Plus, inside Temple Israel's difficult road ahead
Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call via AP Images
UNITED STATES - JUNE 18: Democratic candidate for Georgia's 6th Congressional district Jon Ossoff speaks to campaign workers and volunteers at his campaign office in Chamblee, Ga., on Sunday, June 18, 2017. Ossify is facing off against Republican Karen Handel in the special election to fill the seat vacated by current HHS Secretary Tom Price will be held on Tuesday.
Add JewishInsider on Google👋 Good Wednesday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we visit West Bloomfield Township, Mich., as the Jewish community reels from last month’s attack at a local synagogue, and report on antisemitic and conspiratorial rhetoric from Maureen Tkacik, a top editor at The American Prospect. We talk to former Rep. Mike Rogers about the GOP’s shifting attitudes toward Israel, and report on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s pledge to reject defensive funding for Israel. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Bill Ackman, Amar’e Stoudemire and Joshua Kramer.
Ed. note: In observance of Passover, the next Daily Kickoff will arrive on Monday, April 6. Chag sameach!
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with assists from Danielle Cohen-Kanik and Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
- President Donald Trump will give a primetime address on the state of the war with Iran tonight at 9 p.m. ET. The president’s speech, which will be televised on the major networks, will take place hours after the start of the Passover holiday. Trump said last night that the U.S. would end operations in Iran in the next two to three weeks — regardless of whether a deal is reached with Tehran.
- The USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier strike group departed Norfolk, Va., on Tuesday for its scheduled deployment. The Navy did not say where the ship would be positioned, but the deployment comes as the USS Gerald R. Ford, which had previously been positioned in the Middle East, was taken out of service for repairs.
- Emergency responders in Israel treated 14 people, including an 11-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy, for injuries this morning after Iran fired four missile barrages at Israel.
- In New Jersey, Democrat Analilia Mejia and Republican Joe Hathaway, candidates in the special election to succeed Gov. Mikie Sherrill in the state’s 11th Congressional District, will participate in a New Jersey Globe-sponsored debate this evening.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MARC ROD
Hasan Piker, the far-left, antisemitic streamer, was recently asked by Politico who his favorite presidential candidates are for the Democratic nomination in 2028. He offered a few unsurprising names: progressive Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA), United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain… and Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), the mild-mannered purple-state senator up for reelection this year.
Piker, in the interview, called Ossoff, “my dark-horse pick, depending on how he presents himself if he has ambitions for higher office.”
But does Ossoff, a Jewish senator who is facing a tough reelection in a state President Donald Trump carried twice, return Piker’s affections? His team has been unresponsive about his views on Piker, even as some leading Democrats have spoken out against the influencer and kept their distance.
Multiple spokespeople for Ossoff didn’t respond to several inquiries this week from JI.
Ossoff’s silence about Piker could strain his already rocky relationship with Georgia’s Jewish community. Key Jewish leaders and donors have repeatedly expressed outrage with the senator over his votes in favor of resolutions to block U.S. arms sales to Israel, and some have threatened to withhold support from his presidential campaigns.
ALTERED LIVES
They survived the Temple Israel attack. They can’t escape what followed
Pop. Pop. Pop. A preschool teacher at Temple Israel heard the shots, locked eyes with her co-teacher, and mouthed: Don’t show any emotion. Weeks later, every child who was in the building that day is safe. But the people who lived through the attack — and the broader Jewish community of Metro Detroit — are still grappling with trauma, shattered security and a world that has largely moved on, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports from West Bloomfield, Mich. “People are traumatized, and there’s no way around it,” Rabbi Josh Bennett, who has been on the pulpit at Temple Israel for 33 years, told JI last week.
