Antisemitism envoy Yehuda Kaploun, who also spoke at the event, praised Argentina as having ‘transformed from a beacon where terrorism once reigned supreme to a beacon of Jewish life’
Embassy of Argentina
The State Department and Argentine Embassy in Washington host a commemoration ceremony for the 32nd anniversary of the AMIA bombing.
Add JewishInsider on GoogleThe State Department’s top legal advisor on Wednesday drew a direct connection from the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993 — which sought to bring peace between the Israelis and Palestinians — to the global rise in Islamist terrorism, in remarks delivered at an event in Washington marking the anniversary of the deadly 1994 terror attacks on the AMIA Jewish Center in Buenos Aires. The suicide bombing, orchestrated by Hezbollah, killed 85 people and injured more than 300 others one year after the signing of the Oslo Accords at the White House.
Diplomats, survivors of the attack, Jewish community members and State Department officials gathered on Wednesday at the U.S. Institute of Peace to commemorate the July 18 attacks, where U.S. and Argentine officials vowed to work together to fight Islamist terrorism. Reed Rubinstein, the State Department legal advisor, used his remarks to herald President Donald Trump’s efforts to fight terrorism, which he described as a course correction from decades of failed leadership.
“The fruit of those accords paradoxically included a massive increase in brutal terrorism,” Rubinstein said, referring to the Oslo Accords. “Oslo led to an unprecedented wave of suicide bombing and death.”
He criticized activists who called the dead “sacrifices to peace,” chastising them for using biblical language “to justify the murder of many as ‘unfortunate but necessary’ sacrifices on the path to peace.”
“In those days, and for so many years after, when moral clarity and truth telling were required, the leadership failed,” said Rubinstein. He took aim at institutions like the United Nations, universities and the media for failing to speak out against antisemitism — and placed blame on Trump’s predecessor, President Joe Biden.
“Candidly, prior to Jan. 20, 2025, the United States government more often than not failed, and in many cases failed spectacularly,” said Rubinstein. “But under President Trump, things have changed. Under his direction, the United States has taken and is taking decisive and unprecedented steps to fight antisemitism.”
Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, the U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, called Argentina a “model for the world” in combating terrorism. He shared that two days earlier, during a visit to the South American country, he met with President Javier Milei and thanked him for designating Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization.
“Argentina has transformed from a beacon where terrorism once reigned supreme to a beacon of Jewish life,” said Kaploun.
Other senior State Department officials at the event included Jacob Helberg, the under secretary of state for economic affairs; Thomas DiNanno, under secretary of state for arms control and international security; and the State Department’s counterterrorism coordinator, Gregory LoGerfo. Argentine Ambassador to the U.S. Alejandro Oxenford introduced the event, which was organized by Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Plus, Rubio, Shapiro show momentum in new 2028 polling
Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP via Getty Images
President Donald Trump as he leaves the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on January 21, 2026.
Good Thursday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on the Democratic Socialists of America’s efforts to boost affiliated candidates in New York City’s congressional primaries next month, and talk to the State Department’s Sarah Rogers about the Trump administration’s moves to fight antisemitism while preserving free speech protections. We report on NY-15 candidate Michael Blake’s endorsement from a group that attacked incumbent Rep. Ritchie Torres over his “Jewish donors,” and cover President Donald Trump’s suggestion that he may not agree to a deal to end the war with Iran absent commitments from Gulf states to join the Abraham Accords. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Eyal Shani, Ron Baron and Tali Farhadian.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with assists from Danielle Cohen-Kanik and Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
- Kuwait said that it activated its air defenses overnight in response to what it called “hostile missile and drone threats,” without identifying the source of the attacks. The announcement from Kuwait’s armed forces came hours after the U.S. struck Iranian attack drones in the Strait of Hormuz — the second time in three days that the U.S. has conducted strikes on Iranian targets — and Islamic Republic forces fired on four ships attempting to traverse the strait.
- U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee is slated to deliver the commencement address at Yeshiva University at the school’s graduation ceremony this afternoon.
- New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is scheduled to appear with NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch today to brief media about security ahead of Sunday’s Israel Day on Fifth parade.
- The Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History is holding its annual Only in America Gala tonight in New York, honoring Jane and Stuart Weitzman.
- Democratic Senate candidates in Michigan will square off in a debate this afternoon at the Mackinac Policy Conference.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MARC ROD AND MATTHEW SHEA
We reported earlier this month on the series of vacancies in key ambassador-level posts throughout the Middle East — in countries including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Iraq and Kuwait. A senior State Department post overseeing Middle East issues also remains vacant, after the previous nominee was blocked by lawmakers.
At this point, time is running short for President Donald Trump to fill any of those vacant posts before the confirmation process potentially becomes more difficult in the Senate after the midterm elections.
Processing the nominations will take time: The chamber is set to be out of session for significant portions of the next few months. And there will be various other critical bills — including government funding, the annual defense bill and a potential third reconciliation package, to process on the Senate floor. Even ahead of floor proceedings, the vetting process in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee can, itself, take months before nominees appear for a confirmation hearing.
If Trump seeks to fill these posts, it will likely be in the administration’s interest to do so before the end of the current Congress, as GOP control of the Senate for the final two years of Trump’s term is not assured, and even if Republicans retain the majority, it could be with an even smaller margin.
It’s not just Democrats who have proven to be an obstacle to some of the administration’s picks. Amer Ghalib, Trump’s original nominee to be ambassador to Kuwait, was blocked by Republicans over his history of antisemitism, among other issues. And Joel Rayburn, tapped for a top Middle East job in the State Department, was blocked by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who also slowed down proceedings for U.N. Ambassador Mike Waltz.
That said, it’s not clear whether the administration will prioritize filling these vacancies. Earlier this month, experts told Jewish Insider that the White House has seemed content to vest responsibility for broad Middle East portfolios within a tight circle of personal allies of the president, including White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner and Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack — whose role has particularly concerned some Republicans. Many experts have argued that leaving the positions open is unwise and risks harming U.S. influence and diplomacy in the region.
State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott told JI that “the department has confidence in our ability to communicate with our counterparts around the world and advance the national interest.”
NEW YORK STATE OF MIND
DSA quietly poised to make inroads in NYC’s congressional delegation
As an emboldened socialist wing of the Democratic Party gains traction across New York City in the aftermath of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s victory, Jewish leaders and moderate officials are bracing for the possibility of multiple upsets in key House races that could reshape the ideological orientation of the state’s congressional delegation, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
State of play: Three races have drawn heightened attention in recent weeks, including a marquee House contest playing out largely in progressive Brooklyn where Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) is seeking to fend off a serious challenge from former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander. Meanwhile, in upper Manhattan and the Bronx, Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) is facing what looks like an increasingly credible challenge from an anti-Israel organizer. And in the race to replace retiring Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), her favored primary candidate is struggling to compete against a democratic socialist endorsed by Mamdani.
MINNESOTA MANEUVERS
Angie Craig will not seek Dem Party endorsement amid opposition from left-wing activist
Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN), a moderate Democrat running for Minnesota’s open Senate seat, said on Wednesday that she would not seek the support of the state Democratic Party at its convention being held this weekend — effectively ceding that endorsement to Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, her left-wing opponent, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
What she said: Craig, who will still run in the Aug. 11 primary, said “the DFL endorsement process just doesn’t reflect the full scope of the party that we are and the purple state that we have become,” referring to the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, Minnesota’s Democratic affiliate, which was already expected to back Flanagan.
ESCAPE HATCH
Trump suggests he may not sign Iran deal without Abraham Accords commitments from Gulf countries
President Donald Trump signaled on Wednesday that he may not agree to a deal to end the war with Iran if Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other countries in the region do not join the Abraham Accords, arguing that the Gulf nations “owe that to us,” Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
Deal or no deal: The president made the comments while taking questions from reporters during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, where he was asked if he would accept a peace agreement with Iran that did not address uranium enrichment. Trump responded that he would agree to a deal that allows for continued negotiations on some issues, though he repeatedly said he would not allow for “a crummy agreement.”
Q&A
State Dept. official Sarah Rogers urges protecting free speech while fighting antisemitism
Sarah Rogers, the under secretary of state for public diplomacy, maintained that the Trump administration’s commitment to free speech, including for extreme views, does not take away from its opposition to antisemitism, telling Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs in a wide-ranging interview that “the Nazis may have the right to post, but also the Nazis are bad and sick and stupid.”
Also, and: “I don’t see this as a line-drawing exercise between opposed priorities,” Rogers said. “There’s really no conflict between opposing antisemitism on the one hand and opposing censorship on the other. America has a proud history of opposing both. Censorship has not kept antisemites out of power, it has been deployed by antisemites who gain power.”
ON THE SCENE
In fiery address, Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch rails against HUC ordaining anti-Zionist rabbis
In a fiery keynote address opening the Re-Charging Reform Judaism conference on Wednesday morning, Ammiel Hirsch, Stephen Wise Free Synagogue’s senior rabbi, denounced Reform religious seminaries that ordain anti-Zionist clergy members and doubled down on the importance of Jewish particularism, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim reports.
What he said: “We cannot succumb to those who preach a false philosophy of Jewish universalism that camouflages disdain for Jewish particularism under the guise of a sometimes sweeping, self-righteous, sanctimonious and suffocating misunderstanding of tikkun olam,” said Hirsch, to wide applause. “Any seminary that either in word or deed, in principle or impression, acquires the reputation of being hostile to Zionism – a seminary that ordains anti-Zionist clergy – has no future in America,” he said, also to wide applause.
Read the full story here and sign up for eJP’s Your Daily Phil newsletter here.
NOT CONVINCED
Ritchie Torres challenger Michael Blake endorsed by group that attacked congressman over ‘Jewish donors’
Michael Blake, the anti-Israel candidate challenging Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) in a Democratic primary in the Bronx, accepted an endorsement on Wednesday from a small progressive group that, in its announcement, attacked Torres for his relationship with “Jewish donors,” Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. The group, Progressive Voters Network, also maintains an active endorsement of Maureen Galindo, the antisemitic Texas Democratic primary candidate who faced condemnation from across the party and was repudiated even by other far-left groups.
What they said: “This AIPAC puppet has raked in millions from the zionist lobby while our people struggle with rent, groceries, and crumbling NYCHA buildings,” the announcement reads. “Torres prioritizes his Jewish donors over his own Black and Brown constituents, cheerleading genocide and shielding war criminals instead of fighting for affordability and justice.”
Denial: House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) political spokesperson denied on Wednesday allegations that Johnson was involved in boosting Galindo.
Worthy Reads
Bridge Over Troubled Waters: The Free Press’ Eli Lake profiles the Pentagon’s Elbridge Colby, as the under secretary of defense for policy, an opponent of military action against Iran, finds himself defending the Trump administration’s policies vis-a-vis Iran. “The perception inside Washington in the early months of the second Trump presidency was that Colby and the Pentagon bureaucracy would slow-walk military plans for Iran. The hawks may still have sway in Congress, but the populist restrainers were taking over the national security state. That’s not what happened. Instead, the military provided Trump with war plans for Iran, and the president approved them. … What emerges is a man caught between the contradictions of Trump’s second-term foreign policy. ‘The president is not with him when it comes to Iran,’ one administration official told me.” [FreePress]
Undoing UNRWA: In The Wall Street Journal, Eugene Kontorovich considers how President Donald Trump could effectively shutter the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which he describes as the “front office” of Hamas. “Mr. Trump cut Unrwa’s funding in 2018 and again in 2025, citing revelations that a dozen employees participated in the Hamas invasion of Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. But U.N. agencies, and Unrwa especially, are designed to be insulated from accountability. Unrwa was created by the General Assembly in 1949 as a temporary mechanism to assist Arabs displaced during Israel’s War of Independence. While it can be closed only by the General Assembly, strategically applied pressure from the U.S. could go a long way.” [WSJ]
Tea Party for Dems: Semafor’s Burgess Everett, Nicholas Wu and David Weigel talk to Democratic officials about the growing concerns around statewide nominating conventions, which in a number of cases this cycle have served to amplify ideological rifts within the party. “The role of party conventions and assemblies is sparking heated debate in the Democratic Party as it seeks to both capitalize on anti-Trump sentiment and anoint candidates who can win general elections. Some Democrats see closed, activist-driven state party events as opportunities to tap into powerful grassroots energy, but others worry that the functions are brewing a liberal version of the anti-establishment tea party.” [Semafor]
A Path Out of Isolation: In The New York Times, RAND’s Shira Efron considers how Israel’s upcoming elections provide an opportunity to reverse Israel’s deepening global isolation. “The task ahead is twofold: to protect Israelis from real dangers, and to persuade the wider world that Israel’s security and its democratic character are not mutually exclusive. The coming elections may not answer everything the international community asks for, but they can stop the slide into isolation, rebuild some trust and allow pragmatic steps that make Israel less alone, and more secure.” [NYTimes]
Word on the Street
A new Emerson College national poll finds that Secretary of State Marco Rubio, if he runs for president in 2028, would be statistically tied with Vice President JD Vance; the poll finds Vance winning 36% of the GOP vote (down from 52% in February), with Rubio tallying 35% (up from 20%)…
The poll also finds former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg leading the field of prospective Democratic presidential candidates with 18% of the vote; Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro landed in fourth place with 10% of the vote, one of his strongest showings in any national poll to date…
Politico reports on NY-12 congressional candidate Jack Schlossberg’s recent comments to a private group at New York’s Harmonie Club, in which he diverged from some of his recent, critical positions on Israel, telling attendees he was “a stronger supporter of Israel than I ever thought I would be”; in a series of X posts responding to Politico, Schlossberg claimed the article “isn’t true” and was “written in bad faith”…
Chicago Jewish leaders raised concerns about Mayor Brandon Johnson’s plan, released Tuesday, for the city to combat hate crimes; Alderwoman Debra Silverstein, the only Jewish member of Chicago’s City Council, called Johnson’s plan “a watered-down version” of a proposal recommended by the city’s Commission on Human Relations…
The Washington Jewish Week endorsed former D.C. Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie in the capital’s Democratic mayoral primary, arguing that “Washington deserves better” than Councilmember Janeese Lewis George, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America who earlier in the campaign vowed to avoid events that “promote Zionism” and campaigned with a Washington legislator who accused Jews of controlling the weather…
The Wall Street Journal profiles Baron Capital’s Ron Baron, the longtime tech skeptic who has in recent years made significant investments in Elon Musk’s ventures, including X and SpaceX…
The New York Times reports on what Jewish students and faculty at Harvard University describe as a changed campus climate in the two years since anti-Israel and antisemitic activity at the school garnered national attention during the 2023-2024 academic year…
Israeli chef Eyal Shani opened an outpost of his restaurant chain Miznon at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center…
The American Jewish Committee is selling its longtime Manhattan headquarters to real estate developer Gary Barnett’s Extell Development for $39 million, eJewishPhilanthropy‘s Judah Ari Gross reports…
Authorities in London determined that a fire at a kosher grocery store in the heavily Jewish suburb of Golders Green, an area that has faced several arson attacks in recent months, was “non-suspicious”…
The British Museum postponed an event slated for today to celebrate Jewish Culture Month, saying that “a significant proportion of registered attendees were individuals intending to deliberately disrupt the event, preventing others from participating in good faith and undermining the purpose of the programme”; the museum said it intended to reschedule the event “when it can take place in an environment that properly safeguards both the audience experience and the integrity of the programme itself”…
Yad Vashem announced plans to open a Holocaust education center in Munich, which will be the museum’s first international educational center…
An IDF soldier in the Givati Brigade’s Rotem battalion was killed in a Hezbollah drone attack along Israel’s border with Lebanon; two reservists were injured by a second explosive, one seriously…
The Wall Street Journal reports on the “elaborate deception” effort in which sanctioned Iranian oil is transferred between ships at sea to obscure the cargo’s origin and enter markets…
Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara intends to file an indictment against Yonatan Urich, an advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in connection with the leak of classified documents to German newspaper Bild…
Iran expanded its restrictions on international news organizations operating in the country that would ban the outlets from sharing material with Israeli media as well as Farsi-language media outside of the Islamic Republic…
The U.K.’s Jewish Chronicle interviews Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi about relations between Hargeisa and Jerusalem following Israel’s recognition of the East African nation; Abdullahi said he plans to visit Israel later this year as the countries build “links in security, the economy, trade and diplomacy”…
Former federal prosecutor Tali Farhadian was named the CEO of New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage…
The Heritage Foundation announced that Mollie Hemingway, Yoram Hazony, J.C. Huizenga and Lawrence Blanford are joining the think tank’s board of trustees…
Pic of the Day
Reps. Abe Hamadeh (R-AZ), left, and Marlin Stutzman (R-IN), who are in Israel this week while the House is in recess, met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday in Jerusalem. The two GOP legislators also met with Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and visited the Western Wall complex, where they met with Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, the rabbi of the Western Wall and holy sites.
Birthdays
Fashion designer and the founder of WeWoreWhat, Danielle Bernstein turns 34…
American oncologist whose work has contributed to major developments in childhood leukemia treatment, he was the president of the Judea Reform Congregation in Durham, N.C., John Laszlo turns 95… Founding rabbi of both Lincoln Square Synagogue in NYC and later Efrat, Rabbi Shlomo Riskin turns 86… Director of UCSF’s Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases, he won the 1997 Nobel Prize in medicine, Stanley Benjamin Prusiner M.D. turns 84… Executive director of Ner Israel Rabbinical College, Jerome H. Kadden… Former mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani turns 82… Former mayor of Toronto, John Howard Tory turns 72… Author of 14 novels and a children’s book, Millions of Maxes, Meg Wolitzer turns 67… Winnipeg-born attorney, previous campaign chair for Winnipeg’s Combined Jewish Appeal and governor of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Gail Sheryl Asper turns 66… British comedian, screenwriter and singer, he is the author of a 2021 book on antisemitism, Jews Don’t Count, David Lionel Baddiel turns 62… Secretary of state of the United States, he is also serving as acting national security advisor, Marco Rubio turns 55… Four-time U.S. national fencing champion and a two-time Olympian, then an attorney who clerked for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Eric Oliver “Nick” Bravin turns 55… Longtime member of the Knesset on behalf of the Likud party, now serving as Israel’s consul general to New York, Ofir Akunis turns 53… Guitarist, composer and leader of the bands Rashanim and Zion80, Jon Madof turns 52… Rabbi of Boston’s South Shore Congregation Sha’aray Shalom, Eric M. Berk… Dancer and choreographer, Brian L. Friedman turns 49… Senior manager in the executive office at The Pew Charitable Trusts since 2015, Lauren Mandelker… Singer-songwriter, artist and filmmaker, Adam Green turns 45… Entrepreneur focused on real estate, technology, media, consumer products and manufacturing, he is a member of the Pritzker family of Hyatt Hotels, Matthew Pritzker turns 44… Former Jewish liaison for New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, he is now the managing principal of Asher Strategies, David A. Lobl… Founder and CEO of At The Well, a women’s wellness organization rooted in Jewish spirituality and women’s health, Sarah Michal Waxman… Founder and CEO at Vista Nexum, Adelle Malka Nazarian… Freelance journalist writing about culture, she was previously an associate editor for The Forward, Thea Glassman… Named for his father, a Wall Street Journal bureau chief who was kidnapped and murdered by Pakistani terrorists a few months before he was born, Adam Daniel Pearl turns 24… Israeli swimmer, she competed in the 2020 and 2024 Summer Olympics, Aviv Barzelay turns 24… Irwin Weiss…
If Trump seeks to fill these posts, it will likely be in the administration’s interest to do so before the end of the current Congress
(AFP via Getty Images)
The US Embassy headquarters in Riyadh is pictured on March 3, 2026, after it was hit by drone strikes.
We reported earlier this month on the series of vacancies in key ambassador-level posts throughout the Middle East — in countries including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Iraq and Kuwait. A senior State Department post overseeing Middle East issues also remains vacant, after the previous nominee was blocked by lawmakers.
At this point, time is running short for President Donald Trump to fill any of those vacant posts before the confirmation process potentially becomes more difficult in the Senate after the midterm elections.
Processing the nominations will take time: The chamber is set to be out of session for significant portions of the next few months. And there will be various other critical bills — including government funding, the annual defense bill and a potential third reconciliation package, to process on the Senate floor. Even ahead of floor proceedings, the vetting process in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee can, itself, take months before nominees appear for a confirmation hearing.
If Trump seeks to fill these posts, it will likely be in the administration’s interest to do so before the end of the current Congress, as GOP control of the Senate for the final two years of Trump’s term is not assured, and even if Republicans retain the majority, it could be with an even smaller margin.
It’s not just Democrats who have proven to be an obstacle to some of the administration’s picks. Amer Ghalib, Trump’s original nominee to be ambassador to Kuwait, was blocked by Republicans over his history of antisemitism, among other issues. And Joel Rayburn, tapped for a top Middle East job in the State Department, was blocked by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who also slowed down proceedings for U.N. Ambassador Mike Waltz.
That said, it’s not clear whether the administration will prioritize filling these vacancies. Earlier this month, experts told Jewish Insider that the White House has seemed content to vest responsibility for broad Middle East portfolios within a tight circle of personal allies of the president, including White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner and Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack — whose role has particularly concerned some Republicans. Many experts have argued that leaving the positions open is unwise and risks harming U.S. influence and diplomacy in the region.
State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott told JI that “the department has confidence in our ability to communicate with our counterparts around the world and advance the national interest.”
A State Department official claimed that the Trump administration is on track to have more nominees confirmed in the first two years of Trump’s second term than the Biden administration, and praised the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for working to promptly confirm its nominees. The official also noted that the State Department had reestablished a committee to review potential career foreign service officers who could be elevated to ambassadorial posts.
Elliott Abrams, who served as U.S. envoy to Iran during the first Trump administration, however, warned that it might be “too late” to clear the nominations. He added that “it does not seem that the administration is very concerned” with the issue.
“Normally any administration would try to fill as many ambassadorial posts as possible before the August recess. But it is a little late, because in order to do that you have to have people cleared, formally nominated, go through hearings, be voted out of committee and then come to the floor for a vote,” Abrams said. “I doubt the administration will rush to get ambassadors in place now, because it just does not seem to be a very high priority for the president.”
Alexander Gray, who served as chief of staff on the National Security Council in Trump’s first administration, suggested that the White House should prioritize advancing qualified nominees for ambassadorships and criticized Democrats for what he described as a “long history of stymying President Trump’s nominations, regardless of whether they are in the majority or the minority.”
“The administration should continue to prioritize sending qualified ambassadors aligned with the president’s agenda to strategically significant countries, and pressuring Senators to confirm them expeditiously,” Gray said. “Historically, presidents received considerable deference in the confirmation of ambassadors. President Trump and Senate Republicans should demand similar treatment today.”
Other Trump allies argued that filling the ambassadorships is less critical, doubling down on the belief that the administration’s current approach of running Middle East policy through Trump’s inner circle is effective.
“In this region, trusted relationships, direct lines of communication and confidence from the president matter more than whether an ambassador is in place,” Jason Greenblatt, who served as White House Middle East envoy in the first Trump administration, said. “The leadership and senior diplomats in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar have strong and trusted relationships with President Trump and with the group doing much of the day-to-day work, including Steve Witkoff, Secretary [of State Marco] Rubio, Vice President Vance, and Jared Kushner. That group has President Trump’s deep trust and direct access to him. That remains true regardless of how Senate politics develops.”
‘The Nazis may have the right to post, but also the Nazis are bad and sick and stupid,’ Rogers told JI
Screenshot
Sarah Rogers, under secretary of state for public diplomacy, speaks at the Hudson Institute on May 20, 2026.
Sarah Rogers, the under secretary of state for public diplomacy, maintained that the Trump administration’s commitment to free speech, including for extreme views, does not take away from its opposition to antisemitism, telling Jewish Insider in a wide-ranging interview that “the Nazis may have the right to post, but also the Nazis are bad and sick and stupid.”
The senior U.S. diplomat acknowledged the tension between allowing hateful views on social platforms and concerns about rising rates of antisemitism globally, though she maintained that the path to successfully responding to Jew hatred requires support for free speech protections, and said that she looks forward to visiting Israel in the future.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Jewish Insider: You have been unequivocal in your public statements about the rise of antisemitism globally being a serious problem, while also maintaining your position on free speech protections. How do you draw that line between promoting free speech culture while ensuring you have the tools to fight antisemitism?
Sarah Rogers: I don’t see this as a line-drawing exercise between opposed priorities. There’s really no conflict between opposing antisemitism on the one hand and opposing censorship on the other. America has a proud history of opposing both. Censorship has not kept antisemites out of power, it has been deployed by antisemites who gain power.
[Supreme Court Justice] Oliver Wendell Holmes was the first to say that freedom of speech really means freedom for the thought that we hate. You can guard that principle while still saying, “Okay, there are some thoughts that we hate, and we’re going to speak against them, and we’re going to explain why these people are wrong, and we’re going to fight that battle in the marketplace of ideas.” I think every free speech advocate makes normative judgments about the speech that’s on offer, and a normative judgment I’ve always made is that the Nazis may have the right to post, but also the Nazis are bad and sick and stupid.
JI: How do you, or the State Department more broadly, view efforts to counter foreign operations and propaganda campaigns, especially with regard to media where the location of origin is often hidden?
SR: Countering what is called in the [State Department] statute “foreign malign influence” is part of my statutory mandate, and we take it seriously. There are a whole bunch of tools in what you might call the counter-propaganda toolbox.
This is an information environment where legitimacy and trust are more important than ever. Right now, we’re in this liminal zone. I think technology will refine this landscape a bit, but we’re in a zone where any image or any video can be fake, and so it is more important than ever if we were trying to persuade the global public that they can trust us.
What I’m looking for ways to do now, and what the State Department wants to do now, is to counter these kinds of influence operations chiefly through exposure and through counter speech. We can expose the foreign providence of a lot of information and the inauthentic nature of some of the behavior. That doesn’t mean we have to reach out behind closed doors to Twitter or Facebook and urge them to censor anyone concurring with a particular narrative. We don’t have to do that. It is not my job to dictate what Americans can say or see online, but I can tell Americans what we and our partners are seeing online and let them make up their own minds.
