White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff addressed the AIPAC Congressional Summit taking place in Washington on Tuesday, two sources with knowledge of the event told Jewish Insider, as he prepares for the third round of negotiations with Iran later this week.

AIPAC led lobbying efforts against the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal with Iran, including creating a new lobbying group called Citizens for a Nuclear Free Iran that spent upwards of $20 million opposing the agreement. Witkoff has led the Trump administration’s negotiations with Tehran during the president’s second term, alongside Jared Kushner, and is set to hold discussions with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Geneva on Thursday.

The summit, which ran from Sunday to Tuesday and brought together more than 1,000 of the group’s top donors, featured virtual addresses from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid. Others expected to address the event included House Speaker Mike Johnson (R‑LA), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D‑NY) and Sens. Tom Cotton (R‑AR) and Ted Cruz (R‑TX).

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz also addressed the summit on Monday about “the absurd nature of the U.N. and its institutions and how they are horribly anti-Israel,” one attendee told JI, while wearing a hat that read “Make the U.N. Great Again.”

On Monday evening, former Israeli hostage and pianist Alon Ohel performed on the main stage alongside John Ondrasik, the singer-songwriter known as “Five for Fighting” who has been deeply involved in Israel advocacy during the Israel-Hamas war. Ondrasik rereleased his song “Superman” in April 2025 dedicated to the Israeli hostages and Ohel in particular.

The conference’s speakers were “well balanced” with bipartisan members of Congress and senior level administration officials, the attendee told JI.

Simmering frustrations among lawmakers with U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack — who also serves as special envoy to Syria and manages a wide remit in America’s Middle East policy — have recently emerged with force, as multiple lawmakers tell Jewish Insider they have concerns about the U.S. envoy’s expansive role.

Barrack’s critics see the envoy pushing U.S. policy in concerning directions, toward an overly close relationship with Turkey despite the country’s overt anti-Israel posture and regional ambitions and, most recently, as a key enabler of the Turkish-backed Syrian government’s offensive against U.S.’ longtime Kurdish allies in the Syrian Democratic Forces.

Over the course of months, the envoy has also made comments that have concerned lawmakers, including questioning Israel’s status as a democracy, downplaying the threat from Hezbollah and supporting a Turkish role in the International Stabilization Force in Gaza, despite Turkey’s long record of hostility to Israel.

A Republican senator, granted anonymity to speak candidly, told JI last week that Barrack’s role in U.S. policy in the region makes them “nervous.”

“He’s running a Turkish line, and there are very legit[imate] concerns” about his role and influence, the senator said.

A senior Senate Democrat involved in foreign policy issues also said he had concerns about Barrack, suggesting the envoy was pursuing personal business interests through his post.

“Barrack is clearly knowledgeable about the region, he’s clearly energetic and engaged. But that’s the only good I can say. I have real concerns about his motives and the consequences of his actions,” the Democratic senator said. 

“That’s something I really worry about. When the president himself is among the most corrupt in American history, we can’t be surprised when the people he puts in positions of power conduct themselves in the same way, but it’s really dangerous,” the lawmaker added. “We’re losing our reputation as a good partner, a reliable ally and a country committed to supporting anti-corruption efforts.”

Asked about Barrack’s role in the administration, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) told JI, “I’m hopeful that the interests of the Kurds will be protected. America needs to stand up to the Turks where necessary and insist that those rights be adequately represented.”

Lawmakers’ concerns have become public at a series of hearings on the Hill in recent weeks.

At a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Syria last week, Rep. Josh Brecheen (R-OK), a leading skeptic among House Republicans of repealing U.S. sanctions on Syria, said he feels that Barrack’s dual role as ambassador to Turkey and Syria special envoy is hampering the U.S.’ ability to take a tougher stance with Syria.

“[Barrack] has to maintain a good relationship with Turkey. Would we not be well-served for someone to be specific to Syria, whether it be an envoy specific to Syria or an ambassador — how would that not help us to make sure that Tom Barrack can maintain a good relationship with Turkey but we’d have somebody to play hardball with Syria?” Brecheen said.

Brecheen said he’s worried that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan seeks to reestablish the Ottoman Empire and that Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa is deceiving the U.S. and still maintains a jihadist ideology. He said current U.S. policy appears to be facilitating Turkish and Russian interests.

Nadine Maenza, the former chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, who testified before the committee, responded that she shares Brecheen’s concerns.

“It’s been very difficult to have him have both hats on, and I think we’ve seen that with the State Department not having a role to play in Syria policy and waiting for Barrack to make decisions,” Maenza said. “I don’t think that serves the president well, if his goal is peace and stability in the Middle East.”

At another House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing earlier this month, Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) highlighted Barrack’s past comments on Hezbollah, which he said “have often sent the wrong signals.” David Schenker, a senior fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy who served in the first Trump administration, also repudiated Barrack’s comments.

