Gruenbaum started working with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on Middle East diplomacy after the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect in October
Alexander KAZAKOV / POOL / AFP via Getty Images
Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomes White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner and Commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service Josh Gruenbaum during a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow on January 22, 2026.
Add JewishInsider on GoogleJosh Gruenbaum’s Thursday started in Davos, Switzerland, at the signing ceremony to inaugurate President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace. Gruenbaum walked onto the World Economic Forum stage where Trump sat, surrounded by world leaders, to hand the president the board’s first resolution — focused on the demilitarization and reconstruction of Gaza — for him to sign.
Hours later, Gruenbaum’s day ended at the Kremlin in Moscow, alongside the two men most closely associated with Trump’s unorthodox brand of foreign policy dealmaking: White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and advisor Jared Kushner.
“This is Josh,” Witkoff told Russian President Vladimir Putin as he shook Gruenbaum’s hand at the start of their meeting, a video feed from the Kremlin showed. The men sat down just before midnight. The overnight meeting lasted four hours, ahead of planned security talks between Russia, the U.S. and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi today.
Gruenbaum is a relatively new figure on the diplomatic scene. He started working with Witkoff and Kushner soon after the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect in October. Since then, he’s been spotted in meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Earlier this month, Gruenbaum was named a diplomatic advisor to the new Board of Peace, which the Trump administration is reportedly envisioning as a replacement to the United Nations.
It’s a somewhat surprising turn for Gruenbaum, whose expertise is not diplomacy or foreign policy but investment banking. But with his business background, Gruenbaum fits in with Witkoff and Kushner, both of whom come from the real estate world. His rise underscores how the Trump administration is reshaping the machinery of government by elevating loyalists with private-sector backgrounds and expanding their portfolios far beyond traditional lanes.
Gruenbaum first joined the Trump administration last year as commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service, a little-known agency within the General Services Administration that oversees federal contracting. He told Jewish Insider last March that the role allowed him to take a DOGE-like approach to cost-cutting. It was also a perch that allowed him to be involved with federal antisemitism policy, and he quickly joined the federal antisemitism task force.
Gruenbaum’s hypothesis was that government contracts are an effective venue for the Trump administration to exert its influence. So if the government has contracts with, say, a university, then the government can apply pressure to ensure that university complies with federal civil rights laws — a strategy that was used frequently last year to target billions of dollars in federal research funding going to universities that the White House alleged were not appropriately committed to fighting antisemitism.
“I come from a community where Jewish values and the Jewish religion were very important. That is part and parcel to how I was raised and how I think about the world and where I get my moral compass from,” Gruenbaum told JI last year.
He grew up in an Orthodox Jewish community and studied at a yeshiva, before working in his father’s food importing business and then earning a law degree and MBA from New York University. He most recently worked at the private equity firm KKR before moving to Washington last year.
In his role at FAS — a position he still holds, while also flitting between world capitals — Gruenbaum practiced the Washington maxim of making yourself useful, and making your presence known. He undertook a multibillion dollar review of federal contracts. Last fall, he worked on the Trump administration’s higher education compact, an attempt to get universities to sign onto a White House pact in order to get preferential access to federal funds. (No universities have yet agreed to it.)
Now he is also a senior advisor to the president.
Plus, Swiss Shabbat in Davos
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 Friday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at President Donald Trump’s mixed messaging on Iran this week, and report on California state Sen. Scott Wiener’s resignation as co-chair of the state legislature’s Jewish caucus after he accused Israel of genocide. We cover a letter from more than 100 New Jersey rabbis condemning former Gov. Phil Murphy and state Assembly leaders over their spiking of an antisemitism bill, and talk to GOP legislators about Trump’s decision to invite Russia and China to join the Board of Peace. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Emily Damari, AJ Edelman and Rabbi Yehoram Ulman.
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.
For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition of The Weekly Print, a curated print-friendly PDF featuring a selection of recent Jewish Insider and eJewishPhilanthropy stories, including: Paige Cognetti running in Josh Shapiro’s footsteps in key Pa. swing district; Mississippi’s Jewish community rallies after antisemitic arson; and Amy Acton became a household name in Ohio — now, she wants to be governor. Print the latest edition here.
What We’re Watching
- The World Economic Forum wrapped up this morning in Davos, Switzerland. Some of those who are staying for the weekend will be attending tonight’s Shabbat dinner in the Alpine town. Though not an official WEF event, the exclusive annual dinner will bring together roughly 150 conference attendees at the conclusion of the busy week. Anne Neuberger, the Biden administration’s deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technology, and Henry Schein Board Chair and CEO Stanley Bergman, will be the dinner’s main speakers this year, joined by Michelle Bolten, the chief of staff to the vice chairman of BlackRock. Rabbi Menachem Berkowitz, who received his semicha from Chabad last week, will give tonight’s d’var Torah, and professor Ricardo Hausmann will share his thoughts on current events, with a focus on Venezuela. Read more about past Shabbat dinners at Davos here.
- White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are in the United Arab Emirates for the weekend for meetings aimed at ending the Russia-Ukraine war following a meeting last night in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which was also attended by White House advisor Josh Gruenbaum, that went into the early morning hours.
- The U.N. Human Rights Council is holding an emergency session today on Iran‘s weekslong crackdown on anti-government protesters.
- Manhattan’s Temple Emanu-El will hold a special interfaith service tonight honoring Cardinal Timothy Dolan as the longtime Catholic official retires as the archbishop of New York.
- The two-day JLI Leadership Summit starts on Sunday in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS
Tensions are running high across the Middle East after a week in which the U.S. and Iran lobbed threats at each other, dominating headlines, destabilizing markets and leaving many in the region unnerved at the prospect of renewed military action seven months after the 12-day war between Israel and Iran that included U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
On the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, yesterday, Trump warned that an “armada” was on its way to the Gulf — a reference to the aircraft carrier and fleet of fighter jets being redeployed from the South China Sea.
In response, Gen. Mohammad Pakpour, the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, warned that Iran had its “finger on the trigger, more prepared than ever, ready to carry out the orders and measures of the supreme commander-in-chief.”
Trump, true to form, has been unpredictable and inconsistent in his approach to Tehran — alternating between threatening force and teasing diplomacy. “Iran does want to talk, and we’ll talk,” Trump said at a signing ceremony in Davos on Thursday, just hours before he told reporters on Air Force One about the naval deployment to the Gulf. “We have a massive fleet heading in that direction, and maybe we won’t have to use it,” he said on AF1, managing in one whiplash-inducing sentence to lob a threat at Iran while also offering it a theoretical off-ramp.
The president has proven that he is willing to engage in bold action — especially when it comes to Iran. One has only to look to the 2020 killing of Quds Force head Gen. Qassem Soleimani or the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities last June to see that the Trump administration is willing to engage militarily with Iran in ways prior administrations may have not. (Case in point: former President Joe Biden’s issuance in April 2024 of a one-word warning to Iran — “Don’t” — a day before Tehran launched hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel.)
SCOOP
Scott Wiener steps down as co-chair of California Jewish caucus after accusing Israel of genocide
California state Sen. Scott Wiener announced on Thursday that he is stepping down from his role as one of the co-chairs of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus, capping off nearly two weeks of controversy and frustration among Jewish leaders in the state after the San Francisco Democrat and congressional candidate declared Israel’s actions in Gaza to be a genocide, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports. “My campaign is accelerating, and my recent statements on Israel and Gaza have led to significant controversy in the Jewish community. The time to transition has arrived,” Wiener said in a statement. He will remain in the role until Feb. 15.
Background: Wiener, who is running for Congress in a competitive Democratic primary to fill the seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), has long declared himself a progressive Zionist while also criticizing the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s actions in Gaza. But after a candidate forum this month where his two competitors were quick to say Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, Wiener faced pressure from his left to use the word himself, and released a video a few days later changing his stance. “I’ve stopped short of calling it genocide, but I can’t anymore,” Wiener said.
MEETING ADJOURNED
Richmond, Calif., City Council fails to censure mayor over antisemitic social media posts
A city council meeting in Richmond, Calif., ended with shouting and frustration after 11 p.m. on Tuesday evening when the body adjourned without considering a measure seeking to censure Mayor Eduardo Martinez, who is under fire from the local Jewish community after sharing antisemitic posts on his LinkedIn page last month, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports. Tuesday’s meeting was the first since Martinez shared multiple incendiary posts regarding the terrorist attack at a Hanukkah celebration in Bondi Beach, Australia, last month. He shared one post referring to the shooting as “Israel’s false flag attack.” Another post called the public celebration of Hanukkah “deeply provocative and very un-Jewish” and said it was meant to intimidate Muslims.
Expressing outrage: “This is a complete embarrassment as a city council,” Councilmember Jamelia Brown, one of the officials who sought to issue a formal censure of Martinez, said before walking away from the meeting room. “We will stand in solidarity and say that this was antisemitic conduct and behavior, yet we don’t want to formalize it and put it on record. It’s very coward [sic] behavior.”
PRAIRIE STATE POLITICS
Moderate Democrat faces off against anti-Israel challengers in suburban Chicago battleground
Former Rep. Melissa Bean (D-IL) is emerging as the early front-runner in the Illinois 8th Congressional District primary, with an anti-Israel progressive candidate potentially a strong competitor, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
State of play: “Coming into it, you’d say Melissa would probably be the one to beat. The question is, has the party changed a lot, especially in primaries, since she was in the House last?” Peter Giangreco, a Chicago political strategist, told JI. “Has the party moved — or at least Democratic primary voters, have they moved to the left more than where Melissa is, is sort of an open question.”