One thing that my office has done in the past also is try to promote technologies that improve the information environment and make that environment one in which we can more easily communicate about American priorities.
I don’t want to fund tools that put a centralized thumb on the scale of permissible opinion, or that try to choke off permissible opinion before it gets to the public sphere. What I’d rather do is prospect and promote tools that respect and empower the audience to discern true and authentic information and have the kinds of conversations they want to have.
Both X, formerly Twitter, and Meta have started rolling out the “Grok, is this true?” feature. It’s kind of interesting. Everyone knows the LLMs are trained on a consensus model of available opinion. A lot of them have gobbled up like most books ever written. They’ve scoured social media. When these models first debuted, they were pretty clunky. There was a whole genre of AI discourse that just consisted of people making their LLM say insane, woke, Kafkaesque things, but the models have gotten better. They’ve gotten better to the point where most people, even people with unpopular opinions, trust them to kind of collate facts.
There are now some early scientific studies showing that, as a result, interacting with AI chatbots depolarizes people politically. It is conducive to lessened political extremism, and I think making that kind of tool available is an example of something we can do that doesn’t make people feel coerced or condescended to, it doesn’t spark that kind of oppositional, anti-institutional reflex, because you’re just letting them have access to something that they want and they enjoy. We’ve also seen those exact tools used to push back on antisemitic propaganda online.
JI: Can you speak to how private industry and social media companies have responded to your engagement on these issues?
SR: I’ve had a lot of congenial interactions with the tech sector. I’ve been accused by critics, including in Europe, of essentially being too staunch an advocate for the tech sector, which is ironic because I started my free speech activism career as a thorn on the side of Big Tech. When we’re advocating for the freedom of our companies not to censor, then of course they’re grateful. I also think, though, that within Silicon Valley, within the investor class and the executive class, and then the user bases of these companies, there is a real organic demand for ways to harness the powers of invention to make the information environment better.
I have intentionally avoided having any interactions with tech companies that could reasonably be expected to result in the removal of content. If I ever had reason to do that, like if there was a tweet with the nuclear codes in it or something like that, I would try to make sure that I disclosed that to the public, but I avoid it as a matter of practice. Still, I have conversations all the time with people in the tech industry who are interested in how we discern content provenance, how we can help people integrate AI in ways that are less conducive to kind of AI psychosis type outcomes, how we can promote truthful information.
The only reason the information environment feels so new and different is because Americans are so good at innovating things that spread like wildfire and change the world. That’s fundamentally good. Now we’re in this new information environment, and you’ve probably heard me say this before, that this is on par with the invention of the telegraph or the film strip, and so there’s going to be some shudders and spasms as we adjust, but we can use the power of innovation and invention to make our environment better, not worse. I think tech is very receptive to that, especially because there’s all this kind of almost superstitious anti-tech discourse right now, and so there’s a natural appetite to prove that chorus wrong.
JI: With that in mind, how would you describe your role in terms of responding to this growing threat of foreign disinformation and the outgrowth of antisemitism that such propaganda efforts cause? Do you see your role as more of a behind the scenes dealmaker or something else?
SR: I would not say my role principally consists of brokering informal understandings with tech companies. I think because my role has a tech component of its portfolio, it’s just natural that I have some conversations and relationships with tech companies, but zooming out, my role is public diplomacy. That includes civil society grant making, it includes a lot of public advocacy, it oversees educational and cultural affairs, so I have a really broad umbrella of stuff I can do to interact with the information environment generally.
On antisemitism, we have funded interfaith cultural restoration projects and educational projects to promote cross-cultural understanding and diffuse hatred. We are trying to promote tools like AI to rationalize and depolarize the information environment. We’re doing all that stuff, but the information environment part is only part of it.
We are looking for more opportunities to publicly and candidly communicate on trends we’re seeing in the information environment, and we want to do it in a way where it doesn’t sound like we’re scolding the audience and telling them what not to believe. We just want to credibly share aggregated statistics and facts about what we’ve observed, and I want to make sure that we get that right.
That means number one, I’ve actually instructed my staff, like whenever we operate on this issue, we need to literally or figuratively make a commitment to not censor American speech or censor anybody. We want to do the counter speech and exposure, and I think you’re going to see more of that.
I’ve collaborated a lot on the antisemitism issue with Rabbi [Yehuda] Kaploun, who’s our special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism. We have participated in the Shabbat dinners with him. We had Rabbi Kaploun organize a Shabbat with officials from Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, and with a bunch of members of the administration. It was a really powerful coming together around this issue, and I think you’re gonna see more of those kinds of activities that my office is proud to be involved with, too.
JI: Do you coordinate with other agencies and other departments to ensure that these efforts don’t overlap or contradict each other, be it about antisemitism or free speech or anything else that you’re doing?
SR: So one thing that I’ve done is I’ve encouraged my public diplomacy staff, who do kind of overt messaging for the State Department, to make sure that they are coordinated with other parts of the government, including, for example, the Department of War, who are engaged in messaging activities of overlapping topics in the same region. That’s just common sense, so we want to make sure that all of our messaging activities are aligned, or at least not at odds with each other.
I think a great thing about this administration compared to the first one is that when President Trump staffed his first administration, he was kind of newly triumphant and his coalition was still consolidating, so there wasn’t this existing infrastructure and existing talent pool of people who were aligned with the administration’s foreign policy vision, and now there are. Because of that, I have great relationships with counterparts at other agencies, and it’s very easy for us to have these conversations, though all conversations you have in the government take longer and are more kind of bureaucratically ritualized than they should be.
JI: Have you made any efforts in your role promoting public diplomacy to highlight the U.S.-Israel relationship?
SR: The answer is yes. I was actually just in close touch with the Israeli Embassy about some America 250 commemorative activities that we were going to undertake, including “America Day” celebrations at three university campuses in Israel. We’ve done a lot of interfaith and church restoration activities in the Middle East that Israel is very supportive of.
I also hope to visit Israel when scheduling considerations permit.
JI: Looking toward Europe, you and Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) both spoke at the Hudson Institute last week about the free speech conversations we’re seeing across the Atlantic. What we’re also seeing are sharp rises in antisemitism across the continent. Do you connect the two? And if so, what do you see as the prescription for solving both issues?
SR: I absolutely connect the two. It’s interesting, another thing I always say when people ask me about this sort of tension between antisemitism and free speech is that I had my staff run numbers on this. When it comes to actual antisemitic hate crimes, not speech crimes, but crimes where someone gets hit or synagogues vandalized, the per capita rate of those in continental Europe and elsewhere in the Anglosphere is much higher by orders of magnitude than it is the United States, even though we have open season free speech, and they all reportedly have laws against antisemitism.
There was this incident in London a few years ago where a caravan of pro-Palestine protesters drove through a reputedly Jewish neighborhood in London, screaming through a megaphone, “F*** Jews. Rape their daughters. Free Palestine.” There were no hate crime charges. I think London police claimed there wasn’t enough evidence that they’d done it, even though it’s on video. So who does get prosecuted under these hate crime laws?
There is this famous Nazi hunter in France, Serge Klarsfeld. He’s one of the most famous Nazi hunters. He has a son, Arno Klarsfeld, who’s a well-regarded French jurist who actually helped prosecute some of the Nazi collaborators. Arno Klarsfeld was pursued by French authorities under French hate speech laws for basically saying that France should do mass deportations of people who’d already had their asylum hearings and were adjudicated as deportable. He was basically advocating for the same kind of policy that President Trump has tried to use to mitigate antisemitism in the United States.
You have this decorated French Jewish antisemitism jurist being threatened with legal punishment just for advocating a deportation policy, so that’s an obvious nexus, and I’m not saying it’s the only one, but it’s an obvious nexus between censorship law and antisemitism.
After the Bondi Beach massacre in Australia, you had a proposed hate speech law in response that would have had an exemption for any speech that’s religious. Well, if you were an ISIS jihadist, your speech was religious, so you’re basically carving out the exact ideology that appeared to have motivated that attack. So that’s how I see these issues in relation to one another.
JI: Is there anything else about Europe’s broader handling of antisemitism that concerns you?
SR: I think often there’s a sense that if you ban antisemitism legally then you have done the work required to oppose it, and I don’t think that is the story that the crime statistics tell. I don’t think it is the story that the political landscape tells. I’ve had many conversations with earnest European interlocutors who genuinely oppose antisemitism and want the best for the Jewish people in their countries, and so I don’t think bad faith is to blame. I just think that these laws are not the answer.
JI: One last question. I want to ask about Germany, specifically the far-right Alternative for Germany party. You’ve met with some of their officials and praised them specifically on free speech issues. AfD is a far-right ultra-nationalist party whose leaders have espoused antisemitic and pro-Nazi sentiments. Do you see these parties as antisemitic, and do you think the same free speech principles should apply to them despite their historical legacy?
SR: I had one meeting with one AfD official and immediately was lambasted for purportedly being pro-Russia. The point I made at the time was that if this guy were really a Russian asset, he’s a pretty bad Russian asset, because he condemned censorship in that meeting and Russia’s a big fan of censorship. I also stand by what I also said at the Hudson Institute, which is that European policymakers don’t need to give right-wing parties a monopoly on common sense when it comes to mass migration or things like internet regulation. In fact, it would be healthy to have a democracy where multiple parties are against destructive mass migration, for example.
In terms of Germany and its specific legacy on Holocaust denial laws, what I would say is this: I come from an American First Amendment tradition, so I would not want to see laws in the United States like that, but if the only thing these European countries were prohibiting was actual Holocaust denial or actual rank incitement of genocide against Jews, then I don’t think you’d be seeing as many arguments between, for example, European authorities and American internet platforms.
We didn’t sanction [Former European Commissioner] Thierry Breton for asking that X take down a Holocaust denial post — that post would be protected under the First Amendment, but that didn’t lead to the sanctions. What we sanctioned Thierry Breton for doing was threatening an American company with European regulatory penalties for allowing an American politician, President Trump, to speak on an American platform, so our laws do differ there, but if that were the only difference, I don’t think you’d be seeing these flare-ups. The differences are far greater than that.
The parties concluded all-day talks on Thursday with no further developments and plan to reconvene on Friday
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio (2nd-R), accompanied by U.S. State Department Counselor Michael Needham (C), and U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa (R), speaks as they begin working-level peace talks with Lebanese Ambassador to the U.S. Nada Hamadeh Moawad and Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter at the U.S. State Department on April 14, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Senior Israeli and Lebanese officials will reconvene on Friday at the State Department to continue peace talks, a State Department official said, after the parties concluded the first day of negotiations in the third round of the U.S.-led talks on Thursday with no further agreements secured.
The official said in a statement, “We had a full day of productive and positive talks that lasted from 9 a.m to 5 p.m. We look forward to continuing this tomorrow and hope to have more to share then.”
Israeli and Lebanese officials did not speak to the media on their way out of the Harry S. Truman Building, though all parties are expected back at the State Department headquarters at 9 a.m. ET on Friday to resume talks.
The talks come three days before the three-week ceasefire which was extended during the second round of talks late last month is set to expire.
Participants on Thursday included U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee; Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter; Brig. Gen. Amichai Levin, the IDF’s chief of strategy; Brig. Gen. Erik Ben-Dov, the acting Israeli military attaché in the U.S.; Yossi Draznin, Israel’s deputy national security advisor; U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa; Lebanese Ambassador to the U.S. Nada Hamadah; Simon Karam, Lebanon’s former top envoy to Washington; and Brig. Gen. Oliver Hakmeh, Lebanon’s military attaché in Washington. U.S. State Department Counselor Michael Needham, a close Rubio advisor, was also present, as were other senior Israeli military representatives.
Ahead of Thursday’s talks, Lebanese officials told the Associated Press that their main objective was to get their Israeli counterparts to agree to a permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of IDF forces from Lebanese territory, and that they would address the domestic political issues in Lebanon surrounding Hezbollah’s disarmament after that.
Israeli officials, on the other hand, have described disarming Hezbollah as a necessity to furthering an agreement with Lebanon.
As was the case with prior rounds of talks, representatives for Hezbollah were not invited to participate. The terrorist organization has condemned the Lebanese government for engaging directly with Israel and refused to participate in the U.S.-led ceasefire.
President Donald Trump said while announcing the three-week ceasefire extension that he would not prevent the Israelis from responding if under threat by Hezbollah, and the parties have continued to exchange fire regularly throughout the ceasefire.
The president also expressed his hope that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun would meet in person during that three-week period, a prospect which Aoun has thus far continued to reject.
Plus, Israel-Ukraine relations face grain of contention
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Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL)
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📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
The gunman who attacked the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night, Cole Tomas Allen, was arraigned in Washington this afternoon. He is being charged with transportation of a firearm between states, discharging a firearm during a crime of violence and attempting to assassinate the president of the United States, which carries a potential life sentence.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jocelyn Ballantine said Allen, 31, had “a 12-gauge, pump-action shotgun, a .38-caliber semiautomatic pistol and … three knives and other dangerous paraphernalia” during the attack. He will remain in detention with another hearing scheduled for Thursday…
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that President Donald Trump met with his national security team this morning where they discussed Iran’s latest proposal to end the war, which reportedly includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz but postponing talks on the country’s nuclear program…
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the U.S. is “being humiliated” by Iranian leaders after negotiations between the two countries this weekend were called off.
“The Iranians are obviously very skilled at negotiating, or rather, very skillful at not negotiating, letting the Americans travel to Islamabad and then leave again without any result,” Merz told a group of students. The result is “an entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership, especially by these so-called Revolutionary Guards,” he added…
Russian President Vladimir Putin praised how “courageously and heroically the people of Iran are fighting for their independence” in a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi today in St. Petersburg. Araghchi thanked Russia for standing by its side and said the countries will continue their “strategic partnership”…
Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said today that the terror group will not disarm, despite the Lebanese government’s intent to remove the group from power in the south of the country under the terms of the ongoing ceasefire with Israel. Hezbollah and Israel have continued to exchange fire throughout the ceasefire, including a wave of Israeli airstrikes today in response to Hezbollah’s deadly drone attack that killed an IDF soldier and wounded six yesterday…
New Department of Homeland Security training materials allow green card applicants to be denied for antisemitic and anti-Israel social media posts and activism, as well as anti-American activism, The New York Times reports. The documents, distributed to immigration officers last month, cite “as an example of questionable speech a social media post that declares, ‘Stop Israeli Terror in Palestine’ and shows the Israeli flag crossed out”…
Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Andrii Sybiha summoned Israel’s ambassador to the country to protest the arrival of a ship allegedly carrying grain taken from Russian-occupied Ukraine at Israel’s Haifa Port, Sybiha said on X. Sybiha also denounced Israel’s “lack of appropriate response to Ukraine’s legitimate request” regarding a similar vessel that docked in Haifa last week.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar slammed Sybiha for his announcement: “Diplomatic relations, especially between friendly nations, are not conducted on Twitter or in the media,” Sa’ar wrote. He said that “evidence substantiating [Ukraine’s] allegations have yet to be provided” and that “the matter will be examined”…
Several pro-Israel House Democrats in Florida could lose their seats after Gov. Ron DeSantis unveiled a new congressional map that eliminates their districts — state lawmakers are expected to approve the map for use in this year’s midterm elections at a special session of the state Legislature tomorrow.
The new map could give the GOP up to four additional House seats by redrawing Democratic-leaning districts, including those of Reps. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) and Darren Soto (D-FL)…
Claims by New Jersey congressional candidate Adam Hamawy that the Gazan hospital where he volunteered as a trauma surgeon in 2024 during Israel’s war with Hamas was a “completely benign civilian hospital with no tunnels underneath it” are false, The Washington Free Beacon reports.
While Hamawy claimed in an interview shortly after he returned that “there were definitely no tunnels underground and no command base there,” Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed a year later “in a tunnel directly under the hospital emergency department, where he was leading a high-level meeting with senior Hamas terrorists,” the Free Beacon writes…
All five of Pennsylvania’s living former governors, both Democrats and Republicans, released a statement today calling on state officials to prioritize the safety and security of Gov. Josh Shapiro, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
The letter came days after state Treasurer Stacy Garrity — Shapiro’s leading Republican opponent in this year’s gubernatorial race — said the state will not pay for security upgrades made to Shapiro’s privately owned family residence, done after the state-owned governor’s mansion was targeted in an antisemitic arson attack last spring…
The New York Times chronicles Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s turn away from the Democratic Party and increasing political involvement, including against the proposed “billionaire tax” in his home state of California.
“I fled socialism with my family in 1979 and know the devastating, oppressive society it created in the Soviet Union. I don’t want California to end up in the same place,” Brin told the Times. Brin, who is Jewish, has also been disturbed by the Democratic Party’s leftward shift on Israel policy…
Toronto-based Jewish advocate Adam Hummel argues in the “Boundless Insights” Substack that “anti-Zionism” is an obsolete position, given the 78-year-old existence of the State of Israel.
“Israelis don’t owe anyone an argument for their existence. … The debate is over, not because one side won, but because the thing itself came into being. They are a people. They speak a language. They live on a piece of land and have mortgages. That is what peoples do. The Greeks do it. The Poles do it. The Québécois do it. The arguments about whether they should are, at this point, a leisure activity for people who live elsewhere”…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a profile of Keith Sonderling, the acting secretary of labor, who is Jewish and the grandson of Holocaust survivors, following the resignation of Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer.
The Zionist Rabbinic Coalition will present its first “Pillar of Zion” award to Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) at the organization’s fifth annual National Conference in Washington. Other speakers at the three-day conference will include Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter; State Department antisemitism envoy Yehuda Kaploun; Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon; and Jonathan Schanzer, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
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FOLLOW THE MONEY
Abdul El-Sayed brings in campaign cash from head of Hamas-cheering group
The Michigan Senate contender accepted $7k from the chair of Al-Awda/PRRC — and hired her son
The report from the State Department provides the most comprehensive justification yet for the campaign, including that the U.S. had acted at the ‘request of and in collective self-defense of its Israeli ally’
Mowj / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images
Plumes of smoke rise following reported explosions allegedly near Iran's Ministry of Intelligence on Araqi Street in Tehran on March 1, 2026.
Nearly two months after the U.S. and Israel jointly launched a military campaign against Iran dubbed Operation Epic Fury, Washington acknowledged in a new State Department memo that its decision to participate in the conflict came — at least in part — at Israel’s request.
The statement, in a document authored by State Department Legal Advisor Reed Rubinstein, notes that defending Israel is just one part of a larger rationale for attacking Iran’s capabilities that Rubinstein says relies on decades of evidence. But it comes after several Trump administration officials pushed back on the narrative that Israel had forced the White House’s hand.
“The United States is engaged in this conflict at the request of and in the collective self-defense of its Israeli ally, as well as in the exercise of the United States’ own inherent right of self-defense,” Rubinstein wrote in the document, dated Apr. 24.
The memo is the most detailed look yet at the Trump administration’s justification for the latest conflict with Iran, which began on Feb. 28. Lawmakers, including leading Republicans, have at times expressed frustration that the administration is not being transparent enough in providing information about the war effort.
There is currently a ceasefire in place as the two countries are engaged in negotiations, although President Donald Trump has threatened to restart military strikes if a deal is not reached.
While Rubinstein writes that Israel requested the U.S. participate in striking Iran, his broader argument is that Iran has demonstrated “malign aggression” against the U.S., Israel and other allies in the region for decades. Therefore, according to Rubinstein, this latest salvo is merely the next stage of a decades-old conflict that began anew last June.
“The operations recommenced in late February were part of an armed conflict with Iran that has been ongoing for years and, at the very least, since June 2025” when the U.S. and Israel struck Iran’s nuclear and military facilities, Rubinstein writes. Since the conflict did not officially end in June — a ceasefire is not the same as a formal agreement to end hostilities — he concludes that it has been ongoing, and the current fighting is just a new phase in the war.
“If a conflict has not ended, then it must be ongoing,” Rubinstein argues.
The memo documents Iran’s extensive history of targeting American forces and assets, including through its proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah. He dates this part of his analysis back to 1979, when the Islamic Republic was created, arguing that the country has been attacking the U.S. and its “interests and its allies” ever since. It was Iran’s “clear pattern of unprovoked aggression and direct and proxy attacks against Israel and the United States” that spurred the U.S. to act last June, he writes.
Rubinstein concludes by pointing out Iran’s response to the U.S. attacks: “wreaking havoc throughout the region.” That, according to Rubinstein, “further underscores the fundamental necessity, utility, reasonableness, and lawfulness of Operation Epic Fury’s mission and goals.”
The bill introduces a new version of the provision put forward by House Republicans last year that would withhold funding for the United Nations secretariat
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Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) speaks at a press conference following their weekly caucus meeting in the U.S. Capitol Building on July 19, 2022, in Washington, D.C.
Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee, in their draft 2027 funding bill for the State Department, are again aiming to leverage U.S. funding to the United Nations and other foreign programs to seek accountability for involvement by U.N. employees and others in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel.
They made similar efforts during the 2026 government funding process, but the provisions were ultimately excluded from the final 2026 funding bill.
The bill introduces a new version of the provision put forward by House Republicans last year that would withhold funding for the United Nations secretariat — the U.N. management headed by the secretary-general — until the U.N. agrees to waive privileges and immunities for United Nations Relief and Works Agency employees or employees of other U.N. entities in cases involving gross violations of human rights, acts of terrorism, support for terrorism or other serious criminal conduct.
The move is an effort to respond to findings that UNRWA employees took part in the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel and subsequently were involved in holding hostages and engaging in other terrorist activity in Gaza.
The provision also withholds any funding for any entities that fail to comply within 90 days with U.S. inspector general requests related to projects and programs in Gaza, the Oct. 7 attacks or support for terrorism.
“The bill also includes a provision to help provide justice for victims murdered in the October 7 terrorist attacks, including 50 American citizens, by requiring full accountability for the UNRWA staff involved in this vicious attack,” Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart (R-FL), who chairs the subcommittee with jurisdiction over the bill, said at a Thursday meeting. “In addition, the bill includes a new provision cutting off funds to any international organization that refuses to cooperate with inspector general investigations into whether October 7 terrorists are on its staff.”
Under the 2026 funding bill, 10% of U.S. funding to the U.N. and its agencies is conditioned on the State Department’s certification that the recipients of that funding are taking credible steps to counter anti-Israel bias, informing donors when aid has been diverted or destroyed and implementing policies to vet staff for terrorist affiliations, among a range of unrelated reforms.
In the new bill, House Republicans proposed increasing that to 15% of the funding in question.
More broadly, the bill would leverage U.S. foreign aid by tying aid levels to cooperation with various U.S. priorities, including recipients’ U.N. votes and their efforts to oppose U.S. adversaries, maintaining a provision first implemented in 2026.
It cuts funding for the U.N. by $1.8 billion, including slashing all funding for the U.N.’s regular budget, as well as cutting nearly $1 billion from humanitarian assistance programs generally.
It maintains the now-multiyear provision banning U.S. support for the UNRWA, as well as enhanced vetting and oversight procedures for assistance to the West Bank and Gaza. And it bans U.S. funding for the U.N. Human Rights Council and its Commission of Inquiry investigating Israel, the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice.
The bill eliminates a previous provision allowing the administration to waive a ban on U.S. aid to U.N. agencies or bodies led by states that support terrorism.
Overall, the bill cuts an additional $2.69 billion from the State Department budget — 6% of its 2026 funding — while maintaining the annual $3.3 billion military aid for Israel.
The bill adds a new provision prohibiting the admission or resettlement in the U.S. of any foreign national from Gaza.
It maintains bans on any effort to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel out of Jerusalem, or to establish any other U.S. diplomatic facility in Israel’s capital. It also maintains existing prohibitions and restrictions on U.S. aid to the Palestinians, and a ban on the taxation of U.S. aid, a provision crafted in response to Palestinian Authority policies.
It continues the U.S. weapons stockpile in Israel for an additional year, through 2029.
Regarding Iran, the bill would maintain bans on any Iran nuclear agreement that is not submitted to Congress for review, and would bar the revocation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ terrorism designation.
The bill would allow for continued U.S. aid to the Lebanese Armed Forces — which some Republicans argue should be cut off if Beirut’s military continues to fail to comply with its obligation to disarm Hezbollah.
House Republicans are seeking to strip out longstanding human rights conditions on a portion of the proposed $1.3 billion in U.S. military aid to Egypt, an effort that the Senate has previously rejected — though those conditions have habitually been waived by both the Trump and Biden administrations. It instructs the State Department to seek a multi-year Memorandum of Understanding with Egypt on military aid. The bill also includes $125 million in other national security aid to Egypt.
It would provide $845.1 million in budget support and $425 million in military aid to Jordan.
It fully defunds the U.S. Agency for Global Media — which, under previous leadership, faced criticism for a slow response to the protests in Iran — instead providing $540 million for a new “International Communications Activities” program requested by the president.
Plus, half of young Americans view Israel as a burden
Iranian Presidency/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian delivers a speech on April 19, 2026.
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📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Talks between Israel and Lebanon, which are currently underway, were moved from the State Department to the White House. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were spotted arriving there together this afternoon, and a White House official told Jewish Insider that President Donald Trump would greet the participants at the opening of the discussion…
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who returned to Washington in order to participate in the talks, also stopped by Capitol Hill where he met with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)…
While the bombing campaign in Iran is on pause, the battle at sea continues: U.S. forces boarded another vessel carrying Iranian oil in the Indian Ocean this morning and Trump said he had ordered the U.S. Navy to “shoot and kill any boat” placing mines in the Strait of Hormuz — just as a third U.S. aircraft carrier arrived in the region…
Trump also said Iran is “having a very hard time figuring out who their leader is,” indicating the regime may still be struggling to present the U.S. with a unified proposal. “The infighting is between the ‘Hardliners,’ who have been losing BADLY on the battlefield, and the ‘Moderates,’ who are not very moderate at all (but gaining respect!),” he claimed.
In response, Iranian parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and President Masoud Pezeshkian, both considered relative moderates, issued nearly identical statements on X pledging “complete obedience to the Supreme Leader”…
Iranian officials tell The New York Times their new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is alive but injured, and so far ruling differently than his late father; the younger Khamenei is relying on Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commanders to provide him advice to make decisions “as though he is the director of the board.”
