Plus, Jewish authors write their own ending
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President Donald Trump speaks with reporters while aboard Air Force One on June 5, 2026 en route to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin.
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In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at concerns that President Donald Trump is ceding oversight to Iran as issues related to the Strait of Hormuz remain unresolved, and report on the opening of several literary houses that will focus on publishing Jewish authors. We interview Ludo Hood, who retired from the State Department last week after more than two decades of service, and report on the United Democracy Project’s involvement in the special election runoff in California’s 14th Congressional District to succeed Rep. Eric Swalwell. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Gov. Mikie Sherrill, Yoav Segalovitz and Lele Yutzy.
We also have a new on-demand Live Briefing that you can access throughout the day via our new app (on Apple and Android) and on our website.
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.
For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition of The Weekly Print, a curated print-friendly PDF featuring a selection of recent Jewish Insider and eJewishPhilanthropy stories, including: Jewish Democrats in Michigan weigh crossing party lines after El-Sayed’s Senate primary win; Dara Horn’s shocking new title hides a serious argument about fighting antisemitism; and Darline Graham, backed by Trump, still faces obstacles in bid to succeed brother in the Senate. Print the latest edition here.
What We’re Watching
- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is meeting today with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Riyadh, where the three are slated to sign a joint defense agreement.
- We’re keeping an eye out for a public statement from Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) after his primary defeat last night. The far-right lawmaker, who had the backing of President Donald Trump, was ousted by Charlie Hatcher, the state’s former agriculture commissioner. In his remarks at his victory party last night, Hatcher said Ogles had called to concede.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS
A meme circulated on social media earlier this week depicting a cartoon version of President Donald Trump addressing different stages of negotiations with Iran. In it, the president cycles between “We’re going to bomb their power plants,” “They called us begging for a deal,” “They’re giving us everything we want” and “They’re scum, you can’t negotiate with these people.”
It’s perhaps the most accurate commentary on the situation that has unfolded since early July, as the U.S. and Iran have continued to exchange fire, with Iran striking Arab states around the region. Every few days, the stage resets. The endless loop of diplomacy and military strikes has thrown the countries into a situation that is equal parts “Groundhog Day” and “The Apprentice” — military strikes on loop, with a major breakthrough soon to come.
Indeed, Trump suggested on Tuesday that “a lot of progress had been made” in negotiations that would see the Strait of Hormuz reopened and signaled a deal on the strategic waterway could be announced as soon as this week.
His rhetoric echoes comments he has made in recent weeks teasing a diplomatic breakthrough that is right around the corner, while the consistent reality is that diplomacy has been cyclical, devoid of significant progress and increasingly beneficial to Tehran, which has learned that it only needs to wait out the situation — at least until the midterms, if not until 2029.
It also raises questions about the limits of American deterrence — especially when taken alongside recent reports of dwindling American weapons stockpiles.
Trump understands optics (and markets) perhaps better than any other world leader, hence his constant claims that a major diplomatic breakthrough could be days away — whereas Iran, unburdened by looming midterms and the realities that come with living in a democracy, can afford to wait it out as Washington runs through the endless narrative loop.
Almost as cyclical as Trump’s pronouncements are Iran’s near-immediate denials of the president’s claims: the regular insistence that a deal is far off and unlikely to happen without significant American and Israeli concessions.
STRAIT TALK
Experts are expressing growing concern over reports that an emerging deal between Iran and Oman to reopen the Strait of Hormuz could grant Tehran unprecedented oversight over the international shipping route, ceding control to Iran that it did not possess prior to the conflict, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports. Under the proposed terms, inbound commercial vessels would be directed through a northern route in Iranian waters, while outbound ships would traverse a southern route in Omani waters, managed in coordination with Iran.
Waterway worries: Although a U.S. official told the Associated Press that such a deal would preclude Iran from issuing formal approvals for transiting ships, tolls or service fees, regional analysts warn that formalizing Iranian oversight over the chokepoint represents a significant strategic concession. Matthew Levitt, a senior fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told JI, “President Trump is very eager for a deal that reopens the strait, and seems inclined to accept a deal under which Iran has greater oversight of ships entering and exiting the strait. The key is denying Iran any way of monetizing the flow of traffic through this international waterway.”
REGIONAL RIFT
A coalition of foreign ministers from Arab and Muslim countries met in Jordan on Wednesday to launch a coordinated campaign against Israeli policies in Jerusalem — a gathering marked both by the notable absence of key regional players and rhetoric that dismissed Jewish ties to the city, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.