ON THE TRAIL
In new ad, John Cornyn blasts radical Islam for Oct. 7, Bondi Beach attacks
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), facing a serious primary challenge from his right, released a new campaign ad on Thursday calling “radical Islam” a “bloodthirsty ideology” that has influenced recent terror attacks targeting Jews, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
The ad: “It fueled the unspeakable crimes on Oct. 7,” Cornyn says in the 30-second ad, called “Evil Face,” before citing the mass shooting last month during a Hanukkah gathering in Australia that was allegedly motivated by the terrorist group ISIS. “It showed its evil face again at Bondi Beach.” Speaking directly to the camera, Cornyn touted his recent efforts to revoke the tax-exempt status of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a nonprofit advocacy group whose executive director has drawn scrutiny for celebrating the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023. “Let me be clear: No organization that supports terrorists should receive taxpayer benefits,” Cornyn concludes in the ad. “And Sharia law has no place in American courts or communities.”
SPEAKING OUT
New Jersey rabbis blast ex-Gov. Murphy, Assembly leaders over IHRA bill
Nearly 100 New Jersey rabbis wrote to now-former Gov. Phil Murphy and members of the New Jersey Assembly this week expressing concerns about reporting from Jewish Insider that Murphy and other Democratic leaders had blocked passage of legislation to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, JI’s Marc Rod reports.
The latest: “This is a deeply troubling failure of leadership that places political calculations above the safety of the Jewish population,” the 95 rabbis wrote. “Prioritizing politics over antisemitism signals that Jewish safety is negotiable and subjects our community to further cases of harassment and violence.” They called on state leaders to immediately take up and pass the IHRA bill.
Elsewhere: Political leaders in North Carolina are condemning the Nazi symbols and antisemitic graffiti discovered earlier this week at a hub of Jewish life in Charlotte, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
NOT CONVINCED
Some Republicans skeptical of Trump’s invitation to Russia, China to join Gaza Board of Peace
Some Republican lawmakers said they’re hesitant about President Donald Trump’s decision to invite Russia and China to be part of the Board of Peace that is set to manage the reconstruction of Gaza, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod and Emily Jacobs report.
What they’re saying: “To exclude them from participation would be inappropriate; to include them in any real positive influence — neither one of them contributes money, neither one of them contributes an expertise in democracy,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) said. “I don’t mind them being included, but I think we have to be realistic. They both lack either the generosity or the expertise necessary to create a different world for the Palestinians in their future government.” Republicans indicated that they’re open to Trump’s idea of the Board of Peace becoming a replacement or alternative to the United Nations, citing the U.N.’s long-standing anti-Israel bias.
Seeing the big picture: Hamas must demilitarize before Gaza can undergo redevelopment, President Donald Trump’s informal advisor Jared Kushner said on Thursday on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, as he presented the administration’s plan to disarm the terrorist group and rebuild Gaza, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Worthy Reads
Iraq and a Hard Place: Bloomberg’s Sam Bagher observes the difficult decisions facing Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani as the country finds itself being pulled by both Iran and the U.S.“The Arab country is torn between Iran, its erstwhile enemy that wants to maintain its longtime grip on its neighbor, and the U.S., the superpower whose disastrous 2003 invasion destroyed the country and destabilized the Middle East for a generation. … Over the past two years, Sudani has largely steered a middle path through the fallout from Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the ensuing Gaza war that have humbled Tehran, turned the Jewish state into a regional military hegemon and reshaped the Middle East. But at the same time, taking advantage of Iran’s weakness, he’s worked quietly to move Iraq closer to the US, its wealthy Sunni-led Gulf Arab allies and Turkey. It’s a fine line — he must dismantle Iran-backed militias, entice Western and Gulf Arab investment and bring in American oil companies, all without alienating Shiite political factions backed by Tehran or inviting a stronger response from the Islamic Republic.” [Bloomberg]
Bouncing Bibi: The Financial Times’ Andrew England and James Shotter look at efforts across the Israeli political spectrum to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in this year’s election. “As the incumbent, Netanyahu only has to ensure he doesn’t lose. If there is no clear winner — as happened in a string of elections before a 2022 vote — he could remain as caretaker prime minister. Or Netanyahu, as he has done before, could attempt to peel off opponents to form a government. That means only an outright opposition victory, achieved just once in the past 17 years of Netanyahu’s dominance, would dethrone ‘King Bibi’. ‘Politics-wise, Netanyahu pretty much yet again dug himself out of a political grave,’ says Yohanan Plesner, a former member of the Knesset for the centrist Kadima party, now at the Israel Democracy Institute. ‘The least wise thing you can do is predict Netanyahu’s end in politics.’” [FT]
Day-to-Day Hate: In The Washington Post, Or Moshe, who spent more than two years working in the international department of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, warns that antisemitism is increasingly being accepted as a part of society even as attacks against Jews escalate in their brutality and frequency. “I have learned something painful and consistent. Jewish pain is rarely allowed to stand on its own. Instead, it is weighed. Qualified. Contextualized. Explained away. Violence against Jews is treated as a reaction rather than an atrocity. Fear is treated as an exaggeration. Mourning is treated as politics. … Antisemitism today does not always look like the caricatures people expect. It does not always announce itself with slurs or symbols. Sometimes it presents itself as moral clarity. It claims righteousness while denying Jews the right to safety, dignity and self-defense. It insists that Jewish fear is suspicious. That Jewish vulnerability is strategic. That Jewish deaths require footnotes.” [WashPost]
Monuments to Evil: In eJewishPhilanthropy, Menachem Z. Rosensaft calls on New York City leaders, including Mayor Zohran Mamdani, to act on a long-standing request from the Jewish community to remove plaques in lower Manhattan honoring French war criminals Marshal Philippe Pétain and Pierre Laval, who were responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of French Jews during the Holocaust. “The two plaques remain as monuments not only to Laval and Pétain, but also to the callous indifference of three successive NYC mayors and municipal administrations to the glorification of two men who epitomized evil. During the primary campaign for last year’s Democratic mayoral nomination, Zohran Mamdani declared that he ‘condemned the Holocaust.’ … Fair enough. I am prepared to take him at his word. As mayor, Mamdani can now demonstrate affirmatively that he is genuinely committed to honor the memory of the more than six million Jewish people murdered by the Nazis.”[eJP]
Word on the Street
Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. Princess Reema Bandar Al Saud and Israeli President Isaac Herzog both shared optimistic remarks about the region’s future at a lunch, hosted by Meta President Dina Powell McCormick and philanthropist David Rubenstein, following a signing ceremony inaugurating the new Board of Peace in Davos, Switzerland, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports…
President Donald Trump said he had rescinded his invitation for Canada to join his newly created Board of Peace, amid a deepening rift between Washington and Ottawa and days after Prime Minister Mark Carney warned that the world was “in the midst of a rupture”…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met this morning with Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) in Jerusalem…
The House passed a funding package for the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday, with seven moderate Democrats joining with Republicans to advance the bill in spite of Democratic uproar about Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations; the bill, packaged with Pentagon funding legislation, now heads to the Senate, where its fate is uncertain…
House Republicans narrowly defeated a war powers resolution that would have limited the Trump administration’s ability to act in Venezuela without congressional approval; GOP leaders delayed the closing of the vote in order to give Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-TX) time to reach Capitol Hill from Dulles airport via police escort and cast a vote that tied the total count and prevented the resolution from passing…
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) filed paperwork to form a campaign committee as she moves closer to announcing a run for governor in Minnesota…
Former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of the school’s anti-Israel protest movement, will likely be rearrested and deported to Algeria, a top Department of Homeland Security official said Wednesday, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…
A federal judge issued an order blocking the Trump administration from retaliating against the American Association of University Professors and the Middle East Studies Association for their efforts to prevent the detention and deportation of visa holders who engaged in anti-Israel activity…
The NYPD arrested two teenagers in connection with the vandalization of a playground in Gravesend Park, Brooklyn, in which dozens of swastikas were graffitied on structures at the playground in two separate incidents; the teens are facing aggravated harassment charges, with one of them facing an additional charge of criminal mischief as a hate crime…
Children’s entertainer Ms. Rachel is under fire for liking a social media comment calling to “Free america from the Jews”; after posting a tearful apology for her initial engagement with the comment — which she said had been an accident — the educator responded “ooooooooooohhhhh” to another user’s suggestion that Jews had left the antisemitic comment…
Israel’s bobsled team, led by Israeli American athlete AJ Edelman, secured a slot in next month’s Winter Olympics in Milan, making history as the country’s first Olympic entrant in the sport; read more about Edelman’s yearslong effort to get an Israeli team to the Olympics here…
Former hostage Emily Damari got engaged to her girlfriend, food influencer Danielle Amit, at a party celebrating the British-Israeli citizen’s one-year anniversary of her release from Hamas captivity…
The U.S. is mulling a full troop withdrawal from Syria, days after Damascus took control over areas previously controlled by the U.S.-backed Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces; a U.S. assessment found that approximately 200 low-level Islamic State fighters escaped from a Syrian prison earlier this week but had been recaptured after SDF forces abandoned the facility they had been guarding…
Baltimore-based entrepreneur and political fundraiser Michael Bronfein, the co-founder and CEO of Curio Wellness, died at 70…
Pic of the Day
At the Sydney Opera House on Thursday, Chabad of Bondi, led by Rabbi Yehoram Ulman (pictured), marked the shloshim — the 30-day milestone after death — of the victims of the Hanukkah terror attack at Bondi Beach, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim reports.
