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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Congressional correspondent Emily Jacobs contributed reporting.

Sam Brownback, the former U.S. ambassador at large for international religious freedom and a former GOP senator, warned Wednesday that, unless Syrian minority groups are allowed to maintain their own security forces, they face a likely genocide by government-aligned forces.

The stark warning is a repudiation of the policies of the new Syrian government led by President Ahmad al-Sharaa, which had pushed for full integration of minority-led forces into the Syrian military and most recently launched a military offensive against the Kurdish-led and U.S.-backed Syrian Defense Forces, largely forcing a Kurdish surrender.

Forces aligned with the Syrian government have also carried out massacres of Druze, Alawite and Christian minorities since al-Sharaa’s rise.

The Trump administration has remained largely supportive of the al-Sharaa government, even as critics have accused it of essentially abandoning the U.S.’ longtime Kurdish allies to the Syrian government onslaught.

“The new administration in Syria is purging religious minorities, threatening and killing them,” Brownback said at a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “These groups must be allowed to maintain their own security forces, or I guarantee you today, a genocide will happen in Syria like happened in Iraq to the Yazidis and Christians.”

Brownback urged the U.S. to pressure the Syrian government to change course.

“One Syria — not talking about breaking Syria — but the people there, the Druze, the Alawites and Christians, have to be able to provide their own security,” he said. “The Kurds are our best allies. We’ve got to keep standing with the Kurds. They will protect religious minorities and they need to be able to have their own security.”

Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-MI), who questioned Brownback on the issue, said that he and “many” of his colleagues “struggled” with the idea of repealing the Caesar Civilian Protection Act, the last major sanctions targeting Syria, but ultimately did so on the promise of continued congressional oversight.

In the Senate, a bipartisan pair of lawmakers is pushing to reverse course and re-institute sanctions in response to the attack on the Kurds..

Brownback also warned that there are “early warning signs of a Muslim-on-Christian war … brewing across Africa,” and that the U.S. needs to get out ahead of it. He pointed to Nigeria as a starting point of this conflict, with its government backed by China, Russia, Turkey and Saudi Arabia engaging in persecution of Christians.

Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) accused the Trump administration, and colleagues on the Hill, of turning a blind eye to what he described as attacks on the Christian community in “Palestine, including Jerusalem” by Israeli government forces and Israeli settlers.

As Jews worldwide face a scourge of antisemitism — including the mass shooting at a Hanukkah celebration at Australia’s Bondi Beach over the weekend — U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz said on Tuesday night that the U.S. “can and will confront antisemitism without apology, without hesitation and will do so everywhere around the world, including right here in the halls of the U.N.” 

“We are taking real action on those who perpetuate their antisemitic actions,” Waltz said at a Hanukkah reception hosted by Israel’s U.N. mission, held at The Jewish Museum in Manhattan. He pointed to recent U.S. sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories who has frequently bashed Israel. 

At the event, which was co-hosted by UJA-Federation of New York to mark the third night of Hanukkah, Waltz also lauded President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan to end the war in Gaza, calling it “not perfect,” but offering “a far better chance [at peace] than where we were just a few months ago.”

“The goal is to break that cycle of insanity where Hamas is allowed to survive, attack Israel once again, Israel responds and here we are all over again,” continued Waltz. “President Trump’s plan will break that cycle. We are going to see it through, and ultimately, he is determined — and put his name on it in a huge way, to the point that we have hundreds of soldiers on the ground in Israel — in moving all of that forward so that we never experience another Oct. 7.”

Last month, the U.N. Security Council voted 13-0 in favor of Trump’s peace plan, which Waltz called “the most positive council, probably ever.” 

“We will work in partnership with Israel, not only to fight antisemitism, but to bring peace and stability to that region so the next generation isn’t experiencing what the previous generation did. We can expand the Abraham Accords,” continued Waltz. “Let’s bring light to the darkness we’ve seen these last two years.” 

“We are determined to make the U.N. great again. We have a new term called ‘MUNGA’ — Make the U.N. Great Again,” Waltz said as the crowd erupted in laughter. 

As guests noshed on festive hors d’oeuvres — bite-sized latkes and sufganiyot — remarks were also delivered by Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon and Eric Goldstein, the outgoing CEO of UJA-Federation.

“What happened in Australia on the first night of Hanukkah was an act of terror targeting Jews,” said Danon. Among the 15 killed in the attack were 10-year-old Matilda Britvan, Chabad Rabbi Eli Schlanger and Holocaust survivor Alex Kleytman. 

“Three generations targeted simply for being Jewish. Tonight we honor their memories,” continued Danon before — together with Goldstein and Chabad’s Rabbi Mendy Kotlarsky — lighting a menorah made from shrapnel of Iranian ballistic missiles intercepted by Israeli and U.S. interceptors.      

Republican lawmakers are criticizing U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack over his recent comments questioning whether Israel is a democracy while voicing support for Turkey joining the proposed U.S.-led International Stabilization Force to operate in Gaza.

Barrack raised eyebrows with his comments on Sunday at the Doha Forum in Qatar — where the Syria envoy appeared to cast doubt on Israel’s status as a democracy while suggesting that “benevolent” monarchies were typically more successful in the region. Earlier last week, the ambassador drew attention for endorsing Turkey’s inclusion in the ISF because their “criticized relationship” with Hamas would “soften whatever has to be done” to disarm them.

Barrack’s comments in Doha were made in the context of criticizing previous efforts by the U.S. and others to impose democratic governing models in the Middle East. “Almost every decision that the West has imposed on the region, rather than allowing it to evolve on its own, has been a mistake,” Barrack said.

“The first thing that has to happen is that we have to allow them, Syria, to define it themselves without going in with Western expectations and saying, ‘We want a democracy in 12 nights,’” Barrack said on Sunday. “We’ve never had a democracy [in the Middle East]. I don’t see a democracy anywhere. Israel can claim that it’s a democracy, but in this region, really what has worked the best, whether you like it or don’t like it, is a benevolent monarchy.”

At the Milken Institute’s Middle East and Africa Summit in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on Friday, Barrack said, “If you think about it, having Turkey, who has a relationship and an Islamic foothold, will soften whatever has to be done in this, disarming Hamas. … How are you going to disarm them? Are you really going to militarily disarm them? Are we going to be in the soup again? Do you have caches and say, show up at public storage, and we’ll give you a ticket, and this is going to go into the IDF?”

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) told JI that Barrack was “very incorrect” with his musing about Israel’s standing as a democracy. “I think Israel is a democracy, and Israel is our only true friend in the Middle East,” Kennedy said.

Asked for his reaction to Barrack’s public support for Turkey joining the ISF, the Louisiana senator replied: “I don’t trust Turkey.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said about Barrack’s comments, “If I had to give you an example of a robust democracy, it would be Israel. If you don’t like the government, stick around a month, they’ll get a new one.”

Daniel Shapiro, who served as U.S. ambassador to Israel during the Obama administration and as deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East for a year and a half of the Biden administration, told JI that Barrack’s comments about Israel’s democratic bona fides were “a bit chilling.”  

“There’s no cause for calling into question Israel’s status as a democracy,” Shapiro said. “I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt that that was simply a misstatement that he probably will think better of.”

“I know it’s better when ambassador’s statements are fully aligned with the policies of their administration,” he continued. “This administration generally may be less coordinated in that regard than others because our president speaks so frequently and extemporaneously, but that actually raises the importance of ambassadors ensuring that they are fully aligned with whatever the president’s policy is.”

The remarks also prompted criticism from foreign policy analysts and experts, who suggested the ambassador to Ankara was acting more in the interests of Turkey than the United States. 

“There’s no question that he often reflects the Turkish view on a number of things,” Michael Makovsky, president of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, told JI. “That might be his view, or in my opinion, he doesn’t really understand the Middle East or proper U.S. interests in the Middle East. Generally, he often reflects Turkish views of the region.”

“That happens sometimes with ambassadors, they sometimes strongly reflect the views of the countries to which they’re posted, but he’s really been out there on this,” he continued. “Personally, that is concerning to me.”

Makovsky questioned Barrack’s broader approach to the media while criticizing his remarks about whether Israel is a democracy as “a bit incomprehensible.”

“I find that Barrack speaks a lot in public or to journalists, to the media. Frankly, a number of the statements he makes are kind of hard to understand, and certainly this is one of them,” he explained, describing Barrack’s previous statements to the media as “word salads.”

Sinan Ciddi, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, similarly voiced concerns about Barrack’s warm stance toward the Turkish government.

“He’s made it no secret that he is essentially very pro-Turkey, and that he sympathizes [with the view that] the key to stability or [achieving] U.S. interests goes through projecting Turkish interests in the region,” Ciddi told JI. “For a long time [he has been] suggesting that if there is going to be lasting peace and essentially a cessation of hostilities inside of Gaza, then Turkey has to play a role, which means putting Turkish troops inside of Gaza as part of the stabilization force.”

“Obviously, Israel has a problem with that,” he added. “Not only Israel, but also significant parts of the U.S. government and a handful of Arab states, because they feel that a Turkish presence there would unsettle the balance there because of Turkey’s ties to Hamas.”

Ciddi noted that the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt have all voiced concerns about what type of involvement Ankara would have in the ISF. He added that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sees the ISF “as a momentous opportunity to step into Gaza and undermine Israel and really project Turkey’s power.”

The Arab states are “deeply worried that Turkey’s military presence there would be to basically prop up Hamas. They’re not going to be there to essentially disarm and dissolve Hamas, that Turkey is basically going to stand shoulder to shoulder [with Hamas],” Ciddi told JI. “That’s going to just basically heighten tensions between Turkey and Israel and could lead to the potential of an arms conflict between them. Nobody wants that. Nobody understands why Barrack is pushing for that.”

“Either Tom Barrack is ignorant of the facts pertaining to Turkey’s deep enmeshment and involvement with Hamas over the years, particularly since Oct. 7 in terms of the material support it has provided Hamas … or he is choosing to ignore that,” he continued. “I think he’s either coming at it from a perspective of ignorance, or he’s choosing to ignore it. But neither bodes well, and that is the unfortunate circumstance.”

Ciddi also accused Barrack of “essentially running a portfolio where he feels very emboldened as ambassador to Ankara, as well as special envoy to Syria,” citing that he “doesn’t come from a traditional diplomacy or foreign service background. He knows he has the ear of [President Donald] Trump. He knows he’s one of the few people that Trump listens to.”

Barrack faced backlash from Israel on Tuesday for his recent comments, with Walla News reporting that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his team view Barrack as too closely aligned with Turkey.

“Barrack is acting like a Turkish ambassador and undermining regional stability,” a senior Israeli official told the outlet, adding that Barrack is “overly influenced by Turkish interests in Syria” and is operating “to a significant extent in line with Syrian interests.”

An Israeli diplomatic source confirmed the Walla report, adding that they were “stunned by [Barrack’s] statements praising benevolent monarchies and belittling Israeli democracy,” and saying that the remarks were unprecedented.

The White House did not respond to JI’s request for comment.

Lahav Harkov contributed to this report.

Benjamin Landa, a New York businessman and the son of a Holocaust survivor, was nominated in October to be the U.S. ambassador to Hungary — a delicate assignment given tensions over the U.S.’ relationship with the country.

Landa, 69, is a yeshiva graduate and well-known philanthropist supporting Jewish, Israeli and other causes, including as founder of the Chabad of Port Washington. His father, Yehoshua Boruch Landa, served as a rabbi in prewar Czechoslovakia and survived the Nazi regime, but most of his family, who resided in Hungary, were killed in the Holocaust, according to Newsday. 

“My father, despite all the horrors he went through, he never lost his humanity, he never lost his sense of humor,” Landa told the New York Post. “It taught me the idea of resilience and starting from scratch – starting all over from the depths of hell to rise like a phoenix and that was my father – he never gave up.”

He’s also been a prominent donor to Republican political causes, and met in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump and advisor Roger Stone earlier this year. Landa was reportedly actively pursuing the role during that White House meeting.

He also met with right-wing Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir during the Israeli official’s visit to the United States in April.

But Landa’s confirmation process could be a tricky one — for multiple reasons. 

Landa and his business, SentosaCare, have been dogged by a series of scandals. Nursing homes affiliated with Landa’s company have repeatedly faced fines, violations and complaints over allegations of insufficient care, among other issues. A federal judge ruled in 2019 that Landa and his business partner had violated human trafficking laws, using threats to coerce more than 200 nurses to remain in their jobs. 

In 2022, New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Landa, various business partners and a nursing home of which he was a part owner for “repeated and persistent fraud and illegality … including but not limited to violating several laws designed to protect nursing home residents and cutting necessary staffing in order to further enrich the owners and their families.”

Landa has disputed such allegations and sued media outlets that have alleged wrongdoing or mistreatment of patients in the past. Some lawmakers may bring up the scandals at Landa’s as-yet-unscheduled confirmation hearing.

Additionally, while the Trump administration and other conservatives have forged close relationships with Hungarian President Viktor Orbán, other Republicans have been deeply critical of Orbán and his government, particularly due to the Hungarian leader’s hostility to NATO and the Ukraine war.

In 2023, Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, blocked arms sales to Hungary over its refusal to approve Sweden’s entry into NATO.

Landa could face questions at his hearing on how he’ll navigate that relationship and work to persuade Hungary to cooperate with the U.S. on Ukraine and other priorities.

The White House has told Republicans that President Donald Trump will not pull the nomination of Amer Ghalib, the mayor of Hamtramck, Mich., to be U.S. ambassador to Kuwait and wants the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to hold a vote on his candidacy, despite the growing bipartisan opposition to his nomination, Jewish Insider has learned. 

White House officials have communicated to committee Republicans in recent days that Trump would not withdraw Ghalib’s nomination because the president credits the Democratic Hamtramck mayor with helping him turn out Michigan’s Arab-American vote and win the state in last November’s presidential election, two sources familiar with the ongoing discussions told JI.

“We were told Trump believes he [Ghalib] helped him deliver Michigan. He doesn’t want to abandon him,” one GOP senator on the committee said of the White House’s characterization of the president’s thinking.

Pressed about the four committee Republicans who already committed to joining all Democrats in opposing Ghalib’s confirmation, the White House has told senators and senior committee staffers that Trump wants Ghalib’s nomination to receive a vote regardless of the outcome. 

“If Trump wants his friend to go down that way, that’s OK. He can go down that way,” another Republican on the committee said, expressing confidence that Ghalib had no path to advance out of committee. 

No Democratic senators on the committee will support advancing Ghalib’s nomination to the full Senate if and when it comes up for a vote, a source familiar with the Democratic whip count told JI. With all Democrats opposed, Ghalib could only afford to lose one Republican to be reported favorably out of committee. 

Four committee Republicans have already come out publicly against his nomination — Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), John Curtis (R-UT), Dave McCormick (R-PA) and John Cornyn (R-TX). At least two others confirmed to JI that they have voiced their reservations about Ghalib to the White House in the wake of his confirmation hearing last week, when Ghalib faced a bipartisan grilling over his long record of promoting antisemitic ideas and his embrace of anti-Israel positions as an elected official. Those senators have not yet made those concerns public. 

The White House did not respond to JI’s request for comment on Tuesday.

Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), the committee’s chairman, acknowledged to JI on Tuesday evening that he had not yet scheduled Ghalib’s nomination for a vote, but demurred when asked if he planned to do so. 

A committee spokesperson for Risch declined to comment.

“A lot of what Trump is doing is kind of testing whether these guys have a gag reflex,” one Democratic committee member said of the situation, surmising that the president’s actions were partially aimed at assessing how much Republicans were willing to push back on nominees and legislative proposals that they object to.

The nomination of Amer Ghalib, the mayor of Hamtramck, Mich., to be U.S. ambassador to Kuwait is facing what appear to be insurmountable odds as opposition to his confirmation grows among Senate Republicans.

No Republican or Democratic senators have come to Ghalib’s defense after his performance at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week, when he faced a bipartisan grilling over his long record of promoting antisemitic ideas and his embrace of anti-Israel positions as an elected official. 

Senators on both sides of the aisle had privately expressed reservations about Ghalib’s nomination prior to the hearing, but his attempts to evade responsibility for his record while under oath prompted several Republicans on the committee to go public. 

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) announced at the end of Ghalib’s hearing last Thursday that he would not be able to support moving his nomination out of committee to the Senate floor. Sens. John Curtis (R-UT), John Cornyn (R-TX) and Dave McCormick (R-PA) have since followed suit. Others on the panel, including Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE), have said they plan to raise their concerns about Ghalib with the committee chairman, Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), and the White House. 