Second chances: Jeremy Moss, a Democratic state senator who is running for Congress this year, is the only Jewish member of the Michigan state Senate. He is also the only LGBTQ member of the Senate. He knows that those two parts of his identity are often treated differently. “In the past several years, when I talk about antisemitism, it feels like I’m talking alone, or that I’m challenged, or that I’m lectured, not necessarily by my colleagues, but lectured about what is antisemitism from others, rather than allowing my own experience to be accredited, to be valid,” he added. “It’s a very isolating, lonely feeling, and it really makes you realize how small the Jewish community is and how difficult it is to get our lived experience heard and supported.” The attack on Temple Israel, and the fact that no one died, offers a “second chance,” Moss said.
on the mike
Mike Rogers confronts changing GOP attitudes on Israel on the campaign trail
As former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) campaigns for the open Senate seat in Michigan, he is not shy about his support for Israel. But he has lately encountered more people pushing back on American support for the Jewish state, and he is worried not enough is being done, including in his own party, to fight that trend. “I don’t think we have an effort to counter the [anti-Israel] narrative,” Rogers, a former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch in an interview near Detroit last week.
Primary position: “You don’t have to love Israel, but you have to respect the fact that the nation is trying to defend itself and its people who have maybe, probably, the most horrific history of being treated in the world of any other race on planet earth,” Rogers said. Rogers is the only major Republican candidate in the Senate race, while three Democrats are locked in a tight battle for the nomination, with several months still to go until the August primary.
NEWSROOM NOISE
Top American Prospect editor peddles antisemitic conspiracy theories online
Maureen Tkacik, a top editor for The American Prospect, an influential progressive magazine in Washington, has made no secret of her self-avowed hatred of Israel, particularly in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and the ensuing war in Gaza. In recent months, however, she has increasingly entertained conspiracy theories about Israel, used antisemitic rhetoric and expressed her approval of far-right extremists stoking anti-Jewish sentiment, raising questions over her ongoing association with a periodical that had long been viewed as a paragon of modern liberalism, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Social media scrutiny: In some social media posts she has indicated that she believes it is possible Israel was involved in the assassinations of both President John F. Kennedy and conservative activist Charlie Kirk. “JFK did not want Israel to develop the nuclear weapons they still refuse to acknowledge having,” she wrote last month, in response to commentary from far-right commentator Tucker Carlson tacitly suggesting that Israel was behind the killing, a conspiracy theory that has recently gained renewed currency on the far right. In other posts, Tkacik has railed against “ZOG,” short for “Zionist Occupied Government,” which the American Jewish Committee and Anti-Defamation League have called a white supremacist conspiracy theory alleging that the United States is controlled by Jews.
TARGETED THREAT
Palestinian journalist calls for violence against pro-Israel commentator
An Ireland-based Palestinian journalist who has contributed to outlets including The Guardian, Al Jazeera, Drop Site, Middle East Eye, The New Arab and The Electronic Intifada shared posts on his Instagram story encouraging violence against an Irish pro-Israel commentator, Druze Israeli politicians and Israelis generally, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
From Gaza to Ireland: Abubaker Abed had been based in Gaza and was evacuated during the war, ending up in Ireland. According to screenshots of Abed’s Instagram stories shared by others on X, he called for violence against Israelis and against Rachel Moiselle, a popular pro-Israel Irish commentator, in response to Israel’s passage this week of a death penalty law for Palestinian terrorists. The screenshots are no longer active on Abed’s account and could not be independently verified by JI. Abed did not respond to a request for comment.
AID ARGUMENT
Report: AOC says she’ll reject defensive funding for Israel, IHRA definition of antisemitism
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) reportedly committed on Tuesday to opposing “any spending on arms for Israel, including so-called defensive capabilities” for Israel as well as the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, according to an editor from City & State New York. The New York Democrat made the comments on a Democratic Socialists of America endorsement call on Tuesday evening, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Voting history: Though Ocasio-Cortez has not voted in favor of aid to Israel, she did vote against an amendment last year by then-Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) to cut funding for defensive systems such as Iron Dome, earning the ire of the far left. “I have not once ever voted to authorize funding to Israel, and I will never,” Ocasio-Cortez reportedly said during the forum. “The Israeli government should be able to finance their own weapons if they seek to arm themselves.”