Birthdays
Singer-songwriter and one of the world’s best-selling recording artists of all time, Neil Diamond turns 85 on Saturday…
FRIDAY: Real estate developer, Bruce Ratner turns 81… Professor of biological chemistry at Weizmann Institute of Science, David Wallach turns 80… Educational consultant, trade association and non-profit executive, Peter D. Rosenstein turns 79… Manager of Innovative Strategies LLLP, he is a board member of the Baltimore-based Zanvyl and Isabelle Krieger Fund, Howard K. Cohen… Former U.S. senator (D-DE), Tom Carper turns 79… Israeli archaeologist and professor at the University of Haifa, Estee Dvorjetski turns 75… Former Mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa turns 73… President of Lazard, Raymond J. McGuire turns 69… Broadway theater owner, operator, producer and presenter and president of the Nederlander Organization, he is a 13-time Tony Award winner, James L. Nederlander turns 66… Former president of Staples Inc., she serves on the boards of Burlington Stores, CBRE and CarMax, Shira Goodman turns 65… Former CEO of the Foundation for Jewish Camp for 15 years, Jeremy J. Fingerman… Journalist and co-author of Game Change and Double Down: Game Change 2012, John Heilemann turns 60… Palm Beach, Fla., resident, formerly of Greenwich, Conn., Hilary Bangash Cohen… Journalist, screenwriter and film producer, in 2009 he wrote and produced “The Hurt Locker” for which he won two Academy Awards including for Best Picture, Mark Boal turns 53…Film director, comic book artist and musician, S. Craig Zahler turns 53… Israeli set and production designer for the television and film industries, Arad Sawat turns 51… Fourth rebbe of the Pittsburgh hasidic dynasty, Rabbi Meshulam Eliezer Leifer turns 47… Founder and executive director of Jew in the City, Allison F. Josephs… Strategic communications consultant, Arielle Poleg… Head of Meta’s Instagram, Adam Mosseri turns 43… Manhasset, N.Y., native who competed for Israel in figure skating, she was the 2014 Israeli national champion, Danielle Montalbano turns 37… Retired in 2024 as a soccer player for DC United, he also played on the U.S. men’s national soccer team, Steven Mitchell Birnbaum turns 35… NYC native who competed for Israel in pairs figure skating, she and her partner won silver medals in the 2008 and 2009 Israeli championships, Hayley Anne Sacks turns 35…
SATURDAY: Canadian architect and urban renewal advocate, she is a member of the Bronfman family, Phyllis Barbara Lambert turns 99… Born in Tel Aviv, 2011 Nobel Prize laureate in Chemistry, professor at Technion and Iowa State University, Dan Shechtman turns 85… Chairman of the Sazerac Company and of Crescent Crown Distributing, two of the largest domestic distillers and distributors of spirits and beer in the US, William Goldring turns 83… Professor of modern Jewish history at New York University, Marion Kaplan turns 80… Politician and lawyer who was an official in the Reagan, Bush 43 and Trump administrations, Elliott Abrams turns 78… Professor of alternative dispute resolution and mediation at Hofstra School of Law, Robert Alan Baruch Bush turns 78… Ukrainian-born comedian, actor and writer, he emigrated to the U.S. in 1977 and is noted for the catchphrase “What a country,” Yakov Smirnoff turns 75… Conductor, violinist and violist, who has performed with leading symphony orchestras worldwide, Yuri Bashmet turns 73… VP of strategy at LiveWorld, Daniel Flamberg… Founder of an online software training website which was acquired by LinkedIn in 2015 for $1.5 billion, Lynda Susan Weinman turns 71… Burlingame, California-based surgeon at Peninsula Plastic Surgery, Lorne K. Rosenfield M.D…. Beryl Eckstein… Former senior correspondent for Fox News for 24 years, now a senior correspondent at Newsmax, Rick Leventhal… Former CEO of Ford Motor Company, and now on the boards of Hertz and Qualcomm, Mark Fields (his family’s original name was Finkelman) turns 65… B’nei mitzvah coordinator at Temple Beth Am of Los Angeles, Judith Alban… Former HUD secretary and OMB director, now the president and CEO of Enterprise Community Partners, a housing non-profit, Shaun Donovan turns 60… Co-founder and executive director of Protect Democracy, he served as associate White House counsel in the Obama administration, Ian Bassin turns 50… Journalist and then tax attorney, now chief legal officer at Ripple Fiber, Joshua Runyan… Sporting director for Hapoel Jerusalem of the Israeli Premier League and the FIBA Champions League, Yotam Halperin turns 42… Founder and CEO at TACKMA and a principal at Schottenstein Property Group, Jeffrey Schottenstein… Former regional director of synagogue initiative at AIPAC, Miryam Knafo Schapira… Law Clerk at Fried Frank, Michael Krasna… Musician and former child actor, Jonah Bobo turns 29…
SUNDAY: Senior partner of The Mack Company and a director of Mack-Cali Realty, a real estate investment trust, David S. Mack (family name was Makofsky) turns 84… Israeli peace activist and author, whose fiction and nonfiction books have been translated into more than 30 languages, David Grossman turns 72… Editor-in-chief of The National Memo, Joe Conason (family name was Cohen) turns 72… Retired in 2023 as Dean of the Jerusalem campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Naamah Kelman-Ezrachi turns 71… SVP and senior portfolio manager in the Los Angeles office of Morgan Stanley, Robert N. Newman… Stage, film and television actress and television director, Dinah Beth Manoff turns 70… Los Angeles resident, Helene S. Ross… Agent at Creative Artists Agency, Michael Glantz… Chief correspondent and executive editor for CBS News “Eye on America” franchise, Jim Axelrod turns 63… Former member of Knesset for Yesh Atid, he also served as minister of education, Shai Moshe Piron turns 61… Founding partner of merchant bank Finback Investment Partners, John Leachman Oliver III… Member of the Canadian Parliament from Montreal since 2015, he won 12 medals in swimming at the 2013 and 2017 Maccabiah Games, Anthony Housefather turns 55… Author of multiple novels, she is a writer-in-residence in Jewish studies at Stanford University, Maya Arad turns 55… Toronto-born movie and television actress, she had a recurring guest role on the Fox TV series “24,” Mia Kirshner turns 51… National political reporter at The Washington Post covering campaigns, Congress and the White House, Michael Scherer… President and CEO of Knollwood Cemetery Corp, David Newman… President of Ukraine since 2019, he is the first Jewish leader of that country, Volodymyr Zelensky turns 48… Member of the U.S House of Representatives (D-FL), Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick turns 47… Benjamin L. Newton… Managing VP of executive operations for the National Association of Manufacturers, Mark Isaacson… Member of the Arizona House of Representatives until 2023, Daniel Hernández Jr. turns 36… Actress, writer and director, Pauline Hope Chalamet turns 34… Associate director of foreign policy at JINSA, Ari Cicurel…
The lunch, where both praised the Abraham Accords, was hosted by Meta President Dina Powell McCormick and philanthropist David Rubenstein
Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP via Getty Images
Israeli President Isaac Herzog at the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on January 21, 2026.
After President Donald Trump wrapped up a signing ceremony inaugurating his new Board of Peace in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, several of the highest-profile attendees of the event hustled to a private lunch where they spoke hopefully about the future of the Abraham Accords.
Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. Princess Reema Bandar Al Saud and Israeli President Isaac Herzog both shared optimistic remarks about the region’s future, according to one guest. Also in the room were Bahraini Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa and Khaldoon Al Mubarak, the CEO and managing director of the Mubadala Investment Company, an Emirati sovereign wealth fund.
Hosted and moderated by new Meta President Dina Powell McCormick and philanthropist David Rubenstein, the event honored Lally Weymouth, a former longtime Washington Post journalist who died in 2025. Her daughter, Katherine Weymouth, and brother, Don Graham, both former publishers of the Post, invited a long list of World Economic Forum dignitaries who had known Weymouth. She was described at the lunch as a “force of nature,” the attendee told Jewish Insider.
Participants also toasted Lutnick’s wife, Allison Lutnick, who was a leading advocate within the Trump administration for the release of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza.
Other guests included Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, CNN host Fareed Zakaria, Post columnist David Ignatius, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell, Bridgewater CEO Nir Bar Dea, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and Israeli entrepreneur Yossi Vardi.
Kushner: ‘I see people criticizing Israel, or Israel criticizing Turkey and Qatar. Just calm down and work together for 30 days’
Mandel NGAN / AFP via Getty Images
Jared Kushner speaks at the "Board of Peace" meeting during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on January 22, 2026.
Hamas must demilitarize before Gaza can undergo redevelopment, President Donald Trump’s informal advisor Jared Kushner said on Thursday on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, as he presented the administration’s plan to disarm the terrorist group and rebuild Gaza.
Kushner was building off of earlier remarks by President Donald Trump at the founding ceremony for his Board of Peace. “We are committed to Gaza being fully demilitarized, properly governed and properly rebuilt. … We’re going to be very successful in Gaza; it’s going to be a great thing to watch,” Trump said at the ceremony.
Hamas, Trump said, “has to give up their weapons, and if they don’t do that, it’s gonna be the end of them.”
Kushner said that the disarmament of Hamas would be a prerequisite to the reconstruction of the enclave. “Without that we cannot rebuild,” he said. “If Hamas does not demilitarize that will be what holds back Gaza and the people of Gaza from achieving their aspirations.”
Kushner presented the administration’s “demilitarization principles” meant to be implemented in the next 100 days. These include the destruction of “heavy weapons, tunnels, military infrastructure, weapons production facilities and munitions.”
According to the plan, Gaza will be governed by a single civilian authority, which will first be the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), the committee of Palestinian technocrats announced last week, followed by the Palestinian Authority, if it undergoes reforms. Any personal weapons in Gaza must be authorized by the NCAG, which will have a monopoly on the use of force, integrating and vetting any internal security and police.
“The end state: only NCAG-sanctioned personnel may carry weapons,” the presentation states.
Reconstruction, according to the plan, will only take place in sectors that are fully disarmed, and those who agree to disarm will be given amnesty and reintegration into or safe passage out of Gaza.
The IDF will gradually withdraw from Gaza based on the successful implementation of the plan, until it fully withdraws to the IDF-controlled security perimeter separating Gaza from Israeli civilians.
The other Board of Peace priorities in Gaza over the next 100 days will be delivering humanitarian aid and rehabilitating essential infrastructure, including water, electricity, sewage, hospitals and bakeries, as well as clearing rubble and building improved temporary housing.