“Based on the hearing that we had last week, I’m going to vote no against him,” McCormick told Punchbowl News on Tuesday. “I don’t think he demonstrated that he’s qualified for the role.”

Asked about Ghalib and the concerns surrounding his nomination while speaking to reporters on Tuesday morning, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said he was “vaguely familiar” with the Hamtramck mayor’s nomination but had not “examined” the matter closely. 

The White House did not respond to Jewish Insider’s multiple requests for comment on the status of Ghalib’s nomination or the growing number of GOP senators coming forward to oppose him. 

Ghalib is not believed to have any support on the Democratic side, reinforced by his lackluster answers to questions about his documented history of antisemitic remarks from Sens. Chris Murphy (D-CT), Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the top Democrat on the committee. He also has an embattled standing within the Democratic Party because of his decision to help President Donald Trump win the state of Michigan for Republicans last November. 

“I think that you have dug your hole deeper today,” Murphy, who already opposed Ghalib prior to last week, told the nominee at his confirmation hearing. 

Amer Ghalib, the mayor of Hamtramck, Mich., and President Donald Trump’s embattled nominee to be U.S. ambassador to Kuwait, struggled to win over skeptical senators of both parties during his confirmation hearing on Thursday as he faced a grilling over his long record of promoting antisemitic ideas and embracing anti-Israel positions as an elected official. 

Ghalib was grilled by Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which began when the committee’s ranking Democrat, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), called out his litany of antisemitic comments and denial of sexual violence during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. 

It culminated with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), after questioning Ghalib about his past opposition to the Abraham Accords and support of boycotts against Israel, announcing at the end of the hearing that he would not be able to support his nomination. 

Senators on both sides of the aisle pressed Ghalib over a litany of extremist views and statements he’s made in recent years. In addition to his denial of the scope of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, senators also pointed to past comments he made suggesting that the terrorism itself was justified. They also questioned him over his consistent unwillingness to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist, and even when pressed at the hearing, resisted recognizing Israel’s place as the Jewish homeland. 

He also faced bipartisan scrutiny over his recent characterization of Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi dictator who invaded Kuwait, as a “martyr” — a social media post senators found stunning given that he’s being tapped as ambassador to the country Hussein invaded.

His record of antisemitic commentary was also probed, with senators asking about his liking a comment on Facebook referring to all Jews as “monkeys” and the record of one of his political appointees in Hamtramck who said the Holocaust was “God’s advanced punishment of the chosen people” over Israel’s war in Gaza.

Ghalib also tried to evade responsibility for Hamtramck becoming the first city in the nation to adopt a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions policy against Israel. He claimed he played no formal role in that designation.

Throughout the hearing, Ghalib declined to walk back his comments, repeatedly arguing that what he believes in his “personal capacity” should be distinguished from how he planned to act in his “official capacity” as a U.S. ambassador. “I’m a Semite. The Arabs are Semites. Do we read history? How can we be antisemites? And I think, like I said, judge my actions and not my intentions,” Ghalib said.

Cruz, in the hearing, became the first Republican senator to say he can’t support Ghalib’s nomination. Several other GOP senators on the committee are considering coming out against Ghalib, according to sources familiar with lawmakers’ thinking.

“I believe your beliefs are sincere. I believe that when you became the mayor of the first city in America to pass a BDS resolution, it’s because you believe in BDS,” Cruz said. “What I do not understand is how you could possibly serve as United States ambassador for President Trump in the Middle East when you have passionate views, including having been a vocal opponent of the Abraham Accords, the singular and most consequential accomplishment President Trump has negotiated.”

“Your long-standing views are directly contrary to the views and positions of President Trump and to the position of the United States. I, for one, am not going to be able to support your confirmation,” he continued.

Sen. John Curtis (R-UT) who serves on the committee but was not in attendance at the hearing, released a statement after Ghalib’s testimony saying that the Utah senator is “deeply concerned about Mr. Ghalib’s nomination.”

“It is crucial that we expand peace in the Middle East and that begins with the acceptance of Israel’s right to exist. Ghalib has demonstrated he is sympathetic to beliefs that run completely contrary to that goal,” the statement read. 

“I think that you have dug your hole deeper today,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) told Ghalib. “It doesn’t matter to me whether you support the president’s [Middle East peace] plan. Again, this idea that your personal views don’t matter is ridiculous.”

Senators told Ghalib that he was welcome to hold incendiary points of view or embrace those with such beliefs, but that would likely disqualify him for a role representing the United States as ambassador. 

Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), a co-chair of the Senate Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism, excoriated Ghalib during her opening statement, describing his conduct as unacceptable for a public figure. “As an elected official, you had a responsibility to work with your constituents to eliminate hatred from communities, all hatred from communities, but instead, you chose to inflame divisions and traffic in antisemitism,” Rosen said.

“You liked a Facebook comment comparing Jews to monkeys. You characterize leaders you don’t like as ‘becoming Jewish.’ As mayor, you failed to comment after one of your political appointees suggested the Holocaust was ‘advance punishment’ for the war in Gaza, and you denied the Hamas used sexual violence as a weapon of war on Oct. 7,” she continued. “You can disagree with the Israeli government, but peddling antisemitism in such a public manner, as an elected official, as a community leader, is beyond the pale.”

Ghalib was asked four times — three by Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) and once by Murphy — if he would say that he supports Israel’s right to exist as a homeland for the Jewish people. “I think everybody, we can coexist in the region, and everybody has the right to exist now,” Ghalib told McCormick after the Pennsylvania senator’s third time asking the question.

Only after Murphy criticized his refusal to answer McCormick’s question did Ghalib respond directly.

“I believe it can be a home for the Jewish and the Arabs and the Muslims and the Christians as well. And that’s why it’s a diverse land for the three major religions,” Ghalib told Murphy, without mentioning Israel by name. “I think they can coexist, all the nations in the Middle East, based on the peace plan of President Trump that I support strongly.”

Murphy pressed Ghalib on his claims that he had condemned the October 2023 comments by Nasr Hussain, a political appointee of his on the Hamtramck Plan Commission, about the Holocaust being “God’s advanced punishment,” noting that Ghalib had not responded to requests from senators for proof that he had distanced himself from Hussain. 

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) also pointed out that Ghalib had expressed support for the Houthis’ November 2023 hijacking of the British-owned Galaxy Leader cargo ship in the Red Sea, prompting Ghalib to deny he had ever made such a statement. 

Kaine then asked if he was denying that he had authored the social media post with the statement. Ghalib responded by suggesting that he now opposes the attack, and then appeared to accuse the Virginia senator of making “assumptions” and taking his words “out of context.”

“I don’t think it’s a celebration. This is an assumption that [you’re] making. I disagree with attacking the ships and disrupting,” Ghalib said. “I think there was a post, but it seems like it’s taken out of context. Maybe I commented, I don’t know.”

Later on, Cruz grilled Ghalib about a social media post he wrote in 2020 praising the Muslim Brotherhood as “an inspiration” and asked whether his stated support for the group would be a conflict if the Trump administration were to designate the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. Ghalib said he would implement the president’s policies, though only after downplaying the group’s extremism.

“I believe that it’s an ideology. It’s not just a group of people. I disagree with a lot of things that they do. Some of them are extremists. Some of them are part of some governments in the Middle East,” Ghalib said of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Shaheen, the top Democrat on the committee, called Ghalib’s expressed beliefs “abhorrent” and said she was “very concerned about some of the statements that you have made, and frankly, what appear to be antisemitic views.” The New Hampshire senator said she took grave offense to Ghalib’s comments claiming that reports of sexual violence by Hamas on Oct. 7 were “lies and deception” and expected him to offer “an unequivocal condemnation of the horrific crimes committed on Oct. 7.”

Ghalib said he had “totally condemned what happened on Oct. 7” after learning of the atrocities, and claimed that he “was not aware” of what “kinds of abuses” Hamas had orchestrated when he made those comments. He also alleged that local media had misrepresented his past social media posts and public comments to make it look like he was antisemitic or supportive of terrorists and dictators. 

“I’m in politics. I understand the press doesn’t always accurately represent what we say,” Shaheen replied. “That doesn’t explain the comments you made to my staff, nor the direct quotes from your hometown news outlet about sexual violence on Oct. 7. The fact that you represented to my staff that there was no documented evidence of that just shows to me a lack of recognition of what was going on.”

The only apology Ghalib offered regarding his past remarks related to his comments about Saddam Hussein, telling senators that he was sorry if his description of the late dictator had caused offense, especially with “those who suffered from Saddam or lost loved ones.” He explained that he was complimenting Hussein for “keeping the Iranian regime in check” after McCormick noted that he served in the 82nd Airborne Division that helped liberate Kuwait from Hussein’s forces.

The White House did not respond to Jewish Insider’s request for comment on the status of Ghalib’s nomination. 

Amer Ghalib, the mayor of Hamtramck, Mich., and President Donald Trump’s nominee to be U.S. ambassador to Kuwait, is expected to face a frosty reception when he appears before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for his confirmation hearing on Thursday.

The hearing comes after months of private pushback from GOP senators to Ghalib’s nomination over his anti-Israel record, which includes him questioning reports of Hamas atrocities on Oct. 7, 2023, supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and for liking antisemitic comments on social media. 

Ghalib was given a date for his confirmation hearing in early October after months of delays. During that time, several committee Republicans unsuccessfully lobbied the White House to withdraw Ghalib from consideration for the Kuwait post, according to a senior GOP defense staffer familiar with the conversations.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the top Democrat on the committee, said earlier this month that Ghalib’s nomination had been delayed. Ghalib acknowledged at the time that he was facing objections but said that Trump had called him to offer his continued support for his nomination, and the hearing was scheduled shortly after.

With the hearing moving ahead, senators on both sides of the aisle have prepared questions for Ghalib about his history of incendiary public statements criticizing Israel and appearing to justify Hamas’ attacks on the Jewish state and deny that sexual violence took place, as well as his record as mayor of Hamtramck. 

Trump tapped Ghalib for the ambassador role in early March, after the Democratic mayor endorsed Trump in the 2024 election and helped him rally support in Michigan’s Arab and Muslim American communities. The president stood by Ghalib despite his nomination stalling over GOP opposition and calls from the Anti-Defamation League, American Jewish Committee, Democratic Majority for Israel and others to withdraw him from consideration.

“He’s done a great job as mayor, and he’s done a great job with his support of us,” Trump said of Ghalib at a White House dinner later that month. “You’ll be the next ambassador to Kuwait. You’re going to have a great time with Kuwait, wonderful people, and it’s a great place, so congratulations.”

Ghalib, who was born in Yemen, made history in 2021 when he was elected as Hamtramck’s first Arab and Muslim mayor. As mayor, Ghalib, a Democrat, led Hamtramck to pass a measure to boycott and divest from Israel. He also has a history of expressing support for antisemitic social media posts.

Amer Ghalib, the mayor of Hamtramck, Mich., and President Donald Trump’s nominee to be U.S. ambassador to Kuwait, is scheduled for a confirmation hearing in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a delayed step toward confirmation for a nominee whose background and past comments have come under scrutiny.

Ghalib will come before the committee next Thursday, Oct. 23, at the first confirmation hearing the committee has held in more than a month. Ghalib is currently the only nominee on the agenda for that hearing.

The Democratic Hamtramck mayor, who endorsed Trump in the 2024 election and helped him rally support in Michigan’s Arab and Muslim American communities, has a history of anti-Israel commentary, including questioning reports of Hamas atrocities during the Oct. 7 attacks and supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, as well as liking antisemitic posts on social media.

The Anti-Defamation League has said Ghalib’s nomination should be withdrawn. “Ghalib routinely traffics in antisemitism, actively supports the antisemitic BDS movement, attempted to justify the 10/7 massacre and refused to take disciplinary action against an appointee who attempted to justify the Holocaust,” the group said on X in March.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) told reporters that the nomination had been delayed as lawmakers gathered additional information about Ghalib and his background via written questions.

Ghalib announced publicly after such reports that Trump had called him to emphasize his continued support even as “some parties have hindered this appointment.”

Ghalib will likely face questions about his record at the hearing.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, announced this week that the nomination of Amer Ghalib, the mayor of Hamtramck, Mich., as U.S. ambassador to Kuwait has been delayed. 

Ghalib has faced scrutiny for his anti-Israel history, including questioning reports of Hamas atrocities on Oct. 7 and supporting the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, and for liking antisemitic comments on social media.

Shaheen told Agence France Press last month that Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), the Foreign Relations Committee chairman, had agreed to postpone consideration of Ghalib as lawmakers gathered additional information about his background.

Asked about the delay by Jewish Insider, Shaheen said that “there were some questions” about Ghalib to which committee members are awaiting written answers. She said she did not recall the subject of the pending questions.

“SFRC has worked at a historic pace to move President Trump’s nominees through our committee,” Risch said in a statement to JI on the nomination. “That pace continues along with our commitment to thorough vetting, and this vetting sometimes means that certain nominations will take longer to process.”

The Hamtramck mayor said in a Facebook post on Sunday that Trump called him to emphasize that he continues to support Ghalib’s nomination but acknowledged that there have been objections.

“He renewed his unlimited support to me” for the nomination, Ghalib said, but “admitted during his call that attempts by some parties have hindered this appointment, and assured me that he will not accept to stand before my appointment for this task that I am honored to do to serve this great country, any obstacle, from any party.”

Ghalib, who was born in Yemen, made history in 2021 when he was elected as Hamtramck’s first Arab and Muslim mayor. As mayor, Ghalib, a Democrat, led Hamtramck to pass a measure to boycott and divest from Israel. He also has a history of liking antisemitic social media posts.

Ghalib made waves nationally last fall when he endorsed President Donald Trump’s 2024 bid in September and campaigned on the president’s behalf with Arab and Muslim voters who had grown frustrated with Democrats over the Biden administration’s handling of Israel’s wars with Hamas in Gaza and with Hezbollah in Lebanon. 

Trump went on to nominate Ghalib as U.S. ambassador to Kuwait in late March of this year.

The White House did not respond to JI’s requests for comment on the status of Ghalib’s nomination, which the Anti-Defamation League called for Trump to withdraw in March.

“Ghalib routinely traffics in antisemitism, actively supports the antisemitic BDS movement, attempted to justify the 10/7 massacre and refused to take disciplinary action against an appointee who attempted to justify the Holocaust,” the ADL said in a post on X at the time.

Ghalib visited Washington for meetings with White House officials in late August, when senators were in their home states for a monthlong recess. Ghalib met during the trip with James Blair, the White House deputy chief of staff for legislative, political and public affairs. No senators posted anything about meetings with Ghalib during that time period or since then, and two Republicans who serve on the committee told JI that they had received no outreach about meeting with the nominee. 

Ghalib’s confirmation hearing has not yet been scheduled. 

The Senate confirmed former National Security Advisor Mike Waltz on Friday to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, capping off a monthslong confirmation process that was marred by delays just days before the start of the U.N. General Assembly next week. 

Waltz, a former congressman from Florida and a Green Beret, was confirmed by a 47-43 vote in the Senate on Friday afternoon, with three Democrats and one Republican crossing party lines. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, John Fetterman (D-PA) and Mark Kelly (D-AZ) voted in favor of Waltz’s nomination, while Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) was the only Republican to oppose. 

Waltz’s journey to his current role began when President Donald Trump removed him from his post as White House national security advisor in late April and selected him to replace Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) as his pick for U.N. ambassador. The White House pulled Stefanik’s nomination in late March, more than two months after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee had advanced her nomination, amid concerns that her absence in the House could hurt Republicans’ ability to govern with their slim majority.

The former national security advisor was facing heavy scrutiny at the time over the Signal chat incident in which Waltz inadvertently added Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg to a group chat of top national security officials discussing imminent strikes on the Houthis on the non-secure messaging app. Prior to the “Signalgate” incident, Waltz had already been viewed as a vulnerable target for ideological rivals and personal foes in the administration because of his hawkish approach on foreign policy. 

While Trump initially stood by Waltz, he eventually relented and in early May announced his intention to move the former congressman to the U.N. post. Waltz had already faced a setback after Trump fired six National Security Council officials whose views were aligned with Waltz. Their ouster was driven by an intervention by far-right activist Laura Loomer. 

Waltz, a staunch supporter of Israel and an outspoken critic of Iran, faced delays of his own during his Senate confirmation process this summer, with Paul siding with all Democrats on the Foreign Relations Committee to block his nomination from advancing to the full Senate over concerns with Waltz’s national security and foreign policy positions. 

Shaheen eventually broke the stalemate in July, voting for Waltz because of his public and private support for continued U.S. global engagement than other figures in the administration, as well as potential alternatives Trump could nominate. 