The meeting brought together diplomats from Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Algeria, Iraq, Tunisia, Somalia and Morocco, alongside representatives from the Arab League, Indonesia, Details: Pakistan, Turkey and Malaysia. Missing from the Amman summit were several close U.S. allies including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait. In a joint statement, the group denounced what it called an “unprecedented Israeli escalation in occupied Jerusalem and its Islamic and Christian holy sites,” accusing Israel of trying to alter “the Arab Islamic and Christian identity of occupied Jerusalem and its legal and demographic status” — omitting any mention of Jewish historical or religious ties to the city.
PEOPLE OF THE BOOK
A number of literary professionals have announced in recent weeks the launch of their own Jewish publishing companies, aimed at fulfilling a need for frustrated authors who say they’ve hit the same wall: agents advising them to cut Jewish names and references to Israel, editors going silent on submissions that once would have been fast sales and a mounting sense that the industry’s embrace of the #ownvoices storytelling trend — a hashtag used to amplify the work of diverse and minority voices — has an unspoken exception for Jewish writers, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Elevating voices: Meg Keene, an established nonfiction author who has sold more than 150,000 copies of her two books offering tips for wedding planning, recently announced the launch of Meg Keene Books, her own imprint at Wicked Son Press, a Jewish publisher known mostly for right-leaning nonfiction. “Earlier this year I got to the point where I realized I didn’t have anything left to lose,” Keene told JI. “Jews were having all these conversations behind the scenes but it felt like whoever came forward was going to destroy their career. I felt like I was in a position — because of my past in digital publishing and connection to editors, I knew how to do it. So many authors couldn’t sell their first book.”
PAC PLAY
After a night of mixed results in Tuesday’s primary elections, AIPAC’s United Democracy Project super PAC is turning its eyes toward the special election runoff in California’s 14th Congressional District, where progressive state Sen. Aisha Wahab and a moderate local mayor, Melissa Hernandez, are competing to replace disgraced former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
About the race: Wahab, seen as the heavy favorite, brings a record raises concerns for some members of the Jewish community — she has not been supportive of numerous priority bills and resolutions aimed at tackling antisemitism and has been a vocal critic of Israel, including describing the war in Gaza as a genocide and championing legislation in the state Senate on the issue. But one Jewish leader in the district expressed skepticism that UDP’s spending would defeat her, and warned that it risked pushing her further left.
BILL BUFFERING
Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) joined Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Reps. Brad Knott (R-NC) and Tom Suozzi (D-NY) on Thursday in introducing the Right to Worship Act, a federal bill that would ban activity that knowingly disrupts or impedes access to scheduled religious services within 100 feet of the entrance to a house of worship during that time, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Details: The bill would ban activity that “meaningfully interferes with the ability of people to participate in the scheduled religious service, to the extent that the conduct causes a substantial interruption to the service’s normal operation” or “unreasonably hinders or deters a person from entering a house of worship, or threatens or intimidates a person, in a manner that prevents participation at a scheduled religious service.” The bill would carry escalating civil fines for repeated offenses, as well as allow impacted individuals, the U.S. attorney general or a state attorney general to commence a civil suit under the law.
LIFTING THE HOOD
After a career in the foreign service, where officers are obliged to keep their political views to themselves and promote the positions of the current U.S. administration, some retiring diplomats have a hard time getting used to speaking their minds. Ludo Hood is not one of those people. The 53-year-old retired from the U.S. Foreign Service last week after two decades of service. Hood sat down with Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch this week to reflect on a career representing the U.S. that included stints working on Iran policy during negotiations for the 2015 nuclear deal, relations with Gulf states during the fraught Arab Spring and antisemitism policy in the tense aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in 2023.
Exception to the rule: Through all those foreign postings and geopolitical flashpoints, one of the most “alarming and shocking” moments of Hood’s time as a foreign service officer came within the halls of Foggy Bottom — when, in the months after Oct. 7, the State Department hosted listening sessions for staffers to express anti-Israel views and bash the policies espoused by the federal government. “It was the only time in my career where active dissent against the elected president’s overall policy and strategic direction was allowed to be aired in the open, and was actually in many ways encouraged,” Hood told JI.