Barrack has faced criticism off the Hill in conservative circles as well: a Wall Street Journal editorial last month blasted his “not-so-excellent Syrian adventure,” characterizing the ambassador as overly close with Turkey and pushing an anti-SDF policy in the administration.

Responding to the editorial, former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) blasted Barrack for having “betrayed [the Kurds], Christians in Syria and our country for Turkey.” “His behavior is a disgrace. He should be recalled,” Santorum added.

Former National Security Advisor John Bolton — who has since come under fire by President Donald Trump — said last year that Barrack has been “publicly making excuses for al-Sharaa’s reluctance to open full diplomatic relations with Israel. It is not generally a U.S. ambassador’s job to justify another country’s actions. He should be warned about the symptoms he is displaying.”

Conservative commentator Mark Levin similarly criticized Barrack last summer for rebuking Israel’s attacks on Syrian government-aligned forces carrying out massacres of Druze and other minority groups.

His concerns were echoed by right-wing influencer Laura Loomer, who said that Barrack’s “delusions that he can play nice with [al-Sharaa], who is literally ISIS, is going to continue to destabilize the Middle East and get more innocent non-Muslims killed,” describing Barrack’s approach to Syria as completely wrong-headed.

“I have heard from different sources that [the Turks] perceive Tom Barrack to be their man, and this is the first time in a long time they feel that they have a U.S. envoy that’s essentially on their side, if you want to use that terminology, and is basically positioning Ankara to really realize a lot of their policy goals, their geostrategic goals,” Sinan Ciddi, the director of the Turkey program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told JI. 

Barrack, while being “a problematic actor,” is also “deeply influential,” Ciddi said, characterizing him as one of the two most influential figures in the U.S.’ regional policy alongside White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff. Like Witkoff, Barrack is a longtime friend and business associate of Trump.

“He is making moves, he’s implementing policies as special envoy and as ambassador that I think present deep risks and and could have potentially detrimental consequences, because it’s going to alienate the United States at the least, but at worst, they could really inflame a considerable number of situations that we’re active looking at,” Ciddi said.

He raised concerns about three particular policies that Barrack has appeared to promote: providing Turkey with advanced F-35 fighter jets despite U.S. sanctions, bringing Turkey into the International Stabilization Force in Gaza and pushing for an influential role for Turkey in Syria and a favorable stance toward the new Syrian government.

He said that Barrack and the Trump administration more broadly appear to view Turkey as a partner that they can cooperate with on goals including stabilizing Syria and Gaza. 

Israeli officials, however, view the situation in a very different light, and “feel that through Barrack’s adventurism, what we are seeing are dangerous moves to position Turkey in the Levant and the Middle East as an aggressive actor,” Ciddi said. “They feel that Turkey is, through Barrack, finding a means and opportunity to weaken Israel.”

Ciddi warned that Turkey having any role in the stabilization force in Gaza would be “fundamentally very, very dangerous” given Turkey’s friendliness with Hamas and hostility toward Israel. And he said that providing Turkey with the advanced F-35 jets would be “deeply problematic” given its close relationship with Russia, along with various other issues, a dynamic that has troubled lawmakers and European allies.

Ciddi also said that Barrack’s public comments, or lack thereof, about Turkey’s closeness with Hamas and Iran, about Hezbollah and about Israel’s status as a democracy should be concerning for “all the countries that have signed up to the Abraham Accords, or any country in the region that’s taking a position against jihadist movements and Salafist movements.”

Michael Makovsky, the CEO of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, told JI that, “half the things the guy says I can’t understand, and the other half I don’t agree with.” Makovsky said he’s been particularly troubled by Barrack’s influence on Syria policy, seemingly pushing the U.S. toward support for al-Sharaa.

“I think that’s been a big mistake,” Makovsky said, criticizing the “betrayal of the Syrian Kurds, which I found rather obscene” and emphasizing that the Kurds had been a critical ally of the U.S. in the fight against ISIS. He noted that al-Sharaa remains aligned with jihadists who have carried out massacres of Syrian minority groups.

“We’re all in on [al-]Sharaa, and I think that’s partly because Trump met him and likes him, but even before that, it’s because this is what Barrack wants,” Makovsky continued. “He seems to often reflect exactly the Turkish view, and I don’t think the Turkish view on Syria aligns with our own interests at all.”

He said that he was also troubled by Barrack’s claim that Israel is not a democracy, saying that it was a poor message from a U.S. official and suggested that he does not properly understand the region.

Congressional correspondent Emily Jacobs contributed reporting.

Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, President Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as U.S. antisemitism special envoy, warned in an interview with Jewish Insider that inaccurate, inflammatory content is being allowed to spread on social media, and pledged to work with social networks to curb the spread of antisemitic falsehoods online. 

“The ideal outcome is, I want to continue America’s tradition of free speech and allowing free speech anywhere and everywhere, freedom of expression,” Kaploun said. “But I would like the platforms — because of the advent of AI and those technologies, you have the ability to recognize when something is not factually correct and it should be labeled as such. I think that’s something that we’d like to target.” 