Kushner presented the Trump administration’s vision for a redeveloped Gaza with a map that included a port and a tourism zone along the Mediterranean coast, as well as large residential areas and industrial complexes, while retaining the security perimeter.
Trump spoke in his concluding remarks about the potential of seaside property in Gaza: “This is a great location. See, I’m a real estate person at heart … I said ‘look at this location on the sea, look at this piece of property what it can be … People that are living so poorly can be living so well.’”
The plan includes the construction of a “New Rafah” in the next two to three years, including over 100,000 housing units, and subsequently, a “New Gaza.” Kushner envisioned 100% employment, with 500,000 jobs created and a $10 billion GDP by 2035.
In addition, Kushner projected over $25 billion in investments into the enclave, and said that donor countries will be announced at a separate ceremony in Washington in the coming weeks.
“We’re studying the best practices in the world,” Kushner said. “We want to encourage all the countries to be able to follow these best practices. … If we find what’s working in other countries, we should be copying them.”
Kushner encouraged all countries to put aside their differences to help the plan succeed.
“This deal only happened because … we all worked together to make this happen,” he said. “I see people criticizing Israel, or Israel criticizing Turkey and Qatar. Just calm down and work together for 30 days. … The goal here is peace between Israel and the Palestinian people. Everyone wants to live peacefully, everyone wants to live with dignity. … Let’s focus on the positive story, let’s calm down, turn a new chapter. If we believe peace can be possible, then peace is possible.”
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir voiced objections to Qatar and Turkey’s continued involvement on the Gaza Executive Board overseeing the NCAG.
“Turkey and Qatar remain pro-Hamas states that bolstered the Nazi terrorist organization leading up to October 7 and supported it throughout the war; this will not change in 30 days. Hamas must be utterly destroyed — countries that support it will not do so,” he said in a statement following Kushner’s remarks.
Ali Sha’ath, the head of the NCAG, said in a video address shown at the Davos ceremony that the Rafah border crossing would be opened next week. The Board of Peace’s high representative for Gaza, Nickolay Mladenov, also said in a post on X that “an agreement has been reached regarding the preparation for re-opening of the Rafah crossing. Concurrently, we are working with Israel and the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza to expedite the search for the remaining Israeli hostage.”
An Israeli official told Jewish Insider that the matter of the Rafah crossing would be discussed at an Israeli Security Cabinet meeting in the coming days, along with the return of the remains of Ran Gvili, the final Israeli hostage in Gaza.
Former Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, a member of the opposition, posted on X that “the Rafah crossing is opening, the government of terrorists in suits” — referring to the NCAG — “is already acting in Gaza, and Israel is acting surprised. There are no surprises here, the Oct. 7 government continues to surrender to the Palestinians.”
Plus, is Saudi normalization dead?
Harun Ozalp/Anadolu via Getty Images
President Donald Trump delivers a speech during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on January 21, 2026.
👋 Good Thursday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on this morning’s signing ceremony for President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace in Davos, Switzerland, and talk to Jewish communal leaders in Virginia about Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s appointment of former Rep. Jim Moran to the board of George Mason University despite his past antisemitic comments and relationship with Qatar. We interview Scranton, Pa., Mayor Paige Cognetti as the Democrat mounts a congressional bid in northeastern Pennsylvania, and report on a Manhattan comedy club’s cancellation of a show by an Israeli comedian amid protest by pro-Hamas groups. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Robert Kraft, Rahm Emanuel and Nitzan Chen.
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
- The World Economic Forum continues today in Davos, Switzerland. Earlier today, President Donald Trump held a signing ceremony with the newly created Board of Peace. More below.
- Later this afternoon in Davos, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto will separately take the main stage. The last time the Indonesian leader, whose country is joining the Board of Peace, had a global platform — four months ago at the United Nations General Assembly — he concluded his speech by saying “Shalom.”
- Later in the afternoon, Meta President Dina Powell McCormick, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud and Bridgewater Associates’ Nir Bar Dea will participate in a panel focused on geopolitics and global collaboration. Elon Musk will take the stage following that discussion for a one-on-one conversation with BlackRock CEO and WEF interim Co-Chair Larry Fink.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S LAHAV HARKOV
President Donald Trump hosted a signing ceremony on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday for the founding members of the Board of Peace, his newly formed organization dedicated to world peace and security.
“We’re going to have peace in the world, and boy, wouldn’t that be a great legacy for all of us,” Trump said in his speech launching the board.
The Board of Peace’s “inaugural resolution,” which Trump signed at the ceremony, is to oversee the demilitarization and reconstruction of Gaza.
On Iran, Trump said that the U.S. bombing in June was because “they were two months from having a nuclear weapon, and we can’t let them have that. Iran does want to talk, and we’ll talk.”
In addition to the U.S., 19 countries attended the “massive event,” as a Trump administration source characterized it to Jewish Insider: Bahrain, Morocco, Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Hungary, Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Pakistan, Paraguay, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Mongolia.
Members of Trump’s team in Davos — Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, informal advisor Jared Kushner and Josh Gruenbaum, a diplomatic advisor to the board — spent the hours preceding the event working to bring more countries on board.
Most Western European countries declined to join the Board of Peace because of its apparent aim to replace the United Nations, as well as Trump’s pressure to turn Greenland over to the U.S. and Russia’s invitation to join.
FACING SCRUTINY
Gov. Spanberger disappoints Va. Jewish leaders with appointment of Jim Moran to GMU board
Days after assuming office, Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger is facing scrutiny from Jewish leaders over her decision to appoint Jim Moran, a former congressman representing northern Virginia now working as a lobbyist for clients including Qatar, to the George Mason University board of visitors, despite his extensive record of using antisemitic tropes and hostility to Israel. The appointment, which Spanberger announced on Saturday hours after she had been sworn into office, came as part of a broader leadership shake-up of the state’s three public universities — as the Democratic governor seeks to assert her influence in the wake of a Republican administration whose university board oversight she had criticized during the campaign as politically meddlesome, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Controversy: Moran, a Democrat who retired from Congress in 2015, faced widespread criticism as well as calls for his resignation over comments in 2003 in which he blamed the Jewish community for pushing the U.S. into war with Iraq, a remark he reiterated four years later while singling out the pro-Israel group AIPAC. Even as he has voiced regret for some of his past remarks, Moran, who is now 80, has downplayed accusations of antisemitism and has continued to echo such rhetoric in recent years while appearing on panel discussions with a London-based NGO led by a former Hamas activist. In one virtual event in 2023, for example, Moran attributed Washington’s support for “apartheid” in Gaza to Jewish control of American politics.
doha dealings
Newly announced Senate candidate Julia Letlow attended 2023 Qatar junket funded by pro-Doha group
Rep. Julia Letlow (R-LA), who announced a primary challenge to Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) this week, was part of a 2023 junket trip to Qatar funded by a pro-Qatar business group, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. She was joined by Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), who is mounting a Senate bid in Texas, on the Qatar trip.
About the trip: The February 2023 trip, funded by the U.S.-Qatar Business Council, included meetings with Qatari leaders, some of whom have been accused of backing terrorism. According to ethics paperwork submitted by the members, the group spent nearly $15,000 on Letlow’s travel and close to $18,000 on Crockett’s travel. It included meetings with multiple Qatari figures accused of ties to terrorism, including the head of a bank sued by American victims of terrorism in 2020.Read the full story here.
COGNETTI’S CAMPAIGN
Paige Cognetti running in Josh Shapiro’s footsteps in key Pa. swing district
Paige Cognetti, the Democratic mayor of Scranton, Pa., is staking out a pro-Israel platform as she seeks to unseat freshman Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-PA) in a Pennsylvania swing district, emphasizing her support for continued military aid to the Jewish state in the wake of its war against Hamas in Gaza. In a recent interview with Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel, Cognetti, who is favored to win the Democratic nomination in Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District, said “the Israel question,” as she called it, is “very simple” for her.
Case in point: “I vehemently support Israel’s right to defend itself,” she explained, “and would take extremely seriously Congress’ role in ensuring they have the military aid that they need to defend themselves in a really dangerous neighborhood.” To underscore her point, Cognetti, who was sworn into her third term as Scranton’s mayor earlier this month, touted a local munitions plant that she said continues to produce “the shells that we use for our own defense, but also that we ship to our allies, like Ukraine and Israel.”
TEHRAN TALK
Trump: ‘We hope there’s not going to be further action’ against Iran
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he hopes no military action will be needed in Iran, but stopped short of ruling it out as the U.S. continues to move military assets to the Middle East, Jewish Insider’s Mathew Shea reports.
What he said: “We hope there’s not going to be further [military] action,” Trump said during an interview with CNBC on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, while alluding to the fact that it still might be a possibility given Tehran’s conduct in suppressing nationwide demonstrations. “But you know, [the regime is] shooting people indiscriminately in the streets.” The president has previously called the Iranian regime’s killing of protesters a “red line” and vowed to protesters that “help is on its way.” Trump repeated his claim on Wednesday that Iranian authorities had planned to hang 837 protesters last week, but “canceled it” after he warned them not to.
More from Trump: Speaking to a packed room at the World Economic Forum, Trump again issued a stark warning to Hamas on Wednesday, setting a timeline for the terror group’s disarmament and stating that it must deliver on its agreement to demilitarize or face potential military consequences.
CAMPUS BEAT
University of Washington to host radical anti-Israel activists at Palestinian advocacy conference
A university professor who resigned from her position following a Title VI antisemitism investigation, and another who organized large-scale anti-Israel demonstrations, are among several controversial speakers scheduled to speak at an event on Friday hosted by the University of Washington. The daylong conference, called “The World as Palestine: On Advocacy, Activism, and Justice,” is organized by the Middle Eastern Studies department and is scheduled to be held in the university’s student union building, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen and Danielle Kanik-Cohen report.
