, head of the Syria program at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, told Jewish Insider that “there was intensive Israeli activity in Syria’s airspace on the way to attack Iran, and Israel shot down [Iranian] drones and missiles over Syrian territory.”
While al-Sharaa’s view of Iran as a “strategic threat to the entire region” is not unique among leaders in the Middle East, Valensi pointed out, “unlike other Arab countries that condemned Israel [for the strikes on Iran], al-Sharaa was totally quiet.”
Israel and Syria “have a shared goal to weaken Iran and its influence,” Valensi said. “I think that gave another push for the interests to bring relations closer.”
Ronni Shaked, a research fellow at the Harry S. Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace at Hebrew University, views Syria’s willingness to allow Israel use of its airspace to strike Iran as the most significant of a number of “goodwill gestures” from Damascus to Jerusalem that may be contributing to Israel’s shifting approach to Syria.
Letting Israel use Syrian airspace during its war with Iran “gave Israel unusual freedom of action to easily reach the Iraqi border and then Iran, which took a great weight off of Israel,” Shaked said.
“He [Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa] is showing signs that he knows he has to change to get help from the West and so the world will recognize him as the legitimate leader,” said IDF Maj.-Gen. (res.) Ya’acov Amidror, a former Israeli national security advisor. “It’s also clear that Arab leaders are not willing to live next to a Taliban state.”
Other gestures in the months since al-Sharaa’s rise included giving Israel Syria’s archive of documents relating to Israeli spy Eli Cohen, who was captured and executed in Syria in 1965, and the remains of soldier Zvi Feldman, who was killed in battle in 1982.
In addition, Shaked noted that al-Sharaa pressured the terror groups Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine to disarm, leading some of the groups’ leaders to flee the country.
IDF Maj.-Gen. (res.) Ya’acov Amidror, a former Israeli national security advisor, told JI that the main reason for the shift was that “time passed, that’s all.”
“In the beginning, he was a mystery. No one knew who [al-Sharaa] was, only that he came from Al-Qaida, and we only saw Al-Qaida-type people around him,” Amidror said.
Since assuming leadership of Syria in December, however, Israel has seen that al-Sharaa “is trying to build something else in Syria,” Amidror said. “He is showing signs that he knows he has to change to get help from the West and so the world will recognize him as the legitimate leader. It’s also clear that Arab leaders are not willing to live next to a Taliban state.”
“Taking all of that together, Israel is willing to talk,” he added.
Trump’s May meeting with al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia also motivated Jerusalem and Damascus to enter talks.
Shaked said that Syria “jumped on [the opportunity] … and said, ‘If Trump is willing to recognize us, then we can get rid of the sanctions and receive grants’” to help rebuild the country.
The meeting between Trump and al-Shaara “was the breakthrough that set the path we are on,” he added.
Valensi concurred, saying that “the direct motivation for Israel to change its approach is the Americans’ embrace of al-Sharaa.”
After Assad’s fall in December, Israel struck Syria’s air defenses, missile stockpiles and other military capabilities, and moved into the buffer zone between the countries. Valensi said that the “hawkish approach to al-Sharaa came from … the trauma of Oct. 7 [2023 terror attacks]. Israel is much more determined to stop threats that may develop on its border. And paradoxically, Israel had a feeling of increased self-confidence, strength and power after its significant military achievements against the axis of resistance and Hezbollah, including the beeper operation and killing [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah.”
Even before the May meeting in Riyadh, Valensi said, Israel had begun to soften its approach, with indirect talks between the countries, fewer military strikes and talks about deconfliction with Turkey, mediated by Azerbaijan.
“I think Israel started to understand that there were risks to its approach, and was starting to create a hostile dynamic to Israel” within Syria, Valensi said.
Amidror stopped short of describing the current situation as a shift in Israel’s approach: “There isn’t a change yet. We aren’t giving anything up, but we are in talks … We’re not withdrawing [from the Syrian Golan] so fast.”
That could change in the future, however, Amidror added, saying that if al-Sharaa “really distances himself from where he came from and goes to a less extreme and more normal place, there is no reason for Israel to ignore it.”
Syrian media describes the talks as a “non-aggression pact,” Valensi said. Damascus has said it is looking to return to the 1974 ceasefire agreement that went into effect after the Yom Kippur War, which would entail Israel withdrawing from the Syrian side of the Golan Heights to where it was before the fall of former President Bashar al-Assad last year, and for there to be a buffer zone with U.N. forces between the countries.
Valensi was skeptical that Israel would be willing to withdraw from the peak of Mount Hermon, a point in Syria which the IDF deployed troops to shortly after the fall of Assad, after so many senior Israeli security figures have called it a strategic achievement.
“Peace with Syria removes the entire threat from the eastern front, which is Israel’s longest front and a strategic one. We have peace with Jordan, and if we had peace with Syria, it would be the greatest gift to Israel,” said Ronni Shaked, a research fellow at the Harry S. Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace at Hebrew University.
“Israel may want a more gradual formula, a withdrawal in stages. I don’t know if al-Sharaa will accept that, and [withdrawal] is his basic condition,” she said.
Shaked argued that “Israel has no need for the Syrian Golan. I don’t know what we’re doing there. It’s nonsense, it’s a symbol. If we want peace, we need to stop conquering territory.”
“Peace with Syria removes the entire threat from the eastern front, which is Israel’s longest front and a strategic one. We have peace with Jordan, and if we had peace with Syria, it would be the greatest gift to Israel,” he said.