Multiple outlets reported at the time that Shaheen, who is retiring next year, conditioned her support for Waltz on the Trump administration committing to providing $75 million in aid to Haiti and Nigeria, which had just been approved. Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), the chairman of the committee, told Jewish Insider that the aid package was not directly tied to Shaheen’s support for Waltz.

During his confirmation hearing that month, Waltz said he would serve as a blockade to “anti-Israel resolutions” in the U.N. General Assembly and vowed to push for the dismantlement of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency over some of its employees’ involvement in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks. He also said he supported U.S. sanctions against Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur for Israel and the Palestinian territories, amid widespread accusations she has espoused antisemitic rhetoric in her commentary on Israel.

Waltz will take over for Dorothy Shea, the career diplomat who filled the role in an acting capacity as chargé d’affaires during the nine-month vacancy. His first full week on the job will coincide with the General Assembly, bringing world leaders together in New York City for high-level discussions on issues ranging from Russia’s war in Ukraine to European countries’ push for Palestinian statehood.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee privately briefed lawmakers on the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday morning on the security and political situation in the West Bank and the war in Gaza.

The briefing was organized by Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), who chairs the subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa, in response to efforts by France and other U.S. allies to recognize a Palestinian state. Despite a focus on the West Bank, attendees indicated that the briefing did not provide specific answers on any U.S. policy toward a potential Israeli move to annex all or part of the territory.

Lawler told Jewish Insider the briefing had included a “thorough discussion with the ambassador about Judea and Samaria and the challenges and the opportunities,” using the biblical term for the West Bank preferred by the Israeli government and utilized by the Foreign Affairs Committee.

“Given the insistence on the part of the French and other Europeans to recognize a Palestinian state, I thought it was important for my colleagues to have a greater understanding of what we’re actually talking about with respect to Judea and Samaria, or the West Bank, and how it is actually governed post-Oslo,” Lawler continued, referring to the peace accords brokered in the 1990s.

He noted that a majority of the West Bank is categorized as Area C, controlled by Israel, and said many people do not understand that.

Asked whether the group had discussed a potential declaration of Israeli sovereignty in that area, Lawler responded, “No, we had a broad discussion on the entirety of the situation there.”

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) said he does not “think there’s any support in the United States for unilateral action by Israel to annex any territory.” Some congressional Republicans have indicated support for such a policy.

“[Huckabee] is against the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, and I urged [him] to be equally vocal against unilateral actions by settlers or even the Israeli government designed to prevent a Palestinian state. If you’re against this unilateral, you’re against that unilateral,” Sherman told JI.

He added that Huckabee’s “dedication to the hostages is palpable. You can feel it. You can see it.”

Asked whether the group had discussed potential Israeli annexation of the West Bank, Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) declined to address specific details of the closed-door briefing but said, “there was broad discussion on a lot of different issues, but we didn’t go in-depth into anything specifically.”

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Wednesday that members of the Israeli government are formulating plans for annexation of the West Bank, potentially including all but six large Palestinian cities in the West Bank, with the goal of claiming “maximum territory and minimum population.” Israel is set to hold high-level discussions on the subject this week.

An envoy for the United Arab Emirates told The Times of Israel this week that “annexation would be a red line” for the UAE and would “foreclose the idea of regional integration and be the death knell of the two-state solution.”

The UAE joined the Abraham Accords in 2020 in part to halt then-pending plans for annexation of the West Bank.

Sergio Gor’s expected departure from a key role in the White House, where he has vetted thousands of candidates for political jobs as the influential leader of the Presidential Personnel Office, is raising some questions about how his litmus tests and isolationist views will compare to his newly announced replacement, particularly with regard to national security hires.

Gor, 38, was nominated by President Donald Trump last week to be U.S. ambassador to India. If confirmed by the Senate, Gor, who was also tapped as special envoy for South and Central Asian affairs, will leave behind a powerful post at which he built a reputation as an ideological gatekeeper. 

Throughout his time in the White House, Gor has drawn attention for his unyielding focus on loyalty to Trump and — more singularly — a fierce commitment to elevating national security and foreign policy hires who share his skepticism of American engagement abroad.

His successor, Dan Scavino, as the White House confirmed this week, is likewise a longtime Trump confidant who now serves as White House deputy chief of staff. But unlike Gor — whose background suggests an interest in imposing ideological litmus tests on job applicants  — Scavino, 49, “has no ideology other than Trump,” according to a former top administration official.

Even as Gor has won plaudits from a range of high-ranking officials in the administration, the former official, who spoke anonymously to address a sensitive subject, suggested his approach to the White House role has been driven by his foreign policy worldview as well as his allegiance to the president, a tension that is unlikely to be replicated by Scavino.

“Sergio brought his own world with him to the job, not just Trump’s,” the former official told Jewish Insider on Wednesday. “Loyal to Trump, yes — loyal to a Paul-Tucker-Koch world ideology, I think yes as well,” he added, referring to Gor’s former boss Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), podcast host Tucker Carlson and the activist network linked with Charles Koch, a leading conservative donor who has opposed Trump.

By contrast, Scavino, a former Trump golf club manager who has previously run the president’s prolific and unfiltered social media, seems to have few, if any, competing interests at stake. “There’s a reason Dan has a seat in the Situation Room when the toughest decisions are made,” the former Trump official elaborated. “Sergio never did. This should be a positive development for vetting and placement.”

It remains to be seen which positions Scavino will still need to help staff when he fully assumes Gor’s duties — especially with “over 95%” of departments and agencies now “filled,” according to a statement from Trump last week, which could not be verified.

“There is much still to be done, and Dan’s leadership will ensure the highest quality, most dedicated workforce ever,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said in a statement, calling Scavino “one of Trump’s most trusted and longest serving advisors.”

In his tenure, Gor, a former top aide to Paul, the libertarian Republican from Kentucky, has helped weaken the National Security Council and worked to install Pentagon officials who have pressed for a reduced U.S. military presence in the Middle East — fueling concerns among pro-Israel leaders who have questioned if such views were aligned with Trump’s approach.

The personnel chief, whose efforts highlighted an intra-party battle between warring traditional and MAGA Republican factions that has recently grown less fractious as the administration has taken shape, also promoted officials affiliated with the libertarian Koch network, in spite of a directive from Trump upon his reelection to avoid “people who worked with, or are endorsed by” the Charles Koch or his political advocacy group.

More recently, Gor has prominently clashed with some top Trump allies, including Elon Musk and Michael Anton, the State Department’s director of policy planning who served as a technical lead amid failed nuclear negotiations with Iran. Anton, who is now expected to leave the administration soon, has reportedly grown frustrated with Gor’s rejections of his proposed hires, among other sources of tension first detailed by Politico on Wednesday. 

“He has the power to can people and for them not to get through,” one Trump official who has interacted with Gor and was not authorized to comment on the record said of his current role.

Meanwhile, Gor has advanced some officials widely criticized for espousing racist and antisemitic views, including Darren Beattie, who was fired in Trump’s first term for speaking at a white nationalist event and is now a top official in the State Department.

Beattie’s promotion, along with others who have drawn scrutiny for extreme views, underscores how Gor has been “clearing people who are unclearable,” said a former senior Republican Hill aide, who was granted anonymity in order to speak freely. “Sergio is obviously fine with that,” he said of Beattie’s past comments.

Trump, who in a social media post announcing his nomination last week called Gor’s time in the White House “essential” to upholding the administration’s agenda, said the personnel director would remain in his current role until his confirmation in the Senate, which has not yet scheduled a hearing.

A White House spokesperson confirmed to JI on Wednesday that Gor will stay in his post pending Senate approval for the ambassadorial role, which comes amid growing tensions between the United States and India, a major ally, over Trump’s tariff threats.

As Gor now prepares to leave the White House for a more public role, Danielle Pletka, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, suggested his approach to hiring ultimately demonstrated how he struggled to evolve with the administration on key issues.

“I think that the Trump administration has settled into a routine, and I think that people who are very ideologically rigid are finding less and less space for themselves,” Pletka told JI. “The president is not an isolationist, and those who are are discovering quickly that he does not appreciate being told how his staff have a stronger America first agenda than he does.”

Good Monday morning.

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we have the scoop on World Food Program head Cindy McCain’s trip to Israel this week, and cover the clash between U.S. Ambassador to France Charles Kushner and Paris over rising antisemitism in the country. We talk to Rep. John McGuire about his recent trip to Israel with a Republican delegation, and spotlight Jewish communal concerns over increasingly anti-Israel rhetoric from the head of the American Association of University Professors. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Kevin Youkilis, John Bolton and Rabbi Pesach Wolicki.

What We’re Watching

• Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar is in Washington this week for meetings with senior U.S. officials. Sa’ar will meet with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other officials, as well as Jewish communal leaders from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
  
• World Food Program Executive Director Cindy McCain is in Israel this week. More below.
  
• We’re keeping an eye on diplomatic tensions between the U.S. and France following a Wall Street Journal op-ed by U.S. Ambassador to France Charles Kushner in which Kushner wrote that, “not a day passes without Jews assaulted in the street, synagogues or schools defaced, or Jewish-owned businesses vandalized” in the country. France’s Foreign Ministry summoned Kushner following the op-ed’s publication yesterday. More below.
  
• The U.N. Security Council is set to vote today on a French proposal to extend the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, which has operated for decades in the border region between Israel and Lebanon and long faced criticism over its inability to prevent Hezbollah from amassing significant weapons stockpiles in the area. At his confirmation hearing last month, Michel Issa, the Trump administration’s nominee to be ambassador to Lebanon, dodged a question on whether the mandate should be extended, saying that the force’s role was likely to change as Beirut pushes Hezbollah to disarm.
  
• Nuclear talks between Iran and the U.K., Germany and France are expected to take place this week, ahead of next week’s deadline for the imposition of snapback sanctions on Iran.
  
• Meanwhile, International Atomic Energy Agency officials are in Washington this week for talks regarding Iran’s nuclear program.
  
• In Minneapolis, the Democratic National Committee’s summer meeting kicks off today. The DNC delegates will be considering two Israel-related resolutions — an anti-Israel measure that calls for an arms embargo and a suspension of U.S. military aid to Israel and a more balanced resolution calling for a ceasefire and the immediate return of hostages, which has the backing of DNC Chair Ken Martin.
  
• The Zionist Rabbinic Coalition is hosting a seminar today for rabbis navigating topics around Israel and antisemitism in High Holiday sermons.

What You Should Know

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS

After a tumultuous decade in American politics, both major parties are undergoing ideological and generational shifts that are likely to redefine America’s standing in the world — and its relationship with Israel.

On the left, a new generation of lawmakers from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, many with more critical views of Israel than those who came before them, is making gains in major cities, state capitals and on Capitol Hill. On the right, the ascendance of the isolationist MAGA movement and the decline in support for Israel among younger evangelical Christians, traditionally a bastion of support for the Jewish state, is challenging what has long been traditional, strident GOP support for Israel.

Longtime observers of the U.S.-Israel relationship with whom JI spoke over the weekend expressed concern that Jerusalem has not developed a strategic long-term approach to deal with the emerging political realities in the U.S.

When asked if he believed there’s a serious effort in Jerusalem to address the longterm political challenges in the U.S., former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren was succinct: “I do not.”

The U.S.-Israel relationship, Yossi Klein Halevi, a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, told JI on Sunday, “has never been in bigger trouble.” What’s so significant about this moment, he said, is that “the erosion is happening in both parties.”

In the past, Halevi explained, “we could always rely on one party or the other to bail us out. And of course, in the past, it was usually the Democrats, and the fact that the erosion is now beginning in the Republican Party should be sending major, major alarms in Jerusalem, but I don’t see any indication of that.” 

Former Knesset member Einat Wilf told JI that the warning signs had been evident for years, and that she had pushed for conversations on the future of the U.S.-Israel relationship when Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) began to criticize Israel. “I remember at the time I started talking with people,” Wilf recalled, “And I told them, ‘Look, if I’m Israel, then I’m putting a team now. Doesn’t have to be overt, but I’m putting a team now that begins to plan for a world where we don’t have such strong support.’”

Read the rest of ‘What You Should Know’ here.

scoop

Cindy McCain makes first Israel trip since start of Israel-Hamas war

World Food Program head Cindy McCain is in Israel this week on her first trip to the country since the start of the Israel-Hamas war nearly two years ago, three sources in the U.S. and Israel confirmed to Jewish Insider’s Melissa Weiss.

On the agenda: McCain’s trip comes amid a scaled-up effort to deliver aid to Gaza, following widespread reports of malnutrition, food shortages and distribution challenges. She will meet on Monday with families of some of the remaining 50 hostages in Gaza, and is expected to travel to the enclave on Tuesday. On Wednesday, McCain is expected to meet with Israeli and U.S. officials, including Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. She may also meet with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who is in Lebanon this week and expected to travel on to Israel after leaving Beirut.

Read the full story here.

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french face-off

Charles Kushner rebukes Macron for ‘dramatic’ rise in antisemitism in France

U.S. Ambassador to France Charles Kushner on Sunday penned an open letter to French President Emmanuel Macron, published in The Wall Street Journal, criticizing the “dramatic rise of antisemitism in France” and Paris’ failure to address the threat, Jewish Insider’s Melissa Weiss reports.

Summoned by France: In the op-ed, Kushner, who arrived at his posting last month, raised concerns that in France, “not a day passes without Jews assaulted in the street, synagogues or schools defaced, or Jewish-owned businesses vandalized,” citing statistics shared by the country’s Interior Ministry regarding the rise in antisemitism incidents. Kushner called on Macron to “enforce hate-crime laws without exception; ensure the safety of Jewish schools, synagogues and businesses, prosecute offenders to the fullest extent; and abandon steps that give legitimacy to Hamas and its allies.” In response, France’s Foreign Ministry summoned Kushner, issuing a statement calling his comments “unacceptable.” The letter comes weeks after Macron’s announcement that Paris intends to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state at next month’s United Nations General Assembly.

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mission creep

Leading Jewish groups slam AAUP for ‘moving away from its mission’ with anti-Israel stance

Two leading Jewish groups aimed at countering antisemitism, along with several faculty, blasted the American Association of University Professors for moving “even further away from its mission” after its president said in a recent interview with Inside Higher Ed that the United States should not send defensive weapons to Israel amid its war against Hamas, which he called a genocide in Gaza, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.

Fueling ‘hostility’: “Such rhetoric is deeply troubling and fuels hostility against Jewish and Zionist individuals in academic spaces and beyond,” the Anti-Defamation League and the Academic Engagement Network said last week in a joint statement to JI, in response to comments made by Todd Wolfson, the president of AAUP. Faculty who are longtime members of the association told JI that Wolfson’s latest remark further enforces a climate where Jewish and Zionist members no longer feel represented or protected within the association. Jeffrey Podoshen, a professor in the business department at Franklin & Marshall College, where he formerly served as AAUP chapter president, has suspended contributing dues to the association “as the organization has become much more politicized over the past number of years” in relation to Israel. 

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yom kippitcher

Game changer: Kevin Youkilis reflects on Judaism and antisemitism as an MLB all-star

It was 2007 and the Boston Red Sox had just won the World Series in Denver. Back at his hotel, three-time Major League Baseball all-star and World Series champion Kevin Youkilis had a party. “All of sudden, we started breaking out [dancing to] ‘Hava Nagila.’ The pride of celebrating a joyous occasion brought me back to my childhood and the traditions we learned in synagogue,” Youkilis said on Wednesday’s premiere episode of “Game Changers,” the new webseries from the Anti-Defamation League and Maccabi USA, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.

Minority of one: “I was very lucky, I didn’t have many incidents [of antisemitism],” Youkilis, 46, said during the inaugural webinar, which was moderated by Alex Freeman, ADL’s director of sports engagement, and also included remarks from Morgan Zeitz, a University of Michigan student and Maccabi USA athlete. “Guys would joke around, ripping and good fun, but there was never anything directed at me that I felt was antisemitic,” Youkilis, who primarily played for the Red Sox and had stints with the New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox, continued. “People asked questions based on ignorance. Like everything in life, when you are a minority and all these things are happening and there’s a lot of rhetoric out there, you have two ways to go about it. You can get really reactive and angry, or you can educate. I think education is always the best tool.” 

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maga meets the holy land

A trip to Israel becomes a wake-up call for MAGA influencers

Rabbi Pesach Wolicki, the executive director of Israel365 Action, said he felt compelled to arrange a high-profile visit to Israel this month for a group of young MAGA influencers because of what he perceives to be Israel’s failure to appeal to the Make America Great Again movement amid slippage in support for the Jewish state from younger conservatives. “Let’s put it frankly, the way it came about was that the MAGA movement did not have any authentic voices out of Israel communicating to it in this war,” Wolicki told Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs in an interview last week about the trip. “Once you understand the language [that MAGA supporters speak], you realize how much 90% of the Jewish world does not understand it.” 