Worthy Reads
Sanders’ Sensibilities: In The New York Times, Matthew Yglesias raises concerns about the “political judgments” of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) as the Vermont senator has sought to boost the insurgent left — causing damage to the Democratic Party along the way. “The very top electoral performers among Democrats — lawmakers who have a record of results in districts most liberals would lose, like Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington State, Tom Suozzi of New York and Don Davis of North Carolina — are independent thinkers who are critical of Democratic Party leaders and the establishment. The difference is that rather than positioning themselves even further left than a party that most Americans think is too left-wing, they pick issues and rhetoric that are heterodox and often more restrained.” [NYTimes]
Back to School: In Fox News Opinion, Teach Coalition CEO Sydney Altfield calls for a “whole-of-society response” to mounting antisemitism as students head back to school, following an NYPD report indicating a significant increase in antisemitic hate crimes since the start of the year. “Administrators should say plainly that antisemitism is unacceptable, whether it appears as a threat, a slur, a swastika, harassment over Jewish identity or intimidation tied to Israel or Zionism. Further, education must be more than a one-off assembly after an incident. Students should learn what antisemitism is, how it mutates across political movements, conspiracy theories and social media trends and why targeting Jews corrodes civic life for everyone.” [FoxNews]
Find more Worthy Reads in our Live Briefing via our new app (on Apple and Android) and website.
Word on the Street
Vice President JD Vance was pressed by Senate Republicans at a lunch on Thursday to provide more transparency into the Trump administration’s decision-making on Iran…
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said he was discharged from a rehabilitation center nearly two months after he was first hospitalized following a fall…
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) demanded that U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee step down over his handling of incidents in which U.S. citizens have allegedly been injured by the IDF and other Israelis…
Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH) joined Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) in calling on Rep. Max Miller (R-OH), Moreno’s former son-in-law, to drop out of his reelection race and resign from Congress amid growing scrutiny of domestic violence allegations against Miller, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said on Wednesday that he believes Abdul El-Sayed’s victory in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Michigan has put the state in play for Republicans in November. “He will quickly discover a primary is a much different situation in this state [than the general election], when you’re accountable for winning the other side. I can’t wait to see him campaign for the general. I have got my popcorn for that,” Fetterman told JI’s Emily Jacobs…
El-Sayed gave an extensive interview to The New York Times, in which he declined to say whether he’d continue to campaign with antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker, with whom he had appeared during the primary…
Politico looks at Republican efforts to win over disaffected Jewish and Black voters in Michigan following El-Sayed‘s primary win as the Michigan Democrat seeks to shore up support from the party’s base; El-Sayed has already reached out to Maryland Gov. Wes Moore as he looks to make inroads with Black voters…
In her first cable news interview since her Senate primary loss on Tuesday, Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) told CNN that she identifies as “a Zionist Democrat in Michigan” and suggested that voters concerned about El-Sayed’s stance on Israel and rhetoric about the Jewish state “need to make a personal and private decision” as to who to support in November…
Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and 16 Democratic colleagues introduced the Honoring the Sacrifice of Troops in War Act, which aims to prevent the administration from manipulating Iran war casualty data and protects benefits for troops involved in the effort; Fetterman, who supports the Iran war and has broken with Democrats on other measures relating to it, is supporting the bill…
The Atlantic does a deep dive into how the U.S. “squandered” its advantage in the war with Iran, as Washington finds itself facing weapons shortages…
Reps. Derek Tran (D-CA), Ami Bera (D-CA) and Salud Carbajal (D-CA) led 65 House Democrats raising concerns about Israeli restrictions they said are preventing the entry of medical supplies and other humanitarian goods into Gaza…
Jonathan Cowan, president of the center-left group Third Way, told The New York Times that the group plans to spend $15 million ahead of the 2028 presidential election to target the Democratic Socialists of America after El-Sayed’s primary win in the Michigan Senate race…
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill‘s Mission to Deliver PAC endorsed a series of Democratic candidates with national security or military backgrounds, including Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) in his primary campaign to oust Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA)…
The Education Department announced probes into anti-Israel protests at San Jose State University and San Francisco State University, citing complaints alleging the schools’ administrators failed to adequately address antisemitism on campus…
Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz sold his Hawaii estate for $36 million, 11 years after purchasing the property for $25 million…
Nazi warships deliberately sunk by the Germans as they retreated from Romania in 1944 are emerging in the Danube River in Serbia as the waterway faces dropping water levels due to drought and recent heat waves…
The United Arab Emirates has successfully transported more oil through the Strait of Hormuz in the last two months than any other country despite ongoing military hostilities in the area, Bloomberg reports, by utilizing tankers that switch off their transponders during the risky crossing…
Israel charged Israeli settler activist Yinon Levy with reckless homicide following the death last month of a Palestinian activist in the West Bank who was killed in a confrontation that occurred when Levy allegedly directed settlers to enter a private property and then shot at a group of Palestinians at the site…
Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid announced that MK Yoav Segalovitz is departing the party; the announcement came amid reports that Segalovitz is considering joining the Ra’am party, a move that would make him the first Jewish official on the Arab party’s ticket. In his new Substack, former crime reporter Ben Hartman examines how Segalovitz, formerly the head of Israel’s police intelligence and investigations branch, could shake up Israeli politics if he joins Ra’am…
Longtime former Likud MKs Gilad Erdan, a former Israeli ambassador to the U.N., and Yuli Edelstein announced the creation of a new, as-yet-unnamed party; the two former MKs said that they hoped to attract Likud voters disillusioned with the party’s direction under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with a special focus on military conscription…
Israeli media reported that Mossad head Roman Gofman dismissed the agency’s intelligence directorate head as well as the head of the Mossad’s Iran division over Israel’s failure to topple the Iranian regime earlier this year…
The Yemeni Defense Ministry said the Iran-backed Houthis attacked the internationally recognized government’s military forces in several locations — reportedly killing dozens of soldiers and officers — and that the military would retaliate against the terror group “at the appropriate time and place”…
Two former members of Iran’s national women’s soccer team were granted citizenship in Australia, where they sought humanitarian asylum earlier this year during a tournament in Melbourne…
California Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Lele Yutzy as the state’s first director of its Office of Civil Rights, which was created under a bill enacted last year that acknowledged the prevalence of antisemitism in the state’s public schools and pledged to tackle discrimination…
The Simon Wiesenthal Center announced that Steve Gamer was joining the organization as chief development officer…
Find on-demand Live Briefing updates throughout the day via our new app (on Apple and Android) and website.
Pic of the Day
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar met on Thursday with Colombia’s incoming president, Abelardo de la Espriella, in Barranquilla, Colombia, one day before his official inauguration. According to a readout from Sa’ar’s office, the two discussed steps to strengthen diplomatic, security and economic relations between their countries.
Birthdays
Former professional soccer player, he played for the U.S. in the 2009 Maccabiah Games in Israel, Zac MacMath turns 35 today…
FRIDAY: Brooklyn resident, Esther Holler… Former U.S. trade representative and then U.S. secretary of commerce, both positions during the Clinton administration, Michael “Mickey” Kantor turns 87… Co-founder of the world-wide chain of Hard Rock Café, Peter Morton turns 79… Retired lieutenant general in the Israeli Air Force, he also served as chief of staff of the IDF, Dan Halutz turns 78… Former PR director for the New York Yankees and author of more than 20 books, Marty Appel turns 78… President of private equity firm Palisades Associates, former CEO of Empire Kosher Poultry, Greg Rosenbaum turns 74… Former U.S. intelligence analyst, he pled guilty to espionage in 1986 and was released from prison in 2015 and moved to Israel in 2020, Jonathan Pollard turns 72… Spiritual leader of Agudas Israel of St. Louis since 1986, Rabbi Menachem Greenblatt… Founder of the Cayton Children’s Museum in Santa Monica, Esther Netter… Former comptroller of the city of Rockville Centre, N.Y., Michael Schussheim turns 68… Television cook, YouTuber, restaurateur and cookbook author, known as Sam the Cooking Guy, Samuel D. Zien turns 67… City council president of Westlake, Ohio, David S. Greenspan turns 61… Professor of computational biology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Liran Carmel turns 55… CEO at Capital Camps & Retreat Center after 14 years at AIPAC, Havi Arbeter Goldscher… Governor of Virginia, Abigail Spanberger turns 47… Financial news anchor for CNBC, Sara Aliza Eisen turns 42… Emmy Award-winning political reporter for The New York Times, Jonathan V. Swan turns 41… Public address announcer for both MLB’s Athletics and the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda, Amelia Schimmel… Former MLB catcher, he batted .350 with two home runs for Team Israel at the 2020 Olympics, he is now a catching instructor for the Chicago Cubs, Ryan Lavarnway turns 39… Senior faculty at Ariel University, Anna Harwood-Gross… Product management director at Signify Health, Estee Goldschmidt… Professional Super Smash Bros. player, known as Dabuz, Samuel Robert Buzby turns 33… Founder of Love For Our Elders, a global nonprofit organization in dozens of countries, Jacob Cramer turns 26… Scott Harrison…