While talks are not focused on a comprehensive peace treaty yet, Shaked said anything is possible: “It was a great surprise when [former Egyptian President Anwar] Sadat came to Israel. We pinched ourselves and asked when we’re dreaming. New realities are created by brave leaders. If Netanyahu will be brave enough, he can give a little attention to this issue and make advances towards peace.”
Valensi, however, argued that “the conversation about expanding the Abraham Accords or normalization is not relevant now.” She noted that al-Sharaa has said that public opinion in Syria would not support normalization with Israel, and it would be too drastic of a shift. “Al-Sharaa is a new leader with very limited legitimacy. It’s a fragile situation … It’s unclear that al-Sharaa would want to take on that political risk,” she said.
Johnnie Moore, an evangelical leader and director of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation who met with al-Sharaa last month, told the “Misgav Mideast Horizons” podcast last week that he “absolutely believe[s] that there will be peace between Syria and Israel. No question. It’s just a matter of time.”
As to an unconfirmed report that Netanyahu and al-Sharaa will meet in September before the U.N. General Assembly, Valensi said that “so many things can change in two months … Reality is so dynamic so I would not go that far. But if things continue on this trajectory, then it is possible.”
Still, al-Sharaa would have to do a lot of work on Syrian public opinion before being photographed with Netanyahu, she added.
Johnnie Moore, an evangelical leader and director of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation who met with al-Sharaa last month, told the “Misgav Mideast Horizons” podcast last week that he “absolutely believe[s] that there will be peace between Syria and Israel. No question. It’s just a matter of time.” (The writer is a co-host of the podcast.)
Al-Sharaa, Moore said, is part of a new generation of Middle Eastern leaders who are “future-oriented” and focused on solving problems, in contrast with “older leaders who think only about the past.”
To get there, however, Moore said “there are practical things that have to be done, and there are things that will make the Syrians uncomfortable and things that will make Israel uncomfortable. And yet, I think it will be done.”
“I’m not sure it’s going to be done as quickly as everybody wants it, but I am certain it’s not going to take as long as people think it might,” he added.
Plus, Trump's Gulf tour underscores Israel’s diplomatic disadvantage
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt/X
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, President Donald Trump and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa meet in Riyadh, May 14th, 2025
Good Wednesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on President Donald Trump’s meeting earlier today with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, and analyze the findings of a new poll from the Jewish Voter Resource Center. We also talk to Sen. Katie Britt about recent attacks on Sen. John Fetterman, and spotlight the Zachor Legal Institute’s call for the IRS to investigate a key fiscal sponsor of anti-Israel agitators. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Dan Senor, former Vice President Mike Pence and Rabbi Noam Marans.
What We’re Watching
- President Donald Trump continues his Middle East trip today as he flies to Qatar this afternoon. Earlier today, Trump met with Gulf Cooperation Council leaders in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, including a side meeting with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa. Read more about the meeting between Trump and al-Sharaa here.
- The House Homeland Security Committee is holding a hearing this morning with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
- The Department of Justice is holding its 32nd Annual Federal Interagency Holocaust Remembrance Program this morning.
- The Israeli American Council is holding a Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration tonight at the Library of Congress.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JOSH KRaushaar
A new poll commissioned by a Democratic Jewish group suggests that concerns over antisemitism have receded a bit since post-Oct. 7 record levels, with younger voters notably less concerned than their parents and older generations. The survey, conducted by GBAO, also finds the depth of attachment for Israel, while still at high levels, has also dipped somewhat as time has passed since Hamas’ attacks, Jewish Insider Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar writes.
The big toplines from the Jewish Voter Resource Center survey, which polled 800 Jewish voters between April 22 and May 1: Only one-quarter of Jewish voters view President Donald Trump favorably. Among respondents, Democrats hold a commanding 70-22% lead on next year’s generic congressional ballot. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s standing among American Jewish voters is also low, with only 34% viewing him favorably, while 61% see him unfavorably.
Over two-thirds (69%) of Jewish voters profess an attachment to Israel, which is down from 82% a month after Oct. 7 but at a similar level to the years preceding the attack. Nearly two-thirds of Jewish respondents (62%) said they’re very concerned about antisemitism — a historically high number, but a marked dropoff from the 79% who expressed the same sentiment in November 2023. Notably, only 33% of younger Jewish voters ages 18-34 said they’re concerned about antisemitism.
Asked whether right-wing or left-wing antisemitism was a bigger threat, respondents were more divided. Nearly half (47%) said right-wing individuals and groups were more responsible, while 34% viewed left-wing groups as a bigger problem. And Democrats fared relatively poorly on which party is better equipped to handle antisemitism, holding just a seven-point edge (34-27%) over Republicans despite a much greater overall partisan advantage.
The most significant takeaway from the survey is the gaping divide within the Jewish community when it comes to Jewish observance — secular and less observant Jews hold diametrically opposing views on many issues compared to their more observant coreligionists.
For instance, 75% of Orthodox Jewish respondents said they approved of Trump’s job performance, compared to only 18% of Reform Jewish voters. While 69% of Orthodox Jews and 60% of Conservative Jews have a “very strong” attachment to Israel, that number falls to 35% among Reform Jews (and 22% among those unaffiliated).
On domestic policy issues, the gap is similar. Most Orthodox voters (78%) favor eliminating DEI initiatives that receive federal funding, while only 21% of Reform respondents say the same. The poll also found two-thirds of Orthodox Jews backing the president’s original punitive tariffs against China, while just 14% of Reform voters agreed.
The results underscore that one of the biggest challenges in both Israel and the United States’ Jewish community is internal divisions that make it harder to present a united front externally. Those divisions are slowly, but notably, percolating even on issues that once united the Jewish world post-Oct. 7.
