Al-Ansari praised the Second Intifada for its ‘martyrdom operations’ against the ‘Zionist enemy’
MAHMUD HAMS/AFP via Getty Images
Qatar's Foreign Mininstry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari looks on at a press conference during the 2025 Arab-Islamic emergency summit in Doha on September 15, 2025.
Add JewishInsider on GoogleMajed 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.”
Plus, Platner’s tattoo trouble doesn’t fade
WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 15: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) speaks during a press conference on healthcare with other House Democrats, on the East steps of the U.S. Capitol on the 15th day of the government shutdown in Washington, DC on October 15, 2025. (Photo by Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Good Monday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we talk to Jewish Democrats about their efforts to reengage the party’s rank-and-file on supporting Israel as the war in Gaza winds down, and report on the mounting evidence that Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner knew the origins of his tattoo of a Nazi symbol prior to national coverage of the body art and his related social media postings. We spotlight a new PAC in Washington state that is backing “pro-Jewish candidates” in Seattle’s upcoming school board elections, and report on a new initiative from the Jewish Book Council aimed at boosting Jewish and Israeli authors. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Alyza Lewin, Brian Romick and Jon Finer.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by Jewish Insider Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with an assist from Danielle Cohen-Kanik. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
- We’re keeping an eye on efforts to locate and repatriate the bodies of the 13 remaining Israeli hostages, following President Donald Trump’s warning to Hamas on Saturday that the terror group had 48 hours to begin resuming the transfer of bodies. Teams from Egypt and the Red Cross also joined the effort over the weekend.
- Delegates from around the world are arriving in Israel today ahead of the start of the World Zionist Congress, which begins tomorrow in Jerusalem.
- Members of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community are marking the seventh anniversary of the deadly attack on the Tree of Life synagogue in which 11 congregants were killed.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S GABBY DEUTCH
As a fragile cease-fire holds in Gaza, Jewish Democrats see an opportunity to reengage party Democratic activists and elected officials who have grown frustrated with Israel’s actions in Gaza.
Jewish Insider spoke to more than a dozen fundraisers, activists and professionals in the pro-Israel space, most with a long history of involvement in Democratic politics. Their pitch to Democrats at this precarious moment involves two parts: First, push to make President Donald Trump’s peace plan a reality. Second, ensure that Democrats understand that the value of America’s relationship with Israel is independent from the leader of either country — and that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who remains broadly unpopular with the American left, won’t be in power forever.
Unlike naysayers on the right who suggest Democrats have abandoned Israel — a claim made frequently by Trump — the Jewish activists and communal leaders who advocate for a strong U.S.-Israel relationship and for U.S. aid to Israel still insist that support for the Jewish state remains bipartisan, and that congressional Democrats remain broadly pro-Israel. That proposition faced its toughest test during a two-year war, when Democrats became increasingly sympathetic to the Palestinians as Israel’s effort to eradicate Hamas left the Gaza Strip in ruins and claimed thousands of lives.
“I think ending the war turns the temperature down pretty dramatically,” said Brian Romick, CEO of Democratic Majority for Israel. “Right now, what we’re saying is, no matter where you were in the previous two years, we all need the deal to work, and so being for the deal [and] wanting the deal to work is a pro-Israel position right now, and then you build from there.”
At the start of the war, 34% of Democrats sympathized more with Israel, and 31% sympathized more with Palestinians, according to New York Times polling. New data released last month shows that 54% of Democrats now sympathize more with the Palestinians, compared to only 13% with Israel. That stark shift in public opinion corresponded to more Democratic lawmakers voting to condition American military support for Israel than ever before.
“I do think that there is room to build forward,” said Jeremy Burton, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, which works closely with Democratic lawmakers in deep-blue Massachusetts. “We have to be secure enough in our own belief in the future and our hope for the future to say ‘OK, if your point was that you’re committed to the long-term project of Israel’s security and safety, and you were looking for short term ways to pressure the government of Israel, then let’s move forward with the long-term project, even if we disagreed with you in the short term.’”
TATTOO-GATE
Graham Platner’s credibility under fire in Maine Senate campaign
Graham Platner, the scandal-plagued Democrat running for Senate in Maine, continued to insist he only recently became aware that a black skull tattoo on his chest resembles a Nazi SS symbol, even amid mounting evidence suggesting he was aware of what the image represented long before he announced his campaign this summer, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports. A new investigation published on Friday by CNN confirmed JI’s earlier reporting that Platner had on at least one occasion identified the tattoo as a Nazi SS symbol, known as a Totenkopf, to a former acquaintance more than a decade ago.
New evidence: The former acquaintance spoke with CNN, which also interviewed a second person who said that the acquaintance had mentioned Platner’s tattoo years ago. In addition, CNN reviewed a more recent text exchange from several months ago in which the acquaintance discussed the tattoo, before Platner himself revealed he had the tattoo in an interview last week, in an effort to preempt what he described as opposition research seeking to damage his insurgent Senate campaign. Both JI and CNN also cited deleted Reddit posts in which Platner, a 41-year-old Marine veteran and an oyster farmer, defended the use of Nazi tattoos, including SS lighting bolts, among servicemembers. In one thread, a user had mentioned the Totenkopf, further indicating that Platner had been aware of its symbolism before he entered the race in August to unseat Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME).
ONLINE APPEARANCE
CAIR-Ohio leader moderated event featuring designated terrorist
The executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Ohio branch moderated an online event last week featuring a Hamas official designated as a terrorist by the Treasury Department, as well as other Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad members. The Beirut-based think tank Al-Zaytouna Centre for Studies and Consultations hosted an event in Arabic last week titled “Palestinians Abroad and Regional International Strategic Transformations in Light of Operation Al-Aksa Flood,” using Hamas’ name for its Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Terror talk: Among the speakers at the web conference was Majed al-Zeer, who was designated by the Treasury Department in October 2024 as “the senior Hamas representative in Germany, who is also one of the senior Hamas members in Europe and has played a central role in the terrorist group’s European fundraising.” Al-Zeer said that “the resistance” is key to maintaining the momentum of a “strategic shift” in how Europe and the world views the Palestinian issue.
SLATE OF ENDORSEMENTS
New PAC in Washington state backs ‘pro-Jewish candidates’ on Seattle school board
With eyes on several high-profile races across the country featuring candidates antagonistic to Jewish interests, activists in one of the most progressive parts of the country are raising the alarm on local seats that act as a “rung on a ladder” to higher office, saying the problems the Jewish community face “start further upstream,” Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen-Kanik reports. The Kids Table, a new PAC in Washington state supporting “pro-Jewish candidates” and led by “Millennials and moms, public affairs experts and gymnastics dads,” unveiled a slate of endorsements this month in races for the board of directors of Seattle Public Schools, a school district that has seen several major antisemitic incidents since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in Israel and subsequent rise of antisemitism across the country, including in K-12 classrooms, amid the two-year war between Israel and Hamas.
Eye on education: “We need help in the school districts now,” Sam Jefferies, co-chair of The Kids Table, told JI. “We also know that school boards can be a rung on a ladder as [candidates] seek higher office, and we want to make sure that we are building relationships with them early, providing them critical context and education around our issues, and then carry that forward, whether it’s on the school board or elsewhere.”
PEOPLE OF THE BOOK CLUB
As Jewish writers face boycotts and bias, new initiative aims to boost their books
For Jewish and Israeli authors and the people who enjoy their books, the publishing industry has been a decidedly depressing place over the last two years, with boycotts against the works of authors deemed to be Zionists. A new initiative from the Jewish Book Council, a 100-year-old nonprofit dedicated to promoting Jewish literature, aims to fight back against the torrent of bad news for Jewish writers. This month, JBC unveiled Nu Reads, a subscription service that will deliver selected Jewish books to subscribers bimonthly, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports. The first book, Happy New Years, a novel by the Israeli author Maya Arad, has already shipped to Nu Reads’ inaugural subscribers.
Caring for the community: “There’s a chill for our community across the industry,” JBC CEO Naomi Firestone-Teeter told JI in an interview this month. “If we care about Jewish literature and we care about these authors and ideas, we need to buy these books. We need to invest in them and support them.” More than 230,000 Jewish families in the U.S. and Canada receive children’s books each month through PJ Library, a program modeled on Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. It was PJ Library — which has transformed young Jews’ experience with Jewish books in the two decades it has existed — that served as an inspiration to JBC.
FLIGHT TRACKER
American Airlines to resume direct flights to TLV in March
American Airlines announced plans on Friday to resume direct flights to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport starting in March, marking the first time since the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks that the carrier will fly directly to Israel, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
On the calendar: Flights to Tel Aviv are scheduled to resume on March 28, 2026, just days ahead of the Passover holiday, when Israel typically sees an influx of tourism. Tickets will be available for purchase beginning Monday. The announcement comes weeks after Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire in the Gaza war. American is the last of the major U.S. carriers to resume flights to Israel.
TRANSITION
Constitutional lawyer Alyza Lewin tapped to lead Combat Antisemitism Movement’s U.S. advocacy
The Combat Antisemitism Movement tapped constitutional lawyer Alyza Lewin on Monday to lead its revamped U.S. affairs department, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen has learned. Lewin steps into CAM’s newly established role of president of U.S. affairs following eight years at the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, where as president she spearheaded legal and advocacy efforts protecting the civil rights of Jewish students and employees nationwide.
New role: At CAM, Lewin, an attorney who co-founded Lewin & Lewin, LLP, will “help broader audiences recognize and understand the antisemitism that’s plaguing the United States today,” she told JI. The six-year-old advocacy organization “has developed relationships with so many communities and audiences that need to understand how to recognize contemporary antisemitism,” said Lewin. In her new position, Lewin will oversee coordination and engagement with those groups. “These broader audiences need to understand the tools at their disposal and utilize them to address discrimination that’s taking place,” she said, adding that she plans to educate about the implementation of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism.
Worthy Reads
Peace Dividends: In The Washington Post, Yuval Noah Harari posits that Israel’s peace treaties with its neighbors have been critical to the country’s survival since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and ensuing war. “Hamas hoped that its attack would trigger an all-out Arab onslaught on Israel, but this failed to materialize. The only entities that undertook direct hostile actions against Israel were Hezbollah, the Houthis, Iran and various Iranian-backed militias in Syria and Iraq — none of which had ever recognized Israel’s right to exist. In contrast, Egypt did not break the peace treaty it signed with Israel in 1979; Jordan did not break the peace treaty signed in 1994; and the gulf states did not break the treaties signed in 2020. … As we reflect on the terrible events of the past two years, we should not let the silent success of Middle Eastern peace treaties be drowned out by the echoes of violent explosions. The peace treaties Israel had signed with its Arab neighbors have been put to an extremely severe test, and they have held. After years of horrific war, this should encourage people on all sides to give another chance to peace.” [WashPost]
Filling the Void: In The New York Times, James Rubin, an advisor to former Secretaries of State Tony Blinken and Madeleine Albright, considers the elements that could foster long-term calm in the Gaza Strip. “The linchpin of any lasting peace will be the creation and deployment of an international force, a feature of the U.S. peace plan that was announced by President Trump and endorsed by world leaders in Egypt earlier this month and that spawned the cease-fire. The force would create conditions to realize other aspects of the plan: filling the growing security vacuum in Gaza, allowing for Palestinian self-governance and ensuring that Israel will not be threatened. … With a clear plan, a U.N. resolution and a main troop contributor identified, it would then be much easier to fill out the force with actual commitments of personnel and expand the training of a Palestinian contingent, which would ideally over time replace the international forces, as envisioned in the Trump plan.” [NYTimes]
Annexation Angst: The Atlantic’s Yair Rosenberg reflects on potential conflicts between far-right elements of the Israeli government and the Trump administration, on the heels of two Knesset votes regarding West Bank annexation that took place during Vice President JD Vance’s trip to Israel last week. “The more political and economic influence the Gulf states have over Trump and Israel, the more demands they will be able to make of both. Heading off formal annexation of the West Bank is the first ask, but it won’t be the last. Ultimately, the far right’s program of unfettered settler expansion and violence, unending war and eventual settlement in Gaza, and no negotiations with the Palestinian Authority is irreconcilable with a more regionally integrated Israel and an expanded Abraham Accords. In practice, this means that as long as Israel’s settler right holds power over Netanyahu, it will continue to threaten the Trump administration’s agenda.” [TheAtlantic]
The Next British Invasion: In The Wall Street Journal, Rabbi Pini Dunner suggests that the U.S. accept British Jews as refugees, citing antisemitism in the U.K. that is “marching down the high street, waving flags, shouting slogans,” as well as the recent precedent set by the Trump administration in granting some South Africans a pathway to refugee status. “Let’s offer a lifeline for Jews who can no longer walk the streets of London, Manchester or Birmingham without looking over their shoulders. America has always been a haven. We can open our doors to Jews who no longer feel safe in the country that once promised them safety. Yes, the U.S. refugee system is overwhelmed. Yes, immigration is politically toxic. But this is different. This is moral clarity. Every year, the U.S. admits thousands fleeing persecution because of race, religion or politics. British Jews now fit that category. Their persecutors aren’t warlords or terrorists. They’re neighbors, coworkers, teachers, even police officers — and Jews feel unsafe. When a Western democracy fails to protect its Jews, other countries must act. That isn’t interference, it’s conscience.” [WSJ]
Word on the Street
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), who had held off endorsing a candidate in New York City’s upcoming mayoral election, announced his backing of Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani on Friday, the day before early voting began in the city…
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul appeared at a Sunday rally for Mamdani in Queens, the first time the governor campaigned for Mamdani since endorsing him last month…
The Lakewood, N.J., Vaad endorsed GOP gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli, a week and a half ahead of Ciattarelli’s general election matchup against Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), who in recent weeks has stepped up her outreach efforts to the state’s Jewish community…
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said that he would make a decision about the 2028 presidential election after the 2026 midterms, amid speculation that he is preparing for a run…
Northwestern University announced that Provost Kathleen Hagerty will depart the Illinois school by the end of the academic year; the announcement comes a month after the resignation of President Michael Schill amid clashes with the Trump administration over the school’s handling of antisemitism…
British journalist Sami Hamdi, who praised the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks, had his U.S. visa revoked during a speaking tour and will be deported over his comments…
A new report from the United States–Israel Business Alliance found that Israeli-founded companies in New York State generated $19.5 billion in gross economic output in 2024…
The Washington Post spotlights the Jewish bubbes who doled out “life advice from a nice Jewish grandma” from a table outside Washington’s Sixth and I Synagogue…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told members of his Cabinet that Israel will determine which countries are “unacceptable” to send troops to Gaza to join an international stabilization force, as The New York Times looks at how tensions between Israel and Turkey are affecting Ankara’s participation in efforts to administer and rebuild postwar Gaza…
British Airways paused its sponsorship of Louis Theroux’s podcast, following an episode that featured an interview with punk musician Bob Vylan, who led cheers of “death to the IDF” at the Glastonbury music festival over the summer; in the interview, Vylan said he would lead the chant “again tomorrow, twice on Sundays”…
Hard-left independent Irish presidential candidate Catherine Connolly, who has called Israel a “terrorist state,” won the country’s election on Friday; read our profile of Connolly here…
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas designated longtime aide Hussein al-Sheikh as his temporary successor should he vacate his leadership role…
Qatar inaugurated its new embassy in Washington, in the 16th Street NW building that housed the Carnegie Institution for Washington until its sale in 2021…
Israel’s Mossad alleged that a senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps official oversaw a network of more than 11,000 operatives that was behind at least three Iranian plots against Jewish and Israeli targets in Western countries…
Iran’s Ayandeh Bank is closing and being folded into the state-run Bank Melli; the shuttering of one of the country’s biggest lenders comes amid a growing economic crisis in the Islamic Republic resulting from crippling international sanctions…
The Financial Times profiles Pakistani Chief of Army Staff Asim Munir, who President Donald Trump has described as his “favorite field marshal,” as the military leader aims to consolidate power in the central Asian country…
Jon Finer, who served as deputy national security advisor during the Biden administration, is joining the Center for American Progress as a distinguished senior fellow on CAP’s National Security and International Policy team…
Journalist Sid Davis, who covered the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and was one of just three reporters on Air Force One during the swearing-in of President Lyndon B. Johnson, died at 97…
Pic of the Day
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar (left) met earlier today with Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto in Budapest. Sa’ar was joined on the trip by a delegation of several dozen Israeli business leaders.
Birthdays
Author, actress and comedian, Fran Lebowitz turns 75…
Treasurer of the Pacific Palisades Residents Association, Gordon Gerson… Senior U.S. district judge in Maine, he was born in a refugee camp following World War II, Judge George Z. Singal turns 80… Rabbi emeritus at Miami Beach’s Temple Beth Sholom, Gary Glickstein turns 78… SVP at MarketVision Research, Joel M. Schindler… President emeritus of Jewish Creativity International, Robert Goldfarb… Co-chair of a task force at the Bipartisan Policy Center, he is a former U.S. ambassador to Finland and Turkey, Eric Steven Edelman turns 74… Television writer, director and producer, best known as the co-creator of the 122 episodes of “The Nanny,” Peter Marc Jacobson turns 68… Senior advisor and fellow at the Soufan Group following 31 years at the Congressional Research Service, Dr. Kenneth Katzman… Co-owner of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers and English soccer club Manchester United, Bryan Glazer turns 61… New York state senator from Manhattan, he serves as chair of the NYS Senate Judiciary Committee, Brad Hoylman-Sigal turns 60… Creator and editor of the Drudge Report, Matt Drudge turns 59… Hasidic cantor and singer known by his first and middle names, Shlomo Simcha Sufrin turns 58… Managing partner of the Los Angeles office of HR&A Advisors, Andrea Batista Schlesinger turns 49… Sportscaster for CBS Sports, Adam Zucker turns 49… Music composer, he is a distinguished senior scholar at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, Yotam Haber turns 49… Member of the Netherlands House of Representatives, Gideon “Gidi” Markuszower turns 48… Television meteorologist, currently working for The Weather Channel, Stephanie Abrams turns 47… Writer, attorney and creative writing teacher, she has published two novels and a medical memoir, Elizabeth L. Silver turns 47… Israel’s minister of environmental protection, Idit Silman turns 45… Chair of the Open Society Foundations, founded by his father George Soros, Alexander F. G. Soros turns 40… Israeli actress best known for playing Eve in the Netflix series “Lucifer,” Inbar Lavi turns 39… Senior foreign policy and national security advisor for Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Elizabeth (Liz) Leibowitz… Executive producer of online content at WTSP in St. Petersburg, Fla., Theresa Collington… Senior social marketing manager at Amazon, Stephanie Arbetter… Senior director of sales at Arch, Andrew J. Taub… Co-founder of Arch, Ryan Eisenman… Real estate agent and co-founder and president of Bond Companies, Robert J. Bond…
The Jewish Book Council launched a new subscription service, Nu Reads, which provides six Jewish books per year, modeled on the success of PJ Library
For Jewish and Israeli authors and the people who enjoy their books, the publishing industry has been a decidedly depressing place over the last two years.
A spreadsheet titled “Is Your Fav Author a Zionist?” went viral on social media and called for readers to boycott so-called “Zionist” authors, a label extended even to some who merely spoke to Jewish audiences. The literary magazine Guernica retracted an essay by an Israeli author in response to protests from staff. LitHub, the preeminent news site dedicated to the publishing industry, has adopted a stridently anti-Israel stance since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks two years ago. “A litmus test has emerged across wide swaths of the literary world effectively excluding Jews from full participation unless they denounce Israel,” the author Jamie Kirchick wrote in The New York Times last year.
A new initiative from the Jewish Book Council, a 100-year-old nonprofit dedicated to promoting Jewish literature, aims to fight back against the torrent of bad news for Jewish writers. This month, JBC unveiled Nu Reads, a subscription service that will deliver selected Jewish books to subscribers bimonthly. The first book, Happy New Years by the Israeli author Maya Arad, has already shipped to Nu Reads’ inaugural subscribers.
“There’s a chill for our community across the industry,” JBC CEO Naomi Firestone-Teeter told Jewish Insider in an interview this month. “If we care about Jewish literature and we care about these authors and ideas, we need to buy these books. We need to invest in them and support them.”
Curated book subscription services have soared in popularity in recent years. A reinvigorated Book of the Month Club launched in 2016, an homage to the ubiquitous brand of the 1950s and 1960s that helped curious readers find new titles; the new iteration has a reported 400,000 members. More than 230,000 Jewish families in the U.S. and Canada receive children’s books each month through PJ Library, a program modeled on Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. It was PJ Library — which has transformed young Jews’ experience with Jewish books in the two decades it has existed — that served as an inspiration to JBC.
“I very jokingly suggested that I wish that there was a PJ Library for grown-ups,” said Tova Mirvis, the author of five books and Nu Reads’ writer-in-residence, who helps curate the book selections. “It was just an idea, and I began to think about it. I spent a lot of time thinking about my own experience of reading Jewish books, and how who I am as a person and as a writer is so shaped by my love of Jewish fiction.”
Unlike PJ Library, Nu Reads is not a charity project. It asks consumers to choose to spend their money on hardcover copies of new Jewish books. The founding subscriber rate of $154 includes six books delivered over the course of a year, along with invitations to community gatherings and author talks. Several hundred people have become subscribers in the two weeks since Nu Reads was announced.
At a time when Jewish writers face growing challenges in the publishing industry, JBC hopes Nu Reads will herald Jewish readers’ purchasing power to remind publishers that Jewish books are a good investment, because publishing is, ultimately, a business.
“It’s much harder to get published because there are fewer venues. There are fewer places that review books. We have so many other distractions we use aside from reading books. There are fewer bookstores — all the ways that, I think, the literary world has shrunk, and so of course that affects Jewish writers as well,” Mirvis told JI.
Nu Reads, Mirvis hopes, will serve as “a reminder to the literary world, to publishers and editors, that there are so many people within the Jewish community who love these books. I think it’s a way to galvanize readers to say, ‘I want to read the next generation of these writers.’”
In early 2024, JBC created an online resource for Jewish writers and publishing industry professionals to report instances of antisemitism they had experienced. The organization, which is best known for presenting the annual National Jewish Book Awards, also launched a virtual support group for Jews in the literary world that still meets regularly.
“This is such a competitive industry,” said JBC CEO Naomi Firestone-Teeter. “We’re holding all of that together to try to not be sensationalist about anything, but at the same time, these are real concerns that are valid.”
So far, JBC has received more than 400 reports of antisemitism, with examples including digital harassment and abuse, students kicked out of literary journals because of their views on Israel and writers asked by publishers or marketers to discuss their Judaism only in a particular way.
Still, it’s nearly always impossible to attribute a decision in the literary world purely to antisemitic motives. A book may be dropped by a publisher because of the author’s attitude toward Israel or the Jewish themes it portrays. But it could also be dropped for a near-infinite number of other reasons: limited demand, fewer books being published overall or the book simply not being very good.
“This is such a competitive industry,” said Firestone-Teeter. “We’re holding all of that together to try to not be sensationalist about anything, but at the same time, these are real concerns that are valid.”
Nu Reads’ second selection is Sam Sussman’s Boy From the North Country, a novel about a boy in upstate New York who grows up with a nagging sense that he is Bob Dylan’s illegitimate child. (The book is based on Sussman’s own life, and a glance at a photo of the author reveals more than a passable resemblance to the folk icon.)
As a child in the Hudson Valley, far from other Jews, Sussman had formative encounters with stories by Jewish writers such as Chaim Potok, Philip Roth and Tony Kushner. When he moved to New York City, Jewish book events were how he tapped into the Jewish community.