Kaploun spoke to JI on Wednesday, with his Senate confirmation vote for the State Department role expected this month before the holiday recess. His comments about working with social media platforms to label misinformation contradict  the approach of the Trump administration, which has urged the major platforms not to “censor” information. Earlier this year, after Trump took office, Meta announced the end of its fact-checking program, and YouTube eased many of its content moderation policies. 

“There’s many other areas of working with the companies — the algorithms and things that have been now proven, that bots are busy promoting antisemitic rhetoric on the internet, how we get to some of that and preventing some of that. These are very tall tasks. These are not things that occur overnight,” said Kaploun, a Chabad-trained rabbi and businessman from Miami. “But I truly believe there is a true willingness of many people within the administration to tackle these problems and confront them head on, globally.” 

As an example of the kind of content he would seek to flag as false, Kaploun referred to a July New York Times article about the hunger that many civilians in Gaza were experiencing during Israel’s war against Hamas. The Times published a correction regarding the article several days after it was published, once it was revealed that a child who was featured prominently in the article as an example of malnutrition had preexisting health conditions. 

The misrepresentation in the photo could contribute to antisemitism, according to Kaploun, who suggested that the article had been viewed hundreds of times more than the correction. 

“I’m not exactly 100% sure of the actual number, but in that realm, a total disbalance and disproportionate view of people saw something that could be creating antisemitic behavior,” said Kaploun. “All those people that saw it have incorrect information.” 

He declined to say whether he believes social networks should have removed posts that included that article. 

“I’m not going to get into the specifics or the semantics of what that’s going to look like. We are going to work collectively and together with these companies and try and come up with productive solutions that will lower the disinformation and lower the hatred,” Kaploun said. “That’s what I’d like to work with these social media platforms to do a better job with, recognizing that and making sure that we can do a better job of getting accurate facts out.”

Discussing strategy, Kaploun laid out a vision for his tenure as special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, stating that his first priority would be to fight antisemitism with “pro-Semitism” — teaching about Jewish history and culture, and convincing countries and groups that are experiencing antisemitism that Jews are productive members of society and contribute a great deal to the countries in which they live.

“What I mean by pro-Semitism is to explain to countries the benefits of what it is the Jewish nation provides, and our historical perspective of what the Jewish communities have always done for communities, in terms of growth in countries,” said Kaploun. “The countries that have literally attacked the Jews and expelled the Jews don’t always have success, and there’s a reason for that. And when countries are welcoming and when Jews are in countries, usually the benefits far exceed any type of whatever detriments [there] are. There really aren’t detriments.”

“It’s not all about Israel,” Kaploun added. “It’s about the Jewish culture, the Jewish religion, the Jewish sciences.” 

Still, he recognizes that separating Israel from discussions of antisemitism is not possible — like if he encounters people who insist that they have no problem with Jews, and that their only issue is with the Jewish state. 

“Understand the battle that Israel has to fight here,” said Kaploun. “You’re fighting a culture that was teaching children to kill themselves, that the benefit to get to heaven is to kill a Jewish person. So we have to get to the root causes. You want to condemn Israel, ‘Oh, I love the Jews, but I hate Israel.’ Why is Israel in existence? Because there was a period of time when Jews were being slaughtered throughout Europe and the world was silent and there wasn’t a country for the Jews to go to.”

Here, too, he said it all comes down to education.

“The importance of Israel may need to be explained, but at the same time, people’s facts are incorrect,” Kaploun said. “If they’re factually accurate, then you’re able to have a conversation with someone. They will see the folly of what they’re saying.”

Kaploun has a plan, he told JI, for where to kick off his work once he is confirmed by the Senate and moves into Foggy Bottom. 

“The president and the secretary [of state] are firmly behind the efforts that I am doing,” Kaploun said. “They’ve made it very, very clear that the administration is fully behind the efforts that we’re going to do to combat antisemitism.”  

Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, the Trump administration’s nominee to be the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, is expected to come before the full Senate for a confirmation vote before the end of the year, two sources familiar with the situation confirmed.

Kaploun’s nomination was advanced out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday with the support of all committee Republicans and two Democrats, Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV). Shaheen is the committee’s ranking member.

Kaploun’s nomination is included in a package of nearly 100 mid-level nominees for a variety of different federal agencies and posts.

Senators will not have the opportunity to vote on Kaploun’s nomination individually, but the nomination package as a whole is likely to be approved. Only a simple majority vote of the Senate will be required to approve the nominations.

The exact timing of the vote will depend on various procedural factors, but Kaploun is likely to be confirmed before the Senate leaves for its winter recess in two weeks, a source familiar with the situation said.

Kaploun wasn’t included in a previous version of this nomination package, which was filed before he cleared the Foreign Relations Committee. That version of the package was defeated on the Senate floor earlier Thursday because a nominee who did not meet the qualifications for inclusion had been part of the package. As they refiled a new version, Republicans added several additional nominees, including Kaploun.