Khamenei’s injuries are extensive and he is largely inaccessible in person: “One leg was operated on three times, and he is awaiting a prosthetic. He had surgery on one hand and is slowly regaining function. His face and lips have been burned severely, making it difficult for him to speak, the officials said, adding that, eventually, he will need plastic surgery”…
U.S. officials are expressing concern over the military’s ability to defend Taiwan from China in the near future should the need arise, given that the U.S. has burned through more than 1,000 Tomahawk missiles and more than 1,500 air-defense missiles in the course of the war with Iran so far, supplies that could take up to six years to replace…
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar named Israel’s first Christian ambassador, George Deek, as the country’s special envoy to the Christian world, JI’s Lahav Harkov reports, after several recent controversies in Israel relating to Christians. Deek is part of the Arab Orthodox Christian community in Jaffa…
Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) joined other Michigan Democrats in denouncing Amir Makled, a Democratic nominee for regent of the University of Michigan, over Makled’s past comments expressing antisemitic sentiments and support for terrorism.
“I’m going to have a problem with any candidate — Democrat, Republican or independent — who shares antisemitic and hateful posts on social media. Especially when they refuse to disavow those comments or show remorse,” Slotkin said in a statement to JI’s Marc Rod, in response to a question about Makled…
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth did not give advance notice to senior Republican senators before announcing yesterday that he was firing Navy Secretary John Phelan, causing surprise and confusion on Capitol Hill. “I found out about it the way everybody else did,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told JI’s Emily Jacobs and Marc Rod of the Pentagon’s announcement on social media of Phelan’s dismissal.
Trump praised Phelan in a post on Truth Social this afternoon and said he’d “certainly like to have him back within the Trump Administration sometime in the future” — Phelan had reportedly bumped heads with Hegseth but had a close relationship with the president…
Nearly half of young American adults view Israel as a burden to the United States, according to a new Harvard Youth Poll of 18- to 29-year-olds. The survey found that 46% of young Americans consider Israel to be mostly a burden to the U.S., compared to just 16% who say Israel is mostly a benefit, JI’s Gabby Deutch reports.
In addition, Ukraine, which has also received U.S. support in its lengthy war with Russia, was also determined to be more of a burden by young Americans — 31% of respondents said Ukraine is mostly a burden, while 21% said it is mostly a benefit…
The Wall Street Journal‘s Matthew Hennessey issued a defense of Elliot Kaufman, a member of the Journal‘s editorial board, after Trump slammed him on Truth Social as an “idiot” and a “moron.”
“What triggered the president’s ire was an op-ed under Mr. Kaufman’s byline headlined ‘The Iranians Take Trump for a Sucker.’ That’s a provocative title, yes, but the piece delivers on the provocation. Mr. Kaufman wasn’t calling Mr. Trump a sucker; he was merely pointing out that the Iranians are acting like they think he is one. The piece offers plenty of recent evidence to support that claim,” Hennessey wrote…
American journalist Shelly Kittleson details in The Atlantic her experience being kidnapped and held hostage by the Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah terror group in Iraq for nine days earlier this month…
Former Disney CEO Bob Iger, who stepped down last month, is returning to Joshua Kushner’s venture firm, Thrive Capital, in an advisory role…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for an interview with Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) as he introduces a buffer zone bill in Congress, which follows legislation under consideration in New York and elsewhere, aiming to protect attendees at houses of worship.
Washington is abuzz ahead of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, being held at the Washington Hilton on Saturday night. The event will be headlined by American Israeli mentalist Oz Pearlman and attended by Trump for his first time as president, alongside celebrities (including Trump fan Nicki Minaj), politicians and media figures. Politicos and reporters will schmooze at events beginning this evening through Sunday morning.
We’ll be back in your inbox with the Daily Overtime on Monday. Shabbat Shalom!
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The State Department-hosted discussions are expected to focus on extending the ceasefire, due to expire Sunday, and a U.S. request that Beirut repeal laws criminalizing contact between Lebanese citizens and Israelis
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio (2nd-R), accompanied by U.S. State Department Counselor Michael Needham (C), and U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa (R), speaks as they begin working-level peace talks with Lebanese Ambassador to the U.S. Nada Hamadeh Moawad and Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter at the U.S. State Department on April 14, 2026 in Washington, DC.
The Trump administration’s latest push to ease tensions between Israel and Lebanon faces another key test this week as diplomats prepare for the second round of direct talks between the two countries on Thursday.
The State Department-hosted discussions are expected to focus on extending the current ceasefire, which is due to expire Sunday, and a reported U.S. request that Beirut repeal long-standing laws that criminalize contact between Lebanese citizens and Israelis. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has said his aim in the talks is to see the IDF withdraw completely from the country.
The discussions follow a historic first meeting last week — the highest-level direct dialogue between the two nations in over 30 years. Since the ceasefire went into effect shortly after the meeting, Hezbollah has repeatedly fired on Israeli troops, provoking retaliation by the IDF. Both sides have accused the other of violating the ceasefire agreement.
Over the weekend, Hezbollah killed two French soldiers who were part of the U.N. peacekeeping force, prompting some leading Republican lawmakers to call for conditioning future U.S. support for the Lebanese Armed Forces on tangible action in disarming Hezbollah.
The talks also come as President Donald Trump extended the fragile ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran indefinitely until negotiations between Tehran and Washington are complete. Should the current halt in hostilities fall apart, experts suggested to JI, Hezbollah may reignite hostilities with Israel on an even broader scale.
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) told Jewish Insider that he wants to see “peace” between Israel and Lebanon, adding that it would be a “great alternative” to the status quo.
“We’ve just got old leaders on all sides and all they want is war because it keeps them in power,” Burchett said. “Old men make decisions and young men die. I think they [Lebanon] are realizing maybe capitalism is probably a better route and not killing all their people.”
Burchett also expressed that he would “absolutely” back the U.S. pushing Lebanon to repeal its anti-contact laws. “I love the First Amendment, and I like it all over the world,” he said.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) shared the sentiment, telling JI he hopes “we can get a deal there,” adding that he would like to see a ceasefire extension to help achieve that.
“If the Lebanese people have made a decision that they don’t want Hezbollah in their country anymore, they don’t want the Iranians having control over their country, I think that’s great news for Lebanon,” Moskowitz said. He also expressed support for the U.S. urging Lebanon to repeal anti-normalization laws, stating, “If repealing the law is a step to get a deal, then I support it. There needs to be a deal.”
Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) said he is hoping to see the ceasefire extended, adding that “we all hope for the disarmament and hopefully disbanding of Hezbollah.”
“We’ll see whether the Lebanese government is going to make good on its promises to have a monopoly of force in its own territory,” Sherman said. He added that should the U.S. push Lebanon to repeal its anti-normalization laws, it would be an “excellent step.”
“It would be a good idea and hopefully done in coordination with other good steps by both Israel and Lebanon,” Sherman said.
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) also agreed that such action “would be a positive step forward toward long-term peace and stability.” He added that he would like to see the current ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon be extended.
“Obviously we want long-term peace and stability,” Lawler said. “Talks have been going relatively well. We will see what comes next.”
Robert Satloff, executive director at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said he anticipates that the meeting “will be the bridge between last week’s historic opening on Lebanon-Israel direct talks and the start of formal negotiations between the two sides.” He said that it is “quite likely the two sides will agree to extend the ceasefire.”
“One can also expect discussion of other elements that will contribute to the success of the talks, including a possible meeting between U.S., Lebanese and Israeli leaders, the U.S. request that Lebanon repeal repressive laws that ban contact between citizens of the two countries and measures the Lebanese army and security forces should take to signal that this ceasefire will produce a better outcome for all parties than what followed the November 2024 ceasefire,” Satloff added.
Rachel Brandenburg, a senior policy analyst at Israel Policy Forum, said “the mere fact of a second meeting is a positive sign.”
“Top priority for Israel is the disarmament — and more so, dissolution — of Hezbollah, and retaining the freedom of action to continue to strike Hezbollah where and when they determine necessary for their own self defense,” Brandenburg said. “For the Lebanese government, sitting at the table with the Israeli government is both politically risky and an important opportunity for them to be recognized as and assert their place as the only recognized authority of the Lebanese state.”
David Daoud, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, meanwhile, said that expectations for talks “should be kept low” and expressed skepticism over whether Beirut would truly work to disarm Hezbollah. He argued that Lebanon is seeking a return to the status quo, noting that despite Trump’s intentions to bridge ties between the two nations, “President Aoun declined to speak with [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and sources close to Aoun have rebuffed the possibility of a meeting between the two leaders as ‘premature.’”
“The question is whether Lebanon is seeking this breathing room as an end in and of itself or to begin gradually acting against Hezbollah,” Daoud said. “As matters stand, I see no indication of the latter.”
Daoud noted that Lebanon has had a “strong reluctance to call out Hezbollah by name since the ceasefire took effect” and also referenced a statement from Salam in which he said the country is “not seeking confrontation with Hezbollah.”
Yoni Tobin, a senior policy analyst at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, also called for caution in optimism over the talks, stating that a ceasefire “does not constitute progress,” also noting that past ceasefires that halted fighting between Israel and Hezbollah “only kicked the can down the road in terms of disarming Hezbollah.” He also expressed skepticism over Lebanon repealing its anti-normalization law.
“Beirut repealing its law criminalizing communications should be a clear-cut U.S. demand in talks, but I haven’t seen any evidence to suggest that is on the table right now — though it should be,” Tobin said. “As one of the main funders of Lebanon’s military, Washington has the leverage to compel Beirut to reverse this arcane law, which remains an obstacle to what is squarely in the American interest: a normal, productive relationship between Israel and Lebanon.”
Trump’s former top diplomat sat down with JI to discuss the U.S. war in Iran, backsliding support for Israel among young Americans, and how he’s looking at the midterms
Siavosh Hosseini/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaking at a conference titled "Iran: Organized Resistance, Key to Overthrow" held at the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) headquarters in January 2025.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is keeping the door open to a possible 2028 presidential run, saying “only the good Lord knows” what comes next as he continues to reestablish himself in the private sector and policy world after serving in the first Trump administration.
In a wide-ranging interview with Jewish Insider, Pompeo emphasized that there will be a “donnybrook” of competing visions for both parties in the next election cycle, and urged candidates to focus on “important issues” rather than online theatrics. He also praised Columbia University, where he now teaches at the School of International and Public Affairs, for “beg[inning] to get back the correct leadership … in a way where more voices can be heard.”
The conversation came one day after Pompeo made a brief visit to the State Department for a private ceremony unveiling his official portrait. The gathering included an appearance by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who delivered remarks to the crowd on his predecessor’s tenure as the chief U.S. diplomat.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Jewish Insider: What’s your message to the current Iranian leadership if you were traveling to Islamabad, Pakistan, on behalf of President Trump to negotiate an end to the war in Iran?
Mike Pompeo: My message would be that you’ve lost. You’ve lost the people of your country, who no longer want you to lead. You’ve lost the capacity to project terror around the world. You’re about to lose any capability to use nuclear weapons to continue to blackmail the world. The Strait [of Hormuz] is going to be reopened. You’re going to miss payroll in just a few weeks, because you’re not going to be able to ship product and receive currency that is usable in foreign exchange, and people will stop doing their jobs.
You miss payroll enough times and all of a sudden, Hezbollah decides it’s not as great a fighting force, or the Shia militias, or the knuckleheads in Yemen, the Houthis. They’ve all become hooked on Iranian money.
There is a solution that is different to that. It’ll mean you’re not in power. It will mean that you lose. It will mean that you personally lose power, but the other alternative is that you will be killed.
JI: Do you think that the president made the right decision by reentering negotiations with the Iranians when he did, or do you think there are targets he should have hit beforehand, for military or diplomatic leverage?
Pompeo: I think the blockade is sufficient to merit another try. Look, I’m deeply skeptical. I’m not sure there is a decision maker in Iran today. I think there are multiple fractured decision making processes and lots of confusion.
I don’t know that he needed to go after additional targets. The denial of their capacity to move product through the strait is a very significant impact on them, but I do think it’s the case if, in fact, the Iranian regime cannot coherently present a resolution that will look and feel to them like surrender … — because they’re going to give up the entirety of their nuclear program, they’re going to have to stop funding their proxy forces, their ballistic missile program is gone, their industrial base will have to be shut down and redirected towards commercial activity, not terror; that will feel like surrender to them — then I think the president will have to begin to go back at some of those industrial targets that continue to pose risk to Israeli and American servicemembers that are in the region, and more broadly, to commercial activity that needs to move through the region as well.
JI: We’re seeing a lot of reporting about various terms that the Trump administration has purportedly offered Iran in these talks, specifically when it comes to the enrichment of uranium. There have been reports suggesting the U.S. proposed a 20-year moratorium on Iran’s enrichment program, while others allege a 10-year pause is being discussed. What do you make of these reported offers and, more broadly speaking, what would a good deal look like to you?
Pompeo: Color me cynical, but having lived as a secretary of state for two and a half years, when I see that reporting — and I don’t have first hand knowledge — I suspect that is someone playing games.
I put no credit in anything that I read in The New York Times or The Washington Post, only in the sense that they don’t know or they heard from a single individual that wasn’t actually representing the holistic view of the U.S. government. I spend no time thinking about those. I do spend a lot of time thinking about what “good” looks like. Good is infinity.
I’m also practical as someone who was a practitioner. I get it. You don’t ever get forever, but you don’t put external constraints on duration when it comes to something as serious as a regime that is in power with the capacity to inflict enormous harm on the world, with a conventional force that is serious and a nuclear capability that is real.
There’s two things. One, you can’t pay them. That’s what President Obama, then President Biden tried to do, send pallets of cash to buy your way out of this solution. The regime is not for sale. Second, I think it’s also the case that you can’t falsely give them hope that says, ‘You’re going to be able to return to status quo in five years, 10 years, 20 years from now. I think it’s the case that we’ve reached the moment where now this is a durational change in the nature of the regime.
Maybe some of the names will be the same, maybe the good spirit will move them and they will become a normal nation again. These are the things we hope and pray for as Jews and Christians, but we also do it with the knowledge that it is unlikely, and that means we have to change the leaders that are actually directing activities inside of the country.
JI: Do you think NATO has handled this moment and responded to President Trump deciding to take action in Iran well? The president is vocally frustrated with them and thinks they’ve been a thorn in the administration’s side.
Pompeo: We all know that you figure out exactly who’s with you in times of stress. This is true in our personal lives. It’s true in our professional lives. It’s certainly true in sovereign interactions.
Putting aside NATO for the moment, the way some of the European nations have behaved is absolutely abhorrent. I get that they weren’t brought in at the beginning and how that makes it complicated and it creates hurt feelings, but this isn’t about feelings. This is about national sovereignty and the safety of their own citizens.
Whether it was Spain or another nation that wouldn’t do so much as to be quiet and allow our aircraft to fly through their space, for someone who has been a staunch defender of NATO, because I believe deeply it has been important to the United States of America and to global security, to watch a leader of a country cozy up to China while the United States is doing its level best to save the very security for his own citizens is deeply indecent.
I hope there will come to be an understanding that America is indeed the good guy in this all throughout Europe and many nations in Europe, that’s why I hesitate to broad brush NATO. Many nations in Europe have actually been great and have done their best with the tools that they have available. Others have chosen a path that is very different from that. I think that will be something that takes a long time to rebuild — the trust with those countries — and they’ll have to demonstrate that they are worthy of partnership with Israel or the United States or the West.
JI: Are you still facing death threats from Iran or has your standing with Tehran changed as a result of the war?
Pompeo: As far as I know, they have not lifted the fatwa on me, so yes. We still do our level best to have adequate security to keep me from being killed by the Iranians, who have repeatedly said that they would like to see me go away.
JI: How would you grade Israel as an ally, both historically and in the last few years in the post-Oct. 7, 2023, landscape?
Pompeo: First, the United States and Israel have sovereignty, they’re independent of each other, and a different set of priorities and a different set of understandings on particular matters, very full stop. Second, they are the most fundamentally important ally and a great partner and enormous friends and important to the United States in so many deep ways.
As a Christian, this matters to me, but more importantly as a security matter, I had no better partner than the Israeli intelligence services when I was CIA director and Prime Minister Netanyahu and the foreign policy and security team inside of Israel when I was secretary of state. They did so many things to help America, often when it was difficult and much more in our interest than theirs.
That doesn’t mean we’re not going to have knock down, drag out fights over certain things. I’m sure that’s going to be true. We’ll have different target priorities, and that’s normal. It would be odd if you didn’t find that, but boy, I don’t know that the United States has ever had a closer military and security relationship than today between the United States and Israel, and I think the Iranians found that out the hard way.
They saw us flying together. They saw us intelligence sharing together. They saw the hard work that is the logistical tail that sits behind all of this. It doesn’t get much glory, but you’ve got to move a lot of ammo, a lot of fuel, a lot of people, a lot of stuff. We did that alongside Israel, and it would have been very difficult for either of us to have achieved what’s been achieved today without the other.
JI: With that in mind, we’re seeing a real shift in attitude, especially with young people, both in the Democratic and Republican parties on supporting Israel. What’s your reaction to this and what do you think was the catalyst for this change? Do you attribute it to negative feelings about the war on terror in the 2000s? What role do you think antisemitic figures in the podcast space play?
Pompeo: The causation is so difficult to identify. I think probably each of those has some element of impact and shaping. Israel has always been a flashpoint because of the conflict between Israel and the terrorists, but it’s been framed as a Palestinian-Israeli conflict, with Israel pitched to most of the world as the bad guy in that. My judgment is nothing could be further from the truth.
Israel has simply wanted to live as a sovereign, independent nation. It’s made many offers. The Palestinian Authority rejected them for decades. I think that has worn on a certain piece of the intelligentsia, the American left and some pockets on the right for sure. Some of it’s rooted in antisemitism, almost certainly. Some of it’s rooted in that it’s popular. It’s cool on a campus because the faculty is all talking about the genocidal horrors inflicted by Israel, which, I mean, it’s just patently false. I think each of those things contribute to it.
My prayer and my hope is, and I think this will prove to be true, that in the end, decent people who are part of Western civilization can identify evil from good, and will see the difference between the two. They may not like a particular strike that the United States takes somewhere where innocent civilians are killed — it’s true, as collateral [damage], it happens — but they will be able to see the difference between genocidal intent, that is driven by the Iranian regime around the world, and a desire for peace, which is driven by nations like the United States and Israel.
That means those of us who see it that way have a duty to try and articulate it, to explain it, to be relentless in articulating why that’s true, not to call people names, not to mock them, but rather to make the arguments, to use reason to convince them of reality and of the truth about what’s really taking place there. I pray one day that the bad guys will lay down their weapons, because the moment they do, the reality will be before us all. There will be peace.
JI: Staying on politics, there’s a lot of trepidation from Republicans on Capitol Hill about how the November midterms are going to play out. Do you share that concern?
Pompeo: Having served in Congress, having been elected four times, I’m always mindful that this conversation isn’t that important. What’s really important is that you work your tail off, and you, the candidates, have the first responsibility, and the rest of us try our best to help them.
It is the case, I think, that there’s a lot of energy in the progressive movement on the left today. I think that energy is there that sometimes has been more on our side. When I got elected in 2010, we had 74 brand new Republicans in districts we hadn’t won in years and years, so there was more energy. I think the next six months require us to go build that energy. If we build that energy, I think we’ll do better than the mean.
These midterms are always tough for the party that’s in control. No reason to think that historical change will take place, but if you work hard and tell a story properly, which is that these conservative ideas will deliver better outcomes for America, then we’ll do better than I think some of the fearmongers are predicting.
JI: Do you worry about the situation in the Middle East hurting Republicans in November?
Pompeo: You’ve seen that already. You’ve seen Sen. [Chris] Murphy (D-CT) do this. You’ve seen Sen. [Bernie] Sanders (I-VT) do this. They’re already trying to say: ‘This was a war of choice. President Trump failed. This is a disaster. Look how expensive gasoline is.’ So yes, this will be part of the political conversation, but that just means you have to go and articulate the why of this.
I know how people are struggling, and I feel bad when I see gas prices high for everybody too, especially the least amongst us, but I’d remind them we just have lived in this false state for so long where we thought we could just ignore this problem when it had to be solved. If the price of that, of solving that and keeping Americans for decades to come from Iran with a nuclear weapon, then to pay a little bit more at the gas pump for a little while is an acceptable cost, in my view.
I think most Americans actually get that, and they just need to understand the why and the how. When explained, I think they’ll come to the same conclusion I do, that this was a noble and important decision that President Trump made, and that it is, in the long run, better for them and their children and their grandchildren. We [Republicans] shouldn’t play politics with it either, because this is about national security, but we should articulate the rationale for why this is the best outcome for every American, Democrat and Republican alike.
JI: How are you looking at the 2028 Republican presidential bench? Do you see yourself being a part of that race?
Pompeo: It’s gonna be a donnybrook on both sides. I think there will be lots of candidates who present themselves, and I love that. As for what comes for the Pompeo family next, only the good Lord knows. We’ll see. I have a brand new grandson, I’m loving life, but we’ll see.
But I will say something that I do think is really important about the 2028 election. I hope it’s fought over important issues in a rational way. I hope the progressives show up and make their best arguments to the American people, and that the center-left and center-right do the same, and the MAGA folks and the right wing, just everybody don’t do memes, don’t tell fibs, don’t think, ‘Gosh, I was really good. I owned a lib on X.’ That might bring a sugar high, but what it doesn’t do is really deliver for the American people. I hope the campaign will turn out to be about things that really matter and be discussed in a serious way, and if so, I always have confidence the American people will get it right.
JI: What are the next steps for you in your career?
Pompeo: I’m back in the business world. It’s what I did for most of my life, before I ran for Congress. I’m involved with a private equity firm. I’m helping a couple other businesses as a board member, back in the capitalist mode, and that’s great because there’s lots of risk but lots of joy. … I’m keeping my hand in the policy space too. I teach at Columbia University and at Liberty University, two very different institutions, and I love them both, each in their own way. Then I’m trying to help some candidates be successful in these midterm elections as well.
JI: We’ve covered Columbia closely at JI since Oct. 7, and it’s notable for them to have a voice like yours join their faculty. On that front, what’s your take on the lack of campus protests or encampments against the Iranian regime? We’re not seeing the same type of protests we saw against Israel taking place against Iran.
Pompeo: It’s a great question. It got out of control because of failed leadership. The institution’s leaders failed those students. They didn’t keep the students safe. They didn’t set the correct boundaries.
We all want to protect First Amendment freedoms. That’s what college is about. Knock yourself out. You can say crazy stuff, but you can’t threaten and you can’t put other students at risk, and you can’t blockade classrooms so the students can’t enter. That’s just functionally terrible leadership.
I think what you’re seeing is some of these institutions have begun to get back the correct leadership, and I think they’ve actually done it in a way where more voices can be heard.
I was at another liberal campus a few weeks back, and some of the conservative students were still saying to me that they felt like it was still difficult to speak up in class, and that the faculty was, they didn’t use the word oppressive, but they felt the faculty was difficult. I hope that veil will be lifted, and I hope those students and all students that have different views will all feel comfortable saying, ‘Here’s what I think, and here’s why I think that.’ Then somebody will challenge them and say, ‘Well, have you thought about X or Y,’ or ‘I see it differently.’ That’s what these institutions are all about. It’s what Columbia was when it was at its finest. That’s what Harvard and Dartmouth and Liberty all should aspire to.
The Michigan senator said about the Temple Israel attack: ‘It could have been one of the worst mass killing events in U.S. history were it not for the private security’
Paul Sancya/Pool/Getty Images
Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) rehearses the Democratic response to President Donald Trump's address to a joint session of Congress.
Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) is no stranger to policy conversations about homeland security and terrorist attacks. As a former CIA analyst and an official at the State Department and the Pentagon, national security has been a top issue for her since her first campaign for Congress, in 2018.
Now she must apply her policy expertise to a tragedy that is immensely personal: the attack earlier this month at Temple Israel, a Reform synagogue in West Bloomfield Township, Mich., where a heavily armed man with ties to the Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah drove an explosive-laden car into the building and opened fire, before dying of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. No one else was killed.
“As a senator, I’ve had to rush home for five or six mass shooting events. This one was by far closest to home. Knowing the actual people, knowing the head of security, who was the one who secured my family’s events a month and a half ago, it was just particularly personal,” Slotkin, who is Jewish, told Jewish Insider in an interview in her Capitol Hill office last week.
“I think about if my own family had been in the building. I think about my own staff [who] had family members in the building. It just brought it home in a very different way. The line between who I am as a person and who I am as a leader got completely blurred and still is,” she added.
In an emotional conversation with JI, Slotkin proposed ways for Congress and the federal government to better respond to the threat of violent, antisemitic extremism. But even as she discussed ways to take action, she spoke with alarm about the growing prevalence of antisemitism on both sides of the aisle, which she described as out of control.
And she was clearly shaken by an attack that was potentially inches away from being much worse.
“I think it could have been one of the worst mass killing events in U.S. history were it not for the private security that happens to be very top-notch there, and everyone doing their jobs almost perfectly,” she said. “I think it just has contributed to a feeling for many inside the state that the very things that make Jewish life valuable are becoming the soft targets.”
During Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s confirmation hearing earlier this month, which took place days after the Temple Israel attack, Slotkin asked the former Oklahoma senator, a Republican, to work with her on improving the federal Nonprofit Security Grant Program. She told JI that her conversations with him have continued.
“I don’t think we’re accurately staffed to the threat in the federal government,” she said. “My personal feeling is we’re at the level where we need, between FBI and DHS, a task force on countering antisemitic hate … Right now, we don’t have a special unit where the officers and the intel professionals get really deep on some of the the particularities of Jewish issues.”
Congress allocated $274.5 million in 2025 to help nonprofits pay for security expenses, a figure Jewish groups believe is far too low. Slotkin wants to see more money for the program, but she also wants to improve the process for the organizations that are approved to receive those funds.