Background: Israel365 Action, a subset of Israel365, the advocacy group that describes itself as an “Orthodox Jewish institution that believes that Jews and Christians must respect one another,” began organizing the visit late last year, after Wolicki was introduced to a group of pro-Israel individuals involved in managing and promoting conservative influencers. Among the influencers who took part in the delegation were Jayne Zirkle, Xavier DeRousseau, Cam Higby, Fabian Garcia, Lance Johnston and Avery Daye.

Changing minds: Johnston said his experience with Israeli soldiers at a barbecue disabused him of prejudices he previously held about the IDF, believing them to be anti-Christian. “We actually had lunch with these guys and just hung out. They were really, really nice to us and it was a really, really, a stark contrast of what I’d been told online. People were literally saying to me in America: ‘I do not trust the IDF, and I believe if I met them in person, they might beat me up or hurt me just because I’m an American or even Christian.’ I was openly wearing my Christian crosses, and I have a Christian tattoo right on my arm, and I was wearing a short sleeve shirt. They didn’t mention it at all,” the Gen Z influencer said. 

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trip reflections

Rep. John McGuire advised Netanyahu to ‘get the job done’ in Gaza during Israel trip

Fresh off his first congressional trip to Israel, Rep. John McGuire (R-VA) said that the future of his party remains pro-Israel, despite a vocal fringe of House Republicans opposing U.S. support for Israel amid its war against Hamas. “I don’t know where they are with their thoughts and ideas,” McGuire, a freshman lawmaker representing Virginia’s 5th Congressional District, told Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen last week, referring to attempts to block all U.S. funding to Israel by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY). 

War plans: McGuire visited Israel earlier this month with the AIPAC-affiliated American Israel Education Foundation, alongside 44 other freshmen House Republicans, a trip that he described as “heartbreaking, inspirational and enlightening.” The group met with leaders including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. McGuire said that he had not heard in meetings with leaders a plan for bringing the war to an end, but said that in a sideline conversation, Netanyahu appeared receptive to his advice to “get the job done,” and remain in Gaza until Hamas is defeated. 

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Worthy Reads

Statehood Trap: The Washington Post’s editorial board pushes back against recent efforts by Paris, Ottawa, London and Canberra to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state, arguing that the eradication of Hamas must be a prerequisite for statehood. “At the core, the future Palestinian state must recognize Israel’s right to exist and renounce violence and terrorism. That means removing from any government role groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, whose calling cards are the elimination of the Jewish state. It means erasing from the education of young Palestinians in schools and mosques that insidious hatred of Israel and the Jewish people. And it means standing up a reformed Palestinian Authority with the credibility and resources to govern the new entity. The rush to recognize a Palestinian state by some of Israel’s staunchest allies such as France, Britain, Canada and Australia is born of an understandable frustration: mainly their inability to sway Netanyahu’s government to cease its destructive war on Gaza and alleviate the human suffering. Recognizing a Palestinian state is a diplomatic way of kicking over the table to try to restart peace talks from scratch.” [WashPost]

Journalists or Terrorists?: In The Wall Street Journal, Jamie Kirchick reflects on the decision by activist groups to classify Palestinians working for terror-aligned and Qatari-financed media outlets as journalists. “What these men did wasn’t journalism, and claiming otherwise dishonors the real journalists who risk and sometimes lose their lives endeavoring to bring us the truth. To put people who celebrated or participated in the Oct. 7 attacks in the same category as journalists Daniel Pearl, Marie Colvin and James Foley is a disgrace. What’s being hyped as an unprecedented attack on journalists is actually a cynical salvo in an information war. By claiming that Israeli brutality is responsible for the deaths of a ‘record’ number of ‘journalists’ in Gaza, international press-freedom groups have committed a category error. The figure is high because the world has never seen a conflict in which so many people working on behalf of terrorist organizations have been disingenuously characterized as journalists by once-respected watchdog groups. The cause of international press freedom is undermined when its leading institutions launder jihadist martyrdom into journalistic sacrifice.” [WSJ]

Beauty Marks: Puck’s Rachel Strugatz looks at the fallout following beauty influencer Huda Kattan’s posting of a video blaming Israel for both world wars and the 9/11 attacks; Sephora dropped Kattan from its upcoming campaign in response, but didn’t sever all ties. “Kattan’s video and posts were so disturbing, and her apology so insufficient, that Sephora had a moral imperative — and given the current political environment, a fiduciary obligation — to respond. (In Kattan’s apology video, she said her post was ‘misinterpreted and completely misused,’ and denied any allegations of antisemitism.) But Sephora’s business will be impacted, and sales will probably suffer, whether the retailer continues its partnership with Kattan or decides to cut ties with the brand. (Cue the social media boycott on both sides.) Surprisingly, Sephora hasn’t faced this level of backlash and criticism regarding one of its important partners before, and how it handles Huda Beauty will reveal a lot about its priorities and reliance on top brands with bright futures.” [Puck]On the Fringes: In the Jerusalem Journal, Republican Jewish Coalition CEO Matt Brooks argues that both major parties should distance themselves from their fringe elements that call for decreased U.S.-Israel ties. “We know that there is a vast difference between criticizing an Israeli policy or politician and calling for the destruction of the one Jewish state in the world, the one democracy in the Middle East. That is a distinction that we must keep making, clearly and loudly. Likewise, we must hold accountable the people who educate, inform, and influence Americans — from universities to news outlets to social media influencers — and not let lies go unrefuted. … It is possible to push extreme ideas and their advocates back to the fringes. The GOP and the conservative movement have done it before. It is possible to hold people accountable and call out anti-Israel and antisemitic words and actions when we see them. It is possible to use every means at our disposal to fight the information war being waged against Israel. It is possible, and it is imperative.” [JerusalemJournal]

Word on the Street

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, weeks after a leaked preliminary DIA report on the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June that suggested that the military action did not fully incapacitate Iran’s nuclear program…

FBI agents raided the home of former National Security Advisor John Bolton as part of a federal security probe…

The Department of Homeland Security, citing “terrorist ties,” canceled dozens of grants issued to Muslim organizations primarily through the Nonprofit Security Grant Program…

The New York Times spotlights the business pursuits of Michael Boulos, the son-in-law of President Donald Trump, following his 2021 engagement to Trump’s daughter Tiffany, as Boulos sought to benefit from his in-laws’ professional connections; in one such deal, Boulos, while working for his cousin’s yacht brokerage, overcharged his future brother-in-law, Jared Kushner, for a stake in a superyacht…

Kent Fuchs, the interim president of the University of Florida, said that the school’s search for a new president had become “more challenging” following the UF Board of Governors’ rejection of former University of Michigan President Santa Ono, who had been the only finalist in the previous search; Fuchs is leading the school until the end of the month, when a new interim leader will rotate into the position…

A Georgia man was fired after he and his wife were filmed shouting antisemitic insults at a neighbor whose daughter, an Israeli police officer, was killed in a terror attack in 2023…

Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp, who had previously served as The Netherlands’ ambassador to Israel, resigned after he was unable to bring sanctions against Israel; members of Veldkamp’s New Social Contract party followed his exit, throwing the existing caretaker government into disarray ahead of October elections…

Israel struck Houthi targets in Yemen on Sunday; the strikes followed the Houthis’ firing on Friday of a ballistic missile with a cluster bomb attached, the first such warhead that has been fired by the Iran-backed terror group…

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in his first public address since the 12-day war with Israel in June, effectively ruled out nuclear talks with the U.S., accusing President Donald Trump of wanting Tehran to “surrender”…

Iran’s defense minister said the country was planning to manufacture weapons outside of Iran, with factories being built in several countries…

Hundreds of inmates have been returned to refurbished areas of Iran’s notorious Evin Prison, which was damaged in the 12-day Israel-Iran war in June… 

NPR’s Ari Shapiro is departing the public broadcaster, where he has co-hosted “All Things Considered” for a decade, next month; the departure by Shapiro, who joined NPR 25 years ago, comes amid a number of exits by other high-profile NPR staffers…

The New York Times’ “Vows” section spotlights the nuptials of Camp Social founder Liv Schreiber and Kyle Sidi Shaub…

Anne Neuberger, who served as deputy national security advisor for cybersecurity and emerging tech in the Biden administration, is joining Andreessen Horowitz as senior advisor focused on AI and cyber…

JI senior congressional correspondent Marc Rod and Olivia Truesdale, a program manager at FMC (Former Members of Congress), got engaged while vacationing in Venice, Italy. Marc proposed during a private breakfast at their hotel. They met in 2018 while they were editors for the Claremont Colleges’ student newspaper, and began dating shortly after…

Television and theater actor Jerry Adler, whose credits included “The Sopranos” and “The Good Wife,” died at 96…

Shelly Zegart, a founder of the Kentucky Quilt Project who sought to connect the craft to the American experience, died at 84…

Birthdays

Chairman of the National Credit Union Administration from 2009 until 2016, she now serves on the board of directors of Stewart Title Co., Deborah “Debbie” Matz turns 75… 

British novelist, he is known for writing comic novels that revolve around the dilemmas of Jewish characters, Howard Jacobson turns 83… Bass guitarist and co-lead singer of Kiss, his birth name is Chaim Witz, known professionally as “The Demon” and Gene Simmons, he turns 76… Chairman of the board emeritus at the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles, Lorin M. Fife… CEO of The Joel Paul Group, a division of Merraine Group, specializing in executive recruitment for the nonprofit sector, William Seth Hochman turns 70… Former member of the Knesset for the Blue and White party, he is a retired major general in the IDF, Elazar Stern turns 69… Former program director at the St. Paul, Minn., JCC, Manfred “Fred” Haeusler… Former Trump fixer, he was the key prosecution witness in the 2024 Trump criminal trial brought by the Manhattan DA, Michael D. Cohen turns 59… Professor of mathematics at Harvard University (tenured at age 26, the youngest ever), pianist and chess national master, Noam David Elkies turns 59… U.S. senator (R-Ohio), appointed in January to fill the seat of VPOTUS JD Vance, Jon Husted turns 58… Musician, singer songwriter, author and record producer best known as the lead vocalist and guitarist of the band Wilco, Jeffrey Scot Tweedy turns 58… Former Canadian MP, now VP for external affairs and general counsel at Canada’s Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, Richard Marceau turns 55… Regional marketing director at UJA-Federation of New York, Suzanne Schneider… Executive director at the Religious Zionists of America, Alicia Post… Actress and musician best known for playing Melanie “MelRose” Rosen on the Netflix series “Glow,” Jaclyn Tohn turns 45… Director of development for South Florida’s JVAC – Jewish Volunteer Ambulance Corps, Sarah Schreiber… Founder and managing partner at Commonweal Ventures, Nathaniel Loewentheil… Director of state and local government relations at multinational conglomerate Philips, Evan Hoffman… Managing director in the D.C. office of SKDK, Daniel Barash… Canadian actress, Stacey Farber turns 38… Director of product marketing at LinkedIn, Sam Michelman… Founder and CEO of DLP Labs, Ryan Kuhel… Founder and CEO at the Center for Intimacy Justice, Jackie Rotman… Senior director of editorial strategy and operations at Axios, Neal Rothschild… Jane Wasserman… Investigative counsel for the House Education and the Workforce Committee, Jenna Lifhits Berger… Operations and accounting specialist at HealthSource Distributors, Adam Aryeh Friedman… Israeli singer-songwriter, Eden Hason turns 31… Carina Grossmann… Robert Cohen…

U.S. Ambassador to France Charles Kushner on Sunday penned an open letter to French President Emmanuel Macron, published in The Wall Street Journal, criticizing the “dramatic rise of antisemitism in France” and Paris’ failure to address the threat.

In the op-ed, Kushner, who arrived at his posting last month, raised concerns that in France, “not a day passes without Jews assaulted in the street, synagogues or schools defaced, or Jewish-owned businesses vandalized,” citing statistics shared by the country’s Interior Ministry regarding the rise in antisemitism incidents.

Kushner called on Macron to “enforce hate-crime laws without exception; ensure the safety of Jewish schools, synagogues and businesses, prosecute offenders to the fullest extent; and abandon steps that give legitimacy to Hamas and its allies.”

In response, France’s Foreign Ministry summoned Kushner, issuing a statement calling his comments “unacceptable.” The letter comes weeks after Macron’s announcement that Paris intends to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state at next month’s United Nations General Assembly.

An Anti-Defamation League report from 2023, released months before Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks, found that the “penetration” of antisemitism in France, the U.K., Germany and Spain “into the political mainstream is cause for concern and has in some cases alienated Jews and other supporters of Israel.”

Kushner wrote in the WSJ that since Oct. 7, 2023, “pro-Hamas extremists and radical activists have waged a campaign of intimidation and violence across Europe.”

Antisemitism in France has been on the rise for years. In 2022, Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, at the time the Biden administration’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, warned that antisemitism in France was no longer “unique” and had spread across the European continent. 

Earlier this month, the head of CRIF, the French Jewish umbrella group that represents the community, noted a “very strong rise” in antisemitism in the country, adding, “I don’t know a family that is not speaking about” emigration to Israel.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said on Tuesday he is “optimistic” while also remaining “realistic,” about the latest round of ceasefire and hostage-release negotiations with Hamas. 

“I want to be optimistic about a deal with Hamas but I’m also aware of who we are dealing with, we’re not dealing with a nation state. We’re dealing with savages,” Huckabee said during an online briefing co-hosted by the American Jewish Congress and World Zionist Organization. 

The former governor of Arkansas’ comments come as Hamas has reportedly agreed to a 60-day ceasefire proposed by Qatari and Egyptian mediators, during which some of the remaining 50 hostages would be released. Israel had not responded to the proposal as of Tuesday afternoon. 

“Whether or not [Hamas is] serious about bringing this to a close, all I can tell you is I hope so. But what’s happened before, even when they say they are thinking seriously about bringing this to a conclusion, making a deal, they always add one or more things that are completely unacceptable, bring those to a table, then it all starts over again,” he continued.

“So I’m not going to give up, I’m always going to be optimistic, but I’m also realistic,” Huckabee said. “These are not people that come to the table because they are reasonable,” he said referring to Hamas. 

Huckabee also spoke about what Gaza could look like after the war ends. “It’s going to be a very different future and we don’t know exactly where it’s going,” he said, claiming that most Gazans he’s met with do not want Hamas in control, nor do they want the Palestinian Authority, Palestine Liberation Organization or Fatah in power.

“One thing we can agree on is Hamas can’t win, they can’t stay, they must disarm,” he said. The ambassador condemned France and the United Kingdom for their intent to formally recognize a state of Palestine. Doing so, he said, is “empowering and emboldening Hamas.” 

Huckabee lauded the June 22 U.S. airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, which “obliterated their nuclear capacity,” but he cautioned that Iran still has “nuclear aspirations.” 

“You would think they would give those up in light of what happened to them,” Huckabee said.  

“Iran is still talking about how to get nuclear capacity. I would say to them, ‘You’ve been kicked once you don’t want to go through it again.’ But if it has to be, it will be.” 

Michel Issa, the Lebanese-American businessman nominated by the Trump administration to serve as U.S. ambassador to Lebanon, said Tuesday that the Lebanese government and armed forces must act swiftly and decisively to disarm Hezbollah and remove its influence across Lebanese society.

Issa argued at his Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing that the war between Israel and Hezbollah, “while devastating, has opened a narrow but meaningful window for progress,” in combination with the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire deal, the fall of the Assad regime in Syria and recent blows to Iran’s military and nuclear program. 

He praised the new Lebanese government as a “promising development,” saying it has made progress in combating Hezbollah’s influence.

“The Iran-Israel escalation is a reminder of how delicate an opportunity this is that could be squandered if Iran drags Lebanon back down to the path of conflict,” Issa continued. “The government has made clear it will not tolerate any violation of the cessation of hostility, and since implementation, they have begun to curb Hezbollah’s influence. But more must be done. Urgently. The full disarmament of Hezbollah is not optional. It is essential. The time to act is now.”

Finishing that job and rooting out Hezbollah’s influence across Lebanon will be difficult and take time, he added, given its decades of influence and domination across Lebanese society.

“Hezbollah needs to go. Hezbollah needs to be disarmed to bring some kind of hope to Lebanon,” he said. As long as supply lines from Iran remain cut and with continued support from the United States and other partners, he continued, he believes that over time Hezbollah’s influence can be minimized and the government can secure its hold on power.