ON THE SIDELINES
Trump’s Gulf tour underscores Israel’s diplomatic disadvantage
If there was any doubt about President Donald Trump’s increasing reliance on checkbook diplomacy, and his disapproval of America’s past approach to the Middle East, he left little room for dispute in a keynote address on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia that sharply critiqued “interventionalists” and “neo-cons” while calling for an end to regional wars. The message in Trump’s speech, and the optics of a visit to the Middle East that doesn’t include a stop in Israel, were met with concern by pro-Israel Republicans and hawkish foreign policy experts, who worry that his turbo-charged dealmaking with the oil-rich Gulf nations — cemented this week with trade deals in the hundreds of billions of dollars — puts Israel at a diplomatic disadvantage, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Dollar signs: “His approach is obviously completely transactional. If he has a view about the U.S. national interest, that view revolves around financial and commercial interests, and that obviously diminishes the value of the alliance with Israel, which is not primarily financial and commercial,” said Elliott Abrams, a former longtime Republican official who served as Iran envoy in Trump’s first term. “It’s based on values. It’s based on military cooperation. It is based also on high-tech cooperation, but Trump seems to be less interested in that and more interested in the dollar signs.”
Presidential address: “The gleaming marvels of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi were not created by the so-called nation-builders, neo-cons, or liberal nonprofits like those who spent trillions failing to develop [Kabul], Baghdad, so many other cities,” Trump said in a speech on Tuesday at a U.S.-Saudi Arabia investment forum event in Riyadh. “In the end, the so-called nation-builders wrecked far more nations than they built and the interventionalists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand themselves. Trump also condemned American presidents who “have been afflicted with the focus that it’s our job to look into the souls of foreign leaders and use U.S. policy to dispense justice for their sins.”
AIRING CONCERNS
More Republicans voice concern about Qatari jet, as Dems pursue blocking efforts
A handful of congressional Republicans voiced fresh concerns on Tuesday about President Donald Trump’s plans to accept a gift of a Qatari luxury jet worth $400 million to join the Air Force One fleet, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod and Emily Jacobs report. Democrats, meanwhile, stepped up their efforts to block the gift.
Growing worries: Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), expanding on comments he’d made the previous day, said that there “will be plenty of scrutiny” for the transfer if it occurs. “There are lots of issues around that that I think will attract very serious questions if and when it happens.” But he also downplayed the gift as purely “hypothetical” at this point. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) came out more strongly against the gift, saying, “I’m not a fan of Qatar, I think they have a really disturbing pattern of funding theocratic lunatics who want to murder us, funding Hamas and Hezbollah and that’s a real problem. I also think that the plane poses significant espionage and surveillance problems, so we’ll see how this issue plays out, but I certainly have concerns.”
Bonus: Bloomberg looks at the potential security risks associated with Qatar’s proposed gift of a luxury jet to the Trump administration, citing expert concerns over “opportunities for surveilling, tracking or compromising communications.”
FAIR-WEATHER FRIENDS
Sen. Katie Britt slams Democrats for not defending Fetterman
Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) is criticizing Senate Democrats for declining to challenge media reports about Sen. John Fetterman’s (D-PA) mental health, attributing their reticence to the Democratic senator’s independent approach to Israel and immigration, and his support for several of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
Independent streak: Britt, who has grown to be one of Fetterman’s closest personal friends in the Senate since both were elected in 2022, raised concerns about the implications of Senate Democrats remaining silent as one of their own is targeted over his highly publicized mental health struggles during National Mental Health Awareness Month. “John has been a voice for Israel. He has been a voice for the Jewish people. He has been willing to take a look at nominees and approach things in a common-sense way. He understands the need for a secure border and interior enforcement. He was out front on the Laken Riley Act. I would say that part of [Democrats’] silence has to do with his independence,” Britt told JI.
STATE OF THE JEWS
Dan Senor: Jewish day schools, summer camps key to thriving U.S. Jewry
Jewish day schools and summer camps as well as gap years in Israel are some of the strongest contributors of a solid Jewish identity — ones that provide the tools that are needed at this precarious moment to “rebuild American Jewish life” — podcast host and author Dan Senor said on Tuesday night as he delivered the 45th annual State of World Jewry address at the 92NY in Manhattan, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Jewish giving: “But here’s the uncomfortable truth,” Senor said, pointing to a statistic that of the 33 Jewish individuals on the Forbes 400 list with publicly reported charitable giving, no more than 11% of their giving went to Jewish causes. “I am not suggesting Jewish generosity to the broader civic square come to an end,” Senor said. “But I am arguing that it is time for a recalibration in favor of our community’s needs. We need to invest so that we can look back on this moment decades from now and say: American Jewish life was not the same after that. It was better.”
Read the full story here and sign up for eJewishPhilanthropy’s Your Daily Phil newsletter here.
scoop
Syrian diaspora group’s Capitol Hill conference abruptly canceled amid anti-Israel, Assad regime concerns
A Syrian diaspora conference in a House office building meeting room was abruptly canceled on Monday after a lawmaker raised concerns about the group and its leadership, sources familiar with the situation told Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod.
What happened: A member of Congress reserved the room on the group’s behalf, but that member withdrew their sponsorship on Monday after the event had begun, a source said. Per House policy, the group would have been required to leave the room once it lost that sponsorship. The group in question denied that the event had been canceled or disrupted. In the days before the conference, Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) wrote to the chair and ranking member of the Committee on House Administration urging them to intervene to cancel the event, citing concerns about alleged ties to the Assad regime and comments the group’s counsel had shared in support of the Houthis and about Israel.