“I think making that program, which is a very important program not just to the Jewish community, but making that more streamlined, is our responsibility,” she said. “The Temple Israel folks will tell you in detail how cumbersome that grant program is, that even when you get the money, there’s so much paperwork, so many hoops, such a lag, that it’s actually not meeting modern-day timelines.”
Mullin said similarly in his confirmation hearing that “the amount of paperwork once you’re approved to get the funding flowing, and then the paperwork that’s followed up on is way too encompassing,” and vowed to work to “streamline” the program.
Temple Israel is one of the largest synagogues in the country and one of the best-protected. Not all institutions will be able to offer that same level of security, Slotkin warned.
“Smaller institutions are just left to figure out how they could possibly protect themselves when Temple Israel became a threat,” she said.
Slotkin is also pushing for a pilot program connected to the grant program that would give “quick reimbursement dollars for local law enforcement to help secure these locations.”
“The local law enforcement communities know how to help secure a location and know how to help secure on High Holidays or on Shabbat or all those things, but they’re often overstretched themselves,” Slotkin said. “If you pay that local police force for their extra time, it brings dollars into that police force [and] provides professional security for Jewish institutions. Nothing’s perfect, but it all just adds another layer.”
The real issue, Slotkin pointed out, is antisemitism — and she said the playbook used to address extremism before a person becomes radicalized should be better applied to fighting antisemitism.
“I think there’s a much bigger problem and question about, How do you deal with rampant antisemitism that’s just become normalized on both the left and the right, and sort of stop what we call the ladder of escalation when a person first starts? This is a very classic radicalization ladder that we see for groups like Al-Qaida,” said Slotkin.
She described the ladder like this: a “normal civilian” sitting on their computer who gets radicalized online, then posts hateful content to their profiles, before vandalizing a Jewish institution and perhaps getting into verbal or physical fights, which might then give way to plotting extremist violence.
“We have to figure out how to stop and intervene before people start climbing that ladder,” she said.
“I think [the attack] contributed to this feeling for some that this problem is completely out of control, but the threat is now coming from both the left and the right and from mentally ill people in the middle, and we are not positioned properly to deal with that threat,” Slotkin said. “I don’t think anyone in the Jewish community feels like we have figured out the best way, in particular, to deal with left-wing antisemitism. The Jewish community is pretty used to dealing with white supremacy and threats from the right.”
One day after the attack, Slotkin attended Shabbat services with the Temple Israel community. The gathering was held at Shenandoah County Club, which is located across the street from Temple Israel and serves the Chaldean community, a group of Iraqi Christians. A ballroom in the country club was where parents, teachers and children gathered when they were evacuated from the synagogue during the attack.
Amid the bleak news that followed the attack, Slotkin wanted people to remember what the Chaldeans did.
“I literally could not contain my emotion when the community was giving a standing ovation as they brought in the religious leaders, Iraqi American men in religious garb, to thank them,” said Slotkin. “In our hour of greatest need, they did not flinch. And I think Jews in our community for three generations will remember that.”
‘As Israel continues to face threats from hostilities with Iran, the State Department cannot abandon American citizens abroad,’ the lawmakers wrote
GIL COHEN-MAGEN/AFP via Getty Images
The empty departures hall at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv on June 13, 2025 after Israel closed its air space to takeoff and landing.
A group of congressional Democrats is urging the State Department to restart chartered evacuation flights and take additional steps to help U.S. citizens who wish to leave Israel amid the ongoing war with Iran.
The lawmakers described the State Department’s current partnership with El Al, which launched on March 13 with a limited number of special evacuation flights for U.S. citizens, as insufficient. The Israeli airline has currently suspended registration for the flights, and government-imposed security restrictions are limiting passenger capacity on each flight and reducing airport operations.
“We were shocked to learn this week that as the military conflict in Iran escalates and continues to threaten the safety of U.S. citizens in the Middle East, the State Department has abruptly and effectively ended emergency evacuations for Americans out of Israel,” the lawmakers said in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday. “As Israel continues to face threats from hostilities with Iran, the State Department cannot abandon American citizens abroad. Failing to assist Americans in their time of need is totally unacceptable.”
The letter, led by Rep. Laura Gillen (D-NY), was co-signed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Reps. Yvette Clarke (D-NY), Don Davis (D-NC), Dan Goldman (D-NY), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Julie Johnson (D-TX), Greg Landsman (D-OH), George Latimer (D-NY), Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), Jerry Nadler (D-NY), Pat Ryan (D-NY), Tom Suozzi (D-NY), Ritchie Torres (D-NY), John Mannion (D-NY), Haley Stevens (D-MI), Joe Morelle (D-NY) and Johnny Olszewski (D-MD).
According to the letter, the State Department is urging Americans to rely on commercial transportation or the Israeli Ministry of Tourism, and El Al lacks the capacity to carry all U.S. citizens who wish to depart, leaving Americans “without real options.” The information provided by the State Department, the letter reads, is “causing frustration, anxiety, and fear.”
“In the midst of a conflict, U.S. citizens should not have to wait weeks to be able to board a commercial flight or cross the Israeli border into another country to find their way home. It is unacceptable for the State Department to leave them on their own,” the letter continues.
In a press release Thursday, the State Department heralded its partnership with El Al, which it said has “already allowed more than 2,000 American citizens to return to the United States from Israel.”
The airline “will continue to reserve a percentage of seats on all regular U.S.-bound flights for Americans wishing to depart Israel” and has 28 flights scheduled over the next week “to the extent permitted by the Israeli authorities,” the State Department said. The release did not acknowledge that the registration form for the evacuation flights is currently closed.
Democrats have accused the administration of failing to adequately prepare to evacuate U.S. civilians, or government personnel, from the Middle East before launching the war in Iran.
The lawmakers called on the State Department to restart charter flights from Israel and elsewhere in the region; reopen the State Department’s crisis intake form, which helps citizens receive emergency information; activate a crisis task force to assist Americans attempting to leave Israel; and provide clearer information on commercial air travel options.
Thousands of Americans, currently in Israel, are unable to access flights home and are not being offered alternative travel options or any additional assistance by the State Department,” their letter reads. “Additionally, the Department’s inconsistent guidance and lack of responsiveness have added to uncertainty and fear, making the situation even more dire for impacted families.”
In its press release, the State Department defended its evacuation efforts: “After the launch of Operation Epic Fury, the Department offered charter flight options to thousands of Americans wishing to leave Israel to Athens and destinations in the United States, as well as ground transportation options to Egypt — with supply exceeding demand on nearly every chartered flight and bus.”
Its passengers consisted mainly of family members of U.S. Embassy staff and government employees
Gil Cohen Magen/Xinhua via Getty Images
Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv, after Israel closed its airspace to civilian flights following a joint Israeli-U.S. attack on Iran.
The first State Department evacuation flight from Israel landed in Athens on Friday afternoon, where its passengers were greeted on the tarmac by U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kim Guilfoyle.
The approximately 50 individuals consisted mainly of family members of U.S. Embassy staff and government employees, who had been stranded in Israel for the past week amid widespread flight cancellations as Iran continues to launch missiles and drones at the country and around the region.
A Jewish community leader who was on the flight, and requested not to be identified by name to discuss a sensitive security situation, told Jewish Insider that the evacuation effort was run “as efficiently and easy as possible.”
They said about a dozen embassy employees have been assisting evacuees with finding places to stay in Athens and booking flights back to the U.S. — and doing so quickly as the flight landed just hours before Shabbat.
“Some of us had very short notice” that they were selected for the flight, the source said, after they had filled out the required crisis intake form with the State Department.
“Hopefully this is the first of many flights able to take off,” they continued. The State Department is “working to get more flights up in the air as soon as possible to get [all Americans] home as soon as possible. It was an easy experience for us.”
The U.S. is working to evacuate its citizens from several countries around the Middle East. The State Department announced that its first charter flight from the region arrived back in the U.S. on Thursday, and nearly 20,000 Americans have been able to return home. President Donald Trump praised the mission on Friday morning, writing on Truth Social, “We are moving thousands of people out of various. Countries throughout the Middle East. It is being done quietly, but seamlessly.”
While the flight out of Israel ran smoothly, some of the first repatriation flights carrying Israelis who had been stranded abroad were briefly held mid-flight on Thursday as Iranian missiles were fired at central Israel.
Plus, Trump says Iran won't rule out nuclear weapons
Mario Tama/Getty Images
Protestors gather after police cleared a new encampment on the UCLA campus on May 23, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.
Good Tuesday afternoon!
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
It’s me again — Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
Previewing his State of the Union address tonight, where it remains to be seen if he will make any announcements on Iran, President Donald Trump told reporters, “Iran wants to make a deal more than I do, but they just won’t say the sacred phrase: ‘We won’t build nuclear weapons,’” signaling that the two sides are still at an impasse ahead of the third round of negotiations scheduled for Thursday…
Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefed the congressional Gang of Eight, the bipartisan set of leaders advised on classified matters by the executive branch, this afternoon to provide an update on Iran, with CIA Director John Ratcliffe reportedly joining the discussion. The White House did not brief the group before striking Iran last June, drawing ire from Democrats…
Ahead of the meeting, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told C-SPAN about potential Iran strikes, “Closed-door briefings are fine, but the administration has to make its case to the American people on something as important as this”…
Around a dozen U.S. F-22 stealth fighter jets departed from the U.K. today to be deployed at an Israeli Air Force base in the south of the country, as over 150 aircraft are being moved to the region. Military experts told The Washington Post that the “assets being assembled are indicative of a multiday campaign without a ground invasion”…
The Coast Guard is investigating a swastika drawn at its primary recruit training center in New Jersey, where Coast Guard commandant Adm. Kevin Lunday quickly flew to address recruits and staff about the incident. Lunday recently came under fire from Congress, and had his confirmation delayed, over a change in Coast Guard policy that downgraded the swastika from a prohibited hate symbol to “potentially divisive,” which was eventually walked back.
Regarding the recent incident, Lunday said in a statement to The Washington Post, “Anyone who adheres to or advances hate or extremist ideology — get out. Leave. You don’t belong in the United States Coast Guard and we reject you”…
Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) is pushing for legislation to require an affirmative congressional vote prior to the U.S. reaching any nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports, following a notification from the administration to Congress indicating that it is moving toward a deal that could allow Riyadh to enrich uranium for civilian purposes.
The notification procedures, which do not include specific terms of a potential deal, suggest that Saudi Arabia will not be required to agree to more intrusive International Atomic Energy Agency inspections or “gold standard” safeguards — which would require Saudi Arabia to agree not to enrich or reprocess nuclear material — used for the U.S. nuclear cooperation agreement with the United Arab Emirates…
The Justice Department sued the University of California today under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employment discrimination, alleging that the UCLA campus created a “hostile work environment against Jewish and Israeli faculty and staff.”
During campus anti-Israel protests in 2024, the DOJ said, “the University allowed antisemitic harassment to continue unabated for days” and “has ignored, and continues to ignore, gross and repeated violations” of time, place and manner restrictions on student protest. The department further claimed Jewish and Israeli faculty at the school have been physically threatened, ostracized, harassed, forced to take leave and assaulted…
The New York Times details efforts by New York’s business community and Democratic establishment to organize and promote the moderate wing of the party in response to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s rise to power. Some of the individuals involved, including former Gov. Andrew Cuomo allies Phil Singer and Steven Cohen, are considering forming PACs, watchdog groups, lobbying campaigns and more…
New York’s Working Families Party endorsed Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso to replace retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) yesterday over Mamdani’s objections. The mayor has been backing Assemblymember Claire Valdez, who, like Mamdani, is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and a vocal critic of Israel, and he had lobbied the WFP to endorse her or to stay out of the race. WFP’s director, Jasmine Gripper, told the Times, “At the end of the day, Zohran is an individual who gets to weigh in as an individual”…
A new poll from the University of New Hampshire found oyster farmer Graham Platner with a commanding lead among likely Senate Democratic primary voters, outdistancing Gov. Janet Mills by 34 points, with the primary less than four months away. In a general election matchup with incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), Platner leads Collins by 11 points, while Mills and Collins are neck-and-neck…
Khalid Turaani, executive director of the Ohio branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), testified at the Ohio Senate Judiciary Committee last week against a bill to codify the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, where he claimed that Israel operates the world’s largest human skin bank and harvests the skin from deceased Palestinians. “And if I call them Nazis,” Turaani continued, “your law is going to punish me.”
The Anti-Defamation League’s Ohio River Valley office condemned Turaani’s speech, saying that the “antisemitic organ harvesting myth plays on the blood libel trope, which has spurred the torture, murder, and expulsion of Jews for centuries”…
The U.S. Embassy in Israel announced that, as part of the government’s “efforts to reach all Americans,” the embassy will be providing consular services for one day only at several locations across Israel and the West Bank, including Ramallah and the Jewish settlement of Efrat…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for the highlights from President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, taking place at 9 p.m. ET tonight, as all eyes are on possible U.S. military action against Iran.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives in Israel tomorrow, where he will be greeted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before addressing the Knesset. In the evening, the two leaders will have dinner at Jerusalem’s King David Hotel. Read JI’s interview on Modi’s visit with Israeli Ambassador to India Reuven Azar.
The New York City Council will hold its first hearing on Council Speaker Julie Menin’s bill aiming to create “buffer zones” around houses of worship to protect from disruptive protests. The bill’s language was updated last night to remove the original 100-foot figure, which had reportedly emerged as a point of concern for the NYPD.
Congressional candidates from Illinois’ 9th District, where pro-Israel spending is boosting state Sen. Laura Fine and attacking Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, will hold a debate on local news.
Stories You May Have Missed
SHIFTING STANCE
Sue Altman pivoting on Israel as she runs in safely Democratic N.J. district
The progressive activist ran as a pro-Israel candidate in a neighboring swing district, but is now walking back her support as she runs to succeed Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman
PRAIRIE STATE OF PLAY
Raja Krishnamoorthi emerging as the strongest ally of Jewish voters in Illinois Senate race
Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton seems to be running to the congressman’s left on Israel, even as Rep. Robin Kelly is the most outspoken critic of Israel in the race
Plus, major Dem donor calls out 'Jew hate' in party
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House on September 25, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Good Monday afternoon!
This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
It’s me again — Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
As rumors abound about the possibility and timing of U.S. strikes on Iran, the State Department ordered the evacuation of non-essential personnel and their families from the U.S. Embassy in Beirut. “Based on our latest review, we determined it prudent to reduce our footprint,” a State official told Fox News…
Nearby, amid the buildup of U.S. military assets in the region, American refueling and cargo planes were spotted at Ben Gurion Airport…
President Donald Trump denied reports that Pentagon officials, namely Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, are raising concerns about striking Iran, writing on Truth Social this afternoon, “General Caine, like all of us, would like not to see War but, if a decision is made on going against Iran at a Military level, it is his opinion that it will be something easily won.”
“He has not spoken of not doing Iran, or even the fake limited strikes that I have been reading about, he only knows one thing, how to WIN and, if he is told to do so, he will be leading the pack,” Trump said of Caine, while alluding to the potential breadth of military action against Iran…
Secretary of State Marco Rubio pushed back his visit to Israel, originally scheduled for this weekend, to March 2, The Jerusalem Post reports, days after the next round of U.S.-Iran negotiations in Geneva on Thursday…
Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), a leader on foreign policy among Democrats in Congress, told Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs that he heard “pretty stark early warning signs of some challenges where core allies do not share our priorities” on a potential Iran strike during his recent trip t0 Europe, which included stops at the Munich Security Conference, along with meetings in Ukraine and Moldova with top European diplomats.
Coons laid out what he hopes to see from the president: “A) Consult Congress. B) Make a case to the American people about why this is in our national security interest. C) Clarify what on earth he’s planning with this Board of Peace … And D) If he’s going to work with close allies to ramp up pressure to try and achieve something at the negotiating table, he should work with close allies”…
Anthony Driver Jr., a union organizer and candidate in Illinois’ 7th Congressional District, doubled down on his recent repudiation of AIPAC, despite previously having little public record on Israel policy issues. Following a press conference last week where Driver, who is running against AIPAC-backed Chicago Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin, denounced the pro-Israel group, he returned donations from major Democratic Party donor Michael Sacks over the finance executive’s ties to AIPAC.
Sacks, who was a major backer of former President Barack Obama and former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, said in his reply, “It is truly sad there is so much anti Israel sentiment and outright Jew hate that Anthony found himself in this position. I can only hope that the electorate rejects hate in all forms”…
As more details emerge about Rep. Tony Gonzales’ (R-TX) alleged affair with a staffer who later committed suicide, a poll commissioned by the campaign of Brandon Herrera, Gonzales’ opponent, shows the congressman trailing Herrera by a whopping 24 points among likely GOP primary voters. The story, which entered the news cycle right as early voting kicked off, could catapult Herrera, a social media influencer with a history of antisemitism, to the Republican nomination and on to Congress…
Investigators at the cryptocurrency giant Binance found last year that about $1.7 billion had been sent from two accounts to Iranian entities with links to terror groups, The New York Times reports, even after Binance pleaded guilty to violating anti-money laundering laws in 2023 and vowed to prevent sanctioned actors from accessing its platform. Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who was jailed for his role in the saga, in October 2025…
The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival backtracked in its defense of a juror selected for a judging panel who had posted antisemitic and anti-Israel content online, whom it had stood behind even after the Israeli Consulate in Atlanta announced it was withdrawing its funding and support of the event over the pick.
The festival changed its tune yesterday, saying it is “first and foremost, a Jewish institution” and has “a responsibility, particularly at this fraught time, to stand firmly against antisemitism and to affirm the Jewish people’s right to self-determination.” It said it would review its “organizational processes and policies, including those related to antisemitism, BDS, and cultural boycotts”…
The French Foreign Ministry has moved to block U.S. Ambassador to France Charles Kushner’s access to government officials after he declined to appear for a summons by Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot today, which was issued after the U.S. Embassy reposted comments by Trump about a far-right French activist who was killed in a clash with far-left protesters. It was Kushner’s second summons, after his first last year when he accused the French government of not adequately combating antisemitism…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a look at Sue Altman’s shifting views on Israel as the formerly pro-Israel congressional candidate is now running in New Jersey’s more heavily Democratic 12th Congressional District.
We’ll be watching for mention of President Donald Trump’s thinking on Iran as he delivers the annual State of the Union address tomorrow night. Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger will deliver the Democratic response.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on “advancing national security through commercial diplomacy” with Jacob Helberg, under secretary of state for economic affairs, who recently told JI that he hopes the Pax Silica initiative, which he leads, “will pave the way for peace and economic integration” in the Middle East.
Australia’s royal commission on antisemitism, formed after the Hanukkah terror attack at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, will hold its first public hearing, though no testimony or evidence will be heard.
Stories You May Have Missed
OVERTON WINDOW
Jewish Democrats alarmed about whether their party will remain welcoming
Former Democratic Rep. Kathy Manning: ‘There is no doubt that we are living through very difficult times for American Jews’
BIG TENT SHABBAT
State Dept. Shabbat dinner draws UAE, Saudi ambassadors and senior Trump officials
The dinner was hosted by Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, the U.S. antisemitism special envoy
The dinner was hosted by Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, the U.S. antisemitism special envoy
Alex Kent/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The US Institute of Peace (USIP) in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, Dec. 5, 2025.
Several dozen diplomats, senior Trump administration officials and Jewish communal leaders gathered at the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace on Friday night for a Shabbat dinner hosted by Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, the U.S. antisemitism special envoy, according to a source who attended the dinner.
A day earlier, that same space had hosted the inaugural Board of Peace meeting.
The gathering brought together a coterie of Washington officials, including Princess Reema, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the U.S., and United Arab Emirates Ambassador to the U.S. Yousef Al Otaiba, even though ties between the two Gulf nations have been strained in recent months. Other diplomats in the room came from France, Germany, Poland, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Lebanon and Jordan, according to the source.
Kaploun, who started at the State Department in December after being confirmed by the Senate, spoke at the event. He had recently returned from his first overseas trip, with stops in London, Switzerland and the Munich Security Forum. Reed Rubinstein, the State Department legal advisor, also spoke, as did Princess Reema. The Saudi diplomat talked about how close Israel and Saudi Arabia were to normalization before the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in Israel and that she hoped to get back to that point, although normalization efforts have stalled.
“Kaploun hosting Arab and European diplomats for a traditional, family-style Shabbat and watching them love every minute of it is one the most clever displays of soft diplomacy I’ve ever seen,” the attendee, who requested anonymity to discuss an off-the-record event, told Jewish Insider. “The Saudis called for normalization. Who saw that coming?”
Most attendees were either diplomats or Trump administration officials, but Republican donor Miriam Adelson was also in the room. Combat Antisemitism Movement founder Adam Beren and board member Arie Lipnick, Conference of Presidents Chair Betsy Berns Korn and Jewish Federations of North America Chair Gary Torgow were also in attendance.
“Diplomats and leaders from across our country and across the world gathered together in a comfortable setting in our nation’s capital and shared a meaningful meal,” Korn told JI. “Ambassador Kaploun explained the importance of Shabbat as well as a heartfelt speech about the dangers of hatred. His powerful message of peace and community resonated throughout the room. We need more of this diplomacy.”
Guests noshed on Shabbat fish, potato kugel, matzah ball soup and more, along with Mediterranean desserts in honor of iftar for the Muslim diplomats in the room, according to the source.
Jeremy Lewin, the acting under secretary of state for foreign assistance, humanitarian affairs and religious freedom, attended the dinner, as did Sarah Rogers, under secretary of state for public diplomacy, and Pierre Gentin, general counsel at the Commerce Department.
Kaploun said at the event that he plans to host more Shabbat dinners in the future.
Speaking at the Hudson Institute, Kaploun gave his view of the state of the international and domestic fights to combat antisemitism
C-SPAN
Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun speaks at the Hudson Institute on Feb. 5, 2026.
Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, the newly confirmed U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, was interrupted three times during a Thursday afternoon think tank event about his new role.
The first was a phone call from Harmeet Dhillon, the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for civil rights, which he sent to voicemail. The next two were protesters who had somehow made it through security at the conservative Hudson Institute to loudly chant “free Palestine” in the midst of Kaploun’s remarks before being escorted out.
Those unexpected interruptions framed Kaploun’s pitch as he settles into his new role at the State Department: First, that he will be successful because he is working on behalf of an administration that is committed to fighting antisemitism (“If you want to know how the administration works together, that was Harmeet Dhillon,” he said as he silenced his phone). And second, that education — and pushing back on false narratives about Israel and the Holocaust — is the most important way to combat antisemitism.
“The hardest job that I have is how you effect a change in education across the board, by teaching people not to hate, and that’s the battle,” Kaploun said in a conversation moderated by Hudson senior fellow Michael Doran.
Kaploun, a businessman and Chabad-trained rabbi, was confirmed by the Senate in December, must now build out a staff at the State Department and figure out how to make an impact diplomatically.
“The task is a daunting task, but we are blessed that this administration has really made antisemitism a priority, and how to combat and deal with antisemitism is something that the president and the secretary of state have made it perfectly clear that this is one of the priorities of the administration, is holding people accountable,” said Kaploun.
He said most countries in the world have a problem with antisemitism, and his message to leaders in those countries comes back to President Donald Trump: “You start with the concrete policy that antisemitism isn’t tolerated by this administration, period,” said Kaploun. Then, he said you turn to “quiet diplomacy to get results.”
For instance, he said Armenia has indicated to his office that its leaders are willing to join the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, an international organization that drafted a working definition of antisemitism that has been adopted by dozens of nations, including the U.S.. Kaploun also said he worked with U.S. Ambassador to Belgium Bill White to pressure Brussels to reverse its decision to end a federal police security presence in Antwerp’s Jewish quarter.
Kaploun identified Hungary, Romania, Albania and Armenia as countries that are “making sincere efforts in dealing with antisemitism.” He said Turkey and Pakistan both leave “a lot to be desired currently,” and that “England is a particular concern” because of “the rise of mass migration.”
The ambassador-level position has a global remit, but Kaploun was not afraid to weigh in on domestic antisemitism, too.
“I think the best argument right now in this country to combat antisemitism and combat Holocaust denial is, you’re treading on the memories of every American soldier who fought tyranny, fought to liberate Europe from the Nazis and liberated the death camps,” said Kaploun, who also argued that ignorance about American Jewish history contributes to antisemitism — and called for people to argue that anti-Jewish hate is anti-American.
“It really is a lack of knowledge about the contributions of Jewish Americans to America, that people fled here for religious freedom,” Kaploun said. “That’s something that this country stands for. So when you are going against the same groups that have the same values, Judeo-Christian values, you are anti-American, because you’re going against what our founding fathers wanted for us.”
Kaploun has not yet announced any international trips. But his goal for all countries, he said, is a “basic human morality.”
“We’re far from getting every country on board,” said Kaploun.
Plus, in Doha, UpScrolled founder rails against 'Zionist money'
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Saudi Arabia Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman ahead of a meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the State Department Building on February 25, 2025 in Washington, DC.
👋 Good Monday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on Friday’s meeting between the Saudi defense minister and Jewish leaders in Washington, and talk to the State Department’s Jacob Helberg about the Trump administration’s efforts to push AI as a uniting force in the Middle East. We report on South Africa and Israel’s tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions amid a deepening rift between Pretoria and Jerusalem, and have the scoop on a new bipartisan letter from Reps. Josh Gottheimer, Claudia Tenney, and Jared Golden blasting progressive groups over their silence on Iran’s crackdown on protestors. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Rep. Greg Meeks, Deni Avdija and Craig Newmark.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with an assist from Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
- The annual Web Summit conference kicked off on Sunday in Doha, Qatar. Earlier today, Issam Hijazi, the founder of new social media app UpScrolled, took the main stage, from which he boasted that the app “[doesn’t] have to rely on Zionist money, or Silicon Valley money.” Read more on Hijazi’s remarks from JI’s Lahav Harkov here.
- Lebanese Armed Forces Commander Gen. Rodolphe Haykal is in Washington today for meetings with senior U.S. officials, two months after a previously planned trip was scrapped at the 11th hour over a statement put out by the military criticizing Israel.
- Following last week’s decision by the European Union to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terror group, Iran summoned EU ambassadors stationed in the country over the designation. The move comes shortly after Iran’s parliament speaker said that the country considers the militaries of all EU member states to be terrorist groups.