Facing procedural obstacles from Democrats that were slowing confirmation proceedings on the Senate floor to a crawl, Republicans changed the chamber’s rules earlier this year to allow themselves to approve some lower-level nominees in such groups by a simple majority vote, rather than the previous 60-vote threshold.

Jewish Insider’s senior national correspondent Gabby Deutch and congressional correspondent Emily Jacobs contributed reporting.

Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, the Trump administration’s nominee to be the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, emphasized the importance of education as the critical tool to combat antisemitism during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday.

“Together with bipartisan support, we must educate the world to respect one another. Lofty goals, perhaps, but a lesson that I learned from the Grand Rabbi of Lubavitch, as well as from my grandparents and my parents, is to do my best to impact and make the world a better place,” Kaploun said. “We do this by building bridges through education and friendships and dialogue. We must learn from the past to protect and educate the living.”

“We must, educate, educate, educate about the history of the Jewish community in America and the Judeo-Christian values our country was founded on,” he continued. “I pledge to all of you here, I will not waver and I will not rest. I will commit to you to do my very best, if confirmed, to fight antisemitism everywhere and to make this world a better arena for God to dwell and spread his blessings upon us all.”

Kaploun also emphasized the importance of understanding the history of the Holocaust, describing the U.S. veterans who liberated Nazi death camps as men who “saw the worst of humanity” and became “the best advocates in the world” against antisemitism. He also said he urges people to visit the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

“People don’t know the history, people don’t understand that we have to respect one another,” Kaploun said. “The problem is that people don’t want to listen to [WWII veterans] and hear their stories. … In America, we believe in freedom of expression and freedom of speech, but at the same time, we have to educate people as to what the facts truly are. … We’re missing that boat.”

Asked by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) about President Donald Trump’s response to Tucker Carlson hosting neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes on his podcast — Trump said that Carlson has “said good things about me over the years” and that “people have to decide” how they feel about Fuentes — Kaploun emphasized freedom of speech, as well as the administration’s work to combat antisemitism.

“I think the president and the secretary of state have made it perfectly clear that any type of antisemitism [does not have] a place in America. … That’s something that guides the administration’s policy,” Kaploun said, adding that the administration’s policy is that “antisemitism is to be condemned everywhere.”

He said that antisemitism is a “global problem” that stems from “ignorance” and a lack of education.

“But freedom of speech is something that’s a right, and freedom of expression globally is an important part of what the administration’s policy is,” he continued.“You have a right to hate, but we have a right to explain and stand up and abhor everything that you say. I believe very strongly that we can condemn remarks whenever they need to be condemned and educate people.”

The friendly interview between Carlson and Fuentes has touched off a reckoning in conservative circles about antisemitism on the right, though the administration has largely stayed out of the fray on the issue.

Pressed on the line between criticism of Israel and antisemitism, Kaploun pointed to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, which has been used by the State Department for years.

He said that anyone has a right to criticize Israel, but that when individuals single out Israel without offering criticisms of any other countries, that can cross the line into antisemitism.

In his opening statement, Kaploun detailed the ways that antisemitism has impacted him throughout his life: he heard shouts of “dirty Jew” while walking to synagogue as a child; he grew up during the Crown Heights riots, hearing cries of “kill the Jews” in the streets; and his sister died of 9/11 related cancer and his cousin was killed on Oct. 7 protecting her children who are now orphans.

He said he also had the opportunity to sit with former hostage Yarden Bibas, whose family was killed by terrorists in Gaza after being taken captive, the night before the funeral of Bibas’ wife and children.

“Yes, I have seen the worst that humanity can do. When asked to serve my country by our president in a role that I truly wished did not need to exist there was no hesitation,” Kaploun said. “I sit before you humbled by the opportunity to serve my country. It is a daunting task.”

Kaploun also emphasized that antisemitism is a “symbol of a larger hatred” and that “when a country starts allowing antisemitism, the results are not kind to that country.”

“That is why President Trump and Secretary Rubio have stated there can be no compromise with antisemitism,” he said. “Antisemitism is anti-American. Those who chant ‘death to the Jews’ all too often chant ‘death to America.’ We cannot allow anyone to teach children from infancy to kill and to be a martyr.”

Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), co-chair of the Senate antisemitism task force and a member of the committee, told Jewish Insider in a statement, “I’ve worked closely with Special Envoys under both Republican and Democratic Administrations. Maintaining this bipartisan tradition will be critical to the success of this role. If confirmed, I look forward to working with Rabbi Kaploun to achieve our shared priorities.”

In a letter to the committee, the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center’s Nathan Diament and Isaac Pretter — while not directly endorsing Kaploun — emphasized the importance of filling the role quickly and noted Kaploun’s qualifications.