Bonus: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a close ally of President Donald Trump, called for a cautious and deliberate approach to removing sanctions on Syria and emphasized that Congress has a significant oversight role to play, hours after Trump announced in a speech in Riyadh that he plans to lift “all” U.S. sanctions on Syria, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Reactions from others on Capitol Hill to the news have been decidedly mixed across both parties.
money matters
Antisemitism watchdog calls for IRS to investigate fiscal sponsor of anti-Israel agitators
The Zachor Legal Institute, a legal think tank in Montana focused on combating antisemitism and boycott campaigns against Israel, is calling on the IRS to review the tax-exempt status of a nonprofit group involved in fundraising for pro-Palestinian activism, claiming its fiscal sponsorship of a radical anti-Zionist organization accused of advocating for political violence may be in violation of federal law, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
The argument: In a complaint filed Wednesday morning, Marc Greendorfer, the president and co-founder of the Zachor Legal Institute, formally urged the IRS to begin an investigation of the WESPAC Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in White Plains, N.Y., over its ties to Within Our Lifetime, an extreme activist group at the forefront of anti-Israel demonstrations across New York City in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. “Through its fiscal sponsorship of Within Our Lifetime, a violent, radical and anti-Israel organization, WESPAC may have violated both the public policy doctrine and the illegality doctrine that the IRS uses to analyze and discern whether a 501(c)(3) charitable organization can maintain their tax-exempt status,” Greendorfer wrote in a letter to Michael Faulkender, the acting commissioner of the IRS, arguing that a “thorough investigation” of the matter “is warranted.”
Worthy Reads
Doha’s Dollars: The Free Press’ Jay Solomon and Frannie Block do a deep dive into Qatar’s efforts to establish footholds across American society. “Qatar has spent almost $100 billion to establish its legitimacy in Congress, American colleges and universities, U.S. newsrooms, think tanks, and corporations. Over the past two decades, it has poured those billions into purchases of American-made weapons and business investments ranging from U.S. real estate to energy plants. It built — and still pays for — the Al Udeid Air Base, even as the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have ended. Doha finances research and campuses at prestigious American universities. And its lobbyists have the connections needed to open all the right doors in Washington. Since 2017, it has spent $225 million on lobbying and public-relations efforts in the nation’s capital. … The influence built by Qatar in the U.S. has no modern parallel, The Free Press found, whether compared with large American companies seeking to influence antitrust policy, energy firms trying to win new drilling rights, or other foreign governments aiming to shape U.S. policy—or shield themselves from it. For comparison, Qatar spent three times more in the U.S. than Israel did on lobbyists, public-relations advisers, and other foreign agents in 2021 — and nearly two-thirds as much as China did, according to the government’s latest reports.” [FreePress]
Dealmaker or Wrecker?: The Washington Post’s David Ignatius looks at President Donald Trump’s unconventional approach to foreign policy as he balances multiple conflicts and a trade war with China while in the middle of his first trip abroad. “‘America has no ‘permanent enemies,’ Trump said in his discussion of Iran. That simple statement will reverberate across the region, especially in Israel, which views Iran as a deadly adversary. Israeli anxieties might be eased by Trump’s warning that if Iran didn’t agree to a nuclear deal and make peace, it would face ‘massive maximum pressure.’ Trump’s comments in Saudi Arabia cap a remarkable few weeks in which he has bent policies, including his own, to accommodate what he evidently concluded were limits imposed by global reality. … My takeaway: Trump remains a disrupter and a dealmaker — with big ambitions for ending global conflicts and boosting America’s economy. He can also be a wrecker, as in many of his domestic policies that have savaged universities, law firms, medical research, government agencies and anyone on Trump’s retribution list. But abroad, he appears to have recognized the constraints imposed by the financial markets, the resistance of China and other big trading partners, the danger of wasting money on inconclusive wars, and the inescapable fact of global economic interdependence.” [WashPost]
Full-Court Press: In an essay adapted from a speech he gave at the Notre Dame Kellogg Institute for International Studies, New York Times Publisher A.G. Sulzberger reflects on the role a free press plays in society. “And the press is far from the only American institution that finds itself under pressure. We’re seeing direct efforts to go after government agencies, universities, cultural institutions, research organizations, advocacy groups and law firms. We’re even seeing challenges to the authority of Congress and the courts to serve as a check on executive power. Like all of those institutions, the free press is imperfect. And like all of those institutions, the free press is a load-bearing pillar in a free society. … Let me pause to say plainly that as a champion of independent journalism, I believe our job is to cover political debates, not to join them. We’re not the resistance. We are nobody’s opposition. We’re also nobody’s cheerleader. Our loyalty is to the truth and to a public that deserves to know it.” [NYTimes]
Word on the Street
Iranian officials said that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi proposed a joint nuclear-enrichment venture in its negotiations with the U.S.; a representative for Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff denied the report…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Witkoff held a meeting on Wednesday in Jerusalem, the second time in three days the two have met…
Speaking at an event hosted by the Buckley Institute, former Vice President Mike Pence expressed “concerns” about the Trump administration’s revocation of Harvard’s tax-exempt status, stating, “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. If we establish the precedent of taking away tax-exempt status from certain institutions that reflect discriminatory practices or antipathy toward right-wing views, we might find ourselves in an America where subsequent administrations think the same”…
The Trump administration announced it is cutting an additional $450 million in federal grants to Harvard, citing the school’s “pervasive race discrimination and anti-Semitic harassment”…
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said he would “assess” a 2028 presidential run, after declining to mount bids for Senate and governor in Michigan, where he resides…