- LionTree’s Aryeh Bourkoff is hosting his annual MediaSlopes gathering in Park City, Utah, ahead of the 10th Annual Silicon Slopes Summit, which kicks off Wednesday.
- Pedestrian transit resumed at the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt today, 10 months after it was closed following the collapse of a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR
Pro-Israel candidates and organizations showcased healthy financial hauls over the final three months of 2025, according to newly released fundraising reports. The strong totals were headlined by AIPAC’s United Democracy Project super PAC, which ended last year with an imposing $95.8 million on hand (up significantly from $40.7 million last cycle at this time), after raising $61.6 million in the final six months of 2025.
In many of the closely watched Democratic primaries pitting pro-Israel candidates against anti-Israel antagonists, both sides posted strong fundraising figures.
In Michigan’s hotly contested Senate race, Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) raised $2.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2025 and banked $3.05 million at the end of the year. Stevens, a stalwart ally of the state’s Jewish community, narrowly outraised physician Abdul El-Sayed ($1.8 million raised), who has made hostility to Israel central to his campaign, and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow ($1.7 million), who has tagged Israel’s war against Hamas as a genocide.
Stevens also has significantly more cash on hand ($3 million), aided by her time spent raising money in the House. Both McMorrow and El-Sayed have just under $2 million cash on hand.
In Illinois’ closely watched open 8th District race, former Rep. Melissa Bean (D-IL) showcased her fundraising skills to comfortably lead the crowded primary field, bringing in $772,000 in the fourth quarter. Bean, a pro-Israel moderate during her last stint in Congress, nearly doubled the fundraising haul of Junaid Ahmed, a leading anti-Israel challenger, who brought in $360,000.
In the race to succeed retiring Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), pro-Israel state Sen. Laura Fine raised an impressive $1.2 million — three times her fundraising total in the previous quarter — and banked $1.4 million. Her haul outdistanced her two anti-Israel rivals: Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss (who raised $659,000 and banked $1.37 million) and social media influencer Kat Abughazaleh (who raised $1.1 million, but spent $1.4 million, leaving her with $811,000 cash on hand).
REASSURANCE ATTEMPT
Saudi defense minister pushed back on realignment concerns in meeting with Jewish leaders
Several Jewish and pro-Israel leaders met privately with Saudi Arabia’s defense minister in Washington on Friday afternoon, as Riyadh draws scrutiny for its increasingly hostile posture toward Israel and promotion of antisemitic messaging, Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen-Kanik and Matthew Kassel report.
Prince’s position: According to several sources familiar with the discussion, Prince Khalid bin Salman denied to attendees that increasing antisemitic and anti-Israel rhetoric out of the kingdom was reflective of the monarchy’s position and emphasized that Riyadh and Jerusalem have mutual understanding and ongoing military, security and intelligence cooperation. He praised Israel’s actions against Hezbollah in Lebanon but said he doesn’t agree with Jerusalem’s recent decision to recognize Somaliland’s independence.
Yes, but: The same day of the meeting, a Muslim cleric in Medina, Saudi Arabia, gave a sermon calling for “victory” over the “Zionist aggressors,” while an imam in Mecca preached, “O God support them in Palestine and substitute their weakness with strength.” Hussain Abdul-Hussain, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, noted that the Saudi government selects speakers to deliver Friday sermons.
Coordination confirmation: The Wall Street Journal reports on the “increasingly anti-Israel tone” taken by Saudi government-backed media outlets, noting that Saudi officials confirmed that the campaign “has been directed by the kingdom’s leadership and takes aim at [Israel-United Arab Emirates] ties, which make for an easy target to swing public opinion.”
SUPPLY CHAIN DIPLOMACY
Jacob Helberg is betting AI will be a bridge across a fractured Middle East
Jacob Helberg, the under secretary of state for economic affairs recently returned from a trip to Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, where he presided over a series of signing ceremonies for Pax Silica, an effort by the Trump State Department to bring American partners together to develop AI supply chains that rely less intensively on China. In an interview with Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch last week, Helberg said the trip was “incredibly significant, because this is the first time that Israel and Qatar have been brought under the same framework and signed the same document to actually agree that shared supply chains are more important than shared ideologies.”
Eye on the prize: “Our goal has been the expansion of the Abraham Accords, and the president’s been very, very clear and vocal about that,” said Helberg, a China hawk who is leading the Pax Silica initiative. “When people do business together, when people focus on shared goals, you inherently create, identify and focus on things that people agree on. It’s certainly my hope that this will pave the way for peace and economic integration of the region.”
RHOADES’ RUN
Swing district Democratic congressional candidate in Omaha blasts rivals over their criticism of Israel
Democrat Crystal Rhoades, the district court clerk of Douglas County, Neb., is running for Congress in the state’s 2nd District on an unapologetically pro-Israel platform, with the explicit goal of blocking a progressive whose record on Israel has raised concerns from becoming the party’s nominee in the critical swing district, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What she’s saying: Asked by JI in an interview last week why she’s running for Congress, Rhoades answered simply, “to stop John Cavanaugh,” referring to the Democratic state senator seen as the front-runner in the race. In her interview with JI and a position paper she authored on Israel, Rhoades expressed a deep commitment to the Jewish state, its security and the U.S.-Israel relationship, and offered significant criticism for fellow Democrats who are critical of Israel. She traced her support for the Jewish state to her time as a teenager working in a nursing home, where she helped take care of a Holocaust survivor and first learned about his story, antisemitism and the Holocaust.
DIPLOMATIC SPAT
South Africa banishes Israeli diplomat days before vote in Congress on trade benefits
South Africa and Israel banished each other’s highest-ranking diplomat serving in each country, after a video of Israel offering water technology and medical aid to minority tribes angered Pretoria last week, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Zoom out: The diplomatic row took place days before Congress is expected to vote on renewing the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which would allow many products from the continent to enter the U.S. duty-free. The Trump administration has considered removing South Africa from the program because it is a “unique problem,” as U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer described it in December. Removal from AGOA would adversely affect about half of South Africa’s exports to the U.S., its second-largest trading partner, Bloomberg reported.
EXCLUSIVE
Reps. Gottheimer, Tenney, Golden blast progressive groups over silence on Iranian crackdown on protests
Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Claudia Tenney (R-NY) and Jared Golden (D-ME) blasted a roster of progressive groups for their silence regarding the Iranian regime’s violent crackdown on recent protests, following the organizations’ outspoken criticisms of Israel over the past two years, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What they said: In a letter sent on Monday addressed to the League of Conservation Voters, Democratic Socialists of America, Sierra Club, Council on American-Islamic Relations, Jewish Voice for Peace, Queers for Liberation, Sunrise Movement and Justice Democrats, the lawmakers said that “as the Iranian regime guns down peaceful protesters, tortures dissidents, and shuts off the internet to hide its crimes, your voices are unfortunately and conspicuously silent.”
Preemptive action: Sens. Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Rand Paul (R-KY), leading voices in the Senate on war powers issues, introduced a war powers resolution on Friday to block military action against Iran without congressional approval.
TOXIC TECH TALK
In Doha, UpScrolled creator alleges Jewish tech execs are ‘controlling the media,’ rejects ‘Zionist money’
Issam Hijazi, creator of the new social media platform UpScrolled, presented his app as a way to escape “control [of] the narrative” by pro-Israel figures and said that he doesn’t need to rely on “Zionist money,” in his remarks at Web Summit Qatar in Doha on Sunday night. UpScrolled topped the charts in Apple’s app store in recent days, after an American investor group finalized a deal to buy part of TikTok from its Chinese owners, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
What he said: Hijazi, a Jordan-born Australian citizen who identifies as Palestinian, said in an onstage interview that “we cannot keep blaming the algorithm or tech” for censorious social media, “because there are people who are gilding this tech … who train this algorithm to flag things that don’t really go well with their propaganda or agendas. It became very obvious from the latest acquisition of TikTok by Larry Ellison and [Michael] Dell, and [Ellison] is one of the biggest donators [sic] for the Friends of the IDF.” The UpScrolled founder evoked a classic antisemitic trope to describe the Jewish tech entrepreneurs: “They’ve been controlling the media, as in the TV news outlets, for the past, I don’t know, six years, and now they understand social media is the new way to get information out, so they want to control the narrative again.”
Worthy Reads
‘Loose’ Nukes: In The Wall Street Journal, David Albright and Andrea Stricker address concerns about the fate of Iran’s stockpile of nuclear material should regime change occur in the Islamic Republic. “These ‘loose’ assets risk falling into the hands of rogue actors, militias or nonstate groups. They also pose severe hazards to people in the region through accidental release or abandonment. The international community, led by the U.S. and Europe, with Russian and Chinese buy-in, must develop contingency plans to prevent this. … Risks to nuclear and radioactive materials during state collapse aren’t new, and effective prevention depends on proactive planning. Disaster following the collapse of the Soviet Union was averted largely by quick actions of the U.S. government, working in cooperation with former Soviet states.” [WSJ]
Red Sea Signal: In his Substack “The Abrahamic Metacritique,” Hussein Aboubakr Mansour considers the role of the Red Sea corridor in the political shifts underway across the Middle East. “If the Saudi pivot is a strategy, the Red Sea littoral is its primary theater of application; if the Abraham Accords represented a vision of an integrated regional order anchored in normalization and infrastructure interdependence, the Red Sea is where that vision encounters the structural obstacles to its realization. … What appeared as discrete events — Israel’s recognition of Somaliland, the Southern Transitional Council’s (STC) military offensive across southern Yemen, Saudi airstrikes on Emirati weapons shipments, Somalia’s abrogation of all agreements with the UAE — are, as a matter of fact, moves within a single interconnected contest, each triggering countermoves across nominally separate theaters.” [AbrahamicMetacritique]
Word on the Street
President Donald Trump nominated Kevin Warsh, the son-in-law of philanthropist Ronald Lauder, to be chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve on Friday, elevating an outspoken critic of the Fed’s current leadership who has recently indicated support for Trump’s broad goals of lowering interest rates, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports…
The U.S. would prefer a negotiated agreement with Iran to dismantle its nuclear program, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said in an interview that aired on Israel’s Channel 12 on Saturday night, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports…
Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, alleged on Friday that the Trump administration sidestepped standard congressional review procedures to fast-track a $6 billion arms sale to Israel, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…
Gregory Bovino, the head of U.S. Border Patrol, reportedly made antisemitic comments about Daniel Rosen, the U.S. attorney in Minnesota, who was unavailable to work on Shabbat, during a recent phone call with federal prosecutors; read JI’s October 2025 interview with Rosen, during which he said he was motivated to take the position because of the “rapid escalation of violent antisemitism”…
Former Harris County, Texas, Attorney Christian Menefee won the special election in the state’s 18th Congressional District to succeed Rep. Sylvester Turner (D-TX), who died last year; Menefee runoff victory over former Houston City Councilmember Amanda Edwards further shrinks House Republicans’ majority, 218-214…
The California Department of Education found that the Oakland Unified School District engaged in antisemitic discrimination in multiple instances since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks and called for the Bay Area district to take corrective measures, including training for faculty and students regarding antisemitism awareness…
In the 46th annual State of World Jewry address at the 92NY in Manhattan, The New York Times‘ Bret Stephens said that the effort to fight antisemitism, “which consumes tens of millions of dollars every year in Jewish philanthropy, is a well-meaning but mostly wasted effort,” Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports for eJewishPhilanthropy…
The New York Times profiles Forward senior political reporter Jacob Kornbluh, the “London-born former professional lox-slinger” who is “ubiquitous on the forever-circuit of Jewish politics” as he covers New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani…
Israeli basketball sensation and Portland Trail Blazers forward Deni Avdija has been selected as a Western Conference reserve for the NBA All-Star Game, becoming the first Israeli-born player to earn an appearance in the league’s marquee midseason showcase, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports…
Gal Hirsch, who who was appointed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to coordinate the government’s hostage-release efforts, said that the Biden administration’s pressure on Israel during hostage negotiations was “screwing up the negotiations” and “giving [Oct. 7 mastermind and former Hamas head Yahya] Sinwar exactly what he wants”…
Israel is halting the Gaza operations of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) over the group’s refusal to provide the names of its Palestinian staffers for vetting for possible links to terror groups; MSF slammed the decision, saying it was a “pretext to obstruct humanitarian assistance”…
The Wall Street Journal spotlights the Gen Z protesters who have taken to the streets of Iran in recent weeks during the country’s widespread protests…
Iranian screenwriter Mehdi Mahmoudian, who co-wrote Oscar nominee “It Was Just An Accident,” was arrested for signing onto a letter criticizing the Iranian government for its recent crackdowns on protesters in the country…
Emirates is preparing to restart flights to and from Israel in the coming months after a two-year pause following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza…
United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed canceled a planned trip to Japan this week amid elevated tensions between the U.S. and Iran, citing “domestic circumstances”…
The Wall Street Journal reports on a $500 million investment deal between a UAE-linked investment fund and the Trump family’s crypto company, World Liberty Financial, that will give the Emirati firm a 49% stake in World Liberty; meanwhile The New Yorker’s David Kirkpatrick does a deep dive into the Trump family’s finances and recent business dealings, finding the family had made $4 billion since Trump’s second inauguration by leveraging the power of the White Hosue…
The New York Times covers a clandestine Egyptian military base in the country’s west that is being used to aid in drone warfare in neighboring Sudan, where Cairo is carrying out strikes targeting the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces battling the country’s military…
Pic of the Day
Philanthropist and Craigslist founder Craig Newmark addressed the Jewish Community Relations Council-New York’s annual Congressional Breakfast on Sunday in New York. Speakers at this year’s breakfast included Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), and Reps. Dan Goldman (D-NY) and Jerry Nadler (D-NY).
Birthdays
Actress and comedian, Lori Beth Denberg turns 50…
Chairman of IAC/InterActiveCorp and Expedia, Barry Diller turns 84… Mayor of Irvine, Calif., Larry Agran (family name was Agranowsky) turns 81… Host of the Food Network program “Barefoot Contessa”, Ina Rosenberg Garten turns 78… Actor, comedian and singer, Brent Spiner turns 77… Journalist, novelist and author, Michael Zelig Castleman turns 76… U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) turns 74… “Washington Secrets” columnist at the Washington Examiner, Paul Bedard… Science fiction publisher and author, Selina A. Rosen turns 66… Rabbi at the Pacific Jewish Center (the Shul On The Beach) in Venice, Calif., he is also a practicing attorney, Shalom Rubanowitz… Sportscaster who currently does play-by-play for the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL, Kenny Albert turns 58… Movie and theater actress and screenwriter, Jennifer Westfeldt turns 56… Tony Award-winning actress, Marissa Jaret Winokur turns 53… Board-certified ophthalmologist, she is married to New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and sits on the board of the Kennedy Center, Dr. Dana Blumberg… Basketball coach for many Israeli teams over more than 20 years, Dan Shamir turns 51… Singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose stage name is Mayer Hawthorne, Andrew Mayer Cohen turns 47… Assistant professor at Clemson University, Rebecca Shimoni Stoil, Ph.D. … Senior staff writer at GovCIO Media and Research, Ross Gianfortune… U.S. senator (R-AL), Katie Boyd Britt turns 44… Television and radio host, David Pakman turns 42… Deputy special envoy to combat and monitor antisemitism during the last three years of the Biden administration, Aaron Keyak… Actress and musician, Zosia Russell Mamet turns 38… Former Team Israel baseball catcher, he is now director of business development at a hospital in Las Vegas, Nicholas Jay “Nick” Rickles turns 36… Avi Katz…
Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish student at Tufts University, was arrested by federal agents for co-authoring an anti-Israel op-ed in her college newspaper
Mel Musto/Getty Images
Rümeysa Öztürk speaks to the media after arriving at Logan Airport on May 10, 2025 in Boston, Massachusetts.
State Department officials who were tasked with deporting foreign students accused of antisemitism and threatening American national security warned that the efforts may present free speech concerns, according to government documents that a federal judge released last week.
The several hundred pages of previously sealed federal documents are connected to the ongoing deportation cases against Mahmoud Khalil, Rümeysa Öztürk, Mohsen Mahdawi, Yunseo Chung and Badar Khan Suri, each of whom U.S. immigration authorities targeted because of their involvement in anti-Israel activity at American universities.
The Trump administration has said in public statements that the students were ordered to be deported because of their involvement in antisemitic and pro-Hamas activities, but little evidence was shared publicly at the time to back up the allegations.
The students have challenged the deportations with mixed results. Khalil — a protest leader at Columbia’s anti-Israel encampment in 2024 — was the first to be arrested, in March 2025. His detention, as a green card holder, became a cause célèbre on the left among activists who argued that President Donald Trump had overstepped his authority. Khalil was released from detention in June, but a federal appeals court last week paved the way for his deportation, potentially to Algeria.
In a series of memos last year sent to Secretary of State Marco Rubio from John Armstrong, a senior State Department official who oversees visas, Armstrong made clear that Rubio would have to directly approve the students’ deportations, noting that they are likely to draw intense scrutiny, particularly after Khalil’s legal challenge against his own deportation. For cases where the reason to deport somebody is based on their “past, current or expected beliefs, statements or associations that are otherwise lawful,” the secretary of state must “personally” make a determination that their actions “would compromise a compelling U.S. foreign policy interest,” a March 8, 2025, memo to Rubio said.
One case concerned the visa status of Öztürk, a Turkish student at Tufts University who was ordered to be deported last March and was arrested by federal agents on her way to a Ramadan event. A senior Department of Homeland Security official told Jewish Insider last year that federal investigators “found Öztürk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans.” The only public evidence at the time connecting her to the anti-Israel protest movement was a 2024 op-ed in Tufts’ student newspaper that she penned with three other students calling for the university to divest from Israel.
One of the State Department memos unsealed last week revealed that this op-ed was the sole basis for the effort to deport her — and that department officials recognized it might face legal challenges.
The op-ed divulged that Öztürk was a member of Tufts Graduate Students for Palestine, which the immigration investigators noted was suspended by the university. Öztürk’s involvement with the group “may undermine U.S. foreign policy by creating a hostile environment for Jewish students and indicating support for a designated terrorist organization,” investigators concluded. The memo revoking her visa declared that she co-authored an op-ed “that found common cause with an organization that was later temporarily banned from campus.”
But in assessing the strength of DHS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigators’ conclusions, Armstrong noted one potential weakness: “While Öztürk has been involved with actions protesting Tufts’ relationship with Israel,” he wrote, the investigators have not “provided any evidence showing that Öztürk has engaged in any antisemitic activity or made any public statements indicating support for a terrorist organization or antisemitism generally.” Nor did they prove that she was involved in the activities that led to the pro-Palestine group being suspended by Tufts.
For Khalil and Mahdawi, the case to deport rested on their leadership roles in anti-Israel protests at Columbia. Khalil “created a hostile environment for Jewish students,” officials wrote, as an encampment leader and “a key figure in the March 6 Barnard College library occupation, where protestors distributed Hamas-authored flyers.”
Mahdawi, “through his leadership and involvement in disruptive protests at Columbia University, has engaged in anti-Semitic conduct through leading pro-Palestinian protests and calling for Israel’s destruction,” authorities concluded. “The activities and presence of Mahdawi in the United States undermines U.S. policy to combat anti-Semitism around the world and in the United States, in addition to efforts to protect Jewish students from harassment and violence in the United States.”
The only person who was directly linked to supporting Hamas was Suri, a Georgetown researcher whose wife is the daughter of a former Hamas official.
“The type of intimidation and incitement attributable to Suri potentially undermines the peace process underway in the Middle East by reinforcing anti-Semitic sentiment in the regional [sic] and thereby threatening the U.S. foreign policy goal of peacefully resolving the Gaza conflict,” officials wrote. But they also noted the challenges the case might face on freedom of expression grounds.
“Given the reliance on Suri’s public statements as an academic, and the potential that a court may consider his actions inextricably tied to speech protected under the First Amendment, it is likely that courts will closely scrutinize the basis for this determination,” one memo reads.
These immigration cases, early in the first year of Trump’s second term, were heavily scrutinized. Even though fighting antisemitism was a stated reason for the Trump administration’s decision to remove the students, some Jewish leaders were concerned about the heavy-handed tactics and limited information shared about their arrests.
None of the five students is still in detention, and they are each challenging their deportation orders.
The bill withholds 10% of the U.S. contribution for the U.N. or any U.N. agency until the State Department confirms to Congress that the agency is ‘taking credible steps to combat anti-Israel bias’
ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images
Ambassadors and representatives to the United Nations meet at the U.N. Security Council to vote on a U.S. resolution on the Gaza peace plan at the U.N. Headquarters in New York City, Nov. 17, 2025.
The finalized 2026 funding package for the State Department, released Sunday, leverages a portion of the U.S.’ contributions to the United Nations and its agencies to push for changes in what the U.S. has said is the institution’s anti-Israel bias and antisemitism.
The bill withholds 10% of the U.S. contribution for the U.N. or any U.N. agency until the State Department confirms to Congress that the agency is “taking credible steps to combat anti-Israel bias,” putting measures in place to inform donors of when funds have been diverted or destroyed, “effectively vet[ting]” staff for ties to terrorism and taking steps to address antisemitism, among a variety of other anticorruption and accountability measures.
The moves put new financial teeth behind longstanding U.S. efforts to combat antisemitism at the U.N., as well as to ensure stronger oversight following revelations that members of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency participated in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel.
However, the provisions relating to the U.N. in the final bill are significantly scaled back from the House’s draft of the legislation — which would have cut all U.S. funding for the U.N. regular budget and withheld funding for the U.N. secretariat pending a series of specific accountability steps relating to UNRWA personnel.
The explanatory report accompanying the bill includes a new requirement for relevant investigators general to provide a plan to Congress to conduct “risk-based investigations and related oversight of United States-funded implementing partners” of any aid provided in Gaza and the West Bank. It directs the administration to focus on reports of staff or contractors for such aid providers who have ties to or involvement in terrorism, and provide recommendations for addressing and preventing these issues.
The legislation maintains longstanding mechanisms governing U.S. aid to Gaza and the West Bank and the Palestinian Authority and new accountability measures implemented following the Oct. 7 attacks, as well as a ban on U.S. funding for UNRWA and a ban on funding for the U.N. Human Rights Council and its Commission of Inquiry investigating Israel.
It provisions limiting U.S. assistance to U.N. bodies if the Palestinians receive status equivalent to that of a state in any U.N. body.
The legislation provides the expected $3.3 billion in funding for military aid to Israel, as per the terms of the U.S.-Israel memorandum of understanding. It includes a new $5 million allocation for historical, archeological and cultural initiatives to strengthen the U.S.-Israel relationship. It also bans relocating the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Jerusalem.
The bill includes cuts to a number of U.S. assistance programs in the Middle East, including cutting funding for the Middle East Partnership for Peace Act program from $50 million to $37.5 million, for Israeli-Arab scientific partnerships from $8.5 million to $7 million and the Middle East Partnership Initiative from $27.2 million to $20 million.
It holds funding for joint U.S.-Israeli development projects in third countries at $3 million.
The legislation provides a significant boost in funding for the office of the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism — $2.6 million, up from $1.75 million.
It also instructs the antisemitism envoy and the special envoy for Holocaust issues to work with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to prioritize efforts with U.S. partners to address Holocaust denial and distortion and antisemitism on social media and in artificial intelligence, and to brief Congress on a plan to tackle these issues. It directs the antisemitism envoy to consult with Congress on programs to combat antisemitism more broadly as well.
“At a moment when antisemitism is surging worldwide, the $2.6 million included in this minibus for the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism is both necessary and timely,” Lauren Wolman, the Anti-Defamation League’s senior director of government relations and strategy, told Jewish Insider. “Antisemitic hatred is spreading across borders and being supercharged online, with real-world consequences for Jewish communities everywhere. This bill will strengthen U.S. leadership in confronting global antisemitism and sends a clear signal that combating antisemitism and Holocaust distortion is an urgent national priority.”
The legislation requires the administration to report to Congress on the impact of U.S. sanctions on Iran, as well as on U.S. efforts to eliminate Iranian oil exports to China — including the specific dates of communications between U.S. and Chinese officials about those imports.
The bill continues to bar the administration from revoking the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ terrorism designation, or entering into a nuclear deal with Iran in contravention of the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act. And it permits the use of funding to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, support democracy in Iran and otherwise combat Iranian malign activities.
It mandates that the State Department lay out a strategy, within 90 days, to expand the Abraham Accords, specifically including the possibility of providing arms transfers and other defense materiel to signatories.
The legislation includes $1.65 billion in funding for Jordan — $845 million in budget support funding for the government and $425 million in military aid.
The bill provides $1.425 billion in funding for Egypt, $1.3 billion of that in military aid, with $320 million conditioned on various human rights benchmarks, though those conditions can — and traditionally have been — waived.
For Lebanon, the bill provides $112.5 million, maintaining existing provisions and accountability measures emphasizing reforming the Lebanese Armed Forces and combatting Hezbollah.
The bill permits the provision of funding for nonlethal assistance in Syria, but bars the use of any funding to support Iranian, terrorist or Russian objectives and requires the administration to consult with Congress prior to providing any such funding.
It also requires the administration to report to Congress on the treatment of minorities in Syria and on whether the new Syrian government is taking “all sufficient actions” to protect them.
The bill allocates $20 million for the office of the special envoy for the Middle East, $2 million of that dedicated to activities in Lebanon, and $7 million for the office of the special envoy for Syria.
Several other provisions related to the Middle East that were included in the original House draft of the bill, including restrictions related to the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court, preventing the establishment of additional diplomatic facilities in Jerusalem other than the U.S. Embassy and a directive to treat the West Bank and Gaza as separate entities for budgeting purposes have not been included in the final version of the bill.
From the House’s explanatory report, the negotiated version of the bill adopts anti-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions provisions, as well as expanded vetting procedures to ensure political neutrality by aid recipients; new oversight requirements for U.S. aid to Syria; a report on antisemitism by foreign governments; a requirement for the State Department to report to Congress on efforts to end the PA’s terror payments program; and a report to the Congress on the possibility of a memorandum of understanding with Egypt on Security Assistance.