SATURDAY: Actor and director, he won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1980 for “Kramer vs. Kramer” and in 1989 for “Rain Man,” Dustin Hoffman turns 89… Arlington Heights, Ill., resident, Elizabeth Gordon… Dutch diplomat and politician, he served as the speaker of the Dutch House of Representatives, Frans Weisglas turns 80… Greenwood Village, Colo., resident, Robert M. Schwartz… Tampa, Fla., resident, Roy D. Pulliam… Retired U.S. Army four-star general, who then served as the secretary of defense during the Biden administration, Lloyd James Austin III turns 73… Vancouver, Wash., resident, Juliana E. Miles Bagherpour… U.S. ambassador to Israel throughout the Trump 45 administration, David Melech Friedman turns 68… Former CEO of BusinessGhost, a ghostwriting firm that has written and published over 700 books, Michael Graubart Levin turns 68… Former managing general partner of MLB’s Tampa Bay Rays, Stuart L. Sternberg turns 67… Chess grandmaster, once ranked 8th in the world, he is the director of the Brooklyn Chess Academy, Leonid Yudasin turns 67… White House chief of staff for the first two years of the Biden administration, Ron Klain turns 65… Film director whose works include nine Disney films, Jon Turteltaub turns 63… Former chief justice of the Nevada Supreme Court, she continues to serve as a justice, Elissa F. Cadish turns 62… Digital strategist, he is the founding partner of Fuse, a consultancy, Jonah Seiger… Former book editor of the Orthodox Union’s Jewish Action magazine, Rabbi Gil Ofer Student turns 54… Lead guitarist of the mathcore band the Dillinger Escape Plan, also playing rhythm guitar with the crossover thrash band Suicidal Tendencies, Benjamin A. Weinman turns 51… Film and television actor, Lindsay Sloane turns 49… MLB pitcher for 12 seasons and now chief baseball officer of the Boston Red Sox, Craig Breslow turns 46… Author, freelance writer and editor, she is a former dancer with the New York City Ballet, Sophie Flack turns 43… Managing principal at Rocktower Capital, Bara Lane… Canadian film, television and stage actor, Jacob Benjamin “Jake” Goldsbie turns 38… Digital director at the Jewish Democratic Council of America, Sarah Garfinkel… Founder and managing partner at Avid Ventures, Addie Lerner Katz… Director of marketing and communications at Alpha Epsilon Pi, Zachary Pellish… Creative producer for Airbnb, Morgan Furlong… Internet celebrity and fitness model, Jennifer Leigh “Jen” Selter turns 33… Jack Baum… Rob Schwartz…
SUNDAY: Prominent Sephardic rabbi in Tel Aviv, he was a member of the Knesset for the Shas party, Rabbi Moshe Maya turns 88… Physicist and venture capitalist, co-founder and senior advisor at New Markets Venture Partners, Donald M. “Don” Spero, Ph.D. turns 87… Comedian, actor, writer, director and author, son of a rabbi, he appeared 140 times on Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show,” David Steinberg turns 84… Romance novelist with 25 books on the NYT bestseller lists, Barbara Delinsky (born Barbara Ruth Greenberg) turns 81… Author of more than 33 Jewish-themed books, he is an ordained rabbi as are two of his daughters, Seymour Rossel turns 81… Telecommunications consultant based in Chattanooga, Tenn., Mark Shapiro turns 80… Psychologist and bestselling suspense novelist, Jonathan Kellerman turns 77… Southern California resident, Faith Schames… Brigadier general (res.) in the Israeli Air Force, Amir Abraham Haskel turns 73… Executive director of the Steinhardt Family Foundation in Israel and executive director of the Henry S. and Mala Dorfman Family Foundation, Tova Dorfman… U.S. senator (R-KS), Roger Marshall, M.D. turns 66… Member of the Minnesota state Senate since 2007, Ronald Steven “Ron” Latz turns 63… Professor of French at Yale University, he is the inaugural director of the Yale Program for the Study of Antisemitism, Maurice Samuels turns 58… Chief of staff for Representative Jerrold Nadler for 25 years, she started a consulting practice in 2024, Amy Beth Rutkin… Founder of Tannenbaum Capital Group, Leonard M. Tannenbaum turns 55… Two-time Grammy Award-winning operatic soprano, songwriter and actor, Hila Plitmann turns 53… Assistant secretary for inter-departmental data integration for the Maryland Department of Human Services, Kirill Reznik turns 52… Reporter in the Washington bureau of The New York Times, he covers the confluence of money, politics and influence, Kenneth P. Vogel turns 51… Democratic political strategist, Rebecca Kirszner Katz… Chair of JEWELS (Jewish Education Where Every Level Succeeds), Jules Friedman turns 51… Drummer, popular on YouTube with over 300 million views, Meytal Cohen turns 43… CEO of the Israel on Campus Coalition since 2013, Jacob Baime… Real estate investor based in Cleveland, Ohio, Amanda Isaacson… Associate at K&L Gates LLP, Isaac Lederman… Israeli actor, best known for his role as Yanky Shapiro in the 2020 Netflix miniseries “Unorthodox,” Amit Rahav turns 31… SVP at Dezenhall Resources, he was previously communications director for the Republican Jewish Coalition and an RNC alum, Fred Brown… Elise Aronson… Dan Zimerman…
The report draws on interviews with more than 70 current and former employees of groups such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Doctors Without Borders
DAVID GRAY/AFP via Getty Images
Officials can be seen outside the venue of the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion in Sydney on May 25, 2026.