A legal watchdog group sent a warning letter to Microsoft on Monday alleging that it is violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by refusing to recognize a Jewish Employee Resource Group, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen has learned…
Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck hosted a 30th anniversary reception in its new office in Washington; speaking to the dozens of Capitol Hill legislators in attendance — including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), , Chair John Barrasso (R-WY), NRSC Chair Tim Scott (R-SC), Sens. Michael Bennet (D-CO), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ted Budd (R-NC), Susan Collins (R-ME), Chris Coons (D-DE), Steve Daines (R-MT), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), James Lankford (R-OK), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Ed Markey (D-MA), David McCormick (R-PA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Gary Peters (D-MI), Jack Reed (D-RI), Jim Risch (R-ID), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Tina Smith (D-MN), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI); House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Reps. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Jeff Hurd (R-TX), Lisa McClain (R-MI), Chris Pappas (D-NH), Greg Stanton (D-AZ), Ritchie Torres (D-NY), Rob Wittman (R-VA) and Ann Wagner (R-MO) as well as Hill staff, administration officials, clients and friends of the firm — founder and Chairman Norm Brownstein reflected on the firm’s start “in a small office above the Capital Grille”…
New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced the creation of the city’s Office to Combat Antisemitism, staffed by Executive Director Moshe Davis…
A community garden in the Ridgewood neighborhood of Queens, N.Y., is facing eviction after requiring prospective members to sign a “statement of values” that included opposing Zionism…
In a letter to Rabbi Noam Marans, the American Jewish Committee’s director of interreligious affairs, Pope Leo XIV pledged “to continue and strengthen the Church’s dialogue and cooperation with the Jewish people.” Prominent Jewish Italian journalist Maurizio Molinari commented to Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov that the letter shows the new pope’s “deep understanding of the damage caused by his predecessor. … He understands that the very base of the dialogue with the Jews was put at risk” by his predecessor, Pope Francis….
U.K. broadcaster Gary Lineker is again facing criticism after sharing a social media post comparing Israel to a rat…
Workers in Argentina discovered a trove of Nazi-era documents in the basement of the country’s Supreme Court, where the propaganda materials had been kept for eight decades after being seized by the government during a customs search in 1941…
The IDF targeted Hamas leader Mohammad Sinwar in a strike on the European Hospital in southern Gaza yesterday, Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen reports…
Israel intercepted Houthi ballistic missile attacks on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning; the missiles set off sirens in central Israel, including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem…
Natan Sachs, formerly the director of Brookings’ Center for Middle East Policy, is joining the Middle East Institute…
Pic of the Day
Israeli President Isaac Herzog (right) presented German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier with the Israeli Presidential Medal of Honor at a ceremony on Tuesday at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem.
Birthdays
Actress who has appeared in 13 movies, she is the daughter of Steven Spielberg, Sasha Rebecca Spielberg turns 35…
Born in Casablanca and raised in Paris, Midtown NYC hair stylist and owner of La Boîte a Coupe salon, Elie Laurent Delouya turns 77… Physician and social activist, she was the Green Party’s nominee for POTUS in 2012, 2016 and 2024, Jill Stein turns 75… Professor emerita of computer science at Technion, Orna Grumberg turns 73… Dean of UC Berkeley Law School, he is one of the most frequently cited American legal scholars on constitutional law and federal civil procedure, Erwin Chemerinsky turns 72… Los Angeles city attorney from 2013 until 2022, Mike Feuer turns 67… Author of seven international bestsellers on topics such as strategy, power and seduction, Robert Greene turns 66… Head of School at the Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School in Palo Alto, Calif., Daniel L. Lehmann turns 63… Former member of Knesset for the Meretz party and a major general (reserves) in the IDF, he now leads the Democrats party, Yair Golan turns 63… Former ESPN SportsCenter anchor and football sideline reporter, Suzanne Lisa “Suzy” Kolber turns 61… Retired U.S. Air Force lt. colonel, now serving as director of the U.S. Office of Global Shield, Robert Levinson turns 60… CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven, she is a former seven-term Connecticut state senator, Gayle Slossberg turns 60… Education program lead of Bloomberg Philanthropies, Howard Wolfson… Record producer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, he has won nine Grammy Awards, Greg Kurstin turns 56… Managing partner of Alexandria, Va.-based MVAR Media and a leading strategist in Democratic politics, Jon Vogel… Political director for the Northeast region at AIPAC, Jason Koppel… Emmy Award-winning executive producer at NBC’s “Meet the Press,” David Philip Gelles… Director of media relations and a spokesman at Chabad Lubavitch, Rabbi Mordechai “Motti” Seligson… Chairman, CEO and co-founder of Meta / Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg turns 41… Bloomberg News and Bloomberg Businessweek reporter, Josh Eidelson… Senior managing director of government relations at The Blackstone Group, Alex I. Katz… Associate at O’Melveny & Myers, he is a former track star and then football player at Harvard, Andrew Ezekoye… Former pitcher for Yale and then Team Israel, he is now a senior associate on the Surveyor Capital team at Citadel, Eric Brodkowitz turns 29… Center for the NHL’s New Jersey Devils, he was the first pick in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft and is the son of hockey star Ellen Weinberg-Hughes, Jack Hughes turns 24…
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) speaks during a press conference on new legislation to support Holocaust education nationwide at the U.S. Capitol Building on January 27, 2023, in Washington, D.C.
Good Monday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we talk to Rep. Marlin Stutzman about his recent meeting with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa in Damascus and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz about her conversations with Israeli and Arab leaders during her recent trip to the Middle East. We report from a gathering in Denver of moderate Democratic elected officials from around the country, and interview former JFNA executive Elana Broitman about her newly released comic book about a menopausal superhero. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Nathan Fielder, Menachem Rosensaft and Hussein al-Sheikh.