“We only have so much control over how the wider world receives Jewish literature,” author Sam Sussman told JI. “But I think it’s very important that within the Jewish world, we’re open to stories from Jews of all backgrounds and with all political and cultural perspectives.”
“I really grew up in a part of the world where there weren’t a significant number of other Jews, and literature was a really important way for me to connect to a broader sense of Jewish community,” Sussman told JI.
Sussman has not experienced the kind of pushback or stigmatizing that some other Jewish writers have reported since Oct. 7. Instead, he urged Jewish readers to think about how to ensure that the full diversity of Jewish voices and stories are told and respected.
“We only have so much control over how the wider world receives Jewish literature,” Sussman told JI. “But I think it’s very important that within the Jewish world, we’re open to stories from Jews of all backgrounds and with all political and cultural perspectives.”
Sussman’s story, and the growing positive acclaim for his debut novel, is a reminder that despite the steady drip of negative headlines for Jewish authors, the literary world — an industry Jewish authors and intellectuals helped shape over decades — is not a monolith, and the story of American Jewish literature has not yet reached its conclusion.
“How do we respond to the urgent needs of our community and raise awareness about them and create written documentation around them, but also, how do we find ways that we can just really celebrate our Jewishness and have that propel us forward?” asked Firestone-Teeter. “The ability to hold all these things at once is incredibly inspiring.”
Tibon told JI that the documentary's eventual debut, despite significant roadblocks, was ‘a victory for the movie and a victory for the truth of what happened on Oct. 7’
George Pimentel Photograph
AM Noam Tibon and Barry Avrich at the premiere of "The Road Between Us" documentary at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The most important major victory of retired Israeli Gen. Noam Tibon’s life was rescuing his son, Amir, his daughter-in-law, Miri, and their two young daughters from their home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz during the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas terror attacks.
But the premiere of a new documentary telling that story almost didn’t happen.
“The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue” debut at the Toronto International Film Festival last month was “a victory for the movie and a victory for the truth of what happened on Oct. 7,” said Tibon, the film’s protagonist who served in the IDF for 35 years, specializing in combat operations and counterterrorism.
“For 72 hours, as the world came together to say this should be screened, I felt a ray of hope,” the documentary’s director, Barry Avrich, told Jewish Insider in an interview alongside Tibon, days before the film debuted in 81 theatres across North America on Friday. “We hadn’t felt that since Oct. 7 at all.”
Getting the film to the big screen required a global effort. In August, a month before the festival, TIFF organizers revoked their invitation to show “The Road Between Us,” citing the documentary’s use of Hamas footage of the attacks that the festival said had not been approved for use by the terror group.
Following pressure from Hollywood heavyweights and Jewish groups, the film was ultimately allowed to premiere at the festival on Sep. 10, where it received a standing ovation from an audience of nearly 2,000 people and won the festival’s top prize, the People’s Choice Award.
“What was extraordinarily amazing to me — because I just didn’t think we had the wind to our back — was that the global pressure and reaction to the withdrawal of this film was so enormous and validating. We received emails from Jewish people as far as Shanghai” who were outraged over the film’s cancellation, Avrich recalled. “It was one of the great moments in my film career, when the Hollywood community and Jewish community globally said, ‘We will not be erased.’ I kept telling Noam, ‘You will not cancel your ticket, you’re coming to Toronto. We will show this film.’”
“I was very proud that we got into the TIFF festival,” added Tibon. “This industry is all new to me but I understand it’s one of the biggest festivals in the world. One day, Barry called me and said we were out of the festival. Then we got so much support from Jewish communities and movie supporters all over the world. I want to thank all of the people who stood up and said this is not fair.”
The documentary tells the story of Tibon and his wife Gali’s race in their jeep — pistol in hand — from Tel Aviv to the kibbutz in the Gaza envelope to rescue their son, Amir Tibon — a correspondent for Haaretz — his wife Miri Bernovsky-Tibon and their two daughters, then three and nearly two years old, trapped in a safe room on their kibbutz when Hamas terrorists invaded on Oct. 7. The film uses Hamas body cam footage and video from surveillance cameras to tell Tibon’s chronicle as he not only successfully fought his way to his son, but saved several others along the way, from Nova Music Festival concert-goers to Israeli soldiers.
The elder Tibon said that from his experience on Oct. 7, diaspora Jews and the organizations that serve them can learn “only one piece of advice.”
“If your family or people you love are in danger, do something. Do whatever you can to save them,” he told JI. “Of course you can prepare, but [it comes down to] your spirit, your willingness to take risks to save the people you love. The movie — and my story about my family — is about doing whatever [can be done] to save family. I used all my experience and skills on that day.”
Avrich, a Canadian acclaimed documentary filmmaker, first learned of the Tibon family story when it aired on “60 Minutes” in October 2023. “You look for stories as a documentary filmmaker. I like stories of heroism,” he told JI. “[This story] is about leaving no one behind. The minute I got on a Zoom with Noam, I knew I had to tell his story.”
“It wasn’t so much that this was an Israeli story,” continued Avrich, who said he wasn’t seeking out Oct. 7 stories. “It’s a story about family. This is a slice of a day that really attracted me to some hope of the day. The film is not about Oct. 7. It’s about the Tibon family. It happened on Oct. 7, but it’s not a political commentary.”
As the two year anniversary of the attacks approaches, Tibon said Israel has several issues it needs to address — including uncovering how the Israeli government missed signals of the looming Hamas terror attack on Oct. 7.
“It’s important that all of the kibbutzim communities along the border feel secure,” he told JI. “That’s why the hostages are the second biggest failure of this government. It’s against Judaism and the main values of the IDF to leave anyone behind. All of the communities along the border need to see that the hostages are back home to feel that they are secure. One of the biggest challenges is making people in Israel feel secure again.”
“Oct. 7 was the biggest failure in the history of the state of Israel,” Tibon continued. “It’s not one or two [issues], it’s a collapse of a system. I’m pushing that the government will go according to Israeli law and build a formal investigation, led by a Supreme Court judge, like we did after the [1973] Yom Kippur [War] failure. This should answer three main questions: what happened on that day, why it happened and who was in charge and what we need to do in order to prevent such a failure in the future. After the election in Israel, this is the first thing the new government will do.”
Tibon said that his experience on Oct. 7 should lead to the IDF permitting “more and more people” to volunteer to serve, including older Israelis in reserves. “On Oct. 7, the IDF was too small for the challenges of the security of the state of Israel,” he said.
The younger Tibons remain displaced from Nahal Oz, which is located just 850 meters from the border with the Gaza Strip. “Kids cannot come back to the kibbutz yet,” said Tibon, adding that he hopes they will return home “as soon as the border will be quiet.”
“We heard [President Donald] Trump’s [Gaza peace] plan. I hope we will move forward to this and bring the hostages home,” said Tibon. On Wednesday night, Israel and Hamas signed off on the first phase of the peace deal, with all the hostages expected to be released by Monday.
Noting the upcoming anniversary of the attacks, Tibon said he dedicates the film to “all of the people who fought with me on Oct. 7 — the brave soldiers and border patrol and the brave squad of [Kibbutz Nahal Oz]. I hope many people will watch this around the world because it’s a story about family. What would you do in such a situation?”
Israeli PM Netanyahu: ‘We are on the verge of a very great achievement. ... It is not yet final; we are working on it diligently’
Chris McGrath/Getty Images
People chant slogans and hold placards in support of hostages still held by Hamas during a solidarity protest, calling for an end to the war and the release of all remaining Israeli hostages on October 4, 2025, in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, hostage families and others in Israel expressed cautious optimism over the weekend, after Hamas agreed to enter talks to free the 48 remaining hostages in exchange for a partial Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
An Israeli team consisting of Strategic Minister Ron Dermer, diplomatic advisor Ophir Falk, Coordinator for the Hostages and Missing Gal Hirsch and representatives of the Mossad and Shin Bet are expected to head to Cairo on Monday for proximity talks to negotiate the implementation of President Donald Trump’s 20-step plan to end the war. Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner, who has been involved in the talks, will represent the U.S.
Netanyahu said in a video statement Saturday night that Israel and the U.S. intend to “limit this negotiation to a few days” and that it would be about “technical details” of the Trump plan.
“We will not tolerate any more delay tactics, time-wasting or evasion on the part of Hamas,” he said.
As Trump noted on Truth Social, the ceasefire would immediately take effect once it is agreed to by Hamas. The terror group would have to release the remaining 48 hostages – 20 of whom are thought to be alive – in exchange for Israel’s freeing of over 1,700 Palestinian prisoners, hundreds of whom are serving life sentences on terrorism charges, and the rest arrested in Gaza in the last two years. Then, Israel would withdraw to an initial line, as part of a gradual withdrawal toward a buffer zone along Gaza’s perimeter.
The details likely to be negotiated include the precise line to which Israel will withdraw initially and, at the end of the process, which countries will make up the International Stabilization Force meant to be the “long-term internal security solution” to keep Gaza demilitarized and prevent the resurgence of terrorism, according to the Trump plan, and who will be part of the transitional technocratic committee meant to govern Gaza. Former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair and Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan are expected to be involved in the Peace Board led by Trump that will oversee the transitional government.
Netanyahu vowed that “Hamas will be disarmed and the Strip demilitarized. This will happen either via a diplomatic route, according to the Trump plan, or via a military route by us.”
The talks come after Hamas released a statement early Saturday in which it embraced parts of the Trump plan — exchanging Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, an influx of aid and encouraging Palestinians to remain in Gaza — but rejected the concessions the plan would entail, including the demilitarization and deradicalization of Gaza. Hamas said it would punt that decision to “a collective national position … to be discussed within a comprehensive Palestinian national framework, in which Hamas will be included.”
Despite Hamas accepting only a fraction of his plan, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he believes the terrorist group is “ready for a lasting PEACE” and called on Israel to “immediately stop the bombing of Gaza so that we can get the hostages out safely and quickly.”
IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir then “instructed to advance readiness for the implementation of the first phase of the Trump plan for the release of the hostages,” according to an IDF statement early Saturday morning. At the same time, Zamir said, “all troops must maintain high alertness and vigilance, in addition to reinforcing the need for a rapid response to neutralize any threat.”
In his video statement, Netanyahu presented Trump’s plan as being coordinated with Jerusalem. “As a result of the intense military pressure we applied and the diplomatic pressure, Hamas was pressured into agreeing to the plan we presented,” Netanyahu said.
The prime minister added that “we are on the verge of a very great achievement. … It is not yet final; we are working on it diligently, and I hope, with G-d’s help, that in the coming days, during the Sukkot holiday, I will be able to inform you about the return of all our hostages, both living and deceased, in one phase, while the IDF remains deep within the Strip and in the controlling areas within it.”
Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square was filled with demonstrators on Saturday night, calling for the deal to be implemented.
Liran Berman, brother of hostages Ziv and Gali Berman, said that “with hope comes fear. Will the deal be signed? When will I see my brothers again? We are suspended between hope and dread. We have lived through Hamas’s lies before. We cannot let another deal collapse. Not again. President Trump, we stand with you. Do not stop. It is now or never.”
Former hostage Gadi Moses said, “I know the road is still long and riddled with obstacles, but today I can say that for the first time since my release from captivity, I have heard declarations that may give us some hope. This is the time to cease fire and focus on returning all the hostages and ending the war.”
Also Saturday, Netanyahu held meetings and discussions with the leaders of right-wing parties in his governing coalition, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, both of whom have called to annex and settle the Gaza Strip.
Ben-Gvir said that “we will be happy like everyone to see all the hostages returning to us,” but “if Hamas continues to exist after all the hostages are freed, Otzma Yehudit [Ben-Gvir’s party] will not be part of the government. We will not be part of a national defeat that will turn into a ticking time bomb until the next massacre.”
Smotrich did not threaten to leave the coalition, but he said that Netanyahu made a “severe mistake” by acquiescing to Trump’s call to stop the attack on Gaza City rather than holding “negotiations under fire.”
“It’s a recipe for Hamas to waste time and wear down Israel’s stance,” he posted on X.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid has said his party will vote to prop up the government if parties within the coalition attempt to bring it down to stop a hostage and ceasefire deal.
On Saturday afternoon, Lapid said: “When Shabbat ends and you hear Smotrich and Ben-Gvir’s threats, remember they have nothing to threaten with. We won’t let them sabotage the deal. A clear majority of the Knesset and a clear majority of the nation support the Trump plan.”
Trump, Netanyahu to meet in White House in two weeks after Israeli prime minister’s U.N. speech
Screenshot
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a press conference on the Israeli economy on Sept. 16, 2025.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clarified his remarks that Israel’s economy may “need to adapt to … autarkic characteristics” on Tuesday, after a dip in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
Netanyahu made his original comments at a conference held by the Israeli Finance Ministry on Monday, where he said that “Israel is in a sort of isolation,” and that he hates the idea that Israel will have to behave like an autarky, or self-reliant economy.
“I believe in the free market, but we may find ourselves in a situation where our arms industries are blocked. We will need to develop arms industries here — not only research and development, but also the ability to produce what we need … There’s no choice,” he said, adding that Israel will need to be “Athens and super-Sparta.”
Israeli markets dropped in response, and business and industry leaders came out against Netanyahu’s remarks, saying that “an autarkic economy will be a disaster for Israel,” and “this vision … will make it hard for us to survive in a developing globalized world.”
A day later, Netanyahu called a press conference to do damage control amid the widespread concern in Israel, clarifying that his comments were specific to the Israeli defense industry.
In the defense industry, he said “there are limitations that are not economic, but political.”
“If there’s one lesson from this war, it is that we want to be in a situation where we are not limited. We want to defend ourselves by ourselves and with our own weapons,” Netanyahu stated. “We are going to produce an independent arms industry that is very strong that can withstand any political constraints.”
Israel will “build a defense industry that will match the best in the world,” he added. “You saw some — not even all — of it in the 12-day war with Iran.”
The prime minister also talked about Israel working on technology for underground warfare.
Netanyahu said western European countries implementing arms embargoes against Israel are “pressured by minorities in which some are very extreme,” as well as “advanced propaganda against us.”
Netanyahu said that his intention in the speech at the Finance Ministry was to tell its workers that “we are aiming for security independence and I asked them to cut bureaucracy.”
“Within that [speech], there was a misunderstanding,” he said.
“A concentrated, closed market is not what I usually like,” he said. “I turn to the markets. But we are using all of the means needed to create a strong defense industry.”
Netanyahu expressed “full faith in Israel’s economy.”
“Israel’s economy is very strong,” he said. “It has amazed the whole world in recent decades and more than amazed the world in the last two years, in which we are fighting a war. … Against all predictions, the shekel is stronger than it was before the war … Unemployment is at a historic low. In recent months, there is a large flow of investors in the Israeli economy.”
Netanyahu presented graphs showing the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange rising at a higher rate than the S&P, that the shekel is strong against the dollar and GDP per capita is rising, that Israel’s debt to GDP rate is lower than that of the U.S. and the average for advanced economies, and that Israel is second in the world — after the U.S. — in receiving foreign investments for research and development.
“I don’t underestimate the attempts to economically isolate us, but the world wants the products that Israel makes,” he added, mentioning artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. “This is the health, the vibrancy of Israel’s economy. This is a very powerful economy, an economy of 10 million people, but very gifted people.”
In the press conference, Netanyahu also said he had spoken on the phone with President Donald Trump several times since Israel’s strike aimed at Hamas leaders in Qatar last week, including one in which the president invited him to the White House.
Netanyahu said he will be meeting with Trump in Washington on Sept. 29.
Following the press conference, Yair Lapid, Israel’s opposition leader, said that Netanyahu “lost contact with reality.”
“You cannot run a market when there is no trust in the government and no trust in the prime minister,” Lapid said. “On Netanyahu’s watch and that of the current government, Israel’s credit rating was lowered for the first time in history, and then it happened again. There is a sharp reduction in Israeli exports. There is a sharp decrease in investment from abroad. High-tech, the engine of the market, is in an unprecedented crisis.”
Cohen told JI that he’s considering getting into politics but it’s ‘definitely not the time’ with Netanyahu still dominating the scene
Rami Zarnegar
Book cover/Yossi Cohen
Like any former Mossad chief, Yossi Cohen has long been a relatively elusive figure in Israeli public life. So his recent embrace of the spotlight has left Israeli politicos wondering whether he will run for prime minister in the next election.
While the name “Yossi Cohen” is so generic in Israel that one may think it’s an alias akin to “John Smith,” it is, in fact, the real name of the intelligence officer who was nicknamed “Callan” for his favorite British spy show, and “the model” for his dapper style and perfectly-gelled coif. He first received public attention as deputy Mossad chief known only as “Y,” and emerged from the shadows with his real name and face in 2013 when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed him national security advisor. Cohen was appointed head of the Mossad two years later, a job he retained for six years.
Cohen received attention for commanding ambitious Mossad operations, such as smuggling Iran’s nuclear archive to Israel, and for Netanyahu reportedly naming him as one of his possible heirs, but he rarely gave interviews — until now.
Cohen has been on a Hebrew media blitz ahead of Tuesday’s release of his new book, The Sword of Freedom: Israel, Mossad and the Secret War, in Hebrew and English.
The book is a mix of memoir, in which he discusses becoming the first kippah-wearing graduate of the Mossad cadets’ course and his undercover missions, recruiting spies within Hezbollah and the Iranian nuclear program, as well as his rise to head the organization and lead major operations. It also includes commentary on recent events, including the failures of the defense establishment — and less so of politicians, in his description — on Oct. 7, 2023, the ongoing war and hostage negotiations. Cohen laments that things would have gone better if his advice in past years had been heeded.
It reads, in many ways, like the kind of book a politician would publish before a big run, to let potential voters get to know him — albeit with the much more exciting elements of spycraft.
Yet, in an interview with Jewish Insider last week at his office in a Tel Aviv high-rise, where Cohen’s day job is representing the Japanese investment holding company SoftBank in Israel, he dismissed the idea that his book was the first step in a political campaign.
“That was not the reason for me to write the book,” he said. “I started writing the book something like three years ago, much earlier. I decided to [publish the book] now, because I believe that now is the time … Since I started the book we had the judicial reform, the seventh of October, a war against Hezbollah and the Iranian events. Each of those chapters had to be updated.”
Still, Cohen added, “I can’t say that one day it will not serve my political goals if I will decide to go into politics.”
Thus far, Cohen has kept politics as an “if.” In the past, it was a “no,” he said, but now, he’s thinking about it.
“I am not entering any politics right now,” he clarified. “I stay uninvolved in this kind of politics because nothing is happening. The entire Israeli political system is a little bit stuck. I’m not assessing that any kind of election will happen before the end of next year, November 2026 as planned,” when the next Israeli elections are scheduled to occur.
Cohen said he does not have a team ready for a political campaign, and that all he is doing currently is promoting his book.
The former Mossad chief said that “I was always a Likudnik,” identifying with ideas of the party’s ideological forebear Ze’ev Jabotinsky, but “all options are open” as to whether he would join an existing party or start his own.
He would not join Likud in its current iteration unless it is “reshaped,” he said, in an apparent reference to the vocal populism from within the party’s ranks in the Knesset.
“I don’t want to criticize people personally … but it’s a different party today. It’s not the party that I grew up on. It’s so totally different.”
As to whether he would wait for Netanyahu to leave the political scene, Cohen said, “Definitely this is not the time. …Currently, I am staying in business, 100%.”
Cohen and Netanyahu have not spoken in over a year and a half, when several months into the war the former intelligence chief warned the prime minister that senior defense figures may try to manipulate investigations into the failure of Oct. 7 to exonerate themselves.
Despite the long disconnect, Cohen said that there is no rupture between them, because they had an excellent working relationship, but they were not personal friends. He noted that before the war they had not spoken for a long time; Netanyahu offered him the role of defense minister in late 2022, but Cohen could not legally take it because of a required cooling-off period between serving as a senior defense officer and entering politics.
Cohen has somewhat shielded Netanyahu from blame for the failures surrounding the Oct. 7 attacks, referring in his book to the security establishment’s failure and asserting that “there is no one else to blame.”
He clarified in his interview with JI that “the political leadership always has responsibility” for events such as Oct. 7 and called for a state commission of inquiry to be established, something that Netanyahu has sought to avoid.
“We must make sure to investigate what has to be investigated,” Cohen said. “The intelligence level was poor. It was either not gathered properly or not interpreted properly, but the result was super poor. We didn’t give the State of Israel any alerts about a major attack. … We didn’t have any workable defense lines operating correctly at our borders.”
“There’s the Shin Bet and IDF intelligence who have to know these things, and since they didn’t, and they didn’t push back the enemy when it entered the State of Israel or counter the enemy before it entered Israel, that’s a failure. You don’t need an investigation to know that. Then, of course, I think that the government was responsible for everything that happened under its auspices,” he said.
Soon after Oct. 7, Netanyahu tasked Cohen with trying to find a way to get Palestinian civilians out of Gaza so Israel would be able to fight Hamas with fewer civilian casualties.
“The Mossad and I were trying to convince [Egypt] to let the Palestinians leave, even for a short time, only the civilians … without anything, no cellular, no electronics, no armaments, no physical threats, to the Egyptian side,” he recalled. “Take them into the Sinai Peninsula for six months, one year at a time, a million or a million and a half people. …That was the plan. It didn’t work because [Egyptian President Abdelfatah] Sisi and his consultants said it will cause a kind of revolution in Egypt because of the hatred of Hamas…and their [affiliation] with the Muslim Brotherhood.”
Nearly two years later, Cohen says “it’s hard to explain why … the world does not really embrace any Gazan immigrants. Indonesia, Malaysia, Qatar even, or Egypt and Libya — a long list of Muslim countries — could say ‘I would take 50,000,’ ‘I would take 100,000,’ ‘Come live with us.’ No one said that, not even Muslim countries. Even if … they would all be sent back home.”
Cohen said the story demonstrates the lengths to which Israel went to protect Gazan civilians from the war.
“Israel does not mean to harm civilians,” he said. “We do not starve them, we do not fight a war against any of the civilians. We keep the international war laws very tightly. But now they’re in [Gaza] and we can’t do much. We try to help them, but it’s a war zone. What I was trying to do is send them away from a war zone.”
As to how the war in Gaza should end, “the best case scenario should be connected to a hostage deal. If there is a hostage deal today, Israel should take it,” he said, days before Israel attempted to strike Hamas leaders in Qatar, which has mediated the hostage and ceasefire talks.
While Cohen said he is not privy to the details of the talks, he said “if there is a deal that gets some of our hostages home and for this we have to pay a price of pausing our military action as we did in the past, I will be very much in favor.”
At the same time, he said “the State of Israel cannot afford to not complete the defeat of Hamas.”
Cohen said he did not have an answer as to who should administer Gaza after the war. He dismissed the control some Gazan families have of small areas, saying “it’s two and a half people … Someone has to take care of them, to supply them with … social services, health services.
He was, however, certain that the Palestinian Authority should not be involved, because it is not capable of managing Gaza. “We tried that,” he said, referring to Hamas deposing the PA in Gaza in 2006. He also noted that Israel has been protecting PA President Mahmoud Abbas: “We’re fighting for him and with him against Hamas in his territories.”
Cohen wrote in the book about his involvement in another element of the war in the past two years: the pager attack in which Israel detonated hundreds of beepers belonging to Hezbollah terrorist operatives in Lebanon.
“It started 25 or so years ago, when I was the head of a division in the Mossad,” he recounted. “We understood … there is something new that we can do, and that is selling to our enemies tampered, manipulated equipment. That is the family of the pagers and walkie-talkies.”