Set to speak: Andrea Brower, a former instructor in a “Solidarity and Social Justice” program at Gonzaga University in eastern Washington, is scheduled to speak during the program’s opening panel, “Reflections from Eastern Washington’s Palestinian Liberation Movement.” She resigned in 2024 after the school opened an antisemitism investigation into the protests she led on campus against Israel’s war in Gaza and her criticism of the university’s investment in companies with ties to Israel. Another speaker, Kathryn DePaolis, an associate professor and interim chair and director of the School of Social Work at Eastern Washington University, helped create a new group called the Inland Northwest Coalition for the Liberation of Palestine two months after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks. During Israel’s war in Gaza, the organization staged Palestinian “die-ins” in front of the Spokane courthouse.
NO LAUGHING MATTER
Manhattan comedy club cancels Israeli comedian amid protest by pro-Hamas groups
A Manhattan comedy club canceled Israeli comedian Guy Hochman’s show on Tuesday night after pro-Hamas groups protested outside of the venue. “The owner of the place was afraid and canceled the show,” Hochman told Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen, referring to Broadway Comedy Club, located near Times Square. “So, I did an alternative show for my audience outside freezing to death.”
What happened: City College of New York’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter was among the groups promoting the Tuesday demonstration on social media. It shared a post from the New York City chapter of the Palestinian Youth Movement that said “victory” was achieved by the cancellation. Outside the comedy venue, masked demonstrators banged on drums, chanted and held signs that read “clean up the trash,” “death to the IDF” and “no war criminals in our city.” A heavy NYPD presence was called to monitor the protest.
Worthy Reads
Saudi Turns on the Hate Spigot: In his Substack “It’s Noon in Israel,” Amit Segal posits that efforts to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia are dead. “Over the past month, Al Arabiya has been worse than Al Jazeera in the texts broadcast against any normalization with Israel. Saudi podcasters who specialize in luxury cars or sports are suddenly cursing Zionism and the Abraham Accords. … Now, with the Saudis no longer celebrating the Abraham Accords, they are trying to undermine their foundations of support, from Morocco to the Emirates. Someone I spoke with this week used an Arab proverb to explain it: ‘He who cannot reach the grapes says they are sour.’ I suggested an Israeli version, straight from air-defense battle lore: ‘If I don’t fly, nobody flies.'” [ItsNooninIsrael]
Hanging the Protesters Out to Dry: In The Wall Street Journal, William Galston criticizes President Donald Trump’s decision not to assist Iranian anti-regime protesters. “Considering the information Mr. Trump received during the administration’s deliberations, his decision to stand down may well have been correct. Still, he shouldn’t have sent encouraging messages to the protesters if he wasn’t committed to backing them up. Because he did so, the president bears a measure of responsibility for the consequences. … Even if he decides against military action, he has a robust menu of nonmilitary options that could significantly weaken the regime. As my Brookings Institution colleague Suzanne Maloney has proposed, he can target key command-and-control systems to weaken the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other security forces, seize Iran’s ghost fleet of oil tankers, and impose sanctions on Chinese imports of Iranian oil. He can also fully restore the Voice of America’s Iran Service, press our friends and allies to expel Iran’s diplomats, and help strengthen Iran’s divided opposition groups.” [WSJ]
Blazing a Trail, Quietly: The Athletic’s Jason Quick profiles Portland Trail Blazers forward Deni Avdija, the Israeli basketball phenom who got his start playing for Maccabi Tel Aviv and is having his best season as a pro. “He doesn’t feel pressure to add his voice to the dialogue surrounding his country’s conflict in the Middle East and, in fact, feels irritated when he is put in the middle of it. … He said he understands that he has a larger platform than most to deliver his viewpoint, but he said he doesn’t think that requires him to broadcast his opinion or politicize it. ‘I’ll be honest: What do people expect me to do?’ Avdija said. ‘This is my country, where I was born, where I grew up. I love my country; there are a lot of great things about my country. But obviously, not everyone is educated and knows what is going on, and that’s what pisses me off. Because if you are educated and know what is going on, it’s fine to say what you think and say who you think is right or wrong. But if you are not educated and you are not part of the Middle East, and you don’t understand how long this goes back and understand the consequences and everything … just don’t say anything.’” [TheAthletic]
Copying Caracas: The Economist looks at the continued tensions inside Iran following the regime’s crackdown on the widescale protests that swept the country in recent weeks. “Much of this internal criticism focuses on the 86-year-old Mr Khamenei, who has ruled for 36 increasingly despotic years. Critics complain about his intransigence in nuclear talks with America: by insisting on a token enrichment programme, they argue, he squandered a deal in 2025 that could have lifted sanctions altogether. Some go further. At least one cleric behind the manifesto called for him to stand trial for the state’s slaughter, according to another signatory. ‘We expect the supreme leader to exit within the next three to 12 months,’ says an investor still operating in Iran, citing both Mr Khamenei’s age and unpopularity. Others wistfully seek Mr Trump’s intervention. ‘We used to worry we’d become Venezuela,’ runs a joke in cafés frequented by civil servants. ‘Now we worry we won’t.'” [TheEconomist]
Word on the Street
Organizers of the World Economic Forum are mulling moving the annual gathering to another venue, with interim Co-Chair Larry Fink arguing that the WEF should “start doing something new: showing up — and listening — in the places where the modern world is actually built”; among the places he suggested were Detroit and Dublin…
Fink and Bank of America President and CEO Brian Moynihan were spotted this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, wearing the blue square pins popularized by Robert Kraft’s foundation that have become a symbol in the fight against antisemitism, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was heckled at a WEF dinner last night, with European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde walking out during his speech…
The U.S. Air Force confirmed that the Qatari jet being gifted to President Donald Trump for use as Air Force One will be delivered by this summer…
The Treasury Department announced sanctions on six Gaza-based medical organizations the government said had ties to Hamas’ al-Qassam Brigades, as well as the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad, which the department said was “clandestinely controlled” by Hamas and had supported numerous flotillas attempting to reach Gaza; in November, Reps. Andy Barr (R-KY) and Jefferson Shreve (R-IN) sent a letter to the Treasury Department calling for the designation of the PCPA as a Specially Designated Terrorist group…
The House Foreign Affairs Committee voted 45-2 to advance legislation expanding U.S. cooperation programs in the Eastern Mediterranean; Reps. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) and Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) voted against the bill, with Castro citing concerns that U.S.-Israel scientific grant programs cited in the bill may provide funding for programs in the West Bank and East Jerusalem…
Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, who is mulling a 2028 presidential bid, weighed in on Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s recent revelation that the Harris presidential campaign had asked if he was an Israeli government agent, calling the questions “totally appropriate and totally inappropriate”…
A judge in New York ordered a newly drawn congressional map, determining that the state’s 11th Congressional District — the only New York City district represented by a Republican — had been drawn unconstitutionally…
The New York Times spotlights the relationship between New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who hold differing views on policing and politics, as they work together in Mamdani’s first weeks in office…
The Mississippi state Senate unanimously approved a resolution in support of Jackson’s Beth Israel Congregation, a week and a half after Stephen Spencer Pittman allegedly set fire to the synagogue, which housed the state’s largest Jewish congregation; Pittman pleaded not guilty earlier this week to a federal charge of arson…
The NYPD is investigating an incident in which more than 50 swastikas were graffitied on a playground in Gravesend Park, Brooklyn…
The New York Times reports from the Los Angeles premiere of “Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!,” a two-part documentary about the legendary comedian and filmmaker…
Israel is moving toward the privatization of Israel Aerospace Industries and considering the sale of stakes in Rafael Advanced Defense Systems in an effort to offset the last two years of massive defense spending…
Three journalists, including contributors to CBS News and Agence France-Press, were killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza…
A report from the Israeli Justice Ministry’s Public Defender’s Office found that some Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails have faced “conditions unfit for human beings,” citing instances of food deprivation, medical neglect and violence…
Nitzan Chen is departing Israel’s Government Press Office after nearly 14 years as its director…
Eliezer “Geizi” Tzafrir, a former Mossad and Shin Bet senior official who oversaw the Mossad’s Tehran station during the 1979 fall of the shah, died at 92…
Legal historian Barbara Aronstein Black, who became the first woman to lead an Ivy League law school when she was named the head of Columbia Law School in 1986, died at 92…
Rifaat al-Assad, who was known as the “butcher of Hama” for his role in quelling an uprising to overthrow his brother, former Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, died at 88…
Pic of the Day
Israeli President Issac Herzog met with his Somalilander counterpart, Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi, at a dinner on Wednesday night on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Birthdays
Jewish hockey player, he was a first-round pick of the New York Islanders in 2014, Josh Ho-Sang turns 30…
Nobel Prize laureate in chemistry in 2000, he is a professor emeritus at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Alan J. Heeger turns 90… Los Angeles resident, Ruth Lynn Kopelove Sobel… Managing director and founder of Brave Warrior Advisors, he is the son of Hall of Fame baseball star Hank Greenberg, Glenn H. Greenberg… Rabbi and leader who has served in New York, New Jersey and California, Mark Samuel Hurvitz… Brooklyn-born conductor, who during his tenure as artistic director of the Kraków Philharmonic became friends with Pope John Paul II for whom he later conducted multiple Papal concerts, Gilbert Levine turns 78… Senior political law counsel and consultant at Akin Gump, Kenneth A. Gross turns 75… Founder and executive director of the Brooklyn-based Bridge Multicultural and Advocacy Project, Mark Meyer Appel… Publisher at Chicago Public Square, Charlie Meyerson… Financial services attorney, Lisa Arlyn Lowe… Former director-general of the Israeli Defense Ministry, he is a retired major general in the IDF, Ehud “Udi” Adam turns 68… Member of the Knesset for Likud, Katrin “Keti” Shitrit-Peretz turns 66… Deputy president of the Supreme Court of Israel, Noam Sohlberg turns 64… Michael S. Marquis… President of the World Jewish Restitution Organization, Gideon Taylor… American-Israeli composer, pianist and music producer, Roy Zu-Arets turns 57… Actor best known for his role as Harvey Specter on the USA Network series “Suits,” Gabriel Macht turns 54… Play-by-play broadcaster for the Washington Commanders of the NFL, Bram Weinstein turns 53… Rabbi at the Midway Jewish Center in Syosset, N.Y., Joel Mark Levenson… Director of the Chabad House in Kathmandu, Nepal, Rabbi Yechezkel “Chezki” Lifshitz… Columnist for Ami Magazine, Yochonon Donn… CEO of Our Generation Speaks, Heidi Rosbe… Managing director at SKDKnickerbocker, Kendra Barkoff Lamy… Congress executive producer at Politico, Zachary Warmbrodt… Music composer and winner of two Academy Awards and two Grammys, Justin Hurwitz turns 41… Head of U.S. at Blue Laurel Advisors and of counsel at Grossman Young & Hammond, Mark Donig… NYC-based managing director at Politico, Jesse Shapiro… Business reporter for The Washington Post, she is also a professional balloon twister and was a 2018 contestant on “Jeopardy!,” Julie Zauzmer Weil… Israeli singer known as Netta, she was the winner of the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest in Lisbon, Portugal, Netta Barzilai turns 33… Actress, best known for her role as Nicky Reagan-Boyle in the CBS series “Blue Bloods,” Sami Gayle Klitzman turns 30… Associate in the Chicago office of Applegate & Thorne-Thomsen, Matthew Lustbader…
The president hinted at diplomacy with Iran in his remarks at the ceremony, saying ‘Iran does want to talk, and we'll talk’
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
U.S. President Donald Trump gives a speech at the World Economic Forum (WEF) on January 21, 2026 in Davos, Switzerland.