The legislation removes provisions included in 2024 appropriations legislation that prohibited military education and training funding for Saudi Arabia and that barred funding to support a Saudi nuclear program unless Saudi Arabia agreed to strict controls including renouncing uranium enrichment and reprocessing.
Carl mused about the need to address the ‘Jewish Question’ and characterized Jews as religiously incorrect and in need of conversion
DOMINIC GWINN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images
Jeremy Carl speaks at the National Conservatism Conference in Washington D.C., Sept. 3, 2025.
Jeremy Carl, a Trump administration nominee for a senior position at the State Department, has expressed a range of derogatory views of the Jewish community, characterizing in writings and public interviews the community as holding a victim mentality, downplaying the significance of the Holocaust to the Jewish story and experience, musing about the need to address the what he called the “Jewish Question” and characterizing Jews as religiously incorrect and in need of conversion.
Carl also rejected the argument that Israel is the United States’ strongest ally and was deeply critical of Christian Zionism. He has additionally espoused a view of the United States as a white, Christian nation, claiming that white people are undergoing a “cultural genocide” and deliberate replacement.
Carl was nominated to be the assistant secretary of state for international organizations in June, but did not move forward to a hearing in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee before the end of this year’s Senate session. Should the Trump administration still want Carl in the role, it will have to re-file his nomination in the new year. Carl said in a response on X that neither he nor the administration have decided whether to resubmit the nomination. Carl served as deputy assistant secretary of the Interior in the first Trump administration.
“Jews have often loved to play the victim rather than accept that they are participants in history. That means that at times of course they’ve been victims but they also can be perpetrators,” Carl, who was raised in a secular Jewish household but converted to Christianity, said in a 2024 interview with “The Christian Ghetto” podcast, saying that some Christians have been “understandably” resentful of Jews throughout history.
“I think it’s inevitable of course that people will always take their own side in [a] historical quarrel. The Jewish community has kind of done [that] to an unusual extent,” Carl continued.
While he offered disclaimers that he was not speaking about all Jews, he generally painted with a broad brush, characterizing the majority of the Jewish community in largely pejorative ways.
He said that the Holocaust “kind of dominates so much of modern Jewish thinking,” adding that he believed it to be “very unhealthy.”
“Now, when you’re getting to this next generation — everybody has traumas in their past. How much are we going to relitigate them?” Carl asked rhetorically. “There’s a level of [self]-involvement there that I kind of find a little distasteful.”
He also said that he feels that “mainline Christian[s]” do not expect as much from Jews as they could and are “very reluctant to criticize Jews or Jewish communal behavior even when, in my view, that might be very warranted.”
Carl said that Jews, meanwhile, “tend to see evangelical Christians in a very negative light … and I frankly think reflects poorly on the Jewish community.”
He claimed that the Jewish community is afraid of Christian communal unity as a legacy of past conversion efforts.
Carl also declared that Jews have never been oppressed in the U.S. and added that “the notion that Jews are the downtrodden here just doesn’t really match with actual reality. I understand why this type of attitude can cause resentment among some Christians who observe it. … Even when I was Jewish, I found it distasteful.”
In a lengthy response on X, Carl dismissed Jewish Insider’s reporting as a misleading and agenda-driven smear.
“I have never ‘downplayed’ the Holocaust, one of the great horrors of modern history, except in the overactive imagination and perhaps bad faith portrayal of the author,” Carl said.
At the same time, in “The Christian Ghetto” interview he claimed to reject conspiracy theories about the Jewish community as a whole and the neo-Nazi Groyper movement, saying that adherents go too far in their hatred of Jews in unproductive ways.
“Nobody can just take a small sip of the drink in front of them, which is the ‘Jewish Question,’ and imbibe carefully and have a mature discussion on it,” Carl said. “[They] need to overdose massively on it, to the point that they just begin saying completely ridiculous and absurd things.”
Carl said that such activity makes him shy away from “critique” of the Jewish community “because you don’t want to be lumped in with these clowns.” He declared that Jewish activists “love the Groypers because they’re just so discrediting of anyone who would ask questions about any of this,” referring to Jewish political activism.
He also claimed that Jews are “more susceptible to political radicalisms of all types and political ultra-enthusiasms” due to a “misplaced religious impulse” of Judaism “searching for the Messiah that had actually been found.”
“I have, of course, been very critical of the political activities of much of the establishment Jewish community since most of the community is liberal and I am a conservative. This should surprise nobody, nor is it a scandal. I have also been critical of the extreme neoconservatives such as those who seem to be pushing this hit piece,” Carl said in his response.
Carl also said on “The Christian Ghetto” podcast the U.S. should have less of a relationship with Israel, and was highly critical of Christian Zionist ideology that attaches a theological dimension to support for Israel.
He said that while from a secular perspective, he feels “vaguely positively disposed to Israel,” he rejects Christian Zionism and the “theological trappings that some Christians put around Israel.”
“At a basis, I have a very pro-Israel view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in abstract, I just don’t want us involved in it that much,” Carl said. “The amount of time and energy that America spends on this question — often to the detriment of our own national interest. Nor do I accept that Israel is our greatest ally.”
He characterized himself as a “Buchananite” and a “Paul-ite” in his ideology.
Carl said in his response that he is fully supportive of the Trump administration’s foreign policy and support for Israel, including the administration’s sanctions on the International Criminal Court and the UN’s “Israel monomania.”
He said in an interview with “The Will Spencer Podcast” that conversion from Judaism is a “very fraught thing” and that, in many Jewish families, “it would be easier to convert to Satanism honestly, in some ways.”
He said on “The Christian Ghetto” podcast that Jews have been a “particularly thorny problem” in their resistance to conversion to Christianity. He said he does not believe, from a theological perspective, in religious pluralism, and characterized Judaism as an incorrect and invalid religious practice, arguing that Christians should be trying to convert Jews “where we can.”
In his response, Carl said, “As a Christian I want everyone to embrace the Christian faith, especially my family and friends, because I believe Christianity to be true, and other religions false. Again, this is not a scandal except perhaps in the minds of the author and his editors who evidently believe that standard beliefs held by the vast majority of Christians throughout history are scandalous.”
Carl has also espoused a vision of America as a white, Christian nation, and asserted that white people in America are subject to “persecution” and a “cultural genocide.”
“American whites are victims of a cultural genocide,” Carl said at the 2024 National Conservatism conference. “I’m suggesting this partially again to troll any leftist media who might be in the room and furiously scribbling my unforgivable hate speech in their notebooks. But I’m not saying it entirely for that purpose.”
He’s the author of The Unprotected Class: How Anti-White Racism is Tearing America Apart, which dismisses the idea of rising white supremacy and focuses on the thesis that anti-white policies are endemic in modern America.
The original title of the book, Carl revealed in a 2024 essay, was It’s Okay to Be White, which has become a slogan used by white supremacists.
He states in that essay that demographic shifts in the country are the result of “a great replacement of whites,” referencing the conspiracy theory that a shadowy force is attempting to replace the country’s white population with immigrants. He declared that the great replacement is “a fact” and “a basic statement of the Democratic Party’s platform.”
“I can understand why [Indian President Narendra] Modi wants India to be a Hindu nation, because I want America to be a Christian nation, defined not in total but in part by its European historic identity,” he continued.
He added in “The Christian Ghetto” podcast interview that he does not “really believe in Judeo-Christian — I think America is a Christian nation.”
He said in “The Will Spencer Podcast” interview that his book was designed to help white people “figure out a way as a white person to navigate around the issue and also understand that you’re not crazy. The sorts of things you’re experiencing in terms of discrimination or racism, etc. are very real and that you don’t need to put up with that.”
At the same time, Carl did acknowledge in that interview that America would never be an “ethnically uniform” or “racially uniform” way and “that’s okay, that’s manageable,” but that the country should have a “sense of a majority tradition … majority religious practice” and a “tolerance for other minority groups to all be within that culture.”
The State Department did not respond to a request for comment.
CNN previously reported that Carl scrubbed thousands of inflammatory posts after his nomination.
This article was updated on 12/21/2025 to include Carl’s response.
Special Envoy Ric Grenell defended the meeting: ‘Talking is a tactic. We are tired of failed diplomacy where you don’t talk to people and think it’s a punishment’
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna/X
Reps. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) and Tim Burchett (R-TN) meet with members of Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany party
A senior State Department official and two GOP members of Congress met Friday with members of Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which has long faced accusations of extremism and pro-Nazi sympathies.
The State Department meeting is in line with the recently released National Security Strategy, which stated that it would be U.S. policy to boost anti-European Union and anti-immigration parties in the European Union.
“My exchange with Under Secretary [of State for Public Diplomacy] Sarah Rogers on the new national security strategy of the Trump Administration has made it clear that Washington is seeking a strong German partner who is willing to take on responsibility,” Bundestag member Markus Frohnmaier posted after the meeting, according to an X translation.
“Germany should act once again as a capable leading power by making a consistent turn in migration policy and independently organizing European security, in order to strengthen the German-American partnership on an equal footing. Only if we do our homework will we secure our relevance on the international stage. To shape this path together, I would like to organize a deepening event in Berlin in February 2026.”
Responding to a critic who noted that leaked Russian documents allegedly described Frohnmaier as a Russian asset, Rogers praised the AfD.
“Unlike the Russian government (and the current German one), AfD took an anti-censorship stance in its meeting with me last week. One reason they’re gaining popularity in Germany,” Rogers said.
She also reposted an X post from Special Envoy Ric Grenell, who said that those criticizing the meeting “don’t understand tough diplomacy.”
“Talking is a tactic. We are tired of failed diplomacy where you don’t talk to people and think it’s a punishment. Your guy [former President] Joe Biden didn’t talk to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin for 4 years while a war raged,” Grenell said. “Our side isn’t afraid to talk, and send clear directives as to what we expect. Your silence is weakness. You are so afraid to defend your ideas — and I get it. Your ideas have failed. The German is an official member of the Bundestag and Sarah’s job is to talk and explain our National Security Strategy.”
U.S. officials have met repeatedly with AfD members during the past year.
On Capitol Hill, Reps. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) and Tim Burchett (R-TN) met with the AfD delegation, at Luna’s invitation. They did not share details about that meeting. Luna has met previously with AfD members earlier this year and publicly offered to host them on Capitol Hill.
Luna said last week that she and other lawmakers would be meeting with “dozens of members” of the AfD.
“The Chancellor of Germany is trashing our President and censoring German citizens,” Luna said on X. “The AfD, whom the German uniparty has tried to smear, intimidate, and even de-bank, is actually working to strengthen ties with the United States and restore a healthy relationship between our governments.”
The Florida congresswoman has also recently faced criticism for her dealings with the Russian ambassador in Washington, advocating for restoring U.S.-Russian ties and accepting a dossier of alleged Russian findings on the John F. Kennedy Jr. assassination.
“Rep. Luna’s decision to roll out the red carpet for members of a far-right, Holocaust revisionist, Putin-loving party is grotesque,” said Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), a co-chair of the bipartisan House antisemitism task force, said ahead of the meeting. In a separate post, he described the AfD members as “neo-Nazis.”
The New York Young Republican club also hosted around 20 members of the AfD at a gala last week.
“Young Republicans in New York are set to honor a Nazi sympathizing extremist,” the Jewish Democratic Council of America said, in response to the Young Republicans event. “This isn’t happening in a vacuum: [Secretary of State Marco] Rubio, [Vice President JD] Vance, and [Elon] Musk have all defended the extremist AfD party. Antisemitism is a feature of the Republican Party, not a bug.”
Speaking at a hearing on Capitol Hill, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Vincent Spera said the U.S. is working to end all external support to the warring parties
Tariq Mohamed/Xinhua via Getty Images
Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan in the vehicle, chairman of Sudan's Transitional Sovereign Council and commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces SAF, departs from the Presidential Palace in Khartoum, Sudan, on March 26, 2025.
A senior State Department official told lawmakers on Thursday that the U.S. believes there are “no good actors” in the brutal civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in the East African nation, and said the U.S.’ focus is on cutting off external support to both parties and achieving a temporary ceasefire.
“From our perspective, there are no good actors in this conflict,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Vincent Spera said during a House Foreign Affairs Africa subcommittee hearing. “The administration unequivocally condemns the atrocities committed by both parties. Members of the RSF and allied militias have committed genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanitry and ethnic cleansing, and members of the SAF have also committed war crimes, including in May when the United States announced the government of Sudan used chemical weapons in 2024.”
Spera said that the administration is “committed to helping end these atrocities in Sudan,” and that “external support to the warring parties must stop.”
The United Arab Emirates is a key backer of the RSF, though it denies providing support to the paramilitary group, while Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Russia back the SAF.
Spera said the administration has sanctioned leaders on both sides of the conflict and their supporters, including SAF-aligned Islamic actors, “to limit Islamist influence and curtail Iran’s destabilizing influence.”
He said President Donald Trump is “personally driving” the effort to reach a humanitarian truce and ultimately a transition to new civilian leadership and end external support to the SAF and RSF, in cooperation with Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE — referred to as the Quad — as well as other international partners.
“President Trump recognizes the importance of endless conflict and that an unstable Sudan threatens regional stability along the critical Red Sea corridor,” Spera said. “It also creates a permissive environment for terrorists, adversaries such as Iran and transnational criminal organizations.”
Lawmakers broadly condemned all outside actors fueling the violence in Sudan and called for accountability for atrocities by both the RSF and SAF. Significant criticism from both sides of the aisle focused on the UAE, with lawmakers questioning whether the U.S. can place more pressure on its ally to cut ties with the RSF.
“With the UAE, obviously [RSF leader] Hemedti is counting on the support he gets from them,” Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) said. “Is this something where the president could pick up the phone and talk to the UAE and say, ‘Just stop it’?”
Smith also called for the RSF to be designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
Spera said that the administration has been clear that “we need to do everything we can to bring an end to external support, and that needs to stop. We’ve been making the case at the highest levels, and working through the Quad and other mechanisms, with any and all parties that have influence on actors to bring an end to that support.”
Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-CA), the subcommittee’s ranking member, called for the U.S. to cut off arms sales to both the UAE and to the other foreign powers involved in the conflict and potentially impose sanctions on Emirati entities involved in supporting the RSF.
Spera demurred on questions about leveraging U.S. arms sales, directing those questions to others at the State Department.
Rep. Greg Meeks (D-NY), the ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said that an end to external support would quickly bring the conflict to a close.
“This means not only pressing the RSF and SAF to agree to ceasefire negotiations, but also enforcing real consequences for external actors — all of them — who continue to fuel the conflict by providing arms or money or mercenaries,” Meeks said. “Without these external resources, both sides would be unable to continue killing civilians and committing mass atrocities and their push to take total control of Sudan. Let me be clear, this brutal war could end tomorrow, if the parties fueling this conflict ended their support, and there’s a number of them that are doing it. I’m talking about, all the parties need to be held accountable.”
Kaploun’s nomination was advanced out of committee on Wednesday, with bipartisan backing
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
President Donald Trump and Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun light a candle during an Oct. 7th remembrance event at the Trump National Doral Golf Club on Oct. 7, 2024 in Doral, Florida.
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, at hearing: ‘We must learn from the past to protect and educate the living’
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Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, the Trump administration's nominee to be special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism
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.
In a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the bipartisan group suggested leveraging U.S. assistance to Colombia to push for action
(Photo by Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images)
President of Colombia Gustavo Petro speaks during the 80th session of the UN’s General Assembly (UNGA) on September 23, 2025 in New York City.
A bipartisan group of 18 House members is urging the State Department to pressure Colombia’s government to change course on what the lawmakers described as a dangerous pattern of antisemitic rhetoric and policies by government officials, including the country’s president.
“As U.S.-Colombia relations continue to be strained by numerous issues, including the increasingly troubling antisemitic rhetoric and discriminatory policies from Colombian President Gustavo Petro, which are directly threatening the safety and well-being of Colombia’s Jewish community, we write to urge the administration to consider even stronger actions, including leveraging U.S. assistance to push for meaningful change in President Petro and his government,” the lawmakers, led by Reps. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) and Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL), said in a letter sent on Monday to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The lawmakers said that Petro’s antisemitic comments on social media and anti-Israel posture “have contributed to an increasingly hostile environment for Colombian Jews,” raising particular concern about the appointment of Richard Gamboa, “a self-proclaimed ‘rabbi’ with anti-Zionist views and dubious credentials who lacks ties with Colombia’s Jewish institutions,” to be the Ministry of Interior’s director of religious affairs.
The letter characterizes Gamboa’s appointment as “a deliberate provocation aimed at legitimizing antisemitic perspectives within government institutions” and a “calculated effort by President Petro to normalize anti-Jewish hatred for political gains.”
“There is genuine concern that Mr. Gamboa will continue to accelerate the deteriorating situation facing Colombian Jewry,” the letter continues.
Gamboa, the lawmakers, noted, has gone on antisemitic “tirades” on social media, writing, “Zionists ARE NOT JEWS,” “true rabbis are not Zionists,” and “The full weight of the law should fall upon … defenders of a genocidal regime that usurps and profanes the name of Judaism.”
They also pointed to media reports that indicate that the government may seek to use Gamboa as its official liaison to the Jewish community, sidelining the Confederation of Jewish Communities of Colombia.
The letter was co-signed by Reps. Laura Gillen (D-NY), Buddy Carter (R-GA), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Gary Palmer (R-AL), Mike Lawler (R-NY), Pat Harrigan (R-NC), Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Pete Stauber (R-MN), Brad Schneider (D-IL), Frederica Wilson (D-FL), Don Bacon (R-NE), Lois Frankel (D-FL), Haley Stevens (D-MI), Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ).
Carter and Stevens are running for the Senate in Georgia and Michigan, respectively.
The American Jewish Committee supported the effort and “remains deeply concerned by the antisemitic rhetoric and discriminatory policies emanating from Colombian President Gustavo Petro and his Administration, which poses a direct threat to the safety and well-being of Colombia’s Jewish community,” Dina Siegel Vann, the director of AJC’s Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Institute for Latino and Latin American Affairs, said in a statement.
“These actions by the highest levels of government in Colombia must not become normalized,” Siegel Vann continued. “We commend Representatives Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) and María Salazar (R-FL) for their principled leadership in urging Secretary of State Marco Rubio to make clear to President Petro that his government’s continued provocations and embrace of antisemitic rhetoric and policies are inconsistent with our shared values and interests.”
Petro has a long history of anti-Israel and antisemitic comments and accused the Jewish state of genocide, severing ties last year. He declined to condemn the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, instead comparing Israel to the Nazi regime — something he has done for years, including prior to his time in office.
The committee also debated the U.S. relationship with Turkey and the future of UNRWA
Win McNamee/Getty Images
U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) questions Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel during a House Judiciary Committee hearing in the Rayburn House Office Building on September 17, 2025 in Washington, DC.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee, during a marathon markup of legislation to reform and reorganize the State Department, resoundingly rejected amendments seeking to condition U.S. aid to Israel on a bipartisan basis.
The committee also engaged in vigorous debate over the U.S. relationship with Turkey and the future of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. The markup began Monday morning and did not end until early Tuesday evening.
By two votes of 45-5, the committee rejected a pair of amendments by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) that would have added new conditions to $1 billion of the $3.3 billion in direct military funding the U.S. provides to Israel each year.
Jayapal and Reps. Joaquin Castro (D-TX), Sara Jacobs (D-CA), Jonathan Jackson (D-IL) and Madeline Dean (D-PA) voted in favor of the amendments.
The first of the two amendments would have conditioned aid to Israel on ending settlement expansion and illegal settlements; stopping plans to annex portions of the West Bank; holding accountable individuals involved in settler violence; holding Israeli security forces accountable for “grave human rights violations”; cooperating with U.S.-led investigations into the killings of U.S. citizens in the West Bank and providing compensation to victims; not targeting “educational, religious, agricultural and cultural sites”; allowing humanitarian aid workers and journalists to enter and travel throughout Gaza; and implementing reforms to protect “freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly” in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
The second amendment was more narrow, maintaining only the conditions relating to violence against U.S. citizens.
Jayapal’s amendments were modeled in part on human rights conditions Congress previously applied to U.S. aid to Egypt — though those conditions could be, and consistently were, waived by the State Department for most of the funds. The Jayapal amendments contained no waiver provision.
The committee voted in favor of an amendment, led by Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), that would require the administration to notify Congress of any decision to delay or withhold an arms transfer to Israel, and provide a path for Congress to override such a delay.
Democratic Reps. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) and George Latimer (D-NY) voted with most Republicans in favor of the amendment, and Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) voted with most Democrats against it.
An amendment by Castro that would have prohibited any U.S. foreign military funding to be used to purchase weapons outside the United States after 2029 failed by a 25-24 vote. Lawler voted with Democrats in favor of the amendment.
The provision was designed to prevent Israel from using U.S. funding to purchase weapons from its own defense industry under the next memorandum of understanding with the United States. Such domestic procurement funding is being phased out over the course of the current MOU.
The committee also debated a series of measures relating to the strained U.S.-Turkey relationship and Turkish hostility toward Israel, approving two and rejecting a third.
By a 35-13 bipartisan vote, the committee approved an amendment by Rep. Keith Self (R-TX) mandating that the administration consider the impact of any U.S. arms sales to Turkey on Israel’s Qualitative Military Edge, a condition that by law is applied to other Middle East nations.
Reps. Joe Wilson (R-SC), Ronny Jackson (R-TX), Young Kim (R-CA), Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL), Bill Huizenga (R-MI), Mike Lawler (R-NY), Ryan Zinke (R-MT), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA), Castro, Jacobs and Jayapal and Dels. Auma Amata Radewagen (R-AS) and James Moylan (R-GU) voted against the amendment.
Another amendment by Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) that would have allowed the State Department to reassign Turkey from its European bureau to its Middle East bureau was rejected by a voice vote.
Schneider argued that, given that it is no longer realistic that Turkey will be joining the European Union and that the U.S.’ concerns relating to Turkey increasingly relate to its activity in the Middle East, reassigning it would reflect the country’s current global posture.
Opponents argued that, as a key member of NATO, Turkey must be kept in the Europe bureau to ensure proper NATO coordination. They also warned that reclassifying Turkey would only drive Turkey further from the U.S. and toward its adversaries, and said that Turkey has been an important and reliable ally for decades.
An amendment requiring a report to Congress on Turkey’s purchase and operation of a Russian S-400 missile defense system and on Turkish relationships with Russian intelligence was adopted as part of a bipartisan package of amendments.
Touched off by a Lawler amendment revoking diplomatic privileges and immunity from United Nations Relief and Works Agency personnel, the committee engaged in a vigorous debate about the agency and its future. The amendment passed by a 27-21 vote. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) was the only Democrat who supported it.
Lawler argued that the amendment would help “force the U.N. to gut this agency and eliminate it altogether.”
Democrats, ranging from staunch supporters of Israel to some of its most outspoken critics, cautioned against immediately attempting to shut down the agency.
Even as he acknowledged the longstanding issues with UNRWA and said that the agency needs to be replaced, Schneider argued that the agency should not be disbanded until a viable alternative is ready, warning that terrorist groups could fill the gaps UNRWA’s elimination would leave.
“I share the concern and I want to see UNRWA replaced with something else, but I don’t want it replaced with a vacuum that leaves a population without education, a population without housing and food that is more likely to be radicalized and a continued threat than to create a possibility of a partner for peace,” Schneider said.
He said that “until it can be replaced, you sometimes have to work with very flawed institutions,” a seeming shift in Schneider’s past stances on the issue.
Other Democrats went significantly further, downplaying or dismissing allegations and evidence of widespread links between the agency and Hamas.
“UNRWA is attacked because of what it represents for the Palestinian people, the hope for statehood, the hope to return to lands and homes stolen from ancestors, the hope for a life marked by dignity and equality, but most of all the hope to just be able to survive from day to day,” Jayapal said.
Dean cited a U.N. report that nine UNRWA employees “may have been” involved in the Oct. 7 attacks, and suggested that was the sum total of links between the agency and Hamas.
By a 28-21 vote, with Reps. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) and Moskowitz voting in the affirmative with Republicans, the committee voted in favor of legislation that would block U.S. funding to United Nations agencies and bodies that restrict Israel’s participation or expel the Jewish state.
By a voice vote, the committee approved an amendment to prohibit U.S. funding to any U.N. agency that provides any upgraded status to the Palestine Liberation Organization or Palestinian Authority, a response to the U.N. General Assembly’s move last year to grant the Palestinians expanded privileges.
An amendment to prohibit U.S. funding to the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice — in part in response to their moves against Israel — was approved by a 31-18 vote, with Reps. Greg Stanton (D-AZ), Lieu, Latimer, Schneider and Cherfilus-McCormick voting in favor.
The committee voted along party lines to prohibit the U.S. from participating in the United Nations Human Rights Council.
The committee approved by voice vote an amendment to prevent Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories, from receiving a U.S. visa — a move already implemented under executive order by the Trump administration.
Also by a voice vote, the committee added additional vetting requirements for U.N. agencies receiving U.S. funds — matching the vetting requirements in place for other recipients of U.S. aid.
And by a bipartisan 28-19 vote, it rejected a proposal for the State Department to assess the possibility of relocating the United Nations headquarters out of New York.
Amid scrutiny and public outcry — primarily from progressives — Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) withdrew a provision in the original unamended legislation that would have allowed the secretary of state to revoke passports for any individual they deem to have provided material support for terrorism.
A Jacobs-led amendment that would have required the secretary of state to provide notification and a justification to Congress each time they use discretionary foreign policy authorities to revoke visas — the authority invoked in the attempted deportations of Mahmoud Khalil and other anti-Israel activists — failed by a party-line vote. As did one by Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA) that would have prohibited the revocation of visas based upon individuals’ speech.
The committee voted 32-19, with Reps. Brad Sherman (D-CA), Jim Costa (D-CA), Moskowitz and Jackson voting in favor, to require the State Department to brief Congress on the suspension of former Iran envoy Robert Malley’s security clearance — a set of events that remains shrouded in questions and prompted an as-yet-unresolved FBI investigation.
Malley has been accused of improperly disclosing classified information.