DATING DILEMMAS
Nearly half of young Jewish American women are dating less over antisemitism fears
Nearly half (47%) of young Jewish women reported dating less as a result of increased antisemitism and other negative consequences of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks, according to a new survey by Jewish Women International, Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen-Kanik reports.
Survey says: Over one-third (36%) of respondents said they’ve ended existing romantic relationships due to these dynamics, while 18% said they’ve stopped online dating altogether. Many of the Jewish American women surveyed, who were between the ages of 20 and 34, reported other negative impacts to their romantic relationships including strained conversations (75%), arguments (53%) and decreased contact or connection (39%). Read the full story here.
Worthy Reads
Europe’s War Too: In Politico, Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner rejects efforts in European capitals to distance the continent from the war in Iran. “Of course it is our war. It is far more our war than America’s. The infiltration of European societies by Islamist networks is further advanced and more acute here than in America. (And solidarity with Israel, whose very existence is under threat, ought to be far stronger in Germany than in the United States.) But even if one believed it was not our war, or even if one were disappointed not to have been briefed on the plans, there remains a potent strain of European society where proclaiming hatred of Donald Trump is greater than sound self-interest. In those circles, one can almost sense something like schadenfreude whenever something goes wrong for the Americans once again.” [Politico]
Wrong Man for the Job: In The Washington Post, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Behnam Ben Taleblu raises concerns about the Trump administration’s willingness to engage with Iranian parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, as it mulls a Venezuela-like approach to Iran. “If Trump replicates his Venezuela decision and promotes a regime insider like Ghalibaf to the helm, he is unlikely to attain the stability and calm that he seeks in the Middle East. Iranians did not turn out in droves in January and give their lives for musical chairs or ornamental change in Tehran. They are not likely to stop protesting against a corrupt establishment that turned Iran into a failed state and is complicit in their killing.” [WashPost]
These Boots…: Wall Street Journal columnist William Galston considers the challenges facing the Trump administration as Washington weighs ground operations in Iran. “The prospects for negotiations reopening the strait and ending the war are dismal, and there is no guarantee that force can accomplish what diplomacy cannot. The U.S. is in no position, militarily or politically, to mount the kind of all-out invasion of Iran that brought down Saddam Hussein in Iraq. But anything less will probably allow the Iranian regime to survive, which it will trumpet as a victory against the Great Satan.”[WSJ]
Modern-Day Exodus: In Tablet, Rachel Sharansky Danziger, a daughter of refusenik Natan Sharansky, reflects on the retelling of the Passover story as she contemplates passing her own family’s stories to her children. “The Haggadah taught me how to tell my parents’ story, and how to give my kids the liberty to explore it for themselves. Time will tell what they’ll make of it. But in the meantime, my struggles with the latter taught me something about Passover in turn. Perhaps when the authors of the Haggadah told us to see ourselves as if we came out of Egypt, they meant something more than envisioning ourselves wearing tunics, marching out of Egypt with matzos in our sacks. Perhaps they meant that we should take this opportunity to experience what it means to become the authors of our own story.”[Tablet]
Word on the Street
President Donald Trump said he is considering pulling the U.S. out of NATO after members of the alliance failed to assist the U.S. in its military operations targeting Iran…
Arab officials told The Wall Street Journal that the United Arab Emirates is preparing to assist the U.S. in opening up the Strait of Hormuz by force…