One of the early operations in that vein was the sale of a special calibrated table sold to Iran for use in its nuclear program, which later exploded, but the pager operation was the largest in magnitude. Other tampered equipment was used for surveillance or for tracking locations.
“These are things we learned to do 20 years ago,” he said. “Building up this kind of relationship with the buyers is something very hard to do because they check you … they go into everything, so you have to be real. The concept was invented, and now you see the results.”
Cohen said that the IDF and Mossad “did a beautiful job” in the 12-day war against Iran in June: “We prepared a lot of capabilities inside Iran to allow for that and it was operated correctly during the war.”
Israel must always be prepared for the next round against Iran, he added.
“We’re not sure that Iran will not go back and try to enrich uranium again,” he said. “They claim that they can rebuild their sites …They [the West] said the destruction was huge, and I believe the Western side on that. Nevertheless, if they [rebuild] and there is a threat coming from that direction, the only thing that I can suggest my government and the administration [do] is to attack it.”
Cohen frequently lamented in his book that the Israeli defense establishment is insufficiently aggressive and overly cautious.
The former Mossad chief said he felt that his “responsibility was to counter our enemies brutally. If I see terrorism, I have to counter it. If I see Iranian nuclear sites, I have to counter them. If I see someone anywhere, anyhow trying to plan something against the State of Israel, I have to counter it. And I did not always feel that this was the methodology being practiced in other bodies.”
By not nipping growing threats in the bud, Cohen argued, Israel allowed them to grow to a magnitude that it became too hesitant to act against.
The war in Iran, however, was an example of a positive change, Cohen said.
“I think that [Eyal] Zamir as [IDF] chief of staff is doing an amazing job,” he said. “He’s much more aggressive. He’s telling the government … ‘Yeah, there will be some missiles coming back to our side, but we can deal with it.’”
“Now, on the Iranian side, they know we can do it and we may do it again,” Cohen added.
Cohen has been deeply involved in Israel’s unofficial relations with Arab states, and said he is still optimistic that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will seek normalization with Israel, but only after the war ends.
“They cannot make a peace treaty with a country at war. It doesn’t work in the Muslim world. … He would be very cautious entering these kinds of negotiations right now, because people are saying about Israelis, ‘Look what they do to our brothers in Palestine.’ But the minute the whole war will be over, I expect that he will sign an agreement with us,” Cohen said.
As to the Saudi demand for concrete steps towards Palestinian statehood in exchange for establishing diplomatic relations with Israel, Cohen said “a Palestinian state is something that is not realistic anymore,” again citing the PA’s inability to govern Gaza.
At the same time, Cohen opposed Israeli annexation of parts or all of the West Bank and said he finds it unlikely that the government will do it.
“Countries that have an agreement with us don’t want that to happen because it kills the idea of any future Palestinian negotiations and they can’t live with that,” he said.
Cohen posited that Israel will not annex parts of the West Bank because it “closes the door” on an eventual arrangement with the Palestinians.
“The reality is that since 1967, we haven’t annexed anything in the West Bank, right?” he said. “And why is that? … Because we want to leave a door open for negotiations with the Palestinians. That is why any government, even the right of [Menachem] Begin and Netanyahu, have not annexed anything in the West Bank.”
Cohen predicted that will continue to be the case for decades.
“I’m not sure how long it will take to create something better with the Palestinians that we see today, that will transform them into a friendly country and territory. They’re a deadly enemy, this is what we have, even in the West Bank. And on the other hand, this is territory that we cannot confiscate.”
“I think the status quo should be kept,” he added.
Early in the book, Cohen expressed his appreciation for Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling him “a deeply strategic thinker and natural leader,” and in the interview last week, he stuck with that position, despite the ongoing war in Ukraine and Russia’s turn away from Israel and alliance with its enemies in recent years.
Cohen said that “many things that the State of Israel has done with Putin are unknown to the public. When I stated that, I based it on things that we have done with the Russian administration for many years, and Syria is an example,” referring to the deconfliction mechanism between Jerusalem and Moscow when the Russian Army was in Syria to prop up then-President Bashar al-Assad.
“The only mediators [between Israel and Syria] were the Russians, and what we saw happening was that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah terrorists were coming down to our borders,” Cohen recalled. “We didn’t want that, and we couldn’t speak to Hezbollah or to the IRGC. So the only one that was taking part in these negotiations was Putin, who eventually pushed [Iran-backed troops] back 40 kilometers. … We needed him to be on our side, and he was.”
Cohen also spoke of Russia finding and returning the body of IDF soldier Zachary Baumel, which had been missing in Syria since 1982.
“The operation that [Putin] conducted inside Syria … was amazing. I was there in the Russian Ministry of Defense in a ceremony where we got the body of an Israeli soldier to be brought back to a Jewish grave… I was in Moscow and Jerusalem on the same day. We had a ceremony late in the afternoon to bury him. I was involved in looking for his body my whole life, and here Russia did it for us. … That’s a big thing,” Cohen said.
Cohen also mentioned the criticism of Israel soon after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Israel cannot fight all wars. [The Biden administration] said we have to support Ukraine with more weapons. Come on. If you want to support Ukraine with more weapons, you’re welcome to do that. I mean, Israel has other interests in the region, like with Russia. [Israel is] a small country at the end of the day … and very vulnerable.”
When confronted with the idea that American audiences may not appreciate his praise of Putin, Cohen said “you don’t have to agree with everything Russia does, and they will conduct their own policies if you agree to it or not.”
Israel needs to “negotiate, engage with leaders on the other side, to make sure that good things happen,” Cohen said. “This is what I cherish, the way President [Donald] Trump conducts things with Russia, because disengagement with them will not make the war [in Ukraine] end just because you wish for it to end. … You have to know how to conduct your international relationships, and somehow you have to conduct them with your enemies … that are not in line with your values.”
Asked why he first wrote his book, together with a team, in English and then had it translated into Hebrew, Cohen said that the American audience is important to him because “America is the only friend we have” in Israel.
The book, he said, “is not only about me, it’s about the world and international relationships, and I thought America is the right place to [publish] that first.”
In addition, Cohen said he wanted to communicate to the Jewish communities in the U.S. and other countries “to tell them what the State of Israel is and how important the relationship with Jewish communities is to me. They are very dear to me. … I know there is a lot of work that’s missing recently with the Jewish communities in the U.S. and I want to be a positive player.”
The Israeli-Russian Princeton researcher was kidnapped in Baghdad in 2023 by Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed terrorist group
Eric Tucker/AP Photo
In this Sept., 2018 selfie image provided by Emma Tsurkov, right, she and Elizabeth Tsurkov are shown in Santa Clara Valley, Calif.
President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that Elizabeth Tsurkov, an Israeli-Russian researcher at Princeton University, was released by an Iranian-backed terrorist group in Iraq to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
Tsurkov was kidnapped in Baghdad in 2023 while working on her doctoral thesis by Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed terrorist group separate from Lebanese Hezbollah.
“I am pleased to report that Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Princeton Student, whose sister is an American Citizen, was just released by Kata’ib Hezbollah (MILITANT Hezbollah), and is now safely in the American Embassy in Iraq after being tortured for many months,” Trump said on Truth Social. “I will always fight for JUSTICE, and never give up. HAMAS, RELEASE THE HOSTAGES, NOW!”
Tsurkov’s sister Emma, who has been a vocal advocate for her freedom, thanked the Trump administration in an X post, noting that her sister had been in captivity for more than 900 days.
“We are so thankful to President Trump and his Special Envoy, Adam Boehler. If Adam had not made my sister’s return his personal mission, I do not know where we would be,” Tsurkov said. “We also want to thank Josh Harris and his team at the US Embassy in Baghdad for the support they provided to our sister and the team at the nonprofit Global Reach who advocated relentlessly for my sister’s safe return.”
Princeton University President Christopher L. Eisgruber also celebrated her release.
“The release of Princeton graduate student Elizabeth Tsurkov brings relief and joy to the University community, and we celebrate that she will be reunited with her family. We thank President Trump for securing Elizabeth’s release,” Eisgruber said. “We are also grateful to those who worked tirelessly to bring an end to her terrible ordeal, including her family, friends and advocates.”
Multiple groups of U.S. lawmakers had appealed to administration officials to work to secure Tsurkov’s release. Kataib Hezbollah, the group that kidnapped Tsurkov, holds an official role in the Iraqi government.
Tsurkov’s captors released a video in 2023 in which Tsurkov claimed to be an Israeli and American spy, which Emma Tsurkov said was clearly made under duress.
Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ), who helped lead efforts earlier this year to advocate for Tsurkov’s release, told Jewish Insider he spoke on Tuesday evening with Emma Tsurkov while she was on a videoconference with her sister, a conversation he said was “very emotional.”
The Tsurkov family, Kim said, has been through “so much” and “I can’t even imagine what it’s been like for Elizabeth.”
“My immediate thoughts [are] just making sure she’s getting the care she needs. I’ve done a lot in the past … when I was at the State Department on hostages and the kind of care they need coming out of it,” he said. “So it’s going to be a long road ahead.”
He said that he wishes Emma “all the best with the recovery” and offered the family any help he can provide to ensure she receives the care she needs. He said he hopes to see both sisters in the United States in the future.
He added that Emma Tsurkov’s “strength as a sister, just being there, just holding that hope for Elizabeth … it’s amazing, it’s inspiring.”
Kim said he had not yet been briefed by the administration on Tsurkov’s release, including the terms by which the administration was able to secure Tsurkov’s freedom.
Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), who joined a push with Kim for Tsurkov’s freedom, said in a statement, “I’m relieved to hear the news that Elizabeth Tsurkov has finally been released after being held hostage by extremists in Iraq for over two years. I’ve been proud to advocate for her release and applaud all the efforts that made this possible. My thoughts are with Elizabeth and the Tsurkov family as they reunite, and I wish them peace and healing.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), who led an appeal from House members for Tsurkov’s release, told JI, “I am overjoyed for Elizabeth Tsurkov’s family and loved ones on this happy occasion. I have long pushed for Elizabeth’s safe return and I’m sending her my prayers and solidarity as she returns home to recover from a 903-day-long nightmare.”
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) said on X, “I am deeply grateful that Elizabeth Tsurkov has been released and will finally be reunited with her family and loved ones. Thankful for all who partnered in advocating for her release and for all who tirelessly worked to ensure her safe return.”
‘It’s a very partisan atmosphere in Washington right now. Strong support for Israel in the [Trump] administration almost drives the Democratic opposition into opposing very close support for Israel,’ the ambassador said
Israeli Embassy
Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter
Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter arrived at his post in January as Israel was more than a year into its war with Hamas in Gaza and facing declining American support for the Jewish state.
The Trump administration has been much friendlier to the government in Jerusalem than its predecessor, supporting the Israeli war effort in Gaza with no limitations on arms shipments. Yet, the broader political atmosphere is more hostile to Israel than it has been in decades.
The turn away from Israel was reflected in a recent Senate vote in which a majority of Democrats supported blocking some arms sales to Israel, as well as in the growth of the isolationist wing of the Republican Party, the rise of influential media figures who peddle antisemitism and public opinion about Israel in decline.
Leiter spoke with Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov and the executive director of the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy, Asher Fredman, on the “Misgav Mideast Horizons” podcast this week about his efforts to engage members of both parties, the future of the U.S.-Israel alliance, what is next in the war in Gaza and more.
Amid these concerning political trends, Leiter said that the U.S. and Israel have started to discuss what will happen after the Obama-era 10-year Memorandum of Understanding between the countries, which currently commits $3.8 billion a year in American defense aid to Israel annually, expires in 2028.
While Israel’s official position favors continuing aid, some in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party and others on the Israeli right have been advocating for moving from a model of aid to one of collaboration on joint projects.
“Maybe we’ll change the nature [of the MOU], where there will be greater [joint] research and development between our two countries, rather than relying on American weapons,” Leiter said.
Leiter emphasized that the defense relationship between Israel and the U.S. benefits both countries.
“Recently, there was a podcast with [Rep.] Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) in which she said, ‘Why are we giving $3.8 billion to Israel when people in the United States don’t have health care?’” he said. “What she neglected to mention is that the vast majority of the $3.8 billion is spent in the United States and actually is providing jobs — and health care — for American workers. It’s all American weapons … purchased with American aid. So it’s a win-win situation.”
Leiter also quoted Gen. George Keegan who once told journalist Wolf Blitzer that the value of Israeli intelligence is worth five CIAs.
“You know how much that would cost [to replace]? The level of cooperation we have at this point between our intelligence communities is very, very, very deep and wide. We provide a tremendous service to the United States’ interests in the Middle East,” he said.
The U.S. and Israel will have to evaluate “a paradigm shift” in the region when working on the next MOU, Leiter said.
“I think we have to start from a broader view of things in terms of the geostrategic realities that are developing in the Middle East. … The ramifications of [the strikes on Iran in] Operation Rising Lion and Midnight Hammer, but really the ramifications of the war against Iranian proxies over the past almost two years now since Oct. 7, [2023], is a changing Middle East,” Leiter said.
“We’ve seen all of the proxies degraded. We’re about to completely destroy Hamas. Hezbollah is dramatically degraded to the point where the Lebanese government is actually moving towards disarming them. We have the fall of the Assad regime in Syria. Nobody could have imagined that would have happened. And the Houthis are being degraded … There’s a new Middle East out there,” he added.
In Leiter’s view, the result of the last two years is that moderate Muslim states face fewer threats from Iran and other radical Islamists, increasing the chances of what he termed “an Abraham Accords 2.0.”
“That enables the United States to rely more on a collective between Israel and its neighbors, and have less of an American footprint in the Middle East,” he said.
“Therefore,” the ambassador added, “the nature of any MOU or collaborative effort is going to change.”
Leiter spoke to JI before a day of meetings on Capitol Hill, in which he planned to meet with Democrats and Republicans. He has made sure to meet with critics of Israel in addition to friendly members of Congress.
“I will always divide my day [between the parties] and make it as much of a bipartisan effort as I possibly can,” he said. “Not only for tactical political reasons — the Democrats can take control of Congress in a year and a half and if we haven’t paid them the proper respect and attention, we’re going to pay a very serious price — but beyond the tactical political plane, I believe that Israel is a bipartisan issue and should remain so.”
Leiter said that some of Israel’s critics are reflexively critical: “It’s a very partisan atmosphere in Washington right now, which makes it very complicated. You can see this in issues that are not related to Israel … If the administration is saying one thing, the Democratic opposition believes it’s got to say something else. There’s strong support for Israel in the [Trump] administration, so that almost drives the Democratic opposition into opposing very close support for Israel.”
The ambassador emphasized that “in the Trump administration, we’ve seen a level of collaboration between Israel and the United States that we’ve never had [before],” citing the joint strikes on Iran’s nuclear program in June. “There’s never been this kind of cooperation at this level. We’re very close on the one hand. On the other hand, there are dramatic and very intense challenges to this relationship.”
In addition to “the woke left, which has distanced itself from Israel, because we’re perceived as … the white men that have dominated and written history,” Leiter lamented the “conspiratorial, isolationist” right.
“Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens’ orbit is not America First, it’s Israel and Jews last,” he said. “America First is fine. We don’t have an issue with that. We put Israel first, America puts America first … I think it’s obvious and elemental. With the isolationist and conspiratorial right, Israel is always wrong and the Jews are always behind everything that’s wrong.”
Still, Leiter said he has not found that anti-Israel view in the halls of the White House, State Department or Pentagon.
“There are legitimate strategic positions that the U.S. should put more focus on the far East rather than the Middle East. … I think that actually may be advantageous to Israel and the Middle East as a whole if that’s going to happen in a gradual and careful way as we move into the future,” he added.
About the ongoing war against Hamas, Leiter said, “There’s no public in the world that wants to end the war more than we [Israelis] do. No one has suffered as much as we do. Since the day Israel was founded, we haven’t experienced one day of peace. Not a day. We want to end this war and we can’t do it unless we have defeated this enemy. … The ultimate goal is going to be a complete demilitarization of Gaza,” he said.
Leiter pushed back against accusations that Israel plans to force residents out of Gaza with backing from the Trump administration.
“The president of the United States didn’t talk about forcing anybody, but talked about giving them the option … Why not allow these people the opportunity to choose? That’s all we’re suggesting.”
The ambassador noted that Israel has facilitated the exit of 40,000 people from Gaza who have visas to receive medical care in other countries, and they left through Israel, not Egypt, which would charge them tens of thousands of dollars to transit through their country.
“Why wouldn’t Egypt just open the border and let people go through?” he asked.
Leiter also spoke out against a Palestinian state, saying that very few Israelis still support the proposition.
“Even the left-of-center realize that the bandwidth for another state west of the Jordan River is untenable and unacceptable. Since Oct. 7, that bandwidth has narrowed further, and it’s about a hair’s breadth now … Everybody’s got to get used to that and stop talking about this two-state solution,” he said.
“There will be far more normalization and peaceful relations with our Palestinian neighbors once we get beyond this red herring of the two-state solution,” the ambassador added.
Leiter said that there are alternatives to a Palestinian state, including “autonomous zones … total autonomy,” while “security and overall foreign relations are going to remain in Israel’s hands.”
He spoke about possible dramatic economic growth benefiting Palestinians in the West Bank, which could come as a result of planned infrastructure corridors crossing from the Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea.
The ambassador expressed hope about an “Abraham Accords 2.0,” in which Israel normalizes relations with Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Malaysia and several Central Asian Muslim countries.
“Once that happens, the whole issue of saying everything is based on Palestinian centrality goes away,” he said.
With a dozen countries planning to recognize a Palestinian state in the coming weeks, in an effort led by France and Saudi Arabia, Leiter accused Europe of attempting “a cleansing process, because if you can condemn Israel for genocide … that means that what Europe was guilty of 80 years ago is not unique.”
In addition, the ambassador argued that European leaders are concerned about getting the votes of growing Muslim populations in their countries.
“They couldn’t care less about Palestinians. If they really cared, they’d issue some visas. I mean, France could issue 150,000 visas and give people a new opportunity at life, but that’s the last thing they want to do. They don’t want to allow in more Muslims. …It’s a tragedy that we’re paying the price for this,” he added.
Recognizing a Palestinian state is “prolonging the war,” Leiter said. “Basically what the French are doing is declaring Oct. 7 Palestine Independence Day. Brilliant, right? Let’s reward these people for slaughter and massacre.”
“It’s an outrage. It’s immoral. And we have to stay the course. We are ultimately going to be vindicated. I have no doubt about it,” he said.
Leiter’s son, Moshe, a physician and father of six, was killed in battle in Gaza on Nov. 10, 2023.
Leiter said his son was “a very committed Jew and Zionist and he knew what he was fighting for … for the right of the Jewish people to live in their homeland in peace and security.”
“I carry him on my back every day, and it gives me the power, the energy, the ability to go forward,” he said. “You really have to make a decision when you lose someone that you love so much and you’re so close to and fills your life with meaning and purpose. He’s the reason why it’s so hard to get up in the morning, and he’s also the reason why I do, because you have to make that choice and move forward.”
The Israeli prime minister’s statement came after President Donald Trump said he’s ‘not happy’ about the attack
Abed Rahim Khatib/picture alliance via Getty Images
A view of Nasser hospital in Gaza, that was damaged by an Israeli strike on August 25, 2025.
An Israeli strike on a Gaza hospital that reportedly killed 20 people, including four journalists, was a “tragic mishap,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday, not long after President Donald Trump criticized the attack.
“Israel deeply regrets the tragic mishap that occurred today at the Nasser Hospital in Gaza. Israel values the work of journalists, medical staff and all civilians,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement. “The military authorities are conducting a thorough investigation. Our war is with Hamas terrorists. Our just goals are defeating Hamas and bringing our hostages home.”
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he is “not happy” about Israel’s strike on the Nasser Hospital, in the southern Gaza Strip.
“I’m not happy about it. I don’t want to see it,” Trump said, while noting that he did not know the details of the strike.
The president added that he is also committed to getting the remaining hostages out of Gaza, though he expressed doubt that a deal would come through.
“At the same time,” he said, “we have to end that whole nightmare. I’m the one that got the hostages out. I got them out, all of them. [Middle East envoy] Steve Witkoff has been amazing.”
Israel has said that 20 living hostages are still being held in Gaza, but Trump on Monday repeated a claim that the true number is “probably a little bit less than 20, because I think one or two are gone.” Israeli officials have not said that any of the 20 hostages believed to be alive have died recently.
Hamas, Trump said, is unlikely to release the hostages.
“I said a long time ago I’m going to get them out, but when we get down to that final 10 or 20, these people aren’t going to release them, because [Hamas is] dead after they release them,” Trump said. “It’s a nasty situation, very nasty. Horrible thing.”
The Israeli Defense Forces announced that it would conduct an inquiry into the attack. “The IDF regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals and does not target journalists as such. The IDF acts to mitigate harm to uninvolved individuals as much as possible while maintaining the safety of IDF troops,” IDF international spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said.
The venture capitalist and thought leader discusses the Gaza war’s impact on Israeli tech and society, and how Israel and its neighbors can lead a new AI-powered alliance
American-Israeli venture capitalist Michael Eisenberg isn’t just watching Israel’s transformation — he’s trying to shape it. As cofounder of the prominent investment fund Aleph, early backer of companies including Lemonade and WeWork, and a longtime thought leader in the intersection of Judaism, economics and technology, Eisenberg has become an influential voice in Israel’s public discourse.
In a wide-ranging conversation on the Misgav Mideast Horizons podcast, co-hosted by Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov, Eisenberg discussed the impact of the war in Gaza on Israeli society and the tech sector, what the government must do to turn postwar recovery into long-term renewal and why he sees young Israelis as a “defining generation.”
“It’s not just a defining generation for Israel, it’s a defining generation for the West,” Eisenberg said. “These were kids that everybody was worried about, that they were behind their screens, Instagram, TikTok, who put it all aside and got up to defend the values of Israel, the safety of Israel, the people of Israel and by extension, Western civilization, because Islamism is on the rise.”
Eisenberg also made the case for an ambitious AI-powered regional alliance between Israel and its Abraham Accords partners — and warned that Israel’s political dysfunction could squander the opportunity.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Q: When you look at the Israeli tech ecosystem over the next five years, look at Israeli society in general over the next five years, what makes you optimistic and what makes you worried?
Michael Eisenberg: Part of what makes me optimistic is the youth of Israel. Two years into this war that nobody wanted, two years into a war that saw hundreds of thousands of people called up to reserves — [I have] sons, sons-in-law who have probably done more than 1,500 days of reserve duty in Gaza or mandatory service in Gaza. We currently have two kids in the army right now.
These kids have proven to be what I called already in November 2023 the “defining generation.” It’s not just a defining generation for Israel, it’s a defining generation for the West. These were kids that everybody was worried about, that they were behind their screens, Instagram, TikTok, who put it all aside and got up to defend the values of Israel, the safety of Israel, the people of Israel and by extension, Western civilization, because Islamism is on the rise.
And Hamas is not even an extreme version of Islamism. It is one of the variants of this disease called Islamism, which is a mutant form of Islam promulgated by the Muslim Brotherhood, and these kids stood up, risked their lives, some of them lost their lives. I lost two cousins since Oct. 7.
The most important reason to be optimistic about Israel is the young people here who have shown incredible courage, conscientiousness, responsibility, fortitude and innovation in tackling this problem. I’m a high-tech investor in my day job. The amount of innovation that this war has brought out of Israelis, like magic stuff, the AI and space lasers, etc., but also just simple innovation. Just the amount of ingenuity that has come out is stunning, and people are paying attention to it. The U.S. Department of Defense just issued [a statement that] they want technologies that have been battle-tested. There’s nowhere where technologies have been more battle-tested than Israel, maybe Ukraine second, but certainly kind of the high-tech wizardry and missiles — it’s Israel. I think that sets us up now for a lot of positives.