As part of a bipartisan amendment package, the committee approved legislation that would reauthorize the mission and position of the U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism and add to statute a responsibility for the special envoy to work to implement the Global Guidelines for Countering Antisemitism adopted under the Biden administration.
The package would also codify the State Department’s use of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism.
The legislation would prohibit the antisemitism envoy from serving in a dual role with other responsibilities in the executive branch, as well as reauthorize the special envoy for Holocaust issues.
A separate bipartisan amendment would direct the State Department to engage with European allies on countering antisemitism in Europe.
The committee passed, along party lines, as part of a package of amendments, a provision repealing a decades-old law that restricted the construction of new diplomatic facilities in Israel and the West Bank.
Other provisions approved as part of bipartisan packages of amendments included reauthorizing the U.S. security coordinator for the Palestinian territories, placing the security coordinator under the authority of the U.S. ambassador to Israel, declaring that Congress considers the Gaza Health Ministry to be an unreliable source of information and allowing the Gulf Cooperation Council to establish a diplomatic mission in Washington.
The committee also approved amendments aimed at preventing Iran from establishing a foothold in the Port of Sudan, protecting U.S. allies from the Houthis and preventing the Houthis from disseminating weapons and dual-use technologies from Yemen into the Horn of Africa.
Additional amendments would create a database of information on Iran’s global trade ties and membership in international organizations, and a centralized repository of all required reports to Congress about Iran.
Lawler was the only Republican who voted with Democrats for a failed amendment to reauthorize the Middle East Regional Cooperation program, which facilitates scientific cooperation between Israel and Arab states. Many of those grants were slashed with the shutdown of the United States Agency for International Development.
Numerous amendments led by Democrats failed along party lines, including ones that would have blocked military sales to any country — potentially including the UAE, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey — providing weapons to either side of the civil war in Sudan; and requested reports on U.S. funding for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, on the U.S. citizen population in Gaza, on U.S. citizens killed in the West Bank, on the controversial U.S. chip deal with the United Arab Emirates and on whether any U.S.-origin weapons have been used in Sudan.
The committee also blocked, on party lines, an effort to mandate that most U.S. nuclear energy cooperation agreements with foreign countries prohibit domestic enrichment and reprocessing of nuclear material — which could have complicated a long-gestating nuclear energy deal between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.
It remains unclear whether this legislative package stands any chance of passing Congress. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee put forward its own, much more limited, State Department reauthorization effort as part of the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, but that legislation has stalled on the Senate floor and the committee has shown little interest in taking up such a sweeping overhaul effort.
It’s also not yet guaranteed when the full House will take up these bills.
Democrats on the committee have cried foul about the process that produced the legislative package behind closed doors, from which they said they were largely excluded, despite GOP claims that the legislation is bipartisan.
They also accused Republicans of failing to hold regular oversight hearings with administration officials or markups of individual pieces of legislation as they focused on this larger package.
One provision would allow the department to revoke the passport of anyone the secretary of state deems to be supporting a terrorist organization
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Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) speaks during a House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing on Capitol Hill on January 11, 2024 in Washington, DC.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday released a series of bills aimed at reorganizing and reforming the State Department, ahead of a committee meeting next week where the lawmakers are expected to debate a host of amendments related to foreign policy and national security issues across the globe.
The nine bills released this week are part of a State Department reauthorization effort spearheaded by the committee’s new chairman, Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), and modeled after the congressional Armed Services Committees’ annual markups of the National Defense Authorization Act, the must-pass annual military and national security policy bill.
While Congress has passed an NDAA annually for decades, it has not conducted such a comprehensive authorization process for the State Department in more than two decades, though it has included State Department authorization bills as amendments in the last several NDAAs.
The Trump administration has undertaken its own efforts to reorganize and cut the size of the State Department.
Among the new provisions in the legislation highlighted by the committee’s leadership is one allowing the State Department to revoke the passport of anyone charged or convicted with providing material support to a terrorist organization, or who is determined by the secretary of state to have done so. Revocations would be subject to an appeal.
The administration could seek to use the provision, if enacted, to limit or prevent foreign travel by those it has deemed to be supporting Hamas and other terrorist groups. The legislation states that the provision cannot be used to “abridge the exercise” of First Amendment rights.
The package would also create an Eastern Mediterranean Security Cooperation Group for members of Congress and administration officials to coordinate with Israel, Greece and Cyprus, which would meet twice a year to discuss joint security issues.
It would extend authorities for the U.S. weapons stockpile in Israel, from which the U.S. can offer weapons to Israel in emergency situations. It would also ban U.S. contributions to the United Nations Commission of Inquiry targeting Israel.
The State Department would also be required annually to report to Congress on other countries’ United Nations voting practices, and particularly on their votes on Israel-related resolutions opposed by the United States.
In outlining the duties of the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., the legislation specifically instructs the ambassador to “identify, report, and hold accountable Member States that engage in malign influence operations and United Nations employees who act inconsistently with the princip[les] of impartiality enshrined in the United Nations Charter” and to oppose the election of states “that engage in malign influence operations” as the leader of U.N. bodies.
The package incorporates legislation aimed at countering detention of Americans by foreign adversaries, establishing a new designation for state sponsors of unlawful and wrongful detention. The administration recently established a similar policy through executive order.
As part of the State Department reorganization, the package would create a new position for an assistant secretary for sanctions policy and a Sanctions Policy Bureau to oversee U.S. sanctions activities and develop strategy and policy around the use of sanctions, as well as coordinate on sanctions with foreign partners.
The legislation would also create a new under secretary for foreign assistance to centralize control of all foreign aid programs — following the shuttering of USAID and its consolidation into the State Department — a director and office of foreign assistance oversight, and a Bureau of Strategic Communications aimed at countering foreign adversary propaganda.
It additionally would largely lift the U.S. arms embargo on Cyprus, provided that any weapons transferred are used by the Cypriot government, that Cyprus continues to reform its financial system and does not allow Russian military vessels to use its ports to refuel — continuing indefinitely a waiver first implemented in 2022.
Mast, in a statement about the package, said he “made a promise to restore command and control [in the State Department] — and this legislation delivers.”
“It ensures every dollar and every diplomat puts America First and is accountable to the president’s foreign policy. It also prevents ideologues masquerading as diplomats from using their posts to push left-wing agendas instead of America’s interests,” Mast continued. “This bill is not just a reform for today, or for President Trump; it is a lasting framework that will strengthen the State Department and benefit every commander-in-chief who follows.”
Norges announced it plans to divest from U.S. firm Caterpillar over the company’s business with the Israeli government
COURTNEY BONNEAU/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images
Israeli soldiers take a break from construction work at an Israeli outpost in Houla, southern Lebanon, on July 31, 2025.
The State Department is in discussions with the Norwegian government over the decision by Norges Bank Investment Management, the country’s sovereign wealth fund, to sell its stake in U.S. machinery firm Caterpillar, citing concerns about the Israeli military’s use of the company’s bulldozers to destroy Palestinian property in the West Bank and Gaza.
“We are very troubled by the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund’s decision, which appears to be based on illegitimate claims against Caterpillar and the Israeli government,” a State Department spokesperson told Jewish Insider. “We are engaging directly with the Norwegian government on this matter.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a close ally of the White House, recently floated the idea of retaliatory tariffs or visa restrictions in response to the move.
Rep. Madeleine Dean described the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation as a ‘death trap for starving Palestinians’
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The UNRWA logo is seen on the vest of an employee during a visit to the Jabal El Hussein refugee camp of UNRWA, , part of a diplomatic mission to Israel and the Palestinian territories, in Amman, Jordan, Wednesday 15 May 2024.
Democratic members of the House Appropriations Committee criticized Republican-led efforts to dismantle the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in the House’s draft 2026 budget bill for the State Department and other foreign programs.
The exchanges underscore the continued support among some prominent Democrats for restoring the U.S. relationship with the scandal-plagued UNRWA, more than a year after U.S. aid to the group was first halted following allegations that UNRWA staff participated in the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel. The budget bill includes a continued ban on aid to the agency and calls on the State Department to put together a plan to replace it.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), the top Democrat on the committee, pushed for the restoration of support to UNRWA.
“The bill scapegoats our international partners, U.N. agencies and NGOs that deliver life saving aid to the most vulnerable people around the globe,” DeLauro said. “Organizations like UNRWA will be destroyed, leaving children and families in Gaza and other places around the world to starve and to die.”
DeLauro also pushed back on provisions in the bill that would withhold funding from the U.N. Secretariat until the U.N. and U.S. government take certain steps to pursue accountability for UNRWA members involved in the Oct. 7 attacks.
“I do not believe the language matches the intent,” she argued. “The provision is overly broad. It penalizes important U.N. entities until specific actions are taken by the United States government. This makes no sense.”
She argued that a provision demanding that the U.N. waive immunity for U.N. employees involved in the attack is unnecessary.
“U.N. immunity is already waived in cases where it would impede the course of justice or where someone has committed human rights violations or engaged in or supported acts of terrorism,” DeLauro said. “We all want justice for the horrific attacks on both Americans and our friends in Israel and indeed, the Justice Department has a task force already investigating this issue. We should work together to address this in a manner that achieves true justice.”
Reps. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) and Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ) introduced an amendment that would halt future U.S. aid to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation until the State Department transmits to Congress all evidence provided by Israel and all U.S. assessments about the diversion of United Nations humanitarian aid by Hamas in Gaza.
It would also require the State Department to report to Congress on deaths at or near GHF distribution sites and plans to minimize such deaths, as well as on fraud and antiterrorism safeguards, before any further aid is provided to the GHF.
Dean accused the GHF of “violating core humanitarian principles” and described the system as a “death trap for starving Palestinians,” urging the U.S. to return to previous U.N. and NGO-run distribution systems.
She said she’s been shown no proof that Hamas had diverted aid provided under previous distribution systems, though she said that it “could be” doing so.
Dean claimed that “not a single refugee was gunned down as they attempted desperately to retrieve aid for their family with UNRWA or [the] World Food [Program] or other U.N. programs” and alleged that “more than 1,000 Gazans have been killed — shot and killed — by the IDF by trying to simply get food” at GHF sites. Israel has denied claims that it is targeting aid recipients at GHF sites, and some reports of such activity have been disproven.
Dean withdrew her amendment without requesting a vote.
Dean and Watson Coleman introduced another amendment to encourage the State Department to continue to support the East Jerusalem Hospital Network, which the committee rejected by a party line 35-26 vote.
Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart (R-FL) argued against the amendment, saying that no provisions of law would otherwise prohibit aid to the hospital network and that the decision should be left to Secretary of State Marco Rubio to assess where and how humanitarian funding would be best spent.
As part of an amendment package, committee Republicans called for an additional $2 million to be provided in the coming year for the implementation, enforcement and renewal of sanctions on Iran.
The amendment package also included language expressing concern about the Muslim Brotherhood, and requesting a report to Congress on how the State Department is countering “the threats posed” by the group, including visa restrictions.
The amendment package was adopted by a 34-27 vote.
Democrats more broadly criticized Republicans for the significant cuts the bill would enact on the State Department and U.S. foreign aid programs formerly run through the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The report requires additional vetting for U.S. funding abroad, targeting the BDS movement and alleged U.S. support for political activity
Kevin Carter/Getty Images
The U.S. Capitol Building is seen at sunset on May 31, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee’s National Security, Department of State and Related Programs subcommittee are backing a significant increase in funding for the office of the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism.
The explanatory report accompanying the subcommittee’s 2026 funding bill, which it advanced last week, proposes $2.5 million for the office, up from the $1.75 million provided in 2024 and 2025. The report also includes language calling for increased full-time staff in the office. The full Appropriations Committee will meet to discuss and vote on the bill on Wednesday.
The bill also expands vetting policies for U.S. funding abroad, requiring that no funding be provided to organizations that engage in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel, glorify violence or target the U.S. or Israel at the International Criminal Court or International Court of Justice.
Citing unspecified allegations that the U.S. provided assistance to organizations involved in political activity — a potential reference to GOP allegations that the U.S. funded protests against the Israeli government — the report directs the Department of State to expand its vetting procedures “to include an assessment of political neutrality and a review of statements by individuals or organizations that constitute engagement in political advocacy, incitement, or support for terrorism that would cause operational and reputational risks for the United States Government.”
The legislation, as approved by the subcommittee last week, would cut off U.S. funding to various United Nations initiatives, including the U.N.’s general budget.
The report explains that the cuts were motivated in part by the U.N.’s failure to address internal antisemitism and anti-Israel bias. It requests that the State Department report to Congress on the issue, including specific instances of antisemitism and their origins, statements by U.N. agencies or officials that may violate their responsibility to maintain neutrality toward Israel and an assessment of the U.N.’s plan to improve its response to antisemitism.
It also “strongly condemns” the U.N. General Assembly for passing a resolution granting the Palestinian Authority status nearly equivalent to that of a member state, describing the decision as having “undermin[ed] peace and security between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples.”
The report states that lawmakers are concerned about the continued relationship between Hamas and Turkey, which has hosted some of the group’s leaders. It makes no mention of the similar — and deeper — relationship between Hamas and Qatar.
The report calls for accountability for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, including demanding that the U.N. address atrocities committed by UNRWA members on Oct. 7, 2023, and UNRWA’s alleged provision of support for and partnership with terrorist groups.
It demands that the U.N. provide unredacted files on these issues, which it has allegedly declined to do thus far, and asks the State Department to present a plan for aiding the Middle East without UNRWA and a report on whether U.S. aid to UNRWA was diverted to or paid the salaries of terrorist groups and their members.
The bill would block U.S. funding to South Africa unless it meets several conditions, including ceasing its cooperation with U.S. adversaries.
It would earmark $5 million for programs in Israel designed to support archeological and cultural heritage, like the City of David. It also urges the State Department to support programs and organizations that back the U.S.-Israel relationship and directs the department to make funding available for humanitarian needs in Israel, such as medical responses to Iranian missile attacks.
It would maintain funding, $50 million annually, for the Middle East Partnership for Peace Act and would provide $50 million for the Middle East Partnership Initiative, which aims to support leadership and public-private partnerships in the Middle East; $10 million for the Middle East Regional Cooperation program, which funds scientific collaboration between Israel and Arab States; and $4 million for cooperative development programs between Israel and the United States in third countries.
The report states that freeing the remaining hostages in Gaza “is a critical United States priority and urges regional partners and allies to intensify their efforts toward achieving this objective.”
The legislation creates new oversight requirements for U.S. aid to Syria, requiring the State Department to notify Congress about aid provided to Syria, to consult with Congress before initiating a new aid program or activity and to ensure that no U.S. aid will benefit members or affiliates of the former Assad regime.
The report expresses concern about antisemitic discrimination in Latin America, “particularly instances of elected leaders fueling prejudice against Jewish communities through social media and official government channels or otherwise neglecting their responsibility,” and encourages them to condemn and work to fight antisemitism.
The report also instructs the State Department to work with U.S. allies toward implementing snapback of United Nations sanctions on Iran.
It also asks the State Department to report to Congress on foreign governments and nonstate actors that are targeting the international Jewish community and using antisemitism and antisemitic symbols.
The report requests that the State Department update Congress on the status of negotiations with the PA to end its terror payments program and expresses support for continued efforts to dismantle Hamas in Gaza, stating that the group continues to pose a threat to the U.S., Israel and other partners.
It further mandates that the State Department update Congress on the situation in southern Lebanon, including the actions of Hezbollah, the Lebanese Armed Forces and the U.N. peacekeeping force and their actions to comply with and enforce U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 and the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire agreement, which mandates the disarmament of Hezbollah.
And it directs the State Department to present a plan for the future of the U.S.-Egypt relationship, including to consider negotiating a memorandum of understanding between the two countries on security assistance, as the U.S. has in place with Israel.
The report additionally instructs the State Department to ensure sufficient resources are provided to support the Abraham Accords and their expansion, and to work to expand membership in the Comprehensive Security Integration and Prosperity Agreement with Bahrain.
British rap duo Bob Vylan was slated to perform in 19 U.S. cities this fall
Ben Birchall/PA Images via Getty Images
Bob Vylan performing on the West Holts Stage, during the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Somerset.
The members of the British rap duo Bob Vylan had their visas revoked by the State Department on Monday ahead of a planned U.S. tour after leading chants calling for “death to the IDF” over the weekend at the Glastonbury music festival in the U.K.
“The Department of Justice Task Force to Combat Antisemitism will work with the U.S. State Department to deny entry into the United States of performers who incite violent antisemitic behavior,” a spokesperson for the DOJ told Jewish Insider.
“Foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country,” Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau wrote on X.
Bob Vylan was slated to perform in 19 U.S. cities this fall. Organizers of the annual Glastonbury festival — Britain’s biggest summer music festival — said on Sunday they were “appalled” by the chants.
Irish rap group Kneecap, which had their visas revoked in April, also performed at the festival on Saturday despite one of its members having been charged with a terror offense for displaying a Hezbollah flag at a London concert.
The visa revocation comes amid a broader effort by the Trump administration to crack down on the explosion of antisemitism in the U.S, with several recent high-profile cases of student visa cancellations.
Plus, U.S. pours cold water on Macron’s Palestinian summit
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
State Department Sikorsky HH-60L Black Hawk helicopters as they fly over Baghdad towards the U.S. embassy headquarters on December 13, 2024.
Good Thursday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we talk to analysts about the significance of the evacuation of some State Department personnel and military families from the Middle East and the likelihood of a military strike on Iran’s nuclear sites. We report on the defeat of two resolutions in the Senate yesterday to stop weapon sales to Qatar and the UAE, and cover comments by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on the status of the Qatari luxury jet gift. We talk to GOP senators about French President Emmanuel Macron’s campaign for international recognition of a Palestinian state, examine the findings of a new Quinnipiac poll that illustrates deepening partisanship over Israel, and have the scoop on a push by the Orthodox Union calling on the Senate to pass the Educational Choice for Children Act. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Van Jones, Rev. Johnnie Moore and Rabbi Abraham Cooper.
What We’re Watching
- The House Appropriations Committee will conduct its full committee markup of the 2026 defense and homeland security funding bills.
- The House Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on the Department of Defense’s 2026 budget request with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine.
- The Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs will hold a hearing on the nomination of Sean Plankey to be director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
- The Zionist Organization of America is holding its annual legislative lobbying day at the Capitol.
- Argentine President Javier Milei is being presented with the Genesis Prize today at Jerusalem’s Museum of Tolerance.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S LAHAV HARKOV
Since the Israeli strike on Iran’s air defenses in October, Jerusalem has sought a green light, or something close to it, from Washington to strike the Islamic Republic’s nuclear sites. President Donald Trump, however, repeatedly told Israel to hold off as he pursued a diplomatic agreement with Tehran to stop its enrichment program.
Now, after the Iranian nuclear program has continued apace and Trump has voiced frustration over Tehran’s intransigence, it seems that Jerusalem’s patience for diplomacy is running out.
Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Mossad chief David Barnea will be meeting Trump’s top negotiator Steve Witkoff on Friday ahead of the sixth round of talks with Iran in Oman on Sunday “in an additional attempt to clarify Israel’s stance,” an official in Jerusalem said, amid persistent reports and strong indications that Israel is prepared to strike Iran.
After a call with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu last week, Trump said that if Tehran does not agree to give up uranium enrichment, the situation will get “very, very dire.” On Wednesday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said that “there have been plenty of indications” that Iran is moving towards weaponization of its nuclear program, and Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, the chief of CENTCOM, said that he presented Trump and Hegseth with numerous options to attack Iran if nuclear talks break down.
Hours later, the State Department began to move some personnel out of Iraq and the military suggested that servicemembers’ families depart the Middle East, while the U.K. warned about a potential “escalation of military activity” in the region. Such evacuations are often the first step to reduce risk ahead of a large-scale military operation.
Trump told reporters that the evacuations are happening because the Middle East “could be a dangerous place, and we’ll see what happens.” More on this from Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod here.
Kurilla postponed his testimony before the Senate planned for Thursday. Staff at U.S. embassies and consulates throughout the Middle East were told to take safety precautions, and those stationed in Israel were told not to leave the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, Jerusalem or Beersheva.
Multiple news outlets published reports citing anonymous American officials that Israel is ready to strike Iran without help from the U.S. One possible reason for the timing — moving forward even as Washington and Tehran are set to enter a sixth round of talks on Sunday — is that Iran has reportedly begun to rebuild the air defenses that Israel destroyed last year. Iranian Armed Forces Chief of Staff Mohammad Bagheri reportedly said last month: “We are witnessing a remarkable improvement in the capability and readiness of the country’s air defense.”
PARIS PUSHBACK
GOP senators criticize France’s Macron for defying U.S. with Palestinian statehood push
French President Emmanuel Macron’s campaign for international recognition of a Palestinian state and championing of an upcoming United Nations conference on the subject despite U.S. opposition has received a frosty reception from Senate Republicans, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports. France is set to co-chair “The High Level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution” with Saudi Arabia at the U.N. headquarters in New York next week. Several senators described it as a distraction from U.S. efforts to secure peace in the region while praising the Trump administration’s decision to urge U.N. member states against participating.
Republican reactions: “It certainly sounds like they take us for granted and think that they can act without consequence. France has a long history of doing this in foreign policy. They’re consistently a problem and have been forever, but I’d say it’s very unhelpful of them at this present moment,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) told JI. “They’ve generally had a cozy relationship with Iran that is purely driven by economic ties, maybe some historic ties. It makes no sense to me. I don’t think it’s well received by our administration,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) said.
Read the full story here with additional comments from Sens. John Kennedy (R-LA), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Markwayne Mullin (R-OK).
ON THE HILL
Bipartisan Senate group votes down resolutions to stop Qatar, UAE arms sales
The Senate defeated two resolutions aimed at blocking certain weapons sales to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, with five Democrats voting with nearly all Republicans against both resolutions, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What happened: The 56-39 votes came as a pressure tactic from some progressive Democrats on the two U.S. partners and the Trump administration over dealings between President Donald Trump and the two Gulf states — Qatar’s provision of a luxury jumbo jet to serve as Air Force One and the UAE’s investment of $2 billion in a Trump-linked cryptocurrency. Democratic Sens. Chris Coons (D-DE), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) voted against the two resolutions. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) voted present.
Up in the air: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed on Wednesday that the memorandum of understanding between the Trump administration and Qatar for the gift of a luxury jet worth $400 million to join the Air Force One fleet has not been completed and signed, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
PAC ATTACK
New pro-Israel super PAC launches ads against Zohran Mamdani
A new super PAC funded by donors involved in Jewish and pro-Israel causes is targeting Zohran Mamdani as he continues to surge in the final days of New York City’s mayoral primary, tying the far-left Queens state assemblyman to a range of recent antisemitic incidents. In a 30-second digital ad released by Sensible City, the super PAC takes aim at Mamdani, a democratic socialist polling in second place behind former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, for supporting efforts to defund the police amid a rise in anti-Israel demonstrations and antisemitic violence fueled by Israel’s war in Gaza, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
What it says: “It doesn’t stop,” the ad’s narrator intones over images of anti-Israel protests as well as antisemitic attacks, notably highlighting the alleged shooter of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington last month. “Day after day, streets blocked, demonstrations, some calling for killing, destruction — it’s not safe. Institution walls defaced with symbols to remind us of what can happen only because of who we are. The haters mean every word they utter. What can we do?”
POLL POSITION
New Quinnipiac poll illustrates deepening partisanship over Israel
A new Quinnipiac poll released on Wednesday underscores the growing partisanship over Israel, and the declining sympathies among Democratic voters towards the Jewish state, Jewish Insider’s Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar reports. The survey asked respondents whether their sympathies were more with Israelis or Palestinians. A 37% plurality said Israelis, 32% said Palestinians and 31% said they don’t know — the narrowest advantage Israel has had since Quinnipiac began asking the question in 2001.
Partisan divide: The slippage was driven mainly by Democrats, who now are overwhelmingly more sympathetic towards Palestinians. Among Democrats, just 12% said their sympathies were more with Israelis while a record 60% said they were with Palestinians. By comparison, in November 2023, shortly after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, the Quinnipiac survey found 41% of Democrats saying they were more sympathetic to Palestinians, while 34% said they were more sympathetic to Israelis. By contrast, Republicans remain overwhelmingly supportive of Israel and independents are still more supportive of Israelis than Palestinians. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of Republicans are more sympathetic to Israelis, while 7% are more sympathetic to Palestinians. The small share of Republicans more sympathetic to the Palestinians is unchanged since 2023.
EXCLUSIVE
OU launches major push for school choice legislation in reconciliation bill
The Orthodox Union on Thursday announced a national advocacy effort calling on the Senate to pass the Educational Choice for Children Act, which is part of the budget reconciliation bill recently passed by the House and under consideration in the Senate and could open up a new funding stream for Jewish families aiming to send their children to Jewish day schools, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
New goal: The campaign, run jointly by the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center and the Teach Coalition, OU’s state-level advocacy arm, will include digital, print and grassroots advertising, urging Orthodox Jews to contact their senators to support the ECCA and double the funding recommended in the House bill. The OU is aiming to mobilize 50,000 people to contact their senators on the issue.
SOLIDARITY PUSH
‘A double helix of hope’: CNN’s Van Jones calls for renewed Black-Jewish alliance
“It’s not the firebombs and hunting of Jewish people in the streets of America right now, it’s the appalling silence of people that know better and won’t say better,” CNN commentator Van Jones told some 600 attendees of the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation’s (AJCF) 25th anniversary gala dinner on Wednesday at Pier 60 in Manhattan. Jones was honored at the gala for his work promoting Black-Jewish relations, which includes launching the Exodus Leadership Forum, a group that aims to renew the Civil Rights Movement-era alliance between the Black and Jewish communities, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Looking to history: “It was a small number of Black folks who held on to the cultural DNA of ‘justice for all.’ It was a small number of Jews who held on to the cultural DNA of ‘repair the world,’” Jones said, reflecting on the Civil Rights Movement, in which American Jews played a meaningful role. “When you put those two bits of cultural DNA together, you get a double helix of hope for humanity.” Jones called on Black people and Jews to partner together again amid a different kind of crisis. “We have to do it again,” he said.