The human rights nonprofit sector has systematically ignored or suppressed employee complaints of antisemitism for years, according to a new report published on Wednesday by EiGHT, an organization based in Israel that was created after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks to provide oversight of humanitarian NGOs.
The 63-page report was submitted to Australia’s Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, which was formed after the Bondi Beach terror attack last December, as well as several United Nations bodies. It draws on interviews with more than 70 current and former employees of organizations such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders and Greenpeace. It alleges that the organizations’ biased treatment of Israel contributed to a hostile work environment for Jewish and Israeli employees.
“One of the rationales for the report was to give voice to victims, essentially, along the lines of human rights work that I edited every single day for 14 years,” EiGHT’s executive director, Danielle Haas, who was a senior editor at Human Rights Watch until 2023, told Jewish Insider. “It’s just a shame and shocking that the victims should be coming now from within the human rights and humanitarian world itself.”
The report is focused primarily on the treatment of employees within the sector, rather than research and output related to Israel and the Palestinian territories, though it argues that the two are linked — and that the wholesale adoption of anti-Israel narratives by these NGOs contributes to the hostile atmosphere facing Jewish employees. For instance, employees alleged that if they asked questions about an organization’s approach to Israel, they often faced pushback. One Australian employee of a global NGO claimed they were fired after raising questions about the quality of the group’s work on Israel.
“When the leadership is demonstrating utter disregard for Oct. 7 victims or for Jewish lives lost, it only follows logically that those underneath them will too,” Haas said.
The report paints a picture of institutional leadership that is resistant to both external and internal criticism.
“Documented complaints about hostile behavior related to Jews, Israel, or Israelis, and professional standards failures connected to Israel work have consistently failed to produce meaningful consequences,” the report states.
Most of the testimonies in the report are anonymous. Even the organizations described in many complaints are often kept anonymous, with language in some instances referring to sources only as “an employee at a global NGO.” Haas said this was due to fear of retaliation.
“What is truly disturbing is how fearful people are to speak openly, and I find that incredibly disturbing, that adult professionals in their field should repeatedly say that they don’t want to speak out because of fear of professional retaliation,” said Haas.
Complaints of antisemitism were often redirected into conversations about Israel, according to the report. An Amnesty International employee in Australia said that after the Bondi Beach attack, there was a tendency “to frame efforts to address antisemitism as attempts to restrict criticism of Israel.”
Haas said the report’s findings do not mean “human rights should be abandoned,” and she does not think the field is fundamentally biased or irrelevant. But she does not see the institutions named in the report as willing or even open to change.
The EiGHT report follows a survey from last year that found that 55% of Jewish workers at human rights NGOs have either experienced or witnessed antisemitic incidents at a current or former workplace. That survey was conducted by OLAM, a network of Jewish employees working in the field.
“Are these organizations lost causes?” Haas asked. “I think to some extent, very regrettably, they are, insofar as change can only happen when management is interested and takes necessary steps to rectify problems. One of the points the report makes is that there’s been an absolute lack of interest, in marked contrast to how they’ve dealt with issues and discrimination raised by other minority groups.”
Spokespeople from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders, Greenpeace, UNICEF, the International Committee of the Red Cross, Plan International and Save the Children — all of which had current or former staff members interviewed for the report — did not respond to requests for comment.
Natalie Fath, global director of communications at Mercy Corps, a humanitarian aid NGO, told JI that the organization “reject[s] any characterization that suggests we value the lives or suffering of one population over another.”
“Mercy Corps’ communications are guided by our humanitarian mandate to protect human life, alleviate suffering and uphold the dignity of all people affected by conflict,” Fath said.