President Donald Trump hosted a signing ceremony on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday for the founding members of the Board of Peace, his newly formed organization dedicated to world peace and security.
“We’re going to have peace in the world, and boy, wouldn’t that be a great legacy for all of us,” Trump said in his speech launching the board.
The Board of Peace’s “inaugural resolution,” which Trump signed at the ceremony, is to oversee the demilitarization and reconstruction of Gaza.
On Iran, Trump said that the U.S. bombing in June was because “they were two months from having a nuclear weapon, and we can’t let them have that. Iran does want to talk, and we’ll talk.”
In addition to the U.S., 19 countries attended the “massive event,” as a Trump administration source characterized it to Jewish Insider: Bahrain, Morocco, Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Hungary, Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Pakistan, Paraguay, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Mongolia.
Members of Trump’s team in Davos — Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, informal advisor Jared Kushner and Josh Gruenbaum, a diplomatic advisor to the board — spent the hours preceding the event working to bring more countries on board.
Some 35 of the 50 invited countries agreed to join the Board of Peace, Reuters reported. Those who did not attend the signing ceremony include Egypt, Vietnam and Belarus and Israel. Israeli President Isaac Herzog was in Davos on Thursday but did not attend because the Board of Peace is under Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s remit.
Most Western European countries declined to join the Board of Peace because of its apparent aim to replace the United Nations, as well as Trump’s pressure to turn Greenland over to the U.S. and Russia’s invitation to join.
“Just about every country wants to be a part of” the Board of Peace, Trump said. “We’ll work with many others, including the U.N. … This board has a chance to be one of the most consequential bodies ever created, and it’s my honor to serve as its chairman. … I take it very seriously.”
Though Trump first raised the idea of a Board of Peace as a supervisory body for the Gaza ceasefire reached last year, its charter describes a body concerned with peace worldwide and does not mention Gaza or Israel.
The charter says that the Board of Peace aims to “promote stability, restore dependable and lawful governance, and secure enduring peace in areas affected or threatened by conflict.”
It also makes clear that the board’s expansive mission was borne of disappointment with past efforts by the U.N., with its preamble “declaring that durable peace requires pragmatic judgment, common-sense solutions, and the courage to depart from approaches and institutions that have too often failed … Emphasizing the need for a more nimble and effective international peace-building body.”
Trump said in his remarks on Thursday that “the U.N. has got tremendous potential, and it has not used it,” following a comment earlier this week that the Board of Peace “might” replace the U.N. U.S. diplomats were instructed to say that the Board of Peace is meant to complement the U.N., not replace it, Bloomberg reported.
Trump will be the board’s inaugural chairman, a position that does not have an end date and carries executive power, including to invite and remove members, veto decisions, set the agenda and choose a successor. Membership is free for a three-year term, while permanent membership costs $1 billion.
Italy has yet to join the Board of Peace specifically because it may violate its constitution to join a body led by a single foreign leader, in which it does not have equal standing with other countries.
Rubio, Witkoff, Kushner and former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair sit on the Board of Peace’s founding Executive Board, and Gruenbaum and Aryeh Lightstone are its diplomatic advisors.
Trump also said in his remarks that Hamas “has to give up their weapons and if they don’t do that, it’s gonna be the end of them. Many countries say we really want to do it.”
The U.S. is “committed to Gaza being fully demilitarized, properly governed and properly rebuilt,” he added. “We’re going to be very successful in Gaza; it’s going to be a great thing to watch.”
The anti-hate symbol was worn by World Economic Forum Co-Chairman Larry Fink and Bank of America President Brian Moynihan
Mandel NGAN / AFP via Getty Images
BlackRock chairman and WEF co-chairman Larry Fink speaks before President Donald Trump's address during the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 21, 2026.
Two prominent business leaders were spotted this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, wearing the blue square pins popularized by Robert Kraft’s foundation that have become a symbol in the fight against antisemitism.
“We are deeply grateful to World Economic Forum Co-Chairman Larry Fink and Bank of America President and CEO Brian Moynihan for wearing the blue square during events in Davos. Their visibility, and their decision to champion this cause on a global stage, sends a powerful message that standing up to antisemitism and hate of all kinds matters in every corner of the world and with every audience,” Adam Katz, president of the Blue Square Alliance Against Hate, told Jewish Insider. The anti-hate group rebranded in October from its previous name, the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism.
Fink, the CEO of BlackRock, wore the pin as he gave opening remarks before President Donald Trump took the Davos stage on Wednesday. Moynihan sported his pin during an appearance from Davos on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Tuesday. Bank of America is a corporate partner of the Blue Square Alliance.
“Robert [Kraft] and the team have done a good job [combatting] that anti-hate which was around antisemitism, but it’s the social media piece that people don’t understand. They’re working to identify this very tough stuff,” Moynihan said during the CNBC interview.
Katz told JI that there are more than 5 million blue square pins in circulation worldwide, more than two years after the symbol’s launch in March 2023.
“When anyone wears their blue square, they are joining the fight against hate and becoming part of an alliance committed to building a stronger, more united country and world,” he said.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum, the president said ‘we’re going to know over the next two or three’ days and weeks ‘whether or not they’re going to do it’
Harun Ozalp/Anadolu via Getty Images
President Donald Trump delivers a speech during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on January 21, 2026.
President Donald Trump issued a stark warning to Hamas on Wednesday, setting a timeline for the terror group’s disarmament and stating that it must deliver on its agreement to demilitarize or face potential military consequences.
“Hamas has agreed to give up their weapons,” Trump said, speaking to a packed room at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “If they don’t do it, they’ll be blown away very quickly.”
The president has made several statements following the initial adoption in October of the Gaza peace plan, insisting that the group disarm or face consequences. During his Davos address, Trump seemed to issue a more concrete timeline for when he expects the administration to determine if Hamas has chosen to comply with the agreement.
“They’ve got to do it, and we’re going to know over the next two or three days, certainly over the next two or three weeks, whether or not they’re going to do it,” said Trump, who noted that disarmament is “not an easy thing” for Hamas, adding that group members are “born with a weapon in their hands.”
The administration is a week into the launch of Phase 2 of Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan, which moves from “ceasefire to demilitarization, technocratic governance, and reconstruction,” according to White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff.
“We have 59 countries that are part of that whole peace deal, and some of those countries aren’t even near the Middle East, and they want to come in and take out Hamas,” said Trump. “They want to come in and they want to do whatever they can.”
Critics have remained skeptical over whether Hamas will comply and relinquish its weapons. The terrorist group has previously insisted that it would refuse to disarm until a Palestinian state is established.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who previously said Hamas is unlikely to disarm without Israeli confrontation, lauded Trump’s statement at Davos in a post on X on Wednesday.
“President Trump rightly put Hamas on a time clock for disarmament,” Graham wrote on X. “This is the right decision at the right time.”
Plus, Israel joins the Board of Peace
JOINT BASE ANDREWS, MARYLAND - JANUARY 16: U.S. President Donald Trump boards Air Force One on January 16, 2026 in Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. Trump is traveling to Palm Beach, Florida where he will attend a dedication ceremony to rename part of the city's Southern Boulevard before remaining at his Mar-a-Lago property throughout the holiday weekend. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
👋 Good Wednesday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we preview President Donald Trump’s address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, happening later today, and talk to Democrats on Capitol Hill about Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s allegation that the Harris presidential campaign asked him if he’d been an agent of Israel. We look at how J Street is navigating a political environment that is increasingly hostile to Israel, and spotlight Deep33 Ventures as the VC, launched this week, aims to counter China through U.S.-Israel tech collaboration. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Noam Bettan, Mark Carney and Rep. Mike Lawler.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by Jewish Insider Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with assists from Danielle Cohen-Kanik and Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
- President Donald Trump will speak at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this afternoon local time after a delayed arrival resulting from an electrical issue on Air Force One that forced the initial plane to return to Joint Base Andrews after an hour in flight to be swapped out.