Issa said that it’s critical that the Lebanese government maintain full control of rebuilding efforts in southern Lebanon, and that it cannot allow Hezbollah to “hijack” that work as it has in the past. He added that the country must work to ensure governance reform and financial stability, accountability and growth.

He also argued that the U.S. should continue to push for a final settlement regarding the borders between Israel and Lebanon and ultimately normalize relations between the two countries.

Issa spoke highly of the Lebanese Armed Forces, saying that they will be critical to efforts to combat Hezbollah and have been a partner to the United States, which the LAF should continue to support and cooperate with. He said that the LAF is one of the few institutions that enjoys widespread trust and support within Lebanon.

“They are doing a great role in creating stability that is very well needed in Lebanon,” Issa said. “I believe they are ready to do whatever they need to do, to take over and to become the sole military power for the Lebanese government.”

Asked about whether the mandate for the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, should be extended, Issa did not offer a definitive answer, saying that its role is changing with the LAF stepping up its role in monitoring the border with Israel and ensuring that Hezbollah does not continue to threaten the Jewish state.

Issa, who was born in Beirut, said that he had renounced his Lebanese citizenship in connection with his nomination, to show his commitment to the American people and the U.S.’ interests.

Duke Buchan, an investment banker who served as U.S. ambassador to Spain in Trump’s first term and is now nominated to be U.S. ambassador to Morocco, testified alongside Issa.

Buchan said repeatedly that he would work to support the Abraham Accords, both to expand the relationship between Israel and Morocco and to urge Morocco to encourage other countries to normalize relations with Israel.

He said it would be one of his “highest priorities” to work to reestablish the Negev Forum dialogue among Israel and its Arab allies, and to convince Morocco to “step up even more.”

Buchan said he supports U.S. recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony claimed by both Morocco and the indigenous Sahrawi people, a significant contingent of whom are refugees living in Algeria. The U.S. agreed to recognize Moroccan sovereignty over the territory when the country joined the Abraham Accords in 2020. 

“Secretary [of State Marco] Rubio reiterated that the United States recognizes Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara and supports Morocco’s serious, credible and realistic autonomy proposal as the only basis for a just and lasting solution to the dispute,” Buchan said. “If confirmed, I will facilitate progress towards this goal.”

But pressed later in the hearing on bipartisan concerns about the U.S.’ decision to recognize Moroccan sovereignty, Buchan said he was not familiar with those concerns and that he would defer to the president and secretary of state to set policy.

Since his arrival in Israel in April, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has made his mark as the first evangelical U.S. ambassador to Israel — and possibly the most effusive in his remarks about the Jewish state.

That may be why a leaked letter he wrote to Israeli Interior Minister Moshe Arbel last week, expressing “profound disappointment” that an issue delaying work visas for Christian organizations had gone unresolved and suggesting that Israelis may be treated in kind by the U.S., drew so much attention.

A day after the letter leaked, the ambassador visited Taybeh, a Palestinian village in the West Bank where there had been a fire in a field near a church, writing on X that “desecrating a church, mosque or synagogue is a crime against humanity and God,” and “I will demand those responsible be held accountable.” With Taybeh church leaders blaming settlers, Huckabee’s comments were interpreted in many media accounts as doing the same, though he later clarified that he was not attributing the fire to anyone. 

But with the visa issue resolved and the world’s attention on the humanitarian situation in Gaza and the latest round of collapsed negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage-release deal, Huckabee was back to standing firmly behind Israel in an interview with Jewish Insider in his office at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem on Thursday. With an a guitar hanging on the wall behind him emblazoned with an American flag and President Donald Trump’s slogan “make America great again,” Huckabee pinned the humanitarian issues in Gaza on Hamas and the U.N and the failure of negotiations on Hamas, and was critical of other Western countries that have come out against Israel, accusing them of emboldening the Gazan terrorist group. 

The interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Jewish Insider: There’s a lot of pressure on Israel over humanitarian aid in Gaza and claims that residents of Gaza are starving. Israel says that they are letting more food in but no one is distributing it, while much of the world doesn’t believe that. I want to ask you: Do you think there is really starvation in Gaza? What is really happening?

Ambassador Mike Huckabee: This very morning, I had a visit from someone who returned yesterday from three days in Gaza. He firsthand went and saw the [Gaza Humanitarian Foundation] feeding sites, talked to people, not only from the staffing and the distribution, but he talked to people in Gaza … He came to the conclusion, first of all, that absolute lies that are being told, not only about GHF and what they’re doing, but are also being told about the deprivation. 

There are clearly people who need food and medicine. That’s not a doubt. But the biggest reason that people are not getting the food and medicine they need is that Hamas is doing its best to cause the people to suffer. They want to get the photos of the most disastrous consequences possible. 

The photos that I also saw, which were very disturbing but also revealing, [were of] hundreds and hundreds of pallets of food that are sitting out in the sun ready to be distributed, but the U.N. won’t move them. Hundreds of trucks filled with food and medicine, and the U.N. claims that they’re trying to help. No, they’re not. They are as much a part of the problem, if not the biggest part of the problem there is. And this food could be distributed right now, but the U.N. isn’t doing it. The NGOs aren’t doing it, and the World Food Program isn’t doing it, because they just drop it off. Then, basically, they’re waiting on Hamas to come and steal it so [the group] can turn around and sell it to the people that ought to be getting it for free. It is a scam. 

It is a disgrace and an outrage that the story that is being told is that GHF is killing people, and they’re not. They haven’t fired one round at anybody … It’s simply not true. It is sadly being reported sometimes because Hamas will release a news story and the Associated Press, CNN, The Washington Post, will gobble it up. They’ll print it without any verification … That’s what Israel is up against. It’s what the U.S. is up against every single day, with really, really horrible misinformation about what’s happening.

JI: Why do you think countries that purport to be friends of Israel and the U.S. — 26 countries signed a letter to Israel about the aid including the U.K., Canada, France — are believing Hamas?

MH: It’s hard for me to understand why they would do that without doing a little better job of verifying the information. If they would, they would have a totally different picture…

The other day there was the story of the 26 countries that came out and did this condemnation of Israel. If you read the news release, it’s all about Israel, all about what they haven’t done right, and a lot of the things in the story are just untrue. The biggest just shocker of it all, was that there was one brief mention of the fact that the war was started by Hamas on Oct. 7, as a passing reference, without really giving the qualifier that this war should have ended on Oct. the 8th, but Hamas doesn’t want it to, and they’re doing everything they can to make sure it doesn’t…

I’ve been shocked that very few other nations and even nonprofit organizations have been willing to stand up and help in the distribution of the food through the GHF, because the whole model was based on … No. 1, get food to people who are hungry, and No. 2, do it in a way that it doesn’t get stolen by Hamas. That’s been accomplished; over 85 million meals now have been served and continues to operate at almost 2 million meals a day.

It hasn’t been perfect. There have been hiccups, but [that happens] when you have that many people coming to a site and trying to get that much food out to people. Heck, you can go to Walmart on Christmas Eve … and it’s bedlam. Sometimes you stand in the long line and sometimes they ran out of what you wanted, but that’s true in the most efficient retailer on the planet. This is being done out in the middle of a desert for heaven’s sakes, and has really worked pretty doggone good. 

Well, we just want people to get the truth and to get the food, but we don’t want Hamas to steal it, which is what they have done through the U.N. model, which has been an absolute disaster. 

Maybe the U.N. is more interested in preserving the machinery of the U.N. than they are in feeding people. And I know that sounds harsh, but I absolutely am on the record for that, because when I see just thousands of pallets, thousands of tons of food sitting that could be consumed by people, it’s sitting there because the U.N. doesn’t really have any incentive to go out and actually get it to the people. They can just present that ‘We carried X number of trucks in.’ How many people got fed from that? Bigger question is, how many of those trucks or pallets are going to be looted by Hamas, who will then sell it to the people that are hungry?

JI: Do you think that there’s something that Israel needs to be doing differently at this point with regards to humanitarian aid? 

MH: Get their message out more strongly. You know, they have a good message about what they’re trying to do. They’re trying to protect the people who are delivering the food. Food isn’t being delivered by the IDF. That was one of the key points; they didn’t want the military giving the food, because there’s a distrust, and we understand that, so we brought our own contractors in. But you can’t give food away in a war zone without having the military who’s prosecuting the war involved, at least on the perimeter, so that they can make sure that there’s a secure route in and a secure route out … Israel has a much better story to tell than the world is hearing, and it’s very frustrating, especially when so-called allies are attacking Israel and not even really mentioning Hamas. 

JI: Hamas is degraded, but it’s still a force in Gaza and it’s still holding hostages. We’re talking a day after Hamas essentially rejected the temporary ceasefire and hostage deal being offered. But there was talk before that of turning the proposed 60-day ceasefire into a permanent one, even though Hamas has not been eliminated. How does the Trump administration see things going forward?

MH: The president has said repeatedly, without any equivocation, that Hamas can’t stay, and they can’t govern. … And frankly, it’s the right message. They can’t stay, they can’t govern. It would be like saying the Nazis can stay in Germany after World War II and have a hand in governing the future; nobody would have thought that was a good idea … Hamas built tunnels bigger than the London Underground so they could kill Jews. It’s a horrible, horrible story, and people need to put the blame where it falls, and that’s on Hamas and not on Israel.

JI: The negotiations seem to have reached a dead end. What more do you think that could be done to get the hostages home?

MH: If everyone in the world puts enough pressure on Hamas and says it won’t be just Israel and the U.S. coming to get you, it’ll be the whole world coming to get you. It’s like in the movie “Tombstone” and Wyatt Earp says, “I’m coming for you, and hell is coming with me.” That’s the kind of message that we need to say. The problem is Israel has made concession after concession. They have made offer after offer. The U.S. has intervened time and time and time again and gone to, I don’t know how many different talks, meetings and negotiations, but every time you will hear “we’re close,” we think we’re about there, and then Hamas changes all the conditions at the last minute, or just outright rejects them…

[On Wednesday, Hamas] went back to a position that [it] had abandoned in the past. So when there’s not a good faith negotiation going on, and then you have to ask: Whoever thought there was going to be? These are the people that murdered pregnant women in front of their families, and that raped women in front of their children. When people do things like that, these aren’t people you sit down and work out a negotiation to buy a home from or sell a car to. So, while everybody has hopes that this is going to end and soon, all the hostages returned and Hamas is gone, it’s up to Hamas whether or not that’s going to happen.

JI: Do you think the letter from the 26 countries emboldened Hamas to harden its position? 

MH: That’s the real tragedy. It’s not just that they’re condemning Israel, but by condemning Israel and barely mentioning Hamas, they’re empowering Hamas to just keep hanging on. 

There needs to be a collective across-the-whole-globe condemnation of Hamas with this clarity of message that what they’ve done is evil and holding hostages for nearly 700 days can’t be justified under any conditions … The families who have been put through a living hell over this deserve to be relieved. 

JI: What about the Qataris? Do you think that the U.S. is doing enough to put pressure on them? It seems that they are doing everything they can to try to stay on President Trump’s good side.

MH: One thing they could do — if that’s their goal, to be in the president’s good graces — would be to be key in bringing this to a resolve. And I hope they do. I hope they use every influence they have, and they truly have some. I mean, they’ve been housing some of the Hamas leaders since all of this started. And Al Jazeera, which is one of the most despicable propaganda machines in the world, is financed by them…

I’ll leave [the details] to the headquarters in Washington, but nobody would be disappointed if [Qatar] did more.

JI: There’s also President Trump’s plan to to turn Gaza into a ‘riviera.’ There has not been a lot of progress. Where do things stand? Is the U.S. asking any countries to accept Gazan refugees?

MH: I think it’s more of an Israeli mission to make that decision. What the president has said is U.S. policy is that people who are there who want to leave should be free to leave. They shouldn’t be forced to leave and face expulsion, but neither should people be forced to stay. It ought to be an individual, personal decision on the part of the people who are right now living in what is anything less than an ideal circumstance. 

JI: So you’re saying the U.S. is not involved in trying to find countries that will accept them?

MH: It’s not something that has been shared with me as to being an immediate issue. I know that there is definitely talk that this would be a great opportunity for people to have a fresh start that has been discussed at both the U.S. and Israeli levels. And I think everybody thinks that would be a wonderful thing if people had that option, and if countries were willing to say, “Hey, we’d love to have people come and be part of our labor force and immigrate to our country.” But I don’t know that there’s any specific plans that the U.S. has made on that…

The U.S. took a position several months ago when the president said … ’We’ll just take [Gaza] over. Immediately, within 24 hours, you had four or five Gulf countries saying, “Oh no, no, we want a piece of it. We’ll help govern.” People who don’t understand the president and how he works probably didn’t get it that the whole point was to force people to pony up and get in the game, and that’s exactly what happened…

What he does want to do is to see that these people have a chance for a better life, economically, and just from a security standpoint, they’re never going to have it under Hamas … Who runs [Gaza in the future]? Good question. Maybe it comes to the place where there’s a number of Middle Eastern countries that come and really make a partnership and a coalition and invest the money to rebuild it and give people an opportunity to have a decent and deserved life.

JI: There have been terrible clashes and massacres of the Druze minority in Syria in recent weeks. It seems from U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack, who’s also envoy to Syria, that the Trump administration still wants to give new Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa a chance. Is that causing friction with Israel, which tried to stop the violence against the Druze with airstrikes?

MH: Right now, the ceasefire has held for two days, which doesn’t seem like a lot of time, but in Syrian time, that’s a lot of time. There were some horrific things that have happened, especially to the Druze. The Israelis were very bold in standing up for the Druze and showing their support … literally going in and trying to help them with supplies and standing up assistance in every way they could. I thought it was an admirable thing, because the Druze have stood with Israel.

The head sheikh of the Druze community [Muwaffaq Tarif] was sitting right where you are on Tuesday afternoon. We had a very candid meeting about the situation they faced. They’re deeply grateful for Israel’s support. It did mean a lot to them that they weren’t just left hanging…

I’ve had several conversations with Ambassador Barrack over the course of the last week and before. It’s a fragile situation. Nobody’s going to deny that al-Sharaa is not exactly the person the U.S. would have picked … but he’s who we got.

What the president [Trump] did was, I think, bold, but also brilliant, at a time when al-Sharaa realized he doesn’t have the military or economic capacity to make Syria viable. He’s got to find a partner. He’s like the kid that goes to the prom and doesn’t have a date. Somebody’s going to go over there and say, “Would you dance with me?” Do we want it to be Iran, Russia, China? Absolutely not. President Trump comes in and says, “You can dance with me, but if you do, terrorism has to go away.” We can’t have these relationships with bad guys and remilitarize Syria and turn it into another nightmare like Assad. [Al-Sharaa] wisely decided that that was a better partnership than any offer he had. That’s where we are now. 

Everybody has anxieties about where this could go, but we also are in a place where it could turn the corner, go very well, and we could see normalization between Syria and Israel, and that would have looked really unthinkable two years ago.

JI: You don’t think that the last couple weeks have taken a Syria-Israel agreement off the table?

MH: No, I don’t at all. I think it showed some of the challenges that we face. A lot of things happened because of misunderstanding and lack of communication. When [the Syrian military] went south of Damascus with artillery and tanks, it looked like they were getting ready for a military operation. They should have better communicated to the Israelis [and said,] “This is not a threat to you. We’re not moving this equipment in there because we’re going to come across the border.” You know, everybody should have talked to each other better.

JI: But Israel wants that part of Syria, the south, entirely demilitarized. Do you think that’s something that Syria would agree to?

MH: Yes, I do. You want Syria to have some security forces, you’ve got to have that, but they don’t need a full-scale military with an air force and all the others. I think there are regional interests that would help provide a level of security for them that does not require the standing up of a navy and army … The ideal is to help them to become stable economically.

JI: There was reporting after the Israeli strikes in Syria that some people in the Trump administration called Netanyahu a madman and asked, “What country are they going to bomb next?” Does that ring true to you?

MH: I think that people who know don’t talk, and people who talk don’t know … I hate this kind of stuff where a person pretends that he knows something and blabs it out. The president has been very clear, again, without equivocation, that he and [Netanyahu] are very close friends. I saw with my own eyes and was in the room when there was an extraordinary level of camaraderie and cooperation … For all this talk about how there’s this terrible clash and all I would say, look at what is on the record, what is sourced with firsthand source, and dismiss the nonsense that people say … I discount it as somebody who’s trying to be important when they’re not that important.

JI: Still, it seems like there’s a kernel of truth to there being some sort of push and pull within the Trump administration, and even more so within the broader Republican Party, about foreign policy and how to relate to Israel. Do you think this is going to be a problem for Israel? 