The UAE’s Foreign Ministry denied the report, saying that the country “maintains a defensive posture focused on protecting its sovereignty, its people, and its infrastructure, and reserves its right to self-defence in response to ongoing unlawful and unprovoked attacks”…
Supporters of Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi, who is imprisoned in Iran’s Zanjan prison, said the Nobel Peace Prize laureate suffered a heart attack last week and had been denied medical access…
Politico reporter Karl Mathiesen, who earlier this week published a glowing profile of U.N. Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, deleted his X account after the resurfacing of his past social media posts, including questioning if “US reluctance to stand up to Israel” was because of the “Jewish lobby”…
American freelance journalist Shelly Kittleson was abducted in Baghdad; a U.S. official said Kittleson was taken by the Iran-backed Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah, which previously kidnapped Israeli-Russian researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov and held her for more than two years…
Argentina announced its designation of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terror organization, citing the group’s support for Hezbollah, which was behind the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires and the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center…
Michigan state Rep. Carrie Rheingans, who backed out of an upcoming rally with Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed over the participation of far-left streamer Hasan Piker, told the Michigan Advance that while she is still supporting El-Sayed in the primary, “I don’t appreciate many of Piker’s antisemitic comments. … Maybe Hasan Piker has some room to learn how his comments affect other people, but I have to say, Jews, Muslims, and Arabs in Michigan are hurting for a lot of really good reasons right now”…
A federal judge ordered the University of Pennsylvania on Tuesday to comply with a subpoena from the Trump administration requesting detailed information about Jewish university affiliates as part of the government’s crackdown on campus antisemitism, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani lifted City Hall’s ban on TikTok for use by government officials…
Mark Cuban said he regretted selling the Dallas Mavericks to the Adelson and Dumont families, saying he “made a lot of mistakes in the process” of the December 2023 sale…
“Denial,” the 2016 film starring Rachel Weisz about former antisemitism envoy Deborah Lipstadt’s legal battle against Holocaust denier David Irving, will be added to Netflix’s offerings this month…
ESPN reports that Israeli American basketball coach Amar’e Stoudemire will be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2026…
The U.K.’s Jewish Leadership Council condemned the decision by the organizers of the annual Wireless festival to have Kanye West, known as Ye, headline each night of the three-night festival, saying that West has “repeatedly used his platform to spread antisemitism and pro-Nazi messaging”…
The mayor of the British city of Bath resigned after controversy over his sharing of social media posts suggesting that the arson attack targeting Hatzola ambulances in London’s Golders Green suburb was an Israeli false flag operation…
Bill Ackman purchased a $20 million luxury apartment in Tel Aviv’s Rothschild 10 development…
Israel is ending all defense procurement from France, the Israeli Defense Ministry said, citing Paris’ hostile posture toward Jerusalem and a desire to increase domestic production and purchases from allies, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports…
Cleveland native Joshua Kramer was named the next CEO of Ohio Jewish Communities, succeeding Howie Beigelman; Kramer, who will assume the role in June, has led the American Jewish Committee’s New York regional office since 2021…
Director Slava Tsukerman, whose 1982 “Liquid Sky” became a cult classic, died at 86…
Pic of the Day
Men in the Israeli city of Bnei Brak on Tuesday burned pieces of leavened bread in preparation for the Passover holiday.