“As an easily identifiable member of the Jewish community, and longtime activist, Rabbi Kaploun is familiar with the issues facing Jews around the world,” the OU Advocacy leaders wrote. “As a member of the Orthodox community, we are familiar with Rabbi Kaploun and his commitment to combatting antisemitism.”

The also noted that he had “shown a willingness to cross the partisan divide” to issue a joint op-ed with predecessors Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt and Elan Carr in response to the Capital Jewish Museum shooting.

“In short, Rabbi Kaploun has proven an eager and capable ally in the fight against antisemitism,” Diament and Pretter said.

Ted Deutch, the CEO of the American Jewish Committee, urged the “swift confirmation of Rabbi Kaploun to help the United States continue to lead the fight against antisemitism across the globe,” in a post on X.

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), a co-chair of the House Jewish Caucus, and 17 other House Democrats wrote to committee leaders in opposition to Kaploun’s nomination, calling it “partisan and controversial.” 

They criticized him for past comments accusing Democrats of failing to condemn the Oct. 7 attackers as terrorists or call out antisemitism, saying that the comments raise concerns about his “judgement, temperament” and capacity to work with Democrats, and that a vote to support him would be an endorsement of those sentiments and an insult to committee Democrats.

They also condemned him for failing to condemn antisemitic comments by Trump and members of his administration, and highlighted past reporting on a lawsuit relating to an alleged extramarital affair.

“Ultimately, Mr. Kaploun, when confronted by antisemitic rhetoric, did not speak out against it and himself engaged in speech that was deeply damaging to the Jewish community at a time of peak antisemitism,” the letter reads. “We must demand better.”

Other signatories to the letter included Jewish Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Becca Balint (D-VT) and Steve Cohen (D-TN), as well as Reps. Adam Smith (D-WA), Jim McGovern (D-MA), Andre Carson (D-IN), Joaquin Castro (D-TX), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Sylvia Garcia (D-TX), Cleo Fields (D-LA), Mark Takano (D-CA), Madeleine Dean (D-PA), Betty McCollum (D-MN), Troy Carter (D-LA), Emily Randall (D-WA) and Joe Courtney (D-CT).

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce, nominated to be deputy U.S. representative to the United Nations, testified alongside Kaploun. She affirmed that the administration is committed to preventing the U.N. Relief and Works Agency from having any role in the future of Gaza.

“Other nations, other entities, NGOs know that this is something now, it is a new way forward, it is something they can work forward with,” she said, praising the Trump administration’s Gaza peace plan, recently approved by the U.N. Security Council. “The World Food Program, other entities associated with the U.N. and other nations and their assistance will make the difference. We will pick up the difference of whatever UNRWA claimed that they were doing.”

She also highlighted concerns about UNRWA’s educational programs radicalizing young generations of Palestinians through antisemitic and anti-Israel school curricula and said these issues must end.

Bruce also committed to pursuing “bold reform” at the U.N. and pursuing an end to its anti-Israel bias.

White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff predicted on Thursday that the Abraham Accords will “seriously expand” in response to the end of fighting in Gaza. Witkoff was addressing attendees at an event commemorating the second anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks.

“No leader has done more for the Jewish people or the State of Israel than President Trump,” Witkoff, speaking at an event at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, said. “He moved our embassy to Jerusalem, he recognized Israel’s sovereignty over Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] and the Golan Heights. He forged the Abraham peace Accords, which will seriously expand now,” Witkoff said. 

The White House envoy, who returned from the region earlier this week after the implementation of the first phase of the ceasefire, posited that Trump winning a second term last November was “the major breakthrough of this conflict.” 

“The moment that result was declared, the world changed, and so did the negotiations. Hamas and every party in the region understood that President Trump, his return to office, meant strength, accountability and action,” Witkoff explained. “Even before taking office, President Trump made it clear he wanted progress by the day he stepped into the Oval Office, and shortly thereof, we struck a ceasefire and hostage release deal that began to turn the tide.”

“The success of that first hostage release was made possible by President Trump’s 20-point plan, a strategy that united the Arab world behind this effort. Nations like Egypt, Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan and many others came aboard because peace and civility are in everybody’s interests,” he added.

Witkoff went on to commend the Arab state negotiators and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and former senior advisor, arguing that they collectively pressured Hamas to release the remaining hostages. All 20 living hostages were freed on Monday, while the terror group has slow-walked the repatriation of the bodies of deceased hostages 

“In the final phase, at President Trump’s directive, Jared Kushner, a great American, and I flew to Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, for the last round of negotiations, led by Qatari, Egyptian and Turkey’s mediators. They were incredible and without them we would not be where we are today,” Witkoff said. “Jared was tremendous. Together, we convinced Hamas that keeping the remaining 20 hostages was no longer an asset, it was a liability, and they began to believe it.”

Witkoff acknowledged that Israel has yet to receive the remains of the deceased hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza, but said the administration was working toward their release.

“We didn’t get everybody back. We’ve gotten [nine deceased hostages] back and we will pursue the return of the … deceased until they all go home, and I’m confident that they will,” Witkoff said. 