MH: I really don’t see that. I mean, are there moments where Israel and the U.S. will disagree? Of course, [it] happens in partnerships, whether you’re in business or in marriage. I’ve been married 51 years. I guarantee you, my wife and I have had disagreements, sometimes, some pretty strong ones. She would tell you that she’s right and I’m always wrong. That’s part of the way we’ve stayed together 51 years. But it doesn’t mean that you don’t love each other and that you don’t stay together. 

It’s part of the process of being adults that you hash out your differences. So I don’t have any doubts that there are times they may have a conversation that they’re not on the same page …  I haven’t been privy to those, but that would be normal. 

JI: We’re coming out of a complicated week for Israel and Christians. There was an issue with work visas for people working in Christian organizations. How is that going to work going forward?

MH: It really wasn’t a big issue, except within that one area. And fortunately, we have it all resolved, and everybody’s happy … Really the new arrangement is the old arrangement, and that was that the process through which people would be granted visas coming to teach or to be a part of a Christian organization. It’s been handled the same exact way for decades, and we were very clear. We didn’t want anything new … Just do what you’ve been doing. It’s been working very well. There have been no problems with it. And then all of a sudden, in January, before I came, apparently there was a change in the way it was processed, and it was creating an enormous level of bureaucratic problems for the organizations, and they were frustrated, and it involved deep investigations and a lot of paperwork and cost…

So we had a meeting with a minister. Thought it went well and thought everything was resolved. The problem continued to happen. So if we would call with one specific case, it would get resolved, but then another one would come up, and then another … So I sent a letter. It was terse, but I felt it was an honest assessment of, look, we thought this was fixed. It isn’t. Here’s the problems it’s causing. We did not leak the letter, but it got leaked. I don’t know who sent it out, but that’s beyond the point. It resulted in immediate attention…

The point that I was making was that at a time when Israel needs all the friends it can get, and some of the best friends you have, the evangelical Christians in America, you really don’t want to tell them they’re not welcome, and that’s the message that’s being sent … We have to get it fixed. So we did, so everybody’s happy.

JI: By unfortunate coincidence, this was the same week where an IDF shell hit the church in Gaza, and then there was a fire near a church in Taybeh that Palestinians blamed on Israel.

MH: I think that it was unfortunate they were all happening at the same time, but they’re totally separate and not tied together in any way. The State of Israel didn’t do anything in Taybeh. And you know, [the shelling of] the Church of the Holy Family was a horrible thing, but to their credit, [the IDF] admitted that it was a terrible mistake and they apologized for it. It’s not something you would ever want to see happen. But Israel doesn’t get enough credit for owning up to a mistake when they make one and trying to make it right, and I appreciate that about them.

JI: You hear these voices of people saying Israel is going to lose Christian support. And there are polls that show young evangelical support for Israel in decline. Do you think that Israel needs to be doing something differently or reaching out more?

MH: I think there is some lessening of the support … There are several things at play. One is the advent of a lot of Middle Eastern studies on college and university campuses, highly funded by Gulf states that are pouring billions of dollars into these programs, and they’re somewhat indoctrinating influences … That’s part of it, and a lot of it is that maybe there’s just not a good historical context for some of the younger people that they don’t know. 

I’m convinced that one of the most important things people can do is to come to Israel and see for themselves. Don’t even take my word for it. You just come. That’s what I’ve been doing for 52 years. When I tell people my views of Israel, I tell them, look, it’s not something I read in a book or watched on a documentary or listened to some people give lectures. I’ve been coming here for 52 consecutive years. I’ve watched this country develop and grow and change … which I think had more credibility than just “I was at a march somewhere in Palo Alto [Calif.] and carried a sign for a few blocks. That’s something I hope happens more and more. The Jewish community has Birthright that brings a lot of young Jewish people here. There’s now an organization called Passages, and it’s bringing a lot of Christian kids here. I think that’s the most wonderful thing that can happen.

JI: Is the Trump administration still trying to negotiate with Iran? The Europeans said they will snap back sanctions if there isn’t an agreement by the end of August, and an Israeli official recently said the U.S. was hoping they would do it sooner. Is that true?

MH: I don’t know whether there’s any U.S. policy on hoping it would come sooner. Frankly, I’m just glad to hear the Europeans stand up for something that is right for a change. You know, they’ve been beating up Israel instead of Hamas for a while, and it’s kind of refreshing for them to realize that Iran’s playing games, and they’re still beating their chest and making threats that make no sense in light of what they’ve just been through.

In “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” King Arthur cuts off [the Black Knight’s] arm, then his other arm, and then his legs. And the guy says, “‘tis but a scratch.” I mean, that’s Iran. They got their arms and legs cut off, and they’re hollering, “Just a scratch, you didn’t get me’” … And you just want to say to them, “Did you not get the message? You just got your brains kicked out, and this would be a good time for you to experience a little humility and recognize you’re never going to have a nuclear weapon. Everybody’s telling you this, even Europe is telling you this. They’re about to put sanctions on you because of it, and this might be a good time to reassess your aspirations to be a nuclear-weapon country.” So I’m grateful that Europe is talking this way, and if they do it in August, wonderful. That’s better than not doing it at all. And maybe — probably not, but maybe — Iran comes to [its] senses.

JI: You recently made an appearance in the courtroom for [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s trial with a Bugs Bunny doll. Was that something that the president wanted you to do, or was that your idea? Some Israelis are concerned that the country or the judiciary could be penalized over Netanyahu’s trial the way President Trump threatened to raise tariffs on Brazil over the corruption trials against former President Jair Bolsonaro. Is that a possibility?

MH: I have not heard anything like that … [Trump] had two very significant, substantial statements about the trials here because he himself has been put through an extraordinary level of lawfare. It’s just been shocking as an American citizen, to watch this, where they try to file charges, both civil and criminal, anywhere they can find a court that’ll take him, New York, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Florida…

I think what he’s trying to say is that if you’re going to want to change the government, do it at the ballot box. You don’t do it in the courtroom. What he saw happening to the prime minister here, he saw as a mirror reflection of what was going on there [in the U.S.]. And it’s not so much that it’s an accusation about the courts or their integrity here, but the act of prosecuting and the tenacity of prosecution while a prime minister is going through the middle of two wars and trying to get hostages released. 

As far as my being there, I hadn’t seen a circus in a long time, so I decided to go.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, voted with nearly all committee Republicans to advance former National Security Advisor Mike Waltz’s nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations to move to the consideration of the full Senate.

Waltz’s nomination had otherwise been blocked due to concerns from Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) that had left the committee vote deadlocked as of Wednesday, which would prevent the nomination from moving forward. 

Shaheen said in a statement that she maintains disagreements and concerns with Waltz, alluding to his involvement in the discussion of military plans on the unsecured messaging app Signal, but described him as a more positive voice for continued U.S. global engagement than other figures in the administration and potential alternatives.

“I recognize that Mr. Waltz represents a moderating force with a distinguished record of military service and an extensive background in national security policymaking,” Shaheen said in a statement. “Further, Mike Waltz did not represent himself to me as someone who wants to retreat from the world—and this is a quality I value in nominees.”

“Simply put, in a Situation Room filled with people like Vice President [J.D.] Vance and Under Secretary [of Defense Elbridge] Colby, who want to retreat from the world, and like Secretary [of Defense Pete] Hegseth, I think we’re better off having someone like Mike Waltz present,” Shaheen continued. “That is particularly true when you consider the alternatives to Mr. Waltz as a nominee.”

Vance and Colby are seen as leading isolationist voices in the administration, and Democrats generally view Hegseth as unqualified for his role.

“As Mr. Waltz knows, I intend to hold him accountable through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s oversight role in the months and years ahead,” Shaheen said.

Shaheen, in her statement, also said she “welcome[s] the Administration’s commitment to distribute $75 million of lifesaving assistance” — funding for Haiti and Nigeria which multiple reports have indicated was effectively a condition of her support for Waltz’s nomination.

Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), the top Republican on the committee, told Jewish Insider that the aid package was not directly tied to Shaheen’s support for Waltz.

“It’s accurate that we had lengthy discussions [about the aid funding] but there’s no quid-pro-quo,” Risch said. “You have discussions on a lot of issues. When something gets hung up like that, everybody airs issues that they have, and that’s how it got there.”

Asked by JI whether the humanitarian aid was a condition of her vote, Shaheen responded, “I appreciated the negotiations.”

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is delaying efforts to confirm former National Security Advisor Mike Waltz as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations over Waltz’s previous support for a continued U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan.

Paul told Jewish Insider on Wednesday he would not vote to support moving Waltz out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee with a favorable recommendation, as is generally a standard part of the confirmation process. Paul’s concerns forced the committee to delay a vote, scheduled for Wednesday, to advance Waltz’s nomination.

Paul said he would vote to advance the nomination with a neutral recommendation, which would allow Waltz to move forward for consideration from the full Senate but would be an unusual black mark on Waltz’s nomination. Unless Waltz picks up Democratic support, the committee vote would be tied — preventing the nomination from moving forward — without Paul’s backing.

He explained to JI that his concerns about Waltz revolve around the former national security advisor’s previous support for an amendment in the House, led by former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), that would have forced the first Trump administration to maintain a troop presence in Afghanistan unless Congress approved a full withdrawal.

“I think that has constitutional problems and really goes against a lot of things that people believe, that on initiation of war, I think the president should be limited and [Congress] initiate[s] war,” Paul said. “Once a war is executed, I don’t think Congress has any business telling President [Donald] Trump … ‘You can’t have less than 8,000 troops in Afghanistan.’”

“This was led by Liz Cheney. It was a terrible thing and very anti-Trump and so I didn’t like that,” Paul said.

He also made reference to other comments he said Waltz had made about a long-term U.S. presence in Iraq or Afghanistan, which Paul said he found unacceptable.

The Kentucky senator questioned Waltz about his support for the Cheney amendment during his confirmation hearing last week.

Senate Republicans could attempt to discharge Waltz’s nomination from the committee by a full vote of the Senate, but such a process would be time-consuming and has rarely succeeded.

Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said during the committee’s meeting on Wednesday morning that a senator had requested the vote on Waltz be delayed until the committee’s next meeting, and placed the committee’s business meeting into recess “until further notice, as we consider Mr. Waltz further.”

The Senate has one week left in session before its monthlong August recess, though Trump has urged Senate leadership to cancel the break to continue processing nominations.

Good Monday morning.

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on the resolution of tensions between U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and Israel’s Interior Ministry over visa hurdles faced by Christian Zionists, and talk to Sen. Mark Warner about the American strikes last month targeting Iran’s nuclear program. We preview the House Financial Services Committee‘s upcoming vote on Rep. Mike Lawler‘s legislation conditioning the repeal of Syria sanctions, and cover Columbia University’s announcement that its faculty-run University Senate will no longer have oversight over student disciplinary procedures. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Jacob Frey, Adam Katz and Yoav Segev.

What We’re Watching

• The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations kicks off a three-day mission to Israel today.
• Oral arguments in Harvard‘s lawsuit against the Trump administration‘s freezing of approximately $3 billion in federal funds begin today in Boston.
• Lawmakers in Texas return to Austin today for the start of a special legislative session that will take up, among other issues, potential statewide redistricting that could potentially give Republicans an additional five House seats but may make other safe GOP districts more competitive.
• Israel launched fresh drone strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen earlier today, days after a ballistic missile fired by the Iran-backed terror group triggered sirens across central Israel.
• We’re keeping an eye on Iranian nuclear talks, following an announcement this morning from Iran’s Foreign Ministry that Tehran’s deputy foreign minister will meet this Friday in Istanbul with his counterparts from the U.K., France and Germany to continue negotiations. Over the weekend, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with senior Iranian official Ali Larijani.

What You Should Know

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

A newly released CNN poll, conducted this month, illustrates the resilience of a hawkish DNA within the Republican Party and among its voters even amid the rise of an isolationist strain that has sought to gain influence in the GOP during President Donald Trump’s second term.

The poll asked respondents: “Do you think the United States should or should not take the leading role among all other countries in the world in trying to solve international problems?” Overall, 43% took the more active approach, while 56% took a more isolationist view.

Republicans, however, remained the strongest advocates of a muscular American role in world affairs, with 52% supporting America taking a leading role, with 47% opposed. By contrast, just 42% of Democrats and 39% of independents shared the more hawkish worldview.

Notably, the shift in more isolationist sentiment was almost entirely driven by Democrats and independents since the last CNN survey in March, which found majority support for significant American global engagement. In the March survey, a 57% majority of Democrats preferred more American involvement in the world, a number that dropped 15 points in the last four months. The Republican share of those preferring American engagement remained steady at 52%.

The results from the CNN polls suggest there’s a more committed core of Republican-voting hawks that is more resilient than the shifting political winds, whereas the Democratic foreign policy worldview appears more dependent on partisanship and what’s happening in the news at the time.

Read the rest of ‘What You Should Know’ here.

christian controversy

Netanyahu’s office resolves high-profile visa issue for American Christian groups

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office resolved a dispute between U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and Israeli Interior Minister Moshe Arbel over the denial of visas to workers and volunteers for several evangelical Christian organizations, two sources involved in the matter told Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov on Sunday. Huckabee sent a letter to Arbel last Wednesday, expressing “great distress” and “profound disappointment” that after the two met to discuss the matter earlier this year, the Interior Ministry’s visa department continued to conduct investigations into American and other evangelical organizations seeking visas for their workers.

Solution found: “A solution has been reached to the satisfaction of all parties. The evangelical Christian organizations active in Israel, which represent the vast majority of Zionists in the world today, will receive all of the visas they need through a streamlined and efficient application process,” Calev Myers, the attorney for the organizations told JI on Monday. Hours before the issue was resolved, a source in the Prime Minister’s Office told JI, “this is something that we consider to be of urgent importance. We have every intention of solving this problem very quickly … It is being handled with the proper sensitivity between the Prime Minister’s Office and the embassy.” 

Read the full story here.

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ON THE HILL

House committee to vote on Lawler bill modifying Syria sanctions

The House Financial Services Committee is set to consider legislation by Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) this week that aims to create oversight and set conditions for lifting sanctions on Syria, but stops short of full repeal of the 2019 Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act sanctions bill that other lawmakers are pushing on a bipartisan basis, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Why it matters: That the House is moving forward with Lawler’s legislation, which sets conditions for waiving Caesar Act sanctions, rather than the bipartisan Caesar Act repeal effort may indicate a level of continued skepticism from some House members about the prospect of full sanctions relief for the new Syrian government pushed by the Trump administration.

Read the full story here.

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REVERSING COURSE

National Education Association rejects ADL boycott proposal

The National Education Association, the largest teachers’ union in the country, announced on Friday that it would not cut ties with the Anti-Defamation League, declining to implement a contentious resolution approved by its governing body earlier this month that sought to target the Jewish civil rights organization, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports. 

What is said: “After consideration, it was determined that this proposal would not further NEA’s commitment to academic freedom, our membership or our goals,” the union’s board of directors said in a statement. The decision came nearly two weeks after the measure was adopted by the NEA’s representative assembly, its annual leadership gathering that drew more than 6,000 union delegates. “There is no doubt that antisemitism is on the rise. Without equivocation, NEA stands strongly against antisemitism. We always have and we always will,” the NEA’s board wrote. “In this time of division, fighting antisemitism, anti-Arab racism, and other forms of discrimination will take more resources, not fewer. We are ready.”

Read the full story here.

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WORDS WITH WARNER

Sen. Mark Warner: U.S. strikes on Iran were a ‘success,’ but what happens next is critical

Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) told Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod on Friday that he’s inclined to view the Trump administration’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities as a “success,” if negotiations with Tehran resume and barring substantial future retaliation from Iran.

What he’s saying: “I will acknowledge the successfulness of the Israeli attacks and how back-foot the regime was. The fact that they didn’t launch the thousands of missiles,” Warner told JI on the sidelines of the Aspen Security Forum. “I was concerned about an attack that didn’t bring Congress along. And I do think there was a huge process foul when the Gang of Eight wasn’t notified and the Republicans [were] — Trump[’s first administration] never did that — but I have never contested the success. … If the current status quo is the same a year from now and it actually leads towards further negotiation — success.”

Read the full interview here.

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CREDIT WHERE DUE

Sen. Chris Coons: U.S. strikes on Iran could ultimately be a positive step

Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) said on Friday that the U.S. strikes on Iran could ultimately produce a positive outcome, a softening of the Delaware senator’s previous skepticism, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports from the Aspen Security Forum.