The GOP pushback indicates that a significant number of Republican lawmakers remain concerned about the Syrian government’s conduct
Kevin Carter/Getty Images
The U.S. Capitol Building is seen at sunset on May 31, 2025 in Washington, DC.
A group of 136 House Republicans released a joint statement on Friday calling for increased oversight of and accountability from Syria, days after voting to repeal the last major sanctions package on the country as part of the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act.
The Trump administration had pushed Congress to repeal the so-called Caesar Act sanctions, an action finalized when Trump signed the 2026 NDAA Thursday evening, but some lawmakers on the Hill have harbored continued reservations about the new government in Syria and ensuring it continues to make progress on democracy building.
The statement indicates that a significant number of Republican lawmakers remain concerned about the Syrian government’s conduct going forward. It follows an attack by ISIS affiliates who also reportedly had ties to the Syrian government that killed two U.S. service members and a civilian interpreter in Syria last weekend. The statement has been in the works since last week, shortly after the House voted to pass the NDAA, a source familiar with the situation told Jewish Insider.
“Bringing religious freedom into Syria is the only way the country will fully stabilize. The sanctions repealed by the NDAA will help economically, but violence will not cease until [Syrian President Ahmad] al-Sharaa uses his position to denounce religiously motivated attacks,” Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN), a co-lead of the joint statement, told Jewish Insider.
The lawmakers, led by Stutzman and Rep. Josh Brecheen (R-OK), said in the joint statement that members of Congress interested in protecting religious minorities in the region “worked with the Trump Administration and House leadership to secure assurances that snapback conditions … would be enforced if Syria does not comply with the terms highlighted in the repeal language.”
The NDAA includes language calling for the administration to reimpose sanctions on Syria if a variety of human rights, security and anti-corruption conditions are not met, and for reporting to Congress on those benchmarks — but the language is not binding and the strict and sweeping Caesar Act sanctions could not be reimposed by executive authority without another act of Congress.
The lawmakers said that the “the mass murder of the Syrian Christians, Druze, Alawites, Kurds, and other religious and ethnic minorities must be a thing of the past” and that they are “committed to keeping a watchful eye on the new al-Sharaa Administration to ensure protections for religious and ethnic minorities.”
They said they would like to travel to Syria to see firsthand that religious protections are being upheld, particularly in Suweida, the city with a substantial Druze population where government-aligned forces carried out mass atrocities earlier this year.
“We look forward to confirming that these terms have not been squandered by the Syrian government — whether by their president or by rogue military officials — and seeing for ourselves that the al-Sharaa Administration has created a safe environment for the religious and ethnic minorities historically persecuted in the region,” the statement continued.
The lawmakers also said that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast (R-FL) had agreed to hold a hearing on “the verified change of treatment for religious minorities in Syria.”
Mast himself, who had been the last major roadblock on the Hill to sanctions repeal and pushed for the nonbinding snapback language to be included, is one of the first signatories on the statement.
Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement that the “unconditional” sanctions repeal is a significant step, while highlighting the congressional oversight and monitoring obligations.
“After long and serious consideration, we have worked closely with the Trump Administration to responsibly repeal the Caesar Act, which played an important role in the fall of the Assad Regime,” Risch said. “This unconditional repeal removes a significant roadblock to U.S. and international commercial investments in Syria. It also increases reporting and monitoring on benchmarks such as ethnic and religious persecution to ensure Syria remains on the path to becoming a U.S. partner that makes America safer, stronger, and more prosperous.”
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom held a hearing with Syrian minority group leaders last month, where representatives of the Syrian Druze, Christian and Alawite communities warned of systemic religious persecution by the new government and urged Congress to place conditions on the repeal of sanctions.
But others, including the Jewish Heritage in Syria Foundation (JHS), a group of U.S.-based Syrian Jews working to restore Jewish sites and relics in Syria, celebrated the sanctions repeal.
“Once President Trump signs the bill into law, we will be able to increase our efforts to preserve Jewish heritage, continue the search for those we have lost, and move forward with healing and restoration,” JHS said in a statement. “We can now begin rebuilding our synagogues, especially the ancient and historic Jobar Synagogue, one of the oldest Jewish sites in the world.”
Other leaders in the Syrian Jewish community have distanced themselves from the leadership of JHS and its affiliates, claiming they do not speak for the Syrian Jewish community in the U.S. at large.
The legislation stops short of full repeal of the 2019 Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act sanctions bill that other lawmakers are pushing on a bipartisan basis
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Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) leaves the House Republicans' caucus meeting at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington on Tuesday, May 23, 2023.