- We expect Trump to speak at length about the Board of Peace he is assembling, a day after the president told reporters at the White House that the body could serve as an alternative to the U.N. Earlier today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that Israel would join the body, after previously criticizing the inclusion of Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on the board’s executive committee.
- The president’s address will be preceded by an interview with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa, and followed by a session focused on the political realignment of the Middle East. Speakers in the latter session include Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, U.K. Foreign Minister Yvette Cooper and International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi.
- Later in the day, Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) is slated to speak at the WEF about the U.S.-China relationship.
- We’re continuing to monitor the situation in the Middle East, as the U.S. deploys an aircraft carrier and fighter jets to the region. Trump issued his harshest warning yet to Iran, vowing in an interview with NewsNation last night to “wipe them off the face of this Earth” if Tehran makes an assassination attempt against him. “Anything ever happens, the whole country is going to get blown up,” Trump said.
- In Washington, the House Foreign Affairs Committee is holding its markup of the Eastern Mediterranean Gateway Act.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S LAHAV HARKOV
When President Donald Trump first raised the idea of establishing a Board of Peace in October, it was as part of his 20-step ceasefire plan for Gaza. The board was meant to oversee a committee of Palestinian technocrats — whose composition was announced last week — and “set the framework and handle the funding for the redevelopment of Gaza … [and] call on best international standards to create modern and efficient governance that serves the people of Gaza and is conducive to attracting investment.”
The following month, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution supporting the ceasefire plan and “welcom[ing] the establishment of the Board of Peace,” authorizing it to operate in Gaza until the end of 2027.
But the board’s charter describes a body concerned with peace worldwide, not with removing Hamas’ terror threat in Gaza, and in fact, it does not mention Hamas, Gaza or Israel at all. Its expansive, stated role is to “promote stability, restore dependable and lawful governance, and secure enduring peace in areas affected or threatened by conflict.”
Indeed, it appears to be an attempt to compete with the United Nations. Its preamble says: “Declaring that durable peace requires pragmatic judgment, common-sense solutions, and the courage to depart from approaches and institutions that have too often failed … Emphasizing the need for a more nimble and effective international peace-building body.” Asked at a press conference on Wednesday if he intends for the body to replace the U.N., Trump said it “might.” “I wish the United Nations could do more. I wish we didn’t need a Board of Peace,” he said.
QUESTION OF CONCERN
Moderate Dems alarmed by Harris team’s grilling of Shapiro over Israel ties
Several moderate House Democrats said they were concerned and frustrated by Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s account, which emerged over the weekend, of being questioned by Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, as part of his vetting as her potential running mate, about whether he had ever been an agent of Israel. Shapiro, who volunteered on a kibbutz and briefly on an Israeli army base while in high school, also said that the campaign had pressured him to walk back condemnations of antisemitism on college campuses, and emphasized that he took offense to the scope and persistence of the questioning he faced about Israel, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod and Emily Jacobs report.
Reactions: “Totally insane,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) told JI. “I don’t know how else to describe insanity. Literally insane.” Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH) said the questioning was “concerning” and that he was “glad Josh had the courage to say what happened. Hopefully people will appreciate that you shouldn’t do that. … It’s a long-standing antisemitic trope that we’re all agents of the Israeli government, that we’re all working for this global Jewish cabal. And so that’s problematic,” Landsman, who is Jewish, continued.
Bonus: In Shapiro’s new memoir, which comes out next week, he recalls how his turbulent childhood — marked by his mother’s mental health challenges — shaped his approach to family and politics.
‘A new normal’
J Street hopes to capitalize on growing Democratic frustration with Israel
Three months after a ceasefire largely ended the fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the battle over the future of U.S.-Israel relations still rages in Washington. Both the left and the right face an erosion of support for traditionally pro-Israel positions. Amid the upheaval, the progressive Israel advocacy group J Street sees an opportunity: a chance to solidify Democrats’ shift away from unconditional support for Israel and its security needs. At the start of an election year, interviews with J Street’s top political official and its policy chief make clear that the group is eager to create space for Democrats who have taken a more critical approach to Israel, reflecting and reinforcing a shift toward greater distance in the historically close U.S.-Israel alliance, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Shifting tide: “There’s going to be a new normal,” Ilan Goldenberg, J Street’s senior vice president and chief policy officer, told JI in an interview. “There were two years of trauma that, I think, with the return of the hostages and the end of the war, people can finally start processing, but things are not going back.”
SUCCESSION RACE
Brendan Gill emphasizes support for Israel in crowded primary field to replace Sherrill
Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill, one of the leading Democrats running for the vacant 11th Congressional District seat in New Jersey, told Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod he would be a strong supporter of Israel and the continued U.S.-Israel relationship, while also expressing concerns about the current Israeli government.
Background: Gill — a longtime New Jersey political hand who has previously worked as a staffer for or on the campaigns of Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), former Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), who died in 2013, and former Reps. Steve Rothman (D-NJ) and Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) — said his time working with each of those lawmakers, all strong supporters of Israel, has served as his “North Star” for his policy toward the U.S.-Israel relationship. “I very much believe that we absolutely can respect the ability to disagree with decisions that are made by an elected government that we might not agree with, but still at the same time never waver on Israel’s right to exist, never waver on protecting the strategic partnership in that region of the world that the United States has enjoyed with the only democracy that exists, to continue to aid Israel in ways that are both important to its own protection and, by extension, the protection of our own national interests,” he said.
TAKING AIM
Mike Lawler condemns campaign ad against him as antisemitic
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) condemned as antisemitic an ad running in New York’s suburban 17th Congressional District that targets him for his support for Israel and for receiving support from pro-Israel donors, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. “This ad is a disgrace,” Lawler said in a statement. “This kind of politics has no place in the Hudson Valley. I am calling on every candidate running in NY-17 to publicly and unequivocally denounce this ad immediately. Silence is an endorsement.”
What it says: The advertisement, paid for by the Institute for Middle East Understanding, attacks Lawler for supporting U.S. aid to Israel, claiming that such aid is depriving Americans of government-funded benefits programs. “Israelis enjoy universal healthcare, while Americans go bankrupt from medical bills,” the ad’s narrator states. “Lawler’s reward? Giant campaign donations from AIPAC and the pro-Netanyahu lobby.”
TEHRAN TALK
House Dems call for steps to restore communications access in Iran, but stay mum on military strikes
At a press conference outside the Capitol on Tuesday, House Democrats called for action by the U.S. government to ensure free internet access and telecommunications for Iranians amid a crackdown by the Iranian regime, but largely withheld comment on whether the administration should undertake military strikes on the regime in support of the protesters, as President Donald Trump has floated, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Reconnecting: “People cannot reach loved ones, plan and organize or reach unbiased information. They are literally being kept in the dark by their own government, and it could very well be permanent,” Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ), the daughter of Iranian immigrants and the first Iranian-American Democrat in Congress, said. “It’s why long-standing bipartisan efforts to ensure internet access in Iran cannot be left on the back burner. This access could save lives, and this is all very personal to me.” She thanked colleagues for signing on to a bipartisan resolution expressing support for the Iranian protesters and calling for steps to restore internet access.
Scoop: Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Andrew Garbarino (R-NY) will reintroduce legislation on Wednesday to address the threat of killer drone strikes by the Iranian regime and other foreign adversaries through increased cooperation between the U.S. and Israel, Jewish Insider has learned.
TECH TOGETHER
Deep33 Ventures aims to counter China in U.S.-Israel tech alliance
A new deep-tech investment firm seeking to help Israeli startups fundraise and collaborate with U.S. companies emerged from stealth mode on Tuesday, announcing the launch of its $150 million fund. Called Deep33 Ventures, the firm will be led by serial entrepreneurs and investors Lior Prosor, who has invested in companies including Via Transportation, Lemonade Insurance and Carbyne, and Michael Broukhim, the co-founder of FabFitFun, who has invested in companies such as SpaceX, Stripe and Hut8, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
‘Allied infrastructure’: The fund, which already secured $100 million in capital commitments from its first group of investors, will focus on deep tech — which includes quantum computing, advanced energy and autonomous systems. “There isn’t a deep tech fund focused on Israel’s ecosystem. One of our biggest differentiators is the overlap of being deep tech and concentrated on Israel,” Broukhim told JI. With offices in Tel Aviv, New York and Los Angeles, the firm aims to create what it calls a U.S.-Israel “allied infrastructure corridor” combining the two countries’ technological strengths to counter China.