What he said: “The strike on Iran is one that I disagreed with because of the process, the lack of consultation with Congress, the partisan way that Republicans were notified at the most senior levels [and] Democrats were not,” Coons said at the conference. He said he also had not expected that the administration would be able to avoid significant Iranian retaliation and an escalating conflict. “I frankly, did not believe that we would end up in the period we seem to be in where a counter-strike by Iran against American soldiers and interests has not yet come,” Coons continued.

Also speaking at the forum: Retired Gen. David Petraeus, the former director of the CIA and head of U.S. Central Command, said on Friday that, in the post Oct. 7, 2023, environment, Israel will no longer tolerate threats to its security throughout the region, including a resumption of Iran’s nuclear program.

Read the full story here.

Differing worldview: Former National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan suggested at the Aspen Security Forum on Friday that the U.S. strikes on Iran had not been necessary and didn’t accomplish the fundamental goal of permanently stopping Iran’s nuclear program.

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WINDS OF CHANGE

Columbia moves student disciplinary authority out of University Senate

In a move called for by pro-Israel students at Columbia University, the school announced on Friday that disciplinary action and rules surrounding student protests would be moved out of the purview of the faculty-run University Senate and into the provost’s office, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.

Student reaction: “This is the most encouraging and commendable action taken by Columbia’s administration to address the systemic problems within the university since [the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks],” Noa Fay, a graduate student entering her last year in Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, told JI. “Revoking the University Senate’s power over disciplinary and rule-making procedures has been top of the institutional reform list for many Columbians who wish to see our university restored to order and excellence.”

Read the full story here.

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Worthy Reads

The Trump Whisperer: The New Yorker’s Antonia Hitchens profiles Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, looking at the former Cantor Fitzgerald CEO’s yearslong friendship with President Donald Trump. “Lutnick and President Donald Trump speak on the phone most nights, at around one in the morning, just after Lutnick gets in bed. They talk about ‘real stuff,’ like Canadian steel tariffs, Lutnick told me, and also about ‘nothing,’ which he summarized as ‘sporting events, people, who’d you have dinner with, what was this guy like, can you believe what this guy did, what’s the TV like, I saw this on TV, what’d you think of what this guy said on TV, what did you think about my press conference, how about this Truth?’ Of course, Lutnick said, ‘Trump has other people he calls late at night.’ But does he have other people he always calls?” [NewYorker]

Confronting Cambridge: The Atlantic’s Franklin Foer does a deep dive into the tenure of Harvard President Alan Garber, who has handled much of the fallout from the school’s handling of post-Oct. 7 campus antisemitism as well as Harvard’s legal battles with the Trump administration. “Even as Harvard sits on the receiving end of vitriolic attacks from the right, Garber has turned inward — willing to engage with Harvard’s harshest critics and to admit that even bad-faith attacks sometimes land on uncomfortable truths. He’s treated the university’s crisis as an opportunity, leveraging the looming threat of Trump to make changes that would have been politically impossible in less ominous times. The leader of Harvard, bane of MAGA, agrees with much of the underlying substance of the MAGA critique of higher education, at least when stripped of its rhetorical froth and fury. He knows that elite higher education is suffering a crisis of legitimacy, one that is, in no small measure, of its own making, because it gives fodder to those who caricature it as arrogant and privileged.” [TheAtlantic]

The Gaza Debate: In eJewishPhilanthropy, Michael Berenbaum and Menachem Z. Rosensaft respond to genocide scholar Omer Bartov’s recent New York Times op-ed alleging Israel is engaging in genocide. “We are not arguing that this war has always been waged appropriately or that it has been waged proportionally. Nor do we suggest that Israel or any other country involved in warfare cannot be accused of or should not be held accountable for other alleged violations of international law, including crimes against humanity, war crimes and even ethnic cleansing. But those are separate questions from whether a genocide is being committed; and unless such alleged violations of international law satisfy the elements, including specific intent, as defined in Article II of the Convention, they do not constitute genocide.” [eJP]

Cowed on Campus: In Tablet, Eric Kaufmann looks at recent survey data from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression that indicates shifts in the behaviors of Jewish college students as campus climates become increasingly politicized in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks and ensuing war in Gaza. “A closer look at the 2024 data shows that the pro-Palestinian tent encampments had a big impact: Before they went up on April 17, 28% of Ivy League Jewish students self-censored. Afterward, 40% did. Across all institutions in the FIRE data, statistical analysis shows that the encampments increased Jewish self-censorship while reducing it for conservatives. Conservative speech has for years been the least free of any major demographic, but Jews have now converged with them. In the Ivy League, Jews now self-censor more than conservatives do.” [Tablet]

Word on the Street

Unnamed Trump administration officials are reportedly angry with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s recent actions, telling Axios that the prime minister has “acted like a madman” who “bombs everything all the time”; the White House officials expressed concerns that Netanyahu’s actions could “undermine” President Donald Trump’s efforts in the region…

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) met for an hour on Friday with New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani but did not issue an endorsement for the candidate; a spokesperson for Jeffries said the two had a “constructive, candid and community-centered” conversation that also included “a variety of other important issues, including public safety, rising antisemitism, gentrification and the importance of taking back the House in 2026”…

Reps. Mark Alford (R-MO), Don Davis (D-NC), Tony Gonzales (R-TX), John Carter (R-TX), Sam Graves (R-MO) and Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ) introduced a resolution congratulating the fighter and bomber wings involved in the U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities…

Sens. John Curtis (R-UT) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV) introduced a resolution commemorating the anniversaries of the bombings of the Israeli Embassy in Argentina and the Buenos Aires AMIA Jewish community center; in the House, Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL), Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) and Tony Gonzales (R-TX) introduced a resolution condemning the AMIA bombing…

Reps. Jefferson Shreve (R-IN), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Bill Huizenga (R-MI), Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL) and Mark Messmer (R-IN) introduced a bill requiring the administration to provide a strategy to counter Iran and Hezbollah’s influence in Latin America…

Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano, who in 2022 lost to Gov. Josh Shapiro in the commonwealth’s gubernatorial race, teased a potential rematch, posting different logos for a “Doug Mastriano for Governor” campaign…

Minnesota’s statewide Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party endorsed state Sen. Omar Fateh, a democratic socialist, over incumbent Mayor Jacob Frey…

The Wall Street Journal spotlights the efforts of Robert Kraft’s Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, under the leadership of Adam Katz, to use analytics to identify digital trends in antisemitism, craft countermessaging and share data with social media platforms and universities…

Harvard Business School graduate Yoav Segev filed a lawsuit against the university and its police department, alleging that both failed to protect him from being assaulted by anti-Israel campus activists and that school officials obstructed an investigation into the incident…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought medical attention over the weekend after falling ill from eating spoiled food; the prime minister will work from home until Tuesday while he recovers…

Israel, working with the U.S., reportedly delivered aid to the Syrian Druze city of Sweida as a ceasefire reached late last week appeared to hold; more than 1,100 are believed to be dead in the sectarian violence that drew in Syrian government forces…

Israel will not renew the visa of Jonathan Whittall, the head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the West Bank and Gaza, citing his “biased and hostile conduct against Israel”…

Hamas officials in Gaza claimed at least 85 people were killed trying to access humanitarian aid near the Zikim border crossing; the IDF, which said it fired “warning shots” to remove an “immediate threat,” disputed the number, saying the “reported number of casualties does not align with the existing information”…

The Wall Street Journal looks at the logistical and operational challenges facing the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation amid increasing concerns over humanitarian aid distribution in the enclave…

Senior Christian leaders from Jerusalem, including Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, visited the sole Catholic church in Gaza, which was damaged by an Israeli strike last week that also killed three people…

Brig. Gen. (res.) Giora Even Epstein, the most decorated Israeli Air Force fighter pilot in the country’s history, died at 87…

Pic of the Day

Israeli President Isaac Herzog (right) received the credentials of Polish Ambassador to Israel Maciej Hunia. Hunia’s arrival marks the first time in four years that Warsaw has had an ambassador posted to Israel. In addition to Hunia, Herzog also received the credentials of Malta’s new envoy to Israel, Ambassador Claude Bonello.

Birthdays

Actress and producer, Alysia Reiner turns 55… 

Laureate of the 1992 Nobel Prize in chemistry, Rudolph A. Marcus turns 102… President at Admar Group, Henry Dean Ostberg turns 97… Retired CEO of Sony/ATV, a large music publishing firm, he is a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Martin Bandier turns 84… Professor emeritus in the Department of Physics at Bar-Ilan University, he won the Israel Prize in 2018, Shlomo Havlin turns 83… Director of the Center for the Political Future at USC, Robert Shrum turns 82… Criminal defense attorney, known for representing many politicians, celebrities and organized crime defendants, Benjamin Brafman turns 77… Former member of the U.K.’s House of Commons, now in the House of Lords, Baroness Susan Veronica Kramer turns 75… U.S. senator (R-WY), John Barrasso turns 73… Chairman and CEO at Quantitative Financial Strategies, Sanford “Sandy” Jay Grossman turns 72… Endocrinologist and professor at Columbia University’s medical school, she is an honorary president of NYC’s Central Synagogue, Shonni Joy Silverberg, MD… Professor at Columbia Law School and daughter of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Jane Carol Ginsburg turns 70… Brooklyn resident, Irene Ostrovsky… Comedian and actor, best known for his five seasons on “Saturday Night Live” ending in 1990, Jon Lovitz turns 68… Former chief rabbi of Moscow, his opposition to the Ukraine war forced him to leave Russia, Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt turns 62… Literary agent at the William Morris Endeavor book department, Eric Matthew Simonoff turns 58… Professor of astronomy at MIT and winner of a 2013 MacArthur genius award, Sara Seager turns 54… Brazilian fashion designer best known for avant-garde designs and eclectic prints, Alexandre Herchcovitch turns 54… CEO of Fanatics, licensed sports merchandise and digital sports platform, Michael G. Rubin turns 53… Founder, president and CEO of Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE) and the Electrification Coalition, Raphael “Robbie” Diamond… Rabbi of Congregation Bais Naftali in Los Angeles, his YouTube channel has over 4.6 million views, Rabbi Yoel Gold… Online media personality and director of product management at Electronic Arts (EA) in Vancouver, British Columbia, Veronica Belmont turns 43… CEO of Women of Reform Judaism since 2023, Rabbi Liz P.G. Hirsch… Clinical social worker, Aniko Gomory-Pink… Entrepreneur and political activist, Chloé Simone Valdary turns 32… Policy advisor at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, Zachary A. Marshall… Recruiter at Tines, Rachel Elizabeth Nieves… Attorney in Madrid and secretary general of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain until 2021, Elias Cohen…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office resolved a dispute between U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and Israeli Interior Minister Moshe Arbel over the denial of visas to workers and volunteers for several evangelical Christian organizations, two sources involved in the matter told Jewish Insider on Sunday.

“A solution has been reached to the satisfaction of all parties. The Evangelical Christian organizations active in Israel, which represent the vast majority of Zionists in the world today, will receive all of the visas they need through a streamlined and efficient application process,” Calev Myers, the attorney for the organizations told JI on Monday.

Hours before the issue was resolved, a source in the Prime Minister’s Office told JI, “this is something that we consider to be of urgent importance. We have every intention of solving this problem very quickly … It is being handled with the proper sensitivity between the Prime Minister’s Office and the embassy.” 

The PMO source said that Israel has “absolutely no interest in undermining the freedom [of workers and volunteers for Christian organizations] coming to Israel … We value evangelicals. It’s very regrettable that there is a problem and we obviously have to fix it.” 

Huckabee sent a letter to Arbel last Wednesday, expressing “great distress” and “profound disappointment” that after the two met to discuss the matter earlier this year, the Interior Ministry’s visa department continued to conduct investigations into American and other evangelical organizations seeking visas for their workers.

“It would be very unfortunate that our embassy would have to publicly announce throughout the United States that the State of Israel is no longer welcoming Christian organizations … and is instead engaging in harassment and negative treatment towards organizations with long-standing relationships and positive involvement toward Zionism and friendship to the Jewish people and the State of Israel,” Huckabee wrote. 

If the situation continues, Huckabee added, he will instruct the U.S. Embassy’s consular section to treat Israeli citizens in kind.

“Surely this is not the relationship the State of Israel wishes to have with its best partner and friend on the planet,” he wrote.

A source close to Huckabee told JI that the ambassador did not intend for the letter to go public, which it did on Channel 12 news on Thursday evening.

Arbel responded on Thursday that he had committed “to reviewing such applications with the utmost efficiency,” instructed his staff to do so as well earlier this year, and that every specific case raised by Huckabee’s office was addressed “within an exceptionally short timeframe.” The interior minister argued that the specific organizations Huckabee mentioned in his letter were not the ones they had discussed in their meeting earlier this year.

Arbel also said he was surprised by the way Huckabee handled the matter — sending copies of the letter to Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana — which, he said, “deviates from accepting working norms and does not reflect the direct and constructive relationship we have established.” 

Rabbi Pesach Wolicki, executive director of Israel365action, an organization connecting Christians to pro-Israel advocacy, said that this has been a long-standing issue regarding clergy and other workers and long-term volunteers, and not Christian pilgrims coming to Israel for short visits.

Huckabee and attorney Calev Myers met with Arbel about six months ago to work out issues with a specific group of organizations, and Arbel said he would solve it, but the issue remained unresolved, Wolicki explained.

The exchange of letters also came up at a time of increased tensions between Israel and Christians, after what Israel said was an errant tank shell hit the only Catholic church in Gaza and killed three people, and after several incidents of harassment and attacks by extremist settlers against the Christian population of Taybeh in the West Bank.

Huckabee wrote on X on Saturday that “Taybeh is a quiet Palestinian Christian village south of Jerusalem w/ a lot of American citizens that has been vandalized-including fires set at ancient church.  I visited there today. Desecrating a church,mosque or synagogue is a crime against humanity and God.” 

“I work for all American citizens who live in Israel –Jewish, Muslim or Christian. When they are terrorized or victims of crime[s], I will demand those responsible be held accountable [with] real consequences,” the ambassador added. 

Wolicki said that “the timing couldn’t have been worse.”

Israel has laws restricting missionary activity, and the visa issue has been exacerbated by the fact that the Shas party, whose Haredi constituency is especially sensitive to missionizing, has run the Interior Ministry for much of the last 25 years, he added.

“Any situation in which you have noncitizens in the country for the long term, it’s a bureaucratic process, and because of sensitivity about missionizing, this has always been an issue,” Wolicki said, noting that Israel365 has also had problems obtaining visas for Christian employees in the past.

The organizations Huckabee mentioned in his letter, the Baptist Convention of Israel, Christian Missionary Alliance and Assemblies of God are missionary groups, Wolicki said.

“There are official restrictions on missionary activity that, when Christians learn of them — and I say this with a lot of firsthand experience — it really moves them from support for Israel, even from the American level of valuing free speech … but also they feel like, how can you say you respect Christians and you want Christian support but we’re not even allowed to talk about Jesus when we’re there,” Wolicki said.

“Christians don’t think you’re offending anyone when you preach the gospel, and Jews view that as you have a knife and you’re trying to stab them,” he added.

Wolicki argued that the laws against missionary activity are problematic, though he acknowledged that abolishing them would likely be unpopular in Israel.

“Missionaries are active all over Israel anyway. There are Israelis who are active … Anyone concerned about missionary activity, which is a legitimate concern, should know this is not the solution. It causes more harm than good and makes Christians more hostile to the Jewish people,” he said.

Josh Reinstein, director of the Israel Allies Foundation, which promotes faith-based diplomacy, said that he has seen this issue come up repeatedly over the 21 years since the foundation was founded.

“It’s an ongoing issue because they always change the requirements for Bible-believing Christians and their organizations,” Reinstein said. “There are no protections for Evangelicals like the 14 mainline churches [the Israeli Religious Affairs Ministry] recognizes.”

“This needs a solution, but it is definitely not a crisis or a problem of Israel not wanting Christians as the enemies of Israel are making it out to be,” he added.

Reinstein questioned why what he called a minor issue was making bigger news than Christians under attack in Syria. 

“Israel is the only place in the region where Christians grow and thrive, as opposed to in the 22 countries around us,” he said. “People understand the relations bewteen Jews and Christians is so important today…which is why they are trying to make it into a bigger deal than it is. Huckabee is one of the greatest allies and friends Israel has. I don’t think it was his intention to cause a rift.” 

Former U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns said at the Aspen Security Forum on Wednesday that Israel is now in the strongest geopolitical position in its history following the seismic changes throughout the Middle East that have taken place in the past two years.

Burns is a co-chair of the Aspen Security Forum and was a top member of President Joe Biden’s national security team.