Birthdays
Singer-songwriter best known as the original lead guitarist for Sha Na Na and as the youngest person, at age 18, to play on the main stage at Woodstock in 1969, Henry Gross turns 75…
Physicist and 1997 Nobel Prize laureate Claude Cohen-Tannoudji (the hyphenated last name means simply the Cohen family from Tangiers) turns 93… Psychotherapist in South Florida, Annie Schlachet Garfield, LCSW… Former member of the Knesset for the Likud party, he is a nephew of Moshe Dayan, Uzi Dayan turns 78… Former Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Shlomo Moshe Amar turns 78… Research professor at Boston University noted for her studies in relation to parrots, Irene Maxine Pepperberg, Ph.D. turns 77… Former president and CEO of the Michigan League for Public Policy, she was previously a Democratic member of the Michigan Senate, Gilda Z. Jacobs turns 77… Associate justice of the Supreme Court of the U.S. since 2006, Justice Samuel Anthony Alito Jr. turns 76… Professor at SUNY New Paltz, her writing is focused on presidential war powers and national security law, Nancy Kassop turns 76… Producer and director for film and television including the “Men in Black” trilogy, he was originally a cinematographer for the Coen brothers, Barry Sonnenfeld turns 73… Lecturer at Stony Brook University’s School of Journalism, he is a columnist for Straus Media, Jonathan P. Friedman… Six-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida, he is the founder of the Ben Gamla Charter School in Florida (2007) and now lives in Ra’anana, Israel, Peter Deutsch turns 69… President of Baltimore-based HealthSource Distributors, Jerry L. Wolasky turns 68… Author of over 200 children’s books, Mark Shulman turns 64… Former member of the Knesset for the Kadima party, she made aliyah from the Soviet Union in 1979, Yulia Shamalov-Berkovich turns 62… VP of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress and a leader of the Jewish community of Kyiv, Ukraine, Alexander “Aaron” Levin turns 58… Lawyer, turned political thriller novelist, Brad Meltzer turns 56… Israeli writer, speaker and blogger, Daniel Ravner turns 50… Senior policy advisor to then-VPOTUS Kamala Harris, earlier she was the COO at J Street, Jessica “Jess” Smith turns 49… Professor at Villanova University, he won a gold medal in soccer at the Pan American Maccabi Games in 2008, Bret Myers turns 46… Four-year star basketball player at the University of Maryland including a national championship (2006), she was drafted by the WNBA but played mostly in Israel, Shay Doron turns 41… Film and television actor, Joshua Ryan Zuckerman turns 41… Associate at Debevoise & Plimpton, Noah L. Schwartz… Former assistant secretary for public affairs at the U.S. Treasury, her grandmother is noted philanthropist Lynne Honickman, Julia Aviva Hahn turns 35… Ronald Lippman…
Ibrahim Muhammad Ghazali was responsible for launching rockets at Israeli civilians during the war
Emily Elconin/Getty Images
Law enforcement respond near Temple Israel following reports of an active shooter on March 12, 2026 in West Bloomfield, Mich.
The suspect in the attack last week at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Mich., was the brother of a Hezbollah commander, the IDF said on Sunday.
The IDF announced in an X post on Sunday that Ibrahim Muhammad Ghazali, the brother of Ayman Mohammad Ghazali, “was responsible for managing weapons operations within a specialized branch of [Hezbollah’s] Badr Unit. The unit is responsible for launching hundreds of rockets toward Israeli civilians throughout the war.”
“Ibrahim was eliminated in an IAF strike on a Hezbollah military structure last week,” the IDF said.
After Thursday’s attack, in which Ayman Ghazali drove his vehicle through the doors of the synagogue and preschool building and killed himself after his truck caught fire, some media outlets noted that relatives of the attacker had been killed in recent Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon.
A New York Times article initially headlined “The Michigan Synagogue Attacker Was a Quiet Restaurant Worker” focused on Ghazali’s response to the deaths of his brother and his brother’s two children. “The auditorium at the Islamic Institute of America in Dearborn Heights, Mich.,” the paper reported, “was packed” the night of the family’s memorial.
Hezbollah called Ghazali’s two brothers, Qasim and Ibrahim, “martyrs” after they were killed in an Israeli strike, and noted that Ibrahim “kill[ed] 10 Zionists.”
CBS reported that another of Ghazali’s brothers, Qasim, was also a member of a Hezbollah rocket unit.
According to CNN, Ghazali appeared in federal government databases as having ties to “known or suspected terrorists” associated with Hezbollah. He had been questioned upon his return from his last trip to Lebanon in 2019.
The IDF has been carrying out airstrikes on Hezbollah targets since the beginning of the month, after the Iran-backed terrorist group joined the Islamic Republic in its attacks on Israel, following the launch of Operation Lion’s Roar two weeks ago.
Amer Ghalib’s path to confirmation is unclear as at least four Republicans now oppose him becoming ambassador
Win McNamee/Getty Images
Hamtramck, Mich. Mayor Amer Ghalib introduces President Donald Trump, as Trump visits a campaign office on Oct. 18, 2024, in Hamtramck, Michigan.