Witkoff also referenced his several recent visits to Gaza during his remarks, pointing out that Gazans he’s engaged with “want peace too. They want stability, opportunity, a better life for their children. A future for Gazans must include jobs, education, hope, aspirations, not just guns and violence. Israel should never have to live under the threat of rockets flying at its people or the fear of terrorist attacks, but Gaza’s people must be able to live a decent life as well.”

“We have to be clear, Hamas must unequivocally disarm. They have no future in Gaza,” he continued. “Only when extremism ends does prosperity begin.”

Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, Trump’s nominee to serve as antisemitism envoy; Ben Ladany, a former IDF sergeant in the elite Oketz K-9 Unit who was shot seven times in November 2023 while fighting Hamas in Gaza; and Almog Meir Jan, an Israeli hostage held by a Palestinian journalist after being taken from the Nova music festival, also spoke at the event. 

Nat Shaffir, a Holocaust survivor and USHMM volunteer, and 18 other Holocaust survivors, were among those in attendance, in addition to Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL); Andrew Giuliani, the son of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and the executive director of the White House task force overseeing the 2026 FIFA World Cup whom Trump appointed in his first term to sit on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council; Alex Witkoff, the son of Steve Witkoff and CEO of the Witkoff Group who also sits on the council; Rabbi Levi Shemtov, executive vice president of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad); and Alina Habba, the acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey and the president’s former personal attorney.

Days before the remaining living hostages are expected to be released from more than two years of captivity in Gaza, White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump addressed a receptive crowd of hundreds of thousands on Saturday night in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square.

Witkoff and Kushner had been in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, earlier in the week for high-level talks that secured an agreement, which went into effect on Friday, to end the two-year war between Israel and Hamas. They arrived in Israel on Thursday ahead of President Donald Trump’s planned visit to the country on Monday, the day that most living hostages are expected to be released.

“To the hostages themselves,” Witkoff said, “our brothers and sisters, you are coming home.” The White House special envoy praised Trump, who, Witkoff said, “once again proved that bold leadership and moral clarity can reshape history and change the world.” 

“We all owe a debt of deep gratitude to President Trump,” the White House special envoy continued, to cheers and chants thanking Trump, Witkoff and Kushner. Numerous mentions of Trump’s name throughout the evening drew cheers and applause from the crowd.

Witkoff paused his speech and appeared flustered after his mentions of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drew widespread jeers from the crowd. “I was in the trenches with the prime minister,” Witkoff said as he tried to mollify the crowd. “Believe me, he was a very important part here.” Netanyahu and Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, Witkoff added, “have both sacrificed so much for this country and devoted their lives to the service of Israel.” 

Witkoff noted the “tireless dedication of leaders who would not rest until the world saw what could be achieved,” naming the president, Kushner and Arab leaders including Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.

Calling Oct. 7, 2023, a “shattering day,” Kushner said the attacks “shocked me to my core in a way I’ll never be the same. Since then, my heart has not been complete.”

Kushner, who has in recent months been increasingly involved in the White House’s efforts to reach a comprehensive deal to end the Israel-Hamas war, described the “tremendous burden that I felt to see these hostages come home, to see their families get the closure they deserve and to end this nightmare — and also to see the suffering end for the people in Gaza, who, for most of them, were experiencing this through no fault of their own, other than being born into a situation that was horrific.” 

In brief remarks, Ivanka Trump said that “the return of each hostage is not only a moment of homecoming and relief, it’s a triumph of faith, of courage and of our shared humanity.”

Addressing the hostage families, Trump said, “The president wanted me to share, as he has with so many of you personally, that he sees you, he hears you, he stands with you — always. Always.”

A video that played as Kushner, Witkoff and Trump exited the stage praised the U.S. president as “Israel’s great friend.”

Ruby Chen, the father of slain Israeli American hostage Itay Chen, who spoke following Trump, said that Israel Police estimated that 400,000 people were in attendance at Saturday’s rally, a weekly solidarity event since the Oct. 7 attacks. 

Several major Jewish organizations are expected to call on the Senate to “swiftly” confirm President Donald Trump’s nominees for special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism and international religious freedom ambassador. 

The groups, led by the Jewish Federations of North America, are writing in a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) that filling the roles is “of utmost importance in fighting growing antisemitism and ensuring freedom of religion or belief worldwide,” according to a draft obtained by Jewish Insider. The letter is set to be sent on Tuesday, according to a source with knowledge of the draft.

“We dare not delay in filling these critical positions that protect human rights around the world,” the letter states. “To that end we strongly urge you to prioritize filling these positions, sending a powerful signal to governments around the world that the United States upholds our constitutionally guaranteed rights to life and liberty, to freedom of religion and belief, and calls on them to do the same.”