The House Financial Services Committee is set to consider legislation by Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) this week that aims to create oversight and set conditions for lifting sanctions on Syria, but stops short of full repeal of the 2019 Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act sanctions bill that other lawmakers are pushing on a bipartisan basis.
That the House is moving forward with Lawler’s legislation, which sets conditions for waiving Caesar Act sanctions, rather than the bipartisan Caesar Act repeal effort may indicate a level of continued skepticism from some House members about the prospect of full sanctions relief for the new Syrian government that has been pushed by the Trump administration.
“This bill modernizes the existing sanctions regime on Syria, requires assessments on existing sanctions relief provisions, and sets out goals for the Syrian government to meet anti-money laundering and anti-corruption standards,” Lawler said in a statement. “As the Trump Administration is already reviewing sanctions policy, we must ensure they have the tools to do so that reflect the current security environment.”
“The al-Sharaa Administration certainly has a lot of work to do to reintegrate Syria with the U.S. and our allies. While this job should be difficult given the circumstances, it shouldn’t be impossible,” Lawler continued.
The Lawler bill would amend the Caesar Act to allow the president to waive the sanctions as long as the Syrian government meets a number of conditions, including that it not bomb its civilian population; allow humanitarian aid, medical access and freedom of travel; releases political prisoners detained by the Assad regime and allows international human rights groups to inspect prison facilities; does not target medical facilities, schools, residential areas, markets and community gatherings; combats production and proliferation of the illicit drug Captagon; and does not target or detain religious minorities.
The legislation also extends the waiver period for the sanctions from 180 days to two years. I would sunset the Caesar Act entirely when the administration verifies that Syria has been in compliance with those conditions for two years or at the end of 2029, whichever comes sooner.
Another section of the legislation instructs the administration to brief Congress on regulatory and enforcement relief provided to the Central Bank of Syria through the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, allowing the bank to re-integrate with the global financial system.
It also asks the administration to assess whether the Export-Import Bank should be allowed to support exports to Syria; it is currently banned from doing so.
In addition, it instructs the administration to work to support policies to combat money laundering, weapons proliferation and corruption, as well as support financial connectivity and economic growth in Syria at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
Reps. Jim Jordan and Brian Mast have also been investigating grants received by six Israeli NGOs that played a role in the judicial overhaul protest movement
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Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) leaves a meeting of the House Republican Conference in the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, June 4, 2025.
The GOP-led House Judiciary Committee drafted a new memo on Thursday alleging that federal funding granted to USAID and nongovernmental organizations under the Biden administration was given to Palestinian nonprofits with ties to proscribed terror groups.
“Oversight conducted by the Committee reflects the Biden-Harris Administration’s neglect and misuse of taxpayer dollars through USAID, the State Department, and other federal agencies, which were used to directly and indirectly fund the efforts of anti-Netanyahu organizations and terrorist groups,” the memo sent to committee members, which was obtained by Jewish Insider, states.
Judiciary Committee Republicans also revealed in the memo that they were “expanding” their investigation “to include additional American and Israeli NGOs that may be involved in funneling U.S. government funds with the purpose of undermining the Israeli government or for the support or fiscal sponsorship of terrorist groups.”
The memo comes nearly four months after Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), who chairs the Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, began reaching out to six NGOs to determine if they had received U.S. tax dollars through USAID or the State Department and the role they individually played in the protest movement. The inquiries specifically requested documentation and communications from the organizations about the funding applications, any communications between the NGOs in question and details about how the funds were spent. So far, the probe has not published evidence indicating that they have received federal funding.
The organizations — the Jewish Communal Fund, Middle East Dialogue Network, Movement for Quality Government in Israel, PEF Israel Endowment Funds, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors and Blue and White Future — “produced 380 total documents” to the committees to date in the ongoing probe into “the Biden-Harris Administration’s use of U.S. taxpayer funds to undermine Israel’s democratically elected government,” according to the memo.
Blue and White Future categorically denied the notion that the organization received any federal funding in a statement to JI and in communications with House lawmakers.
“No state entity, administration or government body – American or otherwise (USAID included) – has ever provided funding to the organization, whether directly or indirectly. All donations to the organization originate from private donors who care deeply about Israel’s security and its future. Every donation received and every activity undertaken by the organization is fully documented, reported, and independently audited in strict compliance with applicable law,” a BWF spokesperson told JI.
“The letters circulated by members of the U.S. Congress rely on biased and factually incorrect publications that bear no connection to reality. These claims are entirely baseless. The organization has clearly and comprehensively addressed these allegations in its responses to all relevant inquiries,” they added.
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