The nomination of Amer Ghalib, the mayor of Hamtramck, Mich., to be U.S. ambassador to Kuwait is facing what appear to be insurmountable odds as opposition to his confirmation grows among Senate Republicans.
No Republican or Democratic senators have come to Ghalib’s defense after his performance at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week, when he faced a bipartisan grilling over his long record of promoting antisemitic ideas and his embrace of anti-Israel positions as an elected official.
Senators on both sides of the aisle had privately expressed reservations about Ghalib’s nomination prior to the hearing, but his attempts to evade responsibility for his record while under oath prompted several Republicans on the committee to go public.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) announced at the end of Ghalib’s hearing last Thursday that he would not be able to support moving his nomination out of committee to the Senate floor. Sens. John Curtis (R-UT), John Cornyn (R-TX) and Dave McCormick (R-PA) have since followed suit. Others on the panel, including Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE), have said they plan to raise their concerns about Ghalib with the committee chairman, Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), and the White House.
“Based on the hearing that we had last week, I’m going to vote no against him,” McCormick told Punchbowl News on Tuesday. “I don’t think he demonstrated that he’s qualified for the role.”
Asked about Ghalib and the concerns surrounding his nomination while speaking to reporters on Tuesday morning, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said he was “vaguely familiar” with the Hamtramck mayor’s nomination but had not “examined” the matter closely.
The White House did not respond to Jewish Insider’s multiple requests for comment on the status of Ghalib’s nomination or the growing number of GOP senators coming forward to oppose him.
Ghalib is not believed to have any support on the Democratic side, reinforced by his lackluster answers to questions about his documented history of antisemitic remarks from Sens. Chris Murphy (D-CT), Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the top Democrat on the committee. He also has an embattled standing within the Democratic Party because of his decision to help President Donald Trump win the state of Michigan for Republicans last November.
“I think that you have dug your hole deeper today,” Murphy, who already opposed Ghalib prior to last week, told the nominee at his confirmation hearing.
Both Republican and Democratic senators grilled Amer Ghalib over his extremist comments; GOP Sen. Ted Cruz said he’ll vote against him
Salwan Georges/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Hamtramck Mayor Amer Ghalib is photographed in his office at the City Hall in Hamtramck, Michigan, Sunday, September 10, 2023.
Amer Ghalib, the mayor of Hamtramck, Mich., and President Donald Trump’s embattled nominee to be U.S. ambassador to Kuwait, struggled to win over skeptical senators of both parties during his confirmation hearing on Thursday as he faced a grilling over his long record of promoting antisemitic ideas and embracing anti-Israel positions as an elected official.
Ghalib was grilled by Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which began when the committee’s ranking Democrat, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), called out his litany of antisemitic comments and denial of sexual violence during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.
It culminated with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), after questioning Ghalib about his past opposition to the Abraham Accords and support of boycotts against Israel, announcing at the end of the hearing that he would not be able to support his nomination.
Senators on both sides of the aisle pressed Ghalib over a litany of extremist views and statements he’s made in recent years. In addition to his denial of the scope of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, senators also pointed to past comments he made suggesting that the terrorism itself was justified. They also questioned him over his consistent unwillingness to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist, and even when pressed at the hearing, resisted recognizing Israel’s place as the Jewish homeland.
He also faced bipartisan scrutiny over his recent characterization of Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi dictator who invaded Kuwait, as a “martyr” — a social media post senators found stunning given that he’s being tapped as ambassador to the country Hussein invaded.
His record of antisemitic commentary was also probed, with senators asking about his liking a comment on Facebook referring to all Jews as “monkeys” and the record of one of his political appointees in Hamtramck who said the Holocaust was “God’s advanced punishment of the chosen people” over Israel’s war in Gaza.
Ghalib also tried to evade responsibility for Hamtramck becoming the first city in the nation to adopt a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions policy against Israel. He claimed he played no formal role in that designation.