In April, Trump tapped Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, an Orthodox businessman and Chabad rabbi who served as a campaign surrogate, to serve as the next U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism. In the Biden administration, that role was filled by Deborah Lipstadt, a Holocaust historian at Emory University. In May, the two authored a joint op-ed, with former antisemitism envoy Elan Carr, calling for action after two Israeli Embassy staffers were killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington. 

Trump named former Rep. Mark Walker (R-NC) as the U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom. Both positions require Senate confirmation, and neither has had a confirmation hearing yet. 

“We believe that these ambassador-at-large positions are crucial to protecting vital human rights, promoting religious freedom and vigorously confronting the global surge in antisemitism,” the Jewish organizations wrote. 

JFNA CEO Eric Fingerhut told JI on Tuesday that the positions must be filled to help Jewish organizations combat rising antisemitism.

“The 141 Jewish Federations across our system are on the front lines of responding to and combatting antisemitism, and every single day we hear from them about the elevated levels of antisemitism our communities are facing,” Fingerhut said. “The government is a critical partner in our fight against antisemitism, both at home and around the world, so we must make sure that these roles do not remain vacant.”

A spokesperson for Thune did not respond to a request for comment. 

A spokesperson for Schumer referred to the hold the Senate minority leader currently has on dozens of Trump nominees, and Trump’s recent message to Schumer to “go to hell” after bipartisan negotiations broke down. The spokesperson declined to comment specifically on Kaploun or Walker. 

“President Trump has focused on promoting religious freedom and fighting antisemitism in a historic way,” White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly told JI in a statement. “He wants all of his nominees confirmed as quickly as possible, including Yehuda Kaploun and Mark Walker, whose roles will be critically important to protecting Americans of faith.”

Current signatories to the letter include the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the Anti-Defamation League, the Orthodox Union, the Israeli-American Council, the Zionist Organization of America, Hadassah, American Jewish Committee, Agudath Israel, B’nai Brith International, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, NORPAC, Combat Antisemitism Movement, Religious Zionists of America and the American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists. 

A White House spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. 

This story was updated at 9:35 a.m. ET on Aug. 27, 2025.

U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Thomas Barrack, who is serving as special envoy to Syria, said on Monday that Hezbollah could have a future in Lebanese politics, despite the organization’s designation by the U.S. State Department as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

“Hezbollah is a political party. It also has a militant aspect to it,” Barrack said at a press conference on Monday morning in Beirut, following a meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun. “Hezbollah needs to see that there is a future for them, that the road is not not harnessed just solely against them, and that there’s an intersection of peace and prosperity for them also.”

Barrack said he was “unbelievably satisfied” with the Lebanese government’s response to the U.S.-proposed peace plan for the country, which includes the complete disarmament of Hezbollah and Israel ceasing airstrikes within the country. 

Looking forward, Barrack emphasized that Hezbollah’s role within a new governing structure would be decided by the Lebanese government alone, with the U.S. playing a supporting role.

“Nobody is better than the Lebanese in choosing opportunities,” Barrack said. “The region is changing, everything is moving at warp speed. All of the countries around us are changing, are morphing. You have a president of the United States who has committed to saying he has great respect for Lebanon, that he is behind it, and he wants to help in peace and prosperity.”

In May, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said 80 percent of the government’s objectives in disarming Hezbollah were met, reportedly with assistance from Israel, including intelligence and military support.

Morgan Ortagus, who joined the Trump administration as Steve Witkoff’s deputy Middle East special envoy, has now moved to a position at the U.S. mission to the United Nations, a State Department source told Jewish Insider. 

A State Department directory lists Ortagus as a senior policy advisor at the mission to the U.N., according to a screenshot obtained by JI. 

Ortagus left Witkoff’s office after a widespread purge of Israel and Iran officials at the National Security Council. Ortagus is close with Mike Waltz, President Donald Trump’s former national security advisor who is now his pick to serve as ambassador to the UN. 

Ortagus served as the State Department spokesperson during Trump’s first term, becoming a familiar face advocating for the president’s foreign policy priorities. 

The U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, told reporters at a roundtable on Tuesday — her last before departing her role — that U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres had condemned Francesca Albanese, the special rapporteur on the situation on human rights in the Palestinian territories, who the U.S. has repeatedly criticized for antisemitic comments, in a one-on-one conversation with her.

Lipstadt also spoke about her hopes for the Trump administration’s efforts to fight antisemitism, internal issues among some State Department staff relating to her office’s mission, China’s role as a driver of global antisemitism and her most important accomplishments in office.

The outgoing envoy said that, during an event at a synagogue during the Munich Security Conference, she had spoken to Guterres about the U.S. government’s concerns with Albanese. In Lipstadt’s retelling, Guterres responded, twice, “She’s a horrible person.”

U.S. lawmakers have repeatedly pressed Guterres and the U.N. to dismiss Albanese, whose position is unpaid, but those calls have gone unanswered.

Lipstadt declined to comment on some of the controversial names, such as Shmuley Boteach, Alan Dershowitz and Dov Hikind, who’ve been floated to replace her, but said that she hopes President-elect Donald Trump will nominate “someone who will be a barn-builder, not a barn-burner,” and can build on the progress she has made.