Worthy Reads
Pressing For Change: The Atlantic’s Arash Azizi talks to Iranians about potential U.S. military action against the Iranian government and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “Ultimately, Iran’s next chapter will be the outcome not only of what America does or does not do but also of the interactions among regional actors, protesters, and the regime’s web of factions. How these will unfold is all but impossible to predict. But one thing is clear. Until a few years ago, millions of Iranians repeatedly voted in the country’s mostly unfree elections, hoping that regime insiders could pave a path for reform. They wouldn’t have dreamed of demanding change from American bombers or drones, or of asking the U.S. president to please kill the supreme leader for them. Khamenei’s obstinate refusal to effect any meaningful change and his bloody massacre of civilians in droves have brought Iranians to this point.” [TheAtlantic]
Government Without Jews?: In Tablet, former White House official Tevi Troy, looking at the history of Jewish participation in government since the U.S. was established, considers what that participation could look like in the future as both major political parties increasingly welcome antisemitic elements. “While the current attacks on Jews from both the left and the right are by no means unique in the context of Jewish history, they are alien to American political culture — which is what makes this moment frightening. The attempt to mainstream antisemitism on both the left and the right should be properly understood as an attack by extremists in both parties on the existing political culture and on the principles of the American founding. The American tradition is far more closely linked to the Jews and their many contributions to it than it is to the antisemites of the left or the right, whose hatred of the Jews reveals a rejection of that tradition — which they hope to reorder and replace with various European-born ideologies, from communism to fascism to theocracy, that have proven toxic to their political hosts.” [Tablet]
A Spin on Jewish Manhood: In The New York Times, Esther Zuckerman reflects on the Jewishness of the title character in director Josh Safdie’s “Marty Supreme,” a mid-century table tennis phenom whose religion is a critical component of his upbringing and shapes his decision-making as advances in the sport. “The brand of Jewish man who interests Safdie is not a model minority. The director is drawn to brash hustlers who make decisions that get themselves and the people around them into loads of trouble. And yet these characters are written with love and a deep understanding of the evolution of Jewish New York. … Marty Mauser may not achieve the greatness he longs for, but he is a representative of a generation of Jews whose dreams didn’t quite come true but who deserve recognition all the same. That’s the big-picture version of what Safdie and his cohorts are doing with ‘Marty Supreme.’ In the narrative, they dig deeper into the knotty reality of what it would have been like for a 23-year-old Jewish American man in 1952.” [NYTimes]
Word on the Street
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, speaking yesterday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, argued in his speech to attendees that there had been “breaking of the world order, the end of a pleasant fiction and the beginning of a brutal reality where the geopolitics of the great powers is not subject to any constraint”…
Elsewhere at Davos, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Qatar’s prime minister and foreign affairs minister, said on Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s proposed Board of Peace represents the only viable path forward for Gaza, confirming that Doha has been invited to join the initiative, Jewish Insider’s Mathew Shea reports…
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi defends Tehran’s violent crackdown on protests in the country and threatens that Iran will be “firing back with everything we have if we come under renewed attack” by the U.S.; in response, the WSJ’s editorial board, which called Araghchi the “soft face” of the regime, said the diplomat’s threat “betrays Iran’s harsh reality”…
Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT), Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and more than 70 Senate and House colleagues wrote to President Donald Trump urging the U.S. to intervene to stop potential Israeli annexation of the West Bank, and to reimpose sanctions on violent settlers…
Goldman Sachs and the Qatar Investment Authority announced the expansion of their strategic partnership, with the QIA potentially committing up to $25 billion in Goldman Sachs’ asset management arm..
The Supreme Court declined to hear a case brought forth by Agudas Chasidei Chabad, a Brooklyn-based umbrella group representing the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, against Russia over the return of sacred Jewish texts that had been taken by the Nazis and are now held in Russia…
With worshippers at Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson, Miss., still reeling from a Jan. 10 arson attack that severely damaged the historic synagogue, Congress appears poised to provide $300 million for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program for 2026, a small boost from the funding provided in 2024 and 2025, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…
Miami Beach, Fla., nightclub Vendôme apologized for a now-viral incident in which far-right influencers were seen inside the venue as it played a Kanye West song praising Adolf Hitler; Vendôme said that three staff members that had been involved in the incident were no longer employed there…
Following the Buffalo Bills’ latest postseason loss, Gary Ginsberg laments in The New York Times about his hometown team’s lifelong failure to win a Super Bowl while expressing hope that revitalization efforts in the city could boost the team to a history-making championship win…
Israeli singer Noam Bettan won the season finale of popular Israeli singing competition show “Rising Star,” becoming Israel’s entrant to the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest…
Israel began demolishing the east Jerusalem headquarters of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, following the passage of a law banning the agency, which works with Palestinians, over what Israel says is its support for terrorism and staffers’ ties to terror groups…
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces are facing pressure from Damascus and Washington to agree to integrate into the Syrian government, days after the implementation of a ceasefire between the two…
Jacob Reses, chief of staff for Vice President JD Vance, and the Foundation for American Innovation’s Rachel Altman, got married on Sunday in Rockville, Md….
Literary agent and Holocaust survivor Georges Borchardt, who found a publisher for Elie Wiesel’s Night and represented the estates of such writers as Tennessee Williams and Hannah Arendt, died at 97…
Philadelphia attorney and community activist Daniel Segal died at 79…
Pic of the Day
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar (left) and Czech Foreign Minister Petr Macinka spoke on Tuesday in Prague during an official visit by Sa’ar to the Czech Republic.
Birthdays
Actor, director and producer, he is the voice of Beast in Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast,” Robby Benson (born as Robin David Segal) turns 70…
Writer specializing in modern Judaism and women’s issues, Blu Greenberg (born Bluma Genauer) turns 90… Philanthropist, co-founder and chair emerita of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, Lynn Schusterman… Owner of the NHL’s Boston Bruins and chairman of Delaware North, a global food service and hospitality company, Jeremy Maurice Jacobs turns 86… Literary critic, feminist, writer on cultural and social issues, Elaine Showalter (born Elaine Cottler) turns 85… Retired Israeli ambassador to Cyprus, New Zealand, Turkmenistan and Estonia, Shemi Tzur turns 81… Israeli visual artist, he taught at Jerusalem’s Bezalel Academy of Arts for 30 years, Zvi Goldstein turns 79… Attorney general of the U.S. during the Obama administration, now a senior counsel at Covington & Burling, Eric H. Holder Jr. turns 75… Past chairman of the Zionist Organization of America and chair of the real estate group at the NY/NJ law firm of Sills Cummis & Gross, Mark Levenson turns 69… CEO of UJA-Federation of New York since 2014, he will retire in June, Eric S. Goldstein turns 66… U.S. senator (R-ND), Kevin Cramer turns 65… Chairman and CEO of Norfolk, Va.-based Harbor Group International, a $21 billion real estate investment firm, Jordan E. Slone turns 64… Executive editor digital at the Washington Monthly, Matthew Cooper… Chief operating officer of OneTable, Andrea Greenblatt… Senior fellow at the USC Annenberg School, she is the former editor-in-chief of both Glamour and Self magazines, Cindi Leive turns 59… CEO at C-SPAN, Sam Feist turns 57… President and CEO of The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, Rachel Garbow Monroe… Director, producer and screenwriter of films, best known as the producer or director of the eight films in the “Paranormal Activity” series, Oren Peli turns 56… Christian Zionist, television host and presenter of “The Watchman” sponsored by Christians United for Israel, Erick Stakelbeck turns 50… CEO at Shpait.AI, Shlomo Einhorn… Peruvian model and TV host, she represented her country in Miss Universe 2009, Karen Schwarz turns 45… D.C.-based staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, Jennifer Haberkorn… Israeli actress, screenwriter and filmmaker, Romi Aboulafia turns 42… Vice president, chief of staff and senior counsel at Children’s National Hospital, Jordan Grossman… Samuel Z. Eckstein…
More than 2,500 attendees will arrive in Davos in the coming days for the annual gathering, which begins Monday
Britta Pedersen/picture alliance via Getty Images
Børge Brende, president of the World Economic Forum, speaks in a dpa interview.
The World Economic Forum kicks off in Davos, Switzerland, on Monday, with topics set to address a world that has been much changed since the last gathering a year ago. For one thing, founder Klaus Schwab will no longer be front and center, following his departure as WEF chair last spring; instead, attendees will hear from WEF President and CEO Børge Brende, WEF co-chairs André Hoffmann and Laurence Fink, and Swiss President Guy Parmelin when the first plenary convenes on Tuesday morning.
Marking a shift from the Biden administration, during which only senior White House officials attended the forum, President Donald Trump will travel to Davos, where he is slated to speak on Wednesday afternoon local time. Joining Trump is a delegation that includes White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and AI and crypto czar David Sacks.
This year’s summit theme, “A Spirit of Dialogue,” will be felt as much on the sidelines as in the official sessions. While at Davos, Trump is expected to chair the first meeting of the Gaza Board of Peace — which is tasked with temporarily governing Gaza after Hamas — and make an additional announcement about the group.
The Trump administration has not yet specified how many members the Board of Peace might include, nor have any individuals been named. However, reports have indicated that Nickolay Mladenov, a former U.N. Middle East envoy, who is expected to run the board’s operations on the ground, is likely to tap people from the private sector and NGOs. Other names that have been floated around as potential members include UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Turkish President Recep Erdogan.
The group will ultimately be tasked with overseeing a 15-member Palestinian technocratic governing body in Gaza, led by Ali Shaath, a former deputy minister in the Western-backed Palestinian Authority who oversaw the development of industrial zones, according to a joint statement by Egypt, Qatar and Turkey.
Sens. Chris Coons (D-DE), who this week is leading a delegation to Denmark as the U.S. engages with Copenhagen over Greenland, will travel on to Davos with some of the delegation’s members. He’s slated to participate in two panels on Wednesday — one on global aid, and a second on the U.S.-China relationship.
The legislators will be joined by Govs. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Andy Beshear of Kentucky and Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma, who are speaking on a panel about state governance. Beshear is also slated to speak on another panel focused on middle-class economics.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog will again participate in the forum, this year speaking in conversation with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria on Thursday morning. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will also speak Thursday morning, days after he made headlines for saying that the Iranian regime is “in its final days and weeks.”
More than a dozen countries — including the U.S., Qatar and Saudi Arabia — will open pavilions in Davos. This will mark Riyadh’s second time opening a pavilion, part of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s effort to showcase the Gulf country’s Vision 2030 plan. The Invest Qatar Pavilion will host a series of events over the course of the week, largely focused on finance and innovation.
Israel won’t have a pavilion this year — but efforts are already underway for an Israel House pavilion at next year’s WEF, though the pavilion, unlike some others, won’t be an official pavilion backed by the Israeli government.
Some attendees will depart Davos on Friday following the conclusion of official events, but others will stay for the annual Shabbat dinner, attended by a who’s who of Jewish — and non-Jewish — guests.
“When it comes to Shabbos, it’s at the end of a week of intense meetings and networking and business,” Rabbi Avraham Berkowitz, who for years has been involved in the planning for the annual dinner, told JI in 2023. “So then people come to the last important meal: It’s spiritual, it’s purposeful, it’s Yiddishkeit.”
Jewish Insider Washington reporter Matthew Shea contributed to this report.
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