Throughout the hearing, Ghalib declined to walk back his comments, repeatedly arguing that what he believes in his “personal capacity” should be distinguished from how he planned to act in his “official capacity” as a U.S. ambassador. “I’m a Semite. The Arabs are Semites. Do we read history? How can we be antisemites? And I think, like I said, judge my actions and not my intentions,” Ghalib said.
Cruz, in the hearing, became the first Republican senator to say he can’t support Ghalib’s nomination. Several other GOP senators on the committee are considering coming out against Ghalib, according to sources familiar with lawmakers’ thinking.
“I believe your beliefs are sincere. I believe that when you became the mayor of the first city in America to pass a BDS resolution, it’s because you believe in BDS,” Cruz said. “What I do not understand is how you could possibly serve as United States ambassador for President Trump in the Middle East when you have passionate views, including having been a vocal opponent of the Abraham Accords, the singular and most consequential accomplishment President Trump has negotiated.”
“Your long-standing views are directly contrary to the views and positions of President Trump and to the position of the United States. I, for one, am not going to be able to support your confirmation,” he continued.
Sen. John Curtis (R-UT) who serves on the committee but was not in attendance at the hearing, released a statement after Ghalib’s testimony saying that the Utah senator is “deeply concerned about Mr. Ghalib’s nomination.”
“It is crucial that we expand peace in the Middle East and that begins with the acceptance of Israel’s right to exist. Ghalib has demonstrated he is sympathetic to beliefs that run completely contrary to that goal,” the statement read.
“I think that you have dug your hole deeper today,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) told Ghalib. “It doesn’t matter to me whether you support the president’s [Middle East peace] plan. Again, this idea that your personal views don’t matter is ridiculous.”
Senators told Ghalib that he was welcome to hold incendiary points of view or embrace those with such beliefs, but that would likely disqualify him for a role representing the United States as ambassador.
Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), a co-chair of the Senate Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism, excoriated Ghalib during her opening statement, describing his conduct as unacceptable for a public figure. “As an elected official, you had a responsibility to work with your constituents to eliminate hatred from communities, all hatred from communities, but instead, you chose to inflame divisions and traffic in antisemitism,” Rosen said.
“You liked a Facebook comment comparing Jews to monkeys. You characterize leaders you don’t like as ‘becoming Jewish.’ As mayor, you failed to comment after one of your political appointees suggested the Holocaust was ‘advance punishment’ for the war in Gaza, and you denied the Hamas used sexual violence as a weapon of war on Oct. 7,” she continued. “You can disagree with the Israeli government, but peddling antisemitism in such a public manner, as an elected official, as a community leader, is beyond the pale.”
Ghalib was asked four times — three by Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) and once by Murphy — if he would say that he supports Israel’s right to exist as a homeland for the Jewish people. “I think everybody, we can coexist in the region, and everybody has the right to exist now,” Ghalib told McCormick after the Pennsylvania senator’s third time asking the question.
Only after Murphy criticized his refusal to answer McCormick’s question did Ghalib respond directly.
“I believe it can be a home for the Jewish and the Arabs and the Muslims and the Christians as well. And that’s why it’s a diverse land for the three major religions,” Ghalib told Murphy, without mentioning Israel by name. “I think they can coexist, all the nations in the Middle East, based on the peace plan of President Trump that I support strongly.”
Murphy pressed Ghalib on his claims that he had condemned the October 2023 comments by Nasr Hussain, a political appointee of his on the Hamtramck Plan Commission, about the Holocaust being “God’s advanced punishment,” noting that Ghalib had not responded to requests from senators for proof that he had distanced himself from Hussain.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) also pointed out that Ghalib had expressed support for the Houthis’ November 2023 hijacking of the British-owned Galaxy Leader cargo ship in the Red Sea, prompting Ghalib to deny he had ever made such a statement.
Kaine then asked if he was denying that he had authored the social media post with the statement. Ghalib responded by suggesting that he now opposes the attack, and then appeared to accuse the Virginia senator of making “assumptions” and taking his words “out of context.”