“I would hope it would be someone who would command the respect and the attention of the foreign governments with which they’ll be dealing,” she continued. Lipstadt said she “certainly hope[s]” that the incoming administration is up to the task of combating the global surge in antisemitism.

She said that, based on conversations with Secretary of State-designate Marco Rubio during her confirmation process, she is confident that the Florida senator “takes this issue very seriously” and “gets it 100%, just as Secretary [Tony] Blinken got it, so that gives me direct hope on this issue.”

Lipstadt said she’d be willing to offer advice to the Trump team or her eventual replacement if they ask, explaining that refusing to do so “would be a dereliction of duty and everything I’ve said.”

Since the Oct. 7 attacks, several mid-level State Department staffers have publicly resigned in protest of the U.S.’ support for Israel. While Lipstadt said that the issue had not impacted the senior policy-making levels of the State Department, some individual mid-level staff had expressed issues with her office’s work because they did not understand that combating antisemitism and support for Israel are separate issues.

“For some of them, I think it spilled over into thinking, ‘Well, if they fight antisemitism, they must support Israel 120%,’ or something like that,” she said. “It wasn’t resistance to the work that we’re doing but I think there were some people, misinformed people, who thought [they knew] what our particular views were without ever asking us.”

Lipstadt said that State Department officials also still had yet to identify who scrawled a swastika inside an elevator in the State Department headquarters several years ago.

She also noted that China has been a significant driver of global antisemitism in recent years, which she described as a form of “utilitarian” antisemitism, employed for political gain, rather than ideological reasons.

“It seems to have been … a way of signaling that ‘We are with the global south. We’re with you and not with them,’” Lipstadt said.

She said that such discussions have made a particularly strong impression on foreign officials with whom she has met, and helped some better understand the nature and importance of combating antisemitism.

U.S. intelligence and security agencies are “very aware” of the Chinese government’s amplification of antisemitism and the “global implications” of that, she added.

Reflecting on the rise of antisemitism since Oct. 7, Lipstadt said she believes that the organized Jewish community overlooked and underestimated the extent to which anti-Israel and pro-Hamas groups had built up support on college campuses. She said she’s “glad the organizations are re-assessing” and are adapting to the new landscape.

She also emphasized that antisemitism is now impacting individual Jews’ “personal lives in a way that we haven’t seen since the ‘50s and early ‘60s.”

The spike, she said, has brought antisemitism issues “into sharper focus than I ever imagined,” and the global landscape has “changed tremendously,” with antisemites becoming more emboldened and brazen.

She noted that it’s been “frustrating at times” to be restricted, because of her international remit, in her ability to address domestic antisemitism on college campuses, where she spent most of her career before the State Department.

Lipstadt did say she was struck by how “heated and extreme” rhetoric on college campuses became, including overt support for terrorism and denial of Hamas’s atrocities, “in a way that I had never seen before in relation to other kinds of tragedies.” She said that “struck me as something really significant.”

Lipstadt said that one of her early goals in office was making progress on fighting antisemitism in Gulf states, and convincing them to separate the issue from geopolitical issues with Israel. Her first foreign trip in her role was to Saudi Arabia to pursue this goal.

She said those efforts were stalled as a result of the Oct. 7 attack, but said she hopes that the next administration is able to advance them.

“I think that could have a very big impact in terms of the power of those countries, the importance of those countries, but also in terms of antisemitism within the Muslim world, the Arab world,” Lipstadt said.

Lipstadt said she believes she has helped raise the prominence of antisemitism as a foreign policy concern issue both within the State Department and with partner governments abroad, even in countries without substantial Jewish populations.

One key signal of this, she said, is that the State Department distributed the global guidelines for combating antisemitism, which the U.S. and other partners developed, as a démarche to a range of U.S. partners, formally asking other nations to sign express their support for the guidelines and making them a formal part of the State Department’s global human rights agenda.

Lipstadt said another major success was overhauling the structure of the office, which had just two full time and one part-time permanent staff members when the Trump administration left office and effectively shut down in the transition period between presidential administrations.

Now, the office will have approximately 20 full-time non-political staff who will continue on into the Trump administration and will be able to keep the office’s work moving ahead even before a new special envoy is nominated or a deputy special envoy is appointed.

Those staff, she said, will continue to work on recruiting additional countries to sign the global guidelines, participate in international conferences and continue to advise other State Department personnel and policymakers on antisemitism.

Lipstadt, who was a frequent social media user in her pre-government life — a fact that caused issues with some Republicans during her confirmation process — said she’s still deciding how best to speak out in her post-government life.

She said that she’s also found, in government life, that not speaking out, or acting quietly, can be more effective in the long-run than public condemnations.

“I’ll have to decide,” she said. “Also, if you speak too much on everything, at some point you’ll just be dismissed as a partisan hack.”