What worries me is a lack of political will. And I use one example of it. We need to borrow the money to fight the war, but at the same time, politicians need to rise out of the sectarianism and to make the hard political decisions to cut the budget in places which are not growth investments or investments in security. Period. Full stop.
Q: What needs to change?
A: Israel is not necessarily on the best path. We went into the war with a debt-to-GDP ratio in the low 60s; we can finance our welfare state for the most part. However, to the best of my knowledge, there’s nobody in the Israeli government or the Ministry of Finance who sits down and says, “OK, these shekels are for investments in future growth; these shekels are just handouts or part of the welfare state.” The only way to get our debt-to-GDP ratio back to where it needs to be, post the war — and again, we should borrow money to prosecute this war and win it as fast as possible — is to grow. In order to grow, you need investments in infrastructure. The investments in infrastructure are more limited because we spend way too much on the spending part of the ledger, which is non-investment, whether it’s supporting ultra-Orthodox yeshivas or unproductive parts of society in general.
Western society has been taken over by progressive nonsense in which you fund the fringes, instead of focusing on the core of society. The core of Israeli society serves. We can’t afford [funding the fringes] and we need to make the cuts necessary to be able to focus on the core needs of society, which is defense. We need to revamp our education system completely from the ground up. We need to make sure that our health system is taken care of, because we’re one of the best health systems on the planet, but it’s falling behind because it’s both underfunded and there aren’t enough doctors and nurses in the system. These are solvable problems, but they need shekels that are being frittered away elsewhere.
Q: Is it just an issue of priorities? At the Knesset last year, at a hearing on AI, you described Israel’s approach as amateurish and said that nobody in the Knesset knows what they’re talking about. What do you think Israel needs to do to ensure its leadership is moving forward in critical tech areas like AI and defense tech?
A: Generally, in technology, civilian innovation wins, and we’re very good at that. Nobody said, “Hey, go do defense tech.” People came out of Gaza and said, “Hey, I saw drones or missiles or AI, I can do this.” Defense tech has popped up without any government help, and that’s the way it should be.
AI is an entirely different story. AI is infrastructure for the future nation state, like nuclear power, like nuclear weapons. This is what will define the winning nation states of the coming 100 years. And it’s infrastructure, because it needs a lot of energy, because you need a lot of human beings with a lot of degrees. We’re a small country, so we need to bring some of these people either back, because they left, or [bring them] in, because there’s not a small number of Jews or other people who would want to live in Israel that we can bring into this.
Q: You recently said the following about AI: “As Europe declines and the east and south rise, Israel and our Abrahamic partners are perfectly placed as the innovation ecosystem that will help drive their economies and drive an AI future in this region and a realigned world.” How do you think Israeli innovation and AI can change Israel’s standing in the world and change the Middle East more broadly?
A: The leadership of Israel has always been very tactical. Part of it, I think, comes from a survival mentality and instinct. But we are now a regional superpower. We need to think like a regional superpower and that requires much more strategy, but it also requires working with our neighbors.
The UAE has spent incredible amounts of time, energy, money and professionalism, and they’ve done incredible work on AI strategy. They figured out, to their credit, that what they have in abundance is energy, and their capability to do large projects, I would argue, is almost second to none. The Emiratis are incredible at building infrastructure projects, whether it’s the new airport in Abu Dhabi, the airport in Dubai, the energy fields. It’s mind-boggling and a sight to behold. I admire them greatly.
The Saudis have launched this initiative called HUMAIN. The Saudis, I think, are behind the Emiratis, but they have abundant energy and abundant money to be able to bring chips in, and perhaps, although I’m skeptical of it, to bring manufacturing in.
What they all lack is talent. What do we have? We’re way worse than the Emiratis at building big projects. We have way less energy abundance, but we have real innovation talent. Number two, we have a relationship with the United States, which wants to kind of own this sphere of AI, that almost nobody has. Now we have this new energy agreement that was signed by the prime minister when he was in Washington a couple of weeks ago, and an AI agreement and very friendly people coming into the State Department.
Q: When you look at the coalition politics, the question is, can we get there? You can be supportive of Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu, you can be critical of him, but he has a vision for the Israeli economy and for Israeli technological development. But when you look at the broader political spectrum, you don’t seem to have that kind of strategic thinking and the economic vision is often subsumed by politics. Most of Netanyahu’s partners are not free-market capitalists like he is.
A: I actually think that a not-small part of the Likud party, currently in government, is socialist. All the ultra-Orthodox parties are socialists, even though the bases of these parties are not socialists. I think Prime Minister Netanyahu is a capitalist, but below him on the list are a lot of people who unfortunately have the wrong view of economics, or forgot what socialism is, and certainly the ultra-Orthodox politicians who just want handouts without responsibility. They just want to kind of keep the people underfoot.
Q: So what do you do about it?
A: To use a different example, because it’s less personal. You ask yourself, How is it plausible that Keir Starmer, the prime minister of the U.K., has said such a dumb thing [recognizing a Palestinian state]? I don’t think there is a dumber statement ever made by a politician. We should say it openly. He may have killed the hostages by caving to Hamas and the Palestinian narrative. [French President Emmanuel] Macron, also. These two may be responsible for the life of our hostages because of stupid things that they said.
Why are people so stupid? And the answer is, because all politics, at the end of the day, are local. My friend Eugene Kandel, the former economic advisor for the prime minister, said the KPI [key performance indicator] of every politician is to get reelected. That’s what they want. And you look at the voting bases, under Starmer and under Macron, there are a lot of Islamists there in these countries. And so they’re pandering to the base.
I think a lot of this in democratic politics, unfortunately, comes down to a lack of leadership and people who pander to the base, and populism has become popular again. But the laws of physics for every action is an equal and opposite reaction. I hope that there is going to be an era of leadership that follows this era of populism, because I think people are sick and tired of the amateur hour that has become much of government, technology and economic policy. They’re sick and tired of it. And they’re sick and tired of the cost of living going up here.
When you want to be a regional superpower, you can’t run a country like this in the modern era, and we need to fix that. This younger generation is incredible. They’re going to fix it.
Q: We’ve seen the negative impact of campaigns against Israel, not just in Europe, but particularly in the U.S., where we’ve seen a drop in public opinion towards Israel. You’ve talked a lot about narrative and storytelling and how it applies to startups, but when you look at Israel, what do you think it should be doing differently?
A: I did some work at the beginning of the war on bot networks, and how this coordinated campaign got unleashed on Oct. 8. Amazingly, there were Google Drives all over campuses in America that had posters that you could download and print. The people were ready for this. The Network Contagion Research Institute run by Joel Stein has done an incredible job recently of charting this, and there is a very, very well-honed narrative meme-making system, probably funded by Qatar in various ways, that has gotten the best of the West and Israel, too.
You have a very complicit media. You just look at that picture of the poor kid with MS that ends up on the cover of all these pages, and you look at the inside deliberations of The New York Times where they knew the problem and they still decided to publish it. It is outrageous, by the way. You can read on my Twitter, I’m calling for the New York Times editor Joe Kahn to resign. In this case, Kahn got it right, and he still published it. The guy is complicit in spreading false narratives to a level of nobody anywhere in the world.
We need to start playing offense and not defense. And unfortunately, I think the government and the narrative are always defensive, rather than offensive, and we wait for the crisis to happen rather than crafting the narrative ourselves.
What is the narrative? I think the answer is, we are Israel. Israel is the freest, most innovative, most initiative-taking society in the world, and it is the most mutually responsible. You want to raise your children here, because they grow up with mutual responsibility for their society and in an emergent regional superpower. Together with our cousins in the UAE and Saudi Arabia and the southern part of the Mediterranean in Greece and Italy, we can define this region as a future model for the world.
Q: What impact has the war had on the tech sector and the economy? It seems that things are better than anyone could have predicted.
A: Israel is the best-performing stock market in the world since October 2023. It’s pretty mind-blowing. It’s been very resilient.
Since the war started, numerous American funds have been set up in Israel. People want to access the innovation. I’ve been working very, very hard to try to develop the finance sector here. I think the current Finance Minister [Bezalel Smotrich] has figured this out, and I think you’ll see some news in the future about a regulatory and tax overhaul to enable the emergence of the finance industry. We need a second industry other than tech.
In tech, cyber carried us this far, but it’s not enough to carry us to the next phase. We need the AI enabled services businesses to sell globally from here — like Lemonade, which I was lucky to be the first investor in, is the fastest growing insurance company in the world. It’s an AI native business and we now operate globally, we started here. We need these businesses to grow so that we have more engines of growth other than just cyber and defense.
Q: Now for a more personal question. You have eight kids. How do you manage running a large investment fund, writing books, chairing charitable organizations, owning a winery — and being a dad and grandfather?
A: I think the secret in life is kind of two things. Marry well, and I was very fortunate to meet my wife young, and we’ve had just an incredible relationship and partnership and raising a family together, and incredible business partners and in the nonprofit universe. And we don’t have a television — I say that half in jest, but it’s kind of true, I don’t have that many hobbies in life.
Even on the books that I’ve published, I have an incredible editor who is also a thought partner and challenges me really hard and fine tunes me quicker. So everything in life is who you partner with. And then my only two real hobbies that I have that I enjoy very much are skiing, which you can only do a small number of days a year, unfortunately, and drinking Israeli wine. I just want to write books and help Israel and the Jewish people. That’s my life. And raise our family together.
I actually don’t believe in work-life balance. I think this is a terrible promise that psychologists make to kids, and it’s just false. What is balanced about the last two years? If I’ve promised you that your life is going to be balanced and you encounter the last two years, you will have failed, because there’s no balance. No one promised my daughter, who had three kids and now had her fourth in the middle of the war and her husband was 300-plus days in reserve duty, any balance this year. What we need to do is to tell people that there are trade-offs in life because there are 24 hours a day and seven days in a week, and we try to be as good as we can at everything, and we’re going to fail. And I think that builds resilience.
What I think Israel has in spades is optimism and resilience. Optimism and resilience. That’s the reason I’m bullish on Israeli society in this generation, that’s because they’re battle hardened. They have built resilience. It hasn’t been easy. Nothing is easy. That’s real life.
We got knocked on our butts, and we got up and gave it back, and it’s had a tremendous price. It still has a price. The hostages are still the price. There’s still people fighting in Gaza, and unfortunately, soldiers being killed and a lot of broken hearts and a lot of widows and orphans who are our responsibility collectively. But we have, unfortunately, through trauma, built resilience, and now we need to get to the post-traumatic growth phase.
The meeting comes a day after reports indicated Netanyahu intends to expand IDF control over Gaza
Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu via Getty Images
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar (C) attends the EU-Israel Association Council meeting in Brussels, Belgium, on February 24, 2025.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar will meet with American Jewish leaders in New York on Tuesday morning, Jewish Insider has learned.
Sa’ar is in New York to attend a special session of the United Nations Security Council, which he initiated to discuss the situation of the remaining hostages in Gaza, days after the release of videos of two hostages — Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski — by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, showing the two men looking haggard and emaciated.
William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said in a statement to JI, “We look forward to this important meeting with Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, continuing a long-standing relationship grounded in mutual respect and shared priorities. It is always beneficial when American Jewish leaders and Israel’s foreign minister engage directly on the key issues of the day.”
“As Minister Sa’ar prepares to address the United Nations Security Council on the ongoing plight of the hostages,” he continued, “it is critical that their suffering not be swept aside by the international community. Their release must remain a global moral imperative.”
The meeting comes a day after reports indicated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to ask the Security Cabinet to back expanding Israel’s military efforts in Gaza.
Last year, Hamas executed six hostages when the IDF approached their position; military reportedly opposes taking control of areas in Gaza where hostages are believed to be held
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to reporters after meeting with U.S. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) at the U.S. Capitol on July 8, 2025, in Washington, D.C.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to ask the Security Cabinet to back expanding Israel’s military efforts in Gaza, Israeli media reported on Monday.
“We are going to conquer the [Gaza] Strip,” a senior source in Netanyahu’s office told Israel’s Channel 12. “The decision was made. Hamas will not free more hostages without us fully surrendering, and we will not surrender. If we don’t act now, the hostages will die of hunger and Gaza will remain under Hamas’ control.”
A few caveats: Netanyahu did not use the term conquer or occupy with all of the Cabinet ministers to whom he conveyed his position, according to Israeli public broadcaster KAN. Maariv reported that Netanyahu has not made a final decision yet about whether the IDF should take control of all of Gaza, and noted that legally, he cannot decide on his own without the Security Cabinet.
“Netanyahu realized … that there is no point anymore in waiting for Hamas [to agree to a deal], and therefore a decision about the next stage of the war must be made quickly,” a source involved in the matter told Maariv. “The dispute now is not about whether to act or negotiate, because a deal with Hamas is no longer on the table. Rather, it’s about how to act without a deal, whether to go for full conquest or for a siege and increased pressure.”
IDF Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Eyal Zamir reportedly favors a siege over occupying all of Gaza.
The IDF currently controls about 75% of the Gaza Strip, and the new plan would bring the entire area under Israel’s control. Among the areas the IDF would enter would include Gaza City, where the IDF has not maneuvered in a year and a half, and towns in central Gaza, where some 20 remaining living hostages are believed to be held.
The military’s hesitation to enter those areas was, in part, due to a concern for the hostages’ safety. Last year, Hamas executed six hostages when the IDF approached their position and former hostages have said that their captors said they would kill them if the army approached the location where they were held. Hamas has also warned the IDF that attempts to rescue hostages would result in death.
Senior officials were quoted in multiple Israeli news outlets saying that Zamir should resign if he disagrees with Netanyahu’s decision to take control of the remaining 25% of the Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu is expected to bring the proposal to a Security Cabinet vote on Tuesday.
The move comes two weeks after Hamas rejected a partial ceasefire and hostage-release deal, and Israel and the U.S. said they would only pursue comprehensive agreements to free all of the hostages moving forward. Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad published videos in recent days of hostages Rom Braslavski and Evyatar David who appeared to be starving; the latter was filmed digging his own grave.
In addition to Zamir, others expected to argue against conquering the rest of Gaza, according to Channel 12, are Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, Shas leader Arye Deri, National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi and Mossad chief David Barnea, among others.
Netanyahu has the support of Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, Military Secretary Maj.-Gen. Roman Gofman and Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs.
The Prime Minister’s Office did not respond to requests for comment on the reports.
Rather than confirm or deny that he had made a decision about Israel’s next military steps in Gaza, Netanyahu posted a video to X after Hebrew media reported on the matter, which focused on Israeli efforts to get food and medicine to residents of Gaza, and compared claims that Israel was starving Gazans to antisemitic conspiracy theories.
Emmanuel Nahshon, the coordinator for combatting academic boycotts on behalf of the Israeli Association of Universities, speaks to JI about the challenges Israeli academia is facing in the shadow of the Gaza war
Shlomi Amsalem/GPO
Emmanuel Nahshon
As nearly a dozen countries announced plans to recognize a Palestinian state in the last week, the European Union debated exerting an additional form of leverage on Israel, in the form of suspending its participation in Brussels’ flagship scientific research and innovation program.
Earlier last week, the European Commission proposed a partial suspension of Israel’s participation in Horizon Europe — a 95.5 billion Euro ($109.2 billion) program that covers all areas of science and technology and has contributed significantly to Israeli academia and its tech sector — in response to what Brussels called a “severe” humanitarian situation in Gaza, which it views as having been insufficiently addressed by the daily humanitarian pauses this week.
The commission proposed to no longer allow Israeli entities to work with the European Innovation Council’s accelerator, which an Israeli diplomatic source estimated would lead to damages of about 10 million Euros ($11.4 mn.) to Israeli startups in the program, but none to research projects.
The motion did not receive the qualified majority in the European Union Council, and therefore Israel remains a full partner in Horizon Europe. Germany and Italy reportedly blocked the suspension, and Tuesday’s meeting on the matter ended without a decision. The European Council presidency said after the meeting that it plans to continue talks about the matter. The Israeli diplomatic source said some countries wanted to continue monitoring the humanitarian situation in Gaza before reaching a decision.
The scare from Brussels came at a difficult time for Israeli academia, which has been facing overt and more subtle forms of boycotts, Emmanuel Nahshon, the coordinator for combatting academic boycotts on behalf of the Israeli Association of Universities, told Jewish Insider in an interview on Wednesday.
Nahshon, a former ambassador and deputy director of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, who resigned last year in protest against the government, spoke about the challenges Israeli academia is facing in the shadow of the war in Gaza.
The interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Jewish Insider: What did you think about the outcome of the European Council’s discussion on partially suspending Israel from Horizon Europe?
Emmanuel Nahshon: They decided not to decide at the EU level, because we still have Germany and Italy blocking a possible majority against Israel, but even the Germans are telling us that this cannot go on. It’s an expression of the increasing isolation of Israel, given the unending war in Gaza, which has become more and more difficult to explain … It creates a bleak picture.
I’m very happy that sanctions on Israel in Horizon Europe did not work out this time, but unfortunately, it will happen next time.
JI: Can you explain why Horizon Europe is so important?
EN: It’s a fund budgeted by the EU and its member states, a multi-year fund for six to seven years, and its purpose is to fund joint research and development projects. Israel is one of the few non-EU countries that have been invited to participate … starting in the mid-1990s. It has been extremely successful.
European funds are extremely important because they create partnerships and networks and this is part of what has made Israel the innovation hub that it is.
Israel has one of the highest rates of return on investment and are welcome partners in top-level projects of the EU. By cutting us out of those projects, it will really punish Israeli innovation and the Israeli economy.
It’s not only about academic cooperation — it goes way beyond that. These are projects that are translated into concrete innovations for the welfare of humanity.
JI: What kinds of challenges is Israeli academia facing from anti-Israel elements abroad?
EN: Immediately after Oct. 7 [2023 Hamas attacks on Israel], there were mostly student protests, encampments, violent protests – those are almost non-existent now. It has shifted in the last year to something else, institutional boycotts.
Universities have decided to cut ties with Israel, as have professional associations – medical, psychology, historians, mathematicians. It’s much more dangerous. We now have countries in which the majority of universities have no contact with Israel. In Belgium and the Netherlands over 80% of universities have severed all contacts with Israeli universities, as have most in Spain and Italy. It’s beginning in Switzerland, in Geneva and Lausanne.
It’s a slippery slope. The more it happens, the more it is bound to happen. Universities copy one another.
On top of that, we have the silent, covert boycott. It’s like Voldemort [from Harry Potter], no one is saying its name, but it is there and we feel it all the bloody time. Israeli lecturers are not invited to international events anymore; articles are rejected; Israelis are not invited to take part in science and research consortia, etc.
If it continues for a year or two, we may face dire consequences.
JI: What would those consequences be?
EN: It’s the slow strangling of the Israeli academic world. We cannot function without contact with the outside world. Israel is too small a country to be able to have its own, internal academic world. We need contact with …the Ivy League and Western European universities.
On top of it, there is a phenomenon that began before the war, because of the so-called judicial reform, and that is Israeli academics leaving Israel. This is a brain drain that is noticeable and catastrophic. We are talking about tens of thousands of Israeli academics choosing to make their lives elsewhere. It began in early 2023 and the war made it worse.
JI: The Israeli Association of Universities (known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym VERA) hired you about a year ago to combat the academic boycott. What have you been doing?
EN: We have been working very hard on two levels. The first was to create internal coordination between different Israeli universities so we can speak the same language in the fight together. We did one thing that has been extremely useful, which is to create a common database. Now, on a regular basis, we have information coming from all the Israeli universities regarding boycott attempts and events. This is super useful, because now we know how many took place.
JI: How many?
EN: By last count there were over 800 boycott events since last summer. Some are smaller, some are bigger.
[Nahshon provided JI with a presentation given by VERA to the Knesset Education Committee in May, which said that this year they received an average of 50 boycott reports per month — double that of the previous year. Broken down by country, the number of reports about the U.S., Canada and Holland more than doubled, Spain went up 125% and England increased by 55%. A third of the complaints from North America were about the suspension of individual collaborations between Israeli scientists and their colleagues, while 18% were about difficulty in publishing, and 18% were about not being invited to lecture or participate in conferences. In Europe, nearly a third of the complaints were about institutions ending their cooperation with Israelis.]
Boycotts are complex. It’s a bit like sexual harassment. People do not always want to say they’ve been the victim, so we have to encourage people. Now, more and more [academics] are reporting and we have a fuller picture of the situation.
JI: What do you do after receiving the reports?
EN: We do work all over the world on the legal, political and public relations fronts. We emply the services of a law firm in Brussels that is helping us tremendously, because a lot of institutional boycott cases violate European laws.
For example, if universities want to kick Israeli researchers out of Horizon Europe [grantee] projects, that is against European law … We have had many successes in which they immediately stop the boycott.
Politically, we want to encourage our friends to pass legislation against boycotts, like the ones that exist in the U.S.
There are so many lies directed at Israeli universities that have nothing to do with reality, such as calling them apartheid or saying that Israeli academia teaches the military how to occupy or how to kill.
This effort is very new, very young. We need more budgets to function; it’s challenging. I have addressed the government without much success. We are looking for partners and funds, and we do the best we can with the limited means we have.
JI: The Weizmann Institute, one of Israel’s leading scientific institutions, was hit by an Iranian missile last month, which destroyed 45 labs. Are they going to have a hard time recovering because of international boycotts?
EN: I don’t think it will be a problem [raising funds for the recovery] because so many have expressed solidarity with the Weizmann Institute. They have so many friends around the world.
The problem is that the government is not fulfilling its mission. It should be the role of the Israeli government to commit to financing it, instead of fundraising … Israeli academia is not a priority for this government because it is identified with the more liberal wing of Israeli politics.
Weizmann will be fine, but the problem is of a more general nature. I quote the head of VERA Daniel Chamovitz, who said that “you can see that the Iranians put higher education and Israeli research at the center of their launch map” — apparently the Iranians understand better than the Israeli government that academia is a top priority. They aimed at Weizmann and the Soroka Hospital [in Beersheba, a teaching hospital] for exactly that reason.
Israel’s former ambassador to France said the airdrops of aid are a result of condemnation from European capitals
Antoine Gyori - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is greeted by French President Emmanuel Macron ahead of the 'Coalition Of The Willing' summit in support of Ukraine at Elysee Palace on March 27, 2025 in Paris, France.
For European leaders who are ratcheting up pressure on Israel to end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the Jewish state’s moves to pause military activity to allow a freer flow of humanitarian aid and begin airdrops of aid are “steps in the right direction,” the German foreign minister said on Sunday.
But the aid crisis is inextricably linked, observers say, to a much larger and even thornier issue — a deal to end the grinding 21-month war with Hamas and a release of the hostages. Until such a deal is struck, the pressure from Europe, and from some inside Israel, likely won’t ease. And it could worsen, with some experts warning that European sanctions on Israel aren’t out of the question.
Daniel Shek, a former Israeli ambassador to France and a member of the Hostage Families Forum’s diplomatic team, said that the aid airdrops are “a result of international pressure and not sudden altruism.”
However, Shek said, they are “like Tylenol for a cancer patient. Surgery is needed, meaning the end of the war.”
A spokesperson for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that he is “prepared to increase the pressure if progress [on a ceasefire and humanitarian aid] is not made.”
French President Emmanuel Macron announced last week that his country would recognize a Palestinian state. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot argued that the move “proves [Hamas] wrong. It supports the side of peace against that of war,” because “Hamas has always rejected the two-state solution.”