Worthy Reads
A Socialist in Gracie Mansion?: The Free Press’ Olivia Reingold considers Zohran Mamdani’s chances of beating former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to become mayor of New York City. “To a rising number of New Yorkers, particularly the young and college-educated, Mamdani is a welcome alternative to a 67-year-old member of the Democratic establishment. As canvassers broke off to start knocking on doors, 33-year-old bar owner Roberto Beltre told me he supported Mamdani because ‘the ideas that we hear at these protests are never said by any of these other politicians.’ His girlfriend, 31-year-old Mercy, chimed in: ‘He’s saying everything that I want to hear. It seems unlikely, but I hope that he can win.’ The thing is—he can. In only a few months, he’s managed to surge from polling at 1 percent, to second place in the race with the endorsement of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. A new poll commissioned by a pro-Mamdani PAC shows him just two points behind Cuomo in a head-to-head race. Other recent polls show Cuomo winning—but only in the eighth or 10th round under New York City’s ranked choice voting system.” [FP]
What’s Next in Gaza?: The Times of Israel’s founding editor, David Horovitz, writes about the continued lack of clarity over Israel’s next steps in Gaza, exacerbated by a growing disconnect between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump as well as the IDF. “Some military sources speculate that the IDF may eventually be asked to oversee a controlled return of the Gaza populace to their largely ruined home areas, under a process that would necessitate screening the returnees to ensure that Hamas forces do not simply come back with them. However nice in theory, the idea is impractical. The IDF is not capable of controlling, much less screening, large masses of civilians. … At the same time, domestic and global criticism of the war is growing — especially since the government chose in March not to move ahead with the second and third phases of the January deal it had unanimously endorsed, which was intended to secure the release of all hostages and end the war, and instead resumed the military campaign. Growing, too, is US presidential impatience, in part reflecting deepening dismay from within Republican ranks, and Trump has vast weapon-supply and diplomatic leverage to exert over Netanyahu should he so choose.” [TOI]
Word on the Street
Iranian Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh threatened on Wednesday to attack U.S. bases in the region if conflict arises, saying, “Some officials on the other side threaten conflict if negotiations don’t come to fruition. If a conflict is imposed on us … all U.S. bases are within our reach and we will boldly target them in host countries”…
Iran announced plans today to expand its uranium enrichment and install advanced centrifuges after a U.N. atomic energy agency resolution declared it in violation of nuclear obligations…
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine declined to definitively say on Wednesday whether they believed Iran would use a nuclear weapon if it acquired one, as they testified before the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports…
The Knesset on Thursday struck down a bill that would have called an election later this year, with Haredi parties agreeing to another week of negotiations on penalties for yeshiva students who avoid the IDF draft, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports…
Israeli Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf, chairman of the United Torah Judaism party, resigned today and will join the opposition, but the rest of the Haredi bloc remains part of the coalition…
Ezzedin al-Haddad, known as the Ghost of al-Qassam, has been named as the new leader of Hamas in Gaza following Israel’s assassination of his predecessor Mohammed Sinwar, and before that Yahya Sinwar…
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the U.S. and Israel-backed aid distribution mechanism, reported that a bus carrying more than two dozen members of its team were “brutally attacked” by Hamas on Wednesday night, resulting in at least five fatalities, multiple injuries and concerns of some team members taken hostage…
The IDF recovered the bodies of two deceased hostages from Gaza on Wednesday, that of Yair Yaakov and another whose name has not yet been approved for publication…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly told U.S. envoy Tom Barrack that he is interested in the U.S. acting as a mediator in an updated security deal ultimately leading to a full peace agreement between Israel and Syria, Axios scooped…
Rev. Johnnie Moore, an evangelical Christian pastor and former Trump advisor, and Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center met with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa this week. On potential Israel-Syria normalization, Moore told Reuters, “I think peace is very possible, if not probable”…
A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on Wednesday stating that the Trump administration cannot detain nor deport Columbia University anti-Israel protest leader Mahmoud Khalil. The ruling does not take effect until Friday, leaving time for the government to appeal…
At a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on antisemitism, Democrats repeatedly highlighted Trump administration delays in disbursing already allocated Nonprofit Security Grant Program funds. Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX), the subcommittee chair, argued that policy changes, aggressive prosecutions and condemnations of antisemitic ideology are equally or more important than funding…
A bipartisan group of House lawmakers wrote to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday, again demanding that Francesca Albanese, U.N. special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories, be dismissed from her position, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…
The DETERRENCE Act, bipartisan legislation which increases penalties on individuals who commit crimes on behalf of the Iranian regime or other foreign adversaries, passed the Senate by unanimous consent on Tuesday…
Asif Rahman, a former CIA analyst, was sentenced to just over three years in prison on Wednesday for unlawfully retaining and sharing top secret records about Israeli plans for a strike on Iran on social media…
Ira Stoll writes in the Wall Street Journal about Harvard Memorial Church, owned and operated by Harvard University, where the minister has repeatedly bashed Israel from the pulpit, calling the war in Gaza “increasingly genocidal,” saying “We know what hell looks like … it looks like Gaza today” and arguing that the anti-Israel encampment on campus was “right to lament and decry the death of so many innocent people in Gaza”…
Nathan Diament, the executive director of the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center, argued in an op-ed titled “Congress must act against the American intifada” that “Congress is failing to meet the urgent demands of the moment” and must open application for the National Security Grant Program, increase its funding to $500 million for 2026 and allocate $200 million of the Department of Justice’s existing grants to local police specifically for increased patrols and police presence at faith institutions…
Leland Lehrman was named as the executive director of the MAHA Institute, a policy center that previously operated as a super PAC supporting Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign. Lehrman has repeatedly espoused his belief in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and, speaking on a far-right radio show, argued that Jews communicate with the devil and discussed “high-level Jewish Illuminists, or Lucifer worshipers”…
Columnist and writer Miranda Devine described her experience interviewing President Donald Trump for her new podcast “Pod Force One,” calling him “a bountiful host” who will “quite literally offer you the food off his plate”…
Apollo Global Management announced that it will not interview or extend offers to the class of 2027 this year, breaking with its tradition of extending future-dated offers. CEO Marc Rowan said he agreed with criticism of hiring young recruits too early…
The trial of three teenagers accused of raping a 12-year-old Jewish girl, calling her a “dirty Jewess,” began yesterday in Paris…
Pic of the Day
Some 100 LGBTQ+ leaders from North America met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and First Lady Michal Herzog at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem yesterday, as part of the Jewish Federations of North America’s LGBTQ+ mission to Israel.
Birthdays
Founder and managing partner of the investment firm Thrive Capital and the co-founder of Oscar Health, Joshua Kushner turns 40…
Senior of counsel at Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker, Martin Edelman turns 84… Retired sportscaster for NBA games on TNT, has also been the play-by-play announcer of multiple Super Bowls, NBA Finals, Stanley Cup Finals and the World Series, Marv Albert (born Marvin Philip Aufrichtig) turns 84… Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit since 1991, now on senior status, Judge Andrew Jay Kleinfeld turns 80… Former solicitor of labor in the Nixon and Ford administrations, then a senior partner at Gibson Dunn, William J. Kilberg turns 79… Social psychologist, he is the director of the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University, Leonard Saxe turns 78… Israeli statesman and scholar who has served in multiple ministerial and leadership positions in the Israeli government including 20 years as a member of the Knesset, Yosef “Yossi” Beilin turns 77… Rabbi at Temple Beth El in Santa Cruz County, Calif., for 40 years, now emeritus, known as Rabbi Rick, Richard Litvak… British Conservative Party member of Parliament from 1992 until last year, his father was a rabbi, Sir Michael Fabricant turns 75… Professor at the University of Florida’s Hamilton Center, his 2022 book is The Arc of a Covenant: The United States, Israel, and the Fate of the Jewish People, Walter Russell Mead turns 73… Dental consultant and recruiter, Kenneth Nussen… Peruvian banker and politician, José Chlimper Ackerman turns 70… Senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and professor at Georgetown’s Center for Jewish Civilization, Danielle Pletka turns 62… Television producer and executive, he was the CEO of Showtime Networks until 2022, David Nevins turns 59… EVP of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad) in Washington, D.C., Rabbi Levi Shemtov… Film and television actor, known for his role as Louis Litt in the legal drama series “Suits,” Rick Hoffman turns 55… SVP for politics at NBC, Carrie Budoff Brown… Founder of Singularity Communications, Eliezer O. (“Eli”) Zupnick… Canadian tech entrepreneur, television personality and venture capitalist, Michele Romanow turns 40… Partner at Enso Collaborative, Hanna Siegel… Co-creator of the Mozilla Firefox internet browser, he was the director of product at Facebook and then worked at Uber, Blake Aaron Ross turns 40… Associate director of health policy and the law initiative at Georgetown Law School, Zachary Louis Baron… VP at MediaLink, Alexis Rose Levinson… Multimodal transportation coordinator in the planning department of Montgomery County (Md.), Eli Glazier… Photographer and Instagram influencer, Tessa Nesis… Israeli windsurfer, he won a gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Tom Reuveny turns 25… Lead consultant at AutoNate, Joel Bond…
Dana Stroul: ‘If you’re trying to minimize risk before significant military operations, this is what you do’
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
State Department Sikorsky HH-60L Black Hawk helicopters as they fly over Baghdad towards the U.S. embassy headquarters on December 13, 2024.
The U.S.’ moves to evacuate some State Department personnel and military families from the Middle East are seen by experts as a potential sign of a U.S. or Israeli strike against Iran’s nuclear program — or, at least, a signal to Iran that the U.S. is prepared for such action, ahead of a planned round of nuclear talks with Tehran.
The moves come as President Donald Trump’s self-imposed deadline for the talks is approaching this week, and Trump has expressed public frustration with the lack of progress being made. There have been conflicting reports about whether the talks expected this weekend are still slated to occur.
The State Department is drawing down personnel in Iraq, the department said, and the Pentagon is allowing for voluntary departures of military families from locations in the Middle East. The United Kingdom, separately, issued a maritime trade warning about a potential “escalation of military activity” in the Middle East.
Dana Stroul, the research director at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and former deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, noted that the Trump administration had conducted mandatory drawdowns of State Department personnel in Iraq at the end of the first Trump administration. The Pentagon evacuations, she noted, are thus far optional.
“This was part of the Iran policy approach [during Trump’s first administration] to increase pressure on the Iraqi government to get attack[s] against U.S. forces to stop,” Stroul told Jewish Insider. “So some of the people making these decisions inside the Trump administration have prior experience with reducing our presence in the region as part of a pressure play against Iran.”
But, she added, a “reduction in military families in the Gulf is the first step military planners would want to take if they were trying to reduce risk to U.S. personnel before large-scale, significant military operations.”
“If you’re trying to minimize risk before significant military operations, this is what you do. But right now they’re voluntary, not ordered,” Stroul continued.
Stroul argued that, in combination with the recent call between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump’s public comments that he’s been frustrated by Iran’s posture in negotiations, “Tehran should take notice.”
Daniel Shapiro, Stroul’s successor in the deputy assistant secretary role, said that the administration “is clearly into some major preparations for possible military action vs Iran (by US and/or Israel).”
“A useful signal ahead of round 6 of nuke talks,” Shapiro continued. “Need to be prepared to back it up.”
Jason Brodsky, the policy director for United Against Nuclear Iran, framed the move as a likely sign of action, noting that congressional testimony by Gen. Erik Kurilla, who leads U.S. Central Command, set for Thursday morning, had been postponed.
“Something is cooking,” Brodsky said.
John Hannah, a senior fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America and former national security advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney, told JI he believes that the moves are primarily an “unambiguous signal to the Iranians in advance of the next round of talks that U.S. patience is not unlimited and that time may be running out for them.”
He said the steps will take time to carry out but “they all have the indicia of the classic playbook that the United States would start rolling out in advance of anticipated hostilities. And of course it’s all being undertaken without much stealth and secrecy, but rather in a manner that ensures the Iranians and the rest of the world will know about it.”
He added that it “doesn’t necessarily have to be just one or the other,” and the moves should leave Iran guessing.
“The fact that the immediate purpose of these moves might primarily be a signaling mechanism to influence Iran’s posture in the negotiations doesn’t ipso facto mean it’s all just a bluff — although, if we’re honest, bluffing and then retreating is clearly often an integral part of President Trump’s negotiating MO and the ‘art of the deal,’” Hannah said. “That said, it could also be a deadly serious first step to put Iran on notice that it’s got one last chance to take the deal on offer or face the wrath of a U.S. military strike.”
“Trump is perfectly capable of going either way and the Iranians shouldn’t sleep too comfortably trying to figure out which one of those possibilities they’re facing,” he continued. “If they guess wrong, the outcome for them is potentially catastrophic.”
Mark Dubowitz, the CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, framed the moves more as a negotiating tactic.
“Ahead of round 6, the U.S. is signaling: failure at the table means real consequences,” Dubowitz said on X. “Starting to move non-essential personnel and families —reversible but not trivial. Message to Khamenei: you can end this peacefully, or face serious preparedness if you don’t.”
Kurilla said in response to a question from lawmakers on Tuesday about retaliation from a potential Israeli strike on Iran that the U.S. is continually assessing threats to military personnel in the Middle East and taking steps to address potential vulnerabilities.
The vessel carrying activists has briefly taken global attention away from the legitimate efforts to distribute aid in Gaza, amid mounting distribution challenges
Israeli Foreign Ministry
IDF soldiers take Greta Thunberg into custody after boat to Gaza is intercepted, June 9th, 2025
The image of Greta Thunberg eyeing a turkey sandwich as she is taken into Israeli custody has been picked up across pro-Israel social media. And on the other side of the ideological spectrum, supporters of Thunberg, who is vegan, decried the “hostage-taking” of the Swedish climate activist and other participants on the boat that had been headed to Gaza before its interception overnight by Israel’s navy.
But the stunt — after all, the small vessel carrying Thunberg and the other activists could carry only a minimal amount of aid — has briefly taken global attention away from the legitimate efforts to distribute aid in Gaza, amid mounting distribution challenges following the launch of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation last month.
Distribution through the GHF was briefly paused last week following a series of incidents in and around distribution sites, including the shooting of some Gazans as they neared sites as instructed, and the rush on other facilities by crowds of Gazans. Additionally, the GHF said it was forced to close its distribution sites on Saturday due to threats from Hamas.
Further complicating issues is Israel’s support for an armed militia in Gaza that opposes Hamas, which Jewish Insider reported on last week. The Israeli decision to arm members of Yasser Abu Shabab’s gang in southern Gaza — which was made without the input of the Israeli security cabinet — is causing backlash in Israel, where former Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman pushed back against the plan, alleging that in attempting to pit Palestinian factions against each other, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “still continuing with the same idea that led us to the greatest massacre in the history of the state.”
Frustration over the situation from some of Israel’s staunchest defenders has at times boiled into public view. Speaking in Turkey last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he was “troubled” by the humanitarian situation in Gaza, while Vice President JD Vance briefly addressed the humanitarian issue over the weekend in an interview with podcaster Theo Von.
The State Department is reportedly considering allocating $500 million to the GHF’s operations — money that would come from USAID’s budget as the agency is folded into the State Department. But Israel has yet to demonstrate that it is able, through the GHF, to distribute aid at a large scale. And major challenges remain: that some of the most vulnerable are not in areas where easy and safe distribution is possible, and also that the distribution is taking place in a war zone with a rapidly changing security situation, and a route or site that is deemed safe one day may be unusable the next.
Kinks are to be expected as the GHF expands its operations. The open question, as distribution enters its third week, is if the GHF, with the backing of Israel and international partners, can address the existing challenges and scale up to meet the soaring humanitarian needs in the enclave, and whether in the longer term it can serve as a viable alternative to the many aid agencies and organizations with whom Israel refuses to work, or vice versa.
It is against that backdrop that the GHF, Israel, the U.S. and other involved parties are working to formulate an implementable plan that avoids the logistical challenges of recent weeks. Thunberg’s boat stunt made headlines. But a functioning aid distribution apparatus, when operating at scale, can make a difference.
The New Jersey Democrat has asked diplomatic and intelligence officials for an update on the status of his constituent after Hamas claimed it had lost touch with his captors
Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images
A young relative of Edan Alexander looks up at Yael Alexander, Edan's mother, speaking at the “International Rally - United We Bring Them Home” rally in Hostage Square on May 18th, 2024 in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) has asked the State Department and intelligence community officials for a status update on the condition and whereabouts of Israeli American hostage Edan Alexander after Hamas claimed it had lost contact with his captors inside Gaza, the senator told Jewish Insider.
Alexander, a Tenafly, N.J., native, is the only American hostage in Gaza believed to be alive. Hamas released a video of Alexander earlier this month in which the terror group said he had been held captive for 551 days, implying the video was filmed on April 9 or 10, 2025.
One week later, a Hamas spokesperson alleged that the group had been unable to reach Alexander’s captors following an Israeli airstrike in the area where he was being held. The terror group has not provided an update on Alexander’s condition since. Hamas has lied about the status of hostages in the past and have also tried to attribute the deaths of hostages killed by their captors to Israeli bombing campaigns.
Speaking to JI at the Capitol on Monday, both Kim and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) said they were seeking more information on Alexander from U.S. and international channels.
Booker declined to go into specifics, telling JI that there was “nothing I could share” given the fluidity of the situation. Kim, meanwhile, said that he was pressing the Trump administration for clarity about Alexander’s condition and was working on setting up meetings with the Egyptian and Qatari ambassadors in hopes that they could provide an update.
“We’ve asked the State Department and intel community to try to provide us any and all information that they might have. I talked to his parents about this and we’re just trying to figure out what’s what. Also, we just met with the hostage office at the State Department to try to press on the necessity for us to have a sense of what’s true or not on that front. I’m trying to see if I can meet with the ambassadors of Egypt and Qatar as well to see if they have any information through their own routes in terms of engagement,” Kim told JI.
The two senators have been in frequent touch with Alexander’s parents, especially in recent months as U.S. negotiators and the senators themselves pushed to include Alexander in the group of hostages that was released before a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas fell apart in March. The Tenafly native, who turned 21 while in captivity in December, was on IDF patrol at Kibbutz Nirim on Oct. 7 when he was kidnapped into Gaza by Hamas terrorists.
Anton told JI in 2020 that Trump’s foreign policy approach is a ‘focused doctrine’ aiming to decrease U.S. involvement globally and hone in on U.S. national interests
AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
Michael Anton, National Security Adviser, waits in the East Room of the White House in Washington of the start of President Donald Trump's news conference, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017.
The Trump administration tapped Michael Anton, the State Department’s director of policy planning, to lead a team of technical experts in negotiations with the Iranian regime about its nuclear program.
According to Politico, Anton will lead a team of around 12 mostly career officials in discussions set to begin this weekend.
Anton is a conservative essayist and speechwriter who served in the first Trump administration as a deputy assistant to the president for strategic communications on the National Security Council. He was subsequently a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute.
In a 2020 Fox News interview, Anton said that the original Iran deal was flawed in part because it provided significant up-front financial benefits to Iran before the provisions more favorable to the U.S. took effect, which Iran used to fuel terrorism. He said Trump was “right to object to that” and reimpose sanctions. He said that cutting off Iranian resources would de-escalate, rather than escalate conflict.
He also supported the U.S. strike that killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
Anton said on Fox and in a 2019 interview with NPR that he views Iran as generally cautious, retreating if it faces strong resistance.
“When and where Iran sees either weakness and/or a lack of vigilance — America not paying attention — it tends to try to exploit what it sees as gaps,” Anton said. “When it sees that we are being strong, that we are being vigilant, that we’re not leaving them opportunities to harm our interests, it tends to back down and turn its attentions elsewhere.”
He said that the U.S. and its allies can deter Iranian aggression by presenting a strong and united front. He also emphasized that all administration officials should ultimately defer to the president’s judgement on any issues to do with Iran or be fired.
Anton is known as an ardent defender of Trump and his foreign policy approach, which he described in a past interview with Jewish Insider as aiming to roll back U.S. involvement throughout the world and focusing instead on defending U.S. national security, economic interests, competitiveness and alliance structure.
“It’s a more focused doctrine than what Trumpism replaced. It’s seeing American interest through a more narrow lens,” Anton said. “Once you define everything as a priority, nothing is a priority. Once you define everything as an interest, it means nothing is an interest.”
He also told JI that he sees the U.S.-Israel relationship as critical to the U.S.’ security strategy but also based on more than “dollars and cents,” including a “shared conviction and shared interests” and a “natural affinity to democracies that share common values and so on.”
Michael Makovsky, the CEO of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, who has expressed some concerns about the direction of the nuclear talks, said that the actual technical details of the talks are the paramount question.
“It depends upon what the technical team intends to do. If it’s to work out the technical details of dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear program, including its enrichment facilities, as well as limits on its missile program, that would be most welcome,” Makovsky said. “However, if it’s to work out the technical minutiae of a new version of Obama’s JCPOA, then that would be dangerous. The administration should clear up the confusion and clarify to the American people what its policy is.”
Daneille Pletka, a distinguished fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told JI that Anton is a “weird choice” because “this is not his bailiwick. And there are others inside the administration who know more about Iran.”
“Donald Trump has had some success historically thinking outside the box about long-term challenges,” Pletka said. “But the technical issues are actually pretty challenging. Anton is no dummy, and so I suspect he can get up to speed. But I really worry about [Middle East Envoy Steve] Witkoff, and about the fact that there is no Venn diagram in which our red lines and the Iranian red lines intersect. So what are we negotiating about?”
Witkoff, the lead U.S. negotiator, has raised concerns among Iran hawks with inconsistent public explanations of the U.S.’ negotiating position on the issue of whether Iran can maintain domestic nuclear enrichment.
Dan Shapiro, a senior official in the Pentagon under the Biden administration and an ambassador to Israel under the Obama administration who is now a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said that he does not know Anton personally but “as a policy lead, it makes sense if he has the confidence of” Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“But even more important is to staff the delegation for technical talks with bona fide nuclear technology experts,” Shapiro continued. “The Iranians know their brief cold. The U.S. team has to be able to match their expertise and call BS on loopholes that would sustain a pathway to a nuclear weapon.”
The news of Anton’s selection comes amid reports in Israeli media that Israeli officials are concerned the U.S. is approaching an insufficient deal that will not prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, that the talks are already far along and that Israel is not being kept informed on critical issues.
With its parent office being eliminated, the special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism will be moved to State’s new foreign and humanitarian affairs office
AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez
State Department in Washington
A new organizational chart released by the State Department on Tuesday shows major changes to the department’s structure, including the elimination of the office where the special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism’s team is located. Despite this, internal department communications affirmed that the office of the special envoy is still a department priority and will continue to exist.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the major shake-up of the department’s organizational structure as seeking to counter what he described as left-wing orthodoxy in the department and “drain[ing] the bloated, bureaucratic swamp.”
The changes include the elimination of the office of the under secretary for civilian security, democracy and human rights, where the office of the antisemitism envoy was previously placed.
A fact sheet sent to State Department employees that was obtained by Jewish Insider makes clear that the antisemitism envoy’s office will now fall under the State Department’s new foreign and humanitarian affairs office, along with the office of international religious freedom. Many other offices were not afforded the same clarity in Rubio’s fact sheet. Layoffs are expected across the department, but senior officials declined to share with employees who might lose their job.
“President [Donald] Trump and Secretary Rubio are focused on realigning U.S. foreign policy to reflect America’s core national interests and deliver better results for Americans,” the fact sheet stated.
Trump nominated businessman Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun to serve as antisemitism envoy, an ambassador-level position that requires Senate confirmation. The office is still staffed by several civil servants even in the absence of a confirmed envoy.
The lawmakers said the move reflects Turkey’s shift away from its Western alliances toward U.S. adversaries
Burak Kara/Getty Images
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks to supporters at his party’s Istanbul mayoral candidate Murat Kurum's campaign rally on March 29, 2024 in Istanbul, Turkey.
A bipartisan group of House members introduced legislation this week to redesignate Turkey at the State Department as a Middle Eastern country, rather than a European country, describing the move as a message to Turkey about its turn away from its relationships with Europe and the United States and shift toward U.S. adversaries.
The bill is designed “to send a clear message to Ankara: The United States recognizes Turkey’s turn to the Middle East and no longer sees Turkey prioritizing its relationship with Europe,” according to a statement from the bill’s lead sponsors, Reps. Brad Schneider (D-IL) and Gus Bilirakis (R-FL).
The statement says that the designation change is consistent with Turkey’s growing ties with Russia, China and Iran, its backing of Hamas and its hostile military actions toward Greece and Cyprus, which “are fundamentally at odds with Western security interests”; its “increasingly anti-Western posture, turning away from its European aspirations”; and its “growing authoritarianism and continued hostility toward NATO allies.”
They noted that the redesignation would leave Turkey in the same category as Iran, Syria and Libya.
“Turkey is at a crossroads, but Erdoğan has made his choice,” Schneider said in a statement, referring to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. “His government harbors Hamas operatives, props up [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s war machine, and obstructs NATO unity — while still demanding the privileges of a Western ally. It’s time for American diplomacy to stop pretending that Turkey is still part of Europe.”
The bill is being introduced under the auspices of the Congressional Hellenic Israel Alliance.
“Turkey has consistently demonstrated a complete disregard for following international law,” Bilirakis said in a statement. “Erdoğan repeatedly acts contrary to American interests, with his dangerous behavior contributing to the instability of the region. The time has come for official U.S. foreign policy to more accurately reflect the realities of this hostile regime’s conduct and for Erdoğan to be held accountable.”
The bill is co-sponsored by Reps. Dina Titus (D-NV), Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), Chris Pappas (D-NH) and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), and comes days after a congressional hearing where lawmakers voiced concerns about Turkey’s role in the U.S. alliance system.
The bill also requires the State Department to report to Congress on the impacts of Turkey’s move away from Europe.
This week’s “Inside the Newsroom” conversation features former Trump State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus talking about her trip to Qatar and its role in the region, and her thoughts on how a second Trump term would approach foreign policy.
Here is a clip from today’s conversation:
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