“Israel is in such an extraordinary position. … Think about Israel being born, created May 14, 1948, besieged over decades by attacks and enmity from all of its Arab neighbors, now the strongest country in the Middle East,” Burns said as he opened the forum’s second day of events. “Israel’s in the strongest geopolitical position it’s ever been in, after the extraordinary events in Lebanon, in Gaza, in Iran, in Syria over the last two years.”

In his opening remarks at the conference the day prior, Burns said that Iran is “in its weakest strategic position since the Iranian revolution.”

“Consider the impact these turbulent series of events of the last few years have had on Yemen and on poor Lebanon, which is searching for true stability and independence, on the people of Syria. Consider the impact on the people of Gaza and the desperate situation that the people in Gaza are suffering right now,” Burns added.

Former White House National Security Advisor Mike Waltz laid out an aggressive approach to countering anti-Israel sentiment at the United Nations during his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday to be U.S. ambassador to the global body, accusing the organization in his opening statement of “pervasive antisemitism.”

Waltz, a staunch supporter of Israel and an outspoken critic of Iran who was nominated for the U.N. post in May after being removed from his position as national security advisor, said he would seek to block “anti-Israel resolutions” in the General Assembly and would push for the dismantlement of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency over some of its employees’ involvement in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks.

He also voiced support for U.S. sanctions against Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur for Israel and the Palestinian territories, who has faced widespread accusations of espousing antisemitism in her commentary on Israel.

More broadly, Waltz — echoing the “America First” ethos of President Donald Trump — said he would “focus on peacekeeping, not nation-building,” and expressed support for the administration’s plans to slash funding to the U.N., calling for “major reform” to make the organization “great again.”

“The U.S. must ensure that every foreign aid dollar and every contribution to an international organization, particularly the U.N., draws a straight and direct line to a compelling U.S. national interest — one that puts America first, not last,” Waltz said.

Waltz was largely spared of the grilling he had been expected to face from Democrats at the hearing over his widely criticized handling of the use of a nonsecure messaging app to discuss sensitive U.S. attack plans in Yemen last March.

The so-called Signalgate controversy, in which Waltz inadvertently added a journalist to a group chat on the encrypted messaging app Signal while discussing a military operation against the Houthis with top Trump administration officials, was first raised around halfway into the two and a half hour hearing — after several Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee had bypassed the topic in favor of other issues, such as countering China’s global influence.

Still, Waltz strained to defend his misuse of the app, claiming no classified information had been shared and suggesting he had been following Biden-era guidance that recommended the app for end-to-end encrypted chats.

“The use of Signal was not only authorized, it’s still authorized, and highly recommended,” Waltz said at the hearing.

He also said the White House had investigated the matter and no disciplinary action had been taken — while adding that the Defense Department was still conducting a review of the incident. 

“I was hoping to hear from you that you had some sense of regret over sharing what was very sensitive, timely information about a military strike on a commercially available app that’s not, as we both know, the appropriate way to share such critical information,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), who first brought up the Signal controversy, said during the hearing.

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), who issued the most forceful remarks against Waltz, said he had no questions for the nominee, accusing him of lying about his involvement in the Signal debacle and failing to take accountability for his actions while smearing the journalist he had added to the chat.

“Smearing people, attacking folks, singling them out just compounds what I think is disqualifying about you for this position,” he said of the former Florida congressman and Green Beret. “It also, to me, just shows profound cowardice.”

Booker said he would not support Waltz’s nomination.

Despite such opposition, Waltz, who is expected to be confirmed by the GOP-controlled Senate, was otherwise presented with a range of friendlier questions from Republicans on the panel, many of whom expressed concerns about the U.N.’s long-standing hostility toward Israel.

Trump had weighed firing Waltz in the wake of the Signal debacle, but ultimately chose to remove him from his national security post and nominate him to serve at the U.N., where he will be based in New York City rather than the West Wing — far removed from the internecine battles that plagued his brief time in the White House.

Near the end of the hearing, Waltz dismissed a new report that he has continued to receive a White House salary in recent months despite being removed from his role — calling the story “fake news.”

“I was not fired,” Waltz said in response to Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV). “The president never said that, nor did the vice president.”

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Tuesday called on Israel to “aggressively investigate” the death of Saif Musallet, a Palestinian-American man from Florida who was killed by Israeli settlers in the West Bank last Friday. 

In a statement posted to X, Huckabee called the incident a “criminal and terrorist act” and said “there must be accountability.”

Musallet, 20, was attacked by Israeli settlers while visiting his family in Sinjil, a village north of Ramallah. The Palestinian Authority Ministry of Health reported a second man was also shot and killed during the incident. 

Democratic lawmakers in Washington also weighed in on the attack. Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL), a pro-Israel stalwart, said on Tuesday that he was “appalled and heartbroken” by the news, adding he had “repeatedly called on the Israeli government to address the growing number of violent attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank.”

“Israeli authorities must fully investigate this incident and hold the perpetrators to account,” he continued.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) called the “brutal killing” of Musallet “shocking and appalling” and said the Israeli government “must thoroughly investigate this killing and hold any and all settlers responsible.” He called the rise in violence of against Palestinians in the West Bank by Israeli settlers “completely and totally unacceptable.”

Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) wrote of Musallet’s killing, “This totals 5 Americans killed in the West Bank since October 7, 2023 and more than a dozen Palestinians killed by lawless settler violence. It’s hard to understand this lack of accountability by the Netanyahu government as anything other than tacit approval by the state — something that should be treated as abhorrent by all decent people.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday swore in Charles Kushner as the U.S. ambassador to France. 

Kushner, a real estate executive, longtime Jewish philanthropist and father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared, was confirmed in May on a mostly party-line vote, with Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) the only Democrat to support the confirmation. 

In Kushner’s testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he told senators about his parents having immigrated to the U.S. from Belarus, where most of their family died in the Holocaust. 

“My parents loved and appreciated our great country, the land of opportunity, just as I do,” Kushner said. 

In 2020, Trump pardoned Kushner, after the latter served two years in a federal prison for tax evasion and for retaliating against a federal witness. In November, Trump described Kushner as “a tremendous business leader, philanthropist and dealmaker.” 

During Kushner’s Oval Office swearing-in, he was joined by his children and grandchildren, including Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump — a rare White House appearance for the couple, who opted not to take on any official roles in Trump’s second term. Jared Kushner was a top Middle East advisor to Trump in his first term, and his swearing-in came as Trump is considering whether the U.S. should attack Iran’s nuclear program.

Daniel Shapiro, a deputy assistant secretary of defense under the Biden administration, U.S. ambassador to Israel under the Obama administration and senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said in an interview with Jewish Insider on Friday morning that Israel’s strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities would likely halt any further efforts toward a diplomatic solution to Iran’s nuclear program. 

Shapiro also said that major questions ahead for the region will be if and under what circumstances the U.S. would directly join Israeli strikes on Iran, and whether the strikes prompt Iran to attempt to make a sprint to a nuclear bomb.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Jewish Insider: What are your biggest takeaways from these strikes?

Shapiro: These strikes lay bare the depth of Iran’s miscalculation following Oct. 7. Just stack it up: their top proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah, is gone or deeply damaged. The Assad regime has gone. Their own state-to-state attacks against Israel in April and October were pretty ineffective, and then Israel did significant damage in response last October. 

But since the state-to-state taboo has been broken, Israel demonstrated last night that it has full penetration of the Iranian system and the ability to wreak havoc across the system. Iran really has never looked weaker, and its ability to respond meaningfully is going to be tested. 

So far, they haven’t mustered a very effective response. I’m sure they will. They will continue to respond, but the first wave of 100 or so UAVs was not very effective. 

Now the story doesn’t end here. Israel’s already conducting additional attacks. Iran is going to be very motivated to try to sprint to a nuclear breakout at one of their hardened underground facilities. And the United States, I’m sure, is going to assist Israel with defense against any retaliation. 

But the prospect of a diplomatic resolution that President Trump very much wanted, that would end Iranian enrichment, I think, is pretty much dead, and it’s more likely that he’ll be faced with a decision on whether to use the U.S. capabilities to destroy Iran’s underground nuclear facilities and to prevent an Iranian nuclear weapon. 

So that’s a big decision that may be still ahead, and could be the type of dilemma that splits his advisors, his political base, and probably will raise accusations from some corners that Israel is trying to drag the United States into the war.

JI: Let’s say the U.S. doesn’t get involved and doesn’t strike those facilities … What are the implications of that?

DS: The United States has unique capabilities to deal with the underground, deeply hardened sites. It could mean, if the United States is not involved, that those sites survive and are the place where Iran would be, if they chose, trying to execute their nuclear breakout.

That doesn’t mean that’s the only way to address those sites, and so if Israel is intent on really eliminating any threat of a nuclear Iran, it may turn to other methods … I think it’s going to be probably a very intense conversation between Netanyahu and Trump about the pros and cons of U.S. participation.

JI: Do you think that this is going to prompt Iran to move to nuclear breakout?

DS: I think they’re going to be very motivated to try to sprint to a breakout. They’ve often always seen their nuclear program as a pillar of the regime’s survival … If they’re looking for a way to gain a deterrent that would preserve what can be preserved, there’d be a strong case within their system to try to sprint to achieve a nuclear weapon. But there’s also chaos in their leadership right now, because so many of the top leaders were killed last night. So I don’t think that’s a decision that’s necessarily being made immediately.

JI: As we’re looking ahead to potential Iranian retaliation, [how do you think] some of the other states in the region are going to respond? So far, it seems like Jordan [intercepted some] of that first wave of drones … Do you think we’ll see the same sort of coordinated regional response effectively in defense of Israel like we saw last April?

DS: I think countries will act to defend their own airspace and their own assets. I think generally, they will not want to be advertised as participating in a defense of Israel, per se. But that doesn’t mean, even in defending their own airspace, they don’t in some way participate. … 

But I think most of the countries want to distance themselves from this action … They want to not give Iran any motivation or excuse to attack them or to associate them with the strikes … I suspect in private rooms, there’s probably some cheering going on in Arab capitals when they’ve seen the extent of the damage to the Iranian military.

JI: How do you read the response we’ve been seeing from the Trump administration so far?

DS: I think President Trump wanted more time to pursue his diplomatic initiative and to try to reach an agreement. And so I think this was not his preference to have this action take place this soon. 

However, it’s inconceivable Israel didn’t provide some forewarning, and if he didn’t give a firm red light, he probably gave sort of a yellow light. Israel may have argued that Iran was taking, or had taken, or was on the verge of taking some new steps that would shorten the already very short distance to nuclear breakout, or would advance their weaponization research. …

The initial statement from Secretary Rubio was intended to make clear that the United States was not a direct participant, and to try to dissuade Iran from responding in any way against the United States, and to warn them that if they did, it would be a very, very heavy price. …

The big question ahead, as I mentioned at the beginning, is, would the United States, under any circumstances, participate in strikes against Iran? And if so, what would be the trigger for that? Would it be the appearance that Iran is trying to do a nuclear breakout at the Fordow facility? Would it be in response to any kind of Iranian action against U.S. bases?

JI: In an alternate history where Joe Biden or Kamala Harris are in the White House, how do you think they would have handled this? Would they have given the same “yellow light?”

DS: I think it’s impossible to answer the hypothetical without knowing more about the information that Israel may have presented.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee conveyed a message to the growing isolationist camp on the American right as he submitted his diplomatic credentials on Monday: Maintaining close relations with Israel and countering the Iranian nuclear threat are beneficial to Americans.

“The Iranian regime and all the hostility it has inflicted on the world for 46 years continues to threaten not only the peace of Israel but the peace of the United States,” Huckabee said in the ceremony at the residence of Israeli President Isaac Herzog. “Iranians have always said, ‘Death to Israel,’ and chapter two is ‘Death to America’… Israel is the appetizer, and the United States is the entree.”

“We care deeply about the threats that face Israel because those are also the threats that face our country,” he added.

In remarks Huckabee specifically directed at his “American colleagues,” he said that Israel and the U.S. “share the values of the Bible. We share the understanding that the Judeo-Christian foundation is the foundation of all of Western civilization. Without it, there is no sense of democracy, and love, appreciation and respect of the individuals.”

“It’s also important for Americans to know that, while we hope to be a good friend of Israel and provide assistance when we can, I never want Americans to think that we Americans are not greatly benefitted by our partnership with our ally Israel,” the ambassador stated. “We benefit dramatically in the sharing of intelligence, in the sharing of technology and in the sharing of agricultural innovation that Israel has led the world in creating.”

Huckabee’s remarks come amid the rise of the isolationist faction in the Republican Party and the Trump administration that has been pushing for a nuclear agreement with Iran and opposes a U.S.-backed Israeli strike on Iran. In addition, a growing number of right-wing podcasters have grown increasingly skeptical of the U.S.-Israel relationship, and in some cases spread anti-Israel conspiracy theories.

Much of the ambassador’s remarks were dedicated to his personal connection to Israel, which he first visited in 1973, when he was 17 years old. Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas, Fox News host and Southern Baptist pastor, has since been to Israel dozens of times and led tens of thousands of people on trips to the country, he said.

“I still feel a sense of absolute joy and an overwhelming sense of awe that I am in a land that God himself said ‘this is mine and these are my people,’” Huckabee said. “I come to stand today with the State of Israel and the Jewish people because I believe it is not simply a geopolitical position, but a divine position.” 

Huckabee joked that he will reside in Israel for the next few years, “unless the president tweets something early in the morning and tells me to come home.” 

The ambassador said that philanthropist and GOP donor Dr. Miriam Adelson suggested he be appointed to the job, but that he never spoke to Trump about it, until he “got a call out of the clear blue just a few days after the election.” Trump did not ask Huckabee if he wanted the job; Huckabee recounted. “[The president said,] ‘Mike, you’re going to be my ambassador to Israel.’” Huckabee said that when he responded to the president-elect’s statement, he wasn’t just saying yes to a job but “to a calling from God himself.” 

Huckabee recounted that earlier this month, “the president handed [him] a handwritten note with a prayer for the peace of Jerusalem.” His first act as ambassador was to put the note in the Western Wall on Friday, “on behalf of the American people, with a reminder that we stand with you, we stand with the people of Israel.” 

The ambassador expressed hope that in the coming years, he will “see times when…that young Israeli mother puts her babies to bed at night and does not fear that some harm will come upon them as they sleep, but they will rest with peace, and they will continue to live with the extraordinary resilience of the Israeli people, which I’ve come to admire, as second to none.”

He also said he prays for the return of all the hostages from Gaza. 

Herzog commended Huckabee for being “a leading voice of moral clarity and conscience” and his appointment “a shining reflection of the president’s love, friendship and support for the State of Israel.” 

Huckabee was one of several ambassadors to hand their credentials to Herzog on Monday. Such ceremonies are usually brief, with few guests and almost no media coverage, but the new American ambassador attracted a crowd.

Among the attendees were Yael Eckstein, the president of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, and Adelson, who wore a dress she had specially designed for the dedication of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem in 2018, which is emblazoned with the Hebrew words, “If I forget thee, Jerusalem, may my right hand lose its cunning.”  

President Donald Trump said on Monday that former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, Special Envoy Ric Grenell and a slew of other candidates are interested in the role of U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Trump withdrew his nomination of Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) as U.N. ambassador last week.

“We have a lot of good people that want it,” Trump said in remarks to reporters in the Oval Office on Monday. “For the replacement, we have a lot of people that have asked about it, and would like to do it. David Friedman, Ric Grenell, and maybe 30 other people. Everyone loves that position. That’s a star-making position.”

Addressing his decision to withdraw Stefanik’s nomination, Trump cited concerns about the Republicans’ slim margins in the House. 

“I just don’t want to take chances where you guys are saying, ‘How is the election going?’” Trump explained. “We have a congressional election that’s a little bit close. I guess the one is in good shape, but the other one is a little bit close. But Randy Fine is a great guy … We want to be careful. And Elise is very popular in her district … I think it’s just security,” he said.

Fine is the Republican candidate in Florida’s 6th Congressional District who is in a surprisingly tight race in tomorrow’s special election to fill former Rep. Mike Waltz’s (R-FL) seat.

Trump also confirmed an upcoming trip  — which he said could be next month or “a little bit later” — to the Middle East, expected to be his first trip abroad during his second term. The trip will include visits to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and potentially the United Arab Emirates and other nations in the region.

“I have a very good relationship with the Middle East,” Trump said, heaping praise on Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman. “They’ve agreed to spend close to a trillion dollars of money in our American companies.”

Also during the remarks, Trump appeared to foreclose the possibility of Ukrainian membership in NATO, and said “that’s probably the reason the war started, actually,” echoing a Russian talking point on the conflict.