What We’re Watching
- The American Jewish Committee’s Global Forum continues today. John Spencer, Ellie Cohanim and Bill Kristol will all speak on the main stage.
- Canadians head to the polls today in a federal election pitting Prime Minister Mark Carney and his Liberal Party against Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre.
- The Hostage and Missing Families Forum is hosting an event tonight at the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan featuring former Israeli hostage Noa Argamani as well as the relatives of slain hostages Omer Neutra, Itay Chen and Shiri Bibas.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR
As official Washington spent this weekend at the parties surrounding the White House Correspondents Dinner, an intimate group of moderate Democratic elected officials, policy wonks and strategists met in Denver to present ideas for rehabilitating their party from the center, Jewish Insider Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar reports in a dispatch from the event.
Will Marshall, president of the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI), gathered together a lineup of prominent Colorado centrists — Democratic Gov. Jared Polis and Sens. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) and Michael Bennet (D-CO), among them — along with some former red-state Democratic officials, including former Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL) and former Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) to brainstorm ideas for a new moderate movement.
Of note: Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO), a rising star in the party who is rumored to be mulling a Senate bid as Bennet runs for governor, was in attendance and gave a paean to former President Bill Clinton’s brand of politics, directly quoting from a seminal speech from the then-candidate breaking with the left and calling for a more-mainstream direction for the party.
Neguse quoted from Clinton’s 1991 Democratic Leadership Council speech: “Our burden is to give the people a new choice rooted in old values, a new choice that is simple, that offers opportunity, demands responsibility, gives citizens more of a say, provides them responsive government.”
Neguse, Colorado’s first Black member of Congress, first ran for office as a progressive but has grown more pragmatic over time — and sounded like the type of future national leader the party is looking for. If Bennet wins the governorship in 2026, Neguse would be a strong contender to be appointed to his Senate seat.
Not at the moderate Democratic event: Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, who is running for governor and will be clashing with Bennet in the primary. In an interview with JI at an outreach event for Black voters, Weiser said he plans to position himself as a “populist problem solver” — while playing up his strong voice against President Donald Trump’s policies.
Weiser touted the fact that he’s already filed 13 lawsuits against the Trump administration, saying he’s on the front lines of fighting the “lawlessness of the White House.” In the campaign, he plans to contrast his active record litigating Trump’s immigration and tariff policies in the state with Bennet’s time as a lawmaker in Washington.
But Weiser also sounded like he would be tacking to the senator’s left in the primary.
Weiser’s speech on Saturday centered on how he would fight to protect DEI programs in the state. Asked about what he thought about the Democratic Socialists of America movement — which has a foothold within the party in Denver — he noted their “deep empathy for how working class people are struggling.” He also noted that he endorsed against a DSA-backed legislator who went on an anti-Israel, antisemitic rant in the state House.
Weiser, who speaks openly about his Jewish faith, also slammed the Trump administration for its overreach in cracking down against antisemitism, saying he was “horrified” about Trump’s actions. “Using antisemitism as a cudgel against marginalized individuals or to take away freedom is so horrifying to me,” he told JI.
Bennet, for his part, underscored how Colorado is one of the biggest Democratic success stories because it has nominated candidates who focus on returning results over red-meat slogans. On a PPI panel, he talked passionately about how the country’s health care and education systems are broken — and the Democratic Party has done little to fix it.
“Where is our agenda to reform the education system for the American people? Joe Biden said not a word about it, and these people deserve better than Donald Trump, who is destroying both what’s left of our health care system and what’s left of our education!”
He added: “Trump is not the cause of all our problems. He is the symptom of the lack of economic mobility that we have, the sense that people no matter how hard they work, can’t get ahead.”
peace prospects
Syria’s al-Sharaa discussed prospects for normalization with Israel with GOP lawmaker
New Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa last week discussed his conditions for normalizing relations with Israel with Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN), who was one of the first American lawmakers to visit the country since the overthrow of the Assad regime, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Conditions: During a meeting at the presidential palace in Damascus, al-Sharaa told Stutzman that his concerns in Syria’s relationship with Israel are keeping Syria as a unified country and not allowing regions to be divided off, Israel’s military encroachment into Syria around the Golan Heights and the Israeli bombing campaign targeting Syrian military assets. Al-Sharaa said any agreement with Israel would have to address those points, but Stutzman told JI last week that al-Sharaa said that, “outside of those couple of items — and I’m sure there’s going to be other issues that he would bring to the table, but he was open to those conversations about normalizing relations with Israel.” Stutzman said he felt al-Sharaa was being honest and upfront about those conditions. He said they did not specifically address the issue of whether al-Sharaa’s government is seeking to reclaim the Golan Heights.
TAKING ON TEHRAN
Wasserman Schultz: Arab, Israeli leaders say Iran deal must cover proxy activity
Arab and Israeli leaders are insisting that any U.S. deal with Iran also include provisions to address Iran’s other malign activities in the region, including support for terrorist proxies, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) told Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod following a trip earlier this month to meet with Israeli and Arab leaders in the Middle East. Wasserman Schultz traveled with Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) to the Middle East for the third time since Oct. 7, 2023, visiting Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Jordan.