“I don’t think it’s a celebration. This is an assumption that [you’re] making. I disagree with attacking the ships and disrupting,” Ghalib said. “I think there was a post, but it seems like it’s taken out of context. Maybe I commented, I don’t know.”
Later on, Cruz grilled Ghalib about a social media post he wrote in 2020 praising the Muslim Brotherhood as “an inspiration” and asked whether his stated support for the group would be a conflict if the Trump administration were to designate the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. Ghalib said he would implement the president’s policies, though only after downplaying the group’s extremism.
“I believe that it’s an ideology. It’s not just a group of people. I disagree with a lot of things that they do. Some of them are extremists. Some of them are part of some governments in the Middle East,” Ghalib said of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Shaheen, the top Democrat on the committee, called Ghalib’s expressed beliefs “abhorrent” and said she was “very concerned about some of the statements that you have made, and frankly, what appear to be antisemitic views.” The New Hampshire senator said she took grave offense to Ghalib’s comments claiming that reports of sexual violence by Hamas on Oct. 7 were “lies and deception” and expected him to offer “an unequivocal condemnation of the horrific crimes committed on Oct. 7.”
Ghalib said he had “totally condemned what happened on Oct. 7” after learning of the atrocities, and claimed that he “was not aware” of what “kinds of abuses” Hamas had orchestrated when he made those comments. He also alleged that local media had misrepresented his past social media posts and public comments to make it look like he was antisemitic or supportive of terrorists and dictators.
“I’m in politics. I understand the press doesn’t always accurately represent what we say,” Shaheen replied. “That doesn’t explain the comments you made to my staff, nor the direct quotes from your hometown news outlet about sexual violence on Oct. 7. The fact that you represented to my staff that there was no documented evidence of that just shows to me a lack of recognition of what was going on.”
The only apology Ghalib offered regarding his past remarks related to his comments about Saddam Hussein, telling senators that he was sorry if his description of the late dictator had caused offense, especially with “those who suffered from Saddam or lost loved ones.” He explained that he was complimenting Hussein for “keeping the Iranian regime in check” after McCormick noted that he served in the 82nd Airborne Division that helped liberate Kuwait from Hussein’s forces.
The White House did not respond to Jewish Insider’s request for comment on the status of Ghalib’s nomination.
Amer Ghalib questioned reports of Hamas’ atrocities on Oct. 7 and has supported the BDS movement
JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images
Democratic Muslim Mayor Amer Ghalib of Hamtramck, Michigan speaks before President Donald Trump holds his final campaign rally before election day at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan on November 4, 2024.
Amer Ghalib, the mayor of Hamtramck, Mich., and President Donald Trump’s nominee to be U.S. ambassador to Kuwait, is scheduled for a confirmation hearing in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a delayed step toward confirmation for a nominee whose background and past comments have come under scrutiny.
Ghalib will come before the committee next Thursday, Oct. 23, at the first confirmation hearing the committee has held in more than a month. Ghalib is currently the only nominee on the agenda for that hearing.
The Democratic Hamtramck mayor, who endorsed Trump in the 2024 election and helped him rally support in Michigan’s Arab and Muslim American communities, has a history of anti-Israel commentary, including questioning reports of Hamas atrocities during the Oct. 7 attacks and supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, as well as liking antisemitic posts on social media.
The Anti-Defamation League has said Ghalib’s nomination should be withdrawn. “Ghalib routinely traffics in antisemitism, actively supports the antisemitic BDS movement, attempted to justify the 10/7 massacre and refused to take disciplinary action against an appointee who attempted to justify the Holocaust,” the group said on X in March.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) told reporters that the nomination had been delayed as lawmakers gathered additional information about Ghalib and his background via written questions.
Ghalib announced publicly after such reports that Trump had called him to emphasize his continued support even as “some parties have hindered this appointment.”
Ghalib will likely face questions about his record at the hearing.
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