The terrorist group praised France’s “positive step in the right direction.”
England and Germany declined to join France in recognizing a Palestinian state, but their leaders released a statement with Macron focusing on the “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza and calling for “the most basic needs of the civilian population, including access to water and food [to be] met without further delay” and for Israel “to immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid.”
Israel has argued that it is not restricting the flow of aid into Gaza, but that the U.N. refuses to cooperate with the U.S. and Israel supported Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to distribute it.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that he is “unequivocal” in his support for a Palestinian state, but that recognition must come as “part of a wider plan which ultimately results in a two-state solution and lasting security for Palestinians and Israelis. This is the way to ensure it is a tool of maximum utility.”
The IDF noted that “responsibility for food distribution to the population lies with the U.N. and international aid organizations. Therefore, the U.N. and international organizations are expected to improve the effectiveness of aid distribution and to ensure that the aid does not reach Hamas.”
Israel initiated on Sunday 10-hour “pauses” in the coming days in areas of Gaza in which there are no IDF ground troops, daily until further notice, “aimed at improving the humanitarian response in the Gaza Strip and to refute the false claim of deliberate starvation.”
In addition to 28 airdrops on the first day, the IDF established corridors to allow the safe movement of U.N. convoys of food and medicine. The military also noted that “responsibility for food distribution to the population lies with the U.N. and international aid organizations. Therefore, the U.N. and international organizations are expected to improve the effectiveness of aid distribution and to ensure that the aid does not reach Hamas.”
Starmer, however, said after the airdrops were announced on Saturday that “Israel must allow aid in over land…The situation is desperate.”
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said that “humanitarian pauses and aid deliveries into Gaza are steps in the right direction, results of many direct conversations in the last few days. Yet the situation remains unbearable: Hamas must release all hostages, a comprehensive ceasefire is badly needed.”
Starmer reportedly plans to ask President Donald Trump to return to ceasefire talks with Hamas, during the president’s visit to Scotland on Monday. A source in his office told The Guardian over the weekend that Starmer will “discuss further with [Trump] what more can be done to secure the ceasefire urgently, bring an end to the unspeakable suffering and starvation in Gaza and free the hostages who have been held so cruelly for so long.”
The U.S. and Israel withdrew their teams from the negotiations in Doha, Qatar, last week, after Hamas rejected a ceasefire and hostage deal by making new demands in areas that had previously been resolved. U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff said that Washington was looking for “alternative options,” which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later echoed.
Germany similarly remained concerned about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, with Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul saying that “humanitarian pauses and aid deliveries into Gaza are steps in the right direction, results of many direct conversations in the last few days. Yet the situation remains unbearable: Hamas must release all hostages, a comprehensive ceasefire is badly needed.”
Merz and Netanyahu spoke on the phone on Sunday. Following the call, Merz said he asked Netanyahu “to do everything in his power to bring about an immediate ceasefire and called on him to allow urgently needed humanitarian aid to reach the starving civilian population in Gaza without delay.”
Israel is taking a different approach to each major European capital and its statements and actions on Israel, a Foreign Ministry source told Jewish Insider.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry summoned the French charge d’affaires for a demarche by Director-General Eden Bar-Tal on Sunday. A statement from the ministry said that France “chose to harm Israel in its most difficult hour…France directly harmed the negotiations to return the hostages and for a ceasefire and all future diplomatic negotiations.”
Soon after Macron’s announcement on Thursday, Netanyahu said that it “rewards terror and risks creating another Iranian proxy, just as Gaza became. A Palestinian state in these conditions would be a launch pad to annihilate Israel — not to live in peace beside it. Let’s be clear: the Palestinians do not seek a state alongside Israel; they seek a state instead of Israel.”
If the war continues, Daniel Shek, a former Israeli ambassador to France and a member of the Hostage Families Forum’s diplomatic team, warned, “we could find ourselves under real pressure, such as sanctions, even from friendly countries that blocked [such steps] until now. Israel is isolating itself.”
Though Berlin has continued to make critical statements, the Foreign Ministry source indicated that Jerusalem still views Germany as a largely supportive country.
The source noted that while there was significant domestic pressure over Germany’s Israel policy, it has not backed down, such as last week when Berlin declined to join a letter of 28 countries calling to end the war immediately.
In addition, Germany did not support moves to reexamine Israel’s “association agreement” with the EU, which could result in a chill in relations between Israel and its largest trade partner. Changes in the association agreement would require consensus from all 28 EU member states, several of whom would be unlikely to support downgrading ties with Israel.
Wadephul and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar have met three times since the former entered office three months ago. In one of the meetings he said that Germany would not cut off arms sales to Israel.
Emmanuel Navon, an international relations lecturer at Tel Aviv University and fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Security Studies, said that the aid drops would likely be enough to stop Germany from taking action against Israel.
“I find it hard to believe that Germany, who we have very close ties with, would do something like [downgrade the association agreement] unless Israel has totally cut off humanitarian aid … For German public agreement, you need aid flowing into Gaza,” he added.
Shek was skeptical that Germany would follow Macron in recognizing a Palestinian state, but said “even Germany is showing signs of impatience and urgency,” and that there are other steps that Berlin could take.
The former ambassador also said he thought that canceling the EU-Israel Association Agreement was unlikely, because Hungary and Eastern European states would not support it. However, he said that the Brussels bureaucracy could slow-walk agreements and cooperation with Jerusalem in areas that often depend on EU grants such as scientific research and culture.
If the war continues, Shek warned, “we could find ourselves under real pressure, such as sanctions, even from friendly countries that blocked [such steps] until now. Israel is isolating itself.”
That being said, Shek and Navon doubted that the latest moves from Europe actually constituted pressure on Jerusalem.
Shek dismissed angry Israeli reactions to Macron’s “recognition of a virtual Palestinian state state that doesn’t exist … Those reactions are only aimed at the Israeli voter and have no value in international relations.”
“We need to say Hamas is looting and the U.N. won’t distribute the aid — we don’t need to wait to be accused of starving [Gazans] to say it,” said Emmanuel Navon, an international relations lecturer at Tel Aviv University and fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Security Studies. “The problem is that we wait to be attacked and then we react. Once the accusation is out, it’s hard to correct.”
Navon noted that other G7 countries were not on board with Macron’s initiatives, even those with left-wing governments like the U.K. and Canada.
“Macron has brought relations with Israel to the low of the early to mid 1970s … when France was graded as hostile in Israel’s foreign policy,” Navon said. “It will take years to repair after [Macron].”
Navon said that Israel needs to be more proactive in communicating what is happening in Gaza: “We need to say Hamas is looting and the U.N. won’t distribute the aid — we don’t need to wait to be accused of starving [Gazans] to say it. The problem is that we wait to be attacked and then we react. Once the accusation is out, it’s hard to correct.”
In addition, Navon said, “Netanyahu needs to get his act together and tell his ministers to shut up or take away their phones.”
He referred to remarks by Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu in a radio interview last week that “the government is racing ahead to wipe out Gaza … All of Gaza will be Jewish.”
“The prime minister has to have better control of rogue members of his government and party who are causing us terrible damage,” Navon added.
Shek, however, said the way to improve Israel’s relations with Europe and the rest of the world is to end the war in Gaza.
The former ambassador argued that the issue is not one of Israel doing a poor job at explaining the situation to the world: “If all of these countries have reached the conclusion that the war needs to end, then Israel needs to have a discussion with them to find out how they can contribute to a better reality after the war … We need to just get into a conversation about an exit strategy … which is something that the Israeli government has refused to do from Oct. 8, 2023, to this day.”
The Israeli leader called Zohran Mamdani’s policy proposals ‘a one-term effort ... A lot of people have been taken in by this nonsense’
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
NYC Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani briefly speaks with reporters as he leaves the Dirksen Senate Office Building on July 16, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu argued that young people in America are won over “pretty quickly” by the truth about the situation in Israel, when discussing New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani on a podcast released Monday, and suggested that Mamdani’s policies would be unpopular if he’s elected.
“A lot of people have been taken in by this nonsense,” Netanyahu said, on the “Full Send” podcast, hosted by a social media influencer group called the Nelk Boys popular with young men.
“Sometimes folly overtakes human affairs for a while, but not for long, because reality steps in,” Netanyahu said. “I’m obviously not happy with it, but I’m less concerned with it, because I think if we can speak the truth to the young people of America, they wise up pretty quickly.”
The Israeli leader also addressed other policies supported by Mamdani, including the Democratic mayoral nominee’s past support for defunding the police and raising taxes.
“You want to defund the police? You want to have people go into stores and rob them and be free? You think that really creates a good society? You want to crush all enterprise? You want to tax people to death?” Netanyahu said. “That’s a one-term effort, but sometimes you have to get mugged by reality to understand how stupid that is. So that’s silly.”
The BIRD Health Act builds on the existing Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation program by allocating funding for joint healthcare innovation
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images/Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Reps. Randy Weber (R-TX) and Chris Pappas (D-NH)
A new bipartisan House bill set to be introduced on Wednesday aims to expand U.S.-Israeli research and development cooperative programs in the medical field.
The BIRD Health Act, led by Reps. Randy Weber (R-TX) and Chris Pappas (D-NH), builds on the long-running Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation program.
Around a third of BIRD projects in the past decade have been related to the health-care sector, and the U.S. and Israel have pursued growing cooperation in the field in recent years. The bill would further formalize those efforts by establishing a new $10 million annual funding stream and joint management structure between the Department of Health and Human Services and the Israeli Ministry of Health specifically focused on supporting such projects.
It would support research and development between institutions and companies in both countries, including startups, as well as health systems, telemedicine, disease prevention efforts and biological product manufacturing.
“The United States and Israel share one of the strongest, most enduring alliances in the world, and it just makes sense to join forces in advancing life-saving health technologies that benefit both our nations,” Weber said in a statement. “The BIRD Health Act of 2025 builds on our shared strengths to support cutting-edge medical innovation, strengthen supply chains, and improve health outcomes for American families.”
“U.S. and Israeli doctors, scientists, and researchers are leading the world in groundbreaking medical advancements, including regenerative medicine, disease prevention, and cancer research,” Pappas said in a statement. “The health technology and innovation program created through this bipartisan legislation will strengthen the bilateral partnership between the U.S. and Israel to address emerging health issues, develop innovative solutions, and save lives.”
The Ohio Democrat suggested the responses to the strikes from within his party are motivated by the current political environment, fears about a broader war and concerns about the future of diplomatic talks and the safety of people in the region
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH) is interviewed by CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images in his Longworth Building office on Friday, November 3, 2023.
Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH) has stood apart in recent weeks as one of a small number of congressional Democrats who’ve been supportive of the Trump administration’s strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
He argued in an interview with Jewish Insider last week and in a recent op-ed that the Israeli and American show of force, alongside the undermining of Iran’s proxies across the region, could be the key to weakening the Iranian regime to a point where it will agree to a fundamental change of course going forward, unlocking opportunities for regional peace and prosperity. And, he said, it’s critical that the U.S. move forward in a truly unified and bipartisan manner to capitalize on that opportunity.
Landsman told JI he thinks that his Democratic colleagues’ responses to the strikes are motivated by the current political environment, fears about a broader war and concerns about the future of diplomatic talks and the safety of people in the region.
“We’re just in a different political environment than the one I grew up in,” Landsman, 48, said. “The one I grew up in was ‘politics stops at the water’s edge,’ which I loved. … The thinking behind it … is that when we take on these really complicated foreign policy issues, that we do it in a bipartisan way, and that’s not the environment we live in right now.”
He said there’s also a “legitimate concern that it would provoke further attacks or it would instigate a broader war.” Landsman has argued that the current situation is fundamentally different from the run-up to the Iraq war that many skeptics of the strikes have invoked.
Some colleagues, he added, may have also had concerns about compromising diplomatic efforts or “legitimate concerns for people’s safety. But I think for others, and for a lot of folks, it’s just political,” he said.
Landsman said he still hews to the older approach, believing that it’s critical to work toward bipartisan common ground in critical foreign policy questions. He highlighted that the American people overwhelmingly oppose the prospect of an Iranian nuclear weapon.
“I think the American people want [our Middle East policy] to be bipartisan, all of it,” Landsman said. “I think they’re tired of the partisanship in general, but in particular, as it relates to how we resolve these international conflicts and how we take advantage of international or global opportunities, I think they are done with all of this being so partisan.”
He said he still believes a diplomatic solution with Iran is possible and necessary, but said the regime needed to be weakened and see that the U.S. is willing to use force in order to agree to totally dismantle its nuclear program and allow comprehensive international inspections and to dismantle its terrorist proxies .
Unlike some supporters of the strikes, Landsman said he doesn’t think regime change in Iran is the most productive goal, and that the U.S. should instead leverage the regime’s vulnerability for a more favorable deal and fundamental change to the regime’s posture.
“This regime wants to stay in power. If they decide — which they can, and now they’re so weakened that it’s an easier decision for them, and that’s why the strikes were important — they can decide, ‘We’re going to focus on the Iranian people’” and abandon terrorism and their ambitions to destroy Israel, Landsman said. “They could unlock the talent of tens of millions of incredibly brilliant people that have been stuck in Iran under this regime.”
He said that achieving that will “require real engagement and leadership” from both Congress and the executive branch.
Landsman has proposed establishing a bipartisan and bicameral congressional committee to work toward Middle East peace, and argued that the administration needs an expanded team working on the issue, describing Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff as stretched too thin.
“They need to lay out a vision for ending hostilities with Iran and ending the war in Gaza and giving people a sense of what will happen next in terms of peace and stability and security,” Landsman said.
The congressman argued that these issues are too difficult and too important for Congress to be excluded, or to be treated in a partisan manner. He pushed for deep and ongoing executive branch engagement with Congress, not just providing briefings, but in strategizing and building a lasting solution going forward.
Finally putting the Iranian threat to bed would set the Middle East on a fundamentally different course, Landsman argued. “[The Middle East] should be Europe, [if not] for Iran. It hasn’t been able to break out that way because Iran has been the primary obstacle.”
“Getting to a point where Iran is slowly but surely being removed as a threat opens up all the doors,” he said. “It just changes the dynamic for everybody.”
He said he believes leaders across the region see a path toward ending the war in Gaza and the long-running conflicts and building “a Middle East that’s entirely free from terror and countries are working together” and prospering.
In spite of the deep divisions that have increasingly characterized discussions in the United States on Israel and the Middle East since the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks, Landsman said he still believes that “the list of what we agree on is way bigger than the list of what folks may disagree on.”
The points of agreement across the American political spectrum include: that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon; that Iran needs to be subject to stringent inspections; that Iran needs to cease its support for terrorists; that Hezbollah must be disarmed; that the war in Gaza needs to end; that the hostages need to be returned; that Hamas needs to be removed from power; and that international investment in collaboration with Israel and non-Hamas Palestinian leaders is needed to move Gaza forward.
“More international pressure can be brought to bear on Iran and Hamas and Hezbollah and the Houthis to separate them … and say ‘The world has come together. We are going to pick the side of those who want to rebuild the region and rebuild it free of terror and corruption,’” Landsman said. “Ultimately, when you have the kind of security that any country would need and expect, then you get back to the negotiating table.”
Landsman has spoken on multiple occasions in recent months about his aspirations for an abiding peace in the Middle East, a vision that he says is driven by a lifetime of connection and passion for Israel and the region.
He said his Jewish upbringing had inculcated in him a sense of connection to the importance of Israel for the Jewish people.
Landsman said that efforts to negotiate between Israel and the Palestinians were also a constant feature of his youth, and that he believes that there is still broad agreement on the goal of a durable peace that can provide security for Israel and self-determination and self-governance for the Palestinians.
A Harvard Divinity School graduate, the Ohio congressman has visited Israel numerous times as a lawmaker, but also traveled there frequently and built connections in his previous work in education advocacy. After implementing new preschool programs in the Cincinnati area, Landsman was asked to help work with Ethiopian Israelis to improve educational outcomes, an effort that grew between 2015 and 2020.
He said his time on the ground in Israel showed him that Jews and Palestinians “have a lot in common” — shared history, a shared home and common experiences of expulsion and rejection. And it highlighted to him the extent to which Arab Israelis are part of and integrated into Israeli society.
“I have built up this legitimate affection and love for these two communities of people that, because of circumstance, have been fighting,” Landsman said. “Ending that would transform everything — not just their lives, but the region and the world.”
Dr. Shay Laps alleged that his lab supervisor also pressured him to leave the country by falsely claiming he was being investigated by the university
Gabby Deutch
White Plaza, the site of last spring's Gaza encampment at Stanford, on the first Friday of the school year, 2024.
An Israeli chemist who resigned from Stanford University is suing the school after he claims it was complicit in antisemitism that he faced at the school — including the alleged tampering with his lab results, Jewish Insider has learned.
The Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and Los Angeles-based law firm Cohen Williams LLP filed a federal lawsuit on Thursday on behalf of Shay Laps, a Jewish Israeli postdoctoral researcher who was hired by Stanford in April 2024 after being recommended by a Nobel laureate. Laps’ research focused on synthetic and “smart” insulin, aiming to revolutionize diabetes treatment.
According to the lawsuit, after arriving in professor Danny Chou’s Stanford lab, Laps was targeted by a lab staffer who knew that he was a Jewish scientist from Israel. At their first meeting, the suit alleges, the staffer told Laps, the only Israeli in the building, never to speak to her, and later excluded Laps from sitting with her and other staffers during lunch. Laps expressed that the staffer treated other colleagues kindly.
The complaint also names Chou, an associate professor of pediatrics and the lab’s leader and mentor, as a defendant.
The discrimination escalated when, according to Laps, the lab staffer tampered with his research, producing fraudulent results without his knowledge. Laps said that upon the discovery of the alleged sabotage of his experiments, Chou refused to address the issue — and eventually pressured Laps to leave the country by falsely claiming that Stanford’s Title IX Office had alerted Chou to a complaint and formal investigation against Laps and that his immigration status was on the line. Stanford’s Title IX Office later confirmed that there was no complaint or investigation against Laps, according to the suit.
Stanford President Jonathan Levin and the School of Medicine Dean Lloyd Minor disregarded Laps’ attempts for help, the lawsuit alleges. Ultimately, Laps felt he had no choice but to resign.
Talia Nissimyan, a lawyer at Cohen Williams who is representing Laps, said that as Laps “suffered discrimination and retaliation based on his religion, national origin, and ethnicity, the university preferred not to look.”
“Instead, they attempted to bury Dr. Laps’ career, and when that didn’t work, to bully him into rescinding his complaints,” Nissimyan said in a statement. “Stanford succumbed to the rising tide of campus antisemitism and anti-Israeli bias, costing Dr. Laps critical years of his career, and costing the world the potential fruits of his talents.”
The Israeli prime minister also said that Israel continues to work on ceasefire efforts after accepting the latest U.S.-sponsored proposal
Marc Rod
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill after a meeting with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on July 8, 2025.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday blamed coordinated anti-Israel advocacy campaigns for recent polls showing falling support for the Jewish state in the United States, particularly among Democrats, but argued that effective Israeli counter-messaging could reverse those trends.
Recent surveys have shown that support for Israel has declined among Democrats since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, with a majority now viewing Israel unfavorably.
“I am certainly interested in maintaining the great support that Israel has had. I think there’s been a concerted effort to spread vilifications and demonization against Israel on social media,” Netanyahu said in response to a question from Jewish Insider at a news conference on Capitol Hill following a closed-door meeting with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).
“It’s funded, it’s malignant, and we intend to fight it, because nothing defeats lies like the truth, and we shall spread the truth for everyone to see it,” Netanyahu continued. “Once people are exposed to the facts, we win, hands down.”
The Israeli premier hinted that he may have a second meeting with President Donald Trump before leaving the U.S. later this week, following their Monday evening meeting, as some media reports have indicated.
At a news conference on Capitol Hill, Jewish Insider's @marcrod97 asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about polls showing falling support for Israel in the U.S.
— Jewish Insider (@J_Insider) July 8, 2025
"I think there’s been a concerted effort to spread vilifications and demonization against Israel on social… pic.twitter.com/z5JwidJeo5
Netanyahu said he and Trump had discussed the need to “finish the job in Gaza, release all our hostages, eliminate and destroy Hamas’ military and governance capabilities” in their private conversation on Monday — an issue left unaddressed in their public remarks.
Netanyahu told reporters that he has continued to work on ceasefire efforts as recently as this morning. Asked about a Hamas counterproposal, Netanyahu emphasized that Israel had accepted the proposal put forward by U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff and the Qatari mediators.
He demurred in response to a question about Qatar’s role in the negotiations, saying that he would “talk about the process later. I have a lot to say about it, but right now I’m totally focused on the result, as is President Trump.”
Netanyahu also aligned himself with Trump’s foreign policy motto — cribbed from President Ronald Reagan — of “peace through strength.”
“First comes strength, then comes peace,” Netanyahu said. “Our resolute action, the resolute decision of President Trump to act with us against those who seek to destroy Israel and threaten the peace of the world has made a remarkable change in the Middle East. … There are opportunities for peace that we intend to realize.”
Asked about a proposal on Capitol Hill to provide Israel with American B-2 bombers and bunker-buster bombs in the event that further strikes on Iran are needed, Netanyahu said that he would “of course … like it” if Israel had the same capabilities as the U.S., but added, “We are appreciative of the systems we receive that I think could serve not only the interests of Israel’s security, but American security and the security of the free world.”
“I won’t get into specifics. There’s much, much more to discuss, and many variegated areas that are best left a more confidential forum,” he continued.
Netanyahu, Trump project unity in D.C., but diverging views on Iran, Gaza hint at future fault lines
Differences between the two leaders’ comments on potential further strikes on Iran indicated a possible point of friction in the future
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
President Donald Trump, seated next to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, hosts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a dinner in the Blue Room of the White House on July 7, 2025, in Washington, DC.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s third visit to Washington since the start of the Trump presidency kicked off Monday with closed-door meetings with President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
Trump and Netanyahu were on warm terms during remarks to the press ahead of their dinner. Netanyahu offered effusive praise for Trump for the U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities and said he nominated Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize, as well as following Trump’s lead in expressing openness to the new Syrian government.
Trump, for his part, deferred to Netanyahu on a question about a two-state solution, “We’ll work out a peace with our Palestinian neighbors, those who don’t want to destroy us,” Netanyahu said, while adding that in any future peace agreement, “the sovereign power of security, always remains in our hands.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters earlier in the day that Trump’s “utmost priority … is to end the war in Gaza and return all of the hostages” and that Trump and Netanyahu would discuss “peace in Gaza and ending that conflict.”
But that agenda item saw little discussion in Trump and Netanyahu’s public remarks. Asked about talks with Hamas, Trump instead spoke about Iran.
At the same time, the differences between the two leaders’ comments on potential further strikes on Iran indicated a possible point of friction in the future.
Asked about further strikes, Trump said he “can’t imagine wanting to do that” and maintained that Iran’s nuclear program had been “knocked out completely.” Trump added, “I think they want to make peace and I’m all for it,” while also suggesting that there is no need for negotiations or a deal, saying “What’s the purpose of talking?” He said that the U.S. is “ready, willing and able” if further strikes are necessary, “but I don’t think we’re going to have to be.”
Netanyahu seemed somewhat less certain that Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs had been permanently stopped, even as he called the strikes a “historic victory.” “When you remove a tumor, that doesn’t mean that it can’t come back,” the Israeli prime minister said. “You have to constantly monitor the situation to make sure that there’s no attempt to bring it back.”