Common goals: “There was a very clear urgency that the leaders we spoke to had to make sure that we … don’t let Iran up from their very weakened state. They’ve been badly pummeled and had significant defeats,” Wasserman Schultz told JI last week. “The consensus across the region, no matter where we went, was that we needed to make sure that continued and that we prevented them from achieving their nuclear weapons goals and that we particularly prevented them from continuing their support for terrorist activity.”
trump talks
In Time interview, Trump says he would meet with Iranian supreme leader
President Donald Trump said he’d be open to meeting directly with Iran’s president or Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but also suggested that the U.S. could attack Iran to keep it from acquiring a nuclear weapon, in an interview with Time magazine, released on Friday. When asked if he would consider such a meeting, the president responded, “Sure,” Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen reports.
War stance: Pressed if he is worried Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could “drag you into a war” with Iran, Trump responded, “No. By the way, he may go into a war. But we’re not getting dragged in.” The president clarified that he did not mean the U.S. wouldn’t join a war if Israel initiates one: “You asked if he’d drag me in, like I’d go in unwillingly. No, I may go in very willingly if we can’t get a deal. If we don’t make a deal, I’ll be leading the pack.”
BOOKSHELF
Turning the page: how a former Jewish nonprofit exec found her superpower in storytelling
It’s an unlikely origin story for a comic-book superhero: standing at the front of a boardroom in a snazzy blazer, delivering an important presentation until it’s derailed by … a hot flash. That’s when she begins to discover her superpower. Meet Mina, the star of “Holy Menopause: Adventures of a Middle-Aged Superheroine,” a new comic book published by Bunny Gonopolskaya, the pen name of Elana Broitman, a former Jewish communal executive and government affairs consultant who is most familiar to Jewish communal leaders not as an artist or a writer, but as the former senior vice president of public affairs at Jewish Federations of North America until September 2023. Broitman talked to Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch about her new book.
Sexism shift: Broitman, 58, has held senior roles in the private sector, on Capitol Hill and at nonprofits. She never felt like sexism held her back in her career until she hit menopause — and sexism combined with more subtle ageism to make a potent, toxic combination. “I felt gaslighted and ignored,” Broitman told JI in an interview last week. “My way of working through emotions was always to just do some art. I started with a painting of an elderly Wonder Woman, because my whole concept was, Hey, we’re pretty badass, right? We’ve made it here. We have all this wisdom. We can do lots of things, and we’re not about to get dismissed.”
Worthy Reads
Power Chats: Semafor’s Ben Smith spotlights the growing use of “power group chats,” in which dozens, or sometimes hundreds, of power brokers and public figures engage in debate and conversation through the group messaging features of Signal and WhatsApp. “But their influence flows through X, Substack, and podcasts, and constitutes a kind of dark matter of American politics and media. The group chats aren’t always primarily a political space, but they are the single most important place in which a stunning realignment toward Donald Trump was shaped and negotiated, and an alliance between Silicon Valley and the new right formed. … The chats are occasionally marked by the sort of thing that would have gotten you scolded on Twitter in 2020, and which would pass unremarked-on on X in 2025. They have rarely been discussed in public, though you can catch the occasional mention in, for instance, a podcast debate between [Mark] Cuban and the Republican entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, which started in a chat. But they are made visible through a group consensus on social media. Their effects have ranged from the mainstreaming of the monarchist pundit Curtis Yarvin to a particularly focused and developed dislike of the former Washington Post writer Taylor Lorenz.” [Semafor]
Has Ben-Gvir Really Changed?: The Atlantic’s Graeme Wood reflects on his interaction with Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir at an event in New Haven, Conn., in which Ben-Gvir was pressed about his previous support for Jewish extremist Baruch Goldstein, whose portrait was displayed for decades in Ben-Gvir’s home. “[Ben-Gvir] framed his transformation as moral, and said he was not who he was when he was 17. Getting married and having six kids mellows a man out, he said. His whole answer took no more than a couple of minutes. I told Ben-Gvir that I found his contrition perfunctory and unconvincing, and I challenged him, if he was sincere, to prove it. I asked him to tell us all what it was like to idolize a murderer — and then to tell us what he would say to his younger self, or someone still in the thrall of a terrorist, to persuade him to give up violence and mellow out sooner rather than later. He couldn’t even bring himself to pretend. He just asserted that he had changed. ‘I’m sure you did things when you were 17 that you are not proud of,’ he said. (He removed the portrait when he was 44.) And he said again that time and family make a difference — but he added not a word about the inherent value of human life, or the disgrace brought upon religion and country by someone who massacres civilians, especially in a moment of total vulnerability.” [TheAtlantic]
Corbyn-ism Coming to America: In the Jewish Chronicle, Shany Mor raises concerns about the “Corbynization” of left-wing American circles. “As with so many more benign trends, Britain is just ten or so years ahead of the US. And the long march of geostrategic antisemitism’s institutional capture in the US is only about a decade behind Britain’s. Each major milestone – the capture of academia, the arts world, the various NGOs, a few major newspapers and journals of the smart set – was reached on these shores well before crossing the pond. And just as in Britain, so in the United States there is no realistic path to building a majority coalition around antisemitism either in its geostrategic or conventional forms. … American liberals, American Jews, and especially liberal American Jews would be well advised to be extra vigilant about this British import, which no tariff will protect them from. The British experience of the 2010s has a few useful lessons and warnings for what awaits the Americans in the 2020s.” [JewishChronicle]
Word on the Street
American and Iranian negotiators concluded a third round of nuclear talks in Oman over the weekend, amid disagreements over Iran’s domestic uranium enrichment; the parties will meet in Europe in the coming weeks…