The two leaders downplayed another potential test of U.S.-Israel relations, the potential election of Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, who has pledged to arrest Netanyahu — following the International Criminal Court’s warrant against him — as mayor of New York City. Netanyahu dismissed the notion as “folly.”
Trump interjected that he’d “get him out of there” and suggested that he could use federal funding to force Mamdani to “behave.” Both men also said that Mamdani’s election is not guaranteed.
Trump also said that he would send more weapons, particularly defensive weapons, to Ukraine, shipments reportedly halted as a result of a push by top Pentagon official Elbridge Colby. Hours later, the Pentagon confirmed it would send additional defensive weapons to Ukraine.
It’s another sign that Trump’s instincts on foreign policy don’t always line up with those of vocal isolationist members of his team. Colby also reportedly resisted moving U.S. systems and personnel, including missile defense platforms, from Asia to the Middle East.
Today, Netanyahu heads to Capitol Hill, where he’s set to sit down with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and a group with Senate leaders including Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch (R-ID).
Most House members will likely not be in town to meet with the Israeli leader this week, with the House out of session. The Israeli prime minister will return to the Capitol on Wednesday for one-on-one meetings with several close allies in the Senate.
The Israeli prime minister’s visit is scheduled as Ron Dermer is in Washington for White House meetings
SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images
President Donald Trump shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on April 7, 2025.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with President Donald Trump at the White House next Monday, a Trump administration official confirmed to Jewish Insider.
The visit, which will come just two weeks after Trump announced a cease-fire between Israel and Iran, will be Netanyahu’s third Oval Office meeting this year.
Ron Dermer, Israel’s strategic affairs minister, is in Washington this week for White House meetings about efforts to end the war in Gaza. “MAKE THE DEAL IN GAZA. GET THE HOSTAGES BACK!” Trump posted on Truth Social over the weekend.
The Trump-Netanyahu meeting also comes after a lengthy post from the president slamming Israeli prosecutors’ corruption case against Netanyahu.
“It is terrible what they are doing in Israel to Bibi Netanyahu. He is a War Hero, and a Prime Minister who did a fabulous job working with the United States to bring Great Success in getting rid of the dangerous Nuclear threat in Iran,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday.
An Israeli court canceled hearings scheduled for this week in the case after Netanyahu requested a delay for classified security and diplomatic reasons.
The former Soviet dissident said the Iranian people’s fear of the regime has weakened, making the time ripe for a revolution
Noam Galai/Getty Images
Israeli politician Natan Sharansky speaks during 'March For Israel' at the National Mall on November 14, 2023 in Washington, DC.
For decades, former Israeli politician and Soviet refusenik Natan Sharansky has championed the cause of freedom from oppressive regimes. Dissidents across the world have found inspiration in his books and sought his advice and support.
Iranians seeking to topple the totalitarian mullahs’ regime are no different.
Soon after Israel began its strikes on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear, weapons production and military sites, Sharansky, who has been in contact with Iranian dissidents, expressed hope that the war would increase pressure on the regime from within Iran, leading to its downfall.
That hope has been reflected in statements by President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the operation, though after the interview, Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he favors stability over regime change.
Sharansky spoke with Jewish Insider on Tuesday about the prospects of the Iranian people rising up against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, even after a shaky ceasefire had been declared between Israel and Iran.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Jewish Insider: What did this war between Israel and Iran mean for the possibility of regime change in Iran?
Natan Sharansky: It’s difficult to speak now, because we don’t know what kind of [ceasefire] agreement it is, whether it is the type with Hezbollah, the type that prevents Iran from rebuilding their ballistic missiles.
What is important is that the regime has been very weakened in the eyes of its own people.
A regime like Iran needs control not only over practical matters, it needs a way to keep its people under control, and the only control they had is through fear. The moment the level of fear goes down, or the empire looks weak, or some serious event causes people to doubt it, the regime can fall apart very quickly.
If some people cross the line of fear and go to the streets and resist, [the regime] can fall in a few days, as it did in Eastern Europe or in Tahrir Square in Egypt.
[On Monday], I thought we were very close. The fact that Israel was destroying the symbols of the regime, one after the other — the [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] headquarters, the Interior Ministry that controlled people’s movement — meant the regime was being weakened in the eyes of its own people.
JI: Do you really think the mullahs’ regime is so close to collapse?
NS: In a totalitarian society, there are three kinds of people. There are those who are with the regime; there are the dissidents, the very few who speak out; and the majority, the double-thinkers, who don’t believe in the regime, don’t want the regime, but are afraid to speak out.
Iran was unique among the dictatorial countries in the Middle East [in] that it had a very developed civil society. There were women’s organizations, students, trade unions organized against the regime.
I can tell you that in the estimation of many dissidents when we had a meeting 15 years ago in Prague, we chose Iran as the most likely candidate for a revolution.
In 2009, you had the beginning of a revolution, but [former President Barack] Obama decided engagement with the regime was more important than changing the regime, so the regime was strong enough to destroy [the opposition].
Now, not only is the regime weaker in the eyes of the people, but it was exposed as a paper tiger so quickly and it lost all symbols of power.
JI: The public conversation in the U.S. has been very nervous about the prospect of regime change.
NS: This debate about whether they should change the regime or not — it’s like whether to attack [the nuclear facility in] Fordow or not. You don’t change the regime by throwing another bomb.
The regime can be changed by people on the inside, if they stop being afraid. If a small group stops being afraid and goes to the streets, it’s very risky. If many people think it’s possible and millions stop being afraid, that’s the end of the regime.
[French President Emmanuel] Macron said yesterday that he was angry and that the Iranian people should decide, not the Americans. He’s right that it’s for the people to decide, but the people have been controlled by fear for many years.
We don’t have to physically change the regime; we have to help the people see the regime is weak. At the moment we have the Nachshons [the first Israelite to enter the Red Sea before it was split in the Exodus story]. This is how it happened in many other places, like in Romania. The moment they go out and show they are not afraid, the regime will be finished in two or three days.
I think we are now very close to this.
JI: Do you think statements about regime change from Israeli leaders and President Trump helped?
NS: The leaders of the free world need to show their real attitude toward the dictatorship and their support for the people. Especially the Americans and Europeans. That was the failure in 2009. All that was needed was for leaders to say, “We are with you,” but they said the opposite, that they want engagement.
Today it is the opposite. It is the clear position of the free world that in heart and spirit they are with the people of Iran who want to be free. It doesn’t mean we’re saying we will change the regime — we cannot do that, it would just mean continuing the war. It does not mean trying to turn Iran into a colony.
[The purpose of the war is] for them not to continue to blackmail [Israel] and make our lives miserable as they tried to do for many years, but we should be interested in the Iranian people seeing that the regime is weak and the sympathy of the world is on their side.
Israel mostly behaved very cleverly and toed a thin line to make it clear that we are not fighting with the civilians, we are damaging the regime and the image of the regime in Iran as much as possible. I think that even if some ministers did not understand that is the aim, Israel’s leaders did this well.
JI: What do you think was the impact of the bombing of the gate to the notorious Evin Prison, where dissidents are held and tortured?
NS: It was the right thing to do, but maybe it would have been wiser to do it two to three days later, when the authorities lost control of the streets and the prisoners could run away. Is it legitimate to help political prisoners run away? Of course it is legitimate. But it’s a good thing to do when the regime starts losing control.
JI: Does the ceasefire make regime change more or less likely?
NS: We have to see the conditions of the ceasefire, and whether it will help the regime restore the sense that they are strong. It’s clear that the regime is much weaker internationally and the nuclear threat that was so big and looming above us for decades is now [lessened]. Whether this regime is weakened from the inside, we have to see.
JI: As someone in contact with dissident movements, what are you hearing about the movement in Iran?
NS: A lot of dissidents in America and in London and inside Iran are really mobilizing.
I was told yesterday that the price of a Starlink internet receiver rose from $400 to $2,800 in a few days. That means that while, officially, the internet is blocked, people want to be in contact. They want to coordinate and smuggle more and more of this equipment. That’s one parameter from which you see that people feel the moment is coming.
I would like to see this, but we don’t know exactly what is happening.
I think that the moment Hezbollah fell, the [Iranian] regime felt it was in danger. They executed hundreds of people. Iran probably leads the world in executions, but in recent months they accelerated and almost doubled them. They’re very rational; this is how they control people. It’s important to them that people are scared. Even if the attack by Israel was a surprise, Iran was prepared for it in terms of how to control the people.
What happened in the last 12 days is that people could see how weak the regime is. There is a very close connection between the regime’s level of control of the people and how it looks. A dictator who looks weak cannot survive. That is why we are very close.
JI: What are dissidents currently doing against the regime?
NS: There are many different groups of dissidents. There are those representing different aspects of human rights and groups who speak for the Kurds, Azeris, Balochis — only half of the population of Iran are Persians. It’s always like this when facing a totalitarian regime. You have groups with different interests and the secret police plays off of this.
That’s OK. The important thing is whether, at this critical moment of revolution, they can speak in one voice. That is a process that is happening these days. Those in America, those in London and in some other European countries and those who are in the field — their interconnection is growing with every minute. That is why I mentioned Starlink; it’s very important because the authorities tried to break the internet communications between the people.
The only thing that is working is state propaganda, which is why it is so important that Israel struck the centers of official propaganda.
Many channels of contact are being established these days, which is very important. Some leaders are taking initiative. It’s important that different groups succeed in uniting for at least a short period of time and speak in one voice. It seems to me that inroads are being made, and from what I hear, very intensely.
In its reports on the Iranian ballistic missile strike on a home in Tamra, northern Israel, CNN described the city as Palestinian
JOHN WESSELS/AFP via Getty Images
The mother of one of the victims of an Iranian missile attack which destroyed a three-storey building in the northern Arab-Israeli city of Tamra, is comforted during a funeral in the northern Arab-Israeli city of Tamra, on June 17, 2025.
After an Iranian ballistic missile struck a home in the northern Israeli city of Tamra, killing a woman, her two daughters and her sister-in-law, news outlets faced an additional challenge beyond the sober responsibility of covering a tragic loss: choosing what language to use to describe these women and their ethnic identity.
Tamra is an Arab town, with a history dating back hundreds of years. When Israeli President Isaac Herzog visited on Wednesday, he talked about the “shared society of Jews and Arabs” in Israel that “believe in our common life together,” and described the victims as “Muslim women.” Most news reports — in major international outlets including the Associated Press, Reuters, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal — referred to Tamra as either an “Arab-Israeli city” or an “Arab town in Israel.”
CNN, however, chose a different word for Tamra, a city that is firmly inside Israel’s original 1948 borders: Palestinian.
“Iranian strikes expose bomb shelter shortage for Palestinian towns inside Israel,” read one headline from this week. The accompanying article described Tamra’s residents as “Palestinian citizens of Israel.” Another story called Tamra a “Palestinian-Israeli town.”
The descriptor is sure to confuse some readers. If advocates for a two-state solution talk about separate Israeli and Palestinian states, how can there be a Palestinian town within Israel?
The use of the word is not a statement about the town being under Palestinian sovereignty or the jurisdiction of a Palestinian governing authority. The word is used to describe the national identity of the people who live there, similar to describing Americans of Chinese ancestry as Chinese Americans — only much more complicated, because of the recent politics of the war in Gaza and nearly eight decades of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Anwar Mhajne, a political science professor at Stonehill College in Massachusetts, who grew up in the Arab city of Umm al-Fahm in Israel, told Jewish Insider that using the term “Palestinian” to describe her identity and the place where she grew up can serve as an educational opportunity for people from outside the region who don’t know the history of her community, which dates back several hundred years.
“If I’m talking to outsiders who don’t understand the history of the region, I would say, ‘It’s a historically Palestinian town inside of Israel,’” Mhajne said. “Then I have to tell them the whole story of how that happened. The reason why I do this is because I have people ask me, ‘Wait, you’re not Jewish, so how are you in Israel?’”
CNN’s use of the word “Palestinian” to describe the Arab-Israeli residents of Tamra reflects a broader linguistic shift that has been happening over the years among Israel’s Arab citizens, who account for about 20% of Israel’s population. A spokesperson for CNN did not respond to a question about whether the language reflected a change to the network’s style guide, but the recent language appears to be a shift for the news network, which even earlier this year used the term “Arab Israelis” in its reporting.
“There’s a growing trend going on in the past, I want to say 10, maybe 20, years, of people who are saying, ‘We are going to reclaim our identity as Palestinians, and we’re not going to be ashamed to call ourselves Palestinians,’” said Yasmeen Abu Fraiha, a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School who is completing a fellowship at Harvard Medical School. She counts herself among that trend: She didn’t use the term “Palestinian citizen of Israel” to describe herself until her late 20s, after she studied at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Abu Fraiha grew up in a Jewish city in Israel and she trained at Israeli institutions. She was working at Soroka Hospital in Beersheba — the hospital that was hit by an Iranian missile on Thursday — during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, when she helped treat hundreds of people injured that day. She likes the term “Palestinian citizen of Israel” because it encompasses two parts of her identity that are both important, although she is not a stickler about the language; she previously served as health policy director at the Task Force for Health Promotion and Equity in the Arab Society at the Israeli Ministry of Health, an official government entity.
“First, yes, I’m Israeli. I was born and raised there. Hebrew is my first language. I love the Israeli culture,” Abu Fraiha explained. “I’m fully Israeli. And then at the same time, my history, my narrative, my national connection, is to the Palestinian people.”
Mhajne, too, identifies with the Israeli part of her identity. It’s the passport she holds. She is the product of an Israeli education, and earned her bachelor’s degree at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. But that is not the full story of who she is.
“I do hold both close, dearly, and I think they’re very important to hold onto. Historically, culturally, in a lot of ways, we are Palestinian, and we share that story. It’s our ancestors’ stories. These towns and us, we’ve been there for a long time, even before Israel was a state.”
Among Israel’s Jewish population, the language has not caught on widely, although it has growing cachet among Israeli Jews on the political left. Israel’s government formally uses the term “Arab-Israeli” to describe this part of the population, and that is the language generally used in English, too.
Shayna Weiss, senior associate director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis, said the rhetorical matter can be “quite confusing” for her undergraduate students, so she usually discusses it at the beginning of each course she teaches about Israeli society.
“I generally use the term ‘Israeli Palestinian’ ‘Palestinian citizens of Israel,’ but there are also instances where some people have said they see themselves as Israeli Arab, like certain pop stars, that sort of thing. And if I know that’s what they think about themselves, that’s the term I try and use,” Weiss told JI.
The death of the women and girls in Tamra has brought to the surface a rhetorical debate that has been bubbling up for years. Ultimately, Mhajne argued, what matters is not the words used to describe them — but that they were human beings.
“It bugs me, honestly, sometimes when people fight over ‘Arab’ and ‘Palestinian,’” she said. “They’re someone’s wife and daughters.”
Israel strikes offline nuclear reactor in Arak
JOHN WESSELS/AFP via Getty Images
Smoke billows from Soroka Hospital in Beersheba in southern Israel following an Iranian missile attack, on June 19, 2025.
Iranian ballistic missiles struck Soroka Hospital in Beersheba in southern Israel and sites in the Tel Aviv area on Thursday morning, wounding 89, including three seriously.
A missile struck the hospital’s old surgical building, severely damaging it and causing what a Soroka spokesperson described as “extensive damage in various areas” of the hospital complex. The surgical building had been recently evacuated in light of the war, and patients and staff had been moved to areas with reinforced walls. Injuries from the strike were light, hospital representatives said.
Soroka is the largest hospital in the Negev, such that the strike left a large swath of Israel without a functioning major medical center. Other hospitals in the area, including Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon and Assuta Medical Center in Ashdod, prepared to take in patients from buildings that were damaged. Magen David Adom provided four intensive care buses, able to transport a total of 23 ICU patients and 50 lightly injured casualties.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar wrote that “The Iranian regime fired a ballistic missile at a hospital. The Iranian Regime deliberately targets civilians. The Iranian regime is committing war crimes. The Iranian regime has no red lines.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted on X that “Iran’s terrorist dictators shot missiles at Soroka Hospital in Beersheba and the civilian population in the center of the country. We will make the dictators in Tehran pay the full price.”
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement that the price would be to destabilize the Islamic Republic’s regime.
“The prime minister and I instructed the IDF to increase the force of the attacks against strategic targets in Iran and against governmental targets in Tehran to remove the threats to the State of Israel and undermine the Ayatollahs’ regime,” he stated.
Iranian news agency IRNA claimed that the target of the strike was an IDF intelligence outpost in Beersheba’s HiTech Park, which is over a mile away from the hospital. A television channel tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said that the missile was aimed at a “military hospital” in response to strikes on “civilian hospitals” in Gaza.
In the same 30-missile barrage, Iranian missiles struck a school in Holon. No children were present, because schools have been closed across Israel since Friday, but three elderly residents of adjacent buildings were wounded in serious condition, in addition to 62 others with minor to moderate injuries.
Another missile struck near the Ramat Gan Diamond Exchange, abutting Tel Aviv, causing minor injuries to 21 people and damage to 20 buildings in the neighborhood, which includes some of Israel’s tallest buildings.
Shrapnel struck Sheba Medical Center, Israel’s biggest hospital, also in Ramat Gan.
Overnight, the IDF intercepted several drones launched by Iran at Israel towards central and northern Israel.
Jordanian authorities reported that an Iranian drone fell in a shopping center north of Amman, damaging a car and a bus station. Syrian media reported that an Iranian drone was shot down over the country.
The IDF struck an inactive nuclear reactor near Arak in Iran early Thursday after sending warnings to civilians in the area. The IDF Spokesperson’s Office said the strike included “the structure of the reactor’s core seal, which is a key component in plutonium production.”
“The strike targeted the component intended for plutonium production, in order to prevent the reactor from being restored and used for nuclear weapons development,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Office said.
The IDF also gave details of strikes on the active nuclear site in Natanz, which “contained components and specialized equipment used to advance nuclear weapons development and projects designed to accelerate the regime’s nuclear program.”
In addition, 40 IAF fighter jets struck dozens of military targets in Tehran and other parts of the country, including factories manufacturing ballistic missile and air-defense components, as well as air-defense batteries, surface-to-surface missile storage sites, radar systems and other targets.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir sent a letter of encouragement to IDF soldiers and commanders on Thursday, saying that they are “writing a new chapter in history for the State of Israel and the entire Middle East.”
”Thanks to a decisive and impressive surprise opening strike, we have achieved tremendous goals: We eliminated the regime’s command echelons, delivered a deep blow to the capabilities used for the Iranian nuclear program, identified and struck missile launchers, and we are continuing and increasing the strength of our operations as necessary,” Zamir wrote.
Iranian news reported that the country’s military shot down a second Israeli Hermes Drome. The IDF confirmed that Iran downed the first UAV a day earlier.
Israel’s Home Front Command loosened restrictions on Israelis on Wednesdays, allowing people to return to workplaces with safe rooms and for up to 30 people to attend synagogue at a time. Schools and kindergartens remained closed.
A poll published by the Israel Democracy Institute found that 70% of Israelis support the campaign launched against Iran last week, while 10% support the campaign but think the timing is wrong and 13.5% oppose it. Among Israeli Jews, 82% support the strikes, whereas only 11% of Israeli Arabs do, according to the poll. Jewish Israelis across the political spectrum support the operation: 57% of those who self-identify as left-wing, 75% of centrists and 90% on the right.
Though in past polls, most Jewish Israelis did not think Israel should strike Iran without help from the U.S., this week 69% thought it was the right decision. In addition, 68% of Jewish Israelis thought that Netanyahu’s motivation behind launching the operation against Iran was security-related, while 68% of Arab Israelis thought it was political.
The poll was conducted this Sunday-Tuesday among 594 Israelis, with a 3.61% margin of error.
The U.S. Embassy branch office in Tel Aviv sustained minor damage, but no personnel were injured; Israel struck more nuclear sites and hit the Quds Force for the first time
JOHN WESSELS/AFP via Getty Images
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men inspect the damage at the site of an Iranian missile strike in Bnei Brak, east of Tel Aviv, on June 16, 2025.
Eight Israelis were killed by Iranian missile strikes in five locations that occurred Sunday night and early Monday morning.
In the central Israeli city of Petach Tikva, five people were killed in a residential building, and in adjacent Bnei Brak, an 80-year-old man was found dead at the site of a missile strike.
Two of the people killed in Petach Tikva were inside their safe room, which was directly hit by a missile. Israel’s Home Front Command explained that safe rooms are built to protect from shrapnel, shards and shock waves, but not a direct hit, which is a rare occurrence. The Home Front Command emphasized that everyone else in the building who was in a safe room was not even injured. Petach Tikva Mayor Rami Grinberg said that the residence was struck by a ballistic missile carrying hundreds of kilograms of explosives.
Tel Aviv sustained two direct missile strikes, one of which lightly damaged the U.S. Embassy Branch Office. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee clarified that “the minor damage to the property were from the shock waves … from the nearby blast … No injuries, thank God!”
Among the residents evacuated from buildings in Tel Aviv was a six-day-old baby, whose mother was found minutes later.
In Haifa, three people were found dead under the rubble of a burning building where a missile hit, and about 300 people were evacuated. The Israel Electric Corporation said that the strike damaged its power grid, and that “teams are working on the ground to neutralize safety hazards, in particular the risk of electrocution.” Maritime risk assessment company Ambrey reported a fire at the Haifa Port.
Israel continued to intercept Iranian and Houthi drones heading to Israel’s north on Monday morning.
About 50 Israeli fighter jets and aircraft struck some 100 military targets in Isfahan in central Iran overnight, the IDF Spokesperson’s Office said on Monday.
Among those targets were missile storage sites, surface-to-surface missile launchers and command centers. Israel has destroyed over 120 missile launchers since the beginning of the operation, about a third of Iran’s total launchers. In one strike overnight, the IAF identified an attempt to launch missiles towards Israel in real time and destroyed the cell and missiles.
The IDF confirmed on Monday that it killed the head of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps intelligence Mohammad Kazemi and his deputy, Hassan Mohaqiq, on Sunday.
The IDF also struck a command center of the Quds Force, part of the IRGC, for the first time, according to the IDF spokesperson. The Quds Force “planned acts of terror against Israel through the Iranian regime’s proxies in the Middle East.”
Israel also reportedly struck near nuclear sites in Fordow. The Wall Street Journal reported that parts of the underground nuclear enrichment site in Natanz collapsed as a result of Israeli strikes.
The IAF struck Mashhad, in eastern Iran, on Sunday afternoon, destroying an Iranian refueling aircraft. Mashhad, some 2300 km (1429 mi) away from Israel, is the farthest Israeli fighter jets have flown in Iran, and, according to some experts, the farthest in any Israeli operation, ever.
The Israeli Navy used a new air defense system called Thunder Shield and LRAD long-range interceptors on Sa’ar 6 ships to intercept eight Iranian drones overnight. The seaborne systems, which have intercepted some 25 projectiles since the beginning of Operation Rising Lion on Thursday night, are able to intercept UAVs, cruise missiles, sea-to-land missiles and more.
Also Monday, the death toll rose to eight from an Iranian strike on Bat Yam, a city south of Tel Aviv. The total number of Israeli fatalities since the beginning of the operation rose to 24 with almost 600 injured. Iran has shot around 350 missiles at Israel.
The Iranian Health Ministry claimed on Sunday that 224 people had been killed since Israel’s operation began Friday with another 1,277 people hospitalized.
Dana Stroul: ‘If you’re trying to minimize risk before significant military operations, this is what you do’
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
State Department Sikorsky HH-60L Black Hawk helicopters as they fly over Baghdad towards the U.S. embassy headquarters on December 13, 2024.
The U.S.’ moves to evacuate some State Department personnel and military families from the Middle East are seen by experts as a potential sign of a U.S. or Israeli strike against Iran’s nuclear program — or, at least, a signal to Iran that the U.S. is prepared for such action, ahead of a planned round of nuclear talks with Tehran.
The moves come as President Donald Trump’s self-imposed deadline for the talks is approaching this week, and Trump has expressed public frustration with the lack of progress being made. There have been conflicting reports about whether the talks expected this weekend are still slated to occur.
The State Department is drawing down personnel in Iraq, the department said, and the Pentagon is allowing for voluntary departures of military families from locations in the Middle East. The United Kingdom, separately, issued a maritime trade warning about a potential “escalation of military activity” in the Middle East.
Dana Stroul, the research director at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and former deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, noted that the Trump administration had conducted mandatory drawdowns of State Department personnel in Iraq at the end of the first Trump administration. The Pentagon evacuations, she noted, are thus far optional.
“This was part of the Iran policy approach [during Trump’s first administration] to increase pressure on the Iraqi government to get attack[s] against U.S. forces to stop,” Stroul told Jewish Insider. “So some of the people making these decisions inside the Trump administration have prior experience with reducing our presence in the region as part of a pressure play against Iran.”
But, she added, a “reduction in military families in the Gulf is the first step military planners would want to take if they were trying to reduce risk to U.S. personnel before large-scale, significant military operations.”
“If you’re trying to minimize risk before significant military operations, this is what you do. But right now they’re voluntary, not ordered,” Stroul continued.
Stroul argued that, in combination with the recent call between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump’s public comments that he’s been frustrated by Iran’s posture in negotiations, “Tehran should take notice.”
Daniel Shapiro, Stroul’s successor in the deputy assistant secretary role, said that the administration “is clearly into some major preparations for possible military action vs Iran (by US and/or Israel).”
“A useful signal ahead of round 6 of nuke talks,” Shapiro continued. “Need to be prepared to back it up.”
Jason Brodsky, the policy director for United Against Nuclear Iran, framed the move as a likely sign of action, noting that congressional testimony by Gen. Erik Kurilla, who leads U.S. Central Command, set for Thursday morning, had been postponed.
“Something is cooking,” Brodsky said.
John Hannah, a senior fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America and former national security advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney, told JI he believes that the moves are primarily an “unambiguous signal to the Iranians in advance of the next round of talks that U.S. patience is not unlimited and that time may be running out for them.”
He said the steps will take time to carry out but “they all have the indicia of the classic playbook that the United States would start rolling out in advance of anticipated hostilities. And of course it’s all being undertaken without much stealth and secrecy, but rather in a manner that ensures the Iranians and the rest of the world will know about it.”
He added that it “doesn’t necessarily have to be just one or the other,” and the moves should leave Iran guessing.
“The fact that the immediate purpose of these moves might primarily be a signaling mechanism to influence Iran’s posture in the negotiations doesn’t ipso facto mean it’s all just a bluff — although, if we’re honest, bluffing and then retreating is clearly often an integral part of President Trump’s negotiating MO and the ‘art of the deal,’” Hannah said. “That said, it could also be a deadly serious first step to put Iran on notice that it’s got one last chance to take the deal on offer or face the wrath of a U.S. military strike.”
“Trump is perfectly capable of going either way and the Iranians shouldn’t sleep too comfortably trying to figure out which one of those possibilities they’re facing,” he continued. “If they guess wrong, the outcome for them is potentially catastrophic.”
Mark Dubowitz, the CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, framed the moves more as a negotiating tactic.
“Ahead of round 6, the U.S. is signaling: failure at the table means real consequences,” Dubowitz said on X. “Starting to move non-essential personnel and families —reversible but not trivial. Message to Khamenei: you can end this peacefully, or face serious preparedness if you don’t.”
Kurilla said in response to a question from lawmakers on Tuesday about retaliation from a potential Israeli strike on Iran that the U.S. is continually assessing threats to military personnel in the Middle East and taking steps to address potential vulnerabilities.
Judith Weinstein-Haggai and Gad Haggai were murdered in Kibbutz Nir Oz in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks in Israel
Hostages and Missing Families Forum
Judy Weinstein-Haggai and Gad Haggai
The IDF found and returned the bodies of U.S.-Israeli citizens Judith Weinstein-Haggai and Gad Haggai, who were killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office announced on Thursday.
The Haggais were murdered in Kibbutz Nir Oz during Hamas’ onslaught targeting Gaza border communities. Their bodies were held by Hamas, the PMO said.
The couple was on a morning walk when they were shot by terrorists on motorcycles. Weinstein-Haggai called emergency medical services, but the ambulance that was traveling to help them was hit by a rocket, according to her daughter.
Gad was 72 and Judith, a New York native who also held Canadian citizenship, was 70; they are survived by four children and seven grandchildren.
The Weinstein-Haggai family released a statement via the Hostage and Missing Families Forum, saying that their return “is painful and heartbreaking, yet it also brings healing to our uncertainty. Their return reminds us all that it is the state’s duty to bring everyone home, so that we, the families, together with all the people of Israel, can begin the process of healing and recovery … A grave is not a privilege. A grave is a basic human right, without which personal and national recovery is impossible.”
The family called on leaders to “do everything necessary to reach an agreement that will return all 56 remaining hostages — the living for rehabilitation and the deceased for burial.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked the IDF soldiers and Shin Bet fighters who recovered the bodies and added, “We will not rest until we bring all of our hostages home, living and deceased.”
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz sent condolences to the Weinstein-Haggai family and said that “the State of Israel is morally and nationally committed to returning our brothers and sisters, living and not living, and we will continue acting with determination until the mission is complete.”
The bodies of two American hostages, Itay Chen and Omer Neutra, remain in Gaza, out of a total of 56 hostages, 20 of whom are thought to be alive.
Plus, another purge at the NSC
AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov
Investors attend the OurCrowd Global Summit in Jerusalem, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2018.
Good Tuesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at efforts by Israeli tech leaders to encourage a strategy of “economic diplomacy” in Israel’s approach to the Trump administration, and report on the memorial events for the Israeli Embassy staffers killed in Washington last week. We also cover the mass firings of officials on the National Security Council, and report on new legislation put forward by Sens. John Cornyn and Richard Blumenthal to help Jewish families recover Nazi-looted art. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Mike Herzog and Idan Amedi.
What We’re Watching
- Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is in Israel this week. More below.
- Also in Israel, but on separate visits, are Sens. David McCormick (R-PA) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV), as well as Reps. Mike Lawler (R-NY), Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) and Michael McCaul (R-TX).
- The Israel Democracy Institute is hosting its annual Eli Hurvitz Conference in Jerusalem today and tomorrow.
- This evening, the Foreign Ministers’ Conference on Combating Antisemitism, hosted by Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, kicks off in Jerusalem. The conference will run through tomorrow evening. Earlier today, the Foreign Ministry welcomed Jewish leaders from around the world ahead of the start of the conference.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH LAHAV HARKOV
Amid persistent reports of a rift with President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been seeking to reassure Israelis that everything is fine. But behind the scenes, there are continued signs that the relationship between the two leaders isn’t as close as it was during the president’s first term.
In a press conference last week, Netanyahu said Trump recently expressed his “total commitment” not only to Israel, but to Netanyahu, and that in a recent call with Vice President JD Vance, he told the prime minister, “Don’t pay attention to all the fake news spin about a rupture between us.” U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee called the reports “nonsense,” Netanyahu pointed out, quoting him as saying people should “listen to what the president said and not some source who’s not up to date and pretends that he knows.”
Netanyahu took such pains to say the U.S. and Israel are in constant communication and coordination — at least on Iran and humanitarian aid to Gaza — such that one may get the idea that the prime minister is overcompensating at a time when there’s one headline after another claiming there is friction between Jerusalem and Washington.
Words like “rupture” and “break” may be too strong to describe the current dynamic between Trump and Netanyahu, though there are signs of deep disagreements on some of the most important policy issues for Israel’s national security.
For example, on the issue of Iran’s nuclear program, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told Fox News from Jerusalem on Monday that “President Trump specifically sent me here to speak with the prime minister about how negotiations are going and how important it is that we stay united and let this process play out.” That conversation, she added, was “quite candid and direct.”
The comments imply that Trump is concerned that Netanyahu is not on the same page as he is and does not plan to wait and see how nuclear talks with Iran unfold before Israel potentially launches a strike. Noem’s comments came days after a phone call between Netanyahu and Trump, which the Prime Minister’s Office readout said included discussion of Iran, and that Israel’s Channel 12 reported was heated. Trump reportedly signaled his confidence in striking what he considers a good deal, and has signaled optimism in public comments over the holiday break that he will have “good news” on the Iranian front.
Trump also publicly pushed for an end to the war in Gaza. On Sunday, the president said “Israel, we’ve been talking to them, and we want to see if we can stop that whole situation” – aka the war in Gaza – “as quickly as possible.” Trump has made clear he wants to be seen as someone who ends wars, but the fighting in Gaza is grinding on without any indication that Hamas is ready to meet Netanyahu’s conditions to end the war: freeing all the hostages, laying down its arms, exile for Hamas leaders, demilitarizing Gaza and implementing Trump’s relocation plan. Netanyahu, however, said that the war will continue and the IDF will occupy more of Gaza to try to eliminate Hamas and pressure it to free the hostages.
Israel is also in a situation where it needs assistance from the U.S. and isn’t making any overtures of its own at this time — certainly, none that can compare to a $400 million presidential plane or a pledge to invest $600 million in the United States. With a president who often views the world through a transactional lens, that can make things more challenging for Israel, as Trump administration sources have noted to Jewish Insider in recent weeks.
In addition, Trump had several close confidantes who were very focused on Israel in his first term. Steve Witkoff and Jason Greenblatt may share similar titles as Trump’s current and former envoys to the region, but Witkoff lacked Greenblatt’s familiarity with Israel and its geopolitical position from the start, and is also responsible for leading nuclear diplomacy with Iran and pursuing a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine.
Huckabee has only been in Israel for a few weeks and he doesn’t have as close of a relationship with the president as David Friedman did when he was U.S. ambassador. And Jared Kushner’s role as a close family advisor has been filled in the second term by Donald Trump, Jr.
This term, there are also the dueling foreign policy factions within the Trump administration, the so-called “restrainers” and the more traditional Republicans. The Trump administration’s moves to centralize its foreign policy decision-making — diminishing the role of Congress and the National Security Council — has created a situation in which some Israeli officials are uncertain of where to turn to make their case.
The restrainers look like they have the upper hand — with Mike Waltz out as national security advisor and Trump railing against the “so-called nation-builders, neocons or liberal nonprofits” in his recent speech in Saudi Arabia — and some of them hold positions on Israel and the Iranian threat that have raised concerns in Jerusalem.
MEETING THE MOMENT
Israel can’t compete in checkbook diplomacy. These tech leaders have other ideas
During President Donald Trump’s trip to the Middle East earlier this month, he shuttled between Gulf capitals to announce major economic deals. Missing from the list of deals announced on Trump’s Middle East junket was any kind of similar agreement with Israel, which Trump did not visit on his first major trip abroad since returning to office. Economic ties between the U.S. and Israel are strong. But the country lacks the liquid financial firepower that is available to the oil-rich Gulf monarchies, which risks placing Israel at a disadvantage in the eyes of an American president who sees the world as a series of business deals. Some Israeli business leaders and innovators are now urging the country to seriously consider adopting a strategy of “economic diplomacy” to place the country more firmly on Trump’s radar, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Pitching Israel: “Founders are Israel’s best ambassadors. They travel more than diplomats, pitch to the world’s biggest investors and solve real-world problems that transcend borders,” said Jon Medved, the Israel-based CEO of OurCrowd, a global venture investing platform. “Do they have a responsibility to engage in economic diplomacy? I think they already do, whether they realize it or not.”
LAID TO REST
Hundreds attend funeral outside Jerusalem for Israeli diplomat murdered in D.C.
Yaron Lischinsky was laid to rest on Sunday in Beit Zayit, a moshav outside of Jerusalem, after he was killed alongside his partner, Sarah Lynn Milgrim, by a shooter who shouted “Free Palestine” last Wednesday at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington. Hundreds attended the funeral, which was closed to the media at the family’s request, according to sources present. Among those who attended were Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel and Lischinsky’s direct superior at the embassy, Minister-Counselor for Middle East Affairs Noa Ginosar, who accompanied his body to Israel. Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog spoke at the funeral and told Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov that Lischinsky, a researcher in the embassy’s Middle East Affairs department, was someone “any ambassador would love to have serving in his embassy.”
Ambassador’s memories: “He was young, energetic and very talented,” Herzog, who finished his tenure as ambassador in January, said. “He had intellectual curiosity and a lot of knowledge. He was very devoted to his diplomatic work. He was creative and he was really a benefit to the embassy.” Lischinsky considered taking the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s cadets course, Herzog recalled, which he, along with other senior embassy staff encouraged him to do, believing he had the aptitude to be a successful diplomat. “We could rely on him, especially during the war,” the former ambassador added.
Community gathering: On Thursday night, dozens of people stopped by Lehrhaus, a Jewish tavern and house of learning near Boston, to gather with community in the aftermath of the attack. Among the guests at the popular Somerville, Mass., restaurant was Gov. Maura Healey, a first-time visitor, who went to express her “heartbreak and outrage over the murders of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky,” Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
SHOWING SOLIDARITY
‘We will not let hatred have the final word,’ Noem says at Jerusalem ceremony honoring slain diplomats
The murder of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim is a reminder “of the dreams that terrorism seeks to destroy every single day,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on Monday, standing alongside Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar at a memorial event held in Jerusalem for the young Israeli Embassy staffers who were killed last week in a terror attack outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, Jewish Insider’s Tamara Zieve reports.
What she said: “Today, we stand together with profound grief, and our hearts are heavy with the loss of these two radiant souls that we will no longer have with us,” Noem said. “In this moment of sorrow, we also ask that you would gather with us to honor their light and the unbreakable spirit of the Israeli and the American people,” Noem continued. Lischinsky, Noem said, “was known for his infectious smile and his unwavering commitment to peace and the vision of the Abraham Accords.” Noem said that “Friends and family shared of Sarah that she glowed with warmth and compassion, dedicating her life to fostering peace and understanding,” mentioning Milgrim’s work for the Israeli peace-building nonprofit Tech2Peace and her career in public diplomacy.
Candidate’s call: Following the murder of the two Israeli Embassy employees, Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), a New Jersey gubernatorial candidate, wrote to federal leaders to call for further action to protect the Jewish community and raised concerns about growing trends of antisemitic violence across the country, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
SENIOR SHAKE-UP
Top Middle East, Israel and Iran officials pushed out of NSC
The top National Security Council officials overseeing the Middle East and Israel and Iran portfolios — seen as pro-Israel voices in the administration — were among the dozens of officials dismissed in a widespread purge at the NSC on Friday, two sources familiar with the situation told Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod and Emily Jacobs.
Who’s out: Eric Trager, who was the senior director for the Middle East and North Africa — the lead official on the Middle East — and Merav Ceren, the director for Israel and Iran, were both Trump administration political appointees but were pushed out in what one official called a purge of “the Deep State” inside the NSC. Their firings come as voices skeptical of the U.S.’ role in the Middle East increasingly establish a foothold in the administration, and as President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also the acting national security advisor, seek to restructure and slim down the key foreign policy-making body.
HAMAS HANDOUT
Report: U.K. one of the top three sources of funding for Hamas
One of Hamas’ top three sources of funding is the U.K., where it is a banned terrorist organization, an investigation from Israel’s Channel 12 found. That funding includes 25% of Hamas’ donors from non-state actors, as well as tens of millions of dollars from the government of the U.K. to a UNICEF program whose beneficiaries are determined by Hamas, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Follow the money: The U.K., France and Canada threatened Israel last week with “concrete actions” if it does not lift restrictions on humanitarian aid and work with United Nations agencies to distribute it. The U.K., Canada and the European Union — of which France is a member — as well as Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Mauritius and Croatia, sponsored a project through UNICEF, the U.N. Children’s Emergency Fund, for which a Hamas-run ministry provides a list of people to receive funding. The program provides cash payments of $200-$300 per month to 546,000 needy people in Gaza. UNICEF said that it works with a “beneficiary list from the MoSD,” meaning the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Social Development, to determine who receives the cash. The program uses a digital platform funded by USAID to distribute the cash. UNICEF published an update on the program as recently as November 2024. U.K. officials have denied the allegations.
SCOOP
Sens. Cornyn, Blumenthal introduce bill to help Jewish families recover Nazi-looted art
Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) introduced bipartisan legislation last week aimed at eliminating loopholes used by museums and other stakeholders to continue possessing Nazi-looted artwork that Jewish families have been trying to recover, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
Details: Introduced on Thursday, the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery (HEAR) Act would expand on Cornyn’s 2016 legislation of the same name, which was passed at the time by unanimous consent, by ending the Dec. 31, 2026, sunset date on the original bill and strengthen the existing procedural protections to ensure that victims’ claims are not dismissed due to non-merit-based factors such as time constraints. “The artwork wrongfully ripped from Jewish hands during the Holocaust bears witness to a chapter in history when evil persisted and the worst of humanity was on full display,” Cornyn said in a statement.
Worthy Reads
Battering Rahm: The Free Press’ Peter Savodnik interviews former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel as the Democrat mulls a return to politics — and a 2028 presidential bid. “I asked him whether someone with his biography could win the Democratic nomination. It wasn’t just that he was part of the Democratic establishment. It was that he was a Jew with the middle name ‘Israel,’ and he was unequivocally supportive of the Jewish state’s right to exist. … He did not think of himself as enigmatic. ‘I’ve shown I’ve got the strength to say my views, and one of the key things about being a president is you got cojones, and you got strength,’ he told me. He added: ‘I’m not naive to antisemitism. I’m not naive to certain elements within the left.’ His point — about winning his House seat and being elected mayor — was that the people, the voters, mattered the most, and he believed that, in the end, they would be on his side. ‘There’s going to be people who try to bring up stereotypes or other types of things, and I’ve never hid my Judaism — not gonna — but I have confidence in the public.’” [FreePress]
The Future Sarah Saw: In The New York Times, Yasmina Asrarguis, a friend of Israeli Embassy staffer Sarah Lynn Milgrim, reflects on their friendship and the politicization of Milgrim’s death in the aftermath of the Capital Jewish Museum attack. “Sarah’s legacy must not be co-opted, not by the person who shot her, and not by those who now wish to brand her with their politics or make her a poster child for a cause. Sarah’s name should not become a pawn, nor a rallying cry, for those who seek to weaponize her death for political gain on either side of this conflict. … In his bullets, the killer could not have seen all that Sarah was, all that she believed in. Her Jewish identity was flattened into a target. In her murder he picked exactly the sort of person who might have altered the future. But just as the extremist misunderstood Sarah, so too do many of those who profess to weep for her loss. Those who mourn Sarah should reflect on her ideals, learn from her life’s work and aim as she did on creating the fragile groundwork for Middle East peace. It was a future she helped prepare for, one conversation, one relationship at a time.” [NYTimes]
When Violence Is Rationalized: In The Atlantic, the Manhattan Institute’s Reihan Salam and Jesse Arm consider the underlying root of American political violence following the Capital Jewish Museum attack. “What we’re witnessing is an issue not with Israel, but with America. When violence aimed at Jews — or those seen as aligned with them — is dismissed, excused, or rationalized, it undermines the civic norms that hold our society together. Elite institutions that once upheld liberal pluralism now indulge a form of identity politics that prizes grievance over justice. Some of the ugliest reactions to the D.C. shooting treated the murders as incidental — or even deserved. That’s not just moral failure. It represents a worldview that treats violence as politics by other means. Such rationalizations have been used to justify the ideological murder of a health-care executive, coordinated arson attacks on Tesla dealerships by anti-capitalist extremists, and, now, executions outside a Jewish museum in the nation’s capital.” [TheAtlantic]
Word on the Street
Kingsley Wilson, a deputy press secretary at the Department of Defense who has come under fire from Democratic and Republican lawmakers and Jewish communal organizations for promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories, has been promoted to serve as the department’s press secretary, the Pentagon announced on Friday, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports…
President Donald Trump said he was “considering” taking $3 billion in grant funding to Harvard and redistributing the funds to trade schools across the country…
Trump also said on Sunday that he expected to have “good news” on the ongoing Iran nuclear talks later this week, ahead of a fifth round of talks slated for Friday in Rome…
Sens. Tim Scott (R-SC), Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and three bipartisan co-sponsors reintroduced legislation to repeal the sunset on energy sanctions on Iran first passed in 1996…
Sens. Chris Coons (D-DE) and David McCormick (R-PA) introduced legislation requiring a whole-of-government strategy to counter cooperation between Iran, Russia, China and North Korea…
A group of more than 50 House Republicans led by Rep. Addison McDowell (R-NC) introduced a resolution commemorating Israeli Embassy staffers Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, who were killed in an attack outside the Capital Jewish Museum last week…
The Washington Post’s Mark Lasswell reflects on “an extreme week in antisemitism,” including the murders of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington, the resignation of the BBC’s Gary Lineker following his posting of an antisemitic social media image and a widely reported but false statement by a U.N. official regarding infant deaths in Gaza…
Moldova extradited to the U.S. a Georgian national and Eastern European neo-Nazi group leader who had instructed an undercover federal agent to dress as Santa Claus and distribute poison-laced candy to Jewish children…
The New York Times reports on an extensive Russian spy operation with roots in Brazil; the spies were identified and in some cases apprehended using intelligence gathered from, among other countries, the U.S. and Israel…
Dozens of prominent Jewish philanthropists from the United States, U.K., Australia and Israel sent a letter to Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar decrying a proposed bill that would impose an 80% tax on foreign governments’ donations to Israeli nonprofits, ahead of a Knesset committee hearing on the legislation later this week, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross reports…
The Washington Post looks at the efforts by the mother of a U.S. Army soldier who was injured last year while working on the U.S.’ ill-fated humanitarian pier in Gaza and later died from his injuries to find answers to questions surrounding his death…
Israeli Opposition Leader Yair Lapid accused the Israeli government of setting up two shell companies, backed by taxpayer money, to fund the humanitarian aid effort in Gaza; the Prime Minister’s Office denied the claim…
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation began operations on Monday, a day after its CEO, Jake Wood, resigned due to what he said was an inability to operate according to the “humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence”; the foundation’s chief operation officer also resigned…
Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff slammed Hamas’ “disappointing and completely unacceptable” response to a U.S.-proposed ceasefire and hostage-release agreement that would secure the release of 10 of the remaining 21 hostages believed to be alive…
Former Israeli hostage Liri Albag was briefly detained at New York’s JFK International Airport over an outdated system note that still listed Albag as still being in captivity in Gaza…
Far-right Israelis chanted anti-Arab slurs as tens of thousands marched through the Old City of Jerusalem to celebrate Jerusalem Day…
U.K. authorities said that an incident in which dozens of people in Liverpool were injured after a driver ploughed through a crowd of Liverpool FC supporters was not tied to terrorism…
The Financial Times reviews Uwe Wittstock’s Marseille 1940: The Flight of Literature, about the Emergency Rescue Committee’s formation and efforts to save German Jews, many of whom were writers and intellectuals, at the start of WWII…
Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi’s “Un Simple Accident” won the Palme d’Or prize at the Cannes Film Festival; the film was shot clandestinely inside Iran by Panahi, who was until recently barred from leaving the country…
Filmmaker Michael Roemer, who with his sister was rescued by the Kindertransport during WWII and whose work included “Nothing But a Man” and “The Plot Against Harry,” died at 97…
German-born documentarian Marcel Ophuls, whose film “The Sorrow and the Pity” debunked the myth of a widespread French resistance to the Nazis during WWII, died at 97…
Artist and children’s book author Judith Hope Blau, who made jewelry and other works out of bagels, died at 87…
Writer Leslie Epstein, whose “King of the Jews” received widespread acclaim, died at 87…
Pic of the Day
“Fauda” actor Idan Amedi, who was seriously injured during reserve duty in Gaza last year, spoke on Saturday evening in conversation with Rabbi Marc Schneier at the Hampton Synagogue in Westhampton Beach, N.Y.