The Trump administration restored thousands of foreign student visas — largely for students who had committed minor or dismissed infractions — that had been previously revoked…
Donald Trump Jr., alongside investment banker Omeed Malik and Alex Witkoff, the son of Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, is opening a members club in Washington; Malik’s 1789 Capital had previously invested in Tucker Carlson’s new media company…
The chair of the United Arab Emirate’s Executive Affairs Authority met in Washington last week with senior Trump administration officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff…
Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA), Troy Carter (D-LA) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) introduced a resolution commemorating Jewish American Heritage Month…
Reps. David Kustoff (R-TN) and Wasserman Schultz introduced legislation to enable Holocaust survivors to recoup pre-Holocaust insurance policies, the latest in a long series of congressional attempts to move the issue forward…
The Los Angeles Times spotlights a lawsuit between Irish hotelier Patrick McKillen and members of the Qatari royal family over the alleged lack of payment for work done on the Maybourne Beverly Hills…
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar spoke on Friday to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro about the recent arson attack at the governor’s mansion in Harrisburg…
In The Wall Street Journal, Eugene Kontorovich calls on the Trump administration to again withdraw from UNESCO over what he alleges is antisemitism within the body, years after the Biden administration reversed a decision by the first Trump administration to pull out…
The NYPD is investigating clashes that took place last week outside of Chabad-Lubavitch headquarters in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, between demonstrators and counterprotesters during a surprise visit by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir…
“60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley addressed the recent departure of the show’s executive producer in the final minutes of Sunday’s episode; Pelley cited disagreements with CBS parent company Paramount+ over the show’s coverage of “the Israel-Gaza war and the Trump administration”…
In the latest episode of HBO’s “The Rehearsal,” comic Nathan Fielder compared Paramount+ to Nazi Germany after discovering that a 2015 episode of his “Nathan for You” comedy series that dealt with antisemitism was removed from the streaming service…
NPR spotlights the “shlissel challah,” a key-shaped loaf that is traditionally made the Shabbat after Passover…
Israel slammed the Spanish government’s cancellation of a €6.6 million deal that would have seen Madrid purchase 15 million bullets from Israel’s IMI Systems…
Israel sent its envoy to the Vatican, Yaron Sideman, to attend the funeral of Pope Francis, opting against sending an official Israeli delegation, days after Israel’s Foreign Ministry deleted a post memorializing the pontiff, who died last week…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Shin Bet head Ronen Bar of lying to an Israeli court that Netanyahu had demanded personal loyalty from him…
Senior Biden administration official Amos Hochstein said that Israel “missed” an opportunity to reach a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia last year…
Hussein al-Sheikh was appointed vice president of the Palestine Liberation Organization amid an ongoing debate over who will succeed 91-year-old Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas…
Israel struck a Hezbollah facility in southern Beirut that contained precision missiles on Sunday evening…
At least 40 people were killed in an explosion at the port of Bandar Abbas in Iran following the outbreak of a small fire in a section of the port with large shipping containers…
Iran’s Infrastructure Communications Company said it repelled a large cyber attack the day after the port explosion…
Amateur golfer Jay Sigel, whose plans to go pro were deferred for several decades by a college injury, died at 81…
Pic of the Day
Attorney and professor Menachem Rosensaft, who was born in a displaced persons camp at Bergen-Belsen, spoke at a memorial ceremony on Sunday at the concentration camp marking the 80th anniversary of its liberation.
Birthdays
Comedy writer, television producer and showrunner, Daniel Joshua Goor turns 50…
Former Israeli ambassador to the U.S., he also served four terms in the Knesset, Zalman Shoval turns 95… White House chief of staff for Presidents Reagan and Bush 41, secretary of the Treasury and secretary of state, James Baker turns 95… Retired judge of the Maryland Court of Appeals (now known as the Supreme Court of Maryland), Judge Irma Steinberg Raker turns 87… Retired four-star United States Marine Corps general, Robert Magnus turns 78… Retired SVP and COO of IPRO and former president of the Bronx/Riverdale YM-YWHA and the Riverdale Jewish Center, Harry M. Feder… Cantor who has served in Galveston, Texas, Houston and Buffalo, N.Y., Sharon Eve Colbert… Criminal defense attorney, Abbe David Lowell turns 73… Director of congregational engagement at Temple Beth Sholom of Miami Beach, Fla., Mark Baranek… Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Elena Kagan turns 65… American-born Israeli writer and translator, David Hazony turns 56… Director of criminal justice innovation, development and engagement at USDOJ during the Biden administration, Karen C. Friedman… Retired soccer player, she played for the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team from 1997 to 2000, Sara Whalen Hess turns 49… Founder of GlobeTrotScott Strategies, Scott Mayerowitz… Actress and film critic, she is the writer and star of the CBC comedy series “Workin’ Moms,” Catherine Reitman turns 44… Model, actress and TV host, known for her role in the soap opera “Fashion House,” Donna Feldman turns 43… CEO and founder of The Branch, Ravi Gupta… Freelance journalist, formerly at ESPN and Sports Illustrated, Jason Schwartz… Senior editor at Politico Magazine, Benjamin Isaac Weyl… President of Saratoga Strategies, a D.C.-based strategic communications and crisis management firm, Joshua Schwerin… Head coach of the women’s soccer team at Yeshiva University, Ryan Alexander Hezekiah Adeleye turns 38… Israeli artist and photographer, Neta Cones… Marketing director at College Golf Experience, Jeffrey Hensiek… Associate in the finance department of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, Robert S. Murstein… Senior reporter for Cybersecurity Dive, Eric J. Geller… Founder and CEO of Diamond Travel Services and CEO of A Better Way ABA, Ahron Fragin… Midfielder for Major League Soccer’s New York Red Bulls, Daniel Ethan Edelman turns 22…
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