Birthdays
Emmy Award-winning actor, comedian and director, Richard Schiff turns 70…
MONDAY: Public speaker, teacher and author, Richard Lederer turns 87… Journalist and educator, the mother of the late Susan (former CEO of YouTube), Janet (anthropologist and UCSF professor) and Anne (co-founder of 23andMe), Esther Hochman Wojcicki turns 84… Member of the U.S. House of Representatives (D-IL) since 1999, Janice Danoff “Jan” Schakowsky turns 81… Former SVP of News at NPR, after a lengthy career at the New York Daily News, The New York Times and the Associated Press, Michael Oreskes turns 71… Co-founder and CEO of Mobileye which he sold to Intel in 2017, he is also a professor at Hebrew University, Amnon Shashua turns 65… NYC real estate developer, board member of The Charles H. Revson Foundation and a former commissioner on the NYC Planning Commission, Cheryl Cohen Effron… Former brigadier general in the IDF, she has been a member of the Knesset for the Likud since 2009, currently serving as minister of transportation, Miriam “Miri” Regev turns 60… Counsel in the government affairs practice of Paul Hastings, Dina Ellis Rochkind… Photographer, her work has appeared in galleries and been published in books, Naomi Harris turns 52… South Florida entrepreneur, Sholom Zeines… Program officer for media and communications at Maimonides Fund, Rebecca Friedman… Former minor league baseball player, he has become one of the leading agents for NBA players, with five contracts of over $100 million each, Jason Glushon turns 40… Executive editor of Ark Media, she is the author of a book last year on the 1929 origins of the current Israeli-Arab conflict, Yardena Schwartz… CEO and director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, Mark Goldfeder… Co-founder of Stories Abroad Tours, Arielle Gingold… Assistant professor of law at Wayne State University Law School, Benjamin L. Cavataro… Toronto-born Israeli actress and singer, best known as the protagonist of the Israeli television series “Split,” Melissa Amit Farkash turns 36… Strategic partnerships and engagement manager at U.S. Pharmacopeia, Morgan A. Jacobs… Catcher in the Philadelphia Phillies organization, he played for Team Israel in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Garrett Patrick Stubbs turns 32… Eytan Merkin…
TUESDAY: Retired professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, he is the author of 80 books, Philip Kotler turns 94… Founder of Val d’Or Apparel and Cannon County Knitting Mills, Martin “Marty” Granoff turns 89… CEO of British real estate firm Heron International, he was knighted in 2024, Sir Gerald Ronson turns 86… Senior U.S. district judge for the Central District of California, Christina A. Snyder turns 78… Retired in 2014 as school rabbi and director of Jewish studies at The Rashi School, a K-8 Reform Jewish school in Dedham, Mass., Ellen Weinstein Pildis… Partner in the D.C. office of ArentFox Schiff, he wrote a book about the struggle for Jewish civil rights during the French Revolution, Gerard Leval turns 75… Analytical psychotherapist, author, and Jewish Renewal rabbi, Tirzah Firestone turns 71… Former MLB pitcher (1978-1982) who played for the White Sox and Pirates, he is now a financial advisor at RBC Wealth Management, Ross Baumgarten turns 70… Owner of a 900-acre plant nursery in Kansas, he is a former MLB pitcher (1979-1990) and was an MLB All Star in 1979 and 1982, Mark Clear turns 69… Marriage counselor, therapist and author, Sherry Amatenstein… U.S. ambassador to Argentina during the Biden administration, he served for six years as chairman of the National Jewish Democratic Council, Marc R. Stanley turns 68… Beverly Hills-based immigration attorney, founder and chairman of the Los Angeles Sephardic Jewish Film Festival, Neil J. Sheff… General manager of Phibro Israel and co-founder of LaKita, a non-profit crowd-funding platform for Israeli public schools, Jonathan Bendheim… Workplace and labor reporter at The New York Times, Noam Scheiber… Stage, film and television actor and producer, Ben Feldman turns 45… Director of development at the Livingston, N.J.-based Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy, Grant Silverstein… “Science of Success” columnist for The Wall Street Journal, Benjamin Zachary Cohen… Director of legislative affairs and policy at General Atomics, Katherina (Katya) Dimenstein… Assistant district attorney for Bronx County, Joshua A. Fitterman… Reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer since 2012, Andrew Seidman… Emily Cohen…
Lishay Lavi Miran spent her first trip to the United States advocating for the release of her husband, Omri Miran, who has been held in Gaza for nearly 600 days
Every morning, Lishay Lavi Miran’s young daughters ask her the same two questions: Why is daddy still in Gaza and when is daddy coming home?
In a desperate attempt to provide answers, Miran spent the past week in New York City — her first time in the U.S. — advocating for the release of her husband, Omri Miran, who was kidnapped from their home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz during the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks and has remained in Hamas captivity for nearly 600 days.
The family received the first sign of life from Omri in April when Hamas terrorists published a video in which he is seen walking through a tunnel in Gaza. The video was released right around his 48th birthday. “It was difficult to see him in those conditions,” Miran told Jewish Insider during her visit to the states, which concluded on Tuesday. The “exhausted” man in the video was a contrast to the guy known for having “the biggest smile in the world and spark in his eyes,” as Miran describes her husband.
Miran, who always dreamed of her first trip to America — but never could have imagined the dire circumstances under which it would come — participated in several meetings in New York to advocate for the release of the 58 hostages that remain held in Gaza. Together with other families of hostages and released survivors visiting the States, including Keith and Aviva Siegel, Miran met with government officials and Jewish leaders. Keith Siegel, who was released from Gaza in February in a U.S.-brokered deal, was at one point held in a Hamas tunnel together with Omri.
Miran’s message to the American Jewish community is that its advocacy efforts have provided a “warming sense of hope.”
“We know a lot of people are with us and we need you to continue telling our stories until the last one comes home,” she said. “Time is running out, at any second something can happen” to the remaining hostages in Gaza, where Israel launched an expanded ground operation this week. “We need to seal a deal,” Miran said.
“We came so that everyone will remember there are still 58 hostages over there,” Miran, 40, told JI. About a third of those hostages are believed to be alive. More than a year and a half since Oct. 7, she understands “why people have stopped paying attention, it’s really a long time.”
But back in Israel, two little girls haven’t turned their attention away for a second. Roni was 2 when her father was kidnapped and Alma was only 6 months old at the time. “Alma just knows him from photos and stories that Roni and I tell her. Every time she sees a photo she says, ‘I want to see daddy,’” said Miran, who remains displaced from the kibbutz.
“Roni remembers everything,” she continued, including witnessing Hamas kidnap her father when hundreds of terrorists infiltrated Nahal Oz.
Miran describes herself as “the careerist in the family.” But after the Oct. 7 attacks, she left her job as a director of pre-academic programs at Sapir College and is a full-time advocate for the hostages.
“For Omri, the most important thing is being a father. He stays at home with our daughters, takes them to school, that’s what he likes to do most,” she reflected.
“Omri is a survivor,” Miran said. “I know he is going to hear again the word ‘daddy.’”
The former hostage wrote to the board on social media: ‘This is not a question of politics. This is a question of humanity. And today, you have failed it’
Catherine Ivill - AMA/Getty Images
A sticker with an image of Emily Damari who is being held in Gaza during the Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur FC and Liverpool FC at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on December 22, 2024 in London, England.
A former British-Israeli hostage who was held by Hamas in Gaza for 15 months spoke out against the Pulitzer Prize Board on Thursday for bestowing an award to a Palestinian poet who has disparaged victims of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and appeared to legitimize the abduction of hostages, among other comments that have stirred controversy.
Emily Damari, who in January was released from Hamas captivity after she was shot and taken from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza in southern Israel on Oct. 7, expressed outrage at the Pulitzer committee board over its decision to honor Mosab Abu Toha, a Gazan-born writer whose New Yorker essays on the war-torn enclave won the award for commentary on Monday.
In an anguished statement posted to social media, Damari, 28, voiced “shock and pain” that Abu Toha had won the prestigious award, citing his past remarks, uncovered earlier this week by the pro-Israel media watchdog HonestReporting, in which he denigrated Israeli captives abducted by Hamas and questioned their status as hostages, while also casting doubt on Israeli findings that a baby and a toddler kidnapped by the terror group were “deliberately” murdered in Gaza with “bare hands.”
“If you haven’t seen any evidence, why did you publish this,” Abu Toha said in a social media post in February, criticizing a BBC report on the murder of Kfir and Ariel Bibas, the young siblings who were abducted by Hamas. “Well, that’s what you are, filthy people.”
Elsewhere, Abu Toha, who is now a visiting scholar at Syracuse University, took aim directly at Damari, arguing that she could not be described as a hostage because, like most Israelis, she previously served as a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces.
“How on earth is this girl called a hostage?” he said in a social media post in January, when Damari was among the first of three Israeli hostages to be freed amid a ceasefire deal that has since collapsed. “This soldier who was close to the border with a city that she and her country have been occupying is called a ‘hostage?’”
He likewise denounced another former Israeli hostage, Agam Berger, an IDF surveillance soldier freed in January. “These are the ones the world wants to share sympathy for, killers who join the army and have family in the army!” Abu Toha said in a social media post in February. “These are the ones whom CNN, BBC and the likes humanize in articles and TV programs and news bulletins.”
In her social media statement addressing the Pulitzer board on Thursday, Damari called Abu Toha “the modern-day equivalent of a Holocaust denier” and said that the committee had “joined him in the shadows of denial” by choosing to award his writing with one of the country’s top journalism prizes.
“This is a man who, in January, questioned the very fact of my captivity,” she wrote. “He posted about me on Facebook and asked, ‘How on earth is this girl called a hostage?’ He has denied the murder of the Bibas family. He has questioned whether Agam Berger was truly a hostage. These are not word games — they are outright denials of documented atrocities.”
Damari, who lost two fingers after she was shot in the left hand during the Hamas-led assault on Oct. 7, also recounted the harrowing circumstances of her nearly 500 days in captivity, writing that she had “lived in terror” as she was “starved, abused, and treated like I was less than human.”
“You claim to honor journalism that upholds truth, democracy, and human dignity,” Damari said in her statement to the Pulitzer board. “And yet you have chosen to elevate a voice that denies truth, erases victims, and desecrates the memory of the murdered. Do you not see what this means?”
“This is not a question of politics. This is a question of humanity. And today, you have failed it,” she concluded.
The Pulitzer board did not respond to a request for comment from Jewish Insider on Thursday, nor did Abu Toha.
‘I believe the Forward Party is, in many ways, a natural response to many of the concerns of the Jewish community,’ Yang explained to Jewish Insider
Rob Kim/Getty Images
Andrew Yang, New York City mayoral candidate takes a selfie with a guest as he visits Morningside Park during the first annual Juneteenth Festival in Harlem, on June 19, 2021 in New York City.
Andrew Yang, the entrepreneur and former presidential longshot, said his experience navigating the fraught politics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict last spring as a Democratic candidate for New York City mayor — when escalating violence between Israel and Hamas in Gaza coincided with an uptick in antisemitic incidents — informed his decision to launch a third party that he hopes will act as a moderating force in American politics.
“We’re seeing antisemitism arise in different ways now, and that’s something that I find very worrisome,” Yang said in an interview with Jewish Insider. “I believe that’s another reason why we should have a more robust, multi-polar system.”
Yang, who recently registered as an independent after decades as a Democrat, recently revealed that he was starting the Forward Party in an effort to reshape what he views as an entrenched political system in thrall to various forms of extremism and groupthink. The announcement appears in the final chapter of his eponymously titled new book, Forward: Notes on the Future of Our Democracy, published by Crown.
“I believe the Forward Party is, in many ways, a natural response to many of the concerns of the Jewish community,” Yang said.
The 46-year-old businessman turned politician, who is ultimately aiming to attract 20 million members to his new party, lays out six “key principles” in his book, touching on such procedural ambitions as “ranked-choice voting and open primaries” as well as broad policy initiatives like “human-centered capitalism” and “universal basic income.”
While guaranteed monthly payments of $1,000 for American citizens 18 and older was the central proposal of his 2020 presidential campaign — helping him garner a sizable fan base of enthusiastic young followers — Yang emphasized that he is now largely focused on ballot initiatives that will enable ranked-choice voting and open primaries in states around the country ahead of the 2022 midterms.
“There’s not a whole lot of time,” he told JI.
Yang placed fourth in the June New York City mayoral primary, which used a ranked-choice voting system. But instituting such changes more expansively, he argued, would help create the conditions for new coalitions — such as the one he forged with the Jewish community during his mayoral campaign — capable of loosening the current two-party framework that he views as “very vulnerable to authoritarianism.”
New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang places his hands on the shoulders of Assembly Member Simcha Eichenstein during a press conference on June 21, 2021 in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of the Brooklyn borough in New York City. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
“I think if you have certain ideas, and you only have two parties, that those ideas can become more pernicious and widespread and powerful than if you have more parties that represent different points of view,” Yang told JI. “The last thing that you’d want is certain points of view that are in a subset of the Democratic Party to become more prevalent.”
Yang was alluding, at least in part, to what he characterized as a “strong narrative” among progressive Democrats “that tries to separate everyone into either oppressor or oppressed” — a sorting mechanism that, he suggested, takes a particularly malevolent turn when coupled with growing anti-Israel sentiment on the far left.
“In this narrative, the people of Israel are the oppressors, and what’s interesting is that when you have conversations with other people in other contexts, you could make the case that Jews are actually historically the most oppressed people in the history of the world,” Yang said. “There’s this narrative that’s taking place that’s very binary that will give rise to antisemitism, and that oppressor versus oppressed narrative leaves no room for nuance.”
Yang indicated that he had “encountered people who very much held” that view when his mayoral campaign overlapped with the conflict between Israel and Hamas. As violence intensified last May, Yang weighed in with a supportive statement for the Jewish state. “I’m standing with the people of Israel who are coming under bombardment attacks,” he wrote on Twitter, “and condemn the Hamas terrorists.”
Though his pro-Israel statement echoed those of a number of leading Democratic candidates in the crowded field, Yang found himself subject to the most intense scrutiny from critics who protested that he had excluded Palestinians impacted by the conflict. Over the following days, Yang was uninvited from a Ramadan event and heckled by pro-Palestinian activists at a campaign stop in Queens.
“Utterly shameful,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) declared of Yang’s comments.
Seeking to quell the backlash, Yang released a lengthy note of contrition in which he clarified his initial remarks. “I mourn for every Palestinian life taken before its time as I do for every Israeli,” he said at the time. His statement, however, appeared to do little to appease his detractors, many of whom excoriated the follow-up on social media.
“There were very, very strong emotions and exchanges, certainly around Israel, and some of the sentiments I encountered I did disagree with very significantly,” Yang recalled. He declined to elaborate, simply remarking that he “had exchanges with people who have extreme points of view that I don’t think should be mainstream.”
“During my mayoral campaign, I became aware of just how much a rising danger antisemitism is, and it’s genuinely frightening to me,” he told JI. “I saw that antisemitism is getting stronger on a level that, I imagine, Jewish people are very aware of and sensitive to. I’m not sure other people would realize.”
“I was brought up to believe that the U.S. and Israel are the best of friends, and I was also brought up to believe that your friend can do something that you disagree with and they’re still your friend,” Yang said. “Those are some of the principles that I grew up with that I’ve taken for granted my entire adult life.”
But if Yang was disoriented by the intense pushback elicited by his social media message, he was more alarmed by the string of antisemitic attacks that had many Jews in New York on high alert during the May conflict..
“During my mayoral campaign, I became aware of just how much a rising danger antisemitism is, and it’s genuinely frightening to me,” he told JI. “I saw that antisemitism is getting stronger on a level that, I imagine, Jewish people are very aware of and sensitive to. I’m not sure other people would realize.”
Despite his newcomer’s status in the mayoral primary field, Yang, who lives in Manhattan, earned widespread support from the local Orthodox Jewish community thanks in part to his laissez-faire approach to the yeshiva education system as well as his unequivocal rejection of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel. Yang described the movement as “rooted in antisemitic thought” in an opinion piece at the beginning of his mayoral campaign.
Yang said his newfound relationships with Jewish leaders in Brooklyn and Queens have imbued the Forward Party with a “different urgency,” highlighting “some of the excesses” on “the Democratic side,” most recently including a House vote last month in which an outspoken cohort of progressive Democrats opposed the approval of $1 billion in supplemental funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system. “I thought that vote was deeply troubling,” he said.
“I learned a lot from the Jewish community,” Yang told JI. “There’s an integrity to the community I just really adored and appreciated and I’m very grateful for. It’s something that’s missing in far too many parts of this country.”
As he embarks on his latest political project, Yang said he has spoken with Jewish supporters who are disenchanted by the Democratic Party. “They’ve expressed a number of concerns that have made them excited about the Forward Party,” he told JI. “Number one, they see that there is a strain within the Democratic Party that will make support for Israel more and more contentious moving forward — a strain that does, unfortunately, include antisemitism.”
“Jews and Asians are kind of in a similar boat in terms of, like, we need a functioning system of integrity to stand the test of time or else our communities are among those that will be targeted,” he said. “Truly.”
The other element, he said, “is that they see that right now the system is not designed for success, and it’s subject to very negative and authoritarian impulses.”
“I just had a call today with someone who’s the child of Holocaust survivors, and he said to me that the Forward Party is the most important thing going right now because it has a chance to preserve a stable system and that most people don’t see it,” Yang told JI. “Most people are trapped in the bipartisan back and forth. It’s like, OK, this party wins, that party wins. But then my Jewish friend who I just spoke to said, ‘No, the issue is really whether democracy itself will maintain integrity and survive.’ And that’s what the Forward Party’s laser-focused on.”
Yang, who is Taiwanese-American, believes that Jews and Asians in particular represent a natural coalition for the Forward Party amid a rise in hate crimes against both groups. “A lot of this stuff I discovered during the mayoral [campaign],” he said. “I didn’t realize how tied together the Jewish community is with my community and the survival of the system.”
“Jews and Asians are kind of in a similar boat in terms of, like, we need a functioning system of integrity to stand the test of time or else our communities are among those that will be targeted,” he said. “Truly.”
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JUNE 22: Mayoral candidate Andrew Yang greets supporters at a Manhattan hotel as he concedes in his campaign for mayor on June 22, 2021 in New York City. Early polls showed Yang, who has never held a political office before, far behind other candidates in the Democratic primary. Ranked choice voting is being used for the first time, a system that lets voters prioritize more than one candidate on their ballot. The winner of the Democratic primary will face off against the Republican candidate in the fall (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Yang recalled attending an anti-Asian hate rally when he was running for mayor that helped clarify why he now believes forming a third party is necessary. “People started chanting ‘defund the police,’” he told JI. “I said to a friend at the time, ‘If someone thinks that defunding the police would be a good thing for Asians, they need to have their head examined.’”
“The Forward Party is going to build a very significant coalition of Americans who are typically more moderate, more practical, less ideological and want the system to work,” Yang claimed. “I think that will have high overlap with the Jewish communities and the Asian communities who, I think, tend to be a little bit more moderate and practical.”
More broadly, Yang speculated that his party would also appeal to business people and those who work in the tech industry. “Business people right now look at our current political system and are like, ‘Where am I supposed to fall in this?’ — in part because the two parties are hewing toward various extremes,” he said. “I have a lot of friends in the tech community, and many of them are very excited about trying to upgrade the system itself.”
“It’s going to be a really interesting, diverse coalition, and I’m super excited about it.”
Asked if he would run for office again as a member of his own party after two failed Democratic campaigns, Yang said he is currently dedicated to liberalizing electoral systems at the state level.
But he didn’t explicitly rule out the possibility either.
“Right now, I’m focused on 2022,” he said. “We have to try and make the system stronger. I’ll do whatever I think I’m called to do, but I’m genuinely laser-focused on trying to use the time we have, because we don’t have limitless time.”
Speaking to ‘The New Yorker,’ the author suggests only ‘a catastrophe’ could break Israeli-Palestinian gridlock
Sipa via AP Images
Israeli author, historian and professor Yuval Noah Harari pictured during a reading in Antwerp, Monday 27 January 2020.
In a lengthy profile by New Yorker contributor Ian Parker, historian and Israeli public intellectual Yuval Noah Harari speaks out on his theories, his personal life and his predictions for how the world will come to an end. Harari, the author of Sapiens, an international bestseller covering the entirety of world history, serves as a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Core theory: Harari argues that humanity faces existential threats from nuclear war, ecological collapse and technological disruption. In Sapiens he makes the case that, due to technological and scientific advances, “we may be fast approaching a new singularity, when all the concepts that give meaning to our world — me, you, men, women, love and hate — will become irrelevant” and humans may disappear entirely. But Harari stops short of offering concrete proposals to address this, aside from international cooperation and “focus.”
Famous fans: President Barack Obama has recommended Harari’s Sapiens, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has purportedly also read the book. Harari’s husband and manager Itzik Yahav told Parker that Sapiens convinced the prime minister to cut back on his consumption of meat.
Connections with the rich and powerful: Harari once attended a dinner party at billionaire Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s home. The professor and author said he thinks many of the social issues that companies like Facebook cause are bugs, which the companies are trying to correct. Last year, he had a run-in with billionaire investor David Rubenstein at a conference in Ukraine, where Rubenstein gave Harari his business card.
Pessimistic about Mideast peace: Harari sees no motivation among Israelis to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, saying that — especially with new surveillance technology — the current situation could persist for centuries. He said only “a war, a catastrophe… a couple of thousand people die, something” was likely to break the deadlock.
State Department photo by Michael Gross
Ron Dermer in May 2019 (Michael Gross/State Department)
Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer suggested on Wednesday that Israeli political and defense leaders are now united in opposing the terms of the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal.
In a conversation with Ambassador Dennis Ross at the United Against Nuclear Iran annual summit in New York, Dermer stressed that while some former high-level government and security officials expressed support for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), “today you cannot find security and intelligence officials in Israel — I’m not aware of any of them — that would go back to the exact same deal.”
“The United States has got enormous leverage, and I think the idea of going back into the same deal with Iran, it gives them a clear path to nuclear weapons,” he explained.
Asked if Israel’s position on Iran would change if a national unity government is formed following last week’s redo election, Dermer said that “any new government” would continue to support Israel’s longstanding opposition to the JCPOA and be in favor of economic pressure on Iran “to ensure that: A, that Iran never gets nuclear weapons, and B, that everything is done to roll back Iran’s aggression.”
Dermer also noted that Blue and White leader Benny Gantz said earlier this year at the Munich security conference that there was no difference between him and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the topic of Iran.
During the election, Netanyahu slammed his chief rival for “supporting the Iran nuclear deal” in 2015.
Dermer said that Israel “could live with” a new nuclear deal negotiated by the U.S. — but only if it addressed the sunset clause. “The one problem that you have to address is you have to prevent Iran from ever being a military nuclear power,” he stated. “And if you have a sunset clause, that’s a date certain for when you want to would be a military nuclear power, and that has enormous consequences for our region.”